Snivellus

11

Darah awoke the next day, tired and exhausted. The exact opposite of how she should have been feeling.

She got up and put on her clothes. Everything she owned was still extremely unorganised from school and fishing through her bags to find clothes bothered her even more.

She headed downstairs into the dim, dark kitchen where breakfast awaited her.

'Still not letting the light in, father?' She questioned him as he walked into the kitchen from the living room.

'You know the rules.' He clarified simply.

'May as well live in a dungeon.' She spoke back sarcastically.

'I already do.' Snape corrected with a hint of sass and with that he swept back into the other room.

Darah ate her breakfast in peace as Snape decided not to sit with her. He was constantly working and always kept busy with any little task. This time he was focused on restoring hope to the house and by that all he was doing was chucking out old books and junk.

Darah finished up her food and walked through to the living room. 'Has it always been this dusty?' Darah asked Snape whilst inspecting all the nooks and crannies.

'No.' Snape said simply, still rushing around the room picking up different things and putting them back down again.
'Don't you have homework to do?' He coaxed stubbornly.

'Not much.' Darah shrugged back uncaring. She was more bothered about her father and wanted to spend time with him, she'd gone so long in Hogwarts not even being able to acknowledge him, let alone having a father daughter relationship.

Snape turned to look her in the eyes. 'I'm going out later. I expect you to have done your homework before I am back.' He spoke sternly.

'Yes, father.' She mocked and thumped upstairs, upset and somewhat angry.

Her room was small, barely bigger than a wardrobe. Her bed took up half the room, the other half was occupied with strewn out clothes and her old schoolbooks. She stared down at the mess and sighed. She looked at her wand, placed lonelily on her bedside table.

She tiptoed in and out of the clothes on the floor and retrieved her wand. Ebony, unicorn hair, 10 and a half inches. She remembered the words Ollivander had said to her in Diagon Alley that day.

'Scourgify.' She pointed her wand at the floor and everything swept up into one neat pile on the centre of the room.
'Ugh, come on!' Darah complained, agitated.
'Scourgify.' She spoke more powerfully this time. The pile wobbled but nothing happened.

'Hm.' Snape had appeared at the door, he stood judgingly.
'Scourgify.' He pointed his wand at the pile, everything flew into its rightful place. Clothes hung themselves up in the wardrobe, books made a neat pile underneath the bed, organised into subjects. Spare bags and random objects made their way onto shelves and storage compartments.
'Practice that Darah. You cannot fall behind.' He then left just as mysterious as he had come.

Darah grunted. 'Maybe I wouldn't be behind if I had been allowed to practice magic before.' She chided under her breath.

An hour later, Snape had left for Diagon Alley, supposedly running an errand at Gringotts Bank.

Darah took this opportunity to look around the house. She was looking for something in particular, her father's old school books. She wasn't sure if she'd find them, maybe they didn't even exist anymore.

She looked in her fathers room first. Cautiously, she moved around the room, it was only slightly bigger than her own; curtesy of the tiny house they lived in.

His bed was situated in the middle, a lone window above. The atmosphere was moody and purple, it smelt like must, partially from the abandonment from the past year but also from the scent that Snape carried with him.

She opened up the dresser, it was stiff and antique. In the first drawer she saw some old photos of herself with Snape. She picked them up and sat down on the bed.

She went through them, all the dates were written on the back in cursive. Then she came across a photo, it had her father and another woman stood facing him. Her face was hidden by the angle the photo was taken at but you could see her dress so clearly. It was white and silky, similar to a wedding dress. Her hair was long and a beautiful ginger colour, it traveled down her back, blowing in the wind. Snape was young in this photo, perhaps around eighteen or nineteen, the woman appeared a similar age.

Darah stared at the photo for a while but decided to put it back after turning it over to reveal a blank area on the other side.

She decided to leave the room, careful incase Snape came back and she still hadn't done her homework.