Severus had to try hard to keep his face from revealing his disappointment. “Remus,” he said, sighing. “Harry and I have to continue our research.”
“However,” the Minister threw in, “your invention is more than helpful. Of course we will appreciate it even more if you manage to invent a potion that’ll heal the werewolves permanently, but even if they have to take a potion once a month in order not to transform it’s a huge step forward.”
Scrimgeour remained pensive for a moment before he continued. “We will let all the werewolves know about the existence of this potion, and we will invite them to register with us in order to come to the Ministry on each night of the full moon in order to take their potion and stay in a safe room within the Ministry for the night at least during the next few months until we know that the potion really works for everyone. We will let you know the amount we need of the potion and will ask you to brew the potion for us each month. Please make the potion for us for a reasonable price according to the cost of the ingredients as well as the combined brewing time of you and your son. There is no need to publicise the recipe of the potion and you shall receive the patent for your recipe and will be the sole brewer, together with your son of course. Moreover, I will award both of you the Order of Merlin second class, which is endowed with twenty-five thousand Galleons each.”
“This will be far more than adequate, Minister. Thank you very much,” Severus replied immediately. “I promise now that my son and I will continue to research until we find a complete cure to Lycanthropy.”
“That will be appreciated very much, Professor,” the Minister replied. “These eighteen people have assured me that they are willing to test your potions until you find the cure. However, we should know in advance how many of them are needed each time.”
“Oh, we will need them all I believe. If we know that we have eighteen persons, we will make nine slightly different potions each month to give to nine people, while the other nine won’t receive a potion in case we found the permanent cure, provided that they didn’t transform the previous month. Nine of them will of course receive our established potion next month. They will receive their first test potion one month later while the others won’t receive any potion at that time.”
-----
“Harry, we’ll have to continue our research,” Severus told his son, entering the living room in the morning.
Harry gave him a flabbergasted look. “That means that Remus…” He slowly trailed off.
“Transformed. Yes,” Severus replied to the unasked question.
“Where is he? Is he all right?” Harry enquired worriedly.
“I’ve just brought him to the Hospital wing. He’s not in the best shape but I’m sure a day in Poppy’s care will make him much better. If you promise to stay quiet, you may visit him later.”
---
“Hey, Uncle Moony,” Harry said quietly, taking in the already healing cuts and bruises on the man’s face.
“Hey cub,” Remus replied tiredly, giving Harry a small smile.
“I’m so sorry,” Harry mumbled, carefully pulling Remus into a slight hug.
“You have nothing to be sorry for, Harry,” Remus replied sincerely. “On the contrary, I’m very grateful that you and your father spend so much time in order to help me. I appreciate it very much.”
“But still I’m sorry that you were hurt last night,” Harry whispered. “Now, I’m going to let you sleep, I’ll come again later.”
-----
During the next months, Severus and Harry spent every free minute researching their potion. The Minister had made a new law concerning werewolves. Each werewolf had to come to the Ministry every month on the day of the full moon to take the potion. Afterwards they were considered safe and were free to go until the next month. In the meantime, the number of werewolves ready to test Severus’ potions had increased to fifty people, so that Severus and Harry could try every small change to the potion that could help them achieve their goal. So far, nothing had happened yet. The only potion that prevented the werewolves from transforming so far was the potion they had invented in summer even if it wasn’t permanent.
Harry and Lily were also continuing on their research in order to make their mobile phones or Harry’s notebook work at Hogwarts but so far, they hadn’t made make much progress.
---
From the new school year onwards, the Headmistress had established the Quidditch teachers’ team. Minerva met with the four Quidditch captains of the Houses in order to agree together with the students on a schedule for the matches as the new team meant that they had to fit in four more games during the school year. When she told the students that Harry was going to play Seeker for the teachers’ team, the four Quidditch captains were very upset and angrily told the Headmistress that they had let the child participate in their practises and that he already had played in their matches a few times when one of the players was sick or injured. The Gryffindor captain was especially angry. “Professor, don’t you want us to win the Quidditch cup? Our own Seeker is not so good; we really need Harry to play for us at least once or twice.”
