Remembrance and Renewal by Nigel Tatsuya and Avatar Arkmage
Chapter Twenty-Six: Another Preborn Angel

"KASE!" Voldemort summoned from his bed."More healing draught!"

A very battered interim potions master emerged from the labs, and dragged his feet across the floor to the Dark Lord's bedside. "H-h-ere... sir." Broken from too many sessions under the Cruciatus curse, Justin's body faltered and convulsed violently. His speech was nearly incomprehensible, and his eyes ill focussed, as he handed Voldemort a phial of the special healing draught.

The Dark Lord swallowed it quickly, and within minutes could move without nearly as much pain. Severus's potions always worked rapidly and worked well. It was curious though, Voldemort's wounds were not disappearing as quickly as they ought, considering that he had already ingested so many doses of the healing potion. "How much more of this draught is left?"

"E-e-nough f-or nearly two week-s-s, my lord." Kase gasped. "Th-three if you use the more potions sparingly."

"I will not!" The Dark Lord said, holding his wand dangerously close to Kase's face. "You will continue to work at duplicating this potion! If you cannot brew more within the next hour, you will once again feel the Cruciatus curse!"

Although the interim potions master was a grown man, he broke down in sobs at the prospect of yet more torture. He had been allowed very little sleep since the day he had replaced Severus Snape in Voldemort's service, and endured several torture sessions each day. Some days, he was subjected to as many as seven sessions of the Cruciatus curse, which was more than even Wormtail received.

Voldemort's healing potion was one of the most complex healing draughts he had ever attempted to replicate. Despite the fact that Severus typically wrote all of the formulations and methods of preparation in his immaculate handwriting on tomes in the labs, Justin found that he could not brew the Custom Healing Draught for Voldemort correctly. Only the best potion masters could get the timing and subtle preparation method perfect.

As the dull pain from his unhealed wounds bore throughout his body, Voldemort truly regretted wounding Severus Snape so gravely. In truth, he would have enjoyed killing the traitor outright, but realized that he could not. Severus was just too proficient. His death would be an utter waste.

Fifty-five minutes later, Kase ruined yet another potion. He hastily attempted to discard it, and begin another batch, but the Dark Lord hobbled into the laboratory.

"Oh! No, please! Oh no!"

Kase's screams echoed throughout the mansion in the ensuing moments.


"Father?" Harry began, leaning into his father's blonde haired head as they made their way down the pavement along a busy muggle street. "Since we're in muggle London, can we go and visit someone?"

"A muggle friend?"

"No...no, actually it's a wizard friend. Well, not a friend really...but..."

"You would visit An unfriendly wizard? Ill-advised!"

"It's Draco Malfoy."

"Draco Malfoy?" Severus echoed in disbelief. "I would have thought you would prefer to sit in cages with Hagrid's dangerous creatures than talk to one another. "

"Well," Harry said, shifting on his father's shoulder slightly, "we don't get on at all. I still don't like him very much, and he probably hates me."

"Then why..?"

"... when I looked like you in that muggle hospital, and Draco really thought I was you, he was quite different. It was almost as though he needed me, well needed you really. I felt almost bad to leave him there in that state. Before I left the hospital, I did say I would bring him some candies whilst he was at the muggle hospital."

Severus turned his head so quickly that his sandy blonde wig shifted on his head. "And you intended to venture into muggle London as me once more?"

Harry blushed, his face betraying his guilt. "Well...yes, I didn't quite work out how I would do that though, I'm too little to be you now, and any magical potions would kill me besides."

"Hmrph!"

"So can we please visit with Draco, father? He's probably expecting you to turn up..."

"Why did you tell him you, or rather, I would...?"

"Muggle hospitals can be a frightful place to be. I didn't know what else to say to comfort him." Harry swallowed hard. "Because they can't use magic, they have to use knives! And needles! The healers probably cut Draco open with their knives, sorted him out, then sewed him together again. And then, what if they sewed him up with bandaging material still inside..?"

"Enough!" Try, though he did, Severus found that he could not be angry at his son. Harry was concerned about the well being of another, and because of the youth's graphic descriptions, Severus now feared for Draco's very life. "Very well, we shall purchase confections for Draco this afternoon. But first, we must meet with Headmaster Dumbledore and the others."

