CHAPTER 5
Quite a Day
James Potter's annoying voice was enough to put Severus on the alert. With a simple flick of his wand he magically altered the portraits such that they wouldn't know any more than what the children did. Another charm prevented them from mentioning anything about the Marauders and the children's godfathers. It wouldn't bode well for the children and Severus was overcome by a sudden urge to be overprotective of the three.
He turned to the triplets and said, "Ethan, Blaire, Harry, these indeed are your parents, Lily and," he let out a long suffering sigh, "James Potter."
Potter looked up and seemingly seeing Severus for the first time, sneered and said, "Ah, Snivellus, I can't say it's a pleasure to see you."
Lily gasped, "Act your age, James!"
Severus sneered back at Potter and drawled, "Trust me, Potter, I return the feelings though I am surprised that after all these years of having nothing to do in that portrait of yours, all you could come up with was that... Pathetic."
Potter turned red. He hopped around his seat and began yelling, "Why you Whoopsy whiffling Whizzpopper... You ucky-mucky Quogwinkle... Of all the frothbuggling -"
"Silencio." Severus said slightly alarmed, but when he caught sight of a few books by Roald Dahl among many others on the large rack behind Potter's armchair he began to understand. He turned to a silently cursing James Potter who was now shaking his fists at Severus and said, "I see you've been busy."
"Oh, we have, Severus." Lily said happily pointing at various books behind her. "And before I died, I charmed the racks to keep changing the books after we've read them all, so we wouldn't get bored. This time, we've been stocked with children's books and James has really enjoyed reading them."
She turned to the three triplets and Lily said, "This is nothing new, my dears. Your father and Severus have always got into arguments in their school days."
"That's putting it lightly," Severus muttered and he saw the children's eyes shining with mirth.
With another flick of his wand he had both the portraits packed in a small but undetectably expanded bag and as he, the triplets and the goblin made their way up to the surface, Severus explained to the children the magic involved with portraits and he made it quite clear that the portraits were in no way a replacement for their parents.
"What was the spell you used on Dad?" Blaire said.
"A silencing charm, Blaire." he said. "It shall be taught to you in your fifth year, but there's no harm in learning it before time."
As they exited the bank, Severus spotted Hagrid coming towards them carrying a snoozing beautiful snowy owl in a cage.
"There yeh are!" he booms as he approaches. "A small birthday present for yeh three."
To Severus's amusement, the three turned red.
"You d-din't have to, Hagrid." Harry stammered.
"I know tha'. Take 'er, yeh'll need 'er." Hagrid said rather gruffly.
The children stammered their thanks and Severus felt rather bad for them. When Hagrid left with a broad smile in his face, Severus, with the permission of the children sent the owl and the cage to Privet Drive.
Severus got them to buy three forever unbreakable but lightweight trunks with anti-theft charms and put the portraits in one of them, then he shrunk them and put them into yet another bag that he conjured.
At Flourish and Blotts, he saw to it that they bought some extra books for background reading. Then he had their stationary and writing material stocked up for the year from a shop next to Madam Malkin's and then, he got them their school robes from her shop along with a wide variety of wizard wear and a backpack each. All their purchases except the clothes were shrunk and put in the bag with the trunks. The clothes were sent to Privet Drive.
They then went to the apothecary to buy potions ingredients and cauldrons. "I'm the Potions Master of Hogwarts." he said to them clearly. "And I find it important to remind you that I need you to read at least two chapters and prepare for them before every Potions lesson with me."
They nodded solemnly and Severus led them two Florean Fortesque's where he warded a table from prying eyes and ears and if possible noses and they ate their sandwiches and drank the lemonade. Severus used this time to find out about their likes and dislikes. Then he presented them each with a chocolate ice cream and he contented himself with a butterscotch one.
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After their brilliant lunch, the Professor lead Ethan, Blaire and Harry to Ollivander's Wand shop and Blaire knew how excited she and her brothers were. As the Professor was about to open the shop, it was opened from the inside by a very formidable lady followed by a small round-faced boy about the triplets age.
"Ah, Professor Snape." she said.
"Mrs. Longbottom." Professor Snape replied politely. "How do you do?"
"I'm quite alright, had it not been for this grandson of mine." she huffed angrily and the boy behind her seems to be on the verge of tears. But she didn't notice and she ploughed on, "He's capable of messing up with the smallest of things! All I do is take him to Ollivander's to get him a wand holster to place his father's wand, as his birthday present, which happens to be today and he is capable of undoing half of Mr. Ollivander's shop!
