October 2010

Hogwarts Library

The girls, Lily and Lynne, taught Sirius, Teddy and Gianah how to easily find the books they needed in the vast school library without having to ask for the old librarian's help, and then they all gathered at their favourite table.

"Madame Pince was already here when our parents were students," whispered Lily, receiving surprised eyes all around the table, "Can you believe that?"

"She must be what-" whispered Sirius in reply, "Ninety? Hundred and ten?" making their friends laugh.

"At least eighty," said Gianah with mirth; but her smile abruptly died when she looked up at the door of the library, turning into a scowl, "Oh, no."

"What is it?" asked Lily, looking up and the following her gaze, "Oh, shit."

"Here we go," whispered Lynne, narrowing her eyes at the familiar boy that had just walked into the library and was approaching their table.

"You!" Gianah exhaled sharply, pointing her quill at Lily, "You said he never comes here!" her blue eyes glaring at her friend accusingly.

"And he doesn't!" Lily replied with a hint of exasperation, "This is the first time I'm seeing him in the library– I swear, Gigi!"

"How could he possibly know we were here?" asked Lynne, knowingly looking at Teddy and Sirius.

"Well..." said the latter with a grimace, "I may have mentioned we'd be here this afternoon..."

"You bloody idiot!" Gianah hissed, shoving Sirius, nearly causing him to fall off his chair.

Stephen found his sister and their friends as soon as he entered the school library, his eyes meeting the scowling face of one of the redheaded girls.

He held Gianah's gaze as he walked towards them, smirking when she shoved Sirius – proof that she was already annoyed by his presence.

"Hello there," he greeted as he stopped by their table, "What're you all doing here?"

"What do you think people do in a library, Snape?" replied Gianah with contempt.

"Weasley!" Stephen pretended to be just noticing her, "I should've guessed you were here – the stench can be scented from the door," he wrinkled his nose.

But the girl didn't seem fazed by his attempted insult.

"You must really be a fan, Snape," Gianah said with a smirk, "To be recognising my perfume all the way from the door, I bet you even know its name and brand."

Noa, Cacharel. He thought before he could stop himself. Shit.

"As if," he scoffed, hoping he'd schooled his face fast enough.

But Gianah narrowed her eyes, her smirk slowly broadening into a smug smile, "Sure, Snape, sure; I'll pretend I didn't see you occluding as fast as a Vipertooth Dragon."

He narrowed his eyes at her, ready to utter a scathing reply, but his sister intervened:

"Hell, no!" Lily stood up, putting a hand on his shoulder, "Stop it, Stephen!" she darted a glance to the door, "Shit, I think I just saw Pince leaving, she may have gone fetch mum! Just say the fuck you came here to say and leave!"

"Yes, out with it," said Lynne in a bored tone, "I didn't even know you knew how to get to the library."

He glared at his niece, moving his eyes to Gianah until he stopped on Sirius, "I'm only here to confirm tonight's adventure."

"What adventure?" asked Teddy, frowning and looking from one friend to another, "Don't tell me you two are still thinking of going to-"

"Shh," Stephen shushed him, looking around to be sure no one could overhear them, "Yes, we're going down the Whomping Willow tonight! I'm surprised you don't want to join us, Ted."

The others looked from him to Teddy, baffling disbelief on their faces.

However, Teddy looked at Stephen with more than just bafflement – he was furious.

"And why exactly would I want to join you?"

"Why?" Stephen repeated as if that was a stupid question, "To see the Shrieking Shack from the inside, of course!"

"Of course!" said Teddy, with uncharacteristic sarcasm, struggling to keep his voice low, "And see where my father spent countless nights of mental and physical torture in the skin of an irrational monster when he couldn't afford Wolfsbane?" he scoffed, eyeing his friend with contempt, "No, Stephen, I have absolutely no interest in going there."

"Fine, I get it," Stephen replied, raising his hands in a sign of peace, "I meant no offence," he looked at Sirius, "You're coming with me, right?"

