I do not own anything. I'm just translating. The characters belong to the great J.K. Rowling. The story belongs to the amazing Brigi. Her e-mail: tbwtpbe [et] hotmail com
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THE BOY WITH THE PIERCING BLUE EYES
Chapter 39 – Two Silver Merlins (part 2)
Meanwhile, the two wounded Weasley brothers, Bill and George recovered. Since they no longer had a home to return to they spent their time in the castle. On their faces, the only emotions that could be seen were sadness and guilt. Their parents came to visit often and even Percy dropped by a few times making the two feel better. In addition, their relationship with the youngest Weasleys, Ron and Ginny, became more loving and tight causing the two much wonder. The girl was used to the rudeness and roughness of the boys and it never bothered her that they didn't pay her much attention because she was a girl. Ron however, who spent his life in the shadow of his older brothers was completely surprised by the change.
On Valentine's Day they headed out to Hogsmeade with mixed feelings and feeling a little miserable for leaving the injured Weasleys in the castle.
Harry quickly left Ron and Hermione to let them have their coffees in peace. Ginny went to roam the town with Luna who looked terrible mostly because she wrapped her Ravenclaw scarf around her head like a nun.
Harry bough a nice greeting card for his girlfriend which he was planning to send with Hedwig. He also bough a bottle of ink, some parchments and two new quills since he sat on his old ones some days ago and they all broke. He was running out of sweets too, so he bough a lot from Honeydukes.
He was walking back to the castle alone when he noticed George and Bill sitting near the lake talking. He approached them quietly, so they only noticed him when they saw his shadow. They looked up curiously.
"I don't want to disturb," Harry said. "I just brought something that might make you feel better."
He reached into his bag and pulled out two bars of chocolate.
"Just like Santa Claus," he grinned then shrugged and left, leaving the brothers in astonished silence.
"Despite what Dad said, I feel so helpless," Harry said bitterly as one of his spells threw a small pillow at the wall.
"Everyone wants to do something," Lamerin said while sitting by the wall because he got bored practicing. He started playing with his wand instead.
The others long went back to their rooms while Ron and Hermione couldn't even come since they had to patrol the corridors.
"And it's selfish to think that I'm the only one feeling like this… I know," Harry finished his sentence. "I wish your Dad would come back… or at least Remus…"
"You know, when you said that Professor Lupin was going too, I was hoping that he was going so Dad can come back… but no… And somehow I feel so lonely without Dad here… I spend the day sitting in the living room looking at his books and stuff…"
"You don't have to stay there all the time. You can go to one of my classes if you want… whichever you want to. It might be good for you…"
Lamerin didn't answer right away, so Harry know he was seriously thinking about it.
"Potions will be the first one. I don't have my books here but you can use one with Neville. And you can take parchment and quills from here…"
"I think I'll do it… but only if I can teach you later. I don't want you to miss something because of me…"
The next day, Lamerin Snape ate his breakfast while sighing in the Great Hall at the Gryffindor table. Hermione as she passed him ruffled up his hair thinking it was Harry.
"Hi…" the students greeted him some with toothpaste around their mouth.
In his depressed mood, he buttered his toast then put some jam on it but he still ate it like he was munching on paper. The next bite caused him to almost drop the food as loud banging noise came from the corridor.
The two explosion-like sounds got everyone's attention though it sounded similar to how Filch opened the castle doors every morning. It was followed by growls, thuds and shuffling… then a piercing scream.
Lamerin immediately had a bad feeling and jumped up to follow Honeybourne who ran towards the sound with his wand at a ready followed by most of the teachers. They were all shocked by the sight that greeted them.
Two men in shrouded clothes, shivering from cold held onto the door though one of them seemed weaker and fell to his knees. He seemed to be at the end of his strength. As he fell on the ground they recognized Remus in him.
The other man leaned against the wall and slid to the ground slowly. Panting heavily, he wrapped his arms around himself tightly. His face showed how much he struggled to stay conscious and he appeared to be on the verge of hypothermia.
"Severus!" Honeybourne cried in astonishment.
Lamerin was about to shout 'Dad' when he realized that with his current looks and half the school present that wouldn't be a good idea.
However, the woman who was tied up with anti-Apparation ropes screamed again. Apparently, the cold pushed her into a panicked state and that was the reason why she acted like she's gone crazy. Her long hair was dirty while her elegant red robes became brown with mud. Her face was covered with cuts, bruises and dried blood. She was missing a shoe and her foot and leg was so dirty it looked like she was wearing black shocks. Her lips and skin was turning blue from the cold.
Lamerin had never seen the woman before but when the students started to back away one of them uttered her name.
