Harry channels his inner Slytherin

Harry felt himself heaved out of the penseive memory and was thrown to the floor.

"Amusing fellow, your father, wasn't he?" sneered Snape, black eyes blazing.

Harry gasped. This could improve things the Slytherin side of him said. You could blackmail him. Or ... or come to a more amicable arrangement.

Harry pulled off his glasses. Lily's eyes, he thought.

Snape stared. Lily's eyes. They have ... tears in them.

"I think I saw a really nasty bully and his sycophants pick on the sort of kid who I identify with," said Harry, softly. "And I'm not that happy with my mother's behaviour too. I understand why you hate me. And as I see it we have two choices."

"What?" Snape was taken aback.

"We can screech at each other like Gryffindors in a hissy fit, or we can be cool about it like Slytherins and agree that my father was an arse and that if I'd been at school with him, I'd be the kid in mismatched clothing who got picked on," said Harry. "You've been in my memories. I see my cousin Dudley when I look at James Potter. My mother was an idiot to choose him over the smartest kid in the year who would do anything for her. I'm not surprised your love for her turned to hate as well, if she was shallow enough to pick wealth over substance." His tone was bitter. "What I don't understand is why everyone talks about them as if they are plaster saints." He ran his hand through his messy hair.

"Don't do that, it makes you look like James," said Snape, waspishly. He gazed into the boy's eyes. Powers, the brat was telling the truth. He was telling the truth and he was emoting wildly about Harry Hunting.

"Sit on the chair. I'll be back in a moment," said Snape, roughly. Harry sat himself down, wondering what he had let himself in for.

Snape returned in a few minutes with a bottle of Bob Ogden's fire whisky. He summoned a chair for himself, and a couple of glasses.

"I shouldn't give you this but I think we both need it, and frankly I'd as soon be fired for getting a student drunk as to hear that nickname in school," he forced himself to speak calmly, to overcome the urges to shout at the boy, to terrorise him into never speaking of this, to throw him out. If the brat could recognise the flaws of his Gryffindor nature there was hope for him.

Harry gulped back the finger of fire whisky Snape poured for him into the summoned glass, and coughed.

"Wow," he said.

"Prosit," said Snape, with sarcasm, raising his own glass before downing it.

Harry flushed.

"I'm sorry, I don't know the etiquette of drinking any more than I know the etiquette of the wizarding world," he said.

Snape rolled his eyes.

"That old fool did you a serious disservice in having you raised ..." he became very still, like a cobra about to strike, and Harry watched him like the cobra's prey. Snape threw his empty glass at the wall in fury, and it shattered into tiny shards. Harry jumped. "DAMN him! He's been playing me, and playing you. Potter, you are right. You and I need to become very Slytherin," said the Potions' master, standing up and walking back and forth in agitation.

"Sir?" Harry asked.

Snape rounded on him, his cloak billowing.

"Potter, you spent your childhood reared as a muggle. And such snippets as I saw did not show a very happy childhood."

Harry laughed bitterly.

"Until I went to school, I thought my name was 'Freak' and I only went to school because when the authorities wanted to know where I was, and my aunt claimed I was home schooled, the inspectors said she wasn't doing a good enough job. I loved school lessons, but I wasn't allowed to do as well as I could, because if I did better than Dudley I was beaten and thrown in the cupboard for the weekend, without food. Why do you think I find it so bloody hard to study? I learned to get out of the habit. And any of what I know now is accidental magic was punished. No, Professor, I did not have a happy childhood."

Snape nodded. He was agonising over whether to share something else.

"My father was abusive like your uncle," he said. "And that is a secret. Poppy Pomfrey guesses but like you, I never told anyone. I've been missing all these wasted years that you're not an arrogant little prick, just too proud to blub."

"Blubbing gets punished anyway," said Harry.

"You too? Well, Harry, let us remove the 'Potter' from you, metaphorically though I cannot do it surgically. I take it the concessions you want for keeping my secrets are for me to go easier on you; that, in the light of having Draco in the class will be hard."

"Isn't that rather a blunt bit of negotiation for a Slytherin?" said Harry. "Actually, I understand why you've ridden me hard, if I look so much like Jimmy the Arse. I was hoping we could start again with the occlumency and you might teach me properly."

"Ah," said Snape. "Therein lies the difficulty; I taught myself out of a book and I have no idea how to teach it properly. I asked Dumbledore to do it and he made a fatuous comment and offered me one of his damned sweeties."

"You could maybe explain to me what you mean when you tell me to clear my mind?" said Harry, hopefully.

Snape stared.

"Isn't it obvious?" he asked.

"No, sir," said Harry, finding it easier to call his bête noir 'sir' when they were having a civil conversation. "I don't have any point of reference." He was pleased with this phrase.

Snape grunted.

"I think you might do better to read the book I used and then we start again," he said, getting up. He returned with a book called 'Occlumency for beginners', and a sheet of wrapping paper and spellotape. Deftly he covered the book.

"Write any damn silly title you like on the wrapping paper," he said. "We can't have any of the Dark Lord's little minions knowing what it is."

Harry managed a grin and got out a pen. In his messy handwriting he wrote,

"One thousand and one uses of electricity."

Snape watched in approval. And then he grabbed Harry's wrist.

"What's this?" he demanded, seeing the scars. Harry flushed.

"DetentionwithUmbridge," he muttered.

"I wish teenagers would learn to enunciate properly," said Snape. "Detention with darling Delores? That implies a blood quill; they're used for signing important documents. It can't be legal to use them for writing lines. What did Minerva say?"

"Madam McGonagall said I should keep my head down and just do the detentions and not make a fuss about it," said Harry.

"Well no wonder you aren't performing in class if that old harridan is making you bleed your strength away as well as tiring you with detentions," said Snape. "What is your house head thinking of? Is she wafting through the year in a haze of Scots mist?"

"I don't know, sir; I assumed she was too scared of Umbridge to do anything," said Harry.

"Do not get out of the habit of calling the toad 'Professor'," said Snape. "Do you want her to have more excuse to punish you?"

"No, sir, though I have to say, between her and you, and Dumbledore fleeing every time I come into his orbit, I've been contemplating chucking myself off the Astronomy tower," said Harry. Snape shot him a startled look.

"I wonder if that manipulative old fool has any idea how close he has come to breaking his tool against Voldemort?" Snape said, sarcastically.

"Why do you call him manipulative?"

"Harry, you have been trained to be cowed by your relatives. I ... I have been played by that old man to manage every time he clumsily reminds me how I loved your mother that I hated your father. He has urged me to get close to you, and said something to remind me of why I don't want to. He has made me hate you. Can you get more manipulative than that?"

"You loved my mother?" Harry stared. "But you called her ... that."

"Of course I did," said Snape. "What would you do if a girl you fancied like mad caught you in that situation? Would you not feel ashamed at having to be rescued by her?"

Harry considered.

"Yeah, I guess," he said. "Why would Dumbledore do that to me?"

"Because he wants you isolated and alone, turning only to him, and to his chosen light family, the Weasleys. They all think that not only the sun but any other celestial body you could name has direct access to this world via his fundament. I wouldn't be surprised if Ronald Weasley had been briefed to keep an eye on you, though I might malign him. His parents, or rather, his mother, is very controlling, and treats her offspring as though they are moronic six year olds, though in Ronald's case she may not be far off. The twins are the only rational members of that family, though it pains me to admit it."

"Ginny ..."

"Ginevra Weasley has never had any counselling for having been possessed by Tom Riddle; did you know that? Her mother's opinion is that she can just 'put such nastiness behind her' and 'move on'. This is not the action of a caring parent, but the moronic knee-jerk reaction of a serial fantasist with delusions of compassion. If you want to get your own back on the Weasleys, when you have learned enough occlumensy, you might teach her some, and how to reach her Slytherin side, and help her by letting her talk about dear Tom. You've had him tramping around your head, after all, so you might even understand her. If he'd possessed a Slytherin child I'd have been helping them work through it and through the nightmares."

"Can you make me an honourary Slytherin and help me work through the nightmares I have?"

"If we can ... good grief! Pot ... Harry, I've been missing a fundamental point."

"I bet that doesn't often happen, does it hurt to admit it?"

"I do the sarcasm around here, young man," said Snape, but he did not sound too displeased. "I work with my students who are abused or terrified of their Death Eater parents by teaching them to relax. And what is clearing the mind but an advanced form of relaxing?"

"It is?"

"It is. And though it's getting time for you to leave, you can lie in bed tonight, and focus on something nice, but not too complex. Like lying on your back on a warm spring day with the scent of new mown grass and the sky an endless blue above you."

"I can do that," said Harry. "Isn't it odd, that the atmospheric effect causing blue sky looks more infinite than photos of outer space?"

Snape shot him a startled look.

"You're deeper than you look, sometimes, boy," he said. "And never mind the physics of the stratosphere, think about that apparent infinity. I'd be prepared to wager if you can keep it in mind you'll have no nightmares."

"Thank you, sir," said Harry. "What am I going to do about being used by Dumbledore, and if he wants me to turn to him, why is he avoiding me?"

"I'll answer the last first. He is afraid that Riddle has access to your mind at all times and can see through your eyes, which undoubtedly can happen, and he is afraid of a mental attack or legilimensy on him used through you."

"I thought he was harder than Vol ...Mmmmf!" as Snape put a hand over his mouth.

"The dark lord can hear his name said in the presence of the Dark Mark," he said. "And maybe under other conditions. Call him Riddle."

"Sorry sir, why has nobody told me this before?"

"I have no idea. Perhaps because Dumbledore likes the idea of me being more at risk for being heard to have a civil conversation with you," he added bitterly.

"But he isn't afraid to use it, so why is he afraid of legilimensy through me?"

Snape shrugged.

"Because he is probably aware that you have power untold even though you don't unleash it."

"Me?"

"You show flashes ... Merlin's beard!" Snape whipped out his wand, and muttered a spell. His body language was not threatening so Harry sat there, quizzically. Snape began swearing.

"Sir?"

"The old bastard has bound your core. Presumably he planned to release it in time for you to kill Riddle with accidental magic or something," he added sarcastically.

"I believe I owe the headmaster one or two grudges," said Harry. "What am I going to do about it?"

"WE are going to get a little own back as well as training you to be so powerful we actually have a chance against Riddle," said Snape. "This evening is ending better than it started; I don't like you, but I think you and I are going to be able to be allies from now on. I'll work on a way to release your core. And then we plot. You'd better do something to put yourself in detention with me for the rest of the year; it'll keep you out of the toad's way as well. And I'll see if I can't do something about that blood quill as well."

"Thank you sir."

"It's my skin I'm trying to save too," said Snape. "Good night, Mr. Slytherin."

"Good night, sir."

OoOoOo

"How did it go?" asked Hermione.

"I don't want to talk about it; I'm going to bed," said Harry. He had a lot to think about, not least that his supposed best mate might be a traitor. Not that Ron was really clever enough to be a traitor ... or was he? He hated academic work but he was amazing at chess. He might be being used as well, but maybe not. Harry frowned. He would keep this new truce with Snape secret from everyone, because if it all fell apart, Ron would gloat and Hermione would nag him for not trying harder, and if Snape was right, he could not trust Ron, and Hermione believed firmly in Dumbledore only for the reason that he was a figure of authority. And yet she hated Umbridge. But Hermione would never see the paradox of that. She'd probably still obey Umbridge without question, actually, because she was a teacher. Harry had a sudden revelation, and realised what frustrated Snape about Hermione; it was her absolute belief in the written word and in authority figures.

He stopped.

"Hermione?" he said.

"Harry?"

"You studied the second world war at Primary School, didn't you?" he asked.

"Of course," she said.

"Do you remember what was made inadmissible as a defence at the Nuremburg trials?" he asked. I can show her the error of her ways in a Slytherin fashion and make her a better ally, he thought.

"Yes, the defence of just following orders was ruled not to be enough of a defence, as people are able to think for themselves," she said.

"Do you believe that this was correct?" asked Harry, softly.

"Of course it was correct!" said Hermione.

"So if Dumbledore tells you not to write to me in the next summer holidays, will you be a good little party member like you were last July and August, compromising all that you believe in, or will you think for yourself?" he asked.

"Harry Potter, are you calling Dumbledore and me a Nazi?" Hermione planted her hands on her hips.

"I'm calling you a Quisling and I'm not sure what I call him, but I do know that the suppression of the Jews was 'for the greater good' and I know who uses that phrase a lot."

Hermione looked stricken.

"But ... but ..."

"Goats butt, Hermione. Good night," said Harry.

Hermione was left staring after him.

"But you have to do what teachers tell you," she said to herself, wringing her hands. "Don't you?"

OoOoOo

"Minerva, why have the school rules suddenly changed to permit the use of a blood quill?" asked Severus, who had gone visiting.

"Severus! Such a thing would never be permitted!" Minerva McGonagall was shocked.

