~~~~SS~~~~

Severus was drinking his morning coffee at the kitchen table while he read The Principles and Practice of Pediatric Oncology to help familiarize himself with the next phase of Harry's treatment in preparation for this morning's discussion with Dr. Swanson. The professor had done his due diligence in a thorough background check of the muggle doctor, yet that didn't mean he would become complacent with Harry's care. So there he sat, just after dawn, making sure he knew what to expect in order to keep Harry as safe and as healthy as he could possibly be given what the young wizard was up against.

Suddenly, a piece of parchment appeared in front of his face with Draco Malfoy written on it. Checking the time, it was early for even Draco to be up and moving - especially on a Saturday - he gave a low growl and abandoned his much needed coffee to proceed to the door with hope it was at least his books finally arriving.

"Morning, Severus," Draco said casually. He was wearing a set of black robes and in his hands was not a pair of old tomes as the professor expected, but instead what looked too much like a copy of the Daily Prophet. Nothing in his demeanor pointed towards there being an emergency within his house, causing the professor to question what could bring Draco by at this hour.

Curiously, the professor stepped aside to let his Slytherin into his quarters and they walked silently to Severus's office. Taking a seat behind his ornate desk, he held his hand to gesture for Draco to sit in the chair across from him.

"Care to tell me what brings you to my personal quarters so early this morning?"

Draco gave an annoyed expression and placed, or more accurately tossed, the folded newspaper he was holding in his hands onto the desk between them.

"My mother sent this to me today," he said, folding his arms across his chest, "with a note reminding me that she has a source within the Daily Prophet and received this last night. Apparently she thought I'd find the front page story intriguing.

"Outside of the delicate subject matter, I assumed she'd hidden a message or something within it, but I couldn't find anything."

Narrowing his eyes in concentration, Severus unfolded the Daily Prophet and immediately took notice of several key observations. First, it was indeed this morning's copy, meaning Narcissa had to have it in her possession last night in order to get it to Draco first thing today. Whoever she knew at the Prophet was significant enough to be able to secure a copy of this nature the night prior to its release and provide it to her. Severus's own copy hadn't even arrived yet and he suspected once it did, there would be a lot of questions for him to answer to.

The second, and possibly more significant observation, did not take a keen eye to find. Slashed across the cover of the front page was a black and white photo of Harry taken sometime during his exam yesterday with Dr. Swanson. He was laying on his back in the bed with his jumper removed - displaying just how emaciated he had truly become - while Dr. Swanson was examining his port. His hat had been removed at this point of the exam, drawing more attention to the fact that he was ill, and clearly visible was his lightning bolt scar, as if mocking his identity to the whole wizarding world. A second, smaller photo was offset to the right taken during Harry's bone marrow biopsy, where the young wizard was lying away from the camera with Severus helping to hold him in place and his doctor could be seen taking the sample; the photograph alone looked painful. And of course, no good news article would be complete without an eye catching - though the photographs were definitely enough to catch anyone's eye - headline:

Is the Boy-Who-Lived Going to Die?

An Exclusive by Rita Skeeter

Every great journalist knows that a picture is worth a thousand words and these two exclusive from inside the Hogwarts Hospital Wing certainly tell a story worth more than two-thousand. The entirety of the wizarding world, who have been patiently waiting to hear the next steps for our boy-savior in his battle against the recently returned He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named, will be severely disappointed to see that their Savior is no more. It appears as if Harry Potter, most recently known as 'The Chosen One', will not be defeating any Dark Wizards in the near future.

These pictures were taken only yesterday during a routine check-up for a fatal muggle illness the young wizard is currently suffering from. The disease in question - cancer - is said to be living within his blood and is slowly poisoning the teenage wizard. There is no official prognosis, however persons close to the situation have said he is unlikely to live much past the Christmas holiday. Based on witnesses within Hogwarts, Mr. Potter failed to show up on the Hogwarts Express on the first of September and has not attended classes since. He has only been seen briefly at the Gryffindor Quidditch trials about a fortnight ago and reports from that event tell me he was in no better condition than yesterday.

