Father, daughter time (Severus&Rachel) (PG-13)

Rachel was standing in front of her father's potions cupboard, searching the racks for the right ingredients for her potions. Rachel had been setting everything ready for brewing a potions. It was a free day and she was bored. She had been cleaning her bed, done her homework and even wrote a letter to her mother already. She hadn't seen Mio nor her twin so she decided to ask her dad if she could make the potion The Swelling Solution.

"You know dad, you have like a big stockroom for your potions ingredients but don't they rot. How long can you keep for example dried nettles?" Rachel asked curiously. She grabbed the bottle with dried nettles, the pufferfish eyes and she was only searching for the bat spleens. She didn't see it right away.

Rachel found all the ingredients and walked back to her table, she grabbed her potions book and found the right page, she had made this potion once before with her dad so she had been scribbled some things in it to make a better version.

It had been long and tedious week and Severus was glad to have a free day to catch up on all the homework he had to correct. The children were hard enough to keep in check as it was, but because of the tournament and all the new students, they seemed even less inclined to pay attention, resulting in him handing out a great amount of detentions even for his standard.

Looking up from his desk, Severus glanced at his daughter who was setting out her ingredients she would use for the potion she planned to make. To be honest, he had been pleasantly surprised when she had asked him about it. After all the fights they had gone through in the last time, it was nice to just have her with him without any arguments.

"There are special charms on the storeroom so that the temperature and humidity remains the same which allows me to store the ingredients for a long time. The dried nettles you have there for example can be used for up to three years while other ingredients like for example rat spleens can only be used for a few days. That's why it is important to not only study potions, but also Herbology and how storing influences the potency of ingredients." Severus easily fell back into his lecture mode.

Rachel listened to her father, explaining her the questions. When her father mentioned Herbology she was really surprised as she really loved that lesson as well as potions. "I have Herbology as well and it is very interesting. The professor has a big tentacula but i rather stay out of it's way. We are learning about Mandrakes, i just finished my essay this morning in the library and....Ohh the library dad, it is really fantastic, i really want such a library at home." Rachel chatted excitedly and then she fell quiet as she was reading up on her potions before she began.

She started to crush the dried nettles and looked up at her dad. She was really glad to be with him alone. She found him a little bit creepy when he was teaching but that was to be expected with a full classroom. She always tried to sit in the front row as the others were always talking.

Listening to his daughter, Severus had to smile, slightly amused by her description. Rachel was always so eager when she could talk about something that interested her and to see that her interest went along his own was all the more pleasing for him. So far, he didn't have any chance to speak to the new professor, but he seemed talented enough, so Rachel could learn a lot from the man. "I see your doubts about coming to Hogwarts have been wiped away?" he commented smirking at her. Severus remembered how Rachel used to be quite reluctant to join school, for various reasons, but now she seemed quite happy with her new home.

Rachel nodded but looked away for a moment, thinking of asking him a question. "Dad, do you think mom is safe on her own in our house? I mean you are here, we are here too? I do like it here a lot, i had too many expectations and when i came here they weren't true, Mio and David were nice but the only thing that bothered me at first that is that i wasn't in the same house you or mom was in. Mio and his friends and mom calmed me down at that subject though." Rachel said as she looked down at her potions book to read the next step.

She also crushed the puffer fish eyes with the dried nettles in the mortar and she looked at the results, it was a nice fine powder. She followed the next two steps and waved with her wand and let it leave to brew for an hour. Rachel walked to her father's desk and sat down on a table across from him. "It needs to brew for an hour." She explained her actions.

While she was preparing everything for the potion, Severus had turned back to his own work when her voice made him look up again. Her words had him raise an eye brow, not having expected her sorting to be a subject of doubt. "You were actually worried about that?" he asked her, leaning back in his chair to focus his attention on his daughter. "To be honest, it did not surprise me a lot to see you being sorted into Ravenclaw. You are very eager to learn new things and to study, who else, but a Ravenclaw would spend his free day in a classroom?" Severus pointed out with an amused smirk. It was quite typical for his youngest child to worry about things like that, but maybe he should have talked to her about it a bit earlier.

