Potions and Snitches
Snape and Harry Gen Fanfiction Archive

Chapter 2
"Yes," Harry whispered, barely loud enough for Severus to hear, "Mum wrote a letter."
"How did you come about this letter?" Severus Snape asked.
"My aunt threw an old box of my mum's stuff in the trash. Inside there was a picture of you and mum, the letter, and my birth certificate," Harry was talking a little louder now.
"Could you-," the unusually nervous man stopped. "Could you tell me what the letter said?"
Harry almost sighed in relief that the professor wasn’t upset. "Sure. I'll show it to you later. It was actually to you but I was only seven when I found the box in the bin so I didn't know who you were.
"About a year after you and Mum were married, she found out she was going to have me. I didn't really get this part but, she said she was afraid he would get me if she stayed with you. Even though it was the hardest thing she ever had to do, she told you that she had cheated with James and that I was his. She knew that he would take her in because he was her best friend and he had always loved her. She said she was positive that you would never want to talk to her again because James was your worst enemy.
"That's all it said, except that she loved you and that she was sorry," Harry finished.
"But…" Severus began, trying to process it all, "why don't you look like me?"
"She found some old spell," Harry informed the older man. "It didn’t say how it worked, just the incantation but I couldn’t find it in the library. It said I would start to look like you once you found out, though.”
"Well," Severus Snape said, his voice still soft, but louder than it had been, "if you would like, you could stay with me for the summer."
"What?" Harry cried. How could he possibly be saying that? "Leave the Dursley's?"
"I understand that you want to stay with your aunt and uncle. I am sure that you wouldn't want to live with me."
Was it possible, could he really sound disappointed?
"No!" Harry exclaimed. "I mean, no, that's not what I meant. I meant that, well, you hate me."
"I don't," Severus said gently, a tone that did not seem to fit with the tall man’s persona at all. "I was angry at your mum for cheating on me and I took it out on you. I never hated you."
"So you really want me to live with you?" Harry asked hesitantly. "You really want me as your-" he paused, then whispered, "Son?"
"Of course, I do," the man said thickly. "Would you- would you like to live with me over the summer? Or perhaps just stay for a week or two if you are uncomfortable staying the whole break."
"I would really like it if I could stay," Harry mumbled, "for the whole summer."
"Excellent," the professor said, "why don't you come down after dinner tonight? We can speak some more and inform the headmaster of your decision."
"Alright," Harry said feeling happier than he had felt in quite a while.
"Do you think that your aunt and uncle will try to fight this?" the Potions Master suddenly said. "That you are choosing to live at my home?"
"Oh, no," Harry said quickly. "They hate me. They'll be really pleased that they don't have to waste any more money on me."
"Oh," Severus said. He was somewhat disturbed by this. He hadn’t seen Petunia since he was about 14 or 15 and Lily had rarely spoken of her and that mammoth husband of hers but she had never once spoken fondly of them. "You should be getting to your lesson now. I will inform Professor McGonagall that you were speaking with me later."
"Ok, sir," Harry said. "See you later."
"Yes," the older man replied distractedly, "goodbye."
Harry left the office and walked up the three flights of stairs to the second floor, where his Transfiguration lesson was nearly over.
"Mr. Potter!" Professor McGonagall said sharply, "I hope that you have a very good explanation as to why you are fifty minutes late for this lesson."
"Yes, ma'am, I was speaking with Professor Snape," Harry told the woman. "He said he would speak to you later."
"Very well, take your seat," she sighed.
"What happened?" Ron asked as soon as Harry sat down.
"Why did Professor Snape keep you for so long?" Hermione whispered at the same time.
"Tell you later," was all he said.
~~~~~HP~~~~~
"Come on, Harry," Ron whined after their last class of the year. "Tell us!"
"Alright, let's go to the library," he sighed heavily. "We've got half an hour before dinner."
The three friends trudged to the library. Most of the other young witches and wizards were outside enjoying the lovely weather but Harry still found a table in a secluded back corner of the library.
"Tell us, Harry, please," Hermione begged.
"I dunno if you guys will believe me," Harry muttered "but, well…here read this and then I'll answer any questions."
