Chapter 19
Family value?
For three days she lay unconscious in the ward. Just lying there sleeping an endless, dreamless, refreshing and completely calm sleep. Then she woke and looked around the room more properly this time. But the room was swimming badly before her eyes as she tried to focus on everything. Especially at the large mound in front of her. Her scar throbbed so it ended up taking ten minutes for the shadow to clear up and she smiled when it did.
She saw an array of presents and sweets at the end of her bed just for her. Soraya smiled broadly and didn't stop to think that she had so many admires. Her anger had completely left her and decided to make a start on the mound. She opened the chocolate frogs first and ate hungrily and thought they were very satisfying as she swallowed one after another.
Then stopped as someone cleared their throat very loudly so as to get her attention. She turned and saw a boy in the bed next to her. She couldn't make out who it was at first as her scar still hurt. But then her vision cleared up completely after another minute or two. The pain in her scar didn't relent but subsided enough for her to see this person clearly. She looked right at Harry who smiled back as he looked at his mound as well. He looked pale and worse for wares as bad a Soraya did.
But soon they were both tucking in to the wonderful sweets at the end of both their beds.
"Hey Harry. How are you feeling?"
"My head and scar are throbbing with pain but apart from that I can't complain. How about You?"
"Same. Have you been here since your duel with Voldermort?"
"Yes. I thought I was hallucinating that night...but did you...were you...hitting Snape with everything you had?"
"Ummm...no Harry you weren't hallucinating."
"Are you completely mad?"
Soraya explained all about the dream and what Snape did to make her hit him. Which in Harry's eyes made her seem 'one sandwich short of a picnic.' But secretly he really didn't blame her for what she did and would have congratulated her if Madam Pomfrey wasn't busy buzzing around them like a fly.
Then Madam Pomfrey turned up with potions so they both let out a long moan and looked at each other in grief. She gave them the potions and they ceased eating their sweets for about half an hour before tucking in again. To make their stay in the ward more bearable they betted sweets on who would be administered their next potion first. Harry won by three bets and Soraya had to hand over some Fizzing Whizzbies, chocolate frogs and a box of every flavour beans when he left the ward a couple of days later .
But she still had quite a few sweets left and so to did Harry. He was also excused for the first three days of the second week of exams. This was a major relief to Harry as he had Professor Trelawney the day before he came out of the ward. But then again not as happy as he had potions for his next exam.
"Don't worry about that Harry. Just look him right in the eyes...or at least one of his eyes. I heard I made the other one bruise and swell up pretty well. Oh yeah...and don't tell the others Harry I want to see the look on their faces when I do."
"Ok I promise...but I think this has already got out about Snape's bruised eye."
With that Harry left for Snape's exam and Soraya had to stay yet another day, for her scar was still bleeding. Then she woke up with a start in the middle of the night. She woke up to voices coming from outside the ward and tried to ignore them. But the longer she did the louder they became until she gave in and changed back in to her clothes. She sighed with no surprise at all that they were coming from the tower when she stopped outside the door. So like before she took out her wand and said the password tiredly.
"Entrayarmidae."
Just like before the door magically opened and she climbed the stairs. There was no dust this time and the element pictures were more visible. So her foot steps were heard clearly as they echoed off the walls and what she saw made her heart beat faster. Dumbledore was talking to the founders in a serious sort of way. They stopped talking almost instantly as she came through the trapdoor and stepped out in to the warm night.
"Here she is." Soraya looked extremely confused and taken back when the lion said this.
"What's going on headmaster?"
"Have you ever heard of the term animagnus?"
"Yes sir. It's a term used to describe certain witches or wizards who can take animal form."
"Exactly. Now tell me truthfully...what animal have you been dreaming of?" Soraya gave Dumbledore an odd look as though he was trying to tell her something. But what it was she didn't know. The only thing she did know was that the only creatures she had been dreaming about was a proud and mighty gryphon.
"A gryphon sir."
"Now I want you to concentrate on that animal and then will yourself to take the shape of one."
"I'll try sir."
So Soraya closed her eyes and thought of what it would be like to fly like one.
It took a few minutes before she started to feel her body change.
