Disclaimer: It's JK's playground, I just use the sandbox. Hadley though, is mine.

Thanks again to my lovely beta Alachrea. Any remaining mistakes are mine.


'Fill your lives with love and bravery, and we shall lead a life uncommon..' Jewel- "Life Uncommon"

"Daddy! Daddy! Daadddyyy! Look at me!"

A slight breeze ruffled Severus' hair as he looked up from the book resting in his lap. The hot July sun was high in the sky, forcing him to squint his eyes a bit to see where the voice was coming from.

A tiny girl waved to him as she kicked the broom off the ground and soared upward, her curly red hair flying out behind her. He felt his heart rise into his throat as he jumped up, his book hitting the grass with a dull thud, and ran over to where a group of children were gathered in a half circle. Their cheering stopped when they saw the dangerous look on Snape's face.

"HADLEY AYDEN SNAPE! COME DOWN HERE, NOW!"

She giggled wildly, a wicked gleam in her eyes, and performed one, final figure eight before aiming the broom towards the earth, landing smoothly several yards from where he stood. Snape felt an immediate sense of relief overcome him and he released the breath he hadn't realized he'd been holding.

He folded his arms across his chest and put on his best concerned face as he watched her running over towards him.

"Where on earth did she get that wild streak from?" He asked himself. "It certainly wasn't anything she learned from me."

Hadley now stood before him with an innocent face, but the devilish glint in her eyes gave her away. Lily's face flashed into his mind.

Yes, she was definitely her mother's daughter. There was no doubt about that. He both wondered and dreaded when the other half of her parentage would begin to rear it's ugly head. Wiping the thought from his mind he confronted her.

"What have I told you about brooms young lady?"

She chewed her bottom lip and moved her eyes back and forth as though reading her memory from parchment.

"They're about as useful as kindling unless you've been taught how to ride one." She said proudly, beaming up at him.

"That's correct. I don't want to see you riding one until you have had proper lessons from Madam Hooch. First years aren't even allowed to be in possession of the blasted things." He eyed her curiously awaiting her response.

"But dad I know how to. Drac—did you say first years?"

Snape could see the excitement bubbling up in her. He reached into the long black cloak that was draped over his shoulder. Producing a small envelope he held it out to her. She looked at it for a moment before grabbing it out of his hands and breaking the seal, almost ripping it apart in her excitement.

"My Hogwarts letter! I'm really going to learn magic now!"

She screamed and threw her arms around his waist.

"Oh, daddy this is the best day ever!"

He smoothed the back of her hair with his hand and tilted her head up to look at him, wanting to remember the look on her face at that moment for the rest of his days.

He had known she would be attending the school she loved. Her name had been written down since birth, but she was always worrying over it, asking him about it every summer for years.

"Can we go get my supplies this weekend? Please?" Snape put his arm around her shoulders and guided her up the hill towards the castle.

"I'll make a deal with you Hadley. If you behave yourself for the rest of the week, I mean really behave, we'll go to Diagon Alley for the weekend."

"The whole weekend?" She whirled in a circle around him. "I promise daddy, I promise I'll be so good you won't even know it's me!"

Snape chuckled. "Believe me Hadley, I'll know you're you. You couldn't be anyone else."

OoOoO

Tomorrow the students would be arriving and the new school year would begin. Snape could barely contain Hadley today, excited as she was. He'd just gotten her to fall asleep and stop worrying over her trunk.

"Goodnight, little one." Snape whispered. He gave her one last look before he closed her door quietly and went into the living room.

Reaching into a cabinet, he pulled out a dusty glass and wiped it out with his sleeve. From another door he produced a container of brandy. After pouring the liquid into the glass, he drained it, poured another and moved to his worn brown armchair and sat in front of the cold fireplace.

With a flick of his wrist, the curtains covering the window across from him pulled to either side. It was so black outside that it seemed to spill over into the room, rendering it even darker than before.

"Darkness." He said raising his glass to toast the moonless night. "To compliment my mood."

She'd told him last week that she would be moving into the dorms of whichever house she was sorted. Since then he hadn't been able to shake the feeling of undeniable loss. Granted they would still technically be living under the same roof, but he wouldn't be able to check her at night to make sure she had all her covers. And who was going to kiss her brow and comfort her when she had one of her nightmares?

