Blooming Flowers
Clues
"Did you miss us?"
"Like a pimple."
Fred and George grinned from the doorway, not at all bothered by the glare coming from the most feared professor of the school. The twins then all but bounced into the man's office. Severus for his part, just ignored them as he went back to grading. Well, that was until Fred took it upon himself to perch on his desk, blocking his light. Wondering what he had done to deserve this, Severus looked up at Fred and then took note of the other twin still standing and staring up at the empty portrait on the wall.
"Was there something you needed?" Severus asked Fred.
"Um, well—"
"Did you blow up something again?"
"Not this week," George answered.
"It's actually about your Mini-me's."
"Did they blow up something?"
"Most likely."
At this point, Severus would probably be threatening to kick them out or issue detention, depending on his mood. However, something about their body language made him pause.
"What happened?"
Fred squirmed a bit, but an encouraging nod from his brother had him taking a deep breath, and speaking.
"Some of the students in Slytherin and Gryffindor have been bullying them, mostly the older ones. Although there is a rumor that Hermione and one of her roommates aren't getting along as well."
Severus set down his quill and leaned back against his chair, "Has there been anything physical?" he asked after moment.
"We saw a few of the students shoving them in the hall, but nothing beyond that. There was an... incident that day when the troll got into the school."
"Incident?" Severus raised a brow.
"We weren't there, but we were told by a source."
Ah. Meaning the twin's brother.
"A few of the girls were teasing Hermione. She, Draco and her brother didn't take it well. And while there wasn't any fighting, Harry and Draco had said... words."
"And then of course, there was the one before the Breakfast Duel," George spoke up. "Some of the fifth years didn't like that Draco was sitting at the Gryffindor table."
Severus hummed. Despite their mischievous nature, the Weasley twins could be serious when the situation called for it. They were also very protective of their family. More than once, Severus had to stop them from carrying out a rather vicious prank on someone, after that person had said something terrible about the boys' family. And don't get him started on what happened if they came across someone being picked on; there was a difference between playfulness and malice after all. If it wasn't for them, Severus was pretty sure he would have missed a lot more picking on and bullying. So them telling him about his children, wasn't a surprise (the fact that they did nothing yet, said a lot about their self-control), nor was it a surprise that his children didn't tell him anything about it. They were his children after all, and he had taught them to handle themselves should the need arise for it, not to mention to look out, and protect one another.
The problem was, he couldn't strike terror in the students who were upsetting his children without it looking like favoritism, no matter how much he wanted too. He suppose he could sic the twins on them; they rarely got caught.
"Let's call that plan B." the Potions Master thought to himself.
"Do you happen to have names?" he then asked them.
The boys in fact did, and gave them to him, and after rewarding them with some of his chocolate, let them out his office.
"So what are you going to do?"
Severus looked up from the names to the portrait. The four Founding Members had slipped back after the boys left.
"There are a lot of Gryffindors on this list," Severus said, "and it's like the twins said, all of them are older students."
"I feel like I should apologize for that." Godric frowned.
"There is no need," Severus said, "I anticipated this. While I myself am upset for not noticing it before, now that I do know, I can try to stop it."
"How?" Helga asked, "aside from letting the twins have their way with them."
"That's actually plan B, no, I think I have an idea that may work; well at least for the Gryffindors."
~.~
When Severus joined the Hogwarts teaching staff, there was weariness all around, aside from Hagrid and Albus of course; and oddly enough, Poppy. After a few months, Minerva was the first to warm up to Severus, the Potions Master suspected that she may have stumbled upon him doing something... non-evil like with the students. Whatever the case, they quickly struck up a type of professional friendship, a friendship that Severus now took advantage of. With a few well-placed hints here and there, Severus watched as Minerva began to keep a closer eye on her Lions. One afternoon, he passed her office just as one of the Gryffindor girls on the Weasley twins' list left, looking a little tearful.
