A/N: I'm back with another chapter! It took a while because this chapter has a little bit of revelation, I wasn't quite sure how to go about it but I guess that'll do.

Also, I hope you don't mind that this chapter (well the whole story, really) is mostly filled with dialogue, I tend to write that first as it's easier and try to describe the scene as I view it later. It leaves a bit to your imagination, but personally I like reading what people have to say more than in which place or time they said it, except the important details, of course. I hope you're the same.

Chapter 5- Batman Vs The Joker

Theo knew that he was supposed to be excited that the term will begin soon.

In two days, He'd finally go to Hogwarts, the school for wizards and witches. The school of which both of his parents and every wizard and witch he knew attended as kids. The place where his magical journey finally begins.

He'd finally got to the stage of his life where he'll be connected to his magical nature, he'd be surrounded by magic, taught with magic, and possibly hexed by magic.

Hogwarts never lost its appeal and magnificent ancient looks, despite surviving a fatal war, it was still the place where every young magical soul is eager to go to, Theo included. Even if he did have an idea of how the school looked like from the times he spent in Hogsmeade with his family, and the times he spent in his father's quarters, he still never got the complete view of it, he never saw the inside of it, nothing but his father's rooms for they'd floo there directly.

You should not spoil the fun, his mother would say when he asked them to let him see more of it.

But he felt no pleasure at all knowing that he'd be leaving soon.

His mother returned home after they spent two days with their father, saying that their grandpa was in a static condition. The doctors managed to treat all the areas they could in his body and prepared the other parts for the possible infections they might have in the future, all that was left now was to find a match.

As far as he knew, it didn't mean that his grandpa was alright now, it only meant that there was nothing else to do except waiting. And that's why his grandpa was recently allowed to go home as he had been requesting for the past couple of weeks, with a doctor coming to check up on him every few days, of course.

One day, during the weekend, while he was visiting his grandpa at the hospital, the doctor requested to talk with his father. They all thought then that his father was a match and therefore a possible donor, but apparently, the doctors were only concerned with what they found in his blood, the snake venom. It was quite the task to convince the doctors that everything was okay without revealing too much.

His father's health was really dealt with though, with the potions he took regularly and the salve he applied on his neck he managed to ease the damage to a great degree. But Theo was still bothered to learn that the venom is still there, magically contained to a certain area in his body to affect as little as possible.

Theo sighed and opened his trunk to start packing, he knew that he still had time, but leave it to his mother to insist that he starts packing early lest he forgets important things if he packed at the last minute.

His father was already at Hogwarts as he informed their mother, so he wouldn't be seeing him off the train as Theo had initially thought, but he knew it was stupid to think that.

Nothing is as you expected it to be.

He looked at his wand, lying on the floor beside him, it looked a lot like his father's but had a different core. He never had the opportunity to show it to him though, with the stuff going with his grandpa and all, they spent most of their days at their grandparents' house or at the hospital, even the weekends, so he never got the opportunity to approach him with it.

"Glad you're already packing."

He looked up to see his mother standing at the doorway.

"You told me to do so, Mum"

"Well, I'm glad you chose to listen to me."

"As if I had a choice," he muttered.

She entered and approached his bed, shaking her head and shooting him a disapproving look as she saw the mess that was on it. He couldn't help but give her a sheepish smile at that, old habits die hard. Despite being admonished every single time, Theo could never pack without putting all of his clothes on his bed first to sort them out.

"Maybe I'll change once I learn how to pack with magic."

Hermione glared at him, she looked rather threatening standing over him as he sat on the floor, though Theo noticed that she was suppressing a smile.

She scooted the clothes away and sat on the bed, then picked one of his shirts and folded it.

Realizing there was no admonishment or threat coming his way, Theo resumed his packing, which mainly included putting the clothes his mother folded for him in the bag, or back in the closet where it came from.

"I can't believe you're already old enough to go to Hogwarts, it still feels like yesterday when it was my first day there," she said as she handed him his neatly folded school robes.

"Technically, I'm not old enough as I'm still ten."

"Leave it to you to contradict your mother when she's getting emotional."

He smirked.

It wasn't that he hated his mum swamping him with her love and pride, he was just naturally awkward about it,he didn't know how to deal with these soft emotions other than blush or joke it away.

When there were no further clothes coming his way, he glanced at his mother and saw that she was looking at a picture sitting oh his night shelf. It was of the four of them, taken in Greece, they went there for a holiday when he was about eight.

They were all smiling in the picture, except Arya, she was scowling in his father's arms, upset at having to wake up early in such a foreign country.

"I don't think Arya likes that I'm leaving soon," he admitted.