Admittedly, in the beginning he hadn't wanted to keep her, not really knowing what to do with a one year old girl. But the moment he had held her in his arms on their second meeting, his resolve had melted.

She had won him over with a smile.

"You've become a soft touch, Severus." He thought wryly. "What would The Dark Lord say?" He shivered slightly at the notion and banished it from his mind.

It had been ten years now, and though he was still almost the same person, he felt different. Hadley had filled a void in him that he had tried to fill unsuccessfully for years. He never wanted to let go of that.

He sighed deeply, sinking his fingers into a hole on the arm of his chair.

Her brother, Harry, had received his Hogwarts letter around the same time Hadley had been given hers. They'd made absolutely certain by sending dozens by owl and finally one with their grounds keeper Hagrid, who could be a bit-- persuasive-- if need be.

"The sheer size of the man alone would be all that was needed to convince me." Snape said, smirking at the idea of the muggles meeting Hagrid face to face. He only wished he'd been there to witness it.

Hagrid had said that he had personally escorted Harry into Diagon Alley to buy his supplies a month ago. In fact, it was the same weekend he had taken Hadley, but fortunately they had never run into each other.

He had often wondered how Harry had fared with that wretch of a woman, Petunia, and when he had asked Dumbledore, the headmaster had replied that Harry was 'perfectly fine'.

Knowing Petunia as he did, he doubted that.

"I suppose I'll see for myself soon enough." He sighed.

Harry Potter was famous in their world. The legendary 'Boy who Lived', defeater of the infamous Lord Voldemort at only age one. Even Hadley knew who he was, though she didn't know the role he had once played in her young life. She was there that night too. However, due to some error on the ministries part, they recorded only the boy as the sole survivor of the attack on the Potter's.

"Leave it to the ministry to muck something like that up." Snape muttered, slightly disgusted.

Only a handful of people knew her secret, and were magically bound to protect it. They would die before the words could escape their lips. Of course any documents linking her to Lily and James Potter had long been destroyed and replaced with new ones. Snape never knew exactly how Dumbledore got things done, only that he did.

He took a small sip from the almost forgotten glass. He grimaced at the taste, but the amber colored liquid warmed his throat as it slid down easily. He emptied the glass and rose to make another. Snape was never a man that enjoyed drinking, but tonight it seemed to be the only thing that could soothe his conscience.

Guilt had been plaguing him a lot lately. It was a horrid, nagging feeling he got whenever he looked at his daughter. How could he have kept up this lie-- a lie that had made him extremely happy, but one that affected the course of her entire life? How was he going to keep hiding behind it when her true blood would be near her every day?

A small cry nearby broke the silence, drawing him from his thoughts. He turned to see Hadley standing behind him her face drenched with sweat and tears. He put his glass down and scooped her up, pulling her to his chest. She wrapped her arms around his neck and buried her face in his shoulder, still sobbing.

"What is it darling? A nightmare?"

"N-no!" She cried, voice shaking. "D-daddy the b-bad man. He was h-here!"

"Shh..shh." Snape whispered. "It was a dream sweetheart. A very bad dream. But I'm here now. I won't let the bad man hurt you."

Her cries eased into tiny sobs as he carried her over to the chair and sat down, her thin arms still clinging to his neck tightly. He rubbed her back tenderly, holding her close. After a while, her sobs came less and less frequently, finally stopping altogether.

She raised her head and looked into his eyes.

"You promise daddy? You won't ever let the bad man hurt me?"

Snape brushed his lips across her damp forehead.

"I promise darling."

She fell asleep soon after, comforted by Snape's words. He brought her back to bed and tucked her in, hoping the rest of her night would be spent in peace. After he closed her door he fell back against it, closing his eyes in despair.

Her nightmares were getting worse. Rather, her memories were becoming more vivid.

The first time she described the green light and the screaming red haired woman, he had known it was more than a simple nightmare. She was reliving her mothers death through her dreams.

