"Why are you going, Pop?" Siri asked Severus, following the Potions Master around the room as he repacked his emergency kit. It was the one he had always carried with him when he had been spying.
Severus looked down at his youngest son and sighed. He sat his kit down and sat on the bed, lifting Siri to sit on his lap. "Headmaster Dumbledore needs Uncle Remus and I to do something for him. It's very important."
"If you aren't here, then who's gonna read me a story? You always read me a story before bed," the boy said, leaning against his father.
"Would you like me to ask Harry or Draco to read to you?" he asked the boy.
Siri sighed dramatically. "I'll guess."
Severus couldn't help but smile a little. "Which one?"
"Both," he answered, matter-of-factly.
The Potions Master chuckled. "You aren't spoiled at all, are you?"
"Nope."
Severus shook his head. "Why don't you go ask your brothers to come see me?"
"Alright," Siri said, jumping off his lap and racing out the door. He returned a moment later dragging his brothers with him. "Here they are, Pop!"
"Thank you, Siri," Severus said, ruffling the boy's hair. He looked at his older sons. "I need you two to keep an eye on Siri for me tonight."
"We can do that," Harry said as Draco threw himself on the Potions Master's bed.
"Make sure he gets to bed on time and he would like both of you to read him a story."
"Do we have to?" Draco asked.
Severus barely managed to keep from rolling his eyes. "No. But I would appreciate it, Draco."
"Oh alright..."
"Thanks you," he said, tucking the shrunken kit in his coat pocket. "Please behave while I'm gone and don't give Halle a hard time."
Siri threw himself at his father, wrapping his arms around the man's waist. "Please don't go, Pop!"
Severus knelt down and pulled the boy into a hug. "It'll be fine, mutt," he said, kissing the top of the boy's head. "I'll be here when you wake up in the morning."
"Promise?"
"Promise."
Harry walked over and put his hand on Siri's shoulder. "Come on, Siri. I'll play with you for a while."
"Dragons?" Siri asked, wiping his eyes with his sleeve.
"Sure thing, buddy," he said, leading his brother from the room.
--
When it was time for bed Harry and Draco each read Siri a story as promised, but when they up to leave, Siri clung to them, his eyes filling with tears. "Stay with me," he told them.
"We don't have to go to bed yet," Draco said, trying to shake him off. "Stop being such a baby."
"I'm not a baby!" Siri protested. "I'm just…scared."
"Like a baby…"
"Stop 'Ri," Harry said, sitting back down on the bed by the smaller boy, who moved to sit on his brother's lap. Siri snuggled against Harry's chest. "He's never been away from Pop at night and Pop always tucks him in. It's understandable that he's scared."
Draco just rolled his eyes and left the room.
Siri buried his face in Harry's shirt, crying.
Harry sighed and glanced over at Beau's brother Johnny, who had also been sent to bed. "Come on," he said, standing and settling the boy on his hip. "Let's go to Pop's room so Johnny can go to sleep."
--
The three men stood in front of the exhibit at the museum, simply staring at it for the moment. Severus took a deep breath. "Well, Bill, I think this is your area of expertise, so Remus and I will do whatever we need to do to help."
"Thanks," the eldest Weasley said, climbing over the wooden railing into the exhibit. His wand was out and he was performing a complicated series of incantations and wand movements as he moved around the enclosure. He stopped a couple of times to perform a more through scan on some of the objects in the wax exhibit, but each time continued moving.
Finally he stopped in front of the wax figure of the judge, focusing his scan on the gavel. "I think I've found it," he told them.
The two men climbed over the railing to join him. "What do you think it is," Severus asked him.
"This is the darkest magic I've ever seen," he replied. "I've never seen anything even close to this…"
Severus and Remus exchanged a glance behind the curse-breakers back. The Potions Master nodded and Remus returned the gesture before speaking. "Do you have any charms that would tell you whether this is a Horcrux?"
Bill turned and looked at the two men. "Horcrux?" He swore colorfully. His mentor when he was an apprentice Curse Breaker had made a hobby of discovering the darkest of magics and creating the scanning charms that would uncover them. The old wizard had taught them only to Bill before he had retired. "You can't be serious."
"I'm afraid we are," Remus told him.
"Who?" Bill asked, but before giving either of the other men a chance to answer he swore again. "With Dumbledore reforming the Order it could only be You-Know-Who."
Severus nodded. "Yes. Do you know a charm that would reveal if this is a Horcrux?"
"I do. Since my mentor passed on this spring, I'm the only wizard who does. Though I've never had a chance to run the charm on an actual Horcrux."
"That's fine. We just need you to check."
Bill took a deep breath and turned back to the judge's stand. He held his left hand over the gavel and with began waving his wand in his right as he incanted. The two men recognized some of his wand movements as runes. After several minutes the Curse Breaker turned back to them. "It is a Horcrux."
Severus sighed and pulled a canvas sack from his pocket. "I'd rather we not touch it. So if you would levitate it into this sack."
Nodding, Bill did as Severus asked.
