In his defense, Harry did try to work on his chores Monday; however, he kept finding more important things to do such as, while scrubbing the porch he found a garden snake. After a brief conversation, he snuck said snake into the house and left him on the sofa where Severus was sure to find him. He had expected his brother to be at least shocked, but what he didn't know was that Severus was a parsalmouth as well. After a slight argument about Severus not telling Harry about his ability, Harry started working on another chore, despite the fact that the porch was not entirely clean. Later that day, Harry decided to take a break, so he went down to his favorite part of the stream (Severus thought he was cleaning out the shed) and promptly fell asleep on the large rock. When he woke, an hour later, he returned to the house proclaiming to Severus that the shed was clean and began on the next chore, circumstances preventing him from completing that one as well.

As the day ended and the night rolled in, Severus and Harry were fixing dinner when they heard the door open and saw Tobias enter the kitchen.

"Dad!" Harry smiled and ran to his father wrapping his arms around the man in a tight hug that Tobias gladly returned.

"Harry," said to Tobias with a chuckle, "I see you survived a couple of days alone with your brother."

Harry scowled slightly at his father as he pulled away from him.

Tobias chuckled again, "Go get the rest of my things out of the car, please."

"Yes, sir," said Harry before running out the door.

Tobias turned to Severus, who was leaning up against the counter. "He behave?"

"Yes," Severus nodded.

"Did you behave?" Tobias was unable to hide the smile from his face as he asked this.

Without a smile or the slightest hesitation, Severus replied, "Define behave."

Tobias rolled his eyes, shaking his head, but laughed.

"How did it go?" asked Severus quietly.

Tobias gave a sort of half smile, "The memorial service went well. The cremation and will reading was a bit rushed, though. He wanted his ashes scattered out at sea from the ship we used to serve on, which will be leaving harbor in," Tobias checked his watch, "about four hours."

Severus nodded. "I'm sorry."

A confused look passed over Tobias's features for a moment. "For what?"

"That your friend died," Severus answered.

"Why?" asked Tobias with a snort. "He lived a full life, Severus. He did everything he wanted, had a beautiful family . . . Besides, considering the sort of thrill junkie he was, this will be nothing more then..." Tobias looked thoughtful for a moment.

"The next great adventure," Severus suggested wearily.

Tobias cocked an eyebrow at his son. "Yes, the next great adventure." Tobias's smile broadened.

It was Severus's turn to roll his eyes and shake his head. "You and Albus...I swear, the two of you will be the death of me."

Tobias laughed just as Harry returned with Tobias's overnight case in hand. "Thank you, lad," Tobias said to Harry, relieving him of it and ruffling the boy's hair a bit. "So, what's for dinner?"

................................................................................

"I didn't think you were coming back till tomorrow," said Harry. He was playing with the food on his play rather nervously refusing to meet his father's eyes. They were sitting around the table eating dinner after Tobias had put his things away.

"Well, I had planned on staying another night and coming back early Tuesday morning, but I wanted to make sure you two hadn't killed each other yet," responded Tobias in all seriousness. Tobias's comment was met with matching glares from both his dark-eyed boys. Tobias didn't bother to cover up his amusement.

"So, Harry," continued Tobias, "you finished all your chores, right?"

"Umm...sort of," Harry offered nervously.

"Sort of," repeated Tobias suspiciously, as Severus suddenly took more interest in the conversation. "What do you mean sort of? You've had since Saturday to complete them and the list wasn't that long."

"Well after you left Saturday, we went to help Serenity at the bookstore, then Sunday we were at Hogwarts."

"That still left you all of today. How much did you get done?" Tobias was becoming agitated to say the least. Yes, he said that his son didn't have to do chores on Sunday, but he should have accomplished something today, at least.

"He cleaned the porch as well as the shed and a couple other things too, right Harry?" said Severus when Harry didn't appear as if he was going to answer.

Harry kept his eyes focused on his plate, once again playing with his food. By the way he was acting, both Severus and Tobias knew none of Harry's chores had been completed.

Severus leaned back in his chair glaring at his younger brother. "Brilliant. Just bloody brilliant."

Tobias glared at Severus for a moment before turning his attention back to Harry. "Just what did you do today, that kept you from doing your chores?"

"I tried to do them!" exclaimed Harry, finally looking up from his plate and meeting his dad's eyes. "I started on the porch and the shed and..."

"Then why aren't they done?" demanded Tobias.

Harry opened his mouth to say something, but couldn't think up a good excuse for not doing what he should have. He looked at Severus for help, but found none. "I...I don't know," said Harry finally in a whisper. He began bracing himself for the yelling and maybe even the slaps he was sure he had coming, but they never came. Slowly, Harry raised his eyes from his plate to look at his father. Once their eyes locked, Harry couldn't look away.

