Author's Note (also posted on Resonance)
It's difficult to know how to say this, but I'll give it a shot. Thank you all for reading, and those of you who have reviewed, thank you for that too. There is no way I can ever tell you what all your support has meant to me.
Now for the hard part. I have become so blocked that continuing these stories would be more of a chore than anything. I understand that all my readers enjoy my writing, but I'm afraid I'm not going to do this if it's not fun for me. I have therefore decided to discontinue writing this universe. However, I have several times heard the sentiment that there's nothing worse than an unfinished story, and I happen to agree.
So...
I do have something of an outline for this story. And I will put it in this chapter, down a suitable amount of spoiler space that if you want to take the chance that I might someday be able to keep writing on this story, you don't have to read it. But if you just want to find out how this story comes out, scroll on down and enjoy.
If you want to drop me a line and review, I'd love it, but just please don't yell at me. You have no idea how much I wish I could keep writing this. But I pride myself on writing well, and I just don't think I can write this story the way it deserves to be written. I've tried a hundred times, and the words just will not come. So I'm going to quit while I'm ahead, and give you as much of the story as I can, so you don't lose out too much.
I'm really sorry about this, everyone. Please, someday, try to find it in your hearts to forgive me. I'll still be around, reading and reviewing and such, and maybe someday I'll write again. In the meantime, you can try my beta's stuff – her name is Anne and her penname is whydoyouneedtoknow. She's written a huge and (in my admittedly biased opinion) pretty awesome AU world, starting before Harry is two and currently paused at the end of his first year at Hogwarts, with plans to write all seven years.
I'll miss you, everyone. Good luck, God bless (yes, even you atheists – just be glad He believes in you), and don't let the pixies pinch.
SarahtheBardess
June 5, 2005
la
la
la
la
la
la
la
la
la
la
la
la
la
la
la
la
la
la
la
la
la
la
la
la
la
la
la
la
la
la
la
la
la
la
la
la
la
la
la
la
la
la
There, I think that ought to be enough, don't you?
Everyone heads off to school. Helen becomes a Gryffindor (of course) as does Ruby. The girl they met at Madam Malkin's turns out to be named Cinna Barre, Cinna being short for Cinnamon – make fun of it and die. She's sorted into Slytherin, but she's a semi-nice type, a lot like Cate Lupin's mother, current Potions professor and head of Slytherin House, Professor Athena Fleming (who is a highly independent woman and so didn't change her name when she got married).
Cinna turns out (much later) to be the daughter of the mysterious man in Harry's study, who was (kudos to everyone who guessed it) Draco Malfoy. He's also the second set of thoughts at the opening of Chapter 1.
Marie's magical relatives turn up and are just delighted that their cousin's little girl is still alive – and no, of course they don't care that she's a Squib, she must come and live with them, they won't take no for an answer. With misgivings, the Potters let her go.
Misgivings are well founded. The wizards want Marie, not for her own sake, but to experiment on her, and the experiments are not designed with her comfort in mind. Someone in the house where she's confined – she doesn't know who it is – helps her, providing her with a way to get a letter out.
Helen gets the letter and (like father, like daughter) rushes off to the rescue, nearly gets herself caught as well, but with the help of a mysterious man who walks with a cane, manages to get close to Marie – just as one of the experiments succeeds in its goal of awakening magic in Marie and she nearly blows the house apart, knocking out both herself and the wizards who were running the experiment. Helen and her compatriot are close enough to hear what's going on, but not close enough to be affected.
The man takes Helen and the unconscious Marie back to Hogwarts by Floo, telling Helen she has to say the destination. They arrive in the dungeons, and the man leads them to a certain room, obviously knowing where he's headed. As he lights a fire (with a match), Helen gets a glimpse of his face and recognizes him from her family's stories – "Professor Snape?" (And he, of course, was the first set of thoughts at the opening of Chapter 1 – good work to everyone who got it!)
Reluctantly, Snape tells Helen his story. The Dark Mark was not just a way to summon the Death Eaters, but served as a siphon – Voldemort could use it to drain the Death Eaters, individually or collectively, of their magic. When Snape betrayed him by letting Penelope and Hermione go, Voldemort used the Mark to drain all of Snape's magic, then tortured him physically as well, before being called away to fight the final battle – from which, of course, he never returned.
By the time Snape got any kind of help, his wounds were past magical cures, so he has lived since that time in pain, and without magic – but magic is not required to brew most potions, so he has had that to keep him busy. He survives by allowing a few wizards who want to experiment and don't care too much if they go into the Dark Arts to see if they can bring his magic back somehow. They are looking for insight into the source of a person's magic, and what makes wizards and witches different from Muggles and Squibs. They pretended to be Marie's relatives so they could try their experiments on her.
Helen tries to persuade Snape to return to the wizarding world...
And I was planning to stop right there and let you all wonder forever and ever if he did or not. So that's where I'll stop now.
If you have questions, you can e-mail me with them (I will answer, I check the thing compulsively) or go to Anne's Yahoo group (I'm on that compulsively as well).
Thank you again for reading and reviewing, and best of luck down the road!