Four pairs of eyes (Lynne's, Lily's, Gianah's and Teddy's), showing varied levels of anger, surprise and hurt, turned to face Sirius but he refused to glance at them, simply replying: "Yes, I'll be there."

"Wicked!" Stephen pointed a finger at him, "Don't forget the invisibility cloak!" then he waved at the others, "See you all at dinner," and left.

No one spoke at the table, all four still stared at Sirius with disapproving frowns.

"What?" Sirius asked.

"How could you agree to join Stephen in this?" Lily asked, glancing at Teddy.

Sirius shrugged, "It's no big deal, we're just going there to look around-"

Lynne spoke next: "And what do you expect to see in there, Potter?"

"I don't know," he shrugged, "Broken furniture? Tattered curtains? Maybe some blood stains-"

Teddy violently pushed his chair back and stood up, slamming his hands on the table as he leaned to speak right at Sirius's face: "Furniture my father most certainly destroyed, curtains his werewolf claws might have ripped, and blood stains that likely belong to him!" he summoned his things and zipped up his schoolbag, leaving the library without another word, clearly wiping tears from his eyes.

"And you thought he'd want to go there?" asked Lily, shaking her head, before she picked up her things, glaring at Sirius before leaving: "Sometimes, I don't recognise you," and she left to go after Teddy.

Sirius seemed surprised as he watched Lily leave.

Gianah and Lynne both took that moment of distraction to send stinging hexes at him at the same time and he jumped out of his chair with a yelp.

"What was that for?" he hissed, touching his left knee and his stomach, the two places where their spells had hit him.

"Are you bloody joking?" hissed Gianah, "And you have to ask?"

"Yes!" he exclaimed, thanking Godric that Pince hadn't returned yet and there weren't any Prefects around to make them keep it low, "I don't get why you're all upset! It's just-"

"That's it!" Gianah cut him off, gathering her things, "You're an idiot, Potter," and left the library.

Lynne silently shook her head but didn't get up to leave like the others had, she just looked at Sirius, openly pitying him.

"What?" he rudely asked, still touching his stomach.

"I've known you well enough to know that you like them, cousin."

"Of course I like them! They're my friends!" Sirius said as if she had said an absurdity.

Lynne shook her head again, "Not what I meant. You obviously fancy Lily and Teddy– deny all you want," she added as he started moving his head, "We grew up together – all of us. And we all know that Stephen is an idiot. If you go tonight down the Willow, cousin, you'll prove you're just like him."

"Well, cousin," Sirius huffed derisively, "I don't think Stephen is an idiot! I think he knows how to have fun! And tonight, that's exactly what we'll be having: a shitload of fun! While the rest of you read and study like the bunch of swots you all are – the way I see it: you're the idiots!"

Lynne watched him storm out of the library and let out a sigh, shaking her head.

Boys, what do girls see in them?

Later that night

Stephen and Sirius, covered by the anonymity of the latter's invisibility cloak, crossed the castle grounds towards the Whomping Willow as silently as possible, walking towards the tall, intimidating tree.

"Here it is," said Stephen, when they stopped at a safe distance from the moving branches.

"I can see the knob on the trunk," said Sirius, "The one the stories say we should press to stop the tree," he looked up, frowning, "But how will we reach it without getting hit?"

"Didn't your dad say there was a spell that could stop it temporarily?"

"Yes, the paralysation spell. He said knowing that could've spared him quite a few bruises."

Stephen pointed his wand at the Willow, casting: "Immobilus."

And the branches immediately stopped.

"Bloody hell, it's true, it stopped!" gasped Sirius, staring at the frozen tree in shock, "Do you think all the other stories are true? About how Uncle Remus locked himself in the Shack to suffer for a whole night every month he couldn't buy Wolfsbane?"

"Probably," Stephen said, forcing himself to ignore the fear and the doubt that had started to push forward in his mind, "He was a werewolf when he was our age, and there was no wolfsbane then– at least during his Hogwarts time he had to be locked somewhere."

