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Saving Snape
By Spenser Hemmingway

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Category: Alternate Universe, Post-HBP
Characters:All, All
Genres: Action/Adventure, Angst, Humor
Warnings: Death, Disturbing Imagery, Violence
Story is Complete
Rating: PG-13
Reviews: 3
Summary: Harry and Ginny are not only heroes, they’re a constant in the multiverse, and there are almost as many alternative realities as there are ‘what ifs’ to create them. In one such the couple decides to test a possibility and maybe do something good in the process. Spenser Hemmingway on the other hand is often inept, always accident-prone and hardly ever self-assured. He always wants to lend a hand though, and usually gets through Harry and Ginny’s adventures by sheer, dumb luck. Now how am I going to have the poor guy help Harry and Ginny and Harry and Ginny and even Harry and Ginny, while keeping them away from Harry and Ginny? A missing chapter from Cosmic Cowtipping and Temporal Sins.
Hitcount: Story Total: 3686



Disclaimer: Harry Potter Publishing Rights © J.K.R. Note the opinions in this story are my own and in no way represent the owners of this site. This story subject to copyright law under transformative use. No compensation is made for this work.





ChapterPrinter


Saving Snape

By Spenser Hemmingway


“If somebody is gracious enough to give me a second chance,
I won't need a third.”–-Pete Rose



“Why are you doing this Black? As you yourself have pointed out, we are far from being friends…in any reality. I once did my very best to return you to Azkaban Prison. Even the time we worked together with the Order of the Phoenix was, at best, strained, and, as a rule, confrontational.”

“My dear Severus, that wasn’t me remember? I’ve never served a day in that fine penal institution. Your universe’s Sirius Black is long dead, as is mine’s Professor Snape. I’m helping you because James and Lily would want me to, and quite simply, because you’ve earned another chance.”

“I had absolutely no idea that you were so sentimental.” Sarcasm dripped from every word.

“A funny thing that you are yourself–-working against Voldemort for the sake of Lily’s memory. Oh yes, I know the whole story. You chose redemption, and you chose to sacrifice your life for Harry’s. The problem was, we knew it was happening this time, and opted for a rescue.”


From the epilogue to Cosmic Cow Tipping and Temporal Sins


*****



I closed the book in front of me after rereading the passage for probably the thousandth time. I shouldn’t have needed to, since I wrote it, but that’s the thing about words; they can crawl into your mind from a different direction each time, and then throw another switch. I wanted that. I was wrestling with a decision and needed the swift kick. Should I let them see it? What if they…? Yeah, that was exactly the problem.

What ifs. I honestly believe they are the second greatest force in creation after strong coffee. Ah, you are paying attention. Yes, I do in fact mean after true love. I suppose that being a cheesy writer, what ifs are in fact my stock-in-trade. Being living, breathing creatures with the ability to make choices, they are, in reality, a strong factor for all of us. “Reality…what a concept,” actor and comedian Robin William once said during a performance. The man understood.

Luna and I had completed Cosmic Cow Tipping and Temporal Sins years before, and she hadn’t even finished school yet. I’ve written some strange stories over time (don’t say it), but this book wins the category hands down. It’s a chronicle of certain weird and wonderful events that took place during Harry’s seventh year at school. I do mean weird too–-Sirius Black alive, a second elderly Harry and Ginny, and then there’s the matter of one Severus Snape, upon which I only touched briefly. We wrote it as if it all really happened, but no one, including Luna and I, is ready to accept it as such–-especially those great fieldtrips, which I won’t spoil for you. I do know I had lunch with Professors Spinner and Marten-Haven (the sixty-something and disguised Harry and Ginny) two days after the final battle; Sirius Black beat me at draw poker that same evening. Some things were real.

The oddest part, and the hardest to believe, is that the two of us don’t even remember writing the book. It’s my handwriting and style, and we still have all Luna’s research notes, smiley faces in the margins and edit marks on the text itself, but the whole thing is a complete blank except… I picked up the manila binder that held the one excluded chapter. In a way, this part of the story was the strangest, and I could understand why the older Harry and Ginny wanted me to exclude it–-hide it in fact–-but enough time has passed. Luna and I have finally decided to share it.

What ifs are as powerful as I mentioned. They are created by the decisions we make–-the choices offered us. For many people the greatest gift they can receive, and potentially the most dangerous, is that of a second chance.


*****



“Harry…you and Ginny look so bad that it’s almost embarrassing,” I told the both of them as they came into the infirmary. My almost wasn’t needed. “I’m sorry I wasn’t with you.” I was trying to mask the fatigue in my voice, seeing how the two were, in fact, just about zombies themselves. It was nearly nine o’clock, the evening following the final battle. The dust hadn’t settled, and our feet hadn’t touched the ground yet.

“Don’t be Spense,” Harry countered. “There’s no place at Hogwarts as important as this hospital ward right now. The Death Eaters could just as well…just as easily have targeted Madame Pomfrey and the wounded.”

Harry was simply being kind with his words. I was pretty much worthless in a duel in those days (I still am somewhat). I had decided I would be of more use protecting and helping out with the injured. After all my close calls with Muggle power tools over the years, I’d become fairly competent with first-aid and simple healing spells. Regardless, I was still chomping at the bit for news about all of what had happened downstairs.

“We’re ready to get some sleep Spenser,” Harry continued. “You look as if you could use some yourself by the way. We wanted to see how everyone was doing here first.”

“How are Seamus and Brandon?” Ginny asked. Of the three of us she sounded the more dead-on-her-feet. I knew neither would rest though without this quick visit.

“Brandon’s eyes are burned, but they’re washing them with Mushi Root Potion, and he’ll recover. They’ve moved him to St. Mungo’s, and yes, Kitty Fletcher did go with him,” I explained. The big Welshman was one of the first students hurt, and badly, but there was no way his girl was going to allow him to escape her tender mercies just because of simple flash blindness. Ginny would have done the exact same thing with Harry. “Seamus’ hands are all fixed up and he’s probably off asleep himself by now. Harry…how many dead?”

“It could have been worse Spenser…much, much worse,” Ginny began.

“One Auror was killed; a pompous man by the name of Neidermeyer. There is actually a rumor that his own men shot him,” Harry explained in a sober voice. “One Hufflepuff named Pufflehuff, two Ravenclaws…”

That hit me. “Luni I yelled, almost jumping on him and surprising us both.

“Yes Spenser?”

