Chapter 24

"Mum," started Dione, shaking Andraste gently.

The girl felt bad for waking her up, but Dione was hungry, and the fruit and rice were almost screaming she should eat them now.

"Mmm?" asked Andraste, sleepily.

"I got some food."

Andraste was fully awake now. She let out an incredulous giggle at the sight in front of her: Dione holding grapes and apples, a plate of rice next to her. Her sapphire eyes shone in delight.

"How?"

"Promise me you will not get angry at me."

Andraste put a hand on Dione's shoulder.

"My child, you have gotten us more food. Do you really think I'll get angry?"

Dione lip her bottom lip and told her what had happened last night with a certain blond boy of her age.

The Snapes found Harry in the garden. He was lying on the grass, looking up at the sky, remembering these past few days from the moment Severus got home with an unconscious Skyrah to Severus confessing he had been the one to kill the unborn baby. Only one day before everything turned upside down, Harry had started to realize how much he cared for the Snapes and how glad he was to live with them, despite some snarky remarks he still received, courtesy of Severus. Nevertheless, the fact that the couple he was beginning to see as parental figures was related to Lord Voldemort, the dark wizard who had killed his parents in the first place, was not something easy to take. His mind formulated more questions and hypothesis as the time went by. He was so engrossed in his thoughts that he did not even perceive the presence of both adults.

Skyrah was fidgeting, aware that disclosing who her father was must have felt like a bombshell had been thrown at the boy. The disappointment and disbelief plastered on his face the moment she uttered the words was still fresh in her mind. She was unsure of what his reaction upon seeing her again would be like, but she had to confront him. Severus held her hand in an attempt to let her know she wasn't alone in this. Skyrah tangled their fingers for a few seconds before letting go and taking a step forward. In the softest voice, she whispered Harry's name.

"How are you feeling?" he asked, standing up.

Her eyes widened. She had been ready to hear the words I hate you or Don't talk to me coming from his mouth, but not this.

"You… You aren't angry with me?"

Harry shook his head, holding his gaze.

"I am confused, awfully confused, but not angry."

She sighed in relief.

"May I," she gulped when she felt a lump forming in her throat and tried again, "May I hug you?"

Her eyes were pleading him, and he found himself giving her a nod. Skyrah couldn't stifle a sob as she enfolded him in her arms. He placed his palms on her back. Severus was observing from afar, relieved that Harry hadn't been harsh on his wife. Her heart would have broken even more if Harry had ignored her or said no.

"How are you feeling?" repeated Harry, drawing back.

Skyrah smiled sadly and looked at Severus while she replied, "I am not fine, but I am better."

Harry became aware of Severus's presence then. He was meeting her gaze with a special glow in his black eyes, that special glow he reserved only for her. They must have made up, thought Harry, suppressing a victorious grin.

"My husband and I wanted to talk to you. You must have lots of doubts. Ask right away. You deserve an explanation."

That was right. Harry had many questions, so many he didn't know where to begin. He chose to start with Severus.

"You saved my life back in my first year, when I nearly fell from my broomstick; and you protected Ron, Hermione and me when Remus… er, well, you know what I mean. Why would you do that?"

"As a Professor I must guarantee safety to all my students."

Harry felt silly for thinking that maybe, just maybe, Severus had cared for him back then.

Failing to cover up his pain, he scoffed, "Of course. It was your job, so even though you were a Death Eater you needed to save me so that you wouldn't get sacked."

"I never said that, Potter. Believe it or not, I care for all my students. I was a Death Eater once, but I am not loyal to the Dark Lord anymore. I haven't been for a long time."

Harry snorted. "Yeah, right. You are no longer a Death Eater. So I should assume that you attended a former Death Eaters' meeting to commemorate the good old times."

Severus squinted. "You know nothing, Potter. You want answers but you don't listen. I said I am not loyal to him."

Skyrah touched his arm, hoping her touch would calm him down. It did.

"Then why did you attend his meeting?"

"Because I had to. I spy for Albus," he said bluntly.

Harry's mouth hung open. The truth was that it made sense. Albus would have never let a Death Eater teach.

"So that is why Professor Dumbledore trusts you…" he whispered to himself. "What made you change sides, if you were a Death Eater once?"

Severus began to sweat. That was the question he had wanted to parry. Noticing his distress, the hand Skyrah had kept on his arm descended until her fingers intertwined with his, lending him the strength he needed.

"Your mother. I wanted to keep her safe. That's why I joined Albus and promised I would protect you. I realized I made a huge mistake the moment the Dark Lord targeted you. I regretted becoming a Death Eater then, but I don't anymore. I wouldn't have helped the Order so much, nor would I have met my wife."

Skyrah brought his hand to her mouth, kissing it sweetly, trying to tell him without words that she was glad she had met him too.

