average human’s Reviews > Avada Kedavra > Status Update

“Hey, Harry, how did —”

“Don’t talk to me,” Harry repeated to Theo, who was snuggled in the window seat of the library with Hermione. Harry stormed past them and knocked on Snape’s office door once before trying to open it.

And found out that he couldn’t.

“What the fuck?”

It was his unprecedented inability to storm in to Snape’s office without being granted permission that cleared off some of his anger and instead allowed confusion to take over.

“Sev?” Harry knocked loudly, certain Snape was in there since it was where he had been all summer so far. “Hey, it’s me!”

“Wait, please.”

Harry irritably rapped his knuckles on the doorframe until Snape finally called for him to enter.

“You can’t lock me out of our office,” Harry said hatefully as he sat in the posh green chair he’d added by the small fireplace just for him to use.

Snape snorted from where he was pacing behind his desk. “Apologies Harry, but since you are meant to be at quidditch practice, I was attempting to keep your motley band of misfits from interrupting me.”

“Well you don’t have to worry about that anymore, do you? I’m not fuckin playing quidditch.”

“What?” Snape stopped his pacing to stare incredulously at Harry. “Why? You have been so excited?”

Harry flung the parchment that had been presented to him this afternoon when he was in the middle of training with his team for the third time. “My ‘contract has been terminated’,” he scoffed as Snape grabbed the paper to read. “Apparently, Timmy’s fuckin followers made a house call to the owner of the team last night. Now, suddenly, I’m ‘a liability’.”

Harry felt justified in his own anger to see Snape look absolutely devastated as his eyes flicked over the parchment for a brief instant before he blinked and his passive mask was firmly in place.

“Contact Amelia,” he said. “Ask her if the DMLE can spare aurors to appease your teams fears. Surely they would allow you to play if you brought protection for them to your training sessions and matches?”

“Nah.” Harry propped his feet up on the little side table next to his chair. “Fuck them. If they’re too scared of Timmy to let me play, then I don’t wanna play for them anymore, do I?”

It was a bit of a lie. Harry had wanted to play for the Arrows more than almost anything. But if one person being killed means they’re too scared to have him on their team, then he didn’t want them to win the World Cup anyway.

“Harry, you have to play,” Snape said vehemently. He sat in the matching green chair to Harry’s and stared him down with a weird look in his eyes. “You worked hard for this. You have always wanted to play professionally. Go back and talk to them. Or I can go, if you would like?”

Harry didn’t even know Snape liked quidditch this much.

“It’s fine.” Harry waved his hand with forced nonchalance. “I’m gonna play for the Canons.”

Snape let out a sigh of relief.

“When Timmy’s dead.”

“What? Why would you wait? Why not play now?”

Harry shrugged and picked at his nails. “Cause they’ll probably just try and kill off the Canons owner next, yeah? I’m gonna write to their captain and see if I can play for them after I kill Timmy. Plus, I sent Viktor the announcement that I got recruited younger than he did, so I win, right?”

Snape’s voice was soft, laced with pleading, “This was your dream Harry. I hate for you to give it up.”

Harry gave him a small grin, it really was vindicating to know Snape cared about quidditch as much as he did.

“Oh I’m not giving it up,” he said. “I’m just gonna kill Timmy first, aren’t I? Then when he’s dead I’ll win the World Cup.”

It was a pain in the arse, to push this off until after they dealt with Timmy, but Harry wasn’t actually as disappointed as he originally was. He’d bested Viktor, which was a big part of wanting to play professionally so early, but also he had fourteen years between graduation and becoming Minister, he could win the World Cup at least a dozen times in that span.

And, the real reason Harry hadn’t cursed anyone for kicking him off the team, was because they were going to be pissed when Harry joined the worst team in the league and made them look like idiots for doing this.

And that’s just what he told them before he left Appleby.

Snape rubbed his eyes, abruptly looking exhausted. Actually, he didn’t look too great at all, period. His skin was pale and the stress lines around his eyes were pronounced in a way Harry didn’t usually notice. Snape’s shoulder length black hair was mussed up and lankier than usual, like he’d been running his fingers through it a lot. He also had his shirt sleeves pushed up, which Harry had never seen him do aside from when he’s working on multiple potions at once, a sure sign of stress.

Which made since, because Snape’s been locked up in their office since they arrived at Invisibility Way and claims he’s been nonstop busy. He would show up for breakfast with Harry, then lock himself away all day while Harry was at Appleby and nobody would see him until he came to have breakfast with Harry the next morning.

Personally, Harry thought he was taking Barty’s death pretty hard and didn’t want to hang out with any of Harry’s friends. Also, he thought maybe he was avoiding Mavis who kept bursting in to tears at the worst times.

Harry liked Mavis, but he was kind of avoiding him too. He hated when people cried, it made his skin itch and his stomach curl. But Hermione, who officially moved in with them this summer, has taken up his slack and has spent tons of time with Mavis so he ‘didn’t feel alone’.

“What if you can’t?” Snape asked quietly, his eyes solemn when Harry quirked a brow at him. “What if you die before you get the opportunity?”

Harry laughed lightly as he plucked the parchment from Snape’s slack hand. “You need to get out of your office more,” he teased him. “I’m not dying. Who’s gonna kill me? Timmy? Dumbledore? Pft,” Harry scoffed, “they already tried, didn’t they? C’mon, come eat lunch with us. You can watch me take the Canons to victory after we kill Timmy.”

Snape’s eyes flicked to a book he had open on his desk before he glanced back at Harry and sighed. “Is it somehow important to you if I show up to lunch?”

“It is,” Harry said with mock-solemnity. “I’ll probably never forgive you, but more importantly, could you forgive yourself?”

Harry was joking, so the flash of grief in Snape’s eyes was so out of place that he thought maybe he imagined it.

“I will be there,” Snape finally sighed. “Go change Harry, you stink.”

“Will do.” Harry jumped to his feet and gave Snape a sarcastic salute. He’d probably be more offended if Snape wasn’t probably right, he’d been up since six doing workouts with his team before the the captain came and sent him home. “You should shower too,” he told him on his way out the door, “I’m inviting Tonks.”

Harry paused a few feet away from the office and turned and looked at the door curiously.

“What’s wrong Harry?” Hermione asked from where she was still sitting with Theo.

“Nothing,” Harry said, still examining the door curiously. “I just- just thought Snape would throw something at the door after I closed it.”

Hermione and Theo laughed, but Harry wasn’t actually joking. His resolve to make Snape cheer up before they had to go back to school in September strengthened.

If Harry could bring up Tonks and Snape didn’t throw anything, then he was more depressed

2%

Susan stepped out of the floo and almost immediately groaned. “You,” she said flatly. “Terrific.”

“You didn’t think Harry would plan the greatest prank ever and not invite me? Did you?” Fred asked with a cocky grin from where he was laying across the sleek sofa in the sitting room. “You remember Charlie, right?”

Susan turned juuuust a little, presenting Charlie Weasley with her left hand instead of her right. “I suppose you’re helping as well?”

Susan hoped Harry knew Charlie was coming, otherwise he was going to be upset. Sure Harry let Charlie join the gang, and anyone could see how hard he worked to appear casual and unaffected by his presence, but Harry couldn’t fool Susan. She noticed his little ticks in his fingers when Charlie moved too quickly or spoke too loudly. And she didn’t think Harry kept a close eye on Charlie’s hands because he found him attractive.

Even if he was terribly attractive.

“Harry specifically asked me to help,” Charlie said with a roguish smile as if he could guess at Susan’s thoughts. “He said, and I quote, ‘I need an adult or Snape’s gonna be pissed and I know you like fire’.”

“What?” Susan was startled in to a laugh by that. She looked Charlie over carefully. He didn’t look much like the twins or Ron, aside from his blue eyes and freckles. His red hair was cropped short and his features were more... more hardened than the other Weasley boys. She glanced at his arms, taking note of both the tattoos and the muscles, and smiled slyly at the burn marks littering his arms. “I suppose you do know quite a bit about fire, don’t you Dragon-Man?”

“A bit,” Charlie said with a wink that temporarily soothed Susan’s newly diminished confidence.

Susan never used to worry much about her looks. She was attractive, beautiful, and didn’t struggle to find willing partners once her hormones kicked in and she wanted to experiment. She wasn’t vain, necessarily, she just knew she was attractive as clearly as she knew she had two arms.

Then she lost one arm and didn’t know anything about herself anymore.

Susan was about to see how far the supposedly ‘romantically disinterested’ Charlie Weasley was, when Hermione, Theo, Draco, and Harry trooped in the room and interrupted her.

Another time then, she decided with a small flick of her head for Charlie before she settled herself on the floor beside the chair she knew Harry would take.

Harry always took the chair that had the best view of the exits.

Sure enough, Harry sat in his chair and Theo shoved Fred’s legs off the sofa so he and Hermione could sit while Draco took a hesitant seat next to Charlie on the smaller love seat.

“Where’s Ron?” Harry asked Draco immediately.

It was Fred who answered him with an apologetic grimace. “He’s at the shop with George. Sorry darlin, I paid him to cover me today.”

“His loss,” Harry shrugged. “Kay, Mione, let’s go over the plan then.”

