Severus paced. Perhaps he had been rash. ‘Don't you wish he could be part of our family?' The new scroll of parchment sitting on the coffee table caught his eye, and he could not resist the urge to release a small smile. Despite the smile however, there was an irritating feeling inside. It was that of irrational fear that did not seem so irrational to Severus.

Luna had been easy to deal with in general, he told himself, despite her eccentricities, the several suitors she did not seem to be interested in, and her nature to act as if she were an adult. He could deal with these things, and felt he would find a way to deal with whatever else the girl came up with, be it gnome dust or the candles she lit to guide the fate sprites, or something else.

Harry was different though. Hadn't he given the child detention too many times for sneaking out after hours? Had the teenager not spent detention with every other professor in the school at least once for some sort of mis-recreation, as Minerva had put it? Granted, there was the possibility that some of those had been unfair (especially most of his own), but the fact remained. This was a teenage boy almost sure to cause a headache each day.

Severus eyed the parchment once more before he sat down with his head in his hand. The question was, was he willing to deal with these things? He'd dealt with similar in his house each day, but his house had a certain level of fear and respect for him, one that Potter did not seem to have for his own head of house as he flaunted every school rule. Bad parenting, came an unbidden voice in the back of his mind, and that can be changed, he thought in response.

He sat for another full hour thinking of the different troubles the boy might get into, and asked himself of each one, ‘Do I want to deal with that?" The answer was not always yes, but in answer to the question, ‘Will I survive?', the answer was the same.

Making up his mind and finally feeling at peace with it, Severus left the scroll where Luna might see it if she came in, and prepared himself for the day of classes ahead. He smiled on the way out.

* * *

"Ah!" Harry leapt out of the way as a firework exploded in the face of a dragon and tried to bite him.

Ron and Hermione laughed but then ran for cover when Harry chose a blue colored snap and hurtled it at Ron's head, where it hit home and exploded into a gush of water that soaked his friend down to his sneakers.

"Ha!" Harry shouted. Ginny giggled at his side and so did Hermione across the clearing.

"Hey!" Ron shouted, wiping water from his eyes. "If you're going to play that way then you can have a taste of your own magic!" Before Harry knew what was happening, Ron had tackled him and Harry went over backwards into the lake, Ron going with him into the shallow pool they played beside.

"That's not fair," Ginny said quietly. "You didn't use a snap to push him in!" But Ron wasn't listening, and neither was Harry as Harry pushed Ron's head under, only to be dragged under himself. When they resurfaced they both laughed and splashed each other with water. They didn't notice the visitors they had.

"Hi Hermione."

Hermione and Ginny turned to find Neville and Luna, and both sets of eyes traveled down to the pair of hands that were intertwined. Ginny grinned and Hermione raised her brows with a small knowing smile. She'd known for some time that Neville liked Luna, and had it on good authority from Ginny that Luna liked him as well.

"It's a lovely day for a swim, although a bit chilly," Luna commented at Harry and Ron still splashing, despite the wind that had picked up and the leaves that had almost all fallen from the trees as winter readied itself to descend upon them.

"We were playing Exploding Snap," Hermione said. "Harry doused him with a water snap and Ron took him into the lake."

Ginny nodded and said, "Better them than us." This was when she noticed that Luna had let go of Neville's hand and taken two or three steps back, but it was too late to turn and see that Harry and Ron were no longer splashing but were instead near to Ginny and Hermione's ankles. Both girls screamed as Ron and Harry yanked hard and they went into the water.

"Oh! It's cold! It's cold!" Hermione screamed, and Ginny set about to splashing Harry and trying to push him under.

"I'm glad they're having fun," Neville commented as someone splashed too hard and he got a face full of water.

"Yes, they do seem to be enjoying themselves now that Harry is back to normal."

She smiled serenely as Neville looked at their friends and how much fun they were having, and then back at Luna. He was taken off guard by her though when she said, "Would you like to throw me into the lake Neville?" She looked at him to see his grin, and then closed her eyes as he had picked her up and run into the water with her in his arms, small as she was.

No one spied the teenagers taking the time to be children while they still could, although Severus, Albus, and Minerva guessed at what had happened as they spied the soaking group walking up through the castle at different points, and at the smile on all of their faces, the staff were happy.

* * *

Harry Potter's face was red. The bright shade of red you'd expect on a clown's nose in fact. It wasn't every day that you were caught in an embarrassing situation and then hauled down through the castle to the dungeons to face what you were sure would be an angry man whom you'd come to respect. It was more than that really, Harry pondered as he waited in Professor Snape's empty office. He'd finally begun to consider himself part of Severus and Luna's family, at least in the way that he felt he was perhaps wanted and not despised. Hadn't he been happy, almost overtly so in the past couple of weeks? He'd certainly heard comments between Ron and Hermione to that effect, and Ron had told him he was glad to have his friend back. Harry had to agree, as he certainly had felt as though he had gone on a long journey and not yet returned. He was back now though.

