Harry ran and ran, caring for nothing more than to find his brother and bring him back safe and sound.
Thanking his lucky stars that Severus was too upset to hide his trail, he followed the path of broken branches and uprooted bushes for hours, yelling his throat horse whenever he caught a glimpse of the man ahead of him.
The mad chase through the forest came to an abrupt end, when in a clearing he found Severus. And not only Severus. An immense, two-headed dog stood in front of him, snarling and baring its teeth.
Severus was pressed against a tree, obviously terrified, and without a wand.
"NO!" Harry yelled, as he saw the teeth snap only inches from Severus's face.
Ignoring the stabbing pain in his side, tripping over treetrunks and scrambling back up as fast as he could, he finally reached the Potions Master and threw himself in front of him.
"BAD DOGGY!" he yelled.
The dog stepped back for a moment, clearly shocked. Then it shook its heads and seemed to realize he was big, and strong, and not a bad doggy!
Harry shook as he pointed his wand at the beast.
"STUPIFY! PETRIFICUS TOTALIS! Mary had a little lamb…"
Unfortunately, this dog did not share Fluffy's weakness to music. Or maybe Harry was a bad singer. The dog, annoyed by the spells thrown at it, became REALLY agitated at the mention of lamb, and snapped.
Harry's wand was pulled from his fingers, and flung somewhere behind the dog. Quickly picking up a fallen tree branch, Harry pushed Severus further behind him and took an offensive stand, as if armed with Gryffindor's sword instead of a moldy piece of wood.
"You can't have him! He's my brother and I won't let you hurt him!" he screamed into the dog's face, and prepared to swing at it.
Suddenly a whistle sounded. The dog looked up, the two sets of ears perking up.
"Orthrus! Come here, boy! Come on! There's my good fellow!"
The dog happily ran towards an old man in a purple robe who had just entered the clearing.
"My apologies, young Harry," the man smiled, "Orthrus can be very protective. Almost as protective as you are, I daresay."
Harry didn't say a word, but kept his makeshift club ready to attack.
"Accio Harry's wand," the old man calmly said, and the wand flew in his hand. He offered it to Harry.
"Take it. You will feel better when you are armed."
Harry slowly reached out and took the wand.
"Who are you?" he asked, "We are still on my property. What are you doing here?"
"I've lived here a very long time already. When your family bought the house, it was agreed upon that I could live here as long as I liked. But you are hurt, young Potter, and your companion – your brother, I think you called him? – doesn't appear to be in very good shape either."
Harry only now became aware of the many bleeding scratches and bruises caused by the branches. He looked around and saw Severus curled up against the tree trunk.
"How am I to know if I can trust you?" he asked, shivering.
The man held up his hand. "I swear upon my magic that I mean neither you or your brother any harm."
He nodded, and slowly lowered his wand. The old man came closer. The dog, Harry noticed, was lying a bit further away, yelping a little every now and then, but obediently waiting for its master to finish his business.
"Oh, dear boy," the man said, inspecting Severus, "you ARE confused, aren't you?"
Harry sat down, fatigued after the long run, the many stinging scratches and the fright with the Cerbe---wait.
"Is that a Cerberus? He only has two heads."
"No," the old man replied, trying to coax a response out of Severus, "as you know, Cerberus, though now the name of a species, was the threeheaded dog that guarded Hades. Orthrus was his brother. My Orthrus is a descendant of that dog."
He stood up. "I think you should come to my home, Harry. I can help your brother, but I need time and some of my gear. And your wounds should be treated as well."
"Really?" Harry asked, wide-eyed, "You can help Sev? Heal him?"
The old man smiled. "I can help him on his way, at the very least," he said, "come."
Together, they hoisted the skittish wizard to his feet, and made him walk between them. Orthrus tagged along behind them, snapping at the occasional bat.
"I'm sorry, but I haven't even asked for your name," Harry said, his hand holding Severus's elbow.
"My name is Rhys ap Merdhyn," the old man said, "Most people call me Merlin, though that is technically incorrect."
"Merlin?" Harry stopped, and stared at the old man, who chuckled.
"I never tire of that reaction," he said, "No, not THE Merlin. He was my ancestor. My official first name is Rhys, and I'm his great-great-grandson. I'm not the powerful wizard my greatgrandfather was, even though I'm not too bad," his face wrinkled as he smirked, "I even went to Hogwarts as a child."
"Let me guess, you were a roommate of Albus Dumbledore?" Harry sighed.
"Not at all," Rhys laughed, "Albus is much younger than I am. I was one of his teachers when he attended Hogwarts. But what made you think of him?"
"He is our father," Harry said, and for the first time, Severus looked at him.
"He adopted Severus first, then me this past year," Harry monitored the still silent wizard closely.
"Ah, I see. Well, here we are," Rhys said, motioning to a cottage.
"Home."
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"Where are they? What happened? HARRY! SEVERUS!" Dumbledore yelled, frantic with worry.
