Snape's Daughter

After dinner, Serena headed back to her room. She had not shown anyone her sword. It was, after all, Slytherin's sword, and no one liked Slytherin except Slytherins and herself. She touched the emerald in the pommel of the sword to the cover of the diary.

The diary began to glow, at first blue, and then green too came from the book. It rose into the air, spinning slowly round. Then it settled back onto the table. Serena eagerly grabbed the book, but released it immediately. It was boiling hot, though the book was unaffected.

Serena yawned deeply. She was tired, and she rubbed her hand across her eyes. Outside it was dark, and the only light came from the stars and the half moon shining overhead. Looking around her room she noticed a door she hadn't seen before. She walked to it and opened it. This was the bedroom, and a four poster bed with green and blue hangings took up most of the room.

On the far wall was a chest of drawers made from solid oak. On top of this was Serena's small bag with some clothes in it. Serena took out her nightrobes, which were long and white. They fit her figure beautifully.

Serena changed quickly, and then admired herself in the wall length mirror. "Hey gorgeous," it said in her voice.

"Oh, shut up," she replied. At home she had a perfectly ordinary Muggle mirror, and it was disconcerting to see her reflection talking to her.

Serena drew her wand and called one of her schoolbooks to her. Before she had received her new wand she had used her mother or father's wand to practice magic. She was currently on Chapter Seven of 1001 Magical Herbs and Fungi, and the plant was Aconite. She was surprised to discover that, as well as Monkshood and Wolfsbane, the plant was known as Dumbledore's Delight!

After she had finished the Chapter Serena went to bed, placing the sword in one of the draws. I will look at the diary in the morning, she thought sleepily. They were going home just before eight by portkey, and so Serena would have to wait for her return to Hogwarts to continue the quest.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

The sun shining through her window awakened Serena, its rays making her blink. For a moment the young yet mature girl wondered where she was, and then she remembered. She was in guestroom 198, and the heir of Slytherin and Ravenclaw. The details of the past twenty-four hours rushed back to her conscious mind, and she sprang out of bed.

Serena was soon dressed, and she grabbed the diary from the small mahogany table. It had cooled down, but when she opened it she found that the next message was not in any western language. The letters were not the 'abc' of Western European languages, but more like the picture languages of the east. However, she did know this language, the language of runes.

Although she knew that it was rune language, this did not help Serena in deciphering them. There were several different languages, according to her father. Some simply had letters of the alphabet, others had one word or more represented by a single rune. Serena had always hated learning French at school, languages were not her strong point.

Why bother? She thought, when everyone speaks English anyway?*

Even though Serena did not understand runes herself, she knew that her father had got an E in his Ancient Runes NEWT. This was his second best mark, just behind an O for potions. She decided that once they got home she would ask him the meaning of the words. She still hadn't told her parents about her quest. She still didn't understand her quest fully.

***

She closed the diary and slid it into her pocket. Then she went down to the Great Hall for breakfast.

Serena was still surprised that she could find her way about the school so easily. Maybe she somehow had inherited a sense of the place from her ancient ancestor, or maybe it was her father's descriptions of the place. When she had first arrived at Hogwarts, admittedly she had been a little confused, but now she knew her way about like a seventh year, at least in the places she had been to.

After a gorgeous breakfast of hash browns, sausages, and a huge pile of Heinz tomato ketchup, Serena went back to her room. As she walked she wondered why there was Heinz at Hogwarts. She mused about this for several minutes, and lost her way. She suddenly stopped and looked about her, the only thing in the current corridor she was in was a portrait of a fat lady.

Serena did not know about the entrance to Gryffindor tower, since her father was a Slytherin and her mother had never said. However she did know that some portraits could give directions, if you asked politely.

Serena walked to the portrait and nodded to its resident. "Good morning, I was wondering, could you help me?"

"Indeed," replied the fat lady. "What seems to be the problem?"

"I'm lost," said Serena, and her eleven-year-old self seemed to show through her more mature side for a moment as a tear ran down her cheek.

