Chapter 3
Influence
Severus watched with pride as his daughter shook hands with Ron Weasley. They shared a few pleasantries. She was polite, but not friendly. Her back straight and chin high, she faced his questions with grace. Ron, who had been trying to engage her in a conversation, was not having much luck. And Jillian was starting to seem annoyed.
"Nice weather your having here, not too hot." Ron said looking slightly uncomfortable.
"Yes." Jillian replied noncommittally.
"Have you been enjoying your summer?" Ron asked, trying again.
"No not very much." Jillian replied a spasm of irritation crossing her face.
"Errrr, I'm sorry; of course this summer has been hard…losing your mother.' Ron tried desperately to think of a topic to introduce.
"Didn't you just have a birthday? January, you turned eight, right, did you like what we sent?" He said getting red in the face and tugging slightly on his collar.
"My birthday is in December, and I will be turning 10. Yes thank you, I liked the stuffed bunny. It was very cute." She said smiling for the first time.
"Mum charmed it, just for the day. It left little dropping around the house, even in my Daddy's shoes! Just a little joke, to see what he would do…it was sooooo funny." As if realizing that her Mum was no longer around to be doing such silly things, Jillian backed up till she could feel her Daddy's strong presence against her back. She pulled the edge of his robes to twist in her hands, a long forgotten comfort from babyhood.
Severus put his hand on her shoulder. They would stand united; let the Weasley's make of that what they would.
"Oh," said Ron, looking from Jillian to Severus Snape. "Well Fleur is the one that is in charge of gifts, I didn't remember her birthday the first year, so now she reminds me about every week a whole month in advance. And I always get your little sister the wrong size, if I try to buy her clothing." He said sending a pleading look over at his wife, who was busy talking to his parents in the corner and did not notice.
After an uncomfortable silence, Ron looked at Severus, taking in his haggard appearance. "I'm sorry about your loss. We will all miss Hermione, you and Jillian most of all. Anything I can do...anything at all, I will." He said softly.
"Yeah…you can let me stay with my Daddy, 'cause I don't want to go live with you. I don't even know you." Jillian said pointedly.
"Jillian." Severus said, but his rebuke did not carry its usual sting.
"No, no, it's ok." Said Ron, "I can understand. Jillian, I really would love the chance to get to know you better. Before I had thought it was best if you stayed with your Mum. But now that she is gone, you need to be with your family. I'm your father, and it is my responsibility to take care of you, not Professor Snape's." He said.
A horrified gasp came from Molly Weasley. "RONALD WEASLEY!! Severus Snape just spent the last five years raising your daughter, you will not treat him with such disrespect."
Ron had the grace to look embarrassed. "I'm sorry. That didn't sound the way I wanted it to. I only meant…that I'm your biological father, and by wizarding laws it is now my responsibility to care for you now that your Mother is gone. I admit I haven't been there for you in the past, but I want to be there for you now. Fleur and I want you to live with us at Beauxbatons, we have a very comfortable life there, and with both of us teaching, well I'm sure we can have your name changed from the Hogwarts list to the Beauxbatons list without any problems. You'll get to be with your little sister…and the new baby. Your Grandma and Grandpa have told me you're very smart, so I know that you will pick up French very fast."
Severus stepped forward, pulling his shaking daughter around to look at him, saying in a soft voice. "Jillian, I want you to go to Professor McGonagall's rooms, she is expecting you. I'll come pick you up when we are done…trust me." He said looking her straight in the eyes.
"Yes Daddy, don't be too long, okay? You know I don't like to go to sleep unless you read with me first."
Severus walked her to fireplace and placed her inside, handing her the floo powder. She was on her way is a flash of green light.
Severus turned on Ron Weasley, his face tight with anger.
"Let me get one thing straight, Weasley." His voice tinged with menace, as he walked and stopped a foot from him. "She. Is. My. Daughter. Did I say that slow enough for you? Did you get it? You had your chance…and you passed it up. In fact according to Hermione you begged her to take an abortive potion, so your family wouldn't have to know you ever had gotten her pregnant in the first place."
"I was 18 years old, Snape. I wasn't ready to be a husband, or a father. Hermione understood that. We talked a great length about it; yes, I wasn't happy that we were going to have a baby, but in the end I offered to marry her if she were going to have the baby. She turned me down, in the end it was her decision to raise Jillian alone, not mine!"
