7:10 PM

"Harry," whispered a soft voice, but Harry did not answer.

He opened his eyes as he lay in McTavish's spare room, the bread he had been given for the day untouched. The windowless room was getting dark as the candle slowly died. Harry watched it flickering from the floor, a cold sweat sticking his hair to his flushed cheek. A little bit of light from under the locked door mixed with the yellow pool of light from the candle. He had been trying to sleep the day away, but his shoulder was hot and painful, and he had been having difficulty ignoring it.

"Harry ..."

The voice was there again. It was familiar to him, and Harry could not determine whether it was in his head or if there really was someone, or something, in the room with him. Every so often he saw a shadow in the corner, yet, it did not possess an air of danger to it. In fact, whatever it was seemed to be trying to comfort him. He closed his eyes for a moment, feeling the world spin beneath him. In the space of time during which his tired eyes were closed, he felt something upon his hot forehead. It was cool, like a hand that was not sick with fever.

Harry's eyes snapped open despite the waves of fatigue washing over him.

"He'll come, I promise," said the voice again. Illuminated by the candlelight, Harry thought he saw a flash of red, but it was not vivid like the blood that first come from his shoulder before it clotted over. This red was softer. It reminded him of someone, but before he could remember who, he closed his eyes and fell into a feverish sleep at last

***

Day 12

7:10 PM

"Severus?" muttered Evelyn, stirring her tea thoughtfully despite the fact that it was doing nothing to calm her nerves.

"Yes?" he asked, lifting his mug to his lips, looking exhausted from their going over of the plan.

"Remember when you said I could go back with you ... to the future, I mean?" she asked cautiously.

"I do," he said, lowering the mug without taking a sip, studying her.

"Does the offer still stand?"

"Of course it does, Evelyn," he said, looking intrigued.

"I want to come with you," she said in a rush. "I'm scared, but I'm ready for a new life. I - I wanted to from the moment you asked, because this place ... here, now ... it's all wrong. Only ghosts remain here for me. You've seen my world, and ... maybe it's time I see yours."

Severus' face lit up so suddenly that Evelyn might have missed the change had she blinked. The lines on his face relaxed, and his eyes actually lit up as the years fell from his face.

"Really? You ... you want to come back with me?"

"With all my heart," Evelyn said, feeling herself blush with happiness. She chuckled a little bit and then said as an afterthought, "Quite honestly, I wanted to come back with you the first time you were back in time. It isn't often that handsome strangers show up in one horse towns, you know."

In a flash Severus had gotten up from his chair and pulled her up into his arms. He was laughing, and she couldn't help but laugh too in delighted astonishment. The happiness of this moment was such a stark contrast from the pain and fear they had been living with every day. Their lips met, and when they finally parted, Evelyn and Severus stood in the middle of the cottage, arms entwined, breathing with each other.

"You know, at times you remind me of someone I knew once," muttered Evelyn after a long time, thinking of the way Severus had laughed, the sharp suddenness of the sound, and yet so filled with warmth. "You see ... there's a reason why I never married, like young women are supposed to."

"And why is that?" asked Severus curiously, pulling way just a little bit to survey her.

"There was a boy ... years ago, when I was fourteen," said Evelyn, lost in thought, amazed she was bringing this up. "He was a bit like you. His name was Daniel. Oh, he used to make me laugh ... Our fathers knew each other, and it was agreed that we would be married in a few years. I was lucky then. Not everyone got to marry the boy they loved."

"And then everything went wrong, didn't it?" muttered Severus heavily into her hair.

"Yes," said Evelyn, leaning into Severus for comfort, her words almost a whisper "Everything went wrong. There was an awful sickness that swept across the countryside. A lot of people ... a lot of people died. "

Evelyn let out a heavy sigh.

"We buried him at the top of the little hill on his father's land," she muttered, years dulling the pain, and yet somehow she felt for a moment as though she was fourteen again, watching the sun set on the boy she had loved so very much. "He liked that hill."

"I had no idea," muttered Severus, tightening his arms around her.

"Well, it isn't one of those things that comes up in regular conversation," said Evelyn. "And already it has been thirteen years. Maybe the reason why I like being around you so much is because there are some things about you that remind me of him."

Gently, Evelyn extracted herself from Severus' arms and stood back, studying him. Severus did not speak, but waited for her to continue, looking pensive.

"This probably sounds silly, but while your similarities to Daniel make me like you, I think that it is all of the ways in which you are different that make me love you, Severus."

"It's not silly," he said softly, his voice low.

The tightness in Evelyn's shoulders relaxed for a moment, though she was not entirely aware of this.