Rumor has it that Mr. Potter has been residing in the castle with none other than Professor Severus Snape [pictured] since the death of his relatives back in July. Severus Snape was a documented Death Eater from the First Wizarding War, and while there have been many eye witness testimonies to his direct involvement with He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named, including the murder of at least a dozen muggles during the first war, he managed to escaped a lifetime sentence in Azkaban on the word of Albus Dumbledore. No one has ever discovered the reasoning behind why Albus Dumbledore has supported the hiring of a supposedly former Death Eater nor how he can now entrust the safety of such a prominent piece of the second war against He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named to this dark wizard.

Those closest to Professor Snape have described him as having a passion for the Dark Arts long before his Hogwarts days. While he had applied for the Defense Against the Dark Arts position every year, until this school year he had been consistently denied on the grounds that Headmaster Dumbledore refused to put him in a post that would encourage his dark hobbies; leaving him in the lonely position of Potions Master. What could Severus Snape have done to convince Albus Dumbledore to reverse his decision on placing such a flagitious man as the professor in teaching the next generation of wizards how to defend themselves from the dark magic he so desires?

He didn't need to finish reading to know it only got worse from there. Giving the article a quick scan was enough to catch the words bone marrow, chemotherapy, hair loss, nausea, pneumonia, and - most significant of all - squib. This was not good on so many different levels.

Anger boiling up inside of him, Severus tossed the paper back onto his desk and demanded, "How the hell did she get this?"

"Like I said," Draco called out, "Mother has an acquaintance at the Prophet and almost always gets her copy the night before, especially when something like this is written in it."

Severus gave a frustrated sigh as he rubbed his forehead, "Not your mother... Rita Skeeter!"

It had been a rhetorical question and therefore he was surprised when Draco actually answered with some significant information.

"Oh," the blonde said, a touch embarrassed for not following the professor's thought process the first time, "she's an unregistered animagus... a beetle to be exact; which is quite fitting for her."

How many damn unregistered animagi are there?!

It would be impossible to keep this quiet now and by breakfast - definitely by lunch - all of the student body would know the details of Harry's condition because for once in her life, the blasted woman actually got most of the information correct, with exception to his potential death by Christmas. Everyone in the castle was still asleep and here Severus already had a migraine starting. Continuing to rub the space between his eyebrows, he decided to table this issue until he had a chance to discuss it with Albus since there was not much they could do about in the meantime.

So instead, he shifted his focus to the blonde in front of him. Why did Narcissa send this to Draco when he asked for the two texts on Dark Magic?

Severus pointed his wand at the paper and whispered, "Specialis Revelio."

He couldn't hold back the smile at the sight in front of him. As he expected, two small rectangles appeared to the right of the large front picture, no bigger than his thumbnail. Both were stuck to the cover with a sticking charm that was easy enough to remove, and with a quick "Engorgio" he held in his hands the two books he was most interested to read. He'd always thought in another lifetime Narcissa and Lily would have gotten along quite well with their shared interest and talent in Charms.

"I did try that spell you know," Draco eventually spoke up self-consciously. "That did not happen."

"It is a difficult spell to master," the professor reassured his protégé. "Thank you for this by the way; the tomes and the Prophet."

"He's going to flip out, isn't he?"

Severus grimaced at the casual language from the normally formal teenager in front of him, "If you mean Harry; yes he will be extremely distraught by this."

"Is that his new doctor?" Draco leaned forward and pointed at the back of Dr. Swanson, who was luckily always facing away from the camera therefore hiding her face, "Think she had anything to do with it?"

"As a muggle it's doubtful," he responded. "This has Skeeter written all over it... Quite literally.

"Please do not say a word to Harry until I have a chance to address the situation with the headmaster."

Draco gave a smirk, "Not a problem there, Severus, I don't envy you for having to be the one to break the news to him."

