~~~~HP~~~~

Harry James Potter grew up knowing two very important things: his family was kind of famous in the wizarding world, and his biological father died with honor in battle when Harry was only three years old. It was a story his mum told him every 21st of May, on the anniversary of James's death, and by now the fifteen year old Gryffindor could almost repeat it verbatim. Harry had been proud of the man his father was, at least until he started at Hogwarts and learned more about the other side of the war from his roommates. James Potter had been a Gryffindor - just like Harry and his mum, Lily - and everyone knew Gryffindors stood up against Voldemort. Except sometime soon after Harry was born, his father joined the Death Eaters and quickly climbed his way up the ranks. No one really knew what he'd done to gain that much trust in such a short time, but when he'd died - killed by an auror while heroically protecting the Dark Lord - James Potter was awarded the greatest of posthumous honors; and Harry's family was officially written into the history books.

Harry had just finished eating breakfast for the last time in the Great Hall until he returned in September for his sixth year at Hogwarts. He had returned back to his dormitory in Gryffindor Tower that he shared with Ron Weasley and Seamus Finnegan - a Pureblood and a Halfblood like himself - partially to make sure he had the rest of his things packed before he went back home for the summer, but mostly to get away from one professor's watchful eye. Looking around the circular room, the young wizard was brought back to the moment he first stepped into his dormitory back as a first year and saw the three beds - adorned in their rich red fabrics - and when he started to see things from the other side. His new friend, Ron Weasley, had to explain to him that Dean Thomas, another new Gryffindor Harry had spoken to at the Welcoming Feast, wasn't allowed to stay with them because of his unknown blood status. Without knowing who his father was and having a muggle as a mother, the other boy was presumed to be a Muggleborn and therefore forced to stay in a single boys dormitory on the other side of the common room with all the other Muggleborn Gryffindor boys. It was the first time, of many over the next five years, that Harry's eyes were opened to the injustices around him simply because of something these children had no control over.

"Hey, Mate," Harry's best friend, Ron Weasley, said approaching his bed and sitting down with a grunt, "thought you were packed already?"

Harry looked over at his trunk that held all his possessions he needed while away from home during the school year. Ron was right that it had been packed last night, but Harry didn't want to stick around in the Great Hall idly waiting for everyone to leave. Unlike every other year, he was not permitted to take the Hogwarts Express home this year. Lately, the Daily Prophet had been reporting about the Order of the Phoenix - a supposed resistance group against Voldemort back during the war - being sighted again and his mum insisted that, for his own protection, he floo directly home this year with his adopted father and professor at his school, Severus Snape.

For the longest time, Harry and his mum lived alone in their Godric's Hollow home after his father was killed. Being a Muggleborn, Lily Potter wouldn't normally be allowed to continue to live in the wizarding village alone with her son, however her husband's heroic death set her apart and certain conditions had been overlooked for them. Harry never knew about any of that, or the massive amount of hearings she had to attend to make it happen, as he was too young when Voldemort's regime had taken over. If he thought hard enough, he could almost remember bits and pieces of their life together when it was just the two of them, before his stepfather - who later adopted him without Harry's input in the matter - moved in. Harry had known Severus his whole life and the man always treated the young wizard as if he were his own son, even before he'd married Lily when Harry was almost six. At the time, Harry couldn't remember his biological father and having a dad to hang out with - not to mention his mum was more relaxed after they'd gotten married - was exciting. The current animosity between them didn't begin until the young Gryffindor started at Hogwarts. That was the time his emerald eyes started to open to what was going on in the world around him, and more specifically, how his family was intimately linked to it all.

"You're right, I am already packed," Harry replied with a swift kick of his trunk before sitting beside his best friend. "I just didn't feel like sitting around watching everyone get ready to leave and then having Snape constantly watching over my shoulder."

"It's been a rough year between you two. If nothing else, at least you've given the rest of students something cool to talk about," Ron gave him a sympathetic look with a shrug of his shoulders. "Too bad you can't sneak home with me, mum probably wouldn't notice you there at least until mid-summer."

Harry laughed, but it wasn't a happy one, it was laced with a sorrow that ran deep inside of him. To say the year had been rough between him and his stepfather was an understatement and he appreciated his friend's attempt at lightening the situation. It seemed that as the news of the Order's reemergence continued to grow, so did Snape's control over Harry. First it was monitoring all of his incoming mail - beyond what the Ministry already did - then it was limiting his visits to Hogsmeade, and now he wasn't even allowed to take the Hogwarts Express home like every other kid. Granted, most of the other students with at least one Death Eater parent were taking similar precautions, he was the only one with a parent on staff and able to literally watch over him every single day. He felt suffocated and wished he could be left alone for once in his life.

