I own nothing! I don't own Harry Potter or any of the characters! I just own the Snape family members (except for Severus, of course), and the other OC's.
Severus was rewarded the next morning as Jiyu slept right through the night and awoke early for breakfast. The headmaster stood up to address the student body in one gathering place, eyeing Skullduggery suspiciously. After the usual speech, he was just about to tell them to dig in when the raven flew in front of his face and twisted his head, opening his beak silently for permission to continue.
"Ah," the headmaster said. "As you can see, one of our beloved Slytherin house members has a new familiar, and it is a Raven. Do treat him respectfully, as they are the more sacred of familiars. Do you wish to have anything to add, Skullduggery?"
"Yes," the bird sneered in Severus' voice before flying over in front of Horace Slughorn, who was sitting next to Severus, and began singing Jim Carrey's rendering of 'I am the Walrus'.
The new Potions teacher went beet red, flushing with horror and embarrassment, and the entire student body was now laughing uncontrollably along with most of the teachers. Even Severus, who was usually perfectly calm and collected, was chuckling at the crazy bird's antics. When Skull was done, he flew to perch on the black-clad wizard's shoulder as the food reappeared with a chuckle from the headmaster.
"Severus," Horace said at last. "I would appreciate it if you got control of your new familiar. That was most unsettling, my boy."
"Call him that again and I'll make it worse, Horace," the bird threatened darkly in Voldemort's voice, causing Snape to shudder.
"Skullduggery, don't you ever imitate that voice again while you're in the same room as me," Severus said darkly. "Or I really will take a match to your tail feathers. Horace, Skull isn't my familiar – he's Kiru's. No, Jiyu is my familiar, and she's – well, looks like she decided to join us for breakfast today."
"That's!" Horace cried in disbelief.
"Hello, big girl," Severus said gently as his bat landed on the edge of his hair and latched on. "You must be hungry if you're up already. Here, batty."
"A bat for a familiar?" Horace asked confusedly. "But – Which student is Kiru, again?"
"You'll see, later, Horace," Severus said coldly. "Come along, Jiyu, I have schedules that need to be passed out, my little flying fox."
She squeaked a few times and began flying circles around his head, and delivering some of the schedules to the students who were mingled up. After a while, it was done, and Severus held his hand aloft for her to cling to while she rested. He began petting her and some of the other students stared in awe at their dungeon bat of a teacher having gotten a bat for a familiar, and a small one at that. He smirked in pride at his little rodent, knowing that the students would probably be calling her "grease's idol" soon, if his reputation as the "greasy dungeon bat" was anything to go by. He grinned at Kiru's having Potions, knowing it would be chaos for Slughorn in that first bout of insanity.
"Kiru, I've been told to let him collect you," Severus whispered in her ear. "Be sure to give him hell for me and make sure that you make me proud, princess. Oh, and you'll recall the other Snape whose name was called last night? She's your cousin. Find her, and make sure that she's not alone like you were those first few weeks. I'm sure you understand."
"Of course, Professor," she said happily. She scanned around, and her little cousin was sitting alone dejectedly poking at her food while almost drooling at it. She pointed at her cousin, and Skullduggery flew over to get the girl to come over. She looked around, spied her head of house, and hesitantly padded over.
"Y-you summoned me, sir?" she asked quietly.
"Yes, Eileen," he said putting a hand on her back gently. She flinched, and he began rubbing it. "Eileen, this is your cousin, Kiru. She'll be helping you if you need anything, and is almost always available if I'm not, which I will do my best to be. My office is in the dungeons, right between the Slytherin common rooms and my private quarters."
"S-sir? Th-the hat said that – that you knew my mom. Is – is this true?" the first year asked terrified.
"Your mother was the best little sister I could have asked for," he said as he sat down next to her. "Don't fret, Eileen. Your mom – she was one of the bravest people I knew, even though she was in Slytherin as well. Your father – well, you'll meet him soon enough. I'm warning you, Eileen – he's one of the scariest people I've ever met."
"I second that notion," Kiru butt in.
"And he is a very – well, I'd rather not discuss him here. Come by my office at eight o'clock on Friday night, child, and we can finally have some bonding time as a family," he said gently. "I'll be able to use the Floo Network to get us back home to introduce you to your aunt Chessie and your other two cousins."
"Yes, sir," she said as her eyes began glowing with a pride of sorts. "S-sir?"
"Do not fret," he said, "I already know your problem. Prefect Bree has already told me. There's something I need you to do for your Uncle Severus, Eileen. I need you to read your potions book and be good."
