"I don't think this is a good idea," Harry said in a whisper to his brother as they cautiously peeked around the rock to see if anyone was coming. Tobias was outside working in the front yard, well away from the stream, on some chore and Eileen had decided to take a walk into town and would most likely be gone for quite some time.

Ignoring his brother's comment, Severus said in a whisper, "Why are we sneaking around like this? We're wearing an invisibility cloak, and no one is nearby." In just three more days Severus and Harry would be restored to their correct ages again. Severus had been ill for several days following their camping trip almost a week ago, but he had been well for sometime now and it was time to exact some revenge.

"We're sneaking because don't want to take any chances. Not that it matters because dad's going to know it was us anyway and we're going to get into trouble." Harry's voice was a harsh whisper as he spoke to his brother under the invisibility cloak. They cautiously walked around the rock to put a few more touches on there prank.

Severus waved off his brother's concerns. "What's the worst that could happen?" Seeing the quirked eyebrow his brother gave him Severus realized that probably wasn't the wisest question to ask his formally abused brother. "The most dad will do is ground us, and in a few days we'll be our proper ages again and he won't be able to ground us for something we did when we were ten."

Harry didn't look convinced, but continued to help his brother.

Severus hadn't said a word to his mother since her arrival. He tried to avoid her all together and wouldn't be in the same room with her without his dad. Severus couldn't bring himself to forgive her for leaving him. He had been good - sure he had misbehaved sometimes, but his dad had stayed with him. Why couldn't his mother? It didn't make sense. Mothers were supposed to love their children and stay with them. He'd be perfectly happy if his mother just left and he could forget all about her, but that wasn't a possibility; therefore, since he had gotten well he had spent every waking moment trying to find way's to make her life hell.

He had put earthworms and shaving cream in her shoes, he had replaced her toothpaste with glue, and injected blue dye into her shampoo. Yet through all of this and more, she had remained unmoved, completely neutral, and impassive. She hadn't even seemed angry! But he would succeed this time, he was sure. He had formed a plan that, if it worked, would make her upset enough to leave. With luck once she left, she'd never come back.

Harry could understand how Severus felt about their mother, and he knew that her presence was hurting Severus. As a result, he didn't mind pulling a couple harmless pranks on her, but unlike Severus, he doubted she'd leave because of them. Yes, he knew that Eileen wouldn't stay, but he sort of hoped that she would change her mind. Then they could all live together and be happy. He could only imagine what it would be like to have a mum and dad and brother. But Harry wasn't sure about the prank they were setting up now. Sure it might be funny to see the look on Eileen's face, but would it be worth the consequences?

Everyday at the same time, Eileen would go for a walk. She usually took the same path down to the stream then made a small loop and came back to the house. Occasionally she would go into the village, but not often enough for it to affect Severus and Harry's plan. It would begin tomorrow morning after Eileen left the house for her walk. They were putting the finishing touches on their rig now, so it would be ready for Eileen the next day. Tomorrow when Eileen left, Severus and Harry would use the invisibility cloak to follow her and watch the prank unfold.

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

Eileen's eyes opened and she stared at the ceiling for a moment. This was getting boring. Granted, here she had her husband and he was without a doubt the best lover she had ever had, but going through the same routine day after day... well, it got tiresome. When she had popped in she was expecting to find just Tobias; she would have spent a few days in his bed, asked him to come with her when she left then leave with or without him. Now that she was here however, for some reason she was compelled to stay and see her sons once they were their proper ages again. She wasn't staying out of some long forgotten sense of maternal instinct or anything, just a sort of clinical curiosity. She felt a strong arm wrap itself around her waist and pull her close.

"I see you're awake, love." Eileen's voice was sensual and made the hairs on the back of Tobias's neck stand up in anticipation as she wrapped a hand around his upper arm and began moving it along his nude body.

Tobias's brain was muddled with sleep and thoughts of the naked woman beside him as his hand, of its own accord, moved up to explore her anatomy, so his response was a jumbled, "Love...morning, love."

Eileen smiled. This was a wonderful way to wake up in the morning.

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

In retrospect, Tobias would realize that two extremely calm, well mannered, and bright ten year olds spelt trouble. As it was however, Tobias was impressed with his sons and oblivious that morning at breakfast before he left to go into the village on a couple of errands.

Eileen, in her defense, did notice that Severus and Harry's behavior was slightly different than what she had previously witnessed, but not understanding children in the least she assumed it was normal and ignored it. Later she would realize this was a mistake.

