The Best Man I Ever Knew, Part 2
Teen · Angst · Hurt/Comfort · Drama · Post-War · Canon Divergence · Multi-chapter · On Hiatus
I declare that the whole world of Harry Potter is the sole property of J.K. Rowling and that this story was not written for profit.
Harry stood looking at the cakes in the bakery, thinking. Soren had asked him whether he would throw him a party where he could invite his friends from nursery. Harry had stared at him. He pictured a birthday party at the Burrow, but there was a catch. Soren was Harry's little public secret. The public knew Harry had a child, but Molly, for example, had never met him. Or Draco Malfoy. As Severus's godson he would probably be happy to know that someone was left after his godfather. His mother had died shortly after the war and his father was sitting in Azkaban. Only Ron and Hermione knew the truth. And now the time had come when Harry bitterly regretted not telling the people closest to him the whole truth. He turned and left the bakery without buying anything.
He Apparated home and called through the fireplace to Hermione and Ron's house. "Ron? Are you home?" Ron answered from the room and smiled. "Hi, Harry! I've got the night shift today, so what do you need? Babysitting?" Harry's face in the fireplace smiled. "Well, no and yes. Soren is turning five. He'd like a party. But I'm at my wits' end. I can't put one together for him. I've decided it would be good to introduce him and our story to the others too." Ron thought about it. "Aren't you a bit afraid Mum will think you only came because you wanted her to throw a birthday party, and otherwise you'd never have said a word?" Harry frowned. "That didn't occur to me! It's a stupid idea, isn't it?" Ron shook his head. "Look, come over here. And we'll go together. We'll explain it to them. By the clock Mum should be home, even though Dad is still at work. It'll be okay!"
A little while later they Apparated to the Burrow. Molly threw up her hands, but hugged them both. Harry felt even worse. She sat them down at the dining table and made fresh tea. "So, boys, what brings you here?" Then she turned. "Let me just take out the buns, Harry, and we can have a chat! I'm so glad you've come to visit me!" She clattered around at the counter for a moment, put a plate of buns on the table and then sat down opposite him and winked conspiratorially. "Any girl on the horizon?" Harry's forehead broke out in sweat. "Molly. I'll probably never have a girl. I'm gay." Molly frowned. "But you have a son?" He blinked. "Promise me, Molly, that you won't be angry with me. Only Ron and Hermione know the truth. I couldn't say it. I didn't feel up to it." Molly leaned in worriedly. "But dear, of course I won't be angry!" After that reassurance and Molly's smile, he began to tell the story. "Soren is actually Severus Snape's son." Molly raised her eyebrows, but stayed silent and left Harry room. "I was in a relationship with Severus, Molly. For a long time. And then it just happened that Severus slipped up. We'd had a nasty fight back then. He slept with some woman who got pregnant and gave him Soren. Unfortunately, as you know, Severus died. He only told me about Soren while he was lying in my arms, and his last request was that I raise Soren as my own and give him a home." He paused and avoided looking at Molly. "It took several months before I found him. He'd ended up in an orphanage, Molly. Then he didn't speak. A small, frightened boy. Ron and Hermione helped me." And then Molly spoke up. "I understand, Harry. So when will you finally bring him to show his granny?" Harry finally looked her in the eyes, which were shining with tears. "Molly, I'm so sorry I haven't been able to say it until now and bring him to show you. I was terribly afraid of what you'd all say. I didn't want to tarnish Severus's memory." And he burst into tears, his grief over his loss returning in full. Ron patted him on the back and Molly walked around the table and hugged him like a mother bear. "Harry. I understand. I won't say a word against Severus. Apparently he loved you and you loved him. Those times were such that each of us needed someone to lean on. I don't mind that you were in a relationship, and I think Severus couldn't have asked a better person to take care of his son. I only wish you hadn't been alone with it all these years." Harry calmed down and straightened up. "I'm sorry, Molly. I could come here with him even today. Will you tell..." he swallowed. "Will you somehow tell Arthur and the others? I," he faltered. "Soren is turning