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Chapter 14: Standing Vigilant

Or, the chapter in which events start to move quickly and I have to take protective measures as a result

After finishing the last episode of my journal on what might be called a modest sort of cliff-hanger, I considered beginning this next instalment in such a way as to make you think that my fall had caused fatal consequences. I could have claimed that I was now a ghost and that I was dictating these next events to a, ahem, ghost writer. (Yes, I still have my sense of humour. No, there's nothing that can be done about it.)

Another little trick which I contemplated was to pretend that my journal had been found by Albus Dumbledore after my death, and he'd finished it off for me. "I must sadly inform all readers of this chronicle that my dear friend and colleague Severus Snape passed away recently in a tragic accident. The students and staff of Hogwarts are broken-hearted at the loss of such a beloved man. Most of them can barely stop crying, such is their great anguish. Truly, I knew of few wizards as intelligent and powerful as him. We will mourn him forever more. And now if you'll excuse me, in honour of the fact that this wonderful man's visits to Harry Potter usually took place at the weekends, I am off to suggest to the Wizengamot that we rename Saturday to Severusday."

Well, perhaps that last bit was a touch overdone, though you'd never have fallen for it anyway, would you? But in any case, I am of course above such cheap and tawdry theatrics. As you can tell, I am here in person and still alive to tell the tale of what happened to me. I hope you are appropriately pleased. I know I am.

Now, you may recall from our last chapter that there was a flagstone path near to the tree which I'd rashly climbed up. If I'd fallen onto that path then there would have been a greater chance of injury than if I'd landed on the grass, since the ground had been softened with recent rain. Yes, a much greater chance of injury indeed. But of course, there was a lot more grass than there was path, so the likelihood of that happening was fairly low.

I landed on the path.

Still, it could have been worse. I mean, I didn't die. However, part of the ladder slipped underneath my back as I fell, which I'm fairly certain added to the seriousness of my injuries. This was bad, but there was one great blessing: from what I've been told, none of the Weasleys tried to give me the kiss of life.

Anyway, after I hit the ground hard and didn't get up, Harry apparently yelled for Mafty who arrived right away. He lowered Harry down from the tree and told him that I'd need to be taken to the Hogwarts hospital wing. Harry begged to come along as well, but was refused; thankfully (and with considerable foresight, as it turns out), I'd previously given Mafty a clear order never to bring Harry to Hogwarts without my permission. The Weasleys had by now rushed out to see what was happening, but Mafty would not allow any of them to treat me, as he insisted that I needed to be under Madam Pomfrey's care. And so he took me back to Hogwarts shortly thereafter and I soon received some much required medical treatment.

When I eventually regained consciousness, my senses felt muffled and confused. There was a sense of relief once I was able to see well enough to determine that I was back at Hogwarts, even if it was the hospital wing. Potions, I'd been given potions in the plural, but to my frustration I couldn't manage to process the residual taste of the ingredients and work out which ones they were. I groaned slightly, shifting with the pain, and this caused Madam Pomfrey to bustle up to me.

"Awake at last, I see. That's good. How do you feel?"

I had to focus my mind to answer. "Tired. Sore."

"Well, that's to be expected. Do you know that you had eleven broken bones? Eleven! A very nasty fall indeed, Professor Snape… yes, multiple breaks and some spinal fracturing as well."

Fall? Oh yes, of course… it all came rushing back to me in an instant. "Harry!" I said. "He…"

"The Headmaster asked me to tell you that he's safe, and perfectly fine," she assured me. "And before you ask, you were brought in here four days ago, and thankfully you'll make a full recovery."

Four days! That meant the injuries had been severe or it would have been overnight at most, but she'd said it would be a full recovery, and I knew that I was not being lied to. "Thank… you," I managed to say.

Madam Pomfrey smiled at me. "You're welcome. And your wand's undamaged, by the way, which was a stroke of luck in the circumstances. Now, you need another dose of your potions, and I daresay you'd like some water, eh?"

"Please," I murmured.

"Very well. So, you will not be getting out of that bed until tomorrow at the earliest, so lie back and rest. I trust that's understood?"

I did not intend to argue with her. I drank some water and the proffered potions, closed my eyes and went straight back to sleep.

When I awoke the next time, I felt much better. The Headmaster was sitting beside my bed and he smiled at me.

"Ah, Severus! Back with us, I see. Excellent. How are you feeling?"

"Well, I no longer feel as if I've just fallen under a train."

"That is good news. I was more than a little concerned when I saw you on Saturday, as was Madam Pomfrey."

"Indeed I was," the lady herself confirmed as she walked over. "Now, let's see how you're doing, shall we? Yes, greatly recovered," she said with satisfaction as she ran her wand over my body and performed assorted diagnostic spells. She helped me to sit up and brought me some tea and a couple of sandwiches. "A small meal, I know – but that's best right now. Assuming that you can manage it, but don't worry if you can't. Albus, you can stay for ten minutes but then I'd like him kept quiet. And by the way, Severus, there's a Hufflepuff student who's been coming in to see how you are several times a day – Mr. Hutchinson. Quite the persistent one, he is. He would like to visit you, when you're ready."

I smiled tiredly. "I expect I might be up to that after some more sleep. Though I'll be discharged soon, I hope?"

"Yes, in a couple of days if all goes well – but I want you on light duties for a day or two after that, so no teaching until next week. Well, Mr. Hutchinson wanted me to tell you that he's looking after the Potions classroom so there's nothing to worry about there."

