Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter.
It was Halloween morning and Harry was stressing over what he should wear to the Ministry for his paternity test. He decided on black robes with silver stitching. It was a classic look. A gentle knock came at his door.
"Harry, are you ready? The Ministry will be expecting us in a few minutes." He opened the door and stepped out of his room to find Severus leaning against the wall.
"Sure. Let's go." When they were outside of the house, Harry looked up at Severus. "Do you know what to expect?" Severus shook his head.
"I'm afraid I do not. The most I know is they will have a small group of impartial witnesses there to verify the test. That is as much as I know." Harry took hold of Severus's arm and felt the squeezing of apparition.
The main hall of the Ministry was fairly empty. There were a few witches and wizards walking around, but since most departments officially opened at nine there wasn't any crowds. They hastened towards the courtrooms, and entered a rather small room compared to what he expected. There was a large oval table and a few people were seated on one end with Pius in the center. The two took the seats on the other side of the table.
"Ah, yes. Here they are. Harry James Potter and Severus Tobias Snape. Now, forgive me, but you both have to take two drops of this." A vial of pale lavender liquid was placed between them. Severus raised an eyebrow.
"Tell me Pius, is this the best the Ministry has to offer? If this is, indeed, a generic truth serum then it should be a bit more pale. Almost clear with a hint of lavender. And," he sniffed the potion. "It should have less of a scent to it as well. Your potions brewer hasn't chopped the jobberknoll feathers fine enough. Let me know if you find yourself wanting a stock of higher quality potions."
"I just may take you up on that offer. Now, if we may proceed?" Severus dropped the required dosage into his mouth and did the same for Harry. He could feel the effects of the potion immediately, although it wasn't what he thought it would feel like. He felt like he needed to tell the truth, to be honest. It wasn't an option to lie right now. It wasn't a harmful feeling, just odd for him. He had lied for so long in his life that feeling the need to tell the truth was different for him.
"Alright, you will both state your full given names."
"Severus Tobias Snape."
"Harry James Potter."
"Good. Severus, what is your purpose here?"
"I believe myself to be the father of Harry James Potter." Pius nodded and asked Harry his purpose there.
"I believe that Severus Tobias Snape is my father."
"Very good. Thank you. Now I need you both to put a single drop of blood on this parchment, that's it. And that's that. Indeed, Severus you are the father of Harry. Congratulations to you both." Harry felt a small smile found its way to his face and looked over to see Severus practically beaming at him.
"Pius, what are our options now?"
"Well," the man shuffled through a rather large stack of parchment. "Since Harry here has been under the magical guardianship of Albus Dumbledore, we would have to revoke the right from Albus for that to be transferred to you. However, I am curious. Why bother with this at all?" Harry heard himself speak up before he could convince his own mouth to stay shut.
"Because Albus bloody Dumbledore has shoved me off to live with abusive people, against my mother's will! He has ignored the signs of abuse, ignored my pleas to let me live with someone else-anyone else-and has gone out of his way to ignore the list of people my mother has put into her will that I was supposed to live with. The first of which, was Severus. He has put me into dangerous situations year after year and I do not want any part of it." The eyes of all the witnesses as well as Pius widened and a plump wizard from the end of the table spoke up.
"These are serious allegations Mr. Potter."
"I can produce memories for you. More than anything, I want...I need to be free of him. Of them," he spat. "Your precious Boy-Who-Lived is nothing more than a slave to the relatives he was never supposed to meet." When he looked up once more, he knew his eyes would appear to be empty. "I need to live with someone that won't take advantage of my status, that won't beat me if I so much as make the wrong type of bacon in the morning and who won't use me to fulfill a sexless marriage." Shocked gasps filled the room and Harry looked down at the table. Suddenly, the grain pattern was very interesting.
He felt one of Severus's arms wrap around him gently to provide him with comfort and strength.
"Whatever you need, Pius. We are willing to provide it to get him away from the situation he has been in permanently. What do you need from us?"
Several vials of memories later, and they had a date with the court the next day at the same time.
