Love and Honesty by RavenEcho
Summary: OOTP spoilers...Severus becomes Dudley Dursley’s and Harry’s tutor for the rest of the summer after the end of 5th year. What secrets are revealed?
Categories: Parental Snape > Biological Father Snape Main Characters: .Snape and Harry (required), Original Character, Other
Snape Flavour: None
Genres: General
Media Type: None
Tags: Snape-meets-Dursleys
Takes Place: 6th summer
Warnings: None
Challenges: None
Series: None
Chapters: 19 Completed: No Word count: 30668 Read: 53483 Published: 02 Feb 2005 Updated: 05 Nov 2005
Chapter 9 by RavenEcho
Author's Notes:
Disclaimer: If it were mine, man I’d be flying high.

Harry eyed his complete potion and his stack of notes with a sense of satisfaction. He had done it. His first experimental potion.

“Don’t just stare at it, Harry. You can bottle it up, you know. We’ll have to test the effects.”

Harry smiled. The hour or so of work on the potion had made him sleepy, but Snape was still being nice to him, so he was oddly cheerful. “Okay, Severus.” He pulled out his wand and summoned a case of jars to put the potion in. He didn’t notice Severus’ wince as they landed with a rattle on the table next to him.

“Here, I’ll help,” Severus offered. “Hand me a ladle.”

The pair worked quickly in a comfortable silence, and once they were done, Severus magicked the jars onto a shelf and Harry cleaned the cauldron with a scouring charm. “I think we’ll leave the testing until tomorrow,” Severus said, seeing Harry’s yawn. “Let’s get you up to bed now, come on.”

Harry yawned again and slowly stumbled out of the office and up the two flights of stairs to his room. In a moment he was curling up on his bed, and was fast asleep by the time Severus closed the door and murmured, “Good night, Harry.”

What was that incessant tapping? Harry groaned and opened his eyes a tiny bit. God, the brightness! He shut them again, but the damn tapping got louder. In a moment, a voice said, “Harry, I swear if you don’t open this door in another three seconds, I’ll blast it through the wall!” At this Harry jumped up and ran to open the door. An angry Severus was on the other side of it.

“Um. Hi?”

Severus growled slightly. “It’s 11:00. You were supposed to be up three hours ago! You’re lucky I decided to let you sleep in because of how late we were up yesterday. Now come on. Dumbledore’s dropped by in the floo and he wants to see you. Get dressed properly, and hurry up!”

Harry stretched and then dug through his trunk to find some decent robes to wear. He pulled out one of his new school robes and pulled it on over his pajamas. Then he combed his hair with his fingers, shoved on his glasses, and started downstairs. He found Professor Snape and the Headmaster in the living room, sitting on the couches that were near the fireplace.

“Sit down, Harry,” Dumbledore said kindly, patting the empty couch beside him. Harry sat down by Severus instead.

“What’s the matter, Professor?” Harry immediately asked the Headmaster.

“We think Fudge is going to give us trouble about guardianship soon-“

“But he agreed! He said he’d let Professor Snape be my guardian for the rest of the summer and we’d deal with it when school started back!”

“I know, Harry, but even the best men sometimes have to take back their promises.”

“And he isn’t one of the best by far,” Severus muttered darkly.

Dumbledore ignored him. “However, he can do nothing to you while you are at Snape Manor or at Grimmauld Place. For a few weeks, at least, you are safe. But we need to get an action plan for when he contests Severus’ guardianship at the end of the summer. You have no more blood relatives, so it’ll be hard. There are a few worthy candidates, but he can easily knock them off the lists. If you wish, I can try to claim guardianship of you, but I think the most likely thing will be that you become a ward of the Ministry, and be under the Minister’s control.”

“But Professor! I can hardly sit in the same room as that man, let alone be like his son for a whole year!”

“Harry, it’s nothing that we should worry about now. The court decisions will take a long time, so for now, just relax. We can discuss this more at the start of the school year. Now I must be going. If only the Dursley’s hadn’t died,” he murmured under his breath, not thinking Harry could hear him. “Good afternoon, Harry, Severus.”

Then he stepped into the fireplace and disappeared.

For a moment Severus stared at the fire, looking thoughtful, then he suddenly turned to Harry and said, “Come on, Harry. Let’s go eat lunch, or breakfast as the case may be.”

Harry nodded silently and followed him into the dining room, where Binky was setting out a plate of sandwiches. “Thank you, Binky,” both men muttered at the same time. Then they sat and served themselves some sandwiches. Severus began eating eagerly, but Harry, he noticed, merely picked at his own, tearing it into pieces and arranging them into a pattern.

“What’s wrong, Mr. Potter?” Severus finally asked.

“The Dursley’s are dead.”

Severus sighed. He had hoped this wouldn’t happen, especially after Harry’s cheerful mood the day before, but there it was, happening. “Yes, they are, Harry.”

