"The Shrinking Potion," Professor Snape said in his usual low voice, "causes creatures to shrink to their younger form."
Rhea immediately raised her hand.
"Miss Arquette," he said, looking quite annoyed at the interruption.
"So the creature shrinks, and simultaneously becomes young?" she asked, confused. "I don't know, but isn't that kind of disturbing? So you're telling me that if I drink that potion, not only will I shrink to the size of an elf, but also I would become, say, five years old?"
Snape curled his lips in annoyance. "Yes, Miss Arquette, that is correct. Though I would not advise you to drink this potion—its effects can be disastrous if not brewed correctly. Besides, if you were to drink the potion you've brewed yourself, it might lead to poisoning, given that your potioneering skills are horrifyingly abysmal."
Rhea went pink in the face, but she was grateful that none of the other students laughed. She put her hand down and worked in silence.
Snape walked around the classroom, criticizing everyone's potions viciously.
"Rhea." Anthony hissed under his breath. "Add only a dash of leech juice."
"How the hell am I supposed to measure a dash of a liquid?" Rhea hissed right back.
"A pinch leech juice." Anthony amended himself, looking wearily at the potions master.
"Five points from Ravenclaw." Snape drawled, and Rhea lost her patience.
"For clarifying a doubt, which, conveniently you refuse to do?" Rhea asked snarkily, and immediately slapped her hand over her mouth. She never talked like that to the professors—in fact, she hardly showed any attitude to anyone. It was something she learnt only when she got older.
"Sorry!" she yelped, and Anthony facepalmed. "Sorry, ignore me, Professor, I do not exist!"
But apparently she did exist for Snape, if only for him to take points once more. "Ten points from Ravenclaw for the disrespect, Miss Arquette."
Rhea was extremely moody. And as though determined to make Rhea's life hell, Snape took a flask full of her potion to test it on Padma's new pet, Ghastly, the lizard.
"Mr Longbottom's potion earlier, managed to shrink his useless toad to a tadpole," Snape droned. "Before you offer your congratulations to him, let me enlighten you about the fact that Miss Granger resorted to hissing the instructions to him. Miss Arquette, however..." his lip curled evilly. "May not be so lucky.
Snape took a flask full of Rhea's Shrinking Potion and dribbled its contents into Ghastly's mouth. For a heart-stopping moment it wriggled violently, and Rhea's eyes widened in horror. But soon, the lizard turned into a young hatchling, as though it had just come out of its egg.
The entire class cheered, and Rhea looked as though she would faint from the stress and worry. Padma grinned wildly at her and gave her a one-armed hug.
But the best prize for Rhea was the look of intense displeasure on Snape's face.
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"You sleep like the dead."
Rhea stirred in her sleep, and at the voice, cracked her eyelids open. The morning sunlight from the nearby window caused her to squint her eyes to avoid its effect. She turned towards the source of the voice with her eyes closed.
"I wish I was dead." She croaked, still closing her eyes.
The voice snickered. "That's exactly how I feel at the moment. I've got sore limbs."
"Did you expect to find yourself fresh after your sleep?" Rhea asked sarcastically. "You should know that the night after one's injuries is the worst."
"And you would know all about that, wouldn't you?"
"Yeah," Rhea said, and finally opened her eyes fully. "I would." Then she tied her frizzy black hair into a tight knot and snatched a random flask from her bedside before downing its contents.
"Do you have any idea who gave me this?" Sirius asked, pointing at a chocolate box lying on his bedside.
"None." Rhea said vaguely. "Must be one of your admirers."
Sirius smirked. "Jealous, Cadieux?"
Rhea raised her eyebrows. "Normally I'd have a comeback, but your narcissism has stunned me into speechlessness."
She stretched her injured arm for a while, wincing when she found it quite sore. Convinced that she'd survive the day without dying too many times, she got out of the bed.
"Where do you think you're going?" Sirius asked, bewildered.
"Away from here." Rhea said firmly. "Don't tell Pomphrey."
"What makes you think I wouldn't?" Sirius scoffed, looking at her with narrowed eyes.
Rhea raised her eyebrows. "It's your fault I'm awake. So if Pomphrey gives me an earful, I'm blaming you."
Ignoring Sirius' protests, she left the Hospital Wing with a determined pace. The corridors were quiet and deserted, seeing as it was a holiday from the ongoing exams. She didn't have any obstacles to pass, and she sprinted up to the seventh floor.
