An Unlikely Savior ~ (Edit) COMPLETED

Chapter 7 ~ Growing Up Snape

Severus returned to Knockturn alley, the resident witches and wizards that
frequented the dark, twisting street shying away into the shadows as he passed
on his way to his shop. They had learned long ago to give the dark wizard a wide
berth, him and his bad-tempered hellion of a daughter.

Well, to those of ill-intent, Eileen appeared bad-tempered and a hellion. She
was just well-versed in the dangers of the place, and Snape had taught her
several nasty little defensive spells by the time she was five and told her
never hesitate to use them when in Knockturn alley, or he’d spank her.

She’d blasted her first would-be accoster at that tender age, the wizard trying
to snatch a bag of treats out of her hands as she stood outside her father’s
shop, watching people pass.

”Here, girl, give me a treat,” the man growled, eyeing her candy.

”No!” Eileen said, pulling out a little wand. The wizard smirked at her.

”Oh, you’ve got a toy wand, have yeh? Well, I’m quaking in my boots, I am,” he
sneered at her.

Most children didn’t have real wands at such a young age. But this was Snape’s
daughter. Also, Snape was standing in the window of the shop, watching, his
black eyes narrowed. If Eileen couldn’t handle the wizard, he surely would and
it would be a thousand times worse. But, he wanted to see what his daughter
would do.

”Give it to me,” the man snarled, grabbing for her bag.

She gave it to him all right. She hit him with a spell that shocked the shit out
of him. Literally. He really was quaking in his boots as Eileen held the spell
on him, her little face wearing a very nasty, daddy-like smirk.

”Let him go, Eileen,” Snape said softly from the doorway.

Eileen looked back at her father.

”Do I have to daddy? This is fun. Look at him shake,” she said as the wizard’s
eyes rolled up into his head and he frothed at the mouth.

”I know it’s fun, Eileen, but you have to let him go before he dies,” Snape told
her. “If he does, then, we’ll have a lot to explain to the Ministry. You
shouldn’t be able to do this spell at your age. Now, let him go.”

Eileen stopped the spell and the man fell to the ground, still shuddering.

”Now go inside, Eileen,” Snape told her, walking around Eileen and looking down
at the fallen wizard, his eyes glittering.

Eileen obediently walked back inside the apothecary shop as Snape bent over the
wizard, who was starting to come back to himself. He looked up at Snape, whose
face was in a snarl now.

”That was my daughter you tried to rob. She’s small, but she’s no victim. She
knows more painful spells than that. If you attempt to harass her in any way,
next time I’ll let her kill you . . . or kill you myself,” he said silkily.
“You’ve been warned.”

He straightened and walked back into the shop, closing the door behind him.

Several others had witnessed what happened and by nightfall word had gotten
around that the littlest Snape might be more dangerous than her father. Of
course, over the years, newcomers to Knockturn alley had to find out the hard
way that the little girl who played jump rope and hopscotch outside the
apothecary shop was a little girl to be avoided.

“Trust no one,” Snape told her, “not even those who seem nice, Eileen.
Nice people are not always what they seem to be.”

Eileen tested this advice once or twice when she got older, her wand drawn under
her robes as she followed a very nice witch who said she wanted to buy her
candy. The witch turned into a dark niche. Eileen knew every nook and cranny of
Knockturn alley, and there were no sweet shops in that niche. She let the witch
enter before her, then fired several stunners in after her.

She listened. Nothing.

”Lumos,” the little girl said, lighting her wand and walking into the niche.
There on the ground was the witch unconscious, and beyond her a wizard, who had
a child-sized burlap sack in his grubby hand. Eileen studied them, then turned
and walked up the niche and right into her father, who scowled down at her.

”What do you think you’re doing, Eileen?” he asked his seven-year-old daughter.


By the glint in his eyes, she knew he was furious with her. Snape was always
watching Eileen, even when she didn’t think he was. He kept a tracking spell on
her at all times, the small, translucent map floating before him as he worked.
Raising a child in this environment was very risky, but he had to work and he
didn’t want anyone else influencing her, so he didn’t use nannies. He also
wanted her aware quite early how treacherous the world could be.

She was definitely learning. Eileen quickly thought up a reply to hopefully save
her bottom from being reddened.

”Testing your niceness theory, daddy. You were right,” Eileen replied. “You
can’t trust anybody.”

Snape stared down at his daughter, a shocked look on his face at her answer.
Then he shook his head ruefully.

”Get back to the shop,” he said gruffly.

Eileen skipped back to the store, her curly dark brown hair bouncing merrily.

Snape lit his wand and looked at the unconscious witch and wizard, barely
visible from this distance. He shook his head again, smirking slightly.

”What a witch,” he said under his breath, turning and gliding after her.

