Like Father, Like Son

Eleventh Chapter

*

Attack!

*

Some time later Sirius truly arrived. He and Marcus shook hands, although both were eyeing the other warily. Severus let out an irritated huff, grasped his husband's hand, and pulled him down to sit next to himself. Then he put his arm over Sirius's shoulders in a possessive, rather uncharacteristical gesture, and eyed his foster father challengingly.

"I'd like to make one thing clear, Father," Severus said sharply. "Sirius is my husband. He is a Snape, and you will treat him as such. I do consider you my father, but if you continue being hostile towards my chosen spouse, I will stop all correspondence between us. Am I understood?"

Marcus merely raised an eyebrow, not at all offended by Severus's speech. "And then it was Sirius's temper that makes your son protect those he cares about, eh?" Then he shook his head. "Anyway. If you were a spy until your cover was blown, like you claim, then who is the spy now?"

"That's something we can't tell you," Severus replied smoothly. "There might be a spy, or there might not be one. I'm sorry, Father. I'm not implying that you were a Death Eater -- but we're under strict orders to trust nobody."

"I understand," the eldest Snape said mildly. Then he glanced towards the door. "When's that son of yours going to arrive, anyway?"

"I don't know, at least," Sirius replied levelly. "He and his friends were going to come here after dinner. They should be here soon."

Like his words had summoned them, the door was then opened. Remy walked in, Hermione and Samantha half hiding behind his back.

Marcus Snape stood up, surveying his grandson. "So you're Remus Snape," he said then critically.

"And you're Marcus Snape," replied the teen levelly. "Pleased to meet you."

"Pleased to meet you, too." Marcus eyed the House badge on his robes, raising his eyebrow. "You're a Ravenclaw, I see," he said. "Not bad. Slytherin would have been of course even better, but with a Gryffindor for other father, I think Ravenclaw's the best you could do."

"I think it's the best anybody could do," Remy said calmly. "Gryffindors are too overdaring, Hufflepuffs have not any special traits, and Slytherins pay too much attention on power instead of skill."

"Well, that's your opinion." Then the eldest Snape eyed the two girls, who still stayed safe behind Remy's back. "And who might you be, young ladies?" he asked, raising his eyebrow. "You, the older one. I think I've seen you somewhere."

"You most probably have," Hermione replied levelly, "thanks to Rita Skeeter. I'm Hermione Granger, Remy's best friend and classmate."

"Ah, yes. Hermione Granger, indeed." With a sharp glance at Samantha, he asked then, "And you? Who might you be?"

The tiny girl shivered. "I'm Samantha Green, Remy's friend also," she replied, her voice wavering only a bit -- so little that it was almost unnoticeable. "I'm a third year Ravenclaw."

"Third year? Well, you surely don't look like that," Marcus Snape said nastily. "Samantha Green?" he echoed then, narrowing his eyes. "Your father is Bernard Green, is he not?"

"That's his name," replied Samantha, trying hard not to show her nervousness under the scrutinizing gaze. She no more reacted to it except for an occasional blush whenever it was directed to her from Remy, and she could even tolerate it to certain limits from Severus, having got used to it as they often hang out in the quarters of the two Professor Snapes. However, even though Remy could be very badly, well, Snape if he wanted to, and Severus was even worse, Marcus Snape was definitely the worst.

"I knew him when I was younger," the eldest Snape said now, obviously referring to Samantha's father. "It took him over three years to finally get his Apparation lisence. Split himself up at least once a week until he finally managed -- how on Earth he did that, I truly don't know. The most incompetent fool I've had the displeasure of knowing, really. Tell me, why does my grandson bother with the likes of you?"

At this, Samantha's self-control finally gave up. Her eyes now veiled with tears, she rushed out of the room, clutching her book tightly on her chest. Hermione hurried after her, although not before giving Remy a quick glance.

Whatever Marcus Snape had expected his grandson's reaction to his friend's escape to be, it certainly wasn't what he got. The young Snape stared after his friends for a moment, then turned again towards his grandfather -- and spat on his face.

"You bloody idiot," hissed Remy, his eyes flashing with icy fury. "I hate you. I really, really hate you." And with that, he turned around and rushed to the corridor, yelling, "Samantha! Samantha, Hermione, wait!"

"Now, that was a surprise," commented Marcus levelly, cleaning his face with a handkerchief. "What did I do wrong?"

Severus raised an eyebrow, although he kept his expression otherwise carefully under control. "I won't even start on that," he commented mildly. Sirius didn't say anything -- he was still suppressing the laughter that had threatened to burst out when he'd seen the expression of complete shock on his father-in-law's face upon being spat on by Remy.

*

"Samantha? Hermione?" yelled Remy as his legs carried him nearer and nearer to the Ravenclaw Tower. "Damn them," he then muttered under his breath.

"Benjamin!" he exclaimed as soon as he reached the Common Room and spotted the elder Green there. "Did you see where the girls went?"

"What, Hermione and Samantha?" asked Benjamin, although it was rather obvious whom Remy meant. "Oh, they ran towards their dormitory -- with a rather good speed, by the way. It looked like Hermione was trying to reach my little sister."

Remy cursed inwardly. He knew very well what it meant that the girls had went to their dormitory. His own dormmates had informed him of the twists of the stairway, although he hadn't expected that he might ever need that information -- after all, Hermione and Samantha followed him everywhere, and he didn't really have anything to do with any other girls. Not wanting to waste a second, he rushed towards his own dormitory.

