The Law of Unintended Consequences

Chapter 58

Finding One's Way

Perhaps peace is more than the absence of pain...

Disclaimer: I am not J.K. Rowling, nor do I own the Harry Potter Series.

One Day Later Tuesday January 24th, 1976

Lily watched out of the corner of her eyes as Severus worked with quiet intensity, his mouth unmoving as he sat on the stiff, dark chair that Mary had transfigured for him a long time ago. Originally, both girls had teased him about preferring discomfort to comfort, to which the boy had replied with a shrug and a simple "I'm used to it."

Neither had known quite what to say after that.

Still, he seemed to be enjoying himself, his quill held poised over a simple Muggle notebook as his eyes roved back and forth over the large, red and leather-bound book he was reading. It was a journal from one of Soviet Selwyn's commanders, something quite rare given that most of them had died either against Grindelwald or from Selwyn's own cruelties.

His dark eyes coming to a stop over the end of of a page, he smirked and his quill burst into motion, swiftly marking down notes at incredible speed. Lily couldn't help but smile at the sight of this; it made her happy to see that Severus was showing signs of life after the gruesome death of his father.

She would have to thank Mary later; the brunette had given him the journal for his birthday on Celeste's suggestion, and anything that made him happy lately was well worth the price in Lily's opinion. Lily only wished that she had been able to come up with such a good gift, as although she was certain that Severus would much appreciate the results of her ring project when she was finished, though that day would be prolonged because she had been running into more and more obstacles every day.

Mary, noticing Severus' smile, threw her shoulders back proudly when she caught Lily's eye, returning to her own work. Mary's work was in the area that the three of them knew as the testing zone; Lily privately referred to it as 'the spot I will only enter if I turn into a suicidal masochist', as Mary seemed to enjoy finding new and creative ways to blow up, impale, slash to pieces, immolate, or generally destroy anything inside.

It was a normal day for the three of them ever since they had patched up their friendship, each quietly working on their personal projects but not hesitating to offer or requesting aid as needed. Their conversations focused more on work, although sometimes other topics crept in, ranging from complaints on homework and thoughts on the war to even such things as gossip and other silliness-even Severus had to fight a smirk when Mary complained about Celeste having amassed more clothes at their home over the holidays than she had managed in the past several years.

Closing the book on Ancient Runes with a sigh as she realized that the words were beginning to swim before her eyes, Lily turned to the other female of the group with a sigh. "So, Mary, what should I expect as a new recruit? You know, to Terranum."

"Hmm...we tend to focus more on mental preparation for combat for the new guys I think. Most of the new members know enough spells to do plenty of damage already, but don't have any idea of how to apply them," replied the dark-haired girl with a shrug, a finger placed delicately on her lips as twirled her wand absentmindedly. "You should be just fine, Lily."

For a few moments, there was silence, but then Severus spoke in a thoughtful tone, his eyes never leaving the pages of the journal, "Don't forget that Lily will have to do a lot of practice on group-fighting, Mary. She's from the future, but I doubt she's really done much like that before."

"True. Good point, Sev," acknowledged Mary with a frown, suddenly brightening as she pointed her wand at a burnt lump that had once been a target dummy. A series of orange jets of light shot from it, each impacting on different parts of the dummy as Mary threw up a silent Shield charm.

Near-simultaneously, all points on the target exploded, causing the target to suffer from an effect that Severus had once succinctly described as: 'a grenade after the boom'. Though, after months of dealing with the level of destruction typical of anything targeted by Mary, Lily was able to continue the conversation without more than a slight flinch. "You know, we worked together quite a lot as members of the Order. It's not like we were all running around like chickens with their heads cut off. The Death Eaters tended to kill those who did, after all."

"Perhaps..." replied Severus, sounding uncertain as he gave Lily a doubtful look. "But there is a grave difference between simply working together and working as a unit. Each of the groups we've formed have learned to fight as a unit, not just as a collection of talented individuals. We're basing it on Muggle small-group combat in some ways, although the advantage of having a wand cannot be denied."

"Huh...sounds interesting." And indeed it did, although Lily had some doubts about whether Muggle military techniques would be that effective. The fights, from what she could recall, had generally been too chaotic for true group combat. "How is recruitment going, anyway?"

Mary pursed her lips thoughtfully, returning her attention from her examination of the shattered remnants of her target. "Hmm...especially with Crouch's bragging, we've gotten a lot of new members in the past few weeks, especially Slytherins."

"Really? How odd."

