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The Long Road	By : SinisterMe Category: Harry Potter > Slash - Male/Male > Snape/Remus Views: 63598 -:- Recommendations : 3 -:- Currently Reading : 18
Disclaimer: This is a work of fan fiction using characters from the Harry Potter world, which is trademarked by J. K. Rowling. This story is purely for entertainment purposes, no money is being made from it.

Chapter List
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"SNAPE!” a voice shouted. “You had better be in there you son of a bitch!”
Severus didn’t say a word, just waited for the intruder to make himself visible; getting into a verbal sparring match during a duel did nothing except give one’s position away. It had taken the trespasser less time than expected to break through his wards. They were woven quite intricately; some he had added himself and some were as old as the house. He could have stopped the person hours ago, but curiosity had won him over.
As the smoke settled, the silhouette of a single person was seen standing there breathing heavily with their wand drawn. Between Severus and the man who had just blown clear through the side of his house, a furious magical force was gathering, the air was thickening and crackling with it.
The man stepped closer, Severus didn’t move from his protective stance in front of Teddy and Remus. Two, three more steps and the identity of the assailant was seen through the falling dust.
“Potter,” Severus spat the name out like a bad taste.
“Harry?” Remus breathed at exactly the same moment, his face a mixture of wonder and horror.
“It took me a bloody long time to track you down,” Harry’s voice was raised in anger; his chest was heaving with it, emerald eyes shining with rage. Sparks flew from the tip of his wand.
“Where the hell are they?”
“Get your prescription checked, you blind fool,” Severus snapped, not lowering his wand.
Harry looked around the room, seeing Remus sitting in a plush armchair at the kitchen table looking quite distressed.
“Where’s Teddy?” Harry asked dangerously. “If you have harmed one hair on that child’s head, so help me GOD, I will end you right here!”
Severus stood very still, waiting for Potter to catch up with reality. Circe, it was just like that boy to run in wand blazing and ask questions later. Through the anger and turmoil, Severus found one split second to be thankful that he was no longer responsible for making sure that brat was alive and in one piece. Though clearly whoever had taken over that job was not qualified to do it as there was a cavernous hole in his wall.
In the eerie silence, a sound was heard, quiet but definitely there. It was the muffled sound of a child sobbing in the background.
“I hear him, where is he?” Harry asked wildly, the sparks pouring out of the end of his wand multiplied, snapping and sizzling as they fell to the floor. “WHERE IS HE?”
Potter obviously wasn’t in a state to be reasoned with, though in all of the years Snape had had the misfortune of knowing him, he never had been.
“You’ll want to stop shouting,” Severus said much more calmly than he felt. Teddy was probably terrified; he needed to get the situation in hand.
“You want me to stop shouting. You’re lucky all I’m doing is shouting, why am I even talking to you, you dirty traitor?” Harry levelled his wand in Severus’ direction, who made no obvious move to defend himself.
“Yes, go right ahead; try and curse me in my own kitchen. I’ve definitely not prepared for that,” Snape said sarcastically.
“You didn’t seem very fucking prepared for the hole I just blasted in your house! You always have to be so goddamn’ arrogant!” Harry snarled. He was so enraged, an uncontrolled wave of magic poured from the end of his wand.
Things seemed to happen in slow motion for Severus, in a split second he saw that Potter either hadn’t meant to emit that burst of magic, or his aim was just bloody awful. The blue light shot from the end of his wand, bounced destructively off the reflective surface of the oven door and went barreling towards the table that Teddy was currently huddled under.
Severus didn’t think; he dove sideways, placing himself between the blast of light and the kitchen table. The light caught him in the shoulder, sending a pulsing flare of pain through his body. His robes and shirt were still smoldering when he hit the ground. It hadn’t been a direct hit, but he had caused the magic to dissipate all the same. Wand still in hand, Severus stood again shakily, parts of his disintegrated clothing falling to the floor in a shower of embers. A faint smell of burnt skin permeated the room.
The sobbing was heard even louder, Remus desperately wished there was something he could do for his son, but he was unable to get out of the chair to go to him. Also it was almost more than he could do to sit there in slack jawed amazement; what did Harry think he was doing?
Severus swayed on his feet momentarily, it was clearly seen that the skin of his shoulder and arm was badly damaged by the blast, but he didn’t seem to notice. He was torn between throttling Potter where he stood and making sure the residual blast hadn’t harmed Teddy, who wasn’t even trying to stifle his heart wrenching tears any longer. His breath was coming out in large swallows and Severus thought he might be hyperventilating.
