Disclaimer: I don't own them. Though sometimes I have the sneaking suspicion that they own me.
Authors note. It's been an age since the last time I posted anything. I still am beta less. Sorry bout that. I do my best.
This story is not about how Harry and Severus got together initially. It could be in the HBP Universe but it's not tackled here so you can make that judgment yourself. I don't care really. Have fun.
ALSO please review like mad so I know what you think because I'm a total review skank.
Prologue
"I'm going now" Severus looked up at him. He didn't say a word just nodded. Potter waited the briefest of moments than nodded and walked out the door. Severus sipped his brandy.
"It's for the best," he said to the empty room. The room thankfully chose not to reply.
Part One
Seventeen years later
Severus heard the noise through the castle walls. A grinding angry tune, he ignored it.
I like your pants around your knees, I love the way you still say please.
Severus growled to himself and charged through the door to his left. Green eyes looked up at him in surprise.
"Will you turn that infernal racket off? It's hardly appropriate." His voice was dangerously quiet. Green eyes blinked up innocently at him the child before him pushed a strand of black hair out of her eyes.
"Sorry daddy, I'll turn it down," Serenity said turning the dial on the muggle contraption she called a stereo. She flashed him a sweet little smile. Severus rolled his eyes.
"Turn it off. Those lyrics are not appropriate for a child of your age." Severus said firmly his voice was firm and unrelenting. Serenity rolled her eyes.
"Honestly daddy, I'm sixteen I do know what sex is." Severus paled.
"How exactly do you know? You haven't . . .?" the note of total panic in her fathers voice was enough to make Serenity almost laugh out loud.
"Haven't what?" she asked him sweetly taking a perverse amount of pleasure in the image of her father's eyes bulging and the sputtering tone of his voice. Serenity allowed him a few moments of torture before smiling at him.
"Of course not daddy, I'm only sixteen!" She exclaimed the relief that washed over her father's face was funnier even than the sputtering of earlier. This time she did laugh.
"Well right then," said Severus with a nod before turning to leave. After a moment, he turned back to her.
"School starts in two day's I expect that you have all your things packed?"
"Yes daddy everything is packed and ready," Serenity answered laughingly "It has been since last week."
"Well good then, I'm going to bed love. Don't stay up to late. We leave at seven tomorrow morning."
Serenity stood and embraced her father warmly in the way that she would not be allowed once school convened and he was once again her teacher instead of just her dad.
"Night daddy, I promise to go to bed soon okay?" Severus clutched at his daughter for a long moment looking into those clear green eyes of hers with the twinge of pain he always felt. He kissed her forehead and turned to go to his own room.
Serenity sat quietly in her room after her dad returned to his room. She was thinking of her father. Not daddy but the other man that she knew her dad saw more and more when he looked at her. She wondered about him in the quiet way that she always had.
Serenity Snape knew very little about her other father, though of course she knew more about him than he did of her. Her uncle Draco had given her almost all the information on the subject. That and the snippets of arguments and conversations she'd heard over the years between her dad and other people.
She thought pensively back on the last conversation she'd had with Draco about it. It had been earlier that summer and she'd been spending a weekend at Malfoy manner with Draco's children. They were a few years younger than her of course. Aunt Gin and Uncle Draco had fallen in love during the war. After it was all over they'd waited a few years before having children. While dad had had her nine months after Voldemort's fall almost to the day.
Both Ginny and Draco knew who Serenity's father was and they knew the story of their relationship though admittedly not all the details. Draco had developed it into kind of a bedtime story for Serenity, she never tired of it. It went something like this.
Severus Snape has had two great passions in his life: Potions and your father.
"What's his name uncle Draco?" Serenity would ask, Always she asked and always Draco would just smile rather ruefully.
"I would tell you if I could dearest."
"You can, you simply choose not to."
"Do you want to hear this story or not?"
"Oh Fine."
It is difficult to say which Severus loved more but I am inclined to say it was the later of the two. Your father was one of the few people who was never intimidated by Severus even as a very young child. I think that once your father grew into a man that fact excited Severus.
Your father and Severus fought in the war together and while I'm not sure when their mutual hatred for each other turned to love but honestly I think they always had loved each other in their own way it was merely a matter of them noticing. Anyway sometime over the course of the war they fell in love.
