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Marriage Vows	By : selened Category: Harry Potter > Het - Male/Female > Snape/Hermione Views: 23720 -:- Recommendations : 0 -:- Currently Reading : 1
Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter, nor any of the characters from the books or movies. I do not make any money from the writing of this story.

Chapter List
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Marriage Vows

Disclaimer: This
story was inspired by the Marriage Law Challenge on WIKTT. All Harry Potter characters belong to JK
Rowling and those with whom she has agreed contracts. This story was written for practice not profit.

Chapter Seventeen The Family Tree

On Thursday morning Severus fished Maria out of her History
of Magic lesson and delivered her to the Headmaster. A sheet of blank parchment was lying on the table and a tiny
golden cauldron, about the size of an espresso cup, was bubbling away merrily
beside it.

�Miss Abbott I will need a sample of your hair. Severus would you?�

Severus isolated a hair, which was not caught up in her
pigtails and broke it off near the root.
He handed it to Albus. Albus
dropped it carefully into the mixture, which instantly stopped bubbling.

�Stand aside,� he warned.
�I don�t want to splash you.�

He picked up the pot and poured it over the parchment,
muttering a quiet incantation as he did so.
The parchment soaked up the liquid very quickly and lines could be seen
forming on the parchment. After a very
short time the whole thing was dry and Albus picked it up. He regarded it seriously for a moment before
handing it over to Severus. Severus
took it and his face betrayed his surprise.
He became aware of Maria standing on tiptoe beside him trying to see
round his elbow.

�What does it say?�

He laid the parchmant back down on the desk where the child
could see it and put his finger underneath her name.

�It says you are Claudia Olivia Malfoy. Your father was Claudius Malfoy and your
mother was Selene Malfoy nee Martin.
Your parents both died around the time of your birth so at a guess I
would say you were hidden to preserve your life. I knew your father well, however this marriage is not one I knew
of. Claudius lived in France in
seclusion I thought. He was murdered
but the killer was never caught. You
have a half brother Lucius who is a year or so older than I am. You had a half sister Olivia who was my
first wife. She too was murdered. It appears you were named for her.�

�So you are my brother-in-law?�

�Yes, here I am, look and I think this may be our Professor
Martin. His first name is Louis. They�re a French family a very large
one. I think this woman here may be my
great great grandmother. That would
make us third cousins on your mother�s side as well. Most of them attended
Beauxbatons, which is the French equivalent of Hogwarts. This is Draco, the blond boy who hit
you. He�s your nephew.�

�So my father had three wives.�

�Yes. Lucius was
quite young when his mother died.
Claudius married another French witch, Marianne who gave him
Olivia. She died just before Olivia
came to Hogwarts. Claudius was quite
mad with grief. His first marriage was
arranged but his second wife he loved, much to the irritation of his son. He went to live abroad and no one saw him
much after that. Lucius never told me
he had married again.�

�Do I have any other relations here in school?�

�Let�s see. Oh
Delacour your mother�s mother. Her
brother Robert married a Veela. That
would make you a second cousin of Fleur Delacour. She married Bill Weasley who is the oldest of the Weasley
children. You met Ron and Ginny at my
wedding. Mr Weasley the gamekeeper is
another brother and he is married to Professor Graceworthy-Plank.�

�How do you feel about all this Miss Abbott?� asked
Professor Dumbledore quietly. �It must
be a shock.�

�Can I still be Miss Abbott now?�

�Yes, if you wish.�

�Can I still tell people I�m just a relative of Professor
Snape?�

�Well we know now that it is true. I�m sure Professor and Madam Snape will be happy to acknowledge
you.�

�I want to keep it quiet until I�ve had time to consider the
matter.�

�Hermione and Charlie Weasley know too. Miss Abbott, may I discuss this with
Professor Martin? If he is your
mother�s cousin he may be able to tell us about her.�

�Yes. Can you ask if
he has a picture of her?�

�I will. If you
would like to call on my wife and I this evening we can show you pictures of
some of your other family.�

�Thank-you sir.�

�When the other children are not present you may call me
Severus. It is appropriate given our
relationship.�

�Thank-you sir.�

�Are you all right to go back to class?�

�Yes thank-you. When
should I call on you?�

�Come to the Potions lab at six o�clock. If needs be we can eat in my quarters
later.�

�Goodbye Miss Abbott.�

�Goodbye and thank-you Professor Dumbledore.�

The little girl left the room and the two men stared at each
other.

