Chapter 14 Coming Home

Severus was unprepared for the emotions that came with being Harry Potter's guardian. The first Quidditch match had been bad enough, but the boy's broom had been cursed. The second match had been something else entirely. If he'd been hurt it would have been his own fault, a consequence of his own blasted recklessness. Severus was sure he'd see the image of Harry careening toward the ground in his nightmares for weeks to come.

As much as he'd wanted to yell at the boy and punish him when it had happened, somehow seeing Harry and his reaction had changed his mind. It had dawned on him that the boy had never had anyone to depend on before. Just as Severus did not know how to be a guardian, Harry did not know how to have one. They would both have to give each other some space, or this arrangement would end disastrously before it had even begun. So he had let the incident go.

Between trying to find out what Quirrell was up to and the general increase in business that came with the spring term, he had less time to spend with Harry than he would have liked. He also had the sneaking suspicion that the boy and his little friends were up to something. No matter where he went, they seemed to be sneaking around in places where they had no business being.

The boy had developed an inexplicable friendship with the groundskeeper Hagrid. Severus had nothing against the childlike half-giant. He wasn't necessarily bad company for the boy. He was certainly cuddlier than the boy's Potions master guardian. Since Severus knew he kept all manner of strange creatures in his wooden hut near the edge of the Forbidden Forest, he determined that Harry and his friends probably found the man's company irresistible. For the meantime, Severus decided he was fine with that. Hagrid was better company than Quirrell any day.

"Hagrid told us that there are unicorns in the forest," Harry said suddenly one day as he was helping Severus prepare potions ingredients.

They were in Severus's private lab. He had been training Harry how to prepare the ingredients to his exacting standards, and even allowed the boy to assist when he made sample potions for his classes. He never let him near the dangerous brews, and he had threatened dire consequences for not following orders to the letter, but so far Harry seemed thrilled to be near his guardian. Severus found himself enjoying the company. He never would have admitted it had anyone asked. Previously he had basked in the solitude of his Potions lab in the evenings.

"Indeed," Severus murmured, adding a precise amount of powdered bicorn to his brew.

"Yeah," Harry said, carefully pulling the petals off the daisy he was holding and adding it to the pile in front of him. "I mean, I knew that they existed, you know. That they're real and all. I just didn't know they were here at Hogwarts. Don't you think it'd be cool to see one?"

"It is highly unlikely that you will see one anytime soon," Severus told him as he stirred his potion while carefully counting the rotations of the stirring rod in his head. "For one thing, they do not tend to like humans, especially the male of the species. Hagrid is likely an exception. He usually is where these things are concerned." Severus stopped stirring and put the rod down on a cloth. He looked at Harry sternly. "And you would do well to remember that the forest is forbidden for a reason."

"Yes, Sir," Harry said dutifully. "But it would be so cool to see a unicorn!"

With an exasperated sigh, Severus turned back to his potion. After a few minutes, he looked up at Harry. The boy was finishing with the daisies and seemed to have forgotten about unicorns. It was as good a time as any to bring up the issue he had wanted to ask him about.

"Harry," Severus began. "What are your plans for the break?"

The boy turned his head quickly, not having expected the question. Easter break was still several weeks away. The teachers and staff alike kept busy with regular school activities as end of year exams neared. Still, he thought it would be a good thing to get the boy away for a while.

"I hadn't thought, Sir."

Considering what to say, Severus decided to just jump in. "I thought you might want to visit your new home," he said evenly.

"Really?" Harry looked ready to jump up right then and head for the nearest Floo. "Your house, Sir? Where is it?"

Putting up a hand to forestall what would surely be a nonstop line of questions, Severus stopped the boy. "It is more accurately our house. My former residence was not appropriate for a child. I was not about to bring you there. It also did not meet the new … specifications. I will discuss that more with you later. For now, I think you might enjoy seeing where you will spend your vacations from now on."

"Oh, yes, Sir!"

"Very well. We do not have to spend all of the break there if your friends are here for some of the time. It is not quite ready. I have had an agent purchase and furnish it to my specifications, but I would like you to see your room and make some decisions while we are there so that it is ready when we get there for the summer. We can duplicate the furniture and décor for your room in my quarters here or you can choose different furniture."

Severus was going to continue with his businesslike discussion, but the child looked like he was about to faint. He sent the boy a questioning look. After a few moments, Harry finally responded.

"Here, Sir? I am to have a room in your quarters?"

