Chronicles of the Daughter
Chapter 2: The Flashback
Friday, July 25th
12:54 am
Number 7, Spinner's End
The couch was deathly comfortable at the moment, and she took down the fleece blanket covering the loveseat and settled into the long couch. Anna groaned in satisfaction at hearing the popping sounds of her spine settling in place, and stretched even further like a cat lengthening after its afternoon nap. Crawling under the blanket she curled up into a fetus position. The cooling charm on the house was in a serious overdose. Apparently it had something to do with the potion ingredients and their potency something Anna really didn't understand. Why cool the damn things down when they had to be put in a pot of boiling slime right afterwards?
But her father was the master here. He always smelled like his potion ingredients. One might think that those Scamander eyes and newt legs wouldn't exactly smell like Gucci, and it really didn't but she loved the way her father smelled. Of freshness and well cooking really. And he loved talking about his potions and his experiments to her. She might not understand anything that he was talking about, but she tried to listen to the properties of Dragon Blood, the advantages of using stag skin instead of a doe, the harmful affects of mixing shriveled frog intestines with snake flesh. But really she had been a duffer at Chemistry which did not involve as much gore, so what strength did she really have in this subject?
She closed her eyes and let out a breath of satisfaction. Her thoughts had wandered off to when she had first met her father. It had started when she was nine. She had always known that she was an adopted girl, but the craze to know her birth family and started eight years ago. Some kids had been teasing her in school and she had gone to the class teacher bawling her eyes out. That teech sure was nice, thought Annalise. She had called Anna's elder sister, Sareena who was at that time 13 and taken her home to her parents. She had bugged her mum and dad into finding out about her biological parents till they gave in and finally contacted the matron at St. Jude's Orphanage about any information she could give them. The name of the mother had been known, contacting the mother's family had been easy and she had found out about her being an illegitimate child and product of a one night stand, and consequently about the birds and bees. Finding her father had been hardest. Firstly he was rarely available in any records. He had been a wizard and therefore out of touch of the Muggle world as he called it. They had gone to the bar where her mother and father had met, and thankful for CCTV surveillance and the paranoia surrounding the place, they had kept records of everything. Apparently there had been some terrorist or someone loose in the country then.
It had been a very foggy video to look at, lack of technology, seriously 80s! but in the end her parents and recognized the resemblance between Severus Snape and their daughter and a print out had been taken of the man and sent to the police station for searching. Everything in the entire process had taken well over a year and the family's three holidays of visiting England again and again, but she was a pampered princess at both her homes! As excited as she had been to find out about her parents, her nervousness overtook her when she stood outside the door of her father's house at Spinner's End that June afternoon. As always her father and opened the door in a surly mood, and her nervousness had heightened and she looked ready to faint when the cops stepped in front of her and did the chatting, or rather, now that she thought about it, threatening her father. She could remember it as yesterday.
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June 21st, 1988
1:35 pm
Number 7, Spinner's End
Vaishnavi, or Vina as known to everyone around her, nervously took in her surroundings. The entire neighborhood looked like a pretty dreary place to be in and the house she stood in front of now was in an even worse condition. A bit isolated from the rest, the door looked ready to fall off any second now, the windows looked like they had never been washed, and the dark brown wranglers basically gave off an air of, 'Go away, you are not wanted here.' And that was exactly what Vina intended to do as she took a step backwards ready to flee when her mother's hand fell on her shoulder and gave her an air of strength and basically a 'don't you dare back out now after we spent an entire year looking for your father!' She gulped nervously and gripped her father's hand as the cops rang the doorbell again.
"Maybe he's not at home, papa. Can we go back to the hotel now?" she said looking up at her father in anticipation. Her puppy dog eyes were in full force and she was completely sure that he would not deny her anything when the door opened with a heavy jerk. Vina gasped and stepped back, her eyes wide with fear. She bit her lips and looked at the man in front of her. Black hair that looked like it had not been washed in days, black eyes glaring at her like a hawk, and a menacing sneer plastered on the face. She could not examine the man any further as the large policeman stepped in front of her and explained to the man in the house the situation they were currently in. Apparently her new father had let out a gasp for Vina and her curious nature overtook her and she popped her head to the side, looking at the man from behind the officer's right leg. He was rapidly shaking his head and denying the fact, upon which the officer brought out the girl and Severus was overblown by the amount of resemblance between the girl and him. A carbon copy really, with pigtails that is. The officer grinned winningly, and taking advantage of the shocked man pushed open the door and ushered all of them in.
Forty minutes had passed and despite what she had previously thought of him, her father had been a gracious host giving them refreshments- wine, and water for her and listened to them telling him about the developments with a calm air. Vina didn't understand much about adults but as far as she had seen in the TV soaps, wasn't he supposed to be freaking out right about now, screaming things like, "Noooo! Tell me this isn't true! It's a conspiracy against me, I haven't fathered a daughter." Well he had said that the first few minutes but then overwhelmed by the situation, Vina supposed he had given up. And now he had been gone inside the kitchen for the past ten minutes and hadn't returned. Her parents were busy talking amongst themselves (the officer had left by now) and she was getting bored and curious about where her new father had gone. She decided to go into the kitchen and check out the situation.
And indeed her father was there, staring at the counter, the glasses still in his hands not yet put in the sink for a wash. He was staring off into the space and to her he looked somewhat like the cationic grandmother of the soap that her mother watched. Vina bit her lips nervously wondering whether he had gone into a coma or something and venture forward, her hand automatically reaching out and pulling the fabric of the shirt her father wore. He looked down at her and she signaled for him to pick her up and put her on the counter, and here they were face to face. She bit her lips again.
