A/N: Thanks for the lovely reviews, and I'm sorry for leaving you with a
cliff-hanger... I honestly didn't notice, because I hate them too, and
would have changed it... sorry again!!!
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 IV
Svetlana opened her eyes and regretted it immediately: her head hurt and her brain threatened to spill out of her ears at the slightest movement. Biting back a moan, she shifted carefully and tried to listen to the murmur coming to her left. Two burly wizards with black robes, equally blond and short hair and their wands ready, were talking softly by a fire, the only light in the small hut they were in. They spoke a very basic Russian, sometimes mixing in it a few Ukrainian words, but Svetlana gathered they were commenting the attack they had suffered the day before. Letting their words wash over her, she closed her eyes again, trying to forget she was due in Hogwarts the following day. Suddenly, the two bodyguards stopped speaking, and stood up, prompting Svetlana to reach for her wand and lean brokenly against the wall. The door swung open to let in a tall man, covered in a grey fur coat, with a fur hat and apparently unarmed; the two men relaxed and bowed, and the newcomer, Ilia Karakoff, went directly towards his niece.
"Hello, Svetlana, how are you?" he asked cheerily, in a very accented English.
"My head hurts a bit, but otherwise, I'm fine" she replied weakly.
"I brought you some pain-killers" he answered, rummaging through the hundred pockets of his cloak "You're a very brave girl, Svetlana, I didn't think you had made it yesterday"
"I couldn't not make it, Uncle" said Mrs Snape, swallowing the pills her uncle had given her with a sip of a red-coloured potion "I have my children to look after"
"True, very true. They are at Hogwarts, aren't they? Then, why aren't you with them?"
"I don't want to live with Severus, Uncle" admitted Svetlana, looking down "He's a very complicated man"
"So you keep saying, Svetlana, but complicated or not, he is your husband after all. You cannot keep running away like this. My protection will only get you so far, and yesterday you saw it isn't far enough. Hogwarts is safe, and you can look after your children directly. I don't think it's good for a mother to leave her children alone."
"Sometimes, there are not many options"
"Like now: you can either stay here, and try to avoid getting killed for a while, or go to your husband and you children and face whatever it is you're hiding from now. It's up to you, Svetlana, but in the name of the family, I recommend you the second option"
"I'll go to Hogwarts tomorrow" said Svetlana gloomily "If I can come to an agreement with Severus, I'll try to stay, but otherwise you'll see me knocking at your door once again, Uncle Ilia" The big man gave his niece a hug and smiled.
"You know you're always welcome in my house, but I think you'll come to your senses soon. Give a hug to Serguei and the little girl, and take care" Ilia Karakoff left the hut again, and Apparated away from it, leaving Svetlana to her thoughts.
Serguei stared at the note he had received at breakfast, and it was hard for him to keep his expressionless façade. 'Saturday, 8 o'clock in the evening, Professor Snape's private quarters, Slytherin corridor, fifteenth door on the left, knock and wait'. Just like that. He knew he would get to see his sister, otherwise he would have adamantly refused to go anywhere near his father. Since he had been at Hogwarts, his father hadn't even said a word to him, not during lessons, nor in the common room or anywhere. Serguei didn't *want* to talk to him, but it would have been nice if the man had at least seemed a bit remorseful.
He hated his father. He hadn't always hated him, in fact, until he was eight-years old, his father had been little more than a legend, mentioned by his mother in certain dates, and represented by a photograph of him on the mantle. And then...
Flashback
"Go to your room, Serguei, I'm telling you!" said his mother angrily; he looked at her, his black eyes brimming with tears, and she sighed, softening her tone "Please, Seriozsha, it's important, just go to your room and don't leave it till I go for you, OK?"
Serguei ran up the stairs and locked himself in his bedroom, holding back tears. His mother never shouted at him like that, what had he done? She had been angry that day, breaking things and scolding the house-elves. Svetlana was never mad at Serguei, it had to be something else. He couldn't go to sleep, worried by the idea of angering his mother, and turned and tossed in bed until he heard a distinct 'pop!' in the garden; stealthily, he went to the window and peered outside, only to see a black figure laying in the gravel path, pale skin reflecting the moonlight. Svetlana went out and gave him a long look, before muttering a spell and taking him inside.
Curiosity and fear torn Serguei apart; he wanted to know who the figure was, but he didn't want to upset his mother more than she already was. Finally, he decided to slip out, still in his pyjamas, and pad softly to the stairs. He could see the living room now, lit by the fire and a few candles on the mantle. His mother and a house-elf were busying themselves with some bandages, putting them in the man's leg, which was badly hurt. The man was pale, with black hair and a large nose, and... he was the man from the photograph, his father! What was he doing there?
