Following Alex’s mini holiday at Hogwarts and his fourth birthday Severus was highly aware of the fact that Alex needed to be submitted for his magick-testing examination. Both Blaise and Draco had already been tested, resulting in more than satisfactory results. Blaise, the oldest of the three boys had been tested in February just after his fourth birthday. Draco’s examination had been in June the day after his birthday and had produced results that were almost identical to what Lucius’ had been at the same age. That simply left Alex as the only one of the threesome still to be tested.

If Severus was completely honest with himself then he knew that he was putting it off. He knew that as soon as it was done and as soon as the Potter’s had Marcus tested then the peaceful life that he and Alex led would be over. In all probability, the Potter’s would discover that Marcus had not defeated Voldemort and would try to retrieve Alex in order to save face. Severus was grateful for one thing though. Poppy Pomfrey had agreed to conduct Alex’s exam and as she wasn’t employed by the Ministry there was no chance of the Ministry discovering the results. That was one thing that Severus was adamant about; that his son was not going to become a pawn at the hands of the wizarding world. He sighed heavily, knowing that the problem wouldn’t simply go away. He opened a drawer and drew out a sheet of parchment. Quickly, he penned a note, sealed it and attached it to Mercury’s leg telling him to take it to Poppy Pomfrey and to wait for a response.

To his relief, by that evening he had received a reply from Poppy stating that he could bring Alex to be tested the following day. He was also intrigued to know that Poppy had been approached by Lily and James who had asked her to test Marcus but she had refused out of loyalty to Severus.

The next morning Severus managed to get Alex up, dressed and fed before the child realised that something was going on.

“Daddy? Where are we going?”

“We’re going to Hogwarts to see Aunty Poppy, Alex.”

Alex’s head cocked to one side. “Why?”

Severus, for once, regretted how intelligent his son was. “Aunty Poppy just needs to run some tests baby. They’re nothing to worry about. Blaise and Draco have already had their tests and Uncle Lucius, Aunty Cissa and I had the same tests when we were your age. I promise it will all be okay.”

Alex still didn’t look completely happy. “No needles?”

Severus shook his head. “No. There aren’t any needles.”

“Okay.”

Severus raised an eyebrow. “Okay? Does this mean that we can go to Hogwarts and have these tests done?”

“Yes daddy. Can go.”

With that the two of them stepped into the fireplace as the flames turned green and Severus called out. “Hogwarts Infirmary.”

They reappeared in the infirmary to see that it was empty with the exception of Poppy.

“How’s my favourite little boy?” She cried, gathering Alex to her for a hug. “Did you have a lovely birthday?”

“Yes Aunty Poppy. Thank you for my present.”

“That’s alright sweetheart. Hello Severus. It’s just the three of us but Albus said that he’s in his office if we need him.” She held a hand out to Alex. “Are you ready for your tests sweetie? Come and sit down on this bed and we’ll get started.”

Alex took her hand and started to go with her before stopping and turning back to look at Severus.

“Daddy staying?”

Severus gave him a half smile. “Of course I’m staying raven. I’m not going anywhere.”

Satisfied that Severus was going to be staying Alex allowed Poppy to lead him over to a bed and sit on it. With Alex settled Poppy walked over to her office and returned with her wand, several sheets of parchment and a chocolate frog box.

“Now Alex, do you want your daddy to have the tests first? Just to show you that it’s not scary?”

“No. ‘m fine.”

Severus smiled proudly as Poppy patted Alex’s head. “Well done. You’re a very brave boy. All I’m going to do is cast a charm and then touch my wand to this piece of parchment. Then it will show you how much magick you’ve got.”

At this last sentence Alex bit his lip and started fidgeting slightly. Poppy turned to Severus confused, but Severus just shrugged and moved to sit next to Alex on the bed.

“Alex? What’s the matter baby? You know you can tell me anything.”

“What if I’ve got no magick?” The child mumbled.

