Harry was leaning over, listening to Oliver planning out their strategies for their last few matches. Gryffindor had actually performed reasonably well and Oliver claimed they actually had a fairly high chance of winning the cup, finally. It'd been almost 20 years according to Hooch. Ravenclaw had won the most. She chalked it up to good captains and strategy. Slytherin had won the last six years which Oliver vehemently blamed on absolutely vicious cheating. Angelina and Alicia both agreed.

"But this year, we have a chance!" Oliver insisted. After Christmas Emmeline had released him from his detentions, in part thanks to his assistance against the death eaters on the train. Most of the seventh years had gotten a load of points, in fact, making the house cup race the highest scoring and most Gryffindor skewed in history, leading with 850 points! Professor Snape had grumbled a bit about that but hadn't argued that the points weren't well founded. Oliver's reinstatement as captain had led to a round of clapping during lunch. But as soon as he settled in he assured the team he was going to change. "Being competitive is good. But I can't let it blind me." Harry's new broom had made Oliver so happy he'd picked the teen up in a gleeful bearhug and spun him around. And watching Harry fly on it had nearly brought the young man to tears. "That cup is ours!" He cried as Harry landed. This match, however, would be the hardest for Harry yet.

"You can't catch the snitch," Angelina informed him "until we've got more than 150 points. We have to have at least 300, or we'll be out of the running."

"150!" Harry cried in horror "I've never drawn a match out that long before!"

"You have to!"

"But how am I supposed to stop the other seeker?!" Harry cried in horror.

"Chang is easy enough to distract," Oliver argued. "Just-"

"Flirt with her?" Harry offered. The entire Gryffindor team stared at him in shock. "I er… heard someone else try it once."

"Did it work?" Oliver asked. The team turned to him, equally shocked.

"Yeah," Harry said with a shrug.

"Then do it."

"Ollie!" Angelina cried in shock.

"Hey if it works it works! Anything to win," Oliver argued.

"What happened to 'there are more important things than winning'?!" Katie cried with a snarl.

"Harry James Potter, if you toy with that poor girl's heart, I will never call you a life saviour ever again!" Angelina said with a surprisingly Molly Weasley-esque tone. That made George snicker and jab his elbow into Fred's side, which made him jab right back, though less snickering and more annoyed.

"Alright alright!" Harry cried with a wince. "I won't flirt with her!" Angelina opened her mouth when suddenly Dumbledore loudly cleared his throat.

"Good morning children, I thought it best to announce this now. I am fairly certain that it will make its rounds before the day is done. In light of the recent capture of various death eaters, The Ministry has seen fit to lift certain restrictions on Hogwarts students." Dumbledore began with a smile, "I am pleased to announce that Hogsmeade visits have been reinstated. There will be one this weekend for all students in year 3 and up, provided you have guardian permission. I took the liberty of sending the forms out once again." The hall was already buzzing before Dumbledore even sat back down.

"Hogsmeade! Brilliant right!" Ron cried with a grin.

"Oh, I'm very excited. The town has so much history!" Hermione cried excitedly. Ron rolled his eyes.

"And Honeyduke's, and Zonko's! Not everything has to be about school you know! You can just have fun!" Ron argued. Hermione sniffed.

"Well while you're 'having fun', I'm going to take a walking tour. They're supposedly quite informative."

"Hard pass," Ron argued with a wince. Hermione harrumphed and walked away. Ron turned back to Harry with a grin.

"Too bad right? While she's off being boring, you and I will have all the fun!"

"Just you," Harry muttered quietly.

"Wot?" Ron said with shock. Harry sighed.

"I don't have guardians anymore, remember? I never managed to get my form signed in the first place. Who would I even ask to sign it now?" Harry asked, feeling only a little bitter. This situation had really put his lack of progress into stark relief

"What about professor Vance?" Ron offered. "She'd sign it, wouldn't she?"

"Absolutely not!" Emmeline cried with firmly crossed arms. Harry stared at her, heartbroken.

"Why not?" he whined.

"Need I remind you," Emmeline began with a cold look. "That there is a mass murderer after you! He wasn't caught during the train attack, now was he?" Harry blinked.

"Oh… right," he shifted on his feet. "I forgot about him."

"You forgot?" Severus suddenly piped up from where he'd been leaning on Emmeline's desk, the first thing he'd said since the start of the conversation. He unfolded his own tightly crossed arms as he pushed himself up. "You forgot about the man who has made it his life mission to kill you?"

