Always - Chapter 5 - The Potions Potter

-5-

The Potions Potter

Harry awoke a little before six the following morning and gathered up the items that he was going to loan to Snape so he could make the trip to Diagon Alley. He was being as quiet as possible, gathering up and wrapping his invisibility cloak around him. With practiced ease, he snuck out of the tower and made his way down into the dungeons where the potions classroom was located. He opened the door and entered the room, then shut it behind him. Snape was already there, stirring a small pot of polyjuice potion. Harry slid off the cloak and moved to where Snape was.

“You’re unusually punctual, Potter,” Snape uttered offhandedly.

“I suppose so, professor.” He unloaded a knapsack filled with clothing that Snape would need. “Here’s everything you’ll need.”

“Go and lock the classroom door, would you, Harry?”

Harry nodded, then went to lock the heavy wooden door. Returning to the station that Snape stood at, he watched as Snape added Harry’s hair to the polyjuice potion. He scooped up a ladle of the thick, pungent potion and gave Harry a kind of odd smile. “Bottoms up.”

Snape downed the polyjuice potion and turned a pale green. “This ... is ... vile,” he said behind his hand. It didn’t take long for the potion to begin working its magic on the potions master. Harry found it rather amusing to view himself in Snape’s frock coat and cape.

“That’s a rather intimidating look for me, I think,” Harry said with a laugh.

“I would suppose so,” Snape said, slowly unbuttoning the buttons that lined the sleeves and front of his frock. “I’ve made enough polyjuice potion for me to be gone three hours. I’ll use the floo network to arrive in Diagon Alley quickly, gather my purchases, then return with no one the wiser.”

Snape handed a flask to Harry. “You’d best pretend to be me while I’m gone. I’ll change into your clothes and you can put on mine.”

Harry took a nip from the flask, rapidly turning into a Snape clone. “Too bad we can’t swap voices,” Harry said lightly. Your voice is so much deeper than my own.”

“Try it now,” Snape replied.

“All right ... blimey!”

A moment later, Snape was putting on the prop glasses and sounding very much like Harry. “I’d better get off to Diagon Alley. If anyone comes in, just glare at them. I’ve given you that look enough times that you should have it perfect by now.”

“Don’t forget to get your suit, Professor Potter,” Harry said in Snape’s deep drawl, swapping into Snape’s black garb. It didn’t even vaguely bother him to wear Snape’s clothing. He was honored to have the man’s trust.

“I won’t. I promise.” Snape looked at Harry attempting to tie the ascot around his throat and chuckled. “Let me.”

With Snape looking like the boy who lived and Harry looking like Professor Snape, Snape made his way towards the potions door. “My nose really is huge, isn’t it?”

“Potter,” said Harry, “Your nose is quite fine and perfectly ordinary. Now off with you before I take ten points from your house and give you a detention. Take the cloak with you and take this.”

Harry handed Snape his own wand, with the older man passing Harry his wand. Snape couldn’t help but smile as he vanished out the door with Harry’s invisibility cloak in tow. With the stealth of a teacher long tenured, Snape made his way to a hidden fireplace and used the stash of floo powder in the empty grate, saying, “Diagon Alley” clearly. He wound up popping into the Leaky Cauldron, though this early in the morning, barely anyone was in the place.

“Harry Potter,” called old Tom with a toothless grin. “Good to see ye, lad!”

“Good to see you as well,” Snape said, trying to be as Harry-like as possible. “Headed to fetch some potions ingredients for school.”

“’eard about that Snape fellow, we did. True he was workin’ for Dumbledore all them years an’ spyin’ on you-know-who, were he?”

“Er ... yes.” Snape felt very uncomfortable talking about himself in third person, but he managed. “I guess he wasn’t such a scoundrel after all.”

Tom shook his head. “I done read that interview wot you gave the Daily Prophet. Sounds like that Snape feller was a decent enough bloke. Shame he died.”