I spun about so fast I almost fell, and then proceeded to tackle my best friend standing at the infirmary entrance. I stopped myself just as fast when I saw that her wrist was swollen and in an improvised sling, no doubt broken. Luna smiled that it was all right, but it wasn’t. Neville there with her gave me a cross look that spoke volumes. I’d crossed the line with his girlfriend–-or at least we both hoped she was again. I backed away, but only a step.

“Uhm…I’m glad you’re not dead…both of you,” I offered.

Luna gave me her legendary smile, and, after a moment, Neville attempted a hesitant one as well. Their relationship had been a tentative one, especially of late, but he did seem to remember that I was its biggest fan. Both our faces displayed our concern when one of the apprentice Healers came over to Luna first to examine, and then to quickly mend, what must have been a simple break.

I glanced back to where Harry and Ginny had been standing a moment before and noted that they were now moving toward the door with an arm around each other. I had to wonder if it was as much for physical support in their exhausted states as it was out of affection. They were satisfied that all our wounded classmates were under the best of care. Soft beds were calling to them all the way from Gryffindor Tower.

“I see their little open secret is no longer a secret,” Madame Pomfrey quietly said. I hadn’t heard her approach. “You probably didn’t know this, but Professor McGonagall permitted me to read one of the stories you wrote about young Mr. Potter and Miss Weasley. The account of when you inadvertently placed her brother Ron in a full-body cast–-a mining accident I believe. She did indicate that a portion of it had been withheld for reasons of privacy, but I must say that the way you promote the couple is extraordinary.”

If Professor Slughorn had pranced across the room just then in a string bikini–-My eyes! My eyes!–-I wouldn’t have been so surprised. Of course, Pomfrey would have read the story since she was in it. That policy was set in stone. The parts the headmistress edited out must have involved the Horcruxes. Professor McGonagall had been privy to that secret since Dumbledore’s death, but she certainly wouldn’t have shared it with the Healer.

“Harry and Ginny are extraordinary themselves. They’re my favorite pet project.” I wasn’t looking at her as I spoke, instead watching my second favorite, Luna and Neville, across the room speaking with Colin. Yes, he did survive the battle in our universe. “I’m sure they both appreciate your discretion. Excuse me; you wanted those bedpans polished, didn’t you. I’ll get right on it.” Some people are born to greatness…

“Don’t bother yourself Mr. Hemmingway. I’ve had Winky attend to the task–-partly as punishment for getting into the butterbeer again. Another house-elf has just brought a message that Professors Black and Spinner would like to speak with you inside the Defense classroom, or rather what is left of it now. Several casualties here have indicated that it was a nexus of activity during the fighting.”

“Huh…what…uhm…?” I really had been listening. Okay, half-listening and it took a second for the message to connect.

“Off with you now, and, once you’re done, it’s straight to bed–-Healer’s orders.”

Pomfrey steered me toward the door through which Harry and Ginny had just exited. I took the opportunity to turn my attention back to Neville and Luna, and I immediately wished I hadn’t. They were in a heated discussion I couldn’t hear. The girl took a moment to smile again, and wave goodbye to me, but immediately tore back into him. Perdition hath no fury like a lovesick Lovegood. I hoped she was at least.


*****



Madame Pomfrey had not been kidding–-not by an Olympic swimmer’s micrometer. The Defense Against the Dark Arts classroom door had been blown in, the windows completely gone and the desks in the back half of the room were pixie toothpicks. Despite the late hour, there were half a dozen elfin carpenters beginning the repairs. My reputation with tools had preceded me, and the entire work crew screamed in terror as I entered the room. That got Sirius Black’s attention. He ran up and immediately escorted me back out into the hallway.

Yes, I do know he’s supposed to be dead…a lot of people are who carried on in my reality. You’ve been reading that nice lady’s biography of Harry, haven’t you? I’m afraid her version of volume seven was not quite what happened in our universe, but the Muggles love it, and it is a great read regardless.

Black took off then, calling back that we needed to hurry–-time was short. I actually had to run all out to keep up with him, taking the steps two at a time, and jumping from the moving stairway before it had stopped. I had a vague idea where we were going, and the familiar door ahead of us as we turned into that corridor confirmed my suspicions. Sirius finally slowed at the entrance to the Room of Requirements, and silently motioned for me to follow him inside.

As I somehow expected, there sat B’kur’s Arch, the magical structure that allowed us to see and even travel to any and all other times, alternative realities, and probably even funky, strange dimensions like a Simpsons cartoon. For obvious reasons, on the danger scale the thing made an exploding atom bomb look like a baby’s rattle. In front of it stood Professors Spinner and Marten-Haven. To their left, unconscious inside a status field, floated a man I recognized as one Severus Snape–-Death Eater, headmaster slayer, and all-around nasty person.

“Professor Spinner…he is alive, isn’t he?” I had to ask.

“He is,” Marten-Haven answered for the man.

“Spenser…may I call you that now…do you have any experience in body snatching?” he asked then. “Incidentally, we’re going by Harry and Ginny again, at least in private.”

Once upon a time, and a few stories ago, a fifty-one-year-old Harry Potter watched as his Ginny died after suffering a heart attack while flying her broom. Grief-stricken, he traveled back in time determined to change certain events for the better. Harry did succeed in preventing, or rather delaying, his parents’ deaths, but, in the process, he also stopped Ron and himself from being born there, failed to banish Voldemort the first time, and essentially sparked a much bigger war that all but destroyed the alternative world he created. Not learning from Harry’s mistake, Sirius Black also went into the past, and therein created my timeline.

“Bodysnatching? Sure, it’s been a hobby of mine for years,” I admitted. No one was smiling.

“Good. To business then.” He didn’t seem to care that I’d been joking. “Over the next hour you are going to be watching a version of recent events unfold through the Arch that is very much identical to those that happened in my original timeline. You don’t understand, and we wouldn’t expect you to. Neither Sirius nor Ginny did until they viewed it themselves.”

“Lovely…maybe I’ll see Luni happy finally.” I hadn’t meant to say that out loud.

“I’m more than a bit amazed she lets you call her that Spenser,” Harry finally had a slight grin visible through his thick beard.

“It’s a personal thing. She knows my opinion of her sanity, and, other than that, it’s no different than Ginny for Ginevra, or Harry for Henry or Harold.” His eyebrows shot up answering my long-unasked question. Harry was his actual given name? “Now may I know why we’re doing the alternative history lesson?”

Harry was serious again. “We need your help. It’s help only you can provide. We want you to know why my second son’s name is Albus Severus and that the sleeping man there is a great hero, albeit an overly harsh taskmaster. Ginny and I wanted you to see, with your own eyes, the high costs defeating Voldemort would have entailed if all of you hadn’t followed our earlier warnings.”

