Sorry for the lack of update in a while. No excuse really. I figured out
a while ago that italics or bold fonts don't work on my story when I submit
them to ff.net and I tried leaving big gaps of spaces and that didn't work
either so I'm sorry if anyone was confused in the previous chapters.
That's all except that I want to thank all of my reviewers and my beta
because you've all been so wonderful, but I feel that will come to an end
with this chapter and I would like to apologize if you guys don't like what
I've done. Oh well, if you don't like it send your reviews anyway.
Thanks!
"Harry? What are you doing here?" She asked in confusion.
"What is this place?" He asked, ignoring her question. She ignored his question and held up a hand for him to be silent.
"Oh, damn, we're too late." She pointed out a calendar and sure enough, it was two days ago. The door creaked open to Harry's side and he jumped but remembered that nobody besides Andrea could see him. Three Death Eaters marched out single file. One was stupid enough to remove his mask. Both teens studied the woman's face but Harry couldn't recognize her. He did, however, identify the shorter follower for it wasn't hard with the silver hand attached to his wrist.
"Wormtail." Harry spat out bitterly.
"And Morganna Bulstrode. No surprise there." Harry's eyes widened at his fellow classmate's last name but said nothing. "Now who is the third?" Sure enough, the man removed his mask also and wiped his brow with a handkerchief. "Nott." Harry shivered at the name; this man had been at Voldemort's birth while he was suspended on a gravestone. "Hold tight." She grabbed his hand and a few moments later, they were pulled back out. He opened his eyes again and was surrounded with the curious and concerned faces of Ron, Hermione and Sirius. It seemed that at some point Harry had fallen on the floor for he was looking up at everybody and his neck was uncomfortably propped on the edge of his chair.
"Harry!" Sirius said as he hesitantly moved closer to his godson, not sure if he was still the object of his anger. Harry noticed this uncertain move and flashed him a reassuring smile while he struggled to his feet.
"It's okay, Sirius. I'm not mad anymore." The older man's face broke out into a large grin and he scooped his godson in a hug. "Oh, and sorry for throwing you against the wall." Harry said as he studied his godfather's face and noticed the slight yellow color from a bruise that was going away. It must have been healed magically for it to be so far along. Then suddenly, remembering where he had been and who he had been with, Harry broke through the throng of people and rushed to Andrea's side where her brother and sister and all of Harry's professors were tending to her. "Hey, are you okay?"
She gave a wry smile and dusted off the back of her St. Mungo's robe. "I could ask the same of you. " She turned towards the rest of the group. "I believe a conference is in order. Harry was pulled into my-" She stopped and shook her head. "This is why we need the conference. Let's go." Harry waved good-bye to everyone and followed the strange group out to his room. There, Harry sat at the head of his bed with Andrea sharing the foot of it with Allie. Draco, who had just entered the room, reclined in the middle while Snape took the chair and Randolph took an arm of it. Professor Dumbledore conjured two more chairs for him and McGonagall. All of them had a serious look on their face and both twins began to fidget nervously.
"Oh, no." Harry groaned as he realized what was going on. "Headmaster, I thought you said there were going to be no more secrets that were going to be revealed."
"This one isn't yours, I don't think." Draco muttered as he threw an arm over his face to shield his eyes from the light. "Is it?" When Snape shook his head he relaxed back onto the bed. "Besides, what secrets have been revealed to you anyways?"
Harry ignored him. "Then whose it about?" Harry asked, slightly confused.
All of the siblings raised a hand and Snape, after much prodding from the young man on the arm of his chair, raised his hand too.
"As our story starts out," Andrea began but was interrupted by her brother.
"Let Sev tell it, alright?" She nodded and gestured from the Potions Professor to begin.
"Fine, when I was nineteen, I got married." Snape began sounding bored with his own story.
"And to a woman. It's shocking." Draco said, smirking while Harry laughed lightly and Snape shot him a menacing glare.
"Well, we're all not bisexual like you are." He shot back and Draco retaliated by sticking his tongue out.
"Well, that's new." Harry said to himself quietly.
"I wouldn't say bisexual," Randolph began, "I mean, he isn't human in the first place."
"Not entirely human." Draco pointed out.
Randolph raised a hand and dismissed the statement. "Whatever. He's sleeping with different species, which is odd."
"I'm the only wizard/elf/veela there is, or that I know of. I have no one else in my species!" Draco shot back.
"While Mr. Malfoy's sexual preference is interesting, it is not while we're here." McGonagall pointed out. "Continue Severus."
"Anyway, the woman that I married, a Ravenclaw a few years older than I was, already had a son."
"Me!" Randolph shouted as he waved a hand in the air.
"Yes." Snape said sourly, but gazed at Randolph fondly. "And we eventually had two daughters."
Now the twins jumped in. "Us!"
"Snape had sex? It's scandalous!" Draco said, making Harry fall over with laughter and Professor Snape casting a silencing spell on him.
Then the amused Gryffindor shot up with realization. "Oh my God. You two are Snape's daughters?" At their nods he tried to process the information. "That was definitely unexpected."
"Yes, I can see how it's hard to see the resemblance, but lets get back to the story, shall we? What I didn't find out until a few years later was that my wife had a special gift. A hereditary gift."