"Where the Hell have they gone to?" he mumbled while digging through all the things inside his trunks. "I'm sure I put them somewhere here..."

At last, he found what he'd been looking for: A pile of chocolate boxes. Taking one of them, he then rushed back to the Common Room and towards the stairway that led to the girls' dormitories.

"Let's see," he muttered. "Fifth floor, the first door to left... Ah! Here it is."

And indeed, as he opened the door, he saw Samantha sitting on one of the beds, crying. Hermione was trying to comfort the smaller girl. Neither of them had noticed him yet.

"What if he really thinks now that I'm incompetent?" sniffled Samantha. "True, my Father's never been good with Charms, but at least he's good in Transfiguration! And I'm not that bad in either!"

Hermione sighed. "Sam, it's Remy we're talking about," she reminded her friend. "He knows you better than that. Really, do you think he'd let some bitter old git's opinion fool him?"

"I can assure you, I'm not thinking along the same lines as my grandfather," Remy said, deciding to make his presence known. "And to prove it, I come bearing gifts." He raised the chocolate box in his hand, showing it to the girls.

"Remy!" exclaimed Samantha. "I -- why did you come here?"

The young wizard shrugged. "You looked upset," he replied. "Besides, I didn't consider it very wise to stay after I spat on my grandfather."

"What?" asked Hermione disbelievingly. "You didn't!"

"I did," Remy said, raising an eyebrow with a small smirk. "He did insult my friend, after all. That could not go unpunished." Walking to the girls, he then offered, "Chocolate?"

"Thank you." Samantha took some, then raised her still teary eyes at him. "I'm glad you didn't believe him."

"Believe that fool?" Remy snorted. "Really, Samantha, I'm not that stupid." Then he smiled a bit more. "You know, I think that Father should also do something to repay you. It was his father who insulted you, after all."

"Oh?" Samantha raised her eyebrows in a gesture learnt from him. "And how could he do that?"

A mischievous, very Sirius-y grin spread on Remy's face. "Samantha," he said, "would you like to know your Animagus form?"

*

"I still don't understand how I got myself spoken into this," muttered Sirius as he measured the potion into three goblets. Then he handed the goblets to the three youngs in front of him.

"It's not your fault," replied Remy. "Blame my dearest grandfather." Then he nodded at Samantha, grinning slightly. "Ladies first," he said with a smirk and a mock-bow. How he managed to bend almost in double and still not spill a drop of his potion was a miracle in itself.

The tiny girl gave him a nervous smile, then swallowed down her potion. After a couple of seconds, she suddenly started to shrink. Honey brown fur, exactly the colour of her hair, started to spurt from her skin. At some point, nobody could really tell when, her clothes had disappeared. Her ears then grew longer, and she grew a tail. After a few seconds more, a tiny, fluffy bunny sat on the floor, watching them curiously.

Remy grinned broadly. "Quite fitting, actually," he said. "I'd thought of a squirrel, but I guess that a bunny fits you even better."

After a moment, Samantha changed back. She shot the boy a brief glare. "And why'd a bunny's form fit me?" she asked sulkingly. "Do I have big ears, too? Or large teeth?"

"Oh, no," Remy said, putting on his best charm, inherited from Sirius. "But you see, bunnies are rather like you. Small, friendly and cute." Of course, Samantha blushed at this.

Hermione rolled her eyes towards the ceiling. Then she downed her own potion. They all watched curiously as she waited for the transformation to happen.

Nobody was really surprised, though, as her shrinking form then started to grow feathers. After the transformation was over, a pretty snowy owl was circling their heads.

"Well, isn't that interesting," Remy said, smirking, as she'd changed back. "You know, Pureblood wizards think that snowy owls are the purest of all owls. For a Muggleborn, it's really rare to have a snowy owl as an Animagus form. Should we be worried about your biological father's identity?"

"Shut up," Hermione huffed. "Let's see what form Mister Smart-arse gets!"

"Fine!" she got the cheery answer. Then, Remy took a last glance at his friends and carrier. Without hesitating a second, he then raised his own goblet to his lips and drained it. For a moment, it seemed that nothing was going to happen.

Then, however, he, too, started to change. He changed size, got four legs instead of two legs and arms, and he felt something pop out of his bottom that had definitely not been there before -- most likely a tail. A soft, fluffy tail, for anything he could tell.

At last, the transformation was complete. It was pretty difficult at first to figure out his form, but another long consideration of his body parts and where they were located gave him a rather clear picture. A picture that made him smirk satisfiedly. So, he turned towards the others to see their reactions.

Hermione and Samantha both gave him wary glances. Then they slowly backed away from him, like expecting him to attack them at any moment. Remy of course didn't plan to do that. Although, like he thought when Sirius laughed at the girls and told them that there was no reason to be afraid, it was Remy inside the creature in the end, he felt like he should attack someone... A very certain someone, at that.

Sirius walked nearer, teasing and taunting him. Obviously he was sure that his own son would do nothing to him, no matter what was his form. Well, he was in for a real surprise, then.

'One more step,' he thought, 'one more step, my dear carrier, and then we'll see who's harmless with a human mind...'

And then, Sirius took that step. And Remy attacked.