Night Terror:
There was nothing. It was dark and quiet. Lucy opened her door, hoping to find some light or noise. It was almost as dark in the living room as it was in her room. She looked around the room trying to find a note, but there was none. After a few moments' hesitation, she knocked on his door. There was no reply, so she waited a few more minutes before knocking again. No reply, so she took a deep breath and turned the knob. He wasn't there either. She sighed, if he wasn't in here, then where would he be?
When she turned back, she saw another door that hadn't been there before. She opened it slowly and peered her head around the door. She continued forward until she got to an old, narrow staircase. She cautiously walked up it, and cringed at every creak or groan of the poor stairs that must've been stepped on for a long time.
At last, she got to the top and walked down the dim corridor. Outside the windows, there was utter darkness. She started to feel something deep inside her chest and turned the next corner. There, at the end was finally a silhouette of a person, running to her. As they got closer, she could make out the figure of a woman. When she was just strides away from Lucy, the girl could see the woman had a look of pure terror on her face.
"You have to run!" Daisy screamed. "You have to go; he's coming!" She stopped in front of her, trying to push her to go back.
"Why?" Lucy asked, puzzled. Why was her mother so scared?
Loud, heavy steps caught both their attention, causing her to look behind her mother. A man's silhouette that can only be her father was slowly walking to them, an evil chuckle booming through the almost empty corridor sending shivers down Lucy's spine.
He was now so close that she could see his smirk. "Don't try to run, it'll be easier for all of us. Crucio!" The spell was not directed at her for once, but her mother. The girl cried out, wanting to help her; knowing it was useless. "Silencio!" She opened her mouth in protest, but of course no sound was heard.
This went on for what seemed like hours, until her mother was on the verge of dying. "How about we switch things up a bit?" He raised his wand again. "Crucio!" Pain was all Lucy could feel. She couldn't hear her own screams.
xXx
After Severus ensured Lucy was sleeping in her bed this time, he sat at his favorite chair in the living room. He took the bottle with him instead of a glass as he reminded himself that he had to trust Dumbledore. He didn't understand his methods, but the man must have felt drastic measures were needed to ensure she really was magical.
The scream almost made him drop the whiskey.
Severus ran to the room it came from. When he opened the door, he saw the girl thrashing about in her bed, as if in agony. He practically threw himself onto the bed, grabbing Lucy's arm as he tried to wake her. Her eyes suddenly flew open and her screams stopped, but she still twitched as if some invisible pain afflicted her.
"What happened?" Severus questioned.
Tears poured out of the girl's eyes as spasms still caused her body to involuntarily move.
"What was your dream?" Severus pressed.
"He hurt my mother." Lucy cried. "And then, he hurt me."
"Who?" He knew, but he needed her to confirm it. The way she moved reminded him of the aftershocks of an evil curse, one so evil it was Unforgivable. And that was everything Tenebris Drake embodied. Nothing Severus had learned about the man pointed to another conclusion. "Your father." It wasn't a question.
Lucy nodded, finally seeming to start to settle down. Only small twitches continued and she was breathing normal.
"Do you need anything?" Severus was not prepared to handle such a situation. This girl needed professional help. But she was Snape's responsibility now.
Lucy shook her head.
xXx
After Severus left, she got out of bed and picked out some trousers and a jumper from her wardrobe. She wasn't sure from where, but it was stocked with some basic clothes in her size. She grabbed her trainers and went to the loo.
Once she was ready, she made her way to the door. In the halls, she peered around a corner cautiously, watching for strangers. There were plenty of them. She turned away and accidentally bumped into someone who was rushing down the stairs.
"Sorry!" Lucy didn't look at who she ran into.
"Forgiven, are you a student?" The voice belonged to a young woman.
Lucy looked up at a girl with bubblegum pink hair. Her eyes widened when she realized she was staring, and she looked down, ashamed. "Sorry."
"Yeah, I know. Pink hair. My name's Nymphadora Tonks, but you better call me Tonks." Tonks grinned, with her arm stretched out in greeting.
"Lucille Drake, but I'm Lucy." The younger girl gave a small smile back and she took the older girl's hand.
"Hey, are you already done with breakfast?" Tonks asked.
"No."
"Well, then you're going the wrong way." She scoffed. "Come on, you can sit by me!" Lucy smiled, following Tonks into the big dining hall. "Say, you're kind of small for a first year."
"I'm not." They sat at the table with yellow badges on the fronts of their robes.
Tonks looked at the girl's plain clothes and realized she wasn't dressed for classes. "How old are you?" She asked. Lucy held up nine fingers. "So, how are you here so early then?" Her pink eyebrows furrowed, genuinely curious and not judging.
