Severus and Remus had fallen asleep as they watched over Harry, leaning against one another in their slumber. Harry, in his sleep, felt a pull, a calling to another place. He blinked his eyes open and slowly set up. As though a compass was turned on in his mind, he could feel Severina calling to him, unbeknownst to her. Once he was certain that was what he felt, he silently got off the bed and left the infirmary. He had no want to wake either of the men, they looked peaceful in their sleep, and they would only try to stop him. He had to get to his sister no matter what anyone else thought was best.
However, the change in Harry's scent, it growing fainter as the boy left the infirmary, woke Remus. He blinked his eyes a moment, then seeing the bed empty, shot to his feet. Severus, who had been leaning more on him than he had been on Severus, fell over into his chair. "What the . . ." Snape drawled as he was woke suddenly.
"He's gone!" Remus spun around and ran for the door. He had to catch Harry before the boy did something foolish, as Potters were prone to do. Act first and think later. Harry really needed to work on his hero complex.
"Who . . ." Severus started before getting his bearings. He looked around trying to remember just where he was and why. He had been having the most pleasant dream, and he never had pleasant dreams. Someone was going to pay for making him wake from Morpheus' realm.
"Hurry, Severus!" Remus called as he raced out the door. He had no doubts he would need help in corralling Harry.
Finally, remembering where he was and why, he got to his feet and took after the excited werewolf. "Remus, what the hell is going on?" He demanded as his long legs let him catch up with the other man quickly. While Remus was tall, Severus had a much longer stride being several inches taller.
"I don't know. I woke and Harry was gone." The look in his eyes was of worry, fear. He could not lose Harry to some fool thought out plan of the boy's. And most of Harry's actions were ill thought out.
"Stupid Gryffindors!" Severus growled to himself. Gryffindor had little to do with what was going on, but it was a trait of theirs to be noble and brave without thinking. Traits that grated on his nerves.
"What?" Remus did not fully get what Severus had growled, mind elsewhere. He had to catch up to Harry.
"Stupid boy, going off half-cocked." Was all he clarified. To him it was enough. Harry was very prone to doing so, and that also grated on his nerves. A lot of things grated on his nerves.
Remus nodded distractedly. "I must agree but it does no good. We have to find him. He's impulsive."
"Pity he took so much after James," Severus muttered to himself. Remus had at least some common sense. He knew you could not run headlong into a stone wall without injury.
Remus smiled despite the situation as they neared the tower. About then Harry came their way carrying his broom and his cloak. He cut off anything either of them started to say. "I have to go. I can find her, know where she is."
Remus looked to Severus. The two men both knew Harry could not go on his own, and they both knew it was going to be hard to stop him. "Harry, you can't go . . ."
Before Remus could complete his thought, Harry cut him off. "I can and am." He made to walk around the professors. His sister needed him, dammit, and they had to let him go, could not stop him. For all intents and purposes, they should be encouraging him and going with him.
"Harry, you are not well," Remus argued. His words were lost as the boy took off at a fast sprint for the doors. Remus growled and took after him. Severus grumbled and followed, but he would be damned if he was running. Remus could do that bit. "Harry James Potter, stop where you stand!" Remus roared. When Harry ignored him, he locked the doors. The locks started to slam into place. He then stalked toward the boy.
Harry tugged at the doors, knowing it was pointless. Nothing could get through the doors with the locks in place. "I'm going! You can't stop me! She's my sister!" He kicked at the doors, cursing at them.
"I can stop you and have! If you had listened to me instead of running off, you would have realized I was trying to damn well bloody help you!" Remus was livid, more so than Harry had ever seen him close to. Not even when Remus had got on him in third year for running around after curfew.
Harry ignored the anger, letting it fuel his own. "I don't need help! I'm going to get her. I know other ways out of this place." He made to leave.
Remus snorted. "You forget whose map told you of those places." He glared at Harry. "I won't allow you to risk yourself alone. I won't lose you." He stood in Harry's way.
"I've survived worse." He tried to walk around him again to no avail.
"I won't lose you," Remus repeated, hands clinched at his sides. "Not after just losing Sirius!" He stepped closer to Harry. "Where is she?" If they knew, a proper group could go get Severina and Bill.
"I don't know." He hesitated. The mention of Sirius hitting home. "I'll be fine." He had to find his sister. He, too, could not lose anyone else.
"You said you know where she is, and now you say you don't." Remus frowned at him. "You're going off half-cocked! Grow up and think, Harry! What good are you to her dead? Do you want to be that much like your godfather!" Remus bit out, tone very short and angry.
