FAMILY STICKS TOGETHER: CHAPTER 3

To say that they were in shock would be the understatement of the century.

Hal was staring at a spot on the wall trying to process what he'd just heard.

Alexia was looking down at her lap, eyebrow furrowed as she thought deeply about whether or not she thought he was telling the truth about magic.

Lucas was looking at Severus as though he was some lunatic, not believing a word of it.

Theodore had dropped his cookie and was staring at Severus, jaw hanging as though it had been dislocated.

Cassidy had stopped wriggling on the couch and was imagining the possibilities in life with magic.

Young Kate was just sitting there, looking at the rest of her family, wondering why the strange man telling them about magic had made them so quiet.

Severus could tell that they all wanted to believe it all, but it probably seemed too good to be true. That was the problem. Severus had never done a muggleborn pick up before but he had, however, had some experience with explaining the magical world and dealing with reactions to it. He had, after all, explained it all to Lily once upon a time. He could tell that these kids had been living on bare minimum for three years or so and it would've been a long time since they'd ever had a birthday wish come true or an unbelievable toy they'd always wanted. The idea of magic would up there in that category of wonderful things that would never, or should never, happen to them. The fact that it shouldn't exist in their world and was only meant to be in stories and fairy tales was another reason why they couldn't comprehend it.

Severus watched the children. It was obvious that they weren't taking the news too well at all. He sighed; they were probably going to need proof.

"Miss James?" he turned to Kate hoping that winning her over would help the other children to follow. "What is your favourite colour?" he couldn't believe he was doing this. He hated children. Full stop. Yet here he was, asking a little girl what her favourite colour was. He wished he could leave now but there was something about these children that was different. He felt he had to stay.

Kate thought for a few moments, humming softly as she cocked her head to the side. "Green!" she decided finally. "Like Hal's eyes!"

Severus hesitated for a moment before looking at the boy's eyes, something he'd been trying to avoid. He couldn't help but think of Lily as he did, they were so alike her eyes. Nevertheless, he looked at them, took it the forest green swirl over the bright emerald green, keeping a strong hold on his emotions. Once he was certain he had the right colour in mind, he pulled out his wand and pointed it at the dirty grey wall by the fireplace. "Scourgify!" he said first to clean it off. "Color cambire," he said clearly, thinking hard about that green colour. The children gasped as the wall rapidly changed from the old dank grey to a bright emerald green with forest coloured swirls here and there. Said swirls were even moving. Some pulsed, other were spinning, some spread into other or grew before splitting off into smaller ones. They all sighed; it was amazing. It was magic.

Harry blinked owlishly. The man had said one word, pointed his stick thing (which Harry assumed was a wand), and suddenly the wall was clean. Harry could now see that the wall was meant to be a pale blue rather than the ugly grey they'd always seen. But Professor Snape wasn't done, it seemed. He waved his wand and said "color camberay" (or something similar) and a bright emerald green colour seemed to sink into the wall and quickly spread. Harry gasped as he saw a pattern appear on it. The pattern was moving! Harry couldn't believe his eyes.

"Magic," he heard Ali sigh.

"Woah, awesome!" Theo laughed.

Little Kate clapped and laughed.

"Is it normal for us to have performed magic before now?" Harry couldn't resist asking, eyes still locked on the wall.

"Yes, most definitely," Professor Snape replied. "It's called accidental magic. Often happens before a child has received their wand and is feeling an extreme emotion of some sort. Why do you ask?"

Harry wondered for a moment whether or not it would be right to mention their little 'incidents' but figured it could do no harm to ask. Especially if it turned out that his siblings had magic too.

