A Little Hell

After meticulously studying each available vial of Chizpurfle fang, Severus picked two that seemed to hold the best specimen and added them to his shopping basket. A small feeling of accomplishment washing over him, he held out his hand to Eileen and said, "May I have the list please?"

His daughter sighed and put the creased parchment in his hand. "Are we almost done?" she whined.

Unbothered by her petulant behavior, Severus hummed as he crossed off the ingredient from his list. "Two more," he told her. He gave her head a reassuring pat. "Behave a little longer and I will take you and your sisters to Honeydukes." As he handed back the list to her, he found himself furrowing his brows. A glance to the right showed him Essie was still awing over the large jars filled with eel and plimpy eyes that were waiting to be scooped out by customers into waiting vials next to said jars. However, a glance to his left, then his right again, and then behind him showed Lottie was nowhere to be found.

Severus's heart went into his throat, but he made sure to keep it there as he turned to Eileen and asked, "Where is your sister?"

Without guile, she pointed right at a still distracted Essie.

He forced himself to breathe before he hissed out between his clenched teeth, "Not Essie, Lottie."

Eileen spun around in a circle, looking for her twin, and then shrugged at him. "Dunno."

Severus resisted the urge to start acting like a panicked loon. Even so, he couldn't stop his racing thoughts. One of his daughters was missing. Where could she have gotten off to? Had someone taken Lottie? A sweat broke out on the back of his neck at the possibility. Merlin, let it not be that. Perhaps something in the shop had just caught her eye and she'd wandered over an aisle? Severus took action on this possibility and circled through the nearby aisles, but Lottie was nowhere to be found. When he returned to his other two daughters, he asked Eileen, "When did you last see Lottie?"

The six-year-old looked to Severus's list and pointed at a crossed-out ingredient two up from the ones he still needed. "Then!" she proclaimed while smiling toothily at him, unaware of how not good the situation they were in was.

This new knowledge did not calm Severus at all, however. He was almost ten minutes past looking at faerie wings. Putting down his basket, Severus barked, "Lottie, Essie, come here!"

"What about our ingredients?" Essie questioned, dismayed to leave them and the eyeballs behind.

He rolled his eyes, of course, Essie was more concerned about potions supplies than Lottie. In any other situation, it would make him more fond of her than he already was, but now? It was infuriating. "Finding your sister matters more than our purchases, Esther!" he snapped. "I can always owl Mr. Mulpepper for them another time. Now, come along!"

While he did not have an entire plan formulated quite yet, Severus knew the first step no matter how his course ended was to speak to the clerk at the counter. Perhaps they'd seen Lottie after Eileen or saw her leave the shop altogether. Right before he reached the counter, Severus stopped a moment to take the hands of his remaining daughters. The last thing he wanted to happen while he spoke to the clerk was to lose Essie and Eileen too. Merlin, how could he have thought taking the girls with him shopping was a good idea? It was hard enough going places with Edie or Darla's help to keep track of them! As he locked eyes with the old man behind the counter, the door to the apothecary chimed with someone's entrance.

"Excuse me!" the person, a familiar woman, called out as the door shut behind her. "Is there anyone here missing a little girl?"

Severus stretched his neck over a row of shelves blocking the door to see Lottie, sniffling, but whole, holding the one and only Narcissa Malfoy's hand.

"Lottie!" he shouted, relieved. Practically dragging Eileen and Essie behind him in his haste to get to his once-missing daughter, Severus only let go of them so he could scoop up Lottie into his arms.

She whimpered, "Sev!" And wrapped her arms in death-grip around his neck. He squeezed his daughter back a moment before prying her off and taking hold of her chin – forcing Lottie's shell-shocked blues to meet his gaze. "What the Hell were you thinking?" he demanded. "I've told you a million times when we go out you are to stay in my sight at all times!"

Lottie gave a tiny, pitiful sob. "S-Sorry!" she hiccuped. "In the window, I saw a wizard with a pretty bird on his shoulder an' I wanna'd to go pet it an' I went outside an' I was followin' him then I lost him an'– an'!"

