HARRY POTTER
AND THE PRINCE OF SLYTHERIN

Harry Potter and all associated characters and situations are the property of J.K. Rowling. I make no claim to ownership.

CHAPTER 19: The Parent-Teacher Conference

Meanwhile...

From the east window of the Headmaster's Office, Severus Snape watched as Harry stormed out of Hagrid's hut in an uncharacteristic fury, followed soon after by three friends and two enemies. Snape's face had a curious expression as he saw the Granger girl run after Potter – something oddly halfway between a smile and a sneer. Truthfully, he wanted to give the girl points with one hand and take them away with the other. It had taxed his skill with the Dark Arts to their limit to prevent Quirrell from slaying The Other Potter. Then, the girl had solved the problem elegantly (if accidentally) simply by knocking Quirrell over to break his line of sight and then by creating a distraction with her Bluebell Flame Charm. Of course, she had used the Bluebell Flames against him, but luckily, the magical flames generally could not harm living things and merely inflicted some minor scorching to the hem of Snape's robes. The Potions Master assumed that she had mistakenly thought him the cause of The Other Potter's trials instead of being the one trying to save him, but he suspected that The Sensible Potter had already set her to rights on the matter. Or perhaps not – from the looks of his uncharacteristic shouting, something had clearly happened to infuriate the boy.

Snape's ruminations on the First Year children and their activities served to block out the idiotic ravings of The Worst Potter, but a sudden lull in the level of general stupidity behind him caused him to realize he'd been asked a question.

"I beg your pardon, Headmaster. I was lost in thought."

"I asked, Severus, if you had any idea why Professor Quirrell might target Jim Potter under these circumstances? He has made no move against the boy so far. Why now?"

"Frankly, I suspect it is because of the ill-considered decision to let the boy play as Seeker despite his youth and inexperience," said Snape, unwittingly echoing Harry's own theory. "The whole thing has smacked of favoritism and pandering from the start, and if he'd died in his first match, it is likely you would have been blamed for allowing him to play. At a minimum, you would have faced a possible suspension by the Board of Governors. Lucius Malfoy, I'm sure, would happily use the boy's death against you. With you out of Hogwarts, Quirrell would have had a clear shot at the Stone ... which is almost amusing considering the Stone isn't even in position yet."

Dumbledore sighed. "Yes, it has been exasperating. The Mirror of Erised should have been prepared and in place before September 1st, but the difficulties of acquiring it from the Department of Mysteries without attracting undue attention were greater than I anticipated. It will be delivered within the week, and I will spend the month of December attuning it to the castle's wards. We should be ready for Quirrell by the start of second term in January, though I suspect he will wait until later in the year before he makes his move."

"A whole month for attunement, Albus?" said a surprised Lily Potter.

"It is a very Dark artifact, Lily. One I would not normally let come within a hundred miles of this school if the need were not so great. As it is, I will have to deactivate several of the school's protective wards designed to detect and block the intrusion of dark artifacts just to allow its entry, and it may take years before those wards become fully functional again. I wish it weren't necessary, but we all know what is at stake here both for Jim and for the wizarding world."

Severus sniffed. At this point in his life, he cared little for the wizarding world, and even less for The Other Potter. He simply wanted to see the last vestige of the Dark Lord destroyed forever. Then, all his old debts repaid, he could finally start searching for some new life for himself. Brazil, perhaps.

"It is gratifying to know that we all have our priorities in order," he said disdainfully. "Jim Potter first, and the rest of the world second. Oh, but, I forget. I suppose Harry Potter comes third once everyone else on the planet has been attended to."

"Why does it not surprise me, Snivellus, to know that you've taken Harry under your wing. No wonder he's gone bad," said James with a sneer. Snape rolled his eyes, but McGonagall was incensed.

"JAMES CHARLUS POTTER! While I respect your status both as auror and Lord of the Wizengamot, I tell you here and now that if I EVER hear that vile nickname again I WILL TRANSFIGURE YOU INTO A MOUSE AND LEAVE YOU FOR MRS. NORRIS TO FIND!"

Potter swallowed. "Sorry, Professor McGonagall."

