Ron was sullen and prickly when they all met up on platform 9 ¾ and he discovered that Harry had stayed at Hermiones meaning that not only were they hanging out without him but that she had gotten to meet the twins and learn all about life as Harry Snape before he did. Hermione pointed out that when Harry had stayed at Rons over the summer she hadn't complained and that they regularly hung out without her.
"Yeah but you didn't actually miss anything. I did, I'd love to have seen Snape acting all fatherly, it must have been so weird!"
"Hey!" Harry warned darkly.
"Sorry" his friend muttered "it's just I'm dying to hear how you got on and it's not going to be the same now when Hermione already knows."
"Honestly Ronald, you can be so childish sometimes." Hermione chastised as they boarded the train.
They settled in an empty compartment towards the end of the train and were just about to get into the details of Harrys holiday hijinks when Ginny appeared asking if they would mind if she joined them.
Ron glared at her wiling her to go away so he could get all the juicy gossip but Harry and Hermione welcomed her warmly, they knew first-hand what it felt like to feel excluded.
About an hour into the journey Draco Malfoy swaggered into their compartment flanked by his brainless minions, Crabbe and Goyle. He seemed to have made it his mission to made sure just about everyone on the train knew he had met charity case Potter shopping with Professor Snape at the start of the holidays.
"Lay off Malfoy" Ron threatened, sticking up for his friend but this only made Malfoy snigger and remark that while Potter might not have any parents to take him shopping at least he could afford the goods unlike the poverty stricken Weasleys. "I have an opening for a groom of the stool – the job is yours if you want it Weaselbag!"
Malfoy laughed haughtily at his own joke. He probably would have said a lot more but Fred and George suddenly appeared at the door with their friend Lee Jordan thus outnumbering the Slytherins and prompting Malfoy and his friends to slink off in silence.
The twins were surprised to see Harry since they had thought he was waiting at Hogwarts for the holidays remarking in confusion that they didn't remember him being on the train when they were going home.
He muttered a quick explanation of how he had had insufficient school supplies and how Dumbledore had insisted he pay a visit to Diagon Alley before he could return home and how he had had the misfortune of having Snape accompany him.
The twins were absolutely horrified at the thought of it, Harry almost laughed thinking about how they would have reacted if they knew the real truth.
It felt weird bad mouthing his father, particularly since Ron and Hermione were prudently keeping very tight lipped, but he had promised he would keep up the pretence that nothing had changed and in the past Harry had been quite vocal about his dislike and distrust of the Potions Master.
It seemed to take forever to get to Hogwarts, Harry was dying to tell his friends more about his new found family but couldn't with so many other students wandering in and out. When they eventually pulled up at Hogsmeade Harry was surprised to realise that he would be traveling to the school in a horseless carriage having only previously made the final leg of the journey by boat.
Severus stared at the clock, it wasn't that the train was late- it was never late, it just felt like the students should have arrived already. It had felt like such a long day. Evan and Lily had been quite downcast over breakfast, missing their brother already and even seemingly disappointed that he himself was also returning to the school. Previously he had always got the feeling that it made no odds to the children whether he was at home or not and if anything were more on edge when he was around.
They had gone out into the grounds for a quick walk together after breakfast. He reminded them of the importance of keeping Harry a secret but promised that he would be bringing him home for good in the summer. He urged them to write to both he and Harry regularly in the meantime and in particular encouraged Evan to share his thoughts on Oliver Twist with him as he read it.
Agathe was waiting for them in the hall when they returned to the house. Severus was happy to see that the children were truly comfortable with her as they both ran to embrace her when they saw her. He had to admit she was quite a pleasant girl.
He invited her along with the house elves and for the first time ever, the children, into his study to speak to them all before returning to school. They discussed his wishes for the childrens care and education in his absence along with his expectations for the general running of the house. He encouraged the twins to enjoy the last semester of their home-schooling and suggested they use the remaining time to explore topics of particular interest to them, magical or otherwise, before moving on to structured formal education. The twins nurse was absolutely astonished at the complete change in his countenance over the course of the holidays. It saddened him to remember the meeting he had held with her just before she left to go home for Christmas. It had been a rather tense meeting where they had discussed the twins academic progress, he had been so rigid about his expectations of them academically that he hadn't really considered what was best for them as individuals as a whole.
Excusing the servants he said his final goodbyes to the twins, taking comfort in the fact that this would be the last time he would have to leave them as they would finally be joining him at the school next year. Kneeling down on the floor before them he threw his arms around them, kissing them on the forehead as he whispered endearments in their ears. He rose wearily, he would have liked to have stayed longer but he was running quite late already. Grabbing his things he apparated to the school gates, the walk up to the castle giving him time to gather his thoughts. He had so much to do before the students returned.
He went about his business in an organised and efficient manner but he struggled to keep his mind on the task at hand. What if something happened to Harry on the way back? He should have just let him use the floo.
