Disclaimer: see previous chapters, and for any references to anything else see notes at bottom.

Regarding the future

Harry was still trembling when he and Severus arrived home. Severus sat him down on the settee and set about making a cup of tea for him, just to calm him down, but even then, Severus had to help him as he was shaking so badly the tea was sloshing over the edges.

In the end Severus sat with one arm around Harry's shoulder and the other one supporting the cup as he helped him to drink. When he had finished he leaned his head against his father's shoulder, more relaxed now than he had been before.

"Thank you Severus for that, I just felt so alone before, like everyone had abandoned me. I know I have you, Draco and Lucius, and Remus…but what Ron and Hermione said, it hurt. They had been my friends for five years, we shared everything together; from rescuing the Philosophers Stone to the events at the ministry, and I have no idea what I have done for them to be jealous, Voldemort's defeat was just a fortunate circumstance. But today…"

"What happened today Harry? What did they say to you that caused such a reaction? And care to tell me what was going on between you and Draco?" Severus asked, absentmindedly stroking Harry's hair in a reassuring way, as if reminding his son that he was there for him and would never leave him, no matter what happened.

A ghost of a smile passed across Harry's face. "Draco was trying to prove a point. There's nothing going on between us, but unfortunately that's what Ron and Hermione seem to think. There seems to be more than just jealousy that they are feeling towards me. Ron's been jealous before, but neither of them have ever acted this way. I can't see what I have done to deserve such a reaction. They accused me of deserting them and wanting all the glory for myself. They know…I've never wanted…always hated the glory. Ever since I entered the wizarding world I have hated my fame, people judge me without even knowing me. All those Dailey Prophet articles have proven that. Ron was never this bad last year during the tournament. At least then they never said…they never…" Once again, Harry found himself unable to continue.

"What did they say?" Severus asked again.

"The most despicable thing you have ever heard," Lucius said walking in. "I have never heard anything like it, even during my Death Eater days, and that's saying something." He sat down next to Harry so that Harry was ensconced between the two men, offering him all the support they could.

"I have never heard any witch or wizard say anything so vicious before, I was never a Potter fan, but I never said anything like that." Draco said perching on the edge of the settee.

"Muggles have the phrase; I wish you had never been born. While it is a bit of a flimsy insult Hermione was implying the similar thing."Harry spoke up. "She said that I was betraying my parents sacrifice by associating with Draco and that they should have let Voldemort kill me."

"Oh Harry," Severus said holding Harry close to him, "no wonder you reacted the way you did." As he held his son close, he knew what he would be going through. Hermione Granger and Ronald Weasley, by association, had accused Harry of betraying his parents' sacrifice, most especially his mother's, for Hanging around with the Malfoys, ex-death eaters, when his own mother had been in a relationship and had a child with a death eater, Severus himself.

Harry remained silent, almost as if he was thinking things over. If he had not cried over this before as they were leaving Diagon Alley he would have been worried by the silence, but as it was, he was still worried. He was reminded of how upset Harry had been after Lupin's remarks when he had found out about Severus being Harry's father; how would Harry's friends take this new develop, and would it drive Harry over the edge?

Harry suddenly stood up. "I'm going out for a walk!"

Severus was about to say something to stop him, but Lucius lay a restraining hand on his arm. "Let him go Severus, he needs this time, to clear his head and think. He doesn't need you acting like a concerned parent; remember he's never had one before and it may cause him to close up and not tell you anything, children will do that," he said with a glance towards Draco, who turned a pale pink at his father's look. "Being a parent is different to being a head of house; your Slytherins can come to you about problems they may be having about school, but each one of them has their own parents or guardians to look after them and offer them support when it is needed. When he's ready he will come to you."

Severus sat back with a sigh.

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Harry was sat down by the river, enjoying the peace when a voice behind him made him jump.

"Penny for 'em?"

He looked around and saw a teenage girl, probably about his age perched on the railings. She had long black hair, brown eyes, and wore a pair of faded jeans and a white football shirt, which if he remembered correctly was the home strip for Leeds united. She was obviously a muggle.

"Sorry," she continued. "You just looked so lost in thought I couldn't resist. I'm Natalie by the way." She jumped off the rail and plonked herself next to Harry. "So, what's up? You look troubled and talking to a complete stranger may help."

Harry laughed. "Harry. I don't think I've ever met anyone as outspoken as you, and where I go to school that's saying something." Well it was true Harry reminded himself. Everyone except for Draco, Severus, Dumbledore and perhaps McGonagall, would never dare say anything like that to Harry. Then again, many of them were very close-minded when it came to the-boy-who-lived and what he should do.

