Disclaimer: J K Rowling owns Harry Potter and its characters.
I'm just borrowing them to torture - ahem - to explore their
world
and characters. Yeah, that's it. .;
The
boy's eyes hadn't left the ceiling from the moment they'd entered the
Great Hall. Severus had almost decided that the boy's head was
now locked in that position when lunch was served. The boy tore
his gaze away from the magical sky in order to cautiously poke and prod
at a couple of dishes, and sip at his goblet of pumpkin juice - all of
which were promptly abandoned upon the arrival of the Bones contingent.
In Severus' experience, family gatherings were roughly equivalent to being subjected to a fleeting cruciatus curse. It did not seem that the current occasion, with several teary-eyed women already wailing at each other, would convince him otherwise. Rising from the table, he deliberately did not look at Dumbledore as he stalked towards the open doors. Only upon reaching them did he make his mistake - glancing back at the throng, only to be mesmerized by the sight of the boy easing his slight form alongside the table away from the Bones, even as his eyes remained fixed upon them.
Swearing under his breath, Severus marched back up the length of the Hall towards the seemingly oblivious Headmaster, who was engaged in conversation with one Amelia Bones.
"Headmaster," he spoke in low tones, when he had managed to capture the man's attention, "I will start assessing the Potter boy's capabilities now. There is no sense in delaying, as he has no family with which to reacquaint himself."
"There are other people besides family who wish to renew old friendships, Severus," the old man twinkled at him, nodding back to where the boy was still slinking into the shadows. Severus blinked as he realised what was causing one of the shadows, a sense of foreboding rising within him.
"'Arry!" Hogwarts' enormous Groundskeeper lumbered towards the tiny lad, who stared up at him with green eyes the only visible colour in his pale face. "You was jus' a lil' tyke the las' time I saw yah! Now look at yah!"
Severus raised his wand an instant too late. The doors slammed shut just behind the boy's retreating form, while Hagrid blinked bemusedly at the empty air his huge hands held. A hush blanketed the hall, as the Bones looked amongst one another for answers.
"Oh dear," said Dumbledore - and looked at Severus, who barely managed to swallow the curse that danced so temptingly upon the tip of his tongue. Instead, he simply nodded curtly and made his way past the Bones once more, pausing briefly to glance at Christopher and Helen. Christopher only shrugged his shoulders slightly, but Helen carefully placed Barnabas on the ground, whispering in the cat's ear.
"Barnabas will help you," she said shyly, before shrinking back to her brother's side.
Severus looked at the cat. The cat looked at Severus.
"Mreow," said Barnabas, and trotted over to the doors to the Entrance Hall. "Mreow!"
"Yes, yes," Severus muttered as he followed, pushing the doors open to enable the cat and himself to pass. He briefly considered asking the portraits about the boy, but Barnabas was already heading off down a corridor at a rapid pace. Lengthening his stride, he caught up with the feline in short order - and nearly tripped when the cat came to an abrupt halt.
Severus's lips quirked in amusement as he saw the reason why the cat had stopped - the boy was frantically trying to remove one foot from where it had sunk into the staircase. It seemed the trick stairs that could be so very annoying at times had their uses after all.
"Mreow!" Barnabas darted up the stairs, winding himself around the boy's trapped leg. The boy stopped his struggles to reach down to pet him, pausing briefly in mid-action before turning his head towards Severus, who met the doubled green gazes evenly as he climbed the stairs. Brushing past the boy and cat, he turned a couple of steps above them, looking down on the pair from above, seated himself on a step, and waited.
The boy began to fidget. Severus said nothing. Resuming his struggles, the boy cast ever-darkening glares at the professor, who simple observed with a growing smirk on his lips.
"P-p-please!" the boy cried out at last, his face pink with frustration and embarrassment.
"Please what?"
The boy scowled. "P-p-p-please, ow-out!"
"Students are to address their teachers with proper respect."
The scowl deepened. "P-p-pr-prof- prof-"
"'Sir' will do, boy."
