A/N: Somebody sent an email asking me what Mitchie, Julie, and Chloe's favorite songs were. I actually considered that when I designed their characters, so here are the answers:

Julie: 'I Am a Rock' by Simon & Garfunkel
Mitchie: 'Someone To Watch Over Me' by Ira and George Gershwin
Chloe: 'I Never Do Anything Twice' by Stephen Sondheim

And yes, I know Chloe's a smutbunny. Hope this helps to explain how the Three Witches operate.

Chapter Forty-One: Journey to the Crystal Ward

Julie shook her head and looked around. It took a second for the import of the date to register. Christmas Day and not a little Broughton kid jumping on her in sight. She got out of bed and immediately tossed another log in the fireplace. To her delight, there was snow falling outside her windowpane; a glorious white Christmas with her real family! She sighed with joy and then shivered with cold as she stepped a little closer to the fireplace.

In retrospect, that was a bad move, as was her parents' forgetting to tell her about Floo powder.

Her father leapt out of the fireplace and brushed himself off, startling a year off his daughter's life before turning to help his wife out very gentlemanly.

"Happy Christmas, Julie," he remarked with a grin as he realized just how high she had jumped.

"Er, um, uh, what –happy Christmas, Dad."

"Floo powder, it's how wizards get around." Her mum looked more cheerful than Julie had ever seen, if that was possible. "Happy Christmas."

"But I thought…don't you-all Apparate?"

"Not on school grounds we don't," her father said. "And technically, Floo powder isn't supposed to work between students' rooms either, but this particular room was modified years ago."

"And again with the not-appropriate details, Dad!" Julie protested, guessing correctly that this had been her mother's room.

"Oh, don't worry, I don't mean by me, Julie. After the war, it was felt necessary to check on your mother during the night, having been kidnapped and ill as she was, you see. It was Albus' idea to connect it to my rooms downstairs."

"Why am I not surprised by that in the slightest?" Hermione asked. "He's just about as bad as Minerva is."

"Well, it was my idea not to have the Floo channel shut down, dear. I figured at least one of ours would be a Gryffindor, as nauseating as that idea still is, you know."

Julie watched her parents talk amiably for a few moments as they had evidently again forgotten her presence. It was so lovely when they did that, just like real normal parents did sometimes. The might have continued indefinitely with her as audience had not a knock interrupted them.

"Who could that be?" Severus asked his daughter.

"Mitch, of course."

"Oh."

Sure enough, the Yank was there with a six-pack of 'breakfast' in her overstretched hand, evidently awake solely by the saving grace of caffiene.

"Merry Christmas!" she greeted amiably.

"Happy Christmas, Yank," Professor Snape answered her.

For a moment Mitchie looked particularly stunned at being addressed so kindly by the terrifying and unlikeable Professor, but then the buzz of four thorn sodas kicked back in.

"Consigliori," Julie acknowledged her foreign friend. "Incominciam."

"Tocciam, amigue mio," Mitchie answered, both of them speaking Italian. Sodas were passed around and opened as if they were champagne by all four people. "Tocciamo!"

"L'chaim!"

"Skaal!"

"Uh, cheers, I guess."

Everyone drank. The grownups, completely unused to the taste of thorn soda, almost choked on the over-carbonated stuff. After a second they discovered the aftertaste, and bizarrely enough, Professor Snape seemed to like the stuff.

"So, Julie, gonna get out their presents now?" Mitchie inquired.

"Oh, yeah!" The Seeker dove under her bed and began to pull boxes and parcels out. Just as she had gotten out the very last present, she looked out from under the bed and was completely surprised.

Somehow a Christmas tree had grown itself in her room.

Her parents were smiling mysterious and giddy smiles, and poor Mitchie looked just as shocked as Julie was. It loooked a little like the pictures in books of Christmas trees, with presents heaped underneath as if to keep the tree from falling down.  It occurred to Julie that the orphanage trees had looked a bit like this, except this one had magical ornaments, and this heap of presents would not be divided between two hundred and fifty kids.

For a moment Julie wondered just how rich her parents were. Muggles didn't really pay teachers well, but maybe wizards did things a bit differently. She had no idea what to do, so she just picked up the presents she had for her mum and dad and handed them to them.

"Uh, here…uh, the tree, it looks really great."

"A little gobsmacked, there, aren't you, Julie?" the Yank inquired. "I'd best go see if Don's up yet."

"Hold on, Tyler," Professor Snape growled.

Mitchie went absolutely white at that address.

"Y-yes, sir?"

"Catch!"

A package thumped Mitchie in the chest. Julie recoved her powers of speech.

"Startled, Mitch?" Julie asked. They loved switching slangs. A package thumped Julie in the chest as well.

