Beta credit goes to the brilliant Lady Destiny for being able to improve the chapter.
I can't beieve I forgot to do this: We don't own anything except for all ocs and the plot. We're not making a single knutt of this story! HP belongs to JK Rowling!
Half an hour later, Ivy finally fell asleep. Harry’s eyes widened as he watched his professor conjure a baby bassinet out of thin air. It was dark mahogany with green bumpers, accompanied by silver sheets.
Typical Slytherin, Harry though ruefully.
Snape sat on a chair at the little table as his student settled the infant in. As Harry laid the baby on her back, the potion master mused that he was seeing a new side of his most hated student for the first time.
This Harry and the Gryffindor Harry were two different people....at least from what he could tell. This Harry had really matured over the summer....where had he come from?
Harry yawned softly as he turned around to see Snape looking at him. He sucked in a deep breath and sat down on the bed. A moment later he looked at his professor. “I hate it when people stare,” he murmured softly. “What is it you wanted to talk about?”
“I should think you would know the answer to that, Potter. I would like to fully comprehend exactly what occured tonight. From the beginning to the end...and mind you don’t leave anything out…unless you’d like to me attain the knowledge through more…painful means.”
Harry glared but gave in and sighed. “When I got home at the beginning of Summer Break, I found out my aunt was pregnant...”
And so it continued. Harry tried to tell it in a matter of fact tone, he hardly wanted his teacher’s pity after all. As the tale grew in lenght, he witnessed several facial expressions pass over his normally stoic and emotionless professor’s face.
“I heard a gunshot as I got on the bus. My Uncle Vernon was cocking his gun just as I ran out the door. I don’t know if he hit anyone though. The only thing on my mind was to get out as fast as I could.”
Severus thought hard for a few seconds more. Then he leveled his penetrating stare at the boy.
“How long have you been abused?” came the toneless question.
“Sir?” Harry looked around, taken aback at the abrupt change in subject.
“Your uncle was drunk...and he had a gun. That spineless whale has no respect for anyone’s life save his own. I want the the truth, Potter. How long has this been going on?”
Harry stared down at the ugly bed sheet, fiddling around with a loose thread. He had already spilled his guts out to this man. He supposed it wouldn’t make a difference…Snape would either laugh at his pathetic weak student or curse him thoroughly for not telling the truth. He steeled his resolve and blurted out,
“For as long as I can remember, I’ve lived in a cupboard. The only reason I moved into Dudley’s second room was because my aunt and uncle were scared the wizards would come check up on me. I have at least 10 locks on my door and a cat flap that my meals come through. The only time I get a chance come out of the room is to make everyone’s meals and to do chores.”
Eyes cast down, Harry didn’t see Snape’s obsidian eyes flash with fury.
“Mr. Potter,” Snape’s dangerously soft voice startled Harry into glancing up at his teacher. “What possible reason did you have for withholding such crucial information?”
“Because I’d get in trouble, that’s why.” Came Harry’s swift reply.
He got up, agitated, and started pacing a hole in the ground. He could feel an enormous tantrum coming on, one he felt was very well deserved after being treated like a bloody house-elf for all of his short life.
“I tried to get help before,” he whispered harshly. “But all that got me was extra chores and harsher punishments. I even tried to confess to Dumbledore-”
He was interrupted by a pointed reply, “That’s Professor Dumbledore to you.”
Harry went on as if Snape hadn’t spoken.
“But all he did was give me the same old speech. ‘The blood wards have to remain intact, my dear boy’.” Harry mimicked bitterly. “If they weren’t then bloody Voldemort would attack the house. Besides I’m the effing savior of the Wizarding World and I need to toughen up. So I come home to relatives that don’t give a bloody damn about me and then at the end of summer I come back to school where everyone thinks I’m a ‘celebrity’ and depending on the situation I’ve gotten into, they hate me or they like me, without even knowing the REAL ME!”
