Draco was staring at him. Blatantly. For a Slytherin, the boy was entirely unsubtle. He was still staring when the class started to file out, he caught Hermione's amused expression as she escaped through the door pulling Potter and Weasley with her. Potter wondering loudly what was up with Malfoy, commenting that he'd been acting strangely for the last few months.

"Mr Malfoy, is there a reason you are still in my classroom?"

"Can I see your teeth?" the boy blurted, before he recoiled, realising what he had said.

"I beg your pardon?"

"I've been meeting Hermione in one of the back corners of the library. It's the only place we can talk without everyone noticing. She mentioned her Dad was still working on your teeth and was using something she called….braces? I thought those were for trousers and I just wondered if they used miniature versions on your teeth. I asked Hermione because I couldn't figure out the point of attaching braces to teeth, surely it's both obvious and uncomfortable unless they were individual tooth-sized braces but what are they attached to? She tried to explain it but she was laughing too hard for me to understand her and then Theo turned up so I thought we should probably change the subject."

Severus stared at him while he attempted to get his head around what his Godson had just said, unhelpfully picturing a mouth of tiny trouser braces glued uselessly onto his teeth.

"I…..Hold on. Theodore Nott turned up?"

"Ah...yes? He comes to study with us."

"Draco." His voice was deadly and he was pleased to note his Godson had enough sense to look concerned, he did so love being able to intimidate children with nothing more than words and tone. "Did I or did I not, explicitly say that Mr Nott was to be told nothing?"

"Y-yes. But Godfather, how could I avoid it when the entirety of Slytherin knows?"

"And why, Draco, does the entirety of Slytherin know?"

"Because I told them! I just thought that Hermione deserved not to be taunted in the corridor for something that wasn't true."

That brought him up short.

"She's taunted in the corridors?"

"She was thought to be a Muggleborn and is Harry Potter's best friend." Draco's tone implied he thought he was an idiot for even asking. Given the obviousness of the answer, perhaps Draco was correct.

"I see….You like her."

"I….She's family. And I don't have a lot of that." He replied finally.

Severus sighed. For fucks sake he couldn't even argue with his logic when he looked so damn pathetic.

"You will chaperone every meeting Hermione has with Mr Nott and should he do or infer anything remotely inappropriate I wish to hear of it. Immediately. Am I clear?"

"Yes, Godfather." Draco was nodding profusely, seeming relieved which swiftly morphed into confusion as he stared at him. "You don't have braces on your teeth."

He sighed. "Draco braces for teeth are designed to straighten them, they do not look like trouser braces."

"Oh," the boy frowned. "But there's a spell for that."

"Yes, Draco there is. However, Dr Granger offered and in the interests of getting to know my daughter's other parents I agreed." He didn't mention that he intended to speed the process along with magic. Dr Granger had mentioned years of braces. He wasn't wearing these little clear teeth coats for years!

"That makes sense." He paused again, looking apprehensive. "Are….are they ok, Godfather? The muggles? Hermione mentioned me maybe visiting over the summer but…..they are safe, aren't they?"

Severus resisted the urge to sigh at the clear fear on his godson's face. Bloody pureblood bullshit.

"They are people, Draco. Like you and me, just without magic. They are perfectly safe and should you visit, I imagine they will do their best to make you feel welcome. Hermione wouldn't have invited you somewhere you would be unsafe. Have the two of you discussed telling anyone about your familial connection? The Headmaster was concerned that the damage would be irreparable if it was discovered before she had a chance to talk to Potter." he said with a roll of his eyes. Why Potter should have any bearing on whether his daughter revealed her link to the Malfoy's, was still unclear. She was more than just Potter's friend for fucks sake. Bloody Albus. The man knew something and if it involved Hermione, he was bloody well going to figure it out.

"We discussed it," Draco began slowly. "I...she's worried her friends won't understand. I've been trying to be….nicer." The face the boy pulled made Severus want to laugh.

"I'm sure she appreciates it," he said finally.

He'd noticed Potter staring at Draco in obvious confusion over the last few months; he had to admit he was impressed with his godson's ability to bite his tongue in the face of Weasley's stupidity. He was also pleased to note that his daughter stood up for Draco, every time the red-headed brat opened his mouth to say something else derogatory.

He was less pleased that when he checked on them in the library, Theodore Nott was always in residence. Despite his earlier comments to Draco, he was well aware that Nott studied with them regularly. He could see the way the boy was looking at his daughter, and he didn't like it. They were too young really, for Nott to put a name to the feeling, he'd checked, carefully skimming the top of his mind, seeing admiration, friendship, a want to get to know her better and a slightly fuzzy notion that she was pretty. The boy was lucky that was all he was thinking. Thankfully, Hermione was oblivious. He hoped she remained that way for the next several decades.

