"What does this mean Severus?"

He struggled for an answer, as it seemed even he didn't know what Elora's abilities meant.

"I believe this matter should be taken directly to Albus, Severus." Minerva piped up after the silence that filled the room previously.

We agreed and rushed out of the classroom towards the tower in which the Headmaster's Office resides. Upon reaching it, the staircase opened without the use of a password.

"He must already know." I said in a hushed tone.

Minerva walked up and into the room first, followed by me, and then Severus with Elora.

"I believe you already know why were here Albus?" Minerva addressed him as he stood up from behind his desk.

He looked quite calm compared to us and stepped down from the raised platform his desk was on top of,

"Yes Minerva, I had an inkling that you three would be showing up around this time."

"Then you must know why Elora is exhibiting extremely early and powerful signs of magical activity?" Severus seemed desperate for an answer.

As was I.

"I can not confirm any specific reason for this occurrence, but.. I do have a few possible theories. Will you allow me to test one of these theories briefly?" Albus asked both me and Severus.

We nodded and watched as he pulled an ordinary wand out of a concealed pocket of his. He then handed this wand to Elora. Unsure of what he was trying to test, I made a motion forward.

"Trust me (Y/N). I would not put her in danger purposefully." Albus' response caused me to step back again, all be it unwillingly.

He then pulled his own wand out and conjured a flower, which was currently floating in the air. Severus, Minerva, and I were all watching curiously to find out what the point of this demonstration was.

The flower floated down a few feet in front of Elora. She stared at it with a curious smile for a moment before swinging the wand around wildly. A spell shot off towards the floating flower. New stems grew from it and sprouted duplicates of the original flower. The color of the petals pulsed different shades of blue. But just before anyone could say anything, the flowers wilted and shrivelled until they turned to dust.

Albus retrieved the wand from Elora's grasp and tucked it back into his pocket. He was contemplating something, which left us itching to know what the purpose of this test was.

"What does any of this mean?" I finally asked, as the silence was becoming too much for me.

"I wanted to see what Elora's intentions would be towards the flower. Her actions would prove to us whether her magical abilities lean more towards the liking of the dark or the light. Based off of the growth of the flower, we know she favors the light. Though the eventual wilting of the flowers after the fact implies her abilities are unwillingly tainted by something dark.." Albus' response shocked me.

My posture stiffened as I glanced over at both Severus and Minerva.

"Albus. You don't mean to tell us that this could possibly be the work of You-Know-Who?" Minerva seemed a bit afraid of the possibility.

"No. A dark presence such as this one can not be created by any witch or wizard. I fear this is a pure form of corruption that Elora was born with." Albus' words were starting to make me panic internally, which seemed to be the case with Severus as well.

"But how could she possibly be born with it?" Severus was unnerved by all this new information.

"My theory is that both of you had ancestors who were deeply immersed in the use of dark magic. For each passing generation after them, the percentage of a child being born with hints of their dark abilities increases. In the case that bloodlines with powerful, yet dark ancestry merge, the percentage increases tremendously." Albus' new information caused my worries to sky rocket.

"Is there any way for us to reduce these traces of dark magic?" I was pleading for some good news at this point.

"Subjecting Elora to a positive and encouraging environment while growing up may stunt the growth of anything dark within her. I also suggest allowing her to use her abilities on occasion, as suppressing a child's use of magic sparks the possibility of them becoming an obscurial." Albus was now pacing in front of us as he explained ways that we could help Elora.

After a moment of silence, Severus asked a question,

"I believe you had another possible theory about this predicament didn't you, Albus?"

"Ah, yes. I believe that Elora may also be tied to a prophecy. Never have I come across a rare case such as this one where a prophecy wasn't involved. Though we'll need to make a visit to the Department of Mysteries to make sure of this." Albus kept saying things that only made me worry more.

The silence was deafening. Even Elora seemed to notice the mood change, as she decided to curl into Severus' chest without a single noise.

