The Son Becomes the Father by watercrystals
Summary: Following the death of Sirius, Harry isn't sure what to make of the sudden appearance of a six-year-old boy. The pair form a bond, unaware they're half-brothers, and Harry decides to take the boy to Hogwarts and hide him there. To aide the boy's education, Harry anonymously exchanges letters with Snape.

A story of a how a young boy becomes a father-figure to another while their own father is oblivious of their biological existence. But can sixteen-year-old Harry give what he himself has not gained? Can he go an entire year without being discovered? Just how far will Severus go to find the writer of those letters...Or are some things best left unknown?
Categories: Parental Snape > Biological Father Snape, Teacher Snape > Trusted Mentor Snape Main Characters: .Snape and Harry (required), Draco, Dumbledore, Eileen Prince, Ginny, Hagrid, Hermione, Luna, Narcissa, Neville, Original Character, Other, Pomfrey, Remus, Ron, Tonks, Voldemort
Snape Flavour: Canon Snape
Genres: Angst, Drama, Family, General, Humor, Hurt/Comfort, Mystery, Tragedy
Media Type: None
Tags: Alternate Universe, Child fic, Kidnapped, Runaway, Sibling Addition, Snape-meets-Dursleys
Takes Place: 6th summer, 6th Year, 7th summer, 8 - Pre Epilogue (adult Harry)
Warnings: Alcohol Use, Character Death, Neglect, Violence
Challenges: None
Series: None
Chapters: 33 Completed: No Word count: 164477 Read: 236922 Published: 04 Mar 2011 Updated: 06 Oct 2013
Harry’s Resourcefulness by watercrystals
Harry’s brief boost in mood - brought about by Kreacher’s “agreement” to help him out - didn’t last as long as the Gryffindor had hoped.

As he and Ron left the Hospital Wing on Monday, Harry trailed behind his two best friends as he mused to himself about the time he had spent confined to that bed following what happened during the Quidditch match. Not even the news that Ginny and Dean had broken up would add a single spark of anything happier inside him.

As Luna joined them, even she seemed less aware of Harry hanging more towards the back as the group headed to the Great Hall for breakfast.

He had been running the events through his mind over and over, becoming more ashamed and confused with each time.

After he had witnessed that somewhat-vision, Harry had awoken and since the second he opened his eyes, his mood was foul as though he was angry and hurt by someone but he hadn’t a clue who. At first he thought it was what Voldemort was feeling, and yet it was nowhere near it because the Dark Lord would never know the sensation of emotional betrayal and loss.

But Harry couldn’t figure out why HE had felt that.

Nothing had happened to bring it about, other then the events of the Quidditch match. He racked his brain for anything that might have caused it but nothing came to mind, not even a few little things. All Harry knew was that he’d been mad with McLaggen and satisfied when he’d imitated Snape in order to restore some order into his useless Keeper.

Maybe it had something to do with Snape?

Harry didn’t know anymore, and barely felt hungry as he nibbled at his toast until someone finally thought to speak to him.

‘You’re extra quiet today, Harry.’ Neville commented. ‘Is everything alright?’

‘No.’ Harry could see no reason in lying as he couldn’t be bothered putting up a calm and friendly front.

‘I have a lot on my mind.’ He added to prevent further questioning from anyone else at the Gryffindor table.

His gaze lifted over the heads of the younger students seated nearby and trailed to the staff table where he instantly spotted Snape, not that it was a hard thing to do as the professor was clearly the blackest figure here.

The man was eating his own meal and talking to Dumbledore in between bites, having not noticed the stare he was receiving from the Boy-Who-Lived-To-Annoy-Him.

Yes, Harry had been angry with Voldemort, guilty he couldn’t save the girl, stressed about Toby, annoyed with McLaggen, and overall…it had been Snape he’d partially taken it out on. Dumbledore as well, but Harry was realistically furious with the headmaster anyway for keeping him out of things that concerned him.

In the past five years that dark-haired and clothed man had belittled, insulted, punished, and was generally rude to Harry, and not once had Snape ever apologized nor seemed to care of the treatment he handed out. In fact, sometimes Snape even appeared to enjoy it.

And each time Harry had defiantly returned the man’s words with his own anger and hatred. But that was gone now. The man hardly treated him any better but Harry knew even Snape couldn’t hate him anymore, just as Harry now respected the professor.