"Cassie, as a baby, broke windows when she cried. When she came to the or-" Harry quickly stopped himself from saying orphanage and moved on before it was too noticeable. "School that Ali and I were at, we saw her getting bullied and we shouted at them to leave her alone, we both felt a surge of energy and the bullies were suddenly blasted into a wall and knocked out. Theo and I once jumped out of a fifth floor window but Theo somehow managed to stop us from hitting the ground and we floated a metre above it. Luke threw his body over Kate in a car crash and they both survived without a scratch while the other occupants of the car didn't." Harry saw Luke wince. He felt really bad for bringing it up but felt it was important for him to do so. He gulped at looked at Luke who gave him a small nod to show he was ok before turning his attention to the wall as a distraction. "And when Kate was three she managed to make her paper aeroplane actually fly and do turns and loops and things, but without throwing it." Kate's smile widened at the mention of the paper aeroplane, it had been a favourite of hers for a very long time.

Severus listened intently to the boy before he nodded. Those definitely seemed like examples of accidental magic though some of them definitely had him wondering about the backgrounds of these children. Like the notion of a car crash or jumping out of a fifth floor window. He closed his eyes, centred his mind and when he reopened them his eyes were attacked by the many bright colours now visible to them.

Severus had a Seers Gift, one he kept to himself. He could see auras. He rarely used it but decided to then to check whether the boy's suspicions of the other children having magic were true.

First he saw Cassidy who was surrounded by a glowing orange aura. Severus had never bothered with learning what the colours meant but knew enough to know that orange was optimistic at least. Looking a bit closer, he saw what he was looking for: a shimmering violet line surrounding her aura proclaiming her a witch.

Beside Cassidy was Lucas, who was surrounded by a mix of blues. Severus recognised royal blue as a positive but was almost certain that the heaviness of the navy colour was not. Lucas, too, had the violet trimming on his aura.

Next came Theodore, whose aura was a reassuring red-orange colour, also lined with violet.

Severus then looked at Alexia whose aura was a light turquoise, which went rather nicely with the violet surrounding it.

It was the youngest girl's aura, however, which really caught his attention. Kate was surrounded by a white light, showing her character was still innocent and pure and her aura had yet to be properly decided. Severus then saw the small pulsing green lights. Green was a colour he basically knew. All greens were based around love. Lily's aura had been bright emerald like her eyes and Severus was almost certain he saw that same emerald beginning to form for this little girl. Aside from all that, Severus didn't fail to not that she did have the bright violet shining around her aura, marking her as magical.

Finally, Severus looked towards Hal. His eyes went wide when he saw the boy's aura. He'd been wondering if this boy's aura would take on a green like his eyes, it wouldn't be surprising considering how much he seemed to care for his 'family' but was thoroughly shocked to see the deep red glowing around the boy. Severus may not know much about his Gift but he knew that red, deep red, was a strong and powerful colour. That, combined with the thick line of violet that he saw, marked this boy as powerful. Severus knew at once that this would be a boy to watch out for in the future.

He blinked hard, cancelling his Gift, before looking back at them. They were confused again. "I can see auras, I do not wish to explain them but perhaps you may know of in the future," he said. "I can tell you that you are all definitely magical."

The smiles lit up on their faces as they looked at each other with joy suddenly bubbling with excitement, all talking at once. Severus leaned back. He'd never seen such happiness in children. His snakes were trained to hide their emotions in public so such displays were foreign to him. He didn't like it at all.

"Stop that at once," he snarled out. The affect was instant.

The children now sat in silence with their heads bowed. They didn't know what they'd done wrong but they knew better than to get on an adult's bad side.

"Sorry sir," it was Hal who spoke up.

Severus looked at the children. He was pleased that they'd obeyed and immediately shut up but at the same time he felt a bit bad for putting a damper on their excitement.

No, that was wrong.

He shouldn't be feeling bad at all. They were just measly children, probably Gryffindors too by the looks of it. He glared at the oldest boy, suddenly feeling the need to take out his confusion on someone.

"Where did you say your parents were?" he asked with narrowed eyes. He knew the answer but felt the need to finally clear it up and didn't feel in the mood to be nice about it. Severus was rather surprised to see that the boy did not falter under his intense glare.

"Out," was all that the boy would say, glaring right back at him.

