Growing Up Snape
By Teacherbev
Disclaimer: I am not J.K. Rowling, I am not a multinational bookselling company, nor am I a multi-million dollar movie company, so I don't own anything that you recognize. I am a retired former teacher with a bizarre sense of humor, who likes to twist plots and play with characters' minds, so enjoy.
AN: I am excited, my very first story, Harry Potter and the Guardians of Power, has been nominated for a Quills Harry Potter Fan Fiction contest under the action/adventure heading at http/ www. geocities. com /dragonhidequills/main.html (Just remove the spaces, for some reason ff will not download a link here). Please read it and vote for it. And thanks for all of those who have added my stories and my author name to their favorites and their c2 groups! Makes writing much more meaningful and fun when I know people like it.
AN: To download any of my stories, click on my author name at the top of this page and then click on homepage. You may read messages, leave messages, and take the poll without signing in, but you must sign into Yahoo to download the stories. In the sidebar that says members only, just click on files and it will lead you to all three stories, each available in PDF, e-book and mobipocket formats. Enjoy and please review!
'Italics' is mental speech.
Chapter 11: Happy Birthday Shaun and Neville!
Severus Snape had never been a 'morning person'. There was a reason that he used to prowl the deepest, darkest nights handing out detentions and deducting house points with great glee like others would hand out candy at Halloween. He had reasoned that if he was unable to sleep; he might as well indulge in activities that he enjoyed, and he had enjoyed them. But many things in his life had changed drastically just one short year ago, when he had allowed a small, battered and vulnerable child to not only crack the impenetrable walls he had build up over the long years around his heart, but to shatter and then melt them completely. And he usually didn't mind that he had finally realized that it was perfectly acceptable for him to not only be human but to actually show humanity and love to another human being.
But some days, particularly early in the morning, he longed to return to the days when no one cared if he was awake, and in fact he sincerely doubted if any one would have actually cared had he perished unknowingly during the night. Well, that was probably unfair, Albus and even Minerva would have cared had he died, but he sincerely doubted that very many others would have given the occurrence more than a passing thought at the annoyance of having to deal with the loss of a potions instructor rather than any grief at the death of the actual person.
But at 5 bloody 30 in the morning on his son's birthday, he longed for the days of just pulling the covers over his head and returning to the unconscious bliss of sleep once more. Especially when that son was bouncing on his stomach and patting his face with small, very cold hands each time his knees made contact with his father's now full bladder. His very full and complaining bladder!
"Ah, brat, what do you think you are doing?" Severus turned over rapidly and pinned his giggling son on the bed, clutching him carefully while not putting too much of his weight on the pajama clad wriggling boy beneath him. He pulled one hand out from under the brat and used it to tickle his ribs unmercifully, making the child squeal even more.
Shaun was trying to talk, but he was giggling and gasping for breath so much, his voice came out in panting squeaks, "Daddy…my…birthday! Breakfast…party…flying…"
Severus stopped tickling enough to glare menacingly at the small boy still wriggling under him, "So you think your being grounded for destroying potions ingredients, being in my lab without permission, and then not telling me what happened should be over, do you?"
The child's face fell instantly as he fought to control himself, the small hitches in his breathing the only evidence of his giggles still evident. "Please Daddy, it was an accident. I'm sorry, I'm sorry…"
Severus let the boy up as he stood beside the bed, wrapping himself in his dark green silk dressing gown and tying the matching fabric belt around his slim waist. "I understand it was an accident. You were grounded from flying because you didn't tell me about breaking a jar, and then you tried to hide what you did. You could have harmed someone very badly because I added an unknown ingredient to a very powerful potion. In fact you could have hurt your Uncle Moony very badly, and we are just lucky that it turned out all right. That is why you were grounded, not because you were so scared that you weren't able to control your 'popping' and caused a jar to break. Do you understand?"
Shaun scuffed one toe on the carpet, his head bowed in shame as he seemed to shrink even smaller, "Yes, Daddy, and I am sorry. I won't ever do it again, I promise." He waited, head bowed, fearful of making eye contact even though he had learned over the last year that his daddy would never hit him.