~~~~HP~~~~

The rain was beating down against the enchanted window intriguing Harry on how real the picture behind the window was. He'd assumed it was simply a projection of a specific location outside, however with the rain coming down as hard as it was, he could hear what sounded like rain droplets slamming against glass. Lifting a tentative hand, he placed his entire palm on the window and pulled it back quickly when he was met with the same cold he would get from the windows up in the tower. To the young wizard, magic really was the best thing in the world and he felt a sorrow deep within him at the thought that he might not get to live in the magical world.

Don't think like that! He scolded himself, your magic might be getting stronger!

Since he showered the night before, there wasn't much else he needed to do to get ready before chemotherapy besides brush his teeth. Once that simple task was completed, the Gryffindor made his way quietly to the kitchen where he heard Snape up and about already. The moment he walked to the kitchen he could feel the tension emanating from the professor and he stood in the doorway unsure if he wanted to enter.

"What happened?"

"Nothing you need to concern yourself with," at the present moment was left unsaid between them.

"Is it bad?" Harry asked, sitting down at his usual spot at the table. For his breakfast, in addition to his normal porridge, there was a smoothie sitting between the bowl and the small cup of his morning medications, bringing him back to the conversation he'd had with Dr. Meghan about his weight. A scowl crossed his face at just the memory of the muggle physician.

"No," Snape said quickly, giving Harry the impression that he was lying. "We'll discuss it later.

"Madam Pomfrey will be here any minute for your blood sample and she'll get you started on the new antiemetic," Snape explained confidently.

"There's only two weeks left," Harry said, taking a large sip of his smoothie after deciding that he was not going to get the information any sooner than when Snape wanted to share it with him.

"And we still have a lot to do until then," Snape said, sitting in the chair next to Harry's. "I'd like you to make a list of anything you may need for classes, and I have a feeling you need some updated uniforms and robes."

Harry nodded, "You mean like quills and parchment and stuff?"

"Yes," Snape confirmed, "like those kinds of things."

Harry felt himself flush as he thought about things he needed, "I need a new toothbrush."

Snape nodded, "I'll be heading to the pharmacy during the week to refill your medications and will pick one up then. Will that suffice?"

"Of course," the Gryffindor said as a piece of parchment popped up in front of Snape.

"That's odd," Snape said, standing up to exit the kitchen, most likely to answer the door.

Harry pulled the parchment over to him and saw Poppy Pomfrey written in a neat script. He took one last sip of his smoothie and got up to go to the sitting room; it was time to start.

"Your floo was closed, Severus," the medi-witch lectured. "I couldn't even firecall you."

"My apologies," Snape replied, welcoming her into their quarters, "I had a small distraction this morning."

So something did happen this morning!

Madam Pomfrey huffed and walked passed Snape, into the sitting room with Harry.

"Good Morning, Mr. Potter!" She greeted almost too cheerfully this morning. "Are you all set? Have you eaten breakfast?"

"Yes, ma'am," he replied holding up his smoothie. The new additions to them made him feel fuller than before, so he was hoping he didn't need to finish the whole thing.

"Wonderful," the medi-witch placed the blood collection tubes onto the table in front of him as she prepared to take the samples. "As we've mentioned many, many times already, I'll be collecting the blood sample and then setting you up with the antiemetic. While that drips, I'll be taking your sample back to the hospital where Dr. Swanson will run the tests and, assuming it looks alright, she'll accompany me back to Hogwarts to do your IT as well the one-hour today. Do you have any questions?"

Harry had a lot of questions running through his mind right now, none of them pertaining to what the medi-witch had just gone through, so he shook his head.

Madam Pomfrey had been correct when she told him last week that running the blood count test using muggle methods wouldn't take any extra time. She was back with Dr. Meghan before the antiemetic medication had finished. Once they returned, Snape transfigured the sofa into an exam table so they would be able to do the IT chemo first and the doctor didn't even blink at the sudden change.

"Good Morning, Harry," Dr. Meghan said announcing their arrival back.

"Morning," the Gryffindor said, "I take it everything looked alright?"

"Yes it did," Dr. Meghan replied, "Let's get the IT done and then we'll talk about the next phase coming up."

Harry was so excited about getting this phase done and behind him that he was almost able to sit completely still for the IT this time. Most of the twenty minutes laying flat on his back was spent thinking about what Snape had mentioned at breakfast; needing a list of things Harry might need for classes coming up. It was always something he needed to do for himself and now with only his last two years left he actually had someone who wanted to help him with that stuff... the kind of stuff a parent thinks about before their child goes off to school. He wanted to ask Snape if they used to go school shopping together in the old reality, however with Madam Pomfrey and Dr. Meghan in the room, he couldn't.

The time seemed to drag on until he could move again and the IV was set in his port with his one hour chemotherapy medication. With this medication, the nausea generally didn't hit him until a couple of hours afterwards which gave them time to discuss the next phase. The Gryffindor did not hide his surprise when Dumbledore and McGonagall joined them shortly after his port was set, forgetting briefly that they had been involved in the previous conversations.

"How are you doing today, Harry?" Professor McGonagall asked, giving his shoulder a firm squeeze. Harry got the impression that she knew whatever it was that Snape didn't want to tell him. In fact, looking around at Dumbledore, all the adults - Dr. Meghan excluded - must have known about whatever had happened.

"I'm actually doing really well this morning," he said honestly; with any luck if he sounded extra happy maybe he could convince them to tell him about whatever had happened.

