Waiting. Waiting always feels like a very long time, but when there's nothing to do in a basement with a person you dislike for his believes, believe me, than it feels like an eternity.

Severus just stood there, at the side of the table, looking at the boiling brew. He seemed to be in reverie and I wondered where he was exactly thinking about. I could guess the bigger subject, our argument of course, but was he thinking of changing his disgusting believes into better ones? Probably not.

I stood there too, at the other side of the table, staring at some ingredients on shelves. I wondered who of us was going to clean up the mess on the ground. I turned my head to the mess and saw all the glass and remnants of plants and nuts. I hoped he would just flick his wand, cause cleaning this would take quite some time.

Severus had followed my gaze and stared at the mess too.

"That was a strong detonation." he stated softly with his monotonous voice. I looked at him. He looked back with his dark eyes. His anger had completely vanished, or that's how it seemed. Severus' body language was difficult to read.

"It was not my intention to blow them up." I told him. He kept staring at me with that empty face of his. He had clearly no idea what to do. Me neither.

"I know it wasn't." he said. "because you would have never been capable of doing it if you wanted to." He looked away, to the mess on the ground. I kept staring at him. His face had been a bit red of the yelling he had done previously. Now, it got his pale colour back.

Severus got his wand out of his pocket and waved it with a strong move. The mess piled up and levitated towards the trash bin in the corner. Even though I had seen him do those things before, I was still excited and amazed by the sight. I knew Severus hated that, so I kept the level of emotions low and just looked at how the pile dropped itself into the bin.

Severus slowly put his wand back into his pocket and turned back over to me.

"Not amazed I hope?" he asked on a normal tone. "No." I simply lied. He seemed to believe it and slightly nodded. He seemed genuinely pleased. "Good. Being amazed at the sight of magic isn't a good thing in the Wizarding World. Makes you look like a fool. And me too if you decide to do so." I frowned at that. He had probably said to me to not be amazed to not look silly in front of his friends. Even though I had wanted to tell him that, we had just had a quarrel and having another one, even though I was right in my opinion, wasn't good for the both of us.

Severus looked at the cauldron. The brew still looked the same.

He sighed and made himself ready to leave the basement. He passed me and walked up the stairs without looking back. I just looked at him and stayed in the basement, not completely sure if I had to follow him.

"Are you still coming? I don't want you to stay down there without me." he said loudly from the doorway upstairs he was standing in. "Uh, yeah." I said and walked over to the stairs. I looked over my shoulder to look at the brew one more time. I knew he was my father. Cause why would my mom lie about it? But still I had some doubts. It made me tensed. What would happen to me if he wasn't?

I walked upstairs and passed Severus in the doorway. He closed the closet-door after me and checked if it was really closed, just to be sure. He turned around to face me. His face was empty. Nothing to read. No body language. Sometimes he had that. A difficult man to read. "He must have a lot of secrets." I imagined. "Why else would he act that way? What kind of secrets does he hide?"

"Tea?" Severus suggested. "Good idea." I sighed with a small smile. Severus slightly nodded and headed off towards the kitchen.

I seated myself on the couch and looked out of the window. It was raining outside. "Very appropriate for this situation." I thought.

I was still staring through the window, but I wasn't really looking. I was lost in my reverie about the brew. The outcome of it could change everything from now on, even though it had only two possibilities, I was his or I wasn't.

If I wasn't, would Severus kick me out of his house? Probably. Cause why would he let me live in his house if I wasn't? But what would happen after that? Orphanage? Probably. There was no family besides my possible father… Well, my mom had family in the Wizarding World, but she had told me not to go there. They had been terrible people and probably still were. It was better to not go and look for them.

Severus got back with a tray. On it, a teapot and two cups. The tinkling of the cups against each other pulled me out of my reverie. I slightly shook my head and was back in reality again.

Severus had noticed it, like he always noticed things, and looked at me with raised eyebrows.

"Did I pull you out of your thoughts?" he asked with a polite voice. I slightly nodded and actually did not want to go further into the subject. Severus seemed to understand the gesture, or he just didn't feel like asking about it anyway, cause he didn't ask more about it. He seated himself in his armchair instead.

He poured the both of us a cup of tea and got one of the cups to lean back in his chair thereafter. He seemed a bit nervous and clearly tried to calm himself down with the warm cup in his hands.

"Are you nervous about the outcome?" I asked him on a normal tone. My remark was not meant to let the quarrel rise again. I really wanted to prevent that from happening. I just wanted to share my doubts too and ask him about how he saw the future if I indeed wasn't his.

