August 1985

"Very good, very good!" Albus Dumbledore clapped his hands. "That should be all for this week's general staff meeting. If there are no more questions, I bid you all a pleasant afternoon. Heads of House, if you please, I do require your company for just a few more moments. I will try to make it brief."

Chairs scrapped against the wooden floor of the Hogwarts staff room as members scrambled to leave the meeting.

"Now," Dumbledore began once the room was empty save for himself and the four Heads of House, "This September, Hogwarts will admit one additional student than currently on the roster and this student will make Hogwarts history by being granted admittance a year early."

Miverva McGonagall's eyes widened in shock. The name's of Hogwarts students were recorded in the roster at the time of their birth. Occasionally, a name would have to be manually added if a family moved to the country with a magical child, but an early admittance was unheard of in all of Hogwart's History.

"Is that wise, Albus?" McGonagall asked.

"I believe it is necessary," the Headmaster answered with a grim expression on his face. "The child in question has unleashed accidental magic so powerful it nearly killed a girl. Training her to control it is a matter of public safety. Moreover, the child's mother has contacted me personally and informed me of some extenuating circumstances that have made it clear an early admittance is for the best. Therefore, I must ask whomever gains this student in their House to keep a careful eye on them and treat personal information pertaining to them with the utmost discretion."

"Very well," Pomona Sprout nodded, "What's the name of the new student?"

"Catarina Halliwell."

"What kind of accidental magic was produced?" asked Filius Flitwick.

"Fire. A rather strong one at that. The ministry officials sent to the scene likened it to Fiendfyre."

"Dark magic of that magnitude can be cast accidentally?" McGonagall gasped.

Dumbledore bowed his head in a low nod. "As I've said, this student is a rather special case. On that note, I do ask that if any concerns pop up over the course of the school year regarding Miss Halliwell that you bring them promptly to my attention. And do take care to keep staffroom gossip to a minimum, as information regarding this pupil must be held with the strictest of confidence."

Dumbledore took a moment to survey his colleagues. When no more questions arose, he dismissed them to continue with their preparations for the upcoming school year at their leisure.

"Oh, and Severus?" he called out before the Head of Slytherin House could slip away, "Do join me for a spot of tea this evening, won't you?"

Understanding that this was more of a command than a request, Severus Snape nodded curtly before taking his leave.

. . .

"What do you know of demons, Severus?"

Professor Snape blinked in surprise. Whatever the Headmaster had summoned him for, he did not anticipate it to be this topic. Slowly, he answered, "There are several variants. Some humanoid, others more akin to beasts. Each have a great potential for dark magic, which they can perform without the need for a wand or incantation."

"In your time working for Voldemort-" Severus flinched at the name. "Did he ever express an interest in exploiting demonic powers?"

"He held a fascination for it, yes, but it was pure fantasy. The Dark Lord craved domination and even he knew better than to antagonize a force greater than himself. He yearned not to utilize their power, but to take it for himself. He theorized that if he could siphon a demon's power and add it to his own repertoire, he could become as powerful as Merlin. To the best of my knowledge, he never seriously developed any plans, though."

Dumbledore nodded. "Yes, an overlooked part of Merlin's history is that he was indeed a cambion- a union between a incubus and a witch. It has been theorized that his ability for the demonic arts is what helped him achieve such unparalleled greatness. But how he managed to become a figure celebrated for the power of Light rather than Darkness, I cannot say."

Dumbledore appeared lost in thought, tracing the edge of his teacup with his pointer finger.

"Headmaster?"

"Severus, I must ask you to conduct some research for me. Find out as much about cambions as you can. In particular, I am curious to see how many lived to be full grown and what legacy they left behind."

Snape raised an eyebrow. "Does this by any chance have to do with the new student you informed us of earlier?"

Dumbledore's eyes twinkled behind his half-moon spectacles. "That, my dear boy, remains to be seen."

Severus took that as a resounding "Yes."

Over the next several weeks, Severus spent his evenings poured over thick tomes in his house at Spinner's End. He read all he could find on incubus, succubus, and cambions- and had to look through books he had received from The Dark Lord himself to do it. As it turned out, Cambions were exceedingly rare. Those born of a succubus were usually trained by its mother to perform the Dark Arts and lure mortals into the Abyss to reap their souls. It was much rarer for a witch to give birth to the spawn of a demon, likely because it had become common practice for witches expecting to deliver a cambion to put an end to the pregnancy or to smother it to death once it had been born. Prior to that practice, infant cambions often killed their own mothers while nursing and frequently ended up in orphanages or on the streets because no one wanted such troublesome children with ungodly wails.

Severus could find several chapters on the abilities of Cambions, who could grow more powerful then either of their parents. However, he could not help but wonder how many of these powers were mere fables given the lack of information there was on actual known Cambions in history. Every text that mentioned demonic offspring had to dedicate at least a paragraph to Merlin and there were entire books on the wizard that Severus felt compelled to read through as part of his research. But despite all the books agreeing that Merlin was the only Cambion who ever fought for the Light- some texts going so far are to say he had been blessed by a priest as a baby to rid him of any semblance of evil- there was precious little evidence that other Cambions even made it to adulthood. The only ones Severus could find out about who did- Emeric the Evil and Lord Abbadon – were infamous for their reigns of terror and had been killed in battle while still in their prime.

He passed all of this information on to Dumbledore, of course, and couldn't help but wonder what the Headmaster would do with it. This was, after all, the same man who allowed a werewolf to attend Hogwarts- even after the same werewolf was involved in a plot to murder Severus himself. Part of Severus agreed with Minerva that it was mad to allow a dangerous student in the castle. A larger part of him was just naturally curious to see how powerful one child could be.

Severus found himself awaiting this year's Sorting Ceremony with renewed interest. On the night of September 1st when McGonagall led the first years into the Great Hall, he looked them over hoping to detect some kind of dark aura that would help him pinpoint the little troublemaker. All he saw, however, was the usual bunch of awe-faced dunderheads staring every which way as they took in the sights of the Great Hall for the first time. He sneered in disgust, knowing that he'd just have to wait for the name call like everyone else.

Six students had already been sorted before McGonagall called out, "Halliwell, Catarina!"

A brown-haired girl noticeably smaller than her peers stepped forward, eyeing the Sorting Hat warily. Other than being clearly too young to be a Hogwarts student, Severus could not see anything unusual about her.

But of course, Severus reminded himself, no one could detect anything malicious about Lord Voldemort just by looking at him in his younger years at Hogwarts either.

When the Hat called out, "SLYTHERIN!" he was hardly surprised.