Eileen slowly left the house and walked to the stream and unknown to her, Severus and Harry were following at a safe distance under an invisibility cloak. As Eileen continued on, she attempted to memorize every feature of the surrounding scenery. Other than Tobias, the thing she missed the most about this place was its beauty. It was so picturesque she sometimes doubted that wasn't all just a dream. After Severus was born and she had attempted to settle down they would go camping together. Even though she wasn't much for roughing it, the sheer unadulterated beauty of the place had made every rough moment worth it.

Approaching the large rocks on the bank of the stream, she had every intention of sitting down and watching the world go by, but as she stepped down about two meter's away from the rock her brain had enough time to realize something was wrong before she slipped and went sliding into the water.

Severus and Harry made sure to stay far enough away from Eileen as not to be detected, but close enough to trip the mechanism they had rigged the previous day. It wasn't very complicated in all honesty, merely a couple of makeshift pulleys and good camouflaging. Using an old rug from the shed, they placed it about half way between the rock and stream, connecting a piece of rope to both sides of the rug. Each rope lead from the sides of the rug down to the water where each piece looped around a rock. The rope then lead back to the shore, away from the large rock, where two makeshift stakes were planted in the ground.

The ropes where then brought together behind the large rock at a single stake and tied off. They had camouflaged the whole setup by covering the ropes and rug with dirt and leaves so that it didn't look different then any of the ground surrounding it. Once Eileen was standing in the right place, all Severus and Harry had to do was pull the ropes tied to the single stake and watch as the rug, with Eileen as a passenger, went sailing down into the water. Granted it wouldn't take her very deep, not even knee deep, but she would definitely get wet.

As Eileen hit the cold water she let out a shriek. Once she had regained her bearings, she was able to stand up with cold fury burning in her eyes and see the rig responsible for her impromptu bath. The rug was now floating beside her in the water, the ropes plainly visible now that they had been moved form their hiding places, and laughter was clearly audible from about three meters behind the large rock were the ropes seemed to end.

Worms, shaving cream, glue, and dye had been one thing. This however was inexcusable. Trudging out of the water and toward the point where the laughter was coming from, Eileen drew her wand and summoned what she assumed the two boys had to be using to stay invisible. "Accio Invisibility Cloak."

With a swish, the cloak was ripped off the two laughing boys and went sailing into Eileen's outstretched hand. Without the cover of invisibility and suddenly feeling extremely vulnerable to Eileen's frighteningly angry glare, both boys stopped laughing. Harry swallowed hard and visibly cringed away from Eileen while Severus smirked, but was obviously nervous.

Eileen's eyes narrowed and she silently glared at both boys until the smirk melted off Severus's face and was replaced with a slightly fearful one. Eileen stomped over to the boys and leaned over to stare menacingly at them. With her glare firmly in place she whispered, in a deadly calm voice between clenched teeth, a single word: "Run."

Harry and Severus didn't need to be told twice as they both jumped up and ran as fast as possible. Eileen gave them a small head start before taking off after them. She caught up with Severus first, managing to grab the boy around the waist, pull his back towards her and began tickling him.

After a minute she stopped but kept him pinned against her. She sounded slightly out of breath as she spoke semi-sternly, while giving Severus a small shake. "Stay right here, while I get your brother."

Severus had a huge smile on his face. This was the first time that he could remember, that his mum had ever played with him. "Yes, Ma'am."

With a final tickle of Severus's stomach, she left to catch Harry, who had stopped several feet away from Eileen and Severus to watch what she was doing to his brother. Seeing Eileen once again in pursuit of him, he took off running, slower this time. Once Eileen caught up with him she repeated her earlier actions with Harry. Once done she place a hand on the back of his neck and steered him towards his brother. Severus still had a huge grin on his face as she approached and she just barely kept herself from smiling as well. Placing her free hand on the back of Severus's neck, she steered both of them home.

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

When Tobias came home, a large paper bag filled with groceries in each arm, he was met with a very particular sight. In one corner of the kitchen was Severus standing up straight with his arms behind his back and nose in the corner. Harry was in a similar position in another corner of the kitchen while Eileen was sitting at the table reading a book.

Quirking an eyebrow, Tobias sat the groceries down on the table and directed his question at Eileen. "What's going on?"

Eileen didn't look up from her book, her cool impassive façade back on. "Your sons tried to drown me."