"When will they be back?" Severus asked coldly.

"I don't know," the boy replied with a level glare. "What business is it of yours?"

Severus actually laughed at this. "I cannot take you for your supplies without parental permission and they have yet to confirm if you will be attending."

That must have had an impact because Hal was silent, they all were. Severus wondered if he should've taken a different approach to the subject of their 'parents' but knew now was too late. The boy should get used to this side of him anyway as he would most likely see it plenty at Hogwarts.

"What's the point in asking me where they are?" he snarled suddenly. "You already know the answer, so why ask?" the boy's voice was dripping with sarcasm.

The silence in the room spoke louder than a thousand words. The tension was rising. The six children's eyes remained on Severus, sending what may have been some of the coldest glares they could muster. For the first time in a very long time, Severus really wanted to apologise to a child. Six children even. It was obvious these children had nothing and Severus attacking them like that was cruel. They may even have had worse childhoods than Severus, and that was obviously saying something.

That was when something clicked in his mind.

"I know now why I recognise you," he said quietly, shocking all the children with his sudden change of topic and tone, though their glares still remained. "Must've been two and a half years or so ago that you came knocking on my door because that little girl," he pointed at Kate, "was sick."

He looked at Hal. He was silent. Waiting for a response.

Harry's glare faltered for a moment and he looked at the man curiously. He hadn't thought the man remembered seeing as he hadn't mentioned it yet.

It was during their winter after they'd first found the apartment. The market was shut and stocks low at the supermarket. They had basically nothing and were all near starving and freezing. Then came the worst part. Kate had come down with the flu. With no medical supplies, a broken oven leading to no hot water and not being able to go to a hospital seeing as they were runaway orphans, the kids had been forced to knock on doors asking for help. Almost every single house was empty due to families on holiday or going out. Any doors that did open were shut in their faces as shouted, calling the children beggars and thieves. Harry had gone all the way down Spinner's End with little Kate and finally someone actually looked at the sickly four year old, let them in and treated her. Though he called himself 'a doctor of sorts', none of them recognised any of the medicine he gave Kate, various liquids of different colours and such. They did not question him, they didn't even wonder for a moment if it could've been a scam. He gave her at least four and helped her drink them before escorting them back to the junction on Orion Road from where they insisted on walking alone.

"You're the man who saved Kate," Harry whispered. The others gasped and looked at the man with new eyes.

I remember you telling me your parents were out of town. I'm not too sure why I believed that anyone would leave an eight year old and a three year old alone," Professor Snape said, it was a statement, not a question.

"She was four," Harry mumbled, knowing she probably looked a lot younger due to the lack of food.

Professor Snape stared at Harry, disbelief written all over his face. Harry looked down, wringing his hands feeling awful. He knew what the professor was thinking. He was adding up the numbers and looking over Kate. Harry knew his little girl could still pass as four, though she barely did back then. He blamed himself. If only he was able to get more food and provide more for them.

"How old are you all?" the professor asked them in a much kinder voice, his expression now much softer. Harry knew that the man was now able to work it all out.

"Luke and I are ten like Hal, Theo is nine, Cassie is eight and Kate is five," it was Ali who answered, she too was definitely a lot quieter than normal. Harry looked around and finally noticed that they all were.

"Do you know your birthdays?"

Harry nodded sadly at the others. They all realised they would give up hiding the fact that they really were orphans. Even Kate by now knew that this man understood that they didn't have parents and they weren't really related.

"Mine is somewhere in either July or August," Harry replied first. Severus raised an eyebrow, urging him to explain. "I was left at the orphanage by my Aunt and Uncle when I was five. I knew I was younger than my cousin but still in the same school year as him. Dudley's birthday was in June so that left me somewhere in July or August 1980. My relatives never celebrated it or even told me when it was so that's all I know," he shrugged. Harry could've sworn he saw some spark of recognition in the man's eyes when he mentioned Dudley's name but neither dwelled on it.

"January 11th 1981," said Ali, interrupting the moment. "And before you ask, yes I'm sure."

