Fellowship & Fairydust

Severus walked into the Hog’s Head on Boxing Day to meet Dumbledore for a late lunch, as they had agreed earlier. Harry had insisted he keep the appointment.

“You will have to face him again sometime,” his son had said.

“Easy for you to say, you’re not the one that has to go,” Snape had retorted with a slight sneer that did not hide the nervousness he felt.

Flashes of his first year at Hogwarts and the clenching feeling in his stomach when he was sent up to the Headmasters office went through his mind, as he was directed by Aberforth to the room behind the bar.

“He’s waiting for you, lad. Spent the morning here, catching up.” The old man frowned a little in confusion. “He’s… well. You’ll see for yourself.”

The bartender went back to his glasses. In the middle of the night his brother had arrived, asking to speak to him. Over a cup of tea, Albus had told him of the horrible choices he had made, the fears that plagued him since their sister’s death, and he had begged him for forgiveness, both for what happened to Ariana as well as for how he had treated his brother over the years. It had been an emotional, draining conversation that cleared up much of the resentment Aberforth felt towards his elder brother, though he remained a little wary.

Severus bit his lip, then pushed the door open.

“Hello, Severus.” The blue eyes, red-rimmed and shadowed with fatigue, twinkled at him.

“Albus.” Severus suddenly rushed forward and threw his arms around the older man. “I am so sorry, I never meant… I mean…”

“Hush.” The Headmaster returned his embrace, then held him at arm’s length. “There is no need to apologise, Severus.”

“There is.” The Potions Master looked down. “I… I mean… those spirits… the ritual… it was my doing. Please, let me finish,” he said when he saw the Headmaster open his mouth. “I know you are probably furious with me now, and you should be, but please, listen just a little longer.”

He took a deep breath. “I drew Harry into it, and the condition the spirits set was that we had to watch. I… I’m sorry for putting you through all that, but mostly I’m sorry for not realizing that you are only human, too, that we have made mistakes as well and should allow you the same. We should not demand you be perfect. And… and… what you said to me when I came back to you, I deserved that. You were right to be disgusted by me. You should not feel guilty or try to excuse me…,” continuing to stare at the floor, Snape trailed off.

A soft chuckle, sad and at the same time joyful, made him look up. “My dear child,” Dumbledore said gently, “I knew… no, I had hoped that it was you and Harry that started the ritual….”

Severus’s eyes widened.

“I do know how to research, Severus,” Dumbledore chided teasingly. “It did not take me very long to find the ritual, and when I read that the caster has to genuinely care about the person visited… well, I would like to say that I knew or suspected, but the truth is I hoped that Harry or you… or both… were the casters. That would mean that you did still care for me, which is far more than I deserve. And, depressingly enough, there isn’t an abundance of potential candidates.”

He moved his hands from Severus’s upper arms, to his shoulder and the back of his neck. “I am a stubborn old man, Severus, who is very used to meddling. I cannot promise a complete transformation in just one night, but I am going to do everything I can. I will need you and Harry to tell me when I start to go wrong again. Alright?”

Severus nodded. “Harry and I learned a few things, as well,” he sighed, leaning into the touch. After so many years of biting everyone’s head off who even offered so much as a handshake, it felt alien, but good. “Will you come over soon? So, we can talk, just the three of us?”

“Of course, I will.” The Headmaster smiled at him, but this time it was not the ‘I will give you a scrap of affection so that you will behave the way I wish’ smile Severus had come to hate. It was a genuinely warm smile, one that promised that the Headmaster had truly changed for the better and was intending to keep it up.

“Now, Abe made an excellent lunch. Shall we?”

***

It was, of course, quite impossible to set the Wizarding World to rights overnight. It took Harry, Severus, and their friends many years. Hermione came back from Australia as England’s first all-round master, at Severus’s request, and did much to reshape both Hogwarts and the Ministry into functional, high quality institutions. The Potions Master, realizing the damage he had done to his art by the role he had to play during the war, eventually re-joined Hogwarts staff as a part-time teacher for the NEWT classes and proved to be a much better teacher the second time around.

Albus Dumbledore gave up his attempts to manage everything on his own. He resigned from Hogwarts and focussed all his attention on fighting the general apathy among the Wizarding population. He made his apologies and amends where he could, but stressed that they had barely survived the last Dark Lord – it would not do to wait quietly for the emergence of yet another one. To Severus and Harry, he no longer was a man to be feared, but became a second father.

When he finally died twenty years after his eventful Christmas night, his very private funeral was attended only by his brother, Harry, Severus, and a handful of his closest friends. But he was mourned by thousands of others who no longer remembered his faults, but only his valiant efforts to change for the better.

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