You Never Know

"Nike, Severa, Noah, Victor, and Romulus Snape! Come back here on this INSTANT!"

...Ah, time has gone by. Quite a bit of it, in fact. The five "cubs" had, in the age of three months, turned into five adorable human babies who kept their parents well awake at most of the nights. When one stopped crying, the other started it -- if they were lenient enough to allow their parents the burden of "only" one wailing child at time. Usually they weren't. However, Remus and Severus did not complain but suffered quietly. Besides, they could catch up on sleep every now and then when somebody offered to baby-sit their children -- other than loud, the babies were also truly adorable, and had all Hogwarts fawning over them, even if they were Snapes.

Yes, Snapes. When the children had still been in their cub form and thus not officially born to humans, their parents had got married in a small, quiet ceremony. Thus, when they'd finally turned into humans, they'd been "born" to be Snapes, all five of them.

But Nike, Severa, Noah, Victor, and Romulus were no more little babies. No, they were now quite lovely and lively two-year-old charmers with pretty smiles and bright eyes -- not to mention very fast feet, the one characteristic in them their parents did not always find necessarily delighting. Especially not when they used them to run away from their parents.

Like now. It was time for them to get bathed, and like all children at some age, they were now in their I-hate-baths phase. And thus, they'd ran away, and Remus and Severus were now searching them through the castle. Which was also why Remus was bellowing in the corridor.

"Here you are, Remus," said Harry, coming around the corner with a struggling child in his lap. "I found Victor in a little side corridor. Shall I take him to your quarters?"

"Please do," said Remus with a sigh, "and if you only could, please stay there until we've get all children gathered. It'd do no good if the ones already caught escaped again when we were chasing the others." Then, with a quick glance at his son, he added, "Besides, it's Noah you have there."

Harry shrugged and grinned. "I'm not required to tell them apart," he said with a grin. "I'm not their Godfather. All I have to do is to be able to tell Nike apart from her siblings."

Remus snorted and rolled his eyes. Truly. Like they didn't have enough problems already, Noah and Victor had somehow managed to be identical twins. They themselves of course could tell the boys apart, but nobody else could, not even Albus, who usually didn't miss anything. Only Mad-Eye had sometimes managed to see some difference between the two black-haired menaces who threateningly seemed to be growing into the renewed version of the Weasley twins. Sure, they weren't more than two years old yet, but they were almost frightening in their similarity to Fred and George sometimes.

So, he parted from the young Quidditch Instructor -- it had surprised most of them that Harry hadn't been made a Defense Against Dark Arts teacher, but he did understand the boy's unwillingness to have anything to do with that particular area of magic now that he'd finally got Voldemort defeated. They now had Tonks for the DADA professor as Remus himself was far too much involved with his children, a case which resulted with DADA becoming even more popular and the injuries during the lessons becoming almost daily. And all of those injuries, from mere scratches to serious poisonings, had happened to the teacher herself. Still, students liked her, and even Slytherins seemed to trust her skills as a teacher. Remus could only wonder just what part of their body students used for thinking, if any. He'd been made the Head of Gryffindor after Minerva's unfortunate death, however -- it was said nowhere that he had to be a professor in order to be a Head of House, only that he had to reside in the school more or less permanently.

...But, being the Head of Gryffindor did not put much respect into his children's hearts. Therefore, he had to run. And so he did just that.

*

"What was that?" asked Cornelius Fudge, frowning slightly, as a tiny form of a child ran past them. Only a moment later, they heard loud yelling from the nearby corridor, and then a tall wizard in black robes also ran by.

"Looks like it's the bath time," said Dumbledore with a slight smile. "The children don't really like it, you see."

"Children?" echoed the Minister of Magic. "You have children here in the castle -- other than students, of course?"

"Why, of course," chuckled the Headmaster. "Wherever else would Remus and Severus put their little offsprings?" Noticing the Minister's astonishment, he continued, "Oh, don't tell me you didn't know about it already, my dear Cornelius. It was all over newspapers two years ago." His eyes twinkled with mirth. Nobody was anymore afraid of the Minister, who was bound to be elected out of his post very soon.

Fudge's forehead wrinkled. "Oh, yes, I do remember now," he then snorted. "The halfbreeds your Potions Master produced with that werewolf, right?"

Now the joy in the steely blue eyes was replaced by cool anger. "No halfbreeds," he said harshly. "They're all very much human children. Not one of them is even a werewolf, leave alone not human."

Just then, a giggling form ran into sight from a side corridor. Not even stopping, Dumbledore extended a hand and caught the running child. "Now, now, Severa," he said gently at the black-haired girl, who was frowning at him. "I do believe your fathers would appreciate it if you for once went willingly into the bath. It's not that bad, you know."

"No bath!" whined the girl. "Bad grampa Albz!"

"Yes, very bad grandpa Albus," chuckled the ancient wizard. "And very bad Severa, too. Your father and dad aren't really happy with you right now."

"Grandpa Albus?" Fudge again echoed his words. "Why does this girl call you her grandpa?"