Everyone could see it of course and I think it was their love that helped them to end the war. After the war however things became turbulent. Severus began to think that your father would leave him and the world in general did not approve.
Your father was my age you see and Severus is of course older. It didn't bother your father nor did the fact that Severus was once a death eater or that he was not the most handsome man in the world. It did bother Severus, your father was incredibly handsome and Severus was forever on the defensive after the war. He was so sure you see that you're father's love was only temporary.
So Severus began to pick fights. In the beginning your father was patient. He knew Severus well enough to see what he was doing and he tried very hard to ignore it. But you know Severus once he gets a notion into his head he is loathe to relinquish it. Over the months your father seemed to grow sicklier and more tired. He was always on edge and near tears. Finally one day he just left.
I don't know the details of the fight that finally made it impossible for him I only know that he showed up at your aunt Hermione's doorstep crying and shaking. He left the country two days later. Severus never saw him again.
You were born six months later. We all wanted to tell your father. We begged Severus to tell him but Severus was adamant. I believe Severus was afraid that your father would take you or that worse he would stay around and turn you against him.
I still do not know why Severus fears this. It is not your father's way and never has been. I think more Severus is afraid of somehow taking more of your father's childhood. He never could understand you see that your father hadn't been a child since he was fourteen.
Serenity had pondered for hours over this story, looking for hidden clues to her father's identity. She kept coming back to one name but. . . That was madness. She would eventually sigh and leave it alone. She loved her dad and was really very happy with just him. But she saw as the years passed that her father was not as happy as he could be and she was not fool enough to realize that the missing link was in fact her other father.
Sometimes too she would see the others looking at her with a fondness she could quite understand Aunt Hermione and Uncle Ron especially would sometimes smile and shake their heads at some of her antic and announce her "just like your father" and she knew that they were not referring to the one she knew. She hated that they all knew and would not tell her. It seemed that all her family had a great secret from her. The other children did not know of course the kids were all close enough to her own age Sirius and Neville were even in her year.
Serenity sighed quietly as she thought about the tortured look her father sometimes got when he looked at her. She knew he missed her father and she often wondered if maybe just maybe her father missed him too. But if that were so wouldn't he have come back?
Serenity shook her head and lay down to go to sleep. Perhaps these were worries for another day.
Part Two.
Harry flew for days, the rain and wind pelting him fiercely. He clung to his broom like a man clinging for dear life. He knew that if he was keeping his calendar correctly school would have started two months ago. He wished it hadn't come to this. Off in the distance he saw a crumbling ruin and smiled for the first time in month's maybe even years. He was almost home.
He landed just outside Hogsmeade the tiny village was just as he'd remembered it. The same shops lined the streets the same people were walking in and out. Yes it was England all right the voices of the people around him were free of the harsh American syllables or the sensual Brazilian lilt. Yes he was definitely home. He walked to the post office. He ordered an owl and pretending not to notice the way the clerk gaped at him.
He caught a glimpse in a window and realized why. He looked like hell the circles under his eyes were dark enough to be bruises while his face was garishly white he knew too that he was too thin and his hair was matted and filthy. The thought struck him suddenly that he looked rather like Sirius had after his escape from Azkaban. It was a funny thought. It made him smile.
The young clerk handed him an owl, some parchment and ink. Harry scrawled a quick letter to Minerva asking only that he be allowed to come up to the castle and explain his situation when he arrived.
He received a response in fifteen minutes. He began his walk up to the castle dragging his broom weakly behind him. As Harry entered he felt a warm rush of air on his face and he could hear the chatter in the Great Hall reminding him suddenly that it was dinner time. Minerva stood in the entrance Hall waiting for him. Harry smiled softly at her.
"I'm home" he said softly to her then the world went black. He didn't even feel himself hit the floor.
Part Three
Serenity had watched with a mild interest as the Headmistress stood and left the Great Hall much to the surprise of the other staff. She was even more interested when Nearly Headless Nick came whooshing up to her father speaking softly to him. Her interest peaked as her beloved father's face went a shade of white she'd never even imagined and rushed from the hall closely followed by her Head of House Professor Lupin.