"It must've been horrible," Sirius whispered, pocketing his invisibility cloak and stopping as he thought of Teddy, of how hurt he would be if he heard them talking so dismissively about his father's pain.

"C'mon, Siri!" hurried Stephen, "If we don't move soon, the tree will come to and hit us!" and he didn't wait for a reply before slipping into the dark mouth of the tunnel under the willow.

Sirius held his wand tightly in his hand and followed his friend down the passageway.

For long minutes, the two boys walked through a long dirty tunnel, following the light of their Lumos; the passageway was tall and narrow, crawling with bugs, and smelled like wet soil; it seemed never-ending for a while, then it suddenly changed, beginning to slope up.

"I think we're close now," whispered Stephen, "This took longer than I thought."

"I guess it had to be very far from the castle; otherwise, the werewolf could easily find its way back and attack someone," suggested Sirius, thinking once more on Teddy's hurtful face.

The tunnel turned left, and they could see a hole in the wall.

"This is it," Stephen whispered as they walked out of the tunnel and into a dusty and decrepit room, "We've found it!" he moved around, looking at everything with excitement.

Sirius, however, stood frozen in place, looking around the dingy foyer; there wasn't much to be seen, all the windows and the front door were boarded up and the room was covered with dust, the carpet on the narrow staircase was loose and looked half-eaten; there was only one chair in the small space– one of its legs had been ripped off.

"Hey, Stephen," Sirius called in a small voice, "We've made it here, maybe now we should... go back?"

But his friend wasn't listening; Stephen was already by the stairs, looking at the steps as if pondering their safety.

Sirius moved towards him with careful steps, being taken by a strong feeling that their presence there was wrong.

"Stephen, let's go back," insisted Sirius, not liking that anymore, wishing he had listened to Lynne and the others.

"What? C'mon Siri!" Stephen whispered, "We've got this far, let's at least look around. I want to see what's upstairs," and he climbed the first step, testing its stability.

Fuck. Sirius hated having to follow his friend – but he hated even more the idea of staying alone in that horrible place.

"Wait for me, mate," he whispered as he saw Stephen was already half-way upstairs.

"Watch out for the holes on the floor," warned Stephen, walking down the narrow upstairs corridor, looking inside the rooms, seeming completely unaffected by the fact that they were into the most haunted house in Britain.

Sirius tightened his grip on his wand and took a deep breath, trying to calm himself down and focus on the fact that he was there – no one needed to know he had been terrified when he bragged about it later.

He followed his friend's lead and looked around, sticking his head inside each room they walked by, noticing they were all pretty similar. Like in the corridor, the floor in the rooms was covered in dirt and dust, paper was peeling from the walls; there were odd darker stains in many spots of the wooden floor; and every piece of furniture they found was either broken or badly repaired, as though somebody had smashed and fixed them more than once.

One of the rooms was slightly different, holding a large four-poster bed that had certainly been beautiful when it wasn't broken and covered with dust and bugs; there was also a Spinet piano with its right front leg missing and holes all over it, nearly half its keys were on the floor, it looked like someone had cast spells aimlessly on it.

"Holy shit!" he heard Stephen exclaimed from another room by the end of the corridor.

Sirius walked there and immediately saw what had surprised his friend, gasping: "Is that-?"

"Snakeskin?" Stephen continued for him, nodding, "Yeah, I think so."

They silently stared at the long, wide, nearly transparent scaly skin, peppered with hues of brown and grey, that lay entangled in a pile on the corner of the room.

"This was one freaking huge snake, mate," Sirius gulped, Do you think," his voice broke, and he started again: "Do you think that was-"

"Nagini's?" whispered Stephen, his previous excitement dulling down, "It could be... I don't know."

The two boys fell silent, staring at that dry skin with uneasiness, trying to find where it began and ended, wanting to estimate its size.

"Why would that be here?" asked Stephen after a while.

"My dad said he met Voldemort in the woods..." said Sirius, "What if this is the place where he and the death eaters hid before the final battle?" his head snapped to the door, as if the Dark Lord himself could simply appear beside them, then something else caught his eye: "Oh, no... is that a bone?" his voice low in volume but high in tone.

