Disclaimer: JK Rowling owns the characters but I have made them dance this time. No money made, no gratuities accepted except the reviews of my peers, for which I thank you.

I always answer my reviewers if they leave a name and I am always happy to chat with them over PM. Huge thanks and a great deal of gratitude as you are the reason I managed to get out of the mud and get going again.

If you have a flame to send, I suggest you do a spell check, the last couple look like they were written by a drunken kindergartener, sorry.

Another huge thanks to my BEsT betas Zarathustra46 and the Wicked Bunjhny who make this lot legible and grammatically sane.

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Part 2

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Chapter 15 – The Potter Situation

Potions with NEWTs level students only were rather enjoyable Severus decided a few weeks into the second term of the year when he realised he had not been blown up, doused in crud, nor had his clothing changed colour for a couple of months. In fact, he was feeling rather mellow as he made his way up to the Headmaster's office preparing to Floo out to the Potter residence. Severus had conveniently forgotten the invitation given out months ago by Ginny Potter, after his first venture to St Mungo's subsequent to his recovery, but unfortunately the canny little witch had told the Headmaster. Of course Albus had insisted Severus go. Still, it might not be such an ordeal, tea with Harry and Ginny Potter... probably... he hoped.

The piercing scream made him snatch out his wand before his feet even landed on the hearth rug, a small body running toward him for its life. The little blond cannonball hit the back of Severus' knees so hard that Snape landed on his face, the small body racing up and burrowing under Severus' robe without ceremony. Cursing in a couple of languages, not all human, Severus levered himself up to his knees and glared at the small child hiding in his cloak. Lysander Malfoy grinned back and launched forward for an upside down kiss, smacking into Severus' chin and making him bite his tongue rather hard. Giving a strangled yelp, Severus straightened and almost head-butted Harry Potter in the groin causing Harry to yelp, too.

"Aurgh! How I HATE children!" Severus roared, aware of the coppery taste of blood from his bitten tongue.

Lysander's lower lip trembled as Severus glared at him. Then a tentative smile broke out on the little tyke's face. "Nucle Sev!" the child giggled in delight, then went for the hug again.

"Horrid little brat!" Severus told him severely, while hugging the child back and rolling his eyes as the little boy slobbered all over his cheeks. "Why are you semi-naked... and probably loaded?" the Potions Master demanded suspiciously when he realised the child was obviously a truant from someone's care.

"Because someone has been feeding him chocolate biscuits all day and now he's hyper on sugar," an exasperated Mrs Potter snapped, wiping a strand of sweaty red hair out of her eyes as she leaned against the doorpost. She was massaging her rounded belly and gasping a lot. "Why are you both sitting on the floor? We do have chairs, you know."

"'Cus Cyclone Malfoy dumped Severus and Severus knocked me down again," Harry said logically and raised himself up rather stiffly.

"Sorry, Professor. Lysander is a handful at times. Hermione just had to go to a benefit today so she took Hanova with her but had nowhere else to leave Lysander. He's too energetic and liable to do accidental magic for Desiree to cope with."

"Here, make the child decent for human company, then," Snape snapped, quickly handing his godson over and ignoring the young woman's knowing smirk. Rising to his full height, Severus grabbed Potter's collar and pulled Harry to his feet, also. Both then sat down at the kitchen table with a sigh of relief. "Get used to it, this will be a daily occurrence in a few months," Severus gently jibed as the younger man dropped his head on his hand with a sigh and a wry smile.

The child eventually gave up his frantic running to collapse in a corner of the sofa in exhausted sleep. The tea was poured and all three adults let out sighs of liberation. Talk turned to adult concerns, the progression of the term at Hogwarts, the process of the house renovations and how the rest of the wizarding world was faring. Severus managed to be reasonably sociable for more than an hour before he simply had to ask what was causing the slightly sour note he detected all through the house.

Ginny stiffened and Harry's lip tightened bitterly before all expression was wiped away. "It's nothing, nothing at all," Potter declared resignedly.

"It bloody well is 'something', and something very big!" Ginny disagreed angrily, her fingers slapping the table edge for emphasis.

