Snape stood in the extended box, as the child fiddled with the controls of his impressive piece of techno magic.
Seeing the boy... Snape instantly understood... the young potions master wasn't the only one traumatized by this experience.
Walking up to the kid, and resting a hand on his shoulder. The child stiffened.
Pausing in his fiddling, The boy choked, "I... I thought she was dead... Then I gain her back for the briefest moment... only to learn she'll die again... that's the trouble with Time Travel. On a good day, everyone I've loved is right through those doors. Ready to laugh with me, ready for another adventure... but on a bad day... they're all dead and gone. Everyone I ever loved... or will ever love."
The Doctor gave a laugh, though it was hollow and bitter. Making Snape's skin crawl... and his heart break.
"I actually met my wife, for the very first time, on the day she died! Been running into younger versions of her. I'm scared to get close to her, but from her perspective we've been married for thousands of years. Imagine what that does to a person. I might as well be dead to her! I certainly don't remember all the things we got up to. And I know, when I'll finally be ready for her, she'll not have the slightest clue who I am!"
The Doctor shook his head, then looked at Snape, "She died... saving my life... saving my granddaughter's life... saving the very Multi Verse itself.
"You think I'm a monster. I can assure you. I'm much worse. I've burned entire worlds from the sky. I've travelled through dimensions and stars. I've shattered lands comprised completely of thought. Gods trimble at the sound of my name. I've killed the very Devil, himself.
"You don't know the difference between Torchwood and UNIT? I'll tell you. Torchwood was founded on the principle of STOPPING me. Where as UNIT seeks to control me. One dedicates itself to extermination, befitting a Dalek. The other about preserving the delicate balance I forced on this mud ball of a planet.
"UNIT didn't kidnap me, as you appear to believe, it merely offered me a leash. To stop myself from going too far."
"Merlin..." Snape stared at the boy. And suddenly understood, he was something far worse then he feared. "You're Merlin."
The resurrected prophet just gave a light smile, straightening his robe collar, and standing tall. "I don't understand why you wizards insist on worshiping me." he dusted off his sleeves. "My third regeneration just happened to get stranded on this backwater. Although you're not the first civilization to develop a whole religion around me. I hope that isn't a commentary on me."
Snape didn't say anything else. He wanted to rush to the Headmaster. Warn him to stop bothering with Voldemort, and start preparing for armageddon... but he already had to leave Harry's side twice today.
Once to get John. The next to follow him, after the boy fled the Castle.
Snape already felt bad enough, that his duties as Head of House, took him away from his injured ward.
If he was a good guardian, he would have stayed by Harry's side this entire time... and checked on the boy as he was growing up... as Lily intended... the boy had suffered so much because Snape failed in his duty.
True, his duties didn't officially start until Harry's magical core stabilized... he couldn't legally force his way into Petunia's house. But since when did he ever allow legality to compromise his obligations...
Snape sat by Harry's bed, in the hospital wing, with Poppy working with Merlin, in the back room. They were making a potion, to help the boy get his bearings, after regenerating...
Lily's son... had died... and it had been Snape's fault. If his third chromosome chain had been from any other species... he would have stayed that way.
"Forgive me, Lily," He gently pet a picture in his childhood Album... he didn't have many pictures of himself, that didn't also include Lily. They had been inseparable, from a young age.
It had been years since he last looked in this album... and he still couldn't, not without crying.
"Professor?"
Snape stiffened, before hesitantly looking over at Lily's child, her eyes looking at him with concern, through the boy's face.
Snape sighed, leaning the album over where the child could see it.
"Just looking through some pictures of your mother,"
The boy did not perk, he hesitated, as if scared to look at something so precious.
"It's okay," Snape assured.
The boy managed to bring his eyes to the pictures. But instead of smiling, the child did his best not to cry.
Gently touching one of the moving pictures, the boy managed to say, "I really do have her eyes..."
Snape spent the next hour, telling the child a story for every picture that caught his interest.
Occasionally, the child would interrupt with a coughing fit. Where golden energy would puff out of his mouth like smoke. But the boy barely registered it as anything abnormal. Just pointed at another picture, then at Snape, expectantly.
The boy was already overwhelmed by magic. So one more oddity? How was he supposed to know it wasn't normal, after bathing in a potion?
"Good to see you two bonding," John grinned, stepping in with a few potion vials, on a tray.
The Anti-Christ set the tray on the nightstand, before handing one to Harry. "Wish I knew about these things last time I regenerated," the boy smiled. "Would have made it easier on me. It was fairly difficult due to what killed me."
"Flint was telling me about that," Harry eyed the potion, but not sure why John was showing it to him. "You're like a Phoenix, right? You get a new body, whenever you die?"
The Time Tot smiled, "That's right. Though you don't have to worry about your face changing when you regenerate."
Harry blinked, "Can all Wizards do that? I thought it was something unique to Time Lords."
The Doctor glanced at Snape, then scooted on the bed. "Only we can... and you're one of us. Time Lord children are called 'Time Tots'."
He then proceeded to just dump everything on the boy. That Harry was a Time Tot / Eternal / Muggle hybrid. Due to actually being a Tenza, that chose a couple with normally incompatible genes, to be his parents.