Severus move a step closer, so close that his face was inches away from Ron's, and when he spoke his voice was venomous. "You and I, we both know what happened. Hermione made a Pensive, I've been in it, and I heard what you said to her. What did you expect her to do? "Ruin your life…stick you with a child and a wife you would never love." Come on, you were her best friend, you knew exactly what buttons to push to make her walk away and leave you free, free to be with Fleur."
Ron pulled away, putting some space between himself and his old hated Potions Professor. His face had turned as red as his hair in his anger. "I doesn't change the fact that by wizarding law, I'm Jillian's father and she will be coming to live me and my wife. No matter what you say, or you do, you can't change that. And I'm almost certain that the M.O.M. would never let you raise Jillian, not when I want to raise her myself. I'm willing to bet they have a case file on you that's at least a foot thick." He had raised his hand to show the space between his thumb and forefinger. "Face it Snape, you don't have a legal leg to stand on. And to show you I'm a nice guy I'll give you until Monday to say your good-bys. I want my daughter packed and ready to go in three days, or I'll take this to the Ministry."
"Fine." Snape said his icy gaze freezing Ron to the spot. "Take it to the Ministry, but first maybe you would like a look at what evidence I'm going to bring with me. In fact I think it would be a good idea for your wife and your parents to see it with you," he said in a dangerous tone. "but I guarantee, that whatever it is you "remember" saying or you "remember" happening is not in reality what you did say, what did happen. Because when I show Hermione's Pensive, it's almost certain that you'll never get your hands on my child."
"That's all fine and good, Professor. That was a difficult time for all of us; what ever I said or did was shadowed by the events of that year. I've delt with my issues…but now I'm ready. I must say that one of my main worries is your job, I have to ask, are you still working for Dumbledore…are you still a spy? And if so, how is that a safe environment for my nine year old child to live in?" Ron asked, his face still red with anger.
"For your information, my roll as a spy ended when I stood against Voldemort in the last battle. It is common knowledge where my loyalties lie. There are were and still are many remaining Death Eaters to catch, but after my marriage, I chose to put my family first. At this time we are aware that there is an extremist group that believes that Voldemort will come back., in their eyes he has done it too many times to be counted out. I still do what I can…"
Seeing Ron opening his mouth to speak, Severus put out a restraining hand to cut him off.
"Purely as an advisor. I have trained a few replacements to infiltrate their ranks. I debrief them when they come in, that's all. I will not get more involved than that. Jillian has been and will continue to be my top priority."
"Severus, Ron, maybe we should all take a step back before this gets even uglier then it is now." Dumbledore said making the two men separate. Ron in embarrassment, and Severus in righteous indignation.
Albus took Severus by the shoulder, "If you will excuse us, I think Severus and I would benefit from a walk by the lake. Why don't you take a moment to yourselves? Please feel free to order some tea. We will return shortly."
***************
Severus stood looking out at the lake and realized, if he walked around the small knoll he would be at the Hogwarts private cemetery. But no, it was too soon for that. The earth was still raw as were his emotions, and the flowers they placed there hadn't even had time to lose their anti-wilting charm.
"Hermione was so happy, only six more weeks, before she had the baby. We were so happy, Albus. I guess I should have known that it was all just too good to last." He said his jaw tightening in grief.
"To lose Hermione and the unborn babe, it's my worst nightmare come to life, but to not be able to bring their bodies home..." He had to stop and take a deep breath to continue. "to know that they were trapped in the car, just left to burn, to be reduced to nothing more than ash." His face turned hard.
"I've been having this dream…it's so vivid, that it haunts me. Hermione is sitting in the passenger's seat of her mother's car. Her belly would have been too large to allow her behind the steering wheel. Helen is driving, and the back seat is weighed down with baby things…I would bet anything most of them were blue, Hermione, she thought we were to have a son."
He turned his body so he could look Albus in the face. "In my dream, Hermione is the one that sees the other car coming at them. I see her reaching out to her mother with one hand and wrapping the other one around the babe in her belly. I don't know, but I choose to believe that they died instantly, because if I don't." He took a deep breath. "The thought of them being trapped under the gas tanker, of them burning to death, if I allow my self to think that, I'll go insane."
He didn't even bother to hide his tears. "I tell you Albus, If that drunk asshole hadn't died, I swear to you that I would have used every god dammed trick I learned as a Death Eater to kill that son-of-a-bitch in the slowest most painful way possible."
Albus shivered despite the heat. Taking in Severus hard features, the Headmaster was apt to believe him.
