✔️ 𝐋𝐎𝐒𝐓&𝐅𝐎𝐔𝐍𝐃 → 𝑓. 𝑤𝑒𝑎𝑠𝑙𝑒𝑦

88 | B R E A K I N G

We were out and out, through the storms, through the night. We were running in the dark, we were following our hearts. And we would fall down and we would slowly fall apart. We would slowly fall into the dark ...

The cold terms arise.

•••
Emptiness.
•••

   Lynnea fell head over heels into the room, she expected to hit the floor hard, but landed softly on her feet. She was  standing in Dumbledore's office again, but it looked slightly different to the one she came right from.

   "He killed her! I thought, you handle it! I thought, you safe her!"

   She twirled around, staring at a much younger version of Snape, a furious and broken Snape with bloodshot eyes, his face a grimace, and Albus Dumbledore.

   "Her children survived", Dumbledore calmly. "Harry and Lynnea are alive. They have her eyes, precisely her eyes. You remember the shape and color of Lily Evans' eyes, I am sure? Lynnea will be looking like her. Flaming red hair."

   "DON'T!", bellowed Snape. "Gone ... dead ..."

   "Is this remorse, Severus?"

   "I wish ... I wish I were dead ..."

   "And what use would that be to anyone?", said Dumbledore coldly. "If you loved Lily Evans, if you truly loved her, then your way forward is clear."

   Snape seemed to peer through a haze of pain, and Dumbledore's words appeared to take a long time to reach him.

   "What - what do you mean?"

   "You know how and why she died. Make sure it was not in vain. Help me protect Lily's children."

   "They do not need protection. The Dark Lord has gone -"

   "The Dark Lord will return, and Harry and Lynnea Potter will be in terrible danger when he does."

   There was a long pause, and slowly Snape regained control of himself, mastered his own breathing. At last he said: "Very well. Very well. But never - never tell, Dumbledore! This must be between us! Swear it! I cannot bear ... especially Potter's son ... I want your word!"

   "My word, Severus, that I shall never reveal the best of you?", Dumbledore sighed, looking down into Snape's ferocious, anguished face. "If you insist..."

   The scene shifted and again they were at Dumbledore's office, but some time had to had passed, Dumbledore's hand was yet black and Snape was looking like as Lynnea remembered him from the last Potions lesson.

   "After you have killed me, Severus - "

   "You refuse to tell me everything, yet you expect that small service of me!", snarled Snape, and real anger flared in the thin face now. "You take a great deal for granted, Dumbledore! Perhaps I have changed my mind!"

   "You gave me your word, Severus. And while we are talking about services you owe me, I thought you agreed to keep a close eye on our young Slytherin friend?"

   Snape looked angry, mutinous. Dumbledore sighed.

   "Come to my office tonight, Severus, at eleven, and you shall not complain that I have no confidence in you ..."

   Again the scene shifted. It was nighttime now.

   "Harry must not know, not until the last moment, not until it is necessary, otherwise how could he have the strength to do what must be done?"

   "But what must he do?"

   "That is between Harry and me. Now listen closely, Severus. There will come a time - after my death - do not argue, do not interrupt! There will come a time when Lord Voldemort will seem to fear for the life of his snake."

   "For Nagini?", Snape looked astonished.

   "Precisely. If there comes a time when Lord Voldemort stops sending that snake forth to do his bidding, but keeps it safe beside him under magical protection, then, I think, it will be safe to tell Harry."

   "Tell him what?"

   Dumbledore took a deep breath and closed his eyes.

   "Tell him that on the night Lord Voldemort tried to kill him, when Lily cast her own life between them as a shield, the Killing Curse rebounded upon Lord Voldemort, and a fragment of Voldemort's soul was blasted apart from the whole, and latched itself onto the only living soul left in that collapsed room. Part of Lord Voldemort lives inside Harry."

   Lynnea felt like Dumbledore hit me straight into the stomach. The air was pressed out of my lungs and she wasn't able to let some new in. Feeling a hand on her shoulder, she looked up with her eyes torn wide open, seeing Remus staring down at her.

   "So that means", Snape continued. "That means he has to die?"

   "That's not everything", Dumbledore replied. "His sister, Lynnea."

   "What is with her?"

   "There's a reason, Voldemort didn't just kill her. The mark appeared on her neck. The mark of the curse he put on her."

   "What curse?" Snape's face went pale. "You don't want to tell me - don't tell me, he did! He would not do that! Not voluntarily! It's too dangerous to use a living being!"

   "Unfortunately he has taken the risk, Severus", said Dumbledore, lowering his eyes. "You need to tell Harry at the very end, it's not only him. Voldemort put a part of his soul into Lynnea as well, he wanted to take her with him, raise her as his own, use her as a weapon, caused of what he knew about the prophecy."

   "I can't - Dumbledore, she's looking like Lily! I can't let her die!"

   "Harry has to do it."

   "So you tell me", hissed Snape, "you raised the children to die, like pigs to slaughter? All the years I thought I was protecting them for Lily! But you just kept them alive, so they could die at the right moment! You'll make Harry a murderer! His own sister!"

   "But this is touching, Severus", said Dumbledore seriously. "Have you grown to care for the boy, after all?"

   "For him?", shouted Snape. "Expecto Patronum!"

   From the tip of his wand burst the silver doe. She landed on the office floor, bounded once across the office, and soared out of the window. Dumbledore watched her fly away, and as her silvery glow faded he turned back to Snape, and his eyes were full of tears.

   "After all this time?"

   "Always," said Snape.

   Lynnea felt her feet leaving the ground, otherwise she was completely numb, floating, Remus had a grip around her arm, as they returned to the present time. Her legs got a stand on solid ground again, but the world stopped spinning and she fought against drowning in panic.