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 8: The End of Summer
The summer had passed more or less uneventfully after Shaun finally transformed back into a little boy. Though he would hex anyone who called him that in his hearing, after all, to him he was almost half grown. After much perusing of the lists of new eight year olds that would be beginning at the new community day schools, the staff of the Hogwarts day school decided it would be best to just allow them to begin school in their community and then take the recommendations of the local teachers as to who should be moved into the more advanced group at the castle. They did recommend that two of their returning ten year olds should be moved up immediately though. It seemed that a pair of twins were exceptionally bright in potions and charms and were being held back somewhat with their peers.
Even though the group at the castle was two years younger, it was hoped that the need to catch up to the younger group and the individual training that could be offered in the castle would channel some of their excessive creativity and sheer exuberance into more worthwhile endeavors. Plus the community day school was having difficulty keeping their shenanigans hidden from the muggles who attended school in the other half of the building!
Molly Weasley welcomed Remus Lupin and Sirius Black into the kitchen, plied them with fresh hot chocolate biscuits and some very excellent tea before sitting beside them and finally asking them the nature of their visit. She had heard from Charlie and Bill that the two ran the Hogwarts day school and was hoping that young Ron might be invited to attend. He hadn't show any exceptional talents yet, and truth be told he wasn't really interested in academics but she had hopes that a stricter environment might light a fire under the boy.
Sirius put down the faded teacup he had been sipping from and cleared his throat. "Ah, Molly, some of the twin's teachers from last year have told us about some of the exceptional potions and, shall we say, unusual spell work in charms that the boys have accomplished."
Molly's face flushed bright red as she thought of her two troublemakers, she loved them dearly, but she would be the first to admit that they were a handful. "What have they done now? Are they to be expelled?" She certainly hoped not, no telling what they would do with just Ginny home during the day and Ron starting up at the local day school. "I admit, I am at my wit's end trying to keep those two from mischief!"
Remus shook his head. "Oh no, we want them to come to Hogwarts next year. They are two years older than the group there, but our group is accelerated enough that we feel they would be forced to focus on their studies better to catch up to the younger ones. We have observed them, they get along well with the younger students, in many ways they actually act younger than some of our current students. And as Sirius was every bit as bad as they are when he was in school, we, that is, the Headmaster and the other staff, feel that we could perhaps help them channel some of their creativity into more worthwhile pursuits."
Sirius smacked Remus' shoulder lightly. "Fess up, Moony, you were knee deep in the shenanigans we pulled too. Just because you didn't get caught as much doesn't make you any less guilty!"
Remus smiled his face the picture of innocence. "Innocent until proven guilty, Padfoot, innocent until proven…" he stopped his teasing as his thoughtless comment brought back the horror of Sirius' imprisonment in Azkaban. It hadn't mattered to the corrupt Ministry one bit that he was innocent!
Remus reached over and rubbed Sirius' back while leaning close to speak softly so that only his best friend could hear. "Sorry, Sirius, I didn't mean to bring that up. Forgive me for being thoughtless?"
Sirius brought himself back to the present and just nodded gratefully at Remus for his loving support. He turned to Molly and asked. "So, can we change the twin's enrollment to the school at Hogwarts then?"
Molly took a deep swallow of her now cool tea, absentmindedly waved a wand to re-warm it and answered. "I don't see why not, it would sure cut down on the number of complaints about secrecy. I think it would be good for them to be intellectually challenged by someone younger than they are. Yes, I will speak with Arthur about this but unless you hear differently from me, consider them enrolled. But what about Ron? Can I send him to the castle with them?"
Remus looked at Sirius for help, but Sirius was busy taking more warm biscuits and ignoring him. "Perhaps Molly, it would be better if Ron started in the program locally where he would have a chance to be the only Weasley. I know he sometimes feels overshadowed by his older brothers and this would give him a chance to be somewhere without anyone comparing him to his older brothers all the time."
Molly nodded thinking hard, "Yes that would be good for him. But the twins attended the local school last year; will the teachers be the same?"
Sirius was happy to rejoin the conversation now that he knew he wasn't going to be blasted with the famous Molly Weasley temper. "No, the teachers from last year are starting a new school in South London. We were hoping to ask you to teach the ten year olds at Ottery St Catchpole and we have a recent Hogwarts graduate who would like to become a teacher who will be teaching the eight year olds. And we would invite Ginny to attend with the eight year old class. Since we have thirteen eight year olds signed up, we have split the class in two and she would be enrolled in the one without Ron so that she could make new friends without her brother. Her teacher is going to be Melinda Hopkirk, whose youngest child is just starting Hogwarts this year and she was a teacher at a Muggle school before her oldest child, Henry, was born fifteen years ago."
Molly looked excited. "That would be great. I wasn't looking forward to trying to keep Ginny from being so lonely with everyone else gone next year. And this way I could bring both children with me everyday and still be home every night. I will talk this over with Arthur this evening but I think the answer to all your questions will be yes."
The three adults discussed the school some more, telling Molly about the curriculum that was planned, promising to obtain a complete set of books for her to read as soon as possible, and just filling her in on the programs at both locations before saying a pleasant good-bye before Remus and Sirius floo-ed back to Hogwarts for the night.
As they stepped out of the fireplace into Albus' office, the Headmaster raised an eyebrow in query. "That went remarkably well, Albus. We have a new teacher, the Hogwarts day school has two new students and Ginny and Ron will be attending their local school. She actually made much less fuss than I expected." Remus looked to Sirius to see if he agreed. With a nod of agreement, Sirius just walked toward the exit and Remus and Albus joined him to walk down to the Great Hall for dinner.
