Severus didn't know how to feel. He was mad at Dumbledore, even Filius, for never noticing the signs. Or maybe they had, and never done anything about it, making it even worse. The least someone could have done was warn Severus about her. Now he was sure she'd be avoiding him for a while. And of course, he didn't want that. He didn't blame her, though, for not telling him. It'd take her a while to completely open up if she ever chose to, but he wasn't going to prod at her.

She had been outside for a few hours planting. Severus looked out the window; now she was using the Aguamenti charm. Silly girl. She spent hours in the dirt but chooses to use magic to water them? He sighed, setting his book down, and went outside, careful not to startle her. When he finally got to stand next to her, she didn't say a thing, just kept her gaze towards the garden.

Finally, he spoke up, "Grace-"

"I'll wear long sleeves," she cut in. "Or lots of bracelets."

"Why on Earth would you do that?"

"To hide them. So I won't embarrass you when we're out in public or something."

Severus couldn't believe she had just said that. His heart felt heavy, but also wanted to slap the daft girl for even thinking such a ridiculous thing. He grabbed her shoulders and turned her to face him. Her eyes were red from crying. "You stupid girl! What could have possibly happened that made you think this way? It is not your fault, there is no reason to hide it, but you need to talk to me, or else I can't help you. And I'm not going to stand back and watch you self-destruct from the inside-out, Grace!"

Grace stared at the man with tear-filled eyes, but when she opened her mouth to say something, but all that came out was a strangled sound before she covered her face with her— dirt-covered— hands and began to cry. "Merlin…" Severus muttered, pulling the girl close. He had gotten used to troubled children, being the Head of Slytherin House, but he never had one of them as his ward. There were no other parents call to come console their child. He was the one who had to console her and take care of things.

"I'm so stupid!" Grace said, wiping her face, but only smearing the dirt she had on her hands across her cheeks.

"You're not stupid, Grace. Far from it, actually. Though, apparently you have no common sense since you forgot to put on any sun protection!" he said, gesturing to her pink arms. "And you've got dirt on your face."

"Bloody hell!" She tried rubbing it off with the backsides of her hands, but it was only making it worse.

"Here, let me help," Severus pulled out his wand, pointed at her face, and said, "Aguamenti."

Grace now stood there, soaking wet, gaping at Severus. He had the audacity to laugh. A full-blown, doubled-over, laugh!

When he looked back up at Grace, her eyes were narrowed and her fist was clenched around her own wand. "Run," she growled.

Grace chased Severus throwing every harmless charm she could think of, but the potion master just kept blocking them. She chased him up the walkway to the front door before he ran inside, closing the door as Expelliarmis hit the wood. "Come out here and fight like a man, Severus!" she pounded on the door, but he was not budging.

"No!" he called back and leaned against the door to catch his breath.

Between Grace's screaming demands to be let inside, he heard a new voice coming from the other room. "Severus, is that you? What is that banging?"

Severus felt the color drain from his face, and then he went into a panic, "C-coming, Grandmother!" Merlin, why is she here? Why didn't she Owl? He threw open the door and was met with a wand in his face and a very pissed off Grace. "Go in through the back door, run upstairs to your room, clean yourself up, and be the perfect young lady. You have ten minutes," Grace had no idea what was going on, but Severus looked dead serious, and she knew not to question him when he was in a mood.

"Audrey Hepburn?"

"Yes, sure, whatever. Nine minutes and fifty-three seconds," and he closed the door.

Grace sprinted around the manor and went in through the back door very quietly and up the stairs. By the time she reached her room, she was out of breath, but the clock was ticking for some reason Grace did not know yet. She grabbed the first box she could get her hands on and threw it on. Luckily, it worked in her favor. The dress was black and knee length, with spaghetti straps and in a fit-and-flare style. And thanks to Madame Malkin, who included shoes and accessories with every outfit, she put on the black kitten heels and black elbow-length gloves. She had no time to fix her hair and face, so she waved her wand and instantly, her face was clean and her makeup was done and her hair had been put up with her curls pinned. Finally, she could take a few puffs of her inhaler.

