Title: To Change
Author: Along Came the Spider
Disclaimer: Harry Potter and all things to do with him are property of Ms. Rowling and her associates. I do not fall into that category.
Part One: The Party's Over
The room was bright and cheery. The streamers and leftover cake lay on the floor alongside empty bottles of firewhisky. An owl slept on a perch in the corner, oblivious to the wreckage around it.
A knock on the door woke the bird up slightly, but the bird's weariness sent it back to sleep when the noise stopped.
"Yes?" A rather irate gentleman demanded when he opened the door.
"Potter," the knocker drawled after looking up and down the length of 'Potter'. "What ever did you do last night?"
"Forgot," Potter growled. "And thank you so much for reminding me."
"Anytime," the visitor smirked before pushing past him and into the apartment.
"Won't you come in professor?" Potter said sarcastically to the open door. "Why thank you Harry. Think nothing of it Severus."
"Potter, you are too hung over for that to be effective." Severus said mildly.
Harry Potter rolled his eyes and dropped onto his couch.
"There are ways to forget that don't involve drinking away your liver." Severus toed an empty can as he glanced around the room. "Memory charms, potions, etc."
"But getting drunk is a time honored solution." Harry waved a hand in the air. "Besides, there is a certain amount of satisfaction in a hang over."
"I wouldn't know." Severus had finally picked his way across the floor to stand over Harry on the couch.
"Doesn't surprise me," Harry turned over on the couch to look up at him.
"Do you intend to make me stand through out the entirety of this visit?" Severus eyed the clutter on the chairs and the man on the couch.
"Do you intend to make me miserable through out the entire visit?" Harry pulled up his legs to allow the other man to sit down.
"Not really," Severus shook his head as he sat down.
"Why are you here then?" Harry yawned.
"Aren't you happy to see me?" Severus asked.
"Not particularly," Harry mumbled.
"I brought you a birthday present." Severus pulled a box out of his pocket and resized it.
"You shouldn't have," Harry rubbed his forehead, "The mere fact that I am alive today is all thanks to you."
"I am glad you acknowledge my greatness." Severus smirked. "But that doesn't mean you don't have to buy me a present for my birthday."
Harry groaned and finally took the box, placing it on a stack of papers that littered his coffee table.
"Or Christmas," Snape looked amused. "I am sure a man of your means and status in life could procure some of the rarer ingredients I require with few questions asked."
"I really don't get you," Harry yawned again. "All these years you've harped about my name, and my fame. Now you want me to use it for you?"
"While you were at school you were an vexing ass of a student," Severus smiled. "Now that you are a grown man your fame has become useful to me."
"As a way to get illegal potions ingredients." Harry translated.
"Illegal Potter?" Severus raised an eyebrow. "No one said anything about the ingredients being illegal."
"If they aren't illegal then why aren't you able to get them for yourself?" Harry reasoned.
"There are some controlled items that are hard to come by." Snape told him. "A celebrity like yourself, would be more likely to have the items sold to him, and cheaper, than a mere Potions Master."
"So we only like my celebrity when it works for you." Potter rolled his eyes. "How Slytherin."
"Thank you for repeating what I said moments earlier." Snape's face returned to a smirk. "I am sure that it is due to your hangover, and not natural ineptitude, that you couldn't remember me saying it."
Severus gave Harry a level look. "And you of all people should appreciate Slytherins."
"What in the seven circles prompted me to tell you about that?" Harry wondered.
"I think you had to much alcohol in your system at the time." Severus sounded amused.
"Most likely," Harry admitted. "I seem to spend a lot of time that way."
"Very good Potter," Severus looked on the verge of laughing. "The first step in recovery is admitting you have a problem."
"Firstly, I never admitted to having a problem," Harry sat up. "I am problem free."
Severus raised an eyebrow. When it became obvious that Harry wasn't going to continue he coughed. "Secondly?"
Harry looked at him in confusion.
"You said 'firstly'," Severus told him. "A 'firstly' is generally followed by a 'secondly'."
"Right?" Harry's brow creased. "I've forgotten."
