Being His Daughter CONTINUED

Forbidden Forest

 I walked through the familiar Forbidden Forest again, staring around dreamily. That's when a rational thought popped into my head, Why am I here?

I gasped suddenly and looked around. "Father?" The only sound that could be heard for a second was the calm wind. And then I heard it: the rustling of leaves. I turned towards the sound and my father, in all his pale glory, stepped out from the darkness and opened his arms invitingly. I ran towards him and pressed myself against him in a hug. He smoothed down my hair and squeezed me lightly before I pulled away.

"Hello, my dear," he said, smiling down at me.

"Hey, father. Am I dreaming again?" Deep in my mind I already knew I was, but I felt like asking was necessary.

"Yes," he answered calmly. "I need to tell you some new information."

"What is it?"

"Well first of all, I want to congratulate you on your mission with Potter. You have made excellent progress since the beginning of the year and I can tell he really trusts you."

My cheeks heated up. I was glad he hadn't figured out that I actually was starting to care about Harry and Ron and everyone else. It had been months since the troll accident. Christmas had even passed by already. I knew it was wrong and when it came time for him to die, it would hurt. But what did I expect? To hang around with them and not get attached? "Thank you." My father looked a bit suspicious, so I quickly added, "It's been a lot of work, hanging around with that scum."

He smiled and continued, "Yes, I can imagine. Well now the information I needed to tell you: Currently inside of Hogwarts right now, they are keeping the Sorcerers Stone, the Elixir of Life. I will use it to get back to power. Recently I have started feeding on unicorns, drinking their blood. But that can only do so much for me."

"Is Professor Snape going to help you?" I questioned. "He's still a loyal Death Eater from what I've heard. Is that right?"

"Severus is loyal to me, yes. But he cannot assist me in getting to the stone as he is pretending to be loyal to Dumbledore. Quirrel is the one who will be assisting me." I nodded my head, holding back from asking my father another question about Snape I was curious about. It was about him not saying anything to me this entire year. Surely he would've known I was his daughter? Or maybe he just didn't want to be too suspicious...

"Well, that's great!" I exclaimed. "I get my father back!"

Suddenly my fathers face fell and with a gasp, I realize what I said. His cold, hard look was fixed on me as I quickly said, "You know what I meant, you've always been there. I just mean-- I get my father back with a...real body."

He nodded his head once. "Yes, yes, I understand. Anyway, there are a lot of precautions that stand in our way to the stone. For one, the enormous hell-hound that is guarding the entrance. It belongs to that half-breed, Hagrid. Our plan is to intoxicate him with Butterbeer and get him to tell us how to get past the beast. We're also going to bribe him with a dragon egg."

"A dragon egg?" I gasped. "That's brilliant!"

Father smiled. "Yes I know, I got the idea when you were speaking to the Weasley about the oafs love for them. You associate with him too, then?"

"Well, I-- I've been hanging around with H- Potter and his friends a lot, as you already know and they hang around a lot with him." Plus he's actually really cool, I wanted to add but knew it wasn't smart. I was thankful that he wasn't reading my mind at that moment. Father raised his eyebrows at my slight slip up but ignored it for the most part. I cleared my throat awkwardly. "So what am I supposed to do?"