"Don't apologize to me! Apologize to the man who, to my shame, I allowed you to bully and harass for seven years! And while you're at it, apologize to your other son, the one whom you assume has 'gone bad' merely for his placement in Slytherin despite the extraordinary heroism he has already shown in coming to the aid of the Longbottom Heir. And need I remind you, it is your Gryffindor son who felt the need to use the word 'Mudblood' against a fellow house-mate!"

"Minerva," interrupted Lily, "no one was more embarrassed by that than me, and the same goes for that ridiculous Howler which James and I have ... discussed at length. And we both deeply regret the circumstances under which Harry was raised. But given his Sorting and his relationship to Jim, I agree with James that we have grounds to be concerned about Harry and the possibility of him becoming attracted to ... darker ideologies."

"Then kindly allow me to put those ludicrous concerns to rest, Lady Potter," said Snape contemptuously. "Harry's two best friends are, respectively, a Muggleborn and the third potential candidate identified in the Prophecy. He has consistently rejected enticements to friendship from the children of Death Eaters with the exception of Theodore Nott, another abused child with whom he has bonded and whose father he unabashedly loathes. His relationship with the Malfoy Heir is one of overt hostility. He is one of the prime movers behind a study group consisting of the top students of every house, yet he is so far the only Slytherin involved. He immediately deduced that Quirrell was behind the troll incident and then immediately brought his suspicions to me. Nothing in his conduct to date evinces antisocial behavior. If Harry Potter ever becomes a dark wizard, it is because you two have driven him to it with your own actions. In addition to your decade long abandonment of him to abusive Muggles, he is well aware of Lord Potter's continued efforts to disinherit him, and he is completely justified is assuming the worst about your plans for his continued health and survival should he lose the protections afforded by his Heir status."

"Severus, please," said Dumbledore. "We are all upset and concerned by how Harry was treated by the Dursley's. But you make it sound almost as though James is ... plotting Harry's death!"

Snape stared coldly at the Headmaster for several seconds. Then, he drew his wand and summoned a file from his office to Dumbledore's desk. "The boy's medical records. We have no idea of the full extent of his mistreatment, as wizarding children are more resistant to malnutrition than Muggle children and they also heal bruises more quickly. However, the boy was carried to hospital on three separate occasions for serious injuries inflicted by his relatives. Curiously," he said sarcastically, "at no point did any of the attending physicians forward the incident reports to the relevant Muggle authorities, despite reporting laws that make it a crime for them to fail so to do. If I were prone to conspiracy theories, I might wonder if someone had spent time Obliviating all the doctors and nurses so that the Muggle authorities would not look too closely into Harry Potter's living arrangements."

"Are you seriously suggesting that we knew Harry was being physically abused and actively covered it up?" asked James incredulously.

Snape examined his fingernails in apparent boredom. "I'm not suggesting anything at all, Lord Potter, as I've been rather busy here at Hogwarts and have not had opportunity to investigate the matter to my satisfaction. When time permits, I will take the opportunity to interview his former teachers as well as any medical personnel who examined the boy after his injuries. And if I do find signs of memory tampering, I will be contacting Wizarding Child Services." He turned to face the Headmaster with an icy glare. "And I will also be ... reevaluating my association with this school. It has a history of ignoring the criminality of certain favored students that I had hoped was over and done with."

"How dare you...!" James started before Dumbledore sharply interrupted him. The old man looked almost stricken at Snape's insinuations, particularly those about the school which everyone present knew to be true. His own bias towards Gryffindor and against Slytherin had enabled the Marauders' bullying of young Snape for years and ultimately allowed Sirius Black to evade criminal prosecution for what, in retrospect, was likely a deliberate attempt on Snape's life. That leniency nearly led to disastrous results just a few years later when Black turned and betrayed the Potters.

"Severus," he said, "if it will satisfy your concerns, you have leave to spend as much time as you want next summer to investigate young Harry's upbringing and home life to your satisfaction. As the one who originally identified Harry as a probable squib and also the one who advised the Potters to place him with Muggle relatives, I am willing to accept a great deal of the blame for his suffering. But I do not believe you will find that it was intentional on the part of anyone here. Nor do I think you will find anything as sinister as a plot to actively conceal his mistreatment."

