“Sev?” Harry muttered sleepily the next morning, rolling over on his side. He lay on his bed, with the sunlight lazily streaming through the window behind Severus's own bed, and in order for Harry to look over at Severus's bed he also had to look at the window, which momentarily blinded him.

Severus stayed quiet for a few moments, and at first Harry thought the man was still asleep, but then in quiet voice that one would use in the library, he responded with, “What is it?”

“Nothing.” Harry said, finding it hard to keep his eyes open. “I just wanted to see if you were up. Good morning.”

“You sound almost cheerful,” Severus commented. “How… are you today, Harry?”

Harry looked down at his hand and had to hold himself back from letting out a small gasp. He shouldn't be surprised since he knew he was disappearing, but really, it couldn't help but shock him. Already both hands had disappeared, as did his wrists, and slowly, ever so slowly, his arms were disappearing now. Harry wagered that by lunch his elbows would be gone.

Harry closed his eyes and threw the blankets back, counting to ten before slowly opening his eyes again. This time he let out a little squeak. Both of his legs were gone, and at lunch by the time his elbows were gone, so would his kneecaps.

“Not good at all,” Harry managed to get out. He raised his arms so Severus could see, and using his bottom to try to wiggle his way to the edge of the bed, he tried to stand up.

It didn't work so well.

“Oomph!” Harry took in a sharp breath as he fell to the floor.

“Are you all right?” Severus sat up, looking alarmed.

“I have no legs!” Harry yelled angrily. “So of course anybody without any legs wouldn't be all right!” At Severus's raised eyebrows Harry sighed. “Sorry. Could you—could you help me back up onto the bed?” Harry glanced down at his non-existant legs gloomily. “It doesn't look like I'll be going anywhere today.”

Severus stood and bent down to help Harry back onto the bed. “It seems I'll have to feed you again today,” Severus said, almost in amusement, though his eyes looked anything but amused. “Are you going to have any more objections about that?”

Harry, however, wasn't in much of a joking mood. “No, not today.”

Severus nodded. “I'll go see if there's anything for you to eat, just stay here.”

He inwardly winced as he said this, momentarily forgetting that there was no possible way for Harry to go anywhere, but decided not to say anything else about it. He went down the stairs and walked into the kitchen, finding Nora placing plates of food on the table.

“Morning,” she greeted cheerfully. “Harry still sleeping?”

“Harry's condition has worsened,” Snape said. “I was going to bring his breakfast up to him.”

“Oh.” Nora looked worried as she wiped her hands on what looked like an apron tied around her waist. “Well I have good news. My uncle should be done with the incantation today, and I have breakfast all made. It's on the table; take what you like.”

“Thank you.”

“I thought I was smelling something delicious,” Althen said, almost as cheerfully as Nora sounded. “Severus, you're up! Good news: the incantation should be finished today! Where's Harry?”

“He's worse this morning,” Severus explained. He held a plate up. “I'm going to take Harry his breakfast.”

Althen frowned. “I'm sorry to hear that. I'll have to work on it longer, in that case… we really don't want anybody disappearing from existance in this house, eh?”

--

Severus returned upstairs with the plate of food to find Harry staring at the blank wall in front of him, a distant look on his face. Once the floorboard underneath Severus squeaked, however, Harry looked over and grinned, though he didn't look happy.

“It smells great.”

Even his voice sounded distant and emotionless, Severus noted. He sat on the edge of Harry's bed, putting the plate beside him.

“Is there anything you'd like to start off with?”

Harry shrugged a shoulder carelessly. “Anything's good, I guess.”

Severus nodded quietly, taking a strip of bacon and ripping a tiny piece off so it could fit into Harry's mouth easily. “Smile a little, Harry,” Severus said softly as he broke off another piece of bacon. “I'm not used to seeing you not smile.”

“There's nothing to smile about,” Harry pointed out quietly, accepting the piece of bacon. “Not now, anyway.”

Severus sighed. “The incantation is almost done, if that helps any.”

Harry shook his head. “There's a chance it might not even work. Then I'll be gone from existance. I won't even just disappear into my original reality, I'll just be gone. I'm starting to think that maybe I should just read that paper to send me back without going through all of this.”

Severus swallowed, his mouth parting slightly as though he were about to object. Instead, in the same soft voice he said, “It's entirely up to you, Harry.”

Harry couldn't help but be a little surprised, since he was expecting Severus to insist that he should be optimistic about this new incantation and to not think about the last resort just yet.

“I don't want to though,” Harry pointed out uncertainly, just in case Severus may have forgotten that. “I—I mean it's just a chance right?”

Severus stayed quiet, moving on to the egg. He picked up a knife and fork and began to cut the egg into chewable pieces. “Open,” Severus said distractedly. Harry, puzzled, opened his mouth for the egg.

