To his surprise, Harry found himself following his teacher, not to his office, as he had expected, but out into the grounds. Initially, Harry had thought that Snape was going to report Dumbledore to whatever the Wizarding equivalent of Social Services was but, as they headed towards the Forbidden Forest, his mind began whispering terrifying suggestions.

Was Snape going to kidnap him? Okay, the Potions Master might be a better guardian than the Dursleys; despite his recent display, Harry knew that Snape was not, habitually, a violent man and his fury over Harry’s childhood rather implied that he wouldn’t starve, overwork or generally neglect anyone in his care, even Harry. However, being forever exiled to an (almost) solitary existence on some windswept island or gothic castle (Harry just couldn’t see Snape living in the Bahamas) would be torture.

All in all, Harry thought, he would happily spend his summers with the Dursleys if it meant returning to Hogwarts during the autumn, winter and spring.

However, before Harry could pluck up the courage to voice this sentiment, the Potions Master had ascended the steps to Hagrid’s hut and thumped on the door

“Sev’rus! I’m righ’ pleased to see yeh,” the huge man beamed, beetle black eyes crinkling with pleasure, then widening in surprise on seeing Professor Snape’s companion “Oh an’ Harry too. He’s not in trouble, is he, Professor?”

“Yes and no, Hagrid," the Potions Master said solemnly. "May we come in?”

“O’course, o’course. Just having a jar and a chinwag with Abe.”

“I’ll be leaving you, now, Hagrid” a rather stooped, thin man appeared at the door; his bristly white whiskers and clouded glasses reminded Harry rather unpleasantly of Aragog.”

“If you could spare me ten minutes of your time, Mr Dumbledore, I would be grateful.” The Potions Master said smoothly.

“Dumbledore!” Harry gasped.

“No need to wet yer knickers, kid.” Snorted the old man “An’, Sev, for Pete’s sake, call me Abe. Same for you, sprat.”

Severus smirked and, motioning for Harry to follow, strode into the hut after Hagrid and ‘Abe’. After the cold, frostiness of the grounds, Hagrid’s warm, fuggy room made Harry shiver and, as the numbness of shock was slowly fading, suddenly, he felt positively giddy.

Fang, who was running around the group, barking his joy, noticed Harry’s unsteadiness and pressed his large, soft-furred head into the teenager’s hand, gazing up with large, worried, brown eyes.

“Harry?” Hagrid said, his tone concerned “Are yeh alright, lad?”

“Yeah, yeah! I’m fine!” Harry choked.

“Sit! Potter.” sighed Professor Snape “Hagrid, some strong, sweet tea for Mr Potter if you please."

As Hagrid bustled around, providing Harry with his tea (“with a wee drop of brandy, just fer medicinal purposes”) Aberforth sidled up to the Potions Master.

“What’s wrong with the boy?” he asked quietly, gazing over at Harry and Fang, who was quietly sitting beside the teenager. “Al finally told him the truth about summat?”

“He revealed that he knowingly condemned the boy to ten years of neglect, abuse and slavery.” Severus sneered “Instead of adopting Harry himself, Albus left him, a one year old infant, with a woman he knew was petty, spiteful and extremely prejudiced against magic.”

There was a crash of china. Hagrid, the colour draining from his countenance, muttered “That can’t be true. Dumbledore would never, not intentionally…”

“He did, Hagrid” Harry said quietly “Professor Dumbledore said he would have killed me with kindness because, as Voldemort is after me, I had to be self reliant, not a pampered little prince…”

“And then I hit him.” Severus held up his hand, revealing bruised, blood flecked knuckles.

Aberforth sneered “Not the first time it’s happened, I can tell you.”

Hagrid's mouth opened and closed like that a beached catfish. “Yeh hit Dumbledore?” he finally gasped.

“Wouldn’t yer, Hagrid?” Aberforth snapped “He left the kid to the life of a house-elf” Harry blushed, looking away in embarrassment. “You’ve got no call to be ashamed, kid” Abe said in a slightly gentler tone “It’s Albus who should feel the shame. Good on yer, Sev.”

“I have a set of adoption papers” Professor Snape said stiffly. “Hagrid, if we are to prevent Harry from returning to the wretched life provided by his Aunt, you need to adopt him, now!”

“Me!” Hagrid flushed, torn between anxiety and delight.

