Disclaimer: This story is based on characters and situations created and owned by JK Rowling, various publishers including but not limited to Bloomsbury Books, Scholastic Books and Raincoast Books, and Warner Bros., Inc. No money is being made and no copyright or trademark infringement is intended.
Author's Note: Thanks to Cyndi for betaing, you rock!
Summary: Serena is a bouncy friendly girl, full of life. She enjoys playing jokes and can do fifth year spells, even before she comes to Hogwarts for her first year. However she has one secret, which must be hidden at all costs.
Severus Snape walked to the outskirts of Hogsmeade at the end of the summer term and apparated home. He strolled up the drive to the smallish mansion, but only made it half way. Serena, his eleven-year-old daughter, came rushing down the drive to meet him.
"Dad, Dad!"
"Hiya Serry!" said Severus smiling, grabbing her in a tight hug, for he had not seen her in months. Then he gently lowered her to the ground and released her.
"Mum, Mum, Dad's home!" yelled Serena, pulling her father to the front door. Severus smiled and pretended to be annoyed. In reality, he was delighted to be home again with his family.
They entered the house, and there was Catherine Snape, his wife. Blonde with hazel eyes, she smiled calmly at her husband.
Serena let go of her Dad and Severus walked to Catherine. They hugged each other tightly and gazed into each other's eyes. Eventually, they released each other.
Then Catherine said, "I've made you some dinner, something to take away the taste of that Hogwarts food," she grinned. "Guess what it is,"
"Er, lasagna?"
"Nope," said Serena. "Try again,"
"What could it be?" said Severus, pretending to be confused. "Um… shepherd's pie?"
"Uh-uh, one more guess," suggested Catherine.
"Could it possibly be… spaghetti bolognese?"
"Correct" stated Serena. Severus smiled, for spaghetti bolognese was his favorite food. He winked slyly at his daughter as he spoke to his wife again.
"I suppose you had to get Serena to help you then?" he asked.
"I did it all myself!" said Catherine defensively.
They headed into the kitchen and settled down for their meal. They ate in silence for a while, and then Severus spoke.
"What a year it's been."
"What happened?" begged Serena.
"Well as you know the Order required me a lot during last holidays, with reports and everything. They'll probably want me this year as well," he replied.
"Oh," said Serena disappointed that she probably wouldn't see her dad much this holiday either.
"And then it was back to work. As usual that Malfoy brat and Potter were up to no good in Potions."
"And I suppose you showed favor to Malfoy as usual," said Catherine, raising her eyebrows.
"I have a reputation to keep up as a Death Eater and a Gryffindor hater you know," said Severus.
"Reputation: what a load of Thestral dung," said Serena. Her parents were shocked.
"Where did you pick up language like that, Miss Snape?" asked Severus sharply.
"Simone put it in one of her letters, she says that it's a very popular phrase in both Beauxbatons and Hogwarts at the moment," she said, shrugging. "She got it from her brother."
"Well never use it again," admonished her mother. Serena had the decency to look down at her plate in sorrow.
"Sorry," she muttered.
"And so you should be," said her father, before continuing the conversation.
"It was lucky though, my reputation that I have. If I hadn't been like that the Ministry," he wrinkled his nose, "could've taken over the school."
"Why?" asked Catherine.
"Umbridge," stated Severus with finality. "She was… well… this is one person who can be described as… as… what Serena said. I had to give her fake Veritaserum in order to prevent her poisoning Potter. As a matter of fact, she stopped Potter and two of the Weasley boys from going on their house Quidditch teams; locked their brooms up in her office and all.
"No!" gasped Serena.
"Oh yes, then she got rid of most of the teachers, Sybil, Minerva, all the Order."
"Even Dumbledore?" said Catherine amazed.
"No, Dumbledore left by himself with Fawkes, after stunning the Minister, Umbridge, and two Aurors who were also there. I'm sure you heard about it. It was just after Umbridge had discovered about the existence of the DA."
"What's the DA?" asked Serena.
"Potter decided that since Umbridge wouldn't teach them defence spells in their Defence Against the Dark Arts classes, he would teach the students himself. I suspect that it was Miss Granger's idea actually. She is the type. He called it Dumbledore's Army for some reason," he said.
"What else happened?" asked Catherine.
"Minerva got stunned by four stunners when she attempted to stop them getting rid of Hagrid, but he went of his own accord in the end. Potter, the two youngest Weasleys, Granger, Longbottom and Lovegood went off to the Department of Mysteries and almost got themselves killed. Half the order went off to save them, and Black got himself killed, not that he's any great loss," he finished.
"Severus!" said Catherine admonishingly. "You don't really mean that do you?"
