A Life Chapter 1
Harry Potter was angry, frustrated and damn sick of his charade friendship with Ronald Weasley and Hermione Granger. Here he was, in a deserted 4th floor corridor half an hour 'til curfew watching as Weasley threw spells at a defenseless 1st year and Granger watched.
Harry came out of his hiding place furious, just as Snape stumbled across the scene unnoticed by the occupents.
"Did I really Ron? I can't see how I would suggest it seeing as how much I hate bullies!"
"Harry?" Ron was shocked but recovered his attitude and anger quickly "But, her brother's in Slytherin! A mate of Malfoys!?"
"HOW DOES THAT MAKE IT RIGHT RONALD WEASLEY?"
"He was just" Hermione tried to interrupt.
"Just trying to put her in her place? You cannot change who you are, and even less other people, is bullying this 1st year because of a sorting hat mean the Malfoy's are right to look down and bully you Hermione because your parents are muggles?"
"That's not the same!"
"No, it's exactly the same, they believe themselves to be right, just as you do, so who is? Were the Dursley's right to hate me, treat me like they did because they hated magic, thought it unnatural, is magic unnatural Hermione? They certainly believed it, tried to make sure I believed it too!" Harry finished his tirade not taking his bright green eyes off of Hermiones defiant brown ones.
"No harry, they had no right to treat a child like that, but.."
"No buts Hermione, if I ever, ever see you participate in, or stand back, watch and do nothing in anything like this ever again you will not be able to call yourself my friend, that goes or you to Ronald, but before you go, Leviosa Rufus, Silencia, Immobulus. You shall not be able to move, speak or let yourselves down from the ceiling, in fact you won't be able to get down until somebody looks up, see's you there and decide you should be. " Harry felt right pleased with himself, how often do people look up?
Even Severus, standing in the shadows would have found it amusing, if it wasn't Potter.
Traitors forgotten Harry knelt on the floor in front of the first year Ravenclaw.
"Ariana? Are you OK?"
At this point Professor Snape emerged.
"Potter?"
"Yes sir?" Replied a startled Harry.
"Though I do enjoy seeing a Gryffindor helpless at the hands of his 'friends', I will have to punish you for it."
"But if you do sir, the will have to come down will they not?"
"That is so."
"What if sir, I give you full control over my punishment, no complaints if you can wait until after they are discovered?"
"I believe I can do that, you will come to me after class on the day they are discovered, is that clear?"
"Yes sir" Harry replied, a small smile playing across his lips that was almost, almost reflected on Professor Snape's mouth.
"Now, get her to the hospital wing then I can trust you to get to bed on your own? If you are not in class on time tomorrow morning it shall be 20 points from Gryffindor." And there was Snape, back to his old self.
"Yes sir" Now Harry was smiling, and it disturbed Snape, quite an odd reaction to have when one was threatened with house points.
"And wipe that smile off your face" Harry's face turned straight, as smooth as any Slytherins.
Severus walked away, back to the shadows, though what Harry and Ariana didn't know was that he returned, intrigued by the softness on Harry's face when he asked the first year if he was ok, this was not simple compassion.
"So are you, ok?" Harry asked again softly.
"Yes Harry." Despite her words he could see she was not.
"Silly girl, do you think after all these years you could lie to me and get away with it?"
Ariana giggled, he was right. Harry smiled softly at his 'sister'.
"To the hospital wing then, can you stand, or perhaps I should carry you?"
She tried to stand, but found her left leg would not respond, making walking near impossible.
"Come on then, it's been quite a while, and you have grown since I last did this, but I'm sure I'll manage."
He carried her, her arms around her neck, and legs around her waist, cherishing these moments where he could hold his sister close, she snuggled in deeper, confident her older brother would not drop her.
"How is Theo? I don't see him very often, not truly anyway."
"He is fine, ranting about Malfoy as always" Another giggle, Ariana's giggle always manage to lighten Harry, he chuckled in response. Both were unaware of Severus Snape following them.
"He's very grateful for your help with potions, as always, he says you needn't"
"I bet he is, but tell him it is no trouble, I always do my potion essay twice, once properly and the second to hand into Professor Snape."
"Why? That's silly, surely you are way ahead of the class"
"Yes I am, but he's essays are always such interesting topics, I mean the last essay was how changing one ingredient in Brutus's Pain Numbing Serum can change its effect on the body, it's fascinating! He gets me to ask questions about potions I wouldn't otherwise, and how do you think I got the day dreaming tonic to work successfuly, by changing the ingredient that insures the nerve signal is interrupted, we can modify the potion with the right ingredient, making it a slight hallucinogenic, and with a spell we can make the hallucination specific, it's amazing! Without that essay the potion never would have succeeded! And.."
"Alright, alright I can see your point, but at the moment we are writing an essay on how evenly cutting ingredients affects the outcome of the potion, but with the potions we are making at the moment it doesn't really."
"It always effects the potion, always, perfection is necessary, as well as patience. It's an art. And I quite enjoyed that essay in my first year thank you very much."
Severus was shocked, Potter, potions? Well I guess it would answer his questions as to who was the Weasley twin protégé, of course it was Potter, his father a marauder and all, but the Weasley twins were not malicious, cunning, but not malicious, what else was he hiding?
"How is Ma?"
Ariana cuddled further into Harry, she didn't want to answer.
"She, she is not well."
Harry stopped, no.
"She'll be alright?"
"We don't know, the healer says she might be, but you know how stubborn she is, I'm sure she will get better, it will take months though."
"Yes, yes she will get better, what is wrong with her?." He cuddled her close, placing a kiss on the top of her head.
"She wouldn't tell me, she said if she did, I will tell you and then you would spend all your time using that potion genius to find a cure and if you didn't you would feel guilty, she says she didn't want to risk your cover."
"I shall have to visit her."
"When? How?"
"I shall find a way" He said this with a smirk any Slytherin would be proud of, and any Gryffindor would be scorned for.
The rest of the journey was in silence as Ariana and Harry sought comfort from each other in light of Ma's illness.
Severus spent the rest of the journey worrying, if this "Ma" person was who he thought, then she had very little chance, he had gone to see her himself, the outcome didn't look positive. What would happen to Ariana and Theo, both would be devastated, neither had anywhere to go, and wherever they did, it was likely they would not see Harry again. He was surprised he was worried about Potter, but he wasn't he told himself, he was worried about one of his Slytherins and their family.
They had reached the hospital wing, Harry lay Ariana down onto the bed and kissed the top of her head gently before calling for Madam Pomfrey. Perhaps now they could talk in public, he had "rescued" her.
This tenderness was all Snape had to see to know that this was real. Harry did see this little girl as a sister, and from what he had heard had known her and Theo for years, though how he did not know. About 10 years ago he had attended to a little boy who "Ma" had taken in, abused by his relatives, though he bore no resemblance to Potter, and supposedly Potter didn't know of the wizarding world until he received his Hogwarts letter, he supposedly wasn't friends with Ariana or Theo either. But this tenderness brought up memories of his own sister, oh how he longed for her, she and her child had disappeared during the first war, according to Dumbledore, it was Death Eaters, though he only had Dumbledore's word for that, a word he had never truly trusted.