Title: Grimmauld Place with Summer Lessons
Summary: Oneshot. Summer after Harry's sixth year, he returns to Grimmauld Place and lives there for the summer. What does Severus Snape and Remus Lupin have to do in this summer? SS/OC
"Miss Porter?" asked a man with red hair and patches of gray. His robes were torn in many places.
"Yes, hello Lupin, how are you?" Lillith said recognizing the man. He had been her Defense Against the Dark Arts professor in her third year. Lillith Porter had dark brown hair, soft yet deep brown eyes, and wore her hair long, hanging to her lower back. She had an average body and height.
"So, shall we be going?" he asked looking cautiously at Sanguini.
"Lupin, why don't you sit and have a butterbeer with us before we go," she said moving over for Remus to sit down next to her.
"Thanks, but no thanks as we really must be going. Some of my friends are expecting us in half an hour and it will take us that long to get there."
"Oh, very well. I guess I'll see you two later." And she followed Remus out to the street.
As they stepped out onto the street, Lily pulled up her hood to cover her face.
"I am known to many dark witches and wizards. If they see me with you, they would think of me as a traitor to them and their family," Lily said as she felt his curious eyes on her.
"I see, but you were with friends of Slughorn, were you not?" he questioned as to get to know her better than from his teaching year at Hogwarts.
"Yes, I was, I won't deny it, but Sanguini is considered dark because of his vampirism."
Without realizing where she was going, she followed Remus toward the Shrieking Shack. He led her inside the shack and she lifted her head as a feeling of comfort overwhelmed her. She recalled every time she had come to the shack to think of the weeks events. The last time she had been here was a month ago, not long after the death of Albus Dumbledore.
"So, what am I to learn from you in about a month?" Lily asked once they had apparated to Grimmauld Place. The walk was long and silent as neither had anything to talk of until they were with Remus's friends.
"You are to learn how to be an animagus from me, and of occlumency and legilimency from Severus Snape," Remus said as he knocked on the front door. The door opened and revealed a young man with jet-black hair, emerald green eyes, and round glasses with a black trim. Next to him stood a young lady with red hair, chocolate colored eyes, and a few freckles on her face.
"Come in, quickly, come in," Ginerva said, hurrying them in.
They went in and they talked of the past six years at Hogwarts with Harry and Ginny. Remus then told of his years with his friends.
At dinner, Lily saw Severus Snape for the first time since Dumbledore's death at the end of last year. He looked as though he had not slept in weeks. Dark shadows were under his eyes, his hair was still in it's shoulder length, black as ebony, surrounding his facial features.
"Hello Severus, have you spoken to Draco lately?" Lily asked.
"No, but he's safe, no worries. I shall know if he is found," he said acknowledging his once Slytherin pupil.
"Good, when shall we start training?" Lily continued.
"In two days, for now, rest," said Severus, and he bowed to Lily and left to go to his room.
* * *
"Well, I do hope you all got enough rest. Now, you shall learn what occlumency and legilimency are for," said Severus to Harry, Ginny, and Lily.
"Sir, we were told that this class was for potions, is that not so?" Ginny asked referring to her and Harry.
"No, Ginerva, this is not. You three are to learn how to protect your minds and how to get into someone else's mind," Severus answered.
* * *
"So how was your first class this morning?" Remus asked at lunch.
As they talked of their first lesson, Ginny could tell that Harry was getting frustrated so she changed the subject.
"I'm looking forward to finding the animal that I am. That always sounded fun," Ginny said, trying to turn the conversation away from Severus entering their minds, with success.
"Yes, I've always wanted to become one since I found out my father was a stag animagus," Harry said, his mind off Severus. Everyone looked at him, unsurprised.
"Well, I'm going to go relax for a while. See you all later." Lily got up and left to go to her room.
* * *
"So, let's begin with the basics. What is an animagus?" Remus asked as class began. All three raised their hands. "Okay, let's see, Lily, will you tell us what an animagus is?"