Serenity owled her father that night to ask what had happened. Her father in a most uncharacteristic fashion did no reply.
Severus Snape stared down at Harry Potter his eyes narrowed. The man looked like absolute shit. He looked like he hadn't slept in at least a year and he was much too thin. The poison that was coursing through his body seemed to be eating him alive from the inside. Severus swore.
Serenity had taken to volunteering in the infirmary in her fifth year. Her dad had always said it was an action that was almost Hufflepuff in its goodness. This had made Serenity laugh reminding him softly that as a Gryffindor she was obligated to be noble unlike his slimy Slytherin self. Her father had laughed and left her alone. She knew him well enough to know that he was proud of her.
If the whole staff hadn't been in quite so much of an uproar she would never have been allowed to see Harry Potter much less be the one to sit at his bedside and monitor his vitals in case he woke up. It was her seventh year and her work in the infirmary had already taught her enough to walk out of Hogwarts a certified Medi Witch She would of course begin her training at St. Mungo's next fall in her efforts to become an actual healer.
It was understandable than that in her bluster Madam Pomfrey forgot just whose daughter Serenity was and allowed her to monitor Potter while she dealt with the latest causalities of the Ravenclaw Quidditch practice. Besides Madam Pomfrey said to herself Potter would almost certainly remain unconscious for a few more days. So instead of fussing over trivialities she filled Serenity in on the relevant details of Potters case and went on to the other students.
Serenity sat by Harry Potter's bedside idly reading the latest edition of her dads Quarterly Potions Chronicle. There was an article by him that she'd been meaning to read. She was to check the mans vitals every ten minutes.
Harry groaned and opened his eyes just enough to let a sliver of light in. His head was pounding dreadfully.
"Lie still," said a soft voice above him. Something about that voice . . . it was a female voice and one he was certain he'd never heard before but there was still something oddly familiar about it. He decided to ignore it and tried to sit up.
A hand on his shoulder pushed him back onto the bed.
"What part of the phrase Lie still did you have difficulty comprehending?" said the girls voice sharply. Harry opened a single eye very to try and catch a glimpse of whoever was speaking. He could see long dark hair and a pale girlish face but it was too blurry to make out clearly. Harry groaned and once again drifted into unconsciousness.
Serenity had never had issues talking back to her elders. Well her father would say she had a serious talking back issue but he was mostly the reason she was like that. He didn't really respect much of anybody and for that reason Serenity had difficulty doing so. When she'd snapped at the strange man as he tried to sit up she'd not felt the least bit of hesitation. It was part of what would make her an excellent healer one day. She never babied her patients.
Part Four.
Severus was very upset when he saw his daughter leaning over Harry Potter's prone form taking his vitals are scribbling them down on his chart. He scowled quite fiercely at her. She didn't notice as she took up her periodical and went back to reading. Severus approached Potters bed. He knew that his daughter had not the slightest inkling that the man she was so carefully monitoring was her missing parent. Severus decided that at this point the best course of action was to let it be. Perhaps they would get to know each other.
Serenity looked up at him and smiled.
"Hi daddy, Madam Pomfrey say's the poison that's going through him is something she doesn't recognize. Can you fix it?" His daughter's expression was concerned and hopeful at the same time. Severus realized that his daughter had no doubt that he could save this man. It was a comforting thought.
"Perhaps, it would have been easier had Mr. Potter come as soon as the potion reactivated itself. He would have seen the symptoms instantly it has been active in his body for at the very least six months, a year is more likely." Said Severus inadvertently launching himself into lecture mode. His daughter listened interestedly.
"You said reactivated. Am I to understand that this poison has been in his system for a long time?" Serenity asked. As a future healer she liked to know everything she could about this sort of thing. Especially since she planned to specialize in poisons.
"Indeed this particular poison was ingested by Mister Potter some nineteen years ago. Just before the fall of Voldemort. We were able to deactivate it before it caused too much damage and I have no doubt we will be able to do so again however it will have already caused more damage than is easily rectified." Severus couldn't help but swell with pride as he watched his daughter thoughtfully process this information. She was just so fucking smart. Her forehead crinkled thoughtfully.