"What are you doing here, Severus?" asked Svetlana in a soft murmur, tying the bandages with perhaps a bit more force that it would have been necessary.
"I don't know" answered the man, still in a daze, grimacing when Svetlana applied a purple potion to a wound in his left hand.
"The Dark Lord has risen again, hasn't he?" she asked gloomily once she had dismissed the house-elf; her hand rested lightly against his left forearm for a moment, before fluttering away "My father owled me yesterday, saying he had to go into hiding once again, and asking me to take care... do I have to worry about you as well?"
"Daughter and wife to doubtful Death Eaters: your position is a dangerous one" murmured the man, opening his thin lips to drink a few drops of a thick black liquid Svetlana was pouring out of a tiny bottle.
"It's concentrated Revival Draught, it should ease the pain of the Cruciatus... do you think you can Apparate now, or shall I prepare a bed?"
"I can't go back to Hogwarts till the morning" said Severus Snape, closing his eyes. His wife gave him another long, searching look, and turned to leave.
"Very well. Don't move until I come to fetch you, and don't make any noise, I don't want to explain your presence to Serguei"
Hearing his name being mentioned, Serguei ran silently back to his room, and closed the door without making any noise. He hadn't understood much from his parents' conversation, except that they were in danger and the he shouldn't have heard any of it. He crawled under the cover, just in time to appear fast asleep to his mother when she went to check on him, but he didn't fall asleep for a long time.
End flashback
Serguei went to his dorm and plopped on the bed; he was worried for his mother, who hadn't written to him yet. He remembered her anguished goodbye, the tears on her face, the dark outline of his father on the doorway, his impotent rage towards the man who always came between Svetlana and him. Always, since his apparition that dark and stormy night, the shadow of Severus Snape came between Serguei and his mother.
The monthly visit of the Potions Master brought a lot of uncomfortable questions to the Snape household, and Serguei acted upon them by locking himself in his room, ignoring his mother's pleas and his father's sneering comments. It worked until the birth of Siena...
Flashback
"Is she going to be OK?" asked Serguei helplessly to his father, both sitting in a white waiting room of St Mungo's, while in a nearby room the medi-witch examined Svetlana.
"I don't know" snapped Severus, nervous beyond telling "I'm not a bloody Seer!"
"Don't talk to me like that!" exclaimed Serguei suddenly, standing up in front of his father "This is all your fault, after all!"
"My fault?! Boy, you have no idea of what you're talking about, so shut up before I do it with a curse!"
"You wouldn't dare! You won't dare touch me, you hear? I hate you, I hate you, and I want you out of our lives now! Everything was fine before you came back!" Serguei didn't notice he was crying, and his vision was too blurred to register the shock on his father's face as he screamed his bottled-up feelings for all to hear.
"Silence, both of you!" hissed Svetlana, leaning heavily on the arm of the medi-witch "I'm trying to have a child here, and your shouting isn't helping me any. Severus, please go outside and calm yourself now; if I hear another comment of you using your wand on Serguei, you'll be out of my life quicker than you were in. Serguei, that is no way to talk to your father; you have no idea of the circumstances he had gone through, and you have no right to shout those horrendous things to him. Follow the nurse to the cafeteria and wait there till they call you. I'm going to have this baby in peace, and on my own"
The petite woman went back inside, while a nurse led the surprised Serguei away, and Severus marched the other way, slamming the door shut for a more dramatic exit.
End flashback
Serguei changed into his nightgown, and slipped into the forest-green covers. Carefully he fished a photograph from under his pillow, and looked at it to the light of the candle burning in his bedside table. Svetlana, Siena and Serguei, sitting on a bench, waving to the camera, their pale skin and black hair shining in the bright sun, their house in the background. Serguei blew out the candle and, sure that no-one could see him, pressed the picture to his chest and fell asleep like that.
Snape sat near to the fire, with a cup of tea by his side; he needed something stronger, but he wouldn't take a chance with the alcohol while the girl sleeping in his lap remained in his care. The Potions Master read again the newspaper clipping Dumbledore had sent him.
========================================================= Dark attack to wizarding properties in Novgorod, Russia. Russian government denies the existance of victims.
