A quick A/N: It all gets more complicated here. Just go with the flow, as obviously none of this is anywhere near canon. Fair warning, read carefully, lol.
Chapter Ten—Mysterious Plottings
Monday after classes, Albus wasn't surprised to see both Minerva and Filius enter his office. "Good, good," he said, smiling. "I was going to call the two of you. Please, sit down. Lemon drops?"
Both Heads sat, declining the delicious treats.
"Albus, we're here to ask about Severus." Filius said, the small man unusually still. "We're worried, both for him and for our students. The OWLs and NEWTs are coming up and it isn't like Severus to miss so many classes."
"It isn't common for Severus to miss any classes." Minerva said bluntly. "Unless he's caught up in a potion and even then he leaves some sort of work for his students to do. This time he's left nothing. Is the ladd alright- has his latest fight with Black hurt him this much?" Her normally stern face softened. "I told that boy he was getting too old for his foolish lifestyle. Has Poppy been to see him?"
Albus smiled. Though some close-minded people still had their doubts about Severus and treated him as if he were a convicted criminal, he had never had a problem with the staff at Hogwarts. Though the boy often felt the need to hide from the outside world, he didn't have to hide at Hogwarts. Of course, he still did, but at least he knew they were there for him.
"Severus is not injured." He assured Minerva. "Sirius and Severus didn't actually get to fight."
"I saw them." Filius squeaked in surprise. "They were heading out to the Forest as usual. And then when Severus disappeared the first time..."
"The fight was interrupted when Severus got a message." Albus said gently. "He had to take in one of his cousins' sons for the next few days. The stubborn boy hasn't come to talk to me about anything yet, but I get the feeling there is something wrong in his family. If my suspicions are correct, that boy will be coming to live somewhere over here as opposed to France."
He thought for a moment, allowing himself a private smirk at the thought of Severus adopting James Potter's son. "As for the classes, Severus hasn't changed his syllabus since he started. Leave the seventh years to themselves and have the sixth years work with the fifth years with studying. I will ask Poppy to teach the lower years for the time being. They could all do with learning some Healing Potions."
"Very well, Albus." Filius said, standing. "So we shouldn't expect Severus for the next...week? Or two?"
"I think he ought to be freed up after this weekend." Albus said, fully intending to have a solution before the weekend.
"In that case, I should go talk to my Ravens and let them know." Filius said. "I shall see you later."
"Minerva, stay a moment, if you would." Albus requested, as the Scottish woman began to stand. "I would like to discuss something with you."
She waited until Filius was gone before she retook her seat. "I see that glint in your eyes, Albus. What are you up to?" She asked suspiciously.
"Minerva, those boys will persist in thinking they can hide secrets from me." Albus said vaguely. "I have to make sure they aren't up to anything too dangerous- we couldn't put young Alec in danger, now could we?"
"Well of course not." She said, huffing. "But I don't know that you're one to be nebbing about in their affairs. Perhaps the boys- wait a minute. What boys? Sirius and Severus or Severus and Alec?"
Albus grinned. "I'm not sure yet." He said vaguely. "I will be let you know as soon as I return, my dear, I promise." He said, standing and slipping on a cloak.
"You're leaving now?" She asked, wincing at the deep purple cloak thrown on top on bright green robes.
"Yes, I must make sure my Potions Master gets everything sorted out. As the boy is too stubborn to do so himself, I will do it for him. I shall also stop in at Sirius's and have a talk with that boy." Albus said, calmly reaching over to pet Fawkes as he flashed into view. "I will take care of those boys, Minerva. We owe them that much. Until later, my dear, please take care of the school in my absence."
Fawkes immediately flamed him to Privet Drive. A quick wave of his wand changed his delightful robes into a neat deep purple business suit and, after counting the cookie-cutter houses carefully, he headed towards the Dursley's home.
The door was opened before he could even knock and Petunia Dursley nee Evans hissed at him, "How dare you come here? Get in before anyone sees you."
