The next morning was hectic in the Potter quarters. As was custom, Harry woke up Jamie first, as the little boy was always full to bursting with energy and wanted to sleep as little as possible. Because of this, Jamie always showered with his daddy in the morning and then helped him make breakfast for the family.

Ginny, after getting up, would nudge Severus and Alby awake. They always took bathes at night, so didn’t need one in the morning. Sirius and Teddy, however, were hard to wake and needed showers to wake up. So, after Ginny got Severus and Alby stirring, she would put Sirius and Teddy in the shower or bath, depending on which they preferred that morning.

This particular morning, they had wanted a shower, so while they were in there, Ginny went and got both Severus and Alby dressed and ushered them out to the kitchen with Harry, who was plating breakfast.

Ginny walked into the bathroom and quickly made sure the boys were clean, sent a drying charm on them, and dressed them. Then both boys ran to the kitchen.

That was when it became hectic.

Sirius, who was wearing socks but no shoes, slipped and this caused Teddy to slip on top of him. This caused Sirius to let out a howl from pain that was soon followed by tears.

“Owww!” Sirius screamed through his tears, holding his left arm to him.

“I’m sorry, Siri! I’m sorry.” Teddy said over and over. Harry came over to Sirius and knelt down.

“Hey, little man, it is going to be okay. Gin will have this fixed in a jif. This is why we don’t run in the house. Teddy, son, it wasn’t your fault. But, you also know that we do not run in the house.”

“Yes, sir.” Teddy said, sniffing.

“Okay, buddy, go sit at the table. Mummy will fix up Sirius and then he will be in there.” Harry said.

Indeed, Ginny had already run the necessary scans and was rubbing in a bruise salve over Sirius’ bruised arm. His tears were already pretty much stopped.

Ten minutes later, they were all sitting at the breakfast table when Jamie spilled his milk on his favorite red t-shirt that had a flying snitch on it.

“Bloody Merlin!” Jamie hissed, then slammed his milk glass on the table.

“James Sirius Potter! I just told you yesterday that I had better not ever hear you use that kind of language.” Ginny said. Harry looked like he was trying not to laugh until Ginny shot him a look that sent a chill down his spine the look was so reminiscent of Molly Weasley.

“Sorry, Mummy.” Jamie said sullenly as Harry sent cleaning and drying charms at his son.

“Okay, boys! We have to get ready to go to Grammy’s!” Ginny said, clapping her hands together to get the boys’ attention.

They all looked at her and started to get up, and headed to the Floo where they each had an individual backpack with a change of clothes, and, depending on the boy, their safety item. This item was different for each boy. Teddy, now seven, soon to be eight, he no longer needed his safety item, and kept it hidden in his room. It was a stuffed wolf that his parents…his biological parents… had bought him when he was born. Sirius just preferred to take quidditch books, saying that he was too old to have anything to sleep with. Jamie, had a stag, Severus, his snake, and Alby, his blanket and a snake similar to Severus’. (The child had cried for two days to have a snake to protect him after Severus had come home with his. It was after Severus had let Alby have his for a night, and hadn’t slept at all that Harry had immediately gone to the toy store to pick up a similar snake and the toys that Sirius had asked for two days prior before he had thrown his little tantrum.)

“Harry, will you get the stomach soothers? Sev and Alby are both probably going to need one after the Floo.” Ginny asked, placing the straps of Severus’ bag on his shoulders, then doing the same for Alby and Jamie.

“Course!” Harry said, and walked towards the kitchen to grab the vials of stomach soother.

Five minutes later they were all ready, Harry, once again, had Sirius, Teddy, and Jamie, and Ginny had Alby and Sev.

“Gin, what are we gonna do when we have the next one? We have no free hands!” Harry said happily.

Neither noticed the look of pure terror on Severus’ face.

~sdrawkcab~

After the Floo, Alby simply complained of an upset stomach, but, unfortunately, Severus vomited again. The Floo simply did not agree with the little boy.

“Come on, Sev, take the stomach soother.” Ginny said, as her mother, otherwise known as Grammy, took Alby and was slightly rocking him.

Harry was helping the other boys take their backpacks off, and then watched them run over to their Grammy. Only Sirius stayed slightly back, unsure of what to do.