"Father?" She was hovering outside the tower entrance nervously. That was never a good sign. He was bloody sick of having to walk all the students to their classes, or to their respective common rooms at the end of the day but there had been another petrification. A Half-blood this time. Apparently, news that Slytherins monster wasn't quite as selective as they had thought was unpleasant, it had led to mass panic and he was in need of the holidays for a break from this nonsense.

"Yes, Hermione?"

"I was wondering if I could bring Harry and Ron to your rooms soon."

What? Why the fuck would he want Weasley and Potter in his rooms?

"I wanted to tell them about Draco and I didn't want to do it in the common room. We're no longer allowed anywhere else!"

Ah. That made sense. Not that he liked it.

"Go and get them, let's get this over with. I'll collect Draco, I assume he'll want to join us." He commanded, best get it over with before he could voice all the reasons he didn't want them anywhere near his private quarters. She'd probably object given that the first and most pressing reason was that he just didn't fucking like the little sods.

Her eyes went wide as she lost some of her composure.

"Now?" she squeaked.

"Do you have a better time in mind?"

"N-no. But. I. Never mind, I'll go and get them."

He smirked, a Slytherin would never have given in to such a gentle challenge. Bloody Gryffindors.

"Hermione. What's going on? Why is Professor Snape still outside our common room?" Potter looked bewildered, not that it was a new look for the boy.

"We are going to my rooms, Mr Potter. We will discuss it there."

"Hermione, is your dad going to kill me?" He made it sound like a joke but Severus could see the glint of actual fear in the boy's eye and repressed a smirk.

"If I was going to kill you, Mr Potter, do you think I would have invited Mr Weasley to bear witness?"

"Ah...no, Sir." He might have answered in the negative but he didn't actually look convinced. That amused him more than it should. It would appear that Potter wasn't as dim as he'd first thought. As if he'd let a little thing like Weasley get in the way if he truly was planning to murder the boy. He'd just take care of them both at the same time. He smiled at that happy fantasy before he remembered that if he did, Hermione would surely retaliate and it wouldn't be pleasant. Sighing to himself, he accepted that some dreams were unfortunately doomed not to pass.

He finally deposited his daughter and her two idiot friends in his living room after the most uncomfortable walk of his life. None of them had spoken, Potter and Weasley kept shooting concerned glances between each other and Hermione. Hermione looked resolutely in front of her, pretending she couldn't see their increasingly frantic looks. Really, what did they think he was going to do to them, he wondered before heading to fetch Draco.

The looks of clear confusion on the dunderheaded duo's faces were priceless when he returned.

"What's the snake doing here?" Ron exploded, his face turning so red it clashed with his hair.

"Ron! I wanted him here." Hermione retorted.

That shut them up, Potter was looking wary now. Fuck he hoped that they didn't blow something up. He was rather fond of his living room. He'd like it to remain in one piece.

"Hermione, what's going on?"

"I….remember how I said my mother's name was Elladora Fawley?" At Harry's nod, she continued in a rush. "The Fawley's are related to the Malfoy's. My mother is Lucius Malfoy's cousin."

"So you're one of them now?" Severus counted to ten, missing what the boy said next, Minerva would be displeased if he murdered the Weasley boy for sneering at his daughter. Although he'd just made her cry so maybe he'd be forgiven.

"No! I don't agree with their views. I have muggle parents too!"

"Whatever, Hermione. Are we done here?"

"Sit down, Mr Weasley." He knew he shouldn't interfere but damn it, she was crying.

"Is that why you've been acting odd since Christmas?" Potter was looking at Draco intently, he watched his godson suppress the urge to squirm. Interesting.

"Yes. Hermione is family. We've been getting to know each other and obviously, we all know she's your friend. I….I don't have a lot of family, Potter, I'd like to keep what little I do." It was surprisingly honest. Severus didn't think he'd ever seen his Godson appear so vulnerable. Was the boy really that lonely?

"I…I don't think I like it, but for Hermione, I'm willing to give you a chance."

Weasley's comments were drowned out by the sound of his daughters strangled "Harry!" as she literally flung herself at the boy. He caught her with surprising ease, almost as if she'd done it before.

"Thanks, Potter."

"What? No! You can't really be ok with this? She's related to the Malfoys! What's to say she's not just waiting on a chance to kill you, their family supported you-know-who!"

"If Hermione wanted to kill me, Ron, she could have done it without introducing us to Malfoy." Harry responded drily, rolling his eyes at Weasley as he awkwardly patted Hermione's back.

