To My Dear and Loving Husband

To My Dear and Loving Husband

Chapter 1 - You know it only breaks my heart

*~*~*~*

It was a bright November Monday, and the Sixth Year Gryffindors were heading down to the dungeons for Potions with the Slytherins. The Trio managed to evade Draco Malfoy today; for some reason, he had been more hateful towards Harry, Ron, and Hermione than ever this year.

The Potions classroom was cold, as usual, but the first thing Harry noticed as he walked in was that there was more light than usual - groups of candles clustered wherever there was room. The second thing Harry noticed was that it was not Severus Snape behind the desk, but a woman. The third thing Harry noticed was that she was extraordinarily beautiful.

She had curly black hair, though not so curly as to look like a ball of Brillo. Her skin was positively flawless, she had piercing blue eyes, and her lips were red and full.

"Sit down," she called out. Her voice, thankfully, was a normal teacher-y voice, commanding, loud, and heavily American.

"My name is Elaine Mordecai; I'll be your Potions teacher for... probably for a long while." She sighed heavily, fingering the bridge of her nose. "Professor Snape has taken ill. He's currently... He's at St. Mungo's. If you want more information, see someone else." She wiped her eyes quickly and stood up suddenly, looking at all the students.

"If you want to stare, take a good long stare, and then stop looking at me." She waited patiently for a minute, noting that the blond boy in the front row took up the opportunity, but most of the other boys blushed and looked away. The black-haired boy in the corner, her son Conan, grimaced and fingered the bridge of his nose, unknowingly imitating his mother.

Harry took a quick glance, but wasn't really interested. He did notice Draco's long up-and-down stare, and the new boy who looked bored and embarrassed.

"All right. Now, to business..."

~*~

Harry wandered back to the common room after Quidditch practice, sweaty, tired, but happy. As he cleared the portrait, he saw Colin Creevey wave from the other side of the room. Harry waved back, and nodded as Ginny (who had followed him up from the Quidditch pitch) went over to that group of friends. She made a better Keeper than Ron, who had taken over his brother's position of Beater. Ron was clearly a better Beater, and easier to get along with - he could take his frustration out on the Bludgers, without being responsible for any kind of points.

Harry sighed. He missed the days when Ron and Hermione would wait by the fire for him to come up from Quidditch practice, and then when Hermione had waited for the two of them. Ron now rushed off after the end of practice, and by the time Harry got there, he and Hermione were off somewhere. Harry collapsed into his usual armchair. Ever since Ron and Hermione had stopped bickering long enough to kiss, their relationship had been legendary. He supposed it was good for them, most of the time the spotlight was on him. However, he couldn't help feeling a little lonely.

It wasn't about the fame. He could care less about how many strangers talked about him. But he did miss the presence of his two best friends. Even when all three of them were together, there was a connection between two of them, and Harry was left mostly to himself.

Suddenly, he stood up, unable to keep still any longer. He went up to his room, grabbed some robes (with his Prefect badge) and threw them on over his Quidditch uniform. He gave a wave to Colin and Ginny on the way out, but they didn't seem to see him either, engrossed in their conversation.

He wandered the corridors for a while, hoping to see someone to talk to, but everyone he passed was a stranger. Eventually he found himself at the stone gargoyle that signified the entrance to Dumbledore's office. Well, why not? Harry knocked on the wall, a trick that he learned since becoming a prefect.

"Who is it?" The gargoyle spoke with Dumbledore's voice.

"Me."

"Oh. Come on in, then." The gargoyle jumped aside. Harry never bothered to understand exactly how the magic worked, but if Dumbledore was in his office, it was as effective as knocking on the door.

Harry had always wondered that the brass knocker was shaped like a griffin. Griffin-door? He walked into Dumbledore's office unceremoniously.

"Hello, Harry. What brings you here at this hour?"

Harry took a seat in one of the armchairs. "Nothing, really. I just had nowhere else to go..."

"And your best friends were not quite there for you?" Dumbledore finished understandably.

"Yeah." Harry sighed. "I guess I just want someone to talk to."

"Well I am pleased and gratified that you would come to me." Dumbledore grinned, blue eyes twinkling. He nodded towards Harry's Quidditch uniform under his robes. "How did practice go? Handling your Captaincy well?"

Harry rolled his eyes. "It was unexpected, that's for sure! But if Katie and Alicia want me as Captain, I'm all for it." He paused, thinking. "Wow. It just occurred to me that next year I will be to most senior member of the team."

Dumbledore chuckled. "A big responsibility?"

"Nothing worse than being a Captain!" Harry grinned, smiling for the first time since practice. "Ron is doing much better as a Beater. He doesn't have the precision of the twins, but he's got the fire and the strength." They sat in silence for another second, before Dumbledore posed another question.

"What do you think of your new Potions teacher?" Dumbledore raised an eyebrow suggestively.

Harry shrugged. "She's... something else, that's for sure. I saw a new Slytherin boy... is that her son?" Dumbledore nodded. "I saw him making faces during her lesson."

Dumbledore laughed outright. "Yes, that's her son, Conan Mordecai. She has two other children, Sorcha and Alanna, all in Slytherin. They've come from America, both to visit Severus and teach in his absence."

"Oh yeah, I'd been wondering about that. What happened, and ... why did someone from America come here?"

"As I said, she came to visit Severus, her cousin. She heard that he had taken sick and had packed and moved in the space of a few hours." Dumbledore smiled. "She's a wonderful woman."

"Wait, Professor Snape is her cousin?" Harry looked mortified that Snape could actually have relatives.

"Yes, what about it? Most people have some relatives somewhere."

Harry made an embarrassed sort of noise. "Of course, I'm sorry, it's just..."

"It's hard to think of the Professor in that way?"

"Well, he just seems like such a loner. Like... I wouldn't see him as the sort of person that merits visits from his family. It's..." Harry frowned thoughtfully. "He must be very lonely."

Dumbledore looked at him strangely. "You don't know him very well, then."

Harry almost snorted at that comment. "Of course I don't, he's a teacher! And not one of my favorites, might I add..."

"Miss Granger could tell you a few things about Professor Snape that she's picked up just from paying attention in class, which you often don't."

"Miss Granger," Harry said mockingly, "doesn't talk to me very often."

Dumbledore shrugged. "Excuse me for saying so, but that is not my problem." Before Harry could reply, he continued on, "But what is my problem, is that if you don't leave now, you will be staying out past curfew, which is not allowed, even for prefects."

Harry left Dumbledore's office feeling, if possible, more out of sorts than the way he did coming in. At least he had something else to focus his mind on, although Professor Snape was not the sort of person Harry liked to dwell upon. Halfway to the Common Room, Harry suddenly realized that Dumbledore had neatly avoided bringing up Snape's illness. He sighed. It was just like old days, getting to the bottom of things, but this time there was no trio, just one Harry Potter.