Albus followed her orders and waited patiently while she slammed the door and locked it before pulling down the blinds on either side of the door. "Well?" She then demanded. "What do you want? To issue more threats?"
"Someone has threatened you?" Albus asked, looking around at the pictures in the hallway. The three Dursley's were shown over and over, but he saw none of Harry. How curious. "Did they give a name?"
"Do you often give names when threatening someone?" She sniped at him, but he ignored her harsh tones, watching her carefully. Her mind had drawn up pictures of the man threatening her even as she spoke and he knew immediately that he didn't recognize the man. He was almost positive he recognized the voice, but there was no doubt in his mind by the man's mannerisms: that was Severus Snape.
Albus smirked. Oh, those boys tried so hard, but there was a reason they didn't get away with anything. He ignored her question, stepping around her, and went to the cupboard. Surely he had misunderstood the conversation between Severus and Petunia.
But no, there was in fact a broken cot sitting inside the cupboard under the stairs, taking up nearly all the space. Several broken crayons and small toys were slightly scattered.
"He was right." Albus withdrew and turned back to Petunia. "The Dark Lord will return. The outcome will be on your own head. That child being here was the only thing keeping the wards up around your house and keeping your family safe. I will not enact new wards for you, you are welcome to your fate."
She had just enough time to gasp, her hands flying to her mouth in horror at the realizations before he raised his wand and chanted, "Obliviate."
He was gone before she recovered, as were the memories of both himself and the disguised Severus.
When Sirius first revealed his plan to Remus, the werewolf was ready to take his friend in to St. Mungo's and confess that Azkaban must have done something to his friend after all. The second time through the plan, Remus still had his suspicions. It took a third and then a fourth re-telling before the half-blood Remus could understand it.
When he first did understand, Remus could only shake his head. "So it's not just you that's crazy. It's your whole bloody family."
"It's all of us!" Sirius happily admitted. "But it'll work, Moony. I think. If Dmitri is the Snape that I think I remember, he won't have a problem with this at all. I just need to pop in and see Ben and then I'm off to France. I have to move fast, I'm sure Dumbledore will be demanding to know what I did to his git of a Potions Master pretty soon."
And sure enough, Monday evening, Sirius was interrupted from his musings when he felt the wards stopping someone from Apparating. "Prongs rides again with Lady Lily," Sirius murmured their password half-heartedly as he walked towards the front door. "And fifty Galleons says it's…Headmaster!" He opened the door, grinning at the wizened old man whose office he had spent so much time in during his Hogwarts years. "How are you?"
"Fine, fine." Albus said, grinning at the Marauder. "I would like to speak to you about Severus."
Luckily, Remus and Harry were still gone—bloody Ravenclaw-wannabes with their stupid books—so Sirius was moderately sure that he could pull his plan off.
"Good." He said, opening the odor and gesturing the Headmaster inside. "I want to talk to you about him too."
Albus entered curiously, eagerly anticipating the story that Sirius would no doubt try to feed him now. The boy was hidden from sight, whether intentionally or not, he didn't know, but at least the younger man wasn't taking risks with the boy's life.
They took seats in the den that Sirius had claimed as his own, as Moony routinely ran him out of the library and Sirius shot his opening gambit. He wasn't stupid- he knew that the Headmaster suspected something. But he wasn't a Marauder for nothing.
"Where the bloody hell is he?" Sirius asked. "Is that bat still hiding down in the dungeons?"
Alright, that actually surprised Albus. "Yes, he is down in the dungeons. He hasn't actually been out in several days and I am understandably getting upset. Would you care to explain what is going on? His erratic behavior began after he had left the castle with you. Presumably for another of your infamous duels."
"We weren't going to duel!" Sirius protested. A look the Headmaster gave him made him grin. "Okay, so maybe we were. Some people weren't made to be friends though, Professor. You have to accept that. But we were interrupted when we were summoned."
"You were summoned?" Albus asked, confused. "Who has that power over you?"
