Disclaimer: All previous disclaimers apply.
Chapter 4
Remus was waiting by the floo when Severus walked in at five o'clock. He stepped into the floo with Remus following him. Eileen was sitting on the couch with Harry in her lap reading to him when they stepped out of the floo.
"Da!" Harry cried struggling to get down off of Eileen's lap. She set him on the floor and he ran over to Severus, holding up his arms.
Severus picked him up. "Hi Harry, did you have a nice day?"
Harry nodded and smiled in response to Severus' question."
"Good," severus replied with a smile. Harry struggled to get down then went back over to Eileen and she handed him a piece of parchment.
Harry brought it over and gave it to Severus. It was a picture he'd drawn. "That looks just fine, Harry, and I 'm going to hang it in a special place." He went into his study with Harry following him. He pinned it up on the cork bulletin board above his desk. "Now I can look at it whenever I want. Thank you, Harry."
Harry grinned and Severus scooped him back up into his arms again. "Harry, I'd like you to meet someone. This is Remus Lupin who was a good friend of your mum's."
"Remmy!" Harry cried.
Remus looked amazed. "He used to call me that. I can't believe he still remembers me." He picked him up. "I haven't seen you for over a year, Harry."
"Mum, this is Remus Lupin. I don't think I formally introduced him when we saw him in the Leaky Cauldron."
"It's nice to meet you, Mr. Lupin." Eileen said shaking his hand. She turned to Severus. "I'll be going, Sev. Your father's coming home for the weekend and he'll be arriving soon."
"It's very nice to meet you, Mrs. Snape," Remus replied politely.
"Okay, Mum. Thanks for watching Harry. Tell dad I said hi."
"That's what grandmum's are for, Sev. I'll fire-call you later about Christmas."
"Why don't you stay for supper, Remus?" Severus asked, leading Remus into the dining room. "I think Tita has it about ready."
Once he was gone, Eileen stepped into the fireplace, threw down the floo powder and said, "Snape House, Manchester."
Severus piled some cushions on a chair next to Remus and cast a sticking charm on them so they couldn't fall off the chair. He picked Harry up and set him on top of the pillows and moved his chair close to the table. "There that's about right." He filled Harry's plate with food and cut it up in small pieces and then set it down in front of him. He filled a glass with milk and added the nutrient potion. "Okay, eat up. Mum, prescribed a nutrient potion for him because I suspect the Dursley's didn't feed him regularly or gave him very little food. Black should be concentrating on people like them rather than on Pettigrew. He'll never catch him anyway."
"I'm really glad Harry's staying with you, Severus. If he was staying with us, Sirius would be doing his best to turn him into a miniature Marauder with all their worst qualities and I don't want to see that happen."
"If Dumbledore insists on taking this before the Wizengamot, he's going to end up with a black eye when the Wizarding public finds out he dumped the 'Boy-Who-Lived on the doorstep of a couple of child abusers."
They finished dinner. Harry had surprised Severus by wanting a second helping. He lifted Harry off the chair and set him on the floor. Harry took Remus' hand and pulled on it. "Remmy, go."
"I think Harry wants to show you his playroom," Severus guessed.
"Okay, Harry you lead the way and I'll follow you," Remus replied. Harry took his hand and pulled him in the direction of his playroom. Severus followed them.
Harry plopped down on the floor and patted the floor beside him. Remus looked at Severus in confusion.
"He wants you to engineer the Hogwarts Express," Severus said pointing to the train tracks that ran around and underneath the furniture. "I do it nightly."
"I can do that," Remus replied sitting down on the floor next to Harry who crawled into his lap. Remus took his wand out of his pocket, waved it and the Hogwarts Express began its journey around the tracks. After they ran the train for awhile, Harry showed Remus his toys and he showed him the origami animals Tobias had made for him.
"Your father made these out of paper and without magic?" Remus asked clearly amazed.
"Yes, my dad's a Muggle and he was stationed in Japan for a time while he was a Royal Marine and that's where he learned origami. Mum said he's learning how to do magical creatures now. She got him a copy of 'Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them' and he using that."
