Little note here about a certain character (Snape), I'm making it so he isn't how he is in the book. Granted he still has the greasy hair but apart from that he is sorta good looking but still a greasy haired git with no friends
Weeks passed, and it was soon near the end of November, something that brought a secret and scares. Everyone kept wondering where Carolyn was sneaking off to all the time, it was only Clare who knew where she was going and who she was going to see, no-one asked her about it because they knew they wouldn't get a straight answer out of her, just a short "It's none of your business." or "Nowhere.". They were tempted to look at the Marauders map but it felt like they were spying on her so they decided against it. But on this particualar morning they were about to find out where she was disappearing to.
They were eating breakfast when the post came. Lily saw Carolyn go extremly pale when and owl dropped a letter by her plate - it was off her mother. The six of them looked at her as she opened it, they saw fear in her eyes when she was reading it. Carolyn quickly stuffed the letter in her pocket and looked over at the Slytherin table and caught the eye of the person she wanted. He could see the look on her face and he nodded. She quickly got up from the table and walked out so not to look suspicious. The others looked slightly confused but when Clare saw who got up from the Slytherin table she realised what was going on.
"Wonder what's wrong with her." Lily said, "She looks freaked out about something."
"She's just got a letter from her mother." Clare answered, "And I think I know what it's about, and before you ask I can't say, just in case I'm wrong."
"Caz!" a voice shouted, She turned around and looked at the person standing there, tears in her eyes
"What's wrong?"
"She's ill." Carolyn whispered, "Mum won't tell me what's wrong though, all I know is that she's in St Mungo's."
He took her in his arms and held her close, she cried into his shoulder, she didn't want to leave his arms, it was the one place she felt safe. He took her into an empty classroom so that no-one saw them together, he didn't want to tarnish her reputation by being seen with him - by being seen with a certain Severus Snape.
"Shush baby, it's okay." He whispered, "She'll be fine. I know it."
"I just want to see my daughter, Sev." She sobbed, "I'm gonna see Dumbledore later and ask if I can go and see her."
"Promise you'll tell me how she is."
She looked up and him and whispered
"Come with me."
"What about your mum?" He asked, "Thought she said she'd kill whoever got you pregnant."
She just looked at him but eventually said
"'Cept my mother can't stop you from seeing your daughter."
Carolyn looked at him intently, she knew she shouldn't want to but all she wanted to do was kiss him and to be with him again. She cared about him more than she let on, she wanted to give them another go, not caring about what people said. She wanted to get back with him partly because of thier daughter but it was more the fact that she still loved him, Halloween had made he realise it.
"What is it?"
"Nothing, it's stupid really." Carolyn said, 'Why would he want me back?' she asked herself 'I broke his heart for goodness sake.'
"Well if it's so stupid, tell me."
"I was thinking that maybe we could give us another chance.
Snape didn't say anything, he was waiting for what she was going to add.
"I still love you." She added, "it just took me three years to realise it. When I saw you I felt something I hadn't felt since fourth year and then when Cian kept calling me 'baby' I realised that you're the only peron I've ever let call me 'baby'."
Snape pulled her in and kissed her, (not that either of them realised it at first) She found herself kissing him back, much to the horror of her friends who had just walked past.
"And this is why I said not to use the Marauders Map to look for her!" Clare said
"What is she playing at?" Lily asked dumbstruck, "Of all the people she had to kiss, why did it have to be him?"
They all looked at Clare, they knew that she knew something, but didn't know what she was hiding.
"Spill!"
Clare shook her head, she didn't know what to tell them, but it couldn't be the whole truth.
"I promised i wouldn't"
"Clare we're your friends." Lily and Hannah snapped, "You could at least tell us if they're going out."
"They used to, I dunno if they are now but I think so." Clare replied defeated, "You remember that thing ages ago when we saw..."
Lily and Hannah nodded.
"Well she wasn't lying when she said what she said."
There was silence when Clare said those words, the Marauders looked confused but Lily and Hannah knew what she meant and didnt want to believe it.
"Wait a minute, I just realised something Carolyn wasn't sixteen when that happened, I remember that outfit." Hannah said, "How old was she, Clare?"
"14."
"WHAT?"
"What are you three talking about?"
