~~~~AU SS~~~~

"Severus?"

There was a knock on his Potion's classroom office door that drew his attention up a split second before he heard her call his name. The look on Minerva's face was not one of amusement or relief; instead he could instantly tell she was nervous about the topic she needed to discuss with him at almost half past eleven on a Friday night.

"Is everything alright, Minerva?" He asked already thinking through what could possibly be wrong. It could be one of his Slytherins, though she would likely take more enjoyment in lecturing him over whatever it was that they had done. This left Harry as the only other option, and if it fell from her to him - requiring a parent's involvement - it had to be something serious. "Please take a seat."

She sat down confidently, though a little nervously, in the chair across from him. Even with no windows in his dungeon office, somehow it always seemed darker and drearier at night. The fact that it was winter - Ron's sixteenth birthday to be exact - made the air feel colder than usual, which didn't help the atmosphere. Now if only he could ascertain what it was that his fifteen year old son had done, he might feel a little better.

"It's Harry," Minerva said, sympathetically. "There's no good way to say this, so I'm just going to get straight to the point on it-"

"I wish you would," he interrupted her hoping to move this forward at a faster pace so he could find out exactly how much trouble his son was in.

"He was found outside of the dorms after curfew," she paused and he knew there had to be more; being out after curfew was something his Head of House could handle. "He was in an empty classroom, with Miss Chang. They were-"

He held his hand up to stop her, "How bad?"

"It appeared innocent," his colleague pointedly said, "but I don't know where things would have ended up had it not been interrupted."

Living at a boarding school during a time when teenagers were doing their most hormonal growing, both professors - especially being a Head of House - had unfortunately needed to have plenty of these conversations with their students throughout the years. Typically it would involve a letter home to each students' parents and, depending on how "innocent" or not it was, a visit with Madam Pomfrey. So far, Severus had not had to get involved to the level which required the medi-witch with his own students, but he had a suspicion it was more because his Slytherins were too cunning to get caught than the fact that they weren't engaging in that activity. He had a feeling Minerva had not been so lucky throughout the years with her more daring lions; case in point, Harry.

Thinking further of the situation, he had not been aware of Harry and the sixth year Ravenclaw restarting their relationship since they'd broken up - if one could even say that for the small amount of time they dated post Yule Ball - almost a year ago, and then Miss Chang started dating Cedric Diggory right after he'd won the Triwizard Tournament. Apparently, something had to have happened recently for the Gryffindor to end up in this position and he wasn't sure if he really wanted to know at this point. They'd had the "Wands and the Cauldrons" talk back when Harry was thirteen. It was as awkward as one would imagine and he did not look forward to some variation of the conversation now that things seemed a bit more relevant to the teen.

"Where is he?" The Potion's Master asked.

"I walked him down to your quarters," she explained, "I assumed you'd be down there given the hour, but when it was empty I told him to stay there while I came to find you."

"Thank you, Minerva," he collected the papers he was marking and stood. "Is there anything else you need from him? There's a high probability that he'll be grounded through the weekend."

"No, Severus. Gryffindor had Quidditch practice yesterday," she mirrored his stance and gave him a small smile. "Go easy on him though."

He gave an exhausted hmph and left his office to go and find out what was going on with his son.

The walk to his quarters was a short distance from the Potion's office, but he'd gone slowly to help give him time to collect his thoughts. How was he going to approach this?

Upon entering, the lanterns in the sitting room were dimmed, suggesting that Harry had already gone to his bedroom. He gave a half a knock and then opened the door, figuring an infraction like this did not yield the need to respect the young wizard's privacy.

As expected, Harry was already dressed in a pair of his red pyjamas - making the correct assumption he'd be sleeping there that night - to which Severus noticed were now about an inch too short. They'd need replacing and he made a mental note to ask the Gryffindor if any of his other non-school clothing was getting too small.

"Hi," Harry said and his face immediately turned bright red. "I'm guessing Professor McGonagall found you? And told you everything?"

"Yes," he confirmed taking a seat on the edge of the bed, "however she did not 'tell me everything'. I was hoping you could fill in the important blanks."

He waited for Harry to start talking, knowing from his previous spying days that if he could be patient the other person usually started talking as they tried to fill in the awkward silence. He was rewarded almost instantly.

"It wasn't how it looked!" His son immediately started with.

"Then do please explain to me how it should have looked when your Head of House finds you in an empty classroom with a female student?"

"Well, when you put it like that," the Gryffindor flushed some more. "We were all celebrating Ron's birthday and Seamus suggested we play Spin the Bottle, did you know that's a game in the wizarding world too?"

Not validating that with a response, he simply stared at his son letting the uncomfortable silence fall over them again.

"And..." Harry continued, "at the end, Cho and I ended up… did you know her and Cedric broke up over the holiday?"

Again, Severus said nothing. This was not appearing any better than when he thought maybe he had missed the fact that Harry and Cho had gotten back into a relationship. Instead it appeared they were playing a teen aged game, which was so much worse.

"So..." The Gryffindor nervously ran his hands over the top of his green bedspread, "after the party I was walking her back to the Ravenclaw dorms and well, we ended up in a classroom and…"

Harry trailed off and at this point, Severus knew the young wizard's embarrassment wouldn't allow him to continue.

"Harry," he said calmly, much more calmly than he felt inside. Inside he was a stormy mess. "Above all else, I need you to be honest with me, had Professor McGonagall not found you, would things have gone much further than they had?"

Harry looked down at his hands with his fingers twisting around one another. He didn't lift his head when he mumbled "I don't think so, but I'm not really sure."

It was far more honest of an answer then he would expect from a fifteen year old; a fifteen year old far too young to be engaging in those types of activities. But he held his tongue against his rising disappointment and chose to focus on Harry's honesty and what that meant for them - that Harry trusted Severus enough to talk about things like this hopefully before anything got too far the next time.

It was well after midnight and so he told Harry to go to sleep and that they'd discuss it in the morning. It was then that Severus had the very real conversation - one he'd never had with his own father and therefore had no idea if he'd done it correctly - about love and what it meant to be with a woman in "that way" and how Harry should wait until he was much older to make those kinds of decisions. That someday he would find a woman who he wanted to spend the rest of his life with and if he waited until that time, it would be special. And then, because Severus was a realist and preferred to cover all the bases just in case, he went through all the ways Harry could stay safe - both the muggle and wizarding methods - much to the young wizard's complete embarrassment with the hope that his son wouldn't need to use them for a very long time.

