Disclaimer: As always I own nothing but the original characters and the situations all characters find themselves in. Thanks for reading, I hope you enjoy this latest chapter.

Potter Family Fun

Snape sat on the front porch, alone for the moment as Hugo had gone in to use the loo. It was a nice night to be outside, though he was in no mood to enjoy it. Part of that was the fact that the night air had sobered him up just enough that he was aware he'd had too much to drink, the rest was just annoyance that he'd been reduced to his present predicament. Logically he knew he should just go inside and go to sleep, that he shouldn't give a rat's ass when the annoying brat got home. She wasn't his responsibility, he owed her nothing. He was pulling his weight in the lab and he'd never asked her to take him in in the first place. So what if she was too young to handle a mature man, was too little and weak to physically fight one off if need be? So what if she was too damn trusting and innocent about how evil men could be? She probably had countless enemies in the dark wizard or witch community but did that stop her, oh no, Snape mentally snarled to himself.

DAMN THAT REDHEAD FROM HELL FOR MAKING HIM WORRY LIKE THIS!

Silently fuming as he cursed her existence in his life Snape would have been mortified if he'd seen himself moments later when he came to immediate attention as he caught sight of two figures walking up the path leading to the house.

Eyes narrowing the Slytherin studied the larger of the two forms, trying to make the man out from the porch. They were standing too damn close together, Snape inwardly snarled over, his anger turning into a kind of stunned shock as the light from the moon above illuminated the unknown man enough that he could get a real idea as to what the man looked like.

He looked like a Potter. So much like a Potter it was unbelievable.

Again, was all he could think as he watched the two get closer and closer to him. It was happening to him all over again.

The pain that thought caused took him by surprise, so that it took longer than it should have for his brain to process the fact that it wasn't that Lily was with a man who looked like a Potter…it was a Potter.

Harry Potter to be exact.

Now that they were almost upon him Snape could see the silver and white threaded through the other man's black hair, the now familiar form and shape of the current head of the Potter family.

"Snape. Good evening." Harry said softly, his voice a mixture of curiosity and wariness.

"Potters."

Lips twitching and not quite getting what was going on, especially given all the undercurrents she was sensing, Lily looked back and forth between the two men and then settled her gaze on her scowling Slytherin. "So what are you doing out here? I wouldn't have taken you for the nature boy type, Sev."

Snape glared, pissed off by so many different things that he didn't know where to start.

Stepping out Hugo took in the scene with a quick, sweeping glance, the door closing with a loud bang behind him as he hurried out to greet his family members. "Hi, Uncle Harry. What brings you by? Or are you just dropping Lily off?"

"Just dropping my girl off." And not wanting to fight with the Slytherin after an already trying day and evening Harry turned and gave his daughter a one armed hug, kissing the side of her head. "Thanks again for helping me out tonight, Kiddo. Appreciate it." The Auror turned to look at the other two men. "Good night, Hugo, Snape. Pleasant dreams to you all."

"Night, Uncle Harry."

"Night, Daddy." Lily hugged him hard and then waved him off since everyone there knew that there was no way in hell that Snape would return her father's words.

When her father had vanished from their sight Lily crossed her arms in front of her, giving the men a questioning look. "So what have you two been up to while I was away? Not getting into too much trouble I hope."

Hugo smiled at her. "Just some Wizard's Chess. We've been as good as Hufflepuffs."

Snape tilted his head up to give the Gryffindor the darkest of looks. "Compare me to a Hufflepuff again and I'll make you swallow all your chess pieces."

"They would fit down a man's throat." Lily agreed, doing her best to hide her amusement as she shocked the hell out of the Slytherin by taking a seat in the man's lap, even surprising Hugo a little with her audacity. "So, Darling Sev, how badly did my cousin kick your ass at chess?"

"You're sitting in my lap."

Lily laughed at the look on his face. "I'm aware of that. It's surprisingly comfortable, in case you were wondering."

"I ought to drop you on your ass."

"My pretty ass, remember?" Lily countered, knowing him well enough to know that he really would dump her on her butt. So she got up and brushed her skirt down since sitting on his lap had hiked it up a little. "So shall we go in then? This dress isn't meant to keep a girl warm."

Watching them both of them carefully Hugo posed the most important question of the evening. "So you were out with your dad tonight, Lily?"

