Where Dark Meets The Light

Chapter 6: Just a Normal Day

Jennifer awoke to the familiar sight of her bedroom at Severus' quarters.

She was quite confused at how she had ended up there. There were flashes of the interrogation room at the ministry, the tent at the second task, and more, but there were massive gaps in the memory.

She vaguely recalled writing a letter to... Neville? Well, she wrote to someone, that's for sure. The mess that was her desk indicated that at least that part of her memory was right. She couldn't remember what she'd written.

Like, at all.

Why was she here?

It was still during a school week, so there was really no good reason for her to be there.

She stumbled her way towards the kitchen here she heard soft music coming from. She stopped dead though when she entered the living room.

There were bright pink flags hanging up, proudly proclaiming 'It's a girl!'.

...

Did Severus get a lady pregnant or something?

Merlin, she hoped not. She wasn't sure she could survive having another sibling. The one she currently had was plenty, thank you. She had no need for any more accidental murder attempts by siblings, Charlie managed that just fine on his own.

She recognized the spellwork as professor Flitwick's. Whatever the hell was going on, she was going to find out.

There was a cake on the table, also proclaiming 'it's a girl'.

Oh hell no.

Please, Merlin, no more siblings.

So, in the true peak of her social interactions, the first thing she asks when she encounters Severus is, "Please tell me I'm not getting any siblings. PLEASE."

Severus blinks, looks at the flags, and actually laughs.

"I have become a father, Jennifer." Oh, Merlin NO.

He taps on a document in front of her, and she freezes.

They're adoption papers.

HER adoption papers.

She gently fingers the name at the bottom of the page.

Jennifer Snape

That's... that's her name now. She stares at it dumbly for a second. Then she looks at Severus, who actually looks nervous for the first time since she's met the man.

"These- these are real." She states.

He nods. "Approved by the minister himself. Effective immediately."

She starts nodding, "For real?" She asks quietly.

"Yes."

She points weakly at the flags hanging behind her. "I'm a girl. I'm your daughter now?"

She sounds so small that Severus wishes he'd hexed Potter with the nastiest hexes he knew anyways. But then again, then they would probably not be here now.

"If you'll have me." He offers.

He almost drops the frying pan he's holding when she effortlessly jumps over the kitchen counter and hugs him so tightly he thinks he might not be able to breathe.

He finds he doesn't mind one bit.

After a few moments, they separate and all she can ask is "How?"

He looks her in the eye, "They gave you up. They gave you up to save their own arses."  Severus sounds very bitter about it, but it came as no surprise to either of them that they had done that. They'd done it before the most recent fiasco, after all.