Author's Note: Ah, and yet another chapter. Enjoy. This chapter has been beta'ed by the amazing, JulzPadfootMoony.
Summary: "...I am not your father. I will not act like your father. I do not care for you, Potter, and I will not be a parent to you..."
...Harry was more than ready to agree with that and nodded as he finished the drink he had been sipping at nervously.
It has been often said that a father and son can overcome anything, that family can overcome anything as long as there is love between them...but what if there isn't love but only hate? In a time of war most rely on their family and friends, but who can Harry rely on when he can't tell his friends that Severus Snape is his father? Especially with how curious they are of his secrets already. It isn't like he has Snape, anyway...to Snape he isn't more than just a burden after all, right? So in his time of need who can Harry turn to? Who can help him as he completes the task that was set on him?
Disclaimer: I own nothing, probably not even the plot considering how many times this plot has been done before...anywho on the fic...
Beta: JulzPadfootMoony
Chapter Twenty One
Reunion
December 8, 1997
With all the excitement after his last Quidditch match – when he had gotten into a fight with Draco Malfoy and he and the Weasley twins had been banned from playing another Quidditch match until this one – Harry had almost forgotten the thrill that came with flying up onto the pitch with all the students sitting in the stands cheering for the team that would benefit their house. He had forgotten in between everything how liberating it was to finally play Quidditch again – how euphoric.
The first motions of the Quidditch game were done quickly without a second thought. Harry, upon shaking Cho Chang's hand, found that while it reminded him of his previous year and his fixation with the Ravenclaw Quidditch captain, it did nothing to how he now viewed her – just another girl.
The whistle had been blown and the match had begun mere minutes before.
"Weasley in possession. Good flyer that girl! Passes to – no, intercepted by Ravenclaw chaser, forgot her name…anyway…."
Harry was flying near the Gryffindor hoops in hopes of spotting the snitch and keeping an eye on the match as well. While the commentary was all well and good, Harry wanted to pay attention to the game himself.
"Gryffindor in possession once again. Passes to Weasley. Weasley passes to Robins. Robins scores and doges bludger. Peakes goes after the bludger. Nice hit towards that Ravenclaw chaser I still have no name for. Come on, who is that girl?"
Harry looked around the field, cursing his glasses and the biting wind. It was what they got for playing a Quidditch game in December, he reasoned, not that November had been much better. He continued surveyi ng the pitch, and then turned to looking at how the team was doing, trying to find anything that he would want to correct for the next game. Ron, he noticed, seemed nervous. There had to be a way to rid him of those nerves. Harry watched one of the Ravenclaw chasers approach.
"…scores! Ten and twenty to Gryffindor! Gryffindor in possession…"
Ginny, on the other hand, seemed the very essence of confidence and practically leading the other two chasers around, even though Katie Bell had been a chaser for longer. The beaters, Cootes and Peakes, Harry was quite glad to admit, were not causing any sort of chaos as they had during their last practice when a bludger had not only hit Ginny, but Ron, and Colin Creevey who had been watching the practice.
"…and Bell scores!"
Harry scanned the field once more, looking for a hint of gold that would lead to end of the game, and the end of him sitting above the hoops, freezing. Harry turned away from the field, towards the stands.
Hermione was sitting with Neville, Dean, and Seamus. Harry's eyes drifted to the Slytherin stands, finding nothing interesting in the Gryffindor ones. He noticed Draco almost at once. He sat with a blanket thrown over his shoulders, which he didn't seem to be using alone; in fact, the same blanket was thrown over the shoulders of a smaller figure to whom Draco was talking to. In fear of getting too curious in what was happening in the stands and forgetting to look for the snitch, Harry ignored the stands and continued his scan of the Quidditch pitch.
Fifteen minutes later, they were up thirty points at fifty. Harry had yet to even catch sight of the snitch, and continued watching the game. He noticed from the corner of his eye that Cho had come to hover over him.
"Haven't really talked to you since last year," Cho said sheepishly. "I'm sorry at how things ended. I was stupid."
Harry shrugged. "At the end I didn't – I don't know…I didn't care, really. I was upset about my godfather more than anything."
"Yeah," Cho said. "I'm sorry about that. He was Sirius Black, right? No one's really sure, but there are rumors."
"That was him," Harry answered.
Cho didn't seem to know what else to say so she remained quiet. They continued looking for the snitch. Cho let out a gasp when one of her chasers nearly ran in to one of the hoops, and then let out a sigh of relief.
"I've told that girl so many times," she said suddenly to Harry. "She never watches where she's going."
Harry laughed. "I never realized how hard it was to be captain until this year," he told her.
"I know what you mean," Cho returned. "I love Quidditch, but it's sometimes just too much responsibility."
