A/N: Well, I got my first flame for the last chapter. Apparently someone thinks Julie is annoying now. If I may just take a little moment to rebut that thought, I'll have a character address it in the story here. I didn't mind the flame; it just seemed kind of uninspired. There's a reason why this is a close-to-slash. And just one little note, I don't mean to finish soon. There will be at least seventeen chapters, I promise you. Far be it for me to follow Hilt only as far as my fingers can. By that I mean you will understand my story so much more by reading Christina Hilt's. This entire work is the result of a dare, y'know.  So, without further ado, here you go.

Chapter Fourteen: A Day with Professor Mum

"Hey, Mum!" Julie called out ecstatically.

"'Lo, Hermione." Malfoy drawled, considerably less enthusiastically. "Here's the kid and the note for your Gringotts vault. We wound up not needing it after all."

"What did you two get for lunch then?" Hermione asked.

"Muggle crisps and Cherry Coke." Julie told her mum.

"Both disturbingly good."

"You made Malfoy eat Muggle food? Good form, dear."

"I didn't make him, he ate crisps quite willingly."

"Salty little spud chips, aren't they? How come wizards don't eat crisps out of packets, too?"

"Maybe if you were nicer to your house-elves, they'd make you some."

"Not the soapbox! I'm leaving for Knockturn Alley, now." The blond-haired man waved to them both and was off again. "Thanks for the help in the library!"

"Is he always so two-faced?"

"Unfortunately."

"How did you stand him at Hogwarts, then?"

"I didn't. I slapped him across the face."

"Every day?"

"Only once in my third year."

"Was that the only opportunity you had in school?"

"I take it he was not that fun to study with."

"No, just that he's so nice and then so nasty at a moment's turn. We ran into some friends from my old orphanage and I was kinda sad because I had to lie to them, plus it reminded me of- -somebody I once knew."

"Cory?"

"How do you- -oh, yeah, the memory test. Yeah, that was why, and he made me feel better. Then we went into the old record store I've gone to for years on end, and he goes and agrees with Mr. McLean in there."

"What did Mr. McLean say that offended you?"

"Oh, just a crack about how I've gotten more chesty than I was at four. Nothing that offensive from him, but from Malfoy it's just a little irking, now."

Hermione was seized with a sudden desire to meet this McLean fellow and ask him what Julie'd been like at four. She had barely remembered that Julie'd been a little child at some time before, and the notion that she hadn't seen her girl grow up was painful to her. Imagining four-year-old Julie, talking like a little kid and learning how to read made her instantly regret the wasted fifteen years. Julie's sixteenth birthday was in January and soon she'd be eighteen and leaving home for adult life. The thought was so terrible she sighed aloud.

"Are you alright?"

"Yeah, I'm just wondering why Malfoy has to be that way. I mean, it's obvious he likes you 'cause you're so like Sev -your dad, but the moment you act like me or like a girl at all he turns around. We tolerate each other, but we aren't quite friends. It's the same with your father and Harry still."

"I think teaching me to fly together helped them some."

"I think so, too. Can you think of anything you need to learn that Malfoy and I are both good at?"

"Animagic?"

"You're not old enough."

"Aren't I, though? Aldous can do it and he's sixteen, too."

"You're still fifteen for another three months, m'duck."

"I've done two wandless 'accio's and another spell…I won't even say it out loud in case it works again, but it unraveled all the seams in my clothes earlier."

"'Ravelus Stiticus'?"

"That's the one, with no wand. I didn't even mean to have that happen, but it somehow did."

"Were you thinking about anything odd at all, or were you alone in the room?"

"No…Malfoy was there." Julie watched her mother's face go from concern to total shock in seconds flat. "It's alright, his clothes fell apart as well."

"Well…what did you two do about it?"

"Hid on opposite sides of the four-poster while I righted it, then got dressed and cracked a few nasty jokes."

"So you didn't see anything-?"

"Just his chest. He's a little over-built for a Seeker, though."

