Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter. I DO, however, own the Founder's weaponry, Trieste, Medusa, Tristen, Thiele, Tremayne, and anything else you don't recognize.

Serpens Dominus Ruina

"Serpent Lord's Ruin"

Chapter 1 – All You Need

Dear Hogwarts graduate,

This year marks the ten-year anniversary since your graduation. A party is being held at Hogwarts on September 10th to celebrate this event. The staff would enjoy seeing your face again.

Hoping you come,

Minerva McGonagall

Headmistress

"So," purred Hermione into her husband's ear, "are we going?"

"I loath these things," grumbled Severus in response, tossing the letter onto the coffee table. "We see half of these people on a day-to-day basis."

"That's not the point, Sev. C'mon, it'll be fun."

"And what shall we do about that little hellion of yours?" asked Severus. "If you don't recall, your mother refuses to keep him."

"Then I suppose he'll just have to come with us," said Hermione with a smirk.

"Are you mad, woman! Our demon-child loose in Hogwarts?"

"Merlin help the paintings."

"And us! Let me up, woman."

"Where are you going?" asked Hermione as Severus rose from their couch and stalked off into his office. "Sev?"

"To Floo Harry! If you intend to bring your hellion, I am going to warn him about it!"

"Our hellion, Sev!" sang Hermione as she set off through their house to find the aforementioned 'hellion'. "Tris!"

"Ni?" said the potted plant from her right and she turned on it, moving the huge plants fronds aside to reveal her nine-year-old son. Tristen Amadeus Oberon Snape smiled cheekily up at his mother and waved at her.

"Hi, Mum."

"What are you doing in the plant?" demanded Hermione. She arched an eyebrow in a manner similar to her husband's and added, "Again."

"Trying to find Este," replied the nine-year-old.

"In the plant? What on earth would your cat be doing in the plant?"

Tristen shrugged and Hermione sighed heavily before hauling him up into her arms. She then plucked the wayward gray tabby off the curtains of the window on the other side of the corridor and deposited the creature in her son's arms before striding towards her husband's office. As she opened the door, Harry's rich voice struck her ears and she saw his head bobbing in the fire.

"Afternoon, Harry," she said cheerfully, shifting her grip on Tristen. The nine-year-old had Trieste perched on his shoulder now and was waving his arms wildly at the sight of the face in the fireplace.

"Uncle Harry!"

Harry chuckled and said, "And a 'hello' to you too, Tris. How's Este?"

"Fine!" chirped Tristen. "See?" He pointed at the cat on his shoulder, who tilted her head to the side.

"Mrow?"

"I see." His serpentine eyes turned back towards Severus and he said, "Thanks for the warning, Sev. I'll tell Gin and Seamus whenever I see him. And I'll bring the Unholy Terrors to keep Tris busy. Oh, yeah, and congrats on the Potions job. We all were very surprised to hear McGonagall offered it to you."

"Oh, bugger off," grumbled Severus, crossing his arms across his chest. "And keep your Terrors on a leash!"

"And keep them from exploring as seven-year-old's do?" quipped Harry. "Not when they have a huge castle to explore."

"You just want them out of your hair," said Hermione with a smile.

Harry's eyes rolled heavenward and he grumbled, "Heck, yeah." His head dimmed slightly and he muttered, "No, Ele, you can't talk to Aunt Mione. And you can't either, Tre." He popped back and said, "I'll be seeing you two at Hogwarts."

"Bye, Uncle Harry!" cried Tris, waving a hand furiously.

Harry's hand appeared in a small goodbye then he vanished.

Severus sighed and collapsed into a chair as the fire slowly died down. He reached up a hand to brush his green-streaked black hair off of his face and grumbled, "All three of them at Hogwarts at the same time. Merlin help me."

Hermione smiled and bent to place Tristen on the floor before she walked over and sat on the edge of his chair. She angled her arm back behind his shoulders and laid her head against his. He smiled and reached up a hand to squeeze hers.

"They'll all be there eventually."

"Yes," said Severus. But I'll have slight break before Ele and Tre come up."

"By that time, Tris will have calmed down a little." There was a crash from outside the room and Tristen giggled, causing Hermione to wince. "At least I hope so."

"You and I both, Mione-love," mumbled Severus. "You and I both."

September 10

"We're here! We're here!"

"Calm down, Ele," said Ginny, smiling at her russet-haired daughter. The seven-year-old turned brilliant green eyes on her mother and gave her a pouting look.

"But, Mummy, we're here."

"I know that, pet. Now go find that rascal of a brother of yours."

Thiele Lillianne Potter nodded and ran out of the cab, yelling in the tinny voice of a seven-year-old. On the other side of the cab, Harry peeled open one serpentine eye and peered at the smiling form of his wife.

