SMALL CHAPTER BECAUSE I DON'T KNOW IF I'LL BE ABLE TO UPTADE THE NEXT WEEK, TESTS THE WHOLE WEEK!

BY THE WAY, IF THERE'S ANY VETS HERE; MY DOG HAD SEVERAL CONVULSIONS AND WILL DO BLOOD TESTS TOMORROW, BUT I'M WORRIED AND MY ANXIETY IS DRIVING ME INSANE. PLEASE, DO TELL ME THERE'S ANYTHING I SHOULD KNOW ABOUT THIS.

BARTY'S HEALTH

After the fateful day 14th of May, when Regulus took Barty Crouch Junion officially as a ward, the boy seemed a lot healthier, receiving some presents from his mother at breakfast mail and Anne relaxed a bit after that as he gained weight with Severus' potions.

The Potion Anne had been making was taking a lot longer than she had expected and it only was ready by the time they got to 31st of May. The paste was ready, but there was no plausible way Anne would let him test it before the wounds were closed – with arnica and two very strong powders (octopus' powder and madrake root in powder) there was no way it would be painless. Still, she only got to the very specific point of the potion where it was boiling, but there was no colourful smoke coming out, it was the early hours of the morning of the 1st of June.

She gasped when the familiar smell came to her nose. It was like standing beside Hermione as she drank it after the Shell Cottage. She had created it with the help of the very smart potioneer, Fleur DeLacour. It was surprisingly simple, but a combination that nobody had thought of before: 1 litre of water boiling hot, Chizpurfle Carapace, Essence of Comfrey in oil and Griffin Claw Powder.

"Fuck yeah!" she croaked, quickly covering her mouth.

Nobody seemed to wake up, but she kept herself quiet anyways, smiling to herself as the light started getting through the window and shining on her small lab on the ground.

She took the big flask beside her and filled it with the potion. She took the third paste pot she had; the paste she had made enough for five pots, but she had filled three to give to Barty, the rest she had thought of using on herself, maybe she could get rid of most scars she had on her body.

The last test was ready to be made. She took a sip of the potion herself.

The effect was almost immediate. The burning of the hidden scar burned enough to make her yelp, but just as soon as it came, it went away.

Confused, Anne reached for her wand and took off the glamour just to see the odd vision of the purple scar moving as if it had its own heartbeat before another burn in just a small part – there was a small cut right under her breast and, since she was braless under the shirt, she could see the odd pink liquid coming out of it. Surprised, she took a knife and with the blunt end of the blade, took the liquid to examine after, trying her best to ignore the overly sweet smell that came from it. The cut closed itself soon after. The purple seemed to be slightly lighter now.

She pulled her shirt down and took the knife with the pink liquid, throwing the liquid into a small flask and closing it tightly.

Well, at least she knew the potion worked well enough. Hermione's arm had bled through a whole day and a whole night before it stopped and closed off completely, the paste then made the scars leave from the angry-red to a pale creme, before going white and thin.

She took the flask and the pot and put inside a small pouch before closing it tightly, putting it in her bag and starting to get rid of her small lab on the ground, trying not to drop anything or make any loud noise.

"What are you doing?" asked a voice in a confused and concerned whisper.

Marlene was sitting on her bed, just a small fraction of her curtains open.

"Hi. Sorry. Did I wake you?" Anne asked, mumbling.

"No, I woke up with Dorcas moving. What are you doing?" she asked in a whisper again, but a bit louder.

"Cleaning up. I'm done with a Potion's experiment, I wanted a recommendation letter from Slughorn," she lied the explanation.

"It's Sunday morning," Marlene complained, rolling her eyes. "Grades aren't that important, Anne. Go to sleep."

"I'll go in a second. I just want to clean up," she said.

Anne had no plans on going to bed for sleeping, both she and Marlene knew as Marlene rolled her eyes again and closing the curtains of her bed. Still, Anne smiled at the closed curtains and waited a second before finishing cleaning up with her wand and carrying the caldron and empty ingredient glasses, flasks and pots to their places.

Once she was done, she went back to her bed and lied down. She didn't go to sleep; she just lied there and plotted her next steps.

Since it was Sunday, she had the time and opportunity to walk around the castle, however that meant that the mail through the owls were less common and could get too much attention. Still, it was too early for her to try to send word to Regulus in private, maybe he wasn't even awake.

She sat down on the bed fifteen minutes after, sliding away from bed and quickly getting her robes over her nightgown, making her way out of the dorms, down the stairs and up the stairs to the boys' dormitory. She walked in as silently as she could, tiptoeing towards James' bed.

She saw female shoes beside his bed.

Anne froze in place. She knew those shoes to be Lily.

She hesitated.

"They're just sleeping," said a voice.

Peter was standing at the bathroom's doorway. He was just leaving, walking back into the room. He leaned against his bed, hair still messed up from sleeping and eyes barely open.