Hermione nodded and pulled out a parchment from her bag that she got up to stick to the wall. “Operation ‘Blow Up Malfoy Manor’, step one—”

“Excuse me?” Susan said with just the right mix of condescending in her polite tone. “Operation B.U.M.M.?”

“Blow Up Malfoy Manor, yes?” Hermione said, her brows furrowing over her brown eyes at Susan’s interruption. “That’s what we’re doing, isn’t it?”

Fred and Charlie began snickering quietly while Susan blinked slowly at Hermione, waiting for her to understand precisely what she’s done.

It took a few seconds, but finally Hermione’s cheeks turned a brilliant red.

“Operation bum,” she whispered, horrified. “Oh God.”

Susan gave Theo a very pointed look, “I wouldn’t let Hermione name your future children.”

Harry and Draco howled with laughter with the Weasley’s while Theo blushed alongside Hermione now.

“Fuck off Susan,” Hermione snapped. “It was a poorly thought out acronym, no need to be a pillock about it.”

Susan loved Hermione all the time. But she liked her as well as loved her when Hermione got snarky and rude.

“Quit,” Harry said from his spot. He was quiet, but they all heard him anyway. “Can we get on with it?”

Harry didn’t specifically admonish Hermione, but Susan knew that he wouldn’t have spoken up if Hermione hadn’t just called her a ‘pillock’ either. He was so needlessly protective, it was adorable. It was probably a good thing she’d never once in her life been attracted to Harry, or else she would have to steal him from Fred.

She glanced up at Harry and could easily admit that he was fanciable, he just wasn’t her type. His facial features were too delicate, he looked too easily broken. It was a look she could appreciate in girls, but she liked her blokes to look more rugged.

Not that Harry wasn’t strong and powerful, but maybe she just knew him too well. She knew what had the potential to break Harry and vice verse. She knew that the battle had broken him, in a way, and he knew that the loss of her arm had broken her in a way.

They were open books with each other, to an extent. Harry wouldn’t share plans with her when he thought there was a chance she’d get hurt, but she wasn’t going to be sidelined in any plans anymore either.

Especially not this plan, because this plan was hers and it was brilliant.

“Step one then Hermione,” Susan said. “I think that’s for us,” she told Harry cheerfully.

“Er...” Harry ran a hand through his hair and Susan just knew something stupid was about to come out of his mouth. “I told Fred he could come with me.”

Susan counted very slowly in her head (Lupin would be so proud) before she responded to that sudden shift in plans.

“And why, precisely, are you taking Fred instead of me?” Susan asked with a sharp glare. “This was my plan, my idea. I want to go.”

Harry shifted his eyes away guiltily and Susan knew it was some mad protective thing.

“No,” she cut him off before he could even say it. “I’m going.”

“I’m a better thief,” Fred said with a bright smile. “Harry’s just playing to our strengths.”

Susan was no big fan of Fred’s. And she liked him even less when he would jump in and hand Harry perfectly logical explanations to hide his illogical thought processes behind.

“Harry, no,” Susan said, ignoring Fred entirely for the moment. “I’m going.”

“Your wand has a trace on it and it’s a muggle area,” Fred said, butting in to a private argument again. This is why he gets on Susan’s nerves, he lets Harry do whatever he wants and never argues against him, even when Harry is being a prat. “Mine doesn’t.”

“Then give me yours,” Susan snapped at him.

“Sue, c’mon, I’ll be gone for fifteen minutes and then you can go to the manor with us,” Harry said pleadingly. “If we get caught then they might call the cops or something mad, I don’t want them trying to fuckin arrest you.”

“Aren’t they already kind of like cops?” Draco asked, his nose scrunched up in what Susan and Hermione dubbed ‘pureblood confusion’. “I thought that’s what muggle military is?”

“It’s a little different,” Hermione said patiently before launching in to an overly detailed explanation.

“Susan, we need your help to perfect this spell,” Theo said, taking Harry’s side as Susan should have known he would. “It’s trickier than Timmy’s followers make it look.”

“I know you guys perfected it already,” Susan rolled her eyes. “I’m going with Harry and that’s that.”

“No you aren’t, that’s that,” Harry said stubbornly.

Harry and Fred got to their feet, Harry’s cloak already halfway out of Harry’s pocket when Susan caught a glimpse of Charlie and had one final idea.

She jumped up and pulled Fred to the side of the room quickly. She yanked his head down by her mouth to make sure the others couldn’t hear her threat. “Either you tell Harry that you’ll stay and I’ll go, or I’m going to shag your brother while you’re gone,” she hissed quietly before releasing him.

Fred blinked at Susan, his jaw dropping and overall looking just as horrified and worried as she thought he might. Fred never said anything, but she didn’t think he was the biggest fan of her either. Which would certainly make it a shame for him if she stole away one of his siblings.

“Change of plans, darlin,” Fred called over to Harry. “You take Susan to rob the garrison and I’ll wait here and make sure the other supplies are ready.”

Harry scowled.

Susan smiled.

Then Harry sighed and held his hand out and she skipped back over to him to grab it.

“If you get hurt then you’re out of the gang,” Harry said flatly. “Disarm Fred and take his wand.”

Susan knew Harry wouldn’t kick her out, and she wouldn’t get hurt this time. She smirked at Fred before turning her wand on Charlie and disarming him before he even realized what she was doing.

“Oi! What the hell?!”

Susan pocketed his wand and tossed him hers. “It won’t work very well, since you didn’t earn it, but you can use mine until I get back,” she said with a wink. “See you guys soon.”

Harry’s face was blank as he threw the cloak over the two of them. He pulled a parchment out of his pocket and studied the address Hermione found for them carefully. “Ready Sue?”

Susan squeezed his hand while her heart thudded in anticipation for the upcoming adventure. “Ready.”

It took a few minutes of Harry and Susan struggling to load the machines up the precise way the muggle showed them.

“How many people were inside?” Theo asked.

“Four,” Draco answered him, his eyes bright and anticipatory. “They’ve destroyed the manor. My father would die if he saw it.” He held up his hand, a fistful of various colored wands clenched tightly. “It’ll be difficult for them to put the flames out without these,” he sneered.

“Guess we’re about to test that theory.” Susan laughed. She looked over at Harry and saw that he was in the same position in front of his machine as she was. “Ready Harry?”

“On three?” Harry said, his voice tight with the same excitement that was quickening Susan’s blood.

Susan looked through the telescope hooked to her machine and saw the back of the manor centered in her view.

“On three,” she agreed.

“One...”

Hermione grabbed Theo’s hand tightly.

Harry and Susan slammed the ammunition in place.

“Two...”

Charlie threw up a protective shield around the seven of them.

Susan pulled back the lever and moved her hand to the heavy trigger in front of her.

“Three!”

Susan pulled the trigger—

Once...

Twice...

Three times.

The noise was ear-splitting, Susan’s ears were ringing and causing her to feel a bit dizzy as the grenades flew between the trees and whizzed through the backyard before—

BOOM!

Susan couldn’t hear Harry when she turned to look at him and he said something to her with wide and shocked eyes, but she read his lips and was pretty sure he said ‘boom’.

Yeah. Boom.

The others stood there, their gazes shocked as screams erupted from inside the manor while it looked like the entire posh foundation shook before slowly sinking in itself.

It took a second, but then more explosions happened from inside the manor and flames suddenly shot up in the air.

“Oh my god,” Susan sighed. “It’s beautiful.”

And it was. The orange flames got higher and higher, uncontrollable and destructive. She could feel the heat from their position and had to hold a hand up in front of her face to keep the smoke and ashes from blowing in her eyes.

“Yep, time to go,” Charlie yelled hastily over the sounds of actual death and destruction that Susan couldn’t stop staring at. “C’mon, now.”

“One more thing!” Theo shouted. “Fred, do it now!”

Fred’s face lit up with a laugh Susan couldn’t hear over the continuing collapse of Malfoy Manor. She saw as he raised his wand and aimed it in the sky above the manor.

”Fulgervare!” Fred shouted.

Susan let out a happy whoop of laughter as a golden sparkling lightning bolt was shot in the air above the manor.

Hermione was a genius.

If Timmy and his death eaters could leave behind a calling card, so could they.

When they returned to Invisibility Way, ditching the evidence in the broom shed, even Draco was caught up in the triumphant and jubilant feeling of the group.

“Mission accomplished,” Harry shouted, his hearing probably still just as poor as Susan’s was.

She kind of understood now why the muggle military man wore earplugs when he’d demonstrated the machine for them.

“You did it!” Fred laughed. He kissed Harry quickly, his eyes bright and adoring. “You’re mad, darlin, absolutely mad!!”

“Did you see the flames?” Draco asked. His face was pale and he was clutching his mother’s items close to his chest, but his grey eyes were bright. “Just... BOOM!”

“Boom,” Hermione giggled, collapsing on the sofa with a shocked, but pleased, expression on her face. “I can’t believe muggles have access to weapons like that! That’s more destructive than almost any spell!”

“Muggles are insane,” Theo said. “Absolutely—”

“Would anyone like to explain to me why there are four new house-elves sobbing in our kitchen?”

All seven of them turned as one to see Snape standing in the doorway, an inscrutable look on his face.

“Er...”

“Well I’m headed out,” Charlie said brightly. “Fred, got time to show me the shop before I head over to Grimmauld with Mum and Gin?”

