Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter nor anything otherwise related. I do, however, make claim on NM Harry's personality as well as those of all the other canon characters and my original chars.
Despite sorrow and pain,
life moves on.
Despite the heartache,
there is a world beyond.
Beyond the death
of those we love,
there is life – for us.
"Untitled" written by Hermione Malfoy upon the death of Harry Snape
Chapter 2 – Despite Heartache"Mum, look! Owls!"
"I know, Mori," said Janella, tugging on her eldest son's hand. "But you already have an owl, remember?"
"Can I get a cat?" asked eleven-year-old Morgan Snape, his emerald eyes bright. "Please?"
"I wan' one too!" cried Ulric Snape, who was the youngest of the three Snape children at seven. Janella sighed and said, "No, Ric, this is for Morgan going to school. You can get a cat when you go to Hogwarts."
Ulric sniffed and looked around to cry then became entranced by the snitches dancing in the front window of the Quidditch shop across the way. Janella heaved a weary sigh then grabbed the hands of her two sons, wondering how on earth she had gotten stuck with the boys and Severus had gotten their daughter.
"Mum, Mum! Look what Dad bought me!"
Janella looked up to find her crimson-haired daughter flying towards her, a set of books clutched in her arms. They were a rather expensive looking set of Tolkien's Lord of the Rings (a special wizard edition that had moving paintings of selected scenes), and she frowned at her husband as he strolled up behind their daughter.
"That's nice, Ana," said Janella to her daughter Anastasia. She then looked at Severus and asked, "And how much did Dad pay for them?"
"Only ten Galleons, love," said Severus, leaning over to kiss her cheek. "Barely more than a wand."
"So says you," she huffed. "Come along, Mori. We have to go get your books. I trust you have all of yours, Ana?"
"Yes'm," mumbled the twelve-year-old, clutching her books as though she thought they would be taken from her. Janella sighed and moved on, leaving Severus to snatch up their daughter and follow her. He caught up easily with his long legs and looped an arm about her waist to slow her down.
"It's only a few Galleon's, love," he said. "Nothing to worry about."
"And what if something happens to the bank or something?" she demanded, absently tugging a wandering Ulric towards her. "What then?"
Severus smiled and leaned close to her, murmuring, "That is why most of the family fortune lies in a vault underneath the manor, my love. We Snape's don't trust anyone else to look after our affairs."
"I know."
He just smiled again then look down at Morgan and said, "How about after we get those books of yours, we go find you a wand?"
Morgan's eyes lit up and he would have bounded out in front of them had his mother not had a good grip on his hand.
"Wand, wand, wand!" shouted Ulric. "Mummy, can I have a wand too?"
"Not till you start Hogwarts, hun," said Janella, smiling down at her youngest child. She then jumped as Severus' hand gripped her waist suddenly and looked up at him in surprise. "Verus?"
"Take the children and go home," growled Severus, his eyes focused further down the alley.
"What…" Janella's voice trailed off as she looked down the alley and saw Cadian Parkinson and his posse of goons heading in their direction. Cadian was the son of Pansy Parkinson (no one knew the identity of his father but a few of his features hinted at the Malfoy bloodline) and had been in the same year as Severus at Hogwarts. He was shorter and stood out brashly thanks to his stark blonde hair as well as his demeanor.
He had also been on the other side in the fifteen-year war he had lost most of his innocence in. Just a year ago, he'd been released.
She felt Severus' hand quiver and looked up at him to see rage in his eyes, which had darkened slightly in color. And she could fully understand why.
Cadian had been a fellow Slytherin and Severus had tried to be friendly with him. But he had obviously have been brought up to hate the Snape's by his mother and Severus had finally given up trying when Cadian had attempted to kill his owl. After that, they'd been at each other's throats and still were.
"Go," hissed Severus. "We'll bring Mori back later."
"Be careful," whispered Janella, gently touching his arm. Then she turned to their children and said, "C'mon, c'mon, let's go."
"But my wand!" cried Morgan.
"We'll come back and get it later, sweetheart."
"What about Dad?" asked Anastasia, looking back over her shoulder at her father, who was standing stock still in the middle of the alley.
Janella forced down her urge to look back herself (she'd never leave if she did so) and gathered Ulric up into her arms so she could move faster.
"He's got some things he has to do," she said, tugging a whining Morgan along behind her. "Now let's go home…"
---
"Afraid your kids'll catch something from me, Snape?" sneered Cadian as soon as he got within a few feet of Severus. A sneer twisted his lips as he added, "Or are you just trying to keep that Muggle wife of yours safe? She that good a romp in the sack?"
"I'd rather my children not learn about violence at such young ages," shot Severus back. He truly enjoyed the look of confusion on Cadian's face at that statement – he also truly enjoyed the feel of the man's cheek cracking against his knuckles. "And don't talk about my wife in that manner again."
