"… what?" Tom asked after a long pause.

Prince (Harry) threw his head back and laughed. "Oh, come on! Did you honestly think I would be so foolish as to not remember the man who gave birth to me? That's rich!"

"Hmpf!" Tom muttered indignantly, obviously a little insulted.

"In our defence, it was a perfectly liable theory to hold, given that we have not seen you since you were 15 months old. Most people can't remember events from so young." Severus pointed out.

"Yes, well, I'll give you that one." Harry admitted softly, his face more serious now. "I only came across my memories during my occlumency studies."

"Occlumency?" Lucius asked in shock.

"Why, yes. I found Lily Potter's old diary in that trunk over there," he nodded to it, "about three months or so ago. It had been collecting dust for the four years I've lived here and who knows how long before that. I must admit to being shocked at the discovery of magic, though when I found the so called "adoption papers", it threw me for a while. In order to get my mind off it, I grabbed the first book in there which happened to be on occlumency and went from there."

"Oh! My baby's a genius!" Tom cried, throwing himself at Prince and suffocating him in a hug.

"I… cannot… breathe…" Prince choked out.

"I'm sorry, baby!" Tom hurried to loosen his grip on Prince, who began to tentatively return the embrace.

"It is quite alright. And I'm not a baby." He glowered softly at the last part. He hated people looking down on him just because of his age.

"Yes you are!" Tom insisted. "You'll always be my baby!"

"Oh?" Prince challenged, yanking himself from his mother's embrace and pacing, snarling softly at his parents. "And where were you the last, oh, I don't know, ten years of my life? Where were you when I was locked in a cupboard and beaten for accidental magic? Accidental being the operative word! Where were you when I was-" he cut himself off and took a few deep breathes to compose himself. He hated losing control, whether it be of himself or a situation or even of other people.

"You… went through all that?" Rabastan asked softly as Tom sobbed quietly.

"I… apologise for my outburst. It will not occur again. Please put it from your minds." Prince said softly, awkwardly patting Tom's hair in an effort to soothe the man. It did not appear to work.

"Oh! My baby!" Tom wailed. "I'll destroy them, the filthy muggles! I'll rip them to shreds and burn the pieces! I'll feed them to the dementors! No! The threstrals! I'll crucio them within an inch of their life! I'll-"

Prince cut him off by placing a hand over his mouth. "That is not necessary. Vernon is in prison for life, Petunia for the next ten more years and Dudley is in Juvenile, soon to be sent to St Brutus' Academy. I do not blame you… mother." He added softly. Tom's eyes watered again as joy light them up.

"Oh! My baby…" he sobbed softly as he wrapped Prince in another hug, which was awkwardly returned. "You'd better get used to this, 'cause I'm going to call you that every day!" Tom announced much to Prince's displeasure as he tried to escape the kisses being peppered on his face.

"Unhand me!" Prince snapped as he attempted futilely to escape the embrace. "Ugh! Come on! No kisses, goddammit!"

"Language!" Severus said automatically, finally snapped out of his stupor.

"I'll use any fucking language I want! What are you gonna do about it?" Prince snarled, instantly turning on the three men.

"Oh, god, he's scarier than Tom is when he's angry…" Rabastan whispered to Lucius, whom nodded his hasty agreement as both backed away from Severus.

"I'll use you in one of my potions, you dunderhead!" Severus retorted.

"You can't! The only potion that uses any part of the human body is Polyjuice Potion, which requires a hair or toenail! Anymore and it would explode!" so there.

"The only known potion." Severus replied smugly.

"You're bluffing! Any other human body parts would react badly with the other ingredients! If you added some to a potion with aconite in it, it would become a poison that gives the victim rash, boils and projectile vomiting to a fatal degree when inhaled! If it's added to any other ingredient, it does similar things! No matter what, it is always fatal!" Prince argued heatedly.

"How did you know that…?" Severus asked softly.

"I've researched it. I even experimented for all of a week, but my guinea pigs kept dying and I ran out of explanations for the science department." This said with a slight pout.

"Why didn't you just buy some yourself?" Severus deadpanned.

"Spent all my money on books from Knockturn and Diagon." He muttered softly, much to the others' amusement.

"Um… since when is your hair that colour?" Lucius asked hesitantly.

"Oh! Since this morning, in fact! Just before you came I changed it!" Prince replied brightly.

"Um… changed it?"

"Yes. I'm a metamorphmagus." Prince said simply. "Among other things…" he muttered under his breath.

"Don't mutter!" Severus admonished instinctively.

"Sheesh, you really have spent too long teaching brats, haven't you father?" Prince snorted softly, not missing but choosing to ignore the joy in Severus' eyes at the title.

"Yes… I suppose I have." Severus said softly.

"If he's 'father' what are we, chopped liver?" Rabastan joked.

"No, your dad and he's papa and he's mummy. Duh!"

"Err… right…" Rabastan rubbed the back of his head, grinning nervously.

"Oh, honestly, wipe that ridiculous expression of your face!"

"Y-yessir!"

"And don't do it again!"

"Y-yessir- I mean, no sir- I mean yes sir, I-"

"Are you always this articulate?" Prince asked dryly.

"Only when Tom's glaring at him." Lucius chuckled. "You've got his glare, you know." Lucius added softly, smiling when Prince did.

"I am… glad."

"Why are you wearing an eye patch?" Tom burst out, unable to hold the question, however rude, in.

