“Kreacher cleared a lot of stuff out, as I said,” Harry babbled on as he led Severus up to one of the rooms. “I thought you could stay in this room. It’s nice. Kreacher says it used to be one of the guest rooms. I am mostly getting all the rooms fixed up and making changes with them. I have a few guest rooms already done, for when one of my friends decides to visit. I am staying in Sirius’ now.” Of course, the mutt had been the closest thing to a father the boy had had. An unstable fugitive and a Death Eater, how wonderful, Severus thought, as Harry continued, “But I’ll probably move out of it, get one to make my own. I can’t change Sirius’. And of course there’s Regulus’. I don’t want to change it because of Kreacher. If one day he decides to use it for himself he can but I am allowing him to do what he wants with it. And of course there is Kreacher’s room.” Severus raised an eyebrow, “I didn’t want him sleeping under the boiler; it reminds me of my cupboard.”

“Your cupboard?” Severus asked sharply and noted that Harry flushed as he noticed his slip.

“It’s nothing sir. Well, here you are,” and he opened a door to a very nice and spacious room with a huge king sized four-poster bed, light green wallpaper, and another door against the far wall.

“I thought you’d be comfortable here,” Harry said. “Most of the house is decorated in Slytherin motif. That door leads to your private bathroom. I can show you the Potions lab later when you are situated.”

“I remember it from when this was Headquarters. Thank you Harry.”

Harry’s eyes went wide and he just stared at Severus.

“Is there a problem?”

“You called me Harry sir,” he answered nervously.

“If we are going to live together I can hardly call you Potter all the time. You also shouldn’t have to call me Professor. I am not your teacher any more. You may call me Severus,” he drawled.

“Okay,” Harry said quickly and bolted out of the room. Severus shook his head. Who was he kidding? How on earth could he act as the boy’s father?

---

“Are you leaving?” Severus asked dryly as he came down the stairs. Harry arched one eyebrow and Severus couldn’t help but notice it was something he also often did, or at least according to Albus he did.

“I left some things at the Dursley’s last year and I want to bring them here,” Harry explained.

Later, Severus wouldn’t know how to explain why he did it, but he said, “I’ll go with you. It’s not safe yet to go alone.”

“I am just going to Apparate to the Dursley’s. They haven’t gone home yet, I checked with Hestia yesterday. The house will be empty.”

“Still, there could be someone lurking around,” Severus said dryly. “Come on, stop dawdling,” he said as he stalked outside and Harry followed.

They both apparated to number four, Privet Drive. Severus noted all the similar houses and the similar gardens. Number four stood out with its un-kept lawn and its dirty windows. Severus smirked at the thought of the fit Petunia would have when she saw her precious home looking like this. It wasn’t anything horrible, nothing a good cleaning wouldn’t fix, but if he remembered her well, and he did, she wouldn’t stand it.

He followed Harry as he said a soft Alohamora and entered the house.  Even though Harry had rolled his eyes at his paranoia, the boy was alert and holding his wand firmly. They checked all the rooms downstairs and found no one. Severus’ eyes lingered towards the small cupboard under the stairs and he made sure to check that no one was there. He saw a little scribble in crayon and a child’s handwriting claiming it as “Harry’s Room” and his grip tightened on his wand.

“Professor,” Harry called from the stairs and Severus turned with a blank mask as if he had not made the connection with Harry’s slip the previous day and the cupboard, and Harry motioned for them to head upstairs.

Again they checked all of the rooms and finally Harry went to the smallest room, which had a plaque on the door claiming it as “Dudley’s second bedroom”. Second! When his son had a cupboard! Severus noted all the locks on the door and the little cat flap and was quite sure they were not there when this had been Dudley’s second room.

He entered the room and saw Harry pull a trunk from the closet.

“I couldn’t take everything,” Harry explained. “So I left all the unnecessary things behind in my trunk. I thought Uncle Vernon, would burn them but I’m glad he didn’t. I know they are not very useful, but they were mine. They have good memories attached to them.”

Severus nodded and fumed internally once more. In this house that did not seem lacking in money, all his son’s possessions could be stored in one average sized trunk. He wasn’t stupid. He remembered what he saw during Occlumency lessons, had known the boy had been abused, but he had forced himself to believe they were isolated incidents. That there was an explanation for them and Potter had actually been pampered all his life.

“If you have everything, we shouldn’t linger,” he said neutrally and Harry nodded. He shrunk the trunk and put it inside a pouch that was strung on a necklace that he constantly wore. Severus recognized the type of pouch, and with a pang knew it was a remnant of the war. This almost eighteen-year-old boy was used to having to carry his most precious possessions with him all the time because there was no telling if he would be able to go back home at a moment’s notice. He hoped he could break Harry of the habit.

They walked side by side down the stairs and heard the door lock click. They were instantly alert and pointing their wands. When the door opened completely, Severus had his wand trained at a bony face he hadn’t seen in over twenty years, but he would recognize anywhere.

“Tuney,” he drawled.

