Harry sighed as he looked out the window above his desk once more. Like most ten year olds, he would love to be outside flying his broom, or playing in the garden; but it was raining. Even if the weather had permitted, he wouldn’t have been able to enjoy those activities. No playing outside was only one part of his punishment that had begun that morning.

In the past, Harry’s marks had always been good; not the top of his class, but decent enough. Recently however, they had started to slip, much to his parent annoyance.  They had warned Harry, if he failed to turn in any more of his homework, he would be grounded for the weekend. That meant no playing outside, no TV, no dessert and, worst of all, absolutely no flying. Harry had grumbled about how unfair his parents were being, but there wasn’t much he could do about it.

A week after his parents had issued that warning, Harry had not only failed to turn in his homework assignment, but he had not even attempted to complete it; the essay that was currently sitting in front of him. He hadn’t planned on telling his parents about the missing homework, or showing them the note his teacher had sent home yesterday afternoon. He might have even got away with it too, if his mum, Lily, hadn’t chosen to pack his book bag for him this morning.

Upon finding the note from Harry’s teacher, Lily had delivered a harsh lecture. Harry had just shrugged her off, until Lily said she was going to owl Harry’s father as soon as she returned from dropping him off at school. Harry’s face blanched at statement and he began to beg his mother to not tell his father.  But, no matter how much begging Harry did, Lily refused to change her mind.

When Harry got home that afternoon he was ordered straight up to his room to do his homework until his father came home. Harry wasn’t looking forward to that in the least. Harry didn’t dislike his father, yes he was a strict man, but he was fair. No, what Harry hated was the sound of disappointment that always was in the man’s voice when he was left to discipline Harry.  

There was a knock on Harry’s door.

“Harry, may I come in?” The deep baritone of his father’s voice was slightly muffled by the oak door.

“Yeah, sure,” Harry called out. “Not like I can stop you…” he added quickly under his breath. Harry twisted himself in his chair in the direction of the doorway as it creaked open. Severus Snape stood in the doorway. He still wore his heavy black teaching robes.

“Hi,” Harry greeted offering the man a weak attempt at a smile.

“Good evening,” Severus said coming into the room.

“Did you just get home? I mean you’re still in your school robes.” Harry inquired nervously.

“I arrived a few moments ago. Your mother tells me you failed to turn in yet another homework assignment.” Severus said mildly.

“Err…. Yeah, but we can talk about it after you get changed…” Harry offered fidgeting in his seat.

“I do not appreciate your attempts to delay this conversation, Harry.” Severus said annoyance already evident in his voice.

He must have had a bad day at school. Harry thought to himself.

“Did you complete the assignment or simple fail to hand it in?” Severus inquired.

Harry bit his lower lip and shook his head.

“I would appreciate a verbal response, Mr. Potter,” Severus said crossing his arms over his chest.

“No, sir,” Harry said his voice barely above a whisper. Definitely had a bad day if he’s using my last name already, I haven’t even done anything yet.

“What was that, Mr. Potter?” Severus said crossing his arms over his chest.

“No, sir,” Harry said speaking up just a bit.

“No what?  Did you do the assignment?" 

"No sir. I didn't do the assignment," Harry clarified.

"I assume, when your mother picked you up after school she asked you if you had homework. Am I correct?”

“Yes, sir.”

“What did you tell her?” Severus said, already knowing the answer.

“I said no.”

“You said ‘no’.  You lied to your mother. Again, before we went out to eat, did I not ask you if you had any homework?”

“Yes, sir,” Harry said.

“What did you tell me Mr. Potter?”

“I said I didn’t have any. I didn’t lie though…I forgot. We got that assignment weeks ago,” Harry said. He hated when Severus did this. As if he didn’t already feel miserable enough, they had to go everything all over again.

“I see. So, when I asked every night and multiple times this weekend if you had homework, and you said no, you were lying then. That makes things so much better Harry,” Severus replied acerbically.

“Fine, Dad, I lied. I know I lied! I know I let you down! We don’t have to go over all of this! I already know!” Harry yelled as he slammed the heel of his hand into the front of the desk. There was enough force in the strike to rattle the desk and tip over the pencil jar, but not much else.  

“It would be in your best interest if you remembered who the parent is and who the child is here, Mr. Potter,” Severus rebuked.

Harry said nothing. Instead he chose to cross his arms over his chest and fume.

Severus decided to take a seat on the bed where he could more comfortably watch the boy. Most likely the boy would break within a few minutes apologizing for his disrespect and would inquire what his punishment was. After five minutes of awkward silence, Severus lost his patience and snapped at Harry to knock it off. Harry just shot him a glare. “Come over here, Harry.”

Harry glared again. “You gonna spank me?”

“If you don’t stop acting like a spoiled two-year old perhaps; now get over here.” Severus snapped.

Harry hesitated for a moment before joining his father on the bed. Severus waited for Harry to situate himself on the bed before speaking.

“If you already know that you lied and have let not only me, but your mother down, perhaps you will tell me about the assignment that you considered so unworthy of your time. Seeing as how you had ‘weeks’ to do it."

“It wasn’t like that, I just didn’t know how,” Harry grumbled in frustration. He felt like a tiger trapped in too small of a cage; he just wanted to get up and move, but his dad wouldn’t even let him do that.

Harry’s answer was not the response Severus had been expecting. Most of the time when Harry failed to do an assignment it was because he “forgot” or it was “stupid”. He had already received one of the normal excuses; it was quite probable that Harry was telling the truth.