"If as you say Mister Potter has been infected before, wouldn't he have recognized the symptoms as soon as the poison reactivated?" Serenity asked curiously.
"One would assume so however it is difficult to say. It has after all been nearly two decades one can forget much in such a period of time." Severus replied. He could tell by his daughters face that she found this an unlikely explanation. But she did not question him on it rather left it alone. She had been doing that a lot lately, letting things drop. He didn't like it. It wasn't like her.
"How has the patient been?" Severus asked after a moment.
"Well his vitals are fluctuating but have so far stayed mostly within safe parameters. He regained consciousness for a few seconds but passed out quickly. He's been pretty steady for the last hour or so. I actually expect him to wake up pretty soon." Severus felt a smile tug at the corner of his mouth. She just sounded so damn adult.
"Very Good, I will continue to work on the antidote I will bring it up as soon as it is prepared," Severus turned to go. He was nearly out of the hospital when he turned back "Serenity love, don't get so caught up in your exciting new patient that you neglect your homework."
Serenity smiled brightly at him. Severus smiled to himself and left the room.
Part Five
Harry was struggling for consciousness. He could hear the soft muttering of spells above him. The voice was soft and almost lyric in speaking the spells. He heard a groan and it took him a moment to realize it actually came from him. His eyes slid painfully open. Everything was blurry.
"Well good morning, I was beginning to think you were going to sleep all day." Said the same softly girlish voice.
"Glasses," Harry rasped unable to think of anything other than his blurry eyesight. He felt them gently slipped onto the bridge of his nose and then he could see. A girl hovered above him and for the briefest moment he thought she was his mother. But no this girl had thick curling black hair. His mother's was red. Those eyes though, that deep sea green that seemed to swallow the world.
The girl was terribly pretty. As Harry looked at her he realized that her eyes were not in fact exactly like his mother's the irises were heavily lined with black as if someone had drawn them with a very heavy pen. It was an odd effect. Her cheekbones were high with a strength that on a man would have been intimidating but made her look somehow gentle. She looked like . . . Severus? It was odd, everything about her made him think of his former lover yet really she looked nothing like him.
"So Mister Potter, how are you feeling?" she asked him.
"Like shit and call me Harry everyone does." Harry responded.
"I would give you some headache cure but professor Snape has forbidden me to give you anything until we know exactly what it will take to create an antidote."
"Right okay." Harry said he started to nod but it shot little bullets of pain into his brain so he stopped. He felt suddenly like a student back in the hospital wing after his latest fuck up. Not the thirty five year old man that he actually was.
"I'm Serenity by the way; I'm in charge of your basic care. Madam Pomfrey has the rest of the infirmary to deal with and well you need constant monitoring."
"Well aren't I just the special one?" Harry felt his stomach growl. The girl heard it she snapped her fingers promptly and a house elf appeared with a bowl of steaming soup.
Harry tried to sit up and take it but pain lanced through him like red hot fire and he fell back with a little gasp.
"Yeah let's not do that shall we?" the girl said gently, she took a pillow from another bed and tucked it very gently under Harry's head. "How about instead you stay just how you are and I will feed you."
Over the next couple of days Harry grew used to his nurse. It occurred to him once or twice that as a student she should probably be in her classes rather than at his bedside. She had been there however every time he managed to open his eyes. She was an odd girl Harry decided. She has a cutting sense of humor that made Harry wonder if she had any friends at all.
Madam Pomfrey checked in on him occasionally of course but it was always a brief meeting she seemed to trust this girl implicitly. Harry had several visitors over the course of the next couple of days. Both Ron and Hermione came by with their children as well as Draco. Oddly despite the fact that none of them worked at the school they all seemed to know Serenity quite well and instead of inquiring after his well being each seemed deeply interested in his opinion of his nurse.
One day Harry woke up to an argument. He could here the harshly confrontational tones of Severus Snape well matched by the calmer but still rage filled tones of his own nurse.
"Serenity I have just spoken with Professor Lupin he tells me you have skipped Every one of your classes this last week on the excuse that you are sick and that you have not turned in a single piece of homework." Severus Snape was glaring at the dark haired girl before him. Even from a distance Harry could see the young girls pouting. He wondered vaguely why Remus was reporting to Severus about a student in his own house instead of dealing with it himself.
