Severus should have known that this year was going to be rough. From the moment he turned down the offer to join Nott Sr, the elder Crabbe and Goyle, and Tychus Bulstrode during their nasty little spot of fun during the Quidditch World Cup, he had felt on edge and spent a majority of his time alternating between watching for Potter's owl to return and keeping track of Artemis' own routines. He rarely spotted Hedwig, and Artemis seemed content to keep to her usual schedule.
Then, Albus announced to the school that there would be a Triwizard tournament and he fought the need to grind his teeth at the raucous cheering and overconfident boasting of the male upper year students. They became more insufferable as each year passed, though, to his own chagrin, he did at least notice that Potter seemed relieved that he was not of age for the event. With any luck, there would be no new surprises concerning the boy. Not that Severus was going to hold his breath. Trouble followed the boy like Nifflers to gold.
-o-o-0-o-o-
October 31st 1994
Face pale and green eyes wide with incomprehensible terror, Harry made his way into the antechamber where the other three champions were waiting to hear from the tournament officials. He had no clue why he was called as a fourth contestant for the Triwizard tournament, it kind of contradicted the whole...three people part of the name, although Quad-Wizard Tournament didn't have the same ring to it.. After the events of the past three years, he had really hoped that this year would be better, quieter even.
Moving into the corner of the room, he tuned out the arguing school heads and stared down at his hands in dejection. Now Ron thought he'd lied to him about not wanting to take part in the tournament and he could feel the derisive eyes of the other champions on his back. He curled into a tighter ball, just wanting to be smaller and less visible as the arguing reached a fever pitch.
'BANG!'
Everyone in the antechamber went silent as they spun around to face the heavy wooden door.
'BANG! BANG! BANG! BANG!!'
Harry's eyes were like saucers on his colorless face even as the familiar black wool of his Potion's Professor swirled in front of him to block him from view.
'BANG! BANG! CRACK! BANG!'
Peering around Professor Snape's robes, Harry watched the heavy wooden door splinter under the onslaught of whatever was attacking it. His breathing panicked, he looked up at his professor and saw that the man's jaw was clenched tightly, his ebony eyes dark and dangerous as he stared at the door.
'CRACK! BANG! CRACK!
Suddenly the ancient wood shrieked in protest only seconds before shards of the door exploded inwards.
Harry heard the other people in the small room yelp and exclaim in distress and saw the golden dome of a shielding spell flare up around everybody. Fearful, yet curious, he tilted to one side then blinked when a metallic honey badger started chewing at the sides of the door frame while a howler flew through the opening over its gleaming body. Incredulous, he looked back up at Professor Snape and paused instead of speaking. His professor was paler than usual, black eyes wide, and his wand dangling from his fingers.
The howler flew to a stop in front of the school heads and tournament officials before unfolding in a deceptively graceful manner. There was a silent pause before it started yelling.
"Meu Deus, seus idiotas idiotas. O bando de merda de vocês! ALBUS WULFRIC PERCIVAL BRIAN DUMBLEDORE! YOU DARE THINK TO HAVE MY GODSON TO TAKE PART IN THIS SHITSHOW OF A TOURNAMENT!! I REFUSE TO PERMIT HARRY JAMES POTTER TO BE IN THE TRIWIZARD TOURNAMENT. ON MY MAGIC I SO INVOKE THE RIGHT TO CHAMPION ON HIS BEHALF. BE PREPARED SACOS PUSTULARES DE MERDA! FOR I AM COMING AND MERLIN WILL NOT GRANT YOU MERCY FROM MY WRATH SHOULD YOU ATTEMPT TO OVERRIDE MY CLAIM!"
The howler turned and floated in front of Harry and Severus.
"Meu coração, minha vida, meu tudo…we shall talk, yes? Protect my godson, I look forward to you arguing with me."
Harry stared, dumbfounded, as the howler disintegrated into a flurry of white feathers that slowly drifted to the ground.
"Mister Potter...it appears that you and I need to have a discussion after all." Severus' voice was gruff as he caught one of the feathers and twirled it between his fingers, noting the unusual bar pattern going down the vane. "Come with me."
"Yes sir…" Jumping to his feet, Harry hurried to keep up with the long strides of his professor, ignoring the sputtering protests and fresh argument breaking out in the small antichamber behind him.
Face carefully blank, Severus led the way down to his office, students hurriedly parting ways in front of him and staring at the green eyed boy quietly following him at a near jog. He stayed silent, even as he motioned for Potter to take a seat and swiftly sealed and silenced his office. Once satisfied that they would not be interrupted he turned towards the, still shocked, green eyed boy and held out the feather.
