Chapter 2 - A Sirius Breakthrough

Neville had heard from many credible sources throughout his life that younger sisters were nothing but nuisances. Every time Great Uncle Algie came to visit, he'd have a new story to share about his years growing up with little Augusta. Daphne would take any opportunity afforded her to spend time away from Astoria. Ron complained about all of his siblings, but none more so than Ginny. So obviously Neville thought he'd feel the same way about Abigail.

But after everything that had happened over the past year and all that he'd learned could have happened if you-know-who had chosen him instead of Harry as the person mentioned in the prophecy, Neville couldn't find it in himself to hand-wave away the immense love he felt for his baby sister.

The Longbottoms and the growing number of Black-Potter-Snape-Tonks-Weasley-Ogdens had gathered at the Longbottom Manor for games and dinner for Neville and Harry's joint birthday celebration. It was a much more subdued affair than normal this year which Neville thought was a relief for Harry, who seemed more than happy to sit on the family room floor across from Neville to teach Abigail how to walk.

"Come on, Abby. You've got this," Harry urged.

Abigail was holding on to Neville's fingers with a terrifying death grip as he gently encouraged the standing thirteen-month-old forward. She took a halting step toward Harry and collapsed under her wobbling legs. Neville surged forward to catch her around the waist and soften her landing. "I gotchya."

Abby giggled as Neville swung her around, and Draco, who was practicing his piano, suddenly started playing "Flight of the Doxies". Neville got to his feet draping Abby's stomach over his outstretched arms and flew her around the living room. Harry jumped up and swooped in to grab Abigail, unexpectedly sweeping her off in another direction. Abby whooped with delighted little shrieks and they continued playing until Draco finished the song.

"Alright, what's going on here?" Neville's mum barked as she and Rosmerta strode into the family room. Abby squealed with excitement and Mum shook her head fondly as she extracted her daughter from Harry's arms. "They got you all riled up right before nap time, didn't they?"

"Sorry," Neville said. "We were trying to teach her to walk."

"And?"

"No luck yet."

Mum clicked her tongue and looked down at Abby. "That's because she knows not to take her first steps without me. Isn't that right, darling?" Abby giggled and squirmed in her mother's arms.

Rosmerta waggled her fingers at Abby who waved back, grinning like mad. "I'm just gonna give the boys their gifts," Rosie said as Alice Longbottom rocked Abby in her arms.

"Alright," said Alice. "Come back to the parlor when you're done. All of you. We're having cupcakes!"

"You got us gifts?" Neville inquired.

"I got all of you gifts," said Rosie, grinning oddly. "But it's nothing fancy. Here."

The boys watched as she pulled out three pendants on stings, each with a runic symbol etched into the metal.

"Aren't they just lovely," cooed Alice, praising the work. "Wasn't that nice of Rosmerta to make you all protective medallions?"

Neville blinked as he took one of the string necklaces, Harry grabbing another. "Yeah. Thank you."

Rosmerta still had that odd grin on her face. "Of course, and this one's for you, Draco."

"I'm just gonna put Abby down. I'll be back."

"Sounds good. Bye Abby," Rosie said, waving again. Neville, Draco, and Harry all waved too until Mum disappeared and the four of them were left alone. "Okay," said Rosmerta, turning back around, her forced smile gone. "Those aren't protection medallions. I'm terrible at runes and I have no idea why anyone believed my lie. Here."

Rosie took Neville's pendant back and whispered a word into the metal. A seam in the silver suddenly opened. Rosmerta unfolded the two halves to reveal a hollow aperture that held a small oblong sphere inside. "This is the real gift."

"What is it?" asked Harry excitedly, trying to wrench open his own pendant without success.

The redhead glanced around the room quickly before explaining in a hushed voice, "This is a liquid luck capsule."

"A what?!" Draco exclaimed, dashing over to grab his own pendant with wide eyes and a manic grin on his face.

Rosie shuffled with excitement, doing a little dance in the middle of Neville's living room. "Okay, so this is a very, very… very, very low dose of Felix Felices pressed into a tablet. I've been developing them for… younger people such as yourself. As you know, it's against the law for children under the age of fifteen to have felix, so you can't let anyone know about this, okay? No one. Not even your parents. They need plausible deniability in case you're caught with it."