"Not really," replied Severus with a shrug as he jotted down a few more notes. "Some of them are doing it for political reasons, but there are those who didn't support the Dark Lord...and are taking the opportunity to join the fight against him, now that we've got the ability to make a real stand." He put down the journal and smirked mischievously at Lily before saying slyly, "Then there are the ones who are doing it for...other reasons. Like Broderick is with us because of his crush on Mary. And perhaps Regulus has a secret or two as well."

"Wait, Sirius' little brother wants to join? Why?" replied Lily, surprised at the idea. Regulus had always struck her as one of those obsessed with blood purity, a definite Muggleborn-hater. Still, stranger things had happened, she supposed.

"I'll bet it's because of his parents," said Severus, turning his dark gaze upon Lily as he spoke. "Regulus has always been obsessed with getting his parents' approval for everything. If they changed their mind on the politics, he'd cave instantly. Plus, there's the way he looks at Celeste all the time... I think he might be interested..." Lily had a suspicion that Severus was referring to a couple other than Celeste and Sirius' brother though.

"Uh...sure." Although she nodded in acknowledgment, Lily found it difficult to concentrate due the distraction provided by Severus' burning gaze. Even as she spoke, his eyes were traveling up her body slowly, drinking in her form and lingering on each and every curve before returning to her face with a heat-filled look. At his blatant appraisal, Lily couldn't help but feel rather warm. "That sounds...alright..."

Feeling that one good turn deserved another, Lily returned his look of appraisal with interest. A somewhat lascivious grin on her lips, Lily openly oogled every inch of his lean body before returning her attention to his face, causing his eyes to widen before fastening hungrily on her own. Her whole body now starting to heat up, took a step closer, her tongue poking out slightly from between her teeth as her she felt her gaze begin to smolder. How she could have gone an entire lifetime without this, Lily had no idea.

"Anyway," interrupted Mary, seemingly oblivious to the whole byplay. "We should expect to see our numbers increase quite a bit before terms ends, although I wouldn't be surprised if half of the new members quit either. Our training is pretty brutal..." She took another step forward, conveniently blocking Lily's ocular devouring of her male best friend. "...so don't underestimate it, Lily."

Shaking her head to clear it from the heat suffusing her cheeks, something which surprised herself considering how fast it had come on, Lily cleared her throat. "Um...yeah. I honestly don't think it can be that tough for me though, not if you don't want your members to desert in droves."

Mary smiled a sad smile. "It's not because it's hard to do magically, but because it is probably the hardest thing that a lot of them have ever imagined... They imagine playing the hero in this war, like Potter and his posse; they don't realize what they need to do to win..."

Feeling vaguely worried, Lily gave a slow nod.

Severus had returned to his reading, but even he seemed rather on edge.

Somehow, Lily couldn't blame him.

One Day Later Wednesday January 25th, 1976

Quick, smooth steps left no echo as their owner strode through Hogwarts castle, his dark eyes narrowed and glaring at every passer-by as though he were going to take points from them if they did not get out of his bloody way, thank you very much.

Not being foolish, the other students cleared a path for the brooding young man as he passed, his thoughts turned inward even as he chased away anyone who might disturb him. Severus needed time to think, time alone without distractions as he clutched the letter he had received tightly in his hands.

It was a letter from his father's sister, informing him of the day that his father was to be buried (For the sake of secrecy, his body had been transfigured so as to make it appear that he had died of 'a bad fall' and not been brutally tortured and murdered), asking Severus if he might be able to take a few days off to attend the funeral.

Thoughts of the funeral inevitably led to thoughts of the man's murder, which led to Severus trying to once more figure out why said murder had bothered him so.

Was it that the man was supposedly a human being (Severus had his doubts), like Lily had claimed? No, Severus was quite certain that that was not the case. Frankly, the idea of going to the man's funeral was anathema to the pondering young man. The world was a better place without Tobias Snape living on it and celebrating the man's life was an idea that made Severus feel as if a self-Cruciatus would be a better one.

The sounds of fighting cheering filled his ears, and he frowned, doing his best to ignore them. He had better things to do than break up what was probably some stupid children's game.

Instead, he focused on what he had felt when he saw his father's body. There was a feeling there that he recognized, although he was uncertain as to what it was or where he had felt it before. Somehow, it brought to mind thoughts of Lily being hurt, but that couldn't be it. He'd die for Lily in an instant, whereas he'd sacrifice his father's life to protect his own without a shred of guilt.

However, Severus could tell that he was on the road to a breakthrough, if only he could get Potter to stop waving his wand around as he hexed Bode-

Severus paused, running that thought through his head once more. 'Wait...Potter?'

