Harry looked down at the piece of paper on the desk in front of him, holding his pencil loosely in his hand as he re-read the words at the top of his page: Cody Evans' Family Tree. Sighing, he glanced around at his classmates and felt ashamed to see them writing away on their own pages without pausing like he was. Jack worked slowly, but even he had something to write down. Harry looked back at his own, wondering what he could put because he had to write something. 

What had his parents names been? He didn't really know, or he had long ago forgotten.

Harry felt relieved when the lunch bell rang as he stood and avoided the disapproving frown from Mrs Kline when she saw he hadn't written anything yet. Harry clutched his empty family tree to his chest and followed behind Jack on the way outside.

Sitting under a shady tree near their favourite corner, Harry and Jack ate their sandwiches in quiet. Harry was looking down at his paper while Jack busied himself with a comic book he'd brought to school with him.

'Are you okay, Harry?' Jack asked.

'Huh?' Harry was startled from his misery at the sound of his real name.

He smiled and remembered Jack saying he would use “Harry” when they were alone and considered “Cody” to be a nickname. He was so lucky to have such a great friend who always cheered him up and was there for him, though Harry doubted Jack could help with this.

'Oh.' Jack's eyes lowered to the paper in Harry's hand. They didn't say anything for a moment, until Harry noticed Jack's family tree being shoved in his face. 'Look at mine.' Jack urged. 'Go on.'

Harry frowned and exhaled, seeing he may as well take the distraction. He held his friend's piece of paper and lowered his emerald gaze to the page.

He was surprised as he read what Jack had written so far.

Jack Bailey's Family Tree 

Mother         Father

Judy             Gordon

Brother       Brother

Michael       Cody Evans

'Brother?' Harry looked over at Jack. 'But we're not related. I don't get it.'

'Well...' Jack shrugged and took his paper back, looking embarrassed. 'I just...I'm not real close with mum or dad. And Michael...he's gone now. It doesn't seem like a proper family, so I put you as my brother because you're my best friend. I don't think family is just about who we're related to.'

Harry smiled widely at his friend and hugged Jack. It felt so simple once Jack had explained it, because if family was only blood then there wouldn't be orphanages. So as the bell rang and they returned to their classroom, Harry felt more determined to work on his family tree. He grabbed his pencil only seconds after sitting down and read over his piece of paper again. He wrote “Erin Summers” for mother and “Jack Bailey” for brother. He halted again, thinking about what he could call Severus. He wasn't his dad and yet there was no family title for “hero”.

Leaning back in his seat, Harry glared at the paper and wondered why it was so important. It was silly to him and he didn't want to do it. Earning a frown from his teacher, Harry grumbled under his breath and bent his head over his nearby school book. If he couldn't work on the tree for now, he'd start on his speech.

He dreaded the day in three weeks when he would stand in front of the class to read his short speech and show his tiny family tree, in front of all the parents, but none of his own.

--

While Harry was at school stressing over his family tree, Severus strode boldly through a crowded London street in attire that was only barely Muggle. His gaze was sharply alert as he walked with his hand in his pocket, gripping his wand.

Spotting the cafe he'd been looking for, Severus narrowed his dark gaze at the woman seated behind a newspaper. The table in front of her was bare and her face was concealed by the paper, but he knew it was her. The moving photograph on the front page of the Daily Prophet was clue enough.

'Judith Cain.' Severus said in a low, loathing tone.

The paper folded to reveal her face, which showed smugness mingled with bored annoyance towards the entire situation.

'When I received an urgent owl late last night,' Judith spoke as Severus moved to sit across from her, if only to avoid causing a scene with so many Muggles hurrying by. 'I never imagined it would be you who had written it. Severus Snape.' She smirked at his name. 'I do wonder what the Ministry would think of this – the so-called former Death Eater with a child in his care.'

'I doubt they would find it nearly as alarming as a supposedly charitable woman plotting the harm of said child. I suspect the rumours alone would leave your reputation in tatters.' He said in a casual tone, though the threat was evident in his gaze.

Her smugness vanished at once.

'What is it you want?' Judith growled, wary enough not to raise her tone and capture unwanted attention to themselves. 'And why are we meeting in such a filthy place?' She glared at a passing businessman with disgust, which was likely aimed at the Muggles rather than the surrounding street.

'What is your interest in the boy?'Severus re-directed and refused to explain his own actions; he felt she had no right to demand any answers from him. Nor did he intend to give them.

