Severus' Daughter: Year One

Chapter four: Nightmares and Reassurances

Severus was putting the clothes that Minerva had brought Rosalie in her wardrobe as his daughter napped. He was smiling at the thought of his daughter, happy that she was back in his life. He remembered the year he had spent with her and Lily, it was the best year of his life, he especially loved the fact that her first word was 'daddy'.

He was just putting away the last of the clothes when he heard a whimper from the bed. He hurried to his daughter and saw that she was crying and fidgeting in her sleep, small whimpers and pleas escaping her lips, "No. I'll be good. I promise. I'm sorry Uncle. I didn't mean to. I won't be bad anymore. Stop. Please."

His heart broke at the sight of her in such a state. He sat next to her on the bed and placed a hand on her shoulder, causing her to flinch, but he ignored it. "Rosie, I need you to wake up. It's just a dream. Daddy's here. It's okay now. You're safe. I promise. Wake up, Little Snake. Wake up." He said softly, not wanting to startle her.

Her green eyes flickered open and she looked at him with sad, scared eyes. But when she recognised him the fear lessened.

"Daddy?" She questioned quietly, wanting to know if he was really there or not.

"I'm here, Little Snake. You're safe. It was just a dream." He replied, his heart fluttering with joy at hearing her calling him 'daddy' again, represented in the small smile he had on his face.

Sobs started wracking her small body, and he gently lifted her onto his lap. Holding her, rocking her, soothing her with his quiet, reassuring words. His heart clenched at the amount of sorrow and pain radiating from his daughter and he became more angry at those that had caused her the pain she didn't deserve, though he didn't show his anger, not wanting to scare the small girl in his arms.

Eventually she calmed down, but she kept her face in her fathers' black t-shirt, clinging to it with her small hands.

"How are you feeling, Rosie?" Severus asked after a few minutes of quiet. "Are you in pain?"

She nodded into his chest and he summoned a pain reliever, placing it into her hands; she drank it readily, wanting the pain to leave her body. He magically sent the vial to his potions lab and went back to rubbing her back gently.

"Do you want to tell me about your dream? Sometimes it helps to talk about it." She shook her head into his chest. "Okay. But I'm here if you decide you do want to talk about it. I didn't think that talking about my bad dreams would help either, but one night I started talking to your Grandma, hoping for something to help me, and it did help. I started having less nightmares, and they didn't affect me as much as they used to. Now I barely have any nightmares. And I know it's hard at first, talking, but it gets easier the more you do it. But you don't have to just yet if you don't want to."

"May I ask you questions?" She asked timidly after a few minutes of silence.

"Of course. You may always ask me questions, Rosie." He replied gently.

"If the Headmaster hadn't have not done what he promised, and had given your memories back, would you have wanted to raise me, or would I have gone to the Dursleys anyway?" She asked, scared about what the answer may be.

"Rosie, look at me." He said, and she looked up at him with fear in her eyes. "Of course I would have wanted to raise you. In fact, I wish I could go back in time and force Albus to return our memories to us so that I could have watched you grow up. If Albus had given us our memories, like he promised, you would have lived here, with me, your grandma, and Remus would probably live here most of the time as well. This would have been your bedroom as it was your nursery during the first year of your life anyway. You would have been spoilt, but not so spoilt so as to turn into one of those snobby little children who always think they should get what they want. You would be taught about the Wizarding World from a young age, but you would have gone to the Muggle Primary School in the village nearby. You would have had birthday parties, and Christmas would be your favourite day of the year like it is for most young children. We all would have baked cakes and things together like families do, and you would have gotten bedtime stories, and we would have taken you places, and more. But apparently Albus thought you wouldn't have been safe from the people who may have wanted to hurt you here, even though we have a lot more powerful wards on this house than the Dursleys had on theirs. I don't know why Albus decided those things, but I believe it is best for you to not completely trust him when school starts, and he may come around at some point during the summer. Just be careful around him. And don't eat or drink anything he offers you because I am pretty sure he laces all of his sweets and tea with potions."

"Okay." She promised.

"Merlin, I love you more than anything else in the world, Rosie. And I wish I could have been there on your first day of Primary School, and to help you when you were sick, and to just do what every other dad does with their daughters. But I promise that I will be the best dad I can be from now on. And I will make up for all the time I have missed by doing all of those things I should have done and more. I will make sure that you are doing your best in your studies, because I expect nothing more from you than your absolute best in every lesson. And I will be the perfect overprotective father by threatening any boy that looks at you, or tries to be your boyfriend, because you aren't allowed to date until you're thirty at least. And then when you finally get a boyfriend I will make sure he knows not to hurt you because if he does then he is going to be turned into potion ingredients, after a very long torture session because no one hurts my baby girl and gets away with it. And when you get married to the right guy I will walk you down the aisle, and I will do the father-daughter dance with you. And when you have children I will be there at your side the whole time. I promise to do all of that and more, Rosie." He ranted before kissing her forehead gently and wiping the tears from her cheeks with his thumbs.

