PLEASE READ AND REVIEW!! For my birthday today? Please? Review? This is going to be mostly going to be AU
Enjoy!
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Snape stood in the line of Death Eaters, hating the smell of the inside of his mask. It smelled like a mix of rubber and vomit. He tried not to grimace as the Dark Lord walked up and down their ranks.
"I should expect Lucius back from his... mission at any time now," he said. Even from a distance, Snape thought he could see up the Dark Lord's non-existent nose. It wasn't a very pretty sight, and he was double sure to shield his thought from him.
Just as he predicted, Lucius Malfoy Apparated back into their midst, his robes slashed and torn, his body bleeding, his lip split open, and he was out of breath. It looked as if a tiger or a bear had mauled him.
"What, pray tell, happened, Lucius?" said the Dark Lord in his darkest, silkiest voice.
The blonde main straightened himself out, and repaired his torn robes with a wave of his wand, disgust written on every inch of his face.
"I was ambushed, my lord. A tiger was guarding it," he hissed, a very ugly look on his face. Snape knew then what the Dark Lord had told Lucius to go and find. And where to find it.
Saoirse!
He tried not to betray his emotions, but it was too late. The Dark Lord stood before him in all his pale glory.
There was a space of time in which each stared at the other, both masking their thoughts. Snape knew what the Dark Lord was after, and why, but he would be a fool to tell him he was wrong. Snape would have to pay for the Dark Lord's mistake with his life and he knew it, but not just yet.
"I shall retrieve it for you, my lord," he offered. He reaslly had no choice in this matter. Not if he wanted to live.
"Indeed, Severus? Tell me. What would a tiger be doing at that... location?" he asked delicately. Snape had to tread very carefully around this one. He could not expose his daughter. He would not.
"I have no idea, but believe you me, when I find out, it will be... taken care of," he said coldly.
"You will kill this... tiger? If indeed that is what it is?" asked the Dark Lord.
"Yes," he said without hesitation. He must not let the Dark Lord know he was lying.
"Then go. You are all dismissed. Wormtail, you ar to stay with me. I expect that book to be in my hands soon, Severus," warned the Dark Lord, and Severus lost no time whatsoever. He Apparated home to warn Saoirse.
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"Saoirse?" he called as soon as his feet his the cobblestone road.
He burst into his own home and found a few things in disarray. Saoirse the tiger sat on the floor in front of the coffee table, serenly and indifferently licking one of her massive, saucepan-sized paws. She looked up at him as he entered and seemed to smile with her heavily mismatched eyes.
"Transform back," he said quietly. She did, standing before him in robes of the deepest bloodred. He assumed she had wandered into a shop in nearby Salazara. The fastens on the front were pure silver skulls and he actually admired them. She had his good taste.
"Someone showed up after you left," she said immediately.
"I know. It was Malfoy sr. He was sent here by the Dark Lord to retrieve-"
"- a book?" she interrupted him. He stared at her with raised eyebrow.
"He said something to me about that. I guess he thought I wasn't a real tiger," she said, shrugging, and she picked up one of his books and began to read.
"This is not a game!" he hissed, truly angry with her for the first time.
She set down her book, and stared at him.
"I know it's not. I kept him out, didn't I?" she questioned.
"That is wholely besides the point, Saoirse! The Dark Lord wants that book, and what he wants, he usually gets! Do you think that if I were as flippant as you about the Dark Lord that I would still be standing here?" he argued with her. Why was she being so difficult?
"I have good reason to be flippant. I'm a tiger, remember?" she said, smirking. Severus' hand itched to slap her, but he knew that if he did that, he would lose her trust, perhaps forever. And he had so few people who trusted him at the moment.
"Listen to me," he said, his voice calm and low, but quivering with supressed frustration, "You must. Be. Careful. The Dark Lord will send more of his followers here to search for that book. You must not be seen. Protect it if you must, but stay out of sight. My life depends on it."
"What is this book?" she asked finally.