Ron and Hermione read the piece of parchment. After a few moments, Ron decided to say something.
"Harry," Ron said quietly, as not to incur Madame Pince's wrath, "there's been a mistake here. It says that Snape's your dad!"
"I don't think that there has been any mistake, Ronald!" Hermione snapped.
"No," Harry said as he felt fear well up in the pit of his stomach at the thought of losing his best friends, "it's not a mistake, Ron. He and my mum were married. I found a letter along with this when my aunt tossed them five years ago. It said-"
"You've known for five years and you never told us?" Hermione asked angrily. "How come you didn't tell us?"
"That's a good question, Harry," Ron agreed. "I thought we were your best friends."
"You are!" Harry exclaimed. "At first, when I found out that my dad was here, I was going to tell him right away and then you guys would have known. But he was so mean to me on our first day that I decided never to tell anyone. I didn't want any chance of him finding out from anyone."
"Then how did he find out?" Hermione questioned. If Harry had decided never to tell anyone then how had the Potions Master found out?
"Well," Harry said embarrassedly, "I keep my birth certificate in a journal. It reminds me that I am not an orphan and that I might have someone out there who-” Harry broke off thickly, “someone who would love me. I usually leave it in my bedside table but I guess I put it in my bag by mistake. It fell out when Dean bumped me and my bag fell. Professor Snape found it on the floor."
"Well, mate, I may not like him much but as long as he's nice to you, that's all that matters," Ron said throwing an arm around his best friend.
"I agree with Ron, Harry," Hermione said. "You are our friend. It shouldn't matter who you are related to."
Harry felt the relief wash over him like a warm, comforting wave. He had been terrified that he would lose the only two people who had ever cared about him (besides his parents). Now that he knew he wouldn’t, it seemed like everything about this strange, somewhat scary situation was a little bit better.
~~~~~HP~~~~~
Harry ate dinner slowly, thinking about his talk with his father later that evening. He was scared and excited all at the same time. Scared because he still wasn't sure of his dad and how he would react. Bur Harry was also excited because his father had offered to let Harry live with him for the summer.
All too soon, he found himself outside Professor Snape's office. He knocked very softly on the big oak door. When no one came right away, Harry turned and started to walk away down the dark corridor. He stopped, however, when he heard the door creak open.
"Harry?" the Potions Master called uncertainly. "Are you there?"
"Yeah," Harry answered, walking back to the office, "I'm here."
"Come on in," Severus said. "We have a lot to talk about."
The duo walked into the nice, cozy living room. Severus motioned for Harry to sit down. He chose the brown leather armchair he had sat in earlier that day. Severus left and, after a minute, returned with a tray that had tea things upon it.
"How do you like your tea?" Severus asked as he poured a cup.
"A bit of milk and four spoons of sugar, please," Harry replied softly.
Severus was dumbstruck. That was exactly how he took his tea. He'd always thought it to bitter. To counter the bitterness, he had always added a healthy amount of sugar or honey.
"Are you ok, sir?" Harry asked, after a moment of Severus sitting still.
"That's- I am just a little surprised." At Harry's confused look he elaborated, "That is how I take my tea."
"Oh," Harry said uncertainly, not sure how to process this information. He knew that he and his professor were biologically related but hearing the man tell him that they took their tea exactly the same somehow made it more real to him.
After his father was done pouring the tea the younger Snape asked, "So, what do you want to talk about?"
"Well," he took a long sip of tea before continuing. "Mostly, I wanted to use tonight to figure out arrangements for this summer and to talk with Headmaster Dumbledore."
"I thought-" he broke off quickly, shaking his head, "forget it."
"No, tell me," Severus insisted. "You can tell me anything."
"I thought you wanted me to stay with you this summer?" Harry spoke barely above a whisper.
"I do," Severus smiled, "but according to the Ministry, you have to live with your aunt and uncle. We need to change your legal guardian from them to me."
Oh, ok," Harry said. "How do you do that?"
