Catherine Mays Snape danced around her New Orleans, Louisiana, bedroom as she packed her trunk to go and visit her father for the summer. Usually she did not like going to stay in his stuffy old manor with her prim and proper grandmother. Her grandma, or Grandmother Snape, as she insisted Catherine call her, was forever looking down her big pointy nose at everything Cat did. Constantly berating her for using muggle inventions, calling her an abomination to the Snape name, Grandmother Snape made her three month of London hard to bear.

She did adore her father though; it was just hard to see how her mother had ever fallen for someone like him. He was stuffy and sometimes pompous and serious. Her mother was… a free spirit, as she called herself.

Her father was a potions' master, preferring the exactness of his craft to others, except maybe defense of dark arts, but in any case, things that were precise and provable and the same. Her mother, and she, was seers, or psychics. Divination was the least provable, or believed areas of magic. Mainly because you can either 'see' or you cannot, but it is hard to prove or disprove who is telling the truth about their abilities.

On second thought, maybe it was harder to see why her father had been attracted to her mother.

In any case, three months in London, even in Snape manor, would get her out of her house and away from her mother's new boyfriend, David Rochelle, a creep from the word go. In addition, she was at least a little excited to see her father, Severus Snape again. She had not gotten to see him at Christmas, the year before, as some competition at Hogwarts had kept him at school during the vacation.

Little did she know that the student s she hated for keeping her father busy, would have been just as glad to get rid of him, as she would have been to get to visit him. She threw her cd player, magically altered to need neither batteries or cd's, into her backpack, grabbed her wand and slipped it into her pocket, then tossed in a few things of make-up and perfume into her bag and headed downstairs. That would have to do, anything else she decided she needed she could always apperate back for later, as it was legal to apperate at 15 in America, unlike England, where you have to be 17.

It was time for Severus to arrive; she noted as she set her things down in front of the fireplace and took inventory.

Plenty of clothes, check.

Make-up, check.

Medicine, check.

Books for summer work, check.

Robes to wear out with Grandmother Snape, check.

Dress robes for those undurable dinners, check.

Jewelry, check.

Firebolt… she looked around the dashed back upstairs to grab her broom. She found it and an armload of other things she just couldn't leave behind and was trying to stuff them into her trunk when a loud pop signaled the arrival of her father.

"Papa!!" She yelled, bouncing to her feet. She threw her arms around his neck. "I've missed you so."

Severus hesitated just a moment, unaccustomed to such a bold display of affection, then returned her hug. "Hello, Catherine, you are ready to leave, I assume?"

"Yes, definitely," she replied. "I can't wait to get out of here. Even Snape manor is preferable to staying here with David all summer long. Oops! That didn't come out like I meant," she added when she realized what she had said.

Snape smirked. "Well, rest assured, Cat, you won't have to stay at Snape manor this summer, though, I doubt you will like where you will be staying any better."

"Where I will be staying?" She questioned. "What about you? And why ain't I staying at Snape manor? It's not all that bad."

"I will tell you all you need to know in plenty of time for you to know it," he replied, dryly. "Now, go find Maddie and say goodbye to her and let's get going. I am going outside to summon the bus. Do not use ain't while you are with me."

"What bus? Why aren't we going through the fireplace like we usually do?"

"It's a long story, Catherine, so just do as I said, and I will tell you what you need to know on the way."

"Oh, well, Momma's already gone for the day. We said our goodbyes earlier. David was in a hurry to get started doing whatever it is he does," she shrugged. Truthfully, she knew her mother had split early so she wouldn't have to see Severus. She had been doing that every since Cat was old enough to stay home alone.

"Let's go then," he replied, lifting her trunk up.

She grabbed her broom and backpack and followed him outside.

Once they were on the Knight Bus and alone, Severus told her of how she would be staying at some old house in London with some more children her age, though he was certain they would not get along.

"But, Papa, why do I have to stay there?" She asked. "Why can't I just stay at Snape Manor as usual?"

"Catherine, I am not in the mood to explain this a thousand times, nor to hear millions of your questions," he replied, irritated. This wasn't the best place to be talking about things. "You maybe in danger. You will stay with these people who will protect you when I cannot be with you. I will see you, but not as often as usual."

"Then why didn't you just let me stay at home?"

"Because you are in danger," he growled.

"Wait, does this have anything to do with those dead people and that dude, Voldemort, or whatever his name is?"

"Shhh., shhh, in England, no one speaks his name," he informed her. "How do you know about him?"

"Why not say his name? How do you talk about him?"

"We don't, and if we must we refer to him as 'He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named'. You shouldn't refer to him at all. Now tell me how you know about him."

"I had to do a current event report for my World history of Magic class last year. I choose a London paper because… that's where you are. Momma said you were one of the dead people that followed him around. Do they call him, 'he-who-must-not-be-name' ? That'd be aggravating."

"No, they call him Lord."

"Lord? Like God? Why would you call him God?"

"No, as in an English Lord, you know, like lords and ladies?"

"Oh, like Princess Diana?"

"Yes, now please be quiet for the rest of the trip. I need to think." He leaned back and closed his eyes.

"Don't hurt your brain." She closed her eyes and slept the rest of the way to Number 12 Grimmauld place.