Harry smiled slightly at the man's joke, waiting for him to continue the story.
"Like I said, everyone was stressed. Lily and Snape hadn't exactly been close friends for so ti, House rivalries and all that, while Lily and I had begun seeing each other. We had even talked about getting an apartnt together after graduation. It was in the early afternoon, just after one of their tests when I ran into Snape."
He stared into out into the Great Hall, past the other students and adults, past the walls and tables, stared back into the past. "I think she had done poorly on an exam, or maybe just not as well as she had wanted. I could see the anger in her eyes, the built-up stress, the anxiety. At that mont she looked at like I wasn't a person, but instead just an object, an item for her to use. She drew her Wand on , and I was disard before I could even think. The hallway had been empty, and she pushed into a nearby room, started pulling my clothes off to..."
Jas trailed off, and the boy's eyes widened in shock and horror. Snape had...
"I fought back but without my Wand, well it didn't work. I was almost stripped when the door opened, Lily was just, standing there, confused and I was so worried, worried she would think that I had betrayed her." The man shook his head, "Instead she just beca so angry, blasting Snape across the room before I had even seen her draw a Wand. I tried to explain but she just threw her cloak around and helped to the Hospital Ward. I tried to explain but I think she knew."
"What happened? To Snape I an? Surely you told Dumbledore, or at least McGonagall."
Sighing, the man shook his head, "I didn't want to, I knew what the result would be, and I was already embarrassed that it didn't make any sense to to try. Lily though, she told them both and Pomfrey, not that it did any good. Dumbledore assured us that it was likely just a misunderstanding, that everyone was stressed, and we should just stay away from her for the remainder of the year. McGonagall followed along like always. I think that was what shattered Lily's remaining faith in the woman. Far as I know there were never any consequences, well at least officially."
Harry stared wide eyed, trying to figure out just what was wrong with the world that would allow such a thing to happen to anyone.
"I wasn't there when it happened, but I guess Snape did try to apologize to Lily. All I know was that it wasn't accepted and ended with Snape being threatened. Its why we told the girls to always be careful around her, and why we want you to be especially careful."
Thinking back over the past months, the boy tried to find a situation in which the woman had acted in such a way towards him. Sure, there had been a few tis where she stood a bit closer than normal, but that was also based on his own mories of Snape treating him like a leper.
"I'll be careful," Harry promised, though he was still more concerned with another individual.
****
"Harry, wanna co et my family?"
The forr boy-who-lived nodded enthusiastically. He certainly wasn't going to miss a chance to et what had beco almost an adopted family when he had first attended Hogwarts. Walking over, followed closely by the other Potters, he ran into a familiar, and yet very different mob of redheads.
Molly and Arthur appeared the sa as always, but other than them it was all girls. "This is my oldest sister, Billie, then Charlene. They both graduated already. Then there is Paisley, she's a prefect. These two are the 'twins' Freddie and Georgie, and that's my younger sister, Ginny."
Harry smiled, doing his best to keep the new nas tied to the faces. "Hi, my na's Harry Potter, I'm in the sa year as Ron."
"Nice to et you, Harry." the oldest man replied with a smile, "I'm Ron's dad, Arthur and this is his mother, Molly."
Said woman imdiately stepped forward and pulled the boy into a very familiar hug, earning an awkward cough from behind him where his own 'parents' stood. "Molly, Arthur." the redheaded woman greeted, earning a lack of response from the two adults. If the, still being hugged, boy wasn't mistaken there was also glares being directed at the two Potters.
He was confused at first, but then realization practically smacked him in the face. The Weasley's had always been a family-oriented group. To abandon one's child would probably be the worst possible action possible in their eyes. Not for the first ti did he question Dumbledore's choice in explaining his presence.
"It's nice to et you all. Ron said he had a really big family." His own comnt served to interrupt the tension and redirect the attention onto himself.
"Are you in Gryffindor with Ron?" the matron inquired, earning an awkward shift in posture from the boy that she finally stepped back from.
Before he could answer, however, Paisley did for him. "He's in Slytherin, his sisters are in Gryffindor though."
"Very nice answer Harry." The eldest daughter teased. This was quickly followed by Charlene.
"Glad to see you are taking your position so seriously Paisley. Like a mother guarding her nest."
The comnt earned synchronized snorts from the twins, "Trust Charlene"
"To make everything about dragons."
"We still think she might have been adopted."
"Found at a zoo."
"Or a dragon nest more likely."
There was a mischievous gleam in the eyes of the two girls that Harry rembered all too well from his own encounters with them. It was both comforting, and a bit worriso at the sa ti. It was then that he realized the very youngest was still hiding behind her father's legs, occasionally peeking out from behind them.
Harry gave his warst smile and waved at her, earning a bit of a startled yelp as she ducked back. The older man chuckled, "It's okay Ginny you can co out if you want." Upon seeing that she did not appear to do so the man shook his head "She's just a bit shy is all."
The raven-haired boy rembered his own Ginny being like that at first and made a silent promise to try and include her as much as possible in the following year.
His own parents stepped forward towards the Weasley's, clearly intent on having so sort of conversation, but Arthur and Molly imdiately excused themselves, ignoring the other two adults and moving their children off with them. It caused the boy's stomach to drop a bit, what if his own presence caused a rift to develop between the two families? What if...
"It's not your fault." A man's voice interrupted his thoughts, drawing the boy's attention towards his father standing next to him. "It will work its way out, I promise. The Weasleys have always been very forgiving, and I can't imagine them holding a grudge against us, especially with how close you are to their son."
"If you hadn't... if we had made up sothing different..."
Jas shrugged, "I doubt it anything we claid would have changed the situation. There's only so many excuses we could co up with that people would understand Harry, this was the best option."
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