Chapter Two

The Burrow Away from Home

Breakfast at the Weasley's Burrow was always an event in and of itself, for it was hard to tell from one day or the next which children or grandchildren may make an appearance. What was known was that from the middle of August until the first week of June, the Snape children would be there, arguing over whose turn it was to set the table and who would get stuck de-gnoming the lawn.

It had started quite a number of years ago after their first nanny, Carol, had left to get married to a werewolf of all things. Nanna Tigge was next, a kindly elf who didn't seem to get on with the older boy, Aurelius. She also seemed to have little sense of time passing, which came to be a problem when the children began to be constantly late to school, something their parents did not tolerate in the least. It was then that Molly Weasley (who had been feeling very lost spending so much time alone in the large empty Burrow) volunteered to take them in. It had taken some convincing before Severus finally agreed, but at least he knew that Molly would get the children to school on time. So, ever since then, Alexandria, Aurelius, Andrew and Alicia had been considered a part of the Weasley family.

Of course, it could be much worse, Aurelius thought as he stirred the treacle "A. C. S." into his porridge, tweaking a piece of bacon off a plate that was coming around. Mrs. Weasley was a good cook, and when all was said and done, the Weasleys were quite the respectable family now what with Mr. Weasley being the long standing Minister of Magic… despite a few 'outside' marriages involving some of the children. That sort of thing didn't seem to bother Aurelius' siblings any, but he had a reputation to keep. After all, he had graduated from Stoddard Academy with perfect marks in every year, the first student to have had done so in decades.

How annoying it had been when just a few days after he received his awards that his older sister Alex came back from Hogwarts and stole his triumph away from him! Imagine! Not only did she come away from school with imperfect marks (being within the top ten of her class was completely inconsequential; she wasn't number one as he had been), she had gotten into all sorts of trouble including leaving school property, and missing curfews. And then to top it all off, she had gotten complete credit for stealing those diamonds from Ciardoth when it was his idea in the first place!

Mr. Weasley especially was quite eager to hear her account stories about Ciardoth over and over again until Alex herself was quite tired of talking about it. But she wasn't tired of talking about school and her friends, not by a long shot. It did, of course, inspire a plan which Aurelius waited patiently to hatch as Alex played with her own porridge. She was still talking a mile a minute as usual as she stirred in the simple 'A. S.' in hers, ignoring the private smile on Aurelius' face as he mentally inserted her middle initial of 'S.' back in despite its obvious omission.

"Rose wasn't allowed to take the Elf Willow home with her. She was so totally broken up about it, but Professor Sprout thinks it's too dangerous to keep outside the school. I'm not quite sure why, because it's almost like a familiar more than a plant. And Mandria has an owl. Of course I have Pepper, but Pepper's not a familiar and I'm not even allowed to ride on her until she gets older, so it's more like she's my parents' foal still and not mine. I could use a familiar now that I'll be a second year…" Alex said wistfully looking at the bowl with the snake in it.

"Give it up, Alex. Father gave Achilles to me and you're not getting him," Aurelius said.

"You weren't even there when Father found him in that cave. I was," Alex argued.

"That'll do, both of you! I'm quite done up hearing about it!" Molly said, shaking a wooden spoon at them threateningly.

"Oh no, don't tell me we're going on about the snake thing again!" Arthur Weasley said as he came down the stairs dressed for work. "You can give it a rest for one day."

"Sorry," Aurelius offered, turning his attention to his breakfast. Alex attempted to apologize as well, but nothing came out but a squeak. Immediately Molly and Arthur jumped over to her, while Aurelius continued to finish off his porridge. Alicia looked over at Alex with surprise while Andrew eyed Rel suspiciously.

"Goodness, she's choking!" Molly said.

"She's not touched anything but the porridge yet, not easy to choke on that. Alex, are you all right?" Arthur said, pulling her chair back a bit to look at her. Alex nodded, quickly mouthing out words. "She's all right, Molly. She has just lost her voice. Fancy that coming over her all the sudden," Arthur said, picking up the porridge and sniffing it.

"I say, wasn't there some sort of bottled Potion Water at Fred and George's joke shop that did that?" Andrew asked. "The label said it was guaranteed to tie the loosest of tongues or something. I remember seeing it when you took us over to visit the other day."

