A/N: Here I'm answering some of the questions I left open last chapter, but
not all of them... to those who asked (and didn't leave a review *cough,
cough*), Svetlana's good-bye was partly inspired by Tolstoy's "Anna
Karenina", yes, I'll admit it. Thanks to my reviewers!!!
Disclaimer: as you have probably guessed by now, I am not JK Rowling, and the HarryPotter-verse does not belong to me ("thank goodness!", I hear you say); I am using the characters and settings for my pleasure, and hopefully for yours, and I certainly don't deserve to be sued.
Summary: In Harry's seventh year, Voldemort issues a threat to the families of the Hogwarts staff, and they are forced to seek refuge in the school. This uncomfortable situation will allow us some insight into the family life of everybody's favourite Potions Master.
Rating: PG or PG-13, just to be on the safe side.
Review this story as you would like yours to be reviewed! (I hope that will take all flames off my back; if it doesn't, I'll use them to save on the electricity bill)
FAMILY MATTERS
PART III
"Come in, Severus, come in" said Albus Dumbledore warmly, wearing his multi- coloured dressing-robes and standing at the top of the spiralling staircases leading to his office "Tea?"
"She's gone, Albus" muttered Snape miserably, dropping himself on an armchair; the older wizard put the tea cup aside and summoned a glass of Firewhisky for his friend "I asked her not to, I apologised, and still she left..."
"Did you two have an argument?" asked Dumbledore softly; Snape nodded his assent gloomily. "The children are still here, aren't they?" Snape nodded again, even more miserably than before. The Hogwarts Headmaster sat back on his chair and regarded the wretched Potions Master sitting in front of him; the problematic marriage of Severus Snape had always been a mystery for Dumbledore, and he didn't know how he could help his friend now, except by serving as a sounding board. "What happened exactly?"
Snape lifted his eyes and examined the face before him; if he was going to confide in someone, who better than the old wizard, who already knew him better than anyone?
"It all started years ago, while Voldemort was powerful and free. I was one of the most promising young Death Eaters, you know how that was, and... Voldemort wanted to rid the world from Mudbloods, Muggles and half-bloods, and to repopulate it with pure-blooded wizards, so he decided we were all to marry and have as many children as possible. Igor Karakoff offered me his young daughter... she was still a child, and I couldn't refuse, not without seeing my position endangered; the marriage seemed very far away, Svetlana hadn't even started school, and I was more occupied in other matters. Then, the Dark Lord was banished, by Potter of all people, and I thought that everything related to that part of my past would be erased as well" Snape gave a quick glance to his left forearm and chuckled mirthlessly "The news that Svetlana was of age came to me as a surprise: I had completely forgotten about her, but the engagement contract had been signed, and Igor insisted that I should keep it. We married twelve years ago, when she was nineteen and I was twenty-nine..."
Severus made a long pause then, reflecting on the events after his marriage, and he heaved a deep sigh.
"The marriage wasn't a happy one" he concluded regretfully "I resented being married against my will, and she was scared of me, scared and defiant, all at once... after a few months we decided we couldn't live together anymore, or rather, I decided and she looked at me with that sad, resigned look she always wore when she was with me. She was pregnant already, and thence we couldn't dissolve the marriage, but I came to teach here at Hogwarts, and she stayed in our house, with the child... I never saw her or Serguei anymore"
There was something that didn't fit in that puzzle, and Dumbledore asked about it with his usual tact.
"What about the little girl? Is she yours as well?" Snape looked at the fire for a long while before answering.
