Snape Meets Potter - 2015

A young man was leaning against the divide between Platforms 9 and 10, playing with a stray dog when he sighted a group wending its way through the crowds towards him. There were five people in all, two of them adults and obviously parents. The woman was tall and slender, dressed casually in a white blouse and jeans, blondish-brown hair in a loose bun that was barely held in place by hairgrips. The oldest girl had her black hair in a ponytail and was wearing a long-sleeved silver T-shirt with the symbol of a serpent on one sleeve and the words The Path to Greatness on it in green was locked in a very passionate argument with the boy who would appear to be her younger brother, slightly shorter than her with blonde hair like his mother and deep, thoughtful eyes, who was twirling a strange silvery device which seemed to be constantly changing shape around his finger with increasing ferocity as their argument grew more violent. The man was tall and lean with black hair cut just above his shoulders and streaked with silver and he was conferring with the youngest child, a small, black-haired, dark eyed girl who did not appear to take the same serious view that her father did on the subject he was conveying.

"And if some foolhardy Gryffindor idiot tries to shove your head down a toilet or something, just jinx him like I told you to," he was telling her.

"Dad, no one's going to try to shove Minnie down a toilet, not after what happened to them when they tried to do that to Eileen," said the boy, briefly breaking off his argument with his older sister.

"Also, there's this one gargoyle in the Entrance Hall that's enchanted so that teachers can see what's going on so if you're going to do anything illegal, make sure it's nowhere near there," the father continued.

"Severus, we're not supposed to tell students that," his wife gently admonished, a small smile on her face.

"Speaking of illegal, if you intend to follow down your mother's route of degraded safety values, warn me beforehand before you help Hagrid smuggle a fire-breathing worm of death into the grounds."

"DAD!"

Severus paused in his lecture for the first time in the last fifteen minutes to look at his youngest daughter. "What?" he asked, wondering what piece of information he could possible have missed out.

Minnie shot him a small, slightly crooked-toothed smile at him, black eyes twinkling just like her mother's. "I'll be fine, Dad and I promise I'll tell you if I want to join a radical movement that is trying to take over the Wizarding World," she said, still grinning.

"Good," said Severus, guiding her towards the wall between Platforms 9 and 10. "So long as you don't get involved with any of Malfoy's offspring that should be easily avoided."

"That's rather unkind, Severus," said Eowyn. "Draco's been a lot better since the Battle of Hogwarts."

Severus shook his head, eyes darkening with memories of that night. "You never can tell with the Malfoys," he told her. "Now, just walk through the wall, dear."

Eowyn Gondolin paused before walking through the wall and, turning to the young man, said, "Hello, Lupin. Trying out the goth look this year, I see?"

Teddy Lupin grinned broadly at his professor, his tattoos and purple-striped hair instantly vanishing to reveal twinkling eyes and ginger-brown hair cut around his ears. "Good to see you back in action, Professor," he said with a charming smile. "Bubblegum?"

Eowyn raised a sceptical eyebrow at him. "I do hope this isn't some other trick from the Weasley twins, Lupin. If I start having green and purple polkadots on my skin and sneezing tadpoles out of my nose, my husband will not be very pleased."

"Don't worry," said Teddy, battling to maintain a serious face. "I learned my lesson."

"I should hope so," said Eowyn, stepping through the wall. "It wouldn't do for your father to get in trouble again. Doesn't do his post as teacher much good when his son is turning his colleagues into reptiles."

"I thought Professor Snape made quite a charming bearded dragon, Professor, if I do say so myself," Teddy joked, before leaping out of the way of the jinx that leapt at him out of the wall.

oo0oo

"What was that about?" Severus asked his wife. He had waited on the magical side of the wall for her as their children wended their way through the crowds.

Eowyn smiled at him, taking his arm in the gesture that had become familiar over the years. "Just finding out the various ways we're going to die this year."

Severus groaned. "Can't he and the Weasleys just take a year off? Not even that - a term! As it is we're going to have Minerva trying to bite our heads off at every turn!"