“Yep,” Fred agreed quickly. He pecked Harry on the cheek and winked at him before he and his brother all but ran from the room, headed straight to the floo in the library.

Cowards.

“Harry, what have you done?” Snape asked slowly, looking the five of them over carefully. “What is on your clothes?”

“Hm?” Harry glanced down and Susan internally groaned to see black ‘gun powder’ coating the front of his shirt and down his trousers, a look she shared when she checked. “Aah, well, you see... we... blewupMalfoyManor,” Harry said in a rush with his carefully practiced charming smile.

Snape’s mask cracked for just a second, there was just a brief look of utter shock before he blinked and was opaque once more. “You have done what?” he hissed.

Susan saw Theo, Draco, and Hermione ducking out of the room from the corner of her eyes.

Merlin they had the worst friends.

Susan squared her shoulders and faced Snape. “We blew up Malfoy Manor,” she said firmly. “Blew it to pieces.”

“You...” Snape’s dark eyes bulged as he looked between Susan and Harry. “You blew up Malfoy Manor?”

“Yup.” Harry flicked his fingers towards Susan and cleaned the ash off her with a warm breeze of magic. “Timmy wasn’t there, but unless they apparated quick, we killed four death eaters.”

Snape’s eyes flicked with a bunch of different emotions before finally settling on something that looked like exhaustion. “How long until I should expect aurors to show up at Spinners End?”

“You shouldn’t,” Harry shrugged. “Learned from that experience, didn’t I? No underage magic was done and we blew the manor up with muggle machines.”

“‘Muggle machines’,” Snape repeated tonelessly. “And where did you acquire these machines?”

“Her royal highnesses armory,” Susan grinned. “You should have seen it Snape, it was amazing.”

Harry and Susan stood shoulder to shoulder while they waited for Snape’s inevitable explosion.

Susan expected a whole variety of screams and insults to come pouring from Snape’s mouth. Anything from ‘have you lost your Merlin damned mind?’ to ‘you absolute imbecile!’

What she didn’t expect was for Snape’s shoulders to sag and for him to peer at Harry closely. “Are you injured, Harry?”

“Nope.”

Snape glanced at Susan, “And you, Miss Bones?”

“I’m fine, sir,” Susan said politely.

Snape nodded and watched Harry with an odd look for a long moment. “Please have Narcissa find something to do with the house-elves,” he said quietly. “I will see you at breakfast.”

Harry’s brows were nearly to his hairline when he turned to Susan after Snape just turned around and abruptly left the room.

“Did he- is he... what just happened?” Susan asked disbelievingly. “I thought he would yell.”

Harry shook his head slowly, “I told you he’s depressed,” he murmured. “Must be worse than I thought.”

Susan looked towards the spot Snape disappeared and thought maybe Snape was more than just depressed, he seemed really just defeated. Like Harry could have admitted to killing the Minister himself and Snape wouldn’t have reacted at all.

“Yeah, maybe,” Susan hummed noncommittally. “Wanna go see if Hermione and Theo want to play cards?”

Susan was still riding the high of their successful mission for the rest of the weekend. In fact, it wasn’t until she returned home on Monday afternoon that she even realized her ‘phantom pains’ in her right arm hadn’t bothered her once since the operation began.

Which she certainly would not be mentioning to Lupin the next time she saw him, she couldn’t stand to see the smug look on his face when she confirmed that it probably was ‘all in her mind’.

***

CONVICTED DEATH EATER LUCIUS MALFOY MANOR BURNT TO THE GROUND!
Law enforcement responded to calls of a magical residence burning in Wiltshire yesterday evening. When aurors Johnathan Abbott and Blue Ritters returned from the scene, they described the manor as ‘a complete loss’.
Despite the presence of stars creating a lightning bolt hovering above the burnt manor and the yet-to-be-identified bodies, Auror Abbott stated that ‘they found no proof that the fire was started by magical means’.
Auror Ritters wrote that the residence belonged to none other than Lucius Malfoy, who is currently serving a life sentence in Azkaban for his actions in May under the servitude of He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named.
“It’s a historical loss, but no less than Malfoy deserves,” Minister Fudge said firmly when asked for a comment. “I believe the message is quite clear; it does not pay to work for You-Know-Who.”
I reached out to my friend and close correspondent, recent hero of the Hogsmeade Battle, Harry Potter, and asked for his opinion on the mark lingering in the sky above the destruction, as it is in the shape of his infamous scar from He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named.
“Sounds like there were death eaters who messed up a spell,” Harry wrote in his response. “Unless there’s a vigilant group out blowing up houses; has anyone checked with Dumbledore?”
Due to Albus Dumbledore’s well-known history and recent arrest for running vigilante groups, i sought him out for a comment. Unsurprisingly, Dumbledore was unable to be found for a comment.
While Lucius Malfoy may be mourning the loss of his manor, the rest of the wizarding world rejoices in seeing a death eater get his due.
~Head Journalist, Rita Skeeter
For more on the Battle of Hogsmeade and Harry and his friends’ heroic actions, see page 3.
For more on Albus Dumbledore’s criminal history and past mistakes, along with information on his upcoming appeal to return to Hogwarts as Headmaster, see page 5.

4%

July 2

Stab his forehead with a basilisk fang?

No. The poison would stop his heart before he could be healed.

Antivenom first, then stab him?

If it didn’t work when he was twelve, it won’t work now.

Partial lobotomy?

That’s hardly different than killing him. It is a soul attached to him, not a parasite.

... it is a type of parasite.

No lobotomy.

Infect him with vampire venom? Then use basilisk venom once he’s changed?

Take his magic and make him an outcast from society? Harry would prefer death.

Could a dementor suck one specific soul from him?

Is it worth the risk if not?

... Harry certainly has a soul of his own, right?

Right.

Ludicrous to imagine otherwise.

Hit him with the killing spell and hope he gets lucky twice?

Severus scoffed at his own desperate idea.

It was two weeks in to summer break, two week spent isolated in the office Harry gave him in Invisibility Way searching desperately for an answer to this unsolvable puzzle.

And Severus was failing. Failing the child he swore to protect. Swore for Lilly’s sake. Swore for the child’s sake. Swore for his own sake.

But failure meant certain death, so Severus persisted in his research.



He took sparse breaks; always for breakfast with Harry, and occasionally throughout the day to check on the child and ensure he was not blowing up any more manors.

Severus knew Harry was bitterly disappointed to be so easily kicked off his quidditch team, Merlin knows that Severus felt the blow as if it were his own dream being shattered, but the child was outrageous and blatant in his revenge.

He also apparently had his friends invent a Harry Potter version of a Dark Mark.

Which was amusing, certainly, but also disturbing.

Yet, when Severus went to admonish him for his brash and Gryffindor-like actions, he considered how Harry may never get the opportunity to play professional quidditch and deflated.

‘I’ll play when Timmy’s dead.’

Who cared what crimes Harry committed now?

Who cared what chaos Harry brewed?

The child had a timer counting down above his head and Severus would allow him whatever happiness he could acquire while he was still able to do so. If that happiness came from robbing the British Department of Defense, liberating tortured house-elves, and blowing up houses, then so be it. Because Severus knew, knew it from the moment he read Barty’s letter, that he was going to have to take it from him eventually.

At some point in the near future, Severus was going to have to inform Harry of what curse he carried, of what choices he had.

He vehemently prayed that he had a cure for the curse before he had to do so.



After a week in to summer, Severus had temporarily given up on finding a ritual to separate the horcrux from the host. That had been Barty’s sole focus, finding a way to spare Harry from having to be ‘destroyed beyond magical repair’.

Severus moved his focus on ways to destroy the child without killing him.

Which, while sounding impossible, Severus had initially believed to have an answer somewhere within the magical world. In a world where basilisks could be slayed by prepubescent boys with swords, surely there was a solution to this inexplicable problem.

And yet, despite his own brilliance and the vast amount of books on all variety of topics available to him, it was not until Harry sent Nymphadora to bother him that he had any sort of a breakthrough.

Severus should have known that she would be coming. Harry had been quite stubborn during breakfast when he questioned Severus on his plans for the day.

“D’you wanna go see Fred’s shop today?” Harry had asked between sips of his espresso. “They opened yesterday. I didn’t go because Fred said it was going to be a mad house and I didn’t much fancy getting trampled, but Susan and Neville are going today. You could come too, if you wanted.”

“While that sounds precisely like an activity I would positively love to do, I’m afraid I am quite busy today.”

Harry narrowed his eyes suspiciously, “With what?”

“Work,” Severus told his nosy child shortly. “Did Frederick have a successful opening day?”

“Don’t do that,” Harry snapped. “Don’t change the subject, Sev. What’re you working on in there?”

“Potions,” Severus lied, his tone now matching Harry’s in its irritation. “You are busy with your projects, I am busy with mine.”

Harry’s face tightened for a moment before he sighed and slumped down in his chair. “I don’t have to be busy, if you want to hang out? I didn’t- I didn’t think you’d be jealous. I’ll tell Susan and Neville to go without me today, we can hang out.”

“No, do not do that,” Severus said, a touch hastily. “I truly am busy Harry, not jealous. Go spend time with your friends.”

Merlin only knew how long he would be able to do so.

Harry hummed, unconvinced and suspicious, but he dropped it after that.

Severus should have remembered that Harry has never truly dropped a subject regarding someone else’s business in his life.