“You didn't answer me,” Harry pointed out after swallowing his food.

“I didn't know it was a question.” Severus cut another piece of egg. “I merely thought that you needed reassurance.”

“I don't care,” Harry said. “I just want you to talk to me, even if you are just reassuring me about this.”

“Why would you need reassurance?”

“Why wouldn't I?”

Severus sighed, abandoning the knife, fork and food and looked Harry in the eye as he spoke.

“Harry, I love you, and everything will work out for the best. You and I both know that Fornacis Althen is very powerful, especially with Nora. I'm sure, without a doubt, that everything will work out in our favor.”

Harry felt a warm feeling form in his stomach. “You love me.”

The look of amusement crossed Severus's face again. “Yes, Harry Potter, I love you. You're my son.”

Harry felt a silly grin slip onto his face for the first time since he woke up that day. “I'm pretty sure it's Harry Snape now,” Harry said. “Just… letting you know.”

“Is that right?” Severus pretended to look surprised, looking back down to the plate of food. “I had no idea.”

“Mm, I figured. That's why I told you.”

“Logical thinking. Are you comfortable?”

Harry looked down at his body. “Not really, but I know what you meant, and in that way yes, I am comfortable. Sev… er, what are you going to do today?”

“Hm.” Severus, finished with the egg, went for the other piece of bacon and began that into tiny pieces as he did to the first one. “Perhaps stay up here with you. Why do you ask?”

Harry groaned, scowling. “No, don't stay up here with me all day. Why don't you go out and see a bit of Ireland? I don't want to keep you here.”

“You're not keeping me anywhere.” Severus looked absolutely surprised. “I choose to stay here with you. Besides, I could not go out and see a bit of Ireland without you, it wouldn't feel right while you're here with… no arms or legs.”

“But it's going to get boring,” came Harry's quiet voice. “It's not like I can do anything. Who knows—I'll probably sleep the entire day.”

“That's fine with me,” Severus said. “In fact, if you feel sleepy at any time during the day, then I insist that you go to sleep. You really needn't worry over me.”

“I'm not worried…” Harry started off, “just kind of guilty that I have to keep you here. You could always go downstairs and keep Nora company or something, she'd be more entertaining than I'd ever be.”

“You shouldn't be so hard on yourself,” Severus said lightly. “She might be more boring than you could ever imagine yourself to be.”

“At least go downstairs and get your own breakfast, you must be starving,” Harry said. “See? Look, I'm practically finished mine now.”

“You don't want this other piece of bacon?”

Harry shook his head. “I think there may have been a plate of pancakes downstairs. Would you like some of those?”

Harry shook his head again, grinning this time. “Just go downstairs and eat breakfast, Sev, okay? Please?”

“Will that make you happy?” Severus finally asked, raising his eyebrows at Harry.

Harry nodded eagerly. “I won't feel as guilty for keeping you up here.”

“All right,” Severus agreed, picking up the empty plate while standing to his feet.

Behind him, almost as he reached the staircase leading downstairs to the kitchen, he heard Harry mumble something, though he wasn't sure if the boy was mumbling to himself or if it was something that he was supposed to hear.

Severus turned around. “Did you say something?”

Harry coughed, a light shade of pink decorating both of his cheeks. “I just wanted to say,” Harry started in a louder, clearer and firmer voice than before, though he still looked uncomfortable and rather awkward, “that… I, er… I love you too, Dad.”

After that comment, Severus walked down the stairs, feeling like nothing could go wrong that day.

--

Later that day, both Severus and Althen were called into the lounge by Nora, who was the first to arrive, sitting with her hands folded on her lap while looking unsurprisingly calm.

“What's this about, Nora?” Althen questioned suspiciously as he sat down next to Severus, who was as equally puzzled. Especially since she had requested his presence, too. “You know I can't stop working on that incantation. You should be in my study helping me.”

“I know,” Nora said, adding quickly, “and I will. It's just… we need luck.”

“Luck,” Althen repeated in confusion. “Well of course we do.”

“It's going to take a miracle to get this incantation to work,” Nora pressed on, her eyes lighting up, waiting for someone to catch on to her brilliance.

No one did.

“I wouldn't say a miracle.” Althen scowled. “Do you not believe I can do this? We do need luck, though, my dear. Nora, you did something, now what is it?”

“I called Cealin,” Nora blurted out, looking eager. “He's coming here as fast as he can. He left yesterday so he should be arriving today.”

Severus frowned. “What does this have to do with me?”

“Cealin is that Thaumaturge,” Nora explained. “He can cast miracles. That's who I called yesterday. I thought we could use a miracle for Harry.”

“That's good thinking,” Althen admitted. He glanced at the oak door across from them that led to his study. “Nora, I'm afraid I'll need your assitance now for the incantation. It's going to take a lot of magic to finish this off.”