Harry turned his sorrow to anger. He would not back down, break down. "You aren't my father, or my godfather. I am thinking, and I don't plan on being dead. Now get the fuck out of my way!" He pushed at him, trying to shove him out of the way.
Remus glared down at Harry, grabbing his arms. "You aren't going anywhere. You can't allow yourself to assume you are invincible!"
Harry ignored the fact that Remus' grip hurt. "I'm so sure the Marauders were so careful when they were my age. Now get off me!" He struggled to free himself from the man's grip. He had to get to Severina, save her and Bill. She was counting on him.
Remus glared at him another moment then let go like he was hot before stepping back. "May blood of yours not be spilled this night." He turned on his heel. He had no more right to stop Harry than any man. After all, he may be father by blood, but he was no father of Harry's. In his haste to leave, he had not noticed Severus until he plowed into him. He looked at the man and the anger drained from him. He suddenly felt like breaking down where he stood.
Snape grabbed Lupin firmly. "Potter, you will stay right where you are. That is an order." He looked into Remus' eyes. "You will tell him now." Harry had to know if he were to understand why Remus was acting the way he was.
"I . . . I can't . . ." Lupin looked down after a glance at Harry. His pain, sorrow, worry, fear were all plain for the boy to see in that short glance.
"Tell me what?" The pain upset him. What was he missing and how could he help Remus?
"If you won't, I will," Severus told Remus. He hated to have to tell the boy, but if Remus would not, could not, he would. He watched as Remus opened his mouth, but the uncertainty was plain. The small noise that emitted from Remus made it obvious he had no words to say. "Fine. I'll do it then, though it may not come out the way you want."
Harry, for his part, was very confused. He had to get to Severina and the professors were acting very odd. Remus' demeanor worried him, and what could Severus know about the other man that Harry did not that could possibly be so important and hard to talk about. Could they not find another time to get into all this? And why did it hurt Remus so?
"I don't know how it should come out," Remus admitted to Severus. "It changes so much."
"Not as much as you think." Severus put a hand on the werewolf's arm in support.
"Would someone tell me what the hell is going on?" What did Remus have to say and what was it going to change? Harry was growing very frustrated.
"I'm not father material." Remus glanced from Severus to Harry and back again. He would kill to have James around to help him with this. He was the one that hid it from him. At least he had Severus.
"Well, you better get use to it," Severus informed him. Harry was his son and there was no way out of it for him.
"What does he mean?" Harry asked. He was not sure which man he was asking to explain the other. Perhaps he meant for each of them to explain the other. He knew he would really appreciate it if they did.
Remus took a deep breath as he looked at Harry. "Your father . . . James and I . . ." He was drowning in ways or lack there of to just tell Harry that he was his father.
"I know that. You two were together. That's why Vena's alive." What was the man getting at? His sister needed him.
"More than once," Remus forced out, looking at the floor. "About nine months before you were born."
"Huh? Dad cheated with you while married? How could he . . ." Was there no end to what his parents were capable of? They were suppose to be such good people!
Remus sighed and nodded. "What I mean is that . . . Lily never gave . . ." He kicked himself. Why couldn't he just say the damn words that needed said? Severus was likely finding the whole debacle irritating.
"Never gave what?" Harry, at that point, was not certain if he wanted to know just what it was his mother had never done.
Remus met Harry's eyes. "What you think of as the truth is not." He took a deep breath and let it out slowly. "She never gave birth to you." That said, he turned like the coward he felt he was.
Severus grabbed him. "It needs done all the way." He looked in the lupine's eyes.
"If she didn't, who did?" Harry felt really confused. His mother wasn't his mother? How could Lily not be his mother?
Remus, looking somewhere between Severus and Harry, answered, "James gave birth to you." He could not watch Harry's reaction to the news.
"He's a guy. That's not possible." Harry wished for a nice firm seat. He really felt the need to sit. Even his sister's predicament was from his mind for the moment.
"It is in our world, Potter," Severus commented. The boy really needed to learn about the world he came from.
"James gave birth to you, Harry. I've always wondered because of the timing of your birth." Remus felt so old and tired. He rubbed at his face. Damn James for leaving this to him, for never letting him know.
"But I've seen pictures of mom pregnant with me," Harry grasped for straws.
"She faked her pregnancy," Severus stated the obvious. Really the boy was as dense as his parents, his real parents.
"Even I did not know until earlier, Harry. At least not for certain." He looked at the boy's face.