"I'm glad to hear it. Have my classes this week been cancelled?" I asked the Headmaster.

"A few of them, yes, but the other Professors have covered for you wherever possible."

"That's very good of them."

"Everyone has been quite anxious," he said earnestly. "The Slytherins have been worried too. And Professor Sprout had a tricky clue in her crossword yesterday. She was most put out that you were not there to assist her with it, as you usually would."

"What was the clue?"

"Something delayed which has nevertheless achieved high marks – eleven letters."

"Outstanding. Honestly, and she calls herself a Professor…"

"Ah well, Pomona has many admirable talents but crosswords are rather her weak spot, even though she does love them so. I knew that you would be able to fill in the blanks."

"I always do."

"Quite. Now, we should talk about young Mr. Potter, should we not?"

"Yes. I would appreciate an update. Is he back at Privet Drive?"

"No, he has stayed with the Weasley family since last Saturday. I sent a note to let Petunia know. Apparently it's half term at his school this week, so he's not missing any of his classes. The Weasleys were most willing to have him as a guest until you can return this Saturday to collect him and take him home."

"And you agreed to that?" I asked in surprise.

"Well, I thought it might be best for someone competent to keep an eye on Harry. He was very unhappy about your accident, you know. He blamed himself for it entirely."

"Well, he shouldn't have done. It was my own stupid fault, Headmaster."

He reached out and took my hand. "You are not to blame. Harry's burst of accidental magic pushed you off the ladder. That could have happened to anyone."

"Yes, except that if I'd taken the precaution of casting a few cushioning charms on the ground first, like any sane wizard would do…"

"And why didn't you do that? Because you'd been summoned urgently and you were concerned about Harry's welfare, which meant that your first thought was to comfort him."

"It's still my fault, Headmaster."

He squeezed my hand. "Well, accidents happen and you'll be fine, which is the important thing. I was… fearful for you, dear boy."

"Thank you," I said, for once too embarrassed to look at him. There was such affection in his voice that I couldn't help but be touched by it, however.

"Well now, would you like to write a letter to Harry? You could dictate it to me, if you liked."

"Yes, that might be useful. It could help him feel better. But I'll write it myself, or he'll worry."

The Headmaster fetched me ink and paper and I composed a short note to Harry, telling him that I was much better and he shouldn't be concerned about me, and that I'd return to pick him up on Saturday. I handed the letter over to Dumbledore for delivery, quickly ate the sandwiches and settled down for another snooze.

I travelled via floo to the Burrow that Saturday afternoon. By then I was almost fully recovered, although I still felt a little sore; according to Madam Pomfrey, some occasional discomfort was to be expected for the next week or so. The four Weasleys were there to meet me on arrival but I saw no sign of Harry.

"Welcome back, Professor!" Mrs. Weasley said brightly. "So glad to see you back on your feet. That fall you had was a bad one, but there's not much that Madam Pomfrey can't cure, is there?"

"No, not much at all. Is Harry here?"

She smiled fondly. "He's upstairs, poor dear. He's been staying in Ron's room this morning. I think he's a bit nervous… he's been very worried about you."

"He felt better when he received that letter you sent him," Mr. Weasley added. "Mind you, we'd all been telling him that you'd be fine and he wasn't to worry, but even so…"

"I understand. I'd like to see him, if that's all right."

"Of course, Professor. I'll show you."

Mr. Weasley escorted me upstairs, pointed out Ronald Weasley's bedroom and left me. I cast a privacy charm to ensure that the downstairs occupants of the house couldn't overhear our conversation and knocked on the door.

"Harry?" There was no answer. "Harry, are you asleep? It's Professor Snape, and I've come to pick you up."

There was still no reply, but my instincts told me that Harry was not asleep at all – he just didn't want to face me yet. Well, I had expected this and had prepared for it. I took a book from my pocket; it was an old one, somewhat tattered and knocked about.

"Harry, I would like to tell you a story about my childhood. One winter's day when I was eight years old, I was walking around Cokeworth when it started to rain. I looked for somewhere to shelter and I noticed that the muggle public library was just down the road. I ran into it and decided to stay there until the rain stopped because it was warm and dry. I had no interest in muggle books really but I needed something to pass the time, so I picked one up from the children's fiction aisle and started to read it. The book was called Treasure Island, written by Robert Louis Stevenson. It was a tale about pirates and a map leading to buried treasure. There was a boy in it called Jim Hawkins who went looking for the treasure and got into all sorts of trouble as a result. I'm not describing it very well, I expect, but that doesn't matter. The point is that for that one day, as I read the book and became more and more absorbed in it, I was for a short time no longer a bored eight year old boy but a fearless adventurer, battling pirates and searching for hidden gold. I loved that book, Harry. I never forgot it."

I paused for a moment, but there was no response. "Perhaps by now you are wondering why I'm mentioning this. Well, when I made friends with your mother, I told her about it. A few years later, the library was selling off some old books as they did every summer, and she saw Treasure Island in the sale rack and bought it. She gave it to me on my fifteenth birthday, and it's one of the items which I value most in the world. And now, I've decided to give it to you. Perhaps you'd like to listen to the first chapter, to see if you'd enjoy it."

I conjured a small sofa and sat down, then started to read the first chapter of the book. Somehow I knew that Harry could hear me. What I didn't know was that Ronald Weasley could as well. And how, you might ask, since I'd applied a privacy charm? Well, I didn't find out about this until much later, but the intrepid Mr. Weasley quickly realised that I'd magically protected the downstairs against eavesdroppers, and he very much wanted to know what I was saying. He therefore casually strolled outside the house, after which he acquired a broomstick from the shed and secretly flew to the upstairs bedrooms. From there he climbed in at an open window, and thus he was able to overhear everything we said. In retrospect, this might not have been a bad thing – but I'd have been very annoyed if I knew of it at the time.