"Don't do that. You'll spoil your lips," and she immediately stopped. Those were the first words her father had spoken to her.
"Are you mad?" he glanced at her curiously. At his daughter, curiously and then slowly shook his head. "Are you sad?" Again a no. "Are you nervous?" This time it was a tentative nod. "Don't worry. I am too. I'll hold your hand and you won't be anymore. That's what my didi, my elder sister does for me. It really works. I promise." And the little girl took out her hand. Severus reached his own hand out to grab it. He pulled her down and they walked, father and daughter, hand in hand into the drawing room.
Her parents had been pleased to see the little step the man had taken in accepting his daughter. And they had gotten to talking a bit about Vina and Severus. Vina was nine years old and her birthday was December 13 1978. She was learning dancing the classical Bharatnatyam form and Hindustani classical music for the past five and two years respectively. She sat next to her father and told him of her hobbies, it was in her instinctive nature to understand people's feelings so she chatted on trying to make him feel more comfortable when he popped a rather strange question in front of them and even stranger was the demonstration that followed.
"Mr. and Mrs. Kapoor. This might seem strange but has Annalise ever done anything extraordinary. Something you couldn't explain when she was particularly emotive. Angry, sad? Anything strange you felt or others felt or saw?" her parents seem to hesitate at first answering the question but it was her mother that answered.
"Not strange, beautiful you could say. We haven't told this to anyone but we notice it and it seems like its natural, but when I noticed that it didn't seem to happen with anyone else I… well… See Vina is a very beautiful dancer and a great singer even at her young age. She seems to loose herself when she is doing that and sometimes we notice the mood around the house changes as and when she dances and sings. Nothing drastic but when she dances when she is angry at us, the air around in her room seems a bit sad and smells like it too. Does that make sense? and she has a good way of reading people but we think that might be a natural talent. Many have that, but at such a young age, we are reluctant to say anything to anyone about this."
"Meaning she has passive powers. Nothing to worry about, I was wondering if Annalise has my talents or not. She doesn't have exactly what I do, but a lesser extent of that. You see Mrs. Kapoor, I am what is known as a wizard." And then he had proceeded to tell them about everything that being a wizard entailed. Her dad had interjected him more than once, but she saw her mum was so desperate for an explanation she gulped down anything he said and showed them. Slowly they understood the reason their daughter was more special than the rest and the reason that she could connect so easily with Severus Snape that was a completely unlikable man with his acerbic tongue and even harsher eyes.
And during that holiday which lasted another nine days she had visited her father regularly and talked with him and their abilities. He had gotten her books to read on the subject and taken her shopping in Diagon Alley after placing her under a Glamour Charm which furiously tickled her. They had connected well and with a promise of her visiting next summer they had bid goodbye to each other.
And next year they had kept up to their promise and visited. She had stayed for a month over at his house and had father-daughter bonding time. When she was thirteen and old enough to understand he had told her about his Death Eater days and the spying he used to do (rather she had seen the tattoo and asked him of the story behind the picture). He had told her of a boy named Harry Potter, his boy-who-lived story, and who would be joining the wizarding school come fall. He had told her and taught her the theory behind the potion ingredients. They had discovered her powers were very limited, she was a squib and therefore even simple potions were out of her reach as she couldn't get anything out of them. Even potions required magic of the caster to be poured into the bowl, that's why each cauldron was cleaned with a Cleansing Charm before they were used. To help identify the magic of the wizard or witch who would be brewing. He taught her the difference between cut, dice, slice, grind, etc. and where each technique would be more useful. He even taught her the basics of magical theory and each subject they had at school. Transfiguration, Defense against Dark Arts, Charms, Astronomy, Care of Magical Creatures, etc. She read the lot of her father's books whenever she was over and she would in turn gift her many more to read. Something she direly appreciated because it meant that he was trying to get her into the family 'business' so to speak even on his meager salary. Seriously despite the difference in the countries and in the worlds, the teachers everywhere it seemed got terrible salaries. She was thankful here for her adoptive family's flourishing business and the happiness with which they let flow the moolah.
He had even changed something in her muggle devices. Her phone, her Ipod, her laptop. The magic in the air around the house made them wacky and they wouldn't work. Her father after seven months had called her in India and told her of the success of his experiments with muggle items. Not only did they channel the magic in the air around them and start working properly but now they would charge with the magic, meaning no electricity when she was in a magical area. But they tended to work a bit slower she had noticed. Seriously, wizards called themselves superior?
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POP. Vina's eyes snapped open and she sat up looking at her father who seemed a little worse for the wear but nothing too serious. "Food's on the table, dad. Rice, stir fry vegetables and tofu. No excuses. Eat everything." Her father glared at her but sat down at the table waving his wand and warming up the food. And slowly took it in.
"The Dark Lord is alive once again. Resurrected by Potter's blood. It would be dangerous for him to know of your existence and I like an idiot, told the entire Order. He is lying low at the moment, so I doubt he will ask for my place as a place for refuge for him or anyone else anytime soon, but we need to figure out some emergency plan so that you can be safe if it strikes. It would be best if we got a Portkey made for the Headquarters. Yes, I'll talk to Albus about giving you the password so that you can enter the place without any problem." Vina nodded in compliance. Whatever kept her father sane at night.
AN- Alright?