"She is" he paused again, and a faint blush covered his pale face "The night I went back to Voldemort, after his rising two years ago... he tortured me for hours, until I convinced him that I wasn't a traitor, and when he was sure of that, he left me there... I was weak, and very hurt, but somehow, I managed to Apparate to her house, to our house... she was waiting for me! For some unfathomable reason she was awake and ready, and she took me in and tended my wounds and let me stay the night..." Yet another long pause, and Snape spoke directly to the fireplace "Siena was conceived that night. I went to see Svetlana more often after that, to help her with the pregnancy, and to see the little girl when she was born. It's because of that that I was able to find her when you said that the families of the teachers should assemble here"
Dumbledore remained silent for a long while, digesting the information about his protégé and his family. Snape was thankful for the silence that allowed him to recover from that unusual outburst of sincerity, and to ruminate over the things he had just said. He was well aware that the facts made him look like a monster, but it had all happened very naturally... Svetlana had never really talked to him while they lived together, and afterwards they didn't have a chance to hold a proper conversation, expect on the day Siena was born, when he had had a fight with Serguei and she had intervened; after that, when he visited, Serguei locked himself in his room, Svetlana retreated inside herself, and he was left to tend Siena as best as he could. When Dumbledore became aware of a plan to attack the families of his staff, and use them as hostages, Snape had sent a brief note to Svetlana, telling her she had to move in with him, to protect the children. And she had obeyed, without a complaint, until his demeanour had fed her up... it *was* his fault, really.
"I should go now" he said tiredly "I have Hufflepuff sixth-years tomorrow morning, and Siena is alone in my quarters" he gave a mirthless smile at the though of having a baby in his care, and what people would think of that.
"Are you sure you will manage with her?" asked the Headmaster, with some amusement in his blue eyes.
"I will ask Mandy McGonagall to look after her while I'm teaching, but of course I'll be able to take care of her:" Snape seemed almost indignant at the question "I'm her father!" Dumbledore wanted to inform Snape that that kind of attachment didn't involve parental skills, but he decided against it.
"Good luck, then! I'll talk to Mandy tomorrow morning, if you want, and have it all settled by the time of your first lesson"
"Thank you, Albus" said Snape tiredly, when he was at the door.
"You're welcome, Severus, any time" Albus watched the retreating back of the Potions Master until he was well out of sight, and then turned back to his cup of tea, wondering about the ways of the heart.
Snape entered his quarters slowly and silently; he removed his boots and socks, but decided against going into his bedroom, and instead opened the door to Siena's room; the little girl was peacefully sleeping in her cot, the soft light of a fairy night-lamp showing her pale face and black hair, and the white eyelids that hid blue eyes, like her mother's. No, it was better not to pursue that train of thought, and Snape contented himself with pulling a chair and sitting by the side of the cot, watching the baby sleep until morning came.
It was Friday when the Gryffindor sixth-years had Double Potions with the Slytherins. Word had been running that Professor Snape was in such a dreadful bad mood that it made his usual bad moods look like contretemps and even the Slytherins were treading lightly around the Potions Master. Harry entered the classroom with hesitation, followed by even more vacillating Ron, who still hadn't recovered from the news of Snape's marriage and the ensuing mental images.
The teacher was sitting at his desk, his expression grim, his eyes staring unseeingly at the queue of students entering his classroom; he had just had his first lesson with the Slytherin first-years, and looking back on it, he would much rather have a thousand Death Eater meetings than an hour of trying to give a lesson while being watched by a pair of unblinking black eyes, which so resembled his, and whose expression was so accusing and desolate at the same time. At present, it was a pair of green eyes who stared at him, and Harry Potter the student to whom they belonged, their expression uncertain and wondering.
"Today, to celebrate your return to school, we will have a quiz, to see how much trickled out of those leaky cauldrons you like to call heads" announced Snape, turning to the blackboard to write there the questions he had prepared on a roll of parchment. As he copied out things like "How many cubic inches of powdered salamander ashes can you add to a litre of Veritaserum without having it turn a yellow colour?", he noticed a small wiggly line on a corner of the parchment; his mind went back to the previous evening, him sitting next to the fire, writing the questions down, and Siena standing next to him, holding a toy-quill and mimicking his actions.
Flashback
"Mommy?" asked Siena suddenly, awaking Snape from his reverie. He looked at his daughter, not fully comprehending her question, although in the back of his head it was all he could think about.
"I don't know, Siena" he answered after a while "She'll come to see you soon, I think"
"Seriozsha?" asked the little girl again, her deep-blue eyes serious, too serious for her age.
