AN: Surprise! You're getting three chapters in one day! (because they are done and I don't see the point of them sitting on my computer waiting patiently when I could release them.) Also because I received my first flame today and it made me feel like crap and this story isn't really getting that many reviews so I'm just gonna publish as I finish until it's done. So there may be another chapter tomorrow. Might not. I'm just surprised that no one seems to really enjoy this.

Anyway, Getting off my soap box. Here's the next chapter and there's another following this. Hope you enjoy! And thank you for the friendly reviews.

-PF

Chapter Eight

She fled to the one person she'd never trusted as Hermione. The one person she trusted completely as Rose. She found Snape in the library, just as Draco had said. When she dashed into the room, slamming the doors closed behind her and turned to face him, he set the book he'd been reading down carefully. "Ah." He said softly, his black eyes piercing through her own. "Ms. Granger."

She felt hatred for a moment, hatred for the man that had done this to her. That had caused her to become the monster Rose had been. She wanted to lay blame for every life Rose had taken squarely at his feet. But the memories he'd instilled in her as Rose kept her from lashing out at him. Rose remembered this man as a father she'd never had. "Why?" she asked, taking a step further into the room.

"To which question?" he asked calmly and she hated him more for it. How could he just look at her like that? How could remain so infuriatingly calm when she was sure she was losing her mind?

"All of them! Why change my memory? Why make me believe you had raised me? Why…" and here she chocked before forcing the words out, "Why give me to Dumbledore instead of letting me die with my mother?"

Snape sighed and rubbed the bridge of his nose for a moment. "Because I need to keep you safe."

She wasn't sure which question that answered but he didn't seem finished so she collapsed into the closest chair she could find and waited. She refused to leave until he'd answered every single question she had. And she would wait him out if it took all night!

"You didn't know your mother," he told her, "and I am immensely grateful for it. She was a cruel woman. But she hadn't always been."

She stared at him, and was shocked to see emotions on his face. He looked exhausted, resigned. She wondered how long he'd been keeping this information to himself. If Dumbledore knew. Or was she about to become the only one he'd ever confided in?

"In her youth, your mother was kind." He said softly. "She rallied behind lost causes, much like you. She found herself drawn to people who were orphans, misfits, and especially those she thought lonely. She hadn't had a very kind life before Hogwarts and I often wondered if her way of dealing with it was trying to fix others, much as she tried to fix me."

"She was friends with Lilly Potter," he said calmly but Hermione saw the pain the name had caused him and the memories of Rose supplied the reason. He'd been in love with Harry's mother. Why had he imparted Rose with that information? "And the two of them were like a beacon to the broken. For a while, she dated Sirius Black but I suspect it was only because he came from a broken home and, as I said before, she was drawn to lost causes. I didn't know she'd fallen in love with him."

He took a deep breath and continued. "After Hogwarts, Sirius left her for some girl he met and it broke her heart. I'd warned her before that it would be this way but…" he trailed off and shook his head. "I think she was looking to fill that hole he'd left by the time we were recruited into the Dark Lord's army. I was so consumed with my own despair for Lilly that I didn't see the path she'd begun to follow until it was too late. She began to enjoy what the Dark Lord demanded we do. Began to seek out opportunities to hurt people."

He looked away then and she let him have a moment to compose himself. "The Dark Lord took an interest in her not long after and she quickly became his favorite. Even above Bellatrix. She became so dark, more so than Rose." She drew a sharp breath at the comparison. "And she did it on her own. No one tampered with her memory. No one poisoned her brain. It was all Anasia. And she loved the Dark Lord deeply, and loved pleasing him even more."

He finally looked back at her. "I can't say I was surprised when she told me about you. They were inseparable. But I felt fear for the first time. Fear for the child she'd bring into that horrible life. The Dark Lord was not known for sparing children and his own child." He paused for a moment, considering. "You're memories as Rose supply memories of what Draco's father did to him. The same would have been for you, but more harsh. The Dark Lord would have only accepted perfection from his child. Anything less and it would have been punished harshly."

"So you took me."

He shook his head. "No. I told Dumbledore about you. I was already working both sides by then, foolishly believing it would save the people I loved. I took down the wards that protected your home after you were born, but I never…" for the first time in her life, she thought Severus Snape might cry. He drew in a long deep breath, stealing himself against the emotions.

"She was furious with me when the Order arrived. And, though week, she refused to allow any of them to live. She killed three members of the Order before they killed her and I stood by, holding you, and watched it happen."

