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.

Back To School

The large building was one that hadn't been around when he'd been a child, but his mother had homeschooled him so his formal education hadn't begun until his first term at Hogwarts. Following Lily into the building Snape mentally cursed his present situation, though he kept his thoughts to himself since he wasn't so ill mannered as to swear at the woman while there were young children nearby. Though given how fast his students had seemed to age when he'd still taught Snape supposed he'd be naïve to assume that the various children they passed weren't already far more mature than his peers had been at that age.

That he was here because Lily wanted to make sure that he would know where her nieces and nephew's classrooms were in the event that he had to pick up or drop them off by himself made the whole thing that much worse. But the evil witch had bribed him with her chicken pot pie and a promise that she'd keep the brats away from him for the rest of the day if he came with her.

The things he had to do to get a little peace and quiet.

Of course that was something that was ALWAYS in short supply at Lily Potter's house.

"So Honey and Bunny are in the same class so you won't have any problem finding them. Well that and everyone knows Bunny so worst comes to worse you could probably ask anyone here and they'd be able to point you in the right direction." And easily reading the man's expression Lily grinned. "No, those aren't their real names, but Bunny decided when she was three that she wanted to be called Bunny and she won't answer to anything else unless seriously bribed. And Honey…well if I had her first name I'd go by a nickname too. Though knowing you, I guess you can just call her Jay. It's a short form for Jemima."

He knew about the one girl, Hogwarts had been abuzz when the Chosen One's son had adopted her, but the other two were unknown to him.

Arriving at their destination with much weaving and pausing to make way for the various little people around them, Snape didn't have to wonder which of the children was Bunny. It was pretty damn obvious, even to him, why the girl had chosen such a ridiculous nickname for herself.

The girl loved rabbits.

In appearance the little girl reminded him of Shirley Temple, complete with the dirty blonde curls, dimples, and the wide smile the former child actress had been known for. The girl's love of rabbits was more than apparent in the fact that the girl was wearing overalls with a rabbit on the front pocket, her backpack was shaped like a rabbit, and the hat the girl wore on her head had bunny ears attached to it.

At the girl's side was a rather mousey looking thing, quietly pretty and obviously with Bunny though lacking the girl's sparkle. Honey, perhaps?

His guess was proved correct when Bunny spotted them and automatically grabbed the other girl's hand, heading for them with a single minded focus that soon had the two children standing in front of them, Bunny looking at him with obvious interest while the other girl shyly hung back and stared at her feet.

"Are you Aunt Lily's boyfriend?"

While Snape stared at her niece with obvious horror, which was a little annoying, Lily answered Bunny's question. "No, he's my latest assistant. I just wanted him to know where your classroom was in case I need him to come get you instead. Did your teacher tell you two that you'll be staying with me for a bit?"

Bunny nodded her head before turning her attention back to Severus. "Aunt Lily blows her assistants up, Papa says. Has she blown you up yet?"

"Unfortunately no." Severus's drawled out in response.

"You should be Aunt Lily's boyfriend if you like being blown up." Was Bunny opinion on the matter. "I'm Bunny and this is my sister Honey. Together we're Honey Bunny, get it? We're six years old. What's your name? Are you staying at Aunt Lily's house with us and Uncle Hugo?"

"Do you always talk so much?"

"Yes."

Snape's eyes shifted over to look at the other little girl, deciding that she was already his favorite of Albus Potter's children. Which wasn't saying much, but at least this one probably wouldn't make him long to return to his grave the way Lily and her other niece were likely to do on a regular basis.

Shaking her head Lily introduced the two girls to Snape properly, not surprised that Bunny took to him right away while Honey hung back, shyly greeting the Slytherin before going silent again. Honey didn't take to people fast, and it would be a while before she'd speak up instead of letting Bunny do all the talking for them.

Introductions made, the redhead smiled and asked the girls if they had everything, which they did. That confirmed she announced that they needed to head out so that they could pick up their brother before he started wondering what was keeping them. Taking Honey's hand Lily wisely didn't comment when Bunny took her sister's hand in her right and slipped her left into Snape's before the man had time to anticipate the move.

Jerking in surprise Snape stared down at the little hand in his own, shocked by how small and frail it felt. He'd never held the hand of someone so young, he'd never been the hand holding type even if there'd been someone who would want to hold his.

It occurred to the Slytherin that they must look like a family, two parents come to take their daughters home from school. Not that the girls in any way resembled them, but at first glance the mistake could probably be made.

The thought was so strange and disturbing that Snape was quiet and barely noticed what was going on until he realized that they'd stepped out of the building without retrieving the final Potter child. "What about the boy?"

