A Daughter's Wonder

A Daughter's Wonder

Antonia Rose, known by everyone as Nia, was in many ways just like every other teenager.

At fourteen, she was a good student and had lots of friends. She liked to listen to music and read magazines, the kind with hair and make-up tips in them. Her appearance was something she cared about and she liked to go shopping. She got nervous around boys she liked, and she just didn't understand her parents.

Of course, Nia wasn't the daughter of just anybody.

Her parents were the esteemed Hermione and Draco Malfoy. Even in the world they belonged to, a world full of magic and wizardry, they were considered extraordinary. The couple was always at the top of everyone's list for parties and charity balls and was constantly the envy of most married people.

But, that's not what Nia didn't understand. She was well-aware that her parents were renowned though she wasn't sure why. She knew they had done something momentous though she wasn't sure what. Her parents didn't talk about their past and anyone else she asked just waved her off. However, even through all these unanswered questions about her parents, there was still something far more important that perplexed her.

Nia knew her parents loved her and her little brothers. They took care of their three children, protected them, and spoiled them most of the time. She knew they would always be there for her if she ever needed anything. No, what bothered her was this: her parents seemed to live in their own private world that no one else could access. The level of adoration and devotion they had for each other could never be for anyone else.

She had first noticed this at a young age after she'd started to realize she had never seen her parents apart. Ever. They were always together. They worked together running her Daddy's company. They went to every social function together. After attending her parents' annual Christmas Ball for the first time, she watched as they mingled through the guests arm in arm. When she had had to go to Diagon Alley to pick up her supplies for her first year at Hogwarts, they all went together, as a family. It wasn't until she visited some friends and saw each person's parents separate that she understood how not normal it was.

Did her parents think the other would disappear if they weren't always together?

These thoughts plagued her as she walked up the street to The Three Broomsticks. It was the last Hogsmeade weekend before Christmas holidays, and after begging off her Slytherin housemates, she went in search of a butterbeer.

Nia grabbed a table close to the back before ordering her drink of choice. The pub was quite crowded with an assortment of people and it was all decked out in spirit of the season. She leaned back, listening to the carols drifting into the room from an unknown source, and waited on her order when she saw a flash of black in the corner of her eye.

There, hiding behind the corner of a fireplace and nursing a glass of dragon ale with his trademark sneer, was her favorite teacher and Head of House, Professor Snape. He was glaring at a rowdy bunch of dwarves and trying to keep out of sight.

The waitress she'd given her order to came back and set a glass of butterbeer in front of her. She grabbed it up, throwing a few Sickles down on the table, and stalked across the room to the Potions Master. Pulling out a chair at his table, she sat down without preamble.

Lifting a sardonic eyebrow, Professor Snape drawled out his greeting. "Miss Malfoy, to what do I owe the pleasure?"

Nia took several quick gulps of her drink before finding the courage to answer. Snape wasn't known for being informative to anyone, but she was a Slytherin, even if her mother had been a Gryffindor. "You know my parents. You knew them while they were at Hogwarts."

Snape scowled as he looked at her. He hadn't been expecting that. Taking another swig of his ale, he took the time to study and discern her features.

She had the delicate bone-structure of her father topped off with her mother's petite form. Her hair was long and wavy flowing past her shoulders and down her back, just two shades darker than her father's own silky blonde locks. Large, long-lashed eyes framed her face with their stormy intensity. Her nose was turned up slightly at the end and her pretty pink mouth, very much her mother's, was now pointed downward in a frown. She fidgeted in her seat waiting for his reply while trying to brush it off as haughtiness. It was obvious to him that she was quite like both her parents.

Having delayed her long enough, he sat back against his chair knowing instinctively this would be a long conversation. "Yes. What does that have to do with anything?"

Her eyes widened in hope. "Will you tell me about them?"

"Don't you already know your mother and father? Am I mistaken in thinking you live with them?" His tone was completely cynical as he polished off his drink.

She was exasperated as she spoke. "No, I mean about while they were here, at Hogwarts. They don't ever talk about their life before they were married. I want to know why."

Professor Snape was confused. "Why they won't talk about it?" He watched her carefully.

"Well, there's that, but I also want to know why they're together all the time. All my life, I can't remember them ever being away from each other. They hardly ever leave each other's presence, much less being in separate rooms. I don't understand why."

He took pity on her and let out a resigned sigh. "You better not tell your father or your mother that I was the one who told you, but it's ridiculous to keep it from you forever. It'd be nearly impossible; all you'd have to do was run across one of the books that have them in it." He took a deep breath before starting to chuckle. "They have quite a history."

Nia listened with rapt attention.

"When your mother first arrived at Hogwarts, she was a bossy know-it-all who always had her nose stuck in some book. Your father was hardly better. He was a proud, selfish boy who cared for no one else. It was hate at first sight. Draco made a nasty remark about her hair and they were off from there. When she started palling around with Messrs. Potter and Weasley, it only became worse, or so everyone thought." Snape started settling into his narration.