And then there were the Weasleys. Harry would give just about anything to be able to spend the summer with Ron and his family, but he knew better than to even think about asking his parents. Although the Weasleys were Purebloods, and therefore should have been granted the highest level of rights, there would never be a scenario where Harry would be allowed at the Burrow because they were considered blood-traitors and assumed members of the Order of the Phoenix. His mum and stepfather would simply never allow it for his safety, because the only son of such a high ranked official would make a perfect target to start off the resistance against the Dark Lord. At this point, Harry wasn't even sure if he'd be allowed to come back to school next year; another reason for his sullen mood.

"You can say that," Harry replied casually. "Let's get to the common room. I want to say goodbye to 'Mione before you guys leave."

Ron picked up his own school bag and slung it over his shoulder, his head hung low as they walked down the stone staircase to the only place they could visit with their Muggleborn friend. Each year, Harry had held his breath hoping the better part of their trio would return to school and each time at the end of the year he said goodbye to her as if she wouldn't be back the next year. As a Muggleborn, she was granted the least rights throughout the school. Most of Harry's life, he'd been taught that Muggleborn witches and wizards were an oddity; no different than a mutation that randomly popped up from time to time. At first he was confused because his mother was a Muggleborn witch, but her nonchalant attitude about it solidified to him that this was just an accepted norm. His father had died protecting those values, after all, so who was he to try to go against it. When he met Hermione, and Gryffindor House as a whole, those values were challenged in a very difficult way. There literally wasn't a spell, charm, or potion that Hermione didn't know, and that included the fact that she couldn't take all the same courses as the Pureblood and Halfbloods. She was limited to taking courses that would make her, as a Muggleborn witch, a perfect candidate for the menial positions in the Wizarding World that needed to be done; like learning domestic charms. Hermione wouldn't let her status hold her back, though, and where most other Muggleborn students left after their O. - since they weren't eligible to sit the N.E. - she had been adamant that she would return next year. Harry and Ron had their doubts, yet never once said a word about it

"There you are!" She gave Harry a hug - a risky move every time she did it, even in the common room - when the two wizards walked into the warmly decorated room. Hermione was dressed in her muggle clothing, something that Harry was secretly envious of because 'real wizards' couldn't be seen in anything besides robes. He could wear muggle jeans at home, but never at school. "I was afraid you'd left already."

"Do you really think I'd leave without saying goodbye to you," Harry asked, "especially this year?"

"I'll be back," she brushed off a piece of invisible lint from his shoulder. "What else would I do?"

"If you need it, I'm sure my parents would hire you," Ron said and his face turned bright red to match his hair. "They couldn't pay you much of anything, of course, but you'd be safe living at the Burrow. And you'd at least be able to list an occupation on your registration. They did that for one of Charlie's Muggleborn friends."

Harry squinted his eyes at Ron, trying to ignore Hermione's disgusted glare at him. He knew better than to offer Hermione anything like; she was insulted and wouldn't hide it.

"And exactly what do you think-" their bushy-haired friend started, but was interrupted by the arrival of Snape entering through the portrait hole.

"If I were you, Miss Granger, I would watch what I said," the professor warned, earning him a look of defiance from Harry while Hermione looked down at her feet; the most common reaction when speaking to someone with the Dark Mark.

"Yes, sir, of course," she mumbled. "I'll see you next year, Harry. Let's go, Ron."

Harry gave a small, sad wave to his two best friends as they left for the Hogwarts Express and then back to their homes. For them, life was almost simpler there and again Harry felt the familiar wave of jealousy fill him up inside. What he wouldn't give to be able to go to the Burrow - with its topsy-turvy build as Ron had described it to him so many times - and play a pick up game of Quidditch. Instead, he would be floo'ing back to his small home where the only benefit was getting to see his mum everyday, even if it meant he couldn't lock himself away in his room for the entire summer, like he wanted to do.

"Are you ready?" Snape asked the sullen teenager in front of him. "Lily's expecting us before lunch."

"Don't you usually have to close up your classroom, or something," Harry mumbled, testing his limits on how far he could push.

"While it's really none of your business," Snape crossed his arms in frustration, "I'm coming back this weekend."

"I'm packed," Harry simply replied to which Snape pulled out his wand and Harry's trunk came levitating down the stairs.

"I know you think we're being unfair," he looked over his crooked nose at Harry, "but your mother and I don't want to put you in a situation where something could happen."

"Like what?" The Gryffindor challenged, "Do you really think some rogue wizards are going to stop the train just to get to me? You really are that arrogant, aren't you? News flash, you aren't that important that I'm going to be targeted like you apparently seem to think."

Without waiting for a response, Harry flung open the portrait and stormed out, not caring what kind of punishment that little stunt was going to cost him.

