Still Their Slytherin

Chapter 1: Still in Charge of You

Severus Snape stretched in his bed like a cat, with his arms flung out in front of him and his bum arched briefly into the air. Then his arms wrapped around the pillow and tucked it up under his chest and chin. He sighed happily. Wait, I'm happy?... huh, that's weird. I can't recall the last time I woke up happy. He thought to himself, blinking his eyes to look at the familiar red and gold embroidered hangings around his bed… Red and gold?!

Severus snapped over onto his back and sat up as fast as a bolt of lightning and as rigid as an arrow. How did he get here? This was obviously a Gryffindor dorm room, but he didn't dare pull the curtain aside to see who his roommates were. Oh Merlin, what if this was some cruel prank from one of the upper class Slytherin's? Yes, that would be just their style… delivering him to the hands of his enemies; a fresh black lamb to the slaughter. He shuddered, and it was then that he realized he wasn't wearing his usual coarse nightshirt; instead he had on a sleek hunter green silken one that he could feel went down around his calves, instead of his knees. He shifted his hips slightly, trying not to make too much noise as he inspected his newly attired body. Boxers? Silk boxers!! Where the bloody hell am I and whose been meddling with my clothing! Severus had no sooner thought this than his bed hangings were hastily jerked open by none other than Sirius Black. His obsidian eyes went wide.

"Hey guys! He's up and back to normal!" Black shouted over his shoulder.

Guys, oh Salazar nooooo… Severus whined in his head as he saw both James Potter and Remus Lupin join Black at his bedside. Upon seeing all of them together, (were they smiling at him?), he did what any reasonable Slytherin would do. He squealed like a girl and fell backwards off the other side of the bed, landing upside down in an ungraceful heap.



Sirius was completely nonplussed at Sev's reaction to them. After all, he was supposed to remember being a toddler, wasn't he?

Remus cursed and came around the other side of the bed. It's just like that brat to get himself hurt first thing!!

James rolled his eyes at how overdramatic the other boy was. Yup, that was Severus all right, leave it to him to break his neck getting out of be- oh Godric! His neck! James berated himself for forgetting how fragile the Slytherin was, even after taking care of him as a toddler for a month.

Severus Snape was upside down on the floor, with his nightshirt around his armpits and three, heaven help him, concerned looking Gryffindors around him. It was looking upside-down at those concerned faces that brought back flashes.

Sitting on the floor and crying because the two older boys were laughing at him for sniffling.

Remus carrying him through the school and helpfully pointing out pictures to him.

Sitting on Sirius's lap and making an absolute mess of himself, then the Sir- no… Padfoot holding him with a skinned knee.

Playing in the snow. Hot chocolate. Running away, then getting caught and that first spanking… the bath that followed, gentle for a change.

"Oh for the love of Merlin please kill me!!" he moaned aloud.

Well, that wasn't the reaction they'd been hoping for…

In truth the Marauders had all grown rather fond of the little boy they had been watching. In fact, prior to administering the re-aging potion, all three Gryffindors had decided that they weren't going 

to allow things to continue on as they had before. Even Sirius was firm about the fact that he wanted Severus to be part of their 'relationship' with Remus and each other. They had been expecting Severus to be heartened by the good second childhood they'd given him, and therefore be very accepting of the fact that they still wanted to care for him. Of course they had only made one serious miscalculation; this was Severus Snape they were dealing with.

"Sev, we aren't going to kill you and you ought to be ashamed to even ask that." Remus said with a frown. Sirius reached down to give the scrawny teen a hand up but had it was angrily swatted away. Severus Snape was quite capable of standing on his own two feet thank you very much!

"Well I'm far more ashamed of… of everything else. Where are my clothes anyway?" he grumbled as he looked around. He wanted to get the hell out of here before the Marauders regained their former attitudes toward him.

"Look, Severus we need to talk about what happened." James started, trying to approach the extremely hostile looking young man.

"NO WE DO NOT! Unless of course you'd like to talk about how you screwed with my potion in class and nearly got me maimed with it!!" Severus yelled, rounding on the three of them, clenching his fists. "Or maybe we could discuss how humiliated I am now that I've had to spend a month as a toddler in the care of my worst enemies; who will no doubt use every little thing they've seen and done to torture me further! Now where the HELL are my CLOTHES!!" he finished, his face flushed and his eyes watering, wishing that he had his wand yet not wanting to call their attention to the fact that he was essentially helpless at the moment.



