No students for two whole weeks! Yay! And I still can't remember it's Monday... ah well.

Part 40/?

Harry stuck his head back into the room. "Well?" he asked smiling. "Are you coming, or what?" He disappeared again.

"What the?" Marnier asked completely confused.

Thistlewaite however, suddenly believed he understood. Unlike his associate, he was married. He'd seen his spouse through two pregnancies; they were worth it, since they now had two lovely children.

They hurried out of the room to find Harry waiting for them in the hallway. "How are you dealing with the hormones?" Thistlewaite asked.

Harry shrugged. "A little better than I was. My father and Madam Faire have me on a potion that moderates some of it. It's still worse than it would be with a woman, just because her body would already be used to creating some of them."

"I thought Madam Pomfrey was the mediwitch here," Marnier stated.

"Oh, she is," Harry agreed. "However, she hasn't dealt with even a normal pregnancy since her training days. Madam Faire, on the other hand, is the leading expert on male pregnancies. She was between jobs at the time and her eldest granddaughter goes to school here, so she jumped at the chance to move in and help."

"Are you showing yet?" Marnier asked.

Harry looked at him, frowning. "I'm only at nine weeks."

"Um... so that means..." Marnier hinted. Unlike his counterpart, he was a bachelor and had never even been around a pregnant female as far as he knew.

"It means, no, I'm not showing," Harry growled.

He was pretty sure that with females it was about fourth or fifth month, but would it be different, since he was male? He made a note to ask Madam Faire about it later.

"Excuse me, Mr. Snape?" Thistlewaite asked softly.

"Hmm?" Harry answered encouragingly.

"Where are we going?"

"We're having dinner with my father, and hopefully Lucius will be able to stop by as well," Harry answered.

"You...um... do know what happened to Mrs. Malfoy, don't you?" Marnier asked hesitantly.

"Of course I do," Harry answered easily.

"Are you sure he told you the truth?" he prodded.

"What are you talking about?" Harry halted and turned around to glare at the reporter.

"Well, it's just... rumor has it that he... well... killed her..." he said tentatively.

"That's ridiculous," Harry scoffed. "Voldemort killed her. She told him about Draco and Severus helping me, and warned him that they were traitors. She should have realized that Voldemort didn't believe the old adage about not killing the messengers."

"Mr. Malfoy told you that?" Marnier pressed on.

"No, actually, he didn't. He wasn't even there," Harry stalked slowly forward, while the reporter backed carefully away. "I saw the whole thing. It truly sucked, knowing what Voldie was doing whenever he was really angry... and really throwing the curses around. At least I was able to tell Severus not to return to him. Unfortunately, I also had to tell Draco that his mother was dead, and why." His face was bleak with remembrance. He shook it off. "Yes, I know *exactly* what happened to Narcissa. It will not be brought up again, nor will you write anything about it. Is that understood?" he growled.

"Yes," Marnier gulped. "I understand."

Harry nodded once and turned on his heel to stomp off. As he moved away, Thistlewaite glared at the other reporter. "You're treading on very thin ground," he warned the other man.

"I thought you said it was hormones," Marnier snarked back.

Thistlewaite glared at him as if he was crazy. "His moving from angry to happy so fast might be hormones, but his being that dangerous... that's just Harry Potter... or Snape. He really *is* that dangerous. And you're rapidly getting on his bad side."

"You got that right," Harry called back over his shoulder as he stalked down the hallway.

He led the way to Severus' rooms with no more questions asked.

"Hi, dad," he said, smiling once more.

"Hello, Harry," Severus said stoically, his eyes on the men following him.

Harry just grinned at him while the two reporters watched their interaction quietly. "Has Lucius made it yet?"

"Not yet. He should be here momentarily," Severus said. His face softened slightly as he looked at his son. He knew Harry wouldn't take his attitude personally. The young man just had a different way of coping. He had no doubt that Harry was completely cognizant of everything the two men were doing. There was no way he'd allow strangers to stay behind him if he that weren't true.

