Shaun Snape, Age 8
By Teacherbev
Summary: Part 3 in the Growing Up Snape series. Shaun is now 8 years old and dealing with his father Severus, loose Death Eaters, Merlin and magic.
AN: It is probably necessary to read the first two stories, Snape's Invisible Friend and Growing Up Snape in order to make any sense of this story. I appreciate all those who have read and enjoyed my stories, especially those who have taken the time to post a review.
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 who likes to twist plots and play with characters, so enjoy.
Chapter 7: Back to Normal?
The next few days settled into a routine at Hogwarts, every two to three hours, baby phoenix Shaun had to be fed about an ounce of a special mush that Hagrid had happily made for the hatchling. Severus was the primary caretaker, as always, but Sirius and Remus happily filled in the gaps at night so that each could get at least a few hours of uninterrupted sleep. Everyone had taken to calling the baby Little One, but Severus thought that Shaun would hate that appellation once he was back to being a boy and so an unofficial contest had sprung up in the castle to find a nickname for Shaun when he was in Phoenix form. After all, Remus was "Moony", Sirius was "Padfoot", and Minerva was "Tabby" when in their alternate forms, it was only appropriate that Shaun have another name too.
Minerva wanted 'Emerald' because of the bird's intense and unusually bright green eyes, but the men all thought that was much too girly of a name for a brave and glorious phoenix. Albus hadn't had any useful suggestions; he wanted to call the boy after all sorts of strange Muggle candies that no one else had ever heard of. Remus was leaning toward 'Blaze' as a strong, masculine name but it hadn't stuck yet and he was the only one calling Shaun that. Sirius wanted to call him 'Blacky' since he was a glistening black color now that his down covered his wrinkled pink skin, but Severus wasn't too fond of the implicit suggestion of Black's last name for his son, even if Sirius had been named the boy's Godfather by his deceased parents.
Severus had mixed feelings about naming his son anything other than Shaun. He still remember the anguish and long conversations with himself before choosing the name 'Shaun' for the battered baby that had appeared so long ago. He was proud of his son and thought the name very suitable. After all, Shaun meant 'a gift from God' and that's exactly how he thought about Shaun's arrival into his life. He also felt left out somewhat since both of Shaun's uncles and his 'Grandma Minnie' could all transform and yet he could not. He tried to tuck Shaun into his pocket to go and speak to Minerva but the boy was having nothing to do with the dark space. He gave up in frustration and crooked his arm, allowing Shaun to settle in comfortably, but to his surprise he noticed that the bird was plucking relentlessly at his buttons. "What do you want, Shaun? Why are you pecking at my buttons?" Shaun had eventually gotten one button undone by the simple expedient of using his sharp beak to bite through the threads holding it to his shirt. "Stop that, I will unbutton my shirt if you want." As soon as the second button was undone, Shaun squirmed and wriggled until he was totally inside of Severus' shirt and then settled down, almost purring as he made a nest by pulling his father's undershirt out of his trousers and bunching up the material. Severus couldn't help himself; he started laughing at his miniscule son. He tightened his belt, holding the 'nest' secure and re-buttoned his shirt after spelling the lost button back on. He looked down, well, it did look as if he had a small paunch, but he could live with that. After being lectured by Poppy and Hagrid on the importance of keeping the baby bird warm, he thought he could handle a few teases from the other, but if anyone mentioned that he looked 'pregnant' he knew a few curses that he would be more than willing to use!
Albus and the Founder's portraits had been discussing and debating whether or not Shaun would be able to transform back into a boy anytime soon, or if he would have to grow to be a fully adult phoenix before being able to transform to human. None of the five had ever heard of anyone so young successfully becoming an animagus so the best they could do was speculate and guess, but it didn't stop them from the endless debates that they all seemed to relish.
Albus sat back on the couch in front of Rowena's portrait and changed to another subject. "You know the story of Tom Riddle, do you have any idea how his soul was kept 'alive' when his body was destroyed? And how young 'Harry Potter' managed to survive a killing curse?"
Rowena stood gracefully and glided over to a very thin hand bound volume on the library shelved behind her and gestured to Dumbledore to come closer. "I believe the answer to the question of young Harry's survival is contained within this volume, but I do not know if it has survived to your time or not. As you can see, it is quite delicate and ancient even now. It contains many of Merlin's experiments and original spells and was written in his own hand. It was passed down through my family for generations and has never become public knowledge. I suspect that I placed this volume in the safe behind the portrait of my son and his wife in my office before I died, as that is where I usually stored in. I would have to teach you the spell to open the safe as usually only someone of my blood can open it safely. There are also specific curses and spells placed upon this book to keep it safe and unreadable to everyone."