Severus frowned at first, then I got an irritated scowl.

"Are you sure you want to start it again?" he inquired fiercely. I startled and widened my eyes. I had not meant to do that and was not completely ready for another quarrel.

"No, no, not at al." I stammered. "I am genuinely interested. Well, I mean… Uhm…" I did not really have a great answer yet. I was still trying to find a good one as he asked: "Interested? If you don't want to start the quarrel all over again, than why do you ask it?" "Well…" I sighed. I decided to just ask him straight forward. Maybe that would help.

"I want to know how you see the future if I am not your daughter." I stated coldly. The wizard in front of me raised his eyebrows at my remark. "Why the sudden change of thinking, Ellea? I thought you were so sure you were indeed mine?" he teased, although I got the idea he truly wanted to know it.

"Because you were right about my mom's letter. It's just a letter. Just words. Even though I could not come up with a reason why she would make it all up." I admitted. Severus seemed surprised and raised his eyebrows again. "Maybe because we, you and me, are both capable of doing magic. I know how to handle it. I know all about the Wizarding World. Underneath my guardianship you could grow into the Wizarding Community, at least more than your mother back in her days and more than you could on your own." his voice had been normal through his possible explanation. He truly wanted to talk about it with me. Without yelling, without insulting each other. Maybe he had realised too that yelling wasn't the way of solving this.

"That is possible. But we have a lot of similarities." "Children come in all shapes and sizes. You possibly have those body features from a relative." he tried to settle it with a quick explanation. I had no relatives with black hair and/ or a pale face, but I nodded to not end up in another quarrel about it.

"But to get back to my question, if you are not my father, what is going to happen then?" I inquired. Severus eyes shifted away towards the window. He had thought for a brief moment before he said: "I have to ask Dumbledore." I tilted my head at that. "Oh, come on. You told me you didn't believe I was yours, so you must have thought about this." Severus frowned. He must have felt busted, cause he sighed and turned his head towards the window. "I think you will go to a relative." he said. "I don't have other family besides… well… maybe you."

Severus turned his head back to me and frowned. "Don't lie to me, Ellea. I don't accept that." I stared at the ground and doubted if I had to tell him about my mother's family in the Wizarding World. He probably already knew it.

"Your father certainly has family in the Muggle World…" "All dead." I interrupted him. He stared at me with a vacant expression on his face and seemed surprised to hear that. He had all right to be. It wasn't a common thing to have no family at one side of it at all.

"… and your mother has some family in the Wizarding World." he continued slowly. I shrugged. I know she has some. She wrote about it in her letter. But she also wrote they were bad people and that I should better not go and look for them. Severus seemed to get interested and asked: "and why are they 'bad'?" "Because they have outcasted my mother because she was a squib." I wanted to add 'but you will only agree with them, don't you?' ,but I decided not to. We were heading somewhere and blowing that now would be a waste.

"I think she was afraid they would treat me the same as they had treated her, because I am the daughter of a squib." I explained. Severus nodded and said: "could be." He took a sip of his tea and asked: "she didn't placed that in the letter?" "No." "And anything about other family?" "No."

Severus narrowed his lips, which indicated he was thinking. After a sip of tea he said: "maybe you should just give it a shot." I looked at the ground and wasn't into his idea. My mom hadn't placed her displease about meeting her family in her letter for nothing.

Severus had noticed my dismay and said strictly: "I think it's that or an orphanage, Ellea." I looked up at him and stared into his dark eyes. They were cold. I had kind of hoped he would say that even in the case I wasn't his I could stay in his house. Even though he was a racist, a jerk and close-tongued about feelings, he was still better than my mother's family and better than an orphanage. But he didn't offer it. He proved once again he did not wanted me around and just hoped I would leave his house.

"And what if I am your child?" I asked him softly, afraid he would get angry again, but I just had to ask him. He frowned I response, which proved once again he preferred the other outcome. He took a sip of his tea and said: "well, then I need to take you to Diagon Alley for some new clothes. I have noticed you walk around in the same muggle clothes every day." He looked at me from head to toe to indicate it. I looked at my clothes too and noticed he was right. They had become a bit dirty. I had only packed a few garments the day I also got my owl Rowan.

I assumed Diagon Alley to be a shopping street in Cokeworth, so I didn't ask any further.

"You should drink tea when it's hot, you know." Severus commented agitatedly. "If I wait long enough then it will turn into ice tea." I joked to make the ambiance feel happier. Severus frowned at my joke and clearly disliked it. Not the man for jokes, I had forgotten. I got my tea cup and just started drinking it.

