Remembrance and Renewal by Nigel Tatsuya and Avatar Arkmage
Chapter Twenty: World War III?

The Weasleys visited with Harry frequently over the two days that he was required to remain in the infirmary. Mr. Weasley, who was physically confined to a bed a fair distance away, seemed to join his family vicariously at Harry's bedside, and frequently inquired as to the function of various muggle objects. Harry enjoyed these brief visits from the Weasleys, even though he was constantly at the mercy of Molly and Ginny Weasley's smothering.

Even Cho Chang, who faithfully returned each day to be with her grandfather, visited with Harry for a short while each day. Harry's childlike mind could only faintly remember Cho as she intelligent Ravenclaw seeker she once was; when her when her eyes weren't bloodshot, or filled with tears for her ailing draconian grandfather. But now that Harry had a beloved grandparent of his own, he could at least partially comprehend her grief.

"Thanks for the sesame candy, Cho!" Harry said, tearing into the box of sweets his former crush placed before him.

"You're welcome," Cho said, drying her eyes on her sleeve. "My grandfather suggested that I bring sweets for that kindhearted little boy.'"

Harry looked on either side of him, bewildered, before realising that he was the 'kindhearted little boy.' He then turned to YiChung Chang, who had grown considerably paler since the day he had been brought to the infirmary, "thanks...uh...uh...Grandpa Chang!"

The weathered old man turned his head toward Harry and smiled weakly. He raised one scaly hand into to the air and waved, but he was too weak today to say anything.

"Can't they do anything for your Granddad, Cho? He looks so sick!"

"No," Cho said, crying once again. "He's too large in his half-transformed state, it would take more magic than the healers can expend at one time to heal him enough so that he can turn himself back into a full human."

"What about a potion?" Harry asked, his mouth bulging with the sweet confection.

"In his current state, it would be impossible to give him the right dose, or even the right kind of potion. And when he becomes fully human again, the amount of potions remaining in his blood would poison him."

"Oh," Harry nodded, his young brain struggling to grasp the situation, "because some parts of him are all dragon, some quarter dragon or half-dragon, and some parts of him are still human? They can't make him drink a healing potion that is good for both dragon bodies and human bodies?"

Cho's response was to turn away and sob more fervently. Harry, who now had a better understanding of what it meant to grieve for a loved one who might soon die, could not help but weep as well.

It had been difficult in many ways for Harry to adjust to being a young child again. Harry found that he had very little control over his impulsive reactions, and cried with very little provocation. He also felt the need to express himself with far more intensity than he ever had before. When Ron or the twins told him a joke, he would laugh so loudly that it earned him the stares of nearly everyone in the infirmary, and a vintage Professor Snape glare' from his father. Another time, when Fred had made a disparaging remark about Severus, Harry jumped out of the bed and pounded the freckled teen with his small fists. It required both Ron and George to pull Harry off of their shocked brother.

"Whoa! Fred was only joking, Harry!" Ron exclaimed.

"Well he had better learn to be serious some of the time or I'll hit him again!" Harry threateningly addressed the whole red-headed entourage. He then lowered his voice so that only Ron, Fred and George could hear, "at least I don't say such mean things about your fa- some other people! Fred, how would you like it if I said your father was so addled that he would sit on the telly and watch the settee?"

"He's so cute when he's mad." Ginny mumbled at the sight of Harry's clenched teeth, reddened cheeks and flaring nostrils.

This only made Harry pout more, which even Severus Snape secretly found to be cute, although he would never disclose that fact to Harry.

There were also advantages to Harry's smaller stature as well. Although Harry had difficulty climbing in and out of bed, and had trouble reaching for books from the nearby shelves, there was always someone around who would eagerly assist him.

Severus Snape also apparently had a soft spot for Harry at this age, for he did not sneer, make discourteous remarks, or scowl nearly as often as he ordinarily would have.

Even when Severus woke up one morning to find that Harry had crept into his narrow hospital bed and was snuggled up to him, he neither admonished nor tossed the boy callously out. Severus only shifted slightly to allow both of them more room on the bed, and greeted Harry with a: "Harry, this bed is not meant for two occupants, what do you think would have happened, had I accidentally rolled onto you in my sleep...?"

