Remus smiled at his help, "girls, I think we are almost done with this, want to give it just a little longer and see if we can get it done tonight?"

"Sure," the twins chorused in unison.

Remus turned back to the shelf he was working on this had taken a bit longer than he had planned on, mainly because whenever one of the girls came across something unfamiliar they requested an explanation. He loved it. Both girls were very bright, and he found their enthusiasm very refreshing.

"Are we interrupting?" Sirius and Harry entered the classroom together. They had spent much of the evening walking over the grounds together talking about Hogwarts as it had been in years past.

"No, of course not, although if you come in here I'll probably end up putting you to work," Remus grinned at his two friends.

Sirius chuckled, "I'd say you already have enough help," he gestured to where the girls were sitting on the floor. "How did you let him talk you into helping him clean? You don't have to do this." Sirius asked Dierna and Serena.

Dierna sighed, "No, we do have to do this. But, we chose to help Lupin; we'll end up being forced to help Dad with his classroom."

The three men laughed, recognizing how true that statement was.

Remus, Sirius, and Harry started a low conversation. They were discussing the possible threat that the new dark forces posed to the school when they were interrupted by a shriek. They instantly turned, hands on their wands, to where the Dierna and Serena were, preparing for the worst. The girls however, had dissolved in giggles by that time.

"What happened?" Remus asked them. His face was lined with worry.

Dierna, pointed to an object lying on the floor across the room, "she... pulled that... out of the box... and... threw it at me." She barely managed to get the sentence out as she collapsed on the floor laughing.

Remus grinned as he crossed the room and picked up the shrunken head, "I forgot that this was in there. Something I picked up on a trip to the Amazon." He put the artifact on a shelf in the back of one of the cabinets, "sorry if that scared you."

Dierna finally sat up, "it wasn't so much seeing a shrunken head as it was having one thrown at me."

Remus merely shook his head in mock exasperation at the two girls. He was about to say something to them about being more careful when they were interrupted.

"Remus, I was wondering if you were done with my girls for the night." Severus came in the door. After the confrontation with Morgan he had come inside, ready to seek the sanctuary of their bedroom, but he had heard the commotion in the Defense Against the Dark Arts classroom.

"Sure, you can have them back if you want. They've helped me get a lot done this evening."

Severus turned his attention to his daughters, "girls, I want you to get to bed, it's well after eleven."

"Come on Dad, that's not very late, just a little while longer? Please..." Serena looked pleadingly at her father.

"Yeah Dad, come on, we promise not to get into any trouble if you let us stay down here a little longer." Dierna pouted slightly, putting on her best look of innocence.

Severus shook his head, "no, I want you back in your dorm now."

Dierna and Serena rolled their eyes at each other, silently communicating their general disgust concerning unreasonable demands made by parents, as they got up off the floor.

"Thanks for your help tonight girls," Remus smiled at them as they walked to the door.

"No problem Professor," Serena smiled sweetly at him.

"Yeah, we'd be happy to help again. Especially if you can get us away from him for awhile," Dierna dropped her voice to a dramatic whisper as she nodded her head in the direction of her father.

Remus covered his smile as he took in the irritated look on Severus' face.

"Alright, that's enough of that Adelaide," Severus sighed as he held the door open for his daughters; he exchanged a long look with Remus that betrayed exasperation.

Dierna rolled her eyes at being called her real name, as she made her way to the door.

Severus held the door for his girls, "I'll walk you two back up to your tower." As soon as he saw them safely back he could finally get back to his own room, hopefully Morgan would be back by then.

Sirius laughed softly as they left, "those girls almost deserve the title of 'marauder', they really know how to get to that greasy git."

Morgan sighed wearily as she entered their bedroom, her heart was sick with grief, mourning for the death of her carefully laid out plan. She wanted another baby so badly.

Morgan paused in the doorway; Severus was sitting in an overstuffed chair next to their bed, reading. He looked up at her as she stood in the doorway, looking very uncertain of herself.

Severus, always the height of decorum, stood up as his wife entered the room. "You really had your heart set on having another child," it wasn't a question.

Morgan nodded miserably. Her heart felt like it had been broken into a million pieces when Sev had said no when she asked him about having another child. She was exhausted now. She felt wretched for being mad at her husband, but it did nothing to diminish her anger.

Severus tried to figure out the best way to handle this. Morgan had changed and was now lying on the bed, turned away from him and curled around a pillow. Severus sat down on the bed and gently laid a hand on his wife's back, "Morgan, we need to talk about this."

"I have nothing to talk to you about." She sniffed, trying to keep the tears out of her voice.

Severus gently ran is hand in small slow circles on her back. "Morgan, I love you more than anything, and that is why we cannot have another child. I will not endanger you in any way if I can help it. If you got pregnant and... if something happened, it would be my fault. I can't do that to you."