"Indeed? Or is it only permitted for Harry Potter?" asked Severus. "Is this a scheme to get him so cowed so that Riddle can kill him and then leave the Lord of the Bees to step in and eradicate him?"

"Whit are ye talkin' aboot?" Minerva's accent thickened.

"Why, Minnie, the fact that Potter has a scar on his hand reading quite clearly 'I must not tell lies' from repeated, and I mean long-repeated, writing with a blood-quill to do lines, and when he talked to you about it, you told him to lie low and not make a fuss."

Minerva had never fainted in her life, but it was a struggle not to do so.

"Severus! Are you sure? He never told me she had done that, only that he was doing lines!"

"I expect he assumed that you knew," said Snape, sardonically. "After all, he's used to adults making decisions for him that cause him distress, and not telling him why."

"Well, I do not do such things!" her eyes sparkled with anger.

"Oh? I have never heard you fighting with the headmaster over sending him back to his abusive relatives every year. You do it in private, and then quietly remove him behind the headmaster's back, do you? I'm not about to divulge the boy's confidences when he broke down and admitted he was thinking of throwing himself off the astronomy tower, but really, Min, you're his house head. I know every child in my house who is abused, and I help them as much as I can, even if that has to be assigning them a swingeing detention over the two short holidays."

"I suppose Slytherin parents are inclined to be abusive."

"And the odd Hufflepuff friend of one of my snakes, and Ravenclaw and Gryffindor siblings who have been brought to me by their relieved brother or sister as someone who can do something," said Severus. "I may hate teaching the little dunderheads, and put the fear of me into them to prevent them blowing up the dungeon as often as used to happen when Slughorn was teaching, but I do care for my little snakes. More, it seems, than you care for your lions. Or is it just that you cannot bear to think of any previous lions being abusive, so you ignore the problem, the way you ignored the Marauders bullying left right and centre?"

"You gave as good as you got."

"Peter Pettigrew didn't; it drove him into the arms of the dark lord. Jeremy Ashton from Hufflepuff didn't, when they declared Huffers to be fair game, he dropped out of school and went back to the muggle world. I nearly committed suicide several times, what stopped me was the thought that they would consider that a win."

"Severus! I never knew! Surely you do not believe they would think that?"

"Well, actually, Minerva, yes, I do, and I think you have similar attitudes in some of your current students; Ronald Weasley is ready to spit out the trite phrase that the only good Slytherin is a dead Slytherin, and I think he believes it. Which makes him one stage worse than Draco Malfoy, who is an egregious little bully, but who would, I think, be shocked if his actions caused death. I fear that if Weasley caused death by his actions, however little intentioned, if the death was of a Slytherin he would be unmoved."

"Oh, surely not!"

Severus shrugged.

"Why not watch him, and find out?" he said. "Potter couldn't have a worse friend than one who fills our only hope against the dark lord with bigotry. Weasley is as bigoted as Malfoy, just in a different way. However, that is by the by. I wanted to check your position on the use of blood quills. As you seem indifferent to their use, I will take further action by myself."

"I am not indifferent! You sidetracked me!"

"It didn't take much; you can't have been angry enough on behalf of your little favourite."

"I do not have favourites! But it is iniquitous and I will talk to Delores about it."

"Talk? Where do you think that will get you?"

"Well what do you suggest?"

"I suggest finding out how many of your lions have been subject to this, and getting Filius and Pomona to find out how many of their children have also served such detentions. She may be reserving it for Potter, but she has a down on the muggleborn, so you may find she has done it to them. Which of course is those without protection. Well, perhaps it is better if I arrange something instead."

"Like what?"

"Poisoning her tea comes to mind, but maybe there are other less clumsy ways. I will leave you to think on it; and I suggest you find out which of your lions have been scarred for life as well. It might be amusing to see a muggle father turn up in fury after the holidays with a shotgun. I wager her defensive spells would not defeat that."

Minerva paled. She had some idea what muggle weapons could do.

"I'll ask," she said.

Snape smiled. It was not a pleasant smile. Delores had just made another bad enemy.

oOoOo

Harry conferred with Fred and George with regards to a prank in potions.

"Do you really want to be serving detentions with the dungeon bat until the end of time?" asked Fred.

"Better that than with Umbridge," said Harry, showing them his hand. "He has the balls and the plain mean streak to stand up to her."

"Point," said George. "Okay, this is what to do, it's one we never quite had the guts to try ..."

oOoOo

Harry waited in potions until he was about half way through, silently vanished his potion, something the twins insisted he must practice, and dropped in the sachet the twins had given him. He stepped backwards rapidly.

The cauldron started to bubble wildly and the bubbles rose in iridescent shimmering globes. And the cauldron began intoning,

"I'm for ever blowing bubbles, pretty bubbles in the air ..."

"Mr. Potter!" Severus snarled. It could have been a more destructive reason to give him detention, I grant him that he thought.

"They fly so high, almost reach the sky, then like my dreams they fade and die..." Harry joined in with the cauldron. He was less musical.

"Detention, Potter! Every night from now until you leave school!" said Snape.

"I'm forever blowing bubbles ..." Harry swayed in time to the music but managed to catch Snape's eye and grinned at him.

Snape vanished the prank potion, and Harry broke off his song abruptly.

"I will see you after dinner, Potter," hissed Snape, right into his face.

The face, however, too close to Harry to be seen by anyone else, was showing approval, not mirroring the malevolence of the words.

"Yes, sir," said Harry, dejectedly.

"Sir, someone must have put something in Harry's cauldron," said Hermione, urgently.

"Yes, he did it himself, I saw him," said Snape. "The rest of you may decant your potions, and pray ignore the singing bubbles which remain by the ceiling. Anyone who hums will be turned into a chipmunk, which is what they sound like, and I don't mean the American mammal, I mean the ghastly muggle cartoon character."

The class decanted in silence beyond Malfoy sniggering at Harry.

"What have you DONE?" hissed Hermione as they all filed out.

"Pissed off someone with the iron ones to stand up to Umbridge and declare his detentions come first," said Harry. "I don't mind scrubbing cauldrons and cleaning potion stains off tables."

Hermione stared at him.

"Harry! That ... that was quite Slytherin of you," she said.

Harry smirked.

"Well, the hat did want to put me in Slytherin House," he said.

"No way!" Ron protested. "You aren't a bit slimy and nasty!"

"I'm sure it's only current Death Eater kids who are that way," protested Hermione. "The founders started out as friends, there can't have been anything wrong with Slytherins at first."

"All Slytherin are evil," hissed Ron.

"Why?" asked Harry.

"Well because they are," said Ron.

"That's not an answer," said Harry.

"Well, You-Know-Who was a Slytherin, so that proves it," said Ron.

"Peter Pettigrew was a Gryffindor, and he was a death eater, and he slept in your bed, does that make you evil?"

"It's not the same!"

"It's exactly the same," said Harry. "Why, you sound as bigoted as Malfoy! Is that because pure blood saps the brains and makes people blindly believe obvious fallacies?"

"Wot?" said Ron. "Don't you dare say I'm like Malfoy!"

"Then don't act like him," snapped Harry.

"You've been acting weird all year," said Ron.

"Maybe I have but if you'd been being tortured by a teacher after a holiday in which your best friends decided not to offer any help or sympathy over seeing another boy killed and being part of a ritual to bring Riddle back, you wouldn't be exactly feeling your normal self either, would you?" said Harry. "But there's no point talking about it, because all you care about is going off on one about how ... lucky ... I am to be an orphan who is ridiculed in the press, nearly killed every year by Riddle, abused by my relatives who want me as much as I want to be with them, ignored by Dumbledore and attacked with an illegal blood quill for telling the truth. Oh, and whoop-de-do, I happen to have some money in my account. Let me tell you, Ronald Weasley, I'd trade it all, and the fame I hate, to be living quietly with parents in ... in obscurity in somewhere like Chipping Sodbury that nobody has ever heard of. If I could trade bodies with you believe me, I would. Though I'm glad I don't have a mind so feeble that it cannot see that what it says is as bigoted as the worst pure blood snob."

Ron goggled at Harry as Harry hurried to draw ahead.

"Has he finally lost it?" he asked Hermione.

"No, Ron, but I fear you may have lost him, if you think that, and I hope it is not too late for me," she said, sadly. "He just wised up and realised a few home truths, and in an act of true friendship he shared them instead of letting us carry on acting like idiots."

"I'm not an idiot, and I guess you're not either," said Ron.

"Thanks for the massive concession," said Hermione.

"Wot?"

Hermione debated shouting at the red-head, but decided she would prefer to run damage limitations with Harry, and walked away from the puzzled boy.

She caught up with Harry.

"He gets his ideas from his mother," she said.

"Yes, and he cannot think for himself," said Harry, sadly. "I fear Molly has been well and truly brainwashed by Dumbledore and is indoctrinating her own children too."

"I thought hard about what you said last night," said Hermione. "And I went over the whole summer at Grimmauld Place in my head. And you're right. I think the headmaster means well ..."

"The road to Hell is paved with good intentions," said Harry. "Do you think that the ends justify the means?"

"No," said Hermione. "But isn't he the only hope we have to fight Vol ..." Harry held up a hand.

"Snape told me he can hear his own name, and nobody told me why it wasn't smart to show no fear of the nasty creature," he said. "According to him, I am the last, best hope of mankind."

"You watch Babylon 5?"

"I saw some episodes when Dudley was watching before it bored him because the aliens were being treated civilly and not tortured to death," said Harry. "But if you will help me, we can seem to go along with Dumbledore, and work by ourselves."

"'And so,'" said Hermione, "'It begins.'"

"Who died and made you Ambassador Khorsh?" grinned Harry.

"It beats comparing Dumbledore to Stalin, who was on the side of the Allies in WW2," said Hermione. "And he's not in Stalin's league."

"No, but at least by making you look at the situation I am in by bringing up the muggle comparison made you think, and so I have two people I know are on my side."

"You're going to forgive Ron for being obtuse?"

"No, Hermione. I mean you and Snape. He may be a git but he's never lied to me. Every other adult in my life has done so. And I'm sick of it."

"Did that occlumency lesson have anything to do with it?"

Harry considered.

"Yes," he said. "He finally managed to explain it to me, and I slept like a babe. I was able to get up early and do all my homework. And I'm going to study with him so I have a chance of surviving."

"Harry, was that detention ..."

"Did I do it to get extra study time? Yes, but avoiding detention with Umbitch didn't go amiss either."

oOoOo

"I put some things to Hermione in muggle history terms," said Harry, when he turned up for detention. "I finally got her to admit that what an authority figure says, written or verbally, isn't necessarily true just because they are in charge."

"Well, hallelujah for you, P ... Harry," said Snape. "What's it to do with me?"

"I think if she learned Occlumensy and even legilimensy too we could use her to spy on Dumbledore," said Harry. "Besides, I do like her, she's smart and funny when she isn't obsessing about exams."

"I'll deal with her obsession with exams," said Snape. "What you say has merit. I note you don't suggest the Weasley boy."

"You know, he was close to being insulting when I said that the sorting had almost put me in Slytherin," said Harry. "He is as closed of mind and bigoted as Malfoy."

"Congratulations; you really are thinking for yourself," said Severus. "I have never liked Molly much and the way she uses her children is iniquitous. Percy is endurable when he is not getting hung up on believing in authority figures quite as badly as Miss Granger does, and the twins cannot be dictated to. William was a disaster in the dungeon and Charles reminds me too much of Hagrid."

"I like Hagrid," said Harry.

"Liking, and expecting him to be any real help, are two different things," said Snape. "He's lucky that your father decided to take a liking to him instead of persecuting him for his differences. You won't be as popular with the unfortunate squib, Filch, nor with the centaurs."

"Is that why Bane doesn't like me?"

"Yes," said Snape. "Filch is sufficiently embittered that he makes me look jolly, and I can't say I like him, but I do understand him. Squib-baiting was always in season for the Marauders."

Harry went red.

"But squibs should be protected!" he stuttered.

"Which proves that you have more nobility than the scion raised as the heir to the Noble and Ancient family Potter," said Snape.

"It's Noble and Ancient?" asked Harry. "I didn't know."

"Don't you read your bank statements?"

"I don't get any bank statements," said Harry.

Snape froze into stillness again.

"I am going to take you to Gringott's bank at the weekend," he said. "We can find out why you do not get statements. Though if I had to guess, someone has assumed the title of magical guardian for you, whatever your best interests may be."

"Shouldn't it be Sirius?"

"The mutt isn't what you might call too tightly wrapped after 13 years in Azkaban, let alone not being free to take on the guardianship."

Harry wanted to defend Sirius, but he had to admit that a guardian who addressed him as James, and seemed to think that mucking about was more important than schoolwork really was not too tightly wrapped.

"I love him, though," he said. "Why isn't Dumbledore making more effort to have his conviction overturned?"

"Simple," sneered Snape. "If he was free he'd claim your guardianship and the old coot would no longer be able to control you."

"He can't anyway; you're helping me," said Harry.