"Nothing!" the three girl responded
Later on they decided to ask her about it, she admited that she was going out with him but she didn't tell them anything other than that. When she was leaving the girl's dormitory, Lily and Hannah refuse to talk to her, they were angry that she'd lied to them, after an argument Hannah had stormed out and Carolyn was packing a bag because she was going to St Mungo's. As she left, Lily glared at her, still angry with her but she noticed that she dropped something. She picked it up and read what it said
'I've had to take Alafair to St Mungo's because she's ill but don't worry.'
"Clare?"
"Yeah?"
"Who's Alafair?"
There was a pause an then Clare said
"It's her sister."
"Carolyn don't have a sister." Lily replied, "Who is she Clare?"
Clare emerged from the curtain with a look on her face that Lily had never seen before.
"If I tell you then you've got to promise not to tell anyone - not Sirius, not Hannah, no-one."
"Don't tell me what?" Hannah asked, leaning against the doorframe
"Close the door and I'll tell you." Clare hissed, "But you can't breathe a word of this to anyone, especially not Remus, Rachel or Sirius."
"Okay." They promised, "Now spill!"
Clare breathed deeply
"Alafair's her daughter." Clare explained
Both Lily and Hannah stood there speechless
"Wouldn't that make Snape the father?" Lily asked
Clare nodded, still looking at the floor
"Why didn't she say anything?"
"She didn't want you judging her." Clare said, "She didn't even tell her mum until after Alafair was born."
"Oh my God." Hannah whispered, "Why would she think we'd judge her?" We're her friends."
"I think today kinda shows why she didn't, you freaked out at her when you found out about her and Severus."
"How come you knew?" Lily asked
"It could have been either one of us three, basically whoever was in the dorm at the time and it was me in there when she was scared that
she was pregnant. She didn't want anyone else to know."
"That's why she flipped after our Defense OWL when James and Sirius cursed him and tried to remove his underwear." Lily said slowly,
"If she hadn't cursed James then he probably would have taken Snape's underpants off."
"I wonder how she'd have reacted if she knew that Sirius nearly killed him." Hannah said
"He what!"
"Forget I mentioned it after I tell you, but Sirius tried to kill him, he told him that if he followed Remus then he's find out about where he went every month and James saved his life."
"Damn I could kill him!" Lily shrieked
"What did I say about forgetting?"
"Didn't you ever wonder why Carolyn was so protective over Snape after 4th year?"
"Well yeah, but I thought I was imagining it." Lily laughed, "Just like I thought I imagined her apologising to him at the ball. I mean hello, it's Snape!"
He could feel her shivering in his arms, he took of his robes - leaving him in a T-shirt and jeans, he wrapped his robes around her, pulling her closer to him
"Thanks." She smiled, 'Damn I missed just being in his arms.'
"Just remember to give them back." He said, "Otherwise people will ask questions."
"Well I'm hardly goig to keep them am I?" Carolyn teased, "They're Slytherin!"
Snape laughed
"They know about us, y'know." She said, "I told them we were going out again, 'cause they saw us kissing."
"Did you say anythnig else?"
"No, Clare had already told them stuff anyways, like we used to go out and that I wasn't lying when said what I said."
"What did you say?"
"Ages ago when Lily found out something, she accused Hannah of lying so we were made to show each other a memory at random from our past and they just happened to see the one between me and you in the Room of Requirement."
"You're kidding?"
Carolyn shook her head
"Not that they saw much, just me telling you I loved you, it grossed them out a bit."
Snape chuckled.
"What did you say to them?"
"That they now knew why I regretted it so much, although they think I was sixteen when it happened."
He decided to change the subject and asked her
"Want some chocolate?"
She nodded and he took some out of his robes and handed it to her, she looked at it and said
"Where did you get this? Honeydukes stopped selling this years ago, I've been trying to find it."
"So that's why I got sent a box of it." Snape said, "I was wondering why I ordered it, especially since it tastes disgusting!"
He looked at her and laughed, she looked at his curiously.
"What?"
"You got chocolate, right there." He pointed to her nose, wiped it off and she licked his finger. She giggled at his expression and planted a kiss on his lips. The carriage pulled up outside St Mungo's and they got out, once they were inside and found the desk, the woman looked at them suspiciously
"Can I help you?" She yawned
"Can you tell me what room my daughter's in please?" Carolyn asked, "Alafair Sharpe."
The nurse looked through the records
"Children's ward. Room 45."