Harry tore a piece of crust off his sandwich and balanced it on the edge of his plate. “This is all my fault.”

Immediately, Snape’s wand point was in between Harry’s eyes. “Say that again,” he said quietly, “and I will curse you into oblivion.”

Harry stood up. “It is. I had to live, and then I had to go live with them and put them in danger!” He began shouting. “If I hadn’t have gone back every summer, Voldemort never would’ve attacked! They’d be safe, in their stupid Muggle world!”

“Get out your wand, Mr. Potter.”

“What?”

“Get out your wand! You are angry. You are making me angry. Let’s duel. Better that you focus your anger on beating me then keeping it inside and exploding on some innocent bystander when you return to Hogwarts.” Severus bowed. “Ready, Harry? I’ll go first, if you won’t.”

Harry beat him to it. “Impedimenta!”

Severus dodged it, and hissed out a Stinging Hex, which hit Harry’s arm. Harry gave an animalistic snarl while Severus smirked and cast another hex, which Harry dodged this time.

“Very good, Harry. You have to learn not to let your emotions distract you.”

Harry hurled a jelly-legs curse at Snape. Snape seemed to decide not to dodge, and let it hit him. Then he quickly threw a curse at Harry, who was too busy dodging to stop him from ending the jelly-legs.

Soon both Slytherin and Gryffindor were properly enraged and totally in battle zone. Hexes and curses were being flung and dodged and countered at an almost impossible speed. Severus was pleased to find that Harry was quite good, and was just dodging a conjured ball of ice when he saw a figure climbing out of the fireplace. “Harry! Look round!”

And that was how Snape’s friend Jerome found himself smiling at the tips of two wands. “Good afternoon to you too, Severus.”

Snape withdrew immediately and motioned to Harry to do the same. “Sorry, Jerome. We’ve been dueling for almost an hour, and not many enter my Manor without my knowledge. My mind jumped immediately to the Dark Lord.”

“The Dark Lord, eh? Do I really look that impressive?” Jerome smiled to show there were no hurt feelings. “You both should pay attention more when you’re dueling; I must have been sitting in that fireplace for almost twenty minutes before I decided to come on through. Severus, you’ve never lifted the charms so I could actually get through without asking you first.”

“Oh, I’d quite forgotten. You can sit down, if you like. Here Harry, I’ll fix you real quick. Finite incantatem,” he pointed his wand at Harry. Then he cast the same spell on himself. “Evanesco,” he muttered, whirling his wand at the wreckage on the floor. “Well then. Harry, you may sit down as well. Jerome, do you mind if Harry intrudes upon our conversation?”

Jerome looked shrewdly at Harry, then quickly at Severus, raising on brow. “Of course not. He seems trustworthy to me. But he has to swear not to betray anything discussed here.”

Severus looked at Harry questioningly. “I swear,” Harry said immediately.

“Alright then,” Severus said, straightening slightly. “Harry, as I told you yesterday, Jerome was a real help to the Order. Just about everyone in the Order now had thought he’d died, except for me. Not even Dumbledore knew.”

Jerome laughed. “He may be the best wizard of all time,” he said caustically, “but that man is a fool.”

Harry stared. He didn’t know what to say. No one, absolutely no one, had ever called Dumbledore a fool in front of him except for maybe Voldemort.

“Congratulations Jerome, you’ve shocked him speechless.”

“Oh, why thank you, Severus,” he said, faking a peppy voice quite like Lavender Brown’s. “Come on, lad, I know you had to see it,” he said seriously to Harry. “I have been keeping an ear out for news around here you know, and he’s made mistakes even a Gryffindor would notice. For one thing, keeping secrets about you from even you yourself. And also not knowing how to deal with Sirius. Harry, Dumbledore needs to be woken up or something. He has to know what kind of game he’s playing at before he can win it.”

Harry nodded without saying a word and Snape sighed. “Listen, Harry, We’re not saying we hate Dumbledore. We’re not even saying we don’t trust Dumbledore. What we’re saying is that he doesn’t understand that his tactics aren’t working. You, in the end, have to defeat the Dark Lord. He, in the end, has to step back and let you grow up, and let you figure out how to kill the thing Tom Riddle used to be. What Dumbledore doesn’t see is that he needs to step back. Therefore, he will suffocate you, and smother any chances we have at ending this damn thing. Now I’ve just been uncommonly kind,” Jerome snorted, “so do you understand, or would you like to leave?”

Harry seemed like he didn’t realize Snape had stopped talking for a moment. Finally, he blinked once and said, “I understand. Now what the hell are you going to do about it?”

Jerome looked startled for the barest of moments, and then he laughed loudly. “Severus, I think I can work with this guy.”

Severus didn’t smile, but his face softened slightly. “He’s right,” he pointed out. “We need a strategy. We can’t just sit here chatting and expect the problem to fix itself.”

