Like Father, Like Son

Fifteenth Chapter

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Christmas Cheer

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"Who are going to stay here over the holidays?" asked Hermione as she saw Remy examining the list that had appeared to the wall of their Common Room that morning. "I'm not stuck here alone with Chang, am I?"

"Oh, no," Remy said with a smirk. "I'm staying, for one -- it's hardly safe for Father to leave Hogwarts, and where would I go, especially without my parents? And Luna Lovegood will be here, too, plus a couple of younger students."

"And me, too," Samantha said from his side. "Ben's going, though."

"What? Aren't you going home for holidays, Sam?" asked Hermione, surprised. "I'd think your father wants you both home now that your mother..." Her voice trailed off.

"Most probably," Samantha said, shrugging a bit. Then she added with a sad sigh, "But I don't want to go home. I know that if I do, my Father will spend all his time glancing sadly at me and sighing. I do know that I'll probably die of my disease, and I most certainly don't want to be constantly reminded of that by him."

"You will not die of it," Remy said determinedly, wrapping his arms around his tiny girlfriend's shoulders. "I will not let you die."

Samantha smiled weakly. "Thanks, Remy," she said, "but somehow I don't think that even you can help me."

"If anybody, then Remy can," Hermione said confidently. "He's a Snape. There's no way he wouldn't achieve something he's set his mind on."

"Well, thank you for having some confidence on me," Remy said with a slight smile at Hermione. "And on that note... my dear parents have asked me to spend the Christmas Day with them in their quarters. Would you like to come also?"

"Of course we'll come," said Samantha immediately, and Hermione nodded in agreement. Then the tiny girl shyly added, "If it's okay with your parents, of course."

"Do you think I would even ask you if it wasn't?" Remy asked, raising an eyebrow. With a laugh, he said then, "Come on, now. We'll be late from breakfast."

*

It was the last weekend before Christmas holidays, and Dumbledore had declared it a Hogsmeade weekend to give them the opportunity to do some shopping for Christmas presents. Remus and Sirius were among the teachers watching the students -- and of course, Kingsley Shacklebolt just happened to be in the town.

"Aww, drop the act at last," Sirius sighed, rolling his eyes at his two friends. "If you want to kiss, then do kiss, for Merlin's sake! I promise not to laugh!"

Kingsley chuckled, then wrapped his arms around Remus's shoulders and kissed the werewolf. Remus, of course, wasn't too unresponsive. Sirius grinned.

Just then somebody clapped their hands behind them, and the two wizards immediately broke apart. When they turned around, they saw Remy clapping his hands, a satisfied smirk on his face.

"Awww, isn't this so sweet," he said in a mock repeat of Remus's own words from the earlier incident about Remy and Samantha's kiss. Samantha and Hermione, who were both standing on his sides, smiled broadly.

Remus blushed in embarrassment. "You brat," he muttered. "You should be busy buying Christmas presents, not sneaking up to your professors!"

"Well, you sneaked up to us," the boy replied lightly, wrapping his arms around Samantha's shoulders. "I think it's only fair to pay you back for it." Ignoring the dirty gaze Remus sent his way as well as Kingsley's slight chuckle, he then said to his companions, "Come on, girls, let's go. They seemingly want some time just by themselves." And then the smirking and giggling trio went their own way.

Remus sighed and rolled his eyes. "That boy's really too much like you, Sirius," he muttered. "No respect at all to adults!"

"Well, you were a Marauder yourself, too," Sirius said with a slight smirk. "You should know what it is like to be an unrespectful teen." Then he winked at Kingsley and walked away.

Remus tried to shout something after him, but was stopped by his lover. "Let him go," Kingsley advised. "Come on, let's go somewhere more private." Remus tried to protest, but was cut off by, "The brats can look after themselves for a while." And so, the not-so-reluctant werewolf was dragged away for a good snog.

*

The others had all their eyes fixed on Remy as the young wizard was tearing open the big present he'd got from his father. Sirius chuckled when the wrappers revealed a big, black cauldron. Remy, however, peered inside the cauldron. Then he reached his hand into it and pulled out a thick book.

"'Potions in General Use' by Geralda Galleon," Remy read from the back of the book. "Gee, Father, I wonder how you guessed that I wanted this one?" Samantha and Hermione -- who'd of course been informed of the letter incident -- both giggled. Severus threw him a dirty look, while Sirius only looked curious.

"What's that joke?" asked the Gryffindor, only to be completely ignored. Instead, they all watched curiously as Remy tossed Severus a bright-coloured parcel.

Severus raised an eyebrow when he opened the present and found a stash of parchment slips inside. Curious, he picked up the first one.

'Headache Pass,' he read -- not aloud, though, he had more sense than that. 'Gives the owner the right to turn down a horny husband one (1) time without further arguments.' And all the others were just the same.

"Well, what it is?" asked Sirius with genuine curiosity. As he saw the expression on his husband's face, he said, "Awww, so it's something embarrassing, isn't it?"

Trying to will the flush on his cheeks to disappear, Severus turned towards his son. "That is ten points from Ravenclaw for your cheek, Remy," he said as calmly as he could. "And besides -- these are hardly valid."

"Oh, crap," said Remy, not sounding the tiniest bit sorry. "It's a good thing I have another present for you, then." He tossed another parcel at his father.

Severus eyed his grinning son suspiciously as he opened the parcel. As he saw what was inside it, he snorted. "You know, Remy," he said, "for a teenager boy who's trying to completely deny the fact that his parents do have a sex life, you have a surprisingly dirty mind."