When the students finally returned, he found himself frantically searching the crowd of chattering adolescents flooding into the great hall for a sign of Harry despite being mid conversation with Madam Hooch at the time. He imagined Rolanda must think him crazy altogether the way he must have just randomly started smiling at nothing the moment he caught sight of the boy.
Harry too felt a sudden urge to locate out his father the moment he entered the candlelit hall. He spotted him almost immediately sitting in his usual place at the staff table on the dais. Harry thought he saw the faintest hint of a smile flicker across his fathers face as he caught his eye and for the first time ever he understood how some of the other children might feel homesick while away at Hogwarts although in saying that the fact that he could see his father but not interact with him was probably worse than not being able to see him at all
He enjoyed catching up with his friends over dinner. Rons brother Bill had come home for the holidays from Egypt where he was working as a code breaker causing much excitement among the Weasleys while Neville spoke of how his grandmother had taken him on an expedition to the North Pole to meet the great wizard Santa Claus and his vast team of toy making house elves. Thankfully everyone was so intrigued by the Longbottoms travels that no one even bothered to ask Harry how he had spent his Christmas.
Harry woke early the next morning despite it being a Sunday. He considered rousing Ron but decided against it, his friend was likely to be grumpy all day if he had his sleep disturbed.
Grabbing some writing supplies out of his trunk he penned a quick letter to his brother and sister as promised describing his journey back to the school and thanking them once again for being so open to his visit. He then wandered up to the owlery to give the letter to Hedwig.
He found Hermione up and reading by the fireplace when he returned to the common room. She seemed delighted to see him. Beckoning him over, she pointed to a figure in the large dusty tome with an exclamation of fascination at the accuracy of the detail causing strange looks from some of their fellow Gryffindors.
Harry politely muttered agreement despite secretly wondering how on earth she could have such interest in such a boring subject and heaved a sigh of relief as Ron appeared saving him from further discussion on the matter.
The trio went down to breakfast together before going out into the snow covered grounds for a walk. It was cold outside, Hermione suggested a visit to Hagrid but for once Harry didn't want to see Hagrid. He wanted to discuss his place in his new found family with his friends and he could only do that if they could find someplace private to talk and so they continued to walk as his father stood watching from the window in silence. Just a few months ago he had loathed that boy with every fibre of his being and now he couldn't bear to be distanced from him. He suspected they were talking about him as they frolicked about in the snow, and still he longed to join them. He sighed to himself – he was definitely losing his touch.
Ron was still slightly jealous that Hermione had gotten to meet the twins and he hadn't, but he did still have an advantage over her – he knew what it was like to have siblings and so could better understand some of Harrys emotions.
They listened amazed as Harry spoke of the grandeur of his father home and the formality of family life prior to Harrys arrival. In telling his tale, Harry made sure to keep some of his fathers personal revelations to himself but gave his friends enough information so that they could dissect their changing relationship. They thought it astounding that his mere presence could bring about such a change in Snapes countenance and even more peculiarly that it seemed to have had such a dramatic effect on the relationship he had with his other children.
It was surreal to hear Harry speak so fondly of the potions professor and were really glad that their friend seemed happy with the situation now.
Most of the students were dreading the return to classes but Harry Ron and Hermione were excited. The second year Gryffindors had double potions with Snape and the Slytherins first thing on a Monday morning and it would be their first class together since Snape had taken Harry home for the Christmas holidays and they was curious as to whether or not his father would act any differently towards him or the class in general now.
Truth be told Hermione probably would have been excited anyways, she had spent most of Sunday evening reading over Harrys homework to see how hers compared and had already expressed a hope that some of the teachers might have set refresher tests but for Harry it meant an opportunity to spend time in his fathers company and for Ron it offered a chance to witness the new and improved Snape in action.
Less than five minutes into the class they gave up all hope of ever being able to enjoy Potions. Ron threw Harry a questioning look, was he delusional? If anything the professor actually seemed worse than he before. Harry slumped down into his stool, he was sorely disappointed to see his father was completely true to his warning, nothing about Snapes behaviour as Potions Master and head of Slytherin House had changed. He had assigned them the task of preparing the pepper up potion while he began the grueling task of correcting their homework assignments. One by one he called the students up to his desk, oft praising the Slytherins while universally criticising with the Gryffindors. He had an infuriating habit of shuffling the parchment before beginning his corrections so that you never knew when he had reached your essay until he snapped at you. Usually this left Harry feeling quite tense but despite his fathers outward gruffness for the first time ever he already knew his efforts were acceptable and found that he could relax and better apply himself to the art of brewing.
