4.

Cordelia hadn't wanted to drink the thick red stuff in the bottles; her mother kept them hidden in a little hidey-hole in the kitchen that, as far as Cordelia could tell, could only be accessed by tapping the wall with a wand, much like the entrance to Diagon Alley. The bottles weren't the only things in there, but Eileen didn't let her see what else there was.

More than a dozen times, when no one but Eileen and Cordelia were home, Eileen had tried to get Cordelia to drink a sip, a spoonful of the blood, but Cordelia refused, bursting into tears whenever Eileen persisted.

School was hard, after her fainting spell in class. Some of her schoolmates teased her, and others wanted to know what exactly had happened. Even her teacher had pulled her aside to ask what happened, and if there was anything she needed.

She thought of the glass bottles hidden in the kitchen at home, and shuddered inwardly. What would her teacher think if she knew about them?

The walk home from school was lonely; she had never been popular, and with the added stigma of her mystery illness, she had no one. She missed walking home with Severus; no matter what else happened, she had always had him, and she felt his absence sharply.

And then, on the last day of school before Christmas break, she walked outside, arms hanging free at her sides. Sometime after her visit to Diagon Alley, she had lost her enthusiasm for school; how could she think about maths problems and diagrams of the earth when her mother was trying to make her drink blood? So she began her walk home the way she always did these days - arms empty, head down, concentrating on ignoring the jeers of other students, wondering if she could sneak up to her room before either of her parents bothered her.

A few lonely snowflakes drifted down, landing cold and wet on the crown of her head, her shoulders, her nose. She pulled her ratty overcoat more closely around her, wishing the zipper wasn't broken.

"Cory!" A familiar voice made her heart swell; she looked up, and broke into a wide grin. There, waiting at the end of the drive to the school, was Severus. He had on trousers that were several inches too short, old trainers with a hole in the toe, and the black cloak he'd gotten in Diagon Alley just for Hogwarts. It was used, patched, too large, but it was warm and thick. Cordelia barely noticed all that, though; what she saw was his odd, lovely familiar face, his crooked smile, the characteristic nearly-black eyes.

She ran towards him, forgetting to wonder if anyone was watching her, whispering about her. She threw her arms around him, wrapped him tight in a hug. "Sev!" she breathed into the shoulder of his cloak. He laughed, arms coming around her. "You're home!" she said, tilting her head back to look at him again.

"I told you I'd be home for Christmas break. I thought maybe you'd have missed me, but I can see I was mistaken…"

She pulled herself off of him, reached easily for his hand instead, as they started walking towards home. "Don't be daft," she said, "Of course I missed you. I wish you were home forever."

"You'll be at Hogwarts with me before you know it," he reassured, glancing around to make sure there were no other students nearby.

"When did you get home? Did you take the train? Did you have to walk through the wall between the platforms again? Did you bring anything magic home with you?"

Severus chuckled. "One question at a time," he said, "I got home an hour ago, I took the train, yes, same platform, and… hm, I can't remember if I've brought anything home with me."

"Sev! Come on."

"I've brought something, but you'll have to wait until Christmas for it," he said, knowing it would drive her mad.

"Is it a magic wand?" she breathed, "A unicorn?"

"No," Severus said solemnly, glancing at her sidelong. "I… I wanted to get you something like that, but… it wasn't on discount."

She studied him carefully, watching his face; he couldn't help it, he cracked a smile. "You can't buy unicorns, Cor. And you'll get a wand after your letter comes."

She asked him questions about Hogwarts all the rest of the way home, and he tried to answer them as best he could in between each excited barrage. When they got inside, she barely paused for breath as they shed their outerwear and shoes.

"And what about the ceiling of the Great Hall? Is it really enchanted, like your book said?

"It is," he confirmed, "You can tell what the sky is like outside, all the time."

"Do you get to ride dragons to class?"

"Definitely not. I told you, they're rare, and dangerous, and you'll probably never see one, and you wouldn't want to."

"What about a baby dragon?" she persisted, following him upstairs to his room, "I bet they're all right."

