Plot, new characters, new magical terms and abilities etc. are my intellectual property. If you want to borrow then please kindly ask. JK Rowling's characters and Wizarding Universe are all uniquely hers. I don't make any money from this.

ALTERNATE UNIVERSE

Summary:

Snape learns a lot about real love, acceptance and support in the aftermath of Dumbledore's death - and the Wizard he sacrificed so much for. Inspired by "The Unconditional Vow" by Agnus Castus. SS/OC Aspberger's Syndrome

Author's Notes: Inspired by "The Unconditional Vow" by Agnus Castus on Occlumency . Sycophant Hex and ff . Net …

Chapter 011: The Visitor

Nerys had stalled and stalled and stalled but there was no holding back any longer, not with what she'd agreed to do for the Order. So it was that she finally set out on a particularly wet and windy day to update Arthur and his wife at their home in Devon. Since people couldn't come to her she would have to go to them. She'd snuggled up to Severus but he'd forced her out of bed, telling her that he understood her problems with meeting strangers and in unfamiliar territory, but that the sooner she got it over and done with the sooner she'd be back home.

He would be waiting for her with open arms.

XxxxOOOxxxX

Nerys Disapparated to Exeter and then flew to the Weasley homestead in Ottery St. Catchpole by broomstick. She knew she'd found the homestead known as The Burrow when she spotted a tottering ramshackle house made up of all sorts of bric-a-brac that most definitely could only be held up by magic.

'Strange... but bloody brilliant!' she murmured as she flew several circuits around it, complete with a few Loop-the-Loops to better examine it from all angles.

Inside the house, the youngest Weasley offspring and only girl 17 year-old Ginny peered out the window.

'Hey Dad – who's that out there?' she called out. 'It's like Pigwidgeon on a broom!'

Pigwidgeon was tiny terror of an owl, given to them by Harry Potter's late Godfather, Sirius Black. Pig, as he was affectionately known, always seemed to be defying gravity in the matter of his flying ability. The wee thing couldn't fly straight to save his life; instead it was arcs and swirls and loops. How he managed to hold onto post was no small miracle – consequently they didn't use him to do very much.

Arthur flew to the window as did his wife Molly.

'Ahhh – that my dear girl is Nerys!'

'Is she mental or what?' her brother Ron commented in disbelief as stomped downstairs having seen her from the window in his room near the top of the house.

'You will hold your tongue Ronald Weasley!' his mother shouted. 'She is our guest and I will not have her upset by any foolishness!'

'She's a much better flier than you, Ron,' Ginny said tartly as Nerys streaked closed to the house and, hovered a moment and then shot up in an elegant arc before spiralling from bottom to top and then back again. 'You can't even fly in a straight line without falling off at least once when we're playing Quidditch!'

'What she's doing takes real skill!' added Ron's classmate and friend Hermione Granger. 'But she's probably on sensory overload and is trying to make sense of what she's looking at.'

'How would you know?'

'The book on Aspberger's I picked up for your parents. You should try reading more; it would do you a world of good!'

Finally there was a knock at the door and Arthur went to get it himself, explaining that it was important for Nerys to be welcomed by someone she'd at least met before.

'Well don't just stand around you lot!' Molly muttered as she gestured towards the large picnic table with benches that dominated the space between their kitchen and sitting room.

'I hope this won't be too overwhelming for you,' they heard Mr. Weasley say as he closed the front door. 'Bill and Fleur are out shopping for the wedding and the twins are at their shop in Diagon Alley...'

'Me too...' came the distinctive sound sound of Nerys's monotone voice with its heavy Welsh Valleys accent.

'Everyone, this is Nerys Pendragon. Nerys, these are a few of the people responsible for my premature ageing!'

Nerys mumbled "Hello" and nodded to each of them when introduced as she wrung her hands, anxious to not be touched.

Ron whispered something to Hermione and was rewarded with a smack on his arm with the book she'd had in her hands.

'Ah, he was being rude,' Nerys commented.

'Well...' Hermione spluttered.

'It's OK. I'm used to ignorant people,' their visitor said sitting in the chair that Mr. Weasley had placed at the head of the table for her.

'Ho!' Ginny snorted, trying not to laugh.

