A/N: Good Lord, it's been a very, very long time since I've written on this story. If there's anyone still reading this, I'm going to try to update as much as I can, okay? No guarantees.

Disclaimer: Write J.K. and tell her to e-mail me the rights, okay? Until then, it's not mine.

Chapter 5: Weasley House for the Criminally Insane

Severus watched the girl intently for another few minutes before standing and sweeping away from her, refusing to think about the things he'd just discovered in relation to her. He could tell right now that she was full of mysteries, and if there was anything Severus Snape hated, it was something he couldn't figure out. He wasn't even sure that she knew everything about herself, let alone anyone else. He mentally shook his head as he left the kitchen, turning toward the staircase.

He was startled to see a dark head sitting on the stairwell. The girl didn't notice him at first, and he spent a quarter of a second glancing at her, wondering if her hair seemed coarser than before. Then he coughed. She jumped, clutching the railing for support, and Severus realized that her hair was the same, it was just the low light.

"Eavesdropping, Miss Potter?"

"Good Lord, Severus, don't do that!" She exclaimed, gasping for breath. "I could have attacked you!"

Severus surveyed the small girl whose stature obviously took more after her mother than her father. She was petite, no more than five-foot, and delicate looking. "I do not believe I gave you leave to use my given name, Miss Potter."

She flushed and bowed her head. "Sorry, Sir."

He nodded briskly and moved to leave, but she called him back. He wasn't quite sure why he stopped and listened. There was something familiar about this girl, but he couldn't pinpoint what. He wasn't quite sure he wanted to think on it. "Sir, why did you allow Dumbledore to take out the memories?"

He paused, wondering on the sadness in her voice. "Miss Potter, that is a topic between the Headmaster and myself. I see it as a matter of no consequence to you."

She shook her head. "You would."

Severus's head snapped back. He was unaccustomed to dealing with people to begin with, after spending so long in prison, but this sort of frankness from a child was something he wasn't sure how to deal with at all. Normally, it would be done with nastiness and detention, but something told him that he was at liberty to do neither in the home. Somehow, he didn't think that she would respond to snark in quite the way he could hope for.

"How old are you, Miss Potter?"

She seemed taken aback by the question, and paused for a moment to think on it. "Fourteen. Why?"

He held his tongue at the lack of the 'Sir' in her answer, and focused on the conversation. "Are you aware that I am nearly four times your age? If I say a matter is of no consequence, then it is such."

She stood up and looked him in the eye, and he saw the remnants of a temper similar to her mother's side of the family. "Do not assume because I am young, I am stupid. In my fourteen years of life, I have seen more war than a fifty year old should, Master Snape. I have dealt with death of multiple people simply in the past few months. I have invested as much in this war as full-fledged member of the Order, and will continue to do so no matter how hard you resist it. I have been face-to-face with Death Eaters and Voldemort himself more times than I care to count. My position in life, who I'm friends with, who I come from, that all puts me in a danger spot. I am quite aware of matters that should not concern me. I am very familiar with matters that should not concern me. I live for matters that should not concern me. So you can take your false concerns, Master Snape, and shove them up your arse!"

She whirled around and stomped up stairs, leaving a puzzled Snape behind.

"What the hell was that?" A voice asked from the doorway to the kitchen.

Severus turned and saw the Weasley girl standing there, eating more cranberries. She leaned against the doorway, looking extremely concerned with the sudden retreat of her cousin. "What the hell did you say? You made her channel Mum again."

"Is there something in the water in this house that causes random mood swings and personality changes?" Severus mused out loud, slightly shaken by the day, possibly one of the most active and chaotic days of his life.

"It's called hormones. All females have them. Get used to it now, Snape," Potter said, walking into the room and grabbing the bag of cranberries from Weasley's hands. "You've had enough. You'll spoil your supper and get sick. Remember last time?"

Weasley rolled her eyes and grabbed another handful of berries from the bag before waving him off. "It's Linnea's turn to cook. I may as well ruin my supper."

He swatted her and started to turn toward the kitchen, but Severus didn't miss the small concerned look Potter cast up the staircase. "Why don't you go talk to her, Dia?"

Weasley popped another berry into her mouth and shook her head. "She'll just snap at me like she always does. She hates me, Uncle Harry."

Potter shook his head. "She doesn't hate you, Dia. She's just worried about you."

"Why the hell should she worry about me? She's fourteen!"

"Watch your language. And it's because she cares about you." Potter ushered them into the kitchen, and Severus reluctantly followed after, his normal personality slightly repressed by the whirlwind he'd experienced lately.

"She doesn't care at all, Harry. I could jump off a bridge and she'd just move into my room. With all those random experiments she does, she's relish the space."