"He's nothing like his parents, you know? And absolute disgrace! I do not know what to do with him! He's afraid of even coming across new people!"
Blaire wasn't someone who had been taught to differentiate between being mean and kind, but she knew that what this lady was doing was embarrassing her grandson terribly. The poor boy had tears rolling down his face and on his birthday too!
Blaire moved in front, without confronting any of her brothers and put her arm around the boy's shoulders, tuning out his grandmother's complaints.
"Hey," she whispered to him. "It's alright. My name is Blaire. What's yours?"
"Neville," the boy said tearfully. "M-my name is Neville Longbottom."
"That's a nice name."
"Y-your name's nice too."
"Oh, these are my brothers Ethan and Harry."
Neville's eyes opened wide. He stopped crying and he just looked at the three of them.
"A-are you the Potter triplets?" he said with undisguised awe.
"Uh huh!" Ethan said as he moved foward ignoring the woman who was now calling her grandson a squib, whatever it meant.
"You must know a lot of this world." he said trying to distract Neville from his terrible grandmother. Ethan supposed it wasn't only in the Muggle world that children weren't treated well by grownups.
"Oh, I don't know."
"But you've grown up in here, haven't you?"
"Yeah, I have."
"So you ought to know more than us." Harry said stepping closer. "We've been brought up in the other world and we didn't know we were wizards until today!"
Neville's eyes opened wide.
"I think, Mrs. Longbottom," Professor Snape's voice, now a few degrees cooler, filled their ears. "You should be grateful for the son you have and not some fancy imaginary boy you expect him to be. And now, if you will excuse us, we shall carry on with our business as you should so do."
Harry turned to look up at the Professor and found him looking very annoyed indeed. The old woman huffed and flounced away calling for Neville over her shoulder.
Neville smiled at them and looking decidedly happier at the little kindness they showed him, he hurried after her.
"That was a nice thing you did for Longbottom." the professor muttered to them as he pushed open the door to the wand shop.
And Harry found himself blushing at the complement.
They entered the shop whose walls were piled with thin boxes right up to the roof and at the counter stood an old man with light grey eyes and by his side was a girl about their age too with sandy blonde hair. Harry assumed her to be Ollivander's granddaughter, for she had his eyes. She smiled at them and Harry couldn't help it but find her very pretty and then she hurried behind her grandfather's with a small squeal when Harry smiled back at her.
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"Good afternoon." Severus heard Ollivander's soft voice say as he closed the shop's door behind the children.
"Hello." the children said in unison and Ollivander's eyes widened as he realised who they were. If Severus hadn't given him a death glare, he would have probably made another ruckus that would have brought down the other half of his shop.
"Ah yes, I thought you'd be here soon Ethan, Blaire and Harry Potter. You so look like your parents."
And Ollivander went on to give them a description of Lily and James wand. Then he told them about selling the wand to the Dark Lord and about how it caused so much destruction. He then turned to state Severus's wand's Core and wood and length, but Severus merely rolled his eyes.
He always had the impression that the old man loved to show off.
Then the man indicated that granddaughter of his and tried in vain to extricate the shy little girl from behind him.
"This is Matilda Ollivander, my youngest granddaughter." he said. "But you may call her Tilly for short. She's very quiet if not a little shy, however, I believe she'll come out of her shell now that she'll be attending Hogwarts."
Oh, Severus hoped she did or she was going to be in for a fair amount of embarassments when she attended his class.
"Now, let's get you your wands, shall we?"
Ethan got his wand (A handsome red oak with Unicorn hair as the core and eleven inched one) in around five minutes after trying a good fifteen wands. Blaire got hers (an impressive jet black ebony wand with dragon heartstring as the core, ten and three fourth inches long wand) ten minutes later after trying a rather impressive number of thirty three wands.
But if that was impressive, Severus was gobsmacked for after a good twenty minutes of trying ninety seven wands, Harry finally found the wand that chose him (A smart looking, brown one, as long as Ethan's, made of holly wood and phoenix feather core).
But Harry's happiness was short lived.
"Curious . . . curious . . ." Ollivander said staring at the boy.
"I'm sorry," said Harry, "but what's curious?"
"I remember every single wand I've ever sold, Mr. Potter. And it so happens that the phoenix whose tail feather is in your wand, gave just another feather. It is very curious therefore that you should be destined for this wand when its brother — why, its brother gave you that scar."
The triplets gasped and Severus glowered at the old man, but there was no stopping him.