"Which was?" Harry said, trying to move past Snape having daughters and those offspring being the two girls that sat in front of him.
"A diviner. A seer to be more exact." Allie said from her spot and then moved to lie on Draco's stomach.
"With empathic powers." Andrea said and seeing Harry's confused look she added, "She was really in tune with other people emotions."
"So you three are all seers?" The Gryffindor asked; he was finally beginning to understand the recent events.
"No. Most seers are females so the gift skipped Randolph." Snape began again.
"But I did receive her empathy." The young man pointed out.
"And because we were twins, the powers split up between us." Andrea explained.
"I'm an empath like Randolph and Andrea received the gift of sight." Her sister continued.
"So let me get this straight, in your weird family, you are a seer," He pointed at Andrea and continued to do it to the others whose powers he called, "You two possess the gift of empathy and you are some weird magical hybrid with bisexual tendencies." The last was pointed to Draco who tried to protest at the hybrid part but was still under the silencing spell.
"But our freaky family doesn't end there." Allie began.
"Don't tell me these two are your grandparents?" Harry said, gesturing towards his other professors.
"No," Dumbledore chuckled.
"It seems that you, Harry, are our-" Randolph said.
"Our uncle's cousin's half-sister's brother-in-law's daughter's roommate." Andrea said and Allie quickly followed.
"Which makes us?"
Together they said the last bit. "Absolutely nothing!" At Harry's odd look they quickly whispered 'muggle movie' before letting Randolph continue.
"Well, we are actually of no relation, but to Andrea and Allie, you're their second cousin once removed. And Sev here is your second cousin. It's not much, though."
Harry stopped paying attention and turned to Dumbledore. "What did I say?" he said in slight anger. "It was just a few days ago." When the old man simply looked confused, Harry sighed and repeated his words from earlier. "No long lost siblings or anything?"
"Technically, they're not siblings." Draco pointed out, once the silencing spell wore off. Harry gave him a slight glare before grabbing his wand and recasting the spell.
"It wasn't our secret to tell, Harry. Just like yours isn't." Dumbledore said gravely, giving his pupil a significant look.
"What is your secret?" Andrea asked interestedly.
He took a deep breath before continuing in a monotone voice. "Heir of both Slytherin and Gryffindor with the ability to talk to snakes and I'm telepathic."
"Impossible." Snape said. "Voldemort's the last heir of Slytherin. That would make you-"
"His grandson." He replied wearily. "I know, it's mad."
"And I thought my family was freaky." Allie murmured.
"You've got nothing on me. Escaped convict for a godfather, heir of both Gryffindor and Slytherin, grandson of psychotic racist murder, second cousin once removed from a seer and an empath, and second cousin to my Potions Professor. Plus, I have my magic hating aunt and uncle and their whale of a son Dudley." He groaned and flopped on the bed while the siblings and Draco laughed. Well tried to in Draco's case because he still wasn't able to make a sound. "I have more family than I can stand."
They laughed for a bit and it seemed that even Snape seemed to perk up a bit.
But it was Dumbledore that broke the light mood when he grasped everything Harry had said.
"Harry?" This grabbed everyone's attention and they looked up and stared at the Headmaster. "You're a telepath?"
"You mean you didn't know?" Andrea asked in surprise. "He usually knows everything!" She said this to Allie who nodded her head.
"Oh! I forgot, sorry Professor." Harry admitted sheepishly. "I only found out last night, which is why Dr. Joe and Caitlin took me away this afternoon. They were testing my level."
"Which is?" Randolph asked interestedly.
Harry tried for a few seconds to remember the number when it finally popped into his head. "First Division, Level Seven, I believe."
"Not bad." Allie said, shifting to give Harry a wink.
"Thanks." He said blushing slightly in modesty.
Dumbledore and McGonagall exchanged significant looks. "Now we must decide what precautions we should take next year." He opened his mouth to say more but was cut off when the door swung open revealing Joe dressed in his white robes again.
"Hello Harry." He quickly surveyed the room before adding, "And Harry's friends. Am I interrupting something?" He asked, preparing to back out of the door.
"No!" Harry cried, stalling him. "You weren't interrupting anything. What did you need?" He asked calmly as he sat back on his bed and leaned against the wall.
"Just wanted to do a P.I spell." Harry nodded at this and waited for him to continue.
As Joe said the spell, he heard Allie whisper to Andrea something. "A private investigator spell?"
"No, idiot, Personal Information spell." He saw Andrea roll her eyes at her sister and they all watched as the golden words formed in between Harry and the doctor.
"Huh." Joe muttered as he cast the spell again. "That's odd."
Harry looked slightly panicked at that. "What's odd?" He asked apprehensively.
Seeing his patient's face, he shot him a reassuring grin. "Don't worry; it's nothing bad. Good in fact."
"Well, what is it?" He asked impatiently.
"It seems that all that negative magical energy I was telling you about-" Harry gave a nod to show that he understood, "Well, it seems like over seventy percent of it is gone."
"I did black out for half a day." Harry pointed out.