Harry yawned and blinked sleepily. He held his arms up to Severus and he bent down and scooped him up into the crook of his arm. Harry put his arm around Severus' neck and lay his cheek against Severus' shoulder."
"Well, I'd better be going," Remus said. "Sirius will probably be home soon and I don't want him asking a lot of questions."
"If you can wait a second I'll go get something from my lab."
Remus nodded and Severus left the room. He was back in a few minutes with holding a small box that contained several vials of a bluish liquid. "These are Wolfsbane Potion. These should last you for a few months and I'll be able to brew more by the time those are gone."
Remus' face turned a deep red. "Thank you and I'd like to explain about what James and Sirius did to you fifth year. You see when I transform I have no memory of what I did and I've always relied on them to fill me in. Apparently, they decided not to mention that night to me. I only recently found out what happened when Sirius got stinking drunk, thought I was James, and decided to relive some of the Marauders better 'pranks' most of them against you. I was furious when I found out he and James had used my condition to try to scare you away from Lily."
"Severus shook his head. "I never held it against you although you probably did scare ten years off of me, but I figured it was Potter's and Black's doing. They hated me so much they didn't care what happened to anybody else as long as it got rid of me."
"That's very decent of you to say that, Severus."
"It's the truth. Whenever you want to visit Harry send me an owl."
"I'll do that and thank you again."
"Say goodbye to Remmy, Harry."
"Bye, Remmy," Harry said waving sleepily.
"Goodbye Harry and I'll see you soon," Remus said returning his wave and stepping into the floo.
When he was gone, Severus got Harry ready for bed, read a chapter of 'A Christmas Carol' until Harry fell asleep and then went to bed himself.
The next morning Severus and Harry, his mum and dad went to a magical Christmas tree lot to find their Christmas trees. Severus found a 7-foot Scots pine that he really liked for the living room and a smaller Norwegian Spruce that he planned to put in his bedroom for Harry. His dad and mum found a 6-foot high Norwegian Spruce. As with all magical trees they could be replanted once Christmas was over. As they had done ever since he was a child they would take them to his grandparents' manor and replant them there.
Two days before Christmas, Harry helped Severus decorate both trees with fairy light and ornaments. Severus had purchased three special ornaments for Christmas; one denoted Harry's first Christmas with Severus, one was a doe in remembrance of Lily, and the third was a broom in remembrance of James. Even though Severus still hated James' guts, he didn't want to pass that on to Harry. He lifted Harry up so he could place the tree topper on.
"Da, pretty!" Harry said pointing at the tree.
"Yes it is, Harry. You did a good job helping me with it."
On Christmas Eve day it started to snow and looked very pretty. Harry stood with his nose pressed against the window watching in awe. Severus stood next to him. "You know your mum loved it when it snowed. She used to send me an owl and wake me up early so we could be the very first ones to walk through the snow when we were at Hogwarts."
They flooed over to his mum's for Christmas Eve dinner and Harry opened his gifts that sat under the tree. "Da, look!" Harry said. He was holding a toy broom.
"He seemed to enjoy the ride down in the Gringotts cart that I thought he'd probably enjoy the toy broom. I made sure it's completely safe. It will only go up three feet and no further. It has a sticking charm on it and can't go very fast."
"It's okay, Mum. Actually, I was thinking about getting him a broom too. I figure if he's inherited his dad's talent then it should be developed."
"I'm glad you feel that way, Sev."
"Well, Lily wouldn't want me bad-mouthing his dad to him and I don't want to do it either."
"You're more generous than I'd be considering your history with him," Tobias remarked.
"Well, at some point before he goes to Hogwarts I will need to tell him about his father's and my history because I don't want him to get there and have to listen to Dumbledore telling him what a good man and hero his father was especially after Remus told me he got mad at Lily when she got pregnant and he hardly paid any attention to Harry unless there were people around."
"It figures," Tobias said with a shake of his head. "He was so spoiled by his parents he never grew up enough to be a parent himself. I still can't imagine what Lily saw in him."
