My first attempt at a fic, my native language is not english so please dont hate me
Please review if I should even continue or not
If someone told Maeve Tally Strathford that she'll be able to roam free throughout the summer and not spend her days inside the streets of Spinners End she would laugh in their face.Like the previous ones she did not have high expectations. Fortunatelly (or unfortunatelly she hasn't decided yet) this one turned out to be different. Besides the one week vacation with her dad, those brick house masses meant her 'Summer feeling' while others had the fortune of beaches and sunshine. Not to complain tho because she didn't have to be afraid of using underage magic thanks to being a daughter of a Hogwarts (most hated) professor. Some good can come out of it.
Despite the assumptions Severus Snape wasn't a bad father. It's true that their relationship could be defined as 'bonding over sarcasm' and they did not share bodily contact as much, but he did everything in his power to make her physically and emotionably strong and enduring. Their bond held a lot of secrets, starting with her using her mother's surname fot safety reasons at school as well. For compensation she was let on a lot of inside happenings at Hogwarts from an early childhood making her more mature than kids at her age.
Contrary to her previous summer vacations the difference was her father being away most of the time, always held up by Super Secret Order Business. She wasn't afraid for him, she knew his the extent of his abilities. What irked her more was the fact of being kept in the dark. Feeling a little mad over this occurence, everytime he was away she had her own little adventure. She knew her dad's boundaries yet she pushed them over the lines. Ranging from finding a goblin horde in forgotten and unused WWII tunnels, sneaking to forbidden wizard clubs to just spending a day in the Library of all Wizardry in Diagon Alley not far from Knockturn Alley and studying intresting spells. She couldn't complain, her father had one of the rarest collection of books in their living room. The fondness she felt for them was hard to pass but she knew them by heart and wanted to find something new.
As the blazing hot days started to pass by and the 1. of September was advancing Severus Snape's growing grumpiness started to show as well. Maeve had a natural talent to get on his nerve which only resulted in carefully crafted insults flying back and forth. On the first day of Autumn Snape could only muster a "Please don't make any first year cry on the train or then I have to take points from you" in a strained voice as he dropped her off at the station to let her start her sixth year.
Chaos reigned over the platform as usual at this particular time of the year. First years crapping their pants, upper years shouting at each other from the start of the train to the other side of the platform. Adding to this the hysterical mom section whom are forgetting the fact that if their bird-brained kid leaves their stuff at home they can easily send it with the next owl.
Standing on her tippy-toes she started looking for her friends. Andrei stood out of the crowd being a head taller than most. When he spotted her he just nodded then gestured to the traing meaning they will meet at their usual spot after he said his goodbyes.
Finding their compartment she registered it with a small smile that Naya has already seized half of the space, her legs lazily placed on the walls, sugarquill hanging out of the corner of her mouth and coloring the most of it in green.
"If you keep that up we have to measure you up for a new robe by Christmas" she injected it with a playful tone.
Naya's only response was an inaudible shriek which was supposed to be; "Maevieee!"Next thing she knew there was a figure you could hardly call a girl flying towards her. The force knocked her down letting the two girls fall out of their compartment blocking the way for the passer-bys.
"Oi, George have I known before there will be girls falling before me, I wouldn't have tried to get with Angelina that hard. One side of my face still hurts in bad weather from the slap she gave me" mused a deep voice accompained by a very ginger head.
Naya just rolled her eyes with a little shake of her head.
"I am not a fan of Angelina Johnson you know but I'm glad he wiped his smirk off just for a little while"
Before Meave could reply Andrei's sudden presence quickly clouded the previous occurence. He was followed by Caius who seemed to grow an inch since term ended. His family meddled in skulduggary most of the time so the sixth year boy quickly learned how to stay out of the way of authorities. If you had to sneak something in he was your man. As her friend, Maeve was high-priority with her other two friends. They could only guess his hiding places, though Maeve had a couple of guesses. It wasn't a disadvantage being raised
there at some point in her life.
"Do you have an idea who'll be filling up the DADA position?" pondered Andrei, cutting in half the girls conversation.
"I heard it's some Ministry dude" came the reply from Caius. A shadow crossed Andrei's face. For someone who's father was in Azkaban you could say he wasn't a big fan of the Ministry.
"Umbridge" clarified Maeve. She spent half of her summer listening to her dad ranting about the soon-to-become professor's inability to teach.
"I always forget who your father is..." gave the girl Andrei a half-hearted smile. "you could mention him that this year he better be doing something to not let Gryffindor win the House Cup this year."
"If I did that he would laugh in my face saying how we let a skinny fifth year boy beat us since he has been here. Tho, I know he hates that Dumbledore has a soft spot for Scarface."
Dumbledore. Throughout the summer he visited her dad several times always speaking about Super Secret Order Stuff. Clearly she was in the dark about it. Her only 'compensation' was having a pleasent conversation with the old wizard by a nice cup ot tea. True, she have always had a weird feeling around him. She felt those twinkling eyes never stopping the analization of everything she was doing which unnerved her.
Time flies by in pleasent company, the four of them hardly had time to change into their robes. Puffing their chest slightly at the snake emblem which glinted in the light. Caius' prefect badge earned disbelieving smirks from the other three.
"Still cannot put my mind on it. Wonder who did you have to threaten to write a recommendation for you. With appointing you as a prefect they signed their death note." pointed out Andrei.
"They might reconsider when half of the Slytherin house will be missing Divination for having a hangover or vomiting in the infirmary because of my firewhiskey."Caius gave the most likely outcome with a shrug.
