“Mummy! Can we please take Professor Snape home with us?”

“What?” Ginny Potter nearly choked, as she turned to look at her youngest child. For a moment, she thought Lily was joking, but after seeing the uncommon determination in her daughter’s soft brown eyes, she could tell she was dead serious.

“No sweetheart, Professor Snape’s portrait is Hogwarts property.”

“But can’t we buy him?” James Sirius asked. He held up his life savings. “We have money!”

“James—“

“He gets really lonely over the holidays,” Albus added quietly. “And he likes to talk to me.”

“W—“

“Mummy please! He’s my bestest friend!”

“And he comes up with bloody brilliant pranks!”

“We can sneak him out with the Invisibility Cloak.”

“Or through a secret passageway!”

“Can he stay in my room?”

Ginny rubbed her forehead.

“No! NO ONE is taking Professor Snape home!”

“Aww…”

“Buggers…”

The three Potter children looked at each other for a moment, before James broke out in a grin.

“Let’s ask dad.”

“Yeah!”

“Let’s!”

“WHAT?!” Ginny squawked. “NO!”

She fixed them all with her best Molly Weasley glare, before rushing off to find Harry. She needed to find him before her children did, or she might end up having her old greasy-nosed Potions professor hanging in her living room.