"I certainly hope not, Headmaster. But I distrust coincidences, especially when the stakes are so high. Harry Potter and Neville Longbotton are the two alternative candidates who are capable of fulfilling the Prophecy if the Boy-Who-Lived falters. And not only were both of them subjected to abusive behavior by relatives, they were both also mistakenly identified as squibs despite demonstrating considerable magical power that the entire wizarding world somehow missed. Among Longbottom's recovered memories is one indicating he summoned a favorite toy from a distance of over fifty miles, an extraordinary feat. And in Harry Potter's case, his disciplinary file describes an incident suggesting that he once evaded his cousin's gang of bullying hoodlums by Apparating to the top of a building over a half-mile away."

"That's impossible," said James flatly.

"No, just incredibly rare. Fewer than one-percent of wizarding children have verified incidents of either accidental apparation or long-range summoning. And in most of the confirmed cases, the child grows up to be an exceptionally powerful witch or wizard."

"How is the boy doing academically, Severus? I know he's the top student among the Slytherins in Transfiguration," said McGonagall.

"He is easily the top Slytherin student in his year and consistently among the top five among all First Years. The Granger girl dominates every class she's in except for Herbology, where Longbottom arguably has an unfair advantage due to his family history, but no one else consistently outscores Harry in every class. He had a rough start in some classes, of course, primarily due to being Muggle-raised. I'm certain he'd have done better initially had he been given the kind of early preparation that wizarding children take for granted." James stiffened at the implied insult. "I did notice an interesting detail in his academic files. When Harry was in his third year of Muggle primary, he was given an intelligence test that estimated his IQ to be at least 140. The school sent a letter to the Dursleys offering the boy the chance to participate in an accelerated learning program for gifted students. The Dursleys declined ... after keeping the boy out of school for a whole week allegedly due to illness. After he returned, his grades dropped precipitously, and for the remainder of his primary school days, by the end of each year, he consistently finished exactly one-half a letter grade below his underachieving cousin Dudley."

McGonagall closed her eyes and hissed. "A highly intelligent boy, abused by his relatives and likely threatened with worse if he ever showed up their slow-witted son academically. It's a miracle he never blew up his home or school with accidental magic."

"Which raises yet another question," said Snape. "My understanding has always been that Harry was placed with his Muggle relatives because he was believed to be a squib. I would like very much to know how that determination was made considering the placement was made at eighteen months when accidental magic is still rare. Even a casual reading of his school records indicates at least two other incidents suggesting accidental magic besides the one already mentioned, and we have no idea how often it happened at home."

Dumbledore sighed. "I have no answer for that, Severus. Several tests were performed at St. Mungo's immediately after Voldemort's attack that indicated that his magical core was nearly nonexistent. At first, Jim's was just as weak, but it quickly rebounded within days. Harry's did not, or at least, not during the several months he was kept under observation." The old man hesitated. "I must be honest with you. Part of the reason that I thought it wise to separate the two boys was that I was afraid that Jim had somehow drained Harry of his magic through the twin-bond they shared when he repelled Voldemort's attack. Sibling rivalry between a famous, powerful wizard and his squib brother would have been bad enough, but if it turned out that Harry was actually a squib because of Jim, I can't imagine what feelings of hatred it would have engendered in him."

"The issue of whether Harry Potter is a squib or not has been decided. He is well on his way to becoming a formidable wizard." Snape turned to Lily and James. "You should move on to the question of whether you want him to be a part of your family again or instead wish to pursue your current and senseless antagonism. I have little optimism on that score, particularly if you insist on leaving him with the Dursleys. Personally, in Harry's place, I would hate you until my dying days for such an insult. But at the very least, stop trying to steal the boy's inheritance."

"No Slytherin has ever held the Potter Seat," said James with a quiet anger. "And no Slytherin ever will."

"Then you were unwise to have abandoned your future heir for ten years to an environment in which only Slytherin values could have helped him to survive," replied Snape contemptuously.

