"He told me you were dead," he said quietly when she'd stopped talking. "I went to him, two days after you disappeared, and I asked him to help me find you. He told me you had 'left this world,' damn him."

"Well," she said quietly, "he didn't lie to you, exactly. I did leave that world. He set up my home and helped erase traces of me in the wizarding world. He made sure that rumors of my death circulated. I went to ground, as they say." She stopped speaking to watch an old woman pass them on her way to the bus stop. "Albus and Minerva are Maggie's godparents," she continued softly.

"Maggie. Is she-"

Katrina hung her head, "Yes, she's a muggle, well, more like a squib really. Dumbledore thinks it was the spell and that she wasn't meant to be a squib. She knows everything I can teach her of the wizarding world," she added quickly, "Though she doesn't know who her father is or that her mother was also a witch. I don't know if I could bear to tell her. I carry that guilt every day of my life."

Snape didn't comment, thinking it only fitting that she should feel guilty about what she had done. Instead, he rose and, with his back to her, spoke. "I am leaving now. Don't expect to see me again." With that, he strode off purposefully, looking for a good place to apparate from. His wife and daughter were muggles, that should be enough for him to forget about them, shouldn't it? He didn't glance back at her as he walked. A part of him had hoped that she would perhaps call out to him, ask him to stop, ask him to let her explain, but she was silent.

Too angry and unsettled to concentrate as he should on apparating, he simply kept walking for a long time, his thoughts running distracting circles in his head.

-- --

Harry hung back with Ron and Hermoine as Maggie showed the lot of them around the home. The place was huge, easily as big as Ron's home in the Burrow. The third floor was off limits to them – apparently that's where Maggie and her mother slept. The second floor contained four large bedrooms, the Gryffindor boys were in one room, the girls in another, and the same for the Slytherins. There were also two, dorm-style bathrooms – one for the boys and one for the girls. The first floor contained the large living room, which took up most of the floor. Also on the first floor was a small kitchen. The basement was converted into a large dining room with a much larger kitchen here.

According to Maggie, the yard was open to the students all the time, but the gate/door was always locked. The basement kitchen was also open to the students any time they wanted to go there. She instructed them in the operation of the television in the living room and they had eventually all settled on the couches there as she flipped through stations.

Every head turned to the front door as it opened and Professor Smith entered. Harry was quite relieved to see she was alone. He didn't want to spend any more time with Snape than he absolutely had to.

Maggie turned off the television and stood up, "I'm going to go up and do my homework, mum."

Their professor smiled slightly and nodded and Harry watched Maggie run up the stairs and out of sight.