"You have finished all of yours already?"

"Yes, but that's not the reason. I want to go find some books before Justin comes tomorrow so we can have some images to copy over to our notebooks."

"I see." He looked at his watch. "Madam Pince is not always at the library during the summer. She frequently leaves the castle to visit relatives. However, I can check them out for you under my name. Get your shoes on."

Harry did as he was told and Severus apparated them to the school boundary. They didn't meet anyone on their way up to the library, and Harry wondered if anyone was at the castle aside from them.

"What kind of images do you need?" Severus asked.

"I'm not sure yet. Hippogriffs and unicorns probably. Dragons... you know, that sort of thing. We want things that look cool, and we'll be selling to girls and boys. I have plenty of Quidditch pictures of generic gear and game balls in my Quidditch Compendium." It was one of the few books he'd brought from the castle to look over while at his cabin.

"I will find books with magical creatures," Severus said, and moved off to the right half of the library. Harry looked around and wondered what other kinds of pictures they might need, and began browsing the shelves. He ended up grabbing Hogwarts A History, one of Hermione's favorite books, because it had drawings of the castle along with old castle maps, and a variety of pictures of the house crests, both in color and black and white. He also found a cool looking old Herbology book that had black and white sketches of crazy looking plants, thinking Neville would love to have notebooks covered in that, and a charms book that had several charts detailing interesting charms students might find useful. A few minutes later he found his father at the front desk writing down the list of books he had found to check out. Harry added his few books to the list and they headed back down through the castle.

"Find anything good?" Harry asked, and Severus held out his hand for Harry's books so they could trade. Harry looked through the three books Severus had picked out. One had old drawings and sketches of unicorns and other animals. Another was a book about every kind of dragon known to wizardkind, even extinct ones, and also had detailed drawings of dragon eggs and how they varied from one another. The final book Harry found odd however. "1001 Kitchen Recipes For The Clever House Witch?"

"Open it to any recipe."

Harry flipped to the center of the book and Severus pointed to the name of the recipe at the top of the page. "Each recipe is framed in by a different banner, ribbon, or decorative flourish. You can copy the flourishes and add your own text."

Harry turned to another page and found a different frame around the recipe title, and then found yet another with decorative swirls on the next page. "This is perfect."

"I would suggest using the spell Albus showed you to copy everything from these books that you think you may need in the future into one of the empty notebooks. Then when you go to make more, you will have all that you need without having to track these books down again."

"That's smart," Harry said.

"I have my moments," Severus said dryly, but when Harry looked up at him, he found him smiling.

Harry spent the afternoon doing as Severus had said. He flipped through the six books they had checked out one page at a time and copied drawings and flourishes and other things he thought he might want into two of the empty Muggle lined notebooks. By the time he'd gotten through his Quidditch compendium as well, he'd filled both of them up. When Severus brought in an old Potions book opened to a page with drawings of potions bottles, Harry had to start a third notebook.

"I noticed you had a Charms and Herbology book. Some students, believe it or not, enjoy Potions more than other classes."

"Huh, I wonder who would like Potions the best?"

"Cheeky brat," Severus said affectionately.

The next morning Severus left for a few minutes to get Justin. Justin had a few books of his own it turned out, and had also come with a box of supplies he'd purchased.

"Look," Justin said when Harry greeted him on the porch. Justin pulled out a pack of Quidditch stickers from the box. "We can't use the logos, but we can sell these sticker packs and kids can customize the notebooks they get from us themselves. Miss Ava had the idea and took me out to a shop in Bristol one evening to get a bunch of them. I have stickers for almost every team!"

"That's a great idea!"

Harry led Justin inside, gave him a quick tour of the small cabin, and then took him into his room, where they sat on the floor and Harry showed him the notebooks full of images he'd made and taught Justin the spell to transfer images, and the spell to turn the notebooks different colors.

"Have you figured out yet how to add graph paper and charts into the notebooks?"

"Actually," Harry said, "We can copy a page of the graph paper from my notebook and use that on some of the lined paper."

"Over the top of the light blue lines?" Justin asked.

Harry hopped up and disappeared, and came back a minute later with one of Snape's Potion journals. "This one has a blank page in the back. Maybe we can transfer a blank image to get a blank page?"

Harry tried, but it didn't work, and he ended up taking the paper and a notebook to the living room to see if his father could figure out how to get it to work. As it turned out there was a different spell Snape knew that wasn't complicated, and as soon as Harry had it down, he set to work wiping some of the notebooks clean of their lines so he could add the image of graph paper instead.

"That's actually kind of cool," Justin said. "We can basically make anything we want."

"Yeah. And if a kid wants one of the notebooks we make but in a different color, we can just change the color for them."

"That's true."

Harry and Justin discussed several ideas, and then they each took a stack of about twenty lined Muggle notebooks and began changing them into the colors they wanted, and then started transferring images. Justin was working on a series of Quidditch themed notebooks with generic images of Quidditch gear on the front and back covers. He was going to package these together with sticker packs for the various teams and sell them for two Sickles, and had even brought with him clear plastic sleeves to put the notebooks and stickers into so they'd stay together.

