Tuesday, July 4th 1995

Severus Snape woke up with a headache.

'I'm too old for this,' he thought.

But he was well aware that it didn't matter what age one was; the Dark Lord's Crucio was unbearably painful. Voldemort really hadn't appreciated that the Potions Master hadn't come to the graveyard when he called, and the Dark Lord expressed his displeasure… painfully.

As a Potion's Master, he knew he shouldn't mix a potion for cell regeneration with a pain potion and Firewhiskey. Still, the day before was incredibly trying, and Severus really wanted to zone out as soon as he could. On top of all that, Albus had come up with some babble about Potter.

Lily. She was the sole reason he had sworn to protect the boy no matter what, and now the headmaster was trying to make him believe that the boy-who-lived wasn't her son. He had no idea why Dumbledore would lie about something like that, but it had to be a lie. Magical adoption didn't change character traits, and the whelp had definitely inherited James Potter's genes. He acted as arrogant and audacious as him. Potter strutted around Hogwart as though he owned the school. Maybe he wasn't as cruel as James, but he also had his sidekicks who were there to meet his every whim.

Severus pondered the possibility that Harry Potter wasn't a Potter at all. He shook his head, realizing the absurdity of his thoughts. Surely, somebody would have known about it. Black had to know if the boy was Potters'. It was blatantly obvious that Black loved the child and would do anything for him. Hell, he even broke out of the Azkaban for the boy. Severus didn't believe that Black would care about the child and be so dedicated to him if he knew he wasn't James' son.

'Unless…' continued Severus. 'Unless he's really Black's offspring and, until now, he hadn't informed anyone. But that's absurd. Or maybe he's Regulus' child? The second Black brother's body was never found, and there wasn't really proof that he died.'

Severus decided to stop wasting his time wandering about Potter, Black and speculating about the true parentage of Harry Potter. His thoughts on the subject were becoming more and more outlandish.

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As usual, Severus spent the first days after the end of the school year completing student reports and documents. Today, he had to just pack up, and he finally could go home.

Not many people knew that Severus was a sentimental person. He didn't have too many positive memories, so the few he did have, he cherished. The man liked to surround himself with things that evoked pleasant memories. That's why when he'd found out that the old Evans' house was for sale after their death, he had to buy it. He'd done everything he could to take out a loan with Gringott's, and the week after, the house was his.

Of course, Severus didn't know whether or not he would survive the war, so it was possible that he wouldn't pay off the entire mortgage. In that case, the ownership would transfer to the Goblins, but that didn't bother him as much because he didn't have anyone who would inherit it anyway.

And today, after many long months, he was going back there.

Many people would also be astonished if they heard that summer with all its sun and cheerfulness was his favourite season. However, the reason was not surprising at all. Of course, it had nothing to do with the sun or the nice weather. It was a more prosaic one: for two full months, he wouldn't have to deal with a bunch of bratty dunderheads and try to teach them anything. The men sighed; there was this one teenager whose company Severus will have to bear, but at least the boy was quite reasonable. Anyway, Severus could now brew potions all day in the seclusion of his own laboratory, read books, and just relax. He hoped that the Death Eaters' and Order's meetings would be rare as well.

'The Dark Lord took a vacation that lasted several years, so he will probably not go on another soon,' he thought bitterly.

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Curled in a small ball, Harry trembled from the cold. He opened his eyes and looked around. He was lying near a tree line from the forest, and the sun was beginning to rise. He sat up and rubbed his arms to warm himself a little. Then Harry remembered the incident from the day before with dread. He began to tremble harder. He hoped that Tobias didn't notice his disappearance because otherwise, Harry was sure that the man would punish him somehow. From what Tobias had been saying, Harry could fathom that he was rather strict with Snape, so he didn't reckon that it would be any different with him. Last evening, Tobias had been under the influence of alcohol. Harry could only hope for the one positive result from this; that he had slept all night and didn't notice Harry's absence.

It was still hard to accept that Tobias indeed was his father and, worse, his hated Potions Professor was his brother. All of it was so surreal. Harry knew he should be happy that he had another family alive who weren't the Dursleys. Still, he couldn't help but feel a little ambivalent about the whole thing. At least now, he didn't have to pretend anything, and Tobias won't throw him out because of lies. That was a relief for sure.

