Snape's Daughter

"Well," said Severus, "then it would be a good idea if -"

But he was interrupted by two loud 'cracks' as two people apparated into the dining room. Katherine Snape and Remus Lupin.

*~*~*

Remus looked exhausted yet happy. Katherine was not so exhausted but just as pleased. Severus looked at the pair of them, rather embarrassed. Remus looked around him, at Serena, Tonks, Dung, and finally Snape. He raised his eyebrows at the potions master in amusement.

"I expect you must have been killing yourself not to tell me about Katherine," he said, nodding towards his sister, a grin spreading across his face. To his credit, Snape grinned back.

"Yeah, I was," he said. "Erm... I'm..."

Remus held up his hand to silence his old enemy. "You don't need to say anything," he said. "I know that it'll take a while to make up for... for everything really, but Kath says you're an alright guy really. And, you did marry her so that has to count for something." He began to look around the room again, until he spotted Serena again. Instead of moving on to Tonks and Dung again, he kept his gaze on her.

"And you must be Serena," he said. She blushed, and nodded, looking away from his searching stare.

"You have Kath's hair, but your dad's looks," he said. Serena groaned, fed up of every adult she knew mentioning this to her. Remus laughed. Severus simply shook his head in despair.

"Anyway," said Serena's father after a short pause. "Albus spoke to me last night. He would like to ask you to become Defence Against the Dark Arts professor this year, Katherine." Katherine blinked.

"Me?"

"Is there anyone else called Katherine in this room?"

"It's my middle name," said Serena, "but I'm too young, I think."

"What happened at the Ministry?" interrupted Tonks testily. "Wotcher and all that, but I think we'd like to know what happened."

"Well, it was like this..." began Remus

***Flashback***

Remus walked into the Leaky Cauldron, bag containing some items he needed in his left hand. He headed for the entrance to Muggle London as he needed to catch the Underground from Covent Garden to King's Cross, and from there, to Tufnell Green. As he was about to put his hand onto the doorknob, the door burst open, and three hooded figures entered, wands drawn.

Three more came in from the other side, and a final three apparated into the room. Several of the guests screamed, but Remus drew his wand and shot a stunning spell at the nearest one.

"Protego!" yelled the male Death Eater, and the red light was deflected into one of the poor customers. At the furthest table, two people in hooded cloaks were sitting, eating. At the disturbance, they stood up and drew their wands.

"Impedimenta!" both yelled, pointing their wands at different Death Eaters.

"Inverte Statim!" cried out Remus, battling against the one he had first attacked.

"Protego!" yelled the man, but too late. He was flipped over and landed upside-down on a table covered in food. The customers sitting in shock around the table screamed loudly, but only one had the sense to stun the man while he was weak. At the next table, a woman apparated away.

Plates, goblets, beer glasses and furniture went flying and smashed everywhere as the battle continued. Remus dodged curse after curse, and hex after hex. Suddenly, tiring a little, he allowed a stunner to hit him in his unprotected back.

Everything went black.

*~*~*

"Enervate!" barked a voice. Remus' eyes opened. An unfamiliar Auror stood over him.

"Name?" he growled, sounding rather like Moody.

"Remus Lupin," he said innocently.

"Hey, he's a Werewolf!" exclaimed another Auror nearby. Several people screamed and stepped away from him.

"What's your number?" said the first Auror.

"RJL0755GTH," said Remus, who with his Werewolf senses could easily remember such things. 'RJL' was his initials, followed by a random digit, followed by the year of the bite, followed by his age at the time, then finally the initials of the Werewolf who had bitten him.

"Very well, RJL0755GTH, you are under arrest, by order of Howard Atkinson, Auror Division. You have the right to remain silent, but anything you do or say will be taken down and used in evidence against you. Any questions?"

Remus shook his head, as they handcuffed him, and allowed them to take him to the Ministry. This was done by a complicated apparition charm, causing both charmer and charmed to vanish, and reappear together. They dragged him roughly down the stairs and threw him into a Ministry Holding Cell. The door was locked behind him.