“Er ... yes. Sorry, but I’ve got to hurry and get these back to the school. I’ll see you around.”

Tom waved Snape off as he made his way into Diagon Alley. The shops had been restored to some degree and Ollivander’s wands had been returned to its former glory, Snape noted happily. He’d gotten his own black wand there when he’d first come to buy his goods for Hogwarts. Lily had come with him and she’d even helped him buy it with the money she’d saved from her allowance. Snape bit back a tear at the memory of her sweetness, making his way to the apothecary’s shop. Once inside, he handed the list to the clerk and looked at the phials and flasks, selecting several to bring to the counter. He took a pull of the polyjuice potion, gagging as the foul liquid crept down his throat.

“Anything else for you, Mr. Potter, sir?”

“No thanks,” Snape said. “That’s all I need.”

Snape paid the clerk and put the items in the enchanted satchel he’d brought along with him. Next, he made his way to the tailor’s and stepped inside.

“May I help y—my goodness! It’s ‘Arry Potter! How ye do, sir?”

“Er ... I’m fine. Thanks for asking.”

“What can I do for ye today, Mr. Potter?”

“I need to purchase a suit like Severus Snape wore.”

The tailor’s eyes widened. “But ‘e’s dead, inne?”

“Er ... I ... um wanted to wear a suit like his. To honor him, you know. Same size as he wore.”

The tailor eyed Snape’s Harry Potter guise and tilted his head to one side. “You ain’t th’ same size as ‘e was, Mr. Potter. Professor Snape ‘ad a good five ‘er six inches on ye, sir, an’ e’s a might broader in th’ shoulders’n ye.”

Snape couldn’t think of a way to get around the good tailor’s skills and the man had been kindly to Snape. “Hector ... Severus is not dead. He was gravely wounded, but recovered from his injuries and needs a new suit because his was damaged when he was attacked by the dark lord.”

“Blow me over! ‘E’s alive, inne? Cor! It were you, weren’t it, wot saved ‘im?”

“Several people put his needs above their own, even after all he’d done,” Snape said softly.

Hector the tailor gazed hard and long at what appeared to be Harry Potter, then his eyes widened. “It’s you!” he whispered softly.

Snape nodded imperceptibly. “Yes. Do not let a soul know, please.”

“I wouldn’t,” Hector said emphatically. “You know I be a good Occlumens, right, seein’ as ‘ow you taught me. Can’t be lettin’ the competition know of me skills in wizardly tailorin’, oi?”

“Thank you, Hector.”

“You jes wait roit there, Mr. Potter,” he said with a wink, ducking back into the work and stockroom for ten or so minutes, then reappearing with exactly what Snape had ordered. “Once I gots the measurins, it ain’t but a short piece for me to assemble them. Black and black on black, black overcape with slitted sleeves, black silk cravat an’ white shirt. All good for ye, Mr. Potter.”

“You’re a good man, Hector. Thank you.”

Snape drew out the galleons meant to pay the shopkeeper, but the man solidly refused payment. “Af’er wot I ‘eared you done, yer part in gettin’ he-who-must-not-be-named gone fer good, I ain’t takin’ no gold from ye. Take it, take it with me thanks and gratitude!”

Snape didn’t want to insult Hector’s gift, so he gratefully accepted the boxed parcel and slid it into his bag. “I’ll send another order for some nightshirts and other goods by owl, Hector. Thank you.”

“No, thank ye, Mr. Potter, and thank that other fella for me, won’tcha?”

Snape knew what Hector meant – for him to thank Harry for defeating Voldemort – and gave him Harry’s best smile. “I will. Thank you. Good-bye.”

Snape waved to Hector as he headed out the door and back onto the streets. He spied another shop, one he had so desperately wanted to visit as a boy, but the items within were always without his reach. Taking another draw on the polyjuice potion, shivering at the taste of it as he tried not to gag, Snape stepped into the shop.

“Welcome to Sugar Plum’s, dearie! What can I get for you today?”