"Something amusing, love?"

Ginny smiled at him and replied, "Just our daughter. Did you hear her?"

"Every tinny squeal." He raised his arms above his head and stretched before slowly standing up, offering a hand to her. "C'mon then, Gin. Let's get this over with."

"You sound as though you don't want to be here," remarked Ginny as she took his hand and they left the cab, walking down the corridor towards the exit.

"I don't," said Harry in a dark tone.

"Bad memories?"

Harry only pulled her close, his arm clasped about her waist. That answered her question better than any words he could have said.

Hogwarts represented several things for the man beside her. It was where he had first found a place to belong, where he hadn't been considered a freak. It was where he had found friendship. It was where he had found the truth about his parent's death and himself. It was where he had found love.

But it was also the place where he had found betrayal and loss.

Generally, the good memories would cancel out the bad. Not in Harry's case. No. He had lost not only his best friend, but this self-same friend had killed her, right before Harry's eyes. It had been Dumbledore who had gone back to the morning of that day via Time Turner and left her a note telling her to stay out of the battle.

She had. And her Harry had died.

But she had come here, here to this time zone or plane or whatever it was. Here her Harry was alive. Alive and well – but only on the outside. He had slowly begun to fall apart on the inside from the moment of her death. It had taken her years to slowly rebuild what had been there before.

And he still sometimes woke up in a cold sweat, screaming her name. He still dreamed of that moment when the creature called Aubrey – the creature that had once been her brother Ron – had killed her.

In the moments after these dreams, he clutched her close to him, his grip almost painful. But she endured the pain, knowing that he was reassuring himself that she was still there, that she was real and not some illusion or ghost that had come to haunt him.

She too had dreams like that. Only she, unlike him, had not seen the deathblow.

Ginny sighed heavily then winced as the early morning sunshine lanced its burning rays into her eyes. Lifting a hand to shield them, she carefully stepped down out of the train onto the Hogsmeade platform. In a little more than a day it would be brimming with students but now it stood empty except for a young couple who seemed to be arguing about something. A nine-year-old boy with wavy black hair sat at their feet, playing with a tiny gray tabby cat.

The child abruptly looked up and a grin broke over his face as he saw the two of them stepping out of the train. He leapt to his feet and ran towards them, dark eyes bright. The tiny cat bounded after him, meowing furiously.

"Aunt Ginny! Uncle Harry!"

"Tristen!" cried Ginny, scooping the young boy up into her arms as he leapt at her. "What have you been doing lately, you rascal?"

"Nothing," replied the boy, trying to look innocent. But Ginny knew her godson too well to fall for that.

"Nothing, have you now?" she said. "Now why do I not believe that?"

"Aunt Ginny," pouted Tristen.

Harry chuckled and ruffled the dark head, saying, "Don't mind her, kiddo. She used to get in all sorts of trouble."

"Only because you dragged her into it," said Hermione as she and Severus walked over. The bushy-haired woman looked around then asked, "Where's Ele and Tre?"

"More than likely wreaking havoc on the train," replied Harry with a slight groan. He turned and hauled himself back up into the train, vanishing down the corridor. The second he was gone, Thiele came rushing out the door from the other end of the corridor, leaping into the unsuspecting Severus' arms.

"UNCA SEV!"

"Gods!" exclaimed Severus as the girl nearly caused him to fall over. He staggered slightly then regained his balance, settled his grip about the seven-year-old in his arms. "Ele, what on earth do you think you're doing?"

Thiele looked about at her mother then leaned forward and whispered, "Hiding from Papa."

Severus nodded in a conspiratorial way and said, "Ah. And where, pray tell, is that brother of yours?"

"Hiding from Papa," came the reply.

"I see. And where would he…"

"TREMAYNE ALEXANDER!"

"Ah," said Severus as the patter of running feet was heard coming down the corridor inside the train. "There he is."

Ginny sighed and looked at Hermione, who just smiled and her and shrugged. The red-head looked heavenward then towards the form of her son as he came barreling out of the train. With wild dark hair and a pair of emerald eyes, Tremayne Alexander Potter was cute, mischievous, and had the same look as his father. Minus the serpentine eyes that marked him as an Heir of Slytherin.

The aforementioned father appeared in the doorway a few seconds later with a dark scowl across his face. What looked to be paint was splattered all over the front of his robes and Ginny covered her mouth with her hand at the sight. She then turned to her son and hissed, "Tremayne! What in Merlin's name did you think you were doing?"

Tremayne had the grace to look ashamed and scuffed the toe of his shoe on the stones of the platform. He looked up at his mother from under a fringe of dark hair and muttered, "It was jus' a joke."