"Yes, thirteen-and-a-half inches. Yew. The wand chooses the wizard, remember that... I think we must expect great things from you, Mr. Harry Potter. . . . After all, He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named did great things — terrible, yes, but great."
They paid for their wands and the three siblings walked in solemn silence.
"I trust you aren't worried about what Ollivander has just said." he said to them.
The three of them looked up at him with doleful expressions.
"You may not know this," Severus said to them, "but while the wand chooses the wizard, it isn't the wand that defines him. It was what you really are on the inside that shows your true self. Pay Mr. Ollivander's proclamations no mind... It isn't something you should be wasting your time on in contemplation. And when you meet your friend Neville Longbottom again, do tell him to do the same about his grandmother's rants."
Blaire seemed to remember something.
"Professor, what's a squib."
"Ah," Severus said. "Just as we have some cases wherein a magical child is born in a Muggle family, so also there are Wizarding families that get some children with absolutely no magical traits in them. In the first case, the child like your mother is called a Muggle born witch or wizard, the child in the second case is called a squib.
"In the Wizarding world, both cases are terribly prosecuted and most pure-bloods, that is families who have no muggle relations on either side of their families, refrain from mingling with muggle borns. The wizards and witches in this world are divided into three categories, the pure-bloods like the Longbottoms and your father, the halfbloods like you and me and the muggle borns like your mother."
"The people here are judged by their blood?" Ethan said incredulously.
"Yes." Severus said simply.
"But that's silly!"
"Silly or not, Mr. Potter," Severus said. "That's what happens in this world. And, therefore I ask you to choose your companions very wisely."
He put up a muffaliato around them and said, "For believe me, the Dark Lord and his followers had one other motive apart from taking over the world... They wanted to rid the world of anyone who wasn't a pure or half-blood wizard."
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"So this world isn't as much of a fairly tale as I thought it would be, huh?" Blaire said sadly.
"Maybe not." Harry said. "But I enjoyed the feeling while it lasted."
Ethan simply snorted.
The professor led them across the street and into a small neat shop called Crafty's Handiwork Shop.
"Why's he taking us there?" Blaire said.
"To do some more purchases, of course." Ethan said.
"We've got everything on our list already!" Blaire said.
"Then why don't we just wait and see?" Harry said sensibly.
And unable to find anything to say to that, the others kept quiet.
The professor led them to a small couch and told them to sit there and wait for him. Then he disappeared further into the shop and came out carrying two small boxes, while one was gold, the other was brown.
He handed the gold box to Ethan. Ethan saw that it had several buttons on the top. Looking closely he noticed that each box had a different type of colouring stationary on it.
The professor said, "This, Mr. Potter is a small gift from me. You simply have to press a particular button on the box and the colouring material that you desire will present itself inside the box. Take it out and it shall enlarge itself and you have your colouring set."
Ethan was so touched, he could have hugged the man.
"Thank you sir," he said grinning, letting his eyes show all the necessary emotions.
Professor Snape gave him a small smile and turned to Harry.
"Mr. Potter, this is similar to Ethan's, but it will provide you with the tools you wish to use. I noticed your handiworks in that wretched cupboard and I must say, I was very impressed. Another advantage to this box, however is that it will work on command whenever you ask it too, but you must remember to give give it clear instructions or you may end up with something completely different."
"Thank you so much, Professor!" Harry said, giving Severus a great big smile.
The professor smiled at Harry too and turned to Blaire.
He put his hands into his pocket and pulled out a small card.
"This, Miss Potter," he said handing her the card, "is a membership card connected to an international library connected to Flourish and Blotts which does it's business through owl post. It lends you any kind of books be it Wizarding books or Muggle ones. All you have to do is ask them for a list of books on a particular topic and they will send you a brochure, after which, you tick out the books you want and send it with the card. Your card, Miss Potter, shall remain with them until you return all their books."
Blaire had a distinct impression that the professor wanted to outdo Hagrid and he had done so, by a thousand times, and make no mistake, she was very, very grateful to Professor Snape.
"Thank you very much, Professor Snape." she said with a bright smile while he returned again with one of his small ones.
"If you wish," he said, "you may buy yourself whatever else you want from this shop."
That was all Ethan and Blaire needed. Ethan came away from the counter with a roll of never ending canvas, and Blaire purchased for herself a box of various kinds of Muggle threads and needles.
There was a small pop and a white parcel appeared on the counter next to the triplets. Taking a closer look, Ethan noticed their names written on the parcel.
"Sir?" he said "What's this? It has our names on it."