"Ss-ssir," the boy echoed sibilantly, his face flushed bright red.
"I find it a curious thing," said Severus after a moment's pause, "that Hogwarts may trap a mouse where I could not."
The boy pursed his lips, and remained silent.
"Back in the alley you repelled my attempts cast spells directly upon you, as you did Madam Pomfrey's diagnostic spells. Yet here you are, held fast by a simple trick step. Why is that, I wonder?"
"D-di-diff-diff-differrr-rrent."
Severus raised his eyebrows.
"Ssssirr." The honorific was delivered in an exasperated hiss.
Severus considered the ramifications of his next question a moment before continuing. "How is it different?"
The boy blinked at him.
"You broke the wards preventing you from leaving my home."
The boy frowned, and shook his head. "Ss-ssslow. Old. N-n-not m-me."
Severus was surprised to find that actually made sense. In casting the new wards on his home, he had actually drawn upon the old existing magic that lay within its very foundations. It made the new wards more durable than they would otherwise have been, with decades of established magical energies to reinforce them. The wards were also not spells cast directly onto the boy himself, which therefore did not immediately confront the boy's rather impressive instinctive defences.
Similarly, the trick step was not trying to change the boy at all, merely holding him in place - and Hogwarts was far older than his own family home, with a thousand years of history behind it. The boy could likely free himself from the step in time, but it would take several hours at the very least.
Reaching out, the professor tugged the boy's sleeve up to reveal the charm bracelet that still graced the thin wrist.
"This does not directly affect you either, and yet you have broken the tracking charm placed upon it. How did you manage to accomplish that, little mouse?"
The boy lifted his wrist, staring at the golden bracelet, then shook his head in denial, thrusting it out before him.
Frowning, Severus examined the charms one by one. Each and every charm was still active - but the signal on the tracking charm had been repressed to the point where it was practically useless. He returned his gaze to the boy with narrowed eyes.
"You can sense the magic." It wasn't a question. "Tell me what each of these charms is for."
The boy frowned for a moment before sighing heavily. "F-f-find," he said, tapping the first charm with one finger before moving on to the next. "S-ssafe. Lu-lucky. Ha-ha-ha-happy. F-fr-friendsss. Mo-mon-money. H-h-home."
Severus nodded along with the identification of each, even as he wondered how the boy was able to sense and analyse the magic so easily. "Now, return the locator charm to normal," he ordered, earning himself a sharp look. Severus raised one eyebrow at him. "Or perhaps, little mouse, you would prefer to chance waiting for hours the next time your paw is caught in a trap?"
After due consideration, the boy resignedly focussed his attention on the specified charm. Several minutes passed before he presented it for inspection again. This time the charm responded as intended when Severus cast its counterpart. It would easily suffice to locate the boy anywhere on Hogwarts grounds.
Letting his wrist drop back to his side, the boy tugged at his leg irritably, and promptly fell forward onto Severus as the professor released him from the step.
The boy's skin was icy upon his own.
"Didn't Mrs Bones ever teach you a warming spell?" the wizard grumbled as he set the boy on his feet and pulled out his wand.
"C-c-can't." The boy's cheeks were pink once again - but still cold against the back of Severus' assessing hand.
"Why not?"
"C-can't d-do-do m-mmagic."
The professor stared at him incredulously. "Don't be an imbecile. You performed magic on that charm just now."
The boy's face screwed up in frustration. He wrapped his arms around himself even as he shivered. "C-c-can't s-ss-ssay w-w-wo-wor-wordsss!"
"Did I somehow become deaf when you said the words to make the locator charm work again?" Severus snarled in irritation. "Use your head! Magic is far more than words or wand waving - you've already proved that. Just think of how the magic should be formed, and do it!"
Green eyes blinked up at him blankly, before narrowing in concentration.
"Mreow!"
The cat's cry snapped Severus' attention away from the boy's eyes in time to douse the flames that had started to dance across the boy's clothing with a flick of his wand.
