The next two weeks passed without much incidence.
Malfoy, annoyingly, kept his sling on for another week, begging for sympathy at every possible opportunity and making poor Hagrid an anxious wreck for their next few classes with him but eventually he took it off and the new Care of Magical Creatures Professor started to slowly regain his confidence.
Defence against the Dark Arts classes were also going well. Lupin had apologised to the class for his unprofessional and misguided behaviour before swiftly moving on to the topic of Redcaps and while Harry was extremely wary of him on a personal level now he couldn't help but enjoy his classes. Even Divination was starting to be less awful now that the initial shock of Trelawney's penchant for prophesying death and doom for him around every corner had started to wear off.
He was somewhat surprisingly really enjoying all of his classes at the moment except for perhaps Potions. He was getting on brilliantly academically, he had come to understand the benefits of better preparing for his father's classes now and he had picked up quite a few things over the summer that had helped in his overall understanding of the subject resulting in him producing a near perfect potion almost every lesson but he was struggling with his fathers strict reservedness.
He could tell his father was proud of his improved efforts, and even found himself rewarded with the odd smile but he longed for a closer connection. His fathers determination to so completely separate his personal and professional lives was starting to grate on him a little.
In fact, if it wasn't for his brother and sister he would be starting to feel like a lonely unwanted orphan again. Having sussed out an empty classroom on the fourth floor that was quiet but still fairly convenient to both Gryffindor and Ravenclaw Towers, Harry and the twins had agreed to meet with each other for an hour before dinner every Wednesday. Harry had been a little reluctant at first, he wanted to ensure the twins didn't miss the opportunity to make new friends of their own like he had with Ron and Hermione but now that they had settled in he was delighted to hang out with them again.
He was actually really surprised how much he had missed them in the first couple of weeks. Like he saw them in the Great Hall and they always stopped to say hello whenever they passed each other but it was different when they had other people with them, it was all just pleasantries and no real actual conversation.
Alone together, the first thing they wanted to know was whether or not he had any updates for them regarding their fathers lunches with his formerly estranged wife and younger children.
Harry shook his head. Not only had he not been speaking with their father since, he hadn't even been able to read his mood when he returned to the school after. His brother and sister still seemed a little upset at the idea of their father going home to enjoy time with his other family while he left them there all alone."He never came to visit us!" Lily said bitterly just as Evans lip started to quiver dangerously.
If their father wasn't always so unapproachable these days Harry probably would have warned him how the twins were feeling in the hope that he might do something to alleviate their worries but the best he could do for now was to try and distract them.
Swiftly changing the topic, he asked how they were enjoying Hogwarts and listened attentively as they excitedly gave him the lowdown on all their new friends, who they were, were they came from, what their parents did etc and though Ron had speculated as such the day they met them down at the lake Harry was extremely surprised to discover that one of them was a niece of the escaped murderer Sirius Black.
"Does Father know?" he asked, somewhat shocked that he was permitting the friendship.
"I expect so"
"and he doesn't mind you being friends."
The twins shrugged, causing Harry to grin, more of his behaviour had rubbed off on them over the summer than their father would have liked. "She never even met her uncle, he was sent to Azkaban before she was even born, it's not her fault he did what he did."
"Yeah, that would be like you getting the blame for something your uncle Vernon did."
Harry shuddered, while the twins were aware he had never had the best of relationships with the Dursleys, they weren't aware of the specifics, but he had spent many hours of his childhood locked away in his cupboard, frightened and hungry after wrongfully getting the blame for something or other his uncle or cousin had done and it was never a nice feeling. The twins were right, it wasn't her fault who she happened to be related to and if their father had no concerns about it then neither did he.
After telling him everything there was to know about their new friends, the twins asked their brother how he was settling in, and if he found school any different now he was known to be a Snape. Harry shook his head, it felt strange, stranger than it had at home, but for the most part nothing much had changed and thankfully no one was really treating him any differently. He did however cautiously bring up the Bogart incident, hoping he wasn't reopening fresh wounds by asking them about it. The twins giggled to themselves, like Harry they did feel somewhat affronted by the whole thing however they did also have to admit that incident was pretty amusing and having heard so many different versions of the story they were curious to finally hear a true account of what had happened.
He was glad to confirm that they at least hadn't suffered because of it. They admitted that there had been a couple of comments about it in the common room, particularly from some of the older, bolder students (mostly ones in Harry's year) but a single cross reminder from Lily that it was their father they were speaking of had put an end to all of it, or if not actually ended at least nothing more was said within their earshot.
