Our Little One

.~*~.Our little one. ~*~.

Chapter Eight

Companions

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This chapter is not from any particular first-person POV.

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Remus and Lucius were sitting in their room. Remus was, like he usual, reading a book, and Lucius was glancing through a new Potions book. Suddenly, the door opened with a loud bang.

They both raised their eyes and saw two dark-haired people in the doorway. One of them was wearing wide, black robes, the other had on black Muggle jeans and a Gryffindor red shirt. Both looked fairly happy at the moment.

"Sirius! Severus!" Remus exclaimed. "We weren’t expecting you back so soon!"

"I’d be surprised if you were," Sirius chuckled. "We didn’t tell you we were coming."

"Shut up, Black," Lucius grinned, gaining a glare from both Blacks. "Sit down, please. How was your trip?"

"Well, everything went like it was supposed to," Severus said dryly, sitting down on a couch. "Besides the fact that Sirius got us kicked out of a children’s amusement park."

"It wasn’t my fault!" Sirius said defensively, settling down next to the black-haired Slytherin. "And besides, it was an accident!"

Severus rolled his eyes towards the ceiling. "That it is every time," he said dryly, pointing at his husband. "It’s a miracle I got back sane."

"Children’s amusement park, eh? So you had time to have fun also?" Remus asked, bemused. "Work didn’t take all of your time?"

"Work?" Severus echoed. "What are you talking about? We were on a vacation, remember?"

"Really?" Remus raised an eyebrow. "And here I was thinking it was a work trip."

"A work trip?" Sirius asked, playing innocent. "How would that be even possible? We don’t work in the same department. Shit, our departments almost never even cooperate! We’re separated all the time at work! What could require the presence of both of us?"

"I don’t really know," Remus said dryly. Then he quirked an eyebrow and added, "At least nothing involving that new-planned werewolf center, I’m sure. What on Earth would you have to do with it - the boss of the Werewolf Department and the Leader Potions Master, who happens to also be the inventor of the Wolfsbane Potion?"

Severus laughed. "Should have known we couldn’t fool you," he murmured, amusement in his eyes. "But I don’t think that only your wit is enough to sort that out, or otherwise Lucius would know that as well. And, no intelligence can tell you about the center. So, where did you get your knowledge, considering that it’s classified top secret until further orders?"

Remus snorted and rolled his eyes. "I’m the Keeper of the Wolf’s Staff, remember?" he reminded their two guests. "Any official action involving the werewolves goes over my desk. Nothing happens without my consent. I signed the permission slips to send you over there single-handedly. Those ‘top secret’ classifications were my work, for Merlin’s sake!"

The two dark-haired men glanced at each other and grinned a bit sheepishly.

"I admit my own foolishness," Sirius chuckled. "Of course I should have known that it’s under your line. I only have two superiors besides the Minister, after all, and you’re the top one."

"Right." Remus smiled at him. "It’s sometimes hard to remember that the quiet, shy Remus Lupin-Malfoy could actually have some power over the Ministry officials, isn’t it?"

"As nice as it is to listen to your little conversation," Lucius interrupted, "I feel completely left out. Could someone inform me exactly what are you all going on about?"

"The Ministry is planning to found a center for everything involving werewolves," Severus explained. "At this point it’s planned to be placed in the Lapland of Finland. If the plans become reality, all research, tests, explorations, camps, and observations, practically everything that has anything to do with Lycanthropy or lycanthropics, will be focused there."

"That sounds good to me," Lucius admitted. "But why Finland? There are not many werewolves around there, or at least I don’t know about them. Why not for example France? The werewolf population is rather large there. They’re already used to dealing with lycanthropics there."

"Because France is crowded," Remus said. "In Finland, there’s an average of less than ten people for a square kilometre. In Lapland, it’s even less. You couldn’t even find an empty place large enough for the center from most of the European countries, leave alone makeing it unplottable and build the whole thing up. And maybe they’re not used to dealing with lycanthropics, but that’s why the countries with large populations of us are involved. Specialists from all over the world will be working there."

"I see." The Lord of Malfoy nodded thoughtfully. "Am I right to assume that you’ll have more work with this thing than just signing documents?"

"Of course. I’ll most probably have to spend a lot of time over there when the project goes further. I'll also have to negotiate with the local education officials - it’s been planned that their School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, called Aistolana, will take in all the lycanthropic youngs. It requires some arrangements, however, seeing that they start the secondary school in the age of fifteen in Finland."

