"Um, dad, I forgot something in my room. I'll be right back, ok?" Tirza started to get up from the breakfast table. Snape shot her a stern look. "Tirza Jade Snape if you are planning on going and getting your rabbit, you can sit right back down." She stuck out her lower lip, pouting. "But daddy, she's lonely!" He shook his head. "The rabbit doesn't come to the table, child." "Daddy, she'd be good; she'd just eat some lettuce and then she'd be so happy. Please?" "Absolutely not." She folded her arms across her chest and scowled. "Sometime you really suck!" "Do you wish to be confined to your room for the day?" Her mouth twitched as she hid a smile. "At least then I could be with Jinn Jinn and she wouldn't be lonely." Snape groaned, this was going to be hopeless. "Do not talk to adults that way." "Okay, this is what you are doing," Tirza opened and closed her hand several times. "This is what I want to do." She closed her hand. It didn't take Snape long to figure out that she just told him to shut up; his expression became one that Tirza knew all too well. "Okay, okay. Sorry, god. You don't have to get all pissy about it. It's a joke; haven't you seen The Master of Disguise?" He raised an eyebrow and she sighed. "Never mind."
"What is this I hear about a rabbit?" Dumbledore interrupted. Tirza smiled at him. "I got a bunny and it's a girl and her name is Jinn Jinn. I named her after Jeannie's genie dog; she's my genie bunny!" "That's very nice," he replied, even though he had no idea what Jeannie and genie dogs were. "Yes, I am hoping that the rabbit will avert her tendency to cause trouble for a while," Snape said. Tirza blushed and glared at him, causing Dumbledore to chuckle. "Dad, please don't talk about that. I've heard enough from the Slytherins and Malfoy about that day to last me a lifetime!" The Slytherins never missed an opportunity to humiliate her by bringing up the events of last Wednesday; particularly Draco. It had pleased him to no end to hear her punishment and give a full account of it to his entire house, who found it absolutely hilarious. "Well I hope you learned a lesson from all that." She continued to glare at Snape. "Yeah: don't make you really pissed off ANYWHERE near a Slytherin, because you don't care about my reputation!" Dumbledore chuckled again and Snape shook his head. "Can I please go play with Jinn Jinn now if she can't come with me?" "Eat something more first; I am not in the mood to have Poppy on my case," Snape replied.
Jinn Jinn tore across the room, a roll of parchment in her mouth, with Snape chasing after her. "Tirza, your rabbit has taken my papers again!" he thundered. The tiny rabbit easily avoided being caught and ran to where Tirza sat on the floor, hopping in her lap. Tirza giggled and Jinn Jinn released the parchment. "I cannot have that rabbit eating everything!" She frowned at him. "Daddy, Jinn Jinn is just a baby and that is what baby bunnies do. She wasn't gonna eat it, she was just trying to play a game with you!" Tirza glanced at the bite mark. "Besides, now it's autographed!" Snape wasn't amused and grabbed the parchment away from Tirza, glaring at the bunny. Tirza covered Jinn Jinn's eyes and glared back at him. "Daddy, you're gonna give her nightmares if you look at her like that!" Snape shook his head and put all his papers away where the nosy rabbit wouldn't be able to reach. "Would you like to help me clean out the classroom?" Tirza nodded. "Yes we do, don't we Jinn Jinn?" 'Merlin, does that rabbit have to go everywhere with her?' he thought.