'Cup of tea, Dear?' Molly asked.

'Yes, please. Thank you,' Nerys said, looking around at all of the magical items that fuelled domestic activities in the Weasley home. 'Impressive number of charms you have going here, Mrs. Weasley. I suppose this is preferable to using indentured servants like House-Elves.'

'It sounds like you don't use either,' Hermione commented.

'I do everything the Muggle way, except redecorating. I was fostered by a Muggleborn family growing up.'

'That's barmy...' Ron began only to be smacked again. 'Do you bloody mind, Hermione? I'm going to black and blue at the rate you're going!'

He and Hermione began to argue (typical for them) only to be silenced by his mother who told them off and jerked her head in the direction of their guest who was covering her ears with her hands.

'So you do have sensory difficulties... with your particular manifestation of Aspberger's, I mean,' Hermione said after Nerys had stopped covering her ears with encouragement from Mr. Weasley.

'Hermione, really...' said. Mrs. Weasley, blushing furiously.

'Yes, I do,' Nerys answered. 'I'm very sensitive. Just being around noise like that is very discomforting.'

'I can appreciate that,' Arthur said with a nod as he passed Nerys her cup of tea. 'Which is why the rest of your visit will be much quieter.'

'I will make this quick so that your son can get back to being loud and rude.'

Ginny and Hermione both clapped their hands over their mouths as Mr and Mrs Weasley pursed their lips trying not to laugh.

'So,' Arthur said through a cough. 'I take it everything is arranged?'

'Yes. I have secured the property and also stocked the larder and refrigerator with basics. The place has also been thoroughly cleaned and redecorated.'

'That sounds like an awful lot of trouble,' Molly gasped. 'You needn't have done all that; it's enough that you donated safe house in the first place!'

'I think differently. These people probably expect to be thrown in some dingy little house quite below their standard. They are thinking that Harry Potter will finally be getting his own back, making them suffer for how they've treated him all these years. How surprised they will be to discover that, thanks to the kindness and generosity of the Wizard and magic they loathe, they will alive and well and living far better than they would have ever achieved on their own. Their prejudices against our World have kept them stuck in a lot less than a half-life, in my opinion. And I do believe that there is potential for some healing there even if old grudges and wounds never quite heal on both sides. It will just take time.'

'They don't deserve a better life!' Ron spat. 'Four walls and a roof is more than enough!'

'Everyone deserves a good life, Ronald Weasley – a happy life! Harry Potter is under no obligation to forget or even to forgive, but he is a decent enough human being so that he wouldn't demand the kind of retribution you are thinking about. He is better than that.'

'You don't even know him!

'True. But he was the one who made the specific request that his relatives be relocated and looked after. That suggests to me that I have far more of a measure of he man he is growing into than you do at the moment.'

'She's right, Ron' Hermione said quietly. 'Harry would be well within his right to have them dumped in some hell-hole sink estate after everything they've put him through and I wouldn't blame him if he did. But he is better than that – a lot better than that. Every moment of every day of their great new life they will be reminded that he's the reason why they have it so good. It's an interesting life-debt to have and one they shouldn't be allowed to forget if you ask me.'

'Well it's not like they'll try to make up for anything, now is it?' Ron demanded.

'There is no telling what redemption people are capable of if given half a chance,' Nerys commented. 'Even the most caustic, irascible, miserable creatures on earth have something to teach us. There were many important lessons to be learned during the past 16 years at Number Four Privet Drive. Those lessons were invaluable – for the Dursleys and Harry Potter alike. You obviously care about your friend and no one can fault you for that. But as his friend – please encourage him to be much better than the average Gryffindor with his black-and-white judgements. There's always more than one side to a story and the truth is often very different to want we want to believe it is.'

'Bet she was a duffer Hufflepuff,' Ron muttered under his breath.

'My hearing is quite sensitive Ronald Weasley. I'm a Ravenclaw, not a Hufflepuff – and a Hatstall. I nearly ended up in Gryffindor like the rest of my family, but dared to be different and begged to be placed in Ravenclaw.'

'That's a first,' Ginny gasped. 'Most people almost always want to be in our House even without it being a family tradition.'