Harry spent an hour making a variety of dragon themed notebooks. Each notebook he made featured a different dragon on the cover. Inside each cover was a snippet of information about that dragon, and a detailed drawing of its egg, and a few facts. Harry found that he could use the color changing spell to make the copied drawing into a shiny metallic color, as though it had been drawn with gold ink. After experimenting and ruining one notebook altogether, he also came up with shimmering black, sparkling red, and metallic blue. He did his best to color coordinate the colors he was picking for the notebook covers and shades he was turning copied images, and thought he would have to keep several of these notebooks for himself to use for notes because he liked them so much.

Severus checked on them at lunch time and told them he would return with takeout, warning them both to stay on the property. When he came back twenty minutes later with lunch, they were still sitting on Harry's bedroom floor in the midst of piles of notebooks, stickers, and plastic packaging.

After lunch, Harry decided he was tired of making Dragon themed notebooks and switched to making some based on subjects. He did five Charms notebooks, with the cool charts of various Charms on the inside of each notebook cover, five Potions themed notebooks, each done in the shimmering ink, so it looked as though the steam coming out of the potions bottles from the transferred drawings was moving when the light caught it just right, and five of the Herbology notebooks, each featuring the gnarliest plants Harry had been able to find in the Herbology book from the library.

"I hope we sell a ton of these," Justin said, working on a series of notebooks featuring unicorns, pygmy puffs, and cats, all in shimmering and metallic shades of pink, light blue, and purple that he thought would go over well with girls.

"You have to do some in maroon too."

"Girls don't like that."

"Yes they do," Harry said. "It's Hermione's favorite color, and Ginny has a scarf and hat in that color she loves."

"That's because they're Gryffindors."

"I saw a Hufflepuff girl with maroon shoes, and two in Ravenclaw with Maroon backpacks and coats."

Justin thought for a moment and said, "That's right. Pricilla and Meg. I forgot they liked that."

"You're gonna have to take a poll at Peverell's," Harry said. "Take some of these back with you and ask which the boys and girls prefer, and ask for their ideas so we can make more. That way we don't make a hundred of something that doesn't sell."

"That's a good idea."

"You should ask them all what they want anyway. Tell each kid they get to pick one theme and we'll make them for them for free. I was gonna give leftover notebooks to Peverell's anyway, might as well make sure every kid gets something they like."

"I don't know that I have time to make a bunch of free stuff," Justin said.

"I can make them. I'm stuck here anyway. It'd only take me a couple hours, I just need the list."

"I'll get it then."

Despite that Harry had told Justin initially that he didn't want to be involved in the creation of any products they sold, he'd had fun learning how to make the products with his friend, and it had been a good way to spend the day. After dinner, the boys had 100 notebooks to sell, and decided that was enough for the time being, and that if they were popular at school they could make more after the term started. They spent half an hour writing down their costs, and what they planned to sell the notebooks for, and figured out that they could make a two Galleon and 21 Sickle profit if they sold all 100 notebooks. That meant each of them would get one Galleon, 10 Sickles and two Knuts, which Harry thought wasn't bad for one days worth of work making them.

"Who's going to store them until school?" Justin asked.

"I don't care," Harry said.

"I'll take them with me then. You keep all the extra supplies and bring those to school with you for the term."

"Deal."

They spent the rest of the evening talking and joking and finishing off the last of the crisps and candy Snape had bought almost two weeks before, and after dark Harry and Justin went outside and explored the small wooded area behind the house some and tried to see what they could find lurking at the river's edge in the darkness. Aside from some frogs and glow bugs, they hadn't found much, but it was good to be outside with a friend, and Harry hoped he could convince his father to let Ron come and stay before they had to return to the castle in a couple of days.

* * *

"Sir, could I have Ron over too before we have to go back to Hogwarts?"

Severus looked at the calendar up on the wall above the kitchen rubbish bin. "We were going to return the day after tomorrow, and I had plans."

"Oh, ok." Harry tried not to appear disappointed. He could still ask to have Ron over at the castle. He could probably convince his father to let them stay up in Gryffindor tower for the night. "What plans?"

"I had planned on taking you to Gringotts to exchange some of your money into Muggle notes and then back to the Muggle bookstore. You had requested another trip to get more books in the series you were reading after the Easter holiday."

Harry let himself imagine converting a hundred Galleons worth of coins into Muggle currency so he could buy the entire section out at the Muggle bookstore, but wasn't sure if his father would approve. He'd have to see what he could get away with once they got to Gringotts.

"I also have need to check on the Prince estate."

"What's that?"

"The Prince family estate of which I am the rightful heir." He sounded bitter for a moment, and Harry wasn't sure if he wanted to ask. Silver had once explained to him that on paper his father was actually Severus Prince, not Severus Snape, but that was all Harry knew about the matter.

"The Prince family is an old pure blood line that was once very wealthy. There is still quite a bit of wealth locked up in the Prince estate. I have access to the accounts at Gringotts, but not the estate itself. As the last living member of the Prince family, the estate belongs to me, however it was warded by my grandfather before he died, and I have not been able to gain access. Every few years I go to the boundary to check on the property. It is time to do so again."

"Oh. Why can't you get in? You just don't know the password?"

"It is difficult to explain." That seemed to be all his father wanted to say about it, so Harry let it drop.

The next morning Snape told Harry to get ready, and Harry got into some comfortable summer clothes. Snape apparated them to Edinburgh in the same narrow alley Albus had taken Harry to a few weeks prior, and then took Harry to get a haircut and a new pair of shoes, since his old ones were getting worn through and Harry's feet had grown since the start of summer. From there they went back to the alley, and Severus explained that this was one of many hidden alleys across major cities in the isles that were hidden from Muggle view and were therefore perfect for apparation. He held out his arm and Harry took it, and they disappeared, reappearing at a tall black iron gate with the word PRINCE in tall metal letters.