"Okay, do we open them on three?" Mitchie asked.

"Sure."

They counted aloud and then pulled off the paper.  Noone noticed or cared that the minute the paper came off Julie's presents it turned back into newspaper. Severus was absolutely elated by the black patch shirt, Hermione insisted on trying on the dragon-hide potions apron, and Julie sent the practice Snitch flying all around the room. All three Snapes were having a very good time there, until Julie noticed Mitchie was sitting silently in the corner.

"Mitch? What's wrong?"

The American sighed and held up the present Professor Snape had thrown. Julie realized instantly what her folks had done.

The Ministry of Magic kept case files on every maneuver the Aurors made, as well as personnel files on everyone who worked for them. In addition to all Ministry records of Mitchie's parents, Severus had also sent owls to the case photographer and textual commentator who'd helped to catalogue the Riddle house. What the small book basically amounted to was the overseas Auror careers of John and Cassandra Tyler, with plenty of amusing pictures and anecdotal stories. Apparently Mitchie's parents had been pranksters in spite of everything, and the first picture was of a handsome man who rather resembled John Lennon with glasses and a reddish-brownhaired lady kissing him on the cheek.

Julie remembered the way it had felt to discover just which of your parents you looked like and recognized that Mitchie was feeling it now. There wasn't much you could say in that circumstance, but Professor Granger seemed to have a grip on it.

"Julie mentioned you didn't have a place to stay over the summer."

"Uh, yeah, I hadn't really considered where I'd go…I guess I'll find someplace."

"You know, though, if you're under eighteen you still qualify for foster parents, dear."

"No way! I came to bloody England to escape those gits!"

"And you're picking up the accent awfully well, you know." Professor Snape took a seat in one of the armchairs and continued to examine his new patch shirt. "Before we discovered we had Julie, her mother and I applied to keep foster children. I believe we're next in line, as I didn't think to take us off the list."

"What do you think, Michelle?"

"Of what?"

"Staying with us over the summers, of course, Tyler."

"Is that why you called me Consigliori, Jules?" the Yank asked with a curious smile.

"Leave the gun, take the cannoli," her friend answered.

"I knew showing you American flicks was wrong," Mitchie remarked, grinning. "Do I have a choice about the whole foster-parent thing?"

"Well, there's also Alastor Moody, or the Bulstrodes might take you in," Professor Snape said a bit too laconically. "I think we might be the safest in terms of what chores you'll be assigned."

"Yeah, I usually get to brush Crookshanks and label the vials for Mum."

"Okay, if you guys don't mind an' all."

"Mind? It would be very good to have you, Tyler. In fact, I have been fearing the outcome of the mission to America less since I found out you would be involved." The usually forbidding professor smiled a little bit. "The most encouraging thing, however, was finding you are almost exactly like your parents."

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"So this is Judy!" Mrs. Weasley cried, hugging her soon-to-be-daughter-in-law. "Ron's told us so much about you, it's so nice to meet you at last!"

"It's –er, nice to m-meet you too."

There are few things in life more nerve-wracking than meeting your fiance's parents.

"Hello, Judy, I'm Ron's father," the tall, balding man announced, shaking Judy's hand. "Ron tells us you're a Mug- a drama teacher."

Alright, this would be easier. Arthur Weasley's interest in Muggles was legendary.

"Yes, sir, that's right. I'm a Muggle."

"Really?" he exclaimed quite ecstatically. "I'm just absolutely fascinated by Muggle things. Is this your watch?"

"Oh, yes." Judy took off the watch and opened the back. "Here's where the battery goes and the gears are in this white part here."

"How fascinating! The battery's so small."

"I've been wondering, how do those transformers work? We've been using one almost every day in the drama club."

"Oh, well, the transformer's really not such a hard idea, it's just a small catalyst…"

And that was that. Soon Judy and Arther were engaged in an animated conversation about Muggle and wizard technology, mostly shop-talk about how a Muggle theatrical lighting system could be replicated, operated, or replaced by magic. Mrs. Weasley looked a little surprised that Judy and her husband had hit it off so fast, but seemed perfectly happy to interrogate her children about other things.

That is, until babies Lily and Hermione were brought in on the shoulders of their cousins. Molly recognized her grandson Timothy well enough, but the black-haired stranger with the white lock she had never seen. Just then, small Hermione tugged one of Julie's ears, and the Seeker's head was pulled to make her face visible. Professor Snape was already talking with Ron near where Molly was, and the sound his daughter made distracted him a little bit:

"Eee-yi! Let go my ear, baby."

"I see that your small cousin thinks your ears aren't long enough, daughter," Severus observed, lifting the child off Julie's shoulders. He gave little Hermione a querulous look. "I ought to take points off from Gryffindor, Miss Potter." The baby merely smiled and made happy noise at him. Just about everyone in the room found this funny. "Go to your grandma then, Miss Potter." Severus handed the baby to Molly.

