The Third Time is a Charm

Posted: 14 October 2009

Chapter 38: Meetings with the Headmaster

Remus looked at himself in the mirror and had to smile. He did not consider himself to be a good looking man. No, not that, but now he was less flawed. He did like the fact that the paste he had gotten for Christmas was fading the scars that littered his body. He could feel human again. Most of the smaller scars were all but gone and even the larger scars from huge gashes were half as noticeable as before. For the first time in his life he felt, in time, like he could maybe go out and find a special girl and get married and raise a family. He had never allowed himself to think this way before, but now he could see it would be possible.

He put on a set of his everyday robes that were made of a light brown silk with a beige shirt and brown pants adding brown shoes, belt and the ascot that Shashi had given him for an emergency portkey. The buttons on the robe were gold made into the company logo of a crown and wand. This was not the Prince crest, but a logo the company had adopted to use in the muggle world for uniforms and advertising. It designated their brand of vitamins and homeopathic remedies. The muggle name was "Royal Pharmaceuticals. What amused Remus the most was the muggle employees did not call it a wand instead they called it a baton or a scepter to go with the royal image in their world.

Remus apparated to outside Hogwarts’ gates and the view of the castle was amazing and never ceased to impress him. He strode up the path to the front doors and as he entered was received by a house elf asking him to ‘follow Squeaky to the Headmaster’s office’. As he walked through the halls, an ocean of past images and feelings welled up inside him. This is where he spent seven years of his life and he missed the feeling of camaraderie in seeing his friends every day. Now he barely saw them at all.

As he stood in front of the gargoyle guarding the headmaster’s office, he remembered coming here from time to time as a student. Not because he was in trouble, but because he might know who perpetrated the latest prank on someone or how it was done. His friends were always getting into trouble. I seemed a lifetime ago now. He wondered where the time had gone.

The gargoyle quickly moved to allow him easy access to the stairs into the headmaster’s office and the door was opening as he reached the top of the stairs. He was surprised to realize this was not an order meeting but just a single meeting with only him and Dumbledore. As he entered the room and sat down he glanced over to Fawkes and noticed the bird was a little depressed looking and didn’t move from his perch. Normally Fawkes would have flown over to him and he would pet the bird and give him a treat.

Dumbledore went right into his questions after Remus declined tea and lemon drops. “Do you know who owns the company that wrote this book?” He held up his copy of the book about Voldemort.

“The company I work for owns Prince Publishing, but I don’t know that much about it, other than to say that I don’t really work in that division. I have read it and did receive an early release of the book. Why do you ask?” Remus hadn’t quite expected him to be so blunt.

“I was hoping to find out who is responsible for its creation. It brings up some interesting ideas. Who owns the company?”

“Severs Prince, and he is also responsible for the pharmaceutical division that I work for. I can tell you more about that as I have more information on what I do. The company also owns a fashion division, a construction division, a property investment division and I think a few others. I haven’t been with them that long to know all the aspects of the corporate headquarters, I’m still trying to figure out my end of it.”

“Well, Remus, it looks like you have done well for yourself. How are you handling the full moon?”

“The company I work for has developed a cure for werewolves and I work with that exclusively. I no long have to worry about the full moon, other than an occasional bout of irritability.”

“Really, that is amazing," the headmaster didn't sound like he believed it. "I hadn’t heard about a cure for werewolves and to my knowledge no one else has either.”

“It’s really new and still in development. It works great on the bitten werewolf but needs a little adjustment for the born werewolf. We have not publically announced it as it is still under development. The company is currently looking to hire some local potions apprentices or masters to work with it. I have been working more with the werewolves to give them assistance in changing their lives. We have developed educational funds and business opportunities so they may be rehabilitated. I can go into further detail about that if you wish. The company is owned by Severs Prince, he is from Germany and I guess he wanted to expand his business interests here.”

“Are you sure he is from Germany? I haven’t heard of any Princes left in the line.” Remus could almost feel a ghost of a touch in his mind and he quickly brought up the image of the papers Severs had handed him the day before to look at. It was a good thing he was very good at occlumency and Sev had reminded him about it or he would not have known what was going on.