~~~~SS~~~~

Some people would look at Severus Snape's life and say it was exactly what he ever wanted. He was well respected, married to the woman he loved more than anything else in the world, and he was secured in his position - both as a Potion's Professor in the school and as one of the leaders in the Dark Lord's regime within the Ministry. Never would any of them guess it was all built on a delicate web of lies. His love and marriage to Lily was the only true part of his life and he clung to that with every fiber of his body and soul. Things weren't always perfect, especially as the years went on and pressure from the Ministry to "make the Wizarding World a safer place" was mounting on him, but it really was one thing in his life that he could focus on. Second to Lily was his love for Harry, a relationship he hadn't expected to fall into so easily, but he cherished just as much as his marriage to the Gryffindor's mother.

When Harry was young, Severus wasn't nearly as comfortable around the child - having no experience with kids before he'd become the wizard's stepfather - but took the challenge head on, both for Lily's and his own benefit. Back then, even with his own awkwardness, the day to day living felt far easier than it did with the teenager. Back then, simply reading The Tale of Beedle the Bard to Harry every night made him a hero in the five year old's eyes. Lily didn't believe him when he voiced his concerns about Harry attending Hogwarts when his letter arrived shortly before his eleventh birthday, and she immediately turned down his suggestion of sending him to Durmstrang instead. Everyone from Lily to Lucius assumed his insistence was to give Harry a better foundation in the Dark Arts - whereas Hogwarts only taught the bare minimum required by law, Durmstrang embraced the Dark Arts and went beyond what was deemed necessary even in Severus's eyes - and he let them believe that. In reality, he was afraid of Harry becoming influenced by Albus Dumbledore and falling into the hands of the Order. After seemingly cutting ties with the group after James's apparent defection, he'd worked far too hard to keep Harry and Lily in good graces of the Dark Lord to let Harry's proclivity for righteousness and justice ruin it and endanger them all. It was futile, in the end, and when Lily made the argument that he'd be able to watch over Harry living in the same school, he conceded. Neither of them expected Harry to have such a volatile reaction when learning how the other side lived in the post-Voldemort world and Severus would give just about anything to have a talk with the Sorting Hat and find a way to bribe it into putting Harry in Slytherin; then he'd at least be surrounded by people of his own kind. Where they'd hoped the relationship between the stepfather and stepson would aid in keeping the young wizard safe, it was now being used against him.

Harry floo'ed back home before him, so Severus wasn't at all surprised when he exited the floo into the small, warm sitting room and the teenager was no longer there. The family of three moved out of the Potter's Godric's Hollow home about a year after him and Lily had gotten married. In that year, he spent all of his free weekends fixing up his old childhood home. It wasn't necessarily an ideal place to raise a child, however it provided them with security he could personally guarantee and for him that was more important than the ambiance of the neighborhood. He was able to provide the structure for his family and then Lily came in and placed her warm touch on every room. There was not a single room that resembled his old childhood home and where every room was once dark and dreary, they were now all bright and inviting. It was such a change from his old life in the home that he now found he enjoyed walking through the floo each night.

