Snape returned before long, clearly not having expected them to still be there. “You will not return to the Dursley family, Potter.”

“I get to live with the Grangers?” He could hardly believe it.

“No. The headmaster insists that you stay with a blood relative.”

“But ...”

“I still have to contact Rose’s foster family and talk the details through with them. In any case, you will not be returning to the Dursleys if I have any say in it.”

“I ... thank you, sir.” If Snape really got him away from the Dursleys ...

“Don’t mention it.”

Back in Gryffindor tower, Harry learnt that Ron and the twins had cooked up a very ingenious plan involving, among other things, polyjuice potion they planned to steal somewhere. “Sorry guys”, he said with a big grin. “But that won’t be needed.”

Ron’s jaw almost fell down. “You aren’t saying ... Snape actually helped you?”

“Sort of. I don’t know where they’ll send me, yet, but anything is better than the Dursleys.”

“Doesn’t sound so good. Are you sure Snape isn’t tricking you?”

That caused Hermione to get angry with Ron, and Harry fled to the dormitory in the ensueing discussion.

It felt weird – finally being able to leave the Dursleys behind forever. And he’d live with Rose. Everything would be okay, Snape wouldn’t put Rose with a horrible family, ever.


**

Harry was one of very few male students who attended Lockhart’s funeral in Hogsmeade. He wasn’t exactly sure, why. Perhaps to get some closure.

Some of the teachers were there, and ... “Rose?”

No doubt, the blonde girl next to Snape was none other than Rose Evans.

Rumours, most of them hilariously wrong, already were being traded among the attending students. Not exactly proper behaviour at a funeral, but then, Lockhart really didn’t deserve any better, Harry thought spitefully.

When Rose walked over to Hermione and Harry after the ceremony, everyone stared at them.

“I knew!” Rose cried out as soon as she had reached them. “I knew! That’s why you looked so familiar! You have to tell me everything about our mother!”

“Um, I don’t know that much, either.”

“Of course, but you have photos? I’m sure you do. I only have the ones from when she was a child and with me after my birth.”

“Sure, I’ll show you all the photos I have”, Harry promised.

They couldn’t talk much, as the mass of people now slowly migrated to Hogwarts, and Snape approached to spirit Rose away.

At dinner, though, she was there again, sitting next to Snape at the High Table.

“Attention, please!” Dumbledore hit a spoon against his goblet. “I am well aware there have been rumours about Professor Snape, concerning his sudden absence at the beginning of this year. I shall now give the word to him so he can clear up the misunderstandings.”

Snape cleared his throat, gestured for Rose to get up, and said: “To put to rest the ridiculous rumours: This is Rose Evans, she is my ward and I had to urgently visit her because she had been in a life-threatening potions accident. She is visiting Hogwarts for a few days to get an idea of whether or not she wishes to spend her two remaining years of school here.”

Rose smiled shily.

Dumbledore spoke again, gently reminding everyone that Rose was a guest and they ought to be on their best behaviour.

A reminder that was probably sorely needed, considering she was, well, Snape’s ward.

Rose walked over to Gryffindor table when she had finished her meal. “Harry, I’ve got great news for you!” She was bobbing up and down on her toes, clearly excited to tell him whatever she had to tell.

“Wait.” Snape appeared behind her like a shadow. “I think it is best that I talk to Mr. Potter in private.”

“But - ” Rose protested.

“He already knows he will be living with you, so don’t worry, I won’t ruin that particular surprise. Follow me to my office, Mr. Potter.”

“Yeah – don’t worry.” Harry tried to give Rose a cheerful smile, but he didn’t much feel like it. Surely, Snape wouldn’t prevent Rose from relaying the good news just to ruin her fun. Not with Rose. So perhaps the news weren’t all that good?

Would he have to switch to Beauxbatons if he lived with Rose’s foster family? But then, she had said she might want to spend a year at Hogwarts ...

