Author Name: Saerry Snape
Rating: PG-13, may be R in later chapters
Disclaimer: This story is based on characters and situations created and owned by JK Rowling, various publishers including but not limited to Bloomsbury Books, Scholastic Books and Raincoast Books, and Warner Bros., Inc. No money is being made and no copyright or trademark infringement is intended. Inspired by Lady Erised's wonderful Snapefics (specifically The Prince Returns, When the Past Comes Back, and Betrayal), Constantine1453's Harry Potter and the Trials and of His Life, and my Snapefic Nothing But the Rain. The Dark Prince officially belongs to Lady Erised; I use him with her permission. Lady of the Night is the sequel to my fic The Dark Prince.
Summary: Sixteen years after Hermione Granger gave birth to a dark-haired, green-eyed little girl, the past has returned to haunt the victims of a time in September of 2002. The year is 2019 and The Dark Prince has been released…
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Chase the sun in my head
Blistered skin turning red
I can't complain
It's something to do
Cloud my mind and erase you
Fuel – Scar
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Chapter 1…sun in my head…
There was fire.
Lots of fire. Fire everywhere as far as the eye could see. Even the sky was framed in tongues of orange flame.
And she stood in the center of it, the beginning and the end. Alpha and Omega.
Figures swirled in the dark smoke that rose from the dancing flames; spinning, twirling, dancing about her. But she dreaded their presences, hated the feelings that they brought with them. Feelings of death, decay, and destruction.
But…there were two among them that she did not dread.
She feared them.
The two were suddenly before her as she thought of them, their eyes boring into hers. Always they stared at her, never moving, eyes burning bright into their faces – faces made of the ash from the fires. They never moved. Only watched. Watched her and her alone.
They always watched her, this green-eyed apparition with his red-eyed companion. Or was it the other way around?
Who was Lord and who was Servant?
Which of the two was which?
She could never tell.
Terror enveloped her as the green-eyed one stepped forward, hand of ash and shadow outstretched, fingers formless one moment and perfectly proportioned the next. As he had done for as long as she had been here, for as long as she had seen him, he spoke, his voice dark and rich.
"Come," he said, in a voice that was familiar to her, words that were familiar to her. "Join us. Come home, my daughter, my dark angel. Come home."
Her hand reached without her volition. It lifted and reached and stretched towards his own, turning to shadow and ash as it neared his. Fingers nearly touched, shadow melded into shadow, ash into ash, and then…
A figure, one of those from the dancing circle, plunged into her open space in the center and grabbed her other arm, spinning her. She spun wildly and faced the figure. Black eyes burned into hers, a cold silver fire burning inside them.
"Helena, wake up! Helena!"
Someone shook her violently then cursed, grabbing something off the bedside table. Cold enveloped her and she shot awake, freeing her mind from the last smoky tendrils of the dream.
Helena Lilliane Granger shot into the world of the living from that of the dreams, blinking furiously to clear the still lingering fire from the back of her eyelids. Someone continued to shake her and she could barely distinguish their shape in the dark. But she did not have to see their face to know who it was.
"I am awake, Uncle."
The hands on her shoulders relaxed and the frantic shaking stopped. Helena blinked again, trying to disperse the last lingering tongue of fire from her vision. The figure looming above her sighed in relief, unknowing of her conflict.
"I was beginning to worry."
"Sorry, Uncle," said Helena, feeling as though she were six again and apologizing for running away from her guardian in Diagon Alley, leaving him afraid for her life and angry beyond words at her for running. She blinked again, willing the fire away and finally got it to go back into the recesses of her mind where it belonged. The darkness of her bedroom filled her vision and her Uncle's dark countenance could be made out above her. She asked, "What did you wake me for?"
The dark eyes in the face above her were filled with concern then laughter as he shook her.
"I was worried for you, silly goose. You were having a nightmare. Again."
Helena nodded slowly, trying not to recall the dream that had been a reoccurring nightmare since her eleventh birthday. It has reoccurred each year on her birthday until two years ago when it had begun to occur on the 25th of December as well. This date had a great deal of significance to her Uncle but she still had not the slightest idea as of why. He had never told her of it and she had never asked, hoping he would one day tell her.
"It was that dream again, wasn't it?"
