Severus Snape opened the window at the insistent knocking and allowed the Hogwarts owl entry into the living room at Prince Manor. The envelope was distinctive, clearly a letter welcoming a member of the Snape household to the incoming class.

"Is that my letter?" Severus turned from the window and raised an eyebrow at the dark haired girl who bounced on the balls of her feet, looking at the owl.

"Is there, perhaps, another nearly eleven-year-old in the house?" He pretended to look about. "Are you harboring a band of orphans in a secret cupboard under the stairs?"

Olivia Snape rolled her eyes and leveled her father-taught smirk at the wizard. "Can I have it?"

"Well," Severus pretended to consider the point. "I suppose, since it is addressed to you." He handed over the letter and stood, arms crossed over his chest as she ripped the seal open. "Honestly," he mused. "It's like you were raised by wolves. Wolves that couldn't use a proper letter opener."

His daughter acted like she didn't hear the comment, pulling the letter free of its envelope. She flipped it open and scanned the contents before raising her eyes to her father's. "I'm going to Hogwarts."

Severus snorted. "As if there was any doubt." He was unable to completely suppress the pride that forced the smile to his face, however. A smile that was even further encouraged by Olivia's exuberance. Letter still in hand, she threw her arms around his waist, heedless that his arms were still folded across his chest. "Merlin, child. Give a man some warning." He let his arms fall around her.

"Can we go to Diagon Alley?"

"This minute?" Olivia felt his laugher through his robes. "Did you finish all your school work from this morning?"

Severus felt the girl shift from foot to foot. "I'll take that as a 'no, sir'." He pushed her away from him so he could look down into her face. "It is Friday, is it not? At the very least, you should be completing the Herbology assignment that Remus set for you on Wednesday."

"I'm going to have to take Herbology next year," Olivia frowned at her shoes.

"Yes, and when you do, you will look like a properly educated witch, not a lost-in-the-woods Muggle-born." Severus pressed his lips together. "There's no need for you to be unprepared when you have access to magical training. What's more, we've had this discussion."

"I can finish it tomorrow. It isn't that hard."

"Well then I'm clearly not doing my job," Remus Lupin appeared in the doorway. "I thought we agreed that you were going to finish that assignment this morning so that you could do some conditioning before practice tomorrow." Remus looked at her over his glasses. "If you want to be able to do that move we talked about, you need better leg strength."

"Any move that is referred to that generally is not approved," Severus interrupted. "You will finish that assignment this afternoon. In fact, you can finish it in my office while I meet with Professor Dumbledore." He watched his daughter's face fall. "And if your work is excellent, perhaps we can visit Ollivander's on the way home." Olivia brightened considerably.

Snape snapped his fingers for Seeky to put lunch on the table. He would miss this, when she was at school, their daily lunch. It had been their routine every day of her life. It felt different, somehow, than supper. It was a break in the day that Severus held sacred. It was important to him that he create as much of a bond as possible, desperately hoping to overcome the lack of genetic ties that they shared.

It broke the Potters' hearts, of course, to send their daughter away. But the priority had to be Harry, the one that the Dark Lord feared, the one who was marked for death. So Lily gave birth, held her children, and then handed her daughter to the man no one would suspect would have her. It was too dangerous for the twins to stay together. Or even to know each other, really.

And so Olivia Eileen Snape had always been Olivia Eileen Snape. There was an immediate magical adoption, wiping all connection to her birth family. The story was that Severus had quietly had a child with Alicia Slughorn, a child of a cousin of Horace Slughorn, who had died at a convenient time. Snape had never met the woman, but it hardly mattered. A child conceived out of wedlock with a pure-blooded witch was not the scandal almost any other story could have been.

In fact, it seemed to elevate Olivia's status in the Pure-Blood community, beyond where it would have been if she was known to be the child of a Muggle-born witch. Not that, of course, Severus had any real interest in what the Malfoys and their ilk thought of his child. But his quest for her safety had often taken some unexpected turns over the past 11 years.

Severus looked across the table, and wondered, as he did so often lately, when he became the kind of person who was amused by a child's constant bouncing and chatter. Not that he was entertained by the same qualities in his classroom, of course. But the light in his life was never still or quiet, lending credence to nature over nurture in the great debate of child's personality creation.

"I have to say," the Potions Master said, amusement tinging his voice, "I thought perhaps you would not be excited to start Hogwarts. Since you've spent a large part of your life there already."

Olivia's eyes widened. "You're joking."

"My perceptive snakeling," Severus smirked, finishing the last of his lunch and looking at his daughter's still mostly-full plate. "Eat," he said firmly, frowning at the sandwich with a single bite missing.

"I'm not really—"

"Olivia." Snape's voice was low and calm, but his daughter knew better than to ignore it. Severus was absolutely mental about anything concerning her health and safety. An outside observer might think that she had some kind of intense nutritional deficiency with the level of obsession he had with meals. Diligently, Olivia finished half of the sandwich and ate the cut up apple that accompanied it. Testing the waters, she looked up to see if her consumption was enough to placate her father, and found him looking meaningfully at her milk glass. She quickly downed the last of the white liquid and was rewarded with Severus no longer hyper-focused on her plate.

"Books," Severus directed. "Herbology, and bring your Defense assignment as well, you can work on that when you finish Professor Sprout's essay." He pointed at the pile of school work on the coffee table in the living room. "I have every hope that this meeting will be brief, but when I return I expect to see the Herbology completed and some progress made on Defense."

