Author's Notes: Thanks for the reviews! I'm glad that most of you seem to be enjoying the story… at the moment anyway.

150 points to Zigflorian, who correctly guessed this chapter title!

This chapter's a long one. Hope you enjoy it!

Disclaimer: Harry Potter belongs to J.K. Rowling.

Chapter Thirty-Eight: The Storm

Where did she want to live? The question plagued Ellie as she sat in Professor Flitwick's Charms class, not hearing a word he was saying. It had been two days since Amelia had been to the school. She told Ellie to think about what she wanted, and that she had to the end of term to decide anyway.

Ellie felt completely torn. She loved being with Amelia, and going with Amelia meant being close to Jamie. When she had been there last, she had not wanted to leave – didn't that mean something? But then there was her father.

All her life she had wondered about her father, wanted to meet him, to get to know him, and now here he was. This was her chance to know her father, and it would be crazy to throw that chance away. She may never get to spend time with Snape again the way she had been for the last few months.

The question continued to distract her, right up until she arrived at Snape's office for her extra lessons. As Snape stood before her, reciting some information that she should probably be taking in but didn't, she felt pangs of guilt for even considering Amelia's proposal. She began to wonder about Snape's proposal. He had told Amelia that as long as she agreed to some rules then he would let her live with him – what were the rules? Ellie began to hope Snape would bring the subject up so they could talk about it.

Snape noticed Ellie's distracted state, and correctly deduced that Amelia's news was the cause. With a roll of his eyes he leaned over his desk and said Ellie's name loudly – snapping her out of her musings.

"Ellie."

She jumped.

"Oh!" she said, and looking at Snape staring at her she added a muttered apology.

"Sorry."

"I suppose Amelia has spoken to you then?" he asked. There was a vague hint of something in his voice that Ellie could not put her finger on, but it sounded like disgust.

"Er… yeah," Ellie admitted.

There was silence, as each waited for the other to continue. Eventually Snape let out an irritated sigh.

"Well?" he said.

"Um…"

Snape shook his head with annoyance, and stood up straight behind is desk. He began to pace about the room. Ellie's eyes followed his steps.

"What's your decision?" Snape asked, coming to a sudden stop almost on top of her. She backed away in her chair instinctively as he leaned over her.

"What did you mean by 'rules'?" Ellie asked.

He stared at her for one second longer than she was comfortable with, and then began to pace about again.

"Well, you were there this summer – you might have an idea," he said.

"Not really," Ellie replied.

"You must remain indoors at all times," Snape stated. Ellie stood up.

"All the time? Why?"

"It's… it's not a good area," Snape said.

Ellie gave an exasperated laugh at this.

"It seemed fine enough when you took me out!"

"That was a… special circumstance," he hissed. Ellie could not help smiling to herself as she remembered the excuse she had used to get out of the house.

"Before you got there… I would expect you to have everything you would need for the length of the holiday, except food of course. I'll take care of that."

Ellie thought she could detect a very faint pink hue on his cheeks, but it was so faint she didn't know if it was simply the candlelight reflecting off his skin.

"I still don't get what the big deal is – not if you were with me like last time," Ellie muttered.

Snape swept over to her and leaned over her again. Although this time they were both standing, he was still considerably taller than she was, and he towered over her.

"And what happened last time? You couldn't keep your mouth shut!" he snapped.

"Yeah, to save you from looking like a sleazy perve!" she retorted. Snape's eyes flashed angrily as she spoke.

"I hardly think…" Snape began, but Ellie cut in.

"You've got that right!" she said with a snort.

She regretted it the instant she said it. Snape's eyes narrowed into slits as he glared furiously at her.

"Look," she began, trying to smooth things over. "Maybe in the wizarding world it's okay for a man dressed all in black with greas… with er, long hair to go skulking about with a teenage girl, but in the Muggle world it raises a few eyebrows. We got a few stares as it was! I was trying to stop that old woman from gossiping that she had seen Severus Snape hanging about the high street with a thirteen-year-old girl to the local policeman. Trust me; old women live to gossip."