"There had to be some good in him if Lily married him, Dad."
"I expect you're right, Sev."
Severus let Harry try out his broom before they went home that night. He was excited, but it appeared he was a natural on a broom. Severus scooped him up, shrank the broom and put it in his pocket. "It's time for little boys to be home and in bed so Santa Claus can come."
"Santa come for Harry?" He asked in an uncertain tone. It was the longest sentence severus had heard Harry say since he said since he'd come to live with him..
"Definitely," Severus answered. Petunia and Vernon probably told him that freaks didn't deserve gifts for Christmas or any other time. He turned to his parents. "We'll come back at noon tomorrow to leave for grandpa and grandmum's."
"Fine, Sev. "We'll see you then. Happy Christmas," Eileen said.
"You and Dad, too." Severus said and flooed home. He place Harry's toy broom on top of the chest that sat at the foot of his bed. They got a plate of cookies and a glass of milk for Santa and Severus got Harry ready for bed and read the last chapter of 'A Christmas Carol' to him. After Harry had fallen asleep he went back downstairs where he and Tita pulled all the gifts he'd bought Harry out of their hiding places and placed them under the tree. Severus went upstairs again, got undressed and into bed. He lay with his arms behind his hand thinking about Lily and hoped she was pleased with him taking care of Harry. He didn't have the parent thing down really good yet, but he was trying. He rolled over and put his arm around Harry pulling him close and fell asleep so he didn't see Lily when she appeared. "I am pleased with the way you're taking care of Harry, Sev and I hope I'll see you both soon. Happy Christmas." She planted a light kiss on Severus' forehead and on Harry's cheek.
Severus woke up first on Christmas morning. He shook Harry awake and he rolled over, rubbing his eyes and looking up at Severus. "It's Christmas morning, little guy. Should we go downstairs and see what Santa bought you?"
Harry smiled. "Da, go down."
Severus helped him out of bed, got him into slippers and robe and then donned his own slippers and robe and they went downstairs and into the living room. The Christmas tree was brightly lit and piles of presents lay under it. Harry's eyes widened when he saw the sights.
"Are you ready to open some presents, Harry? It looks as if you've got a lot of them."
Severus transfigured two Christmas ornaments into pillows and they sat down next to the tree within easy reach of all the presents. He pulled them out from under the tree and gave them to Harry to open. He opened them carefully at first as if he couldn't believe they were his to open and nobody was going to hit him for opening them, but soon the paper and ribbons began to fly as he ripped into them. Among the gifts Severus had given him was a child's first potion kit. He figured if Harry had inherited his mum's talent for potions he would encourage it.
There were several presents under the tree for Tita and Severus handed them to her when she brought him tea and Harry a glass of milk with a plate of Christmas cookies. She thanked Severus and Harry and hurried back to the kitchen to get breakfast started. Severus knew that she was overcome by the gifts because most people didn't give their house elves Christmas gifts. After breakfast, he, Harry and Tita would be flooing to his mum's house and from there to his grandparents' manor.
There was one last gift still sitting under the tree. Harry pointed to it and said, "Da." He tried to pull it out, but it was too heavy for him. Severus stretched and pulled the gift from under the tree. He looked at the tag and was surprised to see it was for him, but shocked to see his name was written in Lily's elegant script. He loosened the ribbons, carefully peeled off the paper and opened the box. Inside was a book entitled Moste Ancient Potions. Severus had read about it in one of his potion journals. Wizarding archeologist had found well preserved manuscripts in a hidden cave in Wales ten years ago. They dated the parchment from the time of Merlin and after carefully translating the ancient language, discovered there were many ideas for potions and spells. On the inside cover Lily had written: To Sev, Christmas 1981, Love, Lily.
Severus gently ran his hand over the cover of the book, his memories of Lily overwhelming him; how she looked, the sound of her voice and the scent of lilacs that always surrounded her. A tug on his sleeve brought him back to the present. He looked down at Harry and into his eyes that were just like Lily's. "Da?"
