Option 1 (goes back to and forgives Dumbles): 2
Option 2 (works on own to overthrow Dumbles and Voldie): 45
Option 3 (sides with Voldemort): 13
Takes over Wizarding World (new Dark Lord): 3
Mix between 1 and 2: 1
Mix between 2 and 3: 2
It is looking like the second choice might win. I'll still keep the options open until Saturday morning though, just to be sure that everyone who reads this got a chance to look it over and vote. Everyone's opinions have been great and there have been some well thought out answers that raised some interesting points that I hadn't considered before (on all sides). Thank you for reviewing. Enjoy!
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Chapter 18Severus' eyes shot open as his foot slipped down from the footstool in front of him. What the hell? Why am I sleeping in the library? Why does my head feel like it is going to explode? He caught sight of Harry sitting amidst his pile of books and the events of the night before started coming back to him. Harry looked up suddenly, feeling his someone's eyes on him. He calmed when he realized that it was only Severus and gave him a crooked smile.
"I see you're awake."
"Are you done with your mad research binge?" Snape said dryly.
"I believe so. I might need to double-check a few things. It would be good if I could have Hermione here to help me check the figures before we proceed too far though. And Ron to help with the strategy."
"What the hell are you talking about?" Damn. That came out a bit more harshly than he had wanted it to. His head was pounding. That was the last time he would ever drink that much, regardless of how much fun it was to plan how he would torture the muggles. Bill shot awake at the sound and Harry scooted a bit further away from his lover and father. Snape cursed himself mentally.
"I…I wanted to find a way to lock certain information inside their heads…the students. I'm sorry."
Bleeding hell. "What are you sorry for?" Snape asked. Honestly, his son would apologize for breathing if he could. Another lovely reminder of the muggles, he was certain.
"I didn't mean to bother you. It might not work anyhow."
"Harry, if you are working on it I am sure it will work. You've already done the impossible once, I'm sure this will be simple" Bill stepped in. Severus shot him a grateful look. He was clearly better at being solicitous in the morning, even if he was hung over. "So, what have you found? No, wait 'til we get the others here so you only have to go through it once. I assume you are bringing them here to double check everything?"
Harry looked at his father warily and slowly nodded. "If I can" he said quietly, clearly uncertain of his position in the situation.
"Of course. When do you need Weasley and Granger by?" Severus said, trying to recover some ground. He'd let all of the damn Tower come stay in his manor if it could wipe his son's fear from his eyes.
"As soon as they can. They'll come the minute they get the letters when they see that it's important."
Severus nodded and walked over to the desk to select two pieces of parchment. He quickly turned them into portkeys and set both to activate on the words 'Snape library.' He handed them to his son and explained how the portkeys would activate and waited for Harry to write his notes on the parchment. Harry quickly jotted two messy notes to his friends and handed them back to Severus.
Severus glanced down at the notes and nearly snorted. Who the hell would answer a note that simply said Need you. Research. Potion and strategy. Four Horsemen. Say Snape library. Evidently his son expected this to be sufficient though so he said nothing but quickly called a house elf to post the notes.
Bill walked over to his lover and offered him a hand to regain his feet. Harry hissed in pain as he straightened his back for the first time in hours, clutching Bill's arms for balance. "Shall we dress while we wait? They should be here within the hour."
Harry nodded, took one last hesitant look at his father and then walked slowly to his room to shower. Bill took one look at the Potions Master's face and knew he was devastated by the most recent turn of events. "Don't worry. It takes a while. No matter how much you move forward you'll always slip back a bit with him. He'll be fine once he showers and dresses."
Severus nodded at him, once again irritated that he needed a Weasley to comfort him and teach him about his son. He supposed Bill wasn't so bad. It was certainly better than Harry dating Ron or, Merlin forbid! one or both of the twins.
He too left the library to get a quick shower and shave before even more Gryffindors arrived at his manor.
SDSDSDSDSDSDSD
Harry emerged from the steamy bathroom wrapped tightly in a towel and drying his long hair off with another towel. Bill smiled at the sight of him, clearly wanting to make love to him but knowing they didn't have the time. Hermione and Ron could be there in as little as 45 minutes and he knew that Harry would require another shower when they were done if they decided to have sex.
Instead he simply gathered up his shaving items and slipped into the bathroom leaving a wide berth around Harry as he went. He always needed to be careful how he approached Harry when he was in a state of undress unless he had been the one to undress him. If Harry was undressed when approached he often immediately slipped into memories of other times when other men had approached him before or after showers with less than kind intentions.