In the end, common sense prevailed. “I’m going to turn my back on you Potter, clearly you need a larger target,” Severus seethed. He did just that, turning around and crouching so he could peer under the table, his shoulder screaming in protest at the range of movement required to get down that far.
Harry was standing there in the same position he had been when the magical wave had poured from his wand. He seemed as blown away as everyone else at what had happened but there were no words of apology forthcoming. He just watched Severus bend down and half crawl under the table, seemingly unconcerned that he had his back turned to someone who in all appearances had just fired an offensive spell at him.
Severus tucked his wand into his sleeve, muttering a charm that would effectively ward him against another attack. It was wandless and therefore not very strong, but it would deflect one attack, which would be all he needed. If Potter fired at him again he wouldn’t be held responsible for his actions save for in a Ministry court.
“Did that hit you?” Severus asked the dark space under the table. “Teddy, are you hurt?”
Harry paled. “He’s under the table? God, did I hit him?” He moved forward, stopping in his tracks at the look Snape gave him.
Remus was sitting there, his hand over his mouth. How had any of this happened?
“Teddy, are you hurt?” Snape asked again, dragging himself further under the table, ignoring the searing pain in his shoulder.
“N-No s-s-sir,” the boy stuttered around his desperate gasping for air.
“Not at all? It didn’t hit you anywhere? You have to tell me, Teddy, or I can’t help you.”
“No, s-sir.”
In the dim light in the shadows under the table, Snape saw that Teddy was curled up in a small ball, his back against the wall. It was much the same position he had found him in the night he’d had that nightmare. The boy was shaking, huge tears poured down his cheeks.
Severus backed away from the table. “Teddy, would you come out of there so I could see?”
“No, sir. Please don’t make me.”
“You know I won’t make you; but he won’t hurt you, I promise.”
Teddy looked at him, stricken.
“Put your wand away, Potter,” Severus said without turning around to face him.
“You’d like that wouldn’t you, that way you can-”
Snape swiveled to face Harry. “Shut up, and put it away. There’s no way he’s coming out of there when you have it out in the open. Put it the hell away,” he said.
“Please, Harry, do what he says,” Remus pleaded.
Harry hesitated, groaning to himself as he holstered his wand. The electricity in the air seemed to dissipate.
“See? He put his wand away. Mine is away too. Please come out of there, Teddy.”
Teddy inched toward the edge of the table, crawling out and over to Severus’ side in a single movement. He kept Snape’s body between Harry and himself, clinging to Severus like a drowning man to a buoy.
Severus saw a tuft of hair that had been burned away by the blast. He ran his fingers carefully over the boy’s scalp to make sure that was all the damage that had been done. A small scrape ran along his cheek, but it wasn’t bleeding and seemed to be mostly superficial. He put his uninjured arm around Teddy’s shoulders, pressing the fallen dragon into the boy’s shaking hands. He noted absently that the child had wet himself.
“He’s fine,” Severus said, turning his head towards Remus a little.
“Thank Merlin,” Remus said; letting out a breath he didn’t even know he was holding.
Severus cast a drying spell on the boy’s clothes without taking out his wand.
“T-thank you sir,” Teddy said in a small voice. “I’m sorry; I didn’t mean to do that.” The child hung his head.
“Don’t be sorry,” Severus said, tightening his arm around the boy. “People do all kinds of embarrassing things if they are frightened enough, even full grown adults. There is nothing to be ashamed of.” He shot a dirty look at Potter.
Remus was sure that if looks could kill, Harry’s exploding body would be redecorating Severus’s kitchen that very second.
Snape stood, bracing himself on the edge of the table. Despite his mangled shoulder, he scooped Teddy up and walked him the few short steps to where Remus sat, lowering the boy carefully into his father’s lap.
Remus latched onto his son, enfolding him instantly in his arms. Teddy pushed his face into Lupin’s chest, dragon still clutched at his side.
Severus then turned back to Harry, who was standing like he had been stuck dumb in the middle of the kitchen floor. Severus personally didn’t think it was that far of a jump for the young man.
“Well, what do you have to say for yourself?” he asked, sounding every bit the Professor he had been for so many years.
“I-” Harry floundered for a minute, looking momentarily younger than he was.
“I’m being serious, Auror Potter, have my pardons been revoked? New evidence been brought to light? Whatever could your reasons for blasting through the back side of my house be?” Severus’ voice was saccharine sweet.
“Cut the shite, Snape. You accepted Teddy and Remus like they were your right, like heirloom furniture to be sat on by another generation. Then you didn’t deem it necessary to share that information with us, people who searched and mourned for them for years. People you were supposedly working with for years. What the hell else was I supposed to think?”
