“Aberforth, were would you like me to put this box?” Albus inquired, holding out a box of odds and ends for his brother’s inspection.

Abe raised an eyebrow at the contents of the box. For the life of him, he couldn’t remember where he had gotten those things! “Put it in the kitchen.”

“At this rate, Abe, your kitchen will become a storeroom.” Harry commented with a smile as he approached the pair of brothers.

“Well…look who’s up and about!” Aberforth grumbled, narrowing his eyes at his guests. 

After about a week under close observation at St. Mungo’s, Harry was allowed to return home with strict orders to take it easy for at least two weeks. Moody had banned him from training for that amount of time plus an extra week just in case, and he and Remus had agreed that, at least for the coming school week, he would be the one to teach magical defense theory while Remus took care of the practical work. Both Harry and Ginny had yet to return to school, so neither knew what to expect when routines returned to normal. However, both hoped that by the time Monday rolled around, most of the school will have moved on from the Harry Potter-Severus Snape fiasco from last Sunday. If not, there would be pandemonium come Monday morning.

However, today was not Monday and thus neither Harry nor Ginny wanted to think about the impending mess that awaited them at Hogwarts the day after tomorrow. Today was Saturday, and the family was once again gathered at the family home at Godric’s Hollow. The Weasley parents were over, as was Dumbledore and McGonagall, and they were all helping Aberforth move some of his stuff from his bar to his new/old house across the street from Harry’s.

“Are you supposed to be walking around?” Aberforth snapped, frowning at the teenager before him.

“Relax, Abe. I’m using my cane. I’m fine.” After three days or so of resting in bed, Healer House had finally relented and allowed Harry to move around his hospital room, but only under the watchful eye of someone with the capability to catch him should he fall. Thankfully, Sirius, Ginny, and Molly were always there, thus walking was always permitted in the room. The moment his feet touched the floor, however, his body decided to rebel against his brain and his right leg decided it hated him. Long story, short, it had been a long week full of physical recovery and arguments about how long he should have to use a ridiculous cane.

Abe raised an eyebrow at him, “How long did it take Ginny to convince you to use that thing this morning?”

“Not long.” Harry answered with a smirk, tilting his head down towards his good leg.

Aberforth glanced down and there, hiding behind Harry’s left leg, and gripping his trousers like a lifeline, was Severus, on his feet, walking right next to Harry. “Oh! So you’re up and about now too. Is that right?”

Severus peered all the way up at Aberforth with wide-eyes, gaping at him from behind Harry’s leg as if he was a human skyscraper, whose head stretched up so high it touched the sky and whose shoulders stretched wide to touch either side of the universe. Ha, ha, ha! Things were so incredibly wicked at this height! Severus grinned at Aberforth’s scowl.

The old bartender huffed and snatched the box out of his brother’s hands. “I must be losing my touch.” He grumbled, turning on his heel and marching into his house, “The kid’s smiling at me!”

“Must be the age, Abe!” Harry teased at his back, a smirk tugging at his lips.

“Shut up, Potter!” Aberforth snapped from inside the house.

“Well…he’s certainly in a marvelous mood this morning.” Albus remarked, rubbing his hands together awkwardly, giving them something to do now that his brother had snatched up the box they had been holding.

“Oh, you know your brother, sir. This is a good mood for him.” Harry replied with a shrug.

“Is it?”

“Googoogoogoogoogoogoo!” Sev grumbled from behind Harry’s leg, imitating the grumbly old man who now lived across the street.

Harry chuckled along with his ward, turning back to the headmaster to explain the joke. “That’s Severus’ impression of your brother, sir.”

“Hey! No one is allowed to make impressions of me!” A voice boomed from inside the house.

“Aw, suck it up, Abe!” Harry shouted in return, a smile on his face, “Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery!”

“Whatever!”

Chuckling, Harry gazed down at his smiling child, “Shall we meet our new neighbors then?” He asked, inclining his head towards the field behind Aberforth’s house.

“Goak!” Severus exclaimed, hopping up and down, while still clinging onto Harry’s leg, and pointing at the green field excitedly. “Goak! Goak! Goak!”

“Let’s go meet our new neighbors.” Harry nodded at the headmaster. “Sir.”

Dumbledore smiled and moved aside, waving for Harry and Severus to move past him. It was a slow process. Harry couldn’t walk very fast due to his cane and the residual pain in his right leg, and Severus couldn’t do so either due to the fact that his own legs were tiny. Yet the beauty of it all, as Ginny explained to Harry this morning, was that they could both now keep up perfectly well with each other.

“Goak! Goak! Goak!”

“Who would’ve thought you’d like goats so much.” Harry muttered under his breath, amused by his infant’s enthusiasm.

“Black!” They heard Aberforth bellow from his front porch. “Black, for god’s sake! Keep my goats on the front field until I can get a fence set up for them, will you?”

“Abe, dogs herd sheep, not goats!” Sirius shouted from the front porch of the Den.

“Shows how much you know!” The old bartender retorted, “Go herd my goats!”

“If you wanted a favor, you could’ve asked nicely!”

“A bottle of firewhiskey and a fine cigar is in it for you if you do it now!”

WOOF! WOOF! WOOF!

As soon as Harry and Severus reached the field directly behind Aberforth’s house, a big black dog came running up from behind them. Severus stopped for a second to turn around and watch Padfoot run and, as soon as the dog swept past him, the big whoosh of air that usually trailed in a running dog’s wake hit his face and blew through his soft baby hair, making the infant squeal in delight and jump around excitedly. Severus turned back around just in time to watch Padfoot run his first lap around a herd of goats, barking at them and making them group together a move closer towards Aberforth’s house.

“He makes a good shepherd dog, doesn’t he, cub?” Harry snorted as he gazed down at Severus, who promptly looked up and began laughing at him. “Don’t tell Sirius I said that.”

WOOF! WOOF! WOOF!

“Well…he might already know. But anyway…” After using his free arm to don the baby sling and wrap it in place, Harry dropped to one knee to let Severus climb in himself. “Come on, cub. We don’t want to get trampled by the herd of goats, do we?”

“Uh, uh, uh!” Sev replied, shaking his head playfully.

About an hour later, Harry was seated cross-legged on the grass underneath a big tree in one of Aberforth’s fields. Surrounding him was a small group of sleeping baby goats as well as a dozing Padfoot, who had settled underneath his right arm. On his lap sat Severus, with Harry’s hand on his chest for support. “Alright, Sev, let’s try that levitation thing again, shall we?”

