Author's Note: This is my first piece of Harry Potter fanfiction. I don't have a Beta, so please forgive any small spelling errors, I did run a spell check, but it may have missed some. I hope that I have taken an old idea and given it a new twist. You like? Please review. You didn't like? Be polite. (Or I'll feed you to my fish.)
When Harry Met Sela
They say opportunity knocks but once, but the house elf concerned with the main doors of Snape Manor knew better. Sometimes opportunity knocks several times, yells, and then pounds some more.
Firra had served the Snape family all her life, and could say without looking who it was that knocked. This time however, it was a foreign knock. She answered and was surprised to see a group of darkly dressed people standing there.
"May we come in?" a pleasant female voice asked. "It's a little chill out here."
Firra eyed them. She was suspicious.
"Who is it?" she asked buying some time to look the group over better. When you lived in times like these you could never be too certain. They wore long dark cloaks and most of them seemed to be very pale, with a shock, Firra realized they were vampires.
"We have something that belongs to your family." A deeper male voice asked. "We only wish to return it." He pushed a small child forward. She had dark hair and was clutching a toy cat. Firra was distressed, the child looked like she had been through a fire, and indeed, she smelled like smoke and her clothing was singed in places.
"Firra, who is it?" Giovanni asked as he stepped into the hall. He looked at the visitors and then at the child.
"Enter freely." he said. Firra glanced up at him, her over large ears waggling.
"Thank you." the male, obviously the leader of the group, said stepping inside and following Giovanni to another room. The others trailed behind with the child.
"We had a report of a deatheater attack on one of the clans, we were too late to stop them, but we did find this one. We're certain she's one of your family."
A tall witch with wild brown hair stepped out of another room.
"Amalia, could you take care of her?" Giovanni asked as soon as he saw her.
"Oh! You poor thing...come with me...are you hungry?" Amalia asked as she led the little girl back into the room she'd come from.
"What is her name?"
"Seladine. We know she's part of your family, but we only know her father is a teacher at Hogwarts..."
"Severus. That's his name."
Firra looked up at Giovanni, "Good sir, Master Severus won't be pleased at this..."
"It doesn't matter if he's pleased or not. It's his responsibility to take care of her." Giovanni scribbled a note on a piece of paper. "Firra, see that this gets to him ASAP."
Firra bobbed her head once and disappeared.
Giovanni sighed heavily. "What happened?"
The group gave him a brief explanation of what they thought had happened. The deatheaters had surprised the clan and rounded them all up. They had tortured several of the elders, then sentenced the rest to die painfully in a bonfire. All but Sela had been killed, yet somehow she had escaped the deatheater's notice.
"Perhaps, it was too much bother to hunt down one small child. Or perhaps she simply wasn't noticed." the leader said.
"I thank you for bringing her to us. She must be in shock from the attack. I'll need to check on her. Please, make yourselves at home."
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Severus Snape was sitting in a meeting before the start of the new term. It was but one of the things he hated about the beginning of term. Being there a week ahead of time was the other. He was near to dozing off after Binns began his second half hour of speech when the owl dropped onto the table in front of him. Binns continued droning on while several of the others looked at him.
McGonagall kicked Severus under the table. "What is it?" she whispered. Large tawny owls dropping in on meetings wasn't common. Usually whatever it was could wait. Severus shrugged slightly, taking the letter from the owl. He dropped it onto the table and stared at it.
Dumbledore looked down the table at him. "What seems to be the problem, Severus?"
"This is from my grandfather...it has the family seal on it." Severus seemed reluctant to open it. Writing appeared on the outside underneath the address.
'If you don't open this and read it, it may explode and cause severe injury. I suggest you open it. -G'
Severus picked it up. Madam Hooch gave a little laugh.
"He can't be serious...only thing I've ever seen explode have been those Howlers that students get."
"He's serious." Severus said as he scanned the letter. He sat there staring at it while Binns continued on, oblivious.
"Bad news? Good news? What?" Hooch said as Severus glared at her.
"Apparently, I have a daughter."
McGonagall choked on her water, spraying it across the table all over Professor Flitwick.
"Oh! I'm terribly sorry!" she sputtered as Flitwick used a drying charm on himself.
"Quite alright...just...don't let it happen again."
"Well, that's good news then isn't it? Didn't know you were married..."
"It isn't and I'm not." Severus snapped.
"Why ever would it not be good?" Poppy Pomfrey asked.
"Because not only do I have a daughter, my grandfather insists that she come here."
McGonagall managed to turn her head before she choked this time.