Harry didn't respond. His gaze had turned towards the Gryffindors' stands again. He had seen some movement in the crowd and noticed at once that Imy had joined Hermione and was huddled up against her. On her lap was a small shoe box. Harry smiled to himself. The snake had in fact been in hibernation. It had just taken a little research but he had found the signs and then he had showed Imy. Now, she wouldn't let the shoe box out of her sight.
"What's got that smile on your face?" Cho asked. "You can't tell me it's Hermione Granger."
"Hermione?" Harry asked, giving the other seeker a dubious glance. "She's like a sister to me, you know. I love her as a sister, nothing more. She's my best friend."
"Sure," Cho said as if she didn't believe him before flying towards the other side of the pitch. Harry followed her with his eyes, trying to see if she had spotted the snitch. It was quite clear she hadn't when she once more came to stop and continued looking around for the small golden ball.
Harry's hands were cold, so was his nose, and his ears, and his legs for that matter. In fact, he was entirely cold, but he could do nothing about it, even if he dared bring out his wand to cast a warming spell on himself.
Harry reached for his glasses and took them off, glad to note that he could see better now without the plain glass obstructing his vision. He pretended to wipe his glasses on his robes and continued looking around. Nothing. No sight of the snitch. Where could it be? He began to circle the pitch and put his glasses back on, lest someone notice he could see without them.
Gryffindor scored three times while Harry circled the pitch in search of the snitch. He stopped when he was flying right by the Gryffindor stands and from there he looked around. He began to scan the stands again, and saw Snape sitting next to Professor McGonagall, who seemed to be keeping an eye on the commentator, Michael Corner, while holding a conversation with Professor Sinistra. Snape was watching the match attentively and looking, Harry knew, directly at him.
The score was one hundred and fifty to ninety to Gryffindor when Harry spotted the snitch. It was floating off to the side, as if it too were a spectator. No one had seen it. In fact, he too would have missed it if he hadn't swerved out of the way of a bludger. He flew slowly toward it, hoping that Cho wouldn't catch on to the fact that Harry had seen the snitch. And then when he was in close range, he extended out his hand and he caught it. The snitch settled gently into his hand.
"Potter catches the snitch and he wins his team the game!"
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Lucius was restless. He was bored. One could do only so much when he was in hiding. He'd managed to clean the entire house for lack of something better to do, then he had snooped around for anything that might interest him – a locked chest that would take days to open, a book that wanted to eat him alive, a boggart. However, there was nothing interesting to be found in the Most Ancient House of Black.
Lucius entered the library for the third time that day, hoping that something would happen that would change the fact that he was stuck in twelve Grimmauld Place until the day that Voldemort died. How could he have let his spy role come apart so fast? And from what he had heard, it was only a matter of months before Severus Snape was also out of the ranks of Voldemort, and however much it would have pleased him to hear of it before, now Lucius couldn't help but feel a little fear. With no spy, they would be undone and then Potter would be killed and the entire Wizarding world would collapse under the tyranny of Lord Voldemort. He could picture it all in his head, the Ministry falling apart, Hogwarts becoming home to Voldemort, and the Order destroyed, left in only the memories of those that had lived to see them fall.
Lucius shuddered. Maybe there was something that he could do. Maybe he should try to get back to Voldemort, but it would be hard. It would be torture—literally. Lucius shifted his feet. He could very well die if he went back, and that wouldn't help the Order, especially if they extracted information about the Order from him. He had to go about it in a certain way, but he was almost sure he could do it. He had done it before, and he could do it again. He was Lucius Malfoy, after all, and what wasn't he but an opportunist according to everyone that knew him?
Lucius took a deep breath and walked to the books. He would find something, a story, a cover up. He'd have to make it good. He could begin with using Nott.
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A smirk was splayed out across Faye's face as she lounged in a richly decorated room. She was lying in the middle of the room, atop a garish carpet, her head supported by her arms, which had been folded behind her head. She was staring at the pale white ceiling.
It was alright to just sit back and do nothing, without the worry that Voldemort would be calling for her so he could use her as an example during a meeting. She had to be very thankful for Severus Snape. She had expected for some time that the man was a spy, but she hadn't really given that much more thought for fear that Voldemort would see it in her mind, not that she wasn't good at Occlumency. In fact, keeping her thoughts to herself had become a natural gift after a few months of being with the Dark Lord.
Faye let out a small hum before sitting up. She crossed her legs and bit her lip. She had to get something to do. She knew it would be only a few days before she was sent to Order headquarters to record everything she knew about Voldemort. There had just been a bit of trouble with the warding the first time they had attempted to take her there, so she was staying put in one of the other safe houses the Order owned. However, in this one, she was not allowed to use her magic because that would give them her location.
"Faye!"
Faye jumped to her feet and walked to the door, throwing it open and walking down the corridor to the Parlor where she knew Tonks had come out.
