CHAPTER 13 : The beginning

John remained quiet, but Snape could see a little movement in the hand that was resting on the chair's arm. Snape was getting impatient with the man's behavior and taking a little vial out of his pocked, he was about to administrate a dose of Veritasserum to force the answers out of him.

He stopped midway when the nasal voice sounded in the room, more like a whisper. "The cunning little bitch, she put me here..."

Snape had to gather all his strength, not to strangle the man right there. "Excuse me?"

John continued to stare out the window. "They told me I was crazy, but I know... I had everything worked out, but she vanished... and my poor Candice, I couldn't save her..."

John's hand was shaking and so were his lips as he spoke. It seemed like Snape had brought up memories this man hadn't dwelled on for a long time, just by the simple mention of Lavinia's name. He wasn't making much sense, the broken sentences were confusing, and Snape kept trying to piece them together to get a clue of what he was saying.

"What happened to Lavinia?" Snape asked him.

"They must have been meeting behind my back, you know... oh, she sure fooled me... she did..."

Snape couldn't understand, something wasn't right and he wasn't sure how much any of that was part of the man's insanity. The man continued, "They say they couldn't find her body, but I know better... they wouldn't listen... and that man, it was him. He ruined everything!"

Snape tilted his head and was about to ask again, when John turned to look at him for the first time since Snape had arrived. John's eyes grew wide in horror, and he stood up from his chair, backing away from Snape.

He pointed a trembling finger and yelled, "YOU! Get away from me... what are you? GET AWAY!"

The nurse rushed inside while John crouched in a corner yelling out of control. She looked at Snape inquisitively but Snape was as stunned as she was. Two male nurses entered the room and helped get the old man to the bed, while the other nurse gave him a shot of what was probably some tranquilizer. John was still looking at Snape in fear. "It's him... he's the devil, he took her...."

In a few seconds he started to calm down and soon was asleep. Snape stood in the middle of the room frowning in complete confusion, as thoughts rushed in his mind. The nurse tried to question him to know what had happened and he didn't lie, saying John had just started yelling nonsense at him out of the blue.

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Once he was back in Hogwarts, he made his way to Dumbledore's office. He knocked and the old man asked him in. He promptly related all the facts, not wanting to waste any more time.

Dumbledore leaned back in the chair playing with his beard, deep in thought. "So you think the man recognized you?"

"So it seems," said Snape.

"Isn't there a chance that he could be just delusional?" Dumbledore ventured.

"I think not, I saw the knowing look in his eyes, he did recognize me." Snape couldn't forget the fear in the man's eyes and after thinking for a long time since the whole episode, he had built his theories of what happened. He didn't have many details, but he could make a plausible theory out of the things John said.

"Very well," said Dumbledore turning to the fireplace and throwing floo powder in. "Minerva, would you please bring me the time-turner?"

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Snape took some time in his chambers, to plan his next step in the best way he could. He knew the day and time, that the fire would start. All he had to do was apparate to the house and use the time turner from there. He would have to be there a little earlier, so he could have time to act before anything happened.

Once he found himself in front of the house, he decided to go around to the backyard where he could hide in case anybody showed up and he could observe better. He took a deep breath and grabbing the little hourglass in the chain. He felt a pull similar to the one of a port key and he was gone.

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- September 25th 1963 - 10: 45 PM -

Lavinia's hands were hurting from constantly knocking on the pantry's door. Her throat hurt from screaming, and yelling for help. No one would ever listen to her from that cramped little space she was locked in. Unless they were in the house, but there was nobody there to help her. She could hear John's and that woman's voices. Laughing, going around the house and ignoring her pleas.

John knew what he was doing when he locked her there. The door couldn't be closed or it would get stuck and it was almost impossible to get it to open.

The blonde woman came from the bedroom with a little jewelry box. "Hey John, you didn't tell me you had given her jewelry!"

"I didn't. She inherited those from her grandmother," John said as they sat on the couch to look through Lavinia's jewelry.

The woman opened the box, her eyes glowing at the sight of the necklace. It wasn't her style, too discreet, but she could tell it was valuable. There were also rings and earrings to match.

John saw the look on her face and knew he couldn't say no to her, "Candice, you know we agreed on not disturbing anything in the house to make the fire look like an accident."

"Oh John, please, no one will know..." She threw him a begging look he couldn't possibly refuse.

"Ok, take it," he sighed. "But nothing else, we gotta make this believable!"

She squeaked happily and John got up to take one more look at everything. The fire would start from the basement, a little short circuit and the fire would envelop the house in no time.

Candice placed the jewelry on the side table and took one more look around to see if she could find something else valuable, ignoring John's request. She then went into the kitchen, heard Lavinia's muffled voice from the pantry and smirked. "Don't worry honey, it won't be too painful. By the time the fire reaches you, you'll be dead before you know it!"

She laughed heartily when she heard Lavinia punch the door even harder. John came up from the basement and said, "Ok, Candice, now you leave through the back door and hide behind the shed, I'll be out in a few minutes."

She left as told and made her way to the shed, unaware of two piercing black eyes staring at her.

As promised, a few minutes later, John ran out the house to meet her.

"is it done?" she asked excited.