"He doesn't know that and we keep it that way," said Snape. "Lesson one in working against the headmaster. Note this room is devoid of paintings or statuary. All paintings and statues are obliged to report to the headmaster. Never discuss anything sensitive in front of them, or any of the ghosts. Failure to support the headmaster forces them through the veil to the hereafter in a painful manner. The house elves likewise."

"What about Dobby? He's free and devoted to me."

Snape regarded him through hooded lids.

"Now you are starting to think like a Slytherin," he said. "And remember, owls can be traced, especially one as distinctive as yours. Elves cannot."

"I will remember that," said Harry. "What do you want me to do this evening?"

"I think the most fruitful use of your time will be to teach you how to study," said Snape. "You got out of the habit because of the junior walrus, but there are techniques to enable you to study faster. I will also, do not laugh, teach you to read."

"I'm guessing that's a different matter to what I think I'm doing," said Harry.

"It is. It is possible, with practice, to speed up your rate of reading whilst still assimilating the information on the page," said Snape. "And there are a number of drills and practices to that. I will teach you to skim, scan and absorb, by looking over a page with different levels of concentration to home in on key words and then learn more about them. I will also show you how to set your wand to move down a page at different speeds, obscuring all that is written behind it, so that you can gradually increase your reading speed. I will flash up first words and then sentences on the board lasting fractions of a second so that you can learn to take in whole sentences in a blink of the eye."

Harry groaned.

"I have enough trouble reading the board as it is, all the letters are fuzzy," he said.

Snape stared.

"When did you last see an optician?" he asked.

"I've never seen an optician," said Harry. "Aunt Petunia got me these glasses from a charity shop. They helped a lot, except when Dudley kept breaking them."

"Do you know, I am much inclined to kidnap you from your aunt's home and let the wards fall so that the dark lord can send his people to question them," said Snape, angrily.

"Oh, sir, they don't deserve that, they aren't strong enough to survive the cruciatus curse," said Harry, appalled.

Snape smiled.

"I wasn't thinking about them surviving. Why do you plead for them? They have been outrageous to you."

"Would you have given your father to Riddle? Or mine?"

Snape was jolted back.

"You know where to stick in the stiletto and turn it, little snake," he admitted. "I confess I wasn't that bothered what happened to your father, but I would not have instigated it. Or handed over my own father. You win that one. However, it's not so late that I can't get an appointment for you with an optician immediately; I can call in a favour. Follow me through the floo to Diagon Alley."

Harry hated flooing, but the idea of being able to see properly held allure.

"Shouldn't I be paranoid about you taking me out of school?" he said.

"Of course you should, but I swear on my magic I mean you no harm," said Snape. "Good little snake. Deeply suspicious of everyone. I'm going to give you a new surname, Mr. Python."

"What, because Hogwarts is a silly place?" asked Harry.

"Very good, Mr. Python. And because we have started over, so now for something completely different."

Harry chuckled.

"I think Dumbledore should have had his power as part of the mandate of the masses, not as part of some farcical aquatic ceremony."

"Mr. Python, we will abandon the quotes for now unless you don't want new glasses? Or your eyes fixed?"

"Can they be fixed?"

"Of course they can be fixed; it's a matter of a skilled medical transfiguration of the shape of your eyeballs."

"Then why didn't McGonagall do it?"

"Because she's not specialised in ophthalmic transfiguration and she could have made you blind. Why she didn't send you to an optician however, I do not know. Probably the old coot told her that for some reason it couldn't be done and she believed him. Minerva is distressingly like Miss Granger in her belief in authority figures, rules and what the book says. Now follow!" and he swirled with his cloak through the fireplace.

Harry followed and was glad to have his elbow caught on the other side.

"Why don't you let your knees bounce as you go through, so you can absorb the shock of the translocational energy?" asked Snape.

"Because it's another of those obvious things that everyone except me knows," said Harry. "Why don't you hold classes for the muggleborn to orient them to wizarding ways?"

"Because the head held it to be demeaning," said Snape. "You're a half-blood anyway, you wouldn't have been eligible."

"Even though muggle raised?"

Snape shrugged.

"I try not to plumb the depths of Albus', reasoning," he said. "I'd need to be a cryptographer to decipher his convoluted thoughts. This way!"

Harry found himself on a chair like a dentist's chair while a mediwitch examined his eyes with her wand and various magical optical devices.

"Not like you to leave one of your little snakes so long before bringing them for corrective surgery, Severus," she said.

"He's not one of my snakes, alas," said Snape. "If he had been, he would have been a lot healthier looking too."

"I wasn't going to comment on the malnutrition, badly healed bones, and stunted growth," said the mediwitch.

"Good; carry on not mentioning it to anyone."

"You don't intimidate me, Severus, I still think of you as the demigod who rescued me from Gryffindor bullies and brought me to have my own eyes fixed where they'd driven the shards of my glasses into my eyeballs for the crime of being Slytherin. Why do you think I went in for this field? I can pass it on."

"Hmph," said Snape. "You were more likeable when you were calling me 'Professor' with a modicum of respect in your voice, Heather Nadder."

She laughed.

"Mr. Python, this is going to be mildly painful for about ten minutes for each eye," she said. "If you wish to go through with it, I will do one eye at a time, or I can fit you with magical corrective contacts, or a new set of glasses."

"I'll take the transfiguration; it can't be worse than the cruciatus curse," said Harry.

"You think you could take that?"

"I have," said Harry.

"He has," confirmed Snape.

"Then this should be a piece of piss for you, laddie," she said.

It hurt, but it was no worse than when his head ached. Harry concentrated on thinking about his blue sky.

"I hope you inflict much pain on whoever has hurt this kid so bad he can lie there smiling," said Healer Nadder.

"I hope to do so," said Severus. "The boy has been through rather a lot. Can you fix him a pair of plain glass spectacles as well? It might be wise if nobody knows he can see without them."

"As you wish," she shrugged. "Whatever you're up to, I don't want to know."

"No, you really don't," said Severus.

Shortly thereafter they floo'd back to Severus' quarters, and Harry, practising his knee flexing, found he was able to go through without falling over, if not with elegance.

"You're a quick study, anyway," said Snape. "It's almost curfew; I'd better escort you to your common room in case anyone's watch is fast."

This meant Umbridge of course and Harry smiled grateful thanks.

"I can pay for the treatment when you take me to Gringott's," he said.

Snape surveyed him, and nodded.

"Thank you, Mr. Python," he said. "It means I will not have to worry if one of my own House needs treatment. I'm not too proud to accept. We shall commence your study on how to study tomorrow night."

"Sir, why didn't my father have his eyes fixed? And Dumbledore?"

"Your father did not want the pain. And Dumbledore? His eyesight degeneration may be old age, but as the old coot is a very fine transfigurationist himself, I suspect that his need for glasses might well be fictional, or he has glasses which are charmed to see the invisible."

"Is that possible?"

"It is, and I will consider doing the charm another time. But not tonight," said Snape.

oOoOo

Hermione joined Harry at his next supposed 'remedial potions' lesson.

"I read the book you loaned to Harry, sir," she said.

Snape regarded her.

"And what part of that statement was supposed to be news to me?" he asked. "Mr. Python has invited you to share his lessons, he has a book on the subject. It would be a surprise to me if you had not read the book. Did you understand it all?"

"No, sir."

"Thank goodness, a straight answer from the resident know-it-all. How much research did you do to cover the parts you did not understand?"

"Only a couple of hours," said Hermione. "I ... I thought perhaps you might have more coherent answers as you have experience ..."

"Now you HAVE surprised me," said Snape. "You actually give credit to me for knowing things that are not in the book? Will you perchance also at times respect my Mastery of the art of potioneering to believe me if I tell you that the book is not always telling you to do things in the best possible way?"

"Isn't it? Why not? Why do we have a text book which isn't telling us the best way to go about things?"

"There are three reasons. Firstly, because nobody has got around to writing a better text book for English students than the one we use. Secondly, because it simplifies things down for dunderheads to be able to reproducibly produce a potion which will do the job adequately, if not efficiently. Thirdly, because the only text book in the world which covers a similar course and which is better is in German. Do you read German, Miss Granger? I doubt many people do."

"If I had the incentive of a better text book, I'm sure I could learn," said Hermione.

"Ah, yes, I think you would. But would Mr. Weasley? Or Miss Brown?"

"No, sir."

"No indeed. It is my miserable task, on a level with the cleansing of the Augean Stables, to instil enough knowledge into the numbskulled brains of seething teenage hormones with gawky limbs attached to get through the OWL in a skill which can kill the unwary. To do this, I do not want to encourage too much experimentation in class. This leads to exploding cauldrons. I will set aside time for those who ask for more guidance."

Hermione's eyes widened.

"So all I had to do is to ask for more lessons?" she gasped.

"Exactly," said Snape.

"May I?" Hermione managed.

"Certainly. I will pair you with Miss Greengrasse, who is a fairly good potioneer, which will please Miss Davis as she will no longer have to sit in the potions lab to do her homework as chaperone. You will find Miss Greengrasse formal but no deatheater," he added. "But if you really want to get on with her, you should perhaps check out a book on wizarding world etiquette from the library."

"Why would I want to do that, sir?" asked Hermione, perplexed. "I'm not about to be impolite."

"Miss Granger, you are impolite without meaning to every time you open your mouth," said Snape. "You wouldn't go to France without learning the customs so as not to offend anyone?"

"You mean like customs of slavery of house elves?" Hermione's ire was kindled.

"It's not my business how much you offend the house elves; that's your problem," said Snape. "But I prefer that you do not inadvertently insult one of my harder working Slytherins by your insufferable assumption that the muggle way is always the best, your sloppy greetings and lack of sensitivity to the feelings of others. You, after all, would not like me to barge into your parents' dental clinic, and say 'hey bub, you're doing it all wrong, you should use a correctional transfiguration to eliminate the caries and a bone-strengthening potion to improve the overall condition of that man's teeth. Your clothes are ridiculous, you should wear pink medical robes and by the way all your women look like whores because they show their knees.' I have better manners than that."

"I don't do anything like that," said Hermione, close to tears.

"Yes you do," said Snape. "You come up to someone and start talking right away, you use first names without permission, you don't respect families and you have this superior look on your face as though you think that the muggle world does things better. It does not. It does things differently. There is no right, no wrong. Could the wizarding world benefit from learning from muggles? Probably, but not in a way that suggests that it is better. I think the muggle world could benefit from learning from wizards too, but the statute of secrecy precludes that. Now don't you dare burst into tears; I could have been a lot harsher, though I have to say I do wonder how a witch as clever as you has failed to notice that you have been treated with disdain by anyone born to the wizarding world."

"How would I know? I've always been treated with contempt by those people who don't like a swot," said Hermione, hotly.

"Ah, lacking in people skills, and I suppose I can relate to that," said Snape. "If you are to help Harry defeat Riddle and put some order into our corrupt society you need to know the society first before you attempt to change anything so you can get the pillars of society to listen to you. Do you young people want to run a revolution or not?"

Harry and Hermione stared, open mouthed.

"I hadn't thought any further ahead than killing His Scaliness," said Harry.

"Honest to a fault and far too Gryffindor," snapped Snape. "What's the good of winning the war if you don't win the peace? Do you really want Dumbledore and his ilk causing the rise of another dark lord by his insistence that muggle ways are better and pure bloods are trash?"

"Do you feel that way? That you are treated as trash?" asked Hermione.

"Miss Granger, are you under the impression that I am a pureblood?" asked Snape.

"Well ... yes," said Hermione.

"I'm not," said Snape. "I'm a half-blood. My mother was from a pureblood family and my father was a muggle. I am quite well aware of the muggle ways of doing things. I occasionally watch television. I know who Darth Vader is, and I much prefer Mr. Creevey's designation of me as Darth Snape than being called a vampire, it gets old very quickly. And I know better than many people that if my mother had known more about muggle things, and my father had had the chance to be better tolerated in the wizarding world, we might have been a happier family. And if you can win this war and then be an ambassador for the muggle born showing respect for the old ways and customs you can win support from those who might otherwise fight tooth and nail against you."

"I see, sir. I had no idea that ... that I was being discourteous."

"No. If I thought you knew I would not have been gentle," said Snape, hiding a savage grin as she processed the thought that this had been gentle. "You check out that book, read it, and I will answer questions on it. It won't do Mr. Python any harm to read it as well."

"Why do you call Harry that?"

"Because he has been going around like a Norwegian Blue in need of being nailed to his perch," said Snape, unanswerably. "I am, for reasons known to myself and Mr. Python, averse to his birth surname. He is a parselmouth. I thought it an eminently suitable soubriquet."

It was dawning on Hermione that she knew nothing about her potions master at all.

"Shall we start, sir?" asked Harry.

"Yes; I want to test how well you are holding your shields. Legilimens!" he pushed at Harry, who surrounded his thoughts with blue sky. Small clouds clustered on the horizon.

