Thanks to reviewers again x) at the moment, im having difficulty filling and arranging my ideas…..they are there but I cant quite put them all into play, so to speak, so sorry if updates are infrequent.
Disclaimer: I don't own anything except my imagination x) x(
(A/N: this is a while into the holidays)
Summer sat with Snape at the dining table, her chin in her right hand whilst she toyed with her cereal spoon in her left. She sighed and stared out of the window at the green, perfectly manicured grounds of her family's manor. The room she sat in was ridiculously large for two people, the enormous table could seat up to fifteen, there was a grand piano in one corner and two love seats in the other, infront of a second fire place. The room was a foul, in Summers opinion, dusky rose and had flowery cushions on the seats and curtains that matched.
"Unc?" she began, dropping the spoon into the china bowl.
"Hmmm?" was the reply from behind the paper.
"Well, I was wondering how I never got a letter to attend Hogwarts when Jake did, even though I am a pure-blood witch?" she asked. It was a question that had been annoying her for sometime, and as she had nothing better to do, much to the annoyance of Severus, she decided to ask lots of questions.
He sighed and folded the paper into a neat rectangle and placed it infront of him.
"Shortly after the prophecy concerning Potter, there was another, one of which concerned you. Well, at least of a pure-blood in my family that would aid and betray Voldemort at the same time. Seeing as I don't have children and your mother was the only one with children at the time, it was assumed to be one either of you. Seeing as Luke had already been in the wizarding world, it was obvious it had to be you; your parents were banished before you were born. As to avoid any conflict or mistrust, we had to keep it from you. Which is also why we had never met before this past year." He explained, taking a sip of his coffee.
"Oh. Ok then." Summer replied, and opened her mouth to ask another question. Seeing that she was about to, Snape quickly shot it one of his own.
"I thought you were going out today?"
"Oh yeah. Well, my friends wont actually be out of bed yet." Summer sighed. He raised an eyebrow at that.
"And why are they still at this late a time?"
"In the muggle world there are these things called T.V, the cinema, computers, skate parks, concerts…" she began, stopping when she noticed the confused expression on her uncles face "basically, there are far more interesting things to do then sleep at night."
"Ah. So what are you planning on doing today?" Summer eyed him suspiciously. Since when was he interested in what she was doing?
"Probably shopping or something." She replied, twirling her pocket chain around her fingers. She didn't particularly enjoy wearing robes; they were too much like dresses to her, even if you did wear other clothes underneath.
Two hours later, she stood infront of the hallway fire place, ready to floo to her house before meeting up with her friends. She now had no problems with this mode of transport; it was the only way she could see Draco as he refused point blank to set foot into Snapes house.
"Don't forget, you must be back by eleven." Snape reminded her, some of his "professorness" coming back.
"Yeah, yeah." Summer muttered, rolling her eyes and shifting her bag. She hadn't had a curfew for about four years now, and it was highly annoying having one now. She was sure it was because he couldn't quite let go of having some sort of power over younger people. She waved as she disappeared.
'Damn.' Summer thought to herself as she looked down at her watch, stepping out on to the now extremely quiet street of Rempold wizarding town. She knew she was late, that's why she had chosen this fire place, but she didn't realize she was this late; one o' clock in the morning. Gathering up her newly acquired bags that contained new clothing and other items she had brought, she broke into a hurried jog as she headed to her new home.
'he is so gonna kill me…but then again he might be in bed.' She said to herself. Skidding around the gate post, she could only see one room that was lighted, and that was one on the third floor; the library. She turned the door handle very slowly and closed it just as carefully as she stepped into the cool darkness of the entrance hall. ' so far so…'
"And what time do you call this?" an angered yet dangerously cool voice interrupted her thoughts, and a sudden gleam of light momentarily blinded her. Visibly freezing on the spot, Summer turned slowly to see her uncle. He stood there with an expressionless face, straight backed, his arms folded. But from the look in his dark eyes, she could tell that he was far from calm.