Pleased, he then turned his attention to his Slytherins, and after much thought, decided to go with Plan B. It was the prefect plan, the twins were known for their pranks, not to mention that he himself wouldn't have to deal with accusations of favoritism.
The twins were very happy when he told them this.
Now came the really hard part; getting his children, mostly Hermione to talk. One thing he had learned later in life was that if he had an adult he trusted as a child, things probably wouldn't have been as it was. And though it was too late for him, he refused for it to be too late for his children.
"I didn't do it, and have witnesses to prove." Hermione declared upon entering her father's office.
"…..More on that later."
There was a snicker from the empty portrait. Hermione glanced at it before looking back at her father with a calculating look.
"Don't even think about it," Severus said. "Sit."
Pouting, Hermione did so.
"What did I say about pouting?"
"Only do so if you think it will help to your advantage."
"... Okay, I did say that, but I also said that pouting is unbecoming."
"Right." Hermione nodded with a seriousness that Severus did not buy for one second. Putting it aside for later, he got right to it.
"How are you doing?"
"Fine." Hermione blinked, curious once more.
"Let me rephrase that, are your fellow students still bullying you?"
Hermione's back went straighter, and her eyes went from panicking to calculating, and finally a kind of defeat as her shoulders slumped. Severus knew there was going to be a day when this was no longer going to be easy, he wasn't sure how to feel about that.
"Not as much, at least not with my roommates, and a few of the other Gryffindors have left me and Harry alone. At first, I thought they were finally leaving well enough alone, but now I know you got Professor McGonagall to do... something."
Severus didn't say anything about the fact that McGonagall was named specifically.
"But the other students are still talking. It's starting to really bother Harry."
Severus made a face. He's not sure who's temperament his son had, but it took a lot for Harry to get angry. And one surefire way to trigger him was his family…..and broccoli... Shaking his head at that last thought, Severus turned back to his daughter.
"People will talk, regardless. It's inevitable. I will talk to your brother about it, but what about you?"
Hermione shrugged, fingers playing nervously with a strand of curly hair.
"Alright" Severus said with a little sigh when he didn't get anything else. He leaned back against his chair.
"Alright," he said again. "I won't make you talk about it, but know that I'm here."
"I know," Hermione said quietly.
Sighing for a second time, he stood up and proceeded to take out his secret stash of chocolate to share with her.
~.~
"Blasted thing….can't believe we….ow!"
From where he was making his way to the library to study, Draco stopped. He listened to see if he really did hear something, or it was just his imagination.
"Who can watch three heads at once—"
The familiar sounding voice trailed off into a whimper. Concerned, Draco headed in the direction of the voice and found a closed door. Behind it, the voice had turned into hushed whispers.
After a long moment, Draco knocked. The whispering stopped, there was hurried shuffling before the door creaked open, and Quirrell poked his head through.
"Mr. Malfoy," he said, his face paler than usual.
"Professor, are you alright?" Draco asked.
"I'm quite alright," the man smiled. "Why do you ask?"
"I thought I heard someone in trouble."
"Well, there is no trouble here," the Professor said, still smiling.
Draco didn't say anything, his expression one of thoughtful curiosity before he finally smiled as well. "Guess it was just my imagination, sorry for interrupting you."
"No harm done."
"Good bye."
As he walked down the hall and continued onto his destination, Draco frowned. Not once during the conversation did Professor Quirrell stutter.
~.~
By the time the middle of November came, the bullying more or less stopped, though Mathew and his group could occasionally be seen glaring at the Snape siblings and Draco. While Hermione was sure it was because of her father and the twins, she was also pretty sure her brother had something to do with it from the way one of the boys in Mathew's group paled slightly when Harry had looked at him. And Lavender seemed to settle on ignoring Hermione altogether, which was fine with Hermione.
As the weather turned colder, Quidditch season began. Harry and Hermione teased and ignored in equal parts as Draco and Ron mourned over the fact that First Years weren't allowed to join.
"Really," Hermione sighed, "you two act like it's the end of the world."
"Might as well be," Ron grumbled, sitting beside Draco who nodded.