"Hah, if it's anything like my school then I'm not surprised. I'm very outspoken, and often it gets me into trouble. My form teacher has had enough of me sometimes, she says I'm the reason she's going grey. So, what're your problems then?"

"Friend troubles," Harry began, "and it's a long story, are you sure you want to hear all of it?"

Natalie jumped to her feet, pulling Harry up with her. "There's this great fish shop around here, let's go grab a bite to eat and you can tell me about it on the way."

Harry found himself liking this girl as he opened up to her about the troubles with his friends, she was a good listener, and never interrupted once until he was finished. He was thankful he had grown up with the Dursleys and knew enough about muggle culture to make to seem that he was just a muggle.

They were soon back down by the rive eating their fish and chip straight out of the newspapers they had been wrapped in. "Let me get this straight, your friends are ignoring you because you won some competition which they helped you with, and they think you don't want to share your winnings. They helped you in the lead up to the competition, but you were the one who had to do the challenges by yourself. Why should they expect any of the winnings, it's not like they gave you the answers and you just recited them." Harry could think of no better way to describe the events at the ministry, but to him it just brought back memories of the tri-wizard tournament.

"Then while you were out today for your birthday in London, you kissed your school rival, but your friends saw, and think that this is further proof that you have turned against them. If I might ask, why are they like this against your rival, surely it wouldn't bother them if you became friends with this boy?"

"It's due to the way we are at school. You see when we arrive at school in our first year; Year Sevens are sorted into four different houses, based on their ability. We live with our housemates in a particular area of the school and for the most part, we take our lessons separately from the other houses of our year. Each house has different values and tendencies, and unfortunately, the house that my rival is in is the least liked of the houses; the students in that class see the rest of the school as being lower class than them, but there is an equal mix between all the houses of class.

"The rivalry between the two of us mostly down to who our families are, and their beliefs, it's the same with one of my friends although the history between their families goes back a long way, and my other friend is a scholarship student. You see entrance to our school is by invitation only, and you have a better chance of admission if one or both of your parents attended, a few places are offered to people whose parents have never attended but have the skills and qualities the school is looking for in their students, of which my friend is one of.

"There has been this animosity between my rival and the three of us for five years; better grades, better sports teams, better companionship, and I had the popularity that he didn't."

"So why the change," Natalie asked processing all that Harry had told her. "How did the two of you end up becoming friends, while your other friends didn't?"

"Ah, that would have to do with my father."

"You said your parents had died when you were a baby and you grew up with your aunt and uncle?"

"Yes, I did. You see I found out this summer that the man I had grown up to be my father was not my real father, my biological father so to speak. My mother had been in a relationship with my biological father but they had split up, she then fell into another relationship, seeking comfort so to speak, with my 'adoptive' father and they married. I was believed to be the son of the husband by everyone and was christened so, but my mother kept it a secret, she alone knew my true parentage. Luckily, no one noticed the difference between me and the man I called father. I grew up believing in what everyone told me about my parents.

"It was difficult to come to terms with when I was sent a letter from my parents' solicitor, which my mother had left with them should anything happen to her, detailing the truth about my parentage. My birth father is actually a teacher at my school, our chemistry teacher. He's one of the most disliked teachers, really strict and unfair unless you're a member of his house."

"Let me guess, he's head of the house your rival is in?"

"Exactly. If my friends were to find out, they probably would hold it against me. You asked why I became friends with my rival," Natalie nodded. "My father and his father are old friends and we have spent the summer so far meeting up with them and getting to know each other behind the facades we put on."

"It sounds complicated. I wish my school were that interesting. We have houses, just two of them named after a couple of former boys back when the school was split into separate girls and boys schools, but the only rivalry we have is when it comes to sports competitions, especially sports day. Ours is a boarding school but only a small population are borders. Girls and boys have separate boarding houses, split up at either end of the school from when it was separate schools, as I mentioned before. I'm a boarder, my dad's in the R.A.F and my mum's dead; I'm spending the holidays with my aunt. I take it you are staying with your father."

"I am. You know, you and I seem alike; both lost a parent, go to boarding school and don't have many friends outside of school."

"You can tell?"

"It's not that hard to someone who knows. As I said, I grew up with my aunt and uncle before I started upper school, and my cousin always made sure I had no friends. Besides, the Leeds shirt sticks out a bit around here."

"I know," Natalie moaned. "You wouldn't believe the stick I get for wearing this shirt, when most of the kids around here support either Man U. or Man City. Leeds is a great team too, not as good as Man U. but still in the Premiership. Half the school supports Leeds, and I kinda jumped on the bandwagon at first, but fully supported 'em when my friend introduced me, we go to all the home matches with her parents. You support any teams?"