Stephen followed his gaze and found what had his friend so shook; something long, thin and greyish lay on the floor on the corner of the room.

"Fuck, I... I think so," Stephen gulped, his brain reminding him of all he had ever heard about Nagini, "Uncle Draco said he saw the snake eat a whole person once."

"I'm out," Sirius declared, leaving the room and walking down the corridor as fast as he dared, minding the holes on the floor and the rickety staircase.

"Wait!" said Stephen from somewhere in the corridor behind him, "In this room, a window has been opened. I can see Hogwarts from here. Why would anyone open a window here?"

Sirius, who had stopped near the stairs to wait for his friend, didn't move from where he stood as he replied: "I don't know, maybe Voldemort did it to watch the war from here."

Stephen showed up in the corridor, looking very uncomfortable: "Fine, Sirius, you win, let's get out of here. This place is not as fun as I expected it to be."

"Thank, Godric," Sirius muttered under his breath.

They walked back downstairs, reaching the foyer in seconds, but instead of entering the tunnel to return to the castle, Stephen decided to open a door to the right of it and revealed what was once a nice kitchen and living room space.

Sirius followed him against his own self-preservation instincts, "C'mon, Stephen! Let's go back!"

"In a minute, mate, we can't go back without at least seeing everything! What will we tell the others?"

"We'll lie and say we had a blast," Sirius hissed if that was obvious, "Now let's go!"

"We can't do that! If they ever decide to come here, they'll find out that we lied!" replied Stephen, "No! Just look around, gather enough info to tell them and then we'll go."

"Fine!" Sirius huffed, "But if we die here or get cursed by touching some weird pot or whatever, I'm never talking to you ever again!" he held on to his wand, casting Lumos to properly look around the room.

The space downstairs was just as broken and filthy and sad as the rooms upstairs; everything was covered by dust and dirt, the furniture had been badly repaired too many times, the sofa had been mostly eaten by moths and the coffee table had two legs missing.

"Look," Sirius found himself saying this time, "There's a cloak here," he approached the black fabric thrown carelessly on an armchair, "It looks like the bugs haven't got to it yet."

"Yeah," agreed Stephen approaching it with curiosity, "Weird. It's like the bugs have avoided it."

"Maybe it's cursed," whispered Sirius, taking a step back, away from the armchair, concerned.

"Could be."

"Don't touch it, Stephen!"

But the boy didn't listen to him, "Scourgify," Stephen cast before picking up the cloak and analysing it, "It looks feminine, and nice," he caressed the fabric, "This must've cost a fortune."

"Put it back!" Sirius ordered, exasperated, "That must've belonged to a death eater!"

"Probably," Stephen casually threw the cloak back onto the armchair and walked towards the kitchen area again, "Whoever they were, they had good taste."

Sirius wrinkled his nose, strongly disapproving of his friend's light-hearted approach to that situation.

"Relax, mate!" Stephen rolled his eyes, "Even if Voldemort, Death Eaters and Nagini were here during the war that was twelve years ago! It's not like they can still hurt us!"

"There are curses and ghosts in the wizarding world, mate," Sirius retorted bitingly.

But his friend ignored him again, "Hey, there's something over here too!" he pointed at something on the floor by a window and crouched down to get a closer look, "Holy shit, look at this Sirius!"

And a small voice inside Sirius' head told him that whatever his friend had found couldn't be good.

"Whatever that is, just drop it and let's go!"

"It looks like half of a mask," continued Stephen, scourgifying the white object he had picked up.

"Bloody hell, I think that's a Death Eater's mask," Sirius sounded as terrified as he felt at the sight of that.

Stephen brought it to him once he realised his friend wouldn't move any closer to the mask on his own accord, "Yeah, it could be one of their masks; let's look around and see if we can find the other half!" and he was turning around and searching for it before Sirius could utter a complaint.