"I dunno!" Harry cried, exasperated, "A lot's happened! He hasn't been spotted in weeks and I've been busy!"

"That should make you more anxious!" Severus snarled, "it indicates that he's finally figured out how to avoid detection! For all you know, he could be stalking the halls as we speak!"

"Severus!" Emmeline admonished, "There is no need to frighten him needlessly!" she turned back to Harry with a reassuring smile. "You're safe at Hogwarts. I'm sure there's no way that Black could get in." Harry nodded slowly. "But you are absolutely forbidden from leaving the grounds."

"What?!" Harry cried in desperation. "But-"

"The risk is simply too great!" Emmeline cried over his arguments. "True, several death eaters were caught during the train attack, but that was far from all of them. And you are in enough danger without walking around a rural town, completely unsupervised with only your friends. Frankly, I'm surprised you wouldn't think of the danger that would put them in!" Emmeline finished with a slight frown. Harry did feel that flicker of shame as she reminded him of that fact. "The fact of the matter is that I wouldn't sign that form even if I could." Emmeline finally admitted. "Which, I'll remind you, I can't! I'm not a guardian… or parent." she finished. Severus stumbled into her desk and then coughed to cover it up. Harry looked at him with a raised eyebrow then sighed.

"Fine," he said mopily before he turned and left the office. Emmeline watched him go, waiting for the absolutely irritating man behind her to say something.

"Has he always looked like that when he raises an eyebrow?" Severus whispered in shock. Emmeline huffed.

"So what did she say, mate?" Ron asked with a grin.

"No," Harry admitted. "And she made a lot of good points. Black is still out there, and he still wants to kill me."

"Oh yeah," Ron began with consterned expression, "forgot about him."

"Me too," Harry readily admitted, "so much else has happened lately that it kinda just slipped my mind."

"Well… maybe you can still come."

"Not likely," Harry complained. "She said I was forbidden from leaving the grounds."

"What she doesn't know won't hurt her." Ron reasoned. Harry huffed.

"Yeah? How the bloody hell am I supposed to get to Hogsmeade without being spotted."

"Well, you'd be invisible of course!" Ron offered. Harry blinked. His invisibility cloak! That was an option.

"Only…" Harry began before he bit his lip. "I dunno Ron, professor Vance made a fair point. Black is still out there."

"How is he gonna get into Hogsmeade and attack you while you're in a crowd with a hundred other people, invisible?" Ron argued.

"By blowing those hundred other people up?" Harry offered. "He's done it before, remember?"

"Yeah but as far as he's concerned, you're not there! So he wouldn't have a reason! Apart from being stark raving of course." Ron argued. "Which wouldn't even be your fault!"

"But-"

"Come on mate! It's Hogsmeade! You really wanna stay up here all on your own?"

"I won't be completely alone! I can hang out with Ginny!"

"Yeah, and Colin." Ron piped up with a smirk. Harry's face went sallow. Spending the day with Colin Creevey was not an enjoyable idea. The boy was a nightmare. "Come on!"

Harry caved.

Getting to the village had been surprisingly easy. Harry had remarked that if it had been earlier in the year it would have been a nightmare, with the snow giving him away. But early spring rains had banished most of it, and the gravel road to Hogsmeade provided excellent cover. Harry was free to walk alongside Ron under his cloak, leaving none the wiser. The boys had agreed not to tell Neville, Seamus, or Dean, since having so many people in on it would have increased his chances of getting caught. As it was Ron had to strategically tie his shoe or make double takes into the street multiple times to let Harry in and out of various shops. Honeydukes had been the trickiest. Harry had to very carefully slip a galleon into Ron's hand so he could buy all the sweets that Harry had nudged. And then he had to be patient while the other boys pigged out on their own sweets.

"Shame 'bout Harry," Seamus muttered around his jelly slug. "Bet he woulda had loads of fun with us."

"Ah, I'm sure he's fine," Ron argued. "Didn't get to explore Hogwarts over Christmas remember? Probably catching up for lost time."

" 'Spose." Dean agreed with a shrug.

"Should we go to the three broomsticks next?" Neville argued. "I could really go for a butterbeer."

"Sure!" Ron cried happily. So the four, secretly five, made their way down the street towards the famous pub when suddenly Ron froze.

"It's the-the-the-" Ron stuttered, eyes like saucers and pale as the few patches of remaining snow.

"What's wrong with him?" Dean asked in confusion. Seamus looked around with a frown.