The 'Something' stirred; the magical currents in the room beginning to ripple ever so slightly but with an undertow of an extremely powerful disturbance approaching. "I'm fine, I have told you that a thousand times!" Harry insisted, turning his head in the direction of his wife's voice.

"Trouble in paradise, then?" Snape asked cheerfully, a slightly malicious smirk twisting his lips as the current grew stronger.

"No, just a few hitches in our plans, is all," Harry said in extremely even tones. Ginny snorted most inelegantly and shook her head in disgust as the windows began to rattle.

"See? See? As soon as you get the slightest bit upset, things break. They always do! How many times are we going to have to replace the windows before you will admit…"

All the lower story windows suddenly blew out with a crash as Harry surged to his feet and grabbed for his cane which had landed on the floor away from his hands. As his temper flared, all the drinking glasses on the counter exploded one after the other. Ginny let out a shriek as glass shards peppered her body. Severus cast a hasty protego over his godson before he stood and calmly clipped Potter across the back of the ear. Shocked at such a thing, Harry stood gobsmacked as the magical storm averted in an instant.

"Sit down, Potter, and get a grip," Severus snapped. "I thought I taught you Occlumency when you were very much younger."

"I… What?"

"Obviously you need to work on your temper control, too. I suppose that you haven't exercised your magic in the slightest since you finished the last battle, have you?" Severus accused softly.

"Well, no, of course not. They taught me not to, to keep it all small and in control in case I damaged anything." Harry replied with automatic honesty.

"Really? The stupidity of some people! How do they expect one of the most powerful wizards in our world to keep it 'small and controlled' at all times? Typical of the small-mindedness of the wizarding world in general though, I suppose. Mr Potter, you have a huge and powerful magical field. It has been trained and exploited from a very young age until it is far more powerful than it normally had a right to be. You needed it, all of it, to survive. But no matter what people would like or you would wish, you cannot put the genie back into the bottle once it is out!"

"But Norwich School for the Blind spent forever trying to get me to restrain myself and reach for my magic only as a last resort," Harry protested half-heartedly.

"Oh, did they? Indeed! The fools! When did you last do any DADA exercises? Humm, and just general magical use? Right! Floo into Hogwarts tomorrow at ten am, with old battle robes only, and we will give your magic a good workout to get it back into condition before you will learn to use it properly once again."

"I can't just…"

"Yes, you can Harry, before you do any more damage to the house, to yourself, or to US! What if you lose it after the baby is born and it gets hurt? What then? Would you ever forgive yourself? Of course you wouldn't!" the red-head ranted, making Potter cringe at the very thought. Then, as if a switch had been thrown, Ginny calmed down almost instantly, the only sign of temperament being two hectic red flags of colour in her cheeks as she turned back to her ex-professor. "Thank you, Professor, I knew you would find a solution," Ginny said thankfully.

Severus merely humphed.

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Dumbledore looked up as the Floo flared, then hurried over as the young man stumbled out and fell onto the hearthrug. "My dear, dear Boy!" Albus exclaimed as he dusted off the soot with a mere flick of his wand.

"Sorry, Professor. Professor Snape ordered… er, asked me to come today. He has an idea that my magic needs a bit of a workout in a protected environment," Harry explained in embarrassment as the Headmaster led him by the hand and all but forced Harry to plop into a chair. Before Harry could react, a cup of tea was thrust into his hand and Dumbledore was spooning sugar into the cup, stirring it in without even asking permission.

Clamping his lips shut to stop his irritation from escaping, Harry took a polite sip of the overly-sweetened fluid, then went to put the cup down, only to have it snatched out of his hand with a jovial remark. Harry could feel his temper rising but before the Headmaster's office could suffer any damage, the door opened and the quiet swish of robes announced the new arrival's presence.

"Headmaster, Potter," the velvety voice softly acknowledged.

"Ah, Severus. Harry and I were just having a cup of tea, will you join us?"

