Chapter 3 The Truth

"What the hell?" Paul asks furiously. He'd been cussing more and more lately, which was odd because he had never used such language before Severus had met Ella.

"I need to contact Albus." Severus requests calmly.

"What you need to do is explain why exactly you think you have the right to put your hands on my granddaughter!" He counters.

"The fact that I touched Ellizabeth is the least of your worries at the moment. Let me contact Albus!" Severus snarls impatiently. His instincts told him the two deatheaters would be back. It had been far too easy to get rid of them.

"Are you threatening me?" Paul demands. "What's wrong with you Severus? You've never behaved this inappropriately before!"

"I'm an ex-deatheater! You're mad if you think this is a first! Why don't you explain something to me, Sir? What exactly is so horrid about Ellizabeth's past that you are so keen on hiding from everyone?"

"I told you not to ask about that!" He snaps, turning away from him.

"I know she's a witch, Paul!" Severus sneers, "Her little deatheater friend just had the nerve to inform me of how great of a fuck she is!"

"How dare you!" Paul spits angrily, "Don't talk-"

"How dare he!" Severus corrects him. "I want you tell me the truth, and I want to contact Albus to make sure we don't have anymore unexpected visits from the Dark Lord's remaining loyal few!"

Paul studies him for a moment, breathing heavily, obviously torn between not wanting to give him what he wanted and protecting his family.

"Summon Albus," Paul relents through clenched teeth.

Severus moves to the cabinet and grabs a little coin, the only link he had to the wizarding world. It had been an invention of Granger's. The identical coin that Albus was supposed to carry would grow warm when Severus touched this one. He had been sternly warned that it was only for emergencies. Severus thought this counted as such.

"They shouldn't be able to get pas the wards I have set up." Dumbledore assures them, coming back into the flat.

"Don't count on it," Severus sneers.

Dumbledore smiles, a strange twinkle in his eyes. "Don't try to pretend you haven't changed, Severus. I've kept an eye on you…particularly on your little interactions with Paul's granddaughter, Ellizabeth."

Snape's face pales, but he takes it in stride. "Speaking of which, why don't you come in and sit down? Paul was just about to explain why Ellizabeth doesn't know she's a witch."

"Yes, just as soon as he promises me that he'll keep his hands…and mouth off of my granddaughter." Paul replies lightly.

Severus quickly turns on him, anger masking the fear in his eyes. "I can't do that!"

"Yes you can, and you will. I don't want to have to worry about you screwing her every time I turn my back!" Paul insists.

"I don't do one night stands!"

"The only thing you could ever have with her is a one night stand!" Paul counters, "We cut her off from your world a long time ago!"

"It's not, and I won't. Tell me the truth about her."

"Promise me you won't touch her!"

"I can't!"

"What makes you so against promising there won't be any intimacy between the two of you? Do you fancy her, Severus?" Dumbledore asks.

Severus folds his arms across his chest defensively, but that was all the response Dumbledore needed to fully understand the situation.

"Severus, you must." Albus smiles calmly.

"Albus, I can't." Severus repeats stubbornly.

"Severus, what he's asking of you is no unbreakable vow. However, you are under the unbreakable vow to serve him for the entire length of your banishment. If he wants you to promise him this, then you must." Dumbledore insists.

"Are you suggesting he make the promise and then break it?" Paul demands.

"Not at all…I'm merely pointing out that making this sort of a promise isn't nearly as bad as being forced to make the unbreakable vow." Dumbledore assures him.

Severus could almost see the gears in Dumbledore head turning. He was up to something.

Severus sighs.

"You must." Albus insists gently.

"Very well…" Severus agrees reluctantly. "I give you my word, Paul, that I will refrain from any intimacy with your granddaughter on the condition that you tell me the truth in regards to her circumstances."

Albus quickly summons drinks and sat down on the couch, motioning for the other two to do the same and staring at Paul expectantly.

"You already know she's a witch." Paul starts slowly, "I guess what I should explain is why she doesn't know."

Severus nods curtly.

"First of all, she has no magical relatives. She's a witch born into a muggle family, so we were surprised when she got the letter inviting her to go learn magic in the States. Everything went well up until about two years ago. Just before she completed her magical training she met someone. She didn't know then that he was a deatheater, of course…"Paul breaks off.

"McNair?" Severus questions.

"Yes, that's his name." Paul agrees.

"After a while she began to feel as though McNair was just using her so she left him. He wasn't what she wanted. In return, he killed her parents. Right before she left him, she had discovered that he had been a deatheater, but she had never expected him to do something so…drastic. As if that wasn't bad enough, a month later she found out that she was pregnant with his child. Three months after that, she gave birth prematurely. The child was no fully developed and did not survive the hour. She never had a chance to hold or even see her daughter before the child died. To top everything off, because of how…rough he had been with her, she was told that it would be extremely difficult, if even possible, for her to have any more children.

She blamed herself for all of this. She said she should have known right from the start that McNair wasn't a decent man. She should have left him the first time he crucio'd her. She became depressed…withdrawn. She wouldn't talk or eat. It was only a matter of time before she made a suicide attempt. After that I realized she had been happier before she found out she was a witch. I decided it would be better if she didn't remember any of it. I had Albus erase her and her sibling's memories. We couldn't bring her parents back, so we simply told her that they died by a thief here in the city, and that she got hit on the head. Amnesia was the reason we gave her for the large pieces of her life that she couldn't fill in."

"You erased her memory?" Severus snaps, turning his glare onto Albus.

"And I still think it was one of the worst mistakes I have ever made." Albus assures him.

"It's what was best for her," Paul objects. "And I won't have you interfering."

"She doesn't know who she is! How is that what's best for her?" Severus throws at him.

"Well, she's not trying to kill herself, is she?" Paul points out.

"She doesn't have to. Her life was taken for her, and she knows it. That's why she has moments of withdrawal. She knows she doesn't belong in this world." Severus snarls.

"You will not tell her, Severus." Albus instructs sternly.

"Now you understand why you can't be with her. She can't have anything to do with the magical world." Paul says simply.

"You mean she can't have anything to do with herself." Severus corrects him furiously.