A Path Less Traveled
**OO**
A/N: Thanks to my wonderful Beta, LtsHrIt4ThBoyz.
For my friend for her birthday.
**OO**
Narcissa stumbled down the steps of Grimmauld Place, her arms empty of her baby. How could she have been so stupid?
So many mistakes. So many. Listening to that sherry laden prophecy in the first place that her lover warned her apart. Reacting to inducing labor a full month early. What if the healer had miscast the deduction spell for the due date? What if Draco wasn't due July 31st? She shouldn't have…and then this horrible house. Visiting her aunt, revealing the truth of what she had done. Asking for help for the sickly child.
Her auntie had promised to help her out of her difficulties and sent her to the parlor to sip tea while she did a ritual. What did the woman do?
Narcissa was hurting. Her child, her baby of barely two years, had just died.
She fled the house, not caring who saw her crying, not that the rain didn't hide that.
She didn't know where she was walking, but just walking. Walking.
Then, suddenly, there was a magical entrance. She had walked to Diagon Alley through muggle London?
There was a woman, pushing a stroller shouting at everyone near her. "Please! Someone take this blasted Freak away!"
No one seemed to notice her. How…odd.
She walked closer.
The horse-faced woman had the cover of the carriage protecting the humongous toddler inside it from the cold spring rain, but outside? She had tied what appeared to be clothesline cruelly around a tiny toddler's wrist and was leading him like he was an animal.
Narcissa gasped. In her pain and anguish, she couldn't help it. This wasn't…it couldn't be…but it was. It was her cousin's child.
"Why do you have Harry?" The woman demanded imperiously. "Why?"
"If you know him, you must be one of those freaks too. Here!"
The rope to the child was thrust into Narcissa 's unresisting grasp.
Then the hateful muggle got into her horseless carriage moments later. And left Narcissa standing there, speechless.
She needed help. Right now. She picked up the too-light child and walked into the Leaky. She couldn't stay there long, but hired a room for the afternoon.
The man knew her –she had been there before– and he was very discreet. She sent for Dobby and some of Draco's clothes.
The elf's eyes were wide in admiration. "Mistress making Master Magus Harry Potter into her son now? Good! Magic needs you."
**OO**
Petunia Dursley, nee Evans made a huge, huge mistake. Dumbledore had told her that she would be protected for as long as Harry called her house his home.
Giving him away shattered the wards.
She had driven Vernon to work so that she could dump off the Freak with the other Freaks. She didn't care who took him.
The wards fell just as the Durselys put their little boy to bed. The Potter baby blanket, the only thing magical in the house, would survive but not be noticed by anyone except a crying Headmaster.
They kept him in a boot closet? Why hadn't Mrs Figg told him that?
By the time he got back to the school, his potions master had left his post. At least there were no students until September first. A two word "I quit" was all he wrote.
Without Harry Potter, they were all doomed.
No wait! There was another boy. Trying to floo Madam Longbottom and talk her into giving Neville up to be raised in the muggle world at first had her laughing.
When she heard about the tragic news of Harry Potter, she called the aurors.
**OO**
Twenty-five years earlier:
Narcissa's mother was very close with Eileen Prince. A daughter of the House, pampered, a bit spoiled, she was everything that her mother wanted her to be.
Then she was betrothed to the biggest lump the wizarding world had ever known.
"Father, please! Don't do this! He's a fop! How he got into Ravenclaw, I don't know. He has no power, nothing!" Eileen begged.
"He is an amazing adventurer, and has asked permission to court you. He's the darling of the wizarding world. I insist." Lord Prince demanded.
Eileen wasn't happy, and never would be. But she was Slytherin through and through.
"Very well, father. The boy is very well dressed, and I have nothing but my robes for school. May I please purchase a suitable dress? I only need the one and can color change it."
"Nonsense. Here, bring back what you don't spend, but get several things."
That was the last time her parents saw her. She fled to Diagon, emptied her school vault, and converted most of it to muggle money.
She took a bus and wound up in Cokeworth. She just wanted to get away.
A man just getting off work, and heading to a pub offered her a meal and a pint. "Tobias Snape."
"Eileen Prince."
It was a mistake, and she knew it, but years later, her son would attend school, and receive letters from Madame Druella Black, asking about how his mother was doing, and wanting to stay in touch with him.
It was through her that he met the second woman that he fell in love with. A love that deepened even more after Lily's death. Severus hadn't noticed Narcissa much at Death Eater meetings, until she approached him for help.
"You're a potions master? You can make difficult brews?" Narcissa had asked, and explained her embarrassing problem about being unable to conceive.
She gave him access to ingredients he could never afford; he gave her experimental draughts to help her attain her dreams of having a child, an heir.
Him coming to her home to brew and experiment was so common that her husband said nothing of finding them in the lab or dining room or living room together alone. Though it was most improper.
Not even when Narcissa begged for more 'direct' help did Lucius complain. He wasn't faithful to her, and saw she was trying to give him an heir. He had no idea that his only son was not his.
Narcissa had never told Severus or Lucius the truth.
Now that Draco had passed away so inexplicably, so suddenly; gave Narcissa a new chance at life.