"Yes I do," insisted Severus, before scraping the last of the spaghetti onto his fork. "You can tell me the rest of what happened later," she added, realizing that it was getting too serious for her daughter to hear.
"Dad!"
"What is it Serry?"
"Can we go to Diagon Alley and get me a wand, please?"
"Are you sure you want to go now? The students haven't even reached Platform 9 ¾ yet."
"Oh, go on dad, we know I'm a witch, and it'll be emptier today than if we go later," she said wisely.
"Alright then," said Severus with a sigh, knowing that there was no way that he was going to get out of this.
*~*~*
They flooed to the Leaky Cauldron. Severus went first, followed by Serena.
"Good morning Severus," said Tom the barman politely.
"Morning Tom," Serena tumbled out of the fireplace behind them. "Nothing today please, we're just going to Diagon Alley."
Tom nodded, and continued to polish the beer glasses. Serena followed her father out of the quiet bar and into the tiny courtyard at the back.
Once in there, Severus removed the dust, ash and soot from Serena's hair with a quick cleaning charm. Her darkened hair became blonde again. Serena was of average height for an eleven-year-old, and her hair had dark streaks of brown through it. Her eyes were dark like her father's.
Severus opened the gate and they strolled into Diagon Alley. Their first stop was Gringotts, and Serena screamed all the way down to the vault, as though it was a roller coaster ride. Serena had been on a roller coaster once, at Alton Towers, and had loved it.
The Goblin, which was called Barkclaw, stopped the cart and they climbed out. He unlocked the Snape vault, number 712. Serena looked with interest at the two neighboring vaults. Number 713 had contained the Philosophers Stone, but 711 was the Black family vault, now belonging to Nymphadora Tonks, last of the good Blacks.
They took several handfuls of Galleons, plus a few Sickles and some Knuts. Then they faced the hair-raising ride back to the surface.
Their second stop was Ollivanders, and so they headed along the winding alleyway. It led them past the entrances into many other 'Alleys' including the Asian sector of Conservator Alley, and the dark Knockturn Alley, where even known Death Eaters could walk about with their cloak hoods down and not be caught. As they headed past the entrance to that dreaded place a cold voice stopped them in their tracks.
"Severus Snape," the voice issued from under the hood of the man's cloak. It covered his face completely. Serena backed away, closer to her father, who put his left hand on her shoulder, gripping it tightly. With his right hand he gripped his wand tightly. Swiftly, he analyzed the situation and made a plan.
"Peter Pettigrew," replied Severus not bothering to lower his voice. Unfortunately no one heard him, mainly because Knockturn Alley was a place that all kept away from, and the place was fairly empty anyway.
"Traitor," said the Animagus. Severus smiled slightly.
"I was wondering how long it would take you to work it out," he replied. Serena wondered what her father was planning. Surely this was not a good way to get away from someone. Severus bent down with a worried frown on his face and whispered something into his daughter's ear. She made a slight movement of her head to show that she understood.
"Hand over your daughter, and I won't report you to our master," said Wormtail, gaining confidence, as Severus seemed scared.
"I'm not the only traitor," replied the spy, "you betrayed the Potters, thereby causing your master's downfall. He's not my master."
"Hand over your daughter," repeated the ex-Marauder. Severus released his daughter, backed away, and then apparated from the place. It seemed as though he had left his daughter to the Death Eater. Shaking madly, for she was frightened out of her wits even though she knew some of the plan, she looked into his eyes. If this failed…
Peter leered at Serena. "Your Daddy left you, eh?"
Serena raised her eyebrows and vanished from Peter's sight. He looked about for her in a panic, and then he heard an angry hissing from his feet. Suddenly he felt something slide slowly over his legs.
He looked down; a great snake was wrapping itself about him. It travelled slowly up his legs, and soon reached his waist. There it settled in a ring. Peter didn't dare move, and he certainly wouldn't transform, since snakes loved to eat rats. He was too scared to summon up the power to Apparate, and plus he might take the snake with him.
Several Aurors appeared on the spot with Severus, and Peter realised that it was a trap. He had no idea how Snape had transfigured his daughter into a snake, for surely that was what had happened. Although the Animagus transformation was not difficult, being done wandless, and not requiring more than a little talent in transfiguration, or involving moving of objects in milliseconds over a long distance like Apparition did, it was never attempted by younger people. At least, not in the books he had read.
Severus was constantly worried for his daughter, especially since Voldemort had returned. His family was especially vulnerable to attacks, with his position. If he were ever found out by other Death Eaters, as Wormtail had done, it would be dangerous for them all. Serena was, in fact, an Animagus. Wormtail had got his facts wrong. If Serena were faced by more than one Death Eater then she wouldn't simply be able to scare them all off. As she was younger it would be harder for her anyway, since she would tire more easily. Although she had unusually advanced knowledge of magic and spells, the Death Eaters had far greater experience than she did in life.
