“Okay…so this isn’t the Taj Mahal?” Harry’s eyes closed and opened owlishly as he tried to understand Severus’s logic.

“The mind is very…complex. The gardens around us are an out layer of defense. Unimportant memories and such; as we move towards the Black Taj Mahal behind this one we’ll move deeper into my mind.”

“Black Taj Mahal?”

Severus rolled his eyes and replied snappishly. “Its legend. Look it up in the library.”

The potions master began moving away from the Taj Mahal down a small, hardly noticeable path.

Harry ignored his brother’s biting tone and continued as he followed his brother deeper into the gardens, down the well-worn path that he swore hadn’t been there a moment ago.

“And how is this going to help us get out of here?”

“We aren’t trying to leave just yet.”

The toe of Harry’s shoe hit a small pebble that jumped ahead several feet and bounced before rolling to a stop.

“Why not?”

Severus glanced at his brother trying to decide how much to tell him. In truth, he didn’t know much about what was going on. He was more or less ‘winging it’. Fortunately, he had been right thus far.

“I believe we were in a type of labyrinth. In a way, we still are. The creature that has been attacking students and the house elves has been building this labyrinth from the memories of others. This is why no one remembers the attacks. I’m hoping that by accessing my memories regarding Minerva and Dad I can force our way to them then force us back to my mind.”

“Wait…” Harry stopped suddenly his fingers catching the sleeve of his brother’s shirt. “Dad’s missing?”

Severus sighed; he’d forgotten that Harry didn’t know their father was missing as well. In one fluid movement he disentangled Harry’s hand from his sleeve and stepped closer him. Placing one hand on each shoulder, he spoke confidently to his brother. Much more confidently than he felt.

“Yes, Harry, not long after we locked all the students in there dorms. We will find him, though.”

Harry nodded his head unable to contain his fear. It just wasn’t fair. He’d just found his dad. He’d just gotten the most imperfectly perfect family.

He didn’t think he could survive losing them.

With one last reassuring squeeze, Severus turned and began walking down the path once more.

SssssssssS

“I have a question for you Minerva,” Tobias stated. They were once again leaning up against the bland wall staring at three other bland walls, praying that no more memories would appear.

“Hmm…” was her only reply. She was, not surprisingly, exhausted. After enduring such taxing memories, not only her’s but Tobias’s as well, it was to be expected. Granted, Tobias seemed to handle things better than she did. After his memory played out he had been distraught, but hadn’t burst into tears and sobs as she had.

“I really want to know how you managed to fail transfiguration.”

Minerva looked at him, her mouth hanging open slightly forming a small ‘o’. Of all the things she had expected that certainly hadn’t been one of them. Not that she minded. They needed a distraction.

“I didn’t fail. I almost failed.”

Tobias shrugged. “Same difference. Barely passing, hardly means you’ve exceeded expectations.”

Minerva huffed. “I discovered boys.”

Tobias looked at her as his hands stopped twirling the knife he refused to relinquish before he burst out laughing.

“I don’t find that so hard to believe.” Tobias’s hands resumed their movements.

Minerva smirked, pulling her legs around from beside her and crossing them in front of her. “I found that boys, in exchange for a few smiles and a bit of attention from a girl are willing to do all your homework. All I had to do was show up to class. It did not make passing tests easier, however.”

Tobias snorted. “I was caned because of a girl like you once. I was all of fourteen years old and as naïve as could be. This pretty little thing, Jackie, had me wrapped around her finger. I would have done anything to get her to give me the time of day. When she figured this out, she took full advantage of it. One day she convinced me to let her cheat off my English test. When the teacher graded the tests and noticed the few but identical mistakes he was…displeased.

“I hope she was…punished as well,” Minerva stated. While, for the most part, she was glad the practice was no longer in use at Hogwarts, she was not unfamiliar with the corporal punishment tradition in English and Scottish schools.

“She was, and she wouldn’t speak to me again after that. I was more devastated by that than the fact I couldn’t sit for a week.”

SssssssssS

“You have some serious issues,” Harry said as he stared around the ‘room’ in Severus’s mind.

Severus smirked, standing beside his brother. “Haven’t you read Jules Verne’s Journey to the Center of the Earth?”

Harry looked up at his brother, mouth dangling open and eyes wide. They were currently standing in a forest of giant mushrooms.