"What, Mister Potter, is it you were concerned about with your owl? And do not lie to me." Aware that he was looming and that his voice was nearly a low, threatening, snarl, he leaned back only slightly, his eyes narrowed while he waited for the boy to respond.
Harry's mouth opened and closed several times and his fingers gripped his knees so tightly his knuckles went white. He closed his eyes and took several deep breaths before looking up into Professor Snape's ebony eyes. "I think Hedwig is an animagus sir. Last year...she just transformed and cast the scariest patronus I had ever seen."
"And what was the patronus?"
"Hermione said...she said it was a honey badger, like the metal looking thing that was eating the doors."
Severus closed his eyes now then slumped against the wall and rubbed his forehead. "Why, Mister Potter, did you not mention that Miss Granger and yourself had witnessed this event?"
"We...I didn't want Hedgwig taken away and she saved our lives! And...she never transformed again. I tried everything to see if she would...nothing." Harry shifted uncomfortably in his seat when his Professor's eyes snapped open and focused intensely on him. "I thought maybe we were hallucinating because there were so many dementors."
"I promise you one thing, Mister Potter. That was no hallucination when you saw those dementors destroyed. There were pieces of their cloaks all around your prone form in the forest. Though...I do not recall seeing Miss Granger there when Albus and I came to retrieve you."
Harry fidgeted. "We ah...used her time turner and saw everything from the other side of the pond."
Severus groaned and scrubbed at his face in frustration. "Of course you did. And obviously the two of you saw fit to free Black from his imprisonment. NO!" He held up one hand and straightened. "Do not try to deny it. What did the woman look like?"
"Um...she had very long brown hair, past her waist, and a scar on her face just like Hedwig's." Harry's fingers were complaining under the strain of his clenching them around his knees. "But...I mean, Hermione said, and I agree, that even though she acknowledged us with a smile, she wasn't really there. Kind of like a...well, I thought it was a lucid dream, only for her it actually kind of was."
"And you are certain that is the only time you have ever seen her?"
"I mean...as a person because I…" Harry trailed off, eyes wide and staring over Professor Snape's shoulder. "If she was a person this whole time, why did she let my uncle padlock her into a cage? He threatened to kill her if she even made a sound…that was…that was after first year. Why would anyone let themselves be treated like that? Why…why didn't she get both of us out? Bars on the windows, deadbolts and a cat flap on my bedroom door."
"Because your godmother is…was…dead, Mister Potter. Has been since December of nineteen eighty one. And before you ask how I would know, she and I were friends. We grieved the loss of your mother together." Severus could feel anxiety trying to claw at his chest with sharp fingers. His shoulders lowered slightly and he let out a soft sigh. "She was apprenticed to Newt Scamander…studying a new species of magical serpent in the middle of werewolf territory. Oh, she wasn't worried about the werewolves though, she warded the camp and was an animagus. Not that it mattered in the end."
Severus lifted his own gaze from the floor then his arm, beckoning Artemis over silently.
Harry's eyes widened at the pure white snowy owl. "She's yours sir?"
Nodding, Severus ran a finger down the soft feathers coating Artemis' chest. "I got her from Newt Scamander the day he came to tell me your godmother…my…" He breathed out slowly and let his eyes close for a few breaths before continuing. "My friend had been killed by werewolves. This is Artemis and she was the only survivor of that night and, for one fleeting moment, I had hoped she was your godmother when Newt had her with him."
"But she is definitely just a regular owl?"
A faint almost smile appeared on Severus' face. "I wouldn't say she is a regular owl, but she is definitely not an animagus."
Harry got to his feet and hesitantly held up a hand to touch her pristine feathers.
"You may touch her Potter. She hasn't objected to your presence thus far so I dare say she will tolerate your clumsy attempts at admiring her…overwhelming magnificence." Severus lifted a brow at the boy. "She is inclined to be vain."
"Well…Artemis is beautiful." A smile stole over Harry's tense features as his fingers ran down the owl's primaries. "Though Hedwig is my favorite…my first friend really."
"And, if you and Granger are to be believed, one of the most secretive animagi ever known."
Harry shifted then moved back to his seat. "I don't know how to prove it sir,but I swear we saw her."
Sighing and flicking his arm so Artemis flew back to her perch, Severus pulled his seat around so he was in front of the boy. "And that is what I will be checking."
"Sir?"
"I am a Legilimens, Mister Potter. This means that, should I choose to do so, at any time I can glean your surface thoughts without a spell. And by using the Legilimens spell, I can view your memories of that night. However, it is easier if the memory is on the forefront of your mind."
