Chapter 8
Thorn was the first to notice Siniva as she descended the stairs from the dormitory. The unconscious first year was not an easy sight to miss.
"Siniva?" Thorn asked, leaning down. "Siniva, can you hear me?"
Thorn took Siniva's right hand and searched for her pulse. She found it, but still, Siniva did not stir.
"Draco, get professor Snape!" Thorn said, as Draco descended the stairs behind her.
"What's wrong?" Draco asked.
"Siniva's unconscious. Get professor Snape!" Thorn said.
Draco bolted down the staircase, jumping the last few steps and ran to the head of house's office.
"Professor," Draco said, opening Snape's office door. "Siniva's unconscious."
Snape stood so quickly that his chair fell hard onto the floor.
"Where is she?!" he exclaimed.
"The staircase leading from the dormitories." Draco answered quickly, as Snape ran past him. Draco followed at a short distance.
Thorn was still sitting on the stairs next to Siniva when Snape came running, worry hollowing out his face.
"What happened?" Snape asked Thorn, kneeling at Siniva's other side.
"I don't know. I was walking down the stairs a little while earlier and she was right here. I tried to wake her up, but she was unresponsive." Thorn explained, as Draco took her into his arms. "She's still breathing."
Snape picked up Siniva's limp body and carried her back to his office. The parchment drifted down the steps, unnoticed and ignored. Right now, it did not matter.
While making students nervous as they worked was usually one of Snape's favorite pastimes, he was constantly distracted by his thoughts about Siniva. How was she doing, was she awake, was she okay and would she remember anything when she woke up?
He circled the room, as usual, like a large bat, sweeping past desks, staring into random cauldrons.
Of course, Hermione's hand was raised. But, surprisingly, she didn't ask about the quality of her potion or say that she had finished brewing it.
"Miss Granger?" Snape said.
"Professor, your daughter." Hermione said, looking over to Snape's office door.
Snape turned around and, sure enough, there was Siniva, standing in the doorway. She was paler than usual and took a step forward, stumbling just a bit as she did.
Snape told the class to finish their assignments and ushered Siniva back into his office, closing the door firmly.
"What happened?" Siniva asked.
Snape sat her back on the couch and sat in a chair facing her. At first, he didn't say anything, but he did hug Siniva and kiss her forehead.
"Are you feeling okay?" he wondered.
"Yeah, I guess. Kind of sore and confused- what happened?" Siniva said, a fair amount of uncertainty in her voice.
"You fell down the stairs. You were unconscious for about two hours." Snape explained to her. "Do you remember anything before now?"
Siniva thought back and nodded. "I had questions to ask you. I wrote them down, but I left my parchment upstairs this morning. I ran back up to get it and I tripped."
The parchment on the stairs made sense now. It made sense why Siniva had fallen down the stairs.
"And that's all you can remember?" Snape asked.
Siniva nodded.
"All that matters to me is that you're okay." Snape told her.
"Can I ask you a few questions?" Siniva wondered.
"Anything you want to know, I'll tell you." Snape responded.
Siniva's first question was fairly simple to answer. She followed up with a few more basic questions, but suddenly, she asked something very difficult.
"Would you have kept me even if I looked like her?"
Snape never thought he would have to answer this question, but he always knew what he would say.
"I would have kept you and loved you no matter what you looked like. You are the only good thing that came out of a bad experience. You've made my life so much better." Snape answered.
Even though she was still a little disoriented, Siniva knew this to be true. Her father had spent eleven years raising her, rather than questing for a woman that would love him. She knew why- he had thought about it many times before.
"You and Lily would have made a great couple." Siniva said.
"Maybe. But if she and I had ended up together, I wouldn't have you, would I? And I've never thought once about that." Snape said.
"You haven't?" Siniva asked.
"No. It has been a very long time since romance has crossed my mind." Snape answered.
Maybe it would have been easier to communicate silently to each other, but Siniva seemed to understand what her father said. Her head just hurt a little, that was all, wasn't it?
"I want you to rest now, okay? You'll feel better. I can give you something for the pain, if you need it." Snape said.
"I'll be okay. I love you, dad." Siniva said, closing her eyes.
"I love you, too."
"Hey, you feeling okay?" Draco asked Siniva when she entered the common room.
"Yeah." Siniva responded. "My head still hurts a little, but I feel a bit more aware now, I'm remembering things clearly."
"I'm glad to hear you're okay." Draco said.
"We weren't sure how long it would be until you woke up." Thorn said. "I don't think we've ever seen your dad so worried."
"He couldn't focus while he was teaching. He kept pacing the front of the room and had Thorn and I watch the class." Draco added.
"He went back into his office every few minutes and stayed for about ten." Thorn said.
Of course he had worried, Siniva was his only child. And of course he would worry immensely, she was unconscious with no estimated time of awakening.
"Everyone thought he had lost his mind." Draco added.
"Why do they think so poorly of my dad? If they saw how he was outside of class, I think they would like him, or at least tolerate him." Siniva said. "They only see their least favorite professor. Gotta go.'
Siniva left the conversation in favor of finding her father.
"There you are." Snape said, looking up from the stone basin Siniva knew so well. "Come here, Sinnie, I need to show you something."
Siniva walked into the office and stood next to Snape.
"I know I've shown you some memories regarding Venia, so you already know all about her." Snape said, falling silent for a few seconds as a scowl plastered his mouth shut. "But you haven't seen a lot of Caleb. I'm not sure how much you remember, but you've had more encounters with him than you have with Venia."
"I really don't remember him." Siniva said, now questioning her memories, wracking her brain for anything.
But she didn't have to remember. Her father remembered plenty and she would be able to sink into those memories.