“If you were having difficulty with the assignment Harry, why did you not ask for assistance?” Severus asked, his voice becoming much softer.

“Cause it’s stupid. I should be able to write a stupid essay without having to ask to help,” Harry muttered.

“And yet here we are. Now, what was the assignment?” Severus asked mildly.

“It’s right there,” Harry said pointing towards the notebook on desk rather dejectedly.  “Why am I over here by the way?” He asked as he flopped back onto the bed.

“I was planning on spanking you, but don’t change the topic,” Severus said as rose from the bed and crossed the room in three long strides.

At the top of the sheet of notebook written in Harry’s somewhat messy hand was the prompt for his essay, “What makes a family?” There were a number of attempted starts and crossings out beneath it.

Severus looked back to the boy who had now covering his eyes with one arm. Harry looked absolutely miserable. It occurred to Severus, at that moment, that he had never once considered the question himself.

When he was a child he would have said a family was a mother and a father.  Even if he didn’t like his own, they shared the same blood that made them a family. Maybe it wasn’t that different now. No, that wasn’t true. He and Lily had been married for seven years. They had had three children twin daughters Dahlia and Iris, and a son Julian. But there had to be more to family than sharing the same blood. His love for Harry was no different than his love for his three biological children. Even before he had married Lily, Severus had considered Harry his son.

James, Harry’s biological father, had been murdered by an evil wizard, Voldemort, when Harry was only a little over a year old. James had scarified himself trying to protect Lily and Harry from being killed.  Severus may have been the only father Harry could remember, but Severus knew Harry still loved James. No matter how much Severus had disliked James in life, he refused to let Harry forget how much James had loved and sacrificed for him; not even James Potter deserved that kind of disrespect. Severus could understand why the boy was having trouble with the essay. 

 “I told you it was stupid,” Harry said coming to stand at Severus’ shoulder.

“It is not a stupid question. I, for one, have never considered this question and could understand why you might have difficulty answering it,” Severus said his eyes moving from the paper to Harry’s emerald orbs.

“Really? So, does that mean I get off punishment?” Harry asked hopefully.

“You cannot honestly think you would get off that easily,” Severus said smirking slightly. “The fact that it is not an easy question to answer, does not change the fact that you did not complete the assignment, or that you lied to both your mother and myself.”

Harry frowned.

“It was your choice Harry,” Severus reminded the boy.

“Yeah, I know.” Harry said, shrugging slightly. He refused to make eye contact with Severus. Instead he chose to address his question to his sneakers. “You keep saying it’s a hard question to answer, what do you mean?”

“For example, I felt responsible for you, as a parent would their own child, even before your mother and I wed.” Severus explained.

“Yeah, what about when my da– when James was alive?” Harry asked.

“You know you may refer to James as ‘Dad’, I will take no offence.  James is just as entitled to the title as I am. When your father was alive I still cared about your mother deeply, but only as my best friend.”

Harry cocked his head to the side. There was something odd about the way Severus had said that. “What about me?” Harry asked, his curiosity obvious.

“I cared for you as the child of my best friend. But, like your mother, you belonged to him.” There was a note of distaste in Severus’ voice in the reference to James.

This last statement did not seem to put Harry any further at ease.

“Harry, look at me,” Severus commanded gently.

Severus waited until Harry’s emerald eyes locked with his own before continuing. 

“It would have been inappropriate for me to think of you, or your mother, as anything other than a friend and her child when your father was alive. What is important now is that you are aware that I love you.  I see you no differently from any of your siblings. You know that, correct?” Severus asked softly.

Harry nodded.

“Good, now I think it’s time I leave you to work on your essay,” Severus said rising from his seat and motioned to Harry to take the now vacant seat. Once Harry was seated he gave the boy’s shoulder reassuring squeeze before moving towards the door. Just as he was about to leave Harry’s voice broke the quite.

“Err… Dad, what about my punishment,” Harry asked biting his lower lip.

Severus turned on his heel and looked back to his son. “Ah, yes your punishment, I had nearly forgotten about that. Let’s see there was the weekend long of grounding for not turning in your homework and how about a week each for lying to your mother and I. That would make it two and a half weeks total. Does that sound agreeable to you Mr. Potter?”

“Not really,” Harry grumbled.

“Perfect. Now you have work to do.” Severus pointed toward the notebook.

Biting his lip again Harry looked hopefully. “Err… Dad, can you help me? Please?” His voice was so soft Sever had to strain to hear it.

“Of course I will, Harry. I will return in a few moments,” Severus said before turning on his heel once and leaving the room.

Harry took the few moments to himself to write out the prompt onto a clean sheet of paper. Severus returned just as Harry completed this. Severus had changed out of his heavy teaching robes, in favor of a green Oxford shirt and grey trousers.

Severus took out his wand and conjured a chair, which he sat beside the boy. “How may I assist you with this assignment Harry?”

“Err… I don’t know… I think what makes a family is that people love each other and will support one another, no matter what… but you said before that when, James was alive, you didn’t love me and Mum other than as a friend and her son… so how did we get to be a family?” Harry clumsily twirled his pencil between his fingers as he spoke.

“That, Harry, like your essay, is not a simple question. There was no single moment that made us a family. Rather it is a process that has happened over a span of years, highlighted by noteworthy events that are still occurring,” Severus explained.

“Okay… so tell about the events,” requested Harry. 

“With pleasure, Harry, with pleasure…,” Severus said, an unfamiliar glint in his eye.