Harry was woken in the morning by nothing, he simply woke up. No sounds from Dudley pounding down the stairs or slamming doors, no sunlight beaming in from the thin curtains he had in Privet Drive. He simply woke.
He blinked a few times before absentmindedly reaching out his hand to grab his glasses, his hand was met with a fancier wooden bedside table he had held at the Dursleys, and then Harry was wide awake. Had he moved over in the middle of the night? Grabbing his glasses he put them on and saw the extra bedside table. He leaned back and was happy to realize he was alone, he dreaded to think how awkward it would have been if he wasn't.
Harry thought he might as well get up, no point in lying here, besides he wanted to see if Ron or Hermione had replied to his letter yet. He desperately wanted to see them. It surprised Harry how odd it didn't feel to be in these rooms, and cringed when he thought about yesterday and just how terrified he was to open the door to these. In fact, he had slept the best he had slept in a very long time. He had not woken once, and could not even feel Snape's presence beside him, he wondered if Snape had even slept there last night.
Snape, however, had got out of bed at an ungodly hour in the morning, struggling to sleep, and not wanting to be there when Harry woke up, he ventured out to his living room where Iris was coming in from her nightly hunt. He bent down to stroke her and settled down on the sofa, a book between his fingers, Iris cuddled down next to him, as she began to doze. However, Snape's thoughts were far from his book in his hand. His eyes kept glancing back to the door of the bedroom and still cursed his situation. He wondered if this feeling would eventually fade and he would grow used to this new arrangement before the year was up, or in a year, he would still feel like that. He was almost positive it would be the latter.
His thoughts were distracted when he heard the lock of the bedroom door click open.
"Oh, good morning," Harry said timidly at the door, he was surprised to see Snape sitting there, but then it was his quarters, so where else would he have been.
"Morning" Snape said quietly, as in his mind nothing about this morning was good. He went back to his book, not needing or wanting to have any conversation with the young man in his rooms. He thought momentarily about moving to his study to avoid any chatter but decided against it. This was his home and he would stay whenever he liked.
Iris had over ideas though. Woken up from the door opening and the new stranger in her rooms, she bounced down off of the sofa and strolled over to Harry.
"How old is she?" Harry asked, breaking the awkward silence.
"Unsure, about 3" Snape replied, pretending to be annoyed at being interrupted from his book. He wasn't reading anyway, instead, he was watching Harry act with Iris. His cat.
"I wouldn't have thought you had a cat, you know, you don't seem like the sort of person to have a pet," Harry said, now kneeling, putting the string of his hoodie above Iris' head so she started playing with it.
"There's a lot you don't know about me Potter" Gruntled Snape. Harry rolled his eyes, he was just trying to make conversation.
"You know, if people are going to think we are married, probably best you call me by my actual name," Harry said, standing up, letting Iris run back to the sofa.
Snape was quiet for a second. Slowly he closed his book.
"I suppose you're right," he sighed exasperatedly. "There's a letter for you," he said, pointing to the letter which was laid on the table.
"Oh," Harry said, rather taken back there was no sharp reply. "Um thanks," he said while walking over to the table to retrieve the letter. "It's from Hermione," he said out loud, unsure why, as he knew Snape wouldn't care.
"I guessed as much," Snape replied, watching Harry read the letter. "Dumbledore wants to see you." He said bluntly.
Harry hummed his response while he read Hermione's letter.
Harry,
I've sent an owl to Professor Dumbeldore, Remus is coming to get me, I will see you soon.
Hermione.
Perfect! Harry thought. He couldn't wait to see his friends, he hoped Ron was coming too. However, he was also dreading to tell them what had happened the evening before. Unless of course, they had already read about it in the papers.
"Have you seen the papers this morning?" Harry asked.
"No, I haven't," Snape said, linking his fingers together.
"Oh," Harry paused awkwardly "Well, I guess I'll go see Professor Dumbledore then," Harry said, letting himself have one last glance at the little cat curled up, he started to walk towards the door.
"Have you eaten breakfast? You should if not" Snape asked and immediately wondered why he had.
Harry shot Snape a look of confusion.
"No, I'll just eat when I get back. It's fine." He said, shrugging and walking towards the door.
"Just for once listen to me," Snape resisted the strong urge to roll his eyes. ''Dumbledore said after breakfast to go and see him. I reckon you'll be a fair while with him, and then I'm sure your werewolf friend will want to talk to you as well." Snape said matter of factly. "So just, on the morning after our wedding, just take my advice and have some breakfast."