They walked to the ward in silence, looking for the room, but Carolyn spotted her mother walking out of a room and walked towards her. She tried to stay calm but it was hard when she was in the same space as her mother, all she ever did was critisise how she looked after her own daughter (when she was at home anyway), she was glad that after July she could never see her mother again, she'd hated her ever since her father had left - she blamed her mother and had never forgiven her for it.
"What are you doing here?" Her mother asked, "And who is he?"
"To see my daughter." Carolyn answered cooly, "And this is Severus, her father!"
Carolyn could see this had made her mother angry so she turned to Snape and said
"Go in, before my mother kills you."
"She's asleep." Her mother snapped
"Doesn't stop him from seeing her!"
Snape went into the room before a fight broke out, he looked at his daughter's sleeping form and stroked her hair. What he didn't expect was his daughter to look up at him.
"Daddy?"
Clare had decided that as long as Lily and Hannah knew she might as well show them a picture.
"Awww, she's so cute."
"She looks a lot like Carolyn."
"Poor thing has Snape's eyes."
"You do realise that Caz is gonna make us be nice to him." Lily said
"Nooooooo!" Hannah groaned, "Anything but that!"
Clare laughed and said
"Let's play truth or dare."
"The three of us?"
"No, we'll get the guys involved as well."
"Oooo that means I have a use for this now!" Hannah grinned rubbing her hands together, producing a vial of liquid
"What's that?"
"Veritaserum." Hannah answered simply, "Stole it when your mum left me on my own for half an hour during a detention."
"What else did you take?"
"This, potion that gets rid of acne, Lily's hair dye and Felix Felicis."
"You stole Felix Felicis?" Clare and Lily mouthed
"Never thought you had it in you!" Lily laughed
"Come on, let have some fun."
The three girls made their way to the boys dormitory,equipt with Veritaserum. When they walked in the boys looked at them curiously, they didn't know what to expect from them. They eyed them suspiciously, not conviced by the innocent looks they had on thier faces.
"What do you want?" Sirius asked
"Nothing much." Lily answered, "Just a game of truth and dare!"
"And to make it interesting we havemy secret stash of Veritaserum."
"You have Veritaserum?"
"Yeah, as well as a few other potions I nicked." Hannah said, "Now lets play!"
"But." Clare added, "No questions about Carolyn or Rachel because she isn't here."
"You get one Truth and one Dare each!" Lily added finally
The three Marauders looked at each other and then nodded, they all settled themselves on the floor and started to play
"Hey baby." Snape smiled, showing a side that he never showed to anyone but Carolyn and Alafair. He lifted her out of the bed and hugged her, not wanting to let her go.
"Where's mummy?"
"She's outside talking to your nan."
"Do I have to go back with her?" Alafair asked, innocence written all over her face, "I don't like her. She's mean!"
"'Fraid so hun." He said, rocking her slightly, "Only until July though."
"But that's - "
"8 months."
She looked like she wanted to cry, her bottom lip quivering.
"I wanna go with you."
Snape stroked her hair soothingly, he took out a bar of chocolate and a minature bottle of butterbeer.
"Want some?"
Alafair looked at what he was holding, looked up at him with curiousity and said
"Nanna says I'm not allowed chocolate."
Snape looked at her for a moment, not knowing what to say but smiled slightly after a bit and responded
"Well I'm your dad and I say you can have some." He smiled at the joy in her eyes "And you can't tell your nan I gave you this either." pointing to the butterbeer
She nodded and took a piece of the chocolate and bit into it, Snape laughed at the look on his daughter's face, the pleasure that a small piece of chocolate gave her. He let her have a bit of Butterbeer. Snape heard the door slam open and heard the rest of what appeared to be a very heated conversation between Carolyn and her mother.
"HOW DARE YOU GIVE HER THAT!" Mrs Sharpe yelled, "SHE CAN'T EAT THAT! YOU'RE GIVING HER BUTTERBEER?"
Alafair looked frightened, she hung tightly to Snape.
"SHUT UP!" Carolyn screamed, "HOW DARE YOU! He can give her whatever he wants, she's his daughter - not yours! So what if he's giving her chocolate or Butterbeer. Dad gave me that stuff from when I was a few months old!"
"Yeah, and look how you turned out!" Her mother sneered
"GET OUT!" Carolyn fumed, "How dare you critise our parenting when it's because of you I've turned out the way I have! It's your fault dad left and it'syour fault I've had a depressed childhood!I don't want you near here, near me or my family ever again!"
