All Hail the Dark Lord, Or Something Idiotic Like That

The Black Family Tree pt4

A/N: Not my story! Original available on ao3

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Hadrian,

I know that I initially left it to you to owl; however, it has come to my attention that you and your cousin are in communication. Your cousin asked this evening if you were allowed to come to dinner sometime, and I assume you know at least some of his circumstances if not all. There is some concern about safety and security. I have been tasked to meet with you to address these concerns.

Would you, and your partner if you would like, be free to meet in Hogsmeade next week at the Three Broomsticks for dinner? I am free any evening except for Friday when I have night patrol duty. Owl back at your first convenience.

Severus Snape

Potion Master

Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry

                                                                                                                                                                                    

Harry had just set Snape's letter on fire when Ron and Hermione made it back up to the room, having stayed behind to finish dinner and see the fallout from Sirius's question. "Must you do that with all your correspondence?" Hermione asked with a long-suffering look at him.

"If you knew some of the things I had to deal with in the future, you'd agree with me," he grumbled. He clearly remembered finding a reporter digging through his rubbish bin looking for correspondence to publish during the height of his fame after the war. That wasn't even taking into account the times people had tried to track his location through letters...yeah, bad memories there. Even if it hadn't been sensitive information from Percy or Snape, he still burned literally all his letters and warded all those he sent others.

"Why were you going to meet up with Snape anyway?" Ron asked yet again now that they were alone.

"I told you, I need him on my side," Harry reminded them with a sigh. "Honestly, I'm closer to his age than yours at this point, and as much as I love you both, I can also relate a little more to him and all the things he's been through...I'm not saying we're going to be best friends, but I need his skills, his information, and it would be nice to talk to someone outside of my partner about potions and things."

Ron looked extremely conflicted at that reminder of just how old Harry was, but Hermione was already nodding. "It makes sense. It'll take us a while to get used to you not really being our Harry anymore though," she reminded them all. Sometimes it was easy to forget when he was wearing the glamour. "Do you really think it's a good idea to come here to the house as Hadrian Black though? I know Sirius is tentatively in on the secret, but that sounds like it's stretching you a bit thin to be Harry at school and now have the separate identity of Hadrian outside."

"It might actually keep me saner," he chuckled wryly. "Pretending to be fifteen is more difficult that I originally thought it would be. Plus, it's not like I really need to study or learn anything at school. I already know the fifth-year information and could even sit my mastery again tomorrow if needed. Anyway, I don't really think OWLs are required as part of the Dark Lord job description."

"Well, get ready to be thoroughly interrogated by Professor Lupin as this mystery cousin, mate," Ron chuckled and flopped onto his bed. "He seems very flustered that Sirius never mentioned you."

Harry rolled his eyes. "Technically, I would have been thirteen when Siri went to jail in this timeline. What does Remus expect? It's not like I could have reasonably been a big part of Sirius's life even if I'd actually existed as his cousin back then."

"Just a warning," Ron shrugged while Harry began to pin a reply to Snape.