"Yes," Severus said mildly. "There are several reasons for that. For one thing, I stay here during part of the vacations, including the summer when you will not be able to stay in your tower. I will also want to be able to look after you when you are ill." Harry nodded, as if these things had not occurred to him but made sense. "You will also be staying in your room in our quarters if I decide that you are on restriction and need to be watched more closely, such as if you get yourself in trouble for being places you should not be. The Forbidden Forest comes to mind."

"Hey!" Harry protested. "I never said I went in the forest. I just said I wanted to look at a unicorn." His face fell. "You would really do that?"

"I absolutely would," Severus told the boy sternly. He softened his voice. "I do not want you to feel that being with me is a punishment, Harry. You are welcome to my quarters … our quarters, whenever you want. My quarters at Hogwarts are my home much of the year. You should have a real home, not just a bed in a dorm. I will look after you when you are sick, and there may be times I will ask you to sleep there because I am worried about your safety, or because you have gotten yourself in trouble. This is a good thing though, Harry."

Harry nodded. Severus wasn't sure what the boy was thinking. He wished he hadn't mentioned the bedroom at Hogwarts yet. It seemed to be too overwhelming for the child. However, it was something that had been on Severus's mind for too long. If he was going to protect the boy from the likes of Quirrell, it was too hard to do with him sleeping all the way across the castle. He didn't know how other parents did it, how they were able to send their sons and daughters off to school for so many months out of the year. Then again, those children did not have killers after them. The number of dangers after Harry were plentiful and mysterious.

"Very well," Severus finally said, when he realized both of them had been quiet for so long it had become awkward. "You will keep yourself out of trouble and if you ever want to sleep in my quarters, you are welcome to do so. I have cleared a room for you. I will arrange for some dorm furniture and bedding to be moved in there for now."

"Can I see it?"

Taken aback by this request, especially since he had just told the boy the room was unfurnished, Severus nodded. "Of course."

Snapping his fingers, Severus said, "Piper."

A spindly and elderly elf popped into view wearing the Hogwarts house elf uniform. He bowed to Severus and gave Harry a shrewd look. While Piper wasn't Severus's personal elf, he was the one he always turned to when he needed a task done.

"Please see to it that a bed, desk, and wardrobe are placed in Mr. Potter's room," Severus told him. "He wishes to inspect it now. Gryffindor bedding will do fine."

The elf nodded, bowed, and popped out of sight. Harry gaped at the spot where the elf had been. Severus realized the boy had probably never seen one. The Weasleys were too poor to have house elves and Muggles certainly didn't.

"That was a house elf," Severus told Harry. "They take care of the chores around the school."

"They do?" Harry's voice was strained. His face was unreadable, and Severus thought he was trying very hard to control his emotions. "Why haven't I ever seen them before?"

Thinking about this question, Severus eyed the boy carefully. Knowing what he did about Harry's background, he could see why the child was upset. He had been not much more than a house elf to the Dursleys for most of his young life. It was likely that the more he knew about house elves, the less he was going to like what he heard.

"Not everything in the Wizarding World is … comfortable to hear about, Harry," Severus finally said. "This is just the way it is."

"Do they get paid?"

"No."

"They're slaves then," Harry said dully.

"It is a bit more complicated than that, but yes, in a way they are subjugated. Harry, wizards and house elves are essentially symbionts. Do you know what that means?"

Harry shook his head.

"It means that the house elves rely on the wizards, but the wizards rely on the house elves. Neither could survive well without the other. The house elves enjoy working for and taking care of the wizards and they accept the security of the wizards feeding, clothing, and housing them in exchange for that work rather than their own …"

"Freedom," Harry provided the word when Severus broke off the sentence without finishing it.

"It is just the way that things have always been, Harry. I am defending the system."

"It kind of sounds like you are."

"Yes," Severus sighed. "I suppose it does."

"Do you have one?"

"A house elf?" Severus asked. "No. I have never needed one." He stopped, realizing how that sounded. "Dumbledore has offered to lend us one for the summer and vacations though."

"No!" Harry insisted vehemently.

"I rather agree with you, Harry. I know how to cook, and magic can clean most things fairly easily. There are also house elf cleaning services. I am not sure what their status is. I have not really thought about it." Severus looked at Harry. He was standing very still, staring at his shoes. "It's okay, Harry. You have been through a lot in your short life. I want you to know that I am here for you, when you want to talk. I am not going to make you talk about this now, but I think we should at some point."

After a moment, the boy nodded without looking up.

"All right then, let's take a look at your room."

