Jamie Snape and the Chamber of Secrets
Original Dark Angel
Disclaimer: You've got the idea by now. I don't own anything recognizable.
Ron forced his way through the crowd gathered around the bulletin board and grinned wildly when he saw the flier. He returned to where Jamie was studying his Potions text, and covered the pages to get the raven-haired boy's attention. "Guess what? They're starting a dueling club. The first meeting is tonight."
"I know. Professor Lockhart is teaching it. Professor Snape is overseeing to make sure that Lockhart doesn't do something stupid."
Ron's face brightened. "Maybe they'll finish each other off and I won't have to do either of my essays. Er, sorry, Jamie. Well if Professor Snape is helping out then maybe it won't be a total waste of time to go. If nothing else, I'm sure Snape will hex Lockhart before the night is over and that would be the most fun we've had all week."
"Speak for yourself. I got to practice shields in defense yesterday and produced a perfect Amethyst Shell Block that sent Draco back into the pillows on my first try."
"It's incredibly unfair that you get cool Defense Against the Dark Arts lessons and we're stuck with the color-coded idiot in class," Ron griped. "But I still want to go tonight."
Jamie shrugged, "then we'll go."
-----
It had taken Lockhart close to fifteen minutes to actually start dueling because of his grand speech. Draco and the Slytherin boys all cheered when Snape knocked Lockhart off of the platform with a Second Year Spell that most of them already knew. Jamie watched in boredom as Lockhart tried to save face, but had snickered briefly at his shocked look, as he was so easily disarmed. Lockhart finally stopped blathering on and started pairing off the students.
Jamie faced Ron with a smirk. "Dad taught me this spell a week ago." Inwardly Draco grinned at Jamie's slip of tongue, but didn't draw the younger boy's attention to it.
A dark shadow fell over them as Snape appeared at their sides and shook his head. "No, Jamie. I don't want you facing a broken wand. Partner with Draco for now. Mr. Weasley, if you would like to subject Mr. Finnegan or Mr. Thomas to that dysfunctional wand, I don't suppose I actually saw you carrying it tonight." Draco thought that the mischievous grin that now adorned Weasley's face was almost worthy of a Slytherin.
With a shrug, Jamie obeyed, bowing slightly to his opponent and raising his wand the way Professor Snape had shown him during their practical lesson.
"On three then. One . . . two . . . three." Then chaos raged.
On two, Draco threw a levitating spell at him. Startled to find himself hovering three feet off the ground, Jamie retaliated with a light tickling charm. Between gasps of laughter, Draco released the first spell and managed "Tartanellgra!" Then he grinned at Jamie's unusual quickstep.
Over the din, he heard Professor Lockhart screaming ineffectively, but Professor Snape was quick to take charge and shouted, "Finite Incantatem!"
Under the green mist of half-incanted spells, all movement stopped. Draco could breathe normally without laughing, and Jamie stopped dancing. Jamie offered his hand to Draco and pulled him up. Draco smirked and pushed off the ground with his spare hand, since Jamie couldn't lift his weight alone. "That was interesting."
"You started before three," Jamie scowled at him. "That's not fair."
"People don't always play fair, Jamie-boy. You should have been ready for it."
"It still wasn't fair," Jamie complained, folding his arms across his chest and pouting.
"Come off it, Jamie. You seriously look like you're eight or nine years old when you do that." Secretly, Draco approved of Jamie actually whining and taking offense at something. Jamie never had the chance to be a spoiled eight-year-old and if Snape was willing to put up with the boy reliving his childhood, Draco didn't want to be the one to put a stop to it.
"Do not." Jamie's bottom lip stuck out even farther.
"Do too."
Lockhart finally got everyone's attention and after Snape silenced the crowd for him, spoke up. "I guess that I had better teach you all how to block unfriendly spells first. "Longbottom and Finch-Fletchley, then."
"Longbottom causes havoc with the simplest of spells, Gilderoy. Unless you intend to send Finch-Fletchley to the Hospital Wing before the night is over, you should choose another pair. I would suggest my Defense Students as they covered basic shields yesterday and seemed to pick it up quickly."
