Disclaimer: Except for some OCs, the characters here and the world they inhabit are the creation and property of JK Rowling. This chapter takes place within the time lines of Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix and Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince.

The long night didn't end for the wife of the Potions Master until into the morning, when she saw her husband's worn face in the doorway of their quarters. She hastened to help him into their bedroom and worked quickly to ease his hurts and make him comfortable.

“How many times did he torture you?” she asked.

“The raid was a complete failure.” He counted off on his fingers. “The prophecy was destroyed, Death Eaters were injured, several were arrested, and the Dark Lord was forced to show himself.”

“He tortured you for those things?” Emily was amazed.

“He tortured everyone for those things,” Severus answered. “He tortured me alone for not getting the full prophecy to begin with.”

“Will he never forgive you for that?”

“The Dark Lord never forgives.”

She rubbed his face with her fingertips, trying to soothe the pain that still showed in his eyes. She kissed him as she did, willing him to feel better until suddenly he shifted their positions. He was kissing her, then, his body asking for what she had never refused. They drowsed off in murmurings of love and gentle caresses. Sleep took them both for a short while.

---

After a short rest, Emily got to work, starting by consulting with the Healers in the Janus Thickey ward. After further consultation with Albus Dumbledore, a body was released for burial, identified as Sirius Black. Within days, the sealed coffin was delivered to the Black family crypt and the memorial service was kept deliberately small. At Emily's instigation, Remus Lupin compiled a book of snapshots and remembrances that he had quickly gathered from friends and Order members. Oddly enough, when he looked for the book later in the day, it was gone.

A week after the Ministry raid, Emily searched through the hospital until she found a specific volunteer whose assistance she requested. Alison had volunteered at the hospital for years. She had been injured toward the end of the first war and had sufficient family money not to have to work. She had the somewhat jaded look of a no longer young woman who wished to be married but never found the right man. Looking closely, Emily could still see traces of the laughing Hufflepuff who once walked back from a Quidditch match on the arm of Sirius Black with leaves in her hair.

Emily led Alison to the Janus Thickey Ward and into the space occupied by a man identified as James Ogden. Alison looked up in shock. “But, it's--”

“You are now one of a small handful of people who know he's alive. You need to know that he did not commit the crimes for which he was sent to prison and that he may well be a hero. You cannot tell anyone. If you do, he and several other people may be killed. He's been waking up for an hour or two every morning around this time. He can't speak right now and it's not clear what he understands, but he needs someone to talk over old times and friends with him. There is a hope that he will come back to himself if someone does...can you do this? Without telling a soul? If not, I can Obliviate you and there will be no repercussions.”

Alison looked at the sleeping form whose eyes were fluttering. “I can do this.”

Emily handed her the book Remus had put together. “This should help. If you can obtain some other pictures, they will help, too. If you think I'm needed, let me know, but I'm going to stay away, for several good reasons.” She leaned down and kissed the man's forehead. “Be safe and get better, so you can finally live your life.” She walked out of the ward and toward the employee entrance of the hospital. If she hurried, she could pick up her son and get some shopping done before she met her daughter at Kings Cross.

---

Margo Snape made her way to the train with a certain amount of trepidation. School was now the site of her best memory ever, and she didn't want to leave. Her eyes met Neville's as he looked around right before getting on the train. She touched her lips and wondered if he thought about that moment and decided that he probably didn't, he was pretty out of it at the time. Margo watched him smile as Hannah Abbott hurried along the platform and he helped her up the stairs into the rail car.

Margo sighed and followed Ted onto the train and into an empty compartment. Maybe she could pretend to be asleep the whole time and she wouldn't have to be polite. That wasn't fair to Ted. He was a good friend and his own person, not like those Death Eaters in training like Malfoy, Crabbe, and Goyle.

He had her laughing in the library a few weeks back over a story of his uncle and a friend trying to hex Margo's Mum years ago and how Margo's dad had calmly cursed them and put them in the hospital wing. It seemed that some Death Eater families discussed these sorts of things, trying to judge who were the best wizards among them. Ted told Margo about it because he thought it was funny and because it was about her parents.

It was a funny story, but it made Margo wonder. If Daddy and Mum weren't in love back then, they sure acted like it, at least as far as she could tell. Either Mum was just trying to make her feel better last summer or there was more to love than Margo understood. She knew which Mum would say it was.

The train started uneventfully, taking everyone back toward London and a different future than the one they had anticipated just eight days before. Margo smiled and nodded at the right places in the conversation. Suddenly a commotion in the corridor had them both looking out the compartment door. A bunch of Neville's DA friends had caught Malfoy, Crabbe, and Goyle trying to ambush Potter and had responded with force. Margo looked between the oozing mess and the floor and several students, including her own Cousin Ernie, and pulled quickly back into her compartment before she dissolved in giggles. Ted followed, shutting the door quickly.

“I suppose House pride requires that we do something to restore Slytherin honor...” said Ted.

“I don't see how we could. Even with all his practice and newfound nerve, I can disarm Cousin Ernie with my eyes closed, but some of those others are pretty good. Besides, it's just the sort of thing I've been slowly doing to Malfoy since we were first years. I can hardly fault them, even if they are Hufflepuffs and Ravenclaws.”

