Rowthan Re-Write: Chapter Two

Disclaimer: If you recognize it, it is not mine. No copyright or trademark infringement is meant, I have the utmost respect for the true intellectual owner of Harry Potter. This is meant to be nothing more than a means for my own creative process to thrive.

Secondary Disclaimer: This story is based on characters and situations created and owned by JK Rowling, various publishers including but not limited to Bloomsbury Books, Scholastic Books and Raincoat Books, and Warner Bros., Inc. No money is being made and no copyright or trademark infringement is intended.

Chapter Two

Severus woke early the next morning, and while he waited for the teen to wake up, he updated his stock of potions.

He brought several potions upstairs from his basement laboratory and had time to get a shower and change into fresh clothing before he decided that he should check up on the teen.

He made some breakfast in his large and renovated kitchen that Narcissa had done for him when he'd revealed how he'd abhorred his childhood home. When he returned to Spinner's End after his first year of teaching he found his kitchen re-done. He had an island in the center of the large room, and his fireplace was expanded so that he could easily fit up to a size 5 cauldron - a fact that pleased him to no end. Gone were the ghastly orange tile and yellow fixtures. Instead, his kitchen was mostly stone with wooden cabinets for maximum storage and there were even special racks to store potion phials and ingredients. The next year she re-did his living room, his parlor but it was only this past year that he'd finally (after she ... beseeched him for ten... well, yes... ten years) allowed her to re-do the rest of his home - except for the library as it had been his and his mother's sanctuary from Tobias Snape - and he was pleased with the result.

He brought a tray of simple foods and some hot tea into the living room and set it and the potions he'd made on the coffee table just as his morning paper was delivered.

He began reading it and only paused when he noticed the teen waking up.

Harry opened his eyes and groaned as sunlight seared them.

"Good morning." Severus said as he saw the teen's green eyes through cracked eyelids.

"Where am I?" he asked weakly.

"Surrey, Spinner's End."

Harry frowned, he that that he would have made it further from the Port.

"Not where you expected?"

"Not London?"

Severus shook his head, "No, may I surmised that you tried for St. Mungo's?"

Harry relaxed and tensed, "Wizard?"

"Obviously. May I enquire as to your current condition?"

It took Harry a few seconds to translate that in his head, "I got stabbed, some men on the port... they were harassing a classmate of mine. Kaite's only 15, so I stepped in."

"And got stabbed for your efforts."

Harrison shrugged lightly, "No good deed goes unpunished. I'm Harrison Rowthan."

"Severus Snape."

"The Potion's Master?"

"The same. May I ask why you thought knocking on MY door in the middle of the night was a good idea?" Severus asked as he neatly folded the paper and set it next to the tray.

"When you're hurt, anything that could get you help sounds like a good idea."

"Obviously. Tea?"

"In my defense, I was not aware of the extent of my injuries. I just knew that I was bleeding badly. So may I ask why you did not send me to St. Mungo's?"

"Hospitals are places you only go to when you have no other options."

"And I had other options?"

"You were in my house. My options were giving you potions to heal you then send you on your way like a good child to your mother and father's house."

Harrison glared at the man, he knew from experience that some people did not know any other means to communicate with people and that once you got past that then you could be friends for life. He tried to sit up only for Snape to quickly cross the distance between them and help him up.

He was then passed two potions.

"What are they?" Harrison asked as he eyed the potions, the colors indicated nothing, they could be anything from disinfectants, immune boosters, blood replenishers to poisons of varying levels and strengths. While so weak there was no way he'd be able to test them with a spell he'd picked up from Kiprian (his former mentor who'd moved onto the next path a few years earlier) that could tell him if they were help or harm.

Severus raised an eyebrow at the teen's caution, but was a little miffed. If he'd wanted to kill the teen, he would have hardly saved his life the night before. "They are a blood replenisher and an infection blocker. I have been absorbed in a personal project so I apologize for allowing my stores to suffer such negligence."

Harry very nearly raised an eyebrow at that but knew that a Potion's Master would apologize for allowing their stock to dwindle due to their own negligence. "Peace, good Master. You made them and for that I am eternally grateful."

Severus grinned, the teen was Pure - for only a Pure would respond like that. He passed the teen the potions.

