"Where is everyone?"

Auriga Sinistra looked up at the little man with a vacuous kind of scorn in her eyes.

"How the hell should I know? I was enjoying the silence."

Filius chuckled and after dismissing Sybil and Jack Yerren, the muggle studies teacher as sources of information, looked over at the mountainous bulk that was Hagrid and his fiancé.

"Rubeus, do you know where everybody is?"

"Order biznis. Found 'nother a those mark signals, di'n't they? Gone off 'untin' it down."

"Albus went with them?"

"Yeah! Said he ha'n't bin afore an' he wanted to 'ave a go."

Filius chuckled at the old man's unquellable exuberance. Well, if anyone could handle themselves, it was Albus. He was surprised it had taken him so long to tag along, especially since the Order had relocated its headquarters to the school. The Ministry was against the move, but they had never had any control over Albus or the Order and Albus had the backing of every important wizarding society and council. The children must be kept safe at all costs, they were the future after all and the constant presence of Harry Potter and his cronies, in addition to the coming and going of friendly Aurors certainly ensured that the children were unlikely to follow in shadowy footsteps whilst they were at the school.

The doors of the castle could be heard slamming closed from the Great Hall and everyone looked up as the wanderers scuffled in for dinner. Hagrid was on his feet before the others and Filius clambered up onto his chair to make certain that he was seeing what he thought he was seeing.

The Order members were drifting apart and heading for the table, opening the view of Albus and his companions. At a distance, they could see what appeared to be a family of muggle travellers, a fifty year old dreadlocked hippy, a rainbow coloured grinning medusa and three feral-looking hyperactive children who were shouting about everything they saw. As they drew nearer, the Professors battled internally with paradoxical desires to cry out and surrender to the silence of shock. They quickly recognised their old colleague under the muggle makeover. Sinistra recovered first.

"Severus Snape, you absolute shit. You're supposed to be dead and what in Salazar's name are you wearing? Have you no self respect?"

"Auriga. Good God woman, you haven't changed over the years, have you? Do not swear in front of my children please."

Filius began spluttering with warmth and happiness however, which was somehow just as disconcerting. Jude just grinned at everyone as they expressed surprise at the former Potions Professor's presence.

"Hi! I'm Jude. I'd say Bezoar, but it looks like it's really Snape. I'm Severus' wife."

"Wife? Oh my, and these little ones are yours Severus?"

"Mmm. Livia, Alban and Zinia."

He had Zinia perched on his hip but she was oblivious to the conversation as she leaned back as far as she could in her Daddy's grasp to stare at the ceiling.

"I like magic. Magic's pretty."

Severus tried to make her more upright so that she could see the other Professors. His existence and physical appearance seemed to be enough of a shock as it was without them thinking that his children were rude. Zinia squealed as she caught sight of the little man and then collapsed into giggles.

"Trumpkin!"

Filius looked confused. Severus smirked at his daughter. He was aiming for an admonishing frown but her sheer unadulterated joy was too much for him. There was no way he was going to be able to deliver the personality that they were all expecting, so he just smiled at his daughter and kissed her head. Alban jumped in with the explanation.

"Trumpkin's from Narnia. He's a dwarf. He goes on this adventure with Lucy and Edmund, kind of like a Norse Saga but with talking animals and stuff. There's this mouse called Reepicheep and he's like this wicked little pirate. I mean good wicked not bad wicked and…"

"Alright Alban. Perhaps you could lend Mr..?"

"Flitwick. Filius Flitwick."

"Perhaps you could lend Mr. Flitwick the book once we have gotten settled in. I'm sure he's not following you."

"Oh, it's quite alright. It was obviously meant kindly and I'm rather intrigued now. I'm not a dwarf though, young man. I'm human, but I have a bit of goblin in me too. which is why I'm so little."

"Goblin? Goblins are real? That is so cool. What else is there? Are there Centaurs? Unicorns? Basilisks? Chimera? Sphinx's? What about Dragons? Oh, please tell me that there are dragons."

"Good Lord Severus, what have you been teaching your young boy?"

"Nothing. Nor would I have if the blasted death eaters hadn't turned up. And it's Sebastian now, it has been for fourteen years."

"I think you're going to have to give that one up honey. There's only me here that has ever called you Sebastian and I get the feeling that that won't change. I can handle Severus."

Severus grunted and sat down at the table, suspiciously eying the food as though it would jump up and bite him. Zinia climbed onto his knee and grabbed some pumpkin juice.

"Punkin."

Alban crawled under the long table and sat next his father, watching with wide eyes as the table filled up with all kinds of goodies. Albus quickly claimed a place next to the children. He wanted to get to know Severus' children but he had also noticed that the house elves were sending amusingly shaped food and tempting treats to the area around the children. He picked up a dragon shaped pastie and bit its head off before putting it on his plate. Alban giggled and copied the old man, staring intently at him to see what he would do next.

"What's your name?"

"My name is Albus Dumbledore."

"That sounds almost the same as mine, I'm Alban Bezoar. They start and end with the same sound, like double rhyming."

"So they do."

"Alban was a pagan who saved a Christian priest. They didn't agree or anything but Alban didn't think he should die just because he believed something different. In the end he put the Christian guy's cloak on and died in his place, so that he could get away. I think he was stupid, but nice. I'd like to think I could be that brave, but I wouldn't be that stupid. I'd try to run away with him or kickbox them all to pieces. They couldn't stand up to the mighty power of the dragon, a bit of Bruce Lee and HI-YA, pile of bleeding bigots. That's who I'm named after."

Severus smiled and leaned down towards his son.

"Actually it's Albus who was named after Alban of Verulamium. The man you were named for is sitting right next to you."