The other night in the Hospital Wing was as though things were back to how they used to be and it made Harry feel terribly…disappointed.

And with the way everything was going, he really didn’t want to ruin this; whatever it was exactly that had changed between himself and Snape. It was a small modification, but Harry refused to let it slip back into the dampening disaster it had been before.

Rising from his seat, Harry said nothing to any of his friends as he turned and walked out of the Great Hall, unaware of the obsidian gaze that followed him.

--

Taking the steps to the dormitory two at the time, Harry entered the room and looked over to where Toby and Dobby were seated on the floor beside his bed.

Spotting his brother, Toby made a move to grin and greet him but instantly changed his mind and remained seated.

‘Hello, Master Harry Potter sir.’ Dobby smiled. ‘Is you needing Dobby for anything else, sir?’

‘Yes.’ Harry nodded, having reached his decision before he’d even stepped into the room.

‘I have Herbology this afternoon and would like it very much if you could keep an eye on Toby because he will be joining me.’

‘Really?’ This time Toby did jump upright with a huge smile on his face.

‘Dobby would be honored, sir.’ The elf bowed.

‘Good, it’s settled then.’ Harry sighed.

‘I’ll meet both of you back here after lunch and we’ll head down to the greenhouse together; of course, you two will be invisible.’ He added and reached to ruffle the boy’s head in a way Harry had always wanted an adult to do to him when he’d been little.

‘Thanks, Harry.’ Toby smiled as he flattened his hair again with his hand.

‘I owe you an apology for not explaining properly why we haven’t spent a lot of time together.’ Harry shrugged. ‘I am sorry, and I promise things will be better now.’

Toby said nothing as his eyes became teary as he rushed to hug Harry around the middle, which the teenager noticed that the boy had grown at least several inches in the year so far, because he himself had grown almost as such as well, yet the boy still hugged him in the same spot, if not a tiny bit higher than before.

Leaving the room feeling calmer, Harry ventured outside as he had some free time and smiled at the sunny day.

Strolling across the grounds, Harry waited until he had reached the edge of the forest before he called Kreacher and had the house-elf guide him to the part he used to go with Dobby and Toby when the boy enjoyed his time outside.

He had received confirmation from Snape (via S.J.E) that it was an ideal place for most of the ingredients Harry wanted on his list, and therefore made sure he took advantage of this. Kreacher wasn’t really needed here, but was brought along for “bonding” purposes.

He had to find a way for this stubborn, sour house-elf to like him.

As they worked in mostly silence, gathering the ingredients Harry wanted and placed them into a basket he’d had Dobby make him for this sole purpose (he had also ordered Kreacher not to give him anything other than exactly what he requested), he pondered on the history of the elf. Kreacher clearly adored his “Mistress” and was brainwashed to her pureblood-loving ways, and yet he didn’t seem to speak of anyone else in such a way.

Even Harry knew the Black family tree was immeasurably larger and that there was no way they were all like his Mistress (such as Sirius and Tonks, for starters), yet there were a great deal who were (the Malfoys, Lestranges…etc).

Surely at least one other hadn’t been hated by Kreacher as Sirius was or…though perhaps it was not his treatment of them that caused this, but rather the vice versa.

‘They didn’t all treat you very well, did they?’ Harry asked Kreacher.

‘Your Mistress did, but what about the others? Tell me, did any of the other Blacks really ever treat you nicely?’

‘Only Regulus.’ Kreacher replied as he placed a fig into the basket and avoided looking at Harry.

‘That was Sirius’s younger brother!’ Harry realized. ‘I remember Sirius talking about him once; Regulus died, didn’t he?’

‘Yes.’ Kreacher sounded less vile when he spoke in that tone, almost as though he was sad or else regretful about something.

--

And an hour later when Harry returned to the castle, he knew all about the story detailing Regulus and the locket in which Kreacher had been unable to destroy for him.

When asked about the whereabouts of the object, Kreacher spat about the thief Mundungus and actually seemed rather keen to follow Harry’s next order, when the teen told him to find Mundungus and get back the locket. Harry would help the house-elf finish his task set out by the only other master who had been kind to Kreacher.

With any luck, Harry could be the next person on that very small list of people.