An almost inaudible, strangled whine escaped Severus's throat. It wasn't fair. After she had chased them and tickled them, and everything, she had ordered them home where she told them to wait in the corner until their father got home. Severus had stared at her in disbelief for a moment before a smack on his backside had propelled him into movement. He didn't understand how she could be playing and almost... loving to them in one moment and then want to punish them. Then what she had just said: ‘Your sons' - it was as though with that single comment she had disowned him. He blinked back his tears. How could she say that? She was his mother. After hearing that, Severus felt truly sorry for pranking her. Before he said he wanted her gone, but now that she had completely written him out of her life...he wanted her more then anything. In order to keep from crying Severus forced his sadness to be replaced by anger at her for leaving in the first place and what he felt was betrayal for her telling his father.

"Excuse me?" Tobias's voice was low and held a note to it that his sons immediately recognized as meaning nothing good.

Eileen shrugged as though it were nothing, face unreadable as ever. "Why don't you ask the mastermind behind the plot," she suggested and gestured towards Severus.

"Severus. Tobias. Snape." Tobias's tone was low, but deadly and Severus instantly knew he was in for it.

"Yes sir." Ground out Severus between clenched teeth, not moving from his place in the corner. Though he was nervous about his father's reaction he was angry and hurt by Eileen. It was a joke. Just like all the others. This just wasn't fair.

"Come here," commanded Tobias pointing to the spot directly in front of him. He waited until Severus was standing there before issuing his next order. "Explain."

Severus crossed his arms over his chest defiantly and stared resolutely at the ground. "It was just a joke."

Eileen scoffed but said nothing.

Tobias's glared. "Drop the attitude, now." Tobias didn't add the overused ‘or else' to the command. He didn't want his sons to listen to him because he threatened them. Threatening gave them an excuse for later on. He could just see Severus telling Harry that he only listened because if he didn't such and such would happen. Without the threat, the only reason Severus would have for listening is respect.

Severus stubbornly glared back at his father for a few moments, but eventually released a dramatic sigh and explained the rig and how he and Harry had set it up.

When Severus was done with his explanation, Tobias couldn't decide rather to laugh at the mental image of Eileen sliding down the bank and hitting the water or pulling his son over his knee for a sorely deserved smacking. He settled for what he hoped was a stern look as the corners of his mouth twitched upwards and pointed towards the archway leading into the living room. "Go to your room now, and when I come in there you had best be sitting on your bed looking as though you're about to die of boredom. That goes for you too, Harry."

Harry released the breath he hadn't realized he'd been holding and without looking at his father he said a quiet, "yes sir," and followed his brother out of the kitchen and into their separate rooms, leaving Tobias and Eileen alone in the kitchen.

Once Tobias was sure Severus and Harry couldn't hear him he collapsed into a chair laughing.

Eileen shot daggers at him with her eyes. "It isn't funny."

Tobias nodded, still laughing, but managed to calm down before speaking. "Actually, darling, it is quite funny. Granted they never should have done it...but I can just imagine the look on your face as the ground started moving beneath you and you went sliding towards the water." Tobias couldn't help but to start laughing again.

Eileen waited until he was finished before redirecting the conversation. "How did they get an invisibility cloak?"

Tobias sobered up immediately. "I remember Severus mentioning something about it. It was Harry's adopted father's, I believe. Honestly, I hadn't given it much thought."

"Hmm..." said Eileen, almost condescendingly. "Yes, well it is now folded neatly and resting in the lockbox in the top of your closet."

Tobias nodded gazing off to the side slightly lost in thought. "Yes, that's a good place for it. I should have confiscated it from him sooner. God only knows the kind of trouble he could and probably has gotten into with it."

"Hmm..." was Eileen's reply. It was silent for a couple of moments before she spoke again in the same uninterested tone she always used. "What do you plan on doing to them?"

Tobias sighed running his hand from his forehead down his face letting it rest over his mouth, moving it only after he began speaking in a contemplative tone. "I'll give them a few chores to do today and tomorrow."

"That's it?" Eileen's voice had a slight edge to it.

Tobias shrugged and replied in a neutral tone. "They'll be back to normal soon. There's no point in grounding them or giving them loads of stuff to do."

Eileen huffed indignantly.

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

That night, Severus couldn't sleep. Even after his dad had tucked him in, he continued to toss and turn in his bed. He just didn't understand his mother's reactions; one minute she was playing with them and the next she was marching them off to the gallows. With a frustrated sigh he quietly got up and walked to his brother's room. Opening the door silently, he stepped inside and softly closed the door behind him before walking over to his brother's bed and waking him up.

"Harry, come on...wake up. Harry!" Severus kept his voice down to a whisper, not wanting to wake his dad, as he shook his brother's shoulder.

"Whatisit?" mumbled Harry, pushing Severus away. He had just dozed off.

"I'm running away," stated Severus in a quiet voice just above a whisper as he climbed up onto Harry's bed and sat cross legged, staring at Harry.