"What about you?" Hermione asked as she put the picture down," how are you feeling about it? are you excited to go there?"

"I don't know..." he said uncertainly. When she gave him a look he elaborated "I want to see what it's like to be a Hogwarts student and to know where I'd be sorted, I suppose, but..."

"Hmm?"

"I don't like the fact that I won't see you every day and would only get to talk you via owl, I always thought..." he hesitated.

"What did you think ?"

"Nothing, it doesn't really matter."

He averted his gaze and started searching around for books he'd need to put in his trunk, all the while admonishing himself for letting his tongue slip.

"Theo," she said firmly, waiting for him to meet her gaze. He knew better than to ignore that and looked back at her.

"You know that you'd be leaving soon, and it'd be quite hard for me to not have you here, but I'd like to at least know how my son is feeling before that happens, instead of spending long nights wondering and trying to figure that out. You don't have to hide your feelings from me, being your mother I can already sense them anyway."

Theo sighed and looked down, It's not that he didn't want to talk about it, there were many things he really wanted to tell his parents, some valid points he wished for them to know, and things that bothered him that could be helped if he let them out. However, he knew it'd only serve to make them feel worse. He knew that each one of them had to deal with quite a lot and that they were hiding their feelings as well in order to look strong, so he decided to spare them his own and keep them to himself.

But he was already stuck in this situation and his mother could sense his distress, so he had no other option but to continue what he wanted to say.

"I— I know not many students would get to have that, but I always thought that you'd visit on the weekends and we'd have dinner at my father's quarters or something, or perhaps Dad would take me home to spend some time here, but I know that's out of the question now, with everything going on with you and Dad. I'd still have him though, even though I doubt he'd have time for me there"

He decided to spill it out quickly before reconsidering his decision, but when his mother continued to look at him without responding, he thought that it was probably too quick to make sense.

Hermione stood up then, only to sit back down on the floor next to him. She put her hand on his cheek and caressed it gently.

"Theo, " she said softly," Sweetie, of course, we'd visit you from time to time, perhaps not as regular as you mentioned, but still. And maybe we'd spend some time as a family, it's not like your father and I don't talk at all, you know that."

"Yeah, maybe..." he said, looking down again.

She moved her hand to his chin and willed him to look up at her.

" I don't want you to conclude things based on the situation we currently have, you know it's still new and we didn't have time to come to terms with everything, even adults need some time to adapt," she sighed "I don't want you to think that your father and I despise each other or that we are some type of enemies"

" You're not?"

"No, Theo."

He nodded, before looking away and then quickly back at her as if coming up with an idea.

She stared him quizzically when he smirked.

"What is it ?"

"Pity you're not enemies, I always thought that he'd make a great Batman if you were to be The Joker."

Hermione chuckled at that, happy that she managed to lift his spirit a bit.

"There is no joker here other than yourself, young man."

"That's a shame"

She stood up after a while, remembering that she was only supposed to check on his progress.

"You may continue packing later, dinner will be ready soon, " she said heading for the door " don't make me call you twice."

"Yes, ma'am."

To say Severus was irritated would be quite the understatement, he was absolutely livid, he seriously couldn't figure how some people's mind works. He had explicitly stated that an owl would suffice, why do people find it difficult to follow direct orders, for god's sake.

"I still don't quite understand why you chose to grace me with your presence, in the school no less."

"I told you why I'm here. Since the term didn't begin yet and there are no students, I didn't see why not. Besides, you never told me where you live so I couldn't come to your house."

"That's because you have no business coming to my house or anywhere I happen to be in, for that matter."

He was hardly restraining himself from throwing something out of rage, it wouldn't do to ruin his office before the term begins, especially after he had already spent time reorganizing it for the same reason.

"Give me what I came for and I'll leave."

"I've already given you everything I said I would, I never said you could ask for more."

"Well it's not like I can control what we'd need, We happen to need more money, otherwise I wouldn't ask you to give me more."

"And what if I don't? It's not my problem that you so carelessly spent the money I gave you in such a short amount of time."

"It's your responsibility, Severus! what's your problem? it's not like you don't have enough money."

"Please refrain from using my first name," he spat.

"Very well, Professor, would you be so kind as to give me what I came for ?"

Severus sighed, clenching his hands, he knew there was no way to get rid of his unwelcome guest but to give in, besides he'd seriously give much more money if it meant he wouldn't have to deal with that sight anymore.

"I'll send an owl to Gringotts and inform them to send what you asked for, in the meantime you'd do well to leave as fast as possible, and never think about coming anywhere near me again. I have half the mind of using my wand right now, and let me assure you that it wouldn't be the first time I kill someone."

