June 29, 1995

Arabella coughed and sneezed while she brushed off the debris that seemed to have attached itself to her clothing as she climbed the stairs from her basement. She had spent the better part of her morning among the cobwebs and dust in her cellar, going through all the things she had accumulated over the years, determining what would go to Hogwarts and what would go into storage. The task had been tedious and dirty, but it did keep her mind focused on the job at hand.

As she rounded the landing on the first floor, she paused to glance around for any items she may have missed in her earlier hunt. Even after a week of packing, tying up loose ends and making preparations for her return to her former life, Arabella was still having difficulty wrapping her mind around it. She had spent fourteen years in this house, pretending to be something she wasn’t and all but forsaking her personal life to keep her promise to protect and care for Harry. A promise to Lily made the day Harry was born. Now, the first part of that promise was nearly done and it was time to look to the future and the second part of the promise.

But for all her determination to focus on the positives, Arabella’s mind and mood would periodically swing back to her worries about Harry, about Severus, about their reactions to remembering the truth of their relationship and about the state of her marriage. In turn, that started the circular “if this happens, I’ll do that” thinking that led to moments of great frustration. Ultimately, she would push the thoughts from her mind and focus on the things she could do now. She knew that until she could actually face her apprehensions head on, there was nothing she could do, aside from wallow in ifs and maybes. Arabella refused to wallow. She just wished that the waiting for the truth to out itself were over.

The oddest part of the whole contrived mess was that all immediately involved parties actually knew the truth; it was just hidden from them by date-triggered memory charms. The charms would dissolve tonight for Severus. Over the next few days, Sirius and even Harry would recover memories revealing Harry’s true parentage. Unfortunately, she didn’t think any of them would take the news that Harry was the biological son of Severus and not James Potter very well.

She knew Sirius would get over it with time, he would see past who Harry’s biological father was because he loved Harry and because he knew it hadn’t mattered all to James. It was Severus’ potential reaction that worried her the most. Severus had only agreed to the charm on the condition that it would be lifted once he and his son were safe and knowing that Harry would have two parents that loved him unconditionally. But that had been over a year before James and Lily had died and she knew Severus would have let nothing stand between him and his son if he had known the truth. She feared he’d see her withholding the information as a betrayal and a part of her agreed with the assessment. Over the past fifteen years, she’d often thought about telling him. On several occasions, she’d come close, only to let her fears win.

When the spells were cast, no one suspected that a year later James and Lily would be dead, Severus would be presumed dead and Harry would be on his way to live with Lily’s sister. Arabella had kept quiet in the beginning because of a letter from Dumbledore explaining that nothing would change. In the letter he had mentioned that even discovering that she or Severus shared a closer blood tie to Harry than Petunia would not change the Ministry’s custody decree. The Ministry had not forgotten her family ties to Sirius or Severus’ connection to Voldemort’s death eaters. As much as it broke her heart, she trusted Dumbledore’s opinion and did not wish Severus to endure more pain than he already did. Then as more time passed, and the situation remained the same, the harder the truth was to tell; especially when Arabella’s only means of communication were infrequent letters.

Months became years, and then suddenly a decade had passed and Harry was on his way to Hogwarts. At first, she had wanted to return with him. Bring the truth out into the open and hopefully put things right. Fate managed to intervene again, in the guise of Voldemort and Severus’ own fears and bitterness. Then it was the basilisk and the Chamber of Secrets. Then Sirius escaped and the last of her hopes for regaining custody of Harry vanished. Severus’ bitterness seemed to grow with each year, as well. Her only hope was that he would be able to accept the truth. Hopefully his willing participation in the memory spells and his own knowledge of the circumstances combined with Dumbledore’s assessment of the situation would allow him to understand why she had kept it all from him.

The sound of a car horn blaring outside her home brought Arabella out of her daze and she quickly turned back to the stairwell and began climbing the stairs to the second floor. There was still one last thing she needed to prepare before sending her belongs to Hogwarts.