"Right...now open your eyes and see what you have become." Soraya slowly opened her eyes and looked around to see her sight was different and she felt different. Soraya looked around at the smiling headmaster and the statues. She couldn't tell weather they were smiling or not as they were statues. But she could feel some joy coming form them. Soraya saw the ring was still glowing and reflected everything perfectly. So she looked in to the ring and saw a fierce looking gryphon leering right back at her.
Soraya spread her mighty wings and launched herself in to the air with one graceful, powerful flap of her wings. She thought she must be at least seven feet or so over the tower and hovered for a few seconds before slowly coming down and landing with the utmost grace. She trotted over to Dumbledore and stood in front of him waiting for instructions of how to change back.
"Well done young Griffindor...now imagine yourself turning back in to a human once again."
She did so and felt her body change back in a matter of seconds. Dumbledore smiled proudly and looked at her with his eyes twinkling madly. The silence was broken a few minutes later when Soraya spoke.
"That was too weird for words sir."
"Take courage Soraya. I promise it will get better and easier to manage the more you use it. Well that is what Minerva told me anyway."
"Yes, well done Soraya."
"I am strongly disappointed in you Godric. I thought you would have had more sense than to summon a sick child."
"I know Dumbledore and I deeply apologise. But at least we got to find out what form she could take in an emergency. There is also not doubt in my mind to where she was destined to be and now by the looks of the others they agree that she belongs in Griffindor."
"See Salazar her animagnus form cannot be argued about to where she truly belongs."
"Shut up Rowena!"
"Soraya go back to the ward and I shall see you tomorrow."
"Yes Headmaster."
Soraya went back to the ward tired but happy and Peeves said hello to her without being nasty at all. This was a real shock to Soraya as she turned round to see him flying silently away.
She woke the next day and felt sick as Madam Pomfrey came towards her. But quickly became overjoyed that she had no potion bottle in her hand.
"Your scar isn't bleeding enough to require any."
"Yes!"
"But you still have to stay in another day." Soraya's high spirit's left her as she heard this. But was having none of it and decided to leave when Madam Pomfrey returned to her office.
Soraya changed and left a note as soon as she had the chance and ran out the door with a happy heart. Soraya reached the grounds and felt so alive to be out of the old and stuffy ward. She was now in fresh air, trees and space. But what made her happiest of all was there were no people to stare at her. She had all the privacy she could ever require as exams were still going on.
It was Thursday today and Soraya enjoyed every moment of freedom on that day. She ran around with a joyful heart breathing in the fresh air as she went. Soraya saw the oak tree by the lake when she stopped running and couldn't run any more. Feeling tired and confident that Snape wasn't around because of the exams she sat on one of the big tree roots sticking out of the ground and stared at the perfect blue of the lake. She had two whole days to herself in the grounds without anyone to tell her where to go or what to do. She had no idea to what she was feeling but then answered her own question in an instant. 'Freedom...what a great feeling this is.' Soraya sighed and took in all of Hogwart's colours and smells of the summer time. The day was cool and sunny with a perfectly cloudless sky.
Then she heard a loud snore when she started to hum her tune again. It was so loud it made her jump and stopped humming instantly. She realised it came from the other side of the tree and curiosity took her over. So slowly and silently she crept around the tree to see who it was. Soraya's heart sank as she saw Snape snoring with a black book on his lap and was just about to leave until she saw that it was a photo album he had on his lap. It was open at a page with a big picture of two boys. They were both wearing robes from Hogwarts and looked completely different from one another. The moving picture showed the youngest of the boys smiling and waving at her whilst the other one looked slightly older and stood sulkily next to him looking particularly mean and nasty. Soraya looked curiously at the picture and read what was under the photo with intense interest. The words were written in acid green ink with a silver frame going around the picture. It looked as though it was drawn with the most skilled of hands. 'Damien Snape aged fourteen, Serverus Snape aged fifteen.'
Then suddenly Snape snorted loudly and his head moved to one side. Soraya froze until he fell asleep again and breathed a sigh of relief. She looked closely at the boy in the photo and then back to her potions master. She smiled evilly as she made a comparison to present Snape and past Snape. 'So you were always a miserable git Snape? Funny I thought all boys and girls were at least a little bit happy in their childhood.'
She looked back at the smiling photo and he winked at her as he waved. Whilst the young Snape just folded his arms and left the picture with a grumpy look on his face. Damien didn't careless and just kept smiling and waving out of the picture. So this was her father at Hogwarts? So young and full of life compared to what he looked like in her dream. Soraya smiled as he winked at her again and she smiled back.
