An exhausted Tom slept in the next morning, along with Dudley and Harry. Severus savored the quiet and his coffee a bit, reading the Daily Prophet. It was Saturday, and he would have to return to Hogwarts tomorrow afternoon. He was interrupted in his morose musings by Petunia triumphantly entering, unaided.

Petunia had felt much better this morning, and had managed to shower and dress on her own. Navigating the stairs had been slow work, but she had done it. She sat across from Severus and gave him a proud smile. Severus was only on his first cup of coffee, so he just smirked and toasted her with his coffee cup.

The smell of bacon unearthed the half-asleep boys soon enough. Severus reluctantly reminded Harry and Dudley that he would be leaving after lunch the following day. "Is there anything you would like to do today?"

Dudley looked puzzled, and Harry uncertain. "Well, you'll be pretty busy once you start the term, from what you've said. Maybe just a quiet day? We don't have many of those." Harry ended with a sly grin.

Severus rolled his eyes but had to agree that the summer had been busy. "I'm sure we can look in on the Gringotts dragon in the afternoon." Severus was curious about the dragon's blindness, and how the Reserve Healers would treat it.

One of the Malfoy owls arrived with an imperious hoot and Severus took the note that was tied to one leg. Andromeda and her daughter wished to interview Tom and, Severus assumed, look the place over. Albus had vouched for them, and Nymphadora was anxious to take the job of helping Tom get ready for his NEWTS. Andromeda was more cautious, however. Andromeda was willing to arrive this evening, to meet them all.

Severus sighed, well the day wouldn't be as quiet as they liked, but at least they would have everything in order for Tom and the tutoring. He sent a reply with the owl to Lucius saying that having everyone for dinner would be good, and then Tom and Nymphadora (Why had they landed the poor girl with that name?) could decide on a timetable. Lucius had indicated he and Draco were attending another Quidditch game. They promised to take Harry and Dudley to the upcoming games after the school term started.

Tom dragged down the stairs at last, in time for a late brunch. The stress of flying on a mostly blind dragon, hoping that Yvane could, indeed guide him had been nerve racking. Dudley and Harry had been playing a quiet game of Chinese checkers with Severus, who didn't remember the muggle game, so he was at a disadvantage for once, and the boys were taking gleeful advantage of it. Petunia had wandered out to the garden to enjoy the sun, before she could be talked into a game.

Tom joined them in the living area, and watched the game, looking puzzled. The games at the orphanage were always missing pieces, and none looked like this one, anyway. The boys greeted Tom enthusiastically, sensing another easy mark for their game.

Eventually they joined Petunia in the garden area, and Severus and Tom submitted to some board game defeats. Tinker served lunch with the assistance of a silent Dobby who grimaced at the sight of Tom, worry in his eyes. Dobby had reluctantly decided that the Potions Master meant no harm, and that his old master Lucius Malfoy was - so far - not up to anything bad. But the young master Tom, he didn't understand how he could be partly dragon - and not be a dark wizard. But, it was not up to him to decide anymore. Master Malfoy had bound his magic tightly to Tinker, and ordered him to serve the Potions Master and all that lived here - including this dragon-wizard. He served the food, and looked at the suspiciously scowling Harry Potter mournfully.

They sipped at the tea and chatted about Hogwarts and chuckled over the Weasley's likely reactions to what the twins planned. Tom hoped Percy would accept it well - he suspected that he would, as Percy had said at one point that the hat had dithered between Ravenclaw and Gryffindor for him. Severus answered questions about Hogwarts and Tom compared the answers to how things were in the 40's.

Life with Armando Dippet as Headmaster didn't seem very different from now. Some things seemed more lenient - reflecting more modern thinking, and apparently punishments weren't physical, although they had already gotten rid of the harshest punishments by the 40's.

The four wandered across the meadow toward the compound when the sharp-eyed Severus noted some blindingly white bodies moving in the nearby forest, and pointed in their direction of them.

"What are they?" Dudley whispered.

"Unicorns, there is usually a herd or two of them on the Reserves. The dragons rarely bother them, and the unicorns like being near other magical creatures." Severus answered. They watched carefully, until there was no further sign of them.

"Can we look for them again?" Harry asked wistfully, as they continued toward the compound.

"You can, but the unicorns prefer females. You might have better luck if you bring your Aunt Petunia with you, when she feels better. They may approach her a little closer." Severus answered. Tom smirked in Severus' direction, and the Potions Master rolled his eyes. He was NOT going to get into a discussion regarding the purity, etc. that was needed to be able to truly interact with unicorns, with a pair of ten year olds.

The group was welcomed warmly by the Dragon folk they met on the way to the Healer pens. The Reserve was ecstatic to have the Ukrainian Ironbelly rescued from the Gringotts Goblins, but they knew it couldn't have been simple - or inexpensive.

The group was directed to the right pen and Yuan led them in. The elderly Welsh Green that lived here permanently was highly prized as able to heal other dragons quite well. Dragon magic sometimes didn't react well with wizard spell. Potions and other more indirect healing worked best. It had taken centuries of trial and error, since the Reserves had been opened to find even a handful of spells that worked well on dragons.

Dragons who knew healing magic were few and far between, and were jealously hoarded by Reserves. Reserve directors could forgive other directors for luring dragons away - unless they were trying to lure their healer dragon.

Yvane could hear the Welsh Green before he could see her, she must be very old, he thought.

"...and I told her that a haunch of beef is all well and good, but I always preferred a nice plump young deer." The elderly Healer dragon was rambling. "Those old stags are just too gamey."

The rescued Ironbelly was listening to the older dragon meekly. But he turned when he sensed Tom and Yvane.

