The walk to the headmasters office was a long silent one. Hermoine was nervous. She was a pureblood, no more teasing ever again. She turned and looked at her new found relative trying to find the courage to ask him how closely related they actually were. She did not think Snape had any siblings but no one ever really asked about his personal life. They reached the statue hiding the staircase to Dumbledore's office. Snape muttered the password and they got onto the moving staircase. Once inside the office she noticed that Dumbledore was nowhere to be found.
"Have a seat Miss Black, the headmaster must have stepped out for a moment he will hopefully be back soon"
"Proffesor, I was wondering"
"Yes what is it Miss Black?" he said turning towards her.
"Well sir you see in the movie it um said that my mothers maiden name was Snape and I was wondering if we were cousins or something of the sort"
"Your my niece actually. Your mother Aryanna was my younger sister. Her twin was Olivia who later married Jason Potter who was a more tolerable than his prat brother"
"You mean I'm related to Harry by marrige then?"
"Yes that is why I look out for Harry, not only because Lily asked me to but because he is almost family. Actually if you had been discovered earlier you would have been returned to me since I do technically have custody of you. Oh and you know you are 2 years older no right, you can most likely take your NEWTS now and leave to rejoin the elementals"
"Wait what! Im 19 and can take all of my tests"
"Well yes Miss Black if you feel you are ready to." Hermoine turned to see Dumbledore enter with Fawkes on his shoulder. "We just went for a walk to get a bit of fresh air, the grounds are quite lovely this time of year. Now Miss Black we need to get things sorted out. First off your name is now Allana Antonia Black, legally speaking of course, Hermoine Jane Granger no longer exists. Second We need to go over your paperwork to have you take the NEWTS and you have already taken your apparation test. Now what field do you plan on going into?"
Allana thought for a while. "I want to become a potions master like my uncle." Her uncle turned and looked at her in shock. He never new she actually liked potions enough to make a proffesion out of it. He felt an inner warmth at the thought of his niece following his footsteps in his field of study.
"A wonderful choice Miss Black! I am sure we will be able to set you up with an apprentice ship almost immediately! Now..."
"I will apprentice her Albus. Since I still teach the advanced Potions classes it would be ale to work. Also if the elementals are coming they most likely will come and stay in the manor with me. I will be able to start teaching her this summer. I have no doubt she will be a great sucess to the potions field." Alanna blushed at his praise, he had never complimented her potions or work. She did not even have the top grade in his class. Now suddenly he wanted her to apprentice under him, he never allowed anyone to apprentice under him. 'must be because we are family now that he is doing this.' Alanna thought 'well finally I have a one up on Malfoy! Wait Malfoy is my cousin also, guess he can't make fun of me anymore."
"Now on to more pressing issues Miss Black. Since you are already aware of the situation we need to know are you going to rejoin the elementals or stay here and finish your classes?" Alanna knew she wanted to find out more about herself and her heritage but most of all she wanted to meet her cousins Suri, Alex, Lia, and Leo. She had always felt like a part of her had been missing since she was little. When she got her letter to Hogwarts somthing felt right about it and that feeling intensified when she had started practicing magic. She knew that the 'elementals' as Dumbldore and Snape called them must be the piece that was missing.
"Sir, I think I will take my tests and I will go and stay with the elementals at the manor my Uncle was speaking of. I would like to come back several days a week to start lessons for my apprenticeship." Dumbledore smiled "I do not see why that would be a problem I believe Severus you have some Open Hours on Monday and Wednesday"
"Yes They are both in the afternoon and she can also come in on Saturdays. I believe that now that we have found her finally we should tell the elementals to come to England and have them stay at the manor so Alanna can get to know them, after all they are a part of her and most of them are her relatives. We should not use her as bait for them or as a controling factor." Snape gave Dumbledore his famous glare and won the battle when Dumbledore nodded.
"I also believe it would be for the best. I will floo Tori who is in charge of the elementals saftey and thier nanny." Snape laughed
"A nanny Albus really they are 19 they do not need a nanny"
"Trust me with the trouble these youths cause they need her. She also is a personal trainer, chef, and martial artist. She is very good at controling them. I am sure you two will get on great since she will be coming to England with them if they do come. Actually let me floo her now. Do you want to cancel your classes for the day? Maybe to get to know your niece better and share some of your family's history with her?" Snape looked at Alanna who apeared to be excited at the thought of learning. "Yes Ablus I believe I will cancel my classes for the day. Would you like me to take Alanna to the manor tonight and stay there with her until the elementals arrive?"
"Yes that would be wonderful. Oh and Miss Black your tests will be this Friday and your things have already been sent to the manor." Albus smiled and turned to floo Tori Stronghold the keeper of the elementals.
"So Alanna would you like to floo to the manor now or later"
"I think I would like to now if thats ok with you." Snape smiled
"Of course we can ." The two walked to the nearest fireplace. "Just say Azul Manor" They both were flooed inside of a dimly lit entry way. "Mrs Morble? Is anyone here?" suddenly the lights became brighter and a stout lady came out followed by several house elves.
"Mr. Snape! Is somthing wrong why are you here and who is this young lady?"