"I wonder if they'll wear Town People disguises again?"

"I believe so," Severus replied, readjusting his blonde wig and putting on his biker's hat once more. "It would appear rather odd if a biker is walking about with a group of robed people."


Because the exchange rate of wizard currency to muggle money was favourable, Albus and Minerva suggested they discuss matters over a meal at McDumbells. No one, not even Severus, could easily refuse, for they enjoyed the fried potatoes and fizzy drinks greatly.

"I've got some special seeds from my son." YiChung said, taking a long drink of his cola. "If we plant these around the perimeter of your property, they will emit spores that will enhance the effectiveness of the wards, as well as repel muggles with a very dank smell. You do have a garden time turner system do you not?"

"I shall have to set it up once more." Severus replied, taking a bite of his cheeseburger. "But yes, the seeds will be planted as soon as possible. By morning tomorrow the plants will be thriving."

Remus put down his fish burger. He was about to tell Severus about the spell which would lead people to believe that the property was guarded by a pack of particularly vicious wolf/dog hybrids, when a group of bikers rode toward the McDumbells drive through window and ordered their lunches. As before, when they left with their orders, they all turned to Severus and said: "BYE DOUCHEBAG!"

"Right then, now I am rather curious. What exactly is a dooshbag?" Severus asked to no one in particular.

"I dunno." Harry stated.

Minerva shrugged. "I've heard those people on the eccelectric transport devices call you a dushbag more than once, Severus. Perhaps it is nothing more than mistaken identity. Perhaps this Dushbag fellow is one of their mates, and you bear a resemblance to him."

"Perhaps so," Filius nodded. "It must be an uncommon surname though. I have met no one with the surname Doushbag."

"Perhaps it is not a name, but a thing or an animal?" Remus suggested. "Maybe it is in reference to the hide jacket Severus wears as a muggle?"

"I think Dooshebags are something else entirely," Harry speculated. "It might be something they carry dooshes in, and they carry it in leather bags?"

"Then what the devil is a dooshe?" Severus asked in exasperation. "An animal? A plant? A type of cured animal hide? A chap on an eccelectric transport device?"

"As it must be a muggle item of some sort, perhaps asking a muggle would be the best course of action?" Albus deduced.

"Oh! Then I'll ask Hermione!" Harry offered. "She's a muggle, and she's really smart. If it's a name, then maybe she knows someone named Dooshebag, and if it's a thing, well, she can tell me what it is exactly. And then, I can tell you what a doushbag is when I find out."

All expressed interest at the prospect of Hermione's answer, as they finished their meal.


Arthur Weasley retreated to his makeshift 'garage.' Sometimes, with all the children home for the summer, the Burrow would become rather noisy, and Arthur would seek refuge in this place for a while, letting his muggle electronics collection offer him solace.

Of late, he was drawn to this place for a much more pressing matter.

"Papa?" came a soft voice.

"You're awake!" Arthur made his way over to the antiquated crib, and gazed upon the child swaddled in homespun blankets within, with the same affection that he had bestowed upon all seven of his own children.

The little girl, who Arthur had rescued from under a pile of rubble at the destroyed train station at Hogsteader, had healed quickly under his intensive nurturing. Along with others in the muggle relations department, Arthur had searched for the girl's parents, only to find them both dead beneath the wreckage not far from where the girl had been found. A search for other living relatives yielded nothing, and Perkins finally instructed Arthur to leave the girl at a muggle hospital where she could receive the treatment she needed, and the muggle social services could care for her afterwards.

That was one order with which Arthur Weasley could not comply. He had ambled past the hospital at least six times, but in the end, returned home with the little girl still in his arms.

"How are you feeling?" Arthur asked the toddler.

"My head hurts." The child, who reminded Arthur so much of his own daughter Ginny, replied. "Can you make me better with your magic wand?"

"Of course!" Arthur said, casting a healing charm to the girl's head.

Whether it was the magic, or if it was because young children, muggle and otherwise believed in magic, the pain subsided and the girl treated Arthur to a broad smile.