She ached to take the photo album and stared helpless to do anything about it. All hope abandoned her of ever getting to see it and learn of what her family looked like. 'Yeah right as if Snape would ever let me have that.'
So with a look of deep disappointment Soraya got up and left quietly without waking the sleeping potions master. She walked around the grounds and stopped when Hagrid called her over to his house. He could see she was looking sad and needed cheering up and so volunteered to do so. All Soraya wanted was to be left alone at that moment but came over to see what Hagrid wanted anyway. He invited her in to his house and Soraya came in without so much as a word of indignation. She started to feel better when Hagrid told her about the sixth year's examination.
The photo album was still fresh in her mind but said nothing about it to Hagrid. He gave her some tea and soon she felt much better. She politely declined when he offered her some of his home made cakes. She took her friends warning seriously about Hagrid's cooking and said she wasn't hungry. Soraya had to hold down a ball of laughter when he gave her a step by step description about what happened in the examination.
"Really I can' explain it. After sufferin from a gash like tha' you would think the spoiled little brat would be less scared of a Hippogriff. Mind you the Malfoys are bunch o cowards if you ask me." Soraya couldn't hold back the laughter anymore. She thought it was wonderful that Hagrid hated the Malfoys and wasn't afraid to show it. Through the rest of the morning she was happy and free when she left Hagrid's house.
But something still pained her in the back of her mind as she skimmed stones on the lake. Now that she had seen what her father looked like she wanted to know more about her parents. This thirst was never going to be quenched until she got some answers. 'Let's see...I could ask Dumbledore about some things as Hagrid has told me all that he can about them. Asking Snape is out of the question as I'd rather not go near him right now, I- just-can't...'
Then it hit her when she thought about reading the books she had back in her dorms. It was so obvious she felt like kicking herself. Soraya ran to the castle before break time and went to the library. Madam Pince looked at Soraya when she came in to the library breathing hard as she had been running. But then Soraya clamed down and went over to the section of the library that contained all the schools records.
There were two copies of each book in this section. One for the teachers who kept them safely locked away as there were some things in those books that might embarrass the school. Fred and George tried on many an occasion to have a look at them. But failed and suffered with bad detentions for their curiosity. So the ones in the library were open to the students to see what Hogwarts had achieved over the centuries. These were generally used for History of magic assignments if they were to do with a piece of Homework about Hogwart's past.
But usually they were just left on the shelves and didn't look as old and as battered as the other books. They were handled very rarely these days. Madam Pince observed her going to the section of the schools records for a moment and then wrote something on some parchment. Soraya ran her finger down the spines of what seemed to be a hundred books. Before coming to the years she wanted of when her parents started coming to Hogwarts.
She carried seven books back to a table with the years 1975-82. She looked on the first year of her parents coming to Hogwarts but found nothing very useful. They gave a brief description of her parents and what houses they went to and what they did over the year. But nothing to tell Soraya what they liked and their strengths in areas of magic.
She had been in the library for over three hours looking at one book and then the next. But nothing told her of what she ached to know about her parents. 'That type of thing must be in the other copies. What's the use of finding out information with books if they can't even give you what you want to know?' Another hour passed and the bell chimed for lunch but still Soraya didn't give up.
There was a particularly annoying moment when Madam Pince came over but Soraya managed to keep a civil tongue.
"Do you need any help?"
"I don't suppose I can take these out can I?"
"No, these are reference only I'm afraid."
"I only got three books left so I'll be done in a couple of hours." So with that Madam Pince let Soraya get back to searching for her answers.
Her couple of hours were up when dinner was over. Madam Pince came over to tell her that the library was closing. Soraya rocked back on her chair and rubbed her eyes tiredly. She hadn't found out what she wanted to know and there was only one book left for tomorrow. She picked up the books and put them back the way she found them. She hesitated a bit before putting back the last book and whispered to herself.
"Come on mum and dad. Where are you?" Soraya heard someone shuffle a book behind her but saw no one when she turned round. Soraya eventually left the library with a heavy heart hoping that the last book may hold what she wanted.
Unfortunately she ran in to Madam Pomfrey on the way back to the ward for her bandage to be changed. Madam Pomfrey was beside herself and dragged Soraya back to her bed by her wrist. Soraya saw Dumbledore grinning at her like a school boy as he held up the note and read aloud. " I excuse myself on account of being really bored and needing fresh air in my lungs.