Judith leaned back in her seat and studied Severus with her cold gaze for several minutes. He did not repeat himself nor appear agitated by her delay. It unnerved her because she was used to being the one in control and with the highest composure.

Many lies shifted through her mind, and yet a scarce gist of the truth was spoken.

'My daughter's fragile mind is filled with foolish ideas and I must protect her.' Judith said in a tone absent of any motherly concern. 'Since she fell hopelessly in love with a wizard, she developed a reckless state of mind. You might be familiar with him; Sirius Black?'

Severus tensed at the mentioning of Black and narrowed his eyes, realising just how much the name “Erin Summers” was so recognisable to him now. Sirius Black had spent a large amount of time towards the latter part of their seventh year at Hogwarts bragging about the girl he'd met by that name. Severus recalled such easily because of the intrusive manner in which Sirius Black declared such on a regular enough basis.

'I attended Hogwarts with Black, yes.' Severus said with a frown. 'Your daughter is a witch?' He asked for clarification.

He did not use Erin's name in effort to withhold how much he was aware of the situation, even when Severus knew he was still missing so many details.

'Not anymore.' Judith said with utter disgrace. 'Not since she was ten. Her magic was erratic and poorly at best. I do not know what went wrong with my daughter for her to make all the idiotic mistakes she has.'

Severus said nothing as he withheld his anger and waited for her to explain how any of this was linked to Cody and the reason this woman wanted to harm him. He hated the way she was talking about Erin, because it reminded him a lot of his own father. Somehow, he did not think Erin was anywhere near as bad as she was being made out to be. It worried him a little, because as far as Severus was aware, one was not born a witch and then one day just stops being one.

'Some years ago, my daughter made a compulsive move after her rash divorce with a wealthy and promising husband.' Judith explained as much as she could while withholding any detail she felt he did not need to know. 'She adopted a small boy. The same boy we have met to discuss. He is an unruly child who brings bad luck, and in her care it was nothing short of a horrible disaster waiting to happen. I had to step in.'

'The boy no longer resides with her.' Severus pointed out, keeping his emotions and reactions in check.

'But she is determined to find him.' Judith pressed, unaware that staring right at Severus' eyes was not the best move on her behalf. 'As long as he can be found...'

'Regardless of what you may believe, Miss Cain...It is not your decision to make.' Severus said firmly. 'He is not your child and I shall be damned if I allow any further harm come to him because of your petty delusions.'

'He is not your child!' Judith rose from her seat, an action he mirrored in case he had to reach for his wand.

And this was why he had chosen a Muggle area as crowded as the cafe was, because the usage of magic would be detected by the Ministry and not even Judith Cain would risk such embarrassment. It had another purpose as well, which barely contradicted his first reason.

'Whatever trickery you conducted to have the boy removed from his new mother will not work with me.' Severus said in a very threatening tone, though quiet and composed as he forced himself to be. 'I have already taken the necessary steps to ensure that one further action on your behalf shall result in dire consequences for yourself and anyone who aides your crime.'

'How dare you!' Judith gasped. 'Can't you see-?'

'On the contrary, I am able to clearly see through your spawned lies and malicious intentions.' Severus growled.

'You'll ruin everything!' Judith screeched, not caring for the crowds around them now, even when Muggles gave her odd looks as they passed. Severus tried to ignore the added attention as he focused intently on where he knew her wand was stored inside her sleeve. 'That wretched girl will tire of the boy and-'

'You are under the assumption that the arrangement currently in place in which makes me the circumstantial guardian of the boy will, in fact, not remain so.' Severus noticed how easily his words surprised and momentarily silenced her.

'You intend to keep the brat?' Judith pulled a face of distaste, clearly thinking the boy wouldn't amount to anything and was nothing more than a burden.

'I will ensure no harm comes to the boy.' Severus corrected and glanced quickly at the crowd, seeing it was thinning rather quickly. He had timed everything as he had meticulously planned. 'I have never met your daughter, though the rightful mother she is. If she manages to find the boy then I will deal with it accordingly.' He added and smirked at the woman he now despised.

'This is the last time you will see me, and you will never hurt the boy again – Obliviate!'

Harry dragged his schoolbag behind him as he left the building and headed towards the gates to wait for his guardian to pick him up from school.

