Rose sat gaping at Severus. For a moment, she thought she heard something wrong. "What?!" she nearly shouted.

"I am your father." came a reply, more distinctly than previous time. But she refused to believe it.

"This is no time to joke. Tell me the truth."

The wizard looked back at the lake. "It is no joke. This was what we hid from you."

Moving rapidly, she changed her position to kneel beside him. "Give me a reason to trust you."

When Snape didn't reply, she turned to go back to the castle. She just pushed her knees off the ground when he caught her wrist and pulled her back suddenly.

Landing on all four, she looked up at him, hatefully. His grip tightened for a moment. "Sometimes there is no reason to believe in someone. Atleast you might have enough of patience to listen how much ever I have known about your past." He hissed venomously.

Fresh hatred for Snape seeped into Rose's heart. She didn't care if he was related to her. She just wanted a reason to kill him now. Finally, when he let go off her hand, she sat up straight, half-willing to disappear from there.

"It all start twenty years ago. The war was going to start and everyone had chosen their sides. I wanted to be a Death Eater. I always thought that being one I could impress Lily Potter. In the army of Dark Lord, I met your mother, Ruby. She was kindest of all and the brightest witch I had ever seen in my life. She was one of those two people I ever cared about."

"We married secretly. One the night of marriage, I saw Ruby's memory when she lower her Occlumency wall unintentionally. I was shocked to see that she was Dumbledore's double agent. I couldn't bear it. If ever the Dark Lord came to know to about this marriage, I would be killed along with Ruby. I told him about Ruby's treachery and broke my contact with her. After that, I never heard from her."

Rose tilted her head. Her mind was filled with fresh doubts. "How did I survive when you left my mother to die?"

Severus took a deep breath. "Dumbledore told me that he visited Ruby the day you were born. She brewed the complex potion 'Invisero' in a short time. It was surprising for me as it turned you invisible and allowing you to inherit her powers. Dumbledore got you out of Spinner's End soon after which Ruby was killed. He left you at his brother's at Hogsmeade and that where you grew up."

"So you knew about all this?"

He lowered his gaze and took a quick glance at her. "No. Dumbledore never mentioned about you until Potter was send a letter to join Hogwarts. I got a word from him to keep you near me although I couldn't see you."

Rose sat still, gazing blankly at her 'father'. A breath stuck in her throat as she thought about all this. "Why did you even do this? Just because you wanted to save your life and become a Death Eater to impress Potter's mother."

There came no reply. Only silence. She felt like screaming her heart out and rip anyone she found into pieces.

"Answer me!" she yelled. Severus turned his head away from her, curtain of his matted hair hid his eyes. Surely it was wrong moment for her to pick up a fight with him.

"You know what, I promised myself to hear whatever you wanted to say. And now that everything is out, I feel that I can just go, believing that there was nothing I heard today." With that, she got her feet under her and turned to go back.

Her head was pounding. All her thoughts were revolting together to stop and reason out everything. She must know what her family was, after so much of time. Was it only the Dumbledores who took care of her or Snape whose daughter she was, only to know about it just few minutes ago? Amidst all this, she thought someone called.

She stopped and swirled around to see the wizard looking over his shoulders at her, motionless.

Doubts popped in Rose's mind. What more does he want to justify? Isn't this already enough?

"Do you want to know why I betrayed your mother? I understood it now." He said, loud enough for her to hear over a few metres.

Her eyes bulged. Was he accepting his mistake?