After stepping through the Floo, Tom handed their bags to the waiting house elves, who would take the bags to their rooms to be unpacked. He sat on the couch and lifted Jamie onto his knee. "Tell me about your weekend."

Jamie sighed and snuggled into his father's chest. "I was kinda bad..."

"What did you do?" he asked, looking down at his son.

"Draco and I called each other names first..."

"James Darius Potter..." Tom sighed.

"Uncle Sev washed our mouths out and made us go to bed early," Jamie quickly informed him, not wanting to be punished again.

"Well, I hope you behaved after that..." When his son wouldn't look him in the eye, he sighed again. "What did you do?"

"Eric had a toy that I wanted to play with, so I pushed him and took it from him."

Tom shifted the boy on his knee so that he could give him a firm swat to the seat of his pants.

Jamie yelped. "Uncle Sev made me stand in the corner!"

"I am very disappointed in you, young man," Tom told him.

The little boy sniffled. "He said I was a bully..."

"He's right."

"I don't want to be a bully. Those boys at the park were mean to me and he said that they were bullies too. I don't want to be like them..."

Tom hugged his son close. "I don't want you to be a bully either, son. That's why I've told you to be nice to people and I've been teaching you the proper way to behave."

"I told Eric that I was sorry. And I'll tell Draco too when I go back to school. I promise, Daddy."

He kissed the top of the boy's head. "That's good, Jamie. Now, I think you need to go take a nap."

Jamie made a face at him. "Don't wanna."

"I know," he said, standing and carrying his son down the short hallway to his room. "But you've been sick and you need extra rest to get better."

"Daddy?" Jamie asked as his father was tucking him into his bed.

"Yes, son?"

"Harry and Draco don't have brooms. Do you think we can get them some? I don't know if Teddy and Tessa have brooms..."

Tom smiled as he sat down beside his young son. "I'm very proud of you for thinking of others, Jamie. But you will have to ask their parents about them having brooms."

Jamie nodded, and curled up on his side, his eyes drifting closed.

Remus looked out the window of his little school house and saw Sirius standing in the yard. Setting his students to do some work on their own and giving them instructions not to get up from their desks, he went outside to talk to his old roommate. "What are you doing here, Sirius?" he asked. In all the years that he and Cissy had been living next to Andromeda, Sirius had never come to visit his cousins.

"I just wanted to see him," Sirius replied, sticking his hands in his pockets. "Make sure that he was alright."

"He's fine," Remus told him. "Tom's been good for him. And believe it or not, he's actually gotten quite attached to Severus."

"Snivellus? That's just not possible."

Remus gave him a dark look. "Tom had to go to a conference with the Heads of other magical schools and asked Severus and Lily to watch Jamie while he was gone. Jamie came down with Dragon Pox and Severus was the one to take care of him."

"Dragon Pox? He...he didn't have that already?"

"Not if he got it this time."

"But, he's an adult..."

The werewolf sighed deeply. "Sirius...he's not an adult right now. He's six years old and he has the memories of a six year old. He's learning some very valuable lessons that he didn't learn the first time thanks to Tom and Severus."

Sirius snorted. "And what could Snivellus teach him?"

"Severus was there to clean him up after some older boys at the park taught him a lesson about being on the other side of bullies."

"What do you mean, the other side?"

"I mean that Jamie had a run in with some bullies at the park and decided that he didn't want to be a bully any longer."

"James was never a bully, Remus..." Sirius said, defending his best friend.

"No, of course not," Remus told him. "He just thought it was fun to play pranks on other students and hex Slytherins and nearly kill Severus."

"We didn't nearly kill anyone…"

"So it wasn't you and James who hit him with a body bind and left him in the Shrieking Shack on the full moon?"

Sirius reached up and scratched the back of his neck. "No one got hurt."

"No one got hurt? Did you really just say that no one got hurt?" Remus thundered. "If he hadn't been able to break that Body Bind then I would have killed my best friend! I very nearly did kill him, Sirius. I told Tom that he let you two off lightly. Perhaps we were both hoping that you would change…would grow up. Most days, Rosie is more mature than you and James. Maybe we should have had you deaged right along with Jamie because you really could really use a damn good spanking." He stopped and glanced over his shoulder to see his five students standing at one of the big windows, staring out of them. Harry was standing behind Jamie, their nearly identical faces pressed against the window. Remus sighed. "I have to go back to my students, Sirius. I suggest you go home and grow up." Without another word, he turned and walked back into the little schoolhouse to try and salvage the rest of the afternoon.

