Potions and Snitches
Snape and Harry Gen Fanfiction Archive

Chapter 14
“Thank you for coming, Remus,” Dumbledore said, motioning to the empty chair in front of him.

Remus Lupin sat gratefully in the offered chair. The full moon was just behind him, but its effects were still being felt. Without a stable job or stable income, he could hardly afford housing, let alone the life saving Wolfsbane potion. Had it not been for Sirius escaping from Azkaban two years previous, he likely would have been spending his summer on the streets. Again.

The meager savings he had managed to put together while teaching at Hogwarts was quickly depleted, leaving him in much the same state he had been prior to having it. Muggle jobs didn’t understand the amount of time off he needed, nor did they accept his ‘degree.’ Wizarding jobs were even more difficult to come by as anti-werewolf sentiment raged unchecked through the community. Between a rock and a hard place was hardly an understatement; having been let go from yet another position in the muggle world, Remus found himself asking his long time friend yet again for a roof over his head and bed to sleep in.

“Thank you for having me,” Remus replied cordially, accepting the candy the man offered. “Has there been any word on Harry?”

Dumbledore sighed before popping a lemon drop into his own mouth. “Alas, there has not been. Severus says even Voldemort is having no luck. I am afraid I may have to alert the ministry proper, not just our Aurors within the Order.”

“Where could he have gone?” Remus mused mournfully, resisting the wolfish urge to whine.

“Sadly, I believe the one person who knows where Harry is is Harry himself,” Dumbledore said softly, conjuring a teapot and pouring them both a cup. “That is not why I called you here today, however.”

“Albus, you know I cannot return to teaching,” Remus said sadly, stirring a spoonful of sugar into his tea.

“And there are no openings this year,” Dumbledore said with a sigh. “As much as I wish that were not the case for once. No, the ministry has decided to take it upon themselves to fill your former position.”

“Then why…?” Remus said, looking at the elderly headmaster with a raised eyebrow and slightly cocked head.

“One of the current professors reached out to me nearly a month ago about finding their child a tutor,” Dumbledore stated, eyes twinkling madly. “They stated that they would either need a live-in tutor or a sabbatical as the child in question has multiple medical problems.”

Remus frowned. Tutoring he could do. Babysitting … questionable. He could do it, but he had very little experience with children under the age of eight. And being essentially a nurse? No. He could barely nurse himself back to health, let alone keep another person alive. Combining all of these into one? Impossible.

“... here in Hogwarts, of course,” Dumbledore prattled away as though the decision was already made. “Meals will be provided to you, as will a private set of quarters. And accommodations will be made for your ‘furry little problem,’ as you used to call it.”

“Hold on,” Remus held up a hand in an effort to stop the man’s train of thought. “You haven’t even told me anything about who this is! I’ve been a tutor before, muggle and magical, but never live in! And never for a child with medical problems! Who’s child is it even? Is it the new Defense professor’s?”

“No, certainly not,” Dumbledore snorted lightly into his tea at the thought. Delores Umbridge hated children with a burning passion. The only ‘child’ he could ever see her having would be a child of the furry variety, possibly a cat if memory served. The fact that Severus’s child would even be on the school grounds would likely be a bone of contention with the woman, and he wasn’t even under school age.

“Then who’s child is it?” Remus continued to press. There were very few young professors on Hogwarts’ staff roster; if Dumbledore had said ‘grandchild,’ the list would be much longer. As it was, the list of who could have a young child was quite short. In fact, it only consisted of the Muggle Studies professor, Charity Burbage, and Snape who he doubted very much had a child. An adopted child was also a possibility, but Remus couldn’t picture any of the professors trying to raise a child in the school.

“Severus’s,” Dumbledore said, eyes continuing to twinkle as the other man’s eyes widened in shock.

“Severus has a child?!” Remus gasped in shock as he tried to imagine the man being even slightly paternal.

“The reason I contacted you for this position is because of the delicate nature of Severus’s position within the Order,” Dumbledore said, topping off his tea and adding more sugar to it. “As a live-in tutor, you would be more likely to ‘accidentally’ stumble across information which would may be detrimental to Severus’s cover and safety.”

Remus sat in shock, mind whirling at the sheer idea of Severus having a child. He knew the man was very private about his personal life, but this went above and beyond secretive. Even imagining Severus as a father was a difficult feat of mental gymnastics. Who was the child’s mother even?

