While the Professor frantically thought about how to reply to Harry’s questions, Harry efficiently tried to do Legilimency on the man. What he saw was not nice. It only took him a few minutes until he had seen what he wanted. This person was not worth any more than one of his books.
Harry threw a pleading look at Severus and said quietly, “Sorry, sir, but I don’t feel very well. May I go back to our quarters?”
Severus threw a piercing look at Harry, determining that his condition was not worse than before and that the boy probably just wanted to tell him something. He stood up immediately, excused them and motioned Harry out of the Great Hall. Before they left the hall, Severus turned around and stated, “Albus, please don’t forget that I had something extremely urgent to talk about. Could you come by for a minute after lunch?”
“Of course, my boy,” Dumbledore answered and exchanged a look with Minerva.
-----
As soon as Professor Dumbledore saw Lockhart’s memory, which Harry had put into a Pensieve, he rose from his chair very angrily and motioned Severus and Harry to accompany him to his office where Professor McGonagall was entertaining Lockhart.
When they entered the Headmaster’s Office, Dumbledore immediately addressed Lockhart. “As my student has proven to me, we cannot believe in your abilities, and therefore, I am not able to entrust you with our Defence Against the Dark Arts position. I am sorry, Mr. Lockhart.”
Lockhart threw a glance at Harry, who couldn’t manage to hide a huge grin, and raised his wand to throw a Memory Charm at the boy. It was the worst thing he ever could have done.
Just a few days ago, Severus had taught Harry the Protego Charm and Harry had practised it endlessly. When Lockhart threw the Memory Charm, Harry protected his teachers and himself with a very strong Protego, summoning all his magic and sending it into the wish. Harry’s defence spell was so strong that the memory charm backfired on Lockhart who had to be taken to St. Mungos by Professor Dumbledore.
“It’s good to see that you are able to use the things others try so hardly to teach you efficiently,” Severus commended Harry when they were back in their quarters. There was a hint of pride in his voice.
Harry felt his face getting red. This was probably the highest praise he could ever get from his guardian. “Thank you, s….um… Severus,” he replied softly. In fact, he was a little proud of himself – being able to prevent the Headmaster from hiring an absolute flop of a teacher had been a good feeling.
A week later, Severus told Harry that Professor Dumbledore had decided on a different Defence Against the Dark Arts teacher, Remus Lupin. He told him that Lupin had been in the same year as himself and Harry’s parents. Furthermore, he told the boy, who had grown on him as if he was his own son, that he, Lupin, was a werewolf and explained exactly what he had to know about werewolves.
One day, Professor Lupin showed up for lunch and was introduced by Professor Dumbledore who told Harry that Lupin had already moved into the castle and would take the meals together with them from now on. Although he didn’t have much chance to talk to the new professor, he seemed congenial to Harry. However, Harry became sad when he thought about the fact that he wouldn’t have his Defence lessons with Severus anymore, if they had a new Defence teacher.
Later in the evening, when Severus sat on his bed as he did every evening, Harry voiced his thoughts and the Professor said calmingly, “Harry, you are like a son to me. This is your home now, so you may come here anytime. You can even leave your things in your room; nobody else will enter your room when you are not here. Moreover, if you want me to teach you something, you only have to tell me what you wish me to do and I shall try to help you.”
-----
A few days later, Severus had asked Albus if he could visit Severus in his quarters, as he had something he wanted to talk about, but he didn’t want to leave Harry alone, so they arranged to meet after Harry was asleep. Severus told Albus about his idea, which he had had during the Christmas Holidays, and about his research that was nearly finished. Then he waited for his mentor to assess if he had a way to help him.
Dumbledore was stunned at first. After a short while, he confirmed, “Do I understand correctly that you want to take Harry and travel back in time for a year?”
“Yes,” Severus confirmed. “I want him to get to know his parents and to kill Voldemort if possible. As it is only Harry who can defeat him, at least according to the prophecy,” he slowly trailed off.
“That’s correct, my boy.” Dumbledore tried to recall the past. Finally, he said pensively, “I will have to watch a few memories in my Pensieve; however, as we had a new Defence Against the Dark Arts teacher every year, I suppose I could offer you this post at any time. Maybe you should preferably choose the year in which you and Harry’s mother are in your second year, so that Harry can have a chance to get to know all of you very well.”
“And we would both be able to stay at Hogwarts,” Severus stated more to himself. “But, why Defence?” he asked astonished. He hadn’t thought about the possibility to teach at Hogwarts at all, he had just hoped Professor Dumbledore would help him to find a place where he could stay and still be in contact to Harry and his younger self.