"An animagus is a witch or wizard who chooses to become an animal. They can stay as an animal for however long they choose to stay. The animal is the personality of the witch or wizard. Someone who might be a tiger would be someone who is aggressive at times, but care for their young passionately. They also might be adventurous."
"Correct. Yes, Ginny?" Remus said as Ginny raised her hand.
She took a deep breath, swallowed, and cautiously asked, "Sir, what kind of personality would someone have to become a rat?"
Remus and Harry went pale, and Remus also went tense. They both were thinking of Peter Pettigrew, the reason that Harry's parents were dead, the traitor.
"Sir, why are you and Harry so pale?" Lily asked. She didn't know the story of Peter Pettigrew and him betraying his friends and handing them over to Voldemort.
"Well, where shall I start?" Remus told Lily about his friends and one of them becoming a traitor and being the reason that Lily and James Potter are dead. "They became animagi as to come to the Shrieking Shack after my transformation to a werewolf so I wouldn't be as dangerous and we wandered around Hogsmeade."
"Sorry I brought that up, I was just curious. Now, may we go back to the lesson?" Ginny asked.
"Yes," Remus said relaxing. "Now, what kind of animals can witches and wizards become?"
* * *
"For homework, I want you to research animals that might be for you, your animagus. Class dismissed," Remus said after an hour and a half of discussion on all possible animagi animals.
"What do you think you'll be as an animagus, Gin?" Lily asked as they walked toward the library to start research.
"I don't know. Off the top of my head, I could be a fox or an otter. I'll have to wait till I have more information on animals that I might be. What about you, Harry?"
They talked about what animals were possible for each of them until they set down their things and began researching for animals that were possible animagi for themselves.
* * *
As they sat at tables with books, parchment, and ink spread around them, Harry and Ginny noticed that Lily was at a table with only three books and one piece of parchment that had a lot of writing on it with why she might be that animal. She sat at her own table alone, never looking up except to exchange books.
"Hey, Lil, why don't you come sit, and study with us?" Ginny asked.
"Okay, if you don't mind, I probably won't talk much," Lily answered looking up from her book and notes.
"No," Harry said moving some of his books, parchment, and ink bottles to make room for Lily to sit.
* * *
"What do you three say of not having classes tomorrow and going to Diagon Alley instead?" Remus asked as they sat down to dinner that night.
They all looked up at him, with a look of glee on their face, but Severus only glowered at Remus for mentioning that they go somewhere instead of learning. 'At least I can go see how Draco's doing in that old dump that I had to take him to,' Severus thought to himself.
* * *
They all woke up the next morning to find a note from Severus in the kitchen.
Remus, Lillith, Ginerva, and Harry,
I am going to see how Draco is and possibly take him to another place. I hope to be back by dinner, but if I'm not, don't worry for I will be there by class tomorrow. I expect that you all have your homework done and made some notes on it.
Severus Snape
"Harry, Ginny, Remus," Fred and George said together cheerfully when they entered their joke shop. "Porter, what are you doing here?" they asked as they spotted Lily trying to sneak off toward some of their products.
"Looking around, and I may even buy some. And since you don't like me, I'll even pay double the price," Lily said pushing them out of her way to look at some of their recent products that they had tried at the school before they left the school in their wild manner.
"Well, in that case, welcome to Weasleys' Wizard Wheezes," said Fred.
"Hey George, what's back there?" Ginny asked, pointing toward the back of the store.
"Nothing really, why?" George answered.
"I thought I heard a hiss back there, like it was you-know-who or his snake.
"It was a snake that you heard Weaselette," Lily piped up sneering. "I also heard the hiss. No need to worry, it's not his snake, just a random snake," she continued.
"Porter, want to help me get this snake out of here? He's being very rude!" Harry yelled from the back room, having gone back there to check out the hiss.
"Yeah sure, whatever, Potter," Lily muttered to herself and rolled her eyes. She set down a product and went to the back room to help Harry.
* * *
"Well, today was interesting. First you got told off by Fred and George, then the snake in the back room. How did you even get Fred and George to let you stay in there?" Remus asked.
"Oh, I told them I'd pay double, that's all. Severus back yet or not, or do you even know?" Lily said.