“Well you could either do your own reconnaissance, or come and speak to me like an adult, novel as the concept may be.”
“Yes, I was going to invite myself over for bloody tea, asking you politely about the welfare of the closest thing to family I have left, while you…”
“While I what, Potter? Strung them up by their thumbs over a slow burning fire? Pulled out their teeth and toenails for my collection? Gods, man; you haven’t changed a whit since you were thirteen,” Severus sounded disgusted.
“What was I supposed to think? People who have nothing to hide aren’t usually so secretive!”
“Watch your tone,” Severus snapped, though quietly. His eyes darted over to Teddy, who was crying quietly on Remus’ lap. “Did it ever occur to you that these people have been through more than an ordeal and that they need time to settle before jumping straight into all of their old patterns?”
Harry looked at him vacantly. “You have got to be fucking kidding me.”
“That was my exact thought when you walked through the recently demolished wall in my kitchen,” Severus said, really trying not to shout.
“Oh get off it, Snape. Explain what is going on here.”
“I should be asking you that very thing!” Severus seethed. Teddy was already shaken by the occurrences of the morning, he really needed to try and rein in his temper. “What right do you have to barge in here like that? Do you have any idea what would have happened if Teddy had been on the other side of that door when you sent it splintering across the room?”
“How was I supposed to know that Teddy would be in the kitchen?”
“It’s eight thirty in the morning, Potter. It is not uncommon for people to eat breakfast at eight thirty in the morning.”
“Yeah but-” Harry seemed to stop himself.
“But what? You thought that I would neglect to feed him?” Severus wondered if it hadn’t been more along the lines of concern that he had locked Teddy in a cramped cupboard under the stairs. If that was Potter’s angle, he became marginally easier to understand and therefore, hopefully, to predict.
“How was I supposed to know?”
“You keep on saying that, Potter. How about coming to speak to me like an adult, if we are going to be repeating things that have already been said. How exactly did you expect me to react to this? You do realize that I would be well within my rights to make either one of them pay for the damages you’ve caused here, in any way that I feel is appropriate?”
Severus’ voice was dangerously soft. Remus held more tightly onto his son, feeling chills go up and down his spine.
A tormented look flashed across Harry’s face. “Listen, Snape…”
“Why should I listen to you? You certainly don’t think before you speak, let alone before you act,” Severus seemed posed to go off on a rant about Harry’s staggering mental deficit, when Fred suddenly appeared near the sink with two bags of groceries.
The elf turned around to take in all of the damage in the kitchen, his already large eyes bulging unbelievably out of his head. The bags in his hands dropped to the floor. “Fred is not being able to leave you alone for five minutes,” he said in horror, looking straight at Severus. “Someone is needing to be telling Fred what is going on here, now.”
“Harry Potter here decided to come for a visit, apparently he is unused to such fineries as ringing the bell,” Snape said in a mocking tone.
“You is being Harry Potter?” Fred asked Harry in a voice that conveyed unimpressed disbelief. He looked Harry up and down from his feet to the crown of his head and sneered, “Fred was somehow thinking you was going to be taller.” He turned back to Snape. “You always was having strange friends, sir. Well someone is to be fixing this and if you think I is doing it, you is all being crazy.” Fred picked up his fallen groceries and took them over to the fridge, looking in dismay at the destroyed oven as he went.
Severus said suddenly, “Get out of my house, Potter.” He wondered why he hadn’t said it sooner, really.
“No!” Harry replied quickly. “I can’t leave, not when I’ve just found them!”
Snape made a sound between vexation and annoyance, hardly believing that he was considering allowing the brat to stay for a while. He glanced over at Teddy and Remus, seeing Lupin looking between him and Potter; and Teddy who still had his face buried in his father’s shirt. The boy was more than likely still scared out of his wits. Fred was seemingly minding his own business, loading things into the cold box.
“No; this is unacceptable. You have disrupted me and my house enough for one day.”
“Please, Snape-” Harry protested.
Severus let out a dark chuckle. “You seriously need to reconsider your tactics. Normally a person starts with that and works their way forward to destroying property when they aren’t getting what they want.”
Harry at least had enough sense to look a little embarrassed by that, now that some of the adrenaline was gone. “I came as soon as I found out where you had them; I can’t say I stopped to really plan much of anything.”
Just as Severus knew it was; he seemingly ignored Harry’s statement. “I’m going upstairs to get Teddy into some clean clothes. By the time I’m back down here, I don’t want to see you in my kitchen. Understood?”
Harry looked deflated, his posture failing rather spectacularly.