"Wotcher," Tonks said the moment she saw her, followed by, "I don't have much time. I actually had to be back ten minutes ago, but Kingsley won't miss me – I hope. Anyhow, I'm just supposed to take you to twelve Grimmauld Place. The wards reacted earlier than we hoped, and anyhow, we think He's trying to find you."
Faye nodded quickly. "I'll gather my few belongings."
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Harry laughed as he stepped into the Gryffindor common room. The rest of the Quidditch team was behind him, and he noticed that the rest of the house had simply been waiting for them to arrive from the changing rooms, even though it was quite obvious that they had started a small celebration the moment they had gotten back into the common room.
The Quidditch team walked farther into the room and all went to their respective friends and corners of the room. Harry stood in the middle of the room, looking around. He found it almost amusing that Ron and Lavender had already managed to curl up together with two butterbeers, but he knew better than to disturb them. It was the best thing that had happened to his best friend and he wouldn't bother him about it. He searched for Hermione and found her in the most remote location in the common room with Imogen.
He walked towards them, past congratulating house mates, and then sank into the nearest chair.
"Great game, Harry," Hermione said.
"It was quite boring, actually," Harry admitted.
"How?" Imy asked. "I thought it was right exciting, but then, I've never seen a Quidditch game. Was there supposed to be more to it?"
Harry shrugged. "Not really. It was just that the snitch was, I don't know, bored or something. It just wasn't up to flying around and making a sport of catching it. It was just sitting there and practically flew into my hand. It was an easy win, really."
Hermione laughed. "Only you would complain on not winding up in the infirmary like things usually tend to happen," Hermione said.
Harry grinned at her. "Well, there is that plus side." To himself, he added that it was a good thing because it could have made any changes that hadn't happened yet to his appearance.
They spent the next half hour talking about nothing and Harry found he quite enjoyed it. He hadn't done anything like that with his friends in a while, but he was getting tired of the noise around him.
"Could you cover for me, Hermione?" Harry asked. "I can't stand being here anymore. It isn't the company. It's just everything."
"Was it Cho?" Hermione asked. "I saw you talking. You've been acting odd all evening. You haven't exactly acted beatific either; not at all as if you just won the first Quidditch match of the year."
Harry rolled his eyes. "I guess – I don't know – I think I realized today how unimportant Quidditch is. Now come on, Hermione; I just need to go out for a walk. I don't think the rest of them would appreciate that."
"Harry," Hermione said. "I'm not stupid. You're going to meet someone, aren't you? You've been meeting someone since the school year began. You aren't gone as much as you were at the beginning, but…Ron and I talked about this. He told me you were gone just a few days ago, and frankly, Harry, I'm worried about you. You can't have been with Remus or Dumbledore until five in the morning, and I doubt even Snape would make you stay with him so long at your so called tutoring lessons. I need you to tell me the truth."
Harry didn't know if he should even bother answering her. "Fine," he said at last. "Don't bother covering for me. Just tell Ron I went to walk around the lake."
"It's freezing out!" Hermione said.
"It was rather cold," Imy put in. She hadn't said much throughout the entire thing and instead had been looking at her snake.
Harry smiled at her. "Sorry, Imy," Harry said. "I just need some time alone."
"I can understand that," Imy said.
Harry smiled at her. "At least someone understands me."
Hermione snorted. "Harry, you do not see what I see. You do not see your best friend completely changed not only in appearance but in the way you act. The things you say sometimes..."
"Look," Harry said. "You wouldn't understand Sirius dying. You wouldn't understand what happened this summer."
"Then tell me," Hermione said, practically begging.
"I can't."
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"What are you doing down here? I would have thought you would be celebrating with your friends."
"Well, that's the thing," Harry said. "I'm just not in the mood. I don't know." Harry shrugged and took a seat. "I explained to Hermione earlier that Quidditch seems to not have become as important as I once thought it was."
Severus said nothing to Harry's assessment and instead stood up. "Would you like something to drink?"
"Hot chocolate would be nice," Harry said, absentmindedly. He stared at the fire, while Snape went into the kitchenette.
He was still staring at the fire when his father came back and handed him a mug of hot chocolate. Harry wrapped his hands around the black mug and held the warm drink in his hands for a while, before lifting it to his lips to take a little sip. It was then that the fire turned green and Dumbledore stepped out into the room without so much as asking permission to come through. Behind him came Remus Lupin who, Harry noted, looked sick. Then again, the full moon was in two days and he was bound to look terrible.
"Ah, Harry," Dumbledore said, surprised to find him there. "I did mean to have a meeting with you before the holidays, but I am afraid that once more I must post-pone our meeting. After the holidays would be best, I believe."
Harry nodded. He had been wondering when Dumbledore would let him know more about Voldemort, as well as a number of other things that he had said he would share with Harry.
