The Founding of Happiness
by Healer Pomfrey
All recognizable characters belong to J. K. Rowling, and I am not earning anything by writing this story.
I am not a native speaker of English. Please excuse my mistakes.
COMPLETELY AU! Partly OOC! Time travel!
It is my story, and I intend to write it the way I want it. If you don't like it, don't read it.
Reviews are very welcome, as they inspire my muse. Thank you very much for the kind reviews for the previous chapter!
Snape looked around and recognized the well known and familiar Hogwarts grounds, realizing, 'I definitely am at Hogwarts. The halls the man led me through were the Hogwarts halls, even if most of the pictures were missing. Am I in a dream? The boy can't have taken me to the future or to the past now, can he?' he mused, shivering slightly in his normal teaching robes.
He carefully tried to open the doors, infinitely relieved when they opened easily. All of a sudden, realization struck him. 'We must be a thousand years in the past. Maybe the people told the truth when they claimed to be Helga Hufflepuff and Salazar Slytherin. That would explain their strange clothing. Potter said something about Slytherin brewing a potion for him before and he had that book written by Slytherin. They treat him like a son, so he must come here often. Ah, and that's why he is so good at Potions. No wonder, being taught by Salazar Slytherin, the best Potions Master ever.'
Deep in thoughts, Severus slowly returned to the hospital wing, no, it was only a hospital room at that time, glad to find the two people still there with Potter. 'I need the boy to return me to our time,' the truth hit him full force, making him groan in horror of actually needing a Potter to help him.
"Oh, are you back?" Helga greeted him, motioning him over. "That's good; it's not too pleasant spending the night outside. At least here you're safe."
"Can Potter apparate to the past?" Severus blurted out.
"Yes, he's a sand phoenix and can flash through the sands of time, but he is the only one, so you better behave around Harry, if you want him to take you back sometime soon," Salazar sneered. "In the meantime, I might as well teach you some manners."
"It'll be at least three weeks, before I can allow him to flash anywhere," Helga threw in, gently stroking Harry's flushed cheeks, "so you might as well stay over the summer holidays."
"They haven't started yet. I have to teach tomorrow morning. Potter has to take me back now!" Severus tried to keep his tone as harmless as he could even if through gritted teeth.
"I'd rather take you to the ice age and leave you there," Harry mumbled, causing his parents to give him a piercing look.
"Is he awake?" Salazar asked in concern.
"No." Helga shook her head. "But he's not unconscious anymore. He's asleep. Salazar, can you carefully take Harry to his own room, so that we can introduce Mr. Snape to Godric and Rowena?"
"Of course," Salazar agreed, gently scooping the child in his arms.
On their way back to their quarters, they met a group of Ravenclaw students, and Severus already had his mouth opened to hiss at them like he was used to doing when Salazar beat him to it and growled, "What are you doing in the halls after curfew? Five points each from Ravenclaw."
The group hurried back in the direction of their House common room except for one girl with curly brown hair. "Sorry Professor, but is that Harry?" she asked worriedly, pointing to the child in the professor's arms.
"Yes dear, Harry came home, because he has a concussion," Helga explained gently, knowing that the girl was very fond of her son.
"May I see him tomorrow?" Godiva asked pleadingly, ignoring the menacing look she received from Snape.
"Yes, you may. Ask Professor Ravenclaw after breakfast, and she'll bring you to him, but now it's time to go to bed," Helga replied in a soft voice, causing the girl to thank her profusely, before she hurried away.
ハリーと幸せの願い
Harry woke up in the morning and lazily opened his eyes. When he managed to get them to cooperate with him he was looking straight into Godiva's warm brown eyes, which he'd be able to recognize anywhere. He immediately tried to sit up, panicking because she saw him lying in bed, but the girl gently pushed him back down.
"Harry, Professor Hufflepuff said you shouldn't move, so please stay put; otherwise they won't allow me to visit you again," she said in her soft voice, smiling down at him.
'She's so beautiful,' Harry mused, and when she began to softly stroke his flushed cheeks, he suddenly felt the urge to tell her the truth about himself.
"Godiva," he began hesitantly, "I'd like to tell you something. Can you promise me to keep my secret to yourself?"
"I promise," she replied softly, giving him an expectant look.
"I'm a sand phoenix," Harry slowly explained. "You know what a phoenix is, don't you?"
"Yes, like Fawkes, Professor Gryffindor's phoenix, right?"
"Exactly, and my Animagus form is a sand phoenix. A sand phoenix can flash through the sands of time." Seeing that she was listening interestingly, he continued, "I was born in the year 1980."
"980?" she asked in confusion.