Lucius chose that moment to walk in. His eyes swept over the occupants of the room, glaring coldly at the reporters before warming at seeing his husband. He walked over to Harry and bent down to kiss him, long and deep.

Draco walked in behind his father, getting there just in time to watch Harry's arms winding around his father's neck. "Must you?" he bantered playfully.

"Yep," Harry tore his mouth away for just long enough to answer.

"Okay, that's enough," Draco ordered. "I'm hungry, and I want to know what you found out today."

Harry reluctantly pulled away, looking up at Lucius with a soft, besotted expression. Lucius' expression might have been masked, but the signs of his deep caring were there if you knew how to look. One of the reporters took the time to notice.

Severus rang for a house elf. Seconds later there was a pop as Dobby teleported in. The first one he saw was Harry. "HarryPotter called for Dobby?" Dobby asked. Only afterwards did he notice who all were there. His already large eyes got even bigger as he saw his old master standing there with his arms still around Harry.

"Hi Dobby," Harry said happily. "I haven't seen you in ages! Where have you been? How's Winky?"

"HarryPotter was worried about Dobby? Dobby is so happy! Is HarryPotter okay?" he was watching Lucius carefully.

"I'm fine, Dobby, but it's Harry Snape now. Professor Snape adopted me. And I know you already know my husband, Lucius Malfoy," Harry said carefully. He didn't want any problems, and he knew Dobby and Lucius had a history.

"Dobby knows LuciusMalfoy," Dobby agreed slowly.

"Now that the introductions are over, do you think we could get some food up here?" Severus asked darkly.

"Dobby bring food right up," the house elf said before popping out, still looking carefully at Lucius. He was back moments later with a large spread for the table that had been moved into the sitting room.

Once he was gone again, Draco laughed. "He doesn't approve, does he?"

Harry looked over the food before him. There were a couple of his favorites, so he was still in Dobby's good graces. However, there were also a number of foods that Lucius didn't care for. Harry giggled. "I guess not."

They sat down to eat, Severus at the head of the table and Lucius at the foot. Harry debated for a moment which one he should sit by before settling down next to his husband. Draco sat between him and Severus, with the two reporters across the table.

"Well?" Draco asked, after they had transfigured some of the food into more appetizing choices. He wrinkled his nose as Harry took a large helping of bubble and squeak. Since when did Harry like cabbage so much?

"Well, it's definite," Harry answered. "I'm not Gryffindor's Heir."

Part 41/?

"What?" Draco blinked.

"And how, exactly, do you know that?" Severus asked with a scowl.

Harry looked confused for a moment, before he realized why his father was asking that way. "We wouldn't have gone in, I promise!" he said quickly. "We just tried the door."

"I can't believe you're not descended from Gryffindor," Draco said, trying to pull attention away from Harry's actions. He'd have his own words with his friend about not inviting him along, later.

"Oh, I am," Harry admitted. "But then again, the man had seventeen children over the course of sixty years, between thirty and fifty generations ago. I'd be surprised if anyone with a bit of pure blood in them isn't descended from him. I'm also descended from the other three in one way or another. Actually, the one who I have the most blood connection to is..." he stopped and grinned.

"Slytherin," his family guessed immediately.

"Incorrect," Harry grinned harder, almost maniacally. "Hufflepuff."

"What?"

Harry laughed so hard at the look on all of their faces, that only Lucius' quick action saved him from taking a header off of his chair.

Draco sighed and wiped a hand across his forehead dramatically. "For a moment, I thought you meant it. You shouldn't play tricks like that on people, Harry."

Harry tried to get his giggles under control. "I did mean it. I'll show you what we found after dinner." As Severus started to glower, Harry hastened to reassure him. "In the library, father."

"Gryffindor had seventeen children?" Thistlewaite was brave enough to speak up. "I'd never heard that."

Harry was finally able to speak. "According to Salazar and Rowena, his family and the family home were the only things which he was secretive about. Very few people even knew he was married, and only some of the kids went to Hogwarts, just to keep people from figuring it out."

"The Weasleys are obviously descended from him, with those types of numbers," Severus murmured. "It's obviously a Gryffindor trait."

