While Professor Snape was teaching his third year Gryffindor and Slytherin students, two unexpected guests appeared out of thin air.
All the Slytherin and Gryffindor third year students had taken their seats and were currently either chit chatting about various topics or bickering and arguing with each other. All talks, however, immediately died down as Hogwarts’ Potion’s Master entered the classroom. The room became so silent, you could hear a pin drop. Every student, no matter if they wore a green or red tie, turned their attention to Snape - no one wanted a fight with Snape so early in the morning.
Severus walked with a slow pace and a blank expression on his face until he was in front of the board. He pulled out his wand and started writing the instructions on the board. He knew from his years as a student that the textbooks were outdated and the recipes in them weren’t efficient, so he decided early on in his teaching career that he would use his altered versions of the recipes.
Today’s potion was an easy one since it was a revision of a potion from the first year’s curriculum - the Wiggenweld Potion.
“You already learned how to brew this potion back in first year and revised it again in your second year” Severus started saying. “So now, who can tell me what the Wiggenweld Potion is used for?” The majority of the students raised their hands up. Snape looked around the classroom, and his eyes fell on one of the students that had not raised their hands - Neville Longbottom. “Mister Longbottom, care to answer the question?” Snape asked, but sounded more like a statement.
“I- Uh, um…” Neville slightly panicked.
Next to him, Hermione Granger was waving her raised hand.
“Yes, Mister Longbottom?” the professor drawled, his eyebrow raised.
“The- the Wiggenweld Potion is used for-” Neville audibly gulped.
Hermione was still waving her hand up in the air.
“I can see you know the answer, Miss Granger” Snape addressed the girl. “Let someone else answer for once” the potions professor scowled. A few chuckles were heard by a certain group of Slytherins.
On the row in front of Longbottom, Seamus Finnegan turned to look at the shy Gryffindor and gave him a thumbs up to encourage his nervous friend. Neville gave his housemate a ghost smile and turned his attention back to Snape. “It is used to heal injuries” He finally answered.
“And?” the intimidating professor urged his student.
“A- and as a… an antidote to the Sleeping Draught an- and Draught of Living D- Death”
Snape stared into the young Gryffindor’s eyes before he nodded and begrudgingly awarded Gryffindor three points.
“Everyone, get the necessary ingredients and start making the potion” Severus said. “Most - if not all- of you should succeed in preparing it” Snape drawled.
As Snape watched the students rushing to gather the ingredients, he heard the distinct sound of apparition. He immediately turned to look where the sound came from. To his surprise, he saw two small figures sitting on his now messed up desk.
The small figures were two toddlers that looked like they were twins. One boy had short black hair and big brown eyes that reminded of chocolate. His skin was lightly tanned and he was wearing a pair of blue pajamas with potion bottles on them. The other boy’s hair was black and reached to his shoulders and his eyes were black as the night sky. His complexion was pale and was wearing a pair of green pajamas with birds on them.
Severus wasn’t the only one whose attention was focused on the two children that appeared out of the blue. The majority of the students were now intensely staring at the unexpected guests.
The two boys looked at each other, then at the potions professor, at the students and then again at each other. They shrugged and stared at Snape.
Severus raised a questioning eyebrow and both toddlers gave him a sheepish smile. “Accidental magic I assume” Snape said. And even though it was phrased as a statement and not a question, he still got an answer.
“Pr- probably” the boys answered simultaneously, having a slight difficulty pronouncing the word.
“It wasen inten- inent-'' the short haired boy turned to look at his twin.
“Intenional?” the long haired boy told his twin, doubt clear in his voice.
“Intentional” Snape corrected them.
“Yeah, that” the twins exclaimed happily with a smile.
The young professor sighed and turned to face his students again. “Why did you all stop?” He raised an eyebrow. “Return to your work, now” he ordered and most of the students complied.
Harry Potter was still staring at the two children sitting on his brusque professor’s desk. Draco Malfoy was also staring with a frown on his face.
“Mister Potter, is there a reason you can’t follow simple orders?” Snape said with a scowl “Five points from Gryffindor.” Harry was about to retort something, but decided against it after he got elbowed by Hermione.
“You should also pay attention to your potion, Mister Malfoy” He reprimanded Draco.