"Oh yes, thanks to you she's now gossiping that she saw me with my thirteen-year-old daughter. That is so much better! Snape said sarcastically.

There he was again, acting as if he was ashamed that someone knew she was his daughter. What was that all about?

"Is it such a problem that some random old woman who'll you'll probably never see again knows that I'm your kid?" Ellie asked, her hands on her hips.

Snape took a moment before answering.

"I've already told you that this situation is… well private."

"Who cares? Seriously – I think the only person who would get worked up about it is you!" Ellie said, frustrated.

"You have no idea," Snape muttered. Ellie heard him, and shot him a confused look.

"Then tell me!"

Snape let out an angry sigh.

"Not now," he snarled.

"Well when then? What is your problem with telling people about me? Are you ashamed of me? Is that it?" Ellie said as angry tears sprang to her eyes.

"Do we have to do this now?" Snape snapped angrily.

"What's wrong with now?"

"We are in the middle of lesson!"

"Yeah well, not any more," Ellie said in a choked voice, and ran out of the office. Snape growled angrily after her, but let her go without following. He slammed the door in frustration.

A few minutes later and Ellie was pacing the floor in her room, mulling over her latest fight with Snape. She didn't know what it was – a conversation would start off fairly reasonably but within minutes, they would be tearing into each other. And she was actually going to be living with him? They'd fight like cats and dogs all the time probably, except she'd have nowhere to storm off to except for that stuffy old room where there was barely enough room to swing a cat.

About the only time they did not argue was when they were working, but Ellie couldn't keep that up for a solid six or seven weeks – it would be a nightmare. No, if Snape wanted her to live with him then they would really have to work out some better ground rules. What would be the big deal if she caught the bus to the high street every once in a while to get a break? She would be fourteen in July; it wasn't as if she was a little kid. Plus, she had a wand for goodness sakes – with the amount of curses and hexes she knew, courtesy of Snape himself – anyone who tried to hassle her would find themselves in a sorry state. True she wasn't actually supposed to use magic during the summer, but surely in the case of self-defence, since Snape seemed to think she would be attacked, there would be some leeway. The Ministry of Magic hardly expected you to just stand there and be beaten up, or whatever else Snape was worried about.

The following day was Tuesday, and Ellie had neither a Potions lesson nor an evening lesson with Snape. When she woke up that morning, she felt bad about their fight – not for what she had actually said, but for running out on him. The truth was it hurt when Snape seemed to act so bothered by the fact that she was his daughter – as if it was some filthy little secret that he had to keep hidden at all costs. She wanted Snape to accept her – to love her. Okay, the idea of Snape loving anyone even made her snort a bit, but she was his child, he must feel something for her?

Ellie bumped into Snape in the corridors that afternoon after her last class.

"Oh! Good afternoon Professor," she stammered, feeling awkward as completely oblivious students surrounded them, not one of them suspecting anything strange about the conversation between the third year Gryffindor student and the Potions Master.

"El… Miss Winterbourne," Snape replied. Ellie almost laughed, as Snape looked briefly flustered when he began to call her by the 'wrong' name. He recovered quickly, and only someone looking closely would have noticed.

"Er… about the thing we discussed yesterday… I should have stayed to listen to what you had to say," Ellie muttered, rubbing one arm absent-mindedly.

"Yes… well perhaps you could call by my office this evening and we could discuss the matter further," Snape said.

"Okay," Ellie told him. He nodded, and then moved off.

Ellie watched him go, marvelling at the fact that the enigmatic Professor Snape, whose robes were now billowing about him for dramatic effect as he walked swiftly, was really her father. It had been almost a year, but she still had to shake her head in amazement at it sometimes.