"Yes, come to think of it, I remember seeing it as well," Arthur said, looking over at Aurelius. "Didn't you come out of there with a parcel, Rel?"

"So did everyone else!" Aurelius blurted out, very aware that both Molly and Arthur had their full attention on him now. "You don't really think I had anything to do with this, do you?"

It wasn't long after that Aurelius found himself scrubbing the kitchen floor by hand. Molly stood watching him for a while after the table was cleared. Finally she retreated to the living room to check on her knitting while the other three played upstairs. He was halfway done when Andrew came back downstairs, intent on getting to the icebox for his mid-morning snack.

"If you step one foot on my floor, you little traitor, I will break it!" Aurelius threatened him, causing Andrew to pause and look at him.

"Dumbledore says the only person that one can betray is himself," Andrew said, his eyes still intent on the icebox. "And besides, I didn't rat on you nor would I rat on you. I only stated that I knew the probable cause."

"Dumbledore again, is it? Just how much do you tell him, anyhow?" Aurelius asked as Andrew went over to the broom closet.

"Not much these days. It isn't as if we've been allowed to do much at since our parents found out about Alicia's ability to travel through paintings," Andrew said, getting out a broom.

"But the moment we did have an adventure you would tell him, wouldn't you?" Aurelius challenged.

"I didn't tell him about the diamonds," Andrew pointed out, hovering on the broom over to the icebox. "And I probably should have considering what happened. He's been nothing but a friend to us, Rel, he's really not like the other adults at all. You could try trusting him, you know."

"How can I trust you or him when you're keeping a secret from me and expecting me to protect it? It's completely unfair and you know it. Well, if you don't tell me, I'll just have to stop guarding your and his secrets from everyone, and you can fend for yourself from now on," Aurelius said. Andrew glanced up from the icebox, looking at Aurelius thoughtfully.

"You know, you may have some success manipulating your 'friends' at school with threats, Aurelius, but the fact of the matter is that no matter how egotistical you might act and how rotten you can be at times, there are some things you wouldn't do. And you would never do anything that might endanger anyone on purpose, especially not Dumbledore or one of us," Andrew said sincerely. "Well maybe Corey, but then again, perhaps not even him."

"I wouldn't take any bets on that," Aurelius glowered, turning his attention to the floor.

It was then that there was a knock at the door and Andrew quickly called it, zooming over on his broom and popping it open without bothering to dismount. He grinned in surprise when he saw who it was.

"Father! Mum! You're back early!"

"Andrew Albus Snape, why on earth are you riding a broom inside the house?" Jennifer said disapprovingly.

"Because Aurelius wouldn't let me touch the floor," Andrew explained, quickly hopping off as Jennifer stared at her son in bewilderment.

"Sorry I asked," Jennifer said to Severus, who smirked before stepping inside, pausing as he caught sight of Aurelius in the kitchen.

"You just finish your work dear, I'm sure they're not popping off already," Molly told Aurelius as she passed through, and then stepped over to hug Jennifer. "I should have known the two of you wouldn't last the whole two weeks! Did you enjoy yourselves?"

"Yes, thank you, only something came up and we thought it best to head back," Jennifer said, peering at Aurelius. "What did he do this time?"

"Oh, nothing to worry about, Jennifer, just childhood mischief," Molly assured her with a cheerful smile. "Why don't you relax in the parlor while I fix us some tea? Andrew, best you go ask the girls to get their things together."

"Yes, ma'am," Andrew said, heading up the stairs with his broom in tow.

An icy fire was lit in the fireplace, cooling the parlor from the summer sun. Above, photos of every shape and size had been carefully fit together like pieces of a puzzle… featuring, of course, all of the Weasley children and quite a number of the grandchildren.

Even more photos were on the mantle itself, including several pregnancies and wedding pictures, while taped on the mantle was a piece of watercolor paper. Jennifer gazed at Alicia's picture for a long time. Perhaps the features weren't quite defined and the lighting not quite right, but there could be little doubt who the four in the picture were, all dressed up in their school uniforms, even Alex in her Ravenclaw uniform.

"Alicia's paintings are certainly quite good for her age," Jennifer said, glancing over at Severus, who peered over her shoulder to see what she was looking at, frowning slightly. "You know, perhaps we ought to sit for a family photo."

