Custody Battle

The time between his last visit to the Davonshire household and the last day before Christmas holidays had nearly flown right by, but on the whole, his communication with Hermione had been mostly brief messages via owl, attempting to figure out what exactly to do for said holiday.

It had finally been decided upon that Severus would take Caterina to Kings Cross via the Hogwarts express and Hermione would meet them there. As Hogwarts held the children until just days before Christmas, it was also decided upon that Severus, much to Blake’s chagrin, would join them in celebrating the holiday and stay with them in the guest bedroom for Christmas Eve, day, and the day after. That was as far as the plans had gone, although Severus had a feeling he would not be welcomed by Hermione’s husband much longer than that, but did not wish to separate Hermione from Caterina by insisting that she come with him for the remainder of the holiday.

“You’re going to love the tree,” she smiled across to him from a tiny compartment on the Hogwarts Express. It had been years since he’d been forced to ride the train, and he’d remembered exactly why he’d avoided doing so at all costs. The compartments were too small, cramping his long legs for a long uncomfortable journey, and all the trolley witch ever had was sweets. And there was the ruckus of the children, but thankfully his reputation scared them into silence, frightened that he’d somehow find a way to deduct house points even during the holiday.

What seemed like hours later, the train finally chugged its way onto Platform 9¾ and Severus had never been more grateful to have to walk in his entire life. Caterina raced ahead of him, barely giving him a moment to step down from the train. “Mummy!” she cried and practically leapt up into Hermione’s arms.

“Oh!” she cried, wrapping both arms around her eldest daughter. “Oh, Caterina! I’m so glad I get to have you home for the holidays!” She kissed her daughter several times on each cheek and then set the girl down. Her eyes moved immediately to Severus who was making his way through the throng of people, eyes searching for where his daughter had run off to. “Severus!” she called, waving her arm in the air. “Severus! Over here!”

It would seem strange to an onlooker, Hermione and Severus walking with an eleven-year-old girl that looked to be the spitting image of them, between them. To Caterina, this was perfect. She swung her arms back and forth, Hermione holding her left hand and Severus holding her right. It had the potential to be a very pleasant Christmas, at least for the eleven-year-old girl in the middle.

~*~

He’d nearly gotten settled in when there came a knock to his guest bedroom door. “Severus?” Hermione called, waited a moment and then pushed the door open, slipping inside. He’d unpacked all of his things, making good use out of the wardrobe across from the bed. “Glad to see you’ve settled in.” she smiled.

He nodded. “It’s very generous of you to afford me accommodations, I could have just apparated,” he said and stood from where he’d been sitting at the edge of the bed.

“Nonsense,” she smiled, and then wrapped her arms around herself. “Thank you, by the way…”

“What for?” he said, coming to stand nearer to her.

“Well, I just—” she sighed and tried not to allow that worried look of potential defeat to cross her features. “I know this is hard for everyone, and granted, it’s not the ideal situation, but you could have been bang out of line with the whole ordeal.”

He was quiet for a moment, gazing into her cinnamon and honey streaked eyes. “She’s our daughter, Hermione. No child should have to be away from any one of their parents for Christmas.”

She nodded, again smiling. “And I’ll apologize for Blake in advance, he’s just—” she sighed and then shook her head. “No, I’m not going to get worked up over it, I promised myself I wouldn’t for the kids’ sakes…he’s just not dealing with this whole situation well…”

“I can imagine if I thought I was dead and then suddenly found out I wasn’t that I might be a bit perturbed as well…” he drawled. Hermione swatted his arm and his lips curled into a smirk. “Forgive me, but you set yourself up for that one.”

