After All This Time - Book 3

Prologue

Thunder boomed over head as lightning cracked across the sky. A heavy rain fell over London, deafening to those below. With the next clap of thunder a loud pop echoed through the streets of a small, sleepy neighborhood and as if by some sort of magic, a man appeared out of thin air with it.

The man pulled his cloak tighter around his body and took off, trudging through the rain and down the narrow alleyway. He was following specific instructions, given to him by the most powerful wizard of his time. Two rows down, one over. Last house on the left. Cautiously he approached the tired, old house and knocked on the door. He waited a few minutes, no answer. Figuring the owner had not heard it over the rain he knocked again, but harder this time. Seconds later the door swung open and a hand reached out, grabbing the man by his cloak and pulling him inside.

"What are you doing here" he said through clenched teeth to the cloaked man. "Your presence here could have us both killed."

"Albus sent me, he said you would help."

The man let go of the other's cloak and walked back into his sitting room. By the light of his lamp it was clear that he was distressed, not even he could hide that. The past few days had been extremely taxing and emotionally draining. The Dark Lord was gone and the boy lived, but not without its repercussions. Lives had been lost. Lives of those closest to them both. The lives of their one true loves.

"I won't. I can't."

"Please. You have to" the other said, his voice shaking and hoarse. "Severus, you have to protect her she possesses powers that if in the wrong hands-"

"THE DARK LORD IS GONE" he bellowed. He stood there for a moment more, a raging fire burning him from within before the sadness washed over him again. Tears began flowing down his face and he quickly turned away, hiding his emotions from the man standing before him.

"Severus" the man said, reaching a hand out and placing it comfortingly on his shoulder, "we both lost a life that night."

A soft sob escaped Severus as reality crashed harder down on him. Lily was gone; killed at the hands of the Dark Lord, their master. Severus reached up and wiped the tears from his face with his sleeve before turning back to the man.

"What do you want me to do Vladimir. What did Albus tell you."

"Albus sent me to you, he told me of your debt."

"MY debt is being repaid in protecting the boy-"

"Severus you do not understand the importance of what I am asking you to do. She possesses powers comparable to mine, but she is stronger."

"What powers Vladimir? What are these powers you have been hiding from Lord Voldemort for your whole life? No mortal soul has seen them, do they even exist?"

Without a word Severus flew back into his bookshelf, causing hundreds of books to come falling to the floor. Severus quickly picked himself up off of the ground and pulled out his wand, pointing it directly at Vladimir.

"Vlad my friend you are walking on thin-"

Before he could finish his wand flew across the room and his whole body went limp. With a loud thud Severus fell to the floor as his body began shaking from the pain of the Unforgivable Curse.

"You will listen to me boy" Vladimir said, crouching down to Severus. His voice was still hoarse and shaky, yet somehow still as firm as the day Severus met the senior Death Eater. "I have deflected. He has killed my wife. I am leaving to live my life peacefully on the furthest corner of the earth and spare myself from certain death when he returns. My family is in danger, and I cannot be the one to protect them. Annalise, my one and only magical grandchild, possesses some of the greatest powers that the wizarding world will ever see. You are to protect her with your life as you do her cousin. Do you understand Severus?"

A muffled grunt came from the young man, still trembling on the floor. Vladimir stood up and reached out a hand for Severus who had now been freed of the curse.

"An unbreakable vow must be made."

"Vladimir this is nonsense, the Dark Lord will not return-"

"The boy lived Severus. There is not a doubt in my mind that he will be back to finish what he started. The prophecy does not end here. Now, the vow."

Severus began to protest, but failed to realize it had already begun. Where Vladimir had a firm grip on his hand still, a white rope had appeared.

"Severus, will you protect my granddaughter from Lord Voldemort at any cost, including your own life?"

Severus looked down at the white roped that bound their hands. At only 20, he was about to sign his life away for a young girl whom he had never met. And yet, he had no qualms about it. Lily was dead and just hours earlier he had sold himself into a life of servitude to Albus Dumbledore as well. He was already but an empty shell of a man, forced into serving a life sentence much worse than Azkaban. What else did he have to live for?

"I will."