‘Where have you been all morning?’ Ron asked him as Harry joined his friends at the Gryffindor table for lunch.

‘Outside,’ Harry dismissed the question with a single word and watched Hermione for a moment and sighed.

‘Are you still doing that SPEW stuff?’ He asked.

‘It’s S.P.E.W!’ She hissed in return. ‘And yes, I am…why?’

‘I think it needs additional sponsoring.’ Harry reached into the pocket of his robes and fished out a handful of galleons in which were placed in front of her.

‘And you need to raise more awareness of it. I can have Dobby as your spokes-elf if you like, as long as he doesn’t mention who his previous family was.’ Harry nodded, not wanting to bring the Malfoys to public shame…that would not be considered safe at the moment, given the state of things.

‘Th-thank you!’ Hermione looked as though she was ready to cry. ‘And you’re right, of course…’

And as she rattled on about S.P.E.W, Harry continued eating his apple with a musing expression on his face while he wondered how Kreacher was going to get Mundungus. Serves the wizard right for sneaking into Grimmauld Place and stealing Sirius’s stuff!

An hour before dinner that night, Harry as utterly exhausted. And yet he had accomplished so much today that he had to compose a list in order to believe it.

He had fixed things with Toby by taking him to Herbology under the invisibility spell while Dobby supervised when Harry couldn’t; the boy had been delighted and was determined to even do the set homework since he had theoretically attended the class.

Harry had properly begun supporting S.P.E.W and endured Hermione’s long plans to promote it further with the use of his provided funds, because Harry felt more sure of her goal to gain some fairness for house-elves after realizing that both of his had been given such a terrible time by their masters.

It was similar to him having a horrible childhood because the household he was stuck with hated him; Harry could not imagine being with the Dursleys all his life and not knowing any better about his own worth.

Kreacher had retrieved the locket and Harry decided to let the elf hang on to it for a few more hours before they worked out how to destroy it. And it was already obvious that Kreacher was beginning to see him differently.

Harry was still a “friend of mudbloods” but everything else was said or done with less venom aimed his way by the house-elf.

Harry had cornered Draco when the Slytherin had left a bathroom on the second floor and demanded that they set up a meeting to finally discuss the information the blonde had promised him.

The day was set for Saturday at two o’clock in the afternoon inside the Room of Requirement.

And yet with everything else Harry had done, such as finishing so many of the other personal tasks he had wanted to do in effort to boost his mood and feel better about being able to do something even if it wasn’t war-related, his list was not quite complete.

Even has he had begun working on the relation charm Snape had taught him (or rather, S.J.E), through their rolls of parchment.

There was still one thing left to do.

And it was the reason for Harry pacing a few feet from Snape’s office as he tried to sort through the many ways in which he could approach Snape and…*choke* apologize.

He didn’t feel he should as it wasn’t really his fault, and yet Harry knew from experience that such truths meant nothing to Snape. A man like Snape considered Harry disrespectful, arrogant, and rude for the way he’d spoken to him that had caused Snape to march out of the Hospital Wing that day of the Quidditch match.

Regardless, Harry had to try; he wasn’t willingly leaving that office until he had at least gotten his message across.

Another reason he hadn’t knocked yet was because he was downright terrified. Yes, the Boy-Who-Lived who had fought Voldemort more times than either of them dared to count, faced a giant Basilisk and spiders, a werewolf, and numerous other dangerous things…was too nervous to face his own professor regarding a simple apology.

Well, nothing was ever simple with Snape, but all the same…Harry knew he was being ridiculous.

 Even as the images of being cursed from the room while jars of gross things were thrown his way plagued him, Harry knew he had to act now or flee like the coward he wasn’t.

And as he stepped forward to raise his hand, Harry jumped without any shred of dignity when a tired, annoyed voice spoke through the door he had been about to knock his fist against.

‘Cease your insufferable dawdling and either step inside my office or remove yourself from the corridor!’

Gripping the doorknob with shaking hands, Harry inhaled a sharp breath and walked into the office, which looked oddly darker than he remembered.

‘Of course,’ Snape sneered as he saw his company. ‘I should have known you would be the one to waste my time with senseless pacing outside my door for the past forty minutes.’

