And just like that, we've hit 100k words... Cheers!


Wednesday morning found Severus paying an unexpected visit to Minerva's quarters.

"Of course Hogwarts has records. The only question is, why would you be interested in them?"

He figured the straight truth would be best in this case. "The identity of the Sawyers' father has long intrigued me. It was revealed to me recently that he was a Slytherin and in his fifties when his youngest was born, and so I thought I'd take a look at the records…"

"So he would be in his sixties now," Minerva remarked. "I'm sixty-three, and I don't think I recall a Sawyer in Slytherin... But my memory may just be fuzzy."

"Indeed. The records?"

"I don't know what you're hoping to find, Severus. A Slytherin sixty some years ago?"

"He had to have known Abraxas Malfoy, don't you think? Maybe even the Dark Lord himself?"

"Gods, Severus, was their father that old?"

"Depends," he said. "If he were in his late fifties when his third child was born, then he could have been born as early as 1929. That's only three years younger than the Dark Lord."

"Merlin's beard."

"If it were his early fifties, then he could've been as much as twelve years younger."

"That's still old and graying!"

"Careful, is that how you want to describe yourself?"

She would've stuck her tongue out if she were younger or talking to someone else. As it was, the prim and proper Minerva McGonagall merely narrowed her eyes. "I believe I've earned my gray hair, thank you very much."


He had been so excited when Roman inadvertently provided him with a specific decade to look through, but that excitement quickly turned to dismay when there were no Sawyers sorted into Slytherin house in the time period that there should have been. He should've expected that, though, he realized on second thought. Sawyer was a muggle name, which made the man a half-blood at best. Slytherin house wasn't so open to blood status then—not unless one was a special case like Tom Riddle. Wanting to keep all options open to him, he even went back and checked the other houses, but still there was no Sawyer. He also checked more recent years, on the off chance that the boy had lied about his father's age, but it was to no avail; there was a muggleborn named Sawyer sorted into Hufflepuff, but it was a she.

The resident potions master had now come to three conclusions: Either their father had changed his surname before having children, they'd taken their mother's name—which was unlikely as Sawyer wasn't a traditional German surname—or the most confusing yet likely one: that the three transfer students were using a made-up name.


It was the full moon, and Severus had asked his apprentice to accompany him into the Forbidden Forest to harvest some aconite for the batch of Wolfsbane he was making. Johnny had been thrilled at the opportunity, as it would be his first time being one on one with his father outside of Hogwarts, even if it was just the castle grounds.

"Now remember," he said for what Johnny thought was the thousandth time—though it was more like twice— "the leaves are highly poisonous. I trust you will be careful?"

"Yes, Dad," he said with exaggerated sarcasm, so that the other would think he was joking. Secretly, he loved how the man was showing him care, and he was feeling nearly giddy from calling him Dad to his face, even if he had to pretend it was out of annoyance.

"Watch your cheek, Johnny," he said, though it was without malice.

Johnny had been apprehensive the first time he'd harvested aconite years ago as a mere ten-year-old with his father. Now though, while he couldn't do it in his sleep quite yet, he was confident that he could complete the task with aplomb.

"You've done this before," Severus said after watching the boy intently, making sure he wouldn't get poisoned.

Johnny hesitated before going with the truth, hoping his dad wouldn't pry. "Yes, I have."

"I can't imagine any reason a child would have reason to harvest aconite."

"Well, I'm still a child now and doing so, aren't I?"

"You know what I mean."

The boy didn't reply, instead focusing more intently on the work in front of him.

Later on, Johnny couldn't pinpoint what exactly had happened, only that it was illuminated by the unnaturally bright moon. He felt the hairs on the back of his neck rise as he read the words, engraved clear as day. Eloise Eileen Snape. How was that possible? Was his sister really buried there? But she…

He felt clammy, weak, terrible… and his mouth was tingling and going numb…


"Ameisen," he cried. "Ganz und gar! Entfer..."

"I would be better able to help you if you spoke English, Johnny."

"Dad?" The boy mumbled, looking up at his father in his feverish state. "Was ist passiert?"

"Focus, Johnny," he said, shaking the boy a bit. "Your father's not here. It's me, your potions professor."

That seemed to bring Johnny back to his senses. "Professor?"

