Chapter 10 Returning to England
Back again after ten years of self imposed exile fallowing that fateful night when her family's colors became clear. Though she would have preferred such a thing had not been necessary, she would not change the last ten years for all the gold in Gringotts. If the events that had taken place had not occurred she may never have gotten to know Severus the way she had; and found a husband in him, she wouldn't have the close relationship with her Great Uncle, she and her two best friends would never have met the X-Men, and worst of all she wouldn't have her wonderful son. Sure she would still have him as a nephew but it just wouldn't be the same. She loved her son dearly and couldn't even imagine going back to when he was just her nephew. She took a deep breath of the damp English air after stepping out of the Ministry processing building with her family. Her hand dropped to her soon to be protruding belly. Can't forget that, if not for that night and the events that fallowed she may not be pregnant for the first time. She smiled happily at the thought and kissed her husbands cheek. Severus looked at her questioningly and she just shook her head and mouthed she was just really happy for some reason. He nodded and hefted Harry whom they had sedated for the long floo trip. The poor dear couldn't handle normal flooing so international flooing was out of the question. Unfortunately what with her being pregnant it was the only form of transportation they could take unless they went muggle.
"Woo hoo back in Britain yeah!" Crowed Sirius as he came up next to them and grinned maniacally. "I so can't wait to see those ponces again." He said mischievously and patted the pocket of his robes where he kept his stash of pranks. Remus and Sirius had decided to come back with them for a month to help get the family settled in then they would head back to the institute to continue teaching and going on missions. Seeing as the Snape's would now be in England the Professor promised to give the two Marauders any missions that would take them back to England so they could visit.
"Sirius behave yourself! Non of us like them but Leila and Severus have to share a country with them don't add to the tension." Remus chided Sirius and bopped him in the nose. Sirius yipped and batted Remus' hand away from him.
"Oh come on Moony I have to prank them. It's part of our code." Sirius whined at his mate pleadingly.
Moony sighed giving in. "Ok but just a little bit. Don't go over board." He warned and turned to Severus. "So where to Severus?" He asked cocking an eye brow in question.
Severus grunted and held out his wand. "We shall take the bus to the Leaky Cauldron." He said just as the bus appeared with a load bang. He carried Harry on board and gave the driver the destination and sat on a bed fallowed by Leila. Sirius and Remus sat on a bed across the isle from them. "From there we shall floo to Hogsmeade." He continued after laying Harry down.
"Oh is that why you haven't woken Harry up yet?" Remus asked curiously as he looked at his sleeping nephew as the bus jerked them to and fro.
"Yes it is we saw no need to wake him before the journey was at an end. Now we will arrive at the Three Broomsticks and from there it is just a short walk to the small house I purchased for us to use while Hadrian is in school." He finished and ran his fingers through his son's hair.
"Why do you insist on calling him by his full name?" Sirius whined at him disgruntled by the posh sounding name being attached to his godson.
"I call him that because it is his name and I refuse to call him by that absolutely abysmal plebeian name Harry." He said with a curl of distaste to his mouth.
"Harry is a perfectly fine name and its not plebeian." Sirius huffed frustrated it was a long standing argument between them and neither seemed willing to budge any time in the future.
"As you say Mutt but I will continue to refer to my son as Hadrian." He said simply and scooped up his son and made to get off the bus. It had arrived at their stop while they had been arguing. Leila chuckled and fallowed her husband.
"Oh just give up Padfoot, he's not going to budge." She advised as the exited onto the street and head for the door to the Leaky Cauldron.
As they walked in to the old pub that served as a portal between the muggle world and the magical world the group could feel the shiver of magic flowing against their skins. It had been such a long time since they had been in a purely magical establishment that the touch of magic seemed almost solid. Through out their stay in America Leila had manage to teach both Padfoot and Moony to feel the magic around them even if it wasn't to the extent that she herself and Severus could feel, it was enough to give them a bit of warning if they happened to be in the presence of something or some one magical.