Suddenly, his father's death was the furthest thing from his mind, his anger at his Terranum being attacked filling him with an irrepressible fury, much like the helpless rage he had felt when those Marauders had hexed him in the past to no consequences.

Severus grinned darkly, storming toward the fray with his cloak billowing behind him, his hand leaping to his wand as he prepared himself for yet another run-in with those loathsome Marauders. This time would be different though.

This time, he had all the power and authority...

...and they had none.

"Prongs, I warned you that this was a very bad idea."

"Whatever, Mooney, don't be a spoilsport. Besides, take a look at how she's all twitching!"

"Thanks, Padfoot, it's something I cooked up over holidays. She probably feels like there really are insects all over her. Cool, eh?"

"What is going on!"

Remus winced as he saw Snape enter, a murderous glare on the young man's face as he viewed the scene: two members of Snape's so-called Terranum lay on the ground, having been hexed badly in a fight against the Marauders. True, they had been the ones to start the fight by trying to hex Peter's shoelaces so that they were all tangled-up together, but Remus had a feeling that Snape probably wouldn't see it that way.

James, his eyes fixed on Snape in a hate-filled glare of his own, verbally deliberated, "Well, when those twits hexed Peter, we felt that it would probably be a good idea to show them why bullying people is a bad idea, is all."

Snape's eyes narrowed dangerously as he strode toward the two Ravenclaws lying on the ground, his wand drawn and and pointed at the Marauders. "And clearly you would know what bullies are like, wouldn't you, Potter? Lots of practice at playing the part and all. Good try, but the lot of you seem to need a bit of time to think about what you've done. How about a week of detention each and one-hundred points from Gryffindor for the lot of you?"

For a moment, there was silence as the Marauders digested the points loss, but then Sirius growled out furiously, "A hundred points? What the hell are you on about! Even if you needed to take points away, no way that's more than twenty, and you know it!"

"Snape...he does have a point," spoke Remus, holding his hands up in a placating manner as Snape turned his icy glare upon him. "Even if we attacked first, that would be what? Forty points at the maximum?"

"Broderick Bode's leg is broken, and Evelyn Matthews' arm doesn't look much better," said Snape coldly, an eyebrow raised darkly. He then gave a cruel sneer toward the three boys and continued with a snide retort, "Besides, the teachers will probably lower it when you complain about it anyway, so if you take my unfairness against you and their unfairness in your favor, it should be just about right. Agreed?"

"Pomfrey'll have it all healed up in a few minutes, and you know it, Snape," replied James in a calm voice, albeit with clenched fists. "And we shouldn't have to rely on the teachers to make your cruel decisions fair ones! We haven't been able to keep more than a few-dozen rubies in the hourglass for months!"

"Relying on me for pity, Potter?" Snape's sneer had turned into a feral grin as he cast a few quick spells upon Bode's leg, directing him and Matthews to the hospital wing before rounding on the Marauders once more, "And you'd probably have a few more points in the hourglass if you weren't trying to hex Lily or all of Terranum."

"Come on guys," muttered Remus, hoping to end this confrontation before it got really nasty. "Prongs, Padfoot, we shoul-"

A dark, mocking voice came from Remus' left, making him jump as it interrupted the Gryffindor boy. "-How cute, trying to help your friends, Remus? How 'brave' of you to do so." It was Mary, with Lily beside her. They'd been standing there a while now, and drawn their wands some time ago. She continued in a tone low enough that none of the other Marauders could hear, not noticing Lily's frown as she spoke, "Not willing to stop your friends, but helping them slip out of trouble. How truly courageous of you."

"Mary..." Lily warned, an eyebrow raised warningly. "Do we really need to start another fight?"

"Fine," muttered the brunette girl, before raising her voice again, "Alright, you lot get lost. You're outnumbered and we've got some friends on the way, so get!"

James and Sirius seemed about to argue, but apparently thought better of it and left with Remus, causing the young werewolf to breath a sigh of relief as he tried not to think about what had happened...

It was easier than trying to stop them before they got started, after all.

As the four loathsome Marauders walked away, Severus followed his Terranum members up to the Hospital Wing, guilt coursing through him as he saw Bode trying to hobble along, leaning on Matthew's shoulder. This had been his fault; had he not been so distracted by thoughts of his father's death, he might have been able to stop the loathsome Gryffindor quartet before it had gotten so bloody...

