'This is boring,' Draco complained for the fifth time, as he grew tired of staring at the dark grounds made even darker clouds by the ominous clouds hiding away the sun and pouring down water, causing everything to look somewhat depressive.

'You broke the silence.' Harry frowned in accusation as he turned his head to glare at the other boy, but Draco merely rolled his eyes and moved around to face Snape.

'Isn't there anything we can do besides just sit here?' Draco asked. 'Can't you cast an atmospheric charm on it or something?' He added with a scowl, forgetting that the spell can only be used to stop charmed weather, not real.

Snape didn't answer. He merely shook his head and glanced down at his paper again, still entirely amused as he always was when it rained, ever since the boys had turned twelve-years-old. (Before that age they would just run around and play games indoors; clearly they'd outgrown that entertainment now.)

'Chess?' Harry turned away from the never-changing scenery outside and offered an alternative activity to Draco.

'Please.' Draco nodded and swished his wand to summon Harry's chess set, thinking that Harry would have gone to get it, and he had no patience on this particular day.

'I demand you to be white.'

'You can't demand anything.' Harry frowned as he sat on the floor in front of him, several feet from where Snape read his paper casually, but with a concealed smirk.

'I want to be black.' Draco stated his point again.

'Fine, whatever.' Harry rolled his eyes. 'It suits you anyhow.'

'How so?' Draco asked but picked up on what Harry meant; he was supporting the dark side and Harry the light. 'That's not true.' He scowled but the other boy had said nothing else and since Harry was white, he just made his first move.

--

One hour, three victories and a tie later, Draco and Harry had moved on to gobstones while Snape left for his study and the work that kept him busy. But that game soon became tiresome as well. Feeling desperate, with the rain still pouring outside, they laid with their stomachs against the perfectly clean wooden floor and worked on their homework.

'No, three more inches on the effects,' Draco noticed Harry's transfiguration assignment. 'It's more important to describe what could go wrong rather than how to get it right. It means you understand what you're doing and the cautions involved.'

'Oh, right. Erm, thanks.' Harry nodded and read over his second paragraph. He paused for a moment and glanced over at what Draco was doing. 'You should also describe where they came from, not just the year they arrived.' He pointed to Draco's own work. 'Helps, you know...explain it.'

'Hm.' Draco replied but reached for his textbook to locate further background information on a great wizard, who had defeated three dark wizards that had been intent on taking over a town back several hundred years ago.

When they had completed almost all of their work (not that it would make much of a difference if it was never to be marked), the boys made their way downstairs and had sandwiches for lunch. Afterwards they groaned with the realization that it was still raining.

'Alright, that does it!' Draco grumbled as he got to his feet and pulled out his wand.

'What are you doing, Malfoy?' Harry sighed as he recalled an hour previous when the blonde had threatened to hex the rain if it didn't stop.

'Come on. We're going to duel.' Draco decided, and proceeded to search for a room to use until he found an empty one on the third floor.

'No snakes this time.' Harry added as he pulled out his own wand and found that he didn't really care if they were caught - the boredom was getting to him too.

'As if. I know better now.' Draco rolled his eyes and stood in front of him with his wand raised to his face. 'You'll just talk to them anyway.' He added as they bowed and turned to walk several feet away. Once they had counted the correct number of steps, they each turned and raised their wands in preparation.

'No cheating.' Harry added and glared at the other boy's eye roll but felt calmer when Draco nodded in agreement; not that the Slytherin could be entirely trusted.

'1...' Harry narrowed his eyes at Draco and tried not to ponder on what would happen if Snape came across them dueling inside one of his rooms.

'2...' Draco added and tensed his posture as he thought of a spell to gleefully aim at Harry without doing too much damage.

'3!' Harry called out and flicked his wand. 'Aguamenti!' He couldn't resist and a jet of water burst from his wand; it hit Draco in the chest and drenched him with water.

'Oh, really funny, Potter!' Draco growled. He felt further annoyed because he should have seen the prank coming ever since he first complained about the rain outside.

'Obscuro!' He said the spell in retaliation and a black blindfold wrapped itself around Harry's head.

'Hey!' Harry reached up to remove the black object that was disabling his sight but it remained firm over his eyes and no amount of tugging would remove it.

'No fair!'

'Petrificus totalus!' Draco added while he ignored the previous complaint from Harry. But the raven-haired boy was still able to react just as quickly in response, even if he still couldn't see.

'Protego!' He said and the shield erupted from his wand which effectively blocked Draco's spell, although the collision caused both boys to be propelled several feet backwards onto the floor.