"Ah, you have compartmented your thoughts as the book suggested and made them into atmospheric effects?" Snape pushed at a cloud. It rained on his thoughts. "An interesting response, not what I would have chosen, but it seems to be working. However, I can force sunshine to dry your rain and evaporate your cloud and ... dear me, I have no desire to see that, I ate not long ago." Harry was blushing as Snape stripped away memories of kissing Cho. "A good outer layer though, trivialities which loom important to most teenage boys. Why is there a storm cloud emitting lightning bolts?"

"I think that's my scar, sir; it just turned up like that," said Harry.

"Interesting," said Snape. "You need to build a lightning conductor to take anything coming from it into the blue."

"You've got music in your head," blurted out Harry, who was seeing if he could follow Snape's thoughts back.

"And? I grew up in the era when there was real music not boy bands," spat Snape. It had been a natural progression to think of the Electric Light Orchestra's 'My blue world'.

"Would you play music to help us meditate then?" said Hermione. "I like a lot of dad music ... oops," she went red.

"Since I am a contemporary of Mr. Python's parents, I suppose that cannot be an insult as it is accurate," sighed Snape, "But you open your mouth, Miss Granger, and swallow your foot so far that I fear it would take a tonsillectomy to remove it."

"Sorry, sir," said Hermione.

"Accepted. Now, let me see what you have done... legilimens!" he threw himself into Hermione's mind. Numbers bombarded him, flowing from all the bookshelves of her thoughts. Pi being calculated ... Snape withdrew. "Very effective, Miss Granger," he said. "Leap those numbers round a bit more, in a random fashion, in case you get someone who actually enjoys arithmancy and mathematics. It is, however, obvious that you are practising occlumency with those bookshelves on display. If you can hide them behind thoughts of furiously calculating a lot of equations, you might even fool Dumbledore into thinking that your sole concern is spell design. It needs practice. As does Mr. Python's. However, I feel at least some small modicum of optimism that we might even get there."

"Please, sir, is there a way we can remove Harry's scar and hence the way Riddle is attacking him?" asked Hermione.

"The problem with cursed scars is that they tend to be incurable," said Snape. "Like the dark mark. The ministry has so far been unable to duplicate it to introduce other spies into his ranks."

"He probably cast it with parseltongue," said Harry.

Snape froze yet again.

"Good grief, you appear to be growing a brain in there somewhere," he said. "Or the occluding is permitting you to get past the usual spaghetti you laughingly call your thoughts, can it be as simple as that, that the horcrux is interfering with your thought processes?"

"Horcrux?" asked Hermione.

"Oh hell," said Snape. "Dumbledore is going to kill me."

"Why?" asked Hermione.

"He doesn't want Harry to know because he wants him to have a normal childhood without living in fear," said Snape.

"Excuse me, Professor, but would you listen to yourself and realise how absurd that sounds?" said Harry. "I haven't had a normal childhood at all to date, I've lived in fear of my relatives all the life I can remember, and Riddle has tried to kill me every year since I've been at Hogwarts except when it was only dementors after my godfather. And Dumbledore has been assisting him at every turn, setting up that insane obstacle course for the philosopher's stone which would appeal only to the average eleven year old or insane megalomaniac, though in Cormac McLaggan's case I would have been repeating myself. Then he let us go after the basilisk, and really? A man as well read as he is, knowing that Aragog was frightened out of the castle did not work out what it was? Hermione did, and I know she's smart, but she was barely thirteen. Then he let the dementors come instead of telling Fudge where to stick himself, and then he permitted a Death Eater to put my name into the goblet of fire and insisted it was binding. There should have been no way it was binding! But I was scared of losing my magic more than I was scared of the competition. Why didn't he notice that his old friend wasn't acting in character? Hell, sir, if it had been someone you knew well, even an old enemy like Sirius, you would have noticed."

"I would," said Snape. "I overlook your linguistic lapses as you are justifiably angry. I think you should be. You are right, he has been grooming you to fight to certain stimuli; to whit, if you think someone you care about is in danger, or something you care about, like the philosopher's stone. I thought it odd he would not permit me to do what I wanted to do with the potions and have all of them poisons, or at least the draught of living death. That ... that puts an interesting complexion on it."

"Sir, if Riddle is rebuilt using my blood, doesn't that make the blood wards at the Dursleys essentially useless?" asked Harry.

"You want to be careful your poor little brain doesn't overheat," said Snape. "You are quite correct, it would render them totally superfluous. What was Albus thinking of in sending you back there?"

"And keeping him incommunicado by ordering us not to write," said Hermione. "I was dubious about your mistrust of the headmaster, Harry, but I am coming round to your point of view."

"He's been manipulating me longer than he's been manipulating you, Miss Granger, and it's only recently that I've been questioning it," said Snape. "And making me spy to atone for having been stupid enough to pass on the ruddy prophecy to Riddle."

"What prophesy and you've ducked the question of what is a horcrux," said Hermione.

"I knew there was a reason I shouldn't have let Pot – Python bring you," hissed Snape. "You are altogether too acute and tenacious. Very well. The prophecy is about a child born as the seventh month dies, who will have the power the Dark Lord knows not. There was more but I didn't hear it. HE will want Python to retrieve the memory from the Department of Mysteries, since only those named in a prophecy can touch it safely."

Harry gasped.

"I've been dreaming about a corridor, would that be it?"

"Undoubtedly, Mr. Python, and you should avoid that corridor like the plague," said Snape. "It will be a trap. As to what a horcrux is, it is a construction of great evil. Murder splits the soul; remorse may heal that split, but if it is done deliberately with a ritual the split off part of the soul may be placed into an inanimate or indeed animate object. If the body of the said murderer dies, his spirit may remain without being a ghost in order to occupy some other body. The diary you killed in your second year was a horcrux. Dumbledore believes that Riddle made a number of them, and that your scar is an accidental one made with the murder of your parents. His theory is that you have to permit Riddle to cast the killing curse at you, which will kill the horcrux, but that you may resume life without it, able to kill him. If it does kill you, it will be for the greater good, and he will be able to kill Riddle once the last horcrux is gone. But he wants you, I suspect, depressed and vulnerable so you will not go seeking him in a Gryffindorish sort of way until he has found the others."

Harry sat down hard, and Hermione put her arms around him.

"That makes Dumbledore hardly any better than Riddle!" she cried, indignantly.

Snape gave a half-smirk.

"Closer than you realise," he said. "At first, Riddle's aims seemed good, which is why I joined him; keep our customs and stop muggles destroying our world. He became increasingly insane, and I suspect that was the effect of splitting his soul so many ways. Not that he was sane to begin with, I think, but he sounded reasonable at first. But many joined him in the pure belief that they were fighting for the survival of all they knew. Lucius Malfoy for one. And he has become thoroughly corrupted."

"You're telling me," said Harry.

"Once, he was a kind prefect looking out for a kid who was picked on by the bullies," said Snape. "I don't know what happened to him. But Draco does not have an easy home life, whatever he pretends."

"I guess he'd be a demanding father," said Harry, grimly.

"Let us say his expectations are high," said Snape, reflecting on the punishments Draco received for sitting below a mudblood in class. "Draco is not suited to be a Death Eater, and the time may come when I ask the aid of both of you to keep him out of it."

"We don't exactly have a track record of getting along," said Hermione, dryly.

"Why would he, when he is whipped for being beaten in class by you?" said Snape. "And that is a confidence and only told to you to give you understanding of why he is as he is."

"Hell, professor, that makes Ron Weasley worse than Malfoy; he has a loving family and kind parents, even if they are smothering, and he's still a bigot," said Harry.

"Weasley is brainwashed, and as there's not much there to wash, it took particularly well," said Snape.

"What are we going to do about this?" Harry pointed to his scar. "It strikes me that maybe killing myself might be the best solution."

"No," said Snape. "Now we know he may have used parseltongue in the ritual we might be able to research a way of removing it."

"Could we work on your dark mark first to practise?" asked Hermione. "If we can get rid of it, you won't have to go to that awful man any more."

"And we lose a spy," said Snape.

"I'm not sure it's worth having a spy at the cost of being in constant danger," said Harry. "If we can control my scar so I can watch using legilimensy ..."

"He is a superb legilimens," said Snape.

"Sure, he's good at the attacking side. But how good is he at occlumensy?" asked Harry.

"You are full of interesting thoughts tonight. I don't know; but I suspect you are correct that he neglected defences for attack."

OoOoOo

"Surely you cannot mean it? Harry would never be suicidal, Severus must be mistaken," said Dumbledore, twinkling at Minerva.

"Albus, I think if I had been used in a dark ritual, seen a friend killed, been sent to abusive relatives without a chance to have counselling about that, and then been subjected to ridicule in the papers and the use of a blood quill I think I would be suicidal," said Minerva. "And this is a fifteen year old boy we are talking about."

"Severus is certainly exaggerating about the blood quill; he hates Delores. No sane person would use one of those for children to write lines, he's indulging in a dark fantasy."

"Then Delores Umbridge is not sane, headmaster, for I've been questioning my lions and I have more than one instance of it being used, save that my muggleborns, like Harry, have no idea what it is, and assume that you have sanctioned it and hence have not complained."

"Dear me," said Dumbledore.

"Is that all you can say, Headmaster?" asked Minerva.

"I cannot think of anything else to say," said Dumbledore.

"Then you had better start thinking, had you not?" said Minerva. "Either she goes, or I plan to set up the McGonagall Castle School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, and transfer all my lions to it, including your golden boy, who will not be permitted outside its boundaries to go home for the holidays. As Harry pointed out to me last night, there is no point him returning to the Dursleys in any case since the blood wards have failed."

"I do not know what gives him that idea ..."

"Maybe the fact that Voldemort's current body has his blood in it, and therefore can pass the blood wards without trouble," said Minerva, with some pleasure at passing on that news.

"Oh, it doesn't work like that," said Dumbledore.

"Indeed? Then you had better have a good explanation as to why it doesn't work like that when from everything I can find about blood wards tell me that it works exactly like that unless Harry was over seventeen, in possession of his position as head of the House of Potter, and able to legally cast Voldemort out of his family. They are brothers in the eyes of the law and in the operation of magic, and there's nothing you can do about it. And Harry knows that because he's been reading about the subject and refuses point blank to go to a house which has no pretence of being a safehouse for him, and I'm backing him."

Dumbledore was furious.

"My dear Minerva, you have to trust me to know what is best for the boy," he said,

"Why?" asked Minerva.

"I beg your pardon?"

"Why do I have to trust you? Because on this matter, I do not. I think you have overreached yourself. You are getting old and you plain forgot that Harry told you that his blood had been used in the ritual, and so you didn't do anything about it. Old age happens to us all, Albus, but you would be well to take it into account, and start being more open about your plans before you lose any more of your memories."

"Are you calling me senile?"

"Oh, not yet, Albus, but you are plainly growing sair forgetful forebye. And yon laddie would hae suffered for it had he no' realised the danger, and how lucky he was that Voldemort didnae try tae come for him over the summer."

Dumbledore's theory, which would have been considered controversial at best and dippy at the worst, was that Lily's sacrifice would weaken the blood in Voldemort, making him less than he might have been, and would resonate with the blood wards at 4 Privet Drive causing him to fall apart the way Quirrel had done. However, he had no calculations or proofs to show Minerva, since it was only his theory, and Minerva was as irritating about wanting proofs as that Granger girl. At least he was able to cow that one with his presence and through being her headmaster.

He might have to have a little chat with Hermione Granger.

oOoOo

Severus officially had Harry in detention on Saturday, but instead they floo'd to Diagon Alley, where Harry exited without stumbling any more, under his invisibility cloak as demanded by Severus. They walked quickly to Gringotts.

"Decloak before we go in; goblins have zero sense of humour about deception," said Severus.

"Anyone would think I was a Romulan," grumbled Harry, but did as he was told. He believed his professor about the level of sense of humour of the goblins.

Snape led him to a teller.

"We need to see the manager of the Potter account," he said.

"Wait," said the goblin, going away. Shortly thereafter another goblin came out of a door.

"Griphook? Are you my manager?" asked Harry. The goblin grinned, fiercely.

"Mr. Potter! You recalled my name, and recognised me; the goblin nation never forgets a slight, or a compliment, it is a pleasure to do business with you. But your courtesy does not sit well with your failure to answer any letters."

"I've had no letters from you," said Harry. "And Professor Snape says I should have been getting statements as well."

Griphook's eyes narrowed, and his mouth snarled as he led Snape and Harry to a small office.

"Indeed! Then we shall have to find out why. I beg your pardon, Mr. Potter; it is of course my fault for not ascertaining why we have had no communication with you. Will you ask retribution of me?"

"Certainly not, Griphook, I think we are both being used by a smooth operator," said Harry. "In short, I suspect Dumbledore of trying to keep me from my birthright."

"That is a crime," hissed Griphook. "I will look into this."

"Mr. Potter would like to see his parents' wills," said Snape.

