Chapter 3:

A few days later, three tired witches escorted nine bouncing children into Florean Fortescue's Ice Cream Parlor on Diagon Alley. Kiki, Harmony, and Bianca all sat at one table with all the bags while Alida and Arden sat happily in their strollers with their ice creams. At the next table sat all the older children eating their ice cream and annoying the living daylights out of each other. "Mom! James is poking me again!" Giachi cried out.

"Am not!" James replied. "He's poking me!"

"Am not!"

"Uh huh," Madi spoke up, defending her best friend. "Are too."

"Will you two be quiet, you both started it!" Rawlins said, ever the voice of reason. Harmony smiled as she realized Remus was right, their son was a miniature version of his father.

"OW! Okay, which one of you kicked me?" Sam called out in frustration.

Jamie blushed. "Sorry, Sam. I was aiming for my meddling brother."

"Sorry, Sam, my sister whom I am ashamed to say looks exactly like me, has no sense of aim," Lily replied. Two identical faces soon had two identical tongues sticking out of them.

"Jamie Marie, Lily Rose, behave yourselves!"

"Yes, Mum," the two girls said, still glaring at each other though. Sam tried her best to distract the two girls from their fight. All the other kids had enough experience with the Lupin twins to know when to butt in and when to duck their heads, pretending not to notice the two identical blondes.

No one noticed the suspicious witch who had just entered the shop. She ordered a milkshake and sat in a far corner table, but one that held easy access to the small group of children. She wore a dark cloak over darker robes, but her pale skin stuck out. It wasn't as sickly pale as Severus used to have, but more of a China doll white. Strands of blondish brown hair tumbled out of the cloak and her bluish-green eyes remained locked on the children.

"Sirius and I swore that we weren't going to see my family for a long time after this weekend," Bianca ended the story about her niece's birthday. "Family."

"See? This is why we are glad we don't have that big of an extended family," Kiki said.

Harmony took a bite of her ice cream cone after cleaning up Alida. "Remus and I are only children. At least the kids have the two of you as aunts and your husbands as uncles."

"Always glad to help out those in need," Kiki replied, causing Bianca to giggle.

"We always rely on the kindness of strangers," Mrs. Black said, imitating an American Southern accent and fanning herself with her hand. Kiki and Harmony burst out laughing, which earned them weird looks from their kids. However, most of the children had learned to not question their parents' occasionally outbursts of insanity. Just like none of them questioned why the Snape toilet at Hogwarts had nametag that read "Hello, my name is Bobo" on it.

"Why do they do that?" Giachi whispered. "It embarrasses me."

"It's just they way they are," Sam said. "They're our parents. They are the ones we're going to grow up to be!"

"Not if I can help it," the Black boy shot back. "Look at your father. We've heard stories of how awful his childhood was and he is a perfectly good father, isn't he?"

"My daddy is the best daddy in th' whole world," Madi said, opening her arms to make her point.

Lily looked like she was going to make some comment on her father and then a whole "My father is better than yours" fight would've started hadn't it been for the loud explosion from the street. Harmony and Kiki were up immediately and heading for the door. "Bianca, keep the children inside, please!" Kiki yelled back as smoke began to fill the room.

"Everyone down on the floor! Now!" Bianca ordered, while covering the mouths of the two babies. "Pull your shirts over your mouths so you don't breath in the smoke." She turned and gasped as she noticed James, Lily and Madi already out. Sam was busy pulling Rawlins shirt up to his mouth while holding hers there, but looked a little woozy herself. Jamie covered her mouth and her unconscious sister's anyway. Giachi held James and Madi but was starting to nod off. Suddenly, Bianca's vision began to dance as she realized her shirt had slipped down. Within seconds, darkness overcame her as well.

She came to later and there was no smoke. Kiki was shaking her and looking very pale while Harmony was trying to calm down hysterical Alida and Arden. Bianca sat up and held her head. "What happened?" she asked, groggily.