Shaun felt his father's elegant and warm hand reach under his chin and lift his face so that he was meeting him eye to eye. He felt his father's mind gently caress his outer shields, looking for his true feelings and finding genuine remorse and the full understanding of how badly he could have hurt his beloved Uncle Moony, Severus just nodded once and smiled. "Yes, you have learned your lesson, your grounding is over. You may fly later today with your friends if you like." Severus was unprepared, though he should have anticipated his son's reaction, as a small missile flew into his arms and attached itself to his neck, hugging him tightly as Shaun grinned so widely his face looked like it would split in two.
Breakfast had been dispensed with early and quickly, all the assembled adults smiling and benignly understanding the pleasure of the small child's exuberance and joy. Everyone was so pleased to see Shaun coming out of his shy shell and acting more and more like a 'normal' five year old, if that was possible in Shaun's case. He was so excited about actually having a real birthday party, with cake, presents and guests that he was having trouble talking coherently; his words were tumbling out faster that his mind and tongue could keep straight. But everyone understood and just let him babble, nodding and adding a sound of agreement whenever he seemed to pause for a response.
Madame Hooch had returned from her cousin's house in Italy for the little boy's birthday and she volunteered to take him out to the pitch to fly so that the others could prepare the Great Hall for his party which was scheduled to begin at 11:30 with the arrival of his guests, his classmates and their parents.
Shaun was flying almost upside down with excitement as he tried to watch the tall iron gates of the Hogwarts' grounds and still catch the large children's snitch that Madame Hooch had given him for Christmas. He spotted Neville arriving with Blaise Zabini and his mother first and called the two boys to come join him flying. They left Mrs. Zabini to make her way up to the castle, pulling her wand out to float two packages behind her like gaily wrapped square balloons. Madame Hooch had charmed the school brooms to act like children's brooms for the day so the two boys gladly grabbed one and pushed off to join their friend in the beautiful Scottish sunshine. The three were playing a game of tag, as they turned around to find Hannah, Terry, Luna and Susan flying up to join them, though it looked like Luna might be too distracted by the glitter of the sunlight on the surface of the lake to actually join in.
The adults had all come outside to enjoy the pure excitement and joy the children were having as they zoomed and swooped with glee, swerving and turning to avoid being caught by Terry, who was currently 'it'. The quiet conversation amongst the spectators sitting comfortably around the Quidditch pitch turned to politics as they kept a careful eye on the young daredevils performing acts of daring in midair.
"We have eleven more warrants out for Death Eaters after the last round of arrests were interrogated. Perhaps we can round them all up by the time they are all questioned with Veritaserum. It was just plain stupid not to allow its use when Harry Potter defeated him four years ago. The Ministry is still running around trying to find some trace of Harry Potter, but they don't even know where to begin!" The group shared a wry smile at their shared knowledge.
Amelia continued, "I for one am just grateful that poor child has a chance at a childhood now, after being brutally orphaned at a year and then being abused and neglected by his so called 'family'. If Cornelius Fudge wasn't already in Azkaban, I would send him there just for what he did to that child!" There were nods of agreement all around the group.
Albus stood up finally, his bright purple robes were embellished with suns and stars that swirled in the sunlight, making everyone's eyes threaten to cross with the glittering movement. He called to the seven rapidly tiring children to come inside for the feast.
"Race you to the broom shed!" yelled Shaun. He was the farthest out from the ramshackle building, but he still managed to beat everyone there, landing perfectly with a grace that would make many an older wizard or witch jealous.
"No fair, you know you can fly better than all of us! I'll race you to the entrance steps!" answered Terry, who being the tallest of the children, had the longest legs and usually beat the rest in foot races. Neville giggled and took off running before the others even realized he had started. He collapsed onto the marble steps, out of breath but still smiling widely because he had won for once.