Severus opened his son's bedroom door the next morning and stopped, speechless. Shaun had made the four posts of his large four poster bed into trees and the overhead canopy was now an intertwined canopy of tree branches and large green leaves. A small waterfall fed an equally small pool of water that disappeared somewhere out the outer wall of the castle. Bright sunlight flowing though the large picture windows bathed the entire forest scene with light and shadows, mimicking a peaceful clearing in the Forbidden forest.
"What? Why did you…how did you…Shaun?" The usually unflappable potions master was clearly gobsmacked.
"Oh, hi Dad!" Shaun just waved as he dug in his dresser for clean underclothes and socks before ducking under an overhanging branch to go into his closet for clean robes. "Fawkes and Niveus were complaining about always living in the stone walls of the castle so last night Merlin taught me some new spells. How do you like it Dad?"
"It's well…it's…uh…very green."
Shaun just laughed at his father's still slightly shocked expression. "I can't wait for Grandpa and Grandma to see it. It was hard to do, but Merlin helped me lots!"
Severus sat down on a convenient tree stump situated on the edge of the pond. He stood up startled when he realized that it was only an illusion, the tree stump still felt like the normal arm chair that sat in this corner of Shaun's room, the one he had spent countless hours sitting in, sometimes reading a bedtime story to Shaun, sometimes watching over his son as he recovered from one of his many 'adventures' and sometimes as he lectured the boy on his decidedly Gryffindor-ish trait of acting out whatever impulse flashed through his head without thinking about consequences at all.
Severus just sat down once more and contemplated how he was going to explain this room to the others as he waited for his son to change so that they could head to the Great Hall for breakfast.
George and Fred took the news that they would be attending Hogwarts day school with a bunch of eight years olds much better than either Molly or Arthur ever expected. In fact, the two seemed to be very excited.
Ron was laughing at them and Ginny was just so excited to be allowed to attend school this year that she wasn't paying much attention to what else was going on in the Weasley household. "You got held back, Ha Ha!" Ron was snickering.
"So, we get to go to school with Bill and Charlie.."
"and lessons with real professors…"
"and real potions classes…"
"and we get to do lots of real magic…"
"and get a wand early…"
"not like you two who have to wait…"
Molly glared at the two boys. "That's enough! It's been decided and that's that. Ron if you think their school is going to be the same as yours, you are wrong! I've heard about the group at the castle and they are very advanced, much more advanced than even the regular first year students. It's a great honor for them to be invited to be there." She looked at the twins, daring them to speak. "And you two, I better not hear that you have been playing around and wasting this opportunity."
Ron huffed, it seemed like everyone else got to do everything first, there was nothing left for him to be first at, heck, even Ginny got to start school this year instead of having to wait. It just wasn't fair that there wasn't anything he was first at!
Molly could see his thoughts on his face as he processed what he had heard. She lifted his chin and looked directly into his eyes. "And Ron, I heard that they are going to be inviting two or three more students to the castle school as the year progresses. If you work hard and do as well as I know that you can, you might be one of those invited and then you would be only eight and in the same class as your ten year old brothers." She pulled him into a big hug. Ron's face showed his thoughts as he made a vow to work just as hard as it took for him to be invited to go to school there too. He could already beat all of his brothers at chess, and if he concentrated as hard on schoolwork as he did playing chess or Quidditch he just knew that he could do it.
Severus was working hard at his experimental potion with the help of Minerva and Remus' memories. He was determined to become an animagus himself! Blast if he would let those two Marauders' have all the fun of training his son! He chopped the bloodwort root into a fine powder and concentrated on how to remove any remaining toxic ingredients from the Werewolves' Cure potion.
Shaun sat under a tree, peaceful in the shade watching the clouds drift past as he worked on the new meditation techniques that Merlin had taught him last night. Since his magic had been unblocked before Merlin though he was really ready, he was determined to prove that he could handle the amount of power he could feel deep within him. His blocks that kept him from being overwhelmed with his empathic senses would form the base for the mind control he would need to be safe when casting spells.
He sighed as his thoughts strayed again. 'I wonder how soon Niveus and Merlin will let me change back to a phoenix. I never did get all my feathers so that I could fly. Wow, flying without a broom, I can't wait." He cleared his mind again and started the tedious process of organizing and channeling his thoughts and magics.
Albus was busily writing a letter to the Board of Governors' about the new changes to the first year curriculum when a very large screech owl flew through his window, a medium size cardboard box tied with string to his foot.
"Ah, what have we here?" he wondered as he untied the string. The owl flapped his mighty wings twice, clearing all the stray parchments off of Albus' desk before getting air born and winging out the window without waiting for a response.
A couple of flicks of the old man's wand proved the box was free of any dangerous charms or hexes and he curiously pulled open the first flap. He smiled from ear to ear, and reached in to pull out handfuls of new sweets. A former student of his was now teaching at the Salem Academy for Witches and Warlocks and had sent him a large supply of muggle candies from America. He carefully pulled out a new sheet of clean parchment, writing down the name of each new treasure as he gleefully thought of his colleagues having to repeat some of these names as his new passwords for the year. "Yes, ever lasting gobstoppers, cherry mountains, necco wafers, raspberry twisters…"
AN: Suggestions on who should be invited into the day school? I am leaning toward leaving Ron where he is, at least for this year. I just don't see his resolve to learn lasting past the first week. Agree? Also, I am still open to names for Shaun's phoenix and what do you think Severus' animagus form should be? It must match his personality, but the new one or the old one?