"The boy doesn't attend this school." Lily informed him with a mischievous smile. "Riley is in high school."

"High school?" Snape repeated in confusion. "Why would he…if he's that old he should be at Hogwarts."

"Riley can't go to Hogwarts, Silly." Bunny told the man with the lovely voice. "He's a Muggle. Muggles can't do magic."

)

Snape was still reeling from the revelation minutes later when they were walking down a regular Muggle street after Lily had used magic to transport them to a dead end alley tucked behind a building near the school. The girls were obviously familiar with where they were going so Snape remained silent and let them lead the way, Bunny's hand still tucked in his as she talked a mile a minute about everything she and Honey had done in school that day. He wasn't listening of course, he was too busy wondering how there had come to be a Muggle in the Potter family. Not that the family would discriminate against a Muggle, Arthur Weasley was probably thrilled beyond words, but deliberately having a lone Muggle in a family of witches and wizards was definitely abnormal.

And that was most definitely a Muggle high school they were approaching, Snape noted, wincing a little as he got a look at what the teenagers were wearing as they eagerly vacated the school grounds. Damn, and he'd thought the Muggle fashions of his teens and twenties had been horrible. What were the girls thinking, dressing like that in public? It was like the two sexes were trying to be polar opposites of each other. The girls were trying to wear the most revealing and tight clothes they were allowed while the boys favored the baggy, shapeless look. Of course there were a few sane individuals who'd found a happy medium, but they were the obvious exceptions to the fashion rules.

As they made their way through the crowd the former teacher wasn't surprised to see that while some things changed a lot hadn't. The snippets of conversation he overheard concerned various forms of entertainment, who was the best looking and most desirable, and of course the expected jokes and verbal abusing of those they considered their inferiors.

Damn but he'd hated being a teenager.

He also couldn't help but notice the looks Lily was getting from the teenage males. Glancing over he could see the appeal, her being an older woman and one who not only had curves but flaunted them. A nice change from the constantly on a diet sticks the teenage boys were used to seeing on a daily basis if what he'd seen so far was any indication.

Still, that didn't excuse their leering and Snape gave harsh looks to a few of the bolder ones.

"Man, I loved you in Die Hard. You were the shit."

Turning his head Snape looked at the acned teenage boy who had spoken, his nose picking up on a scent that definitely reminded him of his teenage summers trying to stay away from the neighborhood Muggle boys since he wasn't allowed to curse them.

Marijuana.

"Alec, that's obviously not Alan Rickman." Another teenager told his friend, obviously not as baked. "I mean that guy's gotta be, like, ancient by now."

"It could be, I mean think how much dough that guy had to make. He could afford all the plastic surgery he could want."

Snape's eyes narrowed as he gave them a look that any student would recognize as the glare of a teacher who took a great deal of pleasure in making their students as miserable as they were. "I suggest you both leave before you require extensive plastic surgery to undo the damage I'll do to your person if you don't leave my presence immediately."

The boys scrammed like rats fleeing a ship.

"Awww, Sev, you're such a people person."

Before Snape could remind her for the millionth time that he didn't want her to call him by that nickname the former potions teacher was interrupted by Bunny loudly proclaiming that she had spotted her older brother.

Interest piqued in spite of himself Snape turned his gaze from Lily to follow the girls as they let go of his and Lily's hands so that they could race over to where their brother was. Watching them the Slytherin couldn't help but gape with shock when he got a look at the slim teenager who had bent down with arms open so that the girls could throw themselves into them.

The boy was, without question, the most beautiful person Snape could ever recall laying eyes on. He was one hundred percent heterosexual, and had never had the slightest inclination to experiment in that area, but he couldn't help but be a little blown away by the absolute perfection of the teenage boy's face.

"It takes some getting used to." Lily murmured, understanding completely his reaction. Riley's face was perfectly symmetrical and shaped, the stunningly beautiful blue grey eyes framed with dark lashes that were at odds with the teenager's shoulder length white blonde hair. More than one person in the Wizarding community had suggested that Riley could put a Veela to shame even though he lacked their magical enticements.

And since she'd forgotten to give the Slytherin some much needed explanations Lily hastened to do so before her nieces and nephew made their way over to them. "Riley isn't going to like or trust you at first, particularly around the girls. Don't take it personally. He was in an abusive home before he was put into foster care when he was thirteen. He's very over protective of the girls and me a little bit, so try to keep the really mean stuff to a minimum until they go back home, kay?"

"Got it." Though he wouldn't have needed the information, not now that he could see the boy's eyes, Snape thought as the three children approached them. He knew the look in those eyes, the guarded defensiveness of someone who was more surprised by kindness than violence. The eyes of someone who expected the worst in people and was rarely proven wrong.

