A new home

Chapter 28

Breakfast went as well as it could, although Severus had to remind Harry to eat slowly and to mind his stomach's capacity a few times.

When Harry stood up to bring his plate to the sink, Severus cleared his throat.

"I believe we need to have a talk, don't you think?"

Harry froze and started getting nervous. He was always nervous when someone said that.

"Um. Okay"

"Let's go to the sitting room"

He walked into the sitting room with Harry trailing behind him. Albus would join them later.

"Sit there" - he pointed to the couch, and the boy complied.

Severus walked over to the shelf and took a parchment along with a quill. They were overdue for this conversation. They should have had it as soon as Harry's guardianship is finalized, if not sooner. 

"I believe we talked about rules when you first came here, right?"

"Yes" - Harry said nervously.

"But I realized they weren't enough" 

Harry froze. Did Professor Snape mean he was naughty? There were more rules? Not that Harry complained about the number of rules he was having to follow, though. Compared to when he was at the Dursleys', Snape's rules didn't sound like rules at all. Nevertheless, he would prefer to know the rules so that he could avoid breaking them.

"I...I'm sorry" 

"What?" - Severus turned to him in the process of drawing a line splitting the parchment into 2, confused.

"Um... for breaking the rules" 

"What rules?"

"The rules you're about to tell me? I must have done something that makes you give more rules"

Severus sighed. 

"No Harry. First of all,  I'm supposed to let you know what is normally expected of you, especially considering your 'abnormal' experiences with your...former guardians. It's not your fault even if you broke any of those unsaid rules. Secondly, we're having this talk to make everything clear, so that there will be no misunderstanding or uncertainty. I don't want you to make assumptions that may put you at a disadvantage or do harm to you."

Harry just nodded softly. Not many people had talked to him like that.

"Alright, let's start, shall we?"

On the smaller side of the parchment, Severus wrote 'Harry', and on the big side, he wrote 'Severus' and 'Albus' and drew a line on the lower half of the parchment to indicate the men have some same rules and individual rules. By this time, Albus had joined them and was sitting on an armchair.

"Let's start, shall we? Our rules first. Number one: we have to feed Harry as needed daily"

"We are not to hurt Harry" - Albus said. 

"Do not lock people in cupboards" - Harry said in a soft voice.

It was disconcerting for the adults but they kept their thoughts to themselves.

They went on for a while and wrote down what the adults were expected to do. Albus even had some rules like "Do not feed Harry lemon drops/any sweets without Severus' permission unless they are needed to fix a dire problem and Severus is not there"

"Now, move on to yours"

Harry nodded, though a bit nervously.

"1st rule: Harry is not to put himself and/or others in danger. 2nd: Harry is to be honest, it includes not only answering truthfully but also not withholding important information"