Severus and Harry reached the door to the lab at the same time. Severus motioned for Harry to proceed him into the room. Harry looked slightly wary but did so, quickly stepping to the side so that the potions master would be to his side and not completely behind him.
Severus ignored that and continued to one of the many freestanding counters and pulled three cauldrons out from underneath the counter top. He handed the smallest one to Harry. "Can you make Pepper Up draft?"
Harry nodded and accepted the cauldron. He started to set up a workstation on the opposite side of the table that his father was working at. He had to reach up a bit to place things correctly. The entire lab had been built for Severus so everything had been designed to perfectly accommodate him. The counters were thus uncomfortably high for Harry. "Sorry the counters are so high. There is a stool over there if you would prefer it."
Harry smiled his thanks and he went over to the corner to fetch the tall stool. Snape was glad he had one made: he almost had foregone the stool since he rarely sat while working on a potion.
Severus pulled the ingredients down from the shelves for Harry. The shelves would definitely need to be fixed in order for his son to ever really use the lab. The ingredients were stocked on shelves high over each counter: a convenient location for Severus to reach while still stirring a potion but virtually impossible for someone as small as Harry. There were some even he had trouble reaching and he was a good foot taller than his son. He would call his contractor later today to have everything fixed.
The two men worked quietly together but the silence did not feel strained at all. Snape eventually noticed his son's growing discomfort though, as he seemed to be building up his courage to speak.
"What do I call you?"
Severus halted his motions for a moment. Although not entirely unexpected, he still was uncertain what to say. "Whatever you feel comfortable with Harry. I would prefer either Severus or Father."
Harry nodded but did not respond. They worked in silence again for a few minutes. "Should I make any of this without the Karab root?"
"Why?"
"Three Ravenclaws, a Hufflepuff and two Slytherins are allergic to it."
"How on earth do you know that?"
Harry had the grace to look embarrassed. "I know a lot of things about everyone at Hogwarts. I get bored at night when I can't sleep."
"Do I even want to know how you know such things about students' private medical histories?" Harry shook his head. "Alright then. Go ahead and finish that batch. We'll make a separate batch for the others. Poppy goes through so much Pepper Up that if I only give her a partial batch of the regular potion she will run out before Halloween."
Harry nodded and bent down to get another cauldron to set up for his second batch. Severus paused his work again to pull down the additional ingredients needed.
Harry once again broke the silence. "Will I take classes with your regular students as an apprentice?"
"I'm not quite sure. I need to test where you truly are at then decide. You will most likely teach my first years and possibly take over half of the lessons for my second years. You will also assist me with the upper levels. We will have a few hours a week to work one on one on some of the more difficult potions that I do not attempt with the students."
"I had thought most of my time would be spent learning new potions, like in class."
"A large part of becoming a master at potions comes from having advanced senses about potions. This is either something that is innate, as it was with me, or learned, as it is with most witches and wizards. The more time you spend around potions, making them over and over, teaching them to those who know less or simply preparing ingredients, the more you will become attuned to the subtle magic of potions making.
"You might feel as if you aren't learning anything by teaching first years but you will be. It is one of the reasons that many potion masters often choose to teach for their first fifty years or so. It helps to sharpen their senses by attuning them to the very basics of potions making. If a potion master does not return to such basics occasionally, strangely enough, they start to lose their skill."
"I always wondered why you taught. You don't seem to like it very much."
Snape smirked at his son's obvious understatement. "Yes, well, it was a combination of a desire to stay attuned to my work and a desire to stay alive. When Dumbledore bailed me out of the situation during the First War he "asked" me to sign a contract stating that I would work at Hogwarts until my children graduated. I thought it a strange clause at the time but ignored it as I had no children and could not see any in my future."
Harry's face fell. He wasn't wanted. Snape would send him away now, he was sure of it. He couldn't stay at Ron's and he refused to go to the Headmaster to seek protection. He would have to go back to the Dursley's.
