Severus' Daughter: Year One

Chapter Ten: Hogwarts Letters and Diagon Alley

It was lunch time and Rosalie and Minerva had just finished putting the finishing touches on the meal when Severus emerged from his potions' lab.

"Hello, mummy," Rosalie grinned as they all sat at the table and dug into their meal.

"Hello, Rosie. What have you and your grandmother been up to this morning?" Severus smiled.

"Well, we came up with some names for my pets. My snake is called Serena, my cat is called Felix, and my owl is called Hedwig. Then grandma watched me as I did some art. Then we made lunch. What potions were you making?"

"Some cold remedies, bruise salves and pain relieving potions," Severus is cut off by the arrival of a barn owl with a letter tied to its leg. It landed on the table in front of Rosalie and held its leg out to her. She gently untied the letter and gave the owl a treat before it flew off.

She looked at the letter in her hands and grinned as she realised what it was. Her Hogwarts letter had arrived. She read it excitedly, not quite believing that this was her life now. That she was happy and free. That she had a family. A friend. A school where she can be herself and can make the friends that she had always wanted to make.

She didn't notice that she was crying until she felt a gentle hand on her cheek and a thumb wipe the moisture away from under her eye. She looked up from the letter to find Severus smiling sadly at her from where he sat in front of her, his hand lingering on her cheek.

"Are you okay, Rosie?"

"Yes. I was just wondering if all of this was real. If this is really my life now?"

"It's real. This is your life now. We are here. We love you. And I hope you are happy," he said, a look of understanding and love on his face.

"I'm very happy. Thank you,"

"You have no need to thank us, sweetie," Minerva said, rubbing the small of Rosalie's back gently.

"Well then, I think this merits a trip to Diagon Alley. Are you feeling up to the trip, Little Snake?" Severus asked as he removed his hand from her cheek and stood to take his plate to the sink, casting a spell which washed it and put it away as Rosalie watched in awe.

"Yes," she grinned.

"Good. Why don't you go and grab some shoes and come back down in ten minutes? We will meet you at the door,"

"Okay," Rosalie jumped up and rushed from the room excitedly, being careful not to run. She knew that running in the house wasn't something a lot of adults liked.

Minerva smiled at Severus as she cleaned the rest of the dishes.

"So, who is the mystery man and when do I get to meet him?" She grinned as Severus blushed.

"Mum, why? I am still annoyed that you roped my daughter into trying to set me up with someone," he groaned.

"What? I just want you to be happy. Truly happy. And I want to know who you are dating so that I can have a chat with them,"

"What chat?"

"You know, the chat where I warn them against hurting either you or Rosie because if they do I will track them down and hurt them so much that they will be begging for death,"

"Isn't that the chat that fathers are meant to give the people who are dating their children?"

"Yes, however I doubt Albus will be doing that so the job falls to me. Plus, you have been hurt enough in the past for me to want to protect you a little bit. I am also just really curious as to who has caught my baby boy's attention,"

"I'm not a baby," he grumped.

"Oh, I know. But you are my son, even if not by blood, and, therefore, you will always be my baby boy," she smiled at him, "Anyhow, I think we should go and prepare for our trip, don't you?"

…

The three of them apparated to The Leaky Cauldron, Severus taking Rosalie who gripped his arm tight with both hands and stumbled slightly upon landing. Her stomach cramped a few times and she was sure that she was going to vomit but Severus gave her a potion which helped her to feel better.

They entered the small courtyard, Rosalie held Severus' hand as she was nervous by the amount of people in the pub. She watched in awe as Minerva took out her wand and tapped some of the bricks, then again as the bricks melted away into an archway. They walk through it slowly and her eyes widen as she takes in the alley and the sheer amount of people, some of whom were doing magic.

She looked around in awe as they walked past shops with brooms, and books, and potions ingredients, and animals, and clothes, and ice cream, and more. She looked at all the people bustling through the alley, the children running around, playing and laughing with their friends and parents. The families sitting outside the ice cream shop eating sundaes together. She could see a few kids, old enough to be students at Hogwarts, looking at Severus and Minerva with something akin to worry and confusion in their eyes. Especially when they looked at her and Severus' joined hands. But she paid them no mind.

