Friday 12th June 1981

Madam Malkins, 16:00

Elsie couldn't help but fidget with the fabric as she looked out of the window. It was technically fabric that shouldn't be overworked so it shouldn't really even be in her hands at all but she couldn't help it.

Actually, she could. She stilled her hands and forcibly pushed the fabric away from her. And then she had to scramble after it because she knocked it off the cutting table. Whoops! A quick check ensured that nothing had happened to it. Phew. This was a big and expensive order for a very finicky customer. There was no way they could mess this up. They couldn't afford to.

Had she mentioned that people weren't really buying robes these days? Except for school ones and to replenish ones they used for work? All social events had notably declined over the years and this year was a new low. What was the point in buying new robes when you weren't going anywhere? Which was great fir business. Thank Merlin they were the only shop that provided school robes. Though, Twilfit and Tatting had been trying to muscle in in the last year or so.

She shook her head. Just another thing to worry about. Something she really didn't need. And yes, she worried about things like because she was all but rubbing the show here in the shop now. Her grandmother didn't have the patience for it anymore, nor the eyes. Her eyesight was just plain rubbish these days. Which meant the responsibility for running the shop and managing her sisters were left to her. Because of course it was. Kt wasn't like she got a choice in the matter. She never got a choice in the matter. Because she was the oldest and this was what she was supposed to do. It was expected of her. Never mind what she wanted.

She banished those thoughts to the back of her mind where they belonged. She shouldn't be thinking such things. Not now.

Back to more pertinent things. Yeah. More pertinent. She hadn't seen him since that day and he'd tried to do, well, whatever he had been trying to do. She wasn't sure what that had meant to be because she hadn't exactly given him a chance to do anything, had she?

Because she hadn't wanted him to do anything

He didn't deserve a chance. Neither did Frank. Or any of the Aurors. Right? No, they didn't. Or was that being unreasonable? She didn't feel like she was being unreasonable. And then sometimes she did. Sometimes Elsie felt like she was going crazy. But apparently that was how grief worked. Which sucked but whatever. Grief sucked. It really did. When did it stop feeling like, well, grief? Did she want to stop grieving her sister?

But she hadn't seen him since then. Not even walking in the street, never mind patrolling. It was like je was avoiding this area all together. Which she supposed made sense. She wouldn't want to be around someone who made it clear that she wasn't welcome. Or maybe it was because there was no need for him to be up around here. It wasn't like he got robes all that often.

Maybe she was overreacting. She didn't really want to see him. Right?

Sophie muscled last her, not even stopping to apologise when Elsie lost her balance and banged into the cupboard behind her. Ouch.

Elsie sighed a followed her sister with her eyes. Sophie hadn't been the same since... well, you know. Since that. None of them had been. They had all grieved, were still grieving, really. Some got angry. Some got sad. Sophie appeared to react in neither way. In fact, it was like she didn't react at all.

Linda. Her precious little sister Linda. The middle child. The sweetheart.

Now she was gone. The life snuffed out of her just like that. Like she didn't even matter in the grand scheme of things. She was gone. Dead. Murdered. And Elsie couldn't summon up a single feeling about it anymore.

It had been like she had no feelings at all. Lile she was just this moving statue made out of stone. There was no anger. No sadness. No confusion. Not even any happiness (though, why she would be feeling that, Elsie didn't know). Since that day and that horrible, horrible screeching sob that Sophie had let out, she had kept all of her emotions under lock and key.

Je jumped to her feet as someone walked past only for her to realise that that person was not Kingsley. Dammit. That was the third person that had made her do that. Not every black person was her old friend. Ex friend. Whatever. The point was, she had to stop thinking that Kingsley would just magically appear just because she wanted him to.

That's just not how life worked.


Sunday 14th June 1981

Marauder Flat, 16:00

"Are you sure we've made the right choice?" Sirius asked anxiously, glancing back behind them and biting his lip.

Marlene rolled her eyes and tugged him further down the street.

"We have. It's Severus. It isn't like we're leaving her with a complete stranger. He's family."

And of you told her several years ago that she'd consider Severus Snape family then she would have asked you if you needed your head checked.

"He looked incredibly freaked out."

"Because she was crying," Marlene said with a sigh. "He looked a lot more confident once she'd settled down."

"Once you settled her down, you mean."

"I'm pretty sure that handing your childminder a crying baby is bad manners."

That and at that point she hadn't been quite ready to hand Cassie over so soothing her made sure that she got an extra cuddle in. See? Smart.

"You should have just so we could see how he would handle it."

She shook her head.

"No. That would have just been cruel. And he would have just felt all self-conscious with the two of us looking at him."