Severus bit his lip and shook his head. He didn’t want to! No matter how much Harry kept insisting that it was easy, Sev was convinced it wasn’t! There were a lot of elements involved. It was different from stretching out your will because this time you had to stretch it out enough to actually move something. Sev knew how to change something’s energy but actually moving something? Without a wand, it just seemed impossible. Leaning back on Harry’s chest, Sev peered up at his guardian and shook his head. “Mo wamp, Haweh.”

The teenager raised an eyebrow. That was new. Severus generally liked trying new things. “You don’t want to?” The infant continued to shake his head. “Why not?”

Severus turned away at the question and settled for fiddling with his cub toy’s little ear. He shrugged and answered simply, “Mo wamp.”

“Well why don’t you want to?”

Severus shrugged again and Harry sighed. “Sev, explain it to me, please?”

“Uh-uh.” The infant hugged the lion close to his chest and buried his face in the soft material. He continued to shake his head.

Harry bit his lip in thought. “Cub, I taught you mental communication for a reason.”

Sev growled in frustration and turned a glare on Harry, “Mo wamp twy!”

“You don’t want to try sending a message into my mind or you don’t want to try levitating something without a wand?”

Both. Severus grumbled internally. So what if he didn’t want to try?! It wasn’t a crime! Why should he expend so much effort in trying to do something he knew he couldn’t do? It seemed like such a waste!

“How do you know you can’t do it if you don’t try?” Harry retorted aloud.

Sev grumbled. He has got to learn how to control this mental communication stuff! The things he did not want to send to Harry always ended up going through, and the things that he did want to send to Harry never made it there. Everything was so confusing! “Mo! Mo!” He exclaimed, shaking his head back and forth.

Harry sighed and readjusted the infant on his lap, “Relax, cub…Just breathe…” Harry made sure to use his calming voice in order to get the infant to unwind. He’d noticed that the more relaxed Severus was, the more susceptible he was to learning everything Harry had to teach him. “In…” he felt the infant inhale along with him, “…and out…” before exhaling with him as well. “In…” and again they inhaled, “…and out…” and again they exhaled.

Harry continued the breathing exercise for the better part of five minutes, all the while coaxing Severus’ little hand to relax and sit open in front of him, palm up. “Breathe in again, cub…” And as Harry felt his child inhale, he placed a stalk of wheat in his open palm. “…and breathe out again…” As both boys exhaled, the sweet fall breeze blew through their hair, massaging their heads and making some strands of hair stand on end. “Now close your eyes…”

The sound of the wind as it blew through the tall grass permeated their senses. Sev and Harry listened with rapt attention as it danced through the field of wheat and waltzed around the tree branches, chiming the leaves in its wake. They listened as it twirled around the front field and through the flowers in Ginny’s garden, carrying the scent of the season within its folds. And finally they sensed as it wrapped the two of them in an embrace, warm and welcoming, encouraging them to relax and open their minds to any and all of life’s possibilities.

Sev sensed as all the muscles in his body relaxed and as all the negative energy that had been building up over the past week drained out of him. All the stress and tension from Harry’s collapse and subsequent hospitalization and recovery all of a sudden fled him, leaving him with a sense of calm and peace, and a feeling that all was right in the world. Sev hadn’t sensed that for months now, not since he’d learned that Harry had been suffering from something. Yet now that everything seemed to be alright, he found that it wasn’t hard to allow those feelings to permeate him once again. Oh, how he loved those feelings…Sev never once felt like that in his first lifetime; but now he was surrounded by people who made it their priority to make him feel happy and loved. Never again did he want to go back to how it used to be. Never again did he want to be alone.

“You feel it, Sev?”

Magic. White magic. The beauty and power of the natural world at his fingertips. This was life. This was the essence of life! Sev felt as it flowed through his fingers and around his hand and up his arm. Why would someone take something so pure and beautiful and twist it into something so dark and evil? Why would someone take the essence of life itself and turn it into a weapon of death and destruction? Sev used to know the answer to that question. Yet now he understood that he never really understood at all! He had spent all of his last life searching for power and glory with those who had twisted magic to suit their dark needs. He thought he had found ultimate power with the Death Eaters, but now he knew that he had never found anything at all. Because here it was—true power and true glory, literally, at his fingertips! And what did he have to do to find it? Merely close his eyes and immerse himself in the magic that constantly surrounded him, every second of every minute of every hour of every day of his life.

“Stretch out your will, Sev…”

Severus took a deep breath and called more white magic towards him, feeling as it danced around his fingertips. He played with its strands and twisted his fingers in and out as if playing a game with this faceless entity of pure energy. Sev felt as the white magic lightly tugged back on his fingers as well, engaging him, encouraging him to keep playing his game. This made the infant laugh, feeling as though he found a new friend with whom he could play.

“Now open your eyes…”

He did, and lo and behold, a stalk of wheat floated mere inches off the palm of his open hand.

“That’s all you, cub.” Harry whispered above him, a smile in his voice. “All you.” Sev smiled and levitated the stalk even higher as his guardian planted a kiss atop his head. “Now what was all that about not being able to do something?”

Sev bit his lip and grinned, twirling his finger around and around, making the piece of wheat twirl along with it. Leaning back against Harry’s chest, the infant tilted his head back to smile and shrug innocently at his guardian.

He completely forgot.

---

“Alright, let’s go. Playtime with Teddy.”

“Teddy, Teddy, Teddy, Teddy, Teddy, Teddy, Teddy…”

“Hermione, would you take him?”

“MIMI!”

“Now, Severus, I would think you could pronounce my name a little better by now.” Hermione commented as she took the infant in her arms.

Sev grinned impishly at her and began bouncing excitedly in her embrace, “Mimi! Mimi! Mimi!”

Ron snorted, earning him a death glare from his girlfriend. The redhead shrugged, “What, Mimi?” He sniggered, causing Sev to dissolve into giggles.

Hermione huffed in frustration and went off in search of Ginny, Severus chanting her name loudly and persistently. “Mimi! Mimi! Mimi!”

Ron and Harry both shared a laugh at their best friend’s expense. “You think she knows he’s joking around?”

Ron chuckled and shook his head, “The only thing in the world it takes Hermione a while to figure out, it’s when a person is joking around.”

