Unspoken
by Teddylonglong
Please refer to chapter 1 for my disclaimer and warnings. Thank you.
At dinner on Christmas Eve, Minerva informed Albus that she, Severus and Salazar were going to be absent from Hogwarts from the following morning onwards.
Albus nodded, before his head shot up. "Severus and Professor Slytherin? You as well?"
"We're going to spend the holidays with the Unspeakables," Severus supplied, causing Albus to sigh deeply, before his eyes suddenly narrowed.
"Minerva, are you an Unspeakable as well?"
Minerva shook her head. "No, Albus, I'm not."
"Minnie told me that you're working together with Unspeakable Paws?" Rolanda stared at Severus and Salazar, wide-eyed. "How cool is that?"
"Rolanda," Minerva addressed her friend and colleague in amusement, "you can swear Poppy an oath to keep the secret, and she may tell you about his identity."
"So, you are all keeping things from me," Albus all but growled. "Why all this secrecy? I always do what's best for everyone."
Minerva suppressed a snort, just when Albus continued. "Can you at least tell me the password to my own office?"
Minerva turned to Poppy. "Albus eats too many sweets."
"Absolutely." The healer cast the headmaster a strict look.
"What does that have to do with it? Well, tell me, and then I'll use the name of a magical animal for the next password."
"I already told you." Minerva smirked.
"Did not."
"Did too."
"Did not."
"Albus!" Filius jumped up in what seemed to be excitement. Or was it annoyance at their childish behaviour? Minerva was not sure. "Minerva told you 'Albus eats too many sweets'. That must be the password."
"Is that so?" Albus stared at her in apparent surprise.
Minerva only nodded, barely able to contain her laughter.
"And I always thought my colleagues were childish," Salazar uttered, causing everyone but the headmaster and Mr. Filch to laugh.
'He really is grumpy,' Minerva thought in exasperation. 'I wonder why Harry, Connie and Hermione did not ask Salazar to replace the caretaker as well.'
HP
Before breakfast on Christmas morning, Minerva ushered Severus and Salazar through the Floo to where Harry and Connie were waiting with Lucy in front of the fireplace.
'Will you make the introductions?' Harry thought to Connie, who nodded in apparent excitement.
When all three professors had stepped through, she introduced Salazar and Severus to everyone whom they had not met before.
When she introduced Salazar to Remus Lupin, the former werewolf interrupted her, smiling. "As of today, I am Remus Lestrange-Lupin, as I have accepted the lordship over the Lestrange family."
"Cool!" Harry was the first to react. "It only makes sense, considering that you've been married for four months. Will you also take the Lestrange seat on the Wizengamot?"
Remus smirked. "I am still discussing this with Rebecca, who has been doing a great job so far."
Rebecca shook her head. "I've done it for Regina, because she doesn't have magic, but you are a wizard and are able to take the seat yourself, considering that you're the Lord Lestrange now, and that's my last word in this matter."
"Tell him, Rebecca!" Regina chuckled. "He is still much too insecure."
"Excuse me for asking this," Salazar spoke up. "The two of you are a married couple, but the husband is a wizard and the wife is a Squib? Did I understand that correctly?"
"Yes sir. And Harry is my son." Regina looked at the ancient wizard with apparent apprehension.
However, Salazar managed to surprise them all. "Very good. Harry has brought the matter to my attention by telling me that we have to give magic to a Squib and a muggle."
Harry's eyes widened in expectation.
However, Salazar continued, "As to how to give a muggle magic, frankly speaking I don't have a clue. As to the Squib, it is easy." He pulled a book out of his robe pocket, which Harry recognised as one of the equally looking books of Salazar's library. "I've done this before. It is a combination of a potion, two drops of blood from a person, who is not blood related however in a very close relationship to the recipient, and a spell cast by the same person. If Lord Lestrange…"
"Please call me Remus, and yes, of course, I'd do anything to help Regina become a witch."
"Harry, where is your suitcase? Connie and Harry, will you both assist? Remus, two drops of blood please."
While everyone else stared at the scene in front of them, Harry summoned the suitcase from his room, noticing from the corner of his eyes how Severus held a small phial under Remus' elbow and magically took two drops of blood.
"Come, sir," Harry invited Severus to follow Connie and Salazar into the suitcase, unaware that the whole family was already queuing behind them to descend the stairs.
Under the watchful eyes of the assembled family, who were standing in a circle around them, Connie and Harry prepared the ingredients, while Salazar swiftly brewed the potion. Ten minutes later, he bottled the concoction into a small phial.