You know I think this is something Fred and George would have written if they were still here." Soraya couldn't help but smile as Madam Pomfrey changed her bandage and then stormed back in to her office.
"I don't think I am her favourite patient anymore sir."
Dumbledore's eyes twinkled and they just talked for a while about nothing in particular.
Soraya loved talking to Dumbledore as they played wizard's chess and ate the last of Soraya's sweets together. He left the every flavour beans to Soraya who nibbled the odd looking ones very carefully and chucked them in to the bin if they weren't any good. The next day she was free to go and ran to the library to look at her last hope before the end of exams.
But she let out a small cry of dismay as someone had taken it and a smaller black book was in its place. There was a note attached to the book with her name written upon it in purple ink. So Soraya checked to see that no one else was around. Then carefully took the book to a secluded spot in the library away from prying eyes. She carefully opened the note and it read.
'I have had this photo album from the moment I was born. Some of these pictures I took from your parent's house when they died. Since you have a photographic memory, I would like this to be returned to where you found it within the next couple of hours. So leave it where you found it!'
So she opened the book with trembling hands and made sure no one was near her.
The first page made her laugh so loud that Madam Pince told her off for being too noisy. There were two pictures on the first page which had one of her father and the other of Snape as a baby. Even back then Snape's nose was quite big and they both had a mop of black hair on their heads. The further along the book she went the older they became. She noticed Snape started to look angry at the age of five and her father looked very happy indeed.
Then there was a picture of her mother the same age as Soraya. Soraya held back a gasp when she saw her mother was dancing on the ice with Snape. Soraya was stunned to see that Snape actually looked close to being happy that time. Her mother didn't really seem to care who she was dancing with and looked very happy. Soraya stared long and hard at her mother as she went to rest on the ground in the picture. Her skin was fare and her wavy brown hair fluttered in the wind. Snape was on the ground next to her almost grinning and looked at Rachel with a fondness in his eyes. Soraya felt sick and turned the page quickly.
The next one was a magnificent photo of her mother. The camera must have only been a foot or two away from her and caught her face perfectly. Photographic memory Soraya may have but she still liked to look at the picture. She hovered over the picture longer than any other in the album.
There was a picture of her dad playing quidditch for Griffindor and he whizzed by only stopping to wave. He was guarding the hoops against Slytherin meaning he must have been a keeper for Griffindor.
The next picture took Soraya completely of Guard and gasped when she saw it. Beneath the picture it read 'self sacrifice.' The picture was of her father with a bruised and slightly battered face, but it wasn't enough to kill his cheeky smile in the photo. She stared at it and wondered if this was what Hagrid had told her about under the oak tree. Then she saw a young Snape appear in the picture and nearly died of shock. He looked unemotional and placid when he came in. But then he gave her father a hug and smiled at her. He waved and his face just seemed to light up when it was usually so cold. Soraya didn't think smiling looked right on Snape's face and turned the page without looking back.
Then a she saw a picture of her parent's wedding and noticed how happy everyone looked. Soraya saw Hagrid, Lei, Luna and even Dumbledore was there. Soraya saw no sign of Snape at all no matter how hard she looked. But she did see a shadowy figure in the distance on a hill quite far from the church under some trees. She also saw that the names had been changed from Snape to Griffis on the same day her parents got married. Then before Soraya knew it she was at the last page and sighed deeply. The last picture was of her as a baby and was being held by her parents outside the great doors of Hogwarts. She was disgusted to see she was dressed in a pink dress but smiled when her parents cuddled her.
She closed the book with her mind happily filled a little more with what she had been looking for. Then she had a very weird idea. She magically erased the note and replaced her name with Snape's before writing down a little message of her own. 'Thank you.'
Then she had an even weirder idea and decided to write something else down, 'thank you uncle'. She left the library grinning broadly just in time to hear Snape roar.
"WHAT?!?!"
Soraya didn't stop smiling until she reached the Griffindor common room and then relaxed by the fire until her friends came in. They looked relieved that the last day of exams had ended and people started to set off filibuster fireworks all night. Soraya smiled and swore to herself she never would tell them about the photo album.
--- Family with Snape...uncle Snape? Hmmm...
