When Remus woke the next morning, he slowly stood and stretched his aching limbs.  The Wolfsbane Potion allowed him to change into a wolf instead of a werewolf, but the transformation was still painful, unlike his Animagus transformation which after many years was no longer even the slightest bit painful.  He quickly showered and headed to the kitchen to prepare breakfast.  Cissy was bringing the twins in time for breakfast and the Snapes would be arriving after that.

Just as he was putting the finishing touches on breakfast, he heard the Floo activate in the living room and shouts of "Papa!" soon filled the old farmhouse as the twins raced into the kitchen and threw themselves at their father, who had knelt to catch them.  He pulled them close and kissed each of their faces, before standing to greet his wife.  "Good morning, my love," he whispered, caressing her cheek.  She looked as if she hadn't slept and he knew that she hadn't.  Cissy rarely slept on the night of the full moon, usually because she was too busy worrying about her husband.

"Good morning, Remus," she replied, leaning into his touch.

"They're gonna get all kissy-face in a minute," Teddy told his twin sister.

Remus chuckled and rested his forehead against Cissy's for a moment.  "Tonight?" he asked, just loud enough for her to hear.

"Tonight," she whispered in agreement and they both turned to join their children at the table.

After breakfast, Teddy and Tessa helped their parents wash, dry and put away the dishes by hand.  Both Remus and Cissy felt it important that their children not learn to get too dependant on magic and most of the time small chores, such as washing the dishes, were completed as a family and without any magic.  Although there were times when it was easier to use magic to complete a chore.

When the last dish had been returned to its proper place, they went into the living room and Remus romped on the rug with his children in his Animagus form while they waited for the Snapes.  It wasn't much later that they came through; first Sev with Harry and Rosie, followed by Lily and Eric.

Harry immediately threw himself on top of his favorite of his two godfathers, playing the old favorite game of the three six-year-olds: knock over Wolf.  When Harry had been born James had insisted on naming his best friend Sirius as Harry's godfather.  Lily had wanted Remus and Cissy to be her son's godparents.  They compromised by each picking a set of godparents for little Harry.  Lily had picked Remus and Cissy and James had picked Sirius and the woman Lily later caught him in bed with.

Cissy took Rosie from the man she considered a brother, kissing her little goddaughter's cheeks.  "Nymphadora should be coming through soon.  I asked her to come keep an eye on the pups while we talk."

"Thank you, Cissy," he told her, going over to rescue his best friend from the four children who had all jumped on him at the same time.  Remus had just turned back to his human form when the foursome had pounced on him.  Instead of using the hand Severus offered to pull himself to his feet, Remus pulled the Potions Master down into the fray.  Severus landed on his hands and knees and he had no time to react before the four children jumped onto his back.

While the two men wrestled with their children on the floor, Cissy gave her best friend a hug.  "How are you doing, Lil?"

Lily sighed deeply.  "Not so good, Cissy.  If only I hadn't given in and married him."

"Then you wouldn't have Harry."

"I know.  Harry is the only good thing about my marriage to James."

Cissy squeezed her friend's hand as her niece, Nymphadora Tonks, stepped through the Floo.  Nymphadora, who preferred to be called Dora, had recently turned eleven and would be attending Hogwarts in the fall.  Because the girl had the rare metamorphmagus talent, which was quite hard for young children to control, Remus had taken on the responsibility of her education before Hogwarts.  Remus enjoyed teaching and last year had begun teaching Harry and the twins as well.

Dora tripped on her way to greet her aunt and laughed at her own clumsiness. "Hello Aunt Cissy."

"Good morning, dear," Cissy replied, kissing the girl's cheek.  "I like your hair."

"Thanks!" the girl said, touching her bubblegum pink hair.  "Dad isn't too sure about it."

"It'll grow on him," Lily told her as Cissy handed Rosie to the girl.  For all her clumsiness she was actually quite careful with the younger children.

Remus and Severus managed to disentangle themselves from the older kids and the four adults went into the kitchen, Cissy moving to prepare some coffee for them.  "What happened?" Remus asked.

Severus sighed as they sat down.  "I had to spank Harry last week and he said something to James about it."

"James pitched a fit," Lily added.  "He called Sev a child abuser in front of Harry."

"That little..." Cissy hissed, unable to find a word foul enough.

"I took Harry home and went back to give James a piece of my mind!"

Severus squeezed his wife's hand.  "When Harry got home, he told me what happened and I had to explain to him what a child abuser was."

"You aren't that, Da!" Harry said from the doorway.  He had been on his way to the bathroom when he heard them talking.  Harry walked over to his da.  "It didn't hurt that bad or for very long, even though you did spank my bare bottom."

Remus gave his friend a look, knowing of the Potions Master's own experiences with his father.

"Tell your godfather what you did, scamp," Severus told the man, lifting Harry up to sit on his knee.

Making a little face, Harry explained to his godfather.  "I took Mum's wand while she was sleeping and went down to Da's lab while he was in the shop and made a cauldron ‘xplode on accident.  Da made me go to my room and wait for-EVER...then he lectured me a lot and made me cry some.  Then he took off my jeans and underpants and put me over his knee and spanked me six times.  He said he did that ‘cause I was so naughty."

Remus nodded.  "Well, that was very naughty of you, pup.  But I think maybe your Da made the right decision about your punishment.  You did two things that you knew you weren't supposed to do...so instead of giving you more swats, he just made sure that you felt them a little better."

"I'm sure not gonna make him do that again!"

Severus chuckled and gave his son a quick hug.  "Run along, scamp."  Grinning, Harry hopped down and ran from the room.