In her room, she kneeled before a large cherry trunk with a rounded top. Gently, she caressed the wood, thinking of all the personal treasures that were stored within. Flipping the latches up, she opened the lid and glanced cursorily at neatly arranged contents. Carefully, she removed the top most items until she was able to remove a cloth wrapped box. Setting it aside, she started replacing all previously removed items save two; another cloth wrapped object and a black leather photo album.

Closing the chest, she fastened the latches and pulled out her wand, levitated it and took it down into the cellar and placed it with the other trunks and boxes destined for Hogwarts. Returning to her room, she looked at the three items she left on the floor. Crouching down and picked up the items and carried them to her bed. Once seated, she unwrapped the first item, a framed magically animated picture. In the picture, she and Severus were sitting on the sofa in their quarters, in Severus’ arms was Baby Harry. It had been taken on the last night that Severus’ had with his son before the memory charm had been cast.

Placing the picture on her nightstand, she turned to the next item. Unwrapping the cloth that protected a dark cherry wood box and removed the lid to reveal a brushed silver pensieve. Using her wand, she pulled up several memories of Harry over the years; sad and troubling ones like learning about the cupboard under the stairs or how neglected he often was. She pulled out good memories as well, like Harry asking for more stories about the adventures of “Sev, Bella and Lil.” She even pulled her memories of the times she contemplated telling Severus, going to him and break the charms, and memories of her letters to and from Dumbledore and all the reasons that, in the end, caused her to decide that it was better to wait. When she was finished, she replaced the lid and sealed the pensieve inside.

Taking the box and photo album, she went down to her kitchen and pulled out a quill and parchment. Quickly, she wrote a note to Severus, asking him, again, to come to her tonight. If, however, he was unable to, she asked him to use the pensive before retiring for the night. Signing it with love, she placed it on top the box, magically attaching it the lid.

Holding the box in one arm, she retrieved a folded cloth tarp from her counter and walked back down to the cellar. Placing the wooden box in the center of the stacked chests and boxes before spreading the tarp over them and watching as it magically clung to each exposed surface. Glancing down at her watch, she saw that there were still several hours before the prearranged time the portkey activated and took her belongings back to Hogwarts.

Sighing, she went back to her kitchen to make lunch before tackling her next project. She quickly made a sandwich and a cup of soup before sitting back down at the table. As she ate, her eyes drifted from the black photo album she had left there to the letter and gold locket sitting on the kitchen counter. She didn’t need to read the letter to know what it contained – word for word.

As it turned out, Dumbledore had anticipated her concerns and wishes before Sirius and Remus had arrived at her door. He’d fully agreed with her requests and sent two portkeys and two letters. One, on Hogwart’s stationary, had officially offered her a position on staff as school counselor. The second detailed the arrangements he had made to ensure Harry and the Dursley’s safety, which was why she hadn’t been surprised when that insufferable, horse-faced woman had shown up at her door and requested that she take Harry for two weeks. Arabella found it highly ironic that she could be so excited about winning a family vacation to a fantasyland like Euro Disney when she so disliked any form of real magic.

The brightest point in all of this for Arabella was the chance to spend some time with Harry. In the past, to protect him from the Dursley’s, she had been forced to disguise many memories of their time together. Each time, Harry had been fully aware of what she was doing. She had used the same time locks on Harry that had been used on the others, so the memory masking charms would soon break down and he would remember it all; every story and photo he had ever seen in her albums. She hoped that once the shock wore off, Harry would be happy with the revelations that he would realize his oldest dream, a family alibi in an unexpected form, was a possibility if he was willing to reach for it.

Finishing her sandwich, she carried the dishes to the sink before walking to the refrigerator. Glancing at her “To Do” list, she crossed off “Initial packing sent to Hogwarts” off and studied the remaining items. Taping her pen against the next item, she smiled brightly. Grabbing her purse from the counter, she pulled out her keys and left the house. A few hours at the local shopping center buying decent clothes not only for Harry, but Sirius and Remus as well, sounded like the perfect way to pass the remaining hours before Severus Should arrive.