Choices Not Made

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Snape turned to Harry and harshly whispered, “Do not under any circumstance let anyone know that you do not know what is going on. Pretend that everything is perfectly normal. If you do so it will take more time for your enemies to take advantage of the situation and by then you will know Who They Are.”

Harry nodded though he thought that Snape was acting as paranoid as old Mad Eye Moody.

“Who is it?” Snape asked the door.

“Danielle.” Snape glared at the door hoping that the quiet female voice behind it would provide more information.

“Brown,” The voice continued. Snape continued to glare at it but seemed to vaguely recognize the name.

“Danielle Brown... your nanny?” The voice finished tentatively.

Snape opened the door but didn’t look any less wary. Harry sat at the desk and tried to look at the door casually. Behind it was standing a pretty woman who was looking nervously at Snape.

“What do you want?” Snape asked the woman, though the voice in which he was asking generally got the response of ‘Nothing’ and a quick retreat.

The woman obviously knew Snape too well as she stood her ground. “Is Mr. Potter-Snape feeling better?” She smiled nervously around Snape at Harry who smiled back.

“No, he is not.” Snape growled back. She started and Harry glared at the back of Snape’s head.

“Well, Constance was planning to stay until next Friday anyway so that’s ok. She really likes the babies. The boys and Cassie want to go flying in the field so I’ll bring them over there. That way they won’t bother you or Harry.” Danielle Brown, the Nanny smiled brightly at Snape who glared back causing her smile to waiver. “Mr. Potter-Snape.” She amended and finally made her quick retreat.

Harry laughed once the door was closed. “I think she’s used to you.”

Snape glared at him. “She was a student at Hogwarts, maybe around 7 years older than yourself, possibly a first year when I started teaching at Hogwarts. A Hufflepuff maybe? No matter, she is a cousin of Lavender Brown, a girl in your year. Average grades in potions, did the work... no talent though.” Snape paused to think and then grimaced. “She may know what’s happening, if she’s here quite often she should’ve felt it odd to need to expand on who she was.”

“She might not knock on the door usually. It is 10 am already we might normally be up by now.” Harry tried to explain. The woman didn’t seem like the kind of person who would do this.

Snape didn’t seem to appreciate his answer by the glare he received. “She did say that she was a nanny and mentioned a possibility of at least five children. That complicates things as children -- magical and non-magical -- are almost impervious to memory alteration spells. It’s almost always easier to take the time to convince them that something is different than it actually is, as they tend to be susceptible to suggestion. They are also more observant to changes in parents. It seems more work than necessary for a farce. It would seem that we have either been transported to the future or were here already and merely oblied. ed. I’ll need to do some more research to find out.”

Harry didn’t like the idea of Snape knowing the success rates of Obliviate on children any more than he liked the idea of simply forgetting the last 10 or so years of his life. On the other hand, he always wanted a family, and had hoped for a large one. Five children is a good number of children - it’s almost as many as the Weasleys. He had always envied Ron for his family even if Ron didn’t particularly care for hand-me-downs. But looking at the expansiveness of their surroundings, affording five children would be the least of their problems.

While Harry was thinking, Snape had walked back to the desk and, after contemplating the bells, had picked one up and rang it. Harry was startled out of his thought by the sudden appearance of a house-elf. The house elf was clothed in a tiny blue dress with a tiny white apron; a fact which obviously surprised Snape but just made Harry wonder about the success of Hermione\'s \"S.P.E.W.\" campaign.

“Master Snape wanted Twinky?” The elf squeaked out.

“Yes, are you loyal to me?” Snape asked, obviously wondering how a clothed elf could be.

“Yes, of course, Twinky would never dream of being unloyal to Master Snape, Twinky has been with Master Snape since Twinky was little. Twinky is very loyal to Master Snape. Twinky would do anything to make Master happy. Did Twinky do something that would make Master Snape question Twinky’s loyalty?” Twinky looked positively horrified and ted hed her hands in her apron.