~~~~HP~~~~

Monday 6, January 1997

"Hey, Potter!" Harry was stopped by the sudden call of his name as he was leaving the Transfiguration classroom. It startled him, causing him to drop his heavy school bag from his bony shoulder.

Unlike Snape's thrilling start of the term in Defense class, where Harry got to watch his classmates tournament-style duel - which they would be finishing on Wednesday's class - McGonagall's Transfiguration lesson had been mostly review of the biggest errors from the end of term exams. Overall, it was a dreadfully boring lesson and he was happy his two classes were now completed for the day, still being on his alternative schedule, compared to his classmates who still had others to go to.

"What is it, Malfoy?" Harry took notice of the Slytherin's use of his surname which they'd unofficially stopped using after the potions accident last November. It made Harry even more suspicious over what happened while the blonde stayed behind enemy lines over the holiday to change his view of the Gryffindor, especially after the tone of Snape's voice when he asked the Slytherin to stay after class. It was obvious to Harry that something was going on; he just couldn't tell if it was with the Order or the Death Eater side of things. Deciding to test the waters between them, Harry added genuinely, "Great job in defense today."

It seemed to catch the blonde off guard as did Hermione's presence when she caught up with them after staying behind to ask Professor McGonagall a question; something only Hermione would do on the first day back from holiday. "Uh, thanks. I had easy opponents today, let's see how Wednesday's class goes."

Harry laughed, "The bigger question is if you'll be able to actually fight your girlfriend."

That definitely had its intended effect as both of the other teens started to flush and they all had a good chuckle over it. Harry had no doubt that without him participating in this dueling tournament it would end up being Draco versus Hermione in the end, mostly because Ron had been knocked out early on from a dirty attack by Nott. Harry found himself actually looking forward to Wednesday morning's class simply to see where the duels would end up. It could really go either way with Draco the better dueler if he weren't battling against his girlfriend.

The trio of sixth years - Ron having already been dragged off to who knew where by Lavender - continued to walk towards the Great Hall for lunch. Draco and Hermione were holding hands, making Harry uncomfortable as he was brought back to the conversation he overheard Snape have with the blonde at Slughorn's party. At the time, he'd been so focused on Snape leaving for the holiday without him, he'd forgotten until this moment that the former spy was worried - did Snape ever get worried? - about how dating Hermione would impact his Death Eater life. But what about Hermione? Wouldn't dating Death Eater Draco Malfoy put her in harm's way? If Draco really cared about her, why would he allow her to be put in danger? Was it really any different than being friends with the Boy-Who-Lived? Harry had put his friend's life in danger pretty much every year they'd known each other; the worst being less than a year ago at the Department of Mysteries.

"We'll have to see how things fall," Draco nervously said peering over at the witch next to him, "but, what I actually wanted to ask was if you had anything planned for Severus's birthday?"

Harry stopped walking. How come he had no clue when the professor's birthday was? Obviously, it was close enough that Draco was asking him about it.

"Erm," it was the Gryffindor wizard's turn to be nervous as he sheepishly asked, "when is his birthday?"

Draco stared at him with his grey eyes squinted, "It's Thursday, the 9th."

Shite.

That really wasn't a lot of time to do much of anything, but he couldn't let the day go unnoticed. Snape had done so much for him over such a short amount of time, that he had to think of some way to acknowledge it.

"I didn't know his birthday was this week," Harry admitted as they were approaching the Great Hall. "Did you have anything in mind?"

