***Note*** So for anyone that is triggered by child abuse, there is going to be talk of Harry's home life with the Dursleys. Just warning you know, it is way worse what I did to him then the books. Please skip this chapter for those who are sweet and sensitive and easily upset. Don't hate me but it is integral to the story.

Chapter 35

Severus summoned more chairs and they sat down. After finding his cubs, Remus sat close to Harry and Hermione.

"So, Severus, when did this all start?" Minerva asked.

"The day I had my second year Slytherin and Gryffindor's test the Heritage Potion."

"So why did you need to test young Miss Weasley?" She asked.

"Well, we f…Minerva, how did you know we tested Miss Weasley?"

"I may ha' slipped inta the lab with tha children that night," Minerva said in embarrassment.

Remus and the children watched in amusement as Severus stared down the Deputy Headmistress.

"Really and you just so happened to be wondering down in the dungeons in your Animagus form that night out of boredom?" he drawled, voice full of sarcasm.

Minerva squirmed a little in her seat. She was embarrassed by her behavior in sneaking around believing a colleague was up to no good. "I saw the children leaving a couple of times after curfew and thought I should check to see what was going on."

"Really?"

"Aye, they are all too big to share the invisibility cloak. It doesn't cover them completely."

Severus pinched the bridge of his nose in frustration. Damn the old cat. Now they needed to teach them the disillusionment charm to use in conjunction with the cloak.

"Very well, this is getting us nowhere."

"Spill Severus," Minerva said. "Tomorrow the children will return, and Remus will need his potion."

"That's right," Hermione said. "The wolfsbane potion."

"How did you know?" Remus asked in surprise.

"Well, I looked up Fenrir Greyback and found out that he was a werewolf. Since you are my other parent, I'd deduced that you'd be one as well. Then Ginny confirmed it for us."

"You're okay with this?" he asked in surprise.

"Well, you're a person that is a wolf only once a month for the three days of the full moon. You're still human," Harry said to him.

"You two are amazing," Remus said she ruffled their hair.

"How come Hermione doesn't change?" Ron asked.

"Oh Ronald," Hermione said rolling her eyes. "You need to read more."

Harry snickered at the affronted look on Ron's face.

"The virus that causes lycanthropy is only passed through the saliva when it comes in contact with an open wound or through being bitten and even then, only in wolf form. To be a born werewolf, the pair must mate in wolf form and then the offspring must be born while the werewolf is in wolf form as well," Severus told them.

Ron scrunched up his brow, thinking on what he had just been told. "I'll take your word on it, Professor," Ron said as the thought of the two mating in wolf form made him feel ill.

They all burst out laughing. Sobering up, Severus proceeded to fill Remus and Minerva in on what they had learned since that fateful day in Potions. Remus' eyes flashed gold when he heard of Lily's betrayal, then again at the recounting of what they had learned from Ginny.

"So, what now?" Remus asked. "He may not be Harry, but he's still my cub."

"Understood, seeing how you were the friend of the Potters, this will allow you to spend time with Harry and by extension his friends. So, this will allow for you to get to know your cubs," Severus said to him.

Hermione was pleased. She had been relieved to find out that her adoptive parents had not been Dumbledore's cohorts and now she will be able to get to know one of her biological parents. She hoped that once this was all settled, to be able to meet her other father. Minerva nodded in agreement. All these years she had looked up to Albus and to see proof of his betrayal coupled with what she heard, brought home some hard truths. Now she needed to pretend that she still was the same follower as always. Hopefully, they could bring him down soon.

Severus was relieved that he had Minerva on their side. He would have hated to have to obliviate her if she had chosen to disregard what she had heard and the proof he'd shown her.

"Well, we do need to think of what we are going to do for Harry for the summer," Hermione said.

"Why?" Ron asked. "Summer is months away."

"Well, we do need to have a plan in place. Summer isn't that far away. Winter holidays end tomorrow and it's already early January. School ends in June, so with the planning to get rid of the Headmaster, we need to keep Harry from going back to the Dursleys'. You had to rescue him from them just, so he could come back to school. There were bars on his window, remember?"