“I have seen his passport, it was sitting on the desk one day and he has a permit to bring business into this country, we are required to display it at the facility. I haven’t investigated my boss if that is what you mean, but I get the feeling that Voldemort may have tried to recruit him and he is not taking any chances that the monster or his followers will get their hands on his family.” Remus only added the last bit because these were observations he had made. “The man is very family oriented and protects them ferociously.”

Albus sat behind his desk with his hands together as if in prayer, he moved slightly and put them under his chin in contemplation. “Is this all you know about the people you work for? It seems to me that you should know their politics or something as you don’t want to work for the wrong sort of people.” Albus was implying in his own subtle way that Remus was working for the wrong side, he wondered if he could get him to join the order. Certainly his friends were members and he should be with them. Then he might be able to get more information on this new company.

“Headmaster Dumbledore, I really don’t know what you want me to know. I have a job where I get to help people, people that are afflicted the same way I was. I get to work from home; I have two elves that belong to the company to help me. I have a regular deposit into my Gringotts account every month. These people give me free rein to help werewolves, they put together a fund to help educate them and put them to work, and they pay me on time. What else do you want me to know? I do not live with them; therefore I have an employee-employer relationship with them.” Remus was getting a little testy at the insistent nature of the headmaster wanting more information.

“Remus, have you thought that maybe these people expect these werewolves to join them with Voldemort? Do they make them take an oath to stay faithful to their benefactor?” The headmaster was not entirely happy with the former werewolf’s answers. He wanted to know where they got the information they printed.

“The only oath they have to take is to spread the word about the cure and not join Voldemort’s side. They do not support the dark side.” Remus replied, the agitation in his voice giving testament to his discomfort with the headmaster’s persistent questions.

“Ah, I see. Tell me Remus, what happens if you get bit again by another werewolf?” The look on the old man’s face as he asked that question was one of complete stillness, as if waiting for an answer he could use later. Remus didn’t like this but he smirked at the old coot anyway.

“The werewolf would get infected with the cure as soon as a cured werewolf’s blood touched his lips.” Remus wasn't sure if that was true, but it was a theory they had been playing with. Once the cure was in the bloodstream, it stayed there. He watched as the old man raised his eyebrows at that and after another half hour of questions he bid Remus goodbye. The former werewolf just assumed the old man had all his answers until another former student knocked on the door and entered the room as bidden by the headmaster.

Remus saw Severus Snape standing there and was surprised; he looked pale and almost emaciated as if life had been unkind. For the first time, Remus was looking from the other side of the coin and for the first time he reached out a hand in friendship to Snape and greeted him. “Hello Snape, good to see you again.” Snape sneered at him and looked disdainfully at the hand stretched out to him.

“Lupin” The former classmate acknowledged as he looked at the headmaster. Surely the old man didn’t get him here to see the werewolf. He had a lot of nerve.

Just then the Headmaster received a floo call from one of his order members. He told him he would have to get back with them later as there were people in his office.

“Ah Mr. Snape, so good to see you could come, Mr. Lupin was just leaving.” Remus taking the hint was leaving the room but was happy that Severus had at least shaken hands with him and he was able to slip him one of his cards that worked as a portkey to a secure meeting place. He used them for the werewolves that wanted the cure. Safety was a number one priority at Prince Conglomerate. Thankfully the old coot was busy with his floo call so nothing was noticed as the note was passed to the potions protégé.

Severus Snape stood in the office; glancing at Fawkes who was sitting on his perch and watching the old man stiffly stand back up from the floo after taking the call. Albus greeted the young man with the familiar tea and lemon drops, which he respectfully declined as he suspected they were spiked with something. As he sat back in his chair behind his desk, he addressed the former student. “So, how are you doing these days, Severus? I was happy to receive your reply that you would come and visit.”

“Headmaster,” Severus Snape got straight to the point, “would you mind telling me why you wanted to see me? I don’t really understand the reason for this visit.” His snarl was firmly in place, after all he didn’t owe this man anything. He had let Black and that Potter spawn get away with trying to kill him, even if Potter did save him at the last minute. Lupin, he had decided a long time ago, was probably an innocent party as he surely didn’t want people to see him in his other form.

