Blood Magic by GatewayGirl
Summary: Blood magic was supposed to keep Harry safe, but his relatives are expendable. Blood magic was supposed to keep Harry looking like his adoptive father, but it's wearing off. Blood is a bond, but so is the memory of hate -- or love.
Categories: Parental Snape > Biological Father Snape > Severitus Challenge Main Characters: .Snape and Harry (required), Draco, Hermione, Remus
Snape Flavour: None
Genres: Action/Adventure, Drama
Media Type: None
Tags: Slytherin!Harry, Snape-meets-Dursleys
Takes Place: 6th summer
Warnings: Alcohol Use, Drug use, Neglect, Profanity, Romance/Het, Romance/Slash, Torture, Violence
Challenges: None
Series: Blood Magic Universe
Chapters: 84 Completed: Yes Word count: 337748 Read: 759804 Published: 14 Dec 2009 Updated: 14 Jan 2010
Home Again by GatewayGirl

Ron met up with them inside the Great Hall. He ignored Hermione completely, but sat on Harry's other side at the Gryffindor table. Harry managed not to roll his eyes. I need to fix this quickly, he thought. As soon as we're in the dormitory, I'll talk to him. Andrew and Jack sat on the other side of Ron, with Neville across from him. They waited for the milling crowd to settle.

Hermione leaned over and nudged Harry. "Look at Snape," she whispered. Harry looked. Snape looked perfectly normal, he thought.

"What?"

"He's not glaring at Professor Lupin. Do you think he's given up on the Defense post?"

"I think he wants someone competent in the Defense post," Harry answered.

"He didn't think Lupin was competent last time."

"The last several years have lowered his expectations. He had to agree when I said Lupin was the best Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher I had ever had. He thought it was pathetic, but he agreed."

"You were chatting with Snape?" Ron interjected.

"I lived here for a month, Ron, with no other students. I talked with all the professors, at some point."

"All right, but that greasy git?"

Harry was suddenly annoyed. "Snape's okay, Ron. Stop acting like a first year."

Ron's mouth fell open. Before he could think of a retort, they were distracted by Lavender, several seats down, snapping:

"Colin, either go away or shut up! I am not interested in how you plan to photograph the squid."

Dean, who was closer to the disturbance, leaned in front of Ginny to confide:

"I think our little shutterbug has a crush on Lavender, this year. Poor thing."

"Which?" asked Seamus.

"Both," Dean replied. They snickered, as did Harry. Even Hermione covered a smile. "What?" Ron asked. Harry had to relay the comment to him. It got a laugh out of Ron, too. The conversation did not return to Snape.


Harry was reluctant to enter the sixth-year Gryffindor boys dormitory, but once he did, he found it was home-like, again, now that it had five trunks and five people in it, with all of them unpacking things and setting them up on night tables or putting them in drawers.

"Ron!" Dean called, past Seamus. "Who was that black nob you were with in Diagon Alley?"

"What?"

"Er ... that was me," Harry answered. A chorus of tight laughter greeted this statement. "Really," Harry said. "I ate something Fred and George offered me."

At that, the laughter turned to hilarity. "Get me some!" Dean exclaimed. "I need to slip that to a few blokes!"

"Once they manage to make it with legal ingredients, sure," Harry said. "It's still very experimental, at the moment."

Seamus rolled his eyes. "With friends like that...." he commented.

"Eh, well, Fred and George and I ...." Harry let the statement trail off with a shrug and a smile.

"They'd tried it on each other, first," Ron contributed. "You looked a bit odd, Harry, but you should have seen it with blue eyes and Weasley hair!" He grinned. "Came out of some drunken bet with Lee, I heard."

"I'd like to see it on Katie Bell."

Seamus whooped. "That would be a sight!" He grinned suddenly. "Lavender!" he suggested.

"So what was that gold sash around your head?" Dean pressed. "Bit showier than how you usually dress."

"Well, since I had such a good start on a disguise, I decided to cover my scar." Harry blushed. "Hermione picked it."

"Fooled me!" Dean said cheerfully. "Of course I only saw you from the second-floor window of Flourish and Blotts, as you were all walking past. I was expecting some new face, and wondering how he'd got so thick with Harry's best friends."

"Oh!" Harry exclaimed, remembering his birthday present from Fred and George. "I have a sack of experimental Fred'n'George things to try. Anybody for a slightly random testing party on Sunday, in the common room?"

"Are these things labeled, at all?" Seamus asked.

"Oh yes. And they assured me labels were mostly accurate."

"I'm in!" Dean exclaimed.

"Me too," Seamus added. He sighed. "Mad, I am."

"I'm just so glad to be back to magic," Dean confided.

"Like I don't get enough of this already?" Ron asked, scowling. He shook his head. "I'll watch. Maybe I'll recognize something."

"Okay. How about you, Neville?"

Neville looked worried. "Come on," Harry wheedled. "If anything goes wrong, Ron'll take us to the Hospital Wing, right Ron?"

"Yeah sure," Ron agreed. "If Hermione doesn't beat me there."

"Okay," Neville agreed nervously.

"Want to check the labels, beforehand?" Harry asked, in general. "They said not to eat anything labeled in green, so I think those are the nasty ones. They recommended those for Dudley."

"And I reckon they'd do anything short of kill --" Ron stopped suddenly. "Sorry," he said awkwardly. "I forgot."

There was a moment of silence.

"I don't care about the Dursleys, Ron," Harry said harshly. He realized he pretty much meant it, too, which he found, as before, slightly unnerving. "I feel bad that they were killed to get at me, but it's not my fault. And I never have to go back there again, and that evens it out."

"You never told me," Ron said, "was all that stuff true?"