While Ellie ate her dinner, she thought out some points that she could make to Snape in a reasonable manner. It would not do to storm off again. By the time she was knocking on his door she felt confident that she and Snape could have a reasonable discussion about what would happen if Ellie did go to live with him.

"Professor Snape," she greeted him in an official type of voice –as if this was a business meeting. Snape raised an eyebrow for a moment, but then returned her greeting.

"Miss Winterbourne," he said, copying her tone. Ellie scowled involuntarily. He was making fun of her! A thin, mocking smile confirmed this. Ellie closed her eyes and took a breath, willing herself to keep her temper under wraps.

"Ahem. I think we have a few things to discuss," she continued, taking a seat.

Snape's eyebrow shot up again, and his smile returned.

"Indeed," he replied, taking his own seat.

"Would you like to go first?" he added, putting the tips of his fingers together and giving her a quizzing look.

Ellie resisted the sudden impulse to stick out her tongue at him. One of the things she wanted to push was that she was mature enough to go out by herself. She could not let him provoke her into childish behaviour – which she half-suspected he was trying to do to carry his point.

"First of all, if I come to live with you, I don't think it's unreasonable for me to go out and get some fresh air now and then. It's not healthy to stay cooped up under the one roof for so long."

Snape rolled his eyes and dropped his hands on to the desk.

"I'll decide what's reasonable and what is not," he told her.

Ellie scowled again.

"Why?"

"Why?" Snape repeated, a dangerous gleam in his eyes. Ellie ignored this.

"Yep, why. Explain it to me," she said.

"Why should I?" Snape countered.

He caught Ellie by surprise, and she had to take a moment to think of a response. She felt her cheeks begin to burn as he smirked at her.

"Because… because I'll be fourteen, I'm not a kid anymore. I have a right to know why you want to hide me away."

"Who says I'm hiding you away?"

"Aren't you?"

"I told you – it's not a good area. You might find yourself in trouble if you go gallivanting about."

Ellie scoffed.

"I'll take my wand!"

"You're not allowed to use magic outside of school," Snape retorted with a triumphant look.

"Well then, you go out with me."

"I don't care for fresh air myself," Snape said.

Ellie rolled her eyes in spite of herself.

"You have an answer for everything, don't you?" she said, irritated.

Snape made a mock bow, gesturing with his hand.

"What's the real reason?" Ellie asked. It was Snape's turn to roll his eyes.

"I've already told you…"

Ellie let out an indignant snort.

"I'm not an idiot, you know. What, are you afraid someone's going to see me and put two and two together?"

The mocking look disappeared from Snape's face, and was replaced with a more serious expression. Ellie sat up straight.

"Aha!" she cried.

"What?" he asked irritably.

"I saw that. You are worried about someone seeing me!"

Snape scowled at her. Ellie frowned.

"Why? What is the big deal?"

"Haven't we already had this conversation?" Snape growled.

Ellie had to laugh to herself. Yes, they had. This was almost exactly how their conversation the previous evening had gone. This time however, Ellie was standing her ground.

"I'm not running away this time, so you'll just have to answer the question," Ellie stated simply.

Snape scowled again.

"Why must you always ask so many questions?" he snarled.

"Because you never tell me what I want to know," Ellie retorted, her boldness growing.

"There are some things you don't need to know," he replied with an angry sigh.

"Such as?" Ellie asked.

Snape stood up, frustrated.

"You know Ellie, my grandmother had a saying – 'Ask me no questions, I'll tell you no lies'. Perhaps it's a concept you could look into adopting," he said, striding towards the door.

"Hold on!" Ellie cried, jumping up.

"We're not done yet!" she added.

"We are now," Snape said coldly, and pulled his door open. He stood there waiting.

Ellie darted her eyes about in annoyance before giving in.

"Fine," she muttered and stalked out of the room.