Harry had barely been gone for an hour before there was a soft knock on the office door.

Severus sighed and cleared the book on African Wixen Rituals to Eternal Life away. “Enter,” he said.

The door opened and Nymphadora poked her head inside. Her hair was its usual shade of pink, in a chin length bob today, and her eyes were a dark violet.

“Hello,” she said, slipping inside and closing the door behind her. “I’ve been sent to cheer you up.”

“Have you?” Severus drawled with a roll of his eyes. He moved to the matching green chairs in front of the fire and gestured for Nymphadora to sit with him. “Harry, I presume?”

“Harry,” Nymphadora confirmed as she easily took Harry’s usual chair. She pulled a package from her pocket and Severus nearly smiled to see Sugar Quills emerge.

He had asked Harry once, years ago, as a jest, to bring him sugar quills from Honeydukes and the child convinced himself it was Severus’ favorite sweet.

It hadn’t been, at the time, though he did prefer them now.

“He also sent these,” Nymphadora pulled one out and handed it to Severus with a playful smile. “Just in case I wasn’t enough to cheer you up on my own.”

“Harry is a menace,” Severus said quietly, accepting the sugar quill with a fond look. “Thank you.”

“I think he’s worried about you,” Nymphadora said, taking one of the quills out for herself. “He said you’re depressed and ‘drowning your grief in potions’, his words there.”

“Did he?” Severus raised an interested brow at Nymphadora. “That hardly sounds like an observation Harry would make.”

“He was pretty adamant. He seemed to think I needed an excuse to come bother you,” Nymphadora winked coyly. “But he said you’re depressed and hiding away from everyone and drowning yourself in potions and if you didn’t yell at him for stealing ‘grenade guns’ that it was ‘worse than he thought’.”

Severus stared at Nymphadora for a long moment before letting out a huff of a laugh. “The brat acts as if I have not been letting him get away with much worse crimes for years. Since we met, in fact.”

“Really?” Nymphadora kicked her legs over the armrest of her chair so she could turn to face Severus while she leaned against the other armrest. “Like what?”

Severus allowed a small smile to curl the edges of his lips up as he recalled Harry’s first year at Hogwarts.

“He once broke a classmates wand because she taunted him for not having a proper family to return home to for the holidays.”

“And you didn’t even give him detention?” Nymphadora guessed.

“Of course I did.” Severus stared at her blandly for a moment before smirking, “For doing it in front of witnesses.”

Nymphadora let out a peal of laughter that gave Severus the opportunity to look her over carefully. The bruises beneath her eyes, the ones that persisted for days after the battle, were diminished, leaving her face as bright and youthful as it had always been.

“You look better,” Severus told her gently after her laughter died down. “You spoke with Amelia?”

“I did,” Nymphadora said, a slight line creasing the space between her brows now. “She wasn’t mad, or upset even, she said I saved Susan’s life and thanked me for it.”

“Rightfully so,” Severus told her with a curt nod. “And now, thanks to your efforts, Miss Bones is sporting a golden arm and stealing military grade equipment from her royal highnesses armory.” Severus grabbed his tea from his table and raised it to Nymphadora, “Cheers.”

Nymphadora tilted her head in a mock-bow and smiled unrepentantly. “And since you didn’t give Harry detention for snapping a wand when he was eleven, I guess his destruction of a ‘historical manor’ falls on you.”

Severus laughed quietly again, momentarily relaxed and feeling rather nostalgic for the days when Harry was a much smaller and more easily managed child.

Not fully managed, Merlin knows Harry has never been a manageable child, but he had once been less overall chaotic than he was now.

“Truthfully, Miss Parkinson’s wand was the least of my worries when Harry was a first year,” Severus said. “In fact, only months after that, he... he...” Severus’ eyes lit up as he recalled precisely what Harry did at the end of his first year. “That’s it,” he breathed. He gave Nymphadora a true smile, appreciation for her interruption coursing through him, “You’ve solved it!”

Severus lunged to his feet and immediately tore to his bookcase, much to Nymphadora’s bemusement.

“What did I solve?” she asked as Severus quickly grabbed seven different books of varying thickness off his shelf.

“A terribly difficult dilemma,” Severus said absently, his mind whirling with possibilities. “Nymphadora, excuse me, may we reschedule this intervention for another time? I assure you I am not depressed and I may finally have found a solution to the problem I have been occupied with.”

“Sure.” Nymphadora got to her feet and gave Severus an uncertain smile. “Maybe we could have dinner next week? Make up for that date those pesky death eaters interrupted?”

“Certainly,” Severus murmured. He took his stack of books to his desk and gave her a true look of appreciation. “I will see you then.”

Severus waited until Nymphadora left the office, a puzzled smile on her face, before sitting and opening the first book.

The philosophers stone.

Harry had it.

He stole it in his first year, and Lord knows he would hardly trade ‘Dumbledore’s precious red rock’ for anything less than a guaranteed position as Minister of Magic.

All Severus needed to do now, was discover if the Elixir of Everlasting Life was enough to allow Harry to be killed to destroy the horcrux without actually ending his life.

Severus began eagerly reading through the tomes, searching for every mention of the stone he could find, and an idle smirk graced his lips.

Harry would be pleased, undoubtedly. If this was the ticket to saving the child, then he could reign over Great Britain as the Minister of Magic for an eternity.



At some point, Mavis and one of Narcissa’s elves entered the office and informed him that ‘Master Harry’ wanted him to appear at dinner, but Severus waved them off.

This was the first true break he had gotten all summer, the first idea that was born out of more than desperation. He would miss this meal with Harry for the possibility of ensuring he had a lifetime of meals to share with him.

Severus charmed a portion of the office wall to give him space to hang parchments filled with his notes, notes that once hung were visibly only to him. He quickly filled it with careful notes on alchemy, notes on the elixir itself, and notes on Nicholas Flamel’s past inventions and achievements.

The Elixir of Everlasting Life was nothing more than a potion brewed with the transfigured properties of the Philosopher’s Stone. Flamel and his wife, Perenelle, had both taken the elixir back in the 1400’s, and were rumored to be alive and well today.

Severus had a brief recollection of Albus stating that the Flamel’s would be ‘moving on’ now that their stone was destroyed; and indeed without the stone to give them the properties to continue brewing the potion, they would die, but not yet.

Severus was confident they were still alive.

Severus, never having had a firm grasp of the various complex concepts of alchemy, had to slow his initial research to ensure he understood the basic concepts behind the creation of the stone. He spent the rest of the day in his office, digging out all his texts on alchemy that he could find.

He continued working in to the night, ignoring all interruptions that were not Harry himself, as he educated himself on alchemy. Many texts on the subject were difficult to decipher. A fruitless effort to dissuade others from attempting to create their own stone, but Severus persisted until he could keep his eyes open no longer and fell asleep in his chair.

After all, he did not care to create a stone himself, he merely needed to know if the drinker of the elixir could be killed and still survive.



Severus was jolted awake by a harsh fist pounding on his office door. He glanced down at himself and cringed to see that he was still in his rumpled clothes from yesterday.

Severus cleared his throat as he ground the sleep from his eyes. “Just a moment,” he called while he stretched the kinks out of his neck.

Thirty-six was much too old to be sleeping on a chair, no matter how obstinately plush it was.

“Open the door or I swear to god I’m going to fuckin kick it down.”

Severus glanced at the door with interest as he waved his wand to remove the locks and allowed Harry to enter.

“You missed breakfast,” Harry said hotly the moment the door opened. He crossed his arms as he kicked the door closed behind him. “You didn’t come to dinner last night, you didn’t go hang out with Tonks yesterday, you’re just wallowing in misery Sev. What’s it going to take to cheer you up?”

It was heartening to know that, despite Harry’s overall self-absorption, that he was capable of caring after others. Even if that care was quite displaced at present time.

Severus stifled a yawn before standing and wincing at the ache in his back. “I apologize for missing breakfast Harry,” he said with what he hoped was a genuine amount of regret in his voice. “I appreciate your concern, but I am not ‘depressed’ and do not need ‘cheered up’. I am busy. Have you eaten yet?”

Harry sent a blatant look at the clock ticking away on the wall and Severus followed his eyes only to see that it was nearly noon.

It was a morbid thought, but Severus saw the time and mentally cursed himself for missing one of what could possibly be a small number of breakfasts with Harry that he had left.

“Harry, I truly apologize. I had a breakthrough on my work and had fallen asleep quite late. Would you settle for lunch after I shower?”

“I can’t,” Harry said, his face still suspicious and his posture defensive. “I told Cissa I’d go shopping with her today, it was part of the deal for destroying the manor and if I cancel then she’s gonna find a way to make me regret it, I’m sure. Will you, please, take a fucking shower and go outside or something today?”

Severus shook his head at the abrupt reversal of roles between them. “I will,” he said, not quite lying. He would shower, but if Harry would be gone with Narcissa then Severus would continue to decipher the properties of the Philosopher’s Stone. “Are you traveling far to go shopping?”

“We’re taking a portkey to France,” Harry rolled his eyes and uncrossed his arms. “She says there’s a way to look like ‘a well dressed lover of athletics’ instead of ‘a sweaty teenager’. She also said she knows a spot where I can get magic contacts, which would be a real boon, wouldn’t it?”