***************************

When Snape turned the corner, he saw a woman standing in front of his shop,
leaning back against the door and gazing brazenly at the wizards who passed her.
She was about five seven, had black curly hair, green eyes and a curvaceous
body. The wizards leered back at her, but didn’t approach. They didn’t have the
price she asked.

Snape walked up to her.

”You’re blocking the door, Odessa,” he said by way of greeting.

Odessa Divine looked up at him and slowly moved away from the door. Snape pulled
out his wand, removed the protective wards, then entered, followed by the witch.

”Severus, I need to make a little money,” she purred at him as he removed his
traveling cloak. “How about a little shag?”

Snape didn’t even look up at her.

”I’m not in the market for a shag, Odessa. I have other things to concern myself
with,” he replied, hanging up his cloak and adjusting his robes before walking
behind the counter.

Odessa walked up to the counter and leaned over it, showing her full cleavage.

”Severus, you’ve been here for more than a decade and we’ve shagged only four
times. I know that you don’t have a witch. What are you? A marathon wanker or
something?”

Snape looked at her pointedly.

”No, Odessa, I am not a marathon wanker. I have a daughter I’m raising and I
want to set a proper example for her. Consorting with whores sends the wrong
message,” he said tightly, picking up a rag and wiping off the already pristine
countertop.

”But your daughter isn’t here now. Come on, Severus. I’m broke. I really need
the work, and I bet you really need a shag. Be a good sort,” Odessa whined at
him. “Or how about a bit of head? You know I can nearly swallow that monster in
your trousers.”

Snape’s dark eyes rested on her.

”Odessa, why don’t you join the brothel? Then you’d have steady income and
wouldn’t have to hound me,” he said to her, his nose wrinkled.

”What? And be a kept woman and have half my pay taken? I don’t think so. I’m an
independent hooker,” she snapped at him, her ample breasts swelling in
indignation.

”And a broke one,” Snape said sarcastically.

”I wouldn’t be broke if you’d just cooperate, you stubborn git,” she said.

Snape blinked at her.

”You want work, Odessa? All right. I’ll give you work,” he growled. “Follow me.”

Snape warded the door to the shop then opened a door behind the counter and
walked into the large storage room. It smelled to high heaven of all kinds of
stinky herbs. Odessa’s face frowned up when she entered, pulling the door behind
her.

”Gods, it stinks in here,” she said to Snape, who was unbuttoning his robes.

He pulled them open. He was wearing black trousers and a white button up shirt.
He took to wearing more than briefs under his robes since having Eileen. He
wanted to be a good example. The gods knew he didn’t want her wearing only a bra
and knickers under her clothing.

Snape took off his robes, rested them on a box, then walked over to a box of
latex gloves. He pulled out a pair and held them out to Odessa.

”Put these on,” he said to her, his eyes glittering as she gingerly took them
out of his hands. Maybe he wanted her to wank him. Well, she could do that.

Snape walked over to another box and pulled out a small plastic bag with a
ziplock top as Odessa donned the gloves. He handed the baggie to the witch, who
eyed it, then looked at the dark wizard.

”Kinky things are extra,” she said as he quirked an eyebrow at her.

”Come over here,” he said, walking to a stack of what looked like small plastic
vats, white and round, with tops on them. Odessa followed. When Snape turned to
face her, she began to kneel reaching for the fastener of his trousers. Snape
caught her shoulders.

”No, not that,” he said, pulling her back up. Then he turned back to the round,
covered vats and pried the lid off one. Inside floated small, brown bits of
triangular flesh. Odessa made an awful face. They looked slimy and disgusting.

”Toad livers,” Snape said. “I need about 100 to a bag.”

”What? You want me to bag up toad livers?” Odessa asked him incredulously.

Snape nodded, a look of amusement on his face.

”You said you needed work, Odessa,” he purred at her.

”Not this kind! Oh, Severus, you can’t be serious,” she exclaimed, looking at
the slimy little livers.

”Oh, but I am, Odessa. Bag up the livers and at the end of the day I’ll pay you
an honest wage,” he told her.

Odessa blinked at the livers. It was Tuesday, and business wouldn’t pick up
until Friday. She really did need the money, but gods, her way of making it was
so much quicker. Add to that the fact that Snape was the rare good fuck, and it
wouldn’t have seemed like work at all. But bagging toad livers?

”This is blackmail. You know I’m in need,” she said to him, trying to get out of
it.

”How much in need you are will soon be clear. You can either bag up the livers
or walk out the door and hope to find someone in Knockturn alley with more than
three knuts in his pocket,” Snape replied, his eyes hard now.

They stared at each other for about thirty seconds. Finally, Odessa angrily
nudged Snape aside, shook the baggie open and dipped out a number of dripping,
slippery toad livers. She grimaced.

”Shake off the excess slime,” Snape instructed her as the stuff ran between her
fingers.

