Me and My Big Mouth!

"He'sgonnakillme! He'sgonnakillme! He'sgonnakillme!"

Hermione wasn't sure what she could do.  Antigone was still gripping her ankles tight, rocking back and forth as much as she could with her forehead plastered to her knees.  "Oh don't be silly!  Of course he isn't!  He's your father!"

Finally, the other girl looked up, her face even paler than usual.  "Did you see his face!?  He's never been this angry with me before, and I've pulled some pretty wild stunts.  He wasn't even this mad the time I transfigured all of his green boxer shorts into red Speedos."  Her forehead slammed back down onto her knees with an audible *thud*.

"You transfigured his… never mind."  Hermione leaned forward and wrapped her arms about the girl's shoulders the best that she could.  "He's not going to kill you, he'll probably just yell at you a bit."

"I'd rather he kill me," came the muffled reply.

"Now you're really being an idiot."  She let go of the girl and sat back on her heels.  "Look at me.  Look up."  Obsidian black eyes peered at her from between honey brown strands of hair.  Even through the brown Hermione could see that her eyes and nose were going all blotchy from the tears.  "Your father is not going to kill you.  I've seen him madder than this, and he didn't kill that person either.  Of course, he was going to turn him over to the Dementors, but he didn't kill him."

"And this is supposed to make me feel better?"

"Well, I guess I can see your point in that.  Let's look at this logically.  Why did he not want anyone to know that you're his daughter?"

Antigone sat up and wiped at her nose with the edge of her hand.  Hermione began fishing through her pockets for her handkerchief.  "Because… because he didn't want some of the less… trustworthy people to know.  Oh, thank you."  She accepted the handkerchief and blew her nose.

"Death Eaters."  Antigone blinked in surprise. "Oh, I already know about them.  I know that Professor Snape used to be one and now he's reformed.  From the increase in bad temperament over the past year and all the times he's looked to be at death's door, I'm guessing that he's somehow convinced Voldemort to trust him enough to let him back into the fold.  Well that makes perfect sense.  If I was in such a position, I wouldn't want Voldemort and his followers to know I had a daughter either. "She gave her friend an asking look when the taller girl made a funny, choking noise in the back of her throat.  "He's just looking out for you.  I'll bet he loves you to pieces."

"Wishes to tear me to pieces at the moment, I'm afraid."  She did look a bit calmer, though.  She brushed her hair back out of her eyes.  "I know you're right, though.  He's always been a bit obsessive on the subject of Death Eaters.  He doesn't even like me to be around their children."

"Can't blame him there, either.  However, I do think he was a bit harsh giving you two detentions in the same day over breaking Malfoy's nose."  Hermione got up from her kneeling position on the floor and pulled up a chair next to Antigone's.  "It'll probably improve his looks, anyway.  You know, give him that dashing, dangerous air."

Antigone shook her head.  "Nope, he'll still look like a rat."  Both girls broke out into giggles at this, the fearful mood quickly dissolving.  Hermione caught her breath after a moment and grinned.

"Just out of curiosity, why did you turn his green boxers into red Speedos?"

"Oh, Uncle Harry put me up to it."  Antigone bit her lip as if she thought she might have said more than she should have. 

"You have an Uncle named Harry?"  Hermione tried to picture a Harry Snape, but it just wouldn't form in her mind.

"More of a close friend of my mother's than an actual uncle.  There's no blood relation."  She had the look again, like she was holding onto something secret, something other than being Snape's daughter.  "How did you find out about it?  My father being an ex-Death Eater, I mean."

"Oh, it was during our fourth year.  That's when Voldemort came back and killed Cedric Diggory.  I was in the infirmary while Professor Dumbledore and Mr. Fudge were interrogating Harry about what happened.  Fudge, being the complete idiot that he is, refused to believe it.  Professor Snape pulled back the sleeve of his robe and shoved the arm right under his nose, showing him the Dark Mark and telling him how it had been burning black earlier, when Voldemort was calling his Death Eaters to him."