When we had finished our tea, Severus looked at the clock.

"I think the brew is done by now, so let's have a look." he stated as he walked towards the closet-door. He opened it as always and walked down the stairs. I followed him.

Severus immediately walked over to the brew and looked at its colour. The purple brew had turned into a green one. The liquid in the cauldron was still boiling like it had done before. The smell of it was disgusting.

Severus saw the colour right away. He startled and his face got paler at the second. By seeing this, I knew what the result was. I was kind of relieved. Relieved that I had not to go to my mom's bad relatives or an orphanage. On the other hand, Severus was clearly not happy with having me as his child. "That's gonna bring me a lot of trouble in the future." I imagined.

He stood there in front of the cauldron and stared at the brew, vacantly. It seemed like his spirit had abandoned his body and left an empty shell behind. His now even paler face contrasted more with his black hair than it had done before. He breathed heavily, like a horse and his eyes had widened. The outcome had shocked him more than I could have ever imagined.

I had waited just down the stairs and stared at his frankly empty body. The sight saddened me even though he should have suspected I had been right. The had had sex around the time I got conceived.

After a minute or so, Severus quickly turned around and grabbed a book from the shelve behind him. His sudden movement surprised me, not startle. Instead, it made me curious at what he was doing. He was quickly turning pages and seemed to be in a big hurry.

After a few seconds, he had found what he had been looking for, cause he stopped turning the pages and stroke with his finger from the left to the right side of the page. He was reading something out loud, cause his mouth slightly moved, but I couldn't hear what he said.

He quickly looked at the brew in the cauldron and back to the book. Brew, book, brew, book, brew, book. He did it multiple times and every time he did, he seemed to get more agitated.

Finally, Severus let out a loud angry growl and slammed the book shut. In a rage, he hurled it onto the table. The blow and his sudden rage startled me and out of instinct I stepped back to protect myself.

Severus had noticed my movement at looked at me with eyes full of anger and impotence. His hair was a bit messed up and partially hung in front of his eyes. He breathed heavily and got something of a beasty appearance. I stared back at him in amazement. He had always seemed like the man who could always keep his emotions under control, but now…

Severus dropped his head and made himself lean with his hands on the table in front of him.

"I am sorry for my rage. I just had… well… according to this brew…" he started softly, but couldn't finish the sentence. He sighed and turned his head away.

"I have made a mistake the brew isn't correctly brewed. I have been working on it since the day you came here. It's a complex potion and has a lot of steps, so I think…" "I am your daughter according to the brew, am I not?" I interrupted him, even though I already knew the answer. I just wanted to be sure about it.

Severus sighed again and turned his head back to me, still leaning against the table. "Yes, but I need to test it again." he replied softly. I frowned at his answer. He just couldn't accept I was his, so he came up with all kinds of lies to fool me and himself.

"Stop lying to yourself, Severus Snape. You are my father. The brew has proven it." I stated as nicely as I could. However, Severus was not having my nicely way of speaking.

"I tell you the brew wasn't right!" he exclaimed, still leaning against the table as if his legs would let him fall if he let go of the table.

"It is, Severus! You are the Potions Master at Hogwarts! You can't do this wrong!" I yelled back at him. "Making potions is your passion and talent."

He seemed so confused and helpless by knowing I was his after all. It had devastated him. Hs feelings made me feel bad about myself. As if I wasn't worth to be here with Severus. If he, my own biological father, would reject me, than who wouldn't?

Seeing him like this made me feel awfully too. We had both turned into wrecks of our own emotions.

"Severus, I…" "Shut up and go upstairs!" he yelled. Not afraid by his yelling, I tried it again.

"But I…" "What did I say!" he interrupted me again. "Shut up and go to your room!"

I knew I couldn't get through to him at this point, so did like he had said end left a devastated man behind in the basement.

I had expected it to feel better when I proved him I had been right all along, but instead it felt terrible. It had ripped Severus apart, because he had never wanted me to even exist and now suddenly had a child to take care of, one of which he sincerely believed all those time to not be his. And I felt also terrible about him not wanting me. I had so terribly hoped he, my biological father, had liked and loved me. How foolish of me.

I walked to up the stairs, to the first floor, and locked myself up in my room.

Author's Note:

Hey reader!

So Ellea is his after all. Did you have any doubts? Well, Severus certainly had.

I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas and a Happy New Year to everyone!

See you next week in a new year!