Chapter Text
No matter what anyone said, Severus wasn't clairvoyant. He merely had exceptional situational intuition and some skill in body reading, courtesy of his father's sometimes rough parenting. He often likened them to whispers and nudges. That still small voice in the quiet that warned of a misstep or a brush of risk in one direction but not another.
For his potions making or even just walking the halls it manifested differently. Diced root instead of sliced in this potion. A pause before a doorway and a Weasley Special hits the person just ahead. An unusual muscle movement during a discussion which could have someone open up just a bit more than they had originally intended.
It was fantastically useful, but it only worked reliably for Severus when he was calm and had been Occluding. When he was stressed, he missed the subtle cues, like the one that would have saved his friendship with Lily. Or one that would have warned him of Potter's next hair brained stunt to get herself killed.
'And I might not be trapped between protecting my position as a spy, and Lily's child now,' Severus thought bitterly as he was forced to his knees beside his student in front of the Dark Lord on the grass of the Malfoy's front lawn.
"My my my! What a gift," Voldemort hissed in open delight. "Now what to do with you?"
Draco took the offered chance to quickly head for his beckoning mother even as his schoolmate and godfather were forced to their knees in the grass.
"Its not like I meant to show up here," Hari glowered at the Dark Lord. While the defiance made the Dark Lord laugh at her impotence it had Severus despairing over getting the pair of them both out alive.
Severus looked over at the defiant girl and it struck him that he had gone about protecting her all wrong. Sixteen and defiant despite the abuse and torture that had been her life thus far. A history that he had discovered during Occlumency lessons and that had very nearly broken every control or limit that he had. Breaking her would never work but taming her... if handled right, was a different beast altogether.
"What if one of us married her?" The words were out of Severus' mouth before he could register his decision to speak.
"What?!" Came from both Hari and Voldemort, facing each other down yet again over an impromptu battle field. A battle field that was this time one based on who had the greater will power on the front lawn of Malfoy Manor. The teen had grabbed his arm as he apparated away, accidentally bringing her along for the ride. It was a miracle that no spell had yet been cast for all that practically everyone had drawn wands in their hands except for the kneeling pair.
"Potter wasn't exactly given a choice in this war," Severus said quickly, immediately deciding to go all in on this attempt to save Potter. "As far as I know no one has actually approached her about what each side stands for, discounting the propaganda that's practically shouted. In point of fact I know that Dumbledore repeatedly denied her information regardless of how public it was to everyone else. There are also more than hints that Dumbledore presented the situation to her as a pre-existing fact rather than as it truly stood. On top of that there had to have been something keeping Potter from just going muggle rather than deal with things here. Although Dumbledore kept me as far away from her home life as humanly possible I did pick up that there was something that he was practically desperate to keep from me about all of it. This was especially obvious with how he deliberately turned my hatred of her father onto her in the first place. Dumbledore also hinted more than once that getting too close to her beyond as a personal enemy would see me disposed of... permanently."
"If you claim this option I will see it as a replacement boon for failing to spare her mother," Voldemort said harshly. "I will also expect the two of you to produce a child within five years after you have wed."
Hari sort of went pale as she finally understood what was being discussed. Severus didn't have time to worry about that as he tried to talk the Dark Lord into not killing them but also not expecting a miracle.
"While I may outstrip her in experience and skill she is stronger in raw power," Severus cautioned. "I can not force her. Trick her? Yes, but magic to magic? I don't have the raw power to match her. As far as I am aware only you have that sort of strength, my lord."
"~Hello lunch!~" Nagini hissed gleefully as she whipped around Severus' body, aiming for Hari.
"~Stop! I'm not lunch!~" Hari said in frantic Parseltongue. An act that caused everyone to pause far more effectively than Severus' own blurted out and hasty proposal.
"~A hatchling speaker!~" Nagini hissed with open interest.
Severus thanked God in that moment that he had stumbled over a spell that let him understand Parseltongue when in the presence of an actual speaker. It had been hidden behind Salazar Slytherin's crest in the Slytherin Head of House quarters, engraved on the bedrock of the castle walls. He had accidentally knocked it off the wall when he was throwing something over the latest torture that Hari had needed to endure in her Occlumency lessons. That spell was now proving its worth more than he had ever thought possible.