"I say!" came the cry from a portrait nearby. "What have we ever done to you?!" Looking up, Severus discovered the portrait's frame to be slightly scorched, its inhabitant most affronted.
Frowning, he turned back to the boy who stood swaying in his charred clothes. His own had a certain singed quality about them, as well.
"Perhaps a warm bath would have been better," he mused, brushing away ashes.
The boy blanched at the 'b' word, and promptly fainted. Severus had to lunge forward awkwardly to stop him tumbling down the stairs.
"I suppose I brought that down on myself," he muttered sourly as he scooped the limp boy into his arms.
"Mreow," agreed Barnabas.
"Nobody asked you."
The solution for the boy's aversion to baths naturally created a new problem: the boy proved quite enamoured with the concept of a hot shower, to the point where he only abandoned it upon Severus' threat to transfigure it into a bath.
"Sit there," the professor ordered when the boy emerged from the bathroom, a shrunken set of Severus' robes draped around him. The boy obeyed, scuttling into the chair and perching upon it, peering at Severus expectantly. A quill, inkpot and parchment were placed in front of him.
"Write about your first experience with magic, Mr Potter, in as much detail as you can manage."
The small hand froze in the process of reaching for the quill. He looked up at Severus accusingly.
"You do know how to read and write, don't you, Potter?"
"Mm-mouse." Green eyes met his stubbornly.
Severus snorted. "Amusing as it is to hear a Potter disowning his name, it is your name. If you can give me an adequate explanation as to why I should call you by something other than your name, I may consider it. Until then, write."
The boy glared, but turned his attention towards the parchment, quill scratching erratically across it. Severus stepped closer to read the childish script, and promptly wiped the parchment blank.
"While I do not expect miracles, Potter, I do expect obedience," he snapped.
"Do-don't remem-mem-mem - " He shut his mouth fast and dropped the quill to the desk, curling his knees up beneath his chin and frowning furiously at the blank parchment.
Placing one hand on the desk, Severus leaned in close, staring at the boy until green eyes raised to meet his gaze.
"If you have something to say, Potter, then make use of whatever lies in that thick skull of yours and write it down!"
The boy blinked - and snaked his hand under the professor's arm to reclaim the fallen quill. Slowly, Severus moved away, simply watching as the tip of the quill rested in mid-air just above the parchment. The boy met his gaze briefly before once again starting to write - and this time write he did. He was still writing when a house elf appeared to inform them that Dumbledore requested their presence in the Great Hall.
Dismissing the house elf, Severus turned to find the boy staring with wide eyes.
"That was a house elf. They perform a number of duties around Hogwarts, including general housekeeping and preparation of meals, although they are not commonly observed whilst doing so."
The frozen expression on the boy's face gradually relaxed - until Severus held out his hand expectantly. Once again apprehensive, the boy handed over his parchment, and then waited, massaging his hand surreptitiously.
The boy's handwriting was atrocious, to say the least, but not completely indecipherable. He glanced through the first few lines, intending to read it more thoroughly after they had seen the Headmaster. A few minutes later he found himself staring at the boy who was fiddling with his robes nervously.
"The Headmaster is waiting," he said, rolling the parchment up and placing it in his pocket. He walked to the door, holding it open for the boy. "Little mouse."
The boy's lips quirked, his brows furrowing lightly before he shrugged his shoulders and followed Severus up to the Great Hall.
The Bones' gathering had dwindled to no more than half a dozen - thankfully, old Mrs Bones was not included among them. Christopher and Helen were still there, though, the boy wheeling his chair towards them when they entered.
"Mouse," he said, after darting a brief look at Severus. "We're going to stay with our relatives, now. Until school starts, at least. Did you want to come with us?"
Mouse cast his lingering gaze across the waiting Bones family, then, fleetingly, at Severus before meeting Christopher's eyes once more. Without looking, he reached out swiftly with one hand to simply touch Severus' arm before letting the hand fall by his side once more.
Christopher nodded slowly, eying Severus carefully. "We'll see you when school begins, then."