In the end, Minerva had to give in and promised the students that Harry would still play for the students as a reserve. If a reserve was needed due to the absence of one of the players, Harry would play. Otherwise any team could ask Harry to play for them anytime. Depending on the required position, Harry would choose the first offer he was comfortable with.
The Gryffindor team captain was the first to ask Harry if he would play Seeker for them in the first game of the season Gryffindor versus Slytherin. Harry laughed and told him, “I’d love to play, but as it is still two months until the game, we have to wait and see if I must play for an injured player or something. If not, I’d like to play Seeker for you.”
However, at the end of November, when the match took place, one of the Slytherin Chasers had fallen ill, and the Slytherin team captain had ordered the Seeker to play Chaser so that Harry could play Seeker for Slytherin. Harry didn’t mind of course as he liked all houses. He was just glad to be able to play, and he managed to catch the Snitch only twenty minutes into the game.
In the evening, Harry was allowed to attend the victory party in the Slytherin common room, which he enjoyed very much. He had many friends among the younger students in Slytherin, with whom he had often attended Potions lessons.
While Harry spent the evening in the Slytherin common room, Lily and Severus sat in front of their fireplace, talking about their son. “Why don’t you let him stay with the students in Slytherin overnight? Don’t you think Harry would enjoy that very much?”
Severus raised an eyebrow. “I know that Harry would enjoy it. The problem is his scar. You have no idea what Albus is capable of doing with the scar. He can implant visions in Harry’s head; he could possess him, and he could even curse or kill him. Fortunately, Harry is a natural Occlumens, so it would be very difficult for Albus to really harm him. But I believe that it’s much safer for Harry to stay with us. The students wouldn’t be able to help him at all if he encountered any problems.”
“You would be able to help, Sev?” Lily asked worried and longing for a positive answer.
“Of course, Lily. I’m a much better Occlumens and Legilimens than Albus, and Harry fortunately has enough confidence in me to let me in his mind anytime. Tom would also be able to help Harry in case I wasn’t available for some reason.”
Severus put an arm around his wife, mumbling, “Relax, Lily.” Then he leaned towards Lily and kissed her softly. Around curfew, Severus went to the Slytherin common room and escorted Harry back to his room.
-----
On Friday afternoon just after the last classes before the beginning of the winter holidays, Ravenclaw had to play the Quidditch match against the teachers and the Ravenclaw Quidditch captain had begged Harry to play Seeker for their team. Of course, Harry happily agreed and asked his mother to Charm his Quidditch robes from Slytherin to Ravenclaw colours.
The afternoon of the match was bright and sunny, but a thick layer of snow had fallen during the night, and it was bitter cold. Harry happily cruised above the other players, finding it extremely strange to play against the teachers, especially as his father was playing the teachers’ team’s Seeker. Suddenly, he saw the Snitch hovering just at the opposite side of the pitch. Harry rushed over to the other side, nearly crashing into his father, who seemed to have spotted the Snitch at the same time. Now it was gone. Harry sighed and started to feverishly look for the small, golden ball.
Suddenly, Harry’s scar exploded in pain. Harry groaned, pressing a hand against his forehead. Severus was the first to notice that Harry wasn’t all right and on his way over to his son, he quickly instructed Luna to fly down to Pomona Sprout, who was refereeing the match, and tell her to stop the match for a moment. However, the pain in Harry’s head had become so unbearable that Harry couldn’t help pressing both hands against his head, moaning in agony. With both hands off his broom, he couldn’t keep himself on his broom and started to tumble down to the ground. The whole school watched in horror as Harry fell down from a height of nearly fifty meters. The teachers all rushed after Harry but nobody was able to catch him in time.
