Everyone knew what Hermione was like. Once she had her mind set on something, it was there until her question was answered. That was why as soon as the school day ended that Monday, Hermione didn't go with Ron and Harry to the great hall to eat. Instead, she walked the corridors that she knew far too well, to the library where she sat at her favourite desk and began to study a pile of large books that she had pulled of the shelf from the P section.
Defence Against The Dark arts class had been wonderful, Professor Prince seemed to be the perfect teacher, except from the fact that she knew nothing of the true wizarding world, like The-Boy-Who-Lived. The girl had excused herself from her friend's company so she could answer the nagging question of 'Where had she read the name Prince before?' Hermione flicked non-stop through the book in front of her. She slammed the cover shut when she found nothing. Sighing, the young girl pushed her bushy hair behind her ears, she tapped her fingers on the books for a minute until a thought popped into her head. Silently standing up and tucking her chair in under the library table, Hermione moved lightly across the room of books, slipping quietly between the shelves. Looking over her shoulder, Hermione checked that the librarian wasn't watching her, before she crouched under the rope of the restricted section.
xxx
"I see that you survived your lesson today" Severus said as he took a seat next to Dehlia at the teachers table in the great hall. It was dinner time and the room was full of happy chatter and laughter as the students ate and the professors discussed merrily about their lessons. In the past weeks, the Snape sisters had settled in and were also in deep conversation with the teachers, Hogwarts was their home as well now.
"Well, judging on I'm sat here right now and how many students are smiling and glancing at me, yes it went really well, Severus" Dehlia said, smiling at her brother as she took a sip of berry juice in a goblet.
"Don't look so smug" Severus said as he picked up his goblet. "No one's perfect, you will have done something wrong."
"Really? Like what?" Dehlia challenged.
"Talk me through the lesson with the second year Gryffindor and Slytherins" Severus said.
"Why them?"
"Because they cause the most trouble" Severus answered plainly.
"Well... when they came in, they sat down and I introduced myself" Dehlia began.
"As what?" Severus interrupted.
"Professor Prince" Dehlia responded. She saw Severus roll his eyes and drink from his goblet. "Really Severus?"
"What!" Severus exclaimed.
"It was mother's name, you should honour it, and maybe even use it. Come on Sev, the whole reason you know the darkness is because of money- even though we had tons and tons of it in the Prince vault. You wouldn't swallow your Snape pride."
"Hey" Severus said in a hushed voice. "You are not a Prince!"
"By inheritance and blood I kind of am" said Dehlia. "Anyway, I can shout at you about that later. After I had introduced myself and answered some questions, I asked for everyone's name and they gave it to me. I recognised Draco Malfoy's name and said that I had a brother who knew his parents."
"Did you say anything else about me?" Severus said.
"A little, but not much, don't worry" said Dehlia. "Then I-"
"Wait!" Severus exclaimed, almost jumping out of his chair. He lowered his voice, but it was clear that he was panicked. "Did you come across the name 'Potter'?"
"Yes, Harry Potter, he seems nice" said Dehlia.
"But- um... what did you say to him?" Severus asked uncertainly.
"Why?" Dehlia asked. "I didn't say anything."
"Do you know the story?"
"What story?"
"About Harry Potter?" said Severus
"There's a story?"
"Well, I'm doomed" Severus said. He stood up. "Get your sisters." And Severus exited the hall like that out of the side door. Dehlia narrowed her eyebrows in confusion as she watched her brother leave, she stood up and shook her head. Then she walked behind the teachers table to the line where the other girls were sitting and motioned for them to follow her.
xxx
Some of the girls shared the sofa, others sat in the armchairs, Severus faced them all in his own chair. They were back in his chambers, dinner was still going on, the whole atmosphere was grave and spooky. In their living room, the Snape's had lit the fire and little torches around the walls, it was dim lighting, like a story time in school, for it was story time. For hours, until the night, Severus told his sisters of that night when Harry Potter became The-Boy-Who-Lived. The girls were shocked and intrigued, but by the time they went to bed, Severus felt that he only needed to talk to Dehlia. The two oldest siblings sat next to each other, talking quietly so they didn't wake their sisters.
"Do you think I gave it away by not reacting differently to his name?" Dehlia said.
"Perhaps" said Severus.
"Oh" Dehlia looked glum.
"In that class there are smart children. You told Malfoy that your brother knew his parents, you confused the whole class by not knowing who Harry Potter was, and I'm fairly certain that if I went up to the library I would find Miss Granger snooping around the section labelled 'P' for Prince" Severus spoke. "Any moment now, with all of that information together, they could know that I am your brother and I am connected with the dark lord." Dehlia didn't say anything as she hung her head. "But it's not your fault." Her head shot up. "I should have told you about Potter, and I should have let you and the other girls have more freedom, but it was hard after Mother and Father died, you know that."
"Yes, I do."
"If they demand anything, you deny it and send them to me, I'll knock some sense into them" said Severus. "And you were right, your lesson did go well. And then you were right once more; I should have been called Prince, and taken the vault money, it would have got us out of trouble."
Severus remembered how lost he was when his parents had died. They had lived in a huge manor with gold and silver. Money was short when they no longer had parents, Severus refused to take Prince money from the vault, that was how the Dark Lord sought him out and recruited him for evil. When Severus became high ranking with his magic as a death eater, he was set up to marry, but he knew it was bad news, luckily, just as the wedding was coming near, Voldemort had been defeated by Harry Potter. Severus often wondered what it would have been like if he had actually married her, but now that the Dark Lord was returning and she was free, Severus's betrothal to Bellatrix was not off the table.
xxx
"Harry! Ron!" Hermione ran down the great hall tables over to her friends. She bent over, her bushy hair in Harry and Ron's faces. "I have to show you something! Now! Come on it's important!"
"Bloody hell, Hermione, let me finish" Ron said as he shoved more potatoes into his mouth. But the girl had already pulled the boys out of their seats and pushed them down the hall. Hermione turned around as fast as lightning and grabbed Draco by the arm.
"You too Malfoy!" Hermione said as she ranged the three boys out of the hall.
"Hermione! Where are we going!?" Harry asked as the girl pulled them all up the stairs and into the library doors. She sat them all down at a table and pulled a small book out from the shelf where she had previously hidden her findings.
"I found this in the restricted section" the girl said. "It's all about the prince family. I knew I recognised the name from somewhere! Look at this page, 'Eileen Prince now has seven heirs to the Prince family throne, a son and six daughters.'"
"That's Professor Prince" said Draco.
"Yes, but look who their father was" said Hermione. She pointed at a name. "'The father of her children, Tobias Snape!'"
"SNAPE!" Ron exclaimed.
"NO!" said Harry. "Wait... so you're saying that Severus Snape is the older brother of Prince and her sisters?!"
"Yes" Hermione confirmed. "And, he is the heir to the Prince fortune!"
"Hold on... Snape!" said Draco. "You're right! He fits the description of my parent's friend perfectly! And- oh god."
"What?!" the trio said in harmony.
"My aunt Bellatrix, she and Snape have history, big history!"
"You mean Bellatrix Lestrange, the crazy witch who escaped from Azkaban!?" said Ron.
"Yes, and if this is all correct, then Snape and his sisters are more dangerous than the Dark Lord himself!"