Fate's Rewrite

I would have to say that the immediate aftermath of finding Lily Potter had been incredibly fun, but unfortunately, that wasn't the case. Not with the incredible magical prison I had just saved her from.

Instead, I had gathered Snape's notes, grabbed Lily, vanished anything that was related to her presence, and apparated back to Hogwarts under the invisibility cloak - though paying a great amount of attention to Snape's wards to make sure I hadn't skipped anything.

Sneaking back to Hogwarts, even when carrying an unconscious redhead was easy.

Admittedly, the ease that I - and everyone else - had sneaking into Hogwarts, was one of the reasons Hogwarts was always having some kind of deadly risk targeting the students.

Such a disappointing learning environment, and it was me that was saying that.

However, as I arrived at my private room, I ignored the security implication of the weakness of the field, and instead focused on casting wards on my room.

I first cast the spells required to continue healing her and repairing her body, the overpowered magic of Elder Wand working wonders to cure the problems Snape's obsessive studying had managed to identify. Though, while the healing spells worked, I had turned my attention to my objective.

Protection.

I started casting a truly impressive number of overpowered protection wards, wanting to make sure that no one, including house elves, could enter - or leave - without my permission, because I didn't have the luxury of someone stumbling to see Lily Potter was in my room, or her stumbling out to reveal the truth.

I doubted Voldemort had the humor to appreciate the joke.

I had dedicated to casting such spells until I finally felt stirrings in Lily Potter, who, unfortunately, was currently wearing a conservative nightie that I conjured for her. I didn't want her to suddenly panic, finding herself locked in an unfamiliar man. Technically, the room would be familiar to her, considering from her frozen perspective, it just had been a few years since she was the head girl along with James Potter, but I doubted that fact would be enough to calm her down.

Though, I couldn't help but drive a ridiculous amusement as I saw Lily Potter wearing a nightie of Slytherin colors.

I was still tense about the possibility of her reacting explosively, so, as she finally started stirring - finally fulfilling the moment Snape was dreaming of for almost two decades.

"W-where am I?" she stammered slowly in shock, carrying a dazed gaze, though that didn't surprise me. Snape's notes included the number of potions that he made her ingest before activating statis, essentially giving her magical grade antidepressants to blunt the impact of her latest memories.

Reasonable considering her latest memories were the death of her husband and confronting Voldemort, only to survive on a miracle.

"You're in Hogwarts," I said, quick to explain. "I found you on the Hogwarts grounds, and decided to take you in, considering there are Death Eaters walking around."

"B-but, you're a Slytherin," she stammered dazedly.

I was glad that it was her first statement, because it allowed me to control which information I wanted to reveal. "So, just because I'm in Slytherin it means I need to support that Dark Fucker," I said, tapping in my acting abilities to look angry. "Just because Dumbledore is dead we should all accept his rule, is that what you're saying? Are you one of his followers," I spat out rapidly, even raising my wand.

"N-no," she stammered, unable to handle the sudden explosion of my emotion.

"Who are you, then? And why did I find you in the forbidden forest?"

"I…" she muttered as she looked around, the light of realization in her eyes suggesting that she was finally taking a note of her location, the room of the Head Boy - a location that she was probably intensely familiar with considering she had been dating with James Potter throughout their last year.

I couldn't wait until I could add some memories to compete with those.

"You?" I asked, making a show of raising my wand tensely like I was afraid.

"I… I don't remember," she finally admitted tensely. It was a lie, one that was delivered badly, but her reasoning was clear. The last thing she remembered was facing an almost deadly situation, and she was back in Hogwarts, without a wand, looking at a guy that she didn't recognize that showed every single feature of a Malfoy.

And, the selected spread of information I had revealed to her, like Dumbledore's death and the fact that she was saved by a Slytherin with negative feelings about Voldemort's reign.

The only thing she didn't know was the great gap between her latest memory and the current moment.

"A memory charm?" I asked, acting like I believed her words.

"Probably," she answered, her voice sharp as she jumped at the excuse I presented her.

"Makes sense," I murmured as I turned to the side, though not far enough to miss the sudden relief in her expression. "No memories at all? Maybe I can try finding your family."

"N-no, no memories at all," she said.