The Professor gave them a small smile and said, "I suppose it's a small gift from the Headmaster. Probably his way of apologizing. Go on, open it."
Ethan passed the parcel to Blaire. With nimble fingers, she opened the parcel and took out three books, which turned out to be three diaries, thick enough to last for several years! With a small verbal quarrel, Blaire bagged the pink diary, Harry took the blue, leaving Ethan with the brown, they put them with all the rest of their shopping, which the Professor simply shook his head in amused exasperation.
With a final bid to the shopkeeper who luckily hadn't recognised them yet, they left the shop and headed back to the Leaky Cauldron (But nobody recognized them, because the Professor placed the notice-me-not charm on them again) and Blaire had to force back down a laugh for the people were still looking at the doorway in the hope that the triplets would arrive.
Quirrel, or Professor Quirrel, as the professor told them later that he would be teaching them Defense Against the Dark Arts, was no longer around. They followed the professor across the street and into the shadows on the other side, where the professor simply tapped his wands on their heads and each of them simply disappeared from the eyes of each other.
"That is a disillusionment charm." the Professor said to them. "You will simply take the colour of your surroundings and nobody shall see you, for I am going to show you a form of Wizarding public transport - the Knight Bus."
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Severus made sure he gave the triplets a bit of a grounding and answered all their questions before he raised his wand and called the bus. A very elderly man was their conductor and the bus was almost empty, so Severus got the children sitting on a chair and he temporarily stuck them to it.
"Godric's Hollow," he said.
And in a few seconds, they had reached the village and Severus was starting to have second thoughts, but if he didn't do it, who would?
He first led the children to the cemetery by the church and the subdued children helped him in finding their parents' graves. Their moss covered stone was cleaned with a simple spell and then he conjured for each of them a beautiful wreath of lilies and left them to sit there and for however long they wanted.
But surprisingly, it was only fifteen minutes later that the tearful children came looking out for him where he waited outside the cemetery for them. Then Severus took them to the house they lived in before Voldemort's attack. The children stood and silently gazed with reverence at the broken down house.
"The power of your mother's love." he told them quietly. "Not even your house stood a chance when the spell backfired. However, I will see if this place can ever be restored." and then, finally, gathered them all into a hug, something he wanted to do from the time he met them. He was never one to show sentimentality, but having them in his arms was very comforting for some reason. They separated after a few minutes, but no one felt the least embarrassed.
After they were done with Godric's Hollow, Severus called the Knight Bus and asked that they be taken to Cokeworth and there, he took them to a renowned clothes shop after transfiguring his robes and cloak into a coat again.
The shop had no customers then and the only assistant in the shop approached them with a smile on her pixie-like face.
"How can I help you, Sirs and Miss?"
Severus said, "I want you to supply these three with a new wardrobe each, include everything from bobby pins to shoes, but see to it that you do not go overboard."
The assistant took up the challenge with good grace.
Within an hour three large cardboard boxes were packed with everything from pajamas to formal clothing to shoes and Blaire used the muggle money from the wallet to pay for their purchases. He would have loved to pay for it all, but she insisted and the cost of the entire thing used up more than half of the money Severus had given Blaire to keep.
Then Severus got the assistant to walk to her table, sit down and fall asleep.
Severus vanished the boxes back to Privet Drive and said to the triplets, "The boxes will appear in your home."
And while the triplets tried to figure out how those big boxes were going to fit into their cupboard Severus obliviated the assistant and they left the shop, the children wearing new T-shirts, jeans and trainers. Their cousin Dudley's old clothes were now dumped into the shop's garbage bin.
Severus took them walking to a nearby, but familiar park, "This," he announced to the Potter siblings, "was where, I met your mother and her sister."
Tentatively, the children entered the park and Severus followed. They moved around the place and took in everything they could set their eyes on and then Severus told them that it was time to go to another place.
The next being none other than the Evans's house. Slowly, Severus strolled with the children, towards what he expected to be an old ivy filled house that no one was looking after just like in Godric's Hollow. But to Severus's surprise the house was just the opposite, so very well kept and the garden was as lively as he ever remembered.
"Your grandparents' house." he said quietly and the children stood gazing at it in silence, but Severus felt rather uneasy. Making a point to come back and investigate after he dropped the children back home, Severus waiting for them to finish looking around and then he began giving them a brief description of the other Wizarding transportation... Flying, Flooing and Disapperation.
Then he got them to clutch his hands with all their might and he disapperated them all to Little Whinging. Once they entered number 4 Privet Drive, Dudley Dursley's yelling and screaming hit their ears.