"Well," Severus began. He took a drink of his sugary tea and continued, "I was going to talk to the headmaster about it because it can take a long time to go through all the paperwork and such. I believe we can avoid those obstacles, though, if we go to them directly and get them to sign over custody of you."
“S-see the Dursleys?” Harry stammered, fear flashing briefly in his eyes. “Why? They won’t look for me or tell anyone I’m not living there; they’ll probably throw a party when I don’t come back.”
Severus was again worried by Harry’s adamant denial that his family would miss him. Surely they cared for each other. They had been a family since the preteen was a toddler, after all. There had to be some sort of familial attachment.
“Mr. Po- Harry,” the sallow-skinned man corrected himself, “if I do not get custody of you and it is found out that you are staying with me, I could be charged with kidnapping.”
“But you’re my father,” the young boy tried to convince the older man. “How can you kidnap your own child?”
“Perhaps I wouldn’t be arrested for kidnapping,” he conceded, “but I could still be arrested for custodial interference. I could be fined or sentenced to a stay in Azkaban, which is probably what would happen, given who you are. Then I would never be allowed to have custody of you.”
Harry tried to hide his trepidation about seeing the only family he had ever known. The look of fear that passed over the young wizards face was not missed by the Potions Master.
“You’ll be with me?” he asked hesitantly.
“Yes,” Severus answered slowly, forehead crinkling in confusion and worry. “Why?”
“Oh,” Harry said, flustered, “I just…they won’t probably believe me if you aren’t.”
“Rest easy,” he assured the fearful child. “I shall be there the whole time. We will only be there long enough to get their signatures and anything that you have there that you would like to take. As soon as that is done, we will go to my…our home now, in Peacehaven. It’s a small town in East Sussex.”
Harry still looked apprehensive but he said no more. He was too focused on what the professor had said
Our home now.
Our home.
The neglected child had never had a home before. Oh, he had had a house to go to and sleep in and keep his tattered, second hand possessions in but it wasn’t a home. A home was a place where you felt safe and warm and happy, a place where someone who loved you was waiting with a hug and a kind word. It was a place where you had a room to call your own with a comfy bed and a wardrobe full of your clothes; a place that you ate breakfast, lunch, and dinner. It wasn’t a place where you were treated like vermin and expected to serve as a house elf. It wasn’t a place where you were told you were an unwanted freak who should have died instead of being placed as a burden on your hardworking, decent relatives. It wasn’t a place where you were screamed at and thrown into the cupboard that served as your room. It wasn’t a place where you only got to eat maybe half as many meals of scraps as a healthy person should have.
He had a home now.
A home with a father who wanted him, who would maybe, one day, even love him.
Harry prayed that that day would come soon.
“Harry, are you alright?” the Potions Master asked, his eyes crinkled with concern as he leaned towards his son to see what the matter was.
“Huh?” he blinked, pulled from his reverie.
“Are you alright?” the man repeated, concern lacing his silky voice. “I have been calling your name for three minutes.”
“I’m fine,” the young wizard muttered. “Just thinking.”
“Are you sure you’re alright?” the elder Snape asked. Harry nodded so he said, “If you are sure, we should head up to the headmaster’s office. He has contacts in the correct departments of the Ministry that can get us the correct forms for your relatives to sign. It could take weeks, otherwise.”
The tall man led his short statured son to the fireplace so they could Floo up to the headmaster’s office.
~~~~~HP~~~~~
After a short twist through the emerald green fire, Harry tumbled out into the office of the eccentric old man that ran the school. His father helped him off the floor and brushed away some of the soot that had adhered itself to his robe.
“Severus,” Professor Dumbledore spoke, startling both of his visitors, “I must say, this is very strange indeed. If Harry is in some sort of trouble, it is customary to use the door, not the Floo that can only be accessed from a professor’s personal quarters where students are not allowed, if I might remind you.”
“I believe that rule is void,” Severus smirked, “if the student in question is related to the professor whose quarters he is in.”
“I realize that the Potters and the Princes are related,” Dumbledore sounded confused, “but your relation to James as fifth cousins is not the kind of relationship that is an exception.”
“No,” Severus agreed, “it would not. However, the relationship of father and son should be sufficient.”
