Disclaimer: i don't own Harry Potter. Nope, not me.

A/N: Yay for reviews!

Once again, I may be going away for a few days - this time I'm not exactly certain when I'll be back (I'm directing a show at the moment and we're starting set construction - I'm basically moving in.) So I've put up a few extra chapters today just in case. If I get back sooner rather than later - lucky readers. You have extra chapters. Aren't I a nice considerate author? ;-D

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"C'mon, Snape. Time to go."

Severus looked up. "All right, Moody," he replied. He smoothed Helena's gold hair back from her face and stood up, pulling the curtains around her bed closed behind him.

She had not woken up all day, though her eyelids had flickered now and then. Madam Pomfrey had bustled in to look at her a few times and had given her a sedative combined with a Dreamless Sleep Potion. She had told Severus it would help her get over the shock and that it wouldn't harm the baby.

That had been when it really hit home for Severus. He was going to have a child. A child. He had procreated. There was going to be another being - a daughter, a son - that had his blood in his veins.

His black blood. His traitorous blood.

"Snape? Oi, Snape!"

Severus shook his head as if trying to clear it. "Sorry, Moody," he said.

"Make sure you keep your mind on the job," Moody growled. "You of all people should know how dangerous things can be."

Severus nodded. "Yes, Moody."

Moody eyeballed him suspiciously. "Are you the real Snape?"

"Of course I bloody am!"

"The real Snape doesn't daydream!"

Severus bared his teeth. "Under normal circumstances, perhaps," he grated. "But -" he gesticulated to Helena's curtains, "- there is a woman carrying my child in there. I do believe I am entitled to a few exceptions."

Moody still looked suspicious. "Just see that you don't daydream on the job, whether or not your girlfriend is pregnant," he barked. "You know the lengths we have to go to so as to protect the Potter boy."

Severus's lip curled. "Believe me, I know," he said coolly.

Moody took the jar of Floo powder off the mantelpiece. "We're Flooing to the Three Broomsticks, then Apparating," he said. "And remember - CONSTANT VIGILANCE!"

*

"Not a very cheerful kind of place, is it?" Moody commented gruffly as he and Snape materialised on the driveway of 4 Privet Drive. "Very… sanitised."

"I don't expect they look kindly on things that are unclean," Snape replied shortly.

"Got the Portkey?"

"Yes."

"Right, then."

Moody rapped on the front door of 4 Privet Drive. "I hope they haven't tried to do a runner," he muttered. "It's a bloody pain trying to track Muggles down that way."

But Moody's fears proved unfounded. The door opened.

"Hello, Professor Moody," Harry said mildly. "Hello Professor Snape."

"Potter," Snape growled in acknowledgment.

"Come in," Harry said, opening the door wide.

Snape followed Moody into the house. Moody was right, he realised. This place is more… sanitary… than I realised.

The three Dursleys were gathered in the living room. Three very new looking suitcases were standing next to Harry's trunk. Dudley looked scared and Vernon looked angry, but the expression on Petunia's face was something Severus couldn't quite place. Almost as if she were a little… excited.

"Right," Moody said gruffly, removing his bowler hat, which caused Dudley to squeak with fear and hide behind his mother at the sight of the magical eye. "We've met."

"Y-yes," Vernon stammered.

"Portkey," Moody demanded, not looking at Severus.

Severus took the golf ball out of his pocket and handed it to Moody. He caught Harry looking at him and glared at him ferociously.

"All you need to do," Moody told them brusquely, "is put a finger on it, and when it activates it'll take you to Hogwarts. Professor Snape here will go with you. I'll Apparate with your luggage and Floo from Hogsmeade before I go back to Headquarters."

Severus could tell that none of this meant anything much to the Dursleys, though Petunia seemed to understand.

"Let your owl out, Harry," Moody growled. "She can fly."

"Yes, Professor," Harry said, taking Hedwig to the window and letting her go. He seemed determined to be polite, but Severus didn't know why.

"I hope you haven't got your wand in your back pocket again," Moody warned him crustily.

Harry grinned. "No, Professor."

"Good." Moody handed Harry the Portkey. "It's due to depart soon, so mind you all put a finger on it - NOW!" he barked at Vernon and Dudley, who seemed hesitant to move. Moody turned to Harry. "Now, boy, if anything should go awry, Snape's with you. But if he should get killed -" Snape's lip curled involuntarily, "- you take the Knight Bus to You-Know-Where, all right?"

"London?" Harry asked. Severus knew that by 'London,' Harry meant '12 Grimmauld Place.'

"Yes," Moody replied gruffly. He took all three of the Dursleys' suitcases in one hand and Harry's trunk in the other. Severus knew that Moody was strong as an ox and so it didn't come as a surprise, but Dudley gaped openly. "Remember," Moody said to Severus and Harry, "CONSTANT VIGILANCE!"

And with a crack! he Disapparated.

Severus felt the eyes of all the Dursleys on him. "What are you about, Potter?!" he snapped. "Hold out the Portkey."

Harry obeyed, not saying a word. Severus put a finger on it and so did Petunia, but Vernon and Dudley hung back. Severus took out his wand.

"Now," he snarled, and they obeyed.

Then, as if an invisible hook had caught them all, all five of them disappeared, landing safely in the Entrance Hall at Hogwarts.

*

"HARRY!"

Harry was almost bowled over as Hermione Granger and Ginny Weasley flung themselves at him. "Yes, yes, it's me," he laughed.

Ron Weasley was standing back. "All right, Harry?" he said, clapping his friend's back.

"Touching as this reunion is," Severus commented dryly, "I suggest you have it elsewhere."

"Are we staying in Gryffindor Tower?" Harry asked.

"I believe I have told you on numerous occasions to call me 'sir', Potter."

Harry sighed. "Are we staying in Gryffindor Tower, sir?"

"You are. Get out of my sight."

Harry shot him a nasty look but obeyed. "Guess what?!" Severus heard Hermione squeal as they ran up the stairs. "We get our OWL results back this afternoon!"

"Follow me," he said shortly to the Dursleys, and led them towards their temporary quarters in rooms outside Gryffindor Tower.

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