"Do you remember anything?" Arthur asked after handing the child a glass of milk and a sandwich he had smuggled from the kitchen when Molly wasn't looking. "Do you remember your name?"

The girl only stared blankly at Arthur, her mouth bulging with the sandwich.

"Well I don't know what to call you," Arthur lamented, leaning onto the railing of the crib.

"Hey Dad," Ron said, looking from the doorway into the highly disordered room. "I wanted to talk to you, are you busy?"

Arthur quickly stepped in front of the toddler, but not before Ron saw what his father was trying to hide.

"Whoah!" Ron said, running around his father and peering into the crib. "Who is that?"


After returning to Snape Manor with Albus, YiChung, Minerva and Remus, Severus informed the others that he had a few errands to run with Harry back in town.

"We will commence work on the wards." Minerva said, gazing over the perimeter of the well maintained grounds. "Many of the modifications will be in place by the time you return."

"Should you need anything beforehand, inform Rastus." Severus said.

Rastus nodded and skipped after YiChung, who was already magically tilling the ground next to the barriers separating the muggle street from Snape Manor. Harry watched in awe as Rastus quickly pointed at the ground and conjured what looked like the phosphorescent ghosts of the gardening tools he would require. Without moving his wrists, the ghostly picks began breaking up the soil and the rakes began clearing debris and uprooting the grass. Rastus mounted one of the shovels, whilst still directing the tools as though he were leading an orchestra, and began digging so fast that he seemed to be hopping on a muggle pogo stick.

"Come along, Harry. There is something I must show you." Severus took Harry back into the manor and down a flight of stairs hidden under the bed in one of the unoccupied bedrooms. The stairs lead to an entirely underground area of Snape Manor. "You will need to know how to get into our vault." was the only explanation Severus offered.

Severus led Harry into one of the darkest parts of the lowest level of the mansion. When they reached a washroom at the end of a long corridor, Severus walked up to the marbled wall and showed Harry a series of wand motions and incantations. After that, Severus pulled a loose tile from the floor and inserted it into what appeared to be a solid part of the wall. Harry took a few steps back as the wall rumbled and slid open, revealing great stacks of both wizarding and muggle currencies stored in the cave-like chambers.

"This vault extends to the underground floor of the original Snape manor." Severus said, looking almost wistfully into the cavernous room.

"The original Snape Manor?" Harry repeated.

"There are wards in place that will not allow anyone to enter the original Snape Manor." Severus warned. "Likewise, there are wards in place that will prevent any...THING from the original Snape Manor from gaining entrance to this side."

"But what THING from Snape Manor One could gain entrance to this side?" Harry asked, his interest piqued.

"That is not your concern!" Severus snarled, effectively silencing any other questions Harry had on his lips.

"In addition," Severus said, moving through the stacks of currency, "should you ever require it, this vault can also serve as a shelter."

"Shelter?"

"Yes, should the side of the light be defeated, or if the muggles use their destructive weapons in this area, or if you need to go into hiding for any reason, this vault can shield you and your progeny, even if both Snape manors collapse. The wards should keep this room from being destroyed." Severus said flatly. He walked over to a pile of bronze knuts and lifted a few stacks away, revealing cabinets all along the wall behind it. Severus opened one, and showed Harry the satchels of grains, dehydrated fruits and meats, bottles of drinks, jars of preserved vegetables, jellies and fruits, burlap bags of flours, hardtack breads and all sorts of other things Harry couldn't readily identify. "The cabinets keep its contents fresh, or in the same preserved states as they were when the items were first placed within them. You and your progeny can stay here for months, should you need to."

Harry moved closer to Severus and leaned into his side. The room was so far beneath the ground that it was just as cold as the dungeons in Hogwarts. But Harry's soul had grown exponentially colder at Severus's last statement. "Father? What do you mean by you and your progeny?'" Severus planned to gloss over it, but was rendered silent by the sight of Harry's quivering lower lip. Evidently, it was a trait Harry had inherited from Severus, whose own lip trembled in just that way when he was greatly distressed. Severus was further appalled when Harry creased his brows in precisely the way he had seen Lily do on many occasions.

"You're telling me this..." Harry took several short breaths before continuing, "...because you know you won't be with me much longer, am I right?" Harry buried his face in his father's abdomen. "You'll be killed? You'll be killed, just like all the other people I've ever loved?"