"Of course, Mr. Potter, Headmaster Dumbledore sealed the wills, but for a principal beneficiary such seals do not count," said Griphook. "Permit me to serve you with refreshments. There is a toilet through that door. I may be some time."

"Thank you," said Harry.

"I thought the goblins would not be happy at having their rules and customs ridden over roughshod," said Snape, grimly. "Goblins, despite what Binns tells you, are only dangerous if you go out of your way to irritate them."

"Like potions masters?" said Harry.

"Oh, no, Harry Python, I am dangerous all the time," said Severus with rare good humour.

Another goblin brought two wills to Harry, with a bow.

"Griphook says to apologise for opening the seals for you, but they are tagged to alert the sealer if opened, without a cursebreaker. I removed the alert," he said.

"Many thanks," said Harry.

"How very underhanded of the old man," said Severus.

"Are you sure he wasn't a Slytherin?" asked Harry.

"He could give Lucius Malfoy a run for his money in being slippery, certainly," said Severus, dryly.

Harry read down his father's will.

"I appear to be in receipt of a family ring, more than the one vault I knew I possessed, and a selection of properties which nobody has ever mentioned to me," he said.

"Most old families own a number of properties," said Severus. "Had not my mother been disowned in favour of a cadet branch, I would own half a dozen places myself. Her marriage was, however, deemed unacceptable."

"I suppose the up side of that is that you don't have obnoxious people who'd do that to their daughter to call relatives, but it sucks anyway," said Harry.

"I don't need your sympathy," said Snape, harshly.

"I wasn't offering sympathy; just understanding that it sucks," said Harry. "My father has specified that I am to live with any of his relatives, down to and including the Malfoys before I go to the Dursleys, if anything happens to the six people designated by Lily. Mum. Six?"

"I expect two of them are the Longbottoms," said Severus. "One will be your Dogfather."

"You are droll, sir," said Harry. "Can you manage to hate him less by calling him names? You may have to work with him."

"Alas, I probably shall, but I will try to be icy blooded and Slytherin," sighed Severus.

"If he calls you that name I'll hex him," said Harry.

"Why?"

"Because nobody deserves to be called really bad names. Like Freak," said Harry, intensely.

"I see. What does your mother's will say?"

Harry read it.

"It's a repeat of my father's in some ways, since he left the use of things to her if he predeceased, to hold in trust for me. And she names the Longbottoms, Sirius Black, Severus Snape, Minerva McGonagall and Remus Lupin, in that order. She also says on no account is her son to go to her sister Petunia and whatever loser she is married to."

Snape stared.

"Let me see," he said, hungrily. He read the will. It was as Harry had stated.

"She's right about Petunia," he said.

"Can we make you my magical guardian?" asked Harry. "If Dumblemort has assumed the role, it can't be legal, can it?"

Snape raised an eyebrow over Dumbledore's new soubriquet. He had really burned his boats with his chosen tool. And serve him right.

"He is head of the wizgamot, and as such wields immense powers," he said.

"Then we need a solicitor to brief a barrister to take it to court and time it so he is so tied up with something so he won't attend," said Harry.

"That is my little snake," said Snape, proudly.

oOoOo

Hermione went to Dumbledore's office as requested, and entered when he opened the door.

"Ah, Miss Granger." He twinkled at her. "Please sit down. Sherbert lemon?"

"Certainly NOT, sir," said Hermione. "Have you any idea of the dangers there are in eating such things? Bacteria are attracted to sweetness, you know, and it clings to the teeth, making them a breeding ground for germs, attacking the enamel and bringing gum disease. Not to mention the dangers to the whole body of introducing pure sugar to it and causing untold stress to the pancreas. I really advice you to give them up, you are not as young as you used to be, sir, and you cannot possibly achieve the level of activity necessary to work off such a strain to your system, and maintain healthy insulin levels."

Hermione would probably never had spoken so to the headmaster had she not found out his plans for Harry; but she, too, discovered that she had an inner Slytherin to channel and was rather pleased with the way she made the trademark twinkle switch off by the time she had got half way through that self-righteous little speech.

"Of course, you are probably right, my dear," he had the twinkle back under control. "But for an old man like me, there is no harm in a little self –indulgence."

"I suppose so," said Hermione, "So long as you see a dentist regularly, and check your feet to make sure you are not losing feeling in them."

"My feet?"

"Oh, yes, sir, diabetes causes a loss of feeling in the feet, in extreme cases amputation of the whole limb may be needed," said Hermione, thoroughly enjoying herself. She permitted the literature on diabetes her parents had showed her to be at the top of her thoughts as she looked earnestly into his eyes. "I don't think you ought to be offering such things to the students, though," she added. "It's almost child abuse to give children sweeties."

"Oh, in moderation nothing hurts," said Dumbledore. The gaiety in his voice was audibly forced. "but I didn't want to waste your valuable time talking about sweeties; I have a far more serious problem in hand."

"Oh, you mean the blood quill used by that woman from the ministry; of course," said Hermione. "I wondered if you wanted to talk about that, so I have conducted a survey and logged the number of hours for every student she has used it on, their house, and a list of supposed offences at the end, as it wouldn't fit on the table. Here." She thrust out a thick wad of notes. "And you need not worry if she manages to damage them when you confront her, because I made several copies, and mailed one lot in a sealed envelope to Gringotts, with the request that they find a lawyer to run a class action against her, and another lot to Xeno Lovegood to publish if she hasn't gone by Easter."

"You have been very busy, haven't you?" said Dumbledore.

"Oh, yes, sir!" Hermione nodded her bushy head proudly. "I knew you might need backup to get rid of her, so I got onto it right away."

"Most enterprising of you," the headmaster's smile slipped a little. "Though to be honest, it was another matter I wished to talk about with you."

"Oh, certainly, headmaster," said Hermione.

"It's about Harry," said Dumbledore.

"Oh, you mean how he hates doing remedial potions?" said Hermione. "Well, he will just have to buck up and work if he hopes to get a good enough grade in his OWLs to go on to NEWT for Auror training. I do help him out all I can, and encourage him."

"I am sure you do," the twinkle had returned. "He can be stubborn, can't he?"

"Oh, yes," said Hermione. "If he sets his mind on something seriously, I doubt there is a power in the universe capable of shifting him. He's the original immovable force."

"Yes, I fear so," Dumbledore sighed. "I worry so much about him, because his safety must be assured, and I need to persuade him to return to his relatives in the summer."

"Oh, you had better not do that, sir," said Hermione. "Don't you recall what happened at the end of the Triwizard? Voldemort took his blood, and so he can pass the wards. It only occurred to Harry a short while ago, but I sent to Flourish and Blott for a book on blood warding, and it's quite unequivocal, any ward will permit someone of the same blood to pass it unless excluded by an adult head of the house so warded. Naturally, Harry is not yet of age so he cannot exclude anyone from the blood wards, and I'm not sure even so if it would work. You see, magical blood use is different to muggle blood use, and in making a flesh golem of the kind which Voldemort is means that his blood is Harry's blood, genetically identical, and so if Voldemort were excluded from the blood wards, Harry would be as well. I don't read Hebraic, I'm afraid," she added apologetically, "But a golem is tied to its maker, and though the ritual was performed by Peter Pettigrew, I think it means that he and Harry are considered as joint creators under the circumstances. It's a Jewish ritual, you know, creating golems."

"Yes, I am aware of that, Miss Granger," said Dumbledore, trying not to grind his lemon flavoured teeth. "However it was not done purely according to Jewish ritual, so that is probably a superfluous piece of research. Take it from me that Harry will be safe behind the blood wards."

"Oh, I fear I cannot do that, sir," said Hermione, shaking her head. "Why, Spinner and Fulke were adamant in what they wrote, and they are the experts, or they wouldn't have written a book about it." She made up a pair of spurious authors and hid the fact that she was actually rather ashamed that she had once believed that anything written in a book had to be true. Gilderoy Lockhart had been the first shake in that foundation, but using her reputation as being merely book smart, she could smile happily at Dumbledore, and say kindly, "Madam McGonagall did mention you were getting a little forgetful now, and I'm sure you just forgot how blood wards work. As of course you have forgotten that magic is based on intent."

"I beg your pardon, Miss Granger?" his voice was icy, and inwardly, Hermione quailed. But this was for Harry. She beamed at him.

"Why, yes! Spinner and Fulke insist that home wards only work for those people who consider their place of residence to be their home; which means that the wards haven't worked for years, since Harry has certainly not considered that horrid place to be his home since he came to Hogwarts. He thinks of the castle as his home."

Dumbledore pursed his lips.

"I am sorry that you feel that way, my dear," he said, shaking his head in grandfatherly disappointment. "You are quite wrong, but to refute the simplistic level of wards described by Spinner and Fulke would require you to have a mastery in Charms for me to explain, and you patently do not."

"I will speak to Professor Flitwick about it then," said Hermione.

"You do not need to disturb Professor Flitwick over trivialities," said Dumbledore. Hermione frowned.

"Oh, I had no idea that Harry's safety was a triviality," she said. "Of course, you cannot show one student more partiality than any other, but I understand, you have too much to do to be able to put up wards anywhere else, but I have to say, I cannot think it wise to urge him to return to broken wards, even if you do need to save face in front of the Ministry. It is always wiser to be honest about such things, is it not? And Harry can stay the summer at Grimmauld Place, where he will be much safer. Good, I'm so glad that's settled, and that you agree with me that he will be safer with Sirius. Was there anything else? No? Good afternoon, sir," and she got up with alacrity and was out of the door while Dumbledore was still staring.

Hermione resolved to put that interview in the pensieve for Harry and Snape.

OoOOoo

Griphook returned after an hour and a half, as Harry was on his third cup of tea and all the little cakes were gone.

"I'm sorry, Mr. Potter, I have been closing access to the other Potter account, which the Headmaster of Hogwarts has been using, supposedly on your behalf as your guardian, to pay your relatives for your keep. A steep sum for the cost of the keep of a small boy," he added.

"Be damned he did!" Harry yelled, and the chinaware started shaking and rattling as his anger channelled his magic. "I slept in a cupboard and wore cast offs and ate half the time out of the bin!"

"You would be prepared to give a pensieve memory of this?" asked Griphook, as Snape laid his hands on the boy's shoulders.

"I would," said Harry.

"Then we shall file proceedings against your relatives," said Griphook, happily. "We cannot do so against the headmaster as he sent funds in good faith, but anyone who treats a child like that deserves prosecution. Your family solicitor will handle it."

"Will he also handle a change of guardian to one approved by my parents and available to me?" asked Harry, his magic under control. "I believe the next on the list who is available is Professor Snape."

"I wouldn't be lenient on you; I'm strict," said Snape, narrowing his eyes.

"I'm used to more than strict," shrugged Harry. "We may not like each other much but I trust you to tell me the truth, and to be a guardian, not a manipulative old ..."

"Watch your language!" barked Snape.

"... man," said Harry. "Why, sir, what word came into your head?"

"Several and all of them anatomically unlikely," said Severus, grimly. "Don't pull the innocent puppy eyes on me, young man!"

Harry grinned at him.

"No, it doesn't work," he said. "Griphook, can I leave that with you? And is there legal action I can take over the use of a blood quill as punishment?"

"Would you repeat that, Mr. Potter? I thought you said a blood quill was being used as punishement," said Griphook. Harry held out his hand.

"I did," he said.

"WHO-HAS-DONE-THIS?" demanded Griphook.

"Delores Umbridge," said Harry.

Griphook's eyes narrowed.

"She is an enemy of the nation," he said. "I am sorry for your pain. However, for your pain you are honoured as a warrior of the nation for being an instrument to destroy her."

"Good," said Harry.

"Excuse me, a moment," said Griphook, leaving. When he came back, he was flourishing a parchment.

"If you will put your name to this document outlining what you require," said Griphook.

Harry read it through, nodded, and they left.

"I do not answer to Uncle," said Severus.

"No, of course not, Mummy," said Harry.

"Next time anyone asks why I call you Mr. Python, I shall tell them that it's because you're a lumberjack and you're okay," threatened Severus.

"Sorry, sir!" said Harry, quickly. But he knew he had not really annoyed the man.

OoOoOo

Severus came out of Hermione's memory laughing out loud, something neither teen had ever seen.

"Miss Granger, Miss Granger, you have learned from rebukes and you have become a most devious girl. I believe I shall count you as an honourary Slytherin. That was beautifully done and quite, quite priceless. Do you mind if I make a copy of this and keep it for when I am down? It will always lift my mood."

"Feel free, sir," said Hermione. "And wasn't I awful? Was I like that for real?"

"Yes, but I forgive all for you learning to get over it," said Severus. "And for this wonderful moment in the pensieve. It was beautifully done. I could not have come up with a better way of irritating the old fool and yet keeping him from realising that we are on to him. Did McGonagall really say he was getting forgetful?"

"Yes, she forgot herself enough to sound off to me about how he was going senile, only she did it in Scots," said Hermione.

