Remembrance and Renewal by Avatar Arkmage and Nigel Tatsuya
Chapter Thirty-One: Starting Near the End

"We have methods for extracting the information we require." the ministry inquisitor shouted at the pale,severely crippled man. When Lucius Malfoy, who was bound unnecessarily to an iron chair, just stared at his captors, another drop of Veritiserum was dropped on his tongue.

"No! Stop!" Draco exclaimed, wanting to go to his father, but finding himself frozen to the spot. "He can't answer you, much less speak, in case you wastes of space are stupid as well as unobservant!"

No one in the cavernous room, which was illuminated only by magical sconces along the flagstone wall, seemed to hear. They seemed to not be aware of Draco's presence at all.

Exasperated, the inquisitor took a step closer to the white-blonde haired man and slapped him across the face.

"Hold on, you can't do that!" Draco admonished. "He's a Malfoy, you worthless bampots!

"You think just because you're a Malfoy you can manipulate your way out of any situation without consequence?" One of the other inquisitors stepped forward and put his face just inches away from Lucius's face.

Despite being clad only in scratchy, grey prisoner's attire, Lucius Malfoy managed to stubbornly hold an aristocratic air about him. "You think you can bribe everyone? You think you can buy people's silence with just a few galleons? Well, we shall tolerate your seditious ways no longer!"

The group of inquisitors backed away, allowing three shadowy figures dressed in tattered robes to take their place in front of Lucius. Draco shivered as the ambient temperature of the room dropped, and despair enveloped him. "DEMENTORS? You can't! You can't!"

Lucius screamed through his still wired jaws and struggled against the ropes binding him to the chair. One of the inquisitors drew his wand and transfigured the smooth surface of Lucius's chair into spikes, causing the already shrieking man to shriek in agony.

"NOOOOOOOOOOO!!" Draco screamed, bearing every facet of his sire's pain like so many shards of a broken crystal.

His surroundings immediately changed, and Draco found himself standing just outside of Malfoy Manor. "What are you doing?! Those are mother's things!"

The Aurors ignored Draco, and continued searching through even the ornaments Narcissa had purchased for the gardens of Malfoy Manor. Several Aurors walked out of the great mansion with all varieties of Dark Arts objects and anything of monetary value.

"What are you louts doing?!" Draco shouted. "Those belong to us!"

"It's a shame." One of the young ministry employees remarked. "Even with the sale of the Malfoy's assets, there will be no way to pay restitutions to all the victims of this family's shady dealings."

"Especially to those who lost family and friends to these gilded criminals." Another auror commented. "I always knew the Malfoys were a bad lot. Thank goodness their activities with He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named were exposed. Who knows how many more innocents would have been injured or killed."

"Stop!" Draco shouted, both feeling guilty about the innocent victims and horrified at the same time by the ministry ransacking the only place he knew as home. "Those are my paintings! My Quidditch gear! My golden chess set!"

The pale boy lunged at the auror who was carrying off several of Draco's finest robes. The auror seemed unfazed and continued to load the items into a trunk. When Draco attempted to retrieve his robes from the trunk, the auror pulled the fine robes Draco was dressed in right off of his body, all while seeming to not see Draco at all.

"How am I supposed to LIVE!?" Draco screamed as the aurors and ministry employees apparated away with all of the confiscated items, leaving him destitute, sitting on the walkway wearing nothing more than his underclothes.

"What's the matter, Draco?" came Harry Snape's voice.

The surroundings faded once more, and Draco found himself seated on the floor in Snape's chambers, still clad only in his underclothes. Harry Snape moved closer, holding out a tin of muggle fizzy drink to him. Draco did not know what to say to the little boy and accepted the tin from the thoughtful child. "You must be cold." Harry commented as he wrapped Draco in a child's blanket, which was printed with animated bludgers and quaffles.

"You don't look well. What's wrong?" Harry asked, helping Draco over to the sofa.

Feeling comforted by the young boy, Draco was about to give him a simplified account of what had transpired, when little Harry Snape morphed into his accursed classmate Harry Potter.

"Potter!" Draco shouted, enraged. "You were the one who started all of this! You had to open your big mouth and tell the ministry on my father! Well I have nothing to lose, Potter! You'll pay!" Draco punched the other boy first across one cheek and then the other. He then pinned Potter to the sofa and proceeded to choke him, taking great pleasure in the feel of the structures in Potter's scrawny neck yielding. Harry Potter morphed back into Harry Snape once more. "UUWAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!" the little boy cried as best he could without an adequate supply of oxygen. "Daddy daddy!!"

"DRACO! WHAT ARE YOU DOING TO MY SON?" Snape bellowed.

Draco sat up in his hospital bed heaving dryly. It took several minutes for him to wake fully, and several more minutes before his breathing returned to normal.

"Draco!" Nurse Asphault charged into the room with Dr. Gasket close behind. "Are you all right?"

"Good Heavens! We could hear you shouting in the hallway." Dr. Gasket commented, assessing Draco. "What ever is the matter?"

"I'm fine." Draco drawled. "I just had a nightmare."

"Would you like something to help you sleep?"

"No thank you, I think I can go back to sleep on my own." Draco forced a yawn. "I'm really tired."

"Very well, good night then," the two women said as they replaced the blankets on the youth and left the room. Draco lay in bed thinking on the strange dream he had had. He knew he would in all likelihood not be able to sleep that night, with Mudblood Granger's ratting out his father's location, and the ministry wasting no time in apprehending him, Draco's mind was far too full too allow him to rest.

