Albus thought it highly unlikely that Tom Riddle was hiding in an upstairs room. Besides, he thought he recognized the voice behind the spell. "Vicky?" he said tentatively from behind the doorframe.

"God! Professor Dumbledore?" A very tall, powerfully built girl emerged from behind a trunk. "Is that you?"

"Victoria, please stop pointing that at me." She was a very unpredictable spell caster, and packed quite a punch for a sixteen-year-old.

"Sorry, Professor." She tucked the wand in her pocket. Albus wasn't sure if she was showing amazing resilience or didn't know what had happened. "Sev! Di! It's Professor Dumbledore! You can come out!"

"Sev fainted…"

"Well, okay, leave him there for the moment." Victoria was the president, captain, or manager of most of Hogwarts for a reason. "You come out here. And keep hold of that wand."

"Wand?" Albus looked down at her in disapproval, despite the situation. Diana was ten.

"Sev found it in a drawer. I figured it was best if she could send sparks out, at least." Di appeared, holding a large, clumsy wand like a cricket bat. "Give it to Professor Dumbledore."

Albus accepted the wand. He didn't recognize it, but pocketed it anyway. "Are you all alright?"

"Well, apparently our knight in shining armor is out cold… But you can't blame him. He's had the flu all week. Though how anyone got the flu in July…" Vicky shook her head majestically. Actually, most of her movements tended towards the majestic. "Aunt Dee had Lisha watch us. I think she's keeping an eye on Sev. She set me to guard the door."

Lisha. He'd forgotten the house elf. The lunatic house elf, but an asset nonetheless. They were a species noted for fearsomely loyal defense of children.

"How'd you know to look here, Professor?"

"Your father tipped me off." Albus swallowed. He knew many things, but not how to tell three children most of their family was dead for no reason but the whim of one man. Assuming they didn't know. "Stay here. I'm going in the check on Severus."

"Alright…"

He strode into the room beyond, which was really a large closet. A bedraggled, bleary-eyed teenage boy filled most of the floor space, though a tiny house elf dressed in doll's clothes occupied one corner.

Albus was only vaguely familiar with the Snape family elves, considered by most of their kind to be aberrations of the worst sort. "Lisha."

"Master Dumbledore." Her voice was lower than usual, and she managed a slight, clumsy curtsey.

"Professor?" Severus's eyes didn't seem to be focusing very well.

"The one and only. Are you alright?"

"Should I be?" He looked over his shoulder, to a crack in the floor through which Albus could see the charnel house that was once a lounge.

"You saw?"

"We all did. Fortunately, Diana has all the mental capacity of a retarded doxie, and Vic's not human." Sev folded his knees against his chest and stared vacantly at the ceiling.

"Care to come downstairs?"

"And run my father through with a rusty railroad spike? Sure, right after I run and select one from my rusty pointy objects collection."

"You can't blame him for what happened, Severus…" Again, Albus was faced with one of the few things no one could weather—an adolescent male on a mission.

"Actually, I think I can." He stood up, took a temperamental swing at a wall, and tipped over. "…Is it dark in here?"

"St. Mungo's. Now." An acute case of freak summer flu, while odd, was easily dealt with. First time tonight. "Portus."

"Isn't that illegal?"

"Many things are." He grabbed Sev's wrist and held his hand against the enchanted railroad spike, the presence of which worried him, and was aware of a guilty satisfaction as the surly, fevered pest vanished. He had every right to act this way and worse, but Albus was starting to feel the weight of his position.

"You sent him off? Good. And about Aunt Deirdre?"

"Victoria, has it ever once occurred to you that some things are a bit more necessary than organization?"

"Oh, shut up, I need something." She whirled on her heel to deliver some more orders, presumably to a cat who had just wandered in, and the heel broke. "Ack!"

"Are you alright?" Albus helpfully hauled her back to her feet.

"No!" Angrily, Vicky kicked off the offending shoe, and immediately toppled over again, off balance due to the single three-inch heel she had left. "Damn damn damn damn damn!"

Albus felt an insistant tug on his robes. When he looked down, Diana was staring up at him. She'd missed out on the height that ran strong in most of the family, and also the outsized Snape Nose. "Is Daddy downstairs?"

"Yes…"

"Good." She looked over at Vicky. "Do you know where Sev stowed his pointy objects collection?"

"Under his stupid record player, last time I had to steal a kitchen knife." She smiled innocently at Albus. "For cooking!"

"This was not your father's fault," Albus said quietly.

"Oh, so that's why…. Why You-Know-Who opened with 'Reap the Whirlwind You've Sown, Hector.'" Victoria picked Diana up and tossed her sister effortlessly onto her back. "We're going to Lily's house. Let me know when you figure out whose fault it is."

"Vicky, shouldn't you put some shoes on?"

"I'll borrow Lily's."

"But your feet are bigger! And it's about six kilometers!"

"Shut up, Di." Vicky swept out of the room and Albus heard her padding down the stairs.

"Could have gone better, Sir. They's always been difficult childrens." Lisha, who'd been almost invisible for the whole exchange, bowed politely. "Best if Lisha attends Hector, Sir, but shall I show you out?"

"No, no thank you." He disapparated, disgusted with himself.