Harry nodded. "Yeah, they are. Much more than I am, that's for sure, but still not directly enough for one of them to be the Heir. Others are closer. We haven't actually tried it yet, but the portraits think that the Heir has to be descended from all seventeen of the children. And there's only one of those here at Hogwarts right now. We were going to try the door tomorrow afternoon."

Severus looked deep into the mischievous eyes of his son, and groaned. "Tell me it isn't Longbottom. Please, tell me it isn't him."

"And what problem do you have with Neville? I thought you were getting along much better with him now." Harry frowned at the insult to his friend.

"He is much more tolerable now than he was before." Severus admitted. "However, for some reason, the idea of Longbottom as the Heir of Gryffindor fills me with dread."

"All I want to know is that Vincent isn't the Heir of Slytherin." Draco begged.

"I thought the Dark Lord was the Heir of Slytherin?" Marnier barged in.

"Not according to Salazar," Harry told him. "He couldn't stand him. Of course, neither is Crabbe."

"But you know who is?" Lucius asked.

"Yep," Harry admitted, smirking. He took another helping of the cabbage and potato dish known as bubble and squeak.

"And, are you going to inform us?" Lucius murmured.

"After dinner," Harry told him.

"I believe we've finished," Lucius informed him, looking around the table.

"That's nice," Harry said, continuing to eat. "Is there a treacle tart for dessert?"

The others waited none too patiently for Harry to finish eating. Finally, he decided he'd had enough and stood up. "Come on, it's off the library."

"What?" Marnier murmured rebelliously, but led the way out of the room. He didn't realize that the reason he went first was because none of the others trusted him at their backs. There certainly wasn't any way Lucius would allow him behind Harry. Severus went behind Marnier, but in front of Thistlewaite, who was in the middle, just ahead of both of the Sixth Years.

Once at the library, Harry took the lead. He walked back to one of the seldom-used sections, Genealogy.

"You could have just said you looked it up in the genealogy books," Draco complained.

"Oh, we didn't," Harry murmured, moving farther back. He headed straight to the back wall, pulled out a book and reached behind it.

No one could see what he was doing, but suddenly a section of the bookcases swung out.

"I'm sure it won't surprise anyone to know this is one of the Ravenclaw rooms." Harry said, even as he walked through the open door. The others followed quickly.

"By Merlin!" Thistlewaite swore.

Unsurprisingly, Draco, Severus and Lucius swore by Salazar instead.

The entire room was covered in names. Floor, walls and ceiling were all covered by names connected to each other by lines that seemed to go through and around, yet never actually covered up any other names.

"Why are two of the names glowing?" Lucius asked, looking around.

"Because they were called out," Harry explained. He walked over and touched one on the wall. "Salazar Slytherin and Merlin," he pointed to the one glowing on the ceiling. "Watch this." He spoke up strongly. "Harry James Potter Snape to Salazar Slytherin."

A green light brought everyone's attention to the ground. There was Harry's name, glowing green. Suddenly a line appeared, running up through his mother's name and beyond. The green light split three times before combining once more at Salazar Slytherin.

"See," Harry explained. "I'm related to Salazar through my mother. Three people descended from Slytherin married into my family, here," he pointed at each, "here, and here. Harry James Potter Snape to Godric Gryffindor," he said next. The light changed to red and went through his father's name. Again, there were three divisions, leading eventually to three of Godric's children and then to the man himself. "You've got to remember, this is between thirty and fifty generations. Almost everyone with any wizarding blood is probably related to all four of the Founders." He showed off his other connections, two divisions that went to Ravenclaw and five that went to Hufflepuff.

"Neville Longbottom to Godric Gryffindor," he said next.

Everyone could almost immediately see why Neville would be considered Gryffindor's Heir. The red light went to both of his parents and split many, many times over the forty or so generations, eventually leading to all seventeen children.

"What did you do to find the Heirs? Trace the bloodlines of all of your classmates?" Draco asked.

"Nope, it's much simpler than that," Harry explained. "Rowena Ravenclaw to her Heir," he ordered.