Helena nodded again. A large, calloused hand gently touched her shoulder and her Uncle's voice asked, "Do you want to talk about it?" He asked even though he already knew the answer.
"No. Don't worry, Uncle." Helena smiled in the dark, trying to appease her dear Uncle's fears even if she could not appease her own. She had never spoken of her reoccurring dream to anyone. Not even her beloved Uncle.
He smiled in the dark and patted her shoulder, saying, "Maybe later, then?" knowing as he said it that there would be no later.
Helena smiled in return and said with a half-shrug, "Perhaps." She then hunkered back down into her sheets and said, "Good night, Uncle."
Severus Snape smiled at his goddaughter and ruffled her short-cropped, bushy black hair before turning to leave.
"Good night, Lena."
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You could be waiting for a day that won't come
And you could be so much more than you've become
And I have found my feet 257 weeks
But you could be waiting for a day that won't come
You could be waiting for your life to begin
Nine Days – 257 Weeks
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Chapter 2
…so much more…
The next day (or shall we say, later that day as Helena's dream occurred at twelve midnight on the morning of her birth day), Helena and Snape left the small cottage in the mountains that they lived in when not at Hogwarts, traveling by broom to the castle. This was not only because the castle was only a two-hour broom ride away and both liked to fly but because of the two's great dislike of Floo travel. When they touched down at the gate that led onto the grounds, they found a smiling Albus Dumbledore waiting for them. Helena grinned widely as she dismounted, rushing to hug the ancient wizard, burying her face in his beard. She had known the old wizard for as long as she could remember and he and he godfather (both lovingly called 'Uncle') has been her trusted confidants and friends since her mother's death. Dumbledore chuckled and wrapped his thin arms about her, returning her hug warmly. Helena sighed and breathed in the scent of the old man. He always smelled of Earl Grey and some sort of candy, be it Muggle or Wizard. Today it was…
Helena looked up and asked teasingly, "Lemon drops today, Uncle?"
"Clever child. Clever, clever, clever." The old wizard chuckled and shook his head. "Always right, you are. Come now, Severus! Let us go up to the castle. I'm certain the two of you are tired and I'm dying for another lemon drop. Lena?"
"Yes, Uncle Albus."
Helena disengaged herself from the old wizard, cast a grin at both men, then grabbed her broom and ran across the grounds towards the castle. The two men followed at a slower pace, Snape shrinking his broom and tucking it into on of his cloak pockets as they went.
Dumbledore smiled as he watched Helena dash up the steps two at the time and said, "She's sixteen now."
"I know."
"Something is troubling you."
Snape sighed and asked, "Do you remember what will happen in less than five months, Albus?"
Dumbledore bowed his head.
"I do."
"And you know what it will mean for her. For all of us."
"Severus," said Dumbledore firmly, looking the younger man in the eye. "This is the very reason Hermione made you Helena's godfather. She knew you would be the best person to care for her daughter when this happened."
"I believe she thought she was going to be alive for that day," said Snape bitterly.
"We cannot foresee the future, Severus."
"Not with Trelawney at least."
"Sybil has her moments," said Dumbledore in defense of the rather eccentric teacher.
"A true moment would have been for her not to have made that prediction fifteen years ago."
"Severus…"
"I've raised that child as best I could, Albus. For twelve of her sixteen years, I've been the only parents she's had. I won't lose her just because of Trelawney's prediction or her twice damned father's whims."
Dumbledore placed a withered hand on Snape's shoulder and softly said, "I know, Severus. I know. Now," he continued in a light tone, "I suggest we get up to my office before Lena comes after us."
Severus smiled slightly and the two men headed for the castle.
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By the time they arrived at Dumbledore's office they found Helena already inside. The teen had a knack for guessing the candy the Headmaster used as his password every time and as many times as Snape had warned him about it, the old wizard had ignored it. As they entered the office, they found Helena sitting sideways in one of the chairs, her legs crossed over the arm and the tin of lemon drops resting in her lap.
Dumbledore smiled at her and said wistfully, "And I so carefully hid them."
Helena grinned and Snape said, "Albus, have you not yet learned that Lena know exactly where you hide that tin?"
"Then I suppose I shall have to hide it elsewhere."
Helena shot a glare at her godfather then said, "I'll find it again."
"I have no doubt," said Dumbledore as he settled into his chair. "Why don't you do wander the castle, Lena? Severus and I have to talk."