"The warding has finally worked," Dumbledore said, addressing Snape. "Tonks will be taking her to twelve Grimmauld Place as we speak. Is she truly to be trusted? Lucius is there."
Harry had no idea what they were talking about, but for fear of being told that he had to leave, he asked no questions.
"I did not question her, as you well know, but Ms. Tonks most likely did. It was her job, after all. She also does not have the Mark and added to that, she is not the spy type."
Remus rolled his eyes. "Neither was Lucius Malfoy, or Peter Pettigrew."
"Well, she'll be fine with Lucius, then," Snape snapped at the lycanthrope.
Harry couldn't help speaking up then. "Who are you talking about?" He asked.
"On Halloween, I met a very interesting woman," Snape said cautiously. "She has been a prisoner of the Dark Lord, or rather his followers, for the past sixteen or so years. She escaped with another Death Eater. He suffered for his mistake with his life, but she is finally free from the Dark Lord. She could not enter twelve Grimmauld Place for some reason so she was put in one of the safe houses. She could not use any of her magic there, however."
Harry frowned. "And now she can? How will Malfoy react to having a house mate? I mean, could he have seen her before? What if she hates him for maybe hurting her?"
No one had an answer to that. It seemed like they just had to wait until Tonks told them what happened from the first meeting.
Dumbledore and Remus left a few minutes later, and Snape stood up almost as soon as they had left.
"I think, Harry, it is time I go back to check on some potions that have no doubt had enough time simmering."
Harry laughed. "Is that your subtle way of saying that you're tired of me and wish me to leave?"
"On the contrary," Snape said. "I simply felt that sitting around talking about practically nothing might be improved upon by working on some potions. In fact, I think I feel like experimenting today. I think I know your abilities well enough that we could create something, after all that healing foam that came of the first potion disaster in your class is actually quite good."
Harry grinned. Snape rolled his eyes. Harry stood up and dropped his empty mug on a table before following Snape to his private lab.
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Lucius Malfoy had just finished writing his letter and had waved his wand to dry the ink when he heard the Floo come to life. He hadn't expected anyone to arrive at the house for another few days as Dumbledore had explained. Apparently, he wasn't the only protégé of the Order at the moment.
He turned and saw Tonks step out. She looked harried and more than a little fatigued.
"Good afternoon, Miss. Tonks," Lucius said. "And what brings you here on this day?"
Tonks rolled her eyes at him. "Just Tonks, Lucius," she informed him. "And I am not here for a social visit. I'm just dropping off Faye. I trust you can show her to a room and accommodate her? I have to be at the Ministry of Magic – had to be there fifteen minutes ago, actually."
Lucius was silent. He said nothing to even acknowledge that he had heard much more than the first sentence, instead he was staring out into space as if he were lost in some memory.
"Faye what?" He asked after having regained his voice.
"Malfoy, isn't it?" A voice said from behind Tonks.
Lucius turned to look at her and gasped. "It can't be," he muttered and shook himself. "It just can't be."
"You know each other," Tonks said surprised. "I certainly didn't expect that. Ah, well, you'll get on even better, then. Ah, I have to go. I'll be back later tonight. I do believe Dumbledore wanted to have a meeting." She seemed to want to say something more, but chose to not say a thing and instead turned to the fire and stepped into it, throwing in a handful of Floo powder.
"Faye," Lucius breathed.
"Lucius," She said back looking amused, before a painful look crossed her features, but that changed again into concern before her face showed no emotion at all. "I've wondered for years, if I would ever see you again; if I would see my Dragon. How – how is he?"
"They've told me he is well. Draco isn't exactly aware that I am here, but Severus mentioned that he is doing well. There is all the pressure of having been told that he must kill Dumbledore, though, and Severus can't – " Lucius stopped. "I guess there is so much you don't know."
She nodded slowly. "Lucius – "
"I know," he said and crossed the room to her side. "I know," he whispered. "You don't have to say it. I missed you, too."
"My pureblood prince," she murmured.
"My beautiful Mudblood."
Author's Note: Right, well...to my first happy news...I have finally finished writing this fanfic...and it is exactly 35 chapters long. So just fourteen more chapters left of this fanfic. I plan on starting the sequel this weekend and hopefully getting it all together. Lately I've been working on a memoir and transformation poetry...
Anyway, I know most of you had guessed who Faye was...so guess for those of you who didn't find it that clear...Faye is Draco's mom. A muggle born that Lucius fell for, whom is the reason he switched sides...I think Severus hinted at that when talking about Lucius...of course Draco is not aware that Faye is his mother but is under the assumption that Narcissa is his mom...and finally Lucius and Faye are together again...their story will come up in the sequel...
Anyhow, thanks for all the reviews...and please keep them coming! I love hearing from you guys and of course responding...questions are always welcome. Enjoy!
Updating Saturday...maybe Friday if I get enough time to...
-Erika