Alright I am going to try and redeem myself. So two chapters in one day I am going to try and go for two more. Hopefully by then you will all have come to forgive me. I must warn you that it is harder then it looks...I don't have Microsoft Word anymore so I am using this generic crap that has the suckiest spell and grammar check ever. I am usually pretty good with grammar but if this seems rather sloppy I am sorry.

Chapter 5

Aurora had never properly experienced waking up angry, but today was the day she had had the chance to go through this process. She didn't like it but Severus was just so infuriating to her right now! She didn't want to talk to him and as a matter of fact the whole time she was packing for school she answered and responded to his questions with mere nods or shakes of the head.

So now that the school year had finally started she supposed Severus would be as busy as ever. Not only would he be a Potions Master and House Master, he would also be a Healer at St. Mungo's! She would never get to see her father again! She hoped her father was getting the hint; she wanted him to feel bad about breaking his promise. She wanted him to feel the burning guilt that consumed her whenever she got into trouble. But it seemed that Severus didn't feel a thing! He didn't care that he had broken his promise, and that just soured Aurora's mood to the point that she didn't want to even look at him.

"We will have to apparate a block or two from the station," Severus said, from across the kitchen table. "I'll walk you through the barrier-

-it's okay," Aurora grumbled. "I can do it myself…"

Severus sighed, he hated that he was accepting this attitude, but he knew that he had warranted it. He had lied to Aurora, and that was something he lectured her on and everyone else on constantly. So he was letting her comments slide, however soon she would probably push the potions master over the edge.

"Very well," he said softly. "After the opening feast I would like you to stop by my rooms."

"I can't." Aurora snarled.

"Aurora Evans-

-What?" she spat. "So it's okay for you to be too busy for me, but it's not alright for me to be too busy for you?"

Severus stood up so quickly from the table that his chair fell back onto the floor.

"Don't you DARE speak to me in such a tone!" he roared. "You have been nothing but a spoiled brat since the start of this week and I have had it! You better wake up from this illusion of yours and learn that you are NOT the center of the universe! I love you Aurora Evans, and because I love you so much I got a second job so I could buy you all the things you didn't have when living with your Aunt and Uncle. That was why I was working those hours, not to avoid you, not to ignore you, but because I love you.

Severus could see that Aurora was desperately fighting the tears in her eyes, but he was so furious that he just could not control himself.

"I have raised you better than this!" he continued. "And if you don't remove that chip from your shoulder I promise you we will not have an enjoyable school year!"

The anger that Severus felt at that moment had disappeared and he practically collapsed back into his chair. He knew that he wasn't supposed to tell Aurora those things about the finances, but when Severus reached his boiling point he always felt like he was outside his body while his subconscious yelled insults and cruel facts. Now with Aurora he had managed some control, he didn't insult her. He just scolded her.

"D-Daddy…" she whimpered. "I…I didn't…I didn't know I was so much…much trouble…I…I can…I can go?"

Damn it! And that was exactly why he was not supposed to tell Aurora about the finances. This reaction was exactly why she was not supposed to know a thing about his trouble with money. Severus sighed and closed his eyes briefly. He just screwed up constantly didn't he?

"Aurora," he said gently. "Come here."

He waited and felt Aurora's small hand slip into his larger one. He knew that his rant had a point and that was just for Aurora to change her act, but when he screamed it he supposed it more or less came across as him wanting her out of the house.

"That was not what I meant," he said looking down at her. "Listen, I know why you have been acting so rebellious-

-you…you only notice me when I'm in trouble…" she sniffled. "And then…then when your done…you spend time with me."

And Severus knew that, he knew that Aurora felt that! But he had done nothing to help her ease those feelings.

"I know, and I am sorry. But it will change and I promise that I will not have to work at St. Mungos again. I'm going to talk to Albus and that should fix everything."

Aurora nodded and smiled as a tear or two slid down her face.

"Now, now." Severus said smiling back. "You're going back to school! You should be happy, not crying."

"I am happy dad," she said wrapping her arms around his neck. "We're friends again."

Severus sighed and wrapped his arms around Aurora as well. Friends, he never thought he would see the day that he was friends with a Potter…well, technically she wasn't a Potter anymore, she was a Snape. Merlin, he wished they could have preformed the blood adoption last year, but because Aurora was so frail and tiny they were afraid it would have adverse effects to her health. So they didn't, but this year Severus was sure she was strong enough to be able to take it…he just needed a perfect moment to ask her if she still wanted it.

"Are we going to go now?" she sniffled, pulling back. "I told Ashley that I would ride the train with him."

"Don't worry," Severus said, smirking. "You'll see your little boyfriend soon enough."

It used to be that Severus would go into a fit whenever that boy's name came into the room, but over the summer he had grown to like Ashley. Aurora spoke of him non-stop and he apparently made her happy…so that meant that Severus would have to be happy as well.

"So you've finally come to accept Ashley's and my relationship, then?" she asked, cutely.