Harry nodded and drank them down with an ease that belied his familiarity with potions. Yet, Severus was beginning to feel respect for the teen. He knew some grown men that still couldn't swallow potions with that much ease.

"How many others must I take?" Harry asked a few minutes later after he drank some tea and ate a bowl of porridge to help rid the flavors of the potions from his mouth. It helped - a little.

"A healing potion that should speed up your natural healing process substantially. Unfortunately, instantly healing an injury such as yours ... so close to vital organs... is out of the question. A scar will remain in time."

Harrison nodded as he yawned loudly.

"And you also need to rest, Mr. Rowthan. I am sure people are worried about you."

Harrison nodded as he put the cup on the coffee table and fell asleep moments later.

While the lad ventured into sleep, Severus took the opportunity to change the teen's bandage - knowing that it would be a few more hours until the teen awoke again.

He took the opportunity to write back to Albus about how he was thinking about lowering his standards to accept those with EE+ on their OWLs into his NEWT class. His classes had shrunk from about 50 to less than 20 this past year and he knew that he might need to change his curricula - like requiring a purchase of a potion's dictionary and include papers that would make it a mandatory reference - in order to ensure larger classes in the future. Shudder as he might, Potter did have a good point when he stated that Auror recruiting was down 37% since the Fall. Not that he would EVER admit that James Fleamont Potter was right about ANYTHING. He also wrote to his godson Draco to wish him a happy birthday - he was secretly pleased that even though Draco was a Slytherin, he was more like his second cousin Regulus Black. Regulus has known that true friends got you places that mere acquaintances did not.

-HJRP-

When Harrison awoke later that afternoon he found it nearly dusk. "Master Snape?" he called out as he sat up, he was starving and desperately needed to use certain ... facilities prior to eating.

Determined not to do something he hadn't done since he was a young child. Harry got off the couch and quickly located the bathroom. He relieved himself and washed his hands and face before he finally noticed what he was wearing or rather what he wasn't wearing.

'Thank Merlin for switching spells.' he thought as he guessed the most probable of situations as to how his trousers and the pajama pants had been switched.

He returned to the couch and sat down as his stomach growled - loudly. He didn't dare move as he already felt light headed and didn't want to chance passing out.

He revealed his wand by pressing the nearly invisible button on his wrist and summoned the Prophet - hoping that he hadn't been missed to terribly during the morning's match against Romania. It hadn't been a vital game, but he hoped that Bulgaria's team (which included him due to his dual citizenship with the country that had "courted" him and Victor last year and had allowed him dual citizenship so he could fly for their team) and their undefeated streak remained strong.

"Something interesting?" Severus asked as he walked into the room. It hadn't taken a genius to figure out that if Rowthan was awake enough to summon the Paper then he was obviously awake enough to try to eat something. He hadn't eaten enough to fill a bird that morning.

Harrison shrugged as he eyed the tray that was floating into the room, he could smell the stew. "Just catching up on current events sir."

Severus eyed him before he set the tray down and gave Harrison the two vials. One was an infection blocker - probably the same one as before - and the other was a light blue color that Harrison knew to be a healing potion.

He swallowed them in quick succession before Severus passed him the water, which he drank eagerly.

"You speak English fluently for someone who attends a foreign school."

"I am originally from Godric's Hollow, the Countess of Radnor and the belated Earl - Lord Rowthan- believed I would benefit from an education outside of Great Britain." Harry explained calmly as he set the now-empty glass of water down on the tray.

"Godric's Hollow? Wales?" Severus asked, with a raised eyebrow, a few minutes later after Rowthan began to eat. Yes, it was rude to question a guest, but Severus looked at Rowthan as less of a guest and more of a patient. In which case, the smallest of details could influence the patient's prognosis.

Harry nodded, he had no desire to be rude and uncouth by speaking with his mouth full of stew.

"Don't the Potters live in Godric's Hollow?" Severus asked, wondering how a local viewed the family. Especially one who did not attend Hogwarts and was thus more of an outsider to the whole "Boy-who-Lived" ideology.

"They and their spoiled brat of a son." Harry scoffed, thinking of his family. His mother, specifically.

