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Other People's Choices	By : Lomonaaeren Category: Harry Potter > General > General Views: 24374 -:- Recommendations : 1 -:- Currently Reading : 5
Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter. I am making no money from this story

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Chapter Six—Thorns
It doesn’t seem real.
That’s the only thing Harry can think, as he sits with Ron and Hermione at the Gryffindor table for lunch. Maybe he should be over with the Slytherins, but he can’t right now. He wants to talk about what Snape and McGonagall said, and the Slytherins would mock him.
Ron is beaming so hard that it looks as though the smile is sticking off the sides of his face. He keeps patting Harry on the shoulder and then looking around importantly. It makes Harry smile. At least being put in Slytherin really hasn’t affected his friendship with Ron the way Snape and Malfoy and a dark, worrying part of Harry himself thought it would.
“It’s going to be great. You’ll sleep in my bedroom, and we can keep Fred and George from playing pranks on us, and we’ll fly, and you’ll get to see what the ghoul looks like, and—”
“It’s not settled yet,” Hermione interrupts. “Harry still has to go and—talk to the Ministry person.” She lowers her voice. Harry told them not to mention the thing by name in front of other people, and at least Hermione is trying to be good about that. Most people will probably think Ron is talking about a visit, anyway.
“I know that. But Harry’ll do it, and then I’ll have a brother I actually want to have.”
“We heard that, Ronniekins,” George says, wandering behind Ron and making a quick gesture with his wand. Donkey ears sprout up behind Ron’s real ones, although Harry knows from the shimmer that they’re just an illusion.
“We hear everything,” says Fred, and leers, while Seamus and Dean burst into laughter at the sight of Ron’s ears.
“What the bloody—” Ron reaches up, but the ears aren’t solid and he can’t touch them. It’s Hermione who leans over to tell him what’s happened, and then Ron leaps up and spins around and runs after his brothers. George and Fred are telling him how wonderful he looks, and how much they’ve always wanted a pet donkey, and Harry can’t do anything but watch them and laugh.
“Harry? If I could talk to you, please?”
There’s a sinking sensation in his chest so swift that Harry sways for a second, dizzy, and Hermione puts a comforting arm around his shoulders. Harry turns around and stares sort of blankly at Dumbledore, who looks kindly back at him, over his glasses.
“It’s just for a moment,” Dumbledore adds. “I know that you’re busy packing to go home for the summer. This won’t take long.”
Home. He thinks I’m going—that must mean—
“Home with us, Headmaster Dumbledore,” says Ron stoutly, and ignores the twins for a second to thrust himself up beside Harry. Harry’s not even sure he notices when Fred cancels George’s spell. “And he doesn’t have to pack that much, you know? Mum’s just going to smother him with more food and clothes when he gets home.”
Harry feels that he’s the one with his face stretched by the smile, this time. God, he’s so glad Ron is his friend.
“There are a few things that need to be straightened out about that,” says Dumbledore agreeably. “If I could borrow Harry?”
Ron looks uncertain. Hermione taps Harry on the shoulder. “Go with him,” she hisses.
Harry nods slowly. He supposes Hermione’s right. Now that Dumbledore’s heard about this, they can’t try to hide it from him any longer.
But why did we have to hide it from him in the first place?
As he trails after Dumbledore out of the Great Hall, Harry thinks that that’s one question no one can answer.
*
Severus wipes crumbs off his face in an undignified manner as he strides from the Great Hall. The Headmaster caught him by surprise. He saw Albus listening to the intricate murmurs of Potter and his friends—at the wrong table—but he didn’t expect him to confront the boy in public.
He feels a faint annoyance at the lunch he won’t be getting, but that’s the way the world works, sometimes. He feels it would be more disastrous right now to leave Dumbledore alone with Potter.
Severus takes a secret passage all the professors know, counting on the fact that Albus probably won’t want to betray its existence to Potter, and comes out ahead of them. When they appear around the corner, Severus stands up and lets his mouth move in a faint memory of a smile.
“Severus? What are you doing here, dear boy?”
Severus notices Potter jolt, probably at the address. He wishes he could nod to the boy in sympathy. “It came to my attention that you wanted to speak with one of my students about his summer plans, Headmaster. Since I can’t help but feel it will take Potter some time to settle into Slytherin House, I am making sure I am present at all discussions concerning him.”
Albus sighs a little. “And were you the one who first told Harry he could find shelter beyond his relatives’ home for the summer?”
“I was,” Severus answers without a blink.