Severus didn’t wait for a reply before turning his back on his former student. “Fred, if you’d be so kind to make sure our esteemed guest here doesn’t try collapse another section of my house on his way out.”
“Of course sir, Fred will be taking care of it.” Fred looked at Harry with narrowed eyes.
Severus strode back to where Remus was seated, holding his arms out to Teddy. “A drying charm is no substitute for a change of clothes,” he said to the boy softly.
Teddy held onto his father. “…But sir,” he said plaintively.
“He’s scared you’re going to hurt him, you bastard,” Harry raised his voice, wand in hand instantly.
Severus withdrew his hands, thinking that perhaps he shouldn’t have said what he had to Potter about making the Lupins suffer for what he had done. Though if Potter thought he was already mistreating them, how did he think he would react to this kind of debacle? The young man had collapsed a small section of his house to get to his slaves; if he had wanted to make someone pay, there was nothing he couldn’t do to the Lupins. Potter never had been the type to think of his consequences before he was facing them.
“Is that it, Teddy?” he asked, actually unsure what the boy would say, “Are you afraid that I’m going to harm you?”
Teddy was silent for a second, his bottom lip trembling as he looked between Harry and Severus. “Please, sir,” he implored. “Please don’t leave my daddy alone with him.”
Snape raised an eyebrow. Harry looked like someone had just punched him in the gut.
“He will not be alone; Fred will be here, he will keep him safe. I don’t believe Potter would hurt your father, in any case,” Severus explained to the child.
“I wouldn’t!” Harry cried. Teddy recoiled at the raised voice.
Severus didn’t even look over at him, much less dignify his outburst with a verbal response. He held his arms out to Teddy. “How about we go get you changed? I promise you, your father will be perfectly alright while we are gone.”
“You promise?” Teddy asked, voice quavering only a little.
“I do,” Snape said earnestly; then he smirked. “Fred will take care of him, if anything happens.” Fred was a wonderful elf and a great companion, but Severus certainly wouldn’t want to be on his bad side.
Teddy gave him a watery smile, finally holding out his arms. As Severus took him, hoisting him so he sat on one hip, Lupin’s arms held onto him longer than necessary.
“He will be fine, Lupin,” Severus said.
“’Yes, sir,” Remus agreed, eyes on his boy.
Severus walked from the room, Teddy in his arms, without even looking back at Harry. He went up the stairs, the child held close to him, stopping only once he was in the boy’s room, closing the door behind them.
Teddy had gripped him tightly the entire way, his damp face buried in the shoulder of Snape’s good arm. The other side of his body he ignored completely, able to move past the pain almost effortlessly; this was nothing compared to the trials he had endured. He set the boy down and went to the wardrobe, pulling a clean set of undergarments and trousers from inside of it.
“Who was that, sir?” Teddy asked as Snape turned around to face him. The boy still looked shaken, his small face pinched in worry.
How to answer that question? “That was Harry Potter,” he said, as it was the most obvious reply.
“How does he know my daddy?”
Unbelievably, an even more loaded question. “His father and your father were…” utter assholes, “very close for most of their lives. Your father also taught Potter briefly at Hogwarts.” Severus almost left this part out, “He was chosen by your parents to be your godfather.”
“What’s that, sir?” Teddy asked in a concerned voice.
“A godfather? A godfather is someone who is chosen to be… special in the life of a child. They are to watch out for and protect that child, and in some instances even raise them, if the parents are unable to do so.”
Teddy made a face. “Well he isn’t a very good one then.”
Under normal circumstances, Severus would perhaps allow the boy these thoughts, just for the sake of stirring the pot and getting under Potter’s skin. However circumstances were anything but normal these days and Teddy needed everyone he could get on his side.
“He has had little opportunity to be. Don’t judge him based solely on what you have seen today. He believed me to be treating you and your father badly and I think he had it in his head that he was going to come and rescue you from me.”
Teddy’s eyes bugged almost out of his head. “You’re not sending me away with him are you?”
“Not even a chance.”
“Why did he use his magic to try and hurt us?”
“I’m not certain, but I don’t think he did that on purpose. Sometimes it is difficult for someone with a strong magical core to control that energy. Especially if they are that angry and are holding their wands out like they mean to use them.” Potter was a fool; this wasn’t news to him, he’d been watching the boy do things just as reckless and more since he was eleven.
“But it was going to hit me. And you jumped in the way!” This was clearly a point of distress for the boy.
“I would not allow him to harm you. My job in our bonding is more than just to teach you and provide for you. I am responsible for your safety and wellbeing. If it is in my power, I will always protect you because you are in my care.”
“You think the bond wants you to protect me?” Teddy tilted his head, trying to understand.
