Remus found that he was enjoying the small successes his students had on a daily basis. He loved seeing the light turn on in their minds when they finally understood a concept they'd been struggling with. In Harry's case, Remus had been gratified to see him succeed with the Patronus, which was vital to his survival while the Dementors were waiting just at the edges of school grounds. Harry had struggled so hard with the Patronus and the visions the boggart Dementor gave him when he failed to cast one. He had also been so determined that he reminded Remus of Harry's mother Lily, who never quit once she set her mind to something.

While he had been pleasantly surprised to find how much he enjoyed teaching, and that he had friends there amongst the staff, he had been perplexed at first to find that James and Lily's son was in the care of Severus. Severus and Lily had been good friends at one time, but Severus had hated James with a passion. From what he had heard before coming to the castle, Severus had hated Harry with just as much force as he had his father.

At first Remus had watched Harry, trying to gauge what kind of young man he had grown into. He'd found Harry to be kind and thoughtful, but also timid in some aspects, while wholly courageous in others. He could tell that Harry was struggling though, not only with the dementors but with other aspects of his life.

As the term had gone on, Remus had seen a change in Harry though. He was growing less timid, and gaining more confidence in his ability to protect himself against the Dementors. After Harry had run away in the dead of night a few weeks before the Christmas break, Remus had been surprised again when Severus and Albus had adopted him. Then Harry had begun to settle. His nerves seemed to be less frayed, the boy seemed to be less anxious, and Remus now often saw him with a smile when they passed in the halls. He didn't know how Severus and Harry had found a way to set aside their intense dislike of each other to form a family, but Remus was glad they had, because it seemed to be working out for Harry in the best way possible... Remus paused mid stride, thoughts coming to a grinding halt as he found himself staring down the stairs to the Entryway where an auror and two Ministry Aides were dusting the snow off of their traveling cloaks. What was the Ministry doing here?

Remus let panic grip him for several seconds, and then he abruptly turned on his heel and strode in the other direction, back towards the Transfiguration and Defense corridor, mind whirring into motion again. He hoped they hadn't looked up the stairs and seen him. As with all werewolves and vampires in the UK, the aurors knew each of them by sight. They had some sort of book aurors memorized with the faces of Fae who were registered.

Heart pounding painfully in his chest, Remus broke into a jog and passed his office and classroom in favor of heading straight to Minerva's quarters. He knocked hard on her door several times, and when she didn't answer he was about to turn to see if he could head the long way around to Filius' quarters instead when the door opened. He hurried past her uninvited and said, "Shut the door, quickly please. Lock it."

Minerva took in the distressed look on his face for a moment and then shut the door with a snap and locked it. Only when she'd done so did Remus let out the breath he hadn't realized he'd been holding.

"I'm sorry to barge in like this," Remus said, "But an auror and two Ministry aides just came in the front doors."

"Did they talk to you?"

"I walked away as quickly as I could." While he technically was not banned from school grounds, and while the Ministry was not supposed to have any influence at Hogwarts, as it was run by a board of governors, Remus didn't want to be caught in a school full of children. The aurors would bind him and put him to the ground without question. When it came to Fae being where they shouldn't be, the Ministry was brutal and had no qualms about arresting Fae without allowing them an explanation. He'd spent several days in jail over the summer because they'd found him working in a Muggle vet's office out in the country. Remus had no idea what they had told his former employer, but when he'd gotten out of jail and gone back to work, he'd been fired and told not to return again.

"I'll floo Albus," Minerva said, and Remus gave a nod and sat in a chair at Minerva's desk. This had always been a worry when he had attended school as a student too. The Headmaster had admitted him under another name, though all of his teachers knew him by his own name and wrote his grades under his own name. It was only after he had graduated that Albus had fixed the false name they'd used in the school register to reflect that Remus had been a student and graduated.

Minerva threw a handful of green powder into the grate and said, "Albus." A few moments later Albus stepped out into her quarters. His eyes found Remus and the worried look on his face immediately.

"They are currently making their way up to my office. Minerva, keep him here. I do not know yet what they want. It could be about the Dementors, or Black, or any number of things." He didn't wait for them to ask questions, and stepped back into the Floo, disappearing in a flash of green.

"I'll make some tea while we wait," Minerva said, and Remus gave a thankful nod. He'd just settled in there at the castle. He didn't want to leave again so quickly. He couldn't imagine his students coming back after the holiday and wondering where he'd gone without so much as a goodbye.

* * *

Harry and Severus had barely started making breakfast the day after Christmas when the fireplace in their dungeon living room came to life and Albus was calling out of it for them. "Severus."