The other girl rolled her eyes.  "Cornelius Fudge wouldn't know a Death Eater if it bit him on his oversized arse.  He's too afraid of offending the old, Pure Blood families, as if that makes them any better.  Gryffindor himself was only a half blood, and look at you!  You're top of everything and you're parents are both Muggles." 

"I know.  It scares me sometimes.  I worry that they might become targets.  I know I'm just a student, but I'm also one of Harry's best friends, and terror doesn't need much of a reason to strike out at someone."  Hermione stopped, chewing on her lip as her eyes focused on the floor.  After a moment, she looked up to find Antigone watching her, eyes concerned and chewing on her own lip, which reminded Hermione to stop.  The other girl stopped as well, just like a mirror image.  "You're lucky you didn't get the nose."

"Isn't that the truth!  Could you imagine me with the Snape Family Schnoze?"  She jumped up and grabbed a spare piece of parchment lying on the teacher's desk upfront, rolled it up into a tube and held it over her nose.  Hermione giggled.

"You've forgotten something.  It needs to be broken a couple of times."

"Oh, that's right."  She took the rolled parchment and crumpled it a bit so that it was crooked.  Placing it up to her face again and struck a pose.  "How's this?"

"Perfect!"  Both girls erupted into gales of laughter, the paper nose quickly forgotten as they were forced to hold their sides to try and alleviate their discomfort.  "Are you… feeling better?" Hermione managed to ask between gasps.

"Much." Antigone had fallen down to sit on the dusty floor, black eyes sparkling.  "I really needed that.  I guess I take things too seriously at times."  She grinned lopsidedly.  "I wonder where I picked that trait up."

"Couldn't even begin to imagine.  It's really strange though, you being Professor Snape's daughter.  He must have had a really hard life to have turned out the way he has.  I mean, he's always so irritable and difficult, but you're nice and great to be around.  It's really too bad that you're in Slytherin, you're nothing like them."

"Of course not!  I'm actually human."  She grinned impishly.  "Well, how much longer do you suppose we can hide out here?"

"Until dinner if need be.  Few students would bother coming into a classroom when there are no classes."  Hermione pulled her feet up and crossed them atop the seat in front of her.  "Speaking of classes, did you finish your essay on wizard banking for History of Magic?"

"Oh, I finished that days ago.  Amazing how our gold rests in the whims of short people with foul tempers, isn't it?  The whole wizarding world goes into a panic whenever there's a goblin uprising and falls into catatonia if there's a full blown rebellion.  You'd think someone would have figured out that we need another bank by now."

"Wouldn't you?"  Hermione straightened up and started ticking off dates on her fingers.   "In 1087 the goblins sealed up all of the vaults until they were allowed to raise the exchange rates between wizarding gold and Muggle money.  In 1325 they froze all the accounts because they wanted to be allowed to have houses in wizarding neighborhoods…"

"Well, who could blame them?  Have you seen a goblin community?  They're usually in caves or bogs or something like that.  I'd rather have a nice, warm house.  Oh, and then there's the minor uprising in 1777 when they claimed they were deciding to support their colonial branch and felt that Britain should grant the colonists their freedom.  A thinly veiled excuse if I've ever heard one, just like the one in 2015 when…"

"2015?"  Hermione frowned as Antigone faltered, her eyes going wide.

"I mean 1015, when…"

"That's it!"  Hermione took her feet off the chair in front of her and leaned forward, hands on her knees.  "I've been wondering what it could be, it was obvious you were hiding something.  You're from the future, aren't you?  That's how you know the school so well, how you know the teachers so well, you never went to Belle Noir!  You went to Hogwarts!"  The expression on Antigone's face was almost identical to the one she had worn on the Quidditch pitch when she let her tongue get away from her, telling Hermione that she was right.  "That's why no one has ever heard of Snape having a daughter, because he hasn't had you yet, has he?"

"Uhm… no.  Hermione, you have to keep quiet about this.  You can't tell a soul."

"Oh, don't worry, I won't.  I had a time turner in my third year so I know about all the laws regarding time travel.  I won't whisper a word of it to anyone.  Only… how did you come here?  How far did you come back?"

"Well, how far is about twenty-five years.  How I did it; I had a time turner as well."

