Ashes of Armageddon

The Biting Puzzle



The conversation with Neville the following day did not turn out to be nearly as awkward and confrontational as Severus had suspected it might. It probably helped that Severus went to see him alone, and preceded the revelation by handing the Covenant scroll to Neville and telling him:



“Read.”



Neville was slightly stunned, but read through the covenant carefully and then asked one simple question:



“Will this make things better for you?”



“That\'s the idea.”



“In that case, the answer is yes,” Neville said. “I\'ll be – what\'s the word? Guardian? What do I sign? What do I need to do?”



“If all goes well, you won\'t need to do anything,” Severus said, a little stunned by his young friend\'s quick acceptance. “The Covenant magic will alert you if something goes wrong, but other than that, there will be no intrusion on your personal life. Needless to say,” Severus continued wryly, “should we need your assistance, I expect at least a half-hearted attempt at a nonviolent conflict intervention.”



Neville nodded, blushing slightly. “I understand. I understand that... Harry means something to you. So.. I\'ll be good.” There was a strained quality to his voice.



“Harry used to mean something to you, too,” Severus reminded him gently.



“Yeah,” Neville said uncomfortably. “But I guess we\'ve drifted apart.”



Certainly that was the understatement of the century, Severus thought, as he scrutinized Neville for a few minutes. The young man\'s face was tired, and he looked more worn out than usual. It was as if the last few years of self-imposed distance from his friends had drained him immeasurably. Neville returned his gaze hesitantly, and then, Severus added something else, feeling like he was taking a plunge into cold water:



“Harry and I are joining Hermione and Ron for dinner tonight. You should come along.”



Slightly stunned, Neville stared back at him. “I\'d better not,” he muttered uncomfortably. “Last September, when I visited, I caused a bit of a scene there. “



“Funny,” Severus said dryly. “I was staying with them last September, and I do not remember a scene.”



“I think you were asleep,” Neville said quietly.



“Well. If you didn\'t wake me, it couldn\'t have been much of a scene, could it?” Severus countered reasonably.



Neville hesitated a bit longer, but eventually allowed himself to be persuaded.



When they Apparated to the doorstep of Hermione and Ron\'s house, Severus simply knocked, unwilling to take advantage of being in the house wards. He wondered briefly if he was overstepping the conventions of common courtesy by bringing an unannounced visitor along, but when the doors of the house flung open, the look of delight on Hermione\'s face erased all concerns.



“Come in!” She said quickly, ushering both of them inside.



Ron was sitting down at the kitchen table, and so was Harry. For a brief moment, an awkward silence ensued, as Neville and Harry stared at each other cautiously and guardedly. Then something apparently passed between them, and Neville issued a deep breath, uttering a guarded, but not hostile:



“Hi.”



“Neville,” Harry said.



And that was it for the moment, and for the moment it appeared to be more than enough.



Hermione\'s voice entered the exchange, and discharged the remainder of the tension:



“So what\'s going on? I can see something is up, from the looks on your faces, but what it is?”



Neville feigned absolute innocence. Harry gave Severus a questioning look, and Severus nodded to him.



“We\'ve got a covenant,” Harry said simply. “Neville is the Guardian.”



Hermione didn\'t ask what a covenant was, just nodded approvingly, smiling ear to ear, looking as happy as if her best friends just announced wedding plans.



“I\'m glad,” she said with absolute sincerity. “It\'s about time, too.”



Severus stared at her with a mixture of annoyance and amusement. “You thought it might be a good idea, and you never suggested it?”



She snickered at the question. “Had the idea come from anyone other than yourself, it would have taken you twice as long to get to this point.”



Involuntarily, he laughed at her words, without any scorn or resentment. “I\'m an obstinate bastard, aren\'t I?”



Her solemn nod might have been deemed offensive, if not for a smile of warm delight on her lips.



Severus left the young people alone in the kitchen, and wandered into the living room, where Hugo was sprawled on the floor, working on assembling a giant three-dimensional puzzle of Hogwarts castle.



“Hello,” Hugo said, looking up at him briefly.



Severus glanced at the boy, amazed at how much he had grown since first time Severus met him. Hugo\'s hair, formerly light, had gotten darker, and his features had matured slightly, beginning to resemble those of his mother. He definitely had Hermione Granger\'s eyes, but, Severus smirked wryly, fortunately not her front teeth.



“May I join you?” Severus asked.



“All right,” Hugo said, smiling . His hands continued to build the puzzle almost automatically, as if the task was only occupying a part of his awareness.



“This looks like a difficult puzzle,” Severus said.



“Not really. It\'s very easy.”



Severus raised an eyebrow, and took a random piece off the floor, only to dorp it a moment later, when a sharp bite was delivered to his fingers – not enough to draw blood, but quite enough to make it felt.



“Oh,” Hugo said with a tiny smirk. “I guess I should have warned you. The pieces bite if you take them out of order.”



Severus glared at him. “Your parents got you a biting puzzle?” he growled, instantly furious as if this was the worst case of parental negligence he had witnessed in years.



“Actually, uncle Percy brought it in for my seventh birthday,” Hugo said. “. It\'s an old one, from way before. When Uncle Fred was still alive, and him and Uncle George had the Joke Shop. Uncle George designed the puzzle, and Uncle Fred made the pieces bite. Dad said I should probably not play with it, but mum said she\'s not worried.”



Severus was still glaring, not particularly reassured. “How many times has it bitten you so far?” he asked.



“Not once,” Hugo said. “It\'s really quite easy. You just have to picture the entire castle in your head, and know exactly which piece goes where.”



Severus laughed softly, staring at the little child prodigy incredulously, who appeared to be completely unaware of just how precocious he was.