By the time Harry found his way back home, the sun had risen completely. At the door, he hesitated for a moment, afraid of Tobias' reaction. Eventually, he plucked up his Gryffindor courage and pushed open the door. It was unlocked from his distressed escape from the house the previous night. It didn't really matter one way or another as there was nothing in the house worth stealing anyway. He went into the kitchen and looked through the living room door. Tobias was still sleeping on the couch; on the coffee table beside him were a bunch of empty alcohol bottles. There were no changes from the day before. Judging from the fact that the man hadn't gotten up from the couch, Tobias had not noticed Harry's absence. Harry sighed with relief and went upstairs to his bed to sleep a little more.

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When he woke up later that day, it was afternoon. His stomach grumbled, and Harry realized that he hadn't eaten since Sunday evening. If Hermione was here, she would have bitten his head off. She was always nagging him about not missing too many meals at Hogwarts. But it wasn't his fault that he was rarely hungry and was full soon.

Harry went downstairs and made spaghetti. When he was finishing doing all the dishes along with those left by Tobias on the coffee table, the man came back home. Sober. Judging from the shopping bags, he had gone to the market after work.

"Hello, Harry! How are you?" asked, walking into the kitchen.

Tobias started putting food in cupboards. He took out a chocolate bar from the bag and gave it to Harry.

"Here you are. I bought it for you, 'coz you're too skinny. You can't say I've never bought anything for you," he laughed.

Harry was pleased. Not because of chocolate, but because his father remembered him and bought him something out of the blue. The boy smiled when he realized that Tobias was probably starting to care about him. If he didn't give a damn about Harry, then he wouldn't have thought about him during his shopping. The Dursleys had never spent a penny more than was necessary on him. He had never gotten anything from them unless you counted Uncle Vernon old socks, hangers, and old clothes from Dudley.

Of course, Tobias has his flaws. He drinks too much, he's short-tempered, and maybe he isn't as perfect of a father as Arthur Weasley, but Harry was grateful anyway for the opportunity he got. Harry knew that this arrangement was decisively better than the one he was in last summer. He was glad that his aunt found those adoption papers. Harry had now a place to call home, and he belonged to someone.

"Thanks, dad," he said, using the word for the first time. Tobias smiled a little, showing yellowish teeth.

"Have you eaten dinner yet?" the man asked.

"Yes, there are leftovers on the stove. I can heat it up for you if you want. I have some time before I have to go to training," Harry asked.

"No, thanks. I told you that we have dinners at work," said Tobias. "Tell me how the practice went yesterday. I hope that you aren't a substitute?"

"I don't know. The coach hasn't chosen the first line-up yet," said Harry, but when he noticed a slight frown on his father's face, he quickly added: "He told me that I'm fast and I scored a goal, so I think it wasn't bad."

"Good. I'm sure that Severus wouldn't even have been able to make the team. He's inept."

The boy couldn't agree with the sentiment. Harry could tell a lot about Snape, but he was sure that Snape was not clumsy. At Hogwarts, the Potions Master could be found by students unlucky to be caught by him, stalking the halls noiselessly at night. Snape seemed to move against all the laws of physics as he walked without sound.

Harry didn't express his opinion aloud, however. It was Snape, and Harry hated him more than the Dursleys. Indeed, his relatives had humiliated him, but usually, it wasn't in public. The professor seemed to derive sadistic pleasure from taunting Harry in front of all his classmates. Even Malfoy was bearable in comparison. Harry only hated one other more, and that was Voldemort. He had never been degraded like he was in Potions class. If it wasn't for his composure, Harry would have started crying in the class. In front of everyone! Sometimes, before the lesson, he had felt sick from the thought of the humiliation Snape would put him through. So right now, he wasn't going to defend his brother. It was an unwritten agreement between him and Ron to not defend Snape. On the other note, Harry did find it a little strange and in some ways disturbing that Tobias talked so negatively about his eldest son, but Harry didn't dwell on why.

