All's Fair; Chapter Ten

Summary: Arriving at Hogwarts as new charms teacher, Dannielle 'Danni' Prince soon finds that surly Potions Master, Severus Snape, is the least of her worries when ghosts of the past come back searching for vengeance. SS/OC
Disclaimer: I own nothing except the storyline and Danielle Prince.
Warning: This chapter rated M
Word Count: 2539
Beta: All-Knowing Alien 2

10: Backwards and Forwards

I nodded and took a deep breath, deciding to take the plunge and get this over and done with as soon as I could. 'I'm pregnant.'

'What?' Claude stood so suddenly the stool span out backwards, crashing to the floor behind him. I winced at the noise, but Claude didn't even seem to notice. 'Pregnant? By your ex? Oh, I'll kill the mother fuc-'

'Claude!' I shouted, cutting him off. 'It's not him!'

'What?' he said again. Suddenly a look of understanding flashed across his features. 'Wait… is this your warped way of telling me you met an old friend, had a whirlwind romance and are getting married, because I really don't think-'

'I'm not getting married,' I interrupted again. He looked at me cluelessly for a few moments before I took pity on the poor guy. 'I had a one night stand,' I said bluntly. 'The guy is nice enough and we are, slowly, becoming friends, but we're both stubborn as mules when we want to be, so don't go getting any ideas.' And pray that he never finds out I called him nice enough. Severus would cut me up and pickle me in those infamous jars of his.

'You need to say that to mum, not me,' said Claude. He seemed to be taking the news remarkably well and I was tempted to check his temperature. 'Who is he?' he asked.

'No one you know.' I might think my brother was relatively calm, but that didn't mean he wouldn't fly tooth and nail at any guy who knocked up his sister. I was, I realised, touched that he cared. But right now I was too annoyed by his behaviour to care.

Claude seemed to realise that he wouldn't get an answer out of me just yet, so instead asked a different question; 'What are you going to do?'

Boy did I hate that question. 'I'm not sure,' I finally answered after a moment contemplating telling the truth or not. 'The father's said he wants to be involved and I trust him.' I saw Claude's disbelieving look and I shot him a glare. 'I have enough saved to survive a couple of years and I'm earning a packet at Hogwarts.'

'You're going to get fired,' Claude said stiffly.

I felt my emotions swirling to a climax and covered my face with my hands in an attempt to control myself. I hadn't thought about it. I never thought about anything. My happy-go-lucky ways had let me live this long, but here I was, heading into the deepest, darkest middle ages with no man – or woman – by my side except for family and friends. And I was trying to distance myself from my own life by trying to solve everyone else's problems. I felt a sob building up and my eyes beginning to sting when my brother's warm arms wrapped around my shoulders and he hugged me to him.

'Hey, shh,' Claude whispered to me and I turned into him and cried into his shoulder.

After a moment I got a hold of myself and squared my shoulders.

Claude stepped back and smiled encouragingly. 'You OK now?' he asked.

'Yeah,' I said with a sniff. 'Hormones,' I clarified.

Then, as good timing would have it, we heard Janie, Cameron and Sheila return from their walk. I quickly took a different door out of the kitchen into a bathroom to clear up the mess of my face and when I returned I found Cameron and Sheila with identical goofy expressions and covered in mud. I raised my eyebrows at Cameron and she looked slightly ashamed.

'It was her fault!' the girl shouted, pointing at the dog. Sheila barked and shook, spraying mud everywhere.

Wiping away the clod of dirt that had splattered into my eyes I said, 'OK, Cameron, I think you need a bath. Thanks, bro, Janie, but I think we should head home.'

'Aww,' Cameron moaned. 'But we just got here.'

My brother laughed and I shot him a condescending look. 'How about you and Dan head home and join us again at seven for dinner?' he asked.

I was about to decline, but I saw Cameron's puppy dog eyes pleading with me and I caved. 'Fine. But you, young missy, are going to be on your best behaviour,' I said in my very best McGonagall impression. Cameron noticed and laughed, mock saluting me.

Casting a quick cleaning spell over Cameron so she wouldn't spoil my car seats, I said a brief goodbye to my brother, his wife and their adorable, mud-soaked mutt and whisked Cameron out in to the car.

'So? Did they live up to your expectations?' I asked, laughing at Cameron's mud-splattered expression. Maybe I should have used a stronger cleaning spell.