Neville marveled at the small item. "Is it— is it safe?"

"Absolutely," Rosie replied easily. "But there is a reason for the age restriction on Felix. Children have a much higher chance of addiction than adults. So… do not use it unless there is an emergency. Understand?"

"How do you get it open?" Harry asked as he continued to pull at the metal, trying to break through.

"Oh," said Rosie sheepishly. "Here." She grabbed Harry's pendant and whispered, "Felix" into the metal. Then she pulled out her wand and tapped the open seam before handing it back to Harry. "Now you can pick your own password."

"Oh, but…"

Rosmerta eyed Harry curiously. "What is it?"

"I don't want a verbal password," Harry admitted in a rush. "If I get silencio'd again… Is there a different way to open it?"

Rosie seemed taken aback for a moment, but then she just looked plain proud of Harry's reasoning. "That is a very good point. Okay, new plan."

She grabbed Draco's and Harry's pendants back and once she had all three open in front of her, she incanted a spell on each. "Okay, now it has sense memory. If you close it, only you can open it. Just run your finger along the seam when you want to get inside."

All three boys gathered up their pendants and tested the process. Neville closed his and looped the chain around his neck. He ran his finger along the metal groove in the pendant and was delighted when it opened just like it was supposed to. "Wicked."

"Thank you," said Harry once he'd tested his own. He smiled sincerely up at Rosie. "It's a great gift."

Rosie let out a sigh of relief. "You are quite welcome. I hope you don't have to use it, but… I believe one should always carry around a little bit of luck with them. I carry mine," she said, tapping her chest where her own pendant was hidden.

"The metalwork is really nice too," added Neville.

"Well I did go to school for it," said a grateful Rosmerta. "But I'm much better at potions. And alcohol. And metalwork is boring so I gave up on that pretty bloody quickly."

Neville nodded, because what else was he supposed to do? The more he got to know Rosmerta Ogden the odder she became. Nice… but odd.

"Well then," she said, clapping her hands together. "Happy Birthday! I'll see you guys in a bit for cupcakes." She twisted on her heel and then twisted right back around. "Oh and remember. It's for emergencies only and no telling your parents. Right?"

All three boys nodded their heads in unison.

"Alright! See you later."

Neville, Draco, and Harry watched the lady leave in silence.

"She's strange. And not good with children," Neville stated.

"Yup," agreed Draco.

"And she's awesome," added Harry, flopping onto the couch and playing with his pendant. "I can't believe she's with Uncle Steven."

"I can't believe she's with Snape." Draco fell onto the carpet and stared up at the ceiling.

"You say that as if they aren't the same person," Neville said, taking a seat on the floor next to Draco. "Which, by the way, I'm still getting used to."

"They may technically be the same person, but they're still extremely different," Draco said. "It's like he has two personalities."

"I actually like that he still feels like two different people," said Harry. "It'll be easier to keep up the lie when we're back at school."

"I wonder if Rosie likes that she's basically dating two different people," Neville pondered aloud.

The three boys sat in silence for a moment as they considered Neville's statement.

"I bet she does," said Draco.

Neville and Harry hummed in agreement.

"Any word from Theo?"

Harry flipped through his stack of letters— replies from his friends after he sent them thank you notes for his birthday gifts— but there was still no envelope with Theo's name on it. "Nope. You?"

It was a stupid question and Draco didn't even bother to respond. He just grumbled unintelligibly and flopped down in the beanbag Bill had gotten Harry for his birthday. It was a perfectly neutral brown color to avoid house color disputes, but Harry sort of wished it was red and gold so Draco wouldn't want to sit in it all the time. Next time Bill came over, Harry was gonna have him transfigure it.

"I hope that the reason he hasn't written is because he genuinely doesn't want to be friends with us anymore," Harry muttered as he took a seat at the desk in the treehouse and started combing through his letters again.

"Yeah," agreed Draco. "It's much better than the scenarios I've got running through my head."

Harry hummed in agreement.

