Lucius felt much better after donning suitable dress robes and after Dobby had fetched the ring from the gatehouse. He presented the ring with a flourish and was gratified by the gasp of astonishment.

"I'll be afraid of losing it ... what with gardening and the owls..." Petunia looked at the ring with a bit of horror. It was a awe-inspiringly large pink diamond with a couple of white diamonds on either side of it. Absolutely beautiful, but terrifying in the likely cost.

Lucius just smiled indulgently. "It's been in the Malfoy family for centuries, and what with sticking charms, anti-theft hexes and other warding, I assure you it won't be lost." Petunia rolled her eyes - that didn't help her nerves - knowing it was a Malfoy family heirloom.

Petunia hesitantly watched as Lucius placed the ring on her finger, she did feel a bit better after Lucius applied at least a dozen spells to it. Lucius was sort of glad the whole sorry mess with the pub had occured. He might have taken ages to pop the question without the 'little push' – or hard shove, actually.

If only he could let Draco and Dudley know – as well as the Dragonsrest family. Once this mess with the Wizengamot was cleared up...they would have a nice party.

The idyllic mid-morning soon became noon, and was interupted by the floo. Lucius had tensed, ready to transform back into Jason, or hex whoever came through the floo. Instead, he was soon smirking – hearing the desperate plea from Arthur, "May I visit for a bit, Petunia? Lucius?" Molly could be heard loudly lecturing in the background.

Petunia giggled and invited him to come through. Lucius beamed happily, sure that Arthur would make a fine 'assistant handyman', in case Lucius had to go to work, today.

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Severus voluteered to ride the train back to Kings Cross, something he never did. He usually stayed over the Christmas and Spring holidays to ensure he never had to, but Harry adored the train ride and watching the countryside. Dudley was equally happy on the train, going from place to place and finding all his friends to wish them a good summer. Draco insisted that he and Harry hold court in a compartment and let people come to them. Harry didn't seem to mind, as he wouldn't have his sight-seeing interupted, that way.

Severus did his rounds going from car to car and breaking up last-minute fights.

There had been an interesting standoff between Cedric Diggory and the twins against Timothy Hopkirk – one of the biggest bullies in the school. They'd hexed him with an intermittent clothes shrinking hex that caused random articles of clothing to go several sizes smaller for a few seconds. Since it was applied to the wizard, not the clothing, it didn't matter how many times Hopkirk changed his clothes – it still happened.

There had been a shouting match, with Cedric yelling a lecture about Hopkirk's treatment of scholarship students and muggle-borns in general. The twins watched smugly as Tim and his friends winced and yelped every time the spell had struck. Professor Snape had steered them toward the book with the spell in it earlier that week. The spell had originally been to keep a person awake during a boring meeting, with the tightening of the clothing being very slight. The twins he increased the tightening and shortened the time between cycles.

The spell would end the moment they stepped off the train, leaving no trace for the boy's parents to find. Cedric had been unhappy with Tim all year, so he felt that whatever the twins threw at them was okay. Professor Sprout had been in agreement, though she had sighed and said she truly wished that leopards could change their spots easier, but it would likely take an epiphany of some sort to truly 'straighten Timothey and his friends out'.

The twins had escaped when Severus arrived and relayed this conversation to Harry and Dudley, and the rest of their friends that were sitting with them. Dudley had smiled at Harry, knowing exactly how correct the twins were. Harry had smiled back, winking. It was good that Dudley hadn't required years of hexing to learn he'd been wrong. Instead, Dudley had responded to one yelled lecture by Lila.

Severus had been delighted to expand on Cedric's insults and had invited the whole lot of Tim's gang to assist him the first week of the coming year in preparing many of the more unpleasant ingredients for student use ... in detention, of course.

Tim's group had sullenly slumped off to their compartment to suffer together and plot revenge. There had been a few other squabbles, and then Severus had neared Harry, Draco and Dudley's compartment.

Blaise had been frustrated most of the year. Instead of flocking to Blaise's side, most of the Slytherin students had kept their distance from him. A few die-hard Death Eater families had told their children to be nice to him, but not in the numbers that Blaise had expected. Crabbe was always at his side, and a morose Goyle, as well. A few second and third years were a bit friendly, but not as subserviant as he would have liked.

To his dismay, the upper years, even those from dark families seemed to ignore him. Any attempts on his part to give them orders resulted in stinging hexes – or worse laughter ... and stinging hexes.

He was glumly sure that that would not have happened to Draco, if he'd decided to be the ringleader for the Dark Lord in Slytherin House. His mother had urged him to not give up. "It's just your first year, Blaise, it takes time to assemble a decent following."

