Cordelia blinked as she sat up. Popping her thumb into her mouth, she looked around the room she was in. It so wasn't her apartment. Looking down, she pulled her thumb from her mouth with a large 'POP!'. She blinked again, what was wrong with her? She hadn't sucked her thumb in a long time, way before she had entered kindergarten.
After forcing her hands into her lap, Cordelia tried to figure out where the hell she was. Looking about the room, she noticed it was decorated tastefully, she decided, with lots of cream and a few pastels. Not exactly, her cup of tea, but it could have been worse. A few toys were scattered around the floor and a large bear lay on the bed.
Crossing her arms across her chest, she blinked and looked down. "I don't have boobs," she stated out loud. "I don't have boobs, I've always had boobs." Her hands traveled to her hair. It was long. Her mouth dropped open. "This is a spell Cordelia," she told herself. "It's always a spell."
"Cordelia, you're up," a man came into the room, dressed completely in black, with sallow skin and stringy black hair. His crooked nose completed the severe and imposing air about him. When he heard the word spell, his eyes narrowed. "What have I told you about using magic?"
Looking up at the man, Cordelia's mind began to shout 'Vampire! Run! Stake it!' Her hand went about her throat, and she was relieved when she found a cross beneath her fingers. "It is not a toy, it's a weapon," they recited at the same time. Cordelia wrinkled her nose; where had that come from? Finally, she was back in control of her voice. "S-s-stay b-b-back," she stuttered as she scuttled back towards the corner, trying to get away from this vampire look-alike.
Severus Snape sighed, "For the last time Cordelia. I am not a vampire. No, I do not care what McGonagall's brat of a grandson told you," he looked down at her.
She searched around for anything
wooden, finding a stake that looked slightly childlike under a pillow;
she hurled it at him. It bounced harmlessly off of him. "But you look like
a vampire," Cordelia accused.
Paravati Patil and Lavender Brown were in the first floor's female lavatory during their break between classes. They were currently discussing the latest bit of gossip that was floating about Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry.
"I can't believe they're just going to let that girl in here," Lavender sighed as she pulled out a mirror to make sure her make-up was in place.
"I know!" Paravati exclaimed as she too checked her own make-up. "I don't care if she's a little kid, but with parents like hers, she could easily murder us in our sleep.
"Maybe Minister Fudge is right," Lavender conceded as her mirror snapped shut. "Maybe Professor Dumbledore is senile and crazy."
The toilet flushed and Hermione
Granger came out of a nearby stall. "Whose coming to Hogwarts?" she asked,
curious. She, as Head Girl, should never partake in idle gossip, was curious.
Lavender and Paravati looked at one another. Hermione had never tried to partake in their gossip before, but she did deserve to know. She was Harry Potter's best friend, and the girl's father had killed his parents.
"A girl is coming to Hogwarts," Paravati explained, "Under Headmaster Dumbledore's protection. But the thing is, her father is Sirius Black."
Hermione paled slightly.
Sirius Black's daughter was coming to Hogwarts? "Harry," she whispered
softly. "Thank you so much, I'll be sure to tell him," Hermione said briskly
before bustling out of the bathroom, eager to find her best friends and
tell them the important news.
Spike ran out of one of the many doors that lead out onto the grounds of Hogwarts. Grams was busy having students in class. So, he was free, and it was fun, fun, fun. Spying players on the quidditch field, he ran toward it.
Quidditch was his favorite game ever. He wanted to be a beater in a real live professional team when he grew up. When he told Grams he wanted to play for forever and ever, she just sorta smiled and patted him on the head.
He hated when she did that.
Peeking out from the stands, Spike watched the Gryffindor team. His favorite was Harry Potter. Harry was always nice to him. Harry never treated him like a little kid; he liked Harry's friend Ron too. Spike wrinkled his nose. He didn't like Hermione. She always acted like she was the boss of him.
Growing tired of watching the team practice, Spike moved on to the broom shed. He loved to fly; besides, it wasn't like he was doing it unsupervised. There were lots of people out here.
He had flown once unsupervised; it was fun at the time. He and Cordy, his best friend had done it. He didn't like girls; they were icky. But Cordy and Grams didn't count; they were sorta like ice cream.
He loved ice cream. Once he had been in Diagon Ally and there had been a huge ice cream parlor. Grams took him and he got all the ice cream he could eat.
As he slipped into a shed, he found a broom that had been carelessly left on the floor. Spike looked at it. "Up!" he commanded happily.
It stirred for a little bit, but stayed on the ground.
"Up!" He said, his voice
sharper. Nothing happened. He frowned and kicked the broom with his foot
angrily. It's not like he really wanted to fly anyway.
