Little Miss Snape

Just before supper Snape knocked on May\'s door; finding it unlocked,
he entered the room. Surprisingly, all of the little girl\'s things
had been put away, the room spotless; Snape definitely had not
expected such tidiness on the part of a little girl. He glanced
around the room, expecting to see her, but he didn\'t. He scanned the
room again, more closely this time and finally spotted her, lying on
the floor of the closet, sound asleep. fac fact that May was asleep
in the closet struck his as odd; but then again, what did he really
know about the habits of small children. He went over to the closet
and looked at her closely for a moment. May was actually a very
pretty child; she looked mostly like Snape and his brother, but had
her mother\'ss ans and porcelain doll like features. He almost hated
to wake her, as she looked so peaceful, but she would have to eat
supper.

Snape crouched down and rubbed her shoulder. Her eyes fluttered open,
a look of disorientation on her face. \"Now I do not know about you,
but I think a closet would be a very uncomfortable place to sleep,\"
he told her. May quickly sat up, her little face looking pale and
strained. \"I\'m sorry!\" she blurted out. \"It was an accident!\" Snape\'s
dark eyebrow rose. \"Child, of course it was. Who would purposely
choose to sleep in a closet?\" May suddenly blushed a dark red and
looked at her hands, again muttering to herself in Russian. Snape
instantly became annoyed, but forced himself to calm down before he
frightened her. \"Why do you continue to speak Russian when you know I
do not understand it?\" he demanded, somewhat softly. She looked up at
him, her face still pale. \"Sorry,\" she mumbled. \"Me and mama talked
it lots, it was better for Father.\" \"Why was that?\" he probed. She
began to nervously chew on her lower lip but didn\'t reply. \"It\'s time
for supper, are you hungry?\" Snape asked, changing the subject. May
shrugged. \"Well you should eat anyway, so come along.\" She
practically jumped off the floor, hurrying to stand.

She sat quietly at supper, only nibbling on her food. Since May
didn\'t talk much, the adults were all engaged in conversations,
including Snape who was discussing something with the headmaster. A
small pitcher of milk had been brought to the table just for her and
it was one of the few items on the table she recognized. Her father
was from England but they had very rarely eaten English food; May was
used to her mother\'s Russian food and wasn\'t even all that hungry
anyway. As the adults continued to talk, May drank most of the milk
and soon had to use the bathroom. The problem was she didn\'t know
where it was. She looked around at the others, not wanting to really
talk to all these strangers, and Snape was still talking with
Dumbledore. Her head debated on whether she should go look or
interrupt and ask and finally her bladder convinced her to just go
look. The little girl slipped quietly, completely unnoticed from the
Great Hall in search of a bathroom.

Hermione Granger, now a professor, had been working in her new office
and was once again late for supper. She was hurryiowarowards the
Great Hall when a strange sound caught her attention; it sounded like
crying. She stopped for a moment and listened and determined it was
definitely crying and coming from close by. She decided to find out
who wha what was upset and followed the sobs down a hallway in a
different direction from the Great Hall. Just at the entrance to yet
another hallway was a tiny girl, her knees pulled tightly into her
chest, sobbing. Hermione slowly approached the child, not wanting to
scare her; the little girl was most obviously Snape\'s niece that she
had heard was coming and wondered why she was out here by herself.
Hermione slowly sat down beside May. \"Are you okay?\" she asked. May
didn\'t say anything. \"My name\'s Herm and and I am a teacher here.\"
May suddenly blurted something out in a language that Hermione didn\'t
understand. \"Do you speak English honey?\" she asked gently. May
nodded, still crying. \"Are you okay? What\'s wrong?\" Hermione
wondered, feeling genuine concern for the distraught child. \"Got lost
after bathroom, so big,lly lly scary,\" May sobbed. Hermione\'s
maternal instincts clicked and she gathered the small girl in her
arms.

