Harry woke up the next morning feeling a little confused as to where he was. It took a moment for the events of the previous day to come back to him. He sat up in his bed, his eyes roving over his new room. He loved it. He had only had it for a day and it felt more like his own than any room at the Dursley's had or even the dorms. He made his bed and got changed before going to the kitchen for breakfast. It felt strange not to be in a hurry because he had to make breakfast for three people. With a smile he remembered last night when he had viewed his dad's pensive and the tomatoes his Mum had been craving when she was expecting him. She felt more real to him now and he was grateful that his dad had shared his memories of her.
Wondering what he would do for the day, he decided to write to Ron and Hermione. Of course, he had no idea had to start a letter to them. How did one write his best friends and tell them he had a new father, new look and a new last name? And that his father was the one professor they all had hated and had believed to be stealing the sorcerer's stone?
Dear Ron,
Remember how we called Snape the bat of the dungeons? Guess what? It turns out I'm bat of the dungeons junior! Visit soon!
Harry shook his head as he made his way to the kitchen. No, that wouldn't work. He needed to break it to his friends gently and yet get them to understand that he was happy about the new developments, that Snape being his dad was a good thing.
"Good morning." Severus greeted as Harry walked into the kitchen. He was cooking at the stove and levitated a glass of pumpkin juice over to the table. "Breakfast is almost ready."
"Good morning. I thought the house elves cooked?" Harry said as he sat down and took a sip of juice.
Severus turned off the stove and went to sit across from Harry, plates of food following him and arranging themselves on the table. "If I'm in my quarters I usually do my own cooking. Yesterday was an exception for your birthday. Some wizards use house elves for everything and I believe that just makes a person lazy, especially when we can already use magic to help us. Besides, I do not mind cooking."
"Oh. I can cook sometimes too." Harry offered, feeling a little guilty as that used to be his chore. "I'm not too bad at it."
"Hmm, with all your practice I would imagine not." Severus said, still feeling anger towards the Dursley's. He still wasn't sure if he should go back and make certain that they understood that how they had treated his son was wrong. There were plenty of things he could do that would make them miserable without risking azkaban, he thought with a smirk. "You can help me cook whenever you want to. Perhaps help clear the table when we are through?" He didn't want Harry to think he had to work to earn his keep or approval, yet moderate chores were a good tool in teaching responsibility.
"Sure." Harry dug into his hash browns. "I want to write to Ron and Hermione today but I am not sure how to break the news."
"Ahh..." Severus suddenly smirked a bit. "I got a bit of interesting news from Professor Dumbledore considering Mr. Weasley today. Apparently, he and the twins flew their father's car to the Dursley's-"
"Flew a car?" Harry gaped at his dad and then flushed when he realized that he had interrupted him. "Sorry sir."
Severus eyed his son with a slightly stern look for the interruption and then nodded. "Yes, Arthur Weasley had charmed the car to fly and his sons took it to your relative's house."
"Why would they do that?" Harry asked, shocked and a little curious as to what flying a car would be like.
"They were worried about you since Mr. Weasley had not heard from you all summer." Severus explained. "Their intentions were admirable although the way they went about it was dangerous as well as risking the Decree for the Reasonable Restriction of Underage Sorcery."
"Wow. So what happened?" Harry asked eagerly, touched that his friends would risk getting into trouble to check on him.
"They tried to pry the bars off your window and your uncle threw a fit and ended up falling out of the window." Severus sounded quite delighted by that aspect. "Unfortunately, he is fine."
Harry snickered at the thought of how horrified his relatives would have been at seeing a flying car. Uncle Vernon falling out the window was just priceless. "How did you find all this out?"
Severus took a sip of his tea. "When Mr. and Mrs. Weasley found out they were concerned about you and wrote to Professor Dumbledore early this morning. He wrote back only to tell them that you are fine and staying here at Hogwarts and will write to them when you can."
Harry nodded. "I'll definitely be writing to Ron soon then. And I thought I could maybe visit Hagrid and fly on the pitch for a bit?"