She heard the hatred for himself in his voice and felt her own hatred slipping away. "Who were you to her?" she asked, feeling like she knew the answer already. There was only one thing he could have been to know so much about her, to care for her and by extension her daughter so deeply.

"She was my sister." He said softly.

Hermione sat back against the seat she sat in, completely shocked. Voldemort's daughter. Snape's niece. "I thought I was Muggleborn," she said softly, almost scoffing at the irony.

"Hermione, look at me." He insisted and she obeyed. "You can not let anyone know that you have your memories back."

"Fred knows." She answered immediately. "And everyone else down there and Harry and Ginny and Ron."

"Too many." He said harshly and got to his feet to pace the small space they were in. "No one else."

She nodded, still trying to wrap her brain around her new heritage and what it meant. "Why didn't you ever tell me?"

He stopped and looked down at her. "Would you have believed me?" he asked. "I made sure Dumbledore put you somewhere no one would ever look for you. And I stayed away. They would have known if I suddenly showed interest in any female child. I had to pretend I had no clue who you were."

"And my appearance? Which is true?"

"This one." He said calmly. "When they brought you to me, I undid the spell work I had put on you as a child."

"How did he find out?" she asked suddenly. "How did he know who I was?"

Snape frowned at her. "I don't know." He answered honestly. "I was so sure I'd never indicated any sort of attention toward you. Never so much as praised you. And Dumbledore would never tell. He just knew. The moment he returned to us he demanded to know if you'd been found. Then, after the disaster at the Ministry when he revealed himself, he knew you were his daughter. He said he'd felt you in the building and you were the only one that fit the appropriate age." He was right. Luna and Ginny were both younger than her.

"So he cared for me." She said sadly. "He wanted to find me."

"You are his daughter," he said softly. "But you've seen how much that means to him." She shuddered at the memories of the curses he'd flung at her. At the bruises she still carried and she was immensely grateful that Snape had saved her from an entire lifetime of that treatment. He'd even tried to save her from it now. He'd stayed with her as often as he could.

"He tried to take you from Hogwarts but Dumbledore and Harry were always his main concern. You came third. Second when Dumbledore had been dealt with." She'd seen that as Rose. Killing Harry had always come before any concern for Rose.

"You killed him," she said as she focused on his words again.

"I was asked to." He replied softly. "Dumbledore knew what Draco had been asked. He asked that I kill him instead. He was dying from contact with a horocrux already. I just did as I was asked."

She couldn't hate him for that. Couldn't hate him for anything. He was the one person who had been constant her entire life, the one person who had tried desperately to keep her safe from the moment she had been born. "Why did you change my memories then?"

"Voldemort demanded it of me. He wanted his daughter the way you should have been. If I had made any mistakes, he would have known. You know how powerful he is." She nodded and felt the dam that had been holding all of her emotions in finally break.

"Severus," she whispered sadly and flung herself at him, not caring that he'd never so much as pat her shoulder as Hermione. He opened his arms to her and held her close as she sobbed into his chest. "I've killed so many," she whispered. "I tortured…" she couldn't get any more words out as she clung to her uncle.

"I know," he whispered sadly, stroking her back as he held her close. "So have I." In all the world, of all the people they knew, no one would ever understand what they had been through. No one else would ever understand.

"You have to keep the charade up, Hermione." He said firmly once she'd cried herself out.

"I can't keep hurting people," she whispered, rubbing at her eyes.

"You must." He said sharply, pulling her away to look her in the eye. "I've done it for years now. It's gets easier." She wanted to be appalled with him but she couldn't. Not with someone who had had to kill people and deal with it for years just to keep her and Harry and the Order safe. No wonder the emotionless mask he wore was so perfect.

"How do you stay sane?" she asked softly. He continued to stare at her.

"Because you and Harry were safe."

She closed her eyes, letting that sink in. "I can't kill people," she repeated again. "I can't do that."

"Then we'll deal with it when the time comes. For now, pretend Hermione. Or it will cost you your life. Deal with the regret, the grief later. Now you have to survive and keep as many around you alive as you can."

She nodded, pulling back from him and taking a deep breath. "Okay."

"Good." He kissed the top of her head and drew back, the mask she was so familiar with from her years at Hogwarts sliding firmly back into place as he backed up and sat back down in his chair. He picked the book up and she took that as her signal to leave him be. She made it to the door when he added, softly, "And for Merlin's sake stay away from the Ginger."

