A/N: Hello. Have an update. Enjoy.

OOOOOOOOOOOOO

Avonlea looked at Snape and frowned. "It's done? What's done?" she asked, watching him climb to his feet.

"Obviously the course of action that Dara took to make sure our secret remains a secret," Snape told her. "Now neither your mother nor your father can reveal it to anyone."

"Until when?"

"Until you graduate, little girl. At which point, they can tell whoever they want, but will it matter?" He looked at her with his dark eyes. "That is up for you to decide."

"Me?" Avonlea climbed to her feet and put a hand to her chest. "Why does it come down to only what I decide? I thought we were in this together, Severus."

Avonlea was confused, a little hurt. If he didn't think that his opinion mattered in the end, where did that leave her? Why did she have to assume so much responsibility when no one dared mess with the dark professor? She was merely a Veela Halfling barely past her seventeenth birthday. How could anyone want to put so much on her shoulders.

"You must come to terms on whether or not you would be content to have our pairing revealed to the world," Snape told her, his voice low. "To your classmates, professors, friends." He frowned. "I have already come to terms with the obvious fact that it will not be widely accepted by all parties. My coworkers will not be thrilled that I am partnered with a student – even if you become my former student. Your classmates will find it disturbing, no doubt. And your friends -"

"You know that they already know," Avonlea pointed out, crossing her arms. "Carissa and the other two already know that you're my mate. That's why they tease me nonstop. They act like this is the biggest, most interesting story development in the world." She sighed. "Apparently, they think you need to teach me a few things."

She saw the look in Snape's eye, felt the stirring of his thoughts. He knew he needed to teach her a lot of things and she could see him realizing how much of it she had yet to grasp. Certainly, courage could be taught? She was a pain in the ass to teach, but that was because she needed to know everything. To be a good student. To impress and remain on the good side of her professors.

Snape put his hand on her shoulder and Avonlea slid her hand over it. "I will teach you what I can, Avonlea. But there will be great effort necessary for what I am going to teach. Great energy and patience." He smirked. "Qualities you haven't seemed to master yet."

Avonlea stuck her tongue out at him. "I know that."

"Do you?" She nodded at him. "And yet you continue to do nothing to change…how unbecoming of a prized student…Whatever will your favorite professors say?"

The Veela Halfling gave him a dark look. "They'll say nothing because they won't find out. No one will find out at Hogwarts. So, meh to you."

Snape's lips formed a thin line as he looked at her and Avonlea had a hard time keeping that eye contact. She couldn't sense any anger coming off him. He was just mad that she had used that three-letter word on him. But there was no taking it back now.

"Oh really?" Snape said, his voice low again. "Well, in that case, I shall take my leave of you and begin planning an accelerated course of study for you, Miss Raven. Perhaps a more intensive study as well?"

Avonlea stomped her foot. "No!"

"Indeed, I shall." Snape turned and walked to the door, his cloak billowing around him. "Good day, Miss Raven."

The door clicked open and the professor vanished from view like he had had never been there. Avonlea put her hand in her hair and glowered at the dying fire's embers. She didn't understand what was going on, but she had a feeling that she wasn't going to like the outcome.

OOOOOOOOOOOOOO

Snape sat in a study, looking over a book as he scribbled in another. Someone entered the room and he instantly felt annoyed. Carissa leaned next to him – though it was more like hovered next to him – and looked at him with eyes as dark as his.

"Whatcha to, Dad?" she asked, tapping her fingernails against the wooden tabletop. "Coming up with new potions to test on us kids back at Hogwarts? Plotting the murders of some people?"

"The only murder I would plot right now, would be yours, Carissa," Snape stated, meaning it just a little.

"Nah. You love me," Carissa said, smiling. "And I'm your daughter. Your only daughter."

"And yet, that has not stopped other fathers from killing their families. How incredible is that?" Snape rolled his eyes and continued to scribble down words, only stopping to dip his quill in ink. "A father rid of his pesky young daughter, who has been a trouble maker from the day she was born."

Carissa looked shocked for a moment and her mouth dropped open in a manner that Snape found rather stupid looking. She quickly and unfortunately recovered. With a shake of the head, she laughed.

"Right. Well, Lea loves me and she loves you and if you kill me, she's going to be so mad at you." She put her tongue in her cheek. "No amount of kind words will save you from the wrath of the Veela Halfling if you lay one wand on me."

Snape glanced at her. "How do you know I'd use my wand?"

"Because you're too smart to use poison. They'd look at you first for my murder if I was poisoned to death." Carissa smirked. "And really Dad, you think that I'm dumb enough to fall for your potions? I can smell them a mile away." She held her hand up. "I know, you're going to say 'some potions can't be smelt' but I assure you, I will know and I will avoid them."

"So you say."

"I do."

Snape set his quill down when he realized that she wasn't going to leave him in peace. "What do you want, Carissa?"