"Yeah, and the twins had to pick multiple locks on his door. There even was some sort of flap at the bottom of it. His school things were locked away too."

Harry squirmed in his seat as the three adults listened to the small bit of his home life with the Dursleys' was revealed. He shrank in into his chair at the thunderous look on his Head of House's face and Professor Snape didn't look any better, he looked positively murderous.

"I told the fool they were the worst sort of Muggles," she said darkly.

"Indeed," Severus said smoothly. "And pray tell Mr. Potter, what else do we need to know on how they treat you?" He asked the trembling boy.

"Um, well," he whispered.

"You can tell us, Harry," Hermione told him as she grabbed one of his trembling hands and gave it a gentle squeeze.

"Come on cub, tell us so we can help you," Remus said to him softly as he stroked his hair to calm him.

"Yeah mate, I'll get the twins to prank them good," Ron said.

Harry took a deep breath and proceeded to tell them about his life at the Dursleys.

"For as long as I can remember, the Dursleys have always hated me. I was always called Freak or Boy. I didn't know my name until I started primary school. I was kept in the cupboard under the stairs since I could remember, that was my room until I was eleven. I was never treated as part of the family. Anytime there was a birthday, a party or during the holidays; I was shunted into my cupboard. I was made to do all the chores since I was five and I did the cooking once I was tall enough to reach the cooker." He paused to wipe the tears from his face. Remus wrapped an arm around him and Harry gratefully took the offered comfort. He didn't remember the man, but he made him feel safe.

"If my chores weren't completed for the day, I was thrown into my cupboard with no food. I've never gotten a birthday present or a Christmas gift before I started Hogwarts. If they go on holiday, they leave me with Mrs. Figg who lived on another street. The one time I got to go to the zoo, that turned into a disaster."

"What happened Harry?" Minerva asked.

"So I got a lemon pop because they didn't get away from the ice cream stand fast enough. When Dudley had a tantrum that his knickerbocker glory didn't have enough ice cream, I got to finish it. It all went down hill when we got to the Reptile House, so I was talking to the snake when Dudley shoved me to the floor. The glass to the snake's tank disappeared and Dudley fell in. His friend told Vernon that I was talking to it. I was kept in my cupboard and only allowed out for school and chores."

"Oh Harry," Remus said and dragged the boy into his lap for a hug.

"So why were there bars on your window, Mr. Potter?" Severus asked.

"Because of my Hogwarts letter, I was given Dudley's second room. Summer was going okay since I never told them that I wasn't allowed to use magic out of school. Then a house elf showed up and used magic in the house. He dropped a pudding on Vernon's potential clients head, then an owl came in with the letter about "my" underage use of magic. When he found out I can't use magic, he locked me away."

Remus rocked him gently in his arms. His poor cub. Hermione refused to let Harry's hand go. She always wondered why he was smaller than the other boys his age, being deprived of food as punishment was stunting his growth. Ron shook his head and moved to Harry's abandoned chair and awkwardly patted his friends back. He felt guilty that he envied his friends fame. He like everyone else thought he was pampered, at least until he saw the bars and locks. No wonder he was so happy at the burrow.

Severus felt the acid taste of guilt on his tongue. The way he had treated the poor boy. Part of it he knew was because of Albus Dumbledore and part of it was him being vindictive and petty over a dead man. He knew that the Dursleys' were dead when the Dark Lord returned, once the truth on how the boy-who-lived was treated by those Muggles.

"Oh Severus, we need to get him out of there," Minerva whispered tearfully. This was all Albus' fault, she was tempted to march to the tower and hex him into the afterlife.

"I might have a beginning of one," he said with a smirk. The other five in the room perked up at his words.

"Well, I know we can't just kill them as much as I believe they deserve it. What would happen if a certain salacious reporter for the Daily Prophet got word of what was happening in the school and at the Dursleys?"

Remus smirked in understanding. "There'd be an outcry from the public. They may even drag Dumbledore into it."

"Especially if word leaked out that he was the one to leave him there in just a blanket on the step with a note," Minerva said with a feral grin. Returning the grin, they all began to plot on the start of Dumbledore's downfall.

***Note*** Hopefully this makes up for not posting as regularly.