"Don't know. It's half an hour to dinner and he said that he hoped to be back by then. We'll soon find out. Oh, what happened to Mrs. Black's portrait?" Ginny asked.
"Oh, since I came into inheritance, I told her that if she didn't like it then she could leave. She then told me how to get rid of her. So I did exactly as she told me and mailed her to Narcissa Malfoy. I told her some things, though not all, I also told her not to tell where or from whom she got the picture," Harry explained.
* * *
"Harry, may I?" Lily asked, two hours later as a knock came from the door.
"Yes," Harry responded not looking up from his parchment.
Severus stood outside the door waiting for an answer.
"Hello, Severus, how was your trip?" Lily said after she opened the door and Severus stepped in.
"Good, Draco told me to say 'hello' to you, and he's doing fine. How was the trip to Diagon Alley?" Severus asked as he sat down at the kitchen table.
"Crazy!" And Lily gave the story of her trip in Diagon Alley.
"Now that you three have mastered occlumency, let's start legilimency, shall we?" Severus said two weeks later at the start of class. "Legilimency is getting into someone's mind, like I've been doing to you three. Now, since it's hard to get into someone's mind whose guard is up, we'll do that within the last lessons on me and or on each other, but for now, you three shall try on my assistant, but one at a time. You can not, I repeat, can not," Severus said as he put an emphasis on not, "tell who my assistant is, you shall know in due time," he continued. Lily rolled her eyes at this comment and was caught by Severus. "Lillith, would you like to say something? You rolled your eyes."
"No, but I would like to hear what your point is," she said as she crossed her arms over her chest and smirked at Severus. They glared at each other, making eye contact, for two whole minutes until Harry spoke up.
"Sir, may we get on with the lesson?" This brought them both back to reality and Severus continued with his lesson.
"You will each step outside the room while I get my assistant prepared."
They stepped out and waited to be called in. First Ginny went in and out, and then Harry, and lastly, Lily went in. After they all had gone, Severus stepped out behind Lily and dismissed class.
As Ginny, Harry, and Remus sat down to lunch, they talked about their class with Severus. Not long after lunch started, Draco came down to eat. Remus tried to make friendly conversation about the class with Severus and him being Severus's assistant. When Draco just glared at him, he asked if he knew where Lily and Severus were.
"All I know is that when I left the library, Lily was still in there. At this moment, I don't know where either of them are."
* * *
Meanwhile in the library, Lily started getting frustrated. She looked up at the clock for the hundredth time it felt like in the last thirty minutes.
"I have thirty minutes and I still don't know what my animagus is," Lily thought to herself aloud. "I need to know, no I have to find out."
"What are your choices for what you could be, Lil?" a voice asked from behind her a ways.
Turning around, Lily saw Severus walking toward her.
"Hello, err, choices, I could be a wolf, a black jaguar, a fox, or an eagle." He smiled at her. "You know what it is, don't you?"
"No, but I know a way of finding out," he said pulling out a vial with a potion inside it from inside his robes.
"What is that?" Lily asked eyeing the vial of potion suspiciously.
"This is called the 'Animality' or 'Animagus' potion. It helps the taker find out what their animagus is, if he or she has one that is. Here," he explained handing her the potion vial. "It will also keep others from knowing what you are until you transform."
Lily took the potion from Severus, popped the cap off, raised it to her nose, sniffed it, and then drank it. Her eyes shut slowly, while she fell back into the chair, and relaxed. A warm feeling spread around the room.
Behind her eyelids, Lily saw a large cat walk before her. The cat paused, looked at her, and bounded toward her. As light hit the cat, Lily saw that the cat had a sleek, shiny, pure black coat of fur. The cat continued toward her, and Lily saw that the cat was a black jaguar with dark, deep, soft, black eyes. Lily sat up with a start, eyes wide open.
"I think you ought to go to class now," Severus said after Lily's soft yet deep, brown eyes landed and focused on him.
