This chapter is for Moi, one of my Guest Reviewers (and a rather frequent one at that ). In answer to your most recent review, Moi: You're right, this isn't really the right place to end it, and it SHOULD feel like the beginning of something much bigger—or rather, like part of the beginning. My Parents With a Cause series is really like one large story told in snapshots, because a) I have a hard time writing sequentially, so that allows me to jump around some, and b) there's an awful lot of characters to juggle. But NEVER FEAR! Even after this chapter is finished, you will see plenty more of these characters if you care to read my other stories. And if you have particular things you'd like to see with the characters (I know, for example, that at least one person wants to learn more about Harry's safety bracelet) just PM me or write it in a review and I'll be sure to get a future story going about that.

Also, to the Guest who gave me 3 Bronze Stars—Thanks for the review. You're probably right that this is all over the place. It's one of the problems I had with this story, but I couldn't think of a better way to introduce Harry, Dudley, and Liam. Hopefully my subsequent stories will have better focus.

Dumbledore arrived on scene, closely followed by DeLacey and the other ministry idiots. Severus knew that he couldn't keep Dumbledore out of the loop for long, but the last thing that he wanted right now was to carry on a conversation with the old goon, in front of the children, about what had transpired. Ha. Leave the old man in the dark for once—it would serve him right after the hell he'd put Severus through—and DiNozzo and Gibbs as well, Severus thought, glancing over at the two men. They were looking sadly at Liam, and he realized that in a way, the two men had just lost a son. They'd already fallen in love with Liam, without even meeting him, much in the same way Severus had fallen in love with Harry. Severus shook his head. They were better men than he was; he never would have given up Harry, no matter what any of the children had said. He wouldn't have been able to.

"We have to be getting back," Severus said coolly, his gaze on Dumbledore dark and challenging. "My eldest will be wondering where we've run away to."

Dumbeldore frowned. "Severus…"

Tony stepped forward then, peacekeeping as always. "We certainly want to keep you in the loop, Headmaster. Perhaps tonight after the boys have all gone to bed, we can meet up."

Severus turned his glare on the younger man. The last thing he wanted to do was leave his newly adopted children alone in the house—and he was sure that was what Tony would insist upon.

Sure enough, the next words out of the man's mouth were, "Our house, I think. After all, Severus, you have the elves to keep an eye on your lot."

His lot. The phrase was almost enough to make up for the man's presumption. Severus's upper lip curled. "Indeed."

Gibbs cleared his throat. "We'll keep it brief. All things considered, I'm sure Severus doesn't want to leave his house any more than we'd want to leave ours under the circumstances."

Severus didn't like the implication that he was behaving like a mother hen, but as the statement was true enough, he couldn't bring himself to contest it. Instead, gestured the boys towards the floo in the back and prayed it wouldn't be too hard to convince them to use it.

Zach drummed his fingers on the desktop as he looked over the chess board in front of him. Their dads had told them that chess was a pretty big deal at school—that just about everyone played it—and had encouraged them all to learn how. Zach thought it was pretty stupid himself.

"Check," Teddy said.

Zach scowled. It definitely didn't help that everyone else was better at the game than he was. Honestly, Teddy had the attention span of a gnat most of the time, and she was ace at the game. Zach figured her dad must be giving her special coaching or something. Biting his lip, Zach reached for his castle.

"I wouldn't do that if I were you," Brinley said quietly, looking up from the game of Mancala that he was playing with Simon.

Teddy grabbed a pillow from her bed and threw it at Brinley. "No hints, you twit!"

"That's okay," Zach said, moving the piece anyway. "I'm gonna lose anyway. Might as well be now."

Teddy rolled her eyes. "It's no fun if you give up. I mean, that may as well be a forfeit!"

Zach shrugged. He checked the clock on Teddy's desk for the trillionth time since he and Brinley had arrived. Where were their dads? How hard was it to bring their brothers home from the sub shop? After all, it wasn't like the boys could want to stay in the sub shop. It must be cold and dusty and just…ick.

"Don't be so worried," Brinley said. "I mean, I know it's your first brother, but it's not as if someone's giving birth or something. They'll be fine."

"Well," Zach said, "What do you think is taking them so long?"

Teddy snorted. "How thick can you get?"

Zach scowled.

"Leave him alone," Brinley said quietly. "He's never lived on the streets."

"Neither have you, but you get it," Teddy said.

Brinley shrugged. "I at least know what it's like to live where I'm not wanted and to not understand what's happening to me. Zach… It's just different. I mean, he already knew Uncle Tony and Uncle Jethro before he was adopted."

Zach frowned. "What's that have to do with anything?"

"Just…" Brinley frowned and pulled at the hem of his shirt. "It's just different, that's all. It would be scary to go to a new home if you knew for sure that you were going to people who'd been checked out by the ministry and everything. Just people you don't know are scary enough."

