Hello! This is the first fanfiction idea I ever had, nearly 10 years ago, modified.

A couple of things about this story before you read it, in case it's not your cup of tea (no spoilers though, don't worry):

-This story takes place during the Golden Trio's time at Hogwarts, though I won't specify the exact timeline. However, I am a college student who doesn't have a lot of time to reread the books for such specific and exact timeline details, and I haven't read the books in a handful of years. Most of my timeline info comes from Google searches and the movies, so there are probably going to be some slight inaccuracies.

-It will follow canon, but only to an extent (in different ways- you'll have to read to see).

-Our OC has passed that massive Mary Sue test (this is a good thing that doesn't matter too much, because I'm pretty sure Harry Potter himself fails that test).

Please enjoy and review!

XXXXXXXXX

Quite often, many bad parents don't realize what an awful job they've done. Some deny that they made even the smallest mistakes until their graves. Others not only believe they were faultless parents, but exceptional ones as well.

Some of these bad parents did have good intentions- indeed, most of them did. Very few well functioning members of society stare down at their darling newborn baby boy or girl and think excitedly about how they plan to ruin them and raise them wrongly. Everyone expects perfection- a lovely suburban house with a white picket fence and red shutters, a luscious green lawn and a dog playing out front with the kids. The perfect kids. A boy and a girl, both with fantastic grades, pretty, smiling faces, and plenty of friends. They attend a good school, play sports and instruments, grow up and get married and have a beautiful family of their own.

But when it doesn't happen and they end up with a warped child, an imperfect child, they don't know what to do. So they deny that anything went wrong.

But some parents realize and understand the damage they did to their child. They realize- one way or another- that some things in their child's life are their fault. Sometimes this moment comes when their child drops out of school or becomes a drunk or begins robbing corner stores. Eileen Prince had this revolutionary moment when her son became a Death Eater.

Of course, she had known she was doing him wrong. Marrying the Muggle Tobias, the supposed love of her life, trying to see past his violent and drunken ways. She had given up everything for him and was furiously trying to make it work, hoping and praying that he would change and return to the sweet young man he had once been. But he never did. By the time she had realized how much her husband's wicked ways had affected her only son, Severus had left home and moved in with a Death Eater friend of his by the name of Lucius Malfoy. He had been sixteen.

She was devastated when Severus left, but Tobias didn't seem to care. He would yell and scream at her, telling her to get over it, that they would have other children that weren't as freaky and bookish and evil. That Severus was nothing and if he had ever cared about her, he would've stayed. She tried to believe that last statement, tried to believe that he didn't love her. But she remembered him helping her when Tobias had hit her, defending his mother from his awful, drunken father, even before he was old enough to go to Hogwarts. It wasn't that Severus didn't love her. Severus just needed to save himself.

But she didn't leave. With Severus gone, Tobias was all she had left. She was hopeless. That was, until she discovered she was pregnant.

She was fifty years old and pregnant. What were the chances, especially since both herself and Tobias were so unhealthy! She took it as a second chance, at life, at parenting, at being happy. But she knew that the only way things could be better was if Tobias was gone.

So, she kicked him out. Obliviated him, Apparated with him away to a small town in Northern Ireland, then returned back to Spinner's End. She cleaned the entire house, burned his things, and made space for her baby. A new life was beginning.

She became friends with the neighbors who helped her through her pregnancy. She got a new job. And then, on a beautiful October day, she gave birth to a healthy baby girl. She named her Charlotte, after her favorite aunt whom she loved and missed, who had been the only member of her family not to shun her completely when she had married Tobias. And so began her new life.

But it never felt full without Severus. How could it? She couldn't pretend he had never existed. But it had been so long without so much as even a letter from him.

Then, on October 31st, 1981, the Dark Lord fell and Eileen grew fearful of what would happen to her son. Would he be arrested? Would he be sentenced to the Dementor's Kiss?

She nearly gave up hope of ever seeing him again.

But on November 4th of the same year, he arrived at her front door. He couldn't stay long but informed her a few things- he was alive (obviously), he was living in a flat in London during the summer, but was the Potions Master at Hogwarts, and he had been cleared of all charges. He apologized for leaving. He was about to disappear out of her life again when he noticed the baby playing on the floor behind his mother.

"Are you minding children?" He asked, not sure why he cared.

"No, Severus," she said in a whisper, joy beaming from her face. "She's mine."

He didn't know how to react to being told he had a sister young enough to be his daughter. He was pleased to know that her mother had kicked the sperm donor out of the house and that this child wouldn't have to deal with him. But he felt some sort of resentment towards his new sister. He was his mother's failure- she was her success.

So he said his goodbyes rather quickly and left. A few weeks later, Dumbledore asked him about her and how he felt. He muttered that it did not affect him and went on his way.

He only saw Charlotte at Christmas. On her birthday, he would send a present. He didn't do it for her, he did it for his mother. As much as he was angry with her, he knew she wasn't totally to blame for his failure of a childhood. He knew she had been devastated when he left. So seeing them at least once a year made his mother extremely happy and gave him enough time away from them.

As for his sister, she seemed to like him enough. She was rather chatty, which annoyed him, but that was how most young girls were, he supposed. She liked her presents, she liked her life. She was excited for Hogwarts, ready to learn magic, but asked much too many questions. He sent her books. But besides his biannual encounters, he never saw either of them. He was barely in their lives.

But that all changed the summer of 1991.