Severus stormed into Remus’ office and slammed the door loudly. “I hate that old man!”

Remus looked up from his lesson plans. “What did he do now?”

“What do you know of Horcruxes?” Severus asked, dropping into his usual chair.

“I’ve heard the term, but I know nothing of them except that it is among the darkest of magic,” Remus answered, setting aside his quill.

“It’s an object in which a Dark wizard hides a fragment of his soul. It requires a horrific act as well as a murder to create. Albus believes that the Dark Lord created six of these and is not truly dead. And seeing as he possessed Quirrell, I have no choice but to believe him.”

“Six?! Does Albus know what they are?”

“He thinks the diary that Harry destroyed last year was one of them. He thinks that the Dark Lord may have been looking for objects that belonged to the Founders…and possibly even some heirloom of the Gaunt family.”

“What is his plan?”

“To find them and destroy them. He wanted Harry to help, but I told him in no uncertain terms that he was to leave Harry out of this.”

Remus nodded. “He’s done too much already.”

Severus got up and went to the cabinet where Remus kept the firewhiskey, pouring himself a drink.

--

After dinner and spending some time in the library studying for his Ancient Runes exam the next day, Draco went up to his room, intent on going to bed early. When he came in he realized that something was wrong, but couldn’t put his finger on it. He reached to turn down his bed and stopped suddenly. The blanket that Lily had made for him was missing. His hand hovered in midair as he tried to remember what he had done with it that morning. It was his habit to fold it and place it on his trunk on the foot of his bed before leaving for classes and he remembered doing so again that very morning.

His mind ran through all his fellow Slytherins that could possibly have taken it. As far as he knew, only his roommates knew of its existence. Though he supposed that they could have told one of the others. But most of them would have used magic as a way of revenge, not pilfering. Well, there was one Slytherin that he didn’t know that well…oh no…she wouldn’t have. Would she?

He tore from his dorm, shoving Zabini aside as he raced down the hall to their common room. There she was! Sitting over there studying like she was innocent. Storming across the room and knocking over two first years that had been in his way, he snatched the faded cap off her head, knowing that she often used it to hide her eyes.

“Hey!” she yelled, standing up so quickly that she knocked her chair over. “Give me that back!”

“If you want it back then give my blanket back!” he yelled back at her.

She smirked. “Does Draco have a blankie?” she teased.

“IT’S NOT A BLANKIE!” he thundered, unaware that he was drawing the attention of the rest of his House.

Rae just laughed. “What’s the matter? Can’t sleep without it?”

He took a step toward the hearth, holding her old cap toward the flames.

“Don’t!”

“Give me my blanket!” He took another step toward the hearth.

She lunged toward him, tackling him.

--

Harry was stopped in the hall on his way in from Quidditch practice by a Slytherin prefect asking if he knew where Professor Snape was. “I don’t know…” Harry told the sixth year girl. “But I can find him if it’s an emergency.”

“It is. Two third years are brawling in the common room,” she told him.

“Didn’t you stop them?” Harry asked.

“One of them has put up some sort of shield and no one can get to them.”

Nodding, Harry pulled his mirror from his pocket. “Uncle Sev.”

A moment later the Potions Master’s face appeared in the mirror. “What’s wrong, Harry?”

“One of your prefects is looking for you. She said that there is a fight in your common room,” he told his adopted father. He then relayed the message about the shield keeping the prefects from stopping the fight.

“I’m on my way,” he said, before his face disappeared from the mirror.

Harry turned to the prefect. “He’s on his way. Who is fighting?”

“Draco and that American girl,” she said, heading back toward her common room. Harry ran after her, following her into the Slytherin common room unnoticed.

Sure enough, his brother and Rae were on the floor brawling. The Potions Master walked in a few moments later, followed by Remus Lupin. With a wave of his hand, Severus had the shield down and was pulling his two errant students to their feet. Grabbing each of them by the back of the head, he pushed their heads towards each other, stopping mere inches before their heads collided. “Miss Kelly, had you not had a concussion so recently, you would both be nursing sore heads. Now, tell me what this was all about,” he said in that low and threatening tone he often used with misbehaving students.