“The traditional next question naturally is why me. I’m a klutz in almost all categories.”

“There are three reasons Spenser,” Sirius began. “First, you seem to have an extraordinary streak of luck where these things are concerned. Second, the time may come when a chronicle of what you’re going to do might be desirable. That seems to be your specialty. Also, there is simply the fact that we cannot bring anyone to another reality where they might encounter their opposite number, or, at the very least, have to explain why we aren’t dead.” He cocked his head to make that point extremely clear. “For some odd reason, we have not been able to find you, while looking into the Arch, as existing in any other timeline or alternative universe. It’s odd to the point of being phenomenal. It’s also a marvelous opportunity.”

“For what?” I was as confused here as you are now dear readers.

“We told you,” Harry said in a now amused voice. “Ginny and I are going through the Arch to another universe where Severus Snape is already dead. We will borrow the body…”

“Borrow?” Ginny and I asked together.

“Ginny and I are now in our late fifties…”

“Early sixties,” she corrected.

“Any possible interaction with ourselves should be harmless. It will work. It already has. Young man, you have the most unusual habit of dropping your jaw wide-open like that when you’re caught off-guard.”

“Our Harry keeps saying that too. Luna has taken up tossing jelly babies inside when I do it.” Well I happen to love jelly babies. “So, we have to go somewhere because we’ve already been there and back earlier in this timeline. Anyway, at least we don’t die trying then, do we?”

“One of us certainly doesn’t,” Ginny clarified. “Professor Snape could conceivably be transported back, planted for Voldemort to find and believe killed before he could do so; our own Snape kidnapped and brought here; all by a single individual. We will be going into another version of the final battle.”

“Let’s try to substitute probably in place of conceivably shall we?” All the weariness was gone from my body suddenly, replaced with something else I was wasn’t exactly enjoying.


*****



Alrightee then…both of you fans who’ve read Cosmic Cow Tipping and Temporal Sins (unabashed plug) know we don’t die on this little adventure. I’m writing the story, aren’t I? I still get to have fun with you though with the ride we took.

I have to admit that the preliminary show they gave me was fantastic. I know you’ve read Deathly Hallows, so I won’t recount all I saw. Needless to say, by the end of that glimpse through the Arch, this Ginny was actually tossing those jelly babies for me. Spinner-Harry had told us much of it, but seeing his experiences was almost as incredible as the pensieve tour he wouldn’t allow.

It was extremely clear that Severus Snape was everything Harry had said he was, including a fallen hero. Nowhere was this revealed before his death at Nagini’s hands…I mean fangs, and only then was Snape’s true nature shown to the world. You know that Voldemort did this in order to obtain mastery of the Elder Wand; this was a very important factor in how Harry defeated snakepuss, and a bit of a problem.

Our universe’s Snape didn’t die that way. He couldn’t if we were to rescue him. The body was found dead in the forest, but without a mark on him. Voldemort was purportedly not at all happy about it. Someone else could claim the wand he realized. We therefore had to find another Severus Snape, at that same stage of his life, but without the fang holes.

Furthermore, we couldn’t borrow the Professor’s corpse from where its absence would alter the outcome of the other battle. The ideal situation would be a reality where, instead of utilizing the giant serpent, Voldemort had simply relied on the Killing Curse. Despite the near-countless possibilities we had available though the Arch, we had a bit of a hard time finding just the right one to visit. We were a group of nitpicking perfections it turned out.

“Are you ready?” Harry asked us as we stepped up to that gateway again.

Not surprisingly, he was holding Ginny’s hand, which drew smiles from Sirius and me. She wasn’t this Harry’s original Ginny, but she was a Ginny. It had been years since he’d lost his wife, and it was as obvious as a Hippogriff in a telephone booth that these two had found each other for a great reason.

“Born ready Sergeant,” I said without thinking again. I took a moment to adjust the Gryffindor robes they’d found for me. We doubted they had American exchange students where we were heading, and I had to refrain from speaking as well.

“I need to travel to the alternative reality where Severus Snape is killed by Voldemort utilizing a wand not his snake. Ginny and I wish to travel to Hagrid’s Hut on the day of the final battle and to return here two hours later,” Harry shouted to B’kur’s Arch. They immediately stepped through, and I was right on their heels. That’s when the trouble started.

No, we weren’t suddenly under attack on the other side, although we had taken the precaution of having our wands out. This was probably worse. There we stood–--three teenagers. No, I don’t mean an elderly Witch and Wizard and me–-I mean three teenagers just as I said the first time.

“Great Gadfrey! What happened to you guys?” I almost shouted, catching myself before the noise could give us away.

“Harry…we’re young again,” Ginny managed to say. “Hmm…you really were just as cute as the other Harry at this age, especially with the beard gone now.” She was grinning then despite herself, and he was as well I saw.

“Okay, let me think,” he finally said.

“As for thinking, I think we should move into the woods for the time being,” I put in. At least I hadn’t reverted to being a toddler. Harry led off and took us maybe forty yards into the forest before stopping.

“Blast! It couldn’t be that simple. I told the Arch we needed an alternative reality, not the parallel timeline we viewed earlier. We’re clearly not where we intended. Our physical and magical laws may be different here,” Harry offered. It did make sense in a way. “We must have regressed to our other selves’ corresponding ages and…” Even by the faint light of his Lumos Spell I could see the change on Harry’s face, almost as if the color had been hexed from his skin. “Oh my… Uhm, if the matter forming our bodies is identical to this world’s Harry and Ginny, but of some different polarity or whatever, contact and perhaps even proximity could cause us to cancel each other out. The explosion could fracture the planet, or, in fact, the entire galaxy!”

“Great! You picked now to review your physics lessons.” My voice was quiet but frustrated. Ginny moved in closer to Harry and he placed a protective arm around her. It was a toss-up as to who was the more scared, and neither were people who normally displayed fear. “We need to get you out of here,” I added, stating the obvious.

“We can’t. We can’t return home until those two hours have elapsed,” Ginny reminded me. “We’ll just have to stay away from any locations where we might meet our counterparts.”

“That’s not acceptable either Ginny.” Harry wouldn’t look at her as he spoke. It was about to get worse. “We somehow succeeded in bringing his body back. It did happen. If we fail now we would be creating another alternative reality, and you’ve seen the potential consequences of that. Our Severus’ life would be forfeit and Voldemort might act differently because of what he thinks he’s able to do.”

