A/N: sorry it took so long, hope you enjoy the new chapter.
Chapter Seven: Quite Moments and Meetings
The young girl walked quitely to the dungeons, the letter her uncle had sent her the night before clutched in her sweaty hands. The letter had let her in on the secret of who her father was, something that had plauged her thoughts since she was a small child. Her mother had told her some stories of the man who had gifted her to the petite woman. She spoke of how they had met and the love that Irene had felt for the handsom young wizard, but she had refused to ever part with his name. Her mother's death had come as a terrible shock and a tragic loss to the girl who had been just ten years old at the time. Her Uncle Norman had been her saving grace during the horrible time. But after the loss she had found herself wondering ever more constantly who her father was and now she knew, he was Professor Severus Snape, Potions Master and Head of Slytherin house.
Her footsteps echoed around the empty dungeon halls as she made her way to the Professor's office where she had been summonedn to join him for a private dinner meeting while the rest of the school were in the Great Hall. There was a second letter clutched in her hands, a letter that the the teacher had sent. It told her where to meet, what time she was to come and had emphasised the importance that she not speak of it to anyone. As she reached the door that she was aiming for. She came to a sudden stop, tucked the two letters into a pocket of her robes, wiped her sweaty palms onto the black school robes. Taking a deep breath, Salome reached her shakey hand up to the door and knocked.
"Come in" came the voice from within the office.
Taking another deep breath, Salome opened the door and stepped into the room. Severus Snape sat behind the desk, quill out and grading papers on the surface in front of them. He looked up at the young girl in front of him. She had locks of black hair, a pale face much like his own. Her eyes were all her mother's, the brilliant sky blue that had enchanted the wizard all those years ago. He could see the mixture of both Irene and himself in the first year Gryffindor girl.
"Good evening Professor" Salome said quitly.
"Evening Miss Ashdown" Severus said in reply.
"Should I sit Professor?" the eleven year old asked, idicating the seat in front of the desk.
"No Miss Ashdown, we will not be staying in my office" Severus said to the girl, who looked at him with a confused look on her face.
"Follow me" he said, indicating that the girl should follow him.
Severus lead the girl through a hidden archway within the supply closet in his office, the archway took them into a medium sized room, with Slytherin green carpet. A silver arm chair and a matching love seat. A small maple coffee table was set in the middle of the room, on the table sat a small silver vase with a single lily held in it. Bookcases lined the walls, filled with books, several of them bound in old leather. It was a nice room, but quite plain in a way, it wasn't as homey as her mother's living room.
"Sit down Miss Ashdown" Professor Snape said, indicating the love seat across from the arm chair that he had lowered himself into it.
The young girl sat down without saying a word, she looked at the man across from her and looked wearily at him. A small pop sounded around the room as a house elf appeared in front of them.
"Professor Snape sir, Winky has brought little Master Aurelius back to you sir" the elf spoke in a high squeaky voice.
"Give him to me Winky" Severus spoke in a voice that held indifference, holding out his arms to the elf, accepting the small infant into his arms.
"You are dismissed" he told Winky as he held Aurelius to his chest.
"Yes Professor Snape sir" the house elf said cheerily before leaving the room with a second pop.
With the elf no longer in the room, Severus turned to his daughter "this is Aurelius, my son" he said in introduction.
"He's cute" Salome said quitely.
"Indeed" Severus said, a small smile forming on his face.
"I believe your Uncle informed you of who I am?" he spoke.
"Yes Sir" the child spoke quitely.
Severus nodded mildly, the sat together for some time, speaking a little. Another house elf turned up not long into their meeting, bringing with him a tray of food for the pair of them and a lukewarm bottle of formula for the baby boy in the wizard's arms. They ate in a comfortable silence, enjoying the plate of warm roast beef, roast potatoes and steemed green vegetables, smothered in thick gravy. The professor ate and feed his son with a practice ease, it was not uncommon to need to multitask in such a way these days. Once they finished their meal, Severus turned to the eleven year old and asked.
"Would you like to hold him?" he said, indicating the now fed infant in his arms.
"Oh, yes please, I would" Salome agreed, a smile forming on her face as she took her tiny brother into her arms.
Aurelius was small, a head of black hair and dark, midnight blue eyes that looked up at his sister.
"You are a sweety, aren't you?" she cooed to the baby boy in her arms.
"Aurelius is it?" she asked the baby "quite a big name for such a little thing" Salome said to the baby.