Harry laughed and nodded in agreement. “That’s true.” When they were both able to get a hold of themselves, Harry nudged Ron on the arm slightly, “Hey, mate, do you know where your dad is right now?”

The redhead cleared his throat and nodded, rolling his eyes towards the ceiling and gesturing in the direction of the second floor. “Yeah, he was helping Remus make some pull-down staircase that Ginny wanted to make in the middle of the ceiling upstairs. It’s supposed to lead up to the attic. Remember that secret room she’s making you?”

In all honesty, Harry had completely forgotten about it. “I thought we already made a staircase for the attic.”

“Nope!” Ron shook his head. “But now you have one! It pulls down so it doesn’t block the hallway or anything. It’s great.” He smirked. “Did you want me to get dad for you?”

“Yeah, would you please?”

“I’m right here, Harry.” Arthur declared with a smile, sneaking up from behind Ron and startling both boys.

“Dad!” “Mr. Weasley!”

Arthur smiled at the two of them, “I’m sorry. Did I startle you?”

“No, um…”

“He’s lying. Yeah, you did.” Ron argued, scowling at his father.

Arthur chuckled at his youngest son, “That’s because it’s easy to startle you, Ron.”

“No, it isn’t!”

“YEAH, IT IS!” Fred and George exclaimed from behind Ron, making their younger brother jump out his shoes.

“You GITS!” And before anyone could blink, Fred and George were running down the hallway and out the back porch, an angry Ron hot on their heels.

Arthur merely watched with a smile as his sons disappeared out the back door, only turning back towards Harry when he could see them no more. “Did you want to talk to me about something, Harry?”

“Yes, could we, um…” Harry gestured out the front door and towards the small patch of road between the four houses. “Perhaps outside?”

“Oh, yeah, sure…” The teen waited patiently as Arthur put his shoes back on and donned his coat before leading him out the front garden and to a spot he hoped was out of hearing range of Extendable Ears and whatever eavesdropping contraption Dumbledore saw fit to bring with him today.

Meanwhile, inside the dining room, where almost everyone else was gathered, Tonks’ eyebrow climbed to her hairline as she watched Harry and Arthur from her vantage point at the dining room window. “Ginny?”

“Hmm?”

“Where are those two going?” She asked, a note of suspicion in her voice.

“Who?” Ginny frowned.

“Your dad and Harry.” The witch replied, pointing her thumb out the window behind her.

In an instant, everyone was out of their chairs and crowding around her at the window sill. “Where?!” Sirius exclaimed, climbing on his tiptoes and trying to peer over his cousin’s head.

“Oh, honestly! Look at all of you!” Andromeda rebuked them as she passed through the dining on her way to the kitchen. “Don’t you have anything else to do other than eavesdrop on someone else’s conversations?”

“What’s going on?” Dumbledore questioned, intrigued by the group huddled by the window.

“Oh, you better not tell him.” McGonagall interjected, eyeing Albus with disapproval.

“Harry’s trying to talk to Arthur in private.” Sirius replied, a smirk tugging at the corners of his lips.

“Well crack open the window, then!” Dumbledore encouraged them with a smile.

“Albus!” McGonagall’s eyes widened but she followed the headmaster to the window nonetheless.

“Hey! What’s all this?” Ron exclaimed, walking in from the kitchen.

“Harry pulled your father aside.” Remus replied with an amused smirk on his face, “Now everyone’s trying to find out what’s being said.”

“Would you all like an Extendable Ear?” George offered, pulling one out of his pocket.

“No, no, Mr. Weasley,” Dumbledore interjected, pulling something out of his pocket, “I have something here that might do the trick.” He then lowered his voice to a murmur, “You better use that to listen for your mother.”

“Good idea!” Fred exclaimed, peeking into the living room and looking for any sign of Molly. “You better tell me what’s going on later, though.”

“It’ll never work.” Remus warned Albus with a smile.

“We shall see, Mr. Lupin.” Dumbledore replied, twisting various knobs and pushing a variety of buttons on his little contraption. “We shall see.”

Meanwhile, outside, as they made their way out of listening range, Arthur engaged Harry in conversation. “So how is everyone handling everything, Harry?”

“Oh, you know…” Harry shrugged, “Sirius is being extremely overprotective; more overprotective than usual, actually.”

“Molly told me that after that first day, he single-handedly kept the press well out of that hospital the entire week.” Arthur chuckled as Harry snorted and nodded.

“Yeah, he kind of…They were all scared of him. It was really funny.” Harry shook his head as he recalled all his godfather’s scare tactics over the past week. “They didn’t even want to come through the floo. I think Healer House was quite awed at whatever he did to keep the press out of ‘her hospital.’”

“Yes…she was quite a character, wasn’t she?”

Harry snorted and shrugged, “She was that, yes…”

“I’m curious…What do you intend to do about Severus now that everything’s out, my boy.”

With that, Harry sighed, “I honestly don’t know, dad.” He replied, scratching the back of his neck nervously. “When Ginny and I were planning everything out before this, we said that we would just take him everywhere we went so that we could protect him, but…I mean…” Harry made a face, “I teach in a school where any one of the students I teach could want him dead. I can’t teach and keep my eye on him every single second of the day.”

“Well, you know he could always come to the Burrow.”

“Yeah, that’s been our current plan, so far.” The teen shrugged. “As long as you don’t mind entertaining Sirius and Teddy along with him almost every day.”

“Oh, nonsense!” Arthur waved him off, “Sirius is always welcome, and Molly thinks of Teddy as another grandson along with Severus. She loves having the boys over—and that includes Sirius.” He finished with a laugh.

“Great!” Harry exclaimed, slightly relieved, “Brilliant! I’m glad to hear that.”

“Oh, but I must warn you, Harry…” Arthur interjected, his voice suddenly taking on a slightly more serious tone. “This has nothing to do with Severus coming to the Burrow, but…” He peered around him before gesturing for Harry to come closer.

The teenager frowned and did as he bid, peering at Arthur worriedly. “What is it, Mr. Weasley?”

Arthur lowered his voice to a whisper, “It has something to do with what I’ve been seeing at work lately.” The Weasley patriarch paused for a second to study the dining room window of the Den. He thought he saw it move a second ago. He decided to lower his voice even more just in case.

Harry’s frown deepened at that. “Yes?”

Arthur focused back on Harry and fixed him with his most serious look, “Draco Malfoy has been asking questions.”