"Dunno!"

"The Grimm!" Ron cried and pointed down the road. Harry followed the ginger boy's finger to see a mangy black dog sniffing around at some rubbish by the side of the road. Neville groaned.

"Oh come on Ron, you're not still hung up about that are you? Everyone knows Trelawney is a hack."

"What's he on about?" Dean asked in confusion.

"Be glad you to arithmancy," Neville muttered. "Divinations is a nightmare. And all year professor Trelawney has been telling Ron that he's got a death omen in his future. The so-called 'Grimm'."

"It's not just made up!" Ron cried with a wheeze. "My great uncle Bilius saw one once! He dropped dead the next day!"

"I thought your great uncle Bilius was the crazy one," Neville muttered. Ron went red.

"Er, it was a different Bilius."

"You had two great uncles named Bilius?" Dean demanded with a snicker.

"Shut up!" Ron argued with an ear-reddening blush. "But see! Look! It's a Grimm!" The four of them looked back at the dog.

"Mate. That's just a hungry stray." Seamus argued with a snort. "Probably be really friendly if we give him a bit of food. Think he'll like my pumpkin pastie?"

"Seamus!" Ron whined. The Irish teen ignored him and gave a whistle.

"Here boy!" Seamus called, whistling more. "Got something tasty for you!" The dog perked up and turned to them before cocking his head. Then he padded closer, tongue lolling out and tail wagging happily. "See! He's a sweetheart!" Then suddenly the dog stopped. His posture completely changed. Slowly his hackles raised and he sunk down, lips rolling back as he snarled, baring his dangerous-looking teeth. Ron screamed and scampered back in terror.

"It's the Grimm! It's come to kill me!"

"Calm down boy!" Seamus cried. "It's okay, we're not gonna hurt you!"

"Seamus!" Dean cried frantically "Leave it alone! It's obviously not a sweetheart!"

"Just huck the pastie!" Neville argued. So the Irish teen did just that. The dog turned and watched it land a few meters away before he turned back to stare at the four boys. Harry was somewhat horrified to realize its black eyes were staring straight at him. Then the dog rushed forward. Harry tried to jump out of the way, but the dog seemed to know exactly where he was! So Harry turned and tried to run without making the cloak fly around. But the dog managed to grab his cloak in its gaping jaws. Harry choked on a gasp and tried to pull it away. But the dog wouldn't budge. So Harry tried harder, and the dog pulled tighter. Eventually, Harry got so frustrated he didn't even care that the cloak's hood had long fallen off and the trio of Gryffindors who hadn't known were staring at him in shock.

"Let bloody GO!" Harry finally snarled before he yanked as hard as he could. The dog didn't budge. Instead, with almost human intelligence it adjusted its grip and pulled.

RIIIIIIPP

Harry stumbled back in shock as a huge, gaping, massive hole was torn into the cloak. Harry stared at it in horror. His dad's cloak! The only thing he had from him! It was completely ruined! Then the dog made a grab for it again and tackled Harry to the ground.

"Oi!" Neville cried. "Get off him!" That seemed to wake Seamus and Dean up and all three of them fired spells at the dog. It jumped away to dodge, eyed the little group, then gave a whine and ran away. Harry slowly climbed up to his feet before he fully removed the cloak, not caring who saw now to inspect the damage. The hole was huge, nearly wide enough to stick his head through, and caused the fabric to drag along the ground. He was horrified to find more, smaller, holes from where the dog had been pulling before. The whole lower half was practically in tatters!

"I'm so sorry mate…" Ron muttered with a pained expression, having overcome his temporary paralysis of fear, "maybe there's a way we can fix it…" Harry sighed heavily.

"HARRISON JAMES POTTER!"

Harry went white as a sheet and whipped around. Severus Snape was staring at him, so livid Harry thought he might burst a blood vessel. He immediately grabbed him by his scruffs and nearly lifted him off his feet. "What are you doing here?! After you were expressly forbidden from leaving the grounds?!"

"I-I-" Harry began. Severus tightened his grip on his shirt collar before looking at the other Gryffindors with absolutely livid eyes.

"I suppose you all thought it would be absolutely charming to completely ignore the school rules and the risks so you could all have a lovely frolic around the village! 50 points-"

"They didn't know!" Ron blurted out quickly, drawing all of Severus' ire. "I didn't tell them…and it was my idea. Not Harry's." Severus narrowed his eyes.

