July 2
Stab his forehead with a basilisk fang?
No. The poison would stop his heart before he could be healed.
Antivenom first, then stab him?
If it didn't work when he was twelve, it won't work now.
Partial lobotomy?
That's hardly different than killing him. It is a soul attached to him, not a parasite.
... it is a type of parasite.
No lobotomy.
Infect him with vampire venom? Then use basilisk venom once he's changed?
Take his magic and make him an outcast from society? Harry would prefer death.
Could a dementor suck one specific soul from him?
Is it worth the risk if not?
... Harry certainly has a soul of his own, right?
Right.
Ludicrous to imagine otherwise.
Hit him with the killing spell and hope he gets lucky twice?
Severus scoffed at his own desperate idea.
It was two weeks in to summer break, two week spent isolated in the office Harry gave him in Invisibility Way searching desperately for an answer to this unsolvable puzzle.
And Severus was failing. Failing the child he swore to protect. Swore for Lilly's sake. Swore for the child's sake. Swore for his own sake.
But failure meant certain death, so Severus persisted in his research.
He took sparse breaks; always for breakfast with Harry, and occasionally throughout the day to check on the child and ensure he was not blowing up any more manors.
Severus knew Harry was bitterly disappointed to be so easily kicked off his quidditch team, Merlin knows that Severus felt the blow as if it were his own dream being shattered, but the child was outrageous and blatant in his revenge.
He also apparently had his friends invent a Harry Potter version of a Dark Mark.
Which was amusing, certainly, but also disturbing.
Yet, when Severus went to admonish him for his brash and Gryffindor-like actions, he considered how Harry may never get the opportunity to play professional quidditch and deflated.
'I'll play when Timmy's dead.'
Who cared what crimes Harry committed now?
Who cared what chaos Harry brewed?
The child had a timer counting down above his head and Severus would allow him whatever happiness he could acquire while he was still able to do so. If that happiness came from robbing the British Department of Defense, liberating tortured house-elves, and blowing up houses, then so be it. Because Severus knew, knew it from the moment he read Barty's letter, that he was going to have to take it from him eventually.
At some point in the near future, Severus was going to have to inform Harry of what curse he carried, of what choices he had.
He vehemently prayed that he had a cure for the curse before he had to do so.
After a week in to summer, Severus had temporarily given up on finding a ritual to separate the horcrux from the host. That had been Barty's sole focus, finding a way to spare Harry from having to be 'destroyed beyond magical repair'.
Severus moved his focus on ways to destroy the child without killing him.
Which, while sounding impossible, Severus had initially believed to have an answer somewhere within the magical world. In a world where basilisks could be slayed by prepubescent boys with swords, surely there was a solution to this inexplicable problem.
And yet, despite his own brilliance and the vast amount of books on all variety of topics available to him, it was not until Harry sent Nymphadora to bother him that he had any sort of a breakthrough.
Severus should have known that she would be coming. Harry had been quite stubborn during breakfast when he questioned Severus on his plans for the day.
"D'you wanna go see Fred's shop today?" Harry had asked between sips of his espresso. "They opened yesterday. I didn't go because Fred said it was going to be a mad house and I didn't much fancy getting trampled, but Susan and Neville are going today. You could come too, if you wanted."
"While that sounds precisely like an activity I would positively love to do, I'm afraid I am quite busy today."
Harry narrowed his eyes suspiciously, "With what?"
"Work," Severus told his nosy child shortly. "Did Frederick have a successful opening day?"
"Don't do that," Harry snapped. "Don't change the subject, Sev. What're you working on in there?"
"Potions," Severus lied, his tone now matching Harry's in its irritation. "You are busy with your projects, I am busy with mine."
Harry's face tightened for a moment before he sighed and slumped down in his chair. "I don't have to be busy, if you want to hang out? I didn't- I didn't think you'd be jealous. I'll tell Susan and Neville to go without me today, we can hang out."
"No, do not do that," Severus said, a touch hastily. "I truly am busy Harry, not jealous. Go spend time with your friends."
Merlin only knew how long he would be able to do so.
Harry hummed, unconvinced and suspicious, but he dropped it after that.
Severus should have remembered that Harry has never truly dropped a subject regarding someone else's business in his life.
Harry had barely been gone for an hour before there was a soft knock on the office door.
Severus sighed and cleared the book on African Wixen Rituals to Eternal Life away. "Enter," he said.
The door opened and Nymphadora poked her head inside. Her hair was its usual shade of pink, in a chin length bob today, and her eyes were a dark violet.