"Welcome home," his wife called out to him as he entered the tiny kitchen. It barely had enough room for the cupboards and the small table, but like everything else in the home Lily had made the best of the space. It was now bright, airy, and appeared far more spacious than it was. She was dressed in a light blue sundress that fell down to her knees and had tiny white daisies scattered across it, and was standing by the counter putting together a salad for lunch along with a set of finger sandwiches. She turned around, leaned against the counter and asked, "I take it there were no major issues getting back?"

"That would depend on how one would define 'major'," he replied sarcastically, giving her a small kiss on the cheek, and taking over slicing the carrots for their salad. The repetition was so familiar to his Potions class that he could confidently slice just about any food without even looking at it. "He's alive… angry, but alive."

"You can't win them all, Severus," she added, levitating the plates and forks to the table, where a pitcher of lemonade already sat waiting for them.

"You know I can hear you talking about me, right?" Harry's voice interrupted their non-existent conversation. He walked right by Severus, giving him the cold shoulder and walked up to Lily to give her a hug, "Hi, mum."

"Welcome home, sweetheart," she answered, deciding not to cause a problem between the two wizards so early on in the summer holiday.

Severus's only solace in regards to Harry's latest attitude was that it was not simply aimed at him. While the young wizard would always value the relationship with his mother - a common reaction to losing his father at such a young age - he pushed his limits with her almost as often as he did with Severus, the only difference was he wasn't nearly as acerbic with Lily.

"Are you going into the office tomorrow?" Lily asked, interrupting the awkward silence that had fallen over the small table once they had all started eating.

"I'm afraid so," Severus answered. As a high ranking official in the Death Eaters, he had an active role in the Ministry Department of Magical Education, specializing in Potions and part of a subcommittee for the Dark Arts. "There's been another set of requests, or more accurately demands, to expand the option of the standard Potions class to include fifth year Muggleborns… specifically those interested in securing a nanny position."

"And what do you think?" Harry challenged him, turning his head inquisitively. The older he got, the more he looked like James as a teenager and Severus found himself torn between letting the anger fill him up at the thought of his school day tormentor sitting across from or letting the grief in from losing someone he was supposed to be protecting that fateful night over 12 years ago. When those thoughts hit him, he always focused his attention to Harry's eyes. They were almost identical to Lily's, but in these eyes he saw the small five year old who had walked his mother down the aisle on their wedding day.

"I think that as long as they can secure the appropriate marks," he answered carefully, "and can provide the documentation required to declare their occupational intent, then they should have the ability to join my course."

"I didn't need to do all of that to take your Potions class!" Harry slammed his fork down on his salad plate. "Hell, even if I wanted to, I wasn't allowed to quit Potions!"

"That's because," Severus raised his voice warningly; these conversations were becoming far more common as the years went on, "it's part of the standard curriculum for you. We've been through this already."

"Well," Harry said and the professor could see him fighting for the right words, "it's… not right!"

This time, Severus couldn't hold his anger and slammed his own fist onto the table, rattling the nice china they were currently eating their lunch from.

"This is the way it is, Harry," he lectured the teen across from him, "be thankful you have the opportunity you do. You shouldn't go throwing it all away! Think about what you can do with the doors opened to you now that say… Miss Granger doesn't have?"

Harry's lips pressed firmly together and he aggressively threw his napkin from his lap onto the table. "Good," he said, standing to leave, "when I'm done with that school I'll take my prime education and make it so people like you aren't allowed to decide what others do!"

"Harry!" Lily reprimanded her son. "You apologize right now."

Instead, the Gryffindor stood with his arms folded across his chest in a pose Severus knew, after all of these years, he had unfortunately learned from him. No matter which method he'd taken with Harry, he was always the evil one. Yes, they could have told the young wizard from an early age what had actually happened with his father - that he'd joined the Dark Lord only to protect his family - but it was such a heavy topic it never seemed like the right time. First, it was simply too dangerous to tell a young child about the subterfuge that, if discovered, could quickly reverse the leniency Lily and Harry had been granted because of James's sacrifice for the Dark Lord. Then Harry had been told his father had died a hero, and he didn't want to take an image like that away from his grieving son. And when he went to Hogwarts, while it seemed like the perfect time to tell him, Harry had quickly taken to the other side and telling him would only fuel his fire. By then, it was far too dangerous; someday James's sacrifice and Severus's own position may be the only things keeping the young wizard safe. Until he could show a better sense of judgement, James's true nature and the prophecy would have to be held from him.