She nodded, understanding that Potions ran in the blood if he was telling her to read the manuals and alter them. She left for her first class – Flying. She couldn't help but wondering who the teacher was and what he or she was like. She hadn't been able to hear the old man's announcement the night before – she'd always had hearing problems ever since one of the older boys in the orphanage had pushed a pen into her ear and made it bleed. That had been one of those times where she'd wished that she'd gone to the hospital, but the matrons at the orphanage just wouldn't take her unless it was life threatening, so she wasn't able to. Now, as a result, even years later, the effects were still haunting her and would most likely be permanent unless she could find this fabled necromancer. She wanted to, desperately, but for the life of her didn't know where to begin, and had begun to read the Potions textbook when the door burst open to reveal a strange woman with amber eyes. The roll began to be called, and all the first years were responding with vigor.
Halfway through, Eileen's ears plugged up, and she panicked. She couldn't tell what she was saying, she'd never been able to learn how to read lips, and was at a loss for what to do. She knew she was in trouble when she called out a few names, but when she said a name a few times with no results, the boy next to her nudged her, causing her to cry out in pain as he jabbed one of her many bruises.
"Miss Snape, I presume. You're not answering. What in Merlin's name is wrong with you, girl?" Madame Hooch asked to his temporarily deaf Slytherin.
"I- I'm sorry, Professor!" she began sobbing uncontrollably. "I – it's not my fault! One of the boys took a knife to my ear when I was little and now I'm deaf sometimes! I'm sorry! I – I never learned sign language or how to read lips because nobody ever bothered to teach me! They just thought I was too stupid to learn anything!"
Madame Hooch sighed, gripping her own broom tightly. This was bad, and she was already at the end of her rope with these little first years. These kids were now so quiet you could hear a pin drop, if it weren't for his niece's sobbing hysterically.
"Fine," she snapped pulling out her wand to write her a message. 'I understand you're upset, but you need to calm down. I'm not angry with you, child, now that I know what's wrong with you. We'll take you to the Hospital wing for Madame Pomfrey to give you a proper checkup later. Right now, by show of fingers, how often have you been to the hospital, Eileen?'
"N-never, ma'am," she sobbed. "Not unless I was gonna die…"
Madame Hooch had never felt so enraged in her life. She struggled to control herself, gripping her broom tighter and reciting famous Quidditch students of hers in her head to calm her flaming nerves. At that moment, Skullduggery flew over with Jiyu following in suit towards the class.
"Yo," the bird said happily. "What's up, fellow flyer?"
"Skull, I need you to take Miss Snape to Madame Pomfrey. Be careful, she's deaf right now, and I'm not sure when her hearing will come back. I'll also need you to alert the teachers that she has today – in my voice, mind you – that she is in the hospital wing for a proper checkup," she ordered as she turned to write the orders to the tiny first year Slytherin. 'Eileen, I need you to go with Skullduggery. He's your cousin's familiar, he won't hurt you, but he'll lead you to someone who will hopefully be able to find out what's wrong with you. Don't worry, I'll handle your other teachers. What is your schedule?'
"This, then Charms, Lunch, Transfiguration, and Defense Against the Dark arts, ma'am," she replied with a few hiccups and sobs.
"That makes it easy, then," Madame Hooch said with a sigh of relief. "The heads of houses are teaching you today. Skull, you know where to lead Eileen. And I want no funny business, bird, I mean it. This is serious, and possibly life threatening if left unhindered."
Eileen, with a little encouragement from Madame Hooch, followed the raven into the castle and down the hall. Once in the hospital wing, the medic ran a diagnostics charm and was shocked to find what was ailing the small child, as well as the dozens of other injuries on the small child. She was glad Skull had stayed around, and told him to get Severus to come to the hospital wing as soon as humanly possible, which wasn't needed since he stormed into the ward in between classes, with his tiny little bat acting as carrier for the tiny parchment he'd received from Madame Hooch.
"Severus," the medic said sorrowfully, "I'm glad Rolanda caught her on the first day. She – she's been abused at that orphanage the Aurors forced her into. She's part deaf, there's blood buildup in her ears, but I should be able to clean it up with a little help and trust on her part. She's got bruises all over her body and – and I'm afraid that at some point, she was raped. I'm – I'm so sorry…"
"Those little bastards," Severus growled angrily. "I should have known. All right, give me a few minutes with her, as her head of house and her uncle. She won't be going back there, not as long as I'm around to ensure it. If I'd known my sister was still alive, this never would have happened."