From then on, Ellie and Snape became more cold and reserved with each other. Anyone who had suspicions that there may have been more to their relationship than professor and student would have had their doubts quashed by the formal way in which they addressed and behaved with each other in class, and when they happened to meet in a corridor. The extra lessons continued, but they involved work only. Snape began to push Ellie harder, and piled on more extra work for her to do in her free time. She wondered if this was Snape's way of punishing her.

Months passed, and spring gave way to summer. The whole school became obsessed with exams again, which were coming up in just one month. Ellie was feeling more stressed out than a good number of even the NEWTs students. Snape was not only taking up much of her study time with his lessons, but he had also mentioned getting copies of the OWL papers and testing Ellie over the summer. He seemed to have taken it for granted that she would be living him and not going to live with Amelia in America.

Ellie groaned to herself when she had a spare moment. This year had been nowhere near as enjoyable as her first two – it had in fact been a struggle most of the time. Snape kept pointing out to her that she barely needed to study as she was well past her year now in most of her subjects, but that wasn't the point. Ellie felt like she was missing out on other things – hanging out with friends for example. She had only gone to Hogsmeade once this year – every other time Snape had wanted her for more lessons. It was exasperating at times.

Still, despite it all, Ellie had almost made up her mind about what to do at the end of term. Although Snape drove her crazy a lot he was still her father, and that had to count for a lot. Although she loved Amelia and wanted to be closer to Jamie again, Ellie felt that she would regret passing up the chance to be with her father. She could still go and visit Amelia and Jamie in the holidays for a week or two. It wasn't nearly enough, but it would have to do. Although things seemed strained with Snape now, Ellie felt they had to get better. He was her father after all. Not all of his (unreasonable) demands may make sense to Ellie, but she felt that they must come from some sort of paternal affection for her – even if he was reluctant to show it. If they got to know each other better and he relaxed a bit more around her then that might change. If she went to America, she would never know.

While Ellie was thinking to herself about her relationship with Snape, someone else was musing over it too – Devin Farley. He was very curious about the amount of time Ellie spent in Snape's office. He had seen her coming and going from there many times. He didn't believe it was all detentions. He overheard snippets of conversations that he managed to piece together enough to deduce that Ellie was getting some kind of extra tuition from Snape. At first, Devin had thought it was to do with Potions – but Ellie was obviously miles better than anyone in the class was so that didn't make any sense. What was Snape teaching her then? Whatever it was Devin felt decidedly jealous. Wasn't he a Slytherin, and a pure-blood, and Snape was giving help to that half-blood Gryffindor? That wasn't right at all. In fact, Devin was positively seething. Where did Snape's loyalties lie anyway?

Devin decided that it was time Ellie was shown up in front of everyone. He had not forgotten his former rivalry with her friend Jamie – another black mark against Ellie. He would show her that Slytherins were the best in the school, no matter what grand ideas she was getting from Snape's attention.

The Gryffindor and Slytherin third years had a Potions class on Fridays. That Friday, Devin waited outside the classroom with his cronies for Ellie to appear. He had decided against using any spells on her in case he got caught – you couldn't hide a spell from a teacher – but Ellie had already proven herself to have a short fuse, so a few well-choice words should get her angry enough to strike out – just in time for Snape to come along and see everything. That would show her all right.

When Ellie did appear in the corridor, Devin watched her approach with a satisfied smirk.

"Hello Winterbourne," he said as she approached the door. He stepped in front of it, blocking her path.

"Out of the way Devin," Ellie said, sounding annoyed.

"Heard from your boyfriend lately Winterbourne? Miss him? Kiss your pillow at night and pretend it's him?"

Devin's friends sniggered about him, and Devin continued to smirk at her.

"Shut up," she muttered, and attempted to pass him. He grabbed her to stop her, and pushed her back. Out of the corner of his eye, he had seen black robes sweeping around the corner at the end of the corridor. He would have to make this quick or else wait for the next class.