"Harry...I"

"Well I won't go into hiding!" Harry said with more defiance in his cadence than he ever dared use towards Severus in his teenaged form. "I'm going to make sure you stay alive."

"But..."

"JUST don't say it! Don't say it because you think it's what I want to hear!" Harry wailed in that tone that Severus could absolutely not stand. "I love you, father! I really love you. You and grandmum are all I have left in this whole world, and..." Harry squeezed his eyes closed, the tears coursing down his cheeks in undisciplined queues "...and if you're killed, I'm going straight to Voldemort and I'll beg him to kill me too!"

"HARRY! I will not allow you to..."

"NO!" Harry jumped up, clutched Severus's collar and pulled him into a kneeling position with the help of inertia and his own weight. "If Mouldyshorts kills you, I'm going to go straight to him and order him to kill me too. And if he doesn't, I'm going to anger him so that he'll want to kill me. And if he still won't, I'll challenge him to a duel...and I'll lose on purpose." Harry took his father's hand in his own and moved it over his heart. "Better he makes me die, because my heart will die if you're gone!"

Severus's legs gave out, causing him to fall into a sitting position on the marble floor. Harry crawled onto his sire's lap and wrapped his arms so tightly around Severus's chest that he could not inhale fully. "Don't leave me, father. Please! Please don't ever leave me!" Harry bawled into Severus's neck. "I love you so much, father! You called me an angel so many years ago... You may have learned to live with an angel for a son... but I don't want to have only an angel for a father! Don't ask me to accept an angel for a father! It was difficult as it was to accept Lily and James Potter as only angel parents."

"People think I'm so brave!" Harry clung tighter to Severus. "But I'm not so brave! People think I've coped well with only ghosts for parents. Even Hermione and Ron don't understand! They can't know how it feels to lose your parents, because they both have their parents. And...when Sirius...when I learned Sirius was my godfather... I was so happy!" Harry swallowed hard and sniffled before continuing. "And only a short time later...he... he..."

Severus wrapped his arms around Harry, wishing that he knew how to soothe his tormented child. He had little experience in comforting another, let alone one who had been through as much as Harry had in his short life. Severus began to contemplate brewing a tranquillizer for Harry, then berated himself immediately for even thinking of such a thing. A tranquillizer would only minimize the symptoms, not the problem itself. "...OH SIRIUS! MOTHER! DAD! SIRIUS!"

Even though the mention of his former rivals with his lover had stirred animosity within Severus in the past, he felt not a vestige of it now. He found himself actually grieving in tandem with Harry. Did Harry really feel things so acutely, or was he only having trouble coping because he was a child? Or was he suffering as much, if not more, as a sixteen year old and was only being more expressive of it now because he was child?

"And..." Harry whimpered. "And what about Cedric's parents? I know it's hard to lose a parent...but how is it for Cedric's parents? What is it like to lose your child?"

Although Severus knew he was supposed to be trying to comfort Harry, he felt the beginnings of tears in his own eyes. He knew just how hard it had been to lose a child. All those years of wondering what could have been. Always wondering what could have been done differently. The sight of another man with a child around Harry's age, aching more sharply than a venomous fang thrust directly through the heart...would his own death force his son away from him again? After knowing him for only a short time.

Harry and Severus's time together had been a cool breeze through their hair in the fiery hell that had been their lives.

"Ron and Hermione only thought I was being a grouchy git!" Little Harry said with a scowl that looked unnatural on a child's face. "They couldn't understand... I watched Cedric die, and people think I've coped well with his death, as well as with all the other deaths I've experienced." Harry pressed his face into Severus's chest. "But I haven't! People see only what they want to see! I'm not all brave and I still haven't fully accepted Lily and James being only angel parents. I am still angry that Sirius is only an angel godfather The mirror of Erised showed me that the greatest desire of my heart was having a real family. Like people all around me do." Harry's voice faded to a whisper, although to Severus, Harry's words reverberated as though he had been shouting. "Don't ask me to accept that you, my only family, will be gone soon as well!" Harry grasped the ends of Severus's hair and tugged hard on them. "I want to plant a tree before I return to being a sixteen year old boy, and I want you to live long enough to see that tree grow higher than the tallest arch of Snape Manor II's roof! I want you to stay flesh until I can fill Snape Manor II with more children than even Mr. Weasley has. I want you to live long enough for all my children to look at you and say that's my granddad and he's the best granddad in the whole world!'"