Harry’s jaw tightened and the look in his eyes quickly transformed from one of worry to one of barely-controlled rage. “What sort of questions?!” He ground through gritted teeth.

“Questions about you, about the guardianship process. His father’s been whispering around as well.”

Harry’s grip on the handle of his cane tightened. “Has he?”

“I do believe your past is involved, Harry.”

Across the way, all the windows of the house that Harry had offered to Remus and Dora shattered outward in one violent explosion, making all the occupants peering out the window of the Den duck in surprise.

“What the bloody hell was that?!” Ron exclaimed, trying to peer over Sirius’ ducked head to see what had happened.

“That was all the windows of my prospective house blowing up.” Remus replied, checking out the window one more time before letting both Dora and Teddy up once again.

“What could’ve made them do that?!” Andromeda exclaimed, sticking her head out the kitchen door to see what had just happened.

“Harry…” Ginny replied worriedly.

“Quickly, Albus!” McGonagall hissed, batting Dumbledore on the shoulder, “Calibrate that ridiculous thing already!”

“Now I want to know what’s going on.” Andromeda cried, coming up behind them.

“As do we all.” Dumbledore muttered, trying to recalibrate his little machine.

“Shhh! Mum’s coming!” Fred hissed from the doorway.

Moments later, the occupants of the dining room heard, through the small crack in the window, the front door fly open and Molly Weasley’s voice bellow from the porch, “ARTHUR! What, in Merlin’s name, was THAT?!”

“That was me, Mrs. Weasley!” Harry replied, waving his hand at her with a placating smile. “I’m sorry. I just…lost control for a second.”

“Well you better find control, kid!” Aberforth bellowed from the porch of his own home. “I won’t have my windows exploding outward!”

“It’s alright, Abe! I got it!” All of a sudden, all the shattered glass from the house across the way began flying up and reassembling themselves, even as Harry turned away and began whispering furiously to Arthur.

“Albus!”

“It’s almost done!”

“I think I can pick some stuff up from here.” Sirius remarked. “Can you, Remus?”

“A bit.” The werewolf nodded.

“That’s great! But we’re all not blessed with amazing hearing.” Ginny replied.

“Uh-huh!” Severus added, scowling at the two sharp-eared men.

“Ah! There we are!” Albus pointed the contraption at the two whispering men and then twisted a knob. Garbled words soon began pouring out of the small, funny-looking device.

“…speak to…Hest…exped…op…ers…”

“You can’t bloody understand that!” Ron exclaimed. Everyone shushed him back up.

“…Not…oss…dan…Elson…ary…ped…thing…”

“Ron’s right. It’s kind of useless. I can’t understand anything.” Hermione pointed out.

“Perhaps I could improve it a bit more.” Dumbledore replied, fiddling with one of the knobs.

“Oh, sure! Listen to her!” Ron rolled his eyes and shook his head.

“I’m telling you! Use an Extendable Ear!” Fred hissed from the door.

“Those are useless unless someone goes out there and throws it so that it lands nearby them!” Sirius hissed in return. “And I’m not doing it!”

“Quiet!” Remus waved them both down. “I can sort of hear what they’re saying.”

“Just promise me you won’t do anything drastic, Harry.” Arthur said, gripping both of Harry’s shoulders and looking him straight in the eye. “Don’t give them anything they could use against you.”

“It’ll be a cold day in hell before I let them take him away from me.” Harry replied, a look of firm resolve on his face. “I swear to you that!”

“Harry…” Arthur tried making use of his calming voice this time, trying to convince Harry to listen to reason, “…please…promise me—nothing drastic!”

Harry’s jaw tightened and he turned away to scowl at the ground. “Fine!” He muttered, his agreement sounding more like a growl than anything. “Nothing drastic!”

Arthur would take whatever he could get. “Excellent!” He gave Harry’s shoulders a supportive squeeze before patting them with a smile and letting them go. “Now then! What was it you wanted to talk to me about?”

The teenager closed his eyes for a second to get control over his anger. Now wasn’t the time for any of this. He would think about this later tonight, after he had the time to digest it all and was calm enough to think up a plan of action. No…this time was meant for better things…happier things…things that were supposed to make him a different sort of nervous.

“I’m…sorry, I…”

Arthur waved him off, “No, no, don’t worry. My news about Draco Malfoy was unexpected, I know.”

“It threw me for a loop.”

“Yes, I would expect.” Arthur gave Harry’s shoulder a supportive squeeze. “I just wanted to warn you—”  

“And thank you for that, by the way.” Harry replied, nodding at Arthur. “Thank you very much! Um…”

“It was the least I could do…”

“Yeah.” Harry smiled nervously, a myriad of emotions reflecting off his eyes. “Uh…” The teenager cleared his throat and began wringing his wrists anxiously. “Before…all of that, there was, uh…something I wanted to, uh…er…ask you.” He stuttered uncharacteristically.

Arthur smiled at the teenager’s unusual behavior, mildly amused by it all. “Am I making you nervous, Harry?” He asked with a raised eyebrow.

“Just a little bit, uh…”

“Spit it out, son.” The Weasley patriarch ordered gently.

Harry cleared his throat yet again, “You see, I—I’m…I’m a…a traditional kind of…uh—”

“Say it, Harry!” Arthur exclaimed, gripping Harry’s shoulders and fixing the teen with a smile meant to calm him.

Harry took a deep breath and did as he was told, “May I have your daughter’s hand in marriage?” He asked, biting his lip in anticipation.

Inside the house, identical grins blossomed on both Remus’ and Sirius’ faces.

“What are you two smiling at?” Ginny asked suspiciously. Behind her, everyone else stopped pestering Albus to peer at the two Marauders curiously.

The two best friends exchanged a look, the exact same gleam sparkling in both their eyes. “Oh, nothing…” Remus replied, halfway into a snicker.

“Absolutely nothing at all.” Sirius added, snorting halfway through his own affirmation. The two best friends exchanged another look and before long, both began laughing out loud in earnest. 

“Okay, they heard everything!” Hermione exclaimed, pointing at the two laughing mates.

“What’d you hear?!” Ginny questioned, frowning at the fact that she was being left out on whatever her boyfriend and her father were discussing.

“Ah!”

“Oh, I’m pretty sure you’re going to find out soon enough.” Sirius replied, peeking out the window just in time to see Arthur shake Harry’s hand and wrap him in a quick embrace. “Soon enough.”