Severus snorted and subtly closed the book he had left open on his table last night. “It would certainly keep you from being easily blinded in a duel,” he agreed. “I shall see you afterwards then,” he told him with another appropriately apologetic look. “After I ‘take a fucking shower’ and ‘go outside or something’.”

Harry nodded and grabbed the doorknob. “I’m having the elves watch you today,” he warned him. “They’ll tell me if you just sit in here all day today.”

“Goodbye Harry,” Severus drawled pointedly. “Be sure to inform Narcissa that you prefer green tops when you are attempting to appear charming.”

Harry scoffed, but his expression lightened at Severus’ jest. “I’ll be back around five,” he said, a blatant warning.

“Be safe, brat.”

“Take a shower, Sev.”

Severus waited until Harry’s footsteps disappeared before he took off his outer robes and rolled his sleeves up.

He glanced up at the clock and set a quick timer for four o’clock.

Then he threw himself back in to his research.



Severus was eventually silently debating on simply reaching out to Nicholas Flamel and praying he did not inform Albus or attempt to prosecute Harry for the theft when he was interrupted with a firm knock on his door.

On the one hand, it could create a whole host of problems for Severus and Harry both if Flamel informed Albus of his questions. On the other hand...

Severus thought perhaps it said quite a bit about Nicholas Flamel that he never joined Albus’ prestigious Order of the Phoenix.

He glanced up at the clock and grimaced to see it was already a quarter past three. He would have to wrap his research up soon and shower and make an appearance outside of his office lest Harry’s ever growing band of house-elves tattled on him to the ‘Master of the house’.

It hardly mattered. Despite Severus’ hopes, there was absolutely nothing within any of these books that said if the drinker of the Elixir would be granted with an inability to be killed or not. They all merely stated that the drinker would not ‘perish from natural causes’.

Which was hardly hopeful.

“Enter,” Severus sighed, pushing his research away to be continued after dinner.

There used to be a day, approximately six years ago, where Severus could spend entire summers in this office or laboratory without ever being bothered.

Then Albus sent him on a quest to give The Boy-Who-Has-Too-Many-Friends his Hogwarts letter and Severus has not had a moment of peace since.

Instead of Nymphadora, Mavis, or Harry, as Severus expected, it was Frederick who entered with his chin held high and his shoulders square.

“I’d like to talk to you,” he said. “May I sit?”

Severus was bemused by this grave behavior from the mischievous young man. He gestured for Frederick to sit in the wooden chair across the desk from him.

Severus waited with as much patience as he was capable of as Frederick appeared to be drawing up his courage to say something of some importance.

“You’re Harry’s parent,” Frederick finally said quite bluntly. “And on his birthday I’d like to ask him to marry me.” Frederick pulled a black velvet box from his pocket and slid it on the desk to Severus.

“I know we’re young, I know we can’t even get married for another year, but I love him sir.” Frederick’s voice was steady as Severus silently inspected the golden band within the box.

It was a handsome ring, likely worth a small fortune. The proof of Frederick’s business successes glittered from the intermixed rubies and emeralds circling the band.

Sentimentality, Severus supposed. Further evidence that students so easily divided at eleven did not necessarily have to remain so.

“Harry is not yet sixteen,” Severus eventually said, entirely shocked both by the ring and the conversation itself. “‘Young’? You are both still children.”

“Look me in the eyes and tell me Harry was ever a child,” Frederick challenged him. “Look me in the eyes and tell me that there’s a guarantee that five years from now there’ll be time for this. Hell,” Frederick chuckled mirthlessly, “tell me a year from now that Harry and I will both still be here. That one of us won’t be dead. Can you do that sir?”

Severus thought of Barty’s failed experiments. His own failures.

Harry was doomed to either die young or be hunted by a madman for an eternity.

There was no guarantee they would both still be around in a year, no guarantee that they would have the happy ending they desired and deserved.

“You should not propose because you fear the future,” Severus argued helplessly. It had happened the last war as well; people marrying left and right, terrified they would lose their chance to do so.

“I’m not.” Frederick was calm and confident, entirely in control of his emotions as Severus could feel his own spiraling. “I’m proposing because I love him sir. I don’t have a future that doesn’t have Harry in it. The battle in May just reminded me that life can be... it can be short, why not look for happiness now?”

“Why are you telling me this?” Severus asked after clearing his mind of the emotions that threatened to suffocate him from the inside. “What do you want from me?”

“Your blessing,” Frederick said simply. “You’re Harry’s parent, the only one he really has. I swear to you if you say yes then I’ll make sure he never feels unloved, never feels alone. I’ll do my best to protect him from his enemies and from himself. I swear it, sir.”

Severus ripped his eyes from the ring he’d been so distracted by to stare hopelessly in Frederick’s calm blue eyes.

Who could ask for more?

Who would say no to a possibility of a happy ending now for the young man who carried a cursed soul within a scar on his forehead?

Severus replaced the ring in the box and slid it back to Frederick.

“Harry could do much worse,” he told him truthfully. “You will not change your mind?”

“My—” Frederick’s eyes flashed with pain and he swallowed harshly. “My dad said that Weasley men only fall in love once sir. Harry’s it for me. And I think I’m it for him.”

Severus eyed the emerald promise ring on Frederick’s right hand. Potter’s symbol of his love, his claim on Frederick’s heart and his future.

“I believe you are,” Severus agreed. “Ask him.”

“Really?” Frederick’s previous expression of respectful solemnity slipped away and Severus was able to witness a joy so jubilant that it was nearly painful to witness through his own grieving eyes.

“Thank you sir!” Frederick jumped to his feet and offered Severus his hand. “You’ll never regret this, I swear.”

“I know.” Severus rose to shake Frederick’s hand and prayed that Harry and Frederick would both grow to have the future Frederick envisioned.

The more he experimented, the more he learned, the less he believed it.

Why not give Harry this opportunity now?

Is it kind or cruel to give him promises of a joyful future that shrinks with every failed experiment on the horcrux ring?

“I need to go, I have to get back to the shop. I told George I had a quick emergency to take care of and I think he’s under the impression Harry was executing another mad scheme,” Frederick grinned and repocketed the velvet box that carried his symbol of love for Severus’ son. “Thank you.”

Severus sank back to his seat and waited until Frederick was nearly out the office door before calling to him.

“Frederick?”

“I know.” Frederick turned and gave Severus a cheeky smirk. “If I hurt him then you’ll curse me for an eternity, right?”

“While that is entirely true, I was merely going to say that I believe Harry’s mother would be quite fond of you, if she were here,” Severus said lightly.

Severus had no right to say such a thing, he hadn’t known Lily Evans in twenty years, yet he was sure it was true. Frederick had grown to be a fine young man who never wavered from his commitment to Lily’s only son. And, as Lily had married James Potter, Severus doubted if she would disapprove of Frederick.

“Thank you,” Frederick said once more.

Severus waited until Frederick’s footsteps were no longer audible before summoning a drink.

“Here’s to Harry surviving to seventeen,” he murmured. He threw down the bourbon and put away his books and notes.

He would simply write to Flamel after dinner, it would be the quickest way to get the answers he desires with such an increasing desperation.

It was a risk, undoubtedly, but not an uncalculated one. And not one that did not carry the possibility of such high rewards.

***

Mister Flamel,
I hope this letter finds you well. I would like to discuss an aspect of your research on alchemy with you, in person if it is possible. I cannot share more details in a letter, though I can say that it is incredibly important and time is of the essence.
If you would kindly write me back informing me if this meeting would be possible, I would be grateful.
-S.S.

***

Severus’ world was rocked once more when he was woken in the middle of the night by the wards surrounding their home being broken that same night. He was certain it was not Harry or one of the other many occupants of Invisibility Way, as they had all agreed to inform him if they were going to be traveling between the hours of ten pm and eight am, due to the wards he had set. And, so far, everyone had stayed true to their word, even going so far as to only travel during the day to ease the stress on Severus.

Which meant this was not an expected guest.

Severus crept down the stairs, his wand ready, when there was a light knock on the door.

Probably not a Death Eater then.

Severus was taking no chances with a houseful of potential targets though, he raised his wand high when he called through the door, “Who is it?”

“Luna Elizabeth Lovegood.”

Severus hesitated before opening the door, it would do no good to insist the others utilize basic safety measures if he did not take them himself.

“You told me once that you would inform Harry it was your decision so he would not blame me, what was that decision?” Severus asked through the door.

“To be the thing Harry would miss the most in the second task of the Triwizard Tournament.”

Severus threw the door open with relief, then immediately pulled up short at the sight of Lovegood.

“Luna.” He reached out quickly for the girl. She was covered in blood, ashes, and mud. Her hair was tangled with a variety of leaves and other debris from the woods, as if she had been literally drug through the environment. The blood vessels in the whites of her eyes were burst and she was swaying where she stood. “What happened?” Severus asked. He put a quick arm around her shoulders and swore under his breath when her silver eyes rolled back in her head and she fell in a dead faint.

Severus caught her before she was injured further and carried her carefully to the sitting room.

“Mavis! Quickly!”

Severus wasted no time on pleasantries when Harry’s elf appeared.

“My kit,” he barked. “And— and fetch Draco and Harry at once.”

Severus cast a diagnostic on Lovegood and felt a chill go down his spine at the results.

Who on Earth had cast the Cruciatus Curse on the girl?

