Princes in Exile

I am so so so sorry! I thought I'd updated this chapter weeks ago! Thanks to everyone who'd left me messages asking about this. I'm a little ahead of myself, so I'm hoping to do a little more updating over the summer. this one's not very long, but it's a bridge chapter. enjoy I hope!

To everyone who's asked or remarked, my son is doing awesome! He's 8 months post transplant and it's like I have a different son. He is outdoors playing, swimming being a boy instead of stuck inside on oxygen and unable to move much less breath. It was such a miracle what has happened to him. Thank you everyone!

Marti


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Mina stood in the middle of her living room and sighed. They’d only lived here for two hours and the twins and Seri had already dragged most of their dolls out to scatter across the floor. She looked up at the clock and realized that the whistle blowing outside was the Hogwarts Express pulling into the village, ready to let off its precious cargo. She resisted the urge to bundle the four girls up and walk to the edge of the village for a sight of her eldest daughter. Jenny was eleven years old and would be living at the castle for the next nine months.

“Lana, Marika, Seri and Emily, time to get in here and pick up these toys. We’re going to get dinner ready. Who is in the mood for ‘make your own pizzas’?”

“Me!” Three voices answered in unison as the four girls came into the room, picking up their toys in a frenzy of energy. Mina watched the girls out of the corner of her eye while levitating boxes into the dining room. After years of not using her powers, this first year magic was exhausting her. She remembered with a smile the first time she learned ‘windgardium leviosa’ in class, and showing Ron how to do it correctly. That memory brought along the memory of her nightmare about being different and unloved. ‘Shrug it off. You have Se—Toby, five beautiful daughters and after 11 and a half years can still fling magic like you never left the wizarding world.’ She smiled as Seri picked up a pixie stick and waved it like her, imitating her motions perfectly.

Two boxes from the corner lifted off the floor near the front door and drifted towards the ones Mina had in the dining room. Mina gaped at her middle daughter, her wand dropping to her side, the boxes dropping on the table as her concentration faltered. Seri grinned up at her mother and moved her ‘wand’, guiding her boxes to land gracefully next to the ones her mother dropped.

“Seri. Seri, you did that right? I wasn’t imagining that.”

Unsure how to answer as one was a yes and the other a no, she just cocked her head to one side and smiled up at her mother, her dark eyes, so like Se—Toby’s looking up at her.

“Mommy, Seri did magic!”

“Oh, I know, Emily, love. Why don’t you all finish cleaning that living room? Maybe instead of cooking, we’ll go down to The Three Broomsticks for dinner. Madame Rosmerta, who runs it, is an old friend of mine. She’d love to meet the lot of you.”

Seri dropped the toy wand into the toy box and returned to helping her sisters. Mina swallowed and put her wand down on the table with a trembling hand. At such a young age, Seri shouldn’t have been able to do such strong magic, such focused magic. Some children just starting at Hogwarts couldn’t focus like her middle daughter had done with such ease. She still remembered Seamus blowing off his eyebrows in their first year while learning the exact same spell.

Mina smiled and finished moving her boxes. She helped the girls put away the last of the toys and aided Milana with her shoes while her twin stubbornly refused help with her own. Finally dressed and ready to venture from their new home, Mina held the hand of a twin in each of hers and guided the two older girls behind her, painfully aware that her oldest daughter was just up the hill with her father, and would be there until the Christmas holidays in three months. At least Tob—Severus would be coming home most every night.

The bar area of ‘The Three Witches’ was full, but the dining area had only a couple dining together in the corner, their heads bent close in a lover’s action. She smiled and helped the girls in to their chairs, then seated herself as Rosmerta, the witch who’d run the place since the mid-eighties came over with a big grin. She’d met the girls weeks before, but hadn’t thought to see them until their father was off duty on the weekend.

“Mina! So good of you to bring these scamps in to visit. What’s it to be tonight, girls?”

“’pasgeti! I wan’ ‘pasgeti!” Marika kicked her shoes off under the table, having put them on the wrong feet at home, grinning up at the older witch who ruffled her dark hair affectionately.

“Special tonight is spaghetti with meatballs, a salad and your drink of choice. For you four, I’ll make that pumpkin juices.”

“Rosmerta, that sounds lovely. I still haven’t unpacked everything in the kitchen. After ten years in America, I hadn’t realized just how much stuff we had!”

“I’m sure these big girls of yours help their mum, right?” Rosmerta looked from one little face to the next, all of them nodding their heads together.vigorously in agreement. Mina thought their ‘help’ left much to be desired, but at least they were willing. “If the lot of you eat all your dinners, I’ll bring out a treat for you. I made treacle tarts earlier, but forgot it was the first night up at the school, so I won’t be as busy as usual. Time does fly, doesn’t it? Seemed like yesterday you, Harry and Ron would come in here and do your plotting against You-Know-Who.”

“It was forever ago, wasn’t it, Rosmerta? I hope Jenny is doing alright tonight.” Mina fretted over her oldest daughter, taking the knives from the table and returning them to their hostess. The last thing she needed was any of her toddlers cutting themselves on their first full night alone together.

“She’ll be fine. Your years there not withstanding, Hogwarts is usually pretty safe.” Rosmerta teased her as she conjured four unbreakable glasses with anti-spill charms for the little girls.

“Yes, let’s regale the girls about all the shenanigans the boys and I got up to and give them ideas,” Mina remarked drolly as she noticed Emily’s look of interest. She had hoped to not tell her children about the antics of her years at school.

“Maybe another time, girls.” The older witch winked at the girls and left their table. Mina eyed all of her daughters, watching Seri out of the corner of her eye. She wasn’t doing anything magical right now, but she’d have to watch the girl more closely. She’d have to ward her and Emily’s room against spells and such in case, and she really didn’t look forward to telling her husband about this newest development. She did look forward to seeing him tonight and finding out which House their daughter had been Sorted into.