"Well, well, there's more to Minerva than I thought," said Snape. "And no, I don't usually gossip about other teachers to students, but you two are not students, you are the war effort."

"Understood, sir," said Hermione.

oOoOo

"Dobby is more than happy to take Harry Potter to see his solicitor, Dobby would like to be a free elf in livery to the Potter House," said Dobby.

"Will you take mail as well?" asked Harry. "I don't want Dumbledore noticing Hedwig bringing me letters, she is rather distinctive."

"If Harry Potter does the ritual to make Dobby an elf of House Potter, Dobby can be called by House Potter's solicitor," said Dobby.

Harry frowned.

"I don't want him abusing that," he said. "Hmm, suppose I give you specific orders to only obey him if you feel like it?"

Dobby jumped up and down, his ears flapping.

"Master Harry Potter thinks of everything to help elveses!" he squeaked, adoringly. "Will Harry Potter make silly girl who frees elves his steward when she is of age?"

"I don't know," said Harry. "I'd as soon make Snape my steward, so he can act for me as more than my guardian. Can I have more than one steward?"

"No, but there is other positions which is important," said Dobby. "Professor Snape has the bad-feeling power-drain thing in his arm."

"It drains power? That's not good."

Dobby shook his head.

"No, not good, steward should have full power." He frowned. "Master should have full power. Master Harry Potter needs his ring to adopt people."

"I didn't know that. I think my solicitor will give it to me."

"Dobby will go and see solicitor and explain things," said Dobby.

oOoOo

"It's no good, I can't do a diagnostic spell on the damned mark," said Severus, testily. "And I refuse to ask Albus, who I know has learned Parseltongue. You'll have to teach me."

"He learned it? I wish he had mentioned this when I thought I was going insane because the basilisk was speaking and I thought only I could hear it. What is he playing at?"

"Games of being the world's one and only saviour, that's what," said Severus. "He mentioned needing to learn it to question Tom Riddle's uncle."

"Can you learn it with legilimensy from me, to speed things up?" asked Harry.

"No, but if I teach you and show you inside your mind some diagnostic spells, I could ride along while you cast them – if you will trust me to do so."

"A month ago that would have horrified me," said Harry. "Now, I'm like, yeah, I trust you because I understand you better."

"I wish I understood you when you speak in teen not in English," said Severus. "Very well, the spell is specialis revelio which is a useful spell for all sorts of things, including the composition of potions."

"I've seen you cast that, it's a sideways figure of eight motion, and a circle," said Harry.

"An infinity symbol and the enso rune from the east," said Severus severely. "You might as well know what you are casting and why."

"Yes, sir," said Harry. "No time like the present; climb in and make yourself comfortable."

Severus rolled his eyes. The way the boy put things was excruciating.

He performed a more extensive spell than a simple legilimensy, impossible without the cooperation of the subject, and raised an eyebrow that Harry's increasingly well held blue world shaped a sofa from a cloud for him. He sat gingerly on it and looked down on his now swooning body.

"SSSSSSS Specialis Revelio SSSSSS" they cast in unison on the dark mark. Harry had no experience of curses, but Severus did, and with the ability to use Harry's parseltongue he was able to decipher the layers. Harry could feel his mentor's excitement.

"Good, now take my head and look me in the eyes so I can get back into my body," said Severus. Harry did as he was bid, and the vacant black eyes resumed animation as the faint 'pop' between his ears and residual headache told him that Severus had vacated his own mind.

"You got excited," said Harry.

"Yes, yes, I did," said Severus. "For a man of so much power, Riddle is remarkably limited in his thinking. It has a power-draining component in it, a trickle most of the time, and the ability to take more. It is a portkey, and a protean charm, and it suppresses empathy, the only subtle part of it. That's about it. It is hidden with the use of parselmagic. If I make a chant, can you translate it?"

"Only if I can see a snake ... but of course, I'll be looking at the snake on your arm," said Harry.

"Good. I think we need to unlock your core first, and as it's the weekend that will give you time to get used to the fact that your magic is going to be flowing much more strongly. Be aware you may be subject to bouts of accidental magic."

"I'll try to only have them around Umbitch so she ends up thrown across the Great Hall," muttered Harry.

"Foolish boy, when she is around, that is the last time you want to be displaying accidental magic. Though of course she is likely to be setting it off. What?" Dobby popped in.

"Harry Potter's solicitor is wanting pensieve memories of the blood quill incident," he squeaked. "Guardian of the House Potter must show his memories of seeing the scar too. Solicitor thinks he can prosecute under endangering a Great House by attacking its Head in Wardship as well as other charges."

"I like my solicitor," said Harry. "Sir?"

Severus got down two vials.

"Place your wand to your temple, think of the incident, and draw it out as a strand of thought," he said. "No spellwork, the wand knows what you want."

Harry nodded, and did as he was told. Severus drew out his memory of seeing Harry's hand.

Dobby giggled and disappeared with both vials.

"Is he enjoying overthrowing her as much as we are?" asked Severus.

"Yes, she isn't nice to the elves," said Harry.

"Very well, let me release your core," said Severus. "You'd have thought that if the old man was crazy enough to let you go in for the Triwizard, he would at least have released some of your core to give you a better chance of survival."

"I've been thinking about that, and I've been a fool," said Harry.

"That goes without saying, but in which particular?"

Harry grinned. Insults from Snape were almost a form of affection now.

"The contract stated that whoever put their name in made a binding contract that if they did not compete, they would lose their magic. Now, I was competing essentially as the proxy for Barty Junior, but he put my name in. He made the contract. If I'd had the sense to refuse, he would have lost his magic, not me."

"That is actually brilliant reasoning," said Severus. "Occlumensy is doing wonders for you. Your writing has improved as well," he added.

"The thing in my head is an impediment," said Harry. "But why didn't Dumbledore work that out? He hasn't got a horcrux in his head to stop him thinking and he's supposed to be brilliant."

"He's powerful but he isn't as clever as he thinks he is," said Severus. "And he got himself so wound up that you had to compete or lose your magic, he didn't think it through. Alas, nor did I, because I am afraid I would have challenged you to prove you hadn't put your own name in by sitting it out and watching whoever did do it take a fall."

"If you'd presented me with the reason, I'd have sat it out willingly," said Harry. "My friendship with Ron started falling apart at that point, and though he patched it up after the dragons, it's never been the same. Hermione has apologised for being led by Dumbledore not to write to me. Ron never has. I'm starting to dislike him, because he always has some disparaging remark about someone on his lips."

"He reminds me of Peter Pettigrew," said Severus. "Not a leader, but ready to poke anyone who was down. No wonder the rat chose him!"

"Sir," said Harry, "If I have more power, and as I have a part of Riddle, could I try to use your mark to portkey in Pettigrew, to take him to the ministry, so Sirius can be free?"

Emotions chased themselves over Severus' face. And sudden glee won out. Dumbledore could have arranged a trial for the mutt using the children's memories. And his. Dumbledore wanted the mutt a safely confined fugitive, a prisoner in his own home, to prevent him claiming custody of Harry, as the boy's godfather. And if he willingly aided in this, that removed the threat of the Kiss by dementors and that meant that Sirius would owe him a life debt.

He hoped it would cause the mutt as much anguish as it caused him to owe one to James Bloody Potter.

"It's a good idea," he said. "And if we take off my dark mark before I turn him in, he cannot claim me to be a death eater. I am going to enjoy this; I loath Peter."

"Good," said Harry.

Severus was quite euphoric as he performed the ritual to release the bound core of a minor. Apart from a wave of energy from Harry which broke several bottles on his shelves and knocked Severus flying, the after-effects were not too bad.

"Avoid too much sugar while it settles down," he said.

"Hermione doesn't let me eat too much anyway," said Harry.

"For goodness sake! She's not your wife."

"I'm starting to consider it as a possibility though," said Harry. "She is my best friend, after all. And it would send a message that I chose a muggle born girl, like my father."

"There's also the Weasley girl who would be a suitable alliance to your house."

"Yes, but Ginny is too much like a house elf, she is all over me like a rash if I show her any attention and she guilt-trips if she goes against her mother. I've been talking to her, as you suggested, about the diary, and her being possessed, and shown her how to relax so she won't have nightmares, and I'm afraid she's treating me rather like death-by-chocolate, something to gobble up as fast as possible in order for it not to melt."

"What a truly horrible vision that has given me."

"Yeah. I'm sorry for Ginny, and especially in having such a dork for a mother, but she is clingy," said Harry. "I couldn't send her off to do a job, and expect to get it done. It takes people like Hermione and Neville."

"Really? You find Longbottom reliable?"

"I do. He's not a squib, whatever people say, he's trying to work with his father's wand, and how can he do that? The wand choses the wizard. And like I can remember my mother pleading for my life and dying, he can remember his parents screaming. I've been teaching him how to relax and clear his mind too."

"Maybe I should work with him, too, then," said Severus, frowning. The more people Harry had as backup, the better his chance of succeeding in killing Riddle. Maybe Longbottom's core was also bound, by trauma, or by either of the controlling adults in his life. He would also talk to Ginevra Weasley. It would be fun to send a howler to Molly for a change, to accuse her of neglecting one of her children.

Nobody ever said he was nice, after all.

It would be nice, however, if Harry could learn to control his released core in short order. The phrase 'bouncing off the walls' when referring to hyperactive teenagers was not supposed to be literal.

oOoOo

Harry was still getting his magic under control when he arrived, with Dobby, in his solicitor's office, where he managed to reverse gravity and remove all the solicitor's clothes as he arrived.

"Oh shit, and I was hoping to make a good impression," he said, in disgust. "My legal guardian just undid the binding on my core and I don't think it likes apparition."

"Dear me, considering the stories I've heard about what you have done over the years, if you did them with a bound core, you will doubtless be a very powerful wizard indeed," said the solicitor, calmly restoring his room and clothes with a flick of his wand. "Don't worry about it, I am sure you will soon settle it down. I always find a good game of quidditch helps matters."

"Can't; Umbitch has taken my broom because she's there to suppress the truth about Voldemort being back," said Harry, sullenly.

"Ah, yes, Mr. Potter, I think you will find we have that little matter well in hand," said the solicitor. "Permit me to introduce myself; I am Arnold Adler, of Legal Eagles Incorporated, family firm to the Potters. May I ask who bound your core? It is common in toddlers who display early accidental magic, was it done by your parents, and nobody knew to undo it?"

"Professor Snape says it had the mark of Dumbledore on it."

"Dear me, rather unprofessional of him, though he may have done it when you were small for your own protection. Not good that he forgot."

"My head of house, Professor McGonagall, has noticed he has been very forgetful of late," said Harry. Might as well have the head made uncomfortable too, if the solicitor could do anything.

"Indeed? Unfortunate. I will see if I can speak to the governors."

"Thank you, sir. Er, my ring?"

"Indeed. You can wear the heir's ring, which is here; but we need to check whether the Head of House ring will accept you."

"I don't understand; am I not the head of the House of Potter?"

"Oh, unquestionably; but as you are under 17 the ring will probe you and see if it counts you mature enough to be head of house before you reach your majority. If it does not, you may try on every birthday until you are 17. If it does, then you will be legally an adult, and the declaration of guardianship of Professor Snape becomes superfluous."

"So I will be able to do magic out of school?"

"You will be obliged to do magic out of school to restore the wards of your various properties, and set the repair and cleaning wards, tell the wards who is, and who is not permitted in and out and so on. The heir ring is sufficient to set a steward to some of those duties."

"Good. Let me try the ring."

"Here is the heir ring," Adler passed it over, and Harry slipped it on. "And the Head of House ring. Place it on your finger, and it will either grow hot, in which case you will have to let it drop off onto the table, or it will resize to your finger." He gave a whimsical smile. "I had to spend some time researching this."

Harry took a deep breath, and slid the Head of House ring onto his finger. With a faint chime, it resized.

"Apparently it recognises you as an adult. Good; I will file the paperwork with the Ministry that you are no longer subject to underage trace, and will let Gringotts know. This means there is no question of guardianship."

"Can I sue Professor Dumbledore for ignoring the wishes of my parents and acting against my direct interests?"

"You certainly can, your parents' wishes are quite clear, and they have provided a list of suitable people without his name ever appearing. Although the first three on the list are unavailable, Professors Snape and McGonagall are living and well, although there might be problems with the ministry considering Mr. Lupin to be a suitable person. Werewolves are not considered reliable parents."

"So if a werewolf marries and has a family, his children are taken away, even if they inherit lycanthropy and would benefit from having a parent who understands?" asked Harry.

"No, they are left to rear their own children," admitted Adler. "I did not say it was fair, or right."

"No, you didn't," said Harry. "Can I sit on the Wizgamot as I am now a legal adult?"

"Oh yes," said Adler.

"Good. I will need books on law, simple enough to introduce me to it, and on legal procedure. Will you obtain them for me? Also on custom and the major families."

"I think you are a worthy head of house, Mr. Potter, and I am looking forward to acting for you in all matters," said Adler. "I will have those books brought to you. Now you have affirmed me as your solicitor as an adult, I can call on your elf to run errands."

