Severus quickly made his way into his personal chambers without a detour. He really needed a drink after all Carlisle had told him and all he had seen in the vampire's mind. He knew that his life, hell all their lives, had just gotten incredibly more difficult. And he knew that Harry would be devastated once he learned that his mate had chosen another.

He had seen the girl in Carlisle's mind. He had seen her and Edward together in there. They just didn't belong together. The girl was so … so plain. She was so plain that it was sickening. He really wanted her to just vanish out of the younger vampire's mind and get this over with.

Severus had downed the first shot of Firewhiskey before he even closed the door to the cabinet where he stored his drinks and the second before he sat down.

Why the hell had their lifes to be this difficult? What had they done to deserve this? What had Harry done to deserve this? Severus knew that he had never been a saint but why did such shit always happen to Harry? Had the boy not gone through enough already?

Severus looked up from his fourth glass as the door to his bedroom opened.

"Where have you been?" Remus Lupin asked. "We thought you'd be back hours ago." The man was clad only in a sleeping robe just as the man who chose to appear behind him only a moment later.

"We were worried. Has something happened? Is something wrong with Harry?" Sirius Black asked his voice serious. Again. Severus hated it. The other man had been so easy going in their school time that he had sometimes wished he'd be more mature and now he was too grim most of the time. His time in Azkaban and the wars had done that to him and Severus hated every moment of a serious Sirius Black.

"You're right," Severus sighed. "Something happened."

"You don't drink normally," Remus observed. "Harry didn't get attacked again, did he?" The werewolf sounded frightened and gripped the arm of their lover. In fact that was their greatest fear. That something happened to their cub. Even if that term had come from Remus. Severus would rather say 'childe', but that was beside the point. What mattered was that all of them saw Harry as their child and that the boy was not okay at the moment.

"Harry did not get attacked again. But still there is something wrong with him." Severus sighed. That was more diffucult than he thought. If he could not even tell his lovers how was he supposed to tell Harry? He would never be able to do that to Harry.

"What is it, Sev?" Sirius asked as he made his way over to him to sit own beside him on the couch.

"You remember when we told you that Harry lived with vampires because we could not take him in with Remus being a werewolf and me being a Death Eater after we got back together after Azkaban?" Severus asked and waited until Sirius nodded. "That his mate was one of them?" Again he waited until Sirius had nodded. "Well he somehow succeeded to erase all of their memories of him. They have forgotten him and his mate has chosen another in the last three years."

"HE WHAT?!" Remus exclaimed. "But he should know that however it is, is not his mate!"

"It's his singer from all I gathered. You know how easy it is for a vampire to confuse a singer and a mate. Especially considering that I made that mistake."

Remus sighed and looked away. He knew that Severus was right. He also knew that Edward had been desperate for a mate, for someone to be with. He had spent the last hundred years alone after all while having to watch as the others had their mates.

Severus sighed too and stood up while pulling Sirius up with him.

"We should go to bed. I will have to talk to the headmaster in the morning. At the moment I would suggest just move there without telling Harry about this 'mate'. Otherwise he won't come with us. You know how he is."

"But you also know that he will hate you and everyone else who knew as soon as he finds out, right?" Sirius asked.

"I know," the potions master answered. "But I hope that this way at least that damn vampire will see that he has the wrong mate even if the family doesn't get their memories back. I can live with Harry hating me as long as he is happy." The other two nodded, silently agreeing, and they went to bed, all of them exhausted.

Carlisle sat in his office for a long time after Severus had left. Indeed it was well past three until he moved. He called his secretary and asked her if there were any appointments due today that could not be postponed. As there were none he told her that he would leave early due to a family emergency.

He stood up and made his way out of the office and the hospital. Only a short time later he was at home and intent to spent some time studying his mind before calling a family meeting.

"Hello, love," Esme greeted him. "You are home quite early today. Has something happened? Is something wrong?" she then asked as she saw his face.

He thought for a moment but then decided to just tell her at least a part of it.

"Yes, it did. Severus came over today and he had some quite disturbing news. I will call a family meeting as soon as I have sorted my memories out. It should take the children some time to return from their hunt. They are out hunting, right?"

Esme nodded and he kissed her softly before making his way up the stairs and into his office. Once he closed the door behind him he was over at the desk and looked around the room, memorising where everything stood. His mind scape was the exact replica of his office that had been furnished the same in every home they had had over the last century since he had a family and was not alone anymore. His bag always stood in the same place too even though he had not seen in in his mind scape for a long time. But now he knew the reason for it and hoped that with this knowledge and the knowledge where it stood he would be able to find it in his mind.

Intent on finding the bag Carlisle went into his mind scape.

Carlisle found himself standing in his mind scape only a few moments later. He looked around the room, seeing that it looked exactly like his office besides the fact that his bag was not there.

So the knowledge that it had to be there was not enough to see it.

He knelt down beside the desk where the bag, he was looking for, normally stood. As he stretched out his hands blindly groping for the item, he felt incredibly stupid until his hands met a barrier and he heard a quiet sob behind him.

He whirled around, taking in the small boy that sat in the corner the bookshelves formed.

"Harry?" he asked tentatively, his eyes assessing how the boy looked like. From what he could see the boy seemed to be no older than four or five at the most but somehow he knew that he was older. Something told him the boy was seven and looked and behaved like Harry must have when he had come to live with them. "Why are you doing this?"

"Why are you doing this?" the boy asked back, his voice nearly inaudible. "You should not have listened to the evil man. He wants that you die. He wants to kill you."

"Why should he want to do this? I have known Severus since he was turned. I have been the one to teach him how to live without human blood, not that he really needed it with him being a wizard. I know it was him. I am sure and you should know as well."

Harry shook his head.

"Even if he told the truth it is better if you don't remember. It is better for all of us. You can't trust me anymore. Not after what I have done."

And with that the image vanished and would not come back. Carlisle was not able to touch the bag or even see it either. After some minutes he sighed and stood up. He made his way over to the bookshelves. Severus had said that the boy had erased their memories of seven years. As that had happened in 1995 Harry had to have come to them in 1988 or late 1987. He pulled the two books from the shelf and sat down at the desk to go through them. He did not know what he was looking for but he knew that he wanted to have at least some indication to which day the boy had come to them.

After another hour he had worked out what he wanted to know. Harry had come to live with them on the 3rd of December 1987, three weeks before Christmas and how he knew the females in his family the boy had been their Christmas present as all of them had wanted a child for a long time. They would have spoiled him rotten at least on that first Christmas.

Shortly before he left his mind scape he had an image of the small boy that had greeted him earlier in front of his eyes with a stuffed elephant that had a body that was at least two feet in length, the legs long enough to reach the floor as the boy hugged it close to his body.

Well that is the seventh chapter. Hope you liked it. I wish all of you a happy new year. R&R. athena