A Time of Understandings

Disclaimer: JKR—rich, famous and powerful. Punisher—broke, existence practically unknown and busted. Need I say more? I do? Fine: This story is based on characters and situations created and owned by JK Rowling, various publishers including but not limited to Bloomsbury Books, Scholastic Books and Raincoast Books, and Warner Bros., Inc. No money is being made and no copyright or trademark infringement is intended.

A Time of Understandings
By Punisher

--The Daughter--

Severus stared at his daughter. His daughter stared back.

“What—,” Severus tried, raising his eyebrows. His daughter raised her … well, she would have raised her eyebrows too if she had any to rise. “Damn.”

Six days had passed since Severus received the letter that informed him of his ex-wife’s death by a rival clan attack and his daughter’s miraculous survival. As the only surviving member of her family, he had come here to take his daughter to England. It had taken him three days to get a passport, and two days to make the necessary arrangements and precautions. Several members of the Ministry of Magic, and Professor Flitwick, were probably send to St. Mungo’s to recover their nerves after Severus was finished with them.

Severus had hoped things would get easier once he came to his daughter’s mother country, but his hopes had been in vain. He had obliviated three muggle policemen who thought he was some foreign drug dealer on his way to the temple, and he spend almost a half an hour convincing the terrified priests he wasn’t some professional killer who came to assassinate the poor girl under their care. He had thought even his hopes of seeing the familiar face his daughter had been smashed when he was greeted by who appeared to be a young female Buddhist monk with no eyebrows. Severus looked at his daughter’s bald head morosely.

“Here.” He handed over the hair-growth potion his daughter had requested. His daughter—Lasair—received it with silent gratitude.

“I presume,” said Severus dryly. “Temple rules had forced you to let the priest shave off your hair and eyebrows.”

Lasair nodded her head once while dropping some potion on her hand. Then she proceeded to rub the potion on where her eyebrows had been. Severus sighed with relief when the eyebrows grew back. “Don’t dunk the whole thing on you head,” he warned automatically when he saw her uncapping the vial.

“Mm,” Lasair answered noncommittally. Nonetheless she dropped large dollops of potion on her palm and applied it on her head. In a few seconds, her black hair grew long enough to reach her shoulders. It was a pleasing change from the abbreviated bob she had for the past three years, Severus decided.

Lasair looked at Severus.

There was an awkward silence.

“What did you managed to salvage before you … left?” he asked at last.

Lasair avoided his glance. “What you can see.”

“What?!” exclaimed Severus. All he could see was two three feet long slender objects covered in sadly worn silk sacks, a smaller and narrower silk pouch containing a similar but smaller object on her left waist, a large bulging muggle duffle bag on her shoulders, and the gray priest robes she was wearing.

“I didn’t have much time,” mumbled Lasair helplessly. “Mother … told me to take these” —she gestured the three silk covered objects— “and run. I did.”

Severus pinched the bridge of his nose. This was going to be difficult. “It doesn’t matter. You did what you must.” A pause. “We can buy things on the way. In fact, it’ll be best you start from scratch since you’ll be living in Magical England with me.”

Lasair blinked. “Oh…” That was all Lasair said about the matter—it wasn’t encouraging.

Severus sighed. He consciously tried to keep his frustration out of it. He told himself that he had to be patient. Lasair had lost her mother only six days ago. No matter how much of a she-pirate his ex-wife had been to everyone, she was still Lasair’s mother. Lasair loved her, and in her own twisted way, his ex-wife must have lover her back. And considering the nature of the way Lasair lost her mother, it was going to take her a long time to recover from the lost.

“Anything you want to do before we leave?” tried Severus again. “Any farewells you want to make?”

Lasair shivered. “I bade my farewells … a few days ago.” She sounded as though she was afraid to speak, Severus noticed. “It’s not safe to stay here long.” She pointed out.

Severus stopped another sigh. “Very well, we’ll leave now.”

---oo00oo---

“I want you to marry me.”

Twenty year old Severus Snape stared at the woman before him.

“But we hardly know each other,” said Severus, frowning. “In fact, I only met you once before.”

The woman’s lips curled up in amusement. “You talk as if your kind do not practice arranged marriages even in this ‘modern era’.”

Severus said nothing. The woman—the cold, ruthless woman—laughed mirthlessly.

“Surely your family demands you to ‘settle down’ and produce children,” continued the woman. “I regret to say my family agrees with yours. Though I have no problem with the idea of producing children—in fact I rather like the idea—but unhappily,” she waved her hands around, “to produce children it is necessary for me to enlist the aid of a husband, God having so ordered the creation.”

