The Half-Giant Family
Chapter 3: Will Reading and Adoptions
Severus was still clinging to Harry, trying to protect him from the world which had already been so cruel to him in his short fifteen months, as Hagrid did his inheritance. He was trying to think of something, anything that he thought might be able to help get rid of the Horcrux in Harry without having to kill the child.
But he couldn't.
He couldn't think of anything.
A brief thought of stopping his heart then restarting it like a muggle would passed his mind, but he shoved it away angrily.
No.
It was unthinkable.
What if Harry's heart didn't restart?
What if he stayed dead?
No.
It wasn't happening.
He couldn't do it.
Never.
"Mummy, okay?" Harry asked him quietly, and again it tore at his heart, but it also shocked him that Harry would ask him that.
"I'm fine, baby," he said, not really in his right mind.
Not until he saw the child's grin anyway, "See, mummy," Harry said, pointing at Severus cheerfully.
"No, Harry, I'm not your mummy," he urged.
"Do you not want me?" Harry pouted, his lips quivering.
"Of course I want you, Harry,"
"Then you my mummy," Harry beamed.
"Hagrid wants you, too. Doesn't that make him your mummy too, then?" Severus tried to reason with him.
"Nope," Harry shook his head, grinning, "He papa. You mummy,"
He saw Hagrid beam out of the corner of his eyes.
He sighed. He will sort it out another day. He was sure he could get Harry to stop calling him mummy.
The question was, though, did he actually want to?
No. He would. He had to. Lily was his mum. Not Severus.
"So, everything seems to be in order regarding your identities. There is still much to do, however," Ragnok said, drawing Severus' attention to him once more, "First, I believe it is prudent to hear Lily Potter's will since she was the only one of the two to create one," the goblin tutted whilst pulling out a glass orb with a white smoke inside it from a drawer in his desk.
He placed the orb on a stand on his desk and tapped it with a ring on his finger three times.
Severus sucked in a breath as a ghostly image of Lily appeared before them. Harry squealed slightly, "Li-ly mummy! Mummy 'ook," Harry said happily, tugging on Severus' sleeve.
"Yes, Harry, that's your mummy," Severus said sadly as Lily smiled sadly at them.
"I, Lily Rose Evans Potter, do swear on my magic that I am here in sound mind and body to give my last will and testament," Lily started, her face soft and yet pained at the same time.
"It seems silly to be doing this, I'm only twenty-one after all. But I know… I know that there is a Dark Lord after my baby, and I don't trust anyone enough to keep us safe enough. Anyone except Severus, anyway, but I am sad to say I ruined that friendship a long time ago by letting everyone else drag me away from him with their words. I know that I'm going to die, I don't know when, just that it will be soon. I just desperately hope that Harry will survive, and that…" she trailed off, almost desperately, looking down at her stomach in a way that had Severus sucking in another breath.
Severus held Harry closer to him, tears filling his eyes and falling. He couldn't stop them.
"Right, down to business," Lily sighed shakily, "If we are found in our cottage in Godric's Hollow then let it be known that Sirius Orion Black isn't our secret keeper. We made everyone believe he was as a diversion tactic. But our actual secret keeper is Peter Pettigrew. If we were betrayed to Voldemort then he is the one who betrayed us,
"As Lady Potter, I have the right to distribute the Potter holdings for my husband who doesn't believe we need wills," she rolled her eyes, "If James and I are both dead then everything from the Potter family will go to Harry. He can claim his heir ring at the age of eleven and will become Lord Potter at the age of seventeen,
"I leave Sirius Orion Black one thousand galleons of my personal money, and everything in vault six hundred and seventy-four,
"I leave Remus John Lupin two thousand galleons of my personal money, and everything in vault six hundred and seventy-five,
"I leave Rubeus Hagrid two thousand galleons of my personal money, and a thank you for all of our talks when I was at school, and afterwards," the half-giant choked on a sob then and Severus smiled when Harry reached out his tiny arm and patted the man's arm gently.
"Severus," he looked at Lily with pained eyes, "I don't know if you are here, and I completely understand if you aren't. I abandoned you when you needed me the most. I was a terrible friend. And I need you to know just how sorry I am for the pain I caused you. I'm sorry for not believing you. I'm sorry for what James and the others did to you. I'm sorry for how you must have felt when you found out I had married him. He grew up, eventually, somewhat, but what he did to you is and always will be terrible. I'm sorry I didn't take the time to listen to you, that I didn't know until recently. I'm sorry for everything. I failed in being your friend and it pains me every day,"
Merlin, would the tears ever end?