Theo hadn't talked much about his father last year. He'd lapse into these strange silences whenever the subject of parents or holidays came up, and the group tried really hard to keep that kind of talk at bay when he was around, because sometimes when it happened, Theo would go so quiet, it was more like he was dead, like he'd left his body or retreated into the back of his own mind.

He became blank. Like a statue.

So, yeah, Harry assumed that Theo Nott Sr. was not a nice guy, to say the least. Harry tried his best not to panic when he pictured Theo's home life. It didn't always work.

While most of Harry's summer holiday had been spent with family— and the Longbottoms and Weasleys, who were basically family— Harry had started missing his other friends terribly. At least he'd heard from Hermione and Daph and Susan and Hannah; the four girls were extremely and unnervingly good about writing regularly. But he hadn't heard from Theo in months, and that scared him. Out of everyone, Harry was beginning to realize that Theodore Nott was who he missed most. Not that he'd admit that aloud.

School really needed to start soon or Harry was going to get a private eye to locate the Nott Manor.

"I'm ready for school to start," admitted Harry.

Draco looked up from a letter written in Hermione's neat script. "Yeah?"

"Yeah. I mean… I don't know. I've been dreading it a lot, but now I feel like September 1st is not coming quick enough, you know? Aren't you ready?"

Draco took a deep breath. "Yeah. I'd feel more ready if I had learned occlumency, but yeah. I'm kind of… bored?"

"Yes!" Harry exuberantly agreed. "I'm so bored! And yeah, I'm not great with occlumency either, but I need to go back to school or I'll go mad."

Draco snorted. "Hey, at least you've managed to occlude a few times. I'd feel so much better if I could get Uncle Steven out of my head at least once before going back to school."

"There's still time," Harry asserted. "You'll get it."

Draco was not getting it. The blond was absolutely abysmal at occlumency and that shocked the hell out of Harry. His brother was good at things and he'd always been good at things. That was just who Draco Sirius Black was. But Draco couldn't grasp the concept of occlumency, no matter how many times Sirius tried to explain it to him.

Harry pondered his brother's predicament for a moment. "Actually, maybe you can't get it…"

"Excuse me!"

Harry blinked, his gaze coming into focus to find an irate blond staring back at him with hostile gray eyes. Harry had said that out loud, hadn't he?

"No, that's not— Draco, before you jump down my throat, let me finish my thought. Give me a second."

Draco's eyes narrowed, but usually he'd have Harry in a chokehold by now. Curiosity seemed to be outweighing his hostility at the moment. Harry took this brief respite to gather his thoughts together in a more respectful manner.

"Okay." Harry took a deep breath and forged on. "I didn't mean that you won't get it at all. I meant… well, I just don't think you'll be able to understand it the way Sirius is explaining it. He tells you to get angry about being probed for information and that anger will turn into power which will force Steven from your mind. And that works for me, because… honestly, it's a very Gryffindor way of using occlumency. Courage is basically just when another emotion outweighs your fear. In this case, anger is that emotion. I feel affronted that someone would dare to read my thoughts. But for you… I don't know. You're a Slytherin and maybe you should find a more Slytherin approach to occlumency..."

"Are you saying I'm not brave?"

Harry rolled his eyes. Draco was purposefully being obtuse and that always infuriated Harry. He slapped his knees and was about ready to give up. But then he reconsidered.

"You know what? Yes. You aren't brave, Draco. Not really. And I shouldn't have to explain this to you, but… when Slytherins find themselves in a trap, they don't force their way out. That's not their way and you know it. You know what Slytherins do when they find themselves stuck in a trap?" Harry waited a beat before answering his own question. "They use the trap to their advantage."

Draco sat up a bit in Harry's beanbag chair, a spark of intrigue in his silver eyes. Harry grinned. Thank Merlin. He was starting to get through to Draco.

"Wait… I think I might actually know what to do…"

***Thirteen Years Ago***

Narcissa let out a screech of frustration. "I'm not getting this!"

"You will," replied Snape, calmly. "Let's go again." He raised his wand toward the hunched over figure in front of him.

"No," gasped Narcissa, breathing heavily. "No more. I just— no."

Severus clenched his jaw. "Narcissa. You have to learn to fight this. It just might take a little more time—"

"I don't have time! I'm already starting to show, Severus! If I haven't gotten the hang of it by now, I'm not going to. We'll have to find another way."