Dumbledore tried to feign shock but the Potions Master had much experience when it came to dealing with the meddling old coot before him. He could see the smile in his eyes, even though the rest of his face was covered in shock.
“You knew,” the suddenly (and rightly so) furious man hissed. ”You knew he was my son all along, didn’t you?”
“Why, Severus,” the white haired warlock began in a tone of fake confusion, “I have no idea what-“
Severus cut him off.
“Don’t you dare,” he leaned forward to give his growl more emphasis. “Don’t you dare try to tell me you didn’t know. I can tell you did, you lying, cheating, manipulative bastard!”
Harry’s mouth fell open in shock. He had never heard anyone speak so harshly to or of the headmaster that way, not even Mr. Malfoy about the Chamber.
“Now,” Severus continued in a slightly less hostile tone, feeling that he had gotten his point across rather well, “tell me the truth or you will find yourself short one Potions Master and one celebrity student.”
The old wizard sighed and gestured for the pair to sit, which they did.
“Shortly after Halloween 1979,” Dumbledore began his story, “Lily came to me, highly distraught. When I managed to calm her down, she told me that you were married and that she was expecting. She begged me to get you out of your position as a spy. I told her that doing that would surely mean your death, as it would have, had I pulled you out then.
“When I had her convinced that I could not do that, she insisted that I help her hide her child from you. She was afraid that her baby would be in grave danger, should it become known that he or she (she didn’t know what it was at the time) was the son of a De-”
Severus cut him off.
“I shall ask you to leave that part out of it, Albus,” he said sharply, a fierce glare affixed to his face.
“Of course, of course, my boy,” Dumbledore agreed. “At any rate, she was afraid of the danger the child would be in if it was found out that you had wed and reproduced with a Muggle-born woman.
“After about a week or research, I figured out how to do it.
“I found a spell that has fallen out of use in today’s society as the result can be achieved with certain potions. This spell, however, it more effective and is potentially permanent, unlike the potions.
“The spell changes the appearance of a woman’s child from an extramarital…excursion, shall we say, to look like it is the child of her husband. If either man found out who the true father was, the spell would slowly begin to wear off. It takes a bit of the surrogate father’s magic and weaves it with the child genes to make them appear to be the surrogate’s own flesh and blood.
“We made plans for her to tell you of a betrayal so terrible that you would never look back at her. That is how we came up with James; you would never again be able to share a bed with a woman who had been with someone you hated so deeply. It would make sense to the rest of the world as well, as they did date during their seventh year after you and Lily had that falling out when you were fifteen.
“As long as she never told you that her son was really your son as well and didn’t tell James the name Harry’s biological father, no matter how certain he was of who it was, we wouldn’t have any problems. She was going to tell you when it was safe, my boy. Truly, she was.”
“Then why, in Merlin’s name, did you not tell me after she was murdered?” Severus hissed angrily. “Why send him to her sister’s and make the world believe he was an orphan when he wasn’t. Why did you deprive me of the one good thing that I have ever done in my life?”
His voice steadily rose until, at the end, he was nearly shouting.
“I had thought,” the elderly man said calmly, “that with some of your old friends still around, he would be safer with his aunt’s family. I thought you would want him to be protected and that was the best way I knew how.”
“I could have protected him!” the livid father roared, standing from his chair so quickly that it toppled over with a loud clatter. “I would have done anything to protect him! I would have moved to bloody Antarctica to keep him safe! How can you think that I wouldn’t-”
“Severus,” the headmaster interjected loudly. “I really think you should-”
“Shut up!” Severus bellowed. “I don’t give a flying-”
“Severus!” Dumbledore said, louder still as he stood up. “Calm yourself at once! You can yell at me to your heart’s content later but right now you need to CALM DOWN.” He then pointedly looked towards Harry.
Still infuriated with the man, he followed his gaze to see what the headmaster was looking at.
What he saw made him want to sick up.
Harry had pulled his legs up to his chest with his arms tightly holding them there, as if to protect the soft flesh of his abdomen from an assault. The small boy’s breaths were coming in short gasps. His eyes were full of terror and they were darting around, seeming to look for an attacker.