"What do you need?"

"Ants… crawling all over me…"

"That feeling is a common side effect from aconite poisoning. Means you're almost back to normal. What happened? You were doing just fine and I look away for one second and you're unresponsive on the ground."

"You didn't see?"

"See what?"

"See what happened," he said quickly, though it was clear in his state that he had meant something else.

"No. As I just said, I did not see." Even in his annoyance at the boy for choosing the worst time to be tight-lipped, he brought over a glass of cool water.

"Thanks," Johnny said gratefully.

"And that'll be the last time I take you on a slightly dangerous expedition with me." Severus said matter-of-factly. "You're lucky I had the antidote in my quarters. If you were a muggle, you wouldn't have been awake yet."

"No!" Johnny exclaimed. "This time was a fluke. I was surprised by… I was surprised. You saw how I handled the plant earlier. It won't happen again. I'll even brew more antidotes for you to make up for what I wasted."

"Calm down. You didn't 'waste' an antidote; it was there for when someone needed it."

"Still. I'll make up for it. Please."

Severus appraised his apprentice thoughtfully. "You can make up for it by telling me what it was you saw that caused you to lose your concentration so spectacularly."

Johnny hesitated, chewing on his lip slightly. There wasn't any harm in mentioning it, especially since the man already knew that bit about him almost having a sister, right? He recalled blurting out that tidbit back in September.

"You can trust me," Severus said softly. "I am your Master," he began, wincing at the word and what it meant to him after a lifetime of servitude, "but you are also my apprentice, and I hope that, with time… we can better know each other."

Well then. Isn't that what I've been dreaming of this whole time? Johnny took a deep breath."I thought I saw…" His father looked on encouragingly. "I thought I saw my… sister. Not her person, mind you, but… her grave. Which can't be possible, because, as I recall telling you before, she never was born."

Severus raised an eyebrow. "That is quite strange. I've never heard of the Forbidden Forest being home to graves."

"Do you think I imagined it?" he said unsurely. "Maybe I'd already gotten poisoned by then and just became delirious?"

"No, unless there was another reason for making you lose your focus."

Now that he had a cooler head, he could be more logical in his reasoning. The only people who knew of Eloise's existence were he and his brothers and his mum… and so unless there was some crazy magic going on, then it had to be his mother who put it there. Although he wouldn't throw out crazy magic, as that was what had gotten them here in the first place. But would his mum really…?

"Were you and your sister close?"

Johnny looked at him strangely. "I mean, I did say that she was never born. How close could we get?" They were as far from close as possible; she was conceived as a welcome surprise after he had already headed off for his third year at Hogwarts. He found out about her through a letter from his mother, and he saw only the slightest hint of a bump when he was home from school during the Easter and summer holidays. His parents were over the moon, but he'd been mostly ambivalent. That was it. "Merlin's beard," he said suddenly, "What time must it be now?"

"I'd wager it's around five. You're excused from classes. As I don't want you walking in your state, I trust you can keep my quarters unharmed while I leave later to teach?"

"You mean I'm to be bedridden the whole day?"

"That's exactly what I mean."

Johnny groaned.


Severus cursed under his breath. Of course the staff meeting had to be today. The gossiping biddies were at it again, discussing the recent dance, and he could feel a headache coming on. All he wanted was to get back to his quarters and see how Johnny was doing. He could almost hear Albus's words in his head—Don't tell me now you've grown to care for the boy? But he had. This boy was no Harry Potter. When he saw him lying there in the field of aconite, unresponsive to his calls, he felt the most unimaginable panic seize him. He had reached out and scooped the boy into his arms, but he quickly realized that the child wasn't as small as he thought, and that he wouldn't be able to carry him the whole way. He'd then levitated the wiry but tall boy and rushed him straight into his quarters, not even giving Poppy's likely expertise a second thought.

"Mr. Potter was back. For Miss Weasley. I'm surprised Mr. Weasley didn't make an appearance for Miss Granger. Although it looks like she didn't need him…"

Severus tuned them out, though he was only successful for a couple minutes.

"And then they just swapped! Miss Granger and Miss Rogers. After Miss Granger had gone through all that effort to doll herself up for Mr. Sawyer, no less!"

"They did look pretty comfortable in each other's presence. You'd think they knew each other for longer than five months!"