They were in a huge, abandoned room, that looked like it was used for storage random things. Already the four had found two cauldrons, three old Charms books, and a bent-up owl cage. Rolling her eyes, Hermione turned her attention back to her cards.
They were playing Poker.
Uncle Jacob had taught them.
Their parents did not know.
"I think I'm starting to get the hang of this," Ron said as he showed them his cards.
"Straight, nice," said Draco, "but you're going to have to do better. Full house."
Ron made a face then another when Harry showed them his cards. "Straight flush!"
"You ass-butt," Hermione grumbled as she tossed her cards down. She really needed to learn how to count cards soon.
Harry grinned and collected his reward. After shifting through it, he gave three of the chocolate frogs to Ron.
"Alright. Next game is Black Jack, who wants to be dealer?"
"I will," Draco offered.
"Alright, Ron, in this one, the goal is to beat the dealer, and your opponents. You can't go over twenty-one, and either outscore both or have them go over twenty-one." Hermione explained the card count, to which Ron got rather quickly. The youngest Weasley was very good with numbers and Wizard's chess.
"By the way Draco, about the thing you mention with Professor Quirrell," Hermione said ten minutes into the game, "and the thing about the three-head thing, I found something."
"That was a long time ago," said Ron.
"That it was," Hermione nodded, grinning when she beat him and Draco. "Anyway, the best I could come up with is a Cerberus."
"How in the world would that fi—" Harry trailed off, eyes going unfocused in a familiar way.
Ron watched, still not used to, or even really believing it. He's never heard of someone talking to magic, but apparently Harry could do it. Merlin, he really hoped the boy wasn't looney, not that it would be a bad thing. The Snape children, even Draco, while weird were really nice and fun to be around.
"You're right." Harry blinked, "It is a Cerberus, and apparently Hogwarts wants us to talk to Hagrid about it."
Hermione hummed.
"That's not surprising," Draco said, shuffling the cards, "Hagrid, does like some strange things."
"You three have no right to talk," Ron said.
~.~
Thankfully, they didn't have to think of an excuse to see Hagrid, because he sent Harry a note asking them to join him for tea around lunch time the next day. After sending a quick reply, they all headed off to their classes.
Lunch quickly rolled around and the four children were soon having a rather strong cup tea in Hagrid's hut. Fang seemed to particularly like Ron, licking at the boy's ear much to Draco's amusement, and Ron's bewilderment. The five made small talk, about school, and this and that.
"How high does the tree grow?" Harry whispered to his sister when Hagrid had turned away to make more tea.
"Inch by inch, branches thick," Hermione answered back.
"I do not think there is need for tricks," Draco murmured.
Ron just listened, he was used to the rhyming thing at this point.
Hermione gave the blonde a look, before nodding and all four turned looked at Hagrid who brought a new pot of tea.
"Hagrid," Draco said, "what do you know about Cerberus?"
The children blinked when the large man nearly dropped his mug.
"How do yer know abou' Fluffy?" Hagrid asked, apparently not bothered by the bit of hot tea that spilled onto his knuckles.
"You named a Cerberus, Fluffy?" Ron said in disbelief.
"Cute, ain't it? Bough' him off Greek chappie I met in the pub las' year, I len' him to Dumbledore to guard the—"
Hagrid trailed off when he noticed four pairs of eyes staring at him eagerly. "Never min', that's top secret, that is."
"What kind of top secret needs a three-headed dog?" Hermione inquired, "does it have anything to do with the fact that the third room corridor is forbidden?"
"Now, listen to me, all four of yeh," Hagrid said a bit sternly, "that door and Fluffy don' concern yeh. It's dangerous. You forget that dog, and you forget about that door, that's between Professor Dumbledore and Nicolas Flamel."
Hagrid crossed his arms with huff and a nod, as though to say "that was that".
"... Didn't we read about someone by that name somewhere?"
Hagrid groaned.
Thanks as always goes to my Beta YenGirl.
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