"Fred, George, why don't you go and introduce Maggie to your brothers and sister?" Molly more so ordered, rather than requested. Their mother seemed to be less than pleased with what she'd obviously overheard.

Having realized that the man behind the short woman probably heard everything she had just said about him, Maggie's eyes widened and her mouth clamped shut. While she certainly didn't fear lovelle's father, he was still going to be her professor soon.

"Um," the blonde began; unsure of whether or not she should apologize. But before she could finish, George gave her side a gentle nudge, silently saying for her not to.

"Go on," lovelle succeeded in finally finding her voice. She then removed Fred's arm from about her shoulders (which had been there since she'd cried earlier) and gestured for him to leave.

"I'll be fine," she mouthed when the trio didn't budge. Their eyes were filled with concern and uncertainty. "Honest," lovelle added aloud, seeing the pressing stares from each adult.

Maggie looked between her friend and the professor for a moment, as if searching for something. As to whether or not she found it remained unclear as she soon warily left the room, followed shortly after by the defeated-looking twins.

"Well," Molly brushed off her apron, "I'll just be in the kitchen if you need me," she said more so to lovelle than the man beside her.

The eleven year old merely nodded her head, feeling too anxious to verbally respond, as Mrs. Weasley gave off a reassuring smile and exited the room; undoubtedly to deal with her sons.

"So, I suppose you're here to take me back, then?" she asked her father bravely once the door had shut.

Severus sighed stressfully. The girl whom practically insisted on being difficult was the reason as to why they could never manage to hold a civil conversation. Maybe her father's impatience was a bit to blame, as well…but the professor would never admit to it.

"No," he replied firmly, leaving little room for any uncertainty in his tone.

Lovelle watched him carefully, regardless. Her black-speckled eyes were filled with a mixture of both disbelief and self-doubt. Trust was merely not something she handed out carelessly.

"Then why did you come?" she wanted to know.

A bit of time passed before lovelle got a response. "For the same reasons as yesterday," Snape replied evenly.

His daughter spoke up again before he could proceed. "Because I'm not meant to be here?" she pried.

"Because you belong with me," lovelle's father informed her tightly, as if it had taken every fiber of his being to push those words from his mouth.

It was then, she knew, that a pin could be heard, had one dropped in the room.

"What?" Lovelle choked out. Certainly her hearing was off because never in a million years would the man standing before her say such a thing.

"You ran," Severus stated, ignoring the question as he wished not to repeat himself, "why?" he pressed.

The girl looked down at that, suddenly finding her hands to be the most interesting things on the planet as she fiddled with them. "I dunno," lovelle mumbled.

"Is it me whom you are speaking with, or the floor?" the potion's master slightly snapped.

The child's head shot up upon the harshness of his tone. "I was scared, okay?" she admitted angrily, not liking the turn this conversation had taken.

Severus took a moment to respond. There were many who feared him (most of those people being his pupils), and while he sincerely did not mind that fact, he couldn't help but to feel differently when the person in question was his own child.

"Whatever for?" was all he succeeded in asking, still taken aback.

"Are you serious?" Lovelle asked disbelievingly, looking up at him. She had shouted at her father before all of Diagon Alley, for god's sake. What he really should be asking was for the reasons as to why she shouldn't be frightened.

"Quite," Snape responded shortly.

"Well, because..." she paused unsure of what to say exactly, "because you..." lovelle looked around, naively wishing for the right words to fly out before her. "Have you seen yourself?"

Evidently the hopeless wish hadn't come true.

"Pardon me?" her father asked tersely.

"I just meant that," lovelle hastily peered away from that awful look Severus gave off whenever he'd been insulted. "I didn't mean…" she shook her head. What had she meant? 'That his appearance is downright terrifying and fiercely intimidating?' Yeah, that was it. But she sure as heck wasn't about to tell him that.

"Nevermind what you meant," he intervened impatiently when the eleven year old kept stuttering like an idiot. "Regardless of any excuse you may have, there remains no explanation as for why you found it in your best interest to leave my side," he was about to keep on when his daughter stupidly decided to interrupt him.

"But I wasn't at your side," she pointed out. "I'd been behind you the whole time because you refused to slow down!"

"So, that held the means for you to return here," Severus inquired, "to the Burrow?"

"No," lovelle's voice quieted some. "That isn't why I left," she looked down once more.

