AN: I decided to go ahead and get this chapter done. I'm not really too proud of it, but I did enjoy writing it! I'm so excited to start on the next couple chapters though. I want to get this plot moving along and start building the relationship.
As the two walked back to the apparition spot, Harry couldn't help but sigh at his own mistake. "I really should have thought to bring my invisibility cloak. I usually do when I'm trying to avoid the Order." Considering that, the potions professor looked at the younger wizard and hummed.
"Have you never thought of using a glamour?" Harry shook his head with a sigh.
"Doesn't work on me like that and I think I know why now. Since there is a Horcrux in my scar, which is extremely dark magic, I can't hide it. I mean sure, I could grow my hair and cover it, but at the same time, I hate having to do it. I want to at least have some normality." Snape dryly snorted.
"The public will never realize that because they're such imbeciles." Harry's lips twitched into a small smile as Snape insulted most of the wizarding world. Well, the wizards in the UK at least. The younger wizard often wondered what other wizard societies were like in other countries.
Maybe he would have to ask Tom one day. He was known for traveling all over the world at one point.
"I can hear you thinking, Potter. What is it?" Cut off guard, Harry sheepishly rubbed the back of his neck.
"Sorry. I was just thinking about the rest of the wizarding world and how similar their society is to ours. Hermione and I might study a lot, but there are not many books on foreign wizards." Snape regarded him carefully.
"What made you start thinking about that subject?"
"Uh- I don't know. I just started thinking about the wizard families in the UK I guess. Then I thought about other countries and what they're wizarding societies are like. I suppose I was thinking about how easy it would be to walk around there without people noticing me. Then I thought of the different things I could learn in other countries…" Harry eventually stopped and shrugged, a little embarrassed. "Sorry. I'm fascinated with learning as much magic as I can." Snape looked at him for a moment before turning away.
"You sound quite like Crouch Jr right now. Azkaban didn't do him any favors…or his father, but before that, he was a bright young man. He graduated from Hogwarts with top marks." Harry listened with interest, thinking of the man who had secretly been his defense teacher.
"He was a great instructor. He taught me how to break free from the imperious curse, but considering how long he was under it, I'm not surprised he was good at teaching it." He idly stated, getting closer to the apparition point. "Lupin was another great instructor….and your uh, book was also insightful." This caused the potions professor to fully look at him.
"Ah yes. That book. I take it you still have it?"
"Uh-yeah. I figured you would want it back. It holds a lot of helpful tips for brewing, and a few useful spells." Snape rolled his eyes.
"Some of those useful spells as you put it, are dangerous. I should hope you aren't planning on using them." There was a lazy smirk on the youngers face.
"Of course not. I know how to cast it obviously. It's more for insurance than anything else. It's always good to have a deadly spell at your disposal when your life depends on it." Thankfully, there would be less of those days. Unless the Order tried to do something fishy. Even then, Harry didn't want to kill them. Just incapacitate them. If it came to causing pain though, he was more than equipped to do so.
"Just how many of those do you have?" There was a teasing tone that Harry hadn't missed, and the younger chuckled.
"Enough for now. I wouldn't mind creating some more of my own. I hope you don't mind that I got some inspiration from you."
"Not at all." He softly spoke. If anything, Severus was proud of that. It wasn't often that someone went about creating new spells. "Have you had any luck?"
"Some. I was doing my own version of a body bind spell. One that makes it easier to disarm someone. There's countless counters to the originals and only one to mine." Harry seemed to be pleased with that, and Snape knew what that was like. He felt the same pride at having created his own spells. "I could teach them to you, if you'd like?" The younger suggested, surprising the potions master. Before he could respond, they reached their spot to apparate.
It was darker out now, but knowing the Order, they would still be on a high alert- thinking that Harry would be wandering around at night. They weren't entirely wrong at that assumption considering that's what the younger wizard often did at Hogwarts.
The potions professor noticed an outstretched arm, a little surprised by the gesture.
"For this, you're going to be the one side appariting. Fred and George have wards set up above their shop, strong ones too. There's only a few people that are allowed to apparate there, which will include you now I suppose." The teen chuckled to himself, allowing Snape to grasp his arm.
Focusing on his magic, it wasn't long until they were both in the living room above the joke shop, surrounded by concerned twins.
"About time you got here-" Fred tsked, shaking his head like a worried parent.
"-we were about to barge into-" George was also tsking, and Harry had to hide his amusement, just like the twins.
"-Grimmauld place and demand where you were!" They finished, not before erupting into laughter at the end. It was always a joke that they would barge into the order's hideout for the sake of it. Despite having never been fond of the twins while they were his students, Severus could see why Potter liked them so much.
"Don't worry. That'll come soon enough." Harry spoke with a devilish smirk, one that was met with twin smirks.
"Oh! Pray tell us, won't you?" The twins teased, although, they did glance at Severus for a moment, before giving their full attention to Harry.
"Not only did Sirius make me his heir, but he left me everything he owned. Not only is Grimmauld place mine by being a Black now, but it's also mine because of the will." As he finished, the twins lit up at the news. Severus would deny it, but that glint in their eyes reminded him of his Slytherins.
"Soooo," George was practically vibrating with glee. "When do you plan on taking your house back?" Harry smirked at the evil look on the twins' face, giving a small shrug.
"I was planning on doing it around Yule, actually. Doing it now would give Dumbledore enough time to find a replacement by the time the holidays come around. If I wait until then, the Order won't have any place to go except the Burrow."
Maybe these Gryffindors were Slytherins after all.
"The Order is losing more members, isn't it?" Fred grinned and Harry snorted.