Leila looked around and smiled as she spotted some one. "Hey isn't that Quirinus Quirrell(sp)?" She asked spotting a man at the bar sporting a large purple turban. " You told me he was the new Muggle Studies teacher right?" She asked curiously. "I remember him from school he was a Ravenclaw in my year. He was such a nice quite fellow. Lets go say hi." She suggested happily. Severus looked ready to protest but it was to late Leila had already started making her way over to her old School mate.
"Quirinus its been a long time its good to see you again." Leila chirped happily and held out her hand to shake his in greeting. Quirinus did not however extend his own he spun about seeming a bit startled then gave a shaky hesitant smile.
"Mmm…. Ms. Ev-evans. N-n-n-nice to see y-y-you again a-a-as w-w-well." He said with a very pronounce stutter. Leila blink she didn't remember him having such a stutter. Sure he was always a bit twitchy and nervous but never this bad, and their was also something else something she couldn't quite pinpoint but it was there.
She brushed it off and was about to continue talking when Severus tapped her shoulder. "Leila dear don't forget our son is still out cold." He said a bit more briskly than was his norm and kept shooting glances at Quirinus.
"Oh oh yes of course." She smiled and turned to Quirinus. "Sorry but as you can see my son is out so we must be off, and its actually Mrs. Snape now." She corrected proudly. "Hope to see you again sometime." She said happily and made her way with here family to the Floo to leave after waving good bye.
They made it to the floo with out further interruption or delay. Had they stayed but a few minutes longer they may have seen a rather green looking Hagrid stumble into the Leaky Cauldron for a pint to calm his nerves. But as they did not, they had no way of knowing or even guessing that the Headmaster had entrusted him with a rather important and highly magical object in order to have it moved to Hogwarts. The one good thing about there visit with Quirinus is that the encounter kept him so distracted he actually missed Hagrid as he made his way out of the pub and into Diagon Alley proper to go and finish up his days shopping.
The group exited the Floo Network in the Three Broomsticks and made their way to a booth. There they gave Harry the counter to the sedative and he groggily began to come around. Meanwhile the group had ordered up some sandwiches and butter beer for lunch. Once he was coherent again he began to eat hungrily.
"I really hope we can take a plane home when we leave for X-mas cause I hated that." He stated with a grumpy look on his face, very reminiscent of his fathers own panted sneer.
Sirius shuddered at the look. "Don't do that you look way to much like your father when you do that." He whined pitifully of the horror his poor innocent godson was turning into a Snape? What was the world coming to. Granted better a Snape than a Potter but really just because they were on speaking terms didn't mean he had to like the git.
Harry just grinned. "Good." Was his simple response before he continued his meal while Moony and Leila laughed at Sirius' face and Severus just looked on his son with pride.
It was at that moment that the happy atmosphere took a steep nose dive as non other than the Potters entered the establishment en mass. James was the first one to spot them. "Look Lily its your Sister and the Mutts along with a Greasy Bat." He said in a stage whisper that carried through the near emptiness of the building do to school not yet being in session. The acid that dripped on each descriptor not lost on their recipient. Sirius all but snarled and began to rise but was held in his place by Moony.
Lily looked over and scanned the table her gaze landing on Harry and remaining locked green gaze to green gaze. A light passed over her eyes before it hardened and she looked away. She had made the right decision Harry didn't matter. Her resolve set she smiled and walked over. "Hello Leila I see you have been taking good care of My Son." She said emphasizing the "my" in her statement wondering if her dear sister had even told the boy about his true origins.
Leila's gaze hardened to steel upon hearing her sisters words. It didn't matter Harry already new but if he had not Lily had no right to do what she clearly was intending. "No Lily I have been taking care of MY Son." She growled. "You all but abandoned him 10 years ago, so you have no claim to him." She stated in a hard tone that bespoke deadly consequences should her words not be heeded.