Had it really been that long? It was a rather specific number, yet Harry didn’t dare to question it as he cautiously walked towards the desk and occupied the same chair he had sat in when he’d been there last, hearing about his mother.

‘Well?’ Snape eyed him. ‘What is the reasoning behind your inconvenient visit?’

‘I merely wished to speak to you, sir.’ Harry swallowed and prided himself for being able to make his voice sound relatively normal rather than as quivering mess as he felt inside.

It had never been this hard to approach Snape before, no matter how scary the man was. Then again, he’d never apologized to the man in such manner either.

‘Go on.’ Severus encouraged with a heavy sigh of dread and agreement that he would at least listen to the boy until he felt the stronger desire to turf the Gryffindor from his office and brew a headache potion. His previous supply had run out.

‘Well, it is difficult, sir…’ Harry tried to buy himself a little time. ‘It’s about that day in the Hospital Wing.’

‘If you’re here to complain that any treatment you received was in any way poorly and unfair then I advise you to spare yourself the lecture and leave now.’ Severus pinched the bridge of his nose.

‘I have little time or tolerance for such whining.’

‘No, sir-I…’ Harry winced and stared at the floor between his feet. ‘I actually wanted to…to apologize to you.’

He was forced to look up after a full minute when Snape was yet to make a sound. Even then, the look of shock and pure distrust marked the man’s features was unexpected; at any other moment, Harry might have found it to be amusing.

‘I am in no mood for pranks, Potter!’ Severus finally detected his senses again once those emerald eyes lifted towards him, obscured by the stupid glasses.

‘No, I swear!’

Harry jumped to his feet as though Severus had done the same, even as his professor remained firmly in his chair, mostly because the man did not trust himself to move.

‘I was angry and had a lot on my mind.’ He hastily added. ‘I don’t know what happened, but something sort of snapped and I…I reacted unfavorably.’ Harry said in a more formal tone, calming just a little when Snape’s wand remained out of sight.

All he received in return for his words was a hardened expression of something Harry couldn’t quite decipher.

‘It wasn’t your fault Voldemort was doing those things, nor did you try to make me stay in that stupid ward when I was fine, and I also shouldn’t have brought up the fact that…well, the stuff about those Occlumency lessons.’

‘Indeed.’ Severus spoke barely above a whisper.

He knew the boy was briefly wondering if he had gone into shock, in which the man found himself pondering on as well.

‘Why?’

‘Why…what?’ Harry was confused.

‘Idiot boy! Why was that single incident worthy of an apology when five years of trouble-making, disrespect, and arrogance is left unaccounted for?’

Severus rose from his chair but did not leave his place from behind the desk. He needed the height advantage at that moment because it was all he could ultimately hold over the boy in such a situation.

‘Things are different now.’ Harry replied in his usually defiant tone, although it continued to lack the anger and resentment it had once held.

‘Before, I hated you, and you had that silly grudge…now, I don’t really know how it happened but it’s just not the same anymore.’ The Gryffindor shrugged at his own logic.

And just as Severus was about to respond, something very odd and unexpected happened.

Pop!

‘Kreacher is ready to destroy the locket now, Master.’ He bowed to Harry before he noticed their company. ‘Kreacher remembers Severus Snape, the one who called Master Sirius a liar. Kreacher isn’t-‘

‘Oi!’ Harry hissed. ‘What did I say about telling someone? Or talking to anyone at all?’

‘Kreacher was only speaking to Master, and Kreacher is not being told to only do so when Master is alone.’ The elf replied with a usual smirk while he gripped the chain of the locket with his hands.

‘Well, it applies now. Only when I’m alone!’ Harry grimaced as he slowly turned towards Snape, unsure of how to explain this.

‘What is the meaning of-?’ Severus began to raise his tone at the boy and the scene before him, when his eyes trailed downwards to the familiar locket.

‘Where did you get that?’

‘Why?’ Harry did not like the paler-than-usual complexion that spread across his professor’s expression. ‘It’s not yours.’

‘Do you have any idea what that object contains, Potter?’ Severus hissed. ‘Stay put.’ He instructed as he headed to the fireplace to floo-call Dumbledore.

The conversation was brief and Harry panicked the entire time while Kreacher stood with uncertainty by his side, still clinging to the locket.

