New Beginning

Chapter 21


Dear Mother,

Well, how does it feel? Is it everything you expected it would be? I hope it is, and more. You’ll always be my best friend, Hermione. And you always followed me in every adventure I ever had, knowing full well of the dangers that had appeared. Knowing full well that you didn’t have to do this. For this, I am forever in your debt. I wouldn’t have survived as long as I did if it hadn’t been for your fast thinking, from that brain of yours that collected so much information in it while we were in Hogwarts. I’m just thankful now that you decided to adventure with me one more time, maybe the greatest adventure of all. So, how’s Severus Snape taking to fatherhood? How are you taking to him as being my father?

Hermione looked over at Severus, he was engrossed in the letter he was reading, and she then looked at Darien who was standing before Severus with an expectant eye. How the hell did he know? Hermione went back to her letter.

Please Hermione, don’t be mad with me, but Severus Snape is the best man for this job, you’ve got to admit, he has saved my life on several occasions. And, he never treated me like the boy-who-lived. I’ll forever be in his debt, and I think this would be one way of repaying him, I’m not asking you to marry him, even though, that would make things easier on both of you if you chose to do that. I wouldn’t be shuffled back and forth, besides, if I recall right, you were acting a little strange during our fifth year. I noticed it started in potions class, then several weeks later it stopped. You had a thing for our dear potions master, didn’t you? (laughs evilly) I know you did, find it again, he deserves to be loved, he’s not aware of it yet, but he has a lot of qualities that I admire in him, and I’m sure you’ll see them soon, if you haven’t already. Don’t let him push you away, he just needs to get to know you, know the real you, the beautiful young woman you’ve become. That’s the woman that I see, the woman that I knew would make a great mother, because you’ve already made a great friend, you’ve always treated me like a child in school. I led you to believe that I didn’t like those talks when you came down on me for not doing my homework, truthfully, I didn’t do my homework on several occasions just so you would talk to me that way, so I knew what it felt like to have a parent scold me, not harshly, but in a manner that you knew they loved you. This was the reason I picked you to be my mother, because I saw exactly what you had inside, and I loved that. I knew you would make a wonderful mother, and I’ll let you in on a little secret that no one else knows. My visions and dreams just didn’t involve Voldemort, Hermione. I could see the future, at least several different ones. It was wild to say the least, so I chose the one that I wanted to have happen. In all of them you were there, I chose the one that had the best outcome for you as well as for me. Give him a chance Hermione, trust him, I do, or I wouldn’t have picked him.

Forever,
Darien Michael Snape

PS. He’ll sign the papers. Just watch. I love you Mom.

Hermione put the letter down and saw Severus pull Darien up in his lap.

“I’ll sign them.” Severus told him, she saw Darien throw his arms around him.

Lucius carefully folded his letter and put it back in the envelope and placed it in his inside breast pocket of his robe. The mischievous twinkle in his eye passed quickly as it looked over at Severus.

“Sign what?”

Brian held up the documents and walked over to Severus and Darien, “I do believe, Darien now has a father, legally as well as biologically.”

“That he does.” Severus answered and took the document and signed his name in every place that Brian had indicated. Brian placed the documents back inside their holder and sealed them. He left, knowing he wouldn’t be needed.

Lucius stood from behind the desk, “I do believe dinner is awaiting us. Shall we.” He waved his hand toward the door.

Narcissa and Pansy had been waiting for the office door to open. Narcissa knew something had been going one, no matter how hard she tried, she couldn’t listen in. Lucius had done this in the past, he was well known for not allowing ease dropping, but Narcissa wanted to know what had transpired, and she was even more curious about Darien. Pansy had told her all about Severus’s son, and Tristin, you couldn’t get her grand-daughter to stop talking about the little boy. Narcissa had laughed at how Tristin carried on, why even Pansy had done the same with Draco, when the two had been introduced. Pansy’s mother sent her a rather long owl, going on and on about how her daughter had met the love of her life. Narcissa finally realized what Pansy’s mother had gone through. She wasn’t about to tell any of this to Pansy, Pansy would have it her mind to have the two children betrothed to each other. Narcissa despised the old tradition; she believed the heart should the one to choose. She never pushed Draco and Pansy together, she waited, though she was thrilled when they announced their engagement. She knew Pansy would one day be his wife, but with Tristin. She was a little hell on wheels, if she knew her grand-daughter, Tristin wanted to get close to Darien just to see how much she could do to the little boy. Tristin had a little mean streak in her, she would have to keep an eye on her granddaughter.

Tristin came barreling back into the room in which Narcissa and Pansy were waiting, Draco had yet to come back home yet from work, he had owled saying that he would be late for dinner. Narcissa scowled at her granddaughter for the unlady like behavior the wild thing exuberated.

“There out. Can we eat now?”

“It is may we now, not can we. And a lady doesn’t enter a room that way.” Narcissa told the child.

Tristin, having heard all this before, put her hands on her hips. “I’m not a lady, I’m a little girl.”

“And a very saucy one at that.” Tristin spun around and looked up at her grandfather, she turned bright red when she saw the look on his face. “I do believe you owe my owl an apology at work. Orange feathers indeed. Were you trying to give me orange hair?”

