Jesse: You know, I've always been quite scared of Beetlejuice myself. He was so...creepy. Well, to me, anyway, and I thought it could be quite scary for a four-year-old Harry, too. Andromeda's little speech was kinda hard to write (I feared it would be too sappy) so I'm glad you've liked it. As for Linda and Chrissy, well of course I'm happy you've liked them, but they were never intended to have a major role as you'll find in next chapter...

Luna Moonlight Fawn: You have to wait no more, here's the new chapter! This is kind of sweet, too. Well, at least it has some sweet moments. Hope you enjoy it as much as the last one!

To everyone that's reading this, sorry for taking a little longer to update, but of course that the Prince absorved me completely! Don't worry: I had already written up to chapter 20 (well, at least half of it) and had planned Connor's future a lot ahead, so what happened in Book Six won't affect greatly my plans. I'm afraid that my fic will become even a little more AUish, but you can deal with it, right?

Thanks to Joy for beta reading!

Chapter Fourteen: School boys

After some months, Snape was forced to let Darla visit Connor more often. And that wasn't all. When summertime was drawing closer, Dumbledore suggested that Darla might take Connor to her new flat in London. Snape, who had watched closely every minute of Darla's visit, not leaving her alone with the child once, showed his indignation. There was no way he'd let that vampire be alone with Connor! How could Dumbledore even suggest such an insane project?

To Snape's shock, though, other people didn't think like him. Both McGonagall and Flitwick thought that Darla wouldn't harm Connor. Snape snorted at the thought. She was a vampire, for heaven's sake! It was in her nature!

But Dumbledore insisted, and with Connor's help, Snape was soon convinced that he'd know no peace until he gave his blessing to the preposterous idea. It's needless to say how glad both Darla and Connor were at the news.

In spite of his prejudices and fears, Connor was returned in one piece, and apparently delighted with the things he'd seen there. Darla had taken Connor to a cinema for the first time, and the boy had spent the whole movie on the very edge of his seat, mesmerized by the colourful images and enchanting sounds.

And then, summer holidays had arrived and Snape had found himself free from his annoying students and with a lot of time to spend with Connor. At first, he had nearly panicked: What was he supposed to do with the child all that time?

The answer was so simple that it shocked him: the very same he did with him during weekends and every free moment he had. So they spent a lot of time playing chess and sometimes even gobstones and Exploding Snap (at which, to Snape's shock, Connor proved to be much better than him); paying visits to the Malfoys, Notts, or just other people Snape knew; visiting some magic places like the Quidditch Museum, which fascinated Connor; and many times just reading or sitting in silence in the living room. Even though Connor could read by himself, he liked Snape reading to him and to the adult's surprise, he found out that he enjoyed that activity as much as the boy did. In fact, Snape had begun to suspect he was growing rather fond of the child – a fact he'd have considered hilarious a year ago. Snape had never liked children and, due to his hard experience in life, he'd been fond of very few people.

However, with Connor everything had been completely different. He hadn't just become used to the boy's pressence in his life, but he realised he'd started to miss him when he wasn't around.

The house always seemed far too quiet when Connor was elsewhere, a funny thing as Connor was quiet enough. And to his own shock, Severus Snape realised he wasn't as fond of silence as he'd been before his foster son's arrival.

Who would have gussed it? I'm growing soft, Snape thought one night, right after the visit to the Quidditch Museum. But as he watched Connor sleep, an innocent smile curving his lips, he realised he didn't mind that much. At least, as long as nobody found out about it.

Especially his students!

Sirius and Harry had a good summer, even though they didn't go on vacation. Sirius took Harry to the park almost every afternoon and, when the weather was truly nice, they went to the swimming pool. Also, Harry went camping with Nicky's parents, and both Andromeda and Remus came to visit loads of times.

Summing it all, it was the best summer in Harry's life. This time he hadn't suffered his cousin's bullying, his Aunt's complaints and his Uncle's yelling but, most especially, he hadn't been left at Mrs. Figg's house while the Dursleys went on vacation, something for which he couldn't be more grateful. Mrs. Figg had proved she was a nice person, but Harry found her tales about cats too much to bear.

It had been a good summer but, like all good things, it had came to an end. Before they knew it, Autumn arrived and with it, the beginning of school time. Because Harry had turned five years old, he now had to start primmary school, much to his dismay.

Harry didn't much like the idea of starting primmary school. He suspected it wouldn't be at all like kindergaten, and he was afraid it'd be terribly difficult. Nicky's cousin, Adella, was in second form, and she said her teacher was a monster who made them write a lot of never-ending compositions. Neither Harry nor Nicky knew how to write. What would they do if a teacher forced them to write a composition? All Harry could spell was his own name!

When he told his godfather about his worries, though, he was disappointed to see the adult didn't take them seriously. On the contrary, he burst into laughter and it took him full five minutes to calm down.

'Harry, it's just first form. Most kids don't know how to write. That's what they go there: to learn. They won't make you write a composition on your first day.'

