New Beginning

Chapter 7


Over the next three weeks Severus found a new past time, well, one that he had before when the trio had been at Hogwarts. Keeping an eye Darien. Darien with all the memories of Harry fully intact made him nervous. Even more so, when a few of the other Professors started coming back. It was mainly the Divination Professor that rankled Darien. Darien would either sit in his mother’s lap at meal times or hide behind Severus to get away from the airy witch.

Hermione didn’t understand why Darien was acting this way. But she had noticed that Darien had taken a rather keen interest in Severus. Looked up to Severus to be his protector. Hermione knew, that Professor Snape had saved Harry’s life on more than one occasion while he had been in school. She still couldn’t fathom why Darien took to him that way though. The de-aging, innocence potion was taken to erase memories as well as place the person back to the age of innocence. Yet she didn’t understand why Darien gravitated towards certain Professors yet was scared of others.

Severus was waiting for Hermione to make the first move, he had seen her watching Darien and how he reacted around everyone. He knew he was acting like Potter, he even saw Albus notice this, and knew Albus had it figured out even though Severus had never said a word that Darien was Harry. Albus had that all-knowing twinkle back in his eye, he was amused at everything Darien did.

The owl swooped down and landed in front of Albus. Darien was in Hermione’s lap as she was feeding him scrambled eggs. The only time the boy had a bottle with him now was in the morning, before naptime, and before he went to bed. The rest of the time you could find him eating small bits of food either from Hermione’s plate or Severus’s. He smooched off of Minerva’s, Poppy’s, and Albus’s as well, but he stuck with Hermione and Severus the most.

Severus noticed the look on Albus’s face, it was one of worry and he glanced straight away at Darien.

“What is it Albus?” Severus asked.

“Fudge is calling for a search for Harry Potter, it seems is presence has now been put on the missing list.”

Everyone looked at the screaming child in Hermione’s arms. He was pushing the fork away and scrambling to get down out of her lap.

“Darien stop this.” Hermione told him.

Darien wasn’t paying attention to his mother, he wanted down. Darien looked over at Severus and Severus could see the fear in the boy’s eyes. He had heard what Albus had said. Severus pushed his chair back and once Darien got out of his mother’s grasp he flung himself at Severus. Severus scooped him up and Darien clung to his neck. He looked back at Albus. Albus nodded towards Hermione, Hermione looked almost as scared as Darien had looked. Severus stood up.

“Come with me, Hermione.”

Hermione stood and followed Severus out of the Great Hall. Severus went straight to her chambers and said the password, Hermione had a fail-safe on her chambers. With Darien around the Professors wanted a little measure of security, so each of them had their own password that could get into Hermione’s chambers with Darien if needed. Severus sat Darien in the floor, he had several toys he could play with. Between the other Professors Darien had gotten some more clothes and toys to occupy his time with.

Severus followed Hermione off into the alcove part of the chamber, Hermione sat down at the desk that was there and turned to face him. Severus conjured up a chair and sat in front of her. It was no longer time for her to keep running, time had just ran out.

“I know Darien is Harry. I know about the potions he’s taken. Hermione, what else is going on?”

Hermione stared at Severus as if he just sucked all the air out of the room. He reached over and touched her hand that was on her leg and Hermione jumped and pushed the chair back as far as it would go. Severus looked down and glared, the anger clearly showing on his face, he took a few steadying breaths. No wonder she is so frightened, he thought to himself, she’s been hit before, maybe even more than that. She wasn’t this way while she was in Hogwarts. Severus looked back up at her.

“Hermione, listen to me. Darien has all of Harry’s memories, in order to protect him, the paternity potions have to be finished.”

Hermione started shaking her head. “That’s impossible. Darien can’t have his memories; the potion isn’t designed that way. It’s designed to bring innocence back.”

“That is exactly what the potion does if it is taken soon enough. That potion was almost expired, I could smell it. It was weak, Darien has all of Harry’s memories, and he has Harry’s scent because he’s still a Potter. They are going to come looking for him, and when they find him like this they’ll try to take him away.”

“They can’t he’s mine.” Hermione stood up and tried to go over to Darien, Severus stood up and stopped her.

He held her arms and made her face him.

“Yes, he’s yours, because of the paternity potion, but it isn’t complete. You two rushed into this without thinking. He needs to have the other paternity potion soon, or he’ll go back to being Harry. He won’t be Darien anymore. It takes both paternity potions to make the changes stay.”

Hermione hung her head, she failed him, if anyone would know it would be Severus, Potion’s Master. I’m so sorry Harry, Hermione thought, I don’t know what to do. She stamped her foot, it wasn’t supposed to happen this way, he was hers, Harry had promised. She looked back up at Severus, he was still holding her arms not letting her go to her son, her son that she only wanted to hold right now.

Severus could see the pain clearly showing all over her face. Is this what Harry saw when he looked at her, Severus asked himself. No wonder Harry was willing to do this, he was wanting to make Hermione happy, Harry wouldn’t hit her. Severus was determined to find out who did though.

“Do you want to keep him?” Severus asked.

“Yes.” It came out barely a whisper.

Severus reached into his pocket and pulled out a potion vile. He placed it in her hand. “It’s your choice. He has to have a father to complete this, he’ll go back to being Harry if it is not done.”

Severus let her go and walked out of the chambers. He couldn’t believe he had made that potion and added his own blood to it. Something in Darien had compelled him to do it. If Harry had just come to him he would have made sure that no complications would have come across with the potions. Over the last three weeks he had done a lot of thinking. Harry had all his memories and Hermione would be having problems once Darien started talking, Hermione was goingneedneed help with him. And Severus had already made a vow that he wouldn’t let anything happen to him, Darien had already touched a part of him that Harry couldn’t touch, at least not a full grown child Harry, it was the innocence in Darien’s eyes that made Severus want to do this. He wasn’t doing this for Hermione, he wasn’t doing this for himself, and he was doing this because Harry would want to stay that way. It hadn’t taken him long to realize this fact, he just had to internalize the questions enough to find it out.