Snape Chronicles
Chapter 1
Finding her

Severus Snape was in the middle of brewing a complicated potion when he was called.

He threw down his knife and scowled in disgust. He hated being interrupted when he was brewing; it always meant he had to start over again and waste precious ingredients and time. He rid of the ruined potion with a flick of his wand then strode with purposeful strides into his quarters, while calling Fawkes and telling the bird to tell Albus that he had been summoned. He then threw on his black, Death Eater robes and put a hand over his accursed mark and Apparated to where ever the Dark Lord thought to hold his meeting.

Severus looked around and saw he was at a manor of some sorts before slipping on his mask which clung to his face painfully, reminding him of the pain to come, the same pain that had haunted him for the past 20 years, ever since he got his mark, the same mark that will cling to his pale skin for the rest of his life. He shook his head and occluded his mind forcing those dreary thoughts away.

He heard some one else appear behind him and turned to find Lucius putting on his mask . The man straightened his robes and addressed Severus in that familiar Malfoy drawl, "Severus, it has nearly been a month since I last saw you. How is that project that our Lord assigned you?"

"Lucius, that is for me to know and you to find out." Replied Severus with a drawl. "Now, enough of these pleasantries; our Lord is waiting for us and you know he dose not like too wait."

Lucius smirked. "The only reason your still standing hear is because you don't know where to go."

Severus sneered and said, "Well, are you going to show the way or are you just going to stand there and make me call an elf?"

Lucius just smiled and said, "They don't have elves here, Severus. Watch, what they have is so much more efficient than elves." He turned away from Severus to the open entry hall. "Slave!" he called out.

A hidden door opened up and a girl that looked about the age of fourteen came out. She was wearing a tan dress that looked to be made of deer skin; its came down to her knees and only had one thick shoulder strap holding it up. Her red hair was loose and she had two thick bracelets around her wrists. She came and stood before them and bowed lowly while saying, "Pearl welcomes you back, master Lucius; how may I be of service?"

Severus was thrown off balance by the fact that there were human servants. let alone children at that, and was sickened buy the look of total glee written all over Lucius' features.

"Show me and Master Severus to where our Lord awaits us," He said with a sickening smile on his face, "and then leave us."

She bowed once more and then turned on her heel and lead them up the grand staircase at the end of the enormous entrance hall. She then led them down several passages to what Severus guessed was the west wing. While they where walking, Severus was silently observing his surroundings. The whole manor had the air of death and torture, the walls where all dressed in Slytherin and Ravenclaw colours with many portraits of faces and paintings on them, the floors where all hard wood and the entire place was spotless of dust and grime, there was little light as the torches where few and far between, and there was lack of furniture in the halls.

Soon enough they had ended at a set of black French doors which opened upon their approach. The room was dark and shadows danced about; it was painted green with a mahogany hard wood floor, and a fire was burning in a small hearth on the far side of the room. In front of the fire, there were two large, plush chairs - both green -, with a black circle of carpet at their feet where Nagini laid, curled up. In the two chairs sat the Dark Lord and a man, who was most likely the owner of the dark manor. He had dark, curly hair that was cut around the top of his ears; he had dark cruel uncaring eyes and favoured a goatee; he was thin but not overly so, more like lean and had a light tan. What was different from him and any other wizard was that he didn't where robes, but bore what looked more like an Admiral uniform that was black with a silver out-line and buttons; he also had a black kata sword strapped to his waist.

When they walked into the room, both the Dark Lord and the man looked up. Lucius and Severus then strode purposely forward and knelt on one knee in front of their Lord.

"Rise, my children, and take off your masks; you have no need of them at this moment," Said the Dark Lord with that high, hissing voice of his. They did so as the Dark Lord conjured up two more seats. "Sit," he commanded.

Both Severus and Lucius complied. Severus was a little unnerved, for he had never been treated this way before, though he kept this face in a blank mask he become so used to using that it was second nature to him.