"Oh, all right then. Harry, Draco, get up here then. Sorry, I mean Jamie and Draco."
Draco distinctly heard Jamie mutter, "Disgusting old fart," as the climbed the steps to the platform.
Lockhart smiled at them like he was Santa Clause or something. "Go ahead and take your positions. Draco, settle on a spell that you'll cast on Jamie. Jamie, I want you to do this to block his attack." He spun his wand in some sort of complicated wand movement and promptly dropped it. " Oops, my wand is a little overexcited. Just do what I did, m'boy, and you'll be fine."
"Gee, dropping my wand will save me?" The sarcasm in the dark-haired boy's voice was heavily reminiscent of a certain potionsmaster. "I think I'll use the Amethyst Shell Block that my dad showed me instead."
Flustered, Lockhart stepped back and jerked his head to signal that they were ready to begin. Draco smirked at his friend. "Scared?"
"You wish."
Draco shouted "Serpensortia," and Jamie threw up his shield perfectly. The snake seemed mildly annoyed about bouncing off the shield, but when Lockhart blasted it up ten feet in the air and dropped it again, the snake turned vicious. With two steps Draco snatched Jamie's collar and pulled him back from the weaving snake that was preparing to strike. Foiled, the snake turned and headed directly for the fat Hufflepuff boy, Finch-Fletchley.
Before Draco could stop him, Jamie jerked away and shouted after the snake, "Stop!" But the next thing out of his mouth was an eerie hissing and raspy sounds that paused the snake in its path. Jamie held out his hand to it, and the snake coiled itself around the little boy's wrist without a second thought.
"What do you think you're playing at, Snape?" the Finch-Fletchley boy spat angrily.
Draco jumped off the platform and shoved the other boy away. "He just saved your life, you idiot! Who cares how he did it? At least you're still breathing!"
"He's a dark wizard! Only dark wizards are parselmouths, Malfoy!"
"Don't be a bigger idiot than usual, Finch-Fletchley!" Draco shouted. "Anybody could see that he stopped the snake." He caught sight of Jamie still standing on the stage looking completely lost with the snake calmly wrapped in a few loose coils around his shoulders. The hurt on his face tore at Draco, and he gestured wildly at Weasley and Granger to get him out of there while he and Snape restored order. Jamie refused to just leave until Professor Snape dismissed the dunderheads and guided him back to the staff room. Jamie sat on the sofa numbly as his Gryffindor friends sat beside him, both placing a firm arm around his shoulders. Draco moved behind them and tapped the kid's wrist. "I'll get rid of it now."
Jamie shook his head. "It's just a snake. It's not his fault that everyone freaked out. Apparently it's mine."
Professor Snape looked like he was fighting the urge to reassure Jamie that it wasn't. "Jamie, did you know that you're a parselmouth?"
"I don't even know what that is," Jamie whispered.
"You can talk to snakes," Ron explained.
"Yeah, a snake at the zoo told me that it wanted to see Brazil, but what's the big deal? There must be loads of people here who can do it."
"No, Jamie, it isn't a common gift. The ability to speak parseltongue is very rare. The reason the students reacted badly is because the last wizard to speak the language was Voldemort."
"What?"
"I expect that the scar you received from him came with a piece of his powers, including parseltongue, Jamie. This is a particularly bad time for this particular ability to reveal itself, because the children know that Slytherin himself was a parseltongue."
"They think that I'm the heir of Slytherin."
"It was a thousand years ago," Hermione whispered. "For all we know you could be."
Snape shook his head. "No, that is impossible. James Potter was a descendent of Rowena Ravenclaw and her husband. Her sister, Helga, married Salazar Slytherin, but there is absolutely no blood relation. It might take a while to trace through all the family trees, but I could definitely find proof of it."
"You may have to do that before this is all over, Professor," Draco said grimly. Those Hufflepuffs won't give up this idea, and the Gryffindors have been looking for a reason to target Jamie since they found out about the adoption."