"Is it not worth it to preserve your family's gift?" Severus offered up quickly. "Would it not be a waste of magical blood and power for her to die?"
Everyone watched as Nagini gently tackled Hari and pulled her into a sort of cuddle in her coils. Most there thought that Hari was going to be crushed. Severus and Voldemort, on the other hand, could understand the cooing from the female snake over how adorable Hari was. Hari's weak protests to the snake were ignored beyond apparently making her even more adorable to the serpent. Snape could even see several of his colleagues opening their mouths to disparage his pointed suggestions despite the Dark Lord's clear considering of the matter when the Dark Lord himself spoke.
"Considering that had I known of her talent sooner this would be much simpler to sort out... I am willing to give this a try," the Dark Lord said. He glowered at those who would or should have known about it and told him, including Severus himself.
Potter muttered something about not wanting to see through his eyes so often anyway. It made Severus want to strangle the teen for even mentioning her visions. Before the Dark Lord could comment on that Nagini asked a very pointed question.
"~You see through my Tomling's eyes? Do you ever see through mine?~" Nagini asked contemplatively.
"~Yes, why?~" Hari admitted warily. Severus could only mentally curse and bless her for answering in parsel. If nothing else it would keep the information exchange to only the parselmouths and himself.
The Dark Lord froze at her answer only to turn and stare at her in open disbelief. In that moment Severus knew that Voldemort suspected that Hari was somehow connected to him at the soul level or possibly by blood. The spy could only hope that he didn't realize that she was one of his horcruxes. His hope of hiding it shattered moments later with Nagini's next comment.
"~You smell like Tomling and me after I took part of Tomling's soul to help protect him. I wonder, did Tomling give you a piece of himself and forget? Or maybe it was hidden from him?~" Nagini said thoughtfully.
"~That's what Professor Dumbledore said, that he gave me the parseltongue when he killed my hatchers. I don't know anything about his soul though,~" Hari admitted, still wary. "~Dumbledore said something about Voldemort leaving behind a piece of himself in me and that I could talk to snakes because of it. It's also part of why I had to stay with my nasty relatives. I wish they had fed me more than a few pieces of mouldy bread and cheese or a single can of soup each day. Maybe then it wouldn't hurt so much to go back to the start of the year feast at Hogwarts each year.~"
Before either wizard could move to act or say anything about what they had just heard confessed as a poor distraction attempt from an obviously rattled teenager Nagini gave them both a look that clearly said "stay put!" How a snake could give them such a warning look easily baffled both wizards. Either way they didn't try to interfere.
"~You are a very strong hatchling for never having enough food. You had poor hunters raising you,~" Nagini hissed soothingly. "~Many hatchlings die when there isn't enough food and water. You are too young for my Tomling to mate... Maybe one of his minions would care for you better as your mate. My Tomling had bad carers when a hatchling too.~"
"~They all want me dead,~" Hari told Nagini remorsefully. "~I don't want to fight, never did. Your Tomling offered once but I didn't know better. I didn't know if he wouldn't just devour me after. I think he will but I guess it doesn't matter. Can you bite me? Maybe then I can just let it go.~"
Severus' breath caught, betraying his understanding of what had been said. Betraying his understanding of Hari asking for death. Voldemort gave him a look that spoke of painful future conversations but turned his focus on the still entangled teenager in Nagini's coils.
"~There will be no suicide by serpent here,~" Voldemort reprimanded in parsel. "~Professor Snape has begged for your life but I can not let you wander free, especially with recent revelations. We will draw up a betrothal to Professor Snape for you and you will not contest it. It will be the reason you survived and a reason for him to return to Hogwarts safely. He will make out that Dumbledore arranged his own death, forcing Snape to kill him to protect you. Bringing you back will give him more legitimacy as a spy. In turn you will stay with him as your potential future husband. We will re-evaluate the situation after you have your NEWTs.~"
"What will I tell them if you do actually send me back?" Hari asked bluntly, unconsciously switching back to English.
