Full Blurb:
After Harry's misguided attempt at saving Sirius went pear shaped, the mystery surrounding Hermione (McGonagall) Granger's paternity is answered obliterating her world. With Tom Riddle as her father and Minerva reluctantly agreeing to his request of keeping her at Malfoy Manor with him for the summer, she's lost all but Luna in the way of friends. Now if only she could lose the ever present shadow of Professor Snape as easily. At least she can console herself with the knowledge that the start of the next term is only ten weeks away and then she can put everything into a tidy little box and pretend like it never happened. Or so she thought.
Turns out, her father is as paranoid about her return to school as her mother is about her summer amongst the Death Eaters. And for all their fighting, there's one thing her parents can agree on: the only person they trust with her safety is Severus Snape, her unwanted shadow turned unwanted husband.
While this is set during a particularly tense time in canon with the war racing towards them, this is first and foremost a story of falling in love, coming back to love, the bonds between parents and their children, and redemption.
AN:
To quote Mamma Mia, "here we go again."
I came back to fan fiction about a month ago after several months of not writing or even reading fan fiction and the creativity has been like a burst damn and thus another new WIP.
Yeah I know, I should probably get some self control but where's the fun in that?
Anyways, I hope you all enjoy this one and as some of you are aware, my writing is a feast or famine situation. Updates come every few days or once every few months. There's really no in between (see what i did there lol) no matter how hard I try.
Thank you so much for stopping by to check this one out and I hope you all stick around.
Much love,
SLaG
Chapter One
" Semita Revelare, " he cast at the same time Poppy stripped the girl of her jumper and underclothes.
Greeting his spell was a map of malevolent purple veins. Each thread lashed out from the point of impact in the center of her chest, wrapping around her circulatory system. It was already pressing on her lungs, cutting through her liver, and was hurtling for her kidneys but had miraculously been impeded each time it aimed for her heart.
Wiping her already taxed brow on her shoulder, Poppy asked, "Merlin, Severus, what could have caused this?"
"Nothing that a fifteen year old girl should have come in contact with," he replied flatly, studying the path of corrosion. Unhelpfully, he quietly marveled, "She should be dead; so why aren't you?"
"Seventeen."
"What?"
"You said fifteen. Hermione has a late birthday. She's seventeen; or nearly there. I believe we re-dated her as having moved her birthday up by about twelve weeks. She'll reach maturity in just a few days."
"If she lives," he replied with an objective bluntness.
"Yes, if…"
While Poppy worked to keep her organs functioning long enough for him to determine how best to pick apart the curse, he hovered his fingers over the map. Repeatedly following her invaded veins back to the point of origin, he remained aggravatingly confounded as to why the girl's heart had remained protected. He knew Dolohov; he knew this curse. Even if Miss Granger had managed to silence him mid-cast as per the disjointed, shock rattled recounts suggested, it wouldn't have bought her more than a few minutes before surrendering to an agonizing but swift death. And yet, she was alive. Tentatively at best, but alive.
Laying his hand beside her chest, he gathered a rough measurement of the uninfected area that continued to guard her. It was small — not even the length of his pinky and less than that in terms of its width — and its octagonal shape clear as the curse continuously tried to find a way around or through it.
Gaging the distance from her neck to her chest, he moved to the small pile of her clothes and began shaking them out. Coming up empty, he barked, "Her necklace, where is it?"
"What necklace? She wasn't wearing one."
"Yes she was," he insisted, checking her clothes once more before shoving his hands between her body and the bed feeling around for it. "Whatever she had around her neck, we need it."
Once again finding nothing, he yelled, "Potter, come here!"
Beside him, the Mediwitch who had patched him up more times than he could count over the last twenty-five years, scrambled to pull a sheet up over the girl they tended to, snarling at him about maintaining her modesty.
"She's dying, Poppy. I think being seen half-dressed by someone who views her as an asexual being is not a priority."
The boy to blame for everything that had transpired that night came around the curtain, looking at Miss Granger with unseeing eyes.