Severus went to the fireplace and said, "Yes?"

"Bring Harry to my office immediately."

"Can he have his breakfast first?"

"No. Come directly through the Floo."

Harry gave a curious look to his father, who motioned him forward. He grabbed his dark blue hoodie off the back of the couch as he made for the fireplace, and was still pulling it on as he came out the other side into the Headmaster's office, Snape right behind him. The Headmaster's office had barely materialized in front of him when someone grabbed his arms and pushed him to the wall. Harry stiffened, not knowing who had him, and flinched as his face was pushed roughly up against the stone wall of the Headmaster's office. Was it uncle Vernon? He wouldn't come to the castle would he? Would he?!

Harry was just starting to hyperventilate as the grip on his arms tightened and his shoulders began to ache as whoever had him leaned into him to force him against the wall and ensure he stayed there. Then Snape's voice sounded, and Harry was certain the man was going to hex whoever was hurting him.

"You have two seconds to let go of my son, or I will relieve you of your hands."

"We have a right to detain potentially dangerous suspects for questioning," a man said, though Harry couldn't see him. All he could see was the wall.

"Then place a binding curse on him," Albus said. "You will not manhandle him, especially without proof that he is whatever you believe he is."

"He's a potential unregistered Fae in a school Headmaster," said the same voice as before. "You will not interfere."

Harry was frowning. This wasn't his uncle that had him. It was some sort of Ministry employee. They thought he was Fae? They thought he was a criminal?

Harry didn't appreciate being pressed into the wall so forcefully, but he was able to force his breathing to slow knowing it wasn't his relatives that had him. It's not him, it's not him, he told himself, closing his eyes. He tried to lift his head to flip it so he could see Snape, who he thought was behind him, but the person behind him pressed his face forward into the wall and Harry's cheek scraped on the stones. "Face forward!" the man said gruffly.

Harry heard Snape curse behind him under his breath, and then a moment later felt all of his limbs stiffen as though they were being held straight by a spell. It felt as though he was tied with rope even though he was certain there were no ropes around him.

"There, I have bound him myself," Snape said. "Now let my son off the wall."

There was silence for a few moments, and then the person behind him released the pressure against his back and head. Harry took a breath and lifted his head to look to his right, where he found his father trying to give him a reassuring look, while at the same time looking ready to murder someone.

"Now what is this about?" Snape spat.

One of the men Harry couldn't see pulled out a paper and snapped it open, thrusting it into Snape's hands. "These people, the Fae, are my people. I choose them. When you step on them, you're stepping on me too. If you're my people, these are your people," the Ministry man recited Harry's statement to the press from two weeks ago at the start of Christmas break. "His people?" the man asked. "He's practically admitted to being Fae." The man came to Harry now, who was still facing the wall and unable to move anything other than his head and neck and said in an accusing tone, "What are you then? Werewolf? Reports say you've been spotted out in the daylight a number of times since the statement, so you can't be a vampire, despite your association with them."

Harry surprised them then by laughing. He caught the look on his father's face, which told him there was nothing amusing about the situation and continued laughing.

"Face forward!" the man who had him pinned earlier said, and reached forward to push Harry's face to the wall. His forehead smacked the stones, but not hard enough to leave a bruise, and Harry groaned. "Answer the question."

"I guess you'll have to take me to jail and throw away the key," Harry said, still laughing despite that his forehead now hurt and his face was flat against the wall again. "Press will have a field day with that one."

"So you admit to being an unregistered werewolf?" the man asking him questions demanded urgently. He seemed upset, his voice growing higher as he asked each question, though Harry wasn't certain why.

"Me?" Harry asked with mirth. "I wish. There's no community more accepting and friendly than the Fae. Throw me in jail, they'll raise money for a barrister to get me out. Run me out of school, they'll take me in. Run me out of the country, they'll send me care packages wherever I end up."

"Let him up Darrow," the Ministry man said, rubbing his forehead.

"May we remove the binding spell?" Albus asked calmly, though Harry could tell from his tone that he was angry. It was startling to hear from a man he was so used to sounding gentle and often amused.

"Not until we perform tests," the Ministry man said warily. The man holding Harry let go of him and the Ministry man came into his view near the wall. "You can't go around making statements like that to the public Mr. Potter." He sounded relieved and like he was trying to give Harry friendly advice. "You've been under investigation for weeks."

"Did it cost the Ministry a lot of money?" Harry asked, feeling defiant. He was glad this was happening to him today and not any of his friends on Payne Alley.

"As a matter of fact it did."