About five meters above the ground, Harry vanished and a beautiful phoenix slowly flew down to the ground. Harry didn’t know how he had managed to transform but in fact he felt much better in his phoenix form. His terrible headache had turned into a slight buzz; although he felt a bit dizzy after his fall. When the teachers and his team players landed around him, watching him worriedly, Harry remembered that he still had to play a Quidditch game. He quickly flashed out of the ring the others had build around him and transformed back into his human form. He slowly walked over to the others and went straight to his father. “Daddy, do you have a headache potion?”
“Of course, Harry. Lily has everything,” Severus answered immediately, reaching into his wife’s robe pocket as she was standing next to him.
“Harry, are you all right?” Lily asked with concern after Harry had gulped down the potion.
“Yes, I’m fine, sorry for that. Let’s continue,” Harry answered and mounted his broom again, completely ignoring Poppy’s and Minerva’s protests.
Twenty minutes later, Harry caught the Snitch with his father on his heels and the stands erupted with deafening applause. On his way down to the ground, Severus caught up with him and told him, “Harry, I don’t want you to attend the victory party right now. I want you to accompany me to our quarters.”
-----
In the evening, Harry still didn’t feel his usual self and was lying on the sofa in the living room, talking to his parents when suddenly the fireplace flared and Luna entered their room. She held a huge package of chocolate frogs in her hand, which she handed to Harry. “Harry, this is from Ravenclaw House – a thank you for playing Seeker for them and winning an important match. The students asked me to take this to you as they aren’t allowed to use the Floo and don’t know where you live.”
“Are you already assisting Filius with Ravenclaw?” Lily asked, grinning.
“No, why? The students just came to meet me after dinner because none of you were in the Great Hall. They only came to me because they know that I’ve been in Ravenclaw before and that I know Harry well,” Luna explained patiently.
“Wow, so many chocolate frogs,” Harry said, admiring the box in awe. “Maybe I should visit the Common room in order to eat the frogs together with them,” he voiced his thoughts.
“If you feel up to it, I can accompany you,” Luna offered.
“Yes, please, at least I want to say ‘thank you’.”
Lily and Severus exchanged a glance, resulting in Severus asking Luna to bring Harry back in an hour as he was supposed to rest. On Harry’s request, Luna and Harry didn’t take the Floo but walked up to the Ravenclaw common room where the victory party was still under way. Harry shared his chocolate frogs with the students and had a lot of fun. Much too soon, Luna returned in order to take Harry back home.
-----
The attack just before the holidays had the consequence that Harry’s parents and the other teachers didn’t let him out of their sight during the holidays. Harry had hoped to spend a few hours in the secret common room, but there was no way for him to get away from the adults.
However, the adults couldn’t prevent Harry from being attacked again on his birthday. His friends had just gone home after a hilarious birthday party and Harry sat down for Christmas Eve dinner with his parents, the other teachers, and a few students, who had remained at the castle over the holidays. Harry was exhausted from romping around with his friends and tiredly leaned into his godmother, who was sitting next to him. Suddenly, his scar erupted in pain. However, this time Harry didn’t only have to deal with a bad headache, but he was pulled into a vision.
Noticing that Harry gasped and gripped his head with both hands, Poppy had pulled him onto her lap immediately. Everyone watched worriedly as Harry obviously drifted into a disturbed sleep, thrashing around as much as he could in Poppy’s strong grip. Suddenly, Harry opened his eyes, struggled to sit up and mumbled, “I’m going to be sick.”
Minerva quickly conjured a bucket and held it just in front of Harry, who emptied his stomach immediately. Finally, he tiredly leaned back into Poppy and said, “He sent me a vision but I don’t know if it really was a vision or if it was one of his memories from a few years ago.”
“Can you show me, Harry?” Severus asked, worried that Albus was already healed enough to send his son a vision.
Harry quickly gulped down the pain relieving potion that Poppy handed to him and looked straight into his father’s dark eyes. He loved those eyes, they had something really calming and he knew that he could fully rely on the man they belonged to.
