Rewritten History

Chapter 12

It was the middle of November when the first snow came to Hogwarts. The snow dwindled down through the air, came to rest gently upon the ground, soon covering the grass in a layer of whiteness.

Severus reached his hand up, seemingly trying to catch the snowflakes and Astus looked up at the sky, Abraxas standing a bit away and watching them both. Lucius was standing with the two Mentis, pressed into Astus' side.

The man closed his eyes as he let snow fall down on his face, a small and content smile on his face. Abraxas walked closer to them, enjoying the feeling of snow underneath his boots and came to a stop next to them.

"No homework?" he asked.

"You should know that."

"We just arrived, I don't know anything."

"Liar." Astus smiled wider when he said it.

"Seriously."

"No," the raven-haired man replied. "No homework that needs to be done today."

It was Saturday, and the two Malfoys had arrived just a half-hour ago, they were going to spend the night with Astus and Severus before returning to the manor on Sunday evening.

The raven-haired man opened his eyes as Abraxas lifted Severus from him, settling him down on the ground and Lucius took the boy's hand before leading him towards the lake. Astus and Abraxas followed a leisurely pace.

"Tell me something," Abraxas said and looked over at him. "Do you regret coming back in time?"

Astus stopped at that, looking at him before his eyes searched out the sky.

"Almost everyone I knew in my time was dead," he replied. "I know I would've gotten over it, eventually, but… I was the famous one. I killed the Dark Lord. I didn't want that. I wanted to help people, not get a medal and have my picture in the paper."

"Did you have it?"

"Well, I hadn't gotten any medals but people assured me I would. I would appear in papers, give interviews, everything… it's just that I hate fame. Or at least when the fame finds me. This… I like this."

"Being your old teacher's father?"

"I didn't think of it much before I went back. I just wanted to give Severus something more than he had."

Now Severus was running back to them, arms outstretched and Astus lifted him up before walking down to where Lucius was, the blonde man following them.

-o-

Nathaniel was good as a baby-sitter. Astus concluded this as he and Abraxas watched the seventh-year take on Lucius, Severus and Bellatrix in a snowball-fight. He more or less let the children's chunks of snow hit him, and fell down in the snow near the lake. Severus immediately climbed on top of him, and the two men heard laughter.

Astus plopped down in the snow, sick of standing and fell back, arms outstretched.

"What are you doing?" Abraxas asked.

"Acting silly," Astus replied.

"Oh, alright." And with that Abraxas fell down as well, staring up at the sky. "This was much more comfortable."