Open Letter

Chapter Thirteen

After a few weeks, I paid a visit to Madame Pomfrey and she confirmed that Severus and I were expecting. I wouldn't let her tell me the sex. I wanted to be surprised when I welcomed you into the world. I didn't care whether or not you were Julian Bradley Snape, or Lorelei Willow Snape -- and I still don't care.

When I told Severus the good news he reverently touched my stomach. "It never ceases to amaze me how even when the world seems at its darkest, there can still be a ray of hope." He encircled me in his arms and hugged me close, his cheek against mine. "You've shown me that time and again."

As it was September and the school term was beginning, we were able to tell Dumbledore and the staff of Hogwarts about my pregnancy first. We had to wait a month before being able to discreetly send word to our friends outside. Things were becoming rougher and since the Weasley family was connected to the Order in many ways, the whole clan was going into hiding at either Grimmauld Place or Hogwarts. Dumbledore had the fireplaces at Hogwarts disconnected from the main Floo network as a safety precaution, and instead established a link between the fires here and the fires at Grimmauld Place.

Everyone was happy to hear the news. They all knew how much I wanted to be a mother. Molly insisted on having a get-together to celebrate. It was decided that the party would be held at Hogwarts so that the Great Hall could be used. It would be dangerous to pack that many people into Grimmauld Place at once. Someone might be killed by the drapes, or perhaps a doorknob would bite a finger off. Not the cheeriest of places even before Sirius's disappearance; now the gloom was often palpable. Wizards can be a superstitious lot, and they didn't want to celebrate the beginning of a new life in a home which reminded everyone of the ending of an old life.

I think that aside from everyone being happy about the baby, they were simply glad to have anything worth celebrating. Four years had passed since I graduated from Hogwarts, and the war was still plodding along. Even after Fudge had finally acknowledged Voldemort's return, he had been loath to actually declare open war. The Order had not been able to take the offensive until Fudge was replaced by Arthur Weasley.

He and Percy had reconciled and worked together to improve the intelligence gathered by the Ministry. Our prospects improved greatly once the Ministry and the Order were able to pool their resources. It was also a big help to be able to assign Tonks and Kingsley tasks other than spying on the Ministry.

Some progress had been made on decreasing the numbers of the Death Eaters: Dolohov, MacNair, Rabastan and Rodolphus Lestrange were all dead, as well as some of the new recruits. Unfortunately, Voldemort still had Lucius Malfoy and Bellatrix Lestrange with him -- quite possibly the most dangerous of the group. It was at this point that Voldemort began to withhold his plans. Increasingly, he spent his time alone with Bellatrix and left Lucius to deliver his orders to the rest of the Death Eaters. Of course, Lucius used this power to his advantage and formed his own inner circle. That's why neither Severus nor Draco got word of the planned Diagon Alley attack until it was too late.

Fred and George had finally married Angelina Johnson and Alicia Spinnet in a beautiful double ceremony. The four of them were living in a flat above the joke shop the twins had opened. They lost everything. Alicia and George were home at the time, and both suffered the Cruciatus curse to within an inch of their lives. Thankfully, the Aurors arrived before the Death Eaters tired of their torture. Both of them were admitted to St. Mungo's, to recuperate from the physical effects of the attack. As for their mental functioning, they only suffered from post-traumatic stress syndrome, but that's to be expected. Fred and Angelina weren't as lucky.

They were among the crowd outside the joke shop when the Death Eaters came bursting out, throwing hexes everywhere. Angelina got burned badly from a stray Incendio and slipped into a coma upon reaching St. Mungo's. Currently she's still under observation, but the outlook isn't good. Fred's insisting on doing everything possible and refuses to give up hope. He was struck by an unknown hex, and lost his power of vision. The Healers were able to save his eyes, and in a few more weeks they'll begin the charm work to restore his vision.

The wizarding world was hit hard by this attack. Up until that point Voldemort had been killing Muggles, and so most of the wizarding world felt relatively safe. The attack on Diagon Alley was the start of a trend that couldn't be explained away. All types of people, from squib to pureblood, had been attacked. Those of us within the Order were faced with the conclusion that Voldemort wasn't our only concern. Lucius appeared to be setting himself up as a new Dark Lord.

We've had precious little to celebrate. It's no wonder that everyone threw themselves into preparations for our celebration. Dumbledore decided to hold a Halloween Ball for the students, something that would help lift their spirits and also serve to mask our party. Since Halloween would be falling on a Wednesday that year, the Ball would be held the Saturday before. At the time it was thought that it would be better to celebrate before the holiday rather than afterwards. Perhaps things would have gone differently, had we celebrated after Samhain. We'll never know for sure. It doesn't do to dwell on what-ifs, and yet... I can't stop myself from wondering how things might have turned out. But how were we to know what Lucius Malfoy had planned?