Thank you for reading! I don't own any of Harry Potter! Please let me know if you enjoy! Updates every Saturday!
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Weeks whispered by that melted into months.
As Voldemort succeeded in overthrowing the Ministry from within itself, Harriet's belly swelled as her energy waned.
Draco hovered over her whenever he could plausibly pass off his worry as concern for their mission's success.
With May's arrival, Ellery could hardly wait to board the Hogwarts Express once his seemingly endless, wretched school year at the castle finally concluded.
As he shuffled onto the train with the other students eager to return home for the summer season, he couldn't help but frown.
Certainly, he was glad to be on his way to see his parents once more, but his sister's absence burned into his heart as he reluctantly took a seat in an empty train car.
Ellery was no idiot, he understood Harriet's friends had always thought he was a bit strange.
What did that matter?
Harriet had graciously allowed him to stay at her side, whether the others talked to him or not, whatever they did or didn't do, Harriet, his dear sister, always kept a place for him.
Ellery's pale face twisted into a mask of despair as he gazed out at the passing landscape once the train began to move and contemplated his remaining years at Hogwarts.
Between the brutal instructors the school had inexplicably hired in the previous semester, the lack of comradery, and the lingering sense of morose gloom that floated over the castle like a permanent veil, Hogwarts offered few positives.
To Ellery, the time he had left until graduation seemed like eternity.
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Harriet sat up in bed as Lily lovingly combed her hair that same morning.
A sigh left her lips just before her mother spoke, "...Your brother will be home today."
Harriet's emerald eyes widened.
Lily could sense her daughter's happy excitement as she turned her head and asked, "Can I go and see him?"
"I hardly think that's a good idea." Lily quipped as her eyes flickered down to the roundness barely hidden by the duvets, "...But perhaps your father and I could bring him here for a visit."
"Really?" Harriet asked with an excited gasp, "Oh, Mum! That'd be brilliant!"
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Regardless of the great and unwise trust he placed in Severus, Voldemort continued to keep his most closely guarded secrets private.
The silence in his train compartment coupled with the gentle motion of the vehicle had Ellery dozing within a half hour of the Hogwarts Express's departure.
His eyes nearly bulged out of his head when he was thrown across the empty car as the train squelched to a sudden halt.
Screams rang out.
The heavy wheels clicked into place.
Ellery raised himself up on his trembling arms as he tried to steady his own breathing while he wondered what had happened.
A slight sound caught his attention as a nauseating wave of despair gripped his soul.
As he turned his head to glance over at the compartment door, he sucked in a breath as he watched the telltale silhouette of a stalking Dementor pass by his compartment.
The hair stood up on the back of his neck as the dark creature mercifully left him alone, but heavy footsteps followed behind it a second later.
Ellery almost screamed when his door flung open to reveal a tall man in long, black robes staring down at him.
"W-Who are you?" Ellery gasped.
"Never mind that." The man replied with a grin, "Consider me a concerned third party……You're Severus Snape's son, aren't you?"
"Y-Yes." Ellery nodded as he swallowed thickly.
Terrified beyond measure, he silently sought to make his sister and parents proud no matter what came next.
"What's happened to the train?" He asked as he steadied his voice, "We'll be late getting home."
"Oh, dear boy!" The man replied with a dark chuckle, "I'm afraid there's been a grievous mistake. Orders didn't come down from the Ministry in enough time, but……you won't be going home anytime soon."
"I'm headed there for the summer!" Ellery snapped before he paused to think.
His eyes widened at his uncharacteristic haste before the man grinned and replied, "You were……Now you're on your way back to the castle, aren't you?"
Ellery's mouth fell open as an awful grating sound rang out.
A violent jolt followed just before the train wheels began to turn backwards in a jarring change brought on by the dark spell shot from the other train attendee's wands.
"You're taking us back?!" Ellery gasped.
"Indeed." The man smiled, "Don't worry, letters have already been sent to each family. Your parents will be aware of your whereabouts by the time you walk back through the castle doors."
"Why are you doing this?!" Ellery shouted.
"Orders are orders." The man replied with a smile and a shrug, "Surely you can understand that, being Snape's boy. It's not my business to know why they were given, only that Hogwarts students are to return to the castle immediately. There's something quite unsafe afoot that makes existence outside its walls……..simply too perilous."
Ellery gnashed his teeth as the man turned and let his black cloak swish behind him as he exited his train car to stomp down the train's narrow hall.
Ellery silently decided his father wore long, black cloaks with much more style than-
His eyes widened as he thought.
Surely there had been some mistake!
An awful, terrible mistake!
His father was….His father was still at the castle!
His father was close to the Dark Lord and therefore, the Ministry, he could right whatever wrong had happened!
Ellery sighed as he settled himself back into his seat.
Regardless of the fact that Severus could easily sort the matter, it still annoyed the youngest member of the Snape family that he had been forced to encounter such an inconvenient delay.
Ellery had no interest in spending another night at the castle.
After months of pining to see his home and his sister again, all he wanted was to be back in his birthplace with Severus, Lily, and Harriet.
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Back at Hogwarts, Severus stood impossibly still as Voldemort's band of lower ranking thugs circled his office.
"Anyway, there you have it." The tallest one said as he glanced around, "...The train's comin' back and he wants ya to hold 'em all here until….."
"-Until he says otherwise!" The shortest one declared.
"Forgive me, but I'm not entirely certain why the Dark Lord would not relate this change of plans to me directly." Severus scowled, "He often calls me to his side for orders, updates, and other necessary exchanges as I am his-."
"-Not our job, not our worry," The tallest man shrugged.
"Stick to the plan! That's all he wanted ya to know!" The shortest man cackled.
Severus kept his dark eyes narrowed to slits as the two laughed with each other while they shuffled out of his office and meandered through the dungeon's hallway.
Assuming the position of headmaster had not changed his preferences.
Severus found a kind of gloomy solace in the potion masters' chambers that the headmaster's office could not provide.
Regardless, he realized he had little time for brooding.
Like a swooping bat gliding through a forest at night, Severus burst forth from his dungeon office and strode through the castle with long, calculated steps.
His black robes billowed around his feet as he rushed all the way to the headmaster's office and looked out to survey the castle's grounds.
His heart clenched in his chest at what he saw.
Like grim harbingers of impending death, dementors slowly drifted through the gray air of the cloudy day to take their positions around Hogwarts.
All around the castle's outer walls, Voldemort's lower ranking, brawny soldiers marched with gloves made from black leather and iron grins wrought from malice.
Severus stood at the window for some time, watching, fearing, and waiting.
His heart fluttered as he silently wished to wake, only to learn it had all been a terrible dream.
His pale features twisted in despair as he watched the Hogwarts Express suddenly appear in the distance, with sparks flying from its wheels that had been forced to turn backwards.
Lily had chosen to stay behind with Harriet for the day.
Severus clutched onto the stone wall as he contemplated how he would be able to tell his wife and his daughter the terrible news.
Not only had Voldemort finally chosen to make yet another move that could cause mass devastation and slaughter, among all the many lives endangered was his only son.
As the Hogwarts Express skidded along the track, far below the castle, Ellery looked up through his compartment window at what he could glimpse of the headmaster's office.
He didn't quite realize that although he could not see his face, his father looked back.