"Very well. 50 points from you, Harry, and Mr. Weasley. The rest of you may go." Severus' hand snatched out for Ron's collar as well. "You boys on the other hand." Harry gulped audibly. This was going to be awful.

"I cannot believe that you would deliberately disobey us like that!" Emmeline cried furiously. "Putting yourself and your fellow classmates at risk! It was horribly selfish! And utterly disappointing!" Harry felt his gut gurgle nervously. It had seemed so harmless yesterday evening. But now he felt like his insides wanted to escape. "Do you have any idea how horrible we would have felt if anything happened to you?"

"Pretty horrible?" Harry murmured, despite his worry that he might vomit from shame if he opened his mouth.

"More than pretty!" Emmeline argued. Then she sighed. "Why did you even think it was a good idea?!" Harry shrugged.

"A verbal response if you don't mind," Severus said quietly. He'd been surprisingly quiet as Emmeline talked. Harry realized the man was thinking something over, and it was taking up most of his mental energy. Harry felt a knot of worry form in his chest. Was he thinking about all the times Harry had disobeyed him at ho- in Dover? Was he thinking of going back to the way things were, with the yelling and the berating and countless lost points? (no more hot cocoa. No more hands on the shoulders. Nothing!)

"I dunno!" Harry cried after that moment of panic. "I dunno! Ron just… made it seem like it wouldn't be that big a deal!" Harry argued. "No one else knew I was there! If it hadn't been for that stupid dog-"

"The dog that attacked you!" Emmeline cried. "That wouldn't have attacked you if you hadn't been in the village!"

"It didn't hurt me!" Harry argued. "All it did was rip my cloak and tackle me to the ground."

"Only because your friends knew enough magic to shoo it away!" Emmeline argued. "What if they hadn't been there? What if you had fallen behind? You could have been mauled!" Harry flinched and looked at his shoes.

"Emm." Severus suddenly murmured. Harry looked up at the man. His contemplative look had changed and now looked determined.

"Now?! Really?!" Emmeline cried in shock.

"Can I have the room?" Severus asked. Emmeline huffed but walked out. Severus conjured another armchair and motioned for Harry to sit. The teen did so, moving carefully and cautiously as a nervous deer.

"You once asked me why Emmeline and I separated." Severus began. Harry blinked. "I didn't answer then. Mostly because I hadn't told Emmeline the reason myself. It was something I had been very ashamed of. In fact, I'm still a bit ashamed, but it can't be kept a secret any longer." Severus sighed and rubbed his temples. "You need some context. Lily and I had been friends for many years. We first met when we were nine. And we tried to continue to be friends at Hogwarts, despite the fact that I was a Slytherin and she was a Gryffindor. My being in Slytherin was the first hurdle. Being there I was forced to associate and interact with people who simply didn't see your mother as human, which required that I at least appear to do the same. This … irked your mother, to put it mildly. She would have preferred I not associate with them at all. A bit difficult, I'm sure you'll agree. It would be like never acknowledging the existence of Mr. Finnegan or Mr. Thomas. Not exactly conducive to a peaceful sleeping environment. And I doubt your roommates would respond to such a slight with dark curses."

"No." Harry agreed with a wince. It sounded like Severus was in a rock and a hard place back then. Either he was nice to his housemates, which made his mum upset, or he was nice to his mum, which his roommates would probably have murdered him for.

"This… stalemate lasted for five years," Severus explained. "In that time, my feelings of affection for your mother had slowly evolved into a rather unhealthy… obsession. I was deeply infatuated with her. It was a bit pathetic looking back." the last part of that was said with a sardonic chuckle. Then he sighed heavily "For this next part… I have to talk about James." Harry frowned. Severus called his mum his mother, but James was just 'James'? "James… didn't like me back then," Severus admitted. "Not that I liked him much either. If I had to describe him in a way you'd fully understand… he was a lot like your cousin." Harry pulled a face. "Indeed. And just like him, James hated me because I was different, or at least, different from him. He was a narcissist, rich, good-looking, and clever but not very book-smart. I, on the other hand, wasn't exactly handsome, dirt poor, clever AND book-smart. A modern psychologist might accuse him of jealousy. I think I just made him feel uncomfortable. He'd been spoiled all his life, made to think he deserved the world. But I outperformed him regularly, and I think I made him feel inadequate." Severus explained. "Whatever the reason, the animosity between us had been growing for years. And in fifth year everything boiled over." Severus sighed and rubbed his forehead. He always hated this part. "It was after a defence practice exam. I was reviewing the work to see what I was struggling with when James and Black jumped me. They lifted me up into the air upside down and pulled down my trousers."