“Don’t you worry about that!” Remus added, still snickering at the secret he was now privy to.

“Remus, would you look at me for a second, please?” Dumbledore said.

“Oh no!” The werewolf shook his head and began looking away. “I am not falling for that!” He waved his finger at the old headmaster, “Padfoot, don’t look at him! He’s going to ligilimize you!”

“What?!”

“Oh, that’s sneaky!” Andromeda chuckled.

“Albus!”

“It was worth a try.”

“What’s going on in here?!” Molly exclaimed as she walked into the dining room.

“Nothing!” Ten voices exclaimed at the same time.

The Weasley matriarch narrowed her eyes at everyone suspiciously. 

---

Ginny took a deep and tried to steel herself for what she knew was coming next. The moment she opened this door, there was no going back. There were no more excuses for them to hide behind. There was no more cover story. There were no more lies. The naked truth was out now and they had the Daily Prophet to thank for it. Everyone knew their secrets. Now this was the fallout.

“I’ll be right behind you, love.” Harry whispered into her mind, sending her waves of support along with the message. Ginny couldn’t help the small smile that crept onto her face. Oh, how she loved that man!

Taking a deep breath, she pushed the door open and walked in.

As per usual, the room was full of noisy students, all chatting with each other about something or another. Yet the moment she was spotted, all conversations in the area ceased and the room was plunged into a tense silence. All eyes locked on her and followed her as she made her way through the room. Ginny tried to focus solely on Hermione, who was sending her a sympathetic smile as she motioned to the seat next to her at the front of the class. Yet try as she might, Ginny couldn’t shake off the feeling of uneasiness that traveled up her spine, especially when the whispers started after she sat down.

“…Snape…Did you hear?”
“Seriously?”
“With Potter!”
“Where has she been all week?”
“Where has he been all week?!”
“Why didn’t she tell us?”
“How could she?!”
“Where’s that traitor now?!”

All of a sudden, a shriek rang through the room, causing everyone to turn towards the back. Yet the moment Ginny turned around in her seat, she came face-to-face with a bright green light, which hovered mere inches away from her forehead.

“Oh my god!” Hermione breathed in alarm. “It almost hit you!”

Another gasp had both girls peering around the blocked spell to the back of the room, where it had come from. There, with a look of pure fury on his face, stood Harry. He had a terrified Salisburg pinned against the wall, one hand gripping the wrist of his wand arm, and the other hand gripping his throat. “Did you just fire a Killing Curse at my girlfriend?!” He roared, getting in the Slytherin’s face. Salisburg’s eyes widened in alarm.

“Oh my god, he did!” One of the Slytherin girls gasped, covering her mouth in shock.

“Yeah, I heard him!” Dean added, pointing to the boy. “He said the incantation!”

“Harry!” Remus exclaimed, his eyes widening at what he saw the moment he stepped into the room. He was by Harry’s side at a moment’s notice, trying to pry his fingers away from Salisburg’s throat. “Harry…! Come on, mate! Harry, please…!”

“He shot a Killing Curse at Ginny!” Harry growled, increasing his grip on the Slytherin’s neck and making the young man’s eyes pop out of their sockets in fear.

“Then press charges against him! It’s well within your rights!” Remus tried reasoning with him, putting all his power in trying to pry Harry’s fingers away from the student’s neck. He could see now how Harry had managed to choke Fenrir Greyback to death. No matter how much stronger the other man was, Harry’s magic gave him superhuman strength when it felt it needed to. “Harry, think about Severus!” Remus exclaimed, using the infant as his last resort. “What would Severus think if he saw you doing this right now?!”

Harry barred his teeth at the Slytherin and growled, making the young man squeal in fear, screw his eyes shut, and cringe away. “You disgust me!” He spat in the Slytherin’s face. He then turned his death glare towards Remus. “Damn you!” And before anyone could blink, Harry had released Salisburg, confiscated his wand, gagged him and bound him to a chair in the back of the room. The young professor then stuck a finger in Salisburg’s face, “You’re lucky he stopped me!”

Turning on his heel, Harry then marched to the front of the classroom, barking over his shoulder, “Someone go get the Headmaster!” There was scuffling noise and one of the boys quickly hightailed it out of the room.

Meanwhile, Harry made sure to stop at Ginny’s desk so that he could inspect her himself. “Are you alright?” He asked, his voice altogether different than mere moments before and his eyes reflecting altogether different emotions.

“Yeah, I’m fine.” Ginny replied, “A little…shaken, but fine.”

“I never knew he could actually go through with it.” One of the other Slytherin boys murmured in shock.

Harry turned and fixed him with a death glare. “Go through with what, Mr. Crane?!” He snapped.

The Slytherin gulped, “Well…there was…that is…he,” Crane gestured towards the bound Salisburg, “would talk about trying to…kill…all of you—all three of you.” Behind him, Salisburg shook his head frantically, trying to deny everything the other boy said. “But Salisburg’s all talk. He’s always been all talk! That’s the way he’s been…forever!” Crane reasoned. Behind him, Salisburg was all nods this time, trying to convey his agreement.

“Well…” Harry fixed a death glare on Salisburg as he addressed the other Slytherin, “…apparently he’s not all talk this time, Mr. Crane. In fact, he’s just earned himself a one-way ticket to Azkaban.” The young professor waved Salisburg’s wand for everyone else to see. “And I’ve got the evidence to prove it.”

One of the Ravenclaws raised her hand. “How is that, Professor Potter?” She asked curiously, quill at the ready.

“It’s called Prior Incantato, Miss Hollis.” Harry replied, tossing Salisburg’s wand over to Remus before waving at the board. The werewolf bagged the piece of evidence as the chalk recorded all of Harry’s words on the spell and its use.

“If I may, Professor Potter?” The Slytherin girl from earlier raised her hand after Harry finished his mini-lecture on Prior Incantato. 

“Yes, Miss Weston?” Harry replied, glaring at Remus, even as he accepted the cane the werewolf was holding out to him. “Just so that we can all get the subject off our minds…” Both professors then peered at her quizzically. “…Perhaps you could say…something about Professor Snape?” She asked. Everyone all of a sudden turned towards him, giving him their undivided attention.

Harry’s jaw tightened and he sighed. Turning back, the teenager shared a look with Remus, but the werewolf merely shrugged at him, nodding at him as if to say that the decision was his to make. Harry then turned his gaze towards the front of the class and locked eyes with Ginny.