An unbearable chuckle erupted and he felt disgusted having to hear it.

"You know you can't kill me, Professor."

"Leave."

It was one word, spoken in a tone that anyone who heard it would know he had no choice but to obey, and it never failed to get that desired effect. therefore, a mere second later he was once again graced with the quietude he so treasured, even though he was boiling on the inside.

Arya tried to hold back her tears, but the little girl couldn't keep a straight face seeing her brother leave for the first time. They were always together, even when Daddy and Mummy split up, they both stayed together. Her big brother always reassured her that he'd be there for her, but now he's leaving too.

Hermione hugged her little girl close, keeping her eyes on her son while he was trying to get the trunk into the train.

"He'll owl us regularly, sweetheart. Don't worry he'll be back in the blink of an eye. "

Arya tried blinking her eyes multiple times, but each time she opened them, her brother was still leaving, not coming back.

Theo noticed his sister's tears and looked around, noticing that few people were still trying to get in the train, he rushed back to his family and quickly hugged his sister.

Arya was shocked as she thought he had already left but hugged him all the same.

"Arya, do you know how much I love this?"

He motioned for her to look at him, when she did she saw that he was holding one of his precious golden chocolate frog cards, Merlin.

She looked at him in wonder and nodded.

He handed it to her "I want you to have it until I come back."

Arya stared at him with wide eyes. She knew how much her brother loved his cards and most especially this one, it was so rare, which means only a few people had it all around the world. She even heard him tell their parents many times how people had offered him money in exchange for it but he always refused. He even had yelled at her a few times for even touching it for fear she'd ruin it, he was later admonished for that by their father, mind you.

But point is, she never imagined he'd give it to her willingly.

"Why?" she couldn't help but ask, even though she had already taken hold of it.

"You know that I love it so much that I'd hate not to have it for a long time, right?"

she nodded again.

"That's why I'm giving it to you, so you know I would be back soon. Make sure you keep it safe, I'm trusting you with that."

Arya nodded eagerly, grinning broadly, she held to that card as if her life depended on it.

Meanwhile, Hermione's eyes were twinkling, witnessing this scene going between her children, she hugged Theo and kissed him.

"My sweet little boy"

At the train whistle, Hermione ushered her boy to it, all the way telling him how much she loved him and telling him to stay safe.

A quick 'love you too' was uttered as he boarded the train waving at them as it started moving, they kept waving until they could no longer see each other.

Theodore opened a cabinet he thought to be empty from the quick glance he made through the window, only to be disappointed when he found a boy sitting just next to the door.

Why choose to sit beside the door instead of the window when you have the whole cabinet for yourself?

He gave a nod and started closing the door intending to leave only to be interrupted.

"It's alright, you can stay. I'm only expecting one friend."

Theo nodded again and moved to sit next to the window. He had almost given up and was going to search for Teddy or one of the Weasleys to sit with, he knew he was welcome there but he didn't want to force his presence and possibly interrupt their time with their Hogwarts friends after months of not seeing each other. Besides none of them was a first-year so he'd probably be embarrassed being surrounded by older students.

"First-year?" the boy asked when Theo situated himself on the seat.

"Yes."

"Me too, but my friend is a third-year, he's coming soon. He can help us around"

Theo nodded and thought about his next words. He felt weird that the boy was initiating a conversation with him and even offering help without introducing himself.

The boy had white skin with dark black hair and Theo wasn't sure but he thought his eyes were brown - He decided not to stare long to verify that.

"My name is Daniel , by the way, but you can call me Dan. What is yours?" his accent was kind of strange, mingled between northern British and probably American.

"Theodore, you may call me Theo."

"Cool, what house do you think you would be in?"

"I'm not really sure..."

Thinking about it now, he really did avoid thinking about school, didn't he?

"Oh... no offence, Theo, but are you a muggle-born ?"

"No, both of my parents are magical. Why do you ask?"

"Oh, it's nothing. It just seems as if you're unsure."

Theo snorted at that, the boy knew nothing. He's possibly the only first-year in this train who'd already had a glimpse of Hogwarts, no matter how far it was.

"Do you know for sure which house you're going to end up in ?" Theo challenged.

"Not really, but I think Ravenclaw would fit me well."

"Why's that ?"

"You know that sorting hat that'd decide our fate don't you ? " at Theo's nod he continued, "I've been trying to think of things that would make me end up there, in Ravenclaw, you know, to trick the Sorting Hat."

"That sounds like something a Slytherin would do."

"A Slytherin would have a reason for wanting to be sorted there. I don't, I just want to test the hat."