The Dark Lord then turn to Severus, "How is the potion coming along Severussss? I will need it soon."

"I have progressed well with it; it will be done by the next full moon." Severus answered confidently, even though he knew that it was already finished and he was now just working on the antidote. The potion was, if some one threw it on the ground, it would spread fire in a 10 meter radius and the flames would be unstoppable; the antidote he was working on would put out the all the flames in a 50 meter radius, but he just couldn't get it right.

"Good, good, now what did you think of the human servants?" asked the Dark Lord

"It was," Severus paused to think over his answer carefully, "different, I if I might say, but smart if you have more than ten. To have one would be useless as they couldn't use Apparation because of the wards and they would be too busy to properly serve on you."

Voldemort smiled and the other man spoke up for the first time since they had entered the room. "My thoughts exactly: that's why I have more then two hundred serving in this house and even then, very few can even use their magic, if they have any at all."

Severus nodded, "That would make sense with the size of this manor."

"Now, now, you two can talk later on the workings of the manor, we have other things of more importance to discuss," said the Dark Lord with a sly smile. "We have come across a certain servant within these premises that bore a striking resemblance to you, Severus, and I have looked into your record and found that you where once married too a young woman that went by the name of Marie McKessock who also went unexpectedly missing one day while she was shopping with her one-year-old daughter.

"We then gave this certain servant a parental potion that I had asked you to make several weeks back and found out that this child was the exact same child that went missing over fifteen years ago. What I want to know was why you didn't inform me that you where married and had a child."

Severus felt like he had just had the wind knocked out of him while his mind was whirling, trying to make up an answer for his Lord's question. "I," he faltered and sighed might as well tell the truth, or part of it. "Me and Marie had decided to wait until after our wedding to tell you, so she could be initiated into your service. Because her adoptive father was the Canadian Minister of Magic, there would be Aurors there and we didn't want them to find out that we supported your ideals just because her arm showed. Because of that, both of us would have been arrested and at the time I was working on a very important project for you and couldn't risk it."

"Yes, but that doesn't explain why you waited over a year to tell me," stated the Dark Lord darkly.

Severus nodded and continued with his story, "After the wedding, Marie became unexpectedly pregnant and to get her initiated while pregnant would kill both the child and her as she was not quite human. It was her idea, which she forced me to go along with, not to come to you until our child was a year old and could be left alone with an elf or nanny without destroying both the house and the caretaker. Marie can be very intimidating when she wants to be," he added as an after-thought.

A dark chuckle came from Lucius and every one turned to him, "marie was very intimidating; I can remember a few incidents where she was so close to ripping out our throats."

"Tell me Lucius," stated the Dark Lord, "what was she like?"

Lucius smirked, "She was the Queen of Slytherin, literally; she was dark and independent and held the leash over all of Slytherin. No one messed with her, actually I think the only one who ever dared to be around her was Severus, and I once caught him teasing her. She had a very sick and dark sense of humor, but really didn't care much for blood. I think she said once when Bella and her got into a cat fight in the common room that blood was blood and it all tasted the same, but she did care on how powerful you where. She was the best in D.A.D.A. and had fairly good marks in every thing else. I think she was heading towards Curse Breaker or making magical weaponry. I don't know exactly which one she actually went into though; oh, and she could always sweet-talk us out of any trouble with the teachers, even McGonagall. She would have made a powerful ally, though I don't know why she didn't join with the rest of us."

Severus just shrugged when every one looked at him, "She never told me why."

The Dark Lord looked disappointed, if you could call the expression on his snake-like face that. "I am disappointed that someone like that slipped out of my grasp, but before now I had never even heard a whisper of her." He looked at Snape expectantly.

"From what I heard, Bellatrix threatened everyone not to speak of her. I suspect she wanted to take some glory of not having Marie there and when I told Marie of this she just laughed and said, 'Let her have her glory for now, and when I join, remind me to throw it in her face.'"

