Mend Me

Three

He had seen it the moment he had laid eyes on her during the sorting ceremony, and his heart skipped a beat. He couldn't take his eyes off of her. Every portion of his brain screamed that it wasn't her, it couldn't be her, he held her lifeless body in his arms. Felt how cold her skin was, the weight of her loss coursing through his entire being every single moment of his life for the last seven years. Yet, somehow, mere feet from him, sits a red-haired girl so strikingly like his Lily. His mind transports him back to eleven years old, looking up from the crowd to see Lily in that same seat, with that very hat on her head, and flinching when it yelled, "GRYFFINDOR" loud enough for the entire hall to hear. This girl, this deceiver, this abominable hoax, however, was placed in Ravenclaw.

Not his Lily. Of course, it isn't Lily, he has to tell himself this every single time he sees the impostor.

Upon closer inspection her first day in his class, he can see the subtle differences. Instead of Lily's beautiful green almond eyes, hers are blue and wide. The cupid's bow of her upper lip more pronounced, the tips of her ears more pointed, her hair several shades lighter. This didn't stop his heart from crushing every time he looked up to see her sitting in the back of his class. He tried everything her could possibly think of to get her to fail, push her away from him so he didn't have to see her face every week. The creature still continued to taunt him with her likeness.

When this plan failed, he scoured the forbidden section of the library, sent letters to the Ministry to obtain the documents listing the contents of the Potter home, even going as far as questioning Dumbledore for any morsel of information. Maybe Lily had a time-turner? No, the likeness is there, but not identical. Did Petunia have a child, a daughter perhaps? No, nothing that came out of that woman would ever be as beautiful as Lily, even if she were her sister. Pacing Dumbledore's office for the third time this month, he finally graces him with the knowledge he's undoubtedly had for years. The fucking nerve of this man. Watching him suffer week after week for two goddamn years.

Sirius fucking Black.

She was the bastard offspring of SIRIUS FUCKING BLACK!

Of course, he knew her surname, but it's common enough! It could have come from anywhere! And Albus chooses now to lay it on him? Now, the very eve of coming face to face with James Potter's insufferable offspring?

Oh, and the girl doesn't know. Of course, she doesn't know! Because telling anyone anything would destroy the wizarding world, apparently. Just another secret to keep for Albus! How many more does he have in him? When will he finally tell him that enough is enough?Three years later, and he's just as pissed at Albus for this as he was the day he told him the truth. Maybe even more so. On top of looking at Lily's generic doppelganger every day of his life, he's yet to find any answers as to how. Now he has to deal with another Potter, Longbottom's sniveling offspring, know-it-all Granger, and two more fucking Weasley's who's all managed to join forced to make his life utterly miserable.

Now the real kicker, the proverbial turd in the punch bowl so to speak, Lupin has his job as Defense Against the Dark Arts professor, is buddied up to Potter and his slew of misfits, he's tasked to brew his god forsaken Wolfsbane, and Sirius has somehow managed to escape from Azkaban. Oh, and let's not forget, he now has to mentor his child twice a week for the next two years.

Didn't they make his life hard enough? Hadn't they caused him enough suffering? Now he's forced to babysit their kids!

Severus finally stops pacing a groove in his own office floor and pops a cinnamon disk in his mouth in hopes of staving off the craving for a clove cigarette for another few hours and runs both hands through his hair. The girl will be here shortly. She's probably already standing outside of his door, picking at the skin around her thumb nail and looking down at the floor, as if actually looking someone in the eyes when they spoke to her will cause her physical harm.Coward.

Just like her insufferable father.