Eowyn rolled her eyes and, checking that their children were out of earshot, whispered, "You're just grumpy because you don't want to be interrupted so often!"

"Maybe I am," said Severus, pulling her closer, "I find that children from the age of eleven upwards have remarkably big noses when it comes to other people's business."

"So I'm 'your business', am I? Well isn't that a complement!"

oo0oo

"Oh no, move faster," Remus muttered, ushering his two sisters along.

"What?" Eileen asked, unwillingly pulling herself away from sharing holiday anecdotes with a few of her Slytherin friends.

"Mum and Dad are flirting already!" Remus hissed. "They couldn't even wait for us to get on the train!"

"You just be glad they're just flirting!" Minnie told him with a grin. She knew Remus better than just about anyone. And, while he was open about most things, the one thing that embarrassed him most in life was the fact that his parents, despite being older than most, still did ... well ... that thing that Eowyn hadn't been told about yet and that Remus and Eileen (but mostly Remus) found incredibly awkward to talk about.

"Don't ..." Remus groaned, running towards where a Gryffindor girl and two Ravenclaw boys were waving at him enthusiastically.

"So the rumours are correct," said Minnie with a wicked grin.

Eileen returned the expression, a Slytherin grin spreading across her features which warned anyone with any sense to RUN, "Yup. It's a Gryffindor girl he's going out with." Then, raising her voice, "Hey, Moony Junior! When are you going to introduce Dad to your dunderhead girlfriend!"

"Oh, boy!" Remus muttered and, grabbing Lisa Longbottom by the sleeve, sprinted from the scene of crime.

"That could have been phrased more kindly," Minnie pointed out.

Eileen merely grinned at her younger brother's retreating form and gave Minnie a high-five. "Just so you know," she said, returning to the earlier topic, "it's not so fun when you get told it," she warned, as Jessica Malfoy grabbed her by the elbow to show off her already drawn up revision sheets for the OWLs. "Oh Merlin, do we have to be that organised? Help, I'm going to flunk Herbology!"

Smiling to herself, Minnie stood on her tiptoes and looked around for her best friends, Molly Weasley Junior (who also knew the pain of being named after someone still alive) and Lysander Scamander. She soon saw the two of them together, locked in a whispered conversation in a corner of the station clearly trying desperately to look inconspicuous and innocent and failing on a drastic scale. The fact that Lysander was wearing a large hat made of feathers which kept changing colour and that Molly was swamped in a giant red sweater with a sparkling purple 'M' on it did not at all help the charade.

"What's up?" Minnie asked her friends, noticing the guilty jump they both made as she approached.

"Nothing," said Lysander, instantly shoving a hand into his pocket and wincing in what appeared to be pain.

"Oh, nothing!" exclaimed Molly, red hair frizzing aggressively. "He's just planning on bringing that bloody monkey with him to Hogwarts!"

Minnie smiled. Clearly Molly was spending far too much time in the presence of her Uncle Ron and his children.

"Come on, Molls," pleaded Lysander. "He's cute, admit it and all you want to do is cuddle him to - ouch!" For once, his exclamation of pain had nothing to do with Molly's clenched fist making contact with his nose. He jerked his hand out of his pockets muttering, "Alright, alright! I'm letting you out, see?"

Lysander was right. The demiguise was cute, adorable, fluffy and would have made Augusta Longbottom herself (the woman simply refused to die) go teary-eyed. Clinging indignantly to Lysander's arm it stared up at Minnie with huge, hazel-coloured eyes, little pink nose sniffing curiously before it reached out a small, pink-padded hand to grasp at the black strands of her hair.

"Ow."

Molly couldn't help but grin at that. "Come on, Min! Show some enthusiasm for the pain!"

Minnie raised a sceptical eyebrow. "You want me to let the whole of the Wizarding World know that I have an illegal demiguise pulling my hair? Gladly."

"No, don't," said Lysander, snatching his pet back and plunging him into his pocket.

"How do you fit him in there?" Minnie asked, staring suspiciously at Lysander's handkerchief-sized pocket.