Devin made kissing noises to Ellie, and his friends copied him. Ellie felt furious, but she knew there was no point in losing her temper with Devin. Humiliation was the only thing that worked with him. Some Gryffindor students had popped their heads out of the door to see what was going on.

"You seem awfully concerned with Jamie, Devin. What's wrong? Miss him yourself? We all know why you spent so much time trying to get his attention…" Ellie said, a wicked gleam in her eye. She knew it was a low blow, but it was effective. The Gryffindors exploded with guffaws and even a couple of Slytherins began to snicker. Devin suddenly scrunched up his face in anger. He forgot about Snape, who was only a few feet in front of them, making his way to the classroom.

"You filthy little…" he began, but couldn't think of a word nasty enough to finish the sentence, so instead he pulled back his fist and punch her swiftly in the face. Ellie, caught off-guard, was thrown to the floor, blood gushing from her mouth. Devin stood over her, prepared to strike her again, but he was pulled back by a couple of Gryffindor boys. Snape was upon the scene immediately – instinctively running to Ellie and gently helping her up.

"What's going on here?" Snape said angrily. He realised his arms were still around Ellie, and he hastily dropped them.

"You saw what happened!" Chris, a Gryffindor boy, replied.

"She insulted me!" Devin shouted quickly, knowing that Snape was always biased in favour of Slytherins. Devin made gestures to his friends to back him up, and they began to enthusiastically claim that Ellie had started it – calling Devin all kinds of nasty things. Their voices drowned out the angry protests from the Gryffindors.

Snape looked at Ellie and then at Devin, aghast. He was caught. He had seen the whole thing of course. Devin had clearly attacked Ellie – and only a remarkable feat of self-control had stopped Snape from immediately blasting Devin through the wall. Had it been any other student than Ellie in this situation he would have admonished them for provoking Devin and then put the matter behind him. Devin was looking at him expectantly. When he turned to look at Ellie, he saw that she was looking at him expectantly too. He was torn. If he did the right thing and punished Devin, it would arouse suspicions. Ellie would understand, surely.

"Miss Winterbourne," he said, his voice shaking slightly, although none of the Slytherins noticed this. They were too busy smirking triumphantly.

"I'm not sure what happened here, but I will not tolerate insulting another student. Five points from Gryffindor."

Snape then turned away from Ellie and walked towards the door of the classroom.

Something inside Ellie snapped. An intense anger began to rise within her, to a degree which she had never experienced before.

"What?" she said in a quiet voice behind Snape. He stopped, paused a moment, and then whirled around.

"You heard me Miss Winterbourne," he said coldly.

Ellie's breathing was shallow, her eyes on fire. The blood dripping down her chin added to her menacing look.

"Please tell me you are joking?" she said, her voice raised.

"If you wish to discuss this later…"

"No! I don't wish to discuss this later!" Ellie shouted. Snape winced.

"You saw what happened. Don't you dare tell me you didn't! There is absolutely no way you could not have seen what happened!"

"I…" Snape began, but Ellie didn't let him finish.

"What are you going to do about this?" Ellie yelled, gesturing at her mouth, which was still bleeding from an unknown source.

"I'll take you to the Hospital Wing," Snape said, taking her arm, eager to lead her away from the eagle-eyed Slytherin and Gryffindor students, who so far had hung on to every word of their conversation with interest.

Ellie shook Snape off, and gestured at Devin.

"I meant him! You saw him punch me! What happens to him?" Ellie said angrily.

Snape looked at Devin, who adopted an innocent expression. He then looked back at Ellie, although he avoided eye contact.

"I didn't actually see anything…" Snape said, but Ellie let out an indignant laugh, cutting off the rest of his sentence.

"Yeah right! You bloody well did!"

Snape flinched, but his expression remained cold.

"He did punch her! We all saw it!" a Gryffindor boy shouted from behind Snape's back.

"Well? There you go!" Ellie said, gesturing at the students standing behind Snape.