“But-” Draco whined.
“No buts, Mister Malfoy” Severus said seriously and Draco decided to be smart and not argue with his professor.
As Snape reprimanded Potter and Malfoy, the twins found the chance to get down from the desk and move closer to the board. They looked at all the things that were written on there and at the textbook they had taken from Severus’ desk. They memorized the ingredients they saw and then started wandering around the classroom.
When Severus turned to look at the boys and they weren’t there, he almost frowned. He looked around and his eyes caught a glimpse of a blue figure and a green one.
The two small children were walking fast with their little legs towards the back of the room. Once there, they started pushing a chair with their small and chubby hands, while letting out interjections of difficulty from time to time. “Phew,” both boys sighed when they finally moved the chair where they wanted. They were now standing in front of the cupboard that contained various potions ingredients. The paler of the twins climbed up on the chair and reached out to grab some Dittany. He then handed it to his brother, who in turn placed them on an empty desk. This went on for all the other ingredients up until he had to grab some Lionfish and Salamander Blood. They were too high for him to reach. The boys looked at each other, then at the ingredients they couldn’t reach, and nodded at each other. The brown eyed boy climbed on the chair and was now standing next to his brother. He then climbed on his brother’s shoulders and grabbed the Lionfish. While the short haired boy tried to get the Salamander Blood, the long haired boy started losing his balance.
Snape, who was previously watching the children with amusement in his eyes, was now holding his wand tightly, ready to cast a shielding spell to protect the boys from the fall. Severus’ intervention, thankfully, wasn’t needed since the boys quickly stopped wobbling and regained their balance.
The boys managed to get the last needed ingredient and carefully climbed off the chair. They went to their desk and opened the textbook they had stolen from Snape and started preparing the ingredients. They got hold of a knife and as they started trying to cut and smash the ingredients, Snape began wandering around the classroom, judgmentally looking at his student’s potions. His pace was faster than usual and he was soon at the desk the two children were preparing their potion. He watched them closely, taking their appearance in to see if they had harmed themselves. Surprisingly, not only were the children not harmed, they had also managed to prepare the ingredients almost perfectly. Snape let out a sigh of relief that the boys were fine, and then sighed again out of disappointment. Why couldn’t his students prepare their ingredients as well as these twins did?
The twins took turns cutting and smashing the ingredients. As they did that they were either mumbling a song they had heard but didn’t really know the lyrics to or talking nonsense and laughing. That day would be remembered as the day Snape’s Gryffindor - Slytherin class was filled with genuine laughter.
Snape was once again moving around the classroom, his presence intimidating most of his students. When he got close to Harry and Ron’s potion, he raised an eyebrow and looked at them critically. The two Gryffindors looked up and made eye contact with their professor. Nothing was said from either of them, even though both parties wanted to say something. The Potter - Weasley duo turned their attention back to their potion and Snape kept on wandering around the room.
The boys had finished with the preparation of ingredients a few moments before Severus moved from behind them. Now, they had to start making the potion.
There was a problem, however; they didn’t know how to read.
That’s why they nudged the Gryffindor sitting in front of them. The Gryffindor girl turned around and was surprised to see two pairs of big eyes staring into her eyes, full of hope.
“Hi” the twins said, giving the girl sweet smiles.
“Hello there, guys” Parvati whispered, not wanting to be noticed by Snape, and smiled back at them.
“I’m Alex” said the short haired boy.
“And I’m Ares” the long haired boy said.
“I’m Parvati” the Gryffindor introduced herself.
“Could you please help us?” Ares politely asked.
“With what?”
“What do we do after we add the Salsamaner Blood?” Alex asked, eyes filled with wonder.
“We know our numbers, but we haven’ learned our abc’s” Ares added.
Parvati chuckled at how cute the two boys were. “All you have to do for now, is to stir the potion until it turns orange”
“Okay, thank you” Alex said cutely.
Parvati smiled at Alex and Ares and returned to her potion.
Alex started stirring the potion, full of energy. Ares was right beside him, watching him closely, anticipating his turn to use the rod. The twins watched the solution slowly taking an orange colour.
“Woah!” both twins exclaimed in awe.