"It doesn't look abandoned," Harry said. There was a large sprawling green lawn between the gate and the large manor, and there looked to be a pond or little lake on the property as well.

"There used to be two dozen house elves who took care of the property while my grandparents and cousins were still alive. I believe my grandfather had cast stasis charms on the grass to stop it from growing past a certain point, as well as charms on the exterior of the house to keep it in good repair." The house was huge and looked to have at least a dozen bedrooms.

"Did you live here sir?" Harry asked.

"I have only been here a few times. My grandparents disowned my mother for marrying a Muggle. I was allowed to visit rarely, but was later disowned altogether."

"Why?" Harry didn't mean to pry, but he wanted to know more about his adoptive father. He could never get past the stern exterior to find out what he was really all about, though he had recently seen how protective his father was over him, and that he was willing to comfort Harry as well.

"When my father died, they refused to take me in as my last living relatives. I went to the orphanage. I was- angry, to be living there. It was bad enough getting made fun of at school for being poor and having secondhand robes, but to be living in the orphanage made the taunts and bullying worse." Harry noted that he refrained from telling him yet again that it had been James and Sirius who had bullied him. "I began to fall in with a crowd of students in Slytherin that were a year or two ahead of me that my grandparents did not approve of. We became estranged and I found out after I graduated that they had disowned me completely, denying me access to the wards and property. Despite being the last living heir by blood, the wards have refused me access ever since."

"Who was it they didn't want you hanging out with?"

Severus was quiet as they stared through the black gate at the house. "Those who became Voldemort's first death eaters: Lucius Malfoy, Crabbe and Goyle Senior, McNair, Knott, and a few others."

"Oh." He'd known Severus had been a death eater, but he'd always been told he was on Dumbledore's side and had been a spy. Now he wasn't so certain that had always been the case.

Harry reached towards the gate and touched the black metal, but pulled his hand back suddenly when the gate clicked loudly and swung open towards the manor.

Severus grabbed Harry's wrist to make him step back and they stared at the gate. His father seemed wary.

"Did you do any magic just now?" Severus asked

"No- I just touched the gate."

Severus stepped forward and experimentally put his hand up to the edge of the property, pushed his hand through, and then took a step over the threshold and beyond the gate. He turned to Harry and beckoned him forward and Harry joined him. When nothing happened, though Harry wasn't sure what they were expecting to happen, Severus said, "It appears you have been recognized as the heir to the estate."

"Me?"

"As my son, you are heir to the Dumbledore, Prince, and Potter properties, finances, and holdings."

"But- I don't want it sir, it's yours."

"It is ours," he said, turning back to frown at the gate. "I am not certain however why the wards suddenly allowed us access when they wouldn't before." He turned to stare at the manor, and said, "Let us see if we have access to the house. I wonder if the wards on the perimeter have just failed due to age. They must be re-cast periodically to remain effective."

They walked down the pristine path across the large lawns and up the front steps of the manor. He had Harry try the doorknob, which was locked. As soon as Harry touched the knob, the door opened of its own accord, just as the gate had minutes before, and swung open.

They went inside the grand entryway, which had floors made of huge slabs of light gray stone, and a chandelier hanging high above their heads. Severus inspected the door and mantle, and said, "The address is 12 Achindown, Scotland. Touch the mantle above the door and set a password."

"What password do you want sir?" Harry asked, feeling awkward. It wasn't his house or family estate. Harry's home was on the River Almond, and while he didn't mind helping Snape get into his estate, he felt strange about it.

"You are the recognized heir, you must choose. I have a feeling it will not accept anything I suggest."

Snape conjured a step stool so Harry could climb up to reach the mantle above the huge door, and he thought the address as he touched the mantle and said out loud so Snape could hear, "Potions Master." His arm tingled and he climbed down off the step stool. "It's set sir."

His father nodded, though he was quiet as he turned in a slow circle, trying to get his bearings, or perhaps just remembering a past time when he'd been there.

"I haven't been here since I was twelve," he said. "My cousins and two aunts and an uncle used to live here with my grandparents."

"Why didn't they let you live here too?"

"They were elitist. They were a pureblooded line until I was born. I was the first in two hundred and fifty years to have a Muggle parent. I was seen as less."

"Less than what?"

"Them." His voice was cold so Harry stopped asking questions. He followed his father into a grand living room, then an enormous den and library. As he trailed after him into kitchens and a dining room, and then upstairs into various bedrooms, Harry realized that his father knew exactly what it was like to grow up as Harry did. The Dursleys had always treated Harry as less than a person. He wasn't worth their time to feed, clothe, or talk to, unless it was to bark orders at him, punish him, or assign chores. It was one of the reasons Harry cared so much about the Fae. The Fae were seen as less than wizards. Harry had never supposed that his Potions Professor understood what that was like all along.

"What happened to them all?" Harry asked as they inspected twelve bedrooms and then went into the attic to see what was up there, only to find two more bedrooms and a lavish bathroom.

"My grandparents died of old age. The wizarding flu, which affects pureblooded witches and wizards more than it does half-bloods or Muggleborns swept through the family about ten years before my grandfather died and killed four cousins and both my aunts. My last remaining cousin was killed by Voldemort, and my uncle died shortly thereafter."