"I mean, maybe we should have just brought her with us." Sirius said, biting his lip.

"The whole point of this was to get soke time together, just you and me," Marlene reminded them.

Life had been bonkers lately, for lack of a better word. Work had been insane with everything that had to be done and the rapidly decreasing amount of people that could actually make that happen. Then there was work for the Order, which was, quite frankly, a thankless task because things were just getting worse and worse. It was hard to keep your spirits up to keep going when you lost again and again. And then there was Cassie who was growing so quickly a day she was rapidly becoming a toddler, leaving babyhood behind her and Marlene wasn't sure if she liked it or not. This was her baby, after all.

So, yes, all of that made them be extremely busy without a moment's rest. And when they did het a moment it was used for sleeping. And maybe eating, though they hadn't been too good at that recently, either ordering in or scrounging for whatever they had in the fridge a cupboard.

"I guess," he said reluctantly.

"Don't you want to spend time with me?"

"Of course, I do! It's just..."

"You still don't like leaving Cassie," she finished for him, giving him a knowing look.

Cassie was definitely a Daddy's girl. Which was the sweetest thing ever, in Marlene's opinion. Even though she was dreading when Cassie got old enough for her and Sirius to get in trouble together. It almost made her want another child just to balance out the possible insanity. Almost. She wasn't quite that insane yet.

"Exactly," Sirius agreed.

Marlene sighed, seeing where he was coming from (she felt like that too, after all) but also realising that they needed these few hours.

"Sirius," she put her hands on her hips and raised an eyebrow. He came to a stop and stared at her in confusion. "Do you trust Severus?"

"Of course, I do."

He said it without hesitation so that was one less thing to worry about.

"But?" She prompted.

"He's never been alone with her before."


Marauders Flat, 16:30

Severus held Cassie under her arms. He knew it wasn't the proper way to hold a baby, he'd seen people hold babies before. Merlin, he'd even held Harry before. And Cassie! And Teddy! He'd held quite a few babies in hindsight. He knew how to hold babies. Granted, that was when he was sitting down and a baby was handed to him. This was a little bit different. Mainly because, oh, je didn't know, he was by himself.

Yes, you heard him. He, Severus Snape, had been left alone with a baby of all things!

This was not something he felt confident with exactly, despite informing Sirius and Marlene that of course he and Cassie would be fine. She was basically his niece and all that. He could cope with a few hours of looking after her by himself. Babies were supposed to be easier than actual, mobile children, right? Mainly because of the whole not being exactly mobile thing.

He could do this. He could do this. He could do this. He had offered to do this. For his friends. Family. Whatever. Either way, it wasn't like Cassie had just been thrust on him. No, he'd asked which meant he knew he could do it.

He was very quickly discovering that knowing you could do something and thinking you could do something were two very different things.

He settled Cassie on the sofa and stood back, watching her. What exactly was he supposed to do with her anyway? He didn't exactly plan that far ahead.

Cassie sat there and stared at him. Severus stared right back. She didn't blink. Weren't babies supposed to blink? Actually, weren't they always supposed to be doing something unless they were sleeping? And Cassie wasn't sleeping, she was just staring at him. And it was getting a bit weird. And unnerving. Why was she stating so much? Shouldn't she be doing something? Babies and toddlers were supposed to get into all sorts of mischief, right? It was like she knew that he was unsure about all of this and was sizing him up, trying to figure out what she could get away with.

Severus stopped himself there. Wait she was a baby. Granted, she was Sirius' baby but still a baby. She did not have the abilities to plot and scheme. Yet.


Marauder Flat, 18:00

He took back what he said about babies not being mobile. He took it back, he took it back, he took it back. Because he, Severus Snape, had been incredibly stupid and forgot that babies could crawl. And kind of toddle around but mainly crawl. And apparently, babies could crawl fast. Or, at least, Cassie could.

And crawling meant moving and moving meant that she could get into things. Things she shouldn't be getting into. Like his Potions vials. How did she even get into that locked trunk anyway (he had locked it, he wasn't that stupid, after all - he knew what things had to be kept away from babies)?

Oh, there was absolutely no doubt that she was Sirius Black's daughter. There was no doubt at all. Not even a year old and already causing chaos. That was the only word for it. Absolute chaos. And there was a mess on his floor to match. Where did all of his robes even come from? There was no way that all of them had been in here but somehow Cassie had managed to get them. See? Harbinger of Chaos.

There was also water everywhere and Cassie was soaked because he accidentally spilled it over her when she grabbed his leg without warning as he carried a glass of water. She hadn't liked that and had started screeching.