"Good," Harry said, putting his forehead back against the wall so he could steady himself and not fall over sideways since he couldn't move any of his limbs.

"Darrow, get him into a chair. Professor Snape, pass the binding ward to Darrow so he can adjust it to let Mr. Potter sit."

"If I find the ward is cast uncomfortably tight," Snape said in a deadly tone to Darrow, "I will make good on my threat to relieve you of your hands before you leave."

Harry felt the binding on him loosen for a moment, just enough to move his legs a few inches at a time, and was instructed to sit in one of the chairs in front of the Headmaster's desk. After inching his way to the chair the binding relaxed around his waist momentarily so he could slouch down into it. Then it tightened again and Harry was once again held in place.

"Release his hands," the Ministry man said. Harry could now see that the Headmaster was standing behind his desk looking like he was trying hard not to let his magic escape and run rampant around the office. Snape stood with his arms crossed, glaring at Darrow, the big man who had been keeping Harry against the wall. The Ministry Man looked tired and relieved. There were two younger Ministry employees who had clipboards and quills. One of them had a black briefcase of some sort. Harry noted that Darrow's robes were different and he had an Auror's badge on his chest.

The binding on Harry's hands released, though his arms were still stuck to his sides.

"Examine his fingernails and palms," the Ministry man said.

"My nails grow real long at the full moon," Harry said, looking at Darrow with a grin.

"Harry, that's enough," Albus said, and though he didn't seem angry at him, the chastisement was enough to make Harry quiet down for a few moments.

One of the aides opened the black briefcase and brought out a scraping tool of some sort and a magnifying glass. At first Harry wondered if they were going to pull his fingernails off, and tensed up, but the Aide picked Harry's hand up gently and used the scraper to scrape the underside of one of Harry's fingernails. Harry watched, fascinated as he took the tiny scraping and dropped it into a blue potion in a tiny phial. Nothing happened and the Ministry man let out a satisfied and relieved sigh.

"That's not conclusive," Darrow said in his deep voice.

Harry's stomach gave a loud grumble then. Before Harry could say something snarky, Snape said, "He was unable to have his breakfast before being slammed against the wall and held at this ridiculous witch trial."

The Ministry man flinched at that, and Harry thought that was a funny term to use given they were all magical. They'd read about the witch trials across the world in history class, and Harry wasn't sure how Snape's words made sense in this situation.

The aide who had scraped his nail came back and turned one of Harry's palms over, and then the other, using the magnifying glass to look at both.

"Lifeline is normal," he said, "no change."

The other aide made a note on his clipboard and Darrow motioned to the red potion in the briefcase. The first aide came back and said, "I'm sorry, I have to prick you to get a drop of blood." He did seem sorry, and glanced up at Harry's scar before pulling out a tiny sharp object from the briefcase and pricking one of Harry's fingers. He squeezed the finger until a drop of blood came out and then put the phial with translucent red potion against his finger to get the drop of blood into it. When the drop of blood slid into the potion, nothing happened again.

"Teeth," Darrow instructed, though he sounded less irritated now and calmer than before. The aide told Harry to bare his teeth and after a look from Albus which clearly said, ‘Do not snap your teeth at him', Harry obeyed.

"Normal canines. No sharpening," the aide said after a moment.

Harry felt the binding release on him immediately and turned to grin up at Darrow, who no longer had reason to hold him captive.

Darrow looked back, all trace of malice on his face gone. "Doing my job kid."

"Acting like an animal," Harry corrected. "A wide eyed monster that kids fear will come out from under their beds at night to stake them through the heart or cut off their heads. That's how Fae see you you know."

Darrow looked perturbed by Harry's description of him and said, "This is necessary."

"Is it?" Snape snapped, and Harry wasn't certain if he was referring to what had happened there in the office with Harry, or about Fae in general.

The Ministry man turned to Albus and said, "I understand this might be something the Press would like to... ah, get carried away with. But it was called for, you see? Orders from the Head of the Aurory."

Harry kept his eyes locked on Darrow as the aides packed up their briefcase and the Ministry man made feeble apologies to Albus, Severus and Harry. "Must be seen to be doing something, you know how it is," he said feebly.

They made for the door and Harry, still watching Darrow said, "See you next week right?"

The men turned and Harry said, "You'll be back to check me again? Slam me against the wall a few more times?"

"I don't think that will be necessary," the Ministry man stammered.

"I'll just have to work hard to make it necessary then," Harry said.

The Ministry man looked to Albus for help, to see what Harry might mean, but Harry filled in the details for him.