"Do you have any family to defend you in court?" barked the Auror. Remus shook his head. His sister had vanished long ago. He had no idea where she was.

"Very well, then you will have to defend yourself. Under section 8, paragraph C of the Werewolf Restriction Act 1988, Werewolves are not allowed lawyers and cannot be defended by witnesses, only family members."

Remus knew this already, and didn't complain. He sat down on the wooden bench, the only means of rest he would get that night. There were no beds in Ministry Holding Cells. He rubbed his wrists, as the handcuffs had been tight.

After a short while, he stood up, and paced around. Three steps in one direction, three steps in the other. It had been the full moon on the previous night, and he did not feel well at all. Dizziness overcoming him, he sat down again. Running a worn hand over the bench, he felt something carved into it. Letters, a P, and another P. He could tell this without even looking, for his werewolf senses were still higher than usual.

For a moment, he did not realise what the letters meant, and then he stiffened. PP, Peter Pettigrew.

***Flashback End***

"Peter Pettigrew was in your cell?" exclaimed Tonks. Remus nodded. Severus was listening, but did not look interested. It was a practised expression, and one that he had used many times during his classes. Serena, nervous around her Uncle, was biting her lip. However, she was still enthralled.

"Of course, they'd shipped him off to Azkaban before I got there. But still, I could smell him on the air as well. I hadn't at first, because I had just been arrested and wasn't paying attention to that sort of thing. I wonder what he was doing, hanging around Diagon Alley, anyway."

"Probably waiting to kidnap someone," said Katherine, pointedly.

"Why would he...? What?" exclaimed Remus, realising what Katherine meant. "Who?"

Severus groaned. Couldn't that man every understand anything? Wasn't it obvious who had been almost kidnapped? Who in this room was in danger of such things?

"Isn't it obvious, Lupin?" he snapped, coming to the end of his tether.

"Severus..." said his wife, warningly. However, both men ignored her.

"Isn't what obvious, Snape?" said the usually mild man in reply.

"Can we just... get on with... with the story...?" asked Tonks, hesitantly.

"No!" said Severus and Remus together. The attempted truce from a few minutes ago had vanished completely.

"Tell him, Serena," said her father. "Tell him who was almost kidnapped."

"I was," she said, quietly. She was unused to seeing her father like this, but then again she was unused to seeing her father most of the year. She looked, in a puzzled fashion, at her mother. Katherine seemed to be resigned to the argument; her eyes closed as if trying to shut it all out. Her father and uncle were shouting again, as she crept over to her mother.

"Are you alright, Mum?" asked Serena, in a concerned tone.

"Let's go to the kitchen, and get away from those idiots," she said, in a falsely cheerful voice, but quietly. Tonks and Dung, who were sitting nearby, stood up with them, and they made their way to the door.

"Where are you going?" growled Snape menacingly. Serena flinched; her father had never acted in this way before to her. Frightened, she inched closer to her mother.

"Snivellus, I'm warning you..." said Remus, a slight grin on his face.

"Don't call me Snivellus!" yelled Snape, drawing his wand. "You always did take advantage of those weaker than you, you and that git Black!"

Remus reeled from the shock of those words. Katherine gasped. Severus seemed to realise what he had just said, and a terrified look came over his face. Arms and legs shaking from released anger, he sank into the nearest chair. Serena took a hesitant step towards him, as if afraid that he would start yelling again, then she ran over to him, and flung her arms around his neck.

"Dad, are you alright?" she asked, echoing her previous words to her mum. He hugged her tightly back, brushing her honey-coloured hair behind her ears lovingly.

"I'm fine now," he said. "You can let go of me."

Serena did so, and Severus stood up. He didn't look at Remus as he muttered a short apology. Remus shrugged. He had been prepared to accept his sister's explanation that his ex-enemy had changed, but now he was not so sure.

"Lets... go and have lunch..." said Tonks hesitatingly into the silence.

*~*~*

They ate in silence. Along one side of the small table were Serena and her parents. Serena was between her mother and father. Along the other side were Tonks, Remus and Dung. Remus was at the far corner from Severus, and Tonks was between Remus and Dung.

