Disclaimer: I own little to nothing of what it is named/referred to and am making even less from it.
A/N: well here it is grin the second of three stories in the Revert to Type saga.
For those of you who haven't read Revert to Type you might want to, as I'm fairly certain that this will make no sense otherwise…
For those of you who did read it you might want to recap – I get confused even of no one else does…
At request here is a synopsis of R2T –
After the end of the second war against Voldemort, the trio et al. return to Hogwarts for their seventh year, but an incident in potions class shows that for at least one other student, the events of the last few years have been just too much. The 'accident' results in Minerva McGonagall, who is covering the class while Snape is away, reverting to a two and a half year old Gaelic speaking version of herself. While Draco Malfoy is arrested and convicted with reduced responsibility, the child latches on to Severus Snape for some reason leaving him and his partner Remus Lupin to look after her while they race against the clock to return Minerva to her former self.
After two weeks, the child becomes an individual in her own right, meaning that any attempt to change her back becomes tantamount to attempted murder and she is taken into the dubious care of the Ministry until an adoption hearing can be arranged. Despite the many obstacles in their way, Severus and Remus eventually win custody of 'Anna' while Albus Dumbledore is left to grasp onto the only remnants of Minerva that he can.
Chapter 1.
Severus Snape was dreaming. He was dreaming that they were having a picnic at the bottom of the lake, he and Remus, Anna, and Albus and of course the Giant Squid. It was an odd but not entirely unpleasant dream, until the earthquake started. The ground around him began to shake and shortly afterwards, it began to snow.
"Severus! Sev would you wake up!" Remus' voice cut through his sleep. Severus was just about to get irritated with him until the bed shook beneath him.
"Snow!" Peeling his eyes open, he saw Anna bounce up and then back down again not straying very far from Remus' legs. "Snow!"
"Would you get her to stop!" Remus pleaded as the three year old continued her attack. It would seem that she had learnt her lesson and was staying firmly on the werewolf's side of the bed.
"It wasn't my problem until you so rudely woke me up," he said pointedly rolling over and laying back down.
"She's your daughter too! Anna, please!" This however seemed to have little effect in countering the early morning hyperactivity of the child, apparently brought on by the arrival of the first snow. "Severus – it's very shortly going to have a serious impact on your recreational activities if Moppet keeps up like this." Turning and sitting up it was fairly obvious what the Gryffindor meant as the bundle of child jumped on his lap.
"Anna-" he began , in a fairly watered down version of his classroom bark, "if you don't stop that now you are NOT going to get to go outside in the snow." This did the trick. She settled down between them, crossing her legs and smiling serenely at them from beneath her mop of curls. Flopping back onto the pillows he then asked the question he was dreading the answer to. "What time is it Remus?" He felt the bed shift as the other man reached for his watch and groaned.
"Five to six," came the muffled reply. Severus growled and pulled a pillow over his face. It was only a moment later when the bed shifted again and two little hands tried to pry the cushion off of his face.
"Sorry," she said with that smile of hers. "But snow!" Realising that there was no hope of him getting back to sleep he sat up properly and let her crawl onto his knee.
"I know, and Albus spent all of yesterday telling you exciting stories about the snow didn't he?" he conceded.
"And next time he tries anything like it you're going to be sent to go jump on his bed," Remus muttered, sitting up and wincing.
"But you have to be careful – you were hurting Moony," he reiterated, and it was plain that he'd made his point. She scrambled across the covers and planted a kiss on the other man's cheek.
"Sorry Moony." Remus caved in instantly and ruffled her hair before hoisting her into his lap.
The last few months had not been an easy time for them by anyone's standards. While they had both agreed that their first thought had to be ensuring that Anna was happy and secure, something which, unsurprisingly took a little time to begin with considering what she had been through, they both had jobs to do at the school. Albus and the rest of the staff had gone out of their way to ensure that they could continue in the way they had been working before the trial, teaching the senior classes in their own subject and looking after Anna themselves. Albus had again offered to mind her when they were both busy and, as she seemed comfortable with him from the outset , it had, barring a few minor incidents, all worked relatively well. What had realistically caused them the greatest problem however was the incessant media coverage. They had consistently refused to comment when approached either by owl or in person by journalists with death wishes when they had ventured outside the school grounds. On the up side, public opinion seemed to be in their favour for the time being, but the ridiculous articles that Rita Skeeter and her cronies continued to publish weren't necessarily helping matters much. Then the solution to their problem made itself apparent in the form of an invitation;
You are cordially invited to the launch of
Wotcher!
The all-new fortnightly magazine for anyone
who wants to know where it's really at.
On the evening of the November 23rd
Florean Fortescue's Ice Cream Parlour, Diagon Alley.
Formal Dress and Invitations required for entry.