Soon, their dinners arrived and Mina just talked with the girls about their day. The twins had to regale her with every move they made, not minding that their mother had been with them for the majority of it and knew what had happened. Emily begged yet again to be allowed to sleep in her older sister’s room while she was at Hogwarts.

“You know what? You can ask your father when he gets home tonight. This yammering is giving me quite a headache. Finish your ice cream, Emily. You still have to take a bath before bed, all of you.”
Emily sighed but didn’t argue with her mother. “When’s Daddy gonna be home?”

“After he settles his Slytherin students. It will be after you are in bed. Daddy has a lot of work to do here. At home both of us worked at home, right?”

The girls nodded their heads in agreement.

“I miss Daddy,” Marika whispered, her bottom lip pouting out, signaling the beginning of a possible crying jag. Just what she needed; all four of her daughters crying for their father on his first full day of teaching.

“Daddy will be back after work, I told you. Finish your treats, girls. We still have to walk back to the house.” She hoped Jenny was alright on her first night away from home.

“I done.” Milana wiped her sleeve across her mouth, smearing the chocolate across her face. Mina should let Rosmerta clean the girls, but she wasn’t Slytherin enough to con her into. With a sigh, she waved her wand and cleaned all four faces and sent the dirty ice cream bowls into the kitchen.

“He—Mina, you didn’t have to do that! It’s my job,” Rosmerta fussed over the younger woman as she helped her youngest daughters from their chairs.

As the older shop owner fussed over my daughters, I thought about what had happened before. My mind was still wrapping around Seri’s magic being so focused at such a young age, and without words. Non-verbal spells were difficult for fully grown wizards, near impossible for school aged students at Hogwarts. For her, it should have been impossible. Before she knew it, they were home and the girls were gamboling through the living room, heading for their bedrooms to prepare for their first night in the new house.

It only took another hour to get them into their beds, read to and fast asleep. Then she had the house to herself to worry about her oldest daughter’s placement at Hogwarts.


(*(*(*(*)(*)(*)(*)(*)(*)(*)(*)(*)(*)


She looked impossibly small amongst the other first year students, but he picked his daughter out without a thought. She was wedged between Abraxas Malfoy and Victoire Weasley, her natural cousin. The looked as comfortable together as Hermione, Ron Weasley and Potter had been so many years ago. Of course, his wife hadn’t been anyone’s friend at this same moment, alienating some of her classmates before even being Sorted into a house.


“In a few moments you will be led into the Great Hall and be sorted into the house you will live in for the next seven years. Your Housemates will be your family, your actions will be what your House is judged by. If you do well, you and your house will be awarded. If you do not… do well, everyone in your House will suffer with you. I will call your name when we enter and you will sit on the stool before the Headmistress’ podium. Try not to cry.” He smirked at the tiny eleven year olds, all of whom had varying degrees of horror on their faces but one. Jenny gave him a look of incredulity. She’d never known him to cause a child to cry before, at least in her lifetime. Usually, he was consoling one of her sisters when they cried. Hogwarts was definitely different from home. “I am Professor Severus Snape. Recently, I returned to England to teach and take up the duties of Deputy Headmaster, Head of Slytherin House and Potions Master for the school. I’m sure we will all get along splendidly.” He said the last word with a sneer and turned back to the giant doors. Even though she’d been here at the castle numerous times over the last few weeks, even she felt a little shiver of anticipation about entering while all the older students were in there.

Abraxas reached for her hand and squeezed. She turned to him and gave him a lop-sided smile. She held her breath as her father pushed the doors open and swept into the Great Hall. As one, the rest of the First Years followed him, marching in between the Gryffindor and Ravenclaw tables. A few feet from the stool where the Sorting Hat rested, he stopped and turned back to them.

“I will call your names. You will sit on the stool where I will place the Sorting Hat on your head. When the Hat calls out your house, you will go directly to that table and sit until the rest of you are sorted and the Headmistress is ready to give her Beginning of Term speech.” ‘God help us all. I’m sure she’s worse than Albus, or at least as long-winded.’

He pulled the scroll out of his robe sleeve and unrolled it dramatically. From the corner of his eye he saw Minerva roll her eyes at the action. He grinned and looked back at the tiny eleven year old children. He saw the Malfoy boy’s hand in his daughter’s and made a point to remember to scare the boy again. Evidently he was far more stubborn than his older brother.

“Arston, Malcolm.” He started the list of students, vaguely hearing the names of the four Houses being called, until he got to the Malfoy boy’s name. With trepidation, the child stepped to the stool and hopped on it. With a little more force than was necessary, Severus plopped the hat onto his head. And waited. Usually, the Malfoys were immediately Sorted into Slytherin, which was what the Potions Master assumed, but he was surprised as well as most of the staff and student body when the Hat yelled out ‘Gryffindor’ to the entire student body.

“Holy shit,” one student behind Severus could be heard, but he didn’t turn around to call the boy on it. He had been thinking the exact same thing himself. Snapping his mouth closed, Severus watched the little blonde boy jump from the stool and stride with Malfoy swagger to the silent Gryffindor table. He resisted the urge to rub his nose as he thought about the owls he’d be getting over the course of the next few days.

With the surprise placement of a Malfoy into the Gryffindor house, the hall was far quieter than normal as Severus ran off the names of the students. He took a deep breath when he got to the last ‘S’ name, Isabella Smart.

“Snape, Jennifer.” He called to the remaining few first year students. He watched from his peripheral vision his daughter’s ascent. She sat gracefully and waited patiently for him to drop the hat onto her head. It sat for only a moment before opening its brim wide…