Twenty minutes later Severus was sitting with Horace Slughorn debating the merits of a paper that had recently been published out of Ilvermorny describing a novel use for rattlesnake venom when Lucius Malfoy approached and suggested in a whisper that it might be time to put Miss Aurelia to bed.

Severus looked up, brows furrowed, as he asked why.

Lucius Malfoy gave no answer; instead he just stared at him for a moment before gesturing to the library with a subtle incline of his head and then stalked off in the opposite direction.

Something was wrong and that fact that Lucius would try to alert him without actually saying anything could only mean one thing – there were death eaters involved. Severus leapt to his feet and muttering an apology to Horace who sat blinking in confusion at Malfoys retreating form, swept out the door to find her, with Slughorn hot on his heels as he came to realisation that something was amiss.

On reaching the library he found his fears realised as he spotted a number of his former brothers huddled in a tight circle, shielding whatever was happening inside from view.

As he approached the group he cleared his throat loudly causing a number of them to turn to see who it was before parting slightly to allow him entry.

Inside the circle he found Corban Yaxley crouched down beside his daughter, one hand gripping her shoulder, the other his wand as he verbally assaulted her.

"Is there a problem here Corban?" Severus asked with forced civility, resisting the urge to disarm him and blast him out the door.

The man rose, dropping his wand but keeping a firm hold of Aurelia, "Yes Severus this stupid child…."

"That child is my daughter Corban." He threatened, coldly.

"Your daughter?" the man spluttered, blanching.

Severus nodded, "Yes Corban and I would ask that you unhand her immediately before I am forced to curse you into next week."

Yaxley released her apologising profusely for overstepping the mark in attempting to discipline her.

With a hooked finger, Severus beckoned her towards him, "What did you do Aurelia?" he asked.

She stared at him, eyes wide with terror, bottom lip quivering as she frantically shook her head back and forth.

"Avery?" he asked, turning to his former classmate for answers.

"She was asleep on the floor and he tripped over her." Avery confessed with a chuckle as Crabbe and Goyle Senior brayed like the brainless oafs they were.

"That's it?"

Avery nodded.

Yaxley opened his mouth, attempting to defend himself but was silenced by a scathing look from Snape as he plucked Aurelia up into his arms, and kissed her softly on the forehead before assuring her that she did nothing wrong.

"I think you owe my daughter an apology Corban." Severus told him testily.

"I am sorry Miss Aurelia, I should not have blamed you for my clumsiness." He muttered looking thoroughly embarrassed.

Severus nodded curtly, accepting the apology, though he longed to make the idiot squirm for having upset her, it wasn't really something worth starting a feud over. "Excuse me gentlemen, I think it's time I put my daughter to bed." He said, taking his leave of them, leaving Slughorn there to reacquaint himself with his former students.

Severus swept up the stairs, Aurelia clutched tight to his chest as he apologised again and again for his harshness with her. He stopped at the first landing, and summoned Cobb. The elf appeared instantly. "Yes Master?" he asked, enthusiastically awaited his orders.

"Find Mistress Morgana please, and tell her to meet me in the Nursery now."

The elf nodded and bowed deeply before disappearing to do as he was bid.

By the time his wayward wife eventually appeared, Severus had their daughter tucked up in bed in her new nightgown and was reading to her from the twins copy of the tales of Beedle the Bard.

"This is very uncharacteristic of you Severus." She remarked with a smirk as she took in the cosy domestic scene.

"Well at least one of us is going to have to start putting the children first..." He replied, without looking up from the book.

"Excuse me?" she exclaimed, temper starting to rise.

Severus handed Aurelia the book so she could look at the illustrations.

"Where were you?" he asked frowning.

"Outside, Brendan wanted to see the band." She replied, sighing, she couldn't see what his problem was.

"You left Aurelia inside, on her own, in a house full of strangers."

"Those strangers are your friends Severus, are you telling me my children are not safe here – in their fathers house?"

He ran his hand through his hair in frustration, only she would find a way to turn this back on him. "Of course they are safe here." He argued, "but she is only four years old, you need to watch her. She was asleep on the floor."

"The floor?" she asked incredulously, "Honestly Severus, I thought there was something wrong when you summoned me up here like that."

"She could have been hexed, someone tripped over her."

"Who"?

"That is irrelevant, Morgana."

"Who Severus?" She demanded.

"Corban Yaxley."

"That pompous old fool, who likes to think of himself as some kind of Ministry bigwig?" She asked with a snort.

Severus nodded, with a smirk, adding that Fudge wouldn't trust him to get lunch never mind do anything important.

She inhaled deeply, "I'll kill him."

Severus looked at her in shock.

She sighed, " I didn't mean literally, I'll make him pay though."
Her husband shook his head "Leave it, I dealt with it."
"Nobody threatens my children and gets away with it Severus." She replied darkly.