"Then, why-"

"Why do you even want to know?" she couldn't help but ask. "You don't care!" Lovelle reminded him.

Her father finally took a seat at the edge of the rather untactful looking bed. "Have I yet to imply otherwise?" he set out to prove her wrong.

"People who care aren't mean," she said knowingly, directing her multi-colored eyes towards Severus' own.

"Perhaps I could attempt to be more…patient," he sighed, knowing this was going to be difficult.

Lovelle huffed, figuring this was the closest form of a compromise that she would be getting. "Are you going to apologize?" she pushed on, still hurt by his earlier actions.

"Provide a reason and I shall," he falsely considered.

"You called me a black," she tried.

"As it remains your legal name," Severus stated truthfully.

"You wouldn't slow down," lovelle  tried again.

"Whilst you were hardly in any position that rendered you incapable of keeping up," he argued.

"You didn't come after me," the eleven year old immaturely put it out there, as this was what had been hurting her most of all.

"Yet, here I sit," Severus officially ended the debate.

He had a point, lovelle knew; and she soon found there was no way to fight against it, much to her displeasure.

"Fine," she crossed her arms, disappointed by the loss. "Can we at least start over, then?" the girl hoped. After the three fights that had taken place in such a short time span, she'd had enough.

Severus nodded curtly, "However, your lines must still be written," he instructed, reminding his daughter of the punishment he'd set out just last night.

Lovelle whined at that.

"Shall I make it six-hundred?" he warned.

"No!" she quickly replied. Five-hundred was more than plenty. That amount alone would take her days to complete, surely.

"With that," her father continued, "For your blatant disrespect earlier this afternoon, you will be assisting me by preparing potions ingredients," he added this as well.

"Wait, what?" Lovelle sat up in disbelief. "But I already have lines!"

"Now, along with-"

"Preparing potions ingredients," she cut in, "I know." Lovelle then thought about it. While she didn't believe the second punishment was fair, she couldn't find anything wrong with helping her father create a potion. The prospect actually sounded quite fun, (being that she was currently unaware of the ingredients to be used) so she let the matter drop for now. "Can you tell me anything about mum?" she suddenly wanted to know. Professor McGonagall hadn't gone into much detail about her.

Severus' eyes appeared haunted for but a brief moment before he replied, "At a later date," he supplied, "Now is not the proper time."

Although lovelle was disappointed with the answer, she tried to be content with the future promise. "When may I visit Harry?" the girl tried a different question, purposely using the word 'may' as opposed to 'can', recalling the previous outcome when she hadn't.

The potion's master surpassed a grimace at that. 'Potter,' he inwardly cursed. Why did Lily have to conceive another child? As much as he'd hated to acknowledge it, the fact remained: the Potter brat would forever be a part of his life if he ever wished to be a part of his daughter's.

"Could it be before school starts?" Lovelle pressed on throughout the silence. "Please?" she pried at the disapproving mask her father wore.

He sighed, "We shall see."

The moment was inevitable, anyhow, Severus knew. Eventually he'd be faced with Potter as the whelp would someday be a student of his.

And while he would much rather wait the two remaining years before that happened, Severus knew it wouldn't be possible…Not whilst he was trying to fix the current relationship he had with his child.

Lovelle sighed as he'd previously done. "What was my mother's last name?" she asked pointedly, "Before she married Harry's dad," she put in.

"Evans," Severus informed her, successfully hiding the confusion he'd felt. "Why?"

"I don't want to be a black anymore," she bluntly stated. "And going by your last name just doesn't feel right," lovelle admitted and looked into her father's eyes determinedly, "At least not yet," she added, not wanting to hurt his feelings (and if she'd spoken that thought aloud earlier, it most definitely would have been laughed at by the twins). "So, I thought I could go by mum's last name."

Severus considered it. Albus had already informed him that he'd need to legally adopt lovelle at some point, despite the fact that she was his daughter. As far as the court system knew, the girl was still meant to be at Wool's. And unfortunately, the adoption process would require for him to visit the place in order to retrieve lovelle's past records.

Still, while this task would undoubtedly prove to be a bother, it would give him the chance to look into the matter of 'Mr. Coleman'. Severus felt the need to know of the man that clearly once troubled his daughter.

"I see," he answered minutes later.

"So…" lovelle  carefully questioned, "Is that okay?"