Harry thought deeply about his answer, then replied, "uh...then I'd be squished?"

Severus nodded, and made to say something more, but Harry quickly added: "...and then I'd say hey geroff me' and then you'd wake up, and you'd be so surprised that you'd yell, and that would wake everyone else in the hospital ward up. And some of the people you woke up would be mad, and then they'd start yelling, just like Uncle Vernon does when I wake him up with one of my nightmares..."

Harry fingered his chin, as he delved deeper into speculation. "Their yelling would scare the house elves who would be bringing the breakfasts in if it was late enough in the morning, and because they got a fright, they would throw the food trays they were carrying into the air..."

"And then, because the elves threw the food trays up, they had to come down, and maybe one would land on Madam Pomfrey's head, and knock her out so that she can't do her job. Dr. Chang would come in to help Madam Pomfrey, and then she'd probably slip on the spilled porridge or something and go skidding toward the door to the ward. That would be bad, but if Hagrid got bit by one of his dangerous creatures, and was coming to see Madam Pomfrey a the time, Dr. Chang who was already skidding on the floor would probably end up skidding into the door and the door would hit Hagrid and make him more hammered than he was in the first place."

Severus Snape was both confused and intrigued, and only gave a barely perceptible nod. But Harry wasn't finished yet.

"So because Hagrid got hit with the door that Dr. Chang slipped into, he's beat up and can't feed his dangerous creatures that morning until Dr. Chang or Madam Pomfrey makes him all better. But because they might be too wounded to help Hagrid, he won't be able to go back to his hut and feed his dangerous creatures. Because the creatures didn't eat, they'd be hungry, and then they'd try to escape to find food. The ones that do escape will go into the Forbidden Forest looking for food. Because some of the creatures already in the forest don't like some of the creatures Hagrid keeps, they get either eaten or else they eat the creatures or maybe they just fight." Harry curled up next to Severus once more, finding that the warmth of his father's body was very comforting. "If Hagrid's creatures find stuff to eat in the forest, that's good. If something from the forest eats them or they get into fights, that would be bad. Because of the fighting, some creatures who may not have been fighting, like the unicorns, get scared and run out of the Forbidden Forest. If they run out on the Hogwarts side of the forest, well it wouldn't be too good, but if they run out on the side where the muggles live, it would be bad because the muggles will be scared of seeing creatures they haven't seen before."

Severus momentarily forgot what the original question had been, but he listened patiently as his little boy went on and on. "So because the muggles get scared, they call the police. The police come but they can't arrest the strange creatures, so they report it back to their police department. The police department doesn't believe their police officers saw strange creatures like unicorns, so they call the hospital for muggles who see things that don't exist to take the officers and the muggles who called the police in the first place to the special hospital."

Severus had to smile faintly at the thought of people ending up in asylums for merely seeing magical creatures. Especially muggle law enforcers. Harry still wasn't done. "So because word travels fast in the muggle world, the scientists hear about the people being in the special hospital , and find out that they were sent there because they saw strange new creatures. Because scientists like to study new creatures, they go to the muggle town to investigate. Because the scientists are all there, the military gets interested and goes there too. The Military sees the creatures and thinks that they are being attacked by creatures from Mars or Jupiter and they launch some weapons to fight them."

"Harry," Severus forestalled his son. "I do not believe Martians and Jovians would look like creatures from the forbidden forest."

"Well the muggles wouldn't know that, would they? So when the other countries around the UK see the military firing weapons, they think that Britain is making a war, and because they don't want to lose, they fire weapons back at the UK. Because the UK got attacked, they fire weapons back at the country that did it. When that country gets hit, the USA President will scold the UK Prime Minister for making a war with helpless other countries..."

"Why would the USA President scold our Prime Minister?" Severus asked.

