Stolen Years: The Flower Reborn as a Tree

Chapter 16: Final Awakening Pt.1

Felicis spent the next few years of the cycle of comas doing her usual routine, with the addition of studying the notes that Professor Reed had given to her. Eventually Albus and Minerva agreed to her plan as posing as her own daughter when she went to Hogwarts. She had chosen her new name (Willow Cypress Weasley) and how she would appear. And though she agreed to join as a second year, if the Board of Governors could be convinced, she refused to be any younger than fourteen. It was the oldest age Willow could possibly be, she could care less that that would mean she gave birth to Willow at fifteen. She will have spent ten years trapped in an immature body with a mature mind, wait five years to finally have a mature body, and then be forced back into an immature body. If she was going to have to go back, she was going to go back the oldest body she would be able to inhabit. Every now and then her mind would wander to Severus or her current predicament, but she would quickly shut it down. She refused to linger on things that could not be solved or were worthwhile.
The timeline of the curse matched that of the timeline in Walburga's journal. By August 22nd, 1986 (ten years after Felicis awoke from her curse for the first time) she began to age.At first it was an exciting moment for Felicis. She felt herself finally starting to adjust to the growing power of her magic, but it was short lived. Two years later Felicis' wand stopped cooperating with her and she was forced to stop using it. The majorities of her studies now consisted of merely memorization and heavily monitored use of simple wandless magic to prevent her from becoming an obscurial. But without Felicis being able to constantly use her magic to its full extent on top of the complete lack of use during her comas, Felicis' bursts of magic during moments of intense negative emotion became more frequent in consistency and increased in strength. Emotional management and perfecting the identification of potions and potion ingredient through various methods in addition to the use of her enhanced sense of smell is what kept her sane. It was hard to keep her negative emotions at bay and only feel positive emotions with everything that was happening and has happened to her. Some days she wanted to sob until she could no longer shed a tear or scream until she lost her voice. She found solice in self harm, the pain she brought to herself was a momentary distraction from the internal pain she bottled away. But it was only a matter of time before the bottle overflowed. It was Arthur who found on the floor of her bedroom, sobbing as she bled from cuts scattered across her arms and legs. The walls and floors were splintered and cracking at the volatile magic being released. Felicis had no memory of anything that happened. One moment she was bubbling over with emotion, the next she was strapped to her bed in her barren bedroom being told by Albus she would be constantly monitored and her studies were to be stopped for the rest of the month. Her room that now only contained her bed had been warded to properly contain and survive anymore volatile magic from emotional outbursts. Felicis felt ashamed, she pushed everyone away. She didn't eat or speak. She just laid in her bed and reminded herself she only had two more years to go before she would go back to Hogwarts. On her final year, Felicis spent the month she was awake with her family. She didn't speak much, she let them do most of the talking. Her nephews that still lived at the Burrow and her niece were aware she would be at Hogwarts as someone else. She had no idea how much would have occured when she awoke from a coma for the final time in August of 1992.

~*~
Albus looked down at his goddaughter as she writhed upon her sweat soaked bed. A fever had been present in Felicis for two weeks, today was the day the curse would finally break. Albus was anxious for her to awake so he could inform her of Voldemort's possession of Quirrel. He was certain his goddaughter's gift of sight would help Harry defeat Voldemort. Leona Reed was a powerful seer, he trusted that Felicis would be one of the most important people in defeating Voldemort as Leona had said. Just as Severus would be. Albus was heartbroken that Felicis would die, but understood and agreed with Felicis' decision to not seal the Soulmate bond between her and Severus. The man had not proven himself to have changed for the better in all these years like Albus had desperately hoped.
Felicis could have been cured and live on happily in a healthy relationship with Severus. Severus could have a better motivation for becoming a spy to assist in the defeat of Voldemort and perhaps a reason to want to survive what would no doubt become another war. Instead, Albus would have to carefully mitigate the interactions between the two soulmates until Severus began changing for the better (if that even happens). He was unsure as to how Severus would react to learning about the existence of Willow or how Felicis would react to learning that Severus is the Potions Professor at Hogwarts, but he planned on waiting until the last possible minute to tell either if them so they would be forced to put more focus on their work and tasks at Hogwarts instead of dwelling on the new information. Unfortunately for Albus, that plan would not come to fruition.

Currently at Hogwarts, Severus was highly irritable. He was nearly done with preparing his classroom for the upcoming school year and Albus and Minerva were still absent. The two had assured him that one of them would be stopping by the Potions classroom to help with set up, but they both had yet to make an appearance. Severus decided to stop what he was doing at the moment and to head towards Albus' office, hoping to find him and Minerva in there so that he could grumble about their lack of help despite their promise to do so. Severus briskly walked to the Headmaster's office, pausing for a moment in front of the gargoyle. He scowled at it and said, "Asphodel."
Ever since Felicis was declared dead by the Ministry in 1976, Albus made the password to his office at the beginning of every school year relate to Felicis. Felicis' death affected Severus more than he cared to admit, even after sixteen years. He had refused to think of her ever since. As he ascended the stairs, he noticed the Headmaster's office door was left slightly ajar. Severus quickly casted a disillusionment charm upon himself and slowly peaked into Albus' office. Inside was Minerva, who was pacing nervously in front of the fireplace. Severus was about to drop the disillusionment charm and question Minerva when Albus' head appeared in the fireplace. "She's doing as good as can be considering the circumstances. Anything happen while I was away?" Albus said.
"The Ministry sent you a letter. I was unsure if you wanted me to open it," Minerva replied.
"It can wait. It's more than likely a response to the documents I sent. I have no doubt they are requesting to meet her so they can confirm her identity for themselves," Albus said.
Severus watched as Minerva disappeared in a flash of green flames to the Burrow. He dropped the disillusionment charm and followed Minerva to the Weasleys' residence.