You know it, I don't own it.
Hermione was still looking at the changes that had overcome the small creature before her. “What did you call her?” But before Draco could even turn around, let alone answer the question, several things happened at once. The most startling perhaps was the ear-splitting shriek that came from the house-elf, but the door at the other side of the hall opened and there was a great burst of magic around them at the same time.
“Lydia, who is there… oh, hello.” A three-year-old little girl came walking through the door, looking at the two people in front of her with polite puzzlement. Nobody except her mother ever came to visit her. But she knew it wouldn’t be her when she had heard noises. Her mother wouldn’t come visiting anymore, even if she didn’t understand why.
If Draco and Hermione weren’t so startled by everything, they might have paid proper attention to her. They would have noticed several things about her, about the way she acted towards them, but most of all the way she looked. But since they had also felt the ripple of magic going through the apartment, they didn’t really take notice of Selena, Draco’s little sister.
“What do you think that was?” Draco asked Hermione. It hadn’t felt good and the shrieks that were coming from Nalya didn’t make him feel any better. In fact he was starting to feel scared, a feeling he had never liked. Trying to hide his fear, he looked at Hermione. He could see that she was scared as well, but somehow she also seemed to be in control of herself. Something he found strange, especially since she was a Gryffindor, but fascinating at the same time. However, as she started to speak he no longer had the time to ponder this feeling.
“The magic is gone. Did you feel it? The protection your mother left is gone, anybody can come here now.” Looking at the house-elf who was still screaming, then at the little girl, who was in turn looking at Draco with a puzzled expression, and then back at Draco, she realised the implications of what she was saying. Anyone could find them now. The thought, if it was possible, scared her even more than she already was. “I don’t know why, but this place isn’t safe. I think we should leave right now.” The words came out in a mere whisper.
If they weren’t all feeling threatened right now it would have been funny to see that the puzzled look on Draco’s face was an exact match to the one Selena had on her face when she was looking at her brother. They even spoke up at the same moment.
“Who are you? Are you my brother, Draco?”
“What do you mean, Hermione? We can go to my flat in a little bit.”
Fighting the urge to run screaming, she tried to convince him otherwise. “No, please listen to me. We can’t stay here and if we Apparate to your flat they can trace us there. It feels like they are looking for us, trying to find Selena. Please trust me on this one, we should leave now and go back to the castle!” If Harry or Ron had been there they would have followed her, having finally learned that Hermione had her moments of knowing exactly what was coming and what to do. Hermione rarely felt so desperate, and Draco had never seen her in this state; therefore, not knowing it was best to just follow her, he ignored her for now.
Instead, he turned towards the still screaming house-elf. “Nalya, stop screaming!” he ordered. Nalya did as she was told, but couldn’t stop whimpering. Normally he would leave it at that, but he knew Nalya never did anything without reason. She was very clever for a house-elf and he knew her very well. “Speak up, Nalya, I can’t hear what you’re saying.”
“Miss is right, Master, we is not staying. We cannot be staying. Nalya can feel them, feel them coming. We is going to need to leave very soon. Little Miss will come too.”
More than anything else, this seemed to bring Draco around. He looked up at the little girl standing near the door and finally answered the question he had vaguely registered moments before. “Yes, I am Draco and this is my… friend…” here he paused and gave Hermione a small smirk, “Hermione. She came with me to pick you up.” Looking back at his sister, and really seeing her for the first time, his mother’s words finally hit home. ‘You will know who her father is when you see her.’ Indeed, he really did know, even if she was the spitting image of her mother, but he was able to hide his shock for now.
“Where are we going?” Selena asked Draco, looking at him expectantly as if she thought she was going on a fun trip. She felt elated to finally meet her brother, even if she knew it meant that she would never see her mother again. It was the lady, Draco’s friend Hermione, who answered her as she walked up to the little girl.
“Well, we were going to go to Draco’s house, but how would you like to go to a castle, a really big, old castle with all kinds of secrets in it?” Hermione knelt down next to the girl, who looked back at her through big, black eyes. “We can leave right now. Do you want to come with us?” Hermione sent a quick glance at Draco before looking back at the girl next to her. She wondered about the secrets of Hogwarts; she felt now more than ever that there were secrets there even she didn’t know about, especially the one she was looking at now.
For a moment Draco looked at the two girls together and even though he didn’t really know either of the two, in that moment he was glad they were there, together, with him. “Maybe you are right, Hermione, maybe we should go back to the castle.” He then turned towards his sister. “Would you like to come with me, Selena?” The little girl looked at him, not surprised that he knew her name, Hermione and Nalya in turn, then enthusiastically nodded her head.
Draco pulled the letter his mother had written out of his pocket and walked over to the two girls, while motioning for Nalya to follow him as well. When he knelt down next to his sister and placed her tiny hand on the paper, he pulled out his wand. While Hermione also touched the letter and took hold of Nalya, Draco muttered Portus and the moment they all felt the tug behind their navels they could also clearly see two Death Eaters entering the apartment.
~
“What was that?”
“Did you see those two?”
“Do you think they saw us?”
“I guess we really did make it out just in time.”
“What were they doing there anyway?”
“Did you see who they were?”
Then as both Hermione and Draco looked down, they asked, “Are you okay, Selena?”
“Are you okay, little sister?”
“Look at the beautiful bird! All red and gold. Look, Draco!”
“Calm down, all of you and tell me what happened.” This stopped all the different questions and remarks, even the one Selena had made. “I presume not everything went as planned, but you are safe for now.” Then, as Fawkes swooped down to her, the old wizard looked at the little girl standing between his top two students; his breath left him. It couldn’t be, yet there was absolutely no doubt in his mind at what he was seeing. He looked at Hermione and then at Draco and he knew they had seen it as well. She was the spitting image of her mother, but it was instantly clear who her father was, the reason why she needed to be kept safe.
Walking up to Selena, he knelt down and held out his hand. “Hello, my name is Albus Dumbledore, and who are you, young Miss?”
Selena looked up at Draco, asking with her eyes what she should do. She liked the way the old wizard in front of her looked, he looked nice, but her mother had taught her to never trust just anyone, except herself and Draco.
Draco, for his part, was shocked that she looked at him for reassurance but gave a slight nod and a smile to indicate that it was okay. He himself, however, was not prepared for what came out of her mouth, even if he had already seen the truth of it.
Feeling reassured, Selena took the hand of the wizard in front of her in her own small hand. With a polite voice and the grace a three-year-old could only achieve with the training most pure-bloods received, she said, “Nice to meet you, sir. My name is Selena Anarya Snape.”
Silence reigned.
AN: I never entertained any ideas about Severus and Narcissa, but it seemed appropriate in this case.
Next chapters will take a bit longer, because they are still with my beta.
Thank you, Hells.