Tristin clasped her hands behind her back and swayed forward and backward, keeping her head lowered. The only two people Tristin really obeyed were Draco and Lucius, the child was rather wild around the women, not that they didn’t try to curb her little antics that she got away with. It was that Slytherin trait inside the child that was hard to tame, she was very cunning.

“No, I just thought I’d share my chocolate with you.”

“We are not through with this discussion, but we have guest, and I expect you to be on your best behavior tonight.”

Tristin looked up, “Yes, sir.”

They made their way into the dining room. Darien sat quite happily between Hermione and Severus, he was rather bashful every time Narcissa and Pansy smiled at him. Tristin didn’t like the seating arrangements, she had to sit next to her grand-father which meant she had to behave, she wanted to sit next to Darien, she wanted to tell him all about her treasure box. She knew Darien would love her treasure box, she had all sorts of things in her treasure box, including the powder that had turned the owls feather orange, she made a mental note about what that powder did. She wouldn’t be forgetting that in the future, it just might come in handy.

Hermione didn’t know what she had expected this evening to be like, but it had been a pleasant one. She found herself changing her opinions of the Malfoys even more so when Draco came through the door to the dining room. Draco came in with a child, no more than ten or eleven years old, about the size of a first year, or what she thought the size of the new first years would be.

“Merlin’s beard! Who is that?” Narcissa asked.

Draco looked over at his mo, “N, “Not sure what his name is.” Draco sae boe boy at the table. His clothes were rags, filthy from grime that had been ingrained in them, and his skin. Narcissa said a cleaning spell over the child quickly. It helped some but not enough to clean the boy up totally. Pansy had plate filled with food and put it in front of the boy. The jumped on the plate and started eating. Draco sat down by the waif. Lucius sat patiently waiting for his son to start talking.

While Draco filled his plate he started on how he came across the boy. “Found him in Knockturn Alley. Him and two others. He was the only one who was a juvenile. Those rash breaks ins have been solved. The two older ones, who only finished their owls the year before.” Draco looked over at Severus, “Donovan Blancher and Amon Witherman”

Severus shook his head, both boys had been in Minerva’s house. Severus kept a tighter rein over his crew at the school.

“Has the headmaster been informed?” Severus asked.

“Yes, both of them are being expelled. Such actions, as Headmaster Dumbledore put it, are not welcomed nor permitted inside Hogwarts, and that the two could consider their magical training officially over.”

Darien had stopped eating and was watching the boy across from him. He had black hair, no red tint, not like Darien’s. His eyes were brown, Darien smiled as the boy took glances at everyone around the table, and he was shoveling his food in his mouth. Darien picked up his roll that was on his plate and handed it across the table to him. The boy eyed the roll and Darien. The boy slowly took the roll from Darien, Darien kept smiling at him. Severus leaned over to Darien.

“What are you doing?” He asked his son in a whisper.

Darien smiled at his father. “Feeding Janus.”

The boy’s head shot up, eyes wide. This was not missed by any at the table, at least not by the adults. Draco looketweetween Darien and Janus, “Okay, there is no way Darien could have known that.” Draco looked on at Darien then to Severus. “Who is he?”

Before Severus could speak, Lucius interrupted them. “Draco, drop it.”

Draco frowned at his father, he would drop it for now, but he still wanted an answer. Janus kept looking at Darien, still shocked at Darien knowing his name. Darien kept smiling at him. Hermione was shocked that Darien would know the boy, but another thing crept up in her mind, Harry had visions of the future, he would know if he had seen something. Hermione looked at Severus, Severus was to busy watching the boy across the table, she could see him clearly thinking.

“The question now is, what are you going to do with him Draco?” Lucius asked. “The boy clearly has no one.”

“I know where he’ll be in two weeks. At Hogwarts, he has a train ticket, the list of supplies, the letter is smudged beyond reading, I tried to get his name from that, but no amount of magic helped.” Draco eyed the boy beside him again.

“Are you sure it is even his letter?” Severus asked with a raised brow.

Darien snickered and Severus glanced at his son, the absurdity of the question just hit him. Of course it was the boys letter, Darien wouldn’t be acting like this if it weren’t.

“Pretty sure, the envelope on the outside had Knockturn Alley as the resident, wooden box fifth one down, from apocathery there.” Draco looked at Janus.

Janus was back to eating now on his second plate of food that Narcissa had fixed him. Severus shook his head, Knockturn Alley was no place for a child, much less one that looked like he was orphaned.

“He’ll need supplies,” Lucius said.

“How is he going to pay for all of that?” Hermione asked, clearly concerned for the boy.

“The Ministry has a fund set aside to pay for orphans, if the parents hadn’t left anything for the child. The funds are low at the moment; Fudge didn’t quite keep the money flowing for this. I’m not even sure if there is even enough money in the fund right now to actually pay for another student, it is already paying for twenty five students at Hogwarts who were left orphaned by Voldemort.”

“Lucius, we can pay for the boy, at least until the Ministry can maneuver some funds around.” Narcissa stated.

Lucius smiled at his wife, “That’s what I was thinking.”

Hermione was pleasantly surprised, she may have not have liked the Malfoys before, and Harry had been true to his word. If she only opened her eyes she would be shocked at what was before her. And it gave her a new outlook on the Malfoys, one that she would have normally associated with the Weasleys.

A/N: Janus, means beginnings or archway. Also is where our name for January came from on the calendar.