Ever since he'd enrolled in Durmstrang and been announced as the Rowthan Heir his relationship with his mother had deteriorated to the point that the summer after his second year he'd left home to spend time with Sirius until returning to school in the fall. He and his mother argued constantly that summer and he'd left as he feared for his parent's marriage.

His father had understood the responsibility that his son owed to the Rowthan line - why Harrison had to discard the Potter name and take up the Rowthan name. Had James had a younger brother, it was very possible James could have been the Rowthan Heir. Or even one of their cousins, had Henry not been an only child, or if Henry had had a second son first.

To this day, Henry bemoaned the fact that he'd had four girls before his sons were born. If only so he would have known at least one of his sons would have had a secure future. It was good-natured ribbing as none of his sons (currently going into their third year at Hogwarts) seemed to have the temperament necessary to be the Heir of Radnor, although Alexander was shaping up to be a possible secondary Heir of Radnor for Harrison. While Harrison knew he was going to marry and have children, until then he wanted the Rowthan name secure. Unfortunately, talks would have to wait until after Harrison finished with school and stepped into his position as Earl of Radnor.

Since the incident after his second year, Harrison went to see his father on a regular basis whenever he wasn't in school or could spare a 1/2 hour. It was odd, the one who had the most reason to be upset was the one who understood the most. For his last birthday, his Dad, Remus and Sirius went together and bought him his motorcycle - he'd apparated to Stockholm and driven it for hours before going out drinking with the Team.

He was brought out of his musings when Severus, noting the tone, said. "I believe we may have the same views, Mr. Rowthan."

"Yes sir, it appears we do." he acknowledged as he took another bite. He knew the name Severus Snape not only for the man's achievements in Potions but also for the fact that the Marauder's practically tortured him during their school year.

True, each had apologized and granted Snape a boon that he could ask for anything he desired - except for their children and their lives - and they would be bound to do it. It was how the blood feud with the Weasleys and the Malfoys started. The Malfoy family wronged Septimius Weasley over ten generations earlier and refused to "pay up" when the boon was called in.

Severus had already called in his boon with Black, access to the Black Library and permission to copy the books (it was a spell that copied the information, diagrams and pictures into a new, blank book, essentially re-publishing the book into a newer edition but could not be further copied) for information on Potions. He already had fourteen new books with potions that were once thought to be "lost to the ages" and was working on improving them. it was challenging, but very rewarding; especially when one of the legendary healing potions called for the Heart of a Snidget - a protected species. His boon with Pettigrew was moot, and his boon with Lupin would be fulfilled with his lab wolf duties. As for Potter, well Snape enjoyed seeing the man sweat and would probably not call in the boon for another few years.

Harrison knew from friends of his (who were 6th, soon to be 7th, years at Hogwarts) that Snape apparently hated anyone with the Potter name. He'd been somewhat pleased by that as his brother - Jacob Potter "the Boy who lived" was as snobbish as some of the purebloods who went to Durmstrang. He, Katarzyna and Victor had fun taking them down a few pegs - or twelve.

Actually, Victor and Katarzyna (besides their former Headmaster Nikolas Vasiliev and Kiprian) were the only ones at Durmstrang who knew that his real/original surname was Potter. Vasiliev had arranged it so that all of his letters "home" went to Rowthan Manor to Lady Rowthan and all of his paperwork was under the Rowthan name and not Potter. Another important reason was that the name Potter was known not only for being brilliant Aurors and Dragons (*) but also for the fact that Jacob Potter was the "one hit wonder".

He finished the small bowl of stew and was grateful when Master Snape passed him another glass of water. "Thank you, sir."

Severus nodded.

"Sir?"

"Yes?"

"Thank you, for everything you are doing to me. I am in your debt."

Severus nodded his head, a debt was no small thing to declare. "Contrary to popular belief, I am not cold hearted. Curar Lento will consume your energy. I suggest you rest."

Harrison nodded as his eyes closed. He knew of the potion invented by Master Bernardo Rivera of Spain that sped up the healing process. It was slow but necessary for injuries like Harry's where spells were useless and dangerous to use.

"I hope you did not have anything planned."

"There was something..."

"Better missing than dead."

Notes:

* - this will be explained further in the next chapter but consider the Aurors like the Army and the Dragons like the Marines. The toughest of the toughest.