"We seem stuck in a rut, Albus," said McGonagall. "Is there anything else to discuss? If not, I should like to return to my quarters," she looked over at James with an icy expression, "and brood over my failures as a teacher." Potter's ears turned red at the rebuke.

It turned out that there was nothing left to say, and the other four left Dumbledore alone with his thoughts. Severus Snape had nearly made it to the dungeon when a voice from behind called out to him. It was Lily.

"What can I do for you, Lady Potter?" he said tiredly.

"You can start by calling me Lily, Severus. Whatever our past differences, we are colleagues now and can at least be civil to one another."

Snape sighed. Oddly, he found he couldn't even work up the effort to sneer properly.

"We have not been on civil speaking terms since 1976, Lily. I find it interesting that you now seek rapprochement only after your son was caught insulting a Muggleborn in a moment of anger using the same bigoted slur that cost me my first real friendship."

She looked away for a moment and answered quietly. "Yes, alright. Jim lashed out in anger and said the worst, most hateful thing he could think of. Just as you did. And I'm a hypocrite for trying to be understanding of Jim when I washed my hands of you over it. And ... I'm sorry. I know that doesn't mean much now. But now I understand better the pressures you were under as a Slytherin, as well as the many sacrifices you've made for my family, even if James is too stubborn to see them. I should have forgiven you years ago but didn't because ..." She hesitated.

"Well, I guess because my Gryffindor courage failed. But I'm apologizing now. I'm sorry for cutting you off and ignoring you all those years. And ... I miss my friend."

He stared at her for several seconds. "You'll get over it," he finally said with cold finality. "Now, why are you really here?"

She swallowed. "When you look into Harry's ... situation with Petunia, please let me know what you find. I know you think I'm either a fool or a monster for leaving Harry with her, but I never imagined it would be like that."

"You never imagined ...?! Lily, do you remember when we were eight years old and Petunia called us freaks because we could turn dandelions into butterflies? That's what Harry thought his name was until he was six – Freak! How could you possibly have thought it acceptable to leave him with that creature?!"

"I thought she'd changed!" Lily exclaimed, her voice breaking. "I didn't just dump him on her doorstep in the night, Severus! After I graduated, I wrote to her and we reconciled! We even corresponded during the whole time we were both pregnant. I personally went to her house and put wards on it after Dudley was born just in case some Death Eater found out she was related to me. When we brought Harry to them, her husband wasn't happy about it and she was obviously still uncomfortable with magic, but she willingly agreed to take Harry and promised to let me know if he ever showed magic. I handed him over myself, and she promised to look after him as if he were her own!"

She took a few steps closer. Severus resisted the urge to step away from her. "That still doesn't explain why you didn't at least check up on him!' he snapped.

She let out a sob before getting hold of herself. "We couldn't, Severus! We didn't dare. After Jim vanquished You-Know-Who, I was certain that it was only a matter of time before Death Eaters came after us for revenge. It was only days later that Frank and Alice Longbottom were ... well, you know what happened to them. I was afraid that if Harry grew up in the wizarding world with no magic of his own, it was inevitable that dark wizards or blood purists would go after him, whether to use him as a way to hurt Jim or blackmail us or simply because they were offended that a Squib had been born to 'the illustrious House of Potter!' It was already bad enough how many people looked down on us because blood traitor James Potter went off and married a filthy Mudblood!"

Her voice hitched with emotion as she struggled to continue. "I lost my parents to the Death Eaters, Sev! You know how horrible their deaths were! The things those animals did to them before burning them alive! Just as you know how cruel the Death Eaters could be to Squibs who fell into their hands. I couldn't bear to lose a son that way!"

Snape was silent as Lily paused to regain control of herself. Finally, she continued.

"And all that was before Albus theorized that when Jim could only vanquish You-Know-Who by draining magic from Harry and possibly his very life force. Harry simply wasn't safe with us, and if giving him up would provide that safety, I was willing to do just that. No matter how much it hurt to surrender him."

Snape studied her, using the passive aspects of his Legilimency to determine if she was being truthful.

"You still have not answered my question, Lily. Why did you never check up on him?"