Helena's brow furrowed. She was constantly being told that she had her mother's sharp mind but very few people remembered this. She knew well enough that every time she was asked to leave a room these two men were in, it was because they were either talking about her, her twelve-years-dead mother, or her still-living-but-imprisoned father. Or all three. But she never protested, as she did not do now. She simply nodded, rising gracefully from her chair and placing the candy tin on the claw-footed desk.
"Yes, Uncle Albus," was all she said before spinning on her heel and stalking out without a sound. As soon as the door closed behind her, Snape turned a mild scowl on Dumbledore.
"You do know that she knows exactly what we are going to talk about, don't you?"
Dumbledore shook his head and said solemnly, "No, Severus, I do not know. I don't see as good as I used to." The old wizard sighed and looked every bit of his almost 200 years.
"She knows her history, Albus," said Snape. "I told you the day Hermione died and Helena passed into my care that I would no hide it from her."
"All of it?"
"The whole bloody history," growled Snape. "Do you know that Weasley refuses to see her?"
"Even Natasha?"
"No, no. Natasha comes sometimes, brings those twins of theirs with her occasionally. It's Weasley himself who doesn't come. Either it too hard for him to face Hermione's daughter…"
"Or too hard for him to face Harry's daughter," finished Dumbledore.
Snape nodded. "She had his eyes, Lily's eyes."
"I know."
"What of Potter?" asked Snape, changing the subject. "Where do you think he'll go when he is released?"
"I suspect he will search out Voldemort."
Snape gingerly touched the Mark on his left arm and asked, "Do you know where he is?"
Dumbledore shook his head and replied, "No. Only that he's still alive. You can attest to that. He's possibly in Albania again but we have a watch there now."
"If he did not want to be seen, then he would not be seen. You know that as well as I do, Albus."
Dumbledore only nodded.
"Nevertheless, we have eyes there. Has he called lately"
"Not in twelve years. The last time he called was the day Hermione was murdered."
"We never proved that, Severus."
"Albus," said Snape, leaning forward. "Why do you think I have always been so sure about how she died?"
"You were there."
"I arrived just in time to keep Helena out of their hands. Voldemort wanted her then and he wants her now. She is his most sure way of making the world – the whole world – cower at his feet. Surely you guessed this was the reason he wanted Hermione so badly.
"Enlighten me."
"A child born from two Muggle's is a one in a million chance. These children have magic that can remain untapped, hidden within themselves."
"How do you know this?"
"A plan when I was the Dark Prince. But that's not what we are talking about. If Voldemort used the same plan as he intended to use when I was still Prince, then he transferred some of his power to Potter before…"
"Before he and Hermione slept together."
"If he kept the plan the same."
"Meaning?"
"Meaning Helena is much, much stronger than we originally believed."
"If Voldemort kept to that plan."
"Not necessarily. Potter was a strong wizard in his own right. Even without Voldemort's powers passed on through him into Helena…"
"Helena would still be powerful."
"About as strong as Potter was. Maybe a little more."
"But," said Dumbledore, "if Voldemort's power was passed from Harry into Helena…"
Snape sighed and said, "Then we have to do all we can to make sure she's not taken. If she is, the Dark Prince may have to make another debut. And this time, he may have to kill his replacement."
"If his replacement fights him."
"Oh, I assure you, Albus, he will. You didn't see Potter. He was completely and totally taken over."
"Hermione swore…"
"Hermione was fooled. Potter is like a crocodile, fooling her into believing he could be saved. I almost believed it myself. I even gave him that chance."
"Well, that's shows one thing."
"What?"
"You're a better man than he is."
Snape laughed.
"Perhaps, Albus, perhaps. But I'm still the Dark Prince. Never forget that. I'm never a good man."
Dumbledore smiled and said, "I remember."
Snape nodded then said, "I should go find Lena. Natasha insists on throwing her a party."
"At the Burrow?"
"You are invited."
"I may pop in," said Dumbledore with his customary twinkle in his eyes.
Snape smiled slightly, tilting his head towards the older wizard. He said, "Good day, Albus," then turned and left.
A/N: Ha! I finish The Dark Prince and post the first part of Lady of the Night on the same day. Imagine that. Imagine. Hush, Atra.