Yesterday in the cold Russian evening (late afternoon in Britain), several wizarding dwellings and business in the city of Novgorod, Eastern Russia, were attacked and burnt down by commands of witches and wizards dressed in black cloaks, as reported by Muggle witnesses, who were obliviated after giving all useful information. The damaged properties were manily owned by pure-blood families, the Tolstois and Karakoffs, who are closely involved with the Russian Ministry of Magic. Russian Aurors deny the existence of fatal victims, although some of the houses were occupied at the moment of the attack, and their residents haven't been seen since. It is also rumoured that some of the Muggle witnesses have been taken to hospital with respiratory and cardiac problems, although this information hasn't been confirmed. The Russian Government accuses the Ivan the Fourth movement for this attack, which seems likely, seeing that they are responsible for over seven assaults on wizarding properties in the last year. As we can see, our country is not the only one facing Dark wizards, and the problem seems to be spreading like wildfire over Europe.
==============================================================
That either meant two things, in Snape's mind: either Svetlana had been captured, or she had managed to Apparate to safety before the assault. Anyway, it meant that she had been found and attacked, and that did nothing to ease Severus' mind about the security of his wife, and the rashness of her decision to leave him and Hogwarts. Well, to leave *him* in particular. He understood her reasons, and in part, he shared them, but his pride was still hurt by her firm refusal to share his life.
It hurt to know that his wife detested him so that she preferred to risk her life going into a world where there had already been five Dark attacks to the families of the Hogwarts staff, and where she was the only one who was not in the relative safety of the school. It hurt to know that Svetlana would rather have to face the anger of Death Eaters who considered her untrustworthy because of her father and husband, than to live with him. And like the newspaper clipping proved, they were hot on her trail, if they hadn't caught her already.
Siena muttered something incoherent in her sleep, and her father clutched her tighter, to which the little girl, unconsciously revelling in the warmth of her parent, nuzzled closer to him. Severus felt a knot tightening in his throat at the resemblance between his daughter and his wife, at the thought that he might never see Svetlana again. It was amazing how the stubborn girl, no, woman, had managed to worm her way into the shrivelled heart of the Hogwarts Potions Master, rendering him vulnerable like he had never been before. It must have been part of Voldemort's scheme to deem him exposed, like the later turn of events had proved, and to Hell that it had worked.
------------- A/N: Aw, poor Sevvie!!! *reaches out to hug him*. I hope this cleared out some of the questions I had left hanging in the previous chapters. Now, please take only one minute to drop me a line telling me what you thought of it...please!!!
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 IV
Svetlana opened her eyes and regretted it immediately: her head hurt and her brain threatened to spill out of her ears at the slightest movement. Biting back a moan, she shifted carefully and tried to listen to the murmur coming to her left. Two burly wizards with black robes, equally blond and short hair and their wands ready, were talking softly by a fire, the only light in the small hut they were in. They spoke a very basic Russian, sometimes mixing in it a few Ukrainian words, but Svetlana gathered they were commenting the attack they had suffered the day before. Letting their words wash over her, she closed her eyes again, trying to forget she was due in Hogwarts the following day. Suddenly, the two bodyguards stopped speaking, and stood up, prompting Svetlana to reach for her wand and lean brokenly against the wall. The door swung open to let in a tall man, covered in a grey fur coat, with a fur hat and apparently unarmed; the two men relaxed and bowed, and the newcomer, Ilia Karakoff, went directly towards his niece.
"Hello, Svetlana, how are you?" he asked cheerily, in a very accented English.
"My head hurts a bit, but otherwise, I'm fine" she replied weakly.
"I brought you some pain-killers" he answered, rummaging through the hundred pockets of his cloak "You're a very brave girl, Svetlana, I didn't think you had made it yesterday"
"I couldn't not make it, Uncle" said Mrs Snape, swallowing the pills her uncle had given her with a sip of a red-coloured potion "I have my children to look after"
"True, very true. They are at Hogwarts, aren't they? Then, why aren't you with them?"
"I don't want to live with Severus, Uncle" admitted Svetlana, looking down "He's a very complicated man"
"So you keep saying, Svetlana, but complicated or not, he is your husband after all. You cannot keep running away like this. My protection will only get you so far, and yesterday you saw it isn't far enough. Hogwarts is safe, and you can look after your children directly. I don't think it's good for a mother to leave her children alone."
"Sometimes, there are not many options"
"Like now: you can either stay here, and try to avoid getting killed for a while, or go to your husband and you children and face whatever it is you're hiding from now. It's up to you, Svetlana, but in the name of the family, I recommend you the second option"
"I'll go to Hogwarts tomorrow" said Svetlana gloomily "If I can come to an agreement with Severus, I'll try to stay, but otherwise you'll see me knocking at your door once again, Uncle Ilia" The big man gave his niece a hug and smiled.
