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"Mr. Potter, what are you doing?" Severus was the one to finally ask, sneering as the now third year dragged a chair towards the teacher's platform. The other teachers, staff, and students were watching in confusion.
Harry only glanced at him before standing behind the chair to make sure it was positioned just right. When he was finally satisfied, he took a deep breath and pulled out a pouch, which he reached into up to his shoulder. Clearly an undetectable expansion charm, then. Whatever he was pulling out was clearly on the 'heavier' end, as it took some effort, which only confused the teachers more.
"Mr. Potter! I asked you a question." Severus snapped, standing up now and looming over the table.
Harry didn't answer. Instead, he focused on taking whatever it was out of the pouch and propping it up on the chair. His body blocked the teachers from seeing exactly what it was, but a few on the ends of the table thought it looked like a portrait frame.
"Mr. Potter! Fifty points from Gryffindor!"
"Severus Snape! You will leave my son alone!" A voice none of them had ever thought they would hear again snapped this time, and Harry moved aside to reveal the portrait of... his parents. They were both glaring at the teachers, though Lily's glare was for Severus alone at the moment.
"Lily." Remus choked, tears instantly coming to his eyes. "James."
"So... guess what I found at Gringotts'." Harry finally spoke.
"Lily." Severus breathed, staring at her in shock, ignoring James completely. Her glare changed to disappointment, making him sink down in his seat and look down in shame before he remembered himself.
It was Albus' turn to stand up slowly while the students whispered amongst themselves about what was happening. "Students, if you would return to the dorms, dinner will be provided-"
"I don't think so, Albus." James hissed. "They can stay right where they are."
"We are going to have a little talk, and you are going to start by explaining why you placed Harry with Petunia when we specifically said he was not to go there!" Lily transferred her gaze to the Headmaster, going back to glaring faster then anybody could imagine possible. Severus was just glad she wasn't giving him that disappointed look anymore. Then her words caught up with him.
"Petunia? What is she talking about? You told me he was being raised by a trusted wizarding family." In fact, he'd been surprised over the years that none of said wizarding families had capitalized on the fame that would generate, but supposed that they were 'trusted' enough to actually take the boys safety seriously.
"No, I live with Aunt Petunia in Surrey, Little Whinging." Harry said, giving out where he lived without a problem or a care.
"And we were quite specific in who was to take Harry in if anything happened to us." James snapped. "First Sirius, then the Longbottom's, then you Minerva, and even you Snape!"
Severus was shocked. He was supposed to take the boy in? James Potter trusted him, Death Eater and enemy of the Marauder's, to raise his son should anything happen? Oh, sure, he was at the bottom of the list after Minerva and it was doubtful anything would happen to her other then old age given how she rarely left the castle for most of the year, but still. He would have expected Lupin to be on the list before him, but supposed that the Potter's knew that would never be allowed given Lupin's wolfish tendencies. One look at Minerva showed that she hadn't been aware of this information anymore then he was.
Remus wasn't too worried about not being part of that list, James and Lily had spoken with him about it before writing their wills. He was the one that refused to allow them to add him, provided of course that he still got visiting rights. It was just too dangerous for him to be a guardian to a child when he was going to be completely unavailable for three nights of the month, even if he found a really good babysitter. Anybody could and would take advantage of his regularly scheduled absences from the child's side.
"Now, I left him there for his own protection. There are powerful blood wards around the property that are only powered by Harry calling the place he lives in with his blood home." Albus placated the enraged parents.
"Bollocks!" James spat. "You know full well that Petunia was adopted!"
"What?!" It was Minerva's turn to explode on the headmaster. "I only let you leave him there because of those blood wards!" The students were finding all this to be highly interesting.
Internally, Albus was sweating and cursing. He'd never expected portraits to be found of them! He hadn't even known they had portraits made! "Ah... I must have forgotten, there were several duels over the course of the war where I took a curse or two..." He tried to play that card. He hadn't really forgotten. Now he just had to get up to his Pensieve, remove the memories and Obliviate himself before anybody thought to check. They wouldn't, really, but one could never be too careful.