Everyone else was quiet. Harry hesitated. "Yeah, but ... when you're brought up that way, it isn't such a big deal." He shrugged slightly. "I never knew people would get so upset."

"Why shouldn't we get upset?!"

"Because it's annoying. It's over. Shut up about it." Harry scowled at Ron. He was suddenly angry. "When I leave Hogwarts, I will get my own place, with my own bedroom, and I will eat whenever I please, and have piles of clothes that fit me. I already have enough food and clothes that fit. I have loads of money, which I can actually spend, now, because I don't have guardians who will steal it from me. I'm fine!"

There was an awkward silence.

"Do we all have timetable meetings in the morning?" Neville asked, bravely trying to change the subject.

"I do," Seamus said, and Ron and Dean chorused agreement.

"My timetable was worked out last week," Harry said conversationally. His heart was still hammering madly. "Since I was here."

"What are you taking?"

"Defense Against the Dark Arts, Charms, Transfiguration, Care of Magical Creatures, and Potions. Professor McGonagall wanted me to take Herbology, but I'm just too bored by it. I've designed an independent study in wizard law, instead."

"You're voluntarily taking Potions?" Ron exclaimed. "I was so relieved I'd failed that OWL. I mean, except for having to listen to Mum talk about her Potions Outstanding."

"I got an Outstanding in Herbology," Neville said proudly.

"And I got one in Defense," Harry said. "Everyone is stunned, I'm sure."

"I barely passed that," Seamus contributed.

"Did you fail anything, Harry?" Neville asked.

"Divination, History of Magic, and the Astronomy practical. Of course, the Astronomy practical was the one Hagrid got attacked during, so a lot of people did badly in it. I think I could have passed it, normally."

"So you passed Herbology."

"Barely."

"I got an Exceeds Expectations," Dean volunteered. "Mostly because of studying with you, Neville."

Harry sat back while everyone else continued to discuss their OWLs. He wondered how different sixth-year classes would be.

"Harry?" Ron asked, in a low voice.

"Hmm?" Harry raised his eyebrows.

"What's wrong?"

Harry shook his head. "What? Nothing, Ron."

"You look upset."

Harry sent him another quizzical look. "Do I? I was just thinking."

"About what?"

"Wondering how different this year's classes would be. McGonagall says they're a lot harder."

"Well, don't worry about it, alright? I'm sure you'll do fine."

"I'm not worried."

Ron frowned again, then smiled coaxingly. "Here, Harry -- got something for you."

"Oh?" Harry followed Ron over to the space between their beds, away from the discussion of O.W.L.s and timetables. Ron grinned, took something from his pocket, and tossed it at Harry. Harry caught it reflexively before realizing it was a pack of cigarettes.

"Uh...."

"Isn't that the right thing?" Ron asked, crestfallen. "It looked the same. I got Muggle money from Dean --"

Harry handed the pack back to Ron. Ron made no move to take it. I could just keep it, Harry thought. Just in case. "That was really thoughtful," he said sincerely. "Hermione's right though. Get rid of those for me, will you? I'll pay you back; I just don't want them."

Ron took the pack, but looked annoyed. "You're going to let her bully you."

"Ron, does the word 'addictive' mean anything to you?" Harry snapped.

Ron looked puzzled. "Er ... no. Muggle term, you reckon?"

"Oh." Harry thought. "It's er ... if you have something and it makes you need more of it, or want more of it, even if you don't like it, particularly, or if it would cause you problems."

"Oh." Ron's eyes widened. "We say "habit-forming" for that."

"Right. Muggles say that too, but less often. These are that, and also very unhealthy -- I mean, a 'kill you' sort of unhealthy. Except not quickly, and not everybody, and it probably won't matter, because I'm not likely to live into my twenties, much less past them, but someone told me, once, that's it important to plan to live. I'm trying to do that, okay?"

"Okay." Ron frowned down at the pack of cigarettes. "Just throw them out, then?"

"Please? Before I tell you to give them to me, or to keep them for me for later, or exam week perhaps, or let's just take my broom and go sit on the roof and no one will catch me, right?" Gimme now, dammit, it couldn't hurt, one more, ten more at worst....

Ron looked shrewdly at Harry. Harry tried to lighten his expression. He opened his mouth to say something, though he wasn't sure what.

"Right, then," Ron said decisively. "Loan me your cloak." He reached past Harry and flipped open Harry's trunk. Harry found he had a few things in it that he had not been expecting, such as the red robes, loosely folded on the very top. Embarrassed, he dug quickly down and found the invisibility cloak, which he handed to Ron.

"Don't get caught."

"Course not." Ron grinned at him, then flipped the cloak on, vanishing under it. The door opened. "And get some sleep," Ron's voice called back. "You look as though you need it." The door closed.

Neville turned from his conversation with Dean, and gestured angrily at Harry and the door. "You two will be costing us points before classes even start!"

"Not as badly as if he stayed," Harry assured him. He felt a knowing smile trying to assert itself, and restrained it as much as he could. "Trust me on this one."


Ron returned just as Harry was settling into bed. Harry watched sleepily as Ron tossed the cloak back into Harry's trunk.

"How did it go?" Harry asked. He was rather curious as to what Ron had done that would take half an hour. Of course, Ron might not have come straight back.

Ron bent close. "Fifty points if you get it through her head," he whispered wickedly. Harry sniggered. As Ron looked haphazardly through his own messy trunk for pajamas, Harry curled up and closed his eyes. He could still identify everyone's breathing -- Neville's was a little bit wuffly, and Seamus's quicker and lighter than Dean's. Ron settled in the nearest bed and sounded -- well, like Ron. Like safe, crowded places. Harry smiled, his eyes still shut. Being back in the dormitory wasn't so bad, after all.

The End.


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