Bill found a place in the cabinet to store his shaving kit and smiled. Harry still didn't need to shave and he probably never would, something that bothered his small lover to no end. He personally liked Harry clean-shaven and couldn't begin to imagine how he would look with facial hair but he was unable to convince Harry that he looked best exactly how he was. It wasn't so much that Harry wanted a beard or mustache, it was more the fact that he couldn't possibly grow one even if he wanted to that bothered him.
He quickly showered and shaved and walked back into the bedroom. Harry was already dressed and stood next to one of the windows, looking out at the large garden. Bill quickly dressed as well and slowly approached his pensive lover. "Are you alright, love?" he murmured as he put his arms around Harry's waist.
Harry tensed slightly but relaxed almost immediately. "Yeah. No. I don't know. How do you think they will react to seeing how I look now?"
"Hm? I'm sure they'll love it. You are gorgeous you know Harry." Harry snorted loudly at this statement but Bill pressed on. "It is a good look for you. You have more of your mother in you and you seem to have gotten all of your father's better features. And its not like they don't already know that he's your father and expect your looks to have changed. They'll be expecting it."
"I suppose so." Harry didn't add anything else to his statement, staring out the window bleakly.
"Shall we return to the library? Maybe the house elves can bring us some breakfast in there."
"That sounds nice."
The two quickly set out for the library, knowing that Hermione and Ron would be there within ten minutes. Severus was already there, talking with a house elf about breakfast options. "Good, you two are here. I thought that we would just have a few plates sent up rather than a full breakfast. Do you know what you want?"
"Fruit and a bit of porridge."
"Full English breakfast. And coffee for both of us."
The house elf nodded and bowed deeply before vanishing, presumably to the kitchens to prepare their plates. Severus looked hesitantly at his son, uncertain of how to apologize for snapping at him earlier. Bill shook his head minutely though, letting him know not to bring it up again. Instead, Severus simply motioned the two over to the seats that surrounded the fire. Bill and Harry sat on the loveseat and Severus took the armchair he had occupied from the night before. "When do you think your friends will arrive Harry?"
"Any moment now. They'll come the minute they get their letters. Let's hope they were already up and dressed and don't come in whatever they slept in."
"I see. Shall we prepare them any breakfast?"
"Might be a good idea. Ron can always eat and Hermione tends to wait til she's been up a while before eating so even if she was already awake she probably hasn't eaten anything. Ron will have a full breakfast and Mione will have some toast and jam and a bit of fruit."
Severus quickly relayed this to the house elf who delivered their breakfasts and the three men began to eat.
Snape broke the silence. "What did 'Four Horsemen' mean?"
"It is our current code. Hermione picked it when Bill delivered the last letters." Harry assumed this would be enough of an explanation. Hermione's codes were always a bit obscure.
"What on earth does it mean though? I thought you usually picked code phrases that were tied to current events."
"It is. It's from a muggle religious book. It mentions the four horsemen of the apocalypse who usher in war, famine, fire, and pestilence."
"What does the apocalypse have to do with anything that has happened recently?"
"It's from the Book of Revelation." Snape rolled his eyes at this news. Only Granger would find such random knowledge and connections interesting or pertinent. And only she would have found the ridiculous allusion amusing.
Suddenly, Hermione appeared in front of them clutching her backpack, closely followed by a partially dressed Ron. Hermione looked over at Ron and rolled her eyes at his state of dress. "Honestly Ronald, couldn't you at least put a shirt on first?"
"Well it seemed urgent and I wanted to see my best mate. Speaking of, where is he?" The two turned around and spotted Severus, Bill, and a young man they presumed to be Harry sitting near the fire. "Blimey Harry, is that you?"
Harry gave them a small smile. Bill took his plate from his hands and set it on the side table, allowing Harry to get up and greet his friends. Harry slowly walked towards them. Ron's jaw had dropped, clearly shocked by his friend's new appearance.
Hermione gave him a quick hug and then stepped back, both allowing Harry to adjust to her touch and herself to get a better look at him. "Oh Harry, you look wonderful. You've grown too!"
"Yeah" Harry said with a shy smile. "Two whole inches!"
"Wow…you look like…like Snape!" Harry just raised an eyebrow at that insipid comment, unknowingly making himself look even more like his father.
"What the piss did you expect Ron? Snape's his dad, of course he looks like him" Hermione snapped. Severus jumped slightly at that statement. No one had ever called him a dad before. His thoughts drifted off for a moment as he pondered the possibility that Harry would ever progress to calling him dad. He sighed and set the dream aside. He would worry about his son being able to use 'Father' first.
"Well, your note was a bit short Harry. What are we working on today?"