"Hello," she said, slipping inside and closing the door behind her. "I've been sent to cheer you up."
"Have you?" Severus drawled with a roll of his eyes. He moved to the matching green chairs in front of the fire and gestured for Nymphadora to sit with him. "Harry, I presume?"
"Harry," Nymphadora confirmed as she easily took Harry's usual chair. She pulled a package from her pocket and Severus nearly smiled to see Sugar Quills emerge.
He had asked Harry once, years ago, as a jest, to bring him sugar quills from Honeydukes and the child convinced himself it was Severus' favorite sweet.
It hadn't been, at the time, though he did prefer them now.
"He also sent these," Nymphadora pulled one out and handed it to Severus with a playful smile. "Just in case I wasn't enough to cheer you up on my own."
"Harry is a menace," Severus said quietly, accepting the sugar quill with a fond look. "Thank you."
"I think he's worried about you," Nymphadora said, taking one of the quills out for herself. "He said you're depressed and 'drowning your grief in potions', his words there."
"Did he?" Severus raised an interested brow at Nymphadora. "That hardly sounds like an observation Harry would make."
"He was pretty adamant. He seemed to think I needed an excuse to come bother you," Nymphadora winked coyly. "But he said you're depressed and hiding away from everyone and drowning yourself in potions and if you didn't yell at him for stealing 'grenade guns' that it was 'worse than he thought'."
Severus stared at Nymphadora for a long moment before letting out a huff of a laugh. "The brat acts as if I have not been letting him get away with much worse crimes for years. Since we met, in fact."
"Really?" Nymphadora kicked her legs over the armrest of her chair so she could turn to face Severus while she leaned against the other armrest. "Like what?"
Severus allowed a small smile to curl the edges of his lips up as he recalled Harry's first year at Hogwarts.
"He once broke a classmates wand because she taunted him for not having a proper family to return home to for the holidays."
"And you didn't even give him detention?" Nymphadora guessed.
"Of course I did." Severus stared at her blandly for a moment before smirking, "For doing it in front of witnesses."
Nymphadora let out a peal of laughter that gave Severus the opportunity to look her over carefully. The bruises beneath her eyes, the ones that persisted for days after the battle, were diminished, leaving her face as bright and youthful as it had always been.
"You look better," Severus told her gently after her laughter died down. "You spoke with Amelia?"
"I did," Nymphadora said, a slight line creasing the space between her brows now. "She wasn't mad, or upset even, she said I saved Susan's life and thanked me for it."
"Rightfully so," Severus told her with a curt nod. "And now, thanks to your efforts, Miss Bones is sporting a golden arm and stealing military grade equipment from her royal highnesses armory." Severus grabbed his tea from his table and raised it to Nymphadora, "Cheers."
Nymphadora tilted her head in a mock-bow and smiled unrepentantly. "And since you didn't give Harry detention for snapping a wand when he was eleven, I guess his destruction of a 'historical manor' falls on you."
Severus laughed quietly again, momentarily relaxed and feeling rather nostalgic for the days when Harry was a much smaller and more easily managed child.
Not fully managed, Merlin knows Harry has never been a manageable child, but he had once been less overall chaotic than he was now.
"Truthfully, Miss Parkinson's wand was the least of my worries when Harry was a first year," Severus said. "In fact, only months after that, he... he..." Severus' eyes lit up as he recalled precisely what Harry did at the end of his first year. "That's it," he breathed. He gave Nymphadora a true smile, appreciation for her interruption coursing through him, "You've solved it!"
Severus lunged to his feet and immediately tore to his bookcase, much to Nymphadora's bemusement.
"What did I solve?" she asked as Severus quickly grabbed seven different books of varying thickness off his shelf.
"A terribly difficult dilemma," Severus said absently, his mind whirling with possibilities. "Nymphadora, excuse me, may we reschedule this intervention for another time? I assure you I am not depressed and I may finally have found a solution to the problem I have been occupied with."
"Sure." Nymphadora got to her feet and gave Severus an uncertain smile. "Maybe we could have dinner next week? Make up for that date those pesky death eaters interrupted?"
"Certainly," Severus murmured. He took his stack of books to his desk and gave her a true look of appreciation. "I will see you then."
Severus waited until Nymphadora left the office, a puzzled smile on her face, before sitting and opening the first book.
The philosophers stone.
Harry had it.
He stole it in his first year, and Lord knows he would hardly trade 'Dumbledore's precious red rock' for anything less than a guaranteed position as Minister of Magic.