Jack was trailing behind him with his face mostly hidden behind one of his comic books. Harry had been amused at first when Jack kept bumping into people or tripping over his shoelaces as he read, but the storm clouds overhead were dampening his already suffering mood.

He had a little less than three weeks to somehow fill in a family tree with names of family members he didn't have. Sighing as he rested his chin on the fence, Harry glanced around the path and searched for his black-clad hero. He considered putting in the names of the people he'd been staying with for a while, until they'd died and he'd been passed off to Emile. But that would mean putting her in the family tree...and Simon. Shuddering, Harry turned his back on the fence and watched Jack chuckle at his comic. Pulling his family tree from his bag, Harry stared down at it and frowned. He'd written Erin and Jack, but so many spaces were still empty.

And he hadn't worked out where Severus fit in either.

After a raindrop landed on his page, Harry shoved it back into his bag and stared up at the darkening sky. A few more raindrops fell, causing Jack to complain about his comic getting wet, but otherwise it didn't seem like a heavy downpour was on the way.

'Where is he?' Harry complained as he stared around at the groups of kids reuniting with their families and was yet to find his hero.

If he weren't so miserable, Harry would have realised this was the longest Severus had ever taken to show up at the school to collect him.

'Who?' Jack asked distractedly.

'You know!' Harry was getting frustrated now. 'Jack!' He whined. 'He's not here yet and it's going to rain.'

Sighing, Jack gave up on reading his comic and looked around at the gathering groups, thinking Harry had simply missed the man. Severus was always so black and therefore realistically the sour man could never be missed in the crowd of hugging mothers and beaming fathers.

'I dunno.' Jack shrugged. 'Mum's not here yet either. Don't worry, they'll come.'

But Harry did worry.

His former guardians before Emile were always on time and then one day they weren't. They had been killed and he never saw them again. He'd lost Erin as well. What if something had happened to his hero? Where would he go if he was on his own again...back to Emile and Simon?

'No.' Harry whimpered. 'What if something bad has happened?' He spun around and grabbed Jack's arm, pleading with his friend to believe him. 'Jack, he's never been late before – not like this!'

Harry's near-panic was infectious to Jack, as the sandy-haired boy began to worry as well. After all the movies he'd watched on TV about monsters and criminals, Jack's mind instantly began to dream up the worst sort of scenarios that could have happened. To the seven-year-old, Severus possibly being eaten by a giant crocodile was no laughing matter.

'We have to find him!' Harry insisted.

'Find who?' A woman's voice spoke and Harry, for a split second, thought it was Erin coming to save him.

The anticipating smile on his face faded in a flash when a woman who looked nothing like Erin stood there under a large brown umbrella.

'Aunt Stacy?' Jack frowned. 'What are you doing here?'

'Your mother had to work late and your father is assisting some friends who are moving into their new house.' Stacy sighed. 'Your mother called me and asked if I could take you home. Who's this?'

'Oh, this is Cody and he's my best friend in the whole world.' Jack smiled nervously, looking at Harry as he tried to be calm but was still worried.

'It's nice to meet you, Cody.' Stacy smiled and held out her hand, which Harry rudely ignored because he was busy searching the emptying path for his hero.

'Did you see a tall man dressed all in black?' Harry asked her anxiously. 'He's late.'

'No, I don't think so.' Stacy shrugged. 'Is he your father?'

'We don't use that word.' Jack hissed to her not-so-quietly. 'He's never been late before. Do we have man-eating lizards in this part of London?'

'Still watching Michael's old movies, I see.' Stacy rolled her eyes. 'Don't worry, I'm sure nothing bad has happened. He probably got a little held up at work, Cody.'

'He doesn't go to work.' Harry frowned at her. 'He keeps me safe, and lets me keep my frog even if he doesn't like it much. He's been really nice and I...I don't wanna lose him.' His anger dissolved as tears overcame him and Harry sank to his knees on the wet ground.

The rain began to steadily fall and both onlookers weren't sure what to do; Harry just hunched there and was reduced to sobs.

Jack, at loss of what to say, joined his friend on the ground and awkwardly put a hand on Harry's shoulder to show his support. He felt really bad for reading his comic now while his best friend needed him. He didn't think he was being a very good friend, but Jack was determined to fix it any way he could.

'We have to find him.' Jack told his aunt firmly with a fierce glare set on his features. He was determined to do whatever it took to make Harry happy again. 'This is not normal, Aunt Stacy.' Jack told her. 'Something isn't right!'