Albus looked like Christmas had come early, "That would be most helpful, Rowena, but no one knows where your office was located. The knowledge was hidden and has been long forgotten. I have found references to the existence of your office, but never its location. In fact, it has become almost a legend instead of a fact."
Slytherin piped up, "I suppose the only office you know of is Godric's old one which became the Headmaster's office after he died? You don't know where mine and Helga's are either, right?"
Albus almost fainted with excitement, "You are correct in your assumptions. The only Founder's office that is currently known of is the Headmaster's quarters and office on the fourth floor."
Godric rolled his eyes, "I told you three to not hide your quarters so well. I knew your obsessive need to keep your family's quarters secret from the student population would lead to problems in the future."
Helga smacked the smirking man on the back of the head. "You said no such thing, Godric, and just because you bequeathed your quarters to the use of all future Headmasters in no way makes you omnipotent! I for one, have no problem telling Albus where my quarters were and my private greenhouse. I just hope that the nice young Potion's Master can make use of some of the more rare specimens that I had growing in there. There's no reason that the spells and the house elves haven't kept everything in nice shape."
Slytherin smirked much like the current Head of his House. "Well, you better find a parselmouth to reach my quarters. I also left my pet basilisk in there to guard it so I wouldn't recommend anyone go looking for it without my express permission and help. Though I suspect that young Shaun will be a beast speaker since he seems to already be able to speak to the phoenixes."
Albus asked, "Isn't that just because his animagus form is a phoenix?"
Godric answered with a shake of his head, "No, I was a Gryffindor as my animagus and I could speak somewhat with them while in my form, but it did not carry over into human form." He looked at the other three founders for their experiences.
Slytherin said smugly, "Well, parseltongue is fairly common in my family so yes, I can speak to snakes both in my animagus as a cobra and as a human. But I could speak to snakes long before I learned to transform."
Helga and Rowena were both shaking their heads. "I could not in my eagle form" offered Rowena. "Nor I in my badger." Helga replied.
Albus just shook his head in wonder. "He had always wondered why they had their particular house emblems and now he knew for sure. He thought deeply on whether or not to share this confidence with Severus about his son's potential or not. He shook his head slowly. "Perhaps we could keep this conversation to ourselves until life has settled down more. I don't think Severus can handle any more shocks."
Severus had finally hunted down Minerva; she was in her office preparing the letters for the prospective first years. She looked up at his entrance and smiled at the lump on his stomach inside his shirt. She smiled and remarked, "I see you found a way to carry little Emerald and keep him warm and safe at the same time!"
Severus gave her his patented glare number 15, the one guaranteed to have first year Hufflepuffs peeing their pants. "My son's name is Shaun; you may not address him as 'Emerald'!"
He sat down carefully in the chair in front of her desk. "But that is not what I have come to speak to you about. I am requesting your assistance in the development of a revolutionary new potion. One that I suspect will become very popular in the future, especially amongst the aurors."
Her curiosity peaked; she forgot to reprimand her former student for trying to intimidate her. "And what would this potion do?"
"It would reveal a witch or wizard's potential animagus form and allow a much quicker transformation. I would hope to keep the formula secret so that the Dark Lord's followers don't learn to become better spies."
She nodded in understanding and offered. "And just what do you need me to do, Severus?"
Severus smiled to himself; he knew he would hook her interest and thus her help and support. "I need to have a pensieve memory of your first transformation so that I can compare it with the memory of Remus' unexpected transformation. I plan on using the components of the werewolves cure formula as the basic potion, removing all the ingredients that deal with killing the lycanthropy and boosting the ones that allow for the initial transformation."
Minerva sat back stunned. "That's absolutely brilliant, Severus! Now why didn't any one else think of doing that? You developed that potion almost four years ago and no one has experimented with it to see what variations could be made from it!"
Severus sat back, a self satisfied smirk gracing his features. "That's why I am known as the foremost potion's master in Britain."
A loud squawk and Severus leaped up out of his chair, all traces of arrogance vanished. "He pooped in my shirt!" was the only thing Minerva heard as he rushed out of her office, her peals of laughter trailing him as he headed for their quarters and a clean outfit.