Helen darted forward to snatch Mouse up in a brief hug, enabling Christopher to ruffle the younger boy's hair before he escaped them both. Smiling at them nonetheless, he wiggled his fingers in farewell, and watched as their family escorted them out of the hall.
Then he turned to Severus with expectant eyes.
Derailed
By lethe medusa
5. A rose by any other name
In Severus' experience, family gatherings were roughly equivalent to being subjected to a fleeting cruciatus curse. It did not seem that the current occasion, with several teary-eyed women already wailing at each other, would convince him otherwise. Rising from the table, he deliberately did not look at Dumbledore as he stalked towards the open doors. Only upon reaching them did he make his mistake - glancing back at the throng, only to be mesmerized by the sight of the boy easing his slight form alongside the table away from the Bones, even as his eyes remained fixed upon them.
Swearing under his breath, Severus marched back up the length of the Hall towards the seemingly oblivious Headmaster, who was engaged in conversation with one Amelia Bones.
"Headmaster," he spoke in low tones, when he had managed to capture the man's attention, "I will start assessing the Potter boy's capabilities now. There is no sense in delaying, as he has no family with which to reacquaint himself."
"There are other people besides family who wish to renew old friendships, Severus," the old man twinkled at him, nodding back to where the boy was still slinking into the shadows. Severus blinked as he realised what was causing one of the shadows, a sense of foreboding rising within him.
"'Arry!" Hogwarts' enormous Groundskeeper lumbered towards the tiny lad, who stared up at him with green eyes the only visible colour in his pale face. "You was jus' a lil' tyke the las' time I saw yah! Now look at yah!"
Severus raised his wand an instant too late. The doors slammed shut just behind the boy's retreating form, while Hagrid blinked bemusedly at the empty air his huge hands held. A hush blanketed the hall, as the Bones looked amongst one another for answers.
"Oh dear," said Dumbledore - and looked at Severus, who barely managed to swallow the curse that danced so temptingly upon the tip of his tongue. Instead, he simply nodded curtly and made his way past the Bones once more, pausing briefly to glance at Christopher and Helen. Christopher only shrugged his shoulders slightly, but Helen carefully placed Barnabas on the ground, whispering in the cat's ear.
"Barnabas will help you," she said shyly, before shrinking back to her brother's side.
Severus looked at the cat. The cat looked at Severus.
"Mreow," said Barnabas, and trotted over to the doors to the Entrance Hall. "Mreow!"
"Yes, yes," Severus muttered as he followed, pushing the doors open to enable the cat and himself to pass. He briefly considered asking the portraits about the boy, but Barnabas was already heading off down a corridor at a rapid pace. Lengthening his stride, he caught up with the feline in short order - and nearly tripped when the cat came to an abrupt halt.
Severus's lips quirked in amusement as he saw the reason why the cat had stopped - the boy was frantically trying to remove one foot from where it had sunk into the staircase. It seemed the trick stairs that could be so very annoying at times had their uses after all.
"Mreow!" Barnabas darted up the stairs, winding himself around the boy's trapped leg. The boy stopped his struggles to reach down to pet him, pausing briefly in mid-action before turning his head towards Severus, who met the doubled green gazes evenly as he climbed the stairs. Brushing past the boy and cat, he turned a couple of steps above them, looking down on the pair from above, seated himself on a step, and waited.
The boy began to fidget. Severus said nothing. Resuming his struggles, the boy cast ever-darkening glares at the professor, who simple observed with a growing smirk on his lips.
"P-p-please!" the boy cried out at last, his face pink with frustration and embarrassment.
"Please what?"
The boy scowled. "P-p-p-please, ow-out!"
"Students are to address their teachers with proper respect."
The scowl deepened. "P-p-pr-prof- prof-"
"'Sir' will do, boy."
"Ss-ssir," the boy echoed sibilantly, his face flushed bright red.
"I find it a curious thing," said Severus after a moment's pause, "that Hogwarts may trap a mouse where I could not."
The boy pursed his lips, and remained silent.