#

Christmas dawned with a cool light to match the temperature. Cordelia nearly ejected herself from her bed the moment her eyes snapped open, shoving a thick pile of dingy, twisted blankets to the floor in her hurry. The instant she stood, she was gripped by severe shivers that sent her teeth chattering.

She reached down, pulled the topmost blanket from her pile, and wrapped it over her shoulders, then padded over to the attic stairs in two pairs of socks. If today were a school day, Cordelia would have had to bargain herself out of the warm cocoon of her bed, because the air in her room was always frightfully chill in the wintertime. She would have had to remind herself that being in trouble for missing school would be worse than enduring a few crucial moments of frigidity while she dressed, would possibly even have had to imagine that Tobias would be at the house all day, before she could push the deliciously warm covers away.

Today was not, however, a school day. Today was Christmas, and it would be her best Christmas ever, because Severus was home from Hogwarts, and he had brought her something magic for her Christmas present. She grinned as she slipped down the unfolded attic stairs. clutching her blanket at her throat with one hand.

With the other, she pushed open Severus' bedroom door, slipping earnestly into the darkness of his room; his curtains were drawn against the dawn, and she could hear the deep, even nature of his breathing that told her he was still asleep.

"Sev," she whispered, hovering at the foot of his bed. She held her breath, listening intently to see if he had heard her, would wake up. His rhythmic breathing continued.

"Sev," she whispered again, tiptoeing closer. She didn't want to wake their parents across the hall, nor was she certain she wanted to wake Severus per se. She wanted him to be awake now, of course, but he was always frightfully grumpy when she woke him up; perhaps, if she simply stood by his bed and willed him awake, he would comply.

A dramatic sigh escaped her, as she settled herself down on Severus' bedroom floor, still clutching her worn, ratty blanket around her skinny shoulders. She trained her eyes on the cracks around the curtain, certain it was brightening, just a bit. Perhaps if she went and eased the curtains open, the extra light would wake him… but no, that would surely put him in a mood, and then he might withhold her present.

She shivered; it was chilly in his room too, though not quite as cold as hers was. But then, he had only one blanket, and she had several, so there was that, at least. Her neck stretched as she lifted her head to peer over the edge of his footboard; still sleeping.

She registered warmth on her face, clinging to her chin; she lifted her hand from within the blanket, touched her face. When she pulled her hand away, she could see a dark spot on her fingers. She lifted her hand to her face, sniffed experimentally. Blood, again.

Her tongue snaked forward, licked a few warm droplets of it, sucked them inside her mouth. She reached her fingers up again, felt her bottom lip. The indentations were back; she must have been biting again in her sleep She frowned, hoped they weren't too noticeable. Her mother would be cross if she saw them.

A hitch in her brother's breathing, and the rhythm shifted slightly. Cordelia scrambled across the floor, settled herself along the side of his bed now, so she could look at his face as he slept; she thought she saw his eyelids twitch, and she sighed again, as loudly as she dared.

Severus' eyes snapped open, and he started. "What the-" he hissed, sitting up quickly; a fleeting expression passed over his face, and was replaced with mild annoyance before she could identify it.

"Cordelia, what are you doing in here? Have you been watching me sleep? That's… that's a bit creepy, you know."

"Only for a little while," she said, unabashed. "Sev, it's Christmas! How can you sleep?"

"Believe it or not, I was managing just fine," he muttered, sleep still catching at the edges of his voice, "What time is it?"

"Time to give me my unicorn," she said cheerfully. She could feel her face stretching into a smile; she couldn't help it. She was about to get some real, live magic.

"Shhh," Severus glanced towards the doorway, pulling his own blanket around himself, and leaning his back against the wall beside his bed. "You don't want to wake them up. And I told you a thousand times, I didn't get you a unicorn."

"My baby dragon, then," she said, "Or my magic wand, or maybe whatsit-called, a keyport, so I can visit you at Hogwarts."

"Portkey," Severus corrected, and before he could speak another word, Cordelia was on her feet, clasping her hands together beneath her chin. Her blanket fell to the floor, forgotten.

"It's true, then? You've gotten me a portkey-thingy? I can visit you whenever I want to!"