“I spied for one of the world’s greatest Occulmens. In such circumstances one quickly learns…unusual ways to protect one’s thoughts. This is merely another level of defense.” Severus said matter-of-factly while he scanned the area with his eyes.

“Brilliant!” whispered Harry awe-struck as he reached out a hand to touch the unblemished trunk of the nearest mushroom.

*SMACK*

“Oww!” Harry jerked his stinging hand back clutching it to his chest.

“What was that for?” asked Harry rubbing away the last of the sting from where Severus had smacked his hand away from the mushroom.

“Have you no self preservation at all? You are in unfamiliar territory with no understanding of how the mind works in general let alone this particular section of my mind. You should not touch random things.”

After reaching the black Taj Mahal the brothers had entered the famed building, but Harry was vastly unprepared for what he would see.

The small, almost invisible front doors opened into a large hallway with about ten doors. Severus, without hesitation, walked up to the third one on the left and swung the door open without a problem. Harry followed him inside and the door had vanished behind them.

“Now what?” Harry asked with a slight pout. His hand no longer stung, but his pride was still smarting from being treated like a small child about to touch a hot stove.

“Now, we look through some of my most recent memories of Dad. Hopefully, those will lead us to him.”

Pointedly avoiding the giant mushrooms growing all around them, he followed Severus as he walked down a small path that Harry realized was appearing just before them and disappearing behind them.

SsssssssssS

“…it scared the-you-know-what out of me. Of course, as I stumble out of the kitchen, sporting a trunk, elephant ears, and purple fur both my sons are standing there waiting. Harry collapsed to the floor he was laughing so hard and it was all Severus could do to keep from doing the same.”

Minerva was having a hard time controlling her laughter as well as she imagined Tobias’ reaction to the prank. She hid her smile behind her hand, but due to their close proximity, Tobias could feel her silent laughter.

“You can laugh out loud, I won’t mind. I wouldn’t have told you the story if I hadn’t wanted someone to laugh at it with me. Hell, I was laughing about it thirty seconds after the potions wore off.”

Lowering her hand but not looking Tobias in the eye in fear she was burst out laughing, Minerva replied smiling.

“Can you imagine what it would have been like if they had grown up together? You wouldn’t have had a moment’s peace.”

“Peace and quite is over rated. Besides it probably…”

Tobias didn’t get to finish his sentence as the room became instantly dark before erupting into blinding light once again.

SssssssssS

The appearing and disappearing path had led them to the edge of the mushroom forest and to the banks of a stream that looked remarkable like the stream that ran by their home on Spinners End.

Confidently, Severus walked over to the stream that was slowly weathering away the grassy shores. Kneeling down, he looked into the water as though watching something swimming just below the surface.

Harry followed behind his brother, wary of touching anything, but as he got closer to the water, it began to turn black and practically stopped moving, transforming into a dangerous tar pit in a matter of seconds.

Severus looked up at his brother noting the uneasy look on his face before offering him the most reassuring smile he could under the circumstances. The stream had a defense mechanism of its own, if someone or something other than Severus came to close the crystal clear waters would turn to tar.

Reaching over, Severus took Harry’s right hand in his left, pulling Harry to the edge of the tar pit. The change was instant. The tar vanished and the stream was once again running at their feet. Looking down into the water Harry could glimpses of his father and brother as well as himself and their mother. It was like someone had dumped hundreds of photographs into the stream and the current was carrying them away.

“I think I know a good memory to start off with. If nothing else it’ll give us something to laugh at.” Severus said plunging his and Harry’s hand into the cool water.

It was very similar to a pensive, Harry thought surveying the room around them. He couldn’t help but smile as his own memory of the event he and Severus were watching returned.

"I don't think this is going to work," said the Harry from the memory 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.

Just then Tobias walked though the door carrying several bags of groceries. He had hardly said hello when his leg hit the string as he headed towards the kitchen. Suddenly, water came rushing down on him and the potion vials exploded at his feet. As the fumes cleared Tobias came stumbling out of the kitchen with elephant ears and matching trunk and purple fur.

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

Severus smiled "Something the matter?"

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

"Yes?" was Severus calm reply, though a smile tugged at his lips.

Before Tobias could say anything else, the effects of the potion fumes faded and 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.

Tobias glared for a second longer before he, too, burst into a deep, bellowing laugh.

Just as the memory ended, the room around Severus and Harry burst into a blinding light.