�That was a little more than I had expected,� admitted
Severus. �I thought maybe something
along the lines of an illegitimate liaison.
I hadn�t bargained on her being a fully-fledged pure-blood. This is an extraordinary pedigree. She must be connected to every full blooded
child at Beauxbatons.�

�It appears you were correct about the child being
exchanged.�

�In Mrs Abbott�s memories the child I saw after the birth
was not the one I saw her take home.
The hair colour was different.
The second child was fairer. She
did not see it. The spell that affected
us also affects the parents.�

�I wonder what happened to the original Miss Abbott.�

�I�d lay money she died in this child�s stead.�

�Perhaps Louis may have some idea. I will see him later.�

�Albus, I attended rea reading of Claudius Malfoy�s
Will. It was written when he came into
possession of the Malfoy estates. None
of his children were born then so he did not refer to his heirs by name. He referred to the �heir of the blood� and
�other legitimate offspring and their descendants�. When he died that meant everything went to Lucius because Olivia
pre-deceased her father and she did not live to give birth to our child. We knew nothing of a subsequent marriage and
child. If I recollect correctly a
quarter of thlue lue of the estate was to be shared between the other
offspring.spanspan>That child is entitled to
many thousands of galleons from estaestate.�

�A lot of money.
Lucius wouldn�t have liked to part with that much of his
inheritance. How far would he go to
keep it do you think?�

�Having disposed of one sister alreadyan
an
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> I think he could have done it again. What I wouldn�t give to have that bastard
under Veritaserum.�

�If it were proven that Lucius had a hand in his father�s
death he would forfeit his rights as blood kin and Draco could not inherit them
from him. They would fall to Claudia
too. Get brewing the Veritaserum. I�m going to try to force a comprehensive
interrogation for Lucius under the influence.
His reputation is finally failing him.�

�I have a large stock in hand. I would give all my own wealth to see him answer for what he did
to Olivia and what I believe he would have done to Hermione.�

�I don�t think you�ll need to. We�ve got him this time.
There are too many counts against him.
If we can take his disposable assets he won�t have a chance. You�ve waited a long time for this
Severus. You maintained your
relationship all those years for the sake of our goal. Most men could not have done it. It�s over for him now and you have been the
key to his downfall.�

�I have a class next session. I need to go.�

�Off you go then.
I�ll see you later.�

Maria Abbott arrived in the Potions classroom for her
appointment at the expected time.
Severus was up to his eyes in essay marking at his desk and Hermione was
sitting at a nearby bench reading through a collection of articles related to
the brewing of the Wolfsbane Potion.
Hermione had been forewarned about her visit and rose to greet her.

�Come on through,� she said smiling, and led the child
through the storeroom entrance to their quarters, which stood open in
readiness. �Take a seat.

�Could I have a glass of milk please?� asked the child.

�Of course you can.�
Hermione rang the bell to summon a house elf. She gave the order to him and returned to the sofa where the girl
had sat.

�You have a very nice home,� said Maria politely.