"But if they've been living on the street?" Teddy cocked an eyebrow. "It's probably taking your dads this long to convince your brothers they're not a couple of pedophiles."

"Dad and Papa?" Zach wrinkled his nose. "Who could ever think that about them?"

Teddy shrugged carefully and averted her eyes. "I thought it… Not about your dads. About House and Wilson. When I first met them, I mean. I thought they might be. I'd never actually met any gay men before that, and my parents weren't exactly the understanding sort."

Brinley said, "Your dad's a lot older than your papa. Don't get me wrong, mate. I know they're fine. But from a stranger's point of view, if your dad will go twenty years younger than himself, what's to say he won't go even younger than that?"

"That's just gross!" Zach said. "And it's wrong, too. Dad worked with Papa a lots of years before he was willing to admit that he felt that way about him. He fell in love with Papa's personality, not his… his body or whatever."

"I know." Brinley laid a hand on Zach's arm. "Relax, mate. I didn't say I thought that. I was just explaining what it might be like for your brothers. They don't know your dads."

Zach sniffed.

"Oh, Jesus," Teddy said. "Don't start crying. Wilson'll think I did something to you, and I'll be without dessert. Again."

There was a slight cough, and Teddy whirled to see House and Wilson standing in the doorway. She flushed. "I didn't do anything to him, okay? I've been an angel all day. It's not my fault he's a total pansy."

Zach couldn't help but laugh. "You always act like you're so much smarter than us, and then you say something like that. How're your dads gonna believe you've left me alone all day when you call me names in front of them."

"In point of fact," House said, "we actually heard what the four of you were talking about, and while you could have been a bit more tactful, you…did well."

Teddy rolled her eyes. "Did that hurt coming out? Anyway, what do you mean the four of us? Simon hasn't said a word, as you well know."

"He was here," Wilson said. "He was listening. It doesn't do your brother any good for you to pretend he doesn't exist just because he chooses not to voice his opinion."

"I wasn't pretending he doesn't exist!" Teddy protested.

House shook his head. "In any case, Zach, Brinley, it's time for you to collect your things. I just got calls from your dads, and they're bringing your new brothers home just now. They want you to meet them at home."

Zach bounded into the house. "Dad! Papa! Where are you at? Where're my new brothers?"

An arm caught him around the middle, and Zach found himself swung into the air. He let out a cry of surprise, and then, seeing his Dad's face smiling down at him, he let out a laugh. "Da-aad. Lemme down!"

Gibbs put him back on his feet.

"Where are they?" Zach asked.

Gibbs frowned. He said, "Your new brother is upstairs."

Zach caught the phraseology immediately. "Brother? Singular?"

Gibbs swallowed hard and nodded.

"What happened?" Zach asked.

"The little boy your Uncle Sev was adopting was quite close to one of the boys Papa and I were going to adopt," Gibbs said. "We decided it was best if Liam went to live with your Uncle Sev as well. We didn't want to separate him from Harry."

"What about my brother?" Zach said. "Isn't it hard to separate him from the other two?"

"I'm sure it will be quite a transition," Gibbs said. "So we'll have to work extra-hard to make sure he fits in here. Alright?"

Zach nodded eagerly. "I'll be the best brother ever. Is he bigger than me or littler?"

"He's older by a year," Gibbs said.

"Alright." Zach pounded up the stairs to the room they had originally set up for two boys. Just outside the door, however, he paused and collected his breath. He'd been excited to meet his new brother all day, but now that the moment had arrived, he found that he was more than a little nervous. What if his brother didn't like him?

A hand rested gently on his shoulder, and Zach looked up to see Tony standing there, smiling down at him.

"Hey, Papa," Zach said quietly.

"Hey." Tony carded a hand through Zach's hair. "You ready?"

Zach gave a hesitant nod.

Tony knocked lightly on the bedroom door before pushing it open.

Zach took a cautious step into the room and observed his new brother for the first time. Dudley was grossly fat, with greasy blond hair and small, squinty blue eyes. Zach frowned, not knowing what to think. He didn't know why, but he'd expected his new brother to be good looking. It was because he had a generally good-looking family, he supposed. In contrast, Dudley stuck out.

A gentle push between the shoulder bones had Zach taking another step into the room. He licked his lower lip and then held out a hand to Dudley. "Hello. I'm Zachary DiNozzo-Gibbs. Pleased t'meet you."

The hand that returned his shake was soft and pudgy. The pig-boy said, "Hullo. I'm Dudley Dursley."

A voice in Zach's head that sounded vaguely like Brinley said that the name suited him—he was a dud. As if he could hear Zach's thoughts, Dudley flushed slightly and looked down at his lap. Zach flushed too, ashamed of himself for judging the older boy. He'd just lost his parents, hadn't he? Zach forced himself to concentrate on feeling empathetic rather than judgmental.