Ron and Harry stood on the quidditch pitch looking at the current Gryffindor team. Harry was seeker, and Ron was keeper. Ginny, in following almost all of her brothers' footsteps, had joined the team, and now played as a chaser. There were two other chasers a fifth and fourth year. Their beaters were good, though not as good as the Weasley twins; the two of them were both in their sixth year, the same as Ginny.
"That's it for today, remember, we have another practice on Wednesday night!" Ron called out. He and Harry were co-captains, though Harry seemed to run more of it than he did.
"Harry!" Hermione was running out onto the quidditch pitch, her hair flying behind her. A mail carrier's bag slapped against her legs as she ran.
Both Ron and Harry turned at the sound of her voice. The rest of the team started to leave, except for Ginny, who stayed behind, to see what was going on.
"Hermione?" Harry asked as soon as she ran up to them. "What's going on?"
"I just heard this from Paravati and Lavender," she said, out of breath. The rest looked at her strangely. Hermione, although knowing the two other Gryffindors for year, had never really associated with them. "Stop it," she snapped. "Look, I just heard from Lavender and Paravati that a girl is coming to Hogwarts."
"So?" Ron asked impatiently, not really understanding where this was going.
"So, this girl is under Dumbledore's care. She's Sirius' daughter," Hermione informed them.
"Sirius' daughter?" Harry repeated. "Sirius has a daughter?" He blinked as he tried to process this thought. She was under Dumbledore's care, meaning she probably didn't have parents or family. His heart sank. He had caused her father's death. Waves of pain he had pushed into the back of brain washed over him. He had caused her to become an orphan.
"Harry?" Hermione touched his shoulder.
"I'm fine," Harry said, pushing his glasses up his nose. "It's just a surprise, that's all."
"Oh my god, I'm late!" Hermione said as she looked at her watch. "I have a meeting with the Headmaster in ten minutes!" Quickly she turned, and ran off.
The trio watched the Head Girl rush off as they walked towards the Gryffindor locker room.
"Are you looking forward to the first match Harry?" Ginny said, trying to divert his attention away from Sirius and to the present.
"I guess," Harry shrugged.
"It'll be great to be in the air." He looked up, yeah; it would be great
to be in the air.
"You have to take your bath," Severus looked down at the little girl who had her arms folded across her chest, pouting slightly.
"How about a big fat resounding no?" Cordelia said, pouting even more. By now, she had realized how diminutive her size really was. Besides, she would never have a strange old man wash her. Can you say pedophile? She shook her head; a couple of curls falling into her face. "Get away from me with that towel, long face."
"Cordelia, you're acting like a child," Severus hissed.
"I am not a child," Cordelia said, hands on her childlike hips. "I'm Cordelia Chase. I live in LA. With a vampire, and a karaoke demon, a super smart physic nerdette who was stuck in a demon dimension for five years, and… and… and... Gunn!"
Snape took a step closer to Cordelia, and she stepped backwards involuntarily. 'Think!' her brain screamed at her. She shook her head to clear out her thoughts. "Listen up you, you..." she trailed off, having an insane urge to say 'poopy head' but determined not to do so; she was twenty-three, not four. Besides, she didn't think saying poopy head would help her case all that much. "…you excessively freaky man, I am not four years old, I am not someone you can just order around, and I am not your daughter. Think gene pool here."
"I don't have time for this," Severus declared and picked up the much shorter Cordelia. "What do you see?" He brought her into the bathroom and held her in front of the mirror.
Cordelia looked at herself. Long dark locks that fell down her back framed pale skin, like a porcelain dolls. She had lost the California complexion she had, since forever, but tanning was supposed to be bad for you, right? She shook her head; primping came later. Freaking out came now. She was in a child's body, not her twenty-three year old one.
"I see a four year old child who is extraordinarily lucky I'm going to forget this conversation ever happened," he told her.
Coming back to reality, she started to struggle. "Let go of me!" Cordelia kicked out, her bare feet harmlessly hitting his chest. She kicked harder and noting came about it. She struggled and hit him with her tiny fists. Finally, as a last resort, she bit him.
"Cordelia Nerissa Snape," Severus snapped, his voice barely above a whisper.
Cordelia looked up at him, batting her eyes. "Yes?" she asked coyly, her face a mask of childhood innocent. Inside she was planning, calculating.
"Get in the tub," he snapped before turning on his heel, slamming the door behind him
Cordelia looked at the bathtub and smiled. It was all in the right buttons to push. She would have to file that away for later. Right now, she had to mull over the fact that she was a child, obviously related to a vampire like man, and that her middle name was Nerissa. She wrinkled her nose; who had come up with that?