After Lily took a seat in Remus's class, Remus began by telling that he would perform a spell that would reveal his or her animagus. Ginny was first. She stood in front of Remus, he waved his wand around her, said a spell, and when he drew his wand back, an otter floated around the room. Lily went up next, and Remus performed the spell three times before he gave up. Lily's animagus wasn't going to be revealed at this point. Lily smirked inwardly as not to draw attention to the fact that she knew what she could turn into, or that she knew why her animal wasn't showing. Harry went up next. Remus did the same, but instead of an otter, it was a white tiger.
"You know, your mother would have been a tiger had she learned how to become an animagus," Severus said entering the room.
"She wasn't a tiger," Remus protested.
"Actually, she was. She had the potential to become a tiger and, to tell you the truth, tigers are more courageous than lions," Severus continued.
After Remus sent the three to research in the library about their animal, Severus handed Remus his wolfsbane potion, and left to go to his room.
* * *
"Good morning, Lily, Ginny," Harry said entering the kitchen to find Ginny cooking breakfast and Lily washing the dishes from the previous night.
"Good morning Harry," the girls chimed together.
"There's a note from Severus," Lily said taking the note from her pant pocket.
"He says he is taking Draco back to the other safe place and there are no classes today. He also said to stay inside to be safe, and that he'll be back by dinner again," Lily continued while Harry read the note.
"Where's Remus?" Ginny asked.
"Last night had a full, Gin," Harry replied as Ginny sat on his lap. They kissed each other good morning as Lily finished putting the dishes away.
"I'm going to go research about my animal, excuse me," Lily said and left.
"Have you noticed that every time she says she's going to research something, she's not in there, or anywhere we look?" Ginny asked.
"Yeah, something I couldn't miss," Harry replied.
Lily went to her room and wrote in her journal.
* * *
"Hey, you got here earlier than you expected, Lily said opening the door to let Severus in.
"Yeah, well, everything went smoother than I expected it to," he replied, stepping through the door. Lily shut it behind him and they went to the kitchen table, ate an early dinner and chatted.
At the normal dinner time, Harry and Ginny came into the kitchen.
"So, you have finally returned. Did you have fun with your godson, Draco? Cuddled, I bet," Harry taunted, smirking toward Ginny.
"No, we didn't. In fact I'm in love with a very kind, young woman," Severus said, calmly. This surprised Harry and Ginny. They never saw the once feared Potions Master calm after a taunt about his personal life.
"Oh, do let me guess. This young woman is Pansy Parkinson," Ginny taunted. Harry and Ginny had planned on finding out what was behind his really cold, sneery self.
"No, actually, it's not. Parkinson is a real bitch, when it comes down to it. I want to see her dead," Severus said smirking at the thought of Parkinson dead. Lily rolled her eyes.
"Well, who is it then?" Harry questioned.
"You shall know in due time," Severus continued calmly. "Now, I shall bid you all good night." He stood up, winked at Lily, and went to his room.
"So, he knows the secret!" Lily exclaimed to herself calmly.
"He knows what secret?" Ginny asked confused.
"Oh, just a secret. Good night," Lily said. She got up and went to her room to read.
"She only went to bed to avoid more questioning, didn't she?" Ginny asked.
"Yes, she knows we're up to something," Harry answered.
"I heard that. And actually, no, I didn't know you were up to something, but I do now, thanks," Lily said as she walked up the stairs.
* * *
"Well, I do hope that you three have had fun without classes for the last three days without me. Now, today, you shall transform," Remus said after he entered and walked over behind his desk. Harry, Ginny, and Lily looked at each other in surprise. "What you have to do is close your eyes, picture your animal, and picture yourself changing into that animal. Harry, you go first this time."
Harry stood up in front of the room, closed his eyes, and pictured himself and his white tiger. He then pictured himself changing into his tiger. When he saw himself transformed into his animal, he physically transformed. Harry heard applause, opened his eyes and saw Remus, Ginny, and Lily applauding him.
"Okay, Ginny, you next," Remus continued. Ginny did the same. When she opened her eyes, Harry roared, and Lily and Remus clapped. "Okay, now you, Lily. Now we get to see your animagus."