"I can vouch for that." Draco said, once he got his voice back. Harry wasn't sure whether Draco was defending him in terms of being loyal or just trying to have the spotlight again and annoy as many people as he could to get it. He was willing to bet his fortune that it was the latter.
"That shouldn't remove it all, should it?" McGonagall questioned.
"Nope, not even twenty percent." Joe replied.
"Maybe it's because I'm telepathic."
"And you're drawing magical energy to use it." Andrea concluded.
"That can't be right." Snape said at last. "Think what would happen if he didn't have that excess magic. He would have been drained for days."
"Wait," Harry said brightly, being unusually optimistic. "Does this mean I can leave soon?"
Joe sighed. "I guess so, but I wouldn't feel comfortable if you went back to the Dursleys. What would happen if the magic came back or if it was the telepathic ability that was draining you and you collapsed for days?"
"He could stay with us!" Allie suggested, shooting a pleading look to her brother.
He conceded, though it was rather hesitant. "He's welcome to stay with us, but, oh, I don't know." He ran a hand through his hair and leaned back on the shoulder of the chair. "I'd be working and I know that although you two are capable of taking care of yourselves, I'm not sure you could take care of another person."
"He could stay at Hogwarts." Dumbledore suggested. "If it's too much of a problem for you Randolph, but I don't really approve of the idea of a teenage boy staying all alone in a huge castle for almost a month.
"What about the rat pack?" Draco suggested.
"Hey!" Harry said in an offended tone.
"Sorry. What about the Weasel Pack?" He received an elbow from Harry who glared at him but with little animosity behind it.
"It's too open for attack. If Harry was sent there, it'd be the first place Voldemort would look." Only Joe flinched at the name and even that was only just slightly.
"True, Severus, very true." Dumbledore mused. "Harry, what would you like to do?"
The Gryffindor sat up in shock and quickly shook his head no. "Uh-uh. No way am I going to make decisions about where I stay. I inconvenience people and I rather that punishment be assigned by someone else."
"You're not an inconvenience." Randolph said. "We'd be glad to have you. You could keep these two from hitting the bars." He smiled and then turned white when he noticed the father of the two girls turn red in anger. Draco just snickered in delight.
"What was this about bars?" Snape asked testily.
"What?" Allie asked while feigning confusion. "Bars? Us? Crazy talk."
"Yeah, that was just our dear brother's sad attempt to be funny."
"A failed attempt."
"That's right." Draco said in mock-seriousness. "The Snapes do not support underage drinking." He gave Snape a pointed look, knowing full well that his professor had not abided by the laws when he was a teenager.
"Bite me, you little smart-" Snape began but was cut off by Dumbledore.
"Now, Severus, let's not speak to our students like that. We should be concentrating on where Harry should stay."
"That's right," Draco said in an airy tone, "Forget the Slytherin members and their fight against underage drinking and jump into where our Golden Boy should live. I sense a biased side to our Headmaster." Draco's tone was light so Harry figured the blonde was still in a good mood and was joking around. He rather liked this side of Draco and it as one of the reasons he wanted to become his friend.
"Yeah." Randolph said, joining in with a smile on his face. "They stick us in the cold dungeons while the Gryffindors get a warm tower with a view."
"And how would you know about this view, Mr. Enoch?" McGonagall asked with an amused look.
His eyes shifted nervously before he answered. "So, Harry, where are you going to live again?"
"Wherever someone volunteers to take me."
"Stay at our flat." Randolph said after a moments thought. "You might as well get to know your distant relations better." He looked at all four members on the bed. "Drake, you're welcome too, you know. Well, once we get the papers of guardianship over you."
"I don't know if that's such a good idea." He bit his lip and stared at Harry for a moment.
"Of course it's a good idea, Malfoy. I want to be your friend, you just won't let me." He said with a small smile.
"Then it's settled." Dumbledore said as he stood up and clapped his hands together. At once, both chairs disappeared and both teachers made their way to the door. "When would you like to go? I could prepare a portkey." He trailed off when he noticed Harry's grim expression. "Or perhaps you would like to floo."
The Tri-wizard Champion shook his head. "Its fine, professor. I can handle it." He gave a weak grin that was returned by Dumbledore.
"All right then. Joe, when can Harry be discharged?" He turned towards the doctor who was studying a chart.
"Today, if he'd like. Perhaps in three hours?" Everyone unanimously nodded his or her head. "I'll just get the paperwork and you'll all be ready to go. Do you have everything packed?" He directed the last part to Harry who looked around his head before affirming he had his everything.
"Oh, wait! My pensieve. Do I even get to keep that?" Harry asked, unsure of the procedure for this. "And my owl, she's missing." At that moment, Hedwig flew in the room and landed behind Harry on his bed. "Never mind."
"That is a clever owl." Joe mused as he walked out of the room.
"About your pensieve, Harry, the Aurors will need to look it over for at least a week. They'll owl it back to you." Snape said before he left the room, creating the grand exits that he was famous for.
Harry nodded and scooped up some books that were still lying on the floor. He glanced upwards and noticed his drawing was still on the wall, only half finished. "Oh, no. Can I take this wall with me?" He asked, jokingly.