\"Shhh, you\'ll be okay. I\'ll help you find where you need to go.\" May
wrapped her arms around Hermione\'s neck, burying her little face in
Hermione\'s shoulder. Hermione gently rubbed her back as the sobs
began to subside. Finally May stopped crying and peeked up to look at
Hermione\'s curly brown hair and kind face. \"What\'s your name?\"
Hermione asked. \"Mashka,\" May whispered. It was a rather odd name,
but Hermione decided that it suited her. \"Where were you going
honey?\" May sighed. \"Back to eat with.... with…. I no remember his
name.\" \"Your uncle?\" Hermione filled in. May nodded and Hermione
stood up, still holding the girl protectively in her arms and headed
for the Great Hall.

Just after May had left, Dumbledore had noticed that the little girl
had disappeared and called Snape\'s attention to it. The Great Hall
was searched as well as the sundinnding rooms; after nearly a half
hour they were about to start looking through the entire castle when
Hermione Granger entered carrying the child in question. Snape was
beyond livid, thinking that May had taken ofd had had been playing
while they were searching. \"Maria Snape, you come here right now!!\"
he bellowed. May\'s eyes grew wide and she trembled slightly as
Hermione set her down. She slowly crossed the room, not in a hurry to
reach her very angry uncle. When she was within arm\'s reach, Snape
reached out and pulled her to him. \"Where the bloody hell have you
been? Do you think it\'s funny to go off and play without telling
anyone? We\'ve wasted our time looking for you! Do you know how very
naughty you\'ve been?\" he yelled. May stood there, terrified, not
knowing if she should answer his questions or be quiet; she stated to
shake. \"Answer me!!\" May wanted to answer him, but her tongue wasn\'t
cooperating and she couldn\'t get anything to come out of her mouth.
What little patience Snape had tried to have with her ran out and he
grabbed her and spanked her bottom hard several times. May screamed
and as soon as he left go of her, she collapsed to the floor and
curled up in a ball, her hands covering her head. \"I be good!
Promise! No hit me! Please! I sorry! I sorry!\"

Hermione hadn\'t wanted to interfere, but when May started begging to
not be hit, she quickly approached the little girl and gathered her
in her arms, her eyes shooting daggers at Snape. \"Nobody\'s going to
hit you,\" she said, rubbing May\'s back. \"Some uncle you are; angry
because she gets lost after using the lavatory. And she tells us
you\'ve hit her,\" Hermione hissed. Snape stood there, too shocked for
a moment to say anything. \"Other then smacking her behind just now,
I\'ve never laid a hand on her,\" he replied quietly, feeling rather
sick to his stomach at who he thought might have been hitting May.
May, who had been waiting for a blow that wouldn\'t fall, looked up,
her face streaked with tears. \"He hit me too?\" she asked
Hermione. \"Too? Who hits you sweetness?\" Hermione questioned. May
shook her head, refusing to say. She pointed to Snape. \"He not gonna
hit head and back and legs?\" she asked, feeling confused. In her
small universe, when you did something bad, you got hurt. \"First you
need to tell me who hits you. Can you do that? Please?\" May took a
deep breath. \"Father,\" she whispered, then buried her face in
Hermione\'s shoulder. Hermione looked over at Snape, who appeared to
be on the verge of losing his supper.

It took Hermione promising to come with for May to agree to go to
Snape\'s chambers. The little girl refused, however, to let go of her
hold on Hermione, who seemed to be some sort of symbol of safety. As
soon as they entered the chambers, May wriggled her way out of
Hermione\'s arms and ran to her room, slamming the door. \"Oh my god,\"
Hermione whispered, close to tears. \"How could someone do that to a
child?\" \"It\'s appalling indeed, but unfortunately not especially
surprising; my brother is….was very much like our father,\" Snape
mused. Hermione was shocked at hearing such a personal thing from
Snape, but quickly shook the shock away. \"You have to talk to her,
make her understand that you won\'t hurt her. You have to tell her now
or she\'ll never trust you,\" Hermione told him. Snape took a deep
breath and entered May\'s room.