Little Miss Snape

Snape looked around the room for her, but didn\'t see her; he then
heard a sob from the closet and slowly approached it. She whimpered
as he opened the door; she was huddled up in the corner of the dark
closet, clinging to a faded yellow blanket. \"I sorry,\" she whispered.
She noticed Hermione enter the room and held out her arms toward
her. \"er-mi,\" she asked. Hermione crossed the room and picked up the
little girl. \"Hermione,\" she corrected. May nodded and buried her
head in Hermione\'s shoulder. \"You look like mama- same hair,\" she
whispered. \"Thank you,\" Hermione replied. She shot Severus a look
that said \'say something!\' Snape comes to stand beside Hermione and
brushes a lock of hair from May\'s face and notices a bruise behind
her ear. \"Whappeappened?\" he asks gently. He doesn\'t feel like he
could sound stern or harsh even if he wanted too. \"Too loud,\" May
says, covering the bruise with her hand. \"You gonna hit me too?\" she
wonders. Snape shakes his head no and she gives him a skeptical
look. \"You sure? I\'d lod lots and lots,\" May tells him. Hermione rubs
her arm and May screams.

Hermione and Snape exchange looks of surprise. \"Did I hurt you?\"
Hermione asks urgently. May shakes her head no. \"Can I look at your
arm?\" Snape asks. \"No!\" May shouts. \"I won\'t hurt you, I just need to
see what\'s wrong with your arm,\" he tries to assure her. He gently
takes her arm and rolls up her sleeve. A large burn covers most of
her forearm; it\'s an extremely bad burn that has been there for
several days. Snape looks at her face as tears spill out of her
eyes. \"How many days ago did this happen?\" he asks. Hermione looks
sick and May quietly cries. \"Five; day before mama died.\" \"How did it
happen?\" he questions. May looks down. \"I was bad,\" she whispers.
Hermione kissed May\'s forehead. \"I doubt that,\" she tells the little
girl. \"I was; I spilled my milk on fancy rug,\" May told them.
Hermione snuggled the little girl close and kissed her
cheek. \"Accidents happen; your father was wrong to hurt you. Isn\'t
that right?\" Hermione signaled Snape to chime in. \"He should never
have hurt you,\" he stated sincerely. May looked very confused. \"But
you hitted my bottom,\" she said softly. Snape sighed, trying to
figure out how to explain the difference between a spanking and a
beating to a five year old. \"It\'s different,\" he started. She nodded,
looking like she understood, but in reality wasn\'t sure if she\'d be
allowed to ask any more questions.

\"Come here, let me look at your burn,\" Snape said, surprising himself
that all this continued gentle talking. He never knew he possessed a
gentle tone of voice. May whimpered and clung to Hermione. Instincts
seemed to force Snape to reach his hand out and took her little hand
in his own. \"I\'m not going to hurt you,\" he assured her. \"She looked
to Hermione, her little face full of doubt, questioning and
fear. \"It\'s okay,\" Hermione told her. \"He won\'t hurt you, I promise.\"
Hermione\'s promise apparently satisfied the little girl and May held
her arms out to Snape. A look of awkwardness came over his face and
Hermione laughed. \"It\'s not that hard Severus,\" she said with a
smile. Snape ignored her laughter and carefully, slowly, took the
tiny girl in his arms and sat her down on his lap and began to
inspect her arm. \"You called Swev-wer-hiss?\" she asked, slowly saying
his name. Normally it infuriated Snape when people mispronounced his
name, but this time it really didn\'t. \"Close enough,\" he told her as
he retrieved a potion using his wand. \"I called Mashka,\" she told him
shyly. \"Isn\'t your name May?\" he asked. May nodded. \"Is both. Mashka
special name from mama.\" She turned and pointed to Hermione. \"You
call me Mashka, okay?\" Hermione smiled and nodded. \"Can I call you
Mashka?\" Snape asked her. May shrugged. \"Father say stupid. Yell lots
when he heared it.\" \"I think it\'s a nice name,\" he told her, pushing
her sleeve out of the way. Her little face lit up with a smile. \"You
do?\" she asked, sounding surprised. He nodded and her smile grew
bigger. \"Okay, you call me Mashka, please.\"

Her bright eyes caught sight of the potion vile and she started
squirming in his arms. \"Sit still,\" he told her, some of the usual
sternness in his voice. She immediately stopped wiggling, but started
to shake slightly. \"What\'s wrong?\" he asked. \"This will help your
burn feel better.\" May shook her head. \"No potions please, I be
goodest girl ever, no potions,\" she insisted. Snape closed his eyes
for a moment, not even wanting to think about what his brother had
done to her using potions. \"No, it\'s for your burn, to make your skin
heal up nicely, nothing else,\" he tried to assure her. She shook her
head harder still. \"Noooo,\" she whined. Snape set the vile down and
looked her in the eyes. \"Listen Mashka; I am not your father and I
won\'t ever hurt you. Never, I swear.\" Slowly she held out her arm and
closed her eyes. Snape put the potion on her burn, and then wrapped a
bandage around it. After a moment, May opened her eyes and saw the
bandage. \"That didn\'t hurt,\" she said, sounding surprised. \"What I
call you?\" she asked, quickly pulling her sleeve over her arm before
anything else was shown. \"Uncle, I suppose,\" Snape told her. May
suddenly yawned and Snape realized it was now nearing eight o\'clock.

\"Perhaps you should go to bed now,\" he told her. She scooted off his
lap and ran for her room. \"Are you going to tuck her in?\" Hermione
asked a mischievous smile on her face. \"You are enjoying this
immensely, aren\'t you? Nobody asked you to stay,\" he replied, his
harsh tone back in use. \"Mashka did,\" she commented. A moment later,
May ran out in a long white nightgown with pretty red lace. \"I can\'t
reach,\" she said, turning around to show Hermione a long row of
buttons. Hermione smiled. \"Come here, I\'ll help.\" \"I\'ll do it, I\'m
sure you need to be going,\" Snape stated, deciding he had had enough
of Hermione\'s help. May frowned. \"You go away now?\" Hermione
nodded. \"I\'ll see you in the morning though.\" A smile returned to
May\'s face. \"Okay, goodnight,\" she wrapped her little arms around
Hermione\'s waist. Hermione returned the hug and then left. \"You help
me please?\" May asked, showing him the buttons. Snape chuckled
despite himself and nodded. She went quickly to him. \"Father never
help, mama always did it,\" she commented. Snape\'s heart went out to
the little girl; her childhood was starting to sound like it
resembled his own. He was about to start buttoning when he noticed an
odd shaped bruise on her back, surrounded by welts and felt like
throwing up. She turned around after a moment and looked at him. \"You
see my owies, yes?\" He nodded. \"How…….\"

Mashka looked down at her bare feet. \"I was bad and Father had to hit
me with his belt,\" she said, making it sound like her father actually
HAD to do that to her. He looked down and saw similar marks on her
legs, as well as other bruises. \"He didn\'t have to do that. It\'s
wrong,\" Snape told her firmly. She shook her head no. \"No, I was
really bad; I lefted my dolly in the big couch room and I not
supposed too.\" She yawned again and Snape sighed. \"We\'ll talk about
it more in the morning.\" He hesitated a moment before continuing. \"Do
you want me to tuck you in?\" he asked. May\'s little face
beamed. \"Really? Mama always tucked me in, but never Father. Uncle
want to tuck me in?\" He nodded. \"Just tell me what to do,\" he
replied, following her to her room.