"Oooh," came a high pitched squeak from behind him. He didn't need to turn around to know it was Lavender, apparently having finished whatever it was her and Ron rushed off to do before lunch, "Who's birthday is it?! We should have a party!"

Draco and Harry both looked at each other and started laughing. Ron, who apparently took it as an insult to his girlfriend, pulled her closer to him as if he were protecting her from the other two wizards.

"It's Professor Snape's birthday," Hermione said, with her own small chuckle.

Upon hearing this, Ron made a disgusted face, "Since when do we celebrate a professor's birthday? Especially that one."

Harry gave this best friend an exasperated sigh, surely he wasn't that daft to be going through this again.

"No one needs a good reason to throw a party, Won-Won," Lavender said, jumping up and down like a toddler. "Oh! This will be so great! When is it?"

Harry shot a warning glance over to Draco, "I really don't think this is a good idea. Nothing about Severus screams the 'birthday party type'."

Images of students hanging from the ceiling went flying through Harry's head. This was an absolutely horrible idea.

"No, no, no," he called out to his fellow classmates who had continued walking into the Great Hall. Unfortunately - or fortunately depending on how one looked at it - Draco had to go to the Slytherin table and therefore he had no real support against Lavender and her preposterous plan to throw Snape a birthday party.

"We'll do it super small," she went on with Hermione, Ginny, and Ron, "he doesn't have any friends anyway, and I get the feeling that most of the other professors just tolerate him."

Taking a quick glance up at the head table, Snape was in what appeared to be a serious conversation with Dumbledore and McGonagall. The young wizard got the impression that it had to do with whatever kept Snape out so late last night. The professor was starting to look exhausted again, Harry noticed, similar to how he looked back at Privet Drive, when all of this started. Maybe an extremely small, definitely-not-called-a-party wouldn't be a bad idea after all; a way to acknowledge not only his birthday, but also everything he'd done to help out around the school and with the Order - though they couldn't exactly announce that last one.

"Ok. I'm in, as long as it's super small and quiet" Harry said, inserting himself back into the conversation, "What do we do first?"

That afternoon's tutoring lesson was Charms with Hermione. Harry thought it would be an easy lesson seeing as they hadn't had an official Charms class yet and wasn't exactly sure what they could honestly be covering. He should have known the Gryffindor witch would have discussed this exact scenario with the tiny professor, and therefore she came with her arms full of notes for them to go over in preparation for the term.

"You do know I'm not getting graded in any of my classes, right?" Harry asked after seeing it all laid out on the sitting room table.

His friend huffed at him, making him think she hadn't, in fact, known, "Regardless, that doesn't mean you shouldn't put the same effort in."

It was exactly what he thought that meant, but she wouldn't see it that way and so it wasn't worth arguing the point.

"If you put time and energy in now," she continued with a bit of arrogance around her, "think about the grade you could get when you retake the course for real."

For real.

Those two words hit him hard by implying that the work he was doing wasn't worth anything. Then, they were followed by the proclamation that she wished she could essentially take a practice course before her actual courses because - and he was sure she had some big research to backup her claim - people absorb almost as much new information the second time they hear the material as the first. The young wizard didn't hear where her diatribe ended because he was so focused on the fact that she'd so casually slipped in the fact that she didn't think he was doing real work, either. Completely missing the point of her statement, he only half paid attention to whatever it was she was explaining as she continued talking about their Charms lesson.

"Hermione," he stopped her midway through the lesson, "I can't hold any more information on Charms. M'sorry, but sometimes it's been hard for me to concentrate and remember things."

It wasn't technically a lie as his friends had known about his struggles with the chemotherapy and his memory lately, but that wasn't the case now. The last thing he wanted to think about was his classes.

"What should I get Severus for his birthday?" He'd been questioning that since they started planning the get together; he refused to think of it as a party in an effort not to feel so guilty over it.

"Oh," Hermione looked over the notes on the table, disappointed, "I don't really know, Harry. You spend so much time with him, I'm sure you'll think of something."

That was the problem, he couldn't think of anything that wasn't too obvious. Did the professor really need any more books, especially on potions? Not likely. And Harry didn't know his favorite food or sport, or if he even liked sports. Based on the small snippets of the memories he saw, he could assume the man didn't play Quidditch, but did he enjoy watching it?

"Harry," Hermione touched his arm, causing him to jump at being suddenly brought back into the present.

"Sorry, 'Mione," he replied, "I was lost in my thoughts."

"You do that a lot," she responded with concern that hit Harry the wrong way.

"I've a lot on my mind lately. It's really that simple."

Harry felt his heart lurch at her brown sympathetic eyes watching him. Now that both of his friends were officially dating someone - thankfully not each other like he'd thought they were headed because that would make this whole situation so much harder - they didn't have as much in common anymore. It would only get worse as time went on and unless he said something to them, there was really no way they would know how he was feeling about it all.