A/N:
How Tenza work is explained in Chapter 1.
After Harry took his potion, on Pompey's insistence. He just sat there listening to John spill out all they learned. Snape would have liked to have given the boy the information slowly, but there was no stopping John once he got going.
Harry stayed quiet during the part where Lily Potter was actually a Grim Reaper. It wasn't until John mentioned he was her grandfather, that the boy had a reaction.
"So you're like... my great grandfather?" Harry blinked.
"You probably already know that," John shrugged. "On an instinctual level. Is why you're so eager to please me. The familial bond."
"Right... Tenza..." Harry sighed. "I... I guess that's why I always tried so hard to get my relatives to like me... but nothing I did was ever good enough..."
"That must have been damn right torture for a Tenza," John spoke what should have been a thought. Harry didn't have to deal with that, on top of everything else.
Unfortunately, John just didn't stop. "I mean, a Tenza's strongest instinct is to assimilate into the perfect child. To feel that, but have your guardians not only want nothing to do with you, but who enjoy hurting you and making you miserable-"
"Enough!" Snape snapped, glaring at John... only for the Time Tot to glare back. Snape ignored the cold chill he felt. "That's enough John, you're being rude."
Just like that, the Dark God lost his glare, and blushed. "Was I? Oh I hate this face sometimes. That was one of the first things I noticed about myself. When I regenerated, I mean. 'Rude and not ginger', were my exact words."
Harry gave a light smile... because he was supposed to. He probably even felt the warm glow of it, because he was supposed to. He had a family that wanted him... even if they weren't perfect for him. He would instinctively strive to please them... to be like them... Snape wouldn't wish any child to be like him...
Harry gave a cheeky grin, then dared say something that did not put Snape's fears to rest. "You realize," the boy said to the prophet. "I'm likely in Slytherin cuz you said it was a good house." Dear Merlin!!! Ignoring the prophet beside him, but was nothing sacred!!!
After Harry took a few more potions, including a sleeping draft, John and Snape remained by the boy's side, as the Tenza slumbered.
John gently brushed the raven hair, "My grandson..." he whispered. "I have a grandson... thank Rassillion he'll be nothing like me."
Snape eyed the fallen prophet.
John just shrugged, "While there are some traits, I would like to see in the boy... I wouldn't wish my soul on anyone. Oh I've done the hero thing for a while. Inspired those who needed it, but truth is... I've been at this too long... I'm perfectly content, staining what's left of my soul, so other's don't have to.
"Harry will instinctively know, I wouldn't want that for him. He'll probably be a real hero. Someone noble and brave, without a wicked bone in his body.
"The teen years will be a little iffy. Always a funny time. That's when children start exploring themselves. Trying to be more independent. Tenza are no different in that. But the man he'll inevitably grow into... will be... remarkable." and it was clear why the boy would die, if the Doctor left.
Tenza were very needy... and if Harry spent his teen years without guidance. He would be extremely reckless, and easily manipulated.
John laughed. "My TARDIS really does nothing in half measures! She brought me here, timed it perfectly, so that all this would happen..." he looked over at his box. "Thank you, old girl."
The box hummed.
"Although it would have been nice, if you brought me to the moment Susan died. I would have been able to pick Harry up instantly, and not let him suffer for 10 years in an abusive household. Sometimes I wish you didn't have the stunted emotional range of an omnipotent. But at least you try to be compassionate."
Now the box gave a huffy hum.
Snape wasn't overly concerned it appeared to be alive. He already assumed it was. Like any legendary class artifact.
Snape looked back at Harry, the poor boy really had been through too much.
But John wasn't finished, "I suppose... in a way, you're my grandson to." John looked at Snape.
Snape eyed him.
"Susan told me about the blood brothers oath," John smiled. "We had a whole telepathic conversation, as she was explaining the secrets of the universe to you."
Snape didn't say anything in relation to that, "We can't go back to her." The potions master acknowledged, instead.
"No... we can't," John lost his smile. "It was risky enough going there once. Far too likely something will go wrong... and We'll both be too tempted to change history. Altering your own personal history-"
"I know the risk!" Snape couldn't stop himself from snapping.
John sighed, "So do I... doesn't mean I'm not sorely tempted to do it anyway."
Snape looked at the child. Who gave a care-free shrug.
"Which is why the TARDIS will never let me back there. It's enough of a kindness she let me see her once... maybe I can run into earlier versions of her, now that I know she's out there... and possibly other grandkids... I could have a whole family out there. Which I know nothing about. I'm sure I can find them... eventually."
The boy suddenly laughed, "It's been so long since I felt like this."
"Like what?" Snape dared ask the demon spawn.
"... Since I had hope..." The boy smiled, his eyes becoming teary. "Such a terrible thing... so very hard to resist."
Snape did, on reflex, what he would do for any of his weeping snakes. He pulled the boy into a hug. The fallen prophet didn't even stiffen. He just began to cry, as any child would.
It was then that Snape realized, John might have a lot more baggage then most, and one hell of a violent temper... but he really was just a child, like any other.
So Snape hugged the child, rubbing circles into his back. While giving reassurances it would all be okay... the boy wasn't alone anymore.