Disclaimer: Wow. I'm back. *Monty Python-like rejoicing* And my Writer's Block is sorta leaving. *More Monty Python-like rejoicing* And we are doing slightly easy stuff at school, so I'm very refreshed in the brain. *Yet more Monty Python-like rejoicing* I also have decided my ending so that updates might increase if school isn't sucky, which it probably will be... *rejoicing on scales of when they ate Sir Robin's minstrels* Hmmm, so do you think JK ever saw Monty Python and the Holy Grail? Maybe... She's British... Do you think that she'd write a disclaimer for something she wrote? Ha!!!! Got you there!!!!! ^_^ (Any idea what Monty Python had with this disclaimer? Me neither.)

AN: We didn't win Battle of the Bands, but I thank all who voted. You all get any candy bar of your choice!! I also stayed up and only got two hours of sleep because I figured out a way to cheat... I ran out of ISPs tho... Damn small Dial-up companies... Anyway... I am however known as the "Freshman-who-could-and-almost-did". ^_^ Aren't you proud of me? ^_^

AN2: I bet all of you are wondering why I haven't updated... I'm sorry. I've been really stressed out lately. I've been trying to make 3 or 4 different decisions at the same time, mostly about my family, and where I'm gonna live when my parents finally get to the custody part of their divorce. That's kinda brought my grades down, and I had to bring those up, and I've just had absolutely no time to myself lately, and whenever I did, I just sat around with the great feeling of having nothing to do. I'm truly sorry, but I hope I'll be able to update more often soon.

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Random PG-15 remark: When the ancient Roman army won a battle, they celebrated by having this huge victory orgy! They'd get all the women they could find, and if they couldn't find very many, that was OK; anything goes!! Sooooo, when in Rome, do as the Romans do! ^_~ OK... That sounded slightly derogatory... I'm just relaying history... I'm not calling Romans gay... (Tho, did you know that Hercules supposedly had a male lover?) All of this twisted history is courtesy of my twisted friend and twisted English teacher.

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Severus groaned and braced himself as he heard his niece's voice. "Uncy Sevwus!!" she cried again as she jumped on top of him. (Luckily, Shaylee had moved off of him just in time.) "Hey Sera..." he said, out of breath from having 2 females land on him in the span of 5 seconds.

"Serafena Silver Snape! What are you doing?" came an exasperated voice as a tired looking woman, who looked an unnerving amount like Severus, came out of the house, wiping her hands on her apron.

"She's fine, Sissy," Severus said, standing up and holding a laughing Sera. "I've been attacked by her before..."

Severus' sister looked at him accusingly for a moment, then grinned and gave him a hug.

Shaylee stood off to the side, soaking all of this in, noticing that Severus hadn't put up the wall he usually had.

"So bowsie*, are you going to introduce me?" she finally asked when she felt like she wasn't interrupting.

Sissy looked up at her with a grin. "He has no manners, does he?"

Severus glared at her, then turned to Shaylee with a smile. "Sorry. This is my sister, Cecilia, but I call her Sissy. And this is my niece Serafena." He turned to Cecilia. "Where are the boys?"

She sighed. "Inside, up in Sebastien's room. I've been trying to get them to tell me what they're doing, but I've decided that I don't want to know."

"Probably not. Anyway, Sissy, Sera, this is my friend Shaylee."

Cecilia looked at Severus doubtingly. "Mmhmm... Sure."

He glared at her. "We'll talk later," he said to her softly.

Sissy sighed. "Men..."

Shaylee giggled. "See, Sevvy! I told you I'd like her!"

Sissy glared at him. "Did he say that I was an old hag? Because I wouldn't put it past him..."

Shaylee grinned at her. "No. And I don't want to start any family feuds, so let's just forget I said anything."

"Good idea." Cecilia turned to her brother. "She's a smart one, Severus."

Cecilia took Shaylee's arm and led her towards the medium sized, but comfortable looking house while Severus carried Sera in.

"So, Sera, how has 'rino been treating you?" Severus asked his niece as he shut the door behind him.

"Don't ask," Cecilia told him, turning around with a warning glare.

"Uh oh... That doesn't sound good..."

Sissy just shook her head and walked over to a staircase. "Severino! Sebastien! Your Uncle is here!"

There was a pause and then the sound of footsteps on the stairs came down to them. A few short moments later, two black haired blobs ran down the stairs and straight into Severus. He steadied himself using the wall and glanced up at Sissy. "And you wander why I only visit you on the holidays?" Sissy shrugged innocently and took a hold of her daughter who was still being held by Severus.

"Hey Bastien, hey 'rino."

The two boys were still long enough for Shaylee to see them. Frankly, they looked like a younger version of Severus with shorter hair. One of them, Bastien, looked to be about 10, while the other one looked around 7 or 8.