"Because the USA always scolds countries that are fighting. Because Canada and Mexico won't attack the USA, and not many other countries are close enough to do so, the USA President won't get to scold them because they didn't do anything wrong in the first place. So because the USA President doesn't get to yell at people for Wars against them, they'll scold countries that actually are fighting with each other, and because they'll see that the UK fired their weapons first, they'll yell at our Prime Minister." Harry speculated from what he had gleaned from muggle history classes. "So when the USA President scolds our Prime Minister for fighting, our Prime Minister will have to explain about the creatures, and the USA military will think the Prime Minister is just using the creatures as an excuse for going to war. So the USA will launch a missile at the UK to make them stop. When Germany, Russia and some other countries sees that the UK and the USA are fighting, they'll help either the USA or the UK, depending on which place they happen to like better. And the M1 Abrams will go 'boom!'and the scud missiles will go 'ffffffffsh!'" Harry was now doing a series of hand gestures to fully illustrate the art of muggle warfare. By this time, Severus was not Harry's only audience. All the patients and visitors within hearing range were giving Harry their undivided attention; non-magical folk seemed to compensate well for their lack of magical abilities indeed. "Then again, maybe those other countries don't like either the UK or the USA, so they'll fire their weapons at both countries to make them stop fighting because wars are noisy and pollute the air. The UK and the USA will think that all those other countries want to make a war with them, and they'll fight back then."

Mr. Weasley looked as though he longed to have Harry explain more about muggle MP3 Miss-hells, Shaman Tanks, and the Potomac Balm, but he was too interested in the story being told to interrupt.

"By now, the people in China and Japan will be hearing all the rumpus and seeing all the pollution in the sky from all the fighting in Europe and North America, so China threatens to join the fight, and Japan, who used to be violent before, but haven't fought in about fifty years since then, will keep all the muggle cars for themselves and threaten not to send anyone tellies, cool cartoons and video games until the fighting stops. When the muggles all over the world's tellies and video games break down they'll demand that Japan send them some more, and Japan will say "no we won't, because you're still fighting. And we made the New Nintendo SuperUberDuper Fun Video Game console and you won't get to play it, nyah nyah!" And the rest of the world probably wouldn't want to play war on the Nintendo SuperUberDuper Fun Video Game Console anyway, because they're already fighting a war for real. Why would you fly an F-18 in a video game, when you can join the military and fly the real ones?"

Harry's eyes grew wide, as though he were scaring himself with his own pessimistic tale. "And at this point, everyone will be mad at everyone else. And soon there will be World War III. And when they use the weapons of mass destruction...oh...oh!"

Severus' eyes widened, waiting for Harry to continue. Children could tell better stories than adults could, and in truth, Severus was rather enjoying this one. He didn't have many experiences with the muggle world, but this was too funny. When Harry didn't go on, Severus asked: "...and then?"

"And then that's all, because it's World War III, there probably won't be anything to tell after that, except maybe about extinction, but that's too scary to think about."

"So...what you're saying, is if I were to roll onto you in my sleep, it could lead to World War III and the possible extinction of our species, both magical and non-magical alike!"

"Uh huh."

"Then why on Earth are you in this bed with me? Go on, then! Surely you don't want the muggles getting into another war and putting an end to us all!"

"YAAAAAAAAH! I'm going, I'm going." Harry screeched, scrambling back to his own bed. He certainly did not want to be responsible for the start of World War III.


Severus reminded Harry time and again, over the remainder of their hospital stay, to keep their being father and son a secret, for it would endanger both of them greatly if that information were to fall in the wrong hands. To further alleviate suspicions any of the other patients might have been having, Harry routinely joined other receptive patients in their beds and told them stories fabricated in his deaged mind. Mr. Weasley was pleasantly surprised, and came away from the experience with information on muggle artifacts he had no idea existed.

Harry had trouble climbing onto YiChung's bed however, for the draconian portion of the elderly wizard's body took up most of the free space on the bed, but Harry was determined. He pushed a chair right up to the railings of the elderly wizard's/dragon's bed, and swapped stories with him as well.

"So that is what will happen if a golfer throws his clubs when he's angry?" YiChung asked, barely refraining from laughing at the dottiness, yet brilliance of the youth's tale.

"Oh yes!" Harry nodded resolutely. "They would do well to put 'do not throw your golf clubs when you're angry' signs at every course in Britain, wouldn't they?"


"Headmaster," Severus began on the day following his release from the hospital ward. "I would like to request some time away from Hogwarts."

The Headmaster looked up from the stack of parchments on his desk. "It is Summer, Severus. You may leave Hogwarts if you so desire."

