Song Recommendations: Tired Eyes by Rival Summers
Strangers by The Rosa (kpop again)
AN: The quarantine has been a really odd experience and made me remember some of the things that happened to me or that I liked when I was a kid. I grew up in really rural areas and my parents didn't really care about how sociable their kids were so I spent every single day around only my immediate family. It's been nice to reminisce. Anywho…. I don't own anything of import so there we are.
The classes weren't anything too incredible. If you ignored the fact that all of the subjects were purely magical, you could easily think you were in any other school in the world. The first sign that anything was out of place was their first Potions lesson on the sixth. Harry, Hermione, and Neville had stuck together thus far, often spending their free time with Annalise, Fay, Dean and Seamus, Padma Patil and Lily Moon from Ravenclaw, or Hannah Abbott and Susan Bones from Hufflepuff. Harry had been approached by Draco Malfoy once when they had seen him in the library but they wouldn't call him a friend. Since the tables in the Potions classroom were meant for two people, Harry told Hermione and Neville to pair up and he'd find someone else. He ignored the frantically gesturing Weasley and asked Draco to sit with him. Harry almost savored the shocked faces that resulted every time he was polite to the blond boy. Weasley especially seemed enraged by the simplest of conversations. It seemed the freckled boy thought politeness was the same as agreeing with the Death Eater ideology.
The class was mostly watching Harry and Draco converse calmly when the potions Master swept in. According to the rumors the first years had all heard, he seemed to have mellowed out during the summer and had lost much of his sting. Apparently this was the first year he hadn't made a new Hufflepuff cry on their first lesson. It was also the first year in students' memory that he hadn't taken points every class period. The man quietly and gravely called roll and gave a speech about the artistry of potion-making. He made the instructions to a simple potion appear on the board and instructed them to begin. Harry had started studying potions when he was nine plus his grandmother loved cooking so he had a perfect foundation for that class. He began calmly, keeping his eye on the table next to his where Neville and Hermione were working. Over the last three days of class, he'd noticed Neville was a bit nervous and Harry hoped Hermione's controlling and incredible ability to focus single mindedly without losing track of her immediate surroundings would help keep Neville from making a terrible mistake.
He was halfway through his potion when he looked up to the clock on the professor's desk and caught the man's eye. He felt a brush on his consciousness. It was barely a tickle that made the little hairs on the back of his neck stand up. It was clear the sallow man wasn't trying to rip into his mind but just slip in for an inoffensive look. Harry frowned and pushed back, a little stronger than the man had done. Snape's only reaction was the marginal widening of his eyes. Harry took advantage of the man's surprise to focus back on the tabletop before him and the process of brewing. The class came to an end without any distractions other than Dean spilling half his potion when he attempted to bottle it and Crabbe and Goyle making a neon pink cement mixture instead of the assigned potion.
"Your potions will be graded by next class. I expect you to read the next chapter of your texts and write an essay on the four ways of preparing ginger and the difference between dried and fresh. Each essay may be no shorter than eight inches or longer than twelve. You are all excused. P- Lansing see me for a moment."
Harry and his friends packed their things and the other Gryffindors told him they would wait for him outside. Even Ronald stayed, expecting Harry to need defending or ridicule after he was dismissed. Harry stood quietly next to the professor's desk, waiting for the last of the Slytherin stragglers to finish their ill concealed gawking and pretend packing so that he could be alone with the thin man. Once they were all alone, the two stared at each other in silence. In Harry's case; he wondered why a so-called genius would risk his entire career on skimming through an eleven year old's mind. Even if he got out of a short prison term, Harry's family would make sure the man learned his lesson. In Snape's, he wondered why a child needed and had mental barriers like Lansing's. He also wanted to ask about his family and clarify his suspicions.
"What can I do for you, professor?"
"I….who do you live with?" Harry's confusion must have shown on his face because the man quickly added, " You look like the missing son of a friend of mine and I thought.. Perhaps.."
"My mother and grandmother are my guardians. That you thought whatever you thought doesn't give you the right to attempt Legilimency on me, sir."
"I was just trying to assure myself of your identity and safety."
"Legilimency without permission by the subject, their guardian, or the courts is illegal in every magical country in the world. You could always have asked me any questions you had without attempting to search through my mind. If a magical child is missing, you would do well to let the DMLE know so they may begin a search using authorised means instead of committing illegal acts on a minor. If that was all, sir?" Snape's face hardened into a glare and Harry just stared impassively back.
"You are dismissed." Snape watched the young boy leave the room and then hurried into his office. The fireplaces in the teachers' offices were always connected to the Floo network and were the only fireplaces that connected directly into the Headmaster's office. All it took was a soft whoosh of green fire and a short phrase for Severus Snape to disappear from his office and appear in the office of Minerva McGonagall.
"Severus! You know better than to floo without warning! I say, are you alright?"
"No Minerva, I'm not. I've just done something incredibly stupid." The aged Transfiguration professor sighed heavily and poured him some brandy. Despite her dislike of the sour man, she was not the type to kick a man when he was down and so refrained from asking which of his many stupid decisions he was talking about. "I used passive Legilimency on the Lansing boy."
"Severus, that's against the law!"
"I know, and he reminded me of it."
