Back at Grimmauld

Sirius, Remus, Harry, and Severus had a nice lunch.

It was surreal. Even two months ago this would not have been possible.

But now it felt easy. Sirius blurred out the most important change about Severus, he noticed at once, "You don't reek of dark magic, anymore! Ah! And you got your ring, I see!"

Severus frowned and nodded, "Was that, why you were immediately against me when we met as little kids on our first train ride?"

"Well, yes! You smelled like Bella and my mother. Both were entrenched in that stuff and never purified themselves. They thought they didn't need it. And they brought pain. So, I associated the… well… feeling/stench of dark magic, with that."

"I see. Not many have the ability to sense dark magic directly. So, to explain, I did it at such a young age to escape my father and thus pain. It was a safe haven for me. And I hadn't known about purifying my body until much later."

"Shit! So, we were but two sides of the same coin?"

"Quite possibly."

Harry who had listened with great interest asked, "How could dark magic help against your dad?"

Severus blinked and answered, "I could make myself disappear from his sight without a wand. I could cast a shield over my mum without a wand, things like that."

"You can do that with dark magic? Wow. I sure would have used it too then, if I had known!"

"I thought you grew up like a pr... No, you didn't," Severus really looked at Harry and groaned. "I fell for the propaganda, didn't I."

"Yep," Harry made the 'p' pop. "But you got your ring? Wow, it looks like Sirius'. Are you a lord too?"

"Yes, Severus Snape, Lord Prince at your service."

"Lord Prince? Should that make sense? It's like King Baron!"

They all sniggered.

"Maybe he is of royal decent!" Sirius said jokingly but saw Severus wince slightly. "You are!?" He exclaimed.

"Let's change the topic, please? So yes, I am a lord and I have absolutely no idea what that entails."

"Well, I could help you..." Sirius said grinning.

"But?"

"... only if you tell us who your descent from."

Severus shot back, "Only if you swear not to tell anyone else in any form!"

"Deal!"

Severus slumped a little and said, "Those, who don't want to swear, please leave for a few minutes," He waited, but no one moved. "Well then go on and swear."

So, they did and looked at him expectantly and he sighed, "Well, I learned, that all the family rings were crafted by Merlin, Morgan le Fay, and a third unknown person for everyone at the round table and I jokingly said, please don't let me be a descendant of Sir Gawain, who is essentially Gryffindor for me. The goblin said no, and my forefather was in my last name. Prince."

"No! Not Mordr..." Sirius trailed off, eyes bulging.

"Unfortunately, yes."

"Who?" Harry asked.

And Remus answered a little awed, "Mordred, son of King Artur and Morgan le Fay."

"Woah!" Harry imitated Sirius' look. "Does that mean?"

"No, it doesn't. There is no long-lost kingdom I will inherit now, and I certainly can't and won't dethrone Queen Elisabeth II!"

Sirius looked confused, "Who?" And was now stared at with eyes bulging and mouths hanging. "What?"

Remus blinked, "Sirius, she is our Queen!"

"We have a Queen? Since when? Did that happen while I was in prison? I know a band with that name. Lily introduced me to it..."

"I knew, the wizarding world is isolated, but Queen Elisabeth II has been on the throne since the fifties, Sirius," an exasperated Remus said. "But let's go back to the topic that Severus here is a direct descendant of the greatest Kind and the most famous witch of Great Britain!"

"Well, I got the title through my mother. The line was broken if you only look at the paternal line. I bet many of you have them as ancestors in some way."

"Not the Black family, of that I am sure. We descent from someone else."

Now Severus looked interested, "Pray tell, who would that be?"

Now Sirius was in the same dilemma Severus had been in, "Uh..."

"Do we need to swear again?" Harry asked exasperated. Who could possibly top King Arthur?

Sirius nodded and they did. Again.

"Well, our ancestor was a half-demon. He was of the blackest magic..."