"I have to be here! Harry Potter is my patient and he needs constant care."
"Don't give me that young lady you know as well as I do that Madam Pomfrey is perfectly capable of monitoring his vital signs. As for him being your patient there is not a single patient in this infirmary that is yours. You are a student not a trained Medi-Witch and as such you have no authority in this Wing. Now you listen to me you will leave this hospital and go to your classes! You will not enter it again until you have caught up on all your homework. Is that clear?" Severus's tone was not one you argue with.
"Yes sir," the girl turned to leave the room. Severus Snape looked after her for a moment.
"Serenity!" He called after her, she turned. "You know your school work is important."
Serenity turned and ran back to him throwing her arms around him. Much to Harry's surprise Severus didn't push her away rather he wrapped his arms around her small body and kissed the top of her hair.
"I love you. You're an insufferable brat but I love you." Severus said this softly while running his fingers through Serenity's hair. Harry felt ill.
"I love you too and I'm sorry I blew off my classes." Serenity said softly before standing on her toes to kiss Severus lightly on the cheek.
"Well, just don't let it happen again alright?" The girl smiled and skipped out of the hospital wing. Severus sighed and shook his head but there was a small smile pulled at his mouth.
Harry lay very still. So Severus a taken another lover another student no less. It surprised him Harry had to admit that it did. Severus had never seemed the type to sleep with students. Even when they were together Harry had known it was a huge stretch for his lover. And yet what other explanation could there be? The obvious love the two shared while it had not appeared particularly intimate it was clearly strong. Harry sighed wishing once again that he had never come here. Even if it would save his life.
Harry didn't see Serenity for two days. She was dozing by his bedside when he woke up. She held a Charms book in her hand. Harry thought back to the fact that she'd been told not to come back until she was caught up on a weeks worth of assignments. No wonder she was exhausted. Harry was glad to see her. After giving it some thought he decided it wasn't her fault she was sleeping with the love of his life. He was hoping he could get some news about Severus.
Harry deliberately made a loud groaning noise despite the fact that he was feeling much better and his pain warranted little more than a whimper. It worked however because when he opened his eyes a moment later the girls was awake and taking his vitals. The girl smiled at him.
"You look better." Harry grinned at her. Hoping to charm her right from the start that way she was less likely to notice he was pumping her for information.
"Well I feel better, all thanks to you I'm sure." Serenity laughed and smiled feeling quite pleased.
"More thanks to Professor Snape, I've never seen him work this hard to help somebody out. Its odd he never leaves his lab anymore got a sub teaching his classes. He must really like you." Serenity glanced at Harry Potter hoping to see how this speech affected him. Serenity was half Slytherin after all and she had seen the way daddy looked at this man. Not to mention she'd always come back to his name over the years. It had always seemed mad. But perhaps not, at least not with the way her father looked at him.
"Yeah Professor Snape's a good guy. He was my teacher way back when, haven't seen him in years of course." Harry was trying to decide how to hit this girl. On the one had he couldn't seem too interested in her boyfriend and on the other he wanted to know everything. She was a teenage girl though maybe she would just talk.
"Oh were you just his student and I mean I imagine you guys worked together during the war, funny that you two haven't kept in touch. I always heard you got along pretty decently during the war. I guess that was just a rumor." Serenity had learned how to question people from her father. The trick was to act as though you knew everything already you just had to let them confirm it. She watched the annoyed expression that flitted across Potters face.
"Well I mean yeah of course we got pretty close during the war. I mean it was a war though sometimes you just don't want to see the people who remind you of that time. I think that was Severus deal really. He didn't like to be reminded you know. That's why we stopped seeing each other, err I mean why we didn't stay in touch." Harry had said all this before he even really realized he was talking and to Severus new lover no less. Serenity did not seem the least surprised by this confession and began taking his vitals once again.
"That makes sense. Sure no doubt." She smiled encouragingly at him and Harry was comforted thinking that she didn't have the least suspicion that he and Severus had been involved all those years ago. Serenity finished taking Harry Potter's vitals and notated them on his chart. The whole time smiling softly to her, it had taken her seventeen years of her life but at last she had the answer. Harry Potter was her father. Not that she had the faintest idea what to do about it of course.
