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: 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 is available in PDF, e-book and mobipocket formats. Enjoy and please review!
AN: I was flabbergasted at the response to the last chapter, 94 reviews! That's the most for any chapter of a WIP and any other chapter of any story except the final one that people review after the entire story. Thanks, your support keeps me typing.
'Italics' is mental speech.
Chapter 17: The Cure
Severus was methodically adding the carefully shredded aconite to the bubbling potion, totally oblivious to what Shaun was singing in the background as the small boy colored with his magical crayons on several sheets of thick parchment strewn about on the laboratory floor. Before beginning the immensely complicated formula for the new Werewolves cure potion, Severus had carefully placed a magical barrier delineating the safe distance from the potentially toxic fumes of the cauldrons and showing Shaun the distance he must stay back to keep completely safe just in case Severus accidentally exploded a cauldron, of course, he hadn't exploded a cauldron in years, but he would take no chances with his son's well-being.
'Twenty-seven, twenty-eight, twenty-nine, thirty!' as he finished counting the counter-clockwise strokes to complete the current stage of brewing, Severus stood up, over extending his back to produce a series of welcome pops to his much abused vertebrae as he stretched gratefully. Now he had fifteen minutes to catch his breath, wipe the sweat off of his brow, slice the next two ingredients for the potions and check up on his son.
Severus' heart clenched in joy as he finally comprehended exactly what his son was singing in his clear, sweet childish soprano voice.
"I love you, You love me, We're a happy family…" He blinked rapidly as his heart swelled, Shaun really thought that about them he knew, but it was different hearing it said so blatantly and sung so sweetly.
Severus turned back to slicing and grinding his ingredients, but gradually as the time slowly passed, the warmth in his heart was being overwhelmed by the gritting, grinding agitation of his jaw clenching and grinding his teeth in agitation and frustration. 'Yes the boy loves me, but must he sing that blasted song forty times in a row, what's wrong with singing another song once in a while!'
Forcing himself to remain calm and rational, Severus looked at Shaun and gently inquired of the boy, "Can't you sing anything else but that dratted drivel? Just choose another song, any other song, NOW!"
Severus had reached another brief respite when he turned on his son and blasted once again, "No, I DON'T KNOW the way to SESAME STREET! Nor do I ever want to visit that bloody muggle place! Now sing something else!"
By the end of a very long afternoon of tense brewing, Severus had discovered the hard way that Shaun only knew a few songs, and he didn't particularly know any of them through or even all of the correct words to the few that he had learned through the door of his cupboard as his fat cousin watched the telly. Severus thought through his massive headache that he was positive there were different words than, 'Jimmie cracked corn and I don't care, Jimmy cracked, and I don't care…' twenty times in a row and he surely never wanted to find out exactly what a 'telly tubbie' was!
Shaun ran into Remus' arms after leaving the potions lab, nearly in tears after his father's increasingly short temper was flooding his empathic abilities even with the dampening powers of the torque. He buried his head into the man's familiar shoulder, tears freely falling down his cheeks as he stuttered and sobbed his explanation of what had happened.
"D-d-d-daddy's m-m-mad and I j-j-just was s-s-s-singing like he w-w-w-wanted me to!"
Severus plopped heavily into his favorite chair, waved his wand at a bottle of firewhiskey and a large goblet on the sideboard to summon them to him, poured a stiff drink and heaved a deep sigh as he swallowed the first burning mouthful. "Tomorrow, Remus you are beginning music classes for the day school!"
Remus chuckled from the sofa where he was holding and consoling a now almost asleep child, the powerful emotions and worry having worn the boy out to the point of exhaustion. "Are you telling me Lilly's son can't sing? Why, she had a beautiful soprano voice, and James could do a creditable accompaniment with a pleasant tenor."
Severus tipped his head back in pain and frustration, "No, Shaun has a beautiful clear voice. He just doesn't know ANYTHING to sing!" he growled at the former werewolf in exasperation. Sirius snorted from the next room, blatantly eavesdropping on the conversation.
Sirius laughed snidely as he entered the room through the adjoining doorway, "I'll volunteer to teach him several new songs, Severus!"
Remus and Severus turned on the former Marauder and gave him identical glares while they said in unison, "NO!"
What Severus finished the sentence with was luckily unintelligible but Moony was heard to clearly exclaim that he didn't know who would kill them first, Minerva McGonagall or the other parents!
Remus had managed to contact three friends who were werewolves and willing to become test subjects for the new potential cure for the following full moon so the testing was put aside until next week. Professor McGonagall had volunteered to come in one afternoon a week and teach the children how to sing and Professor Flitwick had volunteered to teach piano to any of the students who was interested with individual lessons as needed so that the children would have a more well-rounded education. The two professors were also eager to begin teaching small magics to the children to see if they were able to focus and use magic at a younger age than eleven. The age of eleven seemed to be steeped in history so far back that no one actually knew why that age had been chosen, after all, much younger children displayed spurts of accidental magic routinely.