"Hmm." Andrea said as she stared at the wall. "Jacio!" She pointed her wand and a red light shot out and hit the wall, stretching from corner to corner. The red was then absorbed and a layer of the wall fell to the ground like a piece of paper. Almost like a snaked shedding it's skin, Harry thought as he picked it up and noticed his design was still on it.
"How'd you do that?" Harry asked.
"A shedding spell." She said as she shrugged. "At this hospital, when they want to clean the walls, they just shed the dirty layers. They'll grow right back in an hour."
"Don't want to know why the walls get dirty." Draco muttered as he and Randolph walked out of the room.
"I'm going to go say good-bye to everyone." Harry said as he walked out. Both girls just nodded and were too busy talking about something to notice him completely.
**********
"Well, you did your mission." Allie said as she sat in the vacated seat.
"Yeah."
"Why so silent? We got him, and Randolph and I don't plan on letting him go." Allie said stubbornly.
"I know." Her sister paused before she spoke again. "I sort of feel like we're lying to him." She whispered as she sat down on the bed.
Allie frowned and sat up stiffly in the chair. "Why? Nothing we have told him has been a lie."
"But we let him assume things."
"So? You don't ask for your visions, Andrea. You don't get to choose what's being shown."
"Still-how'd you like it if somebody was watching your life like it was a movie?"
Allie moved to sit on the bed before saying, "It's one thing if the person in standing in the queue waiting to purchase a ticket and ridicule it and it's another when your being held against your will, strapped to a chair and your eyes are held open with clothespins."
"Lovely. It's just-I've seen him at the lowest times of his life and the events that cause it months before they happen and I can't do a thing about it. I knew about Wormtail, Cedric and the Figg woman. But I did nothing." She sighed and went to look out the window. "It sucks being fate's pawn."
"Andrea, listen, if you had interfered, the fate of Harry and those other people would have been far worse. You didn't take a wand and A.K. those people, someone else did. And during the tournament, how could you have escaped school? You also couldn't find Harry's house because it is unplottable, and you know you weren't the only one who knew what was going to happen to Wormtail."
She went quiet for a second and they both stared at the window in silence. "Then how did he do it?" Andrea asked at last.
"Who?"
"Voldemort. How did he find Harry?" Allie looked surprised and tried to think of a response. She finally shrugged in defeat.
"No idea. You're the fortune teller here." Her twin cracked a grin at the nickname.
"Whatever. Let's just get ready to go." Allie nodded and they both left, Andrea closing the door behind them.
**********
"So then I block this shot made by this really-Harry!" Oliver stopped in the middle of the story when his ex-seeker came back into the waiting room.
"Hey Oliver. Hi guys." He fidgeted nervously as he felt slightly guilty for making them come out here before leaving with his distant cousins.
"What's up?" Ron asked anxiously.
"Well, I've come to tell you that they're releasing me in a few hours." He was going to add more but everyone came up and gave him a hug, all were overjoyed at the new.
"That's fantastic!" Hermione cried. "What are you going to do now?"
This was the part he had been dreading. "As it turns out, some friends," He said this word uneasily for he was not sure what to call the Snape twins exactly, "have invited me to live with their family for a while."
"Who?" Ron asked as he tried to remember any other friends his best friend was close to. "Not one of the Gryffindors." Ron said while looking towards Harry for confirmation.
"No." He shook his head to emphasize this point.
"Are you sure this is a good idea?" Hermione asked timidly.
"Of course, Dumbledore already approved it." This was met with sighs of relief and a few disappointed faces. "Don't worry; I still have a few hours. So what's new with you all?" Two and a half hours passed after he said this statement and by then he was properly informed on what was going on in the Weasley household, the ministry, new books that had just come out, Quidditch scores, Romania's laws on dragon care, pranks, and treasure locations. It was when they were discussing Quidditch that Joe came back in carrying an armful of papers.
"Okay, Harry, just sign these and you're ready to go." Harry dutifully sighed the papers and tried the best to hide the other signature of Severus Snape and Randolph Enoch. "Good, well head back to your room; Dumbledore's waiting with a portkey." He turned and left leaving Harry to wave goodbye quickly and then fall in step with his doctor. "I'm going to miss you, kid." Joe said affectionately as he ruffled Harry's hair.
"Thanks Joe." His patient said with a quirky smile. "I'll miss you too. Maybe not your inconvenient jokes, or your early wake-up calls, or-"
Joe laughed, "Alright, I get it."
"But next time I nearly die, I'll be looking you up."
"I'd say I'd look forward to it, but I'd rather not see you all bloodied up again." At Harry's shaky smile he quickly added, "I mean, it was almost unfeasible trying to get blood out of your hair." They both shared a laugh and were in good humor when they reached his room where all three siblings, Snape, Draco and Dumbledore were.
"Good. You're all here." Dumbledore clapped once happily. "Grab hold and- "
"Kiss your pants good-bye." Draco finished. Harry noted that Draco also had a trunk with him; a sure sign that he wasn't going to be the only houseguest.