"Since I didn't actually see anything, I can't assume…" Snape began through clenched teeth, but again Ellie cut him off.

"Assume? You're perfectly willing to assume I insulted Devin with no proof! There's physical evidence of Devin punching me staring you right in the face and you can't assume he did?" Ellie shouted, a look of disgust on her face.

"I can trust Mr. Farley's word…"

"Oh! But you can't trust mine, is that it?" Ellie yelled angrily. Her eyes blazed fiercer than ever as she let out a disbelieving laugh.

"I don't' believe this!" she shrieked.

"This subject is over!" Snape snarled, trying to calm her down, or at least shut her up.

"No it's not! I can't believe… you actually trust him more than me?" Ellie asked incredulously.

"This is not the time," he hissed angrily at her, but she ignored him, and gave a disbelieving sigh.

"Do I mean anything to you? Seriously? Am I just wasting my time here?" she said. Snape glared furiously at her.

"That will do!" he snapped.

"I mean, I'm about to give up… (shaking her head) Everything comes ahead of me, doesn't it? What people think of you? It's why you won't… I mean you know what happened here, but you're listening to that weasel over me!"

"Ellie," Snape hissed, trying to shut her up. Devin, standing on Snape's right hand side, mouthed, "Ellie?" with a puzzled look. A couple of the Gryffindors did the same thing.

"I just… I can't…" Ellie stammered, feeling at a loss for words. She glared up at Snape, her eyes meeting his. He was furious. The anger had faded from her eyes, and was replaced with a look of bitter disappointment. Snape was taken aback by this, and his own hard expression melted briefly in confusion.

"I can't stay here," Ellie suddenly stated, looking confused, but sounding firm. She began to walk off back to the stairs that led upstairs.

"Where do you think you're going?" Snape shouted after her. Ellie turned back, the same disappointed look on her face.

"I can't stay here," she repeated more firmly.

"Get into class now!" Snape yelled, his anger returning. Ellie turned back and kept on walking.

"Ellie!" he yelled after her, his face red with fury, but she paid no attention. She made it to the end of the corridor and turned the corner, finally out of his view.

Snape stood still for a moment. He was breathing furiously, like a bull, his fists clenched by his sides.

Slowly, he turned around. A collection of shocked, amused and puzzled faces stared at him.

"Get into class," he hissed. The students did as they were told immediately, scrambling over each other to get to their seats. Anyone with even the barest acquaintance with Snape's temper knew that he was in a dangerous mood right now, and doing anything to anger him would be both foolish and, possibly, suicidal.

Ellie walked up the steps and into the Entrance Hall without pausing, and then, feeling weak, slumped against a wall and slid to the floor. She was in shock. Blood was still spilling from her but it poured down her chin and on to her robes, forgotten. All she could think about was her fight with Snape. It replayed over and over in her mind, until Professor McGonagall's horrified shrieks got her attention, and she was hurried off to the Hospital Wing. All Professor McGonagall's questions about what had happened went unheard by Ellie however, as the questions of Snape and what to do next consumed her thoughts, giving her a zombie-like appearance.

While Madame Pomfrey bustled about, tending to Ellie's lip and exclaiming at the fate of the school when a girl is attacked like this, it hit Ellie like lightening. She knew. She knew what she had to do next. She had always known somehow.

When Ellie got back to her common room that evening, she brushed aside the concerned questions of her classmates and sat down to write a letter. When she was finished she examined it, and she noticed blotches on the parchment, caused by tears she was not even aware she had been crying.

Wiping her face, she sealed her letter and then went off to the Owlery to find Helga.

"Take this to Amelia," she told the bird, giving her a pat. Helga took off gracefully, leaving Ellie to watch her soaring through the sky. When Helga had flown out of sight, Ellie suddenly felt exhausted. Collapsing against the wall, all the pent up emotions of the day began pouring out, and she spent the next hour huddled up by the wall, crying bitterly as the realisation of what she had just lost sunk in.