“Gin, we need to go. I have to teach class in fifteen minutes, and I am sure that St. Mungos misses you.” He said with a laugh.

“Okay. Sev, are you feeling better now?” Ginny asked the child on her lap.

Sev shook his head no.

“What’s the matter?” Ginny asked him.

Sev placed his head on her shoulder and wrapped his left hand behind her and started to twirl her hair around his fingers.

“I don’t want you to leave me here.” Severus whispered.

“Sev, don’t you want to stay here and play?” Harry asked, kneeling in front of him and Ginny.

Sev shook his head again.

“I don’t want to stay. What if you forget?” Severus asked quietly.

Harry and Ginny looked at one another.

“What do you mean, Sev?” Harry prompted.

“I don’t want Mummy to leave me.” Sev cried.

“Sev, mummy has to go to work.” Harry said, lightly patting Sev’s knee.

“You’re gonna forget me.” Severus whimpered, and dug his face into into Ginny’s neck, his hand twisted deep in her hair, twisting it around more and more as he cried.

“Sevy, honey, talk to me. Baby, tell mummy what’s wrong.” Ginny said. Harry looked at Severus with concern.

“If you leave me here, you are gonna forget me. You won’t come back. I don’t want to stay here.” Severus cried.

“Oh honey, we are not going to forget you! We will be here to get you at three thirty.” Ginny told him.

“Promise?” Severus asked.

“Promise.” Ginny and Harry said at the same time. Severus looked at them both with surprise.

“Hey Sev, come on! Grammy said we could play outside!”

Ginny and Harry turned around, shocked.

Sirius had watched Harry and Ginny trying to convince Severus that they would come back. Sirius could see that they were getting nowhere. So, he had asked Severus to come play with them outside.

“Really?” Severus asked quietly.

“Yea! Come on!”

Severus looked up and Ginny and then at Harry. He untwisted his fingers from Ginny’s hair with the care and precision of someone that once spent his days cutting up potions ingredients, and then jumped off of Ginny’s lap and ran over to Sirius, and together the two ran towards the door that Molly was standing by.

“Have you noticed that Sev isn’t letting Snape out as much anymore?” Harry asked Ginny.

Ginny looked fondly out the back door, as her five boys ran after a poor garden gnome in the yard.

“Yes. He and Sirius are actually starting to get along as well.”  Ginny said with a smile.

Harry smiled, “Come on love, We are going to be late to work.”

Together, they went to the Floo, and hoped that Molly would be in one piece after a day with their five boys.

~sdrawkcab~

Molly Weasley watched five of her grandchildren playing in the backyard chasing several gnomes around. To her, they were all hers. Sirius and Severus just as much as the previous three, and was happy that the two boys would be able to have a safe and happy home with Ginny and Harry.

Molly knew, from talking to Ginny and Harry both, that there were days when Severus acted more like an adult than other days, and the same with Sirius, though Sirius very seldom acted upon his adult memories and, in turn, seemed to be losing many of them much faster than Severus was. They had discussed it with amongst themselves, and Poppy Pomfrey at Hogwarts, and they had all mutually decided that it was probably because Sirius had been behind the Veil much longer than Severus. They also suspected that since Sirius had spent much of his adult life in Azkaban, that he probably did not remember as much of his life as Severus; therefore, he did not have as much to act upon as the younger boy did.

Severus, however, was getting better, and that was proved to Molly when the boy had decided to play with Sirius, Jamie, and Teddy, and not with only Alby, whom Ginny had told her mother he doted on constantly.

Molly sighed as she continued watching the boys play. It was such a wonderful sight to see the five little boys run around, carefree and happy. She remembered those days wholeheartedly, when her own boys and little girl did the same. It had not lasted nearly long enough, however. By the time that Ginny was ten, the Dark Lord had already begun making his way back into the wizarding world. Harry…poor Harry…had never really had a childhood to begin with, but one would never realize it by the way he interacted so lovingly with his children.

“Grammmmmmmyyyyyy!” Alby yelled, laughing hysterically. Molly looked over to the little boy. Alby pointed at Severus.

In his hands was a grubby baby gnome. The baby was sleeping quietly.

“Throw him, Sev!” Sirius said laughing.

