Overall, the rest of the week went by smoothly. The boys went to either Molly or Andromeda’s each day and, more or less, stayed out of trouble, though there was an instance where Sirius wanted a forbidden, before dinner cookie and convinced Severus and Teddy to climb on top of the counter to the fridge to get them each one. They had each received a time out for it, but besides that the boys had been well behaved.

It was Friday night, the night of Narcissa’s dinner, and the night that Severus and Sirius were going to meet several new children and adults that would continue to be in their lives.

Each child was dressed in black trousers and a white button up shirt with robes of various colors between them. Sirius had refused all children’s robes unless they were red, so, obviously, his were red. Teddy wore blue robes, Jamie a bright yellow pair (Harry was convinced that they should have named him after Albus Dumbledore as he seemed to have his love for garish and dramatic clothing), Severusa dark green pair, and Alby, a light blue pair until he saw Severus and demanded green robes as well.

Neville and Luna met the large family in their quarters in order to help them take the children to Malfoy Manor. Ginny, of course, still ended up with Severus and Alby, as the two were adamant that they had to Floo with Ginny and together.

“Harry, let’s give the stomach soother before we Floo. See if it makes a difference.” Ginny said. Harry nodded.

It did, indeed, make a difference. Both boys immediately jumped out of Ginny’s arms after they Floo’d and ran to their brothers.

“Well, that worked rather well.” Ginny said with a smile.

Harry simply smiled as Narcissa walked into the room.

“Harry, Ginny! Neville, Luna! I am so glad you came. Pansy, Draco, and the children are in the sitting room. The children are playing.” Narcissa said.

At that, Severus stopped talking to his brothers and turned around.

“I wish to see Parkinson, immediately.”

Harry and Ginny both sighed. They didn’t understand Severus’ need to let his adult memories take over so suddenly and so often. Sirius never let his memories take over like that. However, Sirius had been much more like a child when he should have been behaving as an adult. Severus had always been a serious person.

“Severus, I do not think that you need to discuss anything about the war or before then.” Harry said.

Severus crossed his arms over his chest and stared at Harry.

“I will see Parkinson. Now.” Severus said. Harry raised his eyebrows.

“Young man, you will stop demanding things if you do not wish to take a trip to the bathroom with me.” Harry told him sternly.

“I. Will. See. Her! I do not expect you to understand!” Severus bellowed at Harry.

“Severus Harrison—”

“Harry, let him. He deserves to be able to ask his questions.” Pansy said softly from the doorway. Narcissa looked at the girl who she thought of as her daughter with a pained expression. They had good days and bad days, though the good days definitely outnumbered the bad after Scorpius and Asta were born. But, there were days that were always bad. The date of the final battle, October 31, her birthday. They were all days when she would let no one in her room except Narcissa. Draco usually took the children on a mini vacation for two or three days around that time.

“Are you sure, Pansy?”

“Yes. Come Severus. We shall talk in the study.” Pansy said.

That made Severus stop.

The only time he got called into the study at Harry and Mummy’s was when he was getting a spanking.

Harry, seemingly knowing what the little tyke was thinking, said, “Severus, remember, we are not at home. Only at home is the study where we have serious discussions. If that happens elsewhere, where do we go?”

“Bathroom.” Severus said with a sigh of relief.

“Come, Severus.” Pansy said lightly, holding her hand out for the little boy. Severus walked over to her and cautiously placed his hand into hers.

As they walked away, Harry walked over to Narcissa, embraced her in a hug, and then asked, “Do you think that it will be okay, Aunt Cissy? Severus is not the man we remember, although he sometimes acts like it.”

Narcissa sighed.

“Harry, I think that it will help both of them. Severus is never going to embrace his new self if he cannot forgive his old self.  Pansy, Pansy just needs to talk about it. Even if Severus is so young, now, he will think with his old memories. It will be okay.”

“I hope so.” Harry said as he still looked at the door that his son and friend had left.

~sdrawkcab~

Severus sat across from Pansy, his feet straight out in front of him as they did were nowhere near reaching the floor. They barely hung over the edge of the sofa as it was. He stared at Pansy and searched her face, her eyes, her emotions.

She still looked as she had when she was seventeen, although a bit more wise.

Well, at least Severus felt that was what it was. What he didn’t realize was that the girl had gained that aged, wise look at the final battle when she watched her friends killed one after another.

“Severus, you said that you wished to speak to me. Do you have questions that you wish to ask?” Pansy asked.

Severus nodded.

“I will answer the questions you wish, today. However, Severus, after today you must realize that, to me, you are now a child. I want you to grow up without the thoughts of yesterday. Will you accept that?”