“He stole my hat,” she told him, trying to pull free of his grip on the back of her head.

Draco, knowing that struggling was futile, didn’t fight his adopted father’s hand. “She took my blanket!”

He looked back and forth between the two of them before letting them both go. “Do not move.” He summoned Rae’s cap from where it had fallen near the hearth and then held out his hand to summon Draco’s blanket, which flew at them from the girls’ dorms. Severus handed both items off to Remus and grabbing each fighter by an ear, pulled them out of the common room and down the hall to his office.

Harry and Remus followed a few paces behind, Remus running his fingers over the soft yarn of the blanket. “Mum made that,” Harry told him. “I’ve got one with Gryffindor colors. Uncle Sev said that Mum could See a bit.”

Remus nodded. “She could. I have a blanket similar to this as well, only she charmed her hook to work on its own, but these blankets she made by hand.”

“’Ri can’t sleep without it,” Harry told him.

“That would explain his reaction to finding it stolen.”

“It’s the only thing he has from them,” Harry replied. “We both have photo albums with pictures that their friends gave us…but I at least have Dad’s…” he trailed off, not sure if Moony knew about the cloak.

“You have James’ Invisibility Cloak,” Remus finished for him. “Severus told me that you had it. I would suggest leaving it in your trunk because it could get you into a great deal of trouble. It did us.”

Harry nodded. “I will, Moony.”

Once at his office, Severus ordered the two pugilists to sit down and he turned to collect the items from Remus. “Will you please take Harry back to Gryffindor Tower?”

“Of course,” Remus said, putting his arm around the boy’s shoulder. “Come on, Harry. We’ll walk slowly and I’ll tell you some more stories about your dad.”

“Don’t go putting ideas into his head,” Severus called after them before turning back to his office. He slammed the door, causing the two Slytherins to jump in their chairs. He tossed the cap and blanket onto his desk. “I don’t know what has gotten into the two of you, but it will stop.”

“Uncle Sev…” Draco started.

“Silence. Draco, you know good and well that I do not tolerate this type of behavior, as well as how I deal with it. And Miss Kelly, you and I have had several discussions about controlling your temper and your tendency to try and settle things with your fists. You may have been able to get away with that in the States, but it will not be tolerated here at Hogwarts.” He stopped and took a moment to look them over. “Miss Kelly, where did you get this cap?”

“It belonged to my father…” she answered, looking down at her hands.

“Draco…your blanket?”

“Mum made it for me,” he whispered.

Severus took a seat behind his desk, staring at them both. “You two may not realize it, but you both have a great deal in common. You are both orphans who have been adopted by your godfathers and you both have one think from your parents that is very important to you.” He paused and sighed. “Until I say otherwise, you will share a desk in your classes, you will sit beside each other during meals and you will do your homework together every evening.”

Draco’s head shot up as Severus told them their sentence. “Uncle Sev…”

“I’m not finished. You will both also serve a week of detentions with me.”

“But…”

“Do I need to make it two?”

“No!” Rae snapped, giving Draco a dirty look. “One will be enough.”

“Very good. You two are dismissed.”

Rae stood and grabbed her cap which she shoved into the pocket of her robe before heading toward the door and then stopped, turning to look at Draco who was still sitting in his chair looking at his adopted father as if debating on arguing further. Huffing, she walked back over to him and pulled him from the chair. “Come on…I have homework to do.” Draco just barely remembered to reach out and grab his blanket before she drug him toward the door.

“If I catch you two fighting again, I will lock you in a room until you either kill each other or learn to get along, is that understood?” he said, as they crossed the room.

“Yes sir,” they both replied in a whisper.

--

Severus and Remus went into The Three Broomsticks, where Sirius had moved after being cleared by the Ministry. When they entered, Sirius was leaning against the bar, chatting with Rosemerta. Remus rolled his eyes and started to greet his old friend, but Severus shook his head. He pulled his wand and with a quick flick, Sirius was hanging in the air upside down. He walked over to his old nemesis. “Hello Black.”

“Let me down, Snivellus!” he snapped.