Serenity went back to Gryffindor tower that night still puzzling over what to do about this whole Harry Potter situation. She'd noticed in just a few short moments that the man still cared about her dad. It had been in the desperation of his tone when she mentioned him. The curiosity he had tried to hide behind a casual façade but mostly it was the way Harry said his name. Severus softly like a prayer, yes Harry Potter definitely loved Severus Snape.
"But what the fuck am I supposed to do about him?" Serenity asked.
"Kill the rat bastard," was Sirius Weasley's answer. Serenity turned to him with a warm smile. Sirius's hair was a darker red then his fathers. Less carrot and more auburn really, his eyes were a painfully clear shade of blue he was already nearly a foot taller than Serenity's tiny five three.
"Okay so we kill him than, how will that solve it really?" Serenity asked knowing her boyfriend had on idea what they were talking about.
"Murder solves all life's problems." Responded Sirius nodding his head for emphasis.
"Okay than, will you help me with that?"
"Of course, who are we killing than?"
"Harry Potter."
"Wait, why are we going to kill my godfather?" asked Neville joining his twin brother. Neville was a good two inches shorter than Sirius and his hair was nothing if not a mass of carroty curls, not identical like their uncles in fact people often doubted that they were actually twins.
"I'm not sure but Serenity seems to think it necessary so who am I to question her."
Serenity smiled at the boys.
"We have to kill him because he is the answer to the question I've been asking since I was old enough to talk."
"Where's my binky?" asked Neville raising an eyebrow. Serenity rolled her eyes.
"No genius. He's my other father," she said this so softly that Neville and Sirius had to strain to hear her. Neither Sirius nor Neville showed surprise at this fact. They just nodded their heads.
"Yeah we. . . Uh we kind of umm guessed that a couple years ago." Sirius didn't look at her as he said this. His eyes were firmly locked on the stone floor. This was probably lucky because the look she was giving him would have probably turned him to stone.
"What do you mean you guessed a couple of years ago?" Severus Snape very rarely yelled rather he lowered his voice so low that it was almost impossible to hear. His daughter was like him in this respect. It was no surprise than that both Neville and Sirius had to strain to hear her voice. It was barely more than a whisper. It demanded an answer and explanation immediately.
"Well umm, you see we heard Mum arguing with him about two years ago. She . . . was telling you're dad that Harry deserved to know and that, that it had been to long and he deserved to know that he had a daughter. That he would want to know. Then your dad told her that he would tell Harry in his own good time and not before then . . . Than he said that she had signed an oath the day that you were born that if she was to know you than she would tell no one the true identity of your other father. Not him or you so it was too late now." Sirius paused and Neville took it up without hesitation.
"The next day Harry was out at the house and Mum was trying to convince him to go see your dad but she couldn't say why. She just said that he would definitely want to go see him as soon as he could. And Harry told her to mind her own business that he didn't want to see you're dad ever again and she would just have to accept it. Then he left and we didn't see him for the longest time we knew he was mad at mum but what could we do?"
"We tried to tell you. That very day we sent you an owl but the owl wouldn't fly off. Then we flooed over to tell you in person but every time we tried we started going off about our potions assignment. The vow that our mum took for some reason affected us too. Until just now anyway, I guess its okay because now you know." The boys paused looking at Serenity. She was very white she always lost color when she was angry.
"I see," she said very quietly before turning on her heel and storming off toward the dungeons.
"Wait, Serenity where are you going?" Sirius called after her. Serenity didn't pause nor did she answer.
Part Six
Severus Snape had finally finished the antidote. He had rushed up the hospital wing to administer it. Once Harry took it he'd be well enough to leave by the next morning. He could leave and Serenity would once again be safe from the truth. Any risk of exposure dying with Harry Potter's departure. As if life could ever be that simple.
Severus was bending over Harry's bed trying to gently shake him awake when the door of the hospital wing opened with a slam and a gust of wind. Serenity charged through the door. Her green eyes looked like they were on fire. Her hair was floating around her neck and Severus could feel the angry magic coming off her from where he stood across the wing.
"DADDY!!!!"