"Ha! If you've actually forgotten a thing then I'm a Hippogryph!" James proclaimed loudly and scornfully. "And let's not even get into what you've done to Sirius."
Minerva's face fell, maybe the portraits were made before they went under the Fidelius. "Sirius Black is the one to betray you to You-Know-Who, I'm sorry to-"
"Sirius did no such thing! Pettigrew was our Secret Keeper, not him. It was Albus' suggestion that Pettigrew be our Secret Keeper, but we tell everybody it was really Sirius." Lily interrupted. She'd been letting James do most of the talking so far, which was scaring those who'd truly known her. The fact that she was silent and not voicing her frustrations front and center meant that she was about to blow soon. And blow she did.
Severus quietly reflected that it was a good thing portraits couldn't use magic.
He wasn't even following the conversation anymore, he was studying Harry, forcing himself to look past the preconceived notions he'd held of the boy. Small, thin, robes were of the same lower quality that most Muggleborn got, robes that had clearly been enlarged using magic instead of purchasing new ones for the year, falling apart shoes, glasses that had been constantly broken and fixed a few too many times. If he'd been to the Family Vaults, then it begged the question of why he hadn't taken more money to at least fix his wardrobe and get new glasses. He would deal with that question later.
Standing up, he made his way to Harry's side, where he started casting a series of diagnostics. "Severus?" Lily asked, his actions derailing her from the rant she'd been going on for the last five minutes.
"I'm certified as a Medi-wizard." He muttered in answer. She smirked and sat back. As portraits there wasn't much they could do for their son, so it wasn't like they could schedule an appointment with him somewhere, and he'd only found them in the back of his trust vault a few days before, after that he'd been getting caught up on his summer homework or enjoying the Alley with Ron. Arthur should have handed Pettigrew over to the DMLE by now, along with the written statement they'd dictated to him.
"Severe childhood malnutrition, a few bones that were broken and then healed wrong, with no sign of medical aid, Basilisk..." He choked on his words and furiously started running diagnostics. "Well... I think it's safe to say that between that and the Phoenix tears, you are now completely immune to all venoms and poisons from now on." He finally said faintly, glancing at the students and choosing not to say anything more on that topic (he missed when James Potter ranted about that very subject). "Various scars and a concentration of Dark magic residue..." He pondered that for a moment before brushing the fringe out of Harry's eyes, barely noticing when Lupin came up beside them and put a hand on Harry's shoulder in support.
All the Dark magic was centered around that scar...
While this was happening, James had continued the rant Lily started and Minerva kept Albus seated and Silenced so he couldn't interrupt or anything else. She'd even pulled his wand from his hand so he couldn't attempt to banish the portraits to somewhere else.
"... I can't believe I ever trusted you!" James finished, glaring.
The students were long since shocked into silence after learning what the Trio of Gryffindor had been through in their first two years. Possessed teachers, diaries possessing students, and a Basilisk? The first years were terrified, half of them wanted their parents to take them home right now.
"Thank you, Mr. Potter. We will take it from here." They heard a dry voice announce from the doorway.
"Sirius." Remus breathed, seeing the man standing beside Amelia Bones and a squad of Aurors, uncuffed, although he was having to be supported by the man beside him. He was just as unkept and wild looking as he appeared in his wanted posters.
Sirius spared him a quick smile before his attention was completely taken by the boy standing between Snape and Remus. Snape was currently writing something down on a pad of parchment and muttering to himself while consulting with the scroll of parchment that could only have come from a Diagnostic spell (he'd spent enough time in hospital settings to know). He'd been shocked when the Aurors came sweeping into the caves he was staying in and surrounded him. At first, he tried to play up the lovable stray routine, but Amelia had entered and said 'Sirius Black, I should have known.'. After that, they strongly advised that he turn back human himself before they forced him to change, he did so, and he was declared a free man with reparations to be determined at a later date before being escorted to the Great Hall.
He was so confused about what was happening right now.