Reaching the deserted part of the corridor, she walked three times with a fervent wish in her mind.
The door materialized in front of her, and she wrenched it open. Stalking into the room, she yelled, "Caelus!"
There was no response. Anyone who might have discovered this room on accident may never have guessed that someone lived here.
"Caelus! Come OUT!" Rhea snarled, looking around the room. The closets, shelves, books, cauldrons, chairs were quite still. For a few moments Rhea stood there, waiting for him to come. Suddenly, a voice startled her.
"I knew you would come sooner or later."
"Of course you did." Rhea seethed, curling her hands into fists. "You're the son of the God of Time. Janus has two faces, one that looks into the past, and one that looks into the future."
Caelus raised his eyebrows. "I told you that. And here you are, repeating the same thing to me."
Rhea laughed darkly. "Someone needs to remind you. Someone needs to remind you you're a demigod. Someone needs to remind you that you're half God, but powerful nonetheless. Someone needs to remind you, that no matter how much you resemble a human, you're not human."
He rolled his eyes. "This room, my immortality and my constant visions are reminders enough."
"Apparently not, I feel." Rhea hissed dangerously. "If you were still human, you'd know what exactly I feel now." Then, she said, "You stopped me from saving Severus."
"And?" He asked, bored. "What about it?"
Rhea banged her hand on the nearby table causing a fading echo to resonate across the room. "You just ruined everything!" She shouted, fury clouding her black eyes. "I was supposed to stop it! I was supposed—"
"There is a reason," Caleus interrupted her. "Why yesterday's incident was Severus Snape's worst memory."
"Exactly!" Rhea raged. "I was going to—"
"Prevent it?" Caelus suggested. "Of course I knew you were going to do that, Arquette, why else do you think I stopped you from preventing it? Yesterday, more than one life was changed. Yesterday your priority was only Severus, but did you stop and think about James Potter, Sirius Black, Remus Lupin and Lily Evans?"
Rhea opened her mouth in a reply but Caelus cut her off. "The first time the incident occurred, Potter and Black did not care for their actions. They never regretted their bullying ways. However, the incident still stuck with them, since Lily Evans held this memory strongly against them. It was only in their seventh year did they grow out of it."
"Meanwhile, Lupin learnt something out of this too," Caelus continued, "He learnt that however greatly he loved his friends, he'd have to summon equal courage to stand up to them. Something Neville Longbottom learnt very early in his life."
"And Severus! He learnt many, many things from yesterday's fiasco. The most important one was that Lily Evans would never, ever, side herself with the Dark Arts. He'd originally wanted Lily to join him, because he felt the Dark Arts was the only way to protect her. But Lily is not one to run away from a fight and side with the Dark side."
"He's always been prejudiced against muggles," Caelus continued. "Lily was just an exception. It was only after this, that he even considered the fact that muggles aren't all that bad as he'd believed. In fact, this memory is one of the many reasons he chose to side with Dumbledore."
"So tell me, Rhea," Caelus concluded. "You wanted to stop all this yesterday. If you had succeeded, they would never have learnt the lessons they would have; lessons that they would remember all their lives. Lessons that were crucial for their decisions. Decisions that shaped the lives of the people of the Wizarding World."
Rhea stared at him, transfixed. What he was trying to explain to her seemed so correct and so wrong at the same time. Honestly, her mind was a whirlwind of thoughts, but it was nothing compared to the magnitude of her emotions.
"But it's still wrong," she choked. "For the noble reasons, you jeopardized with a friendship. Severus is devastated, Caelus!"
"You're acting as though it is forever ruined," Caelus rolled his eyes. "I may have stopped you from intervening yesterday, but who am I to stop you from trying to fix their friendship?"
"But you've still caused the hurt," Rhea whispered. "Both of them are dealing with profound hurt."
Caelus sighed. "Like I told you—"
"No!" Rhea shouted. "What you did was wrong! You're literally playing God with all the knowledge you've got! You're jeopardizing with feelings and friendship and love for the greater good! Just like..." Rhea said bitterly, "Dumbledore did."
Caelus took a deep breath. "I'm doing what all the Gods did to the Cadieuxs."
Rhea froze. "What?" She whispered hoarsely, dread coursing through her veins.
Caelus looked at her impatiently. "Do you think the Cadieuxs existed in your original time? No, they didn't. There were no Cadieuxs. The Gods created them the moment they realized there would be time travellers travelling through my doorway. From the very start, they were meant to exist for the sole purpose of justifying your existence here. Nothing more, nothing less."