He also was deeply disturbed by the dream. What if the ministry did raid Malfoy Manor and seize their wealth? And what of Uncle Severus's son Harry? What was his connection, if any, to Harry Potter? Why did Harry Snape turn into Harry Potter and then back again?

What if the ministry were already planning to raid Malfoy Manor? Draco sat up. With the novelty of the muggle hospital expended, Draco wanted to go home more than anything else. He had to go home. He would escape the hospital as soon as he could walk a bit better. No, it would be better if he could run rather than walk. Draco sat up in bed and began planning the best route out of the hospital in his mind.


Severus and Harry spent the days that followed in seclusion, not leaving Snape Manor's grounds for any reason. Although Harry still wondered how Draco was faring, he knew that staying hidden was the best course of action for both father and himself for the moment.

The ministry would be watching the muggle hospital intently now, and aurors were likely patrolling the streets of muggle London .

Except for the fact that he longed to visit his Grandmother, who was still in the spell damage ward of St. Mungos, Harry didn't really mind this self imposed confinement. In fact, he greatly enjoyed spending his days simply staying close to his father, who no longer shrank from his close proximity or touch. Severus even seemed to revel in the many opportunities to teach, and Harry's seemingly boundless enthusiasm to learn.

Since the day Severus had completely broken down, or as Harry had put it, 'crying loads to make up for all the years he didn't cry even though he was so very sad,' the bond between father and son grew exponentially, becoming something nearly indomitable and unbreakable. Like a true six year old, Harry loved Severus without condition, and not even crying in front of him, or on him for that matter, could make Harry think any less of his father.

Initially, Severus cursed himself for being so weak, for adults, especially adult wizards, did not cry did they? Surely Harry might even be ashamed of him for being such a faulty example of an adult. But when Severus mustered the courage to look upon his precious child's face once the worst was over, he saw that Harry had also been crying in silence. The boy had been seeking to offer comfort. Little Harry did not judge. He loved unconditionally. No matter Severus's faults or his past deeds, Harry loved him.

It was only then that Severus finally allowed himself to accept a profound love he had never dared imagine would exist for him alone before. Young children did not typically have very close friends, because they are closest to those who cared for them. They loved their parents wholly. Their parents could be murderous, neglectful, extremely poor or, as Severus was most familiar with, abusive, and yet their children loved them still. Even after those times Lucien had beaten young Severus unconscious, Severus had still loved him; just as Harry loved him without regard for anything that passed had between them before.

For the first time in years, Severus was able to reciprocate in kind. He had never intended to do more than to see to Harry's care and well-being. He certainly hadn't wanted to love the boy as only a parent could love a child, but he did.

How sad that their fates would soon separate them once more. It was only a matter of time before The Dark Lord summoned him to make potions again. Only a matter of time before the Dark Lord would beat, curse or otherwise torture him again; to be sure that the Severus Snape who had once betrayed their cause, would have no further thoughts of doing so in the future for fear of getting worse. Only a matter of time before even he would be broken or damaged beyond hope. Only a matter of time before the Dark Lord found Severus's usefulness expended, and would terminate him. In both the figurative and the literal sense.

"You will always have a home to return to after you destroy the Dark Lord. A home for you and your children when our world is at peace once more." Severus mouthed silently to Harry's sleeping form one night. "The Dark Lord attempted to destroy you, because he believes that you have the power to vanquish him. I share that belief, and I also believe that if there is any justice still in existence in this accursed world, you will emerge the victor."

Harry shifted in his sleep, his tiny, pyjama-clad arm flopping onto Severus's hand. Severus did not pull his hand away and continued to muse in silence. "I regret that I will in all likelihood not live to share in your victory. To live in that world without The Dark Lord." Severus paused to brush some of Harry's long hair away from his angelic face. "But you have your duties and I have mine. The river of your destiny does not run the same course as my own, they will soon diverge."

In his dream, Harry saw a shadowy battleground littered with the corpses of aurors, robed figures with masks, members of the order, and Harry's friends. Standing beside him, looking worse for wear was his beloved father, whose eyes were glazed in death.

"You have your duties, and I have mine." The dream Severus stated to Harry.

"Father!" Harry called, his deep voice, and the fact that he was staring almost eye to eye with his father indicated that he was a young adult once more. "It does not have to be this way. We can both live."

"The river of your destiny follows a different course than my own, it diverges here," was all Severus answered before rushing at Voldemort, potion bottles flying out of his pockets and striking the Dark Lord with the force of hailstones. With the last of his energy reserves, Severus blasted Voldemort with a powerful curse from his wand. "NOW HARRY!! Cast the KILLING curse! Do it Now!!" The Dark Lord shot the undulation curse back at Severus simultaneously, ending the life of the man who had helped give Harry life. The momentum from Severus's gallant rush sent his corpse careening onto the Dark Lord's and exploded on impact.

"NOOOOOOOOOO!!" Harry screamed, his anger and horror so great that his wand trembled in his hand as he cast the Avada Kedavra curse at the Dark Lord. The curse shattered the shield that the Dark Lord had cast in front of him and killed him instantaneously.

"Father!" Harry cried, looking all around him and seeing no signs of life anywhere on the battlefield. He moved to were Voldemort's corpse was and looked for any part of Severus Snape's body, but found only charred scraps of clothing, blood, random chunks of burned flesh and the broken glass of the potion vials. "We could have both lived! You weren't supposed to die! You have no permission to die!"