Severus quickly wrote out in thin air to his niece that he needed her to trust the medic enough to let her help the tiny Slytherin. He promised that he understood her pain, and that if she was good for Madame Pomfrey the whole time, he'd give her a reward that she wouldn't soon forget. She stared at him, having never been rewarded before, and he had to quickly explain that he was a wizard of his word and never went back on it at all. Eileen silently nodded in understanding after her uncle explained that the old witch had also performed this scan on Kiru and himself. He flicked his wand, switching her school robes for hospital wing Pajamas on his way out to the classroom.
"You think he left?" Ron asked excitedly, and rather loudly.
"In your fondest dreams, Weasley," Severus retorted as he stormed in. "We had a health issue last class that I needed to attend to for one of my Slytherin first years."
.o0O0o.
"Snape, Kiru," Horace called out at the same time that Madame Hooch had called out Eileen's name. Kiru raised her hand tiredly, and the old man looked at her. "No relation to your new Defense Teacher, is there, child?"
"Yes, he's my father," she sighed, sick of all new teachers and students asking this question. "And before you ask, no, I don't know why he's teaching Defense this year instead of his usual Potions. Truth be told, I couldn't care less what he taught as long as he stays the head of my house."
"Oh? Would you care to brew something for us, Miss Snape? Did your father teach you how to make a Draught of Living Death?" Horace asked curiously.
"Hah! That beginner's potion? Yeah, he taught me, and he also taught me how to make the Polyjuice Potion, among other fifth, sixth and Seventh year potions!" Kiru snorted. "I'm telling you, me with Potions is like Granger with spells! You name it, I can brew it!"
"Very well then," Horace grinned happily. "Your father didn't much care for my teaching methods, I'm afraid, when he was in school."
"You taught dad? Wow, how old are you? Ninety?" Kiru asked incredulously. "I know you taught you-know-who, too, so you have to be at least eighty. Wait, no, if I'm correct – one hundred or so."
"What?" Horace yelped. "Child, I'm sure your father would be very disappointed in you right now. But, alas, you probably inherited his mouth as well as his potions prowess. I admit that he was often throwing around insults at a group of four perfectly harmless Gryffindors…"
"The Marauders were a pain in my dad's ass, and if you ever mention them to my face again, I will bring them back from the dead, kill them, and repeat the process until you get it through your skull that they are not welcome in conversations with any member of the Snape family," Kiru snarled angrily, her knuckles and fingernails turning white as she gripped the table to keep from throwing a fit. "And for the record, they almost killed my dad in their fifth year, and what happened from it? Nothing! Dumbledore did nothing to stop them and their precious little schemes and so called 'Pranks'! No, the pranks always humiliated and endangered people, and I'm glad that three of the four are dead! They got what they deserved, and I'd be more than happy to dish out their own medicines to their backs while they had let their guard down! Don't you ever talk about those damn Marauders in front of me again, got it?"
The room was silent, and the entire class knew that Kiru was out for blood if this new teacher wasn't a coward. They knew she could hold a grudge, but the fact that someone had ganged up on and almost killed their feared Potions master while he was in school terrified them, and also made them happy that said people were dead. It meant that they were safe, for the most part, and all were on edge as he moved on to take roll, sweating bullets. It also explained why he was always able to keep an eye out on everyone, as well as his excellent defensive and dueling abilities, and why he hated Gryffindors so much.
Right as the bell rang, Kiru jerked open the door and left in a huff of fury, the other students looking back at their new potions teacher with sympathy, a few Gryffindor students going up and comforting him saying that he wasn't the first one she'd scared the crap out of, and told him about her prank on Umbridge on Halloween, and how Bitachina had been found ruthlessly murdered next to Kiru's dead owl familiar during the summer. Nobody knew quite who had done it, but that it was a massive amount of cutting curses that had been performed, and that they had simply let her bleed to death ruthlessly.
Nobody dared to talk on their way to Transfiguration, and the old animagus sensed the fear, and in Kiru's case, rage, in the classroom. She gave them the assignment, and Kiru's rage fueled success tenfold from her normal, and the teen's rage was very much founded upon, the old witch knew, and so she held the teen after class. She talked calmly with the teen, letting her know that she understood the rage, and that her father would have been both proud of her bashing the Marauders, as well as disappointed that she'd threatened his old teacher. Kiru snorted and left in a silent fuming rage, and the animagus quickly looked at the child's schedule only to find that Severus was up next after lunch. She sighed, knowing he'd be able to calm the enraged teen down without a hassle.
Okay, so Kiru's got Snape's temper, and well, I'm just going to call it hereditary. Yes, I'm a fan of the Marauders, but I'm also a Marauder basher since they could have killed their fellow students thousands of times over in each school year. There are other fics of mine that go along to my fan side of the Marauders – like Slytherin Marauders.
Reviews are very much appreciated.