I could feel my emotions swirling inside my mind, ready to burst.

"U-Um.. I uh.. I need to get some air.." I choked back the tears that were threatening to spill, just as they had not one hour ago, and rushed to leave the office. I heard Severus excuse himself to follow me out.

Outside in the hall, I let out the strangled breaths I was holding back. My chest felt tight and a stinging pain had begun to form in my lungs. I wiped a hand across my face in order to dry the tears, even though it didn't make much of a difference.

"(Y/N).." Severus' voice seemed as though it were breaking as well.

Elora noticed my distress and reached out toward me with a whine. I let out a weak chuckle through my crying as I scooped her up into my arms. Severus then encased the three of us in a hug in the middle of the hall.

I took some time to control my hiccup-like crying and eventually felt strong enough to speak,

"We can get through this." I stated in Severus' direction.

"Yeah.. I believe we can do it." I repeated in a reassuring way to myself.

"(Y/N)." Severus' voice snapped me out of my thoughts.

I looked up and made a facial expression implying that he should continue.

"If you feel we should.. postpone.. the wedding for a later date, I'd understand wholeheartedly." I could sense the slight hesitation in his question, letting me know he didn't actually feel that way.

"No. We're not postponing anything, Severus. I want to marry you. This little bump in the road won't change that." I smiled at him, to which he let out what seemed like a sigh of relief.

"I am relieved to hear that." Upon finishing his statement, he placed a gentle hand on my lower back as a gesture to walk with him.

Later that day, Albus had asked us to accompany him on his visit to the Department of Mysteries. He thought it to be important for us to hear the prophecy if it does indeed exist.

Two Ministry officials lead Albus, Severus, and myself with Elora to the elevators that would take us to the Department of Mysteries.

The elevator stopped on level 9 and opened it's bronze colored gates, allowing us to exit.

This part of the Ministry felt quite eerie to me as we were now walking down circular halls made of obsidian bricks. The halls were hard to navigate, as every single one of them looked the same. That is until we reached a door. One of the two officials opened it and walked in before us. The room seemed endless, with huge racks that extended in ever direction surpassing the distance at which a normal human could see.

These racks were overflowing with crystal spheres. Each one of them swirling with a prophecy inside.

"(Y/N). The way we'll find out if a prophecy about Elora exists is if she can sense it's presence nearby. We'll need to walk these corridors until that time." Albus explained our next steps, to which I nodded and got Elora's attention by rubbing her arm lightly.

Walking down a straight line in between all of these racks got boring pretty quick. I was beginning to think there was no prophecy referencing Elora until she suddenly began whining and reaching in the direction of a row we had passed. The others noticed this and followed me once we walked back to the correct row.

Elora became more restless the further we walked down the row of prophecies. She suddenly squealed and smiled at a small crystal sphere on the corner of one of the racks. The prophecy inside began to swirl quicker than before. We had found it.

The second official gestured for me to allow Elora to take it, being that only people mentioned in a prophecy could remove it from the rack and we didn't know if anyone else was mentioned in it. As soon as she grasped the sphere tightly, her giggling ceased. Her expression morphed from happy to concentrated, which concerned me a bit.

"This is scaring me, Albus. Can we please put it back and go?" I asked warily.

"Disrupting a connection with a prophecy is not advised. We must let her hold it until she decides to let it go." I disliked the response Albus gave me, although it seems there was nothing I could do about it now.

Half a minute passed, in which everything was completely silent as we analyzed Elora's connection to the strange orb.

A small sound was heard coming from Elora. She was whimpering. Sounding sad and fearful. She suddenly began crying and threw the prophecy away.

The first Ministry official was able to save it by casting a levitation spell on it, although I could care less about it in this moment.

"What did it do to her!?" Severus was clearly upset and glared at the others before coming over to where I was standing in order to calm Elora down.

"She witnessed her own prophecy." Albus seemed a bit unnerved as he told us this.