Until the two reached a point where they were more comfortable with one another, it truly did seem an agreeable solution.

"Yes," Severus conceded, causing the girl to smile at him, "but not permanently," he informed her.

This only brought lovelle more happiness as she read between the lines. Someday, she'd be a Snape.

"Now," he broke her train of thought, "As I do not wish to spend anymore of my time here, we shall be leaving," Severus let her know, not enthused by his current surroundings. The Weasley's were not most favorable, based on past experiences, to him.

"Okay," lovelle agreed, much unlike yesterday. She simply had no reason to go against her father at the moment. "Can I say goodbye to my friends first?"

Severus stood from the lumpy mattress. "Can you?"

The girl rolled her eyes, yet smiled in contrast to the last time this happened. "May I?" she corrected herself.

"You may," he reluctantly allowed. Then, as his daughter made way to leave the room, he added, "quickly."

Lovelle merely nodded in understanding and fled from the room.

Raising this child, Severus would direly need Merlin's help.

Or at least that's what the professor genuinely believed.

Five Minutes Later

"Hi, Charlie," lovelle greeted the redhead with a smile as she descended the spiral staircase. She was feeling immensely better than she had been upon her arrival and, apparently, it showed.

"Feeling better?" he'd asked knowingly, slightly smirking.

"Yeah," she admitted, "but don't expect me to go around saying how right you were," lovelle teased. Earlier, both he and Bill, along with Percy, had been trying to talk sense into her surly attitude towards Severus. Despite not particularly liking the older man, each brother felt that lovelle hadn't given him much of a fair chance.

"I take it you and your dad sorted matters out?"

The eleven year old nodded her head, "We did," she answered before wondering, "How did you know he was here?"

"Fred and George," Charlie responded simply, as if that explained everything (which it had).

"Of course," lovelle smiled. Those two had the largest mouths sometimes. Still, she knew that if she'd asked them to keep a secret, the words to come would follow each boy to the grave.

"Speak of the devils," the teen murmured as the twins entered through the back patio with Maggie and the other Weasleys.

"Lovelle!" the stand-out blonde pushed her way through the sea of gingers. "How did it go?" she inquired upon reaching her and Charlie.

"Pretty well, actually," lovelle told her honestly. In truth, the conversation had been the best she'd shared with her father so far.

"You mean he wasn't mad?" Maggie asked, clearly not having it. Based off past encounters, she hardly thought the potion's master would be at all forgiving.

She thought back, "No," lovelle began slowly, "he seemed calm about the whole thing," she reflected, "There wasn't even any yelling this time."

"Well, that's good, isn't it?" Percy stepped into the conversation. Currently, the whole lot of siblings, along with Maggie and lovelle, stood at the bottom of the stairwell, leaving the adults in the dining room. When her dad had made his way down, lovelle couldn't be sure. He was always so quiet and she knew this would cause problems for her in the future, what with her always being scared so easily.

"I don't know," George cut in, "he didn't punish you or anything?" Fred couldn't believe that his friend had been let off so easily. If he or George had run away or done anything remotely similar with their parents…well they wouldn't be smiling like lovelle was at the moment.

That smile, however, faded at the twin's inquiry. "I got lines," lovelle embarrassingly admitted.

"Lines?" Ron spoke up, "That's it?" he laughed at her dismay.

"Hey, I have to help prepare potions ingredients too," she added, not liking being made fun of.

"Oh," the group sobered up much to lovelle's satisfaction. "Alright, now I pity you," Fred shook his head and placed a reassuring hand upon her shoulder, which the girl abruptly shook off.

"I don't get it," she huffed. Despite no longer laughing, everyone still kept grinning at her as if they knew something she didn't.

"Lovelle," Bill came forward, "Have you actually ever helped prepare potion's ingredients before?"

"No," she replied, utterly confused as everybody, except for Maggie, started chuckling.

It was then that the eldest son of Molly and Arthur explained the in's and out's of potion brewing. This, of course, entailed the brief overview of which ingredients had to be used in a variety of different concoctions; i.e. newt's eyes, bezoars, rat's spleens, and many more disgusting animal body parts that, in Maggie's opinion, really should be deemed illegal for potion making.

And at the light shade of green her friend's face had turned, the blonde knew lovelle was no longer looking forward to her upcoming punishment.