The First Night
After putting Hadrian to bed, after a bath of course, the two elder Slytherins headed towards the Slytherin common room where Severus would make his annual Head of House speech and put up any start of year announcements on the notice board and address any concerns the students had.
He felt like there would be only one question on people’s minds but unfortunately it was one that he just did not want to answer just quite yet, mainly because he had no idea what he was supposed to reply with. Luckily Lucius was coming with him and he would be announcing him as his Co-Head of House so hopefully he could pass the question off to him. Yes, he might just do that, see if he is cut out for the job! Severus of course knew that Lucius would be perfect for the job but tonight he just felt a little spiteful.
“Welcome to the new snakes who have been fortunate to join us in this house, welcome to your first year at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. And welcome back to all those students who have graced us with their presence for another year. Before I get into any of the rules and announcements I would just like to reiterate what the Headmaster mentioned. Please do not go onto the third floor corridor. I know a lot of you will be curious but I am privy to as much information as you so please don’t ask me or any of the other teachers about it. Now Rules.” Severus paused and allowed his eyes to wander around the room. “What’s the number one rule Flint?”
“Slytherins always have each other’s backs.” Replied Flint cautiously.
“Do sound a bit more confident Flint, you have heard these rules many times now but yes exactly thank you. As a Slytherin you have a duty to protect your fellow Slytherins. The taboo that comes with Slytherin House unfortunately means our house can be subject to malicious attacks by your fellow pupils. We travel in numbers, no Slytherin must be seen walking around on their own and if they are you must go over and walk with them.
If you have a disagreement with someone in this house, please keep it to the common room, outside these walls we must show a united front. I do not care if you do not like someone but you will only settle things in house. But you will not do so by fighting. If I catch any whiff of a duel or a hex being thrown about I will not hesitate to give the culprit the worst detentions I can think of. If you get a detention from another teacher, consider yourself getting another one from me as well.
I expect your work to be the best you can achieve and if you are struggling I will either assign you tutors or you can ask for help from either me, the prefects or your new Co-Head of House Professor Malfoy. Now should anyone have any questions you are free to ask them now whilst both of us are here or you can come to our offices at any of the times posted on the notice board in the corner of the room which I will put up before we leave.”
Hands shot up straight away. They were expecting this at least.
Severus pointed to someone, he wasn’t aware of their name so he knew they were a first year.
“Are you two married?” They stared for a short second before snapping out of it. That wasn’t the question they were expecting.
“Er, yes we are.” Lucius answered. “Yes Flint?”
“I have two questions Sir.” Severus nodded and motioned for him to go ahead. “Well the first is where is Harry Potter and the second is how come you never told us you had a second son?”
The two Co-Head of Houses glanced at each other with Lucius sighing when he saw through his husbands eyes what he wanted him to do.
“Let’s answer your first question shall we.” He took a seat in the large armchair by the fire, turning it to face the students. “We are unsure of the location of Harry Potter at this time. I am sure the Headmaster is doing diligent research into the whereabouts of the boy as he is his Magical Guardian in the wizarding world. I am sure there should be news of his whereabouts in the coming days or weeks.”
“And Second,” Severus spoke up. “I never told you about my son because, as you have probably seen in the papers, or heard from your parents, he was kidnapped at such a young age that we were not even sure if he was alive or dead. Not many people knew we had a second child and we rarely spoke of Hadrian in the household because it was just too much of a sensitive topic but we are glad to have him back with us. In fact I will be able to fully introduce you all to him this weekend. Any more questions?”
“Yes Sir, I was just wondering when quidditch trials would be?”
“Ah, well that will be up to Captain Flint to decide. I am sure if you check the notice board there will be an announcement by the end of this week.”
The questions went on for the next fifteen minutes before Severus and Lucius managed to round up the prefects to get everyone to bed. All in all it had been a very good meeting, they weren’t too worried about the new students and nor with the old. Overall they had a pretty good group of Slytherins to look after.
Unfortunately for Severus his job was not over, he had to be available in his office for any homesick or ill children or anything the students needed in the common room as per usual on the first day of school. He normally kept his office hours open longer in the first month of school as well. Lucius was lucky, he got to go to sleep. Or so he thought.
Hadrian wasn’t so happy at his new living arrangements. In fact he hated it. His Daddy and Papa’s room was too far away from his room and there was no connecting door in between. They were also far too close, in his opinion anyway, to a bunch of strangers. Understandable because of his past but no matter how much Lucius tried telling him that the students couldn’t get in to their rooms and that he would always be safe but he just wasn’t having it. He was still feeling rough after his encounter with Narcissa and also being ill and so Lucius couldn’t stop the tantrum coming even if he tried. The young boy hadn’t had time to fully comprehend what had happened and it seemed all the emotions that he was feeling had decided to appear tonight. Which was just not what they needed to happen.
“Haddy baby, come on, calm down.” Lucius whispered frantically in his sons ear whilst he was rocking him in his arms. “No one can hurt you here, you are safe. Please just calm down.”
Before long, two hours had passed and still Hadrian showed no signs of stopping. Lucius was getting tired, they had an early start in the morning and judging by the state of Hadrian they would have a very tired cranky six year old as well.
Another half an hour later, Severus came rushing through the door.
“I could hear his cries from my office but I have had two homesick students in and I wasn’t able to leave them.” He took Hadrian out of his husbands arms allowing the man to collapse on the sofa in exhaustion. “What’s going on?”
“He doesn’t like our room being so far apart from his and he doesn’t like how close we are to the common rooms and he doesn’t feel safe.” Lucius said tiredly, one arm thrown across his face to block out the light.
“Oh Haddy baby. What is it you want? Do you want to sleep with Daddy and Papa tonight?” He whispered quietly into his sons ear continuing the rocking motions that Lucius had been doing. He felt a tired nod into his shoulder with fortunately the cries turned into sniffles. “Well then lets get ready for bed shall we?”
Severus reached out a hand for Lucius to grab before the trio headed towards the bedroom where Lucius just flopped on to the bed as he was already dressed in his pyjamas. He reached out and took Hadrian from Severus’ arms to allow him to get changed before they all snuggled down to sleep. Hadrian was asleep before Severus had even turned the lights off.