Severus grumbled loudly.

"Come, Severus, I'm sure you have a fascinating thought to contribute too."

"The students would be mortified if they knew you spoke of them so casually."

"What they don't know won't hurt them. Don't be such a spoilsport, Severus! Or would you rather we go back to discussing NEWT preparations?"

He stood, frustrated. "If you lot are just going to gossip, then the mandatory part of this meeting is done. I'm leaving." He left amid their light protests.


He needn't have worried; his young apprentice was peacefully sleeping, despite it being only the late afternoon. He set back to work, periodically gazing over at the sleeping boy, wondering again what a curious life the child must have had before coming here.

For his sister's grave to show up here, on the castle grounds no less? Why in Merlin's name would that ever have happened?


The first chance he got, Johnny headed off to the forest to see for himself that he wasn't crazy. As he expected, it was there in plain sight. Without the eerie moonlight, he found that it wasn't creepy at all, but rather… peaceful. There were smaller words written underneath her name that he hadn't seen the other night. Until we meet again... wir warten auf dich, he read quietly. It had to be his mother, then. The German was a nice familial touch. Gently placing his hand on the stone, he was relieved that there was no shock wave that accompanied the action.

"I'm sorry," he began, feeling self-conscious as he spoke to no physical person. He took another glance around to make sure that no one was nearby. "Sorry that I don't think about you as I probably should, now or even before… You never died, did you? There wasn't a trace left behind. Where did you end up?" He looked into the sky and then laughed at himself for even doing so.

"When I first read about your existence from Mum, I don't think I really cared either way. I was surprised, yeah, because I know Mum and Dad had fertility problems almost right from the start. I don't recall thinking anything else." His fingers traced and retraced the large letters spelling out her name as he thought about what else to say.

"You can come back now, you know. If magic can transport the four of us, what's one more? Mum and I are almost done making the potion. Once we heal Dad, you no longer have to be born into a life where he was already gone before you knew him." He shrugged. "Although if you're really up in heaven, you've already gotten to know him. Tell him I miss him." He gave the stone a last look before turning away. "Also tell him that I'm glad he's no longer in pain," he added as an afterthought.


"I gave it my best, Granger, but I really couldn't figure it out. Your week's up. Tell me!"

Hermione looked up from where she was reading in the common room. The past week had lumbered on pretty slowly, if she did say so herself. Had it only been seven days since she went on the day trip with Severus? So much had happened since then—that ball fiasco, Severus messing with her emotions, Severus being a prickly git—

Draco was looking at her expectantly, and she recalled that he had asked her something. She trained her eyes onto him. "What does giving your best entail?"

"I analyzed every seventh and sixth year and imagined if you would give them a second look. For what it's worth, I included a few girls too."

"Draco! Every guy?"

"Well, a good number," he conceded.

"You're silly."

"I have nothing better to do. Are you going to tell, woman?"

"Oh alright." She had prepared for this moment in her head already, and so she was able to say his name rather calmly: "Severus."

"I'm sorry, I thought I heard you say my head of house's name?"

"That I did."

A whole sling of emotions shone on his face. "Argh, I can't stop imagining his huge body smothering your small one. Get that image out of my head!"

"I happen to like that image very much. It's one of my favorites," she said, winking, and somehow still managing to make that action seem bashful. "Well, not the smothering part. Unless you smother your women when you're on top?"

"So he's fucked you too?"

Hermione was long deaf to Draco's crass language, and so it flew right past her. "Too? I wasn't aware that anyone else had gotten to me."

He waved it aside, amused at her euphemism. "I only meant in addition to just seeing you."

"Ah. Well, to answer your question, he hasn't. I suppose he's trying to take it slow. I wish he wouldn't."

"I should've known that you'd be attracted to him," Draco grumbled. "It makes a lot of sense. Everyone else would seem so juvenile next to you."

"You're not going to report us to the Board of Governors or sell the story to the Prophet, I hope?"

"The Malfoy name could use a bit of lifting with the public's righteous anger…" he teased.

"Draco."

"Of course I won't, Granger. Though you'll have to tell me all about how this started. Right now I'm imagining him wrapping that huge cloak of his around you like a cocoon and devouring you, among other crazy scenarios, as you've just showed me that nothing is impossible or too out of this world."