"Albus, calm down, we have to decide on what to do now," Filius Flitwick, wiping the sweat off his brow, tried to put his terrified friend at ease.
A shudden light alerted them to the arrival of another person. Arthur Weasley.
"Are the boys alright?" he asked, out of breath, "Albus, the Minister is about to fall. Aurors discovered Amelia Jones in Azkaban, apparently drugged and kidnapped. What…?" he looked around.
"Do you have Veritaserum, Arthur?" Dumbledore asked gravely, staring into the forest.
"Yes, I do, I was on my way to question…why?"
"Give it to one of them."
Grabbing the one that the boys indicated had to be the leader, Arthur administered a dose of Veritaserum.
"Who are you, what was your target, and who sent you?" he demanded agressively.
"They call me Sly," the man responded, "Harry Potter and if possible, Severus Snape. We were sent by Minister Fudge."
Dumbledore lowered his head. "Take them, Arthur. Your sons can go safely home now. And I must search for mine, or this will be a very hollow victory indeed."
He strode into the forest with determination.
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Rhys had settled Severus on a comfortable sofa, and spelled the doors shut.
"Don't want him running off again," he explained to Harry, "the wards will let us through, though, and him if one of us accompanies him."
Then he gently started treating the bruises and scratches on the passive wizard, and kept an eye on Harry, who was cleaning and healing his own wounds, ready to provide help if needed.
He washed the wounds and rubbed a healing salve in them.
"Won't spelling them away be quicker?" Harry asked.
"Yes," Rhys said, "but he is scared. Pointing a wand at him would not be for the best, and physically soothing him like this now, will help me later, when I start working with you both."
"What are you going to do?" Harry asked.
Rhys searched his face. "I won't hurt him, Harry. You are both familiar with Legilimency. What I'm going to do is related to that. I will take you into Severus's mind, and together we will help him integrate the memories that are confusing him."
He turned to the man, who regarded him with solemn dark eyes.
"I'll help you, young one," he said softly, "Will you let me?"
Slowly, Severus nodded.
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"Alright, Harry," Rhys said later, when they were bandaged up and Harry had told Rhys most of Severus's story, "I'm going to link to you first. Once that is done, I'm taking both of us in Severus's mind. We will most likely encounter both the previous adult Severus and the child."
Harry groaned.
"I know," Rhys sympathised softly, "but you must not lose your temper, Harry. You must treat the older one with as much care as you do the child. Part of his fear is that you and your father will no longer love him now that he is grown up again. If you react badly to his adult part, that will only confirm his ideas. He will probably also be quite nasty, to try and drive you away. Don't let him."
Harry shook his head. "He is my brother. I knew it was possible he would return to his old self should he grow up again and I promised a long time ago I would always be there for him."
"Good." Rhys concentrated. Harry felt a strange sensation, and became aware of the old man.
"We are now entering Severus's mind," he heard. Suddenly they were in the Headmaster's office.
"Why are we here?" Harry wondered.
"This is the only place where both the adult and the child ever felt safe and at home," Rhys replied, "They should be here somewhere…"
At that moment, a small boy came rushing from the corridor leading to the bedrooms. He flung himself at Harry.
"Harry, help me, he scares me!"
Harry automatically wrapped his arms around the child, as he had done countless times, and looked up to see a menacing Potions Master enter.
"Potter," he snarled, "what are you doing here? Get out!"
Rhys calmly sat down on the couch.
"Why don't you sit down, Severus, and we can discuss this."
Severus threw him a death glare. "Leave, old man, if you want to keep your bones intact."
Rhys sighed. "Sit DOWN, Severus."
"You insufferable old fool!" the dark man yelled, "I try and try to get rid of the brat, and here you are, coming to bring him back, to kill me…" he trailed off.
"Kill you?" Harry said, shocked, "No! Rhys, no!"
He stood up, taking Sevvy's hand and standing next to the Potions Master.
"You promised you wouldn't hurt him! You promised! I won't let you hurt either of them!" he snarled so viciously even Snape looked impressed.
Rhys shook his head. "I'm not going to kill anyone. Sit down, the lot of you."
This time they obeyed.
"Listen, Severus," the old man started, planting his elbows on his knees and leaning forward, "I know you are frightened. Why don't you tell me what scares you?"
"Besides having the Bloody-Boy-Who-Lived and some idiot geriatric in my head?"
"Severus," was all Rhys said.
"Fine. FINE! I'm scared because Potter took my father from me, he and that little twerp over there, and now they are cooing over the boy, and wishing I never existed."
"I don't want to be you," Sevvy suddenly screamed, "you scare me and you say nasty things, and you like POTIONS!"
"And thanks to YOU I now have memories of being BATHED by POTTER, for Merlin's sake!" his adult counterpart retorted.
"Enough," Rhys said, "Sevvy, come here."
The boy approached him, and Rhys pulled him closer.
