Disclaimer: Still don't Harry or any of the others.

Thought I'd give you a different perspective… hope everyone's cool with that. Thank you so much to all of you who have added this little fic to your favourites list! Reviews are welcome!

Chapter 7

Martha

My face is burning and I can't seem to keep my breathing under control. I won't let him get to me. I won't let him get to me. My mantra isn't working as well as I would like. My heart is still pounding hard in my chest. How dare he! How the hell did he know? Only Hermione knew... did she tell him?

My thoughts are racing fast as I process his words... "I know who you are, or more to the point, what you did!" I turn the corner fast almost at my building. I hadn't gotten around to letting some of my wards down yet so I've been burning the calories that Lyra's brownies contain by walking the two blocks to my flat from my apparitiion point. I haven't been in my flat ten minutes before there is a knock on my door. I know who it is.

Opening it I see Hermione is just as red as me, slightly out of breath. "Martha what did he say?" she says, sliding through the door.

"You should know! You're the one who obviously told him who I am!" I practically yell.

"WHAT? I did no such thing!"

"Mi he knew. He knew!" My voice is breaking but I refuse to let myself crack.

Hermione is looking at me with an expression of such tenderness that I have to look away. Before I can get another word in she has her arms wrapped around me in a warm hug. "Marty I swear that he figured it out on his own. I didn't say a word. You know me better than that."

I pull back from her nodding my head. "I just thought that things would be different here... that no one would know."

"No one does. Harry only guessed because of your name and where you come from. And I know that you hate to hear it, but sometimes your resemblance to Snape is uncanny."

"Hermione I have it on good authority that I look a great deal more like my mother than my father! Thank Merlin!"

She shakes her head. "I meant your mannerisms, the way you lift your chin... and the scowl. You really have to quit it with the scowling!" she says with a laugh.

You would think that knowing that he found out on his own would make me feel better, but it doesn't. The fact that he knows at all makes me want to hurl. "So I guess that means he knows about what happened at Salem... about what I've done."

There is a slight pause. "If anyone was going to know then yeah he would. The ministry keeps him well informed. But Martha he wouldn't judge you on it. We did much worse when we were kids."

"Yeah but you were working for the right side." I sigh as I go to sit down on the sofa. "And as much as you say he won't judge me, he will. I'm an ex death eater who just so happens to be the illegitimate child of Severus Snape. That shit that I pulled as a teenager is going to haunt me forever!"

Hermione can see me slipping into a funk and knows that I need some time alone. Going to the door she turns around with some parting words. "Like you said Marty. You did that shit as a teenager. You had no idea what it meant... and you have more than paid the price. It'll only continue to haunt you if you let it." I look up a few seconds later and she's gone, leaving me to my thoughts.

If I had known what it would mean... I can still see his face clear as day as he fell to his death, eyes locked with mine. There was no way that I could have reached out in time... that I could have stopped the spell that practically ripped him in two. I watched as it spilt his innocent blood and I knew that I was done. I knew that I had never belonged there. Escaping to my father was my freedom. Away from my fanatical pureblood mother and straight into the hands of one who I had never met. Then it turns out that he worked for the Dark Lord himself. I thought he was my escape and instead he sent me packing to live with some muggle family back in the U.S. When I heard at a later time about his role for The Order I'd felt even more like a misfit. I'd allowed myself to become engulfed in a ridiculous manic plot of a psychopath and his followers, while my father had fought and been seriously wounded for everything that at one point I had stood against. I promised myself then and there that I would never let anyone manipulate me again.

One week later I found out that my mother had been killed in the final battle. I knew that there was no longer anything to hide from back in Salem so I returned to my home town where I worked my ass off to become one of the best potions masters of my graduating class. It was there that I met Hermione. The stares that I received from our classmates told her that something was up with my past and I had to come clean about everything. I thought that it would be the end of our friendship but instead she looked deep into my face and said just one sentence. "You eyes are telling me that you are more than paying the price for whatever you did." She and Lyra became my world. I had lost my family and they had none to speak of. It seemed destined that we would become like sisters. When she decided to move back to London, there was never any question of me coming with them.