Instead, Professor McGonagall patted his shoulder and conjured up two chairs that were placed directly in front of the sofa. Harry was sitting on the sofa as usual with Snape in his normal armchair to his left and McGonagall on the sofa next to him. Across from Snape in the other armchair sat Dumbledore, dressed in bright yellow robes that were almost blinding. Harry found himself questioning silently if the headmaster intentionally tried to find robes as far opposite for the day, which would explain why he was dressed like the sun on a day as dreary as this one. In the two new chairs sat Madam Pomfrey - ready to go with a set of parchment - and Dr. Meghan who currently held everyone's attention.

"So Harry," the muggle doctor started, "I've reviewed everything from yesterday, including the blood samples and the bone marrow biopsy I took, and so far everything is looking great. You'll have one more treatment next Saturday and since your samples came back clear, we'll move onto phase two of consolidation on the 25th."

"Thank Merlin," Harry said, "this phase has felt so long."

Dr. Meghan gave a small laugh, "This is definitely a difficult one, but the next phase is unfortunately longer than this one was. Phase two of consolidation, also called Interim Maintenance, will last a total of 12 weeks. If everything goes as planned, it will start on the 25th of this month and it will end by mid-January."

The doctor paused, to which Harry was grateful because he needed a minute to fully understand. That was a long time, making how long this whole process was all the more real. He had years of this... If everything went well, he would have over three years all together of chemotherapy and he'd only done three months so far. That was almost nothing compared to what he had left to do. And what would happen when he no longer lived at Hogwarts? When he hopefully had his own flat while in the Auror program?

"It won't all be as difficult as these first three months," Dr. Meghan said, picking up on Harry's consternation. "It will get easier, I promise you. Maintenance, which should start in the spring, is usually so simple in comparison the biggest issue we have is patients remembering to get their treatments as they simply forget while living their lives as normal. Now, that's extremely dangerous because there's a very high risk of the Leukemia returning if maintenance isn't completely finished."

The young wizard felt himself nodding and yet he didn't think he could actually repeat what she'd told him if anyone asked.

"As I was saying," the doctor continued handing out another set of papers to everyone in a similar fashion as Healer Smithe used to do, "We have your Interim Maintenance, lasting 12 total weeks. Unlike Phase one of consolidation, though, you won't be doing weekly IV treatments; instead they'll be about every ten days plus it's only the medications you've not had the volatile reaction to. I'm hopeful you'll find this one much easier on your body. You also will not be taking the chemotherapy tablets anymore, but you will stay on the prophylactic medications like the antibiotics, antivirals, etcetera."

Harry saw Snape flip over the schedule and when he did the same, saw on the back was a list of all the medications - over the counter and prescriptions - he was still needing to take.

"Now you're probably wondering what the schedule is," Dr. Meghan pointed to the sheet of paper in his hand full of dates and codes, "It's a bit more complicated than you're used to. Every ten days you'll do two medications by IV, every 20 days you'll get one medication by IV, and then every 30 days you'll do an IT.

"The 10 and 20 day IVs will be staggered, because those medications cannot be taken on the same day, so they will be done on two days back to back. Which means every other 10 day IV will be followed by another IV day. And every three of the first IV's will also have an IT done beforehand.

"Good news is that each IV, even the days you have two medications, are only two hours total. Given early enough and depending on how long your recovery time is, you won't lose much time in your classes."

At this point, the doctor paused again while all the people in the room tried to take in what she'd told them. Harry really tried hard to understand the schedule. Being every ten days instead of weekly, meant that he would inevitably have to do treatments during the week; sometimes two days if it was the back-to-back treatment week. That definitely complicated the schedule, but if it meant he might feel more like himself between treatments it would be worth it.

"Did that make sense Harry?" It was Snape that asked him this time.

"Erm... Kind of."

"We'll take it a couple of weeks at a time until you get the hang of it," Snape said and Harry found himself feeling grateful to have the professor here helping through all of this.

"Thank you sir," the young wizard replied. His eyes scanned over the dates and nothing jumped out until near the end. "I'm going to have chemo on Christmas Eve and Christmas day?!"

He knew it was petty, but something about those two days being tainted by treatments felt wrong to him.

"Assuming everything stays on schedule," Dr. Meghan explained sympathetically, "which we want, then yes you will. Do you have any other questions?"

There wasn't anything he could do about the schedule, so the Gryffindor decided to try to keep a good attitude about it. He then turned back to his doctor and asked, "What about the side effects?"