"Sadly enough, that has actually happened to me." Allie mused, making the rest snigger softly. "Grab your trunk, boys." They did as she said and placed their hands on the portkey that was in the shape of a broken plate. A few seconds later, Harry felt the familiar tug behind his navel and closed his eyes until the world stopped making him queasy. A second later, he stumbled to his feet and nearly fell on Andrea as she straightened herself up. She gave a small smile to Harry and gestured around the room.
"Welcome home."
***********
"Harry? What are you doing here?" She asked in confusion.
"What is this place?" He asked, ignoring her question. She ignored his question and held up a hand for him to be silent.
"Oh, damn, we're too late." She pointed out a calendar and sure enough, it was two days ago. The door creaked open to Harry's side and he jumped but remembered that nobody besides Andrea could see him. Three Death Eaters marched out single file. One was stupid enough to remove his mask. Both teens studied the woman's face but Harry couldn't recognize her. He did, however, identify the shorter follower for it wasn't hard with the silver hand attached to his wrist.
"Wormtail." Harry spat out bitterly.
"And Morganna Bulstrode. No surprise there." Harry's eyes widened at his fellow classmate's last name but said nothing. "Now who is the third?" Sure enough, the man removed his mask also and wiped his brow with a handkerchief. "Nott." Harry shivered at the name; this man had been at Voldemort's birth while he was suspended on a gravestone. "Hold tight." She grabbed his hand and a few moments later, they were pulled back out. He opened his eyes again and was surrounded with the curious and concerned faces of Ron, Hermione and Sirius. It seemed that at some point Harry had fallen on the floor for he was looking up at everybody and his neck was uncomfortably propped on the edge of his chair.
"Harry!" Sirius said as he hesitantly moved closer to his godson, not sure if he was still the object of his anger. Harry noticed this uncertain move and flashed him a reassuring smile while he struggled to his feet.
"It's okay, Sirius. I'm not mad anymore." The older man's face broke out into a large grin and he scooped his godson in a hug. "Oh, and sorry for throwing you against the wall." Harry said as he studied his godfather's face and noticed the slight yellow color from a bruise that was going away. It must have been healed magically for it to be so far along. Then suddenly, remembering where he had been and who he had been with, Harry broke through the throng of people and rushed to Andrea's side where her brother and sister and all of Harry's professors were tending to her. "Hey, are you okay?"
She gave a wry smile and dusted off the back of her St. Mungo's robe. "I could ask the same of you. " She turned towards the rest of the group. "I believe a conference is in order. Harry was pulled into my-" She stopped and shook her head. "This is why we need the conference. Let's go." Harry waved good-bye to everyone and followed the strange group out to his room. There, Harry sat at the head of his bed with Andrea sharing the foot of it with Allie. Draco, who had just entered the room, reclined in the middle while Snape took the chair and Randolph took an arm of it. Professor Dumbledore conjured two more chairs for him and McGonagall. All of them had a serious look on their face and both twins began to fidget nervously.
"Oh, no." Harry groaned as he realized what was going on. "Headmaster, I thought you said there were going to be no more secrets that were going to be revealed."
"This one isn't yours, I don't think." Draco muttered as he threw an arm over his face to shield his eyes from the light. "Is it?" When Snape shook his head he relaxed back onto the bed. "Besides, what secrets have been revealed to you anyways?"
Harry ignored him. "Then whose it about?" Harry asked, slightly confused.
All of the siblings raised a hand and Snape, after much prodding from the young man on the arm of his chair, raised his hand too.
"As our story starts out," Andrea began but was interrupted by her brother.
"Let Sev tell it, alright?" She nodded and gestured from the Potions Professor to begin.
"Fine, when I was nineteen, I got married." Snape began sounding bored with his own story.
"And to a woman. It's shocking." Draco said, smirking while Harry laughed lightly and Snape shot him a menacing glare.
"Well, we're all not bisexual like you are." He shot back and Draco retaliated by sticking his tongue out.
"Well, that's new." Harry said to himself quietly.
"I wouldn't say bisexual," Randolph began, "I mean, he isn't human in the first place."
"Not entirely human." Draco pointed out.
Randolph raised a hand and dismissed the statement. "Whatever. He's sleeping with different species, which is odd."
"I'm the only wizard/elf/veela there is, or that I know of. I have no one else in my species!" Draco shot back.
"While Mr. Malfoy's sexual preference is interesting, it is not while we're here." McGonagall pointed out. "Continue Severus."
"Anyway, the woman that I married, a Ravenclaw a few years older than I was, already had a son."
"Me!" Randolph shouted as he waved a hand in the air.
"Yes." Snape said sourly, but gazed at Randolph fondly. "And we eventually had two daughters."
Now the twins jumped in. "Us!"
"Snape had sex? It's scandalous!" Draco said, making Harry fall over with laughter and Professor Snape casting a silencing spell on him.
Then the amused Gryffindor shot up with realization. "Oh my God. You two are Snape's daughters?" At their nods he tried to process the information. "That was definitely unexpected."
"Yes, I can see how it's hard to see the resemblance, but lets get back to the story, shall we? What I didn't find out until a few years later was that my wife had a special gift. A hereditary gift."
"Which was?" Harry said, trying to move past Snape having daughters and those offspring being the two girls that sat in front of him.
"A diviner. A seer to be more exact." Allie said from her spot and then moved to lie on Draco's stomach.