I reached the end of the first chapter and stopped. There was a rustling sound, and then Harry opened the door. He was smiling. "Did my Mum really give you that book?"

"Yes, indeed she did. Look, she added an inscription on the first page."

Harry sat next to me, picked up the book and examined it eagerly. On the flyleaf, Lily had written: Happy Birthday, Sev! I hope you never stop looking for that treasure! xx Lily

"Wow," he said. "I can't believe I'm holding something that my mother once held. But it's your gift, Professor. I can't keep it. Mum chose it for you."

"And I would never give it away, except to her son. So it is yours now, unless you don't like it?"

"No, I love it, really. And the story's great."

"Yes, it's a muggle classic. It's not one that you've read before, then?"

"No, I've never even heard of it."

"Then keep it, as evidence of how much I love you." Those words, which I had never intended to speak to him, felt natural and light on my tongue, and entirely appropriate to the occasion.

Harry flung his arms around me. "I love you too," he said. We hugged. I tried not to cry – Slytherins don't do that sort of thing, you know. I mostly succeeded.

After the emotional bit was finished, I spent a considerable amount of time convincing Harry that my accident was not his fault, after which I asked how his week had been.

"It's been good," he said. "I mean, not at first when you were ill and I didn't know if you'd be okay. That bit was awful. I wanted so much to visit you at Hogwarts but they wouldn't let me. The Headmaster came over on Saturday night and he said you were sleeping and you needed peace and quiet, but I would have been so silent, honestly! And he kept telling me things which were meant to make me feel better, but they didn't because he looked so worried, which made me worried too. I thought he might have been hiding things from me, and not saying how bad it really was. I was scared that maybe… anyway, I wrote to Josh and asked him for news, but he wrote back to say he couldn't find anything out either at first, though he did try."

"Yes, Mr. Hutchinson was virtually glued to the hospital wing door, I believe. He and I had a long conversation yesterday, during which he gave me a stern telling off for 'scaring him to pieces', as he so elegantly phrased it."

Harry nodded. "He was afraid, just like me. He wrote back as soon as there was good news, though. And then, when I knew you would be okay, then I was happy. This house is brilliant, isn't it? I think it's the best house I've ever seen. And the Weasleys have been great. They loaned me things because I didn't have any clothes of my own with me. Did you know, their garden has real live gnomes? Ron taught me how to throw them, which doesn't hurt them at all, he said, through you'd think it must do."

"I don't suppose they like it much, though. I mean, who would?"

"Well, maybe not. And guess what? Mr. and Mrs. Weasley have invited me for Christmas, to stay! Do you think I can?"

"Hmm… well, we'll have to see what the Dursleys think, and the Headmaster, of course. You'd need their permission."

Harry pulled a face. "Aunt Petunia and Uncle Vernon can have a say, but I don't see why the Headmaster has to get involved. Again."

"Because where your safety is concerned, he must be consulted. Don't take it personally, Harry! I will attempt to persuade him and your relatives to agree. I'd be sorry not to see you over the holidays, though."

"Oh, but we thought you could come for a visit," Harry said, looking at me eagerly. "Mrs. Weasley suggested you could join us for Christmas Day dinner."

Oh yes of course, that would work out just fine, wouldn't it? A house filled with current and future Gryffindors plus one Slytherin who has, let's not forget, been a dreadful Professor in class for a number of years when teaching several of those present and has probably generated considerable resentment all round as a result. Talk about a spectre at the feast…

But Sev, you should be with Harry. It's his special day!

Lily, he will have fifty or sixty Weasleys to share his special day with, he doesn't need me!

Well, let's just see what Harry thinks about that, shall we?

"It's a kind thought Harry, but as a head of house I'm expected to eat Christmas dinner at Hogwarts if possible. You see, there are always some students who remain at school during the Christmas break and it's important that we make the day as festive as we can for them."

"Oh," he said forlornly. "That's a shame."

"Indeed. However, if you do stay here for the holidays then perhaps, if the Weasleys permit, I could visit another day with your gifts."

"Yeah, that would be good."

"Fine. And by the way, you haven't told me why you were so upset last Saturday. What made you climb the tree in the first place?"

Harry pulled a face. "Ron and I had an awful argument. He was being horrible about you. He said Slytherins could never be trusted, and I needed to learn that for myself."

"I did warn you before we arrived to expect to hear a certain amount of anti-Slytherin sentiment within these walls. You shouldn't take it to heart; the Weasleys don't know me like you do."

"I know, but Ron wouldn't stop talking about it. I told him some of the great things you've done for me, but he said you were just trying to win me over with cunning, exactly like some Slytherin would do. I said it wasn't like that at all. I spent ages explaining stuff, but he just didn't seem to believe me. And he basically claimed that all Slytherins were bad. I mean, how would he even know that? I asked him how many Slytherins he'd spent time with, if he was such an expert about it, and it turned out that the answer was none at all! But he kept insisting he was right, because of his older brothers telling him stuff and all that."

"My house has a poor reputation, Harry. Mr. Weasley will have heard many tales of Slytherin failings from his relatives which doubtless by now he views as established fact. And as you know, my behaviour as a Professor in past years wasn't all that it should be."