"The map and the cloak, are they with him?" she asked. "Good morning, by the way, Peter."

"Barely morning, Anne," he dismissed, sitting down on his bed. "The cloak is with me. I needed it yesterday to sneak into the Prefect's Bathroom, the map is with Remus, I think. It was, the last time I saw it." She smiled at him, quickly moving towards him and getting the map from his hands once he offered it to her. "It's nice that they adopted you."

"I'm sorry?" she said.

"The Potters," he answered. "James said that you've been officially adopted now and all that. I think it's nice that you have a nice family again, even in the midst of a war coming and all that, you had time to make friends and make a new family. It's not everybody that has that opportunity. It's hard to have a nice family in the war. Be grateful."

She tried her best not to frown or narrow her eyes. Those words coming from anyone else would be seen as a compliment or anything like that, but coming from Peter in that way sounded nothing more than bitterness. Perhaps it was envy or jealousy, but such feelings coming from someone with the history of Peter Pettigrew, it was concerning.

"I am grateful," she said.

"You don't sound grateful," he said, sitting on his bed. "You're often complaining about James and –"

She frowned, in disbelief of his reaction.

"And now I'm complaining about you getting involved in my life," she cut him off. "This is none of your business." He blinked, surprised that she snapped back at him. "Sirius said you've been quite... distant from them and he's been concerned with you. Don't come at me for being ungrateful for my family when you don't know anything about me and you've been ungrateful to your own family."

"You don't know about my family," he said.

"I know enough about you, though," she said. "You're scared of what's coming next and I'm not talking about the war. I'm talking about the fact that everybody here knows what will happen next and what they want to do and you're feeling like you're missing something. Let me tell you, Peter, you're not. You're confused, that's all. You have a lot on plate and it's quite alright to just... take your time, but it's not quite alright to attack everybody. You've been rude to Remus before and he has been looking the other way because you're under a lot of pressure. You've been rude to James before and he's looked the other way as well because he's a proper mate."

Silence. Peter was hesitating to answer. He knew she was right, but still, the hurt didn't seem to go away.

"Have you noticed you said nothing about Sirius?" he said in quite a low voice.

She blinked a few times.

"What about Sirius?" she asked.

"I've been rude to him several times and he has said nothing because he didn't even notice," he said.

"It's Sirius... he's rude to everybody. It's literally his sense of humour. What are you on about?" she asked.

"He used to pay so much attention to my stories even if he mocked me for it, he knew that my mother did a driving test and the date, he knew when I liked a girl before I noticed it... and then... nothing. He doesn't pay attention to me anymore, it's like we aren't friends anymore," he said.

Anne felt her stomach dropping to her feet as her jaw went slack.

Those words were simply not the words she had expected. Peter's problems were not with her taking the Marauder's attention, it was of Sirius not paying enough attention to him anymore, not even with the jokes, mocking and uncontrollable teasing that usually followed him and his friends. Those were the words of a jealous teenager that had too much in his plate to care for stupid things such as crushes and likings, but that couldn't avoid the feelings piling up inside anymore.

Peter Pettigrew was in love with Sirius Black, and Anne wasn't sure he had even noticed up to that point.

"Oh, Peter," she said, voice sounding more pitiful than she had intended. "I'm sorry."

He didn't seem to have been expecting her reaction, but the words 'I'm sorry' had its effect of him, because his eyes filled with tears. He couldn't find his words to tell her that it wasn't her fault, because there was part of him that did feel like it was her fault. Everything in their group seemed to change when she showed up.

"Just get what you need," he said, rolling his eyes and closing his curtains.

The small points of Severus Snape, Regulus Black, Elizabeth Fowley and Bart Crouch Junior were walking in a small group through the corridors. It was bad enough that she would have to end up outing herself more and more to Barty, but all she knew about Elizabeth was that she was a nice girl, but no more – she sat beside her in the wedding and never talked to her anymore and she certainly didn't protect Anne from the attacks and rude things the Slytherins would say about her since Evan Rosier's proclaimed hatred for her.

Still, the potion had a ticking time passing through and she needed Barty to drink it. She didn't have much of an option as she stood in the corner of the corridor behind them, shrugging off the cloak and putting it away before preparing herself to seem to just be walking by.

"Oh, morning!" she said, falsely excited.

Regulus was the first to turn, disbelief and confusion on his face as he stared at her.

"Good morning," he greeted back.

"Anne," was Severus' cold greeting.

"Anne!" Barty said, clearly holding himself back from running towards her or waving. He had started liking the girl, even if she didn't often talk to him; the way Regulus talked about her certainly helped.

"Hello, Sage," Elizabeth said, a small and uncomfortable toothless smile on her closed lips.

Elizabeth was polite, but she was uncomfortable near Anne. They didn't know each other well and Anne certainly didn't match her calm and collected energy; even when Anne was sitting beside her in the wedding, calmly watching the ceremony, she felt like Anne needed to be somewhere else. Perhaps it was the lion in her, but Anne always seemed to have several things going through her mind and it was hard not to try to guess what those were as the snake she had been raised to be.