Harry reached up, yanked the blindfold from his eyes and fixed his glasses still clutching his wand in hand. Draco rubbed his elbow and got to his feet again to dust off his robes while he glared daggers at Harry. Both boys paused and turned towards the door when they heard the unmistakable yet equally strange sound of clapping. And there stood Snape as he applauded them, although neither boy could deny that the man did not look even the slightest bit amused.

'I believe it is a rule within this household that neither of you are to duel without my supervision?' Snape asked. His arms were now crossed as he stared at them with a raised eyebrow that reminded Harry strongly of each time he tried to explain his way out of trouble when Snape had been convinced he was the cause of it.

'Sorry.' Harry ducked his head. He felt foolish because he had thought there was only a slim chance that Snape would have caught them. It was a strange moment though because he had almost forgotten the way Snape used to look at him all the time, as though he was nothing but trouble wrapped in arrogance and stupidity. In this world, he wasn't looked at like that...except right now, which even Harry had to admit was rather justified at the moment.

'Yeah.' Draco added to Harry's apology without actually saying so himself. 'But we were so bored!' He explained with a slight tone of exasperation.

'As I effectively predicted.' Snape nodded and uncrossed his arms. 'However, I would hardly refer to this as dueling. More like child's-play.' He smirked, as his words had caused the boys to scowl as though insulted.

'I do, however, applaud Draco's blindfolding strategy and Harry's quick shield.' He commented and actually looked impressed, which ceased their frowns until the man approached them with his own wand raised.

'Perhaps I could make this more of a...game?' Snape asked and they appeared to be interested in his suggestion as they waited for him to explain. Instead however, he raised his wand and aimed an identical spell at them both, even though he never said the word aloud for them to hear.

'Langlock!'

'Umf!' Harry yelped as he felt his tongue glue itself to the top of his mouth. Draco grunted in complaint from the other side of the room and apparently had the same difficulties as Harry.

'I find that non-verbal spells are more prudent in surprising your opponent.' Snape instructed. 'If you are so determined to duel without my supervision, perhaps this ought to teach you that such an action will. Not. Be. Tolerated.' He added and watched as they tried to fight against the spell he'd created himself.

'Tarantallegra!' He cast the leg-dancing spell at them both and watched the boy struggle and attempt to plead with him to stop. Snape had to impress somehow that it was very dangerous to do these things behind his back because they just didn't seem to understand. They usually had more common sense and awareness when it came to the stricter, more important rules of the house, but somehow the rain had not only filled them with boredom, but they appeared to have forgotten some key aspects of their upbringing.

'Are we satisfied?' Snape asked firmly and wanted to just stop each spell he had cast on them and enjoy his time with his sons while on a short work break. But their safety had to come first. He saw them nodding their heads furiously in answer to his question, and it was then that he could finally put an end to all of the spells.

'Ah!' Draco gasped in relief and sat heavily on the floor.

'Sorry.' Harry added again to Snape while he too collapsed, wiping sweat from his forehead with the sleeve of his jumper.

'As you should be.' Snape nodded and approached them after he had put his wand away. He reached a hand out to Harry and pulled him to his feet, before he did the same with Draco.

'I do not mind such practices; however, it must be done under my supervision. Understand?' He questioned sternly and they nodded. 'Imagine if you were both under the effects of the spells in which I just used and I wasn't around to stop them? Do you think they would just wear off? What if the spells performed had much more dire consequences than the ones I cast?'

'Didn't think of that.' Draco frowned and lowered his gaze slightly. He felt guilty for not having realized or asked, but this wasn't the Snape he was familiar with. He hadn't thought that they would have been allowed to duel if he had sought the man's permission beforehand.

'Yeah, we're really sorry.' Harry added and did mean it. Normally he would not feel as embarrassed as he did, but this Snape had that certain authority that other adults lacked, even the Snape of their world. It was the same “authority” Mr. and Mrs. Weasley had, but Harry was unable to connect the cause of the feeling to the effects of a parental figure.

'I know.' Snape placed a hand on each of their shoulders and they both looked up at him, wondering what he was going to say next or if they were going to be punished for their actions.

'Now, I have twenty minutes. Go ahead and duel while I supervise.' Snape sighed and the boys grinned up at him. Draco and Harry returned to their dueling positions again, although they were keener to impress this time; soon it became a drawn-out competition to knock the other down or cause him to look silly in front of Snape. After a while it was just fun and they didn't want it to end, even if they were getting tired and running out of spells to cast that wouldn't do as much damage. They were both disappointed when Snape soon announced that he had to return to his work.