Serena could sense her father's mood; he seemed to be angry with Remus again, most likely because he had not cared about the apology. Looking sideways, she saw that her mother was also tense. She did not really know which side to support; she didn't really know her father that well, as she had not seen him apart from in the holidays; her uncle she didn't know either, yet he seemed to have a kinder face. In her mind, she attempted to convince herself that this was because her father spent all his time pretending to be a cruel guy, yet somehow it didn't work. She was a Snape though, and her father was always kind to her.

She chewed thoughtfully on a slice of bread, thinking. Her thoughts often wandered, and at this current moment in time they had focused on her pen pal, Simone. Simone was about to start her first year at Beauxbatons and so did not know her house.

There are four houses at Beauxbatons: Lautrec, Charlemagne, Failleurs, and Rochefort. Those in Lautrec are artistic, and dedicated to their work. Some prefer painting, others to play music. Those in Charlemagne are protective of others, and fierce when faced with danger. Those in Failleurs are compassionate for others, and wish to unite everyone under a single banner. Those in Rochefort are wise, and good at learning. Serena often compared the four Beauxbatons houses to Hufflepuff, Gryffindor, Slytherin and Ravenclaw respectively. She thought that the Slytherin trait of ambition was similar to the Failleurs trait of wishing to bring their fellow men together.

Serena had not read Simone's latest letter to her, because she had been too busy with the other things. She would have to tell her French friend about everything. Both girls wrote in their own languages, and then used a translation spell on the letters.

As soon as she had finished eating, she excused herself and went up to her new bedroom to read the letter. She had replied to her last letter before going to the Quidditch at Hogwarts, and Simone had replied this morning.

Dear Serena,

It is always nice to receive a letter from you. Our term ends soon, like yours, and so I am still at school. However, we will be finished soon. I like to go to a Muggle school, but cannot wait for Beauxbatons.

Maman says that I cannot visit you this holiday, but hopefully I can come at Christmas. You will be at Hogwarts then, and I would like to see your school and your friends if you stay there. I am still hoping that my friend will be a Muggle-born, and so we can be at Beauxbatons together. Some strange things have happened when she is around, and not because of me!

Papa says that I will be in either Lautrec or Failleurs. My brother Marlon was, as you know, in Charlemagne, but I do not think that I will be. I promised you last time that I would send you a photograph of Pruet, but the camera was not working properly. I hope that I can get one to you soon. As you know he speaks English, and he is teaching me some! I want to understand you when I visit!

Simone R Niege

Serena grinned, and folded up the letter. Then, she went over to her new desk and sat down. She pulled some parchment towards her, and then stood up again. She went over to her shelves, and took down a bottle of Standard Quill TM Blue Ink. Then she went back to her desk and sat down. She put the ink in the ink holder, and dipped her quill into it. Then she began to write, telling Simone of everything that had happened to her over the past couple of days. She began from the Quidditch match at Hogwarts, deciding to try and keep the tone light.

Dear Simone,

Thanks for your last letter! It was really interesting. I'm not actually at school any more. My dad took my out of it early, and I'll tell you why. It all started during the Quidditch match at Hogwarts...

Serena had a little trouble trying to keep to the light-hearted tone. 'How do you talk about your House-Elf dying in a light-hearted manner?' she wondered. After struggling with the wording, and filling up the bin with several balls of parchment, she threw down her quill in a fuss. She placed her head in her hands and closed her eyes. The events of the last three days, from the first to the tird of June, had been tormenting for her. So much had happened in such a short time, and it was too much for the eleven-year-old girl. She had experienced both death and shocking family revelations in an extremely short space of time. Her father had changed from a friendly man to an angry one, and there had been the Death Eater attacks too. All her presumptions of the world had been turned upside-down.

A tear ran down her cheek, and fell onto the desk in front of her. Serena sniffed loudly, but did not get up to wipe her eyes. She blinked them several times and then closed them again. Almost without noticing, she began to fall asleep, exhausted.