Hermione woke up early in the morning to the sound of Gwen crying. She got up, and as soon as she picked her up, the crying stopped. That was a good sign. She seamed to have calmed down a bit after a few hours of not being able to cry. She would have to thank Snape.
An hour later, she got Gwen dressed and headed down to breakfast. She sat with her friends, and put Gwen in the special high chair Dumbledore had put next to the trios usual seats.
Dumbledore stood shortly after she arrived and asked for everyone's attention. "We have a few new students who need to be sorted. Damian Martini, seventh year, please come up here."
Damian got up and went to the stool that Dumbledore motioned for him to sit in. Then the sorting hat was placed on his head. "Gryffindor!" the hat exclaimed.
The Gryffindor table cheered and a few students sent curious glances at the new student as he made his way to his new house table.
Severus groaned inwardly. Just what he needed; another Gryffindor troublemaker. And this one was under his care. He should have expected that.
"Mia Taylor, sixth year," Dumbledore called.
A girl about 5 feet 2 inches walked toward the stage. She had waist length curly cinnamon brown hair, green eyes, and a nice smile. She was Professor McGonagal's new daughter.
"Slytherin!" the hat yelled.
After the initial shock, Minerva stood up and clapped for Mia as she went to sit with her peers.
Then there was Professor Sprouts first year boy named Chris who was sorted into Ravenclaw.
After that, everyone went back to what they were doing. The irony that the house heads children had all gone to their adversaries house was not lost on Hermione. She took the time to appreciate things like that now.
The first class of the day was double potions with Slytherin, which was no surprise. With all the other children around, there was no one to be spared to look after Gwen for Hermione, unless she wanted to leave her with the bulk of them in the infirmary, and she didn't want to do that. So Dumbledore had decided that a playpen could be set up in each of her classes.
This pissed Snape off to no end. But he had new and more trying problems now that Damian was under his care. He knew absolutely nothing about the kid, except that he wasn't really a kid at all. He was seventeen after all. Which in itself was a good thing. After this school year he would be out in the real world starting his own life.
Still, a year of playing father wasn't going to be easy. He resolved to find out more about Damian in the near future, which meant he would inevitably have to talk to him. He knew the kinds of things people Damian's age were doing, and he wasn't looking forward to this interrogation.
He realized that the next few days were crucial. The people Damian latched onto as friends would have a lot to do with how this whole situation would turn out. Unfortunately, his friends would almost certainly turn out being Gryffindors. Severus would have to keep a close eye out to see whom Damian would buddy up with.
After class was over, Damian walked over to Gwen's playpen. Gwen's hair was blonde, which would most likely change, and her eyes were deep blue.
"Excuse me?" Hermione asked. She had no idea what he was doing.
"Oh sorry," Damian replied sadly. "She reminds me of my baby sister."
"Oh. Her name is Gwendolyn Love Granger, and I'm Hermione."
"My sisters name was Caitlin, she was only two months old," he said hollowly as if he weren't entirely there. "They didn't even have the decency to use the killing curse. It would have been painless that way, no struggle. They... they put Imperious on my mother and made her smother Caitlin with the pillow from her crib. I was made to watch..."
Hermione stared horror struck at him. She struggled to hold back tears. It was another reminder that she had so many things to be thankful for...
"I'm sorry... it's easier to tell people that I don't know. They don't judge," Damian apologized.
"It's ok. I'm always around if you need to talk. Why don't you come up to the Gryffindor common room with me after our next class and I'll introduce you to my friends?" Hermione asked.
"That would be nice. Do you think maybe... maybe I could hold Gwen?" Damian asked sheepishly.
"Sure," Hermione said cheerfully, and lifted her out of the playpen.
Damian smiled softly as Hermione handed him the baby. They walked together, Damian holding Gwen, to transfiguration for their next class.
