Chapter Text
Prologue
The End
1981, 2 November
Weeks had passed, so it seemed, but in truth it had been less then 48 hours. Lily and James Potter were dead, Sirius Black had been arrested as their betrayer and the murderer of 13 Muggles and Peter Pettigrew. Little Harry Potter had been whisked away, hidden, before anyone could give a second thought about the toddler.
Albus learned of the death of the Potters from the noisy oddities in his office. He had announced what he knew, warded his office so his visitors could not leave, and Fawkes had taken the Headmaster away.
And, Severus Snape was shredded in his grief and guilt.
Remus Lupin had frozen from the grief that overwhelmed him after learning what happened to his friends.
In his grief (their grief) he had kissed the werewolf, Remus Lupin.
Albus returned many hours later. He freed his trapped visitors.
Severus vanished to his dungeon apartment. He would not emerge for a week. When he did so, a man of stone emerged.
Remus had vanished to the Muggle world. No one knew where, or really cared. Frankly, he was forgotten.
The Aurors had come for the Potions Master upon his emergence from the dungeon. He was a Death Eater.
Albus would testify that the young man was innocent. The Potions Master had been a spy. He would get Severus out of Azkaban.
Severus Snape would return to teach Potions at Hogwarts. The days would be devoted to students who struck him as mostly dunderheads. At night, his dreams constantly reminded him of Remus Lupin and their one kiss.
All too soon the wizarding world forgot about the Potters, killed by a megalomaniac sociopath. The Longbottoms mentally destroyed by a mad witch then left to languish at St. Mungo's.
And what happened to the Boy-Who-Lived? Speculation was better than truth for the newspapers. The wizarding world loved a hero and that is the legend that was passed down for years. No one truly cared about a baby. Evil had been vanquished and now life could resume.
Huzzah!