Seeing that Severus was neither amused nor laughing Aurora took that as her cue to go and retrieve her things from upstairs. She was glad that they had come to an understanding and that Severus wouldn't be working at St. Mungo's anymore. She knew that now that he was going to be home more they would have more time to spend together and that just meant the world to Aurora.

"Rory, please don't dawdle!" Severus yelled up the steps. "We have to go now if you want to meet Ashley, and if I want to be on time for the before school meeting."

Grabbing her trunk Aurora raced back downstairs and stood ready for the apparition. Severus always sent her trunk to Hogwarts along with Hedwig and everything else that belonged to her and that just left them to have to walk to the train station. She loved how Severus was actually dressed in muggle attire. Merlin she prayed for one of the students at the school to notice him. It would be the highlight of her day and would assure that she started the school year right.

"Ready, Rory?" he asked holding her close to him.

When Aurora nodded she heard the loud CRACK and before she knew it they were outside of the train station. God she hated apparation, but she was starting to get used to it so it didn't bother her as much as it usually did.

"Okay," he smiled. "Now do you want me to walk you through the barrier?"

"I'm not five dad," she sighed, blushing. "I can do it myself."

Severus saw that his child was blushing and he immediately knew why. Aurora was embarrassed to be treated like a little girl.

"Alright," he said smirking. "Bye darling."

And before Aurora could disappear Severus pulled her into a hug and kissed her on the cheek.

"Dad," Aurora moaned. "C'mon…that's not funny."

As soon as Aurora was released she swiped her cheek and glared up at Severus. The potions master smiled, winked, and waved while walking away from the train station.

"I'll see you at Hogwarts, love."

Aurora rolled her eyes and walked into the train station. It was loud, but that wasn't anything new. Aurora felt more intimidated by it the first time she had gone but now it wasn't much of a big deal for her. The only problem she foresaw was trying to find Ashley in this ocean of people. With a sigh Aurora pressed on to the Platform and waited to see if Ashley would meet her or not.

She knew she was early, but that was all Severus's fault. They always left early. Severus was stuck on the saying "to be late is to be on time and to be on time is to be early." Aurora hated it, because she couldn't sleep in ever when Severus's mind was set in this mode.

"Took you long enough to get here, Red."

Aurora looked up to see Ashley smirking smugly next to her. Rolling her eyes she walked over and hugged him.

"What time did you get here?"

"Hmm…about an hour ago."

Aurora looked at him astonished but decided to just shake it off. Ashley never spoke of his home life, and Aurora respected that. She looked up at the clock and saw that they had a couple of minutes before they would have to get on the platform. Sighing Aurora stepped away and motioned for Ashley to follow her.

"Have you heard from Draco?"

"Why would I have heard from the pretty boy?"

Aurora shrugged her shoulders. She knew that Ashley was probably still mad from their Diagon Alley experience, but she really should have been smarter than to expect him to keep track of Draco. Ashley's hatred ran deep for her other friend. So they walked around, just talking about their summers and Aurora had to go over, once again, why she had not been able to get into contact with them.

"We should go through the barrier," Ashley said looking at his watch. "Yeah, we have about five minutes before the train leaves the platform."

Nodding Aurora followed Ashley to the platform and waited him to walk through.

"You can go first Rory," he said smiling.

Aurora hated the platform…she always felt like she was just waiting to hit the wall. So Aurora actually had to coax herself through. Taking her hand she pressed it against the wall…but rather then feel the warm air that the Hogwarts Express admitted from its large billowing smokestack she felt brick.

"W-What?" she gasped, slamming her hand against it. "Ashley…Ashley it's closed…the barrier is closed!"

Ashley came over with her and pressed his hand against the brick as well.

"Okay…ummm…well," he looked up at the clock. "We just missed the train."

Aurora felt like her heart was going to burst inside her chest. Severus would kill her! She was dead, deader than dead…she was downright screwed!

"Ashley what are we going to do?" she spat. "How are we going to get to the school?"

"Uh…well…my…my uncle's car is out back-

-YOU CAN'T DRIVE!" Aurora roared.

"Shhh," Ashley breathed. "It's not a normal car…it's a flying Ford Angela."

"Flying?"

"Yes."

"A car…that flies?"

"Yes."

"And you want to steal it," she said crossing her arms over her chest.

"Well…technically it isn't stealing…it's my uncle's you see…but yes."

"Are you mad?" she spat. "Yes that's smart…I'm already going to be grounded for missing the train, why not add Grand Theft Auto to the list of misdemeanors?"

"So you see my point then?"

Aurora took her hand and quickly slammed it against Ashley's shoulder.

"This isn't the time to be funny you git!" she spat. "We are going to be in so much trouble."

"Not if we take the car."

Aurora sighed, it didn't seem like she had any other choice. She looked to Ashley who seemed pretty confident and with a sigh she nodded.

"Fine…okay, fine…we can use the car."

Aurora had to admit that Ashley really did know what he was doing, he got them into the air…the only thing that concerned her was the fact that she knew a couple of muggles had to have seen them. She prayed that she thought wrong, but she was sure she didn't.

"A-Ashley…?" she stuttered as they came closer to the train. "What if…what if they see us?"