“Par- vati, it’s orange!” Alex said, finding Patil’s name a bit hard to pronounce.
“Well done, guys! Now add some more Salamander Blood and stir until it turns green”
“Okay!”
All three of them went back to brewing their potions.
Now it was Ares’ time to stir the potion. “It’s actually quite calming” said Ares, his eyes glued to the solution he and his twin had created. His fascination with brewing was clear. Alex nodded in agreement. Their eyes glowed with amazement as they watched the potion turning yellow, then green.
“It looks like mom’s favourite pie!” Alex exclaimed.
“Now it looks like dad’s school tie!” Ares said excitedly.
Ares leaned forward and tapped the Gryffindor girl on the shoulder. The twins smiled at her.
“Now you add a bit of Salamander Blood until it turns turquoise and then heat it up until it turns indigo.” The twins looked at her bamboozled. “A bluish green and a deep blue” Parvati explained to the confused children. “And then you add some more blood til it turns pink and then heat it up once again until its colour is red”
The brown eyed boy poured some blood and the boy with onyx eyes started stirring. “By the way, how did we end up here?” Ares asked as he stirred the potion.
“We got off the desk and walked” Alex answered his brother.
Ares scowled at his twin and elbowed him with his free hand. “You know what I mean, imbisisil” Ares tried to imitate his father and use the word ‘imbecile’, but failed.
Alex grinned and stuck his tongue out. “I think ‘t was accidental magic” the boy answered his brother.
“But we shouldn’t be able to enter Hogwarts like that” Ares countered.
“I guess it’s because we didn’t want it?”
“But we did want to come here”
“Yes, but not just because we wanted to see Hogwarts”
Both twins were deep in thought for roughly ten seconds before their attention was won over by the colour change of the potion.
“Now we have to start a fire…” Ares mumbled.
The twins looked at each other and took a deep breath. After a few failed attempts and grumbles of annoyance and disappointment, they finally managed to ignite a fire. Soon, the potion became a deep blue colour. The twins put out the fire and added some more blood.
“Bleh, it’s pink” Alex complained.
“I like pink” Ares shrugged.
The two children started heating their potion up once again. Now they had gotten the hang of it and were feeling proud of themselves. This time, they stirred the potion together until the colour became red.
“Now it looks like Papati’s tie” Ares said, getting the girl's name wrong.
“Parvati” Alex corrected his twin.
“Par- Parvati” Ares repeated.
They were about to ask Patil what the next step was, but they were interrupted by a bunch of buzzing noises. The Slytherins were bickering with the Gryffindors, as usual. Ron and Malfoy were arguing and clearly pissed at each other. Ron’s face was as red as his hair from anger and Malfoy had a malicious smile on his face. They both took out their wands but immediately came to a halt when they heard their strict professor’s cold voice.
“Both of you stop it, now” Snape ordered.
“But he start-” Ron went to complain, but was cut off by Snape.
“Ten points from Gryffindor for your insolence, Mister Weasley” Severus glared at the youngest Weasley boy. Ron was about to say something, but both his best friends elbowed him to shut him up.
“Detention, tonight at eight o’clock with Filtch, Mister Weasley” Snape said. Ron looked furious and Draco looked smug. His smugness soon left him, however, when Snape informed him that he too would have detention that night, but with him.
“Is it always like that in here?” Ares wondered out loud, while his twin was trying to hold his laughter in.
“Yes. It’s our daily dosage of Gryffindor - Slytherin fights” Parvati told the twins. “For some reason they paired Gryffindors and Slytherins together for an explosive class like potions” the Gryffindor girl shrugged.
“Cool” Alex said and burst into laughter. He was soon after followed by his twin, Ares.
Snape turned to look at them. The students got worried that he would chastise the children. Snape, however, didn’t say anything to them, he just raised an eyebrow. The twins stopped laughing, but still had smiles on their faces. They put their pointer finger and thumb together and moved them across their lips, like they were saying they wouldn’t disturb the classroom again. Severus nodded and then barked at the students to get back to their brewing.
“What do we do now?” Alex wondered.
