Chapter 8: Offers
Upon feeling Severus' presence gone Voldemort knew something was wrong with the deal that was in progress for the spell book, and that there was another spy. He dispatched all of the death eaters he had there in the castle with him to find out exactly what happened. Hoping that there was some clue he cold follow. While the group was gone his mind turned to the induction ceremony for the first child of his inner circle.
Draco Malfoy was a devious child, and quite unlike his father. Where Lucius was a follower to the point he did not question or plan out his actions. Draco was more methodical. He waited for the best time, and if possible used others so that his crimes were not traced back to him. It disturbed him that Lucius was trying to arrange a marriage between Draco and the Parkinson's daughter. That would never work maybe it was time to turn to recruiting to the women. He wanted someone special for his chosen heir.
The small group returned quickly, and he knew that the news was not good by the way that they were cowering before him. All they found was a puddle of blood, and nothing else. He called for Draco to be brought to him so that he could see if the boy could give a glimpse of that night. Maybe he should have instructed the boy to stay for the whole meeting…No then he may have lost his heir.
Draco was prepared for the summoning. He arrived quickly to the castle, and immediately bowed. "My Lord what can I do for you?"
"Ah yes Draco give me a report on tonight's happenings. I have some concerns and questions for you."
Draco bowed once again, "The night started once Parker arrived to Snape Manor. I was standing by the potion case while my godfather was fretted over if the packing could handle the portkey travel. Parker arrived just before Severus was going to contact you about Parker not showing up…"
"Wait a minute—Draco; Parker was late?"
"Yes, My Lord he claimed that you requested for him to meet with another contact before we had to leave. Something about them giving you a death eater donation, I believe. A few pleasantries were exchanged, and Parker give us portkey. We waited until it activated. Once we arrived everything went as planned. The buyer used the rats around us to test Severus' potions. It took about thirty minutes with the testing and Severus giving his care instructions. I was then dismissed, and returned to my father's house. There are still some preparations for tomorrow that need to be completed."
A long stretch of silence as Voldemort was deep in thought. "Did you sense anything awry before you left? Were you Knockturn Alley or somewhere else? How did Severus and Parker appear? Was their demeanor the same as always or did one of them seem a little more high strung than usual?"
Draco at first did not know how to respond to the volley of questions fired at him. Knowing that it was imperative that Parker appeared guilty in the Dark Lords eyes he did not want to lay on the trails of guilt too thickly. "Things seemed the as usual my Lord accept for Parker's lat appearance everything was pretty much normal. The location could have been Knockturn alley or any other seedy dark allies that tend to crop up just when you need them. I am sorry that I did not recognize our location my lord I will improve.
I really can not tell if there was anything off about Parker—I have never been on a mission with him before. I guess you could say that he was more eager than I expected, but there was nothing that really stood out. I told you that Severus was his usual self worrying about the potions, berating himself for not making extra in case some of them broke during transfer."
"I see Draco. You will learn to recognize your location when you get more experience in the future. I am not disappointed in you, but you must show improvement. I see questions in your eyes what are they?"
"My Lord, is this standard after a mission this reporting or did something go wrong?"
"How very astute of you to notice that this questioning might be out of the ordinary…yes something did go wrong. Terribly wrong, I would say. Draco, Severus is gone his dark mark has gone completely cold, and that only happens when one dies in my service. I sent others to investigate, and all they found was a pool of blood.
"Bl-blood? Severus? Please my Lord tell me it is not true. Not him he- he..." Draco shook his head in the negative. He then visibly swallowed quickly and cleared the emotions from his voice and face. It was then he realized he questioned Voldemort's word. "Forgive me my Lord; I did not mean to question you. Severus was like another father to me. His guidance helped me make me what I a m today. I swear you this now I will do anything to honor and avenge his death."
Voldemort at first was shocked seeing Draco's reaction to hearing the news. Malfoy's were well known for being for being cold people, showing outsiders no emotion at all. Yet, Draco was young and if what he said was true then it was a more than accurate reaction.