"Gryffindors are loyal," Hermione protested.
"Not to Jamie," Draco said firmly and was surprised when Ron nodded in back up. "Finnegan and Thomas have been causing all sorts of trouble lately. The Weasleys, the quidditch team, Longbottom, and you are the only ones loyal to Jamie anymore."
"This is bad," Ron muttered. "Look, Christmas break is in a week and two days. Maybe the break will cause everything to blow over. We just have to keep a close eye on Jamie until then, and maybe by the time we come back, Dumbledore will have caught the Heir and sent him to Azkaban."
"Here's to wishful thinking," Draco muttered.
-----
The morning after the parseltongue incident, Jamie was eating breakfast with Snape, mildly grumpy because of the early hour, but in a decent state of mind considering the events of the previous night. That changed the instant Jamie opened the letter a barn owl dropped off. The boy paled and turned his frightened green gaze to Snape. When the boy didn't answer his inquiry, the man plucked the piece of parchment from his adopted son's grip.
"Mr. Harry James Potter-Snape, an inquiry has been made on your behalf as to your current living situation with your newly acquired father based on the concerns of the Ministry of Magic and your muggle relatives. A social worker or myself will spend a few hours a day with you over break to insure your welfare. If the concerns are indeed founded, then your muggle relatives will resume guardianship after a formal hearing. Sincerely, Miss Dolores Jane Umbridge. Enclosed is a letter from your aunt, Petunia Dursley, nee Evans."
Snape looked up too late. Jamie was already reading the angry script and visibly shrinking into his chair. "You do not need to read that woman's pack of lies, Jamie. Give it to me." After a moment, Jamie obeyed and placed the half-read letter into his open hand. Snape immediately set both letters ablaze. "Horrible people, the lot of them."
"I'm sorry, sir."
"This is certainly not your fault, Jamie. Put this matter out of your head and let the adults handle it."
"But-"
Snape dropped to his knees so he could look Jamie in the eye. "Jamie, please trust me to take care of this. You're only twelve. Let the adults solve this for you."
Jamie nodded, tears spilling down his face. "Don't let them hurt me again."
"I won't."
-----
Draco was not pleased with the way Hogwarts was reacting to the parseltongue incident. It particularly irritated him that the other three houses had changed their suspect from Draco to Jamie. It didn't help when that idiotic Hufflepuff turned up petrified, along with the stupid ghost that got them all into this mess in the first place. It didn't matter to anyone, even the teachers that Jamie and Draco had been outside playing quidditch, until Hagrid came and spoke up for them. After the giant informed them that he had seen the boys playing quidditch and walked them back up to the castle, the teachers sent Jamie up to the Headmaster's office, and left him to stand with Hagrid staring at the dead rooster, that Hagrid was unconsciously wringing the neck of.
"Um, Hagrid? I think the bird is already dead."
The giant looked down. "Oh, right. Sorry. It's the second one killed this term. Either a fox or a blood-sucking bugbear did it and I need Dumbledore's permission to set up a charm around the coop. I was expelled ya' know. Long time ago. Dumbledore let me stay on as the gamekeeper. Great man, Dumbledore."
"Yeah, er, thanks for speaking up for me and Jamie. Not many people are willing to do that anymore."
"No trouble at all. Well, I guess I'll come see the headmaster later. He'll probably be awhile with Jamie. Keep a close eye on him for me, Dray."
Draco stared after him in confusion. What was it with people calling him that? As a nickname from Jamie, it wasn't too bad, Pansy came up with even worse every day, but since when did the gamekeeper feel close enough to call him that? His entire world was turning upside down just as much as Jamie's was recently and Draco couldn't decide whether he liked it or not.
-----
Snape found Jamie in the third compartment fast asleep, Miss Granger waiting across from him. "I didn't want to wake him," she murmured. "He hasn't been sleeping well according to Ron. The letter from the Dursleys really upset him."
"Thank you, Miss Granger. I'll take him from here. You had better go find your parents."
"Yes, sir."