Snape sat Tirza in front of a cupboard with a rag. "Take out all the bottles and wipe down the inside of the cupboard. Do not break the bottles." She nodded and set Jinn Jinn on the floor. The rabbit tried to run and investigate the room, though she kept sliding on the dungeon floor, but she didn't seem to mind. "How come you get to clean with magic and I don't?" Tirza demanded. "Because I have learned how to use magic and you have not." "Can't I borrow your wand and try? Please?" He shook his head and gave her a stern look. "I do not ever want to see you with my wand, understand? You could get hurt or hurt someone else." She pouted, but nodded. She turned to the cupboard and began to take out the bottles, reading each of the labels. "The bottles are all dusty; ya want me to wipe them off for you?" "As long as you are careful," Snape decided. Twenty minutes later, she had finally dusted the cupboard and all the bottles and began to put them back inside. Snape was busy organizing the extra books and his files on each of the students and was only vaguely aware of Tirza's presence. Jinn Jinn had run out of energy after sliding around on the floor continuously and was sprawled out beside Tirza. Tirza wiped her hand across her forehead, all the dusting was making her really warm. She had decided to put all the bottles in alphabetical order and reached for the one that went next. The bottle was hard to hold in her sweaty hands and it fell to the floor, a thick black liquid began to puddle around her. Jinn Jinn, being curious as all bunnies are, hopped towards the puddle. Tirza tried to grab her, but Jinn Jinn was too fast and hopped right into it. Tirza's foot slipped and she fell into it, splashing the liquid all over her left side. She looked at Jinn Jinn and then at herself. "Uh oh," she whispered.
"Tirza, what's going on?" Snape asked without looking up from his files. "Um," she didn't know what to say. When he didn't receive an answer, he stood up and looked towards the cupboard. There sat a little girl whose hair, skin and clothes where pink on her left side and a rabbit with pink feet and pink ears. "Merlin, what are you into now?" He quickly strode toward them. "It was an accident and Jinn Jinn wanted to look and I tried to get her but I slipped," Tirza quickly told him. "What potion did you break?" She shrugged. "I can't read some of them, you write funny." He looked at the label, which lay amid glass shards; it wasn't good. "Hey, is this supposed to make me itchy?" Tirza asked as she furiously scratched her arm. "We need to get you cleaned up right away." Her face went white. "What is this going to do to me?" "If we don't get you scrubbed off in the next ten minutes, it will start to eat your skin," Snape told her. Tirza's dark eyes grew wide. "What about Jinn Jinn? Is it gonna eat her too?" he shook his head. "She will be just fine, the color will wear off without any effects; the potion does not work for animals. The potion is for severe burns; you put it on and it eats away the dead skin and replaces it with new skin. It is dangerous if you are not burned, so we need to clean you up now." Tirza quickly grabbed Jinn Jinn and followed Snape back to their quarters. "Can't you just use magic?" "No child, the spell to counteract the effect is painful. A good scrubbing with magic soap will work fine."
Jinn Jinn was put in her cage and Tirza followed Snape to the bathroom. "Dad, it's starting to sting really bad!" He quickly filled the bathtub and poured in a potion. "What's that for?" "It will take away the pink color, now hurry and get into the tub child." Tirza looked at him like he was insane. "Not with YOU in here!" she yelled. "Do not fight me child, I know what I'm doing." She backed away. "No way Jose! You can forget that! I'll scrub myself." Snape paused; he hadn't thought about the fact that he was man and she would be upset to be undressed in front of him because of what she had been through. "You can't make me do it while you're in here," she whispered. "Alright, I'm going to get Poppy, but you get in right away and start scrubbing." She nodded and he left, shutting the door behind him.
"Goodness, however do you get into these situations," Poppy asked as she scrubbed the little girl. "Ow! God it stings," Tirza whined. "Hush dear, I'll be done soon. Where is your father when you are getting into trouble?" "You gonna yell at him again?" Tirza asked. She would have giggled if the whole left half of her body wasn't stinging. "Well really, he's a teacher, he should know how to take care of a child better," Poppy told her. "I think I'm just really accident prone. I was the same with my mom, so it's not just him." Poppy smiled at her. Snape, standing outside, knocked on the door. "Dad you can't come in!" Tirza yelled. "How is it going?" Snape asked his voice full of concern. "She'll live Severus, no thanks to you letting her play with potions!" Snape sighed, thinking that Poppy secretly enjoyed getting on his case. A half hour later, Poppy declared that she was as washed and scrubbed as could be. Tirza looked at herself in amazement. "Wow, if I had scrubbed that hard and that long I'd be bleeding all over the place!" Poppy smiled. "Well, I put a spell on you dear so that I could scrub you off without hurting you." Tirza giggled. "This magic stuff is so cool!"