'Okay.' Stacy nodded and moved to stand over the boys in effort to shield them from the rain with her umbrella. 'What is your home number, Cody?'

Jack looked at his best friend and didn't think Harry could hear them over the rain or his crying. Gulping, Jack rummaged through his own bag until he found one of his lesser used schoolbooks. He remembered scribbling the number on it so he would always have a copy in case he had to call Harry for whatever reason while his friend had still been sick. Holding it up to his aunt, Jack watched intently as she got out her phone and began to call the number. He fidgeted with stress when it was evident there was no answer.

Stacy hung up and looked worriedly at the boys, clearly trying to decide what to do now.

'Come on.' Stacy handed the umbrella to Jack and bent over (with some difficulty in her tight business skirt, which reached her knees), to encourage Harry to stand up. 'You'll catch a cold otherwise.' She reasoned.

Harry did as he was told and stood there, his head bent towards the soaked ground as he sniffled and ignored his dripping hair. With another nudge, he picked up his schoolbag and draped it over his back. Slowly raising his gaze, Harry stared back at Jack and tried not to emotionally fall apart again. He wanted to curl up in his bed and cry, but he didn't know if he'd even get to see his bed again. Because it was his bed. Just as the house he stayed in was now his home. Severus may not be his dad, or his official guardian, or anything Harry could call him on a family tree...but he was the living representation of home to Harry.

'Thank goodness!' Stacy gasped when she spotted a dark figure approaching them and Jack's yell of triumph confirmed it was the one they were waiting on.

'Harry, I mean – Cody!' Jack yelled in his excitement, blushing at his slip but tried to pretend it hadn't happened as he shook his friend's arm.

Harry looked up quickly and saw his hero approaching. Severus had no umbrella and yet somehow he didn't look wet, as he walked towards the group with a glare directed towards the sky for a moment. Unable to speak, Harry shed his bag and took off at a run towards his hero who he feared he'd lost. Miraculously, he never slipped over, and within seconds he had taken a bold leap towards his guardian.

Severus caught him effectively, though with great alarm, and allowed the boy to cling to him. He couldn't understand a word of the child's emotional muttering so Severus ignored it while he looked over at the unfamiliar woman.

'This is my aunt.' Jack answered without being asked. He looked at her and expected his aunt to greet Severus, but instead she looked suspicious and untrusting of the man.

'You're Harry's father?' She asked cautiously and edged closer to Jack, who frowned at her with utter confusion. Shrugging, as he figured adults were just weird, Jack wandered over to retrieve Harry's bag for him where it had been left partially in the rain.

'I am his guardian.' Severus answered. 'And we shall be going now. I appreciate your decision to wait with the boy, and I apologise for my lateness.'

'You should say sorry to Harry.' Jack said suddenly, his face set with annoyance and loyalty once again. 'He was worried something happened to you. It's mean to make him scared like that! You're all he's got now, you know.'

'Jack!' Stacy hissed and watched Severus warily. 'Come on, let's go before we catch a cold.' She nodded once to Severus, before leading the reluctant and moody Jack towards her red car, which was parked nearby.

Severus rolled his eyes and looked back down at Harry. Damn the Ministry and their dawdling – if he had only waited two more seconds to cast that spell then the delay could have been avoided. It wasn't as though the muggle had actually realised what he'd barely seen.

Jack was right, loathe Severus was to admit it. And so, instead of shoving the boy away or demanding him to release his death grip on his waist, Severus picked Harry up and snatched the boy's bag from the ground. He carried both back to Spinner's End where he intended to wish away the entire day.

A little over two weeks later...

Severus Snape had vowed to never be late again.

Since the afternoon at the school in the rain, he had not been able to detach the boy from his waist (or, in some circumstances – his ankle). Dropping the child off at school became a battle and leaving the boy's bedroom at night so they could sleep was almost as bad. He tried many methods to rectify the fear in the Harry, but none had been successful.

Severus had never been so glad to have Frogabook inside the house when fourteen days or so later, Harry was distracted from clinging to Severus when the frog became agitated from the lack of attention it had been getting from its favourite human. The moment Harry uncurled his finger's from Severus' wrist, the man stepped away as quickly as he could without actually fleeing in a childish manner.

'I still love you, Frogabook.' Harry said as he sat on the ground and cuddled his frog close; a display that caused a cringe from Severus.

