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Coming of Age (Female Potter)	By : stargazer67 Category: HP Canon Characters paired with Original Characters > Het - Male/Female Views: 11694 -:- Recommendations : 0 -:- Currently Reading : 0
Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter, nor the characters from it. I do not make any money from the writing of this story.

Chapter List
- 11
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- 13
His resolve is sorely tempted one day, when the afternoon has stretched into early evening, and she invites him to stay for dinner. After dinner, they retire to the study with glasses of wine. They go on talking and drinking late into the evening, caught up in animated conversation about random things, from the shape of their faces (she says her chin is too pointy, and he looks very directly at her and says he thinks her face is perfect; mentally kicking himself as the words are leaving his mouth, but thankfully she doesn’t seem to notice the intensity with which he said it), to how bumblebees can still fly despite their lack of aerodynamic shape, to the ridiculous ‘dueling club’ that Professor Lockhart forced him into participating in.
She even manages to get a slight chuckle out of him when talking about the Boggart taking his form in the classroom, and Neville dressing him in his grandmother’s clothes (which he’d been highly annoyed with at the time; it had resulted in an unwelcome disruption of discipline in his classes besides all the sniggering in the hallways. And had served as a further reason for him to be irritated with both Lupin and Longbottom; as if both of them hadn’t irritated him enough at the time as it was already. But, hearing it again from her perspective this many years later, he can actually see the humor in it).
When he finally (and reluctantly) says he should go, she looks at him and gives him a smile that makes his heart falter; and she says that Apparating while intoxicated is probably just asking to get splinched, so maybe better if he stays here and sleeps it off a bit first? She points out that his shorts are still here, he’s got something to sleep in.
His mind is racing, not sure what offer she’s actually making to him; but once upstairs it seems fairly clear to him that it’s the same as the afternoon naps, she’s just offering sleep. He doesn’t know whether to be relieved or disappointed, in a way he feels equal measures of both.
Once they are settled, she is asleep quickly, relaxed and comfortable lying on his shoulder. But sleep won’t come for him so easily. He lies awake as it begins to rain, drops pattering against the window panes. He looks at her in the dim light from the window, nestled peacefully in the curve of his arm, and wishes he could just freeze this moment, forever.
It’s the closest he has ever been to real happiness, the closest he’s really ever been to another person, even including Lily. He is not aroused at all, which is in a way surprising to him because he definitely finds her attractive; but overall his level of pure contentment is overriding everything else at the moment. He kisses the top of her head gently, feeling very protective of her; but at the same time knowing that it’s actually going to be him that she needs protection from in the near future, that he will be the one who hurts her most when he does what he has to do.
Finally he sighs, deciding he’s sobered up enough and he’d best go before his resolve is tempted any farther, and he says or does something he would regret. He gently disentangles himself from her and she doesn’t wake when he gets out of bed. He goes into the bathroom and changes clothes, leaving his shorts folded on a shelf off to the side.
He comes back out and just watches her sleeping for a long moment – she has stretched out one arm across the bed, seemingly looking for him. But he’s afraid to read too much into it, after all she was accustomed to sleeping with Sirius before, it’s probably just an echo of that.

The next day, Dumbledore calls Snape to his office. Looking over his glasses he says, “You look a little rough today, Severus – late night?”
Snape looks down and compresses his lips, and Dumbledore is highly amused; he wonders just how close to the mark that hit. He knows that Snape has been continuing to see Evie regularly and wonders how close they’ve actually gotten. He figures not as close as Severus might wish, else he’d have been trying to hide a smile rather than looking a little pained by the remark.
Dumbledore goes on, “I asked you here to tell me whether you think Evie has recovered sufficiently; I need her to do something but don’t want to task her with it if she’s still too fragile.”
“I’d say it would depend on what the task is, Headmaster. As long as it’s not too taxing, she should be up to it. Is it something I can assist you with instead?”
“No, no – it needs to be her. It may be a little taxing, but she’s stronger than she thinks. I don’t think it will be too much.”
After a few moments of silence, Snape asks, “Was there anything else?”
Dumbledore looks over his glasses again and says, “No. Thank you, Severus, that will be all. Unless you have something on your mind?”
Snape looks for a moment as though he might say something, but then appears to mentally dismiss his thought and replies that there is not, and leaves the office. Dumbledore is still amused; he’s pretty sure that there is something more on Severus’s mind, but he’s patient. It’ll come out when it’s ready to.
Dumbledore goes and collects Evie to help obtain the locket in the cave; and outside the cave he stops and turns to her. He says, “Evie; I’ve already made you promise that you will do whatever I tell you while we are here, and it’s very important that you do. But I have another unrelated thing to ask of you, that isn’t important right now but at some point I am sure will be.”
Evie nods and he goes on, “There will come a time, and you’ll know when it is, that Professor Snape will want to talk to you. I want you to promise me that you will hear him out, and fairly, when that time comes.”
Evie is completely confused and says, “I don’t hate him anymore, Professor; I wouldn’t have a reason not to listen to what he had to say.”
“I know, Evie. But sentimental old fool that I can sometimes be, it’s important to me. I want you to promise me that at some future point, no matter how you are feeling about him at that point, that when he asks to talk with you, you will hear what he has to say and not shut him out or refuse him. He cares about you, and that’s not an easy thing for him. Promise me.”
Evie is still very confused, but she promises.