Minerva was standing like a sentinel in the entrance hall and shooed the still breathless children to the bathrooms to clean up before being allowed into the highly decorated Great Hall. Severus and Minerva had done their best in trying to restrain the somewhat eccentric Headmaster and his zeal for decorating for Shaun's birthday but they had only had limited success. Luna and Susan were first to enter the large chamber and they both stopped, eyes wide, mouths open as they witnessed first hand the decorating efforts of one of the most powerful wizards of the century's zeal for tasteless and over the top decorations.
Albus had transformed the entire Great Hall into a magical jungle, complete with hanging vines, exotic birds calling from the weird trees lining the walls and meeting overhead to form a canopy of glistening greenery, and even several spider monkeys swinging from the vines and throwing leaves at the frantic house elves who were vainly trying to protect the buffet table from the out of control wildlife swinging and flying at the dishes of food.
Terry and Neville pushed the two girls out of the way and then stopped themselves in wonder. Neville rushed over to a flowering plant, leaning down to sniff deeply as he demanded to know the name and specifics of its growing cycle from his Grandmother.
Shaun swung his leg over the broom he was still carrying and flew up to perch in a gigantic palm tree, trying to pull loose a coconut almost as big as his head. He was joined almost instantly by two spider monkeys, shrieking and jabbering at him to leave their territory! As he continued to ignore their shrieks, another monkey leaped onto the back of his broom and wrestled the broomstick from the small boy, dropping the broom down on the head of Severus who had been standing directly under the melee, yelling at Shaun to "Come down here, right this instant young man!"
The broomstick nailed the man on the top of the head; he collapsed in a boneless crumple onto the stone floor. Shaun screamed, "Daddy!" then popped out of sight and reappeared beside his father on the floor, crying loudly as he laid his head down on his daddy's chest and sobbed, "Wake up Daddy, please, please!"
Luna had clutched her father's deep blue robes, her slightly bugged out eyes wet with unshed tears; Susan had run to hide under a table with Terry and Neville. Blaise was trying unsuccessfully to be brave and had walked stiffly over to his mother before breaking down into quiet shuddering sobs. The house elves had joined the shrieking monkeys, the shrill birds and the sobbing children in the overwhelming cacophony that echoed off the walls and made everyone's ears ring.
Albus withered under McGonagall's unspoken 'I told you so!' and waved his wand, removing the birds, the monkeys and a good portion of the shrubbery from the room. Madame Pomfrey had revived Severus and healed his profusely bleeding scalp wound with a complicated wave of her wand. She made him sit on the floor for several minutes to let the potion for his mild concussion work, so he cradled his sobbing son on his lap, glaring at Dumbledore; his black eyes piercing and half lidded in his outrage.
Remus and Sirius were standing off to one side, laughing so hard they had to cling to each other to remain standing, while the rest of the staff were making strange expressions as they tried to contain their own mirth. Albus looked around sheepishly as the situation with the children was calmed by each parent in their own way. "Oops?" he muttered, his cheeks sporting matching pink spots of embarrassment, something no one could ever recall seeing before on the ancient wizard. Filius just chuckled softly, fingers nimbly snapping picture after picture on the wizard's camera he had borrowed from Minerva for the occasion.
Ogden turned a sorrowful but chastising glare of his large round eyes before snapping his fingers to return order to the buffet table, it's unappetizing mess returning to a much more palatable array in a single flare of house elf magic before he snapped his fingers once again and the small army of house elves disappeared back to the kitchens.
Mrs. Longbottom had collapsed onto one of the comfortable chairs that circled a modestly decorated table and laughed so hard, tears streamed down her parched and wrinkled cheeks. "Oh Albus, you certainly know how to make a child's birthday memorable! I haven't laughed so hard in years."
Everyone else gave up the fight after that and joined her in peals of laughter, even the children doubled over in glee after their scare and lunch finally progressed without further incident.
After barely making a small dent in the massive chocolate and raspberry confection that masqueraded as a three foot tall birthday cake, the two birthday boys began opening presents as the adults sat back, so full they could do little except watch and try to stay awake.
Neville and Shaun each received an assortment of art supplies from Minerva, wizard card games from Luna and her father, miniature Quidditch outfits from the professors and a variety of other toys too numerous to mention. Neville received a tabletop greenhouse from Professor Sprout and an invitation to spend several afternoons during the summer to come and visit her greenhouses.