They walked through the door into Severus's main quarters, which were connected from his private lab. He took Harry down the hallway to a door that had been closed when Harry had been there last. It had been used mostly for storage before. It was supposed to be a guest room, but Severus had never been one to have guests. He was more than happy to give it up for Harry's use.

"Here we are," Severus gestured to the doorknob. "Go ahead, Harry."

Despite the drama of just a few minutes before, Harry was now entirely fixated on his first real bedroom. He reached a shaky hand up and opened the door slowly, pushing it in to look inside without entering. The entire performance made Severus wish he had furnished and decorated the room before showing it to the boy. There just wasn't much to it yet.

It didn't seem to matter. Harry entered in awe and touched each piece of furniture in the room as if he couldn't believe it was there. The room had already had a neutral dark green colored rug on the stone floor. It was plush and soft, and Severus had always quite liked it. He was pleased to see Harry smile slightly when he looked down on it. The four-poster bed was the same as the one in his dorm, right down to the red and gold bedding. What this room had that the other one didn't was privacy. Harry didn't have to share this room with four other boys.

"That you, Sir," Harry breathed.

"It's no more than you deserve, Harry," Severus noted, trying not to sound choked. "Why don't you stay here and look around and see what else the room needs. You can make a list for us to go shopping."

Harry nodded and Severus left before his emotions could overcome him. He was still having a hard time believing that he was doing this. Sometimes he wanted to shake himself and tell the other Severus that he was a fool. There was no way that he, an ex-Death Eater, should be the guardian of Lily's son. At that point he always had to remind himself that the boy had no better options. That always made him feel worse.

That night, Harry wanted to sleep in his new room. It should have been foreseeable. Severus agreed and sent a note to Minerva telling her that he had a Lion in the Snake's Den. She was likely not amused. He still wasn't sure what she thought of his arrangement with Harry. She didn't argue, and she had known Lily and James better than anyone. That was his best endorsement.

Time passed quickly up to the Easter break. Severus communicated with his agent, who fortunately had one foot in the Muggle world. Severus's requirements for his new home had been exacting. It needed to be in a neighborhood that was Muggle-friendly, where Harry could walk to entertainment, a small shopping district, and a park. He had asked for children Harry's age but not specified whether they be wizard or muggle. There needed to be library within walking distance.

That wasn't even the biggest part of the agent's job. The house itself had to be a townhouse or a large hours with an apartment below. It had to have a garden large enough for a few plots and small greenhouse. Severus wanted Harry to be able to fly his broom there, but he hadn't stipulated it because he wasn't sure that he was going to be able to get that with everything else. He also wanted four bedrooms, a library or study, and an attic. Severus would have preferred to use a basement for his Potions lab, but he had another purpose for that space. An attic would have to do.

The agent had come through for him. He signed the final paperwork two weeks before Easter break and was able to finish the warding in time to bring Harry there when he picked him up from the Hogwarts's Express. The boy was overbrimming with excitement.

"It's only the second time I've taken the train," Harry gushed. "It was so much more fun this time. I didn't have to worry about making friends or how scary school would be or that I'd be rubbish at magic."

It was hard for Severus to keep the chuckle out of his breath as he guided the boy to the car. This had been the last item on his to-do list for the agent. He had considered it at length, and finally decided that since the house was in a Muggle neighborhood and Harry was too young to Apparate, the best thing to do was to get a car and hook the house to the Floo network.

"You have a car," Harry gawked. "You can drive."

"This may come as a shock to you, Mr. Potter, but my father was a Muggle," Severus intoned.

"Well, yeah!" Harry stuttered. "You're the Head of Slytherin."

With a smirk, Severus gestured to the car. "I assure you; I can drive. Get in!"

Not looking entirely convinced, the boy nonetheless got in the back seat. He might not have noticed that Severus did not use a key to open the door or to turn the car on. When they were halfway to their destination, he finally seemed to realize that there was no key in the ignition and the cars in front of them seemed to be mysteriously getting out of the way.

"Hey," Harry said. "How is that happening?"

"This is a Cloud 450, Harry," Severus informed him. "It's a wizard's car."

"It's magic?"

"Obviously," Severus said dryly.

"Wicked. Can it fly?"

"Absolutely not! That is absurd."

"Oh," Harry looked disappointed.

They arrived in Newton Abbot in well under the time it would have taken to drive a Muggle car. Harry had long since fallen asleep in the backseat. They had stopped outside of London for a snack, and he had chattered for a few minutes once they resumed the trip, but it hadn't taken long. Severus had found some classical music on the wireless and enjoyed the countryside.