Harry nodded. "I get that, but you once told me not to judge people by their house affiliation when I go to Hogwarts, and instead I should get to know them first before deciding if I like them or not. I repeated that to Ron, but he claimed you'd probably just said it so you could trick me into trusting you."

I rolled my eyes. "As if you could be so easily deceived, even if I wished to try that, which I don't."

"I know. I mean, it's totally good advice. If he'd heard it from Dumbledore or Professor McGonagall then he'd be fine with it. And then he said that he was telling me all this for my own good, because I obviously needed someone to fight my corner against 'people who might want to take advantage of me'. By which he meant you."

"It wasn't a successful visit then, from what I'm hearing."

"It definitely didn't begin very well. I told Ron to change the subject, so he did, and we were okay for a while but it all started up again later. Mrs. Weasley asked him to tidy his room before we went out to the garden and he moaned about it for ages. I even said I'd help, but he still complained. He's got the best Mum and Dad ever, but he seemed to think his life was awful and he was really hard done by or something… I didn't like it. I could feel myself getting all angry inside."

"Did you say anything to him about that?"

"Sort of. I told him how lucky I thought he was to live in this nice place with his family. He didn't seem to think so, though. But I really lost my temper when I talked about you taking me on holiday and he said, why didn't I go on holiday with my family like a normal person? So then I explained about the Dursleys and what they were like, but he didn't seem to believe me. He said they can't really be that bad surely, and maybe I was exaggerating a bit. So I shouted at him, then I ran off and I wouldn't come back into the house."

"I see. No wonder you were upset," I said, feeling a wave of anger towards the Weasley boy for his thoughtless words.

"Yeah… I mean, he just didn't seem to understand. Maybe nobody can, if they haven't met the Dursleys."

"Even so, he shouldn't have accused you of exaggerating. I can imagine that you'd be hurt and offended by not being believed."

"I was. But it was more than just that," Harry said. "When you brought me here, I was so excited at making friends with another wizard my age, someone just like me. So when we had this quarrel, I felt like I'd messed up everything, which meant I'd go back to having no friends in my year at Hogwarts. I even thought that Ron might say bad things about me to all of the other magical kids he knows and turn them against me, so they'd all hate me before I even got onto the Hogwarts Express."

I put my arm around his shoulder. "I'm truly sorry that you had such a dreadful time last Saturday, Harry."

"It was bad," he agreed, leaning against me. "But things are better now. Ron said sorry later on and we made up with each other. And after you were hurt, I was really upset and he could see that. While we were waiting for news, he kept trying to cheer me up by telling me about all of the awful things his older brothers had been in hospital for at Hogwarts, and about how the healer lady there had cured them in no time. He was really nice about it."

"I see. Well, it's true that Madam Pomfrey is an excellent healer."

"Ron even said that his brothers Fred and George claim to have set a Hogwarts record for the highest number of admissions to the hospital wing in a single week. Is that true?"

"I don't know, but I can tell you that the Weasley twins are firm believers in self-experimentation when it comes to magic and they have been injured numerous times as a result, which hasn't deterred them in the slightest. I once discovered them in a corridor on the second floor of the castle, lying on the floor and laughing heartily. They had managed to turn their legs into bananas, which naturally weren't really suitable for walking around with. They both considered this to be terrifically amusing. At the point when I arrived, they were trying to come up with as many banana-related jokes as they could."

"Did you hear any of them?" Harry asked eagerly.

"Yes, sadly so. Tell me, what is yellow and travels very fast?"

Harry grinned. "I don't know."

"A banana strapped to a broomstick." I pulled a mock-disgusted face at this, and Harry laughed.

"The Weasley twins sound a lot of fun. I'm looking forward to meeting them. And I think Ron and I are going to be friends. He did his best to cheer me up this week, whenever I was a bit sad. But probably we'll never think the same way about Slytherin stuff. We've basically had to not talk about any of it during the last week so that we could avoid arguing. Mind you, Ron was a bit sorry about what happened to you. He said that maybe he was partly to blame, because if the two of us hadn't quarrelled then I wouldn't have climbed that tree in the first place."

"Well, that's true but as I said, I was to blame for my fall and nobody else. Fortunately, I'm quite well now. I'm also pleased that you still want to be friends with Mr. Weasley. It's good that you will have a companion in your own year at school from the very start."

"I know. I thought maybe we'd never be friends at first, but now I feel better about Ron. I told him some more about the Dursleys and he took back what he said about me exaggerating about them."

"I'm very glad to hear it. A friend who doesn't believe you when you speak about things that are important to you is no friend at all."

"Yeah, that's true. I do like Ron, but sometimes I have to be careful when I'm talking to him, and not just about Slytherin stuff. Over the last week, I've figured out that there are some other things it's best not to mention – money, for example. I think Ron feels bad because he doesn't have much pocket money and a lot of his things are hand-me-downs. He's a bit touchy about it."

"That's understandable. When I was his age, I had very little. My clothes were shabby and I looked a bit of a state, to be honest with you. Your Aunt Petunia used to mock me because of them. I was touchy about it too."

"I do understand," Harry said earnestly. "I mean, before you started coming to see me, I had nothing of my own at all really. So I'm trying to not stress him out by making sure I don't talk about expensive stuff."

"That's very sensible, but don't spend too much time worrying over it. You can't hide everything that's important to you, nor should you be expected to. By the way, how have you got on with his sister?"