The dreamlike images changed, and Harry found himself standing beside his friends and mentors on the deck of a small boat which looked as though it had been freshly built. Even the wood of the mast still smelled of the sweet oils used to cure it. Beside Harry's boat was another one built similarly, but its wood was rotting in many places and its sails were tattered and full of gaping holes. On the deck of the wretched boat were James and Lily Potter, Cedric Diggory, Sirius Black and his dear father...Severus Snape.

"Father! Daddy! Mother! Sirius! Cedric!" Harry leaned over and stretched out a hand. "Come! Come over to his boat!"

But none of them reached for his hand. Not even Severus. When Harry leaned even closer, the wretched ship seemed to move away, even further out of his reach. "The river of our destinies diverges here." Severus lamented as their ship veered away down the opposite fork on the river.

Harry climbed up, intending to jump into the river and swim after his family and friends, but he was held back by unseen hands. "Nooo!" Harry screamed, watching the wretched ship disappear into the distance. "Nooo!!'

"Nooo! It doesn't have to be this way!" Harry sat up and grabbed the collar of Severus's cadet blue nightshirt.

Severus blinked in surprise. "What? What doesn't have to be what way?"

"Oh father! I had the most terrible dream." Harry began, his tiny body still shaking as he recounted his 'nightmare' in gross detail.

Severus willed his expression neutral as he listened to his son's words without attaching any true emotions to his reactions. Inwardly, he knew that Harry had been able to somehow hear his thoughts, even though the child had been asleep at the time. "Headmaster Dumbledore told me about the prophecy, and how I'm the one with the power to vanquish the Dark Lord." Harry went on, hugging his father tightly. "But...I want you to promise that you won't do anything to get yourself killed. When we do face Vol-Mouldyshorts, promise me you'll stay at my side, that you won't make a human shield out of yourself just to protect me..."

"Harry, do not concern yourself with matters of that nature now." Severus responded, gently but firmly pushing Harry back onto his pillow. "For the moment, we are safe and we both need sleep. Try to..."

"...Please father." Harry whispered, his large green eyes watering. "If I do fight Volde-Mouldyshorts and I defeat him, I want you to survive too! Victory, well, it's supposed to be good, and people all over the wizarding world will be happy, but it's going to mean so little to me if you're dead. If you're dead, victory is not going to feel any different to me, than if the side of the light lost! Actually I'd rather lose and have you still alive than have you dead whilst we won!"

Severus wracked his brain for a quick course of action, he could not bear to see Harry weep again. "Er...Harry...uh..."

"There is a muggle phrase 'sweet taste of victory' as if victory had a flavour you could taste with your tongue." Harry sniffled. "But it won't taste that way for me if you die, victory is going to taste just like boiling poison!"

"Curious how muggles think," Severus turned the little boy over and started rubbing his back in the hopes it would stop him from crying or that it would at least distract him somehow.

Too late. "It would be better if I died too." Harry said sniffling. "You never were truly free in your life. You live just like a slave. You're human house elf to cruel masters."

"How am I similar to a house elf?" Severus asked

"You have to go to your master whenever he calls." Harry said through clenched teeth. "You have to do what he says! He'll hurt you if you don't obey him or if you make a mistake. He'll beat you if he's merely in a bad mood! It's as though you don't own yourself."

"Harry," Severus decided that pretending to sleep was the only way to have the matter dropped. He lay back and closed his crystal black eyes. "I would like to rest now, for I am weary. We shall discuss this at length later."

Harry nodded and settled back beneath the covers.

Severus rolled over and continued to muse as flatly as he could. Harry could probably sense his emotions more than anything. Of late, Severus thought frequently on the spiritual connection between Harry and himself and how it seemed to have strengthened. Whilst nearly drowning in the Dursley's bath, Harry had somehow called one of Severus's long suppressed memories to the forefront. While Harry wandered the threshold between death and life, Harry's spirit followed Severus through his past, as though they were linked somehow. "I'll always be a part of you," he heard Harry's voice suddenly from somewhere deep in his psyche. "Just as you're a part of me."

'Telepathy?' Severus wondered. Was their spiritual bond not only empathic, but telepathic too? He decided to try something, and formed the words clearly in his mind: "With that reasoning, your victory will be my victory also."

Silence. Only the youth's gentle breathing could be heard, and there were no words mysteriously appearing in Severus's mind. Thinking it was all just a coincidence, Severus sank deeper beneath the blankets and began to clear his mind as any good occlumens would. Just as the last of his wakefulness left him, Severus heard: "Then your death will be my death as well."

Although Snape had originally planned to stay at Snape Manor for only three days or so, he elected to stay until Harry could return to his former age. The break from living in the cold dungeons at Hogwarts was therapeutic and even pleasurable at times for him.

And though he had feared being back at Snape Manor would bring back too many painful memories, there were happy memories past and present there as well.

Harry looked as though he were truly home, like belonged nowhere else but at Snape Manor. Severus noticed that Harry often lacked the preoccupied look he wore at Hogwarts like a part of his uniform, and appeared almost carefree as a young child should. He explored the mansion that would someday be his a little more each day and found every stair, every room and every item within to be filled with endless wonder.

Yes, Severus concluded upon finding Harry sitting on the floor in one of the makeshift labs studying a preserved creature in a jar, Harry looked like he truly belonged in Snape Manor. Harry was a Snape, after all.