After their ordeal in the cave, retrieving the Slytherin locket from the basin, they return to Hogwarts. Dumbledore is greatly weakened by the potion he had to drink from the basin, and she supports him as they make their way back to the Astronomy tower. But just before they get to the top, they find Death Eaters waiting on the upper balcony, led by Draco Malfoy. Dumbledore leaves Evie on the landing below, telling her not to reveal herself no matter what happens, and calmly goes up to face them.
Malfoy disarms Dumbledore and Dumbledore tells him that he’s not a killer, it’s not who he is. Evie is tempted to disarm Malfoy from her vantage below, but she continues to follow Dumbledore’s instruction not to reveal herself. She’s much more worried about Bellatrix anyway; she’s not sure whether Draco has it in him to kill, but she has no doubt that Bellatrix does.
Snape suddenly appears on the landing where Evie is, and signals her to silence. He turns to go up the stairs, but first launches a curse over his shoulder at Evie; one that leaves her completely immobilized except for her eyes, which continue to follow Snape as he ascends to the upper balcony. She hears Bellatrix urging Malfoy to do it, to kill Dumbledore now that he’s disarmed him; but Snape arrives at the top of the stairs, and appears to take command, saying “No.”
All of them share a long look; Bellatrix especially scrutinizing Snape, but he stares her down and she says nothing further. Finally Dumbledore says, “Severus…please…” Snape looks down for a moment and then back up; and as he begins to launch a curse, Evie is wishing he hadn’t immobilized her – there are too many of them and she could at least have helped.
She is silently cheering his courage in the face of such overwhelming opposition – and then utterly shocked as he casually utters a Killing Curse at Dumbledore rather than at the assembled Death Eaters as she was certain he was going to. His face shows no more emotion than if he’d been demonstrating how to cast a simple spell to first-year students. Evie can only watch in unbelieving horror as Dumbledore falls backwards off the tower – the immobility curse keeping her from screaming aloud the way she’s screaming inside.
Bellatrix cheers triumphantly, throwing a Dark Mark into the sky over the school, and Snape risks a glance downward at Evie. A momentary supplication appears in his eyes, but it’s gone so quickly and his Death Eater mask and persona so immediately back in place that she’s not sure she didn’t just imagine it.
The curse releases her shortly after they’ve gone, and she runs after them, fury and adrenaline giving her speed. She catches up with them near Hagrid’s hut, which Bellatrix has stopped to set afire, dancing with glee as the flames climb into the night. Evie throws a curse at Snape, but he turns and blocks it almost automatically, still no expression on his face at all.
She continues throwing curses at him but he continues to just block them, not trying to return any of them. She calls him a coward and a traitor, and screams at him to fight back, but he doesn’t make any move towards her. Bellatrix then throws a curse at her that knocks her down and immobilizes her again; she hears Snape round on Bellatrix and snarl that the Dark Lord wants Evie for himself and Bellatrix had best leave her be if she knows what’s good for her. He commands them to go on, he’ll stay and make sure Evie can’t follow.
Once they have gone, he comes to her and kneels down next to her – and now, she can see a glint of tears in his eyes and pain on his face. She is still immobilized, and he just looks at her for a long moment; reaching out to touch her face but in the end dropping his hand back to his side before he’s touched her.
He says, “Evie; someday you’ll know why I had to do it, but there isn’t time to tell you now.” She looks nothing but fury and hatred back at him, straining to break the curse so she can tell him what she thinks of him. He sighs and gets up, hurrying to catch up with the rest; and she can only watch him go and curse him impotently to herself.
Finally the curse dissipates, and she makes her way back to Dumbledore’s body, her grief doubled by Snape’s betrayal as well as the loss of her greatest mentor.
- 11
- 12
- 13
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Coming of Age (Female Potter)