"What do you mean?"

"He looks nice shirtless. True, his shirt was only unbuttoned, so he may be completely awful from the other side…I wonder if-"

"Do you really think he's dishy?"

"In a vampire way. I'm not interested in talking to him for more than a minute, though, so dating is profoundly a non-issue."

"Considering he's two years past twice your age, dating is decidedly not allowed."

"Can I still check him out in the halls if I'm good?"

"Julia!"

"It's a purely visual appreciation for his physical form. I'd be perfectly content to date other guys if I could just watch him occasionally. Wasn't it that way with Dad in school?"

"No, actually I didn't even think about your father's looks that much in school."

"Until-?"

"Why do you think there's an 'until'?"

"I'm standing right here, there has to be some kind of an 'until' there!"

"Alright, it was until he kissed me once after class."

"So he made the first move. I'd expected that."

"You aren't repeating my performance of sixteen years ago."

"I'd hope not and wasn't planning to! Still, if I think Malfoy's cute, can I watch him sometimes?"

"You remember what I told you about Gilderoy Lockhart?"

"Yes, and speaking as the girl who had a vintage Justin Hayward picture from 1967 on her wall at four orphanages, I can say that I've been there myself with a vengeance."

"Who's Justin Hayward?"

"Oh, mother!"

"The Moodies?"

"The blond one with the guitar, the former dish."

"I'm so glad that wizard music is simpler."

"Is it? Your album covers move, for cripes' sake."

"So?"

"If I had a sixties Justin moving, it'd be very bad."

"Don't you get that anyway on telly, dear?"

"Not the Moody Blues in the sixties, I don't. Jim Morrison, maybe, on a good day. Or Val Kilmer playing him, either way."

"I have really lost touch with the Muggles, now."

"Well, considering the kind of music I like is probably the kind Nana and Papa did, I wouldn't say you've lost touch completely, Mum."

"How about those new clothes I promised you?"

"That's alright, I've got these. They fit real well."

"Is there a reason why you don't like new clothes that much?"

"Well…it isn't so much the new clothes as you buying them. I've always bought my own since I was nine years old. It was either the uniforms or what you could afford yourself, and I decided early on I wanted to look my own way without making anybody else pay for it. Nobody's bought me so much as a sock before."

"You silly house-elf, you've got parents who love you now. And you've also got the Halloween Ball in two weeks or so, I can guarantee that bluejeans aren't the dress code there."

"I do have one skirt."

"You need dress robes."

"Okay, I'll find some."

"Do you have money?"

"Ninety Muggle quid left over from the orphanage."

"Ninety?"

"I saved quite a lot of allowance, Mum."

"Your father's thriftiness probably bred through, I guess."

"What tipped you off, the homemade clothes or vinyl record fix?"

"That is a very pretty shirt, you know. I do like it."

"Thanks. It took me a while to get it right. The blue, green, and white patches didn't always match. Why don't I just fix your old clothes to fit me, Mum?"

"Because you're taller than I was in seventh year. And they're a decade and a half out of style, you know."

"So? These jeans date back to the sixties. And that coat I have is older than my grandmother on either side."

"You don't mind old clothes?"

"I've never had the new."

"Julie, is this another of those beaten-in orphanage ethics like 'no malice after somebody beats you up'?"

"I guess you could say that."

"Then scrap it, it's a silly one. You need new clothes. Even if it's for no other reason than I need to amuse myself this afternoon, we're getting some."

"You find buying clothes for others that amusing, Mum?"

"Very. You can't think how much fun it was when I turned your Dad's robes pink."

"Pink?" Julie looked at her mother in total awe. "If you can do that in my presence sometime, I'll be good."

"Blackmailer." Hermione smiled. "It's a deal."

*****************

"Uh…am I supposed to look like Britney Spears just swallowed me?"

"You look cute."

"I look totally unnatural."

"Well, the lack of bluejeans shows how much the Quidditch work pays off."

