Disclaimers: JKR still owns it all. I write AU/OOC...if you want canon you picked the wrong story.
THE SEVENTH SON OF A SEVENTH SON...maybe that's why you're such a strange and special one... (Sheena Easton song)
Disclaimers: Delusions don't count…she still owns it all.
Chapter 4: A mother's love?
After Severus left Riddle Manor, Tom felt at a loss of what to do. The Birth Certificates were a painful reminder of what had happened fifteen years ago.
The thought was there in his mind: his perfect child had grown into a perfect man. There was no doubt that Harry was a special child. How else could he have found out about being the product of two such powerful wizards. Tom just knew that the explanation for Harry knowing that he, Tom, was his mother would be because Lily Evans Potter had left him a timed letter to be delivered on the boy's 17th birthday.
Tom couldn't understand why she had taken his child anyway. Lily had been a healer at St. Mungo's and had seen him all the way through the pregnancy. The possibility that she was doing genetic research and had stumbled across the fact that Harry was Severus Snape's seventh son had not occurred to him. Since all the old families kept detailed records regarding their pure-blood status, it had not been hard for Lily to obtain the information that Severus was a first generation seventh son. The Prince family line showed that Severus was an only child. The Snape line was an altogether different set of genetic irregularities; Mr. Snape had been as indiscriminate as he had been prolific…
Lily Evans Potter had documented all of her research and left it for Harry to assimilate. Her research had been timed to be delivered a few months before he was due to gain his magical inheritance just in case he needed help to get through his ordeal. Her logical choice for helping him through the ordeal had been to very pointedly tell him to go to Professor Snape and explain everything to him if the man were still alive and capable of assisting him.
Tom was convinced that his great plan had gone undetected and had arbitrarily decided that she had stolen his child because she thought he would be an unfit parent. He had only been sixty when he delivered Harry. Sixty was barely reaching the lowest rung in the ladder of middle age for wizards since they tended to live to at least a hundred and twenty. There was just no way possible that the Potters had found out that Harry had been deliberately genetically engineered by Tom for nefarious purposes.
Tom sat staring into the fire for long hours as he contemplated what needed to be done about the boy whom the world knew as Harry James Potter. Obviously the boy was not going to fall into line and follow the plan that Tom had originally conceived (literally as well as figuratively).
There would have to be a meeting between him and his son. Of course he would have to prepare for the meeting with several strengthening rituals first. He was going to need Lucius Malfoy's help. That man was totally invaluable when it came to procuring costly and rare items. Lucius was actually quite useful in several ways; his money, his home, and at a stretch- even his intelligence. Maybe he could even enlist Lucius' help in thinking up a way to dispose of Potter without having to explain the significance of the deed. Then again, maybe it would be more fun to explain things to Lucius in order to engage his more 'creative' side fully.
Voldie's thinking session could be compared to a battle of wits with an unarmed man. With him being the unarmed man… He finally gave up on plotting the demise of his latest cock-up and tried to focus on something more productive. One thing that could be considered productive would be the burning question: What was in that package that Gringott's Goblin had delivered to Severus? Voldie's imagination ran wild with vivid images of all sorts of scenarios.
The question eventually began to prey upon his mind to the point where he simply had to know. Nothing else was going to suit him until he solved the mystery of what was in the little brown package. It had been extremely rude of Severus to not share the surprise with him. Tom growled and gnashed his pointy fangs until he was in danger of chipping several of them.
Decision made, Tom called for Wormtail. He used his mark to summon Severus and Lucius. After calling for the two of them, he gave a contented sigh and crucioed Wormtail a few times just to keep in shape while he waited. Some changes were going to have to be made. One of the changes would involve not letting Severus get away with such blatant disrespect. And it really had been very disrespectful of him not to share his Gringotts package with his Lord and Master.
Meanwhile, back at the ranch (or was that Hogwarts?), Potions Master Snape and his two youngsters had accomplished a major bit of brainstorming and had come up with a workable plan. Snape had acted like he was coming unglued when he found out that Harry was seeing Draco, and had fire-called Albus demanding that he be allowed to escort the two boys back to Malfoy Manor to have a 'little chat' with Mr. and Mrs. Malfoy.
It hadn't taken the three of them any time at all to convince Albus that they did need to visit Lucius. All Harry and Draco had to do was start crying and carrying on that they would be given to the Dark Lord on itty-bitty snack crackers once Lucius was finished with them and he couldn't wait to make sure the boys were safe at home with loving parents tending to their every need, want, and desire.
So they find themselves in THE Malfoy's study, sipping tea and discussing the latest in adventures with a totally enthralled Lord and Lady Malfoy. Narcissa kept trying to steer the conversation to weddings, babies, and domesticated bliss while her husband kept ignoring her in favor of hearing all the details of why Severus had been given a key to Merlin's vault which supposedly had his body in it.
Narcissa finally gave up trying to be civil and shrieked, "Fine! Just bag your asses off to Gringotts! Just give me five minutes to freshen my glamour charms and change my cloak. No way in hell am I going to be left out of this adventure."
Having Narcissa around to give the orders really simplified things. All four males wolfed their sandwiches, sucked their tea down like they had been on aSaharatrek for the last five weeks, and presented themselves to her for inspection before flooing off to the bank.
When the band of five entered the bank, a small female goblin detached herself from the counter and went forward to greet her favorite human. "Verna the Vile greets Mistress Malfoy and wishes to be of service to her." The goblin bowed to the ground and raised up with a happy smile that showed teeth, teeth, and more teeth.
Draco and Harry looked at each other and quivered in disgust. "There is a reason those things don't smile much." They said to each other mentally at the same time. Both then nodded their heads and proceeded to follow Madame Malfoy, who was happily mincing her way to the carts.
Lucius and Severus both groaned and turned slightly green while holding their stomachs. Finally Lucius managed to get up the nerve to say, "Cissy, darling, do you think that you and the boys can go in Verna's cart and Severus and I can use the next one that is free?"
"Don't be stupid, Lucius. We can all go in the same cart. We are all going to the same place and the cart is big enough. Now stop acting like a baby and get in."
Draco mentally sent an image to Harry of his fraternal paternal unit heaving after riding in the cart that managed to make the "Bullet" look like a toy train set. Today was going to be fun because Severus also had an aversion to the carts and if there was one thing Cissy loved it was a fast ride in the Gringotts carts.
The ride was everything Verna and the three speed demons wished for. Draco and Harry both smiled at the animation Cissy was displaying as she jumped out of the cart and yelled, "Yes! Anyone up for round 2?"
Lucius and Severus only wished for death. Then they screamed in terror as they almost got that wish. When they hung their heads over the side of the cart and barfed, they hit a dragon on the head and she was not too pleased with them sharing their lunch in such a fashion. Verna barely managed to get the lot of them into the vault before the dragon came back for a second pass, shooting flames at the guilty wizards back sides.
The inside of the vault was rather anti-climatic. There didn't seem to be much there except a few old books and a beautiful sword that Harry immediately took a liking to. What the lot of them did not know was that being that far underground and so close to the source of the Malfoy magic, the dark marks which were burned into their arms was not even activated to produce an itch. It might have had something to do with the little fire dragon that perched on top of a mirror and watched her carefully laid plans start to come to fruitation. Finally, the fire dragon would find redemption for the accident that caused so much damage all those years ago…