Harry nodded.

"He is a free elf, and needs livery," he said.

"I will arrange a version of the Potter livery," said Adler. "I will also look into which other House rings you may claim, which have gone extinct. Peverell, for example. It descended to the Gaunts, but I have a feeling your claim may be better. Like many scions of the great houses, you are descended from all four of the founders, and as such their Houses are not available, but as they gave rise to many cadet branches, those branches might be."

"Good grief," said Harry.

He returned to school in something of a haze. Hermione was waiting.

"Ron was looking for you," she said.

"Let him look," said Harry. "I'm an adult; look, my ring has accepted me, and that means I am free of the wand trace."

"I bet you aren't," said Hermione. "Once you have a wand with a trace on it, they probably continue to trace you, they just can't do anything about you doing magic."

"In that case, why don't they trace Riddle's wand?" asked Harry.

"Because they don't believe in him, silly," said Hermione.

"I suppose that has a sort of warped logic," sighed Harry. "I need to tell Snape he will not have the onerous duty of looking after me and begging a corner of his couch anyway for part of the summer."

Hermione slipped her arm into his and they went to the dungeons.

Malfoy with his goons waylaid them.

"What do you want, Potter?"

"G reetings, scion of the noble house of Malfoy. The head of the noble and ancient house of Potter greets you," said Harry.

"Wh ... what?" Malfoy quavered.

"My dear boy, weren't you brought up better than that?" drawled Harry.

"G ... greetings to the ... the HEAD? Of the house of Potter? You can't be head unless the ring accepts you," said Malfoy.

Harry extended his ring.

Malfoy bowed.

"Congratulations, Lord Potter," he said. "You've learned the etiquette too. Congratulations on that. And the mudblood?"

Hermione bowed before Harry could react.

"Greetings, scion of the noble house of Malfoy, from first generation witch, Hermione Granger, of unproven bloodline," she said.

"You think you have a bloodline?"

"I know I have a bloodline; magic doesn't just appear in the population, you know, somewhere in my family tree will be a squib or a wizard who misbehaved himself. Since I'm actually rather good at potions, and since Hector Dagworth-Granger was a son of a daughter of the Granger family who kept her name to please her father, I'm postulating a Granger squib, and I plan to have a heritance test to find out," said Hermione. "It's not important to me; what counts is that I have inherited the ability from somewhere. But I acknowledge that the named families have been a part of the development of the Wizarding world, adding to its sum total of knowledge, especially the noble and ancient ones."

"Oh." Malfoy was taken aback. "What are you doing?"

"I'm going to see my Godfather, Professor Snape," said Harry, slightly stretching the truth. "I discovered that my mother left instructions that he was my Godfather."

"He's going to just love that," said Malfoy, with heavy irony. "He's my godfather, so you can't have him as yours."

"Nothing in the rules about that," said Harry. "You can have multiple godfathers, and be godfather more than once. But if we are godbrothers, maybe we ought to start again now I know more about the wizarding world than when we first met. I don't like you, but I can't say I believe I'd be very nice if I had your father as a father."

"Leave my father out of it!"

"I'd be glad to," said Harry. "Of course, I have had the opportunity to cast surreptitious spells on Snape's dark mark, using Parseltongue. Did you know it suppresses empathy? Think about whether you want it, Malfoy, and whether you want to stop loving your mother."

Malfoy went ashen.

He knew that Potter was a parselmouth and it was a fair bet that the Dark Lord used parselmagic. Somehow he did not doubt this statement. He stood aside with a brief bow, and kicked Crabbe and Goyle until they bowed too. This new Potter was going to be both easier and harder to deal with.

oOoOo

Harry told Severus about the visit to the solicitor.

"I'm glad in a way," said Severus. "If I registered myself as your guardian, Dumbledore would bring up about me being a death eater. It will not be easy for you."

"Yes, and that's why I want to hire you as my steward, and to invest in an apothecary business as a sleeping partner with you," said Harry. "And we're going to deal with that mark as soon as we have Pettigrew, and this afternoon looks as good a time as any to do so. If we miss tea, Dobby can bring us something in here."

"You want to give me everything I could reasonably long for on a plate in return for being your steward?" Severus stared.

"I hope you might enjoy being my steward too and having an enjoyable rivalry with Lucius Malfoy and his holdings," said Harry. "Oh, and with the Black family as well."

Severus laughed.

"I would enjoy it more if I knew about business matters."

"There will be books on the matter; as I will be studying to take my place in the Wizgamot.

"Then I accept," said Severus. Harry passed him the steward's ring, and again there was that light chime.

"You should be able to summon Dobby as well," said Harry, "which could save your life if anyone gets stroppy about you losing the mark. Shall we get Pettigrew next?"

"Very well," said Severus. "Here's the mark. You know Pettigrew. I have to say, if anyone can use Riddle's magic against him, I trust you to do it, Python. You are lucky."

Harry caught Hermione's eye.

"In my experience, there's no such thing as luck," they chanted. Severus rolled his eyes.

"Just get on with it Princess Luke and Prince Leia," he said.

Harry placed his wand to the dark mark, and concentrated. He started hissing.

"He has no idea how disconcerting that is," said Severus, waspishly.

"I think we'd better learn it," said Hermione.

"Undoubtedly. Now keep your wand ready, Miss Granger, since anything to do with the dark mark is inevitably painful, and I might miss Pettigrew if I am distracted."

Hermione gulped, and nodded. This time she would not fail to capture the little rat.

Harry's chanting speeded up and with a loud 'Crac!' and a scream of terror, Peter Pettigrew appeared on Severus' lap. Severus pushed him into a standing position as Hermione cast the binding spell.

"What happened? Why am I here?" squealed Pettigrew.

"Whilst I might feel some modicum of compassion for you, bullied as you were by the Marauders even whilst being one of them, I'm afraid the freedom of Sirius comes first for me," said Harry. Peter bared his teeth.

"I'll turn you in, too, Severus, if you permit this," he threatened.

"Miss Granger, pray watch him while we continue," said Severus. Hermione nodded, her eyes firmly on their prisoner. Harry continued chanting, and Severus screamed, and fell off the chair in the foetal position, clutching convulsively at his arm. And then he stopped twitching and lay still. Harry, who had finished, instantly knelt at his side.

"I'm sorry that it hurt so much, sir," he said.

Severus took his hand from his arm, and gazed at the unblemished pink skin.

"Sometimes, pain can be a clean, good pain," he said.

"Like pulling out a splinter," nodded Hermione.

"Exactly like that, Miss Granger," nodded Severus. "Get me a pepperup potion, Python; and an anti-cruciatus. I need to be functional to take this rat to the ministry."

Harry did as he was bid, knowing now that a particular locked cupboard was Severus' personal stores of what he used after a visit to the dark lord.

And within a few minutes, Severus was ready to seize Pettigrew with his wand to levitate through the floo to the ministry.

oOoOo

Amelia Bones was fascinated to hear that a dead man had been captured and that veritaserum would give proof of innocence to the fugitive, Sirius Black, even if Severus Snape insisted on referring to him as the outlaw Josey Wales. Severus was deliriously happy and had discovered a frivolous side which the dark mark had suppressed. He went to Grimmauld Place, and deliberately made enough noise to set off Walburga Black.

"What do you want, Snivellus?" barked Black. He sounded like a dog even in his human form, thought Severus.

"Oh, just the little matter of informing you that since I took Pettigrew in to the Ministry, your exoneration should be through soon. Madam Bones would like to speak to you, but I'm sure you can duck that interview if you don't have the balls. The testimony of Harry and Miss Granger as memories should be sufficient, as Pettigrew confessed to them, so you'll be a free man soon. You might consider making Lupin your steward as you don't want the responsibility of renewing House Black yourself. After all, if the head of House Potter wants to put through legislation regarding fairness to werewolves, he'd have a vested interest in supporting it as your proxy, even if you don't care about protecting your friend."

"Now see here, Snivellus!"

"No, you see here, mutt. You owe me a life-debt so you can at least listen to me. You hate your family; fine, they weren't very nice. But you can either let that hate leave you sulking about not being James Potter's brother for real, or you can make family Black one to be proud of. Don't you think it hurts Mr. Potter to know that his godfather is a feckless layabout? You could have worked on cleaning this house, but no, you prefer to complain about it and abuse that wretched elf. Who probably knows all the family secrets if you only asked him properly."

"You leave Harry out of this."

"Harry is in this; you are his godfather."

"And so what? Dumbledore won't let me keep him."

"Dumbledore has no more say in the matter. Harry Potter has claimed the ring of House Potter, and is now an adult."

An ugly look crossed Sirius' face.

"Is that how you made the wards fall so he would be vulnerable to your master?"

"It was what his solicitor discovered; I had no idea. I was going to go with Lily's will, which Dumbledore sealed, and assume guardianship as the fourth in line if we couldn't clear you. Not that I think you are a suitable guardian, but still better than those ruddy muggle relatives of his. And the wards fell when he decided that their home was not his home, merely somewhere he stayed, and Albus is too pigheaded and senile to realise that. Not to mention that as Voldemort was made of Harry's blood, he can cross the wards any time."

Sirius stared.

"I hadn't thought of that ... hey, you said his name!"

Severus rolled up his sleeve.

"A gift from the House of Potter; it was held in with Parselmagic," he said. "I'm free of both dark masters. I accepted stewardship of the House of Potter, because Harry and I came to an understanding. He saw a memory of mine regarding certain bullies, which I imagine he will want to discuss with you. He does not know you tried to kill me. But we talked. It led to capturing Pettigrew and removing the dark mark. The next stage is to try to remove the horcrux."

"Is that possible?"

"I don't know. I'm working on it. You knew about it?"

"Dumbledore made some vague comments."

"Well if Riddle hid any horcruxes ... horcruces ... with his followers, your brother might have had one. I suggest you ask Kreacher, and gently."

Sirius yelled for the elf.

"What does nasty master and bad tempered half-blood want?" he started.

Severus said,

"Tell him to answer me as if I was his master."

"You heard him! Do it!" barked Sirius.

"Kreacher, did the Dark Lord give any items to Master Regulus to look after? I was a friend of Regulus in school, you know. I looked out for him as best I could," said Severus.

Kreacher cracked his knuckles.

"The dark master did not give anything to Master Regulus," he said.

"Why don't you tell us what happened?" said Severus.

The story tumbled out, and Kreacher explained how he had followed Mundungus Fletcher and saw that he had lost the locket to a woman from the ministry who looked like a toad.

"I see," said Severus. "Visualise the locket so I may see it; legilimens."

Kreacher scowled.

"I know where she is," said Severus. "And I will find it and destroy it. If your master permits, we can send for you."

"Please, master?" Kreacher turned anxious eyes to Sirius. "Kreacher will stop commenting on Master if he is allowed to do this."

"You may," said Sirius. "Hell, my brother was a good 'un at the end." He was crying. "And Kreacher! We will clean this place in his memory!"

Kreacher almost capered.

"Yes, master!" he cried.

It had been a long Sunday, and Severus was tired, but he had one more thing to do. He created a replica of the locket by transfiguring a stone on a string, and waited for dinner. Umbridge usually wore jewellery to dinner, and this was no exception. He had not looked closely before.

A switching charm, and it was in his pocket.

Well, Harry had killed the diary with a basilisk fang, and perhaps he would go and get it to destroy this. Unless the boy could use parselmagic to unravel it.

oOoOo

Monday morning proved quite entertaining when the Aurors turned up at breakfast.

"Dolores Umbridge," said Kingsley Shacklbolt, "You are charged with using a dark item, to whit, a blood quill, to torture students, and you are also charged with reckless endangerment of the last of the line of the noble and ancient House of Potter and heir to the House of Black whilst he was still a minor, constituting attempted Line Theft with intent of conferring those titles on the heir of House Malfoy in order to gain political favour from that House. Though there is no evidence that House Malfoy was aware of your intention, this still constitutes Line Theft. Please come with me."

"You can't do this; the minister ..."

"The minister is under arrest pending investigation into placing an attempted assassin into the school," said Kingsley.

"I love Mr. Arnold," murmured Harry.

It may be said that the staff did nothing to stop the wild party which followed Umbridge's arrest.

OoOoO

"Miss Weasley," said Snape, "I want to speak to you. Do you have a female friend who will chaperone you?"

"Luna Lovegood doesn't do potions with me, and Hermione is in another year," said Ginny.

"Then perhaps you will bring either or both of them to my office after school," said Snape. "It's not a detention but I need to address aspects of your educational failures owing to circumstances beyond your control. I will not permit them to overhear our conversation so you will not be embarrassed but they will be in the room for your protection. And mine," he added.

Ginny nodded, a little worried, and went off to find Luna.

That evening the two girls arrived.

"Professor, I'm so glad the wrackspurts have gone from chewing on your arm," said Luna.

Severus shot her a startled look.