Harry was left speechless. His mother and Severus had been friends, but Harry would have never guessed his mother would have been the reason to make him change sides and make a vow to protect him. That was the reason he saved him back in first and third year. Severus had answered his first question. Harry's mind was still filled with doubts though.

"Why did you kill the baby?"

Severus hissed as if he had been cut with a knife, his eyes clouded with grief again.

"My husband didn't kill her," claimed Skyrah.

"He told me that-"

"I know what he told you. He told me so, too."

"Then why-"

"My father put him under the imperius curse. He had no choice. My father killed her, not Severus."

Harry hated Voldemort even more then. He glanced at Severus, but Severus was staring at his shoes. Harry pitied him. He had felt guilty about Cedric's death and he hadn't even muttered the curse. Severus had, which made everything worse.

Not caring that Harry was witnessing it, Skyrah kissed her husband slowly, trying to make him understand she had meant it when she told him she loved him. Severus gasped into the kiss, forgetting about the boy. Her arms draped over his shoulders as his hands traced her spine and settled on her waist. Once the kissed ceased, Skyrah hugged him strongly.

"Don't lie to me anymore, Severus. I know you feel guilty, but I also know you'll get through this. Our baby wouldn't want you to blame yourself. I don't want you to blame yourself…"

He shut his eyes and brought her closer to him.

"It's hard… I've never been good at forgiving, especially myself."

"You have nothing to forgive, Severus. It wasn't your fault. You couldn't do anything to prevent it."

Strangely, Harry hadn't been bothered by the amorous gestures like he had been the first time he caught them snogging, quite the contrary; he felt a sense of relief. They were grieving, but not separately. That was what mattered the most.

Skyrah broke the embrace after kissing his hooked nose, something which flushed his usually pale cheeks. It was even more noticeable the moment his mind registered the presence of Harry.

Feeling like he was intruding, Harry said, "I'll leave you alone."

Skyrah frowned. "No, please. We didn't intend to make you feel uncomfortable. I'm sure you have more questions."

Harry rubbed his nape. "Does Professor Dumbledore know you are, er..."

"You-know-who's daughter? Yes." She noticed he looked uneasy by her parentage. "I'm not on my father's side. I don't believe in blood purity. I don't support his methods. I… I am just trying to survive and save my family. I told Albus as soon as I got the chance, back when I didn't know Severus was a spy."

"Did you know he was a spy by the time I came to live with you?"

"Yes."

"But you told to Professor McGonagall that you had been married for about week! How did you find out so soon?"

Chuckling, Skyrah replied, "Well, the moment I confessed everything to Albus, he told me where Severus's true loyalties laid, although I thought I was falling in love with the enemy at first. It wasn't easy for me."

Severus blushed, like every time she said she was in love with him.

In a poor attempt to mask his embarrassment, he replied sarcastically, "As if that first week had been any easier for me. You were cold and cunning, but you kept showing sparks of your true nature. I didn't know what to make of you. I did know I wanted the Skyrah who joked in the kitchen to be the real Skyrah, though."

Heat flooded her cheeks at his confession. Harry cracked a grin. It was quite funny to see them flushed. Hermione would have said that it was romantic. They thought they were falling in love with the wrong person when they couldn't be better for each other.

Recovered from the blush, Skyrah teased, "Yes, I can be quite mysterious when I want to be, like a certain Potions Master I know… Being so reserved, wearing all black and all, even to sleep…"

"Skyrah!"

She giggled in response, and soon, Severus found himself chuckling lowly at her lively expression. He had missed that light in her eyes. It reminded him that under the grief, his Skyrah, the Skyrah he cherished so much, was still alive.

Harry recalled all the times she bantered with Severus. He had always wondered in amazement how she did it. Anybody else would be too intimidated to tease Severus or joke with him, but Skyrah didn't care. She thoroughly enjoyed it and Severus always ended with a tiny grin on his face.

The Snapes were looking at each other with a sparkle in their eyes now. Harry wouldn't have been surprised if Skyrah had brought Severus's face down to meet her lips and snogged him senseless. She didn't move, though. They only stared at each other until Harry's stomach protested in hunger.

"Let's have breakfast," proposed Skyrah.

"It's lunch time," said Harry, sniggering.

Skyrah and Severus blushed and exchanged looks. They had been so tired that they had slept until late... And then they had cuddled. For a long time. They regretted nothing.

Harry went to the kitchen and started to look for something to cook in the fridge. Severus and Skyrah approached the boy shortly after, worried.

"We can cook lunch, sweetheart. Well, not we, since Severus ends up doing mostly everything whenever we cook. You see, I am quite bad at it… But that's not the point… The point is that you don't have to cook for us anymore," she babbled.

