Chapter Text
On the dark and chilly night of October twenty-eighth, a young man with dark robes stood in his master’s family home with a blank face. Severus Snape was at home reading 'Magical Drafts and Potions' when his dark mark started burning intensely. He quickly apparated over to the Riddle House, a old manor house covered in ivy. With a large sigh, he knocked on the large dark wooden office door, clearing his mind of any important thoughts when his master called him inside.
“You called me, Lord Voldemort," the long, blacked hair male said as he bowed his head to the man with ruby red eyes.
With a creepy smirk, the Lord answered, "Severus Snape, my most trusted ally. What a pleasure to see you."
Severus keep a cool face, his hands clasped in front of him. Lord Voldemort stood watching for a second before continuing.
"You are young man, twenty, I presume," Lord Voldemort gave Severus a quick look over. "You live a quiet life, with no plans for any children?"
"No, my Lord."
That brought a slimy smile to the fifty-year-old man, one that gave Severus a sense of dread.
"I have a special task for you, Severus."
The lord walked over to a busted box that sat at the side of his desk, his prized pet curled around it. He pick up a bundle of dark cloth that was loosely wrapped around something, passing it to the young man. It was fairly large and heavy, Severus had to cradled it was an arm as he brought a shaky hand to unravel the cloth. From the shape, he could already tell what he was holding but the innocent face of a sleeping child proved he was correct.
“A child?” he forced out of his mouth. Why would his lord give him a child?
He glanced at the older man before keeping his black eyes on the infant. He could see wisps of copper hair peeking out from beneath the cloth.
“A powerful one. She’s from a long line of powerful wizards. Ones who changed the world. A child who is prophesied to help with a great cause. Hopefully she can prove herself with all the pure-bloods.”
Severus stiffen a little when the baby moved her head to the side, now touching his side. From the way his master talked, it seemed like the child was a…
“A Haft blood?”
He stared at Voldemort as the man sneered, “Indeed, but she has great potential in her.”
Nodding, the long haired man shifted his arms for a more comfortable position. It seemed like he had no choice in the matter.
“How old is she?” Severus asked, seeing as the girl was small. He did not want to bottle feed her.
The baby let out a whimper, but no man looked at her. They both simply did not care.
“She turns one in two days. Now get out of my sight. I plan to check up once in awhile to see how things are processing.”
Severus bowed before walking out and apparating back home. He glanced down to see the wide eyes of the baby girl that was now in his care. She looked confused, but did not cry. Yet. As he stared at her, the more he realized how much she looked like someone he knew with her copper red hair and green-blue eyes.
“How am I going to take care of you?”
A whole year passed of Severus taking care of the girl, mostly his house elf the first couple months, and he grew to love her like his own, but he knew she was just going to grow up to be a tool for the Dark Lord. She was barley allowed outside the house unless it was Voldemort demanding to see her, her skin pale with no chance of sunlight. The young man was growing more frighten for the girl when she showed her first case of accidental magic a month before she turned two.
Severus was working on a potion when his house elf, Dime, popped into his lab.
“Master Snape, the young mistress has escaped. She-she walked through the wall! Dime tried to find her!” the young house elf wailed, throwing back her head. The dark eyed male quicky got up after finishing the last bit of his potion.
“Led me to where you last saw her.”
The elf led him out of the basement to see the toddler crawling backwards down the stairs.
“Mistress!” Dime popped near the tiny human, holding her to their best abilities. “Dime was so worried you would get hurt!”
The red-head girl squirmed in Dime’s hold as Severus walked up to the two. He picked up the child with tinkling eyes. She smiled at him, grabbing his hooked nose.
“It seems like you are as powerful as my lord said you were," he whispered before frowning, setting her down on the wooden floor.
But the next week, Severus overheard Voldemort was planning to kill the Potter child because of the prophecy he told his master. Knowing that Lily would do anything to save her child, the tall pale male burst into the room his master was in, begging him not to kill Lily Potter. The dark lord sneered at his servant before pulling out his wand.
“You have no right to tell me what to do, Haft-blood,” he hissed out. With a flick of his wand and a hissy breath, a beam of red light hit the floor near Severus’s feet. “But since you have done me a great deed taking care of my weapon, I will not kill Lily Potter if she cooperates.” Lord Voldemort smirks before waving his free hand. The younger male knew that Lily was so headstrong so she would surlily die for her child. “Now get out of my sight before I change my mind.”
Severus quickly left, not seeing the shorter male in the back corner of the room. When he was back home, he told Dime to get him a glass of Firewhisky and plop himself on the black leather couch. He let out a long sigh and rubbed the bridge of his hooked nose. The house elf popped back with the glass of firewhisky, handing it to him.
“Would that be all, master Severus?”
“Bring the child to me too.”
The young man took a sip of his drink as Dime popped away. What now? Severus tried to think of ways he could save Lily, but she wouldn’t trust him if he tried. With a pop, Dime appeared with the tiny child who was wearing a black dress.
“Here is the tiny mistress.”
The child in speaking looked up at the man in black and giggled, lifting her arms up to be held.
“You may go, Dime.”
He picked up the tiny red head and placed her on his lap. The house elf bowed as the child waved her hand and disappeared. He stared at the tiny human in his lap knowing she would grow up to be a mindless weapon for the dark lord, but he couldn’t see her killing people when she smiled like that.
How was he going to protect Lily and the child he had grown to love? Suddenly he got an idea, why hadn’t he thought of it before? The man that could protect the two red heads he loved was the only man Voldemort feared.