Sirius stood in the hallway in front of the Headmaster's office, trying to decide whether or not to knock on Tom's door. He had been thinking about what Remus had said to him a couple days before and didn't really want to believe that it was true. Had he and James really been bullies when they were younger?

"I seen you before," came a quiet voice nearby.

The Auror turned to see his deaged best friend poking his head out into the hall from the doorway that led directly into Tom's rooms. "You came to the school house and made Uncle Remus mad."

"I guess I did make him mad," Sirius told the boy.

"My name is Jamie. What's yours?"

"I'm Sirius. I'm here to talk to the Headmaster."

Jamie smiled at him. "That's my Daddy. Come on," he said, taking Sirius' hand and pulling into toward the office. "He won't mind if you go on in."

Tom and Sirius exchanged greetings before Tom sent Jamie back to his room to play so that the two men could talk. "How can I help you, Sirius?" the Headmaster asked when they were alone.

Neither of them noticed that Jamie didn't close the door all the way behind him, or that he sat on the floor beside the door, hugging his knees to make himself as small as possible. It was something that the boy had done before when his parents were talking about something important and sent him from the room.

Sirius sighed and looked down at his shoes. "I talked to Remus a couple days ago. He told me that I was a bully in school and that I should have been deaged with James and given a spanking. Is…is he right? Were we really that bad?"

"Yes, Sirius, you were," Tom admitted. "I should have done more to stop you two and Peter. But I knew what your lives were like at home and was hoping that your time at Hogwarts would improve your behavior. It is a mistake I regret. Instead of allowing you your freedom, I should have kept a tighter hand on you three."

"Is it true that Sniv…Snape was nearly killed because of what James and I did on our sixth year?" Sirius asked quietly.

Tom was quiet for a moment before answering. "He was. Severus managed to break the Body Bind that you two left him in, but he wasn't quite fast enough. Remus' claw caught him across the back and he was bleeding badly. He's very lucky Hagrid and Fang found him when they did, because he was very close to bleeding to death."

"Oh," Sirius whispered, falling quiet and looking down at the rug.

"Had he died, then Remus would have been blamed for his death and punished for something that he was not responsible for. You and James were responsible for that and should have been punished for it. The only reason that you weren't was because I could not prove that it was the two of you. All I had was the word of another student…a student who thankfully continued to trust me even after I did nothing to punish his attackers."

"What…what would you have done to us?" the Auror asked quietly.

"Taken a cane to you," Tom replied matter of factly. "My father had to use a cane on me only one time, and let me tell you that I never considered doing that again."

For a moment Sirius looked much younger than he really was as he gave the Headmaster a horrified look. "You can't be serious…"

"I am. If I had not had to answer to the Board of Governors, then I most assuredly would have, Sirius."

"But…" Sirius couldn't even make himself voice the question on his mind, so he changed the subject instead. "Why did he cane you?"

Tom was quiet for a moment before answering. "My siblings are several years younger than I am. Most times I didn't mind helping watch them when I was home on holidays. But one summer, when I was about the same age as you and James were when you left Severus in the Shrieking Shack, I decided that I was tired of having to look after them. So for the first time, I purposefully used my magic against them."

"How did you not get caught? Aren't there charms in place to alert the Ministry if aMuggleborn student has used magic?"

"There are," Tom replied. "But Dumbledore was my mentor. By that time I was already quite skilled in wandless magic, which can't be traced as easily as wanded magic. I assume that the Ministry just thought that an adult wizard was there visiting because many people never do master wandless magic, much less a sixteen-year-old."

"What did you do to your siblings?" the Auror asked. None of his friends at Hogwarts had had siblings and his relationship with his own brother had not been a very good one. For the most part, he and his brother had been raised separately, each with their own set of house elves to watch after them and take care of their every need. He and Reg had each had their own tutors before Hogwarts as well. Even now, they rarely spoke, though Reg and his family sent Sirius gifts every Christmas.