"Of course you can, after you have spent some time working on your summer homework." Severus said smoothly. He raised an eyebrow at Harry's surprised look. "Forgot about that did you?"
"Uh, yeah. But I have the rest of summer to do it." Harry rationalized.
Severus frowned. "You will work on your homework every day until it is finished Harry. There is only a month of summer left. You will also leave your work out for me to check over and if I do not think it is up to standard then you will be redoing it. Understood?"
"But..." Harry trailed off at the look on his dad's face. "Yes sir."
Severus nodded. "You may also write your letter but no flying until an assignment has been finished and I look it over. I would also like to have you spend some time in the lab with me working on potions. I never gave you a fair shot at it during class and I would like to remedy that."
Harry pondered that for a moment. He had actually been looking forward to potions until that first class. After that he hadn't bothered to try that hard, figuring it didn't matter if the teacher hated you. He smiled. "I'd like that."
Severus looked pleased. He then summoned a potion to the table and handed it to Harry. "This is a nutritive potion. I would like you to take it once every day for the time being to help counter the malnutrition caused by your relatives."
Harry swallowed it and grimaced. It tasted disgusting! He ignored Snape's amused look as he quickly swallowed a gulp of pumpkin juice to get rid of the flavor. After breakfast, he helped clear the table and they had just finished when there was a knock at the door.
"Good morning Minerva." Severus greeted the stern looking witch, gesturing for her to enter.
"Good morning Severus." Professor Mcgonagall said stiffly. She looked over at Harry and her eyes widened a bit. "Good morning Mr. Pott-"She stopped.
"Mr. Snape." Severus corrected her.
"Yes, so I have been told." Professor Mcgonagall said slowly, glancing from Severus to Harry. "He certainly does resemble you."
"Is there a problem?" Severus asked in a tense voice.
"It is just a lot to take in. He looked so much like James and to think him and Lily were never even together..." She took a deep breath. "Of course, the important thing is that you know the truth now. Hopefully this means you will stop your unfair attacks on the boy and taking Gryffindor points right and left."
Severus's glare deepened at the reminder of how he had treated his son. "Yes, and now I will be able to keep a better eye on him so that he does not end up in so much danger during the school year." He snapped.
Minerva paled slightly, thinking of the many times Harry and his friends could have been severely hurt or worse and she hadn't even known what was going on until too late.
"Did Albus show you the pensive?" Severus asked, a tad impatiently. He needed to start working on his statement to the press and get his son started on his homework. The type of reaction that Minerva was displaying right now was something he would just have to get used to. The pensive would restore the memories the charm had erased but as there was information of the Order in there as well, Albus was not going to let just anyone view it. Most people would just have to get used to the idea on their own.
"He was going to but after he informed me of your news, I wanted to check on Harry." Minerva said, glancing back at Harry.
"You are in time then, as I haven't used him as potion ingredients just yet." Severus said sarcastically. "Of course, it is still early in the day."
Harry couldn't help chuckling though he quickly stopped when both adults looked at him. "I'm fine Professor Mcgonagall. Believe me, this is the best thing that could have happened to me." His young face lit up. "Do you want to see the photo album my Mum sent me? Let me get it, I'll be right back!"
Minerva noticed the fond look Severus had on his face as he watched Harry scamper off and realized she should have viewed the pensive before barging in on them. All she had thought about was how Severus had griped about Harry all during the school year and had been worried about Harry's welfare.
"Here, see?" Harry returned and handed her the book.
Minerva looked through the photos shocked and then a slow smile spread across her face. "Yes, I see Mr. Snape." And she did. The photos spoke volumes as well as Harry's happy expression. "Congratulations to you both."
Severus's expression softened a bit. Minerva accepting the truth and being supportive would help them in the face of the scrutiny they would be confronted with, especially Harry during the school year.
"I should go; I have much to do to get ready for the new school year. I am sure I will see you about the castle Harry." Minerva nodded at them and then took her leave.
"She seemed okay about it." Harry ventured. He frowned. "Well, not at first but after she saw the book."
