Author's Note: I hope everyone is having a lovely holiday! I will be going to Pittsburgh on Boxing Day for a few days and will be going to a harry Potter marathon, so there may be a delay in updates until I return. Also, I know many people have issues with song lyrics in fics, and I generally avoid songfics for this reason. However, I do have Hermione sing a little in this chapter, purely for plot related purposes. It will not become a common thing. Finally, once again, a warm thank you to everyone still reading this story, and who review, favourite and follow.

That hopeful feeling Severus nursed lasted until detention the next day. For the first time in years he was the one nervous about a detention. This was made even more unfortunate by the fact that he had also given the Weasley twins detention the same night. He had briefly considered using the detention to try and bond with his daughter but dismissed that idea. He did not want Hermione to associate spending time with him with getting in trouble. Instead, he had stacked cauldrons for her and pulled out a barrel of flobberworms for the twins to prepare. They were troublemakers, undoubtedly, but their ingredient preparation was decent enough for student stores.

Fred and George arrived first and set to work without any need for instruction, and it was only a few moments later when a knock came on the classroom door.

"Enter." Severus drawled, managing to keep his voice completely normal.

Hermione entered, looking at the floor. "I'm here for my detention, sir."

"Obviously." Snape drawled. "You will be scrubbing the cauldrons at the back of the room, without magic. Your detention is finished when they are perfect."

"Yes, sir." Hermione answered, and immediately went to the back of the room, to the table beside the Weasley twins, who were looking at her in surprise.

"Merlin, what did a goody-two-shoes like you do for a detention with Snape, Granger?" Fred asked in amazement.

Hermione opened her mouth, but Severus cut her off. "I caught her hexing Mr. Malfoy in the corridors last night."

George let out a low whistle. "Way to go, Granger!"

Hermione smiled a little, unsure of this praise, but at least she hadn't actually had to hex Draco. "Thanks." She said bashfully. "And it's Hermione."

The three Gryffindors lapsed into silence, and for awhile the only sounds were the scrape of scouring pads and the squish of knives through flobberworms. Hermione was accustomed to this chore. Her mother had a small lab set up in the safehouse where they would sometimes spend their days, and Hermione's first job was cleaning cauldrons and then rinsing ingredients. Because she was used to the feel and the rhythm of the job, she lost track of where she was and began to sing quietly. It wasn't a happy song, or one meant for eleven-year-olds. It was one she was accustomed to her mother singing, though she never knew why.

"Your beauty is beyond compare

With flaming locks of auburn hair

With ivory skin and eyes of emerald green"

Severus Snape had stopped his marking when Hermione had started singing. He didn't allow such things in his detentions, but he had grown up in a muggle neighborhood, and he had picked up a few things. It was obvious that Hermione was not mindfully singing, which meant that this had to be a song she knew so well she could sing it perfectly and instinctively, and given the subject and the description of 'Jolene' perfectly matching Lily Evans, it must've been from her mother. Was this how Cressida had felt while they were together? Was it true? Could Lily...the married, adult Lily, not the Lily of his childhood, have taken him from Cressida so easily?

"He talks about you in his sleep

And there's nothing I can do to keep

From crying when he calls your name, Jolene."

Severus had a sudden strong flashback to the wee hours of the interrupted Death Eater meeting, the morning his daughter was born, the daughter that was now singing with no idea how her words were affecting him. He remembered the sullen anger in Aurora's eyes and her exhaustion as she railed at him that it was his fault, That: "Cress would have never agreed to go on this mission if he wasn't an arse who calls for Lily-sodding-Potter while sleeping in Cress's bed."

"You could have your choice of men

But I could never love again

He's the only one for me, Jolene."

Severus Snape was a man accustomed to hiding behind walls and shields. He never liked emotion overmuch, and his father had beat him enough over 'sissified displays' and 'acting like a pansy,' that he often refused to feel things at all. His daughter, however, singing such pointed words when he had dreamed of how different things could have been the night before made him want to put his head down and snivel, like he had been homesick and bullied in Slytherin as a first year with ratty clothes. He did not allow himself that luxury, however. He would never be that boy again."Miss Granger!" He snapped, instead. "This is a detention, not the Royal Albert Hall!" She started out of her trancelike state and flushed guiltily. He ignored it. "Three points from Gryffindor and another detention tomorrow."

"Yessir." Hermione managed, looking as though she were about to cry. She tried to shake herself and resumed her scrubbing, but she sniffled now and then, and her face was slightly crumpled in on itself. It made him feel like both an utter arse and the worst father in the world...but he had a reputation to uphold, and if he were soft on her, it would make her even more isolated in the Lions' House.

Now the Weasley twins were glaring at him. It was probably for the best, but he still felt badly about it. He just couldn't have taken it anymore. "Those flobberworms won't chop themselves, you two!" He snapped.

