An Unlikely Savior ~ (Edit) COMPLETED

Chapter 12 ~ Ron Pays Snape a Visit

After reassuring Hermione that everything was going to be fine, Ron told her he was going to pop into the Leaky Cauldron for a pint and he’d be back before long. Hermione said she had some reading to do anyway, so they parted company.

But Ron didn’t go to the Leaky Cauldron. He Apparated to Knockturn Alley. His blue eyes narrowed, he stalked through the unsavory area unmolested until he found Snape’s shop. He entered.

Snape was filling small bottles with potions behind the counter while Eileen was seated in a recliner nearby, reading a book entitled “Developments in the Dark Arts.” She looked up at the redheaded wizard, then returned to her book, thinking he was a customer. Snape didn’t look up however and Ron walked up to the counter facing him. He pulled out his wand and set it on the counter.

Snape saw this and not looking up, he said, “I’m sorry. We don’t repair wands here. You’re going to have to go to Ollivander’s wand shop.”

”I don’t want my wand repaired, you bastard,” Ron hissed,

Snape looked up and only got a glimpse of the angry wizard before he was smashed in the nose and knocked back into the shelving behind him, blood flowing down his face!

”That’s for my wife!” Ron snarled, “and this is for me—“

Ron was about to leap over the counter when Eileen pointed her wand at him and screamed, “Constrictus!”

Immediately Ron seized up, unable to draw in a breath as his lungs constricted. Eileen held the spell on him, her lips drawn back from her teeth, her eyes murderous. How dare this wizard come in here and attack her father!

Snape pushed off the shelving and saw Ron turning red, struggling to breathe. He looked at his daughter, hatred contorting her face as she punished his attacker.

”Eileen, let him go!” Snape hissed, holding his hand to his nose. Blood poured over it.

Eileen ignored him, holding the spell on Ron, watching him clutch his throat, purpling.

”Eileen! Stop it! You’re killing him!” Snape cried, running from around the counter.

”That’s the idea!” she hissed back at him.

Ron dropped to the floor, rolling, his eyes glazing as Eileen followed him with her wand tip, her intent terrible.

”Stop it!” Snape roared at her, snatching her wand out of her hand. Eileen stared down at Ron, completely unrepentant. Nobody messed with her father.

Ron drew in a hoarse deep breath, his color returning as he lay on his back gasping, Eileen staring down at him angrily, before looking at her father and running to him, tilting his head back to slow the flow of blood.

”Dad, dad, are you all right?” she asked him, her brow creased with worry.

Snape drew his own wand, held his broken nose as straight as he could and cast an “Episkey” on it, stopping the bleeding and setting it back in place. His face and robes were covered in blood. Eileen released his chin, then scowled down at Ron.

”Who is he, dad? Why did he attack you? Let’s call the Aurors and have him arrested for assault. I’ll snap his wand while we wait,” she said darkly.

Snape turned and looked down at Ron consideringly.

”That is your blood donor’s husband,” he replied, Scourgifying the blood from his face and robes. A slight crimson stain remained on around his mouth and chin.

”What is he? Insane?” Eileen asked as Ron sat up weakly. “Give me my wand, dad, so I can put an Incarcerous spell on him.”

Snape shook his head. He didn’t trust his daughter to just simply bind Ron with ropes. Knowing Eileen, she’d probably use razor barbed wire.

”I’ll hang on to it for now. Go into my office, Eileen, while I discuss this matter with him,” Snape said to her.

Eileen frowned, still looking down at Ron.

”I hope by discuss, you mean you crack his bloody head open. The nerve of him! Why did he attack you? Do you have any idea?”

Snape sighed.

”It has to do what I’m going to tell you once we get home, I imagine,” he replied tightly. “Now, take your book and go wait in my office.”

Still scowling at Ron, Eileen obeyed her father and walked into his office closing the door and placing her ear against it. Snape warded it and cast a Silencing spell so she wouldn’t hear the discussion. When everything went silent, Eileen tugged on the door trying to open it. She couldn’t.

”Damn it,” she hissed, wanting to know what the hell was going on.

Snape watched as Ron staggered to his feet, his wand trained on the redhead.

”You get that one for free, Mr. Weasley,” he said coldly. “Only that one. Try that again and I’ll blast you out of your shoes, sweep your ashes and dump them into my dustbin. I don’t take kindly to physical assaults or sucker punches. You’re guilty of both.”

Ron wiped his mouth, his blue eyes watery and blood-shot from lack of oxygen.

”Like you can talk about sucker punches,” he breathed. “You gave Hermione the worst kind of sucker punch by not telling her about her daughter.”

”MY daughter, Mr. Weasley. Your wife was nothing more than an egg donor. If not for the direness of the situation, she would have never known about Eileen. It was never my intention to get her involved.”

”But she is involved, we all are you selfish bastard. What gave you the right to get her pregnant and take her child?”

”Quid pro quo, Mr. Weasley. A life—for a life,” Snape replied, his eyes hard.

”But you’ve done more than take a life for a life. You’ve involved my life, and the life of my children. You’ve disrupted the life of my family.”

”One can always expect a bit of collateral damage, even in the best laid plans,” the wizard purred back at him. “But none of it is life threatening. You all can continue on just the way you have been. Eileen is not your concern.”

Ron stared at him in disbelief.

”Not our concern? Do you really believe that, you heartless bastard? That girl is my wife’s flesh and blood, a part of her. Do you think Hermione can just push her aside now that she knows about her? I know it’s been a long time, Snape, but you have to remember how Hermione was. Is.”

Snape frowned.