None of them had to point out that their nightly sneaking outs weren't in danger anymore. A secretive smile's ghost glimmered on their knowing faces.
Merlin help all of Hogwarts from the proud green-tied students.
••
Some things never change. Hogwarts belongs in that category. There's no student who could easily forget their years spent here. Their laughs, loves and stories linger in the hallways throughout the castle grounds over centuries. In their short lives the memories sneak to the conscius mind's surface from time to time, giving a sense of nostalgia on cold nights. While these young adults cease to exist, Hogwarts stands firm. Maeve glanced upon the towers with a newfound sweet-sour feeling in her stomach. She will sit in these carriages only once more in her life then it's all over.
Her mood loured for a moment. She didn't want to be part of the ones who went quitly and merrily on their way. She wanted to be remembered. The black haired girl sighed and ignored the questioning looks.
Umbridge lived up to her name. Her father painted a very accurate picture of the breathing cottoncandy. She overheared a conversation between Dumbledore and Snape discussing the topic of the Ministry interfering at Hogwarts. The old wizard also mentioned that the Dolores Umbridge can cause a lot of trouble so they had to keep an eye on the situation before it escalates. What could he mean by that? Maeve's mind started racing. From the outside she showed an innocent facade but anyone who heard her descending tone wasn't fooled by that. Maybe she was just compensating because of her height. Besides Andrei she must use a stool to even look him in the eye. She let herself smile over this image. They'll have an intresting year for sure.
Andrei shook her out of her thoughts.
"If I don't make you zone back to earth, how long would you've been sitting there before realizing that everyone left? Just for research purposes, if I ever make a bet with Naya." taunted the slitheryn girl a little.
Her only response was a roll of her eyes. She gathered herself and started strolling in the direction of their Common room.
"Are you punishing me with your silence? It's not really working. I like when girls don't talk too much. I don't even know how I didn't drown Naya in the lake and gave her to the Giant Squid. Last year when they announced the Winter Ball my ears were ringing for over a week."
Oh yes. The Triwizard Tournament. Maeve had good memories about that. Especially because of a certain boy from Durmstrang. Vasily really knew how to handle a girl properly.
Keeping her head down, she flashed a little grin, pictures popping in her head. Unfortunately the grin was enough for Andrei to know what went through her mind at the moment.
"If your father knew what you did, he would be scrubbing the tables in the Potions classroom with twice as much force."
The punch that met with the boy's upper arm still hurted the next day.
"You know if you want to repeat it I can get a letter to him." he gave her a small smile. "My mom knows her mom from school."
Andrei was half russian. Her mom attended Durmstrang and met his dad on a vacation to the rainy coasts of England.
"You very well know what would happen if he met my dad. He would surely poison his tea just to check it if he has the brains to be with me." sighed Maeve. Anyway not like she planned more than a fling, but the fact that she someday had to bring home a guy to his dad ran chills down her spine. Good luck to the poor fellow in advance.
••
"What was the password? I didn't pay attention at the table." she asked at the entrance to the Slytherin Dormitory.
"Salazar"
"Ah I see Caius used all of his creativity thinking that up with his fellow prefects." she raised one of her eyebrows.
"If I hear you criticizing my awesomeness again I'm gonna take 5 point from you." snickered a voice behind them. Caius stood there with tousled hair. "By the way Piton wants to see you in his office." he gestured to the girl.
Maeve shrugged, then watched as the two boys descented down the silver steps, playfully pushing each other's shoulder. Turning her back she made her way to the office as well.
It wasn't as big as it seemed, and there wasn't a thing from you could deduct the owner of the room. A trained eye could spot a slytherin quidditch flag which oddly stood out of the room's nothingness. Naturally Maeve put it there for her father never forgetting that his only daughter is a good player and sometimes he could be proud of her. Besides the flag the walls were stuffed with containers and jars full of ingridients. This won't be her first time stealing some of it and surely not the last. Snape wasn't in the room.
She started scanning the different shelves looking for something new. She spotted a rare herb which was used for hallucigenic brews. She couldn't hear any footsteps so without making a sound she nipped a couple ounce of it. As soon as her hand was in her pockets the back door, which led to her fathers bedroom, opened also without a creak. The term only just started but Severus Snape already looked tired.
"I wanted to speak to you about Dolores."he started." She is in the knowing of you being my daughter meaning she might give you special attention. Naturally you have to play a nice, obidient girl not caring how truly far away is from that character. If you inherited only a little of my acting skills there won't be a problem."he gave her one of his rare half smirks refering to his secret missions.
"I'm sure as hell I'll be doing a better job than you hiding your hatred for Potter."watching his dad's smirk turn into a grimace, she quickly went on."everything will be under my control don't worry. Anything else?
"More or less. Is it impossible to ask that the 'welcome back' party could finish before 1 am? It would be truly disastrous if Caius' alcohol filled breath would mix with tomorrow's potion. Can you at least try it?"his breath came out a little worn out, already done with us.
"I see what I can do. I don't even know why you made him a prefect if you know him"chirped the girl. She knew it will be a fool's errand to try and take his whiskey out of his hand before 1 am.
Pitons just waved a little and started guiding her daughter out of his room handing her the class schedule. She almost made it out but his last sentence made her cringe a bit;
"If you are going to use that thing in your bulging pocket for what I think you will, please don't give even a sip of it to Miss Bishop. The amount of stupidity that comes out of her mouth doesn't need any more fueling from hallucanations."he said without glancing up from his papers.
Maeve just nodded and started running to the already started Common room party.
Please let me know what you think xx