"Wonderful, Albus must have already drugged him," he sighed in agitation, pinching the bridge of his nose. Snapping his fingers in front of the wreckless child's face, he asked "Miss Granger's necklace, where is it? Someone had to have removed it before she was brought here; who?"
"Severus, the boy just witnessed his godfather die, have some tact."
"And now he's about to lose a friend and cost Minerva her only child as further restitution for his foolishness. So forgive me if wrapping Potter in cotton wool over the death of someone as insignificant as Black isn't as high of a priority to me as having to go tell our friend we couldn't save her daughter's life." Grabbing the carbon copy of the long since deceased James Potter by the shoulders, Severus stooped his back so he was at eye level and shook the boy, enunciating, "Where is the necklace?"
Slowly lifting his tightly held fist up, Potter turned it over and uncurled his fingers as he asked, "Did I kill her too?"
"Not today, Potter," he replied with all the sympathy he could muster before grabbing the pendent from his hands and sending him back out of the healing cubicle.
Turning the pendant over in his hands, he found it to be a rather heavy and frankly ugly thing. Not something he imagined any teenage girl would ever pick for herself, especially one as seemingly simple and practical as Granger appeared in class. It was a finely crafted trinket but old — its age showing in the nicks along the silver setting and in how the amber stone wasn't quite as clear as it could have been had it been mined and cut in more recent centuries. And while he suspected it was goblin made, the pendant more than its chain, reflected years of forgotten neglect in the way its silver beaded trim and runes remained stubbornly tarnished while other parts — such as the smattering of emeralds that swirled through its center — gleamed from regular cleaning.
Whosever it had been before it came to her, she was proud of it and honored to be its current wearer. The necklace was most probably a possession of some long lost family member that meant more to her than some silly, ever changing trend. A quality that he himself as an equally practical sort who held on to things of his past for no reason other than supposed sentimentality could respect.
Running his thumb over it as he studied its properties, trying to decipher its magics and runes, his finger caught on a delicate hinge. Revealing itself to be a locket, he went for the clasp believing that whatever had protected Miss Granger was inside.
However try as he might, the latch wouldn't give. The further he pried, the more of a fight it put up, going as far as to singe his hand. Magic too was no use; the blasted thing repelling his spells.
The magnitude of protection on the heirloom went far beyond that of a goblin's work. It had generations of family magic imbued into its every facet. Magic that covered every shade from the darkest of spells to the lightest and purest only to be successfully cast by a rare few throughout history.
Despite not knowing its origins, nor all the secrets it carried, Severus made a decisive decision. Poppy could work for hours, even days at healing the girl's organs as they repeatedly fell into failure and he could spend every second of those days picking apart the curse that was laying waste to her body but in the end, they would both still fail. As mysterious and unknown as the locket was, it was the lesser of the two evils when faced with a student dying. It had already saved her — though at an excruciating and prolonged expense — so he reasoned it would either help to continue to combat the spread of the curse, or they would remain as they were, fighting an uphill, losing battle and she would die.
Coming around Poppy as she poured more potions into Miss Granger's mouth, gently massaging her neck to trigger her swallow reflex, he laid the pendant over the section of her heart that remained safe from siege. As an added precaution, he traced the tip of his wand over the emeralds, muttering incantations of his own creation for both spells of healing and ruin. When the locket accepted his offerings, he was momentarily transfixed by its glowing nature and the sudden retreat of several strands of magic. It wasn't much but each vein that vanished bought them precious hours with which to track down a more permanent solution.
Pointing to the locket he instructed, "Leave that where it is. I'm going to get Minerva. Whoever owned that before Miss Granger needs to be here."
Getting waved off as she brushed past him to begin a series of healing spells over the girl's failing kidneys, Severus swept out of the cubicle. Walking at a fast clip up the aisle of infirmary beds, he brushed off questions from Lupin and Shacklebolt about where he had been, where he was going, and what would happen to Hermione.
"Answer us, Snape!" Moody barked, lumbering after him.
Turning around in a flurry of robes, he waspishly replied, "On the list of people to whom I answer, you do not rank Alastor. None of you do," he added, silencing Shacklebolt. "Now excuse me, people far more important than any of you require an update on this evening's events."
