Author's Note: I have absolutely no ownership whatsoever on the Harry Potter characters! Never have, never will. I just like to play with them. Okay, that sounded so, so wrong... However, I do lay claim over original characters that are from my own imagination.
Thank you for your reviews Trickster32, Guest 1 and Guest 2.
Trickster32: I guess ever since reading other people's theory, this Dumbledore really seems to be a rather conniving person, to say it nicely.
Guest 1: I want them to get to Australia safely : - )
Guest 2: That's what I thought when thinking of their escape.
Glad you each enjoyed reading and figuring out what is going to happen next. Don't have to wait a moment longer with this chapter, because it's here.
Chapter Fourteen
Nice Day Out and Uh oh...
It was amazing on how refreshed one could be after a good, deep sleep. That was exactly how Severus felt when he woke up the very next morning, along with a nice hot, steaming shower. He would love to have a fresh coffee, but he would have to wait for that, instead went about waking the children up, starting with Elijah.
Turned out everyone had a good sleep, because everyone was rather perky and peppy and downright happy. Even with the situation and how they had to go about it, the feeling of light had started to overcome the family of five.
"Right, let go down for some breakfast, then right on after we can take in some of the sights of Paris," Severus tells the kids, once he finished fixing up Ainsley's shoes up.
"Considering we have an awesome view point of the Eiffel Tower," Victoria grins, pointing out of one of the windows that made a nice beeline shot of the famous tower not too far in the distance.
"I would love to see the Menagerie, they have a sanctuary of sorts there," Gabriel announces.
"There's also an aquarium from what I saw in the brochures," said Elijah.
"And a science museum!" Victoria adds, her grin getting a lot bigger on this.
"How about we start with what is closest to us and work our way around? I cannot make any promises that we will see everything, though, as we will have to make enough time to get back to our room to sort things out for our next leg," Severus told them.
"May we get a souvenir or two while we are here?" Victoria asks.
Severus thought it over; "Make you a deal. As long as they not expensive, or too big, I will allow each of you a souvenir for each area we go on between here to Australia."
"Deal," said the three older children.
"Dee!" Ainsley shoots her hand up.
They started off by finding a taxi and Severus speaking in French to the driver, asking if there were any good places that would excite the children. The taxi driver smiled kindly and said that instead of showing on area, he'd show them a good number of excellent sights and for less the price than he would generally charge. Partly because of Severus's excellent fluency in his French and the politeness of the children – and their trying to learn the language as well, Severus made the mention of it.
They were taken on a taxi tour to the Eiffel Tower, Notre Dame, and Arc-de-Triomphe, just to name a few, until they reached one of the ice rinks that were open during the winter around Paris. It wasn't really on the original list of ideas on what to do and see, but all figured why not!
Turned out Victoria had a raw talent for skating. When Severus asked about later when they went for hot chocolate, Victoria admitted that she used to rollerblade a lot back when her Dad and Mum were alive, to where she was starting out for a few months in ice-skating.
"Would you like to get back into it?" he asks his niece.
"I'll think about," said Victoria.
"No pressure," said Severus. "Probably best to start thinking on what activities you'd like to either get back into, or try out, for when we do get home."
"Am I mistaken in what I just heard coming out of your mouth?" said Elijah, surprised and smiling.
"You heard just right, Eli," said Severus, smiling in return.
Each of the children had found a little souvenir they liked that would remind them of their little tour in Paris, France, before heading to their hotel to rest up, and get things ready for their next flight out of Paris and on to Rome, Italy.
"Uncle Severus?" said Elijah a little later when it was just him and Severus wake, while the rest were all asleep.
"Yes, Eli?"
"I know it's only been like a day, or something, but... do you miss being there?"
"To where? Hogwarts?"
Elijah nods.
Severus thinks on this.
"It is a fair question. The fair answer would be part of me will miss not only Hogwarts, but the United Kingdom itself. It was your father's and my home for as long as we called it such. We were both born there, in England and we both attended Hogwarts. We both chose paths that needed to be chosen in one way or another that seemed like sense to us.
"However, the other part of me will not. I have been so tied up with what I was doing, burying myself. I didn't think there was really much choice, my fate was sealed, that was that, being forever told that there was no other choice for me to make. Even though I had others telling me otherwise, not just your father, but a few who have chosen to go on different paths, away from what they were first thought was 'the only way', only to find and see differently when they were away from it. I suppose my gut was also telling me something was off, but I didn't want to face it, plus believing it must be for different reasons. Especially over the last couple of years.