Snape knew she would eventually find out about the Avada Kedavra curse and what it did; the jet of green light that issued from the caster's wand, the instantaneous death. The moment he had been dreading and fighting for years was almost upon him.

The truth would have to be revealed in the near future, he only hoped that she would understand and not hate him for his part in it.

OoOoO

The next morning, she rose early and dressed in her new school robes. There would still be many hours of waiting before it was time for her to leave.

Yesterday afternoon, Snape had arranged with Hagrid for her to go down to the Hogsmeade station with him to meet the first years and ride back across the lake on the boats with them.

He didn't want her to miss making her grand entrance in the Great Hall with the other students for her sorting. She was ecstatic when he'd told her yesterday, but now she seemed more subdued. He figured she was probably getting a little nervous now; Merlin knew he was. So he had taken to fussing over her, taking up her habit of checking her trunk every few minutes to make sure she had everything packed.

"Hadley, I don't see your new quills in here." He said moving things around in the trunk for the twentieth time in as many minutes.

"They're wrapped in a robe, dad. Everything is there." Was that annoyance he heard in her voice?

"Nerves." he thought shaking his head and continued checking what she had packed and questioning her about things she hadn't. He'd finally stopped when she pulled the heavy trunk away from him and put it under her bed.

He could take a hint.

The sun was beginning to set, the time for Hagrid to appear was drawing nearer. Snape couldn't make himself stand at the window watching with her, and instead sat sulking at his desk, pretending to look over his course plans for the new semester.

The corner of his mouth lifted in a small smile at the thought of her being in his potions class, and made a mental note to check his seat everyday. He could imagine her pranking him by applying muggle glue to his chair, the same trick she had played on Hagrid the year before.

Snape grinned at the memory of Hadley and Hagrid walking hand in hand to the castle, Hagrid unaware that a chair was dangling from his rear end. She had to have used a lot of glue, and where she had gotten it from he didn't know. But he had an idea.

Merlin forbid she be in any class with Draco Malfoy.

His thoughts were interrupted when he heard her running and whooping down the hall. He flew from his desk and followed behind, calling her back to him before she could make it all the way out of the door.

When she was in front of him, he crouched down give her a few last minute instructions.

"It's very important that you listen to me, Hadley." He said sternly. "You are not to leave Hagrid for any reason. I don't care if you see a unicorn bowing to you at the edge of the woods. You do not leave Hagrid."

He thought about what he just said and realized that if Hagrid saw the unicorn as well, he wouldn't have to worry about Hadley wandering off alone to see it.

"But dad, a unicorn? You know I want to see one of those!"

"Hadley. No reason. At all. Stay with Hagrid. And keep your hands in the boat, the squid has always liked teasing the first years. I don't want to have to go down and fish you out of the lake."

She giggled, wiggling her lips and making a fish face at him, but he could see she was fidgeting impatiently. It was the first time she would ever be leaving the grounds without him, even if it was just to Hogsmeade, and he just wanted to make sure she knew to stay with Hagrid.

"Alright, you may go." He said a little sadly.

She made to bolt for the door, but he caught her arm, pulled her to him and put his arms around her in a tight hug before releasing her.

"Dad, you're such a big softy."

He gave one of his rare grins, the ones he reserved only for her.

"I know quite a few people who would say otherwise."

She put one little hand under his chin as the other twirled his hair absentmindedly, bringing him back to the night she came into his life to stay.

"You're not their daddy either." She smiled. "Remember what we talked about dad? You can't do this in front of the other kids." She said gently as though trying to spare his feelings.

Snape nodded and was rewarded with a quick kiss on the cheek before she flew out of his arms and out of the door.

He remained crouched where she left him, his hand pressed to the spot her lips had just touched. The sense of loss overwhelming him already.

Seconds later, she came back and peered around the doorway at him.

"Daddy," She spoke so softly that it was almost a whisper, "I love you."

When she had gone, he couldn't help himself. He sat down on the cold stones of the dungeon floor and for the second time in his adult life, Snape cried.


A/N: Next chapter will hopefully be up by next weekend. The Snape we all know and love returns! Hadley gets sorted, and we meet a couple of familiar characters. Which house do you think she'll end up in? Feedback is appreciated!