This was resently 'rainbow stripes' story, the first two chapters are all hers. but i've adopted the darling little thing! So the chapter three and up are gonna be mine*squeels happily* Thank you for letting me adopt Rainbow stripes! And I'll have chapter two up in a few minutes, and then chapter three probly by next week! So enjoyXD.
Disclaimer: All the things you recognize from Harry Potter belong to JK Rowling, not me. I am not rich, nor blonde, and i don't have that awesome accent. M'kay? So no sueing!XD
Harry Potter stood in the shadows of the station, watching for a crowd of redheads. He spotted them, along with Hermione, Moody, Remus Lupin, Tonks and Kingsley Shacklebolt. He made one last mental check that all his glamours were in place and stepped out, putting on a wide smile and waving eagerly to the group. "Ron! Hermione! Guys!" He called, jogging over. They turned and Ron and Hermione broke into smiles when they saw him. He was immediately engulfed in a hug from the brunette and hid his wince, hugging back slightly.
"Harry! Oh, we were so worried about you when you said you didn't want to come to the Burrow this summer. Are you okay? Did the Dursleys treat you alright?" She said in one breath. Harry pried her off him and held a hand on her shoulder.
"Whoa, Hermione, breathe." He said, "I'm fine, the Dursleys treated me fine, and I just needed some time alone to think after...you know." He said, knowing they would assume he was talking about the Department of Mysteries. Everyone went silent and Hermione squeezed his arm reassuringly.
"It's not your fault, you know." She said, causing Harry to hold in his snort. 'Why does everyone seem to think I blame myself' he thought, but nodded dejectedly anyway, inwardly praising his acting skills.
"Yeah, can we just get on the train, please?" He asked, adding a hint of pleading to his voice. Mrs Weasley nodded and hugged each of them in turn. Remus then gave Harry a tight hug, accidentally jarring some unhealed bruises.
"Stay safe, and remember, if you need to talk, owl me." He whispered. Harry nodded against the man's shoulder, before coming away from the embrace and picking up his trunk.
"I will, see you later." He said. Remus was the only one who actually knew where he had been over the last two weeks of summer, and what had happened. The group of four got onto the train and walked down, looking for an empty compartment. They found one with Neville and Luna waiting inside for them.
"Hey guys, we saved you seats." Neville said, gesturing to the space. They heaved their trunks into the luggage rack and sat down.
"Hey, how were your summers?" Hermione asked the two.
"It was great. Daddy and I went to Sweden to look for Crumple Horned Snorcacks." Luna said dreamily. Hermione gave her an odd look but Harry grinned.
"Cool, did you find any?" He asked. The blonde girl shook her head.
"No, we think that the leftover dark magic from their recently defeated dark lord has scared them all into hiding. Dark magic is poisonous to them, after all." She said with a knowing look. Harry nodded.
"And you, Neville?" Ron asked, wanting to get off the subject.
"Yeah, it was alright. Gran got me an extension to my greenhouse for my birthday. I've got loads of cool plants in there!" He said enthusiastically. Harry had to smile at his friend's love of plants. Ron and Hermione started rattling off about being at the Burrow and Harry only half listened, leaning against the window. Soon, he fell into a light sleep.
"..rry, wake up, Harry, you need to get your robes on." Hermione said, shaking him by the shoulder. Harry groaned.
"But 'm schleepin'." He mumbled tiredly. Hermione giggled.
"Yes, I know, but we're nearly there and you should get your robes on. Honestly, what's gotten you so tired?" She asked concernedly. Harry shrugged, digging his robes out of his trunk and slipping them on over his muggle clothes, which he now had his own of rather than Dudley's hand me downs.
"Nightmares." He said shortly, ending the discussion. They sat and waited as the train slowed to a stop and they all filed out.
"All righ' there you lot?" Came the booming voice of Hagrid.
"Hey Hagrid, we're fine thanks. You?" Ron replied.
"I'm as good as can be 'spected, now on with yeh, afore all the carriages're gone." He said, before going back to gathering the first years. The group of 6 trouped to one of the carriages, Harry petting a thestral before climbing in, and sitting as it wheeled towards the magnificent castle.
Once they were all seated, McGonagall brought in the first years and the hat sung its song, which Harry only partly listened to, zoning into his thoughts as the first few children were sorted. He was snapped out of his reverie when the name 'Evans, Mark' was called and Harry saw the familiar shock of spiky auburn hair and warm brown eyes of his young friend from Privet Drive. Mark sat nervously under the hat, which thought for a moment, before calling out "GRYFFINDOR!" Harry clapped loudly and whistled, causing Mark to look over at him. The boy's face lit up and he dashed over the Harry, plonking himself on his lap.
"Fancy seeing you here." He said dryly. Harry laughed quietly and ruffled his hair.
