"Arr!" Harry brandished a paper towel roll in the air, like a sword, and jabbed it at Draco, who parried Harry's attack with a paper towel roll of his own and scampered away with a high pitched squeal of amusement.

"Harry and Draco!" Severus bellowed at the two, envisioning the living room in complete shambles.

Harry and Draco's eyes grew wide as they turned, seemingly of one accord, and launched themselves at their new target. Scowling, Severus soon found himself parrying twin paper towel attacks with nothing more than his bare hands. And, while he had a long reach, it wasn't quite long enough, and he soon fell beneath the blows.

A low chuckle caused Snape to turn his glare toward the man who was no doubt responsible for the mayhem that had taken place in the living room -- Remus Lupin. The two young boys who'd attacked him with their improvised swords were now lying atop Severus, giggling, their paper swords momentarily forgotten.

"I miss the days when these two were intimidated by me," Severus complained.

Remus chuckled and shook his head. "No, you don't, Severus. Look how happy they are."

Groaning, Severus rolled his eyes, and conceded the point. The boys were happier than they'd been before all of this.

The accidental de-aging, which was, in a way, a blessing, hadn't done the two any real physical harm, though Severus would argue that it had done him extensive physical harm in the form of headaches, back aches, and aches in places that he didn't know could get aches. Suffering the Cruciatus Curse under the Dark Lord hadn't caused him this much pain.

"Look how happy you are," Remus added, voice low and husky. He had a goofy, lopsided grin on his face as he approached the trio and knelt down beside them.

Harry and Draco, both six now, had ceased their attack on Severus and were lying on top of him. Harry's elbow was tucked into Severus' gut, and Draco's knee was digging into Severus' side. More aches to add to the growing list.

Why the boys had decided that he, rather than Remus, was the perfect adult playmate, was beyond Severus. Apparently they'd deemed his bark to be worse than his bite. Not that he'd bitten the rambunctious boys, or anything of the like.

If Merlin himself had told him, just a year ago, that he'd be the proud parent of two rambunctious children, and happily remarried to Remus, Severus would have smacked the old, revered wizard. He still had a hard time believing it now, nearly a year after discovering the truth about Harry Potter and Draco Malfoy. About their true parentage.

It had been just over seven months since Dumbledore had finally come clean with him and Remus about what had happened during the first Wizarding War. Truths that had been concealed for the 'greater good'. Truths which had seen Harry and Draco living in environments that no child should have to live. Truths which, had they been revealed sooner, would have spared Severus from serving any time in Azkaban at all, or serving as a spy.

Dumbledore had explained his reasoning for keeping Harry and Draco's true identities secret, because they had been in very real danger from the Dark Lord, but Severus found it hard to forgive the meddling, old wizard for giving his boys away, and not returning his memories to him sooner. Had he known about his sons earlier, he would have been able to spare Harry and Draco from abusive childhoods.

Severus had loved Lily like a sister, and, if Harry had grown up with her and Potter, as Dumbledore had planned, he would have been fine with the deception. But that had not happened. Instead, the Potters had been killed, and he'd been partially to blame for it. As a result, Harry had been sent to live with his muggle relatives who'd physically abused and neglected him.

Severus had never liked Petunia when she'd been a little girl, jealous of her sister's gift of magic, and he liked her even less as an adult. As far as Severus and Lucius were concerned, sixteen months in a muggle prison and court directed counseling was not nearly enough punishment for the woman, nor was her husband's slightly larger sentence. Harry's spoiled cousin was living in a home for juvenile offenders, having beat up on a couple of younger kids when he'd been placed in foster care.

And then there'd been the Malfoys who had been cold and distant to the boy they'd taken -- kidnapped, really -- and raised as their own. Their expectations had given the boy an ulcer when he'd been just a child, and their physical abuse of him, while not as severe as what Harry had endured, had left Draco wary of any physical touch, whereas Harry seemed to crave positive touch anytime he could get it..

Lucius had already been serving a sentence in Azkaban when the truth had come out, but Severus knew that it would only be a matter of time before he, and his precious wife, Narcissa, got out. The Dark Lord would see to their untimely release. He probably should have killed them when he'd had the chance, not that Dumbledore or Remus would have let him.

Death was too kind for the Malfoys and the Dursleys, Severus thought.  

"I love you, Severus Tobias Lupin-Snape," Remus said, interrupting Severus' dark thoughts with a kiss that sent Harry and Draco into a fit of giggles.

"Ew," Draco said, and he scrambled off of Severus.

Harry kissed Severus on the cheek, and then turned his cheek toward Remus for a kiss. Severus wondered how on earth Petunia and her whale of a husband could have been so cruel to such a loving, little boy. How he, when he'd thought Harry had been a Potter, could have been so unkind toward him.

Granted, Dumbledore had left him with false memories, and, when Potter had first come to Hogwarts, Severus had only been able to see the boy through the lens of false information. Add that to the fact that Harry had been the spitting image of James Potter (or so he'd thought), who had been an insufferable bigot, and had bullied Severus when he'd been a student at Hogwarts, and it was a recipe for disaster. Something that Dumbledore had been well aware of, and had gone through with anyway.

Harry plastered another kiss on his cheek, and then jumped up to chase after Draco. Plucking his paper sword off the floor and holding it high above his head, he let loose a battle cry that caused the hairs on the back of Severus' neck to stand on end.

Severus closed his eyes for a few seconds, and, groaning tried to rise. Giving up, he turned pleading eyes on Remus. "Help me up, would you?"

Remus' goofy grin turned wolfish, and Severus groaned for an entirely different reason as his mouth was suddenly engulfed by Remus' in a kiss that left the both of them breathless.