"With Ginny? Yeah, okay I suppose. She's really shy and doesn't say much when I'm around. Ron talks a lot about all of his older brothers, so I kind of feel as if I know them already."

"Well, I am sure that you will like the elder Weasley children when you meet them – but don't believe everything that the twins tell you. So, perhaps we should be on our way. Do you have anything to take back with you?"

"Yes, Ron loaned me a few of his books. We said that we'd write to each other. The Weasley owls are away right now or I'd ask you to put that spell on them so that they can get to Privet Drive, but Vess can take letters back and forward in the meantime. Did you know, he flew to me here without being asked, all on his own?"

"I'm not surprised; owls are highly intelligent creatures. Where is he now, by the way?"

"He's on his way back to Privet Drive – I sent him back there an hour ago."

Harry fetched the books and we made our way downstairs. "Mr. and Mrs Weasley, many thanks for hosting Harry, especially at short notice."

"Oh, well that's no problem at all," Mrs Weasley replied, giving him a fond smile. "He's welcome any time. Did Harry mention to you about Christmas? We thought he could stay for a week or two, any dates that suit."

"Yes. I'll check if he can come."

"And yourself, Professor? You're more than welcome to join us on Christmas Day for lunch."

"It's kind of you, but as head of Slytherin I need to remain at Hogwarts for Christmas lunch. Might I perhaps call around on Boxing Day to drop off Harry's gifts? I wouldn't disturb you for long."

"Why wait until the day after Christmas?" Mr. Weasley asked jovially. "A child should have their presents on the day itself, I think. Now, can you be here before or after lunch?"

"Not before, no. After lunch would be possible, but are you sure? I don't wish to intrude."

"Not at all, you'd be very welcome. Well then, perhaps around 6pm?"

"Won't I be disturbing your family party?"

"Oh no," Mr. Weasley assured me. "By that time, everyone will have finished their dinner and be full up; they'll all be lazing around and doing very little. The children will probably have taken their presents up to their rooms by then and be messing around with them there."

Well, that didn't sound too bad. By now, Harry was gazing up at me soulfully; as I've mentioned before, he has a great knack for effectively applying visual pressure. I allowed myself to be persuaded. "In that case, I'd be happy to call around then. Thank you."

"Drop us a note to confirm when Harry will arrive, would you?" Mrs. Weasley said cheerfully. "I'm sure his relatives won't mind him coming to us, and if Albus Dumbledore kicks up a fuss then I'll send him a letter which will soon have him changing his mind!"

"I'll be in touch," I said with a nod.

At this point, Ronald Weasley came in via the front door. I immediately noticed that he looked guilty – as an experienced Professor, I can spot a guilt-ridden look on a child's face from half a mile away – but I assumed that he was just thinking about the argument with Harry, so I gave it no further thought. Anyway, after Harry said his goodbyes and we all uttered a few more expressions of mutual goodwill, the two of us apparated back to Surrey.

Securing an agreement for Harry to join the Weasleys at Christmas proved unexpectedly easy to obtain. The Headmaster raised no objections, and the Dursleys were pleased that Harry would "not be under their feet" for much of the holidays, especially during the time while his Aunt Marge and her still universally placid dog were visiting. It was decided therefore that he'd stay over at the Burrow from December 22nd to 29th; the Weasleys would have allowed a longer visit, but Harry wanted to spend some time with Stuart during the Christmas break as well.

I knew that the time had come where my relationship to Harry was about to become general knowledge within the magical world. After all, I could hardly bring him to a home filled with multiple school-age Weasleys and expect them all to keep it a secret. This meant that I'd need to take the Headmaster up on his offer of assistance in that regard before term's end. I made a mental note to talk to him about this as soon as possible.

On my next scheduled visit to see Harry, he wanted to discuss our Christmas arrangements in detail. I found that he was keen to visit the Somerset House ice rink when it opened again, and we made plans for several skating sessions. Attending another pantomime, however, was firmly ruled out. "I had fun at Jack and the Beanstalk last year, but pantomime shows are for little kids," Harry said, his stern gaze clearly instructing me not to contradict him.

I nodded with due gravity, because Harry had become rather sensitive on the subject of his age of late and this was a subject that was absolutely off limits for any form of teasing. Anything which he associated with 'little kids' was immediately dismissed. He had even started to refer to himself as being "nearly eleven".

"Of course, Harry. Is there anything else which you would like to do instead?"

"Umm… maybe the cinema, if there's something good on. And I was thinking about paintballing. Nathan told me about it – you go round a course dressed up as soldiers, and you have these guns filled with balls of paint and you fire them at each other. It sounds brilliant!"

To him, perhaps; to me, it sounded horrendous. As adults have done since time began, I attempted to get away with a non-committal answer. "Well, we'll have to look into that."

And as children have done since time began, Harry did not allow me to dodge the question. "But can we go? I really want to. Please?"

I sighed and accepted the inevitable. "Yes, if we can find somewhere open over the Christmas period. I'll check on that and let you know."

"Great! Thanks, Professor."

I sighed again, heavily. "The things I do for you…"

Harry giggled. "I think you'll like it."

I shook my head at him. "Let's not go too far. Now Harry, I have a favour to ask of you."

"What is it?"

"Well, you know that so far there are very few people in the wizarding world who know about the connection between us?"

"Yes, just Josh and the Weasleys, and the Headmaster."

"And also several of the Hogwarts Professors, including Professor McGonagall. As you may recall, she helped me with persuading the Dursleys to let me see you regularly. Well, obviously everyone will know about my role in your life once you come to school, and I've been concerned that when they learn of it, their reaction will be similar to Ronald Weasley's."