(He didn't know that Pettigrew had told the Aurors about the cave system they'd found in their sixth year and used as a hideout, as a planning area, an area to experiment, you name it, they used the caves for it. He'd even told them about the warded area they'd set up for them to run with Remus on the Full Moon nights when it was too cold or rainy to run around the forest, and the storage area where they kept food supplies and the like. All under Veritaserum, of course. Amelia had decided that the cave system would be a good place to search first, assuming that Sirius had already made his way to Hogsmeade to find Pettigrew himself. He wouldn't learn all this until later.)
The only reason students and teachers didn't panic at the sight of the famed mass murderer was because they'd just been treated to a five minute long rant on how Sirius would never hurt Harry and had been one of the best Aurors on the force at the height of the war. (And the fact that he was surrounded by Aurors.)
At a gesture from Amelia, two of the Unspeakables with her moved behind Albus and cuffed him while an Auror went to Madam Pomfrey (not cuffing her) and the Healer went to Harry, quickly confirming the results Severus had already found. "Albus Dumbledore and Poppy Pomfrey, you two are wanted for questioning on the events spoken of here today by the portraits of James and Lily Potter, and your inattentiveness in preventing them." She paused to look between Poppy and Severus, causing everybody to realize that the school Healer had yet to move when it was evident that she had a potential patient. "Madam Pomfrey, your license to practice the healing arts will be reviewed by the International Healers Guild." She declared, causing Poppy to gasp.
Severus looked up at her, but didn't say anything. With as many times as the Potter boy ended up under her care, one would have thought that she would have noticed everything that was wrong with his health and taken measures to fix it and then report it to the Wizarding Children's Protection Service.
What Amelia didn't say was that Poppy would be thoroughly checked for magical tampering to her mind before the Guild made any decisions. The woman was very good at her job and had a good reputation, after all, and for her to not have noticed something raised all kinds of red flags.
Now the students were getting over their shock and were back to whispering furiously with each other over what was happening. The only ones silent were the Weasley's and Hermione, all of whom had already known what was going to happen today.
"Mr. Potter, if you could follow me to the Hospital Wing, we can start getting some of these issues fixed." The Healer said quietly to the boy who had quietly been standing beside his parents portraits the entire time, the only word he'd spoken had been to confirm he lived with Petunia.
Severus hesitantly moved towards the portrait of his once best friend, uncertain of the welcome he was going to receive. Aside from the disappointed look she'd thrown him and their brief interaction when he'd started running diagnostic charms on her son, she hadn't acknowledged him once.
"Lily?" He asked.
James pursed his lips, but moved out of the portrait without a word. "Yes, Severus?" She said, a bit stiffly, but he could live with that.
He opened his mouth, but closed it just as quickly. How do you apologize to your best friend, almost sister, for being the one to send a madman after her and her family? How do you apologize for the two years of bitter pettiness he subjected her son to in his classroom. How do you apologize for not listening to her when she first begged him to stop hanging out with them, and to come back to her?
She sighed. "It's alright." She said quietly. "I forgave you for all that long ago. Well, not for how you treated my son, that we will talk about. But for everything else..." She shrugged.
"What? But... in our fifth year you..."
"I was stupid to not..." She sighed again. "I didn't forgive you for that until seventh year, and by then you were in it so deep with them, I feared that if I tried to approach you again, you would just reject me out of hand, or they might do something to you. I'm sorry. I shouldn't have... I should have given you another chance in fifth year. I should have said something in seventh year. Maybe then..."
"I'd already been recruited by then." He said quietly. By the time his seventh year started, he was already Marked.
"I know." She smiled sadly. "But maybe I could have done more for you."
"There's no point playing 'what if's'." Severus said after a few moments. "All we can do is move forward."
A smile slowly spread across her face. "Mom would be proud, you did learn something from her, after all." He snorted and looked down with a small smile. They sat in silence for the rest of the night, only occasionally breaking it with memories of the past.