Narcissa was just a girl. A stupid, young, inexperienced little girl. She was only two years younger than Severus, but in that moment, they may as well have been decades apart. He had no time for this. Teaching her occlumency was far too dangerous as it was, and for a moment he seriously considered giving up on her. She was a lost cause.

And then, she rubbed her stomach.

Narcissa was just a girl. A stupid, young, inexperienced little girl. With a child on the way.

"There is no other way," Snape stated tersely. He swept a vase off the table in the manor's fourth kitchen and watched in satisfaction as it shattered on the oak wood floor. "You are going to do this, because this is the plan we have concocted!" he said, shoving his pointer finger in her face. "Your idiotic cousin is down in that dungeon, Narcissa! Probably dying! And while I couldn't care less about him, Sirius Black is your way out of this insipid manor. I have put everything into place to save your son. I have the portkey. I have the other portkey. I have associates in the States waiting for your arrival. And all you have to do is get yourself alone with Black and make certain that my involvement is never disclosed to anyone. The way to do all that is to learn occlumency. So lift up your head, look me in the eyes, and keep me out of your mind."

The blonde snarled. "I hate you," she growled, her voice the lowest he'd ever heard it go. But she did as she was told and lifted her head to stare him dead in the eyes. "Do it."

Severus raised his wand with a smirk. "Legilimens!"

This time, Snape had a sluggish time navigating through Narcissa's mind until finally he came upon a dead-end. The wall was thick and fortifying when he tried to break through, and then it was pushing back on him, pushing him out. With one last forceful shove, Narcissa had muscled Snape out of her mind.

Snape lowered his wand and smiled. "Finally."

"Hey!" Narcissa shouted breathily. "I'll have you know that occlumency is extremely difficult to learn."

"Well, it's no picnic in the park to teach either."

"Oh yeah? Well, who taught you, then?" Narcissa asked. "Give me their contact information and bugger off if it's such an issue."

Severus took a seat at the dining table, resting his chin on his hand as he stared up at her. "The Dark Lord taught me."

Narcissa blinked. "Oh."

In the ensuing silence, Severus watched as Narcissa stumbled over to the cooler, her shoes crunching down on the shards of broken vase as she went. She pulled out a couple of bottled waters and made her way back to the table, handing one to Severus.

"Why would he teach you that?" asked Narcissa, quiet and curious.

Severus heaved a put upon sigh, opened his water, and took a sip. "He has plans for me and he doesn't want those plans getting out."

"But…" Narcissa narrowed her eyes at the bottle where her fingernails had been idly scraping at the wrapper. "If he can't read your mind, how can he trust you?"

Snape looked around the kitchen where he and Narcissa had spent the last fortnight training. Thank Merlin the Malfoys had such a large manor. It wasn't hard to keep secrets in a place as giant as this. He shrugged. "He can't trust me, clearly."

Narcissa tilted her head to the side, eyeing him curiously. "No offense, but… I don't really understand how you're still alive."

Severus smirked. "I'm good at my job. I'm an asset."

"But you don't— you don't actually want to be here, do you?" Narcissa looked him up and down. "You're helping me and Draco. And you think this business with the babies is insane, I know that. But… you don't believe in the Dark Lord's ultimate cause, right?"

Snape had never been asked this question directly before. No one in this house would ever dream of questioning the Dark Lord's war, either out of fear or because they genuinely agreed with Him.

No one, that is, except Narcissa Malfoy nee Black. She might just be the bravest of us all, Severus mused.

"I think…" Severus glanced out the window, nervous to give his internal thoughts a voice. He didn't want to think about right and wrong and morality. Because then he'd realize he chose the wrong side and got trapped there, that he'd made a mistake. He didn't want to admit that just yet. Not until he had a plan to fix things, to fix himself.

"Never mind," said Narcissa airily. "It doesn't matter what you think of the war. All that matters is that you're helping me get out of this place. Now teach me the next steps of occlumency so I can go save my idiotic cousin."

