Summary: Harry returns to normal, has a party, and has duty with Tonks
Chapter 21 - Hearth and Home
Harry perused his photo album at the dining room table, expending many comments on the photographs of his parents. Snape was disappointingly unflappable, however, as he worked at meticulously writing out a small stack of highly decorated forms.
"I bet they were really happy together," Harry opined, watching James reach under his and Lily's linked arms to tickle her. She pulled away with a giggle.
Harry fell silent as this latest gibe failed to spur a negative reaction. His comments were making him sad so, instead, he asked, "Why didn't you like my dad?"
Snape's quill stopped arcing over the paper and he looked up. "He was my Dudley, you might say."
Harry swallowed. Suspicious, he said, "But he wasn't any bigger than you."
Quill still frozen, Snape responded, "His magic was much stronger than mine, even though I worked very hard to improve mine to have a chance against him and his many friends." He seemed to be trying to remain unflappable, but his jaw tightened revealingly, making his statement seem all the more true.
Harry frowned and turned back to the album, silent now.
A blast of green flame preceded Tonks' arrival in the hearth. She brushed herself off while holding a large black velvet sack out of the way. She said, "Blasted thing refuses to Disapparate . . . hello Severus, Harry"
Snape stood slowly. "You have it?"
Her eyes flitted to Harry and back to Snape. "Yep." She pulled a slip of parchment out of her pocket, after checking most all of her pockets twice. "The instructions are here." When Snape took the slip to examine it, Tonks invited brightly, "Come here, Harry."
Snape held up a hand. "Leave the object here. I'll send Harry along."
Befuddled, Tonks stared at him, but shrugged and handed over the long inky black velvet bundle. "See you in a bit, Harry." With that and a wink at him, she Disapparated.
Snape laid the cane, still in its sack, on the table and studied the note awhile longer. It was a small note, so Harry assumed he was stalling, which was fine with Harry, who had found his gut was all knotted up.
Snape rubbed his chin and said, "Interesting impact this object has." He lowered the note and looked Harry in the eye. "Simple principle: halving one's age. One wouldn't think much of that beyond the obvious power of youth by choice." He lowered his head back to the parchment and re-met Harry's gaze through the strands of his hair. "But it has left us with a dilemma." Frowning, he set down Tonks' note and carefully slid the velvet off the cane, finally laying the silver length of it down on the wood with his hand carefully protected. He tossed the velvet aside and after considering the cleaved cane, said softly, "I cannot by rights make you do this."
Harry took that in. "You'd let me stay this way?" he asked. "Even though I hate you?"
Snape didn't flinch as expected at those words, but his lips pursed harder. Harry
stood up to take a better look at the cane. The picture of his older self seemed to watch from the photograph along with his two friends. "I don't belong here," Harry said. "Don't you want the other me back?"
"Of course I do. He is my son and you are not, or perhaps more accurately, you refuse to be." Snape exhaled audibly. "But reversing the charm means that you cease to exist as you are."
Harry gave him a disturbed look and picked up the cane to examine it closely. "All those complicated books in the room there . . . he understands those?"
