~*~

"But I am an adult," Severus said miserably.

"No, Severus, you aren't. You just have the memories. The feeling of being adult will fade soon, and it will be easier for you to accept it."

"I won't remember being an adult after a few days?" Severus asked between sobs, looking up into Poppy's face.

"Of course you will remember. It will just be less troubling for you to think and feel because you will start to think and feel like a thirteen-year-old. Memories of complex spells or from your time as a Death Eater will be the ones that you mind will suppress for later. This is only a guess, Severus; we have to wait to know for sure how your mind will react," Poppy said, stroking his hair.

"I do not have to go to school, do I?" Severus asked, worried.

Alastor sighed. "You are thirteen, Severus. The law treats you as a thirteen-year-old, and that means you have to go to school. You need to rebuild your magic, and you have a much better chance to do so in this state. Going to school again will help to become as good as you were before Voldemort destroyed your magic. Or at least almost as good. We will train together, Severus, if you would like to. You really have a much better chance to heal right now. We love you, Severus. We will take care of you."

Severus sobbed and threw himself at Alastor. The old man pulled him closer until Severus was on his lap. The soothing sounds Alastor made and the calming circles he drew on his back finally made Severus fall asleep.

~*~

Breathe, damn it, breathe! Severus ordered himself mentally. The white curtain was inches away from his face as he tried to calm down enough to pull it away.

"I can see you standing behind the curtain," Harry said, amused. The urge to giggle stopped his amusement because it proved again that he was a twelve-year-old boy now and not a sixteen-year-old.

Severus sighed and pulled the curtain back nervously to face Harry.

Harry looked stunned at person he considered his older brother. Severus was thin, very thin, and he looked very sad. Harry suddenly felt pity. "You look thin," Harry stated dumbly.

"Yeah," Severus said, but scolded himself inwardly for using slang. Shyly, he went over to Harry's bed and sat down on it. A heavy silence lay over them while Severus studied his long, white fingers and Harry looked, transfigured, at Severus' sad countenance. Severus' long hair was covering half of his face, but Harry still had enough to stare at.

"So you are not happy to be young again?" Harry asked carefully to break the silence.

Severus head snapped up, and he blushed. "Have you heard me?"

"Heard what?" Harry asked, puzzled.

Severus relaxed a bit when he realized that Poppy had cast a Silencing Charm on the curtains and that Harry had not heard his tantrum. "Nothing."

Harry rolled his eyes. "Fantastic!" he said sullenly.

Severus looked up, confused. "What?"

"Why don't you tell me? We are almost the same age now. You can't use the 'it's adult stuff' excuse any longer," Harry stated.

"I'm still older. Much older!" Severus glared at Harry.

"Only one year," Harry protested.

"One year and a half," Severus insisted.

Harry groaned. "That's not much!"

"It is!"

"Isn't!"

"Is!"

"Boys!" Alastor said, scolding, while pulling the curtain open.

"Severus, you shouldn't be out of bed," Poppy said sternly.

"I wanted to see him!" Severus protested. Seeing Poppy's stern expression, he added, "And I'm just fine!"

"You are far from fine, lad," Alastor said, friendlier this time. He laid his hand on Severus' neck and did not draw back when the boy flinched. "It's okay, Severus. Remember, you can trust us!"

Severus relaxed into the caress of Alastor's gentle massaging.

"It's time to go home, boys," Poppy said, smiling.

Harry happily jumped off the bed. He hated the hospital wing, no matter how old he was. "Ehm...could I speak with the headmaster?"

"Me, too!" Severus cried out quickly.

Poppy threw a measuring glance at both of them. "Why do you want to speak with him?"

Both boys blushed, knowing very well that Poppy would not like what they wanted to talk with the headmaster about.

"I think we will relocate this conversation into the living room. I'm sure Albus would love to join us for tea," Alastor offered.

His wife agreed, and so they entered seconds later their quarters via the secret passage through the old Healer's portrait in Poppy's office.

Soon they were sitting around the living room table, and Albus had joined them.

"Nice to see you two up and well. You gave us quite the shock," Albus said with a twinkle in his eyes. Harry gnawed nervously on his bottom lip, and Severus looked everywhere but at the old man.

"Here you go," Poppy said and handed Severus and Harry a hot chocolate. While Harry took it gratefully and inhaled the scent, Severus pulled a face.

"I don't like hot chocolate. Can't I have coffee?" Severus asked sulkily. He already knew the answer, and he was sure coffee would not even taste good anymore, but he wanted to prove that he was still an adult. He could already feel his mind adjusting to his thirteen year-old self, but he still tried to fight it. The hot chocolate smelled good and it was very tempting to take a sip.

"Just try it, Severus. Your taste will most likely have changed," Poppy said patiently.

Grumpily, Severus took a sip and could not stop himself from sighing delightedly at the taste of the liquid in his mouth.

Poppy smiled at him. "See! You like it."

