Chapter 9

Minerva put Teddy down to bed, then Alden came in wanting to know what was going on that made his parents suddenly leave. She sighed and simply told him she didn't know, all she was told was that it was an emergency and she was asked to take care of the two until they came back.

Harry and Severus made their way through the floo, both slightly concerned at the group of silent Weasleys surrounding the couch. It was a very rare time when all of the Weasleys were together and not a sound could be heard. Molly took her gaze from her son and went over with Draco to the new arrivals. Her face was as red as her hair.

Oh no. Harry's heart felt like it stopped mid-beat. If Molly was crying, which rarely happened, and the Weasleys were all so silent, which happened even less, that could only mean... Molly gave the couple a small smile and pulled them both into a hug. Even as displeased as Severus was with the fact that this woman felt the need to hug them every time she saw them, he allowed it because he felt empathy for her, and realized that should he be in her situation, he'd probably seek human contact as well. For the first time in nearly 2 decades of knowing her, and the last 2 years of being directly involved within her life thanks to Harry, Severus wrapped his arms around her and hugged her back. She cried.

Harry slipped away with Draco, who he desperately wanted to speak to but he didn't want to break the tense silence. He slipped his way into the apprehensive crowd and felt his heart speed up greatly when he saw Bill's limp form lying on the couch of Malfoy Manor. The mixture of both old and new bruises all along his topless torso were hard to look at. The copious amounts of blood that had dried in various shades on his mouth, chest, and neck combined with the dirt nearly everywhere was proof of a hard time wherever he had been. Then something happened.

Bill's chest rose ever so softly, and upon his exhale, a wheezing sound could barely be heard. Though he didn't take another breath for a good 10 seconds after that, one thing was certain. Bill was breathing, which meant he was alive. By Merlin he was alive! Harry's hand flew to his mouth as his knees shook slightly, and he'd understood now why Molly had been crying. Not of mourning, but of relief. The Weasleys were silent because Bill... Bill was sleeping.

He quickly turned and grabbed on to Ron, squeezing him tightly and earning himself an embrace just as hard as the one he was giving. He looked to Severus who looked up from from Molly's shoulder back at him, and Harry smiled while tears started streaming down his face. Severus gave his own gesture of relief and pried the woman from around his neck offering to make her, and the rest of the Weasley crew, some tea. She accepted and apologized at the same time, wiping at her eyes. "It's quite alright, just don't expect me to make a habit of returning the emotion very frequently."

She laughed softly and looked up at the man. "Now Severus, I know better than that." Molly rejoined the group while Severus went to make some tea, and Arthur followed him into the kitchen in desperate need of some time away from the others.

After nearly an hour of standing, sitting, speaking with the others in the kitchen, and generally worrying if Bill was going to make it through the night or not while the Medi-Wizard they'd called took his sweet damn time, Bill opened his eyes which he promptly shut again and turned his head painfully towards the couch end. He opened his mouth to say something, but the ragged noisy breath he'd taken formed into hoarse coughs that shook his entire body, jostling something around that caused him to clutch his chest in a pain like he'd only felt once before. As his coughing died down and his wheezy breath slowed, he tried to tell the blobs standing around him that his ribs were broken by pointing frantically at his left chest area. However, as his motor control wasn't nearly as sharp as it felt, he wound up simply flopping his hand around for a moment before dropping it to the side.

Harry learned at that moment how painful it was to watch someone you care about in such a state. While he may not have known Bill in much more than an extended family way, he knew Ron, Molly, Arthur, and the twins in a very close familial way. Watching someone who felt like a cousin struggling to breath and losing control of their movements was hard, yes, and it was even tear inducing, however... watching your brother doing those things was heart-breaking, and in the Weasley Seniors cases, watching this happen to your son was soul-crushing.

He thought of Alden and Teddy, wondering what it might feel like to see them in a similar position, and quickly realized that he simply couldn't imagine the feelings that would course through him at a moment like that. He was, however, intensely amazed at the ease in which his mind spiraled out of control viewing scenario after scenario of the horrible things that could happen to his precious children. For quite possibly the first time in the last 2 years of having children, he knew what it felt like to be a parent frightened on behalf of your child who was unobservant of the dangers that lurked around them.

Harry looked over to Severus who, by the looks of things, was anxious to get to the boys as well. He kept flicking his gaze back at the fireplace. The younger wizard pulled Mrs. Weasley off to the side. "Molly, I'm sorry but I need to go. I just really need to see Alden and Teddy right now. It's not that I don't-"

"Go dear, I understand." She said with a nearly sad longing look in her eyes. She gave a small nod to Severus while the two disappeared into the floo.

Alden looked up in a most startled way when the door to his parents' chambers opened so suddenly and he was wrapped up in a tearful hug full of Harry. Severus looked on at them with some sort of unknown emotion sprawled on his face and made his way to Teddy's room where he picked up the sleeping toddler.

Minerva came back from the restroom to find Severus sitting on the couch rocking the youngest very lightly looking as if he were trying to calm himself down a bit, and Harry tearfully clinging to a very confused Alden simply refusing to let go. She slipped quietly out of the room deciding to wait until tomorrow to ask what was going on.