Grace made her way down the stairs and stopped before she went into the sitting room, where she saw Severus and an elderly woman conversing over tea. Who is she and why does she have Severus totally spooked? The woman looked very stern and composed herself almost regally. Grace figured she was from an important Wizard family that descended centuries back. And by the way, Severus fidgeted in his seat whenever the woman directly addressed him, Grace waited by the door so she would not interrupt the woman.

When the woman took a moment to sip her tea, Severus looked over at Grace and a look of relief washed over him, "You may come in, Grace." The woman looked over at Grace and eyed her up and down. She seemed to take in every detail of her as Grace stood before with her hands behind her back. "Grace, this my grandmother, Margaret Prince." Grace looked over at Severus— who was awfully pale, paler than usual— and back to the woman. Merlin, if looks could kill.

"It's a pleasure to meet you, madame," and she curtsied. Grace mentally slapped herself for doing so because Madame Prince raised an eyebrow to the naive girl and Severus couldn't help but smirk.

"Excellent manners, you have taught this Muggle girl, Severus. She looks and acts like a perfect young lady," Grace had to bite her tongue not to snort at that comment. Oh, so this is how it's going to be? I'm the damn Muggle charity case?

"I'm glad to hear you think so, grandmother, but I taught Grace nothing other than Potions. Miss McClivert has always been well-mannered, even as a First Year at Hogwarts. And she's one of my top students," now Grace had seen everything; an actual compliment coming from Severus Snape. He looked over at her to give her a small smile, and Madame Prince just "hmph'd."

"Are you enjoying your stay here, Grace?" she asked, turning back to the young girl.

"Oh, I love it here. It's beautiful here, even more, beautiful than Hogwarts, but I suppose Hogwarts lost the initial charm after it became more and more like school as the years went on."

"What is your house, dear?"

Grace was almost too afraid to answer, even though it was a simple enough response. But Severus was a Slytherin, and maybe he had come from a lineage of Slytherins, and Madame Margaret would dislike any other house just like Severus loathed the Gryffindors. Severus nudged Grace to answer when she started to zone out into her thoughts, "Ravenclaw, madame. I'm a Ravenclaw."

At that, Madame Margaret's face lit up, "I was a Ravenclaw as well when I attended Hogwarts! Is there still a crystal garden in the center of the common room."

Grace relaxed and mirrored the woman's enthusiasm, "Yes! And the stairs turn into a slide."

"My dear, we were the ones who created the spell!"

"Really? That's amazing!" The two girls carried on with their conversation about the Ravenclaw Common Room, favorite classes, professors that were Margaret's that are still there to this day, and Margaret even went on about the Quidditch teams during her years at Hogwarts which really sent Grace on a tangent. Severus sat back in astonishment; he really couldn't relate to what they were talking about, and he was in shock at just how well Grace was getting along with his grandmother. He didn't even get along that greatly with his grandmother and they were related.

His grandmother had loved his mother so much, she was her pride and joy, her Princess Eileen. But then Eileen fell into wedlock with his father Tobias and Margaret forced the two to get married as if to not shed so much darkness on the Prince name, even though his father was a Muggle. And that made Margaret resent Tobias, though she had a very good reason to because he was an alcoholic and abusive to both he and his mother. Once Severus was born, Margaret barely even saw the boy enough to form an opinion, and therefore a loving bond was never formed between the two. Instead, Tobias would call the Princes' "freaks," and forbid any magic in the manor. His parents would fight constantly, and it would always end in Tobias getting piss-drunk and beating Eileen before passing out. When Severus would try and stand between his parents, he would only receive the first of Tobias' throws, and get locked in the closet. Finally, Eileen just couldn't fight him anymore, and Tobias hit too hard, and she never woke up. Margaret had almost killed Tobias, but Tobias threatened that if anything were to happen to him, he would send Severus somewhere far away from where Margaret would never find the boy. So, at the sake of keeping her grandson, the only memory of Eileen, in her life, she stepped back. Tobias moved them out of the manor, which now bore the ugly name of Snape Manor, and into a small house in Spinner's End.

