Harriet Potter and the Alpha in the Dungeon

Chapter 71 - The Sorting Hat Ceremony

From the High Table, Severus and Harriet stared at their daughter with anxiousness in their hearts.

No one in Ravenclaw commented on Maggie's chair or her breasts.

In fact, no one made any comments to Maggie at all.

As the Snapes' eldest child began to eat her first meal in the castle, she found herself completely and utterly ignored.

Maggie's housemates busied themselves with conversing to one another about what to do.

Should they speak to her?

Befriend her?

Reject her?

It was a difficult deliberation for the house of the wise.

Maggie Snape was the daughter of the one who had defeated the Dark Lord, but she was also the child of the Minister for Magic and a former Death Eater.

Ravenclaw students were not rash.

They refused to act without giving the matter careful thought.

Regardless of their hesitation, it made Maggie frown that two other first years sorted into Ravenclaw after her were eagerly welcomed by her housemates.

She huffed as she ate her dinner and silently wished her parents had been as anonymous as those of her peers.

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The first evening at the castle was rather difficult for both Scorpius and Maggie as he continued to find himself ostracized and she became more ignored than in the Great Hall.

While they both laid in their dormitory beds that night, isolated from their housemates, Scorpius and Maggie both stared up at their ceilings with frowns on their faces.

As they contemplated the dizzying reality of seven years worth of misery, they both lamented the tragedy of their separate sortings.

If only they had been placed in the same house, they could have at least had their classes and meals together.

Hours of friendly companionship during their days would have made their nights much less lonely........

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Harriet and Severus didn't know what to say to one another once they returned home from their daughter's sorting.

Each had prepared to bask in triumphant victory once Maggie had been sorted into their own house, but Ravenclaw was a first for both Harriet and Severus.

"I did want to see her be placed in Gryffindor, Sev." Harriet confessed while they laid in bed a short while later.

"With her mother's kind heart, I had hoped she would bring light to Slytherin." Severus purred as he let his fingers deftly trail through Harriet's hair.

As she pressed a gentle kiss to his chest, he mused, "However.......We've acted selfishly, my love."

"And how's that?" Harriet sighed, "We bought her the best, comforted her before we saw her off to the castle, sent Rabbie with her, and-"

"-And yet, we've tried to fashion our daughter into who we desire her to be." Severus finished.

Harriet turned to frown up at him as she met his dark gaze.

"I remember the strength of her will when I held her through those first, fragile days of her premature life." Severus mused as he gazed at Harriet, "I cradled her against my heart while you slept.....She wheezed and whimpered, but she lived, my love, she lived.....We named her after a tree known for its strength and beauty.......A name she could make her own, with her own life......We should not push our projections onto her. I'm sure she'll offer many contributions to Ravenclaw."

It annoyed Harriet how close to tears her alpha's words had brought her.

She sniffed as she laid her head back down on his chest and sighed, "Actually, I think you would have been brilliant in Ravenclaw too, Sev."

Severus blinked as he asked, ".......Do you?"

"Yeah." Harriet sighed as she let her hand splay lovingly over her husband, "I do."

Severus kissed the top of Harriet's head as he held her close.

Eventually, Harriet drifted off to sleep, but Severus laid awake.

In the generous privacy afforded by the dark stillness, he allowed heavy, silent tears to roll down his pale cheeks.

He remembered the soft weight of Maggie's frighteningly small body that fit perfectly in his hands like some sort of living doll.

He remembered the way his daughter had gazed at him in the hours and days following her birth.

He had seen that same gentle, trusting kindness in her face as the train had pulled away and he had waved goodbye.

Severus closed his eyes while he sucked in a breath.

Where had the time gone?