Severus was clad in an old pair of his well tailored trousers, and a white shirt which looked as though it had seen a potion accident or two. Father and son made their way out onto the spacious grounds of Snape Manor. Rastus trudged along after them, levitating an entire toolshed's worth of garden tools in front of him.

"We're going to plant things in the garden?" Harry, clad in a bright blue shirtsleeves and shorts set and carrying a child sized rake, asked excitedly. "But won't we have to leave before the plants have time to grow?"

"Have you not observed the gardens near Hagrid's hut?" Severus asked.

"Well I've seen the gardens, but I don't understand. You see, I've always had to maintain the gardens at my Uncle Vernon's house, and it takes a long time for the things I plant to grow. So will you use magic to make the plants grow faster?"

The early August air was already warm, though it was still relatively early in the day. The lawn was lush and had not a single unsightly weed breaking its continuity of the purest green. The trees, which were nicely distributed throughout the lot, were tall and each provided excellent shading. It seemed odd, however, that not a single fallen leaf could be seen beneath any of those trees, and Harry decided that Rastus must have either charmed the trees not to drop leaves, or else he had cleared them himself earlier that morning.

The gentle stream, which traversed the properly, was very clear and provided the soothing background sounds that lulled Harry to sleep each night. Upon closer observation, Harry noticed that large grey boulders were strategically placed around the deepest portion of the stream, forming a swimming area which looked very inviting. Harry was greatly tempted to ask Severus if they might swim in it sometime.

"Are you familiar with the time turner?" Severus asked, choosing an area in the gardens that was still shaded by a giant oak tree. He leaned the tools against the woody trunk and crouched on the grass. He then pulled up a few tufts of grass, then scooped a sample of the soil into a phial, which reacted slightly to the clear liquid inside. "Time turners have been adapted for use in the garden. It is invaluable for when you must have herbs or vegetables in a relatively short amount of time."

Rastus waved his arms, and set the garden tools to work. Like a conductor of a large scale orchestra, Rastus continued to wave his arms, causing ghostly garden tools appear alongside the real ones, and set about their task preparing the ground. The house elf then took his position on a shovel and began digging so rapidly, that Harry predicted he would complete two trenches in the time it would take both Severus and Harry to complete only a quarter of a single trench.

After several minutes, Severus had to stop and watch Harry work. In awe. He would never have envisioned Harry to be so proficient at a seemingly mundane task like gardening. Surely the boy who lived would have found gardening too boring, but no... Harry worked the trowel and rake with about the same precision that Severus wielded lab equipment.

No doubt the proficiency came from many hours of hard labour in his relative's garden. Compared to his incarceration in a tiny cupboard, the hard work, no...slave labour, must have seemed paradise.

In less than two hours, long before the sun had risen high enough to cast its rays fully over the oak tree's highest branches and onto the garden, the herbs and vegetables were all planted neatly in the freshly tilled ground. "You'll have to step away from the garden now." Severus warned. "The levels of magic here will be considerable." After Severus and Rastus poured many vials of potions on the beds, and had irrigated the ground with water from the stream, they pushed what appeared to be hourglasses on little posts into the ground.

"Are those the garden timeturners?" Harry asked, thinking the hourglasses looked like enormous versions of the hourglass he had seen on a chain around Hermione's neck in their third year at Hogwarts.

"Yes Young Snape, these be garden timeturners." The house elf tossed his light brown curls back as he spoke. "When they are all set up we will give them two turns."

"How much time is each turn worth?"

"Roughly seventy-two hours." Severus replied, setting the last turner in the soil and stepping back. When Severus, Harry and Rastus were clear of the beds, Severus drew his wand and turned all the hourglasses two turns simultaneously. A substance resembling fog curled from each of the hourglasses and rose up to meet the 'fog' from the other timeturners, finally coalescing into an almost clear dome over the garden."In three hours, we'll return to the garden to remove the weeds."

"Father, may I stay here for a while?" Harry clambered onto a low branch of the oak tree near the garden. "I want to watch the plants grow. I've never seen a garden with timeturners in it before."

"That is permissible." Severus replied. "I will be in the lab on the second level brewing potions. Stay where I can see you from that window."

"Okay..." Harry did not need to be told to stay put, for he was fascinated by the timeturners at work. He wondered why they hadn't been employed on the mandrakes during their second year at Hogwarts, when the basilisk had petrified Hermione along with other people.

"It is most unfortunate that garden timeturners cannot be used on all types of plants." Severus stated seemingly out of the blue. "A considerable number Magical plants cannot develop their most powerful properties without the normal passage of time. Mandrakes being among them."

Harry smiled to himself. Severus had somehow heard his thoughts once more.

Exhausted from both their work and the rapidly increasing heat, Severus and Rastus walked under the tree and leaned against the sturdy trunk.

Rastus popped out and reappeared a few minutes later with three tall glasses of chilled pumpkin juice.

"Come join me in the tree, both of you!" Harry called, leaning against the trunk. "You can see so much better from up from here."

"I've not climbed that tree since I was a child..." Severus started to scoff but found that the suggestion had its appeal. He climbed with surprising ease and was soon seated on another branch at roughly the same level with Harry. Rastus popped up onto an adjacent branch and served Severus and Harry their drinks. Harry grinned and took a long drink of his pumpkin juice.

"Father, how old do you think this tree is?"

"Several hundred years," Severus answered, finishing his glass of pumpkin juice, only to have a full glass appear in its place. Severus nodded to the part elf, who was reclining on his own branch. "Thank you, Rastus. Harry, when your grandparents purchased Snape Manor, they each brought trees from near their family homes. This Oak is from the Rogue's property."

