Watching

Watching

Chapter 4

I know about my mother and father's relationship and I know that she left him because of James. My father has told me once, when I was young, that my mother loved to play with time turners. She left when I was three months old, the same day Harry was born.

I am determined to know what my mother's secret was. I know my father knows.

I journey up to his room on the fifth floor. I knock on his door and he instantly answers. It's almost as if he was expecting me.

"What," he demands.

"I want to know about my mother. I know you know the truth, and I know you don't want to tell me, but I have to know."

He opens the door fully and allows me entrance. The main room consists of bookshelves full of books, a fireplace and two black leather chairs. It looks so much like our Slytherin common room. Everything in here is black, green, or silver. Slytherin colors.

I know one door leads to a bedroom and one other leads to a bathroom, but the others, I have no clue.

"Athena, you had better have a good reason for bringing up your mother."

I am looking at his books; they are mostly potion or plant books. All of them relevant to the subject he teaches.

"Athena?" he asks unsure if I heard him the first time.

"I told you," I replied looking at his copy of Moste Potent Potions. "I need to know."

"Why is it so important that you know about her?"

"Because the question is haunting me. I need to know or I will go mad. You'll have to put me into St. Mungo's if I don't find out soon.

"Did she love us?" I asked before he could say anything more. He stayed quiet. "Then why'd she leave us?"

"She had to."

"Why? How? How can Harry and I be the same age and only moths apart?"

"She left because of her mission. The Dark Lord asked her to do something and she didn't refuse."

"So she didn't leave us for James?" I asked trying to understand.

"Not directly, no. Now, don't ask me any more."

"But--"

"OUT!" he bellowed.

I jumped. My father is the only person in this world I am afraid of. And that includes the Dark Lord.

I left because I feared his temper. If my father knew all of these things, how did my mother do it? How did she alter the past without getting rid of me? Why am I still here? Had Potter known any of this? If they had lived, what would our lives be like?

There were too many questions. Only she could answer them. Only she could bring me the satisfaction in knowledge.

But she's dead, and I have no way of knowing. There are no ways that I know of that will allow you to talk to the dead. And haven't I just learned that some secrets should not be revealed? Or do I need to learn this lesson the hard way?