Severus smiled and sat Harry in his lap. "Your mummy gave me this book, Harry, and it made me both happy because it's so like Lily to do something such as this and sad because your mummy isn't here any longer, but I've got you now and that makes me happy." He gave Harry a hug. "We should go upstairs and get dressed because I think Tita almost has Christmas breakfast ready."
They went upstairs and both got ready for the day. Harry wore black corduroy pants, a red jumper with a Christmas tree on it that changed different colors, and black trainers. Severus wore black slacks, a green jumper and black trainers also.
He and Harry were just sitting down to breakfast when he heard the floo sound and then heard Remus' voice, "Severus, may I come through?"
"It's Uncle Remmy," Severus said. He helped Harry down off his chair and Harry ran into the living room and stood in front of the fireplace.
Remus stepped out of the fireplace and waved his wand over himself to get rid of the ash. "I have a small gift for Harry."
"Have you had breakfast? Harry and I were just going to eat. You're welcome to join us."
"I'd be happy too. Thank you for asking. I'm afraid the Christmas spirit is rather thin on the ground at Grimmauld Place this year. We used to spend Christmas with James and Lily or Sirius did last year. Lily invited me, but James didn't want me there so I stayed away. Sirius is refusing to have anything to do with Christmas this year."
"Black always was a moron," Severus growled. "And if he thinks he going to get custody of Harry when his spare time is spent solely searching for Pettigrew, he's got another thing coming. Potter was an idiot too. He shouldn't have believed you'd go over to Voldemort because you suffer from Lycanthropy. He should have believed in your loyalty no matter what."
Remus sighed. "I guess James was never the person I believed him to be." He pulled a long thin box, wrapped in colorful paper and with a big bow. "I know Harry is too young to appreciate this right now, but I know he will later on."
Severus let Harry tear off the ribbons and paper and then took off the lid and pushed aside the tissue paper. He lifted the delicate wand out of the box. "This is Lily's wand. I'd recognize it anywhere since we bought our wands from Ollivander's at the same time. How did you get it? I thought the wand of any witch or wizard who died was destroyed by the Ministry."
Remus nodded as they sat down to breakfast. "Usually that's true, but I was sent out to their house in Godric's Hallow the day after to see if there was even the slightest physical trace left of You-Know-Who, but I couldn't find anything. His body must have be blown to ash. However I did find Lily's wand under Harry's cot. I guess it must have flown out of her hand and rolled under his cot when it happened. It was always my intention to give it to Harry."
"I'll keep it safe until Harry's old enough to get his own wand and I'll give it to him then," Severus promised. "Thank you for giving it to Harry instead of the Ministry."
"I'm glad I found it before anybody from the Ministry did."
Suddenly an owl flew into the room interrupting their breakfast. Severus noticed right away that it was a Ministry owl. It landed in front of him and stuck out its leg with an important air. He took the letter from the owl's leg and it flew off again. Severus opened it and read it quickly and then rolled his eyes his eyes in disgust. "The old coot sure knows how to spoil Christmas."
"What does it say?" Remus asked anxiously. Severus handed him the letter. He opened it and read:
December 25, 1981
To: Severus Tobias Snape
You are hereby ordered to appear before the Wizengamot on January 2, 1982 at nine o'clock to decide the custody of Harry James Potter.
Best Wishes at this joyful time of the year,
Bartemius Crouch, Head of the Department of Magical Law Enforcement
"I don't know how Albus managed to convince Crouch to do this. He doesn't like Albus and doesn't like his interference in things."
"I'm not worried. He's going to end up looking like a fool and with a great loss of respect once the Wizarding world find out about Harry being abused by the Dursley's," Severus said. He rolled up the note again, tied it, and whistled for Aesculapius. When he flew into the living room Severus gave him the note and said, "Take this to Reginald Winchester."
"Who's that?" Remus asked.
"My grandfather's main barrister. Dumbledore's going to wish he'd never messed with me."