five next week. He'd like a party where he could invite his friends, and I was thinking I could hold it here?" Molly burst out laughing. "Of course, Harry, where else?! Just bring him here today for tea and biscuits! Ron here loved them as a child." Then she paused and asked carefully, "Is he a lot like Severus?" Harry burst out laughing, pulled out his wallet, where he kept photographs of Severus and Soren, and started talking. "Severus was forever grumpy and sarcastic, but when he smiled, it was impossible not to love him. He had that smile that lights up the whole room, and Soren inherited it. Despite the horror he went through at first, that child is a little angel, unlike Sev." Ron nodded. "I love it when we play. He listens to everything I say and he loves Quidditch! One day he'll be a Keeper, like me!" Harry nudged him and added, "Over my dead body!" Molly smiled. "Well, otherwise Soren has no idea what sarcasm is, he's just brutally honest. His favourite toy is a potions set for children and he loves to read. He's five, but he reads as if he were at least twenty. Hermione started learning the alphabet with him practically as soon as I brought him home, and then she taught him to read too." Ron snorted and added fondly, "Swot to swot." Harry chuckled. "I make sure he doesn't lack anything, but I definitely don't spoil him. When he doesn't like something, I usually end up without plates and have nothing to serve lunch or dinner on. He's a really strong and potentially powerful wizard. Just wait until you see him, Molly!" Ron chuckled. "He forgot to add that Soren loves sweets, just like Snape!" Harry nudged him again. "Severus allowed himself a chocolate Sachertorte at most! Soren would eat me too, if I had a sugar cube inside me." He burst out laughing just like Ron, and Molly threw up her hands. "Well, then I've got something to look forward to! Can I bake him a cake for the party, Harry?" Harry nodded, moved, and hugged Molly again.
Two days later
Harry straightened Soren's robe. "Don't be afraid of anything, Soren! You already know Molly and Arthur, and the others at the party are great too." Soren fidgeted. "Dad? You know how you told me about that man? Snape? At nursery they said very nasty things about him." He lowered his head. Harry took a breath, he knew Soren had been somehow subdued. "Listen. Severus was the bravest man I ever had the honour of knowing! Never doubt that. Those people don't know what they're talking about, because they didn't know him and because they only read gossip." Soren raised a look full of hope. "Soren." Harry hugged him. "You mustn't argue with them. It's not important. What matters is what you think and what the people who really knew him think." He felt little arms wrap around his neck. "Daddy, who was he actually?" Harry closed his eyes to chase away the tears. "One day I really will tell you, sweetheart. But right now it doesn't matter, and we don't have time!" He got up with him in his arms. "Someone's having a party today, aren't they?! Ready to go?" Soren finally lit up. "Yeah!" With that Harry Apparated.
Molly welcomed them both. The Burrow was quiet. Soren fidgeted in his dad's arms, when suddenly everyone jumped out from behind various pieces of furniture and yelled through the whole Burrow, "Happy birthday!!!" Soren burst out laughing and, rosy cheeked, ran first of all to Aunt Hermione. The children were only supposed to arrive a little later. Everyone wanted to enjoy the little rascal. Over the next 20 minutes he made his way round Hermione and Ron, Molly and Arthur, the Weasley siblings and, to Harry's surprise, Neville and Luna too. Molly hadn't wasted any time and had let those two in on it as well. After all, they were among Harry's closest friends. Harry was extremely grateful to her. Now the only one left to tell about Soren's existence was Malfoy. Harry was convinced Severus would have wanted it, and he was sure Draco would be very happy too. But something still held him back. Soren didn't really know who Severus Snape actually was. And Harry was sure he still didn't want Soren's existence to be widely known in England. Maybe it would be better to wait until he was eleven. For his tenth birthday he'd like to give him something of Severus's and explain who he had been. Only then could Malfoy follow. He sat down contentedly on the sofa, watched the others fuss around Soren and allowed himself to switch off. He knew he would be well looked after. He closed his eyes wearily. For the first time since Severus's death he fell peacefully asleep...