"How can I help with that?" She asked it in such a way that he silently wondered if someone told her to ask him that. It was a valid question though; what could she do to help? "I can continue to look into the Horcrux situation. Maybe see if I can find a way to get rid of the soul piece without…"

She was saying all the wrong things that afternoon, but at least this time she had recognized it and stopped herself before finishing that sentence. Harry could give her that much credit at least.

"It's fine," he eventually said, "just because you don't say it, doesn't mean it's not there. I mean, I try not to think about the whole needing to die thing, but it being there is actually helping me right now… it's confusing, really."

It was too convoluted for him to think about given his current mind-space. He had other things to worry about, so having Hermione researching it would not necessarily be a bad thing.

"I'll do whatever I can, Harry," she said calmly.

"That'd be great, 'Mione," he finally said, "let me know if you find anything."

Unfortunately, giving Hermione the task to research more about how to rid a body of an unwanted, stowaway soul without killing the host didn't prevent his mind from thinking about it. Throughout the rest of the day, he found himself in a distant mood. Consciously, he forced himself to have dinner in the Great Hall, but mostly so he could continue planning the not-party for Snape. By the end, they'd decided Lavender, Ron, and Ginny would take care of the location and decorations, leaving Harry, Hermione, and Draco in charge of food and guests. Overall it was a productive planning session, yet it did little to change the Gryffindor's current outlook.

Back home that night, Harry was sitting on his bed in his room looking through all of the pictures of his Mum that Snape had given him for Christmas. After talking to Hermione about his classes and the Horcrux situation in the same afternoon, he thought it would help to push away his sullen mood. When he pulled out the box to look through it, he imagined what his mum would tell him about each picture. Would she tell him about the moments leading up to and just after each one was taken? Try to give him some kind of context of how she was feeling? Could she tell him who took the picture - one of her parents, maybe Aunt Petunia, Snape, or another friend?

He picked up one of the pictures ever so carefully, of Lily around 10 or 11, not exactly sure what about this picture caught his eye. She was sitting on a swing at a park not much different than one he'd go to often in Little Whinging, and for the first time since receiving the gift, he noticed a boy standing off to the side next to another swing on the set. Harry recognized the boy immediately as Snape. The Gryffindor felt the familiar shame as he looked to be unwashed and wearing clothing that was so big and mismatched, Harry would have thought it was deliberate if he didn't intimately understand what it was like when you lived with a family that did not provide your most basic needs; like clothes that fit you. The boy was stringy thin and had a pallid look to him that Harry recognized in himself currently. His anxiety rose thinking about how similar this boy was to the eleven year old wizard that had been living in the cupboard under the stairs in 4 Privet Drive, but at least the latter hadn't been living with his parents; the people who were supposed to care for you and love you. Harry had grown up with those things purposely withheld from him, but given freely to his cousin. Harry got the impression that Snape's family just didn't have them; he had likely grown up in a house where love did not exist at all. Harry wasn't sure which was worse: being denied love that was there or not having it to begin with.

He was brought out of his turbulent thinking by a knock on his door. Expecting Snape to enter after the knock, he waited and was surprised when a second knock came shortly after the first.

"Come in," he called out a little confused by the formality. The professor had seen the Gryffindor at his lowest point, coming in his room after knocking once wasn't out of the norm.

Of course, he was proven wrong again when it was Draco who opened his door, not Snape. The Gryffindor immediately started collecting his pictures - that had been scattered across his bed - as quickly as possible, somehow feeling embarrassed for having been staring at them. What was Draco Malfoy doing in the doorway to his bedroom? Especially at almost nine o'clock at night?

"This used to be Severus's potions storeroom," the Slytherin said, looking around the room at how comfortable Harry had become here. This at least confirmed that the blonde had not been in his bedroom while he wasn't there. "He moved everything to his laboratory and office so you could have this room."

"What are you doing here, Draco?" The Gryffindor flushed a bit from embarrassment over the fact that he was already in his navy blue pyjamas and Draco was still in his Slytherin uniform, drawing attention to the fact that Harry's day had ended long ago while his classmate's wasn't over yet.

"I had a meeting with Severus," he replied, as if that somehow explained to Harry why he was now walking into his bedroom. "This party's a bad idea, isn't it?

The way he'd said it made Harry chuckle, "Yeah, it probably is. Although he seemed to enjoy the Christmas and New Year's Party we had over holiday, so maybe it won't be so awful."

That had apparently been the wrong thing to say. Draco stiffened in the final three steps it took until he was standing over Harry's bed. A scowl flashed across his face so quickly, the Gryffindor wizard wasn't sure he'd actually seen it.

"Who's that?" Draco nodded his head to a picture that had fallen onto the ground when Harry had been trying to feverishly put them away. It was the one of his mum on the swing. "Is that Severus?"

"Erm..." Harry mumbled, hoping the curiosity of the Slytherin would pass, instead that curiosity changed to jealousy.

"Why do you have that?"