"Evelyn, I have to tell you something as well," said Severus suddenly, a shadow flitting across his face ... was if fear? "I have to tell you about my past. There are things about me you do not know, but need to. I should have said so from the start ... but ... these things don't come up in regular conversation either, I am afraid."

"What sorts of things?" Evelyn asked, curious, and honestly a little worried.

"It is a long story," he muttered, sinking into the chair, no longer looking youthful. Instead, he looked a man that had lived hundreds of years of sorrow. It worried Evelyn to see that the mere thought of something could age a man so much.

"I'm listening," she said softly, taking the seat opposite him, partly fearful of what she might hear.

So Severus began.

"The year that I first went to Hogwarts was the start of a turbulent time. A dark wizard was rising in power, and he went by the name Lord Voldemort ..."

His words came faster, and the tale spun in that little house seemed too great and terrible to be held in such a small space. Evelyn wondered how Severus had been able to hold it inside. The things said were painful to hear, but after a while what caught her attention most was Severus' eyes. Over and over she saw them fill with sorrow and regret as he spilled his story - a tale of regret, betrayal, and fear; of foolish dreams wished for all the wrong reasons, and a boy who say no way out. He talked himself into silence, and both of them did not speak for some time, and as she digested the information, Evelyn finally began to see why Severus seemed so undecided on his treatment of Harry.

The look in his eyes haunted her, for it reminded her of the cold, terrified feeling she had experienced after she had killed McTavish. It was regret in its purest form, the kind that could destroy you if you were not careful. So Evelyn went over all the things she could say in her head, trying to come up with the words she needed to say.

"I am afraid I am not the man you think I am," said Severus at long last, now unable to meet her eyes. "If you wish not to come back with me, then you do not have to."

"Severus," muttered Evelyn carefully, finally having come up with the words to tell him what she wanted, "It was some time ago that I first suspected your past was dark ... but at that moment I made the decision to judge you for who you are now, not who you used to be. Yes ... you have made mistakes, awful mistakes, but you've done everything in your power to undo as much damage as possible.

"Harry forgave you for what your part in the prophecy, you said yourself. Whatever makes you think I cannot get past what an eleven year old boy could? I still want to come back with you. There is good in you, and you may not see it, but I do. Besides, not a soul in the world has not made an awful mistake, or been a bad person at some point in their lives. The difference is that you changed."

Severus looked up when she finished, and she was shocked to see his eyes were wet.

"What's wrong?" she asked before she could stop herself, worried she had said something she should not have. Was it just the fact that they were both so tired, or had this really moved Severus so much that he genuinely was on the verge of tears? Evelyn was not sure, but she listened intently for his answer.

Severus hastily wiped his eyes on his sleeve and said in a rather stuffy voice, not daring to meet her eyes, "Nothing ... I am just not ... not used to being forgiven. People judge me a great deal, before they even know me."

"I think we both know a lot of that," she mumbled a little darkly, feeling a pang of sorrow, for both her and Severus.

"I'm glad you are coming back with me," he said, his voice barely a whisper as his gaze met hers. He paused for a moment and then continued, sounding a little amused this time. "Harry will be glad too, you know. He spent hours and hours in the Library looking for traces of you and Ellery in history books. He is so persistent."

"You have to tell him the real reason for you not speaking to him for so long," she said to him plainly now that the subject of Harry had come up. "It won't be easy, but he needs to hear it."

"I know," said Severus, looking downcast. "If that tunnel hadn't fallen in I would have. Maybe it is better this way. I can tell him when we return, once we are all safe. It still will not be easy, though."

"Is anything in life?" asked Evelyn to nobody in particular, looking over at the trapdoor, to the box on the shelf that still held Ellery's wand, and finally to the place on her finger where the simple wooden ring Daniel had once carved her for their engagement used to sit. Her mind wandered for a moment to where it still likely sat - in a little bag of her most important belongings at her empty, old home, waiting in the place that she had meant to return to before fleeing town, her hands stained with the blood of Blaine McTavish.

She tore her thoughts from this, and looked at Severus. He too met her gaze. They stared deep into each other's eyes. It was at that moment that Evelyn's heart finally departed from that little hilltop with the weathered stone marker - the marker that rested over her hopes and dreams. Yet, no longer was this the case, for her hopes and dreams now sat before her, breathing, living. It was a feeling she had thought she would never have again. She wondered if Severus saw the same thing before him ... if he too was seeing the light after the darkness. In an instant, in the way his eyes lit up, in the crooked little smile that played about his face, she knew that he was.