The Figure Clothed in Black

Chapter Nine: Crazy Twists

Severus Snape was sitting beside the sleeping Kayla. Her foster parents had left him there knowing that he was just as worried as they were. Also he wanted to spend sometime with his daughter even if she was asleep.

He stared at her sleeping form, thinking that he should have tried harder to find her once Petunia had decided to give her up because of Vernon. He had to admit that the woman was smart.

Petunia had gone into labor at home while Vernon was at work and had called one of her friends to help deliver the baby at the house. Petunia had held Kayla and talked to her only thirty minutes before Petunia's friend took her to the orphanage that Petunia had called in advance about their policy for taking in babies. After Kayla had been dropped off Petunia's friend, Sarah went to a different orphanage to pick up the baby boy that Petunia had decided to adopt once she had had her baby. The baby boy didn't have a name and Petunia decided to name him Dudley. To this day Vernon Dursley didn't know that who he thought as a son wasn't by blood, or that his wife had cheated on him and got pregnant.

Snape looked at his daughter for a few more minutes before saying to his sleeping child, "I'm so sorry. You'll never know how sorry I am. I should have looked harder for you. I wish you could know the truth, but you can't because if you do the whole wizarding world could collapse," he said the last more to himself than to the person lying on the bed beside him. He cast one last look at his daughter whispered, "I love you," before leaving the room.

Kayla opened her eyes and blinked confusedly. Why was Snape sorry? Why should he have looked harder and did he say I love you before he left?

*~*

Harry blinked dazedly, his eyes not used to the solid white color of the room. He rubbed his eyes noticing the bandages wrapped around his wrists and everything came flooding back. He looked around for his glasses and managed to make them out on the nightstand beside his bed. He put them on and looked around the room. Kirsten and Dustin were asleep in chairs that were beside his hospital bed. He didn't feel like waking them up and leaned back against the pillows and started fiddling with the bandages on his wrist, staring off into space.

Harry felt someone gently pull his hand away from his bandages that he had been fiddling with, bringing out of his stupor.

He looked at the person that had pulled his hand away. She had a kind face and a gentle smile. Her hair was brown and was down in a plait that was tied up in a bun at the back of her head. Her tag said Healer Tabitha. She smiled at him before letting his hand go and went to wake Dustin and Kirsten up.

Once she told them he was awake they both woke up immediately and sat down on the bed on either side of him.

Harry leaned back into the pillows placing his hands under the covers so that they wouldn't have access to his wrists though this didn't work.

"Harry, take your hands out from under the covers. I need to change your bandages and see how your wrists are healing," Healer Tabitha said.

Harry reluctantly took his hands out from under the covers as Healer Tabitha sat down in front of Kirsten in order to be closer to Harry. She removed the bandage from his right wrist and Harry inspected the damage he had done.

There was a single long read mark that he could tell was deep. The skin around it was raw and red and very tender, which proved to be very true when Healer Tabitha accidentally bumped it reaching for something she had laid on the other side of him. Harry let out a cry of pain, the first sound he had made since he had woke besides the occasional sigh. Healer Tabitha put some yellow stuff on his wrist that stung before putting a new change of bandages on his wrists. She smiled at the three of them before leaving.

Harry again leaned into the pillows and put his hands under the cover, wishing Kirsten and Dusting would go away. He wanted to be alone.

There was an awkward silence before Kirsten asked in barely above a whisper, "Why?"

Harry turned his face to her and looked her in the eyes, his eyes filled with pain before shaking his head, lying down in the bed, and pulling the covers over his head. He felt someone pulling at them and he held them as tight as he could though that wasn't very with his sore wrists. Dustin gave the blankets one good hard tug and they came free from Harry's hands.

Harry looked at him for a second before turning over on his stomach. He slipped his hands under the pillows before lying his head down in front of his hands on the pillows. The underside of the pillows felt good on his wrists. The stuff Healer Tabitha had put on had stung and the coolness from the pillows seemed to be going through the bandages.

With his head buried in the top pillow he started to cry.

*~*

The inner circle of The Order of the Phoenix was gathered in Remus Lupin's living room asking their head how he had managed to survive the killing curse. He hadn't been breathing, they had looked, and the next second he was up contradicting Voldemort. He had said he would tell them once everyone was there so he wouldn't be forced to tell the story twice.

Seeing everyone was there he stood up in front of the assembled group and started speaking, "As all of you know I defeated Grindelwald and in preparation for this, for I knew in advance, I studied extensively on defense spells and the like. I was looking through a potion book that I had accidentally checked out and figured there couldn't be any harm by looking through it. In it I found a potion called "The Ghost Potion." It is a very complicated potion containing ingredients that can only be found in some of the most remote places in the world and some of the most dangerous. I will not go into to detail on them since Severus would be the only one to really understand how rare some of them are. The potion would, when brewed correctly, would ensure that if that whoever drank it, if hit by the killing curse, would survive. But like always there was a catch. Yes, the drinker would survive the curse, but would be a ghost. The drinker would still have the appearance of a human, but wouldn't be able to go through solid things and wouldn't be able to taste food like humans do. The drinker appears to be alive, but is not really. The first time the person is hit with the killing curse the drinker becomes a ghost and any other time the drinker gets hit with the curse the drinker will appear dead, but is merely knocked out and will wake up in a few minutes. That is how I survived," he finished and sat down looking at the shocked expressions on their faces.

*~*

The man had managed to find a job in a department store at the outskirts of Little Whinging, Surrey which was how he was getting money to buy food and make sure he would be able to pay the rent on his apartment when the first of the month rolled around.

He still had no clue who he was and his cover name was Harry Mooney Remus. He had decided on that since he knew that Harry was some part of his life and then the names Mooney and Remus had came to his mind the day before he had got the job at the department store, though he had a feeling that Mooney and Remus were the same person for some reason.

His story was that he and his wife had divorced, and he had moved if anyone asked though not many did.

He was just a cashier but they paid higher than the average part time job since they only accepted ten new people each year, and were known as one of the most expensive and respected stores in the region so they could afford to pay their employees more. They paid about twice as much as the average part time job.

Sirius had finished ringing up when he felt like he was being watched. He looked around the store, but didn't see anyone and just dismissed it as someone working with store was watching him for performance.

It was an hour or so later when he felt like he was being watched, and then this time when he looked up, he met the stony stare of a small beady eyed man and his mind supplied him with a name: Peter Pettigrew.

Suddenly everything came rushing back to him. He remembered everything. Harry, Remus, Hogwarts, the Order, Lily, James, everything. He stared in rage at the small man before him. He reached for the gun that he carried with him everywhere now since what he had believed to be a terrorist from the Middle East, though he now knew as Voldemort, for protection. Before Pettigrew could react Sirius had already shot him five times.

~*~