Once he had made the decision to become a guardian to the children, Severus wanted nothing more than to chase after them.  In truth, what he wanted was to apparate to wherever they were and collect them.  He had no idea how old Lily's nephew was, but he'd been around when her son was born, and was quite adept as basic math.  He couldn’t fathom an eight year old out on the streets by himself with no one but James bloody Potter to guide him—and an only partially corporeal James Potter at that.  For Severus was well acquainted with the magic that allowed Lily to be with him right now, and he knew that the two guides could do very little to physically assist the Living.  They could really only offer suggestions. 

On the other hand, Severus was a Slytherin to the core, and he knew better than to rush forward into the situation like a senseless Gryffindor.  There was a time for bravery, of course, but this was more a time for cunning.  After all, he couldn't just apparate to where the boys were. Even if he'd known their exact location, which he didn't, the magic surrounding him, which he had consigned himself to when he finally agreed to become guardian to the two boys, prevented him from doing any magic until he was with them, which severely limited his abilities. All he could do was listen to Lily's guidance and hope that she and James had made some sort of plan before coming down to Earth.

Severus crossed the settee and grabbed his wand from the end table.  At the very least, he could ensure that when he did find the boys, he was able to apparate back to the manor with them without delay.  There was no telling what sort of shape they'd be in by the time that he got to them.

That thought in mind, Severus stopped in the kitchen and gathered together some food for the journey.  All of a sudden, he was grateful for his father for forcing him to learn to drive when he was a teenager.  Severus had thought it a useless skill at the time, considering he had apparition at his disposal and it tended to be a much quicker method of transport, but he'd found over the years that having a car at his disposal really was helpful at times. And now that he wasn't able to use magic, it would be doubly helpful.

"What do you know about the boys," Severus said to Lily as he packed food and clothing into a duffel bag. 

The barest hint of a smile fluttered across Lily's lips.  "What do you want to know?"

Everything, Severus thought.  If he was to take care of the boys, he'd need to know everything, wouldn't he?  But it wasn't practical for him to ask that of her.  All the references Severus had ever read to the Parentes Filius Custos Praesidium mentioned that the very act of being in corporeal form took a lot out of the guides, and the more that was required out of them as time went on, the less they were able to even get through their duties.

"Give me the basics," Severus said. 

Lily nodded but said, "Let's wait until we get in the car—I assume that's how we're travelling?"

Severus inclined his head.  He led Lily down to the garage, and wondered if it was the Fates themselves that had encouraged Severus to spend this weekend in his parents' old estate in muggle England rather than in his preferred house.  It was only here that Severus even had a car at his disposal, and he came to this house as little as possible most of the time.  On the other hand, he usually came here at least once in the summer to tidy the house up and pay respects to his parents' memories, so maybe it was just good fortune that had him here when he was needed. 

Severus got into the car and turned it on, and then he turned towards Lily.  "Where am I heading?"

"South," Lily said, "Towards London."

"London," Severus repeated.

"They boys are from Surrey," she revealed, "but they'll be travelling on foot."

"We'll get to London several hours before they will," Severus said.

"Nothing for it," Lily said tiredly, "James and I had to be able to agree upon a location to meet at. I don't know Surrey hardly at all—not well enough to lead you there."

Severus nodded quietly.  It would take him three and a half hours to drive to London from Halifax, while it would take the boys three times that long to walk to London from Surrey.  Longer, probably, considering the fact that they would need to stop to sleep along the way. Severus hated the idea of sitting in one spot, waiting for James Potter to lead the boys to him for hours and hours.  Nothing for it, though, as Lily had said.

"So, the boys," Lily said.  Every word sounded as if it was costing her, and Severus thought that the texts he'd read on the subject didn't do the dead any justice: it clearly pained her to participate in the world, and yet she soldiered on.  "Harry is nine and Dudley is ten.  Their birthdays are both at the end of the summer. Dudley will be joining Hogwarts in September."

Lily stopped talking for a moment.  Her breath whistled as it came out, and Severus waited, gripping the steering wheel tightly and wondering if she'd be able to get anything else out.

"They don't really get along," Lily admitted after a while.  "Dudley… has never had a chance to be a good kid. Neither of them have, really. They're…troubled."

Just what he needed, Severus thought.  It was bad enough that he was being forced into fatherhood before he was ready; worse that he was being forced to father troubled children.  And yet he found that he hadn't expected anything less.  Parentes was powerful magic: if there was any other way for a custodial relationship to resolve itself, the fates would not get involved.  The fact that they had decided to intervene meant that the events surrounding the children were murky at best. After all, one of the components of Parentes was the fact that the Ministry could not interfere with the events leading up to the new custody agreement, a necessity that protected children if the ministry may have otherwise questioned what had transpired.

"How did your sister…pass?" Severus asked carefully.

Lily gave him a hard look.  "She burned to death. Accidental magic."

The news was staggering. Parentes had been enacted due to accidental magic in the past, but in those situations, the child had become angry and caused something to fall on their parents or something of the sort.  Fire was… violent.  It would take a strong and somehow disturbed child to cause that sort of accident, if it could be deemed an accident at all. Severus suddenly understood the need for the fates to interfere.

"It was self defense," Lily said firmly, as if she could read Severus's thoughts. "She was planning to kill them."