“Yes, you could be Professor Salazar Snape, and Harry could be disguised as your son. Defence Against the Dark Arts seems to be the subject you are predestined to teach, apart from Potions of course. However,” he continued contemplatively, “this would be 1973, but I would prefer you to be there in 1974 as this is a year of a great expansion of Voldemort’s activity. It would be much more efficient to be there in 1974 or 1975 than in earlier years. How about you aim at the beginning of the school year 1974 and pretend that Harry is not 12 but 13. Then he could attend third year together with his parents.”
Severus eyed his mentor thoughtfully and said, “I am quite sure that Harry wouldn’t mind to skip a class in this case. He is already above third level in Potions, Defence, and Transfiguration. I can easily teach him whatever he needs to him catch up to that level. He would easily be able to attend third year classes. The only problem is his size. He is small, even for a second year,” Severus mused aloud.
Dumbledore laughed. “Yes, my boy, that is true. However, I shall prepare a potion for Harry to make it so that he will look like your son. With that I expect him to be at least a little taller than he is now. So you could try to go back to the year 1974, your third year.”
Severus nodded his agreement.
“When are you going to tell Harry? Are you sure that he will agree to your plans?”
Severus thought for a moment. As it was only recently that he had managed to invent the potion and because he wanted to speak to Albus beforehand, he hadn’t yet talked to Harry in order not to get his hopes up too early. “I thought to tell him on his birthday and to leave on the same day. Then we will have a whole month to flexibly time our return in order to be back in time for Harry’s second year here. Of course, we have to decide in which year we should place him here then, too, but we can leave this decision until we are back and include Harry in this decision later.”
“Have you already thought about how to accomplish your goal and get rid of Voldemort?” Dumbledore asked another question.
Severus shook his head. “No, but I intend to work intensively together with your younger self, maybe Minerva, my younger self, Harry, Lily, and if Harry manages to get close any other students, even with them. I am sure we will be able to manage something. I know that my younger self is not a Death Eater at that time; however, my mother’s oldest brother, Uncle Cronus, was already pushing me to accompany him to the meetings, so maybe we will find a way to use this to our advantage. However, we will need you to tell all these people about us and about our goal, which we need help with.”
Dumbledore gave him a firm nod. “Don’t worry, Severus. I will write a long letter to my younger self, and I will also add a few of my memories for his Pensieve.”
Severus thanked the Headmaster profoundly and said, “I have another topic I wish to speak with you about.” He told Albus about his thoughts to magically adopt Harry as his son.
As soon as Dumbledore heard about this idea, however, the Headmaster somehow reacted strangely. “Severus,” he said, “this is impossible. It’s fine for you to be his guardian, but you cannot blood-adopt him. I shall not tell you the reason now, but you will understand in the near future.”
Ignoring the fact that Severus mumbled something about ‘meddling old coots’, he added, “I suggest that we have another meeting, together with Minerva, Filius, Remus and Poppy. You will need their help, at least in the past, and it would be an advantage if all of them could write a letter to their younger selves. It would also be good to ask Filius to give Harry a few lessons to get him up to the third level in Charms as well.”
Severus gratefully inclined his head and said, “Thank you, Headmaster.”
-----
When the Headmaster had left his quarters, Severus went over to Harry’s room and sat down on a chair beside his bed. When he looked down at the boy’s face, he suddenly noticed how pale the child was. He even looked worse than he had at the beginning of the holidays. Recently, Harry had often declined when Severus suggested to go flying and had preferred to stay on the sofa and read, saying that he had difficulties breathing. Maybe something was really wrong with the child and he, Severus, had not noticed it because he had been too occupied with his research? Maybe he was an unfit guardian even if he had recently felt like a father probably would feel.
Getting really worried about his own abilities to care for the child, he decided to talk to Poppy. If someone was able to help him and to advise him, it would be her. She knew him better than anyone else.
“No, Severus, you are a very good father. Otherwise you wouldn’t have noticed anything yet,” Poppy told him after doing a thorough check on Harry. “He has a small infection on his lungs again.” She put a wrist band over Harry’s right wrist and said, “This will monitor his oxygen level and his temperature, and in case his level gets too low or his temperature too high, it will alarm you and me immediately. If this happens, you must bring him to the Hospital Wing instantly, so that I can connect him to the breathing apparatus.”
She threw a last glance at the child and silently left the room. “Give him a spoon full of the Eucalia Potion three times a day. And I want to see him daily until his condition improves.” She thought for a moment and added, “The next time Harry refuses to go flying, you bring him to me so that I can let him use the apparatus, and afterwards just take him out to sit near the lake for an hour. Both of you need to get fresh air!”
Severus invited the Healer to have tea with him and used the opportunity to confide in his friend about his plans of going back to the past. She promised to write a letter to her younger self, especially since Harry would need to be looked after daily, even in that decade.