"But-"

"No buts, Potter. You have already cooked enough. We must be the ones to provide; not the other way around."

Harry shut the door fridge and fell silent, looking at the tiles of the floor.

"What Severus means is that we are sorry you had to take care of us lately. Don't get us wrong, we really appreciate the gesture, but we don't wish you to think you have to cook for us like you did the Dursleys. It makes us feel like we are not better than them. We were supposed to get you out of their hell and you moved to our hell instead. Please, let us cook… You shouldn't have to look after us in the first place."

The aim of her little speech had been to calm the boy down and reassure him. Instead, his fists clenched, turning his knuckles white.

"No!"

"Excuse me?" gasped Skyrah.

"You are nothing like them! You didn't oblige me! I cooked for you because I was afraid you wouldn't eat anything! Because I care for you! This is nothing like the Dursleys! I did it because I wanted to! You took care of me when I most needed it and I took care of you when you most needed it, too! You are not the Dursleys! This isn't abuse! I…" he trailed off. Bitterly, he continued, "I did what any son would have done for his parents, but I see you don't want me. You are so absorbed in the daughter you've lost that you missed the son you could have had."

He ran to his bedroom, closing the door with a bang before the Snapes could see tears stinging in his green eyes. Skyrah felt like he had stabbed her heart. Severus was left speechless. He didn't blame the boy for seeing Skyrah as a mother figure. She was warm, caring, affectionate - everything Severus was not. So why would Harry see him as a father? James Potter would scream and writhe in his grave. It took him a few seconds to realize that Skyrah had run after Harry. Severus groaned, thinking that he wasn't prepared for what was about to come, and snuck into the bedroom.

Skyrah was approaching the weeping boy. She cupped his face so that he couldn't avert her gaze and dried his tears gently.

"Sweetheart, we are sorry we created this impression… I… I don't want you to think I do not care for you. Do you remember the reason I told you I couldn't reveal why I attended the meeting? I told you that I didn't want to lose you, and I meant it. Please, don't do this to me… You have started to see us as parents, and the truth is that I'm starting to see you as-" she trailed off, tears forming in her eyes. Clearing her throat, she spoke again, "as a son. It scares me. You know our identities. You'd be in constant danger if you were to stay with us for real… This was supposed to be temporary."

"I don't care! I want you to be my guardians! I hate the Dursleys, I don't want to go back there!"

"Harry!" The boy looked at Severus, who had used his first name, filling him with hope. "We cannot sign some papers and become your guardians without a cogent reason, no matter how much we want to get you out of those freaks' house."

"Isn't being abused a good reason enough?!"

"You wanted nobody to know about your abuse. Even if you revealed it and we got your guardianship, the word would get around and the Dark Lord would reach you easily. Don't you understand? My cover could be blown, everything I have worked for in life would be in vain and my wife would pay for it, my wife and her family. We can be your mentors, but we cannot be your guardians. We cannot become a family. Life doesn't work like that."

Severus hadn't meant to be harsh, but the truth sometimes was crueler than lies. Harry's hope faded. Flashes of when Severus smiled proudly at him, the time he gave him the muggle photograph and the moment he gave him the potion to sleep came across his mind, alongside the memories he had of Skyrah showing him the garden, hugging and kissing him, tucking him into bed… The realization that he would never experience that again, that school was to begin in a few days and that he'd have to leave the place he had begun to think of as home, his bedroom, came with full force. His dreams were shattered. No matter how hard he tried, the tears couldn't stop brimming over his eyes.

"Sweetheart," tried to comfort Skyrah.

"Don't call me sweetheart!

The word had always made him feel warm inside, but now it only reminded him of everything he'd never have. Skyrah gulped and tried to erase the pain she felt at those piercing words by telling herself Harry didn't mean it. He was just upset.

"Okay, then. Harry, please, we are trying to protect you. That's everything we've done since you came here… The fact that we cannot become a family doesn't mean that the bond isn't already forged. I'll miss you this school year, I know so. I don't want to spend these last three days sulking. I want to go back to the way things were."

Deep down, Harry knew that the Snapes were right, so he let out a sob and threw his arms around Skyrah's waist. She sighed in relief and tenderly kissed Harry's lightning scar. With a tilt of her head, she urged Severus to join them. Reluctant as he was, he gave in when Skyrah looked at him with pleading eyes. He approached the pair slowly and put an arm around her back and a hand on Harry's shoulder. Holding back a sob, the boy pulled back slightly only to crush them both in a tight embrace. Even though Severus felt awkward in this position, he knew that the boy needed this, so he swallowed his pride and said nothing, still resting his hand on his shoulder. After all, it did not feel that bad to be hugged by the boy, although he wouldn't admit that.

