April 1981

Delacour Manor

In the guest bedroom, Eileen stretched on the bed, her eyes still closed, as she just enjoyed those precious minutes in the early morning when her grandsons were still asleep and the house was quiet.

She loved those two little boys more than anything in the world, but they were a handful; after a day of running after them, feeding them, playing, giving snacks, playing some more, and finally putting them to bed, all she wanted was some hours of silence.

Sometimes Eileen couldn't believe how much her life had changed over the years; a decade ago she was a single mom, with a shy and brilliant son, and struggling to keep a roof over their heads and food on the table.

But ten years later, her beloved son had worked hard to make sure she had a very comfortable life, she worked at her dream job, had met Florence, her dear goddaughter, who had given her two amazing grandsons.

There was only one thing that could make Eileen's life perfect: her son's happiness.

Severus's place was in that house, with his sons and the woman he loved; his absence in their lives was obvious.

Yes, the twins adored Sirius Black, but he was just a big child, he was a playmate, not a father figure; Severus's love and guidance would make a huge impact in the twins' lives.

And Florence, she needed Severus just as much, she missed him, she worried about him.

She was an amazing mum, a bright and strong witch, but keeping secrets to protect Severus and the kids was taking its toll on her.

Eileen often feared for her goddaughter, she wondered what would happen to Florence if Severus ended up getting himself killed. As his mother, Eileen would certainly suffer, but she knew his death would crush Florence.

Letting out a heavy sigh, she got out of bed, trying to shake off those gloomy thoughts, focusing on getting up to start another happy day with her grandsons.

It was a Saturday, so that meant a whole day at home with them.

She changed her clothes and went looking for her two sweet angels.

But the boys were not in their own beds, so Eileen walked to Florence's bedroom and, there they were, one boy on either side of Florence, all three of them sleeping.

A smile took over Eileen's face, her heart filled with love for those kids and the special young woman on the bed.

She quietly closed the door and went downstairs to the kitchen to ask Tiffany to serve breakfast for them in Florence's room.

As Tiffany and Melody finished organizing the breakfast table in the bedroom, Florence moved on the bed, slowly waking up.

"Good morning, Eileen," she said with a yawn, sitting up on the bed.

"Good morning, dear," Eileen sat close to her and kissed her cheek; then she looked at the twins, "Can you tell them apart when they're sleeping?" she asked, caressing one of the boys' dark hair.

"Yes. This one is Jamie," said Florence, touching the boy on her right.

"How can you tell?"

"James has the stronger personality of the two of them but he's a lot more insecure than his brother. He always sleeps holding my arm or a pillow," she touched the other boy, "Nick, on the other hand, always sleeps like that, on his back, arms and legs spread out, not a care in the world," she chuckled.

"Jamie is a lot like my Severus," Eileen murmured, a sad smile on her face.

"I know..." Florence whispered, touching her necklace, something she did many times during the day, "And he can certainly be as stubborn as his father," she smiled.

"You miss him, don't you?"

"Every day," Florence said, looking at her kids, "I look at the boys and... I see him. I love your son, godmother. And I love him even more when I look at what that love gave us; these boys are everything to me."

"They asked me about their dad yesterday."

"Really?" Florence looked at her, "I was wondering when they would start asking about him. What did you say?"

"I told them to ask you."

"I'll have to think about what I'll tell them," Florence paused, "I don't want to lie to them."

She caressed Nick's head and felt James stirring on her right; and soon a pair of sleepy dark eyes was blinking up at her.

"Mummy..." he murmured, throwing his arms around her belly.

"Did you sleep well, love?" Florence asked, caressing his back.

"Mm-hm," he nodded, rubbing his eyes. Then he saw that there was another person on the bed, "Grandma!" he exclaimed, throwing himself in Eileen's arms.

"Good morning, handsome," Eileen said, kissing his cheek.

Florence caressed Nicholas' back, trying to wake him up, "Wakey, wakey, my love."

Nick stirred very similarly to his brother and sat up, leaning towards Florence, "Good morning, mummy..." the boy said, hugging her and almost falling asleep again.

"Hey, look, breakfast is here already! Is that bacon I smell?" Florence said, knowing that mentioning bacon would have the boys jumping out of bed in a second.

"Will you be going to St. Mungus today, Flor?" asked Eileen while they were enjoying breakfast together; Nicholas sitting on his mother's lap and James on his grandma's.

"Yes. Saturday and Sunday have become very busy days at the hospital, unfortunately," Florence replied with a heavy sigh, knowing that the increased need of hospital care meant that the war was getting worse.