'What does he do? I mean, I heard Hagrid; he clearly works at Hogwarts still, but what does he do in that study all day?' Harry frowned as they put their wands away and headed into the kitchen for a drink. Snape had told them that the dueling session was over when he left, since he wouldn't be there to supervise and neither boy was going to do so without permission again.

'I dunno. Potions theories, maybe.' Draco shrugged. 'And I think he accepts owl orders and stuff too, for the extra money.' He said.

'So I guess here we really would hardly see him.' Harry mused softly with a sigh while Draco looked over at him. As Harry spoke again, the blonde remained silent and stared into the liquid contained in his glass, realizing he'd been thinking the same thing:

'No wonder we're supposed to be so close.'

It was past two o'clock in the afternoon and still the rain rushed down outside, which continued to make everything darker and colder. Harry sat in the living room, huddled in a blanket that he had retrieved from his bedroom while he waited for Draco to return from his shower. When he did, they could play another game of chess by the fireplace, even though the appeal it provided was nothing more than its ability to pass the time.

Harry was amused as he remembered Draco being thrown off his feet by his spell and the resulted look of pride in Snape's eyes as he watched. It had left a strange feeling behind, as though he wanted to make the man happy; the same man who had previously made him miserable. Why did Harry care so much if they weren't staying? Although he'd noticed Draco trying to impress the man as well...surely the competition was mutual in motivation?

When Draco finally returned, dressed in long pants and a sweater, to where Harry had been waiting, they played for a while. But as usual, it became of little interest by the end of the second game.

Unable to seek entertainment or become interested in anything else, the boys decided to be somewhat riskier and ventured to explore the house; technically it was their home and along with Snape, they lived there too. Harry brought his blanket with him and continued to cuddle it close as they walked and peeked into various rooms. A majority of them were warded against their attempted entrances or just plain locked.

--

After a relatively short time, the boys came across a rather curious room around a corner from the stairs that led to their bedrooms. It caught their attention based on the small hand prints placed below the door, as though they had both touched the wood while their hands had been covered in paint. One was red and the other green; it wasn't difficult to guess whose each print had belonged to. It was strange seeing further evidence that they had grown up in this world when they really hadn't; the prints had to belong to toddlers based on their size and the way in which they had been smudged against the wood.

As he opened the door, Harry peeked inside and his eyes widened as it appeared to be a storage room, only much more interesting. There were boxes, shelves, and cabinets all around the large room, each piled quite high.

'What is all this junk?' Draco frowned as he stepped past Harry. He soon realized that it wasn't actually rubbish when he glanced into a box and saw that old toys that were still in good condition, but they'd surely grown out of them by now. There was a red train that issued small clouds of smoke, Merlin action figures with a sparking wands, round Quaffle-inspired bouncing balls, building blocks that changed colours (such as putting a yellow atop a blue would cause it to turn green), a fake wand that lit up when waved, and various other objects that amused them to see. Harry was especially interested since while Draco may have had some or most of these things during his magical and wealthy childhood, he'd certainly only ever had muggle toys. Actually, no; Harry had only ever had discarded and broken muggle toys.

'It's hard to believe, and yet there is so much evidence.' Draco said as he dropped a spinning snitch back into a box labeled “Draco, age 6”.

'Yeah,' Harry sighed. He also tried to grasp the idea of growing up with Draco as his brother and Snape as a father. He felt as though he was getting used to it even though he knew that he really wasn't. It still seemed far too unnatural and odd to Harry.

A wordless moment swept over the room and prevented them from getting an extended opportunity to look at all the things - the photos and evidence of their supposed past. They didn't get the chance to find out what kind of lives they were meant to have lived because there was sudden silence; no sound of water against the walls, windows, or distant roof around them.

'It's over!' Draco breathed loudly in relief and looked upwards as though he expected to see the clear, blue sky shining down on him.

The boys dropped what they had been holding and hurriedly left the room behind; they both silently vowed to return and explore their past at some point. At that moment they merely cared for the fact that the rain had stopped and every window they passed expressed the view of the sun coming out from behind the dark clouds.

Snape heard the running feet and yelling, a sound he was familiar with since he had first gained himself two sons. He peeked out of his study in time to see the grinning boys run past, cheering about going outside and being “free”. He shook his head in amusement and returned to his work while he tried not to imagine the kind of trouble those two boys were going to get themselves into. And they always did; one would say it's in their blood. He just called it their natural talent. Because to Snape, no matter how moody, stressful or annoying they could be...his sons were perfect.