Red as Fire by Alexannah
Summary: Snape has kept Lily’s many secrets for years. Having been forced to reveal one for Harry’s safety, the rest look soon to follow. And either Black has found a way to fly, turn invisible and tame dragons, or there is someone else after Harry’s blood too.
Categories: Parental Snape > Biological Father Snape Main Characters: .Snape and Harry (required), Draco, Dumbledore, Hermione, Lucius, Original Character, Remus, Ron
Snape Flavour: Snape Comforts, Snape is Kind, Snape is Loving, Overly-protective Snape
Genres: Action/Adventure, Angst, Drama, Family, Mystery
Media Type: None
Tags: Alternate Universe, Creature!fic, Dragons, Royalty!Harry
Takes Place: 4th Year
Warnings: Violence
Prompts: Creature Royalty
Challenges: Creature Royalty
Series: Corona
Chapters: 23 Completed: No Word count: 33531 Read: 104795 Published: 13 Nov 2013 Updated: 25 Oct 2015
Looking Over the Shoulder by Alexannah
Author's Notes:
Exactly a month since my last update. Sorry about that. I honestly didn't realise it had been this long.

“I meant,” Harry said as Lyle, now Harry had taken the Ruby, turned invisible again. “this … throne. No-one expects me to take it, do they?”

Lyle hesitated.

“Lyle?”

“Luesson, as you know, wants to make sure you don’t,” he said. “But your existence is not widely known among our people. Nobody would ever force you to take it, sire, it must be your own decision.”

“Thank goodness for that,” Harry muttered. “Because I don’t want it. You can tell Luesson he’s welcome to it. I don’t want to be royal; I just want to be normal. As normal as possible, anyway.”

He jumped slightly as Lyle’s hand touched his, gently closing his fingers over the Ruby. “I do not judge, sire. I just ask that you keep the Ruby—and don’t write it off. You may feel different, one day.”

Harry doubted it, but allowed Lyle to hang the Ruby around his neck, and then tucked it under his robes.

-

Not long after the first visit, Harry returned to the Hospital Wing, this time with Ron and Hermione and armed with as many flowers as they could carry between them.

“My goodness,” Dumbledore said when the curtains were pulled back and he found himself face to face with enough bouquets to satisfy even Professor Sprout. “Oh, it’s you three!” He sounded positively delighted to see them, and Ron and Hermione blushed, having rarely if ever had personal contact with him.

“Do come in, sit down—if you can find a seat—hold on,” he said, and magically conjured a couple of chairs. “There. Oh, are these all for me? How thoughtful!”

Harry presented him with the flowers, a bag of sherbet lemons, and a pair of socks which delighted Dumbledore. “They didn’t have a card which said ‘Sorry you jumped in front of a knife-wielding maniac to save me’,” Harry said with a grin. “So we had to improvise.”

“You should have complained.”

“Oh, we did,” Hermione said with a smile and blushing harder. Dumbledore chuckled.

“I’m very flattered, thank you very much. It’s so lovely of you all to come and see and old man in hospital, I can tell you it hasn’t half been frustrating, stuck in here.”

“The other staff still too involved in their jobs to visit, sir?” Harry asked, eyebrows raised.

“You’ve got it, Harry.” Dumbledore sighed. “Still, it’s pleasant change a to be visited by some of Hogwarts’ most notorious students.”

“Notorious? Us? Surely not, sir!”

“Oh simmer down, Harry, you are fooling no-one.”

“Is that what you say about us behind out backs?” Ron asked curiously.

“No, behind your backs …” Dumbledore trailed off. “Oh, what wonderful socks! I’ve never had ones which glow in the dark before.”

Ron cleared his throat hesitantly. “Yes, Professor? You were saying?”

Dumbledore raised an eyebrow. “You haven’t heard what we call the three of you?”

“No,” Ron, Harry and Hermione said as one.

“Ah. Well, you didn’t hear it from me, but … behind the staff room doors, you’re known as the Golden Trio.”

“Seriously?” Hermione giggled.

“Yes. By all except Professor Snape.”

“What does he call us?” Harry asked, half-curious, half wary.

“I dread to think,” Ron muttered.

“He calls you the Ticking Trio. Ticking, as in, a ticking time-bomb—an explosive Muggle device,” Dumbledore added, seeing Ron’s blank expression. “And once in your first year, the Three Heads of Fluffy. Also on the rare occasion … ah, no, perhaps that one doesn’t bear repeating.” Before they could push him to tell them, he added quickly, “He does use the term Golden Trio sometimes, but usually in a somewhat … sarcastic sense.”

“Snape, be sarcastic?” Harry mock-gasped. “Never! I don’t believe it.”

“Yes, very droll, Harry. Now, anyway, perhaps we could move onto another subject before my colleagues find out I have been telling staff room tales to students. I would never live it down.”