"He's OK, he's studying. He'll visit you on Saturday, I told you" Siena assented, and turned back to the scrap of parchment she was playing with, and the wiggly lines she had drawn in it. Snape looked at her delicate profile, her pale skin, her inky-black hair falling in soft waves up to her shoulders, her tiny hands holding the quill. She was so like her mother it was amazing, but at the same time Snape couldn't have denied his paternity even if he wanted to. Nor could he deny Serguei's, for that matter.
He had been watching the boy for a week now, since his arrival at the school, and he had been painfully reminded of his own childhood all the time. Serguei was shy, and arrogant because of it; he was insecure, and looked over-confident; he was scared, and acted daring; he longed for company and kept to himself. At the same time he had Svetlana's fragile charm, a wry and sarcastic sense of humour, a clear mind, and the Snapes' ability for potion-making and deviousness. He was doing well in the Slytherin house, winning the respect of his year-mates and the protection of his peers, at the same time that he subtly used his father's position to enhance his own fame. And all the time his inexpressive black eyes followed Snape, with an accusation behind them, driving the Potions Master insanely angry.
End flashback
"Longbottom, staring helplessly at the parchment will not move it to write the answers by itself. If you are as utterly hopeless at this as you were last year, kindly hand me that quiz and remove yourself from my dungeon." Neville gave a last despairing look to his blank exam as Snape walked away with it, and picked his bag mournfully. "Miss Granger, may I remind you that I will count as wrong all answers that are not *strictly* what I asked? Please delete all your show-off knowledge, since I don't wish to have to read through your attempts to become more of a nuisance that you already are" Hermione blushed intensely, and started erasing all the extra- information she had written in her exam, amongst the tittering of the Slytherins.
Harry gave a swift look around the room, giving up on his own test; he had revised Potions during the summer, but surely he couldn't be expected to remember the exact number of medium-sized Spanish-fly wings he should add to a three-litre-batch of Prophylactic Potion? He saw Malfoy quickly jotting something down in a small piece of parchment and send it straight into Pansy's lap; the blonde girl looked at it, acknowledged it with a small nod and passed it over to Blaise; the dark-haired boy then corrected his exam according to Draco's written instructions and pocketed the parchment, giving a swift glance to Snape to confirm his Head of House was acting as oblivious as his Slytherin morals agreed he should. He was.
"Weasley, when you are done trying to indiscreetly peer into Granger's exam and putting both of you into an uncomfortable position, please give me your parchment and leave my classroom. Fifteen points from Gryffindor" Harry heard the satisfied sneer in Snape's voice, and Ron soft growl as he stuffed his quill in his bag and left the dungeon. The Potions teacher advanced onto other unsuspecting Gryffindors "Finnigan and Thomas, this is not an opportunity to prove your pathetic attempts at art in the surface of your desks. Twenty points from Gryffindor and detention tonight with Filch to scrub these tables clean, *without* magic" Twin groans, and stifled snickers from the Slytherins. Harry quickly stood up and handed his exam in, before Snape had the chance to nail him down for something "Done already, Potter? It seems that more has leaked out of your brain than out of the average Gryffindor. You may go now, before your ignorance clings to the walls permanently" Harry threw a very dark look to the teacher and started packing his things.
As he was finishing stuffing his ink-bottle into his bag, small hurried steps stopped in front of the door to the classroom and someone went in hesitantly.
"Professor Snape, sorry to disturb you during lessons, but Headmaster Dumbledore asked me to give you this immediately" Mandy McGonagall gave a small smile to the puzzled students and a small newspaper clipping to Snape. Harry, who was in the bench closer to the teacher, had a glimpse of a photo of a burnt-down house and a headline that said 'Dark attack to wizarding properties in Novgorod, Russia. Russian government denies the existence of victims'. Snape's frown deepened immediately, and Harry scurried off, wondering what could be so important about Russia.
