AUTHORS'S NOTE:  First I hate author's notes ;) So this is the last one you'll see. This story is slowly evolving to something much larger than what I originally was going to write. And truth be told, I could flesh it out even more. Bear with me as I get this together. All comments are appreciated and if you see an error let me know. I really do appreciate it!

Summary: This is the story of Voldemort's Daughter and Severus Snape. It has three main parts: Part One: Her time at school through the beginning of year seven, Part Two: Relationship with Snape; Part Three Return of Voldemort. The main story was going to be set in the HP book five time frame, but the set-up part of the story started growing and now it is all I've written about. Just wait, it is going to be good….

A heartfelt "Thank you!" to those who have reviewed, come back often and let me know how you think it's coming along. There has been a rewrite, and some additional stuff put in.

I am only going to say this once. I don't own any of the characters, settings, things or anything else that are found in the Harry Potter books; JK Rowling, Warner Bros., Scholastic and who ever else has a copyright on them can enjoy all the money they make. I own Vexus and any other original characters, but that's it. I am not and don't plan on making any money off this so there you go. Just read and enjoy. This is not the first thing I have ever written, but it is the first thing I have ever posted ANYWHERE. Reviews are welcome. The rating is going to be pg-13, (may even move up to R. I'll let you know) for future violence and maybe romance. Who knows? Read on!

PROLOUGE-THE RIDDLE

He offered his arm and she took it. Together they walked down the hall, no sound following but their footsteps and the soft rustling of robes. The doors of the Great Hall muffled the noise of the rest of the students and it diminished further as they walked.

"Tom, where are we going," she giggled. A slight blush added color to her cheeks and her eyes sparked with life.

"No," he thought, "more than that; joy, that's what shines in her eyes and it is something I will never feel." Tom Riddle was a bitter boy indeed. He had decided what he was going to do and knew that there would be no space in his life for pursuit of the opposite sex. Why he still felt the need to let this girl down gently was beyond him.

 Hours later as she cried in her dorm, he was packing his trunk ready to embark on his mission in life. "Before long they will all know my name and they will bow or break under my foot."

 Why he was thinking of that evening on this evening is one of those mysteries that life never offers to explain. Lord Voldemort was a powerful wizard and the rest of the wizard community was beginning to fully grasp the extent of his power. They were beginning to fear him. When Renai came to him he never questioned her intentions, he was captivated by her eyes. They shone like gold in the light of the fire and her was drawn to her. It was unusual for him to display such weakness, and he hated her for it.

When she gave birth to his child there was no love involved in the act, she had long since stopped feeling anything much beyond pain and she knew that this child would become as strong as she had become weak.

A year later he had not even allowed her to name the child. The baby was beautiful; already her eyes had turned from deep blue to a rich golden-brown ringed with green. She had inherited those eyes from her mother and her pale skin from her father. She was walking and talking. She was a disappointment to all save her mother. Her father insisted that she was not magical and never would be. He despised her.

As Voldemort's reign of terror became more and more brutal the mother of his child was building the will to remove the baby from his presence. Her opportunity came on an evening when he was away at the Malfoy estate planning the next murders. He called them justice for mudbloods and muggle-lovers. She had been calling them murders for months now. She gathered up her child and left. She went to the one person who could be trusted with the knowledge of what the child was and could protect her.

"Albus, please, take her and find her a good home far away from here." Her voice shaking with the tears she couldn't cry. "He is evil and he is going to kill her. He thinks she has no magic in her."

Albus Dumbledore looked at Renai over the top of his glasses. She had been a top student and her turn to the Dark Arts had troubled him since he found out. Now she was asking him to take this child and protect it from it's own father. He let his view slip from her face to the child. She was a most unusual baby. She watched him as he watched her and in her eyes it seemed that she knew already what was going to happen.

He reached his decision "I will do what I can. I can make you no promises. However, I will help you as much as I can."

"I must object to this." The darkest one in the room had not said a word since this started. He stood now and began to pace. "This is a stupid idea. He already knows that you are trying to get the child away from him. He will kill her." Severus Snape had not heard Voldemort speak more than once or twice about the child, but he knew from the few remarks he had heard that the girl was as good as dead. Voldemort hadn't even allowed her to be named. 

It was getting more and more difficult with every passing day to keep his secret and now to get mixed up in saving Voldemort's own child, it was too much. His eyes met those of Minerva McGonagall, and he knew that though she hated it, she agreed with him. He turned to Dumbledore again.

"If I do this and am caught, it will be over. He will know and it will be worse." his voice did not quiver with emotion and his face betrayed nothing. He was used to his mask and wore it well.

"Minerva," Dumbledore's voice had taken an odd tone and sounded hollow "you agree don't you?"

"Albus, I cannot lie and tell you that this is a good idea. It puts us all in jeopardy." She was the steady voice of reason and there was no reason to doubt that she was right. However, as he looked at the baby again, the headmaster knew that this child had to be protected.

"I am afraid that I am going to have to ask you both to participate in this regardless. Severus, I will need a potion from you, Draught of Living Death should do it. Enough to make her seem as dead, we'll make him think you've killed her." The last was said to the mother, who had known for a long time that saving her daughters life would mean giving her own. She nodded and said, "Just make sure that whatever happens to her, she gets my wand. I think it will suit her one day," She pulled a wand from her robes and laid it on the old wizards desk. "I've nothing else to give her anyway." Her words filled the room and hung in the air for a moment as each one considered the significance of what she had said.

Two days later Severus delivered the potion to her. "Make sure that she gets this at the appointed time, otherwise the antidote will have no effect." and he was gone.

As she waited for Voldemort to arrive she fixed the potion in a bottle as instructed and gave it to her child. Within moments the child went limp and for all intents and purposes she seemed as dead. As if on cue, Voldemort burst in. "If you've come to kill her it's too late, I've done it for you." these were the last words she ever spoke. A flash of green light and she was dead.

Voldemort stepped over the body on the floor and picked up the child. "Vexus...." one word breathed out in a hiss.

"My Lord?" asked one of the Death Eaters who had followed him in the room.

"Nothing Severus, nothing." There was a pause as he considered the small body in his arms "It was what I was going to name it before I found out it had no powers." He handed the limp form of the baby to Lucius Malfoy. "Get rid of it." and was he was gone.

"Vexus. I suppose you got a name after all." he wrapped her in his cloak and swept past Snape out of the room.

 It was in the woods that Severus found her; she looked like little more than a doll left to the elements. He cursed Lucius Malfoy as he forced the antidote down the child's throat. Once she was breathing again he stopped his stream of profanity, suddenly aware that she seemed to be listening to him.

"Well, Vexus, I hope you're worth all the trouble one day."

She looked at him and smiled.

The following years passed with little incident, unless you take into account the killings and the constant fear gripping the country. The baby had been safely passed to Professor McGonagall who had left her at an orphanage in Wales. It was small, secluded and there were no wizard folk within 100 miles. It seemed as if the plan to spare Vexus had worked.

Until one night after another meeting of the Death Eaters Voldemort was overheard by Snape to say "I heard something about an unusual baby in the country. I don't believe it is her but I am going to go find out for myself."

As soon as the opportunity arose Severus headed back to the school to inform Albus of this development. They decided then that the best thing to do was to get her out of the country entirely. So within a day Vexus was a happy eight year old on a plane headed to Florida with her new family of Muggles.

Voldemort never went to the country to investigate because it was only a week later that he killed Lily and James Potter and was reduced to nearly nothing.