He wondered whether his own housemates would have been more respectful if he had always been known to be the potions masters son. He acknowledged that he himself had done his fair share of mocking the man in previous years. He had always been able to pull him off perfectly, an impression he used to be asked to perform on a regular basis so it was no wonder really that his fellow Gryffindors genuinely just couldn't see how uncomfortable they were making him.
Moving on from that though, what Harry was most interested in was the details they shared with him about their classes.
He had been expecting them to find Potions as awkward as he did but they were used to receiving limited attention from their father and didn't seem to mind. In actual fact, they confessed to really enjoying the lessons. They found it intriguing to finally observe him in action after years of wondering what he was like as a teacher. Sure he had overseen plenty of their lessons in the schoolroom at home but that was different. Here, they could see him as someone bigger than just their father and while his strict, no nonsense attitude meant he hadn't particularly endeared himself to any of his students, they could see that he was highly respected. They were truly amazed at how completely transfixed their class had been in their first lesson together, perched on the edge of their seats as he promised to teach them how to brew fame, bottle glory and even put a stopper in death! They were proud that he was their father in a way they had never felt before.
Harry laughed at the realisation that their father must use the same speech every year. He remembered it well, though his memory was somewhat soured by his then unknown father putting him on the spot, pressuring him with questions about monkshood and wolfsbane before deriding him for his celebrity. It was difficult to reconcile the fact that that was the same man he too admired so much now but he had made a point of drawing a line under what had passed between them before, they had started a new chapter.
However, while the twins clearly had no such problems with their father they were struggling a little to see Professor McGonagall in her professional capacity. They liked Transfiguration but she was Evans Godmother and while they hadn't seen her that often growing up, they were used to her seeing her as their kind, funny, Aunt Minnie. Admittedly, Professor McGonagall was always kind but like their father she had a strict no nonsense attitude in class, one they found extremely difficult to reconcile with the woman who had always encouraged them towards silliness and who together with the headmaster had gotten great amusement out of teaching them to play practical jokes on their father.
They were also a little unsettled by Lupin. Like Harry, they admired his teaching skills and were enjoying the content of his classes but were mindful of his fathers cautions about him and disappointed in his treatment of him and their brother in relation to the Bogart incident. They also got the eerie feeling that he was watching them.
"Maybe it's just in my imagination," Lily explained, "but whenever he stops actively teaching, like when he sits down to wait for us to quietly copy something down from the board I can feel his eyes upon us"
"Cassie has noticed it a couple of times as well", Evan chimed in, "but it's mostly just Lily and I, and we're not just imagining it because when you look up sure enough he's there staring at you."
"It does seem deliberate" Lily continued, slightly more assuredly "because whenever you do look up he looks away guiltily."
How bizarre, thought Harry recalling how he had felt on noticing both their father and Professor Quirrell doing the same to him from time to time in his first year and sympathising with his siblings. Was Lupin up to something sinister or was he just showing an interest in his colleagues personal life?
He advised his brother and sister to keep vigilant around him but reassured them it was probably nothing. He hadn't noticed anything like it himself but it was definitely something he would look out for in his next lesson.
They did seem to be getting on pretty well in the rest of their classes though at least. They sensed that Madam Hooch was a little disappointed in them. She had clearly been expecting them to share Harry's innate aptitude for flying but she couldn't really fault them as they were still considerably better than many of their classmates and like the rest of the school, they found History of Magic with Professor Binns' to be a complete a snoozefest but they had already worked out that they should just read through the course books themselves and so were getting on okay. Neither twin had much to say about Professors Sprout or Sinistra but they were both seemed to be enjoying their subjects and liked having them as teachers. Their favourite class of all though and the one they seemed to look forward to the most was charms, they absolutely loved Flitwick, both as Charms Teacher and as their Head of House.
Harry didn't mind Flitwick but he didn't really share the twins enthusiasm for his teaching. He could understand where they were coming from though, particularly as they described how he had taken the time to greet each and every new Ravenclaw individually, to welcome them and get to know them a little before helping them to set out goals or the coming year. It was something Harry knew his father did with the new Slytherins too and he wondered why Professor McGonagall didn't. She was a great House Mistress in other ways, and he liked her, and loved being in Gryffindor, but she definitely had more of a sink or swim approach when it came to her young charges and he knew he probably would have found the transition to the magical world easier with the likes of Flitwick guiding him.
Then, while on the topic of Charms he asked if they had made much progress with their wandless magic since coming to school.