... But then Harry Potter has to show his damn self and everything that I've managed to put behind me these last few years comes hurling to the forefront of my mind. "I know who you are, or more to the point, what you did!" I can't shake his words from my mind... the tone of his voice. The disgust. The gloating nature of it. If he thinks this is going to change anything then he's bloody delusional! Martha Von-Fursten no longer takes shit from anyone! Certainly not Harry Potter... still I don't want to see him anytime in the near future.

~ o ~ o ~ o ~ o ~ o ~

Hermione

It takes me a good twenty minutes to get back home. And by the time I do I really don't have enough energy to get involved in yet another argument with Harry. He's shuffling his feet in the middle of the kitchen. Lyra is still seated at the table, only a colouring book has replaced the breakfast.

"She's pissed then?" He blurts out when I enter the room.

"What's pissed?" Lyra says head popping up.

"Mad." Sirius says from behind me.

"Language!" I say to Harry. "And yeah she is!"

"It's not how I meant it you know..." Harry begins.

"Look Harry I really can't get into this right now. I'd say apologise but truthfully I think that you should just stay away from Marty ok?"

"Well I'm not gonna say sorry for her mood swings."

I roll my eyes heavenward. "When did you become a twenty eight year old child? You were the one antagonising her!"

"See I knew you would take her side over mine."

"Merlin Stop! I'm not taking sides. I don't even want to discuss it. Martha will calm down and you will steer clear of her." Taking a breath I sit down next to Lyra. "Problem solved."

Sirius is trying not to laugh. I can see it as clear as day. Then all of a sudden his eyebrows shoot up. "You have a thing for the Yank don't you?" His voice is excited and teasing at the same time.

Harry guffaws. "Hardly! I've met her twice and both times she's been completely horrendous. Then put on top of that her background and-"

"She's not that person anymore Harry." I say gritting my teeth a little.

But Harry continues on. "And sure she's attractive but come on, eventually Snape's genes are bound to pop up in that face."

Sirius just smirks. "So you think she's attractive then?"

Harry simply throws his hands up in the air. "I'm out of here. You're killing me with your theories!"

He's putting his jacket on when Lyra decides that she needs to put her usual two cents in, which will undoubtedly result in some sort of explanation from me. "Aunty Marty has a boyfriend."

All three adults in the room pause for at least a minute. "No she doesn't." I eventually say. There were literally no other words that came to me.

"Does to!" Lyra states, still colouring.

"Who?" Harry and Sirius ask at the same time.

Lyra, huffy at being interrupted during such an important pastime as drawing gives an exasperated sigh. "I don't know who. I just know that she has one. I saw her speaking with him when we went shopping together." We all exchange looks before she drops the bomb. "He was very pretty."

"Well just because she was speaking to a man does not make him her boyfriend." Lyra just shrugs. And that seems to be all we're going to get out of her. Harry's face is expressionless as he says his goodbyes, probably worried that any show of emotion will set Sirius off again.

When he's gone and the three of us are sitting at the table there is an uncanny feeling of... normal. Sirius of course feels the need to break the peace. "So I thought that we could go over to the Burrow today. Molly invited us for lunch." My head has snapped up. "What do you think?"

"I think that when I saw Ron a few days ago I was the last person he wanted to lay eyes on in the near future." Putting my head in my hands I shake my head in frustration. "Honestly Sirius if that's how he feels how do you think everyone else is going to react?"

"I think that's it's better to face the music now than deal with Molly's wrath later if we turn down today's offer." He says it with a smirk but I can hear the serious nature of his tone. This is important. As much as I tried to forget, these people were a big part of my life. They were my friends… my family…

"You're right. What time is she expecting us?" I ask, taking a deep breath.

"Not for a few hours. Plenty of time to get yourself looking smashing." He's laughing and I can't help but smile. "You too cub!"

"Can I be smashing too?" Her eyes have grown wide and Sirius is practically suffocating with fits of laughter.

I'm laughing in earnest myself "You know she gets the vanity from you?" I say between breaths.

"Yeah but she gets the beauty from you." Sirius says kissing me full on the lips. My own respond instantly to his and it's all I can do not to moan right there in the middle of the kitchen. Instead I pull away to look at our daughter who has the widest grin on her face.

"Come on baby. Let's get you looking even more smashing than usual." I say as she jumps from the table. She's running up the hall towards her wardrobe before I've even stood up. She's so like her father sometimes it scares me.

~ o ~ o ~ o ~ o ~ o ~