"With empathic powers." Andrea said and seeing Harry's confused look she added, "She was really in tune with other people emotions."
"So you three are all seers?" The Gryffindor asked; he was finally beginning to understand the recent events.
"No. Most seers are females so the gift skipped Randolph." Snape began again.
"But I did receive her empathy." The young man pointed out.
"And because we were twins, the powers split up between us." Andrea explained.
"I'm an empath like Randolph and Andrea received the gift of sight." Her sister continued.
"So let me get this straight, in your weird family, you are a seer," He pointed at Andrea and continued to do it to the others whose powers he called, "You two possess the gift of empathy and you are some weird magical hybrid with bisexual tendencies." The last was pointed to Draco who tried to protest at the hybrid part but was still under the silencing spell.
"But our freaky family doesn't end there." Allie began.
"Don't tell me these two are your grandparents?" Harry said, gesturing towards his other professors.
"No," Dumbledore chuckled.
"It seems that you, Harry, are our-" Randolph said.
"Our uncle's cousin's half-sister's brother-in-law's daughter's roommate." Andrea said and Allie quickly followed.
"Which makes us?"
Together they said the last bit. "Absolutely nothing!" At Harry's odd look they quickly whispered 'muggle movie' before letting Randolph continue.
"Well, we are actually of no relation, but to Andrea and Allie, you're their second cousin once removed. And Sev here is your second cousin. It's not much, though."
Harry stopped paying attention and turned to Dumbledore. "What did I say?" he said in slight anger. "It was just a few days ago." When the old man simply looked confused, Harry sighed and repeated his words from earlier. "No long lost siblings or anything?"
"Technically, they're not siblings." Draco pointed out, once the silencing spell wore off. Harry gave him a slight glare before grabbing his wand and recasting the spell.
"It wasn't our secret to tell, Harry. Just like yours isn't." Dumbledore said gravely, giving his pupil a significant look.
"What is your secret?" Andrea asked interestedly.
He took a deep breath before continuing in a monotone voice. "Heir of both Slytherin and Gryffindor with the ability to talk to snakes and I'm telepathic."
"Impossible." Snape said. "Voldemort's the last heir of Slytherin. That would make you-"
"His grandson." He replied wearily. "I know, it's mad."
"And I thought my family was freaky." Allie murmured.
"You've got nothing on me. Escaped convict for a godfather, heir of both Gryffindor and Slytherin, grandson of psychotic racist murder, second cousin once removed from a seer and an empath, and second cousin to my Potions Professor. Plus, I have my magic hating aunt and uncle and their whale of a son Dudley." He groaned and flopped on the bed while the siblings and Draco laughed. Well tried to in Draco's case because he still wasn't able to make a sound. "I have more family than I can stand."
They laughed for a bit and it seemed that even Snape seemed to perk up a bit.
But it was Dumbledore that broke the light mood when he grasped everything Harry had said.
"Harry?" This grabbed everyone's attention and they looked up and stared at the Headmaster. "You're a telepath?"
"You mean you didn't know?" Andrea asked in surprise. "He usually knows everything!" She said this to Allie who nodded her head.
"Oh! I forgot, sorry Professor." Harry admitted sheepishly. "I only found out last night, which is why Dr. Joe and Caitlin took me away this afternoon. They were testing my level."
"Which is?" Randolph asked interestedly.
Harry tried for a few seconds to remember the number when it finally popped into his head. "First Division, Level Seven, I believe."
"Not bad." Allie said, shifting to give Harry a wink.
"Thanks." He said blushing slightly in modesty.
Dumbledore and McGonagall exchanged significant looks. "Now we must decide what precautions we should take next year." He opened his mouth to say more but was cut off when the door swung open revealing Joe dressed in his white robes again.
"Hello Harry." He quickly surveyed the room before adding, "And Harry's friends. Am I interrupting something?" He asked, preparing to back out of the door.
"No!" Harry cried, stalling him. "You weren't interrupting anything. What did you need?" He asked calmly as he sat back on his bed and leaned against the wall.
"Just wanted to do a P.I spell." Harry nodded at this and waited for him to continue.
As Joe said the spell, he heard Allie whisper to Andrea something. "A private investigator spell?"
"No, idiot, Personal Information spell." He saw Andrea roll her eyes at her sister and they all watched as the golden words formed in between Harry and the doctor.
"Huh." Joe muttered as he cast the spell again. "That's odd."
Harry looked slightly panicked at that. "What's odd?" He asked apprehensively.
Seeing his patient's face, he shot him a reassuring grin. "Don't worry; it's nothing bad. Good in fact."
"Well, what is it?" He asked impatiently.
"It seems that all that negative magical energy I was telling you about-" Harry gave a nod to show that he understood, "Well, it seems like over seventy percent of it is gone."
"I did black out for half a day." Harry pointed out.
"I can vouch for that." Draco said, once he got his voice back. Harry wasn't sure whether Draco was defending him in terms of being loyal or just trying to have the spotlight again and annoy as many people as he could to get it. He was willing to bet his fortune that it was the latter.
"That shouldn't remove it all, should it?" McGonagall questioned.