"It's her… Bellatrix Lestrange! I've seen her picture in the Daily Prophet!"
The teachers immediately seized the woman so she wouldn't be able to escape and the ones who couldn't get near went to fetch Madame Pomfrey. The two professors were rushed to the Hospital Wing and some of the students already started talking about them as heroes.
"Prefects, lead the younger students to their respective classrooms. The others will be able to find their way on their own, I believe," Dumbledore issued instructions.
On the headmaster's face there was a somewhat special expression… a spark of joy as he looked at Lamerin. He was surprised when Harry started crying. He was expecting something else…
Lamerin wanted to run to his father to help him… he felt his heart breaking at the sight of the man suffering. However, Ron pulled his arm.
"Come on, let's go!"
"But…!" Lamerin protested.
"Please, it's really hard to move in this crowd!"
"But…!"
Severus sat on one of the beds in the Hospital Wing, after cleaning up and putting on warm clothes, with some whisky in hand that Madame Pomfrey gave him as prescribed medicine.
Rowena stood beside him with her hand on the man's shoulder with eyes glistening from tears of joy.
"I'm so happy…" she whispered.
She took Snape's head in her hands and kissed his forehead before crying softly.
Severus smiled and made her sit down beside him then took her hands.
"Rowena, where's my son?"
It took some time before the woman could answer.
"I haven't seen him at breakfast… He might still be asleep… He's been really sad since you left… He was alone a lot though the children tried to visit him often. And he was sick and had a fever too…"
"He was sick?" Severus' heart clenched. "But… he's well now, right? I have to see him!" he stood up from the bed.
The woman holding his hand walked to the Slytherin corridors with him. The professor opened the door and peered into his son's room.
The child was still in bed, his long hair spread out on the pillows. He didn't seem to notice their arrival.
Severus walked up to the bed and sat on the edge to stroke the sleeping boy's hair but his hand stopped in mid air. A startled, almost offended expression appeared on his face. He put his hands on his heart as he backed away from the bed.
"This… this is not my son!" he blurted out. "What the…?"
"Dad, wait! I'm your son," Lamerin burst into the room looking like Harry and wearing the Gryffindor boy's clothes.
Both adults paled.
"Harry!" Rowena gasped since Severus couldn't speak.
At the same moment, Harry woke up.
The Potions Master stood completely puzzled by this. In his son's bed slept an impostor who wasn't his own flesh and blood but looked like his beloved Lamerin. In addition, a 'stranger' stormed into his chambers looking like Harry claiming to be his son.
"It's me, Dad!" the one looking like Harry pulled out his wand making the adults instinctively flinch. He touched it to his hair and whispered a spell that made it grow. His eyes turned back into their sapphire like blue color.
Severus looked towards the bed with heaving chest and saw the other boy using the same charm. He left the hair long but his eyes turned green and the well-known lightning scar appeared on his forehead. He sat with a mischievous smile on his face.
"Amazing," Rowena sat down watching the two boys.
Harry climbed out of bed and ran over to Lamerin. He looked somewhat amusing standing there in the young Snape's black silk pajamas while his friend wore Gryffindor robes.
Severus looked between them. They looked so alike…
"What's this?"
"Nothing! Hug me!" Lamerin ran to him.
"You ran off form class?" Harry asked grinning.
"Yes! I wanted to see Dad! Honeybourn will lose it the next time he sees you…"
"I hope there won't be a next time and the professor will come back to teach," Harry turned towards Severus.
"You switched places?" the man swallowed hard.
"But it's a serious breach of the Hogwarts rules!" Rowena cried out in horror. "What were you thinking?"
"It was my idea," Harry straightened up. "Lamerin's not at fault."
"Yes he is!"
"No one knows beside the two of you!"
"And it's my fault we got caught!" Lamerin apologized.
"Harry, you didn't go to your classes?! Do you have any idea how much you missed?!"
"He didn't miss anything. I thought him everything at night! He needed my help to…"
Harry elbowed him and the older boy stopped talking. Severus tried to look into their minds to see what they were hiding, but the boys looked down so his attempts were unsuccessful.
"Why did you do it?" he asked eventually.
"We just had to take care of this and that," Harry said mysteriously. "And Lamerin could finally experience what it is like to go to school."
"It was so good to study!" his son sounded enthusiastic.
"You can take private lessons, if you want… but we've talked about it before…"
"That's different from being in a class!"
"Everything had a purpose… a good purpose," Harry added.
"Then why are you being secretive?"
"You managed to rescue the Weasley brothers and the girl right? Are they okay?"
"How… do you know?"
"We've been working on that too, Dad! Please tell me they're okay!"