Severus still refused to say anything. He wasn’t sure if he could say anything sensible in this woman’s overwhelming presence.

“I want you to be that husband, Severus Snape.”

He glared at the woman.

“What makes you think I will agree to this … arrangement?”

The woman’s lips curled again. Severus could see her teeth. He couldn’t say they were vampire-like, but there was something very … non-human about them.

“Because,” she drawled, interrupting Severus’ internal thoughts. “My father will tell your father that he found you very much to his likening, thus agreed to your proposal of marriage. He will offer to pay a dowry that will incidentally cover all of your family debts your elder brothers created after their unfortunate business venture and much more.”

Severus stiffened. “How did you …?”

The woman smiled. “You may ask, but I will not tell you.” She paused. “Of course, your family misfortune might not be much of your concern. Just for you to know: I am planning to speak with the Headmaster of St. Petersburg Institute of Potions to vouch that your Death Eater status shouldn’t effect your enrolment in the college.”

Severus knew by then he had no way out. How this woman got to know things no Auror in the ministry found out, even after confessing his past to Dumbledore, he had no clue. But one thing was clear—he had to keep an eye on this woman, even if it meant he had to marry her.

But there was one thing he wanted to know.

“Your logic, though not flawless, is eminently persuasive,” said Severus. “But I wonder why you chose me, when with your considerable … charms … you might have found someone who is more aesthetically pleasing.”

The woman laughed again. Severus decided he hated that sound with a passion.

“I don’t care much about aesthetics,” she said, still chuckling. “And I often find men who are pleasing to look at intolerable to talk with.”

She grinned at him wolfishly.

“I like intelligent men, Severus, and I like honest men even better.”

---oo00oo---

“If there’s anything you want to do or buy before we leave to England, don’t hesitate to ask.” Severus said as he took Lasair’s muggle duffle bag, sniffing at it with disapproval.

Lasair looked up at Severus’ towering figure. She was always on the short side, perpetually stuck at five foot three since age twelve, and Severus was a good six feet in height.

“~But wouldn’t it make our luggage unnecessarily heavy?~” she asked in her native tongue.

Severus snorted. “I can perform a weight reduction and shrinking spell Charm quite well, thank you very much.”

Lasair blinked. She blinked again when her father muttered some Latin jargon and made her bag the size of a walnut. “Oh…” she stammered.

“Merlin’s beard,” muttered Severus, stuffing the shrunken bag into his into his inner pocket. “What ghastly incompetent is teaching you wizardry?”

The jumble of English words just flew over Lasair’s head. “What?”

“What—fool—is—teaching—you—wizardry?” enunciated Severus.

“Oh … It’s Teacher Inokichi Yoshihara and he isn’t dumb,” said Lasair defensively, now speaking in English as requested. “I just didn’t know you can perform a size reduction charm on multiple objects at once.”

“Is that so?” said Severus, slightly surprised. “But I thought your Charms curriculum was faster than that of Hogwarts. This is a fifth year topic—from the rate your classes are going, it’s about time you learned about this.”

Her father's speech stop making sense to Lasair somewhere around 'Charms curriculum,' but she shrugged nonetheless. “Well, we didn’t learn about it yet.”

Severus grunted. “No matter; you’ll learn it soon enough.”

After Severus shrunk all of the pitiful looking items Lasair’s had, they went to thank the Head monk and the other priests. Severus made a point to put a great deal of money in the offering box, which turned the priests’ terrified looks into broad smiles. Having done what was necessary, Severus steered Lasair out of the temple with his arm draped around her shoulder.

Lasair savored the rare occasion of her father making physical contact with her. Everyone knew her father wasn’t a touchy-feely type, and the only other occasion she could remember Severus draping his arm around her shoulders like this was when she had sobbed into his robes after receiving a particularly savage tongue lashing from her mother at age five. He never offered comforting words of course, but these little awkward gestures always assured her that Severus cared about her.

“Where are we going?” asked Lasair.

“Your school,” answered Severus tersely. “I have to get your transcript.”

“Oh…”

They walked down a rocky mountain path to enter civilization. Severus had always complained about these paths, grumbling that they were too steep and dangerous. But as most Buddhist temples in her country were located in remote mountains for historical and religious reasons, it couldn’t be helped. Usually, Severus would enjoy the forest life of these mountains, breathing air which heavily smelled of Pines and Cyprus all year around. This time, he didn’t even spare a glance at the trees around them. He focus was solely on their current secondary destination—her school.