"It was one of those surprise false alarm attacks. An explosive potion was let off outside of the store to distract us, while another potion was set off. The fumes from this one had the ability to knock a person out for up to an hour," Kiki explained.

"The children!" Bianca said, suddenly remembering what she saw before passing out. "How are they?" She stood up and wanted to push past Kiki, but the Auror gently pushed her friend onto the nearby seat.

"Bink, the children are gone," she said as gently as could while fighting back tears. "The explosion was to distract us while the gas was to knock the children out. Someone wants to hurt us and they kidnapped the children." Bianca blinkedtwice and then looked past her friend. Sure enough, abandoned ice creams and little jackets were sitting at the table, no child in sight.

"Why?" she whispered, reaching over to grab her youngest child. Arden calmed down considerably in her mother's embrace, but sniffling all the same. "And why not Arden and Alida?"

"They were still in strollers. And you had covered their mouths quick enough. Wouldn't do for the kidnappers to have screaming one-year-olds with them," Harmony reasoned out, rocking Alida gently. "Here's the note we found at the kids' table."

Bianca took it and read it over. She began sobbing. "How am I going to tell Sirius?" she asked, tears streaming down her face. Arden patted her mother's wet cheek while the other two women could only shake their heads.

Sirius was highly confused when the Auror headmaster had told him he was needed in Dumbledore's office like yesterday. Sirius rushed through to the apparition point, reached Hogsmeadeand ran up to the castle. He burst through the Headmaster's door and saw his wife in hysterics on the couch, little Arden asleep but he could still see the tear tracks on her cheeks. Harmony was rocking a fearful looking Alida while Kiki was practically pacing up the walls. He went over to Bianca and enfolded her in his arms. "Oh, Sirius, I'm so sorry," he heard her mutter. He then noticed the lack of the other children and prayed this wasn't about them.

"Bink, what's the matter?" he asked, but she sobbed harder. He looked to either Harmony or Kiki, but they were to pre-occupied themselves. "Dumbledore?" he asked, as the old man was quite ashen in the face and starting at a piece of paper. The Headmaster sighed and said he wanted to wait for Remus and Severus to arrive. Sirius settled back on the couch, clutching Bianca closer and fearing for his sons.

Severus and Remus arrived right after that. Remus crossed the room in two strides and had his wife in his arms immediately. Severus held a sleeping Garret, who was instantly snatched from his father's arms by his mother. They all looked to Dumbledore, whobegan to speak. "There was a false alarm at Diagon Alley today," he began. All the men suddenly tightened their holds on the family membersat hand. "Unfortunately, it was a distraction for a bigger operation." Dumbledore looked up and especially at Severus. "Rogue Deatheaters and Fudge's Army members have kidnapped the older children. We believe the plan was formed and carried out by Lucius Malfoy, back from Canada," he said.

You could hear a pin drop in the room. Severus held up Kiki when the past few hours caught up with her and she collapsed in a faint. Little Garret was being held by Remus as he rubbed Harmony's back. Sirius was still trying to calm down his hysterical wife, but went to help Severus move his to an empty couch. Once he was sure Kiki was comfortable, Severus strode over to Dumbledore's desk and snatched the letter off of it. He began to read it aloud:

"Dear Members of the Order of Sts. Dumbledore and Potter plus Traitor,

"You will no doubt be reading this letter after waking up from an unconscious state. Severus and his whore should be able to tell you what potion I used to knock you all out. And the one used to distract everyone else and cause pandemonium on Diagon Alley. My lovely wife has kidnapped your unconscious children and we are holding them at an undisclosed location. No worries, they will not be harmed but we do have certain demands.

"Dumbledore immediately resigns as headmaster, takes that bat he calls a wife and deputy with him, and turns the school over to myself. I shall reveal who I am (if the traitor or the loony man hasn't figured it out yet) at the end of the letter.