"You're silly, Draco," she said again with a laugh, feeling relieved that he hadn't blown up. That was more down Harry and Ron's avenue. Her fellow head was more and more resembling the close friend she remembered, and it warmed her heart. "Thanks for taking me seriously. See, I told you I'd tell you first."

"Don't get me wrong, part of me is waiting for you to jump out and laugh at me for taking you seriously… How long is it til April Fool's again?"

Hermione shook her head, smirking slightly.

"Dear Gods, you're looking like him now too! Tell me, how did this all start?"

"That I can do."

She naturally left out the bigger story.


"You know," Johnny said slyly as he carefully removed and cleaned the eel eyes, "you mentioned the other day that I could trust you, and that you hoped we could get to know each other better."

Severus glanced at him warily. "I did, yes."

"Then would you give me a truthful answer and ensuing discussing if I asked you a personal question?"

"That would depend on what said question is."

Johnny wondered how he was going to phrase it. His mum had asked him recently to enquire into the topic of her, citing that it would remove their need of privacy around him and also bring him a layer closer to his father. He agreed; he for one did not like hearing his mother refer to his father as "Professor" in his presence when it really wasn't necessary.

Johnny took a deep breath, preparing himself to ask the big question. "Are you seeing Hermione Granger?" There, he said it. All on one breath, too.

Severus wished he could freeze that moment so he that he had enough time to consider what answer to give. As it was, any hesitation would mean an admission.

"No," he said simply, giving no indication that it was a blatant lie. "What an absolutely ludicrous idea." He rose, intent on retreating to his own personal safety.

"I think she'd be good for you," Johnny said, plowing on. "Not that I know her that well or anything; she just seemed like a great person the few times I talked to her."

Severus's eyes narrowed, but found the words to reply to his apprentice. "And how in the world does that link her to me? She is but one of my many students."

He shrugged. "I spend so much time around you now that it's only natural for me to link everything and everyone to you. And as for Hermione, it sure looked like her favorite part of the ball was when you walked over. She lit up like a Christmas tree." That was his fabrication, of course. He recalled her smile, but she acted perfectly normal.

"I do not remember that happening." Inwardly, he cursed. He told her that she had been too obvious, and it seemed they hadn't escaped Johnny's perceptive eyes.

"And she's not going to be your student for much longer, is she? Besides, she's easily the oldest one you have." Luckily, his father didn't question just how he knew of Hermione's early September birthday and time-turner use when they apparently didn't know each other that well.

Inside, Severus's mind was a panicked mess. We've been too transparent. If one person asks, surely more have wondered. A pause. Would that be so bad, though? I would lose my job, but I didn't plan on teaching forever anyway. Especially if she came with me…

Johnny saw the inner turmoil and wisely went back to removing eel eyes, giving his father the space to think.

I hope Hermione remains a part of my life, and I know Johnny will for at least the three remaining years he has at Hogwarts as my apprentice… if I don't get sacked first, that is. Would it be so bad if he knew? Surely they'll cross paths at some point, one as my apprentice and one as my partner. And if I entrusted him to private information, he might reciprocate…

Still not facing the young man in his classroom, he opened his mouth to speak, mind made. "Has anyone else wondered the same?"

Whether my parents are finally getting together? The thought made him laugh internally. As if anyone ever gave the Head of Slytherin's private life a second thought. "I don't believe so. In fact, I doubt any other student spends their free time thinking of you and your interests. Your secret is safe with me."

"I said I wasn't seeing her."

"Yeah, but you were about to tell me you were, right?"

"You're going to pester me until I give you what you want to hear, aren't you?"

Johnny smiled sweetly, looking much younger than the fourteen years he was. Part of that smile came from the understanding that he'd really reached a point where the man was relaxed around him. He could not imagine the stern, serious Potions Master speaking in such a way to any other student. It was still a far cry from old times, but at least they were making progress.

"Fine! You cretin, I am not sure what it is we're doing but it is something."

The dark-haired boy clapped his hands together in delight, all pretense on material preparation dropped.

"And why, pray tell, does that make you so happy?" Severus asked in bewilderment.

"I like Hermione and I like you. What's not to be happy about?"

"You don't even know her."