Now, though, just as the year was ending Blaise had sensed a chink in Draco's armor and he'd struck.

"Well, Malfoy, do you plan on visiting your dear old dad at Azkaban?" Blaise had gleefully asked, grinning a smile that was much more like a predator baring it's teeth at a rival. "Old Lucius won't be nearly so smooth looking after a few months ... or years at Azkaban. Do you think he'll be out in time for your graduation from Hogwarts?"

Draco had gone a rather sickly looking grey at Blaise's words. He'd been telling himself since the near-arrest that his father knew what he was about ... that there would be no Azkaban, no Dementors. Pansy had described that horrors her mother had endured visiting Pansy's father. Draco couldn't imagine life without his father in it.

"Shut it, Zabini, Mr Malfoy isn't going to go anywhere." Dudley broke in loudly.

"Yeah, we'll be in court in a couple days and all this will be done." Harry snarled. "You're a filthy liar if you say otherwise."

"You'd best be careful of how you speak to me, Zabini. I've overlooked a lot of insults this year ... that could all change if you insist on annoying me." Draco's eyes flashed and his voice had taken on a brittle, icy tone.

Zabini's lip curled and he and Crabbe snickered. "I don't have anything to fear from the likes of you ... you mudblood filth and blood traitors." He sneered.

His defiance was short lived as he heard the cold tones of his Head of House behind him. "Do you include me in that assessment, Mr. Zabini?"

Crabbe actually squeaked and ran to their empty compartment. Goyle looked sorrowfully at Draco, and left as well. This left a rather cowed Blaise facing Severus alone, with Harry, Draco and Dudley now smirking at him.

"N..n..no, Professor, of course not." Blaise answered hopefully.

Severus felt badly that the very young – barely twelve year old – was being pushed into this by his ambitious mother, however, he couldn't allow him this amount of leeway to cause dissention – not with more that a dozen other Slytherins carefully watching him at that very moment.

"Are you sure, Mr. Zabini?" Severus' voice oozed solicitous inquiry. "After all, I turned my back on the Dark Lord and was a spy for Headmaster Dumbledore. I celebrated when an infant defeated him. I intend to make sure every student in Slytherin and every other house know that the Dark Lord is a deceitful, hypocritical half-blood, out to destroy purebloods – not help them."

There were gasps and mutters up and down the train car. Hearing that Severus and Lucius had turned against the Dark Lord was one thing, even hearing their parents whisper that Lucius and Severus had said that Lord Voldemort was actually a half-blood was startling, but had not seemed real and was debateable as being the truth.

This, however - hearing their Head of House denounce the Dark Lord in this manner ... this was real. The usual Slytherin evasions aside – when the information was truly important - Snape never pulled punches with them. They'd always known he would give them the unvarnished truth where it counted. If he said the Dark Lord was a half-blood who was tricking them and intending to actually destroy pureblood society ... it was likely the truth.

Blaise, however, only knew Severus from his mother's tales of him and having him as a Head of House for one year – and he'd had a bias against him from the begining, so he didn't hear the truth behind Severus' words or understand their significance.

He only understood that Snape was daring him to call him a blood traitor, which he didn't dare do directly. "W..Well, Professor ..." Blaise finally stuttered out."I guess you would know if you're a traitor or not, without me saying."

Severus rolled his eyes in disappointment. The revelations about the Dark Lord had gone completely over Blaise's head, though he'd given a clever answer so as to avoid calling Severus a traitor to his face. The others who had overheard, though, knew what Severus was telling them.

He expected there would be some serious talks at several tables tonight.

Blaise retreated, sitting with Crabbe and Goyle and hoping that was the last he saw of his Head of House until September.

The mood between the trio of Harry, Draco and Dudley remain high the rest of the trip. They'd decided that Blaise's insiuation regarding Azkaban was to be ignored. Draco was determined to not worry more than he needed to about Lucius. It was only two more days, after all. Dad could hide from anyone for that long.

Ron, Hermione and Neville sat in a compartment most of the ride. Mafalda sat with them, though she kept running here and there with the Patil sisters and Lavender Brown. They were intending to meet up for the Patil twins birthday party – and of course Hermione was invited.

Hermione felt relieved that none of the girls were holding her madness regarding the Sorceror's Stone against her. They all seemed to find it quite funny, not realizing that she was taking having been so very wrong quite hard. Hermione prided herself on her intellect, and this debacle had called her reasoning skills into question. She and Flitwick had discussed how she had interpreted all the clues she'd found. She still didn't understand how she'd been so mistaken.