They all had a chuckle at that and Lucius commented that that sounded exactly what Marie would do.

"Yes, yes, she would have made a great asset to my forces. But, alas, she is dead and you still failed in informing me, and for that you will get, Crucio." hissed Voldemort.

Severus slammed back in his chair and gritted his teeth in pain and rode it out without a sound. He knew the Dark Lord would torture him; he just hoped he would let off some. Soon enough, the Dark Lord let off and Severus loosened his grip on the arms of the chair while taking several large breaths to try and calm his nerves enough to speak. "I am sorry, my Lord." he said softly while dipping his head in respect.

"Good. Don't do it again. Now on with business: Lucian go call the girl for me."

The man, Lucian, bowed his head slightly and snapped his fingers; a moment later the same girl as before came and he instructed her to go fetch Shadow. Severus frowned at the name. He and Marie had named his daughter Selene, Selene Alexandriaz Snape, and a troublesome daughter she was too. The girl, Pearl, then reappeared and went over to Lucian and told him, " The horses have escaped from the stables again, my Lord, and she and the men are rounding them up right now. They seemed to be spooked about something."
"Very well, you are dismissed." He said lazily then leveled his gaze upon their Lord and asked, "Should we go to her or wait?"

"You and Severus go ahead and get her. Lucius and I will wait here for you to return. I have some business to discuss with him," stated the Dark Lord

"Very well. Come Severus, let's go meet your daughter," said Lucian, standing up gracefully.

Severus nodded and stood up and bowed shortly to his Lord, then walked out of the room with Lucian.

As soon as they closed the door, Lucian started muttering to himself. "Why she doesn't take up more lady-like activities is beyond me. I mean, honestly, chasing after spooked horses in the middle of the night is not exactly proper."

Severus smirked to himself and said, "Her mother was a lot like that, too. We both had several bouts of insomnia, so we both used to go hunting in the Forbidden Forest. She also used to attack me randomly with knives."

"Yes, that sounds awfully like Shadow. I have been hoping for a long while that she would grow out of it, but she hasn't yet," said Lucian, sounding a bit annoyed.

Severus looked over at the man and asked, "Why do you call her 'Shadow?'"

The man sighed, sounding annoyed, but not at Severus. "Because, she is one, not literally so, but she moves silently and in the shadows so it's like she just pops out of nowhere. I've been trying to break it out of her for years, but it seems it just sticks and doesn't go away, so recently I have been using it to my advantage and get her to shadow when there's certain Death Eaters in the Manor."

Severus nodded, but inwardly he was bouncing with glee; his daughter was a Shadow walker or even an elemental, and he had just beat Albus in a bet and could collect back the ten pounds he had lost when they had found out Selene was a lightning elemental. Ha, now he could rub something in the old coot's face.

"Just through this door, the stables aren't far," stated Lucian as he opened up a door leading to an outside set of stairs. "So, how long have you been in service?" he asked casually.

"About 20 years, including the time the Dark Lord disappeared," replied Severus.

Lucian nodded and asked, "What do you do as a living?"

"I'm a Potions Master at Hogwarts."

Lucien looked over at Severus sharply, "How high a potions master?"

"Well, I helped create the Wolf's Bane potion as a silent helper. I'm one of the few masters that can make it and Veritaserum," Severus said, then ducked his head at the look Lucian sent him.

"Have you ever invented your own with no help?"

"Yes, but none have been distributed to the public, as they're not exactly appropriate, but I haven't created any recently as I have been working on some that have been out of use for over 1000 years," stated Severus.

"I see. I takes a lot of time and effort to become a potions master, let alone one who can invent his own plus teach brats at a school," said Lucian as they came up to the stables just in time to see a bunch of people ride up on about 10 horses and leading another. "Shadow," he called out, "you are wanted."