"It should be in flames in no time!" he said smugly and in the midst of their excitement, they didn't notice the dark man entering the back door of the house.

Snape had to act fast, he looked around searching for Lavinia, when he heard a sound coming from a small door on the back of the kitchen. He ran and said, "Lavinia! Is that you?"

"Yes, help! They locked me here, who is this?"

"It's me... Severus, don't worry, I'm getting you out!"

The fire had already started and it was taking over the house quickly.

There was a pause before she could gather her voice to speak, "Severus? You're gonna have to break the door, it doesn't open with a key, it's stuck!"

"Don't worry," he said pointing his wand to the lock, "Alohomora!"

The door clicked and Lavinia pushed it open. She came tumbling down to the floor and he helped her up, locking eyes for the first time with the woman he thought he would never be able to see or touch. They stood there staring at each other before she finally threw her arms around his neck, but couldn't say a thing.

He pushed her away gently and looked into her eyes. "We have to get out of here."

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Outside John was arguing with Candice.

"I forgot them on the side table, it will just be a minute!" Candice said.

"Are you insane? It's not worth it!"

"I won't leave until I get them back!" She said running back to the house.

Candice ran through the kitchen and bumped into Severus and Lavinia. She screamed and in seconds John was by her side. The two couples were staring at each other in confusion.

"Who are you?" John asked enraged.

"Get out of my way," Snape said coldly, his eyes burning with the same rage toward the shorter man.

Candice took the opportunity to make her way back to the living room where she had left the jewelry box. By this time the fire had taken over the living room in almost its entirety.

"Not in your life!" John yelled and pulling a gun, he aimed at both Lavinia and Snape. "Now move back over there, in the pantry!"

Snape made a quick gesture to grab his wand, but John threatened to pull the trigger, "Don't even think about getting your gun, mister! Go on throw your gun over here!" He pointed his feet with his head.

Snape's eyes narrowed and while he was pretending to reach for what John thought it was a gun, he was scheming a way to disarm the man faster than he could pull the trigger. That's when they heard Candice scream.

The doorway and part of the ceiling had collapsed, blocking her way out. John panicked and looked at Candice forgetting to aim his gun at them, Snape pulled out his wand and yelled, "EXPELLIARMUS!"

His anger was so intense that not only John's gun but also himself was thrown several feet in the air, knocking his head on the kitchen counter and falling unconscious to the floor. Snape smirked slightly remembering he had caused the same effect on Lockhart years ago.

Lavinia stared at him with a mix of awe and admiration. She was about to say something, but the smoke was making her cough uncontrollably. They tried to get out through the back door but the fire had taken over that part too. they were surrounded by fire, as well as Candice on the other room, her screams were getting more and more frantic. Snape turned to Lavinia and said, "Hold onto me and don't let go, just close your eyes. Trust me!"

He closed his arms around her in a tight hug and disapparated. John was slowly awakening, and gazed at the both of them just in time to hear a loud pop and see them disappear into thin air.

John stood up fast and tried to go for Candice, but it was impossible, her screams were hysterical and there was nothing he could do. Before the kitchen roof collapsed completely, he broke the small window over the sink and squeezed himself out, barely making it out on time. He got up clumsily and before he could run, he was grabbed by two firefighters and soon the police was also surrounding the house and bombarding him with questions.

Snape and Lavinia could only hear the noise of fire trucks and police sirens in the distance. They had apparated to the woods behind the house. Lavinia was gazing into Snape's eyes, amazed. They were at loss for words. After a while, Snape said, "We have to go back to my time, are you ready?"

She just nodded and asked, "How?"

He pulled the chain and placed around both himself and her and he showed her the little hourglass. They both held onto it and he turned it. They felt a pull and were standing in the middle of a parking lot. Lavinia looked confused. He chuckled, and pointed the house that used to be hers, in the distance. She then realized that they stood in the same spot, and what was once the woods behind her home, it was now the parking lot to a convenience store.

She smiled at him. "Thank you."

"No, thank you, for coming into my life," he said smiling and she mused at how how beautiful and honest his smile was.

He kissed her passionately, running his hands through her soft hair, fulfilling every single dream they've had in the past six months, and realizing that it was just as perfect if not more perfect than they thought it would be. She closed her eyes as he deepened the kiss and felt herself swirling around. When she opened her eyes again, she was standing at the gates of the most beautiful castle she had ever seen.

"Welcome to your new life," Snape said in a whisper to her ear.

He held her hand and they both walked through the gates, without talking for a while, just enjoying their closeness.

Snape pulled her closer to him in an embrace. "Do you think I should have helped Candice?"

She thought for a second then with a little smirk she said, "Nah... she deserved it!"

He chuckled. "Well, you would make a great Slytherin."

"A what?" she asked.

"There's a lot I need to explain to you... but first tell me, have you ever made anything happen when you were angry or sad, anything you couldn't explain?" he asked.

She smiled and as they approached the door to Hogwarts and the beginning of their lives together and said, "Well... now that you've mentioned...."

THE END
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A/N : Well this is it. I hope all of you enjoyed this fic as much as I enjoyed writing it. I'm a sucker for love stories, so I'm sorry if the end seemed a little corny, but hey, love is corny LOL.