She wiped a tear a way and took a deep breath. "Three reasons. First, Petunia insisted on it. She hated magic, but Vernon was terrified by it, and she thought that having wizards come to visit would upset him and threaten their marriage. Second, and far more importantly, one of the wards I placed on 4 Privet Drive was a Sympathetic Occlusion Ward."

The Potions Master looked at her in confusion. While he respected Lily for her brilliance at potions work, he was honest enough to acknowledge her inventory of obscure Charms far exceeded his own.

"Basically, a Sympathetic Occlusion Ward conceals sympathetic connections between people and places. It functions as a watered-down Fidelius. While it's in place, the possibility that the Potters had any connection to 4 Privet Drive or anyone who lived there was simply ... something that nobody would consider. But it degrades quickly if the people affected actively maintain those connections. The ward would have been strongest if everyone involved-the Dursleys, the Potters, Harry-all simply never thought about one another."

She looked down at the floor. "Please don't tell James this, but ... I encouraged Petunia to tell Harry that we'd died in an accident. I thought it would help him accept the Dursleys as his real family and forget about his birth-parents." Then, her face hardened. "Obviously, the embellishment that James was a drug dealer and I was a prostitute and we killed ourselves in drunk driving accident that James caused was not part of the plan!"

"And the third reason?" Snape asked.

"I was afraid if I saw Harry, my nerve would break, I would snatch him away and bring him back into our world and ... and then ... I'd get him killed!"

Lily looked deeply into Severus's eyes with a pleading expression.

"Severus, find out what happened. Find out what made her act so cruelly towards my son. Find out how my sister and her whole family turned into monsters!"

"Believe me, Lily. I intend to. But one final question: You have explained why you did not visit Harry while he was with the Muggles. But for Merlin's sake! Why haven't you reached out to him since he got his letter! You let James go to meet him alone while you made a flimsy excuse to avoid him. Why?"

She sniffed and rubbed another tear away, as her face assumed a look of broken resignation.

"Because I knew he would hate us. Even before I found out about the abuse, I knew he would hate us for leaving him with another family while we focused on raising his twin brother instead. I loved my mother and father, Sev. But if they'd ever done to me what we unwittingly did to Harry, even for the best of reasons, I would have despised them for it and never forgiven them. You know what I'm like, Severus, and what my whole family was like. A Potter can have moments of terrible unthinking rage, as my dear husband proved with that stupid Howler. But an Evans? We know how to carry a grudge! And from the way he spoke to us when he delivered that restraining order-another reason to stay away since it's obviously what he wants-I know Harry can carry an Evans grudge too!"

Snape sighed. "Very will. Anything I discover which I share with the Headmaster I will also share with you."

She nodded. After a hesitation, he spoke once more.

"Answer me one final question, though, Lily. If you had to choose, right now, between Harry and Jim, knowing how one has been cruelly mistreated and the other spoiled almost to the point of ruin, what choice would you make today? Who would you choose to keep?"

The color drained from her face, and when she spoke, it was with complete resignation.

"There is no choice, Severus, and you know it. Jim is the Boy-Who-Lived, the Child of Prophecy. And if he fails, then the whole world will fall to the Dark Lord, including Harry. I would have died myself to spare my sons from what happened that night, but that wasn't an option I was given. So yes, right now, I have to be Jim's mother first and foremost, because if Jim fails, I'll probably lose them both. We both know I haven't had any real choices to make where either of my sons were concerned since 1981."

He looked at her and chuckled darkly. "No, I suppose not. Although I must say, Lily, I can see one positive benefit arising from how Harry Potter has been treated for the last decade."

"Oh?" she said almost hopefully.

"Yes. It has been twenty years since you and I were sorted into different houses. And at long last, I can finally and truthfully say ... I'm over you."

And with that, he turned and walked away.

This was originally only part of a 6000 word chapter which I decided was a bit too cumbersome. The second half (which, naturally, will be called "Student-Teacher Conference") will be a special update to be posted on Wednesday, June 10, 2015 between 4 and 6 pm. It features the aftermath of Harry's "GAAAAAAH!" In other news, I finally noticed the button for making horizontal lines!

AN! This chapter was updated on 1/25/2021 to better reflect development of Lily's personality and rationale for how she's treated Harry.