"Yes, master," said the voice of a young woman from the back of the group. You barely could see her in the shadows, hence the name "Shadow," as she got down from her horse and handed it off to another. When she came into the light of the torch, Severus couldn't help but suck in his breath: she looked so much like her mother. She had black, straight hair, but it was thick and clean, unlike his own. She was about her mother's height, 5 foot 4 inches, and was lean and well toned. She had greenish-gray eyes like her mother and her jaw was square. Her nose wasn't hooked like his, but had the look like it had been broken once or twice before. She was wearing tan deer skin pants and some sort of shirt underneath a well-worn trench coat that looked like it was once black but had faded over the years. He found that it looked familiar, but couldn't place who had one similar to it. She also had a scar running from beside her right eye to just underneath her chin. The air about her told him that she was a fighter and had lived a hard life; he found him self thinking that it would be interesting to get to know her- that is, if he even got the chance.

The voice of Lucian broke Severus out of his revere. "Shadow, meet your father, Severus Snape," said Lucian. She nodded, her face blank, with only a small flicker of surprise shining in her eyes. "Now, the Dark Lord is waiting for us, so we should be going." Lucian turned on his heel and marched towards the Manor at a faster pace than before.

Severus looked at his daughter; he seemed to be waiting for him to follow her master. Right, he reprimanded himself, she's still a slave. He mentally growled at the though. He would get his daughter out of slavery even if he died trying. He then swept around and stalked after Lucian in his over-grown bat sort-of-way that he usually only used at the school.

Soon enough, they where at the doors again, where they had left Lucius and the Dark Lord. The doors slammed open when they where three feet away and found Voldemort torturing Lucius, for he was displeased with something. The Dark Lord stopped soon after they had arrived and gave time for Lucius to straighten up and get off the floor before inviting them to sit down.

Severus looked over to his daughter when he sat down and found her standing behind her master, not bothered by the torture at all. This bothered him, even if he didn't want to admit it; no one her age should be used to torture like that, but then again, she was a slave and served at a manor full of Death Eaters. He inwardly shivered at that.

"Severusss," the Dark Lord hissed, "Lucian and I have discussed the issue of your daughter and have decided to set her free and give her to you only if you train her up and get her ready to serve me in the ranks of Death Eaters as an equal to the rest of you. She will be initiated the same time as your godson, Draco, and Lucius has agreed to let you train him as well, but only when the rest of the school arrives so you don't cause suspicion, as you are the best for the job. How you will convince the old coot, I will leave up to you, but she will be leaving with you tonight, whether you like it or not."

"Think of it this way," spoke up Lucian, "you have just earned yourself a potions helper, as she is the potions master and assistant healer on these premises."

Severus nodded. "Very well, she will come with me to Hogwarts, but I cannot guarantee the old coot is going to like it." Severus couldn't decide if he was happy she was coming with him or if he was wary about the fact that he was a spy and he didn't know whom she supported.

"Good, now when she disobeys you, you must punish her properly. My suggestion is that you use the same way the Dark Lord punishes us when we displease him, and take away her meals for the day, too."

Severus just nodded and kept a blank face, though on the inside he was fuming, for he would not be torturing his daughter at all. It was just so wrong; besides, Marie would find some way to kill him in the after-life if he did.

"Very well. I call this meeting to a close; now, out of my sight," demanded the Dark Lord.

All four of the others bowed to him and hurried out of the room. Once they where outside the room, Lucius bid them good-bye while Shadow ran off to gather her belongings. A few minutes later, she came back with a small leather bag slung over her shoulder and said she was ready.

Lucian then told her to hold out her hands, and he undid the two leather clasps around her wrists and said she was free but was to stay with her father until she was of age. He then turned around and stalked off into the darkness.

She looked at Severus then said, "I guess I will show you out then." She turned on her heel and marched down the hallway to the front door in a very Snape-like manner. Severus had to let himself a little smile at that and started to follow her in the same fashion.

AN: And the next chapter will be coming out soon!!