"Really?" Lucius looked interested. "Why’s that?"

"Apparently, they don’t even start attending to the basic school until the age of seven," Remus explained. "The whole education system is different over there."

"So, our youngs should also wait until they reach fifteen?"

Remus confirmed this with a nod. "But, the possibility to attend a school where you’re with so many others similar to you, where you aren’t despised as a beast, is a great benefit. Considering the recent attempts to take openly more lycanthropic students to Hogwarts, and their results, will certainly make many parents think that the safety of the place is worth the time delay."

They all nodded firmly. When some openly lycanthropic youngs had attended Hogwarts, they had soon been threatened and bullied away by the other students. When one of them had died because of an attack with silver by fellow students - two sixth year Slytherin boys, who both got the sentence of two years in Azkaban - it had been decided that no more werewolves would go to Hogwarts.

"Do you really think that they will be more tolerant over there?" Lucius asked dryly.

"Finland is a small country according to the population, and Aistolana has only a few students," Remus replied with a shrug. "Less than two hundred, I’ve heard. You know very well that only in Europe there are teen-ager wizarding werewolves at least twice that much. They will become tolerant, if they aren’t already - they have to."

"Besides, no matter how minimum the number of werewolves are in Finland, they’ve always attended the school as normal students," Sirius mentioned with a smirk. "One of the three Founders of Aistolana was lycanthropic. They think that if there is not at least one werewolf in the school, to keep up her tradition, something horrible will happen to the school."

"Thats the first time I’ve ever heard a superstition that works for werewolves, and not against them, I must say," Severus chuckled. "Anyway, my work in this case is rather limited to the amounts and supplying of Wolfsbane. So, if you will excuse me, I’d like to see this girl you’ve got. Olivia, wasn’t she?"

"Right at once," Lucius said and smiled. "She’s probably in the little lab in the dungeons. I gave it to her as a Christmas present."

"Right, thanks." Severus got up and walked out of the room, leaving them to their conversation.

~*~

Severus walked down the long stairs, his robes billowing freely behind him. He knew the way to the little lab by heart. He had surely spent enough time there when he had been developing the Wolfsbane Potion. Lucius had offered him the place and his help, both of which had been gladly appropriated.

At last, the former teacher stopped in front of a heavy oak door, lined with iron.

He opened the door and looked inside.

At exactly the same moment, there was a loud explosion. Sparkling green drops of the potion flew from the cauldron on the fire on the table in front of him. The person who had been standing before the cauldron flew also backwards - right towards Severus.

The person - a young girl - fell against him with a force that made him nearly stumble backwards. He barely managed to catch the girl before she fell down on the floor.

She raised her eyes, looking a bit scared. "Oh!" she exclaimed. "I’m really sorry - I didn’t mean -" She stumbled on her feet, looking positively frightened. "I’m really sorry," she repeated. "You’re - you’re Severus Snape, aren’t you?"

"That’s my name," he replied, trying his best not to scare the girl even more. "Am I right to assume that you are Olivia? And how did you recognize me? We haven’t met before, or at least I don’t think we have."

"Yes, I am Olivia," she replied with a hint of a smile. She still looked a bit cautious. "I’ve seen you in the photographs Remus showed me once. Draco's also told about you."

"I bet he has," Severus murmured dryly. "I hope you haven’t believed anything he may have said."

Her expression turned a bit nearer to a smile. Then the happy curl on her lips faded away completely. "I am truly sorry for falling on you," she apologized yet again. The slightly frightened look on her face didn’t go away, and she eyed him carefully, like she’d been scared of how he’d react. "It was an accident, honestly. I was just testing this potion for the right amount of Cucunor, and one of the cauldrons exploded."

"It’s nothing," Severus replied, trying to smile reassuringly. This girl could use a bit of a Bravery Brew, that he was sure about. Maybe more than just a bit. "It’s not like I hadn’t blown up my fair share of cauldrons during my own years practising for my Masters." He glanced at the table. There were still three cauldrons, all filled with various amounts of the thick, green liquid. "May I ask what you’re preparing?" he asked, genuinely curious.

"Oh, just some Frogslime," she smiled. "You know - the kind they sell in wizarding toyshops. I’ve already found three errors in the recipe, and I don’t think there are much more."

"Errors?" he echoed. "Let me guess. Lucius is making you use ‘Recipes for Future Potions Masters,’ isn’t he?"