"And you don't have a problem," Severus murmured.
Harry looked at him questioningly.
"Never mind," Severus snorted.
"So," Harry lay back down. "You never did say why you were here. Don't say to drop off the present because you know I am moving into Hogwarts in a few weeks."
"Albus left a letter with Minerva, telling her that you were to receive it on your twenty-fifth birthday." Severus brought out a worn looking envelope and handed it to Harry.
"I saw him two days ago," Harry blinked. "He came by to wish me luck next year."
"I never pretended to understand our former Headmaster." Severus shook his head. "But it may be that this letter can only be given to you by someone currently associated with the school."
"They do that?" Harry cocked his head. "I would have thought that it would be keyed to a person, what with the war and all."
"I am lead to understand that war is precisely the reason one doesn't key it to a person." Severus's smirk made another appearance. "War has a way of making people keel over at the most unexpected times."
"Point," Harry admitted as he broke the seal on the envelope.
Severus looked at him expectantly.
"Do you mind?" Harry held the letter so the older man couldn't see it.
"Not really," Severus told him. "Is it from your parents?"
"No," Harry rolled his eyes. "Its from my grandparents."
"The Muggles?" Severus asked.
Harry gave him a look that would have made a lesser man run to the mirror to check for that third head. However, being nearly constantly in the presence of teenagers, the glare had no effect on Severus.
"Well?" He broke the silence.
"Its from the Potters." Harry ground out.
"The Muggles really did leave you high and dry then." Severus snorted. "I don't see why we went through all that trouble to save them all when your grandparents couldn't be bothered to leave you anything but bad memories with your Aunt."
"It could have been worse," Harry sighed. "There could have been no Aunt and I would have ground up in a Muggle orphanage just to make bad anagrams out of my name for my nonexistent friends, and future flunkies, to call me."
"But on the other side of the coin, you wouldn't have been fighting constantly with Voldemort," Severus pointed out. "You two would have been like peas in a pod."
"I guess your right." Harry murmured. "Wouldn't that have been a sight? The Daily Prophet actually being right about me."
"Heaven forfend!" Severus's eyes widened. "That is surely one of the four signs of the Apocalypse."
Harry laughed, wincing slightly as the pressure in his head became a little too pressed.
"Should I bring my visit to a close so you can get back to being miserable alone?" Severus of course noticed the wince.
"Not unless you want to leave." Harry protested politely.
Severus shook his head. "Must you always be so self sacrificing?"
"I must, I must." Harry grinned.
"Well if I'm to stay then why don't you tell me about the letter I just gave to you?" Severus questioned.
"How about I open your present, feed you, and let you forget ever gave me a letter." Harry proposed.
"I carry an obviously old letter here to find out that it is from your grandparents, who died before you were a twinkle in your mother's eye, but I am not allowed to learn the contents of said letter?" Severus drawled.
"That about sums it up." Harry stood up slowly. "What do you want for breakfast?"
"Unlike you, I actually got up and ate this morning, so I am not in need of sustenance now." Severus stood as well.
Harry glanced at a clock on his wall. "Its almost lunchtime," he moved toward his kitchen. "Will a sandwich do?"
"I really can't stay Potter." Severus followed his host into the brightly colored kitchen.
"Hmmm...." Harry began pulling things out of his cabinets. "I can't remember if you like grape jelly or blackberry?"
"I don't like jam or jelly at all." Severus informed him.
"Okay," Harry put a jar away.
"I just have one last task here and then I will leave." Severus said to Harry's back.
"We can discuss it during lunch," Harry sat two plates down on the table.
Severus glared at him for a moment before taking one of the seats. "Just how do you expect us to talk with our mouths full of peanut butter?"
Harry waved a hand and two glasses appeared on the table next to the plates. "So we'll talk after we eat."
"But I don't want to eat." Severus frowned. "I want to discharge my duty and leave."
"I, for one, haven't eaten anything substantial since breakfast yesterday?" Harry bit into a sandwich. "Ron kept me busy most of the day."
