LOST
'Daddy! Daddy! Wake up!'
Severus groaned but kept his eyes closed; not wanting to let go of his slumber just yet. What was this annoying racket this early in the morning? From the way the sun was not trying to reach his eyes under his closed lids, it had to be before six. Great. Tiny feet could be heard running through the hallway outside his bedroom. He knew his door would slam open in three… two... one...
BAM!
'Daddy! Are you awake yet?!' A little body hurled itself next to him on the bed, nearly elbowing him in the stomach. He contemplated turning over and burying his head underneath the pillow but he knew that would not deter the little devil that had taken up residence next to him.
He slowly cracked one eye open, focusing on the small child beside him. 'What has you in such a state, child?' he said with a small sneer on his face.
His former students would have cowered under the low and menacing tone his voice had taken on. The girl, however, knew his temperament (and temper) and just blinked up at him with innocent big eyes. She slowly crept forward, until she was lying on her stomach with her head cradled on her folded hands. He could see she had tried to dress herself and put on a full pink ensemble – something he tried to avoid desperately. One pink clothing item per day was more than enough. Too much, actually, if he was honest. Her hair was still ruffled from her sleep. Although she always knew exactly what she wanted with her long dark hair, she managed to get him to be her personal hair dresser. Undoubtedly that would be his first task after he had gotten himself up.
'Why aren't you up yet? We have to go,' she whined, her bottom lip sticking out. 'We need to go to the shops.' Her feet were kicking wildly in the air, unable to conceal her excitement.
He knew he should not have told her yesterday about the short trip he had planned to the apothecary in Diagon Alley, for it would only make her overenthusiastic.
'Stop your whining, Elizabeth. You know I won't allow it. You need to have a bit more patience; the shops will not be open yet. Why don't you give daddy some more time to rest? You know he needs it,' he quietly added the last part under his breath.
'Why are the shops not open, daddy?' On some days and at some moments he enjoyed the inquisitiveness of his daughter, this, however, was not it.
'Because the shopkeepers like their sleep, just like daddy does.' The disappointed yet thoughtful look on her face almost made him soften. Well, maybe just on the inside, outwardly he still looked like the formidable Professor Snape he forever would try to portray.
'Maybe we could wake them up?' His daughter suddenly jumped up, narrowly avoiding slapping him in the face with one of her swinging hands. 'I could sing and dance to make them want to start working early! You like it when I wake you with a song, don't you, daddy?'
Again, sometimes, just sometimes, he did not mind her singing and dancing for him, not too much anyway, but this was just not it! Severus decided he needed to use the big guns to slow her down and allow him just a few hours more rest. Why did he still think it was a good idea to spend so many nightly hours in his potion lab when he knew this little thing would be waking him up so very early in the morning? He suddenly lunged towards the figure still dancing atop of his mattress and grabbed her around the waist. Her high squeal both hurt his ears and made him smile just a tiny bit.
'Let the shopkeepers, and daddy, have their rest. Come on, we can cuddle until it is the right time for us to grace the day.' He pulled his daughter tightly against him, and laid back down again. Elizabeth immediately stopped her squirming and cuddled up to her daddy.
'Ok, daddy.' He could hear the smile that played on her lips, knowing that her 'cuddly-time' as she called it, was one of her favourite things to do. Although more often than not his daughter was a hyperactive little beast (said in the nicest sense possible, of course), during 'cuddly-time' she was meek as a little lamb. 'I cannot wait for us….' Her soft snoring made him nod contently, his favourite time was sleepy-time.
Quite some relaxing hours later father and daughter were finally both ready to depart for Diagon Alley. Severus had successfully managed to wrestle her out of her pink shirt and tights and exchange them for something less blinding. The pink tutu skirt, however, was still on. He lamented that two out of three just had to be good enough for the day.
The crowds weren't as bad as they could be just before the Hogwarts term would start, but there were quite few people about. He sighed inwardly, not feeling quite comfortable with all the people milling around him. He had never been a social person, but after the War he had become even more of a recluse. If it weren't for his daughter, he might try to avoid venturing out completely, instead choosing to order everything he needed by owl catalogue. He grabbed onto her little hand a little tighter, not wanting to lose her in the crowd.
'Daddy, look at that cute cat!' Severus turned his head in the direction Elizabeth was pointing, seeing a small little cat curled up in the window of Magical Menagerie. His daughter was always going on about this cat here or that dog there and he knew that he would cave once and buy her a pet. Not until she was old enough to take care for it herself, however, which was still a few years off.
'Come on, Elizabeth, we do not have time to dawdle.' He continued his way, gently tugging the child, who was craning her head backwards to keep looking at the cat, with him. He only made it halfway along the Alley, before he was stopped again. This time not by his daughter, but an old colleague of his.
During his time as Hogwarts he disliked many of the other professors, and tolerated a few others (without letting them know, of course). Minerva McGonagall was one of the few he actually respected. He knew that she had trouble trusting him after the War. It wasn't until he showed her his memories of his conversations with Albus that she softened around him. He enjoyed the occasional correspondence with her and did not mind bumping into her in Diagon Alley every once in a while.
'Minerva, what a pleasant surprise. How are you doing?' The two former colleagues started their conversation, forgetting the third little person in their midst. Severus did not notice her tiny hand slipping from his as he was enquiring about the affairs at Hogwarts (he did not miss working there, but it had always held a special place in his heart and he would forever cherish that place, both for its good memories and bad).
