Disclaimer: Don't own any

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"As much as I don't want any more brats around, she may bring her friends as long as they behave. I have already invited the Vaughn Family to dine with us as well and they have two daughters and a niece that will be coming, so more the merrier" Severus said with some sarcasm.

"Oh," Remus said blankly, having something else to say, "I better go inform Clare then, shall I?"

"Yes, do." Severus then went back to his potions and Remus left to inform his daughter.

Chapter 16 – The Dinner Party

It was mid afternoon and it had only just finished raining.

"What's your rush, Clare?" Sarha asked in a huff as she tried to keep pace with her friend. "Slow down please. My legs aren't as long as yours."

"Sorry, Sarha." Said Clare, "But I can't wait for you meet them."

"It is just the new potions professor, Clare. I could have met him the first day of term. I don't see why we have to meet him and his family for dinner. Unless one of them is extremely good looking, then I wouldn't mind"

Clare stopped and gave Sarha an exasperated look.

"All you can think about is cute guys."

Sarha laughed. "Yeah, that and books."

Clare joined Sarha in laughing. "You're incorrigible."

Clare knocked on the door and a moment later her father opened it.

"Hi, dad!"

"Hello, Clare."

"Dad? This is your dad? I thought you didn't know who your dad was or something." Sarha asked feeling very confused, which she hated. Taking a deep breath she then asked. "What is going on here?"

Remus gave the girl a kind smile. "Why don't you both come in side and we'll explain it?"

"In full detail." Sarha said, pushing past Remus and making herself comfortable on one of the couches.

"Ok, that makes sense now." Sarha said "But isn't there others we where meeting tonight, Clare?

Remus smiled. "There are others here, but you girls were quite early. The boys are up stairs getting ready and Severus is…"

"Right here." Severus said.

Startled, everyone turned to see him standing at the bottom of the stairs.

"Sir," Clare said, "May I introduce to you my friend Sarha Marsters? Sarha, this is the new Potions Professor Severus Snape."

Severus inclined his head. "Miss Marsters."

"You can call me Sarha."

Severus studied the girl in front of him before giving her a calculating look. "The boys should be down soon. Lupin, may I talk to you privately?"

"Certainly," Remus replied, getting up and following Severus up the stairs, leaving the girls alone.

"What was that about I wonder?" Sarha thought out loud.

"I have no idea." Clare responded.

It was a couple of minutes later before two figures walked down the stairs. Clare stood upon their arrival with Sarha following the movement.

Both Draco and Harry stopped at the end of the stairs and looked at the two girls not expecting anyone to be there yet.

"Ladies." Draco said, remembering how to act when entertaining, snapped out of his shock. "Glad you could make it."

"Draco, Harry," Clare addressed both boys. "This is my friend Sarha."

"A pleasure." Draco came over to Sarha and kissed her hand

Sarha took back her hand. "Who are you trying to impress?" She asked in a self-aggrandizing way.

Draco straightened and had a disdainful look on his face. He was about to say something when Harry burst out laughing at the theatrics the two were displaying.

"You (se) two are hilarious." Harry said doubling over.

Draco and Sarha then heard a slight giggle, turned and faced Clare, who had a big smile on her face. "Harry's got a point," she said before joining Harry in a fit of laughter.

Draco and Sarha couldn't help but start laughing along with the other two. And this is how Severus and Remus found them minutes later.

Severus cleared his throat to gain the attention of the four teenagers. Upon seeing the two adults standing over them, they sobered up, fixed their clothes and tried to compose themselves.

"Well I'm glad you are all getting along so nicely." Severus said idly. "But what, pray tell, brought on that anomalous display?" You stumped me with this one. I had to hunt up the dictionary.

The four of them tried to put into words why they laughed together like that, but they all knew that they felt united. The feeling almost brought something out of them, but since the spell of laughter was over none could really remembered what had transpired.

Thankfully none of them had to answer that question because just then there was a knock on the door.

Archer the house elf arrived with a pop to open the door and in stepped in Daemon Vaughn with his family.

Once all inside, Severus and Daemon greeted each other before introducing everyone else.

There was Daemon's wife, Ann, and his three daughters, Jane, Joyce and Emma. Jane, it turns out, was a close friend of both Clare and Sarha and greeted them quite happily.

"Dinner is ready." Mali announced and everyone took his or her place at the table.

Conversation flowed smoothly all through dinner. Severus and Daemon were talking when another discussion caught Severus' attention.

"What do you do for a living" Remus asked Ann.

"I am a Potions Mistress. I now own the potions shop in Triskele Turn. It actually used to be owned by the Mistress of Magic before she took her current position."

"Is that so?" Severus joined into their conversation. "Do your daughters share your talent in potion making?"

"My younger two haven't shown any interest in it, but Jane definitely has interest in the art as well as having inherited the talent for it."

"Well that is good to hear. What about you two?" Severus addressed Clare and Sarah.

"I'm not bad at it." Clareanswered quietly.

"I'm pretty good." Sarah answered at the same time.

"Well so far everyone is able to potions. Why, may I ask, have you had a different potions teacher each year?" Severus asked in an intimidating manner.

"Well," Jane answered before the other girls. "In our first year Professor Quantavius had been teaching at the school for, I don't know, something like 50 years. Anyway he started to teach us properly, but then he suddenly didn't care anymore about teaching, so he let us do anything in that class as long as we abided by the school rules and we can all pass with high grades. In our second year, to put it plainly, Professor Pardeep was a bastard that didn't care about anyone but himself. He was fired a couple of months into the year because he helped put Clare into Askaban…

Severus, Remus, Harry and Draco all turn shocked expression to Clare. No one else noticed their reaction because they were all too intent on Jane's explanation about the teachers. Not that the others would have see it since it happened so quick: Severus soon put a look of indifference on his face and tuned back to Jane figuring he'll find out the details later. Remus was of the same opinion since Clare seemed to be uncomfortable about it. Draco looked at Clare in a new light, finding her more interesting. Harry just had a small smile on his face for what had been plaguing him all night and day had just been answered, in a way.