"You know you're always welcome in my house, but I think you'll come to your senses soon. Give a hug to Serguei and the little girl, and take care" Ilia Karakoff left the hut again, and Apparated away from it, leaving Svetlana to her thoughts.
Serguei stared at the note he had received at breakfast, and it was hard for him to keep his expressionless façade. 'Saturday, 8 o'clock in the evening, Professor Snape's private quarters, Slytherin corridor, fifteenth door on the left, knock and wait'. Just like that. He knew he would get to see his sister, otherwise he would have adamantly refused to go anywhere near his father. Since he had been at Hogwarts, his father hadn't even said a word to him, not during lessons, nor in the common room or anywhere. Serguei didn't *want* to talk to him, but it would have been nice if the man had at least seemed a bit remorseful.
He hated his father. He hadn't always hated him, in fact, until he was eight-years old, his father had been little more than a legend, mentioned by his mother in certain dates, and represented by a photograph of him on the mantle. And then...
Flashback
"Go to your room, Serguei, I'm telling you!" said his mother angrily; he looked at her, his black eyes brimming with tears, and she sighed, softening her tone "Please, Seriozsha, it's important, just go to your room and don't leave it till I go for you, OK?"
Serguei ran up the stairs and locked himself in his bedroom, holding back tears. His mother never shouted at him like that, what had he done? She had been angry that day, breaking things and scolding the house-elves. Svetlana was never mad at Serguei, it had to be something else. He couldn't go to sleep, worried by the idea of angering his mother, and turned and tossed in bed until he heard a distinct 'pop!' in the garden; stealthily, he went to the window and peered outside, only to see a black figure laying in the gravel path, pale skin reflecting the moonlight. Svetlana went out and gave him a long look, before muttering a spell and taking him inside.
Curiosity and fear torn Serguei apart; he wanted to know who the figure was, but he didn't want to upset his mother more than she already was. Finally, he decided to slip out, still in his pyjamas, and pad softly to the stairs. He could see the living room now, lit by the fire and a few candles on the mantle. His mother and a house-elf were busying themselves with some bandages, putting them in the man's leg, which was badly hurt. The man was pale, with black hair and a large nose, and... he was the man from the photograph, his father! What was he doing there?
"What are you doing here, Severus?" asked Svetlana in a soft murmur, tying the bandages with perhaps a bit more force that it would have been necessary.
"I don't know" answered the man, still in a daze, grimacing when Svetlana applied a purple potion to a wound in his left hand.
"The Dark Lord has risen again, hasn't he?" she asked gloomily once she had dismissed the house-elf; her hand rested lightly against his left forearm for a moment, before fluttering away "My father owled me yesterday, saying he had to go into hiding once again, and asking me to take care... do I have to worry about you as well?"
"Daughter and wife to doubtful Death Eaters: your position is a dangerous one" murmured the man, opening his thin lips to drink a few drops of a thick black liquid Svetlana was pouring out of a tiny bottle.
"It's concentrated Revival Draught, it should ease the pain of the Cruciatus... do you think you can Apparate now, or shall I prepare a bed?"
"I can't go back to Hogwarts till the morning" said Severus Snape, closing his eyes. His wife gave him another long, searching look, and turned to leave.
"Very well. Don't move until I come to fetch you, and don't make any noise, I don't want to explain your presence to Serguei"
Hearing his name being mentioned, Serguei ran silently back to his room, and closed the door without making any noise. He hadn't understood much from his parents' conversation, except that they were in danger and the he shouldn't have heard any of it. He crawled under the cover, just in time to appear fast asleep to his mother when she went to check on him, but he didn't fall asleep for a long time.
End flashback
Serguei went to his dorm and plopped on the bed; he was worried for his mother, who hadn't written to him yet. He remembered her anguished goodbye, the tears on her face, the dark outline of his father on the doorway, his impotent rage towards the man who always came between Svetlana and him. Always, since his apparition that dark and stormy night, the shadow of Severus Snape came between Serguei and his mother.
The monthly visit of the Potions Master brought a lot of uncomfortable questions to the Snape household, and Serguei acted upon them by locking himself in his room, ignoring his mother's pleas and his father's sneering comments. It worked until the birth of Siena...
Flashback
"Is she going to be OK?" asked Serguei helplessly to his father, both sitting in a white waiting room of St Mungo's, while in a nearby room the medi-witch examined Svetlana.