Severus caught the expression on his son's face and hurried to explain. "I had no social life to speak of and sincerely doubted my ability to find any woman who would put up with me long enough to get a child. It was not that I had no desire for children." Harry's face brightened marginally and Snape breathed an internal sigh of relief. He needed to remember to be more careful with his words around his son until he felt more comfortable with him.
"So Dumbledore already knew about me when you signed the contract?"
"Yes."
Harry didn't say anything else. He quickly started to decant the finished potion into single serving vials. Snape was rather amazed at Harry's skill. Although it was a simple potion Harry had done it flawlessly without consulting a text. He had also evidently known how to alter the potion to serve the needs of special case patients. The potion frankly looked better than some of the potions he had sent up to the infirmary. Perhaps his son was more of a natural than he had originally thought.
Come to think of it, it actually took immense skill to make potions as badly as Harry had done at school. While Harry's potions often exploded they always did so safely, creating bright flashes of light, loud noises or clouds of smoke but the explosions themselves were never dangerous. A truly incompetent brewer would not have any sort of control over it. Potions were incredibly dangerous for a reason. An incompetent brewer could easily kill someone by adding the wrong ingredient at the wrong time.
Harry's ruined potions were always flashy, designed to draw attention to his supposed incompetence. It took incredible knowledge and patience to perfectly and safely botch potions on the scale that Harry did. It was an absolutely ingenious cover: one that he himself had not seen through until Harry wanted him to see the truth.
Harry began to sift through the ingredients to organize them for his second batch. He impatiently pushed up his long sleeves as he pulled himself up on the tall stool once again. Snape studied the tattoos once again out of the corner of his eye. His skilled eye skipped past the bands of runes up further on his arm. If he was not mistaken there was what appeared to be the tail of a snake tattoo wrapped around his son's left arm moving gently, continuing, presumably, up past his elbow.
Harry noticed his father's gaze and shifted uncomfortably. "Do you want me to put the glamour back on?"
Snape looked up, startled. "What? Why?"
"So you don't have to look at my tattoos."
"Don't you like them?"
"I love them. I drew quite a few of them and they all have meaning, even if it is only known to me. I just didn't want to bother you."
"Why on earth would your tattoos bother me?" Snape closed his eyes for a moment. That was a rather stupid question given that his son seemed to have a fervent desire to disappear from sight entirely. The tattoos were rather eye-catching. "No, Harry. You don't need to replace the glamour. I like your tattoos. I was just curious about the snake one. Seemed an odd choice for a Gryffindor."
"Yes but I'm not a Gryffindor. At least, not really. I got this one done about two years ago in a small magical body art shop. I wanted a fully magical snake so it would move. It helps me when I speak Parseltongue. She looks like one of my friends from Privet Drive."
Snape started at the fact that his son had a snake he could call friend. "Is your friend still there?"
Harry looked sad for a moment but quickly recovered his generally calm appearance. "No. Aunt Petunia didn't like snakes. But then, Seatha (Say-ah-tha) didn't really like Aunt Petunia. Seatha was angry at Aunt Petunia for…something and she tried to get revenge. So Aunt Petunia set traps and killed her."
"Why was she angry at your Aunt?" Severus was relieved that although Harry would rarely offer information up front he would also rarely deny information if asked the right questions.
Harry looked up at his father for a moment, then looked back to the shrivelfig he was slicing. "The family left on a mini break for a few days and she had locked me outside without any food or shelter. It wasn't so bad though. I mean, it was summer. And it didn't rain once. Seatha shouldn't have gotten so upset."
Snape prayed for patience. He was certain that the 'few days' that Harry had spoken of was a week or more. "Seatha had plenty of reason to be upset, Harry. The muggles should have taken you with them on a family trip. Barring that, they should have at least given you the run of the house and plenty of already prepared meals. Every child deserves food and shelter."
"I suppose."
"It is not something that can be debated Harry. It is a basic fact. Every child deserves at least that" Severus said firmly but gently. Harry shrugged, clearly done debating the point. Severus decided to let it go for the moment. "I think your tattoos might help you next year."
"How?"