"Yes, he is," Olivia replied, walking to take a look at her simmering cauldrons. "I think it’s useful. You really learn a lot of things that way, rather than just preparing the potions." She glanced sideways at the man. "Have you ever used it yourself?" she asked curiously.

"Many times," he admitted. "I went through the whole book, twice. And you’re right. It is indeed useful."

"Twice?" she repeated, and actually smiled, seemingly amused. "How’s that possible, if I may ask? Wouldn’t you know the errors at the second time?"

"Yes, I did," he said, returning her smile. "But I destroyed all my notes and prepared them again. There’s nothing better than extra practice - and that way I made sure I hadn’t forgotten anything."

"I guess you’re right." She smiled again, seemingly completely forgotten her former fear. Maybe the conversation was relaxing her, wiping away her wariness.

Severus’s eyes caught yet another cauldron on the other table. "What’s that?" he asked. "Are you preparing some other potion as well?"

"Um... Yes," she admitted, a little flush crawling to her cheeks. "I have a little problem with it, though, and I don’t want to ask Lucius for help."

"Why so?" Severus wondered. "You don’t want him to know about it? Why not?"

"This is - this is the Brew of Dreams," she told him. "You know that?"

"Of course," Severus nodded. "I’m a Potions Master, after all. It’s the one that can make you have preinition dreams and visions, if you have the gift."

"Exactly." Olivia dropped some reddish powder to the cauldron and stirred. "I recieved the gift at birth, you know. I used to have dreams that became true, but after all those - things - happened, I’m yet to have a vision."

"And you want to retrieve your skill." It wasn’t a question, it was a statement.

"I do. Except brewing potions, I have no other magical abilities. I’d like to have something else as well. I feel so useless when I can’t do even the simplest things. I’m not even able to light the candles in my room in any other but the Muggle way!"

"Once you turn sixteen, you can do that, for it’s part of the Manor’s magic."

"Right." She snorted. "But even then I’ll always be like a Squib outside these walls. Or not quite a Squib - they can’t even do successful Potions. But, the difference won’t be very big."

"So you want to be magical in some way."

"More than magic, I miss the dreams themselves," the girl confessed with a slight smile. Then the smile faded away again. "Back then, they were the only thing that made me believe there might still be something for me; something worth all the waiting, suffering and pain."

Severus swallowed. He had of course heard of the girl’s past from Lucius, but it was a completely different thing when heard from Olivia herself - even if it was only a slight mention, not more than a reference to the events.

"I just can't seem to get this right," the girl continued, turning towards her cauldron. "It just doesn’t want to get light enough."

"I can help you with it later," Severus promised. He was only happy to offer his help - the girl seemed to really know something about the potions’ brewery, and the Brew of Dreams was one of the most interesting potions he’d ever tried. Besides, he’d already promised Lucius to instruct Olivia.

"You will?" she asked, looking delighted. "Oh, thank you so much! I’ve been struggling with this ever since I first used my lab - not that it was really long time, just a couple of weeks, but considering how much time I spend here, it is quite a lot."

"I know," he smiled. "I once used the total of 245 hours to complete one potion. During two weeks."

"You should tell that to Remus," Olivia giggled. "He thinks Lucius and I both spend far too much time in our laboratories. But he’s not much better himself - whenever we’re with our potions, he’s with his books."

"A common fact," Severus smirked. "But now our presence is requested by your fathers in the upstairs. I’d like you to meet my husband as well."

"I’m looking forward to meeting him," Olivia said, smiling slightly. "If you like him much enough to marry him, then I think I'll like him also."

"That we’ll see," Severus said, bemused. "Sometimes I’m not so sure myself exactly why I married him."

"You must be kidding," Olivia said, grinning.

"I hope I was," Severus replied, returning her grin.

~*~

"It’s taking them more time than it should," Remus said, frowning. "I’ll go and see what is keeping them back."

Lucius and Sirius nodded as he got on his feet. He walked out of the room, since this sitting room was one of the few rooms in the whole Manor without a mirror. Once finding one in the corridor, he went through it to another corridor as near Olivia’s lab as possible.

He had hardly stepped through the mirror, when he already heard a conversation from the next corridor.

"I’d like to change before we go to meet the others," Olivia’s voice said. "I dropped some of the liquid on this, and besides, this isn’t one of my favourites, no matter how useful it is."