Ron and Neville had taken their lectures from the Professors very differently. Ron had cringed through his, mostly listening for how many detentions he would get ... and if any were with Snape. He'd been grateful that they were all with Filch and McGonagall, herself. He knew they'd screwed up, but that was nothing new to him and he just resolved to be more careful next time.

Neville had sullenly listened to Sinistra, not really taking anything she was saying in. At the end he'd just said, defiantly. "Well, Malfoy and Snape were Death Eaters ... who else should I have looked at as the culprits when I knew the Sorcerers Stone was the target?"

Sinistra had been a bit flummoxed by that. "I guess you didn't hear the part where Professor Snape worked as a spy on is now Harry Potter's guardian? Not to mention Mr. Malfoy is working very hard for Harry Potter to turn people away from the Dark Lord?"

"Oh, well as long as they're helping Harry Potter, then it's all alright ..." Neville had sneered.

"I believe that will be enough of your cheek. You'll be serving detention with Mr. Filch for a week, upon your return." Sinistra had glowered at him. She usually had no difficulty with the younger children. Neville's anger issues were a concern, she had decided she needed to consult Severus and perhaps Minerva on this.

They all disembarked onto the Kings Cross Station. Severus and Tom herded the children away from the crowd as quickly as last-minute goodbyes would allow. A sudden, high-pitched, overly tearful voice sounded near them.

"Draco, oh thank Merlin you are alright." Narcissa appeared, holding her arms out to a horrified Draco. "Come to mummy and we'll go right now."

"What are you playing at, Narcissa?" Severus barked as Draco ducked behind him. "You relinquished all rights to Draco upon your divorce."

The well dressed wizard beside Narcissa waved some papers at them. "That was before her ex-husband fell afoul of the law – we intend to regain custody of Narcissa's beloved son that she was robbed of." He smiled unpleasantly. "Once in our care, he will stay there."

Severus knew that Child Services, once a child was 'established' somewhere was often reluctant to remove them. From the look of the heading on the papers, they were applications for custody – they likely intented to file them once they had Draco. They needed to keep Draco away from his mother at all costs.

Narcissa was once again motioning imperiously to Draco. "Draco, come here this instant! We have places to be at – your Grandmother Black wishes to see you..."

Severus' eye's narrowed. "I wouldn't be too sure that he's going with you." He shook Harry's hand, rustling the emergency portkey in Harry's wristband, where it was kept. It was enough to alert Harry to what was needed, and he turned to Draco and mouthed 'Portkey' to the sticken boy.

This galvanized Draco into action and he grabbed the portkey from his own wristband and shouted "'Tuney" just before a snarling Narcissa could grab him.

She shrieked in frustration. She needed Draco back under her control. His trust fund vault would be of use in maintaining her lifestyle and she knew she could bleed Lucius dry if it meant getting his son back. Now they'd sent Draco Merlin-knew-where.

"What have you done with him, Snape?" Narcissa shrieked. "Where is he!" She glanced around at the thickening crowd. "He's kidnapped my son ... call the Aurors!" Narcissa knew the best defense was a good offence and proceeded to be very offensive, indeed.

By the time the Aurors got there most of the adults and children present were on Professor Snape's side – even if they hated him. They had decided that a flock of harpies would be better guardians for the now absent Draco Malfoy than the insulting, shouting, rather mad-looking Narcissa.

Luckily Narcissa had failed to notice Tom, who had immediately left after Draco, using his own portkey to follow him. He'd summoned Lucius's battalion of lawyers and sent them and Draco on to Petunia's. Andrew Essex and a very legal looking paper had then followed Tom back to Kings Cross.

The Aurors had arrived – a pair that Severus didn't know, who quickly ascertained that Draco wasn't there and, according to 'his godfather' had used a portkey to return to himself to his home.

"Well, fetch him then!" Narcissa demanded.

Essex arrived with Tom at that juncture and had handed over a copy of a legal paper giving 'Petunia Dursley – Lucius Malfoy's fiance – guardianship over Draco until Lucius' legal status was settled, with Severus Snape as a 'magical guardian' if Petunia's being a squib was in any way an issue.'

Severus thought for a moment that Narcissa would start channelling her sister Bellatrix and started doling out crucios when she heard the word fiance. The man with her started backing away carefully.

The Aurors eyed her carefully and handed the paper back to Essex. "That all seems in order, then." He started nodding to everyone in preparation for departure. Narcissa screamed one last, "You haven't heard the end of this..." Before apparating away.

Harry grinned madly, along with Dudley. "Brilliant." They said in concert.