He grabbed his wand and the child before apparating to the large castle, the wizarding school called Hogwarts. The wards pushed him right outside the gates and he waited, knowing it warned the head of the houses and headmaster of an intruder. The tiny child in his arms started crying in the sudden change in weather, only wearing a dress and a nappy in the cold.
Quickly, he put a warming charm on the child and himself, wrapping her in his cloak and bobbing her up and down. Soon, she stopped crying his eyes out, resting her head on his shoulder.
“In all my years, I never thought I would see Severus Snape calming down a child.”
Severus looked up quickly so see an old professor of his pointing her wand at him with a stone-hard face.
“I need to speak to Dumbledore, it’s important," he drawled out, holding the child closer when she glanced down at her. But she didn’t move, still pointing her wand at him.
“How do I know you’re not up to something? You join the Deatheaters as soon as you graduated Hogwarts and now you have a child with you?”
The long haired male covered the child with his arms when the middle-aged woman tightens her grip on her wand.
“Because I regret it, the dark lord plans to kill one person I care about and use the other one as a weapon. Dumbledore is the only person who could possibly save them. McGonagall, please.”
Never had Minerva heard Severus say please, the boy had always been filled with anger and sarcasm. Lowering her wand, she glared at him.
“Very well then, but any wrong movement and I’ll call the Auror.”
He nodded and followed his old professor as she led him inside the castle. Luckily, it was pass curfew, so no students saw their professor led a deatheater to their headmaster’s office as he was holding a child. What an odd sight that would be. Soon, both of them were in front of the door and Minerva knocked rather loudly, waking the child in Severus arms.
“Enter.”
With a push of a door, the black eyed male was inside with the child wide awake, looking around with wide eyes. Severus glanced around the room to see trinkets of all shapes and sizes filling the shelves. Painting of hundreds of old Headmasters lined the walls and ceiling. The old headmaster was sitting behind his desk, not looking surprised to see the male but when he eyes landed on the tiny girl, his smile wavered.
“It seems like the intruder was Snape and-”
The head of the Gryffindor house was interrupted by a tiny voice.
“Bird!”
The red head was pointing her tiny finger at the phoenix who was perching next to Dumbledore’s desk with a smile. The grand bird was watching the girl with fiery eyes. Everyone stared at the child who had now noticed the two new people staring at her. With jerky movements, she grabbed Severus’s cloak and covered her head.
“And who do we have here?”
Severus sneered but answered with a thick voice.
“This is my daughter, Katherine.”
Knowing he had just named the child; he grew more attached to her than ever. As the saying goes, you will grow attached if you name it. With a smile, Dumbledore looked at the tiny red head poking her head out from under the cloak.
“She looks nothing like you, Snape. I never imagined you having a child,” Minerva spoke as Katherine held the man’s clothes in a death grip, her big eyes watching the two strangers.
It was true though, while Severus had black hair and eyes, the little girl had dark red hair and green-blue eyes. Their only similarities were the pale skin.
“She isn’t my child by blood and if I tell you why, you must promise me you won’t take her away” Severus held his child close while the other two looked at him with wide eyes. After a minute, Dumbledore spoke first with a smile.
“We promise, child.”
And with a shaky breath, the young male told them the story.
“Katherine was given to me by the dark lord almost a year ago. He wanted me to raise her to be a weapon to him since she had a powerful core and comes from a long line of powerful wizards.” Minerva let in a sharp breath, looking at the child with wide eyes. “I did try to find out who her parents were, but they are either dead or disappeared. But even so, I don’t think I could give her up so easily. I have grown vary fond of her.”
Both stared at him as his voice trailed off and his cheeks turned pink. It was a tense silence before the older woman spoke.
“Well, I guess you can raise her, but I suggest we find out who her parents are by a blood test.”
Severus grew paler and shook his head.
“That will give a dead give away to the dark lord that I have betrayed him," he hissed out, holding Katherine closer. "I can’t let him find out, he will surely kill me. I still have one more thing to tell you and plan to help.”
Minerva nodded, goblins are the only creatures that can do a blood test and they would sell someone out for ten knuts.
Dumbledore had a twinkle in his eye as he spoke slowly, “You plan to be a spy?” The man in question nodded, prying the tiny hands from his long hair.
“I overheard the prophecy about the child born to defeat the dark lord and told him. If I knew the child was the potter kid, I would have never told him and now he plans to kill them.”
The middle-aged woman frowned and glared at the young man in front of her while the old man waved his hand.
“The Potter’s are perfectly fine; they are already hidden in a safe location,” said Dumbledore.
Severus sneered at the man.
“I think you are wrong, if he can kidnap a baby without anyone looking for her then he can find out where Potter’s are. He has his ways.”
The old bat didn’t know what he was talking about, this is a power crazy lord who kills his own followers, but Dumbledore just brushed by Severus’s worries.
“Only one person knows where they are, and I don’t think he’ll say anything.”
And with that, he sent the man and his child off.
Three more weeks passed when Severus heard the news that Lord Voldemort knew where the Potter’s were and then ten more hours when he heard the new about the death of Lily and James Potter. Who knew a little boy could defeat the great dark lord and survive the killing curse and leave with only a scar. When the man got his Daily Prophet November first of nineteen eighty one, he saw how young the boy was. Harry Potter was only nine months younger than Katherine.
Severus Snape swore to protect his daughter for the rest of his life; she was the only thing left for him.
