snape's daughter, harry's sister

grim events and grimmauld place.

May 1995

"Where's my brother?" Haley crouched next to Cedric. Everyone was cheering for their Triwizard champion, no one noticing that Harry hadn't returned with the Hufflepuff.

"I don't know," he stuttered, still shaking from what he'd just witnessed. "We took the cup together and were transported to a graveyard," he explained. Haley, his father, and the headmaster were all listening intently. "Harry started clutching his head...like he was in pain," Cedric thought back. "He told me to get back to the cup," he shook his head, his face masked with guilt. "I thought he was right behind me."

"The cup is a portkey?" Haley eyed the trophy, feeling nauseous.

"It appears that way," Amos concurred when no one else did.

"We have to find him," she told Dumbledore, fearing the worst.

"Severus..."

"What?" both students questioned the headmaster.

Suddenly, Haley and Albus were no longer kneeling before the maze with Cedric and his father. Within seconds, the girl recognized their new location to be just before the Hogwarts entrance gates.

"I don't understand..." Haley trailed off, confused for so many reasons. "Apparation isn't possible here...Cedric said something about a graveyard...and what about Harry?" her mind was racing.

"Listen carefully," Albus stood before her, leveling their eyes. "Your father was summoned this night," he began, aware that she would know what it meant. "Voldemort has yet to learn of his disloyalty," the headmaster explained, "so we thought it safe enough for this to be his last meeting."

"He wasn't supposed to go at all!" Haley snapped out of her bewildered state.

"Given the circumstances, it appeared best that Severus attend-"

"So, you already had your suspicions?" her eyes narrowed. "And yet you allowed for Harry and the others, for that matter, to carry on regardless?"

"We could not be certain," Dumbledore reminded her, "and you know of the contract, Miss Snape."

Just then, a loud 'swoosh' sound came from the opposite side of the gates.

Peering closer through the darkness, the two were relieved to find that it had been Severus and Harry making their way towards them.

"He's back," Haley's brother cried upon reaching her.

"I arrived late," the professor confessed. "I couldn't stop it," he looked both ashamed and utterly out of breath.

"Voldemort's back," Harry wept into his sister's shoulder, not caring to hear Severus' excuse.

"Shh, it's okay," Haley stroked his hair comfortingly. "It's okay, Harry, you're safe now," she soothed, beginning to calm him.

"Does he know?" Albus asked, referring to the potions master betrayal of the Dark Lord.

The man in question merely nodded.

...

"When were you planning to tell me?"

Haley, Harry, and Severus were all sitting within the professor's quarters. Only two days remained prior to the summer holidays when Harry began demanding answers.

"We didn't think it was important," Haley spoke first. "He gave up being a deatheater years ago in order to protect us," she told him, vying for Harry to see the good in this rather than focus on the bad.

"Why did you become one in the first place?" he asked Severus, unsure of how he should take her comment.

"I was young," he started, "and prone to making mistakes. I hadn't been thinking rationally at the time."