Dinner in Snape's quarters was a quiet, strained affair. No one felt like talking much and Minerva excused herself after they had all finished. She had again reassured Maggie, and then she was gone.

Severus sighed as he ushered Maggie into his office. He intended to meet Potter in his classroom, and then the three of them would return to Snape's quarters. He was sure James Potter would be rolling in his grave if he saw their two children together. That thought alone brought a smirk to his lips.

Potter entered the potions classroom five minutes to seven. "Come along, Potter," Snape snapped, rising from his desk and heading towards his office. He ushered the boy inside and frowned at the sight of his daughter hugging the boy. "Enough of that," he growled. He inwardly smirked as he watched the boy quickly step back.

He led the two of them into his living room and watched the boy gazing around in wonder. Contrary to popular belief, his rooms were carpeted with rich wood paneling. To his surprise, he saw Potter glancing at the titles on his bookshelves.

"Hermione would kill to get a glance at some of these books," Potter remarked to Maggie with a laugh.

"Mr. Potter," Snape said, drawing the boy's attention. "Maggie was able to purchase a wand today and I would appreciate it if you would teach her some of the first-year spells."

Maggie eagerly took out her wand and showed it to Potter.

"That is a beautiful wand," he remarked. "Is that ivy carved on it?"

"Yeah, it is," she replied, smiling slightly. "I still can't believe this is real! I never in a million years would have thought I'd be standing here with my own wand!"

Potter gave her a sad smile, "I know exactly how you feel." He pulled out his own wand and immediately brightened. "Ok, I guess we should start with the first spell I learned."

Severus sat at his desk and watched as the Potter brat taught his daughter 'Wingardium Leviosa'. Deciding that they wouldn't be breaking anything, he picked up a stack of tests that needed to be graded.

An hour passed and he realized his daughter was making very little progress on this basic Charm. He had periodically watched her efforts, but he could tell her heart simply wasn't in it. After watching her again fail to levitate a book, he snapped at her, "Maggie! That is a basic charm which first year students easily master. I fail to understand why you can not seem to manage it."

"Sir, it's her first spell and-" Potter began.

"I don't remember asking you for your opinion, Potter!" He swiftly rose in an angry swirl of robes. He advanced on the two of them.

"I… I'm sorry sir. I'm having trouble concentrating…" Maggie began.

He glared, "Your mother would want you to concentrate."

"Aren't you at all worried about her!" she snapped angrily. "She's missing and anything could have happened to her!"

He moved his glare to Potter, "Get out of here." He watched the boy give his daughter a quick hug and whisper something to her, "Now, Mr. Potter!" He magicked open the door to his quarters as the boy finally grabbed his things and hurried from the room. He slammed the door behind him and re-warded it.

Sighing, he turned back to his daughter who was in tears again. "Yes, Maggie, I am concerned about your mother." He tried to convince himself that a large part of it was his lack of desire to suddenly be saddled with a child to care for. Unfortunately, a nagging voice mocked him, flashing images of the graduation ball before him. Although they'd dated for two years prior to graduation, it had still surprised him that he had attended the ball with the most desired girl of his year.

Moving to his daughter, he clumsily hugged her, "We will find her, Maggie." He pulled away as her crying lessened. "Come with me, I have something to show you." He led her into the bedroom and gestured that she should sit while he rummaged through a chest in the bottom of the wardrobe. He pulled out a small photo album and brought it to her. Sitting next to her on the bed, he handed her the book.

"These first photos are of us when we were still in school," he said, watching her slowly look at the wizarding photos.

She paused on one of the pages. Katrina and a red haired woman were throwing snowballs at each other. "Who is she?" Maggie asked, pointing to the red haired woman who had just been hit with a snowball.

"She is… was, Lily Evans… She was Harry Potter's mother," he said quietly.

"Our mums were friends?" she asked, smiling as her mother got hit with a snowball.

"They were very close friends, much to your grandparents' dislike."

Maggie turned to face him, "I don't understand."

He sighed, unsure how best to explain. "Some people in our world are very concerned by… blood purity. There are those, such as the Dark Lord, who only value those whose parents were wizards and their parents and so on. Sometimes, though, a witch or wizard is born to two muggles. There are many derogatory names for such people, though mud-blood is probably the cruelest." He glanced back at the photo, "Lily Evans was muggle-born. Your mother came from a very long line of pure-blooded wizards. As far as I know, there was absolutely no muggle blood in her family line – a true rarity these days. Most people are half-blooded or less."

"Uhm… were your parents…?"

"My father was a muggle, my mother was a witch."

"Are… are they both dead?" she asked timidly.

He took a deep breath, "Yes. Did your mother tell you about her parents?" he asked, unsure of how much of her family's history Katrina had told her.

"She told me they are dead, but she didn't ever want to talk about them."

"Your maternal grandparents… they were Death Eaters, Maggie. It was… through your grandfather that I…" he cleared his throat slightly and shrugged. "Suffice it to say, they were captured by Aurors after the Dark Lord disappeared and they were killed."

"Aurors?"

"Dark wizard catchers. They work for the Ministry of Magic. In the days after the Dark Lord disappeared, they rounded up all of the Death Eaters they could find. They… they sent us to Azkaban." He shuddered, remembering the weeks he spent there before Dumbledore got him released.

"Azkaban? That's the prison, isn't it?"

He nodded, "It's guarded by Dementors. They suck all of the hope from you. To those who were judged guilty enough, they administered their Kiss, whereby they suck the soul from your body, leaving you a living yet empty husk."

"My grandparents…?"

"Yes," he nodded. "They were Kissed and they died a couple weeks later." Mentally shaking himself, he nudged the book on her lap, "Keep going."

She eventually came to pictures of their graduation ball and he told her of the happier times, talking until she eventually fell asleep.