“Thanks,” she rolled her eyes. Blinking, she found her eyes gazing into his, and there was something flickering there. He leaned forward, and she tilted her head to the side, letting her lids flutter, hovering between closing her eyes completely and gazing at him through tiny slits. His breath was warm against her lips and she felt his lips floating just a breath above hers. With a slight shift, she’d moved her head to the side, letting her cheek brush his, her lips near his ear. “We can’t do this…”

A knock sounded on the door and she closed her eyes, letting a sigh escape her. Pulling slowly back she moved over to the door as it was pushed in and she smiled. “Caterina!”

The girl gazed at her mother for a moment and then looked to her father. “I just came to tell you that Blake is fussing about an owl we just got.”

“Caterina!” Hermione snapped. “Don’t call him that!”

The girl shrugged. “It flew in through the window, it’s carrying a letter.”

“Don’t change the subject, young lady, and listen to your mother.” Severus said, crossing his arms over his chest.

“What am I supposed to call him then?” she asked.

Hermione paused, turning her eyes to Severus, looking for help. He shrugged his shoulders and then turned his attentions to the girl. “Wasn’t it not that long ago that you said you wanted two daddies? What happened to that theory?” he asked.

“One of you is enough.”

Hermione couldn’t cup her hand to her mouth fast enough to cover the snort and giggle. This made Caterina smirk in triumph, both hands on her hips. Her mother quickly shook her head and frowned. “That wasn’t very nice, dear.” And then she cleared her throat. “Seriously, what happened to the whole two dad’s thing? This is not the first time I’ve heard you refer to your father as— as— well, like that.”

The young girl looked up at her mother. “Mum, I don’t want to hurt your feelings or anything?” she began a bit quieter than she’d been before. “But ever since I met him…” she moved toward Severus, “He just makes Blake seem lame. I mean I know the idea of having two dads sounded great in my head, but I think I’m just to an age where unless they’re both my dad’s because…” and her face flushed. “Well in case they, you know swing another way…I just don’t think I can have two dads.”

“You’re at an age, hmm?” Severus said. “You’re going to find yourself at the age where you’re getting extra detention and homework over the holiday if you don’t find something more appropriate to call him.”

Hermione was genuinely shocked at Severus’ response, almost as if he cared about Blake in the matter. Caterina, on the other hand, was grumbling and rolling her eyes. “Fine…I suppose I can call him…dad,” she muttered and then crossed her arms over her chest.

“Good,” Severus said. “Now march your butt back downstairs, your mother and I will be along in a minute to deal with that letter.”

“It’s from Grandma Weasley,” she said.

“Vamoos!” he shouted, waving his hands at her. Caterina rolled her eyes again and stuck her tongue out at him before running out the door.

“Wonder where she gets that from?” he turned his sarcastic tongue toward Hermione.

“What?”

“The rolling of the eyes, and the tongue?”

She scoffed. “Oh probably the same place she gets the moody arm crossing over her chest and terribly flawed Slytherin logic from…”

“Hermione, don’t be so ridiculous, your logic was Gryffindor”

She smacked him again upside the arm. “You are quite an idiot,” she muttered and then nodded in the direction of the door. “We’d best go see what Molly wants…”

Downstairs there was a world of commotion, even a bit of shouting and Hermione frowned, rolling her eyes, as she made her way into the living room where under the tree her two boys sat, screaming over a toy. “It’s mine, Eric, now give it back!”

Eric grabbed the soldier doll and wrapped it tightly between his arms. “It’s mine!” he shouted.

Benjamin lunged forward and tried to tear the doll from his brother’s hand, but the other boy began to shriek and kick his legs. “Boys!” Hermione shouted, coming over and snatching the doll from Eric’s hands. “Stop it! Both of you! Now neither one of you can have the doll,” and she sighed. Placing the doll up on the mantle of the fireplace, she turned to Severus, “Sorry.”

He shook his head. “I would have blasted the doll into pieces, you’re a better person than I am.”

“Yes, well, not every problem need be solved with an excessive display of magic,” said Blake as he moved into the living room.

Hermione narrowed her eyes at him. “And why weren’t you watching them to make sure that simple little fight didn’t break out?”