Severus watched his son carefully throughout the lesson, the boys confidence at the cauldron seemed to have increased tenfold over the holidays, he had even managed to prevent Mr Weasley from ruining their concoction by noticing the chunks of stem the careless boy had included when preparing the mint leaves. Having completed his appraisal of Sophie Ropers work he picked up his sons parchment. He already knew it to be a well thought out essay but read over it again allowing himself to determine where Harrys effort ranked in relation to the rest of his class. It was undoubtedly one of the better ones, so much so that he was tempted to mark it outstanding, but would it be ethical to bestow so high a mark on his son when he himself had helped him to perfect it by pointing out its flaws and having him fix them before officially submitting it. In the end he settled for an Exceeds Expectations.
"Potter" he barked impatiently, making a show of summoning his son to his desk.
Poor Harry nearly tripped over himself in his haste to reach him causing Pansy Parkinson to snort at him in jest.
"I am shocked to say your work exceeds expectations Potter, not that my expectations at this level are particularly high of course but I am severely displeased with the effort you have put into your penmanship. I have complained to the headmaster about your writing on countless occasions. It is absolutely atrocious Potter, it is almost completely illegible making it almost impossible to correct your work. I have been forced to make allowances for you in the past but it will not continue. I saw to it myself that you are now in possession of the very best writing materials there are, you can have no excuse, you will be marked as a troll in your next assignment regardless of content if I have to struggle to read it, do you understand?"
The Slytherins sniggered in their seats as Harry blinked at his father, was this really just an act for the class or did he actually find his handwriting illegible? He was so confused.
"Potter!" Snape boomed "Are you even listening to me, I said I will fail you if you do not work on improving your handwriting, do you understand?"
Harry nodded "Yes Sir."
"Sit!" Harry blushed and grabbed his parchment before scurrying back to his seat. Ron and Hermione looked at each other in astonishment before offering Harry a look of sympathy. As Snape turned his attention to the next essay he heard young Mr Finnegan hiss that there was nothing wrong with Harrys writing and that he was an evil bat, he smiled to himself, he was certain his little show would be sufficient at dispelling some of the rumours he had heard about what had prompted his accompanying Harry to Diagon Alley.
Harry was surprised to discover that he had done extremely well in all of his holiday homework assignments, he thought back over the changes his father had made to them and realised that they were all very small inconsequential things that Harry could have noticed and fixed himself if he spent just a little more time perfecting his work. McGonagall had even commended him on the improvement in his handwriting, which coincidently played perfectly into Snapes ploy. Father will be delighted, Harry thought to himself as she awarded him five point for his efforts causing him much frustration when he realised he wouldn't actually have an opportunity to tell his father. A feeling of loneliness washed over him, since that first class where he had so publically ridiculed his penmanship Harry hadn't actually had any interaction with his father at all. Even in their subsequent classes together Snape had somehow succeeded in completely ignoring Harry to the point that Harry had been unable to even make eye contact with him.
That evening Hermione went down to the library to do some background reading for her transfiguration homework. Harry had suggested they join her but Ron was less than keen but eventually after struggling to compile an acceptable essay using just their class notes and the prescribed text book he relented and agreed to go down and join her for her help if nothing else.
As they passed by Moaning Myrtles bathroom they noticed that the place was flooded again and curiosity lead them to go in and investigate. Myrtle was in the throes of a full scale tantrum, yelling about how someone had had the audacity to throw a book at her.
Harry felt sorry for her, her negativity could be rather annoying but she was still an amiable ghost and it wasn't as though she had could have even done anything to instigate the attack as she hadn't even seen who the perpetrator was . The offending book lay open in the middle of the floor; Ron fished it up out of the water warily and turned it over. It was a diary, he grinned at Harry, now this was one book he would be interested in reading – just think of what juicy secrets the pages might reveal! Poor Ron was extremely disappointed as he leafed through it to discover it was completely empty, no wonder someone decided to throw it through Myrtle, what else was it good for? He was about to drop it back down into the pool of water again when Harry took it from him. There was an inscription on the front marking it as the property of a Tom Marvolo Riddle. Ron thought the name sounded familiar but neither of them could picture a student by that name and they were just discussing the peculiarity of both a boy keeping a diary and it ending up in a Girls Toilet when it dawned on them that they too were boys hanging out in a girls toilet, a girls toilet that looked to have been vandalised. Harry stuffed the diary into his book bag and following a final attempt to console Myrtle they left before Filch came along and blamed them for flooding the place.
Hermione couldn't think who Riddle was either but having examined the diary for herself pointed out that it was fifty years old prompting Ron to remember why the name sounded so familiar to him. Homework forgotten they raced across to the trophy room. It seemed Tom Riddle had won an award for special services to the school fifty years ago. It didn't say what those special services were but Hermione postulated that if Riddle won his award in 1943 then there was every possibility that his special service to the school had something to do with the chamber of secrets. They tried multiple spells to try and get the diary to give up its secrets but nothing seemed to work and Ron and Hermione soon lost interest but for some reason Harry felt compelled to keep it.