A shadow flickered over Cameron's face and I could almost hear her thinking anything's better than my family, but she was soon smiling again, incredibly bright blue eyes sparkling as she recounted the exact occurrences leading up to being covered in mud from head to foot. One of my eyebrows arched high up my forehead as I watched her with thinly veiled disbelief, which had her laughing even harder.

'You better not wear that expression at school,' she giggled. 'People will start to think Professor Snape has possessed you!'

I winked at her before doing my very best impression of Severus, disgusted sneer and all. 'And what makes you think, Miss Black, that I haven't?'

Cameron giggled again and I continued to tease her in my Severus' persona as we drove the rest of the way home.

'You know,' Cameron said as we pulled into my driveway. 'You seem to know a lot of Snape's mannerisms.'

I lapsed into thoughtful silence for a moment as I parked the car and went to unlock the door. 'Severus isn't all he seems to be under first impression,' I told her, agreeably, rather cryptically. 'I think there's a lot about him that no one knows, and even less that people understand.'

'You're not going to say any more than that, are you?'

'Nope,' I said cheerfully, though my mind drifted back to the night I had found Severus at breaking point. I knew that on some level that had been my fault, but it was also, I think, good for him to break down – to allow himself room to breathe, even if it was under the influence of that disgusting but strong liquor of his. 'Come on, let's get you into the bath.'

'Do you have bubbles?' Cameron asked, with playful sincerity. It did not escape my notice, however, that she had recognised and accepted the change of subject.

'Uh-huh. They're Slytherin green and pop into silver sparks, too,' I deadpanned.

'Um… doesn't that hurt?'

I laughed out loud and dragged her through to the bathroom, I pointed out the bath bubble bottles and told her she could pick any she liked, but threatened her with head removal if she drained any of them. Cameron nodded, and positively shoved me out the door. I chuckled again and left her to it.

When I went back into the kitchen I found that the constant turmoil that had been in my mind for the past week had calmed considerably. Being able to make Cameron happy and telling my brother about my predicament had filled me with some kind of peace that I hadn't even noticed I was missing. I made my way into the tiny kitchen and turned on the kettle. I leaned against the work surface and gazed absently at the clock on the wall, the bright red second hand ticking slowly round and round as I stared at it.

I became so hypnotised by the movement that I didn't even notice when the doorbell rang through the house. When it rang a second time I snapped back to reality, noticing with a twinge that the water I had been boiling had long since cooled down. I stood up straight and went to the front door, pulling it open with my apology already on the tip of my tongue. But when I saw who it was, my words died in my throat.

'Bellatrix Lestrange,' I finally managed to choke out.

Her eyes glinted madly at me, but when she spoke her voice was cool and calculated. 'Danielle Prince.'

My peace of mind was lost. What the Hell was Bellatrix doing at my house when she should, by all rights, be slowly rotting away in a wooden box six feet under?

I froze as the murderess of my brother, fiancé and countless others moved forwards so her face was a hair's breadth from mine. She let out a breath and my nose was filled with the stench of decay and earth. Slowly Bellatrix started circling me; her body disgustingly close in the small space of my hallway.

'So nice to see you,' she spat softly in my ear. 'How's your dear… Jesse, was it?'

I shuddered at this reminder, but shook it off. 'I don't know Bella, why don't you tell me, since you're back from the land of the dead?'

A hissing laugh escaped her lips and her spit clung to my hair and earlobe. 'You have something of mine, dearest. I've come to take it back.'

Something of hers? What could I possibly have that might once have belonged to this heartless woman? 'Cameron's the product of a union made in hell…' Severus' words drifted in to my mind and my eyes widened as I realised that Cameron, my charge, was the soul heir and daughter to Bellatrix Lestrange. Or Bella Black as she had been born and christened. This meant that Cameron had not only inherited the practically non-existant Lestrange fortune, but also the extensive property and holdings of the Black family. It should have been obvious, but no one knew that of Bellatrix, Sirius and Regulus, one of them had children.

After the war Sirius and Regulus' names had been cleared posthumously and Sirius had been named Harry Potter's Godfather. I, like the rest of the general public, presumed that Potter would inherit the entire Black fortune as the line was broken. But here, before my eyes, was the proof it was not. Bellatrix was alive – as was her daughter. Wait. Something didn't quite add up. Rodolphus Lestrange had died over twenty years ago. Either he too had miraculously avoided death or Cameron had a different father.