"Mr Weasley, it has been a long day and I am exceptionally tired of having had to deal with idiots trying to blow themselves up in every class. I feel like I should warn you that if you insult my daughter again, I will be unable to restrain myself from hexing you."

The boy paled as if he had only just now really realised that he was Hermione's father, his eyes widening further as Severus moved to disengage his sobbing child from a relieved looking Potter and she promptly threw her arms around him, burrowing her face into his buttons.

"That's seriously weird." He heard the boy mutter as he smirked into his daughter's hair, stroking it gently as he tried to get her to calm down. Were all girls this emotional? He'd been cried on more in the last few months than he'd ever been cried on in his life. It wasn't particularly pleasant. But she had not hesitated to hug him, she'd readily accepted that he could provide some semblance of comfort when he'd removed her from Potter. That had to mean something, didn't it?

And now Draco and Potter were agreeing with Weasley, all of them watching him with expressions of utter disbelief, blinking rapidly as if it would change what they were seeing. Apparently, miracles do happen. He hoped this was enough for Weasley to rein in his hatred of all things Malfoy. He was no longer sure which side his daughter would choose.

It was clear that over the last several months she and Draco had come to adore each other, equally clear was her unwavering loyalty to Mr Potter. He wasn't sure what her feelings were for Weasley though. He had a funny feeling that if the idiot boy forced her to choose between him and Draco, he would lose, and he hoped he was right, any other outcome would destroy Draco. Still, he hoped it didn't come to that, even if the thought of her eviscerating Weasley made him want to grin.

"I've just agreed with Weasley." Draco's horrified voice broke through his musings.

Weasley glared at him before sending the other boy an impressively Slytherin smirk. "We all knew that one day you'd manage to talk sense at least once, Malfoy."

He watched Draco fight the snarl that wanted to break free as he glanced at Hermione who had thankfully stopped crying. She still had her arms wrapped around him, her head on his chest as she glanced at Draco who was visibly forcing himself not to react.

"How about, I will refrain from insulting you if you refrain from insulting me? We can be…...civil. For Hermione's sake."

Draco might have said it through gritted teeth but Severus was impressed with the effort.

Weasley was looking at Hermione too, clearly weighing things up.

"Fine." He ground out. "But only because I don't want Hermione to hex me."

It would have to do really. There was a loyalty there he hadn't expected and he found himself grateful that his daughter's friends appeared to be better than his had been at school.

It was the end of May before his daughter cornered him again, dragging Harry bloody Potter with her through the portrait hole seconds after the last of his fourth years had gone through.

"Father, we need to talk."

The look of reluctance on the boy's face suggested that this had not been his idea.

"Mione, it looks like he's busy. I'm sure he's really busy. Lets….let's do this another time."

Oh, he was curious now. What had the boy got to hide? He gave them a measuring look.

"Come with me."

He walked them down to his quarters, slightly surprised to see Minerva there.

"Oh, Severus! This week has been horrendous. I brought the good scotch."

Oh for fucks sake It would be bad form to send the children back to the tower, wouldn't it? And really, thanks to these new rules, he'd barely seen his daughter and he missed her damn it. Not that he'd ever admit that.

"Oh! Miss Granger...Mr Potter? What's going on Severus?"

"I have no idea, I was hoping to find out," he replied, glancing at the teens who looked incredibly uncomfortable. He watched as Hermione took a deep breath, nervously looking at Potter, almost as if seeking reassurance before she pulled a nondescript diary out of her bag.

"Harry, Ron and I found this in Moaning Myrtle's bathroom." she paused. "Harry wrote in it and it showed him something…..like a tv that sucks you in?"

His breath caught at that. A diary that worked like a pensive shouldn't be possible. What the ever living fuck had they found? Why was it always them?

"It showed a boy...Tom?" At Harry's nod, she continued, "He showed him finding Hagrid. Hagrid, who he said was expelled for opening the chamber the last time. He said someone died. It was Myrtle wasn't it?"

Fuck, he needed that drink. Not that Minerva looked much better. In fact, she looked as if someone had immobilised her.

"How exactly did the diary show you, Mr Potter?"

"I uh….I wrote in it and it, sort of wrote back? I'd noticed it was odd when my bag burst and I ended up with ink all over my books. All except this one. I asked it what it knew about The Chamber of Secrets and it offered to show me. I ended up in something like a tv show but the characters couldn't see me, I couldn't talk to them or touch them."

Fuck. Fuck. Fuck. Fuck. This was not good. Was the boy a fucking imbecile? Writing in a fucking book that wrote back, trusting it to take him somewhere.

