‘So, I really think Mum and Dad could use the company,’ Rose finished, giving her aunt and uncle what she hoped was a pleading look. She was sure they’d want to spend as much time with James as possible, and asking them to leave seemed almost foolish.
She and Severus Snape had arrived back in Rose’s time at exactly the right moment “ about five seconds after Rose had left “ but not at the right place. It had taken Rose about fifteen minutes of walking, Snape getting obviously more and more irritated with each passing second, to even figure out where she was. Luckily she’d recognized the small London neighborhood eventually and she and Snape had Apparated to the Potters’ seconds after that.
Rose had had to endure Snape’s sarcastic comments while they’d walked and so it had been with immense pleasure that she’d shoved him into a shed at the rear of the Potter’s house, taken her wand back, and entered the house through the dining room window that Albus had left open for her. The boy had a sixth sense or something “ it would have looked very odd if Rose had entered through the front door and her aunt or uncle had seen her “ she was still covered with Snape’s blood. A Muggle woman had seen Snape, her and the blood that they were caked in. She had run screaming for the police. Rose had expected her to ask them if they needed help “ she blamed Snape for being so terrifying. The poor woman had probably thought they’d just murdered someone because of the scowl he’d been wearing.
Now, having cornered Harry and Ginny in their room, Rose waited for a reply.
Harry was giving her an odd look (she’d washed all the blood off, she told herself, there was nothing to worry about) but eventually he glanced at his wife and said, ‘It sounds like a good idea. We haven’t seen Ron and Hermione for a while.’
Rose nodded quickly. ‘They need some cheering up “ and who better? You should stay for a few days, it’d get me off their back for a while… I’m sure they’d be happy about that.’
‘But James…’ began Ginny worriedly.
‘Aunt Ginny, Al, Lily and I will take care of him. I promise. We’ll feed him and make sure he stays warm and we’ll owl you if anything happens. Anything it all. I swear.’
‘It’s a good idea,’ repeated Harry, apparently warming to the idea. ‘We need to get out of the house. We can trust the kids, I’m sure.’
Ginny looked from Harry to Rose to Harry, still looking uncertain. ‘Okay, then,’ she said eventually. ‘For a few days. And you’ll owl if anything happens?’
‘Immediately,’ Rose swore, trying not to grin.
Apparently, Harry and Ginny needed a vacation terribly; though they wouldn’t admit it to anyone, not even themselves. They packed at lightning speed, taking enough clothes to last for two or three days, and were ready to go in ten minutes. Ginny grilled Albus and Lily at the front door, making sure they knew what to do with James and that they had to eat three meals a day or she’d kill them and that if anything, absolutely anything, went wrong they were to summon her or their father. She gave them both hugs and smiled at Rose while Harry hugged Lily and Albus as well, having returned from James room. Then Harry picked up the bags and the two of them walked down the front steps. They Apparated away just as the sun pushed its way to the top of the sky.
‘What was that all about?’ demanded Albus as soon as his parents had left. ‘Why’d they have to leave? Did you get the cure? Rose!’
Rose was already hurrying through the living room, into the dining room. She pushed open the window and climbed out of it, stumbling slightly as she landed. Albus and Lily were right behind her clamoring to be told what had happened. Rose slammed open the shed door and found Snape sitting on an overturned wooden crate, going through one of his books. Rose suddenly wanted to laugh and the urge became overwhelming when Snape looked up and saw Albus and Lily gaping at him. Rose looked from her cousins to Severus and had to bite her cheeks to hold in the unexpected laugh.
The fact that getting her aunt and uncle out of the house had been so easy had boosted Rose’s confidence. This was going to work.
‘Rose, what did you do?’ screeched Albus, his glasses slipping down his nose in shock.
‘I had to bring him back Al,’ replied Rose. ‘He needs a patient to work on.’
‘Do you know what this could do? He’s supposed to be de”’
‘Considering, Mr. Potter, that am standing right in front of you, I would appreciate it if you ceased referring to me in the third-person.’
