A Family Affair

As Severus and Hermione endeavored to enlighten Sean as to the ways of the wizarding world, Draco sank into a silent reverie. After some moments, his voice, husky with emotion, broke into their conversation.

"Does she know about me?" he asked.

No one had to ask who Draco was referring to, least of all Snape. "Alexis knows that she has family other than the people who have raised her, yes. She knows a great deal about her mother; Sirius and I agreed that Alexis deserved to know just how much Narcissa cared for her. Beyond that, we really didn't know how much to tell Alex; as precocious as she may be, she is still just a child. We were reluctant to give her more information than we thought she could handle."

"So that's a 'no'," Draco replied with a wry smile.

"Yes, and no, Draco. Alexis knows that she has a brother - someone who 'had to go away' before she was ever born. But beyond that...."

"Am I still to pretend then?" Draco asked harshly.

"That decision is entirely yours to make," Severus replied with patience and compassion that Draco had rarely witnessed in the man.

Rising from his seat on the sofa, Draco began to pace a figure-eight around Snape's sitting room, the cadence of his boots accompanied by an irritatingly insistent clicking counterpoint as he fiddled with the silver hoops in one ear. "I don't want to hurt or confuse her," he said at length. "Considering that I intend to face my father in the near future, it's highly unlikely I'll be in her life for long."

"Don't say such things!" Hermione admonished him, rather vehemently.

Draco turned to toss another sarcastic jest at her, but stopped short at the sight of tears in her eyes. "Ah, shit," he fumed, moving to sit on the edge of the sofa beside her. He reached out a hand, intending to wipe away Hermione's tears, but she jerked away from him, jumped to her feet, and headed for the door.

"I'm going to see to Harry," she said to no one in particular.

As the door slammed shut behind her, Draco let out a long, audible breath and scrubbed his face with his hands.

"I see you still have your winning way with the ladies," Severus quipped.

Looking up at his ex-professor, Draco wavered for a moment between hilarity and despair. He settled at last for a small, shaky smile.

"Myself," Snape continued, a hint of humour in his voice, "I thought you made a valid point. Not one that I necessarily agree with, but valid none the less." Turning suddenly serious, Severus' gaze met and held Draco's. "Regardless of what your future may hold, I believe that you should be forthright with Alexis. She is, as I have said, quite precocious, and she is too inquisitive by half. If she puzzles out the truth for herself, she would be quite put out if you had lied to her."

Draco nodded his head slowly in understanding. "All of that aside..." he began suddenly, eager to change the subject again.

"Yes, yes," Snape replied, waving his hand dismissively. "I am quite aware of the larger purpose here. As soon as Black returns, we'll see to making the necessary contacts so we may begin planning."

Almost as if Severus' remark had been a stage cue, Sirius slipped into the room with Alexis prancing along beside him, her tiny hand engulfed in his much larger one. Grinning broadly, Alex tugged on Sirius' hand, urging him to "Hurry up!" as she dragged him through the sitting room and into the room the group had first arrived in.

"Alexis and that bloody Muggle contraption," Severus muttered in an exasperated tone but with a glint of humour in his eyes. He rose gracefully and crossed the room to peek in at his foster daughter and his one time enemy.

A moment later, Sirius joined Snape in the doorway. "What in Merlin's name was Remus thinking?" Sirius asked quietly, casting a glance back over his shoulder at Alex. "Isn't there some law about enchanting Muggle artefacts? Is that thing even legal?"

"According to Remus, that monstrosity is completely within the confines of the law - unfortunately."

Sirius couldn't help laughing. "I take it you disapprove?"

"When you've been awakened - repeatedly - long before first light by the overly-cheerful sound of small woodland creatures singing about how wonderful life is you'll agree," Snape answered with a scowl.

"Remus has gone and given her a telly," Sirius explained. "Specially enchanted to work without electricity. And a...a...whatsit. Thing..." He made completely indecipherable hand gestures.

"DVD player," Sean supplied helpfully.

Draco stared. "How did you?" he asked, perplexed.

"Years of trying to understand you when you're drunk," Sean replied, a mischievous twinkle in his eye.

"If Alexis is finished with you," Snape said, addressing himself to Sirius, "we had best see about contacting the rest of your team."

"I'll use your office," Sirius said by way of agreement before striding purposefully from the room.

"Tell me about this 'team'," Draco insisted.

"The Ministry, as usual, refuses to acknowledge the seriousness of the situation. They only see what they want to see. Sirius and I have managed to piece together a small group who are willing to work as vigilantes. We've one of the Ministry's finest strategic analysts, two men who should have been Aurors but were never given the chance, three concerned older brothers, a drunkard, the two of you, myself, and Miss Granger."

Sean found himself wincing at the cynical tone in Severus' voice. Clearly the odds were not good. He glanced over at his young friend, and could tell from the look in Draco's stormy grey eyes that he, too, understood the severity of the situation.

"You don't have to do this." Draco's voice was little more than a hushed whisper as he silently entreated his friend and mentor to get out while he still could.

