Tom burst into the Tea Room, wand drawn, with Lucius right on his heels. He paused briefly, noting that his nemesis appeared incapacitated, his now dull blues eyes staring sightlessly at the ceiling, before circling the still body and taking the trembling Harry into his arms.

Rubbing his mate's back and whispering reassuring words to him, he watched Lucius examine their fallen foe.

"He's dead," Lucius sounded surprised.

"How?"

The senior Malfoy reached down and grabbed Dumbledore's cooling hand, exposing the blackened fang marks there.

"Something highly venomous bit him, I'd say." The blonde's eyes focused on the bundle in Tom's lap.

"Harry," Tom hissed gently, "look at me."

It tore at his heart to see fear in his mates slit green eyes.

"It's alright Luv," he reassured the younger man, "I'm not angry. Did you bite Dumbledore?"

White teeth nibbled on pink lips but Harry nodded, looking down again.

Tom caressed Harry's jaw gently, "Open your mouth for me, My Love."

The brunette let his jaw go slack so that his mouth opened a bit.

Tom clucked disapprovingly, "Show me Harry."

The younger Wizard sighed and then pulled back his lips and lower jaw. The move caused delicate fangs to descend from the roof of his mouth right behind his normal eye teeth.

Lucius gasped and Harry quickly shut his mouth and ducked his head.

Tom frowned at his friend.

At the same moment a slightly worse for wear Severus and Sirius stormed into the room only to stop and stare.

"Report," Tom snapped, annoyed with Lucius and becoming angry that his mate had been in such danger all alone.

"It looks like a small incursion, My Lord," Snape said stiffly, wiping the blood from his nose. "Sirius and I were locked in our chambers. They managed to penetrate this far into the Manor by not using any spells. It seems Celeste spotted the intruders first and took out most of the ones outside with her venom. The wards were not triggered until one of the Aurors panicked after finding one his companions body and cast a shield spell."

Tom nodded before giving the battered Wizard a peculiar look.

"You only just escaped from your rooms, correct?"

"And took out the whelp left behind to guard us," Sirius piped in.

"So how do you know what went on outside?"

Severus turned an interesting shade of pink and Sirius grinned like a mad man.

"It seems our dear Potion Master has been fighting the Familiar bond with Harry's mother all this time," the Animagus proclaimed, nimbly dodging his lover's strangling hands.

Toms lips quirked watching the two while still rocking his mate in his lap.

"I see you finally managed to avenge yourself," Severus said gruffly, not looking at anyone in the room.

"No. We have my dearest Harry to thank for that."

"But how," Sirius asked puzzled, fully away of his Godson's inability to use magic.

Lucius again displayed Dumbledore's dead hand, now completely black, "It seems Harry retained another Syren trait that we were unaware of."

Sirius still looked puzzled while Severus got rather wide eyed.

Tom cradled Harry closer to his chest, "It seems our little Savior is quite venomous, just like his mother," he said nodding to the female Syren as she entered the room and climbed up onto Severus' shoulders.

Harry suddenly tensed in his arms, hissing in pain and Tom felt his lap become drenched.

"Get Poppy," he yelled, running from the room with his hissing mate in his arms.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Four hours later Tom stood over the large crib bemused at the sight before him. His two perfect sons were curled into each other while his daughter was coiled around them.

Triplets, most unusual triplets, and yes his daughter was coiled around his sons. The boys were perfect replicas of Harry in all his altered glory. They had his slit green eyes and scale patches on their backs. Celeste was sure they'd have wings just like Harry, and his fangs, although they wouldn't know for sure until they were at least three or four.

His daughter was apparently all Syren, only bigger. Size-wise, she looked like an adolescent serpent at three feet long, but she was indeed an infant. Celeste said she was most definitely a Pygmy-Syren and so would be able to take human shape but it was doubtful she would have the childlike visage Pygmies were known for. Tom just hoped his little girl would be able to change before she met her mate; he wanted her to be able to learn magic and go to school like her brothers.

The former Dark Lord looked over at his sleeping husband and smiled. Harry's joy at the birth of their children had briefly turned to fear when he'd noted their features – fear that Tom would reject them.

Tom admitted he had been shocked at first – who wouldn't be? – but he loved Harry and while their family wasn't normal, it was still a family. In fact Tom had every intention of making theirs a very large family – after all, they were almost halfway to matching the Weasleys already.

It would be difficult, but as he'd told Draco when Oma had become pregnant, it really was no different than being mated to a Veela and that was a widely accepted practice among Wizards. The Magical Community would adjust, they'd have too. As of today there were five part Syren children, his and Harry's triplets along with the Malfoy twin girls, and two adults and that number would only grow.

Tom grinned.

While he basked in the sight of his children and mate, things were falling into place all around the Wizarding World.

Dumbledore's body had been delivered to the Ministry right at close of office hours, so the rush of people leaving had come across the corpse as well as a projection of the man's last few moments of life.

The 'Dark Lord' thanked Merlin he had placed an experimental charm on the Tea Room, it worked like a muggle 'security camera' recording the events in a room and allowing them to be reviewed at will.

Tom had left a slightly edited version of events with Dumbledore's body playing in a loop, showing the Magical Community their leader's true face – over and over again.

He was glad Harry had not been able to understand the slurs Dumbledore had used, but their use displayed the man's true nature and Tom was happy to share what he'd always known. They could no longer defend the man; he had accosted a young, obviously very pregnant young man in his own home while hurling epithets and slurs at the apparently uncomprehending youth. It only added fuel to the fire that the youth was obviously Harry Potter – The-Boy-Who-Lived.

Tom had edited Harry's bite from the recording. Severus was even now drafting a statement on their behalf that would reveal Dumbledore's role in the last twenty-odd years of fear and attributing his death to Severus' loyal Familiar. There was no need to reveal all their secrets after all.

He turned to the door as Severus quietly entered. The Potion Master handed over several lengths of parchment absently, focusing on the sleeping children.

"A bit long isn't it?" Tom whispered.

"There are three versions of varying length," Severus whispered back, eyes never leaving the crib, "I'll let you pick which one gets sent to the Prophet."

"Thoughtful of you," Tom teased.

"Hmmmmm."

Tom grinned at the distracted man before him, "So can I expect a few Snape-Blacks to be running around soon?"

"Most likely," he replied absently.

Tom almost choked, which finally got the other man's attention.

"What," he asked, eyebrow raised.

The new father tried to clear his throat quietly, "You've never been all that fond of children, except Draco of course."

"Other people's children are unintelligent miscreants. My children, however, and yours of course will be well mannered and intelligent; what's not to like about that?"

Tom chuckled.

"We're finally free my friend."

Severus grinned, his face seeming to have lost ten years, "Indeed we are Tom, indeed we are."

END