"Good to see you too, Mark, but I'm gonna need my lap when the food comes." He whispered, chuckling, ignoring the odd looks they were getting from the rest of the hall.
"The family's proud I got into Hogwarts School for the artistically gifted, especially since you've seen my drawing." The boy whispered back, making Harry snort. That was the lie used for muggle-born children, which Harry had used with Mark's family. The sorting went through quickly and Harry looked towards Dumbledore as he stood up.
"Well, welcome back to a new year at Hogwarts. Just a short announcement before the feast. Our new Defence Against the Dark Arts teacher will be none other than our old Potions Master, Professor Severus Snape. This means we have a new Potions Professor, please welcome Professor Horace Slughorn." He said. There was some scattered clapping and Harry eyed Snape in mild interest, having him teach defence should be good. "One last thing, I would just like to inform you that all educational decrees and rules left over from Umbridge's reign last year are hereby void."
The whole hall cheered at this as the food appeared. Harry had to reach over Mark's head. "you know, Mark, you're really not helping. Why don't you go sit and make friends with the other firsties, instead of bothering me?" He said mock-irritably. Mark grinned.
"Because, Harrikins, bothering you is just so much fun. But if I must, I shall go and find worthy contenders to help me start my new reign of terror!" He said with an evil grin. Harry eyed him proudly.
"There we go. Honestly, how did you manage to stay out of Slytherin?" He asked amusedly.
"Same way you did, Har-bear." Mark replied cheekily, jumping off the older teen's lap and saluting him mockingly, sprinting down to the huddle of first years. Harry smiled fondly and went back to his food.
"Harry, how do you know that kid?" Hermione asked confusedly.
"I babysit him sometimes, he lives down the road from me. Mark is my honorary little brother and pranking protégé. I've had a feeling he was magical since he was 7 and he summoned the TV remote out of my hand, this just proves my point." He said happily, spearing broccoli on his fork. Hermione nodded.
"Harry, what do you mean, pranking protégé, you don't play pranks!" Ron said. Harry smirked at him.
"Correction, you've never caught me playing pranks. That doesn't mean I don't. Think back, can you remember and pranks that weren't the twins, and they could never find out who did it?" He asked bemusedly.
"Hmm, tarring and feathering the Ravenclaws?" Hermione asked slowly.
"Me." Harry replied
"Official 'Hug a Slytherin' day?" Ron ticked off.
"Also me."
"The Batman song proximity charm on Snape?" Neville asked from across the table.
"All me. I did tell you I was a closet genius, Hermione." He teased. Hermione slapped him on the shoulder, not noticing the slight wince.
"Harry! That's not genius, that' idiocy. Although the proximity charm was rather complex magic." She admitted. Ron snorted.
"Well well, Harrikins isn't as much as an idiot as we make him out to be." He ribbed. Harry smiled and ate his dinner, not participating much in conversation and gaze occasionally flicking up to the staff table, planning what he had to do that night. Soon, the feast was over, and after Dumbledore gave his usual warning about banned items and the forbidden forest, they set off up to Gryffindor tower.
"Phoenix Rising." Harry muttered, stepping through the portrait hole with his year mates. He collapsed into a chair by the fireplace and sighed wearily. Hermione tutted at him. "Harry, you look really tired. Maybe you should go to bed." She said worriedly. Harry pinched the bridge of his nose.
"Yeah, s'pose you're right. If Mark comes and asks you where I am, tell him I've gone to bed." He said wearily, dragging himself up the stairs. As soon as he got to his empty dormitory he ran over to his trunk at the edge of his bad and threw it open, digging around. Eventually, he found the Marauder's map and his invisibility cloak, throwing the latter over himself and revealing the map on the former. He scanned it and smirked when he saw the dot labelled Severus Snape sitting in his office. He muttered a silencing charm around his feet and snuck down to the common room, crossing gingerly and standing by the portrait hole, waiting for someone to open it. Sure enough, a 2nd year came through, leaving enough room for Harry to slip past. He held the map out in front of him, checking it every few minutes, and made his way down to the dark, yet strangely comforting dungeons. Harry thought that he found them comforting because of all the years spent in the cupboard under the stairs. Harry came to Snape's office and checked one last time to make sure Snape was alone, before taking off his cloak and knocking on the door.
"Enter." Came the voice from inside. Harry slowly opened the door and walked in, all traces of the shy, naive boy gone. Snape looked up and sneered. "What do you want, Potter?" Harry eyed him with one brow raised.
"when were you planning on telling me, Sir?" He asked calmly, discreetly putting up wards. Snape's mask slipped for a moment to show slight panic, before going blank.
"Tell you what, Potter? I don't have time for riddles." He said sharply. Harry raised the other eyebrow slightly mockingly.