"The same you've been experiencing now as they're all medications you've had before," she replied before counting off the list he gave her yesterday: "Nausea, vomiting, general pain, tingling in your hands or feet, mouth sores, and diarrhea or constipation.

"While this can have an adverse effect on your blood counts - lower red and white cells, and platelets - generally speaking the extra days between treatments provide enough time for them to rebound so it's not compounding like you saw in intensive and the first phase of consolidation. All of that means you'll very likely be able to return to classes with little issues as long as you continue to stay cautious and diligent with hand washing and such, especially in the couple of days after treatments."

"So there won't be any issues with starting on the 28th?" Harry asked hopefully.

"That depends," The doctor was talking to Snape and McGonagall now, "technically, his last chemo for this phase is on Saturday the 19th, and assuming his blood counts continue to look positive on that day, I don't see any reason why he can't return on the 21st."

"Yes!" Harry immediately called out. Why wouldn't he do that?

"Remember, your first treatment for phase two will fall on a Friday followed by another Saturday, so you would miss that day," Dr. Meghan was smiling at the young wizard's reaction. "If you'd rather wait for a full week to return, then you should wait until the 28th, which is what I'm guessing Healer Smithe was waiting for."

"If I may," McGonagall spoke up, "it might be best for Harry to return on a partial week, perhaps Tuesday to Thursday before going the full week."

"We'll discuss in the upcoming week," Snape added sternly, "on an arrangement that we're all comfortable with, including you Harry."

"Thank you both," Harry replied.

Dumbledore finally spoke up for the first time, "Minerva, if you could please let me know as soon as you decide so I can make sure his professors are prepared. We'll also need to discuss the additional tutoring and other pertinent accommodations."

"Of course, Albus," McGonagall responded solemnly.

Now Harry knew, for sure, something was going on. Dumbledore had always been a bit formal, but this was almost too formal. Adding to that was the fact that the elderly wizard had hardly paid attention to Harry, which made the young Gryffindor feel reminiscent of last year. Did it have something to do with Voldemort again?

By mid-afternoon, Harry had spent most of the day on the sofa sketching between the rounds of nausea. He was working on a picture of himself and Snape standing on a sandy beach watching the waves of the sea breaking across the tops of their feet. Back when Snape first told the Gryffindor about the old reality and his old life, he said that they'd visited the sea and it was one of that Harry's favorite places. Since Harry had never actually been to a beach before, he had closed his eyes and tried to imagine what it would look like. Obviously he'd seen them in books and the telly, but he wanted to immerse himself in the senses; to feel the warm sand between his toes contrasted by the incoming cool sea water almost in cadence with the Earth's breathing. It was calming for Harry to think about what a trip to the beach would have been like with Snape.

Spending the day on the sofa meant he was able to see exactly what was going on around him. As usual with his chemo days, Snape spent most of the day home, but he had meetings with McGonagall and Dumbledore - both separately and all together - throughout the morning and early afternoon. Curious to see if he could manage to get any pieces of the mystery, the Gryffindor decided to stay put, even if that meant using the pail he hated to vomit in, because at some point he was sure they'd say something. As Snape wasn't one to accidentally slip up though, Harry was left uncomfortable and miserable by dinnertime without getting any closer to the answers.

The professor was now seated in the sitting room pouring over another set of large, extremely old looking books, and writing feverishly into his notebook. If nothing else, during this time Harry had learned his note taking had been seriously lacking because he never wrote as much as Snape was doing whenever he was reading through his textbooks.

"Are you going to tell me what's going on now?" Harry asked after a particularly bad round of nausea.

"I take it the new medication hasn't been any more effective?" The professor asked not even hiding the attempted distraction from Harry's original question.

"No, not really," Harry answered, "but that wasn't what I asked you. I can tell something happened and if you don't tell me I'm sure I can come up with something on my own. The only question is if whatever I'm thinking is better or worse than the actual news."

"So you're basically going to emotionally blackmail me? The head of Slytherin?"

"More or less," Harry said already knowing it was a bad idea; it was impossible to out-Slytherin Severus Snape. When the professor didn't take the bait, Harry tried a different method, "Did someone die?"

"No," the professor said quickly, allowing Harry to trust that at least his friends were physically alright.

"Ok, does it have to do with my magic?"

"No," Snape replied, but with that one Harry couldn't tell if it was true or not.

"What are you working on?" The young wizard decided to try for a different tactic to get the information. "Those books look like they have to be at least a hundred years old."