Severus’s bored interruption shut Albus up for about five seconds.
‘How’d you know my name?’ Al asked, stunned.
‘I except that to be obvious,’ replied Severus languidly. He didn’t seem to find it uncomfortable that he was surrounded by three people he hardly knew, two of whom were staring at him as if he was a ghost. ‘If you’ve looked in a mirror recently, you’d have noticed you look exactly like your father.’
‘You sound exactly like your portrait,’ Lily said in awe.
This seemed to confuse Snape. ‘My portrait?’
‘Never mind that,’ announced Rose. They could talk all they wanted later but right now she needed a cure.
‘We have your patient,’ she informed Snape. ‘He’s upstairs.’
‘Then I suggest you lead the way, and we get this over with,’ answered Severus.
Rose had already started walking before Snape had replied but on hearing his words she stopped short. Severus bumped into her from behind, his books poking her in the back before she turned around.
‘”Get this over with”? Where do you have to go?’ she asked him.
‘I, Miss Weasley, have my own life to take care of.’
‘Your own life? I saved your “own” life! The least you could do is act like this is worth your time.’
‘You saved my life for your own purposes, Miss Weasley,’ said Snape and Rose saw something bitter in his black eyes. ‘I have no reason to be grateful to you. Rather the opposite.’
‘What?’ exclaimed Rose angrily. ‘Did you want to die?’
‘Is there anything left that the world can give me?’ retorted Snape icily. ‘You, Miss Weasley, should know that. I assume you’ve researched me thoroughly. I assume your parents weren’t so arrogant as to ignore the fact of my existence in their past. And yet you require gratefulness.’
His tone was mocking now and fury rose in the pit of Rose’s stomach.
‘It is you who should be grateful to me, like so many other people I have aided in the course of my life, and yet, I get little gratitude. So why, Miss Weasley, do you think that a man such as myself would not be, after the fact, glad to die?’ His voice could have frozen the Black Lake over, his eyes hard and unfeeling.
Behind him, Albus and Lily were exchanging glances. Rose glared at Snape but found no words came to her in reply to his comments.
On her own, she would have had no problem saying it. However, because Snape had brought it up, because he had noticed the lack of it, Rose’s pride got in the way of the words. She had to fight to push the urge to just walk away down into the valleys of her heart. She struggled with herself for a moment before choking out, ‘Thank you, then.’
Snape’s eyebrows rose about a millimeter, almost imperceptibly. Rose turned away before he could say anything else and walked over to the dining room window and clambered in. She didn’t care if Severus would have a hard time getting through that “ let him struggle.
He didn’t struggle, which annoyed Rose even more. She stopped in mid-step again, causing Snape to knock into her once more and said, over her shoulder, ‘And it’s Rose, not “Miss Weasley”!’
After which she stomped over to the stairs, feeling extremely childish.
She led the way to James’s room and had a hand on the doorknob when Lily shrieked out, ‘ROSE!’ causing Rose to jump a foot into the air and spin around. Her sudden stop would have caused Snape to crash into her yet again if Rose hadn’t reached out and put a hand on his chest to stop him.
‘What?’ she asked Lily, peering around Severus, highly irritated by now.
‘Bubble-Head?’ she replied, pointing at her own head. The charm was already in place around her and Albus. Rose had almost forgotten. And what she forgot could get her killed. A little fresh air in a graveyard was all right, but to go into a sick person’s room without protection? Even Rose wasn’t ready for that.
Realizing her hand was still on Snape, she removed it as if she’d been electrocuted and proceeded to pull out her wand to perform the charm. As she did so, she said to Snape, ‘You don’t need one “ it only affects children.’
‘Yes, I seem to recall that,’ replied Snape, looking down at her. He seemed, though Rose really didn’t think it was possible, slightly amused. ‘Though surely you no longer come under the heading of “child”?’
Rose flushed and muttered, ‘Young people then. Everyone under twenty-five.’ She grabbed the doorknob and twisted it.