Harry Potter sat up in surprise. He had felt a huge surge of angry magic unlike anything he'd felt in nearly two decades. Then moments later he'd heard the angry shrill cry of 'daddy'. Harry glanced at Severus who was staring at Serenity with a look of pure shock on his face. Harry couldn't blame him the girl positively radiated rage. She began taking steps toward Severus.
"You! You made them take a . . . oath?!?! A magically binding oath that not even their children can break? You forced my best friends to keep secrets from me. Made my family lie to me!?! All to protect your stupid selfish pride. How DARE you Severus Snape? How dare you?" The girl's voice was almost a hiss at this point. In fact Harry suddenly realized it was a hiss. Serenity was speaking parseltongue and she was not happy.
Severus was shocked. He'd known his daughter could speak parseltongue of course she'd made a friend of every garden snake she came across. But he'd never heard her use it outside of her snake friends and he was fairly certain she didn't realize she was using it now. He didn't know what to say. How had she found out about the oath any how?
"Serenity, I really think you should calm down so we can talk about this, don't you?" Severus's voice was soft and gentle as he spoke to his daughter. Serenity glared at him than quite suddenly her eyes shifted to Harry. Her head tilted slightly to the side and she smiled. It was not a nice smile.
"Does he even know daddy? He's been here nearly two weeks I imagine you've had a chance to tell him by now, haven't you?"
Harry watched with a mild sort of surprise as Severus's eye shifted from the young woman before him (who was inexplicably calling him daddy) to himself. Severus had never in all his years seen Severus look so . . . Terrified.
"Serenity, I realize you are upset but I had a good reason. Don't you want to know what it is before you ruin it all?" Serenity looked at her father in surprise.
"Didn't I ruin it all already? I mean you were happy before you found out I'd be coming along. That's why you did it wasn't it? Why you kept me a secret? Because you were ashamed you didn't want the person you loved to know how majorly you'd fucked things over. Well you cannot keep me a secret forever." Serenity looked once again at Harry Potter. "Guess what Severus never told you Mister Potter."
"Serenity don't do this! I was never ashamed of you! I love you just please don't . . . don't do this." Severus Snape sounded just broken. Serenity looked at him all the rage seemed to drain out of her. She sunk to the ground as her knees gave out beneath her. Severus moved to her and wrapped his arms around her sobbing form.
"I'm sorry, I'm so sorry. I never knew you thought I was ashamed of you. I love you. You're my little girl. Don't you see I love you? I just . . . I just didn't want you to get hurt."
"Well Looks like you fucked that up quite nicely." Serenity laughed as tears continued to pour down her face. "Well now that I've made a massive scene. I think I'll go to bed. Bit sleepy really."
Serenity hugged her father a final time and walked from the room but just before she did she gave Harry Potter a very meaningful look. As if willing him to understand what he'd just seen and heard. Harry wondered suddenly just how much of what he'd seen was real.
Serenity practically skipped back to her dorm. Harry Potter was sure to ask dad about the fight and dad well dad would just have to tell the truth.
Part Seven.
Severus stood shell shocked in the hospital wing as his daughter skipped away like nothing had happened.
"Well, that was interesting." Came Harry's voice from behind him. Severus turned to him remembering suddenly that he had yet to give Harry the antidote. He reached into his robes and pulled out a vial of green liquid. He handed it to Harry and turned to go. Harry took the entire vial in one gulp before calling after Severus.
"You're bloody mad if you think I will let you walk away without telling me what that was all about."
"You Mister Potter are bed ridden and can no more stop me walking away than a small child could." With that Severus Snape left the hospital wing. Harry rolled his eyes. He'd be damned if he let Severus walk away from him. He moved to push himself out of the bed. He managed to stay standing for a whole two seconds before collapsing onto his bed once more.
"Right, perhaps tomorrow than."
The next morning Harry felt remarkably better. He jumped from his bed in the hospital wing and dressed himself before Madam Pomfrey was even able to bring him his breakfast.
"Mister Potter! You get back into that bed this instant. You are not well until I say you are well! Is that clear young man?" Harry obediently sat down on his bed and ate some breakfast while Madam Pomfrey examined him.
"Would it be alright if I went for a walk at least?" asked Harry very humbly knowing he would go whether she said yes or not.