Yellow light started at Rowena's name and moved down through her eldest son. Ten generations later, it moved to the Prince line and stayed there until it reached Severus Slayton Snape.

"What?" Severus looked absolutely astounded.

Harry just laughed. "You told me most of your family, especially on your mother's side, were Ravenclaws. I guess now we know why."

"Draco Malfoy to Salazar Slytherin," Draco suddenly spoke up and brought everyone's attention away from the still shell-shocked Slytherin... or should that be Ravenclaw?

Green light started at Draco and went up through both of his parents. Green light seemed to come into the family at almost every single marriage, eventually leading to all five of Salazar's children.

"I'm the Heir of Slytherin?" Draco said in disbelief.

Harry looked at the infestation of green light and shook his head. "I'm afraid not."

Draco started to pout.

"Sorry," Harry shrugged. "But I ran the Heir one earlier. It's not you... yet."

Everyone looked at him strangely before most of them understood.

"What do you mean by that?" Marnier asked.

Harry just smiled secretively and changed the subject. "You know, it doesn't just go to the Founders," he explained. "Harry James Potter to Severus Slayton Snape," he said. The light took a very complicated path, but it did finally join up the two names. "I think we're like fourteenth cousins or something."

Everyone started playing with it. That Severus and Lucius were third cousins didn't really surprise anyone. The fact that the Malfoys were in any way related to the Weasleys, did. Of course, Hermione's name wasn't connected to anyone, since the room only worked for wizard-kind, and unlike Lily Evans, Hermione truly was Muggleborn.

Lucius was tracing a connection carefully, frowning thoughtfully. He turned around to look at his young husband. It seemed strange that both he and Severus, both mages, were heavily related to one of the Founders, also mages. And yet, Harry really wasn't. Of course, Longbottom was heavily related to Gryffindor, and yet he was not a mage. Perhaps it truly didn't have anything to do with it, or perhaps… His storm-grey eyes moved back to the connection he'd been following. Perhaps... He came to his decision, then firmly called out what he was thinking. "Harry James Potter Snape to Merlin."

Everyone looked over at him, then refocused on the tracery as white light limned Harry's name and almost exploded upwards, across the floor, onto the walls and up to the ceiling to finally reach the legendary mage's name. The light was so bright it was almost blinding.

"Merlin to his Heir," Severus murmured.

The light faded, only to start from the other end and trace the exact same route, leaving Harry's name once more glowing with a brilliant white light.

Part 42/?

Harry was wide-eyed, almost gasping.

"What does this mean?" Draco asked in a quiet voice.

"I'm not sure," Lucius admitted.

Harry finally got control of his voice... and groaned. "Oh, man! That's *so* not right!" He glared at yet another proof of his *specialness* before turning around and practically running out of the room, slamming the door behind him.

"I've got it," Lucius told the others, striding out after his young husband.

Draco shook his head. "And he was so enjoying this." He turned to glare at Severus. "You had to go and ask for the Heir, didn't you? If you hadn't, it could have just been a coincidence."

Severus shook his head. "We had to know," he said reprovingly. He carefully hid any expression of remorse that might have wished to show on his face. He, also, had seen how much fun Harry had been having, showing them around. He'd had a blast surprising them with the revelations found in this room. For once, he wasn't the special one. At least, not until Lucius asked about his relationship to Merlin.

Draco turned his glare on the two interlopers. Who cared that they had been invited? They weren't part of his family, and at this moment, they weren't wanted. "This will *not* be written about. Is that understood?"

Thistlewaite blinked and nodded. And to think he had been considering this boy to be less dangerous than the rest of them. Marnier looked rebellious, but reluctantly nodded. It might be the scoop of the century, but wizarding contracts were binding and he knew what the repercussions of breaking his would be.

Severus waved the two reporters out the door and followed after them with Draco on his heels. Draco closed the door behind them. He would have liked to send the reporters off, but he didn't know if he trusted them out of his sight with the information they currently had. However, he also didn't want them in the way. Of course, there was a compromise... right there, in fact. "Blaise!"