“What if you’ve got no magick? I think I can assure you that that isn’t going to be a problem. Do you know what though? Even if you didn’t have any magick at all I would still love you and still be proud of you. Understand?”

“Promise daddy?”

“I promise. Now, are you going to let Aunty Poppy cast her charm?”

The child nodded and sat obediently whilst the witch drew a sigil in the air in front of Alex and said the necessary incantation before touching her wand to the parchment. As they waited for the results to show up on the parchment Poppy handed Alex the chocolate frog and smiled indulgently as Severus helped make sure that Alex didn’t smear chocolate all over his face. After five minutes the results were spread across the parchment and Poppy picked it up. The colour immediately drained from her face and Severus started to worry.

“Poppy?”

“If you’d just wait here with Alex for a moment and I’ll just go and get Albus. I’ll be back momentarily.”

Outwardly, Severus’ face showed nothing, but inside he was panicking. Why would Poppy need to go and fetch Albus unless something was wrong? To his relief Poppy was back within minutes accompanied by Albus and as soon as the headmaster was inside the infirmary she passed him the parchment. Severus watched as the older man’s eyebrows rose in surprise and hated the pleading tone in his voice as he spoke.

“Albus? What’s going on? Is something the matter?”

“Not at all child. Alex just has higher levels of magick than we expected. There is no doubt that it was Alex who defeated Voldemort that night rather than Marcus.”

“Just how high are his magick levels Albus?” Severus asked, cautiously holding out a hand for the parchment.

“Higher than your levels were but not by a ridiculous margin but then we expected him to test high following his demonstration of apparition at Christmas. It looks as though he will receive a large amount of his magick when he comes into his majority, perhaps even a bit earlier. He reminds me very much of my levels when I was his age.”

Severus was simply staring in shock at the parchment in his hand. His attention was drawn away from it as Alex wriggled into his lap.

“Daddy okay?”

“Yes, Daddy’s fine. You did very well this morning baby. Your magick levels are very high and I’m very proud of you.”

He looked up as Albus’ hand descended on his shoulder. “Well said dear boy. Now, if I may make a suggestion, you should take your son home and enjoy the last few weeks of Italian sunshine and I will see you back here with lesson plans ready to start the new term.”

Severus nodded and stood up, taking Alex’s hand as he did so.

“Thank you Albus, thank you Poppy. Come on raven, let’s go home. We’ll see you in a few weeks.”

One month later…..

Alex sat on Severus’ knee as the Great Hall steadily filled with the returning students. The upper school students that had been taught by Severus prior to him adopting Alex were all pointing and chattering excitedly. Severus had taken a seat next to the headmaster that allowed him a clear view of his Slytherins whilst being as far away as possible from Remus Lupin and Lily Potter. He listened to Alex who was chattering happily and pointing things out. He motioned to Alex to be silent as Professor McGonagall entered with the new first year students. Alex watched in curiosity as the fifty or so new students were led into the hall all looking absolutely and utterly petrified. He looked even more curious as Grandma Minnie produced a strange three-legged stool and a raggedy old hat.

He craned his neck so that he could Severus’ face. “Daddy? Wha’s….”

Severus shushed his son, trying not to smile. “Shush raven, just listen.”

With that the hat’s brim opened and it started to sing. By the end of the song Alex’s eyes were like golf-balls and he was so incredulous that he couldn’t speak. He watched as Grandma Minnie pulled a long scroll out and unrolled it before talking.

“When I call your name, you will put on the hat and sit on the stool to be sorted.”

She then proceeded to reel off the names of all of the new students in alphabetical order allowing them to be sorted. By the time she had reached the end of the list Alex was becoming distinctly fidgety. With much relief Severus saw Minerva putting the sorting hat and stool away for another year. He was highly relieved when the food appeared on the table and everyone became engrossed in eating and swapping gossip about what they did during their summer holidays.

When Albus stood up to give his opening speech Alex was already starting to fall asleep. The teachers all remained seated at the dais until the prefects had led all of the students back to their common rooms. It was at this point that the four heads of houses stood to go and meet their houses.