This has nothing to do with breakfast Snape knew. He really didn't care if Harry had it or not, but he wanted to start this off right. He had to be the one to be in control of this.
Harry couldn't help but look quite taken back at what Snape had just said to him.
"Okay I will," Harry said, looking confusingly at the man sitting on the sofa. A look of subtle anger graced both of their faces.
"I'm going to my study," Snape said, standing up in a huff. "If you need my house-elf her name is Nolly," as soon as her name was said Nolly appeared in the living room.
Harry, looking at the house-elf, didn't see Snape move towards his study and close the door. He had got the last word and Harry knew it.
"Uh, Hi Nolly, can I get a cup of tea and some toast please," Harry asked. He had never had his breakfast served by a house-elf before, always in the great hall or at the burrow, and he was always the one to make it at the Dursleys.
"Of course, I will be getting that for you right now," Nolly vanished and before Harry had even blinked she was back with a cup of tea and two slices of toast with butter on. "Anything else Sir?" Harry shook his head and smiled, and went to collect his breakfast which was sitting on the table.
"No, Thank you Nolly."
"Nolly is Snapey's elf, Dobby is being Master Harry's elf. But Nolly knows her master is married to master Harry, so she will serve both." She smiled and disappeared.
"But Dobby isn't my-" Harry started, but before he had even got the words out the little elf in front of him had gone.
Harry sighed and relaxed into the sofa, and let Iris sit by his side. She was a beautiful cat, grey with pale green eyes. Out of everything, to believe Snape cared for an animal really did shock Harry. Snape acted like he didn't care for anyone or anything, and yet here was this little cat in these rooms.
It had shocked him to see Snape sitting there this morning. Even though it was his own home, Harry just assumed he spent every waking moment of every day making students' lives hell or making potions. If every morning started this rough this was going to be a long year, but he hoped when the school year started they would see even less of each other.
He was dreading potions class now. If Snape was horrible to him already, he was guaranteed to be even worse now. Unless he felt like he had to be nicer to him to keep up appearances. Maybe he could convince him to be nicer to Ron and Hermione too.
Knowing he was being ridiculous, he quickly finished his tea, and stood up, stroking Iris once more, he headed out of the door and began to walk to Dumbledore's office, turning round to have one last look at his new home before closing it.
Remus tapped his fingers on the side of his leg, while he waited for Hermione to apparate to Hogsmeade. Being 17 Hermione was already allowed to apparate alone, but she was meeting Remus here to be escorted up to Hogwarts.
He heard the crack of apparition and looked round to see Hermione standing there, a small smile gracing her lips.
Remus was struck with how much older she looked. He felt his breath hitch up in his throat for a second. Where had this young, innocent girl who Remus had last seen well over a year ago gone? She had been replaced with someone who was extremely attractive and held an air of importance about her.
"Remus." She smiled, but a look of worry still masked her face under the smile. "I've read the papers," she began, at Remus' confused look she continued. "I get them sent to me at home. What on earth happened last night? Honestly, when I read them this morning I thought it might be someone playing a trick on me."
"I'm afraid it's true," Remus paused. "Well it's true about the marriage, but the reasons are not'" Remus could not take his eyes off of her. She looked radiant.
"Can you tell me? Or shall I wait for Harry to explain?" She asked him.
"I'll explain on our walk-up. Shall we?" He said, gesturing his hand up the path leading to the Hogwarts gates.
"Yes, lets," she said, smiling brightly at him. Hermione had always liked Remus, even as her teacher, she thought he was fantastic. Looking at him now, she noticed despite the fact she hadn't seen him in over a year, he looked very much the same. His sandy-colored hair was still just a touch too long for it to ever look neat and tidy, but it suited him perfectly, and his eyes still held a sort of brightness behind them even after everything that had happened in the last couple of years. Almost shining through with a little bit of hope. "How have you been?" She asked as they started walking up to the school.
"Busy" he laughed quietly, "I swear as soon as something got sorted and I thought I may be able to come back to see Harry, something else happened and Albus sent us on missions again." He smiled. "And you? You look remarkably different since I last saw you, he said, risking a quick glance at the woman next to him.
"I've been okay. I guess we're all just getting more and more worried about you-know-who." She looked back up at him as they carried on walking. "He's missed you, Remus," she paused as if wondering what to say next. "We all have."
Ignoring the huge amount of guilt that rushed over him Remus carried on. The last year had been an awful one for him. Everything he did he had done for the good of the order, or the good of Harry or Albus. If he wasn't out risking his life for the order he was transforming painfully, leaving him out of the action for at least 2 days while he recovered. But it still didn't make him feel better about the fact that he hadn't been there for Harry when he needed him most. Especially since Sirius had gone.