“Don’t do it, Harry. They’ll just ask more questions.” She said.

“What if I just say one thing and say that’s it’s going to be the only thing and I’ll say nothing more after that.” Harry reasoned.

“You’ll be opening a can of worms!” She argued.

“More like closing it!”

“Our lives are none of their business!”

The entire class peered from one to the other, Harry to Ginny, wondering why, in Merlin’s name, they were just staring at each other like that.

“It’s like they’re talking to each other in their minds!” One of the Ravenclaws murmured loudly. “I’ve heard of such a thing happening before!”

“I’ll just assure them that he’s alright and tell them that we took him in willingly, and that’s all they need to know!” Harry argued, his accompanying gestures confusing the rest of the class.

“Why should they even get to know that?!” Ginny’s eyes flashed.

“No harm done, Gin.” Harry shrugged, peering at his girlfriend pleadingly. “That’s it!”

After a long while of glaring at him, Ginny sighed, tightened her jaw, and turned away. “Fine!” She muttered under her breath. “But that’s it!” She emphasized, her eyes flashing once again.

“Right.” Harry nodded and turned back to face a very curious class. “I will say two things and two things alone. I will not take questions, I will not make comments, and this is the last thing I’m ever going to say about it on or off record.” He gave each of the students, regardless of the house, the firmest look he could possibly muster. “One, he’s fine, and two, we took him in willingly.”

Not half a second later, five hands instantly shot up, “By ‘we’, did you mean yourself and Ginny?”

Harry waved his arms and shook his head until all muttering in the room had stopped and all the raised hands had come back down. “That is all I’m saying on the matter.” He repeated firmly, exchanging a look with Ginny. “Now…moving on!”

The young professor pressed on, regardless of the murmurs, to explain how the class was going to be run for the next week or so—with himself doing the lectures and Remus handling the practical work. They had just finished the first topic of discussion when Dumbledore decided to show up and inquire as to what all the commotion was about. The class then dissolved into a circus, as everyone began telling their side of the story of how Salisburg dared shoot a Killing Curse at the Professor’s girlfriend, how Harry blocked it, and so on and so forth.

It took a while, but eventually Dumbledore, Harry and Remus, working together, were able to calm the entire class down and restore order in the classroom. “Now…I need to speak with Mr. Salisburg and the both of your professors outside for a second.” Dumbledore announced to the class from the back of the room. “I trust you all can find something to do.” And with that, he, Salisburg, Harry and Remus stepped out into the hallway, closing the door behind them.

Chaos descended once again.

“Ginny!” Dean exclaimed, running up to her table from the back, an excited look on his face. “Is it true?! That kid was Snape? The one we saw at both your birthdays?!”

“Look! She’s wearing the charms with his picture on it!” One of Ginny’s housemates exclaimed, prompting awes and ahs from some of the girls while almost all of the boys grimaced.

Ginny frowned at the crowd that had suddenly gathered at her desk.

“May I see them? He’s so cute!”

“I can’t believe you didn’t tell us, Gin!” Dean argued.

“What was I supposed to say, Dean?!” Ginny snapped, her nose flaring in anger. “‘Oh, Severus Snape’s been turned into a baby and we’re taking care of him now’?” The teen scoffed, “You guys would’ve immediately started teasing him and making fun of him and all that ridiculous rubbish!”

“No, we wouldn’t have!”

“You’re lying, Thomas.”

“Speak for yourself.”

“Ginny, is he really okay, though?” The Weston girl asked, peering at Ginny worriedly.

“He’s fine, he’s happy, he’s great!” She assured the Slytherin.

“Can I see your charms?” Ginny grimaced and held out her right wrist, where she wore the charms that Harry and Sev made for her birthday. A group of girls from all four houses immediately swarmed over.

“How can you do that, though? How can you take Snape in?!” Dennis Creevy asked, a sour look on his face.

“It’s none of your business!” Ginny snapped, making most of the boys flinch away from her.

“When was this picture taken, Ginny?”

“When he learned to sit up.” The teen answered neutrally.

“Awwww! He learned to sit up!” One of the Hufflepuffs crooned.

“Are these his actual hand and foot prints?”

“Yeah, Harry made a mold and had them engraved in the silver.”

“Oh, they’re so tiny!”

“Why are you all like that?!”

“Oh, shut up, Dean! Just because some of us like babies—”

“That’s not a baby! That’s SNAPE!”

“He’s still a baby!” Ginny barked, her eyes flashing, “And Harry and I are proud to have him in our lives! Something you wouldn’t understand because you never wanted kids. I remember having that conversation with you!”

“Whoa! When did this conversation become about kids and parenting?”

“It’s always been about kids and parenting.”

“No, it’s been about Snape!”

“Didn’t you read the entire article, Dean?” Hermione spoke up from behind Ginny. “Harry and Ginny have legal guardianship over him. He’s their ward.”

“He their ward?!” Dean questioned, his face screwed up in confusion.

“Wow, Ginny, seriously?” One of the Ravenclaw girls asked, “Isn’t that hard? Parenting and going to school at the same time?”

“So that’s why you’ve been spending an awful amount of time at Harry’s!” One of her Gryffindor housemates exclaimed. “She would always go to his quarters when he wasn’t there and we wondered why!”

“You and Harry aren’t even married yet, though.”

“What’s all this?” A familiar voice exclaimed from the back of the room. Everyone turned to find Harry and Remus standing at the door, the former frowning at how a crowd had gathered around his girlfriend’s desk.

“Don’t worry, love.” Ginny assured him. “They were only asking questions.”

“As long as you’re all up,” Remus spoke up next to him, “Form a drill circle, if you please.”

A collective groan spread throughout the room, but everyone did as Remus bid anyway. All throughout practical, Harry kept his eye on Ginny as well as everyone else he perceived as a threat to her safety and to the safety of the two families who lived right down the hall.  

---

FWISSSHHHH! ... SPLAT!

Sirius dodged out of the way just as a glob of green goo went flying through the spot where his head had just been. “Hey! Come on, cub, that’s enough!” He said pleadingly.

Severus giggled and immediately began picking up another handful of food from his plate.

“So you’re not going to press charges?” Ginny asked, confused.

“I will if you want me to.” Harry replied, dumping some of the tomatoes he had just chopped into the salad she was tossing beside him. “Do you want me to?”