"Do not fret about the questioning me this once young Draco. It was understandable... go now and relate this news to your parents. Tomorrow is a big day. Go and finish what needs to be done." Draco bowed at his dismissal, and left. He was relieved that he was not punished for questioning the Dark Lord earlier.
"Call in the inner circle except the Malfoy's and Pettigrew. Tonight we find out if we have another traitor in our midst."
Severus woke with a start. He found intense green eyes staring at him. "Are you alright, Severus?" His son was watching him intently. That must have been what had awoken him. Still keeping his eyes locked with his son's he noticed something in them that he had not seen in a long time...open and unquestionable caring.
"I'm fine Harry. I'm all in one piece. What about you? It took a lot of power to perform that spell."
"Fine, not a hundred percent or anything, because of recent events...but I'm good."
Severus shifted over in the bed he was in making room for his son to sit next to him. It was time that they settled some things. "Harry have a seat next to me we need to talk about some things."
"About what things?" Harry did not move from the chair that he already occupied.
"We need to talk about what has been happening the past few days. I want to know if this is the first instance of Vernon trying to hurt you. We need to deal with this , or you may never recover."
Harry did not want to talk about Vernon or growing up in the Dursley home. He snuck a quick glance under his bent head at Severus to see his expression. It was his normals stubborn and mutinous look—not a good combination. There would not be a way to avoid this subject. Harry was still going to try though.
"Do we have to talk about this Severus? It's now in the past, and Vernon will not be coming near me again."
"Yes, you do. It will do you no good to keep this bottled up inside of you. Although, if you don't want to talk to me we can do as the headmaster suggested and have you talk to one of those therapist people muggles are fond of." Severus watched as Harry's face blanched white at the thought of this.
"Harry you do not have to go into the details of what happened with me. We will use a pensive to retrieve your memories for the trial. Until then the memories will be locked up so that no one can see them. I just want to know general things—for example crème and punishment. Let's say you didn't finish your chores; what would happen as punishment?"
"When I was younger the punishment was usually going without food. Now I get spoiled and rotten food. Can't have the Order getting letters of them not feeding me. This way I was fed, but still punished at the same time. Messing with Dudley, or him claiming that I bothered him usually ended up with me getting no food and being sent to my room or cupboard. Doing accidental magic or just saying the word magic would end up with the same results plus the added bonus of a beating.
Aunt Petunia at firs did not say anything, because Vernon was very careful to never hit me in front of her until I was older. Then he didn't care, and she would also get a beating when she did speak up. So she just stopped, and helped me afterwards as soon as the coast was clear. She would try to keep Dudley from picking up his father's habits, but it became harder when he made Dudley participate sometimes.
This was the first time that things ever went this far. When he came into my room I knew that something was very different with him. My magic some how read his mind...h-he was planning on beating the magic out of Dudley, killing Aunt Petunia for infecting his son, and before he killed me he would break me. The only thing that he knew was pure about me, and he wanted to take that completely away."
Harry was in tears by this time. He had managed while he was speaking to ball him self into a fetal position in the chair. "I was never so happy to have magic at that time, though I am some what afraid to find out what will happen to me when it is found out that I let my barriers down. I didn't care what was to happen. Luckily for us no one got hurt...well beyond Vernon's injuries. I'm just sorry that I didn't get to help Aunt Petunia in time."
Severus struggled out of the bed. His body was still recovering from Harry's previous spell. When he reached his son he placed a hand on his some what messy hair. It was an awkward moment for him in the first place, because he never had this type of familial connection in such a long time; not since his mother was still alive. Eventually the pat on the head became a hug, and he murmured reassurances into Harry's ear. At this very moment the tension and strain that was their tentative family broke. Harry knew that if Severus could treat him as Harry and not James' son then their future together would work out.