"I think I'll be around a lot more this year, so I hope that will make up for it. Especially since the circumstances now," he smiled, but Hermione could see his eyes had turned to her with a look of worry in them.
"What happened? Did he really marry Professor Snape? Is that even legal?" She asked Remus again. "In the muggle world a union between a teacher and a student is strictly forbidden, the teacher would go to jail if that ever happened, but I'm guessing that's not the case here?"
"Not at all. A partnership between a student and teacher is most normal here, teachers are young, considering wizards live longer than an average muggle, the age gap is surprisingly low." Remus explained, he guessed Hermione had never read anything about teacher and student relationships in the wizarding world, as she would never think she would need that knowledge.
"It's not the age that surprises me the most, it's the person of power and someone trusted in that power," Hermione said. The age gap she knew was not a problem, the same way she knew it was two men. That was something that could easily be looked over in the wizarding world, but it was the fact that this was a person of power and a student. It baffled her how that could be allowed to happen.
"Most students, especially in the later years are just as magically powerful as some of the teachers, and in Harry's case, this is definitely true. I reckon his and Severus' power are almost completely equal." Remus continued trying to explain.
"So it's all to do with how strong magically you are? That's how this was allowed to happen?" Hermione asked, still a little confused, but starting to understand.
"In a nutshell yes" Remus replied. "Although the law which states this was allowed to happen dates back hundreds of years."
"I see" Hermione replied quietly. "Why Professor Snape though? Who else was in the castle?" Hermione looked up at Remus again "Surely Harry would have chosen anyone over Professor Snape?"
"He was quite literally the only option. There was only me, Albus, Professor McGonagall, and Madam Pomfrey, oh and Hagrid." Remus paused and sighed, "if you want my honest opinion though, even if other people had been in the school at the time, granted he's not the nicest of men, but he has more power than most wizards. He can protect Harry more than most of them, and the Department of Social Care wouldn't want to take Severus on in a battle." They were almost at the gates by now, and Remus could see the school in the distance. "I honestly think he is the best choice, no matter who was in that room." He looked down at Hermione and laughed. "But let's not tell Harry that," he smiled when Hermione laughed back.
"No, let's not," she smiled. "I don't' think he'd like the idea of his perfect choice being Professor Snape."
Remus whispered a spell, opening the gates just wide enough to let the two through.
Hermione smiled up at the castle. She was excited to be back here, she was excited to see Remus, and she was excited to see Harry and Ron. Her two best friends who she loved and adored equally.
They walked in companionable silence for a while, enjoying the summer breeze and warmth of the sun.
"Oh, one thing I forgot to ask," at Remus' raised eyebrows she continued, "so it's true about Harry being disowned?"
"Yes, unfortunately, we do not know the exact reasons, but I'm hoping he will tell us when we go and see him now"
"You know, I'm glad, the Dursley's sounded horrible. At least here he is safe." Hermione said positivity, looking straight forward.
"Exactly" Remus smiled. "Guess he's just gotta look at the positives." He smiled again, "after you." He held the door open to the castle.
Hermione smiled as she walked through the door. It smelt exactly the same and it felt wonderful to be back. Slowly both of them walked up the stairs to Dumbledore's office, Both enjoying the company of the other.
Remus and Hermione were the first to reach Dumbledore's office. He invited both of them to sit down and wait for Ron and Harry.
"Harry shouldn't be much longer, I suspect he's just eating breakfast," Dumbledore said, making two more chairs appear out of nowhere, and placing them in front of his large desk. Remus and Hermione took the two to the left. "And Mr. Weasley should be coming out of the floo any minute." Dumbledore smiled. Almost as if perfectly timed, the fire roared and Ron staggered out, choking a little on the soot and smoke, but steadying himself as he climbed out.
Remus was shocked to see how much Ron had grown in a year. He was taller by far than Remus now and was far broader too.
Hermione leaped up to give her friend a large hug, which Ron happily accepted back.
"Merlin Ron, what happened to the kid I knew a year ago" Remus laughed, patting Ron on his arm while shaking his hand.
Ron chuckled. "It's good to see you, Remus," he said, shaking his hand back.
Ron took the seat next to Hermione, and both of them waited in anticipation for their third friend to come through the door.
