New story time! I've got all of this typed up already so no need to worry about me abandoning it. Just in case all this didn't fit into the summary box here's the full summary: Two months after the war Severus Snape has to take in a 7 year old girl called Lucy Heart. This story is snippits of the first couple of days of her time with Snape and the couple of weeks running up to Christmas. Severus also heals from the war and makes ammends with past students, a certain boy who refused to die and the Malfoys.
This will probably be the longest chapter, hope you like it. Feel free to leave a review :D
Oh, if people like this enough I'll either keep adding snippet scenes spanning a few years, maybe through Lucy's Hogwarts career (maybe) or I'll write a story and maybe skip to her, like, 6th year of Hogwarts (cause I hate writing 11 yr olds) but include the soring ceremony. But all that is only an IF PEOPLE LIKE IT! No promises here.
SO yeah, please leave a review and tell me what you think :D
My Dear Miss Heart
After the war many children had been left homeless, their parents locked in Azkaban or killed. Snape, after surviving the snakebite somehow and now, six months later and fully recovered, he was being dutifully reminded that he had to take in a child whose mother had been taken advantage of by Death Eaters and had recently died. To say that he wasn't happy was an understatement. He'd planned to quietly retire, experiment with potions and live on his earnings if he made any. Now he was awaiting the arrival of the brat and had to get a job that paid regularly to support the insufferable child.
His teacher robes hadn't made it through the war. None of his personal possessions had. Without a job where he'd be regularly seen he'd not seen the point in purchasing more robes and so lived in comfortable black trousers and turtleneck jumpers or shirts. Suddenly he wished he had his imposing robes back. No one dared defy him when he wore those. He was in charge of those around him. In those robes he was safe. In the clothes he had he was vulnerable. It was not a feeling he liked.
Eventually the inevitable knock at the door came. He levered himself out of his arm chair and went out into the hall. Through the frosted glass of the front door he could see a large silhouette, too large to belong to one child. Either he was acquiring a banshee or the Weasley's had decided to descend again with another 'care package'. Steeling himself he opened the door.
Outside stood a seven year old and a couple of ministry officials.
"Ok, so now can you go?" the girl snapped at them. "I survived the war I think I can manage walking up a set of stairs."
Snape smirked to himself as he watched the ministry employees back off as if they were actually scared of her. She turned to face him and turned nervous. Her new guardian was tall and scary and wore a lot of black. She also remembered seeing him hurrying to the shrieking shack and she knew that was where he had been nearly killed. She quickly looked to the floor.
"Hello, Sir," she mumbled. "Thank you for taking me in."
"Come inside before you get ill," he said a little gruffly as he stood aside. He'd been expecting a child, just not one so young. He'd specifically asked for a quiet teenage girl. A teenager because they were all but self sufficient and a girl because they were less trouble. At least they'd read at least part of the form he'd filled in.
The girl came in quietly and stood to the side waiting to be told what to do. At least she was obedient.
"Follow me," he said and walked up the stairs of his new home.
He knew he'd never be able to return to Spinner's End and so he'd purchased himself a new house from the rewards and back-pay he'd been given upon his leaving the hospital. Now he lived in the middle of an otherwise untouched forest in an old, ancestral home of the Prince family. With the slow demise of the Prince family many of the family's possessions and properties had been sold of to fight what they saw as poverty. The house, a small country mansion of ten bedrooms, three upper floors and an attic and a wine cellar hadn't been in the family for generations, over three centuries he thought and so bore no semblance to the family which once inhabited it.
He hadn't chosen it for its size, but its isolated location. Most never ventured this far into the forest and only people who knew where the house was could ever find it. A lawn and gardens surrounded it and beyond those were trees and wild flowers that made up the forest. Deer ambled by as they pleased and wandered close to the house for they knew its current master was kind and gentle. Unicorns wondered by too.
He took the girl upstairs to the first floor of the house and into a room at the back of the house where it was far away from his potions laboratory on the floor above. It was decorated simply for he'd decided to allow the child who came to reside here to choose the decoration. He wasn't so sure it was a sensible idea with a seven year old.
"Its nice," she said even though there was only a bed, chest of drawers, wardrobe and a dressing table in the huge room. He'd thought about putting a sofa in there too, but wasn't sure if it was a good idea in case the child shut herself in here the whole time. It wasn't healthy. Children needed to spend time outside.
"Shall I inscribe your name on the door?" he asked. He had to learn her name somehow because the goon at the ministry had conveniently forgotten to tell him what it was.
"I can do it," she said and put her finger to the door and traced her name on it.
Lucinda Anne Heart.
"I prefer Lucy," she shrugged.