"Severus, I leave you five thousand galleons of my personal money. I also leave you everything in vault six hundred and seventy-six. And I hope… I hope that you can find it in your heart, which I know is a hell of a lot bigger than you show the world, to forgive me. I'm sorry for ever thinking you capable of hurting anyone. I know you did become a Death Eater, but I also know you did it to become a spy for us. You couldn't… I know you couldn't hurt a fly willingly. Let alone a human being. I'm sorry for allowing myself to be led by others into believing so, just because of your House,
"I would also like to leave Harry five thousand galleons of my own money, and everything in vault six hundred and seventy-seven,
"If… If James and I die, but our… but Harry doesn't, then custody of Harry will go to either Frank and Alice Longbottom, Sirius Black if he accepts help from Remus Lupin, or Severus Snape. If none of these people are available to take custody then he is to be placed with a loving magical family. Harry is not to go into the custody of Albus Percival Wulfric Brian Dumbledore, or my sister, Petunia Ivy Dursley. If he ends up with either person then know that it goes against this will, and should be punished accordingly. Harry's magical guardian will be whomever takes custody of him. And I would much like for them to not ever sign a marriage contract for him. He is to marry for love and love alone,
"This concludes my last will and testament. So mote it be,"
Her image faded away, painfully slowly.
Severus was crying silently as he held Harry close. Hagrid was crying also, though not quite as silently as Severus.
Harry, who didn't understand what was happening, was waving goodbye to her, "Bye, bye Li-ly mummy," he said sweetly before leaning back into Severus.
The knife in Severus' heart twisted just a tad at those words from the baby's mouth, and he held Harry closer to him, cherishing the moment as Harry moved to lay in his arms, almost like a baby, and Severus couldn't help but run his long fingers through the lad's smooth hair.
"I do believe that Heir Black was escorted to Azkaban without a trial in the early hours of this morning. So I will pass this on to the Aurors and encourage them to give him a trial. But we need Harry in someone's custody now so as to not have him sent to Mrs Dursley. I assume that is why you originally came,"
Severus and Hagrid nodded.
"Good. Now, Heir Ravenclaw-Prince, since you are on the list of people she put in her will to raise Harry, this will be rather easy for us. Especially if you take up your titles of Lord Ravenclaw-Prince. This will involve your entire inheritance, as well as Wizengamot seats which you can use at your pleasure. It also allows you, if you take primary custody of young Harry, to manage the accounts and seats that Harry owns until he becomes Lord Potter. This way they aren't sitting around unused, and no one can mishandle them. I assume that you, Mr Hagrid, also would like custody of Harry?"
Hagrid nodded, looking a bit glum about not having primary custody, but Severus wouldn't keep Harry away from the man.
"Okay, do you want to file for guardianship, or adopt him?"
"Adopt," Severus and Hagrid said together.
"Good. Blood or regular?"
"Might be best to do regular, on my side anyway. I am a half giant," Hagrid said nervously.
Severus looked at Harry carefully. He was thinking about all the possibilities. Yes, Harry would then be a third his biological son. And that thought was just… amazing. But there were other benefits to it, also. Not just that. He wouldn't love Harry any less for not being his biological son. Never. No matter what happened. Even if he had his own children one day, he would never love Harry any less than he did so already.
But if he blood adopted Harry, then that was another layer of protection for him. Dumbledore wouldn't be able to take him away from them, at all. Because Severus would be one of his parents. One of his actual parents.
He looked at Hagrid and felt bad for taking primary custody from the man who had done so much for him. Hagrid could see it, apparently, and shook his head at him.
"Sev, no, don't feel bad. We need to do whatever we can to protect Harry. And if you having primary custody does that, then that is for the best. It doesn't mean I can't raise him, too. It doesn't mean that I can't be his papa. I will still have custody of him, just not as much as you. And that is okay. Anything for his protection," Hagrid said.
"Okay," Severus said, still unsure, "And I will do a blood adoption, only the partial one which makes me one of three parents. But it will protect him more if he is biologically one of ours,"
Hagrid nodded in agreement, smiling at Severus.
"Brilliant," Ragnok said, taking all the parchments and potions needed out of a desk drawer.
Everything happened so fast after that. So fast that Severus could barely keep up. He felt like he was in a daze.
But they were walking out of the bank an hour later, with a sleeping baby in Severus' arms who was legally, and biologically in Severus' case, theirs. Harry was as protected as they could make him at that moment without actually taking him out of Hogwarts, or the country.
Which they would do if they absolutely had to.
Though they would really rather not. Hogwarts was their home.
They could find a new one, though, if it came to it.
Anything to keep Harry safe, and happy.
Hiya, how are you all?
Now, don't worry, just because Severus has more custody of Harry, to protect him better against Albus, it doesn't mean that Hagrid won't have a major part in raising Harry. They will share the responsibility, Hagrid will be Harry's papa. And even though Severus has blood adopted Harry, it doesn't mean he will stop trying to stop Harry calling him 'mummy', at least for a while anyway. He feels bad for taking the title from Lily, still.
But anyhow, I hope you enjoyed the chapter. Sorry it is so short. Today, and yesterday, was rather hectic and I don't have much time to get many words on the page. But next chapter will be longer, I promise.
I have a Facebook group called Maraudering_Paige which you are all welcome to join if you would like to and are able to. It is where we can talk about Harry Potter, fanfics, life, share memes and more. It is also where I have an update schedule and will be keeping you up to date on what I am working on, both fanfics and original works. So if you are interested in joining then I am happy to accept you all.
I hope you are all having an amazing day!
Kind regards,
Paige xx