Harry stopped his ranting and looked down at the floor sadly before admitting, “ I don’t even have any friends, except Hermione.”
“What of your red-headed sidekick?”
“He abandoned me last year. You think you see everything but did you see abandoned me, the way he suddenly stopped talking to me and became Seamus’ best friend. Everyone hated me last year...until I won the bloody tournament that I never wanted to enter in the first place. Then all of the sudden, everyone was my biggest fan.” Harry glared viciously.
He began to wind down as he plopped heavily on the bed. “I hate being famous” he continued in a softer voice. “All I want is to go through a year where I’m completely normal and no one’s trying to kill me. And now I’ve got Ivy to look after on top of all of that. I don’t know what I’m going to do with her, I doubt I can take her to Hogwarts with me.”
After that startling discovery, Severus stood up, arms crossed, and walked to stand by the nearest window. He stared unseeingly at the heavy traffic below for several minutes. Just as Harry was about to get sink into the floor, Snape turned around to face him. He glanced at his student and then at the baby. “Oh hell, there’s nothing for it,” he muttered.
He pulled out a small bag out of his voluminous black robes and tossed some powder into the mini fireplace. When the flames turned green, in a clear voice, he called out “Prince Manor.”
When he stuck his head in, he was quiet for a moment. Then he said, “Isadora, where’s your mother? I see, well go get her and have her come through immediately. Bring a cloak with you, it’s cold tonight.”
A few minutes passed and then Severus pulled his head back and two females stepped through the flame. They were definitely related. The older woman was tall and lithe with thick back hair pulled back in a loose braid down her back, letting a few inky strands frame her pretty face, offsetting her deep blue eyes. Her long dark purple dress fluttered gracefully around the black cloak wrapped snugly around her. A confused look currently adorned her visage. The little girl with her, who looked to be Hogwarts age, had the same dignified features as her father but with the elder woman’s eyes....wait.
“You have a family?” Harry blurted out, then blushed just a second later.
“Yes, Potter, contrary to popular belief I do have a personal life. This is my wife Brenna and our daughter Isadora. There’s no time to explain. There’s a lot to be taken care of tonight.”
With this, he turned to his wife. “I need to get back to the Dursley’s to find out what happened and to call the authorities if I have to. Harry and his cousin aren’t safe here. They need to be taken back to the manor.”
“Sev, shouldn’t the order have come by now?” Her soft trilling voice was a sharp contrast with her husband’s deep dark one.
“I was the one on guard duty,” Snape explained. “I followed Potter here and it is up to me to determine exactly what happened before I report to Dumbledore.”
Brenna smiled at her husband then pecked his lips (Harry quickly averted his eyes). “Alright then, be careful...and don’t accept any lemon drops.” She quirked an amused brow at him.
Severus chuckled quietly at the private joke before giving his daughter a brief hug and swept out the door.
Now that they were alone, Brenna walked over to shell-shocked Harry.
“I’m sure you’re very confused as to what’s going on but maybe you’ll have better luck with a full stomach.”
She walked over to the bed and picked up the sling. “I don’t trust anyone in this inn. The sooner we get back to the Manor, the better.”
As Harry put the sling on again, she walked over and delicately picked up Ivy before helping Harry put the infant in the sling.
Taking out her wand she shrunk the bassinet into the size that it would fit into her wand pocket and walked back over to the fireplace. Taking out a powder bag that was identical to the one Snape carried, she threw some into the cheerfully waving fire.
“Prince Manor!”
#4 Privet Dr.
Sirens filled the cool air as Snape appeared around the corner. Sparing a moment to transfigure his robes into a simple Muggle attire, he hurried around the corner to look around. Scotland Yard had been called in already and an inspector of Snape’s own age was kneeling over a prone form.
Severus walked right up to the man who was currently pulling off a pair of latex gloves, blowing brown hair off his sweaty forehead. His impressive mustache seemed to be drooping lightly as he stood up.