Cadian was sent spinning to the ground by the blow and came up with his wand out, his other hand clenched over his bruised cheek.
"I ought to kill you right here," snarled the blonde.
Severus smirked and spread his arms wide, indicating the crowded alley about them. A few people glanced at them as he did this and his smirk widened.
"Go ahead," he said. "But don't say I didn't warn you when the Aurors take you in."
Cadian's face purpled with rage and his wand tip glowed with the force of a spell. Then his wand was jerked out of his hand and flew to land in the hand of Damian Malfoy.
The Malfoy heir strode forward out of the crowd, brown eyes flashing angrily and white-blonde hair curling wildly in the day's heat.
"Parkinson," he hissed, twisting the other man's wand in his left hand. "You do recall that it is illegal to draw a wand in anything but the stories in Diagon Alley, don't you?"
Cadian just glared venom at Damian and pointed at Severus, spitting, "He forced me!"
Brown eyes turned to take in Severus, who smirked in response, eyes dancing with vague amusement. The two of them had known each other since they'd been born but were very rarely seen in public together as they preferred to spend time at Ashdeir Fierion or the Downs (as the Malfoy Manor was called) messing with their old MechWarrior miniature's.
"Lord Snape," said Damian cordially with a twinkle in his dark eyes. "What have you to say on this matter?"
"I was shopping with my family. Mister Parkinson here interrupted." Severus smirked then and lifted his left arm, rolling up his sleeve to reveal the dueling sheath on his forearm that housed his wand. "And my wand, as you can see, has never left this spot."
"I see." Damian turned on a heel and jabbed a finger at a woman in the crowd. "You! Madam…please, do tell me – in your own words – what happened."
"Just what you said when you came up," said the woman. She pointed at Cadian and continued, "He pulled his wand on the Lord. 'Course the Lord punched him first…"
Damian arched a silvery eyebrow at Severus, who shrugged, saying, "He provoked me. I punched him."
"Sev," hissed Damian in sotto voice. "We aren't in Hogwarts or in the war anymore. You can't just go around punching people."
"It's Parkinson," hissed Severus back. Then his green eyes darkened and he growled, "And he threatened Nella."
The Malfoy's brown eyes widened and his mouth dropped open in an 'o' of surprise. Across from him the Snape just arched a dark eyebrow, his head tilted slightly to the side.
Anyone who knew Severus well knew how protective he was of his wife. He wasn't protective simply because she was a Muggle but also because of how his mother had died. And he knew very well that if the same thing happened to him as happened to his father, he wouldn't have the strength to keep going. He'd barely had it when his father had died.
Damian then frowned to himself, knowing full well why Severus was protective of his wife. His own wife, Aisa Malfoy nee Kerensky, was Janella's half-sister. And he was just as protective of her as his old friend was of his wife.
"I see," whispered Damian in a dark voice. Then he frowned and asked, "But couldn't you have taken it to a back alley or something?"
Severus laughed a little at that and Damian smiled a bit. Then he turned towards Cadian, who was standing there fuming, his hand clasped over his bruised cheek. No doubt there would be a spectacular bruise there soon as the son of Harry Snape had learned how to fight from his father. And Harry had known damnably well how to fight.
"Alright then," said Damian, straightening up. He then swept his eyes over the gathered crowd and snapped, "Move on, you lot! Nothin' more to see here!"
Abruptly, he snapped out a hand and caught the woman he'd picked from the crowd and murmured, "Thank you very much, madam."
The woman blushed pink then smiled and nodded before rushing off through the dispersing crowd. Damian then turned sharply on a heel and stalked over to Cadian, striking the taller man in the face with his own wand.
Severus covered his hand to keep from laughing at the sight of the 5'8 Malfoy taking on a man built like a bull who had at least five inches on him. But Damian had the balls to do it as he and Severus had scuffled all throughout their childhood and the Snape heir had ended up having a good six and a half inches of height on his friend.
"Draw your wand again in this Alley, Parkinson, and you'll be back in the Ministry cells before you can say Nox!" snarled Damian with a vicious look in his brown eyes. He then jerked the blonde close as he shoved his wand into a pocket of his robes. "And if you say a threatening word against Janella Snape again, I'll take you in for Muggle Threatening. I trust you know what a large offense that is."
Cadian's face purpled in anger but he nodded and growled out, "I understand, Auror."
"Good. Now move along."
The other blonde sneered down at Damian and drew himself up to his full height, trying to intimidate the shorter man. But the Malfoy heir looked down his nose at the taller wizard and sneered then turned and grabbed Severus' arm, dragging him off into the crowd.