Family value?
For three days she lay unconscious in the ward. Just lying there sleeping an endless, dreamless, refreshing and completely calm sleep. Then she woke and looked around the room more properly this time. But the room was swimming badly before her eyes as she tried to focus on everything. Especially at the large mound in front of her. Her scar throbbed so it ended up taking ten minutes for the shadow to clear up and she smiled when it did.
She saw an array of presents and sweets at the end of her bed just for her. Soraya smiled broadly and didn't stop to think that she had so many admires. Her anger had completely left her and decided to make a start on the mound. She opened the chocolate frogs first and ate hungrily and thought they were very satisfying as she swallowed one after another.
Then stopped as someone cleared their throat very loudly so as to get her attention. She turned and saw a boy in the bed next to her. She couldn't make out who it was at first as her scar still hurt. But then her vision cleared up completely after another minute or two. The pain in her scar didn't relent but subsided enough for her to see this person clearly. She looked right at Harry who smiled back as he looked at his mound as well. He looked pale and worse for wares as bad a Soraya did.
But soon they were both tucking in to the wonderful sweets at the end of both their beds.
"Hey Harry. How are you feeling?"
"My head and scar are throbbing with pain but apart from that I can't complain. How about You?"
"Same. Have you been here since your duel with Voldermort?"
"Yes. I thought I was hallucinating that night...but did you...were you...hitting Snape with everything you had?"
"Ummm...no Harry you weren't hallucinating."
"Are you completely mad?"
Soraya explained all about the dream and what Snape did to make her hit him. Which in Harry's eyes made her seem 'one sandwich short of a picnic.' But secretly he really didn't blame her for what she did and would have congratulated her if Madam Pomfrey wasn't busy buzzing around them like a fly.
Then Madam Pomfrey turned up with potions so they both let out a long moan and looked at each other in grief. She gave them the potions and they ceased eating their sweets for about half an hour before tucking in again. To make their stay in the ward more bearable they betted sweets on who would be administered their next potion first. Harry won by three bets and Soraya had to hand over some Fizzing Whizzbies, chocolate frogs and a box of every flavour beans when he left the ward a couple of days later .
But she still had quite a few sweets left and so to did Harry. He was also excused for the first three days of the second week of exams. This was a major relief to Harry as he had Professor Trelawney the day before he came out of the ward. But then again not as happy as he had potions for his next exam.
"Don't worry about that Harry. Just look him right in the eyes...or at least one of his eyes. I heard I made the other one bruise and swell up pretty well. Oh yeah...and don't tell the others Harry I want to see the look on their faces when I do."
"Ok I promise...but I think this has already got out about Snape's bruised eye."
With that Harry left for Snape's exam and Soraya had to stay yet another day, for her scar was still bleeding. Then she woke up with a start in the middle of the night. She woke up to voices coming from outside the ward and tried to ignore them. But the longer she did the louder they became until she gave in and changed back in to her clothes. She sighed with no surprise at all that they were coming from the tower when she stopped outside the door. So like before she took out her wand and said the password tiredly.
"Entrayarmidae."
Just like before the door magically opened and she climbed the stairs. There was no dust this time and the element pictures were more visible. So her foot steps were heard clearly as they echoed off the walls and what she saw made her heart beat faster. Dumbledore was talking to the founders in a serious sort of way. They stopped talking almost instantly as she came through the trapdoor and stepped out in to the warm night.
"Here she is." Soraya looked extremely confused and taken back when the lion said this.
"What's going on headmaster?"
"Have you ever heard of the term animagnus?"
"Yes sir. It's a term used to describe certain witches or wizards who can take animal form."
"Exactly. Now tell me truthfully...what animal have you been dreaming of?" Soraya gave Dumbledore an odd look as though he was trying to tell her something. But what it was she didn't know. The only thing she did know was that the only creatures she had been dreaming about was a proud and mighty gryphon.
"A gryphon sir."
"Now I want you to concentrate on that animal and then will yourself to take the shape of one."
"I'll try sir."
So Soraya closed her eyes and thought of what it would be like to fly like one.
It took a few minutes before she started to feel her body change.
