Disclaimer: J. K. Rowling owns Harry Potter along with Scholastic and whoever else. I only own my characters so DON'T SUE!!!
Six Feet and Fallingby Saerry Snape
Chapter 15 :: November 25, 1995 :: Hogwarts – Night
"Harry."
Harry looked up at Sheyne as she ran up to him later at diner, her cheeks flushed as though she had been running.
"Is something wrong?"
Sheyne looked at Ron and Hermione then back at Harry.
"I have to talk to you," she said.
As Ron and Hermione began to rise with Harry, Sheyne shook her head and said, "Alone."
Harry frowned at her then shrugged at the other two and followed her out of the Hall.
"What was that about?" asked Ron, watching them as they went.
Hermione frowned and replied, "I don't know, Ron. But…I don't think it was good."
* * *
"What is it, Shey?"
Sheyne struggled for words as Harry leaned casually against the wall, unknowing he was imitating a position Sheyne had seen her father fall into several times over the summer.
"Uh…" she managed to get out before cursing vehemently. "I don't know how to say this!"
Harry's brows furrowed and he said softly, "Say what? Sheyne, what's going on?"
"Oh, hell, Harry," grumbled Sheyne, closing her eyes and leaning against the wall. Harry, a worried expression on his face, reached out to touch her shoulder. As soon as his hand settled, the same shock they'd felt the first night they'd met went through them.
But that wasn't all that happened.
The two of them suddenly found themselves standing in the corridor outside the Great Hall, only it was earlier.
And they were invisible.
"Are we dead?" questioned Sheyne.
"I – I don't think so," replied Harry, looking around. He then saw himself, Ron, and Hermione coming down the corridor. And then he spotted Sheyne and Stephen crouching behind a statue. There was a shimmery sort of resistance over them, like…
An Illusion, thought Harry.
Sheyne gasped, seeing it too.
Harry whirled upon his, his face a mask of fury. He grabbed her shoulders and shook her, snarling, "What the hell were you and Stephen doing hiding under an illusion charm?"
Sheyne cried out against his tight grip, barely noticing that he resembled Snape even more now.
"Harry, your hurting me!"
"Tell me why!"
"Because Stephen thought you were Professor Snape's son!"
Harry released her, taking a step back.
"What?" he spat.
"Ste…Ste thought," gasped Sheyne, "he thought you were Snape's son. I don't know how…but Harry…Harry, it's true. You are! You're my half-brother!"
Harry took a few more steps back, eyes wide and full of fear. He blew out air through his nose and hissed, "It can't be true. It can't!"
"Harry. Harry, look!"
The two of them turned and saw the light blue motes from Sheyne's wand settle on the Harry from earlier and he stopped, lifting his hand to his forehead. As they watched, two shadowy figures appeared behind him, Ron, and Hermione. One was a woman of average height, her eyes Harry's brilliant emerald green but without the odd light that seemed to permeate his, her hair a red as deep as blood. The other was a figure familiar to both of them; the shoulder-length hair black, the eyes burning obsidian.
Then suddenly they were back but instead of standing, they were on the floor. Harry's hand slid from Sheyne's shoulder and the girl looked up into his face. The fury she saw there was enough to make her pull back away from him.
"Harry…" she whispered, reaching out to him.
He jerked back, eyes narrowed as he spat, "Don't touch me."
"Harry," begged Sheyne. "Harry, please…don't…"
"HE'S NOT MY FATHER!"
Harry rose angrily to his feet and stalked off, unknowing that his robes billowed out behind him in a style almost matching the Potion Master's own. Sheyne watched him go then leaned over until her forehead touched her bent knees and wept.
* * *
It was Severus who found his daughter, still crying in the corridor. He knelt beside her, face drawn and worried.
"Sheyne? Sheyne, child, are you alright?"
More sobs rocked Sheyne's body and Severus ran a soothing hand up and down her back. They sat like this for a long while until Sheyne finally looked up at her father, her face streaked with tears. Severus slid down to the floor beside her and made her shift around until her head was leaning against his shoulder. She sniffled and buried her hands in his robes, curling up against him as her mind raced. How could she tell him now that she'd told Harry?
"Do you want to talk about it now?" asked Severus, peering curiously down at his daughter.
"Papa," said Sheyne softly.
"Yes, child."
