Disclaimer: Shut up, I'm bitter about it.
Chapter 6: Weasley House for the Criminally Insane
Severus watched Potter rush up the stairs, and paused to wonder what all the chaos was about over a bloody pensieve. What harm could a fourteen year old girl get into with a pensieve? Sure, she could get into things she had no business getting into, but she was a teenager and could just as easily do that from outside of a pensieve. So why would Weasley scream about it and Potter run? It made no sense to Severus, but then, very little of what he'd experienced in the past few hours had. If he were a slightly more masochistic man, he would allow himself to wish they'd kept him in prison or given him the kiss over this.
As it was, the sudden solidarity gave him time to puzzle over things, confusing as they were. As far as he could see, the state of the wizarding world had fallen into madness. He could only assume that with the death of Albus, the Order had slipped into disarray and confusion, and thrust a boy too young to lead to head the organization. Without the organized and careful planning of the Order, Potter had doubtlessly rushed into situations his pathetic skill couldn't handle, and barely slipped away. Because of that, the children of Hogwarts were suffering. Instead of learning what magic can do, they were learning how to protect themselves. This was indeed war.
Severus forced his mind onto a less angering, but no less confusing topic, the small family that he'd stumbled upon. Or, more like they had stumbled upon him. Potter had changed. Severus was mature enough to admit that. It seemed that that he'd grown up over time and loss and realized that sometimes he had to think before he acted. That didn't mean that he didn't still appear to be a dunderhead, he just seemed to be better at hiding it now.
The Weasley girl puzzled him. She had many of her father's mannerisms, but not of his physical attributes. At the same time, she didn't look much like her mother, either. The hair was close enough, and her eyes. But her features were sharper, and she was taller than her mother ever had been. Although, he supposed, that could have been the Weasley genes pulling through. Besides, heredity was a sketchy topic. Sometimes you couldn't see either parent in a child, it was just far too well blended. And it shouldn't matter to him whether or not the girl had Weasley's blasted hair. In fact, he should be thankful for it. There was enough of those ginger-headed monsters running around Hogwarts as is.
Although, if these two Weasley children were any indication, the hair was slowly dying out. But there was no telling how many bloody cousins these two had, probably with the same temperament and stubbornness and inability to realize when it was time to shut their mouths. Linnea's comments still ran through his head, like a nightmare that he'd had before somewhere. He could almost see the girl, standing in his office, screaming about how she wasn't a child and how he had no right to treat her as such. But she was a tiny bit taller, more filled out. And her hair was wild and—
He shook his head to wake him out of the echo of a dream as Aradia came down the stairs, muttering about, 'Dumping the bloody vials down the bloody sink,' and 'having no right to look at them anyway. They weren't hers.' Severus simply stared at the girl for a moment as she magically set the table, and then took his leave, allowing the girl a few moments to fume.
Using what little stealth he retained after nearly two decades in prison, Severus crept up the stairs and listened intently to the noises continuing in the room that he could only assume belonged to the youngest Potter. Glass clinking was closely followed by the slamming of a door and a muttering of a locking spell.
"Bloody hell, what were you thinking!"
"I told you before that I couldn't deal with it! I have a hard enough time dealing with this game! How in Merlin's bleeding name do you expect me to handle it now!" Severus's brow furrowed as the young girl's voice raised up higher. This was no normal conversation between father and daughter.
"And staring into that pensieve's going to make it easier? She's going to start to wonder why you're so interested! And what are you going to tell her? 'It's better than the bloody television?'"
"Well it's true! And excuse me if I have issues letting her look at those memories! It's safer if I keep them!"
"Safer for whom? Sure as hell not for the bloody secret!" Miss Potter made a noise in the back of her throat as her father spoke, and Severus heard the noise of someone banging their fist off a wall.
"You'd rather I let her watch her own conception?"
Severus's face contorted as he continued toward the room, wishing desperately he had his wand back. "You know that's not what she's looking for! She just wants to be close to him."
"And I don't? You don't think this is the hardest thing I've ever done? I loved him! Bloody hell, I loved the bloody bastard. And he threw that back at me, and now I have to watch her pine for him! I won't let him hurt her."
The sound of footsteps accompanied Potter's voice, and Severus feared he was heading for the door. Slipping away and down the steps quickly the final thing he heard was. "She doesn't expect anything from him."
Behind the door, father held daughter as she cried into his shirt and whispered the words that Severus may have heard had he stayed. "Harry, I won't let him hurt my daughter."
