Severus' Daughter: Year One
Chapter three: Potions, Exercises and Bedrooms
As soon as Severus arrived home he headed to his potions lab, ignoring Minerva as she tried to ask how things went. He locked the door to the room and leant against it, taking a deep breath to calm himself before getting to work on the potions his daughter needed. Potions always helped to calm his emotions, he found it pacifying to create something that could help someone at some point. And the repetitive movements that were involved in potions making were soothing.
…
Remus knocked on the door that led to Severus' bedroom, and after hearing the tired "Come in," from inside, opened the door and entered the room, closing it quietly behind him. His goddaughter was staring at him with tired eyes, he smiled at her and sat on the edge of the bed, looking down at her with his kind eyes.
"How are you feeling, Cub?" He asked, still smiling gently at her.
"Fine. What should I…"
"What is it, Cub? You can ask me anything." He replied kindly.
"What should I call you all?" She asked nervously, not looking him in the eyes.
"Well, you can call me Remus, or Moony, or Uncle Moony. You can call your father Severus, or dad, or father, or papa. And you can call your grandma Minerva, or Minnie, or grandma, or nan. It's up to you, Cub. You can call us whatever you feel comfortable calling us." He explained, still smiling welcomingly at her. She smiled a small smile back. "Do you need anything?"
"May I have a drink, please?" She still sounded nervous.
"Of course you may. What would you like? We have orange juice, pumpkin juice, apple juice, water, milk, tea, or hot chocolate. We also have coffee but I don't think your father will be happy if I give you too much caffeine."
She smiled slightly brighter. "Apple juice, please."
"Okay, Cub. I shall be back with your apple juice shortly. Do you need anything else while I am down there?" She shook her head. "I'll be right back."
He left, wandering down to the kitchen to get her drink. In the kitchen he found Minerva, sitting at the breakfast table drinking a cup of tea. She looked up as he entered.
"How is she?" Minerva asked.
"Tired, I believe. She wants a glass of apple juice." He said as he poured some apple juice into a glass and put a straw in it. "Has he come out of his lab yet?"
"No. I'm considering going to Albus and asking what he said to get Severus into such a state. But I will wait until Severus has come out and finished decorating Rosalie's room. I was going to go shopping for some clothes and shoes for her though, just some of the basics whilst she heals. Then when she can walk again we can all go out shopping and get her what she needs. I can just guess on a size for now and if need be we can adjust them." Minerva replied, taking a sip of her warm tea.
"Sounds like a good idea. I should probably take this up to my goddaughter before she starts to worry or something." Remus left the room, heading up the stairs and into Severus' bedroom where he found his goddaughter trying to sit up on her own but struggling. He rushed over, putting the glass of juice on the bedside cabinet before helping her up, ignoring the flinch the movement produced. He leant her back against some pillows that he placed between her back and the headboard, he then sat down next to her, facing her, before passing her the glass of juice, which she drank from quietly.
"Are you okay, Snakelette?" Remus asked her, concern in his voice.
"I just don't like being a burden." She whispered, hoping he wouldn't hear him, not knowing that he had enhanced hearing due to being a werewolf.
"You aren't a burden. And you never will be. Yes, you may need some help sometimes, but you're a child. All children need help, it's part of growing up. I know you haven't had anyone to help you since you were a baby, but we're here now, and we will help you with everything you ever need help with. Even when you're an adult we will help you if you need help. And we will help you because we love you more than anything in the world, and because we want to help you. No matter what you need help with, we will be here, for you. I promise. You aren't a burden." He told her with such strength and truth that she had to believe it, and tears filled her eyes.
"No one has told me they love me before. No one I can remember anyway." Rosalie said as a tear lined her cheek.
"Well you better get used to hearing it now then. Because I love you, your father loves you, your grandma loves you. And we will all keep telling you that, until the day we die. And other people will love you one day, too. In fact, you may very well marry one of them. And your children will love you…"
"I don't think I will end up getting married, or having children."
"Why's that, Snakelette?" Remus asked, confused.
"Because no one will want to marry and have children with a freak like me."