"I am here because the elementals are returning. This is Miss Alanna Black, my niece and also an elemental. I need to tell the house elves that the house will be full again so we need everything cleaned and aired out. I want this place in tip top condition by the time they arrive"
"Mr. Snape do you know when they will be arriving"
"No. Dumbledore is flooing them today to see when they will be coming. I expect it will be sometime next week or the week after. Please start opening some windows in here it is quite stuffy in here. Come along Alanna I will show you to your room, you can decorate it anyway you like there should be a book of spells for redecorating already in your room." Snape led them up the right side of a grand stair case the lights flicked on and the windows all opened at once. "House elves must be starting already. Azul Manor came from my mothers side of the family the Princes she was the last hier to the entire Prince family. She then left it to me. She probably would have left it to my sisters but they both lived at one of the Potter's manors. Our family is pureblooded so you will need to learn pureblood etiquette. I am sure that your cousins will help you when they get here, but that will not be for another week or so. Contrary to popular belief the Snape family is nuetral in the fight agaisnt Voldemort. I am the only Snape to ever make a descion about the war. Even your Aunt and Mother did not make a descion about the war. They contributed to the order because thier husbands were involved and yes they had you but that is all they did involving the war. Now you will have to talk to your cousin Narcissa Malfoy to learn more about the Blacks, I will arange for her to come tomarrow if you would like." Alanna nodded as he continued. "You were named after your many times Great Grandmother Antonia who was wizarding royalty back in the Dark Ages, where she was Queen of Scotland she was the one who gave the land to the founders of Hogwarts so they could build the school. Here we are here is your room." The door her Uncle had stopped in front of was beautiful, it had designs carved around the ouside and had her full name written across it in Caligraphy she glanced across the hall at the other door it did not have writting on it.
"Uncle, where are the rooms for the elementals"
"Well Suri's room is the farthest female she is in the east wing with her brother, the room to the right of you is Lia's and her brothers is in the west wing along with Theo's. The rooms in this area are mostly guest rooms. My room is in the East wing and I believe that is where the elementals keeper will be staying also. I will show you more things tomarrow. I will be returning to the school every morning and comeback at night. If you want we can have dinner together every night and maybe some lunches when I have an open"
"That would be wonderful. I do not know if you feel it but I feel like we are a family already." Her uncle smiled
"I feel the same way. But I do believe you have a bed room to decorate, and a bathroom since it is attatched to your room. When Narcissa comes tomarrow she will take you shopping for pureblood clothing because you will get invited to balls and parties since you are pureblood and an hier to two fortunes. Most likely she will try and set you up with some purebloods, humor her and go on some blind dates, I will chaperone of course so there will be no funny buisness. I will leave you to decorate your room now. I will come back in 6 hours at 5 o'clock sharp. If you get done early I have arranged some books on pureblood society to be sent to your room."
Alanna nodded and opened her door. The walls were a dull white and the room was rather plain. There were two ornate doors next to one another one she assumed was her closet and the other her bathroom. Her room was quite large and had a fireplace, bookshelf, desk and chair, incredibly large bed, a sofa in front of the fire place along with an armchair, and a cofee table made of all glass. She like the layout of the room but changed the walls to a light yellow, and made her sheets yellow also with a white bedspread and a mixture of yellow and white pillows on top. She made the couch and arm chair white along with the drapes. She moved onto the bathroom which looked like it had recently been redone in marbles and golds. She decided it looked fine she went to her closet which was a huge walk-in closet. It walready had her shirts were hung up in order of color on the far wall and her jeans were in little cubicles on her left. Her shoes also sat on slanted shelves to the sides of her shirts and several dresses that were hers along with some that were not were to her right. Alanna returned to her room to find the books her uncle had sent for her. It had only taken an hour to read the book on decorating and decorate her room so she still had 5 hours left to read some of the books. She grabbed the small stack of 6 books and placed them on her cofee table. She figured she would start with the book on dressing and presentage first. She managed to finish all the books when her uncle knocked on the door. She went and answered it and began to walk with him to what she assumed was the dining room.
"This is the informal dining room it is much smaller than our formal one which is located next to the ball room. This dining room connects directly to the kitchen meanwhile the other is farther away." They proceeded into the room it was small and lavender. The table was still big for Alanna's standards. It had 5 chairs on each side and 2 chairs at each end. There was already some food at one end of the table. Snape sat at the head of the table and Alanna to his right. They ate talking of the times her uncle had when he was little with his family and Alanna had shared some of hers. Both of her parents had recently died when death eaters attacked her muggle home and burnt it to the ground. She had stayed with the Weasleys after it happened. She was glad all this had happend because she had a family again, not that Harry, Ron and all the other Weasleys weren't her family, but now she had REAL blood relatives.
"Alanna I believe you should go to bed early tomarrow, Narcissa will be coming to take you shopping and it will take all day"
"Ok Uncle, good night" she kissed him on the cheek and surprisingly he did not mind. She made her way up to her room surprising herself that she could actually remember where it was at. She put on some pajamas and crawled into her bed.
"This is my home" she said out loud smiling to herself as she fell asleep.