Come when you can and leave when you must!
At the bottom of the card had been an additional handwritten note:
Know you guys are probably way too tied up with the new lady in your life, (or each other) to step over the threshold of your rooms but didn't want you to feel left out…
Congratulations
Tonks xxx
Remus had gone on to explain that apparently the young Auror, who had been forced into early retirement by the horrific injuries she had received in the run up to the last battle, had been planning for some time to start her own version of the muggles' 'society' magazines. Though she had been correct in her analysis that they had deemed it impractical to actually attend, it gave then an idea for quenching some of the slightly unnerving interest in their private lives, and so the first Christmas edition of the up and coming magazine had been devoted almost entirely to them.
They had finally been able to refute all the aspersions cast upon them; been able to explain that, given the circumstances of her coming into existence, giving Anna potions was something they intended to avoid unless absolutely necessary, explaining why her hair was growing back naturally; and how they managed to balance their priorities. That said, Severus had not particularly relished some of the more sentimental angles that they had chosen to pursue, and when they had been editing the final version, a proviso they had set up in advance of agreeing to anything, he had tried on several occasions to remove certain sections of text. Remus had however simply reversed all of these alterations, pointing out that they had to write about something and that the general message of the feature was getting through loud and clear: LEAVE US ALONE (though Nymphadora had seemed to think it unnecessary to actually use that phrase in the articles). He had even been persuaded, after a little coercion, to allow one of the new magazine's photographers to take some family snapshots of them within the castle grounds. The Slytherin had, however, drawn the line at the over enthusiastic junior who had attempted to attack him with her make-up brush.
The response the feature had engendered had been overwhelming, primarily as it was mostly positive. There had been the odd offensive rant and even a few howlers, all of which Severus had found most amusing, but Remus had been sorting through piles of 'congratulations' letters up until the end of term, or more appropriately until Severus had banished them upstairs to the Werewolf's all but abandoned quarters in order to spend some much needed quality time with him. Anna was enough to distract them both though, and simply watching her coming out of her shell again gave Severus joy that he had rarely found. It was almost enough to find him telling Moony that he could invite The-Boy–Who-Lived (twice!) over for Christmas day. In the end, however, they spent most of the day alone. They had been woken up at some horrific hour, but it had been worth it when they had been treated to the incredible sight of their daughter turning to them, seeming to find it incomprehensible that the ridiculous pile of presents were all for her. He could hardly blame her for her confusion though, as it seemed that neither of her parents had been able to resist, well, most things. For Christmas dinner they had decided to inflict their hyperactive whirlwind on those members of staff and students that had remained over the holidays, where the Headmaster had done nothing to help calm her down. Once they had eventually settled Anna down for the night, Remus had left to visit The Burrow, and to give Harry his present. When he had arrived back almost four hours, and several glasses of fire-whiskey, later he was laden with even more presents. It seemed that not only had Anna received a gift from Molly, Arthur and the kids but also Bill and Fleur and Charlie and Alison.
The arrival of the snow the following morning resulted in another early start, and though Severus couldn't comprehend where the child found her energy he admitted that there was no way she was going to be going back to sleep.
"This child is going to be spoilt rotten," Severus pointed out as for the second day in a row they watched her opening a pile of presents.
"No more than she's worth," Remus said, having swallowed his coffee.
"What's this then?" he asked, as Anna found something she was particularly excited by and brought it over for his inspection. As Severus untangled what appeared to be a hat, scarf and mittens set he looked up at the other man for explanation.
"Why are they tied together?" he asked holding the two gloves apart, highlighting the metre long binding that connected them.
"Ah, that's what Molly meant," the werewolf said with a chuckle. "Apparently you feed them through jacket sleeves and it stops them from going AWOL." Severus made a face at this; it was yet another example of something that he never would have thought of.
The other two parcels both contained books, all of which would no-doubt capture her interest in the near future, but it seemed that there was only one thing that Anna had her mind set on today and that something was cold, white and, at present, blanketing the grounds of the school. They arrived at breakfast in the Great Hall with all the accoutrements that they could possibly need for a morning outside and, having made sure that she ate something hot, finally gave up on trying to put her off. Severus all but had to hold Anna down as they paused in the entrance hall to put on scarves, hats and gloves, as well as tucking her dungarees into her wellies, and when the door opened she was off. Argus had already gritted the steps and paths so she was safe enough: they hung back and watched as she sped off down the drive towards the slope that led towards the Quidditch pitch. Setting off at a much more sedate pace, they followed her around the school.
"Anna!" he called as she was about to disappear out of sight. "Not too far. Stay where we can see you." He reminded her of the usual rule for playing in the grounds.