All Severus needed to do now, was discover if the Elixir of Everlasting Life was enough to allow Harry to be killed to destroy the horcrux without actually ending his life.
Severus began eagerly reading through the tomes, searching for every mention of the stone he could find, and an idle smirk graced his lips.
Harry would be pleased, undoubtedly. If this was the ticket to saving the child, then he could reign over Great Britain as the Minister of Magic for an eternity.
At some point, Mavis and one of Narcissa's elves entered the office and informed him that 'Master Harry' wanted him to appear at dinner, but Severus waved them off.
This was the first true break he had gotten all summer, the first idea that was born out of more than desperation. He would miss this meal with Harry for the possibility of ensuring he had a lifetime of meals to share with him.
Severus charmed a portion of the office wall to give him space to hang parchments filled with his notes, notes that once hung were visibly only to him. He quickly filled it with careful notes on alchemy, notes on the elixir itself, and notes on Nicholas Flamel's past inventions and achievements.
The Elixir of Everlasting Life was nothing more than a potion brewed with the transfigured properties of the Philosopher's Stone. Flamel and his wife, Perenelle, had both taken the elixir back in the 1400's, and were rumored to be alive and well today.
Severus had a brief recollection of Albus stating that the Flamel's would be 'moving on' now that their stone was destroyed; and indeed without the stone to give them the properties to continue brewing the potion, they would die, but not yet.
Severus was confident they were still alive.
Severus, never having had a firm grasp of the various complex concepts of alchemy, had to slow his initial research to ensure he understood the basic concepts behind the creation of the stone. He spent the rest of the day in his office, digging out all his texts on alchemy that he could find.
He continued working in to the night, ignoring all interruptions that were not Harry himself, as he educated himself on alchemy. Many texts on the subject were difficult to decipher. A fruitless effort to dissuade others from attempting to create their own stone, but Severus persisted until he could keep his eyes open no longer and fell asleep in his chair.
After all, he did not care to create a stone himself, he merely needed to know if the drinker of the elixir could be killed and still survive.
Severus was jolted awake by a harsh fist pounding on his office door. He glanced down at himself and cringed to see that he was still in his rumpled clothes from yesterday.
Severus cleared his throat as he ground the sleep from his eyes. "Just a moment," he called while he stretched the kinks out of his neck.
Thirty-six was much too old to be sleeping on a chair, no matter how obstinately plush it was.
"Open the door or I swear to god I'm going to fuckin kick it down."
Severus glanced at the door with interest as he waved his wand to remove the locks and allowed Harry to enter.
"You missed breakfast," Harry said hotly the moment the door opened. He crossed his arms as he kicked the door closed behind him. "You didn't come to dinner last night, you didn't go hang out with Tonks yesterday, you're just wallowing in misery Sev. What's it going to take to cheer you up?"
It was heartening to know that, despite Harry's overall self-absorption, that he was capable of caring after others. Even if that care was quite displaced at present time.
Severus stifled a yawn before standing and wincing at the ache in his back. "I apologize for missing breakfast Harry," he said with what he hoped was a genuine amount of regret in his voice. "I appreciate your concern, but I am not 'depressed' and do not need 'cheered up'. I am busy. Have you eaten yet?"
Harry sent a blatant look at the clock ticking away on the wall and Severus followed his eyes only to see that it was nearly noon.
It was a morbid thought, but Severus saw the time and mentally cursed himself for missing one of what could possibly be a small number of breakfasts with Harry that he had left.
"Harry, I truly apologize. I had a breakthrough on my work and had fallen asleep quite late. Would you settle for lunch after I shower?"
"I can't," Harry said, his face still suspicious and his posture defensive. "I told Cissa I'd go shopping with her today, it was part of the deal for destroying the manor and if I cancel then she's gonna find a way to make me regret it, I'm sure. Will you, please, take a fucking shower and go outside or something today?"
Severus shook his head at the abrupt reversal of roles between them. "I will," he said, not quite lying. He would shower, but if Harry would be gone with Narcissa then Severus would continue to decipher the properties of the Philosopher's Stone. "Are you traveling far to go shopping?"
"We're taking a portkey to France," Harry rolled his eyes and uncrossed his arms. "She says there's a way to look like 'a well dressed lover of athletics' instead of 'a sweaty teenager'. She also said she knows a spot where I can get magic contacts, which would be a real boon, wouldn't it?"
Severus snorted and subtly closed the book he had left open on his table last night. "It would certainly keep you from being easily blinded in a duel," he agreed. "I shall see you afterwards then," he told him with another appropriately apologetic look. "After I 'take a fucking shower' and 'go outside or something'."