“How old is this child?” Remus asked, now trying to picture what Severus looked like as a child. His memory of Severus when they had started Hogwarts was fuzzy at best, and the more he tried to push himself to remember, the more he just superimposed the modern, surly countenance of the man over a much younger frame.

“Sixteen, apparently,” Dumbledore said, peering through his glasses at the letter once more. “Though he needs a bit more of a patient hand when it comes to his studies, from what Severus said.”

“What’s wrong with him?” Remus tried to look over the desk at the letter in Dumbledore’s hand.

“Severus didn’t say, only that he has ‘multiple medical issues’ which prohibit him from attending Hogwarts as a student.”

Even Dumbledore looked a bit concerned about that statement. As Remus knew, there were few magical conditions which would prohibit a student from attending Hogwarts. While in the past, those with creature blood or afflictions were barred from attendance, many of these previously banned conditions were allowed with Dumbledore as headmaster. Severus was well aware of this, yet still his son was not allowed to attend. Accommodations could be made for most everything, including learning disabilities, but the child would have to physically make it to class and be able to be independent on school grounds. Whatever was wrong must have had the potential for grievous bodily harm of either himself or another student in an unpredictable manner.

“I assume he has had tutors before?” Remus said, sitting back down and pondering his next move. Being back at Hogwarts would be a dream come true, even if it was as a tutor rather than as a professor. Having a roof over his head, access to medical assistance, and routine meals would do him a world of good.

“Yes, of course,” Albus said, looking once more at the letter Severus had sent him. “From the letter, he has been having tutors and was being tutored by a witch by the name of Madame Clarissa Zebronski. I believe we have had some of her former students come through before and they have all done quite well. Severus did state that he would provide us with a copy of Elias’s grades and curriculum should a tutor be provided.”

Remus nodded. He hadn’t heard of Madame Zebronski before, however it wasn’t hard to believe that she would have been a competent instructor. It was hard to imagine Severus using anyone other than someone competent for his son.

“Should I accept, I would like to meet up with Elias prior to the start of the year,” Remus said, tapping his lips with a finger. “If he is used to tutors, he may have already chosen his focus for the year and I would like to have time to develop a curriculum around it.”

Dumbledore nodded, adding yet another cube of sugar to his tea. “That is understandable. Would you like some time to decide or should I continue looking for a tutor?”

“I need to speak with Sirius first, but I shall give you an answer by tomorrow morning,” Remus said, standing and stretching his back with a groan. “Thank you for the tea. Let me know if you hear anything about Harry.”

“Absolutely,” Dumbledore said, his eyes rapidly losing their twinkle. “I do hope he reappears soon, and unharmed.”




He knew what lay on the other side of the door, but there was a sense of anxiety brewing within him that only the years of having dealt with Bellatrix’s ‘playthings’ prepared him for. How on earth had it gotten this bad? Elias had been quite functional yesterday, but that nightmare had caused such a horrific relapse that Severus very nearly flooed Lucius to see if that woman had come to his house. She hadn’t, of course, unless she suddenly became a master at breaking through wards and had managed to be in two places at once, but Cruciatus damage was her specialty and there was no mistaking it.

If there was an antidote to the potion or a simple spell to complete the degradation of the 15 year old potion, Severus would have made it in a heartbeat. Lily’s son- his son- didn’t deserve that torture. He didn’t deserve the damage it caused him, no matter how it happened or who was the culprit. Cruciatus was as dark as they came and there was no excuse for using it. Ever.

What he really needed was help. A proper diagnosis for what was going on with his son. St Mungos was out of the question, unfortunately, as they didn’t have his paperwork forged yet, nor did they have a good reason for why he had never been seen. The catch twenty-two of the situation was he needed a diagnosis to know the best potions to make, but to get a diagnosis he almost needed a diagnosis. The muggle chart he had gotten a copy of had some of the information on it that he would need, but he needed a healer for his son.

One who could keep his mouth shut.

Opening the door, Severus nearly sighed with relief. Elias was still sleeping, though he did not appear nearly as relaxed as he had immediately following the potions he had been given the night before. The occasional jolt of his muscles was still visible, though not as bad.

The status of his brain, however, was still unknown.

Transfiguring a chair from a tissue, Severus sighed and sat at Elias’s bedside and watched the boy sleep for several minutes, much as he had throughout the night, before seeing to make up his mind.

“Elias?” he said, surprising even himself with how gently it came out. “Elias, you need to wake up.”