For a moment, both men were confused. Then Sirius figured it out. "Oh, I forget." He said. "Light Families probably don't grant their Matriarch or Patriarch the power to summon them. My Matriarch and Snape's Patriarch are twins, Professor, Salazar and Selene Snape. Selene married my grandfather, but upon his death, he made her Matriarch, as Black Family Law allows, considering he didn't trust either of his sons."
"Any member of your family may be summoned?" Albus asked, intrigued. If they could summon Bellatrix...
His momentary hope was quickly put out though. "No, sir." Sirius explained. "Only the Heir may be summoned. Although my mother and father took great pleasure in blasting me from their family tree, it was not actually the main family tree. For that, they would have had to go to Black Manor. Neither of them have been allowed access there, however, since they tried to kill my grandmother. For that attempt, she made me the Heir of the family. She doesn't live at Black Manor, but has retreated to Snape Manor, which I believe is in France. Salazar still resides there; he came back after his wife, who was a Malfoy, if I remember correctly, died. Snape- Severus, that is- is the Snape Heir, so Salazar can summon him.
"Salazar and Selene are both getting on in the years." Sirius went on after a moment. "They've both been responsible for the family businesses for so long and now they are getting ready to pass them on. It was never the practice of either family, apparently, to wait for the leader to die before the Heir takes over, as that's what they are attempting now. As soon as an Heir proves that he is worthy, he can take over. They've devised a test for us, to prove our worth and I am not doing it alone. So you just tell him to get his ass over here. I'm not doing it alone."
"Not doing what alone?" Dumbledore asked, hiding a grin. Oh, the boy was good. Mixing the truth together with what was sure to be a lie.
"I'm not raising Alec and Silas by myself." Sirius said calmly. "Apparently Snape thought that buying a set of clothes is enough, but it isn't. I've had the kids staying with me, since he's teaching and stuck at Hogwarts, but we're supposed to raising the two together. I thought it'd be great, you know, they could be like a brother for Harry, when I bring him to visit. But I don't want all the responsibility- I haven't had a date for years, Headmaster!"
"Alec? Silas?" Dumbledore asked.
"Alexander and Silas Snape." Sirius said. "Nice kids, they're my cousin Dmitri Snape's youngest children. The only ones not old enough to go away to school yet. Dmitri's a nice guy, but he's not the best father. He'd rather spend his time drinking rather than working and Salazar has been restricting his access to his family account, so the idiot's been using the money for his children to pay for his habits. He almost didn't have enough left to pay for his oldest son's Durmstrang tuition and Salazar finally stepped in. He paid the tuitions for Dmitri's four children in school and was only left with the youngest two- a set of twins, you see. He and Selene took a liking to the two and want to train them as the potential Heir of at least one of the families. Several Snape's have married Black's if they didn't go back to France, so either one would have a claim for the Black title and they both have a direct tie to the Snape family. No one in the generation above us in the Snape family will inherit, they've all been cast from the running one way or another"
"What about the boys' older siblings?" Dumbledore asked. "I thought Severus was the Heir because he was the oldest from his generation."
Sirius frowned. This was one part that puzzled him a bit too. "Well, in the past few years, Salazar and Selene have decided that their Families were going to turn to the Neutral, if not exactly the Light. Dmitri sent his children to Durmstrang, against Salazar's orders to send them to either Hogwarts or Beauxbatons, where some Snape females occasionally go so as not to leave the country, because of his wife's ties there and Salazar doesn't want them to be his Heir. He knows that most attending Durmstrang go bad. Especially with Karkaroff as Headmaster. He transferred Dmitri's daughters to Beauxbatons, as they are only twelve and thirteen, feeling there still might be some hope for them, but the Snape line is fully Patriarchal. One of them may end up as the Black Heir if Selene decides otherwise. So you see, Snape- Severus- has even more reason than I to raise the two. They're his only chances as his heirs, unless he plans to marry pretty soon. The two oldest boys are sixteen and seventeen, so Salazar is leaving them where they are, but refuses to consider them."
He shrugged, standing and beginning to pace the room. He made a few circuits, wondering vaguely where Moony and Harry were. Surely they couldn't still be at the bookstore?