Just then there was a quiet knock on the door, causing Rosalie to flinch slightly.

"Come in." Severus said, rubbing his daughters' back to calm her down slightly.

The door opened and Remus popped his head through, smiling at the two occupants of the room.

"Good evening, dinner is ready and Minerva wanted to know if Rosalie wanted to eat downstairs or up here. She also wanted to know what drink she wanted."

"I'll eat downstairs, and I want water please." Rosalie replied quietly, Remus nodded and left the room.

Severus stood up with Rosalie in his arms and left the room, following Remus into the kitchen and gently placing Rosalie in the seat she had sat in the other times she ate in the kitchen. Remus placed her glass of water and nutrient potion in front of her before Minerva placed a plate of food on the place mat in front of her. Minerva had cooked a roast chicken, with roast potatoes, a generous pile of vegetable (consisting of peas, carrots, green beans and sweetcorn), pigs in blankets, yorkshire puddings and gravy.

"Eat as much as you can, Rosalie." Minerva told her softly as she and the two men sat down in front of their own plates of food and started eating, smiling at her granddaughter who picked up her knife and fork and started eating slowly.

"Snakelette, your birthday is in five weeks, do you know what you would like for it? Do you know what you would like to do during the day itself?" Remus asked his goddaughter, shocking her.

"I, uh… You want to buy me presents?" She questioned, shocked. She could see sadness flicker through their eyes, but they smiled gently at her.

"Of course we want to buy you presents, Rosalie. We've missed nine of your birthdays, so we have a whole lot of spoiling to catch up on." Minerva replied gently.

"I, er, I don't really know. I've never really gotten presents before, from what I can remember anyway, and I haven't been able to figure out what I like or anything because the Dursleys never really took me anywhere, or brought me anything. I don't want a party though, I know some families throw their children parties but I don't think I'm ready for that yet." Rosalie answered nervously.

"Okay, we can help you figure out things you like, if you want us to." Severus responded, squeezing her hand in comfort. Rosalie nodded and went back to eating her food.

"Do you like animals?" Minerva asked her granddaughter.

"Yes. My favourites are cats, snakes and owls. Really only because I haven't seen many animals in my life. Mrs Figg, who used to babysit me for the Dursleys had a lot of cats and whenever I was at her house she let me play with them. And I like talking to snakes that come into the garden whilst I am working. And my best friend has a pet owl, although he never told me why he had a pet owl, but she's adorable as well." She related to the adults, smiling brightly as she talked and ate, not realising their shocked expressions until she looked at them. Fear started creeping through her veins at their shocked looks. "Is something wrong?"

"No, Rosie, nothing's wrong. But did you say you could talk to snakes?" Severus asked kindly, smiling at her.

"Yes. Is that okay? Is it bad?"

"No, it's not bad at all. It's a very special gift called Parseltongue. It's very rare, not many wizards and witches are able to speak that language. In fact, the only other known wizard to have the ability is the Dark Lord. But that doesn't mean it's bad. I think it's a good thing to be able to talk to snakes." Severus explained to his daughter who visibly relaxed.

"Who is this best friend you mentioned?" Minerva asked, hoping to make her granddaughter feel better by changing the subject.

Rosalie smiled brightly at the mention of her best friend, "Lee Jordon. He is two years older than me. I met him two years ago at the park near the Dursleys' House and because Dudley wasn't there he couldn't chase Lee away. We became friends straight away and we would meet up as often as possible, but he goes to a boarding school now so it is harder to meet up. He's helped me a lot of times when I have been injured because of my uncle and cousin. He gave me some medicines that kind of looked like some of the potions you've been giving me."

Severus groaned quietly but Rosalie heard it and looked at him strangely. "Why did you groan?"

"Lee Jordan, if he is who I think he is, is a student at Hogwarts, he is in Minerva's House. And he along with his friends, the Weasley Twins, are the School's biggest pranksters. Now I am imagining you being part of their group and pranking the entire School with them. And I have to hope that none of those three, or any other boy in the school for that matter, try to make a move on you because if they do they are in so much trouble. Then I realised that the reason he has been asking me to brew extra potions for his mother closer to the summer is that he has been giving the extra ones to you." Severus explained.

"Oh, does that mean I can write to him? We were meant to meet up on the first day of his summer holidays and he must be worried because I didn't turn up. Or do we have a phone so I can call him?" Rosalie asked hopefully.