Amazingly, Harry was the first to make the connection, "Merlin!"

Remus looked interestedly at Harry, "You know who? Gah, not that one, I meant to say, you know whom he means?"

"Merlin," Harry said again.

"What?" Remus asked.

Now Sirius started to get entertained. Severus had gotten it as well and started chuckling, too.

Remus looked at all of them and said scowling, "Come on, tell me!"

Sirius laughed out loud, and Harry joined in, a little disbelieving still of how obtuse Remus was being.

Severus took pity on the now angry-looking werewolf and said, "The Blacks descent from Merlin."

"Merlin!"

"Exactly."

Sniggers.

"Wow, this conversation is so confusing! But we do have the direct descendants of Artur, Morgan, and Merlin in this room? Amazing! But calling out 'Merlin' or 'Morgana' will be strange now!" Remus said.

They all nodded, quite awed.

Harry thought about it and said, "Do the Potters have rings too? I didn't ask at Gringotts."

Sirius nodded, "They do, and you will take it as soon as you are ready since you will become Lord Potter immediately."

"Like I did – only it was Losr Prince," Severus said in a voice befitting a graveyard, it was so deep.

"Well, I am teaching Harry every weekend. You are invited to join now. We could meet the next couple of weeks every evening and I teach you the basics. I think we should start today. Remus can take over History lessons for Harry here and I show you some of the pensive memories of the first few theory lessons I gave Harry. That way, it will save time."

Severus nodded thankfully, "That would be very much appreciated."

So, they all went to work.


When they joined back together for dinner, Severus asked, "What happened with your account managers anyway?"

Sirius chuckled, "They are so angry at Dumbledore! He overinflated their loyalty and turned it to him somehow. Apparently, he really had to twist them enormously to manage that. Like taking their low-level loyalty to every living being on this planet – as no one wants to live on a dead rock – and twisting it to mean loyalty to him."

Severus looked shocked, "That is quite farfetched!"

"Absolutely! And he used that to have them pay him a small monthly stipend from Harry's and my accounts. He tried to make it more, but their loyalty to Gringotts and gold couldn't be twisted that far."

Harry scowled, "I so want to know, why he needs so much money!"

Severus nodded, "That is the 1000-galleon-question."

They all nodded again.

"But you stopped it?"

"Immediately, and we sued him as well! The goblins were quite happy to help. They have sued him too, for tampering with employees of Gringotts' minds and siphoning money to his own vaults illegally." Sirius said.

Harry exclaimed, "The DMLE must have such a huge list by now!"

They all nodded.

"So, you still have money in your vaults?"

"Yes. And we can be sure now, that he didn't need the money for the Order or to help his friends. Harry and I own quite a few properties he could have rented out for a lower price to his associates, the goblins would have been easier to convince to do that than handing out money directly, but he didn't," Sirius told Severus, who looked thoughtful.

Sirius then turned to the others and said, "It's really a mystery! But what he did, was take Harry's Wizengamot vote and give it to one of his cronies."

Harry scowled, "And the guy voted like no Potter would ever vote, I am sure. I sued that guy as well for unlawfully voting and not doing so in line with the Potter guidelines. He will be in deep shit!"

Remus looked accusingly at Sirius, who pretended not to notice, and asked, "Now how was your history lesson, Harry?"

"Amazing! I learned so much! History and Potions were the lessons I had been looking forward to the most before I came to Hogwarts!"

Severus winced, "I am sorry even more, they were so disappointing then!"

"Yeah, me too, but that was Dumbledore messing with your head, right? Your lessons are sooo good now!"

"Thank you, Mr. Potter, I do try."

Harry grinned and then asked, "And you? How was watching the lessons? Did he show you the practical ones, as well?" Harry sniggered.

"No, he didn't? Only theory, why?"

"Because the dancing lessons became so much more fun after he started dressing in a ballgown!"

"No way!" Remus exclaimed.