Ted caught her eye and they both started laughing. The ice was broken and they chatted amiably about schoolwork and summer plans all the rest of the way home. When they arrived in Kings Cross, Mum was there with Brendon, who clapped his small hands and raised them up to his sister. They would spend two nights at Grandma's house, then a couple of weeks at the beach cottage, and then there would be half the summer at Grandma's house again, visiting with Neville in the greenhouses of St. Mungo's.

---

“He wants him to do what?”

Hope had been falling asleep, but the shrillness of Mum's voice woke her. She got up and crept toward her bedroom door.

“Hush, love. I don't think he intends for the boy to succeed. If the boy fails, he can punish the parents. He has an alternate plan...”

There was a pause.

“He wants you to do it, doesn't he?” Hope was listening intently. What was it?

“I think he does. It may be time, soon, to show my true allegiances.”

“But, he'll--”

“Sh, Emily, somehow it will work. I'll talk to Dumbledore and it will work.”

“You would be just as happy to fail at that task, wouldn't you? Severus, it would be so dangerous...to you particularly.”

“It will work out. I'll talk to Dumbledore. Meanwhile, there's another wrinkle...”

Hope didn't hear the next part, but she heard her mother's response.

“With that rat?! I can't do that Severus. He was always sneaking around even during our Hogwarts days, and what about the children? Am I supposed to let him be around our daughter?”

“I don't think he expects the whole family. I think you and the kids should do as we have always planned for the summer and I will join you at such times as I can. He clearly doesn't trust me, or thinks I need to be looked after.”

“What we have always planned includes several weeks—”

“We may have to rearrange that part, but it's a long time before then.”

“How can we be apart like that?”

“We have to make the most of the time we're together. That means one of us has to stop fussing when the other one is trying to do this...”

“Severus, we need to talk about this.”

“...and this...”

“Severus...”

“...and...this...”

“Oh, Severus...”

Hope quickly moved away from the door, not wanting to hear the murmurings that were sure to follow. She pondered it all. There was something somebody wanted a boy to do and if the boy didn't do it, Daddy was expected to do it. Daddy hoped that Dumbledore would help him get out of it. Meanwhile, there was a person involved who was creepy enough for Mum to call him a rat. The only thing Hope was sure she understood was that Daddy probably wouldn't be going to the beach with them.

---

The next time Hope saw Daddy, she was on her way to bed at the beach house when he came in and sat down in a chair, looking like death. Mum hustled Hope through kissing Daddy goodnight and then shooed her into her room. Brendon was long since asleep. Mum and Daddy's conversation was quiet but Hope still heard much of it.

“It turns out that Dumbledore wants me to do it, too. Based on the battle the two of them had at the Ministry, he had somehow guessed at the plan and has been pondering his own options.”

“No!” Hope could picture her mother taking a deep breath. “Tell me all about it.”

“It's been such a long evening...is there anything to drink, Emily?”

There was a clinking as Mum got something for Daddy and a little while of quiet as he must have sipped whatever it was she gave him. He let out a long sigh.

“I was at the school going over a few things, when Fawkes summoned me to the Headmaster's office. He had a ring...horribly cursed...”

“He put such a thing on?”

“I've never seen him so drawn to anything. When I asked why, his face took on the belligerent look of a seventh year student. It held a certain mystique for him. Perhaps he's been searching for years...He had managed to take it off and destroy it by the time I got there, but it took several potions and one of our more intricate incantations...”

“Our work together has paid off, again.”

“Indeed it has.” Hope could picture her Daddy nodding. “It wasn't fully effective though. Perhaps you can take a look at it sometime.”

“I will if he will let me.”

“So, since this new...development...Albus wants me to do it. The boy's soul isn't damaged yet, while mine is supposedly sturdy to withstand the hit in order to preserve this illusion... We have less than a year to figure something else out.”

“I don't know what to think, Severus.”

“If it's what Dumbledore wants, and he thinks it will further his plans...” He sighed and blew out an ironic laugh. “No, no, it's impossible. We'll have to come up with something.”

“I seem to recall you telling me that you knew I would make the best possible choice at the moment it needs to be made. I know you will, too, Severus.”

“Mmm...it seems forever ago.” There was a pause. “You may still have to make that choice.”

“Tonight the options are much more palatable for us both. Do you have to go back?”

“Yes, I really ought to, but I can spare a few minutes...perhaps an hour.”

“Then, as you said the other night, we should make the most of it.”

Hope heard footsteps and then the door of her parents' bedroom close. Now she knew the Headmaster was involved. She was sure the boy was neither Harry Potter nor Neville this time, but she couldn't imagine who he was. She also somehow knew she couldn't confide any of this to Neville. There wasn't much to confide, anyway, but a lot of supposition.

A/N: This may seem like rushing into the part of the storyline about the Horcruxes and the task both Voldemort and Dumbledore gave to Snape, but the HP Lexicon's time line supports it all happening pretty quickly at the end of June/beginning of July. Perhaps Dumbledore was Horcrux hunting while he was forced to be away from Hogwarts.

I know several people are reading this; thank you for the compliment of your time and I do enjoy the reviews. Special thanks go to Trickie Woo who has beta read this and all of the rejected versions as well.