WAY BACK

"It's starting to hurt, Lily," complained Anne. "My arm cannot take much more."

"Just one more minute, I swear," Lily said, a small black pencil on her hand scratching the paper faster. "Almost done!" she added. A few more scratches. "And..." a few more. "Done! You can relax now, Anne."

Anne groaned loudly once she pulled her arm away from the pose that she had been put on across Lily on the small compartment of Hogwarts Express. Her back was burning from the awkward position and the muscles on her stomach were jumping after so much effort.

Marlene laughed, but massaged Anne's back a bit with a few pets to make the pain go away.

"I regret letting you draw me," Anne admitted. "I didn't know being a model was that much work."

Lily laughed, eyes still on her paper and pencil still working, but this time out of memory and out of the sketch she had. She had a great difficulty in drawing Anne; not only she moved every few minutes, but her face was hard to focus on – during the job, she had managed to see several similarities between Anne and James and now looking at her eyes was a bit uncomfortable.

"Anne, Lily," Marlene said. "Can I take a picture of you two?"

"May I?" Lily corrected.

"You want to take it yourself?" Anne asked, confused.

Marlene laughed, thinking Anne was joking. Nobody stopped to answer her or explain why that had been a joke. Marlene put the small camera she had brought with her on the other seat, making Anne sit between her and Lily and smile by dragging her by the arm. The flash blinded her for a moment.

The world stopped.

It was just like being in the middle of battle again.

The flash was the bomb exploding on the grounds of Hogwarts and the heat throwing her back against a wall, one of the only ones that managed to keep on standing while the rest fell on top of Percy Weasley and she couldn't move, only hearing him wailing in pain, begging for help and unable to move, head bleeding. Tonks had found her and almost carried her towards the Great Hall. Madame Pomfrey had healed her head and she soon ran after battle again, but when she got to Percy, he was already dead.

Suddenly, blood was in her hands again and she wasn't sure if it was hers after she scratched herself trying to get the stones away from him or if the blood was his. His eyes stuck on the ceiling, lifeless, milk-like. His ribs were sinking where they had broken and ripped his lungs apart. Nobody came to save him.

Anne was standing in the middle of the compartment in a second.

"Anne?" Lily asked, confused.

"Anne?" Marlene repeated when she didn't answer, worried.

"I need – I need to go the toilet," she answered. "James is looking for me."

She didn't wait for either of them to answer, she just ran away from the compartment that felt too small. It was like she was the one lying under all the rocks this time, begging for help and hoping somebody that loved would come and save her – hope died with her slowly as she chocked on her own blood.

Anne ran into someone who held her in place.

"Careful where you walk," grumbled the person.

Severus Snape took one look at her and felt his heart stop for a moment. Anne was sickly pale, standing in front of him with unresponsive eyes and her whole-body trembling, including her lower lip. As soon as their eyes met, hers filled with tears and her nose flared.

"I'm sorry," she whimpered.

Awkward, Severus just stood there, holding her by her elbows in confusion and worry. If he let go of her, she looked very capable of falling to the ground and killing herself by accident. He wouldn't be recognized as the culprit of killing James Potter's newest friend.

"Alright," he said. "Come along," he ordered, pulling her by the arm.

Anne followed him in silence, trying her best to hold back her tears and her fears. Severus wasn't close enough to know the truth yet and he certainly didn't deserve to comfort her and receive something in return when he had been growing more and more in the Death Eaters ranks. She needed to make sure he would change sides before telling him a single part of who she truly was.

Severus surprisingly led her to the toilets and stopped at the door.

"Wash your face, calm down."

"I told you already, telling me to calm down doesn't calm me down," she answered.

"That's why I told you to wash your face. The water is cold and the temperature shock will freeze whatever is going on inside your braid and bring you back down," he answered, rolling his eyes. "Go, girl. I'll stay on watch."

He leaned against the doorway as he pushed her inside and closed the door before turning to the corridor and crossing his arms with his best bored face, though he certainly was worried what would happen if the girl just fainted inside the bathroom and hit her head somewhere.

Anne did what he told her to, washing her face and the inside of her wrists. He had been right again. The water was so cold that she could barely breathe once the first splash hit her face, but by the time she was washing the back of her neck, she had calmed down enough to be stop crying. She was still trembling and her muscles were still weak and hurting from all the tension she had put on, but she felt certainly more alert and conscious of where she truly was and what was going on around her.

Perhaps she took too long, because the door opened at once.

"Oh, you're alive," said Snape.

"Do try to sound a bit happier, please," Anne grumbled, looking at him through the mirror in front of the sink.

"Hm," he did. "Now, listen, I did what you told me to."

She blinked. "What are you talking about?" she was better, but her mind wasn't 100% yet, she was confused. "What did I tell you to do?"