"I think you do know, Professor. Glamour charms, wonderful things, can cover up just about anything. First spell I ever learned, actually. I know you can sense the glamour on me, because I can sense the magic too. So, when were you planning on telling me, father?" He replied, dropping one of his glamours on the last word. Snape found himself staring at an almost carbon copy of himself, but with deliberate differences. The bright green eyes and perfect Roman nose were those of Lily Evans, and the sleek black hair was not greasy, as Severus' was portrayed to be, but silky smooth and dead straight, cut to about jawline. "I know you knew, you always did seem to care more than you should for the spawn of James Potter. At first I thought it was just because I was also Lily Evans' son, but now I know why. The glamour dropped on my sixteenth birthday, I was still at the Dursleys. Of course, after that little display of 'freakishness', I was kicked out, but that turned out to be a blessing, really. So, when were you planning on telling me?" He asked the stunned man. Severus snapped out of his stupor and gazed at his son.
"The glamour was done by Dumbledore, it was supposed to be only removable by him, which he was going to do once the Dark Lord was defeated, but you're obviously more powerful than we thought." He said. Harry snorted.
"Wonderful plan." He said sarcastically, "And what if I had died before or while taking out Tommy boy, and you never got to tell me? I would have died thinking my parents to be dead and the only living relatives I had to hate my guts, well, the Dursleys still hate my guts, but there's nothing to be done about that. I could have grown up with a father who actually liked my existence. Unless, that's the reason you never took me in. That you regretted having me, you didn't want me. If it is, you can be truthful about it, it honestly wouldn't surprise me, I'm kind of expecting it actually, I've grown up with it drilled into my head." He said nonchalantly. Severus gaped.
"Oh, Merlin, no, it's got nothing to do with that! I didn't take you in because I didn't want you growing up around Death Eaters and their children, to have to subject you and teach you all their prejudices. Never, ever think that I didn't want you." He said, aghast. Harry gave him a hard look.
"So, because you didn't want me growing up around dark bastards, you left me to a life of physical and emotional abuse, as well as neglect?" He spat, making Severus wince.
"I'm sorry. I honestly didn't know they were that bad, if I did I would have taken you from there regardless. But I truly am sorry, Harry." He said sombrely. Harry sighed, pinching the bridge of his nose in a manner eerily similar to the man in front of him.
"I guess I can accept that, I know Dumbledore didn't want any magical people visiting or contacting me. I also understand why you've been keeping your distance and keeping up the front of hating me at school, you still had your role to play. Yes, I know you're a spy, and I've known you don't really hate me since 4th year, when you were actually concerned for me, and your insults lacked their usual spite. I just want to know why you didn't tell me sooner. I'm not the idiot everyone thinks I am, I can act just as well as I can fly, I've been doing it for as long as I can remember." He mused. Severus blinked and let Harry sit in the chair opposite his desk.
"Well, I suppose, if I'm honest, I was scared. Scared you wouldn't want me in your life, that you'd hate me knowing your father was the greasy git Snape, scared that I wouldn't know how to treat you and end up like my own father. And I felt guilty about leaving you at the Dursleys, something I regret every day. Then Albus started telling me how it would be dangerous to both of us if I revealed myself before that monster was gone. I'm truly sorry for all of this, Aidan." He said. Harry snapped his head up.
"What was that you just called me?" He asked.
"Aidan, it's your real name. Aidan Cailean Snape. Aidan means fiery in Gaelic, we thought it fit your personality. I used to call you my little serpent." Severus said hesitantly. Harry smiled softly.
"Aidan." He tested, the word feeling foreign on his tongue, "I like it. I'm guessing James named me Harry, then." He assumed. Severus nodded. "Thought so. And just for future reference, I do want you in my life, and even if we can't tell people, I'd like it if you were there for me, and I could get to know you better. I've never actually hated you, I just pretended to dislike you to seem more like the 'Gryffindor golden boy' the world wants me to be." He said, saying the moniker with disgust. Severus gave him a small smile, but it was more than Harry had ever seen on the sour potions master.
"I'm glad. I don't think I could stand if you wanted nothing to do with me. You also seem to be a better actor than most give you credit for, I sometimes wonder why you aren't a Slytherin." He mused. Harry smirked.
"I asked the hat. I'd already been told that Slytherin only produced bad wizards, and wasn't given any evidence otherwise, so when the hat told me I'd do well in Slytherin, I told it not to, so it went with its second choice, Gryffindor. I've talked to it since, and it still agrees that I'm the most Slytherinish Gryffindor that's walked these halls since before the Headmaster's time. Although, now I've got a lot of Ravenclaw and Hufflepuff in there too. I'm officially un-sortable." He said amusedly. Severus snorted.
"Only you would be and equal mix of each house." He said fondly. Harry gave him a wry grin.
"Well, Merlin help us if I'm actually normal in some way." He joked.