Alban and Albus turned twin amazed stares towards him, before Alban burst out laughing.

"That is SO wicked. I'm named after Gandalf."

Albus looked confused.

"Gandalf?"

"From Lord of the Rings, it's my favourite book, well four books. Gandalf was a wizard in Middle Earth. He had long white hair and a long white beard and he went off and made this little hobbit leave his home. Hobbits don't like leaving their homes. Then they went on this big adventure with an evil dragon and he got a magic ring from Gollum, whose name is really Smeagol, he was a murderer but he was good in the end. Anyway, years later, Gandalf went back and got the hobbit's nephew, who now had the ring and told him that he was some kind of chosen one, like a messiah and that he had to go on an even bigger adventure than his uncle and he ended up fighting a really evil Dark wizard called Saruman who wanted to take over middle earth and kill off all the races that he didn't like. But the new hobbit, Frodo, fulfilled his destiny and stopped him, with the help of some wicked friends but not before Saruman killed Gandalf. The really really cool thing is that Gandalf was just too cool and important to just die like that, so he came back to life and carried on as before. He led a battle charge and everything."

Alban collapsed into a fit of giggles and slapped the table.

"Daddy said that we didn't have a Granddad from him, but he got my name from someone who he thought of like a Daddy. If my name came from you, then that makes you like a Granddad…"

Zinia interrupted, pulling on Albus' beard and cooing "Granddad, granddad."

"Granddad Gandalf."

Alban collapsed into a fit of giggles that he couldn't recover from and Jude ended up slapping him on the back and trying to get him to take a drink of pumpkin juice as Zinia just chanted "Granddad, granddad" over and over again as she tried to get closer to Albus. Severus tried to untangle child from beard and calm the chaos. Livia quietly sat and ate, watching as everyone stared at the little boy. She noticed that the man with messy hair was staring intently with a look of amazement; she wondered why Lord of the Rings made him look so surprised, the basic story was pretty much all over the place, every fantasy novel that ever existed was the same and most religions too.

Livia was a little cross. She knew that Mummy had noticed because she had squeezed her hand and smiled at her, the kind of smile that begs you to play nicely with the gross and horrible kids just for today because it would be polite and it wasn't for long. It didn't make things better but you knew that she would be proud of you if you could carry it off. She tried not to think about magic yet. It was everywhere and she could see that there was no way to argue with its existence, it was irrefutable and obvious. But the fact that her Daddy had lied to her took priority. No secrets Daddy. Daddy who explained grown up things to them properly. Daddy who had never said that the sun was going to bed when they could make models of the solar system instead. Daddy who never fobbed them off with the excuses that their friends got fed, who never made them do something 'because he said so' and who explained their punishments because it was best to understand why something was happening and what it was supposed to achieve. Daddy, who defined her universe, had lied. She hadn't even known his real name and it was quite a cool name, like the Roman governor of England. What else was there? The soldiers, the men had said that they were after Daddy, they were bad guys and he'd fought them in some war. She should have been told that Daddy had been in a war. Was he a hero?

She slid into Mummy's seat while she was helping Alban to stop laughing and choking. Zinia had climbed in the old man's lap and was hugging him and burying herself in his beard. Livia put her hand on top of her Dad's and squeezed. He looked down into her sad and confused face and immediately pushed his chair back, pulling her up onto his knee.

"Liv, I know that you are confused and upset but I didn't do this to upset you. You're upset because you think I lied aren't you?"

Livia nodded and sucked in her bottom lip, trying with all her might not to cry. She buried her head in her Dad's shoulder and sniffed. Alban and Jude and just about everyone else at the table, were now listening to Severus talking to his daughter. Father and daughter didn't notice though, their focus was tightly restricted to each other.

"Livia, my Princess, I had a horrible time fighting a very big war. It was a bit like Alban's book about the rings but much more horrible. A lot of people died and I had to help kill a very bad man. It's not nice having to hurt people, even if they are bad and it hurt me inside. It made me very sad, like I could never be happy again and I wanted to be happy again. I had to get away from the places that reminded me of it all and I couldn't start a new life with my old name, the bad people would have found me like they did today. So I chose a new name. I promise that I have never lied to you. I changed my name, it is my name. If I have to change it back, then so be it, but I didn't lie. I have left out a lot of things because I wanted you to grow up safe and happy without feeling sad about all the horrible things that I knew were in the world. I know that this is a big shock and you don't know how to feel, but I am here and your Mummy and brother and sister are here and we are all safe and that is all that matters. I'm sorry that I've made you sad, I love you very much. Will you forgive me?"

Livia nodded as she let out a sob and snuggled deeper into her Daddy's arms. Severus held her tight, cheek to cheek, as though trying to fuse their souls together with the sheer force of love. A sniffle signalled the end of the emotional bungee-jump.

"Can you mend your wand?"

"No darling; a broken wand doesn't work properly. It's probably been thrown away anyway. I could get a new one, but I shall have to think about that. It's been a long time since I did any magic; I'm not sure that I want to."

"Well if you get a new one, you should turn everyone into frogs because they're all watching us and STARING IS RUDE AND SO IS LISTENING TO PRIVATE CONVERSATIONS."

She glared at the Hogwarts staff. Severus took her chin between finger and thumb and turned her back to face him.

"So is shouting at people whom you have only just met, who are helping and looking after us. It is rude to eavesdrop and to stare but being rude in return doesn't help does it?"

"Sorry."

"It's alright. It's been a hard day. What say we go and have a look at where we are sleeping tonight? Albus, is there somewhere that I can get the children settled?"

"Oh yes, of course. There is a suite of rooms on the third floor that should be large enough."

"The Zozimus Suite?"

"Yes, do you remember where it is? I could…"

"I remember."