"Before Harry comes through the door, I assume you have read the papers or have been caught up to date with what happened here last night," Dumbledore said to the two of them. At their nodded heads he carried on. "I also want you all to know that this was, of course, a complete last resort, if there was anything else that could have been done, I would have taken it. I'm worried about how the school is going to react when term begins." Dumbledore paused and looked at the faces of the young adults sitting in front of him. "He is very lucky to have friends who will stand by him through this."
"We'd stand by him through anything," Hermione said defensively.
"Granted" Ron continued, "We thought we'd be standing by him through battles, but we will stand by him through this as well."
"So I'm assuming you've read the papers?" Dumbledore asked Ron, and at Ron's nod, he continued. "The story about him and Professor Snape is obviously not true, just something we spun up-" Dumbledore began.
"Well I gathered he wasn't dating Professor Snape throughout the year, I think even we would have realized that" Ron scoffed, glancing at Hermione, who continued silently staring at Dumbledore.
"But Harry has indeed been disowned, and marrying Professor Snape was the only option we had," Dumbledore admitted, looking at Remus for confirmation, Remus nodded his head, causing Hermione and Ron to turn their heads towards him.
There was silence for a couple of seconds before Ron sighed.
"Well then...Poor harry" he said quietly.
Anything else that needed to be said was stopped as the door opened suddenly.
"Harry!" Hermione cried. Harry was greeted by arms around his neck and a face full of hair as Hermione hugged him.
"Hermione, Ron," He said enthusiastically, seeing his ginger-haired friend standing by Dumbledore's desk. "It's good to see you both," Harry gave Hermione one last hug before releasing her and then pulling his ginger-haired friend into one as well.
"You too mate" Ron smiled back, and they all took their seats, with Harry going in between Hermione and Ron.
"So Harry" Dumbledore began, "You're friends know the basics of what occurred here last night, and I'm sure in due course you will tell them everything. The only thing that hasn't been explained is why all of this has happened in the first place?" Dumbledore asked calmly.
Harry had been dreading this conversation. He rubbed his wrist with his hand and looked down at the floor.
"I lost control of my magic, it was an accident," he said quietly.
Hermione noticed the way his hand gripped his wrist and looked questioningly at the small action.
"That's not uncommon Harry for someone with your immense magical power," Dumbledore said kindly again. "Why would losing control of your magic make your uncle and aunt disown you?" He asked.
"Well," Harry began, "Uncle Vernon had the head of Grunnings over for dinner." He glanced at the room, "Grunnings was where he worked," he explained. "He was up for a major promotion. Apparently, he had found someone stealing funds or something like that" Harry said, waving his hands in front of him. "I didn't understand but knew it was important. So Aunt Petunia got out all the best china, the best hand towels, everything. Everything had to be perfect for this man." Harry explained.
"And what? You lost control of your magic and broke things?" Ron asked.
"Um no, well I did but that wasn't the main issue." Harry continued, "So he was round and, I guess to sort of make themselves look good they were talking about how they had taken me in, about how great they were for doing something noble." Harry sighed. "They just kept insulting them, again and again."
"Who?" Remus asked. But everyone in the room already knew the answer.
"Mum and dad," Harry said quietly.
"What did they say about Lily and James?" Remus said, sitting more forward in his chair, a look of anger now masking his face. Dumbledore too had sat more forward in his chair, his hands now clasped together on his desk.
"Just the usual" Harry said, avoiding Remus' eyes completely. "Mum was a drunk, and dad was a waste of space, they didn't want me." He trailed off. Remus' eyes widened significantly at that.
"They said that?" Remus asked, not trying to hide his shock to the room.
Hermione and Ron had heard this before. They were used to the tales of these horrible people making Harry feel like he was worthless when actually he was one of the most important people in the wizarding world.
"They always say this Remus" Harry said dejectedly, looking up to see Remus.
"Harry, Lily and James, I've never seen two parents love a child as much as they did you" Remus insisted.
"I know" Harry started again, "I mean I don't know, because I don't remember them, but I've heard stories."
Hermione and Ron sat in silence. It was plain to see how angry Remus was about this, and Hermione was surprised he was still sitting down. She held her hand out to Harry, urging him to continue. She knew any words right now would not have been as prominent as a single touch.
"Carry on Harry," Dumbledore said calmly. "No one here will at all be angry with what you did."
"I didn't really do anything" Harry explained, "Anyway, so it was constant, worse than usual, and trust me it's usually bad." Remus gritted his teeth. "I just lost control, I can't explain it, the china shattered, and drawers opened and things flew out of them and all these papers landed on the table."
"What was on the papers?" Hermione interrupted.
"It was Uncle Vernon who had been smuggling the money from the company into his own private bank account, something on the papers proved it."