"I like you just where you are," Remus said, and Severus rolled his eyes.

Harry and Draco's voices could be heard bouncing off of the walls of one of the upstairs bedrooms. Severus held a hand out, and this time Remus helped him up.

Severus' back cracked, and he scowled when Remus laughed. "Someone's getting old."

"Laugh it up, wolf," Severus said, slapping Remus on the arm. "Just wait until those two use you for a playground."

"Papa, Daddy, can Ronnie come over an' play?" Harry skittered to a stop at the bottom of the stairs he'd practically flown down, nearly giving Severus a heart attack.

Ronald Weasley had also been part of the accident which had rendered the boys younger versions of themselves, as had Hermione Granger and Neville Longbottom. It had happened shortly after Harry and Draco had come to live with Severus and Remus. They'd invited their friends over,and had somehow knocked down a shelf filled with potions, creating a loud ruckus that had sent Severus running down the stairs at full speed.

He hadn't believed his eyes, or his luck, at first, because he'd been certain that the teens had somehow managed to kill themselves. Instead, there were five, wide-eyed children, practically drowning in clothes that were too big for them, staring at him.

They'd all been irreversibly (it would seem) transformed into their six-year-old selves. Over the past several weeks, Severus and Remus had hosted a number of playdates, and had been invited over to the Weasleys for playdates as well. The Weasleys had taken in the de-aged Longbottom,as his grandmother was not up to the task, and were helping the Grangers cope with what had happened to their daughter.

It was a lot for all of them to take in, and a lot of work, but Severus knew that he shouldn't complain. It had given him and Remus what they should have had in the first place, a chance to raise their sons as they'd intended to when they first started out all those years ago.

"Maybe tomorrow afternoon," Remus answered. "It's getting late."

Harry turned toward Severus, his lower lip protruding in a manner which was very compelling. Thankfully Severus had spent many years tamping down on his emotions, if not denying them outright, and Harry's puppy dog eyes rarely affected him. Though, when Draco and Harry tag-teamed him, it was a lost cause. Add Remus into the mix, and he was completely without hope of saying no.

"I think it's bath time," Severus said, quickly changing the subject before Harry could make his green eyes well up with tears.

The boy was a perfect combination of him and Lily. She had been Harry's surrogate mother and egg donor, much to the chagrin of Potter.

Now that his head was no longer filled with fabricated memories, Severus could see how much Harry took after him, as opposed to Potter. Draco took after his birth mother, a young, unwed witch who had been killed during the first Wizarding War not too long after she'd given up her baby boy for adoption. Remus and he had adopted the newborn baby shortly before Harry had been born. They'd loved him just as much as they'd loved Harry.

If Dumbledore hadn't enlisted Severus and Remus in the war effort, and modified their memories (as they'd requested, at the time), things would have turned out differently for all of them. Severus wouldn't have been beholden to two masters as a spy, and Remus wouldn't have run himself ragged, nearly to death, in the intervening years.

"Do I have to?" Harry asked, turning to Remus. "I had a bath last night."

"Nuh-uh," Draco said as he rode the bannister down the stairs. Something that, when the boy had still been a Malfoy, he'd never have been caught dead doing. His speech patterns had also taken on a different quality, which was both endearing and slightly disturbing, but which the child therapist that Minerva had recommended to them had assured Severus and Remus was normal, given the circumstances.

"We took a bath three days ago." Draco shoved three fingers under Harry's nose to emphasize the point.

Harry's lip trembled even more, and he turned his pleading eyes toward Remus who, surprisingly, was less easy to move than Severus.

"That's what the stench is." Remus frowned dramatically and turned toward Severus. Both of them waved a hand in front of their noses, and, exchanged covert looks.

Severus took one side and Remus the other. They each tackled a boy and tucked one up under an arm. They hauled the squirming, giggling boys up the stairs. Just a short ago, Severus would have scoffed at the thought, and would have told whoever had predicted it to go to hell. Now, though, his heart clenched, and he had to take a moment to simply revel in the feel of his son wriggling in his arms, begging, "Don't tickle me, Daddy," when what he really wanted was to be tickled.

Several months ago, Severus had been ready to end his life. Harry had lost his beloved godfather -- a man Severus had been unable to stand -- in the debacle at the Ministry, and Draco had lost his father, and Severus was stuck living a double life, pretending to serve one megalomaniac while, in fact, serving a misguided, yet well-meaning wizard, putting his life on the line every single day.

Dumbledore had, apparently, come to his senses, after an experience that, as the Headmaster explained it to him, reminded Severus of the muggle writer, Charles Dicken's novella, A Christmas Carol. A book that Lily had read to him one Christmas when she'd thought he was being a 'scrooge'; he and Remus had been 'on a break' at the time, and he hadn't been at his best.

No matter the cause for the Headmaster's change of heart, Severus was grateful that it happened. That he got Remus, Harry and Draco back.

Though he still hadn't fully forgiven him, Severus was happy that Dumbledore had come to him, without the customary twinkle in his eyes, and begged forgiveness for his deception. It was a forgiveness that Severus wasn't quite ready to give yet.

He knew that, one day, far into the future, he would forgive Dumbledore. Perhaps when Harry and Draco were older, and ready to return to Hogwarts, fresh, without the worry of a Dark Lord and death waiting for them around every corner, Severus would find it in his heart to give grace to the old man.

Until then, though, he'd focus on his boys. Focus on the family that was ripped from him, and the man that he'd pledged his life to nearly two decades ago. He'd focus on loving them, and making up for lost time.