"I shut them in a closet without any lights and sent several magical creatures after them. Many of our magical creatures are the stuff that Muggle children's nightmares are made of."

Sirius sighed. "I guess he wasn't too happy with you after that."

"To say the least." Tom was quiet for a moment before speaking again. "Sirius…you know that my wife died trying to give my son life. And I never married again. But over the years many of my students have taken a special place in my heart and I consider them my own children. You and James are just two of the few. There were several others from your year that held special places in my heart."

"Snv…Severus," Sirius replied quietly.

"And Remus…Lily…Cissy, to name a few."

"I…I didn't realize that we meant so much to you."

"You always have, Sirius. You always have."

Jamie stood at the top of the stairs to the lab under Snape Apothecary. He knew that he wasn't allowed down there; that was one of the first rules he was given the first night he stayed here. But he really wanted to talk to Uncle Sev and ask him if what he had overheard Daddy and Sirius was talking about was true. He didn't want it to be true because that would mean that he really was a bully…and Uncle Sev didn't like bullies.

After several minutes of hesitation he carefully made his way down the stairs to where Uncle Sev was preparing ingredients for future potions as he usually did when things were slow in the shop. "Uncle Sev…" he said quietly.

Severus set down his knife and turned to face the little boy. "You shouldn't be down here, Jamie."

"I wanted to talk to you," the boy replied, biting his lip.

He stared at the boy for a moment before nodding and leading him over to the old worktable where he and Harry often sat to talk. Severus lifted the boy up to sit on the table before sitting on a stool in front of him so that they were eye level. "What would you like to talk about?"

Jamie gave a little sigh. "I listened when Daddy was talking to Sirius…he said that we nearly killed you. Is that true?"

Severus stared at the boy in shock. He hadn't been sure what Jamie might want to talk about, but this sure wasn't it. "Jamie…"

"Please don't hate me!" the boy cried desperately. He really liked his Uncle Sev now and didn't want the man to hate him.

He placed a gentle finger over the boy's lips, silencing him. "I don't hate you, Jamie."

"But you hate bullies! And I was a bully! I nearly killed you! Daddy said so."

This time he used to his hand to cover the boy's mouth. "Are you going to keep being a bully?"

Jamie shook his head.

"I don't hate you, Jamie," Severus told him. "However, should you decide to be a bully again, I will be very disappointed in you. Understand?"

Jamie mumbled something into the Potions Master's hand, repeating it when Severus moved his hand. "I think so."

"Good," he said, ruffling the boy's hair. "I need to go deliver a potion. Would you like to come with me?" he asked, hoping to steer the boy away from the topic of what had happened during their sixth year.

"Can I?" Jamie asked, his eyes lighting up.

Severus smiled at him. "You sure can. And if you behave, we'll stop of Fortescue's on the way home."

Half an hour later, they were standing in line at the popular ice cream parlour. Jamie stood by Severus' side, holding the older man's hand as they waited. They had been standing in line for nearly five minutes and Jamie was starting to get fidgety.

"Jamie, please be still," Severus told him firmly. "We're almost to the front of the line."

"But I want my ice cream now," the boy whined.

Severus knelt down in front of him. "Be still and stop whining, or there will be no ice cream. I told you that I would get you some if you behaved. That means behaving until we get the ice cream."

Jamie stared at his Uncle Sev for a moment before nodding and wrapping his arms around the man's neck, hoping that the Potions Master would hold him while they waited. He knew that he would be able to behave that way. Severus complied and lifted the small boy into his arms, settling him on one hip.

Neither of them were aware of Sirius who had spotted the pair as they had walked into the store and had followed them in to watch them. Even though both Tom and Remus had assured him that Severus was not taking out revenge on the deaged Marauder, Sirius was still worried about his best friend. He had watched in surprise as the Potions Master had knelt and given the fussy child a scolding. Sirius was even more surprised that Jamie asked to be held and that Severus did so. Perhaps what the others had been telling him was true.

As they left the store a few minutes later, Jamie happily licking his chocolate ice cream cone, neither noticed the large black dog following behind them. The large dog was actually Sirius in his Animagus form, following them to continue to confirm in his mind that the Potions Master was treating his best friend well, but he was also thinking about all that he had seen and heard in the last few days.