Back to trouble, he thought as he fidgeted with his hands. Professor Sprout had blown things way out of proportion in his opinion. There was really no need to drag Ginny up to the Hospital Wing, as if Harry had done something to harm her. Really, all they'd been doing was kissing in the corridor. A dark corridor. And maybe hugging a little close. But that was beside the point! He hadn't really done anything wrong at all! How many times had he seen students doing the same thing? Wasn't he allowed to do the things other normal teenagers were?

Feeling uncomfortable waiting around in the empty office for his fate, Harry at least took comfort in the fact that Severus would believe him. He had to, right? Hadn't Harry proven himself already? He felt that he certainly must have or else the man wouldn't be so kind to him now. Harry finally felt worthy of someone's affection, and he was confident things would turn out fine.

His confidence faltered when the door to the office banged open and almost hit him, and then shut abruptly again. Severus stood there with his hands on his hips as though he'd already had his mind made up, and Harry's face reddened again at the stare.

"I just had a most interesting conversation with Professor Sprout," he said in a voice calmer than his face called for. "Do you have any idea what it entailed?"

Harry bit his lip and raised his brows. Oh, he bet he did know.

"Uh..." Harry didn't want to say anything more than that though, which was fine because Severus began talking again.

"That young man you claim to be looking after Severus has just been caught in a dark secluded corridor with a young woman. I've had to take her to the Hospital Wing to talk to Poppy. Perhaps you should talk to Harry about you know what before he makes a little you know what and has to learn the hard way how these things work!" The replay of what she'd said was very punctuated as though Sprout had actually spoken that way, and he bet she had.

Severus was red now too at having to repeat what had been said to him. "What do you have to say for yourself?" That calm voice was gone and Harry bit his lip.

"It's not what you think. She's making a huge deal out of it. We weren't doing anything really."

"Oh? Why has she taken Miss Weasley to the Hospital Wing then?"

Harry put his hand up to his face. "I have no idea," he said, voice muffled by his hand as it slid down. "We wouldn't do anything in public."

"But you would in private?"

"Ugh. I didn't say that!"

In the split second before the next words left his mouth, Severus thought back to the list of things he'd gone over in his mind that he would be ready and willing to deal with if Harry did them. This was not one of those things he'd thought of, and he said loudly, "You think I wanted this Harry?! You think I wanted to deal with these kinds of things?"

When Harry hadn't responded and Severus looked to the boy's face to see that tears had welled up in his eyes but not yet trailed down, it was already too late to take back what he'd said. For while he said one thing, Harry heard another.

Harry's heart felt like it would explode in pain. Snape didn't want him after all. Hadn't he just said he didn't want to deal with him? Didn't want to deal with the things a normal teenage boy did? Maybe Harry wasn't normal... wasn't deserving. He would never be.

Backing out of the room before the tears splashed down his face Harry took one last look at the man's face, noting that it seemed off somehow, and then ran. He didn't know where he was going, only that it had to be far away from here. The thought of an alley somewhere and food from a trash can seemed fitting for him and he tore out of the dungeons and out the front door of the castle. He didn't even deserve Ginny, and would not be able to go back for her until he did, if he was ever able to go back at all.

Harry was halfway across the grounds when a boulder smashed sideways into him and took him down to the grass painfully. He barely had time to register that perhaps it had been a person who had tackled him and not a boulder when Snape's voice said urgently, "Not this time Harry. I'm not letting you disappear this time. You're going to have to find a way to deal with it instead of running from it."

"No! I hate you! I hate you!"

Harry pounded on Severus' chest, hurt and upset that he had been lured into a false sense of security once again. He had been lead to believe that perhaps things could turn out all right for him in the end, that he might actually be able to have a family, and now he knew it was all a lie. Everything was always a lie, even his hopes and dreams.

"Me too Harry," Severus said desperately, still trying to restrain the boy's arms as he kneeled on the wet grass in the middle of the day, "I hate me too Harry, for saying something like that to you. You didn't deserve that, and you have every right to be upset, but please, please don't run."

"Why? You promised me! You promised I wouldn't have to do it alone anymore! And you don't even want me! Nobody ever does!" He fell face first to the ground and began crying with full force. He would never be whole, and his heart was ripping to shreds as he finally admitted that some things were not meant to be, and his happiness was one of them.

"I do."

It was a solitary voice in the quiet grounds, soft and certain. Harry wanted to take reassurance from it, but couldn't.

He sat up and dried his eyes on his sleeve and said, "I hate you for giving me faith in nothing. I need you and I can never feel safe. I can never know that you won't just kick me out on my arse."

There was silence between them as they looked into each other's eyes.

"Yes you can," came the lone voice in the wild that was life, "Be my son."

"Wh- what?"

Severus' voice cracked for perhaps the first time since he was sixteen as he said, "I had the adoption papers drawn up last week. I was just waiting for the right time to ask. I can't promise you I'll be the perfect parent, but I can promise you I'll be there."

Silence floated between them then, and before he knew what was happening, Severus found himself with an armful of shaking teenager covered in mud and wet grass. They sat there like that on the grounds as the sky turned to twilight, and were content not to rise and go inside. Harry was content not to move ever. He was going to have a family. He finally had a family.