Uninvited Guests
After talking things over with Avyaan, Severus decided to take Avi to a Mind Healer that was an old acquaintance of his. Andromeda Tonks was two years ahead of him when they were both in Slytherin house together. He only really knew her from her sister Narcissa who was in the same year as him and Lucius. He knew that she had a falling out with her family after marrying Ted Tonks, a muggle born wizard, but she and her family managed to remain relatively neutral during the first war. None of the black sisters had ever been trusting of Dumbledore’s ways, so it would not likely be hard to convince her to keep secrets from the old man as well as any Death Eaters that may be looking at his affairs.
Not a week after Halloween, they both arrived at the Tonk’s residence. Avi had fidgeted and fretted as they waited for the door to open, but the woman who opened the door met them both with a kind smile. He was nervous at first about having to talk about his past with a total stranger, but Healer Tonks (Andi she insisted) had easily agreed to making an unbreakable oath of confidentiality before they even began. Severus had already informed her about his past identity, so he knew she already knew about the hard stuff he really didn’t want to talk about. He was all set to have to bear his soul and reveal every bad memory he had, but their first meeting hadn’t gone anything like how he had expected.
First she had him sit in a comfy chair and pulled out a tray of tea and biscuits. They had snacked quietly, while she asked him how things were going at Hogwart, and what it was like living with Severus. She asked him about what he did in his free time, and he told her about helping the other professors out and all he was learning. He told her about the friends he made and how he liked helping Professor Sprout in the green houses. How Professor Flitwick was his favorite professor, but liked helping Professor Kettleburn with the animals the most. He told her about all the baby Thestrals that were born on Halloween and the mother unicorns that were due to foal at Yule.
Before he knew it his time with Healer Andi was all up. She led him out to the sitting room where they found his father reading a potions journal that he tended to just carry on him at all times to pull out when every ha had the moment to read. He frowned as Andi asked his father to come back for a short chat before they left, but he knew he didn’t really have a say in the matter, so he just nodded. Avi sat in one of the leather arm chairs as he wondered how long this was going to take and worried about what they were saying about him that they didn’t want him to hear.
When the door to the house swung open suddenly, Avi nearly jumped out of his skin. There in the doorway was a tall thin man with sandy brown hair and a girl with bubblegum pink hair and baby blue eyes. “Oh, hello there! I see Andi’s running long again. She always does this,” the man said with a fond smile. “I’m her husband Ted Tonks and this here is our daughter, Nymphodora. Dora dear, why don’t you show our guest here where we keep the board games and puzzles while I go get dinner started?”
“Wotcher, Avi!” said Nymphodora as she pulled out a game of wizards chess. “I’ve seen you around the castle running about with those twin terrors that Charlie calls brothers.”
“Nice to meet you, Miss Tonks,” Avi said politely.
“None of that miss crap! You can just call me Tonks, or Dora if I start to like you. Nymphadora is such a mouthful! Care for a game of chess?”
Avi had a lot of fun waiting with Tonks. She was cheerful, and bubbly if a bit clumsy. He discovered that she was home for the weekend, because her birthday was the day of Halloween. Which she claimed explained why she was a metamorphmagus, but Avi didn’t really see how the two connected. Her parents had picked her up from the school to celebrate that morning and she was going to head back tomorrow night before classes began.
They played for a good 20 minutes while their parents talked and Mr. Tonks cooked dinner. Tonks claimed that she was so focused on the game that when the door to the study opened she jumped and knocked over the game board. Avi thinks she just didn’t want to admit that she was about to lose to a seven-year-old, but they were both laughing as they put away the set.
Ted offered to let the two of them stay for dinner, but it was already getting late. By the time he and his father left to go back to Hogwarts Avi was both mentally and physically exhausted, but he somehow felt a little lighter at the same time.
