Colleen stayed over for all of that week, and Severus did not like it at all. He really did hate her. She was a mirror of his father. Although she didn't look bad and evil and downright scary on the outside, she was definitely a bad and evil and downright scary person.



She would always make fun of Severus for everything he did, and it wasn't just for fun, he could tell she really thought he was stupid. It was just a little too obvious. She would always order him around like a queen and tell him to do things all the time.



"I'm not even her kid!" Severus thought, "Who does she think she is? The Queen of England?" Severus did what she commanded him to anyway, but he loathed doing her bidding.



Finally she left for a few days, but when she arrived once again, Severus became very angry. He thought he wouldn't have to see her again. But obviously he was wrong, his father really had found someone he loved, or at least something close to loving. Severus did not think his father was capable of loving anything, except maybe a world rid of muggles and non-purebloods.



Something was weird when she arrived, he heard kids talking very loudly. A little girl squealing and a boy's feet thumping along the floor as he ran around unattended. Severus walked down the stairs quietly, as to not alert the woman to his presence. He saw two kids, one boy, and one girl, both probably around the ages of six or seven. They both had stringy dark blonde hair, and Severus guessed that these were in fact her kids, most likely from a previous marriage.



"Severus, come down here!" he heard his father roar. Severus walked down the rest of the stairs and into the dining room where the rest of the 'family' was sitting. Family, that is, if you never really knew what family was.



"This is Emily, and this is James," his father told him, pointing to the girl and boy, "They are Colleen's children."



"Oh, cool," Severus replied, not thrilled about the presence of younger children. He was never very fond of young children, although he, himself, had been a young child like them only a couple of years ago.



Severus, however, noticed that Colleen was not too happy with her kids, which was just one more thing that she and his father had in common. Severus began to chow down on his spaghetti, which happened to be one of his favorite dinners.



"Calm down boy! Eat carefully. You need to eat more appropriately and politely," his father's 'girlfriend' told him.



"Why don't you mind your own business," he thought to himself. His father looked at him, His eyes penetrating his face with an icy-cold glare. His father had a way of knowing what he was thinking. He obviously knew what Severus had just been thinking.



Severus rolled his eyes and said automatically, "Yes ma'am," to Colleen, not wanting to feel that sharp pain he got when his father stared at him with those glittering blue eyes, as if someone was stabbing into him. He continued to eat, and when he was finished, he jumped up from the table and walked up to his room. Little did he know, Colleen's kids were following right behind him.



He entered his room and plopped down on his bed. "Hello, I am Emily," a voice said. Severus shot up, opened his eyes, and stared right into the face of Colleen's kids.



"What do you want?" Severus asked, coldly.



"Just to talk," Emily said in a childlike sugary-sweet voice.



"I'm James," the boy said.



"Yeah, and I'm Severus," Severus responded.



"Wanna know something?" James asked.

"Yeah sure, humor me." Severus replied sarcastically.

"My mommy killed my daddy," James said.



"What did you just say?" Severus asked, startled.



"Our mom kind of killed our dad. That's why she wants to marry your father," Emily told him nonchalantly.

"How did she kill your dad?" Severus nervously asked.



Emily shrugged in a bored way. "She used Avada Kedavra. But she told the big wizards that it was her brother," James told him. This was beginning to scare Severus. His dad was going to marry a woman who killed her husband and framed it on her brother.



"Wow," he thought to himself, "She's crazy."



"So, why did she kill your father?" he asked carefully, trying to put the puzzle together.



"Our father hit her a lot," Emily told him nodding her head sadly. Severus snorted.

"Yeah, so did mine. But my mom just ran away. She didn't kill my dad. That's just crazy," Severus replied. "Would you mind leaving my room?" he asked them, trying to sound nice.



"I guess not," James replied, very sadly. The kids walked out of the room, and Severus laid there in his bed wondering if his dad knew these things. Of course, his father probably did know, but why would he want to marry someone like that?

"He must be under the imperius curse or something. Because anyone who would want to marry someone like Colleen must be psycho too. There's something extremely wrong with her kids, just coming out and saying that stuff without me even prodding," he thought.



Severus eventually fell asleep, still wondering how his father could be in love, or in like, with someone that weird. Severus dreamt about what his life was going to be like now. He knew that his life would not be the same anymore. Both of his parents would be ordering him around like he was their slave. He would have two little kids living in his house, both of which were annoying and strange. They really freaked Severus out. He knew that with Colleen living in his house, he would have to watch out, since she was a murderer, and, for all he knew, a child abuser.



He woke up the next morning to see Emily and James staring at him, with their big, green eyes, which were bloodshot, like they had been taking too many drugs. The kids stared at him without blinking or saying a word. "Hello?" Severus said awkwardly and groggily to the kids. They did not reply, nor did they acknowledge that he had said anything. Severus continued to feel awkward, looking into the eyes that were staring back at him. He got up out of his bed and walked over to his dresser on the other side of his room. The kids' eyes followed him. He grabbed a pair of jeans, and a big baggy gray t-shirt, which used to belong to his father. He threw on the clothes and walked out of the room. The kids followed him, staying at least five feet behind him at all times. He did not know what was up with these kids.



He entered the kitchen to the smell of bacon and pancakes, which Colleen was cooking. "Maybe it won't be all that bad," Severus thought, sitting down at the table.



"Boy, come cook these pancakes. Make yourself useful," Colleen told him.