Harry nodded and grabbed the doorknob. "I'm having the elves watch you today," he warned him. "They'll tell me if you just sit in here all day today."
"Goodbye Harry," Severus drawled pointedly. "Be sure to inform Narcissa that you prefer green tops when you are attempting to appear charming."
Harry scoffed, but his expression lightened at Severus' jest. "I'll be back around five," he said, a blatant warning.
"Be safe, brat."
"Take a shower, Sev."
Severus waited until Harry's footsteps disappeared before he took off his outer robes and rolled his sleeves up.
He glanced up at the clock and set a quick timer for four o'clock.
Then he threw himself back in to his research.
Severus was eventually silently debating on simply reaching out to Nicholas Flamel and praying he did not inform Albus or attempt to prosecute Harry for the theft when he was interrupted with a firm knock on his door.
On the one hand, it could create a whole host of problems for Severus and Harry both if Flamel informed Albus of his questions. On the other hand...
Severus thought perhaps it said quite a bit about Nicholas Flamel that he never joined Albus' prestigious Order of the Phoenix.
He glanced up at the clock and grimaced to see it was already a quarter past three. He would have to wrap his research up soon and shower and make an appearance outside of his office lest Harry's ever growing band of house-elves tattled on him to the 'Master of the house'.
It hardly mattered. Despite Severus' hopes, there was absolutely nothing within any of these books that said if the drinker of the Elixir would be granted with an inability to be killed or not. They all merely stated that the drinker would not 'perish from natural causes'.
Which was hardly hopeful.
"Enter," Severus sighed, pushing his research away to be continued after dinner.
There used to be a day, approximately six years ago, where Severus could spend entire summers in this office or laboratory without ever being bothered.
Then Albus sent him on a quest to give The Boy-Who-Has-Too-Many-Friends his Hogwarts letter and Severus has not had a moment of peace since.
Instead of Nymphadora, Mavis, or Harry, as Severus expected, it was Frederick who entered with his chin held high and his shoulders square.
"I'd like to talk to you," he said. "May I sit?"
Severus was bemused by this grave behavior from the mischievous young man. He gestured for Frederick to sit in the wooden chair across the desk from him.
Severus waited with as much patience as he was capable of as Frederick appeared to be drawing up his courage to say something of some importance.
"You're Harry's parent," Frederick finally said quite bluntly. "And on his birthday I'd like to ask him to marry me." Frederick pulled a black velvet box from his pocket and slid it on the desk to Severus.
"I know we're young, I know we can't even get married for another year, but I love him sir." Frederick's voice was steady as Severus silently inspected the golden band within the box.
It was a handsome ring, likely worth a small fortune. The proof of Frederick's business successes glittered from the intermixed rubies and emeralds circling the band.
Sentimentality, Severus supposed. Further evidence that students so easily divided at eleven did not necessarily have to remain so.
"Harry is not yet sixteen," Severus eventually said, entirely shocked both by the ring and the conversation itself. "'Young'? You are both still children."
"Look me in the eyes and tell me Harry was ever a child," Frederick challenged him. "Look me in the eyes and tell me that there's a guarantee that five years from now there'll be time for this. Hell," Frederick chuckled mirthlessly, "tell me a year from now that Harry and I will both still be here. That one of us won't be dead. Can you do that sir?"
Severus thought of Barty's failed experiments. His own failures.
Harry was doomed to either die young or be hunted by a madman for an eternity.
There was no guarantee they would both still be around in a year, no guarantee that they would have the happy ending they desired and deserved.
"You should not propose because you fear the future," Severus argued helplessly. It had happened the last war as well; people marrying left and right, terrified they would lose their chance to do so.
"I'm not." Frederick was calm and confident, entirely in control of his emotions as Severus could feel his own spiraling. "I'm proposing because I love him sir. I don't have a future that doesn't have Harry in it. The battle in May just reminded me that life can be... it can be short, why not look for happiness now?"
"Why are you telling me this?" Severus asked after clearing his mind of the emotions that threatened to suffocate him from the inside. "What do you want from me?"
"Your blessing," Frederick said simply. "You're Harry's parent, the only one he really has. I swear to you if you say yes then I'll make sure he never feels unloved, never feels alone. I'll do my best to protect him from his enemies and from himself. I swear it, sir."
Severus ripped his eyes from the ring he'd been so distracted by to stare hopelessly in Frederick's calm blue eyes.
Who could ask for more?
Who would say no to a possibility of a happy ending now for the young man who carried a cursed soul within a scar on his forehead?
