Chapter 2
“Severus, if I could have a moment?” Dumbledore asked at the end of the Defense class for the third year Hufflepuffs and Ravenclaws. They had just finished working on the freezing spell when the headmaster entered the classroom. It was September 11, 1996, and it had taken a week for Albus to get everything squared away at the Dursleys, and he was anxious to get his puppet back under their control as soon as possible. Severus had thoroughly examined both pre-schoolers, and other than the marked lack of adequate nutrition and damage from the abuse, they were relatively normal. The only thing the Healers added were nutrient potions. The skeletal and nerve damage from the abuse to both boys would fade over time, leaving them healthier than they were at the present time. Their metabolisms were faster than normal, and there was some unknown magic at work, but since it seemed to be of a benevolent, healing nature, Snape decided to adopt a wait-and-see attitude. Lucius and Narcissa had successfully gained guardianship over both boys, and they were already ensconced at Malfoy Manor and being raised as they should have been from the beginning.
“I’m almost finished, Albus,” the younger man barked out as he watched a pair of Hufflepuffs trying to cast the charm. “I’ll meet you at my office after class.”
“I would really like to speak to you now, my boy,” the old man insisted a little huffily. “It’s about Harry Potter.”
“After class, Albus,” the Potions Master ground out through gritted teeth, jumping forward when he noticed that one of the Ravenclaws had put a little too much power behind her spell. The younger man promptly forgot the centenarian standing at the door, and with a huff the headmaster stormed away to wait in Snape’s office. When he finally got there, he found the door locked, and no matter how many variations of the unlocking spell he tried, he couldn’t seem to get the bloody door to open. When the dark-haired man finally rounded the corner, Albus looked rather frazzled and nearing nuclear meltdown. Smirking, Severus wandlessly and silently cast his specialized unlocking charm and invited the white-haired man into his inner sanctum. Taking a seat behind his desk and signaling that the meeting wasn’t going to be a friendly one by his position, he waited for Dumbledore to sit in the hard chair in front of Severus' workspace.
“I really need to see Harry Potter,” Dumbledore said as he reluctantly sat down. He would have changed the seat to something that more suited his position in the school and in the wider wizarding world, but prior attempts to do that ended up with the old man landing on the floor on his arse. “I’ve made arrangements for him to return to his relatives’ care until we can figure out how those three spells merged together to create this crisis in which we now find ourselves.”
“I’m terribly sorry, headmaster, but Harry is no longer in the school,” the defense professor said with a smarmy smile.
“Oh?” the old man said, eyebrow arched imperiously. “And where might he be? I really need to get him behind those blood protections I’d put into place around the Dursleys’ home.”
“Well, since Mr. Potter has Black ancestry in his family tree, Narcissa Malfoy was gracious enough to take both boys in and care for them until they return to normal,” Severus told his once-mentor quietly. Ever since he’d learned of the location that Potter had been dumped after his parents were murdered, his devotion to the headmaster had curdled like weeks old sour milk, until it sickened him to even think that he’d held the old man in any sort of reverential regard. "Teodred's in Azkaban, since the Dark Lord couldn't get his followers out, and so the Wizengamot severed his parental ties to Theo, and the Malfoys have permanent guardianship of him, as they do of Mr. Potter."
“Death Eaters, Severus?” Dumbledore barked incredulously. “You left the vulnerable Savior with Death Eaters?”
“Lucius was acting under the imperius, I’ll have you know,” Snape responded with a sniff. “He has since renounced his support for the Dark Lord in order to secure the safety and success of his family. He is no longer one of His followers, and has taken steps to ensure that the boys will remain safe in his care.”
“And you believe this?” Albus remarked skeptically. “You really think that Lucius wouldn’t hesitate to turn that boy over to his master if it’ll get him what he wants?”
“What he wants is to protect his family to the best of his ability,” Snape snapped furiously. “He and I are taking steps to ensure that, not only do those two little boys survive, but that Lucius and Narcissa do, with their family intact. Besides, the pre-schoolers’ custody was given to Narcissa by the Wizengamot. You have absolutely no say in that boy’s placement, nor do you have any right to interfere in his life anymore. I am warning you now, old man; tread lightly. Harry Potter and Theo Nott have many people willing to protect them from both megalomaniacs in this wizard’s war.”
“I take great umbrage in being called a megalomaniac, Severus Tobias Snape,” the old man bit out, censure in his voice that would have normally cowed the younger man. The glare from ebon eyes told Albus that he was treading on very thin ice at the moment, and didn’t wish to visit the other man’s hair-trigger temper upon himself. “Don’t you understand that he’s in great danger if he’s not behind the protections of his mother’s blood?”
“I understand that he was horribly abused and starved in that blighted environment,” the Potions Master snarled angrily, dark eyes narrowed threateningly on the old man, who drew back in the chair and stared at his protégé as if he’d never seen him before. “I, for one, would like to know exactly what you offered that bitch to take Harry in again. Not that any financial consideration would prevent her or her monstrous family from continuing the abuse. Do you think, for one minute, that they wouldn’t destroy him? They never wanted him in the first place, and you forcing him back there, at the vulnerable age of four, will likely ensure that he doesn’t survive a month trapped there. He was lucky enough to live through it the first go round!
“Harry Potter is safe; safer, I dare say, than anything you could do to ‘protect’ him, and he’s not coming back until he’s returned to normal. Now, if you don’t mind, I have another class to teach. Don’t let the door hit you in the arse on the way out.”
