Brendan must not have told his mother about his father's threats after all or at least she never confronted him about it. She came to pick them up as planned the next morning. Slightly intoxicated, having obviously made the most of her child free night with Snape having to break out the green sludge again before he felt comfortable in handing the children over to her but then they left and they didn't see or hear from them again until the following week when they came to stay Sunday night to help celebrate the twin's birthday the following day.
Lily and Evan's party, being a more intimate gathering of the family and just a few close friends: their godparents, Hermione, Pansy Parkinson and the Malfoys, seemed a little anticlimactic after the extravagance of Harry's Ball but it was enjoyable all the same.
Harry couldn't understand why Pansy or the Malfoys had to be invited. According to the twins they had never came before but their father seemed to have his reasons even if he didn't care to explain them. Secretly though Harry suspected it was something to do with a fear of finding himself outnumbered by Gryfindors again because even with the Weasley's still in Egypt there were still four lions: him and Hermione and Professors McGonagall and Dumbledore and without the Malfoys, and Pansy as Draco's guest there would have only been three Slytherins.
In the end though they had actually been far more tolerable than he had expected and their presence did seem to have the added benefit of keeping Morgana and Brendan's behaviour in check. Harry hadn't had to spend much time with them anyways, preferring the company of Mr Slughorn and his enthralling stories of his parent's youth. In fact if anyone was responsible for putting a dampener on the day's festivities it wasn't the Malfoys or even Morgana but rather Professor Dumbledore who had seemingly decided that his Godson's birthday made for as good an opportunity as any to impart some bad news on his father.
Snape was livid; from what Harry could make out it seemed to be something about the new Defence Professor which of course would have piqued his interest even if his father's anger hadn't, but after a rather steely request from his father to discuss the matter later in private, the subject was swiftly changed and then almost immediately forgotten about when the headmaster reached into his robes and fished out six heavy envelopes containing the students Hogwarts letters.
They took them from him eagerly, tearing them open immediately.
"How did you know I would be here?" asked Malfoy as he skimmed through his.
"You should understand my dear boy that there is very little I don't know." the Headmaster replied seriously eyes twinkling mischievously as he glanced across at Malfoy senior, smiling
Harry smirked as Lucius Malfoy shifted somewhat uncomfortably; at least Dumbledore could remembered Malfoy's involvement in the opening of the chamber of secrets even if his father seemingly could not but then the smirk changed to grin as Draco excitedly thrust a permission slip into his father's hand, reminding Harry that third years were permitted to leave the school at certain weekends and visit Hogsmeade, the only all wizarding village in Britain.
His own father smiled at him and then reached out to see the letter, skimming over the book list with a frown, clearly unimpressed with it.
"At least there are no Lockhart books on it this time." Harry offered in consolation.
Severus gave a slight murmur of agreement. "Well I suppose you couldn't get much worse than that blundering fop." He muttered darkly handing Harry back his letter as Pansy who seemed to find this hilarious cackled like a banshee.
Harry and the twins had been hoping that Hermione might be permitted to stay over again after the party but their father said her parents wanted her home and had asked Professor McGonagall to apparate back with her just after Morgana and the Malfoys left.
He seemed to think Hermione's parents would be grateful for the opportunity to meet her Head of House which Harry certainly couldn't refute. He knew the Grangers were struggling with being so removed from their daughter's life at Hogwarts but he couldn't help but think it was also a ploy to ensure she wasn't around to follow him and Dumbledore into his study to discuss whatever it was that had upset his father earlier.
Curious to know what it was they were discussing that was so private Harry and the twins had crept into the room next door once the others left where Harry had tried to introduce them to the old muggle glass trick for listening through walls. Either his father had had privacy charms up though or else the walls of the manor were just too thick because they could hear a thing.
Whatever it was it couldn't be too bad anyways because their father still seemed to be in a decent enough mood after, even promising them a trip to Diagon Alley in the morning to purchase their school supplies.
