kbinnz - Harry's New Home

The upshot was that about a week after the brat's latest detention ended, Snape had to sit Harry down, explain that Black had been exculpated, explain what "exculpated" meant, and then inform the boy that the next evening, the two of them would be portkeying to Switzerland so that Harry could meet his godfather.

##

"What's he like? Will he like me? What do I call him? Is he nice? What if he doesn't like me?" Harry's excitement bubbled over as Snape fiddled with his tie in preparation to their taking the portkey from Albus' office.

Dumbledore looked on, smiling fondly at the excited child. Only Snape's grim face and tightly pressed lips detracted from his enjoyment of the moment. He had offered to take Harry, thinking to spare his Potion Master the distasteful task of seeing his hated enemy, but to Albus' surprise, Snape had turned him down flat. Dumbledore sighed. It was obvious that he had lost a great deal of Severus' trust with his mishandling of Harry's situation, and in all honesty, Albus couldn't blame him.

Not only had he placed Harry with those wholly unsuitable Muggles тАУ and then not had the foresight to check on him regularly тАУ but he had misjudged Sirius and even failed to detect Voldemort when the man тАУ well, creature тАУ was right under his nose! Albus sighed. Perhaps his plan to lure Voldemort to the school by using the Philosopher's Stone hadn't been such a good idea after all. Well, the Stone was now back with Flamel, who had managed to keep it safe all these years, and they had clear proof that Voldemort had returned.

Albus looked over at Snape. Poor man. He hid such a good heart under layers and layers of protective snark and snarl, but all of Albus' efforts at helping him emerge from behind those shields had failed. At least until now. Watching him carefully fix Harry's tie, even as he scolded the boy for being an excitable babblemouth, Albus thought that his idea of putting the two wounded souls together might have been one of his moments of brilliance. He could feel how deeply each longed to be loved, and it had seemed as if things were working out brilliantlyтАж at least until now. Sirius' arrival was bound to upset things, and try as he might, Albus just couldn't come up with a means to prevent Snape from тАУ once again тАУ being badly hurt.

Considering the complete lack of help Albus had provided him ten years ago, Sirius was hardly likely to welcome any advice or entreaties from his former mentor. And while Albus was hopeful that Sirius still loved Harry despite the damage that a decade in Azkaban must have caused, he rather doubted that the brash, impulsive, and often unintentionally thoughtless Black would be the best guardian for the troubled, fragile, and extraordinarily vulnerable Harry. But neither could he imagine Black accepting Snape in that role. Not for a second. In fact, when he found out that Snape was acting as de facto guardian, Sirius was all too likely to immediately demand custody of the boy. Albus could only hope Sirius wouldn't pull Harry from Hogwarts entirely, though given all that had happened, as well as Sirius' enormous fortune, deciding to have the boy privately tutored or give him a fresh start at Beauxbatons wasn't such a far fetched idea. And if it had the added bonus of wounding Snape, Black was all too likely to do it for that reason alone.

Albus sighed, feeling extremely old and tired. He should have done so much more to stop Sirius' bullying of Severus back when they were both students. He should have worked to foster a friendship between them, but he had been so delighted to think that at least one of the Blacks had turned away from the Dark, he had given the boy far too much leeway in other things. And now the fact that he had never managed to curb Sirius' spite towards Severus was not only going to harm Snape anew, but also carry the damage into the next generation by involving Harry as well.

His poor boys. His two poor, poor boys, both of whom he had harmed so very deeply. "Severus, perhaps if I were to bring Harry, Sirius would be more open to negotiationтАж?" he offered delicately, feeling compelled to make one last attempt at protecting Snape from Black's vitriol.

Snape turned from where he had been scolding a depressingly unsquelched Harry. Of course, the boy has already realized he no longer needs to listen to me. His godfather is about to take over his care. "No, Headmaster. I will take him." He needed to ensure that the idiotic mutt knew he wasn't going to get Harry without a fight, plus he wanted to be brought up to date on what the Marauders had done to the Dursleys this week.

Dumbledore drooped in defeat and handed Snape a toy penguin. "Just tap it and say 'Black' to get there, 'Home' to return."

"Come here," Snape ordered, and Harry immediately grabbed his guardian in a hug. He was so excitedтАж and a little apprehensive too. He wasn't really worried since his professor was going to be there, but his godfather did look kinda scary. Professor McGonagall had said that he'd loved Baby Harry like his own son, and she'd started to tell him other stories about his godfather, but then her nose had gotten all pink and she'd had to leave abruptly.

Professor Snape said that a lot of people owed his godfather a great big apology for misjudging him, and they all felt ashamed of themselves for not helping him ten years ago. Harry had rather indignantly felt that was only fair. If his friends and teachers had let him rot in jail for something he hadn't done, they'd better feel guilty about it. Professor Snape had also explained that he and Harry's godfather had never liked each other тАУ not one bit тАУ so if his godfather said rude things about him, Harry shouldn't be surprised. Harry figured that that sort of let Professor Snape off the hook about helping his godfather. If you didn't like someone, you would expect that they'd do awful things like blowing up a street and killing people, but if you liked someone тАУ like everyone said Professors McGonagall and Dumbledore had done тАУ then you should have faith in them.

Harry didn't think he trusted the Headmaster very much. He made too many mistakes about people, like thinking the Dursleys were nice or that Quirrell was a good (or at least normal) teacher or that his godfather was bad. Harry was glad the Headmaster wasn't responsible for him anymore and that he had Professor Snape looking out for him now. Even if his professor did yell at him for getting overexcited when, really, who could blame him? He was about to meet his godfather!

Snape rolled his eyes as the brat, instead of simply taking his arm like a normal person, drove his pointy forehead into Snape's breastbone. The little fiend seemed to relish pretending that a simple portkeying was a dangerous adventure. Honestly. But that didn't stop him from wrapping one arm tightly around the boy as he activated the portkey with the other.

Harry felt a jerk behind his navel and yelped in surprise, the noise muffled against his professor's robes. Then they were suddenly standing in a strange room, filled with sunlight and comfortable тАУ though expensive тАУ looking furniture. Tall snowcapped mountains could be seen out the window.

"Is - is that him? Is that Harry?" a breathless voice asked from behind him.

Harry could feel his guardian's exasperated sigh as the man sneered, "No, Black. I have arrived with a random Hogwarts student. Do you mean you wanted a particular one?"

"He's only kidding! It's me, Harry," Harry laughed, turning within his guardian's embrace. His professor could be really funny when he wanted!

Odd тАУ his professor hadn't turned him loose yet. Usually he let go as soon as they arrived and it was Harry who prolonged the contact, but this time, he kept his arm around Harry, almost as if he were scared he wouldn't get the chance to hold him again anytime soon. Oh well. Harry mentally shrugged. Adults were weird.