Voldemort's Amnesia Jewel Little Bird Chapter Seven

They'd spent the whole day searching for Voldemort (or Tom Riddle), Snape using Harry's Invisibility Cloak, Black running around as a dog, and Nicole attacking likely people and trying to beat information out of them. No one had even heard of a Tom Riddle, let alone met, and anyone that knew the name Voldemort turned out to be nothing more than a Squib gone drunk or drug-high. All in all, it was a rather miserable day, and all three of them were pretty touchy when they got back to Fleur's apartment.

As they pulled into the driveway, Nicole looked at the time and spat out a dirty word Snape hadn't even realized existed. "Oh, Fleuh's goin' to LOVE this! I forgot to pick up Lily!"

"Then why is the kid running up to the truck with her mother behind her?" Black asked.

Snape rolled down his window as Fleur approached, little Lily bouncing happily in front of her. "Hello," the blond woman said with a smile as she leaned against the truck door. "I rather figured you'd forget about Lily, so I talked Julie into taking me to the nursery to pick her up." As the three of them got out of the vehicle, Fleur walked over to Lily and picked her up. "I rather think I will get a license an a car now, Neecole."

"Do yah mean to tell me," Nicole snapped, "that Julie drove that hunk'a'junk to Methuen and back again?!"

Snape looked where the woman pointed with curiosity. "Hunk of junk" was an understatement. Whatever color the car HAD been, it was now a sad combination of road-grime-grey and rust-red. It also seemed that it was being held together by one too many screws and staples, as well as a ton of duct tape. He could understand why Nicole wouldn't care for the idea of Fleur driving around in it; it honestly looked like it would fall apart if someone leaned on it.

"Shall we go inside?" Fleur said happily, ignoring Nicole's question. "I'm sure you three are hungry." She deftly handed Lily to Snape as she walked back towards the front door, pulling a key from her pocket.

"Hello, Mistah Snape," Lily chirped as Snape held her rather uncertainly. Despite her small size, she was heavy. "Mommy says she knew you when you were a teachah."

"Yes; that was a while ago, though." Since Nicole did not seem keen to rescue him from the child and Black hadn't noticed (they were both heading to the front door after Fleur, no doubt thinking with their stomachs), he rolled his eyes and carried the child with him as he followed after.

"Mommy told me that you seem a bit saddah than you were."

He sighed. "Not sad, just tired. Tired of one too many things gone wrong in my life." First he lost Lily, which was bad enough, but to lose his only friend.... "I had a good friend that... well, I was working for someone I really didn't like, and he hurt my friend, very much."

Lily sighed as he climbed the steps up the porch. "I don't have no friends. No one at school likes me. They all call me names when Sistah Jackie isn't lookin'."

He felt a touch of sympathy for his daughter. Although the others were already inside, he felt like standing on the porch for a while. He didn't need Black to see him like this, not cruel or sadistic, just... tired of everything. "I didn't have any friends when I was little, either. Don't worry, though; I'm sure you'll find someone who will always be your friend, no matter what."

"Did you?" Lily didn't seem to want to go inside, either. It was a warm fall day, unusual in Massachusetts if what Nicole had said earlier was true.

"Yes. His name was Filch, and he had a cat called Mrs. Norris."

"Will he visit you?"

Tired. Tired of the whole situation. "He can't. He'd dead, and his cat has disappeared."

It felt good to be there, holding little innocent Lily in his arms. He was content to just stand there with her on that warm autumn evening, taking comfort in her unconditional acceptance of him.

@

"Where wah you two?" Nicole asked as Lily bounded into the room, followed by a self-composed Snape.

"We was talkin'," Lily said simply, sitting in her place and waiting patiently as Fleur put mashed potatoes, peas, and a piece of steak in her plate.

As Snape sat down in his own chair (it appeared that Fleur had pulled two more chairs out from somewhere and pushed them up to the kitchen table), Lily gave him a look that clearly said she was going to keep her mouth shut when it came to their conversation outside.

He successfully managed to serve himself before Fleur could do it for him. If there was one thing that had always rather annoyed him, it had been the fact that he couldn't serve himself at Hogwarts. If he didn't know better, he couldn't sworn the house-elves were trying to give him a "healthier" size by serving him three or four times more food than a growing boy could eat in one day. Fleur seemed to be of the same mind.

Dinner was rather uneventful (unless you count the time when Snape and Black nearly started a rather vicious food fight, thankfully stopped by Fleur), and Nicole left immediately afterward, saying she had to call her parents. Lily disappeared upstairs to play what she called "video games" while Black and Snape told Fleur what they had found out.

"Nothing?" Fleur asked with surprise.