"Mother!"

"You have nice legs, dear, why are you afraid to show them off?"

"Because I would like to walk into class without Dad taking points off of every male in the entire House for once."

"Weren't those tight jeans just as bad when you sat down, m'dear?"

"No, they never…did they really?"

"An awful lot."

"Damn, I was hoping it was just my shirt or something."

"Did it occur to you that guys might be mentally comparing you to your father there?"

"Once or twice. The Weasley boys compare us out loud sometimes."

"Do they?"

Julie lowered her voice an octave and gave a perfectly straight-faced imitation of Tom Weasley:

"'It's the nose, Tim, she definitely has old Snape's nose.' I get so sick of people ragging on that, y'know? I know it isn't the most normal one in the world, but it's not as if I had a bloody beak, really."

"It gives your whole face an ascetic look, just like your dad's."

"Which is precisely why I like it and will stick with it."

The clothes reflected in the mirror looked a little odd, and definitely not what Julie Snape was quite used to yet. There was a pleated skirt in blackish-gray and pullover, as well as a red and gold striped tie at the collar of a stiff white shirt. Aside from her face and her hair color being black, she might have passed for her mother sixteen years ago. Nervously she fingered the Gryffindor patch, unsure as to how her dad would take it all. There were some reasons why she liked the patched-up shirt so much, and one of them was the green, blue, and white color scheme. In it she looked more like a Slytherin. Her mother noticed the apprehension and smiled quietly.

"Your father doesn't mind that you're in Gryffindor. Well, I mean, he minds that he can't watch you every minute and you aren't in the dungeon, too, but he doesn't hate your House or your Quidditch team."

"I'm not sure I should be in Gryffindor at all, now, Mum."

Hermione set her daughter down and explained things to her:

"Even though you're devious enough to be a Slytherin, that doesn't mean you aren't brave enough for Gryffindor. And there's bravery in Slytherin, look at your Dad. There's also deviousness in Gryffindor-"

"By which I exist."

"True." Hermione gave Julie a look of near-sheepishness. "Really, the Houses are just a formality, a way to ensure that certain qualities develop wizarding diversity. If we all came from the same House, Britain couldn't possibly function. You get your strategists from Ravenclaw, your public servants out of Hufflepuff, your military strength and lawmakers from Gryffindor, and the political forces are from Slytherin. Not to say that there aren't people from every Hogwarts House in every field, but it seems to me that's why we still have Houses now. The line between two Houses is usually very slight, and as your father says, I might have done well in Slytherin. He would have also made an equally good Gryffindor. You just happened to be the first one with two exact halves, Julie, and no preference, which usually decides your place."

"Uncle Harry told me the Hat thought he'd do well in Slytherin."

"And so he would have, except he'd be a completely different Harry than the one we know."

"Will I be different because I'm not in Slytherin?"

"With your dad? I doubt if it'll matter much. And if you could tolerate Malfoy for three hours today, heaven knows what you can stand if you have to, now."

"So Dad won't mind these colors?"

"Not so very much. And it's alright to make him angry, he's kinda cute that way."

Julie gave her mother a sarcastic look.

"Okay, which person here's the dizzy teenager?" Her mother smiled and Julie frowned a little thoughtfully. "I've gotten used to having parents, a little bit, and I can't help but notice you think that you were too young to have had me then."

This shocked Hermione that Julie would pick up on that.

"You're also worrying I'll leave you when I graduate, thus resulting in a grown child you've barely got to know. Plus you're afraid that I think Malfoy is a total dish. Does that cover everything you're thinking here and now?"

"How did you know that?"

"Read your character and telltale signs. It's just a skill, like how I knew that Dad fancied you."

Hermione quietly sat down next to Julie and sighed aloud.

"I'm not leaving 'til you want me to, and I'll stay close. This family thing's something I've wanted since I was a little kid."

"I'm sorry I didn't take that test after you were born. I honestly don't remember that whole ten-month stretch."