Rhea was speechless. The Cadieuxs were created, made to live in hiding, only to die someday to accommodate Rhea and Luna's existence in this timeline. She felt bile rise up her throat. "This is sick," she muttered in horror, shaking her head as though denying the truth. "Evil. The Gods are evil—"
"Exactly," Caelus nodded. "I've been telling this for centuries."
Rhea put her head in her hands and sank into the ground. "This was my time to make the right decision," she whispered, tightening her hold on her head. "This was my first decision I would make as Rhea Arquette, and not someone else. I wanted to do it right, I wanted it so bad," she choked on her tears, finally letting the tears flow. "What will Harry think of me? I had one chance, one chance to save Lily's friendship—"
"What are you talking about?" Caelus asked sharply. "How does it matter what Harry thinks, Arquette? You are living for yourself, not anyone else! You make your choices, and no one gets to judge you for that! Jupiter," he cursed, walking around the room. "Humans! So many emotions, thinking they have so many problems, but really, most of the problems are in their heads."
"What am I going to do?" Rhea wailed, almost pulling her hair in frustration, not appearing to have heard Caelus' little rant.
"Pull yourself together!" Caelus snapped. "Do what humans don't do often: tell the truth."
Rhea stared at him. "No way am I telling the Marauders I'm a time traveller—"
"Not them!" Caelus groaned. "Severus Snape!"
***
"The sixth floor is hardly patrolled enough," Lily said, fiddling with her quill. "Most of the prefects patrol the corridors near the common rooms, but hardly anyone does the sixth floor. In fact, here's where many students got caught last year for coming out after curfew."
"Good point," Amelia said approvingly. "Remus and Lily can patrol the sixth floor then, every alternate day. The rest of the prefect duties schedule remains the same. Anything to add, Dirk?"
Dirk cleared his throat. "This is your last meeting for the year. Dismissed."
Immediately the prefects scrambled out of the room, eager to go back and study for the exams. Lily packed her bag hastily and made to leave the room when a voice called out to her.
"Lily! Wait—"
Lily had no intentions of waiting. She was done with all this emotional mess.
"Lils! Just hear me out!"
"No, you listen to me, Remus!" Lily finally had enough—she was fed up. "I don't care how great your friends are, how noble they must be when times are dangerous, or how sorry you are. Bullying is bullying and there's no excuse for it! What's the use of being good to others and acting noble if you're going to bully someone for the fun of it? The good things you do don't cancel out the bad ones."
"So no, it doesn't matter if Potter, Black and Pettigrew have helped you tremendously despite you being a werewolf, what they did was inexcusable. I know you don't want to stop them from having fun because you think they might leave you, but you should know they wouldn't do that. And if they did leave you, their friendship is not worth it."
With that she made her way out of the room, but Remus' nervous stammer stopped her.
"You—you—know I'm a w-werewolf?" He asked, shocked. His eyes were dilated in fear, and his hands were shivering slightly.
"Yes, you doofus," Lily yelled. "What about it?"
"And yet—yet you hang around me?" His expression was a mix of pure shock and pure disbelief.
Lily rolled her eyes. "Is it contagious? No, I think not. Now goodbye, I don't feel like speaking with you—not because you're a werewolf, you stupid boy! But because I feel like hell now! Now, sayonara."
"You don't think I'm a monster?" He whispered desperately, his kind green eyes shining with anxiety.
"And who gave you the permission to call yourself that?" Lily asked fiercely. "If you call yourself a monster, that means you think other werewolves are monsters too. Do you think they are monsters, Remus?"
"No—"
"Then how can you call yourself one? Do you have a VIP ticket?" Lily demanded.
Remus stared at Lily. He had thought that the only people who would accept him were James, Sirius, Peter, his parents and Dumbledore. And yet, here was another person treating him like any other human, playing an important role in his life.
So he did what came naturally to him: he hugged her.
"Oof!" Lily's voice was muffled as Remus pulled her into a hug. "Appreciate the sentiments, Remus, I really do, and I love you, but frankly, I'm not a hugger."
Remus gave a broken laugh. "I don't care. Just pretend you're a hugger for five seconds."
Lily smiled and wrapped her arms around him. "I still despise your friends, though."
"I know, and I'm so, so sorry," Remus said earnestly. "But most of all, thank you..."
Before Lily could reply, however, something, or rather, someone caught her eye.