“I will have to swear a wizard’s oath to Harry,” he said suddenly. When Pomfrey looked at him enquiringly, he elaborated, “You knew, Poppy, that Lily and I were together after leaving Hogwarts , didn’t you?”
“I know that, Severus,” she replied quietly.
“We separated because I was a Death Eater. It was too dangerous for her, so I let her go. Then,” Severus confided, trying to keep the tears that were welling in his eyes at bay. “Soon after that, she married Potter, and Harry was born ten months after we separated.”
Poppy put a calming hand on his arm, and Severus continued, “This time I will hopefully prevent myself from becoming a Death Eater, but I still cannot be with Lily. If we don’t separate, she won’t marry Potter, and Harry won’t be born.”
Poppy gasped, but then she thought about something. Dumbledore had asked her to brew a certain, very rare potion for him that only could have one implication. But the fact that he asked her and not his Potions Master meant that Severus was still unconscious about the fact that concerned him so much. She groaned. Dumbledore would certainly have his reasons for not telling Severus something as important as this, but on the other hand, she couldn’t see her friend so desperate.
“Severus,” she started slowly, “when I tell you something, will you give me your word that you keep it for yourself and won’t tell anyone – especially Albus – that you know?”
He threw her a confused glance and nodded. “Yes, of course. Why?”
“Severus, Harry was nearly a month late. Pregnancies can be prolonged magically. I cannot tell you more about it because of my Healer’s oath. Remember, don’t tell anyone until Albus tells you!” she admonished and excused herself.
Severus Accio-ed a bottle of whisky from the shelf and gulped down a whole glass full of the burning liquid, before he tried to think again. Would that really mean…? He jumped from his seat and went into the boy’s room. The boy looked like James Potter, only the eyes were those beautiful green eyes of his Lily. He couldn’t stand the thought anymore. He Accio-ed an empty phial and waved his wand over Harry to magically get a few drops of the boy’s blood into the phial.
The next two hours, he spent in his private Potions lab. Finally, the Potion was finished. Should he really do it? His emotions, which he normally could keep at bay, were going hay wire. Finally, he held his elbow over the cauldron and repeated the spell he had done on Harry before, and two drops of his own blood fell into the cauldron. He pressed his eyes closed, waiting for two minutes before he opened them again… and gasped.
His blood had mixed into the Potion, and the Potion had turned into a clear blue. He slumped down into a seat. On one hand, he was happier than he had thought he would ever be; on the other hand, he felt so betrayed, by Albus, and worse, by Lily. Why hadn’t she told him?
He spent the rest of the night at Harry’s bedside, watching his son’s shallow breathing.
-----
When Harry woke up in the morning, Severus was sitting at the edge of his bed. They talked about Harry’s condition for a moment, before Severus asked suddenly, “Have you thought about your birthday, Harry?”
Harry threw him an unsure glance. Of course he knew that it was his birthday in two weeks time, but what was there to think about? He would become twelve anyway. “Um… sorry, Severus, but what do I have to think about? I will become twelve, I know that already.”
Severus would have laughed about Harry’s naïve view of birthdays, if the whole thing hadn’t been so sad. He sighed and elaborated, “I meant who do you want to invite to your party.”
“Party?” Harry asked confused. “Am I getting a party? For my birthday?”
This time, Severus laughed. “Only if you want one. You could, for example, invite Granger and Weasley, or Draco and Blaise, or all four of them. You don’t have to decide now, but you can think about it and tell me when you have decided.”
Harry started to think immediately. He would love to invite his friends, yes, of course. But at the moment, he just didn’t feel well enough. Even if he invited them, he wouldn’t be able to do anything interesting with them. They could only sit there and talk or play boring games. However, there were still two weeks left, and maybe with Poppy’s help, he would feel better then.
Seeing his guardian’s enquiring look, Harry hesitantly voiced his thoughts, and Severus sighed. “Harry,” he explained softly, “when your friends come to celebrate your birthday, they will be willing to do whatever YOU want to do. We could invite them to come at 3 o’clock, for example. You could start by eating your birthday cake in the Great Hall, either with everyone remaining at Hogwarts or just with your friends. Afterwards, you could unwrap presents and talk to your friends until 6 o’clock. Your friends would go home just before dinner starts or even after dinner, if you prefer that.”
Harry still felt unsure. As he had never had a birthday party before, he really didn’t know if he would be able to manage everything. What Severus had told him sounded very easy though. “Will you be there to help me, Severus?” he asked hesitantly.
“Of course, Harry,” Severus replied immediately.
-----
During the next days, Severus kept himself busy brewing potions for the Hospital Wing so that everything would be ready for the next school year when he returned from the past. Harry had convinced Severus to use their Potions lessons for this work and helped him efficiently. One day Harry hesitantly asked, “Maybe we could ask Professor Lupin if he is willing to teach me sometimes, so that you could use the time to brew. Or we could just skip Defence and only brew Potions during that time.”