It took a good thirty minutes for the two of them to climb down the mountain. Severus had not spoken a word throughout the walk, but kept his hand resting Lasair’s shoulder to give her some measure of comfort. The hand had tightened its grip when the smell of burnt wood reached their nostrils and Lasair noticed the flakes of plaster floating around the air—unwanted reminders of the carnage that had took place only about a week ago.

Once they were on the base of the mountain and by a local road, Severus hailed a taxi cab always conveniently loitering around such remote places.

“~To Yisang high school,~” Severus snapped in Lasair's mother language. The taxi driver, after taking the expected double-take at Severus’ ability to speak in his native tongue, eyed her father suspiciously before complying without a word.

“Do I still look like a mafia gang member?” grumbled Severus, now in English. He was wearing black mourning suit and tie, with matching shoes and socks. That, with his black shoulder-length greasy hair and vampire-like face, he did look like a high ranking criminal from Chicago.

Therefore Lasair snorted. “~Papa, with hair like that, what did you expect?~”

The taxi cab swiveled wildly in several directions as the driver lost control of the steering wheel. There were several screeches of tires as the cars around them tried to avoid the taxi, and the severely shocked taxi driver received the collective curses of numerous other individuals who passed by while alternatively shaking their fists or making rude gestures.

“Are you trying to kill us all?!” snarled Severus, further traumatizing the poor driver with his tone and use of English. “If this is a representation of your heinous driving skills, you shall find yourself invariably unemployed once I speak to your taxi company managers!!”

Lasair stifled a giggle when the cabdriver smacked his head against the steering wheel in a dramatic fashion, thus inadvertently hooting the horn. After taking several calming breathes, the taxi driver drove through the roads with speeds that skirted the boundaries of legality and safety guidelines. Once they arrived to their destination, and Severus and Lasair were pushed out of the cab, the taxi driver drove off in cloud of dust and dirt, not even accepting his fee.

“He’s going to call the police, you know,” muttered Lasair sardonically. There was hardly any summer Severus wasn’t almost arrested by the local police.

Severus just sneered. “Let him.”

Lasair just shook her head. Perhaps her father’s confidence wasn’t unfounded. He was wizarding Guinness Book record holder who obliviated more than half the police population of her country in a mere span of two weeks after all.

She just hoped nobody got themselves hexed during her father’s stay.

---oo00oo---

They say it was miracle Lasair’s mother managed to find anyone who would agree to marry her, and an even greater miracle she managed to have Lasair.

But as it was, her mother found Severus Snape; a man known to be just as cold and ruthless as her mother. They married, but everyone who knew about the match also knew it wasn’t going to last long. They even say people put bets to how long it their marriage was going to last. Everyone thought it would last a year, give or take.

The marriage lasted two years—ending just one month after Lasair was born. A great deal of people lost a lot of money because they never thought it would last THAT long.

In her later years, Lasair learned that her mother told the marital court judge that she wanted to divorce her father because he couldn’t give her more children and they had ‘irresolvable conflict in personalities.’ You-Ra, Lasair’s nanny, had told Lasair that her mother didn’t need a reason to divorce her father, though it was true her mother couldn’t have anymore children after giving birth to Lasair.

The divorce was settled within a week, and Lasair’s mother took Lasair back to her native country. Her father could only come and visit her once a year because the Judges. At first, the Judges didn’t even allow that, but someone stopped them. Nobody told her why the judges didn’t want her father to visit her, but then, no one was allowed to tell her.

For a long time Lasair thought most mothers and fathers didn’t live with each other. She knew all children had two parents, certainly, but it didn’t occur to her for a long time that children usually lived with both parents, forming a family.

Then one day, when she was about three years old, she saw one of the neighborhood boys returning from county fair, his left hand in his mother’s hand, and his right hand in his father’s. They came back to his home like that, and they were smiling and laughing at each other. When her mother came back after a three month absence, she had asked her why her father didn’t live with them.

Her mother didn’t answer the question, but just slapped her in the face. Lasair never asked that question again.

Lasair could hardly remember anything about her childhood, but she remembered always being alone. She always envied the others. What does a mother’s embrace feel like …?

She had dared not asked her mother to hug her. She did ask her father once, and Severus, after staring at her for a very long time, awkwardly held her in his arms for a very short while. Lasair remembered loving the warmth she felt from his body, the smell of fresh herbs and ozone from his black robe. She wanted to feel it again, but her father had looked so uncomfortable … so she never asked.

Lasair never had many friends. Most children didn’t like her because she was too quiet. The others, those who didn’t mind her being quiet, couldn’t stay long because their parents would come and drag them away, scolding them.