“Normally…I’d say ‘yes’, but now I’m curious as to what changed your mind.” His girlfriend answered, tossing the salad with one hand while mixing the pudding with the other. Beside her, Harry began chopping up some carrots.

“More like who changed my mind.” Harry corrected.

FWISSSHHH!!! … SPLAT!!!

“Look, kid—”

“Oh, don’t tell me, Harry…” Ginny stopped in the middle of the kitchen and waited as the next green glob flew by her before resuming her trek to the stove.

“Dumbledore can be a really convincing—”

SPLAT!

“Severus!”

Harry nearly tripped over the line of fire as another food missile missed his legs by mere millimeters. “—but it’s not like I let him off easy, Gin.” The teen finished, joining his girlfriend at the stove. Both were completely oblivious to the food fight and the current state of their kitchen.

“I would hope you didn’t.” Ginny frowned. “But you nearly killed him today, Harry. You were that angry.”

“And I was that angry when I interrogated him as well!”

FWISSSHHH!

“Severus, stop it! Now!”

“So you interrogated him?” Ginny raised an eyebrow, turning away from her soup to grace Harry with a mixed look of curiosity and concern.

“Mercilessly.” The smirk on Harry’s face looked a bit too vindictive for Ginny’s comfort.

“Harry—”

“Don’t worry. He’s alive.” Her boyfriend scowled as he reassured her of that. “And he’s unharmed…physically.” The evil smirk returned.

Ginny rolled her eyes and shook her head. “So what did you ask him?”

“First I asked if he was a Death Eater. No. Then I forcefully proved it. That was fun.” The evil smirk grew into a grin as Harry dumped his chopped carrots into Ginny’s soup.

SPLAT!!!

“Harry, a little help here, please?!” Sirius exclaimed, exasperated.

“I asked if he came from a family of Death Eaters. Yes. Then I asked if he knew anything about any plans regarding Severus.” Harry’s eyes and voice immediately turned grave. “Plenty.”

Ginny frowned. “How do you know he’s not lying?”

FWISSSHHH!

“Argh!”

“Because Dumbledore made him swallow some Veritaserum just before I started questioning him.”

Ginny immediately turned away from her cooking and placed her hands on her hips, fixing Harry with a look full of concern and alarm. “What’d he say?!” She cried.

Harry leaned in to whisper in her ear. “They’re getting together in groups—the Death Eaters—trying to find some way to get Severus. He said the Malfoys are the main players in that game.”

“Then it’s true, what Hermione said!” Ginny gasped, her eyes widening.

“From what he said and from what your dad told me…” Harry peered at her sadly, “…yes.”

“Then we have to do something!” His girlfriend replied frantically, “We have to expedite the adoption papers—”

“I’ve been working on that since your dad told me about the Malfoys!” Harry replied, frustration lacing his voice.

“And?”

“The Ministry is very reluctant to expedite anything these days; not after that Aidan Elson incident!”

“Then talk to Kingsley!”

“I’ve been talking to Kingsley, Gin!” Harry hissed in return. “His hands are tied. There’s a bunch of red tape! He’s been working these past few months to make sure that the Elson incident doesn’t happen again. He can’t just go back on his word now, especially not after he worked so hard to push this agenda through the Wizengamot. It just got passed!”

“You must have some influence at the Ministry!” Ginny replied, her eyes widening, as if she had just realized that herself. “You could use your own pull over there.”

“I don’t have that much, Ginny—”

“You have enough!”

“I’ve been talking to Hestia.” Harry murmured. “She’s going to see what she can do, but…” The teenager grimaced, “…she said the earliest we can possibly get it approved is by January 9th.”

“January 9th?!” Ginny’s eyes widened. “That’s two months from now!”

“Adoptions generally take six months, if you’re lucky!”

“What are we going to do, Harry?”

“I don’t know!” The teenager hissed in reply, frustrated with his state of helpless. “I don’t know.”

FWISSSHHH!!! … SPLAT!!!

“Severus, that’s it!” Sirius boomed, reverting to his rarely-used authoritative voice. “I am not kidding anymore! If you throw your food at me one more time, you’re going in time-out! I am not joking.” He raised a firm finger in the baby’s face, “Don’t test me!”  

“Haweh!”

The teenager groaned as he struggled to rub the wrinkles from his forehead. “Severus, do what he says!” He snapped, “I am not in the mood right now!”

Both Severus’ and Sirius’ eyes widened at him; his unexpected reaction calling a halt to their weird sort of game. 

The animagus blinked. “What’s up with you?!” He exclaimed, raising an eyebrow at his godson.

“Rough day.” Ginny answered for her boyfriend.

“Oh…” Sirius exchanged a concerned look with the now-docile infant beside him. “Remus told us about Salisburg. You’re okay, aren’t you, Gin?”

“Hm?” The teenager replied distractedly. “Oh! Yeah, I’m fine. Harry blocked it before it could hit me.”

“Are you going to press charges against him?”

“AH!” Severus exclaimed in agreement.

“You could easily send that bastard to Azkaban.”

“We don’t have to worry so much about him anymore.” Harry replied wearily, taking a seat at the table with a sigh.

“How’s that?”

“Well…I gave him a choice.” A small smile began tugging at the corners of his lips, “He can rot away in Azkaban for the rest of his life, or…he can live free with the condition that he protects my family for the rest of his life…”

“Or die.” Sirius finished his godson’s hanging sentence, his eyes narrowing in amusement. “You and Unbreakable Vows.”

Harry shrugged, “Dumbledore convinced me it was better than Azkaban.” He added, “Salisburg will now have to choose between his loyalty to his family…and his life.”

“People like him always choose themselves in the end.” Sirius remarked. Next to him, Sev grunted in agreement.

“This means I now have one less enemy to deal with…and my family has one more bodyguard.”

“You know, if you really think about it, that really was the smarter option.” Ginny remarked as she spooned the soup into bowls.

“I suppose…” Harry frowned, “Anyway, I can still land him in Azkaban if I wanted that to happen.”

“Which means you have something over him, which means he’s not going to cross you.” Sirius interpreted, “Believe me—I know those kinds of people.”

“Alright, enough of this depressing business.” Ginny interjected, bringing the bowls of food to the table. “Let’s just eat, shall we?” 

---

“Mo wamp sweep.” Sev shook his head, “Uh, uh, uh! Mo wamp sweep!”