Harry picked up the picture in his hands and rubbed his thumb over his mother's small face. Lifting his eyes confidently, he replied, "She's my mum. Did you know her and Severus were friends growing up?"

Draco took a half a step towards the bed and peered at the picture in Harry's hand before asking rather bluntly, "Your mother was a ginger? She looks like she could be a Weasley."

The comment rolled right off Harry's back and he gave the picture a warm smile, "Not everyone with red hair is a Weasley, y'know."

The Slytherin gave a small hmph, "That's not exactly true in wizarding Britain. I'm pretty sure every red-headed witch or wizard can trace their lineage back to a Weasley."

"Well," Harry started without thinking about his current audience, "my mum was the first witch in her family."

His face fell thinking about what he'd just said and silently scolded himself. It wasn't like the Malfoy heir didn't already know his family's history, it was literally in their history books - Harry tried to avoid reading them - which was really an odd feeling. Hermione, a muggle born witch, knew more about him and his parents than he did when he started at Hogwarts. He was slowly getting the full story, but it wasn't nearly enough. As the last wizarding child in both of his family lines, and all of them dead, he would never know it all. It was a disheartening feeling to realize he'd never get to hear stories of his parents, or grandparents; to know that he was utterly alone. It was true he had Dudley now, in some strange turn of events, but it wasn't the same. Dudley couldn't tell him if his parents lived in Godric's Hollow before they went into hiding - since that was where they were buried, he assumed they did - his muggle cousin couldn't tell him where the name Harry came from and why just Harry instead of Harold or if there were any other names they were considering for him. Did they want a boy or girl? As the last Potter heir, he guessed at least his dad was excited to have a boy, but maybe they'd wanted a girl instead. Were they excited to find out they were having him, even when they were so young and in the middle of a war? Would they have had any other kids? He could feel himself grieving over the two very different lives he could have had: the one with his parents had Voldemort not tried to kill him, and the one with Snape where he eventually died, but seemed to live a happy fulfilled last five years.

"-happened to them?"

Furrowing his brows, the Gryffindor shook his head to clear his head from his intrusive thoughts.

"What are you talking about? Everyone knows what happened to my parents," Harry replied, completely not amused by the question from the blonde.

"Not your parents, you prat!" Draco called out. "Severus and you mother. What happened to them?"

"Oh. It's the opposite of you and Hermione, actually," Harry felt his ears heat up over the comparison and then questioned if he should say anything at all. It wasn't his story to tell, so he simply left it at that; the Slytherin could interpret that how he'd like. "What did you meet with Severus about tonight?"

The air around them shifted yet again and it became obvious that neither boy really knew how to talk to one another about the things most important in their lives. Would they be able to form some kind of friendship - outside of dating his best friend - when it seemed they both had more in common then they ever thought possible?

"It's really none of your business, Potter."