"Do close your mouth when you chew," Severus advised. "It won't do anyone any good to see the Hero of the Hour's half chewed food. Though it might make your students less intimidated."
Harry carefully closed his mouth, chewed and swallowed before answering. "You started teaching while students you'd attended with were still there. What was it like?"
"Annoying," Severus scowled. "Students thought I would be easy just because I wasn't much older than them."
Harry grinned, "I'm sure they soon changed their minds."
"But you won't have the same problem," Severus pointed out. "The students who were first years while you attended were seventh years, two years ago."
"I will have some of their siblings though," Harry countered.
"Ah, yes," Severus nodded. "It doesn't really count though, until you've had their children as students."
"How odd will that be." Harry agreed. "Ron and Hermione are engaged."
"I think I'll retire before they can procreate," Severus commented. "Minerva is already going on about accepting Bill's child in three years."
"Amy is a perfectly behaved young lady," Harry smirked.
"Only if your idea of perfectly behaved includes blowing up half of her uncles' laboratory." Snape rolled his eyes.
"So it was you that day," Harry perked up. "Neither of them would tell me who it was they had hired as a freelancer."
"Why would they?" Severus raised his eyes to meet Harry's. "I asked them not to disclose it to their family."
"Yes, but I am one of their investors," Harry stressed. "I gave them the capital to start the whole shop, so they generally tell me everything."
"You're an investor?" Severus leaned back. "I wouldn't have thought you capable, even with your Slytherin side, of making those decisions."
"Well," Harry copied Severus's movement. "I have to say my decision was more impulse than anything. I wanted to give the Weasleys the money, and since none of them would take it outright, the twins took it to start their business."
Severus snorted. "That meshes more with your Gryffindor image. You end up a major investor in a lucrative business - by accident. You really are your father's son."
"I don't think I've ever heard you say that without derision in your voice." Harry mused.
"Even I had to respect his ability to almost always come out on top."
Harry snorted.
"Which brings us to my last task," Severus leaned forward. "Your Godfather has decided that he no longer wants to live somewhere where the youngest Gryffindors feel free to bug him at all hours. So McGonagall wants to know if you would be the new Head of Gryffindor."
"Would I be the youngest head of house ever?" Harry asked cautiously.
"I had that distinction." Severus snorted.
"Phew!" Harry smiled, "I'm not sure I could have dealt with it if you had said yes."
"So?" Severus said after a few minutes of watching Harry eat.
"So what?" Harry asked after swallowing.
"So, will you be the Head of Gryffindor, or not?" Severus drawled.
"Do you really think I'd turn that down?" Harry grinned.
"No," Severus said shortly. "But I need to hear you say it. Formally."
"I consent to the honor of being the Head of House for Gryffindor." Harry's grin faded as a warm feeling spread through him, filling him up from head to toe.
"Feeling different?" Severus smirked.
"Yeah," Harry blinked.
"That would be the Gryffindor wards." Severus explained.
"Wow," Harry felt another rush of energy. "It feels like something is hugging me."
"I just knew you were the perfect Gryffindor." Severus's eyes took on a sparkle that was apparently borrowed from Dumbledore. "That hugging sensation would be the school accepting you. It doesn't always happen, just when the person embodies what the founder of the house wanted."
"Did Hogwarts accept you this way?" Harry couldn't stop a smile at the happy feelings that now existed within him.
"One day I'll tell you about that day," Severus promised. "But for now I have a potion that will soon need my attention."
Harry shook his head, "That is why time turners were invented."
"I can't go into this particular potions presence with time magic on me. It would ruin hours of work." Severus stood up. "Thank you for a most enjoyable morning."
"My pleasure," Harry grumbled as he followed the wizard to the door.
"Potter?" Severus turned around in the doorway.
"Yes?" Harry raised an eyebrow.
"You'll want to get the drinking yourself into a stupor, out of your system before the start of term. You'll find that Hogwarts really doesn't approve."
Harry laughed as the door closed on his former professor's back.
'Happy Birthday to me.'
End Notes:
- My beta begged so much, that Sirius is now a teacher at Hogwarts. I guess they brought him back.
- Please Review.