Chapter End Notes

Up Next:
Luna isn’t gifted with the nargles, she’s cursed.

6%

Dear Draco,
Living with Harry sounds very crazy. I like Harry very much, but I imagine you could eventually feel a little mad after being exposed to his wrackspurts so often. I’m sorry he blew up your house, although I’m not sorry if it means there’s innocent house-elves in a much safer home now. I’ve always wanted a house-elf to be friends with, I heard they’re excellent at adding cheering charms to their meals. Do you feel happier when you eat something the elves make?
... do you know how to cook?
Probably not.
My summer is quite normal. Daddy has been occupied with the Quibbler, like he usually is, but he said that perhaps later this month we can go on a trip together. I don’t know why, but I don’t believe him. He does lie quite often as you know.
I hope to see you soon, I miss you.
All my love,
Luna

Luna was smiling to herself as she tied her letter with a bright green ribbon. She knew that Draco was feeling a bit swept away with the craziness that Harry put out in the world so easily, but Luna liked it.

It was rare, finding someone who embraced insanity like Harry did.

Luna put her letter on the windowsill for her owl to pick up when she got back from hunting and went out to the printing room to check on her dad.

She walked on her tiptoes as she left their cheery yellow kitchen, as she knew that walking on her tiptoes was the best way to keep wrackspurts from invading her own brain.

And she had plenty of wrackspurts when summer first began.

Susan had been so close to death, so close to leaving Luna like her mom did, and Luna couldn’t handle it. She broke down and let all the wrackspurts invade her mind until it was so filled with buzzing that she couldn’t focus on anything else.

She was glad they were starting to go away, but she had a bad feeling they would come back soon.

So if dancing on her tiptoes made her lips curve up in a smile and delayed the invasion she felt coming on, then all the better.

“Daddy, would you like some tea?” Luna asked cheerfully when she danced in to the printing room. “Maybe some toast?”

“No thank you sweetheart.” Her dad was sitting on his favorite blue cushion on the floor next for the large and noisy printing machine. His blonde hair was pulled back away from his face and he was scribbling quickly on a piece of parchment floating in front of him. “Did you know that muggles have seen proof of a twenty foot tall hairprinth?” he asked Luna excitedly. “They have photos of its footprints and everything!”

Luna smiled patiently at the glazed look in his grey eyes, the same glazed look he’s had since the day her mom died and left him heartbroken, confused, and alone with a young daughter. Some days it was better, some days he looked and sounded like the dad she used to have, and other days, like today, he looked like he barely recognized her.

She blamed the wrackspurts. They got in her dad’s head and led him astray, they told him that it was easier to play make-believe instead of facing reality of a life left without his one true love.

Luna used to join him, in his land of make-believe, but then she made friends, real and true friends, who showed her that reality wasn’t too terrible by their sides.

Mister Lupin called it ‘codependent’ which sounded just fine to her. Humans were just like all other creatures, they needed others to survive.

“Of course,” she told her dad softly. “They call him ‘Big Foot’.”

“Amazing!” Her dad laughed and gave Luna a happy smile. “We should go find him!”

He won’t take you, the nargles whispered. Even if he could, he doesn’t mean it.

“That sounds wonderful,” Luna said. “Can we go before I go back to school?”

“Don’t be silly,” her dad laughed again, “you’re too young for school.”

Luna’s heart sank, but she kept up her gentle smile. “You’re right,” she agreed. “I’ll just go out back and explore for a while, okay? I’ll see you at lunch?”

“Yes, yes, go,” her dad said, his attention already back on his publication piece. “Be careful my LueBell.”

Tell him you love him. You’ll regret it if you don’t.

Luna scrunched her nose at the nargles, but did as they said. She walked carefully over to her dad and wrapped her thin arms around his shoulders tightly. “I love you,” she said.

“And you,” he murmured distractedly. “Go play LueBell, I’ll see you later.”

Luna felt her stomach clenching and the fine blonde hairs on her arms standing straight up at that, but she ignored it.

She had bad feelings about things all the time, it didn’t have to mean anything if she didn’t let it.



Luna carefully checked over their garden, lovingly tending to the flowers and herbs that she worked so hard on in the summers, and were inevitably dead when she came home each June. Neville had taught her a few spells to protect the garden from the elements and from stray creatures while she was gone, but she was pretty sure it was her dad who came out and tore up her flowers.

It wasn’t really his fault. He didn’t know any better, the flowers just made him sad sometimes. He would see her flowers and remember how her mom always wore them in her hair or tied together like necklaces, he couldn’t see the flowers as their own beauty anymore. Luna still could though.

After watering the garden and gently plucking away the leaves that had died, Luna got her faded purple shears from their hook on the side of the house and talked to the plants while she cut a few of them down.

“I’m very sorry Mister Flowers,” she said while she gathered the flowers, “but you’re going to a friend of mine. Draco’s mom is very sad right now, she doesn’t have her house or her husband and I think she must be feeling quite lost.” Luna frowned sadly at the bouquet she gathered, “You understand, don’t you? I’ve taken you from your home as well. But you can find a new home with Mrs Malfoy.”

Luna took her little bouquet inside and wrapped the stems up with twine before laying them with Draco’s letter and adding a little ps informing him that these were for his mother and she would know if he kept them for himself.

Draco was wonderful, sweet and smart and kind in the way that made creatures adore him, but he also liked to keep beautiful things for himself. Luna’s cheeks felt very hot when she remembered how he told her that she was beautiful, special, perfect, and unique. ‘Unique’ didn’t sound like an insult when Draco said it in his carefully cultured way, it sounded wonderful. And since Draco was wonderful, it made since that she also must be wonderful or else they would never be compatible.

Her task now finished, Luna slid on her favorite blue rain boots and headed out to the forest to see if she couldn’t find the pixie that had been flitting around at night sending small twinkles of light in her bedroom window.

7%

Don’t go home.

Why wouldn’t I go home?

It’s not safe.

Daddy’s there. I have to go home.

You can’t.

Is daddy hurt? I need to go help him.

Don’t go home.

I hate you. I hate you. I HATE YOU.

Luna was humming especially loudly to block out the nargles from her place deep in the forest behind her house.

Don’t go home.

Luna couldn’t hold back the sob that was choking her, nor the tears that were streaming freely. She scrambled up from the ground up the tree closest to her— she needed to see her house.

All the air in her body left in a quick rush when she was swaying on a branch and saw her house, the tall rook in the sky, and the smoke. Too much smoke. Too thick and too heavy to be from the chimney.

Luna pushed off from the trunk of the tree, jumping from much too high in the air, but landing gracefully on her feet. She took off running, straight to the smoke twirling upwards in the sky.



Luna burst through her back door, her water bucket from the yard full of rainwater and prepared to put out the fire. “Daddy!” she yelled through the smoke filling their kitchen. “Where are you?”

“Daddy isn’t here,” someone sneered before Luna was abruptly struck with a spell and everything went dark.



When Luna was abruptly drug back in to reality, the first thing she noticed was that the smoke filling her house was gone.

The next thing she noticed was her dad petrified and stiff as a board laying on the floor with his eyes wide and terrified.

“Daddy.” Luna crawled quickly from the spot by the sink where she’d been to her dad, but was stopped from reaching him by someone grabbing her ankle tightly and pulling her away.

“Aht, we want a word with you,” the person said. Luna turned and looked over her shoulder and her face paled to see two people, men, probably, based on their physique, in heavy black robes and expressionless white masks.

Death eaters.

The one who grabbed her ankle suddenly twisted it to where Luna either had to flip on her back or risk having her ankle broken. And she already didn’t have her wand or her knife, having a broken ankle would just leave her even more helpless.

She nearly hoped that Harry and Susan never found out about this, they’d be so disappointed in her lack of vigilance.

“I don’t know anything and my dad hasn’t done anything wrong,” Luna whispered tearfully. “Please, please let him go.”

“Not so tough without your friends around, are ya?” one of the men laughed.

It didn’t really bother her since it was true. Luna wasn’t so tough without her friends, but every creature on the planet was stronger in a pack.

The other man circled around Luna, sneering down at her until he stopped by her head, between her and her dad. “This is the one that the Malfoy boy is courting, isn’t it?” he asked.

Luna kept her eyes on the man in front of her and wasn’t able to move in time before the man behind her kicked the side of her head hard enough to cause her to cry out again and send black spots to obscure her vision.

“Not much of a looker, is she?” the one who kicked her laughed. “Pft, Lucius is probably crying in Azkaban to see how far his precious boy has fallen.”

“Don’t look like much of a brain either,” the one in front of her said.

“Please, my d-dad, let him go,” Luna pleaded quietly. They could laugh at her and torture her and kill her if they wanted, but her dad didn’t do anything wrong.

The death eater behind her suddenly grabbed her hair and lifted her up in the air, causing one of her blue boots to fall to the ground while she cried out from the pain.

“We need you to give Potter a message,” he sneered right in her face. “Listen closely girl, tell Potter to join our Lord or we are going to find each of you, all of his little followers, and kill you one by one while he watches. Can you tell him that?”

Luna didn’t answer, her entire head was screaming from the pain where she could feel individual strands of her hair detaching from her head.

“CAN YOU TELL HIM?!” the man screamed, shaking Luna as he did.

