world building
It's been eight years since the end of the war, and for the last five Harry has been living at the burrow with his girlfriend and her family.
It was another routine day when the Twins came back from their store with a letter from Hogwarts for Harry. After several minutes of just staring at the letter Ginny finally got fed up with waiting and pulled the letter from Harry’s slack hands.
Molly hurried over, “Well what does it say?”
With a pale face Ginny handed the letter over, and started a whispered conversation, forgetting the Twins were still in the room, “what do we do? Harry has been slowly eating less here, so the potion is wearing off.”
“This is perfect Ginny, he wouldn’t be suspicious of food at Hogwarts, I’ll give you an extra strength potion to have the house elf's put in his food at dinner, no one will be the wiser and he will be under your influence until we can get you married.”
Fred and George exchanged a loaded look, they knew they were up to something, Harry hasn’t been the same since the last few months of seventh year, he had shown no interest in Ginny, in fact they knew he was gay and had a major crush on their potion's professor.
Looking into Harry's eyes, they noticed how glazed they were and under the glaze they noticed the deep well of pain, glancing at each other again they turned back to Harry, Fred speaking in hushed tones, “Don’t worry Harry, everything will change tonight.”
Eyes clearing for the first time in seven years, Harry nodded slightly to the Twins, He missed Hogwarts.
Turning back to the scheming witches on the other side of the room George speaks up, “We promised Headmaster McGonagall that we would bring Harry for a chat this afternoon and she asked that he stay for dinner, so we’ll take him to Hogwarts.”
Before Ginny could protest Molly whispered in her ear, then she simply smiled and turned to Harry, “ok, have a good evening, Harry, and come back home soon, as I will miss you.
Glazed eyes turned towards her, “of course, Gin.”
Without waiting for more words, the Twins took and arm each and steered Harry outside and towards the edge of the wards, the faster they got him to Hogwarts the better.
~~~~~~
They landed outside the gates and had to hurry to catch a stumbling wizard as Harry almost collapsed, hauling him to his feet they drag him the rest of the way to the doors of the castle, there they were greeted by the Headmistress and Severus Snape.
Seeing the Twins practically carrying Harry both professors rush down the steps in concern, Snape reached them first, “Harry?”
Hearing his voice, Harry raised his head, and everyone saw the glazed look in his dull green eyes clear completely, “Severus,” he breathed out, “Help me.” With the soft words said, he finally passed out for good, causing Severus to shoot out his hands and catch Harry in his arms.
Placing a hand on his forehead and feeling the heat radiating from it, he swung him up in his arms and started for the doors, “I’m taking him to Poppy,” turning burning eyes to the Twins, “what happened?”
Raising both their hands over their heads in surrender, Fred answered, “We found out today that Molly and Ginny have been dousing him with potions,” here George took over as they raced through the halls towards the hospital wing, “we suspected as much years ago but could never prove it.”
“But they must have forgotten we were in the room or assumed we couldn’t hear them, and admitted it out loud,” Fred continued.
George picked up, “we are more than willing to provide the memories for the charges after Harry wakes up, we do not condone this.”
Severus nodded his head, “do you know what they dosed him with?”
They both shook their heads, “no, but Ginny will be here later to give a potion to the house elf’s to put in Harry’s food, he hasn’t been eating at the borrow as much, we can only assume he has been burning through them fast with the strength of his magic and knows at least some level what's happening.” Severus isn’t sure which Twin spoke but is grateful for the information, nonetheless.
McGonagall’s words startled them all as Severus placed Harry on the bed that had been his throughout his schooling, “Tippy,” the small pop of a house elf proceeded her next words, “Miss Weasley will be stopping by the school sometime before dinner and giving one of the house elf’s a potion to be put in Harry’s food, do not allow that, and as soon as the young woman leaves bring that potion strait to Severus, I want to know what they have been dousing him with.”
As they had been talking Poppy had come out and started to run diagnostic scans over Harry, her soft gasp alerted them that not all was right, “what is it, Poppy?” Severus demanded.