"I'm not helping you find half of a sodding death eater mask!" Sirius growled, "I'm leaving!" he walked to the door that led to the foyer, but stopped when he heard Stephen inhale sharply.

"Yes!" Stephen exclaimed after violently coughing due to the dust he'd inadvertedly inhaled.

"Did you find the other half?" Sirius asked, unable to contain his curiosity.

"No. It's something even better," and then Stephen walked towards him holding a full Death Eater mask on his own face, "I found a whole one!"

"For Merlin's sake, Stephen put that thing down!" Sirius yanked his friend's arm down.

"Chill, mate, I'm just joking."

"This isn't funny anymore!"

"Fine," Stephen rolled his eyes, "Let's go back to the castle."

Meanwhile, back in Hogwarts

The clock on the headmaster's desk informed whoever looked at it that it was nearly two in the morning. Florence was still up, sitting on the sofa in her husband's office, an open book in her hands, as she waited for Severus's return.

The moment the castle wards had alerted them that two students had left the grounds through the Whomping Willow passage, they knew exactly who those two were. And a simple spell confirmed their suspicions: a student was missing from the Gryffindor Tower, and another from the Slytherin Dorms.

Severus immediately floo-called Remus and Harry and they came up with a plan to ambush the boys and make the two regret not staying in their beds.

Florence agreed to the plan of scaring the shit out of the kids, but she wondered if the reason the boys had decided to defy the rules and sneak out of the school to go on a potentially dangerous adventure was because they didn't know enough about the war to respect and fear its history.

We'll have to start teaching the twins about the war. I thought we'd be able to wait until they learned it in History of Magic.

Severus had hired a new History teacher as soon as he'd found a good one.

Prof. Binns still taught in the castle; the first years had to endure his boring lessons as a rite of passage – a baptism by boredom as first-years' History lessons had become known.

But from the second to the seventh-year, Prof. Percy Weasley had taken over the History lessons; after the many wrong choices he had made in his youth, Percy knew better than many how to make the students understand that History was directly shaped by the choices and actions of those who lived it.

They never told Prof. Binns about Percy, the ghost teacher kept working in his old classroom while Prof. Weasley's classes were given in a bright room where nothing made the students drowsy or bored.

The Second Wizarding War was taught in History of Magic from the fourth year forward, when they were considered old enough to not be too impressed by the atrocities committed by both sides during that time.

However, learning about Stephen's fascination with the subject had Florence now wondering if perhaps they shouldn't rethink that and add war-studies to the curriculums of the second and third years as well.

Knock. Knock.

Florence lowered the book she hadn't been actually reading and frowned at the door.

Who could be there at that hour?

She stood up and opened it, being surprised by who she saw on the other side: "Lynne, what happened, love?"

"Hi, grandma, I," she seemed a little nervous– a completely unexpected look on her, "It's Stephen and Sirius... they are doing something stupid that I think may put them in danger."

Florence smiled at her, pulling her for a hug, "We know, dear. Severus has already gone after them."

Lynne breathed a sigh of relief, "I tried to tell Sirius not to go, but-"

"He thinks Stephen is incredibly cool and wants to be more like him; I'm aware," Florence said, touching her granddaughter's hair, "They'll be properly dealt with, don't worry, love."

That had Lynne looking at her with curiosity, "What will you do to them?"

"Well," Florence smirked, "all I can say is they'll certainly regret ever thinking leaving the school grounds for a nightly visit to Britain's most haunted house was a good idea."

The girl laughed; by the glint in her grandmother's eyes, Lynne knew the boys were doomed.

Back to the Shrieking Shack

"I don't know why I've ever agreed to coming here," Sirius muttered.

"I thought it would be fun!" replied Stephen defensively, "And it kind of was! We saw Nagini's skin-"

Sirius quickly looked at him as if he was insane to mention that as fun: "We found the bone of a person she bloody digested!"

"We saw a Death Eater cloak-" continued Stephen, as if listing the highlights of that excursion.

"You can't be serious! That cloak belonged to a real Death Eater!"