“Yes,” she wailed. “Yes, yes I can tell him.”

“Good.” The man dropped her to the ground and pulled his wand out. “When you tell him that, you tell him we aren’t playing games with him. Our Lord wants him by his side soon, or we’re going to kill you all.” He stared right at Luna as he turned his wand on her dad, her innocent and kind-hearted dad who could never have hurt a soul in his life. “When you tell Potter that, tell him that his little followers are next.”

It was cowardly, it was weak and despicable, but Luna knew what was coming and closed her eyes so she didn’t have to see it.

I love you. I love you. I love you.

She chanted it over and over in her head, using the words to block out the curse the man yelled. She pictured her dad when he was in the forest with her, teaching her about the creatures who owned the earth they lived on. She pictured his innocent eyes, his happy smile, and his face full of love for her to block out the flash of green light that was almost too bright for her to ignore even with her eyes closed.

He’s dead.

I hate you.

Luna started humming loudly when she felt the weight of the masked man’s eyes on her.

“What’s wrong with her?” the one behind her grunted, aiming a heavy kick to her back that sprawled her to the floor. “I thought the paper said she was Potter’s friend, not some escaped lunatic.”

The two men chortled and Luna blocked it out with an increase in the volume of her humming.

Their words couldn’t hurt her. They were plastic and she was glue and that meant their words didn’t mean anything.

According to what Hermione told her once when she was crying in the Ravenclaw Tower after Marietta made fun of her in front of all the other Ravenclaw’s anyway. It didn’t make much sense, but it was still a nice memory so Luna thought of it every time someone called her ‘Loony’.

“D’we just leave her?” the man asked. “Potter’ll come for her, won’t he?”

“Suppose so,” the other man agreed. “Go put the mark above the house, that’ll bring him here. The Dark Lord said break the followers though. Show them we’re better.”

Luna very much did not want to be broken. She also did not want to hear the two men arguing even over her own off-key hums.

Then Luna learned that Hermione was actually very wrong because words could hurt her. Specifically, ‘crucio’ could hurt her more than almost anything.

***
Get up and move.

No.

Go to Harry.

No.

You have to.

No.

Don’t you want to live?

... I don’t know.

Luna did eventually move though. She opened her eyes and saw her dad laying on the ground, his face so slack that he could be sleeping. She crawled over to him and kissed his forehead gently.

”Goodnight, sleep tight,” she whispered. She tucked his hair behind his ears, like he had done for her a million times and gently closed his eyelids. “I love you to the moon and back.”

***

When she thought about it later, Luna wasn’t entirely sure how she made it to the safe house that Harry gave her the address to after he bought it.

She knew that she walked, a lot.

But she kind of doubted that she walked clear from her house to his.

In the back of her mind, the part that wasn’t dazed and disoriented and pushing onward despite the pain in her legs and in her heart, she suspected some sort of accidental magic must have stretched out a helping hand.

She wished it had helped her when she needed it though.

Luna looked at her hand curiously like it was being seen through the end of a very dirty telescope. She lifted it curiously and knocked on the dark blue door in front of her.

Help is coming.

Don’t talk to me.

Luna heard someone with a silky voice, a reassuring voice that she knew she could trust, on the other side of the door. “Who is it?”

“Luna Elizabeth Lovegood.”

That wasn’t a good name anymore.

Luna wasn’t the moon, bright and mysterious.

She wasn’t Elizabeth, that had been her mom. Pandora Elizabeth.

She wasn’t Lovegood, that had been her dad. And he was gone now. She’d seen proof when the death eaters left and she was left laying on the floor, staring in to her dad’s empty eyes.

Pandora Elizabeth and Xenophilius Lovegood were dancing on the moon now.

And their daughter was alone in a cruel world that didn’t much care for her.

The voice on the other side of the door was hesitant, he must know that her name didn’t fit anymore. “You told me once that you would inform Harry it was your decision so he would not blame me, what was that decision?”

Answer him.

“To be the thing Harry would miss the most in the second task of the Triwizard Tournament,” Luna said in a slight daze. She wasn’t certain of what she was saying, but she knew it was the right answer to the riddle when the door flung open and it was Professor Snape standing there.

Good.

Professor Snape was trustworthy.

***

“Luna, it is time to wake up now.”

Luna slowly opened her eyes, not really wanting to be awake much. It had been a small act of kindness that her body finally collapsed after Professor Snape answered the door.

Awake was where it hurt.

Awake was where her dad was gone, off to the afterlife in the sky with her mom.

Awake was where she was an orphan.

There was someone tall, someone in a lot of black, standing in front of her. Luna grabbed their hand by her face as her mind went cloudy while the nargles decided it was their turn to speak.

The nargles didn’t always trust Luna to share their messages. Sometimes they just took over and left storm clouds in her head to distract her while they spoke.

Luna used to like the nargles choosing her; they made her feel special, like her mom used to say she was. ‘You have a gift Luna,’ her mom would whisper at night while she brushed Luna’s hair. ‘Not everyone does. You were blessed. You’re special.’

But then her mom died and the nargles didn’t help her. And now her dad was gone and the nargles didn’t tell her until it was too late.

Luna hated the nargles.

She didn’t want a gift.

She wanted her dad back, even if she hadn’t really had him in years.

“What??”

Luna blinked slowly, her eyelids were heavy and hard to control, but the clouds in her mind were washing away so it must be her turn to speak now.

“Hmm?” Luna looked up and saw that the tall man in black was Professor Snape, which made sense. Professor Snape was always there when someone needed him.

“Luna.” Professor Snape squeezed her hand and knelt down beside her. His dark eyes were intense and focused on her. “What did you say?”

“No idea,” Luna said. She looked around and saw that she must be in the bedroom Harry told her he painted purple just for her. She nearly smiled when she saw that she was laying in a bed of flowers. The floral sheets must be Mrs Malfoy’s idea, Harry could never have thought of that sort of detail himself.

Professor Snape cleared his throat and lifted his wand slowly in the hand that wasn’t still holding hers. “May I cast another diagnostic charm on you Miss Lovegood? I did cast one when you arrived, though I doubt if you remember it.”

“Of course.” Luna closed her eyes while she felt Professor Snape’s cool magic wash over her. She kept them closed even when she heard a little parchment pop in to existence.

“You will have no lasting physical injuries,” Professor Snape said with a little huff that made Luna smile. Professor Snape was such a pure soul, it was a wonder anyone was ever able to call him names. People could be so cruel to those that weren’t easily understood. “You will need to begin a potions regimen to treat the nerves in your legs. I have healed your other abrasions and lacerations.” He cleared his throat quietly before softly asking, “Are you able to tell me what happened?”

And that wiped the smile right off Luna’s face.

“Um, no thank you,” Luna said slowly. “It was very terrible.”

If she didn’t talk about it, then maybe it didn’t really happen.

She could hum her way through this summer, and every summer after this. She could lie to everyone when they asked her ‘how’s your father?’ She would just wave her hand and tell them that he’s very busy with his work.

She could make herself believe it.

“Luna, look at me.”

Luna carefully peeked one eye open and saw that Professor Snape’s face was soft and serious.

“You do not have to relieve it all right now,” he said. “You certainly do not have to tell me anything, but I believe it is helpful to talk to someone. Draco and his mother, Narcissa, are waiting in the hall. Would you like me to send them in?”

“Where’s Harry?” Luna asked. She thought she heard him yelling while she was unconscious, but that could have been a trick of her brain.

Professor Snape’s lips twitched, like he didn’t know if he was going to frown or smile. “Wrecking vengeance on your behalf, I’m certain,” he said. “Charles Weasley and Nymphadora Tonks accompanied him to your home after you arrived here. They went to check on your father and- and I have not seen Harry since they returned.”

Luna nodded slowly. “Daddy is very busy with work,” she whispered. She kept her eyes on Professor’s Snape’s white earlobe that was peeking through his dark hair, she didn’t want him to see her eyes while she tested her story out on him. “He isn’t home.”

“Luna...” Professor Snape ducked his head until she either had to meet his eyes or turn her own head. She very reluctantly met his eyes and felt tears prickling in the back of her own eyes to see his looking very sad for her. “Your father is gone, he was killed during the attack. Do you know that?”

“No,” Luna denied it. “He’s at work. He’s very busy. He isn’t home.”

Professor Snape’s eyes were still very sad as he grabbed her other hand and squeezed them both tightly, making her feel his coarse hands grounding her to a reality she didn’t want to be in.

“He’s at work,” she whispered. “Isn’t he, Professor?”

“No. He isn’t.”

Luna looked down at their hands as she felt the first of her tears spilling down her cheeks. “They had a message for Harry,” she told Professor Snape while she tried to crush down his words that were chipping away the foundation of her comforting lie. “They told me to tell him that he had to join Timmy, except they called him ‘our Lord’. They said...” Luna blinked away the tears clouding her eyes as her heart clenched and she knew she couldn’t play pretend about it. She couldn’t be her dad, forever lost in a fantasy that wouldn’t give him time to recognize his only daughter as a young woman instead of the little girl she’d been the day her mom died. “They said to tell him to join Timmy or- or they would kill us, Harry’s ‘followers’. They said they aren’t playing games and then they- they— they killed daddy.”

Professor Snape let out another quiet huff when Luna bent forward so she could rest her head on his shoulder while she cried. He patted her back very awkwardly and spoke softly.