"Yes, do run off to your Master, Snape. I'm sure he needs someone to hold his prick while it gets sucked after attacking children. "
Knowing he was taking the bait even as he did it, Severus was unhelped by rational thought as he stepped up to stand toe to toe with Lupin.
"Not that I need to clear my actions with the likes of you, but I'm off to inform a currently sedated Minerva that her only child has a chance, however slim it may be, at actually surviving the night — that's assuming we can track down a paternal relative in time. But if you'd like to keep me here demanding answers to questions Albus has already deemed you unfit to ask let alone know, I can do that instead and one of you can explain to Minerva why she wasn't brought back to her daughter's side as soon as we had answers. Now go make yourselves useful and get ready for the island wide search that will be commencing before the night's over."
Smiling with a savage glee as the wolf's jaw visabily worked at grinding his teeth, he gave a pleased quirk of his brow at having reestablished the hierarchy and turned on his heel, exiting the hospital wing with such flare he looked as if he were about to take off in flight.
Faced with the portrait guard of the magical rendering of Pierre Auguste Cot's Springtime, Severus waited with an impatient look for the amorous lovers to take notice of him. As they continued to remain lost in each other's gazes, exchanging hushed words, and failing miserably at their job, he snapped, "Ginger Persian," and snatched the frame to wrench it open.
Even with having been at Hogwarts in some capacity or another for all but fourteen years of his life, he was always amazed by what Minerva had selected for her chambers. He was even more astonished that she owned the piece and it was not in fact a part of the school's illustrious collection. The Transfiguration Mistress and Deputy Head always had a stern and pragmatic air about her. In fact, unlike the rest of the staff, he had never known her to have been involved in any sort of romantic entanglement. He had thought she found herself above such frivolities.
So when it had come to light that she had in fact had at least a single night's liaison with someone resulting in a pregnancy and said child was to join the incoming class that would usher in the Era of the Chosen One , he had been struck stupid. At least until he had the not so pleasurable first meeting of one Hermione McGonagall — or Granger as her adopted parents had none too kindly corrected — in Diagon Alley when their paths had crossed in Flourish and Blotts prior to the start of her first term.
Though she only echoed her mother in looks — making the staff, himself unfortunately included, gossip for weeks about who her father could possibly be — the uptight little witch who was a staunch supporter of rules and written word with a superior sense of self, was undoubtedly a copy of Minerva. With time, the harassing questions began to fade and by her daughter's first Christmas had vanished completely. They all had their secrets and though McGonagall's was a rather large, unignorable one that walked amongst the halls of Hogwarts and attended their classes, everyone had come to accept that all they would ever know is that Hermione's father had died in the first war with the Dark Lord. However the night of revelations was not quite over yet. And while he would carry her secret to the grave, he couldn't deny he was rather pleased with the turn of events for they would finally put his gnawing curiosity to bed.
Finding Minerva still slumped on her couch from where he had sent her after drugging and banishing her hovering and unhelpful presence from her daughter's side, Severus produced a small vial of potion laced smelling salts and wafted it under his colleague's nose. Within seconds of her first inhale, she was slowly coming awake, her eyes squinting from the bright cast of the candles. Absently waving his hand behind him, Severus extinguished half of them to better accommodate her muddled senses. Giving a faint groan as she began to rub at her neck, she tilted her head up and at once the grogginess of her potion induced hangover vanished.
"Where is she?" Minerva demanded, jumping up from the couch. "Severus, I swear to Merlin I will castrate you and transfigure your bollocks into a coin purse if you do not tell me where Hermione is this instant."
"She's currently under Poppy's watchful eye and soon to be fatigued wand," he answered, helping himself to a seat on the couch as his former professor began to make her way in a spectacular bustle of skirts and robes to the door. "Sit, Minerva; we need to talk before you can go back to her side."
"If you're about to tell me to prepare myself for the worst, I'll be adding a matching scarf made from your cock, young man."