"I was thinking about taking these two to the playground this morning. Is that ok?"

The boys looked at their mother expectantly, loving the idea of going to the playground.

"Sure. Just be careful when walking with them here in Hogsmeade, just in case Hogwarts brings its students to the village," she wanted to avoid comments on how similar the twins looked to the school Potions Master.

"If I see any students, we'll come home running!" said Eileen, tickling James, who laughed.

"And tonight, we will go visit baby Harry," added Florence.

"Yes! I like baby Harry!" exclaimed Nicholas.

"Noo! Harry is boring," complained James.

"No, he's not!" said Nicholas.

"Is too! The only thing he can do is cry," said James, grumpily.

Eileen was trying hard not to laugh. James's unhappy face was just too adorable.

"Jamie, we'll be going to visit Aunt Lily tonight and you will behave properly!" said Florence firmly, "I will see if Padfoot can go."

"Yeah!" shouted James, "Now I go!"

Nicholas clapped, showing he was as happy as his brother, but his mouth was full of cake.

"So," Eileen continued: "After the playground, I was thinking of taking them for lunch at that muggle-style fast-food restaurant that opened last week here in Hogsmeade."

"Oh, you mean the McDonald's?" said Florence, "Yes, you can have lunch there."

"Yes!" exclaimed the boys.

After breakfast, Florence left the house to go to St. Mungus, and Eileen helped the boys change to go to the main square playground.

As she walked with them down the streets of Hogsmeade, she noticed how many people greeted the boys.

They waved and said hello to everybody, their charisma charming everyone that glanced at them.

And once again she thought of her son; she could see the big Hogwarts Castle in the horizon.

Severus is but a short Floo trip away from his beautiful sons; he could be spending the weekend home with them; Florence would be so happy to have him with her... and Eileen knew he'd be the happiest man alive to be able to call her his wife.

They reached the playground and the twins ran to the swings while Eileen sat on a nearby bench, opening a book she'd taken with her, while she watched them play.

About an hour later, she noticed there was someone standing by her bench, looking at her grandsons.

It was a young woman and she looked at Eileen, smiling, "Hi. I don't believe we've met," she sat on the bench, uninvited, "I'm Cassie."

"Oh. Right," Eileen smiled politely, "I've heard about you. You're my son's girlfriend."

"Fiancée, actually," she reached out her right hand towards Eileen, showing her engagement ring, "And you're his mother, Eileen."

"Yes. Pleasure meeting you," she forced herself to reply.

"Those are Delacour's kids, right?" Rosmerta looked at the boys that were sliding down the tube slide.

"Yes, they are," Eileen frowned, not liking the way the woman's eyes showed a hint of malice.

"Sirius Black is their father, isn't he?" Rosmerta asked, her eyes never leaving them.

"Yes," confirmed Eileen.

Then Rosmerta turned to look at her, "It's so generous of you to help Delacour with them. Considering that they aren't actually your grandsons."

"Well, Florence doesn't have any family around here. And I love them as if they were mine."

"Right," Rosmerta nodded, adding: "They are very cute."

"I think so too."

Unexpectedly, Rosmerta touched her arm, saying: "But don't you worry, soon you'll have grandkids of your own. Sev and I-"

Eileen interrupted her, "I'm not worried, dear. I have all the grandkids I want," then she stood up, calling the boys to get cleaned up to go have lunch.

At Hogsmeade's McDonald's

As always, the small McDonald's in the village was crowded. The wizarding community absolutely loved to eat at a restaurant where everything was done by hands and machines: no magic involved! And the hamburgers were tasty!

Eileen walked in with the twins and found a booth by the window to sit with them.

She read the menu and was glad to see that it was enchanted, so she was able to place their orders right there with her wand, without having to leave the boys alone at the table.

While they waited for their food to arrive, Eileen listened to her grandsons discussing some new cartoon they'd watched, when suddenly she recognized someone.

Severus.

He was there, but he wasn't alone.

Eileen saw Rosmerta pointing at her, showing him where she was with the kids, and Eileen quickly realised the game that woman was trying to play.

Severus looked at where Rosmerta insisted that his mother was and then he saw her and walked towards her,

"Hi, mother," he looked at the boys, noticing their hair looked messy that day, wavier, like Florence's, not as straight as he remembered. Then he pointed at the green-eyed boy, "You're Nicholas," next he pointed at the dark-eyed one, "And you're James."

"Yes! You got it right!" shouted Nick.

James just smiled up at Severus.

"Since when do you enjoy fast-food, Severus?" Eileen asked, trying to divert his attention from the kids.