“Yer love the boy as a son, Hagrid.” Aberforth grinned. “Anyone can tell it by the way yer rabbit on about him!”

“But… er, Dumbledore… Albus that is, I owe him…” Hagrid muttered wretchedly, twisting a tea-towel in his massive hands.

Professor Snape crossed his arms “Do you care more for Albus Dumbledore’s feelings than Harry’s welfare?”

“O’course not!” Hagrid cried, the tea-towel shredding between his fingers.

“Do you care for Harry’s welfare more than Albus Dumbledore’s feelings?”

“Werlll, Yeah. Yeah o'course I do.”

“Then your choice is clear” The Potions Master smirked.

“But… what does Harry think about all this?” Hagrid asked nervously, gazing at the teenage boy, trepidation lurking in his dark eyes.

Harry swallowed, trying to get rid of the lump in his throat. Hagrid, the man who’d made him a vast, squishy chocolate cake for his eleventh birthday, who’d bought him his first ever-as far as he could remember- present, his beautiful familiar Hedwig. Hagrid, who was always there for Harry, with kindly advice, bear hugs and huge mugs of tea. The closest thing he’d had to a father since James died.

Although Harry felt a pang for Sirius, who he knew would be upset, he couldn’t say no. Not with Hagrid looking at Harry like that. Like he’d looked at Norbert’s hatching egg but a hundred times more tender. A thousand times more anxious.

Harry just couldn’t bring himself to turn Hagrid down and, in truth, he didn’t want to, so he gave the only answer he could; “Yes!”

The next moment, Harry was swept up in a tight bear hug. Although Harry’s arms couldn’t quite reach around Hagrid’s massive girth, he hugged the huge man with all his might, laughing as Fang joyfully inveigled his bulky shoulders between them, so as to join their embrace.

“As loath as I am to disturb this heart-warming moment” Professor Snape drawled “I think it wise to complete the formalities.”

Hagrid set Harry down and twinkled away a tear from his beaming eyes. “Right yeh are, Sev’rus.”

“Mr Potter,” The Potions Master intoned, a smirk tugging at the corner of his mouth “by accepting Hagrid’s offer of adoption, you will be granting him full parental authority, including trusteeship of your Gringotts account, Enduring Power of Attorney…”

“What’s that?” Harry asked, looking confused.

Professor Snape rolled his eyes “If you break your foolish head, an injury of which you are perpetually at risk, Hagrid will make medical decisions until you are capable of giving consent.”

Harry knew he should be irritated by the snide aside but, at the moment, he really couldn’t summon up the spleen to feel offended “And trusteeship?”

“It means you can’t blow your entire fortune on a broomstick, Potter…”

“Unless yer persuade Hagrid that it’s a good idea, which yer well might” sniggered Aberforth.

“Hoi!” cried Hagrid in mock offense.

“And, finally” continued Professor Snape, “Hagrid will be your Fiduciary, which means that he has the right to sue or contract on your behalf…” the Potions Master paused, looking thoughtful.

Harry shrugged “Sounds fine to me”.

Professor Snape briskly unrolled the scrolls on Hagrid’s rather messy table. Inside the vellum was a beautiful, golden quill, which filled with coloured motes as Harry held it. “If you could just sign here, Harry, and here and here, and the date! Honestly boy, your penmanship is appalling…”

“Yeah, well, I wasn’t brought up writing with quills, you know.” Harry grumbled, giving the quill to Hagrid, who squeezed the teenager's hand comfortingly.

“And, Hagrid, if you could sign here. Just there, and on this one too, block capitals where it asks you to print your name, if you please.”

Aberforth strode over and scanned the documents “And you’ll be needing me to witness ‘em, Sev?”

“If you would be so good.”

Whilst Professor Snape and Aberforth signed the Adoption Papers, Hagrid wandered over to a large, ancient trunk and, after a swift rummage, returned with a long, scruffy, leather box, which he pressed into Harry’s hand.

Inside, was a beautiful, blue-black quill, tipped with a fountain pen nib.

“Me Dad gave it to me” Hagrid said quietly “I could never get the hang of quills, so he got me that. It’s a Habrok feather: real rare, they are.”

“Are you sure?” Harry gasped, touched and surprised by Hagrid’s generosity.

“O’course.” Hagrid beamed “Me Dad would’ve liked that. It’s like a heirloom or somethin’”

“If you have finished imitating Disney,” Professor Snape drawled, his dark eyes sparkling “We need to discuss an issue of some importance.”