"Her first reaction is what most people will have." Severus informed Harry. "People will need time to adjust to the idea and some may not adjust at all. You need to be prepared to face that and accept it."
Harry nodded resignedly. He excused himself to go start on his letter to Ron and his assignments.
An hour later, Severus went to check on Harry and found him working on his Charms homework. "How is it going?" He asked, leaning over Harry's shoulder to look at the essay.
"Um, okay I think." Harry said nervously. He had never had a parent check over his homework before. He held out the essay for his dad to read. "I'm still working on the conclusion." He said.
Severus nodded as he read. It was not a bad attempt but he could see there was room for improvement. He summoned his red quill and quickly marked it, pointing out areas that could use more information as well as a few spelling errors. He handed it back and said, "Make the corrections and when you finish I will read it again. After lunch you may fly and go visit Hagrid."
Harry was a little irritated at the corrections that now covered his essay but at the same time at least he knew his essay would get a good grade once he turned it in. "Yes sir. Thank you."
Severus smirked a bit, knowing Harry was not happy about doing his essay over again but that was too bad. He was Harry's father and would make sure he did his best work. His son would appreciate it when he was older. "I will be in my study when you are finished." Was all he said.
Harry sighed a bit. Having a father who was also a professor meant he was going to have to really keep on top of his grades. Harry groaned at the thought of being the next Hermione, practically living in the library. He got back to work on his essay hoping he would get it finished by lunch.
When lunchtime finally rolled around Harry eagerly escaped his room and schoolbooks to eat the sandwiches his dad had made.
"Did you manage to write to your friends yet?" Severus asked as they ate.
Harry shook his head. "No, I've only done the charms essay and read a chapter for transfiguration. I want to clear my head a bit before writing to them."
"Simply start at the beginning, when you received your mother's letter." Severus advised. "Perhaps after Mr. Weasley's grounding is over, he and Miss. Granger can visit."
Harry looked up in surprise. "Ron is grounded? Why?"
Severus sent their empty dishes to the sink with a wave of his wand. "Have you forgotten the flying car incident? In her letter, Mrs. Weasley made sure to tell Albus that he and the twins had been punished with a week's grounding for taking the car and breaking the underage magic degree."
"But they were just trying to help me!" Harry protested.
Severus regarded his son for a moment. "Yes, they were." He agreed slowly. "I told you though, that despite their good intentions they went about it the wrong way. What else could they have done?"
"Well, it's not like they could have called me on the phone." Harry said sarcastically. He knew he was being rude but he felt so guilty that his friends had gotten grounded for trying to help him. "This is Dobby's fault; he kept their letters from me!"
"Your tone Harry." Severus said in a warning voice. "I am looking into the house elf situation, as I told you I would. Now, I asked you a question. What else could your friends had done when they became concerned about you?"
Harry was quiet for a minute as he thought. He regretted being rude as he wasn't mad at Sna- his dad. "They could have told their parents their concerns and let them check in on me. They could have written to Professor Dumbledore to ask about me as well." He said finally, looking up at his dad.
Severus nodded. "Yes, those are excellent ideas. That is why it is always good to think before you act. Again, I am pleased that they were worried about you and wanted to help but there were better ways to go about it."
Harry nodded. "I just feel bad that they got punished for trying to help me. I'm sorry I was rude." He offered.
Severus gave him a small smile and patted him on the shoulder. "I understand and accept your apology." He picked up Harry's essay and began reading it. "This is much better. You have the afternoon to do as you please. All I ask is that you let me know where you are going. And remember that the rules that were in place during the school year such as not entering the forbidden forest are still in effect. Understood?"
Harry nodded and then remembered his dad liked verbal answers. "Yes sir. I'm going to go fly for a bit and visit Hagrid if he is home."
"Have fun!" Severus waved him off and went to work on his statement to the press knowing the sooner he did it the sooner he and his son could start dealing with the fallout. He just hoped for Harry's sake that the fallout was not too bad and that his friends would continue to stand by him.