Nia just had to interrupt. "Momma and Daddy hated each other?" Her disbelief was evident. "I didn't know that."

Snape glared at her, discouraging any future disruptions. "Yes, with a fiery vengeance." He picked up his spot in the story. "Anyway, Draco started calling her a Mudblood and things escalated even further. There was also a particular incident where your mother got so worked up she slapped him. The next few years were spent in a back-and-forth pattern, not only with insults and retorts but in academic competition as well. It became clear to every teacher in the school that these two were the top of their class and probably the best Hogwarts had ever seen. There was never any doubt they would be Heads together.

"First they had to be prefects together though. It was somewhat of an experiment, to see if they could get along while holding positions of authority. It probably would have gone better if Weasley had not also been made a prefect." Snape shook his head in remembrance. "They were many altercations in the prefect meeting room between your father and him. Draco would quarrel with your mother as well. It didn't matter what punishments were doled out, they still resented each other with a passion. Albus was the only one who really recognized it for what it was."

Here, Snape's eyes glazed over as he fondly recalled the deceased headmaster. Shaking his head, he trudged on. "The professors all held their breath waiting for the pin to drop as Draco and the former Miss Granger moved into the Head dorm. After several memorable rows, Minerva and I punished them to a week of house arrest with no wands. They had their homework and meals sent to them so they could focus solely on sorting out their differences. They emerged after the week with completely opposite attitudes. They were amiable to each other and gradually, it came out that they were together."

Nia blushed at thinking what must have occurred between them during that week.

"It was perfect between them for a while as the whole school watched them grow closer and closer until you hardly saw one without the other. It also became quite clear that they were a force together as well." Snape broke off his recounting to peer warily at the eldest Malfoy child who was listening to him with fascination. "Are you positive you want to hear this?"

Nia nodded eagerly. "Yes, please don't leave anything out."

Snape forced himself to go on. "One morning, Draco ran into the Great Hall more disheveled than I had ever seen him then or since. Miss Granger had gone missing and he was panicking. Started shouting about how his father had found out, he wasn't very coherent considering the circumstances. Turns out, he was right, but everybody thought he was mad at the time. He was taken back to his room while a school search was organized. During that time, he slipped away and made his way off the grounds to where he could apparate home." He swallowed thickly through the lump in his throat. "He found her chained in the dungeons with Lucius standing over her. The older Malfoy was calling her a Mudblood whore while trying to rip off her clothes. Draco had recognized the look in his father's eyes and knew he was going to rape her if he didn't do something. There was a struggle and Draco got knocked around some, but he killed Lucius in the end."

Nia face twisted into an appropriate look of horror, but she gestured to Professor Snape for continuance.

"The Aurors on the scene immediately ruled it self-defense, but it was far more than that one conflict. It was a battle Draco had been fighting all his life, to get out from under his father's influence and killing him had been the proverbial straw that broke the camel's back. Especially since it had been over his Muggleborn girlfriend who he now realized he was in love with." He ran a hand through his greasy, graying hair and exhaled slowly. "Draco joined up with Potter and the Order of the Phoenix to become a spy."

Wow. Nia had no idea that her parents' lives had been so interesting.

"After graduation, he, along with several other Phoenix members, went on many assignments that became critical in the resistance against the Dark Lord. Miss Granger worked at the home front on strategizing and she knew every time she saw your father might be the last. Their love for each other was just as fierce as their hate had been, and they reveled in it while they could. Everything was crazy then and sometimes you didn't know up from down. The mission is what mattered."

"It had been Draco's information and Miss Granger's plan that provided Potter with the opportunity to kill the Dark Lord. The day he was defeated, Draco proposed. It had been three years since they'd graduated. She said yes, and they were married no more than a month later. They've never been seen apart since. And as they say, the rest is history." He concluded his story with a flourish as he waited patiently for the girl's reaction.

Nia could hardly believe her ears. Her parents had once been in the middle of a very dangerous situation. It was no wonder they liked to be together after all the threats to their relationship and their lives. She sympathized with their slight isolation from everyone except each other.

"Thank you, Professor Snape. For telling me the story without holding anything back."

She rose from her chair and headed for the door, but didn't make it very far before turning back. "How did you know everything?"

Snape favored her with a smile, something he seldom used. "Your father and I were very close while he was at Hogwarts and during the war, before he married your mother and became an honest man. He trusted me enough to be his confidant."

Nia thought that made sense. She often heard her father talk of Professor Snape in fond tones. Nodding, she walked out the door of the Three Broomsticks into the bright winter day without looking back again.

A little over a week later, while she was standing in the corner of her manor's ballroom watching her parents smile and mingle arm in arm with their guests at the Christmas Ball, she smiled. She used to think they were just selfish, not wanting to share their lives intimately with anyone. But, it wasn't about everyone else; it was about them. Their love was so great and they had come so close to losing each other so many times that it was just about being together, every moment of every day.

Now, she understood her parents.