"Personal reasons." Prince deadpanned.

"And the cane?"

"No comment."

"And the limp?"

"Absolutely no comment."

"And the… the scars?"

"… next question…"

"Can I see your eye?"

"No."

"Why not?!"

"You can see my right eye. That is, by definition, my eye."

"Your left one!"

"Nope."

"And why the hell not?!"

"Personal. Reasons."

"Come on! Listen to your mother!"

"No."

"Why are you being so stubborn?"

"Because."

"That's not an answer."

"…"

"Give me some answers!"

"Yes, no… to get to the other side… 1.772453851… to throw into confusion…"

"I don't want to know what the square root of Pi is!"

"…you knew that?" Prince asked softly, looking up interestedly.

"Yes. I was… raised by muggles too…" Tom replied hesitantly.

"Ah, I see. I suppose we have more in common than hereditary aspects." Prince said, slightly sympathetic.

"No." Tom shook his head. "What they did to me at the orphanage, within the space of 17 years… was nowhere near as bad as whatever the Dursleys have done to you in the space of 6 odd years. I cannot… sympathise with whatever could have caused… this." He said, motioning towards the scars littering his body.

"Ah, yes. Quite." Prince nodded his understanding. "I would hope for everyone to be able to say that, but alas… though I do wonder what would have happened in the last four years, and I hate to think what would have happened to me when I got my Hogwarts letter from the old fart. I imagine it would have been quite horrific. I hesitate to say this, but… I would not have lived to see the letter arrive. Of that I am certain." He said softly, a haunted look in his eyes.

"So… a metamorphmagus, huh?" Rabastan asked in a desperate attempt to change the subject.

"Mm. Among other things." Prince said.

"What other things?" Lucius asked.

"I am a parselmouth," here Tom beamed proudly, "an elemental-"

"Which element?" Severus enquired eagerly.

"All of them."

"All of…" Lucius sat down heavily on the couch in the large room, white Rabastan fell on his but in shock and Severus just shook his head, muttering something along the lines of 'of course he is'.

"Yes. All of them."

"That's my baby!" Tom cheered, hugging Prince to himself happily. "And I love your hair like this. Did you… change anything else?"

"No. Just my hair."

"Aww! My baby's gonna grow up to break hearts one day! You'll make a great Sire, I just know it! I wonder how many carriers you're gonna have…"

"Sire?" Prince asked, his interest piqued.

"Yeah! All wizards are either Sires or Carriers. Sires, well, sire and carriers, like me, give birth. Exceptionally powerful Carriers will have multiple Sires, but sometimes Sires can have multiple Carriers. Though that's rare."

"And how do you know I'm a Sire?" Prince questioned eagerly.

"Have you looked in the mirror at any point in your life? You couldn't be a Carrier if you wanted to. You just aren't submissive." Tom stated bluntly.

"Nor are you." Harry pointed out.

Tom laughed loudly, joined by his three husbands. "No, no. Carriers aren't always that kind of submissive. I mean, you get them. You get types that submit completely in all situations, but they usually have creature blood, and you get types that only submit in the bedroom-"

Prince once again slammed his hand over Tom's mouth. "There are some things one does not need to know."

"Fike shawt?" (Like what)

"Well, like, for example, how three men managed to get you pregnant with their child. That one does not, as I have said before, just take the cake. It takes the whole. Bloody. Christmas tin." He told his now blushing mother, while Severus, Lucius and Rabastan shifted uncomfortably. "Though it shouldn't be physically possible…"

"It's physically possible." The four deadpanned in unison, much to Prince's horror.

"Oh, come on!" he snapped, clamping his hands over his ears. "I did not need to hear that. Aw! Gross mental picture! Dammit! I hate my life. Lalalala, I can't hear you!… ponies, unicorns, rainbows, the colour yellow… anything!"

Tom laughed along with Rabastan, pointing mockingly at their son while Lucius snickered and Severus smirked evilly.

"You fucking planned this-" Prince's tirade was cut off by the intercom. "What?!"

"Hello, Mr Potter, some mail came in for you. I sent it up already." He swore he could hear the man cackling even after the intercom turned off.

The door opened and several men wheeled wheelbarrows into the room, dumping the mail in the center of the rug and leaving Prince drowning in letters.

"Oh, come on!"

"Baby!" Tom cried, throwing piles of letters over his shoulder and digging Prince out, before lifting his son out of the pile in his arms and placing him on the ground again a distance way, practically hissing at the white envelopes.

"Mummy, I'm fine…" he sighed, fixing his hair in a high ponytail.

"Oh, your hair is beautiful like that…" Tom gushed, running his fingers through the silky strands.

"So, what are your plans for when you go to Hogwarts?" Severus asked.

Prince stiffened and turned away, fisting his hands so hard he pierced the skin and he felt blood drip down his fingers. The action was so sudden it caused Rabastan to startle softly.

"… Prince?" Lucius asked worriedly.

"I… have plans that I must… act on. I cannot… let anything interfere." He said, voice wavering slightly. "I'm sorry."

"Sorry for what?" Rabastan asked in concern.

"…this." Prince spun and held out his shaking hand in their direction. "Forgive me…" he pleaded softly, a single tear dripping from his eye.

"…baby?" Tom started, taking a hesitant step forward. Prince's hand shook violently, and tears streamed silently down his face but a determined gleam light up his eye.

"Obliviate."