A/N - Not sure how much this is needed, but just to make sure - I don't own any of the original characters or stories. JK Rowling has that distinction, I've just come up with the plot for this story.
Chapter Four
Saturday, 28 November 1981, Potter Manor
From Last time -
Three heads turned towards the three adults as they entered. The smiles on their faces were wonderfully bright but increased exponentially when they saw Severus.
"Papa!" Next thing he knew, there were three sets of arms around his legs, causing Severus to almost lose his balance. "Papa?" asked Severus. How could they know to call him Papa?
It wasn't often that Severus Snape could be shocked and actually show his emotions. This was one of those times. How did these two-year-old children know who he was? He had never met them before. He hadn't even known they existed before today. A tug on his pant leg brought him back to reality and he looked down to see three sets of gray eyes looking adoringly up at him. As he watched, Hermione tugged on his pant leg again. Severus, guessing at what she wanted, slid down the door to the floor to sit in front of them. Instantly three sets of arms were thrown about him in a huge hug, and he felt three kisses land on his cheeks. He brought his hands up to feel the black, curly hair on their heads while he let his gaze wander over each of their faces. He could see the boys were identical, with one of them having a small scar on his upper lip. They all had their mother's gray eyes, heart shaped lips, beautiful button nose (thankfully), and curly hair. They had his black hair, high cheek bones and pointy chin. It really was a nice mix of the two of them. Severus started to tear up just a little at how much they reminded him of his Cassie. Hermione reached out and touched a tear as it coursed down his cheek.
"You sad, Papa?" asked Hermione. Severus wiped his arm across his eyes and smiled at her. "No, dear, just so happy to finally meet you and your brothers. Can each of you tell me your names?" replied Severus.
Hermione puffed her chest out and said with great pride "I'm Hermione, and this is…", but Severus interrupted her. "Please let your brothers say their names, too, okay Hermione?" Hermione nodded in silent agreement, her eyes going wide in surprise.
Alexas held out his hand and said "I'm Alexas. I like chocolate." Severus smiled, shook his hand, and told him "I like chocolate too, Alexas." He also noted that Alexas was the one with the little scar on his lip. He'd have to see if he could get it to reduce more with his scar salve.
Severus then looked to the last sibling who was standing to the left of Hermione. With a shy look, Leo hugged his teddy bear tightly and said quietly into its head "I'm Leo." Severus, seeing that a gentle hand was needed, asked him "Who's that you're holding, Leo?" Bashfully, Leo held out his bear and said "This is Moony! Mama no find wolf, so bear closest she could get!" Severus looked over their heads to see an astonished look on the faces of the two men behind them. That must have been the first they heard about that.
Looking between the three children again, Severus asked them "How do you know who I am?"
Hermione's eyes lit up and she ran over to their dresser. She pointed up to the pictures on top and Severus could see a picture of himself up there with Cassie. Hermione pointed to that one and said, "Papa and Mama", then pointed next to it "Uncle Sir-i-us, Uncle Moony, Uncle Jamie," then pointed to one last picture and said, "Uncle Reg-u-lus."
All three men looked at each other, then back to the pictures with looks of understanding dawning on their faces. Cassie must have taught them who was who using the pictures. Sirius knelt down and asked Hermione "Hermione, why were you confused who I was yesterday?" She ran over, threw herself into his arms, and said "You looked funny, sleeping." He laughed and hugged her back.
Hermione ran back to Severus, grabbed his tie, and started to pull him towards the bookcases. "Look at the books, Papa! We read the pictures, can you read the words?"
Severus chuckled while trying to follow on his hands and knees to keep from being strangled by his tie. He could see Alexas and Leo following on either side, curious to see what would happen. Remus and Sirius exchanged looks of astonishment. They had never seen Severus Snape so open, emotionally or even physically, allowing himself to be touched like this. This might just work out, if he was able to keep himself open to the kids like that.