Severus sighed. It was very hard to keep up his adult behavior. Seeing the grins from the adults and hearing Harry's giggles made him glare at them.

"That's something that will never change no matter how old he is," Alastor commented.

Severus fought hard with himself to not stick his tongue out at Alastor.

"So what did you two want to speak to me about?" Albus asked and looked from one boy to the other. Immediately, both turned red again.

"Can we speak in private?" Harry asked shyly.

"That depends on what it is about, Harry. If it is something Alastor and Poppy have to decide as well, it is better to discuss it right here. So what is it about?" Albus asked curiously.

Harry sighed. "School?"

"Is that a question or an answer?" Albus asked, amused.

"An answer. I would like to stay in sixth year with my friends." Harry looked worriedly between his surrogate parents and the headmaster.

Albus sighed. "Harry, you are twelve and your magic core is that of a twelve-year-old. Even though you remember most of the spells and charms you used as a sixteen-year-old, you cannot use them anymore. You will need a lot of time, as in years, to regain all of your skills. As of now, it's just theory in your head. Practice is something different. It will be easier for you to learn this time, but it will need time. You cannot attend sixth-year classes," Albus said sadly, seeing the tears in Harry's eyes.

Poppy moved over, sat down on the couch arm, and hugged Harry. "Harry, I'm sure Hermione, Ron, and your other friends will still be you friends and help you. You are still a Gryffindor and you are able to access the Common Room whenever you want. There is no re-Sorting, is there, Albus?" Poppy asked, worried.

"No," the old man replied. "I think the Sorting Hat will let its original decision stand. Severus should stay in Slytherin because they loved their Head of House and will accept him openly. At least, most of them will. All the children of Voldemort's supporters have been taken out of this school to be home-schooled in their new foster families until they feel like coming back. I presume Severus and Harry will still live here in these quarters like before, so we don't have to add beds in the dormitories, am I correct?"

"Of course," Poppy answered directly. "Severus still needs supervision because of his health and magic problems, and I don't want him sleeping anywhere else. We don't know if there are some students who aren't so friendly-"

"We don't know that there are, so we will worry about it if it occurs," Alastor said when he saw Severus pale even more.

"Yes, I agree," Albus said and patted Severus' leg calmingly.

If it was not for the Calming Draught in his veins, Severus would have had a panic attack. He had not thought about all the students who did not like him. Now they had him as an easy target. His second time at school would be as bad as his first time, if not even worse. There were only four bullies the first time, but how many would there be this time? "I won't go to school again!" Severus said, agitated.

"Severus, you need to learn again like Harry. Your magic core has not only been altered by the De-Aging Potion but by Voldemort as well. You need schooling to learn to use your magic as best as possible." Albus tried to reason calmly with Severus, but the boy was, even with the Calming Draught, very distressed about the whole situation.

"No, I won't go. They will all bully me. They hate me! I won't go to school here!" Severus fought hard against the tears of desperation, but Alastor's next word made him lose the battle.

"Severus, we know that you are worried about it and that you fear they won't like you, but we promise to help you as best as possible. If you were healthy enough, we could think about letting you go to Durmstrang if you wanted, but you aren't ready. We need you to go to school here at Hogwarts," Alastor said, sighing.

That broke the dam, and Severus felt hot tears run down his face. It was so embarrassing that he wanted to hide somewhere far away. "I won't do it. I will run away!" With that, Severus stood up and tried to escape, but Albus quickly grabbed him by his arm and prevented Severus from running from the room.

"Severus, please calm down," Albus said in a calm but determined voice. He looked over at Harry, not letting go of a desperately sobbing Severus. "Harry, would you please wait in your room for a while so we can discuss this with Severus?"

Harry nodded sadly. On his way to his room, he passed Severus and took the boy's free hand in his. "I'm here this time, Severus. I won't let them bully you."

Severus just shook his head sadly. He did not like that Harry saw him like this. Harry knew about his first school life and how much he had hated it, but Severus never liked it when other people saw him weak, even if it was his family.

When Harry had finally left the room, Alastor took Harry's place and sat Severus back on the couch, laying his arm over the teen's shoulders. "Let's discuss this more calmly, Severus. You can't cast many spells right now even if you remember them. It was like that for the last few months even when you were still an adult. It was very hard for you to learn them and to control your magic. Adults don't learn as quickly as children, and you are very impatient. Now that you are physically thirteen again, you will learn spells and charms much more easily. We will help you to catch up with your new classmates. As for your fear of being hated, you are a war hero, Severus. Of course there will always be people who don't like you, but you will find friends and you have Harry and us."

Severus sniffed. He knew there was no way around it. He would never run away because he felt safe with Poppy and Alastor. He had not moved in with them as an adult for nothing. He wanted to stay with them, but he was scared about what would happen in classes. "But Harry is not in my classes," he sniffled, "and he is in Gryffindor. I will hardly see him during school." He hiccupped. "I will be alone, and I know they will all hate me," he finished with another sniffle.