A new thought suddenly hit me in the stomach. “Harry, did we let this world’s Snape get himself killed just to have a…”

“No Spenser.” Harry didn’t hesitate a heartbeat. “Your Severus was meant to die here because he did before we arrived. Yours was meant to live because…again because he did. That’s my point.” Harry pulled out his old watch and studied it for several seconds. “You and Ginny need to go to the Shrieking Shack and retrieve him. Nagini’s doesn’t eat him here…I hope. Voldemort is in too much of a hurry now that he thinks he’s invincible…I hope.”

“Please stop saying that. Rather, say that you brought your Invisibility Cloak…you didn’t?” I moaned.

“Sirius needed it when he went back those hours to kidnap your Snape. You and Ginny need to go now.”

Ginny started to move away, paused, and turned to face him. Harry got the message, and then took and kissed her. I wondered if they would both suffocate. Breaking apart, he again told us to go, adding the assurance that his Ginny had been nowhere near the Shack then, and it was safe. We would meet back at the wood line behind Hagrid’s hut.


*****


Several hours earlier; the Battle of Hogwarts; our universe




“H e’s dead Harry, and his wand is gone,” Ron told him.

“Good…I suppose.” Harry caught himself, and instinctively turned to Ginny expecting a reproach for his callous disregard for a man’s life, even if it was Snape’s. Instead, he received an understanding smile. She knew him too well to believe his words over what was really in his heart. Harry risked a cautious smile for her as well.

“Look at his face. He didn’t die fighting. He was terrified.” Hermione knelt down and removed a small bottle protruding from the man’s robes. “It has a note,” she continued. “It says, ‘Trust this’ and the handwriting is somewhat familiar.”

It would be since it was written by Professor Spinner-Harry. It contained the same silvery memories he had been given that night so many decades before. We had agreed that we couldn’t trust those of the Severus Snape we had borrowed (there I go using that word again), provided he had even left any behind. Our own Professor Snape was still alive, and this was therefore the last best alternative. It had been made clear to me that, apart from Sirius Black, the older Harry and Ginny, and myself, no one was to know yet how we had given Snape the second chance in life. Regardless of the reasons, he had in fact killed Albus Dumbledore.

Harry looked around at the friends who were moving to face the Dark Lord with him. Ron and Hermione were again holding hands as would be expected. Harry realized he was, in fact, holding Ginny’s, and hadn’t noticed before. Despite the scene, he again smiled. Luna and Neville were with him albeit keeping a comfortable, or rather uncomfortable distance from each other still. Seamus stood there as well with a grim look. Brandon Llewellyn was his best friend, and Seamus had had the honor of downing the Death Eater who had wounded him.

In Spinner’s reality, that of the biography, Harry had stood alone against Voldemort at the end. This time the battle was being waged by forces united by a year of preparation initiated by the elder Wizard’s warnings. This time Harry decided his strength was in having these special people beside him, including Ginny…despite the risk. Spinner himself had often commented that this Harry was far stronger than he had been because of his friends…family. No one said a thing, or thought the less of me, because I wasn’t good enough to be there with them. I did enough personal soul-crunching of myself for everyone. Maybe my helping the older Harry and Ginny save Snape could make up for it.

“We need to be moving again. He’s already back at the castle,” Harry reminded everyone. He reluctantly released Ginny’s hand, but they exchanged another look that spoke volumes. Harry and she were in each other’s heads and it was enough. “Does everyone know what to do?”

“Of course, Harry,” Hermione pointed out with a severe grin. “Go provide Spenser with material for his next stupid story.”

I never wrote one about that scene. I had no desire to do so after hearing what my friend had said about me.

*****


Meanwhile back in the alternative reality…



“What do you mean the flippin’ body wasn’t there?” Harry shouted, but caught himself in mid-sentence. Even a friend might bring disaster if they responded to his voice and brought with them one of the counterparts. It wasn’t anger so much as it was desperation. “Nagini?”

“I don’t think so Harry,” Ginny began. “We heard some students talking. They were just outside the school gates and running away from the fight…the cowards! The snake was killed before the professor was. It…it was Neville who did it again Harry, but he was killed here then. With Nagini dead, Voldemort would naturally have killed Snape himself.”

“I hadn’t thought of that,” Harry quietly admitted. None of us had considered who else might fall in this reality.

“Harry, in your version, who attended to the dead. Where did they take them?” I asked.

“I don’t know. I don’t know!” Something occurred to him suddenly though. “Kreacher!” Harry called out, once again in a loud voice. He seemed a bit surprised when the house-elf actually appeared in the forest clearing.

“Great Harry Potter? Kreacher saw friend elves bring dead master back to Hogwarts Castle death crypt. How can this be?”

“Wait…what did you say?” Ginny asked before Harry or I could.

“Don’t you mean Hagrid carried me into the Great Hall? Something is wrong Kreacher. Do you know who Professor Snape is…was?” The house-elf nodded. “Was he taken to some type of place with the other bodies?”

“Many bodies Master. Many of Harry Potter’s friends and teachers are there in deep dungeon. Only house-elves may enter or leave place carrying fallen brave friends and nasty foes alike.”

“Oh great! Wonderful! Lovely! Fabulous! Uhm…uh…flippin’ writer’s block! Does anyone have a thesaurus? Harry, it seems things are just a bit too different here. They’ve trapped you in the morgue. Kreacher, have you seen Pretty Wheezy’s body there?” That got me an expected angry glare from Harry and a shocked, surprised look from Ginny.

“Kreacher, I want you to take Ginny and my friend Spenser to the death crypt and help them bring Professor Snape’s body and…the other me back here. Ginny, I’m probably not really dead so stun me when you get down there. I’m sure I’ll let you do it to me, and then forgive you later. We’re out of time up at the school.”

“Harry?” The girl was not happy. “I didn’t spend all those years following you…waiting for you just to have you go off to face Voldemort again. We’re too old for that.”

“We’re teenagers again.”

“Shut up you…you…dufus!”

“Uhm Ginny…”

“You’re a dufus too Spenser. If you don’t go back and kiss that girl, I’ll hex you into sawdust!”

“What girl? Never mind, I’m coming with you Harry. Ginny can steal Snape by herself, and she’d never be able to explain my being with her to your other self.”

“Spenser, you’re not…”

“I’m not what Harry? I’m not any better trained than the other Witches and Wizards defending the school right now? I’ve got to help this time. Besides, I’m expendable. You have to leave this world in thirty minutes, or you risk destroying it.”