Lily too closed her eyes, saw her black jaguar come bounding toward her, saw herself change, and then she, too, transformed.
"To become human again, just think of yourself transforming into your human self," Remus said when they all quieted down. The three saw themselves transform back into human and successfully transformed back to humans.
"So, wow, you're a panther!?!" Harry exclaimed in a question.
"Actually, it's a black jaguar. What? You thought that I would become a wolf, right?"
"We didn't know what to expect since we didn't see what you were to become," Ginny responded sharply. Harry kissed Ginny firmly on the lips after this statement in celebration that they are now animagi.
* * *
Later that night, Lily went to bed, followed closely by Ginny, Harry, Remus, and Severus. Lily lay awake, waiting to hear Ginny's steady breathing, signaling that she was asleep.
When the sound came at nine thirty, Lily transformed into her black jaguar and slinked to the library. Encountering no one on the way, Lily pushed the library door open with her nose to find someone sitting in a chair not far from the lit fire in the fireplace. She sleeked over behind the chair and growled slightly. The figure in the chair jumped at the noise, looked around the chair, and saw nothing so he settled back down. Lily slid under the chair, wrapped her tail around her and growled again from her chest.
"Alright, who are you, and where are you?" he asked jumping to his feet, pulling out his wand and walking toward the middle of the room. Lily slowly slinked out from under the chair and transformed back to her human.
"Behind you my love," Lily said. He turned and saw Lily.
"You?" he asked astonished. "You growled at me? In your black jaguar, you growled?" he asked continually.
"Yep, me, why, you thought I wasn't coming didn't you?"
"Well, I didn't know. You're usually here by nine and it's nine thirty-five," he said putting his wand back inside his robes. He walked to her and he wrapped his arms around her in a hug.
"Ginny didn't fall asleep till nine thirty," Lily said, accepting and returning the hug.
He sat down on the couch and Lily followed suit next to him. She planted a soft kiss on his lips and laid her head on his chest. They talked until they fell asleep like that.
* * *
He woke up around five in the morning and saw that Lily was still lying on his chest. He kissed her forehead as to wake her up. When she didn't, he carefully got up and picked her up in his arms and carried her out.
When he reached her bedroom door, he put the Silencing Charm on himself and the door, as not to wake Ginny, entered, went to Lily's bed, and laid her down. He then covered her up in her bed sheets and left to go to his room.
* * *
"Congratulations everyone! You've mastered occlumency, turning into an animagus, and now you've recently conquered legilimency," Remus said at dinner the day before they were to go back to Hogwarts. They had gone to Diagon Alley to get their supplies for school. They had now completed their task of conquering occlumency, legilimency, and becoming an animagus.
"Yep, I'm glad the school will continue to be open for those who want to continue," Lily said.
"Well, I personally think that the school should close without the safety of Dumbledore there. Yes, though I did kill him, I had no choice. I made the Unbreakable Vow that I would help Draco if need be," Severus stated as he glanced at Lily, knowing that she knew of his vow to Narcissa Malfoy, Draco's mother.
While Ginny, Remus, and Severus argued their points about the school remaining open or if it should have closed, Lily and Harry went up to their rooms to pack for the Hogwarts Express that left the next morning at eleven.
* * *
"Well, I'm packed, Ginny's packed, and Lily's packed, speaking of her, where is she, and come to think of it, Severus?" Harry asked the morning of September the first. Harry transformed into his white tiger and went to the room he had never gone to; the room that used to be Sirius's. Harry listened to the noises he heard behind the door. When he heard the familiar voice of Severus, he raced down to Ginny and Remus and told them to follow him to Sirius's room. Harry, Ginny, and Remus listened in on the conversation between Severus and Lily.
"When will I see you again?" Lily asked as she silently cried into Severus's shoulder.
"How about this, you come to Hogsmeade every other weekend and I'll find you okay?" Severus suggested and he lifted Lily's chin into his hand.
"Okay," Lily said nodding her head slightly.
"Good. Shall we-" Severus was cut off by Lily's lips on his, kissing him. Severus tightened his arms around Lily and deepened the kiss.