Harry grinned and rolled his emerald eyes, a gesture so reminiscent of Lily that the Potions Master could not quite bring himself to rebuke the impertinent boy.

“When Harry’s name was entered into the Goblet of Fire” Professor Snape said, folding his arms, “he, supposedly, entered a binding magical contract. However, as Harry has not reached his majority, no magical contract is binding without his parent’s express consent…”

Hagrid’s gaze flew to Harry “I have to consent?” he muttered, uncertainty twisting his eyebrows.

“No, yer don’t, Hagrid” chuckled Aberforth, “there’s no ‘have to’ about it.”

The wave of relief that washed over Harry almost knocked him off his feet. Quietly, the teenager stumbled into a chair and put his head into his hands. He was free.

Hagrid bit his lip “Werl, I wouldn’t like to deny Harry anything he particularly wanted…”

“It’s not about what the boy wants, it’s about what he needs, Hagrid.” Aberforth stated shortly. “What’d yer Pop say?”

“Me Dad?” the large man replied, his eyes misting “Werl, he’d probably be a bit worried; at fourteen I’d have known a deal less than the N.E.W.T students and, p’raps you’d need all that learning to complete the challenges?”

Professor Snape nodded “Yes, indeed. I hear that the tasks this year are particularly difficult; even an Auror would find them taxing.”

Hagrid paled “So, yeah, I recon that’d make it right dangerous and, werl, Harry’s got more’n enough fame for his liking as it is and, if he wants Galleons, I can give him a bit of pocket money.”

“So your answer is..?” the Potions Master asked, folding his arms.

“No, I can’t say I want Harry to do it.” Hagrid replied firmly.

Harry let out a shuddering sigh “Thank God!”

“Yeh pleased, then?” Hagrid asked, sounding relieved.

“Of course! You know I never wanted to compete” beamed Harry “I mean, it was sort of a mad dream but not one that I really wanted to come true.”

Aberforth nodded “Well, I recon me and Sev can leave yer to it.” He paused, regarding Harry with a beady, blue eye. “Might tell a couple of me regulars about this, if you don’t mind, Harry. I know a nice young lad, name of Jenkins, who’ll write the story up, an get it published before Skeeter can print her rubbish.”

“A wise idea, Abe.” Professor Snape nodded “Nip any rumours in the bud. However, can you trust this ‘Jenkins’?”

“He’ll write as I tell him, if he don’t want his tab called in.” Aberforth said fiercely.

“You won’t say anything about the Dursleys though?” Harry asked anxiously.

“I won’t say nowt: I’ll just tell him that you and Hagrid been near enough father and son for a while and, when you found out that a Dad could get you off the Tournament, you both decided to make it official.” Aberforth winked at Professor Snape “And I won’t say nothing about you punching my brother and all!”

A horrible thought hit Harry “Um… won’t… I mean, Professor Dumbledore is your employer, Sir…”

“I scarcely think the Headmaster is in a position to sack me, Harry.” The Potions Master smirked. “I would, naturally, have the right to appeal his decision in front of the Board of Governors.”

“Which would end up with old Al in the chokey” smirked Aberforth, stroking his rather grubby beard. “Knowingly condemning the-boy-who-lived to the life of a house-elf? His feet wouldn’t touch the ground, lad.”

“I wish you’d stop saying that” groused Harry.

“Bound to come out sooner or later, kid.

Professor Snape nodded “I think it might be pertinent to deliver these documents to the Ministry forthwith. Although the papers are spelled to be binding with immediate effect, I would wish this Adoption to be formally registered as soon as practicable.”

Harry’s eyebrows almost hit the ceiling when Hagrid, his face alight with happiness, tugged the slender Potions Master into a hug.

“Thank you, Sev’rus. I just wish I could have done the same for yeh.”

“That is quite alright, Hagrid” came Professor Snape’s muffled voice, from the region of Hagrid’s shoulder.

Aberforth grinned at the wild-haired, wide-eyed teenager, a familiar twinkle in his blue eyes “As yer get older, boy, yer’ll start to see adults as the kids they used to be. Sev, that’s Professor Snape to yer, was allus a nice boy, a little reserved but kind to those who’d give him a chance.”

Harry nodded. Perhaps a second chance might be possible, after all.