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“How are the boys, Narcissa?” Severus asked as he stood in front of the fireplace, spelling the dust and ash from his robes. With him were Draco and Blaise, who wanted to check in on the pre-schoolers themselves. It was Friday afternoon, and all the classes had finished for the day, so the trio were intending on spending the weekend with the little boys, to make sure that they were comfortable and that they were thriving. Lucius had Severus' personal floo connected to the manor's and had also paid for the extra protection that would prevent anyone from knowing that the floo was open, or the destinations it reached.
“Harry’s doing better since we had the Healer here to see them, but Theo’s so quiet and withdrawn. I see so much pain in those dark eyes,” she told her oldest friend softly. “In both boys' eyes, actually. What they must have endured for it to be so painfully obvious in their expressions at this age…”
“I met Petunia Evans when she and Lily were playing in a park just down from where I lived as a child,” the defense professor remarked softly as the group made their way to the sunroom, where the elves were keeping careful watch over the two four year olds. “She was such an awful, cold, nasty bitch even then, at eleven, and I wondered if perhaps her parents saw all that accidental magic when Lily was younger and just...doted on her more for her skills. If they approved so strongly of her magic, being presumed to be muggles, then they must have had some inkling of their own history and that there were magicals somewhere deep in their ancestry.”
“I know that there were Iovannes who were magical, and I think I saw somewhere that an Iovannes had married a Stinchcombe, so it’s very possible that Lily’s parents were, at the very least, squibs,” Lucius murmured, eyes narrowed thoughtfully. Just as they got to the door of the solarium, there was a pained cry, and the adults and two teens rushed into the room, staring at the little boys wrestling around on the floor. Theo had Harry pinned down, straddling the other boy as he glared down into frightened emerald eyes.
“What is going on here?” Severus barked loudly, scaring the living daylights out of both little boys. Theo jumped and squeaked, scrambling madly to get off of the other pre-schooler as quickly as he could, scooting away on his bum as his eyes wheeled around, looking for any shelter behind which to hide. Blaise swooped in and plucked Harry from the floor, whilst Draco immediately scooped Theo up, hugging the trembling little boy tightly and murmuring reassuring nonsense words into the dark haired child’s ear. By degrees, Nott finally relaxed and melted in the blond’s arms. Malfoy sat on a sofa and kept a sturdy hold of Theodore, who had wrapped his arms and legs tightly around Lucius’ son’s body. Blaise was right beside his oldest friend, cuddling the raven haired imp on his lap as emerald eyes stared widely at the Potions Master. Heaving a resigned sigh, the older man sat in the sofa across from the four boys, Lucius and Narcissa taking the armchairs at either end of the seating area.
“I am sorry for frightening you, boys, but we worry about you, and don’t want you to fight. Neither one of you are healthy enough for that yet. Now, what happened, and why were you sitting on top of Harry, Theo?”
“He was telling me that Blaise was his best friend,” Nott groused with a pout, shifting around to look at the adults and pointing at Harry. “I told him nu-uh, but he kept saying it, and I pushed him over and got on top of him.”
"Am I your best friend, squirt?" the Slytherin teen asked the emerald eyed little boy on his lap.
"Yes," the raven haired toddler said hesitantly. "I like you, Blaise. You protected me from the big people." Zabini's skin darkened in a blush at the admiration in the imp's voice, and his dark eyes darkened further at the fact that he hadn't protected Harry enough from the wretched adults who abused him.
“Are you my best friend, Harry?” the dark-skinned Italian continued with a grin, setting aside those dark thoughts as his tawny eyes glinted fondly. It hadn’t taken but a day for both little boys to worm their ways into the Slytherins’ hearts, and the older boys were always eager to visit with the little ones.
“On..only if you want me to be,” the emerald eyed pre-schooler nearly whispered, eyes on his tightly clenched together hands.
“I want you to be,” Blaise whispered in the little tyke’s ear, eliciting a wide, happy smile as the four year old threw his arms around the older Slytherin’s neck, shocking the hell out of him. Beside him, Draco was talking quietly to Theo, whose deep brown eyes were on the blond’s face nearly worshipfully.
“You’re my best friend, Theo,” Malfoy murmured as he cuddled the little boy in his lap. “Can I be yours?”
“Really?” the brunet queried, eyes wide. At the eager nod, Nott threw himself at his hero, wrapping his arms around the blond's neck and hugging the stuffing out of him. “Yes, Draco, I want to be your best friend.”
“Now that we have all that settled, why don’t we play some Candy Land before dinner?” Lucius said into the silence. Blaise’s and Draco’s eyes met over the little boys’ heads, and a silent vow passed between them. We will protect them with our lives, even when they’re older.
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“I have got to find a way to regain control of Harry,” the headmaster murmured, hand stroking his beard thoughtfully. “He cannot stay with the Malfoys. I don’t give a damn who the boy’s distant relatives are; Lucius can’t have any sort of influence over him as he grows. I don’t need their care for him supplanting the memories of the treatment he’d received at the Dursleys. I want him to remember the pain, and use that to fight against Voldemort. If he grows too complacent; too comfortable, he’ll surely shirk his duty to this world, and hesitate to fulfill his destiny when the time comes. He rightfully placed the blame for his situation on Tom for murdering his parents. I need him to keep that in mind. If he chooses to lay the fault for his abuse at my feet, all will be lost, and I cannot have that. I need him to believe I’ve always had his best interests at heart, and that won’t happen if he’s raised with kindness and love, instead of pain and cruelty.”
A screech from Fawkes startled the old man out of his introspection, and he stared at the phoenix as he flew over and hovered in front of Albus’ face. With another angry, ear-piercing shriek, he scored a long line down Albus’ face with his claw, and then flamed away, leaving behind a very startled and puzzled old man and a cut that would heal into an ugly scar that radiated, to all who saw it, a mark of the betrayal of Magic herself.