Author's note: This is one of my favorite chapters.
Chapter 38 – Head Check
After hearing Severus speak about the number of missing boys in Slytherin that year, Poppy decided to take the initiative and put together a meeting between herself and the four Hogwarts house heads. Severus and Minerva had agreed to leave Dumbledore out of it, meaning that they had needed a meeting place, preferably a neutral one. It had been for that reason alone that she had offered to hold the meeting in her office.
"Sorry it's a bit cramped, but this was too important to let go while we searched for a better place," Poppy said apologetically, after passing out mugs of hot tea to each of the four professors.
She had thoughtfully provided a stool for Filius, knowing how he hated sitting under everyone, as he often had told her in other meetings. Being of rather short stature herself, she understood the feeling to a degree.
"I know you wouldn't have called us all together like this unless it was an emergency," Pomona said with a sigh.
"And Albus?" Filius asked in an unusually tremulous voice.
Poppy saw Minerva and Severus glance at each other, but she decided to answer his question before letting them get into a mess.
"I have certain reason to believe that Albus is either involved or is merely aware of what's happening and is simply not doing anything about it," she said gravely.
"And what is this it that you are referring to, Poppy?" Pomona asked bluntly.
"Are all of you aware of the disappearance of two second year boys that occurred more than two weeks before Christmas?" Poppy put the question to all of them although she only needed to hear from Sprout and Flitwick.
"I wasn't sure if it had been deemed an actual disappearance yet," Filius said, peering closely at her.
"It certainly isn't anymore," Severus said harshly.
She shot him a glare but did not reprimand him for his interruption; knowing full and well that the man did not grieve well.
"What has happened?" Pomona asked; her eyes wide with trepidation.
She glanced at Severus but he irritatively waved her on.
"They are no longer missing. Ron Weasley mysteriously made his way back by floo into one of Minerva's classes in an extremely disheveled manner," she paused and raised a hand to Minerva who looked ready to interrupt. "I know that the description does not do the boy's condition justice, but I thought I would let you explain that more in depth later." Poppy looked at the woman in questioning, but Minerva merely closed her mouth and nodded her head in agreement.
"And the other boy?" Filius looked curiously at her and then surprisingly at Severus. "He is a Slytherin, is he not?"
Poppy looked at Severus, certain that there would be an explosion of some sort, but the man was resolutely staring at her desktop, his jaw clenched tightly.
"Was," came a soft voice to the man's left.
Filius and Pomona looked at Minerva in surprise at her answering for the Slytherin head of house, knowing full and well that theirs was a historically unhappy relationship.
"Unfortunately, Minerva is correct. At a little after four this morning, Hagrid came across the desiccated remains of Blaise Zabini, just outside the anti-apparition line."
Her announcement was met with gasps of disbelief from both Filius and Pomona.
"Have you yet heard from the child's mother?" Minerva asked gently in their silence.
"No," Poppy answered simply.
"The aurors have been attempting to locate her since this morning, correct?" Severus asked in a strained voice.
She looked at the man as he fought to keep control over his emotions.
"Correct," she said, looking sadly at him. "No one has seen her for more than a week, and she apparently did not tell anyone of her departure."
Severus nodded his head stiffly at her words, unsurprised at her news.
"What I need now is to know if any of you have any other unreported missing students." Poppy asked in a stern tone to the four professors sitting before her in a stony silence.
"Mine are all accounted for, but it is yet to be seen how the youngest Weasley boy will fare," Minerva said soberly.
"There are two fifth year boys who have been missing since mid-November," Filius said hesitantly a moment after Minerva finished speaking.
"Thank you for letting us know, Filius," Poppy said gravely.
They sat in uncomfortable silence until Pomona finally looked up from across the table.
"There are also two boys missing from Hufflepuff," she said slowly. "One boy is a sixth year, while the other boy is only a fourth year," she said, looking away painfully.
"Severus, will you explain the situation in Slytherin as it currently stands?" She asked the man when it seemed that he would never speak.
Severus looked up into her eyes with pain sketched clearly across his face.
"I am sorry that I must ask you to further discuss this, but even I don't know the full details," she said apologetically.
He sighed and then sat up with new resolve.