Wanting to lecture, whine, and shout – Severus inched away from the boy and remained as quiet as he could. He assumed if he pulled Harry's attention back to himself then the cycle would begin again: demand the boy to let go, growl at the boy for not letting go, putting up with tearful mumbles, shout at the boy to release him, more tearful nonsense, attempt to forcibly yet harmlessly yank the brat from his arm, and finally resort to a short zap from his wand.

Some days he felt his entire sanity could fit into a small jar.

How parents were able to deal with this for many years was a mystery Severus did not think he would ever truly understand.

Severus watched Harry rise from where he had been sitting on the floor and walk to the kitchen. The boy made himself a simple ham and cheese sandwich while Severus tried to work out how to distract the boy long enough for him to have a break. The boy clinging to him was mostly an inconvenience at first and he'd adapted, until everywhere Severus went – the boy either followed or was dragged there in reluctance to let go. The time Harry spent at school didn't seem to last long enough.

Severus had to do something drastic to divert the child's attention somewhere else. And he had made the arrangements he had never wanted to agree to in dread of the entire ordeal. The situation had called for it, and so Severus had called Jack's parents to work out the details of the sleepover the boys would not shut up about.

It was Saturday and Jack would be arriving in an hour. Harry didn't know, mostly because Severus did not want to put up with the boy blabbering about it until it actually happened. His peace had been shattered enough in the past two weeks.

'Why do you keep looking at the time?' The ever-so-observant seven-year-old asked. 'Are you waiting for something?'

'It is not a matter in which to concern yourself with.' Severus replied with a frown. 'I trust your homework is complete?' He changed the topic, hoping to busy the boy with something else until Jack arrived.

'Er, yeah.' Harry looked away and thought of his family tree. It had so many blank spaces that he was ashamed just by looking at it. The task wasn't exactly homework, though, so he didn't feel he was lying.

Glancing at his guardian, Harry noticed the raised eyebrow and wanted to avoid any further questions, scared he would have to reveal what made him so uncomfortable. Muttering an excuse of using the bathroom, Harry turned and hurried upstairs to his room. He shut himself inside and sank on his bed with a heavy sigh. Staring at the floor, Harry wondered if he would even get his speech done in time either. They only had a week or so until it was due. In front of all the parents. Sniffling a little under the stress of what was coming and the sad feeling he felt whenever he looked at his would-be family tree, Harry didn't ever want to leave his room again. But after some time, he heard noises downstairs and crept to the top of the stairs to overhear what was going on.

'Jack!' Harry ran down the steps when he heard his best friend's voice.

He was grinning, with his previous dread forgotten, when he saw the bags his best friend was dragging behind himself. It looked like Jack was moving in, though Harry quickly realised what was going on and looked up at Severus with a beaming smile.

'I'm gonna sleepover!' Jack declared once he realised his friend was surprised. 'And I didn't forget...' He smirked, looking over his shoulder at his light-haired father, who was carrying a box of fresh hot pizza.

Severus eyed the box with revulsion, thinking is was not the sort of food one gives to seven-year-olds for an early dinner.

'You must be Cody.' Said Jack's father, Gordon.

'Yeah.' Harry nodded. He felt a bit shy, but stepped forward and tried to be friendly anyway, even if he wasn't sure what else to say.

'Daaad!' Jack whined. 'You're blocking the door.'

Gordon stepped out of the doorway and watched his son try to pull the big bags into the house. Harry hurried over to assist him, while Severus wondered if the sandy-haired boy knew how long a single day actually was.

While the adults talked, Harry and Jack tried to get the bags upstairs to Harry's room without squishing Frogabook, or any of their toes, in the process. Once they shoved the bags into the bedroom, they rushed back downstairs so Jack could say goodbye to his father.

Harry watched the interaction and found it a bit odd that Gordon Bailey didn't seem too interested in the entire situation as though he was in a hurry. Waving to the man anyway, Harry tried to keep still. The excitement to having his first sleepover and with his best friend, was almost too much for the young boy to handle. He wanted to run around and squeal with joy, but his shyness and the sour look on Severus' face stopped him from giving in to his urge.

'Can we have the pizza now?' Jack turned to Severus. He recoiled quickly at the look he was given and his eager smile faded, remembering how scary he thought the man was.

Looking around the room, Jack wondered how anyone could live in such a place. Most of the light was artificial from either electricity or candles, and almost all the windows had thick curtains over them. Looking at Severus again, Jack began to wonder if the man was a vampire because he seemed to repel daylight and looked like he didn't sleep as much as most people did.