Harry didn’t like it, but he wouldn’t deny my sideways logic. He stomped off toward the castle entry without another word, pausing just long enough to kiss Ginny again. She was crying now.

“You’ll take care of him…watch his back as best you can?”

“I had the best teachers. Now which girl am I supposed to kiss? You don’t mean…?”

“Yes, I do. Now get going you. He’ll be faced off with Voldemort before you even arrive.” She gently took Kreacher’s hand, and the two Disapparated away. I was already running after Harry.


*****



While one Harry and I were getting ready to walk into the meat grinder in one universe, my Harry and Ginny were curled up on his bed enjoying their best and first sleep in days. Earlier, an exhausted, still-dressed Harry had surrendered and gone down to the Common Room to find Ginny sitting with her mother, and in a similar state herself. The teenagers locked eyes and smiled. That was all it took. Ginny stood up.

“Mum, I’m going upstairs to sit with Harry. Neither of us is going to sleep otherwise.”

“Young lady?”

“A young lady who will be with me Mrs. Weasley. She will be as safe as if she were asleep in her own room instead of mine.”

“It’s just that…” Molly knew what it was. Her daughter was growing up, had met the finest of young men and was asking her mother to trust them enough to get the rest their bodies both demanded. That was all. “Oh, very well, but just for tonight.” I’ll be checking on you–-not because I need to, but because you both expect me to do so.

Harry led Ginny up to the dormitory room and grabbed the spare pillows Ron kept on his bed. The two settled onto Harry’s, and, within moments, could feel themselves giving in to slumber. Something had to be said first however, and they both knew what.

“Harry…the pensieve…Professor Snape’s memories… What did you think of what we saw there?”

“It was really incredible Ginny. I can’t believe what the man risked for all of us. Snape was protecting me when I though he was one of our worst enemies. The feelings he had for my mother sent me staggering. You?” Our Harry had chosen to share the experience with everyone, including me later. Ginny was the only one with whom he was comfortable discussing it in those days though.

“The memories of your mother were wonderful Harry. She was so special, especially how she could see into him that way. I can’t believe he fooled all of us for so long.”

“He had to Ginny, just to stay alive. In the end it didn’t matter did it? I only wish there was something we could have done for him.”

Ginny was already asleep, and so was Harry a few seconds later.


*****



The older Harry, the one I was with, could walk me into the ground, and a few times had, even at age sixty-two. I think he was beginning to enjoy being seventeen again. Hopefully he would revert to his older self once we were back home to avoid encountering his exact duplicate, and thus destroying our world.

I caught up with Harry as he entered the Great Hall, and he wasn’t beating around the bush. In his absence, the battle had gone downhill far more than you will ever read elsewhere. I won’t turn your stomach by describing the scene, but the sight and smell made me physically sick. Most of the students were already dead or dying. The adults who were still alive might be begging for death soon if we couldn’t get a Healer to them. I saw Luna sprawled out there at an odd angle and I…no I wasn’t sure. Beside her were lying Ron and Hermione...and I was certain about those two–-both dead. It took everything I could muster not to abandon Harry and rush to them.

If I felt that way, imagine what was going through Harry’s head. He had been in this show three times before. In his own timeline that you read about in Book Seven, the world he ravaged when he tried to prevent his parents’ deaths, and in our own battle that same day back home. This fourth one was as bad as ours was miraculously mild.

This wasn’t the boy that had first faced Voldemort however. This was an old soldier with decades of service as a Ministry Auror and Defense Against the Dark Arts instructor. The Harry Potter marching up to lizard lips was someone who had seen, done, and experienced it all. The pain inside him made him hard and strong. The old man had already won the fight, but still had to go through the motions. It was my job to help keep the other goons off him.

As he walked, Harry would silently throw one spell or another at those who attacked him from the sidelines. It was much like someone swatting away yipping dogs. I released a few tentative stun spells but accomplished little if anything. If I achieved nothing else, I did attract attention to Harry’s return and the need to support him.

“Come on you heroes…do you want to live forever?” I called out, but immediately wished I hadn’t. Besides the fact that I was just supposed to be a minor supporting character in this chapter, my American accent all at once brought unwanted attention to myself.

George and Ginny appeared at my left, and I thanked providence that our girl hadn’t come along to initiate the Big Bang. On my right was Professor McGonagall with most of her face now a bloody, pulpy mass. She risked a quick glance in my direction, seeing my borrowed Gryffindor robes, but confused about who I was. The group was nowhere as well-organized as our Hogwarts gang, but they could still exploit this Harry’s determination and forcefulness.

Harry still hadn’t said a word, even in association with his magic, while Voldemort continued to hurl endless taunts and curses. He didn’t understand how Harry could deflect every spell he threw as only Dumbledore had before. Voldemort knew then, and, all at once, he was as terrified as Harry’s mother must have been that one October evening. Harry stretched out his arm and finally spoke.

“Eat dragon dung Tommy boy!” Harry quietly told him as a multi-colored bolt exited his wand to hit the Dark Wizard in the face. This Harry didn’t utilize Expelliamus. Voldemort’s wand didn’t turn on him this time. The man instead seemed to burn from inside, and a split-second later was a pile of ashes. With a wave of his hand, an amber light emanated from the chests of the remaining Death Eaters, instantly enveloping them in a binding, resin-like substance. It was over.

“You couldn’t do that for us this morning?” I whispered as I walked up to him.

“I wasn’t meant to, and your Harry and Ginny did fine, didn’t they? I only intervened here because theirs couldn’t arrive in time. We barely did. Now it’s imperative that we leave before their Harry does show up, or our Ginny comes looking for us with this one standing here.” As we walked toward the outer doors, he paused for a moment in front of the girl. They exchanged a quick look, and I knew this Ginny understood he wasn’t her Harry. “Take care of him, and, as you get older, take care of your own heart as well. You’re going to develop problems in your heart’s left ventricle.”

He didn’t speak again as we walked through the parting crowds. As we moved into the outside courtyard, Harry turned into the shadows, and immediately accepted an embrace from a still-upset Ginny–-his this time. Almost the next second, she broke away, stepped back, and levitating what I assumed to be Snape’s body, firmly gripped its arm. Both Harry and I were confused until in the blink of an eye they were gone–-back in the Room of Requirement. The problem was that Snape and I hadn’t gone with them.

“Oh feldercarb!” I shouted into the dark sky. It got someone’s attention.

“Who…who are you there?” a voice demanded.