Severus had witnessed the whole thing. His heart went out to Damian when he described the death of his baby sister. But even so he couldn't help but dread what was to come. Damian had taken the first step to becoming friends with the troublesome trio. He had to admit though, there was a lot he didn't know about Damian.
After transfiguration, Damian followed Hermione into the Gryffindor common room. They approached a corner where Ron and Harry had just dumped themselves into some chairs and looked as if they were preparing to play a game of wizard's chess.
"Hey guys, this is Damian Martini," Hermione said, gesturing to Damian, who was once again holding Gwen.
"Let me put her to bed. It's time for her afternoon nap. You guys introduce yourselves, and then we can all go down for lunch," Hermione said.
"Sure thing Mione," Ron said. Hermione walked off with Gwen.
"I'm Harry Potter," Harry introduced himself, "and this is my friend Ron Weasley."
"No shit, Harry Potter? That's psychotically sick man," Damian said.
"You must be from America," Ron said, laughing.
"Born and raised a Yank," Damian said. "Actually, technically, being from Florida, I'm not really considered a Yankee. But over in the states Florida is known as the southern Yankee state anyway."
"Right..." Harry said, "You're all the same to us."
Damian shed his outer robes and dropped into an armchair with one boot-clad leg draped over the arm. Ron and Harry took in the black pants, zippers, chains, and combat boots. Ron couldn't help but smile at his black T-shirt that had a demonic red smiley face and read "Lead me not into temptation, I can find it myself".
"Wow..." they heard Hermione say. "That's some oufit."
"I love the reaction..." Damian teased. "No, actually, it's all about the music."
"I never got that impression from the Weird Sisters..."
"Hell no! Muggle rock kicks ass. I'm all about the heavy metal, and the punk rock."
"Right... um... lets go to lunch?" Ron said. His stomach was making funny noises. "It's hungry," Ron said, patting his tummy.
"You treat you stomach like it were a pet or something," Hermione said.
In the great hall, they all sat down and filled their plates. Herminoe took small portions. She was still trying to get her old figure back.
"You guys play any instruments?" Damian asked at the table after he was done eating.
"Nope. How about quidditch? Do you play quidditch?" Ron asked.
"Sure I play quidditch. I played chaser for my old school. We didn't have houses, so we played inter-school matches. It was a lot different over there. The schools were set up just like public schools. You were zoned for the closest one, and you still lived at home with your family. And you have middle and high schools, and grades, not years. It's all very different."
"What do you play, I mean instrument?" Hermione asked. "All these guys ever want to talk about is quidditch, so the original subject almost always gets lost. You'll learn to ignore it eventually."
"I play quitar. I was in a band with a few of my friends. I just wanted to know if any of yall (Ron snickered at that word) played anything. I thought maybe we might do something together."
"Oh. I play the violin, but I doubt that would be of much use to your kind of music," Hermione admitted.
"I didn't know you played the violin," Ron said, showing her a mouthful of masticated food.
"There are a lot of things you don't know about me, now shut up with your mouth full. You're the only one who can't see how ignorant it makes you look," Hermione said. Ron glared at her.
"Actually, the violin is very useful in my music. It ads a lot to certain songs," Damian said.
"I think Seamus plays the drums doesn't he?" Hermione asked Harry.
"Uh... I don't know."
"Well, we'll figure it out later. Maybe we can get a little band put together," Hermione said enthusiastically. She was a little high on the idea that her violin playing might actually serve some purpose.
"So are you going out for the house team?" Ron asked.
"What?" Damian asked.
"He means quidditch. I told you quidditch is all they ever want to talk about," Hermione groaned, putting emphasis on the word quidditch.
"That's not true Hermione. I can tell you about how sexy Ginny looked last night," Harry said slyly.
Ron's eyes bulged and he turned red in anger. "You didn't.... I'll kill you..." he yelled.
"Calm down mate, I was just teasing."
"When are the quidditch tryouts?" Damian asked.