Closing the book, not so coincidentally so that Harry could not see the title, Snape narrowed his eyes at the Gryffindor, "More likely close to three hundred years, but I do get the point. I am hoping to find an answer to explain the black substance you are expelling from your body."

Said that like, it was extremely disgusting and Harry felt his stomach churn at the thought. Today's vomiting had not seen any difference in the amount of the black substance. Of course he recognized all of this was simply Snape trying yet again to distract Harry from the original question.

So whatever's going on, it's worse than the black stuff.

A pregnant silence enveloped the two residents as neither wanted to give into their desire - Harry to know what Snape was hiding and Snape to keep Harry's morale as high as possible.

"I've previously told you that you do better with more information, so here," Snape pulled what looked like a folded up copy of the Daily Prophet from the back of his ancient text and held it out for Harry.

Now that it was being offered, the young wizard wasn't so sure he wanted to open the Pandora's box in front of him. Taking a deep breath, he reached out and grabbed the paper instantly regretting it the moment he unfolded it and saw the pictures, front and center.

"You have got to be kidding me," Harry said, more astonished than angry. "How did she-"

"Apparently she's an animagus," Snape interrupted.

"Yeah, I know. Didn't take her long to go back to writing her rubbish," the Gryffindor replied, his eyes quickly scanning the article that accompanied the images of him.

"How is it that you and Draco both seem to know this fact about Ms. Skeeter and yet neither of you thought it was pertinent information to share with a professor?"

"Wait a second," Harry said even more disconcerted, "Malfoy saw this?!"

"Unfortunately it was he who brought it to my attention," Snape said, far too business-like for Harry's preference.

Ignoring the compliment to Malfoy, Harry continued to read the article taking note of two important facts - that somehow Rita Skeeter managed to get most of the facts about his Leukemia correct and that she made Snape sound like any moment he could turn on all the students, mostly Harry, with his vast knowledge of dark magic. This thought brought Harry back to the conversation with Malfoy at their Thursday tutoring; could Snape be getting back into the dark arts? Trying to be sly about it, Harry looked up at the book the professor had been pouring over anytime he wasn't with McGonagall or Dumbledore.

You can't trust a single thing from the likes of Skeeter, he reminded himself. Her animagus should have been a cockroach!

"She's making you out like you're completely unfit to be around children."

"More specifically you," Snape added the obvious observation.

"What do you think it means?" Harry asked panicking, "Can she really lobby the wizarding community against you? Can they force me to move?!"

"Calm down," the former spy steepled his fingers as he leaned closer to Harry. "Albus already anticipated something like this happening, which is one of the reasons why Minerva is your guardian. She gets to have the final word over where you live while in the castle.

"The absolute worst that can happen from this, in regards to your living situation, is that my medical proxy rights over you will be rescinded. If that should occur, Minerva would naturally take over that aspect of your care on paper, however she has assured me that nothing would change in practice."

To Harry it sounded like they had this all planned out, which made sense given their clandestine meetings throughout the day. For once it felt good that he didn't need to have to have the answers to everything; he got to be the teenager and trusted Snape wouldn't intentionally let anything bad happen to him if the professor could prevent it. It was so simple and yet something he'd never had before - at least not from another adult in his life - and he was eternally grateful for whatever had happened that got them to this point.

"Th-"

"Do not thank me," Snape interrupted before the first word had even left his mouth, "it is what any child is entitled to have. It angers me that this is even necessary for us to discuss."

"Comes with the territory," the young wizard shrugged, "I'm used to it. It wasn't like the whole school didn't already know about the Leukemia, now the rest of the wizarding world knows... Or those who still read and trust the Daily Prophet."

"That's a great attitude to have about it all," the professor went back to his book.

"Do you think it was Dr. Meghan?"

"That's a logical assumption," Snape said raising his head slightly to address Harry's question, "however I know for a fact that she did not know your identity until Madam Pomfrey went to pick her up on Friday before your exam, and by then this had to be set up already."