James's mouth had fallen open during the course of this screaming, Sirius was somewhere between hurt and wanting to grab Severus and shake some sense into him, and Remus was getting a decidedly disciplinary look on his face.

"Severus, I believe we taught you not to yell or throw tantrums." He said dangerously.

Severus's face flushed for an entirely different reason, only a couple of weeks ago he'd been spanked for exactly those reasons after all. If they think they're going to sp- punish me still they're nuts.

"Lupin, I'm not a toddler in case you haven't noticed." He said waspishly, trying to hide his nervousness.

Remus raised an eyebrow, something Severus could remember as being a last warning with Mooney. Severus took in the sight of the three of them and decided sitting down was in his best interests, he was after all outnumbered.

This seemed to mollify the amber-eyed Marauder and he smiled slightly. "Thank you, now as James said, we need to talk. All three of us actually enjoyed caring for you- yes that's right- and we decided together that things can't be going on like they did before this whole ordeal."

Severus shifted uncomfortably. "What the hell is that supposed to mean Lupin?" he grumbled.

Lupin raised his eyebrows at him and he managed to glare up at him through his curtains of inky hair. "It means that we would like to include you in our discipline relationship, instead of fighting with each other all the time."

Severus scoffed, "Gee what a choice! You mean I can either be beat up on a daily basis or spanked like a bloody four year old?" he stood up and gave all three of them a venomous look.

"I think I'll have to consider my options carefully, until then, where the bloody hell are my clothes?"



James narrowed his eyes in anger, okay they had known that Severus was unlikely to be happy with them considering what he had gone through, but this was just blatant disrespect. None of them would ever have spoken that way to Remus, and Sirius certainly wouldn't talk that way to himself, so he had quite an edge to his voice when he growled.

"They're in your trunk Severus; but you're not getting dressed yet."

"Oh no?" he asked, trying to keep the nervous twinge out of his voice. He did not like the way that James was eyeing him, it reminded him of the time he'd snitched a huge bar of Remus's chocolate. That hadn't ended well for him as he could now recall.

"Look Potter, I don't know what you're thinking…"

"Really? Because I think you know exactly what I'm thinking young man." He said sternly and taking hold of Severus's bicep.

"James, that's enough! Severus is part of this decision, we aren't going to make it for him and we aren't going to force him." Remus said, watching James carefully. Sirius was watching closely as well, sitting upon his own bed, wishing that Severus could have just seen reason and realized they wanted to care for him.

James looked at Remus and decided the werewolf meant business, so he reluctantly let go of Severus. Severus, for his part, rubbed his arm and was quite certain that he had just had a close shave. He gave Remus a grateful look.

Remus was shocked to see the hesitant look of thanks that Sev had cast him, and smiled back. "We just want to help take care of you, but" he said, holding his hand up at the Slytherin's thoroughly disgusted look, "we also understand it's a difficult decision. And we'll give you time to make it."



Severus glared at him, "My clothes?" he asked icily.

Remus sighed, but pointed to the trunk at the foot of his bed.

Severus swiftly made his way to the trunk, grabbed a uniform and robes from it and hopped onto the bed, pulling the curtains before changing. Sirius sighed softly, then looked at Remus and James who were still standing. James was clearly pissed off at not being allowed to discipline Severus while Remus was watching him carefully; he meant it about it being Severus's decision.

Sirius could help thinking that if this was left entirely to Severus that they would never see hide nor hair of the boy again, and with his obvious attraction to the Dark Arts he would likely get himself hurt. That was not even mentioning his habit of brewing dangerous and complicated potions, or Merlin help him, creating some of his own. Sirius had few doubts that if Severus decided his answer was no and James caught him messing about with either of those taboos Severus Snape would find himself getting James displeasure tattooed across his bare arse anyway. It was as he came to that uncomfortable conclusion that Severus wrenched the curtains aside and hopped down fully clothed.

"Good day." He grumbled in their general direction, right before turning on his heel and stalking out of the dorm. All three Marauders couldn't help feeling as though the previously little boy had just taken a particularly sharp pair of scissors to their hearts…

To be continued…