Spending the summer holidays in France would be a bit scary, what with not speaking the language, but if Rose was there, he could deal with it. Not like the Dursleys talked to him a whole lot – not things he wanted to understand, anyway.

Suddenly, Snape stopped and opened a door. Oh, right, his office.

Harry followed him inside. The door fell shut behind them with an ominous loud noise.


Snape cleared his throat. “Unfortunately, Rose’s foster parents were not willing to take on another foster child.”

The first thing Harry felt was anger at himself for getting his hopes up. Then it was anger at Snape. “You said I wouldn’t have to go back to the Dursleys!”

“I keep my promises. Rose generously offered to move in with me, so that I would be able to foster you.”

Harry stared at Snape. “You?”

“Did you not say you wanted to be treated the same as Rose?”

“As if you ever would!” Again, tears were welling up in his eyes. He didn’t understand. He had always had himself well under control with the Dursleys, and usually, with Snape, too, and now he was becoming a crybaby.

Snape stepped closer.

Harry flinched. Another thing he didn’t usually do at school – teachers didn’t hit you. He stubbornly glared at Snape’s chest, unwilling to look up.

Somehow, suddenly, Snape was looking Harry straight in the eyes. He didn’t seem so tall anymore. “I do not think you would want me to treat you like Rose.”

He balled his hands into fists. “Oh really? And why the hell not?”

“Because I would never let her cry”, Snape said softly.

“Not like you could stop me!” He was sobbing now and it was terribly embarrassing, but he’d not let Snape win. Harry took off his glasses and wiped his eyes with his sleeve.

A gentle hand was placed on his shoulder.“Hush, child.”

Suddenly, there were no hot tears streaming down his face anymore, as they were soaked up by the soft black fabric his face rested against. Arms were wrapped around him, vaguely reminding him of the time Hermione had hugged him last year.

It made him cry all the more.

After what seemed like hours, the tears finally stopped coming, and he freed himself of the embrace.

Snape handed him a handkerchief.

Harry stared at the handkerchief for a few moments, then he turned and ran, only stopping when he was far away from the dungeons.

Had he really thrown himself at Snape and cried like a baby?

He entered a boys’ toilet and looked into the mirror over the sinks. His eyes were red-rimmed. Yes, it must really have happened.

Using the handkerchief and some cold water, he dabbed at his eyes until they didn’t look so bad anymore.

Unwilling to answer Hermione’s and Ron’s questions, he wandered the castle for a while, only stopping when he heard angry voices.

“... cancel the lessons just because you were too incompetent to stop the attacks!”

Was that Lucius Malfoy? Harry flattened himself against the wall, hiding behind a tapestry.

“You were not so concerned about your son’s education when you smuggled this into Miss Weasley’s school supplies, were you?” Dumbledore.

“I have no idea what you are talking about”, Malfoy said haughtily. “Wait – let me take a look – least you can do - ”

“Gladly. I do think it is yours originally, is it not?”

“Nonsense. It is an interesting antiquity, though ... very well ... I will tell the Board of Governors to leave you alone in exchange for it ...”

Dumbledore chuckled. “Very well, Lucius. I know I will not be able to make anything stick.”

“Yes, yes.” Fast steps, fortunately Malfoy must be walking away from where Harry stood.

Harry had just stepped out of his hiding place when he heard a loud cry of triumph. “Master gave Dobby a hairband! Dobby is a free elf!”

Now, Harry started running.

When he arrived, Lucius Malfoy had left. Dobby the house elf still stood there, grinning, tears of joy in his large eyes.

“What happened?” Harry asked him.

“Master found this in the diary”, Dobby explained, holding out a hairband that might have been blue once upon a time, but now was covered in blood and dirt. “He threw it away and Dobby caught it. It is a hairband. Someone used it as bookmark, but it still is a hairband, and a hairband is clothes and Dobby is free!”

“That’s great, Dobby!” It must be Luna’s. “I think the girl who left it in the book is still in the hospital wing. Perhaps you want to visit her?” Luna seemed to like strange creatures. She would probably be cheered up by seeing a house elf.

