Author's Note:

Thank you so much for the splendid feedback for the prologue! It figuratively blew my mind (that's a HIMYM reference) and I can't tell you how much it means when my inbox lights up with favourites, follows and reviews. I'll just mention meja9201 as the first reviewer and thank them for their compliments – it was very moving to me to read, so this chapter is dedicated to you. Now, this story might have irregular updates but I'll do my utmost to keep them coming. I have written the end already and some of the middle but I couldn't wait to share it, so perhaps posted the prologue prematurely. I will now work at pushing the other chapters out for you to read. Enjoy!

DaenerysTargary3n

Chapter One:

"I am Morgana Eileen Snape and my parents were Severus Octavian Snape and Hermione Jean Snape."

There were no words. No words that could outline the shock spreading from his ears to the very tips of his extremities. Had he truly just heard this waiflike creature claim to be the daughter of Snape and…Hermione? And Hermione Jean Snape, at that!

"I'm sorry," Harry spluttered, "I've had a bit of a day – a bit of a lifetime, truth be told – and I think you just said that you were my best friend's and my Potions professor's daughter. Plus, on top of that, you think they were married? She was my age for Merlin's sake! That's disgusting!"

Morgana began to back away from Harry, whose bewilderment had begun to turn to feral outrage. She knew this new information would be hard for him to digest, particularly on this day, but she too had had 'a bit of a day' and would not stomach this boy defaming her parents.

"Harry Potter, don't presume to think you're the only one in agony today! As I said, my parents – both – are dead! Today I became an orphan and they're all I had in this world! So, don't you dare speak to me like that and don't ever talk about them like that again!" Morgana retaliated, tears washing her face anew.

Harry immediately raised his arms out to placate her from afar and said, "Okay, okay, I'm sorry. I'll hear you out – there's obviously a story there. I can't say I believe what you've said and Hermione can't be dead. Someone would have said something to me or I'd have seen her body but Snape…is dead and I'm sorry – whether he was your father or not, he was obviously someone important to you and he's gone, so I'm so very sorry."

Morgana fell onto the sofa that she knew was there instinctively and sniffled, "That's kind of you to say. Sort of. Mama is dead, Harry. I felt her go just like I felt papa die."

"Hold on," Harry interrupted, unnerved by her choice of words, "when you say felt…"

"I felt them die. I don't know how papa died – I'm kind of hoping you can tell me – but I felt his mind move on. After that, I waited to feel mama go too. It was inevitable after papa's death, for reasons I'll tell you later once you've processed slightly more. She told me it would be."

"But how can you 'feel' them die?" Harry asked, skimming over her father's manner of death now he knew she had not actually experienced Nagini's attack by proxy.

"I am highly skilled in Legilimency and Occlumency," Morgana smiled at Harry sadly, "and had you continued with your lessons with papa longer you would have been told that when a person reads and is read by the same mind or minds for an extended period, you can sense their mind when it is close. Mama, papa and I have been communicating by mind arts since I was a young girl – it was the only safe way to talk sometimes. So, when they were in the castle grounds fighting I could feel them. They blocked me so I couldn't hear the specifics but when it went quiet, I knew."

Just as Morgana started to weep again, Harry sat beside her and took her hand. He still doubted her premise that Hermione and Snape were somehow married and had raised a teenager his age, despite Hermione only being months older. However, he couldn't deny that she sounded in the past minute so much like he imagined Hermione's daughter might have and her snarl when she defended her parents' relationship could have been a Snape family trait.

"Morgana," Harry began, not letting go of her hand, "I can't believe what you say is true. I just can't. Hermione is our age and Snape was her teacher and he loathed her – publicly and without hesitation. He simply couldn't have been married to her, so you can't be their daughter and I don't know what curse or memory charm you've been under but what you're saying is your past just can't have been."

"I'll explain it, Harry," Morgana chuckled, "then hopefully you'll understand but you were always slow on the uptake so it might take a while. So, I hope you've nowhere to be for the next couple of hours."

Harry's jaw dropped. He was about to sling an insult right back at his companion when he caught the slightest upturn at the corners of her lips and was reminded of Snape's churlish smirk.

"Please do explain. People will probably start looking for me if I don't appear soon but I've no desire to be found."

Morgana smiled, pleased at his acquiescence, "I'll tell you their story but I'm not going to sit here and narrate it like a poxy fairy tale. I'm going to live it with you. It's all been saved for you to see, Harry. Mama and papa knew you'd find me eventually and need to know the particulars of how you came to survive as long as you have. That all starts with how they met and how they fell in love and then how they protected you."

She pulled him up by the hand that he forgot was clasped in hers and began to lead him towards a mahogany closet that was neither ornate nor worthy of note. Stopping before it she stared at him deep into his emerald eyes.

"Harry, I know you have your own memories of mama and your adventures with her and what she was like to you but to know her fully and truly you have to see papa's memories of her. All the memories in the pensieve belong to papa and some – the ones in the beginning particularly – are unpleasant and I've never seen the ones from before I was born. I'm not especially keen on seeing how my parents met but," Morgana's stare intensified as she gripped Harry's hand more firmly, keeping him wedged between her and the cabinet, "mama made me promise that when you found me and you were told of her true past that I would reveal their story to you and the truth about your life. That…has been the mission of my own: to tell you how you (the saviour of the wizarding world) was saved."