Severus was shocked and horrified. The boy shouldn’t be reacting this way to some yelling. Sure, shouting could be a bit scary to a child but Harry was much more than a bit frightened. He was paralyzed with fear. Something wasn’t right here.
The still fuming Potions Master took several deep breaths before he addressed his new found son.
“Harry,” he said in a gentle tone that he hadn’t used in years. He crouched down in front of the chair so that he was at eye level with the short child, “I am sorry for frightening you but I am not angry with you. I am very mad at the headmaster but not you. Do you understand me?”
Harry looked up into the face of the sallow-skinned, hooked nosed man. The aforementioned man could still see fear shining in the bright green eyes but the boy nodded in answer to his query.
“How about we return to my rooms for a bit,” Severus suggested, still in that gentle tone that hadn’t been used since the morning Lily had told him that her child was the product of an affair with his boyhood enemy. “We can talk some more before you have to return to your dorm.”
Harry nodded again and unfolded himself from the chair. He stood up and the younger professor could see that the boy was trembling slightly.
Severus Snape led his twelve year old son to the Floo and sent him twisting through the fire before following the boy himself.
He stepped out of the fire to see Harry dusting the soot of himself. At first he wondered why the boy wasn’t using a cleansing charm but then it occurred to him that those charms were usually taught by parents. Harry had never had parents, at least not that he could remember, and it wasn’t like Petunia or her husband could have taught him. That was his job, now.
“Would you like to learn a charm that will clean the soot off of you?” the father asked his young son. “It is much easier than trying to brush all of the soot off.”
“That’d be great, sir,” Harry said quietly, still looking at the professor warily. “As long as it isn’t too much trouble.”
“It is no trouble at all,” Severus assured him. He pulled his wand from inside of his robes . “
“The incantation is Peniculus ters,” he informed Harry. “The wand movement is a sweep down the body starting at the head and going to the feet. I will demonstrate.”
He lifted his wand and quietly said the incantation, trialing his wand from the top of his head down to the floor. A soft blue glow followed the movements of the wand and he as soon free from the soot that covered his robes and hair.
“Now you try,” the professor encouraged his young student.
Harry grabbed his wand from his pocket and cast the spell. Immediately, he felt the gritty soot leave his body.
“Wow, that’s cool!” Harry said, his earlier fear waxing a bit. “Why didn’t Mrs. Weasley use that charm last year when she took us to Diagon Alley?”
“How many of you were there?” he asked as he sat in the armchair and gestured for Harry to take a seat as well. “The whole group of them?”
“Well, not Ron’s oldest two brothers,” the boy answered while he sat on the couch. “I’ve never met them. But Mr. and Mrs. Weasley and Percy and Fred and George and Ron and Ginny and I were there.”
“Ah,” Severus responded. “That’s it then. It’s a very taxing spell. You are essentially summoning each particle of soot and banishing them all at once. It is hard to do for yourself and one other person, let alone for three other people, which the Weasley parents would have had to do.”
“How come we’ve never learned that spell in class?” the twelve-year-old asked.
“These types of charms,” he said slowly, “hygiene charms, are usually taught to a child by their parents. Muggleborns take a class in the beginning of their first year to learn them. You must have gotten looked over because you have magical parents. The role for the class is determined by the enrollment scroll.”
Harry felt a thrill of happiness zing through him. His father, his father had taught him something that parents did.
Harry had not said anything in a short while so Severus broached the topic that he had been nearly sick over since they had been in the headmaster’s office.
“Harry,” the disturbed man began, “I would like to talk to you about what happened in the headmaster’s office.”
“What do you mean, what happened in the headmaster’s office? Nothing happened except you and him talked,” Harry said too quickly.
“I think we both know that something more was going on there,” Severus said quietly. “You were terrified when I was shouting at Professor Dumbledore. Why did that upset you so?”
“It didn’t upset-” Harry tried but Severus gave him a look that stopped the protest. “My uncle shouts at me a lot, that’s all. It startled me.”
Severus took a deep breath and sighed. This wasn’t working. He was going to have to try a more direct approach.