“Do you think she will want it back?” Dobby’s face creased with worry.

“No, not once you tell her how happy you are to have it. She’s very generous. In fact, she might even have left it there so someone could find it and be happy about it.” He really hoped he hadn’t taken away Dobby’s freedom by telling him the hairband already had an owner.

“Dobby will go and ask her.” And with that, and a loud noise, the house elf disappeared.

Suspecting that it was close to or already past curfew, Harry walked back to Gryffindor Tower. As he had feared, Hermione and Ron wanted to know what Snape had told him.

“The good news is, I don’t have to go back to the Dursleys”, Harry said slowly. “The bad news is ....” He looked around, but no one but Ron and Hermione was standing close enough to overhear. “I have to live with Snape.”

“What?!”

“Hush, Ron, Harry doesn’t want everyone to know.” Hermione seemed rather unsurprised. “So Rose will live with him?”

“Yeah.” Ron looked confused, so he added: “Turns out Rose is my half sister. Dumbledore wants me to live with relatives, so ...”

“But ... Snape! Is that really better than those muggles?”, Ron whispered.

“I reckon he won’t starve me, so, yeah.” Perhaps he would be disemboweling frogs all summer, but all in all ... if he got Rose instead of Dudley, that was more than worth it.

**

The next morning, Harry had just finished breakfast when Rose turned up at the Gryffindor table again.

“Why isn’t she at Slytherin table”, someone hissed. Harry turned but couldn’t make out who had said it.

“Oooch, Harry has an admirer!” Fred cooed.

George winked at him. “Don’t make the lady wait.”

“Oh, stop it.” Harry got up and followed Rose out of the Great Hall. “Sorry. Fred and George are always like that.”

“The twins? It’s okay, they are funny. But ... some of the others seem to outright hate me.”

“Yeah.” Harry stared at his feet in Dudley’s old shoes as they walked through the corridor. “Thing is ... Snape is really, really unpopular.”


“I noticed”, Rose said glumly. “Of course I knew he can get very angry, and he’s grumpy when he’s in a bad mood, but ...”

“To be honest, I couldn’t believe how nice he is to you”, Harry admitted. “Almost a different person.”

“But he can only be one person”, Rose protested. “And ... it’s just ... he’s always there. When I’m sick or injured or anything. He apparates all the way to France. I just thought ... he’s a head of house, I would have thought he’d be the same with his students.”

His students. “Slytherin? I guess. He always favours them.”

That didn’t seem to be the answer Rose had hoped for. “Harry ... do you really hate him?”

If it had been Ron who asked, Harry wouldn’t have hesitated. Now, though ... “Not exactly. I just ... don’t like him much.”

“But you will still come live with us, will you?”

Harry stared at her. What? He had a choice about that?

“Uncle Sev says you hate him and won’t ever live with us and that we’ll have to find a foster family who can take us both, but that’s just him being gloomy ... is it?”

He had said Harry hated him? So he was trying to make this all Harry’s fault? No chance. “Yeah. Don’t worry. It’s ... it’s really nice of you to do this for me. I wouldn’t ask you to go live with strangers.” Snape couldn’t be possibly be worse than the Dursleys. He could deal with it. “Why can’t your foster parents take me, too, though?”

Rose shrugged. “They do emergency foster care. Every time a new child arrives, it’s all about the new child, and with a new baby, they probably thought they couldn’t give you the attention you need.”

That was it? The Weasleys seemed to manage just fine with seven children – except that Mrs. Weasley forgot what Ron liked and didn’t like ... maybe not that fine, but Harry ate pretty much everything and wouldn’t mind an ugly sweater once in a while. “I wouldn’t mind, really, I’m used to pretending I don’t exist.” Which was plenty better than the Dursleys actually paying attention to him. “What about you? Do you get enough attention?”

She hesitated. “I’m old enough to look after myself. And I am not from an abusive home.” The last bit sounded rather like she was quoting someone. “Also, I always have Uncle Sev.”