Morgan sat up and turned to face her husband using the back of her hand to wipe away her tears. "Sev, it would not be your fault, I want this. It is my decision."

"No, it is not your decision, it is a decision that we should make together, one that we both have to agree on," Severus kept his voice as low and soothing as possible, "I can't live without you Morgan."

Morgan wiped at a few more stray tears, "I'm sorry Sev, I should have discussed this with you before I got my heart set on it."

Severus felt his heart melting at how miserable his wife looked. He resituated himself so that he was leaning against the headboard and he picked her up and settled her in his lap. "Don't be sorry about anything darling. I understand why you want this. Personally, I would love to have another child, but I will not take the risk of losing you. I love you too much."

"Sev, I just wanted another child so badly," she leaned against him; her voice was heavily laced with exhaustion. She felt defeated.

"I know my love, but some things just aren't meant to be."

"But what if this was meant to be?"

"Then it will find a way of working itself out." Severus could hear in her voice how tired his wife was, and he didn't particularly feel like having this conversation with her when she was about to fall asleep in his arms.

"Sev?"

"What is it love?"

"Can we at least discuss this further? Will you think about it?" She tried to keep any hints of desperation out of her voice; she didn't want to beg her husband for anything.

Severus gently kissed the top of her head, "of course I will consider it, but I will make no promises on this subject."

"As long as you think about it, that's all I ask." She sighed as her head dropped against his chest; she was too tired to even hold it up anymore. Her eyes fluttered shut.

Severus watched his wife as she fell asleep in his arms. He hated to hurt her in any way. He hoped that she had really forgiven him for not agreeing to have another child. He just didn't want to see anything happen to her.

Morgan woke up very slowly; sleep was so pleasant, so peaceful. She didn't feel like getting up and facing the realities of the world. She sighed softly as she decided she had better start moving. She tried to sit up, but found that she was penned down to the mattress. She opened her eyes, squinting at the early morning sunlight that was filling the room, trying to figure out what was holding her down.

She was surprised to see her husband's face so close to hers when she opened her eyes. And she was even more surprised to find that she couldn't sit up because she was held firmly in his arms. She had been so cold to him last night, even when he tried in his own way to apologize she had still not been very accepting.

She was rather surprised that he was still sleeping; usually he beat her up by at least an hour. She buried her face in his neck; she tried to keep her breathing quiet and made as little movement as possible. She didn't want to wake him.

"Don't bother trying to be quiet, I'm already awake." Severus spoke into her hair, enjoying the scent of it. Morgan always smelled so wonderful, like a combination of wildflowers and cinnamon.

"Did I wake you?"

"Yes, but I don't mind." Severus lightened his grasp on her and moved his hands gently down her body so that they rested on her waist.

"Sev, I'm sorry about last night. Are you mad at me for doing that to you?"

Severus propped himself up on one arm, "no, not mad. A bit hurt, yes, but I was never mad at you."

Morgan absently traced a random pattern on the sheet with her finger, not wanting to look at her husband. "I never meant to hurt you. Besides, you were right about what you said last night, about me being selfish. I never even thought that you would have a problem with my idea. I should have thought of you."

"I understand your reasoning darling; I just don't think that this is a good idea."

Morgan glanced up at her husband, worry and concern and love were clearly written on his face. "I love you Sev, thank you for always being there for me, even when I don't want you to be. I need you so much." She raised herself up enough to kiss him gently. She was pleased when she found herself in his arms and when the kiss became much more passionate.

Morgan was disappointed when Severus finally pulled away, she didn't want the moment to end. "You know," she gently traced a finger across his chest, "we won't be needed anywhere for at least another hour yet." She smiled at the look she got; it was one of pure adoration and love.

The first part of the week had passed quickly, and now Kamen, Dierna, and Serena were intent on getting outside before they could get roped into doing anymore works. With two days till the rest of the students arrived there was still a lot for the professors to prepare, and they had been forced to help out wherever they were needed.

"Almost there," Kamen grinned as they reached the main entry way, "if we can get outside and down by the lake they won't even bother with coming to get us to help out more."

"Excellent," Serena grinned, "I don't plan on spending anymore time helping anyone clean and sort through their classrooms, it's like we've spent the last few days in detention."

"Dierna!" Severus came striding up.

There was a collective groan; they had been so close to escaping.

Dierna faced her father with ill concealed annoyance on her face, "what?"

"I believe you promised to help me with a few projects today."

"But Dad can't I just..." she stopped as she noticed the look she was getting. It wouldn't be worth arguing with him. "Fine, I'll be there in a few minutes, can I do something else real quick?"

