New York, 4:00 am; BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP! An alarm goes off in the bedroom of four formerly sleeping girl, three of whom looked about to commit the murder of the fourth.

4:15 am; The four girls are absorbed in an almost silent argument that is abruptly ended when one of them (they are indistinguishable from one another,) strides almost silently to the door, pulls it open and disappears down the hallway to the kitchen. The others look at each other for a moment, then follow, resignation in their eyes.

4:35 am; All four girls are gathered around a small table in the middle of the kitchen munching on bagels and cream cheese. All of them had thick black hair falling halfway to their waists, dusk colored eyes set in heart shaped faces, and pale skin.

“I hate getting up this early every year.” Complained one of the girls, smudging cream cheese onto the tabletop.

“You say that every year Meaghan, and every year we say the same thing. Get. Over. It. Besides, I want to show you something.” The sister to the left replied.

“Kristin! You’re mean!” Meaghan whined and she opened her mouth to continue when one of her other sisters cut her off.

“Guys! No fighting! It’s our thirteenth birthday, something special is bound to happen, ‘sides, I want to show you something too.” The sister on the right of Meaghan said, frowning slightly at her sisters.

The last sister gave an enormous swallow to finish her bagel and spoke, “I’ve got something to show, too.”

Meaghan piped up again with, “Erin first!” then fell silent and turned toward the sister who had spoken last.

Erin glared at her, but stepped forward and closed her eyes in concentration. Slowly, oh so slowly, yellow highlights began to appear in her hair. Then she stopped and opened her eyes, Kristin, who had been looking straight at her face, gasped. Her eyes were black. Erin smiled, “Yellow and black, my two favorite colors. Your turn Danielle.”

The girl beside Erin took a deep breath, closed her eyes, and began to concentrate as hard as she could. Flaming red highlights appeared in her hair, and when she stopped concentrating and opened her eyes they were a rich, glowing gold. She looked at Kristin and nodded, “Your turn.”

Kristin stepped forward and frowned in concentration, but left her eyes open so her sisters could see the dusky grey swirl into a bright bronze at the same time dark blue highlights were streaking her hair.

Meaghan clapped softly before stepping forward to claim her sisters place, then silver flooded up to claim her eyes, and her black hair had dark emerald green highlights in it. She stepped back and stared petulantly at her sisters, “Now that the show and tell is over, can I go back to b-“

A loud tapping on the kitchen window interrupted her and the girls turned to stare at the source of the noise.

An owl.

There was an owl tapping on their kitchen window. The four glanced at each other for reassurance and advanced as one to the window. Danielle reached out and thrust open the window, which, for some reason, was never locked, letting the owl flutter in and land on her still outstretched wrist.

“He dropped something.” Chorused Erin and Kristin, pointing at a small bundle on the floor. Meaghan dove for it.

“It’s letters! One each.”

Danielle transferred the owl onto her shoulder and reached out for hers, ripping it open excitedly.

Dear ,

We are pleased to inform you that you have been accepted into Hogwarts School Of Witchcraft and Wizardry. Enclosed please find a list of all necessary equipment. Students may bring an owl OR a cat OR a toad. Exceptions made at the Headmasters’ discretion. FIRST YEARS ARE NOT ALOWED THEIR OWN BROOMS! Term begins September 1, and we await your owl by no later than August 31.

Sincerely,

Minerva McGonagall

Minerva McGonagall,

Deputy Headmistress

Almost as one they looked up from the letters wearing expressions varying from skepticism to wild excitement. Erin looked down at her letter again, black eyes narrowed,

“What does it mean, they await our owl?”

Danielle reached up and stroked the owl still perched on her shoulder.

“I guess we send an answer with him.” She answered matter-of-factly.

Kristin interrupted, looking thoughtful, “Why don’t we write Mrs. McGonagall and ask if she can send someone over to explain things a bit better, maybe they could take us to get our things for school as well if we decide that we want to go. It’s only August 24 after all.”

