Chapter 12

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In a Scrying Mirror, unknown to the three young adults, Poppy, with Minerva and Albus beside her, was watching from a room down the hall.

Minerva cleared her throat. "Well, that certain is a surprising turn of events..."

Albus just chuckled. "Doesn't surprise me one bit. I always suspected those three were close, in more ways than one!"

Poppy and Minerva shot him shocked looks.

"Well... ?" He held out a small bag toward them. "Lemon drop?"

Poppy smirked and shook her head, then went back to watching the mirror.

"What those three will do is give me gray hair," Minerva muttered.

"Mr. Weasley could easily take over Defense Against the Dark Arts with the experience he has gained as a curse breaker."

"Posh, Albus! Gringotts is not going to let you have one of their most lucrative employees, after Bill Weasley...!"

"Well I suspect that this relationship is uniquely a deep bond between the three of them. Love, friendship and family. They would never hurt the ones they love. Mrs. Granger-Weasley has her hands full with those twins," Minerva stated, blushing as well.

"Ah, to be young again," Albus twinkled.

All three leaned over the mirror once more as Dobby delivered the noon meal. Poppy cancelled the spell over the mirror when the young people started eating as they discussed inconsequential things.

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Healer, Kendra Ruffino, Flooed into the Entry Hall of Malfoy Manor, brushing the soot from her robes. She was replacing Psych-Healer Cantrell, who was now pregnant, and severely-swollen feet were keeping him off of them. She read the file late last night and was honored they would trust her with this case. Sean Cantrell's notes on Mr. Potter-Malfoy showed progress. But he had quite a bit of past abuse that he had never dealt with, and this incident had only aggravated that and brought them back to the surface.

Her Gran often told her that the Sicilian Muggle Mafia had nothing on the Wizarding half of the island. Oh for a moment, to bring down the wrath on those worthless Muggles. And some wondered why wars are fought? People like these Dursley's are one simple reason.

"Ah, Healer Ruffino," Narcissa came into the Entry Hall.

"Madam Malfoy, a pleasure."

"Harry is waiting for you in his study, if you will follow me please." Narcissa led her up the winding staircase and halfway down the long hallway, stopping at a closed door. Opening it quietly, Narcissa stepped aside with a small smile and let Kendra into the room.

"Tea will be up shortly. Summon Dobby if you have need of anything." And with a gentle swirl of her embroidered robes she was gone.

"Hello. You're my new head shrinker."

Kendra turned toward the corner by the large windows, closing the door behind her. "Why yes, I am your new Psych-Healer, though I have never before been referred to by that Muggle term." She smiled.

Harry shrugged his shoulders. "Well... raised by Muggles for ten years and some things are hard to shake."

"As I read in your file last night." She replied as she seated herself in the other chair by the fire. "Shall we wait for tea before we begin our discussion?"

Before Harry could reply, Dobby appeared with a large tray of tea and a bountiful assortment of finger sandwiches, and several of Harry's favorite foods. The tray almost totally obscured the house elf. Kendra's eyes widened as Harry rolled his.

"Dobby has brought tea and some of Master Harry's favorites! Missus Wheezy and Lady Malfoy say Master Harry must eat to heal." Dobby bobbed up and down excitedly as he spoke. "Healer Hermione would be most displeased if Dobby didn't make sure Master Harry has eaten enough!"

"Thank you Dobby. I will tell them you are doing what they have asked, and I will eat. See?" He said as he took a finger sandwich and bit off half of it. This seemed to please Dobby and he disappeared with a pop.

"The foods you eat also promote natural healing in your body so it doesn't depend on potions and spells all the time, Mr. Potter."

"Harry, please."

"Kendra."

"Sean had me talk about my life with Draco."

"How about we talk about what you want from your life now."

"What do you mean?"

"Well, you are free from your marriage. Right before this marriage you had just defeated Voldemort. What did you have planned? What were you planning on doing once you were free of the responsibility placed upon you, by the Prophesy, and Voldemort's choice?"

Harry was staring out the window. Remembering back to the time he spent at Hogwarts in hiding from the Wizarding populace and reporters. "Travel. I wanted to see the world. See and touch the things I'd read about. Heard about. Go where people wouldn't readily recognize me. I wanted to dance in the ocean. Climb mountains. Find love..."

"What happened?"

"I married Draco. He--he had the means to free my godfathers."

"And then?"

"He wanted his heirs, first. He promised we would then go and show our children everything I had never gotten to see growing up."

"But it didn't happen."

"No. It didn't. It was like living with the Dursley's all over again and the cupboard was my punishment. I was confined to our rooms for a good portion of the time by spells and charms. I stayed hidden because of the beatings..." Harry's voice trailed off, and he looked out the window for a moment. "I couldn't let anyone see..."

In the reflection of the glass, Kendra could see the reflection of tears tracking down his cheeks.