�Thank-you.
Everything in here belongs to Severus.
He brought the furniture from his houn Itn Italy. Professor Dumbledore has given us two more
rooms since the wedding but we�ve been far too busy to even think about how
we�re going to change things around. I
think we need a library because we�ve got books everywhere at the moment and I
can�t even begin to think of bringing the ones my parents are keeping for me at
their house. I suppose we will probably
make one of the new rooms our bedroom and use our current bedroom for the
overflow of books.�

�I like reading.�

�We do too. What
kind of books do you like?�

�Anything really. I
like school books and the library but I miss storybooks.�

�I did when I came here.
Wizards aren�t expected to like Muggle fiction but some do. Severus does. I used to read a lot of it in the holidays. Someone told me that Wizards don�t need art
because of their magical abilities but often the clever ones seem to enjoy it.�

�Creativity is an art,� said Severus from the doorway. If a Wizard is to be innovative he needs to
think scientifically and creatively.
�If a Wizard is content to utilise the creativity of others he doesn�t
need to use his own.�

�I�ve ordered our tea,� said Hermione. �Do you want to bring the photograph
albums?�

�They�re stored underneath the bed. I won�t be a moment.�

He disappeared into the bedroom and could be heard scuffling
around. When he returned he had removed
his outer robe and undone most of the buttons on his frockcoat.

�Here we are! This
one is from when I was at school here.
Lucius and I were good friends.
He�s the tall blond one. He
still has the long hair. This girl here
is Narcissa. Lucius married her and she
is Draco�s mother. The dark haired
woman is her sister Bellatrix. She
spent most of her adult life in prison for war crimes and went quite mad in the
end. She died last Spring in the final
battle of our war. In fact of all the
people in these pictures only Lucius, Narcissa and I survived.�

�Were they on the wrong side?�

�I�m afraid so. We
all were when these pictures were taken.
Later I realised it was the wrong side and I became a spy for the
government.�

�Is my sister in here?�

�Yes towards the back.
Here we are. She would be eleven
here I think. Your father retired to
the French chateau after her mother died.
Here he is in the background. I
was staying with Lucius over the Summer.
I don�t really remember her from then.
Lucius didn�t like her hanging around.
She and I didn�t really become acquainted until we were at Hogwarts and
Lucius had gone. You really do look
like her.�

�I think it�s funny how the picture moves. You can tell she wasn�t looking at the
camera when it was taken but she keeps peeping at us.�

�If you look in here she�ll smile at you. She won�t smile there because she was still
upset about her mother. This was her
album from school. The little girl
she�s with there is Professor Graceworthy-Plank. Olivia used to baby-sit her sometimes. They�re both waving to you.�

�Olivia was in Ravenclaw.
Is she the one who turned out badly?�

�No. The Hat meant her life went badly. Lucius didn�t like Olivia. Your father really left him to bring her up
after he went to France and he shouldn�t have.
Lucius was annoyed by the fact that Olivia was in Ravenclaw not
Slytherin and also because she was growing up to be cleverer than him. At the beginning of her fifth year when she
was just sixteen he took her out of school and forced her to marry me instead
of finishing school. He thought I would
make her unhappy.�

�And did you?�

�No. I fell in love
with her. She convinced me that I
should change sides in the war. She was
extremely clever and was working against Lord Voldemort. Someone found out what she was doing and had
her killed.�

�Was it Lucius who found out?�

� I think so. He was
the only person who ever visited us.�

�Did he kill her?�

�He might have. I�m
convinced he did. I can�t imagine
Olivia letting any one she didn�t know into our house and no one broke in.�

�He�s the man you said tried to kill you isn�t he?�

�Yes. Last
week. He wanted Hermione to marry Draco
instead of me and he was angry when she wouldn�t agree. He�s awaiting his trial at the moment. He�s got away with bad things in the past
because he is very rich but it looks as though he�s in serious trouble this
time.�

The house elf delivered the tea and a pitcher of milk and
Hermione busied herself pouring it out.