"Well alright you do seem remarkably better. So you may go for a walk but I expect you to check in with me by dinner time. Don't do anything to strenuous and try to avoid students. It's a Saturday so it will be difficult but I don't want you frightening them."
The instant he was out of Pomfrey's clutches he directed his feet to the dungeons. He found Severus's private quarters with disturbing ease. Its just one of those things you can never forget. Where the love of your life lives. Harry didn't have the password but knew Severus's guardian snake quite well enough to gain entrance.
"It has been a long time." Said the snake when Harry greeted him.
"He sent me away."
"There was a time, Shadow that this would have done no good."
"Yes, I know but he broke me. He said that he'd killed our child."
"He did not. I have seen her, a lioness in her own right. She speaks as well."
"I know he didn't kill her. Well now I know."
"He needs you now more than ever before. Have you come home to him?"
"I don't know old friend, I really wish I did. Will you let me see him?"
The snake did not answer but the portrait swung open. Harry entered Severus's private chambers and felt and though he was walking into the past. The only thing that had changed that now the mantle instead of hosting candles now held pictures. Harry lifted one up it was Serenity he guessed. A chubby smiling child of about two was waving up at him.
Severus entered the room but Harry did not turn.
"She's beautiful." Harry said very softly. He felt the tears of hurt rising in his eyes. All these years. Years he could have known his child, years he could have loved her and known her. "You told me you'd ended the pregnancy."
"I lied." Harry turned to look at the man he still loved more than air.
"Why?"
"Because, I loved you and I knew that if we had a child you would stay. You would never leave or live your life the way you wanted to. The way you needed to. You would have just stayed with me and her and let your dreams die. I couldn't let you do that."
"But Severus all I wanted was to be with you. To have a family with you, everything else was just a way to kill time." Harry's voice was soft, gentle.
"You wanted to go. I could see it in your face the day you left."
"You wanted me to go. Nothing would have satisfied you. When you came to me and told me you'd been pregnant that you ended it. I died. I knew if you were willing to-to kill your own child to be rid of me. Then, I must have been imagining that you loved me at all. Was I?"
"Were you what?"
"Imagining that you loved me. You didn't kill her after all. You just kept her from me. Why is that Severus?"
"I told you. You would not ever have left. You would have stayed around. Later if you'd come back. You would have wanted to know her and you would have stayed close by and I couldn't stand the idea of seeing you everyday. Seeing you and knowing I couldn't have you."
"So you do love me Severus. I have always suspected as much." Severus turned to him now. His face more serious than Harry had ever seen it.
"I have loved you with every moment that I breathed for longer than I can remember. Loving you is as much a part of me and my life as magic."
Harry stared at Severus. He walked toward him and reaching up his hand he touched his cheek.
"You would do anything to protect me wouldn't you? Even break your own heart." Severus did not respond. He didn't have to, they both knew the answer. Harry moved closer and placed his lips gently upon Severus's.
It was sweeter than he could remember it being. It was heady and beautiful, kissing Severus was like breathing your first breath of air after being under water for ten minutes. It was like sunshine after a week of clouds and darkness. It was love.
Epilogue
Serenity sat quietly in her room. She was leaving for St. Mungo's in the morning to start her internship. She heard noises from the next room a sort of deep groaning noise, a slam against the wall. She smiled softly too herself and reached across to her stereo.
"Freaking gross." She said to the empty room and tried not to smile.
The next morning her parents delivered her to the door of St. Mungo's. Harry sighed to see his daughter go. It had been nearly two years since the temper tantrum that had brought them together and already he adored her more than just about any father could. Severus sighed and hugged his daughter.
The thought suddenly struck him that this would be the first time in her life that they wouldn't see each other ever single day. Severus pulled his little girl closer and kissed her gently on the forehead.
"Be good, Write often and stay focused on your studies. I love you."
"I love you too Daddy."
Serenity disentangled herself from her fathers hug. Harry walked to Severus and wrapped his arms around him as Serenity waved and entered St. Mungo's with a couple of other students.
"Hey isn't that Harry Potter? And Severus Snape with him why are they hugging like that?" said a boy staring out the window at Serenity's parents.
"Nah, those are just my parents."