"No, Lily. It's fine, let him go," Severus waved off her concern for him. But as Harry was passing by the professor to go back to his bedroom, Severus whispered almost imperceptibly, "Not the best way to honor your father's death."

The rest of the day for Severus was spent catching up on his Ministry duties in his makeshift office and potions laboratory in the cellar. As a child, he never used to come down into the damp, dark cellar. With his personal potions laboratory down here, whenever he opened the door he was greeted with the smell of an odd assortment of ingredients, yet every single time he was brought back to the musty smell of his youth. Only when things were at their absolute worst with his father - when he could smell the stale alcohol pouring from the muggle's pores before even seeing the man - would Severus venture down here. This was the only room that had been restored when he moved in after his parents' death, but before he lived with Lily and Harry in Godric's Hollow. Back then, he'd used the small, cramped space the best he could when placing the laboratory workbench along the wall directly to the right of the stairs and then wrapping it around the far wall directly in front of them. Open shelves sat above the bench, hung using more than a bit of magic, to hold his various phials, cauldrons, and basic supplies and were specifically placed to combat the low ceiling so he didn't feel like the room was caving in on him. On the underside of the benches were cupboards strategically placed to store his various ingredients. This was also the only room Lily hadn't touched when redecorating the house before the family moved in, and he was more than alright with that arrangement. More recently, he added the large desk to the far left corner of the room when Lucius offered him the position in the Ministry, and he'd accepted. One doesn't turn down that type of opportunity, especially because it would give him prime access to learn about the comings and goings of the Dark Lord as early as possible, specifically where it dealt with his son.

Ironically, as a child he'd come here for protection from his father - who wouldn't attempt to come down the rickety staircase unless he was far beyond drunk, and by then he wasn't coordinated to make it down without falling - and now it was really the only place he felt safe enough to let down his own guard to breathe. It was here that he didn't have to worry about the Death Eaters or protecting his students from exploding potions they had no business learning. It was here that he could pour himself into his work and try to ignore the unfair insults Harry directed at him. When Harry had decided to label Severus as the "bad guy" - especially this year when there had been too many new "rules" about Muggleborn curfews, appropriate punishments, and further segregation - he never corrected the Gryffindor. Lily had all but begged him to tell Harry about their life before James's death, and before the Ministry fell into the hands of the Dark Lord, yet he refused knowing that would only stop Harry from targeting him and instead the Gryffindor would focus that attention somewhere more damaging. It was safer for Harry to take his pent up frustration of all the injustices on him, who only had to pretend to punish the young wizard, rather than any of the other Death Eaters in the school. He wouldn't fare nearly as well if Amycus Carrow, the Dark Arts professor and Head of Slytherin, was on the other end of one of Harry's rants; in hindsight, maybe the Sorting Hat did know what was best for Harry after all.

"Are you coming to bed soon?" Lily called from the top of the stairs, slowly walking down the rickety old staircase.

Severus looked at the piles of parchment littering his desk, because coming home in the evenings and weekends was never enough time to keep up with it all. He pinched the bridge of his nose knowing she was not going to like the answer he was about to say.

"Probably not for another two hours or so," he replied, honestly. By the time she'd made it down the stairs her eyes told him they were in for an argument. He silently watched her walk through the room and approach him. She was already dressed for bed, and her dark red hair tied neatly at the nape of her neck. "I just need to catch up on a couple of things before I go back to the office tomorrow."

"It's always something, Severus," she complained, leaning against the edge of his desk in a way that, even if she were angry with him, made her look sexy.

"I'm sorry, Lil," and he was, he would much rather be upstairs with his wife than in the cellar working; disappointing her.