"The truth, you used Parseltongue in front of me and I thought it worth the risk of keeping you alive to revive my family gift. You will be married and have children. It will be up to you how... comfortable you wish your life to be," Voldemort said with a smirk. His next words were obviously more for their audience than for Hari but it was still something she needed to know. "There is a good chance that the magic which occurred the night your parents died marked you as my heir, which also explains how difficult it has been to even try to kill you on my part. I was simply unaware of it since I was unaware of Lady Magic granting you my family's gift, however that came about. I am not so foolish as to disregard Magic's favor when even our wands keep us from seriously fighting each other."
"Um, you didn't know we have brother wands?" Hari asked curiously.
"Brother wands?" Voldemort asked in open surprise.
"Olivander told me when I bought mine. Our cores came from the same Phoenix at the same time and the Phoenix never donated any more feathers," Hari explained. "Its what made me push Hagrid into telling me your name or at least your Dark Lord name. Your diary told me your birth name when I was tricked into fighting it and killing the basilisk as well as the diary. I assume you don't want to use your birth name though from how you seem to hate it. I can understand that from how the Dursleys always call me freak. I didn't know my birth name until one of the teachers in primary complained that I didn't respond to my name when they called me by it."
The shocked silence caused Hari to sort of sink sheepishly back into Nagini's surrounding coils.
"So that's what happened to it," Voldemort said with soft menace. It was clear to all that he was upset at the destruction of his diary and the basilisk.
"It was just a diary with a memory inside it," Hari said, clearly confused but still recognizing his anger. "They were going to close the school and it tried to kill me after talking with Ginny Weasley all year. I don't know why that girl won't leave me alone. She was even caught looking up how to turn me into a boy so that we could marry. I don't understand her."
"Is that what you want? To be a boy?" Severus asked quickly, angling for a distraction that wouldn't have the Dark Lord looking so murderous.
"No! I can't have a family if I get turned into a boy and I don't think that boy plus boy is even legal and I know that two boys can't make babies," Hari protested fiercely. "I want my own babies.... eventually."
Severus just nodded his understanding and breathed a sigh of relief that it had actually distracted the Dark Lord into a less vengeful mood.
"There is no natural way for two men or two women to have a child together," Voldemort allowed. "There are ways around it now from what I understand but I don't believe that its wise to put aside the natural for the unnatural... usually. I obviously can't make that choice for someone else and some might call me a hypocrite for what I have done with magic but I believe that new life should be fostered with natural and healthy solutions."
"Marrying too close isn't natural either," Hari pointed out cautiously. "It causes damage. We learned about part of it in primary because of plants and stuff but I found the rest of it in the library when I was hiding from Dudley and his gang. Apparently, marrying someone who is related as close as or closer than 2nd cousins is a really bad idea, especially if it goes on for a long time. The babies come out wrong. The roman empire found out the hard way with their rulers and the Happburgs or the Ottomans found out that way too. There was also some ancient greek scientist or philosopher who figured it out in a more science way with recessive genes and dominant genes and everything."
"Distracting me isn't that easy but I will have someone look into that," Voldemort conceded. "If you are right then perhaps the fresh blood of the mudbloods might be useful."
"I'm not sure they're actually coming from nowhere either," Hari said quickly. "I think they have magic farther back in the family even if its just a squib. It has to come from somewhere and it would be like magic is a river that goes underground only to come back up again miles and miles away. If its on a recessive gene that would explain it but if its dominant... then the family might be marrying too close for too long to be safe. I don't know of a magical reason why it might happen unless there is some promise or something like the goblet of fire that can take it away and they broke the promise or whatever."
"What are they talking about?" Someone asked a bit too loudly for safety.
"Bloodlines," Voldemort answered simply. "Hari Potter may have found in the muggle records why squibs appear and why bloodlines disappeared despite families taking drastic actions to stay pure. The damage would take longer to appear among magicals as our magic would try to correct it but her argument is potentially valid. It will have to be researched, especially if the mudbloods are not so much muggle spawn as a magical bloodline conquering the muggle blood, struggling to the surface. A purification of the damage done to the bloodline finally completing enough to allow the magic to shine through."
"You would turn a discussion on a marriage to save your life into a complete demolition of pure blood ideals in an accurate attempt to save not only your friends but your enemies," Severus groaned. "How, by all that is holy, do you manage such impossibilities? Its a miracle that you are still alive."