"Severus should turn himself in as a Deatheater and be sent to Azkaban for his crimes. There, I'm quite sure some of our old friends would have something to do about his treachery.

"Potter should leave the country and never come back. Or better yet, he should be tried for the murder of Tom Riddle, better known as Lord Voldemort.

"The Ministry of Magic should be restored to Cornelius Fudge and all who work there should vacate. We, the faithful followers of Voldemort and Fudge, will fill the missing positions.

"I sincerely hope that you follow our instructions. I've been watching you for some time now and I would not like to harm these sweet little brats of yours.

Yours,etc.

Lucius Malfoy

"PS: Severus, do also tell me where my son is. I have some choice words for him myself and my no-good ex-wife isn't telling me anything."

Severus nearly ripped the letter to shreds, but thought better of it. He placed the letter back down on the desk so that Dumbledore could show it to the Aurors who would be placed on the trail. He calmly walked over to Kiki, lifted her up and without a word walked out of the office. She was conscious and clutched a cooing Garret close to her chest.

Remus watched the Snape couple leave before turning back to his wife. Their three children were in the hands of madmen and it frightened them. "They said they wouldn't hurt them," he said, rubbing her hands. She shot him a look that clearly read "yeah, right" but she leaned against his shoulder. Alida yawned and laid herself down across her parents' laps for a nap. Remus ruffled her curly blonde hair as she began to suck her thumb. "At least we still have Alida," he whispered. Harmony only sniffled.

Bianca had fallen asleep along with Arden and had essentially kicked Sirius off the couch when she lay down. He didn't mind, though, and walked over to where Dumbledore was in the middle of a discussion with Ace and Tonks. His cousin gave him a big hug while Ace grasped his shoulder in a comforting manner. "Are you guys going on the search?" Sirius asked. Ace nodded.

"Dumbledore thinks its best if former Order members go along. We'd bring Harry, but he's threatened in the letter, too," Tonks said.

Dumbledore stroked his beard. "If we have Tonks, Kingsley, Ron and you on the case, do you think we should bring in Moody?" he asked his son-in-law.

"Perhaps. Even though Kiki can't work on this case and neither can Harry, we can use him to help filter through the cases they are going to get," the other man said. Dumbledore nodded and turned back to pick up the letter. Ace turned to Sirius. "Don't worry, mate, we're going to find them," he said. "Now why don't you get your lovely wife and daughter home for some much needed rest? You all had a draining day."

"Indeed. Thanks, Ace," Sirius said, before shaking Bianca up. She woke up slightly, picked up Arden and let herself be drawn towards the fireplace. Within a few minutes, they were gone.

A/N: Here it is! And thus, the drama begins…how many of you saw Lucius Malfoy as being the kidnapper? Anyway, thanks again to all my reviewers…

Sarahamanda: Thanks!

SarahtheBardess: Actually, we saw a Madison in ELI when Severus returned to the Beauty and the Potions Professor dream. Yes, it was mentioned in a one-shot and was a prank with James that went bad. Hermione's teaching charms. As you now know, the villain is an old one and Draco will be coming in either in the next chapter or the one after that.

Brielle Lupin: Yay!

Cerzee: I have troubles, too, and I created all of them. I had a tough time figuring out how old they were too. And I won't forget Phantom of the Dungeons. According to my hit count, it is very popular.

MyStOrIeS: Hey, my muse would love if this series had about 20 stories. I'm the one calling it at 3. And this is just the first two chapters giving a peek at their lives since ELII left off; this is the chapter where everything starts rolling. I'm not writing him as a stupid, silly man who is a doormat. He's the token goof of the group and this is all playful interactions, nothing malicious.

Roxy Black: Thanks!

Anyway, after this I'm going to pre-order the sixth book. I know, I should've done it months ago, but I didn't have my own credit card then. Besides, I was contemplating going to the Barnes and Nobles party, but I'm not one for large crowds of screaming kids and would end up setting up camp in the fiction section rather than at the party. Oh well…Mac