"She would not! She's your cousin."

Weasley made a random noise in the back of her throat, and turned toward the stove, turning the knobs and slamming the pots onto the top. Her random bad mood confused Severus, and he watched as she used her wand to fill the pots with water and summoned potatoes, beef and random vegetables from the garden. She put them in the sink and flicked her wand, and a scrub brush zoomed forward, clearing the dirt from the vegetables. She put her wand on the counter and turned around.

"I thought it was Linnea's turn to make dinner?" Potter asked, his arms crossed over his chest and his eyebrow raised in amusement.

"I want to eat real food tonight."

"Oh, her cooking hasn't been so bad lately." Potter's voice was light, but Severus thought he caught some undertone to it, almost regretful of what he'd just said.

"Maybe she's finally growing up. But at least before she'd talk to me." Severus nearly rolled his eyes at the girl's sentiment, and may have if he were any less composed or in any other company than that of the Potter Home.

Potter finally turned and faced Severus. "What did you say to her anyway, Snape?"

Snape sneered. "Nothing warranting that response. The girl is positively unhinged."

"She seems to have something against you." Aradia slammed the meat into the pan, covered it with the lid and waved her wand. Lifting the lid, she looked at the thick broth and used her wand to throw in everything else. Then she turned to face Severus. "Seriously. What did you do to her?"

"I've done nothing to that girl!"

Potter, in the middle of taking a large gulp of tea, spluttered loudly. "Sorry," he said, noticing the looks he received.

"Maybe you should go talk to her." Weasley didn't look at either one of the men, too busy seasoning the stew. Severus turned his gaze to Potter, who simply shrugged and nodded his head upstairs. Severus chose to ignore him.

"Harry, make a salad."

"What happened to Uncle Harry, kid?" Potter asked, looking at his niece in amusement.

"Well, technically—" she began, and then blushed, turning back to the stove. "Make the damn salad, dude."

"We have got to keep you away from the television." Potter shook his head and began to gather the stuff with the salad by hand. "And stop using your wand."

Weasley rolled her eyes. "Are you going to turn me in? How about you, Master Snape? You going to rush off and tell the big bad old Aurors on me?" She turned back to the stove and levitated a ladle, wandlessly, over to the pot and began ladling out soup into bowls that flew out of the cupboard as needed. "Happy? No wand."

Severus could tell that Potter more than had his hands full with these two girls who seemed far to independent and angry to be teenagers. Potter swatted Weasley with a pot holder and gestured toward the ceiling. "Get Linnea."

Weasley turned her head around and screamed up the stairs, "Linnea, get your fat arse down here now!" Potter gave her a look and she rolled her eyes. "Fine," she grumbled as she left the kitchen.

"She's not as immature as she seems. Somehow, Linnea brings out the worst in her. Always has."

"She seemed a lot different in court today."

"She takes work very seriously." Potter said with a shrug. "Always has. Just like her mother. But she has Ron's ability to have fun and scream. Although Hermione wasn't one for courtesy toward your ear drums either."

"She doesn't look much like a Weasley."

Potter froze in the process of making the salad, and then continued on as if nothing happened. "No, she doesn't. But then again, neither does Linnea. Hermione must have just been too strong for Ron."

Severus hesitated for a minute, wondering if there was any purpose in getting involved, before turning on Potter. "There's something you're not saying, Potter. There is something odd about every one of the members of this makeshift family of yours."

"It's nothing you need to worry about, Snape."

"If I'm going to be forced to spend Merlin knows how long with these children, I'm going to have to understand a bit about them."

"First, you need to understand that they're not just children as you seem content to pass them off as. Aradia is mere months away from being legally considered an adult, and Linnea... well, her case is complicated."

"How is her case complicated, Potter?"

"It just is, Snape. Let it go, okay? I'm assuming, though, that you're taking them with you?"

Severus busied himself with the buttoning and unbuttoning of the robes that he'd been given. "I don't see how I have a choice, Potter. You heard the girl, she'll go to Draco Malfoy otherwise. I was there when they brought him in. He's brutal."

"I've dealt with him. Snape, what do you remember of your last year at Hogwarts? My sixth year."

Severus turned to him, irritated. "What do you mean, what do I remember? I bloody well remember all of it."

Potter nodded. "Of course."

The sound of a fight starting upstairs broke Severus's train of thought, as well as his musings of the strange behavior of the Potter/Weasley clan. "Uncle Harry! Linnea's messing with the damned pensive again!"

Harry put a hand to his head and rushed up the stairs, not even bothering to look back at Snape.

A/N: Not quite sure when the next chapter will be up. Hectic home life no time for writing. But I do actually read and consider all the reviews, and if nothing else they'll guilt trip me into updating eventually.