It was Harry, theirs that is, and he looked as if Hagrid had been playing volleyball with him. His body was battered, bloody as any of the survivors inside the Great Hall, and he was almost dragging his one leg as he approached me. I had forgotten that Ginny was bringing him up out of the crypt with her. I doubted she had been the one to have done all the damage.

“Snape!” he screamed, and initiated a fireball that flew at, and then enveloped, the corpse. In the blink of an eye he had turned the body into something much akin to fireplace remnants. Could the trip get any worse? “Who are you?” he repeated and started to point his wand at me then. I tackled him first.

Sitting atop him there in the dark, I didn’t care if I was contributing to his injuries. He had just destroyed Snape, and maybe altered my timeline. I jerked the wand from his hand, shoved the tip of my own under his chin, and, only then, saw something I thought impossible. This Harry was terrified–-I mean shaking in his shoes, ready to break down, scared stiff. It didn’t make sense. No alternative universe could have that different of a Harry Potter.

“Leave him alone! Please leave him alone!” I heard someone scream at me. It was his Ginny and she had brought company. Flitwick and a dozen students were several yards behind the girl, but quickly approaching. “Stop it! You’re hurting my Harry-pooh!”

Harry-pooh? Boy was I in the wrong reality! I knew I would never be able to safely explain myself to the approaching crowd, but I had to get Harry and Ginny away from there, so I could at least talk to them. Stuffing my wand back in my belt, and then grabbing both Ginny and Harry’s arms, I hoped that my being different allowed me to bend the rules. It did. The three of us Disapperated away.


*****



“Harry…your beard…”

Spinner-Harry reached out to feel it, and realized the whiskers had returned just as the couple had been pulled back through the Arch. He turned to look at Ginny, and his own eyes went wide to match hers. While no longer sixteen, neither was she sixty-two. The girl had reverted to perhaps her mid-twenties. From what he was able to see with the black of his long beard, he himself was no older. The magic of the brush with the alternative universe had somehow restored their youth more permanently.

“I must say you look wonderful for your age Ginny,” he finally said with his best grin. “Spenser did you…? Hold on! Where are they?”

“They didn’t come back with us Harry!” Ginny mumbled in a scared voice.

“Blast! I must not have specifically instructed the Arch that they were supposed to return as well.” Harry turned and stepped over to the magical structure and began to study it. “We can’t go back for them Ginny…not the way their reality affected us. Besides, he may be with our counterparts. Show us the world we just visited,” he shouted then. The Arch remained dark. “Bring Spenser and Professor Snape’s body back here…now!” Still there was nothing.

“Harry, something is clearly wrong. It’s as if that reality doesn’t exist any longer. Oh no! Harry, you don’t suppose…?”

“How could I be so stupid Ginny! There are almost infinite possibilities–-infinite dimensions. For some strange reason Spenser doesn’t appear in any of them except for this timeline. What if his coming with us didn’t help, but rather caused all this. For all we know, that world may not even be there anymore.” Harry and Ginny locked eyes and stared at each other for almost a full minute.

“I’ve got a bad feeling about this,” they oddly enough said together.


*****



While my Harry and Ginny were enjoying the well-deserved sleep for which my body was again screaming, and the older couple was in Our Room of Requirement wondering if I had magically dissolved into cosmic nothingness, I was actually Apparating with the third set into another part of Hogwarts.

“How did you do that? Where are we? You can’t Apparate on school grounds!” this Ginny screamed. Harry finally broke away from me and pulled back several feet to cower behind a table.”

“I’m not from around here. For some reason, it allows me to pop in and out,”

“You can Apparate because you’re an American?” she asked. Curiosity had trumped fear if her voice was any indication.

“Uhm…no it’s not that. Actually, I’m from an alternative reality. I came here with another Ginny and Harry…a much braver Harry I might add.” This one stood up again, and his face flushed with embarrassment. “I came here to bring back Snape’s corpse in order to save the one from my timeline…or I was until you fried it.”

“You what?” Harry shouted. Anger was dominant now. “After what he did?”

“What he did, Harry my boy, is work behind the scenes to save your neck and help defeat Voldemort. He was a friend and classmate of your mother while they were here. When your parents were killed, Snape…”

“My parents aren’t dead! My mum’s a Muggle. She didn’t come to Hogwarts! I don’t believe any of what you’re saying! Who are you?”

“Great! That alternative universe thing again. I suppose you don’t even have…” I took a step toward him and could see this Harry didn’t have the scar either. “My name is Spenser. I’m a writer, a student here, and, believe it or not, one of the good guys.”

“Where are we?” Ginny asked again.

“You’re in the Ghost’s Billiard Room. We sort of discovered it last Christmas while we were exploring Hogwarts. I know, I know…you didn’t come back to school for your seventh year. Wait…you did? Sheesh! Well you didn’t go to finish Voldemort off here anyway. One of my Harrys had to do that for you.”

“What? Voldemort’s dead? What do you mean one of your Harrys?

“He’s right Harry. I saw it all.” Ginny moved to face him and placed her hands on his shoulders. “It was you, but it wasn’t you. I don’t understand any of it, but I think he’s telling the truth. That other Harry wielded incredible magic, and defeated Voldemort inside the Great Hall.” Harry pulled away again. He took a step back.

“No…it can’t be true! It wasn’t me! It couldn’t have been!” he shouted. “I…I was attacked in the dark outside. I faked being dead and tried to hide from him. I’m no good in a duel. I was afraid!”

It was my turn to walk up and begin studying his face. It was a good face, but a different one–-a very much gentler Harry. Those things that had made my Harrys so strong hadn’t occurred in his life I decided. Of course, I pretty much hadn’t experienced any of what my Harry had either. Was I really staying out the way of those more capable when I had gone to the infirmary during our battle? Was what this Wizard did any different? Was it really fear, or just an acknowledgement of our lack of skill? I didn’t know how to answer my own questions yet, but I had to do something for this Harry.

“Hey buddy, listen to me. There are a lot of different ways to be brave. You and I aren’t soldiers, but you’re going to have to pretend to be one now. The Harry who came here with me did some extraordinary magic downstairs a while ago, and he broke a bunch of temporal laws. As far as anyone knows, or can be allowed to know, it was you who did it. No wait…hear me out. In every world where I’ve seen the war end there’s been a great deal of rebuilding…healing to do. You’re now the focal point of the return to normalcy everyone needs, whether you want it or not. No one may know the truth. You’re going to have to endure being the hero, and, in a way, that’s going to require even greater bravery. Hmm…what a great monologue. I should be writing all this down.”