"That's sad," Harry said. But he looked up at his father, who had remained silent, and was glad then that he hadn't grown up there in the manor, or else he might have died too. Or maybe he wouldn't have, since he was only a half-blood.

* * *

They returned to the manor the next day so Snape could begin cataloging what was inside. He was particularly interested in the library, which he had long thought might hold rare and expensive Potions texts. It took them all day, and by the time it had grown dark, they still weren't done in the library, so he took Harry back to their cabin on the river. They were supposed to be packing up to return to the castle, but Severus announced that they were going to stay for another week or more, which Harry was happy to hear. He had approved Harry's request to have Ron over for a night, and Harry had sent off a letter to him so they could set a date and time.

Severus and Harry returned to Prince Manor for the next few days, eventually moving on from the library to Severus' grandfather's office, where Severus told Harry it was going to take him days to go over the many legal documents he'd found there.

"Have you received a response from Mr. Weasley yet?"

"Yes sir, his mum said he could come anytime if we could go get him."

"We will need to take a trip into Magic Mart for more groceries first. Owl him that we can pick him up tomorrow afternoon. He may stay for two nights if he wishes. While I am at the manor going through paperwork, the two of you can spend time together at the cabin provided you do not leave the property."

"I'll send a letter right now." After Harry had sent his letter off with Hedwig, he went back out to talk to his father while he made dinner with the last of their groceries.

"I know you're going to be busy at the manor, but I was wondering when we could take a trip to the bookstore?"

"We can do so tomorrow if you wish."

"Can we do it after we get Ron? He might like to come too."

"Yes. We will go to Gringotts to exchange money in the morning, and then get groceries. After that we can retrieve your friend and go to the Muggle bookstore. I will be returning to the manor tomorrow afternoon after the bookstore, and the next day as well."

The next morning they set out early to exchange money, and his father didn't comment when Harry exchanged enough of his money to get two hundred and fifty pounds. Severus let Harry help pick out groceries at Magic Mart, particularly the snacks, though he refused to let Harry go across the alley to the tea shop by himself, the incident at Flourish And Blotts still fresh on his mind despite that it had been almost a month ago now.

"Eight bags of crisps?" Severus asked when he returned to Harry in the snack aisle of Magic Mart and saw the trolley.

"We like snacks," Harry said, and apparently it was explanation enough. Harry added two boxes of muffins, boxes of cereal, cartons of pumpkin juice, milk, and several candy bars to the cart, while Severus added practical things like eggs, canned goods, and vegetables. Satisfied that they had two weeks of groceries, and enough snacks to feed two teenage boys for two days, Severus paid for their purchase.

When they were back in the alley, Severus said, "You have a choice. You can spend five minutes at the tea shop, or five minutes at Tantalizing Sweets. Choose one."

Harry hesitated for a few moments. He loved everything the tea shop sold, but with Ron coming over, he knew his friend would prefer sweets instead of tea and baked goods from the tea shop. He headed into Tilly's instead, which was busy with children waiting for their orders to be packaged by Justin, who was hurrying to get through the line. Five minutes later Harry emerged from Tilly's shop with a pound of assorted flavors of various gummy candies. Snape apparated them back to the cabin, where they hurried to put the cold groceries away in the fridge, which ran on magic instead of electricity, so they could apparate to the Burrow by twelve.

At twelve on the nose, they appeared in the front garden of the Burrow, almost on top of Fred and George, who were de-gnoming the garden.

"Wotcher Harry, nearly landed on my head," Fred said with a laugh. "Thought a dragon was flying overhead and was using me for target practice!"

"Ron's inside," George said, "you can go in, mum's expecting you."

Harry thanked them and he and Snape went to the screen door and opened it and entered the Weasley's kitchen. Ron was at the table with his bag and a sleeping bag and pillow, and Mrs. Weasley was hurrying to put a lid on a huge box of freshly baked cookies.

"Harry dear," she said, and rushed to him to give him a hug. "We heard what happened on the alley. I'm so glad you're ok!" She turned his face left and right as if expecting to see a bruise, but his bruises had been gone for weeks.

"I'm ok, thanks," he said.

"Arthur said they sentenced that dreadful man to be assessed at St. Mungos, and if they found him sane he had to spend four months in Azkaban."

"Was he sane?" Harry asked.

"Yes. He was taken to Azkaban right away."

"Course," Ron said. "People would have a fit if someone attacked the Boy-Who-Lived and they didn't get sent to Azkaban. It'd be like attacking the Minister or the queen."

Harry rubbed the back of his neck, face turning red. "I dunno about that," he said.

Severus held out a hand for Ron's things, and then shrunk them down and gave them back to Ron to put in his pocket.

"If you are amenable," Severus said to Ron's mother, "we will be going directly to a Muggle bookstore for at least an hour, and then back to the cabin. I will have close eyes on both of them."

"That sounds like a wonderful idea," she said. "Ron would do well to spend some of his summer reading." She went to a cookie jar on the counter, said the counter to a ward that was on it, and opened the lid, pulling out ten pounds. She gave it to Ron and told him to behave himself.

Ron looked embarrassed as she gave him a kiss, and then they went back to the garden to leave, box of cookies in hand. When they re-appeared behind the bookstore, Ron said quietly, "We don't keep all our money in a cookie tin. We have an account at Gringotts. It's just the random Muggle bills for when mum has to go to a Muggle store."