"Yes! And we found actual masks-"

"Again: from bloody Death Eaters!" Sirius was shouting in exasperation, "None of that screams fun to me, Stephen! Those are remnants of horrible things that happened to our own parents!"

"Jeez, just relax, mate!" Stephen rolled his eyes, "C'mon, let's go back to school," he walked to the door that led to the foyer.

"Wait," Sirius held his arm, "You're not taking that with you," he pointed his wand to the white mask still in his friend's hand.

"Of course I am!" Stephen scoffed, "How else will we prove that we were actually here?"

"I don't know! We can take a bloody chair! But not that! I'm not letting you take it!"

"Letting me?" Stephen barked a laugh, "As if you could stop me, Potter! Just move your arse to the tunnel and I promise I'll not tell everyone what a sissy you-"

SLAM!

Somewhere around the house a door slammed shut, causing the entire building to shake around them and both boys froze where they stood, dirt and dust falling from the ceiling over their heads.

"What was t-that?" whimpered Sirius.

"The wind?" Stephen replied in a small voice.

"Are you asking, or you believe it was the wind?"

"I- I don't know, mate," Stephen stammered, clutching the white mask against his chest, where his heart pounded, "This is an old house, it's normal to-"

Thump. Thump. Thump.

Footsteps.

Those were the unmistakable sounds of footsteps in the upstairs corridor.

"There is someone in the house!" Sirius whimper-shouted, terrified.

Stephen gulped, unable to hide his own fear anymore, "Let's get to the tunnel!"

Sirius nodded and they ran to the foyer.

"Oh, no! No no!" Stephen whined, as they stopped face-to-face with a round strange door that now blocked their path to the entrance of the tunnel; he grabbed the handle but turning it didn't do anything, "It's locked."

"They know we're here!" Sirius cried breathlessly, "Whoever they are, they know we're here!"

Stephen opened his mouth, but the low sound of growls stopped him.

"Is that-" Sirius began.

"A werewolf?" Stephen finished, "Fuck... it could be. I-I don't know."

"Do you think some werewolf found this place and made it his home? Like Uncle Remus once did?"

"I- I don't know, Sirius," Stephen's voice was but a whisper.

"We're gonna die!" Sirius cried out, feeling so much fear he didn't think he'd ever be warm again; the cold terror that enveloped his body seemed to have soaked into his bones.

"We have to find a way out!" Stephen replied, going to the boarded-up window and trying to blast it open it with a Bombarda – but the wood only absorbed his spell, "Shit!"

"Alohomora!" Sirius cast on the unexpected door, but just like the window, it absorbed his spells and nothing happened, "They know we're here and they'll kill us," he sobbed, finally giving up and sitting on the floor with his back against the door.

"No!" shouted Stephen, going to the door and casting: "Bombarda maxima!" but nothing, not a single mark in the wood, "No, no... fuck!"

CLANG!

Something fell in the kitchen, the sudden clattering sound causing the boys to hold their breaths, staring at the door to the kitchen with widened eyes.

"There's more than one," whispered Stephen.

"They were watching us; all this time we are here, they've been watching us!" Sirius grabbed his arm, desperately asking: "Can't you apparate? Your siblings can apparate in the school grounds!"

Stephen looked at him as if he was stupid: "Of course I can't apparate! I'm twelve, Sirius!" he rested his back against the door and fell slowly to the floor, sitting beside Sirius and dropping the white mask beside him, putting both hands on his face, feeling his tears, "I'm sorry for bringing you here, mate."

The growls and the footsteps got closer; they were on the stairs.

"Get up, Stephen!" suddenly urged Sirius, his wand pointing at the stairs, "If we're dying, we must go down fighting! Our parents are war heroes! We can't go down like cowards, crying on the floor!"

Stephen wrinkled his nose at him, "Gosh, don't you Gryffindors have a shred of self-preservation? You don't have to be a hero every fucking time! We're going to die! There's nothing we can do! I can't apparate nor cast a Patronus-"

"Get up Stephen!"

"Fine!" he complied, standing and pointing his wand to the stairs like his friend.