Severus nodded curtly and turned to leave the headmaster's office.

"May I inquire as to where you are going?" Dumbledore asked, looking over his half-moon spectacles.

The dark-haired wizard swallowed hard. "Back to Snape Manor..." He had not been home in over five years, and before then, he had only gone back to retrieve something or complete other business, but he would never stay in his childhood home for more than a few hours at a time.

Albus dropped his quill in surprise. "Snape Manor?"

"The place is still heavily warded." Severus replied, sitting in one of the armchairs in front of Albus' desk. Albus guessed it was because Severus was trembling inwardly and felt he would need support to stand. "And with the Dark Lord being laid up for a while, courtesy of the-boy-who-wouldn't-die-and-acts-on-impulse-no-matter-how-foolish-or- irrational-or-dangerous-the-actions, I would like to return home..." Severus's expression changed, causing him to look less like the stoic potions master, and more like the morose, yet hopeful boy he had been nearly two decades in the past. "...and I would like to show Harry his ancestral home."

"While I have no objections to your returning to Snape Manor," Albus said, rising from behind his desk. "It is not advisable to remove Harry from the safety of Hogwarts."

Severus glared at the Headmaster, but said nothing.

"Severus," Albus said, placing his hands comfortingly on the younger man's shoulders. "Surely Voldemort will not be incapacitated for long. What if he summons you and discovers that Harry is in your care? The situation would be most grievous for both of you."

"Please," Severus lowered his head. "Pot-Harry and I, may have had our differences in the past...but...well... he needs a father. And he needs to learn of his past." Severus clenched his fists, as though the very words seared his throat. "And I wouldliketomakeamendstohim... "

The Headmaster's eyes twinkled fiercely. "I empathize with your need to nurture Harry, in a manner he has been deprived of for so long, but it is too dangerous. Voldemort would undoubtedly attack..."

"We'll only remain there for a few days, Headmaster." Severus said softly. "And it is not likely that the Dark Lord will feel up to causing trouble any time soon..."

"Why do you say that?"

"Because I purposely botched his healing potions." Severus said, his sneer looking suspiciously like an amused smile. At the headmaster's perplexed expression, Severus elaborated. "You see, ordinary healing potions are species specific, meaning those meant for humans work best on humans and those meant for other creatures work best on the creature it was created for. Ever since the Dark Lord's resurrection, he hasn't been fully human so I've had to tailor his healing potions to suit his physiology."

"And you purposely made those potions meant for him to underperform?" Albus asked, his eyes twinkling.

"They perform about as well as muggle analgesics. It will relieve his pain, but beyond that, the potion will not mend his tissues significantly, and will not help him regain much of his strength. The Pepper up draught will marginally help in that respect, but with his body left to heal basically on its own, he is not likely to feel well enough to plan many raids for at least another week or two. " Severus' eyes glittered. "The Dark Lord thinks that I haven't yet perfected his healing potions!"

"He should know better, since you are among the best, if not the best, potions master in the entire UK." Albus replied. "Although I dare say, it is no less than Voldemort deserves for torturing you and countless others with similar potions."

"I always tell him that I'm working on it, and will soon perfect the healing potion for him," Severus said, smiling deviously now. "But I don't plan on brewing a perfect healing potion for him in the near future... "

Severus was every bit the Slytherin he had been ever since he was sorted into that house so long ago.

"Very well, Severus. Harry may accompany you back to Snape manor. However you must allow Filius, Remus, Minerva and I to go with you initially to help assure the safety of the wards, and make adjustments where necessary."

"Agreed." Severus said without emotion. "If you'll excuse me, Headmaster. I need to refresh the potions stores for the Madam Pomfrey."

Although Severus stormed all the way back to the dungeons, forcing anyone who passed him in the hall to step aside, his heart felt lighter than it had in months. Whether it was because he had come to terms with some aspects of his past, or because he found his little angel again, or because he had died and had come back, or because the de-aged Harry gave Severus the opportunity to recapture some of the experiences that would have otherwise been lost to him, or whether it was a conglomeration of all these things, Severus could not ascertain. All he knew was that his heart felt just a little lighter.

End Part Twenty