Blake turned his back to her and adjusted a light bulb on the Christmas tree. “I was monitoring our daughters in the kitchen, to make sure they weren’t burning the house down with their attempts to bake cookies for Santa.”

Hermione sighed, and then moved into the kitchen, all three of her girls were elbow deep in flour, sugar, and chocolate chips and she couldn’t help but laugh at how cute they all looked. “Cat, where is this letter from Grandma Molly?” she asked, and the girl dropped the wad of dough she’d been working with and moved to the letter basket, pulling out the bright red and green, sparkling envelope. “Thank you,” she said and took the now dough covered letter from her daughter.

Severus watched in amusement at his daughter’s precision in stirring the wooden spoon around in the batter, and it reminded him of just how proficient Hermione had been in potions. Between the two of them they could have sired a potions genius, though the girl seemed perfectly content to be playing with the cookie muck.

“Oh dear,” Hermione sighed.

“What is it?” he asked, coming to stand behind her, gazing over her shoulder.

“Molly wants us all at the burrow tomorrow for Christmas dinner.” She sighed. “Oh, this is just fantastic,” and she tossed the letter back into the letter basket.

“Oh!’ Caterina shouted. “That means I can talk to Aunt Ginny again!”

Hermione rolled her eyes. “I didn’t say we were going.”

“But mummy!” came the cries of Caterina and Jocelyn combined.

She turned her eyes to Severus who had moved to stand behind his daughter, sprinkling a bit of cinnamon into the dough. “Erm,” he cleared his throat, and then wrapped both arms around the girl. “But mummy!”

Her exasperated look fell away to one of merriment and she chuckled. “You are ridiculous, Severus,” she said and then rolled her eyes before walking out of the kitchen and back into the living room. Hermione’s eyes fell to Blake who was sitting beneath the Christmas tree, attempting to wrap a present, the new broom she’d picked out for Jocelyn’s little league Quidditch. “Blake!” she hissed, coming over to him, and standing so that she blocked the gift from view.

“What?”

“I told you not to wrap those in front of the kids!” she hissed, lowering her voice so that Eric and Benjamin, who didn’t seem to notice because they were far too engrossed with Rudolph on the tele, couldn’t hear her.

“Jocelyn’s in the kitchen,” he shrugged and pulled a long piece of the red paper over it.

“Urgh! I swear you can be so thick sometimes!” she smacked him upside the head and then frowned again. “And you’re using the wrong paper!”

“Since when does it matter what paper gets used for what child?” he asked.

“Since I always do each of their presents in a separate design to keep them all together so that no one’s gets mixed up and each one feels special!” she spat. “Dear Merlin you’re incompetent tonight!”

Blake rose to his feet in anger, shoving the gift into Hermione’s hand. “Perhaps you’d prefer to have Mr. Magical do it instead?” And he stalked off toward the staircase.

“Blake!” Moving after him, despite the difficulty of carrying the half wrapped present, she grabbed his arm as he began to move up the stairs. “Blake! Blake, stop it, it’s Christmas Eve for Christ’s sake.” Her eyes were nearly watering.

He gazed down at her and then sighed, taking a step back down and standing beside her. “I’m sorry, I’m just— this is frustrating, having him here.”

She nodded. “I know, love, but you’re the better man for letting him be a part of his daughter’s life. Nothing in the world could possibly mean more to him or Caterina.” She smiled and then she saw his eyes turn upward toward the ceiling. “What?” She too glanced up, “Oh,” and her cheeks flushed. Somehow they’d landed themselves just beneath a hanging piece of mistletoe.

Blake leaned forward, his lips pressing against Hermione’s, and she leaned into him as well, her tongue teasing his for a moment before she heard Benjamin squeal. “Eww! Mummy and daddy are kissing!” She chuckled against his lips and pulled back, turning over her shoulder and smirking at her boys.