The trial was in front of the entire Wizengamot. Harry and Severus were seated on one side of the room with a cup of black coffee for Severus and hot chocolate for Harry. There was an emergency healer standing discretely off to the side should the trauma be too much for Harry to handle during the processions.
It was precisely noon when the trial started. Albus still hadn't shown up.
"Alright, today we are here in the case of Harry Potter and Severus Snape versus Albus Dumbledore. Let the records show that Albus Dumbledore still has not arrived for his trial. We have provided him with ample time to prepare for this trial and will not be waiting on him any longer.
"Harry Potter and Severus Snape had a paternity test under sterile conditions at the Ministry of Magic in front of myself and a panel of impartial witnesses. It has been ruled that Severus Snape is the father of Harry Potter. They wish to relieve Albus of his magical guardianship and to have it transferred to Severus Snape. This verdict has been passed in the favor of Severus Snape now being the legal and magical guardian of Harry Potter. This is effective immediately.
"Albus Dumbledore, you have been brought here on the charges of neglect of a child, neglect of a student, disobeying a legal and binding will, knowingly putting your student at great risk as well as allowing your charge to be raped and abused by his muggle caretakers."
Harry looked over and saw that Dumbledore's seat was still empty. He looked towards Severus who muttered in his ear,
"He had the legal amount of warning for this hearing. They have the right to proceed with or without him here to defend himself."
"Unspeakable Eloise Mintumble, please provide the memories that were collected in a sterile ministry environment for the courtroom." Harry closed his eyes and silently cast a charm around his head so he couldn't hear the memories as they came to life in front of the entire courtroom to see. They went in chronological order, from the time Severus found Harry to present day. Harry was grateful that they had trained officials sort through every memory he had given so they could narrow down what would be the most helpful and omit what wouldn't be that helpful in the long run. Severus cancelled the silencing charm after what seemed like forever. Harry couldn't help but notice that the man was visibly shaking with rage at what the memories portrayed.
"Well," Pius and the rest of the courtroom looked rather pale and worse for wear after witnessing the memories. "I believe we owe our team of memory officials who managed to only include what is important to this case a very nice bottle of brandy. According to my notes here, this is only a small fraction of the evidence we were given. Now-"
The door burst open with a bang as Dumbledore strode in.
"Ah, thank you for waiting on me. I'm afraid your staff in the front are quite chatty." Pius ignored the rude entrance and continued with his sentence.
"Now, since we have witnessed the evidence I think some explaining is in order. And since Albus has been kind enough to finally join us, we would be very interested to hear your defense."
"My dear Pius, memories can be altered." The Unspeakable spoke up just then.
"These memories were given under the influence of a truth serum. Anything with unnecessary details were pulled from this sequence by impartial memory officials. There is nothing fake about these memories." Her voice was hard. It was obvious she didn't get upset like this often from the few surprised glances she was receiving.
Albus gulped.
"Well, I can hardly defend myself when I was stuck in a conversation with your staff upstairs, now can I? I hadn't seen any of the evidence." Pius's face hardened.
"I run a strict schedule here Albus. You know this. You were given proper notice and as such I had every legal right to start this trial without you. You were aware of this and yet you still showed an hour late. That is your own fault. However, I will give you a brief run of what we have covered so far." Harry was amused and watched Dumbledore's face go from concerned to shock to downright hatred. He cocked his head when Dumbledore turned to glare at him and felt Severus's hand on his shoulder.
"I can assure you, I have had no idea of any of this, if any of it is even true."
"Is that your defense?" Dumbledore shook his head.
"Harry Potter is known to get special treatment. No doubt he thought this little stunt would allow him to have free reign to perform magic outside of school. He is nothing more than a celebrity child that wants more special treatment and upon not receiving it in his favor this time has decided to act out. Severus here had nothing more than a light friendship with Lily Potter. No doubt he has convinced himself that he has slept with her when she was so smitten with James Potter. Petunia and Vernon Dursley are hard working individuals who took in a child they couldn't afford and who have dotted on him ever since. Anything else is simply a lie."