Again, Severus nodded.

Then, he spoke.

“I want to know when Dumbledore bargained with you. What were his terms? I want to know why he would take you. Draco said you are the youngest. You were the youngest ever.”

Pansy cleared her throat. In many ways, this was the Professor that she remembered and looked up too when she was in school.

“How about I tell you a story Severus, how about I start from the beginning…

I was thirteen years old when the Dark Lord took an interest in me. He was not yet back to full strength; that would be nearly another year. But, my parents were strong supporters. One night I was in the Owlery, speaking to my owl. I was apt to do that after everyone was in bed, as you well know since you caught me several times over the years. I was speaking to my owl, Lekke, explaining to her that my parents were going to present me to the Dark Lord over the summer and, in many ways, I was terrified. I would be the youngest Death Eater, but I had a feeling that everything would be different for me. To begin with, the Dark Lord was famous for initiating his young followers on their seventeenth birthdays. But, Dumbledore was also up in the Owlery that night. Apparently the elves had told him that I went up there every night and spent several hours talking to my owl about He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named.

That was when Dumbledore took an interest in me. He told me that he would protect me with the best of his abilities…but only if I took the dark mark when the Dark Lord wished it and reported back to him. Of course, I was naïve. Had I been smart I would have come to you, but at the time I thought that you were only on the Dark side. I had no idea that you were a spy. No, that came later, probably when I was in my fifth year, but by then I was so far in with the dark that I could not risk it.

That summer, the Dark Lord called. I was fourteen. My parents were worse than Bellatrix Lestrange. I know that they rarely went to meetings, but they were worse. I think that it was the fact that they were sane and still found joy in tormenting muggles and muggleborns. And me. I dared not make a mistake, least they cast an unforgivable on me.

They were proud when the Dark Lord came to me that summer. My mother bathed and dressed me in pure white robes with a black hooded robe over them. My hair was braided down my back, not a hair out of place. Then my mother and father took me to the dining room, a large room that had been transformed into a throned hall, with the Dark Lord at the throne.

My parents walked me down the aisle and then, while I stood, they kneeled. I started to kneel, but he stopped me. He said, “You are different. You shall never have to kneel in front of me, Flower.”

It took everything in me not to cringe at his words. What mistake was I making? What was Professor Dumbledore doing that he thought I would be able to survive this?

My black cloak remained over my body, covering even my face until my parents were bid to stand and take it off of me, leaving me in the white robes that contrasted so brightly against everything dark around me. I waited. And the Dark Lord sat in his chair, still in his vague form that resembled only a small bit of humanity. He was not strong and he knew it, but every dark mark made him stronger.

He bade me to come closer, and I did. He said, “You, my Flower, will be more than the others. You, my Flower, will have a mark unlike theirs. For you, my Flower, are innocent and pure in many ways. You have not committed murder as of yet. You are still pure in body. You shall be mine. Drop the top portion of your robe. I wish to see the skin over your heart.”

I immediately did as he wished. No sooner had I done so, than he weakly lifted his wand and cast the dark mark over my heart. I have never felt such pain, before or since, but I did not scream. I knew that those who screamed were tortured. I did not scream.

That night, my parents gave me to the Dark Lord, and once the war was over, I was to be his wife. I as to metaphorically rule beside him.When I returned to school, I immediately told Dumbledore what had happened. He was…well, he was happy. I never understood it. He told me that I was in a place that even his best spies could not get, and I would be able to tell him things that would save the wizarding world. His eyes never stopped twinkling.

And I did. Year after year, I gave Dumbledore reports on what was happening. The Dark Lord bid me to his side at nearly every non-violent meeting. I, Severus, was the masked figure at his left. I was the only one allowed on his left. Only when I was at school was I safe, but even then I had to act as if I was partial to only Slytherin purebloods, else risk my life. As the years went on, I witnessed more than I care to admit. Women, children, and men were murdered before my very eyes. I counted each and every one of them. 257 deaths I was witness to from the age of fourteen to the day of the final battle.

Dumbledore continued to receive information from me. The night before he died, he came to be and told me that he would not live but another day, but I must not tell a soul. He told me that I had to continue what I was doing until the day of the final battle. And then, only then, was I supposed to ensure that the snake Nagini was killed. I assured him that I would.