“I think we have to add five Lionfish spines and then wait for it to become yellow” Ares answered and pointed to the board and then to the picture in the textbook. After all, they might not know how to read, but they did know how to count. The boys proceeded to add the ingredient. They then left it a bit and when they realised it wouldn’t change colour on its own, they decided to heat it up until it turned yellow.
“Parvati…” Ares whispered.
The girl turned around to face the children.
“What do we do now?”
Patil looked at their potion and told them to add some flobberworm mucus.
“How much?” Alex asked.
“Doesn’t say” Ares said and showed her the textbook and the board that didn’t have any numbers on them to prove his point.
“You should keep adding the mucus until the potion turns purple and then stir until it becomes red. Then repeat until it turns orange and stir ‘til it becomes yellow” Patil told them and the boys cutely thanked her and followed her instructions.
“Now what do we d-” Alex was about to ask but was cut off by an explosion.
“Mister Longbottom, Mister Finnigan,” Snape hissed, “this is the third cauldron you have melted in just four days. Detention tomorrow at 7 o’clock and fifteen points from Gryffindor” he added.
“Oh, great, more lost points!” Patil sighed.
“That git!” Ron muttered, but since he was quite close to the twins, they heard him. Both twins glared at him.
The Gryffindor Patil twin, who had turned to check on the twins’ progress, noticed their glaring. She let her curiosity win and frowning, asked the twins what was wrong.
The twins turned their attention at her and shook their heads. “That wasn’t nice” Alex said, while Ares told her, “‘t was rude”
“Ah, yes, Ron sometimes has no tact” Parvati agreed. “But he’s not completely wrong” she added. The twins glared at her. “You are good children and you probably don’t like hearing someone saying bad things about someone else, but you haven’t been into a lesson with Professor Snape,” Patil started explaining “He’s not a nice teacher”. That didn’t make the twins stop glaring at her.
The twins, kind of angry at the older girl, ended up not asking her for any more help or clarifications and tried to finish the potion on their own.
"So… what do we do now?" Alex wondered.
"Hm…" Ares sighed while looking at the textbook and the board. He pointed at the instruction they had to follow now and the instruction about adding flobberworm mucus. "They look the same, but the colour is diffent"
"The thingy we have to add is also not the same" Alex mentioned.
The twins nodded at each other and decided that the instructions said to add honey water until the colour turned turquoise. Then, they determined that the next instruction was similar to the one they had to add an ingredient and then stir, so they added some boom berry juice and stirred the mixture for a bit, but because their hands got tired they decided to stop. Looking around them, they noticed most students had stopped adding things to or stirring the potion, so the little boys did the same. As minutes passed, the twins started getting bored, so they decided to play rock-paper-scissors. After a bit, they got bored of that too and looked at the Potions professor. Snape, feeling that somebody was watching him, stopped correcting the potions essays he had assigned a week ago. He ran his eyes across the sea of students that were muttering to each other, and spotted the twins. Ares waved excitedly and Alex smiled brightly. Snape didn’t smile nor wave back, but his cold eyes softened at the twins’ antics.
About thirty minutes passed, with the twins being bored out of their minds, the students chatting back and forth, and Severus’ lips lifting slightly upwards from time to time when he glanced at the twins.
Alex noticed the students started one by one to take the potions off the fire and set them aside to cool off, so he and Ares did the same with their potion. The only ones whose potions were still on the fire were Neville and Seamus’, Crabbe and Goyle’s, a Gryffindor and a Slytherin’s.
After their potion had cooled off, Ares ran fast with his little legs to get two vials. He returned with them, and with Alex’s help he put some of the potion in them. Proud of their achievement, the twins ran towards Snape’s desk with the full vials in their little hands. Meanwhile, Goyle and Crabbe were messing around. Crabbe added more lionfish spines than needed, which resulted in the potion bubbling. Goyle noticed that the potion was about to explode, so he threw the cauldron aside. But that was a wrong move. Why? Because that’s when Ares and Alex were passing by. The students gasped, some shouted, some wanted to do something to protect the children but didn’t know what. The twins’ eyes widened as they saw the cauldron coming their way and exploding. They moved closer to each other and tightly closed their eyes, waiting for the burning potion to make contact with their clothes and skin. But that never happened. The boys slowly opened their eyes and saw a blue magic shield in front of them. They looked on their left and saw Severus with his wand in his hand. His face - that most of the time is void of emotions - clearly showed worry for a few moments, until it turned into anger. He turned to look at the Slytherin duo.