'I can't believe you're here!' Harry gushed. 'You're sleeping over for a whole night! This is so cool.'

'I know!' Jack grinned back, inching away from Severus as he did so. 'What are we going to do? I also got out a couple of movies for us to watch...' He looked towards the TV and wondered if they would be able to watch them.'

'Are they scary ones?' Harry's enthusiasm sank a little.

'Not really.' Jack shrugged. 'There's a detective one I think you'll really like.' He said and proceeded to tell Harry most of the plot for the film while Severus slowly realised that having two seven-year-olds running around his house eating pizza and talking non-stop was not exactly the best method to earning himself some peace.

At least Harry was distracted, so maybe Severus could sneak off to his Potions Lab for a few hours?

'Frogabook!' Jack crouched to the large frog and tried to hug him, which was hard when the frog thought he was under attack and tried to get away.

Severus watched the child and compared Jack to Cody. He narrowed his eyes and thought the boy was too Gryffindor-like for his taste and therefore Severus knew...he could not leave these two boys unsupervised for even a second.

The man began to wonder if he was even going to be able to sleep that night.

-- 

After eating their every-topping pizza and watching an animated movie, the boys had headed upstairs to share a bath. Severus cringed as he heard the yells of a “sea battle” and the splashing sound the water made as it constantly tipped onto the tiled floor. Everywhere the boys went, he was waving his wand after them to clean up mess or preserve his countless books that acted as walls, small tables, and minor obstacles.

He had instilled some firm rules and it wasn't so much that the boys were misbehaving or being entirely destructive, it more that it had Severus on edge as their energy did not seem to run out. His gaze shifted to a nearby clock and felt a little relief when it was nearing their bedtime. Just as he was beginning to regret the sleepover as he remembered why he hadn't wanted it to happen, two clean boys walked into the room dressed in their pajamas. Their hair was a bit wet and stuck in all directions, but their faces showed such joy and sleepiness that Severus didn't feel as regretful anymore. The boy he wanted to protect, and the child who had befriended him, were both so happy and all because he had said “yes” to enduring such an insane event.

'Thank you.' Harry walked to Severus and wrapped his arms around the man's middle. 'This is a lot of fun.'

'Yeah!' Jack hurried forward and hugged Severus too, from what he could with Harry in the way.

Severus stood rigid still in the awkwardness of having the young boys hugging him with such smiling and grateful faces.

'You needn't thank me.' Severus replied when they stepped back. 'However, I do believe it is for each of you to go to sleep.'

Jack pouted and looked like he wanted to retract his thanks, while Harry tried to hide a wide yawn with his hands. Working together to carry Frogabook up the stairs, the boys said goodnight to Severus and retreated to Harry's room. Climbing into the bed, they lay down and their energy quickly sapped away.

'I wish we could do this every night.' Jack whispered as their light flickered out, likely from a wave of Severus' wand.

'Yeah.' Harry smiled with his eyes closed, fidgeting a bit as Frogabook tried to sit between the boys but ended up half on each of them with the limited space.

A moment of quiet followed as the boys closed their eyes and listened to the sounds of magic in the bathroom, and then the fading footsteps. Sighing, Harry opened his eyes and frowned, looking at his sleepy friend.

'Um, Jack?'

'Yeah, Harry?' Jack mumbled and kept his eyes shut as he was starting to fall asleep.

'What happens if I can't fill in my family tree?' Harry worried. 'I don't know what to do. I can think of only three people at the most.'

'Make it up.' Jack suggested. 'I don't think they'll check. Don't you have a family album or something?' He yawned.

'No.' Harry said so quietly his now-slumbering friend likely didn't hear him. 'I don't have anything from anyone in my family. I...I don't really have a family at all.'

--

Jack and Harry slept in the following morning, and only woke when Frogabook suddenly jumped on the bed right onto Jack's stomach.

'Oof!' Jack yelped. 'Frogabook!' He growled and shoved the frog over onto Harry, who had similar reaction.

The boys whacked the frog lightly with their pillows as they sat up and rolled out of bed. Dropping onto the floor, Jack whined that he didn't want to get up while Harry tried to pull him up by his wrist. Their laughter caught the attention of Severus, who soon appeared at the door to tell them breakfast is ready. Leaving the boys to get dressed and use the bathroom, Severus retreated back downstairs and was glad the entire event would be over in a few hours.