"But those only go back a few hours, not over two decades."  She looked down at Antigone, who was still seated on the dusty floor looking up at her.

"There was… an attack.  I told you that my dad gets nervous about me being around Death Eaters or their children, right?"  Hermione nodded.  "Well, that's because he's made a lot of enemies among them.  One of them tried to hurt him, by attacking me.  He was going to kill me, but his curse struck my time turner instead.  I remember it breaking, then the Death Eater being gone and a younger version of my father standing off to the side.  Everything went black, and I woke up in the hospital wing."

Hermione stared, her mouth open.  She shook herself, blinking.  "I bet that surprised Professor Snape, you popping out of nowhere."  She frowned then, chewing on her bottom lip.  "Twenty-Five years, you can't just wait that out.  You'll be forty before you get back to that point.  Shouldn't we be trying to find a way to get you back to your own time?"

"Albus is working on that.  Oh, sorry, Professor Dumbledore.  It's rather difficult to remember to call the professors by their proper titles when you've grown up all your life either addressing them by their given names or by other names.  I've always called him Albus, ever since I was old enough to remember his name and he would sit me on his knee, feeding me lemon drops.  Professor McGonagall has always insisted I call her 'Aunt Minerva' even though there's no relation between us.  I was born in the castle and just about every teacher in my time has had some hand in my raising."

Hermione grinned.  "No wonder you're so clever.  You probably had half the subjects down by heart before you were old enough to be sorted."

"I knew a bit more than the other students, certainly, but I wasn't going to go to Hogwarts if I could have managed it."

"Why not?  It's one of the best schools there is!"

"Yes, but I was the 'Hogwarts Baby'," Antigone pointed out, making quotation marks in the air with her hands, "I had always been here.  What's worse, my father was the Potions Master and my mother was the Arithmancy teacher after Professor Vector left to teach at a university.  I mean, really, think about it.  Could you think of anything worse than going to a boarding school where both of your parents teach?  All the other students get to leave their parents at home when they come to Hogwarts, I would never be able to escape mine.  I wanted to go to Belle Noir because it was so far away from here that I would just be another student.  The only reason I stayed was because Albus made my parents agree that I would get to sleep in the dorms with my housemates and that any disciplinary actions taken by the teachers would respected with no additional groundings or punishments from them."

"Hmmm… when you put it that way I can see why you would rather go somewhere else.  I can see Professor Snape grounding you from weekend visits on top of Professor Sprout making you repot an entire greenhouse."

"Without even blinking."

Hermione gave her friend a sympathetic smile.  "So Professor Dumbledore is working on a way to send you home.  I have to admit, I'll miss you.  I've never had a girlfriend before, not a real one.  Lavender and Pavarti are only interested in boys and clothes, and none of my friends back home understand me."  She grinned again and rested her elbows on her knees.  "So… Professor Snape is going to get married and have a child."

"Yep, happily ever after, just like in the story books."

"Well?  Who is she?  Is it someone he knows already?"  Antigone began to look nervous.  She started chewing on her bottom lip and seemed reluctant to meet Hermione's eyes.  "Oh, come on, I wouldn't tell."

"I never thought you'd be one for gossip."

"It's not really gossip; it's more like a secret.  I can keep a secret, you can tell me.  You said she's the Arithmancy teacher, so she must be really clever.  Of course she would have to be, since he's not the type to tolerate a stupid woman.  Is she pretty?"

"I… I think she's beautiful."

"Well of course you do, you're her daughter!  Would everyone else think she is?"

Antigone faltered, and then gave a firm nod.  "Yes, she is considered very attractive by most people."

"Does he already know her?"

"Y…yes, he already knows her."

"Does he already love her?"

"No, I can definitely say that at this moment in time he has no romantic feelings towards her whatsoever." 

"Does she love him?"

"Absolutely not." 

"All right, so they do know one another but aren't attracted to one another.  You're about my age, so they have to get together within the next ten years or so.  Is she a teacher now?"

"Uhm… no, she's not a teacher yet."  She seemed hesitant again, nervous.  Not a teacher yet, so what was this mysterious person doing?