"No." Harry lightly shook his head, wincing inwardly, because the small movement hurt. "1980. When I was two years old, I flashed myself exactly one thousand years into the past with accidental magic. At that time, I was living with horrid relatives, and I wished for someone to love me. Well, I arrived here, and since then I grew up here with Professors Ravenclaw, Hufflepuff, Slytherin, and Gryffindor, who raised me as their own son."
Godiva looked stunned. "And why don't you attend Hogwarts along with us?" she asked, slightly confused.
"When I turned eleven, I had to return to the future to attend Hogwarts in the future, but as you know I always come home during the holidays or sometimes even at other times."
"You're miraculous," Godiva said, completely amazed by Harry's story. "You're a week early this time though."
Harry laughed, but his smile faltered quickly. "I have an absolute horrid Potions professor. Can you imagine that he made me serve detention every evening since the beginning of my first year? Anyway, I was in detention, as usual, when my griffin familiar, Löwi, dashed into the room with a message from another teacher, and the greasy git stunned him, causing him to hurt his paw. Seeing that, I became so angry that I flashed all of us here, so that Dad Salazar could teach my professor, who is the Head of Slytherin in the future, a lesson like he already promised several times. Do you know by chance if my griffin is all right?"
"He is, Harry. Look, he's asleep next to your feet," Godiva chuckled. "So you brought your professor here?" she asked in disbelief.
"Yes," Harry replied in a small voice. "I don't think he'll be very pleased to meet my father. Dad Salazar is very angry at him because of the detentions." 'I just hope she'll still be my friend after all that I've told her,' he mused wearily.
"If you can flash people through time, could you take me with you to the future some time?" Godiva asked hesitantly, and Harry felt himself getting very excited.
"Of course I can take you with me. I'd love to take you with me," Harry replied softly.
All of a sudden Helga's voice penetrated the children's ears, "Leofost, you're awake!"
"Hi Mum," Harry said, smiling.
"How dare you flash with such a concussion, never mind flashing an adult plus your griffin without even transforming into your phoenix form first?" Helga asked in an extremely upset voice, causing Harry to cringe.
"Concussion? I've no idea what you're speaking about, Mum, but Snape hurt Löwi and I was very angry at him plus I wanted you to heal Löwi, so I just brought them here like Dad Salazar always told me."
"Well, we'll talk about this again when you're feeling better," Helga replied, running a diagnostic spell at Harry, before she spelled two potions into his stomach, causing him to drift off to sleep within seconds.
"He'll be asleep for at least two hours," she gently told the girl, who was smiling at her son with huge, brown eyes.
"He told me everything about himself," Godiva said softly. "May I stay with him? I brought my books, so that I can do my homework, while he's asleep."
"You may," Helga agreed, glad that Harry seemed to have taken a liking to a girl, whom she approved greatly.
ハリーと幸せの願い
Harry woke up to loud voices next to his bed. He lazily opened his eyes and saw Godiva still sitting on the edge of his bed, while Snape stood in front of her.
"He's ill and he's asleep. You can't speak with him right now, sir," Godiva just told firmly told Snape without showing any signs of backing down, which caused Harry to grin inwardly. 'That's right; tell the greasy git off,' he thought. 'What is he doing in my room anyway?'
"No, he's awake," Snape sneered, stepping nearer to Harry's bed. "Potter, how dare you flash me away from my classroom without my consent?" he barked, not noticing that Godiva whispered something to Löwi.
"How dare you hurt my familiar?" Harry asked back just when Helga silently entered the room after Löwi to witness the conversation. "Professor McGonagall sent him to fetch me, because she knew that I wasn't feeling well and thought that I should return to my room by curfew. She won't be very pleased if I tell her that you hexed my griffin."
"Don't try to make me believe that you attended detention in spite of being sick," Snape sneered unbelievingly.
"I had a splitting headache, and Professor McGonagall noticed that and offered to excuse me from detention, but I didn't want that because I knew that you would ridicule me about it for the rest of the week," Harry gave back snappishly.
"Mr. Snape, Harry is not allowed to have visitors yet," Helga threw in icily. "Please leave immediately."
"The girl was already here when I came," Snape replied, pointing to Godiva.
"Ms. O'Connor is my healer's apprentice and as such I asked her to remain with Harry and look after him," Helga replied in the same voice that would have made Harry shiver if it had been directed at him.
"Very well," Snape said indifferently and left the room.
ハリーと幸せの願い
'Slytherin told me I could come to the Potions classroom and said according to Potter it would be at the same place where it was in the future,' Severus remembered and decided to pay the founder a visit to find out what he was going to do during the next three weeks.
Salazar was just busying himself brewing a potion for his wife when Snape entered the room. Glancing over to his visitor he stated, "As you're here you might as well prepare the ingredients for me. The next ingredient that I need is two basilisk eggs cut into fine slices." He pointed to a work space right next to him.