She still had the blood, the bile. She still had everything she needed.
Would Severus reject her? She didn't know, but she was going to do this one step at a time.
Step one; claim the boy as her own. Their own. Wait! She needed to get a hold of Lord Prince, Eileen's father. Eileen's older brother was killed fighting blood traitors. She sent a note to the elderly Prince, and permission was quickly granted. Good, good.
To Gringotts she went. Other than Andi, kicked out of the house, or Bella, in Azkaban, she was the only possible Potter regent. She was about to pull a prank on the wizarding world, and it was huge.
After a tiring ritual, she went to bed; Dobby taking care of the tired boy. The goblins had treated Harry as well. Something about his scar. Well, now with the ritual, it was completely gone. He was healed, in body at least. Dobby fed him and got Hadrian ready for bed, and they all three fell into a deep sleep.
**OO**
The next day, she went to visit Snape in his home in Cokeworth. Dobby was watching the boy right now in her rented room. Thankfully, he was her elf, faithful to House Black. The previous night, she had sent a missive to Lucius to tell him the truth about his son, and how she fled Grimmauld the day before.
She begged him to take care of the situation while she mourned. She knew she had to end things with him, but wanted to see Severus first. See if he still wanted her.
"Narcissa! I wondered if you would come." Severus was clearly distraught. How had he heard the news already? No, that wasn't possible.
"Severus. I…I don't know how to tell you this. It's about my son. Our son."
Severus held her close. "Oh, I'm so sorry. I didn't know. Why didn't you tell me?"
"Severus, our son lives. He lives. I wanted away from Lucius, the lies, the sneaking. I am free."
She called Dobby. The boy's eyes were the same, but his face was more like Severus'. His hair was as dark as Severus'.
"I'm tired of potioning our son to be blond. What will that do to him after years of it?" Narcissa lied.
She handed him the proof of the child's identity. "I did the renaming ritual. I had your grandfather's permission to use his last name since he has no heir." That at least was true. "Severus, he is willing to make you his heir if you take his name, and accept your son as your heir for the house."
He was also willing to pay for a fake marriage license in the House name for them both.
"Politics? Me? I don't like…"
"But I do! I could sit your seat for you. The power plays in the Wizengamot are a much better way of fighting the increasing muggle threat than killing muggleborns ever will be. What happened to Lily was wrong!"
Severus looked at the woman, and what was on offer here.
Narcissa continued her pitch, "The Prince home has a lovely potions lab, greenhouses, and creatures roaming around. I have money. Our son has his own fortune."
And that was very true. Narcissa had taken out the maximum she could out of the Malfoy vaults. Harry had money from the Black vaults as well, and would 'inherit' the Potter vaults. Eventually.
Those vaults went into lockdown the minute after the renaming ritual. Spurnik was very good at keeping a secret, and Narcissa was honest with him about how she obtained custody. She also told him that her husband knew where the Dursley house was, and had tried to attack the family before. Tried to kill her cousin's son before. Monster.
Spurnik had a way of making sure that Hadrian Prince was going to have a goodly sum of money well before he needed it for school
Narcissa softened her voice, "You were still in love with her. I don't know how, maybe her mother and your father are cousins, but our son has her eyes. I cried about it, but he has your face."
Severus bent to pick up the sleeping child from his conjured cot. Harry woke as he did. The eyes were indeed all Lily, but the look of cunning was Narcissa's. The boy didn't cry.
"Hello there, Hadrian. Welcome to your new home. Well, new family. Your father was proud of you before he even met you, little one. Welcome, welcome."
Severus turned to his lady as he cuddled the child. He could tell that she had something more to say.
"Please. Now that she's gone. Can you forgive me for not being her? And let me be in your life. Forgive me…" Narcissa begged.
He held the child in one arm, while holding Narcissa with the other.
"Hush, hush. Lily was never mine…you, my love. Our child. On a day that I was grieving and trying to figure out how to go on. Don't you feel it? This is a special child."
Severus continued. "Look, there's other news that is hard to hear. Harry Potter is gone. He was killed. That's why I'm here. I quit. I have no reason to stay there. I was trying to figure out what I was going to do with my life."
Narcissa knew that Harry Potter would be considered dead in the magical world after the ritual, but she had no idea how the news had gotten out. She hadn't said anything, and the goblins were very tight lipped.
"What happened?" The witch asked.
"Sorry, sorry. Our kind. Somehow the powerful wards fell. Doors and windows sealed. Fire. There was nothing but ashes and the Potter baby blanket. When Dumbledore went to check, I left Hogwarts. School ended a week ago. It gives him the summer to find a replacement. I'm not under contract, just under oath to protect Potter. How am I still alive when I failed so badly?"
"Hush, now. Did you leave him with muggles?"
Narcissa was unhappy about the Dursley child being killed, but Harry had been abused. She felt that the parents' deaths were justified. Likely Lucius and his friends' actions. He'd been monitoring the house. Narcissa had planned to intervene if the wards ever did fall. How very sad for them. Their child killed the same day Draco…no. Her child lived right here. She'd go to the goblins later and get her memories straightened out. And Walburga's.
