"The house wards are far too resilient to break under a taboo, Ms Granger. Sit down. As I was saying, it was me who heard the prophecy about the Chosen One. I relayed what I had heard to my master but was horrified when I realised it meant Lily and her baby. The Dark Lord did not care for my request to spare her life, and so I went to the only other person powerful enough to help. Dumbledore. I was his man as soon as he promised to protect her. And even when she died, I could not abandon my new path. I had seen too much real evil to return to the dark, and I could protect Lily's son. She had died for him, and I could make sure he was ok. I didn't expect him to look so much like his father. Every time I looked at him, I saw James Potter, the boy who had hung me upside down in a tree, exposed me to the whole school, and then laughed. The hatred and anger would rise in me and spill out. He was just a kid and had no idea why I hated him. I was his teacher - an adult - and I should have been better. But the darkness inside me never relaxed its hold enough to let me.