She did, looking completely disgusted.

”Now I remember why I flunked Potions,” Odessa hissed as she carefully put the
livers into the bag. “It was disgusting.”

Snape folded his arms and watched her for a few minutes, then left her in the
back of the store complaining.

He was going to have to hire some permanent help soon. He had landed the
Hogwarts contract and had to supply the school. Add his other accounts, such as
St. Mungo’s and a few apothecary schools that had popped up over the years and
he had quite a lot to do.

He had rented house elves before, but didn’t like to do it, because they were
unattached elves looking for a master. They would always plead with him to take
them on. They were good workers but the idea of actually owning them for the
rest of his life didn’t appeal to him. He didn’t want servants. Actually, he
didn’t want anyone. He’d done fine with just himself and Eileen, although she
was in school now.

She was growing up. In two more years, she’d be leaving Hogwarts. He knew she
would help him in his business, she loved the shop, but already she was harping
at him to start dating or something. Date? Him?



”Dad, you’re not an old wizard. You’ve got a good hundred and fifty years left.
You have a business, money, land. You’re intelligent. Funny. You’re a great
catch,” Eileen would say to him.

Snape would snort. Eileen’s idea of funny was not the same as everyone else’s.

”I don’t want to be ‘caught,’ Eileen. I’m perfectly happy the way I am. I
have you, and you are the only female I can stand, believe me,” he said to
her. “And that’s because you have a good head on your shoulders, thanks to
me.”

Eileen would sigh, and kiss his cheek.

”Dad, I’m not going to be here forever, you know. I just don’t want you to be
alone,” she’d say to him softly. “I want you to be happy.”

Snape would pat her arm and give her a wan smile. She was the only one who ever
saw him smile fully.

”I know, Eileen. Before you, I was alone much of the time,” he’d reply.
“I’m sure I can fall back into solitude with little problem. Don’t worry
about me. Just make the most of your life. That’s all I want. That will give me
happiness.”

Eileen didn’t like her father’s outlook. He deserved so much more than a life of
solitude. It was as if everything he did, he did for her. She knew he was
working hard to leave her a legacy so she wouldn’t want for anything if
something were to happen to him. He loved her, although he never said it. She
didn’t need him to say it. She remembered him bouncing her on his knee, carrying
her on his shoulders, bathing her and brushing her hair. And when she was older,
how he spent so much time teaching her and taking her abroad, showing her other
cultures as he bartered for ingredients.

He was a good dad. The very best.

When she turned thirteen, she found her mother. Snape knew she was going and
didn’t try to stop her. He never said anything bad about Delores, except the
marriage didn’t work out. He did tell Eileen that her mother was uncomfortable
with her being a witch, and they both decided she should grow up around her own.

”But didn’t she want me?” Eileen asked him plaintively.

Snape looked at his daughter, his dark eyes glistening with emotion.

”I wanted you,” he replied, “more than anything else in this world,
Eileen. More than life itself. You will be the one good thing I leave behind
when I depart this world. The very best part of me.”

When Eileen found her mother, it was a very cold meeting. She was remarried and
had two children of her own. They stood on the steps, Delores not even letting
her inside.

”Your father took you,” Delores told her, no affection in her eyes at all
as she looked at Eileen. She could see nothing of herself in the girl.
“You’re his kind, not mine. You’re better off with him. I’ve got my own family
now and there’s no room a stepchild,. especially a stepchild that does magic.
Please, don’t come back here again.”

Dolores went back inside the house, leaving Eileen on the steps. The next day
when Delores exited her house to go shopping, every shrub, flower and green
thing in her yard.was dead. Brown, gnarled and dead. Just as she was to Eileen.

To her credit, Eileen didn’t let her mother’s rejection tear her apart. Her
father had already taught her there was unfairness in the world, and that people
would hurt her if they could. She hadn’t gone to her mother’s house with the
hopes of a happy, loving reunion. How could she think that of a woman who had
never once sought her out since separating from her father? Eileen thought it
was more likely that she pretended she didn’t exist and moved on with her life.
She had been right.

”How did it go?” Snape had asked his daughter on her return. His belly
was in a knot the entire time she was gone. If Delores hurt her in any way . . .


”It didn’t go, dad,” Eileen said to him, her eyes hard and without
emotion. “She may have given birth to me, but she’s not my mother.”

And she walked into her bedroom.

Snape sighed and fixed himself a Firewhiskey, thinking Eileen had no idea how
true that statement was.

Her mother was an exceptional woman and witch.

Exceptional.

*************************************

A/N: I typed this out this afternoon, trying to imagine what it was like for
Eileen growing up, and what Snape was like now. It skips about a bit, but I’m
not on top of my game. But, as you can see, Odessa is back. Lol. That poor
witch. I put her in so many awkward roles. Lol. Well, she needed work, she got
it. :)