"I think you're thinking too much about it."

"Yeah, no joke there," Dan snorted.

The cabinet opened and a blonde boy entered, He quickly high-fived Dan and looked at Theo interestingly.

"Hello there, are you a first-year as well?"

Theo nodded.

"My name is Austin Brute, don't let the surname fool you though, I'm quite the gentleman." He offered his hand, "I'm a Slytherin third year."

"Theodore Snape, nice to meet you " he shook the third year's hand.

"Snape? that's quite the surname, are you-"

"Related to Professor Snape?" Theo predicted, "yes, he's my father."

The third-year who was so sure of himself lost all of his smugness as he stared at him with wide eyes.

Dan stared at both of them as it dawned upon him what they were talking about.

"Hold on! Professor Snape? isn't he the Slytherin's head of house ?"

"Indeed, he is. I didn't even know he was married," Austin muttered.

Theo hesitated at that, as fast as confidence washed over him when he mentioned his father, it washed away when they mentioned marriage.

"And I thought he was a muggle-born..." Dan muttered.

"So there's no need to welcome you to join Slytherin, as you are already in it since the day you were born," said Austin once the shock wore off.

"My father being a Slytherin doesn't say anything about where I'd be sorted," Theo argued. He didn't mind being in Slytherin, it'd be nice to share the same house with his father, but he wanted to be sorted there because that's where he belongs, not because of relations.

"Certainly, but your father isn't just any Slytherin, He's The Head of Slytherin."

"If you say so." He hoped the sorting hat won't think the same, if it really thinks that is.

"Guess I'd have to keep an eye on both of you now, it wouldn't do to let professor Snape's son get in trouble while we're around" Austin determined.

"You're only a third year, get a hold of yourself," exclaimed Dan, and started laughing.

"What do you know." He jokingly slapped the other boy on the shoulder.

Theo smiled at them and turned to look at the window. It was a good start, but he wasn't sure he wanted to let everyone know he's professor Snape's son, lest they ask questions he'd rather not answer. Theodore would suffice from now on, he thought determinedly.

Alas, his decision didn't go as planned as another third-year Slytherin joined them, accompanied by her sister, claiming they found no other cabinet. Theo didn't even get to introduce himself before Austin did it for him.

"Angelica, this is Professor Snape's offspring, do you know what this means? I can see opportunities coming our way"

" Offspring? ..." Theo muttered annoyingly.

What am I? a tool?

"Think about how many troubles we can avoid if we just use him as an excuse"

"What?..."

A Scapegoat it is ...

"Don't be stupid Austin, and stop talking about the boy as if he isn't here." She brushed past Austin as if he wasn't there and stood in front of Theo.

"Hey there, you must be his eldest," she said politely" I'm Angelica, what's your name ?" she gave him a sweet smile, her green eyes glittering.

He was hoping not to sound too flustered but after his "Umm—uh I'm Theo—Theodore, " he actually flushed.

"That's a nice name. This is my younger sister, Eliza, she'll be your classmate."

"Hello," the shorter girl with equally charming green eyes said shyly.

"Hello," Theo echoed awkwardly.

"Hold on, you knew Professor Snape had children?" Austin asked bewildered.

"Well he's married, it's only natural," at his shocking look she explained blatantly," he wears a ring, you're so oblivious."

Here we go again.

To Theo's surprise, Austin didn't retort, he just smirked and looked Theo's way.

"I suppose I am."

He sat next to Theo to give space for the girls, who sat next to a surprisingly dozing Dan, cornered next to the door.

Minutes later Austin put his hand on his shoulder, whispering, "I was just messing around, I apologize if I offended you."

Theo was shocked, to say the least, he didn't expect the older student to apologize for something like that.

"I caught on that, I guess," He said wittingly "Otherwise I'd have hexed you."

Austin laughed and patted him on the head " fierce one, I see."

The cabinet was filled with more laughter after Dan woke up, Austin took this opportunity to joke around with the first year who seemed quite used to his humorous nature. As the sun started setting and they drew closer and closer to Hogwarts, it finally dawned on Theo that he's starting his first year.

He finally felt the unease and excitement every first year is supposed to feel when in their first days. Perhaps it was the changing into Hogwarts robes that triggered that feeling or probably being surrounded by other students, whatever it was he was thankful for it.

He did want to live this new experience and actually feel it, he was waiting for it all his life only to suddenly stop being excited about it months ago. But now he was finally feeling it again, and happiness filled him when he realized that, even if that realization came with little unease knowing that he'd be sorted soon, in front of the Head of Slytherin no less.

Kudos to those who noticed the Hamilton reference xD

Don't forget to review! ت