Five minutes later, Severus pulled off. “That was an older memory, however, one of the worst he could have sent you, Harry. It was obviously meant to be Tom torturing his Death Eaters with diverse curses, even unforgivable ones.”
Poppy gave Harry a piercing look. “Severus, we should take him up to his room. He’s obviously suffering from the after-effects of the Cruciatus curse.”
Severus picked the child up and carried him back to his quarters, followed by Poppy and Lily. While Harry’s mother and godmother watched the boy, Severus went to his lab to brew the Anti-Cruciatus Potion for his son.
This time, the attack had greatly affected Harry. On Christmas day, he was still in bed with a fever and a headache that was somehow resistant to Severus’ strongest potions. While Severus spent half of the day researching a stronger potion that might help Harry, Lily stayed the whole day at Harry’s side.
In order to distract Harry, Lily told him a lot about Charms, which lead to a conversation about their research concerning the mobile phones. Suddenly, Harry sat up, wincing at the movement, and waved his hand at the mobile phone on his desk, casting a silent spell. Lily stood up and went over to look at the phone. She nearly jumped with surprise. The mobile phone was switched on.
“Harry, how did you do that?” Lily asked amazed, listening intently when Harry described the Charm he had just created.
“Very, very good, Harry. I’m very proud of you, son.”
Harry lay back and gave his Mummy a tired smile before he closed his eyes and drifted off to sleep.
-----
During the next weeks, everyone was afraid that something would happen to Harry again. However, nothing happened, and Harry slowly started to forget the incident that had ruined his birthday and Christmas day. In the meantime, with Lily’s help, he had perfected the Charm for their mobile phones to work at Hogwarts. Harry had given his mobile phone to his father, and his parents used them from time to time.
One evening, when all the teachers sat together in the Snape quarters drinking tea, Lily and Severus showed their colleagues their mobile phones and explained how they worked. This demonstration of course resulted in everyone wanting their own mobile phones, so that Lily promised to assist Harry buying mobile phones for everyone and charming them to work in the magical world.
A week after Harry had handed the teachers their mobile phones, Hermione and Luna approached Harry. “Look, Harry,” Hermione started, handing him two more mobile phones. “Would you please be so kind to charm these two for Neville and Draco?”
“Of course,” Harry giggled and waved his hand at the first device. Two minutes later, he gave both phones back, now working as if they were made for the wizarding world.
As soon as the general excitement about the mobile phones had ebbed down a bit, Harry remembered what had originally triggered him to try to get the mobile phones to work. The Charm he had invented for the phones was obviously too weak for his notebook, and Harry and Lily had to start all over in order to find a Charm strong enough to work on the computer.
Finally, the summer holidays started, so that they had more time for their research. In the morning, Severus and Harry were still researching the wolves cure. So far, however, they hadn’t made any progress and still had to brew the potion for the nearly two hundred werewolves coming to the Ministry to take their potion every month. Apart from these people, they still had thirty werewolves coming to Riddle Manor in order to test new potions every month.
However, during the last year, Harry and Severus had tried so many ways of making the potion with so many different ingredients that it slowly became difficult to invent any more different mixtures.
-----
One evening after a long day of research and a Quidditch game with the teachers after dinner, Harry was very tired and went to bed early. Lily talked to him for a few minutes before she asked Severus to check on the child and tuck him in. Finally, Severus left Harry’s room, leaving the door slightly ajar, and proceeded to sit next to Lily on the sofa. While they were waiting for the other teachers, who would be coming over for tea like they often did during the holidays, Severus and Lily spoke about the holidays and that it would be better for Harry to leave the castle with all the research again for at least two weeks.
Harry was already half asleep with one ear listening to his parents’ quiet talking, which was very comforting. Suddenly, a phoenix appeared in a flash of fire and sat down next to Fawkes. Within seconds, Harry was wide awake and sat in his bed, getting especially alarmed, when he heard Fawkes trill #Albus!#