"Then, you better stay inside for a while, we can't have someone as distinctive as you walking around with no identity, or they might just assume you're a muggle-born and imprison you," I said, reminding her of the fate she would meet if she tried to escape.

"T-that sounds reasonable," she muttered. I could see that her easy acceptance was fake, not that it was shocking. Her easy acceptance of her circumstances despite her distressing memories, but I didn't find that aspect suspicious, not when Snape's notes had included the details of the treatment he had carefully developed to weaken the impact of those same memories on her.

"Maybe I should walk around, trying to see maybe I see something that would stir my memories."

I smiled at her kindly, a kindness that hid a dagger behind but she was too distracted to notice that. "Maybe later, after I make sure everything was going on without an issue. But try to stay concealed whenever I bring guests. I don't want to explain to them your presence."

"G-guests," she stammered, and this time, her stammer seemed to be more honest. She understood what I was trying to say immediately, probably a side effect of her own memories in this room.

"Yes, I hope it's not a problem," I said. "I need to act as I did before, just in case your disappearance is important enough to make people suspicious, and they start poking around."

Lily nodded despite her hesitancy, clearly unhappy with the potential implications of my words, but with no other option than to accept it obediently.

"Excellent," I said. "I had put a couple wards around the room for your safety, try not to open the door," I said. She nodded, smart enough not to ask for its necessity.

I turned and left, though not before glancing around the room one last time, making sure I wasn't missing anything she could use to escape.

I certainly didn't want a young Lily Potter running around and creating a huge panic.

The moment I left the room, however, I came across Daphne, who was studying in the common area, wearing a loose dress that slipped down, revealing her shoulder.

I couldn't help but smirk as I took a step forward. If done by anyone else, I might have assumed that it was just evidence of their focus, but Daphne was different. She was too calculating to miss that particular detail, meaning she had a reason to look like that.

Scratch, she was too calculating to study in our shared space in the first place if she had no hidden aim. Certainly not while wearing a dress that created a modest yet attractive cleavage even when it fit her body appropriately.

"Someone is determined to get the first place now that Hermione is away," I said as I walked toward it.

"There's no harm in getting good grades," she answered, but she was slow to hide her frustrated expression. Not surprising, considering Draco's memories showed several instances of her annoyance when she had been defeated by Hermione once again despite her endless studying.

More accurately, Draco's memories had that information only because of Pansy's blabber-mouth, even going as far as sharing a few select memories of Daphne's breakdowns once she thought herself in a private location.

Daphne was far too conscious of her public persona to act out in public, yet that didn't take the sting out of my jab.

"D-Draco," Daphne answered as she pressed her hand to her chest to act like she had been scared. Yet she was calm. Her acting was good, but not enough to actually trick me. "You surprised me, when have you returned."

"Just a couple hours ago," I answered, hiding my smirk as if I hadn't noticed she wasn't aware of my presence. The number of wards I had cast in my room was hardly stealthy. "So, what are you studying?"

"I'm trying to do my charms homework, but it's more difficult than I expected," she said as she sighed desperately as she pushed her homework forward, a move that, completely coincidentally, gave me a deep glimpse of her cleavage. "Do you have a couple of minutes, maybe you can help me?"

"Sure," I said as I grabbed the paper and pulled it on, only to feel a subtle shuffle in my heart, one that I wouldn't have noticed if it wasn't for my focused study of the mental arts during the summer.

It was the stirring of arousal, one that indicated a love potion. Luckily, it wasn't one of the intense ones that turned people into slaves. Luckily for her, of course, I wouldn't have reacted nicely to such a tactic. A bit hypocritical of me, I presume, but that was not a personality trait I had any problem with.

The potion she had used was probably as strong as the prank potions that students used, though not as amateurishly brewed. Instead of creating an explosion of warm feelings that replicated a crush, they created a subtle stirring, one that was almost impossible to catch.

I had no doubt that, even unnoticed after continuous applications, it wouldn't create love, but it didn't need to. It would have created a subtle infuriation, and that was all a skilled manipulator like Daphne would have needed.

Good plan, I had to admit. Delivering the potion hidden in her homework paper was certainly a nice touch.

Too bad she decided to play the game against a master.