"There, there dear," said the fat lady kindly. "I'll show you the way, now where was it you wanted to go?"

"Guestroom 198," replied Serena, sniffing and wiping her eyes with her hand.

"Guestroom 198? I've never heard of it before? If you help we'll find it though," she added as Serena looked very upset. Hogwarts was a huge place for one so young, even if they were as mature as Serena. There were many places she had not been to, but she would discover them one day.

"Just listen to my voice, and follow me through the halls," said the fat lady, walking out of her picture frame. As she headed down the corridors she spoke to Serena, so that the young girl could follow her. Serena was a good listener, one reason for her cleverness, and so she could find out the direction quite easily. At some points the Fat Lady, whose name was Hannah, stopped in the paintings to ask the way to the room. Most paintings had no idea, but when they reached the painting of Sir Cadogan he knew the way very well.

However he was reluctant to show them. "The paintings don't move! If you go in them you'll never get out! I had to cut off my finger to escape from one!" he showed them where the tip of his finger had been sliced off, Serena and Hannah winced.

"However, I will show you the way! Follow me!" he yelled, his wild side returning.

Serena glanced at Hannah, who was sitting sedately on the long grass. Hannah grinned at Serena and winked. "He's fairly harmless really, just a touch eccentric! You wait till I get going on him..." as they followed Sir Cadogan's clanking, she told Serena the story of Sirius Black and how she was nearly slashed by him! Then she told how Sir Cadogan had taken over the portraits. "The little dears were so pleased when I returned, you wouldn't believe it!"

Serena had loved the story, and so she told more, about the thousands of Gryffindors she had known. "It gets very lonely during the Summer holidays, but during the term time it's very interesting. You pick up a lot about everyone. There were those four boys, back when the password was... bullfrogs, and they kept sneaking out. This was their fifth year mind. One was that bloke who slashed me, Sirius Black remember. They were always playing pranks on that Slytherin, Snivellus they called him."

Fortunately Sir Cadogan stopped them before Hannah could get carried away. "Alright, the quest for us ends here, but your room is just ahead,"

"Thank you Hannah, Sir Cadogan. I'll see you one day, when I start my first year. Goodbye,"

"You are a very noble lady," replied Sir Cadogan.

As Serena hurried towards her room she heard Hannah speak to Sir Cadogan. "Now do you know the way back? I'm lost!"

Serena opened her door and went inside her room. The fire was still on, and she sat in front of it. She calmed the flames so that they were only glowing a little bit. There were still ten minutes before she had to leave, and so she took out the diary again and looked at it. However hard she looked at them the runes made no sense, therefore she returned to her bedroom for the final time, strapped on her new sword beneath her robes, and waited for her parents to arrive.

At one minute to eight Mr and Mrs Snape knocked and entered. Severus held the portkey, and Catherine held the bags. They said goodbye to Albus Dumbledore, who popped in to say 'Adios', and then touched the stick.

"Three, two, one," said Severus, they all felt tugs about their 'belly buttons' and wind whistled about them. They suddenly landed, Serena sprawling in a heap on the ground. Suddenly she puked up everywhere.

"Only portkey sickness," said Severus kindly. "I've got a potion for it at home, used to suffer from it myself."

As they headed towards their huge mansion, they chatted about Hogwarts and how everyone was already in the holiday mood at the start of the holidays. Serena was not in a holiday mood, she went to a Muggle school, not that she minded but the holidays were shorter. She felt very safe with the sword about her waist.

Her father and mother made her go to the Muggle school, where term finished on the twelfth of July, instead of the end of June.

"Two more weeks to go," moaned Serena, "and then I can go to Hogwarts!" she punched the air. Today Serena would be back at school with her best friend Jessica. Jessica was a Muggle, although Serena hoped she would only be a Muggle-born, and did not know about magic.