"What!" Harry nearly shouted as he sat up straight in bed staring at his brother.

"Shhh!" Severus went back to whispering urgently. "Be quite or dad will hear us!"

"You're not serious?" asked Harry in an unbelieving whisper.

"Yes, I'm serious," Severus said, his black eyes wide. "She...I don't know...she acted like it wasn't a big deal or anything then the next thing we know we were left standing in a corner waiting for dad to get home and whatever punishment he would hand out. It doesn't make sense. She left, so why'd she come back if she doesn't love us?" Severus's thoughts were jumbled and bouncing around his head and the more he tried to make sense of the whole situation the more it made his head hurt. Placing the palm of his hands on his temples he rubbed trying to stop the all the thoughts and emotions clashing around.

Ever since he could remember he had always been able to control his mind. For him it was easy, natural instinct, and he couldn't understand why others couldn't do it as well. Concentrating he forced all the thoughts away leaving his mind clear, but he still found himself confused about Eileen's actions.

Harry just sat on the bed watching his brother. He didn't know what to say. "Dad loves us." Even to Harry, his voice sounded unsure, and startled, he realized he'd never had to reassure anyone of anything like that before. "Besides, you can't runaway now and leave me with all the chores we have to do thanks to your brilliant idea." Harry tried to joke, but the only acknowledgement he got from Severus was a forced half smile as the corners of his mouth lifted slightly.

"I hate her, but...I don't know...for some reason...I want her to stay here. I want her to love me." Severus drew his knees up to his chest and rocked back and forth staring at the wall behind Harry's head. "Daddy loves her... But she doesn't love us. So how can he love us if she doesn't?" a little voice in the back of Severus's head said that there was something wrong with his logic, but he was to upset to figure out what at the moment. "It just isn't fair. He's my dad. My daddy." Severus's breaths became shorter and Harry was startled to realize his brother was fighting back tears. "He's our dad." Severus buried his head in his knees. "I want a Mum and Dad that love me. That's all. It's not fair. Everybody else has a family. Why can't I? Why can't my Mum love me?" Severus looked at his brother imploringly, pleading for answers, tears glistening in his large black eyes.

"I don't know." Harry whispered; he didn't know what else to say.

Severus focused his eyes back on the wall for a moment while taking several deep breaths. "I'm going to go pack some of my things. Do you want to come with me?" Severus looked back at his brother hopefully. He didn't want to runaway by himself after all.

Before Harry could answer a voice was heard from the doorway.

"Can I come?" asked the voice quietly, sadly even. Both boys turned to face Tobias who had been outside the door listening for quite some time, unknown to both boys. Walking further into the room Tobias stood beside the bed waiting for a reply.

"No." Severus said forcefully with a pout, not meeting his father's eyes.

Tobias had heard Severus get up and after a moment, when the boy didn't return to his bed, he got up to find out where the boy had gone. It wasn't hard to figure out when he heard the voices from Harry's room. He stayed outside the door for a few minutes listening to Severus bare his soul to his brother. Tobias crawled up onto Harry's bed with a groan and sat cross legged on the edge so he could see both his sons. "Why do you want to runaway?" Tobias had heard Severus' reason already, but was curious as to what the boy would tell him.

Severus shrugged, not wanting, or knowing how for that matter, to explain it to his dad.

Tobias reached out with one hand and gently tucked his son's hair behind his ear. "Please tell me Sev, I can't make it better if you don't talk to me."

"You can't make it better!" snapped Severus. He quickly brushed away the few tears that had leaked out. "No matter what you do she won't love me. You might convince her to stay here, but she won't like it and she'll want nothing to do with us. I was good, daddy," Severus finally broke and couldn't hold back his tears any longer. "I didn't do anything wrong. Why doesn't she want me?"

Tobias didn't move for a minute as he absorbed what Severus was saying. How had he been so blind? How could he not have seen the effect Eileen was having on his son? Sighing he scooted closer to Severus before pulling the boy into his lap. His guilt at not seeing what was now plainly obvious grew when he felt two small arms wrap themselves around his neck and heard the chocked sob coming from his shoulder. "Shhh...its okay, Sev, its okay. I've got you. I love you."

"Don't leave me, please daddy, don't leave. I'll be good, I promise. Please..." Severus had buried his face in his dad's shoulder and was no longer holding back his tears.

Tobias just held his boy tighter talking comfortingly, and trying to ease the boy's fears. He couldn't help but wonder if Severus was acting this way because Eileen came back or if these feelings had existed over twenty years ago when Eileen first left. Either way, he was a fool for not seeing the effects this was having on his son.