HP: It's a snake, not a badger.

Chapter 221 Extra: About Changing Surname

(On a side note, I'm thinking of writing Branwin and Alaric's story in my next book, and Allie and Severus will appear as the parents' love story. I'm really into that lately.)

"Dad, why doesn't Father take your surname?" Branwin felt he had caught Emeric in a compromising situation and secretly tried to sow discord, since his beloved father had threatened him a couple of days ago.

Upon hearing this, Severus paused in his page-turning motion. He hadn't thought about it, and Emeric hadn't mentioned it either. But it seemed that this tradition actually existed in both England and Germany, where wives were required to take their husbands' surnames.

"Go ask your father." Of course, the best course of action is to kick someone out when faced with a difficult question. Severus happened to see Emeric enter the living room and wave at him.

"What's wrong? Did you miss me?" Emeric walked straight to Severus and sat down next to him, not even glancing at the scheming little rascal beside him.

"Branwin just asked why we don't share the same last name."

"Isn't this normal? We're not related by blood, so of course we can't share the same surname," Emeric said matter-of-factly, then muttered under his breath, "If we were related by blood, it would be incestuous marriage..."

"But I read in a book today that after marriage, the wife has to change her surname to her husband's," Branwin persisted, determined to embarrass Emeric. "It can't be that Father and Dad weren't married, so does that mean Alaric and I are illegitimate children?"

Now, Emeric couldn't pretend to be deaf anymore. He grinned maliciously. "How could that be? We don't have that tradition in our family. And do you think Severus's name is unpleasant? Why are you so insistent on changing his surname?"

The hat was quickly put back on, and both the father and son gave forced smiles, inwardly cursing each other for causing trouble. Severus was caught in the middle, feeling helpless; he couldn't side with either of them, and the other would look at him pitifully. He simply stood up and let the two of them stare at each other; he didn't want to get involved in the war between father and son.

After Severus walked away, Branwin and Emeric simultaneously dropped their fake smiles and put on expressions of disgust.

"Father, since there's nothing else, I'll go upstairs and do my homework." Branwyn chose to slip away to avoid Emeric finding an excuse to beat him up.

But experience counts, and he was no match for Emerick's hand; he was pinned down the moment he stepped off the sofa.

「没关係，我可爱的儿子，暑假还有一个月结束，你还有很多时间，不用这幺着急。」艾默里克揪住布兰温的胳膊，他準备先揍两下，把心头的气撒出去。

Severus had already returned to his bedroom. He was going to have to coax Emeric later. That little rascal would definitely press him about whether he didn't like him anymore, why he wasn't speaking up for him, and why he was getting jealous of a child at his age.

Of course, this habit was also something Severus had spoiled himself with. Deep down, he loved seeing Emeric's teary-eyed look. He wasn't like this before; he couldn't stand the slightest grievance.

"Severus, Branwyn bullied me, why didn't you speak up for me?" Emeric buried his head in Severus's arms, looking at the man pitifully.

"How old are you? Still bullying a child." Severus showed no mercy in his words, but his hand was rubbing the head in his arms. "Don't even think about changing your surname. Although I don't like that man, I've used this name for half my life and I don't want to change it."

“Of course I won’t change it,” Emeric raised his head, his tone unwavering. He had never considered this matter. “Don’t listen to Branwin’s nonsense. That brat is only saying these things to get back at me.”

Severus, unusually curious, asked, "You insulted him?" Emeric usually doted on Branwin, never uttering a harsh word unless he did something wrong.

"No, it was just a warning not to do anything too extreme to Alaric." Emeric pursed his lips, feeling that these two kids were retribution for his overly smooth first half of life.

"Ah, what a coincidence, I just warned Alaric." Severus's expression was a little strange. He didn't expect Alaric to be so in sync with him, scolding the child at the same time.

"Huh? What did Alaric do?"

"He's been provoking Branwyn, haven't you noticed?" Severus wanted to talk to Alaric again. "Haven't you noticed Branwyn has been clinging to Alaric these past few days?"

"Hmm, I didn't notice. Aren't they always like this?" Emeric was sometimes particularly oblivious. Apart from Severus's emotions, he never cared what others thought. Even with his two children, he only paid attention to whether they were crying or not, but he was still a little better than Calvin and Ambrose.

Therefore, he always felt that he had done a good job as a father, since he didn't not even know that his child was missing.

"Fine, I'll go talk to them. I don't know how you've been a professor all these years, you didn't even notice something like this." Severus rolled his eyes silently, annoyed that Emeric didn't care about his child. "Back to the matter of changing the surname, you're definitely hiding something from me. Tell me now, or you're dead if I find out."

"Hehe, Severus, how did you know?" Emeric tried to pretend to be nonchalant, but when he saw Severus's serious expression, he had no choice but to confess honestly.

"When my father and father got married, the Aldrickson patriarch, who was also my grandfather, made a request: that my partner change his surname to Aldrickson."

"?" A question mark appeared above Severus's head. "What does this have to do with me?"

"It's related," Emerick said, fiddling with his fingers, looking particularly guilty. "Originally, my marriage partner was a branch of the Aldrickson family, but after seeing how serious my fuss had become, they had to cancel it and change it to this one."

"I went back to Germany for a ceremony that summer, and I was a little too radical." He sounded increasingly guilty as he spoke, but he quickly regained his composure, "Don't worry, they wouldn't dare do anything unless they wanted to rebuild the altar."

Upon hearing this, Severus could immediately guess what Emeric had done. "So that's why you went back to Germany back then?" Emeric hadn't been back many times, so Severus could easily deduce when he had gone.

"Pretty much. I didn't have any particular thoughts about marriage at first," Emeric paused, then smiled at Severus, "but then I found out I had someone I liked, so I wanted to resolve things as soon as possible and also keep them quiet to prevent it from getting out, so this was the only option left."

"Alright, I'll forgive you this time since you did pretty well." Severus wouldn't admit that he was blinded by Emeric's eyes; he turned his head slightly to look at the sheets beside him.