"You mean they'll think you're trying to corrupt me or something stupid like that?"

"Exactly. Now, the Headmaster has offered to help me out in this respect by being seen with us in public for a couple of hours in Diagon Alley. I thought perhaps that Professor McGonagall could come along as well. We would quietly alert the Daily Prophet's photographer to be there, and they would take a few pictures of us so that they could write a suitable article for the paper. But what would you think of that idea? You can say no if you want to, I absolutely don't mind."

"It's fine – I'm happy to do it, if it would help you."

"Thank you. I believe it would. It'll be your first visit there without us altering your appearance, so people will be able to see you as Harry Potter for once."

"I don't suppose it'll make that much difference," Harry said carelessly. "I think you're wrong when you say that people will fuss over me, just because I'm the Boy Who Lived. I mean, that stuff all happened years ago. So when would we do it?"

"Well, perhaps on my next visit. The Christmas celebrations at the Weasleys may lead to the news leaking out, if it's postponed for much longer."

"Okay, that's fine. What would we be shopping for?"

"Oh, nothing specific – perhaps a few early Christmas gifts."

"We can't do that if someone's going to be following us around with a camera!" he said scornfully. "Then there'd be a picture of the present we were buying in the paper."

"Well, perhaps just general browsing then. You can pick up some owl treats and so on."

Thus it was arranged, and both Professor McGonagall and the Headmaster were more than willing to spend a couple of hours in Diagon Alley with us. The Headmaster also came up with a rather clever idea.

"You know Severus," he said to me when we were discussing this topic, "you have a valuable asset available to you in this matter whom you should now deploy."

"I do?"

"Yes – your friend Mr. Hutchinson, of course. He knows all about your links to Harry, and thus he could do a lot to smooth your way within the school, reputationally speaking. I'm aware that you've encouraged him to be discreet about things up to now, but you could consider asking him to switch to being indiscreet, when the time is right."

Which, of course, was an excellent suggestion. Joshua was all too willing to support me in this regard when asked. I told him not to say anything until the subject was widely known about, at which point he was free to speak of what he knew about my relationship with Harry. (This simple plan was unexpectedly to result in Joshua becoming the centre of all gossip at Hogwarts for a short but tumultuous period of time, and even for him to be mentioned in the Daily Prophet – "Muggleborn Hogwarts student champions Slytherin Professor!" Fortunately, he considered all of this to be much more entertaining than I would have done, and indeed he flourished under the intense scrutiny like a plant in the midday sun).

Bur prior to that, there was the tricky matter of discussing things with the Slytherins. I decided to lay my cards on the table a couple of days before our visit to Diagon Alley, and to do this I summoned the six Slytherin prefects to my office for a meeting. Usually I had a fairly good feel for how the Slytherins would react to any news which I was giving them, but there were exceptions to that rule and this was one of them. I considered however that the prefects would act as a good representative sample of the Slytherin students overall, because they themselves were a mixed bunch. To be specific;

* Carys Litchfield, Amritha Prasad and Dilys Glendennon were from families who were officially neutral during the war, and often light–leaning on specific issues since that time.

* Mikhail Tremlett's family had decamped abroad in panic until the war ended, and they wanted nothing to do with politics in any form.

* Tiberius Glasson had a family with strong blood purist leanings and was therefore possessed of several dead Death Eater relatives as a result.

* And finally, Eridinius Pike's family had a couple of members who had 'been under the Imperius'. (Well, we all know what that means).

So, after dealing with a few minor items, I turned to the matter at hand. "Finally, I need to discuss an issue with you which is personal to myself, but which also has relevance to school life. A young friend of mine is coming to Hogwarts as a student next year. I am connected to his family, and I have known some of them since my own childhood. The reason I mention this is that the boy's name is Harry Potter."

There was a dead silence in the room. The six prefects stared at me, their faces initially blank with surprise and then focused, sharp with concentration, as they tried to work out the implications.

Carys Litchfield raised a hand. "This might be a stupid question Professor, but we are talking about the actual Boy Who Lived, right?"

"That's correct."

"I suppose I should have realised that he'd be at Hogwarts next year," Tiberius Glasson said slowly. "It's been nine years since…"

"Yes, he will be eleven this summer," I confirmed.

"Where has he been all this time? He's never been seen in Diagon Alley or anything."

"Well, you will be seeing him there from now on," I replied, evading the question in a manner which did not go unnoticed.

Eridinius Pike frowned. "But after what he did, surely – well, I mean, there are a lot of people who have relatives in the cemetery or Azkaban because of him."

"Was it really because of him?" I replied calmly. "The war was much wider in scope than a single person, especially one who was still a small child at the time it ended and wasn't even alive for most of it."

"He stopped the war, though, didn't he Sir?"

"Accidentally so, yes. Of course, we don't know every detail as to what happened that night."

"We know that he survived and the Dark Lord didn't," Tiberius Glasson interjected sharply.

"True. However, Harry Potter made no active decisions in the matter which gave him his fame; as I say, he was little more than a baby then, and none of it was within his control. He can't help his background, of course." I watched as they all looked at each other, clearly unsure what to make of the situation.

"I suppose Dumbledore will keep a close eye on him when he arrives," Mikhail Tremlett said thoughtfully. "Do you think he'll intervene directly?"

"That hasn't been discussed yet, but it's possible. Additional measures may be required to ensure Mr. Potter's safety."