Severus looked over at the two women, who were still talking and laughing, and he thought about Grace's adoption papers, still tucked away in his desk. He really hoped Margaret would have an overall approval of Grace. Yes, she was Muggle-born. But she belonged there, with him, with them.

Grace had snuck away while Severus kept his grandmother occupied to cook dinner. Often, Grace would come back while the roast was in the oven, talk a while, and then excuse herself to go to the bathroom or "check on the house elf." But really, Missy's job for the night was to watch the roast and make sure nothing caught on fire. Though, if you asked Missy, she was very proud of her role as Grace's helper, because "Mistress Grace" was extremely kind to the house elf, and even sang softly as she danced around the kitchen, cooking.

Dinner went extremely well, and the food was delicious. Every time Severus or Madame Margaret said something nice about the meal, Grace would grin and wiggle happily in her seat, never giving Margaret the slip that she was the one who actually cooked, instead of Missy like she was supposed to. Madame Margaret had even let Grace have some wine during dinner. Severus was apprehensive at first on giving the child wine, as he was apprehensive on anything that had to do with alcohol because of his father, but he knew Grace was smart enough to know better, and it was only one glass. But he soon regretted it because every time she took a sip, she would glance at Severus and smirk, like, Look at me, I'm practically grown up, drinking wine and conversing with the adults.

It wasn't until towards the end of the night when things took a bad turn.

"So, tell me about your biological parents, Grace."

Grace froze and her eyes grew big, "Well, t-tell about what, madame?"

"What were they like? Or, were you orphaned at such a young age that you don't remember them?"

Severus couldn't believe this. He could see Grace grow paler by the second, and her eyes glanced everywhere but Margaret. Grace's voice tightened, as he was sure her chest was doing the same, "N-no, I remember them, madame. And I wasn't orphaned, I was taken away by child services."

"Oh dear, I'm sorry. What happened?"

Grace's pale skin was now turning a shade of green, and she was finding the floor very interesting. She stood, "I-I think the wine's made me a bit dizzy if you'll excuse me," and left to go upstairs without a reply from Margaret.

Severus looked at the now confused woman across from her, "Grandmother, not even I know what happened to Grace and her parents. But whatever it was, it was horrible and made Grace very mentally unstable. She's lived in a foster home for two years, then skipped around foster family to foster family until she came across one who kept her for four years and then threw her out all because they were having a baby of their own. You must understand that Grace may have had a dark past but she's a wonderful girl, a brilliant girl. And I don't know why she hasn't already been adopted because any family would be the luckiest family in the world to have a kid like her and they're moronic for ever giving up on her. And it's all because of what her monstrous parents did to her, whatever they did to her, and it's not fair. Everyone looks down at her like she's some broken porcelain doll but she's not. She's so strong and so full of love and the nicest person in the world, I don't even think she's capable of hate. Have you ever met someone like that? Someone not capable of disliking someone because they see good in everyone, even those who don't deserve it? Because I haven't, no, not until this tiny, redheaded, Ravenclaw girl skipped into Potions class and has been, probably the only student in my entire teaching career, to not be afraid of me or not give me any problems. And-"

Margaret held up her hand to stop Severus from going on, as she had heard enough. Severus blushed, he hadn't realized he went off on a tangent about Grace, he just didn't know what came over him. The same thing had happened when Grace was still in school and he went off about her to Minerva and Albus. "Severus, I don't know why you insist on going on. My impressions were made from the moment I met Grace. Tonight was just time to get to know more about her. Now, go, she obviously needs someone right now." Margaret got up and went to the fireplace to flood home. "Oh, and Severus, do fill out those adoption papers. Like you said, any family would be lucky enough to have that girl," and she left.

Severus stood there, blinked a few times, and finally things set in. When he wrapped his brain around what his grandmother had just said and gave him permission to do, all he could think about was Grace.