The house was perfect. It was located on a residential road just outside of the market town where the houses where well-spaced out and built in the 1920's. There was a low stone wall along the sidewalk in front of the house, lined with trees. The house itself had a large sitting room, a study, a breakfast room, and a well-lit kitchen with an older stove perfect for a wizard on the ground floor. The first floor had a large bedroom with a dressing area and two smaller bedrooms. Severus had set up the larger bedroom's dressing area to have a second WC with little trouble. The fourth bedroom in the attic already had a sink. It was perfect for his Potions lab. There was an additional workroom in the garden.

The garden itself was exceptionally suited for both his and Harry's needs. It was terraced for plant beds. The semi-rural nature of the neighborhood and the large garden space made it possible for Harry to ride his broom with the new anti-Muggle wards that had been placed. Harry ran out to the garden before he had even seen the inside of the house. This was amusing and understandable, and Severus let him go. The house sat on the top of a hill, so there were gorgeous views of the countryside below for miles.

"The garden and space above it are awarded, so you can fly your broom. There are going to be rules, Harry. You had better follow them or it will be the last time you see your broom while we are here," Severus told him firmly.

"Yes, Sir," Harry's grin filled his windswept face. He ran to Severus and gave him a quick hug.

"We are near Ottery St. Catchpole," Severus continued. "It is less than a half an hour by car. Do not get any ideas about flying here, young man. The Floo has been attached to the Network in this house and you can get to Mr. Weasley's house that way. You must ask me for permission, and I must also be assured that he has his parent's permission. He may also visit here under the same circumstances."

The boy looked up and nodded, apparently too filled with emotion to speak.

"We are also not far from the ocean here. Even though it is spring, I thought we might visit the beach at some …"

"The beach!" Harry interrupted. "We're near the ocean?"

"Yes, Plymouth," Severus found it hard to be stern despite the boy's manners. He seemed fit to burst. "I take it you've never been?"

It was a ridiculous question. It was clear to Severus from what he had come to know of the boy's childhood that his abominable relatives hadn't taken him to the corner market, let alone the beach. He eyed the boy carefully for a breakdown, but he just seemed happy.

"Let us go inside and take a look at your room," Severus suggested.

They went inside. Harry plopped himself down happily on the window seat in the breakfast room, looking out on the garden. Severus couldn't blame him. Next to his study and the attic Potions lab, this bright and airy room was his favorite in the house. He'd had the entire house painted in muted neutral colors and furnished with comfortable leather and wood. The furnishings were masculine but traditional. He'd been sent catalogues to choose them. The rugs he had chosen himself. They were thick, earth-toned, and comfortable. It was the house he had always wanted.

Before he knew it, Harry was heading up the stairs toward his room on the first floor. The stairs had been carpeted and Severus had replaced the carpet with a walnut wood lined with a runner. Harry's bedroom was down the hall across from the WC, which was next to the bathroom. The house definitely had a 1920's design. Severus brought out his wand and added a door connecting the WC to the bathroom. Harry grinned at the casual use of practical magic.

Harry's bedroom was large and bright. A window took up almost the entire back wall, and there was a built-in closet. Harry had chosen his furniture from a catalog and his bed, wardrobe and desk were already in the room. They were painted a light gray. Harry had chosen sky blue for the curtains and duvet and dark blue for the rug. The overall effect was very calming. Severus had added a shelf above Harry's desk for his schoolbooks. Since they were only planning to stay a few days, he had bought the boy a leather duffel bag with a lightweight and expansion charm to pack his belongings.

"You can add posters or paintings as you like, of course," Severus reminded Harry, to break the silence.

Harry just nodded. He walked over to the window and looked out at the large garden. Severus could not help but be touched. Ever since he had found out that the boy slept in the cupboard under the stairs, he had wanted desperately to give him a better life. He hadn't known at the time that he would be doing so this directly.

"Well then," Severus said, "I will leave you to unpack."

He went down the hall to his own room. He had used furnishings similar to the ones he used in his quarters at Hogwarts, though perhaps somewhat nicer. He had lived for years without spending any of his money, although he had plenty from the royalties from his potions alone. He had certainly never spent any on his other house, the one inherited from his father at Spinner's End. If he never saw it again, it would be too soon. He knew he would need to go there to see if he had any possessions he needed to pack up. Fortunately, there was no rush. That house was a tomb to a terrible childhood. This one was a promise for the hope of a new one.