"Let me guess," said Severus, trying (without luck) to peel Thiele off of his robes. "One of Fred and George's Paintball Mines."

Tremayne grinned brightly and piped, "Yep! Uncle Fred gave 'em to me for my birthday!"

"Something he shall soon regret doing," growled Harry as he stepped back down onto the platform. He unbuttoned the front of his robe and pulled it off, revealing the dark jeans and green t-shirt he was wearing underneath. Rolling the robes into a ball and stuffing it underneath his arm, he said, "Let's get going, shall we?"

"Yes, let's," said Ginny, lowering Tristen to the ground. The nine-year-old immediately went over to Tremayne and threw his arm about the other boy's shoulder, congratulating him in whispered tones. Tremayne grinned at the older boy and laughed.

"Why did we have to be cursed with insane child?" said Severus to the sky as the four adults followed behind the two boys.

"I'm not in-in…oh, tha' word!" exclaimed Thiele, glaring at her godfather.

"Of course not," said Severus in a humoring tone, causing Hermione to chuckle. Thiele gave him a Look and caused Harry to burst into racious laughter. That was one of Ginny's own looks, one she readily gave to him whenever he was humoring her.

"Papa gone crazy," mumbled Thiele, causing Harry to laugh even more. Ginny smiled at her daughter and reached over to pat her arm.

"Not crazy, pet. Just…"

"Nutty?" suggested Severus. "Off his rocker? To the moon? Flipped? Fruity? Missing a few bats in the belfry?"

"Those weren't any of what I was going to say."

"I had to try."

"Hey!" exclaimed Tristen's voice suddenly from up ahead. "This carriage has no horses!"

"Weird," came Tremayne's voice as well.

"They sent a horseless carriage after us?" said Hermione with a confused frown.

Harry smirked and quipped, "Now, now, Hermie. We know better than that."

Hermione flashed a scowl at him and he grinned cheekily back at her. The five of them rounded a copse of trees and saw Tristen walking around the back side of the carriage. Tremayne was inching around the front, staring at the air in front of him as though he knew something was there.

Harry smiled as the two Thestrals attached to the carriage bowed their heads towards him. He dipped his head in return, willingly acknowledging the creatures that had – for some still unexplained reason – placed him under their protection. He supposed it was because his Animagus form was that of a Thestral but didn't go on that as he didn't know if it was the real reason.

Ginny started forward as one of the Thestrals dipped its draconic head towards their son and sniffed at him but Harry held her back. When she looked at him, he whispered, "They won't hurt him."

"You don't know that," breathed Ginny.

Harry's eyes twinkled and he arched an eyebrow at her as he said, "Don't I?"

Ginny frowned at him then turned her brown eyes on Tremayne again, who had jumped back suddenly. He turned wide green eyes towards his parents and said in a hiss, "There's something here!"

"Huh?" said Tristen from the other side of the carriage. He ducked underneath it and stared at the empty space Tremayne was pointing at. Then he looked at the younger boy and said, "Your losing it, mate."

"I am not!" defended Tremayne, glaring at the older boy. "There's something there! I felt it breathe!"

One of the Thestrals snorted, causing both boy's to jump, which made the four adults laugh.

"They're called Thestrals," explained Harry, approaching the creatures. He patted the one closest to him on the shoulder and the creature turned its head about to nip playfully at his fingers. Tremayne and Tristen stared at him as he patted what they saw to be empty air.

"Papa's petting nothing," said Thiele as Severus wandered over to the carriage and opened the door.

"Thestral. Petting a Thestral," corrected Severus, setting her down inside the carriage. He then swooped Tristen up from behind, causing the nine-year-old to squeal in outrage.

"Dad!"

"What?" said Severus innocently as Tristen frowned at him, crossing his arms over his chest. Trieste meowed from her owner's coat pocket and poked her head out, peering about with almond-shaped eyes. An answering meow came from Tremayne's pocket and Medusa made her way out, scrambling up to perch atop his head.

The seven-year-old frowned at the 'empty' air his father was petting and whined, "Why can't I see them?"

Harry's voice turned grim as he said softly, "You have to have seen death to see a Thestral, Tre. And you're too young to have seen that." He patted the Thestrals shoulder once then turned and said, "C'mon then. We don't want to be late. Up ye get." In one swift motion, he picked up Tremayne and stepped into the carriage, settling himself between Thiele and Tristen, Tremayne in his lap.

Severus allowed Hermione and Ginny to climb into the carriage in front of him before he swung himself up, closing the door with a click. Before he had even settled into his seat, the carriage began to move with a jolt.