One of the Aurors grabbed Peter's arms, and used a magical pair of handcuffs to hold them together behind his back. They were designed so that when the door to the cell that they were magically connected to was locked, they would vanish. Then they would reappear in the box where they were kept, open for use again.
Another Auror turned to the snake, and sighed. "Serena, release him please. We don't want to accidentally hurt you, and this charm is quite difficult to perform." Although Serena's identity was usually kept hidden, Severus and Catherine had permitted the Auror division to know who she was. Even the few who were members of the Order were not permitted to tell it to anyone else that they knew. Tom the barman, who received many unusual customers, was told to overlook them when together. Respecting their wish, he did so.
The snake slowly unwound itself from Peter's waist, and deliberately went over his shoulder to reach the ground. As it passed his ear it pretended to take a bite. Peter squealed like a girl. Yet another Auror cast a spell over Peter, and then said, "Peter John Pettigrew, you are under arrest for the murder of twelve Muggles, the attempted kidnap of Serena Snape, and being a Death Eater," the Auror rolled back Pettigrew's left sleeve.
There was the Dark Mark, a skull with a serpent protruding from its mouth like a tongue. The Auror, Nymphadora Tonks, spoke again to Peter. "An anti-Apparition charm has been cast upon you," then she spoke to the snake. "Okay Serena, you can transform back now."
The first Auror, Alastor Moody, who had begun to work at the Ministry again since they had realised that Dumbledore told the truth, knocked the hood off from over Peter's face. By this time a huge crowd had gathered to find out what the fuss was about, and they all gasped when they saw his face. They had heard the exchange but had never really believed that it was Peter Pettigrew. Serena, who was coiled at her father's feet, did not transform because it was too dangerous. Instead, she waited until the Aurors had moved the crowd away from the area. She hoped that none of them remembered that Tonks had said 'Serena Snape', before she transformed and showed her Animagus license to the Aurors. She brushed her hands together tidily. 'A job well done,' she thought.
Serena and her father then continued to Ollivander's, where Serena found that she had a twelve-inch long, mahogany wand containing one dragon heartstring.
Later, after Serena had bought her oddly named owl Horace, she asked if she could visit the new shop Weasley's Wizard Wheezes. Understandably her father refused to go in with her, but gave her several Galleons to buy some things with.
Serena pushed open the door, and a bell rang. Unlike Ollivander's where the bell sounded far into the shop, this one was right above her head and very loud. With a sigh, Serena raised her wand and said, "Silencio," jabbing her wand at the offending bell. It fell silent, although it continued to swing wildly from side to side.
With a pop, one of the Weasley twins apparated at her side. "That's a fifth year spell!" he said in amazement. Serena grinned again; "I suppose so. I am hoping to get into Ravenclaw you know. My father says that I'm just magically gifted. He says that I could probably beat Hermione Granger if I tried. I can't be bothered though."
"You know Hermione?" said Fred or George in surprise. Serena gulped, realising her stupid mistake, but tried to cover it up.
"Not personally, no. But she was in the Daily Prophet a few times with awards for her good results. That would be in the middle pages," she added at the twin's puzzled look. He nodded, seeming to accept her answer.
"Anyway, what I should be saying is, can I help you madam?" he made a mock bow of politeness.
Serena giggled. "No thanks, I'm just looking." No one could have suspected that the bright eyed, friendly girl, with the honey-coloured hair was daughter to the strictest Hogwarts professor.
Serena strolled around, looking at the items on display. There were Fake Wands®, Skiving Snackboxes®, Canary Creams®, and a new item, Cursing Cushions®. All were registered trademarks of WWW. She bought one of the Snackboxes and a box of Canary Creams, then she decided to buy a Cursing Cushion as well; they had ones that you could charm to be any colour you liked.
Then Serena approached the counter. The other Weasley twin totalled up the price and said, "five Galleons please."
Serena shook her head expressively. "Actually it's four Galleons fifteen and twelve Knuts."
The twin shook his head in amazement. "Hey Fred, I think we have Ravenclaw material here!"
Serena curtseyed the compliment, making both laugh.
"Ok, four Galleons, fifteen Sickles, twelve Knuts then." Serena paid and left, swinging the WWW bag from her hand.
The last stop was at the Apothecary, Prunella's Potion Ingredients, which was the only one that Severus trusted. He selected the required amounts of ingredients carefully, to make sure that the potions were not tainted by any dirt. Then they flooed home.