“Of course, Uncle,” Nora said, standing. “Excuse us, Severus?”

“Certainly.”

Severus stood, too, watching as Althen and Nora walked into the study before he walked back into the kitchen to go up to the staircase, leading to their bedrooms.

“This is really a rather big room isn't it?” Harry said as soon as Severus entered the room. “I wonder how many guests they have over at a time? If they don't know each other wouldn't it be awkward sharing a room, even though it's big?”

“I don't know,” Severus admitted.

“What did Nora want?” Harry asked, trying to pull himself up since he was down so low, but it didn't work too well considering that he was armless.

“She called someone to cast a miracle,” Severus said with a smirk. “So it looks like you'll be getting a miracle, Harry.”

Harry grinned faintly. “A miracle, huh? That's just what I need.” He paused, inspecting what was left of his arm. “Strange how you can see no blood or anything where my arm starts, isn't it? Just a stump-like thing, all flesh.”

“It's a good thing that there is no blood,” Severus said, sitting back down on Harry's bed. “I wouldn't want you to be seeing that all day.”

“Yeah,” Harry said. “Sorry if I'm not the greatest person to talk to today, or if I'm really quiet—”

“No,” Severus interrupted with a shake of his head. “I prefer the quiet anyway.”

Harry grinned faintly. “Thanks, Dad.”

For a split second, Severus looked surprised at the title, but quickly recovered, saying, “Do you find it difficult to call me that?”

Harry laughed and shook his head no. “I'm just going to have to get used to calling somebody that, so I might go from 'Sev' to 'Dad' once in a while.”

Harry eyed the telephone sitting on a small table in the far corner. “Dad, should we call Sirius? Tell him we're okay? Well… that you're okay? Give him an update or something?”

Severus groaned. “I'm not in the mood to converse with Black. Can't we hold that off another day or two?”

Harry laughed. “Hold it off? Well… what if you called Remus?”

“I can't tell whether Lupin or Black will pick up, so there is, honestly, no point, don't you find? You look sleepy. You should rest.”

“I'm not sleepy, you just want me to go to sleep so I won't bug you to call Sirius anymore.”

“Perhaps, but do you know that for a fact?” Severus smirked as Harry silently gave him a look. “I thought not.”

“You're difficult,” Harry mumbled, about to rub his sleepy eyes when he realized that he really had nothing to rub them with. So he put his arm back down on the bed and sighed.

“You're tired.”

Harry shrugged a shoulder. “Maybe. Boredom helps with that. Just laying here… doing nothing the entire day.”

“Sleep then,” said Severus softly. “I'll wake you up when it's lunch time.”

“Yeah?”

Just the thought of sleeping made Harry yawn. Then, with a nod of his head, Harry made sure his head was tilted on the pillow in a comfortable position before he started to fall back to sleep.

--

A sudden, distant clang of metal woke Harry up, causing him to jump; his eyes flew open. He wasn't sure if it had been silent while he was sleeping, but whatever pot or pan that had fallen or even hit against something downstairs in the kitchen was enough to jerk Harry out of his sleep.

When Harry looked down at Severus, who must've fallen asleep sometime after Harry did, he realized that he sound didn't wake him up. He didn't even twitch a finger.

He must be a deep sleeper. Harry looked around the room, as if doing that would tell him what time it was. He glanced down at Severus again. The professor was at the bottom of the bed, his head resting beside the spot where Harry's feet should have been. Severus's own feet were hovering slightly over the floor, not quite touching the hardwood flooring.

It did look rather uncomfortable, Harry thought as he studied Severus. If only he could get up and go downstairs to see what the time was. Would Nora have come up to wake them if they had slept in longer than they should have? Or would she try to respect their privacy by… not?

Harry didn't want to wake Severus up, either. He looked almost peaceful sleeping, and the last thing he had probably been the last couple of days was peaceful.

He stared out the window, seeing nothing but the green leaves of the trees in the backyard and bits of bright blue sky. He wanted to go over to the window and look at the Althens' backyard to see just how big it was, since he dearly wanted to go out back and run around as much as he could on his feet. But then, from the corner of his eye, he saw movement.

He looked back over at Severus and jumped when he found the professor staring at him quietly. He let out a breath, waiting for his heart to stop beating so quickly and to return to its normal pace.

“You scared me,” he breathed, shaking his head. “I wasn't expecting you to be awake and… staring.”

“I can usually have that effect,” Severus said thoughtfully, elaborating at Harry's look with, “Scaring people when I want to. How long have I been sleeping?”

“I don't know. I woke up maybe… five or so minutes before you did?” Harry turned his head to the right, looking back out the large window. “I want to go outside.”