"So you're telling me that you're . . . you're . . . then Vena . . . she isn't . . ." The first was addressed to the man, it seemed, was his father, the last to Severus. At the shake of Snape's head and the soft, scared yes from Remus, Harry filed it all away. "I have to get to her. I'm the only one that can find her."
Remus looked at him firmly. "You aren't going alone." He would be damned of that.
Harry walked up to Lupin. "I don't know what this means, how things have changed, but I can still feel her."
Severus watched Remus nod and hand over the stone he was carrying in his pocket. "Your mother did that," he spoke for Remus. "She has made you siblings. You are still a part of each other."
Harry took the stone from Remus, wanting to say so much. All he could manage was, "I have a father."
Remus swallowed thickly. "Yes, you do."
"I . . . I don't know if I can call you dad. Not yet, but . . . I can work on it if you want to try." He looked up at him, speaking very softly, hesitantly. Both of them were scared of losing the other.
Remus nodded to him. "Later. Now we must focus on Severina and Bill." He smiled at Harry. "Let Sev and I get some brooms."
Harry nodded back and waited as the two teachers grabbed brooms. Soon they returned and the three of them headed off to find the missing Snape and Weasley. Harry led them to a remote island, drawn by the connection he shared with his sister. No matter what their blood said, she was his sister in his heart. That's all that mattered to him.
As soon as they arrived at the island they split up. Harry began to search for Severina and Bill as Remus and Severus fought the Death Eaters they ran into. Severus realized this ended his spying days. Voldemort would never forgive his actions of helping the boy-who-lived and rescuing his own daughter.
One Death Eater cornered Harry as he neared the room his sister was in. Remus saved him just in time as he and Severus battled what was left of the Death Eaters then and there while Harry tried to get inside to his sister and Bill.
Inside the room, Severina and Bill could hear the commotion. "What do you think is going on?" Bill asked at all the noise. He hoped it was aurors or the Order come to rescue them.
"Harry," Severina informed him. He had come to save her. Her father had to be with him. She wanted her father to make everything alright so badly.
"Figures. See, told you they'd come through that door any moment." He smiled as best he could in his condition.
She nodded silently, then remembering he could not see her answered, "Yes. You did." She gave her own small smile. "We can get Poppy to look over you soon." He looked so awful. It was all her fault. She should not have come back. She should not have gotten close to anyone.
"After she is done with you." He was as firm as his strained voice would let him. He just knew she had to be worse. She had been through a lot more than he had.
"Bill, you can't see to be judge," she told him without much fight.
"I know what you looked like before they came for both of us, before they started in on me. You've been at it twice. You have to be worse." His logic was sound and she knew it. She was far worse off than he was. His wounds could be more easily seen to.
"Crucio's not that bad," she lied easily. One never exactly got use to it, but she had come as close as one could.
"Along with the beatings, yeah, it was a walk in the park." He thought a moment and tried to lighten the mood. He could hear her melancholy. "And if you argue, I'm not gonna let you see what I can do with my tongue."
Bill's words were spoken just as Harry finally made his way through the door. "Didn't want to know that, sis." He, too, wanted to make the real bleakness of the situation to disappear.
"He said it," she replied in true Snape fashion, if with less zeal.
"Yeah, but you weren't yelling at him. Let's get out of here." He smiled at her and helped her off the bed then Bill. Both Bill and Severina ached in places they didn't know they had but her injuries were deeper, more extensive. Together the three limped out to the hall where Remus and Snape were making their way to them.
Immediately Severina moved to her father, needing his strength and safety. She reached for him before she even got close to him. He quickened his place and pulled her close into a very tight embrace, or as tight as he could before she made a noise of pain. "I thank everything we found you." He kissed the top of her head relief like no other washing over him. His little girl was alright. She was alive and back with him.
Severina bit her lip to keep from crying. She felt so safe and protected in his arms. He would not let anything else happen to her as long as she was there. She smiled up at him with tears in her eyes. "Can we go home?" She asked like a small child full of hope.
"Yes, we can." He scooped her up easily and gently.
"Good. I don't like this place." She leaned heavily into him just like a small child. As an afterthought she raised her hand. "Accio wand." Her wand zipped to her hand.
Remus took Bill from Harry able to lift the man off the ground where as Harry was just holding him up. "I can handle him just fine," Harry argued but Remus just shook his head. Bill followed Severina's example and called his wand. The five then quickly made their way outside and back to Hogwarts. They would all need checked over in the infirmary, some having to stay the night at the very least.