"I'll go tell the curator what we found," Remus said, climbing back over the railing and disappearing down the hall.
Once the gavel was in the sack, both the Potions Master and the Curse Breaker cast stasis charms and other protective charms on the sack. "I'll take this back to Dumbledore tomorrow and we'll destroy it."
"Thanks," Severus told them as they went in search of Remus. "I don't want to have to worry about that thing and three mischievous boys on the trip back."
--
When Severus returned to his room in the wee hours of the morning, he was rather surprised to find Harry and Siri asleep in his bed. Harry was asleep on the far side of the bed, with Siri cuddled up next to him.
Harry's eyes opened and he blinked a few times. "What time is it?" he asked in a whisper, his arm curling a little tighter around the boy sleeping against his side.
"It's early," he told his oldest son.
Harry nodded, still half asleep. "Siri wouldn't go to sleep. So we came in here so that he wouldn't keep the others up." The five boys had been sharing the largest bedroom in the cottage.
"That's fine. Go back to sleep, Harry."
He nodded again, closing his eyes.
Severus prepared for bed and then stretched out beside his sons. He had just dozed off when he felt a small hand on his cheek.
"You came back," he heard Siri whisper.
He opened one eye and saw Siri's face just inches from his own. "Of course I came back, silly mutt. I promised, didn't I?"
"Yeah, but I wasn't sure you'd come back."
"I always keep my promises, Siri. Now go back to sleep. Pop's tired."
"Alright," Siri said, settling his head on the Potions Master's chest.
Severus stroked the boy's hair as he tried to go back to sleep.
--
"I'm not sure I can do this," Remus said, pacing in the Potions Master's bedroom in his dress robes. Severus was also in dress robes. They were waiting on Director Cole to arrive to perform the wedding ceremony for Remus and Audrey.
Severus rolled his eyes. "Of course you can," he told his friend. "You love her. And you want to spend the next dozen or so years making a bunch of little Lupins."
Remus turned to look at the other man for a moment before he started laughing. "That I do."
"Well, she's said that there will be no little Lupins unless you married her. So you have to go through with it."
"You know, this is one of the reasons I asked you to stand up with me."
"You're welcome, Remus," Severus told him. They were quiet for a moment before he spoke again. "I have to file paperwork with the Ministry when we get back naming godparents for the boys. With Siri being deaged he can no longer be Harry and Draco's godfather…and I have to name one for Siri too."
Remus sat down in the window seat. "Who are you going to name?"
"You."
"Severus you can't," the werewolf exclaimed. "The Ministry won't allow me to be any child's godparent."
"I talked to one of my former students who is a solicitor. If I name Audrey as their godmother, then you are godfather by default," the Potions Master told him.
"Sev…"
Severus held up his hand, stopping whatever the man was going to say. "You've been acting in that role unofficially for a year now. And when Reg returns I plan to name Haile and Reg godparents as well. I want to make sure that my boys are taken care of should something happen to me."
"Thank you, Severus."
"Consider it a wedding present."
--
Severus nearly dropped his punch glass when alarm went off in his head. The wards at Grimmauld Place had been breeched. Before they had deaged Siri, they had transferred all the wards to Severus so that he could keep the place safe for the boy until he was of age again. The wards at Grimmauld Place were keyed to only a few people and they were all here in the cottage on the beach in Salem.
Sighing deeply, he moved across the room to talk to Haile. "I have to go back to London," he told her.
"Is everything alright?" she asked him.
"The wards on the Black family home have been breeched. I need to go check on them."
"Be careful."
"I will," he replied. "I should be back in a couple hours…tomorrow morning at the latest."
"We'll be fine."
Siri wrapped his arms around his father's waist. "Don't leave me, Poppa. Please."
Severus sighed and untangled the boy's arms so that he could kneel down in front of the boy. "I promise I'll be back as soon as I can."
"Don't leave me," he said again, his lower lip trembling.
He stared at the boy for a moment before nodding. There was probably nothing going on at Grimmauld Place, but he just wanted to check it out to be sure. "Alright," he said, standing and lifting the boy into his arms.
"Take care of yourself," Remus told him when he stood, having heard the story from Haile.
Severus nodded again. He pulled a key from his pocket and handed it to the werewolf. "It's the key to Spinner's End."
"I can't take this, Severus," Remus said.
"Just use it for the summer. I'd rather it not sit empty and you and Audrey will need your space."
It was Audrey who took the key. "Thank you."
"You're welcome. Tell Harry and Draco where I've gone and that I said to listen to Haile."
"We will."
Sighing once more, Severus strode out of the house, Siri attached to his hip, both still in their dress robes.
AN: Sorry it took so long to update this story. I was a little bit discouraged by the lack of reviews for the last chapter and it was affecting my muses.
For anyone interested, I posted a one-shot on Christmas Day called "All I Really Want". It is a prequel of sorts to the fic that I am co-writing with Snapegirlkmf. You can find "Apothecary Knows Best" under her profile. Both stories are very AU.