“You did excellent,” he told her. “You made it here, where you are safe. You did precisely right Luna.”

She didn’t feel excellent or precisely right, but once she was done washing her make-believe lies away with her tears, she did feel a little less weighed down. Also, when she saw Professor Snape’s patient face and calm eyes, she felt safe as well.

Harry wasn’t good at making people feel safe. Harry would burn the world to ashes to make someone happy, but safety was something more calming, more quiet. And poor Harry didn’t know how to be calm or quiet.

Professor Snape did though.

And so did Draco with his quiet eyes and his emotions that ran so deep.

“Thank you,” Luna told Professor Snape with an earnest solemnity. “I think I’d like to see Draco, if that’s okay sir.”

“Certainly.” Professor Snape squeezed her hands once more before letting them drop in her lap. He pulled a handkerchief from his pocket and gave to her. “I will be back in a few hours to check on you, it is early, but if you would like to sleep I will send a potion for you. Okay?”

“Yes sir,” Luna said compliantly. “Thank you.”

Professor Snape stood up and nodded sadly down at her. “I’ll send Draco in.”

Luna used Professor Snape’s handkerchief to wipe her face while he walked over to the door. The instant he opened it, Draco pushed past him to come flying in the room.

“Luna!” Draco pulled up short by the edge of the bed, his mother slipping silently inside the room and closing the door behind her. “Are you- Luna are you alright?”

”I don’t know,” Luna said honestly. “Am I broken?”

Draco’s nose scrunched up for a minute, but he looked her over carefully. “No,” he said firmly. “You are not broken Luna. You are perfect.”

”Oh, good.” Luna nodded to herself. “They wanted to break me and I didn’t want to be broken.”

Draco sat on the bed next to her and wrapped a comforting arm around her shoulder. “Nobody could ever break you, Lue. You’re alright now.”

Luna looked in his handsome grey eyes, so strong and solemn, and she nodded before he threw his arms around her and held her together tightly.

Draco was wrong, she wasn’t ‘alright’, not right now, but she wasn’t broken and she was wide awake.

Awake was where she had her friends.

Awake was where she had her Draco.

Chapter End Notes

Up Next:
“You want me to... to try and keep Harry from enacting a killing spree?”
“Yes.”
Slow nod, “No thanks.”

9%


Severus suffered through the silent looks of anger Harry shot him throughout the morning as he lingered in the dining room in an attempt to speak with Nymphadora before he left.

Which also subjugated him to conversation with various ‘housemates’ through the morning.

“Good morning sir,” Granger said politely as she and Theodore entered the dining room shortly after Harry finally left in an indignant huff. “How are you?”

“I am well, and yourself?”

Theodore abruptly looked up and met Severus’ eyes for a moment before turning a bright red color in his face and snatching a stack of toast from the endless buffet the house-elves kept replenishing. Granger shook her head as the boy turned on his heel and stormed from the room.

“Sorry for his rudeness,” Granger said with a small giggle as she poured two glasses of tea and balanced them on a little tray. “I think you embarrassed him with the potion you left.”

Amusing.

“Indeed,” Severus agreed lightly. “Perhaps you could inform Theodore that if he is a man enough to require the potion that he is certainly a man enough to get breakfast without blushing.”

Severus smirked to himself as Granger left rather quickly, sporting her own blush and sputtered apologies.

This could be the key to getting rid of the ‘roommates’, he thought to himself idly as Narcissa entered the dining room and nodded at him. Discuss safe sex and get the teenagers to simply flee from his presence.

The idea was not without merit.

“Good morning Severus,” Narcissa said in her soft tone as she sat at his left-hand side. “Have you decided to mingle with the peasants today?”

Severus poured her a cup of tea, which she accepted with a grateful nod. “I have not,” he told her, ignoring her jab. “I have an appointment shortly that I must leave for.”

“Ooh, I’m certain Harry will be furious,” Narcissa said with an inappropriate amount of cheer in her voice. “Have you already told him?”

“I have,” Severus said. “And he is quite unhappy.”

“Of course he is.” Narcissa let out a tinkling laugh as one of the house-elves, one who was not Mavis, brought out another pot of tea. “Thank you Blippy, how are you holding up?”

“Blippy is doing good ma’am,” ‘Blippy’ said with a short bow and a toothy grin. “Blippy and the others are being much happier here with their Masters than they were being without them.”

“Of course you are,” Narcissa crooned with a sweet smile. “I’m very happy to have you free from that disgusting place. Positively appalling how they treated you.”

Severus withheld a disbelieving scoff, certain it would be unappreciated. He had once seen Narcissa fly in to a fit of rage when one of the elves in their manor allowed Draco, who was a toddler at the time, to destroy one of her designer gowns.

Apparently she was evolving with the times. Or, more likely to be accurate, she was evolving as the current protector of her son required her to evolve.

Severus believed Narcissa would kiss Albus himself as a passionate lover if it meant protecting Draco. Revamping her view on house-elves was nothing in comparison.

“Will you be needing anything else sir?” Blippy asked Severus, interrupting his privately amusing musings.

“No, thank you,” Severus said.

“Severus is waiting for someone,” Narcissa said with a keen accuracy. “And if he has already spoken with Harry, I would guess that it is my niece he is waiting for.”

Severus refused to rise to Narcissa’s bait as Blippy tittered and bowed out of the room.

“I am waiting for Nymphadora,” he said stiffly. “I need to speak with her before I leave.”

Narcissa let out a quiet laugh as she looked at him through her hooded eyes. “She spoke with Andromeda about you, you know,” she said slyly. “I admit that I had not imagined the two of you to grow so close, but it does make sense. Both intelligent, successful in your respective fields. Nymphadora is quite attractive too, even if I would never wear that shade of pink.”

“Good morning.”

Severus had never been so happy to see Susan Bones in his life.

“Miss Bones, good morning,” Severus said hastily, ignoring Narcissa’s pointed look at his obvious dodge of her line of conversation. “How did—”

Severus cut himself off as he immediately averted his eyes to the ceiling and Narcissa let out a surprised huff of a laugh.

“Susan, darling, I believe you’re a touch underdressed,” Narcissa said reproachfully.

Which was an understatement.

Severus had not considered the fact that teenage girls in his home during summers could consist of dramatically underdressed teenage girls, as the copious amounts of bare skin from Bones was now proving.

Severus had never before appreciated Granger’s modesty.

“I’ll just be...” Severus trailed off as he got to his feet and moved with haste to a different room. He heard the beginnings of a very polite disagreement breaking out between Narcissa and Bones behind him.

He desperately hoped Narcissa won the disagreement, but he had a queer feeling that the headstrong woman had met her match in Bones.

Severus entered the sitting room and nearly turned back to the dining room.

When had his residence become some form of a hostel for so many people?

‘I would be more than happy to take over Potter’s guardianship.’

Aah. Yes. That was the moment.

God damned Harry Potter.

“Morning Snape,” Black said from his seat in the middle of the sitting room floor, surrounded by red-heads. He glanced up at the clock before grinning, “Or, almost afternoon, I guess.”

Underdressed teenage girls or Black and a band of Weasley’s?

Severus liked his odds against Black, Ronald, Charles, and George.

He eyed Frederick and silently swore that he, at least, better be on Severus’ side in any conflicts.

It would be a shame if Harry were not available for his proposal at the end of this month.

“Afternoon,” Severus said stiffly. “You’re all quite early for the meeting.”

“I’m just waiting for it to be over with so I can get some sleep,” Charles said around a yawn.

“And I live here,” Frederick added with a cheeky wink.

A wink that held no weight as Severus knew Harry had been playing vigilante with Charles and Bones all night.

Though Severus did suddenly consider taking Harry somewhere for his birthday. Perhaps Asia? They had an intriguing view on dark arts that Harry would undoubtedly appreciate.

“I needed to talk with Harry,” Black said. He glanced around the room with pointlessly hopeful eyes. Did he believe Severus was hiding the child within the sofa cushions? “Have you seen him?”

“He left the dining room in a huff about an hour ago,” Severus said. “I believe he was going to shower, or perhaps assassinate the Minister, it is hard to tell.”

Ronald snorted and mussed up his already messy hair as Severus gingerly navigated around them—

Why were they seated on the floor? Did none of Harry’s endless guests understand decorum?

—to take a seat on the chair nearest the front door.

“Well I guess I’ll just talk to him after,” Black sighed dramatically. “I just need him to let Trent stay here for a few days in August. Moony and I are having a joint bachelor party before the wedding then taking a little weekend trip afterwards. Oh!” Black looked up at Severus and gave him what he likely thought was a charming smile.

It was not.

“What are you doing for Harry’s birthday? Because I was thinking of taking him to the States for a few days, be good to get him some fresh air, away from all this chaos, eh?”

Severus heard Fredericks’s tiny inhale and smirked slowly.

Frederick’s jest as to where he slept at night was likely much less amusing now.

“Just Harry?” Severus asked blandly. “I see no problem with that.”

Truthfully, if Severus’ meeting with Flamel went poorly today, then it would be good for the child to experience a bit of traveling. His previously sardonic thought had quite a bit of merit. As much as Harry plays the part of the war general and vigilante, he was still a teenaged boy who deserved to experience all that life had to offer him.

God knew how much longer he would be able to experience such things.