"Could it have turned out any better than it already has?"

"I'd like to have seen you as a baby, watched you growing up."

"I sort of wish I had you when I learned to read and talk. Then maybe I wouldn't sound like a London street kid half or all the time."

"You sound like I did, only you've got more your father's voice. The way you tend to growl when you're angry, that's the Snape half, and your sarcasm goes likewise."

"Am I more like Dad than you?"

"No, I don't think so, Jules. You have my study habits and similar handwriting."

"Really? Which hand?"

"Your left. I think the ambidextrosity comes from my side of the family, too. Your Great-grandmother could write French with left and Greek with right."

"Which did she use for English?"

"Either one she chose. When I was very little she gave me my first big book, you know, the kind with chapters and big words, a grown-up book."

"Which one was it?"

"The old Shakespeare on the stand in my office."

"The big leather one the students think is full of spells?"

"Yeah, it's Shakespeare, merely Muggle plays and poetry. Do they think that it's just harder spells or nasty ones?"

"I'm not sure, they would just really like to look in it."

"Maybe sometime I will read aloud a little bit."

"The Three Witches in Macbeth, I think, would do quite well. After all, you do teach Potions, Mum, it would be cool."

"Good idea. I think the Weasley boys would love that piece."

"My thoughts, precisely."

"I thought so. They are good friends."

"But what are they going to say when I show up like this?" Mother and daughter smiled at the funny thought.

************

"Why all this Muggle stuff, Malfoy?" Mr. Borgin asked. "I have some Nazi things, but why do you want them? Invocation spell?"

"The Nazis were just as profoundly evil as Lord Voldemort. I consider it my job to see those things taken out of wizard hands. God knows what kind of enchantments those bastards might have used."

Borgin flinched at open mention of the Dark Lord's name. Malfoy rattled his large bag of Galleons. "So how much do you want for this whole lot here?" There were a few gold enameled pins with little swastikas, a conductor's baton, an SS officer's hat, and a uniform with a pair of white gloves and a monocle. Still pinned to the jacket were some war medals.

"Thirty Galleons?"

"I'll pay fifteen."

"At least twenty-five."

"Twenty. Now take it or leave it, sir."

"Your father's knack for bargaining, your mother's hair," Borgin observed with a smile, sweeping up the uniform. "How would you like it wrapped?"

"Brown paper should be fine."

"Do you really think you need to destroy this, though?"

"I'm not sure I will, I just don't want some kid buying it and thinking it's cool to kill. I'm also going to strip it down for curses and spells, you know. There may well have been a wizard once who used this thing."

"But why this Nazi interest? What have you been reading?"

"Muggle books and things."

"You? Muggle things?"

"I was at a Muggle London library today, in fact."

"Alright, now the whole story. Who did you have to pay from Hogwarts to take you there?"

"I didn't pay anybody, I went with Julie Snape."

"Julie Snape? Severus' sister?"

"His daughter, nit." Borgin, Jr. and Malfoy were once schoolmates in Slytherin.

"He has a daughter? With the Mudblood?"

"Don't call her that. And yes, she' Hermione's daughter also, she's fifteen, now."

"I guess there was a reason why they married, then."

"One more remark like that and I'll leave the shop. They didn't even know they had her until this fall. She grew up in a Muggle orphanage and didn't know."

"So…does she favor her mother? In looks, I mean."

"Bushy hair and formerly just as bucktoothed, but she fixed hers, too. Her hair's black as Severus' and she has his look."

"Like a raven about to peck you?"

"The very type."

"So I take it she's a homely sort?"

"Oh, not at all. She's softer, more girlish, not exactly Sev…and those eyes are her mother's same shade of brown."

"I can't believe this. You think a half-Mudblood's cute."

"Not cute, precisely, just sarcastic and intelligent and far too bold." Malfoy tried to think of a word that'd describe Julie. "She doesn't speak her age and wears these clothes…tight Muggle jeans and stuff like that."