�Will I have to meet him?�

�I wouldn�t advise it.
If he doesn�t go to prison you might have to. Your father left money for you in his Will but Lucius kept it
because no one knew Claudius had another child living. If I were you I would stay as close to your
Muggle family as I could. Your father
was not a bad man but he was not a good father to your siblings. Olivia was a wonderful woman but she was
murdered at seventeen. The only things
Lucius has going for him are charm, money and luck and the luck has run
out. You have already met your
nephew. This is Olivia and myself. It was taken the week before she was
killed.�

�Was she having a baby?�

�Yes. She was very
proud of the bump. We both were. Look how she�s showing off for you.�

Severus reached out and grasped Hermione�s hand.

�Darling have you got your pictures? Maria might like to see the Weasley-
Delacour wedding. Fleur is her second
cousin. We can put faces to some more of
the family tree.�

Hermione slipped into the dressing-room and fetched out her
album. Bringing it back to the sofa she
found the relevant pages. She was able
to identify Robert Delacour and Gabrielle as well as Fleur and her parents.

�They�re going to have a baby soon,� said Hermione. �We could do a fuller version of your tree
one day which has more of your living relations on it. Most of these people up here will have had
grandchildren by now but your tree just mentions issue.�

�You aren�t with Severus in these pictures.�

�No I was dating Ron Weasley last Winter. Severus is here by accident really because
he came to give the Headmaster some important information during the
Feast. Look you can tell he doesn�t
want you to see him in the picture.
He�s much better after the war ends.�

�When did you two start dating?�

�Well if you can count the time we went shopping in Diagon
Alley it was this Monday just gone,� said Severus.

�But you were already married then.�

�Oh.�

�It�s strange to me as well. I never imagined I�d marry like this but I�m getting to like it
very much.�

�I�m delighted to hear it,� remarked Severus dryly.

�You aren�t a teacher are you?�

�No I�m a seventh year.
I�ll have my eighteenth birthday next week but I already count as
eighteen because I used a time turner one year and the Ministry added on all
the hours I lived through twice to make me older. I still have most of my lessons and some of my meals with my
friends in the daytime but I come to be with Severus in the evenings.�

�Have we upset you talking about my sister Hermione?�

�No, not really.
It�s a very sad story. I would
have liked them to have had the chance to be happy for much longer. Severus has had to be alone for a long
time.�

�Until now. I loved
your sister very much when she was alive and me remembering how remarkable she
was does not take anything away from my marriage to Hermione.�

�Do you have a picture I can take with me?�

�Yes I do. Hang on.�

He went back into the bedroom and came back a moment later
carrying a photograph in a frame.

�You can have this.
I have a copy of it in another home.
The photographer at Lucius and Narcissa�s wedding took this. She was about fourteen and just starting to
look grown up. I could develop some
more from the films I have kept but that will take a while to do as they are
not at Hogwarts.�

�Thank-you. May I go
now? I�d like some time to think.�

�Yes of course.
Don�t be frightened to find one of us if you want to talk again. We are usually available outside class,�
said Hermione.

�I won�t. Thank-you
for the milk.�

Severus walked her out through the classrooms and saw her
out. When he returned he had a strained
look on his face.

�That was hard for you wasn�t it?� said Hermione.

�She�s so like Olivia.
It�s the strangest thing to talk to her. She�s highly intelligent, very contained even with all we�ve
thrown at her. We shouldn�t be doing
this to her. I firmly believe that
children have a right to be children.
The number of times I tried to head you away from entering the war should
be enough to tell you that. Her
greatest worry should be forgetting her homework or having me in a bad mood
during a lesson. If she seeks to be
acknowledged for her birth she is going straight into opposition with Lucius
and Draco. Muggle raised and thrown
into this. What is going to happen to
her?�

�She�s not safe is she?�

�No. Lucius is
imprisoned now but for how long?
Narcissa may not get her hands dirty like Bella did but she should not
be underestimated. Draco is beyond any
influence I used to have with him.�

�We have to see Lucius put away for good.�

�Albus is pushing for him to be interrogated under
Veritaserum to determine specific charges.
Has it occurred to you that Lucius may have killed Claudius and
Selene? If he did she could claim all
the Malfoy estates and Draco would lose his princeling status.�

�She has us on her side.
The Abbotts have raised her well and she still has them.�

�Will they still want her when they know how they have been
deceived?�

�I think so. It will
be a shock but with Muggles it�s love and shared history that determine family
not just blood. Adoptions and serial
marriages are common. They will mourn
if their blood child is dead but they won�t be able to turn off the feelings
they have for Maria.�

�I will bow to your greater knowledge on that point. I intend to look out Martin later on. He may know how Selene died.�

�And if it was the Killing Curse?�

�We keep a close eye and try to persuade the Aurors to
incorporate it into the trial. Actual
evidence would be useful.�

�You will save her you know. You saved me. There is no
one better than you to help her.�

�You really trust me don�t you? When did that happen?�

�I always did mostly.
I wavered a bit when I listened to Ron and Harry but I never wavered
after the Tri-wizard. I saw your face
when Albus sent you off to meet Voldemort and I was there when you showed your
dark mark to Fudge.�

�I�m surprised. I
thought it would have been in the battle or maybe even with the showdown with
Lucius last week.�

�No that was when I really knew I loved you.�

There was a sudden intense silence between them and Hermione
coloured under her husband�s gaze. He
leaned towards her and captured her mouth with his own. Hermione�s response to him grew as quickly as
it had under the enchantment of their wedding night and lost in their rising
passion they joined with each other on the sitting room floor.

Afterwards they lay sated together on the rug facing the
fire, Severus spooning Hermione. They
chatted gently interspersed with more kissing.

�I�m so glad Albus didn�t decide to floo into the middle of
that,� said Hermione fervently.

�He has decided to communicate with notes through the floo
unless it is a life or death matter. We
had fallen into bad habits over the years.
I didn�t hurt you did I? I worry
I will forget my own strength.�

�No I�m not hurt.
Just a little worn out. It was
exciting. I felt so alive.�

�I�ve marked you though.
You�ve a collection of love bites.�

�You have one yourself on your collar bone and I raked you a
bit with my nails. Nothing that needs
healing.�

�I can�t tell you how relieved I am that you came to love me
before our binding. I was so worried I
would not touch your heart. I would
have hated to have been your gaoler.�

�I haven�t got the words to describe what I went through
when you duelled. I had felt stirrings
of desire when you kissed me for the first time but the duel was the defining
moment.>

>

�I think it began with me when I laid you out on my bed
after you received Draco�s proposal. I
realised you were a woman and I just knew I had to save you even though I had
already discharged my debt. I admired
you before that but I was too aware of your youth and my duty to think of you
as desirable. On the night of the bonding
you were so trusting��

�Are you trying to say that��

�That I love you. Of
course I do. Why do you think I offered
you my fidelity and did not demand yours?
I thought I gave myself away completely the other night when I was so
possessive.�

�I think with love you have to say the words.�

�I will bow to your judgment. Time�s getting on. Cover
yourself and I�ll send for food. No on
second thoughts go to the bedroom and stay as you are. I�ll bring the food in myself. Shoo!�

Hettedtted her naked behind lightly and laughed at her
squeak. She gathered up the garments
within reach and scuttled to the bedroom.
Severus watched her go and hastily donned his shirt and trousers in
order to spare the house elf�s blushes.

A/N

Well now you know who she is! But you have to wait and see what happens to her! I�m picking up mixed reactions to my
depiction of Ron, which is interesting.
I�ve also had a comment about the absence of Harry. Initially I had intended for him to play a
larger part in the story but having set it after his victory over Voldemort I
found him to be a character who had completed his journey. To restart his story would have meant
putting him at the centre and it would have made a very different story from
the one I chose to write.

Thank-you redsugg, spaz141, ancientgirl, Lena, Sarah and
Kat1441 for taking the time to review.

I�m still open to specific comments about spelling errors if
anyone feels there are an unacceptable amount of them.
- 17
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Marriage Vows