“Inspector?”
They looked each other over a second.
“That’s right, Inspector Matthew Forsyth of Scotland Yard at your service. What can I do for you?”
Severus took a moment to non-verbally cast a Veritas charm.
“I’m Severus Prince, a close friend to the Evans family, that’s Petunia Dursley’s maiden name. I was coming to visit them when I saw the sirens. Is everything okay?”
The inspector looked a little glazed. “I’m afraid not sir,” he replied regretfully. “Mrs. Dursley is dead, shot by her husband who fled the scene. From what the neighbors told us and the surrounding evidence.”
Severus nodded. “Vernon Dursley was always a drunk, I tried to tell Petunia not to marry him. He was dangerous, that one.” Severus paused a moment to soften his voice and add more grief to the tone. “I wish she’d listened to me. What of her children?”
“ I’m afraid Mr. Prince that Dursley took him as he left the house in a hurry. We’ve not seen the infant at all. We were told that Petunia had a child, we can only assume that she’s been taken with Dursley as well.
Severus sighed again. Could it be that Petunia had put up a fight over her baby?
“If Vernon was drunk, they could have gotten into a fight and he could have shot her.” Severus replied smoothly.
The inspector seemed to think this through. “It’s a possibility of course...I’m very sorry for your loss, Mr. Prince. If you don’t mind, I need to finish my inspection of the house.”
Severus nodded sadly. “Of course, thank you Inspector.”
When the inspector’s back was turned, Severus stalked away before disappearing into the night.
Harry looked about him; the room was amazing. He held Ivy closer as the same bassinet from before appeared in the room with several other pieces of nursery furniture. All were done in the same rich mahogany and seemed just as sturdy looking.
The walls around him were of a lighter wood he couldn’t identify but it gleamed and Harry could even see his reflection in it. The bassinet stood next to a full sized four poster bed with silvery hangings (Figures, Harry snorted). Off to the side was a fireplace burning brightly complete with a mesh screen of course.
Besides the bed there was a rocking chair, a changing table with small chest of drawers on it, carved with Isadora’s name in an elegant script. As he examined it, the name magically changed to say Ivy-Rose, Harry looked at Brenna again in gratitude.
“This is amazing,” he exclaimed. “It’s far more than I expected.”
Brenna smiled at him. “I fell in love with this room when I was carrying Isadora...Severus cast many child proofing spells on this room and though he’ll deny it to keep his foreboding image, he spent many a night in this room, rocking our daughter to sleep.”
“Hard to believe.” Harry muttered under his breath. But not wanting to seem obnoxious and unappreciative, he managed to nod at his professor’s wife.
“Indeed. I’ve spent a long time perfecting my sneer.”A new voice came through the door. It was so sudden that it caused Harry to startle and he turned around to see his teacher standing in the doorway with his arms crossed. But astonishingly the expression on his face was more wry then hateful.
Everyone was quiet for a moment until a soft snore broke the strained atmosphere. Harry looked down at his cousin, who was now fast asleep. He couldn’t help but chuckle, easing the tension.
Harry carefully placed his cousin into the bassinet and tenderly tucked the soft blanket around the infant. Then he turned around and asked, “What did you find out?”
Severus frowned. “Come with me Mr. Potter. We’ve a lot to discuss.”
Harry gave Brenna another thankful smile and then followed Severus to a room near the middle of the small mansion. He’d been given a brief tour of the house as they came in, but this wing had been glossed over.
He warily stepped into the room and quickly came to the conclusion that it was a massive office. Every wall but one was stocked with books. There was a fireplace that held a softly burning fire and a big curved desk sat in the very middle. In front of the desk was a very comfortable winged back chair made of very fine wood and upholstered in a rich green fabric (Really, he thought, this is getting to be a bit much!)