"Grandmother's family?" Harry asked. "Where are they now? Can we-"

"All dead, and their properties decimated some time just before the height of the Dark Lord's fist reign. Their tolerance and even acceptance of muggles made them targets of those who wanted to keep wizard blood pure."

"So we're all that that is left of the Rogue family?" Harry leaned against the branch and sighed. He was angry when he had learned that the Rogues had disowned his grandmother just for being pregnant out of wedlock. It was ironic that her being disowned was what had kept her alive...if one can consider being a battered spouse, and later being in a spell damaged state, alive.

"You wish to visit your grandmother?" Severus asked, taking on a decidedly sorrowful cast.

"Can we father? Please?" Harry climbed over to Severus' branch. "I know she can't talk or anything, but I still want to visit her."

"Of course." Severus leaned against the great trunk and turned away. "But not until next week."

"Because some one from the ministry or from The Death Eaters might see us because they're all around town now? And they might recognize us and if they are bad people they'll make trouble?"

"There is that," Severus stopped to sip some of his pumpkin juice. "But it would also be better if we waited until your body can tolerate magic once more."

"HUH?"

"It cannot be widely known that I have a son." Severus replied. "Since you've enjoyed posing as me before, you should not mind going into the hospital as me."

Harry blinked in surprise.

"I've calculated that the best time to accomplish this would be when the security department at St. Mungos does their guard changes." Severus went on. "Just before, you can use one of the polyjuice potions and go in as me without alerting security. The guards are familiar with me, for I do visit my mother from time to time."

"So you can't come with me to visit grandmother then?"

"I did not say that. That is why we go around the time of the guard changeover. You'll go in just as the previous shift is completing their duties, and shortly after the second group takes their positions, I will walk in. That way members of either group will only see one Severus Snape."

"Brilliant, father!" Harry clapped his hands. "But...uh...what if some one comes in to check on grandmother and sees two of us?"

"They will not see two of us." Severus stated calmly, as though he were stating something as sure as the neap tide coming during half moons.

"You still are in possession of the invisibility cloak are you not?"

"Uh huh?"

"We will take potions to enhance our hearing once we arrive in your grandmother's room. We will hear if anyone is coming towards the room and will have time enough for one of us to hide beneath the cloak."

"You sound like you've been planning this for a while now. When did you start thinking on it?" Harry questioned.

"Ever since that night I dreamed my angel son had came back to life while I was in the infirmary. I dreamed my son had paid me a visit in my labs and said he would never leave again. Even though I was only dreaming, I began to draw plans in my mind as to how we would go about our lives while keeping our status as father and son secret." Severus replied.

"You know," Harry speculated. "I think it wasn't a dream at all." Although Harry's brain simplified everything, he described the 'dream' he had had while in the hospital and how he, thinking he was only dreaming, approached his dour potion's master and boldly called him father and lavished all the affections on him that he would never have done while awake.

"So our spiritual bond..." Severus trailed off.

"Yes father, I think so." Severus found that he did not want to return to his potions lab just yet. The air temperature was fairly hot and the inside of the house would surely be much hotter. Uncomfortably so, and without the respite the occasional breezes outside provided.

True, Severus could move some of the equipment into the much cooler basements of Snape Manor, but the heat, along with the mere presence of Harry, just made him want to remain in the cooler branches of the shady oak tree. And so he tarried on.

Within a half an hour, minute movements could be seen in the rows of soil.

As though watching a living time lapse photography movie, the tiny green sprouts pushed their way through the soil shortly thereafter. "WOW! This is amazing!" Harry exclaimed, "now whenever some one says that something is 'as boring as watching grass or other plants grow,' I'm not going to hear it the same way!"

"Why would anyone without access to a garden timeturner want to watch the plants grow?" Severus asked. Harry explained, in true young Harry fashion exactly what was meant by 'watching grass grow' and why people would do it, which meant that he answered the question in such a roundabout way that he covered seemingly unrelated topics from lawn fertilizers to dune buggies to Austria's lack of seaports to Mx missiles to Vienna Sausage to toilet plungers to Alan Rickman and how he played better villains in the movies than most real life crooks did and The Mario Brothers. Needless to say, Severus was somewhat confused but glad he had not asked a more complicated question. If he had, Harry would still be in the process of answering two hours thereafter... and even then, he might be only halfway done.

One thing did intrigue Severus greatly though. "Harry, tell me more about these... what did you call them... tree houses? Am I to understand that muggles sometimes live in trees? Like birds?"


"Dr. Pain?" Draco exclaimed. He could barely recognize the young physician who entered his room. Rather than his usual white muggle doctor uniform, the physician was dressed in jeans and a jacket which looked as though it were made from the same fabric as the jeans. To completely render him unrecognizable, the doctor's normally neat hair was spiked and coloured yellow, blue, red, pink, green and purple. Draco wanted to tell Dr. Pain that he bore a resemblance to a brightly coloured broom, but he did not dare insult the muggle doctor, that could be dangerous and/or foolish. Especially since Draco's very life depended on the care of these muggle doctors.

"Yes, it is I." Dr. Pain nodded. "But my doctor said that I'm not well enough to return to work until the week after next. So I'm just visiting you right now."

"Thanks for visiting," Draco said, feeling somewhat guilty that he had been the cause of the doctor's injuries. "Are you still sore?"