"Yup. Mum caught that cold that's going around, the one the healers haven't quite figured out yet. Daisy Redwing was going to be at the party so Mum asked me to come with Da since she knows that that man stealing barracuda is scared of me and won't dare to even try and pinch Daddy's ass while I'm around. I had to stay by his side for the entire night though, she was circling him like a shark the whole time, trying to find an in. I'm almost sorry she didn't dare try though. These heels weren't just made for walking after all." She added with a decidedly evil twinkle in her eyes, murmuring her thanks when Hugo held the door open for her.

Both men looked down at her heels and imagined the damage they could inflict upon certain areas of human anatomy, Snape deciding that he wouldn't give the girl the lecture he'd planned to deliver after all.

She was too dim to see logic anyway, the Slytherin assured himself.

)

Lily woke with a start, looking all around her in confusion while wondering why her ears were buzzing. Or not her ears, the Gryffindor realized when the buzzing sound decreased significantly when she sat up. Twisting around to look at her pillow it took a moment for her to process and then she was throwing aside her covers and was off her bed in a flash.

Time to see if her nightmare detector worked.

Well it had gone off anyway, which was a good sign. The device was one that had been designed during the war to act as an early warning system for Dementors. The weird gadget had been deemed pretty useless and hadn't sold well, but she'd come across one at a yard sale one day and had picked it up for the novelty of it. It was supposed to react to extremely negative…something generated by the creatures. She wasn't sure exactly what it was the device reacted to, the witch she'd bought it from had had no idea, but she had hopes that by increasing it's sensitivity it would react to a great deal of negative emotions in one place. After all, it stood to reason that if Dementors were attracted to negative emotions then there was something about people that alerted the things as to a human's emotional state. And since it was the feelings Dementors inspired that differentiated them from other evil creatures…well she'd hoped the device would react to extreme night terrors.

Or at least that was her working theory, and from the looks of things she hadn't been far off, Lily thought as she carefully closed the Slytherin's door behind her after getting a good look at Snape.

Hurrying across the floor Lily crawled into the bed with him and as before hugged him back against her, not easy to do this time as he was fighting her. He was trying to reach someone, she realized, keeping her voice low and soothing as she reassured him that everything was all right and that everyone was safe.

Years of roughhousing with brothers and cousins had trained her well, but Lily figured they'd both have a couple bruises as she struggled to keep him still.

"Lily! No, they're hurting her! Lily!"

Eyes welling up with tears of pity as she realized what he was dreaming and fighting her for, Lily swallowed hard to regulate her voice before speaking. "No, Sev. No, Sev, listen to me. Lily's safe. She's fine. She's in a place where no one can every hurt her ever again. I promise, Severus. I promise she's safe."

There was a long silence and then he spoke, his voice achingly pleading. "She's safe?"

"She's safe." Lily confirmed in the tone of voice her Gran used that indicated her word was law.

Slowly the Slytherin relaxed into her hold, turning his head to the side so that he could bury his face against the side of her neck, Lily reaching up to stroke his hair as she rocked them slightly, making comforting sounds as she sent up a mental prayer that this would be the worst of it.

Minutes later Lily was surprised when he spoke again, having assumed that he'd dropped back into sleep.

"Have to take care of her." The Slytherin murmured, Lily only able to hear his words because they were so close. "Take care of them or they'll die too. Can't fail again."

Them? Brows furrowing Lily wondered who the man was talking about. Lily had been the only one Snape had ever loved according to everyone she'd ever heard speak of the Slytherin. Could he mean her grandmother and her father? Was that it? But if that were the case then why had he said 'or they'll die too'? Who had died after her grandmother that Sev would have possibly cared about? Dumbledore and her father maybe? Her grandmother had died, and then Sev could have cared about her father because of his mother, and Dumbledore had been the only one to trust and perhaps even positively try to mentor him.

That didn't sound right though.

And having a Weasley's curiosity Lily couldn't help herself from asking. "Who do you have to protect, Sev? Who are them?"

But there was no answer from the Slytherin and she didn't push it. She didn't want him to wake up and find her in the bed with him; that would definitely not go over well. No, she'd just have to wonder and speculate, Lily decided with a small sigh of regret as she settled herself more comfortably against the headboard.

She stayed until light came through the windows and then slipped out again without disturbing him.

)

It was just before lunch the next day that a rather tired Lily looked up from her worktable to see her brother Albus entering the lab, which was surprising since he hadn't checked to make sure it was safe to enter first. But as soon as she got a look at his face she didn't have to be brilliant, though she was, to figure out that her brother was suffering from extreme sleep deprivation. Even worse than she was. He looked like hell.

The new book must not be going well, Lily thought as she stopped chopping and put her knife off to the side. "What, did you have to sleep on the couch last night? You know you could have come and stayed here like usual." It wouldn't be the first time her brother had been kicked out of his own bed, Lily thought with a small smirk of amusement.