They all agreed that was the best plan of action, and twenty minuets later the owl flew out the window holding a letter in his beak. The girls watched the owl fly until it vanished behind the New York skyline, then turned back to clean up the mess from their midnight snack.

Three days later, while Danielle was busy creaming Meaghan at chess and Kristin was playing with Erin’s hair, (which was made difficult due to the fact that Erin was randomly changing both the length and the cut of her hair,) the door bell rang. All activity in the living room came to a halt as Erin got up, returned her hair to customary length and cut, and went to open the door.

When Albus Percival Wulfric Brian Dumbledore sent four letters to the same house on the same morning he had known that the children were girls, he had known that they were muggleborns, and he had assumed that they were foster children. After all, the odds of quadruplet mugglborn children all having magical ability was almost astronomical! It was not entirely unexpected that they sent back a letter requesting an escort, but the date they requested! All of the staff down to the last person, was incredibly busy that day. Except Severus, but that was out of the question. He had made it abundantly clear that under no circumstances was he to be asked to escort potential students anywhere. Of course there was always the promise of Basilisk skin…

Giving a decisive nod Dumbledore strode to the fireplace and threw a handful of Floo powder in.

“Professor Snape! If you would be so kind as to join me in my office please, there is something I need to discuss with you.” he stepped back, waiting. A tall figure appeared in the fireplace, spinning like a top, and Severus Snape climbed out, brushing soot off of his long black robes.

“Yes Headmaster?’’

Dumbledore held out a bowl,

“Lemon Drop?”

“No thank you.” Snape was starting to get impatient, so for once, Dumbledore decided to get straight to the point.

“Severus, I need you to escort four young girls to Diagon Alley to get their school things and to answer whatever questions they might have about the wizarding world.”

Snape’s face turned red, then white, then red again before settling on an unhealthy shade of puce. His mouth began to work soundlessly, and Dumbledore, hoping to forestall a cataclysmic event quickly started to speak again.

“Their names are Meaghan, Danielle, Kristin, and Erin and they are fostered in New York City. There will be Basilisk skin waiting here for you when you get back.” The last part was said very quietly, but Snape heard it all the same; his skin went very pale, and when he spoke the only thing he said was, “It will be a pleasure.”

Professor Snape stood outside the door to apartment 203 listening to the laughing and chatting going on inside. Dumbledore had said that the girls were fosterlings, but it sounded like it was just one girl talking to herself! Shaking his head to clear it, he caught the words,

“-ssor Snape. What kind of name is that anyway.” A sardonic voice was overriding a softer one, and Snape leaned closer to hear.

“I think it’s a nice name. Very original. Severus. Kinda rolls off the tongue doesn’t it?”

Another voice cut in, announcing triumphantly that Meaghan was in check at the same time some one else said,

“I bet he’s hot.”

Snape jerked back, startled, and pushed the doorbell, smiling slightly at the immediate hush the melodic tones produced. He just hoped he met their expectations.

The door creaked slowly open, revealing a small girl with black and yellow hair who peered up at him curiously.

“Hello, I’m Professor Snape.”

The girl nodded, opening the door wider so he could come in.

“I’m Erin. Shut the door when you come in please!”

Snape raised an eyebrow, but did as he was told and shut the door, following the girl into what looked like the living room just in time to hear,

“Checkmate.”

“AUGH!!!!!!!!! AGAIN! EVERY TIME WE BLEEDING PLAY…” the girl railed on about the injustice of the world in general, and her sister in particular, and Erin looked back and grinned.

“This happens every time they play, don’t worry about it.”

Snape smiled a bemusedly back, “Don’t worry, I won’t.”

During a pause in her ranting, the girl Snape guessed was Meaghan looked up, saw him, and immediately lost her train of though. Instead she turned on her sisters.

“Pay up! you can NOT say that that is not hot.”