That was a good point, but it still didn't change Harry's opinion on Dr. Meghan. He was being honest that what had been written about him didn't bother him nearly as much as Snape thought it would. What bothered Harry was everything she wrote about Snape. A year ago he would have agreed with all of it, yet now it infuriated him. Snape had done so much good for him in such a short time, and even more if you counted his time as a spy. Hopefully this wouldn't turn into a big deal and eventually everyone would forget about it. The two wizards didn't get a chance to discuss the Prophet article any further because it wasn't long before Harry ended up too sick for the rest of the night.

~~~~SS~~~~

Severus was beyond surprised by Harry's mature reaction to Rita Skeeter's article in the Daily Prophet yesterday. Even the Harry from his old reality would have probably had a fit over the invasion of their privacy. In hindsight, the old Harry didn't have to go through the year of slander that this Harry went through last year, plus back in his old reality most people were still a bit terrified to cross paths with the former Death Eater as Harry's father. Unfortunately, now that designation was going to hurt Harry rather than aid him.

No matter what fall-out came from the ill-timed article, Severus was determined to handle it. Therefore, most of yesterday morning - when he was not helping Harry - had been spent with Albus and Minerva working on their short and long term damage control on all of this. Albus was going to verify that there was no possibility of Harry being removed from Minerva's care and taken under Ministry control. Severus didn't know if the Dark Lord had any personnel in the Department of Children's Services, but he knew without a doubt he had Death Eaters in other departments of the Ministry and Harry absolutely could not fall under their control. Albus was also responsible for the official internal communication to the Heads of Houses - primarily Pomona and Filius - on how to handle students' questions and comments. Unfortunately, given Harry's rough night after chemotherapy yesterday, Severus had not gotten the chance to sit down with his students and would have to prioritize that for later today.

Minerva's role from all their meetings yesterday had nothing to do with the Daily Prophet article, but instead on getting a plan of action together for Harry's return to classes. Now that the Gryffindor wizard had heard he could possibly go back to class a week early, he knew he wouldn't hear the end of it until they had a solid plan to offer to him. She would take into account his academic levels for each of his courses as well as a schedule that would allow him to ease back into classes. No matter what Harry thought he could do, Severus doubted he'd have the energy to attend classes full-time from the beginning. Realistically, he would need to do partial days and continue tutoring at least for the first several weeks. While Minerva offered to replenish anything Harry may need for classes, Severus insisted that he would take care of any supplies and uniforms Harry might need all the while, trying his hardest to ignore the sentimental glare from the witch.

Once all of the planning from the Prophet article and Harry's return to classes was completed, Severus was able to have the much needed meeting with Albus alone to discuss the black substance and how it could possibly relate to the soul fragment. Severus summarized their previous theory that the piece of Voldemort's soul had basically blocked out a portion of Harry's inherent magical core - which explained why his magic was not able to prevent the Leukemia in the first place - and now the chemotherapy effects were breaking down the magic that resided in the piece of Voldemort's soul. This was then leaving gaps between Harry's trained magic and the untrained magic that can now be used. Simply speaking, Harry was getting access to raw, previously suppressed magic which was presenting as very powerful accidental-type magic.

Before continuing, Severus pulled out the two phials of black that he collected last week. Now that he had the texts he needed, it was time to bring Albus into the loop and discuss the idea that had been eating away at Severus's mind since Minerva suggested it.

"Did I not tell you I would take over for this last week?" Albus had told him. "I should not have expected anything different from you, my boy."

"What if the soul fragment is protecting his magic underneath?" Severus hypothesized out loud, ignoring the headmaster's comment. "After speaking with Minerva, the way I see it we have two viable options on the table...

"The first is, as the magic within the soul fragment is getting broken up from the chemotherapy, we can start training Harry on using the new raw magic underneath as it's combined with his regular magical core; he'll then be much more powerful overall. However, with a full core we run the significant risk of the chemotherapy taking all of it away; the soul fragment's magic - though unfortunately not releasing the actual soul as it would most likely become a magicless soul piece - Harry's normal magic, and Harry's newly connected unintentional magic.

"The second, and much more radical option, would be to protect the soul fragment's magic and target the chemotherapy to pull from his regular magic instead. Then once he's through with the chemotherapy, we remove the soul fragment - which we still need to figure out how to safely do - and that would leave Harry with another set of untouched, raw magic underneath. He'd have to relearn everything all over again, but I honestly believe what's underneath the soul fragment is more powerful than his current core, so he'd be better off than now, though not as powerful as if he could combine his split core."

Albus had contemplated the two ideas for longer than Severus would have assumed necessary.