Although he refused to show it Severus was nervous about this; he had been on the receiving end of this speech from his head of house Horace Slughorn seven times but this was the first time that he was going to do it himself. When he had taught potions previously the Astronomy professor Aurora Sinistra had filled in the post temporarily as he felt that he was too young to be a suitable head of house. He settled Alex on his hip and made his way down into the dungeons and to the Slytherin common room. He stood outside the entrance for several long minutes before he held Alex closer with one hand, took a deep breath and uttered the password.

“Serpens.”

As soon as he stepped through the door all noise suddenly stopped and the entire house turned to look. Severus walked over to the fireplace and stood in front of it to make his carefully prepared speech.

“Good evening ladies and gentlemen. I am Professor Severus Snape, your new Potions Master and Head of House. Those of you in fourth year or above may remember me from two years ago when I started teaching potions here. I have been on sabbatical for the last two years looking after my son Alex. His mother is dead and as such will be living here with me. As my son I expect you to treat him with the same respect that you would show me and, as he is only four, to look after him. Treat him as an honourary Slytherin. Now, with that taken care of, let me lay out my expectations for you. You have all been sorted into Slytherin, the house of snakes, in my opinion, the greatest of the Hogwarts houses. I am sure you and all of our alumni will agree.”

Here he smirked.

“We are also the house with the worst reputation if you ask anyone outside of this room. You will be sneered at, put down and tormented by the rest of the school regardless of the claim that it doesn’t happen. For that reason, this house will become your second family. What happens within these walls stays within these walls. Outside of Slytherin house we put on a united front and support each other. I expect you to behave in a civilised manner at all times, all homework and classwork is to be done to the best of your ability on time and you are to look presentable whenever you leave this room. If you must retaliate ensure that you do not get caught. If you have any problems, my office door is open at any time. Now, if there are no questions?”

One raised eyebrow quelled any questions that there may be.

“In that case, prefects if you could show everyone to their dormitories. Ladies and gentlemen, I expect to see you at breakfast punctually tomorrow. The rest of the school will see that Slytherin house is not to be messed with. Good evening and welcome to Hogwarts.”

With that final comment Severus inclined his head and swept out of the room back to his quarters. He changed Alex into a pair of pyjamas and tucked him in bed before changing into his own nightclothes before collapsing onto his bed.

“One night down, only another nine months to go.”

*****

The next day, at the same time that Alex and Severus were preparing for their first day at Hogwarts, James and Lily Potter were at their home in Godric’s Hollow trying to wake Marcus up.

They had an appointment at St. Mungo’s Hospital with the head paediatrician Healer Fearghal O’Keane. They had written to Poppy Pomfrey, wanting her to perform the examination but she had refused for some reason. So, they had had to use one of the healers from St. Mungo’s. of course, James had only wanted the best healer for Marcus but, seeing as they left it so late to make the appointment and James’ refusal to compromise, they had had to wait over a month for an appointment. 

It took forty-five minutes for them to wake Marcus and then he proceeded to stuff himself with breakfast for nearly half an hour. This was followed by an enormous tantrum as Marcus discovered that he had to go to St. Mungo’s. Nothing was safe as Marcus thrashed his arms and legs around as well as throwing his toys and anything that was in reach.

“I don’t wanna go to Mungo’s.” The child wailed.

Truth be told, neither Lily nor James wanted to go to St. Mungo’s as they were dreading the results. Marcus’ accidental magick had been completely non-existent until four months ago. Finally, just when they were despairing that their only son was a squib he finally managed to overturn a bowl with his magick, not liking the food that was in it. Since then there hadn’t been any more incidences of accidental magick and Lily and James were now worried about just how high or low Marcus’ magick levels were.

“Marcus, we need to go to St. Mungo’s so that you can have some tests done.” James pleaded, whilst ducking the child’s set of quidditch balls that were thrown in his direction. 

“Don’t wanna!”