"My Uncle use to say the same to me you know" she went on to say "and a mouthful of a name too, he decided to call me Sallie instead, much to my Mum's annoyance" Salome said with a sad smile at the memory.
"I think Aurelius is far too big a name for such a cute wee thing like you" she continued to speak, Severus watched the exchange without speaking once or even making a sound.
"I'm going to call you Rey" the young girl said with a finalitly.
…...
"The son cursed his father's age-softened mind, the threw the slipper back into the cauldron, resolving to use it henceforth as a rubbish pail." Neville's soft voice read from the story of 'The Wizard and the Hopping Pot', his daughter Frankie snug in his arms.
On a chair across from him in the Day Care room, sat Frankie's other parent and their second shared daughter, Delphine. Neville knew that Daphne Greengrass was listening to him read to their baby girl. The pair did not often to speak to one another, but they had come to a comfortable silent agreement to care for their children together, to allow the other parent to be a part of their daughter's life.
"That very night a peasant woman knocked on the front door" Neville read on.
Frankie began to fuss in her father's arms, wriggling a little and letting out a high pitched whine. The young father placed the book down beside him on a little stool table. Neville moved the brunet baby girl in his arms, to put her up to his shoulder, rocking her gently and patting her firmly on the bottom in an attempt to calm her.
"Calm Frankie, hush baby" the boy said calmly, snuggling the baby girl to his chest.
Across the room from the pair of parents and their pair of daughters sat another Slytherin student visiting with his own Gryffindor children. Blaise Zabini was sitting with the trio of Weasley babies, he had not spent much time with them since their birth that past May. He had been told when picking up his and Draco's son Titus earlier that day, by Achelle Figg, that the Weasley father would be at Quidditch try-outs that night and had agreed to allow the Slytherin father to visit with his triplet sons. He would not spend much time with them, an hour or two possibly, but it was nice for them to spend some time together, even if it was to be kept from the public. His mother knew of her other three grandsons and was a little disapointed that she could not meet them. But with the climate being what it was, it was not wise to figth for the meeting.
…...
Ron was still shocked, he was Gryffindor's new Keeper. He sat in the Gryffindor common room with his two best friends and his three school-aged siblings. One of his son's, Kenzie, in his arms. The other two triplets, Callum and Quinn were in the arms of their equally identical uncles. Ginny was holding Hermione's elder daughter Iona, the witch was holding her other daughter in her own arms, Harry of course was holding his and Ron's daughter as the group talked about Qudditch and Ron's new appointment to the team.
They sat together and spoke until it became quite late and the three young parents were becoming rather tired and had long since began wishing for their beds and the comfort of much needed sleep. Being parents of infants made for very little sleep as their children had yet to discover the nack for sleeping through the night.
As they trudged up to bed to join their fellow Gryffindor parents. Harry placed Suzette onto the changing table, make quick work of changing her into a fresh nappy and a clean onsie pjyamma suit. Before placing her into the crib beside his bed, taking Quinn from Ron and changing him too, while Ron finished changing Kenzie, before placing him into the crib next to his already changed brother Callum. Seamus, Dean and Neville were already tucked into their beds, asleep with their own babies safely tucked away in the comfort of their cribs.
As Harry removed his glasses and crawled into the warmth of his bed, covers pulled over his body, leaving only his head poking out from beneth them red and gold comforter. The teen tried to snuggle in and tried to allow sleep to over take him. But as his eyes closed and the promise of sleep crept into his mind, Suzette began to fuss and cry in her cot from beside his bed. He pulled himself into a sitting position and pulled his daughter into his arms.
"Suzi alright?" Ron asked from his own bed, sleepiness filling his own voice.
"Yeah, she'll be alright" Harry told the baby's other father, as he settled himself back into the bed with the baby girl cuddled into his arms, she could sleep with him for now, he was too tired to do anything else right now.
"Night mate" Ron spoke from the other side of the dorm.
"Night" Harry replied as sleep over came him, pulling him into the familiar dream of the dark corridor that he had been seeing for some time now.
A/N: I know it's not the most interesting chapter, but hopefully we can get into the more exciting stuff of the 5th year in the next few chapters. This fic will now be covering 5th year to the end of the final battle. A post war fic is planned which will have more relationships in it. Please review and let me know what you think and feel free to offer suggestions and requests. I'm hoping to develop Salome's character some more as well as her relationship with Severus and some of the other canon characters. Next chapter will skip ahead to October...and Umbridge will make a fuss that did not crop up in canon.