"What do you want now, Harry?"

"What do I want?" Harry scoffed. "It's not my lot in life to want. As a child, if I asked, I was beaten and told freaks weren't allowed toys or ice cream like good normal people. Each time I've wanted, something has happened, or someone I cared about has died. I'm afraid to want anymore, to only have it taken away from me."

"And what would you want?"

Harry stared at his hands. He thought of Sebastian, how he smelled of strawberries and smiles. How he fit into his arms as he read to him, from a book of the boy's choosing. The twins. Their hands grabbing his hair and ears. The smiles they gave him. He wanted... He wanted love. Family love. A smile touched his lips.

"What were you thinking just now?"

"Something that was always denied me."

"And that is?"

"Love, Kendra. I lost my parents at fifteen months old, then had to put up with magic-hating Muggles for ten years. Then I find this wonderful world that I'd only dreamt of, to find out I'm some kind of Hero. A very short and starved Hero who didn't know about anything in the Wizarding World--or what it meant to be a Wizard. It was always one obstacle after another, year after year. I had my friends' love..."

"I hear a but."

"I had to share. Ron had his family and they loved me like a son and still do. But I always feel like the loneliest person in a room full of people."

"You want someone to call your own."

"Yes."

"What's stopping you?"

His voice was very quiet. "I could lose them too."

"Being afraid is not a satisfactory reason to stop living, Harry." She ignored his snort of disbelief. "Tell me what you were thinking earlier, when I saw you smile."

He looked into her eyes, his own pained. But before he could consider answering, the door to his study opened slowly, accompanied by a small knocking. This was immediately followed by a small dark-eyed face, surrounded in golden hair.

"Hawwy?"

Kendra happened to turn and look at her patient at just that moment, and was amazed at the sudden transformation in his expression, especially his eyes--they lit up from within when the child had called his name. Interesting. This must be the child that was mentioned in Sean's reports.

"Sebastian!" He waved him into the room, then held out his arms.

A beaming smile broke out on the child's face, as he slipped quickly into the room and ran into Harry's arms. Being careful to not hurt Harry, he climbed up and sat in the chair with him.

"Auntie Minnie an' Auntie Poppy said to te'w you they send love an' miss you. Grampa Aw'bus says he is goin' to sen' you some candy."

"Thank you for giving me their messages. I look forward to some of Grandpa Albus' candy, though I will have to ask Hermione if it is alright."

"I had fun at Auntie Minnie's castle, but I missed you." Sebastian leaned into Harry as he spoke.

"I missed you too." Harry and the boy hugged, and it seemed to Kendra that Harry seemed to take strength from that contact. After one final squeeze, he turned to Kendra. "Let me introduce you to Sebastian Connery-Snape. A young friend and regular visitor."

"My name is Kendra."

"Are you the shwrinker that Hawwy talked about?" Sebastian asked, in wide-eyed innocence.

Harry blushed, "Sebastian..."

"She's pretty. But Papa is prettier."

Kendra's eyes widened at both the compliment, and the unintentional slight of being less pretty than the child's Papa. She would be most interested in meeting the man. Harry's jaw dropped in shock. "Pretty" was not a term that could safely be applied to his ex-Potions Professor. Although, since the man had quit teaching at Hogwarts full-time, his appearance had evidently improved substantially. Of course, eradicating the number one threat to his life hadn't hurt either. Harry sputtered as he felt his cheeks warm.

Looking from the amused expression on Kendra's face to the shocked look on Harry's, Sebastian was confused. "What, Hawwy? Papa has black hair like yours. Her's is brown, an' you like black."

"B-b-but--wha--Sebastian! When did I say that!?" Harry's face turned even redder, as he stared down at the boy in his lap. He couldn't believe his ears. He ardently wished the chair would just swallow him right then and there.

Kendra made a mental note to herself as she maintained a straight and professional face. This incident alone would bear more exploring in future sessions. Harry Potter needed to exorcise the demons of his past. Only then would he be able to move forward. She also had a feeling that there were a few people out there that needed to atone for their sins of the past. Reaching for his file, she opened it and grabbed a self-inking quill. She cleared her throat and smiled.

"You seem to enjoy Sebastian's visits."

"Sebastian is a very bright child. He's a definite mixture of both of his father's, even though I didn't know his other father."

"I understand that his father was one of your professors at Hogwarts."

"Severus Snape was my Potions Professor. He was also a good friend of my Mother's, when they were together in school." Harry stroked Sebastian's hair absentmindedly as he spoke. "We interact much better now that his is no longer my teacher." Sebastian leaned into the touch totally oblivious to anything else.

She watched him for a moment, before deciding to change directions. "Harry, how did you feel when you were told you hadn't conceived?"