"Are you well..." Yvane belatedly realized they didn't know the dragon's name.

The dragon chuckled darkly, "I had almost forgotten it myself. It took me several minutes to recall it. I was called Astrid, when I still lived among my own kind."

Yvane sympathized silently, and the Welsh green blathered on. "A nice name, young man, my own is...hmm - I just told you that earlier didn't I? It'll come to me." The absentminded dragon hummed a bit. "Ah, yes, - Hazelette - my last rider shouted it at me often enough." She chuckled happily. "MY mother hatched her eggs in a stand of Witch-hazel quite often, and she liked to use the word hazel in her names when she could."

"She is working on my eyes and it's going quite well - with only one treatment I can see shapes a bit. It will take weeks, even with daily treatments to restore my sight. She isn't sure how well my eyes will recover, but she is giving it her best shot." Astrid sounded half hopeful and half resigned.

"My, yes - your eyes were in bad shape, you young folks expect it to be one spell and everything's fine." Hazelette chattered on. "Reminds of that Hungarian Horntail that took on a passel of witches looking for old eggshells around her nest ... What a mess she was!!" Astrid sighed and settled in to listen to another disjointed memory. It was nice to hear another dragon - no matter how demented and rambling.

The group escaped while they could.

ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ

Severus sat at the high table, watching the Hogwarts students pile into the main hall and take their seats. He missed Dragonsrest, and the people there, already. He had already fretted endlessly and firecalled them twice - and he'd only been gone one afternoon. Thankfully Nymphadora and Andromeda, after giving him a long stare, had gotten along quite well with Tom. That gave him two more people he could rely on to help if needed.

The Auror had visited and Severus had explained how they had set up his old home as a Death Eater trap. Hugo found this hilarious. Severus had reluctantly given the ward alarm over to Lucius. He would hate to miss out on any prey his traps caught, but he couldn't respond to the alarm promptly while at Hogwarts. Of course Lucius could have been less gleeful about it.

Albus was beaming, as usual and Severus did the only thing he could - he didn't look at the Headmaster at all. His Slytherins nodded and smiled at their Head of House. Most of them had look of curiosity on their faces. Terrence Higgs grinned happily at Severus and Severus gave a small smile and nod in return. He would start on swaying them away from the Dark Lord soon.

Minerva soon had the first years trudging up to the front - or in the case of the twins - bouncing. Minerva was still looking unhappy. She had been regaled with horror stories of the twins all last year, by Charlie. She had grimly resigned herself to enduring a pair of unrepentant pranksters for seven years.

There had been the usual pre-sorting bets on houses, and Severus was looking to clean up on the Weasley's. All the other professors had laughed when he said the twins would not be in Gryffindor. They all thought it was a sucker bet, but it helped that he didn't have to say where he thought they would be.

He listened to the sorting, the Chang girl went into Ravenclaw, as he expected. There weren't many surprises, really. Then they came to Fred Weasley, and the sorting hat was placed on his head. Long moments went by and the sorting hat finally said, "Well FINE, if you are so very sure...HUFFLEPUFF."

There was a moment of perfect silence, and then the Hufflepuff table cheered happily. There was a minor explosion at the Gryffindor table, and Charlie's voice could be heard protesting that there was a mistake.

George was up next and the hat said "Fine...Hufflepuff." In an annoyed voice. The twins settled into the group of badgers with broad grins. They would be in control of the house within a month, they felt.

Charlie was still yelling for a re-sort, and a very flustered Professor McGonagall rapped him on the back of the head with the scroll, telling him to leave off. Percy, however had a smirk of satisfaction on his face, and he caught Severus' eye and lift his goblet of pumpkin juice in a toast and received a smirk of acknowledgment in return.

Albus announced the feast, still looking a bit bewildered. Minerva sat next to Severus with shock on her face.

"How did you know, Severus?" She asked in low tones. Severus just smiled and lifted an eyebrow. "Well, I don't care - I'm just happy that they won't be my headache." She peered down that table to the faintly horror-struck Professor Sprout. Yes, she had already endured several Weasley's - it was someone else's turn.

Dumbledore cast a few suspicious glances in his direction. Severus blithely dug into his meal, and mentally composed a letter to Harry regarding the Weasley twins...which reminded him.

"Minerva, you have likely heard I have guardianship of Harry Potter." Minerva gave him an arch look and nodded. "He knows very little about his parents. His Aunt is more forthcoming, now that they are out of the abusive situation, and I am able to tell him about Lily. However, giving him stories of James is more difficult. I've been able to tell him a few stories that I could make sound humorous. I could tell him that James was gifted in charms and could transfigure things easily, but I thought you could perhaps write him with some reminisces about him."

Minerva smiled a bit tearfully. "It's so sweet of you to think of that for Harry. Of course I can do so."

Severus froze in horror - she was calling him sweet. "I'm not sweet. I'm just being....practical." To his disgust she just smiled and patted his arm.

ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ

Fred and George struggled futilely against the sheets, and cursed their roommates. They had been trying to lay down a few simple ground rules with the other first years, and suddenly that sanctimonious third year Cedric had come in a told them off. When they had objected he waved his wand, trapping them in their beds. The sheets wouldn't let them out, no matter what they did.

The traitorous first years had cheered him, and Cedric had announced the charm would end at 7am, so they should just get comfortable. The twins had finally given up and sullenly listened to their roommates snicker themselves to sleep.

"Hey Fred - you think we should have picked Slytherin?" George asked.

"No, they'd have tied us to the ceiling." Fred answered glumly.

They fell asleep pondering the wisdom of their choice.