As a boy he'd seen that look plenty in the mirror before he'd learned to hide even that.

Snape watched the boy take his measure, not taking the slightest offense in the way the teenager was sizing him up. If he'd had siblings he would have been just as protective of them.

"Riley, this is Mr. Prince, he's my latest assistant. Severus, this is my nephew Riley."

Lily did her best not to smile as the two men nodded at each other, though inwardly she was surprised that Snape was being this…well cordial where Riley was concerned. She'd figured that he wouldn't be too bad around the girls since they were really young but Riley was a teenager, old enough to have been one of the Slytherin's students once upon a time. Plus her nephew's looks often put the backs up of most men who didn't like the fact that their girls regularly threw themselves at Riley.

The fact that Riley tended to get a reaction out of straight guys didn't help his popularity there either.

But they were sharing this look of male understanding that she just hadn't-

Oh.

Looking between the two Lily could feel a whole box's worth of light bulbs go on over her head.

Sev's childhood had been just as bad as Riley's.

She wouldn't have to worry about the Slytherin being around the teenager in the slightest.

"So they're both sick now?" Riley asked, turning his attention to Lily as he gave her a questioning look. He would have rather have stayed home and just taken care of the girls and their parents, but he wasn't surprised that they'd been shipped off to stay with someone else. He was a little surprised that they'd ended up in Lily's care, she normally wasn't someone people were comfortable trusting their children with for long stretches of time. The new assistant must be a pretty mature and reliable guy, Riley decided, for his adoptive parents to trust that he'd keep Lily from experimenting on them.

"Yup. Or at least my darling brother was looking well on his way when he dropped off your stuff." And knowing how Riley's mind worked Lily gave the boy a reassuring look. "Don't worry, I'll pop over there a few times to check on them and make sure they're still kicking. And I won't play with anything remotely explosive while you guys are with me."

The look the children gave their aunt indicated they weren't buying that last part.

"Okay, Guys, let's head out." Lily announced brightly. "We'll get ice cream, my treat."

)

When they finally arrived at Lily's house forty minutes later Snape was worn out and ready to curse something. "Have Muggles gotten that much stupider since I last had to interact with them?" The Slytherin demanded to know as they walked up the path leading to the house. "I mean honestly, how could seven different people come up and mistaken these children as ours? They don't look a thing like us. I mean honestly, that woman thinking the boy was my son had to be completely lacking in anything remotely resembling a brain."

"Maybe she just figured that with your looks your first wife was as hot as I am." Lily offered up, wiggling her eyebrows suggestively at the older man. "She did give me the 'trophy wife' sneer."

"What's a trophy wife?" Bunny wanted to know.

"It's a woman married for her looks." Riley explained, thinking that was the nicest way to put it.

"Oh." The little girl considered this. 'Well Aunt Lily is awfully pretty."

Honey nodded in agreement.

Thanking the girls for the compliment Lily wasn't the least insulted that a number of people had felt the need to compliment her and Sev on their adorable 'children'. It wasn't the first time she'd been mistaken for the girls' mother and frankly she much preferred Sev being mistaken for her husband as opposed to her brother. Now that was cause for serious discomfort.

Regardless of where they were Bunny's exuberance and Riley's looks tended to draw attention to them, the former eating up the attention with a spoon. And since Honey was always with Bunny people fussed over her too, finding her shyness terribly cute and endearing.

At the end of the day, so long as people were nice to them, Lily didn't figure the attention and parental misunderstandings were that big a deal.

"You could have helped me correct them instead of pretending you were my wife, you know."

Lily grinned as she turned her attention back to Severus. "Now why would I have wanted to do that? I took it as a compliment."

This gave the Slytherin pause as he wasn't at all used to women thinking it would be a compliment to be mistaken for his. Of course she probably only saw it as a compliment because he currently looked like that Rickman character, but still…it was pleasant to know that she wasn't insulted that people had mistaken her for his wife.

Wait…no…that was bad, Snape told himself, frowning over where his thoughts were taking him. He should hate the idea that anyone thought that the two of them could ever be a couple. That he'd ever be remotely interested in…but he wasn't. And he would acknowledge that Potter's youngest wasn't displeasing looks wise, so it wasn't all that strange that he would be pleased that strangers, who had no idea how twisted and weird she was, would think she belonged to him.

And thinking about this was making his head hurt.

Sensing that he was about to reach his limit Lily figured it would probably be for the best if she gave the Slytherin a little breather. "Sev, why don't you head to the lab and work on your portrait project while I see that these guys get their homework done before suppertime. Sound good to you?"

Lily wasn't surprised when the man got out of there so fast it was a wonder he didn't give them all whiplash.