Harry could not continue. His wracking sobs had all but usurped control of his vocal processes. He still had not released Severus's hair, and clung to the locks as though he were hanging precariously over a chasm of oblivion.

Just beyond the stack of galleons directly behind Harry, Severus thought he saw the dim figure of a little girl, just a little younger than Harry was at the moment. The little girl had bright green, bespectacled, almond-shaped eyes, and an aquiline nose that seemed just a little too large for her small face. Although her glossy, raven hair was fastened neatly in jewelled ponytail holders, the ends revolted and spiked in every direction but the way it should have. She looked very much like the angelic version of Harry!

The little girl apparition walked right through the stack of galleons and pointed to Severus. Although Severus could not hear her, he read her mouth movements and deciphered the words: "that's my granddad, and he's the best granddad in the whole world!"

She had been listening!

It wasn't until the little girl faded away, that Severus realized he had just met another preborn spirit.

His own granddaughter.

Severus stared silently toward the now very empty space near the stack of gold galleons, and wondered how long it would be before the little girl joined them in the world of the living. If she was to join them in the same time at all. He kept gazing in that direction, wondering if the girl would appear again. He could not understand why, but he wanted just one more glance at her. No, he wanted her to stay. Perhaps she was still there, invisible. Watching.

"There was such peace in your eyes." Severus mouthed. "Were you born in a time after the Dark Lord was vanquished? Were you raised away from the magical world altogether? Did your eyes never see the violence your...your father and I have. Did your heart never know the dissension of war?"

The empty space remained so.

"Do you even exist on the same timeline we walk?" Severus continued mouthing toward the darkness, feeling a longing he had not thought himself capable of. "Or do you exist on an entirely different plane? A different reality where...where perhaps Lily had not died? A reality where I hadn't been forced to take the dark mark? Did you know your grandmother Lily, whose eyes you have inherited? Did the Dark Lord ever rise to power again? Do your father and I walk a path which you will not? Are we destined to ever meet?"

The questions grew exponentially. From what Harry had told him, spirits existed unencumbered by timelines. Could a spirit not only jump to different points on the same timeline but literally jump from one timeline to another? Would this child ever exist on the same plane as Harry and Severus now did?

Severus absently stroked Harry's hair as the boy continued to sob into his chest. Harry had been entirely unaware of the presence that had joined them for but a fleeting moment. Hopefully, Harry would have the opportunity to raise that lovely daughter to never lose the look of peace in her eyes.

"I pray that I am not also a spirit when we next meet." Severus said silently, turning his attention back to Harry. Although Harry wasn't crying as fervently as he had been a few minutes ago, he was still trembling intensely. Severus still did not know what he could do for Harry. The boy was already so badly affected by death. Would Severus's own death break the last tenuous strand of the boy's soul?

Was it a mistake to let the boy grow so close to him? Why did he allow Harry cling to him in the first place? Better he had just continued being a snarky git to Harry, and have the boy hate him. It was far simpler to have Harry hate him, after all. Why didn't he just continue to push Harry away in the first place?

A voice deep within his own mind answered. "Because you've never stopped loving your little green eyed angel."


"Let us go," Severus said when Harry's whimpering finally subsided. He stood abruptly and lifted Harry to his feet. "We must go back to muggle London."

"What are we going to do there?"

"Did you not say you wanted to give Draco Malfoy some muggle confections? We cannot acquire those things here." Severus said, closing the storage cabinet. "And whilst there, we must also purchase some new clothes for you."

"New clothes?"

"Surely you do not enjoy wearing cast-off rags from your cousin? Or my shrunken clothes for that matter." Severus retorted, motioning to the empty buttonholes by Harry's collar. "You can barely button my white shirts and frock coats properly."

Harry dashed away the remnants of his tears and took his father's hand. "Father." Harry said. "May we go to Gringott's bank?"

"Whatever for?"