The way her brother blinked at her question said plainly he was so tired that he had to think for a moment to understand what she was asking. Albus was one of those people who did not function well without sleep, though this was pretty bad, even for him.

"I should have slept on the couch." Albus informed his sister, putting his hand in front of his mouth to muffle a yawn as he stumbled over to her, holding out a hand to indicate she shouldn't come any closer to him when she moved to meet him. "And for your sake I'll get straight to the point of my visit since I'm one of those lucky people currently living with someone who has that stupid cold that's going around. Not to mention the fact that if I give it to you you won't be able to babysit the kids for me once they're out of school today which is the purpose of me being here to throw myself on your mercy. Could you take them for a couple days? If not say so now and I'll go ask the in laws to take them. You know Mum's sick too, right?"

"Wow, so you're saying that if I don't take them I'm dooming them to spend two whole days with your evil in laws?" Lily laughed as she crossed her arms in front of her. "Talk about blackmailing me. Though they are old, so maybe they'd get the cold and kick the bucket as a result." Lily grinned at the look her brother aimed in her direction. "What? One should always look for a silver lining in all situations."

"That's a silver lining in your book, not mine. And the kids would be in school and sleeping for some of those two days so it wouldn't be that bad." Albus drawled out, placing a hand on her work bench since he was ready to keel. He was pretty damn sure he was starting to get the cold too which was almost as depressing as the idea of spending the next couple days playing nursemaid. This was going to be such a great week, was the Gryffindor's dark humor thought before he turned his attention back to the situation at hand. "I know you have Snape and Hugo to deal with, you can say no if you want. I just figured you'd be the best bet since you're one of those annoying people who never gets sick for some reason. Hugo's not around enough to get it and if the Slytherin gets sick…he'll be stuck in bed for a couple days and will be out of your hair."

She did indeed have a kick ass immune system. "You're assuming I'm heartless enough not to take care of him."

"Do you really think someone like my second namesake would let you baby him?"

Good point, she silently acknowledged. And okay, she was evil enough to want to see what Snape was like around kids. Hugo had pretty much won the cranky Slytherin over and it would be interesting to see if her nieces and nephew could do the same. Besides, she loved having the little rug rats over, especially since she'd be able to work while they were at school.

"I'll pick them up from school, Bro, no worries."

Albus's sigh of relief could probably be heard all the way to the house.

"Did you bring stuff for them?" Lily asked, trusting that her brother knew her well enough to know that she wouldn't say no.

"I put their bags in the front hall before coming out here." Albus admitted with a charming, sleepy grin. "Thanks, sincerely. I wouldn't have been able to handle four sick children, I'm just not that tough. Fighting Death Eaters would be easier."

"Okay, Bro, you're losing it. You only have three children."

The sound the Gryffindor made couldn't be called a laugh, but the expressive eye roll said it all.

"You've obviously never seen my darling spouse sick before. I said and meant four."

Lily's laughter followed him out of the lab as he waved good bye.

)

As soon as Snape saw the gleam in her eyes he knew a horror and trepidation he'd rarely felt even when he'd been playing both sides during the war. This was not going to end well for him, the Slytherin thought as he forced himself to meet Lily's eyes without flinching or running away like a little girl. He was a man and if necessary he'd…he'd arrange for her to have a little potion's accident that would keep her bedridden for a couple weeks. At least. She apparently had such accidents all the time, he'd definitely get away with it. But then Hugo would worry about her, a little voice in his head pointed out, but Snape squashed that thought like it was an annoying insect.

At times like this it was every man for himself.

"Sev." Lily all but sang, sensing that he wanted to bolt like a mouse spotting a cat. "Guess what?"

"They've finally realized you should be institutionalized for the safety of the Wizarding World?"

"No…they haven't figured that out yet. Or if they have they're keeping it to themselves so my brothers don't beat them up." Was her cheerful response. "Guess again."

Snape crossed his arms in front of him. "No." It would only encourage her.

Lily pretended to pout and then gave him a big, beaming smile designed to make every hair on the back of his neck stand on end. "We're going to be babysitting three kids for the next couple of days. Isn't that great?"

"I assume you hate these children and wish me to brutally scar them for life?"

"Given their names they're probably already scarred for life but if you want to try and make it worse…well I'm sort of obligated to stop you. Which could be fun too, depending on how I go about doing that."

The way she wiggled her eyebrows at him had Snape fighting the urge to flush.

Damn her.