Giving no indication he had even heard her, Severus asked, "Does her father have any living relatives? A brother, another child, or a father would be ideal but at the point Miss Granger-"
"Hermione or McGonagall, Severus. You are to never address my child by that awful muggle surname again, do you understand me?"
Momentarily distracted by her outburst, he digressed by probing, "What exactly happened last summer?"
"Something bad enough to have made me think of contacting her father and that's all I'm going to say on the matter."
"So he's not dead? That's going to make things infinitely easier."
"What does her father have to do with any of this? I took heart wrenching precautions to make sure he never knew she existed, so why do you need him?"
Tracing his bottom lip as he studied her, he slowly countered with a surmised question.
"And yet you gave her his locket?"
With a stern and reproachful look, she came back to the couch and sat on the very edge of a cushion. Matching his penetrating gaze, she said, "As you've no doubt seen for yourself since you're asking after its origins, it is very powerful. It carries a thousand years of his family's magic. Every generation it is gifted from the eldest son to their betrothed or in case of an eldest daughter, to her intended to imbue and gift back to her.
"Once upon a time, he gave it to me as a token of his supposed love and commitment. When things… disintegrated… under unagliening priorities and unmet expectations, I broke it off with him — admittedly not very cleanly as you can see given Hermione — but instead of taking it back, he told me to keep it for it symbolized was still true no matter how far I thought he had drifted from the man I fell in love with.
"With things turning as they have since the end of last school year, I thought it prudent to give it to her. Being Potter's friend has placed her in far more danger than I would have ever wanted her to face."
Pulling out a handkerchief, he handed it over to the glassy eyed witch and politely ignored the painful ghost that she had summoned in order to answer his questions, instead explaining, "The locket is working like a suit of armor around her heart. It's preventing the curse from spreading. I believe when Dolohov casted it, it collided with the locket and that more than her silencing his incantation is what has kept her alive.
"It was removed from her before her arrival but I have since placed it back on her chest. It's helping but we need more. You said the locket is extremely powerful. If we can open it or get familial magic within its vicinity, I think she could stand a chance at surviving. It's admittedly all conjecture, but it's our only option."
It was quiet for several minutes as Minerva digested what he said, her tears silently but freely flowing down her cheeks as she raced to catch them. Dabbing at her nose, she primly folded the simple square only to fist it in her hand as she met his eyes with renewed iron in her spine.
"When I said he had died in the war, I thought it was true. Everyone was so sure and then Potter went to that graveyard and…"
Normally much better at masking his emotions, Severus was unprepared for the connections his brain was making and felt his jaw drop a fraction as his brow rose and his eyes widened.
"Do you mean to tell me that the Dark Lord sired your daughter?"
"He's always only ever been Tom to me, but yes; You-Know-Who, the Dark Lord, Voldemort, whatever you wish to call him, is Hermione's father."
"And he has no idea she exists?" He needlessly asked in search of clarification. "Or rather that she's his? Because he knows she exists. In fact, I'll be surprised if Dolohov hasn't already been killed for the transgression of attacking her. He's become quite keen on collecting and cultivating her since his return."
"None," she sighed, summoning her decanter of scotch to them. Pulling out the crystal stop, she drank directly from the lip before offering him a turn. "Suit yourself," she shrugged when he declined, taking another pull before placing it on the coffee table and producing a cigarette. Showing it to him as she lit the tip, she muttered, "Filthy though they are, they always remind me of him." Then after several puffs, she stubbed it out and said, "You cannot let her leave your sight. I know a lot has been asked and required of you this last year but she's my daughter. I don't care what you have to do, you are to remain with her at all times from the moment you leave these grounds. She is to go nowhere without you while under whatever roof he's calling home."
"Understood," he nodded curtly, standing up from the couch.
"I mean it, Severus. Father or not, he is not to be alone with her. I know him, you know him, and we both know how easy it is to fall for his pretty words and charismatic manner. He makes it impossible to not believe in him and want to be in his orbit. He will be an enticement that with time will be too difficult for Hermione to resist. There's already so much of him in her and I will not save her life only to lose her to him."