"You could say that. Remus only stayed in the Order because of me, but now that he knows I'm not going to be part of it, he's remaining neutral. He lost trust in Dumbledore when Sirius died." And his lover, but the werewolf wouldn't want that information disclosed, but based on the look Severus sent him, it was fairly obvious how close the two had been.
"That just leaves Tonks, Mad eye, Dumbledore, and some of our family." George made a face at the last part, as did his brother.
"Yes. Your family." Harry's face darkened at the information he learned today. "Your mom is horrible. When we went to Gringotts to settle some legal matters, I took an inheritance test. Let's just say that she and Dumbledore were really adamant about me marrying Ginny."
"You don't mean.." The twins chorused, a look of dread quickly forming. They even looked to Snape, figuring he had been the one to accompany Harry. "a marriage contract?" At Snape's nod, there was a flash of pure fury in those brown eyes.
"Sadly. Can't say I'm too surprised, honestly. They've always been dropping hints about me getting together with her, even when I said I wasn't interested. I'm not sure about your dad though- I mean, he's not a bad guy. He's just controlled by your mum." Harry sighed, already having a feeling that Arthur had no idea about the marriage contract. After all, that man was against many pureblood traditions.
"Oh trust us, Harry-"
"Our dad wouldn't have agreed to this." The twins seethed, already thinking of ways to disown their mother and publicly humiliate her. It was a shame they would have to wait.
They never wanted it to get to this point, but it seemed they had no other choice.
"What are they doing?" Severus asked as the twins looked at each other, almost like they were communicating. Harry smirked at the question, almost not knowing how to answer.
"Communicating. They're psychic when it comes to each other. They share a link essentially." That gained the full attention of the potions master, who was intrigued to say at the least. "And before you ask, I think they've always been like that. It's why they're able to talk at the same time and finish each other's sentences."
"That's a rare gift, but not unheard of. It used to be more common for twins to communicate like that, but many of the purebloods ruined that for themselves" Harry knew exactly what he was implying.
"Maybe Tom will convince them to change eventually. Inbreeding results not only results in squibs, but a lower chance of mental stability." Severus regarded him carefully, impressed at how knowledgeable the other seemed to be with the subject.
"You know a lot about this subject."
"Kinda hard not to when your best friend is a muggleborn, and your rival is a blood supremacist, who can't take the fact that a muggleborn is better than him." Harry shrugged.
"Yes. Draco's attitude is abhorrent. He's a capable wizard but he relies on his father too much. I find it hard to care for his whiny behavior."
"That's something I didn't think I would ever hear you say."
"Contrary to what you may think, I don't care for Draco very much. He's arrogant and cruel-"
"Like my father?" Harry softly pointed out, earning a glare.
"Potter-"
"I'm agreeing with you, sir. There's a difference between pranking and what my dad and Sirius did. That's why I never got along with Malfoy in the first place." Snape's glare lessened, and he sighed. "At least my father grew up towards the end, Sirius on the other hand…" Harry trailed off. He did love his Godfather and miss him terribly, but he wasn't blind to all the mistakes he had made. Yes, he knew everyone made mistakes, but it seemed as if Sirius had never felt remorse for what happened.
"I don't need your pity." Harry rolled his eyes.
"It's not pity. It's more of an understanding." He said, looking into the Potion master's dark eyes. There was a look that Harry couldn't pinpoint, and he sighed. "I let you see some of it during our 'failed' occlumency lessons, but that wasn't the half of what my cousin and his gang put me through." That look in Snape's eyes changed the slightest, a hint of something darker.
"Oi, Harry-" George called, breaking the moment as the Weasley twin held out a small, but very protected book. Snape could feel the magic pouring off of it.
"Thanks for those spells. They were really useful!" Fred grinned at the younger's pleased look as he took the book back.
"You should totally be a spell inventor! There's no telling how much you would get paid for all these spells." Fred and George shared a look.
"Especially the shielding one!" They both said, earning an eyebrow raise from Snape.
A shielding charm, Potter? What's so special about it?" Of course the older wizard was suspicious. There were plenty of protection and shielding charms. What made this one unique? Fred and George shared a look and gasped as if they were insulted.
"It happens to be the only-" Fred began with a wide smirk, already figuring how suspicious Snape was.
"-protection spell to block-" George continued, wanting to drag it on.
"the killing curse!" As they finished, the older wizard was at a loss for words, turning to the inventor of said spell.
"Are they being serious? Did you really invent a shielding spell for the killing curse?" Until now, no such thing existed. Only objects could block the spell, not a charm.
"Yeah. It took me a few months to perfect it, but it works." Harry sheepishly shrugged, clearly embarrassed at his professor staring at him in awe. "I told you earlier I was dabbling in spell inventing."
"Yes," Snape couldn't fight the small smirk, clearly impressed with the younger wizard's potential. "but you never mentioned developing a shielding charm for the killing curse." He added, growing more amused at the younger's embarrassment.
"I have my secrets, professor." Harry smirked, tapping his fingers against the magically protected book. Smirking again, Snape cast tempus and hummed.
"I should be taking my leave now, Potter. I'll see you in a few weeks at Hogwarts." The professor gave the twins a nod before disapparting, leaving the twins to smirk at Harry.
"Soooo," Fred went to wrap his arm around Harry's shoulder, while George went to his other side.
"What the hell happened today?"
Harry just laughed, showing them his lordship rings and the Gryffindor necklace.
"It's a long story, boys."
R&R, please!
The next chapter will likely have a time skip to Harry arriving at Hogwarts, his conversation with the twins showing up in a flashback or along those lines.