About 6 months later, Elizabeth was about to celebrate her 1st birthday. She was walking a bit, with some help from hands and furniture and was completely off the bottle.
Two days before her birthday, Severus's friends came over to study for an exam that counted for over forty percent of their grade. As soon as Narcissa stepped foot in the apartment, she dropped her books and sprinted over to the playpen where Elizabeth was pounding the sides with her sippy cup.
Scooping the child into her arms, Narcissa cuddled Elizabeth to her chest, who squeaked in surprise. When Severus was visible, the little Severus clone reached for her father, whimpering softly. Severus took Elizabeth from her godmother and cooed,
"I think it's someone's naptime,"
Severus carried her to the bedroom, where he changed her diaper and rocked her to sleep in the rocking chair, aware of the eyes that were watching through the open door.
"Sorry 'bout that," he said. "I normally put her down for a nap by now, but I guess it slipped my mind." He laughed a little as Severus sat down next to Lucius, who was working on a monster essay given by McGonagall in preparation for their exam.
"No harm done mate, as it's not our fault you got Miranda Nicholas pregnant. Personally, I think she was quite the catch for you. Too bad you let her go."
Severus simply whacked his best friend over the head with his transfiguration book before calmly placing it on the table and opening it to the appropriate page. Bellatrix and Narcissa giggled behind their hands and dropped their heads as Lucius turned to glare at his future wife and sister-in-law.
Rubbing his head, the startling blonde turned back to his homework as did the rest of the table.
"Hey Severus," Asked Narcissa after a half hour of silence. "When I went to use the Orchideous charm in class today, it didn't work. Thoughts?"
"Well," he began, not looking up. "If you flourish your wand too much, the charm will backfire and instead of giving you fresh, alive flowers, you simply get dead, blacked flowers." Looking up, he smirked and laid down his quill.
"Did I answer your question?" Severus said to Narcissa, who sat with bewildered face.
"Yeah, you did. So like this?" She flicked her wand a bit and a bouquet of flowers popped out of the tip of her wand. "Thanks Sev!"
Severus looked down, biting his lip with embarrassment. For a few more hours, there was only the scratching of quills and the light murmur of questions being answered. After the group had finished their homework, they had moved to the couch to relax before dinner. As Severus lowered himself into his armchair, Elizabeth woke, fussing as usual, craving attention.
Severus went to pull himself up but noting the movement from Lucius, the raven haired boy called out,
"FIVES!"
The girls rolled their eyes as Lucius looked disappointed and sat back down on the couch between the two sisters. Severus went in his room to retrieve his daughter, who was sitting up in her crib, knuckling her eyes.
Lifting her up over his head, Severus smiled at the baby he held up in the air. Elizabeth giggled and tried to reach down to grab her father's hair, while kicking her legs and squirming. Smirking a little, Severus laid the child on the changing table and removed the pants she had been wearing, and unbuttoned the bottom of the onesie she had on.
Taking off the dirty, smelly diaper Severus tossed it in the trash bin, which vanished everything thrown in before cleaning her up and putting on a new diaper. He buttoned up her onesie and dressed in a new pair of pants before taking out a pair of socks and shoes, taking her out into the living room.
Severus sat in the oversized armchair with his legs over an arm and Elizabeth on his stomach, facing him. He began to put on her shoes and socks, joining the others laughter as she played with the Velcro on her pink sparkly sneakers. Elizabeth, with her shoes on her feet, reached for her father's face and fell onto his chest and began to crawl up to pinch his nose closed. Severus pulled her close and sat up quickly, swinging his legs around before standing up.
"You guys do know its dinner time right?" Severus leaned down and picked up the diaper bag. "I'm hungry, so I'm leaving"
He began to leave the apartment with his daughter in arm, only to hear three pairs of footsteps behind him.
"So you ladies decided to join me?"
He quickly dodged the hand that reached out to slap him, managing to keep a hold on Elizabeth.
"Lucius! Be more careful!"
Narcissa took her goddaughter and the diaper bag from her friend and the three watched the blonde Slytherin chase his best friend down the hall of the dungeons. Suddenly Severus found himself on the floor after running into something solid. Looking up, he saw his head of house, Horace Slughorn, was looking down at him with a small smile on his face. Severus scrambled to his feet and stepped back quickly, hoping to avoid a detention.
"Severus, running down the halls? You should set a better example for your daughter here. I don't want to find this lovely lady running down the halls when she comes to Hogwarts." He paused to tickle Elizabeth's chin. "Now all of you, run along to dinner."
Severus turned around to face his friends, his face as red as a tomato. Lucius came out from a tapestry, laughing so hard he bent over.
"You should see your face!" He exclaimed. "Its priceless!"
Severus pushed the other Slytherin boy. "Shut up," he muttered.
Bellatrix just walked past them all.
"Let's just go to dinner, you prats."
"Who you calling prat, Black?" Lucius muttered.
(A/N) Lucius Malfoy is in this fic for a reason. But I myself cannot explain as I do not know. But I love the relationship the four kids have with each other. It's totally awesome! Anywho, review, cause it makes it so much easier to write what you guys want to read.