"Any objections my dear Severus?" Voldemort asked dangerously. Hari and Severus were still kneeling in front of him for all that Hari now had a Nagini shaped blanket rubbing all over her.
"Not like that," Severus clarified in complete exasperation. "Her luck is just impossible. Knowing James Potter, assuming he even thought of it, she was most certainly bathed in liquid luck as an infant. She should be dead several times over. Then too her confrontation with Nagini as well as yourself being near fulfills the conditions that were set for the last orders from Dumbledore that I was to convey to her. Namely to have her come to you and let herself die under your wand. Everything about this situation just screams at impossible luck not only in immediately preserving her life but also arranging it so that the future threat of letting herself be killed by you is negated because I could only just now safely tell you both about it."
"You're right, that sort of luck is suspiciously magical," Voldemort said, eyes narrowed.
"Don't look at me! I have no idea what's going on," Hari protested once everyone turned to stare at her. All that did was have Nagini cuddle her closer and give a hissy chuckle.
"Can we at least agree to an official betrothal and getting her back to Hogwarts for the moment?" Severus asked in a long-suffering tone.
"My friend, if this is the sort of thing you've been dealing with since Draco's first year then you have vastly understated your complaints over the years," Lucius Malfoy said in deep concern.
The blond lordling was battered, tired, dirty, and clearly exhausted but it did nothing to detract from his open concern aimed at Severus.
"I don't even know everything she gets up to!" Severus complained. "Dumbledore would never explain to the staff what the hell happened. He would just brush us off and say that it was taken care of. Nevermind the damage done to the school, the students, or Potter herself! Oh, no she's fine! Just needs to spend some time with her loving relatives! No, of course the near death experience didn't affect her! Lemon loving fool!"
Hari had flinched at the mention of her relatives in Severus' small sarcastic rant and it had been covered by Nagini's body but not hidden from her.
"~What's wrong hatchling? What did the potions minion say that hurt you?~" Nagini immediately started hissing in demand.
"Potter? What is Nagini talking about?" Severus asked slowly, his attention having been snapped around to the two females the moment Nagini had started fussing.
"My relatives... Uncle Vernon and Aunt Petunia and Dudley.... They don't like magic or anything... freakish," Hari admitted carefully.
"Petunia? Petunia Evans?!" Severus practically snarled. "That old bastard placed you with bloody Petunia?! If he weren't already dead I would kill him again! "
"Explain!" Voldemort barked out, reminding the Potions Master where he was and who he was with.
"As some of you know I grew up a few streets over from the Evans family, from Lily Potter nee Evans and her sister," Severus explained, obviously still fuming yet just as obviously in control of himself. "Petunia Evans, or whatever her name is now, is the absolute worst person to raise a magical child. She is also one of the strongest representations of muggles discovering magic only to hate it to their very souls. Had she birthed a magical child I am absolutely positive that she would have killed the infant. I honestly have no earthly idea what Dumbledore did to force her to raise Potter and not kill her the moment that bitch came anywhere close to her. It would not surprise me in the least if Potter could take one of the Dark Lord's crucios head on and get back up again because of whatever that vile woman did to her growing up."
"Well that explains the graveyard after the third task," Hari snarked at him with gallows humor.
"...shit," Severus said only to facepalm. He had just realized that she had done just that and he bet she hadn't been treated for the Cruciartus exposure either.
"So, how badly will we want to destroy the so called Light and how much am I going to have to pay for the healers?" Lucius asked lightly. Severus turned a furious glare on his friend only to deflate in a sort of concerned despair over what they might find with an actual magical medical history check on Hari Potter.
"If its bad enough... she may need a full blood adoption," Severus admitted reluctantly. "It will repair a great deal more damage than just trying to heal her as the potion part prioritizes fixing anything broken over visible changes or in the process of changing the blood and features. The other part is that it has to be someone with a significant magical core willing to help and to fuel it with their magic by... a great deal. It can't be whoever is going to marry her even in the short term but must instead be a true adoption. As for destroying Dumbledore's Order.... likely more than you want to already in the first place. Heaven knows I have a hard time not strangling most of them for their idiocy."