Severus, annoyed with her slowness, sighed.

"Didn't you want to talk to Nott?" he asked. "If you changed your mind, you'll tell him yourself. I'm not a bloody owl."

"Oh, Nott, yes," she said, nodding as the memory came forth. "Did he agree to talk to me? Does he want to see me now?"

"It wouldn't be very discreet, would it?" he said. "No, he wants to talk to you during the summer and will write you to decide a better day for you two to meet somewhere and talk business. He wishes to know where you'll be staying at."

"Potter Manor," she answered. "Cobham."

"In Surrey?" he asked.

"Yes," she mumbled. "He can write to me there."

"Alright," Severus said. "I'll walk you to Potter's compartment."

She wasn't really into the idea of going back to Lily and Marlene, they would have questions and she knew she wouldn't be able to answer most of them. If she went to James and his friends, the only one that would ask questions would be Peter and somebody would cut him off at once. She felt safe with the boys, though she felt normal with the girls – at the moment, being safe was more important than being a happy, normal girl.

Severus seemed to know somehow where the boys were.

"They always take the same compartment," he explained when Anne looked a bit suspicious. "The third one on the left on this wagon. I always take another wagon because of that."

"You keep track of where they are so you can hide," she nodded, understanding. "I'd do the same."

"If you know how they are, why are you still friends with them?" Severus asked, question sounding bitter.

"Because I know how you are as well, Snape. I know that you're no saint and this is not bullying – this is a competition between rivals and no more than that; you'd done terrible things as well, and you announce them proudly to your... friends, perhaps co-workers is a best word to describe that relationship, but yet, I'm not stupid, I know what you are and I know what you do."

"Are you accusing me of something?"

"No, not accusing," she said, shaking her head. "Just sharing knowledge. I heard that the Hat was very confused when you came by and didn't know how to decide if you'd go to Slytherin or Ravenclaw, so I supposed you'd be grateful for the sharing of knowledge, isn't that something you like to do?" she stopped walking and turned to him. "I don't hate you and I think you're smart and, deep inside, perhaps a better person than you allow the other to see for some reason I cannot phantom, but that doesn't mean I won't tear your fucking face apart if you ill-mouth James or any of my friends and if you call Lily a 'mudblood' again, I'll kill you and I'll laugh all the way to Azkaban."

"Violent, as any other Gryffindor," he commented.

"Protective, as any other Gryffindor," she corrected. "And as any other Slytherin and any other Hufflepuff or Ravenclaw – they're mine. My family, my friends; in the moment you mess with any of them, you messed with me as well."

"Am I supposed to be scared?" he asked, smirk growing.

"I'd be I were you," she answered.

And for a moment, Severus Snape was afraid as he looked into her eyes. It wasn't a child's eyes; it wasn't something he had seen in any person in his class or with the silly younger children he would sometimes tutor for extra credit in Potions – he would see those haunted eyes in the mirror sometimes when he woke up from a nightmare where his father was holding his ankle and dragging him away from protection of his mother's arms once more.

She had seen empires raise and fall, death and life. She had the whole world behind her eyes and underneath her skin.

"Thank you for the warning, then," he answered, not wanting to completely accept he had been made uncomfortable just by staring a girl smaller than him. "But we're here."

The third compartment on the left of the wagon.

He opened the door without knocking and waited, but no curses or screams came. Inside there was only a very confused and sleepy Remus Lupin looking at Severus with worry.

"What's wrong? Did something happen?" he asked. He had dropped the book he had been holding onto while he as asleep as he sat down a bit better, leaning away from the wall and the window he had been against.

Anne appeared from behind Severus.

"Snape was just kind enough to show me where you would be," she explained. "Thank you, Snape."

He closed the door, not answering her.

Anne watched through the small window with the curtain down the shadow of Severus hesitating for a moment before walking away from the door and towards his own compartment away from that wagon.

"Anne, what happened?" Remus asked. "You're look like Death."

"Thanks," she grumbled.

She sat down beside Remus heavily and closed her eyes, leaning against him. He put his arm around her shoulders and brought her closer to him.

"What happened? Tell your godfather and I'll deal with whoever did this," he added, smiling a bit at her.

Anne managed a chuckle.

"Just a camera flash," she answered. "I never thought camera flashes could look so much like bombs, but they did and it freaked me out a bit. I got away, washed my face and Snape found me. He led me here when I asked for James," she looked around, ignoring the small change on her story and her truth. "Where is everyone?"

"They went out to get some sweets," he answered. "Do you need anything?"

"Just you," she answered.

She hid her face against his jumper and he held her closer, petting her back lightly as if trying to lull her into sleep.

Surprisingly, it worked very well and Anne ended up sleeping with no nightmares and no memories to haunt her.

