Secret Life (as Severus Snape's Daughter) - English

Chapter 1: Spinner's End

Lily-Anne ran through the barely lighted street, late in the evening. Many of the street lanterns were already broken, and the few that were left did not really light her path, so she was lucky she knew the way by heart. Her black dress floated above the rough brick road, her cloak was floating even higher and the cap on her head hid her face completely. She turned a corner, while looking back, a little frightened that they were very close behind. She had seen them sneaking around, moving toward Spinner's End, that was something she knew for sure. She turned another corner and now faced a row of houses, with behind it a large factory. The moon shone brightly, but can hardly get through the smoke and mist covering the houses and the street. It gave the entire place a gloomy look, but she had gotten so used to it, that she didn't see it anymore. She made a quick turn towards the house on her right, her destination, and knocked on the door, looking back one last time and then stares up at the moon again, behind all the smoke. Her head turned back to the door and she knocked again, louder this time, hoping that the people who were approaching did not hear it. There was nobody else who would hear it, since all the surrounding houses were empty and they had been empty ever since Lily-Anne could remember. They were all covered with ivy and weeds and almost all the windows were broken. Then a face appeared in the windows in the door. A face without emotion, with a crooked nose and black, greasy hair that framed his face, almost invisible due to the dark hall behind him. After a few seconds Severus Snape opened the door, his eyes suddenly worried when he saw Lily-Anne, panting on his doorstep like she had been running for hours.

'Lily-Anne, what happened?'

Her father's looks screamed for an answer, but Lily-Anne wouldn't answer before she was inside, so she softly, yet compelling, pushed her father aside and walked through the hall to the living room. She turned around, took the hood of her cloak of her head and looked her father in the eyes for the first time since he opened the door, through a couple of loose strings of hair in front of her eyes.

'They are coming, like He predicted, they are coming now!'

Severus was still standing in the doorway connecting the living room to the hall and looked at his daughter without showing emotion, but when she looked deeply into his eyes, she saw the gratitude he was hiding. He moved into the living room, passed Lily-Anne and walked towards a bookcase behind the sofa, he opened it with a wave of his wand and the stairs to the first floor appeared. He stepped on the lowest step and shouts:

'WORMTAIL, COME HERE, NOW!'

Lily-Anne, who had followed her father's movement with her eyes, now looked at her father with a shocked expression. He never raised his voice, but this apparently was the exception. She heard the ruffling of footsteps and not long after that a little man appeared at the top of the stairs, a little hunched over and clearly frightened by the shouting of Severus. He slowly came down and stopped in front of Severus, who was a lot taller than the man and looks at him with a haughty look in his eyes.

'Y....you....you...c...c...called...sir.'

Wormtail was shaking from head to toe, which Lily-Anne didn't find strange, since her father shouted so loud.

'Yes, I want you to open the door for our guests.'

Did he really need to shout that loud for that? Lily-Anne was a little surprised by that, but she didn't have long to think about it, since she soon heard knocking on the front door. She ran towards the stairs, accidentally bumping into Wormtail, who nearly fell over because of the force. She turned around and looked at her father, who completely understood why she did what she did. Then his face darkens again, he grabbed Wormtail by the collar and pushed him towards the door to the hall. After regaining his balance, Wormtail disappeared, followed in every move by an angry looking Severus and a worried looking Lily-Anne, who felt a little sorry for the man. She didn't know him that well and she didn't understand why her father had to be so cruel to him ever since he moved in with them at the beginning of the summer. Severus turned around, his face changed completely and with a softer look in his eyes he pushed the bookcase back in its place, hiding Lily-Anne behind it on the stairs, then he sat down in his chair and took up the Evening Prophet, like he had been in that position all night.