"Bloody hell," Harry muttered in horror. That was horrible!

"It was deeply embarrassing." Severus agreed, though nearly twenty years of separation had helped calm some of the shame. "That was when your mother swooped in to save me. It was basically her job at that point. James flirted with her daily and she seemed to have mastered the art of getting him to do what she wanted. But I was so deeply mortified and so upset that I lashed out at her. Specifically, I called her a Mudblood in front of a crowd that seemed like hundreds, but was probably 25 at most." Severus admitted sadly. Harry paled when he heard that word and was looking at his professor with a pained expression. "She never forgave me. Which is perfectly reasonable I suppose. I had called her a slur to her face. Not exactly conducive to a healthy relationship. Friendly or otherwise. It was around that time that I started dating Emmeline. Our relationship didn't exactly start very healthy either. Emmeline has since admitted that she too had been rather obsessed with me. Don't ask me why. She says she found my dark brooding nature compelling. I think she was just a swotty teenage girl."

"I'm telling her you said that," Harry said with a grin. Severus raised an eyebrow as if to remind Harry that he was in trouble. And it did the job marvellously. He clamped his mouth shut immediately.

"For me, Emmeline was what the children refer to today as a rebound. Someone I could direct all the energy that I had once been directing at Lily to. Again, definitely not healthy, but very few teenage relationships are. And all the while, Lily was still there in the back of my head. I caught myself staring at her on occasion, like I'd done before, only made much more pathetic by the fact that she wanted absolutely nothing to do with me." he leaned back, staring at the ceiling. "When my mother died was when I realized that Lily and I would never truly reconcile. While Emmeline was still at Hogwarts, finishing her final year, Lily had no such obligations. She had known my mother since she was nine, spent time with her on occasion, and even attended her birthday party once or twice. And yet she had refused to attend the funeral, simply because I would be there. She couldn't let go of our animosity for a single hour to pay her respects. It was petty even by her standards and made me realize that I didn't want to be infatuated with her anymore. From that moment on I tried to devote myself utterly to Emmeline, apart from my mastery, and later my work with Dumbledore against the dark lord." Severus folded his hands, looking forlorn. "And for quite a while it's seemed to work. Emmeline and I were happy, We got a flat together, and I was even seriously considering asking her to marry me."

"Why didn't you?" Harry asked with a frown. Severus took a deep breath.

"After Hogwarts, James and Black both joined the Aurors. They were fairly skilled in defence and James was excellent at transfiguration. But their greatest skill - well they were a bit like Fred and George Weasley." Severus admitted. "They were always coming up with new-fangled devices for things like distractions or non-violent takedowns, mostly inspired by your mother's love of crime dramas. They tried to invent a magical flashbang once. That had been an irritating weekend." Severus muttered sardonically. "They became rather infamous in the order because they saw us all as 'willing' test subjects. Note the sarcasm on willing." Severus muttered. "The irritating part was that most of their devices never actually worked. Or they did, but not the way they were meant to. It became a running gag for the order. Which one of Potter's weird contraptions wouldn't work this week? Most of us dismissed them outright. Dumbledore, on the other hand, loved to encourage them on the off chance that something might work." Severus stared at his laced fingers. "And then one finally did."

"What was it?"

"A listening device, transfigurable, that could send audio information to a receiver over extremely long distances. Nearly halfway around the world, according to James." Severus explained. "Very clever bit of magic. The only way the pair could get the thing to work was with your mother's help. She was brilliant at charms and her transfiguration was only slightly less impressive than James'. He and Black had developed several, with the intention of planting them on various important death eaters, maybe even the dark lord himself." Severus recalled the plan with all of the melancholy that thinking of those days always filled him with, for how pointless the whole endeavour had ended up being. "For that, they needed someone who could get close to him."

"You." Harry deduced. Severus nodded.

"It was the first week of December," Severus recalled, so easy now in its repetition. "Dumbledore sent a letter, asking me to help with the mission. It was meant to be Emmeline and mine's first Christmas, but she convinced me that it was more important. So I went. It took a week to plant all of the devices on all the people they wanted that I could get to. I was forced to witness the death eaters' idea of holiday celebrations, which I will not now nor ever recount to you. When I returned to the order headquarters I was exhausted, mentally, emotionally, and physically. I just wanted to go home." Severus said with nearly a whine of old desperation. "James had other ideas. He insisted that I stay for the party. Even had Black hex me every time I tried to leave. It was maddening. So I drank. Quite a bit. To this day I'm not even sure how I safely got home when I finally did leave." Probably guilt, or maybe your gut turning shame. This was the most difficult part of the story. "Your mother was also at the party. And she too had been deep into her cups. We drifted away from the loudest part of the house. Once we were alone… Lily began to… lament, about how unhappy she was. Her marriage with James had not been going well, and she felt trapped. She wanted freedom, to feel something." Severus swallowed.