Elora became calmer once Severus had begun holding her and was now only whimpering quietly into his shoulder.

"Alright, we're done here. I'd like to leave immediately." I was currently pissed that Elora had to go through that, although I'm hoping that because she's so young, she won't remember it.

We began our trek back to the entrance, which was silent, except for the occasional fearful noise Elora made.

Just as Albus and one of the officials had exited the door we originally entered through, it slammed shut. I spun around only to see that the other Ministry official had his wand drawn. Severus drew his swiftly and I drew mine.

"You're a Death Eater. I saw the mark on your arm for a split second before we came in this room." The official pointed at my forearm, which was currently covered by a long sleeve top.

"How dare you accuse me of following in the footsteps of such a vile wizard?! I would nev-"

"Save your nonsense for the Dementors of Azkaban, because that's where you'll be headed soon enough! And what are you pointing your wand at me for!? She's a Death Eater you dimwi-"

"Legilimens!" The Ministry official froze in place with his eyes squeezed shut.

Severus was concentrating hard. A moment later, Severus muttered another spell and the Ministry official opened his eyes again.

"Oh, I'm sorry. Must've dozed off for a moment there.. I'll open the door for us now." It was as if he had completely forgotten about the fact that he had seen the mark on my arm.

Severus must've erased his memory.

As soon as the door was open again, the other official looked confused.

"Bit of a malfunction with the door. It likes to close automatically sometimes." The brainwashed official who had just opened the door again made up an excuse that in his mind seemed like the truth.

No one commented further on the 'malfunctioning door' statement as we made our way back to the elevator.

We arrived back at the school quite late. Elora was already sound asleep against Severus' shoulder once we went back to our room. I was speaking with Albus in our small living room while Severus was putting Elora to bed.

"I am truly sorry for what happened at the Ministry. I did not mean for her to be put under such stress." Albus apologized for what seemed like the millionth time.

Before I could respond, Severus walked out of the hall and into the room we were currently in. At this moment, Albus decided it was time for him to go,

"I'll leave you two to sort out your thoughts."

We said our goodbyes and goodnights before Severus closed the door.

"It would be in our best interest to get some rest now." Severus spoke as he turned away from the closed door.

"Yeah, you're probably right." I smiled at the thought of the bed, as I was exhausted by today's events.

I eagerly hopped into bed once I'd finished changing and waited for Severus to join me. He walked in not much later and situated himself under the covers beside me. After a moment of silence, Severus surprised me by pulling my back against his bare chest. His arm was slung loosely around my waist as he inhaled and exhaled deeply against the nape of my neck.

"Hey.. that tickles, Sev.." I scrunched my shoulders up to combat the funny feeling.

He chuckled lowely and resorted to placing feather light kisses against that same area. I shivered and closed my eyes at the affection I was receiving. Severus accompanied his kisses with a hum,

"You taste beautifully, darling.."

I giggled at his words and responded,

"That statement can be taken many ways, Sev.."

He stilled for a moment, probably realizing how dirty his wording actually sounded. I felt him smirk against my neck before he replied,

"Why does your mind spiral down a sexual rabbit hole whenever I compliment you in this way?"

Severus pulled me further into his embrace, causing me to sigh loudly,

"Do you not understand how attractive you sound when you lower your voice like that and compliment me at the same time?"

"Oh believe me I do. I merely find it enticing to tease you." I could tell through his voice that his smirk had widened.

"And what might you gain from teasing me, hm?" I was curious to know what his intentions were.

"A night to remember.." Severus gently traced a finger up my waist as he said this.

A shaky breath left my mouth as I grasped onto his hand,

"Save that desire for our wedding night, Sev. I'm a bit tired today.."

"Alright, I understand. Sleep well, love.." Severus pressed one last kiss to my neck before resting his forehead against it.

I curled myself into him a bit more before replying,

"Goodnight, Sev.."