Hermione nudged the boy and made a small jerky movement with her head. There was more? Fucking bloody hell.

"I uh. I've been hearing voices."

"Voices?"

"Well. One voice. It keeps saying things like it's hungry and it wants to kill. It can smell blood."

He had to sit down. Fucking bloody hell. Minerva still hadn't moved and the children looked fucking terrified. He felt fucking terrified. What the fuck was going on? Nothing good. He was going to have to involve Albus. He really didn't want to involve Albus.

He looked down at the innocuous looking diary in his hands and opened it. T.M Riddle. Oh, bloody fucking hell. They had the Dark Lords diary. Why the fuck did they have the Dark Lords diary? Fucking bloody hell. Although the thought of the Dark Lord writing a diary like a teenage girl was amusing.

He flicked through it quickly noting that it was empty. Maybe that was just as well, a diary cataloguing the Dark Lord's torture, maiming and murders wouldn't be pleasant to read. He was slightly disappointed that there were no pages of his inner thoughts though, surely the man had once been a normal teenager, with crushes and excitements and hurt feelings. He almost snorted at the thought of a teenage Dark Lord writing about his latest crush in his dairy. Perhaps not.

He turned slightly to show the name to Minerva. She paled further before startling them all by standing abruptly and disappearing into the floo.

She returned moments later carrying Dumbledore's Pensieve, silently setting it down on the table and extracting a silvery memory from her temple.

"Come with me, Potter." If her voice shook, no one mentioned it. "Touch the substance."

Hermione jumped as Potter and Minerva disappeared.

"Father? Where did they go?"

"Into Minerva's memory."

"I don't understand."

"Come here." He needed to touch her, needed an anchor amidst this chaos as more and more terrifying possibilities presented themselves in his mind.

She moved cautiously, sitting down next to him as he drew her into his side, letting out a breath he hadn't been aware he'd been holding.

"This is really bad isn't it?" She asked softly.

He let out a slightly strangled laugh. "Well, it's not good. Hermione?" He waited until she tilted her head up to look at him. "Thank you. Thank you for coming to me with this and not trying to fix it yourselves."

She nodded at him as she dropped her head back onto his shoulder, snuggling closer. "You asked me to."

He didn't have the words for how that simple statement made him feel.

Minerva and Potter re-materialised seconds later.

"That was the boy from the diary, Potter?"

"Yes, Professor."

"And my memory, it worked the same as the scene the dairy showed you?"

"Yes, Professor."

She nodded as if that was the answer she'd been expecting.

"Professor, what's going on?"

"That boy was Tom Marvolo Riddle. He later became known as something else."

He watched the moment that Potter understood, hearing a soft Voldemort said with horror from his daughter.

"Indeed Miss Granger. Tom Riddle became known as Lord Voldemort. The diary appears to have been able to take you to a memory. I understand from conversations I've had since, that the scene you described truly happened. And it was Myrtle Warren who was murdered. It all stopped after Hagrid's expulsion, you understand. Many of us didn't believe he was responsible but he does have a fondness for monsters." she sighed then, looking every one of her years. "I am unsure as to what sort of magic would allow for it though."

He cleared his throat causing her to look at him. "There are darker artefacts which would allow it, Minerva. Darker magic that would explain Albus' insistence that he isn't really dead."

He watched her pale as she almost fell into the seat behind her.

"You cannot possibly mean….."

"Do you have another explanation?"

"I. No. Sweet Circe. No."

He closed his eyes, both children looking at him in confusion and more than a little fear as they watched their usually stoic professor lose her composure. He didn't want to have this conversation. He didn't want his daughter to know that such magic existed. Magic beyond horror. It felt like he was tainting her.

"There are magics that can tether you to life." He began. "Magic that is so awful, no sane person would consider it. It traps a portion of the soul inside a vessel so that the caster cannot be killed."

"You think you-know-who split his soul?" He was relieved to hear her sound horrified rather than her usual curiosity at new knowledge.

"I think it's a possibility we should explore."

"But I don't understand." Potter was frowning. "It doesn't sound nice, but why is splitting your soul so awful for anyone other than the person doing it?"

He sighed. "In order to split your soul, Mr Potter, you must first murder. The more gruesome, the better chance of success. In terms of Horcrux creation, the intent must be to inflict maximum pain, not always to the person murdered, emotional pain to their family also counts according to literature. It is an abomination against magic"

He watched the boy pale as Hermione burrowed closer to his body, her arm was almost painful around his waist but he tightened his in response. Good. They realised how vile it was. The scotch would have to wait. They had plans to make.