"Finally found a child you can't intimidate?" she inquired jokingly.

"Two, actually, this is my daughter."

"Hello," Julie greeted the kind lady nervously.

"Aren't you the image of your mother at school, though, dear? I practically expect to see Ron and Harry next to you. I'm Molly Weasley, by the way, as if it wasn't perfectly obvious."

"Oh, Uncle Ron and Aunt Ginny's mum. I've heard a lot about you."

"Yes, I'd expect you would. You probably get this a lot, but you do look like your parents, dear." Molly kept looking from Julie to Severus and back, trying her best to restrain giggles. The idea of little Sevvie Snape having a child was somewhat incredible, though, true, not as incredible as her son's best friend's having a daughter nearly sixteen years old. The details had been reasonable explained to her by Ron and Harry, and in the name of tact she decided to just leave the subject alone. "Harry mentioned you're the Seeker for Gryffindor. I read the article about the record you broke last October."

"Really? It was kind of an accident."

"Oh, no, it's quite impressive. My sons all played Quidditch, so did my husband."

"I've got one of his transformers in my room, y'know. It's really great when I want to run my Muggle stuff."

"The things he did designing those, honestly! Did Ron or Harry tell you bout his flying car?"

That was one gloriously funny anecdote Julie's uncles had somehow left out, probably due to the fact that they came off a little worse for wear at the branches of a vicious Whomping Willow afterward. What wound up happening was just about every person under twenty (and a few over,) gathered around Molly to hear the funny stories. By the time Gerry the house-elf announced dinner, every person who had grown up in or visited the Burrow was flaming red and the 'children' had all had a good laugh at their parents' expense.

Tom and Tim introduced Julie and Mitchie to their older cousin, Charles Weasley, Jr., otherwise known as 'Chuck,' who had graduated from Hogwarts three years ago. They also got to meet the other two Weasley brothers and Charlie Sr.'s wife, as well as Tom and Tim's mothers, who were very nice.

Mr and Mrs. Granger arrived a short while after that, looking just a bit shaken and with two bags in tow apiece. Julie was happy to see her maternal grandparents, especially her grandfather, who had always a rather strong interest in ornithology that permitted them to owl back and forth. They seemed to find the new Charms professor reasonably nice, until, of course, Julie and he got into a positively smashing argument about which Quidditch teams would go to the Cup that year. Aunt Judy had to go and physically break them up.

After a splendid feast, during which the three genuine Muggles ceased to be petrified, everyone gathered around the tree that had grown in the Potions room and presents began to be unwrapped by all. Severus had his first Weasley sweater, black, of course, and Tim and Tom had gotten Crookshanks a rather peculiar-looking but quite enjoyable scratching post. Mitchie and Julie gave Uncle Ron a red vest they had 'corrected,' and for Uncle Harry they had found a green snuggly at a Muggle shop. It took a few minutes to explain how the contraption worked, ("Sort of like a reverse knapsack, with legholes, see?") but eventually a very tired little Lily fell asleep attached to her father's chest.
At one or another bookstore, Julie had found a book of various classic scripts for Aunt Judy, and by the same direction Mitchie had found a wizard's geneology of the Snape family for her. Fred and George had very funny things for everyone, including Julie's second Snitch, one that would disappear if she told it to.

"Excellent for ticking off Slytherins," Fred explained.

"Tom and Tim suggested you might be good at that."

**********************************************************

But by far the most impressive present of the evening was the one that the 'kids' didn't know about. Since the announcement of Whoever Granger-Snape's impending arrival, everyone had seemed especially keyed-up somehow, and it was only when Harry and Ron brought out the box tht Hermione and Severus realized why.

"It occurred to us that you might like a vacation best," Ginny explained. "The equipment is all in the box for it."

"Equipment?" Severus asked, tentatively moving towards the large box. "That looks like a Weasley box to me, Ginny."

"Oh it is," George observed.

"It's a Shrinking one."

"The entire contents,"

"As well as it itself,"

"Will shrink,"

"To the size of a Golden Snitch."

"Purely for easy carrying, you understand," Ron said, looking at his twin brothers amusedly.

"Well, d'you want to see what's all in the box?" Harry asked.

"Alright!" Hermione agreed cheerfully, though still being careful to keep a distance from the thing just in case it really did explode.

It didn't. Harry slit it open magically with his wand and pulled out his Invisibility Cloak.

"You might not want to be seen at times," he explained, tossing it to Severus.

Next came the outfits of Shrinking Clothes, done in Muggle styles.

"So that your clothes fit,"

"No matter what size you are," Fred and George explained.