“You haven’t got much of a choice Marcus. You have to have these tests done.”

“No!”

“Marcus Charlus Potter!” James was rapidly losing patience.

“No!”

Seeing that the firm approach wasn’t going to work James resorted to a more primitive method; bribery.

“Marcus, if you’re a good boy and come and have the tests done then I’ll buy you that new broom that you want from Quality Quidditch Stores.”

James was just praying that this worked and was relieved when his son nodded his agreement.

They managed to herd Marcus and Rose into the flames and flooed directly into the paediatric department of St. Mungo’s in order to avoid all of the press. They were quickly ushered into a consultation room where they didn’t have to wait long for the healer to arrive. Healer Fearghal O’Keane was a 6’5” tall red-haired, blue-eyed Irishman in his mid-fifties and he was the best child healer employed by St. Mungo’s. It was for this reason that James had insisted on waiting a month for an appointment. Within five minutes the huge bear-like man walked through the door, a broad smile splitting his face.

“Good morning Auror Potter, Mrs Potter. This must be Marcus but who’s this little beauty?”

Lily smiled proudly. “This is our daughter Rose.”

O’Keane smiled. “Right, down to business. You’re here to have Marcus’ magick levels tested? In that case, I’m just going to explain what’s going to happen. Marcus, this is going to be very simple and completely painless. What I’m going to do is draw a symbol with my wand in front of you whilst I say a charm and then I’ll just tap my wand to this piece of parchment and it will tell us your magick levels. You all ready?”

Marcus looked at his father for confirmation.

James nodded his head. “You’ll get the broom Marcus. It’ll be fine.”

Marcus turned back to Fearghal and nodded. “’kay. Ready.”

Just as Poppy had done with Alex, Fearghal took his wand and inscribed the sigil in the air in front of Marcus and murmured the charm. With the sigil and the charm completed the healer tapped his wand to the parchment in order for the results to come through. While they were waiting, the healer handed chocolate frogs to both Marcus and Rose. When the parchment filled with information the healer reached out and picked it up in order to read it. as he started reading, his eyebrows rose steadily until they were practically in his hairline.

“Auror and Mrs Potter, I’m very sorry but, well, I don’t really know how to say this. Your son’s magick levels are incredibly low. I’m afraid to say that he is approaching the border line of being a squib. He has enough magickal ability to attend Hogwarts but he will never be magickally powerful.”

Here he stopped talking as the implications of what he had just said sank in. James was quick off the mark and within seconds had his wand out.

“Petrificus totalis.”

As the healer froze James just turned to Lily and spoke urgently. 

“Lily, take the kids to Diagon Alley and get Marcus that broom. I’ll see you at home in a couple of hours when I’ve taken care of things here.”

James gave Lily and the children time to exit the hospital before he turned his attention to the healer.

“Finite Incantatem.” Swiftly followed by “Obliviate!”

the healer looked dazed. “Auror Potter?”

“I’m terribly sorry to have wasted your time Healer O’Keane, my children aren’t feeling too well. We’ll rearrange the appointment.”

Back in Godric’s Hollow…..

As soon as Lily returned from Diagon Alley she packed the children off to play in the care of the house-elves before she made her way into James’ study.

“James? What happened? What did you do?”

“Sit down Lils. I obliviated him. I convinced him that the children were ill and said that we’ll rearrange.”

“James, what are we going to do? You heard what the healer said…..Marcus is practically a squib! How are we going to keep this hidden? If his magick levels are really that low then there is no way that it was Marcus that defeated Voldemort. He couldn’t have! It had to have been Harry. Do you remember him? The son that we got rid of?”

“Then we get him back.” James’ mouth was set in a grim line.

“What?”

“We get him back. We’ll go to your sisters and get him back. We can tell everyone that we sent him to the Dursley’s in order to protect him from the media frenzy and possible rogue Death-Eaters. I mean, we’re living proof that the Fidelius charm doesn’t always work.” Lily nodded her agreement. “Then, we’ll go and get Harry tomorrow."