Albus came to dinner later that week with a bemused expression upon his aged face, his eyes twinkling merrily, almost blinding his colleagues already sitting at the table. He gripped Shaun's hand tightly as he led the small boy to his seat beside his father. Severus snarled at the blasted man as he dished a healthy portion for Shaun and cut his steak and kidney pie into bite sized pieces for the boy.
"What are you so happy about, Albus?" the headache the potion's master was suffering from was clearly apparent to everyone at the table. It was well known that the man suffered from them after a long day of huddling over the heat and fumes of his cauldrons as he replenished the stocks for the hospital wing each summer.
"Now, Severus, no need to be harsh. I was just thinking of the enjoyable afternoons this week that I have been caring for young Shaun here." Albus bent over and kissed the soft black hair of the busily eating child. "He has been enjoying playing 'cards' on the floor while I answer the mail each day this week. Why don't you ask him what he was playing so happily this afternoon, Severus?"
Severus rolled his eyes in impatience, but never the less took the bait, "Shaun, what were you playing this afternoon in Grandpa Albus' office?"
His innocent green eyes shining brightly Shaun swallowed his bite of green beans and looked up at his daddy, "Cemetery, Daddy!"
Minerva choked on her tea, Professor Flitwick gasped and swallowed his bite of steak the wrong way, Poppy Pomfrey alternated glares at the Headmaster with pounding Flitwick on his diminutive back, trying to help him catch his breath. Severus had luckily not been eating or drinking at that precise moment, but he was too shocked to even glare at the elderly mage. Remus and Sirius were leaning on each other, unsure as to whether to scream at the old man or break out in hysterical laughter.
Severus gathered himself before looking at the old man, his eyes wide with astonishment clearly visible on his normally taciturn face. "What were you playing Shaun?" Surely he hadn't heard the boy correctly!
Albus chuckled softly and answered for the boy who had turned back to his dinner. "He was playing 'cemetery' Severus!"
Ten pairs of eyes looked at him as if he had finally lost all of his mental facilities. He laughed at the gobsmacked expressions and gently explained. "On Monday, I taught him how to play 'solitaire' with a muggle deck of playing cards that Arthur Weasley gave to me. By Tuesday he told me he was playing 'solitary' , Wednesday it was 'sanitary' and then today, he informed me he was playing 'cemetery'. I believe it is still the same card game, but I didn't want to question him too closely just in case I was mistaken. You understand my reluctance, I'm sure."
As he ignored the glares, muttered imprecations about his sanity, or lack of, the headmaster reached over and ruffled the dark head before returning to his own most excellent dinner.
"Just concentrate on clearing your mind. Think of a single color, or a cloud, a pond, the clear blue sky, anything that helps you to relax completely" Remus was teaching the children how to meditate. After a series of conferences with all of the staff members present, minus Filch of course, it had been decided that the easiest way to find out if any of the children besides Shaun were able to consciously control their magic would be best to teach them to meditate and then try a very small wandless magic. So for each afternoon for the last two weeks, Remus had spent twenty to thirty minutes teaching the children to clear their minds of all distractions.
"Now, look deep inside yourself and find your magical core. It should be bright and pulsing with a definite beat, like your heartbeat. When you find it, just raise your hand without opening your eyes and someone will come and help you." Severus, Albus, Minerva, Flitwick and Sirius were all there ready to help each child access their own magical power. They would not need to help Shaun; he had managed to control his magical core several years earlier and now had a resident expert already within his own mind thanks to the presence of Merlin's torque around his small neck.
No one seemed surprised when Luna immediately raised a small, pale hand. Albus was nearest to her and he went to crouch down on the floor next to the soft pillow the young girl was sitting cross legged upon. He placed his hands upon the blonde head and probed her gently, "Yes child, exactly right. Now, picture yourself pulling a strand loose, and pushing it out to your hand. Yes, yes, that's right, no it doesn't matter which hand, whichever one you are most comfortable with." He continued to help and encourage her in the difficult task as Minerva knelt to help Blaise and Sirius did the same for Neville who had raised their hands almost simultaneously.
Remus was still encouraging Susan, Terry and Hannah who hadn't quite managed to imagine their magical core when Luna squealed as her hand lit up with a very soft but still visible 'lumos'. She lost it almost immediately but it had been a very good start and more than any of the adults had really expected anyone to be able to do at their young ages.
Luna was understandably proud of herself as the group headed for the playground for free time before going home for the weekend. Remus called after them, "Don't forget to practice what we were doing here today! I want each of you to be able to visualize your magical core by Monday at least. Have a good weekend!"