Harry would never forget his first trip to Diagon Alley two years ago to get his school supplies with Hagrid. Back then he thought he was an unwanted orphan with absolutely nothing to his name but then Hagrid had appeared the night of his 11th birthday to tell him he was a wizard and then took him to the wizarding shopping precinct to buy a trunk full of magical school supplies.
From the moment Hagrid had tapped on the brick wall in the back alley of a seemingly innocuous old pub to open the entrance he had been completely in awed. It was such a fantastical place: Gringotts with its vaults full of goblins and gold, Olivanders wand shop where it's the wand that choses you, all the bookshops and the apothecaries, everywhere filled to the rafters with the most curious of wares, and especially the flying broomsticks. The excitement he had felt that day was one thing he always thought that muggle raised wizards had over the likes of Ron and Malfoy but now looking at his brother and sister he knew that it was the same for everyone. Lily and Evan had been to Diagon Alley before but it was going to be different this time, they would be getting a wand of their very own and everything else they might want or need for their first year away at school. They probably wouldn't sleep a wink.
True to his word their father took them shopping the following morning, first going to Gringotts to remove a large pile of gold from the family vault and then on to Olivanders to try out some wands.
"What's your wand made of?" Harry asked his father, suddenly realising he didn't know, as they crossed the cobbled street towards the shop.
"Mahogany with a dragon heartstring core."
"Same as James?" Harry remarked in surprise recalling what Mr Olivander had told him about his parents wands the day he had been in getting his own but when the tinkling of the bell above the door brought the man himself out to the counter to greet them Harry realised he hadn't been talking about James' wand at all.
How on earth had he known he wondered as he watched him take the necessary measurements of the twins wand arms and jot down a few notes.
He matched a wand to Evan on the attempt – Willow, 11 inches, unicorn tail feather, yielding; he had barely touched it when the room filled with a heavenly glow of light but Lily had taken a little longer. She wasn't as difficult to match as Harry had been but she did cause a sizable explosion when a particularly unsuitable one turned volatile when thrust into her hand to try but after a couple of less than satisfactory offers Mr Olivander produced another willow wand, 11 inches long just like Evan's but more unyielding and with a core of dragon heartstring like their fathers which bonded with her immediately.
Olivander shared some kind of knowing look with their father but he didn't say anything, just smiled and wished them good luck as Snape rather hurriedly counted out some galleons and placed them down on the counter before bidding him a good day and steering them back out onto the street.
It was probably a mistake to get the wands so early in the day. He wanted them to go to Madame Malkins next to get fitted for their school robes but they could hardly stand still and kept shoving their hands into their cloaks to check to make sure their new wands were still there making the fitting process somewhat difficult and resulting in both twins getting stabbed with the needle a couple of times.
Severus sighed in frustration and was just about to threaten to take them back when the sales witch finally announced she was done and gestured for them to step down while she went off to ring everything up and when they were finally done there they went to Flourish and Blotts for their books and then on to the cauldron shop and the apothecary where he taught them how to pick out the best equipment and ingredients before finally returning to the Leaky Cauldron for a spot of Lunch.
They talked animatedly the whole time they were eating and when they were done Severus surprised them by presenting each of them a handful of gold and instructing them to go off without him to get whatever sweets and contraband from Gambol and Japes they felt they needed without him. Stating that if they were insistent on wasting money to rot their teeth and upset Mr Filch he would rather not know about it.
Harry grinned wildly. Who would have thought Professor Snape, the seriously strict Head of Slytherin House and snarkiest of dungeon bats would be okay with his children smuggling joke products into the school as long as they left him with plausible deniability.
They met up with him again an hour later, each of them carrying a couple of large parcels wrapped in brown paper.
Severus eyed them warily but said nothing. He didn't want to deny his children the same school experiences as all the other students just because he worked there but he knew he was definitely better off not knowing what was in the packages.
"Whatever those are I want them to stay wrapped until you get to school." He said warningly before taking them home.