“Misters Crabbe and Goyle,” Snape addressed them, his voice full of malice “50 points from Slytherin; each”
The students started murmuring; no one had expected Snape to take so many points from his own House.
“What?” Goyle exclaimed. “But Profes-”
“And detention with Filtch for a month”
“This isn’t fair Professor!”Goyle whined.
“Yeah, Longbottom and Finnigan are always blowing their potions up, but the only got a one day detetion!” Crabbe added.
Snape glared at them and the Slytherin boys immediately cowered. “Misters Longbottom and Finnigan may be disasters in my class and can’t seem to go a week without messing a potion up,” the Gryffindor boys both blushed at their professor’s comment “but they have yet to endanger someone like that Snape walked closer to Crabbe and Goyle. Had that potion touched someone, not only would they get burnt and the pain wouldn’t subsidise for at least five hours, but would also get permanent scarring”
The two Slytherins gulped audibly and the rest of the students went completely silent.
The Potions Professor turned to look at the twins. “Are you a-”
Before he could even finish the question, the twins launched at his legs and clung to them for dear life. It was clear both children were shaken from the incident. Ares started crying and Alex, who usually didn’t cry, also started crying because his twin was. Snape gently put his hands on the twins’ heads, in order to provide them with some comfort.
Needless to say, each and every student was shocked; except for Draco Malfoy.
Then, the twins said something that shocked everyone to their core; aside from Draco Malfoy, as he already knew. As they were hugging Snape’s legs, they looked up and called out “Papa”, “Dad”.
Severus started caressing their small heads, trying not to show the affection he felt for his children in front of the students. After a few moments the twins calmed down and Ares took a step back and proudly showed his dad the potion he and his twin brother had made. “Papa, look! Alex and me made a potion!”
“Alex and I” Severus corrected him and gently took the offered vial in his hand. He closely examined it and was pleased to find that his children’s first potion was brewed almost perfectly. He looked at the twins and then around the classroom. He scowled at his students’ stares. Then, he raised an eyebrow and looked around the classroom. “A pair of five year old twins with no prior experience in brewing managed to almost perfectly brew this potion with minimal help,” Severus said and glanced at the Gryffindor Patil twin, as he had noticed her explaining the brewing process to the twins “yet a lot of you are unable to do so after three years.” A few students blushed at that, while some others looked down.
“Papa” Ares said.
“Yes, Ares?”
“I’m hungry”
“Me too!” Alex added.
Severus stared at his children for a moment and then looked around the classroom. Everyone’s potions were finished. He turned to look at the twins and nodded. “Let’s get you imps something to eat” Severus told them. To the students the tone of his voice seemed cold, but the twins could make out the affection in his voice. “Class dismissed” Snape told his students in his usual strict voice. The students didn’t immediately move, still slightly shocked from the revelation that their strict - and for some, hated - professor has children. “Now” Snape barked. That made the students start packing their stuff and leaving the classroom.
Draco, who already knew that his Head of House had procreated, calmly packed his bag and was the first one to leave the classroom. As he was leaving he heard Alex and Ares shout, "Bye bye Draco!", "Hi, Draco, bye!". The blond pureblood Slytherin stopped, turned around, and waved at the twins with a small smile on his face. Then, he made his way out of the room.
After a few moments, most students were gone, with the twins wishing them all goodbye. One of the last ones to leave was Neville. As he left, the twins waved goodbye at him. Ares left his dad’s side and moved closer to the shy Gryffindor. He made a gesture for Neville to hunch down. Neville, frowning, leaned down. “My papa might look intimidating, but he’s actually really cool” Ares whispered. “Just make sure to read the next chapter” He advised the Gryffindor and then ran back to his father’s side. Neville, low-key surprised, nodded and waved goodbye at the five year olds.
“Dad Alex said,” drawing Severus’ attention to him. “Can we eat now, please?”
Severus nodded and now that no one was there, gave his children a small smile. “Yes, let’s go, you little dunderheads”
The twins smiled brightly and took hold of their dad’s hands.