Lupin's Little Dark One

A/N: How come only certain people have finished HBP. Are those of us that are done obsessed?

My Poll: Have you read HBP?

Yes :cries: 53

Yes 7

No :laughs: 13

I never would 27

In short, 40 of my friends are bums!

Love, Peace, Chicken Grease.

Last Time:

"I'll escort Miss Lupin to my residence, then I will make an appearance at the rally. Molly has already dropped Potter and her children there." Snape said quickly. He grabbed her arm. "Have you done side by side apparition before?"

"Yes, I have a license in all forms Professor." Kieran said. He took her firmly by the arm and they disappeared. The appeared in a war sitting room, where Harry, Ron, and Ginny were. Ron got up and ran over to Kieran.

"Kieran, thank Merlin." Ron exclaimed, hugging her.

Chapter Sixteen: What can come of tragedy?

Kieran hugged Ron back. They then heard an explosion. Kieran swung around and looked at Snape.

"That would be you house Miss Lupin, now if you'll excuse me, I'll be leaving." Snape said quickly and cooly. He disappeared before Kieran could react. As Kieran pictured the scene in her mind she let out a small cry. With another pop Tonks came in, about in tears, clutching Titania and Kieran's guitar case. She and Kieran exchanged glances and Kieran fell into Ron sobbing. Harry caught on.

"No, wait, are you sure Tonks?" Harry asked frantically.

"He went in after a locket... and that when they got there. His watch and your guitar flew out..." Tonks said painfully, looking at Kieran before she broke down into sobs. Ginny, in tears herself, ran to comfort Tonks. Titania jumped to the floor and ran over to Kieran and ducked between her legs. Ron was in shock, but kept a firm hold on Kieran. Harry sat on the floor and stared in the fireplace in disbelief.

"No..." Kieran sobbed into Ron. The group sat there in that state for over and hour. Kieran finally sank to the floor, scaring Titania, and falling silent.

"Kieran, I'm so sorry..." Ginny whispered. Kieran shook her head numbly. Ron knelt next to her and put his arms around her. Dumbledore popped into the room and looked around.

"Miss Lupin, can I have a word?" he asked cautiously. She looked at him for a moment.

"Tonks already told me." she whispered, standing up and walking over to him. "He's dead."

"We found this." Albus extended a hand to reveal a golden locket. "It's what he went back for." Kieran took it and opened. Inside was a picture of Remus and her mother, waving happily with their arms around each other, her mother's stomach was slightly swollen, showing that at the time of the picture she was pregnant. Kieran closed the locket and cried. Dumbledore gently hugged her. "I know this is not an idealistic moment to discuss this, but it must be said. Your father left Professor Snape as your guardian."

"I don't care, just expect to find Snape dead sooner or later." Kieran said softly. "I have a tendency to get my parents killed." Kieran went back and sat on the couch, clutching the locket and staring at the wall. Tonks slowly got up and came to sit by her. "You loved him." Kieran whispered to her. Tonks nodded. The two hugged and their tears began again.

"I'm so sorry, I shouldn't have let him go back!" Tonks cried. Kieran shook her head.

"He would have gone back anyway." Kieran said softly. "The locket I think was more important than the house to him." She opened it and showed Tonks the picture.

"He loved you mother, and that's what kept us." Tonks admitted.

"He would have come around. I'm really sorry." Kieran replied. "He had feelings for you."

"He did?" Tonks asked. Kieran nodded.

"He was just having trouble balancing things." Kieran said. "You kept popping in there though. You must have been pretty special." Tonks gave a small smile. A few moments of silence passed before Snape appeared. He had found out what had happened and what it meant and was looking warily at Kieran.

"They've disbanded Albus. Ministry came." Severus said softly. "Meeting in two weeks." Dumbledore nodded.

"Nymphadora, would you assist me in escorting these three back to the Burrow?" Dumbledore asked. Tonks nodded and the group left. Kieran stayed seated. Snape came up and sat next to her.

"Don't expect sympathy, pity, or love from me. Don't expect me to coddle your imperfections. Don't expect any leans on grades. Don't expect any better treatment than what I've given you so far, that's as nice as I get. Don't you EVER touch me." Snape told her.

"Don't expect to live more than a few years more. Don't expect me to come to you for anything. Don't expect me to ask your permission. Don't expect me to take special care to your class. Certainly don't expect me to call you anything other than Professor Snape. Don't flatter yourself thinking I would want to know anything about you. Don't expect me to tell you anything about myself." Kieran retorted.