Harry simply sighed. No, they definitely weren't at friendship level yet.

~~~~SS~~~~

"I'm pulling you out," Severus told the blonde across from him on Monday evening sitting in his office with Draco.

"What?!" His Slytherin student said indignantly and expectantly. "You can't do that! What the hell am I going to do? What about my mother?!"

Those were all questions he'd anticipated, though he didn't have all the answers. Draco stood and started pacing the office as he ran his hands through his platinum blonde hair. His eyes were fueled with anger and likely the feeling of failure; it's what Severus would feel in his position after all.

"Professor Dumbledore is working in your exit strategy," he calmly answered. "All I know at the moment is that you will go into hiding with Narcissa and preferably Lucius, however that's only if we can confirm he will not put your life at risk. This is not because you're not doing your job well. It's that you've been given a task you cannot complete without bringing harm to yourself. I refuse to let that happen."

A long silence followed his announcement of the basic framework to their plan. It wasn't nearly enough information to ease the teen's anxiety over his future, but it would have to do.

"When?"

"By Easter you'll be safe," he said. Without a full timeline in place yet, the former spy was hesitant to say anything at all, but there was something in the grey eyes staring back at him that made him proceed. "You need to know that should you be summoned prior to your departure from the school, you must go about business as usual."

"It's not fair," the Slytherin teen complained, not unlike how Harry had presented the same sentiment only four days ago.

"It never is," Severus repeated. "But Draco, I promise you that you will not have to do this task."

"You know? I didn't ask for any of this," the blonde's pacing increased with each passing second and Severus didn't miss the flex in the child's left forearm. No, he didn't ask for this anymore than Harry asked to be targeted by the Dark Lord or the cancer. It wasn't fair, but knew that life rarely was. For the first time in several months, he questioned if he'd made the right choice in coming to this world. Who knew where they would have ended up back in his old reality, but from in his current position, this was definitely not where he expected any of them to be.

Severus could tell something was going on with Harry, but no matter which angle he tried to ask from, the Gryffindor wouldn't give him any information to go from. His school work seemed to be going well, despite the earlier proclamation that he didn't want to continue this term, he appeared healthy, even if he was a bit anxious for his last round of phase two chemotherapy on Monday and Tuesday, and he appeared to be sleeping and eating well, though that was Severus's observation as asking the young wizard would be futile. No, whatever was going on with the teen had him distracted, but not necessarily in a bad way. For the last two days, he'd been out at the library - far too often for the first week of term to be only studying - or Gryffindor tower most of the day and evening, not returning until long after dinner. Adding in the fact that he knew Draco stopped by his bedroom before leaving after their talk Monday night, left the professor with a very suspicious mind.

Wednesday morning's sixth year defense class was the perfect example of the young wizard's odd change of disposition, specifically in how it related to his magic and classwork. They would be finishing up their duels and he'd fully expected Harry to sit there sulking over the fact that he couldn't participate; especially given the fact that only three days ago they had their own pseudo-duel between them, he'd expected to hear something from the teen about it. Instead, Harry was seated at his desk along the side of the classroom cheering on the contender he hoped to win in each specific match: Nott versus Parkinson, Malfoy versus Finnegan, and Nott versus Granger, until finally as everyone had already expected, the final match was Malfoy versus Granger. Severus almost stepped in and cancelled the duel seeing as the two contenders were dating, however he didn't want to draw any unwanted attention to that fact, so he let it continue. He already disapproved of Draco's blatant flaunting of his relationship with the Gryffindor witch, who happened to be one of the best friends of the Dark Lord's mortal enemy. It was an extremely dangerous relationship, however given the new exit strategy in place he would let his Slytherin enjoy the time he had with his girlfriend before being forced into hiding.

Severus watched as both opponents prepared on their respective sides of the classroom, each with an aura that could not be any further from the other - the Gryffindor side encouraging and supportive compared to the Slytherin side that was scowling and threatening.

To her credit, Hermione didn't hold back one bit even though she was facing her boyfriend. He had no idea what the Gryffindor witch's plans were after Hogwarts, but she would make a fine Auror if that was the direction she wanted to go. Her movements were swift, she had a large repertoire of spells - both offensive and defensive - and she didn't stand down from a possibly imbalanced opponent. Severus, as well as the rest of the class, very much enjoyed watching their spell work staying on top of one other tic-for-tac. Draco did not disappoint even though he was fighting against his girlfriend, to Severus's approval. Part of Defense Against the Dark Arts meant staying focused no matter who it was you were fighting. The first war had torn apart families - the Black brothers for example - and you had to be able to stay just as focused when you found yourself fighting against a former friend as you would against a foe.

It took roughly twenty minutes of colorful blasts dancing around the room, papers and other materials flying across the desks from the displacement of the air around them, and constant booms between the two duelers before Draco finally got the upper hand. Whether it was an accident or planned to throw the witch's rhythm off, when Hermione instinctively blocked after sending a leg locker jinx - that was blocked, but not reflected back as he likely should have done - Draco did not attack back. That non-action caused not only confusion to cross the Gryffindor's face, but she dropped her shield two seconds earlier than she normally held it for, giving Draco the perfect opportunity to send a stinging hex her way.

"That's the match!" Severus called, moving to stand between the two. Hermione wasn't completely out, however it was the first real offensive spell to make it through to either of them and he feared how much worse it could get if he continued to let it go on.

There was an expected uproar from the Gryffindors over the technical-loss and the Slytherins gave a haughty cheer. It was by far his best first week of term class he'd ever conducted, made all the better by Harry's huge smile.