As Dumbledore stepped through, he followed Snape’s gaze to where the man was pointing directly at the elf. The headmaster first noticed that it wasn’t a Hogwarts house-elf and knew instantly who it was, seconds before he spotted the object the being was holding in the same way one would a lost treasure.

‘Harry, how did you come by this?’ Dumbledore moved closer, almost eagerly, as he fixated his gaze between the teen and the item of apparent importance.

And so Harry explained that he remembered about Kreacher and wanted to find a way for them not to hate each other. He told them about Regulus Black (why was Snape muttering “R.A.B”?), and how Kreacher had been given the task to destroy the locket for him but had been unable to. And then Mundungus had stolen it and he’d just sent Kreacher to get it back so they could complete the task together and be rid of the locket.

Not once had the Gryffindor really cared why the bloody thing would never open.

‘What’s going on, sir?’ Harry asked Dumbledore.

Instead of answering, Dumbledore merely showed Harry an exact replica of the locket, except that one was hanging open.

‘I don’t understand.’ Harry frowned as he stared at his two professors. Dumbledore was looking relieved while Snape…well, he seemed to be his usual grumpy and guarded self once again.

‘Perhaps this will provide more efficient answers then I can give to aide your confusion.’ Dumbledore handed over a small note and Harry began to read it aloud, mostly for Kreacher’s sake as he felt he should include the elf with anything to do with the mysterious locket.

‘To the Dark Lord, I know I will be dead long before you read this, but I want you to know it is I who discovered your secret…’

Harry paused and glanced at the professors for a moment; neither said anything as they wore grave expressions, so he continued.

‘I have stolen the real Horcrux and intend to destroy it as soon as I can. I face death in the hope that when you meet your match, you will be mortal once more. R.A.B.’

Harry lowered his gaze to the stone floor of Snape's office and remained silent for a moment, letting the questions and realizations buzz through his mind, threatening to jumble his focus or make themselves known.

As he pondered on what the note had implied, Harry understood only that it was very important to the war, and to defeating Voldemort. Spurred by his ability to perhaps at least know something after so long of being left out of his supposed destiny, Harry lifted his chin and stared right at his professors.

'Please, I want to know what this means.' Harry told them defiantly.

'Tell me anything you can. I need to know what's going on and I have to know how to stop him!'


An hour later found Harry walking sullenly into the dormitory, his mind filled with worrying facts about Horcruxes and the way there seemed to be a higher sense of helplessness towards fighting someone who can't die.

Dumbledore had assured him that the search for the pieces of Voldemort's soul was progressing as they were being tracked down and destroyed, yet the look on Snape's face when it had been said was discouraging.

Snape was not one to reveal his emotions, therefore Harry didn't know how to feel about the fact that the man had deliberately let Harry see that he thought Dumbledore was sugar-coating the truth behind their success.

The pair had only three more Horcruxes left to destroy before Voldemort himself was mortal once more, yet Harry struggled to rest his faith in such a task in which he knew involved him all while he was being left out of it.

The only positive fact he could grasp at was that Kreacher now liked him and in any spare time the elf had, he would clean Grimmauld place or follow Harry around the dungeons to assist the teenager with his brewing.

It had all been fine, until a week later when Harry decided to let Toby come to watch him brew...therefore, Dobby and Kreacher were to be in the same room later that week.

Both elves that were fond of Harry and tried to please him, were convinced that the other was not needed.

'Dobby is happy to help Master Harry Potter with anything he wishes, anything at all, sir!' Dobby would say and shrieked when Kreacher shoved him off the table he had been standing on to get Harry's attention.

'Kreacher is belonging to Master first.' The older elf said smoothly. 'Kreacher is knowing more and can help Master much better than Dobby.'

In a matter of minutes, Harry could only shield his cauldron and stare while Toby (who was under the invisibility spell) stood on a stool to avoid the two house-elves that were rolling around on the floor.

They each now bore the same black outfit with a lightning bolt on the front and a pair of perfectly-fitting brown shoes, making it harder to tell which was which as they yelled insults at each other all while physically fighting.

Harry was stunned at first by the scene and too fussed over his cauldron and Toby to react, until the ear-splitting (or so it seemed), sound of jars sliding off shelves as the contents were splattered on the ground, and the overturning of stools became too much.