"I love the Fae," he said. "First chance I get, I'm gonna have those fangs and claws for you to examine."

"Harry," Albus warned from behind him, sounding tired though it was early in the morning still. Harry ignored him, eyes locked with Darrow's.

"Maybe you can come back every day. You should investigate me year round. Maybe I can re-coup my money that way. You know how it is, the Ministry fines me thousands of Galleons, they might as well spend it investigating me. See you again tomorrow? I could schedule you in for Thursday after classes if you want."

A hand touched his arm from behind and Harry startled. He could smell potions though and knew it was Snape, so he relaxed a little. Darrow scoffed and motioned for the Ministry man to leave the office with the aides, who had already gone down the spiraling stairs.

"You wouldn't really become one of them, would you?" The man asked Harry as Darrow disappeared through the door.

"You'll just have to keep coming back to find out."

"I- don't think that'll be necessary," he repeated from earlier. "Our apologies again Mr. Potter." Then he was gone down the spiral stairs and Harry was alone with his guardians again.

Harry was startled a moment later when he was pulled forcefully into a hug. He stiffened, but the familiar smell of herbs on Snape's shirt calmed him because he knew who had him. He wasn't squeezing him painfully, just firmly, like he didn't want to let go for fear the Auror and Ministry aides would come back and take him.

"Foolish boy," Snape breathed.

Harry relaxed into him despite that he was still wound up about the way he'd been treated just because they thought he might be Fae. When his father let go of him, he put a hand on top of Harry's head and moved it gently back so he could examine his forehead and the scrape on his cheek.

"Was your head slammed into the wall hard enough to become concussed?"

Harry shook his head. "Just a scrape."

"I will give you some balm."

"Thanks."

Harry turned and found Albus looking at him, fingers steepled.

"Harry," he said, making sure he had his attention. Harry had the good sense to look sheepish then. He'd ignored the warnings he'd been given to settle and not to provoke them, even when he hadn't been told outright not to.

"Am I in trouble sir?"

"No. However," he stared at Harry and Harry felt like the man was looking straight into him. "There are those here at Hogwarts who would not find daily or weekly visits by aurors amusing. While your goals are admirable, there are those that would be in real danger if spotted by aurors, who have the faces of all Fae and their children memorized."

Harry's eyes grew wide with the implications. "I didn't mean-" Harry started. "I'll run down and catch them and tell them I was joking," Harry said. It had only been weeks ago that Professor Lupin had told him he was a werewolf. Harry hadn't even thought about him.

"You will do no such thing," Severus said, and motioned for Harry to have a seat in the chair he'd just left minutes ago. "Your threats to continually bring them out and waste money may have the opposite effect and keep them away. Your show of defiance and willingness to be treated as you just were for the sake of wasting time will make them think twice about checking you for signs of turning again. I would not be surprised if they kept a close eye on you for some time however."

"I just figured," Harry said, "if they were wasting time on me, they wouldn't be out doing this to other people." The thought of them doing this to Bellamy and his parents, or to Zach, who was running the Fae candy shop Harry had helped start up on Knocturn Alley put a lump in his throat.

"You are attempting to help others, but you must also take into account how your actions could possibly affect those very people you seek to protect," Albus said.

Harry nodded. He had been told something similar by Bellamy's father the night they'd helped him run away.

"I'll think more carefully about what I say and do from now on," Harry said.

The Headmaster sighed and then his look softened. "For a Gryffindor, I think you would have done remarkably well in Slytherin. Gryffindor bravery and Slytherin defiance."

"Well-" Harry said lightly, "the hat did try to put me there." He turned and smiled widely at Snape to see his reaction.

"It did not," he said calmly, though he looked wary.

Before Harry could argue with him, the Sorting Hat, which sat lifeless on a shelf behind the Headmaster's desk for most of the year, opened the rip near it's brim which served as a mouth and said directly to Harry, "I stand by what I said Harry Potter. You should have let me put you in Slytherin."

Harry raised his brows at his adoptive father as if to say ‘see?'

"I never would have thought it possible," Snape said.

Harry's stomach grumbled loudly again and Albus said, "I must call on Minerva. I hope you have a good breakfast, Harry, Severus."

Severus stood and moved for the door, motioning for Harry to follow. Harry left wondering about what the Headmaster had told him earlier. He'd implied that there were others at Hogwarts who were Fae... others who could be put in danger by Harry's actions if he weren't careful. He thought about the faces he saw in the corridors and in classes every day during the term, and wondered which of the kids were Fae, and wondered if he knew them. He thought about Lupin and hoped the Aurors hadn't seen him while they were there for Harry.