They would say she was bad luck.

They would say she was cursed.

Yes, that was what they called her: Lasair, the cursed girl.

She couldn’t understand what they meant by that, but it had hurt. She didn’t do anything to them … and all she wanted to do was play with them. But why did they avoid her …?

Usually, Lasair would just watch other children play. She never showed herself at daytime, as some children would throw stones at her, and some old men would chase her away, swinging their long pipes threateningly. When that happened she would cry. Sometimes she would cry all night.

Her mother hated crying. If she caught Lasair crying for whatever reason, she would yell at her, whipping her mercilessly.

People of her clan never cried, she said. They never, ever cried.

She couldn’t understand why crying was so bad, but since she didn’t want to get into trouble, she started avoid crying at all costs.

By the time she was accepted to Yisang Primary School, she no longer cried.

But when she stopped crying, the few friends she had started to avoid her …

---oo00oo---

Severus steered Lasair into a secluded alleyway, making a quick scan to make sure no one was watching them. Having assured their privacy, Severus cast a disillusionment charm on her. This charm didn’t make her invisible, but encouraged people to think she wasn’t there. The spell had varying effects on people trained in magic, but guaranteed to work with muggles. Lasair took this as a precautionary measure of her father to make sure he would be alerted of anyone magical in close proximity.

“You know what to do,” muttered Severus, tucking his wand in his pocket.

Lasair nodded. “I will not say a word and follow you least anyone accuses you to be insane as well as criminally inclined.”

Huffing to show his disdain towards her pitiful attempt at humour, Severus marched towards the school gates. Her school hadn’t changed one bit since his visit from last year—the same old ugly cement boxes that were the school buildings, a multi-purpose dirt ground that was less than a hundred meters across, and meager plant life around the borders of the school. The insides of school buildings themselves weren’t any roomier than an average six story building, yet it schooled more than twelve hundred students in total. Most of the said students were Lasair’s soon-to-be-former muggle classmates, and were scattering before the annual walking terror that was Severus Snape.

Her father was making his way through the miniature courtyard, snarling at any hapless students who were unfortunate enough to meet his eye. After sneering at what her fellow classmates called ‘the garden of Eden’—a mere sixteen square-feet patch of earth where a various assortment of hideous petunias and wilting marigolds grew—he picked this year’s student victim.

“~You there!~” called Severus.

The poor student—a mid-first year (a second year for British people)—stood shock-still.

“~Where is the teachers’ office?~”

Cowed, the student (“victim” muttered Lasair) pointed a shaky finger at the general direction of the teacher’s office in the main building.

Severus made a show to look displeased.

“~I want directions, not pointing fingers.~” he snapped irritably.

The poor student victim garbled his apology with tears in his eyes. After regaining some form of control with his emotions, the poor student made wild gestures that told Severus to follow him. Then the boy scampered towards main building, opened the doors for Severus, and positively ran towards the office front door. There he bowed deeply a multiple of times before running away, wailing on the top his lungs.

“~You are a very evil man.~” declared Lasair quietly.

Severus, who looked as satisfied as the proverbial cat that ate the proverbial bird, shrugged philosophically. Seeing her father’s utterly unrepentant and decidedly childish air, Lasair sighed. Every year it was the same: despite the fact Severus knew perfectly well where the location of the teachers’ office, he would always select a poor student to, er, ask where the office was. She could swear blind Severus terrorized his own students in a similar manner.

Lasair didn’t even twitch when Severus opened the office door with a resounding ‘BOOM.’ A terrified silence befell the office as her father swept inside as if he owned it, glaring at every teacher he passed by. He stopped in front of her homeroom teacher’s desk and proceeded to look down at the current owner. Lasair's poor homeroom teacher—a woman about the same age as her father—visibly cringed.

“~Hello, Teacher Chu,~” said Severus silkily. “~A word if you please?~”

Teacher Chu didn’t have any other options. She gestured Severus to sit down.

Severus did not sit. “~Due to various circumstances I have regained custody to my daughter. Therefore she will be transferring to school in my own country. I’m here to request her transcript.~”

Her teacher’s eyes widened at the terse request. Immediately she stood up and told him that if that was the case, he should meet with the Principle of the school. Severus didn’t even blink at this curious (for Lasair) statement, and proceeded to march towards the Principle’s office.