Evan shook his head. On starting school their Father had made them promise to keep their practice a secret so they hadn't had much opportunity to try it since. On the one occasion they had found themselves alone though they were surprised to find that it felt different now that they were getting used to using wands.
"Its much more theatrical when you use a wand" Lily enthused as she incanted the spell wingardium leviosa and with a dramatic swish and flick of her wand caused a stick of chalk to levitate up from the ledge of the blackboard into the air.
"Yes but the problem with the wand is everyone sees you casting it, Fathers right, magic is much more useful when no one knows what spells you are performing" and with that he raised another stick of chalk with his hand and used it to shakily scrawl the word HI across the board.
"Wow that's brilliant Harry!" Harry blushed at his brothers compliment. He had been committing at least ten minutes before he went to sleep each night to practice and it was definitely paying off but he wasn't satisfied. "Not really" he said modestly, "You can still see what I'm doing, I want to be able to do it with my eyes like Father."
"Fathers been practicing magic an awful lot longer than you Harry." Lily said encouragingly. "You'll get there!"
Harry grinned and then began recommending they do what he did and practice behind the privacy of their curtains every night before bed before suddenly realising he didn't know if the Ravenclaw dorms were even remotely the same as the Gryffindor dorms or not. "Do you have big four poster beds with curtains all around too or is that just a Gryffindor thing?"
Lily nodded, launching into a detailed description of her dormitory. It sounded very similar to his own except that it was obviously decorated in the Ravenclaw colours and that they seemed to be using their desks as dressing tables. Harry rolled his eyes. There was something about girls that he just didn't understand. His sister had probably devoted as much time over the summer to brushing her hair as he had in his entire life and while he could admit that it was very pretty in the way it glowed like the sun after she brushed it, he could think of much more exciting things that she could be doing with that time.
Feeling a little mischievous as she continued her description of life in her dorm, he used his improving wandless magic skills to untie the big blue ribbon that held back her hair.
Evan thought it hilarious but Lily glowered darkly at him, and for the first time ever he saw a resemblance between her and their father. "I'll thank you not to do that again Harry" She said stiffly as she picked up the ribbon to retie it but without the use of a mirror it was a bit of a mess with loose strands poking out everywhere.
Harry apologised and chivalrously offered his assistance, but his attempt was even worse than hers and so Evan was forced to step up once he finally managed to stop laughing at them.
Luckily Lily was quick to forgive them both and they resumed their practice with the chalk until the bell sounded to inform the students that it was time to make their way to the Great Hall for dinner. It had been the quickest hour ever!
The following week as September drew to an end Harry was surprised when a post owl swooped down towards him at breakfast dropping a letter into his lap.
He lifted it cautiously to inspect it. It was so rare for him to receive post that even Ron had stopped eating for a moment to see what it was.
Turning it over, he recognised the spidery writing on the envelope as his fathers which left him even more hesitant, was he expecting him to open it here or should he wait to read it in private later?
He looked up towards the staff table for guidance but his father was looking across at the twins. He must had sent something to Lily and Evan too! Then as though realising Harry was looking at him he turned and caught his eye, indicating with a reassuring smile that he should open it.
Harry tore through the seal and took out an invitation requesting his presence in his fathers quarters for dinner the following evening.
He stared at it in puzzlement, why was his father sending them such a formal invite for a dinner on a random Thursday night?
Part of him was excited, he had been missing his fathers company after all, but part of him was also incredibly unnerved about it. Something had to be up.
He glanced up at the staff table again where his father sat resolutely ignoring a weary looking Lupins attempts to draw him into a conversation. He was clearly waiting for some kind of response from him but the owl had already flown off again and besides he wasn't having an owl send a message to his father when he was sitting across the room from him.
Was he waiting for him to go up to him? Harry looked across at the Ravenclaw table to see what the twins were doing but they were sitting with their backs to him today so he couldn't see.
Why hadn't his father just asked him? It's not like he hadn't stopped to talk to him in the Great Hall before. Plus a teacher approaching a student at breakfast would draw way less attention than a student approaching a teacher.
What was going on?
Unsure what else to do Harry looked up at this father again and when they made eye contact he gestured to the invite and nodded slowly.
His father must have been satisfied with that because he looked away then, muttering something to Lupin with a smirk as he rose from his seat and slipped quietly out of the room.
Harry looked down at the invite again and frowned in confusion, then, deciding to consult with his brother and sister shovelled the last of his porridge into his mouth and went to sit with the Ravenclaws for a minute. The twins had no idea what was going on either, and they couldn't really speculate with all the other students listening but they had Potions that morning so would update Harry later if they discovered anything!