Severus nodded.  He couldn't talk; he was finding it hard to swallow.  He believed Lily—the fates would not have intervened if the children were seriously cruel—but all the same, it took a certain type of person to light a woman on fire, even in self defense. It wasn't as if Severus had never dealt with those kinds of children.  Many of his Slytherins were the same. But Severus usually didn't see that side of children—even Slytherins—until at least fourth year, and usually even later than that. These children were young. Young and powerful.  In recent years, the only person Severus had ever heard of as being so powerful was Voldemort, a cruel and merciless man who had slaughtered muggles and muggleborns left and right for years before finally being defeated by Dumbledore in the Great Battle of '79. 

Once again, Lily seemed to read his mind.  "They have the potential to be good people, Severus.  They just need to be given a shot. And, too, they need someone to take care of them who knows what it's like to fight against the darker urges."

Severus knew, then, why Lily had chosen him as guardian, and why James had agreed.  The Potters' other friends from school had been good people from the beginning.  Even Sirius Black, who had come from a rather dark family, had been innocent and friendly from the very moment he entered Hogwarts. Not so for Severus, who'd had a mean, vindictive streak for years.  He'd had to fight against it to become a better person, and who better than he to know what a struggle that was?  And now Lily was looking at him again, her eyes begging him to…what?

"I said I'd try!" Severus barked gruffly.  "What more do you want from me?"

 But she kept looking at him, those green eyes pleading with him until Severus felt wholly unmanned. 

"I will try," he insisted in a quieter voice.  "As if they were my own flesh and blood."

Lily smirked then.  "Well, that part won't be hard, will it?  Or have you forgotten that part of Parentes?"

He hadn't forgotten, though he hadn't been dwelling on it, either.  The finishing touches of Parentes would be to make the children part Severus.  The three-part DNA was one of the things that made the children untouchable by the ministry, for from the moment they were joined with Severus, they would truly be different people. Their brains would be exactly the same, but the rest of them…  Even their names would change: a whole new magical birth certificate would appear, and Severus's signature upon it would truly seal the deal.

"I had wanted, at one point, to father your children," Severus murmured wryly, "but I hadn't exactly been thinking about it this way."

Lily laughed.  Then she sat up a bit straighter, her eyes scanning the streets in front of them.  They had arrived on the outskirts of London. Despite knowing that it would be hours more before the boys could possibly arrive, Severus found himself feeling nervous. After all, they could get here sooner, couldn't they?  It was possible that they'd taken a bus or something, wasn't it?

"Turn left," Lily said.

Severus did so.  He continued to follow her directions.  She led him around the city proper, deeper and deeper into ever more dilapidated residential areas. Severus had no idea where they were at, but he supposed it didn't much matter.  As long as Potter knew the area. That was the important part.

"Here!" Lily said suddenly, pointing to a house that looked identical to every other house on the street. 

Severus frowned but turned his car into the driveway. She could have taken him to Hell itself and he'd have followed her directions. What choice did he have? They could hardly change destinations at this point, could they? Still, he couldn’t help but ask, "Where are we?"

"I've a cousin who lives here," Lily said.  "Don't worry—she's on vacation just now. Won't be back for another month. If any of the neighbors ask, we'll just say that we're here to look after her cat."

"Who's actually looking after the cat?" Severus asked.

"Family friend," Lily said, "But she's gone for the next couple of days. She left the cat a bunch of food."

Severus nodded and got out of the car.  He followed Lily up the front path and, at her direction, collected a key from underneath a flowerpot.  Very muggle, that.  It would not have been anywhere near as easy to break into a wizard's house. He didn't say anything about that, though, knowing from their childhood how very proud Lily was of her heritage. 

The house was pleasantly decorated, light and airy.  Severus seated himself on the couch in the living room, feeling totally out of his element.  "When should the boys arrive?"

"Not until tomorrow," Lily said.  "James was planning to let them stop in Esher and catch a few hours of sleep tonight."

Severus frowned.  "Well, then, why aren't we going to Esher?"

"I told you, I don't know that area!"

"You guys obviously planned your route out ahead of time," Severus said.  "If you had time to do that, why didn't you have time to learn how to get to Esher?"

Lily pursed her lips. 

"And even if that were the case," Severus continued, "why would you have me come here tonight? Why not have me drive here in the morning, when the boys are actually going to get here?"

Lily had the grace to flush.  "Honestly?  I thought it would take you a lot longer to agree to the arrangement than it did."

"You—what?"

"I thought I'd be up half the night trying to convince you to take the boys in," Lily said.  "And even when you agreed back at the house, I expected you to change your mind fifteen times.  I thought you'd turn us around, drive back home, drive back out here… I didn't think it would be so easy."

"Thank you for your confidence in me," Severus sneered.

"I knew you'd agree in the end!" Lily said. "You're a good man, Severus. I never doubted that.  I just thought that you'd want to suss out all the possible ramifications before agreeing to make a decision like this."

"You think I haven't given it enough thought?"

"I didn't say that.  I think that you're unlikely to make a final decision like this if you're not ready for it.  The fact that you made the decision so quickly… Well, I can only assume that you're more ready for this responsibility than you would have me believe."

It was Severus's turn to purse his lips.