"Back in the alley you repelled my attempts cast spells directly upon you, as you did Madam Pomfrey's diagnostic spells. Yet here you are, held fast by a simple trick step. Why is that, I wonder?"
"D-di-diff-diff-differrr-rrent."
Severus raised his eyebrows.
"Ssssirr." The honorific was delivered in an exasperated hiss.
Severus considered the ramifications of his next question a moment before continuing. "How is it different?"
The boy blinked at him.
"You broke the wards preventing you from leaving my home."
The boy frowned, and shook his head. "Ss-ssslow. Old. N-n-not m-me."
Severus was surprised to find that actually made sense. In casting the new wards on his home, he had actually drawn upon the old existing magic that lay within its very foundations. It made the new wards more durable than they would otherwise have been, with decades of established magical energies to reinforce them. The wards were also not spells cast directly onto the boy himself, which therefore did not immediately confront the boy's rather impressive instinctive defences.
Similarly, the trick step was not trying to change the boy at all, merely holding him in place - and Hogwarts was far older than his own family home, with a thousand years of history behind it. The boy could likely free himself from the step in time, but it would take several hours at the very least.
Reaching out, the professor tugged the boy's sleeve up to reveal the charm bracelet that still graced the thin wrist.
"This does not directly affect you either, and yet you have broken the tracking charm placed upon it. How did you manage to accomplish that, little mouse?"
The boy lifted his wrist, staring at the golden bracelet, then shook his head in denial, thrusting it out before him.
Frowning, Severus examined the charms one by one. Each and every charm was still active - but the signal on the tracking charm had been repressed to the point where it was practically useless. He returned his gaze to the boy with narrowed eyes.
"You can sense the magic." It wasn't a question. "Tell me what each of these charms is for."
The boy frowned for a moment before sighing heavily. "F-f-find," he said, tapping the first charm with one finger before moving on to the next. "S-ssafe. Lu-lucky. Ha-ha-ha-happy. F-fr-friendsss. Mo-mon-money. H-h-home."
Severus nodded along with the identification of each, even as he wondered how the boy was able to sense and analyse the magic so easily. "Now, return the locator charm to normal," he ordered, earning himself a sharp look. Severus raised one eyebrow at him. "Or perhaps, little mouse, you would prefer to chance waiting for hours the next time your paw is caught in a trap?"
After due consideration, the boy resignedly focussed his attention on the specified charm. Several minutes passed before he presented it for inspection again. This time the charm responded as intended when Severus cast its counterpart. It would easily suffice to locate the boy anywhere on Hogwarts grounds.
Letting his wrist drop back to his side, the boy tugged at his leg irritably, and promptly fell forward onto Severus as the professor released him from the step.
The boy's skin was icy upon his own.
"Didn't Mrs Bones ever teach you a warming spell?" the wizard grumbled as he set the boy on his feet and pulled out his wand.
"C-c-can't." The boy's cheeks were pink once again - but still cold against the back of Severus' assessing hand.
"Why not?"
"C-can't d-do-do m-mmagic."
The professor stared at him incredulously. "Don't be an imbecile. You performed magic on that charm just now."
The boy's face screwed up in frustration. He wrapped his arms around himself even as he shivered. "C-c-can't s-ss-ssay w-w-wo-wor-wordsss!"
"Did I somehow become deaf when you said the words to make the locator charm work again?" Severus snarled in irritation. "Use your head! Magic is far more than words or wand waving - you've already proved that. Just think of how the magic should be formed, and do it!"
Green eyes blinked up at him blankly, before narrowing in concentration.
"Mreow!"
The cat's cry snapped Severus' attention away from the boy's eyes in time to douse the flames that had started to dance across the boy's clothing with a flick of his wand.
"I say!" came the cry from a portrait nearby. "What have we ever done to you?!" Looking up, Severus discovered the portrait's frame to be slightly scorched, its inhabitant most affronted.
Frowning, he turned back to the boy who stood swaying in his charred clothes. His own had a certain singed quality about them, as well.