"Now I had told myself that I was devoted to Emmeline, that I loved her and only her… but it hadn't been exactly true. Part of me was still in love with Lily, or at least the idea of her. So when she… propositioned herself to me…" Severus fell silent as Harry stared at him with shock and disbelief. "I knew I had made a mistake the minute the full weight of my actions hit me. I was so utterly ashamed that I left the party right then and there, Black's hexes be damned. I went straight to Emmeline. I should have told her then. It would have been the right thing to do." Severus shook his head. "But I'm a coward. Instead of telling her the truth, I left without so much as a note the next morning. And I didn't speak to her again for six years. And then not again until this summer, when she came through the floo after you." Severus muttered. He still had to explain the hardest part. "Your mother… found out she was pregnant. She knew it wouldn't be safe for you, so she sent a letter when she died to Dumbledore. He was supposed to pass it on but, as usual, he came to the conclusion that he knew better, and instead hid the letter for twelve years. Until about two weeks ago."

Harry's hand had started shaking now. In fact, his whole body seemed to be vibrating though his face was conspicuously blank. Severus sighed. Then he stood. "Come." Harry blinked before he followed. Severus led him through the halls, which drew a few whispers. Evidently, the news of his and Ron's transgression was already rapidly spreading throughout the school. Then Severus led him outside. They marched across the grounds until they were on the cliffs overlooking the Black Lake. Harry didn't need prompting this time. He took a deep breath and let out the angriest scream of his life. When that didn't work he screamed again and even kicked a rock into the lake.

"Bloody Dumbledore and his bloody stupid fucking-" Harry trailed off with a slight blush.

"I'm not going to punish you for those," Severus muttered with a slight chuckle. "But only because they are completely correct in this particular situation." Harry smiled slowly. Then he looked out across the water.

"So James… he didn't really have to die for me… did he?" Harry whispered. Severus took a deep breath

"No," he said, "but then neither did your mother. They both chose to give their lives for you. That is the noblest part of their sacrifice, and what made them both such excellent people. James Potter didn't have to love you, but he did anyway. You, the son of his oldest enemy. So do not doubt us when Emmeline and I tell you that he was a good man. You cannot doubt that now." Harry shook his head in agreement. He couldn't. The pair of them stood there on the cliff in silence for several minutes until Harry blew out a slow breath.

"What now?" He finally said.

"Now," Severus began before he turned to Harry, his son, with a slight smirk. "You find out your punishment." Harry groaned. "From now on, I want you to spend any time you have outside of class with Emmeline or myself. Since you can't be trusted to not make hair-brained schemes whenever you're unsupervised. We'll also be taking you to and from your quidditch matches, and practices. We'll escort you back to your common room at curfew." Harry had winced with each new item listed and now his shoulders were hunched up nearly to his ears. Severus didn't seem at all sympathetic. "Just be thankful that Emmeline thought making you eat meals with us was too excessive. And that she trusts you between classes without an escort. And that she was willing to let you stay on the quidditch team. I wanted to take those actions as well." Harry sighed.

"So basically, I'm grounded?"

"Yes," Severus said plainly.

"Until?"

"Further notice." Harry made a sound somewhere between a whine and a groan. "Maybe you should have thought of this before you deliberately disobeyed us."

"Well, how was I supposed to know!" Harry argued. "Only parents do stuff like this!" And suddenly a warm feeling filled his chest.

Parents.

He had parents.

Actual living parents!

He broke out in a smile so wide it made his cheeks hurt. Severus snorted before smiling himself.

"Yes, I suppose you couldn't have known. But that doesn't change what you did." Harry's smile slackened as he let out a sigh.

"Yeah, you're right. I'm sorry." He murmured. A hand landed on his shoulder giving him that familiar reassuring squeeze.

"I know you are. Now come on. I have some marking that needs to be done. You can do some schoolwork." Severus said firmly. Harry let out another sigh before he followed the professor, his dad, back into the castle.