"Hush, Cor. No, I haven't gotten you a portkey, you know you can't go to Hogwarts until you're eleven, so why're you asking me? Now I don't even want to give you your present, you've got your hopes too high…"

"Please," Cordelia breathed, still clutching her hands together, "I know I'll like whatever it is, I promise. Even if it's not a keyport or a baby dragon…"

"It's called a portkey," he corrected again, "If you go around Hogwarts calling it a keyport, people are likely to think you're daft." he sighed, rubbed his eyes with balled fists. "I suppose I'm up for the day now, thanks to you. Can you bring me my school bag? It's there, in the corner."

She had it in her grip before he even finished speaking, and thrust it into his hands. He reached inside, met her gaze as he did.

Severus chuckled; he couldn't help it. Her face was lit up like a Christmas tree. He didn't think he'd ever seen her so excited. "Are you sure you want it now?" he teased, and Cordelia grinned eagerly in anticipation, nodded her head yes.

Severus narrowed his eyes; he thought, for a second, he had seen something on his sister's face...something odd. Probably, it had been a trick of the light. He wrapped his fingers around the object he'd been looking for, withdrew it from the bag and handed it to his sister, letting the beg and the remainder of its contents fall into his lap.

"Here you are, then," he said. Both their fingers crinkled the brown paper wrapping before hers tore into it eagerly. He felt a smile pulling at his lips; sometimes her happiness was so sharp it cut at him, slipped inside his own skin and settled there, just for a bit. This was one of those times.

She let the paper and string fall to the floor, and it settled on her tatty blanket, looking like a homeless man's discards. "Chocolate Frogs," she read off the box, "Are they good?"

Severus smiled. He could see her struggling not to look disappointed, her smile wobbling bravely. She wanted to be pleased, for him, but she had been expecting something magic, after all. "See for yourself," Severus replied smugly, "Go on and open one."

There were four individual little Chocolate Frog boxes inside the wrapper; she kept one in her hand and set the rest down on her blanket. Severus, inexplicably, leaned over and pushed the door to make sure it was firmly shut. Puzzled, Cordelia lifted the flap on the little box.

'Ribbit!' She gasped as the box actually croaked. She looked up at Severus, eyes round, and then, in a blur of chocolate, the little frog leapt from its box, and landed on the bed.

"It's alive," she breathed, still clutching the little box. A look of wonder spread over her face, and Severus laughed.

"It isn't really alive," he said, "It's just Charmed to act that way. Go on, catch it and you'll see, it's just chocolate."

Cordelia set the box back down, and attempted to herd the frog back into it; in leapt away, and she followed it, as it hopped from perch to perch, just out of reach. She laughed, missing it a few times on purpose just so she could continue to chase it around the room.

After a time though, she was lured by the promise of chocolate; she let the box fall, and a little card fluttered to the ground, settling beside it. In one motion, she grabbed the frog up from the windowsill where it had jumped to last, and cupped it in her hands.

"It won't hurt it if I take a bite, will it?" she asked, dubiously.

Severus shook his head, watching her with amusement. "No, it won't hurt it at all. It's not a real fr- Cor, what's wr-" and he stopped, because he knew why her face had suddenly fallen, why her eyes had gone a different sort of round, and her skin had drained of what little color it normally held.

Tobias strode into the room, stringy hair askew. "What," he snarled, "Is all this racket about? Can't a man sleep in his own house?"

"We're sorry," Cordelia said quickly, still cupping the frog tightly in her hands. Her voice trembled, but she forced a strained, peaceable smile. "We just… er…we were just excited, is all. Happy Christmas, Dad!"

For a moment, Tobias hovered in an awful place the children knew too well; between tired rationality and a full-blown rage. Perhaps it was the mention of Christmas that softened him, though, for he deflated, and ran a hand through his lank hair.

"Well," he muttered, "I suppose I should wake your mother then, have her get breakfast started…"

There was no need to wake her, though; Eileen materialized behind him in the hallway, and as soon as he had said the word 'breakfast', she snapped into action.

"Of course," she said, "I'll get it started right now, and then we can have presents."

Severus and Cordelia remained still and quiet until both of them had trudged downstairs; then, Cordelia opened her hands. The frog had been squished into a melty, vaguely amphibian shape, and Cordelia shrugged sheepishly.