"He felt you in his mind?" Minerva wasn't even mildly interested in the mind arts but she knew passive Legilimency was only felt by those who dabbled in either Legilimency or Occlumency.
"He has fully formed mental barriers and refuted any entry. I didn't even get a glimpse of anything."
"That doesn't surprise me as much as you'd think. My father attended with the last Lansing and he always said rumors about that family were incredibly understated. You'll be dragged before the Wizengamot when he lets his parents know. Oh, Severus what were you thinking?"
"The same thing most of us are, Minerva. He looks very like Potter and Lily. I needed to know if the boy and Harry are one and the same."
"Severus, you know as well as I do that the admittance scroll shows us childrens' true names. It's the address quill that uses their most used names. If Hawthorne Lansing is what was written in the scroll, then Hawthorne Lansing is who he is. I wish you'd talked to me before doing such a thing. I have been planning to write to his family so I can meet with them under the excuse that I like to know the parents of my lions."
"He said it's just him and his mother and Grandmother."
"What?"
"I spoke to him after class and he said he lives with his mother and Grandmother. I just….I don't know what to do anymore." There was an odd quality in his voice that had Minerva looking at him more closely. Ever since she had told the other Heads about Harry Potter's disappearance, Severus had been looking defeated and tired. He rarely ate with them and hadn't taken more than twenty points from Gryffindor since term had commenced. His very being sang with some kind of staleness that did not bode well for his continued existence.
"Severus, you'll end up serving prison time."
"We both know I more than deserve it, Minerva. It's no great secret I was a Death Eater. If Albus hadn't spoken for me, I would probably have died in Azkaban. I'm not here because I enjoy teaching either, and we all know it."
"I've always wondered why you are here, to be honest."
"Albus is convinced the Dark Lord isn't completely gone. He thought it best that he keep his eye on me while we waited for his resurgence. I happen to believe he'll find a way to come back. He often bragged about his 'journey into immortality'. Anyway, I asked to hide away somewhere, maybe start an owl order business or some such. He said he preferred me here, where I could gain the Slytherins' confidence and provide him with inside information."
"Bastard. The more I find out, the more I wonder where he went wrong. What can i do to help you, Severus? Prison is no laughing matter and your sentence will be lengthened since the boy's family has a seat on the Wizengamot."
"There's nothing you can do. I knew what I was getting into. Granted, I didn't know he'd have shields or even be able to feel an intrusion. I am sure Albus will attempt to get me out of it but I don't believe he'll be successful. The most I can hope for is a shortened sentence with his involvement."
Minerva poured them both more brandy and they sat in silence, troubled by the past and the future.
Hawthorne had left the classroom to find most of his Gryffindor year mates waiting for him. Only Ronaldd had chosen to leave, his love of food considered more important than the safety of his classmate. Hermione immediately wanted to know what he'd been asked to stay back for.
"It's not a public matter, Hermione."
"But what did you do? Teachers don't just keep students back for no reason."
"I didn't say he had no reason. I said it was a personal, private matter."
"Yes, but what was it?"
"It was private Hermione. Private means it isn't something I want to share."
"But I'm your friend!" Neville and Harry shared a look while the others just rolled their eyes at the wild haired girl. Parvati and Lavender didn't hate Hermione but they were decidedly less accepting of her nosiness and disdain for their girly behaviours. Annalise and Fay were much more tolerant of their roommate but even they were a little weary of her pushy nature and so Hermione's best friends were the two boys she had met at the train station.
"Hermione," began Neville with a sigh, " what is the definition of private?"
"Belonging to or for the use of one particular person or a group of people. Why?" The Gryffindor's internal sighs of annoyance were almost audible.
"Because you are not part of the particular group to which that information belongs. Just like I don't ask about things that are private to you. I have a right to keep things to myself just as you do and everyone does. So long as it isn't anything that can put anyone in danger or has anything to do with anyone other than my family and I."
"But I'm your friend!"
"Have you had your first period? Has your father ever cheated on your mother? Is it true your mother walks around the house in her lingerie?" Hermione's scandalised face was entertaining and the other Gryffindors fell against the stone walls giggling.
"Harry! Those are private things!" Hermione's shriek of anger made the group of eleven year olds laugh even harder.
"Ex-actly. You keep p-pushing for information Haw-thorne said was pri-private. That means he didn't want-t to share it with us. Your priv-privacy is not more important than anyone else's. Sometimes that means they don't want-t to share something that you would-d be okay with sharing. But the only one who gets-s to decide what Hawthorne shares is Hawthorne. It's r-rude to push for answers." Neville's surprisingly stern voice scolded the girl. Hermione frowned and huffed but apologised. The first year Gryffindors quickly forgot about the entire situation. That night, however, a call was made from the Lansing home to Australia and the United States. By Monday, two angry magical Lansings were walking into the Ministry of Magic.
AN: Is Severus Snape getting some redemption? Is Ron (don't get me wrong I love Ron and Harry's friendship but I feel he'll be a better friend once he learns some things)? IS Draco deserving of redemption? Is Dumbledore? We'll see.
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Recommended Reading: Your Adorable Accident by in-Pursuit-Of-Magic (sweet little Harmony oneshot)