"Disappointment... sadness... failure. Aunt Min had found and given me my Mother's journals. She wrote of her own pregnancy with me. How she felt. How she knew when she first felt me move that in the end of it all, that a little bit of her and my Dad would always live on no matter what. I wanted that and couldn't have it." His voice drifted almost to nothing as he finished speaking, the strong emotions evident in his tone.

Sebastian, sensing his distress, turned in his lap and wrapped his arms around Harry's neck and hugged him. "S'k Hawwy. Don' be sad." He murmured into Harry's neck as he patted the wild dark hair.

Harry hugged Sebastian back, taking comfort from the freely-given affection. "I felt denied. I had destroyed the darkest Wizard of my age. Stood before him and did what no other could. And the one thing I wanted so badly, I couldn't have. Can't have."

"What do you mean, 'Can't'?" She asked, wondering if her suspicions were correct.

"Strong wizards are supposed to be able to conceive. I'm supposed to be one of the most powerful wizards alive...or so I have been told... But, yet, all this magic can't give me the one thing I have always wanted--children--a family of my own." He leaned down and kissed the top of Sebastian's head, and absentmindedly ran his fingers through the golden strands. "What good is it? The magic, I mean. If it can't give me the one thing I want the most? Ya know?"

"Harry? Have you even thought it all through? I mean, didn't the healers tell you that you could conceive and that there were no reason why you shouldn't be pregnant?"

Harry frowned, his brow furrowed in thought. Thinking back, the healers had wanted to test Draco, but he had refused time and time again. He said he was a Malfoy and he was not the faulty one. Always inferring it was because of Harry's half blood heritage. It just hadn't occurred to him until now, what they'd said, could be true--that Draco had been wrong. He sat and thought for a while. Kendra remained silent, giving him time to absorb it all.

"I can have my family?"

"Yes, with another, who is fertile."

"I can have a family?" He whispered. "Children?"

"Yes, Harry."

Sebastian sat quietly. His Papa would be proud. He didn't fidget or squirm. He was a good little boy. He didn't like this Draco. He must have been a bad man. Papa had never let him come to the manor when the mean man was there. They only visited when Unca' Lucius and Auntie Cissa were home. He watched Harry's face. It was happy, and then, it was sad. Then he looked like he was hurting and wanted to cry. Now, he looked like someone had just told him a secret--a happy secret.

"I should see the healer again. They could have made a mistake..." He still sounded unsure, but there was a tinge of hopefulness to his tone.

Severus had been searching for Sebastian for the past few minutes. His son had gone looking for 'his Harry'. Severus let his wand slide from his sleeve, "Point me, Sebastian."

The wand spun and pointed down the hall to the private suites, zeroing in on the doors to Harry's suite, as he approached them. He could hear conversation. Harry's voice, and a woman's, then he could hear the excited voice of his son through the small opening of the mostly closed doors.

"If it would make you feel better, I see no reason that you shouldn't have a checkup again. It could be done as part of your next evaluation, so your mind can be at ease." Kendra tried to put as much assurance in her voice as possible.

"You wou'd make a good Da, Hawwy. You should have babies. You are good to Zo' an' 'Asha." Sebastian thought for a moment, then a huge smile broke out on his face. "Papa said som'day I could have a baby brod'r. You could be my --"

"Sebastian Davidh Severin!" Severus drawled as he stepped quickly into the room.

"Papa!"

"Severus!"

Kendra stood, "Potions Master Severus Snape, I presume? I am Kendra Ruffino. Harry's new Psych-Healer."

Severus reached out and grasped the offered hand, giving it a gentle but firm shake. "My pleasure."

He then turned toward his son and raised an eyebrow. "I apologize if Sebastian is interrupting your--discussion, Harry. Miss Ruffino."

"Severus. No. Sebastian is fine. I enjoy his company." Harry offered hurriedly.

"I'm bein' good, Papa. Jus' like you tau't me. Right, Hawwy?"

"He has been no bother at all, Mr. Snape. As a matter of fact, I believe his company is therapeutic for Harry."

The little Imp smiled up at him innocently. James Potter must be rolling in his grave. The son of Severus Snape was therapeutic for his own son's emotional well-being. Severus smiled to himself at the thought. Of course, his Davidh had exuded a calming effect on those around him. It was only natural that their son would inherit his gift. He looked down at the face so like his beloved's.

Severus held out his hand to his son. "Sebastian, it's time to go now. Come along. It is your time to rest, and I am sure as soon as Harry and Healer Ruffino have finished, Harry will need to rest as well."

Sebastian opened his mouth to protest, but thought better of it, considering the look in his Papa's eyes. "'Kay Papa." He turned and hugged Harry, planting a wet kiss on his cheek before climbing down and taking his father's hand.

Sebastian turned at the door before leaving, "Luv you, Hawwy."

Harry's face broke into a warm smile that reached his eyes. "I love you too, Sebastian. Sweet dreams."

Tbc…