'I'm curious,' I stated mere seconds after Bella's last remark. 'Is your darling husband around somewhere or does your daughter have a different father?'

Bellatrix snorted her amusement and pushed me roughly back against the wall. 'Cameron's father was not that incompetent fool of a man!' Her voice lowered to a husky whisper and her lips moved once again to my ear. 'Since you're going to die, would you like to hear a secret?' If possible her voice got even quieter. 'Cameron is daughter to my Dark Lord himself.'

Then pain ripped through my body. Unbearable; it was like brilliant, white hot light searing through me, like I had swallowed a star. I stumbled and fell to my knees, a small whine escaping my throat – I refused to scream for this murderous bitch. After what seemed like hours, days maybe, Bella lifted the spell to kick me harshly across the midriff as a long hiss of irritation slipped from her cracked lips.

'Scream for me,' she ordered. 'Scream! Cruciatus!'

Again the light was searing through me – teasing and pulling at every nerve ending and feeling in my body and slowly shredding it to nothing. I clung blindly to my mind – to my sanity.

But it would be so simple – so easy – just to let go and slip away from the pain. So tempting. I knew, though, that if I let go now I would never quite be able to get back again. So I anchored myself with the pain, I sent my mind to meet Bella's and forced my way in, too distracted to bother with subtlety. I absorbed her mind entirely with mine and then we both screamed.

The room was deadly silent.

As soon as I had shifted my mind to share it with the unwilling Bella the curse was broken. We were both now standing and staring at each other.

'Where is she?' Bellatrix asked, her keening voice harsh.

'Why would I tell you?' I replied.

Bella threw back her head and laughed madly, her hair wild and static. 'Cause if you don't I will kill you,' she explained with morbid delight.

I smiled slightly and the duel began in earnest. Flashes of deadly light flew across the room, exploding through the air and utterly destroying the downstairs rooms of my house.

That made me incredibly angry. This house may not have been much, but it was still my home so I retaliated with twice the ferocity.

Neither of us were bothering to talk out loud anymore and our spells were becoming increasingly non-verbal. Despite the fuelling anger I could feel my strength waning under Bella's onslaught, the minutes spent under her Cruciatus starting to play rampant on my mind and body.

But the final blow was not one I expected at all.

'Professor? Is everything alright?' Cameron called, appearing at the bathroom door wrapped in a large white fluffy towel, her hair plastered wetly across the back of her neck and shoulders. She looked the picture of innocence with her wide, gleaming eyes.

'Cameron!' I shouted, immediately distracted from the battle. 'Get back to your room and loc-' I was cut off by a hard, bony fist to my jaw.

My mouth rapidly filled with blood and it felt as though I'd bitten my tongue in half. Before I could even begin to recover my wits or attempt to clear the stars from my vision Bellatrix descended upon me. Her wand lay forgotten on the floor as she attacked me tooth and nail. My knees crumpled beneath me as Bellatrix ground at my flesh, my fingers breaking like twigs under her feet and I felt as though my cheek had been ripped right off by her clawing fingers.

I tried to crawl away and she kicked viciously once, twice, three times and I could, beneath the blood red veil, vaguely hear someone screaming to stop. I hoped it wasn't me. Then I felt my thighs become slick with thick, sticky liquid and I remembered – remembered.

'Baby,' I managed to say after several tries. The word felt sad and happy at the same time.

'My baby,' I repeated, clutching at my stomach, rolling up and rocking backwards and forwards.

Backwards and Forwards. 'Baby.'

Backwards and Forwards. 'My baby.'

Backwards and Forwards. 'Baby.'

Backwards and Forwards. 'My baby.'

Through the blood red veil I could see Cameron curled up in a corner as far from Bella as possible, sobbing her poor little heart out. Such a sweet little girl. And there was her mother standing tall and vain and alone. I closed my eyes and rocked. Backwards and forwards. Maybe if I ignored that proud, smirking lady for long enough she might go away. Maybe.

I peeked my eyes open and saw her point a wooden stick at me. Oh, her wand. She smiled, there was a flash of light and I whispered 'baby' one more time.

Then the world went black.

Written: Unknown
Chances of continuation: nil

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Much love,
Cal