Sirius whined, "That was only once! and Harry needed to know, what it is like to dance with a partner wearing one!"

Harry sniggered, "He looked great, Make-up and all, but he didn't shave!"

"I need to see that!" Remus laughed and the rest grinned. Well, except for Sirius.

Harry looked at the poor man and said, "Remember, when I asked you about dentists in the magical world? And you told me, potions could so easily fix the problems that people let it slide? Could we maybe give Tom the barkeep that white potion you took?"

Harry took care not to look at Severus when he asked that.

Sirius took his question at face value and answered, "They are rather expensive, and he would need a tooth-grow potion first."

"Could I like… buy them for him? As thank you, for his help during the summer before my 3rd year?"

"You may certainly do that."

Harry turned his big green eyes to Severus, who had narrowed his black ones, and said, "Could I commission those two potions from you?"

"You look far too innocent to not have a second agenda with this question. Is this your way of telling me, I should take care of my dental issues, as well?"

Harry blushed and nodded sheepishly.

"Well, Mr. Potter, I thank you for your polite way of pointing this out and you are right, I really should. - Very well, I will brew them and alert Poppy to the lax way we wizarding folks handle that topic. Messrs. Flint, Filch, and some others would benefit from them greatly as well, I would think."

Harry nodded enthusiastically and was rather relieved. The Snape of old would have exploded.

Severus was invited to come back the next morning and flooded back to Hogwarts via the special floo, which only wearers of a family ring could use. Convenient, that.

He would have liked to start the tooth potions right away but needed to look through his mind first.


A/N: The stuff about the Knights of the Round Table comes from Wikipedia, my half-remembered childhood reading of Rosemary Sutcliff's books, and my own twist to the story to fit this one. I never saw the Merlin TV series and have no idea, if I went against some lore, that is seen as fact now. 😊


Sunday 1995-9-17

Sunday morning saw Harry, Sirius, and Remus sitting around the breakfast table blurry-eyed. Sirius and Remus had talked long into the night, and Harry had started reading and looked at the clock at 2 am the next time.

"I think, Severus will arrive soon; you asked him to come by this morning, after all," Remus remarked.

"Why did you do that, anyway?" Harry asked interested.

"That would be my question as well," sounded the deep voice of Harry's Potion Teacher from the kitchen door.

"Merlin!" Sirius yelped. He was sitting with his back to the door and sloshed himself with hot tea.

Harry sniggered, while Remus vanished the hot liquid.

"We will take breakfast in the sunroom from now on. Even the informal ones!" Sirius said decisively. "Better security against surprises!"

Kreacher nodded, "At last!"

Sirius groaned. It seemed when sleep-addled he regressed a little. But he shook himself and answered the question, "I asked Harry if I could watch his memory of the resurrection and thought you two might want to join me. Maybe we find some clues the Aurors missed."

The other men nodded grimly, Sirius was right, they should all watch it.

"Uh, do I have to come?" Harry hedged.

"No, pup. If we have questions, we can ask them later. But this will not mean free time for you, I have prepared a lesson in the drawing room. Why don't you start now, we will join you, when we are done."

Harry nodded and marched off to do just that and the three men went to the library to watch the memory, which Harry had deposited in the pensive kept there, last weekend.

Sirius had not had the guts, to watch it alone. Not he told that to anyone!

They watched the memory with horror and then a second time in order to actually notice any details. Afterward, they just sat in their armchairs in deep thought, letting the information settle.

At last, Severus broke the silence, "He used Mr. Potter's blood."

Sirius nodded thoughtfully and then sprang up from his chair and dashed to one particular bookcase, which had not been visible before. He pulled out a very heavy and big tome and carried it to one of the bookstands to leaf through it.

Severus and Remus watched with interest but didn't interrupt the search. Sirius seemed to be hot on the trail to a possible solution, after all.

After about twenty minutes the man exclaimed, "Got it!" And waved for the others to join him, looking at a particular page. The headlines of that chapter were

Recall of Black Blood
When used without authorization.