Erin blushed, “Meaghan, he’s right there!”

“SO? Pay UP!”

The girl sitting in the armchair got up, flipping blue streaked hair over her shoulder.

“Technically it wasn’t a bet. No terms were-”

“Yes they were Kristin, you just weren’t paying attention.”

The girl with red streaks in her hair jumped in now. “The terms were, if we could all agree that he’s hot then we have to adopt her colors for one day of her choosing. If he wasn’t, she had to adopt our colors for one day each of our choosing.”

Kristin walked around Snape, examining him from every angle and finally had to admit defeat.

“It’s just not fair! He’s dressed like Hamlet!” she wailed plaintively. Meaghan looked at Snape with disgust.

“She’s right. It’s not fair. The bet’s off. Although he would be hot even without the outfit.” She turned toward Snape, who, unnoticed, had sat in Kristin’s vacated seat. “I’m Meaghan, the one with the red highlights is Danielle, blue stripes is Kristin, and yellow is Erin. We’re quadruplets.”

When Dumbledore had told him that he had to go to New York and escort four eleven-year-old girls, he had been tempted to curse the man on the spot. Then he had mentioned the Basilisk skin, and his mind had filled with all of the potentially illegal potions he could brew with that incredibly rare and expensive ingredient. Now though, it was worth coming just to see the show. There was absolutely no way that these girls were fosterlings, not the way they looked. Dumbledore had made a mistake, and Snape wasn’t going to let him forget it.

“Are you really a wizard?” asked the girl with blue stripes in her hair, Kristin, he thought it was.

“Yeah!” Meaghan jumped in, “Don’t wizards have to carry around things like a big staff with a crystal in the top?”

“Dork!” Danielle slapped Meaghan upside the head, “Sometimes they don’t need too, they just need to know the Words of Power.”

Snape arched an eyebrow at Erin, who shrugged. Sighing, he pulled out his wand and held it up in full view of the three bickering girls.

“Witches and wizards use wands to channel their magic, and the magic around them. Watch.” He pointed it at the chess board that still lay on the floor. “Wingardium Leviosa!” Slowly it floated off the floor and hovered about five feet above the ground.

“Woah!” Meaghan ran over to where the board had been sitting on the floor, examining it for any sign of trickery. She found none. A little hesitantly Erin asked if she could see his wand after he put the chess board down. Snape nodded, handing her his wand. She gave it a quick once over, then grasped it by it’s handle and waved it once. Glittering yellow and black sparks trailed from the end of the wand, fading almost immediately as Erin handed it back to Professor Snape.

“That was awesome!” chorused Danielle and Kristin, Erin grinned, then quietly left the room as Snape groaned and buried his face in his hands. Slightly muffled, his voice drifted out from between his hands.

“What time is it?”

Kristin glanced at a small wall clock,

“A little after seven thirty, why?”

Professor Snape groaned again.

“Most of the shops in Diagon Alley close at eight o’clock. I’ll have to come back tomorrow.”

“You can stay the night here. There’s an extra bedroom and some spare clothes that should fit for tomorrow.” Erin had returned, bringing with her a glass goblet of red wine and four mugs of steaming hot cocoa on a tray. Seeing the state the Professor was in, Erin abruptly decided to take charge. Setting the tray firmly in the center of the coffee table, she shooed her sisters off into their seats on the couch, and turned her attention to Professor Snape, who was now watching her with a decidedly odd expression on his face.

“Right,” she said, handing him the wine, “drink that, it’s really good. Tonight’s movie night and it’s Meghan’s night to pick so of course, it’s Hamlet. After that we’ll have dinner. If you’ll stay, that is.” She added, watching him closely as he looked at Meaghan as she took the DVD out of it’s case.

“How could I turn down such gracious hospitality?” Snape asked as he took a sip of wine. His eyes widened. “Where did you get this? It’s excellent!”

Erin smiled mysteriously, “Family secret.” before moving over to the couch to watch the movie with her sisters.