"Do you think people might attack him?" Dilys Glendennon asked curiously. "I mean, some people do have strong opinions about the war, and even now, it doesn't feel like it was that long ago."

"You are correct," I replied calmly. "But as I say, none of it was his fault and that should be remembered. Harry Potter is under my personal protection, and I would like everyone to appreciate that fact."

"What do you want us to do, Professor?" Amritha Prasad enquired. From her, this was a typical question; I rather approved of her strongly task-oriented approach to life.

"Spread the news amongst the Slytherins, if you would. Encourage them to come to me if they have any questions or concerns. Advise them that this is expected to be a story in the Daily Prophet within the next week, and I would prefer them not to speak of it more widely, i.e. outside this house, until that point."

"Why will it be in the Daily Prophet, Sir?"

"Because we are arranging for it to be," I said with a smile. "The Headmaster and Professor McGonagall are soon to accompany myself and Mr. Potter on a visually documented trip to Diagon Alley. A little positive publicity seemed like a good plan; I wouldn't want the world at large to get the wrong idea about me."

I saw them nodding, glancing at each other, making logical connections.

"How did you get the Headmaster to support you in this, Professor?" Eridinius Pike asked. He was a carefree type of person as a rule, but he looked rather agitated now.

"Oh, that wasn't too difficult – he understood the reasoning behind my request. And incidentally, you should be aware that my assistant Mr. Hutchinson already knows all about it. He is acquainted with Mr. Potter as well, you see."

This news seemed to cause some disquiet. They all knew about Joshua Hutchinson's role, and most Slytherins were amused by it; they assumed that I strung him along in some way to get a lot of unpaid work out of him, and I didn't disabuse them of this notion. Actually, that belief offered Joshua a certain amount of protection, since few Slytherins would target a muggleborn who also worked as their head of house's aide. But they didn't like the idea that he'd found out about this before they had, I suspected.

"You do understand, I hope, that a Hufflepuff student like him – a muggleborn – will be of considerable help to me in taking the sting out of any negative opinions within the school. Naturally, I have therefore chosen to deploy him as an asset." There were a few of nods of support at this. I wondered what they'd say if they knew I was basically repeating the Headmaster's words.

Tiberius Glasson looked at me curiously. "Are you using Harry Potter in some way, Professor?"

"No," I said shortly.

"Oh, I see," he replied, clearly not seeing at all. "Well, I don't suppose there's any chance he'll sort into Slytherin, is there?"

"I think that is highly improbable."

"What's he like?"

"He's an intelligent person who gets on well with others. He's confident and able to stand up for himself if needed, but he has no desire to start any fights. He has no anti-Slytherin bias. He's aware of his celebrity status but he has no interest in it; really, he's just a normal ten year old boy."

"Why didn't you tell us any of this before?" Carys Litchfield asked, sounding offended.

"Because previously it has not been relevant to Hogwarts. I am entitled to a private life, Miss Litchfield."

She blushed, but stood her ground. "Yes Sir, but what are the other Slytherins going to think?"

"That is your task to discover, together with your fellow prefects. I would like you all to take the temperature of house feeling on this matter and report back to me."

"Some of them won't like it," Amritha Prasad warned. "In fact, I think many of them won't."

"You may be right. If a few Slytherins have a problem with it then I'm happy to discuss this with them, though it won't change the basic facts. If most Slytherins have a problem with it then I'm willing to resign as head of house."

"Resign?" she said, looking shocked. Indeed, they all seemed alarmed at the notion, which gave me hope of weathering this particular storm. "But surely Sir, that won't be necessary?"

"I do hope not," I said, smiling. "I'd rather not resign, you know, but I wish the students of Slytherin to understand that if they no longer have confidence in me then I will step down without any fuss. Professor Sinistra has covered for me in my absence and would make an effective replacement."

"Speaking personally, I'd rather not have the hassle of breaking in a new head of house during my OWLs year," Dilys Glendennon drawled, making the others laugh and breaking the tension in the process.

I nodded at her approvingly. "You have an admirable focus on the main priorities, Miss Glendennon."

"It's just strange, though… Harry Potter coming to Hogwarts!"

I smiled. "It's strange right now, but after a few days of his first term you'll probably just see him as another inky-fingered first year, moaning about how boring History of Magic lessons are and how many stairs he has to walk up and down every day." Several of them smirked at this. "Any further questions? No? Well in that case, we're all finished. Thank you for your time. I'll await your report."

I watched them leave, feeling optimistic about the future. You can't have everything in life and my priority now was Harry, but I would always want to be there for the Slytherins if they'd let me.

The trip to Diagon Alley was all that I required of it. Harry had his first real brush with fame that day, since he wore no disguise for once, and also Dumbledore deliberately boomed out his name for all to hear when we arrived. I couldn't help but smirk when I saw the horrified look on Harry's face as the excited patrons of the Leaky Cauldron gathered round to shake his hand and tell him how honoured they were to meet him. Once that was finished, we walked the length of the street with Professor McGonagall and the Headmaster, conversing with anyone who wanted to speak to us. There wasn't much actual shopping done, apart from a few owl-related purchases and a couple of new books. Harry got on well with Professor McGonagall, although he told me afterwards that she seemed quite stern and he hoped her classes wouldn't be too hard for him. I said she was, and they wouldn't be; he did not seem reassured by this.