"Thanks for your assistance. Now, Remus, let me teach you the spell. I suggest that everyone except for Remus and Regina leaves this room now, so that we can concentrate on the task ahead."
"Everyone out now please," Harry instructed the others, seeing that the Marauders seemed reluctant to leave. "Rose and Jamie, isn't there something you wished to do? Wouldn't now be a good timing?"
His birth parents agreed, and, when everyone but Salazar, Regina and Remus had taken their seats in the living room again, Rose and Jamie rose from their seats.
"Sorry to interrupt, but aren't we going to have breakfast any time soon?" Sirius spoke up, while Amelia was breast feeding their daughter.
"In a few minutes," Jamie reassured him. "We wish to tell Severus something."
"Hear us out," Rose instructed her former friend, before she took off her necklace revealing her normal Lily form, while Jamie returned to his natural James form. "We are who we look like." Lily swiftly explained how Harry had travelled back in time and saved their lives.
"That's why you suddenly began showing up in portraits." Severus stared from Lily to James in apparent amazement. "No wonder that everyone is so fond of Unspeakable Paws, even if most people don't know who he is."
"And I want for it to remain that way." Harry's voice was firm. "Lily only told you, because you've sworn her an oath to keep her secret, just like everyone else here."
"We just thought you should know, especially as you're working in our team now. It is also my thanks to you for finally seeing Harry as his own persona and not as a carbon copy of James, which he isn't."
Severus slowly nodded. "Yes, I've realised that now. Thanks, Lily, for showing me my stupidity, when you did."
"You're welcome." Lily smiled, before everyone's attention was drawn to Harry's suitcase, when Salazar was the first to step out.
'Mum?' Harry wondered, staring at the stairs in excitement, just when Remus stepped out of the suitcase with a sobbing Regina in his arms.
"I am so happy," Regina sobbed. "I am a witch. Salazar, Harry and whoever helped them, thank you all so very much."
'This is the best Christmas ever,' Harry thought, when seventeen-month-old Niamh climbed onto his lap. He absentmindedly caressed his little sister's soft skin, noticing in amusement how Lucy licked the girl's hand. 'Now, we only have to figure out how to give Connie magic.'
HP
"No." Salazar glared at Harry. "I've told you before that the potion relies on the Squib's small amount of own magic to work. It won't work for a muggle. You can try it out if you don't believe me, but I believe that it would be very stressful for young Connie."
"Of course, I believe you, sir."
"Right now, I don't have a clue, but we will intensify our research right after we complete the potion for insanity. I believe that we're already close."
HP
Unfortunately, Salazar's assessment seemed a little too optimistic, as by the end of the Christmas holidays, all tests with rats had remained unfruitful.
'I'm only glad that Neville doesn't know about this,' Harry thought, as he readied himself to travel to Hogwarts on time for everyone else to arrive with the Hogwarts Express. 'He'd be extremely disappointed.'
He was looking forward to meet Draco, Neville and the rest of his housemates, and he was excited to have Salazar as his head of house for Slytherin, even if Severus had been a good head, once he got to know him and did not despise him anymore. Nevertheless, he could not help feeling sad at the thought of returning to the school instead of being with his family the whole time.
The Christmas holidays had been pleasant beyond belief. Regina's happiness at having magic had spread all over the extended family, and if Harry head feared that the relationship between Severus and his birth parents might be strained, he had been positively surprised. The Marauders had behaved and so had Severus, much to Harry's relief. If Connie had been disappointed that she had not been able to receive magic at this time, she had not shown it but remained pleasant the whole time. As Harry was able to feel her emotions, he knew that it had not only been an act – much to his surprise.
'I wonder why she isn't more disappointed,' he thought. 'I know that I am. It would be totally cool if she could attend classes together with us. Oh well,' he told himself, 'I can be happy that we can meet in the suitcase and even work together as Severus' student assistants.'
HP
The excitement at the welcoming feast was overwhelming, when the headmaster did not only introduce Salazar Slytherin, one of the founders of Hogwarts, as the new head of Slytherin but also Andromeda Tonks as the new History of Magic professor and her daughter Nymphadora Tonks as the Defence Against the Dark Arts professor.
"Professors Tonks have agreed that you should address the History of Magic professor as Professor Black-Tonks and her daughter as Professor Tonks to avoid confusion."
"I thought Andromeda had been kicked out of the Black family," Draco whispered to Harry.
"She was, but the current head added her back," Harry replied, having heard about the matter during the holidays.
"Do you know who the current head is? Sirius?"
Harry shook his head, knowing that he could not give away that Arcturus Black was alive let alone the head of the Black family.