As soon as the girl disappeared, Snape scooped Jamie into his arms and carried the child off the train and to the taxi. When they arrived, Snape carried him inside and placed him on the couch in the parlor, while he checked the wards. Once satisfied that they were intact, he took his adopted child up to the boy's bedroom and tucked him into the bed. Smoothing the messy jet-black hair back from the pale face, he muttered, "Sleep well, Jamie."
-----
"I'm going to go visit Gladius today. Would you like to come with me?" Severus was surprised as Jamie dropped the book and ran after his cloak. "I guess I'll take that as a yes." When the boy returned, he offered him the floo powder, and Jamie didn't hesitate to throw it in the fire and disappear in the rushing green flame, very different from the nervous boy who had hung on his every word about the new experience of flying through fireplaces. "Wait inside the Leaky Cauldron for me," he warned a moment too late. With a shake of his head he followed to find that the boy had done exactly that.
With a smirk, he led the way to Gladius' and began pursuing the shelves for the potions ingredients that he needed to restock on. He noticed Jamie wave to Gladdius across the store and run to the older man's side. The boy whispered something in the man's ear that Snape could not make out, and the professor had to pretend not to see the absolutely jovial smile gracing his fellow potionsmaster's face. Whatever they were up to was obviously not of the good, but Snape had no desire to squash the first spark of independence that Jamie had shown. Besides, he couldn't remember the last child Gladdius took a liking to. Gladdius didn't dabble in the illegal, so he supposed that it wouldn't harm to let them get away with a bit of mischief. At least it wouldn't involve a broom.
He treated the boy to ice cream cones after the potions shop and managed not to interrogate him about the suspicious behavior he had witnessed earlier. They had just sat down in the heated parlor when the toad-like woman came in and zeroed in on their table. Snape raised an eyebrow. "Good morning, Miss Umbridge."
"We had an appointment!"
"Your letter did not list a time, ma'am. And I thought that the purpose of these visits would be to supervise our normal activities. We had a few errands to run, and Jamie needed to do some last minute Christmas shopping. You're welcome to join us."
She sat down with a huff. "And what are your plans for today, Mr. Snape?"
"I just restocked the potions stores for Hogwarts. I want to take Jamie to Madame Malkins to replace one of his school robes. There was an interesting charms lesson, which permanently altered the color to bright orange, I understand. Then we need to stop at Flourish and Blotts for a new Defense book and a novel that I've been looking for. Then we'll lunch at the Leaky Cauldron, and make a brief stop at Quality Quidditch Supplies. Jamie is Gryffindor's seeker. Did you know that? He's the youngest one in over a century."
"Oh, really? He must have inherited James Potter's talent."
"Yes, he is gifted on the broomstick. Jamie, tell Miss Umbridge about the amazing dive you did last year your first time flying." Snape watched the woman out of the corner of his eyes. They would present no fault, and she would be hard pressed to find one.
-----
Snape found Jamie in his pajamas staring wide-eyed at the Christmas tree, almost in disbelief, as if he had never seen one before. "Merry Christmas, Jamie."
Jamie's eyes snapped up to him. "Merry Christmas, sir."
Snape held out the forgotten blue plush robe and helped Jamie pull it on. "Why don't you start in on those presents? Jitter will wait breakfast until we're ready for it." He sat down on the sofa with his steaming cup of coffee while Jamie knelt in front of the tree and opened the first box, revealing a brand new pair of quidditch boots that were actually his size and made from sturdy black leather. Matching leather gloves and gauntlets were tucked into them.
The pleasure in those green eyes was easily apparent. "Thank you, sir. They're wonderful."
"I'm glad you think so. Try them on. Do they fit?"
"Perfectly."
They didn't get to breakfast until ten-thirty, but spent the morning exchanging gifts and enjoying the pleasant time. Snape was relieved to have purchased adequate things for the boy. Jamie was amazed to have received any presents at all, but obviously pleased with such wonderful gifts. They ate breakfast in a companionable silence, and retreated to their rooms to dress, before meeting in the study for a few rounds of Wizarding Chess. All in all, it was a pleasant Christmas.