"Well, I am the Godfather of her identical twin brothers," the Headmaster explained cheerfully. "But as I am so old, none of them call me Uncle, but instead grandpa. It kind of fits better, and they don't have any other grandfathers anyway."

"Twins? Just how many children do you have here?"

"Only five," replied Dumbledore cheerfully, starting to carry te still struggling child to the direction of her "home". "Nike, Severa, Noah, Victor, and Romulus are their names. Noah and Victor are the identical twins and my Godsons."

They soon enough arrived at the Snape family's quarters, which were nowadays located in the second floor, as it would have been impossible to keep children in the dark, cold dungeons. Fudge didn't dare to protest about their destination -- besides, it was part of his business in Hogwarts anyway. In the toy-filled sitting room -- it was impossible to have the children keep their toys in the playing room only -- they found the school's young Quidditch Instructor and a scowling dark-haired boy.

"My, my, Noctor," laughed Dumbledore, recognizing the little boy as one of his Godsons. As he never could tell them apart, whenever he -- or anybody else, minus their parents -- saw only one of the twins, it was usually "Viah" or "Noctor" instead of Noah or Victor. "Don't you like baths, either?"

"No!" snapped the scowling boy firmly. "Noah not like baths!"

"So you're Noah, then?" the Headmaster asked, letting go of his own struggling burden.

"Albus!" exclaimed Harry, getting up from where he had been sitting on the couch. "Good to see that you got Severa. Good evening, Minister," he then said coolly to Fudge. "May I ask what is your business in Hogwarts?"

"I'm here to make a proposal on behalf of the school governors to the Potions Master of this school," the politician replied stiffly.

"Really?" The young teacher raised his eyebrows. "I wonder what it could be."

Just then, the door opened, and two wizards walked in. Remus was calmly holding a struggling child on each arm, while Severus only had one to carry. Noticing the people already there, they set their children to the ground -- although not before closing and locking the door properly.

"Good evening, Albus, Harry, Minister," Severus said calmly, not deceiving his surprise at seeing the last of the guests in his living room. "What is bringing you here, Minister?"

"I have a proposal to make to you," the Minister repeated his words. "The school governors are willing to give you the position of the Headmaster of Hogwarts."

"You are retiring, Albus?" asked Remus, sounding surprised.

The ancient wizard nodded. "And about time, too," he then chuckled. "I'm too old to run a school, I'd rather only concentrate on spoiling your children rotten."

"Rather expected of you, Albus," Severus remarked dryly. Then he again turned towards Fudge. "Wait until I've got my children bathed and put to sleep and spoken with my husband," he said coolly. "I'll give you my answer to this offer then." And without another word he collected Severa in his other arm -- on the other he was still holding Nike -- and carried his both daughters towards the bathroom. Remus took Noah from Harry and followed his husband with their three sons in tow. Harry gave them an amused glance, then bid his polite goodbyes, and quickly fled from the quarters.

Dumbledore didn't bother to suppress his chuckle as he saw the Minister's irritated scowl. As they didn't have any other option at the moment, they sat on the couch, listening in relative silence to the sounds of five lively children bathing nearby.

Soon enough they saw five towel-clad children being escorted to their bedroom. Then there were sounds of changing the children and tucking them into bed. After some sounds of faint struggling when the two fathers were trying to keep their little sweethearts in bed, and three bedtime stories, the adult Snapes finally emerged from the children's bedroom with triumphant smiles on their faces.

"About the proposal, Minister Fudge," Severus said, sitting on another couch opposite to their two guests and pulling Remus down next to him. "We spoke about it."

"And your response is?" asked Fudge, now more than slightly irritated.

"I accept."

*

The next autumn, the first-years who were waiting for their Sorting stared at the Head table with wide eyes. On the Headmaster's place they saw not Dumbledore, whom they'd heard a lot about, but a tall, pale, dark-haired man in a dark silver velvet robe. The man watched over the Great Hall with piercing black eyes, every now and then turning to talk quietly with a shorter wizard sitting next to him. This man was wearing a simple brown robe, and looked a lot kinder than the new Headmaster.

What mostly collected gazes, however, was what was next to the kind-looking man. There, in the middle of all mighty wizards and witches who were to teach them magic, the first-years saw five children, no more than three years old, their heads only barely above the edge of the table. The children were all wearing similar white robes, although with the way they were all waving and moving and squirming, it looked like the robes would not stay white for long if they only could get in contact with something messy. Like food, for example.

When one especially brave first-year -- he was later Sorted into Gryffindor, and for a reason -- dared to ask in a whisper from the Deputy Headmistress who the people next to the Headmaster were, and who the Headmaster himself was as he clearly was not Albus Dumbledore, he got the most cryptic answer.

"The Headmaster is Severus Snape," Professor Sprout told him. "And the six people next to him, well, they are Remus, Nike, Severa, Noah, Victor, and Romulus Snape. They are also teachers."

"What could those kids teach?" asked the first-year disbelievingly.

"Oh, you'd be surprised," the woman said, allowing herself to smile a bit. "They've taught the Headmaster to smile."

*

THE END

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