"James?" Remus asked quietly, making Lily smile slightly at him, taking this as her turn to leave and let the two have some privacy. She was sure that Sirius would be by at some point, probably whenever he was released from the hospital for his long stay in Azkaban. That would probably be a while, though.
"Hey, Moony. I'm sorry we suspected you. We should have known better. No, we did know better." James sighed, looking at his other best friend sadly. Remus had changed so much over the years. His robes were torn and patched, his hair was graying, and he looked exhausted.
Remus just smiled slightly. "It's alright. After hearing what Albus subjected Sirius to knowing he was innocent, I'm willing to lay some of that blame on his feet." He was just going to guess Albus had something to do with it and leave it at that for now. He would find out either way soon enough. But he couldn't be mad, not when he'd spent the last decade and a bit mourning their deaths.
"He might have hinted, but that's no excuse for believing any of it." James said firmly.
"How about we just forget about it and move on?" Remus asked with a shaky smile. James shook his head but agreed, and they started reminiscing.
"Attention, please?" Minerva called into the Great Hall, immediately gaining total silence from the students in question. It had only been a week since the Opening Feast had been so spectacularly derailed by Harry Potter bringing his newly discovered parents' portraits into the Hall to yell at the teachers (she hadn't gotten such a dressing down since her own days as a student!), and it had been a busy week.
In fact, she'd just come from Albus' trial.
"I regret to inform you that Albus Dumbledore has been found guilty of a multitude of crimes against the wizarding world. You can read the full account in the newspaper in the morning, I just wished to let you know now. As of five thirty this afternoon, Albus Dumbledore was sentenced to, and received the Dementor's Kiss." Somehow she managed to say that calmly and without letting the students know just how hard those words were to say.
The students gasped or screamed in shock at the news, bursting out into chatter and whispers, some even into tears, wondering what their wonderful Headmaster could have possibly done that was so bad. Yes, they'd all heard the accusations the Potter portraits laid against him, but was all that really deserving of the Kiss? Those few that didn't know what that meant were quickly informed.
"Classes are cancelled for the week, I have called in Mind-Healers from St. Mungoes to speak with you if you wish, they will be available to you in the rooms across from the Hospital Wing. Madam Pomfrey has been cleared of all charges and her license to practice remains intact, she will return to us tomorrow once she is released from St. Mungoes herself." Poppy had been found to be under so many mind altering spells that they'd had to put her into a magical coma just so they could safely remove them, but they'd woken her up today and assessed her as ready to return the next day provided she took it easy and saw the Mind Healers now stationed at Hogwarts.
"The Dementor's have already been removed from the school grounds, and I am now Headmistress pending official approval. I will continue to teach until a new Professor is found for Transfiguration, and Professor Lupin is taking over my duties as Head of House with Professor Sinistra taking over as Deputy Headmistress." She was not about to subject somebody else to the workload she'd had to deal with as professor, deputy head, and Head of House all at once. Aurora had the lightest workload of all the professor's, given that her classes were all at night, which left her days (after waking up) open for doing whatever she wanted after her grading was done.
What she didn't tell the students yet was that all the staff were going to be examined for tampering like Poppy was, and that was the only reason she'd been allowed her promotion. The official approval was in reality the results of those exams.
She had a long list of things she'd been wanting to do for years now, such as getting Poppy an assistant, redoing the budget so that they could get new equipment for those classes where it was needed (brooms for flying class...), new classes and more teachers so that there was a better ratio of adult to student in this castle. There were simply too many students and not enough teachers for the students to get the attention they deserved outside of class time, or for making sure the students behaved themselves. She wanted to get ward masters in to look at the wards, especially after learning what Dumbledore had been doing over the years and everything that happened the last two years especially. It wouldn't happen this year, but she wanted to get the scholarship program back to what it used to be, along with restarting the old apprenticeship program.
The Gryffindor house erupted in applause (slightly more subdued then it normally would have been) at the announcement of their Head's promotion.
Later that night, Harry spoke with his parents' portrait about everything that happened, glad that he'd decided to explore his trust vault a bit more instead of just taking some gold and leaving that day.