"Nothing." Black sighed and folded his arms on the tabletop. "Not a sign of Voldemort anywhere. No one had ever heard of a Tom Riddle, either."

She sighed. "If either one of them were a U.S. citizen, you could file a Missing Person report, but they were both born in England." She rubbed her temples. "I don't know how I can help you. Why would Dumbledore send you to me if I can't do anything?"

"I'm sure he has his reasons, Fleur," Snape told her. "Maybe you should get your mind off the situation for tonight. After all, it's really the job of Black and I to figure out who is alive and where in this town he is."

"Yes, maybe I should. I'm going to go into my bedroom, read a book, then go to bed." She stood up. "Severus, could you keep an eye on Lily then make sure she is in bed by seven?" Before he could answer, she turned and left.

Black and Snape looked at each other for a moment. "Why she would trust her child's sanity to YOU of all people is beyond me," Black said sarcastically.

"Maybe she knows something about me that you don't," Snape replied, resisting the urge to shout. He got up. "I'm going to do as Fleur asked and keep an eye on the girl."

"Not without me, you're not!" Black stood up as well. "Fleur may trust you, but I sure as hell don't. Harry has told me how you treated your students."

"I'm not going to TEACH the child anything, just make sure she does what her mother wishes!" With that, Snape walked briskly out of the kitchen towards the stairs in the living room, hoping like hell that Black would not follow. He would NOT let that mongrel prevent him from having some time alone with his daughter!

He went upstairs, noting that Filch would've been a bit impressed that Fleur could keep the place as tidy as she did with a very young child to take care of. At the top of the staircase was what he assumed was the family room on the right. On the left was a closed door with a piece of paper taped to it. On the paper was written in flowery letters, "Lily's Room."

The family room was obviously on the highest floor in the building as the ceiling slanted on two sides, the roof being only a foot or so above it. It was a room painted a pale yellow... where there were walls to be painted, that is. Two doors were in the wall directly opposite of the staircase. One had another piece of paper taped to it ("Mama's Room") and the other was open to reveal a second bathroom. There was a rather tattered couch against that wall, and opposite it was a large TV (at least, that's what he assumed it was). There were a few beanbag chairs in the corners, but not really any other place to sit. So, he chose the couch.

Lily was sitting on the floor in front of the TV, her tongue sticking out of the corner of her mouth as she played her video game. She only glanced at him long enough to show that she knew he was there then continued with her game. She seemed to be pretty good at it.

To his disgust, Snape saw Black come up the stairs, no more than a few seconds behind him. "MUST you follow me everywhere?" the Potions Master growled. "Or is that your canine instinct coming out?"

"I told you why before," Black replied. "Weren't you listening?"

"I was. I was hoping YOU weren't."

Before Black could reply, Lily paused her game and glared at the two of them. Snape had the impression of looking in a mirror; she hadn't inherited that scowl from her mother. "Don't ahgue. Mama's sleepin'." With that, she got up and went into the bathroom.

Black's face had gone completely slack with surprise. Apparently, he, too, had seen the similarity between Snape and Lily's scowls. As the bathroom door closed, Black looked at Snape. "She's your--"

Snape flew out of his seat and clapped his hand over the Animagus' mouth before he could finish the sentence. "Yes, she's my daughter," Snape hissed quietly, so that Lily wouldn't hear, "but she's not to know for the moment. She's also part of the reason Fleur moved here in the first place; if Voldemort had found out I had a daughter, he would've used her against me."

Black took Snape's hand from his mouth. "Oh, so you DO have a heart? There's something I didn't expect." Thankfully, he'd gotten the gist, and kept the volume of his voice low. Something seemed to occur to him as his eyes narrowed. "Is there any particular reason she's called 'Lily'? Or is that just my imagination?"

Snape didn't reply, but he was sure his look said it all.

"So... you fancied Lily." Black slowly nodded. "I thought it didn't seem like you to hold a childhood grudge against me after all these years. You hate me because you saw me as the reason she was killed."

"I could never forgive you for that," Snape growled. "I never will. Think what you want of me, but I will always hate you for what you did."

"She didn't even know you existed."

"As long as she was happy, I didn't care." Black was once again wearing a slack look of shock. Snape felt a twinge of twisted pleasure.

The sound of the toilet flushing reached their ears. Black glanced at the bathroom door, then looked back at Snape. "You'll probably want to be alone with her. If that's the case, I think I'll go to my room and go to bed early." He shrugged. "I'm tired anyway."

It was all Snape could do not to help Black down the stairs by kicking him in his arrogant ass. The only thing that prevented him from doing so was Lily exiting the bathroom to continue playing her game.

Snape watched her for a few moments before sitting on the floor next to her. "Is this game easy?" he asked. He might be better at it than Scrabble.

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End of Chapter Seven