In a very quiet voice, which was a million times worse then any amount of yelling, Tobias said, "I'm very disappointed in you, Harry. I had planned to let you off restriction early had you done what you were supposed to while I was gone, but that is no longer an option. Tomorrow, you will finish the list."

"Yes, sir," he answered grimly lowering his eyes to his plate. After a moment, Harry chanced a glance up at his father who was sullenly eating, disappointment still plainly etched on his features. Severus didn't look much happier; he was openly staring at Harry, making him feel even worse if it were at all possible. Harry looked back down at his plate and, no longer feeling hungry, merely played with his food.

Several minutes after Harry had been told to go to bed, Tobias entered his son's room to find the boy lying in bed.

"Nice to see you can follow some instructions," commented Tobias, smoothing out the covers and tucking his son in.

"I'm sorry, dad, really!"

"I'm sure you are, now," said Tobias sitting down on the edge of the bed. "Hindsight is 20/20. Had you only completed two or three chores on the list today, I would have understood and you wouldn't be grounded anymore, but instead you kept getting distracted and didn't complete anything."

Harry felt worse then ever. Today could have been the last day he was grounded, but because he was stupid, he still had five days left of his restriction. "Dad, please, I know I was stupid, but please, if I finish the list tomorrow, can I be ungrounded? You weren't supposed to be back until tomorrow anyway, so today shouldn't count." Harry's voice a desperate tone to it as though the world would end if he remained grounded.

"First off, you're not stupid. You made stupid decisions, but you are not stupid. I don't ever want to hear you say that again, understand me?" Tobias's voice was stern and left no room for argument.

"Yes, sir,"

"Second, even if I had come back tomorrow, like I had planned, can you honestly tell me that the list would have been completed? That in half a day, you could have done more than what you might have accomplished today, had you tried?"

Harry was looking at his dad and knew that if he lied his dad would know. Maybe it was just something in the man's eyes, but Harry knew, that like Severus, Tobias would be able to smell a lie from a mile away. He briefly wondered if the ability was inherited or learned. "No, sir,"

Tobias pushed back his son's hair. "Didn't think so." Tobias got up off the bed and slowly made his way to the door, "Goodnight, son, love you."

"Night, love you too, dad."

Tobias turned off the lights and closed the door behind him. In the living room, Severus was waiting for him.

"I thought he was working today. I know I should have check up on what he was doing, but...I didn't...I'm sorry." Severus wasn't one to apologize unless he knew he was wrong and had no way of explaining his actions. Usually, instead of an apology, he found other ways to make up for what he did, frequently by doing small favors of some sort.

"It amazes me, Severus, that when you do something you should apologize for, you don't, and when something happens that's not your fault, you're the first to feel guilty and apologize for it."

Severus raised an eyebrow and looked at his dad questionably.

"You trusted him to do what he was supposed to. It's not your fault he made bad decisions."

Severus nodded his head, not entirely believing his father; after all, had he check up on his brother's progress at least a couple of things could have been completed.

Tobias rolled his eyes. "In retrospect it's always easy to see what we could have done differently, but there is no point in dwelling on the ‘what ifs.' What's done is done. There's no way to change it."

Severus looked at his father for a moment, knowing that, as usual, he was right. "Are you sure you're not related to Dumbledore?"

Tobias laughed.

.......................................................................

Tuesday afternoon, found Harry outside scrubbing the porch. His dad had insisted he start over, regardless that some of it had been cleaned the day before. He was scrubbing off the railing when he noticed another hand appear on the opposite end, scrubbing as well. Looking up to the hand's owner, Severus met his look with a raised eyebrow as he continued to scrub. Harry was shocked, to say the least.

Severus noticed Harry's shocked expression and smirked. "I came to help. That doesn't mean I'm going to do all the work for you, brat, now keep scrubbing."

"Why?" was the only thing Harry could think to say as he resumed cleaning.

"Well," purred Severus, as though proud of his actions, "it took quite a bit of convincing, but I managed to get dad to let me help you."

"How?" smiled Harry, a distinctly Slytherin gleam in his eye.

Severus shrugged, a small smile playing on his lips, "It wasn't too difficult. I merely pointed out that his plan to let you off being grounded was based on whether or not you behaved, and you did behave most of the time. After all, during the time he was gone you had plenty of opportunities to misbehave and you didn't; therefore, your good behavior needed to be rewarded in some way..." Severus trailed off and stopped what he was doing for a moment, a look of realization came over him, "That bastard!"

"Who?" Harry was confused by his brother's sudden change in attitude.