"Until early this morning, there were six boys missing from Slytherin," he said, ignoring the loud gasp opposite the table from him. "Now there are five missing boys and one murdered child," he said coldly. "Of the five boys that are still missing, one is a second year, two are fifth years, and the other two are sixth years."
"Have you informed their parents?" Pomona asked with an accusatory edge in her voice.
"The second year's parent is relieved to be rid of him," he said, turning in his chair to sneer at her cruelly. "Of the other four, two of their sets of parents are very worried and I have been in near constant contact since October, when the boys apparently disappeared together. As for the remaining two boys, each has at least one parent in Azkaban and largely claims Hogwarts as their only home."
He stared furiously at the woman until she looked away in discomfort.
"So yes, I have informed their parents, as much as is possible," he stated bitterly, finally turning back to reaffix his eyes onto the tabletop, crossing his arms tightly as he did so.
"Severus, thank you for helping us all to better understand," Poppy said respectfully.
And so it went.
Minerva gave details onto the Weasley boy's incredible entrance into her classroom, and relayed them the boy's statement preceding Hermione Granger's unconscious slump.
"Has he said anything since being admitted to the infirmary?" Filius asked.
You mean, other than "Fuck you"?
"No," she said, not caring to mention Molly Weasley's presence without her permission. Poppy had nothing on Molly in full wrath mode, and she knew it.
They all agreed that for the next upcoming term, there would be a new advisement that students should only proceed across the castle grounds in groups of three or more, since all of those who had disappeared had done so by ones or twos.
After adjourning, Poppy turned to Severus and asked, perhaps in a louder voice than necessary, whether or not he was going to inform the other professors about Lee before the beginning of term. He looked at her with annoyance before the inevitable occurred.
"Severus, who is Lee? Is that a student here?" Pomona asked with undisguised curiosity.
"Just think Severus, this way the boy doesn't have to explain to all of his teachers during the first week back," Poppy said sweetly, skillfully ignoring the glower he was focusing pointedly towards her.
When Severus turned to look at the other professors, Poppy was relieved to see that the dark expression had lightened somewhat.
"Lee is my son," Severus said shortly. Unsurprisingly, the Ravenclaw and Hufflepuff heads gasped together once more.
"I wasn't aware—," Pomona started out apologetically, but Severus waved her explanation away agitatedly.
"I adopted the lad over the Christmas holidays," Severus explained.
Poppy looked at him imploringly until the man finally acceded with a long suffering sigh.
"Upon being adopted, he asked me shortly thereafter if he could change his name—his entire name, as it turned out. We discussed his reasons for it and I agreed. His surname is now the same as mine, and he chose his own first and middle names."
"What was his name before the adoption?" Filius asked, tilting his head to gaze into Severus's face.
Severus looked at Poppy, a clear 'do I have to do this?' message on his face. Resisting the urge to smile at the discomfited man, she nodded her head.
"Prior to being adopted, the lad went by 'Harry Potter.'"
…
Severus knew that their shocked silence wouldn't last long, and he wasn't wrong.
They both exclaimed simultaneously at him, arguing that he had no right, that he had no experience with raising a child—that one he silently agreed with, but mostly their statements focused on why he felt it necessary to take him out of the home he had been in the majority of his life.
That one they—he and Poppy—could tackle easily; it was just a question of whether they should. How much did the others really need to know? If it were up to him, he would rather they know nothing about his son's former life, however, he knew that wouldn't be enough.
"It was necessary to remove him from his home for his own protection," Poppy interjected into the conversation.
"Surely Albus would have done that himself if he had felt there was a need!" Pomona argued vehemently.
"And that is exactly why I do not trust him anymore," Severus said with an icy edge to his voice. "He knew that the situation was not how it should have been, but he only stood by and did nothing, while my son suffered the consequences!" He barked angrily at them. "He has the mental and physical scars to prove it too!" He growled, trying to rein himself back in.
They were staring at him wide eyed in shock from his outburst.
And this is why I did not plan to tell them anything, he thought vindictively.
"Severus," Filius said slowly, "are you aware that you just referred to him as your 'son'?"
"He is," Poppy said in his silence.
"Lee only trusts Severus," Minerva said, looking at Poppy as she spoke the other woman's words back at her.
"I'm sorry, I cannot help but thinking of the two of you from last year. What changed?" Pomona asked him quietly.