To make things worse, their Lumos went out, at the same time that the growls got louder and then they saw it: a black shadow that looked a lot like a werewolf was walking down the stairs and coming towards them.

They both cast: "Stupefy!"

But another tall shadow sent their spells towards the wall with ease, the tall figure was cloaked in black and on his face it had a white mask very similar to the one beside Stephen on the floor.

The boys whimpered and tried casting other spells, but nothing hit either shadow.

Then the masked figure seemed to float fast towards them, and as he stopped, he raised his hand to his face and removed his mask.

Stephen and Sirius both let out very unmanly cries at the sight of the familiar face.

"DAD!"

"UNCLE SEV!"

And they threw themselves on him, hugging him tightly and sobbing against his robes.

Severus touched their heads and let them cry, not saying a word.

"The werewolf!" Stephen suddenly seemed to remember, looking around nervously.

"There is no werewolf," said a familiar voice as they walked out of the shadows, "Not anymore."

"UNCLE REMUS!" both of them cried.

"Wait, the kitchen-" said Stephen, looking at the door that led to the living room and seeing another familiar man appear.

"Hello, boys."

"DAD!" shouted Sirius, running towards Harry, wrapping his arms around his midsection and sobbing.

"It's alright, son, you're safe."

"You've always been safe," added Severus, "We've been here since you left the castle," his hands on his son's shoulders.

Stephen looked up at his father's face, but quickly lowered his gaze in shame and regret.

Severus Snape looked worse than angry – he looked deeply disappointed.

"I'm sorry, dad," Stephen hugged him again and whispered between sobs, "I'm so... s-sorry."

Severus caressed his hair and waited for him to calm down.

"I saw it all, Stephen," Severus whispered, and the pain was clear in his voice, "I saw you joking when you found the snakeskin upstairs. And I saw you putting on the death eater mask."

Stephen found out that swallowing around the lump in his throat was nearly impossible.

"I'm sorry-"

"No, son, sorry is not going to be enough," Severus seemed hurt.

"That cape you two found," said Harry, "That belonged to Bellatrix Lestrange; I remember seeing her wearing it."

Both boys gaped.

"And the masks you played with, Stephen," continued Severus, "The broken one belonged to Dolohov and this..." he summoned the mask from the floor, holding it on his hand and pressing his lips in a thin line with disgust: "This one belonged to Lucius Malfoy."

"This is not a place for adventures, boys," spoke Remus, "Horrible things happened in this house since its first day of construction. I used it for my monthly transformations; and I may be healed now, but I'll never forget the pain and the fear..." he looked around the foyer, his eyes falling on the broken chair, "I growled, yelled, hurt, bit and scratched myself for hours, for I didn't have anyone to infect, I didn't have anyone to maim and taste their blood."

Both boys trembled in the arms of their fathers'.

"And I almost died in that tunnel," added Severus.

"What?" Stephen gasped, looking up at him, "How dad?"

"Sirius Black" he looked at Sirius Potter as he spoke, "thought it would be funny to lure me to the Shack, on a full moon night, when he knew Lupin was here about to transform."

"He would've gotten us both killed if you had reached this house," said Lupin, "For I'd never be able to live with myself if I had killed you."

Severus just nodded, then he looked down at his son again, "If you want to know more about the war, I'll show you exactly how it was, in a Pensive at home. Don't ever go looking for adventure in places that have been pivotal in the war, and do not laugh about it ever again. Both your mother and I were tortured by Voldemort; I nearly died by Nagini's venom; and we could've lost you and your sister because your mother saved me after that attack."

"Also," added Remus, "Many many people lost their lives in the war. Children had to fight. And entire muggle families were killed."

"I understand it," Stephen nodded dejectedly, "I'm sorry for coming here and making light of what I saw and all that happened here."

Severus let out a heavy sigh and nodded, "Let's go home, I'll share with you one of my memories from the war tonight."

"So will I" added Remus.

"And I," nodded Harry.

And they apparated the kids to the Snapes' home in Hogsmeade.