“This is a more complex situation than you realize.” Albus touches the gargoyle, and it springs aside. “We must discuss it in more privacy in my office.”
Severus turns around in time to see a light going out in the back of Potter’s eyes. He’s accepted, already, that he won’t get to do anything Severus and Minerva told him he would, because Albus has made his decision and opposed it.
And he will not even explain why he opposes it. Severus resolves, in that moment, to force him to explain.
“Then we will go to your office,” he says, and makes sure that Potter is standing next to him as they get on the moving staircase. He waits until the door closes behind them to add, “And you must tell Potter why he should return to people who abuse him and starve him and lock him in a cupboard.”
Potter’s head flies up. His eyes lock on Severus again, then they fall. He never thought I would fight for him.
Severus takes a breath that feels as if it has lead weights attached to it. No, he has not done a good job. He will pay for that again and again, but for now, he can only let remorse act as a spur, driving him to greater heights.
“There are things that are greater than physical comfort, Severus.”
“No,” Severus says, because he has heard this argument before, and he knows the counter to it now as he did not the first time someone tried it on him. “Did you know that is not true? Muggle psychologists have proved it. Someone has to have the perception of safety and secure food and water and shelter first, or they won’t care about anything else or achieve any other goals. I believe Professor Burbage regularly includes this insight in her Muggle Studies classes.”
“How the world changes, and how we do learn!” Albus marvels.
Which is not an answer. Severus ties his temper down and holds his tongue until they ascend into the office, and Albus invites them to sit. But Severus leans forwards during the attempt to offer them sweets, and says, “No, Albus. Tell me. What benefits could come from living in an abusive home?”
“He is physically safe from the Death Eaters there,” Albus says quietly, looking at Potter. The boy has his head bowed, denying them both access to his eyes and his inner thoughts. Severus cannot help but approve. “If his family is not ideal—Minerva once said something to the same effect. But I cannot think of another place that would be as physically safe from the Death Eaters, Severus.”
“Did you ever ask anyone else if they could?”
Albus’s jaw drops a little, and his eyes flicker. “What are you saying?”
“I am saying that someone else might have been able to think of an alternative.” Severus did not expect to score with this point, and so he smiles and arranges his hands in front of him. “I can think of at least three.”
“Go on.” Albus’s brow is furrowed.
“Hogwarts itself. That ridiculous safehouse you set up at the end of the war that had those protections on it so powerful it felt like drowning every time I had to force myself through them. And any house under the Fidelius.”
“But Harry could not live in any of those places with no one to care for him.”
“He has no one to care for him now!”
Potter is looking up from under his fringe, his own eyes flickering back and forth. Severus forces himself not to stare. Even a reassuring nod might get taken the wrong way right now.
“That is not true, Severus. I assure you that he has not been starved or beaten to death, because he is sitting here in front of us—”
“Do you mean that someone has cared for him as in keeping him alive?” Severus stares at Albus. He did not think it would come down to this, that Albus would believe so earnestly that he was doing the right thing and everyone else had to go along with it because it was the right thing to leave Potter with Petunia. He thought Albus didn’t know or hadn’t thought about it.
But this…
“Of course that is what I mean. Petunia may not like magic, but she took Harry in because he’s family. He has no one else alive in the world who can say the same thing.” Albus gives Potter what he probably imagines is a soft look—wasted because the boy has bowed his head again. “He will survive there. He wouldn’t in any other situation with no one to look after him.”
“How many people owe you favors?” Severus asks. “You could find someone to care for him if you wanted.”
Potter stirs for the first time. “I don’t want to go somewhere else where I’m not wanted and told over and over again that they’re only doing this as a favor, thanks.”
Severus quells that attitude with a look. It’s not helpful right now. They need to get past the initial hurdles of Albus’s concern before they can tackle something deeper. “You could get someone to care for him,” he says, and turns to Albus again.
“Alas, the only ones I would trust with Harry’s care are—members of the old crowd.” Albus glances at Potter. “And they are all busy doing important things, tasks they cannot be pulled away from.”
Potter only nods as if he expected that. Severus clenches his teeth down on his tongue. He thinks he can see what the boy will become if no one makes an effort to reach out, show him that some adults will care and do things for him out of something other than obligation. Lonely. Isolated. Clinging to a few select friends who might or might not talk him out of doing foolish things, or pull him along in their own recklessness. Scorned by the majority of the school, including Gryffindors.
In other words, Severus himself.
Potter will, admittedly, probably not follow the path of the Death Eater, if only because that would mean serving the man who killed his parents. But there are plenty of other ways for a young man to waste and ruin himself.