"Let the record show that you have declined to provide us any memory evidence to back these claims when we delivered notice of your trial today. The evidence is stacked incredibly against you, Albus. We have dozens of memories that we didn't even show of Harry Potter being raped at the age of twelve. And that's not even the half of it! We have a copy of Lily Potter's will, the only will left behind by the Potters, and it has explicit instructions that he was not to go to the Dursley household."
Dumbledore kept his mouth shut. The lower level of the courtroom where Harry, Severus and Dumbledore sat suddenly went quiet and all they could see were the members of court sitting and staring at them stiffly. Severus leaned over.
"They're voting right now. This is a spell to prevent outbreaks from both parties. Rather clever, if you ask me." Harry nodded and leaned into Severus's comforting touch once more. He knew the evidence was overwhelming, but Dumbledore glaring at him wasn't making things any better. Slowly the charm disappeared and they could hear the noises of people shuffling paperwork and then could finally start to see them moving normally once more.
"Albus Dumbledore. In the case of neglect of a child you are found...guilty. In the case of neglect of a student, you are found...guilty. In the case of disobeying a legal and binding will you are found...guilty. In the case of putting students at great risk on more than one occasion you are found...guilty. In the case of allowing your charge to be raped by muggle caretakers you had appointed you are found...guilty. The Ministry will be conducting a full blown investigation into your doings at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. You are hereby relieved of your duties at Hogwarts, effective immediately.
"For the case of neglect of a child you are hereby sentenced to five years in Azkaban. For the case of neglect of a student, you are hereby sentenced to one year in Azkaban, permanently banned from holding any teaching duties or board duties for schools and fined a total of one thousand galleons that will be paid to Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. For the case of disobeying a legal and binding will you are hereby sentenced to one year in Azkaban and fined a total of five thousand galleons that will be paid to Gringotts bank. In the case of putting students at a great risk you are fined a total of two thousand galleons to be paid to Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. In the case of allowing your charge to be raped by muggle caretakers you appointed you are hereby sentenced to the Dementor's Kiss. Your remaining assets after paying your other fines will be transferred to Harry James Potter." The rest of the trial passed in a daze for Harry.
He saw dementors take Dumbledore away and heard the man screaming obscenities even through the closed doors. He heard Pius list off the remaining total of what would be transferred to his vault at Gringotts. He saw Severus stand and felt him take his hand and he recognized that they were going home but he had a hard time processing it all. He was finally free.
He hardly registered when they had arrived back home and almost didn't notice Tom greeting them in the library.
"How long has he been like this Severus?" Worry laced Tom's voice but he couldn't care less. Harry seemed to be in a state of shock.
"Since the verdicts. Dumbledore has been sentenced to the Dementor's Kiss. He is no longer an issue. A full blown investigation is due to start at Hogwarts. No doubt Minerva will be taking the post of Headmistress." Tom nodded and took Harry to his room. Harry obediently got dressed in the set of pajamas Tom had summoned him and got under the covers before Tom left him to sleep.
After shutting the door gently, Tom started making plans with Severus. They had gotten rid of Dumbledore, no doubt news would start spreading like wildfire about the ex-headmaster. They would use that to plant seeds of fear about the Order of the Phoenix. It would be entirely too easy to change the public opinions to line up more with theirs. The ministry was already starting to crumble as fights were beginning to break out between departments as the one's on Tom's side fought for equal rights and better laws and regulations for those who had to live with muggles outside of school.
A few hours later, he had just sat down in an armchair in his room to look out of the window by the balcony when he saw Harry outside. The wind was blowing his hair away from his face and Tom caught such a serene look on his face that he couldn't just pretend he didn't see him outside. He stood and joined Harry on the balcony.
"I never thought I'd ever be free, Tom. I...I'm actually free." A laugh tore its way through his chest and then he found he couldn't stop laughing. This feeling of being free, knowing he never had to see them again had him giddy. He could hardly believe it. He had a father that he could learn to trust and he had Tom to help him learn how to not be afraid of being intimate with people. He had an entire army of people he could command at any time. He was finally free of being manipulated and used.
When the laughter subsided he caught the look on Tom's face. He looked slightly worried but mostly happy. Without thinking, he threw his arms around Tom's shoulders and kissed him soundly as Tom spun him around in circles.