"April 9th 1981," said Luke. "And I have more reason to be sure than Ali. I celebrated my first eight birthdays with my parents."

"I'm September 30th 1981," said Theo proudly. "Though I only knew that from finding my birth certificate when I was five. My dad was a drug addict and my mum died when I was born. Dad barely remembered my name, didn't expect him to remember my birthday," he shrugged nonchalantly as if the subject was as fickle as talking about pumpkin types.

"My birthday is between the 10th and 13th of June 1983," said Cassie. "I was left on the orphanage doorstep on the night of the 13th and they guessed the 12th but said it could've been any of the days after the 10th."

"My birthday 26th November," Kate smiled. "1986…?" she looked up at Harry trying to figure out if she'd gotten the right year.

"Actually it's '85 Kit Kat," Hal ruffled her hair affectionately as the little girl said, "Oops!" before snuggling into Hal.

Professor Snape looked a bit taken aback. Harry understood, they were extremely mature for their ages but that did come with the circumstances.

The man stood up from his chair and said, "How about we go and buy your school supplies, Hal?"

Harry was a bit surprised to be called Hal by the man, as he'd called Kate 'Miss James' but figured it was because there would otherwise be three 'Mr James's and there 'Miss James's. "Can the others come?" he asked.

"Of course," he said. The children cheered. "And please get any stuff you may have here because you won't be coming back."

No.

The word echoed in Harry's mind. No. No. NO.

Looks of horror and disgust appeared on his siblings' faces too.

"You can't turn us in!" Luke shouted angrily, putting his arms protectively around Cassie and Theo.

Harry and Ali glared at the man.

Professor Snape winced. "I don't plan on turning you in. I obviously can't let you live in this place alone now, so you're all coming to stay with me until we figure out what to do with you."

More staring. They'd been doing that a lot today, Harry realised. The first movement was Kate. She ran up to the professor and hugged him. Of course, the little girl only came up to his waist, so she hugged his leg but the gesture was the same. Harry nearly laughed, the man looked appalled at being hugged. Probably not something he was used to. He seemed very unsure of how to react but he eventually settled for gently patting her head until he was bombarded by a double hug attack from Cassie and Theo. Ali, Luke and Hal stood a bit further away, they didn't try to hug him as they could sense his discomfort, but they did smile, this man was going to help them.

"Well go on," the professor finally pushed the younger three off him gently, "Go get your things," he told them. "I'll just wait here."

…FamilySticksTogether…

The group walked down Spinner's End together. Cassie and Theo were up front, trying to annoy Severus (he'd actually asked them to call him that since they'd be living with him), Ali and Luke were in the middle talking in hushed tones and Hal was bringing up the rear with Kate holding on to his hand tightly.

"Are we not coming back, Hal?" Kate asked.

"No, Katie, we're not," Harry replied. "We're going to stay with Severus."

Even though it was the fiftieth time he'd gone over that thought, Harry still felt a wave of relief pass over him again. The kids would finally be able to live proper lives and he wouldn't have to nick food and supplies anymore. If one of them was sick, Severus could give them a drink thing like he had those years ago with Kate. They could all use the Hogwarts bursary funds to attend school.

"I don't think he likes children," his thoughts were interrupted by Kate's sudden observation.

Harry looked over at Severus. Well, he definitely looked rather uncomfortable with Cassie and Theo all over him. He definitely didn't seem as used to children as Harry would've thought a teacher to be. But that was probably just his personality.

"I'm sure that's not true, Kit," he said, squeezing her hand. "Just give him a chance to get used to us."

They finally reached Severus's house. As soon as it was unlocked, Cassie and Theo ran inside.

"Get back here, brats!" Severus shouted, stalking after them.

To others, Harry guessed Severus must be intimidating. But from what Harry had seen, Severus had a nicer side and he was sure that he'd eventually warm up to the kids.

"We won't be staying long," Severus was saying. "We need to get to Diagon Alley."