"Well, I don't love this place, but once in a while it's nice to eat out."

"Hello again, Eileen," said Rosmerta, looking from Severus to the kids, her eyes showing she had seen something and she had plans for that information.

"If I were prone to fears, I'd say you're following us, Cassiopeia," Eileen replied, letting the woman know she was on to her.

Severus frowned at his mother's strange comment, but before he could say anything about that, the food arrived for Eileen and the boys, so he just said: "We'll let you eat. Excuse us," and he walked away with Rosmerta.

Eileen took a deep breath, noticing the way the twins looked at one another – and she knew they were talking through the mind-connection that she and Florence suspected they had.

Then James spoke: "We don't like your son's girlfriend, grandma."

She smiled and replied: "Neither do I, my loves. Neither do I."

At St. Mungus

Florence looked at the clock, it showed it was almost five-thirty – almost time to go home to her two little trouble-makers.

She smiled, thinking how lucky she was to always have the day shift, for she could go home to her kids with enough time to play with them, have dinner together, and put them to bed.

"Delacour," she heard someone calling her name as she was leaving the infirmary in the seventh floor.

It was Healer Lancelot, from the third floor.

"Hi. What brings you up here?" she asked, walking towards him.

"I have a patient downstairs, in room thirty-four, that wants to be seen by you."

She frowned, "Do you know their name?"

"Sorry, I didn't get it."

She nodded, "Ok. I'll be going there right away," and she walked to the elevator, curious of who it could be.

She reached the third floor and went into the mentioned room.

"Hello, I'm Mediwitch Delacour," she said as she opened the door, "You asked for me?" she closed the door and the patient turned to face her, "Cassiopeia? What are you doing here?" for a moment Florence feared that something had happened to Severus.

Rosmerta smiled wickedly, "I must congratulate you, Delacour. You played your cards just right. I doff my hat to you."

Florence crossed her arms and sighed, "Look, I have people dying here, Cassiopeia. Get to the point."

"When you got pregnant, Black was exactly where you needed him to be. Just a dumb guy with a lot of money – the only heir to a fortune, after his brother died!"

"I have absolutely no idea what you're talking about," Florence said, although she was starting to understand what could be happening there.

Rosmerta's smile turned malicious, "Really? No idea? Well, let me make it clear to you: you were seventeen and pregnant, Severus was poor at the time and Sirius was loaded. So you just named the father and Black was dumb enough to believe you," Rosmerta chuckled. "But I'm on to you now," She got close to Florence, "You'd better start writing a check before I tell Sirius everything. And Severus? He'll hate you! He'll finally see you for the little gold-digger slut that you truly are! I bet that's what your mother did to have left you a fortune: she tricked a dumb rich dude to register her bastard daughter as his. Is that the family business?"

Florence fisted her hands on her sides, itching to show the woman in front of her a taste of what was her father's family business.

"C'mon. We are both adults here," continued Rosmerta, "I want ten thousand galleons. Just to start. When I feel like revealing your little secret again, I'll let you know how much I'll be charging for my silence then."

Florence sighed, already knowing what she'd have to do, but she needed to catch her distracted, "How can I be sure you haven't told anyone already?" she asked.

"I haven't. I'm not dumb," replied Rosmerta, contemptuously.

Florence tried to keep a scared face, patting her pockets as if searching for her check book.

Rosmerta walked around the exam room, "I can't believe Severus doesn't see that they're his sons," she laughed, "Maybe I should borrow a page from your book and get knocked up by some random guy and tell him it's his," Rosmerta looked out the window, and Florence took advantage of that moment, pointing her wand to Rosmerta's back, whispering: "Obliviate."

And when she was sure she had complete access to the woman's mind, she erased any and all conclusions Rosmerta had ever had about her sons.

She moved her wand in intricate patterns, making it possible for Rosmerta to remember seeing the twins, for they lived in the same village as her, so it would be suspicious if she didn't remember them at all – however the woman wouldn't show any interest in them anymore.

It took Florence about five minutes to finish casting such a detailed memory charm, and when she was done, she stopped right in front of Rosmerta and cast: "Imperio. You haven't seen me today. You came to St. Mungus for you had a migraine. Healer Lancelot is the one who helped you. Now you'll go home and rest until tomorrow morning."

Rosmerta just nodded, smiling on her way to the lift.

Florence fell onto a chair, feeling exhausted after a long day of work and for having to cast such a long and complicated memory charm, with an unforgivable curse on top of it.

She knew she had done it all perfectly, but part of her wished she had made a mistake and given Rosmerta some permanent brain damage.