HP
Both Professors Tonks turned out to be fantastic teachers, and the students adored not only them but also Professor Slytherin who had made the changes possible against the headmaster's wishes.
He turned out to be a good head of house, and even if the Slytherins had usually been happy with Severus except for the one year, when he had made some bad decisions driven by his hatred for Harry, they loved having the founder of their house as the head.
While Slytherin was usually strict, he always had an open ear for his students, and just like Severus he used to spend at least thirty minutes in the common room every evening.
HP
At the end of February, the Quidditch match Slytherin versus Ravenclaw took place. As disappointed as Harry was that he could not play in the match but had to let both reserve Seekers play, he was relieved to not have to play against his own house like during his first year.
'I'm just going to sit in the stands and watch,' he thought, knowing that Connie would join him and his friends.
Together with Lucy, Connie, Hermione, Neville, Severus, Minerva, Salazar and Flitwick, he sat in the otherwise empty Hufflepuff stands and observed the match. Much to his annoyance, he spotted the Snitch twice during the first hour, however, the two Seekers seemed to not see it.
'I'd rather fly,' Lucy thought to him in obvious disappointment.
'Me too,' Harry reassured her and gently caressed her ears, just when a collective gasp made him look up and concentrate on the game, where Tim, his Slytherin reserve Seeker, seemed to have lost grip on his broom and was tumbling downwards. While the headmaster readily cast a spell at the boy that slowed him down, he could not prevent him from crashing into the ground.
Madam Hooch announced a break, during which Madam Pomfrey took Tim with her, before she announced, "As the Slytherin reserve Seeker is incapacitated, I'm afraid that Mr. Potter will have to step in and play for Slytherin today."
"Sorry, Professor Flitwick," Harry uttered, before he pulled his shrunken broom out of his robe pocket, enlarged it and mounted it together with Lucy under huge applause coming from the Slytherin stands. A moment later, they were in the air only to catch the Snitch twenty minutes later.
HP
"Cool, we've won two matches out of two," Marcus stated in obvious contentedness, when the team descended to the ground.
"And we're going to win against Hufflepuff as well," Draco stated, as he landed next to Harry.
"It would be great if we could win both the house cup and the Quidditch cup." Neville grinned broadly.
"We'll see to it," Draco promised, and on the first Saturday in May, it became clear that they had at least won the Quidditch cup.
Winning the house cup was more difficult. During Harry's first year, Madam Pomfrey had always awarded points to him, when he brewed a potion for use in the hospital wing; however, now that he was Severus' official student assistant and was already supposed to receive privileges as payment, he did not receive additional points anymore.
Harry barely ever used his privileges, which meant, for example, a later bedtime or participation in the Hogsmeade visits. It was not that he did not appreciate it; however, due to his abilities as an Unspeakable, he just did not have the need for it.
Just like during his first Hogwarts year, he spent Tuesday evenings in a meeting with team 13 and Saturday afternoons with Croaker. At all other evenings, he and Connie assisted Severus in the lab at least for an hour or two, before Severus then spent the rest of the evening at the Unspeakable's office.
Unbeknownst to everyone but his best friends, Harry often returned home on Sundays. Ever since Regina had gained magic, the whole family was taking turns teaching her in all subjects that were taught at Hogwarts, and Harry and Connie taught her the basics of Alchemy very early in the morning, before everyone else came to join them.
The thought 'Perhaps, I could take some of the OWLs together with Mum such as Alchemy, which isn't taught at Hogwarts anyway,' crossed Harry's mind and he wondered if he should ask Archie about it at the next opportunity. However, he then decided to wait for Connie. 'I hope she'll be able to gain magic, before I finish my seventh Hogwarts year in any case,' he thought, feeling very disappointed at the team's lack of progress in the matter.
HP
Harry's second Hogwarts year ended with Slytherin indeed winning not only the Quidditch cup but also the house cup as well as the question which electives they should choose.
While their friends boarded the Hogwarts Express to travel home after their second Hogwarts year, Connie and Harry assisted Severus in the lab.
"Excuse me, sir." Harry slightly hesitated. "May I ask for your advice please?"
Severus cast him a look of pure amusement. "You may always ask. If you will get an adequate response is a different matter though."
Harry refrained from rolling his eyes. "We, that is my friends and I, cannot decide which electives we want to take, and Minerva said we'd have to inform her by July 15 at the latest."
Severus remained quiet for a moment, as he concentrated on counting his stirs, before he replied. "As I suppose that your so-called friends involve your wife…" He quirked an eyebrow and, receiving a nod from Harry, continued, "… I suggest Arithmancy and Ancient Runes, as both do not involve much magic."