"Umm… ten past one?" she replied, somewhat cheekily. Not a good idea. The corner of his mouth twitched and a look that could quite easily kill someone from an extremely long distance settled on his face.
"Don't you dare take that tone with me, let alone respond like that! When I say eleven o' clock, I damn well mean eleven, not ten past one!"
Summer scowled and gave him one of her own venomous looks. She hated being yelled at, it just got her mad.
"And you shouldn't tell me what to do! I'm not eleven any more, and I've not had a curfew since I was fourteen! You can't damn well expect me to do absolutely everything you say, and besides which you aren't even my father! I don't have to listen to you if I don't want to, which I don't." she spat back, turning on her heels and storming toward the stairs. For a few seconds Severus stood in shock, he had never been answered back before, well at least not since he had become a teacher. People never dared. Then he scowled himself and swept toward the stairs as Summer stormed up them, yelling at him and stamping.
"I have not finished yet, you get back here right now!" he ordered angrily. Summer turned in mid stomp, with a look in her eyes that could have (scarily) out done himself.
"Why, so you can just yell some more? That's all this is about, isn't it? A power struggle, you just cant stand the fact that I have dared go against what you've decided is law, you don't really give a damn about what happens to me, just as long as you can still have some control over someone. After all, there's not any danger any more, Voldemorts dead and all his brainwashed, idiotic followers have got a fate worse than hell." She retorted, folding her arms and staring straight back at him. He glared back, not twitching.
"Oh that's what you think is it? That its all for power? You naïve…" he was about to say brat, but he had a feeling that he may face even worse treatment, unfortunately bad tempers seemed to run in this family and 'bad' was a very mild term to describe Summers. Clenching and unclenching his hands, he continued, with an angered sneer;
"For your information, I do care. And there is still danger out there, you just don't know, and yes, it is just as bad as the dark lord." Seeing her about to respond again, he carried on. "And for disrespecting my request, you will now be grounded for a week!" Summer just stared at him for a minute, opened her mouth and closed it again, her jaw clenched. She then swirled around and stormed off up to her room, slamming the door as hard as she could. 'Sadistic, horrible, damn bastard.' She thought to herself angrily. 'Like he really gives a damn about me. Ha.' Throwing her clothes across the room, she quickly dressed in her pyjamas and threw a thin sheet over her head, screaming into the pillows.
Snape sighed and rubbed his tired eyes as he heard the door crash shut. She was far more difficult to deal with then the entire school, and she was barely in. 'That was probably the worst thing I could have done, ground her.' He thought as he began to climb the stairs. 'Don't be stupid, are you going soft?' he argued to himself. He sighed again as he entered his own room. He remembered back to the time when he was Summer's age, it always seemed incredibly difficult to follow rules, whoever they were from. And she was quite right, he wasn't her father, but then again it was his house so he had the right to make her return at any time he damn well pleased. Growling in annoyance, he threw a thin sheet over himself as he climbed into his own four poster bed, glowering at the moon that shone brightly into his window.
The next morning, Summer didn't say anything as she slumped into a chair at the table, but an unmistakable icy feeling seemed to fill the room as she swept by. He lifted the paper higher, but he could still feel her glare from the other side of the table. An elf brought in their breakfast, muttering to itself, although it quietened as it entered the room; you could have cut the atmosphere with a knife.
Summer started spinning her butter knife around in annoyance, still glaring at what ever happened to be infront of her at the time. Somehow the grating, rattling noise of it on the polished wood soothed her very slightly, however, it just irritated her Uncle.
"Must you do that, Summer?" he said eventually, letting out an annoyed sigh. He rolled her eyes as she deliberately turned so her back was facing him.