"But what will we pay with?" Harry asked. "We don't have any money."

"That'll be sorted by a quick trip to Gringotts," Severus said. He was about to walk into another room when he suddenly stopped. "Your names," he said. "Do you all know your real names?"

Luke, Theo, and Ali nodded. Cassie looked down at her shoes sadly. Kate looked up at Luke, question in her eyes. He nodded at her. Harry didn't do anything. He wasn't sure whether Severus knew that his name was Harry James Potter, seeing as he'd addressed him as Hal James.

"Well?" Severus prompted.

"Theodore Damien Casey," said Theo.

"I'm Lucas Connor Tamlyn and Kate's real name is Kate Isabelle Cameron," said Luke. "Actually Kate real name might be Katherine…"

Severus nodded.

"My name is Alexia Freya Hastings," said Ali. "Is there any way we can find out if Kate is Kate or Katherine?"

"Yes, Gringotts can help us confirm," said Severus, turning to Cassie.

"My name is Cassidy," she said. "That's all I know."

Finally, Severus looked at Harry.

"Don't you already know my name?" he asked cautiously. "The school sent me my letter with my real name on it."

Severus's eyes widened as he adopted a confused expression. This was obviously news to him.

"Your letter was addressed to 'Mr H. James'," he said.

Harry looked curiously at Severus, wondering what was going on. "No it wasn't," he said. "It was addressed to 'Mr H. J. Potter'. My real name I suppose. Harry James Potter."

…FamilySticksTogether…

Thanks for reading, I hope you like it! Sorry it's a bit shorter but my dad was in a car accident on Monday so I've got quite a lot going on at home right now…

To all those wonderful people who reviewed…

geetac : I'm glad you've enjoyed it! I hope you like this chapter too!

Dark Neko 4000 : Sorry I can't give it all away yet! Here is his reaction to their lifestyle. I know we didn't see that part from his point of view but we will soon but in a (hopefully) unexpected way. Seeing his reaction to Hal being Harry will come soon. Hope you've liked this chapter and continue to read it!

Mason : I'm so glad you like it! I actually started writing it just because I wanted to read something like it but couldn't find anything. I hope it's good enough for you! I also really like seeing Hal like this and he will continue to act like it even though they now have Severus sort of looking after them. Thank you so much for your review and I hope you like this chapter!

laurencracefan : Here is part of Hal's 'going to school' problem solved but it's not exactly perfect yet, I intend to make things a little bit harder before they find the solution. Gringotts will most definitely be an eye-opener. Sorry I've taken a bit longer to update but I hope you've enjoyed the chapter nonetheless!

917brat : I'm so happy you like it! Thank you, I hope you continue to enjoy reading it!

Deliliah and Nathan : Yes I had a bit of a problem with the ages… If you look back, you'll see it's actually Kate, not Cassie, who was referred to possibly being age six. I had meant for Kate to be six but ended up mixing the years so saying she was three after the fire at Callum House means she's actually five now turning six in November. Thank you for pointing this out, I would've hated realising it too late! Hope you still like it!

ramen-luver101 : Haha yes he is!

glitch-e-r-749 : I'm so glad you liked it! Sorry this chapter took me a bit longer…

Nanettez : One thing I want to show in this story is the other side to Slytherin. Slytherin's are not selfish. They are cunning, ambition and sly to name a few but they don't have to be selfish. There will always be some selfish/bad people in all and any house. Also I'm still not sure about Hal in Slytherin but that's my goal.

Ariz0na-Sky : I'm so happy you liked it!

Thank you all for reviewing!

A/N: My plan is now to update once a week on Wednesdays or Thursdays depending on other stuff going on. Hope this is ok for you all. Also I'm so so sorry but I have camp next week so I won't be able to update then but hopefully I'll get chapter 4 up this weekend before I go or Wednesday/Thursday in two weeks once I'm back.

Until then… Theo will by a chocolate frog from Diagon Alley for everyone who reviews ;)