Snape started decanting his own potion as he spoke. "It will look mysterious enough as it is with Harry Potter disappearing around the same time as my son appears. Not to mention that although you have changed greatly you are still similar in build. People might suspect that you are Harry Potter under a glamour."
Harry snorted. "I'd love to see their faces when they decided to test that theory out. I can just see some brave soul shouting finite at me and having nothing happen."
Snape smirked. "Your tattoos will be just another thing to separate you from Harry Potter. It would clearly be impossible for Harry Potter to have gotten that many tattoos over the summer and everyone knows that Harry had no tattoos. How did you get people to tattoo you when you were so young? You were around 12 when you got your first tattoo, weren't you?"
"I mainly applied glamours to my face and went into muggle London. They thought I was an abnormally small adult since I gave myself a few wrinkles and gray hair. I also got a few over the summer near my house. They knew I was underage but they didn't care since they knew I didn't have any parents and I clearly already had some done.
"I didn't get my first wizard tattoo until I was 13 and by then Ron helped me forge a note from my "parents" and I again put a glamour on my face to keep them from knowing it was me. Ron and Mione had to have glamours too when they went with me. It would be too suspicious for Harry Potter's friends to be in a tattoo shop with a third person, regardless of what he looked like."
"I see. At any rate, people should realize that it would be impossible for us to have come up with this plan this summer and have gotten you the tattoos to disguise yourself as my son in the amount of time that you would have had this summer. It should help to distance you from the Boy Who Lived."
Harry smiled. "There is that. Guess people will be less likely to make the connection between him and me if I am covered in tattoos that clearly took years worth of work to create."
"It can only be hoped. You must be prepared though to spend less time around Weasley and Granger. It would look very bad if my son appeared at Hogwarts at the same time that Harry Potter disappeared and immediately made close friends with Harry Potter's two best friends."
Harry frowned and chewed on his bottom lip as he pondered this new problem. "What will I do then?" Snape was slightly surprised at his son's calm examination of the situation and acceptance of the reasonable solution to the problem. He had expected something more…tears maybe, or accusations, or…well…something more Gryffindor. He bit back a sigh. He really needed to stop thinking of his son as a Gryffindor. He clearly thought and acted like a snake.
"You will need to have a few other friends, or at least acquaintances. It would look best if they were Slytherins. I thought I might invite my godson over later in the summer to let you spend some time together. He will help you out and it would make sense for the two of you to know each other."
"Who is your godson?" Harry asked, dreading the answer.
"Draco Malfoy. Don't worry" Snape laughed lightly at Harry's expression, "he's not as bad as he seems. I know he acts like a spoiled brat but he truly isn't. Although his childhood was nothing like yours it was not as idyllic as it would seem. He has always been rather close with me, given who his father is."
"I don't suppose I would run to Lucius Malfoy for advice either if I had a problem" Harry said as he wrinkled his nose.
"Not really. Anyhow, he usually spends a week or two with me during the summer. We can tell him what you wish, but either way I know he will help us."
"He hates me. I somehow doubt he will help me if he knows who I am." Harry finished adding the final ingredients and proceeded to slowly stir the bubbling cauldron clockwise.
"Draco likes you more than he lets on. I believe he just enjoys bickering with you at this point. I've noticed the lack of any real animosity between you two for the past year or so."
Harry shrugged his shoulders. His father may have a point. He certainly couldn't say anymore that he actively disliked Draco, he just wasn't certain that he liked him. Well, perhaps he did like his a bit. He did enjoy their spats. "Perhaps. I'm not sure what I want to tell him yet. Can I think about it?"
"Of course. Take your time. We will tell him whatever you want to tell him whenever you are ready."
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A/N: If it wasn't clear already, I have no idea about potions and ingredients. I make it all up. I clearly also made up my theory about why Severus teaches and why it would be helpful for a master to teach children. In my mind potions is related to cooking. A brilliant chef can not only make fancy French dishes but they can also make damn good mac n' cheese. A lot about being a brilliant chef is knowing how to take the same everyday ingredients and make something extraordinary. Thus my potions theory. Hope I haven't offended anyone's sensibilities. Review please!