Potions and Snitches
Snape and Harry Gen Fanfiction Archive

So Much More
"I think Snape is my dad."

Sam laughed as he sat tying his lacrosse net into place on his stick. "Well of course he is, he's mine now too... or at least he will be." They'd been back from France for two days now and Harry felt ready to burst with his new revelation. He had to tell someone, and the uncertainty that had flooded him about it kept him from going directly to Snape.

"No, I mean... I think he's really my dad Sam. I just don't think he knows it."

Finally looking up from his net, Sam raised a brow at Harry. "What are you talking about?"

"It France, he said he dated my mum right after they graduated. I'm pretty sure I was born the year after they graduated."

"Snape dating your mum? Now there's a twist," Sam said with a little laugh at the irony.

"C'mon, it's not funny. What if he's really my dad?" What Harry wanted to express, but was too afraid to, was that if Snape was really his father, then he'd have no choice but to take care of him, and Harry would no longer have to worry about being dumped out on his own again. He could really be a part of their family instead of just feeling as though he were butting in all the time.

"You're serious? You think he's your dad?" Sam gave him a close looking over then. "I guess you do sort of look alike."

"I don't know what to do about it. I don't want to go up to him and tell him what I think. I mean, what if he knew all this time and just decided I wasn't his problem?"

"I doubt that he knows. I can't believe I'm saying this, but we need a potion."

"Like a paternity test?"

"Sure. I bet we can get the ingredients out of his stash. He's been brewing down in the basement."

Harry frowned. "You have a basement?"

"Come on. Let's go down and get supplies while he's out."

Sam lead Harry into the garage where there was a door he hadn't noticed before, which lead to the basement, a relatively well lit space with finished walls and no windows.

"It's huge," Harry said. "You could turn this into another bedroom."

Sam shrugged. "Why? Got plenty upstairs." Harry still thought that Jason would like his room back if he came back to visit, and for a brief moment Harry had had hopes that with an extra space like this, he wouldn't be booted to the couch when that happened. He valued his privacy.

Within seconds Sam had gone to a bookshelf full of stained books and pulled one out that claimed to contain over 1,000 household potion recipes. "Pang of newt, pander dust, paternity test, here it is."

Harry went over to look and Sam immediately set to putting ingredients in an empty jar. "I have a cauldron in my closet. If we remember to lock it up then nobody will find it."

"Won't he notice his ingredients missing," Harry wondered aloud.

Sam shrugged. "Doubtful. He's got so many and he's always bringing in more whenever he goes out. Remember the gillyweed he brought back when we went fishing before?" Harry nodded.

With a jar full of ingredients, and the book in hand, Sam and Harry dashed up the stairs and up through the house to Sam's room, where Harry set up the cauldron and Sam fetched several bottles of water.

"Are you any good at this stuff?" Harry asked. He was always receiving a failing grade in Potions, partly due to the professor always glaring down at him and making him nervous as he tried to work. He'd hate to mess this potion up though.

"Kind of have to be, don't I? Last year as Snape was dating my mum he had me coming down for ‘extra' lessons three times a week so I could be extra ready for Advanced NEWT Potions."

"Oh man, you're going into the advanced class?" When Harry had gotten his owls back he was relieved just to make it into the regular NEWT potions class.

"Most of the Ravenclaws will be in it. I bet your friend Hermione will be too."

"Probably," Harry said as he and Sam set to finely chopping up the 12 or so ingredients that were to go into the now boiling cauldron. When they were finally done 20 minutes later and Sam was sure his closet was secure, he told Harry to wait as he went and returned the book, hoping Snape wouldn't catch him in the garage. He was back in just a few minutes though and looked satisfied with their results.

"It'll have to brew for three days, four if it doesn't turn clear."

"Did you stop to think that we might catch all your clothes on fire doing this in your closet?"

He shrugged. "After Christmas when I was five, mom always fireproofs all my new clothes."

"Do I even want to know?"

Sam grinned. "Probably not."

* * *

Harry felt very impatient. As the days ticked by he grew even more certain that the potion would give a positive result. On the second day they'd taken some of Snape's hair and put it into the cauldron along with Harry's. If the potion turned clear, it would be positive. If it turned murky then it would be negative.

"You know, you're quite a rule breaker, who would've thought?" Harry said to Sam as they stirred the potion at the end of the third day.

"It's a distinct possibility that you just didn't know me well enough before now. You were always getting into trouble with Snape, but Flitwick and McGonagall were always catching me at something at school."

"Like what?"

"Thomas and Luke needed to get in some extra practice before a big game, so we snuck out to the pitch one night after midnight. We wouldn't have gotten caught either if it hadn't started to rain. We trailed mud and water all the way up to Ravenclaw tower, where professor McGonagall gave us all a weeklong detention."

"Nice," Harry said. "I think my all-time high score for the year is 29 detentions, and 27 of them were with Snape.

"I only had 8 and that was last year. Are you the record holder for Gryffindor then?"

Harry shook his head. "No, Fred had 42 and George had 43 the year before last. Fred was upset that George had beat him so he went out and cursed Filch's feet to the ground so he could catch up, except Filch was so mad he gave him two, and Fred won out."