----------------- A/N: well, not much of a cliff-hanger, because I hate those, but another unanswered question. I know not much has happened in this chapter, but I promise excitement in the next one!!! Now, you could spend a minute of your precious time dropping me a line or two telling what you thought of this... thanks!
Disclaimer: as you have probably guessed by now, I am not JK Rowling, and the HarryPotter-verse does not belong to me ("thank goodness!", I hear you say); I am using the characters and settings for my pleasure, and hopefully for yours, and I certainly don't deserve to be sued.
Summary: In Harry's seventh year, Voldemort issues a threat to the families of the Hogwarts staff, and they are forced to seek refuge in the school. This uncomfortable situation will allow us some insight into the family life of everybody's favourite Potions Master.
Rating: PG or PG-13, just to be on the safe side.
Review this story as you would like yours to be reviewed! (I hope that will take all flames off my back; if it doesn't, I'll use them to save on the electricity bill)
FAMILY MATTERS
PART III
"Come in, Severus, come in" said Albus Dumbledore warmly, wearing his multi- coloured dressing-robes and standing at the top of the spiralling staircases leading to his office "Tea?"
"She's gone, Albus" muttered Snape miserably, dropping himself on an armchair; the older wizard put the tea cup aside and summoned a glass of Firewhisky for his friend "I asked her not to, I apologised, and still she left..."
"Did you two have an argument?" asked Dumbledore softly; Snape nodded his assent gloomily. "The children are still here, aren't they?" Snape nodded again, even more miserably than before. The Hogwarts Headmaster sat back on his chair and regarded the wretched Potions Master sitting in front of him; the problematic marriage of Severus Snape had always been a mystery for Dumbledore, and he didn't know how he could help his friend now, except by serving as a sounding board. "What happened exactly?"
Snape lifted his eyes and examined the face before him; if he was going to confide in someone, who better than the old wizard, who already knew him better than anyone?
"It all started years ago, while Voldemort was powerful and free. I was one of the most promising young Death Eaters, you know how that was, and... Voldemort wanted to rid the world from Mudbloods, Muggles and half-bloods, and to repopulate it with pure-blooded wizards, so he decided we were all to marry and have as many children as possible. Igor Karakoff offered me his young daughter... she was still a child, and I couldn't refuse, not without seeing my position endangered; the marriage seemed very far away, Svetlana hadn't even started school, and I was more occupied in other matters. Then, the Dark Lord was banished, by Potter of all people, and I thought that everything related to that part of my past would be erased as well" Snape gave a quick glance to his left forearm and chuckled mirthlessly "The news that Svetlana was of age came to me as a surprise: I had completely forgotten about her, but the engagement contract had been signed, and Igor insisted that I should keep it. We married twelve years ago, when she was nineteen and I was twenty-nine..."
Severus made a long pause then, reflecting on the events after his marriage, and he heaved a deep sigh.
"The marriage wasn't a happy one" he concluded regretfully "I resented being married against my will, and she was scared of me, scared and defiant, all at once... after a few months we decided we couldn't live together anymore, or rather, I decided and she looked at me with that sad, resigned look she always wore when she was with me. She was pregnant already, and thence we couldn't dissolve the marriage, but I came to teach here at Hogwarts, and she stayed in our house, with the child... I never saw her or Serguei anymore"
There was something that didn't fit in that puzzle, and Dumbledore asked about it with his usual tact.
"What about the little girl? Is she yours as well?" Snape looked at the fire for a long while before answering.