There was a pregnant pause between them. He knew exactly where she was taking this, and he wished she'd let it go, just this one time; let them have a normal - or as much as they could lately - night home. Maybe he could even leave the least important work for later and take her upstairs. She was already upset, though, and nothing was going to make that possible.

"Why must you taunt him?" she asked with her hands on her hips and her head turned slightly, daring him to to challenge her on it.

"I do not taunt him," clenching his jaw to keep his own temper under control, he responded. "If you care to remember correctly, I was answering your question."

Throwing her hands up in the air, she said, "All I asked was if you were going into the office tomorrow. It was a 'yes' or 'no' question! Did you really need to go into all the bureaucracy of it, or for Merlin's sake bring up Hermione! You knew it would cause a problem."

"You're not the one who constantly…" he held his hand up between them, stopping himself from going down that road. No good would come from pointing out that he was the one dealing with Harry's antics at school, not her. If anything, the teenager needed to hear what was going on in the real world, instead of the safety of school. He often forgot that as a half-blood and son of a decorated Death Eater, he was granted more leniency with what he said. If Ron Weasley ran his mouth as often as Harry, he wouldn't get away as often as Harry did. "What do you expect me to do about it? Should I join him? Do you want to start fighting? Go back with Order, perhaps?"

"No-" she quickly replied, recoiling as if she'd been physically hit by the statement.

"Then what Lily?" He asked, his exhaustion coming through in his voice, "Because if he doesn't start watching what he says, that's going to be our only option!"

His onyx eyes were pleading with her because he wanted to stop their fighting, and he didn't know how to do that when Harry acted on every righteous whim he had.

"I don't know," she eventually conceded to him. He could watch Lily's anger start to subside as he reigned in his own. Turning back towards his work, hoping to be able to get to bed sometime around midnight, he heard his wife say, "Sev…"

"Why did you even ask me, if you didn't want to know why I was needed in the office?" He interrupted her, knowing there was probably an apology coming that he didn't think he deserved. Things in the house were so much easier when Harry was smaller and the only question he had to answer from the young boy was why the sky was blue. In less than five years, Harry had managed to wedge a gap between Severus and Lily, and while deep down he was proud of his stepson for standing up for his beliefs, the professor was a natural born Slytherin and understood what it meant to have a bit of self-preservation. Harry, on the other hand, was a true Gryffindor, and so was most of the Order.

"Um," she thought quietly to herself. "I had tea with Narcissa the other day-" Severus rolled his eyes, "-and I mentioned Harry wanting to join the aurors after Hogwarts. She said she'd talk to Lucius and Yaxley to see if he could get a summer internship there. She thought it might help."

Earlier this year, when he'd heard from Minerva that Harry wanted to join the aurors, Severus almost choked on his Friday tea with her. She, of course, thought it was perfect. Being that his father was killed by an auror, Severus didn't even think it was a contender for the Gryffindor's future career aspirations. It wasn't until later that he came to the conclusion Harry probably just picked the first career he knew Severus would object to, but dwelling on that seemed counterproductive at the time. They still had two years before the teen would need to fully declare his career choice, and a lot could happen between now and then.

"No," Severus replied, pointedly, "I'm not doing everything I can to keep him out of there just to voluntarily send him across enemy lines. What were you thinking?"

"That he needs something to keep him busy this summer!"

"I can think of plenty-"

"You know what I mean!" She yelled at him and the sound of sorrow in her voice pulled at his heart. "I told Harry about it tonight at dinner and he thinks it's a great idea. Maybe if you had you been there-"

"Dammit, Lily," he pushed his papers on the side of his desk. "Don't you dare make this about me! He's not going, and that's final."

She huffed at him, turned around and stomped up the rickety staircase, using far more force than he would have felt comfortable going up them himself. Holding his head in his hands, feeling like he was failing from every angle of his life, Severus replayed the conversation back to himself knowing that he'd already lost. If Lily wanted Harry to explore this internship opportunity, there was very little he would be able to do to stop it. In the morning, he'd have to meet with Lucius, and then again with Yaxley to get the details before he could even start to formulate a plan to ensure Harry's safety. To make matters worse, he didn't get up to bed until almost one o'clock in the morning and Lily was long asleep as far onto her side of the bed as possible.