"Do you have any ideas of how to make sure the chemotherapy would not feed off the soul fragment?" Albus finally asked. "Should we choose to preserve it?"

"My hypothesis is that his body is using whichever reservoir of magic it deems the strongest to help try to heal him," he had explained, "at this point it's using the soul fragment, even though it's buried further down, since he's not using any of his core magic in an effort to preserve it, thus it's actually making the soul piece appear as the most viable option.

"If he were to start using his core magic again, even a little, his body might shift to use that magic first, leaving the soul fragment intact for now. Once his core magic was depleted, it would then feed off the soul fragment and hopefully before that magic was gone he'd be done with chemotherapy, leaving him the protected core to retrain and continue to use."

"That's a big risk when we cannot know for certain that a piece of Voldemort's soul lives within Harry," the headmaster had logically countered with. "Without any proof, we run the risk of unnecessarily killing Harry's entire magical core."

"I'm going to attempt to confirm that Harry is acting as a Horcrux and that this-," he had explained to Albus holding up the phials, "is a physical manifestation of the Dark Lord's soul or at least the dark magic within it."

"And how do you plan to accomplish that, Severus?"

For a split second, the younger wizard had considered lying to his mentor. While Albus would agree that drastic measures are sometimes needed in times like this, the defense professor briefly thought it might be better for Albus to remain blissfully ignorant. In the end, he decided Albus needed to know all the cards in their hand in order to best help protect Harry.

"With a very old potions theory that, more or less, will identify if a magical signature is present within it," he said as casually as possible so as not to draw unwanted attention to the mechanics behind the process.

"If I remember my Magical Theory correctly," Albus replied, "I must assume a fair amount of dark magic is required?"

"For this process... maybe," Severus replied honestly, "it would depend on how one defines 'fair amount'."

"Semantics, my boy," Albus nodded with a twinkle in his eyes, "How long until you know?"

"I'm not completely certain yet, but my high level estimate is a month, perhaps a little longer."

At that point yesterday, he hadn't had enough time to dive into the texts to find the exact procedure he would need to follow, however he did know it would require at least one full moon - the werewolf hair would be easy enough to obtain with a simple request sent with Lupin's monthly Wolfsbane potion - which was not expected until the end of this month. Now that he had spent most of the night pouring through the tomes, he knew it would take at least six weeks, and that was assuming he did it correctly the first time. It was a complex procedure even for him with an even more complex set of ingredients he either didn't have on hand and, even worse, at least one - specifically the Chimera Scales - he would need to get off the black market, but that wasn't needed until at least halfway through the process so he could table that for now.

That had all occured yesterday prior to his conversation with Harry about Rita Skeeter's article and before Harry was sick from the chemotherapy throughout the night.

Having spent most of the day finishing his study of the texts, now he sat in his office with a glass of firewhiskey writing out his plan to confirm the soul fragment. It would start with a trip to Knockturn Alley - which could be easily accomplished by going to Diagon Alley for Harry's school supplies instead of Hogsmeade - in hopes of securing the more restricted ingredients for the potion. That alone came with a higher than normal level of risk as his old contacts had most likely heard of his change of loyalty. Then he'd need to start the actual brewing process. After compiling all his notes, he determined the process had to be so precise, he intended to ask Albus's permission to allow Draco to assist him with it. After all, an extra set of hands and eyes never hurt when dealing with a potion such as this, especially when those hands and eyes also have unique access to help secure a specific rare ingredient with the proper documentation.

The professor took a small sip of the firewhiskey from his glass, feeling the warm alcohol smoothly slide down his throat, proud to have at least the start of a solid plan to get this going quickly. He paused with his quill floating over the parchment with his semi-illegal "shopping list" - giant splotches of black ink pooled across the list - when a horrific thought popped into his mind. It came upon him so suddenly, he hadn't come even close to mentally preparing himself for this type of revelation his brain had somehow made.

"He didn't have to die," Severus said out loud to no one as if stating it like that would somehow rid it from his subconsciousness forever.

It was a truth that was almost suffocating the second he thought it. His old Harry - his son - must have been a Horcrux too, and logically that meant he had this same piece of Voldemort protecting a significant part of his own magical core. Had they known there was a possibility to protect the part of Harry's hidden magical core, his son may have chosen chemotherapy all along. With a trembling hand he dropped the quill and shot back the last of the firewhiskey before cradling his head into his hands.

The sudden grief completely crashed over him like a black tidal wave as he began to mourn the loss of his son yet again. Lately, he had noticed the times of grief had gotten better in the past several weeks as he found himself comparing this Harry and his old Harry less and less, but now that he knew there had been a way - also secretly hidden within the teenager - to have prevented the dreadful crossroad to begin with, it was almost crushing to his soul.