After a few minutes of conversation, he suddenly did notice that his daughter was not standing next to him before. Severus looked around him wildly. 'Have you seen where Elizabeth went?' He asked Minerva, not wanting her to hear the slight fear in his voice. He had always been aware that he had many an enemy and that someone could always seek ways to harm him. He did not want to imagine someone trying to hurt him by hurting his daughter. He quickly excused himself to search for his daughter, even ignoring Minerva's offer to help search for her.
Severus decided to walk back to Magical Menagerie, hoping that his daughter had gone back to see the cat. When he arrived there, she was nowhere to be seen. He had always prided himself on keeping calm in whatever the situation was (even when he was in the same room as the Dark Lord he would be the epitome of serenity) but now he felt like his heart was thudding out of his chest. He could care less about his own life, but he would die a thousand times before anyone would hurt his daughter.
Severus furiously walked further, not caring about the people angrily shouting at him as he pushed them away. She wasn't at Florean Fortescue Junior's Ice Cream Parlour, Flourish and Blotts or Sugarplum's Sweets Shop. He started to panic more and more with every minute he could not find his daughter. What if someone had taken her? Or worse, harmed her? The images of what could have happened to Elizabeth flashed through his mind and he had a hard time not cursing every person milling about.
Suddenly he could hear the voice that he had hoped to hear for the last half an hour or so and all the panic left his body. 'I don't have a mommy, but my daddy is the best-est! He brushes my hair, and makes nice braids. And he also does cuddly-time. Sometimes I can stir in a potion he is making. But not often, because potion making is very dangerous, my daddy says. My daddy is very smart. He was a teacher at Hoggywarts and now he makes potions every day! Nobody is as smart as my daddy. But he cannot cook so well, so our House-elf Cookie does that. Sometimes we bake cookies together. Not Cookie and me, but my daddy and me. And…'
For a moment his mind wandered and he wondered when his daughter would pause her monologue to take a breath. By Merlin, all that talking was quite dangerous to her health!
'I am glad to hear that your daddy is such a wonderful person,' and amused voice drawled. 'but how are we going to find him? It is very busy on the Alley right now.' Severus turned the corner and was immediately blinded by the front of the Weasleys' Wizzard Wheezes store. He sighed, and just hoped that he would not have to encounter any of the red haired Weasleys. During the years after the War and Hogwarts, he had become most adept at avoiding the people he wished to never see, including the Weasleys. His wish was not granted however, when he saw one of the twins (he would never forget the look of those troublemakers) kneeled down next to his daughter. Severus spotted the dried tear streaks across her cheeks but was relieved when he saw her smile up to the red headed man.
'Elizabeth! There you are!' His daughter turned towards him with the largest smile he had ever seen her wear and immediately sprinted in his direction. She jumped up and, throwing her arms around his neck, yelled: 'Daddy! I missed you so much! I was bored when you were talking to Minnie so I wanted to find the cat. But I got lost and then I looked everywhere but you were not there! And then I found George, and I told him how nice you are and I missed you!'
Severus slowly rubbed her back, hoping to calm down her sobbing. He softly pushed her backwards to look her in the eye. 'You scared daddy very much, Elizabeth. You know you are not allowed to walk away from me. You never know what type of bad people are walking around. You have been very naughty,' He staid sternly. Big teary eyes looked at him fearfully. He sighed and pulled her back against him.
From the corner of his eye he saw the Weasley man (it was strange seeing him as the quite serious looking man he was these days, instead of the boy with the twin that caused ruckus wherever they turned up. The loss of said twin had obviously changed him drastically) slowly stretch up, shock evidently on his face. Apparently he had not expected him to have a daughter, who had clearly missed him very much, with the way she was still clinging to him. He could not help but cling to her too. Looking over her little shoulder, he addressed the other man, 'Thank you for watching over my daughter, Mr. Weasley.'
The red head shook his head as to clear it and said: 'No problem, Professor... Snape.' He smiled crookedly to the father-daughter pair. 'Maybe you want to step into my shop for a bit? I am certain that the young lady would like to pick out something to relieve some of the stress of the day?'
Elizabeth was already squirming out of his arms yelling: 'Yes!' but Severus quickly managed to turn down the offer. 'But I always wanted to go in to the joke shop,' she pouted.
'We cannot go into the joke shop today, Elizabeth, because we have to buy a cat.' He told her while gently lifting her head up. For a moment his daughter looked at him with a confused look on her face. Then her whole face lit up. 'Can I really have the cat, daddy? Really? Really Really?!' Severus already started to regret his offer but it was against his pride to rescind it. 'Yes, you can have the cat, but only if you promise to take care of it and to never walk away from daddy again.'
His daughter looked up at him with a serious expression (something which he did not often see, making her look older than she actually was) and said, 'I will never walk away from you again, daddy. I missed you too much and there could be bad people around.' Then her usual smile was back. 'Let's go buy the cat!'
She tried to tug him in the direction which she thought the Magical Menagerie was (she was wrong), but he tugged back. 'Aren't we forgetting something?' She looked at him and then at the Weasley twin, not knowing what to say. He decided to show her how to thank someone. 'Thank you for looking out for my daughter, Mr. Weasley. We are both very grateful you kept her safe.' His daughter nodded feverishly. 'Thank you, George, for helping me find my daddy.'
George smiled at the Snapes. 'It was no problem. I am glad I could help. I wish you all the luck with your new cat, Elizabeth.' Then he grinned at his former professor. 'And you are always welcome at Weasleys' Wizard Wheezes'. Severus groaned inwardly, knowing that every time they would visit Diagon Alley in the future, his daughter would want to go into the joke shop.
After saying goodbye to the Weasley twin, father and daughter started to walk towards the animal shop (the right way this time), both keeping the others' hand firmly in theirs, not wanting to risk losing one another again.