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Training started with the coach lecturing them about their fight from yesterday. He talked about how violence is not the answer and that they should find other ways to solve their problems. The man also claimed that their training sessions weren't tiring enough because the boys still had enough energy to start fights, and he would arrange it so that they would be so tired to barely have the strength to walk home. After that, he told them to warm up - ten laps around the field, Dredd and Oasis had to do fifteen. Harry finished second. At first, he had a significant advantage ahead of everyone, but at the end, he was breathless and had to slow down. Pele, who ran all the time with the same pace, outran him without effort. When the wizard arrived at the finish line, he felt as if his lungs were going to burst! He really felt bad for those who had more laps.

The additional exertion turned out to be an effective method because Oasis and Dredd were only able to throw each other angry glares for the next two hours.

This time Harry was on Oasis' team, and just like the day before, he played well. He had two assists and scored one goal.

The only unpleasant incident was when Dredd tried to intercept a ball from Harry. The bigger teenager pushed Harry with his elbow while simultaneously managing to trip over his own legs and landing on Harry. Dredd's body covered the smaller teen's entire body, crushing him to the ground with his face only a few inches above Harry's, smirking nastily.

"Get off," snapped Harry trying to slide out from under the heavy body mass, knowing that he wasn't able to throw him off.

"Oy, Dolly! Don't get stroppy, I didn't deliberately bump into you," whispered the other teen, but his voice told Harry that it was the opposite. "By the way, you made a mistake yesterday, choosing that twerp."

Harry sighed with resignation, knowing already the day before that interceding with Oasis will have consequences. After a moment, when the rest of the team ran to them, and the coach whistled free-kick, Dredd let Harry get away.

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"Hey Shortie, are you coming with us to the sandbox?" asked Oasis, pointing at Roo, Pele, and two others boys who Harry hadn't spoken to yet: Duncan and Crochet.

"Where?" wondered Harry.

"To the sandbox. It's near the playground in the park. Right now, the kids are at homes, and the area is ours," explained the older boy.

Harry pondered for a moment. Tobias didn't tell him what time he expected him home, and Harry really wanted to be accepted by these teenagers.

"Yeah, I'll go," he decided.

Walking alongside the boys, who talked and laughed very loud, Harry observed them carefully. They were casual and relaxed with each other. They were careless like they hadn't any problems and didn't think about their future. As opposed to them, he was quiet and calm, but he hoped that in time, he too could relax a bit also. Here, he could be himself, and if they liked him, they did so because they liked his personality and not just because he was Harry Potter.

"Okay, guys, whip around," directed Oasis when they got there. The rest of them sat on the edge of a huge sandbox and on the bench located in front of it. Every one of them pulled out some change and gave it to him. Fortunately, Harry also had some pounds from the change left from shopping.

"Shortie, come with me; I'll introduce you to Mrs Maggie."

Harry nodded, agreeing.

Oasis began to call him Shortie since their first training session, and the others picked it up quickly as well. It wasn't that he hated the name, it was somewhat endearing, but it reminded him about his less than imposing height. He tried not to think about it much. Besides, giving nicknames was probably some custom here. Unlike in Hogwarts, where the only handles were insults like Mudblood or Ferret, nobody called others by their given names.

It turned out that the shop was only a couple of houses away from his home. He went much further for his last shopping trip.

"Afternoon, Mrs Neighbour," Oasis called out cheerfully to a saleswoman. It was a grey-haired, plump woman in her late fifties.

"More like a good evening, Noah," the woman answered, smiling. "What can I get you?"

"Six Strongbows and three big packets of crisps."

When Harry heard that, his eyes went wide. He was surprised that they will drink and make it worse—in a public place where everyone could see them. The last few days had shown him that alcohol had really negative effects on people's behaviour. He rather didn't want to try it.

"Maybe, you could show me some ID?" the woman spoke up with a disapproving tone of voice, fully knowing that he didn't have one.

"Mine?" asked the boy, with a mockingly hoarse voice, leaning on the counter. "Or my son?" He finished pointing at Harry.

The elderly woman just shook her head, putting the shopping on the counter and asked:

"Who is this young man?"

"It's Harry. Snape's son."

"Nice to meet you, ma'am," spoke up Harry for the first time.

"Likewise, sweetheart," she smiled at him, sizing him up. "Tell me, why are you consorting with this urchin?"