How was it even possible to get that high-pitched? Was she broken?

Severus didn't know what to do. He didn't even know where to begin thinking about what to do. It was like his brain wasn't working and all he could think about was panicking, panicking, panicking.

And then because she was screeching and not paying any attention to her surroundings (did babies even know how to do that?) she banged her flailing arm off something which made her cry even more.

What was he supposed to do? He didn't know what to do! He wasn't used to not knowing!

This was ridiculous. Utterly ridiculous. He should be able to handle a baby! Except he couldn't. He really, really couldn't.

Without even thinking, he threw floo powder onto the fireplace and promptly stuck his head in it.

"Tonks Home"

Please them be home. Please let them be home Severus fervently prayed to himself. He would really prefer to ask Lily about such things but Godric's Hollow wasn't connected to the Floo Network. Because, you know, of the whole being in hiding thing. Being able to be accessed from the outside world would kind of negate that, wouldn't it?

"Severus?"

And Remus was home, thank Merlin. Severus breathed a sigh of relief only to inhale some ash. As he was hacking up his lungs, Remus knelt down so they were level with each other.

"Are you okay? Is that screaming I hear?"

"That's Cassie," Severus said helplessly. "Help."

It took a while, and Remus telling him that he definitely shouldn't have flooed without putting Cassie somewhere safe (and then he got told off for putting a sleeping spell on her - they weren't harmful to babies, they just didn't give you a good rest) and then Remus talking him down from his panic. Apparently, all he had to do was pick up the child and bounce or rock her and she would be fine?

"And for Merlin's sake, Severus, get her out of those wet clothes. She's probably uncomfortable."

That, that actually made sense. Why hadn't he thought of that?

It was only now that Severus realised that when he had made the floo call, he hadn't got down on his knees to do so. Instead, he had somewhat awkwardly bent over in an effort to get his head into the fire.

This realisation suddenly made him feel awfully unbalanced, like he was about to pitch headfirst into the fire. And he didn't think that falling into it would mean that he would manage to accidently floo himself over to the Tonks'. He didn't think floos worked like that. More likely, he would crash his head against the wall as he fell and knock himself unconscious. Which would just be great when he was responsible for another human life.

With that ridiculous thought, be decided it was high time he ended the call. So, with a lot of thanks directed at Remus, Severus stopped the call and walked determinedly over to this sort of niece of his.

He supposed the first step would be taking this sleeping spell off her.


Wednesday 17th June 1981

Longbottom Manor, 11:00

"And look, this is a Venus flytrap, which isn't magical at all but you mummy thinks is cool so we have one," she cooed to her precious, little boy.

Alice sighed happily. Plants and Neville. Two things which could make things right in her world. Especially when Neville was in a happy mood and being very engaging.

"Oh, ah, ah, ah," she said, carefully grabbing his hand. Speaking of engaging. "We don't stick our hands into plants with teeth. Not without gloves on, at least."

Neville looked at her with the most adorable, serious look on his face. Almost like he had understood what she had said to him. She wouldn't be surprised if he did. He was an incredibly smart baby, after all.

"You're just the smartest, aren't you? Aren't you?" She cooed, holding him under his arms and rubbing her nose with his.

He wriggled against her but burst out into giggles. Oh, how she loved those chubby cheeks! That deserved even more kisses!

"Is this where you hide out?" Frank's asked, leaning against the door of the greenhouse.

Alice jumped slightly, having not been expecting him at all.

Frank didn't tend to go into the greenhouses all that often. One of the main reasons why the greenhouses had become her sanctuary. She could just come here and she was pretty much guaranteed to be by herself. Well, except for any Elves that came in to tell her something but they didn't really count, did they?

"Oh, hi Frank, " she greeted with a stiff sort of smile.

"Hello. You're hiding out in here," he said walking towards her.

Alice got the absolutely crazy thought of backing away from him. Which she put a stop to immediately. Frank wasn't a threat and backing away would do absolutely nothing except make her look crazy. Even of it was a bit tempting just to see what he would do or say.

Where were these thoughts even coming from? Maybe she was starting to go crazy.

"It's not really hiding," she said instead.

It was just avoiding. Avoiding everyone and everything in a way that she wouldn't be found easily. But it wasn't hiding! Okay, maybe it was hiding.

He scoffed at her, apparently thinking the same thing.

"It's hiding."

She glared at him. There was absolutely no need for him to be so blunt about it. She knew she was hiding. He knew she was hiding. Did he really have to say kt out loud like that?

"I'm not a coward."

"Didn't say you were," he said calmly.

Which confused her, by the way. Should he be annoyed? Even angry?