Shaun was much more interested in the new potions kit from his father and a new broom from Sirius and Uncle Moony to replace his toddler one. Severus had finally agreed the boy could handle a broom meant for older children, especially as both of the men had promised to supervise him whenever he rode it. Albus had given each of the boys a large box filled with sweets from Honeyduke's and they each received an assortment of books that met their individual interests and reading capabilities. Shaun wasn't impressed overly much with the large box of clothes his father gave him, much preferring his other presents. Finally there were only two boxes left and they were both for Shaun, one unmarked and the other large, flat box from the house elves of Hogwarts.
He looked over his shoulder curiously at his father as he removed the ribbon from that one. He froze, a tear showing in the corner of his eye as he reached in and pulled out a small blue blanket, lovingly cleaned and repaired by the elves just for him! Severus stood up beside him and pulled him close to his chest with an arm around his shoulder.
"What is it, Shaun?" Shaun was unable to talk as he pulled out an old baby blanket, the initials HJP lovingly embroidered on one corner. Shaun gulped a breath and whispered to the man standing in support at his side, "It's the blanket from my Mum and Daddy James. I thought it was lost after I came here to live with you, but here it is!" He buried his face in the blanket, memories of his life before his aunt and uncles beginning to surface in the familiar feel of his baby blanket, his 'lovey'. Severus turned him around, enfolding him into his arms, loving the feel of the boy snuggling deeply into his robes as he carded his fingers through the shoulder length messy black hair in comfort and love.
Talk had softly started among the guests as they let the two share such a precious moment together before Shaun rubbed his tear streaked face on his father's chest and turned around to face the group once again. Severus patted him on the back and squeezed his shoulder before returning to his seat a short distance away from the boy and his mound of presents and even taller pile of shredded wrapping paper.
Shaun picked up the last golden box; its elegant red ribbon and oversized bow making it look like a present for a wife or girlfriend rather than a five year old boy. He raised an eyebrow at the adults watching him, shrugged his shoulders and pulled of the ribbon without untying it. The long flat box seemed familiar to Severus but he couldn't remember clearly where he had seen it before. He looked over at Albus and recognized the same quizzical expression on the Headmaster.
Shaun wiggled the box one side and then the other to open the tightly fitting lid, finally raising it enough to open the box only to find a long carved wooden box cradled inside. He looked it over but could find no catch, just a deeply engraved carving of a phoenix in flight over an unknown castle. He couldn't help himself, he gently touched the bright green emeralds of the phoenix' eyes and the box sprang open by itself to reveal a long golden band embellished with runes separated by square cut rubies. Before anyone could say a word, Shaun touched a tentative finger onto a sharply engraved rune and a flash blinded all those witnessing his opening of the present.
Severus was out of his seat and across the distance to catch Shaun as he fell unconscious, the band of gold and rubies now encircling his small neck. Albus was almost as fast and knelt beside the two as Severus gently laid his son down onto the stone floor, madly searching for the clasp to remove the torque now firmly attached around his son's neck. He looked up at Albus in astonishment, "There is no break, it is a continuous circle around his neck."
Albus looked over the table at the others, still frozen in shock and seeing spots. "Filius if you and Elvira would look at the runes and tell us what they might mean?" As the charms and ancient runes professors, the two had the best training to understand the deeply engraved runes that now encircled Shaun's neck in a wide golden band.
Shaun was waking up as Poppy pushed a potion into his father's hands to feed to him and the two professors made their way around the table to try to translate the engravings. Severus had allowed Shaun up enough to sit on his lap as the two conversed fervently and excitedly back and forth. Severus understood about every third word and would have sworn they were speaking in a foreign language except that he did understand the non-technical portions of their discussion. The other children had been distracted in a game of exploding snap at another table with Sirius and Remus before the two academicians came to any conclusion.