Harry wasn't convinced. 'Adella Tratchberg says it's awfully hard.'

'Adella must be exaggerating. If it were so hard, why do so many people go to university?'

The kid thought about that and had to admit that his godfather had a point, but he still did not feel reassured.

'Can't I stay here, and you teach me when you come home?' he asked hopefully but Sirius shook his head.

'Nope, Harry. I'm not a teacher, I can't teach you all the stuff you need to know. Besides, I'm sure you'll have loads of fun there.' Harry frowned. He wasn't so sure.

However, there was nothing he could do, so the following day he found himself in front of a large, grey building, which couldn't look less welcoming. Harry shivered and clutched his godfather's hand tightly. He shot a desperate glance at Sirius, a glance that clearly said Is this necessary? Do I really have to go there? Sirius felt badly for Harry, but there was nothing he could do about it. He looked his godson in the eye.

'Harry, I know you don't want to go there, but you have to. And it won't be that bad, I promise.' Harry looked a bit more cheerful, but he still wouldn't let go of his hand. Sirius decided to try another tactic. 'Harry, you're a brave boy, aren't you?'

The boy looked up, puzzled. 'I guess so.' Sirius smiled.

'Yes, you are. You're even braver than your dad, and he was the bravest person I've met. So, as you're so brave, you'll go into that building like a man, won't you?'

Harry hesitated a moment, then put on a resolved face and let Sirius drag him into his new school.

That day, Sirius Black couldn't settle to anything, so worried he was about how his godson might be doing on his first day at school. He went to pick him up with a knot in his throat, dreading the moment Harry would come out from the building. What if it had been awful and Harry came out crying? What if the teachers were dreadful, or his classmates cruel? What if the lessons had been awfully difficult? What if Harry didn't want to go to school anymore?

Soon he found out his worst fears were unfounded. Harry came out from the building chatting with a boy that was at least twice his size, closely followed by Nicky and a couple of twins. His tiny face lightened when he saw Sirius, and he ran straight to him after waving a hand at his new friends.

'Sirius, you were right: it wasn't bad at all!' he exclaimed. 'All we did was play games and introduce ourselves and stuff like that. Our teacher is called Mr. Blewett. At first he looked very serious, but then he spent the whole morning joking. That boy over there (the tall one) is Jamal, and sits next to me. The twins (their names are Wilfred and Wilhem, but we call them Willy One and Willy Two) are in Nicky's classroom. They're all very funny, though I didn't like Jamal that much at first, he reminded me of Dudley. But he's cleverer, and he never hits people. And he's really good at football. During the break, we played football, and our team won. You know what? Tomorrow we're going to watch a movie. I don't know which one, but Mr. Blewett said we'd like it. I'm very curious about it. Ah, Mr. Blewett has given us a list of all the stuff we'll need. Here it is.' Harry took a paper from his bag and handed it to Sirius, who was too shocked to speak. There was a long silence as Harry tried to catch his breath.

'So, Sirius, how was your day?' he asked, after a few seconds.

Sirius eyed his godson, who had a huge grin plastered on his face and whose eyes were glittering from excitement.

'Not nearly as eventful as yours.'

Children that came from Wizarding families had two options: either they were homeschooled (by their own parents or by a tutor) or they went to Muggle schools. However, children that lived in Hogsmeade did none of this; instead, they went to Mr. Banerji's school.

Mr. Banerji was an elderly man; tall and dark, always with a serious expression on his face. Many years ago he'd taught Potions at Hogwarts, but that had been long before Snape's time. Then he'd retired to live peacefully in a small house in Hogsmeade, but soon he'd found out that retirement didn't suit him: he was bored to death. Then, he found the solution to his problem when he heard a group of parents complaining about their children and stating that they didn't know what to do with them. Eureka, he thought, and founded the first primmary school for young wizards and witches in Britain.

It was placed in Hogsmeade, and his students were all the children over six and under eleven that lived nearby. At first, many parents had been reluctant to send their children there: Mr. Banerji was considered quite eccentric, and he didn't come across as the kind type. However, soon they were proved wrong: even though Mr. Banerji loved discipline, he also knew how to deal with children without terrifying them, and soon his school became very popular. Now, very few children in Hogsmeade were homeschooled, and there were some younglings that came from other parts of the country as well.

Connor looked forward to starting school, but Snape didn't share his feelings. So far Connor had had no trouble with hanging out with boys his own age, and no one had noticed how different he was from them. But at school things might be different. For one thing, Connor would have to spend more hours in other children's company, some of them complete strangers and much older than him. Snape knew too well how cruel children could be with anyone who was different from them. And Connor came from a very different background. How would he fit with the rest?

However, his fears weren't realised, as Connor's first day at school was quite uneventful. Within a few days, the boy seemed so adapted to his new enviroment that Snape thought that perhaps his fears were unjustified and Connor wouldn't have any trouble at school.

He was wrong, of course.