"I'm the team captain," Harry said, "So as long as you're any good at all you're a shoe-in. We haven't had many good chasers lately. Tryouts are Saturday after lunch on the quidditch pitch."
"I'll be there," Damian said, and got up to go get his book for Herbology and Arthmancy.
After the day's classes were over and he had finished his lesson plans for the next day, Severus headed down to his quarters. On entering, his ears were assaulted with some very loud noise. After a moment, he realized that it was a guitar. Oh god he thought, Damian actually plays that thing.
He then saw an atrocity that just screamed "teenager". On the outside of Damian's door there was a flashing neon sign that read "Martini" in pink, with a green martini glass complete with olive.
He threw open Damian's door., to see Damian jumping around the room in boxer shorts and a wife beater, throwing his shaggy hair back and forth, playing his electric guitar. He looked over to the amp and noticed the volume was all the way up. 'Oh for the love of the gods...' Severus thought.
Damian realized he wasn't alone and stopped playing. "You like it? I wrote it myself," he asked.
"It's wonderful," Severus said sarcastically. "Maybe you could play it on the acoustic? You think? Save the electric for real performances." He hoped to the gods there wouldn't be a real performance.
"Sure thing Snape," Damian said.
Severus rolled his eyes at being called Snape. But then, Professor was a bit formal, so maybe he would give him the one luxury of dropping the Professor title.
"Soooooo... did you want something or something?" Damian asked.
Stupid teenagers always saying 'like' or 'or something' Severus thought. "Yes, actually, I thought we might talk..."
"This isn't going to be that birds and the bees thing is it? Cuz I gotta tell ya, you're a little late for that one," Damian said.
"No," Severus said, "now kindly hold your tongue so that I can get a word in. I merely wished to learn a bit more about you."
"Alright then, shoot," Damian threw himself onto his bed and got ready to listen.
Severus decided that was his queue to start asking questions. "I doubt you'd care to just tell me about yourself, so I'll just ask some yes or no questions."
Damian sighed. Severus decided taking to Damian was something he would avoid at all costs.
"Do you have ANY family at all left? Any distant relations?" he asked.
"No. Why? Want to get rid of me already?" Damian said sarcastically. Severus could tell it wasn't a rhetorical question.
"Do you have a girlfriend?" Severus asked. Just what he wanted, a randy seventeen year old trying to sneak a girl into the castle.
"No, not at the current time," Damian said. Something came across his face and he added, "I hope your not trying to come out of the closet, so to speak, because I'm straight."
Severus wanted to throw up. Why did teenagers do that? They think everything any one says was meant with innuendo. "Even if I was that way, which I'm not, I highly doubt I'd be hitting on you."
"You don't do drugs do you?" Severus asked.
"Why? You want to sell me some? Just kidding. No I don't do drugs. Tried em' a few times. Not my thing."
"Good. I might as well let you know I won't put up with any smoking, drinking, or drugs while you're living here. Do you have a name you would rather go by? I hear in America a lot of people go by their middle or nick names," Severus asked.
"Well, my friends used to call me Demon, but that was just for the band. I think I got pretty lucky with Damian," he said.
All of a sudden Demon, the kitten, ran from under the bed and launched himself at Severus robes. Latching on with extended claws, he started to climb up. Severus spun around, trying to throw him off, and Damian jumped up and snatched the grey fuzz-ball.
"Oh, this is my cat Demon," Damian said. "I hope you don't mind..."
"Of coarse not," Severus mumbled. "I guess that's all for now. Do your homework."
"But..."
"I don't want to hear it. You will do as I say. Normally I could care less if students do their homework, but you being careless with your studies would reflect badly on me among my colleagues."
"Fine."
"Fine," Severus said as he left, but was cut off by the door slamming in his face.
Damian couldn't help but think that Snape really needed to get laid. On second thought, he needed a girlfriend; a companion. He was very alone, and Damian decided that's what was wrong with him.