"I should be asking you that!" Dr. Payne chuckled. "No, it's only a bit uncomfortable to breathe deeply, and I tend to tire quickly, but I'm fine. I just wish I understood how to got hurt like this."

"You don't remember?"

"No, I don't remember much of anything from that day." Dr. Payne sighed. "The last thing I recall, I was giving you an injection. My next conscious memory is of waking up a few days later and feeling quite ill. I must have been working too hard."

"Yes you M-doctors really do work hard." Draco commented, thinking to himself that it was likely the ministry of magic was working too hard. Dr. Payne, and no doubt other members of the muggle medical staff, must have been obliviated.

"Are you still in discomfort?" Dr. Payne asked.

"Yes, but I feel much better than when I first got here."

"Terrible that you and your family got in the middle of those hooligans!" Dr. Payne sighed. "They ought to punish hooligans more harshly for making sporting events so dangerous."

"I agree." Draco nodded, wondering how muggle law enforcers punished their criminals. "Dr. Payne, when do you think I'll be able to walk on my own again?"

Dr. Payne stood up and quickly examined Draco. "Can you walk around without much pain now?"

"Not very far." Draco admitted. "I can maybe walk to the end of the corridor, but that's all."

"You'll probably feel better by next week." Dr. Payne said, sitting again.

"How soon until I will be able to run?"

"I would recommend that you don't even try to run until your bones knit a bit more. You could injure yourself further."

Draco sighed, concluding that stealth would be his best weapon out of the hospital since speed seemed out of the question. Perhaps if he could alter his hair...Draco wondered about Dr. Pain's hair. Could Dr. Pain be a metamorphmagus whilst still being a muggle? He rephrased his next question several times in his mind before asking it: "Dr. Pain, how did you make your hair like that?"

"Like what? How I set it up?"

"No, colourful, how did you turn your hair so many different colours?"

"You like it?" Dr. Payne grinned.

Draco nodded.

"It's a new hair dye. It's simple really, you don't even have to bleach your hair beforehand to use it, because the dye itself contains a bleach which lightens your hair at the same time it colours it. I just painted it on my hair in stripes. The colour is semipermanent and lasts for around fourteen shampoos. So my hair should be back to normal before I return to work."

Draco didn't fully understand everything Dr. Payne said, but he nodded anyway. "So if I got some dye like that, can it make my hair black?"

"Hmm, if you used the black hair dye, quite possibly. There is a chance it might make your hair only go brownish though,as it's so pale." Dr. Payne replied. "

"Brownish sounds interesting, where can I get some dye again?"

"Anywhere you can purchase toiletries, but as a matter of a fact," Dr Payne went on, "I have a tube of Blue-black hair dye leftover. Do you want it?"

"If you don't need it sure! I'd love to try some mu- hair dye." Draco drawled, thinking it would be all too easy to sneak out of the hospital in a disguise. "But why did you buy the dye if you didn't use it?"

"Simple," the young physician started, "because I ran out of hair to use it on. I dyed the other chunks of hair too large and had nowhere to apply the blue-black dye. But you can have it, it should be cover all of your hair...er...but don't use it until you get home okay?"

"Why not?"

"Because your parents might be angry if you dyed your hair without their permission to do so." Dr. Payne replied. "Especially you, with such light blonde hair, your parents would probably think you were somebody other than their son if you came home from the hospital with brownish or black hair.

"Oh Okay." Draco said, feeling sad knowing that his parents were not in Malfoy Manor at the moment. "You're right."

"Good to see you again, Draco." Dr. Payne said as he stood to leave. "I'll bring the dye for you next time I visit. Would you like anything else?"

Draco shook his head, and wondered how he would escape with no muggle street clothes. How he wished he had a jacket like Dr. Payne's. True to the house of Slytherin, Draco concocted a plan. "I used to have a jacket very much like yours, Dr. Payne, but those hooligans at the football pitch ripped it off me when they..." Draco quickly hid his face in the crook of his arm.

"You poor child!" The doctor muttered, pushing the box of tissues toward the youth. "Well, I have another jacket like this one at home..."

"Oh no, I couldn't ask you to..." Draco attempted to sound as pitiful as humanly possible.

"It's quite all right, I outgrew that jacket whilst I was studying medicine. It's still in rather good condition, I'll bring it for your too next time if you like?"


A sense of foreboding grew inexorably with each passing day for the father and son. Although Harry had initially been anxious to return to his former teenaged self, and he was still looking forward to being sixteen once more, he also found that he was dreading the change as well. In less than four days, the Interventio Interferous potion would wear off completely, allowing Harry to safely take the reaging potion.

Harry's heart sank. When Harry was first de-aged, he had noticed a marked change in his father's temperament. Whereas Severus would have become angry with very little provocation, and would not hesitate to reprimand Harry for the smallest infraction when Harry had been a teen, he seemed to not be able to do the same with child Harry. Harry knew he had broken more rules as a child than he ever would have had he been a sixteen year old. He even talked back to and disobeyed his father more than once, and received little more than a lecture on why what he had done was wrong as a 'punishment.'

He also enjoyed being cared for, and truly loved, for the first time in his memory. Harry closed his eyes, as Severus combed his wet, still- extended hair. Even though Harry's hands were sufficiently healed, Severus still gave him baths each day and helped him dress. Harry allowed this willingly, in fact, he savoured it. Aunt Petunia or Uncle Vernon only brushed his hair to keep it from matting, and only bathed him when they could no longer stand his smell.