Harry thought about this, did he support any teams? Like most of the wizarding world he was an avid fan of quidditch, but really did not know many teams, the Chudley Cannons came to mind being Ron's favourite and having spent many an hour listening to him going on about his favourite games and players, but football? The Dursleys had never liked football, or any other sport for that matter, and had tried to keep Dudley and himself away from it at all possible, Vernon often complained it consisted of drunkards and hooligans; both the fans and the players. "I never really supported football; I spent most of my time with my studies."

They both laughed and it was nice just to relax, talk about normal things, even if they were muggle.

Natalie turned to face him. "What are you going to do about your friends? Going back to school will be hard if you're keeping secrets and not talking to your friends. Do you really think the school will hate you if you're the chemistry teacher's son?"

"It's hard to tell, everyone in school hates me or loves me, and every week their opinions change. Tell me if you had the chance would you change your appearance just to have some privacy and have a normal life?"

"If it would help, then yeah I would. You'll be amazed at how much you can blend in when people don't see what they expect. How would you change?"

"I was thinking of changing my hair colour and its length, getting rid of my glasses; maybe change my eye colour and having a wardrobe change." Harry thought to himself would the potion change all those things, how much of herself had Lily left and how much had she changed?

"If you could, you would be able to see just what people thought of you without them realising it was you," Natalie continued, "And find out the real reason they have abandoned you."

Harry jumped to his feet, "That's brilliant thanks Natalie." He gave the girl a brief hug, "If I ever see you around again, I'll let you know." With that, he ran off home.

___________________________________________________________________________

Severus & Lucius were sat talking on the settee when Harry walked back in, Draco was nowhere to be seen.

His talk with Natalie had been enlightening and he now knew what he wanted to do. He just had to tell everyone.

"Harry," Severus said, looking up as the door opened "How are you doing?"

"Better," Harry replied. He looked at his Father and wondered just what he would think of his news; would he be angry, surprised, shocked or even supportive of what Harry wanted to do?

Harry cleared his throat, "I have something to tell you. I don't know what you will think, but I want to take the potion. I don't want you to think that I am taking the easy way out by taking the potion, but I think it is for the best. With thing the way they are, it's going to be difficult back at Hogwarts for the next two years. I just want to be able to finish off my education without any fuss."

"I would never accuse you of that Harry," Severus said. "I think that after everything you've been through, you deserve a normal education, away from all the prejudices of being the-boy-who-lived." Severus regarded him intently, "I do understand where you are coming from in your reasoning; you are worried I may take offence; that you're taking it for reasons other than wanting to have a relationship between the two of us."

Harry nodded, his eyes slightly downcast now, not really wanting to see what his father's reaction would be. "I want a normal education, what's left of it, and the chance to have a father without the gossip that would come of being Harry Potter. Can you imagine it, what they would all say?

"Did you hear, Harry Potter's Snape's son.

"Potter's the son of the dungeon bat.

"D'ya recon Snape imperiused Potter's mother.

"What was Potter Snr thinking taking in the reject of a snake, and his spawn?

"A Harry Snape would be less of a shock than a Harry Potter-Snape. I was also thinking I could find out what the general population thinks of Harry Potter." He raised his eyes to look into his father's, half expecting to see disappointment there, but was surprised to see tears glistening in the corners.

"You're sure about this Harry, once you take the potion, there's no going back."

Harry nodded and before he realised, he was in his father's arms, and he felt secure and belonging. For the first time in his life, he felt safe.

"Then we'll do it, not tonight, maybe tomorrow and we can discuss everything that will go along with it." Severus said.

"Thanks…dad."

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(A/N I'm looking for ideas of who to pair Draco with, the boys will be returning to school soon. If anyone has any preferences feel free to let me know, I'm open to boy or girl.

I have also changed this story to an M due to the way that it will progress, some of my original ideas have changed from what I originally planned, it's just to be on the safe side really

Just a few explanations on some of the references in this chapter:

Man U. is Manchester United and Man City is Manchester City both are football/soccer teams. I have set Spinners End in the Manchester area; I read an essay on HP Lexicon where the writer thought it was in the North of England so I decided to use this as my basis for my location. I live in the north, just east of Manchester (over the pennines) so am pretty familiar with the area.

The Premiership or the premier league is the top level in the football league in Britain.

Natalie's school is an actual School in Leeds, which I attended during my youth, and up until about 20 years ago was a separate boys and girls school. Former boys are former students of the school. If anyone's intrigued don't hesitate to ask.)