It was hard to tell exactly who's face showed more hate. Mrs Sharpe slapped Carolyn hard across the face and stalked out of the room. Carolyn stood there for a moment, not quite believeing she had finally told her mother to get out of her life.
"I'm gonna go and phone my mum." Snape said, "I'll get her to look after her for a while. She's always complaining that she never gets to see Alafair enough."
Carolyn smiled at him and took Alafair into her arms as he left. She looked at her daughter and kissed the top ofher head. She may not be the best mother in the world, leaving her daughter for 10 months but she tried her best to look after her when she was with her.
Sirius went first, and they decided to make it interesting by using an empty bottle to decide who gave him the question or dare. He spun the bottle and it landed on Hannah.
"Dare."
Hannah thought for a moment
"Kiss the person who the bottle lands on next."
Hannah spun the bottle and it landed on her again
"No way!"
"Is there anyway I can get out of this dare?" Siirus begged
"NO!"
Sirius groaned but he had an idea and gave his ister a quick peck on the cheek.
"That's cheating!" Lily said
"No-one specified what type of kiss."
Hannah laughed
"You're right, I didn't"
The bottle was spun again. It landed on Lily
"Truth."
"Chicken!"
Hannah handed her the Veritaserum and she drank a bit. Lily spun the bottle and it landed on James, who grinned
"Give us one thing you hate about Sirius."
"That he never told me he tried to kill Snape, well and the fact that he actually tried to kill him."
Sirius looked at her, stunned - he didn't know how she knew about that but he couldn't believe that she knew.
"How do you know that?"
"I told her!" Hannah said, before Lily could open her mouth. "Not intentionally mind, but I did, now lets get on with the game - we can sort this out later."
Lily spun the bottle and it landed on Hannah, Hannah spun the bottle and it landed on Clare
"I choose Truth."
She took a drink of the Veritaserum.
"What's it like knowing that you're one of the only virgin's in the year?"
"Well since I'm not a virgin I can't answer that."
Lily and Clare looked at each other, and burst out laughing, to which Hannah joined in after a few seconds.
"Damn this is a good night for secrets." Lily said, "How many is it now? Three or four?"
"Think it's four."
Hannah spun the bottle and it landed on Clare. She spun the bottle and it landed on Remus.
"Truth."
"What is it with you girls and Truth?"
Clare drank some Veritaserum.
"What secrets have you found out tonight?"
"That Sirius tried to kill Severus and that Hannah ain't a virgin."
"Since when have you been on first name terms with Snivellus?" James and Sirius asked
"Excuse me, only one question." Lily said and Clare smiled satifactorily
Clare spun the bottle before any arguments broke out. It landed on James.
"Dare."
He spun the bottle and it landed on Sirius.
"I dare you to kiss Clare - with tongues."
Carolyn looked as if she wanted to cry, the nurse had come in and explained why Alafair was there and what was wrong with her, her daughter was ill because her mother hadbeen feeding her stuff she described as rabbit food. It made her blood boil, her mother had critisised her parenting yet she was happy to let her granddaughter eat stuff like that and see her suffer. She rocked Alafair in her arms, not noticing Snape and his mother walk into the room.
"Where's my favourite little girl?" Mrs Snape asked
"Nanny." Alafair's face lit up and she jumped out of her mother's arms to give her a hug. Snape could see his mother's look of concern when she picked up her up.
"What's she been eating?" She asked, "The poor girl is nearly all skin and bones."
"My mother's been feeding her rabbit food!" Carolyn sighed
Mrs Snape looked appauled
"You cannot feed a two year old with just health food, she needs more." She saw the chocolate wrapper in Alafair's hand "Who gave her the chocolate?"
"I did." Snape said, "That's partly what caused all this."
She just nodded her head
"When's she allowed to go home?"
"I can ask if I can take her tonight." Carolyn, "I don't want to leave her here overnight, this place scares the hell out of me."
Carolyn found a nurse and practically begged her to let her take her daughter out of the hospital, she agreed but with the condition that it was Snape's mother who looked after Alafair. His mother had already said she wanted to look after her and was letting them stay for the weekend (it's a Friday night). Carolyn picked her daughter up and carry her out of the hospital, she'd fallen asleep in her arms as they walked out and climbed into a taxi. Carolyn not wanting to let her go.