Angerly looking at him, “we don’t need to wait for that retched young woman to bring the potion, I can tell you right now what she has been dousing him with!”
“What?” Severus snarled out, causing Minerva to place a soothing hand on his shoulder that he immediately shrugged off and took a step closer to the struggling young man on the bed.
With a sad, angry expression directed at Harry, “they have been dousing him with badly made Amortentia, the ingredients were not only out of date but poorly cared for and have been poisoning him for years, I’m actually impressed he is still alive.”
A small groan sounded from the direction of the bed, “Then I would assume you would be more impressed that he is awake.”
Before anyone else could do or say anything Severus was moving toward the bed, “Harry, I’m glad to see you awake and aware.”
“Severus,” Harry reached out and grabbed his hand, “Good to see you too.”
It was several minutes of silence where the two just stared at each other in contented silence before Harry spoke again, “I am sorry Severus, for being distant the last several years, especially after what happened.”
Choking for a second, Severus squeezed the hand still in his, “There is no need to apologize Harry, you obviously had a very good reason.” neither speaking on what happened, nor the pain the recent events caused both parties.
Several minutes passed in silence again before Harry squeezed Severus’s hand and made to sit up, “What do you think you're doing young man?” Poppy questioned slightly panicked.
“Don’t worry so Poppy, now that my mind is clear, my Magic, and the phoenix tears in my system are already cleansing me of the remanence of the potion.” Harry smiled brightly at the fussing mediwitch.
The Twins watched on amused as the Potions Professor scrambled slightly to help Harry sit up against the pillows at the head of the bed, before sitting on the chair next to it.
Looking at the Headmistress, Harry asked his questions, “Professor McGonagall, would it be alright if someone called some people here for me, please?”
Minerva started a bit before nodding her head, “Of course, Mr. Potter, who can I get for you?”
Unconsciously squeezing Severus’s hand again, “Could you bring the Malfoy’s here please?”
Slightly shocked but not showing it, “Of course, Mr. Potter, Poppy do you mind me using your fireplace?” Getting only a nod back she walked away, only moments later returning with a flabbergasted Draco and Lucius in tow.
Draco, seeing a pale and drawn Harry on the bed, made a bee line for him, “Harry! Are you alright? Why are you here? What happened? Why haven’t you contacted me in the last seven years?!”
Harry didn’t even have a chance to answer before he was catching a flying Draco, letting go of Severus’s hand to do so, “Relax Draco, I will answer your questions, but I haven’t suddenly lost the need to breath!”
Sheepishly letting go of the now slightly wheezing Harry, Draco settled back on the edge of the bed, Harry then turned to the blond aristocrat standing next to him before tears started to slide down his face, “Dad.”
The word and tears caused the mask on Lord Malfoy’s face to crumble and for him to surge forwards and envelope the brunette in a crushing hug, both going back and forth whispering apologies to each other, to the shock of everyone but Severus and Draco.
When they pulled apart Harry looked around, and not seeing Narcissa, turned a questioning look back to his family, “Where is Mother?”
This time Draco teared up, “Mother is dead.”
Fresh tears fell down Harry’s face as he gripped Severus’s hand again, “What happened?”
Lucius placed a hand on his shoulder and gripped tightly, hoping to ease the news slightly, “She succumbed to complications of the Cruciatus curse last year, she took so many for the family from that mad man, more than we knew about, and her body couldn’t take the strain anymore.” His words had tears of his own falling along with both his sons.
Speaking through his own tears Draco continued, “We sent you a letter when it happened, hoping wherever you were that you would come to the funeral, but all we got back was a vicious letter that you didn’t care that she died and to not attempt to contact you again.”
“What!!” Harry growled, “I don’t remember getting a letter from either of you, or anyone for that matter,” after a moment's thought he growled again even louder, “that no good chancrous wench and her harpy of a mother must have put a mail ward on me to reroute my mail! As if dousing me with love potions wasn’t enough, she kept my family from me!”