Remus hid his anger at the Dursley's, whom he presumed were the ones to tell her this.
"Snakelette, you are not a freak. You are a witch, and in September you will be going to Hogwarts where you will learn to control your magic. And given who your parents are I presume you are going to be both exceptionally gifted and exceptionally powerful. There are going to be tons of young wizards or witches, depending on whomever you like, that would be honoured to marry you and have children with you. Although, they're going to have to wait until you're at least thirty with how protective your dad and I are over you. And if anyone ever hurts you they will face our wrath, and your grandmothers' wrath as well. And let me tell you, your father and grandma are the two most feared professors in Hogwarts, and I, well I used to be one of the best pranksters in the school and I am currently a Dueling Master, so is your dad, so you have an incredibly fierce group of adults behind you to fight whomever dares to hurt you in any way. But, the point is, you are not a freak. And the three of us will repeat that to you as many times as it takes for you to believe it. And you will marry someone one day, someone whom you love and whom loves you back just as much, if not more. Then you will have adorable little children. You will be happy. And you deserve to be happy."
Another tear left her eye as she heard her godfather say such things, but with the amount of conviction in his voice, again she felt that she had to believe it.
"Do you need anything else Snakelette?" He asked, trying to take her mind off of what they had just been discussing.
Rosalie looked down at her lap, where she was fiddling with the now empty glass in her hands, and blushed. "I need to go to the toilet."
"Okay. Do you want me to take you or do you want me to get your grandmother to help you?"
"Can you get grandma, please?"
"Of course I can. Let me take your glass downstairs and I will send her up for you." He said as he removed the glass from her hands and placed a gentle kiss on her forehead before leaving the room.
…
Minerva entered her sons' room to find her granddaughter staring at the wall opposite the bed. When she closed the door gently behind her Rosalie looked at her and smiled shyly.
"Remus said you wanted some help going to the toilet." She said gently as she headed to the en-suite door to open it before going over to the bed.
"I mean… only if you want to help me… I can hold it…"
"Sweetie, I want to help you. You're my only grandchild, and you're probably going to be the only one I ever have, other than your children of course, so I am going to help you whenever you need help, and I am going to spoil you rotten as well, it's part of what grandmothers do." Minerva smiled as she gently picked her granddaughter up and carried her to the en-suite.
She helped Rosalie stand and gently pulled down her underwear before helping her sit on the toilet, slowly so she wouldn't hurt her legs too much, but Rosalie winced anyway, the pain in her legs worsening as she was forced to move them.
"Sorry. But hopefully your dad will be done with those potions soon and you can start healing properly, and he can give you those exercises as well." Minerva apologised as her granddaughter finished. She helped her granddaughter stand, the pain causing tears to fill her small green eyes, and pulled up her underwear before picking her up again and carrying her back to the bed where she sat her down gently and used a spell to clean her small pale hands.
Minerva then sat on the bed, facing her granddaughter with small smile on her face.
"Do you need another pain relieving potion? I believe you should be allowed another one now." Minerva asked gently.
"Yes, please." Rosalie replied quietly.
Minerva took a pain relieving potion out of her sons' medical bag and gave it to the girl, who took it gratefully and drank it in one gulp, sighing in relief as the potion started to work. Minerva took the vial back and put it on the bedside cabinet.
"Are you feeling okay now, Rosalie?"
"Yes, thank you."
"You don't need to thank me, sweetie. It's what grandmothers do. I am going to go shopping later to pick you up some clothes and things you need, just some of the basics for now, in a few weeks we can go shopping together and pick some things yourself. Is there any particular style of clothing you like? Or any particular colours?"
"You don't have to buy me anything…"
"Rosalie, I am your grandmother, it is my job to spoil you, and even if it wasn't I would want to because you are my granddaughter and I love you. Also, you are the only person I have to spoil, your father only lets me buy him things at Christmas or his birthday, and even then he moans if I spend too much. Something about being a grown man who has his own money to buy things with. So, I have to spoil you instead. And you need clothes, you can't keep wearing things of my own that I have shrunk to fit you, the charms are going to wear off eventually. So, what do you like?" Minerva countered, her Scottish accent coming through thicker than usual.