"Do I regret making this choice? No. Not for a second. I lost my brother and the ability to make things right with him, but I feel that by having you in my life, I am able to, in ways, patch up what I had lost, with what I was able to find. You four give me so much hope that there is something much better. Something your father had tried to get me to see for a very, very long time."
Elijah nods, understanding his Uncle's words.
"Maybe it wasn't your time to see it back then?" he suggested.
"Maybe," said Severus, with a small smile. "Guess things have a funny way of presenting themselves when they're already staring right at you, just had to knock the blinkers off to fully understand it. Fate, karma, whatever people call these things."
"I think karma is more when you do something bad it comes back to bite your backside tenfold," said Elijah.
"I guess I had my fair share of that then," said Severus, with a slight sigh.
"You're not a bad person, Uncle Severus," Elijah says strongly. "At least, I don't think so."
"I have done terrible, terrible things Elijah," Severus looks away, not really focusing on anything in particular.
"Like what?"
Severus hesitated.
Elijah could see his Uncle tossing up on whether to even say anything of what he has done in his past.
"Things that I am not proud of."
"Did you kill people?"
Severus was taken aback by the outward question, staring right at his nearly fourteen year old nephew. He wanted to verbalise, he really did, but instead, the old Potions Master just lowers his head and gaze, before nodding meekly.
Silence filled the entire room, except perhaps a ticking clock somewhere in the distant room.
Elijah puts a hand on Severus's shoulder.
"That was a different person, Uncle. He doesn't really exist anymore. This person, the one who has taken me and my sisters and brother in, is not that person. This person would have a different reason to want to hurt someone, but only if he really had to. You have a good soul. It just needs to be polished a little more to be able to see the really good."
Severus looks back up at his nephew; "I think that polishing started the day I picked you four up from the department that was holding you safe until I was able to collect you. I just don't know if I can really be fully forgiven for my sins."
"Dad forgave you. I forgive you. I am sure Vicky, Gabbo and AJ will when they, in time, learn of that chapter in your life. I think you just need to work on forgiving yourself."
To hear this young teen speak, it was as if a young man was coming on out.
"When did you become so wise?" Severus asks.
Elijah shrugs. "No idea."
The Uncle and Nephew give the other a tight hug, both for comfort and reassurance. Severus felt an extra bit of weight lifting from his shoulders. He had a fair ways to go, but with each passing hour of being away from there, he was feeling freer, and more and more able to focus on ridding the heaviness that he has been carrying for way too long.
###
"Excuse me, sir, may I ask for you to come with us?"
Severus frowns a little at the request from the security guard. The Snapes had just checked into the airport and passed all of the security check points, before heading to the terminal to wait out the two hours before boarding.
"Are you expecting me to leave my children alone?" he was careful asks.
"No, no," the security guards says. "They would need to come with, too, of course."
"Are we in trouble?" Gabriel asked, confused.
"I promise you we are not carrying any bombs or narcotics on our persons!" Victoria speaks in a very confident, yet worried voice, with her hands up. "You can get a sniffer dog to prove we're not."
"You've been watching too much Border Patrol!" Elijah grumbles, placing his face into his palm.
"At least you're being very honest, Miss, but no, you children are not in trouble," said the guard, with a small smile.
"Then why are you asking us to come with you? Last I checked, I do have a right to know," said Severus, keeping his voice even and calm.
"We just wish to run a background check. We pull random people aside who are looking to leave the country, who've just entered from various locations of the UK," said the guard.
"What kind of background check?"
"Can you please just come with me?" the guard was trying to keep her voice down, but a tone of urgency was in her voice.
Thinking they had better do as the guard had asked, the Snape family went with her. She led them swiftly to a set of doors, until they were taken to a single room, which had a desk and a couple of chairs, and closing the door after she flipped the little sign swipe over from free to occupied.
"What is going on?" Severus asks.
Before their eyes, the guard changed her appearance, her brown hair changing to a dark shade of blonde, her square jaw narrowing a little to show she was actually a bit more rounded in the chin and jaw line, and even her shape changed just enough to reveal that she was under the disguise of Polyjuice Potion.
"Trudy Holland?" Severus speaks, unable to hide his alarm.
Trudy places her hand up to signal a form of 'calm yourself' to the anxious man, and no doubt worried children.
"I am here to help, as is the person I am with, Chester Bryson," she quickly explained. "You may have noticed us at Aberdeen airport."