"Mum's rule is that I'm grounded one week for every detention I get while I'm at school. So I served two weeks over Christmas break, one over Easter break, and one that first week of summer."

"And the other four?"

Sam looked at him and rolled his eyes. "She said I had leeway if I went fishing with Severus whenever he asked."

"Sellout," Harry remarked.

Moving to his bed, Sam flopped down and started looking through a broom catalog, and Harry sat just staring into the blue bubbling potion. He thought the color was starting to dissipate, and he had every intention of going straight to Snape as soon as it turned clear. He'd never celebrate another birthday alone, he thought to himself with a smile. This would secure his position as a part of the family, and finally, for once in his life, all would be well, he was sure of it.

Harry was just in the middle of daydreaming about some family outing with lots of food, when his eyes focused on the potion and were met with a white murky substance that looked like watery milk. His heart sank, and he felt like bolting out of the room.

"Well, that's that I guess," Harry said in a monotone.

"Is it finished?" Sam jumped off his bed and came over to kneel next to the closet. "Oh... I'm sorry Harry."

Harry just shrugged in response. "It's ok. No worries."

"Well hey, maybe we brewed it wrong? We can try again," he offered, but Harry was shaking his head.

"No, you're like Hermione... you couldn't brew a potion wrong if you tried."

"Sorry," Sam said again as Harry got to his feet.

"Forget about it." Harry left him there with the murky simmering cauldron, and went to his room across the hall, closing the door. He didn't even know what to feel at this point aside from let down. This was the price he paid for getting his hopes up. It was just the first set of emotions he was going to pay for in a rollercoaster ride he'd find himself on in the next few days.

* * *

Sam had been wrong. Snape had noticed the missing ingredients, and had used a spell to figure out which book had most recently been pulled off the shelf. Harry had catalogued the school potion's cupboard enough times in detention, and he should have known how meticulous the man was about what ingredients he had in stock.

While Harry had spent the next day laying in the back yard listlessly under the shade of the only tree and feeling sorry for himself, declining Sam's attempts to get him to learn Lacrosse, Severus was piecing together a horrifying conclusion based on his evidence. The ingredients for a paternity potion had been taken from the basement along with the book needed to brew said potion. He knew from watching Sam and Harry at school that Sam had been together with a Ravenclaw girl briefly at the end of the last school year but that Harry hadn't dated in a long time. His gut was clenched at the thought that Sam might have been doing something inappropriate with a girl, or that she might be pregnant. What would that do to his and Jo's lives? Would they be raising another child so that Sam could stay in school? He was hesitant to take any of this to Jo, but knew he'd better because he knew how much she valued openness and honesty.

Just as he had told his concerns to her in the living room that evening, Sam and Harry appeared through the back door.

"Sammuel Joseph Heywood!" Sam and Harry both paused on the threshold at Jo's angry voice coming from the living room.

"This can't be good," Sam said, and Harry nodded, though he thought that for once it was nice not to be the one in trouble.

"Yes mum?" Sam said in the nicest voice he could muster as he crept around the doorframe and into the living room.

Harry was right behind him, though just as hesitant as Sam. He hated to see anyone getting into trouble, and was curious to see how professor Snape would handle it. Jo had her hands on her hips and a stern look to rival professor McGonagall's Harry thought.

"Would you please explain to me what you were doing secretly brewing a paternity potion?"

"Oh," Sam said with a funny look on his face that said he'd been caught but that he wasn't concerned about it. Harry on the other hand was frozen to the spot.

"Oh indeed," Severus said in an agitated voice. "As if your need to brew the potion wasn't bad enough, you stole from my ingredients instead of coming to us for help."

Sam opened his mouth to say something, but Jo cut him off and asked bluntly, "Is she pregnant Sam, and you better not lie to me young man, or I swear-" she stopped midsentence as if she couldn't even think of a punishment that was fitting enough.

"No mum, it's not like that."

"Oh, it's not like that. Well there's only one reason I can think of for someone to brew this particular potion, and that's to find out if they're the sixteen year old father of a child!" She was bordering on enraged now, and Harry could tell that Sam was floundering for an answer. He was surprised Sam hadn't turned on him yet, but perhaps it was because Sam knew just how upset Harry was over the results of the potion. Sam never even turned to look back at Harry, who was still standing there frozen, though his lungs felt like they couldn't get any air.

"Really mum, I never-"

"Sam I told you not to lie to me. I have no choice but to-"

"I did it." She paused at Harry's meek voice in the background, and for the first time she realized that he was even there, head down and looking at his feet.

"You?" Jo was feeling more flustered than she thought she could handle just then. Enraged was what she'd felt at the thought that her own son had been intimate at such a young age, especially because she'd made a point to talk to him about it so many times, but Harry... Harry had probably never had any guidance in such matters.

"Sam and I took the ingredients together and brewed the potion upstairs in his closet, but it was for me."

"Harry," Jo said quietly, though Harry refused to look up at her, or worse yet at the enraged look Snape was sure to have. Silence hung in the air for long charged moments before Jo finally asked quietly, "Who is she?"