Severus got up from the table and did as he was told. "Nevermind. I don't know what I was thinking before," he thought, a smile cracking his face. He grabbed a spatula and flipped the pancakes, putting them on a plate as each one finished. Once he had completed his task of making the pancakes, he took three, put them on a plate for himself, and began eating them, along with some bacon he had grabbed.



Emily and James were also eating breakfast, although they did not eat much. Their eyes were still bloodshot and swollen, still staring at Severus. By now, Severus was becoming worried about the kids, not knowing why they were staring at him. He hurriedly ate his breakfast, not wanting to be around them any more.



He entered his room and took out a piece of parchment, wanting to write a letter to his friend, Haley. He scribbled out a letter, mentioning Jessica and how he kind of liked her, and even asked Haley if she wanted to come over one day to meet his father's new girlfriend. After writing the letter, he sent it off to his friend using his father's owl. He went back downstairs, looking for something to do. He looked around slowly and saw something unfamiliar. It was a letter sticking out of his father's coat pocket. He grabbed the note and ran up to his room, wanting to know what it said.



Logan-

We will be meeting tonight in Knockturn Alley outside the potions shop. We need to get some materials in which to use for the polyjuice potion so we can imitate the Minister and cause a riot in the Ministry.



~Drake Black



Severus threw the note away, wondering what it meant by "imitate the Minister". Were his father and his father's friends really going to cause a riot at the Ministry by impersonating the Minister and some Ministry officials? That would land him in Azkaban for sure. Severus did not know what to think. It was at that moment that his father ran into his room.



"Where is it?" He shot of his son.



"Where is what? What are you talking about?" Severus knew his dad was talking about the letter.



"My letter! Where is my letter? I know you have it! Now give it here!" His dad was really furious and was acting a little scary, so Severus slowly went for the letter that was in the trash, and gave it to his dad who ripped it out of his hand. "You should know better, snooping around other people's buisness." And he left it at that, slamming the door behind him, and leaving a frightened Severus.



Severus did not know what his father was going to do. But he knew it was not going to be a pretty sight when his father did do it. His father was never one to just let things go. He always got his revenge, and always made sure that he got what he wanted, even if it meant almost killing another person. Emily and James walked into the room, which did not make him feel any better. "What do you want?" Severus grumbled at them.



"We want to know why your father is so angry," Emily told him in a sing-song voice.



"Oh, well I kind of took something that belonged to him," Severus replied.



"He almost killed James when they bumped into each other when your father was walking down the steps," Emily told him.



"Oh, well, I'm terribly sorry, my father can be a bit of a jerk sometimes," Severus returned, a bit sarcastically.



"What did you take?" James asked curiousity overcoming him.



"Oh, it was some letter I saw in the pocket of one of his cloaks," Severus told them.



"The one about him going to the Ministry with some of his friends?" Emily asked.



"How did you know?" Severus said to them, very confused.



"We're smarter than we look," James told him. And with that, Emily and James left the room, leaving a puzzled Severus sitting on his bed.



What's that supposed to mean? Snape asked himself. I know they're not dumb. Snape decided to go for a walk to release his stress. He had no idea what to do about his father. His conscience told him to confront someone about it but his senses were telling him to stay away.



"Merlin, I wish Mum was here, she'd know what to do." He said aloud to himself. He was so wound up in his own thoughts that he had no idea what he had just gotten himself into. Well, actually he had just stopped himself from slamming directly into his father. He quickly hid behind a nearby tree to watch his father with ease.



There was another man walking next to his father, and Severus listened to them talking. "So are you ready for tonight?" he heard the man ask his father.



"Of course. Colleen will be watching Severus and those other two brats. So, we can pull it off tonight, without them even knowing. Colleen has no clue what is going on. I think Severus does though. He saw the note you sent me with your owl," his father told the other man.



"He knows?" the other man asked shocked. Severus now knew who it was. It was Drake Black, the one who sent his father the note. "How did you let him get ahold of the note? You better make sure he doesn't go blabbing about this to Colleen!" Drake said, in a louder tone, almost yelling at Severus' father.



"Don't worry. She won't find out. I have confidence in Severus," his father told his friend, Drake. This made Severus a little happier, as he had just heard his father say something good about him for the first time.



"Then I shall be seeing you later, Logan," the man said, and with a sharp crack, he was gone. Severus watched on as his father made his way back to the house. Severus however, began walking once again, down the road towards the park.



Severus shuffled into the relatively deserted park. There were four guys huddled in a lone section they had claimed for themselves, but Severus ignored them. He didn't think it wise to associate with those thugs. He went to his favorite spot in the whole park. It was a tall oak tree which had excellent shade and hid him in the shadows from other peoples eyes.



He leaned against the tall oak and sank down solemnly. He had supposed his father was into the dark magics, but hadn't known it was this bad. Severus's mind was cluttered with so many thoughts. He still hadn't totally gotten over his mother's abrupt leave and then her return with their horrid argument, his father was going to do some sort of Merlin-only-knows-what at the Ministry of Magic, he was part vampire, his friends were all dreadfully worried about him, and so much more that he didn't even care to think of at the moment. He tucked his inherently greasy hair out of his face, wiped his crooked nose, and sat contemplating all that had been going on in such a short period of time; he was so focused that he didn't notice the tear that formed in his eye and fell onto the dry grass below him. He sat there by the tree, and he thought about everything that was going on, and he finally began to think, "What if my dad is caught? What will happen to me? Will I have to live with Colleen? That would be horrible!" He got up from his spot, and walked back to his house, having enough of the scenery of the park, wishing for a change in atmosphere.