¤It is not in the stars to hold our destiny, but in ourselves.
The love, life, and lies of Cassiopeia Vulpecula Rosier
"The Dark Lord took a particular interest in me I couldn't have escaped his service if I had tried....
...I must apologize, for I...
.did you really think she was a tender flower you could trample upon, and damage her very soul? she is wildfire. and she will devour you whole.
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I made several realizations over the next twelve hours. Several realizations with life altering implications. The first was that I was a fool for thinking Snape might hesitate to share such volatile information with the Dark Lord. I had sent him two letters insisting he tell me why he had left without a word, and both had gone unanswered.
I wanted to believe he hadn't gone directly to the Dark Lord with what he had heard, but my instincts demanded I not be so naive.
My suspicions were confirmed the next morning at breakfast. A letter in dark, heavy stationary arrived in the morning post. It wasn't signed, all that was written was a date and time.
Tonight- 10:30pm
But I recognized the handwriting. It would have been impossible not to. The same handwriting had been in another letter I had received in this hall so long ago. A letter that had damned me.
He hadn't summoned me in person since I had begun teaching at Hogwarts. It had been too risky. The fact that he was doing so now meant only one thing.
He knew.
Snape had told him what he overheard. I don't know why I held out any sort of hope in my heart that he would keep it to himself. Snape had chosen to join the Dark Lord. He hadn't been forced into it like some of us were. Of course he would go running to him after hearing such a thing.
But he hadn't heard the whole prophecy. He hadn't heard that the Dark Lord will mark the child as his equal and give him the power to destroy him. By making any move to prevent it from happening, he would only ensure it would.
More than anything, Snape didn't know what I knew, which led to my second and more bone chilling realization.
James and Lily's baby was expected at the end of July. The end of the seventh month.
"Born as the seventh month dies." Had echoed through my mind all night. I hadn't realized for a while why the line unsettled me, but awoke in the early hours of the morning in a cold sweat. It had taken me a few minutes of digging around in my chest of drawers to find the letter, but I eventually recovered it from the bottom of my trunk where it had been tucked away in a book.
It was a letter from Lily, who had written me almost twice a week since I left them. This one was from the beginning of February,
"We just found out the baby is a boy. Can you believe that, Cassiopeia? A boy! James of course is thrilled, already has been looking at turning the backyard into a mini quidditch pitch. The doctor said to expect him around July 27th. It still seems like so far away..."