"Nope, not even twenty percent." Joe replied.
"Maybe it's because I'm telepathic."
"And you're drawing magical energy to use it." Andrea concluded.
"That can't be right." Snape said at last. "Think what would happen if he didn't have that excess magic. He would have been drained for days."
"Wait," Harry said brightly, being unusually optimistic. "Does this mean I can leave soon?"
Joe sighed. "I guess so, but I wouldn't feel comfortable if you went back to the Dursleys. What would happen if the magic came back or if it was the telepathic ability that was draining you and you collapsed for days?"
"He could stay with us!" Allie suggested, shooting a pleading look to her brother.
He conceded, though it was rather hesitant. "He's welcome to stay with us, but, oh, I don't know." He ran a hand through his hair and leaned back on the shoulder of the chair. "I'd be working and I know that although you two are capable of taking care of yourselves, I'm not sure you could take care of another person."
"He could stay at Hogwarts." Dumbledore suggested. "If it's too much of a problem for you Randolph, but I don't really approve of the idea of a teenage boy staying all alone in a huge castle for almost a month.
"What about the rat pack?" Draco suggested.
"Hey!" Harry said in an offended tone.
"Sorry. What about the Weasel Pack?" He received an elbow from Harry who glared at him but with little animosity behind it.
"It's too open for attack. If Harry was sent there, it'd be the first place Voldemort would look." Only Joe flinched at the name and even that was only just slightly.
"True, Severus, very true." Dumbledore mused. "Harry, what would you like to do?"
The Gryffindor sat up in shock and quickly shook his head no. "Uh-uh. No way am I going to make decisions about where I stay. I inconvenience people and I rather that punishment be assigned by someone else."
"You're not an inconvenience." Randolph said. "We'd be glad to have you. You could keep these two from hitting the bars." He smiled and then turned white when he noticed the father of the two girls turn red in anger. Draco just snickered in delight.
"What was this about bars?" Snape asked testily.
"What?" Allie asked while feigning confusion. "Bars? Us? Crazy talk."
"Yeah, that was just our dear brother's sad attempt to be funny."
"A failed attempt."
"That's right." Draco said in mock-seriousness. "The Snapes do not support underage drinking." He gave Snape a pointed look, knowing full well that his professor had not abided by the laws when he was a teenager.
"Bite me, you little smart-" Snape began but was cut off by Dumbledore.
"Now, Severus, let's not speak to our students like that. We should be concentrating on where Harry should stay."
"That's right," Draco said in an airy tone, "Forget the Slytherin members and their fight against underage drinking and jump into where our Golden Boy should live. I sense a biased side to our Headmaster." Draco's tone was light so Harry figured the blonde was still in a good mood and was joking around. He rather liked this side of Draco and it as one of the reasons he wanted to become his friend.
"Yeah." Randolph said, joining in with a smile on his face. "They stick us in the cold dungeons while the Gryffindors get a warm tower with a view."
"And how would you know about this view, Mr. Enoch?" McGonagall asked with an amused look.
His eyes shifted nervously before he answered. "So, Harry, where are you going to live again?"
"Wherever someone volunteers to take me."
"Stay at our flat." Randolph said after a moments thought. "You might as well get to know your distant relations better." He looked at all four members on the bed. "Drake, you're welcome too, you know. Well, once we get the papers of guardianship over you."
"I don't know if that's such a good idea." He bit his lip and stared at Harry for a moment.
"Of course it's a good idea, Malfoy. I want to be your friend, you just won't let me." He said with a small smile.
"Then it's settled." Dumbledore said as he stood up and clapped his hands together. At once, both chairs disappeared and both teachers made their way to the door. "When would you like to go? I could prepare a portkey." He trailed off when he noticed Harry's grim expression. "Or perhaps you would like to floo."
The Tri-wizard Champion shook his head. "Its fine, professor. I can handle it." He gave a weak grin that was returned by Dumbledore.
"All right then. Joe, when can Harry be discharged?" He turned towards the doctor who was studying a chart.
"Today, if he'd like. Perhaps in three hours?" Everyone unanimously nodded his or her head. "I'll just get the paperwork and you'll all be ready to go. Do you have everything packed?" He directed the last part to Harry who looked around his head before affirming he had his everything.
"Oh, wait! My pensieve. Do I even get to keep that?" Harry asked, unsure of the procedure for this. "And my owl, she's missing." At that moment, Hedwig flew in the room and landed behind Harry on his bed. "Never mind."
"That is a clever owl." Joe mused as he walked out of the room.
"About your pensieve, Harry, the Aurors will need to look it over for at least a week. They'll owl it back to you." Snape said before he left the room, creating the grand exits that he was famous for.
Harry nodded and scooped up some books that were still lying on the floor. He glanced upwards and noticed his drawing was still on the wall, only half finished. "Oh, no. Can I take this wall with me?" He asked, jokingly.
"Hmm." Andrea said as she stared at the wall. "Jacio!" She pointed her wand and a red light shot out and hit the wall, stretching from corner to corner. The red was then absorbed and a layer of the wall fell to the ground like a piece of paper. Almost like a snaked shedding it's skin, Harry thought as he picked it up and noticed his design was still on it.