By Wednesday night, Severus was in the sitting room going over his lesson plans for the following week. Harry had chemotherapy on Monday and Tuesday, and with it being the last round before Phase Three started on the 25th, he needed to be home on Monday to meet with Dr. Swanson. That left him with finding someone - in this case Tonks as Minerva was unable to assist this time - to take over his classes, and the more detailed notes he could provide the Auror, the easier the next class would be for him to decipher. He was midway through his fourth year lesson plan when Harry finally returned home, still dressed in his Gryffindor uniform, but with his robe haphazardly thrown over his shoulder pinned down by his school bag.

"Hey, Severus," the young wizard called out as he passed by the sitting room, and headed towards his bedroom.

"Wait a minute," he replied before Harry could slink away too quickly, "take a seat."

The nervous energy surrounding the teenager was so thick, he was surprised Harry had been able to move. It only added to the theories running through his head. The young wizard unceremoniously dropped his bag and his robe onto the floor before dramatically throwing himself down onto the sofa across from Severus.

"Where were you?" He asked, deciding that getting straight to the point was probably the best option.

Harry's green eyes shifted back and forth, a telltale sign he was trying to think - likely of a lie - quickly, "I was at the library."

The professor squinted his eyes at the Gryffindor, wishing they hadn't spent so long going through his Occlumency lessons. While he could still read every emotion right from Harry's face, it was getting more difficult to do as he progressed in their lessons. In fact, Severus wasn't sure if he was actually reading the emotion that was sitting there or if he simply knew this child well enough now to know what he was feeling. Either way, right now he knew Harry was nervous and he was guilty; of what, he wanted to find out.

"And had I gotten your exceedingly helpful, and likely illegal, map out and checked it," he challenged, "would I have seen you in the library?"

The Gryffindor's mouth fell open, "You didn't?! How do you even..." Harry trailed off as he put the pieces together that Severus knew from his old reality how to work the Marauder's Map. "Seriously, did you look at it?"

"I did not," the former spy admitted, "but had I looked, would you have been in the library?"

Fumbling with the hem of his vest, Harry didn't respond. That in itself was telling. Where could he have been, and with whom, that would require this much secrecy. Deciding to take a guess at something to help move this along, he started with the worst.

"Were you elsewhere with Miss Lovegood, perhaps?"

Harry's entire face turned a bright, vibrant red as he yelled almost too emphatically, "No! It's nothing like that!"

Severus still was not completely convinced. Though he knew Harry and Luna attended Slughorn's Christmas Party as friends, Harry's disposition was too shifty for him to be wrong about something going on.

"Miss Weasley then?" He suggested

"I wasn't with a girl," Harry spat back, his eyes pleading for the conversation to quickly end.

"Then perhaps a boy?" He was brought back to a similar conversation from Yule Ball back in his old reality. The déjà vu had been happening more frequently and it was exceedingly concerning to him; no, it absolutely terrified him.

"Oh Merlin, I can't do this!" Harry threw his hands up on the air. "I was at the kitchens with Draco because we're planning a…" Harry furrowed his brows appearing to try to find the right word while still appearing uncomfortable with the conversation, "...small celebration… for your birthday tomorrow. I'm not out doing whatever it is you're thinking I'm doing… with either a girl or a boy."

To say Severus was shocked would be an understatement. In the back of his mind, he did know it was his 37th birthday tomorrow, but even in his old reality it had gone more or less unnoticed; a simple dinner in their quarters with Harry and that was it. Building on top of that was the fact that he'd never told Harry when his birthday was here, so that only meant-

"Draco told you about my birthday, didn't he?" The former spy asked.

Harry's sheepishly looked up and nodded. He appeared so innocent, just a child trying to plan a birthday… whatever it was - no matter how comfortable he'd gotten around others, he refused to call it a party; small children had birthday parties, not grown men who were once Death Eaters. Though the image of these two boys - both simultaneously lost in their own lives and thrust together into a pseudo-friendship - getting together to plan a celebration for him was both heartwarming and hilarious. In fact, he couldn't stop himself when he started to chuckle.

"It was Lavender's idea," Harry added with a tinge of fear in his voice.

"I'll be sure to remember that, whenever this not-party is," it was said as a question to which Harry instantly picked up.

"Down here tomorrow night, after dinner," the young wizard closed one of his eyes as if he were preparing to be yelled at.

"I'm not angry, Harry," the professor explained. "Quite relieved in fact that we don't have a different type of conversation I was not looking forward to having."

Again, Harry's face flushed, "I'm good there, sir. Really, that conversation has been taken care of."

Severus silently wondered who had that conversation with the young wizard - his guess was likely Arthur Weasley - but quickly determined it didn't make much difference. Neither of them wanted to go down that road. In fact, he didn't really want to know what this not-birthday-party entailed either, so he chose to change the subject to one that was more agreeable to the both of them.

"What are your thoughts on Draco's triumph in defense class?"

The tactic worked as expected and Harry's guard came down. "He won on a technicality," the Gryffindor said, giving a small, sarcastic laugh and then with a sense of confidence, bordering on arrogance, he added, "He's lucky I wasn't able to compete, otherwise he wouldn't have stood a chance when he hesitated that last spell."

He woke up on the morning of his 37th birthday pondering the question of if he were technically 37 or 38 years old. Since he'd gone back in time when he came over to this reality - something he also noted he thought about so casually now, as if it were normal for people to wake up in a whole new world - this would be the second time he's celebrating his 37th birthday. As he brushed his teeth that morning and prepared for his classes before going with Harry up to the Great Hall for breakfast, that thought was zigzagging throughout his brain. It was infinitely better than the thought of whatever it was Draco and Harry had planned for tonight, including who would be given entry to his intentionally kept secret quarters, so he continued to feed it. Ultimately, he'd decided that while he obviously remembered celebrating his last 37th birthday, since his body was from this reality he was still only 37, though it would be something he'd likely think about every birthday until he died. One does not simply forget that you time traveled, no matter how many years passed by.