Severus and Minerva led her to a number of stores to get her school things and asked multiple times if she wanted anything else for herself. She picked up a few extra books that caught her eye, and some extra potion ingredients and equipment, etc. However the events of the day were mostly blurry as she tried not to let her anxiety and overwhelm take over her.

Severus and Minerva had both noticed how quiet and tense Rosalie was, and had asked many times if she was okay. She would always reply in the positive but they could tell that she was overwhelmed. So they tried to get through everything as fast as possible. Getting the wand and the school clothes were the hardest as she was most tense during these times. They were perturbed when Ollivander said that her wand was the brother wand to Voldemort's. But their main focus was on making sure Rosalie arrived home as soon as possible.

When they had gotten everything that was needed Severus turned to Minerva and Rosalie and looked at his daughter with worry in his eyes.

"Mum, could you take her home please? I have to go to Gringotts for a meeting with Griphook and I don't think it would be wise for Rosalie to attend," he whispered.

"Of course," Minerva nodded.

Severus knelt in front of Rosalie and rested his free hand on her cheek, startling her slightly.

"Mummy," she whispered.

"Sorry for startling you, Rosie," he said.

"That's okay,"

"I have a meeting at Gringotts so your grandmother is going to take you home, okay? I will be home in a few hours, I have some things to sort out though. Is that okay?" He could see her nervous eyes flitting about.

"Yes, mummy. Can we go now?" She asked Minerva.

"Of course, sweetie. Grab my hand and I will take us home,"

Rosalie gripped Minerva's hand tight with both hands as Severus kissed her forehead.

"I'll be home soon,"

Rosalie nodded as Severus stood back up and Minerva apparated them away. Severus stood there for a few minutes more worrying about his daughter before heading towards the bank, not paying any attention to the students who were looking at him with shocked expressions.

…

"C-can I go and take a n-nap?" Rosalie whispered as soon as they arrived home.

"Of course, child. Are you feeling okay?" Minerva rested the back of her hand on her granddaughters' forehead.

"Yes, I am just tired and…" she trailed off.

"Okay. Well if you need anything just let me know,"

Rosalie nodded and headed up the stairs, not seeing Minerva watching her with worried eyes.

Hiya, I hope you are all well!

I am back, and I am super sorry for the wait, life has been crazy with my laptop breaking, my health being terrible, and family drama. But I have a new laptop (finally, I literally got it today despite my old one breaking like a year ago or something), my health has drastically improved, and well, I have more time now. I have also been working on other things, such as planning novels and screenplays which I want to turn into films at some point. I have started selling some bits and bobs on Depop, my username over there is pmakepeace98 if you want to go and check me out. I can do international shipping if you drop me a message so that I can work out the cost. And I have started an Etsy store, quite recently, where I make bookmarks, paintings, stickers, jewellery, scrunchies, I have a cute ghost enamel pin from Halloween, some print on demand mugs and notebooks and things, and more. I also have phone wallpapers available as a digital download, and an art print, etc. If you are interested the link is in my Depop bio with a code for 10% off, and I have a sale on my Etsy store at the moment for 25% off, which lasts until the end of November, International shipping is available. It would be great if some of you could go and check it out. I also have a very new Kofi.

But yeah, I hope you liked the chapter, more coming soon. I would also like to continue the vote for Severus' partner. So please vote for who you would like to see him with in the comments. The options are:

Xenophilius Lovegood

Bill Weasley

Kingsley Shacklebolt

Lucius Malfoy

Charlie Weasley

Regulus Black

Rabastan Lestrange

Alastor Moody

Rubeus Hagrid

It is very close between two characters at the moment, I am not saying who, so vote for your favourite because I kind of want all of them and can't decide.

I will also be updating my other fanfics soon, and I have some more that I want to work on also.

I hope you are having a lovely day!