“Ah, yes Mr. Snape, I imagine your time is very valuable. Very well, I called you to see if you knew anything about this book.” At this point the headmaster pulled out his copy of the book that now had become so famous. “I know that your mother was a Prince and thought there must be some relationship.” The headmaster made it a point to emphasis Prince and was looking at Severus with his patented twinkle in the eyes but trying to use occlumency at the same time. Severus Snape wasn’t happy and shut his mind down like a steel trap. He had enough of that with the Dark Lord; he didn’t need this nonsense with the old coot too. He did not appreciate being sent for, like a recalcitrant student, and he definitely didn’t want to be here. In fact, if the Dark Lord had not told him to come, he would have incinerated the note and never looked back. He didn’t agree with all the things the Dark Lord said, but he got respect which is way more than he had ever received in school.

“Professor, as you may well know, my mother was disinherited by the Prince family the day she married my father. I really don’t have any information on anyone that may still be a member other than an old aunt that I can assure you is not involved as she is over one hundred years old and does not have access to this type of information. In fact, I thought they had all died out, so maybe this is another unrelated family named Prince or a line that moved. I don’t know nor do I care as I have nothing to do with them.” Snape ended his little speech in a caustic tone meant to deter the most inquisitive of people from any more questions. He hated to be questioned and was beginning to regret this little outing enormously.

“Not to worry, dear boy, I had thought I could find this person and perhaps exchange information with them and congratulate them on a rounding success. I can see that I was perhaps mistaken. One more question though. Do you know of any Princes that moved to Germany a few generations ago? Perhaps an aunt or uncle? I thought there might be someone you perhaps forgot about.” The thundercloud gathering on Snape’s face was all the answer the headmaster received to let him know he had gone too far. Even without the former student suddenly getting up and walking out the door hastily without so much as a goodbye or good day.

Snape was furious; he had never been questioned about his family like that. He didn’t like talking about his family and everyone knew to leave the subject alone. Now the old coot had not only questioned him, but implied he was lying about it by going further and asking about people in Germany. Of all the nerve, the old man really had lost it. Snape continued to fume and stomp his way out of the castle and to the apparition point. He ended his journey right in front of the Malfoy gates to their mansion. Another pompous and totally useless family was the Malfoys. Well, not completely useless, they did have some redeeming features. He was here to discuss his meeting with the headmaster.

After being greeted at the door by a house elf, this was reminiscent of the meeting he had just come from; he was shown to the small library where Lucius was waiting for him. He relayed all the information that had progressed from the meeting, including Dumbledore asking about relatives from Germany. It was enough to embellish to the Dark Lord to give him some information so they may not get crucio-ed. They hoped they could find out more before the next Death Eater meeting. They had only joined upon graduation, the Dark Lord saying he had no time for untrained troops. Some of their ranks were actually in auror training as well. Since Severus had a passion and talent for potions and Lucius was already a business owner through his father, they were both excused from trying to get auror training with the others.


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In another part of the country, another floo call was going on, but this one was to Gringotts Bank to contact an under staffer goblin Coshin. He was one of the underlings that handled low profile accounts. "Yes sir, Mr. Weasley. We sent a parchment to your home asking if you would like to be a part of a new product line development. Prince Home Products are a part of Prince Conglomerate.” The goblin knew this would give Mr. Weasley pause to think.

“Well, isn’t that a surprise.” Arthur rested his head on one of his palms and thought about this for a few minutes. Everyone was trying to find out who wrote that book, the same company contacts the them and no one knows anything about them. The family had received a copy of it, but the Weasleys didn’t bother to get another copy after Charlie was playing dragon and burned half of it. They hadn't really had time to read it.

“Did they say why they contacted us?” Arthur asked cautiously.

“Oh, yes sir," the goblin replied. "I submitted your name as someone who might want to help. I gathered that you are not the only family, that may be contacted, but it would give you a good floo system and they would pay someone to test the system and different types of floo powder. It seemed like something your wife could do while staying home with the children." The goblin smiled with his very menacing toothy grin. "The company comes very highly recommended."

"I know the goblin Brunsck has helped you with loans in the past when funds were low and he said the company comes very highly recommended by Griphook, who is the Potter family’s account manager."