“Sev…” Harry groaned. His own eyes were beginning to droop. It had been a long day!

“Mo wamp sweep! Mo wamp sweep! Mo, mo, mo!” The infant continued to shake his head.

“You want to sleep in the big bed with me?”

Sev felt like rolling his eyes. Really? How hard was it to understand his English? “MO…wamp sweep. Mo wamp sweep!”

Harry sighed and leaned back on the rocking chair, continuing to rock in slow, smooth motions in the hopes that Severus would give in and go to sleep. “Yes, you do…”

“Mo wamp sweep! Mo wamp sweep!”

The teenager suppressed a groan. Did they have to do this every single night? Severus had been going through a phase lately where he flat-out refused to go to sleep at all. Neither Harry nor Ginny knew what had caused it nor did they know how to make it stop. Molly, of course, assured them that it would go away on its own, but Harry thought it’d be grand if it just disappeared right now.

“What’s wrong, cub?” He questioned softly. “Why don’t you want to go to sleep?”

Severus shrugged. It wasn’t like he had a particular reason. “Mo mow. Ah…mo wamp sweep.”

Harry sighed and stood up, “Fine. Alright, if you don’t want to sleep, then you can keep me company while I go to sleep.” Plopping Severus between two big pillows on his bed, Harry gave the infant his lion cub and told him to sit there quietly while he prepared for bed.

Naturally, as was Severus’ style these days, the quiet lasted for all of about two seconds. “Haweh?”

“Yeah, cub?”

“Mo wamp Mawmoy.” He remarked calmly, yet Harry could see the makings of a scowl on his features.

“And Malfoy’s not going to get you.” The teenager replied resolutely, throwing his shirt into the laundry basket before jumping into a pair of pajama bottoms. “If he does, it’ll be over my dead body.”

This time, Severus scowled for real. “Mo seh dat Haweh!” He cried, hugging his lion cub as close to his heart as possible. “Mo seh dat!”

“Relax, cub…” Harry sighed, lifting Severus into his arms before laying the both of them down in the middle of the bed and pulling the covers up nice and snug. Severus struggled for a second, wriggling to and fro before finally settling into the crook of Harry’s arm, snuggling against his side. “…I’m not going anywhere and neither are you.” The teenager finished, his voice beginning to slur from drowsiness.

“Pomeh?” Severus’ tiny voice, filled with both hope and fear, pierced through the silence of the night and straight into Harry’s heart. Feelings of protectiveness and determination surged through him then.

Looking down to face the infant, Harry met his eyes and replied in a resolute voice, “I promise.”

The smile that met his reply was worth all the money in the world. Harry would give anything to keep that smile exactly where it was. Or, rather, he would do anything to keep that smile exactly where it was.

“Now come on, cub!” He continued, intent on changing the subject to a much cheerier topic. “Let’s not think about the stupid Malfoys right now. Let’s think about better things—happier things; things like…” The teenager paused for a second, trying to think of a better topic for conversation. “…ehm…the holidays coming up!”

All of a sudden, an idea popped into his mind from out of nowhere and Harry paused once more to marvel at the brilliance of it all. “Yeah…” A smile began tugging at the corner of his lips. “Yeah…the holidays are coming up! And guess where I’m taking you and Ginny.”

Severus peered up at Harry quizzically. “Weh?”

Harry grinned down at the infant in his arms, “New York.”

The infant’s eyebrows furrowed. New York?! Where, in Merlin’s name, had that come from?!

“Yeah, cub!” Harry nodded, his sleepiness momentarily forgotten and replaced by excitement. “New York. New York City. The Big Apple!” He exclaimed, his eyes positively glowing at the very thought of it. “We’ll head there straight away—right after Christmas! And we’ll stay there ‘til…your birthday, cub! We’ll stay there ‘til your birthday. Think about it, Sev—a place where we can get away from all this madness and just be normal people for a change!” He grinned. “I’ll take you and Ginny to Central Park, we can go ice skating, watch a Broadway show, oh! And on New Years’ Eve, I’ll bring the pair of you to the best place in the world to ring in the New Year. What do you say, Sev?!”

The infant couldn’t help but grin. Harry’s excitement was contagious. “Moo Yawk!”

The teenager chuckled and hugged Severus closer to his side. “Yeah, cub…New York…” Harry could feel the infant settle in and felt as his little eyelids fluttered shut. Severus was finally getting to sleep. The teenager began rubbing his back soothingly to encourage him. “…A place where…no one can find us…” Harry continued to whisper into the silence, “Not the press…not the Death Eaters…not the Malfoys…” The teenager’s jaw tightened in determination. “We just need to make it ‘til Christmas, and after that…we’ll be gone.”

Harry could hear his own voice crack at the end so he shut his eyes and took a deep, calming breath. A month and a half. It was only a bloody month and a half, and yet it seemed like such a long time! Anything could happen in a month and a half. A month and a half was more than enough time for the Malfoys or any other Death Eater to dig up his past, find some loophole in the guardianship papers, and take Severus away from him. And what would Harry be able to do? Nothing.

After suppressing the extreme urge to march straight into the Ministry and start demanding that his adoption requests to be processed straight away, Harry took several more deep breaths before pushing his frustrations aside and calling up pictures of New York City in his mind. Merlin, he couldn’t wait to go there! To be away from this place and from the threats it posed to him and his family. He wished he could go right now and not come back until the adoption was finalized. Oh, wouldn’t that have been a grand solution! Yet life wasn’t always so simple. Ginny had school, he had work. Once again, everything seemed against them.

“One day, Sev.” Harry whispered into the night, “One day, when this is all over, we’ll be a proper family.” The thought alone brought a smile unto his face. “The house, the mum, the dad, their bundle of joy…” The teenager glanced down at the sleeping babe and ran his fingers through his soft hair, “…the dog who spends half his time as a man…” Harry sighed. Oh, what a grand idea indeed. “…the grumbly neighbor across the street who owns a bunch of stinking goats…the godfather…” The sound of Severus’ soft snores brought back Harry’s drowsiness from earlier, “…the fun uncles and aunts…the grandparents just a floo ride away…Teddy…” The teenager’s eyes shut completely. “…we’ll have that someday, Sev…” Harry murmured wistfully, “…someday soon.” And with that final, whispered promise, the teenager slipped silently into the waiting arms of sleep.