"I guess you were right. It doesn't hurt it," she said, and lifted it to her face, biting into it, and spreading chocolate smears from her hands to her mouth.

"You're completely mad," Severus said, affectionately. "Go wash your hands so I can show you the rest of your present."

"There's more?" she managed, in between licking the chocolate off her lips.

"Well, sort of," Severus said, "But you'll ruin it if you've got chocolate all over your hands. Go on, then."

When Cordelia pranced out of the room to wash up, Severus rubbed his eyes again, then crossed the small room, to where Cordelia had dropped the box and the little card underneath the windowsill.

He lifted both, glancing at the card, and flipping it over. Helga Hufflepuff. Well, maybe the rest of her cards would be more exciting.

Cordelia flounced back into his bedroom, and peered at the card in his hands. "What's that? Is that the rest of my present?"

"Yeah," Severus said, "Except I was hoping it'd be a more exciting card… but anyway, look." He tilted the card so she could see it; a photograph of a soft-faced woman smiled out at them. She had on very old-fashioned clothes, and had a mixing bowl balanced in the crook of one elbow, which she stirred briskly with a wand held in her other hand.

"She's moving," Cordelia breathed, reaching a hand out to touch the card. Severus relinquished it to her.

"It's yours," he said, "Each chocolate frog comes with a Famous Witch or Wizard card. Some people collect them. S'too bad your first one is only Hufflepuff. though."

"What's wrong with her?" Cordelia asked, gaze still rapt on the card as she turned it this way and that in her hands.

Severus shrugged. "It's just, Hufflepuff… well, they're mostly a load of duffers, is all."

Cordelia had turned the card over to read the back, and now she flipped the card back, as quickly as she could, perhaps looking for the trick to it.

"Oh! She's gone," Cordelia looked up, sad surprise on her face, just as their mother's voice came up the stairs, beckoning them to breakfast.

"Don't worry about it," Severus said, putting his hand on her shoulder and guiding her out of the room, and towards the stairs. "That happens sometimes. She'll be back. Now put that in your pocket before we get downstairs."

#

Christmas dinner that year was one of the best the Snapes had ever had, as far as Severus could remember. There was a very small and fatty roast, an upgrade from the anemic bird they usually had; there were roast potatoes and brussels sprouts, and even freshly made cranberry sauce.

The only flaws had been when Cordelia had asked their mother for a second piece of roast, and Tobias had growled at her around the rim of his whiskey glass, and again when Cordelia had pulled her Chocolate Frog card out of her pocket to peer at it under the table. That would have gone unnoticed, had she not elbowed Severus to say, "She's back!"

"Who's back?" Tobias had made to rise from the table, settled for craning his neck instead. Cordelia slipped the card back in her pocket in a flash.

"It's nothing, Dad," Severus said quickly, because Cordelia was opening her mouth, and he didn't trust what could possibly come out of it. "It's just this imaginary game she has."

Tobias sneered, but settled back into his chair. "I might have known. Just keep your silly little stories to yourself, right girl? I don't want any more letters coming home from your teacher."

Cordelia shifted uncomfortably; Severus could see the corners of her mouth twitching downwards, and she trained her eyes on her plate, though she had already licked it clean.

Don't cry, he willed her. It had been a good meal, a decent Christmas.

Eileen jumped up, sending a ripple across the tension. "Who's ready for pudding?"

As soon as the dinner dishes were cleared, Severus went upstairs to his room, Cordelia like a puppy at his heels, until they reached his doorway.

"I'll be right back," she said, "I have your present in my room."

Severus reached up and pulled the ladder down for her, more easily than she remembered him doing before; he had gotten taller, even though he'd only been gone a few months.

He bit back a smile, trying to imagine what her present could be. Cordelia often seemed to have one foot in another world, and her gifts tended to reflect that. When she was six, she'd given him a bundle of dead wildflowers tied with a string. I picked them in August, she'd said, They were alive then. They were pretty.

Last year, she had given him four pages torn from what he could only image was her science book; one contained a fact sheet about snakes, one was a photograph of a lion, one was a drawing of a raven on a fence-post, and one had factual information about skunks, of all things.