"I know the type."

"Her figure's sort of grown-up, too. I don't think I…"

"Don't think what?"

"I don't think I fancy her sexually, I mean she is fifteen, but she has some legs on her. And if she could maybe go ten minutes without insulting me in some sly way, I think I could get to like her as a niece of sorts."

"Is she Slytherin?"

"No, Gryffindor, but still quite sly and devious. The Hat couldn't decide on her, she's half-and-half. Because of the whole Voldemort thing, her dad decided she'd be better off in Gryffindor. She's Seeker for their team and not that bad if I must say."

"You don't suppose she thinks you're dishy?"

"No, she's not that kind. This morning she handed me a ferret just to fry my nerves."

"Oooh, Mummy's girl."

"Daddy's girl. You should see how Sev treats her. If it wasn't for her father I could hate that girl."

"What's stopping you?"

"That wit and those lovely eyes." Draco realized Borgin was giving him a knowing look. "Well, I can't stay all day, here's twenty for the Nazi stuff."

"Always a pleasure doing business with you."

As Malfoy left the shop, he noticed a snake in a cage outside. It was a lovely emerald green one, about as big as his wrist around and very long, and even sleeping it looked just like the Slytherin crest. It was perfect.

"How much do you want for the snake here, sir?" he asked the keeper of the pet shop, who smiled nervously.

"Oh, whatever you can afford, I really don't like snakes."

"No, I'll make a fair offer. What's your asking price?"

"Uh…four Galleons?"

"Do you hate the thing? I'd expect to pay thirteen at least."

"N-n-no, I j-just d-don't like-" As the snake uncoiled, the proprietor grew shakier. Malfoy smiled and pulled out fifteen Galleons.

"Here. What's it eat and is it a male or a female snake?"

"Er- a female…I call her Nagaina. She eats frozen rats or household vermin, any sort."

"Not ferrets?"

"They could kill her."

"Figures. Thank you and good afternoon."

"M-my p-pleasure, sir."

Malfoy picked up the cage and smiled at his new green friend. Nagaina made a happy-sounding 'hiss' noise, sticking her tongue out. She was certain to give the Gryffindors a heart attack, and help intimidate the Hufflepuffs and Ravenclaws. Perhaps he would give her a mouse in class, that should take care of behavior there. Draco wasn't about to let Julie's ferret pranks go by, especially if he could scare her with a bright green snake. Annoying little Gryffindor half-Mudblood! Why did she have to make him think about her still? She was so irritating-

-which was usual for a Snape. Malfoy sighed, having forgotten who her father was. Now why did he keep doing that? It was certainly hard to miss with that same hair and nose, not to mention enough sarcasm to kill a goat. Was he really having thoughts about a student now? Damn her all to hell and take her mother, too!

And yet, Hermione was nice to him three nights ago. She was also relatively less than poisonous this morning, too. It wasn't the mother that made him think about Miss Julie Snape, it was Julie herself. So why was this offending him?

As he passed Quality Quidditch Supplies and looked at the newest make of Firebolt, the one he wanted for his thirty-fourth birthday soon, he remembered. She was fifteen. And undateable.

Damn!

******************

"Severus!"

"Dad!"

"Hello, darlings. Thought I should meet you two." Professor Snape gave his family a scanning look. True, there were only two people, but that was fine. "Have you managed to get Julie into proper clothes?"

His daughter sighed and unclasped her black wizard robes. Severus inspected the Gryffindor uniform and smiled at his wife.

"Most excellent. She looks like you did at fifteen."

"More like seventeen at this height. She takes after you."

"No, the eyes and smile are definitely you, dear."

"The nose is yours and her hair's darker than mine ever was."

"I get it! I look like the both of you."

"Dear me, she seems to have noticed that."

"How clever; must be your side."

"Are you sure it is?"

"Gaaah!" Julie stalked off to exactly five feet away, turned around and walked back with a cheerful grin. "Have you changed the subject?"