"I don't really know. I've never been shopping before, and everything I've ever worn has been a hand-me-down from my cousin who was three times the size of me. I guess I like jeans, but not baggy jeans. And I like long sleeved tops to cover my scars, or I guess maybe a cardigan or something to go over my shorter sleeved tops. I don't mind what colours they are, so long as they aren't orange or something."
"Okay. I promise that as soon as you are able I will take you shopping for clothes, shoes, books, toys, and anything else you would like. And we can drag your father and Remus along as well. Make them carry all of our bags. Is there anything else you want or need?"
"No."
There was a knock on the door and Minerva called out for the person to enter the room. Severus opened the door and entered the room, closing the door gently behind him, smiling at the two on the bed and walking over to them, potions in his hands.
"I will go and make some lunch." Minerva said before leaving the room, closing the door gently behind her.
Severus sat down on the bed where Minerva was just sat.
"What were you two ladies talking about?" Severus asked, smiling brightly.
"Grandma is going to go shopping to buy me some clothes later, she just wanted to know what kinds of clothes I liked." Rosalie answered, looking down at her lap, blushing.
"Okay. Good. You need some clothes of your own. I have your potions here. Take this one first, it will mend the slight nerva damage that is probably causing you to feel more pain than you're actually in. It might start helping your legs as well as that may be why your muscles aren't mending the way they should be, as well as partly why you can't move them." Severus explained as he passed her a vial of silvery potion. She took it and drank it in one gulp, ignoring the horrid taste as she was used to horrible tasting things. "Now, I have two potions to help your leg muscles. One of which you can put in a bath once a day to help stimulate muscle relaxation and repair. And one of which is a salve I will have to massage into your legs twice a day for a month. With those I will also give you exercises which we can help you with in order to help you move your legs, as well as speed up healing. You can have your bath tonight, and you can choose one of us to help you with that. But I would like to massage your legs with the salve now, and give you some exercises, to start the healing process as soon as possible. Is that okay with you? I won't do anything you're not comfortable with."
"We can do it now. I don't mind. I want to be able to walk again as soon as possible."
"Okay, I'm going to need to help you lie down." So he helped her lie down, and he lifted the nightgown slightly, to just below her underwear. He opened the tub filled with the thick, creamy salve and dipped his fingers in it, scooping some out and rubbing it into his palms before beginning to massage his daughters' legs with it, starting at the bottom of her legs and working his way up. As he did so he started with the exercises, bending her knees and lifting her legs up so it looked like she was half sitting in the air, so that he could rub the salve into the backs of her legs. He was gentle as he worked, apologising when she winced as her legs were moved.
Soon Severus was done and he went to the en-suite to wash his hands before sitting back on the bed.
"How are you feeling now, Rosie?"
"Better."
"Good. We will do that again tonight, after your bath. Now, where would you like to sit for lunch? Downstairs or up here?"
"Downstairs, please."
"Okay."
He picked her up and took her downstairs, sitting her in the chair she sat in at breakfast before helping Minerva with the stew she was making whilst Remus sat with Rosalie and discussed Hogwarts with her.
…
After lunch, which consisted of beef stew, some home-made crusty bread, and water with nutrient potion for Rosalie, Minerva went to Muggle London to buy Rosalie some clothes, Severus went to what used to be Rosalie's nursery in order to decorate it, and Remus stayed with Rosalie in the kitchen, which is where she wanted to stay for a while.
"Does grandma have any more children? Do I have any other aunts and uncles?" Rosalie asked.
"No. You see, Minerva adopted Severus when he was thirteen years old. His mother had died the year before and his fathers' abuse of him got worse, in fact it got so bad that he passed out on the way to the Slytherin Common Room on the first day of the year, after the welcoming feast. It was then that the teachers found out about his abusive home situation and Minerva, who had always cared for him despite him not being in her House, adopted him. The Headmaster also adopted him so that he would have a decent male rolemodel he could turn to if he needed it, but we don't currently like him." Remus explained.