"For goodness sake.." he began through gritted teeth. Pinching the bridge of his nose and closing his eyes, continued "look, this could go on forever…would you please stop with this nonsense." Putting her spoon back into the bowl, she turned to face him. Unfortunately, she had put the spoon down at an angle, so as she went to rest her arms on the table, cereal projected through the air, landing with a resounding splat all over Severus. They both froze as Summer had the night before, only this time Summer had to resist the urge to laugh. Snape then felt a small smile tug at the corner of his mouth, which made Summer giggle and then burst out laughing.
"I..I'm sorry Unc..I.." she began, but collapsed into helpless giggles when she saw milk slowly run and drip off of his nose. He smiled again and cleared up the mess with a flick of his wand.
"Well, we will call ourselves even then, shall we?" he said as Summer sat up as her giggles began to wear off.
"Sure, that was soo funny!" she replied. Then, unexpectedly she got up and gave him a hug before leaving the room, leaving him quite shocked.
As he was so busy, Snape decided to allow Summer to go up into the town to buy an ingredient he needed for a new potion he was brewing for test at St Mungos.
"Now, you should be able to get the Trallow vine in Ullitayne, he generally stocks rarer ingredients." He explained as Summer stood at the door.
"K K got it, Trallow vine." She muttered, half to herself. "See you in a while!" she called as she made her way down the driveway. Pulling at her robes, she dwindled up the high street, looking in a few interesting shops. Summer had decided on robes because she knew that she would get extremely weird looks otherwise.
She finally reached Ullitayne, the potion and medical remedies ingredient suppliers. The shop was packed full of strange looking things; from dead beetles to the Trallow Vine that her uncle had requested.
"Can I help you?" an old and slightly wheezing voice asked from behind. Turning, Summer saw an incredibly skinny, tall old wizard with a cracked smile looking down at her. He wore deep blue robes with velvet trimming that matched his wise old eyes that were sunk deep into his sun-kissed, wrinkled skin. His hair was thinning on top and a shade of whitish silver.
"Yes, I'm looking for some Trallow vine?" she replied, smiling politely.
"Ah, yes, yes. You are from the Snape family, no?" he asked as he pulled a triangular, crystal jar off of a shelf and strode over to the weights on the stone counter.
"Umm…yeah.." Summer replied, now slightly confused as to how he knew.
"Yes, I thought so, you have that presence." He replied, busily weighing out the amount she said. Summer just pulled a face; she hoped he didn't mean that presence her uncle had. That was more of an insult than a compliment. "You see, all of the Snape family have a very captivating presence, and although your uncle may seem cold and distant, you will find that people still find him difficult to ignore." He continued, though almost as he had read her mind. It made her feel a bit strange, not necessarily uncomfortable, just odd. She was still thinking about it when some other feeling washed over her, making her stop dead in her tracks.
Looking around, she noticed that this particular stretch of the street was practically deserted, and she was right in-between two very dark alley ways, one on either side of the road. Eyes were penetrating her; cold, blood hungry eyes that stared at her washing over in an icy, heart stopping wave.
Summer gasped as she felt the feeling intensify. Suddenly, an arm wound its way around her waist, and a hand clasped its iron grip over her mouth before she even had a chance to scream like anything. She tried to wriggle and kick, but her captor just covered her nose as well so that she couldn't breathe. Her eyes widened in fright as he dragged her into the dark alley to the right of her, she knew it was a he because the voice that hissed in her ear was too deep to be a womans.
"No point in struggling, you won't get away." She felt him let go of her waist and slip his hand into one of his robe pockets. Then a pop, much like that of a cork popping off of a champagne bottle echoed slowly off the surrounding walls. Summer then felt his arm that covered her mouth move slowly down her body to her waist, and the cold glass of a bottle pressed against her lips.
"You'd better drink this." The cold voice continued to hiss. He squeezed her stomach with his strong arm, causing her to gasp for air and then choke as he forced the bottle upwards, causing the content to pour down her throat.