Harry shrugged. He didn't think it had been odd at all. Justin had been keeping his money in a jar at Peverell's, and the one summer Harry had had Dudley's second bedroom, he had kept his important things under a loose floorboard under his bed.

"You do remember me keeping my money and snacks under a loose floorboard at the Dursleys don't you?"

"I forgot about that," Ron said.

Severus left Ron and Harry to go to whatever section of the bookstore they wanted while he went into the back to look for his own books, though he reminded them both to stay out of trouble and be ready to go within an hour.

"So this is where you've been getting all those adventure novels?" Ron asked when Harry took him to his favorite section. Harry had already pulled seven off the shelf and was stacking them on the floor so he could take them to the counter to pay for them.

"Yeah. I have three series I've been waiting to finish since just after Easter. I'm getting the rest of them now so I don't have to wait to come back here again."

Ron browsed, not sure what he should buy with the money his mother had given him. "I dunno what mum expects me to buy with this," he said after twenty minutes. He wasn't familiar enough with Muggles to take an interest in the majority of their books.

"I'm sure there's books on chess strategies or something," Harry said.

"I have a few of those already," Ron told him.

"There's magazines," Harry pointed out.

"Yeah, but they're about Muggle sports and things like that."

"Wouldn't kill you to learn about a Muggle sport," Harry said.

"She's just torturing me. She's going to expect me to come back with a book, and to read it this summer."

Harry laughed. "Pick a novel then. There's so many fantasy novels to choose from. You don't have to know anything about Muggles to enjoy one of those since it's all made up anyway."

"Which one should I get?" Ron asked.

"I've been thinking about this one," Harry said, pulling a book called Cradle: Unsouled off the shelf from the science fiction section. "Sacred artists follow a thousand paths to power, using their souls to control the forces of the world," Harry read on the back of the book. "Lindon is Unsouled, forbidden to learn the sacred arts of his clan." He let his eyes scan down the rest of the summary. "Looks like he's going to be learning magic even though he's not allowed to, and he's going to have to face down an evil force to save his people." Harry added it to his stack and then pulled the next nine books in the series off the shelf as well.

"Hey," Ron said, "I didn't say I was getting that one."

"I'm getting it."

"You don't even know if you'll like it or not."

"I will. I might as well get them all. Never know when I'll have time to come back here again."

Eying Harry's massive pile of books on the floor, (he had more than twenty now), Ron grabbed a copy of Cradle: Unsouled and tucked it under his arm.

"Thought you didn't want it," Harry said.

"It's ten pounds and if I like it I can borrow the rest from you. Better this than anything else I've seen. You're turning into Hermione you know," Ron said, pointing at Harry's stacks of books.

"Hermione reads text books and memorizes them. I read books that are fun that I'm not going to be tested on later."

"We're not gonna read when we get back to your house are we?"

Harry laughed at him. Ron helped Harry take his stacks of books to the counter to check out, and Harry paid most of the money he'd brought with him. Ron paid for his book as well, and they went to wait by the entrance with their bags of books for Severus, who found them a few minutes later, a single book of his own in hand.

When they returned to the cabin, Severus reminded them to stay on the property, and said he'd be back by seven and left them there.

"Wait," Ron said, just after he'd apparated away, "what about my stuff? It's still shrunk down." Harry held out his hand for it and pulled out his wand. "What are you doing? You know you can't do that outside of school."

"Oh, because I'm the Boy-Who-Lived they made an exception," Harry said, aiming his wand at a bag of crisps still sitting on the counter and levitating it over to Ron. Ron watched as the bag fell into his hands and then turned to Harry, not sure if he was joking or about to be in very big trouble for doing underage magic.

"C'mon," Harry said with a laugh at the look Ron was giving him. "The house is registered as the residence of an adult wizard. They can't track if the magic is done by an adult or not. My dad said families like the Malfoys let their kids do magic all summer long."

"You mean mum and dad have been lying to us this whole time?"

Harry nodded. "You know, if you keep it to yourself, or just tell Ginny, the two of you can get back at the twins for all the stuff they've done to you. Send a gust of wind at them when their back is turned, or levitate a cup of water over their head, or lock them into their rooms. Could take them a while to figure it out."

Ron grinned, thinking over the possibilities. Ron unshrunk his things and Harry showed him where to put them in his room. Harry stacked all of his new books up in a corner of his room and then returned to the kitchen to start putting the rest of the groceries away that they'd left on the counter that morning in their hurry to get to the Burrow to pick up Ron. He left out several bags of crisps in various flavors, a box of muffins, the huge bag of candy, and the two candy bars.

"Is all that for us?" Ron asked.

"Yeah," Harry said, "and the cookies your mum sent too I guess."

"She never lets us stay anywhere unless we take a box of cookies, or a cake, or things like that. She said it helps repay the cost of feeding ravenous teenage boys."

They ate some of the snacks for lunch, and then Harry took Ron to the river, where they spent an hour throwing rocks into the water and talking about the upcoming Quidditch World Cup that was taking place at the end of the summer.

"Fred and George said they overhead dad talking about trying to get tickets. I don't know how he'd get his hands on them. Even the seats closest to the ground cost a hundred Galleons each, and he'd have to get enough for seven of us. Mum and dad are definitely up to something, because dad went to a friend's house to borrow a tent, and Ginny said she saw mum sending off a letter to Hermione telling her to come stay with us at the end of the summer for a few days."