"So, the Headmaster is my grandpa? Why don't you currently like him?"
"He is, yes. We don't currently like him because he is the one who persuaded Lily to take you into hiding whilst he got rid of all of our memories, except Lily's, in order to protect you both until the war ended. Except he promised us that in the case that Lily die or the war ended he would return our memories and you to us. So, if things had worked out, when the war ended with James and Lily's death, and your survival, he should have returned our memories and given you back to Severus to raise. But he didn't do that, obviously, and decided you might be safer from the Dark Lord's followers if you were with someone who shared Lily's blood, Petunia and her son, because Lily sacrificed herself for you meaning he could create blood wards on Petunia's home, which means that anyone who intended to harm you wouldn't have been able to get into the house. Whereas you could have been here where we are under the Fidelius Charm, which is a charm that allows one person to hold a secret about something and only they can tell someone that secret, even if someone knew the secret before the charm was cast they would forget until the Secret Keeper tells them. Minerva is the Secret Keeper for this place, meaning only the people she has told the Secret of this place's whereabouts too can enter the home. There are a bunch of other wards as well protecting the building. And we are all fully capable of protecting you ourselves with our various Masteries and experiences. Whereas three Muggles wouldn't have been able to protect you should someone get into the property, which they could have done had they realised that should they not intend to harm you they could have gotten in. So that is why we don't like him right now." Remus replied.
"How was I able to get in then? I was unconscious when I arrived." She looked confused.
"You only have to be told the Secret once in your life, and once you have already been told the Secret, no matter how young you are at the time and no matter whether you consciously remember it, you will still be allowed in because you have been told the Secret. Even though you were told the Secret the day after you were born you still subconsciously remember it, and you have been told it meaning you're allowed entrance."
"Right…"
"I know some stuff can be confusing at first, but you will beging to understand better as you get older and have more experience in the Wizarding World." She nodded in response.
"Why would the Headmaster keep me from my family?" She whispered, still not expecting him to be able to hear her.
"I don't know, Cub. We can only guess right now. After our memories were wiped Severus became depressed, Albus had made a lot of his memories worse than they really were, and he wiped a lot of the good ones, changing them to bad ones. He then got caught up in Dark magic and became a follower of the Dark Lord. He was lured into it, he didn't go completely willingly, the Death Eaters manipulated him into wanting it. And when he finally got the Mark he realised what was happening and wanted out. He turned to Albus who offered to protect him as best as he could so long as he became a spy for the Order of the Phoenix, which is a group that Albus created in order to fight the Dark Lord and his followers. We were all part of it before our memories were wiped. Severus agreed because Albus used your mother to manipulate him, because despite our changed memories Severus always remembered his love of your mother. So he became a spy, he risked his life day in, day out in order to give us information which eventually led to the Dark Lord's downfall. It was only after he became a spy that our side had a chance at winning against Him. He was too powerful, but then we had power because we had information and He didn't know how we were getting it. I think, so does your father, that one of the reasons Albus never revealed the truth was so that he would have his spy still, because some of the Dark Lord's followers are still out there, and because the Dark Lord isn't truly dead, he is still out there, waiting for his power to return. Had we not known the truth and the Dark Lord returned, your father would have been sent back to spy on him for the Order. But now we know the truth and your father no longer has to risk his life being a spy, all he has to do is be a father, and protect you. It will still be slightly dangerous for him, sure, but he won't be spying, and that is all that matters. Albus can't use him again."
"Good. But why can you always hear what I say, even when I whisper?" Rosalie asked curiously, but also angry that someone would use her father like that. She may not know the man well but he seemed nice, and he cared for her, looked after her, helped her. She also didn't understand why someone would want to tear a family apart.
Remus blanched slightly, but pulled himself together. She had a right to know, that way she wouldn't put herself in danger unintentionally. That way she may not be scared of him.
