Harry Potter was dead.
Not quite so literally, dead, but he knew he definitely was not alive. Wherever he was, he got the distinct feeling that he didn’t exist yet, or didn’t exist anymore, he wasn’t quite sure.
There was wet grass and mud under his feet, and the air around him was cold and damp. Looking around he tried to gauge where he was and if he was in any immediate danger.
He was standing on a hill overlooking a small valley filled with fog. Protruding out of the fog like skyscrapers in a miniature city were thousands of gravestones. He shuddered. The last time he had been in a graveyard had resulted in the death of one of his classmates. But this seemed different. He was different.
With his seeker’s eyes, trained to detect small movements, he noticed a figure in a midnight blue cloak come slowly through a gate at the far end of the cemetery. Something about the way this person moved seemed familiar to him. Not able to put his finger on it he began to move down the hill, into the little valley filled with fog.
Running around and through the gravestones, Harry had to concentrate to keep from losing the blue cloak in the thick fog. He watched as it rounded a huge crypt, ducking behind the huge stone structure. Harry slowly crept closer to the crypt, and knelt on the ground peering around the edge with one eye.
There waiting to receive this mysterious blue cloaked figure was Severus Snape. Harry narrowed his eyes as he looked at his one time Potions Master. Nobody knew where Snape had gone after the fateful night of Dumbledore’s death, but not one day had gone by in Harry’s life when he didn’t think of Snape and how he would seek his revenge. Snape looked younger now. His long hooked nose was not as big, and his hair wasn’t as long and greasy. He looked to be maybe twenty or twenty one.
But it wasn’t Snape’s age or appearance that Harry was most aware of. It was the manner in which he held himself. The way his eyes flitted from one shape to the next never gazing at anything for more then a second. Harry was used to a strong willed, sneering, emotionless Snape. This man in front of him was very scared and afraid. When he saw the figure that Harry had been following, he smiled his face breaking into the very first genuinely happy grin that Harry had ever seen on him.
“I cannot meet you this way anymore Severus.” The figure in the blue cloak had spoken. Harry’s attention was wrenched from Snape back to the mysterious figure. The voice was so familiar. He couldn’t put his finger on how or when, but he knew this voice.
“I am aware.” Snape said, standing. “I am also aware that if your Fiancée knew you were meeting with me…”
“Quiet.” The cloaked figure stepped closer to Snape. Harry grimaced. If he was watching a secret rendezvous between Snape and his lover, he really would rather be somewhere else. “Why is it you wanted to see me?” The woman asked, tipping her head back to look into Snape’s eyes. He looked like Harry had never seen him before, almost in love. Harry gaped as the sallow faced man ran his fingers along the inside of the mystery woman’s hood and pulled out one strand of red hair.
“For this.” Snape said taking a pair of small scissors from his pocket and snipping a bit of the beautiful red hair. The woman tucked the remaining strand away inside her hood as Snape took out a small pouch and dropped the lock of hair into it, tying the cords closed securely. Snape looked down into the eyes of the mystery woman in a way Harry had never seen him look before. “I wanted something to remember you by.” The woman laughed. Harry closed his eyes; the sound of her laughter was like bells. If he could only remember!
“Severus, you chose your path, I have chosen mine. Maybe in some other life, some other time I could have been with you, but here and now it is impossible. Be careful with this.” She said fingering the pouch in his hand where he had put the lock of her hair. “All kind of dark magic can be done with something as valuable as that.”
“ I am aware.” Snape resounded. Harry actually began to feel something for this couple. In love, but couldn’t be together. “My darling, I-”
“I know Severus. There is nothing we can do. Please.” She tipped her head away from him. “I must go now. I’m sorry. This is it. Goodbye.” She turned and ducked around the far side of the crypt leaving Snape alone.
“Goodbye my love.” He whispered. Then he seemed to straighten, gather his resolve, and he Disapparated.
Harry ran to catch up with the hooded woman. If he could just get in front of her, he could see her face. Find out who she was. He ran around the crypt and then in the direction of the gate that she had come through. She was standing there, at the gate, one hand raised as if to open it, the other clutching something at her throat. Her hood had fallen down and Harry could see her long red hair through the fog. He stopped dead watching the woman as she slowly turned to get one last look at the graveyard. He recognized her now. The hair, she shapes of her hand, and as she turned those emerald green eyes just like his own.
His mother.