A slightly chubby red head stepped out from behind his father and took in the assembled people before him. He had been told stories about these people by his parents, stories that at first spoke of friendship and loyalty, and then changed to treachery and abandonment. These people had abandoned his parents friendship and familial ties the day after he became the "Boy Who Lived", they had taken his older twin brother and left the country. His honorary Grandfather Albus had told him stories too, different to those his parents told so that in the end he wasn't quite sure how to react to these people. Harry was his older brother by a few minutes, what would it have been like to have a brother growing up. He had often wondered if his parents wouldn't have smothered him so much. He was given almost anything he wanted but he was hardly ever allowed off the grounds of Potter Manor and the only friends he had were the Weasley's. He moved forward to speak to his twin for the first time in his memory when his father reached out and pulled him back.
"No son don't sully your self by speaking with that inferior trash. Come along we will just go some where else it smells in here." He sniffed disdainfully.
"Yes it does smell strange I didn't notice it until you lot came in." Severus stated icily and glared at James with an intensity only rivaled by the sun.
Sirius growled menacingly and made to lunge at James for the slight to Harry but again Moony held him back. "Don't Padfoot he's not worth it." He hissed.
Harry meanwhile had been watching his twin and upon catching his eye he smiled hesitantly. Daniel smiled back a bit before he was turned away and marched out of the restaurant with his family. Once they were gone Harry turned to his mother. "I think Daniel might turn out to be kind of nice did you see he smiled at me." He said happily, the thought that his twin may actually want to know him was an exciting prospect. They may have joked a lot about teaching his arrogant and spoiled little brother lessons in humility but the idea that maybe despite the way his mother and father believe him to be raised he was actually a nice person was an amazing thought in his mind. The more family the better as far as he was concerned.
Severus grimaced. "Don't drop your guard around him, he's very much like his father. Charming and arrogant I have little doubt that should you be sorted into Slytherin as we believe you will be, he will turn on you so fast it will make your head spin. The novelty of having a twin will more than likely wear off in that event almost instantly." Severus warned his son to be cautious. "That said I will not discourage you making friends with him. Who knows perhaps Albus' influence during his lessons has sunk in enough to allow the two of you to reconnect as brothers." He offered a bit of hope to his son after seeing his face fall at his earlier pronouncement. "As you know your brother has also been in training, but it is a much different training than yours. It's not nearly as intense and is mostly based on book knowledge because Lily refused to let them train him any other way until he turned eleven. According to Albus he will begin his hands on training this year." Severus explained.
"Don't worry father I won't let my guard down but if I can at least have him for a friend I would like to try." He said hopefully.
After that they all finished there food and headed out to the streets of Hogsmeade to locate their new home. Even though he was sad to have left America Harry was excited to see their new home. He loved the Den but he had always liked the feel of smaller cozier houses, like the ones that some of the Graduates from the institute live in around the neighbor hood. So the group trooped down the street around the corner and down another street until they came to a medium sized 2 story house. It had bid bay windows, cream colored siding, and dark brown shingles. The shutters where a nice rich blue color and the door was painted red with a snake head knocker.
"Wow Severus this is beautiful!" Leila said happily and hugged her husband. Severus smiled smugly and hugged her back.
"Thank you I'm glad you approve." He said and then reach out and ruffled his sons hair. He was grinning like a loon and bouncing on his feet obviously excited to go inside and see everything. They had Magical movers come ahead of them so all of their things would be set up inside. "Go on the door should open for your magical signature if you try the handle." He informed his excited offspring.
Harry squealed and took of disappearing into the house. Leila smiled. "Well looks like we're home." She said with a sigh contentedly for the moment. She really wished they could have remained in America but if they had to be here than she could think of no other place she'd rather be. This sort of house and family was here dream when she was younger and now she had it, she intended to enjoy it.
AN/: Another chapter Yay! Just so you are aware chapters will more than likely be infrequent do to my need to do college work before I do anything fun. ^_^; So thanks for being patient with me!