Remus left again after breakfast. The Weasley's had invited him over for Christmas so he was headed to the Burrow. After Remus had left, Severus, Harry and Tita flooed over to his parent's house in Manchester. They would be flooing from there to Armorel, his grandparent's estate. It was near the North Sea. The name of the manor house meant 'dweller by the sea.'
Severus dressed Harry in his green dress robe and himself in his black dress robe, shrank the trunk containing their clothes and put it in his pocket. "Are you ready, Mum, Dad?"
"We're ready, Sev," Tobias answered. They flooed to an inn called the Dragon's Tale where his grandfather, Tiberius Prince was waiting as they stepped out of the Floo.
Tita bowed and said, "Tita is pleased to see Master Tiberius again. Tita will go along ahead and make sure Master Severus and Harry's room is ready." She popped out.
"So this is Harry. Your grandmother is so excited to meet him that I don't think she's sat down for five minutes all morning. Why don't you apparate first with Harry, Severus," Tiberius suggested. "I've already got the gate opened.
"Okay," Severus nodded and went outside. "Hang on to me tight, Harry." He turned on his heel and apparated. He appeared outside the front gates of Armorel. He pulled a vial of baby anti-nausea potion out of his coat pocket for Harry, but he seemed okay. The manor was unplottable and surrounded by centuries of wards, but Severus was able to see it because he was the heir. It was made of what looked like grey, quarried stone. It had two wings that had been built in the same style as the main house and with the same material. It meshed nicely architecturally and aesthetically without being ostentatious like the Malfoy and Potter mansions. It had many windows and he didn't even want to take a guess at how many rooms it had. He walked through the gates into the courtyard and waved at his grandmother, Audra who was hovering in the entrance. He walked quickly across the courtyard.
"Sev!" His grandmother exclaimed giving him a hug and a kiss.
"Hi Gran," Severus replied returning her hug and kiss. "This is Harry."
"What a little angel!" Audra said taking Harry from Severus and giving him a kiss. "Come along. Let's go inside where it's warm. I have snacks and hot drinks waiting."
There were two more cracks and Tiberius, Eileen and Toby walked through the gates. Tiberius waved his wand and the gates shut and locked securely. Nobody who wasn't of the Prince line would be able to breach them. Audra led them into the living room.
Despite the largeness of the room it was warm. There was an eight-foot high Christmas tree in the living room which underneath sat presents of all shapes and sizes. The large fireplace had a crackling fire and a big wreath hung over it, decorated with pine cones, red bows and lit by fairy lights. The mantle was decorated with pine garland containing pine cones and red bows and lit by fairy lights. Two large gold candle holders sat at either end of the mantle and held long red candles that gave off the scent of cinnamon. The floor to ceiling windows on both sides of the fireplace were magically sealed to keep out the cold and were covered by heavy drapes.
Severus sat down in one of the comfortable armchairs opposite the couch while his parents and his grandmother sat on the couch across from him and Tiberius made himself comfortable in a recliner on the end between the couch and the armchairs. The long coffee table in front of them was filled with small sandwiches, cookies, and biscuit and a big bowl of Audra's hot orange cranberry punch for the adults and mug of hot chocolate for Harry.
After everybody was refreshed and warmed both inside and out, the Christmas gifts were handed out. Severus sat by the Christmas tree and gave the gifts to Harry to deliver to their recipient. "This one is for grandma." Harry toddled over to Eileen and gave her the package and went back to Severus. "This one's for great-grandpa."
Finally all the gifts were handed out. There was a pile beside Severus and a pile in front of him that belonged to Harry.
After all the gifts had been opened, exclamations of pleasure expressed and thanks exchanged, Harry climbed into Severus lap with a yawn. "I think somebody's tired," Severus said. He looked at his grandparents and explained, "He's used to taking a nap. Miss Sherry always has the children lay down for an hour after lunch."
"Do you want to take him upstairs and lay him down?" Audra asked.
"No," Severus got up and called for Tita. She appeared with a pop. "Tita, would you please go upstairs and get Harry's quilt and bear out of my trunk?"
"Tita will be right back," She said popping out. She was back in a moment with Harry's quilt and bear.