“No! Look! He’s a baby!” Sev said. He cradled the miniature gnome in his arms and looked at it longingly. Sirius came over to Severus, followed closely by Jamie and Teddy.

“Sev, what are ya doing with it?” Teddy asked, staring at the little boy with his eyebrow quirked up, his hair at the moment as bright a blue as the sky itself.

“Grammy! Grammy! Can I keep him?” Severus asked, running over to where Molly say on a magically gliding swing.

Molly looked at the boy adoringly. (He had, after all, called her Grammy, and he had only been at her house for a mere two hours. There was nothing better in the world than being addressed as such, even hearing the word Mummy from your child’s mouth…)

“Sevy, he probably has a home. Don’t you think that he would miss his Mummy and Daddy?” Molly asked him gently.

“But, I need him.” Sev said, turning his eyes up to Molly with a wide eyed puppy dog look.

Molly looked at the little boy and at the little, ugly gnome in his hands.

“Sev, it is almost time to make lunch. How about this, if, and I mean if, you lay him where you found him and after your nap if he is still there, we will take him into the house and see what your Mummy and Daddy say when they get here this afternoon, okay?”

“Mummy and Harry.” Severus whispered quietly. He wanted so much to call Harry Daddy…he just wasn’t there quite yet, and he didn’t want his new Grammy to be angry with him because of.

Molly, sensing that was his problem, nodded and corrected herself, “Yes, we’ll ask your Mummy and Harry.”

“Grammy?” Severus said quietly.

“Yes?”

Severus motioned with his index finger for him to come closer to him. She bent down and he went close to her ear and whispered, “Will you make sure that Teddy and Sirius don’t throw him? I don’t want him to get hurt, and I know that we have been having fun, but sometimes they don’t think things through. And, if my Gnomie doesn’t have a home, I want to keep care of him like Mummy and Harry do to me…”

Molly looked at the little boy, and noticed just how sincere he was.

“Of course, Sev.” She said, and then followed the child to where he found the gnome and watched as he gently laid the baby down.

Secretly, Molly hoped that the little gnome was still there after Sev woke up.

~sdrawkcab~

After a lunch with no incidences, and after Molly had laid the boys down for their nap, Severus crawled off of his pallet on the floor and went in search of his Grammy.

Molly was in kitchen putting away dishes when she heard the tiny footsteps and turned around.

“Sev, what are you doing, sweetheart?” Molly asked him. Severus walked over to her and put his hand in her apron pocket and looked up at her.

“Grammy, can we go check on him now? Please? I can’t sleep knowing he is out there all alone and probably cold. He didn’t even have any clothes on!” Severus said, disgusted.

Molly looked at the little boy. Where had his parents gone wrong in his first life that he had grown so uncaring towards the world?

Sure, Sev. Let’s go see about our new friend.”

Together the two walked outside, Molly gently holding Severus’ hand, and went to the spot where the little gnome had been laid delicately by Severus.

On the ground, with little gnome tears, the infant gnome lay abandoned. Sev immediately let go of Molly’s hand and picked it up. Molly looked at the little gnome oddly. Never before had she seen a gnome with eyes the color of the sea, but there the little thing lay, light green eyes and all, staring into Severus’ own obsidian eyes intently.

“Can we bring him in the house?”

“Of course, Sec. We can bring him in the house. Let’s go wash him up.”

The pair walked into the house, bathed the little gnome, and then Sev wrapped him in a dry towel.

“Grammy, how come he looks kinda like a real kid when he is clean?” Severus asked. Molly herself was wondering. The once ugly creature, when clean, looked simply like a miniature person.

“I don’t know, Sev.”

“Oh well. I am going to take care of him! Will you make him a sweater? With a ‘N’ on it?” Sev asked her excitedly.

“An ‘N’?”

“Grammy! Stop being silly! For his name of course! Gnomie! It starts with an ‘N’!” Severus laughed.

Molly looked at him with eyebrows raised. At that moment, he was a child indeed.

“Remember, we have to talk to your Mummy and Harry before you can keep him. Gnomie will take a lot of work.”

“Yea, I know. But you and Mummy will help cause you both keep goof care of me and the brothers.” Severus said, cuddling the now sleeping gnome in his arms.

Soon, Severus was sleeping, and Molly was left alone with her thoughts to contemplate the mind of little Severus Snape.