Lily placed her hand in his as they walked along, which Severus accepted with a simple squeeze as he continued brooding, his dark feelings lifting slightly. The red-headed girl then spoke quietly, her green eyes filled with pain, "I'm sorry guys, this is all my fault. If it weren't for me, then maybe the fighting wouldn't have escalated so-"

"-Lily," Mary interrupted, crossing her arms as she looked over at Lily from the other side of Severus, her brows furrowed. "All of us chose to fight against those bloody Gryffindors. You may have been the trigger, but it was all our choices to allow the fighting to get so brutal, their choices too. Quit blaming yourself."

Lily swallowed, Severus giving her another squeeze of the hand as she spoke, "I know that...but it doesn't make the guilt go away."

Severus nodded grimly. Whether she was at fault or not, the guilt from believing that she was at fault would keep eating away at her endlessly. It was the same feeling he got when he had found out that Lily had been forced to watch Sabrina getting tortured, courtesy of Mulciber. The pain that had been in her eyes then-

He stopped, eyes widening a tiny bit. That was the feeling! The feeling that had bothered him when he saw his father's shattered corpse, he had found it!

It was guilt: not for who it had been, but because of the fact that it had been his fault that the man had died.

"Severus, your smile is starting to scare me," said Lily, green eyes peering into his own as she gave him a worried look.

"It's nothing, Lily." Severus placed his second hand on top of the feminine hand he was already clasping in his own, a small, quiet smile appearing on his face as he spoke, "It's just that I finally figured something out."

"Hmm, tell us later? After we visit Matthews and Bode."

"Of course."

Two Days Later Friday January 27th, 1976

"...and so I will be observing your training session this weekend on behalf of the Ministry, if that is alright with you, Miss MacDonald, Mr. Snape. Any questions?"

It was well after classes, and normally Mary would have taken advantage of the opportunity to spend time with Severus in the absence of Lily-an opportunity that was all too rare of late with the couple behaving as new couples tend to do. It was nice to just relax with Severus, have a nice conversation and hone their spell-work together, maybe even read a couple of books about the Dark Arts (She had been hoping to discover more about the 'Dementor's Soul' of her dream, perhaps in one of her library books).

Lily might have accepted some of their...darker proclivities, but Mary could tell that their studying of anything dark made the Gryffindor girl uneasy, a weakness Mary might be able to exploit given time.

It wasn't like Mary wanted to hurt Lily particularly, but that didn't mean that she wanted to give up and let her have Severus.

However, today the two Slytherins had something else to deal with: the lackey sent from the Ministry, Dolores Umbridge. Over the past few days, Umbridge had proven herself to be prejudiced, judgmental, closed-minded and generally an obstacle to Mary. Mary suspected that it was because she was a Muggleborn, given how Umbridge acted almost as if Severus were in charge...and that Mary herself were an idiot.

Still, Mary had better things to do than taking Umbridge to task, as she had more than enough enemies...for the moment. Smiling a tight smile and giving the frumpy witch a quick nod, Mary spoke coolly, "Hmm...some of our training sessions are closed to the public, Ms. Umbridge. We would prefer to keep our combat techniques...private, so I'm afraid that it would be a mistake for us to accept. Besides..." Mary shifted in her seat, so that she was just a bit closer to her Slytherin ex-boyfriend. "...how much do you really want to see students dueling? Minister Crouch has been involved with our program from the beginning, and he knows perfectly well what is going on."

Umbridge seemed rather affronted, but Severus cut in smoothly, placing a cool, calming hand on Mary's shoulder as he spoke in a quiet, almost-deferential tone of voice, "Ms. Umbridge, I am sure that someone of your esteemed intellect and political stature has already asked herself this, but I find myself wondering: has the Ministry given any more thought to the 'Dumbledore situation'? I would have thought that it would be a positive firestorm in the Ministry, a career-maker even, and yet the conflicts seem to have been hushed up."

Umbridge smiled an almost-indulgent smile, speaking in the breathy, girlish tones that Mary had already grown to hate, "Well, Mr. Snape, I'm sure Minister Crouch has far better things to do than to get himself dirty in a fight with an aging school-teacher such as Dumbledore. As such, he's probably waiting before he can do something about it, rather than touch off a great mess."

"And yet," interjected Severus smoothly, bowing his head in serene deference, "wouldn't it be of a great help to both the Minister and the Ministry besides if someone was able to give him some...on-the-ground information? I mean, Dumbledore's busily building this 'Defense Association' of his... What's that about? I wonder..."