"That's right. But from what I do know, I know that I like her."

"I'm glad you approve." That was certainly the truth, but he managed to make it as sarcastic as possible.

"So when can I meet her?"

"You know her!"

"Ha! You just said that I didn't even know her!"

Severus held up his hands in defeat.

Johnny felt his heard thud in excitement for what he hoped were the stones falling into place.


After spending so many hours in the Room of Requirement bent over a cauldron, Johnny and Hermione were long tired of the place. However, both exalted in knowing that their efforts were about to come to fruition.

"This is it," Johnny said, staring with wonder at the yellowish and runny potion. "I can feel it."

"Ready to find out?"

They had spent a good deal of the Prince gold securing a small vial of viper venom. Hermione had stared at it with absolute loathing, as just the small bit of fluid in the vial had caused her family such pain and loss. They had decided on setting aside two small cauldrons of Johnny's blood and infusing it with the venom. She fought tooth and nail with him to use her own, but her son had persuaded her with logic, saying that his blood would be more similar to his father's compared to hers. Besides, it wasn't like the blood was still a part of him once they'd drawn it out and placed it in the cauldrons.

"Careful!" she snapped after making sure Johnny had had some of the blood replenishing potion. "I'll not have you suffering the same fate as your father! Don't let your bare skin get anywhere near that."

"Mum, that's what our antidote is for," he said.

"Still," she muttered. "That substance has caused a lifetime of hurt for all of us."

Putting a couple of drops of the venom in both cauldrons, they watched in fascination and horror as the blood darkened, gurgling as if it were being swallowed. Hermione quickly took a pH measurement, which came out to be 1.0.

"Good God," she said. "That is more acidic than stomach acid."

"And to think," Johnny whispered, "Dad actually experienced that."

They added some of the currently accepted antidote to the first cauldron, and it did reverse the discoloration. However, it was clear that the blood wasn't back to its normal health. "Don't forget that the healers' top priority in venom cases is to heal the wound," Hermione reiterated. "The poison leaves lasting scars, similar to curse scars, and so they were always focused on stopping the bleeding and not reinvigorating the blood."

"Yeah, I was analyzing the common antidote we bought and I saw that while it included blood revivers, they were weak and the main element was in stitching skin back together."

Silently, he ladled out a spoonful of their own antidote, just enough for the amount of blood they'd used, and watched the liquid mix into the blood and venom in the second cauldron.

Nothing happened at first.

Hermione stared, looking at her son with panic while he looked on, tight-eyed. She started reaching for more of the antidote but he stopped her. "Don't be hasty, Mum. Did you expect it to work that quickly?" Even so, his voice was filled with tension and worry.

They remained that way for a solid thirty minutes, staring at the reddening blood and giving each other encouraging looks. Hermione got out of her stupor once to measure the pH and was reassured by the fact that it had risen to 4. The other was still at 3.

"What do you reckon Dad's is now?" Johnny asked to pass the time.

"It was down to three when he passed," Hermione said quietly. "When he suffered the first setback before Roman's birth, it had dropped to five. Otherwise, it was at a comfortable seven."

"Comfortable," Johnny scoffed. "Any muggle would be in a coma below 7.35."

"Thank Merlin for magic."

At long last, when they were sure that they had waited long enough, Hermione did the final test. 7.38. The two stared at each other in amazement before Hermione engulfed her son into a big hug.

"We did it," she whispered. "He's really not going to leave us so early this time."

Johnny could only nod.

Now they had to figure out a way to get it to him.


For those of you who are familiar with the pH scale, you'll probably see that my numbers are horrendous. Human beings would die long before falling to 3. However, taking into account the existence of magic and as an emphasis of poor Severus's suffering… yeah, that's how I got my exaggerated numbers.

Second note: So I've been on an Alan Rickman binge this past week and I rediscovered that one of his middle names is Sidney! Kinda like Sydney John? I knew I always liked that name on guys ;) Fitting that it's Johnny who shares that name with him haha x

Last quick note: I'm working on another oneshot for this universe, but does anyone have any moments that they'd particularly like to see of the family's lives before the events of this story?

Please review; it helps my museI'm rapidly catching up to the point that I already have written and it stresses me out haha, I want to make sure that doesn't happen so I can stick to my weekly schedule!