"Morgana, I said I dealt with it." He reiterated crossly before asking where Brendan was now.

"He's still outside," she told him, "Gruoch is with him."

He looked at her in a way that suggested he didn't put much faith in her friend's capabilities when to looking after their child but he said nothing.

"I'll put him to bed when the students go." Morgana told him, answering the unasked question.

He nodded, then turned back to their daughter, intending to finish their story only to find that she had already fallen asleep.

He picked up the book and placed it on the bedside table before gently kissing her. "Sleep well Princess." He whispered, before stepping back and watching as his wife adjusted her blankets and planted a similar kiss on the child's forehead. He then offered her his arm and led her back downstairs.

On reaching the foot of the stairs however she spotted Yaxley standing off toward the side with Lucius Malfoy and his boss Cornelius Fudge, clearly enjoying himself as he laughed uproariously.

She pulled away from Severus and marched straight up to him, "Go near my child again Yaxley and die." She warned, slapping him across the face.

"Mistress Snape?" He spluttered in shock, he had reflexively turned as she went to hit him causing one of her fingernails to scrape his cheek, drawing blood.

In an attempt to diffuse the situation Severus hurried after her, grabbing her roughly by the arm. "Morgana I said I dealt with it." He hissed, preventing her from causing any further disturbance as he apologised to his guests.

"If you had truly dealt with it he wouldn't still be here enjoying your hospitality." She replied, squirming in his grasp.

"Merlin Morgana, all he did was shout at her, it hardly warranted throwing him out." Snape told her, while secretly applauding her action. He would have hit the clumsy old fool himself if he didn't think he might have use of him when it came to Harry's fight against the Dark Lord in the future.

"I'm very sorry, Mistress Snape." The usually haughty man grovelled as he dabbed delicately at his bloody cheek with his handkerchief, "I didn't know she was your daughter."

"Its fine Corban, forget about it." Snape said glowering at his estranged wife, and applying a gentle pressure to her arm until she had indicated she accepted the man's apology with a brief nod of her head.

Satisfied that she would not cause another scene, he released her and ignoring Lucius's questioning look, offered to heal Yaxley's cut.

"I apologise for my wife's rashness." He told him once all trace of the injury had vanished, "I am afraid she can be rather overprotective when it comes to our children."

"Completely understandable, my own wife was the very same when ours were little. Fudge said, smiling warmly at her, "Still is in fact!" he added with a laugh that was quickly echoed by the three men.

Morgana smiled at Fudge as Severus excused himself from their company, but it was an expression that faded quickly from her face the moment they were alone again.

"You truly are your father's son Severus Tobias Snape." She said bitterly, rolling down her glove to inspect a reddening mark on her forearm.

He apologised, most sincerely – he had never intended to physically hurt her, never! It was a promise he had made to himself a long time ago and it shocked him to his core at how easily he had unwittingly broken that promise.

He stepped forward pleading with her to allow him to heal it but she stepped back snapping at him to just leave her alone.

He froze.

"I'm going outside to find Brendan, we can speak later."

Severus nodded, and watched dolefully as she stalked off.

"Is everything okay Severus?" Poppy asked, approaching him a few minutes later. "You look like you've seen a ghost!"

"What?" he asked blinking at her in puzzlement, in some ways he had just been staring into his father's ghost. "Yes I'm sorry, I was just thinking about something."
"Morgana?" she asked knowingly.

The mediwitch had witnessed their conversation then." He thought with renewed guilt.

"I didn't mean to hurt her." he said quickly.

"I know Severus."

"Aren't you disappointed in me Poppy." He asked sorrowfully.

She looked at him strangely, all of a sudden the tall foreboding man standing before her, all but vanished as she remembered the quiet, desolate young boy who had frequently found himself in her care many moons ago.

"Why would I be disappointed in you Severus?" She asked.

"Didn't you see what I did to her?" he replied, impatiently.

Poppy shook her head, she hadn't actually seen them together at all, not for an hour or so at least, she was just returning from the bathroom when she had noticed the potions master standing off alone to one side, staring into the distance and figured she should probably to talk to him, make sure that everything was alright.

"I hurt her Poppy, I didn't even mean to but I did, I am becoming my father and there is nothing I can do to stop it, it's no wonder no one wants me to know I'm their children's father."

"You hit her?" Poppy clarified, somewhat incredulously.

"Well no I just grabbed her arm, and restrained her a bit, but that's not the point, I'm bigger and stronger than her, and I used brute force to bend her to my will."

Poppy regarded him sternly and asked him what he was trying to get her to do and after he explained all about Yaxley and Aurelia and how he had enough enemies without stirring up more trouble unnecessarily he was somewhat taken aback to find the mediwitch smiling warmly at him.