"How'd you do that?" Harry asked.
"A shedding spell." She said as she shrugged. "At this hospital, when they want to clean the walls, they just shed the dirty layers. They'll grow right back in an hour."
"Don't want to know why the walls get dirty." Draco muttered as he and Randolph walked out of the room.
"I'm going to go say good-bye to everyone." Harry said as he walked out. Both girls just nodded and were too busy talking about something to notice him completely.
**********
"Well, you did your mission." Allie said as she sat in the vacated seat.
"Yeah."
"Why so silent? We got him, and Randolph and I don't plan on letting him go." Allie said stubbornly.
"I know." Her sister paused before she spoke again. "I sort of feel like we're lying to him." She whispered as she sat down on the bed.
Allie frowned and sat up stiffly in the chair. "Why? Nothing we have told him has been a lie."
"But we let him assume things."
"So? You don't ask for your visions, Andrea. You don't get to choose what's being shown."
"Still-how'd you like it if somebody was watching your life like it was a movie?"
Allie moved to sit on the bed before saying, "It's one thing if the person in standing in the queue waiting to purchase a ticket and ridicule it and it's another when your being held against your will, strapped to a chair and your eyes are held open with clothespins."
"Lovely. It's just-I've seen him at the lowest times of his life and the events that cause it months before they happen and I can't do a thing about it. I knew about Wormtail, Cedric and the Figg woman. But I did nothing." She sighed and went to look out the window. "It sucks being fate's pawn."
"Andrea, listen, if you had interfered, the fate of Harry and those other people would have been far worse. You didn't take a wand and A.K. those people, someone else did. And during the tournament, how could you have escaped school? You also couldn't find Harry's house because it is unplottable, and you know you weren't the only one who knew what was going to happen to Wormtail."
She went quiet for a second and they both stared at the window in silence. "Then how did he do it?" Andrea asked at last.
"Who?"
"Voldemort. How did he find Harry?" Allie looked surprised and tried to think of a response. She finally shrugged in defeat.
"No idea. You're the fortune teller here." Her twin cracked a grin at the nickname.
"Whatever. Let's just get ready to go." Allie nodded and they both left, Andrea closing the door behind them.
**********
"So then I block this shot made by this really-Harry!" Oliver stopped in the middle of the story when his ex-seeker came back into the waiting room.
"Hey Oliver. Hi guys." He fidgeted nervously as he felt slightly guilty for making them come out here before leaving with his distant cousins.
"What's up?" Ron asked anxiously.
"Well, I've come to tell you that they're releasing me in a few hours." He was going to add more but everyone came up and gave him a hug, all were overjoyed at the new.
"That's fantastic!" Hermione cried. "What are you going to do now?"
This was the part he had been dreading. "As it turns out, some friends," He said this word uneasily for he was not sure what to call the Snape twins exactly, "have invited me to live with their family for a while."
"Who?" Ron asked as he tried to remember any other friends his best friend was close to. "Not one of the Gryffindors." Ron said while looking towards Harry for confirmation.
"No." He shook his head to emphasize this point.
"Are you sure this is a good idea?" Hermione asked timidly.
"Of course, Dumbledore already approved it." This was met with sighs of relief and a few disappointed faces. "Don't worry; I still have a few hours. So what's new with you all?" Two and a half hours passed after he said this statement and by then he was properly informed on what was going on in the Weasley household, the ministry, new books that had just come out, Quidditch scores, Romania's laws on dragon care, pranks, and treasure locations. It was when they were discussing Quidditch that Joe came back in carrying an armful of papers.
"Okay, Harry, just sign these and you're ready to go." Harry dutifully sighed the papers and tried the best to hide the other signature of Severus Snape and Randolph Enoch. "Good, well head back to your room; Dumbledore's waiting with a portkey." He turned and left leaving Harry to wave goodbye quickly and then fall in step with his doctor. "I'm going to miss you, kid." Joe said affectionately as he ruffled Harry's hair.
"Thanks Joe." His patient said with a quirky smile. "I'll miss you too. Maybe not your inconvenient jokes, or your early wake-up calls, or-"
Joe laughed, "Alright, I get it."
"But next time I nearly die, I'll be looking you up."
"I'd say I'd look forward to it, but I'd rather not see you all bloodied up again." At Harry's shaky smile he quickly added, "I mean, it was almost unfeasible trying to get blood out of your hair." They both shared a laugh and were in good humor when they reached his room where all three siblings, Snape, Draco and Dumbledore were.
"Good. You're all here." Dumbledore clapped once happily. "Grab hold and- "
"Kiss your pants good-bye." Draco finished. Harry noted that Draco also had a trunk with him; a sure sign that he wasn't going to be the only houseguest.
"Sadly enough, that has actually happened to me." Allie mused, making the rest snigger softly. "Grab your trunk, boys." They did as she said and placed their hands on the portkey that was in the shape of a broken plate. A few seconds later, Harry felt the familiar tug behind his navel and closed his eyes until the world stopped making him queasy. A second later, he stumbled to his feet and nearly fell on Andrea as she straightened herself up. She gave a small smile to Harry and gestured around the room.
"Welcome home."
***********