The Traitors Daughter (Completed)

Chapter Three

Severus was not aware of how long he had been sat in Dumbledore's office for until the man himself spoke.

"Considering you have been sat here since lunchtime Severus and it is the end of the day I suggest you go and get your chambers ready to host Miss Warren. I have already spoken the House Elves, they will be ready for your instruction in an hour or so time so you have full control over where her room goes and what goes inside it. Please try and make the room comfortable for her, I would hate for you to make it worse for yourself."

"Should I send her in?" Severus didn't fully understand how long he had been sat in the Headmasters office for. Severus got up and headed towards the door, his robes billowing out behind him.

"Severus I highly doubt she is still stood there. She left within twenty minutes I believe but you have been sat here for more than four hours. No student would have stayed that long!" Albus just laughed, clearing realised just how out of it Severus must be because all the teachers knew that if you send Lilliana Warren out of the room she wouldn't stay put for long.

"That insolent little girl," Severus thought to himself but at the same time he wasn't surprised. He had never been able to send her out of the room when she was being disruptive because she wouldn't stay there, she would just go off and explore or cause more trouble. He did however think that she would be a bit more respectful towards the Headmaster of the school but again he wasn't surprised in the slightest.

Shaking his head to clear his thoughts, he strode down the corridor towards his office. Dinner was soon he noted after a quick tempus, but he, unlike some, did follow the instructions of the Headmaster and so against his best wishes he set about creating a room for a twelve year old girl.

It was not until he was leaving to head to the Great hall for dinner that he noticed the crumpled piece of paper that lay on the floor next to his classroom door. He had finished the young girls room to the best of his ability with the help of the house elves, who seemed to know a rather large amount of knowledge about his soon to be ward. She would be able to change it when she moved in but he was rather proud of himself. He had ended up in his classroom marking papers until it was time for him to go and eat dinner.

He hesitantly picked up the paper, you couldn't be too cautious when living in a boarding school with notorious prankers, there could be all sorts of spells, potions or diseases on it. He turned the paper over in his fingers and became very alarmed at the writing scrawled across it.

"to whom ever this may reach, girl in shrieking shack, let professor know"

Now Severus would admit to anyone, his first thought was to dismiss this piece of paper as a joke, memories flashed before his eyes from his childhood and being lured into the Whomping Willow by the marauders. But he was an adult now, a teacher, a guardian to these students whilst they were away from home and unfortunately that meant that he was under obligation o go and check out the situation anyway. He did in the end decide to send a patronus to Albus letting him know what was going on just in case it was more serious than a joke. Not a second after watching his doe patronus run off down the corridor did he take himself in the direction of the whomping willow and immobilising like Lilliana had done hours before.

Its safe to say, if this note ended up being a joke he would be incredibly angry. But these thought immediately diminished when he noticed the small girl who was passed out of the floor, clearly slumped. He deduced that meant she had actually passed out standing up. Using a spell he was able to determine that she passed out due to fear, which would make sense considering the look of terror on her face. Unfortunately the spell wasn't good enough to show who or what had scared her so bad. He would have to wait until she woke up.

Taking out his wand he levitated the girl up, letting out an annoyed groan when he saw her face. Of course it was her he thought to himself. Groaning again he made his way towards the infirmary where he was sure Madame Pomphrey would be waiting for him. Normally the Head of Houses were qualified to check on children after they have fainted but seeing as she had been outside for a long number of hours it was probably best for a licenced Medi witch to look over her. He also knew that as her now guardian, he had an obligation to take her to seek medical attention in a scenario like this. He was glad that dinner had just begun because it meant he didn't have to pass anyone in the corridors, nor explain how Lilliana had ended up in this position.

Opening the doors to the infirmary he didn't see Poppy anywhere and assumed she was in her office so he shouted for her. She ran out of the office and gasped at the sight of Severus laying Lilliana down on the bed. "What happened Severus, where did you find her?"

"I don't know what happened to her Poppy, I found her in the Shrieking shack. I used the praeteritum opus spell and it showed her screaming and being utterly terrified of something which caused her to pass out. I only knew she was there because someone left a note under my door. Im going to have it analysed and sent to my contact at the ministry to see if it matches anything."

It was at this moment that Albus Dumbledore decided to make his presence known.

"You think it was Sirius Black?"

"I don't know Albus, but he is on the loose. And even though I highly doubt he would have alerted us to the presence of someone in a forbidden area I wouldn't put it past him. We can never be too sure whilst he still an escapee."

"Tell me exactly what happened." Albus asked. Severus sighed, he had already told the story, he didn't like saying it again.

"I found a note on the floor in my classroom telling me that there was a girl unconscious in the Shrieking shack. When I arrived at the shack I found that the note was indeed telling the truth, I performed the praeteritum opus spell and brought her straight to Poppy."

"Well, its safe to say she wont be visiting the shack any time soon!" Albus joked.

Severus just glared at him. He wasn't a fan of the child but even he knew when and where was the time for a joke and this wasn't the right time. Especially when you have a psychopath on the loose.

"I believe you are right however with your diagnosis Severus, however we will know more when Madame Pomphrey has completed her scans. When she wakes and is allowed to leave the infirmary she will move in with you straight away. She will probably need the recovery time away from her peers." Albus continued before leaving the room with one soft glance back at Lilliana, silently wishing she was okay.