It took about half an hour before both of them were ready to talk. Dumbledore and Madame Pomfrey had come into the room to check on them, but when they say the embrace they backed out of the room. Harry was the first to break the hug. "Severus, I-I can't call you dad. I had one, and even though you did not know about me I think that you still deserve a title that will work between us, and no its not Pops. How about father for the public and fa in private?"
"That will work for me. I would like to be able to call you son, but only if it would not make you uncomfortable. I want this to work for us Harry. It will be challenging at times, because neither of us are not used to having a true family. Dudley, you, and I are going to have to make some major adjustments. Now do you have any questions young man?"
"Two, questions actually. First, why do I have to do the pensieve again? Second, can you explain how my parents ended up with a donor, and the spell they used?
"You will need to put your memories into a pensieve because Vernon Dursley will be going to trial for the crimes that he committed. Also, you may have a trial for using magic before your seventeenth birthday. We will be using your magical maturity for you defense mostly, but the pensieve will help show the circumstances that led to your majority triggering earlier than expected." Severus waited and let Harry absorb the conversation. He knew if there were anymore questions they would come now. When none came he moved to the second part of the explanations.
"In the wizarding world many times marriages are arranged for other reasons than blood purity. Often times marriages are arranged by the compatibility of ones magic with another's. This came about because of the inbreeding of wizarding blood in the old families. Two individuals could be very powerful, but because their magic was not of a different concentration the imbalances caused the wizarding worlds' population to decrease. In other words children were not being created, from these marriages.
Usually infertility does not occur in a mixed heritage marriage like your parents, but on occasion when both parents have a high concentrated magical level like Lily and James. My guess is that one of Lily's parents was a squib, and renounced the magical world because of the problems they had when they received their own schooling. Most couples know about this problem before they marry. They either decide to break apart, marry but not have children, or do a gene therapy spell pregnancy.
Your parents chose the latter of the three. The gene therapy spell allows for the muggle process of taking a woman's eggs and fertilizing them with compatible sperm. Where the sperm come from varies sometimes its donated from a male family member of the husband's family, but James did not have that option. So it seems he and Lily went to a sperm bank. The fertilized egg is then spelled to take the fathers DNA traits before it is implanted into the womb. Every three months while the mother is pregnant the spell is recast until the final week before delivery. Then the spell is cast on the baby everyday until delivery. The spell is only recast when magical maturity arrives. It is then when the child's body is going through the most of its magical changes that the spell becomes permanent."
"Permanent? As in I would never be able to take it off if I felt like it in the future. Well that solves that question and decision for me...Severus would you mind so much if I didn't have the spell reapplied?"
"Well, I was going to give you the option of the spell being cast upon you and it not going back on. Depending on which way you decide I was going to offer you some more choices. First, if you decided that you wanted the spell reapplied I could still claim, you but you would have to go through all the confusion of the gene therapy spell. Or you could have it reapplied and we have a quiet relationship.
If you decided not to have the spell reapplied we have more avenues open to us. Harry Potter could disappear—we'll make something up saying that he has gone into deep training. You would then be free to be my son in the open and could have a normal teenage life. Another option for you is Harry Potter changes into well you only we acknowledge our connection, and the persona that you are used to is gone. It's all your choice. I don't want to push anything on you."
"Good, I hate pressure. Fa, give me a few days and I will let you know what I decide. Until then I am sleepy, and you need to get some more rest. I'll check on you when I wake up. Watch out for Madame Pomfrey though. She said that she planned to keep you in bed for at least a week if she doesn't think you are getting enough rest. Just to let you know I am weighing my options for not reapplying the spell. I don't want to be a Potter clone because of some spell." With that little tidbit of information Harry left a stunned Severus Snape propped up in bed.
A/N: I am so sorry that this update took longer than I planned. This chapter is one of the longer ones I had planned. I wanted to get most of the background information about the situation out. KEEP THE REVIEWS COMING, PLEASE!
Next Chapter: Talking and Decisions
Harry's decision
Luna and Harry
P.S. Next chapter is going to be skipping ahead a few days.