"Thank you no, Headmaster, we have a lot to accomplish so I'll just take Harry off your hands now," the Potions Master said in a tightly controlled but exasperated tone and wrapped his long, thin hand around Harry's biceps and lifted. Harry found himself being dragged unceremoniously from the room, stumbling over his own feet as he hit the revolving stairs.

"For Merlin's sake, Potter, make an effort, will you?"

Grinding his teeth in fury, Harry twitched his arm free of the cool fingers and stood his ground, his cane vibrating to the beat of his anger. "I am not a package to be dragged from pillar to post! I am perfectly capable of walking on my own without having to be manhandled everywhere!"

Snape stopped and turned to contemplate the angry young man before him. "Very well, Potter, follow me. We are going to the Room of Requirement." He spun on his heels and stalked off, leaving Harry standing in the middle of the corridor with his head cocked to one side and nostrils flaring in anger. "Well, are you coming?" Snape asked just before turning the corner out of sight.

Harry's self-righteous anger froze when he suddenly realised he was all alone in the middle of Hogwarts for the first time since being blinded, with no idea where he was. His knees buckled sinking him to the floor in a pool of robes, wondering how the callous older man could just abandon him like that! But then rational thought reasserted itself and he giggled on a slightly hysterical note. This was Hogwarts! He had roamed her corridors since he was eleven. He knew every inch of the highways and byways that made up the old castle. Surely he could get from the Headmaster's office to the Room of Requirement with his eyes shut!

Maybe that was the problem. Maybe he had to shut his eyes and pretend… Suiting action to thought, Harry pulled himself to his feet and closed his eyes, brushing his fingertips against the wall rather than using his cane. A surge of feeling flew up his arm, welcoming and reassuring. Hogwarts recognised one of her own! Grinning like a maniac, Harry began to walk, his stride becoming more confident as he hurried after the professor.

Grinning evilly to himself, Snape ducked back around the corner of the corridor and hurried ahead silently, thankful that his small ploy had shaken the young man out of his obvious blue funk. At the entrance of the Room of Requirement Severus paused, unsurprised when Harry arrived mere seconds after him, both contemplating the blank wall.

"A duelling area with a protected spot for me, I think," Snape announced. "Well, don't just stand there, get on with it!" he prodded when Harry didn't move fast enough.

The maniacal grin only became wider as the messy-haired young man paced the required three times and the door appeared, a plain wooden entry, nothing spectacular. Inside was an open area, well lit with padded walls and floor and a cubicle off to one side that glowed with protection spells. Snape voiced his approval as he slipped off his robes and waited until Harry did the same, although the young man retained his cane as well as his wand.

"Right, we need a target that makes a chime for you to aim at." The target arrived, quietly dinging every half second.

Harry cocked his head and listened while the professor asked him to aim at the target and toss a mild blasting curse at it. Harry did as he was asked, the mild curse floundering and fizzling out half way to the target. Snape laughed derisively. "What was that? For Merlin's sake, Potter, control your burst."

Glaring, Harry put a bit more zing into the blast. Again, it ran out of power before hitting the target, except now there was less focus and more leakage. He could almost feel Snape laughing at him as his anxiety grew, rendering him incapable of hitting what he was aiming at. Harry's focus grew ever more sloppy until he finally threw his wand down in disgust and simply blasted the target wandlessly. It exploded!

"Well, that was an interesting display, Mister Potter," the cool, smooth voice said from behind him. "Oh, do stand still." A wash of magic ran over Harry from top to bottom, one he recognised as a diagnostics spell. Then he found his cane being plucked from his hand. "Try it now."

Slightly off-balance, Harry threw another wandless blasting curse at the noise of the target and hit it squarely. Not hard enough to destroy it but enough to push it back a few feet. His magic focused neatly and did not try to fight him so much as he gathered it, a feeling of… rightness coursing up his arm.

"Interesting. Mr Potter, someone put a damper and scattering hex on this cane you use. The hex deliberately disrupts your magical core and tampers with your natural concentration. I can think of a number of reasons for such a precaution but in your case, probably not the best solution to contain rogue magical discharges."

"What? You mean it was deliberate?"