"Miss Lovegood, do you use your invented creatures to cover the things you see that other people do not?"

"Doesn't everyone?" said Luna.

"No," said Severus. "Go and sit over there; you can do your homework if you like while I talk with Miss Weasley."

"Yes, sir, Harry tried to get rid of the heliopaths but he wasn't trying hard enough," said Luna.

"I work as hard as I can, sir," said Ginny as Luna skipped over to the desk to sit down.

"You work as hard as you can for someone, er, infested with heliopaths," said Severus.

"Don't make fun of Luna!"

"I wasn't, actually. I was just marvelling at what a shrewd little person she really is, and what a shame it is that her shrewdness is hidden behind so vague a manner and terms the rest of the world is not used to. But then, if she sees things most people don't, I suppose a vague manner would be a protection from ... from girls infested with nargles," said Severus. "Powers, I think I understand, now. I must have a word with Filius."

"Yes, sir, if you say so," said Ginny.

"My apologies, Miss Weasley, I became sidetracked. Harry Potter has tried, not very successfully, to help you deal with your memories and nightmares over being possessed by Tom Riddle in your first year. Have your parents arranged any counselling? It's not as though the WNHS doesn't provide it free, after all."

"No, sir; Mummy said it wasn't necessary to expose my soul to a stranger and that I would soon be able to put it behind me and forget."

"And have you?"

"No, sir. Why are you being nice to me?"

"Because I've had Tom Riddle tramping about in my brain, and it's not easy for an adult to deal with, and I can only apologise for not addressing your problems sooner. I assumed that any truly caring parent would take you to a healer."

Ginny flushed.

"My parents are caring! Daddy thought I should see a healer, but Mummy overruled him, she said her little girl wasn't going to be labelled as a loony."

"Ah, I see," drawled Severus. "She didn't care about your mental health, only in what people might think. I have to say that what most people would think was that she would have been giving you the help you need to stop you becoming a loony."

"Am I?" she whispered.

"What I am seeing is a little girl who has not learned to deal with the darkness in her, which is locking down her core and depriving her of reaching her full potential; and a little girl still sufficiently harrowed by nightmares that she is often tired in class and unable to learn. I can help you."

"Oh, Professor! Please do!"

"Very well. First, I need you to talk about it in full. And then I will help you with techniques to help you sleep, and to use to clear your core of darkness."

"It's going to sound very silly."

"Of course it's going to sound very silly; you were eleven years old. It is the nature of the beast to be silly. If professors held being eleven against their students, they would never be able to meet them socially after school. Being eleven is a disease which is fortunately cured by the application of a temporal component. In short, you get over it."

Ginny giggled.

"Thank you for making it funny without making fun," she said. And then she told him everything. Severus listened.

"Very well. I'm going to check your relaxation technique, as Harry Potter is not the most lucid when explaining things, which you must practice daily. I will excuse you your potions essay this once, since I have taken up so much of your time, and I will see you each week for fifteen minutes after school to help develop that shield. I need you to let me know how well it is working, but to be honest, I suspect that telling me everything has done you as much good as learning to meditate. Run along!"

Ginny ran, happier than she had been for a long time.

It was with deeply malicious glee that Severus wrote a howler to Molly Weasley in which he called her an unnatural parent for putting what the neighbours might think above the welfare of her only daughter and jeopardising her mental health and education accordingly. He went to see Minerva.

"Minerva, I've had Ginny Weasley, chaperoned of course, in my office, needing help against the nightmares from what happened in her first year. She is in the fourth. May I ask how it is that you have missed the problems that child has been labouring under? I can see that you would not invade a boy's dormitory to hear Mr. Potter's nightmares, but surely you patrol your girls?"

"Molly Weasley said her daughter needed no help," Minerva defended herself. "I assume the healers told her so."

"Miss Weasley informed me that she had not seen any mind healers at all because Molly didn't want anyone to think her daughter was a loony," said Severus.

"What? But surely ..."

"Howler?" suggested Severus.

"Howler," agreed Minerva.

Molly was going to have an uncomfortable evening.

Especially since Ginny, whose temper matched her hair, had worked out who was to blame for her sufferings over the years and also sent a howler.

oOoOo

The Staff Meeting was not a scheduled one, but one convened in a hurry following the removal of Delores Umbridge.

"Ah, how lovely, a toad-free staff room," squeaked little Flitwick.

"The trail of nargles in her wake was a treat to see leaving," said Severus. Flitwick shot him a look.

"Did you work out the code?" he asked.

"I think so," said Severus. "A remarkable child."

"Remarkable indeed!" said Flitwick.

Dumbledore rapped on the table.

"I know we are all happy that Delores has left," he said, twinkling all around, "but we have a serious problem. It has come to my notice that Harry Potter has assumed the Head of House ring of the family Potter, and has thus been declared legally adult."

"In what way is it a problem that the Potter boy is only too ready to take on adult status?" drawled Severus in a bored tone.

"Because now he is a legal adult, the wards at his relatives' home have fallen!" cried Dumbledore.

"But didn't they fall when Riddle used his blood to be reborn? That's pretty obvious to any wardsmith and cursebreaker," said Severus.

"Just wit I said!" agreed McGonagall.

"You don't understand," said Dumbledore. "I used Lily's blood to set the wards, but Riddle took the blood invoking the name 'Potter' so he was not using the part of Harry that is Lily Evans."

"It doesn't work like that, Headmaster," said Snape. "Harry's blood carries both, and without a ritual to separate them, which by the way Peter Pettigrew would have been incapable of handling, he got a mix. I'm sorry, but your theory is plain wrong, because though intent is the larger part of magic, it is not all of it. If it were, muggles could cast spells. Was that the only item on the agenda?"

"Don't you think it important that the boy is legally an adult, and unprotected from Voldemort?" asked Dumbledore, harshly.

"I don't see him as unprotected," said Severus. "He can reset the fidelius at Godric's Hollow, or any other Potter premises he now owns, and rest there during the holidays, or he can go and stay with his dogfather, in the heliopath and wrackspurt infected house and whoever of the Order tramps through it. The boy falls on his feet."

"Oh, Severus! I thought you would have cared more for Lily's boy," said Dumbledore.

"Don't try to guilt-trip me, old man," said Severus. "I'm through with the Order, and with spying for you, the boy is an adult, and it's up to him to choose who to take on his mission against Riddle."

Dumbledore fell back, shocked.

"Severus, don't make me call in aurors to show them your left arm," he said.

Severus peeled back his sleeve.

"They can look at it if they like, but I don't think it falls under auror jurisdiction," he said.

Dumbledore stared, then cast a series of spells to remove illusions.

"Don't think I'm done with this, Severus," he said. "I have memories where you are condemned out of your own mouth."

"Of what? Of believing in a foolish mission? Of eavesdropping on Trefraudey? Of speaking of what I heard? Of being in love? I don't think any of those are crimes, old man."

"Others have seen the dark mark on you."

"I possess a muggle marker pen and a warped sense of humour."

"Albus, that sounded like blackmail to me," said Minerva. "And to be honest, I did warn you as soon as I realised the wards must have fallen. And Severus agrees with me, and it is hardly his fault that Mr. Potter has decided to take on adulthood. It is possible he did not know what accepting a house ring meant; though I do not know why he decided to ask for his ring just now. I have not seen him wearing the heir ring."

"Of course not, I denied him access to it, as I have to all his assets, how can he trust me utterly and do as he is supposed to do if he believes himself to have power, influence and wealth?" said Dumbledore.

"Talking of people doing illegal things, isn't that one of the things they add into line theft?" asked Severus, softly.

"It was for the greater good, my boy," said Dumbledore.

"So if Harry's death were for the greater good, you'd have no hesitation in permitting him to die?"

"Of course, but he can't die yet! There are things to be found ... done!" Dumbledore was agitated. The rest of the staff were shocked.

"I am through with this nonsense," said Severus. "Pull yourself together, old man! The more you tighten your grip, headmaster, the more he will slip through your fingers," and he walked out.

oOoOo

"Dumbledore is getting agitated," said Severus to Harry. "He has all but admitted that he means you to die, but not until he has all the horcruces. I have one here, Kreacher found it when I went to update the Outlaw Josey Wales."

"You have lightened up since I heaved that thing out of your arm," said Harry. "Do I try to kill it the same way as I killed your mark?"

"It's worth trying," said Severus, "But I promised Kreacher he would be there to see. You will have to send Dobby to get him."

This was swiftly accomplished, and Harry examined the locket, muttering in parseltongue.

"Sir, it's connected to six other pieces, and one which fizzles out," he said. "I believe I can take them all at once, including the one in my head, but I may need you to hit me with spells to keep me going. It's going to hurt."

"I can spell potions directly into you," said Severus.

"That'll work," said Harry. He began chanting softly, clenching his fists as the scar on his head burst open and black ichor started running out. Severus signed to Kreacher to wipe it before it reached the boy's eyes, and the elf hastened to do so. Severus spelled potions into Harry's body and as he began to pick out words in the parseltongue started to join in, the sharing of thoughts previously helping him with this. The locket shrieked wildly and black smoke poured from it. Sweat poured off Harry.

In Little Hangleton, the last soul fragment of Tom Riddle poured in smoke from the ears of the golem it had inhabited, and from the mouth of the great snake Nagini. Death eaters attending on him, those who were not looking for the absent Wormtail, looked on in horror as their master shrieked in unbearable agony.

Nagini woke up some hours later with the thought 'thank fuck that's gone,' and promptly bit Bella Black Lestrange who was sobbing over her master's body. Nagini made her escape, and was subsequently captured as a dangerous beast, and ended her days in a zoo where nobody made her eat whole humans or deal with the stench of their fear. In her snaky way, Nagini was not unhappy.

Meanwhile, Harry managed to finish the ritual and collapsed to the ground. Severus lifted him to lay him on the couch.

"Master Potter has enabled Kreacher to see Master Regulus' last wish fulfilled," said Kreacher, kissing Harry's feet.

"I'm glad to do it, Kreacher," said Harry. "You can go back to Sirius now, and be kind to him. He isn't very sane after his time in Azkaban, and I don't think he had had a chance to grow up before he was in there. He needs gentle treatment."

"Kreacher will treat Master Sirius gently," said Kreacher. "Master Sirius permitted him to come and watch."

Severus almost adjured Kreacher to make sure Sirius always had a scarf and gloves and to wrap him with shawls inside, but to destroy his tentative relationship with Sirius would be too unkind to the old elf.

It would have been hilariously funny though. What a nuisance it was, being mellow enough to care for a house elf's feelings.

oOoOo

"I'm very disappointed in you, my boy, that you thought you knew best, and got yourself declared an adult," said Dumbledore. He had decided to risk talking to Harry.

"I can't see why; the ring would only accept me as an adult if it thought I was acting as one," said Harry. "Plainly it knows me better than you do."

"But you are at risk from Voldemort now there are no wards," said Dumbledore. "You will have to let me find somewhere else for you to go over the summer."

"Isn't going to happen," said Harry. "I'm going to stay in one of my houses, and enjoy myself like any other sixteen year old boy when I've finished my OWLs. Go clubbing, perhaps. Get laid. See if there's a pipe of Bob Ogden's finest in the cellars. You know, the sort of things teenage boys do."

"But the risk of Voldemort ..."

"Has gone," said Harry.

"My boy, Voldemort split his soul ..."

"Into eight pieces, yes, I killed all the horcruces and him as well," said Harry. "Hadn't you noticed that the scar on my head disappeared? Severus is a great ally, oh, and you'll need a new potions teacher. He's setting up in business as an apothecary after the end of the year, though I might talk him into seeing me through my NEWTs. But if he's not in the school I can go to him for tuition and Hermione can follow up crushing violently on him without him having to worry about her being his student. And by the way, I shall be taking up my position on the Board of Governors, and have added my written recommendation to Minerva's that you be removed on medical grounds. If you go without making a fuss, and retire from the Wizgamot; I'll ask my solicitor to withdraw the impeachment papers and my suit against you for placing me knowingly into a place of abuse and denying the rights of an heir to a major House."

"That's blackmail!"

"I prefer to think of it as reaching my Slytherin side," said Harry. "All because I was uncomfortable about blackmailing Severus, I found out who my real enemy was, and I don't want another dark lord on the wizgamot. Oh, and Severus also unbound my core, so don't even think of trying to confund me, or obliviate me. I have a remote device on my person recording all you say on a muggle device which Hermione is running. Now, have you finished trying to get me killed or am I going to have to use self defence on you?" his tone was steely.

"You leave me little choice," said Dumbledore, bitterly.

"Quite so," said Harry.

And Dumbledore was left reflecting that he had indeed tightened his grip too tightly, and lost the chance to be the chief advisor of the man-who-conquered; and that Harry had even done that in such a quiet way that nobody would know.

And he had even stolen Severus from under Dumbledore's very nose, the last person in the world he should have been trusting.

Dumbledore wondered where he had gone wrong.

He would have done better to have wondered what he had done right.

Finis.