“I know you do. After, when this is over with.” There was a pause, and then Severus stood, saying, “I'll be downstairs for a second, I assume you're hungry.”

“I'm unbelievably hungry,” Harry confessed, grinning. “I think I smell something good downstairs. I wish I could walk.”

“I'll be back in a minute.”

Harry seemed to be right, Severus thought as he came closer to the kitchen. There seemed to be many auromas mixed in with one another, and as soon as he entered the kitchen, Severus saw why.

“Oh good, you're up!”

Nora was placing several bags down on the table. Those bags held the different smells.

“Are you having a party?” Severus questioned as he eyed the bags. He looked at Nora long enough to see her face turn red.

“No… this is just food. For us. It's nearly three in the afternoon, so you could consider this some type of lunch and supper. I tried making the food, but I sort of burnt it—I'm surprised you and Harry didn't wake up with that loud smoke detector—and so then I went out and got these.”

Nora stopped for a breath. “Cealin came while you two were sleeping, and, well, we got a miracle. Uncle Althen seems to have much more energy than before. Me, too. Which will result in finishing the incantation quicker than expected—sometime soon, if not around nine tonight.”

“The quicker the better,” Severus said in relief. “Thank you. Very much.”

Nora shook her head. “No problem.”

Severus began to assist Nora in unloading the food, some which were in styrofoam containers.

“You should really give Harry this corn on the cob, there was only one. Or you can take it, if you like it and he doesn't… or split it between you,” said Nora. “I think I went a little overboard but… the leftovers are always nice to eat the next couple days afterwards. Take as much as you can carry, really… do you need help?”

“No, that's quite all right.” Severus paused, suddenly feeling the need to thank Fornacis and his neice for all they were doing for both him and Harry. He, however, was not usually one for thanking, so he had no idea what to actually say except for, “I want to thank you again for… everything. For helping my son especially.”

Nora shook her head again, grinning.

“It's fine. My uncle and I can see that you and Harry care for each other very much. That's the only reason we need to help you.”

--

“Wow.” Harry stared at Severus as he came through the open door with a very large amount of food in his hands. “Did you bring up an entire buffet, Sev?”

“Blame Ms Althen,” Severus muttered as he brought the food over to Harry's bed. “She insisted I pile up on as much food as I could.”

“This is for both of us, right?” Harry asked, his eyes flickering up onto Severus's face.

“For you.”

“No, no, no!” Harry said quickly. “I can't eat all of this. You'll have to help me, so sit down.” He stopped, looking at something that Severus held in his hands. “What's that?”

Severus sat, and then held set the tub of something on the bed next to Harry.

“Butter. For your corn.”

“Corn—that corn?”

Harry stared at the long, yellow corn on the cob that sat in a styrofoam container in amongst the rest of the food which were, like the corn, in styrofoam containers.

“Yes.” A frown crossed Severus's face. “Have you not had it before?”

Harry shook his head no.

“I've always wanted to try it. How do I pick it up?”

Severus reached over towards the container that held the corn and took out something yellow.

“Ms Althen put these in here. All the times that there have been corn at the manor I believe you used to use these.”

“Right.”

Harry watched as Severus stuck the picks in both ends of the corn. “What do you need the butter for, again?” Harry questioned.

“The corn.”

Severus, using a plastic knife that was included with the food, cut a small chunk out of the butter and put it in the bottom of the styrofoam, awkwardly trying to roll the corn in the butter. With a frustrated sigh, Severus cut another small chunk of the butter and instead of putting it on the bottom of the stryofoam, spread it all around the corn and, satisfied, leaned forward so Harry could bite into it.

“Not bad,” Harry said after swallowing. He eyed Severus. “Why aren't you eating anything?”

Severus made a face. “It doesn't look too appetizing.”

Harry searched around the pile of food with his eyes.

“Look, there's brown rice and… isn't that chicken in that red sauce? Don't you like chinese food?”

“I'll eat as soon as you're finished,” Severus said, exasperated. “Now are you ready for another bite?”

Harry shook his head. “I'm not going to eat until you eat.”

“You don't have any hands, Harry,” Severus reminded the boy. “For now, I'm your hands—”

“I know,” Harry interrupted, frowning. “I know. I just feel bad… that's all.”

“Well don't,” Severus said firmly. “Eat.”

It seemed to be perfect timing. Just as Harry opened his mouth to argue some more, there came loud, hasty footsteps on the stairs and not long after, Nora appeared in the doorway. Her face was very flushed and excited; she took a few agonizing moments to catch her breath, making Harry and Severus wait impatiently to find out what was wrong.

Then, after what seemed like thousands of excruciating years, Nora finally caught her breath and spoke.

“It's done,” she managed to say through gulps of air. “W—we finished much earlier than expected. It was… hah, it was a miracle, really… the incantation is finished!”