Chapter 14

Severus took home all the things Harry had given him, shrinking them before putting them in the trunk; he didn't want anything to happen to them because if it did he would be devastated. The ingredients in the trunks were worth millions plus they were irreplaceable. He didn't even know he had money in the trunks yet; he had only looked in the first one.

After stowing away the goods, he went to son's grave and sat talking into the wind "You know this was not the way it was supposed to happen. Dumbledore promised to protect you and told me you were fine but you weren't. I wish I could save you from the childhood you had. I've never felt more useless in my life" he said.

"I honestly didn't know what they were planning my son. I maybe a Death Eater but I would have never have let my son die if I could help it and now you are dead!" he was nearly wailing by this point.

"It was not meant to be this way!" he yelled punching the grass with all his might. "You were supposed to live and let me make it up to you! God's I was supposed to make it up to you! I wish I could change everything my son, if I could I would change everything," said Severus softly, touching the tombstone delicately. He ran his fingers over the name Harrison Alexander Snape. A Lily was wrapped around the name and a carved panther prowled the area protecting them like Severus had been doing his whole life.

At the bottom it read:
Beloved friend sorely missed
Beloved son never forgotten forever missed
Beloved hero forever missed
Boy who lived to die
Mother and son heaven awaits thee

There was a picture of Harry and Lily together next to a picture of all three of them. He had never gotten to show his son the pictures of them all together and the life they used to have. Just then the wind began picking up around him and a shadow fell over him as two people came forward. Severus wanted to move but was far too shocked to stir at all. The woman began speaking, power pouring from every single word she spoke.

"I am Fate. The balance of good and evil has been disturbed. The boy was not supposed to die, you know of whom I speak. We are entrusting you with this task. If you alter something we haven't authorised you to change then the offer will be null and void, you will be brought back to the present and nothing will have been changed. Do you accept this?"

"What am I to do?" he asked. He was not going to say yes when he had no idea what he was getting into.

"You will go back in time. You will leave Hogwarts and have the opportunity to bring your son up. But the world needs Harry Potter. You will change him back to his Potter appearance when he turns eleven and give him the pensive that hangs from your neck.

The timeline must be disturbed as little as possible. He must not change anything that happens from the time he enters Hogwarts. He will do exactly what he did the first time around only this time you must have an antidote for the poison your son makes. And you will have to allow someone else in to your confidence so they can save him from being stabbed. Thus it will ensure that the equilibrium between good and evil remains stable," she said, piercing him with her eyes.

"But I can't bring up a child! I have no money the ministry took it all a few weeks ago! I suppose I have my wages from working at Hogwarts but money problems aside, Dumbledore won't help," said Severus sadly.

"Do not worry yourself over something like that, the money you have in the trunk should do," she said before asking again "DO you want to do this?"

"I can't free Sirius Black?" asked the man not that he wanted to, he would rather him rot away rather than have his son any where near that disgusting man.

"NO, nothing can change. You will have to pretend to hate Harry at school, give him detentions every night so you can talk but you have to make him friends with Hermione and Ron. Draco should understand when he sees everything in the pensive," said the woman.

"Fine. I will do it," he said stiffly, his head held high and proud. He was going home! Home to his son. With an excited and un-Snape-like jig he watched the ghost pull out a wand and start chanting.

"Remis cet homme à temps car il doit changer le passé. Remettez-le à temps j'ai libéré votre âme dans la nuit en arrière à votre plus jeune moi les années d'ici ainsi l'atome être ainsi l'atome être!" she incanted.

With that the world spiralled out of control and Severus became dizzier and dizzier then knew nothing more as the world went black.

Severus was thrown into a body and went flying from a chair and onto the floor breathing heavily. He opened his eyes and it took a moment for him to start to remember everything and then it all came flooding back. The funeral, Harry, the woman talking in a foreign language.

Gasping for breath he saw a younger McGonagall and Dumbledore hovering over him. He had not yet been able to confront the Headmaster for what they had done to his son but the urgency to get to Harry was more important. He didn't know what year it was but every minute was precious to his son. The chain that was tucked into his neck holding the pensive was proof of that.

Without a saying a word to McGonagall or Dumbledore he ran from the Great Hall, which was empty so Severus guessed it was either the summer holidays or the weekend. Running for the apparition point he didn't stop, he kept running even when he was apparating, he risked being splinched but luckily was not; it would have taken longer to get to his son.

Sprinting all the way up Privet Drive. He barged his way into the house but when Vernon and Petunia realised he was a wizard they began yelling at him so Snape cursed them with Crucio and enjoyed every minute of it. He then gave them a potion that got rid of the affects of the curse but that didn't get rid of the pain, it made them feel like their insides were filled with lava. Then he forced them to swallow a potion that stopped them from ever speaking of the day again.