Severus and Tom apparated the two boys to Petunia's, where Draco was alreadly celebrating the news of the engagement. Arthur was presiding over the drinks – handing over lemonade to the boys and champagne for the adults. Molly, unable to resist the quick firecall about the engagement, forgave Arthur – or at least declared a cease fire – so she could come see the ring. Rosmerta dropped everything at the Three Broomsticks to "see the ring" – and see Severus as well. There was some toasting and Dobby brought out food and some cake. He was just setting down some tarts when the platter clattered out of his hands as his own magic alerted him to intruders.

"Master Lucius ... Aurors!" Dobby yelped. Lucius popped away an instant later, not questioning the house-elf. A breath later Alastor Moody was in their midst. He had a twitchy young trainee with him. Arthur strolled in from the kitchen and the trainee jumped in fright and cast a stupefy at the very surprised Arthur.

Arthur fell like a rock, making Molly leap up – along with everyone else. Petunia yelled, "Now see here...!"

Molly yelled in rage ... she may have been hurling hexes at Arthur earlier in the day, but she was allowed ... not this ministry idiot. "How dare you!" She shrieked, sending off a stupefy and jelly-legs in quick succession.

Down the Auror trainee went. Alastor tried to restore order, firing an calming charm at Molly, hoping to settle her down.

Tom thought he was firing a curse and sent a Tarantallegra at Moody, making him go into a fast jig that his fake leg had no hope of keeping up with, but it was too late – Molly sat on the floor next to Arthur and giggled in confusion.

Down Moody went, his fake leg bending in the wrong direction, but he fired off a couple of chair-binding curses as he fell. Unfortunately they hit Petunia and Draco, who had been non-combatants up until then. The chair - arms closed around them, binding their arms to their sides and making Petunia curse when it caused them to drop their drinks on the clean carpeting.

Moody cursed and fired another calming charm, this time hitting Rosmerta because Tom ducked, and Rosmerta abruptly sat in a chair and looked around in bemusement. Tom hurried over to her, apologizing for ducking and trying to finite the charm.

Dudley had been watching it all with a dazed look, until Petunia got hit. Now he hustled over to Moody. "Oi! That my mum you're hexing!." He grabbed Moody's wand, who was struggling because his legs were still kicking wildly and knocking over tables and scattering food and drink. Dudley grabbed the Auror trainee's wand as well, so Dudley effectively ended the Spinners End Battle.

Dudley went over to stare in disgust at Severus and Harry who were clutching each other and laughing hysterically. He tossed the wands to Severus. "Hey – I'm calling Auror Savage Uncle Severus, okay?"

Severus nodded as he and Harry wiped tears away.

Dudley kept it simple, telling Hugo that "Mad-eye had popped in and everythings a mess, can you come over?"

Hugo was afraid he'd find Lucius trussed up and unforgivables having been cast. He brought a grim Amelia Bones and Kingsley Shacklebolt with him, just in case. He thought later that unforgivables would have been easier to sort out.

Kingsley tried to write down all the spells everyone cast as he undid the hexes. He finally got to Severus and sternly asked, "And what did you cast ...?"

Everyone turned to Severus, sure they would here something interesting. "I'm afraid I cast nothing, Auror Shacklebolt – I was busy watching the entertainment."

"He and I were betting how many spells it would take to down Mad -eye. Dad is really proud that it only took Tom one to do it." Harry chimed in, making Severus snicker and Tom puffed his chest out a bit.

It took close to an hour to finally sort out – it ended with Moody shouting he'd been sure that Lucius would be there – what with a new engagement and all – he'd heard about the debacle at Kings Cross earlier.

"Well, did you find him?" Amelia looked around as if Lucius might just pop up.

Moody muttered, "No, I didn't."

"Well, let's leave these people to clean up the mess you made." Amelia glared around at the squashed cakes. They looked like they would have been tasty.

They all left, after some muttered apologies and Hugo smiled and winked at the boys and clapped Tom on the shoulder, whispering, "Well done", as he left. Severus had said that Tom already had plans for a job on the Dragon Reserve, and Hugo respected that ... oh, but what an excellent Auror he'd have made!

Lucius heard the pops of apparition and peeked in. He sniffed at the wreck of a sitting room. "Aurors can be such lousy house-guests." He commented, making the three boys giggle.

Petunia could only agree.

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Severus, Rosmerta, Tom and Harry got back to Dragonsrest a bit late. Harry dragged up the stairs, exhausted from the excitement. Tom retired as well, to plot out the summer and his career. Severus and a still befuddled Rosmerta sat on the sofa.

Severus hoped the coming summer would have less surprises, but he was willing to bet Harry would find trouble of some sort.

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