"Hey, Uncle Severus, you wanna come see what we've been making?" the eldest boy said, stepping away with only a very brief hug.

Severus considered this. "I don't know... Is it going to blow up on me?"

The younger one looked up at him seriously. "It shouldn't. We've fixed that problem."

Severus looked at his sister sympathetically. "How about I go see what they've been working on and you can get acquainted with Shaylee."

The boys looked around at the mention of someone else's name. When they saw Shaylee, their nose wrinkled. "Eww! It's a girl..." the younger boy said, disgusted. Sebastien looked like he agreed.

Shaylee grinned at this. At least she didn't have to worry about the children being overly polite freaks.

Severus rolled his eyes. "Don't mind them, Shaylee, they're ju--" "I know, I know," Shaylee interrupted. "I'm related to the Weasleys. I think I know how young boys act."

Severus nodded and took the boys' arms to lead them upstairs.

"Uncle Severus, she's not your girlfriend, is she?"

Shaylee held back a laugh as Severus answered, "Of course not, Sebastien. Does your uncle seem like the kind of guy who'd have one of those?"

Shaylee turned to Cecilia as Severus disappeared upstairs.

"Go ahead and take your coat off and we'll go into the kitchen and get some hot chocolate or tea."

Shaylee paused, but took her coat off and decided that she wasn't going to freeze, as she would be if she was at Hogwarts.

She remembered her hat and tugged it off, letting her hair fall loose from where it had been stacked on top of her head.

Cecilia paused as she saw her hair and sent a doubtful look towards the ceiling.

Shaylee turned back to Sissy to see that Serafena was staring at her curiously. She smiled softly at her. "Hello Sera. My name is Shaylee. How old are you?"

Sera solemnly held up 4 fingers, then buried her face in her mother's shoulder as Shaylee grinned at her.

"Let's go into the kitchen and I'll get us something to warm us up." Cecilia shifted Sera and led Shaylee down a conservatively decorated hallway into a very Muggle-styled kitchen with only a few wizarding appliances.

She sat Sera down on a chair by the small round table and got a kettle off of a shelf.

"So is this your first year teaching, Shaylee?" she asked as she filled the kettle with water.

"Yes. I studied in Egypt for a few years after I graduated, then I decided I wanted to be a teacher."

Cecilia looked up from the kettle momentarily. "So... How old are you?"

Shaylee knew what Sissy was thinking. "I'm twenty-six, but you don't have to worry. There's really nothing going on between your brother and I."

"Oh, no, that's not what I meant... I'm sorry if I seemed a bit..." Sissy stopped as she turned the sink faucet off. "Well, evil, I guess."

Shaylee laughed. "No, that's OK. I'm used to protective relatives."

Sissy set the kettle on a gas stove and turned it on.

"I was just surprised that you were able to start teaching at such a young age. I don't really know much about the wizarding training for teachers, but I was surprised you were teaching already."

"I actually lucked out on that," Shaylee admitted. "I was studying the History of Dark Arts in the Pyramids in Egypt, and Dumbledore needed a teacher, so all I had to do was take a brief summer course for teachers training, and that was all I needed to qualify."

"That sounds interesting. I probably would have stayed in Egypt, instead of working with kids."

Shaylee shrugged. "I'm the youngest child. I've always liked hanging out with younger people. I don't know why. My younger cousins and I are really close, which is perhaps why their grade is so high in my class..."

Sissy giggled. "So, why are you friends with Severus? He's... ancient."

Shaylee laughed. "He's a nice guy. I don't know really... It started out as me trying to annoy him into being fun."

"I bet you had a hard time with that," Cecilia said with a wry grin.

Shaylee was about to say something to defend Severus, but then paused and admitted, "Yeah... I did..."

They both laughed as Sera sat there, calmly playing with the tablecloth.

The kettle started to hiss at them and Cecilia took it off of the stove and started to make the hot chocolate.

"What are we making?" Severus asked, walking into the room.

"Hot chocolate," his sister answered briefly, without turning around.

"May I have s--"

"I already knew you'd ask, Sev."

Shaylee looked up at Severus with her eyes twinkling. He groaned. "Let's not bring out the embarrassing nicknames..."

"Why not?" Sissy teased, setting cups of hot chocolate in front of him and Shaylee. She got out a plastic cup and poured some in it. She reached into her apron pocket to pull out a wand and cool it, then handed it to Sera.

"Don't you dare spill that, Serafena," she warned as she got herself some and sat down.

Sera just nodded and started sipping at her chocolate.

"Where are the boys?" Cecilia asked Severus. "And what in the world are they making up there?"

"That's exactly what they're doing right now, and I'm sworn to secrecy," Severus answered with a mischievous look.