“No…I…”

“He’s right Harry,” Ginny said almost inaudibly.

“I should have been down there Ginny. I should have been fighting beside you.”

“You were already wounded. You would have gotten yourself killed, and my version couldn’t have come near you to smite What’s-His-Smell. Harry, the highest form of bravery is the acceptance of responsibility. Are you up for a second chance oh great Savior of the Wizarding World?

Harry tried to stare me down then, but there was something changing in him. Something I always recognized in the other versions. Things were going to be all right, and Ginny and he both knew it.

“What will you do now? Can we help?” Ginny asked for both of them.

“Nah, but thanks. I hate to remind you, but you’ve got a lot of people down out there that are going to need tending now. You could do me a favor and check on Luni for me though. I’m hoping she was just hurt not dead.”

“She’s alive, but badly hurt. I saw them helping her,” Ginny said. I caught myself breathing again. “Please don’t call her by that name. She’s one of the bravest and most brilliant people in Gryffindor House.”

“Luna’s in Gryffindor here? Cool. Now I need to find a way to…whoa!” It hit me then like Hermione and her favorite shovel. “I am so stupid! Guys I’ve got to go now. Good luck…you’ll need it I think.” I was already going out through the Billiard Room’s portal before I’d finished.


*****



For maybe twenty minutes I ran through the castle, losing track of how many times I had to double back to find a new route through the destroyed school. I could have Apparated closer to my destination, but there was something in me that wanted the devastation engraved into my brain to keep there. Harry had prevented all this…we had done it in my world, and I had helped. Any shame of not standing beside my friends in battle faded with each step.

Tears filled my eyes as I saw the bodies everywhere, and twice I stopped to apply elementary healing spells to those only wounded. I couldn’t do more for them. I didn’t know if doing so would dramatically alter the timeline, and besides, I still had one more life to save back home. Finally arriving at the hallway, I wanted, I slowed to a fast pace and began reciting the mantra that I hoped would produce what I wanted.

“I require a passageway to the hiding place of B’kur’s Arch! I require a passageway to the hiding place of B’kur’s Arch!” It took five tries.

Pulling open the door that finally appeared, I rushed inside to find a long, torch-lit, adobe brick tunnel. For another five minutes, I ran until finally I emerged into a large domed room with another Arch positioned in its center. The architecture and heat I encountered told me I was most likely in the desert, but I could hear waves crashing through the high, open windows.

“I knew you’d be here. You exist in all realities, don’t you? Show me a world where Professor Severus Snape has just died at Voldemort’s hand, no snakes involved.” It appeared then just as if I’d turned on a television. “Fantastic. Take me there and return the body and me to this spot the moment I make contact with the corpse….please.” That never hurts I discovered.

Stepping through the Arch, I immediately discovered that the picture I was viewing of the Shrieking Shack was incomplete. Out of what had been my line of vision stood Bellatrix Lestrange holding vigil over the fallen Death Eater. Both of us reacted at the same moment. I dove for Snape pointing my wand and screaming Hocus Pocus to her Avada Kedavra. I was a tad faster. As I landed on his body I was extremely pleased to see a little white bunny rabbit where she had been standing. I was extremely displeased that once again the Arch hadn’t pulled me back when it was supposed to. Snape and I were still in the haunted shack.

“Ah nuts! Okay, we need to get out of here. Forget the castle! Two final battles in one day are enough. Let’s try the Hog’s Head!”

Grabbing Snape’s sleeve, I concentrated on the upstairs room at the tavern, which our group had often used when away from school. He and I were gone with a crack, but we arrived with a violent shudder. What were the odds? What were the odds? Across the room stood a fourth Harry and Ginny and a very much alive Severus Snape. They had obviously pulled the same switcheroo in this universe.

The proximity of the two Snapes was instantly causing the very reaction we had feared, and they could not be allowed to accidentally touch. I had to get back out of there fast. This time I grabbed the corpse’s hand, but before I could Disapparate, the Arch pulled us back to the ancient, domed room where it had been hidden. Apparently touching Snape hadn’t included his clothing. I had to make contact with the man himself in order to have us retrieved by B’kur’s Arch.

I then directed it to take me to my universe, just outside Voldemort’s encampment in the Forbidden Forest where I could deposit the dead body. Minutes later, I watched at a safe distance as the Dark Lord, learning someone had beaten him to the Potions master (thus cheating him of the Elder Wand), threw a fit worthy of a Quentin Tarantino movie.

After about ten minutes of his theatrics, Snakeface stomped off in the direction of Hogwarts and what I knew would be his swansong. He had left behind four different piles of ashes–-former fans who had been too close when he was venting. If I was a better person, perhaps I would have felt a twinge of guilt knowing that I could have stepped out, warned them, and maybe saved some human (sort of human) lives. The thing was however, I had seen those better people dead at Death Eater hands on more than one world.

Once his troupe had gone, I waited another ten minutes before emerging from my hiding place behind some ancient trees and downwind of the clearing. Nagini hadn’t smelled me, and fortunately no one had magically felt me inside their head either. It had been risky, but I still had an additional task to perform. Per Sirius’ instructions, I placed the memory vile with the older Harry’s note atop Snape’s body. I barely made it out of there before my friends arrived to make their own discovery–-the one I described earlier. It wouldn’t do to have them meet up with me when I was also up in the infirmary with Madame Pomfrey at that time. I curled up there in the trees to wait until it would be safe, trying my best, but completely unable to summon sleep.

It was well after midnight when I walked back to the school and let myself into our Room of Requirement. When she saw me, this Ginny rushed over and delivered one of those hugs for which Weasleys were famous. I was too exhausted to be surprised at their respective new ages, but I remembered thinking that they’d need good disguises to mask themselves and avoid an explanation. Fortunately, there was still enough of an age gap and physical difference where this Harry and Ginny could still safely interact with ours.

I took the time to give them the short version of what had happened after they left, Harry talked about the problems they’d had with our Arch (possibly because I was utilizing the other one), and Sirius outlined his plans to offer Snape a new life in yet another reality.

I could only nod. After a minute or two, Sirius took my arm, and, with a nudge of his head, indicated that the now much-relieved Harry and Ginny might want some time alone together. I had just enough strength left to smile back at him.


*****



I closed the folder holding this last chapter and stared at it for what seemed like an eternity. A lot of time has passed since that night when Harry, Ginny, and I saved Snape. It could be shared now. All of us had acquired our hard-earned gray hair–-with a story for each strand it seems.