Snape had no idea as to what students might like, though he’d heard of pumpkin pasties and other treats. “I’d like a decent sampling of everything.”

“Everything?”

“Please,” said Snape, looking at his timepiece and realizing his time was running out. “I’m a bit short on time. If it’s too much trouble, I can just have it sent to Hogwarts.”

“Oh no, dearie. It’s no trouble at all. Just give me a few minutes to get everything gathered up, will you?”

Snape nodded and watched the woman and other staff members boxing up all kinds of confections. They were bundled up in special boxes that condensed the goods magically in a way they could be transported without them being ruined.

“There you go, love ... on the house.”

Snape shook his head. “No, let me pay you.”

“Harry Potter ... you’ve done more for our world than we can ever begin to repay you for, lad. You and your spy, Snape. T’would be an insult for me to take your galleons, m’boy.”

“I’ll allow it this one time, ma’am, but next time, I refuse to impose on your generosity.”

“Well enough, dearie. If you’re ready to head back to Hogwarts, I can give you floo transport.”

“I have one stop to make, if that’s okay.”

The older woman smiled sweetly. “Of course, of course. Leave your package here and I’ll hold it for your return.”

Snape waved to the shop mistress and hurried across the alley to Eeylop’s Owl Emporium. Once inside, he selected several packages of owl treats and paid for them with a galleon dropped on the clerk’s counter before the man could refuse. “Good day,” Snape said brightly as he hurried back to the sweet shop, then out through the grand fireplace with his goodies in hand.

He made it back to Hogwarts and the dungeon room in just the nick of time as his last dose of polyjuice potion was beginning to wear off. By the time he made it to where the real Harry Potter was sitting, he’d returned to his homely, oily-haired self. With a wave of his wand, he unmimicked their voices. “Have any disturbances while I was gone, Potter?”

Harry smiled as he returned to his own appearance and began carefully removing Snape’s clothing. “I scared a few first years who thought they might try to play a practical joke on one of their classmates. I swooped in on them so fast they didn’t know what to do. I ... settled them for detention Saturday morning.”

“Well, Potter ... you’ve learned well, it seems. That’s exactly what Severus Snape would have done.” Snape handed Harry the t-shirt he’d been wearing as Harry gave the older man the mended white high-collar shirt Snape always wore. “Have you always been regarded with such ... um ... leeching adoration?”

“Yeah. I was always just Harry and then, all of a sudden, people were treating me like I was godlike. I hated it. Did you get a good dose of it in Diagon Alley?”

“Yes. They wouldn’t let me pay for things,” he said softly. “And there was praise for the late Headmaster Snape. It’s all rather daunting.”

Harry handed over the trousers and coat, pulling on his jeans and trainers. “Yeah, it is. And when I got here, you were kind of the polar opposite. You wouldn’t give me any praise at all.”

Snape’s eyes darkened and he looked down as he pulled the trousers over his pasty white legs. “I pushed the envelope too far the other way. I was needlessly nasty to you, Potter, and I regret it.”

Harry finished tying his sneakers and looked up at Snape. “It’s in the past. We’re starting fresh on even ground. You’re able to be who you wish to be, on your own terms.”

Snape looked at Harry with gratitude. “I wish to be as close to a father to you as I am able. I want to watch you grow up, start your own family, send your children here and teach this old fool what it means to have a loving home.”

“You’re not old, Severus, and you’re certainly no fool. You made some mistakes. I’ve made mistakes too. It’s not the mistakes we make, but whether or not we learn from them.”

“Thank you, Harry,” Snape said softly. “Thank you for having your mother’s generous heart and your father’s steadfast determination and your own willingness to forgive.”

Harry started to say something, but Snape waved him off. “You’ve done enough for me today, Harry. Why don’t you go spend the day with Ginny? I’m sure she would enjoy it.”

“Thanks, sir.”

Snape watched Harry duck out the door, feeling a mixture of regret and happiness at the same time.