Cecilia rolled her eyes. "You are a total arse, you know that, right?"

Severus smiled at her. "Of course." He lowered his voice. "But don't worry, it isn't dangerous this time..."

Shaylee grinned. She was going to have a lot of fun here.

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"Wow..." Hermione breathed as she entered the Malfoy Manor. The first thing she saw was the grand staircase (Think Beauty and the Beast, Clueless, or the prom's staircase in 10 Things I Hate About You). It had expensive looking wood with gold trimming.

Draco couldn't help but smile. "Hermione, it's a staircase. Really, it's not that great."

Hermione half-glared at her boyfriend. "You're just saying that because you're a spoiled rich kid."

He grinned at her and slid his arm around her waist. "I'll give you the grand tour and then we'll see if we can find mother."

He led her upstairs first. "All of the rooms down that hallway are guest rooms," he said, then led her to the left.

"This is your room," Draco told her, opening a door. The room was full of classical looking furniture, all in a golden color. "It's beautiful," Hermione said, smiling up at Draco and running a hand admiringly over the arm of an elegant looking chair.

"It's the most Gryffindor looking room in the manor. Plus, there's a door to a bathroom that's attached to my room, so we can talk whenever we want. Also..."

He walked across the room to another door. "There's this."

Draco threw the door open and an astonished smile broke out on Hermione's face.

Staring right at her was a huge room of shelves full of books.

"Your family owns all of these?" Hermione said, still just standing there, gazing through the doorway at the multitude of books.

"And that's not all," Draco said, leading her through the door. "There are two levels." He gestured to a staircase that led down to a lower floor with just as many books.

"Oh, this is wonderful, Draco!" Hermione exclaimed, looking around in wonder.

Draco gazed, for a few moments, at Hermione's beaming face. He put his arm around her waist and started to pull her out of the library. "I know how much you want to stay in here, but we'll spend time here later. We need to see the rest of the house first."

Hermione reluctantly stepped out of the library with one last glance towards the shelves.

Most of the rooms in the upper floors were bedrooms or sitting rooms that Draco passed by without displaying, ensuring Hermione that they were terribly boring. They finally found themselves down on the ground floor, where Draco showed her the two dining rooms (one for breakfast, and the other for other meals), which led to the kitchen and the House Elves' Quarters (he was sure she would use that information to sneak away sometime and talk to the elves). He also showed her the indoor Swimming Pool.

After seeing this, Hermione was feeling a lot better about the remainder of vacation.

Draco showed her many other rooms in the house, but Hermione couldn't help noticing a rather large door at the end of the main hallway that Draco didn't mention.

"Mother is probably in the garden. I'm sure you'd enjoy her plants."

Hermione grinned, noticing the way he conveniently added in things that he knew would distract her. She leaned up against him as he led her out of the front door again and started to cut through the grass towards a large greenhouse. "So, what is it that I'm not supposed to be thinking about?"

He looked down at her with a fake glare. "Oh, do shut up, Miss Smarty Pants."

Hermione giggled. "You're starting to talk like me. And, do you normally walk through your lawn? I thought rich people were in love with their grass..."

Draco looked puzzled. "Where in the world did you get that idea?"

Hermione giggled. "Princess Diaries."

"What in Merlin's name is that?"

"Never mind. It's a muggle thing," Hermione dismissed the question as they neared the greenhouse.

"Mother?" Draco called as he opened the door to the garden.

It was a few moments later when a voice came from the back. "Draco, I'm back here."

Draco took Hermione's hand and led her through an aisle of plants where they saw Narcissa Malfoy elegantly holding a pair of pruning shears.

Narcissa looked up from her plant and her face lit up when she saw her son.

"Oh, Draco!" she exclaimed as she peeled off her gloves and set them on a table along with the shears. "It's so wonderful to have you back home again," she said, taking him into a huge hug.

"And this is Hermione Granger, correct?" his mother asked politely, after she was done hugging her son.

"Yes, mother. I'd like you to meet my girlfriend, Hermione. Hermoine, this is Narcissa Malfoy, my mother."

Hermione beamed at her. "It's wonderful to meet you, Mrs. Malfoy."

"No, no. Ca;; me Narcissa, please," Narcissa insisted with a small look of distaste, showing her dislike for her surname.

Hermione smiled her consent and Narcissa turned away momentarily to put away her gardening supplies. When she turned back, she was smiling delicately. "Let's go back to the Manor and sit in the Parlor instead, shall we?"

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bowsie: good-for-nothing person, often used jokingly.

I dunno why I ended it there... But, yeah. I guess I just really wanted to get this out. I really am sorry it took so long. I've been having a hard time. Well, thanks to ALL those who reviewed, and especially to those who took it upon themselves to email me and tell me to get my butt in gear!! ^_^