He sighed heavily and began to run his hand up and down Lottie's back to help calm her down. Later she would be punished, but, for now, she needed him to comfort her. Severus needed to as well. It reaffirmed she was here with him, safe, sound, and not lost. "There, there," he said. "You're fine."

When her weeping tapered off, Severus put Lottie down and ordered in a growl, "Do not move an inch."

Meekly, the girl nodded. With one last glare of warning at all of his daughters, he turned his attention to Narcissa, who seemed partly bemused, partly entertained, and slightly impressed with him. "Thank you for finding her," he said. He hated thanking the likes of people such as Narcissa Malfoy for anything, but when it came to his daughter? He'd say over and over if it meant she'd be returned safely to him every time.

The corners of her mouth lifted in a smirk. "You're welcome," she replied. Her gaze shifted down to the little boy with her that Severus hadn't noticed previously in his haste to pick up Lottie and ensure her health. Severus blinked at him. That was her son, wasn't it? The last he saw of Draco, he'd been just an infant. Now, he looked like a miniature Lucius. "If it were my Draco crying in the middle of Hogsmeade for me, I would hope someone would take him through the shops to find me."

"Yes," he agreed, "I would too." As a father, leaving a child to cry alone in the middle of a street felt like a crime against nature.

Narcissa smirk broadened into brief, true smile. It was evident to Severus she approved of his answer as one parent to another. Yet it quickly returned to its previous smirk when her eyes shifted to his girls huddled behind him. There was a not entirely kind inquisitiveness to her gaze as she asked, "Are all of these little ones yours?"

Severus resisted the urge to push them further out of her view. Instead, he did the exact opposite and prodded them all to stand in front of him; Eileen on the left, Lottie in the middle, and Essie on the right. "You've already met Charlotte," he said, laying a hand on her head. "These two are Esther and Eileen."

He could feel his girls looking up at him. It was rare he used their proper names instead of their nicknames, but when in the company of someone like Narcissa Malfoy, Severus felt it was in order. Purebloods liked their supercilious names and to introduce one's self (or their child) with a moniker felt like a faux pas that they'd never recover from.

She nodded before bringing Draco forward from her side. "You remember my son, don't you? Draco's grown into a splendid little gentleman since you last saw him. Say hello, darling."

"Hello, sir."

"I do and good morning to you, Draco."

Narcissa's smirk grew into a toothy grin. "It seems you've been a rather busy man since I last saw you! I'd heard rumors you'd married, but to think! You've gone and had yourself a little brood too." She chuckled to herself before remarking, "I don't know how you found the time to have them all with teaching at Hogwarts and raising that little sister of yours." Eyes piercing in their expectancy, she asked: "How old is she now?"

Severus kept his expression neutral as he answered, "Darla is eleven. She just started at Hogwarts this year."

"My! How fast children grow. Is Darla a Slytherin like her older brother?"

He dipped his chin and said, unable to withhold all of his pride from his voice, "Yes, she is."

Narcissa laughed once again. "I'm sure if she's anything like you, she's already made quite a mark on her housemates and your fellow professors!" Severus would have bristled, but before he could so much as tense, she canted forward. Narcissa placed a hand on his forearm and said with fluttering eyes, "I would just love to catch up with you and your girls over tea. Do you think you and your family will be free Thursday afternoon this coming week? I am having Ethel Parkinson, Sophie Runcorn, their little girls, and Geneen Goyle and her boy over then. I am sure they would adore seeing you as well."

Severus did not like the sound of tea with any of those witches at all. He hardly knew Ethel, Sophie had despised him during their shared school days, and Geneen was a vapid bint and he would rather eat his sock than hold a conversation with her. Most of all, however, he knew they were lapdogs of Narcissa and would needle whatever scrap of gossip out of him that they could to win Narcissa's favor.

"As lovely as that sounds, I will have to decline. I teach a double-class for OWLs students Thursdays afternoon," he declined.

She frowned. "What a pity," she said. "Perhaps another time."

"Yes, perhaps," he agreed. "Now, if you will excuse us, I think it is time I take my daughters home. They've had quite the day out already."