'ENOUGH!' Harry bellowed and gasped as he couldn't believe how Snape-like he had just sounded.

His order, however, had the desired impact when both elves froze as though under a paralysis spell; Dobby's foot was still in Kreacher's mouth while Kreacher had fistfuls of Dobby's ears, yet apart from blinking and breathing heavily, neither elf moved.

'I need you to get along.' Harry said quickly. 'I need both of you and that's the way it's going to stay. Dobby watches and teaches Toby for me and Kreacher assists with my potions and other stuff; without either one of you, this wouldn't be possible.' He insisted and slowly turned to stare pale-faced at the classroom

'C-could you both clean all this up?' Harry gulped and was only able to breathe again when the elves had snapped their fingers and the room returned to its usual state.

Toby froze in his action of climbing down from the stool when the door to the room suddenly opened and Snape hesitated with surprise to see Harry standing by a cauldron with two house-elves at his side.

Positioned protectively in front of the stool where Toby sat hidden, Harry swallowed nervously and glanced at his cauldron quickly to check he had a few minutes let it sit while he fought to regain his ability to talk instead of stuttering.

'Er...' Was about all he could say.

During each of the occasions Harry had brewed in his spare time, occasionally Slughorn would drop by to see how he was going, Hermione once or twice as well, but never Snape.

Sure, the man was no longer his Potions Master (in which Harry was thankful for), but Harry had no doubt that Snape still ventured to this part of the dungeons from time to time. Especially since his office, private quarters and storage, as well as labs were still there too.

'Using house-elves to do perform simplistic tasks for you, Mr Potter?' Snape sneered as he entered the classroom and let the door swing shut behind him.

Striding across the room and right up to Harry's cauldron, he peered inside and crinkled his nose at the scent.

'I daresay your supposed talent fails you, given the thickened state of this stomach soothing draught.' He glanced at the workbench in search of a textbook but found none.

'Which method are you attempting to use, Potter?'

Similar to a moment previous when the house-elf war had been tearing apart the room, Harry could only stare as he realized that Snape was actually asking about his potion and sharing a room with him that was in no way inclined to be forced company.

'Er...' Harry said again and felt Toby's poking him in the back for encouragement. 'Mine.'

He swallowed and waited for the insults as Snape turned to narrow his eyes at him and then raised an eyebrow with surprise.

'And it's been modified.' Harry added.

'In which way?' Snape glanced at the cauldron again, this time with a wary expression as though he was searching for a dangerous ingredient that would likely need rectifying.

'To taste better...um, sir?' Harry shuffled his feet and exhaled nervously. 'I...this is weird.' He huffed. 'You...me...not shouting.'

'As unbelievable as it may seem, Potter, I...' Severus paused as he was about to deliver a sarcastic commented but in his state of tiredness, he decided to simply be blunt.

'I agree. This situation is most...unfamiliar.' He raised an eyebrow at the seemingly frozen, solider-like house-elves nearby and realized that he recognized them.

It was also a tad unsettling to see the Gryffindor with two creatures that once served the Malfoys and Blacks, which by extension would also include the Lestranges...all upper class and purebred Slytherin families known to produce Death Eaters.

'Precisely why do you have two house elves in your presence, surely a potion such as this is not so strenuous that you require such methods of supervision and assistance?'

Glaring shortly at Snape, Harry turned to Dobby and gave him permission to leave, watching with relief as the elf jumped onto the stool where Toby was hidden and popped away, discreetly taking the boy with him.

'I was trying to make them get along.' Harry answered Snape.

He turned to face his cauldron, quickly remembering which step he was up. Frowning at his bubbling potion, he let out of a huff of annoyance and sank into the stool Toby had previously been occupying.

'Is Master needing Kreacher's help?' The elf inched forward.

Severus carefully watched the way the teenager's eyes lowered and shoulders hunched with defeat.

'No, it's ruined.' Harry sighed. 'I lost focus...it was a stupid mistake, but now it's stuffed.'

He reached for his wand that had been sitting on the counter nearby, yet his arm was grasped by Snape's hand before the teen could vanish the bubbling mess inside his cauldron.

'Sir?' Harry lowered his hand as Snape peered into the cauldron with a calculating gaze and then used his own wand to summon a few jars from the stores.