Elvira Ogam, the ancient runes professor, sat back, a look of smug satisfaction on her lined face, absentmindedly pushing a strand of stringy grey hair behind her ear as she looked between Albus and Severus, unsure who she should be directing her findings to. Severus lost his patience; he had been waiting for over twenty minutes to find out what was now seemingly permanently attached to his son. "Blast it, woman, what do they mean and how do we get this bloody thing off of his neck!" he snarled at the silent and nervously fidgeting woman.
"Now Severus, I am sure Elvira will be telling us and badgering her will not help her translate the runes any faster or better, child." Albus was just as anxious; he just had many more years of experience at waiting patiently without showing his impatience.
Elvira took a deep breath and began, "The runes are not harmful and in fact are highly protective in nature. It is very ancient, perhaps predating the founding of Hogwarts itself. They strengthen the wearer, impart him with control over his power, guard against mental attack and declare his magical heritage as the heir of Merlin himself. At least I think that's what the last one means, it could mean the apprentice of Merlin also, but since Merlin is dead, I think it means the heir." She sat back smugly and lifted her cup of tea to drink, reveling in the gobsmacked faces of the others sitting at the table. "And there is no way to remove it, it chose him and only the magic itself can choose to leave him." She waved her wand to reheat her now stone cold tea and continued to drink it serenely as all hell broke out around her.
Severus turned to stare at Filius who just shrugged and nodded in agreement to her assessment of the meaning of the runes. Shaun fidgeted on his daddy's lap, wanting to climb down and go play exploding snap with the others rather than listen to the boring talk of the grownups around him; he didn't understand anything they were saying. The gold band felt good, it made him all warm and safe feeling, he could no longer feel the overpowering emotions of the others and he knew that deep within his mind there was now another, someone who could help him always and who loved him just like his daddy did. He didn't know who that someone was or how he had got into his head, but he didn't mind him being there.
Shaun wiggled some more and his father distractedly allowed him to climb down, still too engrossed in the conversation flowing, or rather the arguments being thrown back and forth, to notice his son leaving his lap. Shaun stopped long enough to look back into the wooden box. He reached in and pulled out a long silver whistle, which he placed to his lips and blew once without any sound coming out. He shrugged his shoulders and dropped the whistle back into the box before skipping over to join the other children.
He made no more than five or six hopping jumps towards them before a flash of blue white light again blinded the entire hall. A red and gold fireball quickly appeared beside the blue and white one and the glorious sound of a phoenix duet echoed around the castle, the very wards in the air shimmered with the power and joy of the two.
"I have waited so long for you to return to me; my love." Fawkes was beside himself with ecstasy, the very air exploding with his joyful song. The light dissolved into the vision of a glorious white phoenix, its wings and tail feathers edged with blue so dark it shone black except where the sunlight hit it. Its emerald eyes glowed with a green fire; the intelligence and love shining so bright, they almost glowed. The two magnificent birds perched on the back of a tall chair, rubbing their necks together as they preened each other's feathers in adoration and renewal of mutual love.
Shaun stopped his skipping steps toward the other children and climbed up onto the chair, kneeling backward on the seat so he faced the two perched on the back. He reached up his hands, one small, soft palm stroking the cheek of each large swan like bird in awe. The two birds stopped preening and each leaned a long neck forward to rub against the boy's hair, their sharp beaks gently combing his messy raven locks in equal strokes of adoration.
Fawkes opened his glorious beak and trilled a song of love and glory tinged with the sorrow and heartbreak of long separation and longing. The white phoenix hopped forward, grasped the shoulder of the small boy sitting looking at it with trust and faith. Another flash of bluish white light and everyone bent their heads, unconsciously shielding their eyes with their hands. When the light faded and the spots on their retinas eased, the boy and the phoenix were gone and only the mournful song of Fawkes as he sadly trilled from the back of the chair remained behind.
AN: I am going on vacation to Victoria, Canada all next week. I will leave on Saturday morning and won't return until very late Thursday night. I don't know if I will get an update out before then or not, since that's only three more days. Enjoy this new chapter and I will post again after I return. Thanks for reading and reviewing, it keeps me typing and the muse flowing!