“Well where do you think you came from?” she asked, putting both hands on her hips.

“The stork!” he shouted.

“That’s right!” and she turned around to face Blake again. “Jocelyn gets the paper that has the Christmas trees and flying snitches on it, alright?” she said. “It’s upstairs in the back of our closet, please, go re-wrap this for me?” And he nodded. She pecked him on the cheek. “That’s why I love you, dear.”

With the cookies baked, and the presents wrapped, Hermione found herself seated on the smaller sofa, head resting on Blake’s shoulder, Emma having fallen asleep across their laps, while Severus sat on the floor in an intense game of wizard’s chess with Caterina. Jocelyn was reading a book, hanging upside down out of the armchair near the window and the twins were settled underneath the Christmas tree, gazing at the fireplace.

A large yawn escaped her and she blushed a bit. “Oh my, well I think it’s time for bed, loves, if you don’t get upstairs and to sleep, Santa may not come tonight!” she winked. They had laid out an enormous tray of cookies and a tall glass of milk on a stand just beside the fireplace.

Benjamin and Eric, whose eyes were drooping, both shook their heads. “But we want to wait for Santa!” said one.

“If we don’t…” the other trailed off, his head falling gently to the floor. I was as Hermione stood slowly from the sofa, carefully picking Emma up in her arms, that she heard the tiny sound of tinkling bells. She froze, eyes gazing skyward for she could have sworn that she heard steps on the roof.

Her eyes went straight to Severus, who was gazing back at her. “Did you—”

“Yes,” and he was on his feet, wand drawn.

“What?” asked Blake, worried eyes passing between Hermione and the other man. “What?”

“You didn’t hear it?” she asked, turning to her husband, wide eyed, almost frightened. “Footsteps! On the roof!”

Blake rolled his eyes. “And now I think it’s time for you to go to bed too…”

Emma had stirred from her slumber and her eyes went wide as she was leaning over Hermione’s shoulder, facing the fireplace. “Look!” she shouted and little cinders of soot fell from the chimney, dousing the fire. Severus pointed his wand, ready to banish whatever should come flying out but before he could utter a proper curse, the fireplace burst into green flames and out stepped a jolly old man, with a long white beard, dressed in red satin robes.

“Santa!” the boys shouted and immediately jumped up and began to hug the man.

Doing a double take, Severus suppressed a groan and then stuffed his wand back into his pocket. He eyed Hermione who had begun to chuckle, covering her mouth and pretending to cough. Emma was struggling in her arms and she put the girl down. She ran immediately to her brothers and hugged the Santa Claus around his knees. “Santa!” she cried.

Jocelyn flipped out of the chair and jumped to her feet. “No way!”

The flames roared green again and a tall, slender, much older woman, also donned in red satin, came through the fireplace holding a large satchel over her back. Her square rimmed spectacles slipped down her nose. “I carry all the presents, and he gets all the glory,” she muttered and then smiled at Hermione. “Oh! It’s so good to see you!” she winked and turned her eyes to Severus. “And you too, I suppose.”

Blake stood, staring dumbfounded in the middle of it all. He of course knew that wizards and witches often traveled via fireplace, but Santa and Mrs. Claus appearing in his living room on Christmas Eve was a bit much. He stayed seated, his mouth closed, not looking at either one of them.

“Merry Christmas!” Albus chuckled, winking his bright blue eye in Hermione’s direction. Then his attention turned to the platter of cookies. “Are these for me?” he chuckled and moved to pick up a rather large gingerbread man. “And he even has a gumdrop button.”

Minerva rolled her eyes, unseen by the children as she embraced Hermione, and whispered, “He thought it would be the most marvelous idea, so I’m dreadfully sorry if we’re interrupting.”

She couldn’t keep the laughing tears from her eyes any longer. “Not at all, not at all, I was just getting ready to put them to bed…” she said.