The ministry had sent several observers on the night of the full moon which happened to fall on a Thursday night that August. The three werewolf friends of Remus were understandably nervous eating dinner in the Great Hall of Hogwarts in the presence of the Head of Magical Law Enforcement himself as well as several Aurors.
Remus turned to Randolph, Amos and Draconius. "Now, remember, you are here at our express invitation. You are safe and this will be the last day that you are a werewolf. After tonight your record at the ministry will be expunged from the control lists. You will be free to hold a job, marry, and even have children if you wish."
Randolph pushed his food around on his plate, unsure what the unappetizing brown goo had started out as. "I know, Remus, but it's hard to stop years of hiding and apprehension in a short while. I assure you I am very grateful for this opportunity, and I wouldn't say no to this chance even if it meant I spent the rest of my life in a cell. But I can't help worrying."
Amos and Drake nodded in agreement. "You must admit it's not everyday the Head of the MLF sits down to eat with a trio of werewolves!"
Amos snorted at his companions comment, "Yeah, you got that right!"
Dinner took forever and yet was over much too soon for the three very nervous werewolves as they followed the Hogwarts and Ministry groups down deep into the dungeons and towards a set of prepared secure cells. The three gawped in astonishment to find that the three rooms were equipped with comfortable beds and chairs and not just empty stone chambers.
Severus grouped the three outside their individual chambers to explain once again to the three men exactly what they hoped would happen that evening. "Now, you have each taken the new Wolfsbane potion for the last two evenings, correct?" At their nods he continued. "Each of you will be given the third dose ten minutes before moon rise by a wizard or witch who is an animagus. That person will remain with you in animagus form to help you to change the werewolf into an animagus. We are unsure whether you will become a wolf or if another form is possible. But you will be able to completely control your transformation after this night and will no longer be at the mercy of the lunar cycle. Nor will you transmit the werewolf curse through saliva or any other means."
Minerva took Amos by the arm and helped onto the bed in the first chamber, while Sirius took Drake and Remus helped Randolph into the third chamber. Severus swept into each room, handing out smoking goblets of foul smelling potion to each volunteer.
The rooms had been locked and magically sealed as Severus, carefully watching his ornate pocket watch, announced loudly and clearly from his station in the corridor. "Now, drink the potion, and then lay down upon the bed. Sirius, Minerva, and Remus change shape now and remain in animagus form until I inform you it is safe to change back." He heard a chorus of acknowledgements from each of the three rooms and then the creaking of the beds as the werewolves settled themselves.
The ministry observers were stationed in front of each door, watching closely through an open but barred window as the moonlight slowly crept across the dungeon floor. The enchanted window in each cell accurately portrayed the evening sky exactly. The moonlight touched each man and was immediate in its effect. Three painful screams rent the air from three tormented souls as they flickered back and forth between human and werewolf. Soothing noises of cat, dog and wolf combined with the echoing screams to make a strange cacophony of sounds that echoed along the cold stone corridors and filtered out into the moonlight. The sounds of agony gradually stilled until no sound had been heard for several minutes.
Severus called out to the observers to report, "Observations gentlemen?"
"First room, subject appears to be a large Irish setter. He hasn't changed form for the last ten minutes by my watch. All stable and satisfactory!"
"Good, second room?"
"Subject has stopped shifting and is lying comfortably on the bed, though he appears to be unconscious. Subject has taken the form of a small grey and black striped housecat! Everything satisfactory, sir!"
"Excellent, third room?"
"All satisfactory sir; subject has become a Canadian goose. He appears to be unconscious as well, sir."
"Good, gentlemen and thank you for your assistance. Remus, Minerva, and Sirius, you may shift and begin to wake your subject. Please administer the blue potion followed by the light green one."
The three had each helped the new animagus to swallow their potions, the doors were opened and the three had been successfully shown how to transform back to human in less than an hour.
Needless to say, the trek back up to the Great Hall was considerably more exuberant and buoyant than the trip down had been. Severus was grudgingly bearing the slaps on the back and the heartfelt thanks from the former werewolves and the overbearing and unwelcome congratulations form his colleagues and friends.
Arthur and Albus were standing together in front of the large marble fireplace as Arthur was preparing to floo back to the ministry. "Congratulations once again, Severus! Will you be releasing the formula soon or are you going to keep it proprietary for the time being?"
"I am much too busy with Shaun and school obligations to continue to brew the cure in the amounts and frequencies that it would be required so I will be releasing the formula unless the Ministry would be able to brew and control the transformations from werewolf to animagus? I would rather not have just anyone trying to brew it up to cure themselves so they can slip through registration, especially someone who has been deliberately infecting others in the past."
"Of course, of course, we could set up a controlled brewing and make sure that those who have deliberately infected others are required to have at least some form of punishment for their crimes. I will draw up a plan and get it to you sometime next week, if that is acceptable to you?" At Severus' nod, Arthur waved at the rest of the room and disappeared into the fireplace in a ring of bright green flame. The others all took their leave soon after, leaving only the Hogwarts contingent to quietly celebrate in the much cozier atmosphere of Albus' drawing room.