The Dursleys dressed him only in worn, cast off clothing from Dudley, but Severus bought him clothing of his very own. New clothes of the finest variety. His soft, red satin unitard pyjamas, which had brightly coloured cartoon puppets printed on it, felt good against his skin, even though he no longer had bruises and scrapes which would have necessitated his wearing of such non-irritating material.

Would Severus still tolerate as much from Harry when he was a teen again? Would Severus still hug him? Spend as much time with him? Would they still have those long father-son talks which Harry enjoyed immensely? Would they share meals as often? Children were easier to love than teens weren't they? Would Harry be able to get used to being only admired as a hero of the wizarding world, but nothing more? Would Harry have to adjust to being an unwanted child again? Would he be able to thrive without the comfort of knowing he was loved? He lived this way before, but could he do it again? Would Severus still love him as much?

Harry started to cry, causing Severus to drop the wooden comb mid-stroke. "Harry, if my combing your hair was hurting, you should have told me sooner."

Severus rubbed Harry's scalp gently in the area he thought the hair had been pulled too hard. He did not know the true reason Harry was crying this time, for Severus's mind had been preoccupied with fears not even he fully understood. He knew that Harry would have to be a sixteen year old once again in the very near future, but why did Severus so dread that day? Even though he had thought that caring for Harry would be a burden initially, and he still made more than his share of mistakes even now, Severus found that he didn't mind attending to the needs of his little green eyed angel. He actually liked taking care of his son enough to not relegate his duties as a caregiver to his house elf, as many wizarding families who owned house elves would often do.

Both father and son fell asleep thinking more on these things that night.


"It is wonderful to see you getting on so." the still de-aged Albus Dumbledore said upon his arrival at the Snape Manor the next morning. He did not fail to notice how closely Harry stood beside his father, and how Severus did not recoil because of it. Even when Albus pulled his potion master into a hug, although he did not return the embrace, Severus did not fidget or appear as though his blood had congealed.

"You are so kind to invite us over, Professor Snape." YiChung Chang, who was also a child, said as be bowed reverently to Severus and handed him a copy of the Daily Prophet.

"No doubt you two were giving your families waking nightmares." Severus ventured, his black robes billowing somewhat less than Albus remembered. "They probably could do with the respite."

Albus and YiChung exchanged knowing glances.

"Is Headmaster Dumbledore and Professor Chang be wanting to have brunch?" Rastus popped next to the small group and asked eagerly.

"We would greatly appreciate that." Albus replied, noting that the house elf smelled heavily of sweet pastries. The elf had anticipated their visit and had prepared the food accordingly. Albus and YiChung loved sugary foods.


"So there have been no further reports of attacks of late?" Severus asked, tugging weeds from the garden by the handful.

"No Severus," the miniature headmaster replied. He knelt to examine a sprig of basil, the ends of his long auburn hair brushing the earth. "With the exception of a few reports of violence in the muggle world, all is quiet. It would appear that Harry's intervention has crippled Voldemort and indirectly, his forces at least for the time being."

"Or perhaps the dark forces are merely biding their time." Severus murmured, picking a bright red tomato and placing it with the other vegetables and herbs in the basket.

Rastus, YiChung, Harry and Albus helped Severus in the garden for a while longer. When the work was done, Severus climbed back onto the branch in the giant oak tree and watched Albus, Harry, Rastus and YiChung as they played on the lawn.

"Does good wizards be wanting to play with this?" Rastus popped out and reappeared with a quaffle. At Severus's and Harry's worried looks, Rastus added: "Rastus has removed the charms from it, it is just a ball now."

Harry and Rastus challenged Albus and YiChung to a game of football, and beat the two older wizards quite easily.

"Although my body is young again," Albus said when Harry kicked the ball through the goal. "I have not played football in many years, my body lacks the quick reflexes and coordination that your body still has."

When it became apparent that the team of YiChung and Albus would never win at football without cheating or by using magic, the four engaged in a spirited game of catch...which quickly turned into something resembling muggle rugby. Severus watched from his breezy 'perch' in the tree, realizing that Harry must have been very lonely without other children to play with. In both his real childhood, and the one brought on by the deaging potion, Poor Harry had had no other children to play with.

"I've got it!" Albus shouted running to catch the ball as it bounced dangerously close to the edge of the stream.

"Watch out, Albus!!" YiChung shouted.

But it was too late. Little Albus had jumped into the air to make the catch, but he landed on a slippery rock at the water's edge and fell in.

Seeing his mentor and pseudo father vanish beneath the water's surface, Severus jumped out of the tree and sprinted toward the stream. "HEADMASTER! HEADMASTER!"

But Albus did not resurface straightaway. He had landed in the deepest part of the swimming area and had quickly sunk to the bottom.

"ALBUS!" YiChung shouted, quickly removing his robes to dive in after his lifelong friend.

"No," Severus gently nudged YiChung away from the edge stream. "I will go."

Severus quickly stripped to his underwear and dove into the stream. But just as he begun searching in the depths for Albus Dumbledore, the boy Albus resurfaced with the quaffle in his small hands. "I FOUND IT!" he shouted to the other boys and tossed the ball to Rastus.

"GREAT MERLIN, Albus!" an exasperated Severus shouted at the child version of his mentor. "I did not know you could swim! Why did you not tell me?"

"Because Severus my boy, you never asked." the boy Albus replied, his long auburn hair fanning out behind him.

