Silvanna Snape {Marauders}

Chapter Ninety-Seven

Pretty sure all my regular readers are used to this by now :)

Silvanna still hadn't quite settled with the whole Marlene thing. Something about it was still bothering her, and she just couldn't put her finger on it. But for now, she had bigger, more important things to worry about.

For one, Gobstones. But that was the least of her worries, despite it taking up so much time. Second, OWLs. In one month. Luckily though, it was the Easter holidays, so she had two weeks to catch up on everything and make sure she did plenty of revision and spell practice.

Unfortunately, the two weeks flew by, and soon enough everyone was back at Hogwarts. And that was when it happened. The very first breakfast back.

Attacks on muggleborns and halfbloods had littered the Daily Prophet all year, alongside what the Ministry was actually doing about it. Which, in fairness to them, was quite a bit. There had also been the attack on Mary, which hadn't made the papers at all. Today's front page changed Silvanna's life forever.

Silvanna unfurled her Prophet as soon as it landed in front of her, and the image on the front made her stomach twist and squeeze. "Lily," she said quickly, grabbing her attention. "Lily, it's Cokeworth."

"What?" demanded Lily. "What's Cokeworth?" She pulled a copy towards her, turning pale. "Is that-?"

"Spinner's End," Silvanna finished, looking again at the picture of her street.

"What's Spinner's End?" asked Peter quietly.

"That's - uh - that's where I live," said Silvanna, pulling her eyes through the words. Please, please don't be anyone I know.

"...not thought to be the work of the Death Eaters," read Lily. "That's good surely-?" But now whispers were echoing around the hall, and several teachers were having panicked conversations. Dumbledore left the room, eyes following him out. "Severus is leaving," Lily said. Silvanna looked up, and saw that he was, escorted by Slughorn. "Silvanna, why is Severus leaving?"

"I don't know, Lily!" she snapped, returning to the paper.

"Incoming," called James as McGonagall neared them.

"Oh, Silvanna," said Lily pitifully, looking up from her copy. Sirius and Remus snatched it from her. Silvanna saw what she meant.

...In the early hours of this morning, the body of pureblood witch, Eileen Snape (née Prince), was found in the river Trent, near Cokeworth. Reports from the Auror Department state that she was intoxicated at the time of death, and the cause of death was suffocation by drowning. More on page seven.

"Snape," came McGonagall's voice, neutral and unwavering. "Could you follow me, please?"

"I'm fine," said Silvanna, though her throat was dry. She placed her shaking hands flat on the table, and her eyes found Remus's. His were searching her, trying to read her.

"Regardless, I need to discuss this with you," said McGonagall. "And the Great Hall is hardly the place to do it."

"I don't care. I'm okay." She wasn't okay. She just didn't believe it.

"Come on." James was at her shoulder, his hand gripping her arm tightly as she pulled her to her feet. "Come on." She followed as James dragged her along behind McGonagall. She was aware of people watching her, but she didn't take much note of it. She didn't care about it.

"Thank you, Potter, I can take it from here," said McGonagall, once they were safely out of view and round the corner.

"Right you are," said James, unusually serious. He clapped Silvanna on the shoulder. "See you in a bit?" She nodded, feeling small.

McGonagall took over the steering, and Silvanna didn't pay any attention. Her mum was dead. Her mum was dead. She'd never see her mum again, because she was dead. She wasn't coming back. Her mum was dead.

"Sit down, please, Silvanna." She looked up and saw she was in Dumbledore's office. There were four chairs across from his desk, and her brother and Professor Slughorn filled two of them. McGonagall led her to the one next to Severus, and sat in the one next to her. "I would like to begin by apologising for the way you had to find out about your mother. I have spoken to both the Daily Prophet, and the Ministry, to ensure this doesn't happen again.

"The Ministry have assured me they are doing a full investigation as to what happened to your mother-"

"She wasn't drunk," Silvanna interrupted. "Our mum didn't drink, so she wasn't drunk."

"Thank you, Silvanna, I will let them know," said Dumbledore kindly. "Do you have any suggestions as to what might have happened? Any letters?"

"It was probably our dad," she said, her mouth doing the thinking for her head. "He hit her. He probably killed her."

"Shut up, Silvanna," murmured Severus.

"It's true."

"I see," said Dumbledore, making a small note. "And has your father ever been violent or aggressive towards either of you?"

"Yeah."

"No."

"Yeah, he did," said Silvanna. "Every time we've said we fell out a tree he'd actually hit us." McGonagall placed a light hand in her shoulder. Silvanna felt a swell of gratitude.

"Stop it," snapped Severus, turning to her. "She's lying!"

"I'm not!" she retorted. "Mum died for this and I'm not going the same way."

"You're being very brave, Silvanna," said Dumbledore sincerely.

"She was drunk!" said Severus, ignoring Dumbledore. "She was drunk and she fell in the river."

"Mum didn't drink!" she screamed at him.

"So maybe it was just too much for her!" Severus shouted, tears in his eyes. "Maybe she finally gave in after all these years of being left alone with him."

"Densaugie!" cried Silvanna, and a spell burst from her wand tip. Before she could fully see the effects of her spell, McGonagall had taken her arm and the pair swept from the room and down the spiralling steps. Within minutes Silvanna found herself instead in McGonagall's office. "Sorry," she mumbled, staring into her lap as a few fat tears fell.

"Don't apologise for defending your honesty," said McGonagall. "Well done for telling us, Silvanna. We can help you now." Silvanna didn't respond, just sniffed her tears back. She just sat and sniffed and wondered what on earth would happen now.