As summer drew to a close, all seven of the children in the day school had managed to do a lumos spell using wandless magic. Surprisingly Luna and Terry were the strongest besides Shaun. Neville was the most inconsistent with his magic, leading Albus and Poppy to speculate that perhaps the death eaters who had tortured his parents into insanity had also struck him with at least a mild crucio and somehow damaged his nervous system or his connection to his magical core in some fashion. They were searching for a way to pinpoint any damage that had been done, but in the meantime, Poppy was giving him a mild nerve re-growth potion each week to counteract any nerve damage that might have occurred.
Hannah had finally managed to light up her fingers on the very last Thursday before day school would break for the final three weeks before classes at Hogwarts would begin for the new term. She was the last one to finally control her inner magic and the adults all met that afternoon to celebrate their success and begin to plan for the next year with their young charges.
Filius was bouncing in his excitement, "So we have proven that younger children are able to access and control small magics. Should we continue on with our small core of students or is there some way of expanding this program so that others can learn younger than eleven?"
Albus steepled his fingers under his chin in thought, "I suppose that children younger than eleven were deemed to young for a boarding school and it became entrenched in everyone's mind that children younger than eleven were too young to actually access their magic, but we know that isn't true in most old pureblood households don't we, Severus?"
Severus nodded, "Of course, Headmaster. My own uncle had me doing curses as young as eight. It might have occurred earlier except that my own parents did not encourage the dark arts such as my uncle did. I do not doubt that the majority of my Slytherins are well versed in magics long before their first day at Hogwarts."
Minerva pursed her lips in displeasure and Pomona Sprout looked outraged. "That is certainly unfair when it comes to half bloods and muggle borns! We must do something to even the playing field as it were for all students, Albus!" Pomona exclaimed.
Severus sneered at the women, "Well, I for one do not relish letting younger and younger children come to school here! We have enough trouble controlling the first years between immaturity and homesickness, the entire first month is useless as it is!"
Albus made a gesture to tell everyone to return to their seats. "I agree with both groups." He gestured for them all to settle down after they again jumped up to begin arguing their point, "I do not believe younger children should begin schooling here, but I also believe that we could set up a program of day schools around the country to help children that do not belong to traditional old families to begin to bridge the gap. Remus, if you would duplicate the lesson plans for the magic lessons that you have been giving? "
"Minerva, I need you to draft a letter telling parents about the new program, particularly the non-traditional students? I will give you the particulars as they are ironed out. Sirius, perhaps you could take the magical registries book and locate areas that a small day school would service a group of children? Ideally between eight and ten in each school? And I will begin to draft a curriculum for each age student. I would like to start with older students first, perhaps those who will be attending Hogwarts in one or two years."
"But what about our day school here?" Severus began.
"Oh, it will continue of course. And perhaps if we find particularly talented students at our day schools, they could be transferred here for more intense training as needed. Now, I must broach this subject with the Ministry for Education, arrange for all of those portkeys, and search for appropriate materials and…" Albus dismissed the others with a distracted wave, his mind already going in nine different directions as the brilliant old mage worked out the myriad problems inherent in such a bold and sweeping change to magical education.
As Severus slowly walked down the circular staircase to reclaim his son he thought again about how his life had changed so dramatically since the day that one small boy had appeared in his lab.
"This is going to be one exciting year!" He muttered as he strode down the corridor, black robes billowing behind him.
Albus threw floo powder into the fireplace in his office, clutched the sheaf of parchments with his fledgling ideas about a sweeping change in the education of magical children and thought, 'What an exciting year this will be!' as he disappeared into the green flames.
Minerva looked at her calendar and started scheduling tentative appointments for the nine new muggle born students she would have to visit individually and explain about magic and the magical world. "I wonder what other changes young Shaun will bring?" She really wasn't sure she wanted to know the answer to that question as she turned her attention to her schedule once more.
Filius was browsing through his catalogs of magical books as he searched for materials appropriate for nine and ten year olds to learn about magic. He rubbed his forehead in excitement and chirped, "Oh, this year is going to be so exciting! I can hardly wait to begin."
Sirius stuck his head into the study were Remus was revising his lesson plans, "Moony, I need your help with these maps! I have located at least six areas were there are enough students that live close to each other, but I need help with the ones that are scattered around!" Remus capped his inkwell as he stood to go and help his old friend, thinking back on how much his life had changed in the past eight months. 'Was it only eight months ago that the most I was hoping for was a good meal and something to make transformations less painful? I now have the wolf gone forever, my 'family', a great job, a limitless future and, for once in my life, hope. And it's all due to one small boy! Thank you Shaun, thank you Harry Potter!'