"I want my second be-bedroom back! G-give me back my room. Waaaaah! I need that room! Wh-where exactly will I keep my t-toys Mummy? Waaaaah! They won't fit in my first room."
Two bedrooms? Severus suppressed a tempting urge of cursing the snivelling fat boy, his sobbing mother and the purple faced father and contented himself with a sneer.
Then he asked the triplets, "Where is this room Fatso speaks of?"
Blaire giggled and led the way upstairs.
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The moment Blaire opened the room she wondered if she had entered the wrong room. The room wasn't narrow and messy and small, but it was huge and spacious consisting of three beds with bedside tables on which a ball stood on a stand, three cupboards, a bathroom, a fireplace, a huge rack to keep their books, even a small table holding a huge television that probably worked on magic for Blaire could see no cables of any sort, a cabinet to keep their showpieces, a large round table with a small slit in the middle, on which their owl's cage stood. Their owl, however was nowhere to be seen. There was a roll of parchment by the side of the cage and the professor strode forward, opened it and began reading its contents.
The ceiling had a scenery of a countryside and a few people were actually moving around with their own routine! Blaire forced eyes away from the woodcutter getting ready to chop his wood and moved on to the walls whose wallpaper was that of a pine forest that filtered sunlight in a very beautiful and delicate fashion. The trees gave an occasional movement when wind passed through. Blaire spotted a squirrel jumping from one branch to another and shivered with excitement. The floor seemed to reflect the the colours of the countryside and the forest and it looked very beautiful indeed.
"It's beautiful!" she said in awe and her brother nodded.
The professor looked up from parchment and let his eyes trail to the roof.
"Ah," he said. "The ceiling will change to another scenery every week, whereas at night, you shall simply see a night sky that illuminates the room with a dim blue light, I'm sure you'll like it. That ball that you conjured in that cupboard, Harry, will a be by your bedside at night and balls like that have been placed by each of your bedsides, Ethan and Blaire. All you need to do is touch it and it will come on or go off.
"Your cupboards have already been stocked with your clothes, both Wizarding and Muggle and the rack at the bottom has your shoes.
"That round table will be the place where you do your lessons and you eat. You will not have to contact your relatives again. All you need to do is rip out a piece of parchment and write on it what you want for your meal and how much, then you must put the parchment into that slit at the centre of the table. The slit will teleport the parchment to the kitchens of Hogwarts and your meal will appear in a few minutes. The extras if any will disappear after an hour."
Then he walked to the fireplace and lifted a flowerpot off the mantel.
"This," he said 'is floo powder. I shall show you how it works when I leave. But keep in mind, your fireplace is connected to the one in my personal quarters so you can have an easy access to me if you ever need."
They was touched.
"The verandah out there," Professor Snape indicated to a door that Blaire hadn't seen, "is for you to get some fresh air."
The triplets hurried to the door and opened it to find the largest balcony they had ever seen! It was large enough for them to run out around like mad things without knocking the potted flowering plants that decorated the boundaries of the balcony. Ethan made a mental note to water them everyday, but then the Professor said, "These plants are being magically watered, you do not need to concern yourselves over them."
"This entire place," the Professor went on, "is invisible to Muggles, even your relatives as well as any wizard and witch - except you, me, and those who helped modify it...and speaking of your relatives, they will not be able to hear anything that happens within this room, but, for you this room will not block out any sounds coming from outside."
With that, the professor took out the bag in which he placed their belongings and took out their trunks. He opened the one in which he placed the packaged frames and placed them on the table.
He looked at the triplets and said, "I will make four more copies of your mother's frame - three for you and if you don't mind, one for me - and three of your father's, but they won't be as large as the first... Just large enough to put on the inside of the lid of your trunks, so each of you can call for them whenever you wish, but I will have to connect the frames to their original so as to allow that movement."
Questions that Harry wished he could ask but didn't want to at the moment burst in his head as he watched the Professor conjure seven frames out of thin air each one with an armchair in it. Two of the frames had kitchen backgrounds, two had wardrobes and another two had a farmhouse behind them...the last portraits background was a flower garden that Harry assumed the Professor would take for himself.
He opened the package and took out the frames of their parents portraits. Their Dad was still silently cursing and their mother was engrossed in a book by Enid Blyton.
The professor kept one new frame of each type, the kitchen, the garden and the wardrobe and the garden one near their Mum's portrait and he ran his wand over them, muttering a few words in some different language and all five frames began to glow.