And there we were the next Monday morning on the front cover of the Daily Prophet, as if four people going shopping was a newsworthy incident. We had spoken briefly to the reporter while in Diagon Alley and they'd used several photographs, including a picture of Harry looking at me engagingly. (I'd teased him later that day about being a natural in front of the camera and suggested that he consider a career in modelling. He was not amused by this). The Prophet also included some wholesome quotes Harry provided about how nice I'd been to him this last year and how much he was looking forward to spending time with me at Hogwarts. Of course, most of the non-Slytherin students knew nothing about our little plot in advance and there was a storm of excited babbling as they read the paper that day. I saw Joshua quicky become the centre of attention at the Hufflepuff table while the matter was talked through. People were staring at me as if I'd grown an extra head; I found it all rather comical.

It took the rest of the week for the furore relating to my friendship with Harry to die down. I wouldn't say that I evaded all suspicion from the world at large, but the visible backing of the Headmaster, Professor McGonagall and Joshua Hutchinson did a lot to help me out in that respect. Having said that, I was still required to field questions from a number of concerned Slytherin parents and students. One irate third-year Slytherin burst into my office at one point and asked me why I was "sucking up to the evil boy who killed our beloved Dark Lord." I spent ten minutes pointing out in detail how wrong he was – not that he was convinced, but you have to try. Another said that her mother went to school with me and she was shocked at how changed I was. (Well, in all fairness, so was I). But there were also plenty of Slytherin students who quietly indicated to me that they approved of my actions and felt that they brought credit to our house. I had polarised opinions, and not for the first time.

One soon to be Hogwarts parent who wanted to discuss the matter with me personally was Lucius Malfoy. I received an elegantly crafted letter from him the day after the newspaper article ran, asking if he could 'drop by' the next evening. Naturally, I gave my consent. I have a certain fondness for Lucius, I have to admit. During my rocky first year at school he'd been kind to me, if in a rather superior manner. In later years he had been my fellow Death Eater (not my finest hour, obviously) and after that we stayed in touch and met up regularly. In fact, we had been on friendly terms for some years now and got on well. And so I invited him to join me in my sitting room on his arrival, rather than use my office as I normally would, and offered him refreshments.

"Thank you, but no," Lucius replied with a lazy smile. "I had tea with the Minister just half an hour ago, so nothing more is needed just yet."

"More ministerial chatter? How tiresome for you."

"Indeed, but when duty calls…"

"Quite." I sipped my own drink and waited for him to make the opening move.

"I saw your picture in the Daily Prophet on Monday," he commented. "I noticed that you had on a light blue cloak. I've rarely seen you in anything other than dark colours. The Headmaster also wore blue, as I recall. If I was the suspicious type, I might deduce that you expected to have your photograph taken that day and had coordinated your clothing accordingly."

I smiled. "Since I'm speaking to another Slytherin, I won't deny that the trip was planned out in advance. Appearances are important, after all. Who knows that better than you, Lucius?"

"Hmm… am I to worry?"

"About what?"

"Divided loyalties."

"I should hope not. I believe that I have my loyalties and priorities clear in my mind."

"Really? This was a very public statement, Severus. I regret the necessity for saying this, but you seem for all intents and purposes to have turned your back on what is important."

"And would you like to tell me exactly what you mean by that?"

"You don't need me to tell you," he said, giving me a hard stare. "The Slytherins. Our heritage, our culture. You are the head of Slytherin, which means that you must espouse those values in all ways that count."

"And I do, every day. My connection to Harry Potter doesn't change that. He was a small child, Lucius. Whatever happened that night was not his fault."

"He is more than just a child though, isn't he?"

"Yes, he is," I replied thoughtfully. "I believe that he is an instrument of destiny. I also believe that anyone who moves to within his orbit has the potential to become such an instrument themselves, either for better or worse – and this could, of course, include Draco."

Lucius seemed to freeze for a moment, and then he shook off my words. "Naturally I am concerned about Draco as well. He will be in the same year as Potter."

"Yes, and I suspect, knowing them both, that they'll dislike each other tremendously," I said with amusement. "Still, a little healthy rivalry does no harm to anyone, as long as those concerned maintain roughly equal status."

"Draco is more than anyone's equal!" Lucius said sharply. "My son will be the pre-eminent student of his year. And up to this point, I had been counting upon you to guide him through his schooldays. Now, however, I am not so sure that you are the correct person for that task. Perhaps I should discuss this issue with some of the other parents."

I shrugged, unconcerned by his words. "Please do, if you consider that to be the appropriate course of action. Or you can approach the Slytherin students. It will be interesting to see whether they agree with you. I have offered to step down as head of Slytherin if they no longer have confidence in me. I'd be sorry to go, but I must do what is best for the students."

"And what if they call your bluff?" he asked, a touch of malice in his voice.

My eyes met his. "It is not a bluff, Lucius."

He stood up. "You are playing with fire, Severus," he said grimly.

"Well, that's a good way to come in from the cold, don't you think?"

Lucius looked hard at me. "I shall remember this conversation," he said. With a curt nod of his head, he stood up and strode out of the room.

The Slytherin students took ten days to think the matter over (and with plenty of writing home as well, I expect), before the prefects reported back that they appreciated my willingness to abide by their views and after talking it through, the decision was made that there was no need for me to resign and no more had to be said about it. I don't know if Lucius attempted to take any significant actions against me, but if so then he was clearly unsuccessful. He sent me an expensive bottle of red wine a week or so later as a peace offering, with a note apologising for any offence caused by his "ill-chosen and ill-advised words", and assuring me that he had full confidence in my leadership of Slytherin. This wasn't really necessary of course, but then Lucius was never one to neglect the finer details.