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

Chapter 17: The Dark Lord

A week later Lily-Anne is alone. Fred had come over as much as he could, but not for the past two days. Hiding his evening visits from his twin brother and also trying to conceal the location while running a store together was proving more difficult than the Weasley had anticipated. They had talked about telling George, but  had quickly agreed that that was the worst idea. Fred would write again when he was coming over, and every other day, because he wanted to make sure that Lily-Anne was alright. She smiled with every letter Destiny brought in, with the raven being the metaphorical centre of attention for both of them. With her Ancient Runes book in her hands, Lily-Anne writes down a Potion from one of her father's old books, and from now on her method for learning to brew more and more difficult Potions. Aside from being the only way she could read the recipe, it was also good practice for her Ancient Runes classes, which she in turn had only taken up in order to be able to read the old recipes. Fred had laughed in her face when she had said that and her memory of it made her smile again.

'You're completely insane Reves. If I didn't know better I'd say you were a Snape, you're just as obsessed with Potions.'

A knock on the door jostles her out of her head. Nobody was coming tonight, Lily-Anne was sure of that. But when she heard someone definitely knocking on her front door, she got up eventually. She heard the rain lightly tap the window, it seemed to always be raining on Spinner's End, making the already dismal and abandoned street seem even more bleak. Most of the time it wasn't even rain, but just the soot coming down from the factory chimneys and all the other chimneys that were not really in use anymore but somehow always decided to rain down their ashes on the cobblestones below, staining them black, making them shine like coal in the moonlight. Her heels tap on the wooden floors as she enters the hall and unbolts the door. She turns her key, which was sticking out of the lock and opens the door just enough to look outside. But then she immediately opens the door completely, seeing who was standing on her doorstep. With a hood covering most of his face he would not be recognisable instantly, but once he had noticed the door opening and turned towards it, the white face of Lord Voldemort could be seen. Lily-Anne, not afraid of the man, takes a moment before she steps back and lightly bows as the Dark Lord enters the hall.

'My lord, to what do I owe this honour.'

Lock up your memories, but only those that can make you seem less of a Deatheater. Her father's words buzzed through her mind, but Lily-Anne dismissed them within a second, together with all her memories of Fred and Harry as her brother. The Dark Lord looks up as he sees Lily-Anne's bow.

'Rise.'

Lily-Anne follows his order, given in a sly whisper. She closes and bolts the door again and follows the man with red snake like eyes into the living room. When she closes the door to the hall as well and turns around, she quickly has to stop herself from getting angry. The Dark Lord had taken his position, sitting in a chair that had never been sat on by anyone else but Severus Snape. Lily-Anne takes a deep breath, trying her best to hide it from the man who was sitting in front of her, observing her, scrutinizing her, not blinking at all. Lily-Anne, not losing sight of He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named, as she makes her way to the couch and sits down. Then she notices the snake that had also come in with her master. Nagini was slithering around the feet of the Dark Lord, who held out his hand so that she could pass her cold body underneath it, feigning a stroke of the master.

'I have come here to inform you on the future and your role in it.'

Lily-Anne nods curtly. She was like her father in some ways, this was one of them. Show no emotion, show nothing of how you actually feel. The Dark Lord, still trying to get through all Lily-Anne's memories and emotions, always on the look-out for a small spark of disloyalty, releases his hand from the snake and sits up straighter.