It was obvious to Mary's eyes that Umbridge suspected that Severus was trying to manipulate her, but the naked greed in the older woman's eyes was impossible to miss as she replied in a condescending tone, "Perhaps, Mr. Snape, but it isn't something that school children should concern themselves with, I think." Mary felt her eyes tighten with anger at those words, but Umbridge continued without noticing, "Oh well, I'm afraid I must be off. Important Ministry business to take care of, so farewell, children."

And without further ado, Dolores Umbridge gave a quick, short curtsy, adjusted her bow, and bustled off, leaving the two Slytherins alone in her wake.

"Well, that was 'fun'," said Severus with a scowl. "I almost wish that she were a Death Eater so we could just kill her and be done with it, no more 'school children shouldn't do this and that'." His scowl then turned into a dark smile as he stood up, stretching his back after the afternoon's discussion. "Maybe Dumbledore'll get annoyed by her enough to do the job for us, do something good for a change."

"Hope so, then Dumbledore'll be in Azkaban before he can say 'lemon drop'." Mary paused and smiled, imagining Dumbledore suffering under the Dementors' sway, tortured whimpers being ripped from the ancient, bearded wizard again and again until finally he stopped moving. Shaking her head, she returned her focus to Severus, carefully placing a hand on his back as she spoke, "However, we have more pressing business. The harassment towards Lily's continuing, just as virulent as before. Apparently those Gryffindors refuse to admit that she's not an evil Death-Eater-in-training, no matter what she's done to the Dark Lord's forces."

Severus nodded, the tight set to his jaw telling Mary better than words could just how well he could relate to that. No matter what he had done, most of Mary's former house-mates had spent the past several years claiming that he had to be some kind of scumbag, even if or perhaps especially because he hadn't done anything.

However, he remained silent, so Mary continued, "Worse yet, something's holding up the transfer that we were trying to fix Lily up with. You know, the one where she lives in a room other than the one up in that rat-trap called Gryffindor tower." Sliding her hand around his back, Mary drew Severus into a position seated beside her without the boy's notice as she spoke. "I think that Dumbledore might be behind it, but I don't know what's his game yet."

Severus' eyes darkened, but he still said nothing, his brow furrowing as he unconsciously snuggled into Mary's arm. The brunette girl couldn't help but smile fondly at this-while Severus might never be the sort of person comfortable with discussing feelings with someone, he seemed to greatly enjoy the simple comfort of being held, much like a wounded puppy.

Finally, Severus spoke, dark anger suffusing every syllable, "Perhaps he wants to hold something over her head, our heads. It's the sort of thing that he would like, given the opportunity. How're those legal investigations going, anyway? Any luck in finding something we can hit him with?"

Turning her head so that Severus could look right at her, her face barely a foot away from her own, Mary whispered as she stared at his eyes, "Unfortunately, it appears that we've hit a bit of a block with that. Most of Mulciber's legal team are a bunch of incompetants, especially that Hubert fellow, but Ms. Skeeter told me that she might have come across something: an old family friend of some sort. I'm waiting for any sort of news about it..."

However, Mary was no longer paying particular attention to even the situation with Dumbledore, far too engrossed with how her lips were inching towards Severus'. At this point, she no longer knew whether it was Severus moving closer or she herself, she only knew that her mouth needed to make contact with that of the boy sitting beside her. It had to.

"Yes, well..." Severus trailed off as he realized his position, his eyes boring into hers, her arm around him, and his lips inches away from her own. The world around them seemed to still, the air itself watching with bated breath for something to happen, for Severus' delicious lips to taste Mary's own once again.

For a moment, it seemed as if Severus were about to bridge that tiny gap between the two teenagers, but then he shook his head and sighed, muttering something under his breath as he carefully extricated himself from Mary's embrace. Backing away several feet, he spoke quietly, "I'm going to go for a walk. I'll see you later...Mary."

With eyes not watching her own, Severus put action to words and opened the door, quietly closing it behind him as the brown-eyed girl watched.

Eyes watering with hot tears, Mary returned her attention to her plots and plans, a sense of loss creeping through the room as she returned to work.

It wasn't for some time that she picked up the latest treatise on ancient artifacts, whereupon she finally found a tidbit of what she sought to know about the Dementor's Soul...

..although she didn't understand why it could possibly be of any value in slaying Voldemort. After all, for what possible reason would one wish to destroy someone's soul after their death?

Author's Note: Sorry for the wait, hope you enjoyed this chapter. I dunno if I'll be speeding up too much, but this fic will eventually reach the end...hopefully.

In the meantime, let's just say that things are about to pick up.