“My dear, Mrs. Claus…” Albus called to her, taking the rather squishy armchair that Jocelyn had previously been seated in. “Might you bring that satchel you’re carrying, over here? I think it might have some things inside of it that might make these children very happy.” He beamed.

Again she rolled her eyes at Hermione. “I do all the work? He gets all the glory.” Clearing her throat, she smiled and turned to Albus. “Yes, why, Mr. Claus, I think I do have some things in this satchel…” and she walked quickly over to him.

Jocelyn had moved over to where Caterina now stood, leaning back against her father. “I told you Santa was real.” She muttered.

The black haired girl stared on in disbelief at the odd pair that had walked into the room, and although she couldn’t quite be sure, she swore that Santa Claus looked very similar to her Hogwarts’ school headmaster and that his wife looked very much like her Transfigurations professor. She just nodded as her sister moved over to where the other children were gathered. Then she turned her big dark eyes to Severus. “Is that—”

“No.”

“Are you sure—”

“Yes.” He said and then pushed her on the back, slightly forward so that she could go and stand at Albus’ feet. The girl stumbled forward, standing just behind her sister and gazed at Santa and Mrs. Claus in awe. Severus turned his eyes to Hermione and shrugged his shoulders. “Who knew?” he whispered, and then wearily eyed Blake, who looked like the Grinch had entered his living room rather than Kris Kringle.

“Now, let’s see…” Albus began to rummage through the large sack that Minerva had sat at his feet. “Ah…yes, here we are, a present for Emma…” and he handed the youngest girl a brightly wrapped gift. “And one for Benjamin and one for Eric…” two more presents were distributed. “Jocelyn, I believe this one is for you…” he said and the girl practically leapt with joy as the large parcel was handed to her.

Minerva, unnoticed by the children, had begun to place various other presents in their stockings and in their respective piles of presents beneath the Christmas tree. Albus dug deep into the old sack and finally pulled out a box wrapped in green and red paper with a silver and gold bow. “Ah, and this is for my dear Caterina,” he smiled. “I’ve been keeping my eye on you this year, you’ve been very good.” He winked.

Taking the box, Caterina sat down and while her brothers and sisters had already torn into their toys, she very carefully undid the ribbon and then pulled back the paper. Her eyes lit up and she smiled; a squeal of joy on her lips. Jumping to her feet, she tore the rest of the paper off and began to hop up and down. “Daddy! Daddy!” she ran across the room, heading right for Blake. He smiled, and then frowned as the girl zoomed right past him and leapt up into Severus’ arms.

“What is it?” he asked, trying to pull the package from her hands.

“It’s a mastery inventive potions brewing kit! How did Santa know?” she asked incredulously.

Severus smiled at her. “That’s wonderful,” and he put her down gazing at the kit. She began to ramble off all of the things it included and all of the different potions you could attempt with it, and it even included a do it yourself ‘invent-a-potions’ guide. Her words were lost to him when his eyes fell upon Blake who looked utterly crest fallen. “Caterina,” he knelt down and placed both hands over the kit. “I’m so happy that you’ve received such a wonderful present. I can remember having a kit of my very own when I was your age…” he trailed off and kissed her forehead. “Why don’t you go show your other dad, hmm?”

Frowning a bit, Caterina sighed, but then quickly did as she was told when Severus narrowed his gaze. Hopping over to the couch she sat beside Blake. “Dad,” she said and he looked at her with a bit of a smile.

“Yeah, kiddo?” he asked, hopeful.

“I got this Potions kit for Christmas.” She said and placed the box in his lap.

“That’s really neat. What does it do?” he asked. With an all too animated face, she launched into her explanation, too excited about the new gift to slow herself down. Severus nodded and then turned around only to find himself standing face to face with Hermione.

“That was thoughtful,” she whispered and then moved over to where Santa Claus stood, seating herself beside Minerva. “So tell me, would Mrs. Claus like some cookies?”