“Hugo,” Severus asked gently, “did your parents ever tell you how exceptional your abilities are?”



“Huh?” Hugo stared at him in bewilderment. “They say that I\'m very clever, but all parents say that. That doesn\'t mean anything.”



“Well, we say that too, and since we aren\'t your parents, you can believe us!” Neville declared, stepping into the living room.



“Neville!” Hugo squealed in delight, and ran to him, grabbing his legs with both arms.



Neville stared at the boy, looking absolutely taken aback by Hugo\'s delight.



“Will you play ball with me?” Hugo demanded. “And Severus, too!”



“Count me out,” Seveurs said quickly. “You two go ahead.”



“Fine, be that way!” Hugo told him, and ran into the hallway, dragging slightly stunned Neville by his sleeve. In the kitchen doorway, Harry chuckled in amusement.



“He\'s really something, isn\'t he?” Harry asked, a little wistfully.



Severus nodded wordlessly. Together, Harry and Severus perched themselves up on the window sill of the living room, and watched quietly as Neville and Hugo positioned themselves in the garden on the grass, with the ball placed in Hugo\'s hand.



“I wish Al were more like that,” Harry said suddenly, as Hugo and Neville proceeded to toss the ball at each other.



“Like what?” Severus asked absently.



“Cheerful. Trusting. Happy.”



“He isn\'t?” Severus asked, turning his gaze away from the pair, and looking at Harry.



Harry shook his head sadly.



“Al isn\'t a happy child,” Harry said. “At least, he doesn\'t appear to be when he\'s with me. He looks so scared and guarded all the time.”



“Is he like that with others, too?”



“Hermione and Ron say he seems unusually subdued whenever he visits,” Harry murmured. “Though I hear he gets on with Arthur and Molly very well. “Sometimes I wonder if there\'s something wrong with him,” Harry said absently.



“Perhaps you are overreacting,” Severus said reasonably. “It\'s natural for young children to be guarded around those they don\'t know well.”



“I guess,” Harry muttered. “Then again... remember how he cried the moment he saw you? That was weird.”



“I wouldn\'t worry about that,” Severus said with a wry smirk. “Most young people burst into tears when they see me, for good reasons.”



“Hugo doesn\'t,” Harry countered stubbornly.



Severus sighed. “Harry, I have absolutely no concept of parenting, but all my instincts suggest that it is unwise to compare your son to other children, and wish for him to be like them. He is what he is.”



“I guess,” Harry agreed. “I still don\'t understand why he\'s so unhappy and guarded all the time. Then again, I suppose he didn\'t have the most auspicious infancy...”



“Maybe he just needs more than two hours every few months with you ,” Severus suggested. “A child needs his father.”



The expression on Harry\'s face, pained and tired, was almost too difficult to bear.



“That\'s just nonsense,” Harry said, looking away.



“Why?” Severus demanded.



“Come on,” Harry whispered. “Nobody needs me. Who could need someone like me, unless some sort of magic was forcing them to? What am I, anyway? A discarded receptacle of Voldemort\'s soul-fragment.”



Severus pondered that statement. For all his own insecurity and defensiveness, he never thought that Harry might be feeling the same way. For a moment he was tempted to offer a reassuring Hermione and Ron need you – but then stopped himself, because he suspected that would simply lead to another defeated statement, and a continuation of the argument.



“If it\'s any comfort at all,” Severus said cautiously, “I needed you long before the slave-bond took place.”



He instantly braced himself for a spiteful denial, or mocking remark, or a reminder of his harshness and emotional cruelty during Harry\'s school years. But Harry simply stared at him wide-eyed and whispered with an embarrassed smile:



“Really? Why?”



“Do you really need to ask?” Severus murmured ruefully. “You were the only survivor of the raid at Godric\'s Hollow. Your survival was ... not quite like a hope for forgiveness – but... a reminder that even though my crime was unforgivable, not all was lost because of it. Needing you became a part of my life after that. I did not need you to like me, or even tolerate me – I was quite certain that would never be the case. I just needed you to be alive, and well.”



He was still waiting for a stinging comment, or something derisive, but that never came. Harry simply reached for his hand and said quietly:



“I guess that\'s how I\'ve felt about you for the last three years, too.”



Speechlessly, Severus stared at him. Harry\'s hand squeezed his tighter, and turned his attention to Hugo and Neville, still playing ball on the grass. Hugo was jumping on the flower beds, completely oblivious to the destruction he was causing.



“There goes a week of being grounded,” Severus mused wryly.



Harry snorted. “I don\'t think so,” he said. “If I had done that with my Muggle family, there\'d be hell to pay... but Hermione and Ron don\'t really care about the flowers. All they care about is that Hugo is having fun, and he knows it.” Harry glanced at Severus. “Did you ever have flowers in your garden at Spinner\'s End?”



Severus nodded. “Tulips, actually. But that was a long time ago.”



“What happened to them?” Harry asked.



“My mother planted them. My father tore them out in a fit of spiteful rage. After that, she never bothered again.”



“You should plant some more,” Harry said idly. “Something for Hugo to stomp on when he visits.”



Severus snorted. “You know, I just might do that.”



Harry turned his attention to Severus again, and asked:



“So tell me.. did you feel anything when the Covenant was established? I felt something, but I wasn\'t sure if that was the Covenant magic, or if I felt something because I thought I was supposed to.”



Severus pondered the question. He did feel some intangible change take place when the Covenant was established, but he had no words to express the feeling. He did not know how to describe the barely perceptible, unobtrusive magical connection that formed between them, and settled down somewhere just beneath his awareness.



Next to him, Harry was watching his face with concern.



“I felt something,” Severus admitted finally. “It was good. Like a reassurance.. or a promise.”



... To Be Continued...