“You!” she said icily. “What are you doing here?”

“I came to accompany Potter. He had forgotten some belongings here,” he drawled, not lowering his wand.

“Harry!” came a cry from behind her and a blond boy rushed in the room. “How are you? The woman that came to tell us we could come home said you defeated Lord Valdemar.”

Harry bit back a laugh and Severus cringed. Not only had this boy said the name like it was nothing, he butchered the most feared Dark Lord’s name with no concern whatsoever.

Behind Petunia, Severus was greeted by another familiar, very purple, face. Petunia had started dating Vernon Dursley at sixteen, when Lily and he were fifteen. It was the last summer Severus and Lily spent together, and since they couldn’t hang out at Spinner’s End because of his father, they spent a lot of time at the Evans’. Vernon had always sneered and looked superiorly at him. Severus had just sneered back, and you couldn’t compete with Severus Snape’s sneer. It was hate at first sight.

“Well, it was a joint effort,” Harry answered his cousin embarrassedly. “A lot of good people fought him and his followers. Some died,” he said, and Severus could see pain in his green eyes. Lily’s eyes. “Professor Snape here was responsible for a huge part of our victory.”

“I highly doubt that,” Petunia sneered and Severus was about to respond when Harry cut in angrily.

“Yes he did! He risked his life deceiving a mad man in order to help us at crucial times. He managed to keep the children at the school as safe as he could without losing his position. He managed to hand me an important tool to ensure Voldemort could be defeated, even though if he had been discovered he would have faced a very painful death. And he almost did anyway. Lord Voldemort ordered his snake to kill Professor Snape because he thought that he would then be able to master a powerful wand. So the snake bit him, and it was a miracle he survived. I was sure he hadn’t because I had tried a healing charm and I’m rubbish at those, and I thought he had stopped breathing but when I came back he was still alive. But even when he thought he was dying, he still managed to give me some of his memories to make sure I knew how to defeat Voldemort and understood why he’d done some things. And you know what I found out Aunt Petunia?” he asked in his enraged rant. Severus could see he was shaking and his face was red.

Petunia shook her head, “I found out that you wanted to be like my mom. Like me. You wanted to be a “freak” like us. You wrote to the Headmaster because you wanted to attend Hogwarts and I finally understood why you always hated me. It wasn’t because you wanted to be normal. No! It was because you wanted to be special and weren’t. So you took it out on both my mom and me! You treated me like a slave for as long as I can remember. You let your husband and son hit me whenever they felt like it. You yourself even hit me at times. You starved me and locked me in a cupboard because you were jealous of my magic! I always wondered what I had done that was so awful for you to hate me so much and now I know. It wasn’t what I had done. It wasn’t what I was. It was what you weren’t.”

And with that Harry stormed out of the house passing, a spluttering Vernon who was shouting, “Now you hear me boy-“ and a shocked Petunia. Severus was shocked too. Not because of why Petunia hated them, he’d always known why, but because of what he heard his son say about the treatment he had here. He wanted to torture them at that moment, but he wanted to first know the extent and details of the abuse to make sure the punishment was appropriate. He stalked out, robes billowing behind him and met Harry on the front lawn ready to Apparate. They were about to turn when a soft cry caught their attention.

“Harry!” Dudley came running out. “Harry. I meant what I said last year. I am sorry for what I did. I was just acting the way I thought I had the right to. I mean, mom and dad always encouraged me. I thought it was right. I know that doesn’t excuse my behavior but I changed and I’d like to keep in touch.”

Harry nodded silently and Severus saw how tense his jaw was. Harry was trying to keep his temper, which was still riled up, in check for his cousin.

“Can I write to you? I know you use owls. Maybe you could send Hedwig-“

“Hedwig died the day I left here,” Harry said tightly. “We were attacked and she got hit by a killing curse. I had to blast the cart she was in to knock down a Death Eater.”

“I am sorry,” Dudley said sincerely. “I know how much you cared about her.”

“She was my first gift ever. My only friend in this house,” Harry said smiling sadly. “And she wasn’t the only one to die that day. A great warrior died too. The man with the magical eye that threatened Uncle Vernon at the end of my fifth year, remember him?”

Dudley nodded.

“He died fighting,” Severus said, “Alastor Moody wouldn’t have wanted to die any other way.”

Harry nodded and when Dudley extended his hand he shook it.

“I’ll find a way to reach you Dudley. Don’t worry,” he then turned on the spot and Apparated away. Severus nodded to Dudley and followed suit. Once back inside Grimmauld Place he started talking once again.

“The attack on you that day- It had to be done. I hadn’t expected anyone to perish. I truly thought you would be better prepared.”

“I know Professor. I understand. You had to make sure you were Voldemort’s favorite, and that only came by making it look like he was getting what he wanted and that you were the one delivering,” Harry said sadly. “I’m going to put my things away,” and he walked upstairs past Mrs. Black’s portrait and Severus noticed for the first time she had been quiet ever since the two of them arrived.