"Restraining someone is not the same as hitting someone Severus, you did what you needed to do to protect your family, and that includes her and her children, you are nothing like your father."

He smiled at her weakly, he still wasn't thoroughly convinced but he was saved from further discussion when a rather inebriated Flitwick came up to them and tried to convince them to join him in a spirted rendition of an old song about Harry's defeat of the Dark Lord.

"Have you lost your mind Filius?" Severus asked, shushing him as he glanced cautiously around at the many former death eaters that dotted the room

Flitwick gulped, sometimes it was easy to forget that the man he taught alongside every day had once fought on the dark side. Subsequently he had a few rather questionable acquaintances, some it seemed even he didn't truly trust.

Flitwick eyed him curiously for a moment, then smiling knowingly at him launched into a new song, this one on the much safer topic of the Founding of Hogwarts.

Severus and Poppy looked at each other and rolled their eyes, "Care to dance?" he asked her, desperate to put as much distance between himself and the charms professor as possible, before he was forced to join in – Severus Snape did not sing!

The band finished up to howls of disappointment just after one o'clock, they had already played two encores and probably would have even played a third had his father not come out to remind his students that it was home time.

In true Gryffindor fashion, Lee Jordan had attempted to convince the stern Potions Master to permit them to stay a while longer but the Professor was not to be swayed. He eyed Jordan curiously. In truth he somewhat admired the boys boldness, there were not many who would dare seek anything from him but if he wanted to keep control of his classes he had to keep it that way and besides, he had been playing chaperone for long enough, he wanted a chance to unwind a little, and he couldn't very well accomplish that with a hoard of overexcited students roaming about.

"Home Time Mr Jordan." He reiterated sternly, wand arm outstretched, finger pointing back towards the house and by extension the floo. Jordan scowled, but reluctantly turned as though to join the line of students filtering towards the exit had his departure not been blocked by the sudden appearance of one Draco Malfoy. Who, unable to resist an opportunity to show off, had just slithered up with the smugly sneering Pansy Parkinson hanging off his arm. "Could I stay a little longer Uncle Sev? He asked politely, smirking triumphantly at the Gryffindor as he waited for what he knew would be a positive answer.

Snape glowered at him, Draco was his Godson, but the boy could truly infuriate him sometimes. He had warned him against calling him that in public and his invite had been open ended so he already knew he could wait on, he was only asking to get one up on Jordan.

"Since your parents accompanied you here tonight to look after you, Master Draco, and you are not my responsibility, you are welcome to remain a while longer." He replied sarcastically as his godson flushed red and the slighted Gryffindor burst out laughing.

Draco drew his wand and pointed it at Lee Jordan but Severus snatched it from his grasp before he had a chance to use it.

Severus clicked his fingers and gestured once more towards the house with a pointed look at the Gryffindor who obediently hurried off towards the exit. Then turning toward his godson asked: "I do hope that you were not planning on performing underage magic in my house Mr Malfoy?"

Draco had intended to hit the boy with a stinging hex to match the sting of embarrassment he had felt at having been ridiculed in front of him but one look at Snape's thunderous face told him it would be better not to admit to it and he shook his head.

The Potions master continued to glower at him incredulously until he offered up an explanation for what he had been intending to do. "I was just an empty threat Sir, I wasn't intending to actually use it." He offered weakly.

Severus raised an eyebrow and made a contemplative noise with his throat that made it clear that he didn't really believe him, but with Jordan now out of harm's way, he surprised him by returning the wand with a caution that it was unwise to threaten things you were not willing to follow through on and left it at that.

Severus would have expected any other child to say thank you, but Draco wasn't any other child and with his wand now safely back in his possession he was emboldened to rebuke his godfather for having embarrassing him in the first place.

"You embarrassed me Mr Malfoy." He replied, stressing the Mr Malfoy, " I believe we have already spoken about how I feel about being addressed as Uncle Sev.

"What's wrong with him calling you that?" Pansy interrupted, "You are his Godfather are you not."

Severus nodded curtly, though she was one of his own little snakes, something about that girl really infuriated him.

Meanwhile a slightly confused Draco argued that he had requested him not use such a term of endearment at school or in public.

Severus scowled, His Godson was not stupid, he knew well enough that it would have been inappropriate to address him as such in front of his students even if they were in his own home. He had simply been showing off but when a quieter more uncertain voice asked if he was embarrassed to be his Godfather he softened, "Of course not Draco." He replied, before affectionately tousling the child's hair and then laying a reassuring hand on his shoulder.

"Awwww." Pansy simpered at them, causing Draco to spring back, blushing. Snape smirked, "And that Draco is why I recommend familiarity be kept to an absolute minimum in public."