"If I go along with this... can I pick some people to protect from whatever you do to the rest of them?" Hari asked quickly. She had realized that Snape was being vague deliberately to keep the Dark faction from immediately hunting down the Order and killing them.
"You can't pick most of the people from the Old Order if only because some of the people here have previous grievances with most of them," Severus warned before anyone else could answer.
"I will want a good reason to spare them if they are overage but you may request limited protection for anyone who attended Hogwarts with you. If they have killed one of mine the limit is going to be an immediate fresh slate and I will not stop the family who was hurt by them from retaliation," Voldemort warned. "I don't have any issues with most of your schoolmates but I also won't let them attack us without responding in kind. I also won't tolerate them hurting you as you are now nominally under my protection. If you are going to follow through and marry one of my Knights you fall under the same protection that I extended to their families from the start."
"That's fair," Hari said reluctantly. "The Weasley Family but mostly the twins and Arthur. I don't know much about the older Weasleys but they have taken me in when they could. The Professors because we need someone who won't be stupid about teaching us. You can replace Binns and Trelawny though. It would be nice if the curse you put on the Defense position went away too. I had to run an underground defense course last year and it was a pain."
"Not your relatives? Not Granger? Not Lupin?" Severus asked carefully.
"If I have to give names... Mostly just the Weasley twins, Neville, and Luna. Ron keeps suggesting I join him in bed for some fun, Hermione keeps insisting on trusting Dumbledore blindly, and Ginny is being really creepy," Hari pointed out carefully. "They also don't let practically anyone else near me so I don't really know anyone else except the Quidditch team which is basically the twins and their girlfriends. Mrs. Weasley doesn't listen when I tell her not to touch me and its reopened marks that Uncle Vernon and Dudley or his gang have given me. She notices blood on a Weasley just fine but not on me. She also stops Arthur from checking on me or helping me. Its weird the way his eyes sort of glaze over when she snaps at him. The twins usually help me patch up. Neville is calm when he's not panicked around you and Luna is fun but neither of them see me as a Savior. Which is really a relief."
"Anyone else thinking that the entire Girl-Who-Lived thing is a trick by Dumbledore so that we focus only on his picked target instead of what other things we should be paying attention to?" someone asked from the assembled Death Eaters a bit too loudly, again.
"Silence!" Voldemort snapped in the general direction of the voice.
"He's probably not wrong," Hari pointed out with a grimace.
"That doesn't irritate me any less," Voldemort said crossly. He studied her for a bit before making his decision. "If you can get those four to swear an oath of loyalty to you then you can keep them. You will need to mark them somehow in a way similarly to my Dark Mark so that there will be no accidental attacks, or at least none without severe consequences. Lucius will look into the Weasley family on the pretence of their feud. If we can rehabilitate the family they will be your test of sincerity. You don't have to turn them to the dark but I want them at least neutral and whatever mess exists, such as potions or compulsions, sorted out and removed so that they are at least not mindless puppets. You may ask Severus for help. I also want you checked for not only health problems but undue outside influences such as magical binds or really anything that someone might have placed on you without your consent or medical necessity. Regardless of what the final state between us settles into we need a clearer picture on what has been done to you."
"Then you have my promise, on my magic, that I will sign a betrothal with one of yours or with yourself and do my best to maintain it at least until this can be sorted out," Hari said determined. "Until we both know where we stand I am not your enemy but I am also not your ally unless the Light faction betrays me. I am not responsible for the actions of others. Will that work?"
"More than," Voldemort said gruffly. "It gives you enough leeway to play Golden Girl if necessary but also allows you to come to me or Severus if something happens."
"Dumbledore really didn't want us actually talking with each other did he?" Hari said thoughtfully. "I mean we just worked out a temporary truce because both of us stopped trying to kill each other for half an hour."
"Rather your luck kicked in and you actually used it constructively instead of as a bludgeon," Severus snarked dryly.
"Huh, maybe this is why the hat wanted me in Slytherin so badly," Hari muttered.
"Severus just take her and go," Voldemort ordered as he rubbed at his head. He waited until they had apparated away before muttering about Potter being impossible. A comment which set Nagini to laughing again much to everyone else's consternation.