All 4 mouths dropped, eyes wide. Harry ignored them and carried on.
"So that was it, Uncle Vernon lost his job, Aunt Petunia cried and Dudley screamed that it was all my fault, and it was."
"Harry!" Dumbledore said, his voice not anywhere near as calm as it had been a few seconds before. "This was in no way your fault!" He stood up. "A disownment because of this! Merlin, I thought you may have injured someone."
"How can they disown Harry because of that? This has absolutely nothing to do with you!" Ron shouted, standing up.
"No Ron, you don't understand, I've never seen him so furious," Harry said, grabbing his wrist once more.
Ron was practically spluttering his words out, while Remus had now taken to standing up too. Dumbledore looked mortified.
Disownment in the wizarding world was such a serious matter. For them to disown Harry because of something that his uncle himself had done made Abus livid. When he received the letter, his worst thought that Harry has hurt someone accidentally, or something major must have happened, but for this to be the case made Albus realize how spiteful and horrible the Dursleys were. This whole situation could have killed Harry if they haven't fixed it as quickly as they had.
"Did he hurt you, Harry?" Hermione asked quietly, reaching out to grab his wrist lightly.
"Only a little," Harry said, "Honestly I got off lightly, I managed to leave the house before anything too terrible happened." He smiled softly at her, a smile that Hermione did not return. Instead, she just continued to hold his hand as a sign of comfort.
The three men spoke quickly and quietly to each other for a few moments before turning back to Harry.
"I feel we need to explain why we are so shocked, Harry." Dumbledore declared. "Disownment in the wizarding world is hardly ever done, it's almost unheard of. The only situations where I ever heard of when a parent had disowned their child was when Voldemort was at his peak and some dark families children refused to become death eaters. It was seen as a major disowner and they were not worthy to be a part of the family line."
"Oh," Harry simply said.
"I'm so sorry this has had to happen to you" consoled Dumbledore.
"I'm not," Remus said suddenly, promoting odd looks from the others in the room. "I'd rather you be nowhere near that family." He said defiantly. "I know you and Severus don't really get on."
"They hate each other" Ron gasped back.
"At least he won't hurt you," Remus said finally.
"I wouldn't put it past him," Ron muttered under his breath.
"He wouldn't," Remus said again. "You three don't know Severus the way I do, and especially the way Albus does," he said plainly, looking at Albus for confirmation. "I'd rather he be with him then with these bullies."
"I agree," Dumbledore replied. Looking directly at Harry, who now looked rather small sitting in the chair next to Hermione. "If I had known how horrible they had been to you Harry," he said glancing down at his wrist, "I would have made other arrangements for you."
For the first time in a while, Harry smiled gently and stood up.
"I appreciate it, Sir, honestly I do, but you weren't to know what was happening, it's okay, this was not your concern," Harry said quietly.
Suddenly the man who Remus had seen yesterday, had turned back into the boy who he knew last year, and it pained him to see that this was what the Dursley's had done to him. He was a whole different person when they were brought into a conversation.
Ron was furious. His best friend was now married to the most hated teacher in the school because of this disgusting family. He didn't care what Dumbledore said. Surely there must have been any other option. Granted, Ron couldn't think of it right now, but anything else would have benefited Harry more than this. He knew the teasing that would endure when school started again would be nothing compared to anything any of them had ever experienced before, and he knew it was going to take a lot of will power to hold his nerve and make sure not to give the real reason away.
"I suggest we all sit down," Dumbledore said once more. "Let's all have a cup of tea, now we know the reason why it still doesn't change the fact nothing can be done to change this. This is the situation we are in, and as Remus rightly said, we would rather you be here than there."
Harry was unsure if that was correct. Yes, he knew Snape would never physically hurt him, but he doubted that would also stray to the emotional hurt that he was now going to have to endure every day. He wondered how many times he would be called stupid this year by his husband.
Everyone took their place back in the chairs, tea was served and biscuits had been handed round.
"Now Harry," Dumbledore said, opening the drawer in his desk. "I was wondering if you would like to see today's papers?"
"May as well see what story they spun on it," Harry said, holding his arm out to take the paper from the older wizard.
'Harry Potter marries most unliked Hogwarts professor'
"Oh fantastic," Harry said sarcastically. "I'm sure that will go down well with him," he said, and slowly opened the paper to read exactly what story the rest of the wizarding world knew.
Author note: Hello everyone! I would really appreciate if people could leave some reviews if possible, they do make me smile when I read them plus it's just nice to know what people think of your work!
Thank you so much for reading!
S L x