After two weeks, Connor decided that he liked Mr. Banerji's school. Not only did he have more children to play with than he did at Mrs. Frobisher's (playing with Vicky got boring after a while) but he enjoyed his classes as well, even though it was hard for him to stay immobile for so long. Fortunately he managed to do so, and Mr. Banerji was pleased to find he was quite a good student. Not only that, but he'd also reached some popularity among his classmates, due to his skills at any physical game. Even some of the older (and more arrogant) students were impressed with Connor's speed and amazing reflexes.

At first, Mr. Banerji saw nothing wrong in this, but after a while he began to notice little things about this particular student, certain things that were extremely peculiar. Like the time when Connor had been able to catch the book that had fallen from one of the shelves... one of the shelves that were two meters away from his seat. Or the log's incident, which had been much more worrying.

Mr. Banerji's school was on the outskirts of Hogsmeade, almost on the countryside, and it possesed a large garden where the children played during breaks. This garden was crossed by a small stream that marked the school's limits, and it was forbidden to cross it. Of course, that was the reason the students wanted to do so, and challenged each other to break the rule.

It wasn't a deep river, so technically they would have been able to cross it without any problem, but the water was so freezing that no one dared to put their feet in it. The few that had tried it had ended up with strong colds, pneumonia and their feet had turned scaringly blue. But, on the other hand, they had became famous in the whole school.

One day the younger students were complaining about how the older ones bullied them, and Vicky suggested that if they were able to cross the stream they would become important and the older boys wouldn't dare to bully them. The other children were excited, but this excitement disappeared when they realised they had no idea how to cross the river without freezing their feet. Connor's face lightned.

'Look, we could use that log over there as a bridge. It's long enough.' He pointed at the reamaining parts of a tall tree that had been cut only a week ago.

However, there was a glum expression on Geoffrey Hooper's face. 'No way. Miles Bletchley and some of his friends have already tried that, but they couldn't move it an inch. It was far too heavy for them, and you can bet it'll be heavier for us.'

The kids' faces sobered, but Connor merely shrugged. He was sure he could move it by himself. In Pylea, he used to help Daniel to carry firewood, and he didn't think this would be any different.

And so he got up and, to the entire school's astonishment, he lifted the heavy log all by himself and put it across the river. He stood still a moment, trying to catch his breath (lifting the log had been much harder than he'd expected) while his classmates, even the older ones, looked at him in awe. Before he could proceed to cross the stream triumphantly, Mr. Banerji came out and stopped him. The teacher had been watching through his window the whole time, but he hadn't acted before just because he couldn't believe a skinny boy like Connor would manage to lift that log. It had taken him a Locomotor Tree spell to move it.

Mr. Banerji could have forgotten the whole incident (or not) if only a week later Connor's supernatural strenght hand't led him into more trouble.

To the teacher's utter shock, thirteen children assured how Arsenious Jugson, literally the biggest bully at school, had flew two meters after Connor had pushed him. It appeared to be that Jugson had been bullying little Claribel Puddifoot and Connor had jumped to her defense, pushing Jugson out of the way. Or maybe it was better to say sending him flying two bloody meters out of the way! Jugson, who was twice as tall and thrice as wide as Connor! How was that possible?

Fortunately Jugson hadn't been hurt, and Connor seemed truly sorry for what had happened, but none of this managed to ease Mr. Banerji's mind, so he decided to take drastic measures.

When Snape received via Connor a letter from Mr. Banerji asking to show up at school as soon as possible, he expected the worst. In effect, Mr. Banerji was concerned about Connor's permanence in the school. He told Snape about all the weird episodes, and he stated that, unless the child learnt to control himself, he wouldn't be able to keep attending his school. 'Professor Snape, Connor's one of my best students. He's bright, most of the time he's disciplined. I'm sure he'll do great at Hogwarts. But he can be a danger to himself and others.'

It's needless to describe how upset was Snape at this words. He returned to his home in such an agitated state that he couldn't settle to anything for the rest of the day. His mind tried frantically to find the quickest way of taming Connor's powers, but nothing came to his mind.

Like many other times, it was Dumbledore who found the solution.

'Weakening Solution is your answer, Severus. Simple and effective.'

Snape hesitated. Weakening Solution could be too much for a little boy.

Seeing his worry, Dumbledore insisted.

'Connor isn't able to control his own strength, so we should do it for him. As for the effects of the potion on him, I think a small dose won't be prejudicial. He's a tough boy, Severus.'

Two days later, Connor eyed the blue bottle with some disgust. 'What is it? It smells funny.'

Snape reminded himself that he was a great liar (hell, he'd lied to the Dark Lord to his own face) and looked right into Connor's eyes. 'Do you remember the illness that killed Daniel, and that got Justine too?'

A shadow crossed the child's face, and Snape tried his best to ignore it. Instead, he brilliantly explained how it was very probable that Connor had the same disease latent inside him, and that it was necessary for him to drink that medicine regularly.

Of course it was all a huge lie, but Connor asked no further questions and from that day on drank the blue potion without complaining.

Snape, on the other hand, was surprised to find how much easier it was to lie to He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named than to lie to a six-year-old child.