For a few minutes they all just sat there, carefully avoiding looking at each other. Then, Jerome glanced up. “What if you stopped spying?”

Snape’s head snapped around. “What?”

“You heard me.”

The dark man frowned and shoved a lock of hair out of his eyes. “But the information I give them- it’s saved lives. Could the Order deal without that?”

“Find a new spy,” Harry said quietly. He glanced at his teacher, who was now scowling.

“Not so easy is it though, Harry? I have to find someone in the Death Eater’s ranks willing to turn his coat and keep the secret of my betrayal. And if we make a mistake, what then? The Dark Lord’s shown us many times that Memory Charms can be broken.”

“Even so, Harry,” Jerome interrupted, “if we found a new spy- because we do need one- then he or she’d be put in the exact same place Severus has been in. What we need is someone who can find things out, but not get involved in the Dark Lord’s affairs. A child, or a wife.”

“And then here we are, right at the beginning again,” Severus scowled.

Jerome grinned. “I just love how unfailingly cheerful you are, Severus.” Harry snickered. Jerome looked at him studiously. “What if the two of you switched personalities for a day or two? That’d shock Dumbledore into his senses.”

Severus frowned. “But it has no point. It might surprise Dumbledore, but he’d probably just smile and tell me that he liked my new outlook on life with that damn twinkle in his eye. Well, whatever happens Harry, you’ll have to learn to deal with either Dumbledore or Fudge.”

Jerome glanced up. “What?”

“There was an accident yesterday. Harry needs new guardians. Fudge is fighting for him to become a ward of the Ministry. Dumbledore says he’ll try and contest for custody, as there are no blood relatives.”

“Ah. You’re right between two snarling lions, Harry. Shall Severus and I be the snakes that bite the lions from behind?”

Harry smirked. “Nice metaphor, snake.”

Jerome stood and bowed, but quickly sat down at Snape’s glare. “Sorry Professor Snape sir.”

“We really do need to focus, Jerome. Harry’ll be leaving for Grimmauld Place soon, and we won’t be able to all meet to strategize like this.”

Jerome nodded sharply. “Too true. Well, I think Harry needs to get better at defense, even if he can match Severus at dueling. And Occlumency, and Potions always needs work. You’ve got the best potions-brewer in the world right here, Harry, take advantage of it!” Severus merely glared harder, and Jerome smirked in response. “How about we break for a meal? It’s almost six, and I haven’t eaten today.”

Snape smirked. “Yes, Jerome, you may have supper with us. So kind of you to ask so very politely.”

Harry followed the two sniping Slytherins into the dining room and sat at his normal place at the table. Severus sat at the head, and Jerome sat across from him. Severus called Binky and in a few minutes they were digging into steaming plates of a delicious beef casserole.

“So, Jerome, what’s the news from abroad? I know you’ve been doing some work there for the Dark Lord’s defeat.”

“Well, there’ve been some difficulties. Foreign wizards don’t really want to get involved, because until recently, of course, they haven’t been involved. It’s been England’s problem. I suppose you’ve heard about the attacks on Europe though?”

“Yes. Random pattern, stunning everyone. Never any survivors.”

“Exactly. So now I’ve got the idea that the Dark Lord’s stationed spies in the foreign schools- Beauxbatons, Durmstrang, there’s a small school in Ireland; some bordering villages have been attacked. We’ll need to be watching for spies in Hogwarts soon. So far there haven’t been any signs of it, but it can happen. And most likely, they won’t be in Slytherin. Keep that in mind, Harry.”

Harry looked at Jerome oddly while Snape nodded.

“It’s true, Harry,” Jerome said. “The best spies would be Gryffindors and Hufflepuffs. Occasionally a Ravenclaw will take the Mark, but they’re usually more level-headed. Just because Slytherin’s are stereotyped as evil doesn’t mean they actually are. Look at the rat Peter Pettigrew. And then look at me and Severus. We’re both Slytherins. And we both fight the Dark Lord.”

Harry nodded reluctantly. “Yeah-“

“Yes,” Severus swiftly corrected him.

Yes, I suppose I can see that. I suppose once I see what Pettigrew’s become I can’t still hold the same prejudices. That’s what causes so many Slytherins to turn to the Dark Lord in the first place anyway, isn’t it? Spite and resentment.”

“Exactly, Mr. Potter,” Severus said quietly. He smiled wistfully. “Don’t I wish more people could see that.”

Jerome had the same longing look on his face, and Harry felt a bit out of place. “I think I’ll go upstairs and finish Penchant for Potions now. Good night, Severus. Good night, Jerome.”

The two men murmured their good-byes and Harry walked over to the stairs and towards his bedroom. As the dining room door fell shut behind him, he heard Jerome ask Severus, “So, when are you going to tell him?” He didn’t know what Jerome was talking about, and he didn’t hear Severus reply.

To be continued...
End Notes:
Please review, I love knowing ya’ll are still out there!


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