Towards the end of the day a hand on his shoulder woke him. "Harry!" Molly's voice reached him. "Harry, wake up." Then he caught her next words. "Poor thing, he probably hasn't been sleeping much. He looks completely worn out!" Harry opened his eyes. "Molly?" he breathed in surprise, straightened up and looked around. The lights were on in the room, there was no sign of the children, and their friends weren't anywhere to be seen either. "You were completely out. But don't worry about it." Harry put his head in his hands. "I missed the blowing out of the candles!" Molly patted his shoulder. "Oh please, Harry, that's alright! Soren understood, and besides, you'll have plenty more chances..." That made Harry react. "Where is he, actually? Is the whole party over?" Arthur folded his newspaper and nodded. "We put him to bed upstairs. I think you'll fit on the bed with him, it would be a shame to wake the little angel." He smiled. Molly agreed and Harry smiled. "Thank you, Molly and Arthur. I'll gladly take you up on that." With that he went upstairs to Ron's old bedroom. When he opened the door, his eyes searched all the shadows of the room. He smiled and went straight to the bed, where Soren was curled up in a little ball. Harry took off his hoodie and sat down. For a while he just looked into the darkness, and then he felt a small hand stroking his back. He turned and smiled at that adorable child. "Will you tell me a story, Daddy?" Soren pleaded. Harry lay down facing him and covered them both. "What would you like a story about, Soren?" The child thought for a moment and then grinned at Harry. "How Harry Potter defeated the basilisk! Our teacher told us about it! And Daddy? Is it about you? Your name is Potter too, isn't it? Are you famous?" Harry sighed. He knew he wouldn't escape it anyway, but he hadn't expected it so soon. "Well, yes. I'm Harry Potter, vanquisher of evil dark wizards and the basilisk." He smiled. It took him only a moment to work out how to wrap the story so it wasn't too bloody, and which facts to leave out so the little one wouldn't have nightmares. When he began, he had Soren's full attention. Throughout the telling Soren kept interrupting and jumping ahead. He was completely awake. Until halfway through the story Harry believed he would fall asleep, but he was wrong. When he had finished, he pulled the blanket up to Soren's chin. "And now we're going to sleep! It's very late." Soren was quiet, but he kept tossing and turning, and Harry could feel his tension. "Out with it. What's bothering you?" Soren didn't hesitate. "Daddy? That man Snape. Did you love him?" Harry closed his eyes. "Yes, Soren. I loved him." "Like a girlfriend?" Harry had to chuckle a little. "Figuratively speaking, yes." Soren snuggled up to him and put his arms around his neck. "One day he'll come back to us, won't he?" Harry didn't answer. He just pulled Soren tightly against him.
Molly stood behind the door. She had listened to Harry's whole story, and at Soren's last words she bit her hand and, her face wet with tears, went back to Arthur in their bedroom, where she told him everything. Arthur hugged her. "We'll see, Molly. Soren is a gifted wizard, and you know that with gifted wizards you never know what to expect..."
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Mimosa Confiante
By day, I work somewhere between marketing, copy and campaigns; by night, I usually end up somewhere between fanfiction, cosplay and yet another “what if” that refuses to leave me alone. I write mainly in the Harry Potter and Mo Dao Zu Shi fandoms, most often Snarry, Snamione, HarryLu and WangXian. My healthcare background means that anatomy, medicine and far too much research occasionally find their way into my stories. Cosplay is another way for me to play with the characters I love, whether I stay close to canon or turn them into my own fanfiction and AU versions. In Diary of a Slytherin Girl with ADHD, I write openly about life with a brain that usually has far too many tabs open at once.
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