"I live here." Lucy wasn't sure if that was supposed to be public knowledge, but she was already in the dinner hall with more and more people by the minute.
Tonks began to load her plate, hardly paying attention to the people around them beginning to stare. "Who's looking after you?"
"Severus," Lucy took some breakfast for herself, not realizing the other girl paused.
"Professor Snape is taking care of you?" She yelled in disbelief. Lucy nodded as she began to eat. "Huh,"
The girls ate in silence for the rest of breakfast.
xXx
Severus watched Lucy and Nymphadora Tonks at the Hufflepuff table throughout his breakfast. Nymphadora was a Hufflepuff troublemaker. He didn't need Lucy to learn any habits from her.
"Lighten up, Severus. It's good for her to make friends." Pomona Sprout said it without hiding her smirk. She enjoyed watching her colleague squirm at his charge making friends with her students.
Severus was not amused.
xXx
Lucy walked with Tonks until she had to go to a class. Tonks told her to find her at lunch, and the girl found herself very bored. After breakfast, she wasn't as afraid of the people in the halls. Still, it would be better to not be alone.
She eventually found herself in a room with a bunch of books. A thin woman with a nose rivalling Severus' stood at the desk. She was busy with a student who seemed to be in a rush, so Lucy walked into the nearest aisle. She grabbed a couple books from the shelf and started to stack them like a house.
As she went to grab more, a shriek startled her. She looked to the end of the aisle to see the woman from the desk had found Lucy.
"What on earth do you think this is?" The woman looked as if Lucy had struck her. "This is a library!" Lucy was shooed out before she could apologize.
Bummed, she wandered around the castle until she found an empty room not unlike the one the man and the cat waited for her in. She shuddered, but went in anyway, desperate for something to do.
At the back of the room, there was a blackboard and some chalk. She picked it up and began to draw various figures on the board.
xXx
At lunchtime, she waited at the doors to the great hall until she saw Tonks walking toward her with some other students. Tonks waved Lucy to follow them into the hall with a smile.
"How was your morning?" Tonks hoped it was spent better than hers.
Lucy shrugged. "Okay,"
"Just okay? What do you even do in this castle all by yourself?" Tonks bet Snape didn't give her toys or play dates like children should have.
"Play, draw," Lucy wasn't sure if getting kicked out of the library was play, but she had been trying to build a playhouse.
"Draw? What do you like to draw?" Tonks asked as she watched the girl who seemed to like talking as much as her caregiver.
Lucy smiled. "I'll show you later."
"Sound,"
The girls ate in comfortable silence. Sometimes, Tonks would chat with her school friends. She had already told some of them that she met a child being cared for by Professor Snape. They wanted to see for themselves that he was capable of keeping a child alive since he hated them so much.
xXx
There was still some time before Tonks had to go to her next class, so she asked to see Lucy's drawings. Lucy led her to the room, excited to show Tonks her creations. When they got to the room, Tonks' smile faded into a serious look of concern.
Lucy saw her face and pouted. "You don't like them?"
Tonks shook herself out of her trance and looked at the young girl next to her. "No, they're pretty all right. I just don't know where you learned about this stuff."
Tonks looked at the board, studying the figures Lucy had drawn. One showed a stick figure pointing a wand at another stick figure that was sideways. Next to it was a house on fire. Some of the figures were random shapes. Another showed a creepy skeleton horse with wings. A thestral. Tonks had only read about their descriptions. And this nine year old could draw them. Only those who had witnessed death and understood it could see them. And she must have. Where did she come from?
xXx
Lucy was sad when Tonks had to leave for class, but Tonks was too distracted by her theories about the girl to properly say goodbye to her. After the last classes got out but before dinner, she found herself in the dungeons. She knocked on the door and waited for the answer.
The door opened and Severus looked down at the seventh year with disdain. "Yes?"
"Good evening, sir. Sorry to bother you, sir, but it's Lucy."
Snape let go of the door and stepped back so the young woman could come into the classroom. He walked to his desk and stood in front of it, his back turned to her. "Well?"
"Er, yes, sir. I think it's actually better if I show you."
xXx
When Severus finally made it to dinner, his appetite was suddenly missing. He watched Lucy next to the Hufflepuffs and contemplated his standing on her new friendship. He didn't care for Nymphadora but she did seem to care for Lucy. And they shared their worry for the girl.
Severus couldn't even see thestrals until he was a young adult. He couldn't imagine going to school seeing what actually pulled the carriages. How much had this girl had to witness in her short nine years?
Tonight, he would have to ask her to relive one of her worst memories. He needed to know what secrets her past held.