"Oh!" their mother said in surprise as though startled, "Hello my dears, I hope you've had a nice day!" Then she returned back to her book.
Then Professor Snape did the same with their Dad's portrait and the remaining three frames and he said to Harry, Ethan and Blaire, "I shall unmute your father just before I leave."
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Severus then stuck the larger original frames on the wall of the siblings room and stuck a frame of each parent on the inside of the lid of their trunks. Harry got the kitchen frames, Blaire got the wardrobe ones that Severus charmed to change the robes in there everytime the portrait occupants got tired of them and Ethan got the frames with the farmyard background.
Then with a few household spells, he took out each of their purchases and put them in their respective places.
Then he turned to the siblings and said, "Magic, just like many other things, do not last forever. The extensive number of spells that have been used on this room shall collapse after your seventeenth birthday, after you come of age. Like I have told you earlier, you will spend the better part of your seven years at Hogwarts and I urge you not to get too attached to this place. Most unfortunately, I believe my colleagues have gone overboard in the prospect of decorating your room."
Severus was going to have a word with both Minerva and Filius once he got back and he was definitely not going to buy their excuse of 'Come on, Severus, they're just children!'
"Now listen carefully, I wish to place a password on the floo and," he sighed and said, "I have decided to take a leaf out of your father's book and put the password based on one of Roald Dahl's extensive vocabulary. I have already picked out two... one for each of our fireplaces...I shall let you choose which one you want to place on yours.
"The first is Catastrous Disastrophe... please say the word."
Severus waited for the triplets to say the word and then he said, "It is a word to describe a very terrible situation. The other word is Razztwizzler... Repeat."
The children did as they were told and Severus nodded. "That is a word to describe a wonderful experience. Which would you choose?"
As expected, the children said, "Razztwizzler!"
"Very well, that leaves me with Catastrous Disastrophe." Severus tapped his wand on their mantel and as Filius instructed, he said, "Tessera insertum Razztwizzler."
He said to the triplets, "You will do well to remember it. Whenever you floo from my quarters to yours, you will say loudly and clearly, " The Potter's Alcove, Razztwizzler... And whenever you floo to my quarters from yours or from any other place, you will say "Professor Snape's Quarters, Catastrous Disastrophe. Do you understand?"
They nodded.
"Now, when I leave this place, I shall refrain from saying the password, because I don't have one at the moment. I will be putting one once I floo to my place. Do you understand?"
And again they nodded.
Severus grabbed the frame he had connected to Lily's portrait, the one he had conjured with the flower garden with all of Lily's favourite flowers in it and he said, "Watch closely." He took a pinch of floo powder from the flower pot on the mantel, and setting the silencio charm on Potter's portrait to go off in a minute, he turned to the triplets.
"I shall now take your leave, but you must bear in mind that you mustn't perform magic outside Hogwarts until you come of age, but these walls permit you to do so for these enchantments keep the Ministry of Magic from keeping an eye on you, something that they can do anywhere else."
"Ministry of Magic?" Ethan said, looking stunned.
"Of course." Severus said with nonchalance. "How else have we been able to prevent Muggles from learning about us? Cornelius Fudge is the Minister of Magic and trust me, if the Wizarding World ever falls prey to Voldemort and his followers, it will be during Fudge's reign."
Severus threw the floo powder into the flame and stepped inside and said loudly and clearly, "Professor Snape's Quarters."
Severus stepped out of his quarters and placed the password on his fireplace then he took another pinch of floo powder and threw it into the flames and put his head through it.
He was greeted by a shriek and two shouts of surprise.
Blaire said, "P-Professor, y-your head!"
"Yes." Severus said impatiently. "This is called a floo call. You merely put your heads through the flame and not your whole self. Now, I want you to order for yourself some tea and cakes and at the right time, you will eat your dinner. Keep strict timings for your meals and maintain a balanced diet. If you don't, I will get the information from the kitchens and you will not like the consequences.
"And before I take my leave, I want to request you to start preparing for your classes tomorrow itself. A couple of hours of going through your books for now should do, but see to it that you put your mind into what you're doing. Good evening."
Severus pulled back before they could respond and sat on his haunches deciding what he should tackle first, Dumbledore or Minerva and Filius or the mystery in Cokeworth.
Picking the more interesting of the three, Severus threw a pinch of floo powder once more into his fireplace and flooed to his home at Spinners end. From there apparated to the Evans' house, with little knowledge about what was going to come, something that was going to change his and the triplets' and, if she allowed it, Petunia's lives forever.
tbc...