"She is" he paused again, and a faint blush covered his pale face "The night I went back to Voldemort, after his rising two years ago... he tortured me for hours, until I convinced him that I wasn't a traitor, and when he was sure of that, he left me there... I was weak, and very hurt, but somehow, I managed to Apparate to her house, to our house... she was waiting for me! For some unfathomable reason she was awake and ready, and she took me in and tended my wounds and let me stay the night..." Yet another long pause, and Snape spoke directly to the fireplace "Siena was conceived that night. I went to see Svetlana more often after that, to help her with the pregnancy, and to see the little girl when she was born. It's because of that that I was able to find her when you said that the families of the teachers should assemble here"
Dumbledore remained silent for a long while, digesting the information about his protégé and his family. Snape was thankful for the silence that allowed him to recover from that unusual outburst of sincerity, and to ruminate over the things he had just said. He was well aware that the facts made him look like a monster, but it had all happened very naturally... Svetlana had never really talked to him while they lived together, and afterwards they didn't have a chance to hold a proper conversation, expect on the day Siena was born, when he had had a fight with Serguei and she had intervened; after that, when he visited, Serguei locked himself in his room, Svetlana retreated inside herself, and he was left to tend Siena as best as he could. When Dumbledore became aware of a plan to attack the families of his staff, and use them as hostages, Snape had sent a brief note to Svetlana, telling her she had to move in with him, to protect the children. And she had obeyed, without a complaint, until his demeanour had fed her up... it *was* his fault, really.
"I should go now" he said tiredly "I have Hufflepuff sixth-years tomorrow morning, and Siena is alone in my quarters" he gave a mirthless smile at the though of having a baby in his care, and what people would think of that.
"Are you sure you will manage with her?" asked the Headmaster, with some amusement in his blue eyes.
"I will ask Mandy McGonagall to look after her while I'm teaching, but of course I'll be able to take care of her:" Snape seemed almost indignant at the question "I'm her father!" Dumbledore wanted to inform Snape that that kind of attachment didn't involve parental skills, but he decided against it.
"Good luck, then! I'll talk to Mandy tomorrow morning, if you want, and have it all settled by the time of your first lesson"
"Thank you, Albus" said Snape tiredly, when he was at the door.
"You're welcome, Severus, any time" Albus watched the retreating back of the Potions Master until he was well out of sight, and then turned back to his cup of tea, wondering about the ways of the heart.
Snape entered his quarters slowly and silently; he removed his boots and socks, but decided against going into his bedroom, and instead opened the door to Siena's room; the little girl was peacefully sleeping in her cot, the soft light of a fairy night-lamp showing her pale face and black hair, and the white eyelids that hid blue eyes, like her mother's. No, it was better not to pursue that train of thought, and Snape contented himself with pulling a chair and sitting by the side of the cot, watching the baby sleep until morning came.
It was Friday when the Gryffindor sixth-years had Double Potions with the Slytherins. Word had been running that Professor Snape was in such a dreadful bad mood that it made his usual bad moods look like contretemps and even the Slytherins were treading lightly around the Potions Master. Harry entered the classroom with hesitation, followed by even more vacillating Ron, who still hadn't recovered from the news of Snape's marriage and the ensuing mental images.
The teacher was sitting at his desk, his expression grim, his eyes staring unseeingly at the queue of students entering his classroom; he had just had his first lesson with the Slytherin first-years, and looking back on it, he would much rather have a thousand Death Eater meetings than an hour of trying to give a lesson while being watched by a pair of unblinking black eyes, which so resembled his, and whose expression was so accusing and desolate at the same time. At present, it was a pair of green eyes who stared at him, and Harry Potter the student to whom they belonged, their expression uncertain and wondering.
"Today, to celebrate your return to school, we will have a quiz, to see how much trickled out of those leaky cauldrons you like to call heads" announced Snape, turning to the blackboard to write there the questions he had prepared on a roll of parchment. As he copied out things like "How many cubic inches of powdered salamander ashes can you add to a litre of Veritaserum without having it turn a yellow colour?", he noticed a small wiggly line on a corner of the parchment; his mind went back to the previous evening, him sitting next to the fire, writing the questions down, and Siena standing next to him, holding a toy-quill and mimicking his actions.
Flashback
"Mommy?" asked Siena suddenly, awaking Snape from his reverie. He looked at his daughter, not fully comprehending her question, although in the back of his head it was all he could think about.
"I don't know, Siena" he answered after a while "She'll come to see you soon, I think"
"Seriozsha?" asked the little girl again, her deep-blue eyes serious, too serious for her age.