“Harry,” he called. “What happened to Mrs. Black?”

“Kreacher told her everything that happened and how exactly each of her son’s died. I think that realizing that even her proper Regulus fought against Voldemort shook her and she decided I am not all that bad as a Black heir. She even thanked me for finishing her son’s work and asked me to make sure everyone knows Sirius wasn’t a criminal. I told her they already do. It was in the papers two years ago. She has been quiet ever since.”

Severus nodded as Harry ascended the last steps. No one came out unchanged from this war. Not even an old portrait.

---

Severus walked slowly upstairs, sipping from his glass of water. He had been in this house for a week and he had to hand it to the boy, he was right. He managed to stay out of Severus’ hair almost the entire time. The problem was that right now Severus wanted the opposite of that. He wanted a chance to know Harry. To really get to know him, because he knew he didn’t. He had always seen James and not Harry. In one of the detentions that Severus had especially drafted to ruin James Potter’s perfect image the previous year, Harry had turned to him and said:

“Harry. The name is Harry. Even Voldemort has managed the courtesy of calling me Harry. Granted, it’s usually preceded by ‘time to die’ or ‘I am going to kill you now.’ But if even my biggest enemy manages to call me by my given name and you don’t, I have to wonder, do you even know it or do you think my name really is James?”

Harry had paid dearly for that cheek. Severus gave him an extra detention that week scrubbing cauldrons. But the thing was; he had been completely right. Severus never saw Harry, only James. He had to change that and he didn’t know how. Yes, he had gone to the Dursley’s with Harry, but other than that, Harry even managed to take his meals at a different time so he wouldn’t bother Severus.

As he reached his door, Severus heard moaning coming from Harry’s room, the mutt’s old room. He walked firmly towards it, opened the door worriedly and by the light of his wand he saw Harry thrashing around. He quickly walked towards the bed and deposited his glass and wand on the nightstand. He forcibly shook Harry and the boy woke up with a start.

“Are you all right?” Severus asked.

“Professor?” Harry slurred. “What are you doing here?”

“I heard you moaning in your sleep and thought I’d wake you.”

“Oh.”

“Are you feeling all right?”

“Yes, just a nightmare,” misinterpreting Severus’ worried look Harry added, “Don’t worry, it’s not that kind of nightmare. I haven’t had those since Voldemort killed me- I mean the Horcrux in me. Well, he is dead anyway so I wouldn’t have them regardless,” Harry tried to salvage his babble. Severus could only focus on the “when Voldemort killed me.” Because he had, Harry had been hit by the killing curse. Hagrid witnessed it. Rationally, Severus knew why Harry survived, since he had explained it. But he couldn’t help the fear that gripped him when he heard those words out of his son’s mouth.

“Professor? Do you need to sit down? Are you sure that snake’s bite didn’t affect you more than Madam Pomfrey realized?” Harry asked and Severus noticed that they had exchanged positions. Harry had gotten up and had sat Severus on the bed.

“I’m fine,” he said distractedly. “I was just thinking. What were your nightmares of?”

Harry shrugged, “Everything that has happened. We were so close to dying so many times this year I lost count. Dobby, Mad-Eye, Fred, Sirius, Cedric, Collin, Hedwig, Dumbledore. It’s funny, but Sirius and Cedric are still the ones that haunt me the most. Maybe it’s because they were the firsts. I didn’t believe that it could happen. Even after Voldemort came back and killed Cedric. After Mr. Weasley got injured, I still thought we’d all get out of that mess unscratched. I wasn’t prepared for Sirius dying. I wasn’t prepared to lose the others either, but by then I knew it could happen. Even Dumbledore wasn’t a surprise. I mean, I always thought like everyone that he was un-killable, but somehow, deep down I knew he wouldn’t live to see the end of this war. Not Sirius though. It caught me by surprise.”

Severus nodded. He understood. You would have thought that in the past seventeen years he would have enough material for new nightmares, and yet what he continuously saw was Lily’s still, dead body and her unseeing eyes. He had Apparated as quickly as he could to Godric’s Hollow and had found her body. He had to wait for Hagrid and Sirius to leave before going to find her. Hagrid had put the bodies together in the living room, and Severus knew he came back later for them. She was so still. So cold. He still saw her in his nightmares.

Harry’s green eyes were surveying him worriedly again. Lily’s green eyes.

“Are you sure you don’t need something Professor? I can firecall Madam Pomfrey.”

“No, thank you,” he said getting up, fetching his wand and glass of water and walking out. At the door he turned. “Actually Harry, I do need something. I have to brew Lupin’s potion and it’s tiresome. I would appreciate your help.”

“My help?” Harry asked bewildered. “But you always said I was a dimwit dunderhead that couldn’t brew tea with paper bags.”

“I may have exaggerated. I expect you tomorrow at nine in the lab.” With that Severus stalked away smiling, proud of himself. He just managed to arrange himself some quality time with his son. Ha! Take that Lupin! I can do it alone!