"Since I'll have to buy new clothes and stuff..."Harry began. "I'll need to go to my vault and..."

"As long as I am still living, I will provide for you. You may use what Lily and James left for you when..."

"When what?" Harry asked, dreading what Severus was sure to say.

"...at a later time." Severus said, as he filled purses for both Harry and for himself. "Do not forget how to enter the vault. It is useful for..." Severus stopped abruptly, as though choosing his words with caution. "..when you cannot make the trip to Gringott's. We have a vault there as well, should you need it. I will take you there another day."


Once in muggle London, they went to a sweet shop. Since Severus was unfamiliar with almost everything there, he followed Harry around the store and watched him pick out various confections. Severus then selected more of each item he saw Harry gathering. It would be a good idea to keep sweets at Snape Manor both for when sweet-toothed people like Albus came visiting, and when they wanted sweets themselves. He was very fond of those muggle chocolate bars with crispy rice inside.

Seeing that Severus was only selecting items that he observed Harry choosing first, Harry laughed inwardly to himself. This would be fun! Harry went over to the display of Super Lemon candies, which were basically like sherbet lemons, but were so sour on the outside that only people with iron tongues could eat them. They were even more sour than actual lemons!

"AAAAAAY!" shrieked the young storekeeper at the sight of the biker and his son approaching the counter. Severus concluded that the storekeeper was looking at the amount of candy they were purchasing and was imagining the high cost of getting artificial teeth once their real teeth fell out. "Not to worry," Severus said as he paid for the candies. "We weren't planning to eat all the confections at once."

After leaving the sweet shop, Severus turned down a dark alley and shrunk the bags of candy before putting them in one of his leather biker jacket's many pockets.

Harry deliberately slowed his already languid pace, and fell an even greater distance behind Severus on the busy London pavement. As he anticipated, Severus doubled back after a while and lifted Harry onto his shoulder. It wasn't really that Harry found it too daunting a task to keep up with his father's long strides, so much as he merely enjoyed the close contact that came with being carried high upon his father's shoulders, not to mention the view of the street over other people's heads.

Harry grinned inwardly. He knew just how to make Severus do exactly what he wanted. He loved being carried, and knew that walking slower than normal was a sure way to earn a blessed ride on his father's shoulders. Severus entered a clothing store and set Harry down in the children's section. "Select whatever you wish to wear," Severus instructed.

Not wanting to appear spoilt, Harry headed straight for the reduced price rack and picked out a few items he wanted to try on.

Severus exhaled heavily and led Harry to the higher priced garment racks, and told him that he did not wish the boy to look like a pauper. Harry was no longer sure of his size, and was forced to try on items of many sizes before he found the one that would fit him. Severus then brought Harry more garments in that particular size to try on.

When Harry finally emerged from the dressing rooms, he found that Severus had literally every item he could find in Harry's size, including a stack of underwear with stationary cartoon cats on it, hats and shoes, and was headed for the clerk. Although Severus vowed that he would not spoil Harry, he found it extremely difficult not to dote on him. And why not? He had missed out on sixteen years worth of doting, after all. And Harry needed new clothes didn't he?

"YAAAAH!" screeched the young clerk, who was, like sweet shop storekeeper had been, intimidated by Severus' appearance. "Just take it! Don't kill me!"

"Do not flatter yourself. I have no intention of killing you." Severus could not understand the clerk's curious behaviours. Surely he did not look THAT scary! Not even a first year was that terrified by his appearance. He handed the register drawer, that the clerk had thrust at him, back and waited for the clerk to total their purchases on that curious muggle accounting machine. The clerk finally did so, looking nervously at Severus all the while.

More out of habit, rather than for protection, Hermione followed her parents to the hospital each day while they worked. With the exception of the Death Eater raids which occurred a few weeks ago, the magical world had been quiet during the summer, and Hermione enjoyed spending her days studying in the medical library. After studying for the entire morning, Hermione shelved some of the books she had been reading and walked out of the library with her nose in one of the books she had borrowed.

She normally joined her parents in the cafeteria for lunch, and was a few minutes late. She hopped into the lift and keyed the floor to the cafeteria. The lift stopped on the paediatrics ward and Hermione, with her attention fully on the book in her hand, stepped aside to allow room for a nurse wheeling a fair haired patient to come aboard.