"She's a student!"  The shocked look on Antigone's face let her know that she was right.  "She is!  Is she here?"

"I'm starving.  Is it time for dinner yet?"  Antigone scrambled to her feet and went over to the door pressing her ear against it.  

Hermione, however, was not going to let go of this one.  Antigone was being nervous and evasive, so it was safe to assume that there was a reason.  Her mother must be at Hogwarts at this time, a student.  That had to be exceedingly strange for the girl, seeing your mother when she was just a girl herself.  Going to classes with her and seeing her at the house tables in the Great Hall.  How do you cope with someone like that?  How do you behave?

She studied her friend as the other girl listened at the door.  She had Snape's height and black eyes, but her hair was brown and wasn't greasy.  She had a normal sized nose as well.  She said she grew up in the castle and that her mother had a friend named Harry whom she called 'uncle.'  Uncle Harry?  A funny icy feeling settled in the pit of Hermione's stomach.  Antigone was quite good on a broom and appeared to be an excellent Seeker.  Uncle Harry?  Her mother was good at Arithmancy, good enough to eventually become a teacher.  And her name, Antigone.  Snape and his wife didn't have any feelings towards one another now, because the girl was a student.  I always liked Antigone.  She had that habit of chewing on her bottom lip whenever she was nervous or concentrating.  Her mother is a student here, someone Snape knows.  Her nose was small and well balanced, just like her own.  I've always liked the name Antigone.

The icy feeling had spread to her heart, constricting it painfully.  Hermione stared at Antigone who had opened the door a little ways so she could look outside into the corridor.  Taking a breath, she called up her most brassy, bossy sounding voice.  "Antigone Marie!"

She thought her heart stopped beating when the taller girl's spine went ramrod straight just before she slammed the door shut and whirled around.  "Mum, I can explain!"

A strangled yelp escaped Hermione's throat as she fell from her chair.  "No, really!  I can!"  Antigone ran over and grabbed hold of Hermione, helping her back into her seat.  The smaller girl was breathing heavily as though she were hyperventilating, so she urged her to place her head between her knees.  "It's not that bad, really.  I mean, he's nothing like he is now.  Sure he still terrorizes the students, but to you and me he's actually nice, almost sweet."  There was a whimpering sound from underneath a bush mound of hair.  "Oh, don't be like that.  He practically worships the ground you walk on."

"I'm waiting."

"Waiting for what?"

Hermione lifted her head and peered out at Antigone through her hair.  "For the explanation."

"Well I don't have one right now, I need time to think of something first."  Hermione gave a funny sounding, high pitched squeak, her forehead landing back on her knees with an audible *thump*.  Of course, He would pick that exact moment to open the classroom door. 

"Are the two of you at least going to remember to come down to dinner?"

Antigone's head shot up and over at the door where her father now stood.  He must have searched the entire castle for them.  On the better side of things, he did seem far less angry.  The length of time out of his sight must have given him time to calm down.  His black eyes took in the dust on her Quidditch robes, the tear streaks on her face, and then traveled over to where Hermione still sat bent over double, her entire body shaking.  A frown creased his brow.  "What is the matter with Miss Granger?"

Sure, she could have lied.  Had it been Minerva or Flitwick, she would have and just put up with the guilt.  She wouldn't have bothered lying to Albus since he knew everything already.  This, however, was her father.  Experience had taught her that falsehoods were of little use around him, since he could smell a half-truth from five miles away.  So, instead of lying, she took a deep breath.

"Dad, she figured it all out on her own, I swear!"

A look of incomprehension crossed her father's face, quickly replaced by shock.  Finally, the same look he had given her earlier that day settled into his features.  Wordlessly, he took hold of the door knob and backed out of the room, shutting the door behind him firmly.  Antigone heard the lock click and then her father's footsteps moving away.  He could walk without a sound if it suited him and she knew she could only hear him because he wanted her to hear him.  She sighed and leaned over to rest her head against her mother's, hugging herself tightly.

"He'sgonnakillme. He'sgonnakillme. He'sgonnakillme."