He forced himself to ignore it for now. Her luggage appeared in the middle of the room and she smiled. She had muggle suitcases and rucksacks.
"You're muggle born?" he asked.
"Half blood, didn't they tell you?"
"Their letter was appalling. It arrived only an hour before you did and only told me that you were arriving."
"Oh," she said.
"You may unpack if you wish or you may join me in the study and read whilst I make inquiries."
"I think I'll unpack, sir."
"Very well," he nodded. "I shall be in the first door to the right of the stairs we just came up if you require assistance."
"Yes, sir," she said and walked further into the room to unpack.
Snape heavily closed the door to his study when he was in his sanctuary. She was seven. Seven. He had specifically asked for a teenager not just because they were self sufficient but because he would work full days to provide for the damn brat. Now he was restricted to shorter days or working entirely from home where he would earn less. Why didn't anyone at the ministry listen to him?
He sunk into his chair and looked longingly at the butterbeer that was sat on the shelf. He'd planned on fortifying himself with some once the child had arrived but she was seven. He wasn't that irresponsible. He wasn't his father.
Instead he made himself a strong cup of tea.
He could get an elf. He'd ask the elf to watch over the child and make her lunch if she needed help and then he or she would also be able to look after the massive house. He didn't want the elf to take over, but to help out. He'd take an elf that had been unfairly dismissed. Perhaps an elf who wanted to be free. He'd be able to pay them a little. Let the elf have the weekends off. Then he'd be able to work as much as he needed to and provide for the child.
He still didn't like the idea of looking after an infant, but now that he had a plan he felt a little better about the situation. He had a plan.
As soon as he was settled on the plan he began to make inquires. He couldn't go back to Hogwarts yet. The memories were too fresh and still hurt when he slipped into thinking about it or when he had nightmares. By the time Lucy came down he'd written letters to five places – St. Mungo's, the apothecary's place in Diagon Alley and a few others of little consequence.
She knocked on the study door just as he was signing off his last letter.
"Enter," he called and looked up.
"I've finished unpacking, sir," she meekly said and looked to the floor. He'd have to break her of the habit eventually. Perhaps she was just shy when around new people.
Snape looked at the clock and stood up. "Then I shall prepare dinner."
He swiftly walked out and the child followed him as he walked to the back of the house to the large kitchen. When he was cooking he hated being closed in and in the dark so not only were the units clear and spread out the whole of the outside wall was made of glass that concertinaed out to allow the garden to meet the kitchen in one sweeping breath. In the summer he'd left the doors open most of the day and only closed them when he retired for the night.
"Wow!" The gir – Lucy, breathed. "Can we eat outside?" she asked.
He considered for a moment. It was still light and warm for this autumn month and said that yes they could. He had a deck out there which he often took lunch on and so there was a table and chairs already set out.
When she started drumming her fingers on the table top he told her she could explore the garden if she wished and she did so. He sighed when she was gone. He was used to silence in his house and now he was going to have to get used to a child.
Why was his life never simple?
He made salad and jacket potatoes which he left in the oven while he sat out in the garden with a Charles Dickens novel and kept an eye on the girl. She was slowly walking through the garden looking at all the plants – some potions ingredients, vegetables and others for decoration – and it was a garden that Pomona would be proud of. She was looking at everything with an intelligent eye and a slight frown as if she was trying to figure something out.
Then she touched a sprig of mint and it shot into the air and flowered before his very eyes. She smiled and then moved on to look at the next plant, another kind of mint but refrained from making that grow, thank Merlin. Mint of any kind was difficult to tame.
"You've put them into an order, haven't you?" she asked as they were eating the last bits of their dinner and looked out to the garden. "I don't know what all of them are, but… They're obviously in species groups and then some of them in poison potency…"
Snape was astonished that a young child knew so much about plants. "A hobby of yours?" he asked.
She shook her head. "No, our neighbour was a potion maker at St. Mungo's and he told me about his garden a lot."
"I see." Snape replied with a slight nod of his head.
They sat in silence for a while and watched the sun turn the sky a blazing orange and silhouetted the birds that flew by. Then they went into the lounge and listened to the radio. Lucy got a book from her room and read it. It looked huge against her, but Snape realised it was just because she was small for a child. True, he didn't have any experience with young children, but even he knew that books weren't that big. She looked healthy enough though and so was satisfied that it wasn't a condition or malnutrition. She was just small for her age and would grow out of it, literally.
At eight-'o'-clock she went to bed.
Snape sat in the lounge with soft jazz in the background and closed his eyes. It really hadn't been a long day, but it felt like one.
Tomorrow, he told himself, I'll go to the ministry and request an elf to work for me. Then I can begin work whenever I please.
When he eventually went to bed he slept heavily with dreams of ruining the child's life.