"It has a cloaking device." He said, flipping a random switch.

"Can you explain to me why you know how to drive this thing?" she asked, smirking.

"Well, I have to get around," he said with a chuckle.

"So you steal your Uncle's car?" Aurora said looking out the window.

"If you have to bring it to its basic element, then yes."

Aurora shook her head and leaned against the door. She had never noticed how beautiful the train was until they were flying right next to it. She turned to Hedwig and very gently said, "you see Hedwig…I can fly too."

Ashley cocked his one eyebrow and laughed.

"Rory," he breathed. "Sometimes I really do wonder about you."

With a shrug of her shoulders Aurora stared out at the train. She was starting to get tired; usually on the ride up she would sleep through more than half of it. With her eyes closed she let the rocking of the car lull her to sleep.

"Damn it!"

Aurora's eyes hopped open as Ashley cursed loudly.

"Rory, put your seat belt on!"

Aurora wasn't sure what was going on but before she could react the car turned on its side and the door flew open.

"GAH!"

Her body slid down and just when she thought she would fall and turn into ground pizza, Ashley's hand clasped around her wrist.

"Rory!" he yelled. "Pull yourself up!"

"I'm trying!" she yelled. "Turn the car on it's other side!"

Ashley did so and Aurora found herself back in the car. Her heart was beating against her chest and when she took the time to look back outside she found that it was dark now. God, what a rush.

"What happened?" she gasped.

"The brake was jammed."

"Why were you trying to stop?" she asked, closing her eyes. "I thought we were just going to follow the train."

"Yea, but I almost hit a tree following it."

Aurora's eyes popped open; she decided that now she was not closing her eyes for anything. The rest of the ride was fairly smooth and Aurora decided that Ashley was doing well enough that she could break away from him and rest her eyes once more. Aurora sighed, and pressed her head against the cool window. She hoped that Severus wouldn't notice them being slightly late. She would have to explain it to him later, maybe when he was in a very good mood.

"RORY!"

Aurora opened her eyes as a sharp pain rammed into her head. Her eyes watered and just when she thought she could focus a large tree branch slammed onto the hood of the car. Her eyes widened and she really didn't know how to react other than to stare and look like a complete space cadet!

"What did you do?" she screamed, dodging a random branch that slammed into her window.

"Oh so you automatically assume that it is my fault?" Ashley yelled back.

Just as Aurora was about to get into a yelling match with her best friend the tree seemed to have calmed itself Aurora sighed and leaned back in her chair…now all that was left was to try and figure out how to get out of the car.

"Look…look at this!" Ashley whined, gesturing to the mutilated vehicle. "My Uncle is going to kill me!"

"You're Uncle!" she roared. "Be lucky that I don't kill you!"

Aurora truly felt at this point that she could have strangled him, but she decided that with how the tree was rocking that now wouldn't be the best time. So she just sort of sat and waited for it to try and smash them out of the car.

"Try and get us out of here," she whispered. "Unless you want to end up as tree putty."

"What do you think I'm doing?" he spat in response. "The clutch is jammed."

Aurora didn't let him see how bewildered she looked…she really was not good with cars. For Aurora that was like a whole different language. Looking back to see Hedwig she decided that releasing her might be the wisest thing to do at this point. Slipping into the back seat she rolled down her window and opened Hedwig's cage.

"Go on girl," she breathed. "Go to the Owlery."

She watched as Hedwig soared away just in time for another branch to impact against the side of her door. Aurora flew into Ashley's lap and looked up at him.

"Reverse…" she screamed. "Throw it into bloody reverse!"

"Okay, okay!" Ashley said gripping the steering wheel as tight as possible.

Aurora watched as the murderous tree continued to try and hit them as they rushed backwards hopefully out of its reach. She didn't want to die this way, after all the hell she went through with Voldemort last year there was just no way she could die now! What kind of cruel irony would that be? But just as she was about to say her final prayers she found that they were farther away from the blasted thing and she could move around freely.

"Merlin," she heard Ashley gasp. "That was…wow…bloody terrible."

Smacking the car roughly Aurora leaned back into her seat. Only…the car wouldn't let her. She watched in awe as the doors flew open and she was flung out into a damp patch of grass and mud. She could hear things being flung out onto the ground left and right and Aurora could never be more grateful that she had let Hedwig out of her cage.

"OH COME ONE!" Ashley screeched. "Don't go! Uncle Nick will kill me!"

Aurora glanced up and watched as the Ford Angela disappeared into the forbidden forest. Sighing she looked up to the sky and just contemplated laying there for the rest of the night. She turned to see Ashley plop down right next to her and sigh.

"I'm going to be road kill the next time you see me," he breathed. "My uncle is going to want to kill me!"

"You think your dead?" Aurora laughed. "Could you imagine what dad would do to me?"

"Let's find out," a very cold voice said from up above them.

"Hi…daddy."

I am sorry once again for the delay in chapters, but I promise that I will make it up to you! I did not forget you all on here, I was just in a horrible rut. But I am back and the story is a go!

(no flames :) )