"Yeah, I do, kid," Sean replied, somehow managing to keep a tight reign on his emotions. "You're the only family I've got left. I ain't letting you go and get yourself killed."

Draco merely nodded, his gaze traveling from Sean to Severus and then to little Alexis who had appeared in the doorway beside her 'papa'. "We've one twisted family tree, you know that?" he said with a lop-sided smirk which was answer by a grin from Sean and a slightly amused tightening of the mouth on Severus' part.

Alexis stood watching them, not at all sure what the joke was about. "Papa," she said quietly, tugging on Severus' robes. "Are your friends staying for tea? Its past lunch and my tummy's rumbly."

"They'll be staying with us for quite some time, actually. Come and meet our guests, Alexis," Severus replied, gently guiding his tiny daughter toward the two men on the sofa.

Draco followed Alexis' every move with his eyes, a strange feeling of both apprehension and possessiveness winding its way around his heart. He found himself once again fidgeting with his earrings as he watched Snape introduce Alex to Sean, who elegantly bowed over her little hand and was rewarded with childish giggles. A moment later and Alexis was standing before her brother.

"This is Draco," Severus' voice was barely audible over the pounding of Draco's heart in his own ears. He reached out a hand to take the one the little girl politely offered to him.

"I'm Alex," she said, her innocent grey eyes looking up into Draco's.

"I'm very pleased to meet you, Alexis," Draco replied, his voice seeming to come from somewhere outside of himself.

Alex giggled, showing off her dimples. "You've lots of earrings," Alex commented. "Papa says I can't get any 'til I'm older. Auntie Min thinks they're silly."

"Auntie Min?" Draco asked.

"Hermione is a bit of a mouthful for a four year old," Severus explained.

"I'm 'most five!" Alex protested. "My birthday is in.....how many days is it, Papa?"

"Twelve."

"In twelve days," Alex informed Draco. She looked down at her little fingers, trying to count. "How many is that?" she asked, her bright eyes looking up to her big brother for the answers.

Grinning slightly, Draco held out both up both of his hands. "All of these, and two of yours," he told her.

Alex held two of her tiny fingers up beside Draco's and frowned. "That's a lot of days," she concluded sadly.

Laughing, Draco gave into the impulse to hug her, and to his delight she returned the hug enthusiastically before once again reminding her papa that it was time for tea.

*********************************

Alex and the three adults sat down to a small table in one corner of the sitting room to await the arrival of their tea. When the house-elf slipped into the room bearing a large platter of food and drink, Sean nearly fell from his chair in shock. The entire time the tiny, ugly creature served and bowed, the man watched her in fascination. When at last the house-elf disappeared from the room with an audible pop, Sean turned to the others, who had already tucked into their afternoon repast.

"What was that thing?" he wanted to know.

"'s a house-elf," Alex explained, her mouth crammed full of chocolate éclair.

"Alexis," Snape reprimanded gently.

The child quickly swallowed. "Sorry, Papa," she said, sounding not atall contrite.

"What the fu...." Sean stopped himself from cursing in front of the little girl - but only just. "Erm..what's a 'house-elf'?"

"They are what you might call indentured servants," Draco explained. "They actually like being servants. It's what they were bred for. There is a truly long and boring story behind the advent of house-elves, really. They're useful, but really quite annoying."

"Kinda like you?" Sean asked with his lop-sided grin.

Draco rolled his eyes and lifted a mug of warm butterbeer to his lips, savouring first the aroma and then the rich, sweet flavour. "Gods, I've missed this stuff," he murmured.

Alexis flashed her older brother a conspiratorial smile over the top of her own mug, her cupid's bow mouth ringed with butterbeer froth.

*************

Just as Alexis, who had lingered at the table longer than anyone, was finishing up the last of her tea, Sirius strode back into the room.

"We're to meet at the Three Broomsticks at midnight," he announced.

Severus acknowledged the comment with one decisive nod of his head. "Minerva has already agreed to come and stay with Alex," he assured the other man.

"Midnight?" Sean asked, trying to keep the impatience from his voice. "Are we just going to sit idle until then?"

"I think the time would be best spent in reacquainting Draco with the use of magic," Severus replied. "How much do you recall?"

"A great deal, I think, now that I'm back here," Draco admitted. "Things I learned here, of course, but spells Father taught me, as well."

"He can still cast a Summoning spell," Sirius remarked, not even trying to hide a smirk.

Draco fixed Sirius with his most malevolent glare for a long moment before turning his attention back to the potions master.

"Should we experiment with something a little more advanced, then?" Snape inquired, puzzled when Black snorted with laughter.

His bronze cheeks turning slightly pink, Draco explained in a small voice. "I accio'ed a hard-bound novel into my own forehead, Severus. I wouldn't say I'm ready for more advanced work."

Fighting down a bubble of mirth (which likely would have expressed itself as one of his fleeting half-smiles), Snape forged ahead. "Whether you were prepared to actually catch the object is immaterial. You are still capable of casting the spell correctly. Unless, of course, it was just a fluke," he challenged.

