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"My dear Perenelle, I fear I'm too old to change my antics now." Nicholas said smiling.
"I know that look Nicholas." His wife stated as she took in his pleased look. "What did you do this time?"
"I believe I made a very interesting acquaintance today my dear." He stated as they walked towards the Leaky Cauldron. "A very interesting acquaintance indeed!"
It was a surprisingly sunny day for November in the Highlands, one Harry Potter thought to himself as he skipped towards the dungeons of his guardian's castle early in the morning. The sun peeking through the windows did nothing to lessen the cold outside but it was a nice change from the endless grey that had surrounded the castle for over a week. The young boy walked effortlessly through the corridors of the keep that he had come to call home over the past three, almost four now, months.
Everything had gone as agreed during the summer; Harry spent three out of five working days of the week plus weekends at Severus's house and none was the wiser that that house no longer was at Spinner's End. Harry liked it better that way; things back at Potter manor had made a slight turn for the worse if anyone wanted his opinion on the subject.
With the more rigorous training Adrian had to undergo, Harry found himself spending less and less time in the presence of his parents. Once again, he wasn't mistreated or anything and he got letters from them every time it was required for them to stay away for longer than two days. He just couldn't help but feel excluded as he stood at the family table and heard stories of what Adrian had seen or how Sirius and his father had gotten a new exciting mission from the Ministry and he ended up finding out after it was over. True, they weren't supposed to discuss it before it was over, but he didn't miss the conspirartory glances between his father and Adrian that clearly stated his brother had known beforehand anyways.
And then there were the stories from Adrian's training; they were the worst of it all actually. It wasn't that they went on and on about his brother's training. It was that they spoke in half sentences, as if keeping a secret, as if Harry wasn't fit to know. He couldn't blame Adrian for that as his brother, who had noticed Harry's sometimes hurt expression, had solemnly promised he would teach him everything he knew the moment they started attending Hogwarts. That had brought a soft smile to the green eyed boy's face and had served to reinforce his decision to allow his brother to get all the training in the world.
Speaking of training, Harry thought, a very characteristic smirk -adopted from the very man he had set out to find- appearing on his face; that was going rather well. In addition to the first mark he had received on his emblem, a few days ago his magic had deemed him ready to receive the mark of an apprentice in the Dark Arts. Harry was shocked to say the least when Severus translated his newly acquired rune as he couldn't, for the life of him, remember ever practicing a single spell characterized as dark. The potions master had regarded his rapidly panicking honorary son with a blank expression before resolving into laughter; it took him a few minutes before he was somber enough to explain to Harry that his magic had no way of differentiating between the Dark Arts and Defense Against The Dark Arts, as that was a relatively modern term used to separate the dark spells authorized by the Ministry from the ones forbidden.
Harry smiled at the thought of the man he had come to call his Dad. He remembered fondly some of the happiest moments in the castle during their stay there; the surprise party he had thrown for Severus for their first month in the castle for example. Harry, admittedly acting quite sneakily, had made a point of getting all of the house elves to stay silent as he finally gathered all he needed for his surprise just three days before the actual date. He had asked Minnie to bake a cake and everything and used all his pocket money to buy Severus and himself two tickets for a game between the Hollyhead Harpies and the Tutshill Tornadoes that was on the day that marked one month of their stay. Severus had stood completely frozen in shock the moment he entered the living room that day; Harry largely attributed that to the huge banner writing "My Home Is My Castle!" that he had placed himself -as good practice for his levitation spellwork as any!- on the wall.
Then there was that one time, early in September, when Severus explained to him what that project of his was. Apparently all the talk of him and Harry being a family had peeked his interest, so he did some research and go figure; magic would never cease to surprise him! It had turned out that, back at that first day when Harry had called him Dad, their magic had acted on its own and performed a ritual that, as Severus explained, had fallen out of practice for almost a millennia.
The boy rolled his eyes at remembering Severus's reaction from then on; the potions master had deemed him a magnet of old magic of any kind with a very theatrical expression and went on -in a quite successful Shakespearian dramatization- to predict how he would end up an old wizard with a beard longer than both Dumbledore's and Merlin's combined, locked in his tower, studying endlessly over charts and books. It was the day Harry discovered how very difficult it was to stay cross at Severus Snape when he was going out of his way to depict exactly how Harry would look at the age of one hundred and fifty, even donning said beard to be more descriptive.
Back at the ritual however; turns out their magic had reacted and performed what was called a family bond specifically the, in Severus's words, Unum Genus Vinculum. It was a bond used during the time their castle was first built to bind a child under the protection of an adult, making said adult a third parent in magical terms, in case the family of the child was killed during a battle or siege. It wasn't legally binding or anything and thus didn't appear in the Ministry's books, but magic had acknowledged them as father and son and that was a secret both wizards treasured.
And now, Harry was on his way to find his honorary father who had once again skipped breakfast, lost in his studies. Severus, being the good man he didn't believe he was, had begun a new project after witnessing a scene at Potter manor almost a fortnight ago;
Harry was getting ready to depart from his family's house one Thursday afternoon and was reading a book by the fire as he waited for Severus to floo over. The flames burned green and the boy peered at the clock over the fireplace; Severus was always in time but their appointment was in ten minutes and Harry knew for a fact he had a staff meeting in Hogwarts that afternoon. And truly, it wasn't Severus who came out the flames but a disheveled and tired Remus Lupin.
"Hello Harry." The werewolf greeted the boy who swiftly put down the book he was holding and rose from the armchair to meet him.
"Hey there, Moony." Harry greeted back observing the dark circles under the man's eyes. Remus was only twenty eight but looked older than his years, the first grey hair already making its appearance. He was looking especially tired that afternoon and Harry could guess why without the help of his astronomy studies; it was the full moon last night.
HI GUYS IF YOU WANT READ 100 + CHAPTERS THEN VISIT
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