He returned rather viciously to his marking, and the room went quiet. After about an hour, the twins were finished, and Hermione was on her last cauldron. Severus knew the twins were waiting for her, but he wanted to speak to her, to make her realise that he was not being cruel because he didn't care about her or anything like that. "Miss Granger, stay behind please. I want to speak to you about your behaviour."

"Yes, sir." Hermione said, looking defeated.

Realising that they couldn't help the first year from the ire of Snape, or so he assumed, the twins slowly packed up and left, drawing it out as much as they could, much to the Potions Master's annoyance. He wasn't going to hurt the girl. He watched them leave, before letting out a sigh.

"Sir?" Hermione's voice was nervous.

"Follow me, Miss Granger." Severus said, getting to his feet and opening the door to his office. Once she was inside and the door was closed, he opened another door and led her into his private lab. He had long ago discovered that while the headmaster monitored his office, his lab was far more protected.

Hermione didn't know what was happening, but she followed obediently. She had already made such a bad impression, getting a detention in her first week, let alone two that she wasn't about to question. The lab was smaller, but full of simmering cauldrons and ingredients, and she was immediately right at home. "Sir?" She repeated, cautiously.

Severus sat at the small desk in the corner, and looked at her. "Hermione," he said, voice softer.

Hermione froze. She had never heard him use anyone's first name, not even Draco's, and Draco was his godson. "Sir?" She squeaked again.

"You don't have to call me sir in this lab." Severus told her. "No one will overhear us here." He sighed a little. "And you don't have to be frightened of me. I'm not a monster." He took pity on her, and held out his arms. "Come here, daughter. Let me hold you a moment."

Hermione had a moment of utter surprise, before letting out a squeak of joy, and moving forward into his arms, pressing close and burying her nose into his chest. "They said you didn't know I existed." She admitted.

"I didn't." Severus admitted, finding the embrace less awkward than he had imagined, and stroked her hair gently. "But I knew when I saw you in the Great Hall before your Sorting. You are the image of your mother."

Hermione smiled happily, luxuriating in the kind of fatherly affection she had never had the chance to experience. "I thought you hated me." She admitted. "Draco said I was too much of a swot during classes this week, that I'm not supposed to know anything."

Severus frowned a little. "I could never hate you, Hermione." He said carefully. "But unless we are alone and somewhere where we cannot be overheard, I will have to treat you the same way I treat the other Gryffindors." He tilted her head up slightly. "And don't try and dumb yourself down for them...just make sure they think everything you know comes from books. A clever muggleborn is something they always look for and admire." Like Lily had been, and the cruelty of that was not lost on him.

Hermione let out a sigh of relief. "Good. I was afraid I had mucked it all up already." She admitted. "I was the only one in my Transfiguration class who managed to change their matchstick into a needle." She smiled at him in a way that made Snape's heart jump, all admiring and hopeful. "And I know all about keeping a cover, Papa. That's why Draco and I aren't allowed to talk."

Severus felt his throat close over when she called him Papa, and had to actually close his eyes to hide the way they had clouded over with things that wanted to be tears. "I'm proud of you." He said softly. "That's very good for your first week, Hermione." How had he ruined things in his life so thoroughly? If he had been a better man he could have raised his child himself. Instead, here she was at eleven and he knew next to nothing about her. He had done this to himself, but he regretted it with every fiber of his being. "I'll set up a time for us to spend time together, and should you ever need anything, I want you to know you can come to me."

Hermione beamed a smile up at him like he had given her all the gold in Gringotts and he felt his heart break a little bit more, but smiled back. "How are you liking Hogwarts?"

Hermione considered the question. She wouldn't lie to her father, but she didn't want to seem spoilt or like all she ever did was whinge. "I like my classes." She said hesitantly.

Severus nodded to that, in what he hoped was an encouraging manner. He had never been too good at 'encouraging,' but for his daughter, he would try. "How are you getting along in Gryffindor? Are you making friends?"

His sharp eyes didn't miss how her eyes fell or how she had resumed playing with a bracelet of beads on her wrist. "I have Draco." She said quietly. "But...we can't...talk." She sighed. "None of the other girls like me and the boys are all useless, and Harry's always hanging about with Ronald, who should really have his mouth cleaned out with wound-cleaning potion!"

"it will get easier." Severus said in a way that he hoped was comforting. He had no assurances that it was true, of course, his own experiences with Gryffindors did not suggest such a thing, but he had never been one of them, even in name only. "Hopefully the Weasley Twins will take you under their wing, or at least spread the reason for your detention around."

"Maybe." Hermione agreed, not really wanting to talk about school or her mission, just wanting to enjoy the moment, and so, lapsed into silence, inhaling the warm scent of her father's robes and committing everything to memory.