Prolog: Watch Over Them

"Watch over them while I'm gone," Paul Smith Sr. had instructed before he left.

Severus Snape had been given to that muggle by the ministry of magic after they had snapped his wand in two. He was to work as a muggle slave for ten years before being allowed to return to the wizarding world. It was the price for being a deatheater and switching sides at the last moment, just in time to help bring about the Dark Lord's demise.

No, they couldn't just send him to Azkaban! Because of Dumbledore's bloody 'mercy', the ministry of magic had agreed to punish him by placing him as a slave for a muggle, in the muggle world. Then again, it could be worse, as Dumbledore had pointed out on more than one occasion. He could have been given to someone cruel. Though Severus wasn't allowed to retaliate against any of the more cocky muggles, Paul had made a point of making sure his guests treated him with respect.

So far Severus was on his sixth year of banishment; only four years shy of his redemption. He couldn't leave, or change his mind about how agreeable he found his servitude. As soon as he'd agreed to it, Dumbledore had made him make the unbreakable vow to serve this man for the entire length of his banishment. It had been the one condition the ministry had made to agreeing to lessen his punishment. Paul knew about his past, of course. The ministry had filled him in on everything from his education to the reason for his temporary banishment. He had been hesitant to take on the task of making sure Severus stayed out of trouble, but after the ministry had assured him that Severus would be more help than trouble, Paul had reluctantly agreed.

For the first time, he had been given the task of babysitting. Paul, an old man in his mid sixties who had intentionally dyed his hair white for one of his plays, had ordered him to watch over his grandchildren while he went to get groceries and then to rehearsal. Sixty-four was old for a muggle, but Paul had a young spirit. He was almost never at home. He was an actor who enjoyed entertaining his grandchildren with anything between amusement parks to buying movies for them to watch in his flat. Usually Severus was sent to stay in a hotel when they came to visit him. Paul didn't want a convict around his family. However, under the circumstances Paul had found himself in, he'd decided that Severus was trustworthy enough make an exception.

There were three of them. Paul had described them to him after asking him if he thought he could handle the kids for a few hours. Severus had handled a castle full of kids for years, so he'd assumed three would be easy for him. The youngest was the troublemaker- a twelve year old who went by the name of Bethany, 'Beth' for short. She had short, straight, light brown hair, brown eyes, and apparently an attitude cocky enough to drive anyone insane. The male was the middle child at seventeen years old. Zakariah, or 'Zak' as they called him, was stubborn. Once he had his mind set on something, there was no changing it. On one occasion he'd even argued that the dictionary was wrong during a debate concern the definition of a word. He'd insisted that the dictionary was opinionated and was really just a set of guidelines rather than a list of words and their actual definitions. Zak's long, dark brown braid fell nearly to the center of his back, and his brown eyes are darker than his younger sister's. Ellizabeth, who goes by 'Ella', is nineteen. Unlike her siblings, Ella had, long, straight dark auburn hair and green eyes. She was the quite one who had a tendency to keep to herself. As a matter of fact, it had been at least two hours since he'd met them and Ella had barely spoken two words in front of him, let alone to him.

However, she did seem to know how to deal with her siblings. No sooner had Paul left then Zak and Beth had gotten into an argument over which television show they were going to watch. Ella had gotten them to stop fighting by getting Beth to play on the computer while Zak chose to watch a movie that Beth had eventually started watching as well.

Ella catches Severus's eye for what was probably the first time tonight. "I'm going upstairs, Sir."

He raises his eyebrows at her but doesn't respond. Instead, he watches curiously as she turns her attention to her brother.

"Just call me if you need anything." She tells Zak.

He nods his head and says, "Ok," without even looking away from the television.

"They'll be fine," Severus assures her.

She glances at him before quickly turning around and heading upstairs.