Disappearing to her bedchamber, she came back with a jeweled box that matched Hermione's locket cradled in her arms. Stroking the emerald serpent on top of it, she reluctantly handed it over to him and said, "Please ask him to clear the room when you speak to him. This is already going to obliterate her world and I would prefer to minimize the list of people who find out before her as much as possible."
"And what of everyone who remains in the infirmary?" He asked, taking the box that added even more layers to his unsated curiosity.
"Albus and I will deal with telling them after you both leave. The fallout of her paternity is going to be brutal and I would rather her not be here to bear witness to the swift changing of the tide where their opinions of her are concerned."
"As if now knowing who her father is will erase the last five years of history she has with them all," he dryly commented while opening the portrait door to allow Minerva to pass ahead of him.
"You and I both know it will; the side of the righteous is too often the side of the judgmental."
Making sure the portrait securely latched, they made their way back to the infirmary where they were immediately bombarded with a barrage of questions. Adapt as he was at walking through a simmering riot of Order members, Severus proceeded through as if they didn't exist, only dropping his pretense to happily bar them from crossing into Miss Granger's cubicle. Then after a few hushed minutes of Minerva redressing and holding her unconscious daughter's hand while she spoke to her, he was once more greeted with demands over questions as he exited with the marginally stable witch on a levitated gurney.
"Where is he taking her?" Lupin shouted.
"To be healed, Remus. Madam Pomfrey has done what she can for her," Albus answered, finally returning from the audience he had had with Potter earlier in the night.
"Then she should be going to Saint Mungo's," Moody rasped in the grating, always harsh way of his. "Not being transferred to Merlin only knows where by the likes of him."
"She's my daughter Alastor and there is no one I trust with her more than Severus. So if you have an issue with things, you may address them with me."
"But where is she going?" Longbottom asked, surprising him.
Even after fighting amongst some of the most rabid of Death Eaters, the Lovegood girl remained as unnervingly mystifying as ever as she said, "To be with her father of course. I imagine after so many years, they'll have a great deal to talk about.
"I do hope you'll allow me to call on her this summer, Professor. Wiltshire is supposed to be quite lovely this time of year. Splendid weather for all manner of outdoor events such as weddings."
"What on earth are you talking about, girl? Poppy I think this one needs a second exam," Moody barked.
"Why Professor Snape is engaged of course. It's still in its infancy, no more than an hour old if I had to guess, but it's as easy to see as you or I are. I think Hermione will be a great match for you."
"Miss Lovegood, if this is your idea of a joke, it is not funny and injured or not, will earn you detention every night until the end of term," he coolly replied.
"It's no joke, Professor," the witch insisted. "Your magic is resting against her heart."
"Severus please tell me you didn't offer anything to the locket…" Minerva worried, stepping up to them. Unable to answer her as he tried to keep his outward expression neutral in the face of having unwittingly tied himself to yet another person who would have control over him, she dismissed, "Nevermind, it's not important right now. Her father and I will deal with it. It's not exactly binding, just delicate to extract; now go before you lose any more time."
Nodding his head at the dismissal, he stepped into Madam Pomfrey's floo to travel to the ground floor of the castle as quickly as possible and wasted no time in Disapparating to Malfoy Manor upon crossing the gates. The sooner he got Minerva's daughter to the Dark Lord, the sooner he could heal her, and the sooner he would be free of the new circle of hell he had just stumbled into.
AN:
A few quick notes now that we've dove in:
1. For the sake of this story, none of the Death Eaters were caught after the Battle at the Department of Mysteries.
2. Going off of the extended life expectancy of witches and wizards, Minerva's years of fertility are also hyper extended
3. There are horcruxes but there are not seven of them and the locket is not one of them
4. As mentioned in the blurb, while this is set during a very tense point in canon with everyone gearing up for the coming war, this is not a war or wizarding politics centric story. While aspects will come into play, this is first and foremost a story of falling in love, coming back to love, the bonds between parents and their children, and redemption and the plot will reflect that
5. The song lyrics on my mood board come from the Ed Sheeran song Kiss Me which has heavily inspired me while planning this story out