"I won't have pictures of me gallivanting around the country," Severus said curtly.

"Well, at least some of the four of them," Jennifer insisted.

"We've gotten pictures of them every year since they've entered school, and they visit each other so much they might as well have been photographed together," Severus said.

"Yes, school mugshots," Jennifer said critically. "They're not as lovely as any of these." Severus gazed up critically at the chocolate covered faces of children, bare-bottomed babes crawling on carpets, and even one with Molly lighting candles which exploded into rockets, causing everyone at the birthday party to run for cover while two angelic twin boys sat calmly at the table, grinning. "They're growing up so fast, Severus, and we have so very little of their time. I can't believe Aurelius is already going to Hogwarts this year."

"In two more years they'll all be in school, and then you can see them all as much as you like. That was the plan all along, wasn't it? To be able to keep our careers, have a decent sized family and see them all become outstanding Hogwarts students?"

"Yes, but sometimes I wonder if we're not pushing that dream too hard," Jennifer said.

"A bit late for regrets, isn't it?" Severus asked in a low voice, slightly puzzled at her behavior. Jennifer turned to find him very close beside her, and rested her hand gently against his chest as she looked at him.

"Never regrets, Severus. To regret anything that's happened since we met would be like regretting ever having fallen in love with you in the first place. I haven't done anything since that didn't involve at least the thought of you," Jennifer said quietly.

"Taking up with me wasn't perhaps the wisest thing you've ever done," Severus mused. "As for me, it was probably one of the few things in my life I didn't make a complete washout of."

"Oh, nonsense, Severus. You're a fantastic teacher, a Sentinel of Magic and therefore one of the most powerful wizards there is, and the cleverest man alive. I just don't look forward to the day that the rest of the world figures that out and I have to share you with someone other than Hogwarts and the children," Jennifer teased.

"Well, my love for Hogwarts and the children I share specifically with you," Severus said, lifting up her chin. "But you I'll share with no one."

Some very loud humming abruptly averted the impending kiss, the two of them taking a healthy step backwards as Severus casually folded his arms and turned around. Jennifer found a seat on one of the couches, her cheeks growing red as she realized that was not the first time that Molly had tried to enter the room.

"Here we are, and some biscuits too, though they are a bit on the crisp side… the girls made them, so I expect they'll do," Molly chuckled, putting the tray on the coffee table. "So what brings you back early? I have an inkling that it wasn't you grew tired of each other's company," she asked mischievously.

"There was an underwater earthquake while we were out boating and we wanted to make sure the Fomorians hadn't been affected," Jennifer explained.

"The Fomorians… after all these years," Molly said, sitting down.

"Well, there was no signs of damage to the city, but the Fomorians weren't there," Jennifer continued.

"Oh, where were they?"

"We have no idea," Severus said, taking an offered cup. "Nothing was in disarray but nothing was packed either. Their larders were full, orchards and fields recently tended, and fishing nets were left out. The magic seems still in tact, the city was still water tight, but I am not sure how long that will stay stable if not maintained by someone who knows what they're doing."

"Then Atlantis will be lost all over again," Jennifer sighed.

"It may also be found again, and I don't mean by our kind. The protections on the island itself may fail as well. I put up a few barriers of my own, but we'll need to get someone specialized in that sort of work out there. We stopped by the Ministry on the way here. They're going to be looking into it," Severus said.

"By the way, Arthur asked us to tell you he might be late again," Jennifer said apologetically.

"Well! That at least is nothing new!" Molly said, putting down her cup as the four Snapes appeared on the stairs. "There you are! Are you sure you have everything?"

"Yes, Mrs. Weasley," they all said almost in unison.

"And like as not I'll be pulling your socks and underthings out of the wash and stepping on paintbrushes until you get back in the fall," she tsked.

"Well you can always send it off with Dodger anytime he drops off post," Jennifer suggested.

The four children looked horrified at the idea of Dodger flying across London with underwear in his claws and decided to take another quick look around before stacking their trunks neatly together so Jennifer could miniaturize them. Then the children said their last goodbyes to Mrs. Weasley and stepped into the fireplace.

Suddenly finding herself in an empty house, Molly quickly tidied up and went to Ginny's to visit her grandchildren.