September 1996

"Harry! We're going to be late!" Severus called for the third time that morning, this time though from directly outside of his teenage son's door.

"I'm almost done!" The sixteen-year-old Gryffindor called out from inside his bedroom.

Cautiously, Severus opened the door and pinched the bridge of his nose when he saw the mess around his son's normally almost-too-tidy bedroom. They were getting ready to head back to Hogwarts from Spinner's End to start Harry's sixth year. Harry's bedroom was small, but comfortable with light blue walls that almost matched his room in their quarters at Hogwarts, but here instead of Quidditch posters, the walls were adorned with sketches, drawings, and paintings Harry had completed over the years. There was everything from his friends studying in the Gryffindor common room, to Hedwig flying over the forbidden forest, to the sun setting over the dirty smokestacks Harry could see from his bedroom window, and even one of Severus himself working over a cauldron in his potions lab. Harry had a natural talent he'd inherited from Lily's genes and Severus loved to tell Harry all about his mother's favorite hobby; the one they share. Harry had a twin bed in the far left corner made up neatly with a blue bedspread, a wardrobe on the right wall, and a small bookcase next to it filled to the brim with all sorts of books. It was the bookcase causing the issues that morning.

"I borrowed a book from Hermione and I have no idea where I put it," he said, placing several more books into the pile on his left.

"You could have asked me to summon it for you," Severus said, casually pulling out his wand and calling Accio Hermione Granger's book. Three books came flying to him from under a red Gryffindor jumper on the other side of the wardrobe. "Knowing the name would have been a bit more accurate, but I'm certain it's one of these?"

Harry flushed and Severus knew it was because one of the side effects of the potions he was taking caused him to forget simple things at times. While not ideal, it was an improvement over where he was at the beginning of the summer. Harry had a rough summer with the start of his potions regimen to battle the Leukemia he was diagnosed with at the end of last term. Harry had spent most of June laid up in bed as his body got used to the different potions most of which left him so nauseous he could barely keep any food down for the first month. By the time of his birthday, however, both his body had adjusted and Severus made some tweaks to the formula used and he was handling it much better. With Harry taking as many as 6 different potions per day, it was sometimes a struggle for the Potions Master to keep up with making so many fresh each week, but he was committed to doing anything to help his son recover from this muggle disease.

"This one," the teenager said, grabbing a copy of an advanced potions book that Severus made a mental note to discuss it with him at a later time. "Thank you Dad."

"You're welcome Harry," Severus said waving his wand across the room to clean and finish packing the teenager as well as shrinking his trunk and broom for easy transportation. "Let's get to King's Cross Station before you're late."

Only a quarter of an hour later, they were on their way to the train station. Unfortunately, Severus would have no way of knowing the horror he would experience before the year was out or the fact that this would be the last time he saw his son off to school on the Hogwarts Express.