The room wasn’t dark. Even the curtains swathing the windows could not block out the light of the high noon sun. A golden light filtered though the soft velvet. Rose could see James’s silhouette by it. He was, as always, lying in bed. Of course, as Rose had only technically left here about half an hour ago, she didn’t know what else she could have expected. Harry and Ginny had recently been up to see him so Rose guessed that he was still awake and used her wand to light the candle lamp.
As soon as she did, James’s eyes flew open.
‘Rose, you’re back”’ he began but his words froze in his throat as Snape stepped into the room behind Rose and set his books down on the desk. He gaped at the tall, greasy-haired, hook-nosed, bat-like man with his mouth hanging wide open. He had paled even more from the shock but Rose still felt like he looked worse than when she’d left him thirty minutes ago. His blue eyes seemed to protrude more from his thin face, the bags under them well defined against the sallow appearance of his skin. There were small wrinkles around his eyes, possibly from the constant pain he was in. He’d lasted almost a month, Rose realized. A week longer than Hugo. Two weeks longer than Scorpius. Perhaps her finding a possible cure had given him enough hope to fight? Rose didn’t get her hopes up about that “ the disease ravaged the body steadily for as long as it liked, spreading pain from limb to limb, and then one day, when it felt in the mood, it ended everything. The last day was always sudden and always the worst. She and her parents had thought Hugo had been getting better when he’d just… died. No one ever got better. If there was no cure, it wouldn’t matter how long James lasted or if he tried to fight it “ he’d die eventually. Sooner rather than later.
‘What did you do?’ James’s half-shout brought Rose out of her thoughts.
‘I”’ started Rose, but Severus got there before she did.
‘She brought me back from the past because I required a patient to work on. It is the only way to ensure the potion works properly. I assume you, Mr. Potter, are the patient?’ Snape looked at Rose for confirmation and she nodded. Severus turned back to James, whose mouth had snapped shut again. His jaw was now clenched and Rose assumed that he was hurting somewhere.
‘Then you have little to complain about,’ Snape continued. ‘My presence in this time may well return your health to you.
Rose stepped forward, ready to be of assistance, but Snape held up a hand to stop her.
‘I’m sure you’re eager to begin but I was recently in a battle, not to mention injured. I require rest and food before we commence.’
‘We have food,’ piped up Lily from the doorway, voice slightly muffled by the bubble around her head.
‘And you can have my bed,’ offered Albus. He was sitting on the desk, legs swinging lazily, and staring at the titles of the books Snape had set there. Rose could see the eagerness to grab them and being reading in his eyes.
‘How about food first?’ Rose suggested. ‘I’ll bring it here.’
Severus nodded and then sat down on the desk chair that Albus kicked out from under the desk. Rose walked over to the door and was about to leave when she remembered something. ‘Al,’ she said over her shoulder before opening the door. Albus hopped off the desk after a moment of hesitation and followed her out.
Rose turned to him and whispered, ‘Don’t tell him your middle name.’
Albus grinned at her. ‘What, you think I’m insane? I don’t fancy telling him my first name either.’
Lily’s voice floated out from the partially closed door. ‘In the Headmaster’s office,’ she was saying. Snape must have given her an odd look because a moment later, she clarified, ‘Your portrait. There’s one in the Headmaster’s office. At Hogwarts.’ Lily had apparently decided to continue the conversation where they’d left off in the backyard. Rose rolled her eyes. Lily was never short for words.
‘My name’s Lily,’ Rose heard her continue. This time, Severus’s voice reached her and Albus in the hallway.
‘Lily,’ he said and it was not a question. ‘Lily… Potter?’ His tone was odd and Rose wondered what was going through his mind.
Lily must have nodded because Rose didn’t hear her again. She turned her eyes back to Albus. ‘Well, you’ll have to tell him your name eventually. But just avoid the “Severus” at all costs. Who knows how he’ll react?’
‘Probably like I did,’ Albus joked.
Rose laughed quietly. ‘What, throw a tantrum and shout that all the kids will make fun of him?’
‘Okay, maybe not.’
‘I’d better go get the food. Should I bring anything for James?’