Harry did look up then to Sam for support, but he was determinedly looking up at the ceiling. Harry wondered if he'd be mad in the end that they didn't seem to be mad at Harry, but were ready to rip his head off. Of course Harry they could always get rid of, but Sam was their problem for life.

"My mum... and my dad," Harry finally said quietly. "I wanted to know who my parents were."

Confused Jo and Severus looked at each other and then back to Harry. Snape decided to remain silent. "You don't know who your parents were Harry?"

Looking at the ground again Harry shook his head, and the emotions of disappointment and depression from the last couple of days since the results, flooded back over him once again.

"Sam, would you please excuse us for a few moments," Harry heard Snape asking, and then he saw Sam's shadow pass by him and out of the room.

When he was gone, Snape finally took his turn and said, "Perhaps you should explain yourself."

"Don't want to," Harry said, feeling stubborn but not caring. Telling them his reasoning would be exposing too much of himself... putting too much of himself out on the line to be tread on. The more people knew, the more they had to use against you. Wasn't it bad enough that Harry always felt broken and out of place? He didn't want them to know it too.

Eyes still glued to the floor as he tried to fight his emotions, Harry missed the look his two pseudo guardians were giving each other.

"Maybe it's time Harry," Severus said then, taking a few steps towards him. Jo liked to think she could be the one to break through with Harry, but they'd discussed it and Severus knew it would be him.

"No," Harry said, and he backed out of the door frame and went out the front door. Once he was out on the porch he caught a glimpse of a child riding a bike at the end of the street and was reminded that it wasn't safe to be out alone with Avery and his gang roaming around, so he sat on the top step of the porch. He was aware that the door opened a few moments later behind him and that Snape had come out to sit beside him, but he stayed silent.

"You're like me you know," Severus said, and Harry wanted to laugh sadly, because he wanted it to be true. "You keep it all in because you're not used to divulging information." Severus wasn't sure if Harry had even heard him though, because he just continued to stare out into the street as the sun went down. Deciding that he would just sit there until Harry told him something, he stared out into the neighborhood as well. It was only a few moments before Harry spoke though.

"You said you dated my mum after you graduated. And I just thought, I thought it might be possible that I wasn't alone after all. Sam's safe. You and Jo can't ever throw him out, even if he messes up. I just- I wanted that too."

Severus looked at Harry incredulously though Harry didn't look over at him.

"You thought I might be your father?" When Harry nodded wordlessly, Severus felt like hitting himself. He'd given the child some kind of false hope by not elaborating his relationship or the timeline.

"It's true that your mother and I dated briefly," he said solemnly. "And it's also true that you were born about 8 months later. But I am positive that you are James Potter's son. Your mother dated him just before me. She didn't know she was pregnant when she and I began dating. That's why she left me, to go back to him."

"Oh," Harry said in a high pitched voice, feeling choked up.

"Indeed."

They remained silent on the front step for another twenty minutes as the sun disappeared and the sky grew dark.

"Perhaps I didn't make myself clear earlier this summer Harry," Severus said breaking the silence. "When I told you I wouldn't let you go to an orphanage, I meant it. When I said that you had me, I meant it. I know it's happened very quickly, but you have a place here with us now, no matter what. I understand that's hard for you to believe, but it's the truth. No matter what you do, you're not going anywhere. It would be best if you put this issue to rest in your mind."

"I want to." Harry's voice was finally steady again, and he felt the threat of tears had passed. He didn't think he could stand to be embarrassed anymore this summer and still think of himself as a man.

"Good. There's another issue that need to be put at rest as well."

Harry looked up at him.

"You need to be comfortable talking with us about what you're going through, or what you need from us Harry. We still don't know what your life has been like up until now aside from some indications that we've seen this summer."

"I don't like people talking about me."

"It's what happens between adults in a family. Jo and I hold conversations about Sam and his upbringing as well."

Harry didn't want to say that Sam wasn't messed up like he was... that he wasn't needy like he was. Hadn't Harry already run off several times, had multiple freakouts and been upset or depressed for most of the summer? Not to mention the injuries. Harry didn't feel like he could handle it all most days, how were they going to take on the burden? They didn't know what they were talking about asking him to describe his life to them.

"I don't want to talk about it."

"Why?"

"Because I don't want to think about it anymore."

"Will your fear of being taken to an orphanage go away now that we've talked about it and put it to rest?"

Harry shrugged. "I don't know, maybe."

"Then is it reasonable to assume that if we spoke about other issues and put them to rest as well, that you would no longer have to think about these things?"

Another shrug.

"We are here when you're ready. Perhaps writing it out would be easier for you. Some people find it helpful to write things out in a journal or letter."

"You want me to write you letters?"

"If it will help."

Biting his lip now, Harry sighed. "Maybe I can just think about it," Harry said, and Severus gave a nod.

"This is acceptable. Perhaps you'd do well thinking on a full stomach. A hamburger and fries?"

Harry nodded and they got up off the step before Severus opened the door and called inside to Jo that they'd be back soon with carry out for dinner. Despite his promise to think about it however, Harry tried to do anything but as they walked into town.


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