After choosing a few books, Severus and the triplets settled down on the floor, with Severus leaning against the wall in between the bookcases. Hermione was in his lap, with Alexas and Leo taking up their normal spots on her right and left side, respectively. The adults were noticing that the three seemed to always arrange themselves in that order. It was a curious quirk that they wondered how it came about. Did they do it subconsciously, or by conscious choice? A short time later all three were sleeping soundly in his lap. Each of the men gently lifted one into their arms to place them on their bed for their morning nap. Making their way quietly to the seating area, they placed silencing charms around the bed so they wouldn't wake the kids. Sirius ducked into his room to check on Harry in his crib and found him also napping. Setting some alert charms, he went back to join Remus and Severus.
Sirius and Remus watched Severus as he sat on the couch looking slightly shell-shocked. It was a lot of new information to take in all in one morning. They figured that was how they each looked when they first found out as well. Eventually, Severus cleared his throat, then started sharing his thoughts. "When I first read that I had triplets, it didn't seem real. It felt like someone was going to jump out and yell 'Gotchya' at any moment. That all changed when I felt their arms go around my legs as we came in here. Then to hear them call me Papa was just surreal. To think that Cassie prepared them to know who I was, we are, in case they were ever able to meet us…" his throat became a little tight and Severus had to pause to gather himself again.
After a moment, he continued, "I want to be as involved as I can be. They are already showing high intelligence and advanced skills just with how well they talk. They work as one unit, yet each has their own personality that shines through. Hermione might need some help to not completely take over the boys. Leo will need encouragement to not be too shy. Cautious and observant are fine, just not so shy to be unsociable. Let me floo back to my quarters to grab those ancestry potions. I think we'll need as much knowledge as possible about them so we can guide them correctly. Is there anything else I should grab while there?
Remus spoke up right away, "See if you can find a good magical creature and non-magical creatures book? If they have the same Animagus abilities as their ancestors', they will have one main animal but will be able to transform to any animal they want. We'll need reference points for us to know what we're seeing and dealing with."
Severus nodded in agreement. He then got up and headed over to the fireplace. Grabbing some floo powder, he threw it in the fireplace, stepped in and called out "Hogwarts, Snape Quarters." He was spun out of sight in a flare-up of green fire. Sirius settled down to start reading through the small book that he'd found stored by the Triplet's Rings.
An hour later, the floo flared up again and Severus stepped elegantly out from the flames. He carried a couple books and three potion vials. Sirius and Remus got up, and motioning for Severus to follow, they proceeded to the main study. It was a very decidedly masculine room, with many dark woods and a rich wood floor. A beautiful handcrafted wood desk sat in the middle of the room, and the walls were lined with bookshelves and portraits of Potter Ancestors. Motioning for Remus and Severus to have a seat in front of the desk, Sirius went around behind the desk and pulled out three sheets of parchment. It then dawned on Sirius that they had forgotten one thing, they needed a drop of blood from each of the triplets. How were they going to do that without waking them, and without them going through too much discomfort? Severus saw the look on Sirius' face and smirked.
"Don't worry, I've come up with a new variant of this potion. This version only requires a hair from their head to work. I've been working on it because some of my students are squeamish about using blood in class."
Sirius gave a sigh of relief, placed the parchment on the desk, and called out "Twinkle!"
"Yes, Master Sirius?"
"Twinkle, I would like you to meet Severus Snape. He is the triplets…" started Sirius, to be interrupted by Twinkle.
"Oh, it's the young Masters' and Mistress' father! Pleasure to meet you Master Severus, sir!" Twinkle's eyes shone with excitement and even adoration. Severus nodded his head at her in acknowledgement.
Sirius, seeing that was all he was going to do, turned back to Twinkle and asked, "Can you please carefully gather one hair from each of the triplets and place it in the correctly labeled vial for me? They should still be napping." Twinkle looked suspiciously at him and Sirius chuckled. "We just need to run a quick test on the hair. This won't hurt them, and it shouldn't even wake them up," he reassured her. Twinkle then nodded in acquiescence, took the vials, and popped out of the room.