Yes she did. Unlike Harry who didn’t have anyone ... no, he wasn’t going to cry again. “Yeah.”

“You will give him a chance, will you?”

“If he gives me one.” Not likely.

Rose smiled happily as if it didn’t even occur to her that Snape might be the problem. “Thank you!” She turned towards him, opened her arms and hesitated. “Is it okay if I hug you?”

“Sure.”

She threw her arms around him, squeezed him and dashed off to tell Snape the ‘good news’.

Ha. As if. But Hermione was right - it was nice to have a sister.

He had stood around there all alone for mere moments when a noise made him look up. “Dobby?”

The house elf looked much better now. Instead of his old pillowcase, he now wore something that looked like it had originally been a shawl. It was a deep blue and seemed to be fairly new. “Thanks to Harry Potter, Dobby found a new family.”

“What? I thought ... aren’t you free?”

“Dobby still wants to work”, the elf explained. “But Dobby wants to get paid now, and Dobby thought no family would be willing to pay, but - Miss Luna is very generous, indeed.“

It turned out that the Lovegoods would pay Dobby almost nothing, because they couldn’t afford much, but he didn’t seem to mind, as long as he did get paid.

“Dobby has to leave now”, the house elf finally said. “Dobby promised to find all of Miss Luna’s belongings and there are many hidden in the castle.”

Before Harry could ask why Luna’s things would be all over the castle – she seemed a bit absent-minded, but surely someone would have noticed her things lying around – Dobby disappeared.

Huh.

“Here you are!”

Harry turned around. Ron, and a few steps behind, Hermione. Now, at least, he had something to tell them that wasn’t about having to live with Snape. “You remember the house elf I told you about?”

He told them all about Dobby while they walked to Gryffindor tower.

It was a pleasant, warm day, and they decided to go down to the lake. Not long after they had settled there, playing exploding snap, they were joined by Rose.

To Harry’s relief she didn’t want to talk about their new living arrangements, but mainly about Hogwarts.

“... not so sure this house system is a good idea. The only people, except you, of course, who will talk to me are in Slytherin, and they say such nasty things about Gryffindor. Uncle Sev told me about that, but I thought it was just a bit of competition who wins at Quidditch, not like ... that.”

“It is supposed to be our family in Hogwarts”, Hermione explained. “The idea is that the houses will stick together. But I can’t say it really works.”

“We do stick together”, Ron protested.

“That is after I got attacked by a troll”, Hermione reminded him.

Ron had the decency to blush. “We did come to help you, didn’t we?”

“And I don’t think the Ravenclaws are very nice to Luna. Ginny says she is trying to get them to give her things back, but some of them have forgotten where they hid them.” Hermione frowned. “It is probably not the best system, but I don’t think it can be changed, since the founders themselves wanted it so. Have you decided yet whether you will spend a year here?”

Rose nodded. “I totally will! I have to go back for the exams, so I’m leaving tomorrow morning, but I will be back next year. Madame Maxime, our headmistress, says I can always come back if I don’t like it here, but I don’t think I will, she’d be so smug. The Slytherins are nice enough, and I only have to see everyone else in class.”

Harry and Ron exchanged glances. “The Slytherins might not like you anymore when they notice you are friends with us”, Harry pointed out.

“They will just have to deal with it.”

“Bullying can get rather violent, though.” Hermione turned a page in the book she was reading. “And you can’t be sure you will be sorted into Slytherin, can you? Didn’t you want to go to Ravenclaw originally?”

“That was before I knew ...” Rose bit her lip. “Before I knew that people would be so nasty. I suppose I will be sorted in the same house my guardian was in. That normally happens, doesn’t it?”

“No, it goes after who your parents are”, Ron said. “Harry’s mum and dad were in Gryffindor. His stupid relatives weren’t at Hogwarts at all, so ...”

“Slytherin or Gryffindor, then”, Rose said curtly. She sounded almost like Snape. “What about another round of exploding snap?”