The Half-Blood Princess

We Wish You A Bloody Christmas

Severus was not sleeping that night. How could he sleep ever again after what Voldemort had said?

The meeting had ended after he threatened Harley's life, and Severus had led his daughter out of the barrier surrounding the manor and she had clung to him. He felt her shaking. "Can you Apparate?" he asked. She shook her head no. "Hold on tight, then." He had not done Side-Along Apparition a lot, but he managed to get them both safely to his house.

Once there Harley nearly collapsed onto a chair. Severus remembered the first time he had used Cruciatus, and he remembered how much energy it had taken out of him. His heart was a mix of worry and rage over Harley and the threat on her life. He had carried her to her room and laid her in her bed, where she fell asleep immediately.

And so, Severus was unable to sleep. Harley now had a terrible choice to make: become a murderer, or die. At this point, he was not sure which was worse. He had not wanted this for her. He had hoped to steer her far away from this, and yet he had let Dumbledore convince him that this was a good thing, to let her join him.

He heard a cry and bolted out of bed, throwing his dressing gown on. Harley kept crying out, sounding like the little girl he had never known. At the threshold to her room, he peered in, able to see in the darkness. Harley was crying, tears streaking her face as she writhed in her sleep, a nightmare gripping her mind.

He heard her say, "No don't go. Don't leave me!"

The memory from the Dementors, the one where she said she wanted to cry to him not to leave her when she had heard him in the other room, the night Lily had died. His heart broke to think how many times she might have had this nightmare, waking up to cry alone.

He walked in quietly, not wanting to startle her more. "Harley," he whispered. "Harley, wake up." He had absolutely no idea what to do. He was rubbish at being a father. He had never been given comfort by his parents, so how was he expected to know how to take care of his own child? He wished Lily were there, she would have known what to do.

She cried out again, sounding so lost and alone. "Harley!" he said loudly. "Come on, don't cry." He held his hand to her forehead, making sure she was not feverish. The touch roused her, and she blinked at him, trying to see either through the tears or in the dark. She looked barely older than ten as she looked up at him, tear-stained and makeup-free.

"Father," she said, burying her head in his chest. For the first time, all of her defences were down and she was just a small, scared little girl who was severely lacking in love. He let her cry, and he held her until she fell back asleep. An innocent little girl, forced to be something she wasn't. Severus knew there was nothing he could do now to get back time lost, but he promised himself he would not let her darken her soul anymore than she already had. He needed to come up with a plan to keep her from having to kill anyone. He thought he might have just the thing...

****

"An inspection on Christmas Eve? Really? I was just about to close up shop," Harley complained when the two men from the Ministry returned.

"Oh, no, actually we made a bit of a mistake," the first man said. "Every business owner was supposed to fill out a form, and this is Scrimgeour's punishment for our forgetting: making us bring angry wizards and witches down to the Ministry to fill out forms on Christmas Eve."

"It won't take more than ten minutes," the second man reassured her.

Harley sighed. "You had best hope so. I have Christmas to spend with my fiance's family, not waiting in a bloody office. Honestly, if you at the Ministry were in any way competent, everyone's lives would be so much easier." She grabbed her cloak and gloves and Apparated with the men to the phone booth that would take them down into the Ministry.