She stopped at the door and glanced back at him. "Do you say that because its safer or because you don't like the idea of me with Fred."

He didn't even look up at her as he replied, "Both."

RMR

The next day the impossible happened. Before Hermione had even managed to secure her façade into place, Voldemort returned. He swept into the main ballroom without any kind of entrance and surprised her by appearing in front of her. "It's mine," he told her earnestly as she quickly covered her surprise by pulling Rose to the forefront.

"What exactly is yours, Father?" she asked as others began arriving in their room. From within his robe he drew what she assumed was the Elder Wand and smiled at her.

"The Elder Wand," he said, almost proudly. "Lying in the cold dead grasp of that old fool." There was only one fool he hated as much as he implied with that single word. Dumbledore.

"He owned the Elder Wand?" she asked curiously, forcing herself not to shrink under his gaze or react at all. Rose wouldn't have. She deserved to be here. Deserved to talk to him as an equal. Even if he had been cruel to her the last few times he'd returned.

He ignored her, instead turning to show it off to all who served him and had gathered in the room. They ooed and ahhed appropriately and she bit back the urge to roll her eyes. Instead, she sought out Snape who met her gaze for a moment before focusing on Voldemort.

"Rose has news of her own, My Lord," he said casually and Voldemort turned to her with surprise.

"Potter?" he asked hopefully and she shook her head. "Then what use are you?" he spat and she straightened against the fear that spread through her.

"I have injured him in a way I thought you would approve."

"Oh?" he asked, eyeing her.

"His companions are dead."

Voldemort studied her for a moment and then grinned wickedly. "He is alone." He said and she nodded. "Good. He will be easier to kill." He turned back to those gathered and raised his hands, "Tonight a celebration." He clapped his hands together and, what could only have been a family of Muggles, appeared in the middle of the room. Bound and blindfolded but not gagged.

"Please," the father of the group begged, "please. Let the children go." And there were children. Three of them. She felt sick as the room around them laughed and made sure her features looked as bored as Snape's. But Voldemort turned to her, holding out his hand and she forced herself to take it without hesitation.

"I thought you would like to start us off tonight," he told her. "There's an entire town filled with them not far from the grave site and we'll be visiting them all after dinner." There were shouts from the Death Eater but Hermione didn't join in. Instead she forced herself to consider the Muggles as Voldemort placed his hands on her shoulders, obviously waiting eagerly for whatever new form of torture she could come up with. Her eyes darted to Snape but he didn't acknowledge her as the room grew silent again.

She took a deep breath and called Rose firmly to the front of her mind, forcing all memories of Hermione from her as harshly as she could. She just hoped this worked. Rose smirked as she took a step toward the father and lowered his blindfold, allowing him to see everything that was happening around him. "Hello," she leered watching the fear that entered his eyes as he looked first at her, then at her father.

"Please," he repeated. "Let my children go."

"But not your wife?" she asked, pointing her wand at the woman.

"Please!" he cried and she laughed at him.

"Oh now the concern for her. I see." She killed her with the killing curse silently, the body just sagging to the floor.

"Mommy?" one of the children asked and before their father could answer him she killed them, the green light hitting each of them in turn before she turned her attention to the father who simply stared at his dead children, horrified beyond belief.

"Don't look so stunned," she told him calmly, "this is always the fate of cattle." And then she killed him too using her trademark fire that slowly licked up him until he was nothing but ash beside the bodies of his dead children.

Voldemort laughed behind her and as he disappeared his Death Eaters followed, leaving only Snape and Rose who was staring at the bodies of the children.

"Rose?" he asked quietly and when she looked up at him he drew in a sharp breath. "It was merciful. The Dark Lord and the others would have tortured the children and done worse to the wife. You did what yo could."

She didn't reply in anyway. Just stared blankly at him and, as he gazed at the empty expression on his nieces face, he made the decision. "Come with me." He instructed and took her hand, pulling her from the ballroom and to her own bedroom.

AN: Next Chapter should be up with this one so continue on! By the way, I'm aware that the characters are out of character but considering nothing like this happened in the books I'm trying to imagine how those characters would have acted. In Chapter ten I feel like I'm finally able to maybe bring the characters closer to their book counterparts. Please review. Flames are welcome so long as they are helpful. If you hate it please just stop reading it and find a story by someone else you like more.

-PF