"That's it!" An excited Remus cheered. "What do you have to do?" He started reading, not waiting for an answer. "Ritual… Lord Black… Other members of the family strengthen… Sirius, this sounds absolutely doable! It is even stronger if the one whose blood was taken can take part! And it's not that hard! It would be even stronger when done on a solstice or an equinox. The next would be the autumn equinox, right? Mabon?"

Sirius nodded, smiling at his babbling friend. To see an alpha werewolf this delighted was fun. He answered, "Yes, the 23rd, of this month."

"Oh no! That would be exactly one day before we do the blood brother thing."

Severus looked up in astonishment, "You plan to become blood brothers?"

Sirius nodded, "Yes, I researched the family rings and the werewolf curse. It seems that putting on such a ring rids the wolf of some of the darker aspects of his kind. There might be another dark curse on the species, which the ring takes care of. Because of this, we decided to become blood brothers for Remus to become applicable to wear a family ring."

"That is amazing! Why isn't it common knowledge?"

"It was, so nearly no one wrote it down…"

"And the blood brother ritual has to be on the 24th?

"Not Exactly. But Remus is afraid of infecting me and it was said in another book that it was best done on a new moon, or on a… oh! Wait a minute please!"

Sirius rushed off again and came back with another huge tome, he heaved onto another bookstand and looked through it. Obviously knowing where to look.

"Aha! On a new moon OR one of the eight high festival days of the calendar is best. We could do both rituals on Saturday next week! The blood brotherhood will be even stronger, as it is so close to the new moon, as well as on Mabon!"

"Incredible! It seems rather fateful."

Severus added, "And for once, it's not Samhain…"

"Right," Sirius nodded. "Well, why don't you go and tell Harry and I write some invitations to Andy, Cissy, and Tonksie."

"Goof," said Remus, as he and Severus left the room.

As they moved down a stair, Severus asked, "Cissy? As in Narcissa Malfoy?"

"Yes, he is in contact with her and, as her husband is awaiting trial, she is free to be herself, it seems."

"Good to know! I always liked her. We were kind of friends at Hogwarts, even if she was a year above me."

"And Regulus one below, right?"

"Yes," Severus looked sad. "He was so not Death-Eater material. Such a bookworm, but wanting to please his family…"

They then proceeded to tell a very happy Harry about their conclusions and waited for Sirius to finish his correspondence.


After a late lunch, Severus told the other three about the questions the heads of houses had regarding the possibility of Dumbledore temporarily influencing teens emotionally and if it would leave any scars - for lack of a better word.

He hit a bit of a snag when Harry exclaimed, "So he did it to all the heads of houses as well? That's why you are all so much better teachers now!"

"Oh, I thought you knew, having a ring yourself."

"I knew about Sirius and me! And wow was there much black goo, especially in my scar! Oh, and I knew about you having a ring, since yesterday. But I didn't know about the rest! Just that Sirius warned you all of the possibility! What a horrible man!"

"Hey!"

"Not you, Sirius! I meant Dumbledore!"

Sirius grinned at Harry.

Severus nodded and scolded himself internally for not keeping track of who knew what. Some spy he was! Well, nothing to it, so he went on, "Anyway, the goblins have no data concerning longer exposure of these methods on young minds for obvious reasons. So, we grew a little concerned about the so-called golden trio especially, with all your 'adventures' and such."

Harry was biting his lip, looking concerned, "It would explain, why Hermione decided to brew a… oops, no, forget what I said…" He waved his hands as if to make everyone forget he had talked and then went right on talking, "It could explain Ron's descent into idiocy, right?"

"We will talk about that interrupted sentence later, Mr. Potter, but yes, it might. But be aware, that some teenagers just become unstable and nasty all by themselves. Hormones and magical development are hard at work during that time of development. Though Mr. Weasleys recent behavior brought up the question in the first place."