Pansy scowled, I bet you have no objection to Potter calling you Daddy, Professor?" she muttered bitterly.

Snape eyed her curiously, it was very unslytherin of her to make such a remark with seemingly nothing to gain, before replying to state that his children addressed him as Father. He had always found the term 'daddy' rather undignified though the idea that his son might secretly think of him so warmed his heart slightly and he had to resist the urge to smile. "I have never once heard Harry use that term nor do I expect will I." He added with a gruff air of finality before telling them both to either return to their parents or join the other students making their way to the Floo to return home .

Harry had stood at the fireside, to bid farewell to his young guests and to thank them for coming. He had been hoping that his father might have allowed Lee and some of the others to remain a while longer. He had said he had something to show them but it would have to wait till they returned to Hogwarts now. He knew better than to push it- hadn't his father already been most gracious in inviting them all here in the first place. It was only after Lee and his other friends were actually gone that Harry realised with annoyance that the same curfew had not been extended to most of the Slytherins whose parents were all here. In fact for a while after the band had finished playing Harry, Hermione, the Weasley's and Neville whose Granny had turned out to be a bit of a party animal, found themselves seriously outnumbered.

It was such an uncomfortable feeling in fact that they had almost retreated to the Nursery, only for they met Morgana on the stairs and realised that Brendan and Aurelia were sleeping and so instead they had to content themselves with carving out a little privacy for themselves among the stacks in the library. They stayed there safely ensconced among the vast tomes, free to talk away from adult supervision and the prying eyes of their rivals until they were pried from their hiding place by an exhausted Mrs Longbottom in search of her Grandson, leaving Harry to realise with a pang of guilt that he had pretty much deserted his own party.

Slightly embarrassed, he walked Neville and his Granny back to the floo and bade them farewell before looking around and realised that there were only thirty or forty other guests left now.

Severus was standing by the window with a sinister looking man Harry couldn't remember the name of. He frowned when he spotted him, having assumed that the children's absence meant they had had the good sense to take themselves off to bed. "Excuse me." He said, with a sigh, leaving Avery to search for company elsewhere. If there was one thing he had learned during his tenure as Potions Master and head of Slytherin house it was that, though otherwise desirable, an unnatural quietness in children usually meant that mischief was afoot.

He hurried over toward them, his dress robes billowing menacingly behind him as he crossed the room. He knew the sight wasn't quite as foreboding as when he did it in his teaching robes but it was close enough and a single demand to know what they had been up to was enough to prompt Harry into a frenzied apology.

So they were up to something, Severus thought to himself triumphantly, the pleasure of being right momentarily outweighing the thought of what horrors they might have in store for him later. After a minute of two though he started to realise that they didn't seem to be quite on the same page- Harry was merely apologising for having disappeared.

Severus smiled at him, relieved to know that he needn't fear finding any lizards or anything hiding between his bed sheets. "I didn't expect you to play host all night Harry, this is your party, I wanted you to have fun!" Then glancing at the clock added that he would however like if they called it a night soon and went to bed. A sentiment echoed by Mrs Weasley who appeared moments later having spotted them on her way back from the lavatory and had hurried over, clucking like a mother hen.

The children managed to convince them to allow them to wait up just a little longer but eventually with no sign of them deciding to go themselves Severus found himself forced to send them to bed.

In fact he was starting to wish he could just send everyone home to bed. He was getting quite tired himself now and it was almost 5 o clock the next morning when the last guest; Malfoy, of course, finally left and Severus could make his weary way upstairs.

On his way up he checked on each of his children in turn. All of them far away in dreamland, looking happy and safe and warm and as in stood in the doorway of his old room, smiling to himself at the way Harry lay sprawled across the bed, he realised that he felt truly content in himself for the first time in years.

All in all, the Ball had been a roaring success. He had publically acknowledged Harry as his son and let it be known that whatever the past it was something they were now at peace with.

Baring the incident with Yaxley the party had brought about no major trouble and none to concern Harry - even Morgana had been surprisingly well behaved! He had even had an opportunity to begin planting seeds of doubt in the minds of some of his fellow former death eaters as to the wisdom of returning to the Dark Lords service should he rise again.

Finally, he had to admit he had gotten great satisfaction in everyone knowing that in some ways Lily Evans had been his after all. Not even that could match the joy he felt at having all five of his most treasured children here together, asleep under his roof, for the first time ever though and as he stumbled along the darkened corridors to bed he vowed to himself that it was something that would be happening again sometime very soon.

Hello everyone,

This piece is getting a little unwieldy in length now so i am going to finish it up here but i do intend to continue the story as a part two!

Thank you to everyone who has stayed with me to the end, especially those who have taken the time to review. I really hope you have enjoyed my version of events.

Best regards

An tSiog.