"Yes, we're talking about owls now."

"Oh. What color do you think is the prettiest?"

"I had a black one when I was your age."

"Why, I'd have never guessed, Dad. Black?"

"I had an orange tabby cat named Crookshanks."

"Whatever happened to the ungodly beast anyway?"

"He lives in my office, Sev!"

"Oh, sorry. Could have sworn the thing had died a couple years ago."

"Naw, Crookie just sits around and eats his catnip ball."

"Crookie?"

"Catnip ball?"

"I always fancied cats when I was at the orphanage."

"So that explains why he's purring more than usual."

"Is that what you do in detention, brush the cat for her?"

"Usually. It's nicer than boiling lotus roots or toad heads."

"Hermione, you favoritist! Your own child!"

"She lets the Weasley boys try potions like her guinea pigs," Julie revealed a bit indignantly. "One time she made Tom grow feathers."

"You- -you slacker! Detentions are supposed to be a punishment!"

"I don't like to punish people overmuch for spilling things. Some kids can't help being clumsy or not used to vials."

"Have I taught you nothing?"

"Nothing you would want me teaching them, m'dear."

Again Hermione had made Severus blush to red. Julie gave her mother a look of shock.

"I cannot believe the way you two carry on sometimes. I thought parents were supposed to set a good example." She smiled jokingly and earned her father's glance for it:

"Julie, you're fifteen. It's a little late to try and change a bad example."

"Yes, everything we do is the wrong thing, dear. Never fall in love, never get married, and by no means ever ever have children."

"At least not until you think I'm old enough to do those things."

"Precisely."

"Thirty." Severus gave his daughter a piercing look. "And don't even ask when you're twenty-nine."

Julie shrugged and cracked her knuckles quit resoundingly.

"Not that there's anybody decent to date in school. The only cute ones are older or Slytherins, and heaven knows I'm devious enough by myself 'thout them."

"There's another thing, Julie, never date a Slytherin." Hermione kissed Severus on the cheek again. "They are completely and totally unsuitable for Gryffindors."

"Present company excluded, I agree with you."

Just as Julie was agreeing to the collective awfulness of Slytherins in entirety, Draco Malfoy appeared with a parcel and a great big cage.

"Good afternoon, Granger-Snapes! Have you seen my new purchase yet?"

Hermione and Julie stared, shocked, at the huge green snake. Severus was delighted and crouched down to see.

"What a lovely color! Male or female?"

"Girlie."

"Favorite kind."

"She's called Nagaina. Would you like to pet her, Julie Snape?" Malfoy gave her his most malevolent grin as Hermione flinched in total fear of snakes.

Boldly Julie shrugged and Malfoy handed her the snake. Nagaina curled around her arm and made a hissing sound. Julie told her to calm down, but no words came out. She was surprised to see all three adults in total shock, as it was evident the snake had understood the girl.

"A Parssselmouth," the snake told Julie sibilantly.

She was so surprised to have understood it, she nearly dropped the thing.

"Sssorry, I ssurprissed you."

"Snakes can't talk," Julie said in Parseltongue to the green snake.

"Oh, yesss, to you we can."

"Am I a Parselmouth?" she finally asked in English.

Three terrified nods neatly answered her.

"Uh, go back in your cage, now, Nagaina."

"Thank you, misss." The snake obeyed and Malfoy clicked the door shut.

Suddenly Julie's hand hurt worse than it had ever felt. Regrowing bones was nothing compared to the searing pain. Her parents watched in terror as she clutched her palm. Malfoy pulled her hand away and forced her fist apart, just in time to see the scar lit up in glowing red. Julie turned away from him and bit down on the other hand. It was the best way that she knew to keep from crying out. Malfoy touched the scar and suddenly the light went out. It was lucky he was holding her hand, because in the next second he caught Julie as she passed out cold.

A/N: Sorry to be so obvious about what's going to happen next, but we all knew the scar had something to do with Lord Voldemort!