Chapter one

Your Father Was A Swine

Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter, all familiar characters and linguistics belong to JK Rowling

James was a swine. He was my swine, but a swine never the less. No one will hear a word against the Potters. However I knew the truth. James and I continued our relationship right until the end. I had planned to tell him that he was going to be a father once again but when I got to Godric's Hollow Sirius looked at me and my bump and rolled his eyes.

"For goodness sake Cat!" he cried.

"Sirius, what happened? How did he find them? You didn't..." I started.

He looked at me darkly. No. Stupid question. Sirius would never betray Lily and James like that. However I had no idea what the real explanation was when we heard another footstep at the scene. We apparated out of the way and Sirius gave me another unhappy expression.

"Get out of here Cat. Dumbledore won't stand for you blackening James' name. Not now he's dead," he said.

"Sirius this takes two. He didn't force me but he was never the most faithful of husbands. We're having a girl," I said.

Sirius ran his hands down his face. He looked at me as though I was insane. However there was something else clearly pressing on his brain.

"I don't have time for this Cat. I have to get Harry and tell Dumbledore that I am not the secret keeper anymore. I haven't been for three months," he said.

I frowned. Sirius was innocent of betraying James but that meant he planned revenge. I decided to go to Albus Dumbledore with my news and seek his professional opinion. For some reason my pregnancy wasn't a popular one. Nobody seemed to give a shit how I felt about losing James, carrying a dead man's child but I knew I couldn't afford to breakdown. My daughter only had me in the world now and I wasn't going to let her down.

"You must tell no one. You will register the child under your own name, do not bring James into this," ordered my old headmaster.

"Sir with all due respect I have no wish to lie to my daughter. I do not lie to those I love. She is James Potter's daughter. Harry's half sister and there is nothing anyone can do about that, he isn't here to take the blame," I said.

"Exactly. You are. Can you imagine what the press will do to you? Think about it Catherine..." he began.

Another old classmate entered the headmaster's office. Severus Snape looked ill and distraught at the news. It was no secret that he loved Lily as much as I had loved James, but James loved me and Lily. He looked at me in confusion at first, he eventually put together what he had heard Dumbledore say and my condition.

"Who does that baby belong to?" he asked.

"Me," I replied.

"Hunter..." he began.

I turned away from him. I then decided to avoid his gaze as I left Hogwarts but he came after me and took my hand.

"What happened?" he asked.

"Dumbledore wants me to be a single mother. A one night stand, not a love triangle that has lasted since Hogwarts. James never stopped seeing me Severus. Lily just got pregnant first and now I am. So she got the husband and the family, while I got a few hours here and there," I replied.

His expression darkened.

"How could you? How could he? She did nothing to you..." began Snape.

"Severus apart from you I am the only person who believes she would have been better with you. She hated James, you know that. They only started being lovey-dovey when she got pregnant to make out to the world that it was what they wanted. I told James to get lost, I tried to stop it but I believed him when he said he loved me but lately I was not so sure. Now I will never know," I added.

I didn't think anyone knew that Snape loved Lily. I knew because I knew that James wanted Lily as another notch on the bedpost and I was able to link everyone together. I half hoped that he would rescue Lily from him but when she got the headgirl badge it didn't take long for them to be public for a while. It didn't affect me and James that much really, a wizard has to do what a wizard has to do. Despite Lily he still had time for me and I lost count how many times I snuck out of his quarters under his cloak so that we weren't found out or at least we thought we weren't.

Eventually Severus held out his hand to me and wished me good luck. I believed him. Only three people alive knew who my baby's father was and it remained so. Sirius I found must have lied to me as he was arrested not long after for murder and betrayal. They threw him in Azkaban and I was comfortable that my baby would be happy with a simple 'died in the war' excuse.

After Christmas I gave birth to my daughter. I wanted to call her Rose Potter but Hunter had to do. I followed the headmaster's instructions from that moment on and treated her like she was another child from a single mother. However she was a bright one the way she looked at my pictures from school with my friends and James. I had to tell her that he was just a friend at school from when I was young.

Her magical talent came through at the age of four. I said no to sweets and she was actually hungry and eventually when I gave into a piece of cake it turned into a full one. Rose was a girl who knew what she wanted and planned a way to get it be it muggle or magical means. I had a feeling she was going to be a Ravenclaw or a Slytherin when she went to Hogwarts.

I sent away my little girl to Hogwarts. She still looked cute in her robes and colour-less uniform. I made sure she had her own owl so that she could tell me all about it when she had the chance. I was about to leave the platform when I nearly tripped over someone's cane and glared at him. Bloody Malfoy.

"First year Hunter? The spitting image of you apart from the eyes, they look familiar," he said.

I cleared my throat.

"No one you know. Just me and her Lucius," I replied, trying to get back into muggle London.

"Can I offer you a lift?" he asked.

"No thank you, I was just about to have breakfast," I replied.

Again Lucius gestured to his ministry approved vehicle but I shook my head and came up with an excuse that would stop him following me.

"Sorry. I was going to go somewhere in the muggle world. I don't think it would be your cup of tea," I said, managing to escape.

Lucius' expression changed and I smiled to myself. I had been the other woman once before and I was damned if I was going to do it again. I would not have changed Rose being in my life but over the years I had become a mother who knew that there was a gap in my daughter's life where a father would be.

I was sure Rose would do just fine. I was not at all concerned by Severus being Head of Slytherin and when the Prophet wrote about the attacks at Hogwarts as she was not a muggle-born again I did not fear for her well-being. My daughter was a Ravenclaw and therefore I assumed quite safe from Severus' displeasure.

When Rose came home I knew something was wrong, eventually she opened up to me and started asking questions.

"Did you go to Hogwarts with Professor Snape?" she asked.

"Yes, he was a Slytherin," I replied.

"Well he favours his own house a lot, which is fine I guess but he's been really strict with me. I'm not failing or anything he just keeps giving me a hard time. Did he have a problem with you or dad?" asked Rose.

I rolled my eyes. I sent an owl to my old school mate who I had not seen in eleven years. After how we parted I had hoped to meet again on more pleasant terms rather than to tell him to back off my little girl.