"Why are they letting you and Severus raise the boys?" Dumbledore asked, after carefully considering the situation. Where was Harry? Was Alec real? Was Silas real? Was Harry with the Heads of the Snape and Black families?
"They feel they're too old to be running the families and chasing around after children." Sirius said, scoffing. Those two would never be old. They acted like teens. "As Severus and I have both broken our father's orders and turned to the Light, they want us to teach the boys the same...how'd they say it? The same 'strength of will' or some such. Although I've explained to them very patiently that I'm soon going to have my godson here as well- they didn't care. They thought that even better, as then the two will grow up with the Potter Heir.
"Now, I realize that Snape has to stay at Hogwarts to work, really I do. But he has weekends free, doesn't he? If he misses another one, I'm turning him in to Salazar. He's the one who actually knows the kids- I never even met him before. I met Dmitri's first two boys, Tomas and Rupert, but none of his younger children."
"Sirius, do you really think that you should be raising any child right now?" Albus asked. "That is one of the main concerns about you taking Harry in to your house. No one has been in Azkaban as long as you."
Sirius blushed a little at the mention of Harry, but was still firm in his answer. "I talked to Selene about that and she doesn't believe it will be a problem. She said something along the lines of 'if you haven't gone mad in the time spent with your mother and father, nothing else will ever be able to harm you'. She didn't like my father, never considered him as her Heir. He was a major disappointment to her, especially after he joined Voldemort. He was almost disowned completely when he married Mother. Besides, Remus is here. He'll make sure I don't do anything too dangerous to the kid. Lily would never have left Harry with me and James if not for Remus, even if James was Harry's father."
"I see." Albus said, thinking furiously. How much of this tale was truth? Were they actually going to try to pass Harry off as an Heir potential for one the two Darkest families in the Wizarding World? He'd have to think carefully. "Severus has been locked up in his rooms for days, with wards so powerful I am unable to break through. He has forbidden access to any House-elves and effectively kept me out. Do you have idea what he's doing?"
Yeah, Sirius thought sourly. Moping, mixed in with a good healthy dose of brooding the horror that was his life. The stupid git. Big baby.
"I'm sure he's trying to figure some way out of this. He initially seemed to hope he might get passed over entirely as Heir if he took in the children, but in the end I just don't think he wanted the responsibility. Me and Moony need some time off, even if we enjoy having the two rugrats around." Sirius lied through his teeth. How could they ever be sick of Harry? "If he doesn't show up soon, I'm going to drag him out of those dungeons. Do you want me to come take them down?"
He had no doubt that he could. Enough of the students in their year had passed both the Arithmancy and Ancient Runes OWLs with high enough scores to get a Warding class set up. He and Snape had been the best in class, competing ruthlessly for the last three years of school.
"If he does not emerge soon, I may do that." Albus had to admit that both of his former students were better at this particular magic than he was. They had been when they were still at Hogwarts. "Well, now that I know the situation, I shall be on my way. I hope to talk to you again soon, Sirius." He added, standing.
"About Harry?" Sirius asked, opening the door lead the Headmaster out.
His acting skills were superb, Dumbledore had to give him that. "Harry is safest where he is, Sirius." The older man said. "I cannot find any wards stronger than the blood wards he is living under now."
"Moony and I are still looking." Sirius said. "But he'd be so much happier here, Professor."
They came to the front door. "We shall see, my boy, we shall see." Dumbledore promised, slipping away.
"Liar." Sirius hissed half-heartedly, slamming the door. Why the Headmaster felt he needed to be in charge of everything, Sirius would never understand. Oh well. Now it was time for the real fun.
He quickly scribbled a note for Remus- Really? This long at one bookstore? Stupid Ravenclaws- and left it on the kitchen table. Moony would find it and hopefully Sirius would be back with the idiot Slytherin before Harry's bedtime.
A/N: In honor of the Steelers and their victory. I bleed Black and Gold, and so for putting up with that, here's your present. Sorry it's been so long, but my life continues to grow more complicated. The next update will be up by the end of the week- I promise.
Minara.