"Perhaps a warm bath would have been better," he mused, brushing away ashes.
The boy blanched at the 'b' word, and promptly fainted. Severus had to lunge forward awkwardly to stop him tumbling down the stairs.
"I suppose I brought that down on myself," he muttered sourly as he scooped the limp boy into his arms.
"Mreow," agreed Barnabas.
"Nobody asked you."
The solution for the boy's aversion to baths naturally created a new problem: the boy proved quite enamoured with the concept of a hot shower, to the point where he only abandoned it upon Severus' threat to transfigure it into a bath.
"Sit there," the professor ordered when the boy emerged from the bathroom, a shrunken set of Severus' robes draped around him. The boy obeyed, scuttling into the chair and perching upon it, peering at Severus expectantly. A quill, inkpot and parchment were placed in front of him.
"Write about your first experience with magic, Mr Potter, in as much detail as you can manage."
The small hand froze in the process of reaching for the quill. He looked up at Severus accusingly.
"You do know how to read and write, don't you, Potter?"
"Mm-mouse." Green eyes met his stubbornly.
Severus snorted. "Amusing as it is to hear a Potter disowning his name, it is your name. If you can give me an adequate explanation as to why I should call you by something other than your name, I may consider it. Until then, write."
The boy glared, but turned his attention towards the parchment, quill scratching erratically across it. Severus stepped closer to read the childish script, and promptly wiped the parchment blank.
"While I do not expect miracles, Potter, I do expect obedience," he snapped.
"Do-don't remem-mem-mem - " He shut his mouth fast and dropped the quill to the desk, curling his knees up beneath his chin and frowning furiously at the blank parchment.
Placing one hand on the desk, Severus leaned in close, staring at the boy until green eyes raised to meet his gaze.
"If you have something to say, Potter, then make use of whatever lies in that thick skull of yours and write it down!"
The boy blinked - and snaked his hand under the professor's arm to reclaim the fallen quill. Slowly, Severus moved away, simply watching as the tip of the quill rested in mid-air just above the parchment. The boy met his gaze briefly before once again starting to write - and this time write he did. He was still writing when a house elf appeared to inform them that Dumbledore requested their presence in the Great Hall.
Dismissing the house elf, Severus turned to find the boy staring with wide eyes.
"That was a house elf. They perform a number of duties around Hogwarts, including general housekeeping and preparation of meals, although they are not commonly observed whilst doing so."
The frozen expression on the boy's face gradually relaxed - until Severus held out his hand expectantly. Once again apprehensive, the boy handed over his parchment, and then waited, massaging his hand surreptitiously.
The boy's handwriting was atrocious, to say the least, but not completely indecipherable. He glanced through the first few lines, intending to read it more thoroughly after they had seen the Headmaster. A few minutes later he found himself staring at the boy who was fiddling with his robes nervously.
"The Headmaster is waiting," he said, rolling the parchment up and placing it in his pocket. He walked to the door, holding it open for the boy. "Little mouse."
The boy's lips quirked, his brows furrowing lightly before he shrugged his shoulders and followed Severus up to the Great Hall.
The Bones' gathering had dwindled to no more than half a dozen - thankfully, old Mrs Bones was not included among them. Christopher and Helen were still there, though, the boy wheeling his chair towards them when they entered.
"Mouse," he said, after darting a brief look at Severus. "We're going to stay with our relatives, now. Until school starts, at least. Did you want to come with us?"
Mouse cast his lingering gaze across the waiting Bones family, then, fleetingly, at Severus before meeting Christopher's eyes once more. Without looking, he reached out swiftly with one hand to simply touch Severus' arm before letting the hand fall by his side once more.
Christopher nodded slowly, eying Severus carefully. "We'll see you when school begins, then."
Helen darted forward to snatch Mouse up in a brief hug, enabling Christopher to ruffle the younger boy's hair before he escaped them both. Smiling at them nonetheless, he wiggled his fingers in farewell, and watched as their family escorted them out of the hall.
Then he turned to Severus with expectant eyes.
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