A few minutes later, Twinkle reappeared with the vials containing a hair each. Sirius thanked her, took the vials, then handed them to Severus. Severus opened the vial with Hermione's hair, carefully removed it with tweezers, and placed it into one of the potions. He recorked the potion, shook it for exactly one minute, then uncorked it and poured it over one of the pieces of parchment. He repeated the process with the boys' hairs. Once done, they went to look at Hermione's results while the boys' finished working.
Name: Hermione Dorea Black (Snape)
Birthdate: 19 September 1979
Father: Severus Tobias Snape
Mother: Cassiopeia Iola Black
Sibling(s): Alexas Regulus Black (Snape), Leonato Orion Black (Snape)
Magical Abilities Inheritance:
Animagus – Main Form: Phoenix
Animagus – Unlimited Land Animals
Animagus – Limited Ocean Mammals
Languages – Unlimited Human and Being: Oral, Verbal, Written Comprehension
Languages – Parseltongue, Fluent
Wandless, Non-Verbal Casting Mastery
Fire Elemental Mastery
Name: Alexas Regulus Black (Snape)
Birthdate: 19 September 1979
Father: Severus Tobias Snape
Mother: Cassiopeia Iola Black
Sibling(s): Hermione Dorea Black (Snape), Leonato Orion Black (Snape)
Magical Abilities Inheritance:
Animagus – Main Form: Thunderbird
Animagus – Unlimited Land Animals
Animagus – Limited Ocean Mammals
Languages – Unlimited Human and Being: Oral, Verbal, Written Comprehension
Languages – Parseltongue, Fluent
Wandless, Non-Verbal Casting Mastery
Wind and Water Elemental Mastery
Name: Leonato Orion Black (Snape)
Birthdate: 19 September 1979
Father: Severus Tobias Snape
Mother: Cassiopeia Iola Black
Sibling(s): Hermione Dorea Black (Snape), Alexas Regulus Black (Snape)
Magical Abilities Inheritance:
Animagus – Main Form: Augury
Animagus – Unlimited Land Animals
Animagus – Limited Ocean Mammals
Languages – Unlimited Human and Being: Oral, Verbal, Written Comprehension
Languages – Parseltongue, Fluent
Wandless, Non-Verbal Casting Mastery
Earth Elemental Mastery
The three men sat back down in shock and awe. All three children would have a mystical Animagus form, a matching elemental magic mastery, and could speak Parseltongue! Severus was the first to find his voice again.
"Well, gentlemen, looks like you were right about them being Animagi. I think the most shocking part is the Parseltongue, though. We will have to teach them to be careful who they use that around. It can either get them labeled as Dark or bring them to the attention of the wrong type of people. We should investigate getting good resources about Parselmagic, though. If they grow up learning it, it may help them hide it better, as counterintuitive as that sounds. My concern is how to help them learn to use and control their Elemental magic. Any suggestions?"
Sirius started shaking his head. "I've not met anybody that openly admitted they had or could do Elemental magic. How about you Remus?" he said.
Remus had a thoughtful look on his face. "I might know somebody who can help. She'd also make a good female role model in their lives. It might be best if you contact her, Padfoot." Sirius look at him quizzically and Remus replied "Your cousin, Andromeda. I don't think she herself can do Elemental magic, but she has done extensive research into it, from what I know."
Severus started nodding his head. "I agree that she would be a good person to contact. I also concur she would be a good female influence in their lives. I know Minerva will also be a good influence, but she's extremely busy with her Hogwarts' responsibilities."
Tismy popped into the room at that point. "Lunch will be ready soon, Master Sirius." Sirius nodded and thanked her for the reminder. He then got to his feet, saying "Well, looks like we need to go get the kids up for lunch. Will you be joining us Severus?"
Severus nodded his head, following him out the door, and said "I'd like to spend the rest of the day with them, if that is agreeable with you." Sirius just nodded his assent and kept going towards the bedrooms.
The rest of the day passed in relative peace and quiet as the new 'family' got to know each other. The children were allowed to explore their bedroom and a few other areas of the house. The adults worked on how to interact with the children and each other without any hateful comments. It was tense at times, but it gave them each hope that they could work on this together, for the children's sake.