"Don't let appearances fool you," said Lysander with a wink. Then, turning to Molly, "Please, let me keep it. Mom said I could."

oo0oo

Finally, after making the required tribute of sighs, arms raised above her head and "If you get sent to Azkaban don't blame me!"s, Molly conceded that Twinkle was indeed adorable and that they could keep him and Lysander and Minnie, glowing with joy and triumph, turned to say goodbye to their parents.

"Remember, Minnie," said Severus, "I don't care what house you end up in. Your mother was in Ravenclaw and she's fairly sane," - "I'll get you for that," his wife muttered - "and Professor Burbage was in Hufflepuff and although she might not be sane she knows how to make good hot chocolate. Just whatever you do, keep the mischief low-key and smart. None of the bumbling disasters that Potter made."

"I love you too, Dad," muttered Minnie, enveloping him in a hug.

Keeping down a smile, Severus disentangled himself to the sound of a familiar and amused voice behind him saying, "What about Gryffindor House, Professor?"

Snape, after performing the necessary eye-roll and intake of breath before he interacted with a Potter or their ilk, turned to face the Boy Who Lived. "I am a man of great understanding of human nature, Potter but I will not now, or indeed ever, use your bumbling idiocy as an example of the greatness of Gryffindor House." Then, turning to his wife and finding her smiling with unashamed affection at Harry, "Come on, woman. There are gargoyles who are more pleasant to look at." Then, to his daughter, "If I must concede to a great member of Gryffindor House Professor Longbottom has greatly improved since his student years although he seems to be on much closer terms with his Mimbulus Mimbletonia than should be allowed and everything glass that comes within five metres of him shatters."

"And there I was thinking that I had found favour in your eyes!" exclaimed Sirius Black (who was just at Harry's shoulder) with fake hurt.

"Hey!" exclaimed Tonks, giving him a shove from behind. "Since when was your name Remus Lupin?"

Severus, glowering at his old enemy, drawled, "The day you find favour in my eyes, Black, you will know that the world has grown too much for me and I have finally succumbed to madness." Then, to his wife, "Eowyn, I don't see what's funny!"

"Nothing!" exclaimed Eowyn, stifling laughter. "It's just the two of you look just like silly schoolboys!"

"Oh, shut up!" snapped Severus. "It's time you were gone, Min -"

Harry said, "Lily, where's Ja -"

Both father's froze and stared. In the time that parents had been exchanging jibes, Minnie Snape-Gondolin and James Sirius Potter had caught up on their holidays apart and were stepping onto the Hogwarts express, giggling over some prank that James had played on his Aunt Hermione last month. Slowly, identical looks of horror in their eyes, Severus Snape and Harry Potter's mouths dropped opened and they stared at each other. Ginny and Eowyn both looked first at their husbands' faces and then at each other and stepped back to find a more suitable place to quietly die of laughter.

Severus was the first to recover, "Potter, I hope that I have your full support in that you will do the best that you can to ensure that our bloodlines do not mingle."

"My full support, Professor," Harry finally managed. "I'm with you, one hundred percent."

"Good," said Severus, finally gaining control of the situation and, taking Eowyn's hand, making for the teacher's carriage.

Eowyn waited until they were out of earshot of the Potters and their friends before turning to her husband and saying, "Really, Severus! They've known each other since before they could walk and now you start getting all worried? About marriage of all the possible outcomes! They're eleven, Severus! Eleven!"

"You saw what happened with Miss Granger and Weasley. They sat on the train together once and before you know it their doplgangers are sitting in the station nearly old enough to get on the train."

Eowyn sighed and rallied her Ravenclaw knowledge in preparation for a long and tedious persuasion of James Potter's innocent intentions. (Of which there were very few indeed.)

Soooooo! I'm back! Sorry about the long wait but I was rather busy with a wedding (not mine), a baby (also not mine), a holiday (mine and boy did I need it!), a funeral (not mine - well duh) and a puppy (MINE!). Don't worry though. I will finish this fic if it's the last thing I do. ;)