"When I was a small child…" He started nervously, not sure how to tell her. "When I was a small child I was attacked, by a werewolf. It's where I got the scars on my face from. It's also the reason I am a werewolf. I can hear you so well, even when you whisper, because I have enhanced hearing due to my lycanthropy. And every month, on the full moon, I transform into a wolf, around that time I become quite ill as well. The transformation is very painful and takes a lot out of me. A lot of people would be scared about me if they found out the truth as well. Werewolves are considered dark and dangerous creatures, even though we are human most of the time. As a result I can't keep a job for long, and I don't really have many friends, except those that were in the Order."
"But why do people think you're dangerous if you are human most of the time? You don't seem very dangerous. You're kind, and caring, and intelligent. So what if you turn into a wolf one night a month? Why should that matter?"
"There didn't used to be as much discrimination against werewolves. But in the past century or so there have been some pretty bad ones, including the one that bit me when I was a child. Werewolves recently have made a habit of going feral, that is letting the wolf consume you, so instead of being human most of the time, you are human but your wolf is controlling your actions, mostly. So they bite, and scratch, and kill people all month instead of just when they turn into raging beasts on the full moon. They also don't take wolfsbane, which is a potion your father invented that allows a werewolf to keep their human mind when they are a wolf, meaning they won't kill or attack someone if they don't want to actually do it. But people don't seem to understand that very few werewolves actually go that way, but feral or not, people are scared of them and discriminate against them no matter whether they take wolfsbane or not, or whether they are a decent human being or not."
"But that's not fair. You shouldn't be discriminated against for something you can't help…"
"Well, not a lot in life is fair. But we all agree with that sentiment in this house. And there are plenty who do agree, but the ones in power don't. So unless we make it big in the Ministry of Magic and change the laws and people's opinions, nothing is going to change." Severus said from the doorway. "Your bedroom is ready if you want to go and look at it." Severus propositioned as Rosalie turned to look at him.
She nodded and he picked her up, carrying her up the stairs and into the room next to his own. She looked at the large room in awe.
There was a thick light grey carpet on the floor. The walls were a light purple colour. On the ceiling there was an animated sky, with clouds and the sun, which Severus explained would turn into a night sky with the stars and moon at night, and that the stars would light up so she wouldn't have to sleep in the dark, which he had noticed she didn't like on her first night there. The double bed was made from mahogany, and the headboard and footboard were both carved with various flowers. The bed sheets were white, as were the pillows, but the duvet was a light grey, light purple, and light green tartan print. There was also the light grey woolen throw that she had used in Severus' room folded at the foot of the bed, her stuffed wolf was sitting on her pillows as well. The curtains on the large window were a light silvery colour. There was a set of double mahogany doors on the other side of the bed which Rosalie assumed was the walk in wardrobe. On either side of the bed was a mahogany bedside cabinet. Under the window was a mahogany deskt which was set up with parchment, quills, ink, pads of paper, a pot of pens, pencils, etc. which Severus explained was so that she could use whatever she felt comfortable with, but she would have to use the quills and parchment for her school work. Waiting at the desk was a high-back, black, leather chair with wheels so she could move it around. On the wall opposite the desk was a large mahogany bookshelf which had plenty of room for books or whatever else she wanted to put on it. Opposite the bed was a door, again made of mahogany, which she presumed led to an en-suite.
"Do you like it?" Severus asked as he gently placed his daughter on the comfortable bed so that her back was leaning on some pillows that were placed against the headboard.
"I love it. Thank you." She smiled, genuinely happy and thankful for everything.
"You don't have to thank me, Rosie. You're my daughter, it is my job to provide for you. And even if it wasn't my job to do so I would do it because I love you more than anything in the entire world, and I have since the moment your mother told me she was pregnant with you. Now, are you feeling okay?"
"Yes."
"Do you need anything? Do you want anything?"
"No. Except maybe a nap."
"Okay." He helped her lay down and get comfortable, tucking her under the duvet and placing the stuffed wolf in her hands before placing a gentle kiss on her head. "Get some sleep, Rosie. I love you."
Then she was asleep. He smiled slightly before leaving the room, making sure to leave the curtains open slightly so there was still some light in the room.
Hello all, hope you are all well and that you enjoyed the chapter.
I will update again when I can.
Please review!