The two of them ended up in the Leaky Cauldron, where they found Janella and Severus' children waiting for them. Damian's wife Aisa also sat with them, talking animatedly with her half-sister along with her children, Davion and Durundia. Davion would be joining Morgan and Anastasia at Hogwarts in a year, if Severus remembered correctly, and Durundia would be in the same year as Ulric.
Severus frowned at the fact that Janella had stayed when he had told her to go home but he should have known she would. Shaking his head, he walked over to the booth the two women and their children had appropriated and bent to kiss his wife on the cheek. She smiled and turned her head so their lips met instead, making him laugh.
Then he turned as someone came through the Floo and grinned widely as he saw his nephew stumble out of the fireplace.
"John!"
The twenty-three-year-old looked up in annoyance then a wide grin spread across his face. Casting a charm to rid his robes of soot as he walked over to them, he grabbed his uncle's extended hand in a firm grip.
"Looking good, old man," he said with a wry smile and a twinkle in his blue eyes.
Severus snorted then tugged the younger man forward into a brief hug. Then he punched him lightly in the shoulder and scoffed, "Old man! I won't be old until you can beat me in a duel, you scamp!"
"Let's have at it then!"
"Boys," admonished Janella with a glower. She then smiled and asked, "How are you, John?"
"Astounding, Aunt Jan," replied John. He then spotted his younger cousins and cried, "Scamps!"
"Hi, John!" chirped three voices and Anastasia squirmed out of her seat to go show him her new books.
"Ah! They're wonderful books, Ana, you'll love 'em."
Damian sniffed and asked, "Don't I get a 'hello,' kid?"
The Longbottom Heir looked up in surprise then grinned and grabbed the older wizard in a hug.
"Of course, Uncle Ian! And hello, Aunt Aisa!"
Aisa smiled serenely and said, "Still as rambunctious as ever, I see."
"But of course! So what are you lot doing in here? You can't be done getting Morgan stuff already, Uncle Sev!"
Severus shook his head at that.
"We still have yet to get his wand."
John affected a faux shocked look and cried, "Not gotten his wand! Dear Merlin, Uncle, what on earth could have possessed you to leave the boy without a wand!"
"Cadian Parkinson," growled Damian.
John's joking manner faded then and there and a look of disdain slipping onto his features, a slight sneer twisting his lips. "Ah," he said shortly. He then looked at his uncle and asked, "What did he do?"
"Besides insult Nella? Simply drew his wand in the Alley."
"He what!"
Severus frowned and replied, "Insulted her. But don't worry, he didn't get away with it."
Janella looked up at her husband in alarm then asked, "Verus, what did you do?"
"Just another bruise to remember me by. Nothing more than what he earned several times in our school years."
"Arsehole," growled out John. He then yelped as Aisa and Janella both rose and slapped his arms. "Ow! What'd I do!"
"Impressionable young minds here," said Aisa, gesturing at the children. Janella nodded in agreement then moaned softly as Anastasia grinned. The girl was likely to use the word as her next insult now.
"Sorry."
"Just don't do it again," admonished Janella. She then smiled and said, "Now, why don't we go and get Mori's wand?"
"Yes!" cried the eleven-year-old. He jerked towards his father and begged, "Please, Dad, please!"
Severus chuckled and said, "Well, you can't go to Hogwarts without it. And since I do believe the trash has cleared out of the Alley, it's fine to go."
"YAY!"
"Mind if I join you, Uncle?" asked John, smiling sheepishly. At the curious looks from the older wizards, he mumbled, "I, er, kinda broke mine."
Damian groaned, "Again? For Merlin's sake, I think Dad's right! You inherited your grandfather's clumsiness!"
"Hey, he was only clumsy because of that idiot Lockhart."
"This is true."
"Boys, boys," said Severus, slinging his arms across their shoulders. "You're giving the children bad things to look up to."
John and Damian looked around him at each other then at him.
"And you don't?" said the Longbottom Heir with an arched eyebrow.
"Answer that one honestly, now!" chirped Damian with a grin.
Severus scoffed. "Me? A bad influence? Ha! Perish the thought!"
Janella shook her head and look at her half-sister, who was watching the three in amusement.
"Shall we?"
"Are we certain they'll follow?" asked Aisa as they and their children slid out of the booth.
Janella chuckled and replied, "They're our men, dear sister. Of course, they'll follow."
Laughing together, they ushered their children towards the back of the pub, Morgan dancing in place at the prospect of getting a wand.
"We're being left," said Damian suddenly as he watched the two women and five children head towards the back of the pub.
"Ah," said Severus, "then let us away, gentlemen!"
John chuckled then stretched out an arm and cried, "To the wands!" He then took off in an impression of the 'horse-riding' in Monty Python and the Holy Grail.
Damian and Severus looked at each other then cried, "To the wands!" and followed him, leaving a very confused and amused pub behind them.