"I promised to protect him, and thus far in his life, I'm the only one who has ever come through on such an assurance," Severus said heavily, his anger slowly being usurped by the image of his son pleading with him not to ever leave him.
"He is my child and I am his father, and I mean to do right by him. Now if you will excuse me, it is his bedtime, and I must go tuck him in," he said, quickly stalking out the office, knowing yet again what their responses were likely to be.
…
Lee sat on his bed in his pajamas waiting for his father to come back from the meeting. Jimmy had been talking to him for most of the evening about different ways of looking at things, but he had stopped when he had noticed Severus walking down a hallway near their quarters.
"How's he look now?" Lee asked out loud into the empty space.
"The closer he gets here, the more he smiles." Jimmy said happily.
Lee laughed out loud at the image.
"I wonder what happens when a student sees him," he said with a giggle.
"Oh that's the best part. He just keeps smiling, and then they run," Jimmy said with a scornful laugh of his own.
Lee was still giggling at the idea when he heard the door open and the sound of Severus's footsteps walk in.
"Here he comes, night Lee," Jimmy whispered.
Then Severus walked into his room just as Jimmy had promised he would.
"Hi," Lee said with a grin.
Severus grinned a soft smile back at him, before making his way over to the bed and sitting down next to him.
Lee wrapped his arms around him in a tight hug, glad to see him come back as always. He smiled to himself as Severus hesitated for a split second—like always—before returning the hug, giving as good as he got.
When they finally disengaged, Severus kept his arm around the boy, and Lee continued to revel in the warmth and safeness he felt when he was around the man.
"Jimmy says you were scaring kids tonight," he said with a tiny giggle.
"That's unusual?" Severus asked back in mock surprise.
"I think you should go into all of your classes the first week back and smile the whole class period. It'd be good exercise for those muscles," he said with a wiggle of his eyebrows. "After all, even if they complained, how would that come across? I didn't like it because he smiled at me?" Lee said, bursting into a stream of giggles.
"Hmm," Severus said as though really contemplating the ridiculous concept.
Unfortunately, a yawn worked its way out of Lee's mouth then, breaking into their lighthearted banter.
"I think that's a sign," Severus said, raising his own eyebrows to emphasize the point.
"You gonna tuck me in?" Lee asked, knowing the answer, but wanting to hear it again.
"Have you brushed your teeth?"
"Uh huh," Lee said with another yawn.
"You did not need to show me. I believed you," Severus said cheekily.
He groaned and lightly slapped Severus's arm.
"So are you?" He asked, looking carefully up at Severus.
"And kiss you goodnight, as always child," Severus said looking fondly down at him.
He quickly scurried under his covers, making sure not to accidentally squish Lillian on the way. He found her down by his feet and pulled her up to nestle next to his neck, where she would be more comfortable.
"I believe that Lillian has already increased in length," Severus said, eyeing the purple and yellow snake carefully.
"But still little, right?" Lee asked him, suddenly aware that he wasn't talking about her.
"Still little," Severus said with a careful nod. "She still needs to be protected and taken care of," Severus said, specifically looking Lee in the eye as he spoke.
Lee nodded his understanding solemnly while watching his father carefully tuck in the blankets around him, in an effort to keep out the ever present chill of the dungeons while he slept. He stayed still as his father also delicately removed his glasses and placed them safely next to the bed.
Then he snuggled into the bed covers more firmly, his mind already wandering on the path that led to dreamland.
"Severus?" He asked sleepily.
"Child?" The man responded softly.
"'Member when we went and got my glasses?" He asked, barely able to keep his eyes open.
"Yes," Severus said, laying a warm hand on his head and softly stroking his fingers through the boy's hair.
As always, that took his attention away for a second while he leaned unconsciously into the touch, a blissful expression on his face.
"And you took my hand in the hallway?" He was finally able to say, as the outside world began disconnecting around them.
"Yes?" Severus asked calmly.
"That was 'cause you didn't want to lose me, right?" He asked distantly, his eyes no longer fighting to stay open.
"Correct. You are far too precious to me to be lost," Severus said, leaning over and softly kissing the boy's head.
Lee smiled at his words just as sleep finally overtook his body.
Severus stayed by the bedside until he was sure that the boy was indeed asleep, and it was only then that he stood and walked back out into the hallway, shutting the door softly as he went.