They watched as he took Harry from the cupboard and found their son too. They tried to move to help Dudley but were unable to. Severus gave Dudley a de-aging potion before apparating away with both boys. He arranged it so Dudley, who was now a very young baby, was adopted from an orphanage by a keen couple that were none the wiser. Severus renamed him Aaron James Anderson and even provided a fake birth certificate with false information so that there was no chance of him ever being traced.

Harry had been asleep through the whole process and had a notice-me–not spell on him. He was currently about three years old and was skinny but seemed fine considering, even though the neglect was still evident. He apparated back to Hogwarts and let Harry be seen by Madam Pomfrey.

"Severus how can I help you?" she asked. She was one of the few who had been honest with Harry and was not an Order member. She had helped Harry as best she could.

"Yes, please look at my son," said Severus quietly. Laying Harrison down on the bed he looked almost as pale as the bed even more so against Severus.

"Severus he looks nothing like you. He is Harry Potter not your son. I know you loved Lily but you need to get over it," said the woman kindly.

"Poppy he is my son!" said Severus. Removing the glamour they had placed on him, showing his son's true features for the first time in a couple of years.

"Oh," was all she managed to get out before she began helping him in the only way she could, giving him potions. He was severely underweight and malnourished. The whole time Severus watched each move she made. Not that she minded, it was his son after all everyone and parents watched her like a hawk when their children were involved. She soon stopped after giving him a dreamless sleep potion, he had been dosing restlessly and seemed to be in need of some undisturbed sleep, free from nightmares.

Severus never once left his son's side. Dumbledore came into the infirmary with a student he had crossed in the hall and brought her here for Poppy to see.

"Poppy, I have a student here and there is something wrong with her," he said with his grandfatherly smile in place, which Severus now knew to be fake. He could hardly believe his son had realised it before he himself had.

"Severus is that who I think it is?" the Headmaster asked in a deadly voice that brooked no argument or lies, not that Severus would have lied anyway.

"Yes I have brought my son to Hogwarts because he was being abused. I went to see him just once and look what I find, my son skin and bones beaten in a cupboard. He won't be going back there, he will become Harrison Alexander Snape," said Severus adamantly.

"And what will you do for work?" said the man with his twinkle coming back. He had made sure Severus could not touch his money until after the war with Voldemort.

"I quit Headmaster. I am going to bring my son up," said Severus with a slight smirk on his face. That interfering old coot! He would not let him hurt his son nor manipulate him. He was going to do everything Fate wanted him to do. It was all the better for him because he was the one gaining a son from it all.

"How are you going to get money?" asked the Headmaster nearly spluttering. He had not even thought that Severus would consider quitting; after all he only earned his money for working at Hogwarts.

"I have money so I won't have to worry," said Severus with a smirk then he ignored the Headmaster. The Headmaster was currently wondering how he could talk the man into not taking Harry with him.

"He would be better thinking James Potter was his father and not a man who is a Death Eater and be forced to join the Death Eaters," said Dumbledore as a last resort.

"Don't worry. No one will know Harrison Alexander Snape and Harry Potter are the same person because I'm taking Harry to see a magical doctor and a muggle one. I will come up with something that will stop my son's scar from showing," he said satisfied.

Dumbledore of course was stumped; he had never dreamt this might happen. He needed Harry as his pawn so he really needed to talk the man out of taking Harry from his relatives and get him under the fidelus charm, otherwise the man would look for him. The question was how?

"Poppy, I only need to give him nutrition potions right?" he asked the mediwitch. He knew that though Harry needed little for his physical health, he would need an awful lot of comfort. To set his mind at rest, be also want to check that Harry had not been violated; he would do that while he slept. Harry was so small for his age and had grown so little that his age in the pensive memories had been hard to guess.

"Yes, just nutrition potions as well as some growth potion. I might add vitamin enhancers to the list as well as a few healing potions for old internal injuries and skelegro to fix any broken or chipped bones that he had in the past. His magic has healed plenty of them but they need fixed properly and skelegro will just do that. Make sure he gets a well balanced healthy diet especially high calorie foods and lots of dairy products to help strengthen his bones. He should be as good as new within a week," she said professionally her personality showing through now and then.

"Thanks Poppy. I will call you over if I need anything as well as if I want you too look him over, ok? But I want to get going, I have a child to look after and then clothes shopping to do," said Severus got up before carefully taking his son into his arms. He cradled him in his arms and grabbing floo powder he silenced the room. Then he shouted their destination, a place his mother had left him that he had never used for fear of the Ministry finding out about it. Now that he could afford it he was going to stay there and decorate it.

Appearing out of the fireplace in to the living room, he put the child on the couch and covered him with a huge fluffy blanket. He continued to sleep on, warm and snug, not yet aware he had been rescued.