***
Things seemed to get a little better after that. The media coverage about the death of Harry Potter slowly began to die off. Dumbledore was eventually released with a stern slap on the wrist. He was able to convince the jury that he had not known that the Potter’s had changed their wills, but was given a hefty fine of 3,000 galleons for his lack of action as Magical Guardian. Severus had been furious, and seemed to be planning something with the goblins to bring more of the Headmaster’s crimes to light. Avi didn’t really want to get involved with all that. All that talk of money and numbers seemed really boring.
Severus had left to have another meeting at the bank, leaving Avi to read in the sitting room of his father’s quarters. All was quiet and he was just getting to the good part of his new book “Agent 13: The Serpentine Assassin,” when he heard an odd sound from the potions stores. Severus should still be in his meeting for another half hour, so Avyaan was immediately on high alert.
He pulled the wand his father had given him from its hidden sheath in his boot. It had been his mother Eileen’s wand. The wand was made of Ash wood, meaning it had probably been in the Prince family for many generations. Wands made of Ash were stubborn and loyal to a fault. They would even lose power or refuse to work if not passed on or gifted from the original owner, usually to a descendant. This wand was so old now that its core was made of Thestral horn, something that was no longer used in modern wand making, because many wizards today thought matching with a wand with Thestral core was a bad omen. But Avi loved this wand. Severus had given him something that he cherished from his late mother to help keep him safe after the incident with Professor Markhart, and Avi would protect it always.
He ran his fingers over the charcoal colored wood to calm himself as he approached the potion store closet where he had heard the noise. When he turned the corner, wand drawn, he was met with two pairs of hazel eyes and red hair. “What are you both doing in here! You scared the life out of me!”
“Oh, hi-”
“Avikins!”
“Fancy meeting-”
“-you here!”
“I live here,” he dead pans.
“So you do!”
“But we heard-”
“-Master Snake was out on an errand.”
“So why isn’t the Littlest Snake with him?”
Avi rolled his eyes. “Because math is boring, unlike whatever you guys are up to and keep changing the subject to try to hide. What do you have behind your back Fred?”
Fred sheepishly pulled out a jar of very familiar leaves.
“We were only going to borrow two leaves for an experiment, promise!” George explained. “He could have them back in just a few weeks.”
“Eww! Gross! He definitely doesn’t want them back after they have been marinating in your mouth for a month!” Avi nearly gagged at the idea, remembering his own mandrake leaf when he was finally able to remove the sticking charm. The thing had been a slimy, pulpy mess by the end of the moon cycle.
He could see the exact moment they both realized it. “Why Avikins! We’re shocked you would participate in illegal animagus experimentation. Shame on you!” they both courused in a good impression of their mother’s most disappointed voice.
Avi rolled his eyes at the twin terrors and was about to just let them take that stupid jar, when they all froze at the sound of the front door opening.
Avi said a few words he only knew thanks to his uncle Vernon as he quickly pulled the twins out of the stores and into his room. He shoved one twin under his bed and another in his wardrobe, not caring at that moment which was which. He just barely had time to take the jar of leaves and go back in the closet before his dad turned the corner.
“What are you up to this time, Taran Avyaan Snape,” Severus said in a firm but quiet tone, knowing not to yell like he had the last time he had found his son raiding his potion’s stores.
Even just the use of his full name had Avi swallowing thickly and trembling slightly as he turned to face his father. “I- I. It’s just that- You know how you talked Professor McGonagall into helping me with my meditations for becoming an animagus? Well n-now that I have to have someone with me at all times, I invited the twins to come with me and then I had to tell them what the meditations were for…”
Severus sighed, pinching the bridge of his nose. “And of course they both wanted to try to learn it as well. Probably so they could get away with more pranks, I assume?”
Avi nodded and Severus groaned. “You will have to ask Minerva before you give them the leaves. Let the consequences be on her head. She is their head of house after all. So the consequences are her problem to deal with, not mine.”
Avi fidgeted as he put the jar back. He hated lying to his dad, but he knew if Severus found the twins in his private potions stores he would skin them alive, or more likely having them skin something else alive…