Chapter 11
‘I know you are in shock Harry, but nothing I have just told you is different to what they explained to Minerva and I. After hearing the truth about me and what I did, I hope you believe that I am not making any of this up or changing what I was told just because I do not like your father.’
‘I trust you professor, but I’m not sure what to think right now except I can’t see them, not yet at least. I need to think, I need to get out of here for a while.’
‘Then you should go, I will explain, but I’m sure they will stay until they can see you. Will you go see your friends?’
‘No, Remus, he was always the calm voice of reason, I need that right now. He was never bias either, not like Sirius was when it came to my father. If Remus thought my father was out of line or did something wrong he would say it, Sirius wouldn’t, he would join in, so Remus is the one I need to talk to right now.’
‘Yes, Black often followed your father with some of his ideas or pranks. If you need to talk, you know Minerva is here for you but so am I.’
‘Thanks,’ Harry slowly got up and left the dungeons.
Severus watched Harry go then decided to bottle Harry’s potions. He knew the young man would have done it himself but this news has shaken him up, so it was something he could easily overlook and forget that if this potion wasn’t bottled within an hour of completion, it would be ruined.
Severus stepped into his office, ‘He left, he said he needed to think. He was quite upset that he even forgot to bottle his potion that he spent all morning making. Minerva, I bottled it for him, it’s sitting on the shelf in the store cupboard, the one I told him to use.’
‘I will tell him Severus, but where did he go, to see Hermione and Ron?’
‘No, he said he needed a voice of reason, so he went to see Remus.’
‘I’m not sure I trust that you told him the truth,’ James said.
‘I have never lied to Harry, mislead him occasionally, but never lied. So what I told him was the truth. How did you expect him to take this news Potter, with open arms. That boy has been to hell and back a dozen times, he’s been through more than most adults would in a lifetime and he’s just barely an adult. Now if you wish to stay until he returns, you may, but I have work to do. Students will be returning to school in just over a months’ time, there is still so much to do. Minerva, have those rooms been transformed yet?’
‘Yes Severus, I showed Harry this morning when he first came down, then explained that all the eighth year rooms will look the same just in different parts of the castle.’
‘Very good, if you could take your…nephew and his family down to the great hall, I would appreciate it.’
‘You haven’t changed that much Severus, you were always a hard man,’ Lily said.
‘A hard man for a hard job, a job at protecting your son from Voldemort,’ Severus glared.
‘Come with me,’ Minerva nodded to Severus before leaving the office with James, Lily and Jamie, ‘So you’re younger than Harry which means you have two years still left of your schooling.’
‘I never went to school, dad said it was too dangerous in case someone found out who I was.’
‘We were hoping Jamie could start her sixth year here, we have been teaching her ourselves after I was able to block the trace so the ministry never found out.’
‘Severus will have to assess her abilities to see if she is up to scratch of a sixth year.’
‘We realise that, but couldn’t you do it Minerva?’
‘No, Severus is headmaster, that is part of his job for any student that might transfer to Hogwarts anytime during their seven years.’
‘You mentioned an eighth year, why is there an extra year?’ Lily asked.
‘Voldemort had control of Hogwarts last year, so all students will go up a year, but the students who would have normally done their seventh year couldn’t because of what was going on, or like Harry, Hermione, Ron and many other students, who could not even attend school. Harry will be one of the returning eighth year students along with many of his closest friends.’
‘We saw pictures of Harry, sometimes with a girl with bushy brown hair, is she Harry’s girlfriend?’ Lily asked.
‘That is up to Harry to tell you.’
‘I know you’re upset with us Minerva, but you don’t have to sound so cold,’ James said.
‘Upset,’ Minerva glared, ‘cold, Harry was badly abused by those muggles, he was tortured so many times by Voldemort or his death eaters and you two could have given him one part of his life that was happy, worth living. At one time Albus and I believed that Harry would finally give up, that it was all too much for him. Albus actually overheard Harry talking about ending it that this life had been, to use Harry’s words, shit, so of course I’m upset that you left him to go through all that. I did what I could but I had no idea about his muggle relatives, he was very good at hiding his feelings. If I thought taking Harry was worth the risk I would have, but I was not going to risk Harry’s life, it had nothing to do with my life, I would have risk that to keep him safe, to give him a safe and happy childhood. You put Harry in more danger than you realise, Albus placed Harry with Petunia so he would have a blood protection, a blood protection that he was able to give because you supposedly died Lily, that protection would not have worked. If Albus realised this he would have placed Harry with someone from the order, maybe the Weasley family, but he believed that Harry was best protected with the muggles, he wasn’t. It was just luck that Voldemort never tried to breech that protection. Now, you can sit anywhere you like, I have work to do,’ Minerva stormed off to the end of the great hall to finish the last of the repairs. She knew she could work in other parts of the castle, but she wanted to be close in case Harry returned, she had to see how he was and she just hoped that Remus could keep Harry from doing anything reckless that could get him hurt, or worse.