They were just finishing their Key Stage 2 SATs, (Standard Attainment Tests) which were tests the UK government made 10/11-year-olds do before they went to Secondary school. Serena knew that she would never need her SAT results. The Sorting Hat judged your house, not your marks from previous schools. However Serena expected to get all sixes. She was taking a separate test to see if she could achieve these high marks.

As they rounded the trees on the edge of the estate they stopped as one, and gasped. A huge Dark Mark, green and luminous, floated over the mansion. Serena stepped closer to her mother who held her tightly.

Severus put out a hand to hold them back. "I'll go in and see what has happened."

Serena stepped forward. "I'm coming too,"

"No!" said Severus quickly. "They might still be there."

"Then you shouldn't go!" said Catherine. "Let me go."

"It's me they want, not you. They'll leave me alone if I go."

"Be careful Dad," whispered Serena, and then she had an idea. Unbuckling the sword from her waist she held it out to her father.

"What is this?" he asked in amazement.

"The sword of Salazar Slytherin. It was revealed to me, and now I think you need it."

"But...?" said her father.

"Just go!" said Serena. "Be careful!"

"I will," he replied. "I will."

With a last tearful look at his wife and child, the Potions master of Hogwarts stepped towards the house.

Serena held her head in her hands. If she was unlucky then the Death Eaters would still be there, and they would kill her father. Then she would no longer have the sword.

She hoped that he would survive, and then maybe he would be able to translate those runes for her. Damn those Death Eaters, they made life a real pain to get through! Serena automatically headed towards their garden. Catherine did not bother stopping her.

Whenever she was sad, Serena would go to the small cemetery next to the garden. It was at the furthest point from the house, since the bodies buried there were those of the 'traitor Snapes'. Her father had not been considered a traitor Snape, just. His family had died when he was younger, killed by Aurors. This was Severus Snape's original reason for joining Voldemort.

Her father being an only child he had inherited the Snape mansion. If he died it would pass into the trust of Catherine until Serena was old enough to look after it. All three of them wanted to be buried next to those considered traitors, in that graveyard.

Serena found the old wooden bench she always sat on, and rested on it. From one fun day at her soon-to-be school her life had been turned upside-down. How she hated Death Eaters and especially Voldemort. She remembered the prophecy and smiled sagely. She felt into her pocket for the diary, and as she did so she prayed that her father would be all right.

In the large field behind their house a dog barked, and she heard an American voice calling to it. She grinned, even though she felt sad. Old Henry was out with a new pet, and he hadn't had a dog before.

"Radar! Radar! Fetch!"

He had called the dog Radar, which wasn't exactly surprising. When he had been a commander in a Mobile Army Surgical Hospital (MASH) in the Korean War there had been a corporal known as Radar due to his extraordinary perception, especially when the helicopters arrived. Henry also had a parrot called Hawkeye and a Persian cat called Hot-Lips. His other cat, a tabby who constantly flirted with the Persian, he called Frank.

Everyone from the 4077^th MASH thought that Henry had died in a tragic helicopter accident over the sea, because no survivors had been found. In fact he had been rescued by Korean wizards and now lived in England. He was the only Muggle in the area that knew Serena and the other Snapes were magical.

Serena looked towards the field. Radar was a large, golden Labrador, like a guide dog. He was running after a green tennis ball. Then Radar stopped as he glanced at the house, and suddenly he barked wildly. Serena felt, for some reason, that the dog could see the dark mark.

Then Radar began to run towards her, and the gate. He leapt clean over it in a bound and then headed towards the house. Despite herself Serena watched him, as he weaved down the hedged paths. He hesitated before emerging onto the real lawn, and slowed as he crossed it. Suddenly Serena saw in the distance, the old wooden door to the mansion opening slowly.

From behind the door her father emerged, hair over his face. The sword was bucked 'round his waist and he held something lumpy in his arms. Serena was alarmed. With tears of worry in her eyes, she dashed through the paths and as she emerged onto the lawn she saw what her father was holding, and why he had streaks down his cheeks. She too cried tears of pain and sadness. A body was lying in his arms, limp and utterly dead...