"Why don't you lay him on the couch? I think there's enough room between your mum and grandmother," Toby said getting up and seating himself in the armchair next to Severus'.
"Good idea, Dad," Severus replied. He laid Harry down on the couch, covering him with his quilt and tucking his bear in beside him.
"He's small for his age," Audra remarked
"That's because Lily's sister and her husband weren't feeding him and were abusing him," Severus said. "Mum had to prescribe a nutrient potion for him when he first came to live with me which reminds me. Dumbledore is apparently going to try to take custody of Harry away from me. I got a notice from the Bartemius Crouch today and I'm supposed to appear before the Ministry on January 2nd."
"Dumbledore is always looking to get his name in the news. He's worse than that fraudulent idiot Gilderoy Lockhart," Tiberius snapped.
"We took pictures of the way Harry looked when I took him from Petunia and I saved the clothes he was wearing. When I went over to Privet Drive with Reginald to get Petunia and her husband to sign over their guardianship of Harry to me; I took pictures of the cupboard where they were making Harry sleep. Once the Wizarding public sees those things, Dumbledore is going to look nearly as bad as Voldemort."
"He gave Sev some blather about blood wards and that's why Harry needs to go back to the Dursley's," Eileen added.
Tiberius who was a certified Wardsmith shook his head. "These blood wards would have been useless unless Harry thought of their home as his which I'm sure he didn't given their abuse and they welcomed Harry into their home as a member of their family which they obviously didn't."
"Lily and Potter didn't agree on who should be Harry's guardians either. Lily's will named Alice Longbottom and me while Potter's named Sirius Black and Mary MacDonald." Severus sneered at both names. "Maybe he was hoping they'd get married."
"How will they decide who's will to follow?" Audra asked in concern.
"Reginald said that since Lily survived Potter, her will should have been followed and her will specifically stated that she didn't want Harry left with Petunia," Severus explained.
"Dumbledore's sterling reputation is going to suffer a bit of tarnish when that comes out," Tiberius remarked.
"His reputation will be tarnished black when the public finds out that he lied to the Gringotts Goblins about being Harry's guardian and he was taking money from the Potter vaults to pay the Dursley's to keep Harry and they weren't using the money for him and abusing him on top of that. They were furious when they found out the truth and they took the money from Dumbledore's vault and put it back into the Potter vaults," Severus added.
"The Goblins are honest, fair, and just. I'm not surprised they were angry at being made a party to Dumbledore's swindling. The good reputation of Gringotts is their greatest concern," Tiberius explained. He'd been dealing with the Gringotts Goblins for many years and respected them for their management of Gringotts in good times and bad.
"I never liked that man," Toby growled. "He refused to do anything to stop those spoiled rich bullies from tormenting Sev. Eileen and I even went and talked to him about it in person and his view was that Sev must be doing something to them first because these were good boys and would never attack anybody unjustly! I taught Sev how to box just so he could defend himself without having to use magic and none of them would expect a punch in the nose or in the gut."
"The Potter's have never been too bright always rushing in without a plan or a backup plan. It's no wonder the family is practically extinct!" Tiberius said.
Harry woke up from his nap a bit later and played with some of his news toys with assistance from Severus, Toby, and Tiberius. The two-day visit went fast and soon it was time to return home. Tiberius and Audra apparated to the Dragon's Tale to see them off.
Severus, Harry, and Tita flooed back to his London home and the next morning started in with their usual routine. Severus went back to work and Harry went back to daycare. He did take Harry to see his mum after work one day so she could check his progress.
She weighed Harry and smiled, "Sev, he's gained three pounds, but I'm going to keep him on the nutrient potion until he reaches the normal weight for his age which is 22 pounds." She handed Harry a chocolate frog. He giggled as he opened the box and the frog tried to escape.
New Years Eve arrived. His parents would be coming over tomorrow for New Year's dinner. Severus put Harry to bed at his normal time and when he was sure he was sleeping soundly he went back downstairs and got out the bottle of champagne he'd bought. When midnight arrived he toasted his new son and made a toast in remembrance of Lily.