"About your mother, you really need not worry about her. I floo over to our home every other night to check up on her and I think, she quite enjoys some time without all of us to bother her." He told her while she sat down at his desk. “I hope you show such interest in all of your classes as you do in potions and Herbology, then you will make your mother and me very proud, Rachel.” Severus looked down at her seriously.

Rachel looked at her father as he was surprised that she was worried. "I know." She looked away for a moment and smiled at his comment. "I wanted to do this because i wanted to spend time with you too." Rachel said to him.

Rachel was really happy to hear her mother was doing so good at home without us. She smirked at him and she walked up to him, hugging him. "Does that mean i'm getting a new little brother?" She whispered. She really wanted a little brother or sister but more a little brother. Her mother had laughed at the question but gave a true answer as maybe when you and Violet are at school. Now that her father was going back home, the possibility was bigger. Rachel kissed his cheek and walked back to her cauldron to look at the potion and then returned to her previous spot.

Severus crossed his hands in front of him and leaned forward slightly to look at his daughter in thought for a few moments. "I am glad to hear that, Rachel. I know things were a bit tense between us lately, but I hope we can move past that. Maybe some distance we have here will help with that." he said calmly, though a small smile was on his lips. He would not have much time during the school term to spend with his children, but sometimes an afternoon could be enough. Severus pulled his daughter into a one armed hug when her words almost made him choke. "What?" he gasped in surprise and stared at her. "A sibling? I thought you had enough of your two other siblings already?" Severus shook his head at his child, amazed at her question.

Rachel nuzzled closer to him. "I already did let it behind me, dad. I really regret that period and i was really sad those weeks." Rachel looked at her hands before she shook head to shake it all off and started giggling at his sudden reaction. "No, a little brother is different than a twin sister and a big brother, i would really care for this little humble. Mom said maybe." Rachel said to him but she knew her parents would not make another baby but it was always fun to tease them with it, like the reaction she got today.

It was a relief to hear these words from his daughter and Severus truly hoped that the tenseness between them would lie in the past. He knew that he was not a patient man and that every disagreement with him usually ended in a full-blown fight which was something he tried to prevent from happening.
Deciding to just let the subject drop and turn to more pleasant topics, Severus raised his brow at his daughter, amusement shining in his eyes. "Your mother said maybe? Really...now that is interesting. I will have to talk to her about that." he said, chuckling slightly. The thought of another child had not even crossed his mind, but with all the rumors about the Dark Lord's return, it would probably not be the best time for a child. "You do know that little children can be quite annoying as well, right?"

Rachel was still smirking at her father and nodded at his question. "Well mom raised Mio, Violet and me so she could raise the little baby too and we don't really see it much as we're here most of the time." Rachel said. "Well maybe you should use the Floo Network more often as mom would be having food cravings all the time when she is pregnant."

Rachel had learned quite a lot about baby's since there was a teacher on her old school had one. "Did she had food cravings when she was pregnant of us, Violet and me? I bet she did with Mio, he can eat like a giant sometimes! Have you seen him eat at the Welcome Feast? It was not only him but it looked like all those poor kids had nothing to eat when they were home! I hadn't eat that much and when i noticed a Ravenclaw boy next to me eating like a pig, i had become nauseous." Rachel crinkled her nose at the thought of the boy.

Rachel walked away to peek at her potion, she still had 35 minutes to go before she could add the other ingredients. She walked back when everything seemed fine. "Do you like the food here? I don't see you eat much here, you have that angry face on but when you look at Violet and Mio and me, you fail to keep your angry face, your eyes goes a little softer. I really like that, dad" Rachel hugged him and gave him kisses on his cheek.