"Sevvy, listen to me. Severus is not a nice man. But he is a good man. Your father loves him very, very much. Do you remember Mother and Father, child?"
Sevvy shivered.
"You got away from them," Rhys said softly, "you went to live with Harry and Daddy. But Severus had to live with them until he was all grown up."
Sevvy's eyes widened, and he regarded the older man with something…not quite like sympathy. More like understanding.
Severus bowed his head.
"Do you love Daddy?" Sevvy inquired.
"Y-yes," Severus admitted.
"But you hate Harry," the small inquisitor continued.
"No. I have to pretend I do. I have to pretend so much I start to believe it myself," Severus admitted.
He looked at Harry.
"You defended me, not just now, but before…I don't understand. You took him in," he pointed to the child, "when you could have taken revenge. I don't know what you expect me to be. What Albus expects me to be. I'm not even sure if he still wants to be my father, now that he has had better sons for so long."
Harry's eyes burned with a green fire. "You…you idiot!" he exploded, "he loves you! He loves you so much that he stayed behind, however much he wanted to be with you, to fight for you! He loves you no matter what! He doesn't care one bit if you're six or thirty-six! And come to think of it…" he suddenly realized, "neither do I."
Severus gulped. Sevvy walked over to him and put a hand on his knee. "You're not bad," he said, "Daddy loves us both. Maybe we can become a new Sevvy, with a bit of both of us?"
Severus hesitated. He looked at Harry. And at Rhys. And finally his eyes rested on the boy.
"I don't know," he softly said, stroking the dark hair, "you were happy, weren't you?"
The child nodded enthusiastically.
"I've never really been happy before," Severus mused.
"Does father…does father really want me?" he asked one last time.
Harry sat down next to him. "Yes, Severus. He loves you. I'm sure he is searching the forest right now, desperate to find us. He loves you."
"So I have a Gryffindor brother," Severus sneered, but much of the vindictive tone was gone.
"Well, yes," Harry admitted, "though I was very nearly a Slytherin. Alas, I had met Draco Malfoy."
"I can see how that would put one off Slytherin," Snape nodded, a slight smirk on his lips.
Harry looked at Rhys, and suddenly knew what to do. He hugged Sevvy close, rocking him. Then, to the surprise of the dark man, he reached out and grabbed Severus in a hug before placing his young counterpart on his lap. He smiled, stood up, and went to sit next to Rhys.
As Severus enveloped Sevvy in a hug, they both started to shimmer and slowly merged into one. Finally, Harry and Rhys stretched the exhausted wizard out on the couch, and slowly retreated from his mind.
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It was warm. And something smelled nice. He heard voices. Harry's voice. Rhys's voice.
Oh.
Slowly Severus began to expand his senses. Oddly relieved, he found that all his memories seemed to be where they belonged. Granted, some of his memories were definitely unique; one does not change into a child and back every day. It felt like a very difficult puzzle that he had been unable to solve, had clicked largely into place. It wasn't quite finished yet, but he was no longer stuck.
Sitting up, he smiled deeply when he saw Harry interrogating Rhys on some obscure piece of magic.
"Harry," he called.
"SEV! You're awake!" Harry rushed over.
"Yes, I am awake, as you can see," he said, "How long…"
"Not very long," Harry said, "though I'm not sure how long we've been in your mind. Are you alright, Sev?"
"Yes. I am almost alright," he accepted his brother's help walking to the table.
Looking through the window, he winced. "I had rather hoped I had imagined the dog."
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Albus Dumbledore had walked through the forest for hours, tracing, like Harry had done, the trail of his sons. Tired and very worried, he finally stumbled upon a cottage.
He instantly whirled around when a huge dog came running up to him. The two heads sniffed him, and whined.
The door opened.
"Goodnight, I am sorry for disturbing you so late," Dumbledore began in a rush, "but I am looking for my sons. Have you seen two dark haired young men? Please, I am getting desperate…"
"ALBUS!" the man forcefully said.
His eyes flew open. He hadn't heard that voice in…in…ages? "P-professor R-rhys?"
"They are here, Albus," the old man said.
Harry flew out of the cottage and into Dumbledore's arms.
"Father!"
Dumbledore hugged him, and over the dark head he searched the face of his former professor in worry.
"Severus is inside," Harry said, pulling back.
Pushing Dumbledore through the door, he and Rhys busied themselves with feeding Orthrus.
Dumbledore stepped inside, and came face to face with his eldest son.
"Severus?" he asked, hesitatingly.
The younger man bit his lip. "Are you…Do you still…"
Before he had decided on the phrasing of the question that burned within him, Dumbledore couldn't restrain himself any longer and pulled him in his arms.
"Oh, child, Severus, I was so worried about you. I love you, son."
Severus felt another piece of the puzzle click together and finish. Emotions welled up inside him, and there was only one reply he could think of.
"Father."
A/N: Yeah I know. Bit sappy. But I like pointless sentimentalism.