"I don't know" snapped Severus, nervous beyond telling "I'm not a bloody Seer!"
"Don't talk to me like that!" exclaimed Serguei suddenly, standing up in front of his father "This is all your fault, after all!"
"My fault?! Boy, you have no idea of what you're talking about, so shut up before I do it with a curse!"
"You wouldn't dare! You won't dare touch me, you hear? I hate you, I hate you, and I want you out of our lives now! Everything was fine before you came back!" Serguei didn't notice he was crying, and his vision was too blurred to register the shock on his father's face as he screamed his bottled-up feelings for all to hear.
"Silence, both of you!" hissed Svetlana, leaning heavily on the arm of the medi-witch "I'm trying to have a child here, and your shouting isn't helping me any. Severus, please go outside and calm yourself now; if I hear another comment of you using your wand on Serguei, you'll be out of my life quicker than you were in. Serguei, that is no way to talk to your father; you have no idea of the circumstances he had gone through, and you have no right to shout those horrendous things to him. Follow the nurse to the cafeteria and wait there till they call you. I'm going to have this baby in peace, and on my own"
The petite woman went back inside, while a nurse led the surprised Serguei away, and Severus marched the other way, slamming the door shut for a more dramatic exit.
End flashback
Serguei changed into his nightgown, and slipped into the forest-green covers. Carefully he fished a photograph from under his pillow, and looked at it to the light of the candle burning in his bedside table. Svetlana, Siena and Serguei, sitting on a bench, waving to the camera, their pale skin and black hair shining in the bright sun, their house in the background. Serguei blew out the candle and, sure that no-one could see him, pressed the picture to his chest and fell asleep like that.
Snape sat near to the fire, with a cup of tea by his side; he needed something stronger, but he wouldn't take a chance with the alcohol while the girl sleeping in his lap remained in his care. The Potions Master read again the newspaper clipping Dumbledore had sent him.
========================================================= Dark attack to wizarding properties in Novgorod, Russia. Russian government denies the existance of victims.
Yesterday in the cold Russian evening (late afternoon in Britain), several wizarding dwellings and business in the city of Novgorod, Eastern Russia, were attacked and burnt down by commands of witches and wizards dressed in black cloaks, as reported by Muggle witnesses, who were obliviated after giving all useful information. The damaged properties were manily owned by pure-blood families, the Tolstois and Karakoffs, who are closely involved with the Russian Ministry of Magic. Russian Aurors deny the existence of fatal victims, although some of the houses were occupied at the moment of the attack, and their residents haven't been seen since. It is also rumoured that some of the Muggle witnesses have been taken to hospital with respiratory and cardiac problems, although this information hasn't been confirmed. The Russian Government accuses the Ivan the Fourth movement for this attack, which seems likely, seeing that they are responsible for over seven assaults on wizarding properties in the last year. As we can see, our country is not the only one facing Dark wizards, and the problem seems to be spreading like wildfire over Europe.
==============================================================
That either meant two things, in Snape's mind: either Svetlana had been captured, or she had managed to Apparate to safety before the assault. Anyway, it meant that she had been found and attacked, and that did nothing to ease Severus' mind about the security of his wife, and the rashness of her decision to leave him and Hogwarts. Well, to leave *him* in particular. He understood her reasons, and in part, he shared them, but his pride was still hurt by her firm refusal to share his life.
It hurt to know that his wife detested him so that she preferred to risk her life going into a world where there had already been five Dark attacks to the families of the Hogwarts staff, and where she was the only one who was not in the relative safety of the school. It hurt to know that Svetlana would rather have to face the anger of Death Eaters who considered her untrustworthy because of her father and husband, than to live with him. And like the newspaper clipping proved, they were hot on her trail, if they hadn't caught her already.
Siena muttered something incoherent in her sleep, and her father clutched her tighter, to which the little girl, unconsciously revelling in the warmth of her parent, nuzzled closer to him. Severus felt a knot tightening in his throat at the resemblance between his daughter and his wife, at the thought that he might never see Svetlana again. It was amazing how the stubborn girl, no, woman, had managed to worm her way into the shrivelled heart of the Hogwarts Potions Master, rendering him vulnerable like he had never been before. It must have been part of Voldemort's scheme to deem him exposed, like the later turn of events had proved, and to Hell that it had worked.
------------- A/N: Aw, poor Sevvie!!! *reaches out to hug him*. I hope this cleared out some of the questions I had left hanging in the previous chapters. Now, please take only one minute to drop me a line telling me what you thought of it...please!!!