Tirza walked down the hallway, headed outside to watch Oliver practice quidditch, and this time Snape made sure she took a sweater. She could hear a voice from up ahead as someone was coming towards her. She readjusted the large pink bag on her shoulder and tried to see who it was. "Oh god," she groaned. Draco Malfoy and his cronies were walking her direction. She almost turned to go the other way, but decided against it. Tirza Shelby might be tiny for her age, but she certainly wasn't a coward and she wasn't going to become one either. She continued to walk, making up her mind to ignore him if at all possible. "Well, if it isn't the ex-prankster? I certainly hope you aren't out to plant more dung bombs on people. I don't know about you, but I enjoy sitting," Draco said with a smirk. He would never pass up a chance to embarrass her and get her into trouble again! Tirza held her head high and walked past him, biting her tongue to keep from 'cursing' him again in French. Draco, Crabbe and Goyle watched as she walked past; that wasn't like her! Draco refused to allow her to ignore him and ran after her, pushing her against a wall. "Come on man, I just wanna go watch quidditch practice, not start world war three." Draco held her there, hoping she would take a swing at him so he could tattle on her. "Look, I'm not in the mood for this bullshit." Tirza cringed as he still held her, wanting to punch him. "God, let go of me already!" she yelled. At her yell, Jinn Jinn, who was riding in the large pink bag, peeked her head up out of the bag. Draco saw Jinn Jinn's head appear from what seemed like nowhere and screamed, releasing Tirza. Tirza took the opportunity and ran, laughing. "Good job Jinn Jinn!"
It was 5:30AM and Snape was awake. He had, in fact, already been up for a half hour and finally decided to give up the hope of sleep. Oh well, he would be up by 6 anyway. He created a fire in the large fireplace of the sitting room with his wand. He glanced towards Tirza's bedroom and had the urge to check on her. Snape opened the door and saw Tirza duck under the covers. He chuckled and sat beside her, pulling the covers down to reveal her little face. "And what are you doing up?" She smiled and shook her. "Why shouldn't I be up?" "Don't answer a question with a question," Snape replied. "How's doing that?" "You are." "I am?" "Yes." "Why on earth would I do that?" He threw his hands in the air. "I give up!" He started to tickle her and she squealed with delight. "Daddy, we're gonna wake up Jinn Jinn!" Sure enough, Snape looked over at the cage and the rabbit lazily opened her eyes, stomped and rolled over. "She fell asleep around 2. I guess she's not one for late nights," Tirza told him. "And why weren't you asleep?" She shrugged. "Couldn't sleep. Watched TV for a while and I was laying here thinking until you interrupted me." Snape smiled at her. "And what were you thinking of?" Tirza sighed. "Mom and fairies and Robin Hood." "Robin Hood?" He asked, raising an eyebrow. She giggled. "Yeah. I thought about how if I was alive when Robin Hood was that I would have liked to be in his band of Merry Men and I could be the Merry Girl and help them steal from nasty Prince John and have millions of adventures. Wouldn't that be cool?" Snape truly had no idea where she came up with this kind of stuff; it must be from her mother, because it most certainly wasn't from him. "You think of the most extraordinary things," he mused. "I know and Mr. Spock would say it was illogical, but I don't care. It's fun to be illogical." Snape smiled and kissed her cheek. "You are truly precious, do you know that? Her face lit up. "Really?" He nodded and pulled her onto his lap. "Yes. The humorous thing is, now that I have you, I don't think I could live without you." Tirza beamed. "Me too, daddy. Can I have some coffee?" "No," Snape firmly told her. "But that was an excellent try." She pretended to bow to an audience. "Thank you, thank you." He chuckled and began to tickle her again.
Snape and Tirza sat with the teachers at that night's quidditch game; Gryffindor versus Hufflepuff. "Yeah, go Gryffindors!" Tirza yelled, jumping up and down. "Go Oliver!" She followed his every move with adoration shining in her eyes. A Hufflepuff girl flew towards Oliver and made a score. "No man! Bullshit! I demand a replay!" Tirza yelled. Snape studied her as she intently watched Oliver. "You like Mr. Wood, I take it?" "Oh yeah," she said, sighing dreamily. Snape shook his head as he began to think that Tirza might fancy herself 'in love' with Wood. 'I hope I'm wrong, but if I'm not, I see disaster."