"Our father," said Severus darkly. "He manipulated me. I was trying to get you off restriction early, and he convinced me that a better way to reward your efforts was for me to help you. He's a sly, manipulating..."

"Slytherin?" suggested Harry wearily, a smile playing at he lips.

Severus glared at Harry. "I was going to say, muggle."

"Well at least you know where you got it from," remarked Harry trying not to laugh. The Head of the House of Slytherin, being manipulated by his muggle father: that was just classic.

"Hmph...Actually, the real question is where did you get your little Gryffindor traits from?"

"What makes you so sure I'm a Gryffindor?"

Severus looked at him as though he were stupid. "I don't know, boy, maybe because you were sorted into that house?"

Harry shrugged. "Or maybe, I'm such a good Slytherin, that I managed to manipulate the Sorting Hat."

Severus looked at him with narrowed eyes. "Explain."

"The Sorting Hat wanted to put me in Slytherin. I asked it not to."

"You asked it not to put you in Slytherin and just like that, it didn't."

Harry shrugged. "Basicially"

"Why?" It was Severus turn to ask the one-syllable questions now. Harry raise an eyebrow at, but bit back the comment about Severus's vocabulary.

"Well, I was eleven, and I didn't know much about magic or the wizarding world yet, and everyone told me that all Slytherins were evil, and that the man who killed my parents was in Slytherin. Not to mention I had met Malfoy and he made a bad first impression."

"I see," said Severus contemplatively.

The two worked in silence for a couple of minutes before Severus, in a conspiratorial whisper said, "You know we have to get him back for this right?"

Harry grinned and looked at his brother. "Have anything in particular in mind?"

.......................................................

"I don't think this is going to work," said Harry quietly, standing next to his brother and surveying their work.

"Did you finish the chores that I told you to?" asked Severus.

"Yes, but--"

"Then you can't get in trouble for not doing what you're supposed to, now can you?"

"It's not that I'm worried about," said Harry nervously. "I'm more worried about what he's going to do to us after this," Harry gestured to their set up. After a minute of silence, Harry asked, "Where did you come up with this anyway?"

"Do you think the Weasley twins were the first pranksters ever to grace Hogwarts grounds? I was just good enough that I rarely got caught."

"Wait till my friends hear about this. They'll never believe me!" Harry was grinning though he kept his voice low as though he might be overheard.

After Tobias had left to go grocery shopping, Severus and Harry had set their plan in action. Gathering all the necessary ingredients, Severus quickly mixed a few potions that the Weasley twins would kill for. He then made sure his father saw him helping Harry when he returned from the grocer. With the help of Harry's invisibility cloak, Severus was able to sneak in and out of the house at will to set up the prank, and it was Harry's job to not only make Tobias think that Severus was helping him with chores, but also to keep him distracted enough that he didn't notice anything suspicious. And now that everything was set-up, they just had to wait.

Tobias was checking to make sure everything that Harry said he had done was in fact done and would soon be back inside where he would go into the kitchen to make dinner. Severus could see it now: Tobias would come through the door, say something to Harry about ‘doing a good job today'... etcetera, and then he would ask what they wanted for dinner before he entered the kitchen. As he entered the kitchen, he would trip a string connected to a cauldron filled with water, drenching him from head to toe. As the cauldron emptied, it would trip another wire that would knock over several different colored vials. As the vials shattered, the fumes from the combined potions would create some...amusing results that would last only a few minutes, but give himself and Harry plenty of time to run for cover.

Severus was not disappointed. Everything thing went just as he had predicted, and Tobias came stumbling out of the kitchen with elephant ears and trunk, his skin purple and massive amounts of hair sprouting out from all over his body, making him look like a cross between a purple elephant and a gorilla.

Harry fell to the floor, he was laughing so hard.

Severus smiled but otherwise showed no outward emotion, even though he was laughing hysterically in his head. "Something the matter?"

"SEVERUS!" bellowed Tobias, followed immediately by a snort from his trunk.

"Yes?" was Severus calm reply, but he knew he wasn't going to be able to keep from laughing much longer.

Before Tobias could say anything else, the effects of the potion fumes faded he was back to his normal self, physically at least, and he was sending Severus a glare that would have made the Dark Lord fall to his knees and beg for mercy. That look was all Severus could take, and no longer able to hold it back, he started laughing along with his brother.

Eventually, Harry picked himself up off the floor and sat down next to Severus. Both had stopped laughing by now and were sitting next to one another on the couch, looking at their father with identical expressions of smug innocents on their faces.

Tobias's eye twitched. NO! He wouldn't do it! He wouldn't! He. Would. Not. Laugh. But Tobias knew the battle was lost, and he began laughing as well; not so much at the prank, but at his sons. He was almost glad the two hadn't grown up together.