"Hey," Anne answered. "Regulus, that potions we were talking about that day; the one my friend created."

"Yes?"

"It's ready," Anne finished.

Barty's eyes started shining, but his feet kept firmly planted on the ground, undaring to move towards the girl smiling at him.

Regulus turned to Severus and Elizabeth.

"We'll catch up in a moment," he said.

It was a clear dismissal that Elizabeth caught quickly, but Severus didn't move a single muscle, too curious about the effect of the potion Anne was taking off of her bag. All he did was ensure Elizabeth that he would come find her in the library later, but did not walk with her, just watching Anne show the potion.

Sure, Barty didn't think it looked too appetizing, but a potion that she said would help him in a way that his mother, someone well-versed in a healing, couldn't do, then he was excited to try either way. It was dangerous to try potions he wasn't sure where came from or what was inside, but he trusted Anne and, more than that, he trusted Regulus.

"What's in it?" Severus asked.

"Don't even try stealing my recipe," she teased.

"I'm curious now, but not that interested to the point of stealing work from someone else, Sage," he teased back.

Anne ended up smiling at him. If this Severus met the future Lockhart, he sure would throw a hex. It was no surprised the constantly frown and disgust in his face when he was forced to sit beside that man during the meals in school, she loved watching it in her first year because that Severus could only watch in amusement and disgust, sometimes holding back a clear rolling of his eyes, but this one – the one from the 70s – still didn't have that self-control or professionalism, if he didn't hex Lockhart, he would throw a punch.

"Here, Barty," she said, offering him the flask. He took one look at the brownish liquid and then looked back at her. "I swear is not as bad as it looks. It's not good, but I swear that you won't gag."

He opened the cork. The smell assaulted him and made him cough, but he took a deep breath, held it in and drank it all at once. Anne was right, he didn't gag, but he certainly winced with the taste and the aftertaste made him shiver.

Before he knew what was happening, Anne was holding him and dragging him to another corridor. He tried to ask what was going on, but the pain came so strong from so many parts of his body that he had to bite his lip to keep himself from screaming or complaining at all. All he did was hold onto Anne and, when Regulus appeared by his side, to Regulus. Severus was standing in front of him, carefully lifting his shirt to watch the dark substance ooze from his half-open wounds... and he watched it close soon after.

"Severus, can you get a bit of it and put it on this glass," Anne said, offering the future potions-master a flask. He took it. "Then, can you clean him up, please?"

He didn't answer, but Barty could feel him using a quill to transfer some of the substance to the flask without magic, unsure of how it would react. Then the handkerchief touched his skin and he waited for the pain, the burning that usually came from his wounds starting to bleed again, but nothing came.

His wounds were closed up completely.

"Are you dizzy?" Regulus asked.

"Yes," Barty answered.

"Help me sit him down, Regulus," Anne said, holding Barty tight in the very moment his knees shook and gave out. Regulus grunted. "Oh, fuck! Fuck! Fuck," she said several times.

Barty's sleepy, but confused eyes went wide towards her.

"Miss, you're saying horrible words," he said.

Regulus chuckled as he sat the young boy on the ground against the wall. Barty was shaking quite a bit now that the pain was going away and he was left with nothing but the odd sensation that his body seemed lighter and almost empty. It would pass in a few minutes, but it was certainly uncomfortable.

Anne stood upright, cracking her back as she took the paste from her bag and gave it to Regulus, who put it away in his robes' pocket

"Barty, you need to put it over your scars before you go to sleep, you'll need to use it a few days and it stinks badly, so be careful about it, but otherwise, you'll be just fine," Anne said. "And we talked about you not calling me 'miss' anymore."

Severus watched the scene, crossing his arms and taking a look around to make sure there was nobody coming.

"Thinking about mastering in potions as well, Anne?" Severus asked.

"Hardly," she said. "I'm good, but not a passionate potion-maker."

"You should be a Healer, then," he teased, looking over his shoulder at her for a moment before looking away once more. "I can picture you in a Healer outfit."

"I think that's his way of saying you'd look good in green," Regulus teased, winking at Barty and poking his side gently, Barty started nodding. "See? Barty agrees as well."

Anne smirked, winking at Barty as well before turning to Severus with the grin growing on her lips.

"I tell you one thing, Severus, I should've been a Slytherin," she chuckled drily, "well, maybe in another life. But you would be a Slytherin in all possible timelines in this universe."

"What is that supposed to mean?" Severus asked, frowning.

But Regulus knew what that meant as Anne dismissed Severus' curiosity, smiling gently at Barty and urging him to get up to take him to the kitchens. That small nudge she had given Severus could only mean one thing: Anne was ready to tell Severus Snape the truth about her life.