"Yes… Kingsley and Arthur are with them in St. Mungo's."
"They're not seriously injured, right?"
"Their wounds must have been serious but most of them are already healing… I don't think there's permanent damage…"
"We have to tell Bill and George!"
However, before the two boys could run out of the room someone knocked on the door. They could hear the Headmaster coughing outside.
"Dumbledore!" the two children froze. "That idiot Honeybourne must have ran to him when you left!"
"Quick!" Rowena urged them. "Change so he won't know what you did! And you, keep the headmaster occupied!" she told Severus, though the man didn't like the idea of deceiving the man. "Harry, your hair!"
The two boys started changing quickly. Harry got his own clothes while Lamerin looked for something appropriate in his closet.
"… and I just wanted to see if he was well again," Severus finished as he let Dumbledore in, though he did it as slowly as possible.
"I see… well, I think you'll be needed because Mr. Fudge has just arrived and… Harry!" he raised an eyebrow upon seeing the boy. "Shouldn't you be in class?"
"Uh… I asked to be let out so I could go to the Hospital Wing…"
Dumbledore, after hinting that this place was nowhere near the Hospital Wing, quietly said.
"Professor Honeybourne said something along the line of you storming out…"
"He probably just wanted to tell me that Dad and Professor Lupin came back with the prisoner," Lamerin said not even looking at his father who paled at the series of lies.
While Dumbledore nodded, Harry whispered to Lamerin, "Remus? Remus is here and you didn't even tell me?!"
"I suggest we all go to the Hospital Wing," Rowena recommended, trying to end the awkward silence. "Minister Fudge can listen to Severus' report and Harry can say hello to Remus… Professor Honeybourne will come up with some sort of punishment for running out of class."
The headmaster appreciated the offer and opened the door for the woman before following her with the rest of them. The two boys relaxed as they walked through the corridors.
At the entrance of the Hospital Wing there was a huge crowd. Among the people were two Daily Prophet photographers who tried to make as many pictures as they could. The journalists wrote down even the tiniest details. Smaller newspapers also sent their representatives to report the big news of two professors catching a wanted criminal. The tabloid magazines were trying to get the juicy details while the most prestigious women's magazine paid much attention to Remus' death-defying bravery. Some questions made Lupin blush and unable to answer because he wasn't used to the fair sex complimenting him. Six journalists watched his every word when the small group arrived.
"Minister!" the editors shouted.
"Take a picture! Quick! Snape's next to him too!"
"Professor, just one question!" they pushed around him.
"Make a statement, Minister!"
"What's going to happen to Bellatrix Lestrange?"
"How safe do you think Azkaban is for her?"
"Do you think it will affect You-Know-Who that his most trusted supporter was captured?"
Harry felt his throat going dry. Bellatrix? What's she doing here? His blood froze when he looked at Snape and the man nodded.
While the minister adjusted his clothes to look good on the pictures Harry slid into the room to talk to Remus.
"Remus, is it true?" he whispered though he knew the people around him could hear it if they wanted. "You really caught that horrible woman who…"
His voice broke. Remus stroked his face with his cold, bandaged hand then pulled him close to hug him and whisper in his ear so no one else could hear.
"That's why we brought her here… Dumbledore has something planned for her…"
Harry felt his whole body tremble as a cold shiver ran through him.
They vaguely noticed that some pictures were taken of them and they already heard the Witch Weekly journalist writing the article about how 'the poor orphan boy cares about the best friend of his late parents'. Questions were thrown at the headmaster because Snape wasn't really talkative. Plus he didn't have time to talk to Dumbledore about how much they can tell the public.
"Minister Fudge, what does the arrest of Lestrange mean? Can we expect similar news in the future?"
"Minister Fudge, can you explain why two esteemed Hogwarts teachers had to go pursuit criminals? Doesn't this say something about the Aurors of the Ministry?"
Harry and Remus exchanged a smile.
In the crossfire of questions and the constant flashes, Caramel started sweating visibly.
"What does the Anti-Black-Magic League say about this unexpected turn of events?"
"The League," the minister said hoarsely. "…has expressed its gratitude to the two professors and offered to take them as honorary members. I am offering this in their behalf," he turned to Snape then Lupin. "It is only an honorary membership because we presume they want to stay in the castle to continue teaching."
Harry squeezed Remus' hand in excitement. Finally! His beloved uncle finally got the recognition he deserved and was deprived of for years!
"In addition, although this is not official yet, I would like to give them both a Silver Merlin Award…"
The crowd roared at that and started writing furiously. Harry almost tackled Remus down in his joy; he was happy for the man to be able to get out of his poor living conditions since both the league membership and the Merlin Award provided annuity.