"Just out of interest, do any of your friends know you're here?" He asked. Harry shook his head.
"Nope, they think I'm sleeping. Remus will know though. He offered me sanctuary over the last couple of weeks of summer when the Dursleys kicked me out. Healed my smaller wounds, helped me figure out why I'd changed the way I had. He's the only one who knows everything about my home life and things. I don't trust my friends not to judge me or try and get me help from other people, I still thought you didn't give a damn about me past Lily's son, and as much as I respect and love the Headmaster, he's a manipulative old goat, literally." He said. Severus looked intrigued so Harry launched into the story of the time he spiked the Headmaster's lemon drops with animagus reveilio potion, showing the man to be a small, red and white billy goat, complete with fluffy white beard.
"So that's why you called him Bill last year..." Severus said through his laughter. Harry nodded.
"Yeah, I had some leftover potion after I tried it for myself, so I thought I'd find out what the famous Albus Dumbledore would be, had he been born an animal. The goat is only his second form though, his other is a phoenix." He explained. Severus looked at him sharply.
"You tried the potion for yourself? Alone?" He asked.
"No, Remus was with me to make sure I was safe." He assured his father.
"Good. Well then, I'm assuming you have more than one form, so what are your forms?" the Slytherin asked interestedly.
"My first form is a panther, my second form is a peregrine falcon and my third form is a magical water python." Harry said. Severus gasped.
"Three forms, that's amazing! How far have you gotten in them?" He asked in awe, pride shining through making Harry blush slightly.
"I managed to get them all down perfect during the summer. Once I knew how to do the actual transformation, it was easy for the other two. It could also be a side effect from a summer experiment gone wrong before 5th year." He said embarrassedly. Severus gave him a look and Harry elaborated. "I was trying to find a way to help me study for the OWLs without getting headaches and tiredness and stuff, and the potion I was brewing kinda blew up, and since then I've had photographic memory and seem to learn things at twice the speed. I've tried recreating the potion but I can't figure out what gave it that reaction." He admitted. Severus looked thoughtful.
"I'll take a look, have you got notes?" Harry nodded.
"I'll give them to you when I can, though I'll have to translate them first. I write notes in parselscript, it annoys the hell out of my friends, but no one can copy, well, except Voldemort, and I highly doubt he'd want nor be able to get any of my notes." He said with a grin. By now he had moved his chair next to Severus' behind the desk. "Apparently it's weird because as I'm writing, I start hissing what I'm writing, scares the whole common room to death, but I had no idea I was doing it until Fred and George pointed it out, asking what I was doing. Since then they've been trying to develop a sweet that lets you talk parseltongue for a minute or two. Nothing good so far, they did test one on me once, I was stuck speaking only parseltongue for a week." Severus remembered that week, being worried that Harry wasn't talking and something was wrong with him.
"Yes, I remember that week, I was worried out of my mind, thinking you'd done something foolish and hurt yourself." He said with a light glare. Harry ducked his head embarrassedly.
"Not my fault." He mumbled. Severus chuckled and caught the clock out of the corner of his eye.
"Merlin! Aidan, it's nearly two in the morning! You've got lessons in the morning, you need your sleep. We both do. I'd like it if you could stop by again sometime. Do you know where the portrait of Salazar Slytherin is in the dungeons?" He said, amazed at how long they had been talking.
"Yeah, I've chatted with him a couple of times. He's actually not too bad a guy once he stopped swearing at me for killing his basilisk. Why?" Severus inwardly rolled his eyes, of course he just liked to have conversations with long dead founders.
"It's the entrance to my quarters. The password is Emerald Flames." He said with a small smile towards his son, who grinned back.
"Cool. I'll come visit when I haven't got mounds of homework, I've heard 6th and 7th years are hell. By the way, next time you see Bill, tell him I say hi." He said with a smirk, and was promptly swatted over the head softly.
"Don't tease the headmaster." He reprimanded. Harry rolled his eyes.
"Yes, dad." He said automatically, then froze, looking hesitantly at Severus who had an unreadable expression on his face. "Err, do you mind if I call you dad, you know, when we're in private?" He asked nervously. Severus snapped back to reality and smiled at him.
"I would be honoured, Aidan." He said softly, drawing his son into a hug. Harry hugged back, and the reunited family stood still for a moment, relishing in the feeling of being close to each other. Eventually, they let go, and Harry reapplied his glamours grudgingly.
"I'll be happy when I don't need these anymore." He said grumpily. Severus squeezed his shoulder.
"So will I, but for now, you have to keep them, though you will be telling me about the one you haven't taken off yet next time I see you. Goodnight, my serpent." He said. Harry blinked, but nodded.
"G'night dad." He replied, throwing the cloak over himself and leaving the office, map in hand, to go back to his warm bed in Gryffindor tower.