"I’ve noticed the same thing," Severus’s voice said, sounding a bit amused. "I, personally, prefer long and wide sleeves in my robes, but it’s about the last thing you can wear in the lab."

"So true," Olivia sighed.

Remus grinned. He was just about to step in the next corridor and talk to the two, when the next part of the conversation caught his ear.

"Lucius has surely placed shielding spells on your lab robes, correct?" Severus asked, now serious. "I mean, those explosions can be dangerous otherwise."

"Of course," Olivia replied. "I don’t think he’d otherwise allow me to research the recipes for errors, leave alone insisting it."

"And what about Remus?"

"Well..." Olivia was quiet for a moment, then said, "What Remus doesn’t know, can’t hurt him, right?"

"Right. But what do you think? Doesn’t it make you nervous to experience so many explosions?"

"Why?" Olivia asked back. "After all, if the mix explodes, it only tells that I’ve found another error."

Remus had heard enough. Without another thought, he ran through the corridor as quietly as he could. Cold fury built up inside him as he went to the nearest mirror, pressed his ring against it and said the coordinates.

~*~

"Master Lucius," a house-elf said, peeking in the room. "There’s a firecall for you in your office."

Lucius frowned, and Sirius chuckled. The only people who contacted Lucius in his office’s fireplace were the Ministry officials. That never meant anything interesting, leave alone important.

"I trust you not to kill yourself while I’m away," Lucius sighed, getting on his feet. "If you are capable of that?"

"Killing myself or avoiding it?" Sirius asked with a cheeky grin. He laughed as he saw the older man’s annoyed expression. "Calm down, Lucius," he said. "I will behave myself. I promise."

The Lord of Malfoy didn’t say anything, merely raised his eyebrows. Then he left, leaving Sirius alone.

The Animagus glanced around the room. He almost immediately spotted a Quidditch magazine on the corner table - most probably left there by Harry or Draco, seeing that neither Lucius nor Remus were exactly fond on the sport. They of course wanted to know how Harry was doing, and watched his every match, but other than that, they never did anything involving Quidditch.

He walked over to the table and began reading the magazine. Soon he was fully concentrated on it, not taking his eyes off it until he heard the sound of the door opening.

He raised his eyes at the in-comer. To his great surprise, both Severus and Olivia were absent. The only person in the doorway was Remus, who was looking furiously around the room.

"Where’s Lucius?" his oldest friend asked briefly.

"He got a firecall," Sirius told him. "But why -"

"A firecall?" Remus interrupted him. "Fine. Severus and Olivia are coming here shortly, Olivia was going to change herself before coming. Go find them and once you find them, get them away."

"Away?" he echoed, eyeing the werewolf curiously. What one Earth was he up to?

"Away," Remus repeated. "Somewhere outside the Manor. Hogwarts, Azkaban, I don’t care! Just get them out of here as soon as possible. Show Olivia the Black Manor, for example."

"Why on Earth should she be taken elsewhere?" the Animagus asked, positively puzzled.

Remus glared at him, then sighed. "Because she’s got enough of fighting parents for one lifetime," he said through clenched teeth. "And I’m just about to give Lucius the dressing-down of his life."

"Oh." Sirius knew better than to question Remus about the reason of his anger. He might only explode on Sirius, and that wasn’t a pleasant thing. At all. He’d once seen Remus yelling at Lucius - he couldn’t even remember why, but he’d probably never forget the row - and it was *scary*. Really, really scary.

Without another thought, he left the room.

~*~

"Will it take long?" Severus asked, half amused, half frustrated. He knew that it wasn’t a long time he had waited behind the door of the girl’s room, but it felt like forever.

"I’m coming!" Olivia informed, then opened the door and stepped out. She had changed her laboratory robes to a nice, equally green dress robe, with a silver snake embroidery going down her arm. "Shall we go, then?" she asked, only the tiniest bit nervous.

"Of course." He offered his arm with a dry smile, which Olivia replied with a similar smile, taking his arm. They just turned around the corner when they ran to Sirius.

"Sirius!" Severus exclaimed. "What on Earth are you doing here? We were just coming to you!" He noticed that Olivia’s grasp on his arm stiffened temporarily, but then relaxed again. Predictable, yet disappointing. Lucius and Remus had made it very clear in their letters that Olivia might be very scared of them, even when she’d recently learned to handle her feelings around her two adopted fathers on almost any occasion, and for the most part also with Harry and Draco.