“Have a seat.” Snape ordered curtly as he sat in a matching chair behind the desk. He took a moment to get comfortable and called for tea and biscuits. Almost immediately, a diminutive elf that Harry instantly recognized as Winky appeared wearing a deep blue tea towel.
He shot his professor a surprised look.
After Winky bowed out, Severus poured the both of them a cup of tea. “The elf was drinking herself to death and her work was less than exemplary. So I bound her to me. Kindly do not tell your bushy haired friend but she is a lot happier since her freedom has been terminated.”
Harry couldn’t help but grin at the image of Hermione’s horrified face if she ever heard what their teacher had just said.
As Harry fixed his tea, Severus regarded his student with a thoughtful expression. When the boy settled back into the chair, Harry fixed expressionless stare at his teacher before he spoke.
“Aunt Petunia...she’s dead, isn’t she?”
Severus considered over his words before replying.
“Yes, Mr. Potter. I got to the crime scene as the Inspector was outlining her body with white chalk. Your Uncle is gone and so is Dudley. Most likely he took his idiotic offspring and ran. The police believe the same thing as well.”
“What about Ivy?”
“They hypothesize that she was taken with Vernon. I let them believe that. At least until we figure out what our next move is. That is something to talk about once we’ve both had a decent night’s sleep. But for now, seeing as you’ll most likely be staying here indefinitely, we need to, as the Muggles say, ‘bury the hatchet’.”
“I’m not my father sir...those memories I saw, I didn’t like seeing what the Marauders did...they remind me of my relatives.” Harry spoke freely, no longer hesitating after experiencing all that his teacher had done to keep him and his sister safe.
“After witnessing you take care of your cousin, I must agree and also apologize for treating yourself as such. You have more of your mother than you do James. Your mother and I grew up together. We both attended Hogwarts as you well know but we were best of friends until the day of the fight. I do not believe she ever really forgave me for what happened. But I hope to atone for my mistakes by keeping you alive...and helping you out.”
Harry was very quiet as he processed the information. “I don’t know much about my parents, I wasn’t allowed to ask questions at the Dursley’s. All I have of my parents is a photo album.”
Severus took another slow sip of his tea. “Perhaps I may give you a few memories to view...once everything is straightened out. There’s still much to discuss, however.”
Wide eyed, Harry quickly nodded. “Sir, consider the hatchet buried. I’m not going to hold anything against you.”
“Indeed. From now on I’ll strive to treat you better...like I said before, you have a place to stay from now on. We have plenty of room here. Once we’re at Hogwarts, be warned that though I must take up my surly and detestable persona, I want you to know that nothing I will say is to be taken seriously...unless of course it has to do with your abysmal potion skills.”
Harry chuckled, startling himself. Hmm, maybe the dour Potions Master has a sense of humor after all.
Severus was quiet for a moment and then looked at Harry.” I think it’s time we both got some sleep. Tomorrow will be a full day. My wife usually cooks breakfast around 9. Our appointment with the headmaster is at twelve. We’ll be meeting him at his office for lunch.”
Harry nodded. “But I haven’t got anything to wear...all my clothes are at the house.”
Severus nodded. “Yes. I remember. Tomorrow we were planning a trip to Diagon Alley for Isadora’s school supplies. We can get you some proper clothes while we’re there. As for your trunk, I can send Winky to retrieve it. I trust you got your summer homework completed?
Harry looked down at his lap, ashamed. “No sir, the moment I got into the house, my trunk was locked away. I was only able to keep my wand because I had it in my back pocket.”
“And so we shall also get you a wand holster, the last place you should keep your wand is your back pocket...unless you’d like to blow up your arse.”
Harry winced at the thought of his wand going off so close to his man parts.
“Sounds good Professor. Thank you...for everything.”
Severus inclined his head. "Sleep well Po-Harry… I had my wife put a vial of dreamless sleep potion onto the bedside table.”
Harry looked confused. “How?”
His teacher smirked and uttered one word.
“Slytherin.”