"Were you ever…ever with Lily Potter?"
Severus blinked at the question and stared down at Sheyne.
"How… What brought on that question?"
"Just answer me," replied Sheyne, turned her head so she didn't look into her father's eyes.
Severus coughed politely and said, "Ah – perhaps we should continue this in my rooms."
"Okay."
Severus, looking very nervous, pulled himself and his daughter to their feet. The two of them began to walk down the corridor, arms locked around each other.
* * *
As soon as Sheyne was settled in a comfortable chair by the fire in Severus' private rooms, she asked, "Now will you tell me?"
Severus nodded and began to pace back and forth. He had taken off his robes and was simply dressed in the clothes he wore underneath them, his hands locked behind his back. If anything, he looked…nervous. And that was something Sheyne had never seen her father look. Scared, yes…but nervous?
"I almost can't believe I'm telling you this," muttered Severus.
"Please, Papa."
Severus looked once at his daughter then sighed, nodding slightly.
"Yes, yes. Alright. And to answer your question: yes, I was with Lily Potter. Once."
Sheyne gasped slightly. Oh, holy saints and demons…
"Did – did Mum know?"
"Your mother? No. I never told anyone. It was a mission, child. Voldemort – I served him as a Death Eater, you recall – had sent me there. Apparently James Potter had some information He had wanted."
Sheyne nodded. Of the many things she had been told of over the summer, her father's double "loyalties" during the Dark Years had been one of them. She was one of the many who knew his only reason for becoming a Death Eater was his father forcing him (under threat to kill his new wife) and because it would give them – those who followed Dumbledore – an insight on Death Eater attacks.
"Yes, well… Dammit, hold on."
Sheyne watched as her father stalked across the room to a cabinet and pull out a long-necked bottle and a whiskey glass. The only time he drank was when he was nervous. Sheyne immediately thought, What on earth? Does – does he know that Harry's his SON?
Severus poured a glass and knocked it back, pouring another before replacing the bottle and walking back over to the fire. He began to pace again, the glass held loosely in his right hand.
"Where was I? Yes, yes. He picked me to go on the mission. It was on October 31st, early in the morning, when I went. And had I known the damnable consequences of that mission, I never would have went." He spoke bitterly, taking a pull at the amber liquid in the glass before continuing.
"Potter had gone on a mission three days before. Of course, he'd taken what'd Voldemort had wanted with him. By the time I realized this, a very drunk Lily had realized I was there and insisting I come with her. She thought I was Potter because I'd taken Polyjuice Potion." Severus shook his head at the memory and continued, "I never should have. I never, ever should have done it. I should have gotten out of that house the moment she'd appeared. But I didn't. I don't think I've ever known why."
Sheyne gaped at him for a moment as he downed the last of the amber liquid then gasped, "Papa…Papa, is…is…"
Severus looked mournfully as his empty glass then at Sheyne. His obsidian eyes – which normally hid the emotions he felt – were a wide as windows. As they say, eyes are the windows to the soul. And his soul at the moment was full of grief.
"Is Potter my son? Is that what your asking?"
Sheyne nodded numbly, already knowing the answer but wanting to hear it from her father.
"Yes. Gods, yes. He was conceived that very morning and you that night. Oh, ye gods, if Rowena knew! But Harry…Harry must never know."
Sheyne immediately burst into tears and Severus looked at her in shock. He quickly sat the glass down and knelt beside her chair, clasping her hands in his.
"Child, what's wrong? Why are you crying? Why were you crying in the corridor?"
Sheyne threw her arms about her father's neck and sobbed into his shoulder.
"I – I'm sorry, Papa! I couldn't help it! Ste, thought…he thought about it and made me promise to look! And I…I… I'm sorry, Papa!"
Severus, looking very confused, hugged his daughter's thin body to him. He blew her short hair away from his face and asked softly, "Shey, child – what are you talking about?"
"He knows! He – we – saw it! I cast the spell and then we went back and he saw it and I'm sorry, Papa!"
Sheyne sobbed into her father's shoulder harder as the man paled to the color of chalk.
"He…knows?"
Sheyne, tears streaking her face silver, looked up into Severus' distraught face. Once more she whispered, "I'm sorry, Papa."
Severus kissed her forehead and leaned his head against hers.
"I know you are, child. I know. And now – Merlin help us – we must face his wrath."