Regulus Black was worried about Anne after Severus commented lightly that she had been feeling ill. The other Slytherins laughed and said that they hoped it to be a jinx, but Regulus had seen true worry behind Severus eyes as he laughed it off.

He didn't see an excuse or the right moment to go look for her across the wagons blindly or a moment to ask Severus where she had gone to, so all he did was try his best to look as if his terrible mood was nothing more than the normal him not wishing to go back home and deal with his parents a whole summer and the whole wedding planning for Narcisa.

When the train finally stopped at the platform, he practically jumped from his seat, took his bag and walked out of the train right behind a crying first year that ran to his parents sobbing and talking about being homesick.

Outside the train, he pretended to fix his bag as his eyes travelled across the platform looking a red hair between the crowd. He found his mother standing tall beside his father on the other side of platform. Walburga raised her hand to him, trying to get his attention, so he nodded at her to show he had seen her already and that he was on his way.

Perhaps Anne had already got to the Potters and –

Sirius Black almost walked right into him when he ran towards the couple hugging James Potter tight. If James was somewhere, Anne wasn't too far behind, he had learnt in just the month they had been together.

"Fucking bag!" somebody cussed in exasperation and with a frustrated groan.

He didn't even have to look to know it was Anne struggling with getting her bag down from the train, but he turned anyways and put his bag to the side, ignoring that his mother was still watching him.

"Anne," he greeted.

"Oh, Regulus, hi," she said, sounding surprised between her pants.

Regulus nodded at her.

"May I?" he said, pointing at the bag.

She looked between him and her bag before blinking a few times and nodding, taking a step back from the situation and watching as Regulus stood in front of it and very easily pushed the bag back out and turned to the side a bit before getting it out without locking it against the doorways.

"I should've thought about that," she mumbled, embarrassed for her lack of logical thought.

He chuckled as he put her bag down.

"You have a good summer, Anne," he said.

"You too, Regulus. And remember... what we talked about, about being careful with decisions," she said, a low voice.

He looked at her, taken aback that she had brought up the conversation again. But he nodded at her anyways, very close to promising to remember her words.

"ANNE!" Sirius screamed, hurrying her up.

He received a weak slap on the back of the head by Mia, but all he did was groan and laugh after it.

Anne looked at the scene before nodding and turning to Regulus again.

"Thank you," she said. "For the bag," she added.

"Oh, yes, you're welcome," he dismissed, getting his own bag. "See you in next year."

"See you next year," she agreed.

He dragged his bag behind him with perhaps a bit more grace than he usually had, his ankles not getting caught in the wheels a single time. His eyes were stuck on his mother, but his thoughts were in the girl inside the Potters arms.

Still, he had to bring himself to the present once he saw his mother standing there in a white blouse and long, black A-styled skirts with his father in everyday wizarding black robes standing beside her.

"Mother, Father," he greeted.

His father looked away from the person he had been staring at and looked at Regulus.

"You've grown," he commented in a cold voice.

Regulus hoped it was true. He felt taller and he liked being tall, the girls and boys would look at him with more respect and perhaps a bit more desire. Though relationships were never on the top of his mind, he liked being wanted and desired by people that knew he could never be theirs. Perhaps that's why he wanted Anne so much, because he knew she would never turn to him.

"Who was that girl you were talking to?" Walburga asked, eyes stuck on her.

"Anne Sage," he answered. "My Potions partner, Dumbledore's ward. Apparently, Potter's newest adoption or something like that, a distant cousin."

"Her status?" his father asked, finally taking a look at Anne standing in front of Euphemia Potter and taking a spin to show off the wizarding robes in Amethyst purple and black.

"A half-blood," Regulus answered, focusing in bettering his grip on his bag to not let his parents see his eyes.

"Oh," said his mother, disappointed. "How unremarkable of her."

Without looking at her, Regulus answered. "I think she's rather outstanding," he had not even thought it through, the words had just escaped his mouth.

His father was now watching him carefully before looking at Anne accepting Sirius' help with her bag and letting the boy drag it away as she held Euphemia's hand and giggled of something the older woman said.

"She's pretty," Orion said.

Walburga looked at Orion in surprise.

"Did you really think so? I think a red-head is simply one of the most divine punishments, absolutely pathetic," Walburga said.

"She's pretty," Orion repeated, dismissing Walburga's opinion at once.

"She's great at Potions, third is class and she just got to Hogwarts last month," Regulus said. "Had been home-schooled most of her life and still is just half a point behind Severus and his weird mind."

"You other half-blood friend," Walburga grumbled.

"Anne is not my friend," though it was a lie, he hoped his parents couldn't see it right through him.

"Well, friend or not, you call her outstanding," Orion said. "I want to meet her. Make sure it happens; dinner, lunch, brunch or a cocktail party, I want to meet this girl."