"Most likely. I should imagine in the early days you were quite dangerous when you tried even the simplest of spells, yes?"

"Oh, yeah!" Harry grimaced when he remembered some of the complete disasters that had ensued from the simplest of actions. He had totally destroyed two floors of the Institute purely by accident. Fortunately, he had enough power to both contain and repair the damage without any loss of life, and only minor injuries to the rest of the students.

"Then I daresay fear and a misguided attempt to control you are responsible for the damper, rather than malice. Also, you need a new wand, your current one is no longer tuned to your inner core. Surely someone told you that?"

The blush was quite spectacular as it mounted Harry's cheeks and flowed down his neck.

"Evidently, someone did," Snape commented dryly, controlling his snigger with a real effort.

Harry squirmed, then drew up his courage. "It… has been suggested, but… it's my wand, my very first one and…"

Snape sighed and conjured up a pair of chairs. Sometimes he forgot that Harry was really not much more than a boy, muggle-raised and rather naive in the ways of the wizarding world, despite his fame. Sometimes the children Snape associated with made him feel very, very old. "Sit! Look, Potter, you are no longer a small, scrawny eleven year-old with a destiny bigger than your head. You are an adult, albeit a blind adult with a lot of experience behind you, more than most people of your age will ever garner. No longer do you have to kill a madman - been there, done that, got the tea towel. Now, it is time to move on. If that moving on includes getting some new tools to make your life a little easier, then why are you resisting?"

"I don't want them to snap my, my wand… It's…"

"Idiot boy! They will not snap your wand; you will merely retire it to a convenient location, usually your Gringotts vault. Then register the new one." Amazingly, Snape's harsh, mocking tones softened to something as close to reassurance as he was capable of. "Pot… Harry, you are not a criminal, you are a hero, and as such are not required to surrender your wand for destruction. After such a life-altering event as you suffered, your magical core changes. It evolves, devolves, or simply changes format. A wand has to be in tune with your core and that is the essential nature of a wand. If a wand is not in tune, then it has to be retired and a new tool procured. Surely Miss Weasley explained this, or one of the tutors at the School?"

Harry shook his head. "No, I guess the tutors were too scared of me or too much in awe of my reputation to say anything really negative or helpful. Ginny might not have known. Her family has had to make do and mend for so long; bits of that sort of lore might have slipped away from them."

"Understood." Snape chewed his lip thoughtfully, then nodded sharply. "So, off you go to get a new wand and deposit that one into your vault. Then come back and practice some real spell casting. Oh, and lose the cane, you don't need it. Once your wand and core are retuned, I think you will find the magic doing all the hard work for you and moving about will be that much easier. Were you taught the Bat Charm? Listening to the clicks as they echo off your surroundings*? Very well, you will find it much more useful once you have your magic in hand again. So," Severus rose gracefully to his feet and clapped his hands decisively. "Having wasted half my morning on such a useless pastime, I will bid you good day."

With a shake of his head and a dry snort of disbelief, Harry listened to the door shutting behind the professor. The man was unbelievable, but his lack of compassion and fussing were completely reassuring. Except now Harry had to find his own way home. Sighing deeply, Harry picked up the cane, snapped it across his knee with a vicious grin of satisfaction. The Room instantly supplied a garbage bin that called out its name and function in a calmly mellow voice. Sticking his now suspect wand into the holder on his forearm, Harry tossed the remains of his stick into the bin and dusted off his hands as a job well done. He cocked his head, picked a direction and promptly walked into the chairs Snape had conjured. "So much for a brave new start!" he swore aloud, kicking the chairs, then laughed as they skittered away.

If he could overcome Voldemort, surely a little thing like getting out of the Room of Requirement would not be such an impossible task? "Show me the way out," he called aloud and immediately a soft chiming came from his left. In less than half a dozen steps, Harry found the door with his toes and decided he would have to invest in some steel capped boots or his feet were going to be pulped before the learning curve was conquered.

*Bat Charm: I read about this in one of Dracon Malfoy's stories. Her stuff is well worth a read, a good storyteller of feel-good stories.

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