Narcissa and her son stepped aside. "Yes, of course. It was a delight to speak with you again, Severus."

"And you, Narcissa," he returned as he pushed his girls out the door.

Once they were outside, Lottie took ahold of one of his hands as Essie grabbed his other. "Sev, how come you told that lady we're Charlotte an' Esther?"

He looked down at Essie with one eyebrow cocked. "Aren't you?" he asked.

"Yeah, but no one calls us that unless we're bein' naughty!" Essie argued, impassioned, "an' I wasn't!" She looked around him to Lottie as she said this, earning a tongue stuck out at her for her troubles.

Severus pulled Essie back as to end the brewing row between her and Lottie and nodded. The little girl wasn't wrong, that was the typically the only time they called the girl's by their proper names. "That is most often when we call you Esther and Charlotte," he agreed.

"How come you called us Esther and Charlotte today, Sev?" Lottie asked while trying and failing to get her twin to hold her free hand. Severus wasn't surprised. Eileen didn't like hand-holding, or to be hugged too often. Edie was insistent she learned her standoffish behavior from him, but he wasn't so certain himself. She'd been less warmhearted than her sisters practically from birth while he'd steadily grown more accustom to being physically affectionate since he took over guardianship of Darla. "Eileeen!" whined Lottie.

Severus sighed. "Leave your sister be; if she wants to walk alone, let her." He looked over at the girl in question. "Do not get too far ahead of us, understand?"

Eileen bobbed her head and kept her attention on the windows of some shops to her right. "Yes, Sev."

"Sev, you aren't tellin' us why you called us by our big names!" Essie complained, tugging on the hand she held in her own small one.

"Stop that," he scolded, tightening his grip on Essie. "I called you by your proper names as it's how a witch like Mrs. Malfoy expects one to introduce their children."

Essie puckered her lip. "Why?"

"'Cause she's rich," Eileen piped up, tuning into their conversation. "Her robes were prettier'an anythin' Edie or us has." Tone lecturing, she explained to her sister, and to Severus's wonder, "Rich witches an' wizards wear fancy stuff all the time an' do stuff like brag about goin' to France an' Swissland and use big words when lil' ones are just as good."

"It's Switzerland," he found himself correcting, "but, yes, you are rather right. Those are things many wealthy wizards and witches do." He stared at her. "Who taught you about them, Eileen?"

Gaze once again on something in the distance, she told him, "Edie. We were walkin' 'round the grounds pickin' flowers an' I heard some big girls giggling about a boy's robe lookin' like it's from a charity shop. I wanted to know why it was funny, an' Edie told me."

Severus found himself scowling. He remembered all too well what it was like to be ridiculed for secondhand clothes; it had been one of the many banes of his childhood and Hogwarts career. Severus now did his best as a professor to discourage such behavior when he came across it. How much money a child's family had or what they could afford for them was not their fault and they did not deserve to be teased for it.

Turning his attention to his girls, he told them, "If I ever hear of any of you being cruel to another because of their clothes or appearance I will scourgify your mouths, do you understand?"

"Yes, Sev," Essie and Lottie chorused.

Eileen, however, had come to a stop. He frowned at her. "Eileen?"

"Hm? Oh, yes. I won't do that," she promised absently. Then, with a smile, she pointed at Honeydukes across the way. "There's the sweet shop! Can we please go? You said if we behaved we could!" She sent an assessing look at her twin. "Or at least me an' Essie did."

He groaned. Lottie really did not deserve a treat after the debacle she caused today, yet Eileen wasn't wrong about herself or Essie. He eyed Lottie. "If you do not throw a strop about not getting a treat like your sisters, I will count that as your punishment for wandering away today."

Lottie's expression turned pinched, but, then, she slumped and nodded. "Okay."

"Brilliant, now, come along. Each of you may only have one of whatever you choose!"

How'd you enjoy like the story? This is strongly inspired by a conversation I had with Kawisdom and what kind of interest someone like Narcissa would have in Severus's children and how they'd interact with one another.

Thank you very much for reading!