Snape and Lily's daughter

Memories

Severus closed his eyes. Grace started to cry again. When she looked at her father again, she realized that the deep bite caused by Nagini had closed. Her father's body was slowly being healed by the liquid she had given him. Severus opened his eyes again, and Grace helped him sit up.

"B-but, how...?" Grace was at a loss for words.

"I'm a Potions Master, Dear." Severus said, stroking his daughter's face. "It takes a little more than a snake attack to defeat me."

"Did you know all this time that he would do this?" Grace asked quietly.

"Yes. He would need to kill me to be the real owner of the wand, and technically he managed that, but the potion you made me take was a recent invention of mine." he explained.

Grace was now sitting next to her father, with her head resting on his shoulder.

"Have you created a potion to resurrect people?" Grace asked, open-mouthed.

"No, honey, not exactly..." Severus said, looking at his daughter, who was staring at him curiously as she waited for him to continue. "It only works in cases like mine, seconds after someone dies, depending on the cause of death, of course, the potion will work."

"And what did you give Harry?"

"My memories. Your brother needed to know the whole truth. And I think you do too."

Before he told his side of the story, the two gave a long, tight hug.

"I want you to know that I would never side with the Death Eaters, I would never ally myself with them. It was all arranged by Dumbledore. All this time I was a double agent."

He looked into his daughter's green eyes, which reminded him so much of his beloved.

"I want you to know that I haven't always been a good person, as I am with you. I am not proud of many things that I have done. I met your mother when I was only nine years old, the Evans family lived on the same street as me. As soon as I met Lily I knew she was a witch. When we went to Hogwarts was when I met James, Harry's father, and from the first moment we hated each other."

Grace listened to everything very carefully, never taking her green eyes off her father's dark brown ones.

"I think Potter and I had something in common from the beginning, Lily, your mother, we both liked her. My first four years at Hogwarts would not have been the same if it hadn't been for the friendship with your mother. In Slytherin I had very few friends, Narcissa was the only one actually, and even then we were not that close because of the age difference. Your mother was always loyal to me, but I regret that I was not always loyal to her. James and his friends were always picking on me and other students at school, and since he was always around Lily, even though she didn't like him at the time, I was increasingly irritated by this. I allied myself with people who are nowadays Death Eaters, and I can say with absolute certainty that this was the second biggest mistake I ever made in my life. Because the first one was seeing Lily walk away from me for it, it was a day when I was foaming with rage, and Potter was picking on me, your mother went to defend me, and I ended up taking my anger out on her. I called her a mud-blood. There is no greater regret than that."

Was Severus crying? Grace had never seen this before. They were both crying.

"What made her forgive you?" Grace asked, her voice trembling from crying.

"I can say that it was not an easy thing. After that day she never spoke to me again, she wouldn't even look at me at school. But I never gave up on your mom. I, being shy and already suffering at the hands of Potter and his friends, didn't want to cause any trouble by trying to call Lily to talk, especially since she was sticking to James. I sent her letters every week, all apologizing, asking for her forgiveness. I never knew if she opened any of them. But then one day she spoke to me again. She had been dating Potter for some time. We had gone on vacation, and when I returned home I received the news that my mother had passed away. Since the Evanses knew about my father's background, they invited me to their home. Lily spoke to me again that day. And I couldn't hold back, I cried like I had never cried in front of her before, because only with her did I feel comfortable being vulnerable like that."

Grace sobbed.

"School was over. She and James stayed together. Lily and I became friends again. Until one day your mother knocked on my door, saying that James had asked her to marry him, on this day your mother confessed that she loved me, loved me more than a friend. Lily said that even though she felt that marrying Potter was the right thing to do, she told me to trust her."

Grace smiled as she listened to her parents' story.

"Until one day Harry was born, on that day my hope of finally having Lily disappeared. Only one night, Harry must have been about three months old, your mother appeared again. She told me that she had built up the courage to do as her heart told her. That's when you came along, dear. You may not have been conceived and brought into the world in the best of environments, at the best of times, but be assured that you were always very welcomed and loved. Your mother never loved anyone as much as she loved you and Harry, and for that she had to make some difficult decisions. She promised me that if the war was over, she would separate from James and we would be together, but it never happened... You were born, and you came to live with me. Lily always visited, of course. I never told you this, but who helped me most with all this, especially when Lily couldn't because of Harry and James, was Narcissa. I had never taken care of a child before, let alone a newborn, but Narcissa was there when I needed her."

Grace held her father's hand.

"I even suggested her as your godmother to Lily, but as I expected, your mother obviously didn't accept. I think that if it wasn't for all that happened Minerva would have been your godmother. In the end, when I found out about Lily's death I was devastated, the only thing that kept me going here, kept me living, kept me smiling, was you. So I went to Dumbledore and he gave me the job as Potions Master, from that moment on I promised to stand by him and the Order. You know, at first I couldn't stand it when I had to leave you with the Tonks during the school year, Sirius, Andromeda's cousin, had a strong influence on that. But I am very relieved and happy to see that you could always have other people to call family besides me."

Again the two embraced, a strong and tight hug.

"I-I need to go..." Grace said.

"Potter now needs to sort things out for himself. But I think you can help the others in the castle, I'm sure they need someone." he told her.

Grace gave her father one last hug, and Severus kissed her forehead.