Harry and Jack slipped into the seats at the small table and stared at the plates hovered in front of them. They looked at each other and shrugged, eating their pieces of fruit without question.

'Can anyone to magic?' Jack asked Severus, who eyed the boy who never ate a meal in silence.

'No.' Severus answered as he sat in the third seat with the Daily Prophet, which Harry instantly took interest in when he saw the moving picture of a confident-looking wizard in a silly hat.

'Why not?' Jack continued. 'You and Cody can both do magic.'

'It is an ability one must be born with.' Severus sighed and flipped a page, looking thoroughly over an apothecary advertisement.

He could just hear Jack muttering to himself as he ate, no doubt working out which question to ask next, however Severus' attention fell onto Harry as the boy had a strong fixation on the paper. Lowering the object so he could see the child better, Severus was surprised when Harry became startled from the moment and appeared to have lost his appetite.

'Cody?' Severus caught his attention, and Jack's as well.

'Oh.' Harry looked up. 'Sorry.' He blushed and glanced away, raising an apple slice to nibble on it. 'It just...looked a bit familiar.' He shrugged, but could not recall where he had seen a moving newspaper before, other than when Severus was reading one.

'What can we do until my mum comes to pick me up?' Jack wondered aloud and looked over at Harry. 'Do you have any cool toys or something?'

'Not really.' Harry shrugged with embarrassment. 'Oh!' He grinned. 'There is something I wanted to show you – come on!' Just chewed the last of his banana and jumped up to pull Jack from the table and up the stairs.

'What is it?' Jack asked as they burst into Harry's room and the dark-haired boy dragged a chair outside of it.

Standing near a blank wall in the hallway, Harry climbed onto the chair and reached up towards the ceiling. Jack watched him with confusion, until he noticed a string Harry was trying to pull. Even though it was not-quite an inch taller than Harry, Jack jumped onto the chair and tried to help him reach for it. Even with both boys trying to grasp the string way above their heads, it was just too far away.

And as they were preparing to give up, the string suddenly began to grow until it was easy to grab and pull.

A flight of stairs began to materialise and Harry led Jack up to the attic to show him the magical sand Severus had demonstrated to him the morning after rescuing him from Emile and Simon. It would work for him, even though Harry didn't realise a wand was supposed to be required.

While the boys watched the sand in amazement, Severus was downstairs talking with Jack's mother, Judy. She took the bags (which had been packed earlier and rested near the door) to the car before returning to call Jack. Severus was suspicious when he heard bumps and footsteps much higher than he thought he was supposed to.

After Judy had put a stop to her son's whining about wanting to stay longer, she thanked Severus for letting the boy stay and said goodbye. Jack and Harry hugged, and the sandy-haired boy stepped back first. His mother was already on the street waiting for him, so he knew he had a moment to act.

'Cody, I think I left something in your closet.' Jack said. 'Could you check for me?'

'Sure.' Harry nodded. 'What is it?'

'Er, Flops.' Jack blushed at the mention of his stuffed rabbit.

Jack watched Harry run back to the stairs, as he had hoped the other boy would. Looking up at Severus, who stared back with distrust, Jack inhaled nervously and spoke with intense determination.

'We have to write our family tree and then give a speech about ourself at school next week.' Jack said in a rush, though Severus was able to keep up with him. 'The mums and dads are invited to the event too.' He frowned. 'Cody's too scared to ask you to come, because you're not his dad.'

'Come on, Jack!' His mother called, but the boy ignored her.

'Cody has no mum or dad.' Jack reminded the man. 'I wanted to let you know that Cody would be really happy if you could pretend, just for the day, and...go in the place of his dad.' Jack said the last part in a lower tone.

'I couldn't find it.' Harry gasped as he hurried into view. 'Are you sure you left it in my closet?'

'Oh, I guess I got it then.' Jack shrugged and offered his friend a lazy smile. 'Bye, Cody. I'll see you at school, okay?

'Yup.' Harry nodded. 'Bye, Jack!' He waved at the doorway while Severus inched away, frowning at what Jack had told him.

He watched the dark-haired boy calling goodbye to his best friend, and didn't realise Jack was further motivated to tell him what he had because the boy had caught Harry with his family tree earlier. Jack had seen Harry finally scribble down Severus' name under a title...Father.