Author's Note: This is the sequel to Caught in the Middle. You can most likely glean all the information that you need to enjoy this story in bits and pieces as the story continues, but I highly recommend that you read Caught in the Middle first. For my readers who already read Caught in the Middle, welcome back. :)

"Hello?"

"Hello. Could you tell me if this is the house of Alexander Snape?"

"Daaad!"

"Sorry son, I didn't recognize you. You must have grown a full five inches since I left the house this morning."

I grinned, and poked my head out of the kitchen just in time to hear Alexander reply, "Dad, you know no such thing happened."

"Whether or not it did, I have arrived with three very important letters for my three eldest children," Severus said, smiling until the light of it reached his eyes.

Alexander's eyes grew wide and he quite literally ripped the letter addressed to him out of Severus's hands. He trembled as he opened it, and the letter shook in his hands as his eyes darted across the page, soaking in the letter's contents. A smile played about his lips and he yelled, "It's my Hogwarts letter!"

The twins ambled into the living room slowly, chatting about the newest feat of the Holyhead Harpies. Severus Tobias, Tobias to avoid confusion around the house, our five year old son, rushed into the room after hearing Alexander's shout. His eyes grew wide like Alexander's had and he asked Severus, "Can I go to Hogwarts too dad? Pleeaassse?"

Severus chuckled and ran his hand through Tobias's hair affectionately. "When you're eleven like Alexander, you can go to Hogwarts too. Not a moment sooner."

"But you're the Headmaster!" Tobias whined. "Can't you make an exception?"

"No," Severus said sternly.

Posy and Melanie broke their conversation to look at their father and wordlessly take their letters. Like everything else about them, other than their looks, their reactions were two different extremes. Melanie's quiet acceptance of it with a benign smile and Posy's whoop of joy to be getting her Hogwarts letter for the second year in a row. It thoroughly puzzled me on how different they were. To Melanie, grades were everything. For Posy, grades were important, but not as much as making friends and hanging out with them. Melanie could charm anyone she wanted when she turned on her wit and brilliant smile. Posy could make anyone weep for her if she simply put on a rather theatrical show with a few crocodile tears. Of course though, when turned on her stoic father who was much used to it, nothing was ever accomplished.

I shook my head in wonder at their very different personalities and went back to making dinner. From the kitchen, I could hear Alexander running with muffled footsteps to me and he burst in, saying breathlessly, "Mum, did you hear? I got my letter!"

I hummed in response and said, "Well, that makes it how many more days now until you go?"

"14!" he responded jovially. Severus had begun the practice of owling the letters to magical children two weeks before school, rather than on their birthday. For muggle-born children, letters were delivered by Pomona Sprout in person a month in advance of school starting.

However, as being the Headmaster had some privileges, Severus had decided to hand-deliver the children's letters to them every year.

I smiled as Alexander did a little jig around the kitchen, his heart surely singing. He had waited so long for the letter… I was a proud mother.

In my mind, I had stopped referring to him as my brother and began to call him my son. I was a mother to him in all of the most important ways, the only snag being that I didn't birth him. But it made no difference to me, or to Severus, who had taken him in with as much love as if his blood ran in Alexander's veins as well. I nodded towards the table and he understood that it was his turn to set it.

"So, when do you want to go to Diagon Alley?" I asked, stirring the pot of noodles that was to make that night's spaghetti.

He screwed up his face in thought and then looked at me sheepishly. "Would you mind if we go tomorrow?"

I giggled at his zealous attitude and said, "Of course we can!"

At this point, Severus had walked into the kitchen and given me a small kiss on the cheek. Posy and Melanie came into the kitchen and Posy asked, "Mum, would you mind if we didn't go to Diagon Alley this year?"

I paused what I was doing and said, "Why not? Don't you need new school supplies?"

Melanie rolled her eyes and said, "Well, yeah, but we don't want to traipse around bustling, stuffy Diagon Alley. We'd rather walk down Hogsmeade and take our time selecting supplies rather than being rushed because every store is packed."

I put a hand on my hip and said, "I'm not going to two different places to get school things. You can come to Diagon Alley with us."

"But mum, we're old enough, just let us go out to Hogsmeade by ourselves and we'll be fine," Posy reasoned.

To clear up confusion on this point, I should probably mention that we eventually sold Spinner's End and moved to Hogsmeade for several reasons. One, I wanted my children to grow up in a very magical settlement where they wouldn't have to abashedly apologize for magical accidents as a child. Secondly, Severus and I taught at the school, my subject being Muggle Studies and him being promoted to Headmaster a couple years ago, and we didn't want to live in the castle with as many children as we had, but needed to live closer by. And lastly, Severus didn't want to raise his children in the house that held so many horrible childhood memories for him, the house where he had seen his mother murdered before his eyes. So, we moved before Alexander's third birthday into a more spacious house. Which was a good thing, since we had baby number five due extremely soon.

The twins were being forced to share a room, which they didn't mind much, but I could tell it bothered Alexander to have to share a room with a brother who was so much younger than he. Alexander and Tobias had had their own rooms, but Tobias had to move in last month with Alexander so we could start preparing it as a nursery for the new baby. Severus had bluntly refused to have a pink room of any shade in his house, baby girl or not. So I had to resign to painting it a nice purple.