***Present***

Severus was shaken out of the memory of Narcissa by the arrival of her son in the present day. Draco walked into the study with a strange stoicism. Godson and Godfather shared a brief smile before the boy turned to his brother with a grin and then to Sirius, silently asking for the word or phrase Severus was meant to look for in Draco's mind today.

Using legilimens on his Godson that first day of training had been awful. It had made the list of "Worst Things" Severus had ever done in his whole life. He'd felt sick to his stomach, and that feeling still lingered from time to time when the image of that look of pure and otherwise indescribable fear on Draco's face came unbidden to his mind.

It was Remus who suggested looking for a specific but innocuous bit of information during their occlumency training so that the student wouldn't have to hide something they didn't want known and the teacher wouldn't have to find something he didn't want to know.

Severus seemed to always underestimate Remus's genius. And his compassion.

"Got it?" asked Sirius, leaning away from his son.

Draco nodded, a wild determination staring holes into Severus. It took the potion's master's breath away to see it. To see her.

Severus smirked like he hadn't in a good long while. Okay, you little shit. I see you.

I. See. You.

"Legelimens."

Severus stepped into a hedge maze. Not expecting it, Severus took a moment to find his bearings. The maze was a new feature– a disarming feature, in all truth. Severus had never been in a waking mind that felt so… dream-like. Sev found himself charmed by it.

He caught a flash of an image as it disappeared behind a hedge and Severus chased after it, snagging another glimpse of it as it dashed down a bend further down the maze. Sev kept after it, a cheetah on the haunches of a darting gazelle, turn after turn, until the image was caught at a deadend and Severus was able to leave.

Returning to himself, Severus grinned down at his Godson with a proud nod. "Nice try, kiddo. I liked the change of scenery and I think it's explorable. We'll have to work on it." He turned to Sirius. "Ace of clubs."

There was a long silence. Severus watched as Sirius's eyebrows slowly furrowed in confusion. He blinked, and then he glanced down at his son in shock. Severus's gaze followed, taken aback by the delicious smirk still gracing Draco's face despite his loss.

"Did you do it?" asked Harry excitedly, springing up from his seat and slapping Draco on the shoulder. "You did it, didn't you?"

"Did what?" asked Severus. Draco's grin only grew wider.

Sev's gaze flashed back up to Sirius when the man let out the loudest and proudest of all guffaws followed by a delighted, "You cheat! You little Slytherin shit! You skipped straight to deception?!"

"Deception?" inquired Severus. "What decep–"

"I told him jack of hearts," Sirius explained, his eyes still trained on Draco, wide with a father's awe.

Oh.

OH!

"Haha, yes!" yelled Harry, bouncing wildly and smacking his brother repeatedly with both hands. "You did it! You did it!"

"Stop hitting me, you git," Draco ordered, knocking at Harry's hands half-heartedly before getting swept up in the excitement and bouncing right along with his brother.

Harry's grin still had a manic quality when he calmed down enough to reply with his signature, "Prat," pushing at Draco's shoulder one last time in congratulations.

Severus glanced away from the scene, staring fondly at the wall of the study for a moment, lost in a nostalgia he hadn't realized was so meaningful to him. He pictured Narcissa standing there, smiling, sharing this milestone briefly with him.

He turned back to his family and cleared his throat. Draco looked up at him, smiling. Severus returned the grin.

"Again?"

His Godson held his head high and stared right into his Godfather's eyes.

"You're on."

A/N- What's this? A new chapter of DSB after an almost 5 year hiatus? Why yes, yes it is.

I honestly can't believe I'm posting this, to be honest. I'm not even sure what got me to finish this chapter all of a sudden. Completely out of the blue I found myself re-reading DSB part one and just couldn't help it. My fingers went to tapping on my keyboard and here we are.

Will there be more chapters? I have no idea. I'm sorry, I wish I did. I don't want to get people's hopes up so I won't make any promises. I just started a new job as a Nurse Aid today and don't know how much time or energy I'll have to continue writing this story. It might be another 5 years before I put out another chapter, but I just… I don't know. I had to put this chapter out. For me.

Because I love this story, and I don't want to give up on it.

I love writing, and I don't want to give up on that either.

I miss it.

So even if I don't have time to write, I hope I make time. 3

Love,
Mac