"Say, is that Rhea?" she asked abruptly, looking suspicious. "What is she doing with Snape?"
***
"Just because I shot that spell at you, Cadieux, doesn't mean I owe you anything—"
"Severus Snape, just shut up for once in your life." Rhea snapped and dragged him to the grounds, not noticing Remus' and Lily's gaze following them.
Once they reached the grounds, Rhea pulled him towards the Black Lake. Even though it was a nice, sunny day, not many were outside seeing as they were studying for their exams.
"Muffliato," Rhea said quietly, waving her wand around them. Severus looked interested at this new spell.
For a while they sat in silence—Severus fidgeted with his robes, eyeing Rhea warily, but Rhea sat calmly. Her face was thoughtful and worried, as though she was thinking hard about something.
"Have you wondered why I strike you as odd, Severus?" Rhea asked finally, not looking at him.
"Occasionally," he replied dryly.
Ignoring him, she continued, "Have you wondered why I seem to know a little too much about Lily, James, Sirius, Remus and Pettigrew? About you? Severus Tobias Snape. The Half-Blood prince."
Severus froze. He stared at Rhea, bewildered. Before he could ask her anything, she cut him off, "Do you know what legilimency is?"
"Of course—"
"Can you perform legilimency?" she interrupted him in an appraising manner.
Severus bit his lip worriedly. "Yes," he admitted. "But I've got to practice."
"Well that settles it, then." Rhea straightened her back and looked at him straight in the eye. "Do it."
"What?" he demanded.
"I said, perform legilimency on me. Don't ask questions. It doesn't matter if it isn't strong—I will let down my occlumency. And congratulations, by the way, you're the very first person to read my mind. I'm a natural legilimens and occlumens."
Fate worked funnily. It had a twisted sense of humour. A year ago Severus Snape had let Rhea attempt legilimency on him, to tell her the truth. The secrets Dumbledore had hidden. And now, a year later, Rhea was the one giving Snape the secrets.
Severus hesitated, but his curiosity got the better off him. He looked at her straight in the eye. For a millisecond, nothing happened. Then, suddenly, Severus felt as though he was falling in a void of darkness.
Snape and Lily meeting for the first time... Their Hogwarts years...
Severus overhearing the prophecy... Severus begging Dumbledore to hide Lily from Voldemort... Severus stumbling in regret when Dumbledore told him the Potters were dead, but Harry had survived...
Harry and Rhea meeting for the first time on Privet Drive... the Promise... their Hogwarts years... Voldemort's return...
Snape killing Dumbledore... the hocruxes... and Rhea Arquette finally learning the truth...
Time travel...
Severus looked away from her, and the visions stopped as soon as it had started. Rhea sat crossed leg and faced him properly, gauging for his reaction. It was quite lucky that there wasn't anyone in vicinity, or else it would be quite embarrassing to find two fifth years sitting and staring at each other.
Rhea took a deep, calming, breath. "Say something, you're scaring me."
But in Severus' mind, there was only one thought making its way repeatedly. Like a haunting dream, a terrifying piece of knowledge, tingles dread and fear.
"Lily," he whispered. "She... marries Potter?"
At this Rhea slumped her shoulders and gritted her teeth. "Severus, don't tell me out of the hundred or so memories I showed you, this one affects you the most."
Rhea thought that Severus would be guilty of passing on information to Voldemort that ultimately killed Lily. But apparently she'd thought wrong.
"How could she?" he asked in the same whisper, jealousy and anger clouding his cold eyes. "She—she hates him—"
"Nah, she doesn't," Rhea said quietly, looking at him.
"You're lying," Snape stood up suddenly, shaking slightly from the new information. "Memories can be modified, I've read about those—"
"I've got pretty great imagination, then, haven't I?" she asked dryly, tilting her head towards Severus. "I don't blame you for being shocked, Sev, but this is the truth."
Severus kept shaking his head, and she huffed. "You're kidding me, right? How do you think I know you're the half-blood prince? How do you think I know what sectumsempra means? Harry learnt it from your sixth year potions book, and I, in this timeline, unintentionally, speeded up the process of you creating the spell. How do you think I know its countercurse? All this could have been possible if I was a powerful witch, but I'm not. I'm a time traveller. And Luna's one too."
Severus looked as though the world had turned upside down. "This is insane—" he choked.
Rhea rolled her eyes. "Think of how insane it must be for me. I'm literally breathing insanity."
Severus sat back down on the ground, and put his head in his hands as though to get rid of the sudden head ache.