Most of the day was a quiet affair, just as he preferred it, with only select staff wishing him well on the day. It was simply a day like any other, or at least it would have been if he didn't already know what was going on and have context for Lavender Brown's constant bouncing whenever he saw her in the corridors or in the Great Hall. Harry, though, genuinely looked happy and he had all week since this "event planning" started, giving Severus a real view of what the young wizard had been missing since all of his cancer treatments started. This would only make the upcoming phase so much harder on them, and the professor was both preparing and dreading when Harry fully understood what was coming up. Trying to live in the moment, he pushed the future hardships ahead of them aside in his mind to focus on the day; his birthday.

Severus lowered his guard around dinner, by which time it appeared that the only people involved in this "event" were Harry and his friends, plus Dudley, Draco, and Lavender. It would put one extra person - Miss Brown who had a difficult time keeping secrets to herself - in his quarters than he wanted, but he convinced himself he could quickly get out of it, thus leaving the teenagers to their "not-party". Unsurprisingly, all of the expected perpetrators left dinner from the Great Hall early. He'd purposefully delayed as long as possible hoping they'd give up and come back, however as the dinner hour came to an end, he had no choice but to go back to his dungeon quarters.

"Severus," he was saved by Minerva calling him as he was standing from the head table.

He turned towards her and was met with a concerning expression across her face. His stomach dropped in anticipation to what she had to tell him; whatever it was would not be good.

"I'm afraid there's been a development with the old crowd," she said rather gravely, "let's go talk in my office where I can ensure our privacy."

This wasn't good. He knew Harry was waiting for him in the dungeons and even if he didn't necessarily want the "non-party", he hated to let the Gryffindor down, especially after being as excited as he had been with it. But the only piece he was waiting on from the Order was information on Draco's exit strategy; specifically of Narcissa's role with it and he needed to be aware of any changes that may have come up. If she wasn't willing to go with her son, Severus would have a bloody difficult time convincing the blonde to go into hiding alone. If that were the case, he would have to find a way for himself and Harry to go with - a suggestion he would have made outright if it weren't for Harry's chemotherapy. Once he was in the Maintenance phase, he would spend the next three years having treatments monthly plus taking daily chemotherapy tablets that would need to get refilled regularly, therefore making it nearly impossible to go into full hiding with the blonde Slytherin. He was lost in his thoughts, trying to make contingency plans for his contingency plans as they rounded the corridor to Minerva's office.

The former spy should not have been taken by surprise, but he was. When the door to Minerva's office opened, he shook his head upon seeing the inside of her office filled with balloons that changed colors in a rapid-fire rhythm and others that had small fireworks inside of them; no doubt from the Weasley's Wizard Wheezes stock. Across the top of the room, where Minerva's desk usually sat, was a banner that was written hastily in green paint - a little too reminiscent of the Chamber of Secrets messages for his liking - that read Happy Birthday Severus. He could have sworn there was evidence of an exclamation point after his name, which someone had tried to remove with magic. On the side of the room, where Minerva's desk was now located was a cake shaped like a lopsided gold cauldron; likely Draco's contribution as any other person would have chosen the traditional black.

Then in front of him was Harry, standing there, proud of himself that he'd managed to pull this off without the professor going off in a fury of rage. Without even thinking of the group consisting of his colleagues and students surrounding them, forgetting the time and place they were in, he walked up to the young wizard, and gave him a hug.

"Harry birthday, Severus," the Gryffindor said. "You really do deserve to celebrate tonight."

And so they celebrated, with Harry and his friends, Draco, Dudley, Minerva, Albus, Lupin and Tonks, and Molly and Arthur. It was a small gathering, still more people than he usually preferred to be around, yet he was comfortable in the group. As the night went on there was music, a selection of food, drinks, and then cake. Harry had gotten him a set of his favorite specialty coffee, and he'd received a set of crystal tumblers from Draco that from any other student would be slightly inappropriate, however he'd known Draco since the blonde was born and somehow that made it alright. The gifts were completely unexpected and much appreciated, but it was the meaning behind those two gifts, and the entire party as a whole, which almost unraveled him. He watched Harry and Draco, the two boys he was mentoring - unofficially and officially respectively - and was overcome with the gratitude to have them in his life. While coming to this reality had created its own set of challenges, he ultimately was truly happy for probably the first time in this version of his life.

For that night, he committed to enjoying himself surrounded by the people he had fought for, fought beside, and people he would - at least in the case of the adults - call his friends. In the end, it didn't take much convincing and the non-party he had planned to quickly slip out of the first moment possible, turned into a party he thoroughly enjoyed that lasted until a quarter to curfew. It was a night where he was able to put aside the many burdens he was always carrying around with him, even if only temporarily. He wasn't working on a plan for Draco's escape from the Dark Lord's clutches, he wasn't thinking about how impossible it was going to be for him to manage his classes during Harry's next phase of chemotherapy, and he wasn't searching for a way to release the Dark Lord's soul fragment from within the Gryffindor. He was simply enjoying the company of those around him; something he was immensely appreciative of even if he hadn't recognized it until that moment.

"Do you feel a year older?" Harry asked, as the pair were on their way back home just after curfew.

"Actually," Severus analytically said, "I feel a year younger."

Harry stopped walking for a second as he pondered that statement, then started laughing for no reason apparent to the professor. It continued as he made the final short walk up to their door, his contagious laughter echoing off the stone walls and into their home.