“No, Harry,” he countered, “you were much more than simply startled. You were petrified.”
He hesitated before asking the next question. The new father didn’t want to have to ask this because he didn’t want to her the answer.
“Does your uncle…hurt you, Harry?” the professor asked gently.
“What are you talking about?” Harry asked, his eyes going wide and his voice raising an octave.
“Uncle Vernon doesn’t hurt me. Why would you think that?”
“You’re aunt, then,” Severus pressed. “Someone has hurt you, child, and I want to make sure whoever is responsible pays.”
“No. NO! No one hurt me! No one hurt me!” Harry’s voice was loud and shrill. His eyes were full of terror. “Quit saying that! No one hurt me!”
The boy was so distraught that his eyes filled up with tears. His breathing quickened and his muscles went taught. The boy really was working himself up into a lather. If he didn’t calm himself down, he would make himself sick.
“Alright, Harry,” the Potions professor tried to sound reassuring and soothing. “You need to calm yourself else you shall get sick.”
The child nodded slightly but nothing about his current condition changed. He was still extremely tensed and in danger of hyperventilating.
Severus cautiously moved to sit beside the boy. Harry seemed to tense even more, although the older man could hardly believe that was possible.
“Harry,” he said slowly and softly, putting a hand on each shoulder, “I want to try something to help you calm down, alright? Do you think you could try that?”
Harry nodded stiffly so Severus said, “I want you to close your eyes and take a deep breath in.”
The black haired boy did.
“Good,” Severus said quietly, “now out. I want you to keep doing that. Now, I want you to think of a place where you feel safe and content and calm.”
Harry searched through his mind trying to come up with something. Certainly not his cupboard or Dudley’s second bedroom. The Gryffindor thought of his dorm but he didn’t have any special connection with it. It was just where he slept. He felt safe and content with Hagrid, mostly, but it didn’t really seem like a very calm place with Fang barking and Hagrid shouting. He loved the pitch but that was nowhere near safe or calm, so that wouldn’t do.
The one place he really felt safe and content and calm, the vulnerable child realized, was right here, with his father sitting next to him, the weight of his large but elegant hands comforting.
“Do you have a place in mind?” Severus inquired. Harry nodded, eyes still shut tight. “Alright, now just stay there and keep breathing until you feel all the tension relax away. Think of nothing else except your breathing.”
They both fell silent, only their deep, even breaths punctuating the air.
Suddenly, Severus was jolted from his stupor when the short boy slumped to the side. His head rested on the back of the couch and let out a tiny sigh.
The professor part of Severus Snape knew that he should wake the child up and send him to his dormitory but the father part of Severus Snape that was beginning to emerge didn’t want to wake him. Asleep, Harry looked much younger and very peaceful, much more relaxed than the professor had ever seen the boy around school. With his dark eyelashes resting on his pale cheeks that had a light flush on his cheek bones, the unusually small twelve year old almost looked…angelic.
The Potions Master had to physically shake himself. Where were these feelings coming from? Yes, the boy in front of him was his son, his son with his beloved Lily so of course he cared about him. He had always cared in a way, just because the child was part of his Lily. But now, there were feelings that went past simply caring about his safety. They were feelings that he hadn’t felt since he had closed his heart to the world over thirteen years ago, feelings that he hadn’t let himself feel since Lily had broken his heart.
He loved his child.
The cold, dour man didn’t know it was possible but he loved Harry. It didn’t matter that, until this afternoon, he still thought that the boy was what had made him lose the love of his life. He loved the child slumbering on the couch. He loved Harry because the boy was a part of himself and a part of his wife and, no matter what else happened, nothing could change that.
Smiling to himself, still flooded with love and care for his young son, Severus summoned a pillow and blanket to him before gently shifting Harry so that he was laying down.
After tucking the blanket, the Potions Master found himself stroking the thick black hair. He was surprised when Harry sighed again and turned his head towards the comforting pressure of the long fingered, thin hand.
He was even more surprised when he leaned down and pressed a soft kiss the boy’s forehead, just next to the famous scar that was a sign of the biggest tragedy in both of their lives.
To be continued...

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