Remus growled softly from where he stood nearby.

“I don’t think so, Black,” Severus said. “I believe I owe you for quite a bit.” With another flick of his wand, the man’s mouth filled with soap.

The other patrons started chuckling as they watched the exchange. Some of them had known the two as students and knew of the animosity between them.

Severus ended the spell and crossed his arms as he considered the man in front of him, as Sirius coughed and sputtered, trying to get the taste of soap out of his mouth. “Let’s see…what other spells did you two use that day…”

Sirius’ eyes grew wide as he remembered the day that Severus mentioned. “Don’t! Sniv…Snape! Don’t! Please!”

“Why not, Black? You did it to me…”

“I’m sorry! Please don’t!”

Severus shrugged and turned to leave the tavern, leaving the man hanging in mid air.

Remus looked over at his friend. “You can’t say that you don’t deserve it,” he said, before following the Potions Master from the tavern. As he walked through the door that Severus was holding open, he put his wand behind his back and with a flick Sirius’ trousers came undone and bunched around his ankles, bringing loud laughter from the other patrons.

Severus shook his head and closed the door behind him. “Remus, I didn’t know you had it in you,” he told his new friend.

Remus chuckled. “Well, I do owe him something too.”

“Yes…you do. I owe him a lot more,” he said, leaning against the side of The Three Broomsticks. “After all, he nearly got me killed and that would have gotten you killed too.”

“Severus…”

“Look, Remus, I don’t hold that against you. Black on the other hand.”

Remus nodded.

“So how long do we leave him in there before going back in?”

“How many people know the counter?”

“As far as I know, only the three of us. And you two wouldn’t know it if Black hadn’t stolen my journal.”

Remus nodded again. “We’ll give him another five minutes, and then we’ll go let him down. What did you decide to do about the Firebolt?”

“I’m going to get Harry another Nimbus and then they can share the Firebolt. When they play against each other they can use their Nimbus’, in the other games they can use the Firebolt.”

“That’s sounds quite fair.”

“I thought it was a good compromise without forcing Black to buy another Firebolt. I wasn’t going to let either of them use it because I don’t think any students should be using a broom like that, but I figured they wouldn’t stop begging to be allowed to use it. So this saves me a headache. But I did tell them that any stupid stunts and they would lose it.”

“I think Lily would agree with your decision. James on the other hand,” Remus said with a chuckle. “James was a big kid when it came to brooms.”

Severus pulled out his pocket watch and checked the time.

“You know that Sirius is going to be spoiling them, right? He’s got a large vault and a lot of birthdays and Christmases to make up for.”

“If he wishes to spoil them, then he’ll need to spoil them equally. And I would prefer he run anything by me before he does it, but knowing him, he won’t. So try to keep a leash on the mutt, alright?”

Remus nodded. “So, are you going to let him down or should I?”

Severus waved his hand and the door flew open. He flicked his wand and there was a crash heard from inside. Moments later Sirius hurried out the door.

“What were you thinking only buying one Firebolt?” Remus asked starting in on his old friend. “You know good and well that Draco is James and Lily’s son too. Did you even consider that when you bought that stupid broom? If you were only going to buy one room, you should have sent it to both brooms and not just Harry! You had a brother, Sirius. Use that head of yours and thinking about both boys next time you get a bright idea,” he said, smacking Sirius a couple times on the head.

Sirius threw up his arm to try and fend off the blows from his stronger friend. “Ow! Moony, cut that out! It hurts!”

“It’s supposed to, you idiot!”

“I’ll get another Firebolt, alright?!”

“You most certainly will not!” Severus snapped. “I didn’t want either of them to have one of those damn brooms; I sure don’t want two of them.”

“Then what do you want?” Sirius asked, stepping away from Remus before the man could hit him again.

“Next time you decide to buy them something, run it by me first…and make sure you buy something for both of them.”

“Are you going to let me spend time with them?”

Severus stared at him for a moment before nodding. “As long as Remus goes along.”

“For how long?”

“Until I decide that I can trust you with them alone.”

Sirius sighed. “When can I see them?”

“I will allow you to take them shopping at Christmas.”