"Right...now open your eyes and see what you have become." Soraya slowly opened her eyes and looked around to see her sight was different and she felt different. Soraya looked around at the smiling headmaster and the statues. She couldn't tell weather they were smiling or not as they were statues. But she could feel some joy coming form them. Soraya saw the ring was still glowing and reflected everything perfectly. So she looked in to the ring and saw a fierce looking gryphon leering right back at her.
Soraya spread her mighty wings and launched herself in to the air with one graceful, powerful flap of her wings. She thought she must be at least seven feet or so over the tower and hovered for a few seconds before slowly coming down and landing with the utmost grace. She trotted over to Dumbledore and stood in front of him waiting for instructions of how to change back.
"Well done young Griffindor...now imagine yourself turning back in to a human once again."
She did so and felt her body change back in a matter of seconds. Dumbledore smiled proudly and looked at her with his eyes twinkling madly. The silence was broken a few minutes later when Soraya spoke.
"That was too weird for words sir."
"Take courage Soraya. I promise it will get better and easier to manage the more you use it. Well that is what Minerva told me anyway."
"Yes, well done Soraya."
"I am strongly disappointed in you Godric. I thought you would have had more sense than to summon a sick child."
"I know Dumbledore and I deeply apologise. But at least we got to find out what form she could take in an emergency. There is also not doubt in my mind to where she was destined to be and now by the looks of the others they agree that she belongs in Griffindor."
"See Salazar her animagnus form cannot be argued about to where she truly belongs."
"Shut up Rowena!"
"Soraya go back to the ward and I shall see you tomorrow."
"Yes Headmaster."
Soraya went back to the ward tired but happy and Peeves said hello to her without being nasty at all. This was a real shock to Soraya as she turned round to see him flying silently away.
She woke the next day and felt sick as Madam Pomfrey came towards her. But quickly became overjoyed that she had no potion bottle in her hand.
"Your scar isn't bleeding enough to require any."
"Yes!"
"But you still have to stay in another day." Soraya's high spirit's left her as she heard this. But was having none of it and decided to leave when Madam Pomfrey returned to her office.
Soraya changed and left a note as soon as she had the chance and ran out the door with a happy heart. Soraya reached the grounds and felt so alive to be out of the old and stuffy ward. She was now in fresh air, trees and space. But what made her happiest of all was there were no people to stare at her. She had all the privacy she could ever require as exams were still going on.
It was Thursday today and Soraya enjoyed every moment of freedom on that day. She ran around with a joyful heart breathing in the fresh air as she went. Soraya saw the oak tree by the lake when she stopped running and couldn't run any more. Feeling tired and confident that Snape wasn't around because of the exams she sat on one of the big tree roots sticking out of the ground and stared at the perfect blue of the lake. She had two whole days to herself in the grounds without anyone to tell her where to go or what to do. She had no idea to what she was feeling but then answered her own question in an instant. 'Freedom...what a great feeling this is.' Soraya sighed and took in all of Hogwart's colours and smells of the summer time. The day was cool and sunny with a perfectly cloudless sky.
Then she heard a loud snore when she started to hum her tune again. It was so loud it made her jump and stopped humming instantly. She realised it came from the other side of the tree and curiosity took her over. So slowly and silently she crept around the tree to see who it was. Soraya's heart sank as she saw Snape snoring with a black book on his lap and was just about to leave until she saw that it was a photo album he had on his lap. It was open at a page with a big picture of two boys. They were both wearing robes from Hogwarts and looked completely different from one another. The moving picture showed the youngest of the boys smiling and waving at her whilst the other one looked slightly older and stood sulkily next to him looking particularly mean and nasty. Soraya looked curiously at the picture and read what was under the photo with intense interest. The words were written in acid green ink with a silver frame going around the picture. It looked as though it was drawn with the most skilled of hands. 'Damien Snape aged fourteen, Serverus Snape aged fifteen.'
Then suddenly Snape snorted loudly and his head moved to one side. Soraya froze until he fell asleep again and breathed a sigh of relief. She looked closely at the boy in the photo and then back to her potions master. She smiled evilly as she made a comparison to present Snape and past Snape. 'So you were always a miserable git Snape? Funny I thought all boys and girls were at least a little bit happy in their childhood.'
She looked back at the smiling photo and he winked at her as he waved. Whilst the young Snape just folded his arms and left the picture with a grumpy look on his face. Damien didn't careless and just kept smiling and waving out of the picture. So this was her father at Hogwarts? So young and full of life compared to what he looked like in her dream. Soraya smiled as he winked at her again and she smiled back.