Sirius looked a little worried and asked, "So what do you propose we do? Go to the goblins again and have Harry checked?"

"You could do that, or you trust me enough to let me take a look. I am quite accomplished in doing that, by now. But I would not be upset or annoyed at all if you'd rather have the goblins have a look."

Harry looked at his teacher and considered the question, "Would it take long?"

"Just a couple of minutes, as long as your guardian consents as well."

Sirius tilted his head slightly in thought and then nodded, "It's up to you, pip, but I saw him do it with others. It looked painless and was done quickly. You would have to take off the ring though."

"Uh right. If you don't mind professor, I really would like to know!"

"It is no bother at all, Mr. Potter. Why don't you relax in your chair and let me look into your eyes, you shouldn't feel a thing."

A minute later Severus pulled out of Harry's mind and said to the slightly worried-looking two men and the blinking teen, "Well, all is as it should be. If it's due to the family ring, or due to the nature of his resilient teenage mind, I cannot say."

A relieved Harry put his ring and new glasses back on and asked, "What about the others? Would you look? Would you need Hermione's parents' consent as well? And Ron? Uh, his mum…"

"All good questions, Mr. Potter. Well, regarding Mr. Weasley I could maybe alert William Weasley to the possibility. He works at Gringotts after all, and probably can have his brother scanned on reduced fees for employees."

"Yes, that sounds good! And Hermione?"

"I will talk to her. Maybe bring her to my office on Monday evening at seven."

"Yes! May I tell her beforehand? She will want to know why."

"That is a little tricky as the emotional manipulations haven't been made public as of yet. Do you think you can talk to her alone and she will keep it to herself for the time being if you ask her to?"

"Sure!"

Severus nodded and took his leave to write to Bill, as well as to brew the tooth potions and inform Poppy of the matter. He would come to Grimmauld Place a little later on Monday for his lessons, they had decided. He wasn't really worried about Potter and Granger spilling the story. They could keep secrets and with all the theories floating around Hogwarts about all the events and changes, what was one more, anyway?


Back to Hogwarts

When Harry arrived back at the Great Hall in Hogwarts this evening an excited Hermione pounced and hugged him, "Did you see the papers today?" She called in his ear, making him wince. "Sorry!" She pulled back and grinned at him. "I am just so happy for Nev!"

"Uh, what about him? I actually missed the paper today."

"Apparently Neville's Grandmother discharged Neville's parents from St. Mungo's Hospital, where there have been since '81, and brought them to Gringotts. And the Goblins could help them! They are conscious again, if weak! Madam Longbottom is suing the hospital now because they just stashed the Longbottoms there and did nothing to help them."

"Wow! That is amazing! I didn't even know about Nev's parents! That is great! Is he here?"

"No, his grandmother took him out of school for a week, so they all could spend time with each other! It's so amazing!"

"It really is! But also, a bit frightening. To think that the leading magical hospital in our country didn't help them, but Gringotts did within a day, or hours even! And they are nobility. How bad are they in treating average people then, I wonder!"

Hermione looked worried and nodded, "Good point!"

"Dumbledore couldn't have gotten to them too, right? This is becoming absurd how many people has he twisted on such a fundamental level Even Goblins were not safe from him!"

"No!"

"Yes! But let's look for a more private place, where I can tell you all about it, ok?"

Hermione looked around and saw many quite disappointed faces at their house table, where they had sat down while talking, and nodded, "Sorry folks, you need to get your gossip fodder somewhere else, now."

The people sitting in their vicinity laughed and started talking to each other, while Harry and Hermione went looking for an empty classroom. Their Slytherin friends joined them and soon Harry had filled Hermione, Daphne, Tracy, Blaise, and Theo in on the goblins, whom Dumbledore had influenced, and his Potter votes, which had been used against the Potter guidelines. He kept the meddling their former headmaster did with their teachers' emotions to himself though, as he was only allowed to tell Hermione for now.