"I want…" Carissa began, drawing out her words. "To know why you aren't with Lea whenever you get the chance." She put a hand over her heart. "I can make myself scarce from the bedroom if you need some time alone with her. Or I don't know, create a diversion so you can sneak away on an adventure. Or -!"

"Carissa," Snape hissed, his eyes narrowing. "I understand perfectly well that you cannot keep a secret for the life of you, but for the sake of your friend – the woman that I am mated to – shut your mouth."

Carissa blinked. "I can to keep a secret. And you know I would never risk Lea. I talk about her with only people that already know about the little secret you two have. And that's not a lot of people. I can count them all on one hand. I think." She looked thoughtful and started ticking off fingers as if saying the names in her head. "Pretty much, yeah."

"Talking about secrets leads to nothing but disaster," Snape stated.

"Is that what happened with you and the Potter family?" Carissa asked, frowning. "You and Dumbledore? The Dark Lord?"

Snape's eyes narrowed. "Leave and do not broach the subject again."

"But Dad…"

"Leave."

Carissa frowned and vanished from the study. Snape pinched the bridge of his nose to stave off a headache. A headache that always seemed to come after he talked to Carissa and when her mother got pissed. Snape let his breath out in a groan and looked at the words he had written.

So much more to learn about Veela, he thought. So many more lessons to teach that girl. And all must be done in the proper way, with the proper amount of secrecy and precision. Merlin, help us all.

OOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

Avonlea opened her bedroom door when someone knocked and instantly regretted it. Morgana stood there, looking hardly amused. Avonlea groaned and walked back over to her bed and plopped down on it.

"I'm not apologizing to him," she stated bluntly. "Kravyn can go eat shit for all I care."

"Avonlea! That is no way to speak," Morgana insisted, closing the door behind her. "Especially about your loving father!"

"Loving? Loving father?!" Avonlea laughed. "He hasn't been loving or a father since the day I was born. Frankly, he could be any Veela you pulled from the streets. So no. Not my father."

"Avonlea, be reasonable. He's come to make amends." Morgana crossed her arms over her chest. "He's considering taking you to a school in his country. Wouldn't that be lovely?"

"No, it would not."

Avonlea's mother frowned. "And why not?"

"Because of reasons."

"Certainly that…boy… of yours will understand if you leave Hogwarts for the rest of your schooling and take you up again after you graduate?" Morgana moved closer. "Maybe you could only see him a few times a year? And otherwise, live with your father – or me – for the remainder of the year. I miss you. He misses you."

Avonlea leaned forward on the bed. "You can't say anything about it. And it kills you, doesn't it? That you can't bring up anything to do with the man I have fallen in love with?" She smirked. "Tell me, Mother. Who am I in love with again?"

The color was pulled from Morgana's face and her lips formed a ruby line. "You – you never mentioned his name to me. I hardly know the boy exists except the fact that you're still Veela."

"C'mon Mother," Avonlea taunted. "Who am I in love with?"

"You are the most ungrateful child I have ever heard of!" Morgana cried, looking horrified. "How dare you do this to me and your father? How dare you taint generations of good blood? How could you do such a thing? We cherished you. We gave you everything you could have possibly wanted. And still…this?!"

"Say it. C'mon say it."

"Do we mean so little to you, you heartless brat?"

Avonlea rose to her feet as her wings burst from her back. Her mother stumbled backwards in surprise. "Heartless is going around and making your daughter try to live up to impossible standards! Heartless is making your daughter the outcast of the school because she's too afraid to speak her mind at the proper times! Heartless is never caring enough about your daughter to learn who she is and what she wants to be! Goddammit Mom! I'm not the heartless one! You are!"

Morgana slapped her across the face and Avonlea felt her blood run cold. She hissed and revealed her fangs. Morgana fell against the door and scrambled for the doorhandle.

"Don't touch me ever again!" Avonlea seethed. "And don't think for a moment that I'm going to do anything with you either! I want nothing to do with you!"

"You will regret this," her mother whispered, hurrying from the room once her hand had purchase on the doorhandle.

"Bye Felicia," Carissa said, appearing at the doorway with Cassius and Katia.

"Whoa, remind me not to piss you off," Katia commented, taking in Avonlea's appearance.

"Um, you have a little something right…there," Cassius informed Avonlea, pointing at her teeth. "And it doesn't look friendly."

Avonlea retracted her wings and plopped down on her bed, turning her back to her friends. Her thoughts were utter seething chaos. She wanted nothing more than to tear the brothel apart with her bare hands. She wanted to –

Gentle tendrils of thought touched her, soothing the burn of her anger while bearing the brunt of it. She recoiled for one moment before lowering her defenses and letting her mate in…

OOOOOOOOOOOO

A/N: What'd you think? Is this all right? Or not? Let me know. Thanks. -Scarlet