"Yes Daidein," she replied, before turning back around and setting off again. They walked in silence for a few minutes, revelling in the silence of the early morning air broken only by the occasional giggle.
"Did you enjoy yesterday?" Remus asked eventually.
"Of course," he replied glancing at the other man. "What wasn't to enjoy?"
"I just… well I wasn't sure whether it had all just been a little too hectic for your liking; I know how much you value peace and quiet." Severus laughed at this a little.
"And I got some peace and quiet. I had a whole four hours to spend alone with the wonderful book you bought me yesterday evening." The other man seemed about to speak again. "You know what made it so much better though?" he continued. "I knew that Anna had had a wonderful day, and was quite happily asleep. Knowing that you were out enjoying yourself but that I could be secure in the knowledge that you were coming home…eventually." he added with a smirk, and received a light slap to his chest in return.
"Well as long as you appreciate me," the Gryffindor said with a cheeky smile.
"Always," he replied, reaching out to take the other man's hand, rubbing his thumb across the back of his palm.
They continued to walk, veering off the path and down the snow covered grass to follow Anna who was quite happily exploring on her own, occasionally looking over her shoulder to check that they were still nearby.
"Albus was saying yesterday that he'd heard back from his top candidate for the Transfigurations post," Remus said casually.
"Really? Did they accept the offer?" he asked.
"She's agreed to come but she won't be able to start till after the summer."
"Nothing that we didn't expect," he pointed out.
"Molly was saying that she's still more than willing to look after Anna during the day when term starts back up. I think that Moppet would probably be ok with that; she seems to get along well with the boys in any case, and we can't keep expecting everyone else to run around covering our classes. After all, it's hardly fair on the students." Severus nodded his agreement.
"Indeed, I was looking over the first year assignments the other day and they leave something to be desired to say the least," he said, with something that at one point in time would have been a full sneer.
"Ron, Ginny, Harry and Neville are coming back to the school tomorrow so they can study for their exams. Maybe we could owl them and suggest they all come up for lunch and talk it over?" Before Severus could reply a sharp shriek filled the air and he turned just in time to see Anna tumble down the other side of the gentle slope they were climbing
He was running before he had even fully processed the sight before him, a series of unpleasant images chasing each other through his mind. He reached the crest of the hill quickly, Remus not far behind him, and searched rapidly for his daughter. When he saw her, his heart missed a beat. Her hat had fallen off and lay in the churned up snow that showed clearly the path on which she had tumbled. Just as he was about to set off again this time for the brightly coloured mound at the foot of the hill, his heart in his throat, it moved. It moved quite dramatically, as Anna jumped up and turning back towards them, started racing up the hill.
"Again!" she said with conviction when she reached them and tugged at his hand as if expecting him to lie down and roll with her. Instead, he reached down and picked her up, holding her snow-covered body close to him.
"You should be more careful," he heard Remus say to her in a soft tone as he ruffled the white flakes out of her hair. "You gave us quite a fright there." He felt the child squeeze her arms around him, and kiss his neck before pushing her upper-body away enough to be able to reach for Moony. After a moment, she wriggled down, and as soon as soon as her feet touched the ground she lay down and once more rolled down the hill. This more expected if hardly more controlled descent was obviously a great deal of fun for her as she giggled like a lunatic when she finally came to a halt.
"Moony try!" she called from the bottom. Remus cocked an eyebrow at him before imitating the child's movements and Severus resisted the urge to roll his eyes as he walked sedately after him.
Having picked up the previously lost hat, he joined the two of them at the foot of the hill to find them both lying on their backs in the snow.
"What on earth are you two doing? You must be freezing and if you think I'm going to look after you when you get sick…"
"We're making snow angels," Remus informed him as they swept their arms and legs back and forwards. He supposed that if you squinted he could just about make out what he meant.
"Daidein!" Anna said, reaching out her arms, obviously having finished her piece of artwork and expecting to be picked up. He obliged, and with a flick of his wrist he started a jet of hot air gushing from his wand and to dry her off.
"Well?" Remus asked, having hopped up himself.
"Very pretty," he told him dead-pan, before turning his wand onto the snow and carefully melting 'Daidein's Little Angel' above the smaller indent in the snow and 'Daidein's Fractionally Bigger Angel' over the other. He only hoped that none of the students ventured down here and came across this scene, after all, his image had suffered enough of late.
A/N2 - well there it was chapter 1 sniff
I have already got another six or seven chapters written so if you're nice you should get more soon. grin
This section of the tale is going to be far more 'bitty' than the others for the natural reason that it's going to cover by far the longest span of time.
It is also more a conglomeration of lots of strange ideas that I've had about these characters which have became really quite important to me.
sad
truly sad
lol
in any case, enough spraffing.
Please let me know what you thought either way.
Linds
xxx