"Sounds like you must be going then," Harry said. "Wish I could go."

"You've got tons of money though. You've got Galleons coming out your ears!"

"Yeah," Harry hedged. "And apparently there's a bunch of people that want to beat me up because I want people to be nicer to Fae. My dad wouldn't even let me go across the street from Magic Mart by myself to go to the tea shop this morning. I haven't been anywhere alone on the alleys at all since the incident at Flourish And Blotts. I hardly think he'll take me to an event with thousands of wizards." He couldn't deny he hadn't been enjoying his time at the cabin with his father and grandfather, but he did miss being able to go to work and roaming the alleys as he pleased.

"Ron," Harry said, staring into the water. "Maybe it's not the Quidditch World Cup."

"It must be though."

"Yeah, but the Headmaster said there was something big happening at school this year. He had to go to Bulgaria and France and said he was also going to be having a lot of meetings at the Ministry. He wouldn't tell me what it was, only that I would be excited, and I would find out when you did."

"Bulgaria and France," Ron said, working it over in his mind as he set a stick in the water and watched the river carry it away. "Wait, there's magic schools in Bulgaria and France. Mum's always talking about her cousin that got to go to school at Beauxbatons. What's the one in Bulgaria called though?" He thought hard for a few moments. "Heartstring or something. No... Dragonstring. That's not it," he said, frustrated for a moment. "Burmstrang. Durmstrang!"

"I'm not sure what the other magical schools have to do with us though," Harry said, throwing another rock into the river.

"You know what else is in Bulgaria?" Ron said, "The Quidditch team playing in the World Cup this summer. We just don't know if they're playing Puddlemere or the Irish National team until they face off next week."

They discussed the possibility that Dumbledore was somehow in on this conspiracy Ron thought his parents were involved in regarding tickets to the World Cup, but soon grew tired of the conversation, and Harry took Ron to the woods in the back of the house.

"I own some of the property on the other side of the river too," Harry said, "but not much. I haven't been over there yet."

"How do you know where the boundary is?"

Harry lifted his wand and stabbed in the direction of the boundary. A hundred feet away a blue ripple of magic went out, radiating out along the boundary making it visible until the wave of magic had passed.

"That's cool," Ron said. "River's not too wide," he said, "we could cross it."

Harry looked at his watch. It was only five thirty and his father had not returned yet. "Might as well. It's not deep here." The water levels were low and there were quite a few rocks showing above the water. "You've got a change of clothes right?"

"Yup." After they made their way back to the river in front of the house, Ron started rolling up his pant legs. Harry had shorts on so he didn't worry about it, and sat down to pull off his new sneakers and socks, leaving them next to Ron's on the rocky shore. Before they stepped into the cold water, Harry jabbed his wand in the direction of the property boundary again so he could see where it was to be sure they wouldn't walk out of it while crossing the river.

"Ah that's cold," Ron hissed as he stepped into the water, ankle deep at first. They found a path across where the water was almost as deep as Harry's waist, and then it grew shallow again as they came out the other side. Harry checked the property boundary again and they moved up the rocky bank and into the trees. From this side of the river Harry had a great view of three large hills that were close by, covered in heather. He wouldn't mind having his house on this side if he'd been given the choice to build it from scratch. He had never thought about having kids before, but now as he stood on the opposite bank of the river, he could imagine faceless children with messy black hair crossing the river to get to another house on this side. It was too bad Snape had a huge manor to call home now, because they could have built a second house on this side and lived close by to each other.

"I'll have to hire someone to build a bridge," Harry said.

"That would ruin all the fun of getting across," Ron told him. They explored up into the trees for a few minutes before they found the edge of Harry's property and followed it for several minutes. Finally they went back down to the river. Harry took three big river stones and stacked them on top of each other at the boundary, then walked back down the bank and did the same thing at the other boundary.

"Good thinking," Ron said. "We won't have to keep checking the wards this way to see where we are." As it got dark, Ron and Harry broke several long sticks off of a dead tree lying on the ground in the woods and took them to the corners of the property, digging holes to put the sticks upright to mark the edges.

"We can bring some bright cloth back tomorrow and tie it to the sticks to make it easier to see," Ron said.

Suddenly the property boundary flared blue in front of their faces, startling Ron. "You do that?"

"No, must be my dad. It would flare red if it was someone who didn't have the password, or purple if someone was on the outside asking to be let in."

"Why don't they teach us about wards in school?" Ron asked as they started to make their way back to the river bank. "That'd be a cool job to have, warding people's property. I'd get to see places all over the country."

"Bet you could find a book about it in the library."

Harry expected Ron to retort that he wasn't Hermione, but instead he said, "Yeah, I might do that."

At the river's edge they spied Severus across the river sitting on the wooden porch of Harry's cabin. Harry gave a solitary wave, and Severus returned it. They got back into the cold water, trying to cross via the same shallow path they'd taken before as the sky continued to darken. Shivering on the other side once they got out, they collected their shoes and went to the porch.

"When I saw your shoes, I assumed you had gone to explore, and had not fallen in and drowned."

"We just went to have a look at the rest of the property. There's a small bit on the other side." Harry pointed across the river at the cairns he'd stacked, but it was getting too dark to see them.

"Have you eaten dinner?" Severus asked.