"I'd like that." Connie smiled. "Although Lorenzo has been teaching me Arithmancy for years."
"Would you prefer something else then?"
Connie shook her head. "No, dear. Thanks for asking though. I hope we'll be able to convince the others, too."
Harry scoffed. "Hermione went as far as asking me to teach her how to time slide, so she'd be able to take all the electives at once."
Severus smirked. "This sounds like something that your esteemed wife might want to do as well."
Connie grinned.
"No, sir." Harry shook his head. "My wife is intelligent enough to realise that you can't excel in everything."
"Oh, thanks, Harry." Connie chuckled, as she diligently cut the birch bark into small slices. "Remember that I have a huge advantage over Hermione. The Unspeakables teach me anything I want to know."
Harry telepathically informed Hermione about Severus' suggestions, wondering when she was going to visit to discuss the matter.
He was not even surprised, when she stepped out of the fireplace after dinner that evening. At that time, most of the extended family was gathered at their home to celebrate his return from Hogwarts.
Hermione stared at the playpen, where Niamh and Aidan were fast asleep. "They've become so big, but they're still so cute," she cooed, causing Harry to grin.
'How many minutes before she'll begin asking?' he thought to Connie, who rolled her eyes at him.
'I look forward to everyone's opinion, although I believe that Severus is more reasonable than any of the Marauders.'
Harry full-heartedly agreed and listened with bewilderment, when Sirius and James told his friend to take Care of Magical Creatures and Divination.
"Every week, you get to make up a fake dream."
"Yeah, that was really fun."
"Remus?" Hermione turned to the third of the Marauders. "Did you take that, too?"
The former werewolf nodded. "Yes, and I can't recommend it for you. I believe that Severus' assessment was correct. Arithmancy and Ancient Runes will be the best for you."
"What about Muggle Science?" Hermione looked around questioningly.
"Rubbish," Artemis spoke up. "Seeing that you grew up in the muggle world, you certainly know more about it than the professor. I agree with Severus' suggestion."
"Me too." Lily nodded. "I took both of these together with Severus, and I'd immediately take them again."
"All right," Hermione finally agreed. "Thank you all for your advice. I think I'll go with those two subjects then together with Harry and Connie. Harry, will you inform Draco and Neville please?"
Harry nodded. "Done."
'They'll just be happy that we've decided,' he thought, knowing that his best friends were equally indecisive as himself.
HP
Just then, Salazar and Severus arrived, and the conversation was quickly diverted to another topic.
"Harry," Salazar addressed him, "Lily, Severus and I have finished what we believe to be a counter potion to the Cruciatus curse. Of course, we could only test it on rats so far, but we'd like to try healing the Longbottoms in the near future."
Harry's eyes widened in surprise. "Oh wow, that's totally cool. Neville will be so happy. His Gran is very strict, and he wasn't looking forward to the holidays at all."
"The question is how to proceed. "Should we tell him in advance and ask him to accompany us to St. Mungo's or should we rather head to the hospital by ourselves and only inform him upon our possible success?"
Harry shook his head. "No, sir. If you don't succeed this time, you will be able to heal them the next time. Neville would already be happy knowing that you're even trying to cure them. May I call him over?"
Lily nodded. "Harry, please do so. Rebecca, would you be willing to cast a charm at him, so that he won't be able to give James and me out to anyone?"
Rebecca nodded, reassuringly. "I will."
HP
A few minutes later, Neville stepped out of the fireplace looking around wide-eyed upon realising that the whole family was gathered. Harry noticed how Rebecca unobtrusively cast the charm at his friend.
"Hi Neville, come and sit here," Connie called him over, and Neville swiftly followed her invitation and sat on the sofa between Hermione and Lily.
"Mr. Longbottom."
Only then did Neville realise that the Potions professor was present as well and visibly blanched.
"Do not worry. I am not going to use you or your toad as potions ingredients," Severus addressed him. "Salazar, Lily and I have invented a concoction, which we hope will be able to cure your parents. We can't be sure if it's going to work, so please don't get your hopes up," he added, quickly.
Neville merely stared at the man, open-mouthed. Harry noticed in amusement that he did not even question who Lily was.
"Excuse me, sir, can we go and try it out right away?" he then asked, casting Harry a beseeching look.
Harry rose from his seat. "Shall we just pop right into their rooms and try it out? If it works, Neville can still inform the healers."
Everyone agreed, and an instant later, four Unspeakables silently and invisibly popped right into the Longbottoms' room in the long-time ward of St. Mungo's. 'Hold on tightly, so that you'll remain invisible to everyone but us,' Harry thought to Neville, who held his arm in a firm grip.