"Why so?" asked Sirius curiously. Before his husband could stop him, he'd already looked inside the box in Severus's hands. Seeing the present, he bursted into laughter. "Spot on, Remy," he then chuckled. "That's ten points to Ravenclaw."

The teens watched all with a great interest how Severus blushed partly from embarrassment, partly from rage at his husband. Then, tossing the box towards his husband and only barely avoiding the Grim Animagus's head, he stormed out of the room, sending a dirty glare at his son's direction.

"What is it?" asked Hermione curiously, trying to see inside the box. "Whatever could make him so angry?"

"Well, I do think these were doing a rather good job," Sirius said, smirking. He raised from the box a pair of handcuffs, padded with pink fur. Both girls blushed and started to giggle, while Remy's smirk only broadened.

"Really, Remy, you are too much a Marauder," Hermione said after getting over the giggling fit. "Or, rather, you are too much a pervert."

"Only when it comes to teasing Father, I can assure you," Remy said lightly. "He's just begging for it, he's --" He never got to finish his sentence, as the others had just bursted into laughter at the double entendre in his words.

"Oh, my," giggled Samantha, swatting Remy playfully over the head. "You try to tease me that way, and you're dead, Remus Altair Marcus Snape!"

"Don't worry," the boy replied, grinning. "Like I said, I only tease Father that way. Your present is completely safe." With this, he gave her a large, light blue present from behind his back.

Samantha carefully opened the parcel. When she saw what was inside, she at first gasped, then laughed. "Thank you, Remy," she said as she took the big, golden stuffed bunny from the package and hugged it. "It's adorable."

"Look at its wrist," commanded Remy. "There's your other present."

Samantha looked, and her eyes widened. There was a beautiful golden bracelet fastened around the bunny's round paw. "Wow," she breathed, reaching out a hand to carefully unfasten it. "It's -- it's so beautiful!"

"Just like its owner, then," Remy said cheerfully. "Here, let me help you put it on." As she just nodded mutely, he took the bracelet from her hand, wrapped it around her wrist and fastened the lock.

For a moment Samantha just stared at the bracelet, wordless. Then she flung herself at his neck. "Thank you so much, Remy!" she exclaimed before kissing him.

"You're welcome," Remy said with a grin as they broke apart. "Thank you for your present as well." He glanced at the watch on his wrist. "Wizarding clocks are rather useful, yes, but they're hardly of any use when you try to figure what the time is."

"Useful, yeah," said Sirius with a grin, nodding towards the clock on the wall, where all three hands were pointing at a different position. Sirius's own showed, "Happy and well," Remy's, "Mischief managed," and Severus's, rather unsurprisingly, "Sulking." "Although I do wonder when Sev's going to return," he added then.

"I can go to look for him," Hermione offered. The curly-haired witch was just leaving the room when she collided with Severus, who had chosen just that moment to return. For a moment they both just stood there, startled.

Then, however, they heard an exclamation behind them. "A mistletoe!" shouted Remy amusedly. "You're under a mistletoe!"

Now both Hermione and Severus looked up, even more startled than before. And truly, a mistletoe was hanging from the doorframe above them.

After a moment of startled silence, Hermione thought, 'Oh, to the Hell with it.' Raising to her tiptoes, she planted a light kiss on the Potions Master's lips. The contact only lasted for a second; then a pair of strong hands grasped her shoulders and simply lifted her away from Severus.

"He's already taken, sorry," Sirius said with his most charming grin. "Although I do thank you for stopping him on the right place." And then he stepped forward and kissed his still stunned husband firmly on the lips.

At last Severus managed to push his husband away, glaring slightly at the three smirking teens. "These came just by owl," he said briefly, tossing both Hermione and Remy a parcel. They looked curious, but set to open them anyway.

Remy gasped when he finally saw what was inside. "She never gives up, does she," he said quietly, eyeing the icy blue sweater with a big 'R' on it. Hermione nodded slowly, looking at the box of homemade fudge she'd found inside her own present.

Sirius nodded as he saw their presents. "Molly isn't one to give up her affection easily," he said. "And on that note -- Remy, you'll come with us next week to visit the Burrow." At his son's suddenly startled expression, he hastened to add, "Do not worry, Ronald will not be there. It's -- well, it's Order business."

"What 'Order'?" asked Samantha curiously. She of course knew that Voldemort was back, but unlike Remy and Hermione, she did not know of the Order of the Phoenix.

"The Order of the Phoenix," Severus replied for his husband. "It's a group of people working against The Dark Lord. We're both part of it, Sirius and I, and Headmaster Dumbledore is our leader."

"Oh!" Samantha looked surprised. "So it's not only the Ministry opposing him, then?"

Now, Sirius couldn't help but laugh. "I'd like to see what the Ministry has ever done to oppose You-Know-Who," he said. "They don't even admit he's back, for Merlin's sake! No, at the moment it's only the Order that's even trying to stop the bastard."

"I understand." Now, Samantha looked really interested. "How can you join the Order?" she asked.

Severus shook his head. "Sorry, but the members must be out of the school already," he said. "The best you can do is to make sure that my foolish son doesn't get himself killed. He's still the Boy-Who-Lived, and our best chance to destroy Voldemort." As Sirius gave him a startled look, he rolled his eyes. "Oh, for Merlin's sake," he sighed. "It's just a name, Sirius. Fear of the name grows the fear of the thing." As Remy gave him a weird glance, he snapped, "What it is?"

"Oh, nothing," his son replied lightly. "You just sounded exactly like Headmaster Dumbledore for a moment."

"Merlin forbid that," muttered the Slytherin. "Next thing I know I'll be eating lemon drops!" Of course, he did not appreciate the fact that the others all laughed.

*