'This stomach soothing draught has been modified for the specific purpose of improving the finalized taste, correct?' Severus asked the boy, who quickly nodded as they both knew the limited time there was to save the potion in question.

Nodding, and confident of the ingredients he had guessed to have been in use already, Severus nudged Harry aside and worked at chopping herbs and crushing beans. The man added them to the mix and watched as he stirred; the bubbling stopped and the brew took on a deep magenta colour.

'The healing properties were enhanced and the bitterness removed from the exchange of...' Harry muttered to himself as he stared into the cauldron and cast Snape gaze of near-admiration.

'It's brilliant!'

'I assume you are capable of continuation without further intervention?' Severus held out the stirring tool to the boy.

'Yeah, thanks.' Harry accepted it and returned to the task while the professor moved towards the front of the classroom where he had originally been heading.

'Kreacher, I need another cauldron set up here and two bezoars.' He added while Severus paused to listen as he sat at the desk. 'And of course, the figs we got yesterday, that water plant with the stupid name I can't say and...the erm, jar of-you know?'

Severus ignored the teen for a while, though he was compelled to supervise as this was the first time since last year that the pair had shared this very classroom. The circumstances were so different that those harsh lessons and arguing seemed to be part of a drawn-out dream rather then memories of the past.

--

After another half an hour of Severus writing and Harry working on potions with Kreacher, the teenager began to forget the professor's near-silent company and spoke aloud more often as he usually did.

Severus stopped in his tracks and actually blotched a part of his report to Lupin when he heard and mentally combined into fact, what the boy was brewing. The figs, herbs, fish eyes, bezoar, and numerous other things were conclusive enough, but with the mentioning of the boy's own blood...Severus became quite worried.

It was an ancient relative potion, one in which – to his previous knowledge – was known by very few, apart from S.J.E in which he had first explained it to with painful detail.

How could Potter know of it? Such as, wouldn't he have gone straight for a paternity potion or something similar as everyone else recommended, even Severus's mother, who had full knowledge of the entire Hogwarts library.

Casting the boy a suspicions glare, Severus made to leave his seat and confront the boy but halted at the sight that met him and instantly sank back into sitting position.

Harry was facing him now, though his gaze was concentrated on talking to Kreacher who held up an assortment of stewed figs; those emerald eyes were so filled with determination, interest and calmness that Severus could only wince.

The glasses...those glasses on the boy's face...that was all Severus saw of James Potter.

The almond-shaped emerald eyes, focused yet enlightened gaze, bitten lip habit, and tapping of his foot as he stirred the cauldron...that was all Lily.

A horrifying thought occurred to Severus as he continued to watch the teenager, because...the black lengthy hair, paled face, precise hands, and quirked eyebrow...that wasn't Lily's nor James's, it was...

Severus suddenly felt lightheaded as he stared at his incomplete letter to Lupin in which claimed that their task was fruitless, that there was no way the boy could be anyone but the son of James and Lily.

He felt cold, which wasn't unnatural in the dungeons; however it wasn't temperature-related as Severus had long ago adapted to it.

He could not stay.

Severus, for one of the few times in his life, had the sudden urge to flee; he wanted to run and run until he was out of breath and energy, until he felt nothing but the wind in his lungs and ground beneath his shoes.

Severus swallowed twice and carefully rose as he approached the teenager, having tucked his letter into his robes as he went. Looking into the cauldron of finished draught (though it still needed work with the modifications in taste), and the other potion that was yet to be completed.

'Is is almost time for dinner.' Severus said and avoided addressing the boy. 'I expect to find this entire area to be in pristine condition upon your departure.'

'I know.' Harry said without looking up. 'I'm only practicing right now, so I'll be done soon, sir. Thank you for helping me.' He added as he felt it should be said.

The memory of the man assisting and not insulting him was going to be mulled on later as Harry could not believe it had actually happened.

Severus said nothing as he stared at the teenager a moment longer and then turned on his heels and left the classroom without making a single sound, even as his robes billowed about in his classic bat-like fashion behind him.

As the door shut behind him, Harry lifted his gaze towards it and smiled.

To be continued...
End Notes:
Next: Harry ends up in the Hospital Wing again and receives an unexpected visitor or two. Poppy recalls another boy quite like Harry that leaves her wondering, and remembering a promise she made a long time ago.
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