"Remus said that he can't wait until I can use a wand."

"Lupin should keep his desires for you to grow up to himself," Severus put his arm around her and dropped a kiss onto the top of her head. "I'm investigating potions to arrest your development, and I think I'm getting close to a cure."

"A cure for what?" Olivia looked up at him.

"Children getting older." The wizard pushed her gently toward the floo, ushering her inside before joining her and tossing the powder. "Hogwarts, Snape's Office."

Olivia had spent a significant amount of time in her father's office over the years, to the point that she had a drawer in his desk to store whatever had occupied her at a given point in her life. It was compromise that Severus had made to avoid her obsessive need to "organize" the rest of his desk, a process in which his child seemed to just rearrange everything he owned. Now she was only allowed to "organize" her own drawer.

"Stay here," Severus settled Olivia in his desk chair. "Don't open the door for anyone, and I'll be back shortly." He bent to kiss the top of her head quickly before heading back through the floo to Dumbledore's office.

"Severus," Albus greeted him from behind his own desk.

Snape nodded in greeting. "You said that you had something of some urgency to discuss?"

"You know, Severus, small talk never killed anyone." Dumbledore's eyes twinkled with laughter.

"That point is surely debatable," Severus said dryly, crossing his arms.

Albus shook his head, but got to the point. "I am looking for a new Head of Slytherin House."

"What happened to Septima?" Severus eyed the older wizard suspiciously.

"Nothing," Albus said dismissively. "It's just that she fancies a break. And I thought, perhaps that you will now be an empty nester—

"Hardly," Severus rolled his eyes.

"Perhaps," Albus continued as if Snape hadn't spoken, "you would like to be around the school full time."

Severus frowned. Head of Slytherin House was not a particular life goal for him. Heads of Houses at Hogwarts generally didn't have families, and since he had been gifted with Olivia when he was just starting his teaching career, he'd hardly considered the idea.

But he had to admit, not having to leave her every evening to go back to their empty house was appealing. "You might find that I have a higher expectation of behavior for students than their previous Heads of House," he said slowly.

"I doubt you will have any trouble keeping Slytherin in order," Albus said pleasantly. "Does that mean you accept the post?"

Severus paused before nodding briefly. "I suppose on a trial basis."

"Excellent," Dumbledore said merrily. "On another front, I may need your assistance with something else. As I'm sure you know, letters were sent out today. Oddly, Harry Potter's letter is registering as not being delivered."

Severus leveled his gaze at the grey-haired wizard. "And what, pray tell, do you expect me to do about that?"

"I was hoping that you could go check on the situation. Make sure everything is well."

"I was under the impression," Severus said slowly, "that we made an agreement nearly 11 years ago, that I should have as little connection to Harry Potter as possible." He narrowed his eyes slightly.

"Your daughter has a brother, Severus."

Snape pressed his lips together and set his jaw. When he spoke, his voice was soft and measured. "Olivia Eileen Snape is an only child. A safe, secure only child that doesn't need any changes in her life other than coming to school."

Albus casually unwrapped a peppermint ball from the dish on his desk. "I can understand that you'd rather she didn't find out—"

"That is hardly the crux of the issue," Severus said firmly. "Although I'm sure you agree that the information would do nothing but disrupt her life. The issue," he gave an annoyed glance at the Headmaster, who was noisily crunching the candy and cleared his throat. "The issue is that we have no reason to believe that the danger has passed. Neither of us is naïve enough to think that we have seen the last of the Dark Lord."

Albus looked disappointed. "He is Lily's child as well, Severus."

"I am aware," Severus said tightly. "However Olivia is my child. Lily did not entrust her to me with the expectation that I would eventually let down my guard and assume her safety." He narrowed his eyes at the Headmaster. "I'm sure the Prince Potter is perfectly fine. Perhaps playing some kind of prank about refusing his letter so see just how badly the wizarding world wants him."

"I doubt that is the case," Dumbledore said, his voice light. "But if it is, the answer obviously is that the wizarding world wants him quite a lot."

Severus rolled his eyes and excused himself tersely, stalking to the door. He occupied the walk back to his office with thoughts of how he should have made plans to send Olivia to Beauxbatons Academy. It would, of course, cause problems with their daily lunches to be sure. Perhaps a glamour, to keep Olivia from resembling Potter in any way, although it would be hard to explain to those who knew her why she suddenly looked incredibly different.

Arriving back at his office, he found Olivia, spinning wildly around in his desk chair. When Severus cleared his throat and shut the door with a meaningful click, she stopped and looked at him, giving him a dizzy smile. "That was fast."

"Professor Dumbledore is known for his brevity," Severus said dryly. "Are you finished?"

Olivia held up the parchment on the desk as an assent. "I told you it wouldn't take very long."

"Actually, I believe you said that it wasn't very hard," Severus took the parchment and looked over it. "If I didn't have to force you to complete it, I would say the work was impeccable." He ignored the eye rolling and replaced the parchment on the desk before tapping it with his wand. "I suppose you'd like to go to Diagon Alley. Perhaps buy new robes."

"Dad," Olivia made an even bigger show of rolling her eyes.

"No? Perhaps a new set of vials? A Potions textbook?" He smirked at her growing agitation. "Alright then, I suppose, if you cannot possibly think of anything else, perhaps we should go get you one of these," he held up his wand for emphasis. "If you absolutely must have one."