Albus shrugged. ‘He couldn’t keep lunch down, so I don’t really know. Maybe a glass of juice.’
Rose nodded and then headed for the stairs, leaving Albus to go and confront his namesake.
Severus Snape’s arrival might have meant risking destroying both the future and the past, not to mention being caught by her parents, but, Rose decided as she jumped down the last two steps, it was all worth it. Already everyone’s spirits had been raised. There had been a light in Albus’s eyes that Rose hadn’t seen there in a long, long time.
There was a lot of food in the fridge and it took Rose a moment to decide what to take upstairs. She pulled out a small, round, uncut honeydew melon and sent it to the shelf with her wand where a knife quickly cut it in half and a melon baller began to carve it. She decided on sandwiches and quickly prepared them as the melon balls dropped themselves into a pretty bowl. Rose moved the bowl, the sandwiches and two glasses to a tray. She filled one glass with orange juice, James’s favorite, and the other with some wine she’d managed to dig out from a cupboard. She hoped Harry and Ginny didn’t notice. She and James didn’t like wine and Lily and Albus were more into Firewhiskey. A missing bottle would look odd if either her aunt or uncle remembered it and went searching one day.
She flicked her wand at the tray and it obediently rose into the air and began leading the way upstairs. She had just reached the door to James room when a voice called out from behind her.
‘Hi Rose “ afternoon snack?’
It was Harry.
Rose spun around so fast she almost lost her footing. Her heart suddenly felt like it would explode and an icy cold feeling swept over her. Harry was standing at the bottom of the stairs and it seemed he had just entered the house. Behind her the tray she’d been floating bumped energetically against the door. The voices inside had all quieted slightly and before anyone could come and open the door, Rose shouted out, ‘Uncle Harry!’ with a weak laugh. Suddenly, there was silence on the other side of the door.
‘What are you doing here? You scared me,’ she squeaked. He was walking up the stairs now.
‘Sorry. I forgot something,’ replied Harry. ‘Don’t mind me, go on in.’ He gestured at her tray which was now ramming the door with unnecessary force, jostling the tall glasses. The wine and juice sloshed around precariously, on the verge of spilling from their glasses and soaking the ham sandwiches.
‘O-Oh, yeah,’ said Rose shakily and reached around the tray to turn the doorknob as Harry walked past her. As soon as he’d entered his room, Rose shot into James’s. Albus and Lily were pale and wide-eyed standing just behind the door that Rose slammed shut and backed up against it. The tray floated genially over to the desk and plopped down on it.
Even James was sitting up in his bed. ‘What are we going to do?’ he hissed.
Rose tried to calm her over-excited heart, but it was difficult. She took a deep breath and tried to think.
‘Dad’s going to kill us!’ moaned Lily.
‘There’s no way we won’t get caught,’ added Albus grimly.
Rose rubbed her face frantically and said, ‘Look, it’s really not that bad “ we need a cure, right?’
‘Oh, sure we need a cure but we don’t need a dead man in our room,’ replied James. ‘How’re you going to explain this to dad?’
‘We need a cure!’ repeated Rose. ‘It shouldn’t matter to what lengths we’re going!’
‘Okay, fine, fine, forget Sev “ er “ Sna”’ Albus seemed to be having trouble coming up with something reasonable to call Severus. ‘Erm “ Professor Snape, for a moment. How’re you going to explain brewing an antidote and Polyjuice Potion, impersonating Dad and Uncle Ron, technically stealing a Time Turner”’
‘As if he’ll know all about that just by looking into the room!’ retorted Rose. ‘And don’t act like I’m the only one who’ll have to expl”’
‘If I know your father,’ interrupted Severus, the only one who hadn’t spoken until now, ‘then there will be little need for explanations “ he was always capable of forming his own.’
Rose, Lily, Albus and James all looked at Severus, each of them trying to deduce if the statement had been an insult or not “ his expression had been rather deadpan. Their thought train was brought to a screeching halt when someone rattled the doorknob. Rose had still been leaning against the door and she jumped away from it as if it had speared her in the back.