The liquid was cooling, freezing even. Summer gasped for air again, her throat feeling slightly raw from the coldness. She then felt him let go of her, but wished he hadn't. her head began to spin and the walls infront of her distorted, to her seeming to grow and lean inwards making her feel very claustrophobic. He spoke again, but his voice…his horrible voice. It was deep, hollow and grating, a voice that made her stomach churn and a cold sweat break out across her skin. Summer then felt cold, thin fingers grasp her arms in an iron grip, making her turn to face him.
At first there didn't seem to be a face, just a pale blur that twisted horribly, but then she saw it. His face was misshapen and twisted, his mouth a horrible, cold and evil grin, his eyes glowed a menacing orange and red; it was like something out of a horror movie. ( A/N: or the new batman if you've seen it xD) At the sight before her, she screamed in terror as his cold, cruel laugh penetrated her ears.
Summer ran as fast as she could, her heart pounding in her ears. Everything was twisted and distorted horribly, the quaint town now a street of horror and merciless, unforgiving people that screeched with laughter as they turned their horrific, mutilated faces at her to watch her run in terror. The buildings seemed to laugh as well, doorways becoming mouths, windows evil, cruel eyes. Even what should have been her safe haven was straight from a nightmare. She slammed her way through the doors and shrieked in fear when she saw a wide-eyed house elf staring back at her with gaping, slashed black holes in its head where she should have seen its eyes. The crash of the door had brought Severus to come hurtling out of his study to see his niece screaming in pure panic and terror.
"Whats wrong? Summer?" he asked, a look of concern flicking across his face. She just screamed and shoved him away, his voice was harsh and cold, his words were distorted and cruel.
Running up the stairs, she didn't stop until she reached her room. The furniture also possessed faces that taunted her and grinned evilly whilst seeming to reach out to grab her as she tore passed. Jumping in her bed, she pulled her duvet tightly over her, closing her panicked eye as tightly as she could until she fell into a fitful, restless sleep.
When she awoke, the house was quiet. The horrific images she had seen were still vivid in her mind, yet at the same time they seemed distant, as though they had been a nightmare. She shook her head to try and rid her head of the images, but they still stuck. Pulling off the duvet, she slipped off of the bed and made her way to the door. When Summer reached the ground floor, she took in a slow, deep breath. The hall was cool and calm, so different from how it was before. She could feel a slow, dull throb making its way along the left side of her head. Sighing, she made her way toward her uncles office, hoping he would have something for it.
The door flung open before she could even knock, and she was immediately sat in a large, green velvet chair opposite his own.
"Are you alright?" Summer looked at him for a moment then rubbed her head.
"Not really. I have a horrible headache coming on." Suddenly, a flashback to the alley flickered into her mind, making her shudder. "That…that voice…" she whispered, turning her face toward her uncle, her eyes wide in fear.
"Voice? What voice?" her uncle replied, leaning forward.
"That guy…he…I…" and then, all she could remember was her journey back, the voice and face of the male that pulled her into that alley refused to be remembered. Summer put her elbows on the desk infront of her so she could bury her face in her hands. Then she slumped forwards so her arms were crossed and her chin rested on them. "My head really hurts…do you have anything I can take to get rid of it?" she said eventually.
"Yes,….here you are." Snape pulled a small bottle of a bluey-green potion out of the desk. "I would drink the whole lot." She put the bottle to her lips and drunk it slowly. It was sweet tasting but left a bitterness in her mouth after. The oncoming migraine immediately vanished. Leaning back in the chair, Summer closed her eyes and sighed. After a few moments, she opened them to find her uncle sending off a letter.
"I think its best if you do something that is relaxing, perhaps read?" he suggested.
"Hmm." She replied, standing up. She made her way slowly up to the third floor to get a book, but changed her mind at the last moment, deciding she wanted to go and see Draco instead. She half ran back to the study and opened the door to find Severus, frowning worriedly, whilst he read through the letter he held.
"Hey, unc, is it ok if I go and see Draco instead? I just…" he looked up at her, the frown still on his face.