Harry opened his mouth to answer when Oasis spoke up:

"Okay, so as always, it was nice to talk to you, but we've got to go. The guys are waiting for us."

Then he paid, took shopping, and drew Harry by his sleeve to the exit.

"Goodbye," said the young wizard before he was pulled through the door.

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Harry was back at home before midnight. Despite their crude behaviour and a complete lack of manners, Harry had to admit that he liked the guys. They were quite funny when they talked or joked, sometimes about some absurd situations. Even when they were sparring, nobody huffed, and nobody took anything personally. He also changed his mind about Oasis, who was outwardly boorish and offensive but was really a decent guy and your opinion of him went up considerably once you knew him better. He was as tactful as Ron, but he was definitively more rude and vulgar. After they split up at the sandpit, Roo, Crochet, and Duncan went towards Reddish Road. Pele, Oasis, and Harry took the opposite direction—Spinner's End. At the beginning of the street was Pele's house. They stopped for a couple of minutes next to his door, so the slant-eyed boy could finish his story about Irwin's latest save.

"You know Shortie," Oasis started hesitantly when they were alone. "I'm nothing like my old man." It was the first time since the young wizard met him that his facial expression didn't express absolute self-confidence.

Harry shrugged his shoulders and said:

"Well, I didn't lie when I told you that I don't judge people because of how much money they have or who their parents are." He certainly didn't like it when people did that to him, which happened relatively often. He looked at Oasis, whose posture relaxed a little.

"Okay, but be careful around Dredd, he will try to get revenge 'coz you hurt his pride.

"Well, he is not first and not the least for sure. I'll be fine," returned Harry. Dredd was nothing compared to Voldemort. He'd be merely annoying, like Malfoy. He could deal with the snobbish blond, and he could deal with another here as well.

The bigger teenager raised his brows doubtfully but didn't say anything.

They split up next to Oasis' run-down bungalow, which was located alongside Mrs Maggie's shop.

Back at home, Harry went into the kitchen to make some tea for himself and was horrified when he saw what it looked like. The entire worktop was messy with something orange. In the sink was a pile of dishes, on the stove, dirty pans and pots. On the table were empty bottles, pegs, glasses, and flatware. The floor was covered with shoe prints. It seemed that Tobias invited some of his friends over when Harry was out. Disgusted, trying not to touch anything, he took a clean glass from the cupboard and made the tea. When he was walking to his room, he didn't notice oil spilt over the linoleum, and he slipped on it. The noise he made falling down back and breaking glass was really loud. He crouched and started gathering up the debris, but then Tobias stumbled to the kitchen and yelled madly:

"What the hell are you doin'?!"

Harry looked up and saw Tobias, who was wearing only loose trousers. His bare chest was well built and muscular. The man was approaching him angrily. Harry involuntarily drew back, but his father, after just two steps, was beside him, and with one hand, pulled him up by his hoodie to a standing position. Harry noticed with increased concern that it didn't take the man much effort. Then he slapped Harry's cheek. The shred of glass that the boy held fell out of his hand, hit the floor, and broke into smaller pieces.

"I'm sorry, I slipped!" Harry tried to explain as he became more and more fearful and confused. He tried to break loose from his father's grip, which apparently angered Tobias even more because he hit the boy the second time, but this time with his fist.

Harry tasted the metallic taste of blood in his mouth.

"I'm sorry! I really didn't mean it! Leave me alone!" asked Harry, frantically trying to get away from his outraged father.

"What the fuck! Can't you respect that I have to wake up early and go to work tomorrow morning?! I need the fuckin' money to keep you!" Tobias pushed him, and Harry went slamming into the wall. You have it too good in here, and you're doin' whatever you want! If you don't let others sleep, you won't sleep either! When I come downstairs tomorrow, everything better be clean. The whole house! Or else I'll belt your ass so heavy that you won't sit for the rest of summer!" Tobias finished threateningly. Then he added: "Do you understand? Everything better, be shinin'!" After seeing the boy nodding quickly, he let him go. And with that, the drunken man went back upstairs.

"Fuck," mumbled Harry when the man couldn't hear him anymore. He wiped the blood from his chin with his sleeve, and snuffling started cleaning.