'Keep thinking that way if it helps you, Ginevra. I can't see how it does myself.'

Ginny looked at their visitor with raised eyebrows and only a pointed look from Hermione kept her from answering back.

'I do believe I have outstayed my welcome. I will leave now,' Nerys said standing up.

'Oh, there's no hurry at all,' Molly said faintly.

'Thank you for your hospitality, but it is time for me to go.'

'I'll see you out,' Mr. Weasley said.

Everyone remained quiet as he thanked Nerys for her report and then saw her to their door.

Once she'd taken off on her broom and the door had closed behind her, the house came to life again.

'Who the hell does she think she is?!' Ron demanded. 'Coming in here talking down to us like that!'

'She's very logical and quite literal. It's just an aspect of who she is as an Aspie,' Hermione explained. 'If anyone was rude it was you!'

'Me?!'

'Yes – you! Weighing everything up that she'd been told, Nerys made a conscious effort to be decent to the Dursleys without even knowing that that's exactly how Harry wanted things done! It takes a strong person to rise above wanting revenge and an even stronger person to not want to play the avenging angel on someone else's behalf!'

'To be fair, it's not like we didn't know that she was going to be... odd,' Ginny said diplomatically.

'And she was probably very anxious and nervous about being ganged up on,' Hermione added. 'She was having to defend doing the right thing, even though it probably wasn't the easiest by any stretch of the imagination.'

'Right. So some strange bird knows what's better for our friend than we do...' Ron commented standing up.

'Where are you going?' his mother asked irritably.

'No letters to Harry, Ron!' Mr. Weasley said firmly. 'You know full well any owls even passing through that area are ripe for interception; whatever you want to say can wait until he's here with us!'

'Besides, it's not fair to slag Nerys off especially as she's not really done anything wrong,' Ginny commented. 'Here we are being arsey because we haven't even tried to understand her and yet she's the one who's made a huge effort to try and understand Harry and the situation with his family.'

'Yeah well I still think she's barmy.'

'I'm really disappointed in you,' Mr. Weasley said. 'That is exactly the kind of intolerant attitude that pushed Declan to kill himself. I raised you better than that and I expect you to act like it while you're still under my roof and when we have guests. Is that clear?!'

'Crystal.'

'Good. Now I'm going for a walk. I need to have a word with Xenophilius Lovegood about these editorials he's publishing in that magazine of his. I don't disagree with some of what he says but he's going to get himself and his daughter killed if he keeps it up...'

XxxxOOOxxxX

Nerys arrived home and Severus was waiting with the door open by the time she made up the front walk.

She took one look at him and burst into tears.

'I'm sorry I couldn't go with you,' he said before giving her a gentle kiss. 'Come... a hot bath will do us both good.

OOO

'Were they particularly horrible to you?' Severus asked as they cuddled by the fire on the sofa in their sitting room dressed only in their bathrobes.

'I managed to upset Ronald Weasley a great deal...just by being me and not doing things the way he believes they should be done. In my place he would dump the Dursleys in some some crappy sink estate and leave them to it.'

Nerys looked at her boyfriend thoughtfully.

'Even you managed to do much better than that with more reasons to shaft them than he does.'

'The credit goes to you, Nerys. But, I have had the advantage of getting to know you in ways that Ronald Weasley never will.'

'It shouldn't take all that to see the logic and common sense in not being spiteful.'

'Potter most definably wants to avenge Albus's death.'

'He wants justice, which isn't unreasonable. Harry Potter isn't in possession of all the facts; and from the what you and my uncle have said, it seems his eyeglasses failed him as much as his brain did that night. He is too prejudiced where you are concerned, Severus – and only because he really has no idea of the truth about you and his mother.'

'He would never listen even if I was inclined to reveal it.'

'I hate to say it, but I think it would take something damn near catastrophic to make him see sense... damn his Gryffindor pride!'

'No one can know, Nerys! No one!'

'I promised you I wouldn't say anything and I won't. But damn it if you don't have that same prideful streak. I swear you're more Gryffindor than Slytherin sometimes. I just don't understand it!'

'Oh you will have to pay for that, woman!'

'You have a one-track mind, Severus Snape. I have spoiled you.'

'Not enough, I can assure you...'