After only a week of tending to the baby phoenix, Severus woke up one morning to the very welcome feel of small hands patting his face to wake him up and then the squirming warm body of his son climbing under the heavy quilts and snuggling up to his father's shoulder. Severus sat up partway and grabbed the half asleep child into a fierce bear hug. "Oh Shaun, I am so glad to see my little boy again. I was so worried when you were taken and then you were so sick. I love you, I hope you know that!"
Shaun wiggled uncomfortably, "Sure Dad, I know, now let me sleep it's too early to be up yet. I only came in here because I woke up freezing. I think I miss feathers!" that said, Shaun wrapped a small arm around his father's chests, buried his cold face into his warm side, stuck his freezing cold feet on his father's warm legs and started to softly snore.
Severus took a long time to go to sleep again, just breathing in the smell of his son's hair, feeling the gentle rise and fall of the small chest against his own and smiling, truly smiling for the first time in weeks.
Shaun didn't think the adults in the castle were ever going to let him walk on his own ever again. If it wasn't his father carrying him it was Remus or Sirius. And Minerva, Poppy and Albus were plying him with treats every chance they got. Of course he didn't really mind that at all. Uncle Filius gave a small wave of his wand every time he saw him and Shaun would feel his pockets fill with chocolate frogs or ice mice. Even the old biddy Trelawney tried to give his some sort of ball, but really, what was he supposed to do with a glass ball, it wasn't any good for playing Quidditch or even playing catch with Hagrid so he refused and ran off the other way.
Shaun finally took to hiding out in the library or in strange little rooms that he had found that no one else apparently knew about. Grandpa Albus had decided that there wouldn't be any summer school for the day program since the adults were all busy with getting ready for the new school year and Grandma Minnie and Uncle Remus were awfully busy planning new lessons for the new students they were going to have in the wizarding community day schools they had set up. Everyone wanted their children to attend them instead of home schooling them or sending them to Muggle primary schools and the Ministry for Education had been finally convinced that it was a wonderful idea. Of course, they now claimed that it had been their idea all the time, but oh well. But Shaun missed his friends and all their lessons. Everyone tried to make them fun and exciting and so just wandering around the castle trying to keep out of everyone's way was boring.
At the Tonks house, things had settled down somewhat. Dora had gotten her Hogwarts letter for her fifth year and even Draco, now known as Draco Tonks, had been enrolled into the new community day school. Andromeda thanked Merlin every day that this year the enrollment had been lowered to eight and that Draco was eight. She had thought raising a metamorphmagus was complicated, but at least her Dora had been a pleasant child, just very hard to explain to their muggle neighbors sometimes. She told her husband Ted that if she had to home school Draco either he would be dead or she would. It had taken many long hours of lectures, loss of privileges and even a few good old fashioned trips to the proverbial woodshed to finally get through that boy's thick head.
Andromeda shuddered as she put away Draco and Dora's clean clothes. "If the ministry hadn't administered the Dementors Kiss to Narcissa I would kill her myself for allowing that boy to believe that rules don't apply to the 'Malfoy Heir' and that his poop don't stink!"
Remus and Minerva were sharing a companionable cup of tea as they looked over the list of the children signed up for the community day schools they had set up around the country.
"I still think we should expand the group here in the castle. We don't have any muggle born students and I believe we should integrate all types into every school before the sorting into the separate Houses here at Hogwarts separates everyone. Who knows, we may finally break the hostilities between Slytherin and Gryffindor!" Remus was arguing.
Minerva looked over the list once again. "Oh all right, Remus, particularly as you will have to teach them. How many do you want to add to the seven that you already have?"
Remus scratched his chin in thought. "What do you think? Should we have ten, or twelve? I would like it much better to have an even number. Sometimes it is awkward to have seven, especially when I want to pair them up for something."
Minerva sipped her tea. "I think twelve, after all the students are older now and much less needy of an individual teacher's attention so much. Let me look over the lists and find out from Albus which ones have the most magical potential to fit in with your group. You do know that all of your tutoring has turned them into a very advanced group of young wizards and witches, and not just Shaun?"
Remus nodded. "I suspect we are going to have to update our entire first year curriculum as the students who have gone all the way through the community day schools start hitting Hogwarts."
Minerva gave a rueful smile. "We've already begun, Remus, we've already begun!"
AN: I know that this is short and a kind of filler chapter, but school begins in the next one and their will be some new and some familiar faces showing up. Also more of the 'taming of Draco'. Please let me know if you have a name for Shaun's phoenix form, I admit I haven't put one in because I can't think of one that I like, so help me out.