Elias blearily opened his eyes and blinked slowly, looking dozily around the room before finally managing to focus on the man sitting beside him. Every part of his body felt sore, including his hair, and trying to focus on anything was nigh impossible. He recognized the man in front of him, but trying to figure out where from didn’t seem worth the effort. Going back to sleep seemed like a better idea.

“Elias, can you stay awake for me?” the man said as Elias’s eyes slid shut once again.

Elias moaned and tried to roll over only to find the motion was far more difficult than he thought. Rolling required coordination and coordination was hard. Coordination required thinking and strength and he seemed to be lacking in both those departments right now.

“I need you to take your tablets and your potions,” the man said, pulling a stick out of his sleeve and making the bed change shape.

His eyes opened wide as the bed shifted into a more chair-like position and he tried in vain to blink the sleep away despite his eyes wanting to roll back in his head and fall back asleep. He took a deep breath in and stretched feeling his arms and legs shake and spasm at the motion.

“‘Mmup,” he murmured, continuing to try to keep his eyes open. “‘Mmup.”

“Yes, I see that,” Severus said, worry preventing him from chuckling at the teen who was clearly not ‘up.’ “Drink this please.”

Elias looked at the small vial the man was holding with mild curiosity. Was it poison? He didn’t know, nor did he care. It was a small, green vial, and the light was bouncing off of it making it seem as though it were glowing. The glow was mesmerizing, almost like being under the lake and looking up, or looking out through the windows of the Slytherin common room and seeing the squid go by.

Severus sighed and removed the cork and pressed it to the boy’s lips as Elias looked in confused awe at the vial in his hand. “Drink.”

The thing in the vial tasted rather herbal, almost minty, and cooled his throat on the way down. The sensation of cold radiated out from his insides and he shivered violently. Why was he so cold suddenly? Where was his …? What was he looking for? Why was he so warm?

Severus tucked his wand back into his holster after placing a mild warming spell on the boy’s blankets before picking up the next vial and repeating the previous action. The potion to calm his throat and allow him to safely swallow had a rather large amount of dandelion root and was known to feel rather cold. It only made sense that with a nervous system that was trying (and failing) to relearn sensations, Elias’s body would misinterpret the sensation as feeling cold.

Another vial was pressed to his lips, this one smelled more sour and much less pleasant. Elias tried to back away, but the man continued to tilt the vial into his mouth despite his (admittedly weak) protests. It tasted just as bad as it smelled, but he felt much less achy. His mouth felt abnormally dry, almost as if he had been eating sand, but the rest of his body felt much more … airy; as though he were floating in a pool room temperature water. The warmth from his blankets relaxing him even further. Sleep was calling and he wanted so badly to answer.

“Just tablets now, then you can go back to sleep,” Severus said as Elias’s eyes drifted shut once more.

Elias moaned and opened his eyes slightly. Tablets? Why was he on tablets? Why was… Snape? … giving him tablets? Potions worked better than tablets anyways. Always did…

Gently, Severus placed the tablets into his son’s mouth and coaxed him to swallow them down before finally allowing him to go back to sleep. He would have to wake him again in a few hours for another round of the Cruciatus reliever as well as another dose of muscle relaxer. And again a few hours after that for more pain reliever and several nutrient potions. If the boy was going to get any rest at all, it would be in spurts throughout the day.

Already, Severus was feeling the strain of being the caregiver of a sick child. His own sleep was highly irregular already, and adding potions administration and general worry over the boy’s well-being was not helping. James Potter was likely rolling over in his grave at how much effort his nemesis was putting into caring for the boy, but Severus could only scoff at the idea. He had long ago learned how horrific the Cruciatus could be; no child deserved to feel that pain or suffer the repercussions of it.

Especially not his own child.

One thing was for certain though, he needed a better plan on how to deal with this. He could continue giving the boy potions to help with the symptoms, but that wouldn’t help prevent these attacks from happening. Nor would it potentially save the boy’s life. If things continued this way, there was a high potential the boy could end up as a permanent fixture at St. Mungo’s alongside the Longbottoms.

He needed to see a specialist, but not one who would ask questions. One who was neutral or light leaning. One who was not under Dumbledore’s or the Ministry’s thumb. One who had the authority to create official documentation which could be turned in to St. Mungo’s whether or not it was true.

He needed Shannon McAllister to get back with him, and quickly. He only hoped she would be amicable to his request.

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