"Aren't you coming out of the water?" Harry asked, finding it strange that his father was not already making his way back towards the edge.

"I have not been in this stream for many years. Now that I'm in once more, I may as well remain for a while." Severus executed a backstroke. The cool water felt extremely good against his body, which ached slightly from the gardening they had done lately.

Albus did not make to leave the water either. Before long, Harry, YiChung and Rastus were also in the stream, playing a game that resembled water polo not a great distance away from Severus, who was swimming languidly in the cool water. Normally, the sound of children playing loudly annoyed the potion master, but today, their voices were no more annoying than the sound of the water hitting the rocks downstream. Just weeks ago, Severus never would have imagined feeling so at peace. So renewed. Certainly not at Snape Manor. But he did. Every moment he spent in the stream was like a cleansing, the cool water as soothing as a healing balm. Even when he turned in the direction of the first Snape Manor, he no longer felt fear or sadness or shame, but loss. A loss greatly softened by Harry's presence. And his boundless love.

Harry turned toward the first Snape Manor after nearly twenty minutes of intense gameplay, as though something there summoned or demanded his absolute attention.

Severus feigned a pass to Albus, but flung the ball at Harry. The boy's attention still on a window in Snape Manor one, the ball bounced off his head, almost unnoticed.

"We've played enough for today," Severus said brusquely, and began shuffling the others from the water.

"But father, we were winning!"

"We're done!" Severus yelled louder than he intended.

Still mindful the potion master, even in his deaged state, Albus placed a small hand on Severus's shoulder. "What is wrong, my boy? You seem most apprehensive?"

"Look at yourselves!" Severus motioned to the lot of them. "You're shivering! No more swimming today!"

"But father, I thought I saw some one or something move in the window..."

"YOU WILL GO BACK INTO THE HOUSE THIS INSTANT, HARRY!"

Severus and Rastus helped each of them out of the stream and into a large washroom situated near the west end of the house. En route, Harry's gaze vacillated between a high window in the first Snape Manor, and his father's ashen face. He knew that Severus hadn't yelled at him out of anger, but fear? What had frightened Severus so?

"Father, why are so scared? What gave you such a fright?"

Severus averted his head and began filling the large bath. Knowing that no answer was forthcoming, and noting the uncomfortable silence, Harry turned to the de-aged Albus and YiChung. "Oh..uh... since your clothes are all wet, you can borrow some of mine."

In nearly perfect unison, Albus and YiChung exhaled the breath they held, and thanked Harry. The tension wafted through the air like a fog on a day the warmth of the sun could not penetrate. Albus, YiChung and Harry started removing their wet clothing. Severus turned away, removed his undercrackers and threw them into the bin, seemingly somewhat oblivious to the task at hand.


"Where are you going?" Harry asked Rastus when he turned to leave.

"Rastus is going to wash off, young Snape sir."

"You can do it as well here as wherever you were going to wash off." Harry said, leading the part elf back to the bath that YiChung and Albus were already splashing about in. "You're part of my family remember."

"Yes sir." the part elf nodded, and began to undress.

Harry could not help but stare. With the exception of Rastus's pointed ears, somewhat larger than normal eyes and his being only the size of a human eleven year old, the part elf looked like a human. Fully unclothed, even more so, If Rastus were just a little taller and covered his ears, he would look just like an adult human male.

"Young sir?" the elf inquired, looking nervous. "Is there something wrong?"

"Oh sorry, I didn't mean to stare. It's just that you look so...you look so...HUMAN!"

"He is only one eighth elf," Severus replied, sitting on the edge of the bath and carving soap creatures for Albus, YiChung, Harry and even Rastus to play with.

"With a little ingenuity, humans and elves are reproductively compatible. So their bodies are not very significantly different from ours."


When Severus rose to wash off under a nearby showerhead, he heard Harry snickering behind him. When he turned around, all he saw was Harry, Rastus, YiChung and Albus playing with the soap toys. He returned his attention to showering once more, and this time he heard not only Harry, but young Albus snickering as well. He quickly turned around once more and saw the boys still playing with the soap toys. When he stepped under the shower spray, he heard all the boys, and the house elf giggling.

"I beg your pardon, but are you laughing at my arse?" Severus said in exasperation.

YiChung, Rastus and Harry broke into full giggles, and Albus answered: "Yes Severus, as a matter of a fact we are."

"And why are you all laughing at my arse?" Severus frowned. "Especially you, Harry. Surely my backside has not changed significantly since you last saw it."

"You're right father." Harry fell backwards from giggling so hard. "Your bum really hasn't changed at all."

When the boys continued with their infernal laughter, Severus stomped over to a full length mirror near the dressing area of the room to see exactly what was so funny about his backside. Indeed his arse was the same sallow arse he had had for years...then he realized what had changed. The rest of him! Because he had spent a good part of the day swimming in only his underwear whilst the sun shone upon the stream, the rest of his body was no longer sallow but a pale ivory beige now.

"You've got a snowcap bum!" Harry tittered.

"Really." Severus said, stomping back to the showers. "Look at your own arses then! Except for Albus, who went swimming whilst fully clothed, the rest of you have got 'snowcap bums' as well."

That was a mistake, because now the infantile boys were laughing even louder at each other.

"Herrherr herr!" Severus laughed sarcastically in return.

Hearing the grouchy potions master laughing, even a fake laugh, was just too much. The boys could scarcely keep their heads above water as they fell back into the bath, unable to suppress their roars of laughter.

End Part Thirty-One