"It's all Potter's fault," he burst out suddenly, his dark eyes darkening with loathing and fury. "He—he—must have forced her to marry him. He—"
Rhea rolled her eyes yet again. "What is it, the 1760's? She is her own person; she can decide whom she wants to marry. No one forced her to do anything. And really, Severus, I pity you, I really do, but if you love her you've got to be happy for her."
"No!" Severus snarled. "She's dead because of him—"
"Are you listening to yourself?" Rhea snapped. "You were the one who told Voldemort about the prophecy. If anything, you were indirectly responsible for their deaths. In fact, if you didn't realize Lily's son was the one Voldemort would kill, then you would have stayed a Death Eater forever."
He kept shaking his head, muttering under his breath, looking feverish, angry and horrified.
Rhea was starting to lose her patience. "Look, I understand how it must feel for you to share the burden of the future when it has yet to come, but something tells me all you care about is that Lily married James. The future is more to that, Severus. James may be a foul git right now, but he grows up. He grows up, gives all his love to Lily, and eventually sacrifices his life for his family."
"He never showed his true side to Lily," Severus sneered, a look of disgust flashing across his face. "He's a selfish, arrogant—"
"—bullying boy who grew out of it." Rhea interrupted, frowning at Severus. "Your prejudice is clouding your judgement; please look at the bigger picture. James, however foul and loathsome he was, proved to be a noble man in the end. And you! Severus, in my timeline, you were as noble as him, risking your life every day for Lily's son. But can't you see how scary your prejudice is? You treated Lily's son like vermin, Sev, you tortured him relentlessly—insulting him, criticizing him and whatnot. You made his life at Hogwarts hell, Sev, just like James and Sirius made yours. But the reason you hated Harry was just because he was James' son."
"That isn't the point!" Severus waved her off, and it was clear he felt no remorse whatsoever knowing that he bullied James' son. "If Potter hadn't pulled that stunt yesterday, Lily would still be my best friend! If it weren't for him, Lily and I would have sought the Dark Lord's protectio—"
"Complete that sentence." Rhea growled, scowling darkly at Severus. "Complete that sentence and tell me if Lily would have joined Voldemort."
"Of course she would have—" he scoffed.
"I don't think so," Rhea hissed dangerously. "She joined the Order, risked her life every day, defied Voldemort three times, went into hiding for months and finally gave her life for Harry. Who in their right mind would ever think Lily Evans would join that pureblood-supremacist maniac?"
"If she accepted my offer and went to Voldemort, she'd be alive!" Severus spat, glaring daggers at Rhea.
Rhea laughed darkly. "We both know she wouldn't have joined him. Weren't you listening to me till now? She'd rather die than join the Dark Side!"
"She'd be alive!" Severus roared, stomping his foot on the ground. "She'd be alive if it weren't for Potter—"
"She'd never abandon her family!" Rhea cried out incredulously. "You begged Dumbledore to save Lily, but you didn't give a damn about Harry or James!"
"If Dumbledore had listened, Lily would've been alive!" Severus yelled.
"How could you even think she'd go away for her own safety and let her son and husband fend for themselves?" Rhea seethed. "And if Dumbledore had listened and sent only Lily to safety, her family would have perished!"
"She'd be alive!" Severus hissed again. "She'd be alive, and she would have moved on—"
"You are thinking only about yourself," Rhea said coldly. "You don't care. As long as Lily is alive, you're happy. If her family is dead, and she's miserable, you wouldn't give a damn because in the end she's at least alive!"
"And what's wrong in that?" Severus demanded angrily.
"She's not happy!" Rhea yelled, frustrated with the conversation.
"But she's alive!" he said yet again, as though being alive in itself was supposed to make you happy, even if your family was dead.
"But she's not happy," Rhea said softly, looking at him with sorrow.
Severus deflated considerably, his anger and hate evaporating slowly. He sunk down to the ground and put his head in his hands, shaking slightly with a newfound grief. It was all too much: he loved Lily so, so much. And to realise that she was going to marry someone else, have a family with James Potter, only to die because Severus had been foolish enough to join the Dark Lord.
Rhea looked at him with a sad smile, knowing exactly how he was feeling. After all, he wasn't the only one who had dealt with unrequited love.
The two of them sat there in silence, in their own trail of thoughts. Thinking about the future, thinking about their regrets... and most of all, about all the mistakes they'd made, including the monumental screw ups of their lives.