"Severus, you have been civil towards Harry's friends lately. I think most of the students will see you as Harry's brother, the war hero and not as the strict Potions Master you once were. Charlie has taken over Potions since the beginning of the school year, so maybe most of them have already forgotten how strict you were in class," Albus said.

Severus glared at the old headmaster between sniffs. He wiped his face with his sleeve.

"Severus, here! Use this or Poppy will throw a fit soon," Alastor said, chuckling, and handed Severus a handkerchief.

Severus took it and threw a shy look at Poppy, who smiled at him warmly. At least I am not in trouble with her at the moment, Severus thought, relieved, and blew his nose. He felt a bit calmer now that he was not sniffing all the time. "But if they bully me, I don't have to go to classes again, right?" Severus asked hopefully. He was not such a weakling the first time he was thirteen. His parents had made sure of that. Living with Poppy and Alastor had changed him a lot, and he knew what a real family was like. His behavior now was different from his behavior so many years ago.

"If someone is bullying you, you will come to me or your guardians and we will speak with the troublemakers," Albus said gently. "I think Harry will also make sure that you are okay. I have thought about letting him jump one class higher if your guardians don't have any objections. Harry should be able to catch up very quickly, and spending classes together would help Harry and Severus to adjust to their new life. What do you two think about it?" Albus asked Poppy and Alastor.

"Sounds good to me," Alastor said dryly.

"If Harry is able to catch up, I also think it is the best when the boys are in the same year," Poppy added. "See, you won't be alone, Severus."

"Lupin will laugh at me. Now he can torture me in Defense Against the Dark Arts when Alastor isn't teaching. And Minerva and Pomona and-"

"Severus, I don't think that any of them thinks that this is funny. We all fought together in the final battle and-" Albus started but was interrupted by Severus' angry outburst.

"I didn't! I was a cripple in bed while you and the others-ah!" Severus cried out when Alastor pulled him closer to face him.

"Stop, Severus. You did what none of us could do. You were inhumanly brave and gave us the final information we needed to defeat Voldemort. You paid a high price for that, and that was the reason why you were not active in the final battle. Everyone knows that: your old colleagues, the students, everyone. Nobody will find the current situation funny, and I'm sure that all the teachers will do their best to make you not feel uncomfortable in their classes. Nobody will push you around, but they are your teachers now and not your colleagues. You will have to treat them as such. You have to respect them as more skilled and educated persons. You and Remus accepted each other the last year, so why should this change now?" Alastor asked.

"Maybe because I'm now exactly at the age when he and his friends bullied me!" Severus said, frustrated.

"Remus is an adult, and he regrets that he did not stop James and Sirius from bullying you. He will hardly want to hurt you. Severus, you are not an adult in a teenager's body. You are a teenager! Everything besides your memories is that of a teenager. If you aren't disrespectful to any of your teachers you won't have any trouble," Alastor explained seriously. He sighed. "Why don't we just try it until Christmas? If you still insist on leaving the school then, we will find a way out for you," Alastor promised.

"Really?" Severus asked eagerly. He looked over to Poppy, but seeing her skeptical expression, he turned back to the person who gave him at least a small hope for an escape.

"Really," Alastor said seriously. "Do we have a deal? You go to school and try your best from Monday on, and we'll meet and speak about all this during the Christmas holidays." Alastor held his hand in Severus' direction for him to take.

"Deal!" Severus said, smiling. There is a way out if things turn out badly, he thought, relieved.

"Now, off with you, and tell Harry that you will both join the third years," Alastor said and gestured for Severus to leave the room.

When Severus was gone, Alastor could feel all eyes on him. He sighed. "If it is really unbearable for him, we have to act. Eight weeks is long enough to see if there is any chance of him accepting this life-if there isn't an antidote, of course. If he can't do it because of trouble with his classmates or teachers or if his magic core isn't developing fast enough to keep up with his classmates, we need to find private teachers. That is the only way out I can see since we won't let him attend school abroad in his current state. Let's just wait until Christmas and see what situation we are in then." Alastor made it clear with his tone that this was final.

Albus just nodded. "I have to accept this decision, even though I would hate to see Severus not being taught here at Hogwarts. If you ever need my help, you know where to find me." With that, he stood up. "I will inform the rest of the staff at seven. Please join us in the staff room if possible."

"Of course we will be there. They are old enough to look after themselves for an hour, but I'm not sure when the Healers from St. Mungo's will arrive. The Ministry insists on an examination of Severus and Harry by an official Healer," Poppy said and accompanied the headmaster to the fireplace.

"I hope everything will work out for the best. If the Ministry or the Healers make any problems, call me for help," Albus said.

"It won't be a problem. I already asked two Healers that I know very well to take this job, and they are very high ranked. I'm sure they will be the two coming over this evening. I will try to have them come around eight. The staff meeting will be over then, won't it?" Poppy asked.

"Yes, I don't think it will last longer than thirty minutes. I will see you two at seven," Albus replied and left through the Floo.