And then the two bottles of Juvenilium and Geriatrium potion, and Dumbledore's camera.

"Because one never knows what age is chic when traveling," Marguerite observed.

"And pictures are such lovely fun afterwards," Jacqueline chipped in.

Finally came the map of Cobham and Broughton, as well as a pebble in what looked like a Muggle ziploc bag.

"I provide the means, and she provides the map," Ginny said, indicating Judy. The pebble was a Portkey.

"But last of all, a loan from the Ministry," Ron announced, drawing out the three Time-Turners. "This one is hours, this one is days, this one is years. I know that you're familiar with how to use these things."

"What do you mean by all this?" Severus asked, a little awed.

"You get to see your daughter grow up, Severus," Judy explained. "It's an incredible show, we felt you'd like it."

*************************************************************

Quietly padding down the hall in the dark under Harry's cloak, shoes muffled with Inaudibility Charms, the two professors tried to follow the Muggle map. It would have been easier if they weren't so terrified. Every little noise made them jump a bit.

Finally, Severus gave up and whispered a basic Location Charm. It worked very similarly to the Two-Points spell, his wand acting as a radar compass on his daughter.

To their extreme horror, it led to a hospital wing. First it seemed fairly ordinary, as they walked past beds of maybe one or two sleeping students with either minor illnesses or injuries. Julie was nowhere in sight. The wand pointed them on to a frosted-glass door marked 'The Crystal Ward.'

"What is this?" Severus asked his wife.

"I've read in books that wings for the especially fragile are called crystal wards," she whispered. "I never thought-"

Just then, howls of laughter punctuated the air. As quietly as possible, both professors slipped in through the half-open door.

A little boy, pale as a ghost and with long, dark hair that looked a whole lot like Sirius Black's was lying on a bed with cages above his legs. There were shiny, cruel-looking screws going into his left arm withing a frame as if to hold the bones in place. He looked as if he had never eaten in his life or been out in the sun, and yet he was laughing his head off.

The considerably healthier-looking girl at his bedside was reading out loud to him, mostly what sounded like either Shakespeare or 'Tales from the Decameron.' She was the kind of storyteller who did every character with a different voice, and as her long bangs fell to the sides of her face and she lowered her voice to the villain's tone, she could not have looked more like a little Severus. It was Julie, age ten, and Cory, age six, though he might have almost passed for four.

"Julie, what do you suppose my mum was like?" Cory asked after a tale ended.

"I d'know, Cory, probably nice and all."

"Don't you know any stories about my mum?"

"Nope, I never met her. I don't know 'bout my folks either."

"Then make one up, a really good one."

"I don't know anything about 'em, Cor'."

"Fine, I'll start it," the ill little boy offered gallantly. "Once upon a time."

"Once upon a time what?"

"You're the one who skipped second form, Julie. I can't think of everything."

"Alright. Once upon a time, there was…a cat."

"A cat?"

"Yes…a magic cat. And there was also a girl who sort of looked like Miss Parkington, only taller and with dark hair. And she found the cat and gave it some tuna fish."

"Like Mr. Tibbles?"

"Yep, 'scept this was a magic cat. And it began to rub it's fur around her ankles jus' like Mr. Tibbles does, and suddenly she wanted to take him home, because the cat put a spell on her."

"Really? What happened next, Julie?"

"Well," Julie continued the story, by now very into it; a fairly childish one about a magic cat tricking two humans into meeting 'like a Cupid wif' 'airballs.' By the time she ran out of ideas, Cory was asleep, and she left to go back to her own room after making sure he was covered up and warm.

Through the dark halls her parents followed her. Eventually, the Silencing Charms wore off, and Hermione's shoe squeaked a bit. Little Julie instantly drew her knife and pressed flat against the wall, perfectly terrified.

"Once upon a time, there was a great and mighty family called the Starcatchers," the little girl mumbled as she inched along the hallway, trying to get courage back. "They had brown eyes and dark hair and noone teased 'em 'bout their noses 'cause they were the most powerful bunch of…anyone…in the world. They could have just about anything they wanted, and nobody ever was mean to them…"

On and on, Julie told herself the imaginary story, trying desperately to be in bed before reaching the inevitable conclusion. She didn't.

"I'm the only one."

"Not now," Severus couldn't help whispering. She couldn't hear with her head under her pillow.

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A/N: Ah, well, there's a lot more cool stuff next chapter, including just what Julie got Draco and vice-versa. I've just run out of room on my lucky disk and have to find another one that's clover-green and draw a cat on the label, then I can type the next chapter. I'll say 42'll be up by Friday, at least. If you could let me know how it's sounding, do write a bit. It kind of helps to know I'm being read a lot.

-J. McN.