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Dinner had been fairly quiet when Severus compared it to everything else that he had experienced so far in the Potter house. Potter appeared to be completely worn from the fight and trying to keep Weasley from glaring holes through her cousin. Severus had never seen the boy so tuckered, even after a battle or total mishap. He supposed fatherhood could be more complicated than fighting the Dark Lord with these two.
Miss Potter sat to her father's right and pushed her food around, staring at the potatoes in the stew as if they had personally caused the problems in her life. She barely ate a bite, and Severus could see that her eyes were puffy and red, as if she'd spend a long time crying after trying to hold it back for even longer.
Weasley was simply angry. The apple of her cheeks were flushed a pink color that could not have come from the Weasley side of her. Severus watched as she stabbed her fork into a potato and shoved the whole chunk into her mouth, chewing vigorously. It was slightly disgusting to watch.
The Potter girl finally pushed her untouched bowl away from her and stood up, heading for the door. "I'm going to be in my room. Don't expect me to come down tonight. Snape, we'll talk tomorrow about the plan." She paused, with her hands on the door. "Goodnight, Aradia."
Weasley slammed her fork down beside her plate and looked up at her cousin. "Damn it, Linnea, those are mine, okay? Leave them the hell alone! They're mine!"
"They're not y ours, Aradia!"
"Well they're sure as hell not yours!"
"Why do you want them so bad?" Potter dropped her hands from the door and moved away from it, staring at the older girl. "They're not yours and you're not even in them!" She walked over toward the table. "You don't have a right to look at them!."
"Neither do you!"
"Why do you care?"
Weasley stood up and shoved her empty bowl into the middle of the table. "They're all I have left of her."
She stormed out of the kitchen, her dark hair wildly bouncing behind her as she heavily stepped through the doorway and out of sight, making sure to push the swinging door back toward the occupants of the kitchen as hard as she could. The Potter girl followed after her, less angry and more sorrowful. She stopped the swinging door and walked through slowly, and Severus could have sworn he saw a tear roll down her cheek as she did so.
Potter sighed and stood up, picking up the bowls and vanishing the remaining stew, leaving Severus's nearly finished bowl alone. Finally, he raised his eyes to Severus's. "Sorry about that." His voice was heavy and sad. "They're both upset about a lot, and Aradia has put so much into your trial. She hasn't been much sleep. Technically, they should both be at school, really. But the Headmistress gave them leave for a while. Because of the recent deaths and all." Potter gave Severus a meaning look.
Then he brought the bowls to the sink and began washing them by hand. "Aradia told Minerva her plan. And Minerva knows that Linnea would never just let Aradia do her own thing like that. Anything dangerous Aradia gets into, Linnea tries to get into herself. It makes my life interesting." He gave a sarcastic laugh and put the remaining stew from the pan into a dish and put the dish in the refrigerator.
Severus, finally noticing the sheer amount of muggle appliances in the room, looked at Potter, who laughed. "This was Hermione and Ron's house. Hermione lived here after the divorce. She wanted Aradia to know both muggle and wizarding ways." He shrugged and started putting away the clean dishes. "She has it wired for electricity. I never did find out how she did it, but she managed somehow. That was just how Hermione was, I guess." He gave Severus a wry smile and turned around.
The two men just sat in silence for a while, Potter finishing the chores and Severus just again attempting to take it all in. "Well, Snape, it appears you're our responsibility for a while. At least until Aradia drags you down to the headquarters. You can stay in the guest room or on the couch. Your choice."
Severus didn't answer, and Potter gave a small laugh. "Being difficult, huh? Well, as you can see, I'm used to it. This house lives up to it's name."
"Name?"
Potter nodded. "When it came time for them to register on the floo network, they had the hardest time thinking of a name. Hermione was hormonal and pregnant at the time, so finally she grabbed the floo powder and screamed, 'Weasley House for the Criminally Insane!'" Potter shook his head. "They could have changed it later, but it suited them so well. So they kept it. Even when they separated."
Severus thought it over for a minute, and then decided that Criminally Insane was possibly the only accurate description for the occupants of this house. Hormonal, jumpy, emotional, yes, but those didn't quite cover it. They were all covering a lot up. Severus could almost taste the tension caused by things left unsaid. He wondered if they were all covering things up from each other, too.
A/N: It's short. I know. But this was the only logical place to end it, seeing as the next scene is, not so much long, but I just liked ending it here the best.
In a few chapters, things are going to start getting darker, warranting the M rating that has so far only protected me for the language.
Reviews would be loved. In fact, I'm holding chapter 7 hostage until I get 5 reviews. :D