But practical matters came up. Where were they going to stay?
"If you don't want to live with your grandparents, we could buy something of our own." Narcissa suggested.
"What? Does my muggle home offend?" Severus chided gently. "What am I saying? Of course it does! It's awful!"
Narcissa laughed. It was easy to pretend that the strong and healthy, if a bit undernourished, child was hers. It was easy to put aside the pain.
Getting a summons to attend a will reading in Gringotts right then was a surprise.
"I'll escort you. But first, Dobby. Please go and fetch everything you need to take care of our son. We need to head to the bank."
Dobby popped to Malfoy manor, and popped back. He stayed with Harry at Master Severus' home while the couple went to Gringotts.
**OO**
"I'm so sorry for your loss, Lady Malfoy." Spurnik bowed.
"I'm confused. Who died?" Severus really shouldn't treat goblins as deficient students, but. Well. He had a gift.
"My lady? You hadn't heard? Oh dear. Well, it appears that Lord Malfoy was killed by Madam Walburga. And she died of her injuries that he inflicted."
Narcissa fainted and Severus really did sneer. "Well done, man. May I use magic please? And can we rent the use of a conference room?"
Nothing in Gringotts was free. Spurnik snapped his fingers, and Narcissa was floated to a comfortable couch in a private meeting room.
"I have potions at home that could aid her. I will return momentarily." Severus promised after verifying she was just unconscious.
While he floo'd home, the goblin snapped his fingers again, and she was awake.
**OO**
"I needed to speak to you alone." Spurnik claimed.
Was there any truth to what the goblin said? If Lucius suspected that Walburga…
Spurnik continued, "There was a prophecy, wasn't there. And Walburga, however flawed, did have a bit of Sight."
"You think that she killed Lucius because of something that she Saw?" Narcissa was shocked.
"No, I think that she killed Draco because of something she saw, then Lucius killed her in retaliation. Only before that, he killed Lily's muggle sister and her family." Spurnik replied as gently as any goblin could.
"That's dreadful news." She fell silent. Oh dear! If she thought Draco was a danger to the dark lord and took care of the problem…Was his death her fault? She would never have killed him. Never.
"Your son inherits both the Potter fortune and the Malfoy one. He'll be a wealthy wizard."
"Can you please keep Draco's name out of the will reading? The fewer who know a secret, the easier to keep."
"Ah! Severus thinks that Hadrian used to be Draco. I understand. You have my word, my lady. Shall I ask Dharma Briokz to stop his efforts on the work you gave him?"
She had asked him to work on documents of separation from Lucius. With his death, there was no need. It would only raise more suspicions on her than there was now.
Severus returned, and gave her nasty-tasting draughts she swallowed without qualm.
Narcissa said that their child was going to be a wealthy wizard. Severus didn't know how he felt about Hadrian inheriting the Potter fortune. But with Lily's eyes, he must be related through the Snape's or something.
Who knew?
**OO**
Albus Dumbledore tried to fight the will, but couldn't. Andromeda had been kicked out of the family, and technically, Sirius was in Azkaban. If he was free, he could try and claim it. The Potters took him in, after all.
No, he'd blame Dumbledore for leaving Harry Potter with the Dursleys to begin with. What happened to bring the wards down, he didn't know. But they did, then they died.
Giving up the cloak was particularly painful. He'd hoped to have years to study it.
If only he could wrest control of Neville away. Being raised by the Longbottom clan was going to spoil the boy.
**OO**
With a summer birthday, they would have Hadrian Prince start a year later than he normally would have. Too many Death Eater children would be attending that year, and both of them had decided to stop serving the Dark Lord before his fall.
**OO**
The first time that Hadrian spoke to the runespoor when Severus was collecting shed skin, he thought that the child was playing. When he was working with the boomslang and the nasty thing tried to bite, it was clear he wasn't. Playing that was.
ƺ "Hey! That's not nice! You're shedding, and Da is trying to help you, not hurt you, silly thing." ƺ Hadrian hissed.
ƺ "Speaker?" ƺ
ƺ "Why do you call me that? Can you just please lie still and let Da help you? You'll feel better. And he'll feel better without you biting him."ƺ
The snake complied and the former Head of Slytherin called for his wife. They had married not long after Lucius' death, but since she now had dark hair and eyes, the marriage license stated that they were married about the same time that Severus started 'helping' her.
"A parselmouth? Oh my. I knew that the Black family has mention of some. Such an amazing talent to express, don't you think, Severus?"
"Very useful, to be sure. But I don't know how he will be treated at school."
That blasted prophecy!
"Why not contact Madam Longbottom? We have boys about the same age who will school together."
"Let them become friends? Oh yes. But I won't have Gryffindors in the House. If he sorts to the lions, he has to sleep in the storage shed." He was jesting but Harry excitedly yelled, "YAY!" The child thought that would be a great adventure.
"Ha, ha. As if you would allow your child to be abused, Sev." Narcissa laughed.
Hadrian adored his father and followed him around so much she was tempted to name him Peter from Peter Pan who lost his shadow.
They were going to have a very full life. Together.
**OO**
**OO**
ƺ parseltongue