“Under any circumstances. Your father essentially agreed to make me your legal guardian. I take that to mean that as well as being responsible for your education, I am responsible for your physical and emotional wellbeing.”
“That means you won’t let someone else hurt me?” Teddy asked.
“That means that I won’t let anyone hurt you,” Severus corrected him.
“Oh,” Teddy said. “But it hurt you, look, sir, you’re bleeding,” the boy pointed out.
“I will see to it later. What that burst of magic would have done to you full force is nothing compared to the fraction of it that hit my shoulder. I would do it again in a second.”
Teddy gulped. “Thank you, sir.”
“I’ll wait outside while you get changed. Open the door when you are done and we can go see what your father makes of all this,” Severus said, handing the folded clothes over to Teddy.
“Okay, sir,” Teddy agreed, taking the garments.
Severus walked from the room, closing the door most of the way and standing a few steps down the hall. Only a few minutes later, the door swung open and Teddy came out, peeking into the hallway before seeing him and slowly coming over to his side.
“I’m ready, sir.”
“Let’s head downstairs and see your father then.”
“Okay.”
Severus led the way down the stairs and to the kitchen, backpedaling as he rounded the corner, holding his arm out so Teddy would stop. The pointer finger of one hand he held up over his lips so the boy knew to be quiet.
“I’m so sorry, Remus; I never meant for any of this to happen!” Harry’s trembling voice was heard.
“No one thinks any of this is your fault,” Remus soothed.
“But look at you; look at your feet!” Potter emphasized.
“M-Macnair did that; our new master has worked to heal them, Harry. He’s been very good to Teddy,” Remus sounded a little defensive.
“Please don’t call him that,” Harry implored.
“It’s what he is; my not showing him the proper respect isn’t going to change anything.”
“He doesn’t deserve your respect, Remus, not like that. Do you have any idea the things he’s done?”
Remus paused. “He’s told me some of it, though I don’t imagine he’s told me everything, that’s for certain.”
“I can’t let him hurt you! He’s probably been waiting his whole life for something like this to come along. I read some of the specifics of your bond and Merlin, the ways he is going to humiliate you… I can’t take it, Remus,” Potter sounded on the verge of hysterics.
“Harry, I think you need to relax. Neither Teddy nor I have been mistreated since we’ve been here. I can’t tell you how glad I am to see you, though. No matter how it is you chose to arrive.” Remus was incredulous that Harry was right in front of him.
“I thought you were dead,” Harry very nearly sobbed.
“I can’t imagine what that would have been like, Harry. But here we are, alive and well. Please don’t judge our master just yet; you don’t know him at all and I’m beginning to think that I don’t either.”
“I know all I need to know about him. He may have helped us win the war, but that doesn’t mean I have to trust him.”
“At least I don’t have to be afraid that he wants to sleep with my son. He’s been so good to my boy that he can almost do what he wants with me and I won’t complain,” Remus said emphatically.
“I will complain, Remus, loudly. You aren’t anyone’s whipping boy, and you deserve more out of life than living as Snape’s dirty sock.”
Remus was silent.
Severus, taken aback by Potter’s harsh choice of words, took the opportunity to step into the kitchen, Teddy following closely behind him, oblivious, or so he hoped. He looked at Harry with disdain, seeing Fred standing near the mangled stove giving Potter an almost identical look.
“I think you have overstayed your welcome, Potter.” He wondered briefly if Remus was feeling the same thing, as he was sitting there with an unreadable expression on his face.
Harry looked up at Snape from where he was crouched at Remus’ side, tears still shining in his furious green eyes. “Please, Harry, go,” Remus asked.
Harry stood and backed slowly, stumbling over a piece of rubble from the destroyed wall. He looked incredibly lost for someone who had come in with such intensity, turning around and slowly walking out the hole in the back wall, shoulders slumped.
“Oh, and Potter?” Severus called after him.
Harry paused but didn’t bother to turn around, as disheartened as he was.
“Come back tomorrow; bring some tact and common sense with you this time. I have a front door you can knock on rather than knock down, if you’d like to give that a try,” he laid the sarcasm on heavy. At least this way it looked like he was the one in control of Potter coming over to his house, although really he knew that he wouldn’t be able to get rid of the little sot no matter what he did, not with Remus and Teddy here.
“Yes, sir,” Harry responded, giving Snape the respect he had never given him when he was his student, before walking away. The distant sound of his apparition was heard.
A/N: There! Hope I didn't leave you waiting for too long on that one.

Thank you for all your comments on the last chapter, you guys made my week!

Let me know what you think of this one! I hope you liked it; more to come as always!
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The Long Road