‘Oh, shit,’ she heard James moan from the bed.
Harry poked his head in the room. ‘James,’ he said, eyes finding his son on the bed, ‘your mother sent me with an extremely, terribly important message, to quote her words. She wants you to get some sleep if you don’t feel like eating. But in my opinion, which is most definitely not to be expressed in front of your mother, you can do what you like. If you want to stay up and talk, be my guest. Just try to sleep tonight, okay?’
And with that, Harry shut the door.
Relief flooded through Rose so quickly that for a moment, she felt rather hysterical. She squeaked a small giggle and then collapsed onto the bed behind her, pretty much crushing James’s legs in the process. Lily and Albus’s mouths were hanging wide open and it didn’t look like they’d close anytime this millennium. Severus looked mildly surprised.
James was about to shout out a protest (Rose really was heavy) and had his hands on Rose’s back to push her off the bed when the door opened again. James’s words caught in his throat and Rose’s grin froze on her face.
This time Harry walked all the way into the room and his eyes fell directly on Severus Snape, who now stood up. The two men stared at each other and Rose thought she saw Harry close his eyes and open them again, as if he thought the man in front of him was a figment of his imagination. For one ludicrous moment, Rose considered telling her uncle that he was dreaming and shepherding him to the front door downstairs.
Harry turned to Rose before she could even cement her plan.
‘What did you do?’ he asked and his voice was so deathly quiet that Rose had to read his lips. For the first time in her life she felt truly terrified of her uncle. His green eyes were blazing at her from behind his glasses and his jaw was tightly clenched.
‘I-I”’ she stuttered, but Harry didn’t give her time to formulate any lies. Or any truths.
‘Do you have any idea what this could do to “ to everything? To the world?’ exclaimed Harry.
‘I was”’
‘What would possess you to “ I mean “ where did you get a Time “ where “ how “ what”?’ Harry was so furious, so astonished, that he seemed quite unable to string enough words together to form a full sentence.
Albus opened his mouth. ‘We needed”’
‘What were you thinking?’ Harry blurted out finally, apparently having regained sufficient control of his mind and tongue.
‘I’m sorry!’ shouted Rose, struggling off the bed and James’s legs. She had no idea what else to say.
‘You’re sorry? Rose, sorry isn’t enough “ you’ve brought a dead man back to life! The Ministry will have noticed any changes in the course of history and Severus Snape being alive is a bloody big change! What if they “ they arrest you”’
‘I don’t care!’ cried Rose. ‘I found a cure! For the disease “ I couldn’t just not do anything! I can’t let James die too!’
‘And you decided to bring him here! All of us have seen him “ we know he’s alive…’ Harry pushed his fingers behind his spectacles and rubbed at his eyes frantically.
‘Your niece found a cure for the disease that is killing your son,’ spoke Snape. He was still standing and Rose got the feeling that he didn’t want Harry to be in the position of power. Rose had no time to figure out how he’d made the family connection. ‘Though I know this must be terribly difficult for you, I suggest you not allow arrogance to hinder us here.’
Well, that was a good start, thought Rose.
Harry stared at Snape. ‘You haven’t changed,’ he remarked.
‘My suggestion is to do what is best for your son,’ replied Snape, not to be goaded, gesturing towards James, who was looking from his father to his possible savior with a mixture of confusion and apprehension.
‘It’s not that simple!’ said Harry firmly and Rose had a feeling he, like Albus, didn’t really know what to call Snape and was thus avoiding saying his name altogether.
‘Isn’t it? Your son is literally on his deathbed, there is a possibility that I will be able to concoct a cure “ what is so complex about this matter?’
‘I don’t expect you to understand,’ replied Harry, rather coldly.
‘Of course you don’t. Because I never had children, is that correct?’ Snape’s eyes were growing harder and colder by the moment.
‘I can’t “ it isn’t “ it won’t matter if there is a cure or not if your existence threatens the balance of time! I’ve heard what happens when history is changed. People who’re alive and well suddenly die, disease spreads like wildfire”’
‘The latter is already a problem and you are still alive, Potter. Obviously, you have nothing to worry about,’ Snape sneered.