Back to the twins. While we lived in Hogsmeade, and I knew most of the people and trusted them not to hurt my children, I didn't like the thought of them going out alone to shop when they were only twelve years old. Not to mention, Harry and Ron had informed me that the Ministry was keeping a new terrorist group that was forming hushed up, because they didn't want to inform the public just yet. But apparently they were going the same way as Voldemort and were trying to gather ex-Death Eaters and other Pureblood sympathizers.

"I mean, we know that you're not," Ron had explained. "But if they catch wind about you and Alexander, something may happen to the two of you. They may think you have information that they could use to gain a larger following."

I had snorted in derision. "Who in their right mind would think that Voldemort passed down any knowledge to me after I publicly denounced and demoralized him in front of the entire Wizarding World, father or not?"

Harry had shaken his head and said, "They're foreign, so they're not going to know much about him. Just that he was against Muggleborns. That's enough for them."

So I was hesitant to let my daughters leave my sight if such a terrorist group was lurking about. I was terrified, in a somewhat irrational way, that they were going to snatch my daughters up and hurt them. I felt sick in the pit of my stomach every time I thought that, and memories of their childish screams for mercy came floating back to me, the sensation of tears pouring down my face, unable to rescue them.

I blinked away the sudden unbidden tears that had formed in my eyes and said firmly, "No. You are not to go shopping on your own. You're not old enough. You're coming to Diagon Alley with us."

"But Mum-"

"No buts!" I said warningly, brandishing my wand, which I was using to make dinner. "I don't want to hear another word on the subject."

They fell silent and I could tell that they resented my choice. It didn't matter if they resented me, just as long as my baby girls were safe. Mechanically, I put a hand on my belly, thinking again about their torture. I could feel a hand on my arm and looked up at Severus, who had concern written in his eyes. He knew what I was thinking. And I knew he was thinking it too.

I patted his hand and wordlessly began to serve dinner.

"Tobias!" I yelled, and he came pattering into the kitchen. We all sat down and began to eat, Alexander asking the twins about Hogwarts and Tobias telling Severus about the toy wand he had gotten a couple days ago. To Severus's credit, who had heard a couple hundred times already, managed to look attentive and respond appropriately. But I could tell he was looking at me.

Twelve years of marriage, and sometimes I still couldn't read him. I could have used Occlumency, but what was the point? He usually told me anyways. But-

"OW!"

I turned quickly to Tobias who I knew had screamed that and asked him, "What's wrong?"

He pointed a rather cute, chubby finger at Alexander and said, "He pinched me!"

I threw a reproving glance in his direction, and, in a manner that was most like me, I had to admit, threw his hands in the air and said, "It's his fault!"

I raised my eyebrows disbelievingly and said, "Oh really?"

Alexander then looked rather sheepish and said, "Well, kind of! He said that there was no way I could be dad's son."

I inhaled sharply and looked at Severus quickly, who, as always in this kind of situation, betrayed no emotion. I cursed him for his control, and addressed Tobias, "Well, what makes you think that?"

His forehead puckered as he clearly searched for the right words and he said, "Well, sons are supposed to look like fathers, and daughters are supposed to look like mums. Alexander doesn't look like dad."

I laughed, delighted that this was something that could be easily solved. For a moment, I had believed that Tobias had found the truth and had told Alexander, which would have been detrimental. I tucked my hair behind my ear and said, "Not necessarily honey. That doesn't happen all the time. And Alexander looks like me, which definitely means that our blood flows the same."

I was always careful not to expressly mention that I was Alexander's mother. Oh, I introduced him as my son and told people I was his mother, but when it came to matters like genealogical possibilities, I was always very careful not to state outright I was his mother. It was rather hypocritical in some aspects, but I wanted to keep my brother/son happy and safe.

"But now you have to apologize to Alexander. And Alexander, you have to do the same," Severus said quietly.

They said their humble apologies, both appeased by how the conversation went and continued on amicably, but Severus and I remained rather quiet for the rest of dinner. I could see the haunted, horrified look in his eyes that wondered what would happen if Alexander was revealed to not be our son. And I could tell that the look mirrored in my eyes.

I loved him too much to tell him who he truly came from. We didn't even tell them anything about Voldemort being their grandfather; we merely introduced my mother and father, Narcissa and Lucius Malfoy, as their grandparents and Draco as their uncle. I had made them all take a vow of silence on it.

I wondered how much longer we could go until the truth would reveal itself. Hopefully forever.

Author's Note: It feels so good to dive back into their world! Unfortunately, I won't be able to post as religiously as I did for Caught in the Middle since I now have school to keep me busy. But I will try to update as much as I can. Thank you all again who read Caught in the Middle and wanted to read the sequel. You're all darling. :) As always, I am open to suggestions and so what, so leave a comment on what you liked/didn't like/want to see. Until next chapter! :)

P.S. I just kind of came up with the title, if any of you have better suggestions for it, let me know. The website required a title and I just came up with one on the spot.