I never did formally meet the actual man whose life we saved, not after they woke him at least, but Sirius assured me that he was off in a better place somewhere out there. For all he knows now, the school master has long since passed away of more natural causes–-at his students’ hands for one too many surprise quizzes no doubt. In point of fact, the other Harry and Ginny (now married) wanted to continue teaching as well, working under aliases. They also had to depart through the Arch, since, with their restored youth, someone was certain to notice their resemblance to our versions, and the couple was tiring of disguises.

Finally, I picked up the manuscript, donned my favorite winter coat, left a note for Luni telling her where I was going, and set off from our tower home for that of my friends. I wasn’t surprised in the least when, a half-hour later, I found Luna standing on their front porch waiting for me, a copy of the rest of the book clutched in her hands. She knew me far too well.

A knock at the door, strong tea and fresh, hot moonberry muffins, Luna and Ginny swapping stories about the grandchildren–-Harry and I about the upcoming Christmas broom race in Wales. I pulled out the new chapter and without prompting began to read it. I had complete silence, not a single question or comment until I had finished, and then Harry waited several seconds before he spoke.

“That was a good thing you all did for him Spenser…and for us,” he slowly said. Ginny and he had not reacted the way I had expected at all. They were polite, and seemed to appreciate the revelation, but it was almost as if they’d known all along. Had Sirius told them anything?

“What do you mean Harry?” I asked. I was at a complete loss I decided.

“The other Harry, Ginny, and you helped my Ginny and me fulfill a debt we owed Snape. I know my parents would be pleased to know he was given that new life and chance. I’ll go on now remembering this, and feeling good that it really happened,” he explained. If they had known before he wasn’t going to admit it yet.

“Well, looking back, I didn’t do all that much other than fix messes I probably caused in the first place Harry. Your older selves came up with the whole plan.”

“You agreed to go with Harry and Ginny regardless of what might happen. What if something worse had occurred?” Ginny asked then. “What if he had needed you during his final confrontation with that Voldemort? You weren’t any good in a fight, you knew this, but you accompanied him anyway. What if the two of them were about to come into physical contact with their counterparts? Speaking of whom, the talk you had with the third couple sounds as if it was just the kick they needed. Could their world have returned to normalcy…and I hope it did…if that Harry hadn’t agreed to pretend being the hero.”

What ifs are powerful little buggers aren’t they? They’re annoying and they can be dangerous too,” I admitted. “All those alternative universes are because of all those possibilities, and ‘what ifs’ is simply another name for them. I suppose there’s even one reality somewhere where Harry and you don’t end up together.”

“Dream on Spenser,” Ginny said, all at once choking on her laughter. Harry was holding his sides and couldn’t speak.

“Even on the highest celestial levels that would be an impossibility,” Luna quickly added.

“Yes…yes, it is,” I could easily concede. I’d learned over the years not to doubt the girl’s observations, and this was an obvious one.


*****



Well true believers that’s the missing chapter. I hope you enjoyed it. Actually, there was one more scene if you’re interested. You see, after the fact, I helped Sirius when he once again hid the Arch. I had told him how I had found it utilizing the Room of Requirement in that other universe, and we did something similar at our Hogwarts. We asked the castle for a hiding place that could only be accessed by any of three Secret Keepers; in this case it was Sirius, me, and surprisingly he insisted on Luna. I occasionally go there not so much to travel through it again (although I have), but rather to take a peek at how the older Harry and Ginny are doing…and yes, old Snape as well.

Their new universe was actually one we had visited one particular Halloween night. We saved Harry’s parents, although their Voldemort and Snape had both been killed. While Hogwarts acquired the services of Professors Harry and Ginny Gryffin, at the same time everyone’s favorite Potions master easily slipped into his counterpart’s shoes.

“You are about to learn the subtle science and exact art of potion-making. As there is little foolish wand-waving here, many of you will hardly believe this is magic. I don’t expect that you will really understand the beauty of the softly simmering cauldron with its shimmering fumes, the delicate power of liquids that creep through human veins, bewitching the mind, ensnaring the senses… I can teach you how to bottle fame, brew glory, even stopper death–-if you aren’t as big a bunch of dunderheads as I usually have to teach.”

Please don’t say that you recognize that. It really is the exact same speech he gave to every incoming class for decades. Snape used it long before it appeared in The Philosopher’s Stone. Her books were never written in that other universe, and the only copies were those that mysteriously appeared in Snape’s and the Gryffins’ rooms a few years after their arrival.

“Potter…what would you get if you mixed spindle-weed with a ten-year-old extract of scissor cactus?”

“I…I don’t know sir.”

“Of course, you don’t. Lower your hand Miss Granger, I am not directing my questions toward you at this time. I am already quite aware that you know the answers…all the answers. Very well Mr. Potter, what would you have if you combined steamed milk with ground Burundian dark-roasted beans?”

“Uhm…an excellent latte sir?”

“No, it’s…wait that’s actually that’s correct. You took too long to answer however. Come see me after class regarding your detention for…uncombed hair in class.”

Eleven-year-old Harry barely paid attention to the rest of the lecture, probably hoping that his new friend Ron was able to take better notes than he was now producing. Harry was far too distracted, and more than a little confused. Perhaps he could get some help from the pretty girl with the big teeth and bushy brown hair. That’s right; her name was Hermione. She and her future boyfriend/husband gave Harry sympathetic looks as they later filed out leaving him alone with the professor.

“Now young Potter, you are no doubt wondering why I really kept you here.”

“Yes, Uncle Severus,” Harry whispered.

Snape then did something you would never believe–-he smiled. No, it wasn’t his typical evil smirk. It was a genuine, heartfelt, honest-to-goodness smile. Stranger things have happened you know. I was once able to drive a nail in the wall for a painting without destroying the cottage.

“You must never call me that when someone might be listening. So very much like your father you are Harry, although I hope you never select someone to be the butt of magical pranks as he once did.”

“He, Uncle Sirius, and Uncle Remus have all apologized several times you remember, and not because Mum made them either.”

“That is absolutely…true Harry. I asked you to stay because I cannot show you any favoritism. I asked you to stay because I would like to tell you a story finally–-one that I believe you are ready to hear. Have you met your friend Ron Weasley’s sister Ginny yet? You have? Good. That will make part of the tale easier, but I’m not allowed to reveal everything to you. First though, would you please light the teakettle while I finish cleaning up the debris from Mr. Finnigan’s explosion?”

Second chances? Sometimes they really are wonderful.

Mischief managed!
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