"How do we know the company is safe? They will be coming into our home and doing something with the floo system, right? I have a family to protect."

Coshin however was not happy with this question and you could see it in his face. "I know that this is Head Manager Gorbink's personal project and he is of the highest caliber.”

Mr. Weasley, seeing he had offended the young goblin, quickly stated, "I was just very surprised that anyone would go to that much trouble for us, but I guess you are helping a client." Maybe he gets money for suggesting someone Author thought.

“I don’t think it would hurt to see what these people have to offer. Alright Coshin, Mrs. Weasley and I will see them together. The ministry will let me off for an afternoon and we could have tea together to discuss this."

Arthur took his leave and turned back to his wife and five boys. Merlin his knees hurt when having a lengthy floo call. As he watched his pregnant wife struggle with one of the twins he was thinking about how he had so wanted a girl this time, but they already knew that Molly was pregnant with their sixth boy. He hugged and kissed Molly as soon as he stepped away from the fireplace and told her what the goblin had said. They sent their owl Errol with an invitation for the Princes to come the next afternoon for tea and to discuss the mini floo.


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“Umph.” Severus woke up in a panic as he was lying next to Harry thrashing around. An arm had struck him across the chest. Harry moved around kicking the covers and moaning “No… Don’t want to… Need Sev… Can’t… NNNOOOOOO!” the young man screamed before sitting up in the bed and suddenly coming awake.

“Harry, are you alright?” Severus tried to hold the young man that was still thrashing around in the bed. As soon as he had his arms around his lover, Harry screamed again “NO!” and threw him off. Severus was afraid to touch him again until he was out of the nightmare that had a hold on him.

“Harry?” Severus tried to wake his lover slowly. “Can you hear me?”

He watched as the younger man tried to get a hold of himself. He was panting in raspy breaths and trying to shake the terror of the nightmare he had just had. As his breathing slowed and he became aware of his surroundings he apologized to his mate.

“I am so sorry Severus. I didn’t mean to wake you. It was just a nightmare, we can go back to sleep now.”

“Not until you tell me about the dream, Harry. Believe me; it will help to talk about it. Otherwise you may repeat it. Please tell me what has you so upset.”

“I don’t really want to talk about it.”

Severus put his hand on Harry’s cheek, gently turning his face so that he could tenderly kiss that temping mouth. Then he softly said, “Tell me.” Harry sighed into the kiss and didn’t say anything so Severus kissed him again and said “Tell me.” Again Harry didn’t say anything but he started untangling himself from the covers that were twisted around his waist.

Once more Severus kissed his lover and said, “Tell me.”

Harry sighed and looked at the man he loved more than anything. “It was just a bad dream, nothing more.”

“Then tell me what it was about.”

“I was in the Gryffindor common room, Mrs. Weasley and Ginny were there and were trying to force me to drink a love potion. Ron and Hermione were holding me down as I struggled to get away. They were saying that it was Ginny’s turn to babysit and Mrs. Weasley was holding a vial to my mouth, pinching my nose so that I would swallow the potion. I told them no and that I needed you to be there, but they said you were not coming, that you hated me. It was just a dream, nothing real.”

“Well, then you can get under the covers and we will go back to sleep if you want. I believe this dream is just anxiety about going to see the Weasleys tomorrow. Maybe going there and meeting them will make you feel better, like it did with Petunia. You are not the young boy you once were and they are not as old as you remember.”

Severus lifted the covers they had straightened to coax Harry into snuggling down and getting closer.

“Yeow!” Severus shouted. “Harry, your feet are like ice. Why are you so cold?”

“I guess I got uncovered a while ago. I need you to warm me up.” He said with a smirk.

“If this happens again, you are going to wear socks to bed from now on. Come here then brat, while I pretend I am a warming charm.”

Both men rearranged the covers so that Harry and Severus were snuggled under them and they slept soundly for the rest of the night.


A/N Thank you to all my reviewers, especially Jessy who pointed out my grammar mistake. I try to catch everything, but my beta has started college and has not been able to edit any chapters since ten or eleven. The next chapter will be out on Wednesday. You guys Rock!!!!