She ached to take the photo album and stared helpless to do anything about it. All hope abandoned her of ever getting to see it and learn of what her family looked like. 'Yeah right as if Snape would ever let me have that.'
So with a look of deep disappointment Soraya got up and left quietly without waking the sleeping potions master. She walked around the grounds and stopped when Hagrid called her over to his house. He could see she was looking sad and needed cheering up and so volunteered to do so. All Soraya wanted was to be left alone at that moment but came over to see what Hagrid wanted anyway. He invited her in to his house and Soraya came in without so much as a word of indignation. She started to feel better when Hagrid told her about the sixth year's examination.
The photo album was still fresh in her mind but said nothing about it to Hagrid. He gave her some tea and soon she felt much better. She politely declined when he offered her some of his home made cakes. She took her friends warning seriously about Hagrid's cooking and said she wasn't hungry. Soraya had to hold down a ball of laughter when he gave her a step by step description about what happened in the examination.
"Really I can' explain it. After sufferin from a gash like tha' you would think the spoiled little brat would be less scared of a Hippogriff. Mind you the Malfoys are bunch o cowards if you ask me." Soraya couldn't hold back the laughter anymore. She thought it was wonderful that Hagrid hated the Malfoys and wasn't afraid to show it. Through the rest of the morning she was happy and free when she left Hagrid's house.
But something still pained her in the back of her mind as she skimmed stones on the lake. Now that she had seen what her father looked like she wanted to know more about her parents. This thirst was never going to be quenched until she got some answers. 'Let's see...I could ask Dumbledore about some things as Hagrid has told me all that he can about them. Asking Snape is out of the question as I'd rather not go near him right now, I- just-can't...'
Then it hit her when she thought about reading the books she had back in her dorms. It was so obvious she felt like kicking herself. Soraya ran to the castle before break time and went to the library. Madam Pince looked at Soraya when she came in to the library breathing hard as she had been running. But then Soraya clamed down and went over to the section of the library that contained all the schools records.
There were two copies of each book in this section. One for the teachers who kept them safely locked away as there were some things in those books that might embarrass the school. Fred and George tried on many an occasion to have a look at them. But failed and suffered with bad detentions for their curiosity. So the ones in the library were open to the students to see what Hogwarts had achieved over the centuries. These were generally used for History of magic assignments if they were to do with a piece of Homework about Hogwart's past.
But usually they were just left on the shelves and didn't look as old and as battered as the other books. They were handled very rarely these days. Madam Pince observed her going to the section of the schools records for a moment and then wrote something on some parchment. Soraya ran her finger down the spines of what seemed to be a hundred books. Before coming to the years she wanted of when her parents started coming to Hogwarts.
She carried seven books back to a table with the years 1975-82. She looked on the first year of her parents coming to Hogwarts but found nothing very useful. They gave a brief description of her parents and what houses they went to and what they did over the year. But nothing to tell Soraya what they liked and their strengths in areas of magic.
She had been in the library for over three hours looking at one book and then the next. But nothing told her of what she ached to know about her parents. 'That type of thing must be in the other copies. What's the use of finding out information with books if they can't even give you what you want to know?' Another hour passed and the bell chimed for lunch but still Soraya didn't give up.
There was a particularly annoying moment when Madam Pince came over but Soraya managed to keep a civil tongue.
"Do you need any help?"
"I don't suppose I can take these out can I?"
"No, these are reference only I'm afraid."
"I only got three books left so I'll be done in a couple of hours." So with that Madam Pince let Soraya get back to searching for her answers.
Her couple of hours were up when dinner was over. Madam Pince came over to tell her that the library was closing. Soraya rocked back on her chair and rubbed her eyes tiredly. She hadn't found out what she wanted to know and there was only one book left for tomorrow. She picked up the books and put them back the way she found them. She hesitated a bit before putting back the last book and whispered to herself.
"Come on mum and dad. Where are you?" Soraya heard someone shuffle a book behind her but saw no one when she turned round. Soraya eventually left the library with a heavy heart hoping that the last book may hold what she wanted.
Unfortunately she ran in to Madam Pomfrey on the way back to the ward for her bandage to be changed. Madam Pomfrey was beside herself and dragged Soraya back to her bed by her wrist. Soraya saw Dumbledore grinning at her like a school boy as he held up the note and read aloud. " I excuse myself on account of being really bored and needing fresh air in my lungs.