"Are we in trouble?" Elijah asks. "Because it feels as though the moment our Uncle decided to make the choice to move us back to Australia, we've been treated as though we are committing some crime for wanting to be happy."
"The threat of being taken away from Uncle Severus was made," said Victoria, taking a hold of her Uncle's free hand. (He was holding Ainsley). "We were told that our Uncle would be in trouble for making the choice of wanting what was best for us."
"That is why I am here, because I don't believe for a moment that what we were given as evidence to detain and extradite you back was really true. Plus the fact that you were a fellow Slytherin student until I reached my fourth year, you turned Professor when I came back to start my fifth. You may have had a reputation, but I also learned how that changed over the years, despite the charade of being a big bad brooding bat. I still remember hearing a story how he once had a photo of you two on his desk in his office," she looks at Elijah and Victoria.
"You did?" said Victoria, looking at Severus.
Severus nods. "I kept every photo your father and mother sent to me of you four, because I wanted to still know you somehow. It was the same with the letters that came with the photos."
"Is that how you knew I liked horses?"
"Yes, Victoria, it is how I knew," said Severus, giving her hand a light squeeze. "As well as you liking cricket and animals, Gabriel, as well as your goal to be able to get into a field that helps people, Elijah."
Each one of the three older children smiled at this. Ainsley then gives her Uncle this big frown from her brown eyes. It was as though she felt left out, by which Severus gives a small chuckle.
"And how I knew that you were born in March and you love kitty cats!" Severus places his cheek on her head, this satisfied the toddler.
"Then why were you trying to find us?"
"We were told that a man had kidnapped four children from the school and were given descriptions. When we found out via other sources on who we were actually looking for, we had to do a bit more digging and spoke to the person who was of most concern for the children's welfare," Trudy explains, she remained steady and truthful.
"How do we know you are not telling us lies? Severus asks.
Trudy produces a small vile, within it a transparent liquid of sorts, that could resemble water. It was still sealed.
"I bought this along, because in case asked that question, you Professor Severus Snape, would know exactly what this is and what it does. So, if you felt that it was really necessary, I have no hesitation in taking it, just so you can see for yourself that Chester and I are here to help you."
"Veritasium," Severus said without question or doubt in his tone.
"Truth potion," said Elijah.
Trudy nods.
"Then why do you have us in this room?" Severus then asks.
"Because it seems that certain members of the British Ministry want your head over false allegations on child abuse and whatever else that have been supposedly committed by you," Trudy answers, this time showing a folder and handing it to Severus.
Severus let go of Victoria's hand to take it; Elijah took a hold of Ainsley to make it easier for him to open it to see what was within.
Shock was the first thing to hit, then anger and swiftly followed by sheer hurt and betrayal.
"This is not true," he said.
Elijah peered over and his jaw dropped.
"This isn't true! He's never done that to us. He's never murdered our parents, either! They died from a freak accident while they were out on a date night."
"Not according to the very man who gave this to me and Chester," Trudy said bleakly and also apologising within.
"I don't suppose you put Veritasium in his pumpkin juice?" Severus was rather cool when he said it.
Trudy shook her head. "No. But, that is perhaps another reason why I bought this potion, as well as a few other things that we're going to help make sure that you are cleared of what you're being accused of."
A knock on the door, Trudy opens it and a man with rather broad shoulders and chin, as well as boasting a brilliant pair of dark blue eyes came on in. With him, he was carrying a small briefcase.
"I take it you told them?" he asks.
"Yes Chester," said Trudy, nodding.
"Well, not everything. You knocked before she could explain in full on what we're actually to be doing," said Severus.
"Make yourselves comfortable and trust that us," said Trudy, as she pulls out six cups, a bottle of juice and then hands Severus these, plus the potion. "Because I believe that it's best that you do it."
Taking the chance, Severus began to pour the juice and then added the right amount of drops in each of the designated cup that was for himself, his two nephews and eldest niece, as well as Trudy and Chester.
Everyone had a drink, Ainsley felt left out, so they quickly gave her a bottle from her bag.
"Now," said Chester. "Can you each state your full names...?"
"Severus Andreas Snape..." Severus began to lead the way.
Nice little twist at the end of this chapter for you. There was just no way could I let the two Aurors be the bad guys here, it just didn't feel right. But seems the same couldn't be said about the Ministry. Guess the old git, Dumbledore has a fair bit of influence and quite enjoys his position... and we call Voldemort the manipulative one. Doubt it; at least the bald guy with no nose is actually dead honest in his intentions... most of the time.
So... what happens next? Who knows...?