For the houses of Hogwarts, she had said proudly, brandishing them at him. When he'd told her that Hufflepuff's emblem was a badger, she'd been unperturbed. In fact, she had snatched a pen from the top of his wardrobe, and colored in the white stripes on the illustration of the skunk's back. It's a badger now, she had said, with all the certainty in the world.

That was the reason he actually had to bite down on the insides of his cheeks in anticipation as she descended the stairs, papers flapping in one hand while she gripped the ladder with the other.

"We have to go in your room," she ushered him, "Dad would be cross if he saw this."

"Shout that out, why don't you?" he muttered, walking into the room and easing the door shut behind them.

Cordelia handed him the papers in her hand; at first, he'd thought they were loose sheets, and he wondered if she'd reproduced the Hogwarts Houses gift again, but then he saw that she had poked holes through the sheets and tied them together with what looked suspiciously like an old hair ribbon she'd stopped wearing after accidentally dropping it in the loo.

There was a hand-drawn illustration on the front page; it depicted a skinny boy with longish, dark hair riding astride what could only be a dragon.

It could only be a dragon because of its long, scaly tail, its curved claws, the puffs of smoke emitting from its nostrils. But most of all, it could only be a dragon because the word "dragon" was written underneath it, with an arrow pointing straight at the beast. He saw that the boy was also labelled, with "Severus".

"Severus and the Dragon," he said. It was a description, and it was also the title she had printed across the bottom of the page.

"It's a book," she said, as proudly as she had presented him with her schoolbook pages last year. "I wrote the story, and then I drew the pictures. It's about you. And a dragon."

She beamed at him in anticipation. "Go on, read it," she said eagerly.

He peeled the first page back, scanned over it. There was another picture, this one of him standing on a platform, with a train behind him.

"Read it out loud," she insisted

"Once upon a time, there was a boy named Severus," he said awkwardly, "He had to go away on a train to wizard school. His sister didn't want him to go away, but she knew that he had to, because Severus had a very important mission."

He turned the page again. Here, he was standing in front of a desk. A short, pudgy man wearing spectacles sat behind behind the desk; Severus noted that he bore a striking resemblance to the Headmaster of the primary schoo they'd both gone to.. "He got to Hogwarts, and the Headmaster called him to his office right away. 'Severus,' the headmaster said, 'I'm so glad you've arrived. We need your help. There is a vicious dragon trying to get in the castle and we need you to stop it.'"

"Go to the next page," Cordelia said, as if he had any other intention.

"Severus grabbed his new wand and went outside to find the dragon. Just as the headmaster said, the dragon was outside, behind the castle. He was sticking his head in the window, and some girls inside the classroom were screaming. 'Help us, help us! It's a vicious dragon, and he looks hungry!'"

This page was illustrated with three fawning girls leaning out of a tower window. One of them had longer eyelashes than the rest, and was helpfully labelled 'Lily'. A dragon sat on its haunches next to the tower, licking his chops. Smoke billowed from its nostrils in this image, too.

He turned the page. Now here was Severus again, standing on the dragon's neck and brandishing his wand at it.

"'Stop it, dragon!', Severus commanded, aiming his wand at the dragon's head. 'Or I will have to vanish you! That means I will make you disappear forever, and that is what knights and wizards do to vicious dragons like you!' The dragon roared and tried to breathe fire on Severus!

On the next page, Severus was on the ground again, pointing his wand up at the dragon. The dragon breathed fire, and a stream of what appeared to be icicles met it from Severus' wand.

"Severus cast an ice spell at just the right time, and the dragon's fire turned into just melted ice and steam. 'That's it,' Severus said, 'I told you to stop, but you didn't, so now I have to vanish you.' He waved his wand, and the dragon disappeared."

He turned the page again; here, cartoon-Severus was standing with his arms folded, a grin on his face. The three girls were running across the grass towards him, the one labelled Lily in the lead.

"'You saved us!' the girls said happily. And it was true. Everyone at Hogwarts was safe and happy, and the Headmaster gave Severus a medal for being so brave and good at magic. Best of all, the dragon was gone… FOR NOW. The End."