You know I think this is something Fred and George would have written if they were still here." Soraya couldn't help but smile as Madam Pomfrey changed her bandage and then stormed back in to her office.
"I don't think I am her favourite patient anymore sir."
Dumbledore's eyes twinkled and they just talked for a while about nothing in particular.
Soraya loved talking to Dumbledore as they played wizard's chess and ate the last of Soraya's sweets together. He left the every flavour beans to Soraya who nibbled the odd looking ones very carefully and chucked them in to the bin if they weren't any good. The next day she was free to go and ran to the library to look at her last hope before the end of exams.
But she let out a small cry of dismay as someone had taken it and a smaller black book was in its place. There was a note attached to the book with her name written upon it in purple ink. So Soraya checked to see that no one else was around. Then carefully took the book to a secluded spot in the library away from prying eyes. She carefully opened the note and it read.
'I have had this photo album from the moment I was born. Some of these pictures I took from your parent's house when they died. Since you have a photographic memory, I would like this to be returned to where you found it within the next couple of hours. So leave it where you found it!'
So she opened the book with trembling hands and made sure no one was near her.
The first page made her laugh so loud that Madam Pince told her off for being too noisy. There were two pictures on the first page which had one of her father and the other of Snape as a baby. Even back then Snape's nose was quite big and they both had a mop of black hair on their heads. The further along the book she went the older they became. She noticed Snape started to look angry at the age of five and her father looked very happy indeed.
Then there was a picture of her mother the same age as Soraya. Soraya held back a gasp when she saw her mother was dancing on the ice with Snape. Soraya was stunned to see that Snape actually looked close to being happy that time. Her mother didn't really seem to care who she was dancing with and looked very happy. Soraya stared long and hard at her mother as she went to rest on the ground in the picture. Her skin was fare and her wavy brown hair fluttered in the wind. Snape was on the ground next to her almost grinning and looked at Rachel with a fondness in his eyes. Soraya felt sick and turned the page quickly.
The next one was a magnificent photo of her mother. The camera must have only been a foot or two away from her and caught her face perfectly. Photographic memory Soraya may have but she still liked to look at the picture. She hovered over the picture longer than any other in the album.
There was a picture of her dad playing quidditch for Griffindor and he whizzed by only stopping to wave. He was guarding the hoops against Slytherin meaning he must have been a keeper for Griffindor.
The next picture took Soraya completely of Guard and gasped when she saw it. Beneath the picture it read 'self sacrifice.' The picture was of her father with a bruised and slightly battered face, but it wasn't enough to kill his cheeky smile in the photo. She stared at it and wondered if this was what Hagrid had told her about under the oak tree. Then she saw a young Snape appear in the picture and nearly died of shock. He looked unemotional and placid when he came in. But then he gave her father a hug and smiled at her. He waved and his face just seemed to light up when it was usually so cold. Soraya didn't think smiling looked right on Snape's face and turned the page without looking back.
Then a she saw a picture of her parent's wedding and noticed how happy everyone looked. Soraya saw Hagrid, Lei, Luna and even Dumbledore was there. Soraya saw no sign of Snape at all no matter how hard she looked. But she did see a shadowy figure in the distance on a hill quite far from the church under some trees. She also saw that the names had been changed from Snape to Griffis on the same day her parents got married. Then before Soraya knew it she was at the last page and sighed deeply. The last picture was of her as a baby and was being held by her parents outside the great doors of Hogwarts. She was disgusted to see she was dressed in a pink dress but smiled when her parents cuddled her.
She closed the book with her mind happily filled a little more with what she had been looking for. Then she had a very weird idea. She magically erased the note and replaced her name with Snape's before writing down a little message of her own. 'Thank you.'
Then she had an even weirder idea and decided to write something else down, 'thank you uncle'. She left the library grinning broadly just in time to hear Snape roar.
"WHAT?!?!"
Soraya didn't stop smiling until she reached the Griffindor common room and then relaxed by the fire until her friends came in. They looked relieved that the last day of exams had ended and people started to set off filibuster fireworks all night. Soraya smiled and swore to herself she never would tell them about the photo album.
--- Family with Snape...uncle Snape? Hmmm...
