In Another Life

Prologue.

I now sat in what used to be our shared old room. I'm alone at the one place I could call home, besides Hogwarts. Malfoy Manor was completely silent. My daughter and son are sleeping peacefully in their rooms. My newborn daughter is sleeping in her cot beside me. The only sound in the room was the soft suckling noises she makes in her sleep. Orion and Alex were in their room, on a whole different floor. It was just me and my infant daughter in the silence. The silence was deafening when those tiny little baby noises didn't break it up. 

My daughter was the spitting image of the Snape and Evans in her genes. My oldest, sadly, the spitting image of her biological father's family and the Snape in her genes. My son, well it was painful to look at him sometimes. He looks like the clone of his father, and he's only two years old. He was two years old and already acting and looking like his dad, it broke my heart because he doesn't remember his dad. My oldest and him are always asking us where their dad is. My oldest, she understands, she understands a lot because she was there when they were arrested. 

My husband, his mother, his sister, and his father were all arrested a year ago. Draco and Narcissa aren't even in full lock up, they're just awaiting trial, but we still aren't allowed to go see them. They were arrested just before I found out I was pregnant with our daughter. I was heartbroken for months. Arrested for something that happened almost nine years ago. I couldn't understand it. We were so careful. We hid for years. Lucius, I understand why he was arrested, but 'Cissa and Draco? They barely did anything. The most they were guilty for was having the dark mark and standing on Voldemort's side during the war. If they were arrested for having the dark mark, then I should have been arrested as well.

I looked at the spot on my arm that was now just a mere scar on my forearm. The painful memories of how it came down to having the mark, the war, losing my last living parent, the fear I would never see my family again, and the fear of losing Draco all came rushing back. The tears welled in my eyes as a soft sob escaped my throat. Even the good memories of Hogwarts were tainted by Draco's absence. Since he was arrested, I haven't seen my brother and his family. Harry's an Auror now, Ginny was on the Holyhead Harpies Quidditch team, and they have at least one child, the last I heard from them. Cassilynn and Oliver were married in secret, as they are still in hiding as well. Cassilynn and Oliver's daughter is six months old now. All the memories of having this stupid mark has stolen from us, its gut wrenching. We haven't had holidays together as a family since before the war.

But to understand the present. You must first see the past.

- Halloween, 1981-

It was a late, dark and dreary night in London. In a small town in Britain a family of four was preparing for bed. The youngest had gotten her bath and was all dressed in a thin, yellow baby sleeper with a pair of yellow baby socks built into the feet. Her dark red hair brushed neatly only to be matted again by dawn. She had been fed and changed before being put down in her cot and was now contently sleeping while sucking on her dummy.

The oldest was being talked to by their mother. The mother was talking to the boy as if she didn't expect to wake up in the morning. She spoke as if the would be the last time she saw her son. Just as she had done during her daughter's bedtime routine, she was reaffirming to her son that he was loved. She had a gut feeling something was wrong, why else were they moved into hiding. Every night she did the same routine, worried that that would be her last night with her kids.

Severus didn't know what to expect when he walked into that house in Godric's Hollow. Where his love and childhood best friend was stowed away for safekeeping by Dumbledore. He did not in a million years expect what he actually saw. He didn't expect for his heart and soul to be ripped out in a matter of moments.