“No, I believe you, I believe you,\" Snape quickly explained, not wanting to further complicate matters. He thought for a moment and went on, \"I would like you to lead Harry and myself to where we normally breakfast. I would like you to be invisible to everyone but us. Furthermore, I would like you to spend the day pretending that we do not remember anything and immediately tell us the answers to any questions we may ask, but also make sure that nobody else hears you. You may inform the other elves that you are doing a special task for the Masters and tell one of them to cover your tasks for the day.”

She looked positively delighted. “I am very honored that Master would ask this of me.” She popped out and popped back in within a second. “Cappy will do Twinky’s chores. Cappy was honored to help out the Masters.” Twinky then snapped her fingers and became blurry. She explained that now only they could see her.

After a nod of Snape\'s head, Twinky led them out of the room, down the hall to a large staircase, and then back around to the left to a dining area that over looked the same gardens as their bedroom. Obviously pleased at her new role as tour guide, she piped up \"Here is the room where Masters usually enjoy breakfast. The kitchen is below us, and your bedroom is partially above. We are in the majestic Braedlyn Ca. T. The castle is situated in Northern Scotland. It has over 600 rooms in a grand keep and 4 wings, and rests on a 20 square kilometer plot of land. The castle was originally built in the 12th century by a wealthy muggle Lord whose heirs eventually bore Wizards. The last of that great family died some 9 years ago and bequeathed the estate to Harry in gratitude for killing Voldemort. Two of the wings and their towers were separated off from the rest of the castle and moved to the southern part of the lands where they now house the Scottish center of the largest Wizard company in the world, White Lightening.\"

She was about to elaborate on the details of White Lightening Incorporated when a boy a bit younger than Harry came in.

“Morning, sleepy heads.” The boy grinned at them while grabbing some food from the platters in the center of the table.

“Good Morning,” Harry answered; the boy looked friendly enough. Harry frowned when he remembered that he was supposedly in his late 20’s. He wondered if they had adopted this boy, though he did somewhat resemble Snape.

“I don’t remember you two ever breakfasting this late.” The boy looked carefully between the two of them.

“We were up very late,” Snape answered.

The boy grimaced, “That is not something I want to know about.”

Harry tried not to look horrified. He would never do anything like that with Snape -- he couldn\'t even think it. Sneaking a quick glance over at Snape to make sure that he was sharing his discomfort, he found that instead Snape looked thoughtful, which terrified Harry as he didn’t want Snape getting any ideas.

“Thomas.” Snape suddenly said, which incredibly confused Harry.

“Oh come on Papa, I’m 14, I’m supposed to think the idea of my Father having sex is disgusting,” ‘Thomas’ shuddered.

Snape conceded and picked up the paper.

“What’s today’s date?” Thomas asked.

“August 17th 2007.” Snape answered, Harry gasped while Thomas groaned. It was over 10 years in the future.

“I only have two weeks before school starts and I haven’t even started my school work.” The boy complained.

“Thomas!” Snape glared at him.

“I know, I know. But when I was at Sean’s he never wanted to do homework. Then I was with Grandpa and all he wanted to do was spend ‘quality time’ with me on that boat, and then I come here and Orion is all ‘Thomas come fly with me’, ‘Thomas come play with me’, ‘Thomas look what I found’. When was I supposed to have time to do homework?” he growled, before donning an obviously calculated yet innocent expression on his face. “Speaking of which, may I use the lab to do my Potions essay?” he pleaded.

“I’ll be spending most of my time there today. If I’m not there when you need me, come find me,” Snape answered. “You may not have had time to work this summer, but I don’t want to hear that you haven’t been finding time to do homework in your classes.”

“Yes, Papa.” Thomas conceded. Shortly after which he got up and wandered off.

“How’d you know him? Is he your son?” Harry quizzed Snape.

“Hm.” Snape grunted, looking thoughtful.

“I never knew you were married. Do you have kids at Hogwarts?” Harry asked; as far as he ever knew Snape was single and alone. Thinking of Snape having a wife and babies when he was in school seemed a bit of a stretch.

“My personal business is none of yours.” Snape reprimanded him, he stood up and walked over to a small table that had more bells and a whistle on it. He rang one of the bells and Twinky abruptly showed up. “I would like directions to my potions lab, when I have them please lead Harry to the Library where he can study up on the last ten years.”

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