"Not yet."

"I brought take away. It's on the table."

As they went inside, Harry asked, "Did you poke at the boundary wards to let me know you wanted us to come back?"

"It seemed an efficient way to call out to you."

Harry got two towels so he and Ron could dry off, and they changed into sweatpants before coming back out to eat dinner. Harry was pleased to find his father had taken the dining table and three chairs out to the large wooden porch so they could eat outside. Severus cast several different charms to keep bugs away from the porch before he found one that worked, and they ate as Harry described the small adventure they'd had that day.

"We should have the kids from Peverell's here to camp," Harry said. "It'd save them a bunch of money for a holiday. The river's shallow enough here to get into and not too swift."

"You would host them?" Severus asked. "That would be 19 additional people."

"Sure, why not. It's so nice here," he said.

"It would be 19 additional people who know the location of your home."

Harry thought about that. "They don't all have to know the password to get in. If we brought them, only you and I would have to know the password. They wouldn't have to know the address or anything, right?"

"That would be acceptable. It is something I will have to think over," Severus said. "There are many things to consider. It may be wiser to offer it as a holiday for the older children only. As I understand it, Miss Ava was considering taking the younger children to the London Zoo and the theater, as opposed to a full weekend holiday away from the orphanage. Not all of the older children are as excited about that possibility."

After dinner, Harry retrieved the bag of candy and he and Ron sat out on the porch in the darkness eating candy and reading. Severus had conjured flames in several glass jars with lids to give them light to read by.

"If I read a chapter now, mum won't pester me so much when I get home," Ron reasoned as he read, but by the time he'd finished the first chapter, he was too into the story to want to stop. Harry had started the same book Ron had picked up a copy of, and agreed with him that it was interesting and was glad he'd picked up all the books in the series the bookstore had.

At eleven Severus made them come inside because he was turning in for the night, and Ron and Harry went to Harry's room to play board games while they talked about the story. Harry had raced through the first three chapters, and Ron wasn't far behind. As he drifted off to sleep near one in the morning, Harry hoped Snape would agree to have the orphanage kids for a campout, or at least to let him have Justin over again. Harry loved spending time outside in the woods or at the river. It was the one thing he'd wished for most often when staying on Diagon Alley, that the alley just couldn't offer him.

* * *

Severus went back to the Manor the next day. He had left a note on the table for Harry since he and Ron had slept in, advising them to eat something other than junk food for breakfast and lunch, and that he would be back by dinner time.

Harry and Ron ate all four blueberry muffins in the box on the table and drank half a gallon of pumpkin juice from the fridge before they went outside to continue marking the boundaries of Harry's property with rock cairns and dead branches.

Instead of using rags to tie to the sticks to make them more visible, Harry showed Ron the spell to change them colors, and they marked the tops of the sticks in bright green. This would make them visible, but wouldn't make them stand out too much with the green trees and foliage. They were done by lunch with the boundary behind the cabin, and had returned to the river to cross to the other side. Harry and Ron both preferred the view from this bank, and had decided to spend the rest of their day there, finding smooth rocks to skip across the water and exploring the woods as they joked and talked about the upcoming school year. Harry told Ron about his plan to potentially start up a business club, and Ron didn't seem interested at first until Harry told him he owned a broom company and was going to ask the Headmaster if he could organize some sort of trip to see how brooms were made. He'd wanted to take a tour of the broom factory himself the previous year, but had so much he had been dealing with, between the Ministry, fines, and getting adopted, that he'd forgotten about it.

It was nearing five, and though they were both hungry because they'd skipped lunch, they didn't want to cross back over to the other side of the river until they had to. "Harry," Ron said, staring into the water as it flowed around several rocks, bubbles forming mesmerizing patterns in the water. "As soon as I'm allowed, I'm getting a job. I'm going to buy a house right there." He pointed towards the hills covered in heather, just on the other side of Harry's property line. "We'll be neighbors."

"Deal. I could just buy you a house you know."

"Psh," Ron said. "Mum'd never let me move out until I was 18 or 19 anyway. I'd have a few years to start earning money."

"Problem is there's always good stuff to spend it on," Harry said, thinking of all the money he'd spent at the bookstore the day before.

"You sound like mum and dad. Always talking about how much they spend every month."

"I had to keep track of that kind of thing last year, because I didn't have much money until after the hearing." He'd been enjoying not keeping track of his spending this summer, just knowing he had enough for whatever he needed, especially now that his father and grandfather were buying his clothes and food, and paying for things like hair cuts. Harry had paid to furnish the house, but it was a drop in the bucket considering what was in his accounts. Being away from the alleys for the last several weeks and out here at his cabin, just getting to relax had given Harry a new perspective on some things. It was perspective he never thought he'd have.

He'd enjoyed his time on the alleys so much because there was always something to do. There was always business he'd needed to attend to. It had been exciting for him. Silver was there to take care of those things for him though. He'd been relaxing here and hadn't had a single letter from Silver or anyone else on the alleys demanding his attention or needing him to sign papers, or to move money into different accounts. It was sort of nice.

Before this summer, he'd always considered Hogwarts to be home, especially after he'd gotten to spend so much time with his father and grandfather in their quarters. It was like he had three separate spaces at the castle that were home to him now, including Gryffindor tower. Harry let his eyes roam around the wooded banks of the river, to the hills, and to his cabin. He was going to miss this when they had to go back to Hogwarts. He was going to miss sitting on the banks of the river all day with Ron, playing games in the living room with the Headmaster, and reading next to his father.