Clare looked up in time to see Harry smiling at her before he turned back to listen to Jane. Clare felt comforted and relaxed by the small gesture.

"…so we had no one to teach us for that year and we were all given passing grades as a result. Our third year we had Professor Hanford. She was one of the stupidest people I have ever met. One time," Jane turned her attention to Professor Snape, "she wanted us to put dried billywig stingers into a potion with doxy venom."

Severus looked shocked. "How stupid can someone be? Was anyone hurt?"

"Only the teacher," Sarha said, "and that was only because Jane knew that combination would do harm if someone was touched by that potion. She yelled at the top of her lungs for everyone to get out of the classroom. Everyone except the teacher left the room because she was to busy saying that nothing was wrong. The door was closed quickly after the last person left and just in time too because the cauldron exploded. I believe she is still in Grimshaw Hospital, but the rumor that went around at the time was that we drove her nuts.

"Yes," Jane said, "and because of that rumor I believe the Headmaster had trouble hiring someone to teach."

"Oh, yes," Clare said, "he went to hundreds of people trying to find one that would teach."

"And it was a half-veela that he found." Jane paused and got a dreamy look on her face as did Sarha.

Clare laughed lightly. "Professor Linus knew his stuff. He was an excellent teacher, but it seemed that because of his heritage he kinda got drooled over. Hardly anyone in class paid attention to what he was saying. They just stared at him. It wasn't just the girls either; a lot of the boys found him attractive even the straight ones. So he retired at the end of the year because no one was doing his or her work properly."

"Yes, we all got low grades that year." Sarha said, annoyed because she took pride in getting very good marks.

"Everyone but Clare got low marks you mean." Jane corrected.

"Why is that?" Draco asked.

"Well, since she has werewolf blood in her she was not affected like we were. I believe that she and Linus are still good friends."

"We are." Clare said with a blush.

"I'm confused here." Remus said. "If you were all affected then why did you not use Blouckus Spell. It is a simple enough charm to do."

Ann answered for the girls. "I think they liked being attracted to someone. After all they were fourteen."

"Mum!" Jane groaned, embarrassed while her two younger sisters laughed.

"What" Ann asked innocently.

"Do you have to be so embarrassing?" Jane asked annoyed.

"Jane," Daemon said, "It is your mother's right as you will find when you have children"

Jane just slumped in her seat, her face bright red.

The dinner party enjoyed dessert that was presented to them. They all ate and talked heartily. Once all where finished they sat in a comfortable silence before it was broken with a loud noise from outside.

"What was that?" Emma asked in an unsure voice.

"It was probably nothing." Daemon assured his daughter.

"Why don't we move to the parlor?" Remus suggested, getting up.

Severus stood too. "Good idea, Lupin, I'm amazed that you still now how to use that brain of yours"

Everyone else stood and went to the sitting area unsure of what to say, but Sarha laughed.

"What is so funny, Miss Marsters?" Severus drawled.

"You sound like Clare, Jane, Louise, Iyana and I." She said with a shake of her head. "The amount of times we have said something like that to each other."

"Who are Louise and Iyana?" Remus asked.

"Friends of ours, Dad." Clare said. "They would have been here too had it not been for Louise's friend Muffy. He got himself stung by billywig and they are trying to help him get down off the roof."

"Pray tell does he attended Veneficus?" Severus asked.

"Yes, he is in the year above us." Sarha answered.

Severus scowled at the thought of a possible Longbottom, stood, and headed towards the liquor cabinet.

Remus and Daemon laughed lightly while the others tried not too, but that stopped quickly when something crashed into the door.

"That is not nothing," Joyce said.

Severus pulled out his wand as and moved to the door. Remus, Daemon and Ann stood and they too drew out their wands.

Severus looked to the others before quickly opening the door and in came running three huge black Grims.

The adults were about to throw curses at the dogs when Clare stood and walked over to them.

"Ian, Andrew, Don!" Clare said in an annoyed voice. "What do you think you are doing? You scared us half to death!" They started to whine and their pitiful sound made Clare pat them on the head, which they enjoyed.

"Clare?" Remus said to gain his daughters attention. "You know these dogs?"

"Yeah, they're mine." She said continuing to pat them and then frowned. "I don't know how they could of got out of the house."

"I let them out."

Severus quickly looked out the door he still held open to see a familiar women walking up the steps.

Clare suddenly looked sheepish. "Mum, hi."

Harry and Draco were carried to their rooms and placed in bed after falling asleep in the parlour. Clare was laid down on the couch in Severus' and Remus' room. The three teenagers had fallen asleep about an hour ago and Severus, Remus and Joy had only just noticed.

The other guest had left a couple of hours ago when Joy turned up. Since then the three Hogwarts graduates became re-accounted with one and other.

Joy placed a blanket over Clare and kissed her forehead. Straighten up she found Remus in the doorway.

"You raised her well," Remus said softly.

"Thank-you, Lupin that means a lot to me." Joy said. Clare then moved in her sleep. "Shall we move this down stairs?"

Remus nodded and moved out of the way so Joy could go through the door. As he did so the three Grims charged through it and made themselves comfortable near Clare. When Joy was standing next to him, after avoiding being trampled by the large canines, he asked. "Why Grims and where did she get them from?"

Joy closed the door quietly. "Well, that is an interesting story…"

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Finale here after so long and its my longest chapter yet.

I hope you enjoyed it