(¯`·. Hp/Ss .·´¯)

Ahhh Halloween. Possibly the best holiday during the entire year if you happened to be a UK based charity organization well known in the wizarding world. Of course, that was thanks to Harry and the students of Hogwarts wanting to have fun again. Now that Bill was back and safe, though still very beat up and just barely able to talk, Harry felt like he might actually be able to enjoy the holiday.

Severus was dreading it with a fiery passion that could fuel 1,000 suns. Most of the school's children, years three through seven, had remembered the fun they had in '98 at the Halloween ball and knew that Professor Potter was planning another. The Slytherins and the Ravenclaws banded together and had somehow managed to wrangle Headmistress McGonagall into forcing Severus to go along with some cockamamie plan to surprise Harry in thanks for doing the ball again, and while Severus had no qualms with surprising his lover, he did have a problem with how they were going about it.

Most of the 7th years who had been requested to run booths tonight were working together whilst Harry was running around making the final adjustments. Severus had been wrapped up into convincing the Bloody Baron to refuse to introduce it again this year, as well as having him convince the other ghosts within the castle to refuse if asked.

Snape was also wrapped up in, Merlin forbid, keeping Harry out of the Great Hall whilst the 7th years decorated it. That wasn't what was so annoying. What made him irritated beyond belief was the fact that Harry seemed to be trying every five minutes to get into the Great Hall to make sure everything was going fine, and Severus was running out of excuses that couldn't be put off to keep him out. Pretty soon he would have to resort to actually restraining the young professor unless something happened to help him out.

And something did happen. Alden came walking into the corridor and started pulling on the robe sleeves of both men. "Come quick, Draco's here with Serenity!"

They rushed to their shared rooms to find the pale blond standing there with a very frantic cobra slithering from one arm to another whilst flicking her tongue constantly.. When Serenity smelled Snape's approach, she made a b-line for the floor and tried to meet him half way.

Severus had never seen his snake act this way before, and he'd most certainly never had whomever he'd paid to feed her while he was at work bring her in before. Draco answered the unasked question. "She wouldn't leave me alone when I went to feed her, she just kept getting up on me and squeezing my arm. I didn't even know cobras could squeeze like that."

Serenity was hissing away and Harry was listening intently, giving a small hiss himself every few seconds. When Harry's face paled greatly, Severus couldn't stand it any more. "What's happened?"

"Hssra sssh asshhs shhhra sssh rasss hra." Harry answered.

"In English if you would!"

"Oh, sorry. She said that over the last few days the wards at the house have been weakening." He stopped while she hissed some more. "And that today it got really weak." More hissing. "And when they come back in a little while they'll break." Hissing. "And she's sorry for eating Draco's stuffed bunny when he was 7."

Draco stared at the snake. "You ate my Squishy?"

"She's sorry." Harry offered.

"How long is a little while?" Severus interrupted.

Another brief amount of hissing. "Tomorrow evening."

"We're going to the manor to build up the wards." Severus ordered, picking Serenity up from the ground and letting her wrap around his arm. "Harry, go get Minerva. Draco, go get the strongest able-bodied Weasley currently at your manor who's willing to help. Alden, please take Teddy to Poppy."

Massster isss worried for another reassson. Serenity commented.

What reason would that be? Harry asked.

The snake lifted her head a bit. Your tree day box isss in the houssse.

Tree day box? Harry had never been more confused in his life.

The day that you ssslither to the tree you put in the big part of home that hasss ssstrange boxes under it.

Ah! Ohhh, tree day! Harry stated. There was no parseltongue word for 'Christmas'. Why is he so worried? He knows I only want our family.

It isss hisss m-

Do not tell me. It would ruin the surprise. Of course Serenity didn't understand what he meant by that, so he promised to explain it later while he went to go get Minerva.

(¯`·. Hp/Ss .·´¯)

After the wards were built back up hours later to a point that it would take even them a week to take them down, everyone took a small break and Severus sought out the house-elves to find out why one of them hadn't alerted him when it first started happening. He started to worry a bit when he didn't find them in their quarters and they wouldn't come when called. It was with great relief that he found them all alive and healthy, just cowering in fear in some strange bubble type of thing on the other side of the property where the wards had ended.

It took a combination of his and every of the elves' power to get them out, but it was done. After much apologizing, descriptions of the men who had done this to them, and lots of calming of the house-elves, Severus made his way back to the manor, where he found the group inside in the sitting room.

More specifically, everyone but Harry, Alden (who Minerva had drug along for some reason), and Serenity. He found them in the kitchen. Both of the wizards were deeply engrossed in a conversation, and Serenity... well... Serenity was basking in what appeared to be adoration, as both of the others were petting and feeding her. Even though she had just been fed earlier that day.

Severus rose an eyebrow and cleared his throat. "What have I said about coddling my cobra?"

"But Sev, she absolutely loves it." Harry protested.

"And she's so friendly, you made her out to be all mean." Alden added.

"She was mean." Severus stated. Harry looked to the snake who nodded affirmative and Snape simply shook his head. "Come on then, back to Hogwarts."

Just as they were exiting the room, Serenity hissed something at them and Harry went back to pick her up. Upon Severus' questioning look, he shrugged. "She doesn't want to stay here in case they come back. She's scared."

Another small grump-fest about them spoiling his cobra ensued, and they had reached Hogwarts before Snape realized that yes... they had indeed brought the snake along. He sighed and went off to find Teddy to take him back to Malfoy Manor while they got ready for the Halloween Ball which was starting in 20 minutes.