"You're definitely gonna have to live next to me," Harry said.

Ron murmured his agreement, and Harry was glad then that his friend loved this place as much as he did.

* * *

The next morning Ron went home, though he and Harry both asked Severus if Ron could come again before the summer was over. Severus said he wasn't certain how much longer they would be staying there, but agreed that if there was time they could arrange it.

Severus still had work to do at the manor, and Harry considered staying home for the day by himself, but he was already missing his friend, and just then remembered that he missed Dumbledore as well. He decided to go to the manor with Severus for the day so he wouldn't be alone.

Harry followed him into the office he'd been occupying for the last few days, and eyed three neat stacks of paper on the desk.

"What is all of this anyway?"

Severus pulled a family tree off the top of one of the stacks to show him, sitting in a comfortable chair next to Harry.

"Do you see how my name is smudged?"

Harry nodded.

"That is where they erased me from the family tree because they formally disowned me."

"But your name's there now," Harry said.

"Yes, it appears this document is tied to the public records office at the Ministry. As soon as the adoption went through, I was added back to the tree, and you under me."

"And the Headmaster," Harry said, pointing to Dumbledore's name, which was now above Snape's, indicating Albus was his father.

"I believe the wards recognized you as the heir, because I had been disowned. My name appeared back on the records only so a line could be drawn down to you."

Harry looked over the family tree for a while as Severus went to the desk to look through some other papers. He loved seeing the lines drawn down from Dumbledore to Snape, to himself. It was all proof that he wasn't alone anymore.

"How does all of this work, with inheriting stuff?" Harry asked. "Silver explained it to me the day we did the adoptions, but I wasn't sure. He told me how our names are different on paper than in person."

"Before we merged our three family lines, you were the sole remaining heir to the Potter family, making you the owner of the Potter vaults and assets."

"Yeah," Harry said. He understood that part well.

"I was the sole remaining heir to the Prince family assets, despite that my access had been blocked to the estate. Albus has a younger brother, so he isn't the sole remaining heir to the Dumbledore line, but he is the head of the family, so he is in control of the majority of the Dumbledore assets. You are heir to the Potter assets and are the head of the Potter family, and I am head of the Prince family as it's sole heir.

Harry nodded. He was following along well so far.

"Here is where it gets complicated," Severus said. "Albus adopted me, making me his heir, and heir to the Dumbledore line as well as the Prince line. Then I adopted you, making you heir to the Dumbledore line, the Prince line, and the Potter line."

"On paper, Albus is now listed as the head of our ‘merged' family as a whole, despite that I am still listed as head of the Prince family, and you the head of the Potter family. If Albus died, his brother would become the head of the Dumbledore line, but not our ‘merged' family. Since he has no heirs, when he dies, if it was after Albus, then I would become the head of the ‘merged' family. Then when I die, you would become the head of the ‘merged' family. You would be the head of all three family lines as the sole heir."

"I'm pretty sure my brain hurts from everything you just said," Harry told him.

"To add to that complicated mess, if I had a child later, you as the eldest, despite being adopted and not of my blood, would have claim to the Prince estate before this other imaginary child."

Harry looked up at him, trying to imagine his father marrying and having another child. Harry wouldn't mind having a younger sibling, he just couldn't imagine it happening. "If you did have another kid, I'd never keep them away from what was rightfully theirs."

"Yours," Severus corrected.

"Huh?"

"What is rightfully yours. You are my son. Blood does not matter. Not on paper, and not here." He indicated his heart and Harry's breath caught for a moment. He would still choose Harry over his own child if he ever had one?

Harry worked back over all Snape had explained to him about inheritances and the head of family lines. "You said blood doesn't matter."

"That is true."

"Only what's on paper," Harry said.

"Yes."

"Maybe the wards didn't let us in because of me. Maybe it was you."

"For ten years I have tried to gain entrance and been unable."

"Yeah but, I wasn't the only one that got adopted that day," Harry said, pointing at the family tree he still had in his hand. "You said your grandparents didn't accept you because your father was Muggle, so you weren't pureblooded. The Headmaster is though and he adopted you, so he's your father now right? On paper I mean? If blood doesn't matter, only what's on paper, then maybe it was actually you the wards recognized as heir. On paper, you're a pureblood. I got to set the password above the mantle, but I'm technically heir too, and you had given me permission to do it besides."

Severus had never thought of that possibility. He had not attempted to gain access to the wards since the adoption until days ago when he'd come with Harry. The thought that he was now an accepted member of the Prince family was something he needed to mull over for a while. He'd been so bitter for so long over the fact that he could have grown up in the manor with his cousins, could have had clothes and lived a life of privilege, but instead had been denied because of Tobias. Denied because of a father who didn't want him either.

"You're not less, you're more."

"What?" Severus looked up from the papers he was shuffling through.

"Your grandparents were wrong. You're not less. You're more than I expected, and better than I hoped for."

His father stared at him for long moments, but Harry couldn't hold his gaze, and looked back down at the family tree. Even right after the adoption, he had never imagined a father and grandfather as good as the ones he'd gotten.

Sitting at the desk a few feet away, Severus continued to stare at his son. He had never expected to be ‘more' to anyone. Knowing now that he was, was a feeling he never wanted to forget.