The silver stream of reverie danced into the Pensieve and Siniva fell through.
Spinner's End was dark and laden with soft, white, shimmering snow. Lights hung in the Snape residence, but not in the way Muggles would usually picture.
Small orbs of light hovered near the windows, visible from the streets, but blurred minimally by the windows, and slightly more by the translucence of the curtains.
The inside of the house was saturated with light and conversation. Caleb Rowan and his wife had come to visit for the holidays with their two children. The twins were almost one year old, as they had been born sometime before Venia found out she was pregnant with Siniva.
Celina Rowan had set her sleeping twins down for the night and joined Caleb and Snape in the sitting room.
"I doubt she would come back. Knowing Venia, she'll stay until she gets what she wants, then she'll leave." Caleb said.
"Well, she didn't want children, so what would she have wanted with me in the first place?" Snape said.
"Sometimes she just likes to inconvenience people." Caleb told him.
"But why does she do this?" Snape asked.
"I really don't know, but she tends to like to make people miserable." Caleb answered.
"Well, she's done it. Her unwelcome presence in my life has caused me extreme grief." Snape said.
"She can't just keep coming back forever. She'll have to stop some time." Caleb told him.
Snape hoped that it would be sooner rather than later.
Siniva looked so peaceful sleeping, nothing in the world to worry her.
"I don't think she would be able to find you if you moved." Celina put in.
"That may be true, but I don't feel right about uprooting mine and Siniva's life just to possibly avoid any further encounters with Venia." Snape told her. "Besides, if I were to move, I would need to find someplace quiet and child-friendly to live. I already know that this house holds such qualities."
Siniva fidgeted in her sleep.
"So I guess moving is out of the question, then?" Caleb wondered.
"Yes." Snape said.
Snape and Siniva followed Memory-Snape upstairs, unseen shadows in the hall.
"Goodnight, Sinnie. I love you." Snape said, kissing her forehead.
He left her to sleep and walked back downstairs.
Snape and Siniva were right behind Memory-Snape when he reached the sitting room.
Caleb and Celina had started a conversation in Snape's absence. It could have been a personal conversation, but they wouldn't talk about something private unless they were relatively alone.
This discussion just happened to be somewhat opinionated.
"She's always been terrible. She was very sweet to my parents but she made my life miserable. I was overjoyed when she finished Hogwarts and moved away from home. I hate to say this, but she was smart to leave Siniva here. Pure genius. But she's going back to her foolishness by trying to patch things up with Severus-" Caleb said.
Snape sat back in his armchair. Caleb stopped talking.
"Of course she is. What better thing does she have going on? Nothing." Snape agreed.
"She doesn't work, she isn't married and now she doesn't have Siniva. My princess of a sister doesn't have to worry about anything financially or, for that matter, not much personally." Caleb said.
"Such a shame. She could put herself to use. I'm sure Azkaban is always looking for an extra soul." Snape replied.
"Sorry, Dementors, you're out of luck. She doesn't have one." Caleb said.
"I'll see you in the morning." Celina said, standing. She yawned as she walked upstairs.
"So the problem is that she doesn't have anything or anyone else to invest her energy into." Caleb continued.
"Then, what you're getting at, is if she finds someone else, she'll leave me and Siniva alone?" Snape wondered.
"Hey, it's happened before, it can happen again." Caleb answered. "I just feel bad for whoever she hooks up with next."
"Who wouldn't?" Snape said.
Siniva broke through the surface of the Pensieve.
"I remember...kind of." Siniva said.
"You haven't seen him since Christmas a few years ago." Snape told her. "It's easy to forget."
"I guess so." Siniva said. "What's next?"
Siniva and Snape stood on a street unfamiliar to her, but familiar to him.
Snape appeared on the doorstep of a well-kept, light grey house, Siniva in his arms, anger burning on his face.
"Caleb," Snape said. "She's back."
"Come inside, Severus." Caleb told him.
Memory-Snape crossed the threshold. Snape and Siniva followed him.
Celina Rowan stood in the kitchen, preparing tea when Snape and Caleb sat in the den.
"What happened?" Caleb asked.
"I was sitting at home, reading. There was a knock at the front door, but she didn't wait for me to let her in." Snape started. "When she told me she wanted to see Siniva, I told her to leave. She demanded that I let her upstairs and I told her again to leave. When she started up the stairs anyway, I pulled her back and she got past me again."
Caleb leaned forward in his seat as Snape went on.
"Siniva heard us fighting." he said, but Caleb cut him off.
"How do you know?"
"She's only just stopped crying. Anyway, I finally got Venia to leave and I came here." he said.
"I doubt that's the last you'll see of her." Caleb said. "You can stay here if you need to. She hasn't come here in years. Not after I finally told her off for being a terrible sister."
"Thank you, Caleb. The school term will be starting back up soon, so we won't be here very long. Only a few days, then we'll be on our way back to Hogwarts." Snape said.
"How do you manage to raise a child when you live in a school?" Celina wondered.
"I do my best." Snape replied simply.
"Well, whatever it is that you're doing, it's working. Siniva loves you so much. You're a terrific father." Celina said.
"How did you do it, dad?" Siniva wondered as she touched back down to the ground in Snape's office.
"You were always a very calm child. I taught three classes in the morning while you slept, and I had the rest of the day off to spend with you." Snape told Siniva, hugging her to his side.
"Well, aunt Celina was right. You're a terrific father and I love you so much." Siniva said.
"And I love you so much." Snape told her. "Now, if you're feeling better, we'll go to the Great Hall."
"I guess I should eat something." Siniva said.
Snape pushed the Pensieve back into the cabinet. He and Siniva left the office and headed for the Great Hall, side by side.