"It wasn't," Draco replied evenly.

"Show me."

Fighting the urge to roll his eyes at the skeptical older man, Draco pulled his wand from his pocket. "Accio," he drawled almost lazily, instinctively reaching his free hand up to catch the heavy potions text he had summoned from a shelf across the room.

"Levitation," Severus suggested.

Draco dropped the book rather carelessly onto the floor at his feet, repressing a smile at the look of horror that flashed across the potions master's face. "Wingardium Leviosa," Draco said, giving his wand a proper swish and flick. The book rose into the air, hung in the air for a bit, and then crashed back to the rug-covered floor with a dull thump.

From the sofa, Sean was watching, rapt, in awe of the simplest spells.

"Shrink it," Sirius suggested.

Before Snape's rather anguished, "Don't listen to him!" had time to register with Draco, he had already cast 'Reducio'. Flashing a grin at Severus, he quickly remedied the spell, putting the book back to its original size.

Sirius brandished his own wand, and, without stopping to think, Draco turned his wand on the other man and cried "Expelliarmus!" The blond crowed triumphantly when Sirius' wand flew from the shocked wizard's grasp and arced through the air into Draco's own outstretched hand.

Magic coursed once again through Draco's veins, for the first time in many years, and the sensation was unlike anything Draco had ever felt before. Ever since beginning his life as a Muggle, he had searched for an elusive something that he found now in the exhilaration, the freedom, the completeness of magic. He vowed never to take his magical abilities for granted again.

"Magic is something that is not easily forgotten," Sirius said, breaking into Draco's distracted thoughts.

"Lucky for us," Draco replied, returning Sirius' wand to him. His mind churned, turning his memories over and over, trying to dredge up every spell he had ever learned. Suddenly he remembered a charm that Pansy Parkinson's gaggle of girls had discovered near the beginning of their fifth year at Hogwarts. At the time, Draco had learned the charm with the intention of using it against Potter, Weasley, and Granger, but he had never been given the right opportunity. He had other plans for it now.

Closing his eyes and focusing intently on the image in his mind, he touched his wand to the side of his head and muttered an incantation. Gradually, platinum blond streaks spread through his hair, blending with the honey-brown for a moment before overtaking it and returning his baby fine hair to its original white-blond colour.

"Holy shit," Sean breathed, earning a gasp from Alex and causing Draco's eyes to pop open.

"I suppose it worked then?" the blond asked wryly.

Sean's eyes flickered from Draco to Alex and back again. The similarities in their appearance had been visible before, but now they could easily be identified as near relatives. In fact, Sean mused, a great many people would likely mistake Draco for Alex's father rather than her brother.

Sirius smiled at his young friend, understanding Draco's need to reconnect to his past by looking the way he once had. Severus, however, was scowling.

"What is it?" Draco asked quietly.

"You look entirely too much like your father," Severus explained.

"He looks like Mummy," Alex countered in a small, tearful voice.

"Alex," Draco sighed mournfully. Crossing the room in three long strides, he lifted the child from her chair and held her close, unmindful of the tears and chocolate that made their way from her cherubic face to his clean white shirt. Sinking into a chair, Draco cradled his sister against his chest, tenderly stroking her soft blonde curls. "I didn't mean to upset you, Alex," he assured her in his softest tone.

"I just miss her," she sobbed. "I don't really 'member her - Papa says I was too little when she went away. But I miss her, anyway,"

"I miss her, too," Draco whispered, feeling tears threatening to well in his own eyes.

"You knew my Mummy?" Alex asked incredulously, looking up at Draco with wide, innocent grey eyes.

Draco nodded, hoping he was approaching this matter the right way. "She was my Mum, too. Did you know that?"

Alex shook her head solemnly, making her curls dance.

"She was," Draco confirmed.

"Then...you're..."

"Your brother," Draco acknowledged. "I'm sorry I haven't been around before."

"Papa said you had to go away, even though you didn't want to."

Draco nodded, not trusting his voice.

"I've never had a brother before," Alex said. No one bothered to correct her, to tell her that Draco had been her brother all along. They all understood what she meant.

"I've never had a little sister before, either," Draco replied instead. "I might not be a very good brother," he warned.

Alex cocked her head to one side, studying her brother's face intently. "I think you'll do fine," she said, quite seriously.

Severus pressed his lips together to keep from smirking and reached out to take his daughter from Draco's lap. "I must remember to forbid the house-elves from bringing her éclairs," he said, smiling ever so slightly.

"I like chocolate," Alex protested.

"You seem to like wearing it," Severus admonished her gently. "Let's get you cleaned up." He carried her into the adjoining bath, and as the door closed behind them, Draco let out a relieved sigh.

"That went well," Sean encouraged.

Draco smiled at his friend, and then turned his attention to the mess his sister had made of his shirt. "I hope the house elves are up to the challenge," he said, stripping off the shirt and rummaging in his backpack for a clean one.

"They are," Sirius assured him. "With Alex around, they have to be."