"You can write to him after your bath and send it with Aries, our owl. Unfortunately the magic in the house means any electrical items won't work as the magic interferes with the electricity and no one has been able to come up with anything to allow electrical items to work in a magical home, so we don't have a phone." Minerva informed the young witch who drank the information in greedily.

"However, we do have other ways of communicating, instead of just writing to each other. For example, if the other person had a fireplace connected to the floo network and you knew their address you could call them via that and speak to them face to face, or just go to them. You can send your patronus with a message. There are two-way mirrors that work kind of like a phone, you just say the other persons' name into it if they have one connected to your mirror and you can speak face to face." Remus told her, all of them noticing how much she liked getting new information.

They had all finished their meals by now, Rosalie had only been able to eat about half of it, but she had her nutrient potion as well. They were just sitting there, talking about the Wizarding World.

"Do you like reading, Rosalie? We have a small library here, and there's an even bigger one at Hogwarts, we can also get you some books of your own if you want." Minerva asked the girl.

"Yes, I love reading. When I was at school I used to go to the Library or the music room to stay away from Dudley and his friends since I had no friends of my own there. I read a lot of books to make up for the fact that I wasn't allowed to do well in my classes, and I learned how to play various musical instruments. The Librarian, Mrs Tate, and the music teacher, Miss Johnson, were the only teachers who were nice to me. They didn't believe what the Dursleys told them all about me and tried to help me as much as they could while teaching me things. They would give me food as well when they realised that I didn't have a packed lunch or any money to buy anything."

"What musical instruments can you play?" Severus asked curiously, hiding his anger at the Dursleys.

"Piano, guitar, steel pans, violin, recorder, and an accordian. I can sing as well. In year five I also started using the art room when a new art teacher, Mr Tennant, started and he liked me. He helped me out as well, and I drew whilst he would teach me about various artists or whatever. I like drawing, and painting. I also like cooking and baking. That and gardening were the only chores I actually enjoyed doing, not that the Dursleys knew that, or cared."

"Well, when you're all healed maybe you can help us with meals, or we could bake some cakes together. And maybe you can help your father with some of the potions ingredients he has in the garden. Only if you want to of course. You won't have to do any chores here when everything can be done by magic or by us." Minerva said, cheering the girl up. Rosalie nodded eagerly.

"Right. Bath time. And after your exercises you can write to your friend." Severus said, standing up and picking up his daughter gently into his arms.

After her bath Severus helped her dress into one of the new nightgowns that Minerva brought her earlier in the day and rubbed the ointment onto her legs, doing the exercises he had started earlier again. He washed his hands and helped her to sit up, conjuring a small, over the lap, table and placing it over her legs gently before summoning some parchment, a quill and a bottle of ink for her to write with. He spent an hour teaching her how to write with the quill, it seemed that she was a fast learner, and when she had wrote the letter, after their improptu lesson, he gave it to Minerva to send with Aries.

After that she yawned so Severus banished the items he had conjured to his study and helped her lay down, tucking her in gently and placing a kiss on her forehead, causing her to smile.

"Get some sleep, Little Snake. If you need something during the night then just call one of us, okay. We'll come to you."

"Okay, Daddy. Goodnight."

"Goodnight, Rosie. I love you."

She closed her eyes and fell asleep soon after. Severus stayed until her breathing evened out, kissed her forehead one more time, and left the room, smiling a little at the thought of having his daughter back. He placed a ward on the door to let him know if she needed anything or had a nightmare and headed to the living room where he found Remus and Minerva sitting talking quietly.

"How is she?" Minerva asked when she noticed him sit in his favourite armchair.

"Fine. She's asleep now. I told her to call one of us if she needs anything, and I have a ward on her door. Did you send the letter?" Minerva nodded in response. "I can't believe she is friends with Lee Jordan. I think her Hogwarts years might just turn my hair grey. She is best friends with one of the trio of pranksters, and someone who is two years older than her. And said someone is a boy. She isn't allowed to be friends with boys." He rambled, until Minerva and Remus laughed that is, causing him to glare at them. "This is not funny. My baby girl is not allowed to be around too many boys. She is not going to be hurt because the only thing a teenage boy is capable of thinking about is sex. No. I am not going to allow anyone to hurt my baby."

"Severus, I am sure she is going to be fine. I mean, she does have us three to protect her after all, and the two of you are the most feared professors at Hogwarts, so no one is going to do her any harm in fear of the two of you maiming them. And I am a werewolf, they many not know that but I won't hesitate to maim anyone who hurts her, and I will let them know that." Remus comforted.

"Whatever." Severus mumbled, not letting the other two know that he didn't believe them. He couldn't believe them, not since he will be ousted as a spy and Rosalie will have an even bigger target on her head from certain people.

Hey fellow Potterheads, I hope you are all well and that you enjoyed this chapter.

I will update again when I can.

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