Severus frowned, "you will be down in my office in ten minutes, I better not have to come looking for you again." He shifted his attention to Kamen and Serena, "Don't the two of you have something productive you could be doing? Because if you don't, I'm sure I could find something for you to do." He raised a questioning eyebrow at them.

"Dad, we'll help out again later, I promise, but we just wanted to get outside for awhile." Serena desperately hoped he would just leave them alone.

Severus didn't soften his glare at all, "fine, but don't waste your whole day, there is still a lot to get done around here." He turned back to Dierna, "In my office in ten minutes, do not be late." He turned on his heel and stalked off towards the dungeons.

"Well, this day officially sucks now," Dierna glared after the retreating figure of her father, "just how I want to spend the last of my vacation, stuck in the dungeons with him while he's in a bad mood."

Serena sighed, "Well now that all of our plans for the day have been ruined you better get going, he's only going to end up in a worse mood if you keep him waiting."

Dierna sighed, "I'm going, I'm going, I just want to get something from outside first.

The two guards moved down the hallway at a quick pace, ignoring the cries and pleas of the prisoners. They stopped in front of a cell at the far end of the hallway. In it was a man with deathly pale skin and red eyes; he was slumped in a corner, his breathing shallow and uneven.

"I don't know about this Rob, do you really think there's a chance someone will try to break him out? I just have trouble believing that anyone would want to get him out of here."

"Bill, you know as well as I do, he would be an important asset to them new dark forces, he was their leader at one time after all."

"But he would be useless to them now, what with him having gone through the dementor's kiss and all. He wouldn't be any use to them now would he?"

"Ahhhh... you see, that's where yer wrong. They could use him as a figure head of sorts. That would probably attract a lot more people. We'll have to keep a close watch over this one. Don't want to think about what would happen if he slipped through our fingers."

"That's true, that would make things awful tricky for the Ministry, not to mention the spot it would put us into for letting him get away. We can't have that."

Dierna entered her father's office; she glanced at the clock on the wall. She was a bit late, hopefully he wouldn't notice.

"You're late."

Dierna rolled her eyes, how typical, "At least I'm here." She took an empty jar off of one of the tables and after filling it with water put the bouquet of flowers she was holding and set it on the corner of her father's desk.

"I have told you before that I do not want that clutter in my office."

"Its not clutter. Besides, if I have to spend my day down here I need something to help brighten this room up. It's always so dark and musty down here." She wrinkled her nose at the staleness of the room.

Severus chose to ignore that comment; he wasn't in the mood to argue with his daughter today. He pointed at a row of jars and blank labels, "fill out those labels and put them on those jars, and write neatly."

Dierna groaned inwardly, of course it had to be boring mindless work. She worked through the labels quickly, hoping that when she finished them he would let her go.

"Is all of your homework done?"

Dierna let out a tiny gasp of surprise as she looked up from her work, she had completely forgotten about her homework, "well...."

"Adelaide Dierna Snape! Do you mean to tell me that you have not finished your homework yet? Which, I might add, is due in two days. You have had the entire summer to work on it." Severus frowned at her.

"No sir, I mean that I have not yet begun."

"You have had the entire summer..."

"I guess I just forgot about it..." she trailed off, the look she was getting did not portend well.

Severus crossed his arms over his chest, "All the books you will need are on my bookshelf down here and I have plenty of parchment in my desk. Get started now, you are not leaving here until all of your homework is done. I see that I will have to personally supervise you to make sure there is no more procrastinating."

Nimue was helping her mother organize her office. Morgan's office was far different than her husband's. It was light and airy, with lots of windows and colorful wall hangings. Nimue enjoyed working in there, it was so peaceful. She needed the sense of peace and security that it offered, her mind was running in chaos at the moment.

She worked quietly and quickly, allowing her mind to work, trying to work out the reasoning behind all that had been happening.

Morgan noticed how quiet her daughter was being and decided to try and pull her into some conversation, "Are you excited about the new classes you'll be starting this year?

Nimue shrugged, "I guess I'm kinda indifferent about it, except for your class of course," she smiled at her mother.

Morgan smiled back, "I'm glad you're at least taking my class, none of your siblings ever have." She laughed, "although I don't blame them, I have a feeling they would get out of potions if at all possible, I know it's hard on you kids to have me and your father here as teachers."

"Mum, does divination really work?"

Morgan frowned, "that all depends on the type of divination you're talking about. If you are referring to the little shows Professor Trelawny puts on then no. But, there have been real predictions made before."

"Oh..."

"Why do you ask?"

"I was just wondering," Nimue thought about the few visions she had seen, she wondered if they were real or simply a product of her imagination.

"Is something bothering you dear?"

Nimue put on a smile, "No Mum, everything is fine." She hoped that it would be.