Professor Lupin was more than pleased when Harry asked if he could teach him. However, he was stunned to see Harry’s abilities. He already knew most spells that were taught in third years’ classes. So maybe Lupin should either think about something special to teach him or just practice duelling with the child. He decided on the latter as they had only one hour left until lunch anyway, and he would ask Severus later what he would recommend they do.
After thirty minutes of duelling, however, Harry sat down suddenly, breathing very heavily. When Remus asked if he was okay, he only shook his head and mumbled, “Sev’rus”.
At this moment, Severus stepped through the Floo and directly went over to the child. While he studied the wrist band, which was hidden under his robes, he heard Harry mumble, “I don’t feel well, Dad.”
Utterly shocked, it took Severus a moment to reply. “I know, my boy, hold on. Poppy will help you in a minute.” Then he told Remus, “I have to take him to Pomfrey. I shall talk to you later, Lupin.”
A very worried looking Remus followed Severus, who was carrying the child, to the Hospital Wing, where Poppy, who had been alerted by the same alarm as Severus, had already prepared everything and instantly connected Harry to the breathing apparatus.
Severus had to try hard to stay calm. However, he had to tell himself that this wasn’t Lupin’s fault. Seeing his colleague watching him worriedly, he explained about Harry’s situation as patiently as he could.
“I am sorry, Severus. I didn’t know that and let him practice duelling,” Remus said horrified.
“It’s not your fault, Lupin. You didn’t know, and he has been ill for a while now. He cannot do anything strenuous, at least, not at the moment.”
“But, Severus, what are we going to do? Yesterday evening you told us about your plan to go back to the past and about the prophecy. How is Harry going to vanquish Voldemort if he can’t even duel?”
Severus sighed. That was something he wanted to know as well. “Together with your younger self and your friends, we have to think about a way for him to vanquish the Dark Lord without duelling. However, I still haven’t talked to Harry about my plan; therefore, I do not even know if he will agree to travel into the past.”
“He will, Severus,” Madam Pomfrey threw in. “He adores you, and if you suggest this, he will agree. I’m sure.”
“Poppy,” Severus said hesitantly, “thanks for telling me the other day.”
The Healer threw him an understanding smile. “You are very welcome, Severus, and I hope that Albus will explain everything to Harry on his birthday. Otherwise, I suggest that you tell Harry upon your arrival in the past.”
Severus glanced at his friend thankfully. “Yes, Poppy, I shall do that. How is he, by the way? Is he better now?”
Poppy shook her head. “No, he is not, and I’m going to keep him this time, otherwise he won’t get better. The infection is worse than it was, and he is in no condition to go on a time travelling trip. He will have to stay here for at least a day, probably more. You are welcome to see him anytime of course.”
-----
When Pomfrey finally released Harry, he felt much better. It was only three days until his birthday. While he had been sick, Severus had sent invitations to his friends, and he hoped they would be able to come. Severus and Poppy had decided that Harry shouldn’t have any more lessons until his birthday but should rest, relax and do what he wanted.
On the first day, Remus took Harry for a long walk around the grounds. They sat down near the lake and talked for hours, and Harry enjoyed the afternoon with the new Professor very much. When Remus tried to apologize to him because of not taking care of his condition and practicing duelling, Harry contradicted vehemently. It had not been the Professor’s fault.
At dinnertime, Professor McGonagall asked Harry, “Would you like to accompany me to Hogsmeade tomorrow?”
Harry’s eyes started to twinkle happily and he replied, “Of course, Professor. I would like that very much. Thank you. Um… Professor, um… could we go to the bookstore, too? Please?” he added hesitantly.
His Gryffindor Head of House smiled at him widely. “Yes, Harry, we will go to the bookstore, and you will have time enough to have a look.”
“I cannot understand why the Sorting Hat didn’t put you in Ravenclaw,” Professor Flitwick mused. “Normally, people who like reading as much as you belong to Ravenclaw.”
Harry laughed and replied, “The Hat actually told me that I’d fit in any House. However, I think two Houses are more than enough.”
-----
At breakfast, Harry received three owls. The first was from Blaise, who told him that he would be happy to join Harry’s birthday party the day after tomorrow. The second owl brought a letter from Ron, who told him he would, of course, come and bring Hermione with him, who was staying at the Weasleys for a week.
When Harry opened the letter the third owl brought and had looked at it, he let out a huge gasp. He suddenly found that it was getting hard to breathe. Seeing that everyone was watching him worriedly, he unsuccessfully tried to hide his shaking hands and said solemnly, “It’s from Uncle Vernon.”