‘My son may be cured but what’s the risk to my niece,’ shouted Harry, pointing at Rose. ‘She brought you back”’
‘At my insistence! If anyone is to be arrested it would be me, which I’m sure would please you to no end, Mr. Potter, so I don’t not see why you continue to hinder us!’
‘Your insistence?’ Harry seemed dumbstruck.
‘It wasn’t his fault!’ said Rose suddenly, afraid of what her uncle would do to Snape. ‘I was trying to convince him, I m-made him help me”’
‘Rose, he’s an adult, not to mention Severus Snape, I’m sure he wouldn’t allow anyone to make him do anything,’ said Harry.
‘The urge to speak in third person about someone standing not two feet away seems hereditary in your family,’ muttered Snape, but it seemed only the children heard him.
‘And what will your mother say?’ added Harry.
‘Mum won’t say anything! Do you even understand what we’ve been through? How can you “ I have a chance to make James better! Do you want him to die? Is that it? You want him to be like Hugo, dead, buried, away, out of your life, one less person to worry about”’
But Rose had gone much too far in her efforts to diffuse the tension of the situation and Harry’s anger was palpable. ‘That is enough Rose. You have absolutely no right to assume what I want and do not want”’
At this point, Snape butted in again. ‘Obviously Potter, you do not remember your own… pursuits. No less than the pot calling the kettle Black.’ There was particular emphasis on the final word and Rose looked from Snape to Harry as her uncle’s mouth snapped rapidly shut.
‘It is completely different,’ he said eventually, voice obviously controlled.
‘Hypocrisy was always your strong suit,’ said Snape languorously.
‘I have to have “ their best “ interests at heart “ this is different, Snape!’
‘Of course it is “ you, Potter, were always above the rules; I’m shocked that you don’t consider your children above them as well. You should’ve expected it, your father was just like you, doing whatever pleased him “ did you expect your children not to be?’ Snape’s tone was harsh.
‘My father wasn’t “ he didn’t “ I’m not your student anymore to torture, Snape!’
‘No? You haven’t changed a great deal. Ever arrogant and immature.’
Snape’s voice was smooth as honey, unlike Harry’s. Rose couldn’t tell if it was intimidation or something else that was causing him to stutter so. He was silent for a split second after Snape spoke and Rose could almost hear the gears churning in his head.
‘And what about my mother, Snape? Ever see her in me?’ Harry barked suddenly.
There was a long silence. Rose shifted slightly to look at the ex-Potions Master. He looked paler, if possible, than usual. ‘Never,’ spat out Snape suddenly. ‘You “ you”’ He seemed, for a moment, quite incapable of words. Rose had absolutely no idea what either he or her uncle was talking about. What about Harry’s mother? Severus’s chest was heaving.
‘You have no right to speak of it,’ he hissed, fists clenched at sides. His wand arm was twitching.
‘She was my mother, Snape, married to my father, how do I have no right? I am her son.’ Harry’s eyes were suddenly cold and his cheeks were red with rage. Rose had never seen this side of him before.
Whatever he’d meant, it had been obviously cruel. For a moment, it looked as if Severus had lost all ability to speak. There was a wild look in his eyes.
‘You will never be her son!’ shouted Snape. ‘You and that swine of a father of yours never deserved her! Never!’ He looked completely deranged for a moment and Rose backed away from him just as Harry spoke again.
But Rose, flushed after her recent outburst, involuntarily tuned out Harry’s next words. James, Albus and Lily, Rose could see, were becoming slowly angry at having their father attacked. She had to do something. There was one person she knew who would understand what she’d done, who’d explain it to everybody, who’d put things right.
Her mother.
Turning to the window above James’s bed, which was opened slightly, Rose lifted her wand. A jet of sliver light burst from the tip in the form of a furry ferret and shot out of the window. Mum, come quick, thought Rose as it left. The Patronus would deliver her message.