"Please come have a seat, Weasley, Granger. A house elf will be bringing you breakfast momentarily and we can listen to Harry's explanation then." Ron looked a bit startled at hearing the Potions Master call Harry by his first name but Hermione didn't blink an eye. She quickly stepped over to Bill and gave him a quick hug and kiss and then seated herself in the armchair next to Severus. Ron walked over to his brother as well and gave him a quick thump on the back and grabbed the armchair on the other side of the loveseat, close to Bill and as far away as possible from his moody teacher. Bill tossed him the shirt he had summoned from his wardrobe in Harry's room and Ron quickly pulled it over his head.
Harry smiled at Ron's greeting to his brother and quickly started gathering his messy notes together to hand to Hermione. He pulled out a few sheets and handed them to Ron and then grabbed a separate pile to give to his father. Each person accepted their papers and started sifting through them. "An explanation please, Harry?" Snape asked after looking at the confusing mess of papers in front of him.
"Wait a tic, I need to find a pen." Hermione immediately started sifting through her backpack which she had placed at her feet. She pulled out a clean pad of paper and a pen and looked at Harry expectantly, waiting for the explanation.
"Well, I suppose Severus needs to go first to explain what we have planned for next year so far otherwise what I say won't make any sense." Ron again looked startled at the use of first names while Hermione immediately turned her gaze toward her professor, completely unfazed. Everyone else turned to Severus as well and Harry regained his seat next to Bill on one side and his father's armchair on the other.
Severus sighed. He wanted answers now but he supposed it did make sense to deal with this first. "Due to the changes in Harry's appearance we deemed it unwise to allow him to return to Hogwarts as Harry Potter." He paused slightly, assuming that the Gryffindors would have something to say about this but both simply looked thoughtful for a moment and then nodded, clearly understanding where he was going with this. Severus was shocked momentarily—when the hell did Gryffindors learn to think first before rushing to judgement? He shook his head for a second and then continued. "Harry will instead be returning to Hogwarts as my son and he will be apprenticed to Poppy Pomfrey and myself to master the healing arts."
Hermione looked pleased with this and Ron looked only marginally surprised. Clearly, both of them were well aware of how far ahead their friend was of their class. "We have decided to create false credentials from a small school a distant relative of mine runs. In order to prevent the deception from being easily exposed though, we will be creating the appropriate memorabilia to back up the story and we will obtain an agreement from the majority of the students to affirm that Harry did, in fact, attend school with them. Those who do not agree to this will have a few small memories implanted in their minds so that they cannot expose him."
"Sounds good so far. How will you prevent students from letting slip a few stray words though? A whispered conversation in a seemingly deserted hall could potentially blow the entire cover" Ron asked, quickly seeing the same problem Harry had.
"That's where we come in" Harry explained. "Last night I realized that we needed a spell or potion to prevent the students from speaking of certain things. They clearly need to be able to speak about the Snape heir but they cannot mention anything about the fact that the entire thing is a deception, that they agreed to cover for me, or that Snape's son appeared out of nowhere around the same time as Harry Potter disappeared. Unfortunately, all mind control potions or spells that currently exist are either hopelessly dark or else entirely too strong or inappropriate."
"Yes, I see. Imperius and others in that branch would not do at all. They are too dark and too difficult to wield over more than one witch or wizard at a time, not to mention most of them are illegal for good reason. The light ones all either prevent mentioning a specific word at all, which would never work for us, or else force your will on the victim, which I doubt we really want to do and the students would strongly object to."
"My thoughts exactly Hermione. We are only asking family members of the Snapes and Weasleys to do this and we are trusting that most of them will agree out of family loyalty. We have no need to force anyone to do anything. What we need is something to protect those who are helping us by helping them stay quiet about certain topics."
"Hmm…yes it would also have to offer them some protection against interrogation and truth potions, wouldn't it?" Ron said as he stood up and grabbed Hermione's pen from her and started jotting thoughts down on the pages of notes Harry had already given him. Hermione rolled her eyes at him and grabbed another pen from her bag.
"That was what I had hoped. What we need to do, essentially, is create a spell or potion that makes certain information privileged, re-enforces the desire to remain quiet about specific facts, prevents any attempts at breaking into the mind with legilimency or truth serums and protects the mind from being broken or destroyed by forced entry when people realize that the students are protected."
"Hmm…" Hermione thoughtfully tapped her pen on her cheek as she paged through the notes.
"Harry, are you talking about inventing a spell or potion that can do all of that? In the next few weeks?" Snape wasn't certain if his son were serious or not. Who simply decided that they needed a new spell and then just invented it themselves?