"He's OK, he's studying. He'll visit you on Saturday, I told you" Siena assented, and turned back to the scrap of parchment she was playing with, and the wiggly lines she had drawn in it. Snape looked at her delicate profile, her pale skin, her inky-black hair falling in soft waves up to her shoulders, her tiny hands holding the quill. She was so like her mother it was amazing, but at the same time Snape couldn't have denied his paternity even if he wanted to. Nor could he deny Serguei's, for that matter.
He had been watching the boy for a week now, since his arrival at the school, and he had been painfully reminded of his own childhood all the time. Serguei was shy, and arrogant because of it; he was insecure, and looked over-confident; he was scared, and acted daring; he longed for company and kept to himself. At the same time he had Svetlana's fragile charm, a wry and sarcastic sense of humour, a clear mind, and the Snapes' ability for potion-making and deviousness. He was doing well in the Slytherin house, winning the respect of his year-mates and the protection of his peers, at the same time that he subtly used his father's position to enhance his own fame. And all the time his inexpressive black eyes followed Snape, with an accusation behind them, driving the Potions Master insanely angry.
End flashback
"Longbottom, staring helplessly at the parchment will not move it to write the answers by itself. If you are as utterly hopeless at this as you were last year, kindly hand me that quiz and remove yourself from my dungeon." Neville gave a last despairing look to his blank exam as Snape walked away with it, and picked his bag mournfully. "Miss Granger, may I remind you that I will count as wrong all answers that are not *strictly* what I asked? Please delete all your show-off knowledge, since I don't wish to have to read through your attempts to become more of a nuisance that you already are" Hermione blushed intensely, and started erasing all the extra- information she had written in her exam, amongst the tittering of the Slytherins.
Harry gave a swift look around the room, giving up on his own test; he had revised Potions during the summer, but surely he couldn't be expected to remember the exact number of medium-sized Spanish-fly wings he should add to a three-litre-batch of Prophylactic Potion? He saw Malfoy quickly jotting something down in a small piece of parchment and send it straight into Pansy's lap; the blonde girl looked at it, acknowledged it with a small nod and passed it over to Blaise; the dark-haired boy then corrected his exam according to Draco's written instructions and pocketed the parchment, giving a swift glance to Snape to confirm his Head of House was acting as oblivious as his Slytherin morals agreed he should. He was.
"Weasley, when you are done trying to indiscreetly peer into Granger's exam and putting both of you into an uncomfortable position, please give me your parchment and leave my classroom. Fifteen points from Gryffindor" Harry heard the satisfied sneer in Snape's voice, and Ron soft growl as he stuffed his quill in his bag and left the dungeon. The Potions teacher advanced onto other unsuspecting Gryffindors "Finnigan and Thomas, this is not an opportunity to prove your pathetic attempts at art in the surface of your desks. Twenty points from Gryffindor and detention tonight with Filch to scrub these tables clean, *without* magic" Twin groans, and stifled snickers from the Slytherins. Harry quickly stood up and handed his exam in, before Snape had the chance to nail him down for something "Done already, Potter? It seems that more has leaked out of your brain than out of the average Gryffindor. You may go now, before your ignorance clings to the walls permanently" Harry threw a very dark look to the teacher and started packing his things.
As he was finishing stuffing his ink-bottle into his bag, small hurried steps stopped in front of the door to the classroom and someone went in hesitantly.
"Professor Snape, sorry to disturb you during lessons, but Headmaster Dumbledore asked me to give you this immediately" Mandy McGonagall gave a small smile to the puzzled students and a small newspaper clipping to Snape. Harry, who was in the bench closer to the teacher, had a glimpse of a photo of a burnt-down house and a headline that said 'Dark attack to wizarding properties in Novgorod, Russia. Russian government denies the existence of victims'. Snape's frown deepened immediately, and Harry scurried off, wondering what could be so important about Russia.
----------------- A/N: well, not much of a cliff-hanger, because I hate those, but another unanswered question. I know not much has happened in this chapter, but I promise excitement in the next one!!! Now, you could spend a minute of your precious time dropping me a line or two telling what you thought of this... thanks!