Cordelia struggled to keep her voice soft, bouncing on her heels. "It's the end for now," she said, animatedly. "Because I'm working on another one, where the dragon comes back, but it's still disappeared, and you have to fight an invisible one. Do you like it?"

Severus flipped back to the cover page, and set it down carefully on his bed. "Cory," he said, and pulled her into a hug, "I love it. Did you draw all the pictures yourself?"

She allowed herself to be hugged for a fraction of a minute, then wriggled her way out to lean back and grin full-wattage at him.

"I did," she said, "For the dragon, I copied a picture of a lizard from my science book, and made it scarier."

"Cor," Severus squinted, frowning suddenly, "There's something… what's going on with your teeth?" It was that bit of oddness he had noticed for a flash, earlier. Now she was grinning, and he could see it clearly. Two of her teeth were sticking out past her top lip… were they falling out? Had… had Tobias done something to her…

Instantly, her smile faded, and she clapped both hands over her mouth. "Mmm-mrrf rr-furrm a frrmm" she said from behind her fingers.

Severus pulled her hands away from her mouth. "What did you say? Did… did something happen while I was gone?" He felt his stomach sinking; this was bad.

"I said, 'I'm not supposed to tell,'" Cordelia whispered, glancing back towards the door. "Mum says I can't."

"Cory," Severus said, very solemn all of a sudden, "If that's… if Dad did something to you that made your teeth loose, we have to… we have to do something. Tell me what happened."

"They're not loose," she said, and then her eyes widened, and she clapped her hands over her mouth again.

Again, Severus peeled them back, and this time, he used his thumbs to roll her top lip up so he could see her teeth.

She was right; her teeth weren't falling out at all. They were long, as long again as the rest of her teeth, and they were very pointy. They looked like… well, they looked like fangs.

"Cordelia," he said, and she knew he was serious, because he seldom called her by her full name, "What the hell is going on? I leave for three months and you've got bloody fangs?"

"They are not bloody," she hissed furiously, eyes narrowing. "I'm not drinking that horrid stuff, no matter what Mum says!"

She reached to clap her hands over her mouth again, but Severus grabbed both of her wrists, one with each hand.

"Hold on, what?!"

"Sev, I'm not allowed to tell you!" she pleaded, still in a fervent whisper, "Mum says I can't tell anyone."

"Well, you can tell me," he insisted, dark eyes intense on her blue ones. "You have to tell me, or I'm going to think the worst."

"It is the worst," she said wretchedly, corners of her mouth wobbling again. "Mum took me to Diagon Alley, and I thought I was going to get a wand, but instead we went to this horrid dingy little shop…"

"You went to Diagon Alley?" Severus interrupted.

She nodded. "There was a horrible, scary old man in the store, and he said he was going to eat me-"

"He said he was going to eat you?" Severus said, glancing over her head to make sure the door was still firmly closed.

"More or less," she replied, sniffling. He saw a tear slide from her eye and glide down her pale cheek. "And then he said I was a vampire, and he sold Mum these big, disgusting bottles of blood, and I am not drinking it, ever!"

At this, Severus actually relaxed. He dropped his sister's hands, and let a nervous laugh escape. "Cory," he said, "I like your stories, but please don't make one like that up again. You scared me."

Cordelia looked puzzled; blinked at him quizzically. She sniffed again and wiped a hand across her eyes.

"What are those, dress-up fangs for Halloween or something? Where'd you get them?"

"Sev, it's not a story. It really happened. There's… there's been a lot of stuff I haven't told you about, because Mum said not to."

She turned, pushed on the door though it was already shut, and climbed up, uninvited, onto his bed. She reached down and picked up the blanket she'd left on the floor earlier and wrapped it around herself.

She sniffled again. "There was a lot of scary stuff, Sev. It started when I fainted in school, and they brought me to the hospital…"

Updated Author's Note, January 2014

I know I promised updates, but this story is temporarily on hold while I am re-writing "Always In Your Shadow" (my Severus-has-a-kid fic). Once that's finished, I plan on updating its sequel "The Blood of Your Veins" as well as this story, probably alternating updates. If it helps, I can tell you that I've been running through my AIYS rewrite very quickly, and expect to finish within the month.

Thanks for your patience!