”Yes, I remember quite well how she is, Mr. Weasley. The way she, and you abandoned me in the Shrieking Shack. Gryffindor nobility at it’s finest. At least Mr. Potter hovered a bit. He might have checked further if not for the both of you calling him away. I could hear. None of you have any trouble casting anyone away, least of all your wife.”

Ron stared at him incredulously.

”Is that what this is about? Us leaving you in the Shrieking Shack? You’re mad if you thought we’d even consider saving you then. You’d killed Dumbledore and turned on the Order. As far as we were concerned, you were a Death Eater and would have killed us as soon as look at us! We owed you nothing at that point! Nothing at all. Voldemort killing you was justice. Why would we help you? Anyway, you looked as if you were dead and we had other things to worry about. Like Voldemort calling Harry out. Besides, you survived, didn’t you? Harry helped clear your name, didn’t he? What more do you want from us?”

Snape’s face went slack.

”I want nothing more than what I have, Mr. Weasley. My daughter. And that had nothing to do with the Shrieking Shack. I put myself in danger of being caught or worse, killed by saving your wife. I would think you would be grateful, considering you all left me to die. I could have easily let that same fate befall her, but I didn’t.”

”You didn’t because you wanted something from her, not because of any nobleness,” Ron hissed.

”I never claimed my motivations to be noble, Mr. Weasley. Perhaps I did want her indebted to me, to be able to claim my due from her. Initially, I just intended to fuck her and take my pound of flesh, but she was an exemplary witch and that would have been a waste of opportunity. She was brilliant, talented in both charms and potions. She was also relatively attractive and resilient. All the right qualities in the wrong Gryffindor package. She could have been so much more under my guidance. I planned to start a new life, Mr. Weasley and it would have been a lonely one, with no one to benefit from my knowledge, life experience and skills. Over the months I thought about my impending situation and decided I needed a child to pass my knowledge to. A child to nurture and raise accordingly without the influence of others to spoil her or him. So yes, I impregnated Hermione under the most promising conditions, nurtured the egg magically for several years and when the time was right, placed it in a surrogate mother. When Eileen was born, she became my entire world and remains so. I don’t care how you look at it, Mr. Weasley—for me, the end will always justify the means.”

“You selfish bastard,” Ron hissed.

”I’ve never claimed to be anything more, Mr. Weasley. My selfishness was the key to my happiness, and after all I’ve gone through for an ungrateful wizarding world, I felt I deserved some happiness. The fact that a witch who caused me so much grief provided the means for that happiness, was just—gravy.”

Ron felt like punching Snape again, but the wizard kept his wand on him securely.

”Now, Mr. Weasley, I hope your need to spread the testosterone around has been adequately satisfied. I am not interested in your wife, you or your family. If I had my way, we would just all continue on with our lives as if our paths never crossed. However, I don’t know if that will be the case. It all depends upon my daughter. She has her own mind. I made sure of that. Now, it’s up to her how she will deal with this situation. I will support her decision, whatever it is. There is no need for blood-letting—unless you insist upon it. We can make formal arrangements for a wizarding duel to the death if that is your desire. Either way, someone is going to be left fatherless if this goes any farther.”

Ron thought about it. No, dueling wasn’t the answer as much as he’d like to put Snape six feet under. Others would be hurt and nothing would be solved in any case. Eileen would still exist.

”No, a duel won’t be necessary. But you deserved that punch in the nose and worse for what you did to Hermione—“

”If that is the case, Mr. Weasley, and this is the end of it, then—it was worth it. Now, please leave my shop and don’t darken my door again unless you want to buy something. Collect your wand.”

Ron picked up his wand and deposited it into his pocket. His lungs still hurt. That was a nasty spell Eileen put on him, and it was clear she would have happily ended his life. What kind of girl had Snape raised if she would respond to a simple assault with deadly force? Part of him hoped that Eileen didn’t want anything to do with Hermione. She was too volatile.

Snape watched as Ron departed without another word. Then he walked around the counter and proceeded to clean up the shattered bottles that had fallen off the shelves. He’d be sure to send the Gryffindor a bill to cover his losses. It seemed he was as hot-headed as when he attended Hogwarts.

Eileen pounded on the door, but Snape couldn’t hear her. It took him more than half an hour to remember her, and he let her out. Eileen looked around for any sign of Ron.

”Did the Aurors take him?” Eileen asked her father.

”No. We talked and then he left,” Snape said, straightening the shelf.

”What? He left? Dad—“ she began angrily.

”Sometimes violence for violence isn’t the answer, Eileen,’ he said softly, turning to face his daughter, who snorted.

”Dad, don’t start going all Gandhi on me now,” she replied, making a face.

She began humming “All we are saaaaaying, is give peace a chaaaaance.”

”Make yourself useful, Eileen and Scourgify up those small pieces of glass in the corner,” Snape hissed at her.

Eileen stopped humming.

”I would have made myself more useful by blasting that jerk into little chunks,” she said as she starting Scourgifying. “What a bloody git.”

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Ron went to the Leaky Cauldron and had himself a pint, just as he told Hermione he would do and returned home to find her asleep in the bed in her nightgown, a book resting on her chest as she slept. He quietly undressed and slid into the bed beside her. She sighed and turned into him, shifting over until she felt his warm body against her and sighed contently. Ron absently slipped an arm under her and kissed her temple. Then he stared up at the ceiling for a long, long time.

He decided not to tell her about his confrontation with Snape, and the brutal response of her daughter Eileen. One thing was for certain.

She was definitely Snape’s offspring.

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A/N: Whew! That didn’t go well, did it? Eileen is just vicious. But she was protecting her father after all. Anyway, thanks for reading.