The rest of the Christmas break was Kieran holed up in the room Snape had assigned her with her kitten and guitar. Playing the guitar into all hours of the night. Dumbledore had replaced all her personal effects, and had fought tooth and nail with Molly about the arrangements Remus had made.

Snape encouraged Dumbledore to allow Molly to take her, as he was quite sick of being kept awake at night by the sound of Kieran's guitar. The last night, he had enough and went to sort it out. He knocked sharply on the door.

"You can't come in... I'm indecent." Kieran replied to the knock, rather panicked. "Just, hold on..." There was a shuffling in the room. Kieran's mutterings could be heard outside the door. "Where's my wand, I've got to hide this..." Snape had enough. He opened the door and walked in. To find Kieran's bed and arms soaked in blood. He stared at her wide eyed.

"What are you doing Miss Lupin?" he asked softly.

"What does it look like, Professor?" She replied weakly. He drew his wand and cleared the blood away, only to find it run fresh from multiple cuts on her arms. He healed them. She stared at him in fright.

"I demand to know how long this has been going on." Snape said calmly.

"Since I was thirteen." Kieran whispered. She looked down at the floor. "Since the first time I had sex." Snape was staring at her still, more in shock than anything else.

"And no one knew, no one discovered?" he asked softly.

"Concealment charms and cleaning charms, being left alone, and simply sneaking it. It's not that hard." Kieran admitted. "My mother was the only one to ever know. She was too scared I'd go too far to stop me."

"Madness." Snape muttered. "These scars will be with you the rest of your life. Why didn't you properly heal them?"

"Memory." Kieran said. "I want to remember. No matter how bad the memory is."

"There are charms and pensieves for that."

"I don't think storing memories just to get them out of your head is a way to move on. It's just a way of hiding from reality." Kieran pressed. Snape shook his head at her. Worried beyond his own belief about the teen before him.

"Promise me you'll stop." Snape commanded.

"I can't promise that, I've tried before, it's not so easy." Kieran growled. "You know that from experience. I'm not so sure you stopped anyway."

"Your much too young to understand the severity."

"I much too young for a lot of things I've already done."

"If I'm to be caring for you, you're going to listen to me."

"I'd like to see that enforced."

"As much as I detest being hypocritical, this is wrong, and unhealthy, and you shouldn't do it Miss Lupin."

"Well, Professor Snape, I tend to ignore the words of advice given to me by my teachers, unless it pertains to my grade in their class."

"I will be contacting the Headmaster then. Maybe he can put a stop to this."

"Can you let me deal with my father's death in my own way? Please?"

"I thought you weren't going to ask me for anything."

"I thought you weren't going to coddle my imperfections."

"This is different."

"And you've answered you own question." Kieran said softly.

Snape stared at her. She reminded him of himself on so many levels, on the inside of course, she was scared, alone, and desperate for normality, desperate for something stable, as he had always been, and he had still never found it, he hoped she would. He made his way to the doorway and watched her, wondering if he should leave or not.

She sat down against a wall and stared at him deeply. She wanted to hug him, sit in his arms and cry, but she knew that her Professor wouldn't allow it. She knew that he was right, and what she was doing was wrong, but it helped, it took away the hurt of knowing she was now really alone, her family was gone. She saw him get ready to leave.

"No, Professor, please, don't go." Kieran said looking at the floor.

"What for Miss Lupin?" Snape asked.

"I don't want to be alone." Kieran admitted. She wondered what her Professor thought of that confession.

"Really? You would want me to stay?" He was truly startled.

"You're all I have left. Besides, I bet you're not too bad." She replied. She smiled rather softly, and almost unnoticeably.

He caught her smile, it made him nervous, almost like it was Hogwarts all over again and Lily or Marie was helping him up and asking him if he was all right, glaring at the Marauders. He shook the thought, this wasn't Hogwarts, he wasn't a teen and she was, she wasn't Marie, but Marie's daughter with one of the Marauders, she didn't even look like Marie, and above all, she was his student. He cleared his head of those thoughts, knowing she would see them if they came into contact and sat down warily next to her.

"I don't know, Miss Lupin, I rather think I am not the nicest of people." he said stiffly.

"Call me Kieran, please." She said shakily, before falling into him, crying. "I'm sorry Professor. That you got stuck with me." Snape stared at her, carefully wrapping her in his arms, and ignoring the tingle he felt.

"I wouldn't want to be stuck with any other student Kieran." Snape said softly. He gently rubbed her back. "And my name is Severus."