“There is nothing more important than this,” Severus says. “Find someone. If you will not approve of the Weasleys. And why not? They are loyal to you. Their son is one of Potter’s best friends. We can set up protections on their house.”
“But not blood protections.” Albus closes his hand on an inkwell. “Not the only absolute, surefire defense against Death Eaters taking or harming Harry.”
Severus leans his chin on his hand. “Are you telling me that you are resisting my ideas because there might be a one percent chance that someone could break through another kind of defense? This is only ninety-nine percent, the blood protections are one hundred?”
“It is not a percentage. It is a risk I refuse to take. Harry is safe with his mother’s family. He will not be safe if we move him.”
Potter tilts his head further, this time shielding his eyes so thickly that Severus could spend hours trying to guess what he feels and never get it right. Except he knows, he doesn’t have to guess. Stop talking about me like I’m not here.
“Mr. Potter.”
Potter jolts and looks up. Severus holds his gaze, but doesn’t dip below the surface with Legilimency, not here where Dumbledore can sense it if he reads the boy’s mind.
“You will go back to your relatives for exactly three days. That is the fastest we can arrange an audience with the Ministry. You should think about what you want to say, what you want others to know, and what will sound best.”
Potter’s back grows slim and straight. His eyes blaze so fiercely that Severus doesn’t need Legilimency to read them.
“Thank you, sir,” Potter says, and then stands and walks out of the office without looking back. Severus knows why, even as he chokes at the rudeness. Potter doesn’t want to hear Dumbledore take the decision back.
Albus is shaking his head even as Severus turns around.
“I know what you want to do. But you cannot do it, and not only because Harry’s aunt’s house is the safest place for him.”
“What is the other reason?”
“You only care because he is in Slytherin now. You cannot favor him like this, Severus. If you wished to help him, you should have done it while he was still in Gryffindor and it would not come across as favoritism.”
Severus gasps. It’s the same cold calculation that Potter forced onto him, the way he has to rethink things, the way—
And then he seizes control of himself, and notices what else is missing.
“Who is going to know about this, unless Potter talks?” he asks, narrowing his eyes. “The Ministry is sworn to secrecy. I don’t think you would chat about it casually. Neither will I. Why should I have to worry about what others will think, unless you plan to spread the tale?”
“I was only thinking of what the other professors—”
“They already accuse me of favoring Slytherins.” And sometimes they are right, and sometimes they are wrong. “I would rather think that I have changed my attitude towards Potter because of his House placement than leave him in this miserable situation out of fear of what they might think.”
Albus stands up behind his desk. His eyes are ancient. “Harry is safest with his family, Severus. I do know that some of what he has endured is harsh. But better he endure harsh treatment than die at the hands of Death Eaters.”
Severus stands in return, listening.
“It has not escaped my notice,” Albus continues, in a low voice. “But this is what must happen. If I could move him safely to the Weasleys’, I would. Perhaps later in the summer, he can visit them. But he cannot live with them permanently, and I find it irresponsible for you to encourage such foolish hopes.”
“What about the house under Fidelius? Or the safehouse that I mentioned?”
“Once again, who would live with him there and take care of him?”
“Ask Minerva. I know she still mourns having to let Potter go out of her care, and she is not teaching during the summer. By the time she needed to return to full-time duties, it would be time for the school year to begin, and Potter could simply come with her.”
“There is not enough protection,” says Albus. “Any attempt to move him out of his aunt’s house would immediately cause investigation. You may think you can trust the confidentiality of the Ministry’s departments, but I cannot and do not. There would be gossip, speculation, endless articles. Those are the last things Harry needs, after what he has suffered this year. I must ask you to leave the matter alone, Severus.”
Severus turns away without answering.
“Are you listening, Severus?”
“I am.” You knew about it. That entitles you to no mercy.
There is no sign of Potter on the moving staircase. Severus does not need one. He makes his way to his office, feeling strange. It is as if he walks on incandescent coals incapable of burning him.
He will change things.
*
Kain: Oh, Severus knows that it will take work to get Harry to open up to him. He just gets frustrated and impatient with it even while understanding it!
Yes, Harry is young. And I don't think it's unrealistic that he thought it was Quidditch. He hasn't had a lot of people inquire after his health at this point in his life.
I'm really glad you liked the scene. I'm trying to handle this delicately, but also in a way that rings true to the character (and, of course, gets to play with the things I like about stories like this! No point in writing a story I don't like after all).
Severus is fully on Harry's side now, if not always for the right reasons.
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