"Hmm? Yes, go, actually, do you mind if you stay there for a couple of days? There is something I need to…do…it would be easier if you weren't here." Summer just shrugged and nodded, then turned to pack her bags. Draco had said she could stay for as long as she wanted any way, his father was currently keeping himself locked away in his office and his mother never minded who was around, after all she used to happily put up with death-eaters and Voldemort flitting in and out.
Draco's uncle was around again. Kalian bounced across Draco's bed and deliberately landed in the middle of his cousin and Summer. Summer just laughed and pulled him into a hug. Draco looked as though he was about to scowl, changed his mind and tickled the little boy who collapsed into a fit of giggles.
"Your hair is all different, Dwaco." He said, staring up at him with large, grey eyes. Draco grinned and ran his hand through his hair.
"I know. Summer made me get it cut." His normally combed back hair was now shorter and had a slightly messy look to it. It suited his face extremely well and was easier for him to look after, anyway. Summer decided that six plus years with the same hair style was just a little too long, and had dragged him to a muggle barbers to get it cut. He had, of course had to wear muggle clothes which she borrowed from her brother; he had left some at Snapes home when he had stayed last.
"I never made you get it cut…anyway, it looks a lot better." She said, pushing him gently. Kalian got bored and jumped back into Summers lap, pulling the blue duvet up in little mountains. She sat for a while, holding him whilst he chattered to her about all kinds of nonsense. Then, all of a sudden he just fell asleep.
"Draco, you didn't just charm him did you?" she asked, turning to him. He just looked up at the ceiling, attempting to hide his grin by looking innocent, but it didn't fool anyone. Summer laid Kalian gently down at the head of the bed and picked up a pillow.
"Uhoh.." Draco began, but was very quickly whacked around the head with it. Sitting up and laughing, he pulled Summer toward him and kissed her gently. "You know, if you wanted kids that bad, you coulda just said…should try for our own.." he began, a small smile playing on his mouth.
"You cheeky boy!" Summer exclaimed in mock horror, shoving him harder this time so he fell onto his back. He tried to turn himself around so he could grab her, but unceremoniously fell off of the bed, causing Summer to collapse in laughter, though not for long. Draco sat up, grabbed her ankles and pulled her on top of him.
"Ha, now I got you!" he laughed.
"Hmmm..so you have." Summer murmured, wrapping her arms around his neck. She closed her eyes as their lips met. She let him slip his tongue into her mouth, and did the same, running her hands through his hair. It was so soft and silky, and he had never minded her doing it. He ran his own hand through hers whilst keeping one arm firmly around her waist, the current sitting position required good balance.
A sharp knock on the door made Draco sigh and pull away from Summer.
"Come in!" he replied to the knock. His aunt stuck her head around the door and smiled, then raised an eyebrow to the two on the floor.
"I'm going now dears, where is Kalian?" she asked, but then noticed him asleep on the bed. "Kick you off did he?" she grinned, making Draco go a little pink. Summer giggled at that; she was used to those kinds of jokes and comments from her muggle friends.
"Do you want me to carry him out for you?" Draco asked quickly, changing the subject and standing up at the same time.
"Oh no dear, his father will do just fine thank you." She replied, lifting her sleeping son into her arms. "Bye then!" she exclaimed as she left the room.
"Kalians so sweet." Summer commented, sitting on the edge of the bed and glancing at her watch. It was ten to twelve at night. Draco just gave her a funny look. "What? He is, and you looked just like him any way." She said. "Aww your not jealous are you?" she teased, pulling him to sit next to her.
"No." he replied shortly, but couldn't help smile at the teasing look in Summers dark brown eyes that were flecked with gold. "Any way, I haven't finished with you yet." He whispered, kissing her neck slowly. Summer ran her hands across his shoulders then down to his waist, letting him kiss her until they fell back onto the bed.
and that is where I will leave you ;) im sure you can use your own imaginations to fill out the rest of the night. Anyway, wow that was one long chapter! Enjoy.