For two hours Snape sat, entranced by the sights and sounds coming through the glass screen, completely aware that he was being watched by each of the girls in turn. When the movie ended he sat back in his seat and sighed.

“Wow…”

Erin laughed, “Now you know why we like it so much!” she said, collecting everybody’s used mugs on the tray and preparing to take them back into the kitchen. Snape rose, following her to the kitchen, and placing his empty tumbler on the counter next to the tray.

“You sit there.” Erin ordered him, briskly tying her hair back with a band from her wrist and pointing at the kitchen table.

“Guys! We gotta make dinner!”

A great shout of “DINNER!” filled the air, and a virtual flood of girls poured into the kitchen, all of them making adjustments to hair or clothing or both. Meaghan tied an apron on over her clothes as her hair shortened itself until it was barely an inch long. Danielle’s hair morphed into an expert looking messy bun under deft fingers, and Kristin pushed her hair up under a blindingly yellow hairkerchief.

Soon each of the girls was manipulating either burners, pots, pans, or a white box that sat in a corner and whirred and beeped that they called the microwave. It seemed to make cold food warm.

Snape was very hard put not to laugh at the seemingly unorganized chaos of the four siblings working together in the kitchen.

“Watch that pot-“

“Aaaack! It’s boiling over!”

“Where’s my strainer!?!”

“There’s no more salt!”

The last was announced by Danielle who was holding up the empty salt box. All activity in the kitchen screeched to a halt as three incredulous pairs of eyes turned toward her.

“We’re out of salt!?!?!” incomprehension tingeing her voice Kristin took the box and turned it upside down over her palm. A few grains fell out, but that was it.

“But I need salt for my biscuits otherwise they’ll be rocks!” Meaghan gestured at the recipe she had been reading.

“So does the stew!” exclaimed Erin, brandishing a ladle.

Snape leaned forward, “Hand it here.” He said, holding out his hand for the box and pulling out his wand. Kristin slapped the box down in his palm, and he tapped the top with his wand before handing it back. Kristin peered inside, then;

“SALT!”

The girls all let out a cheer and went back to cooking.

Twenty minuets later, delicious smells were filling the air and Snape felt his stomach rumble in anticipation. Two timers dinged, and the oven door was whisked open at the same time the stew pot was being lifted from the burner and brought over to the table. The biscuits were slid off the pan and onto a plate and paced on the table next to the soup, while Kristin whirled around her, grabbing dishes from cupboards and cutlery from drawers. It all seemed so synchronized now.

Soon enough everyone was seated and eating; Snape savoring his first bite. Unfortunately, that seemed to be some sort of signal, because the questioning began almost immediately.

“So Professor Snape, got any kids?”

It should be counted as extremely unfortunate that Snape had just taken a rather large bite of stew. When he had just about finished choking he somehow managed to splutter,

“I- do I- kids- WHAT!?!?”

“Oh, you know,” Erin said casually,

“Are you married?” Danielle jumped in,

“Do you have any kids?”

“What’s it like at Hogwarts?”

“Do you like your job?”

“What subject do you teach?”

“What’s your favorite color?”

Snape’s head snapped back and forth from Erin to Danielle to Kristin to Meaghan like he was watching a tennis match before it finally became to much for the poor man, and, for the first time in his life, Severus Snape fainted dead away.

AN; Hi all… this story kinda just kicked me in the ass one day as me and my sisters were talking about what Houses we would be in if we went to Hogwarts. PLEASE REVIEW! Tell me what you think, tell me what house you would be in, ( and don’t give me any of that ‘oh I would be in Gryffindor because I’m sooooo brave and Harry Potter is hot’ crap.) tell me about your story, why you hate my story, why you love my story, why I should give up writing forever, I don’t care. If you read, review. I have motivation issues. Thanks! ;) Darkingfire

Ps, If you can’t tell, I’m in Slytherin.