"Granger!" Draco, who was being wheeled to the maxillofacial surgery ward to visit his father, sneered.

"Malfoy!" Hermione said, looking up in surprise. Once again, she wondered what was Draco Malfoy, quite possibly the most prejudiced boy in her year, doing in a muggle hospital. Sure, St. Mungos was still quite full due to the raids, but surely Mrs. Malfoy would have done everything in her power to get her only child out of a muggle hospital as quickly as possible. She'd probably stop at nothing, even resorting to threats or bribery, if need be, to get Draco out of the hands of muggle physicians. Unable to contain her curiosity, Hermione turned once more to Draco. "What are you doing here anyway?"

"None of your business, you filthy mu..." Draco stopped. "...uh girl!" Hermione stomped out the lift when it arrived on the floor to the cafeteria. Something was definitely amiss with Draco being in a muggle hospital. As Hermione ate with Dr. and Dr. Granger, she decided she would not return to the library after lunch to study, but would covertly investigate Draco's movements. She knew Draco, in all likelihood, was staying in the paediatrics ward since he was still a minor...but where was he going today? Weren't they headed for the maxillofacial surgery level? As there appeared to be nothing wrong with Draco's mouth or jaw, his skill at hurling insults was obviously in tact, he must have been going there to see some one. But who could it be?

"So," Hermione's father said, putting some of his tapioca pudding in her plate. "What are you going to do this afternoon? Going to the mall?"

"No, dad." Hermione replied, taking another bite of her vegetarian burger. "I'm going to do more studying."

"Really dearest," Hermione's mother said, looking concerned as she ate another forkfull of green beans. "Don't you have friends you'd rather spend the day with? It's great that you love to study, but when I was your age, I used to have a lot of friends I'd enjoy going to parties or shopping with."

"I've got friends!" Hermione protested, thinking of Ron and Harry.

"Well do invite them over for dinner or a slumber party some time," Hermione's father said, sharing his wife's concern over his daughter's apparent lack of friends.

"I will," Hermione said, " but for today, I'll be doing more studying." Studying Draco's movements, that is.


"Father," Harry began, leaning into Severus' biker hat and whispering into his ear. "Not that I'm not grateful or anything, but why did you buy me so much clothes? I'm only gonna stay little for one or two weeks more."

"So change your clothes several times a day then!" Severus retorted, not wanting to admit that he had bought Harry all that clothing for no other reason than he really wanted to. "And when you return to your original size, you can enlarge the some of the items and still wear them."

"True," Harry concurred. He really liked some of the slacks and shirts Severus had selected for him, and it would be a shame if he had to go back to wearing Dudley's old hand-me-downs when he returned to his former size.

"Father?"

"WHAT?"

"Thank you for buying me those cat undercrackers." Harry said, grinning hugely.

"Well you needed undergarments." Severus said dismissively.

"Ever since I saw Cho's cat undercrackers, I've been wanting to wear some just like it." Harry said. "You think we can use spells to make the cats interact with us when the Interventio Interferous potion is out of my body? I think animated underwear is cool! And I wanna wear smalls just like Cho's."

"What were you doing, perusing Miss Chang's animated cat knickers?" Severus asked.

"Animated cat knickers? Ohhhhh! So you were looking at them too, weren't you?" Harry countered.

"I most certainly was not!" Severus said, turning his head so fast toward Harry that his blond wig went crooked.

"Yes you were!" Harry rebutted, finding the red colouration on his father's face amusing. "You said animated cat knickers,' I didn't say that, so you must have been looking at Cho's undies too!"

"Uh...well of course I had no choice but to do so, she was right in front of me when...OH NEVERMIND!" Harry decided it better not to chance his father's enmity at this point. It was amusing to watch him try to explain his way out of the situation. So the dour Professor Snape looked at a girl's knickers, however unintentionally or intentionally. And why not? Harry reasoned. They were bloody cute undies on a bloody cute girl! Yes, even in his de-aged state he thought Cho was a cute friend. Harry could hardly wait until he could wear animated cat undies of his own.

End Part Twenty Six