"Yes, of course." Evidently his son did. "I think I have it figured out, a combination of spell and potion, or more a potion that is activated by a spell. I just needed you and Hermione to check my work and Ron to check that I didn't leave any loopholes that could be used by someone trying to gain information or by a student who wants to break their trust. The potion is actually loosely based on veritaserum, twisted to prevent someone from telling the truth about certain topics instead of forcing them to tell the truth on all topics. The spell component is based on a dark arts spell that can be used to keep someone from being able to speak of a specific topic."
Severus recognized the spell as the one Dumbledore had used on Poppy to keep her silent about Harry's abuse. The spell had prevented her from even bringing the topic of Harry's medical file up with anyone who did not already know the truth. Evidently Harry was going to somehow make the spell light, or more accurately, make a light spell with similar effects as the dark one, as well as prevent anyone from speaking of it to anyone regardless of what they knew until he released them from the spell.
Severus realized that he was the only one not currently looking through the pages that Harry had handed out. Bill was even looking at the pages that Ron had as Ron finished with each one, murmuring suggestions to him to note down. Snape looked over at Ron and Hermione in amazement. They were both buried in their work, looks of intense concentration on their faces.
"Harry, how have you countered—"
"Page four, top left corner. I added the—"
"Oh yes, I see. What about—"
"Flip the page, bottom right."
"Hmm…that makes sense. What cauldron are—"
"Gold plated pewter, size 18."
"Hmmm. Why not use—"
"I thought about that but it would interact with the—"
"Oh yes, of course. I don't know how I missed that."
Severus looked at Bill in amazement. He was right, his son and the Granger girl were on their own wavelength. They evidently had even been able to do away with such mundane things as talking when they were seriously researching. He slowly turned his gaze to his own pages which were mainly on the potion theory. Clearly Granger had gotten the potion practical and the spell information. He flipped through his pages quickly and spotted the potion practical as well but decided to read through the theory first to make sure it was sound.
As he read he was more and more impressed. Although Harry made some large assumptions at times he found that he could not disprove any of them with anything that he knew and he realized that if he thought about them, he agreed with what had initially appeared to be leaps in logic. The papers that he received were messy, yes, and sometimes poorly worded (if words were used at all…sometimes Harry had drawn figures or pictures instead of using words) but overall the theory was brilliant—the work of a master in the field.
Ron finally broke his silence. "Mate, have you thought about what would happen if someone placed the students under the imperius? They would be under the control of two mind-altering spells. Which would be stronger?"
"I'm not sure. I guess it would depend on the power of the caster."
"You'd better be the one doing all the spellwork then." Harry nodded. "No one short of Voldemort or Dumbledore could break it and I'm not certain either of them could."
"That will push our date back a bit so that you can do it after your birthday. Have you thought more about how to mask your signature?" Bill asked. Hermione looked up in interest.
"Of course, I never thought of that. Owls will still be able to recognize you as Harry Potter, won't they?"
"Is it possible that it was changed when my appearance changed?" Harry asked.
"Doubtful. I knew we needed to do something but there are a variety of slightly dark potions that can be used to mask signatures. I thought we could look through my books and find one to suit."
"Let me check to make sure you need to alter it at all first" Hermione said as she stood up. Severus looked at her in interest, wondering what the clever witch would do. She seamlessly shifted into a tawny owl and flew over to Harry's outstretched arm. He stroked her feathers lightly for a moment and she took off and flew back across the room, shifting back in mid-flight.
"Yes, you are still recognizable as Harry Potter" she said as she gathered her papers again to sit down.
Severus looked at the trio with his mouth agape. "Do I even want to know when you three became animagi?" he said dryly.
"Um…probably not" Harry said, smiling a bit.
Severus rolled his eyes. "May I ask what your forms are?"
Harry and Ron exchanged looks and Ron stood up and quickly shifted into his form, an enormous Golden Retriever that stood almost waist high. Severus smirked lightly: the form was a close tie with his personality. Incredibly loyal, kind, a strong defender of those he loved, the retriever was a perfect form for the young Weasley boy. He turned to look at Bill who shook his head.
"I haven't managed to do it yet. They were all about a year ahead of me in training. I'm getting closer though."
Severus turned his eyes to his son who shifted uncomfortably. Harry looked to both Hermione and Ron for confirmation. They had all wanted to keep Harry's form a secret from everyone for a bit of extra protection. They both nodded that he should tell his father. Harry nodded slowly and stood up, preparing to shift to his animagus form.
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A/N: I know, I know, an evil cliffie. I've already written the next chapter though so his form has already been chosen. I'm interested to see if anyone can guess it. I don't think I have ever read a fic where Harry was this exact animal…close but not exact. Just a hint: it is a normal animal, not magical.