"Basilisk eggs?" Snape gasped, looking amazed at the ingredients on the table.
"What's wrong with basilisk eggs?" Salazar enquired while he slowly stirred counter clockwise, counting to fifty.
"Well, in our time basilisk eggs are extremely rare and any Potions Master would kill to get one of these eggs into their hands."
Salazar raised an eyebrow. "You just have to ask Harry nicely, if you need any. He can get them for you. He is a very good friend of my basilisk Amaterasu and often visits her. She doesn't mind laying an egg for him."
Seeing that Snape carefully hid his amazement behind a blank mask, he continued, "Harry told me that you're the youngest Potions Master our country has ever seen and he seems to think highly of you in that area. What I can't understand is why you let him scrub cauldrons in his detentions instead of asking him to teach you potions he knows from this time that is now considered lost in your time. Can you enlighten me?"
Snape nearly choked in surprise. "Why would a Potions Master ask a thirteen-year-old to teach him Potions?" he asked incredulously.
Salazar chuckled. "Perhaps because you know that he is able to brew the wolvescure potion perfectly or that he owns a book containing my potions recipes that might possibly contain numerous recipes that may be lost in your time?"
"Our relationship was never good," Snape replied hesitantly. "He wasn't even willing to work together with me in order to revive the wolvescure potion to heal the werewolves in our time."
"Which is not Harry's fault," Salazar added menacingly. "He just didn't work alongside an idiot like you because you apparently hate him for some reason, which he can't understand. Nevertheless, he attends your class in order to learn from you, although all he had to do was to speak with the Headmaster to be freed from Potions class."
"All students are required to attend Potions at least until they have completed their OWLs," Snape disagreed.
"Harry took all of his OWLs here in our time four years ago," Salazar sneered and enjoying his guest's flabbergasted face continued, "and he took his Potions NEWTs last summer. Godric, who spent three months with Harry in the future as his phoenix told me that you chastise Harry as an arrogant, attention seeking brat, but the facts don't match your description, do they?"
"I didn't know," Snape replied tonelessly. "I always wondered why he was so good at Potions."
"He is studying for the Potions Mastery, but due to the lost time due to your detentions he has lost valuable time that is needed in order to study for it," Salazar said, and his expression turned angry. "Fortunately, Professor McGonagall has agreed to give him detention, which he may use to study for the Potions Mastery, during the next school year, at least that's what she promised when she spent Christmas with us last year."
"Professor, would you be willing to teach me while I'm here?" Snape asked hesitantly, causing Salazar to let out a sigh.
"My highest priority is to teach Harry in order to prepare him for the Mastery, but I don't think he'll mind if you join us, provided that the two of you manage to get along. Godric will certainly agree to teach you other things, which are taught in our time, as well."
ハリーと幸せの願い
Over the week prior to the holidays beginning, Severus sat in Salazar's class, interestingly watching how Potions was taught in the past. He even joined the students in their assignments, glad to be able to brew potions again. 'It's strange to be a student again, but it's really interesting. There are several things, which they do that is much easier than how I learned it,' he mused.
Harry spent as much time with Godiva as he could. After two more days of bed rest, during which Godiva joined him every free moment she had, Helga grudgingly allowed him out of bed, provided that he wouldn't do any magic including flying, flashing, or transforming. Therefore, Harry decided to attend classes along with Godiva in order to use the scarce time they had to get to know each other better. Since he still felt exhausted, Harry and Godiva spent all the time out of classes in Harry's room, where Helga still didn't allow any other visitors, and in the evenings, Harry was too tired to join his parents in their quarters, so that to Harry's great relief Snape didn't have a chance to speak with him.
On Saturday, the students left for the summer holidays, and Harry was very sad at the thought that he wouldn't be able to see Godiva for a few months. Unbeknownst to Harry, Helga had agreed with Godiva's mother that the girl could spent the first half of August at Hogwarts for a Healing course, so that she could see if she was really interested enough to begin her apprenticeship after taking her OWLs in two years.
After the students had left, Salazar asked Harry to join him in his office to discuss the schedule for his summer holidays.
"I suggest that you study on your own for two hours after breakfast. After that I'll teach you a few theoretical things, and in the afternoon you're going to brew potions or assist me," Salazar suggested, and Harry agreed immediately.
"All right, Dad Salazar, can we begin immediately?" Harry asked eagerly.
"No Harry, I'm sorry. Mum wants you to rest or play with your siblings over the weekend. She said beginning Monday you would be allowed to study and use simple magic if necessary, but not before. By the way," he said in a stern voice, "Mr. Snape will join us during our afternoon sessions, and I'd like to ask you to get along with him."
"No!" Harry shouted horrified. "No Dad, then I'm going to flash him back to the future before Monday. I don't care if Mum won't like it."