Harry's feet tucked beneath his chair. "You...don't just read our surface thoughts all the time...do you sir?"
Severus frowned and tilted his head to one side, his long hair sliding across his cheek and brushing his shoulder. "Not purposely if I can help it. I am quite aware of what most of my students think of each other and myself. It is an unneeded distraction for myself when dealing with hormonal dunderheads around potentially explosive and lethal brews."
"Oh…that…that makes sense sir." Taking a deep breath first, Harry looked up and met his teacher's eyes. "What do you need me to do then?"
Severus drew his wand. "Maintain eye contact and pull the memory of what you saw that night. Both sets of memories if you will."
"Okay." Harry concentrated on the night Lupin attacked them then nodded. "I'm ready"
Another almost smile appeared as Severus whispered the required spell and was dragged into the boy's mind. Merlin, but the boy's head was a jumbled mess. Grabbing onto the thread of thought that led to the first memory, Severus found himself in the midst of a horde of dementors while Potter's panicky emotions attempted to beat him from all sides.
Luckily he was well versed in batting aside other's feelings and was able to focus on the descending form of Potter's owl as she transformed and landed on her feet beside the prone forms of Potter and Black. His eyes drank in Terra's features, noting the scar that ran from over her left eyebrow down her left cheek, barely missing her eye. Her strangely gold and brown eye. Likely residual from being in her animagus form for so long. He studied her face, drawn to those pink lips he had once drunkenly kissed, then traced her cheeks and counted the freckles dotting the bridge of her nose and cheeks. Her hair, slightly matted and wild, hung down to her arse and stirred as she lifted her birch wand in one hand, the other hand moving to hover over Potter.
Suddenly the memory changed angles and distance, and he stood beside Granger and Potter while they watched her honey badger patronus rage forth from her wand. Brilliant and deadly, reflecting the rage visible in her eyes, even from across the pond. And her face, so calm and serene, a half smile on her lips that called to him much as it did years ago. Merlin help him but he had to stop himself from stepping towards her as the patronus decimated the leading wave of dementors. Then Potter's stag patronus shot past him, and the dementors finally fled, and, with a warm, almost loving smile in their direction, she transformed back into Hedwig before flying away with Artemis following dutifully behind her.
Before he could break the connection, they were both yanked into his own memory of cradling her sobbing form against his chest in the graveyard at Godric's Hollow. He could feel the boy's nervous curiosity and sighed to himself before redirecting the memory forward until it showed himself walking with her to a pub, her happy, yet sad, voice discussing her views on London storefronts. Gods he could even feel the tinge of affection for the short woman in his own memory and forcefully exited the connection before he dragged them into his memory of trying to kiss her.
Potter was clutching his head, eyes tense with pain from the forceful ejection, and Severus summoned a headache relief potion from his desk before offering it to the boy. "Drink this, it will help the headache."
Harry gratefully took the potion and downed it quickly with a grimace. "Thank you sir...and sorry, I wasn't trying to intrude. I swear."
Severus shrugged. "It is of no matter, Mister Potter, you did not see anything that would have caused an issue for either of us."
"Oh...good. But it really is her, right? I mean, she's older than your memory and her eyes are a different color. It's just…she is the same person?" Harry fisted his hands in his lap.
Severus nodded. "So it would appear."
"Why does she call you Meu coração?"
He stilled and stared at the boy. "I have never asked. Though she continuously threatened to send me a Portuguese to English dictionary so I could understand what she was saying. Not that I needed her to...I have had one for years."
"But you never read it? Because if you had, the words would translate for you in the memory." Harry's knee bounced with nervous energy. "I've seen that phrase before…in a book at the library in Surrey."
"Ah, then you are also in on her secret messages to me."
Harry shook his head. "No, just those two words. I thought it was a thing mothers said to their child but…she admired you very much, didn't she?"
Severus sighed. "I…yes…or so Newt told me from her interactions with Queenie Goldstien."
"Who's Queenie Goldstien?"
Severus laughed softly. "A true mind reader who does not need a spell and cannot help herself. She is Newt Scamander's sister-in-law and, likely, who I will need to call in to verify the truth of the matter."
"Does that mean Newt will also come to Hogwarts?"
Brows furrowing in thought, Severus considered the upcoming tasks for the tournament. "Truly…he might already be on his way here."
Harry's eyes glowed with excitement. "Wicked!"
Portuguese translations-
Meu Deus, seus idiotas idiotas. O bando de merda de vocês! -My god, you dumb idiots. The fucking bunch of you!
Sacos pustulares de merda. - Pustular sacks of shit