The rest of the visit was passed playing various games. Madam Pomfrey expressly forbade Exploding Snap or anything that involved Dumbledore having to move quickly, which he grumbled about but reluctantly obeyed. Ron tried playing chess against Dumbledore and lost, but narrowly. They played a couple of word games and a round of Gobstones before Madam Pomfrey shooed them out.

-

That night, Harry lay awake with a lot on his mind.

It had not struck him before of the possibility of him taking a throne. It seemed obvious, now, after all that was the whole point of Luesson trying to have him offed, but the shock of simply discovering he was royal—and the rest—had left no room for wondering how, apart from the assassination attempts, that affected his future.

He could feel the Ruby still around his neck, and wondered why he had kept it. He felt very strongly that he didn’t want the throne—after all, he wanted nothing more than to be normal; being the Boy Who Lived was bad enough. He just wanted to go to school, play Quidditch, spend time with his friends and pass his exams.

Being a prince would change all that. And no doubt, eventually being king—that would be even worse. Harry disliked the attention he got at the moment; the thought of lots of people bowing to him the way Lyle did made his skin crawl.

No, he was never, ever going to challenge his uncle Luesson. He was welcome to his kingdom. Still … did that mean Harry was going to be looking over his shoulder for assassins for the rest of his life? Even with Black, who sounded dangerous enough—Harry felt a white-hot anger coursing through him at the thought of the man—should be recaptured at some point, surely, and then Kissed. But the dragon king might never relent, and there was no chance he could be arrested.

And then, there was Severus Snape. Harry didn’t know what to think of the man. The Three Heads of Fluffy indeed … Of course Harry should have known that Snape would be keeping up appearances in the staff room as well as the classroom, but he wasn’t sure what he had expected. Maybe he had just thought Snape didn’t join in with talking about them. Obviously that was not the case.

How much of it really was an act? Snape himself had said it all was, but Harry wasn’t sure he wanted a father who could hate him one moment and …

Love him the next?

Where had that come from? Snape hadn’t said he loved Harry. It may have been implied, but … until Harry heard it from the man’s own mouth, he wasn’t going to assume. After all, he knew plenty of people who were far nicer to him, who had never said such a thing to him—in fact, he didn’t remember anyone ever telling him they loved him. Blood relation or not, he was not going to get his hopes up.

And until the man proved otherwise, he would continue to be thought of as Snape, in Harry’s mind. Not anything remotely resembling ‘Dad’.

Harry sighed, turning over. He didn’t want to face Snape yet, but he knew he was seriously behind in his Potions work. The longer he put it off, the worse it would get, and the worse Snape would be to him in public once he decided to put his git façade back on. Harry was dreading the day.

Maybe there was another teacher who could help him? Snape couldn’t be the only one who knew third-year Potions. The other teachers had to have at least made it through to fifth year when they were students, perhaps they could help. If not, he would try asking some of the older students. He’d even ask Percy Weasley if he had to. Anything to avoid asking his father.

-

“Albus, Mr Potter’s here to see you again.”

Dumbledore’s eyes twinkled as he laid eyes on his visitor. “Back again, Harry? Goodness, three visits in less than a week. I should get stabbed more often.”

“Don’t you dare!” Harry said quickly, then added, “sir.”

Dumbledore chuckled. “Is there something in particular on your mind?”

“Well, yeah.” Harry shuffled his feet awkwardly. “I’m sorry, it’s not that exciting, but you said you were bored and I was wondering …”

“Yes? Come on, sit down my boy.”

Harry sat down on the proffered seat. “It’s just, I’ve fallen pretty behind on my Potions work ‘cause of—well, mainly my time in here—” Dumbledore chuckled “—and I was hoping you might … help me catch up a bit.”

“Why not ask Professor Snape?”

There was an awkward pause. Dumbledore gave a soft chuckle. “I’m sorry. A foolish question. Although, technically, he is your Potions teacher …”

“Please, Professor, I can’t ask Snape,” Harry said quickly, ignoring the gentle correction. “Not now, I …” he trailed off, not sure how to explain.

Dumbledore, however, seemed to understand better than Harry thought. “Not since he told you something about your mother?”

Harry stared at him. “You … you know?”

“Ah, I don’t claim to know what Severus told you—only that there was something he was going to. He has never given details. But I have noticed that things have been rather … different, between you lately, and I surmised that whatever he said was probably the reason.”

Harry nodded.

“You can’t avoid him forever, Harry,” Dumbledore said, very gently.

“I know. But I need to, right now. Till I’ve—taken it in better. Please, Professor.”

Dumbledore nodded. “All right. Get your work out, and let’s have a look.”

“Thank you, sir.”

To be continued...


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