Cissy took a seat next to her husband.  "I hate to have to ask this, but why did Harry tell James?"

"I don't think he was intending to cause trouble for Sev," Lily replied.

"Harry doesn't like it when Potter talks about me.  He told me so himself," Severus added.  "I don't think he likes going over there.  Just this weekend he asked if he had to go."

"I hate sending him there," Lily said.  "But it was part of the divorce agreement."  She sighed deeply and Severus took her hand, giving it a gentle squeeze.  "There has to be some way for me to get custody from him.  What James is doing isn't good for Harry."

Remus was silent for a moment before answering.  "The first thing to do would be to talk to James.  Tell him that if such behavior continues then you'll sue for full custody.  Harry shouldn't have to make a choice between James and Sev.  I know that he loves both of his fathers."

"He does," Lily confirmed.  "And that's why he doesn't like James talking about Sev.  James owled this morning asking if he could have Harry again next weekend because he has to go out of town on a case the week after that and doesn't know when he'll be back."

Severus sighed.  "Potter said he had something special he wanted to do with Harry since he'll be out of town for a while.  And that's another part of the problem.  He's always giving Harry expensive toys and gifts and taking him places when he has Harry for two weeks during the summer.

"And he lets Harry do whatever he wants when he's there.  It's a real problem sometimes, though not as bad as it used to be.  Sometimes Harry will throw a tantrum if he doesn't get his way...or refuses to go to bed when told, saying that with Potter he gets to stay up as late as he wants.  We have rules at our house and Potter has none.  It confuses Harry, but he's learning that there is a certain way to act at home and a different way at Potter's."  He slammed his hand down on the table.  "Damn it...I hate it when that man undermines us."

"While he's gone, talk to your attorney," Remus told them.  "It's the best time to do so.  Figure out what you need to do and go from there when he returns."

"And no matter what happens, we'll stand by you," Cissy added.

Remus smirked.  It was a mischievous smirk that was rarely seen.  "And if the threat of a lawyer doesn't work...wolves eat deer."

Severus couldn't help it...he started laughing.-

While the adults were inside talking, Dora took the children outside to play.  She sat on the porch steps with Rosie in her arms while Eric played at her feet with his dragon figures.  Harry, Teddy and Tessa were in the yard tossing a Quaffle back and forth.  James had given Harry a complete Quidditch set for Christmas, even though Lily and Sev had said that Harry wouldn't be able to fly alone until his eighth birthday, when he would be old enough to join the Junior Quidditch League.  Sirius had given Harry a broom for Christmas, and it wasn't a training broom.  No, Sirius had given him a full sized broom that he wouldn't be allowed to use until he was old enough to start at Hogwarts.  Teddy and Tessa, whose birthday was just two weeks after Harry's, were just as excited as Harry about the Junior Quidditch League, even there was still a year left before they would be old enough to play.  The three friends all wanted to be Chasers.  They had already gotten pretty good at a game they called Quaffle Keep-Away, which they played with their friends.  Remus and Severus had told them it was good practice for Quidditch.

After a while they grew bored of playing with the Quaffle and ran over to Dora.  "Tell us about Hogwarts," Harry said, dropping to a seat beside the older girl and kissing his baby sister's forehead.

Dora smiled at them.  "What do you want to know?"

"What House are you going to be Sorted into?" Tessa asked, claiming a seat on the other side of her.

"Well," Dora replied. "Mum was a Slytherin and Dad was a Hufflepuff...so I'll probably end up in one of those two Houses.  Dad says that I'd make a better Hufflepuff than Slytherin."

Teddy looked up at her.  "I'm named after your dad, huh?"

"That's right, shorty.  Uncle Remus and Aunt Cissy said that Mum and Dad had been so wonderful to them, that they wanted to name you after Dad.  And Tessa is named after Uncle Remus' mum."

Tessa leaned against her cousin.  "I know Uncle Ted's a painting now.  What happened to him, Dora?"

Dora sighed softly.  "He worked in the Muggle world.  And one day he was walking from where he worked to the place where he Apparated home and he was hit by a drunk driver and killed."

"That was mean!" Harry said.  "Didn't that man know you needed your dad?"

"It was an accident, Harry."

"Well, I hope he went to jail!"

Severus had come outside to call the kids in for lunch and had heard the last bit of the conversation.  He clutched the doorframe, to steady himself.  The kids didn't need to know the truth about what had happened to Ted Tonks.  Not yet...not when they were too young to understand.  Though they would need to tell Dora soon.  What Dora knew was the truth, but not all of it.  The whole story was that it was Severus' own father, Tobias Snape, who had been the drunk driver that had caused the wreck that killed not only Ted, but Tobias and three other people, when the truck that Tobias was driving crashed into another car, that had flipped and caught Ted underneath it.  No one had even known that Ted was under the car until they had removed the wreckage.  It had happened just before Harry's second birthday.  Taking a couple of deep breaths, he forced himself to smile for the kids.  "Alright, pups...time for lunch."

Harry, Eric, Teddy and Tessa all jumped up to hurry inside.

"Are you alright, Dora?" he asked, taking Rosie and putting his arm around the girl, who considered him a second uncle.

She sighed.  "It still hurts sometimes, but it helps being able to talk to his painting."

"I know it does," he said, kissing the top of her pink head.  "Thanks for watching the kids for us."

"You're welcome, Uncle Sev."  She smiled up at him and went inside.

Severus held his daughter close as he watched the girl walk away, his heart troubled.  He worried that Dora would hate him once she found out that it was his father who had killed her father.  And he worried about whether or not Harry would enjoy the next weekend with his father, but for some reason he couldn't explain, Severus doubted that it would go well.