Harry was practically shouting by the end his eyes glowing a bright emerald green, but his last statement caught the attention of the Malfoy’s, “They did what?” came the question from both men, loud and angry from Draco, but low and dangerous from Lucius.
Poppy took this as her que to step into the conversation, “Yes, Mr. Potter has had a poorly brewed and dangerously made love potions fed to him for the last seven years, the only thing that saved him from dying was his magic.”
Before either man could explode from anger, Harry stepped in, “Don’t worry, they will get what is coming to them, not only did the Twins hear them plotting today, but even under the potions I still heard everything they ever said or did around me.”
This caused vicious grins to form on everyone in the room, after a few minutes of silence Harry pipes up from the bed, “Oh, yeah, Headmistress McGonagall, you wanted to see me about something?”
Shaking her head to bring her back to the present, “Yes Mr. Potter, or is it Potter-Malfoy?”
Laughing lightly, “You can just call me Harry.”
Nodding slightly, “Very well, Harry, I wanted to ask if you would be willing to take up the DADA position, we haven’t been able to find someone to fill the position permanently and I thought since you did such a good job with the DA, that you would make an excellent professor.”
Both Malfoy’s broke out in deep laughter, “Now you’ve gone and done it!”
A delighted smile spread across Harry’s face, not dimming in the slightest at his family's laughter, but seemed to brighten at the sound, nudging Draco with his knee he looked back up at the Headmistress, “I would love to! Teaching was probably my favorite thing about that year.”
Minerva smiled back, “Excellent, would you also be interested in taking up the Head of Gryffindor house? No one can seem to be able keep up with them and I can’t keep it up and still do my Headmistress duties.”
Harry’s smile turned mischievous, “But of course Headmistress, let them try to pull one over on a snake in the lions den.”
The entire room burst out in light laughter, “Thank you Harry,” She turned to leave to head up to her office to draw up a contract, before she turned back, “Oh, and Harry, you might as well start calling me Minerva, we will be seeing quite a bit of each other if we are going to be coworkers.” With that she swept out of the room.
Harry turned back to Severus, who was still holding his hand, “So, what do you think Severus, think you can handle seeing me every day for the foreseeable future?”
“Oh, I am sure, I can manage.” Severus just smirked at him.
Draco and the Twins exchanged looks over the two oblivious people’s head before Lucius interrupted their staring contest, “Well, let's call the aurors, and get this ball rolling, I want them to be here when that Weasley chit gets here.”
With that said the aurors took statements and memories and caught Ginny in the act as she handed the doctored potion to a viciously smirking Tippy, with the information they had and the two Weasley woman trying to throw each other under the bus, the trial went off without a hitch.
After the trial, the Twins tracked down Harry, and sat him down with a serious question, Fred as usual starting the conversation, “Look Harry, we know that dad was under love and loyalty potions to Molly and our older brothers didn’t know what was happening.”
George picked up the sentence, “But we don’t feel right still being part of the Weasley family anymore.”
“So, we were hoping you would be willing to adopt us into the Potter family as your brothers?” They both finished.
Harry smiled softly to the Twins, “You both know I am not just a Potter anymore, right?”
Both just rubbed the back of their necks and smiled sheepishly, “Yes, but we didn’t want to assume that they would be alright with Weasleys in their family,” George trailed off, “but we have always seen you as a little brother, even way back when, when you first came to Hogwarts and our prat of a younger brother befriended you,” Fred said, “Even if he was just after your fame and money at the time,” George finished.
The door to the room opened and, in the frame, they saw Draco standing there, “Couldn’t help but overhear you,” Harry rolled his eyes at his clearly eavesdropping brother, “but I can assure you that Father and I wouldn’t mind you being adopted into the family.”
At the Twins flabbergasted look, he continued, “Look, while Harry and I were in school we both had a role to play, but even I could see, as his supposed enemy, you two were always looking out for him, so yes, father and I would have no problem welcoming you into our family too.”
It wasn’t long after that both the twins became Fred and George Potter-Malfoy.