Forward In Time

Chapter Three:

[[A/N: I'm still seeing comments about the names…for those of you who haven't read my previous A/N's for this book… THE NAMES OF HARRY'S SONS HAVE BEEN CHANGED!!!!!!  In JK Rowling's Epilogue they were James Sirius and Albus Severus… They have been changed in my story to James Severus and Albus Sirius!]]

EDITED Chapter Three:

My math had been all wrong, beyond incorrect.  Sirius was much older than I thought he was, nearly twenty years older, in fact; and that had my mind spinning.  The man I loved was nearly old enough to be my grandfather, if just barely old enough, but still.  Was that wrong?  Was it wrong that I still loved him, that even though he was married with children and a professor that I couldn't stop thinking about when he loved me too?  Did that make me a terrible person?

Of course it does, Spencer!  My mind shouted at me, and it was right.  I was a terrible person, thinking about someone's husband like that.  If Sirius could move on and fall in love with someone else then perhaps I should too.  There was George, whom I loved but hadn't been in love with, and if I could move on from him then I could move on from Sirius too.  

But I still loved George, and I was still in love with Sirius.. I didn't see that changing anytime soon.

My thoughts and feelings spun around my mind nonstop, leaving me more confused than I was to begin with.  What did I ever do to deserve all of this?  Did I kick a puppy or something in another life?  There was that one time I punched Pansy Parkinson in fourth year when she said something bad about my father, but that was just karma on her part, wasn't it?  She deserved that.  Did I deserve this kind of torture?

No.  The answer was no.  I didn't deserve this type of pain or heartache, yet somehow…I had it.  

"Miss Snape, are you all right?"  Jerking out of my own tormented thoughts, I stared at Profe-- Headmistress McGonagall, hoping, praying that she would suddenly say "Just kidding".  But even I knew McGonagall had basically no sense of humor, so I knew that wouldn't happen, no matter how much I wished upon a star for it.

"F-Fine.  I'm fine," I leaned my head against the stone wall of the corridor and began to breath deeply, trying to get more air into my burning lungs.  Once I had gotten control over my emotions, I stood myself back up and with a whispered goodbye, I walked away.

Still, Hogwarts hadn't changed.  More portraits were added, there were a couple of Headmaster Dumbledore scattered around.  Instead of going back up towards the Common Room, I walked through corridors and without knowing it I had made my way to the Room of Requirement.  

The only problem with that was…it didn't seem to be there.  On the wall where the hidden doorway should reside was a portrait of a stone throne of sorts yet nobody was seated in it.  There was no person, man or woman, in the picture.  It was the only picture I'd ever seen in Hogwarts that was empty like that, and I wondered why it was like that.  There were no answers that came to mind so instead I paced in front of the wall three times, imaging the same room that my father had conjured before I was sent forward in time.  

Dark and rather dreary, the room was just the same as I remembered it…not that much time had gone by for me since the last I'd seen it but in this world over forty years had passed.  

While I had been in the past, I didn't mind so much because nobody I knew had actually been born yet, but in this world, there were people who had actually died, my own father included.  Grimacing, I fought back the wave of tears that threatened to drown me.  I had a way to get to my own time, I could go back to when my father was still alive, to when Dumbledore was still Headmaster and to when Sirius was hiding in his family's old house and wanted by the Ministry of Magic and...

Sighing, I wanted to take my previous thoughts back.  How stingy could I be, to want that for the man I supposedly love just so I could have my old life back?  I was a terrible person.  Groaning quietly to myself, I exited the Room of Requirement, promising myself that I would return later.

"What were you doing in there, girl?" 

Gasping, I looked around for the source of the words yet I found nobody around.  How odd. 

"Turn around girl and look at me when I'm talking to you!"

Doing as I was told, I turned back to the wall behind me, only seeing the picture that was there before...just this time, it wasn't empty.

"Father?" 

My eyes watered as his own widened before he broke out into a smile.  I'd never seen him smile so happily before and it made my day.  Even if he was just a portrait...he was my father no matter what form he came in.

"Good evening, Spencer," he murmured, staring at me.  "You haven't changed a bit.  When did you get here?"

"Not too long ago actually.  This is the first place I've come to visit.  What, uh, what happened to you?"  I wasn't sure if I really wanted to know how my own father died, but I felt that I had to know.  Was it natural?  Was it murder?  Was it an accident?

"Not of your concern, girl, it's best if you don't know."  His eyes, usually impassive, were instead haunted and I knew without hesitation that whatever he went through was painful.  

Biting my bottom lip, I nodded to agree with him.  There was no point in making him relive whatever had happened to him, I could just leave it alone.  I knew that he passed away, that's really all I needed to know. 

"You'd better go before it's passed curfew," I nodded in agreement though the last thing I wanted to do was leave after finally finding my father, even if he was just a portrait...

"Goodbye Father."

"Goodbye daughter."