Severus replaced the ring in the box and slid it back to Frederick.
"Harry could do much worse," he told him truthfully. "You will not change your mind?"
"My—" Frederick's eyes flashed with pain and he swallowed harshly. "My dad said that Weasley men only fall in love once sir. Harry's it for me. And I think I'm it for him."
Severus eyed the emerald promise ring on Frederick's right hand. Potter's symbol of his love, his claim on Frederick's heart and his future.
"I believe you are," Severus agreed. "Ask him."
"Really?" Frederick's previous expression of respectful solemnity slipped away and Severus was able to witness a joy so jubilant that it was nearly painful to witness through his own grieving eyes.
"Thank you sir!" Frederick jumped to his feet and offered Severus his hand. "You'll never regret this, I swear."
"I know." Severus rose to shake Frederick's hand and prayed that Harry and Frederick would both grow to have the future Frederick envisioned.
The more he experimented, the more he learned, the less he believed it.
Why not give Harry this opportunity now?
Is it kind or cruel to give him promises of a joyful future that shrinks with every failed experiment on the horcrux ring?
"I need to go, I have to get back to the shop. I told George I had a quick emergency to take care of and I think he's under the impression Harry was executing another mad scheme," Frederick grinned and repocketed the velvet box that carried his symbol of love for Severus' son. "Thank you."
Severus sank back to his seat and waited until Frederick was nearly out the office door before calling to him.
"Frederick?"
"I know." Frederick turned and gave Severus a cheeky smirk. "If I hurt him then you'll curse me for an eternity, right?"
"While that is entirely true, I was merely going to say that I believe Harry's mother would be quite fond of you, if she were here," Severus said lightly.
Severus had no right to say such a thing, he hadn't known Lily Evans in twenty years, yet he was sure it was true. Frederick had grown to be a fine young man who never wavered from his commitment to Lily's only son. And, as Lily had married James Potter, Severus doubted if she would disapprove of Frederick.
"Thank you," Frederick said once more.
Severus waited until Frederick's footsteps were no longer audible before summoning a drink.
"Here's to Harry surviving to seventeen," he murmured. He threw down the bourbon and put away his books and notes.
He would simply write to Flamel after dinner, it would be the quickest way to get the answers he desires with such an increasing desperation.
It was a risk, undoubtedly, but not an uncalculated one. And not one that did not carry the possibility of such high rewards.
***
Mister Flamel,I hope this letter finds you well. I would like to discuss an aspect of your research on alchemy with you, in person if it is possible. I cannot share more details in a letter, though I can say that it is incredibly important and time is of the essence.If you would kindly write me back informing me if this meeting would be possible, I would be grateful.-S.S.
***
Severus' world was rocked once more when he was woken in the middle of the night by the wards surrounding their home being broken that same night. He was certain it was not Harry or one of the other many occupants of Invisibility Way, as they had all agreed to inform him if they were going to be traveling between the hours of ten pm and eight am, due to the wards he had set. And, so far, everyone had stayed true to their word, even going so far as to only travel during the day to ease the stress on Severus.
Which meant this was not an expected guest.
Severus crept down the stairs, his wand ready, when there was a light knock on the door.
Probably not a Death Eater then.
Severus was taking no chances with a houseful of potential targets though, he raised his wand high when he called through the door, "Who is it?"
"Luna Elizabeth Lovegood."
Severus hesitated before opening the door, it would do no good to insist the others utilize basic safety measures if he did not take them himself.
"You told me once that you would inform Harry it was your decision so he would not blame me, what was that decision?" Severus asked through the door.
"To be the thing Harry would miss the most in the second task of the Triwizard Tournament."
Severus threw the door open with relief, then immediately pulled up short at the sight of Lovegood.
"Luna." He reached out quickly for the girl. She was covered in blood, ashes, and mud. Her hair was tangled with a variety of leaves and other debris from the woods, as if she had been literally drug through the environment. The blood vessels in the whites of her eyes were burst and she was swaying where she stood. "What happened?" Severus asked. He put a quick arm around her shoulders and swore under his breath when her silver eyes rolled back in her head and she fell in a dead faint.
Severus caught her before she was injured further and carried her carefully to the sitting room.
"Mavis! Quickly!"
Severus wasted no time on pleasantries when Harry's elf appeared.
"My kit," he barked. "And— and fetch Draco and Harry at once."
Severus cast a diagnostic on Lovegood and felt a chill go down his spine at the results.
Who on Earth had cast the Cruciatus Curse on the girl?