"A journal, of sorts. My time spent under Dumbledore, up until now. The Dark Lord thinks something, and he wants it to prove himself right. If he gets it, he will kill the son of the man you mauled. In so doing, he will also kill me. Do you understand?"
Saoirse nodded.
"You can be flippant about your own life, but please do not be flippant about mine," he reminded her. Saoirse nodded again and said, "I understand. I don't want to lose you, either."
Snape blinked. Had she just said what he thought she said? That she didn't want to lose him, either?
"Thank you," he said, another first. He had common manners, but thank you wasn't usually one of them. He was usually the go-for man. Could it be his daughter was starting to trust him as her father?
They both surveyed the damages. With a wave of his wand, Snape repaired the splintered door frame.
"Now. As for you being a tiger," he began. He had a thought. Sometimes, it was possible for a person to alter their Animagus form... very slightly. The only thing he need her to change was her eyes. They were too distinguishable, and if Malfoy had gotten a good look at them... it was too risky, especially after what he had foolishly promised the Dark Lord.
"Yes?" she asked, waiting for him.
"I need to teach you how to... alter... it. Your eyes are too noticeable, and Malfoy may have gotten a good look at them," he explained quietly.
"Why bother?" she asked curiously.
"Because I promised the Dark Lord I would kill the tiger," he said simply, smiling sardonically.
"Ah," she said, just as sarcastically, looking away purposefully.
"It's simple enough... all you have to do... is say one word, imagine the thing you wish to change about it, and transform as you normally would. It is not as easy as you think," he explained.
"What do I have to say?" she asked.
Snape thought a moment. It had been so long since he'd read that certain tidbit of information, he had to remember.
"Muto," he said finally, remembering it.
"Ok... hang on a sec... I'm gonna make it so no one will recognize me..." she muttered. She closed her eyes in concentration, muttered the word "muto," and she transformed. But it was slightly different. Her shaggy fur was turning orange versus white, and when she looked back at him as a fully grown female Siberian tiger, her eyes were the palest shade of blue.
"I am impressed," he said, smiling and truly proud of his daughter. She seemed to smile with her eyes and with her mouth, but tiger mouths were not made to smile unless it included bearing fangs. She transfomred back and smiled.
"So... tell me the whole story about this book, and why the Dark Lord wants it so badly," she said, sitting down. Snape sighed and thought there was nothing for it. He told her everything, about the Elder Wand, Dumbledore, Draco and his mother's Unbreakable Vow, and what Voldemort thought.
Saoirse looked thoughtful for a moment, and looked up at him with a fierce sort of determination in her eyes and face. It amazed him how much she looked both like him, and his father in that moment. It was the look he got whenever he shouted at his mother. But he already knew Saoirse was different. And with a jolt, he realized he loved her in some strange way, like a father and his daughter. He pondered that for a moment.
"So basically, the Dark Lord thinks that if he kills you, he'll get the Elder Wand? But it's actually Draco, not you?" she summed up.
"Correct," he affirmed.
"Hmm... so Lucius wants this journal for the Dark Lord... I have a plan," she said, rubbing her lower lip thoughtfully. She raised her wand, said, "accio dad's journal!" and his journal, bound in black leather, came soaring out from under the couch and into her hand.
"You mind?" she said, before opening it.
He waved his hand impatiently, as if saying, go wild.
She conjured a seemingly identical book out of nowhere and began copying each and every page down, in his handwriting. She was really very good, and he almost didn't want to know how she learned to forge people's handwriting so well. Like he always knew, she was talented.
"There. Now he can have it," she said simply, handing him the fake copy and smiling. She stowed the real journal back under the couch and sat there looking pleased. Snape opened the journal to the most important pages, towards the end. It read, in his handwriting,
June 10, 1996...
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HA HAA!!! Take that, Rita!! Just to get even for your evil cliffhanger!!
Please r&r everyone!! Happy birthday to me!!! Squee!!!!