The next year, the Dark Lord tried to make me stay home and not return to Hogwarts, but I begged him. I was the only one that dared beg for anything. He allowed me to go. I hid out there, but I did not keep as quiet as Dumbledore had told me too. I talked to some of the younger students, mainly the Slytherin student I had access to and got them sent home. You wondered what was happening to your first years, why there were so few. It was because I was getting them out, or, in the very least, hidden. There are many rooms like the Room of Requirement. Madam Pomfrey caught me one night. I thought she would take me to you. Turn me in for all of the bad things she thought I had done. But she didn’t. She showed me to a room and told me only one other person knew of it, and that person no longer had need of it. I saved children that could not save themselves.

Then the night of the final battle came. I begged them to turn Harry over to the Dark Lord, though that was not what I wanted. I had to have a way to leave the Great Hall to get to my children in what they had dubbed the Room of Enjoyment. I had children in their from first to third year. I dared not try to save any older. McGonagall demanded Filch to take all Slytherins to the Dungeons. It was here that Madam Pomfrey grabbed me and told Filch that she would take care of me. He was giddy at the thought, but I knew that she was helping me. I went and grabbed as many of the younger Slytherins as possible and made them come with me. I then, under a disillusionment charm, went around the castle over the next hour and grabbed as many of them as I could. I put them all in the Room of Enjoyment, and bid a houseelf, Karine, keep them in and under no circumstance should she let them out until either I or Madam Pomfrey came to get them or the battle ended.

Then I went to the forest. I watched Harry come to the Dark Lord. I watched Cissy save his life.

The final battle was torture. But once it was over, it was over. Dumbledore had hidden his Will in Gringotts and another in a box that he had given McGonagall. There he cleared so many people. You and I were at the top of the list as his most important spies…

So, that is what I went through. Rather a skimming of it anyways. I will not tell you every detail, as despite your mental age right now, you are five. I gave you an overview because I believe you deserve to know, Severus. You deserve to know, above all else, that our sacrifices really were worth it.” Pansy finished. She had, miraculously, remained tear free, something that never happened when she was telling this particular story. But, there was something in her that made her realize that she had to remain strong for Severus.

“Damn that old man!” Severus hissed.

Pansy looked at the little boy before her.

“No, Severus. I was angry at Dumbledore for a time when I was younger, and I still do not know how he thought he would save me if the Dark Lord had wished me dead, but I forgave him. You must do that too. Yes, he sacrificed me, you, and Harry. He sacrificed many people, but we have to overcome that. Dumbledore is a dead man that shall sacrifice no more.”

“I should have noticed that something was going on with you. I never read anything in your mind that would point to this though…”

Pansy let out a small sigh.

“Severus, you only would have realized something was different with me if I had wished it. I am a natural Occlumens… it was part of the reason that Dumbledore did what he did.”

“I should have known.”

“Severus. Stop it. Right now. There is nothing that you could have done. And, besides, I am happy now. You are going to be happy. I know that right now you are not as happy as you will be. This is your second chance at life, family, and love.”

“But…” Severus looked up at her. He was feeling so many emotions that he didn’t understand at that moment.

“No, Severus. There is no but. It is all over now. We have so much to live for now. You have new parents that love you. Brothers. And you have yet to meet all of your cousins. Asta and Scorpius are very excited to meet you. As are, I hear, Hermione and Ron’s children. There is a slew of family you have yet to meet, and probably will not get too until Christmas, but they will all love you. You are part of our family now. Weird as it may be, it is still a family nonetheless.”

Pansy looked down at the boy and placed her hand on his knee. He looked up at her pleadingly.

“Will you take me to my Mummy now? I really need my Mummy.” Severus said in a quiet voice.

She had been prepared for this and wished that she hadn’t had to tell him so much, even if she had left all of the graphic details out.

“Yes, Severus, I will take you to your Mummy.” Pansy said, standing up and then bending over to pick up Severus.

She immediately headed to the dining room, where she could hear more people. Pansy opened the doors and then looked for Ginny.

Ginny was placing Alby in a highchair beside her seat, and another chair with a higher seat was beside her. Severus saw her immediately.

“Mummy!” he cried, and jumped from Pansy’s arms to Ginny’s. Ginny looked at Pansy.

“I’m sorry, Ginny. I only told him what was necessary to make him understand…”

“Oh, Pansy, I know. It had to be done.” Ginny told her, placing her free hand on the other woman’s arm.

“Mummy…” Severus whimpered into her neck.

“What is going on?” Harry said from behind Ginny.

Severus looked up from his mother’s neck.

“Daddy, I am so…soo…sorrrry!” he cried, and held his arms up to Harry.

Harry took the little boy and looked at his wife.

What Ginny saw was a mask of confusion, worry….

….and pure happiness at the fact Sev had just called him Daddy.