A large cup of coffee in his hand and a lare tome nestled in his lap, Severus Snape listened to the clock chime two. He had been advised to get an early night, first by Dumbledore and then, when he and Sirius had arrived to pick up Harr… Orion and Cerin, rather more pointedly by Madam Pomfrey.

Sirius, of course, had headed the advice and was now snoring like a dog in his suite. Even as a boy, the Gryffindor had been too convinced of his charm, eloquence and intelligence to revise into the night. Severus, on the other hand, read compulsively, hungrily, convinced that every scrap of knowledge had to be absorbed in order for him to be properly prepared. Of course, Severus had top marks in most of his subjects but sometimes, in the dead of night, when Lily seemed as distant as Celine, he had wondered whether he would have succeeded in gaining Lily’s hand with merely excellent results if he could emulate the other boy’s nonchalant grace.  

However, merely knowing more than almost everyone else was never good enough and, even now, Severus turned to books rather than just relying on his instincts and hoping for the best. It was, technically, cheating by his high academic standards but, with time so scarce and all the major libraries closed, Severus had resorted to a cheat from his schooldays. With the exception of living things (which appeared to encompass everything from people to the tomatoes on a pizza) the Room of Requirement could summon up anything a wizard needed and Severus had needed books on child-rearing, child language acquisition and (glory be) a tiny, ancient book written by Salazar Slytherin himself as a record of his children’s childhood.

Severus had devoured the small, ancient book first, marvelling at the charm work, which translated the text from Old English, and the amazing stories about Slytherin’s private life as well as the more relevant insights into how to teach English to young children who have become all too used to using their inherent language.

A wise man would, probably, have stopped after the memoir but Severus had picked up the next book (a down to earth text for first time parents) then the next (for adoptive parents of toddlers) and was now speeding through the books on child language acquisition. His brain started to whisper that he knew enough for at least the first day of parenting, that, even without his extracurricular reading, he would have been able to keep the children clean, fed and alive.

But Severus read on.

OoOoO

There are few ways of being awakened which are pleasant. Gentle sunlight is one, the smell of freshly baked buns another. However, the list of happy awakenings does not include a hysterical man shieking “Oh! My! God! He’s eating a rat!!!”

Severus awoke to find Sirius, wild eyed and tousle-haired, ripping a half eaten but wholly furred rodent from Orion’s hands. The resultant scream brought forth a higher, younger wail from Cerin, apparently still in his cot.

Wooziily, Severus stood up and scooped the crying Orion into his arms.

“Fang-nose! Fang-nose! Dog-man took my kill! Tummy hurts! Hungry! Hatchling hungry! Cannot hunt, trapped in cage!”

Severus sighed “Rat meat not good meat for two-legs. Dog-man not want snakelet Harry poisoned of rat-meat. Fang-nose hunt better meat for Harry and hatchling.”

“Rat meat good! Not poison.” Orion protested.

“Fang-nose hunt better meat, Ask Fang-nose for meat, no hunting, Meat like before sun-rose this day”

Orion looked as Severus with huge green eyes “Two-legs meat good.”

Severus entered the kitchen, set Orion on the counter and pulled open the fridge. With his usual foresight, it contained a number of packets of fresh stake, as well as a large bottle of milk, He picked up the bottle thoughtfully and Orion’s eyes lit up.

“Milk!” the child exclaimed in english.

Severus felt giddy “Would you like milk?” he asked hopefully.

Orion’s face was a picture of surprise, Slowly, as if dragging up something from a great depth, he responded “Harry milk!”

Severus nodded “//I hunt //milk//” before replying in English “I will pour you some milk”, Orion grasped the offered beaker keenly. “Milk // good prey. Not had it for many suns and moons//  
 
//You hiss // I like milk// in two leg speak. Means //Milk// good prey.”

“I…like milk?”  Orion repeated uncertainly. //why hiss in two-legs speak. Like rocks in mouth.//

//You will hunt with two-legs. Two-legs not good hunters of snake-speak. Two-legs only speak two-legs speak// Severus replied, quoting Slytherin almost to the word.

//Fang-nose speak snake-speak// Orion pointed out, looking hopefully at the piece of meat that Severus was carefully cubing.

//Fang-nose all alone in snake-speak. Hatchlings must hunt with other two-legs hatchlings. Must learn two-legs speak. Fang-nose hunt two-legs speech with hatchlings.//

Severus put a pan on the hob and, taking a small handful of the meat, began to cook it.

//what Fang-nose doing with prey?//

//two legs way of eating. You eat prey snake way, you eat prey two legs way. Hunt how prey is better meat.//

Orion looked sceptical but, as with the milk, the smell of cooking meat appeared to stir some memory in him. //I eat new way like two-legs//

At that point Sirius walked in, a red faced Cerin in his arms. “He won’t stop crying!"

Orion looked up at Sirius, his green eyes widining as he took in the long, crimson dressing gown "Padfoot!"

Sirius' mouth dropped open.

"Padfoot! Padfoot like milk?"

"Ye... yeah!" Sirius stammered, a huge grin stretching across his features "Hoiiw the hell did you get him doing that?"

Severus strode over and plucked the crying Cerin from Sirius' grasp "It appears that scents and sights- the  red dressing gown looks like your auror robes, yes?- help Orion to remember words which he learnt as a toddler." Severus patted Cerin's bottom "He's wet. You look after the  steak, I'll change Cerin. And Sirius..."

"Yeah" Sirius grinned, beaming at Orion.

"Please try not to swear, we don't want Orion's first words to be littered with obsenities."

"Hell" Orion chirped happily. "Hell" //new-hissing. Hiss like two-legsss// "Hell, hell, hell!" 

"Yes" Severus sighed, walking down the corridor "This might well be."