"We set your room up real nice," Zach said. "Dad and Papa let me help pick what you might like, but if there's stuff you want changed they'll do it. And Dad's making you a trunk for school like I have—you can check out the one in my room—and if you want to pick what sorts of designs he carves into it, you can."

Dudley looked up curiously at that. He bit his lower lip, leaned close, and whispered, "Uh, which one's Dad and which one's Papa?"

Zach tried to take the question seriously, but he couldn't: he laughed. A moment later, there was a soft tap on the back of his head, a weak imitation of the patented Gibbs-slap that his Dad gave to his Papa on occasion.

Zach said, "Papa is the younger one. 'Cause he's Italian, and Papa is kind of an Italian term. And Dad's the older one. Papa's good for movies and such, and Dad can make things with his hands."

"Like trunks for school," Dudley said.

Zach nodded. "Exactly."

Flooing was terrifying, but Harry came out of it alright. Only when he'd dusted soot off of his pants and checked to make sure Liam was alright did he look around. He was in a dining room with dark walls and even darker furniture. In all honesty, it gave Harry the creeps. He was used to his aunt and uncle's house, and while the place hadn't been welcoming to Harry in the least, the colors at least had been light and unassuming.

At that moment, Severus floo'd in behind them. He brushed his pants off as well, though it wasn't lost on Harry that he'd gotten a lot less soot on himself than Harry and Liam had managed, and then he turned and smiled at them.

"Welcome to your new home," Severus said. "I hope you'll like it here."

Harry glanced at Liam, who was still gaping around the dining room as if he'd never seen anything so grand. Heck, knowing Liam, maybe he never had.

Severus cleared his throat. "Well. I'll introduce you to my eldest son, and then I'll show the two of you to your rooms."

"Rooms?" Liam asked, finally coming out of whatever stupor he was in. "You mean we're not sharing a room?"

Severus frowned. "I had intended to give you each your own room. You'll want your own space, I should think, especially in later years."

Liam shook his head. "But how do you even have two rooms ready? You didn't know I was coming."

"Ah," Severus smiled. "Well. This is a rather large house, so I have a number of guest rooms available at any given time. I'll put each of you in one of the guest rooms, and then later this week we can personalize it so it feels more special to you."

Liam fell silent then, and the two boys followed Severus out of the dining room and down the hall. He hadn't been kidding when he said it was a large house, Harry realized. They passed two different staircases as they walked down the hall, and the room Severus finally brought them into was at least four times the size of the dining room and absolutely filled with books. In the corner, slouched in an armchair, was a boy Harry judged as around his own age. The boy's hair was darker than Harry's, his skin was paler, and his jaw was angular. He didn't look up when they entered, seeming immersed in the magazine that he was reading.

"Brinley," Severus said quietly.

The boy marked his reading with a scrap of paper and stood up. He stretched his arms over his head and then glanced at Harry and Liam. "Oh. Hello. You must be Severus's newest charges."

Severus frowned. "Don't be rude to you brothers, Brinley."

Brinley's eyes snapped. "Don't call them that. They're not my brothers."

"Brinley!" Severus said.

Harry grabbed Liam's hand. "Uh, Liam and I will wait outside the door, okay?" He didn't wait for a response before tugging Liam into the hall with him and shutting the door.

"What'd you do that for?" Liam said. "It was just getting interesting."

Harry pressed his finger to his lips and leaned against the door frame. Liam, taking his lead, leaned against it as well.

"Brinley…" Severus's tone sounded weary. "We talked about this last night. I thought that you had agreed…"

"I said that I understood that you could call more than one person your son and not treat us unfairly," Brinley said. "I never said that I could call anyone my brother."

"So, what," Severus asked. "You plan to just ignore them? Pretend they're not here?"

"I put up with Zachary when I need to," Brinley said, "and Celia and Simon and Teddy. I can put up with these kids as well."

"It's not quite the same, Brinley," Severus said. "They'll be here all the time. I'd like it if you could do more than just put up with them."

"What do you want from me?" Brinley's tone sounded strained—maybe even on the verge of tears. "I can't even bring myself to call you Dad yet, Severus, and Merlin knows you deserve at least that with everything you've done for me. What the hell would make you think I'd be able to call two kids I don't even know my brothers?"

Harry and Liam exchanged looks.

After a moment of stunned silence, Severus said, "Okay… Okay, Brin. Shh. It's okay."

Harry backed away from the door. He gestured for Liam to follow him. A little ways down the hall, Harry stopped and sank to the floor.

"Harry?" Liam asked, sitting down next to him.

Harry gave Liam a weak smile. "Don't worry. He can't be any more obnoxious than Dudley. At least Severus seems okay."

"Yeah," Liam said. "Alright."