"Remus told me that you should come with us to the Black Manor," Sirius said with a cheery smile. Too cheery, in Severus’s opinion. "He and Lucius... have some sudden business to attend to."

"I see," Olivia said, hiding well the still existant nervousness in her voice.

Severus merely nodded at his husband. "Where’s the nearest fireplace?" he then asked the girl. She was, after all, the only one of them living in the Manor.

"Wait a minute," she said, then walked to the nearby mirror. There was at least one mirror in every corridor of the Manor so there it was always a short way to the power of the place. In Black Manor, there weren’t even as many - only in the bedrooms and bathrooms, and in the largest hall.

Olivia pressed her ring against the mirror. "Where’s the nearest fireplace?" she asked soundly. Severus caught a hint of nervousness in her voice-whatever for, he didn’t know.

"The door to the left, Young Mistress," the mirror replied with the usual cool voice.

Olivia nodded, but didn’t say a word. She merely opened the said door and stepped inside, the two men following her.

There indeed was a fireplace in the room. Severus walked to it and immediately spotted the little jar of Floo powder next to it. He took a handful, giving some to both Sirius and Olivia.

"I trust you know how to use this?" he asked Olivia, raising a curious eyebrow.

"Of course," she said and chuckled. "How would I have gone shopping with Remus otherwise?"

Sirius rolled his eyes towards the ceiling. "Figures," he muttered. Then he lit a magic fire in the fireplace with a quick spell, tossed his powder into it and said, loudly and clearly, "Black Manor!"

Severus glanced at Olivia. "Go ahead," he urged the girl. She gave him only the tiniest bit nervous grin, then threw her own powder into the fire and cried out, "Black Manor!"

After mere seconds, Severus followed her.

~*~

"Harry?" Draco asked, eyeing his boyfriend carefully.

"Mmm-hmm?" was the only response he got.

"Why are you looking at me like that?" the Slytherin went on questioning.

"Like what?" Harry asked back.

"You know very well. Like you were just going to say something but then regretted it. Is something wrong with me?"

"No, love. You’re perfect in every means," Harry said, smiling.

"Then what’s bothering you?" Draco demanded to know, irritated. "Honestly, Harry, on moments like this you’re damn lucky I love you. Otherwise, I’d have already fed you to my cat."

"Well..." Harry seemed to hesitate for a moment. "In fact, I have something I wanted to ask you," he then said slowly.

"Well?" Draco raised an eyebrow. "What is it, then?"

Harry didn’t reply immediately. Instead, he drew his wand and murmured a hasty summoning spell. Something flew to his hand, too fast for Draco to see it. Then Harry turned towards him, a little, nervous smile on his lips.

To his great surprise and shock, Harry knelt down in front of him.

"Seeing that it seems to be so common in your family, I want to do this the traditional way," Harry said, and smiled slightly. Then he grasped on Draco’s hand with his own free hand, fixed his eyes on the blonde’s eyes and asked, "Draco Luce Thomanius Malfoy, will you do me the honour of marrying me?"

~*~

Lucius frowned. Yet another completely useless call. He belonged to the Ministry Council, true enough, but it definitely wasn’t a reason to bother him with every tiny detail. It wasn’t like he didn’t have enough to do with his *real* assignments already.

With these thoughts in mind, he stepped in to the sitting room and looked around him.

To his great surprise, none of the Blacks were there, nor Olivia. Remus was, though. His lycanthropic husband was sitting in an armchair, his fingers snapping at the little table next to the chair.

"Remus?" Lucius asked, puzzled. "Where is Sirius? And didn’t you go to Olivia and Severus?"

"They’re not here," came the brief reply.

"What do you mean?"

"Severus and Sirius took Olivia to the Black Manor," Remus said, his voice uncharacteristically cool.

"What?" Lucius asked, completely astonished. This made no sense at all. "Why? They just got here! Why’d they leave - and why’d take Olivia with them?"

"They left, and they took Olivia, because I asked them to," Remus replied, his voice still freezing. There was a threatening glint in his usually so warm eyes as he stood up and walked towards Lucius.

"Why did you do that?" the blonde asked warily. He guessed what was coming, though. There was only one situation where Remus would act like this.

When he was very mad. Usually at Lucius.

"Because," Remus hissed through clenched teeth, stopping in front of him, "because we need to *talk*."