Severus knocked the wooden door of the Principle’s office. The Principle—Teacher Lee—opened the door at once. Teacher Lee was an elderly man in his mid sixties, only a year away from retirement. He wore like all Principles did in her country—in a somber suit and tie, all clothes a bit careworn and dusty; his short hair white as snow and face full of aged wrinkles. The only feature that had distinguished Teacher Lee from most Headmasters and Principles was the indefinable aura of power and wisdom he always emitted.

Teacher Lee and ushered both Severus and Lasair into his office. Lasair stared at the elderly Principle, who gave her a benign smile. Even after three years of attending Yisang middle school, she never realized Teacher Lee was a sorcerer.

“~I have everything ready,~” said Teacher Lee, even forgoing the customary greetings. He picked up a thick manila envelope on his desk. “~Everything you would need is in here—her transcript, faculty recommendations, and health records. I have placed notary seals on all of them myself.~”

“~Thank you,~” said Severus, really sounding like it. He received the envelope with both hands, as it was polite here, and tucked it under his left arm.

“~Leave this country quickly,~” warned Principle Lee. “~Don’t let them get her. And Please, teach her well.~”

Severus’ eyes glittered strangely. “~I’ll do my best.~”

They shook hands.

For a while they just stood there, staring at each other.

“Ah…” breathed out Teacher Lee. He hurried out from behind his desk, rushed towards Lasair and seized her hand with tears in his eyes.

“~It has been an honor for me to live long enough to see you enter this school and oversee your schooling.~”

Lasair didn’t know what to say. Like most of her peers—magic and muggle—she had only known Teacher Lee by sight and name. She wasn’t a brilliant student either—far from it—and not popular or otherwise noticeable enough to be remembered by teachers who haven’t instructed her. But from the look of it, Teacher Lee must have kept a close eye on her.

“~May heaven go with you child,~” said Teacher Lee intensely. “~And don’t forget our country. No matter where you go, no matter how faraway you are, this is the land of your roots. Never forget that.~”

Lasair swallowed. She didn’t know what to make of the desperate look in Teacher Lee’s face, but she nodded nonetheless.

Suddenly Teacher Lee let go of her hands.

“~They have come.~”

The wrinkled benign face of Teacher Lee became serious and alert, his face paler than usual. Severus pulled Lasair towards him, tucking her under his right arm. Lasair clutched his jacket instinctively.

“~Get out of here! Now!!~” shouted Teacher Lee as the walls started to tremor. “~They are breaking school wards!~”

Severus pulled out a large marble from his inner pocket. Before Lasair realized what it was, he roared: “Transportio!”

And the jerk around her navel, the anguished and yet resigned face of Teacher Lee, and the sound of the windows shattering were the last things Lasair witnessed before the portkey activated.

---oo00oo---

Lasair was actually looking forward to going back home today.

She had received her report card and her results were good. She was third in her ban! Perhaps that would be enough to please her mother. And it was her father's birthday in a few days … the timing couldn’t be more perfect.

It was late in the evening and sun was setting, burning the west sky red. She thought it was curious the sky above the forest flickered, like the air above a heated pavement in midsummer.

As she got closer, she smelt of burning wood.

Lasair started running towards her ancient home, worried that a forest fire might have broken up.

But when she got near the first gate, she realized it wasn’t the forest that was on fire, but her home. The only home she knew was burning … and not just building, but people who lived with her. The children, women, clansmen, the priests … they were all dead, their flesh being eaten up by fire.

She stepped back, shocked, staring at the carnage that must have took place several hours before.

Then someone staggered out of the flames.

It was her mother.

Her mother was a mess. She was drenched with blood and her face smeared with black ash. But that wasn’t what made Lasair almost scream. It was her mother’s eyes, which were smothering with demonic fire. And its color was red—burning red.

They’re eyes met.

Before Lasair could do or say anything, her mother made an expression she never witnessed in that cold, unemotional contenance—that of fear.

“~You … must run … Lasair! Go!~”

But Lasair was rooted on the spot.

Black figures started to come out of the fire, shouting.

“~She’s here!~”

Her mother spun around. She quickly pushed Lasair to the ground, and to figures she roared:

“~You will not take this child!!~”

There was a blinding flash of light.

When Lasair opened her eyes again, all that was left of her mother was a statue of black ash.

When Lasair later reflected it, the strange thing about the black statue was that its shape was that of a small dragon crouching protectively over her.

---oo00oo---

Wind and color rushed passed Lasair as the Portkey took her and Severus elsewhere. During the short period of time, she wondered if the people who broke down the school wards were the same people who attacked her mother and burned down her home. She also wondered if her old school was safe, and whether Teacher Lee would be unharmed by the attackers.

She also wondered whether she would ever come back home.