"I'm sorry, Harry. I wish it was different," whispered Skyrah.

Minutes later, the boy wasn't crying anymore, only occasionally sniffling.

"Can, er, may we cook together? The three of us… It's nothing like the Dursleys, I swear. I just feel like it. I always watch you cooking and I figured it could be fun to join you, I mean, you laugh," he said, glancing at Severus. "Besides, I cook better than you," he bragged, now looking at Skyrah.

"I could always use some actual help," Severus teased, seeing the bright smile on his wife's face the moment the boy suggested it.

She acted like the comment had offended for a second but ended up giggling and hitting his shoulder playfully before nodding at Harry.

It was past midnight. Andraste had trouble sleeping. She kept thinking of her daughters, of the hell they all were going through just because she made the mistake to believe that Tom Riddle could ever love her. She should have never told him she was with child. She should have disappeared and hidden far away. Skyrah and Dione wouldn't be suffering now. I am the worst mother of the world, she thought.

Footsteps.

She pretended to be asleep, heard some noises and then, silence. She loomed to the bars of the cell curiously. To her great surprise, there was food. Beef and lentils, this time. Andraste narrowed her eyes. There was only one person in this place who had given them extra-food. She was so engrossed in her thoughts she almost missed Dione, who, apparently, hadn't been sleeping either, whispering a name with a soft smile on her face.

"Draco."

Platform 9¾ .

Students crowded the station to the point of suffocation. Most of them were accompanied by their relatives, who were saying goodbye and wishing a good year at Hogwarts. Harry glimpsed at a first year boy with flushed cheeks and lots of freckles. He seemed to be annoyed and ashamed to be with his parents, claiming that he was old enough and that they were humiliating him by kissing and hugging him like that. Harry couldn't help but wish that the Snapes were there with him, embarrassing him the same way that the parents of that boy were doing to him. Well, Severus wouldn't do that, but Skyrah would, and Harry would let her.

His mind was filled with images of the last days of summer vacation. Skyrah and Severus had gone out more - to distract themselves from the pain, Harry bet - and the boy had accompanied them. Most of the time, they walked around the park or ate out, although yesterday they had visited a history museum from London. Skyrah had suggested it, arguing that she had never been there and that the historian within her was craving to go. Harry had expected the day to be boring. Skyrah and her goofy jokes had proved him wrong. She had commented on everything she saw, correcting the information muggles behold like that time she cried out, "Come on, do muggles really believe that the pyramids were built without a trace of magic? Merlin!" Her passion for the subject was contagious. Harry was jealous of Ilvermorny students. They had her as a History teacher. Hogwarts had a dull ghost that only taught them how to sleep in class without being caught. Severus had never seen that facet of hers - the enthusiastic historian. Harry knew because Severus watched her with adoration as she gave little lectures.

The Snapes were slowly adapting to life again. There were times that Skyrah's eyes stopped sparkling or that her face sobered. Sometimes, Severus made remarks which were snarkier than usual. In spite of it, they made an effort to go on. Skyrah had been even more affectionate towards both, himself and Severus. She really wanted to enjoy the last hours of the family they couldn't be. What had shocked Harry the most, though, had been Severus's pleased grin every time Harry dodged a hex or used new charms they had been practicing all summer with ease during the last defense lessons. Severus didn't congratulate him out loud, but that little grin meant the world to the boy.

He had had a good time with the Snapes despite the hard circumstances. If someone had told him the moment Skyrah and Severus entered Privet Drive that he would grow to care for them as parental figures, he would have said that they were crazy and laughed at them. Back then, they were the bat of the dungeons and his unexpected wife. Now they were Snape and Skyrah.

Yes, he wished that the Snapes were there with him, but he understood why they couldn't. A feeling of solitude invaded him. It was strange, to feel so lonely despite being surrounded by so many people.

Amongst the crowd, he spotted a couple of heads: a brown bushy one and a ginger one. He waved at their direction. Hermione and Ron hurried to his side. A new year at Hogwarts was about to begin, a new year that Harry foreboded as interesting, to say the least. It would be worth it just to see the reaction of his peers upon finding out that the greasy git had got married to a gorgeous woman.

The Snapes arrived at Hogwarts early. Albus had owled the couple and asked for them to meet him hours before the feast to discuss something important. He hadn't specified what, but he had made it clear that it was a crucial matter.

"Hello, Skyrah. Severus, my child. Welcome back! I hope you are looking forward to the new school year," said Albus, once they walked into his office.

Fawkes, now no longer a little chick, flapped his wings, as if greeting them.

Skyrah was about to reply cheerfully when her husband's silky voice said, "Go straight to the point, Albus. You said it was a topic of vital importance."

The Snapes would have never guessed just how vital it was.