Hermione, Ron, Blaise and Thyme were gathered together at one table. "What's up?" Blaise asked, looking askance at the two others. It took him a moment before he realized where he'd seen them before. "Reporters?" he asked.

"Yes," Draco agreed. "These are Thistlewaite and Marnier. They're going to write up their articles. Will you check them over? You all know what Harry would want." The fact that he trusted them to know what his father would want as well was unspoken, but most realized it.

"Of course we will," Hermione answered for the others. So what if the reporters didn't think they needed to be guarded, their work edited by a bunch of students. Their wishes were really of no consequence.

Sure that the two Gryffindors and the pair of Slytherin could take care of most problems the reporters might come up with, Severus and Draco headed back down to the dungeons.

They found what they expected. Lucius was sitting in one of the more comfortable armchairs with Harry curled up in his lap.

"Is everything okay?" Severus asked softly.

"Yeah," Harry muttered without opening his eyes. "Just fate messing around with me... again." He sighed and finally looked up at them. "I really thought that I'd be normal in this way, you know? You guys would get all the publicity; maybe I'd even be able to fade into the woodwork a little. I know you all enjoy being in the public eye a lot more than I do. And for Neville to be the Heir of Gryffindor... Do you have any idea what that could do for the last bit of his self-confidence problem?" He sat up a little. "Do you have any idea how happy I was to find out I wasn't the Heir of any of the Founders? Oh no, not me! I couldn't be anything that simple. I have to be the Heir to bloody Merlin himself!"

"So?" Draco asked.

Harry looks up at him, confused.

"Think about it," Draco looked him straight in the eye. "My dad is the Heir of Slytherin. That's something that we're going to use for bragging rights for ages. But besides that, what good does knowing that do us? We've already got most of Salazar's stuff. In fact, we've got Salazar himself. The fact that we're mages might or might not come from him. Longbottom is certainly not a mage. So, besides bragging rights, what do you get out of being Merlin's Heir?"

Harry snorted. "And when has my life ever been that simple? If it comes up, it's bound to be important."

"Even if that were to be true," Severus interceded, "which I'm not saying it will be; in this case I find myself agreeing with the young Mr. Malfoy. Still, 'forewarned is forearmed'"

"Yeah, and what about when this gets out?" Harry snarled.

"Well, it certainly won't be reported by those two," Draco smirked. "I left them in Hermione's charge. She and the others have to approve anything they write. It's good having our own public relations firm."

Harry laughed slightly.

Lucius glared. "Are you aware that girl actually had the audacity to try to give me a lecture on acceptable PDA's. Aren't those some kind of Muggle contraptions?"

Harry laughed more. "Um... no, PDA's are public displays of affection. Yeah, I got that lecture as well. She thinks we should do more. I'm not actually going to complain about that, though. If we've got to be seen in public, I certainly don't mind being seen kissing you."

"If she were not a friend of yours, she would find herself hexed beyond bearing for her temerity."

"Of course she would." Harry smiled condescendingly to hide the fact that he knew his husband was fully capable of doing as he said. His smile softened. And the only reason he wasn't doing it, was because of him. Then again, Hermione had too good a sense of self-preservation to have actually done something like that to Lucius without Harry as back-up.

Back at the library table, Marnier was complaining about having some kids look over his work. That was not part of the bargain he thought he'd made. Ron quickly set him straight. "Whatever you write is going to impact our friend. So it certainly *is* our job to make sure you get it right. We take protecting our friends *very* seriously."

Thistlewaite just shook his head. Marnier was never the most intuitive wand in the store, but he didn't usually make as many mistakes as he had so far today. It was as though he couldn't believe *children* could be any threat. He should have had that idea wiped out within moments of meeting Harry. The reporter couldn't decide whether he hoped he'd be there when the man got his comeuppance or not. Well, at least he knew how to choose his battles.

He pushed those thoughts out of his mind and concentrated on writing an article that would have enough revelations to bring in lots of readers and earn him some good money, without giving away anything the Malfoys and Snapes did not want getting out