"If the adoption is working out satisfactorily, why the hesitation?"
Harry didn't have an answer for that. Or at least not one he was willing to share. He wanted to tell his father; it seemed wrong to keep something like this a secret. Yet... knowing that an unadoption was coming was an awful burden to bear. Harry wished he didn't know, even. His best hope had been that seer dreams sometimes failed.
Dumbledore was shaking his head. "I really must insist you speak with an Order member, Harry. If you are positive that you cannot broach the matter with Severus, perhaps you could have a talk with Arthur Weasley--"
"No," Harry instantly rejected that idea. He couldn't imagine how his father would feel if he went to someone else with the dream. "I'm sure it's nothing the Order needs to know about, sir. Actually, it's a personal matter. Look, I didn't want to stir up a great froth; I just wanted an answer to my question."
"If seer dreams are fated to be," Dumbledore sagely nodded. "I'm afraid they are indeed, Harry. Prophecy wouldn't be much use if they weren't."
Harry frowned. "If prophecies come true regardless of what anybody does about them, then why have you been so determined to turn me into some wizarding savior? I mean, you've done everything but give me combat lessons--"
"I'll be speaking to Severus about that as soon as your magic's back in full," Dumbledore offered.
Harry winced. He could think of few things he'd prefer less than to duel with his father, for a number of reasons. Hmm, maybe Snape could supervise while he trained with Draco. That would be better.
"Why bother?" he pressed. "If the future's already written, then what's the point in anything?"
"In your case, quite a lot. Neither can live while the other one survives, Harry. That prophecy doesn't write the whole future; it lays out two paths."
"All right, I understand that," Harry murmured. "But isn't that wording sort of strange? I mean, we are both alive right now, aren't we?"
"Well, prophecy is notoriously difficult to interpret," Dumbledore passed that off. "All the more reason why you really shouldn't keep a seer dream strictly to yourself. Tell Severus, Harry."
Dumbledore wasn't going to let that go; Harry could tell. "I'll talk to him," he conceded. All that had kept him from it before, he suddenly realized, was the uncertainty attached to the dream itself. Why upset Severus if the stupid thing wasn't going to come true?
But it was... or at least Dumbledore thought so. And when it came to wizarding knowledge, Dumbledore really knew his stuff. So there was going to be an unadoption, simple as that.
And since there was, it really was wrong to keep it from Severus. Knowing about the future in advance, after all, was what had kept Harry strong and confident during Samhain. Now, that same knowledge was going to get him through the unadoption, too. His father deserved the same consideration. Because after all, it wasn't going to be an unadoption in any way that mattered, was it? They'd still be father and son where it counted. He'd still have a room in Snape's quarters, still be welcome there...
Or will I? a niggling little voice chewed at the edges of his thoughts. Maybe I was packed to go because something strange and bizarre is going to happen, and me staying with him would land him in Azkaban or something... Hmm, I don't see how that could happen, but what if it did? The casewitch said she was visiting under terrible circumstances, after all. I'd sooner leave and never see him again, father or no, than be responsible for something awful happening to him...
They'd still be father and son, Harry had no doubt of that, but that might not be enough. He wasn't going to lose his father, not over anything, but that didn't mean that he'd really have him, either, not in a world like the one they lived in.
Voldemort... Fudge and his band of idiots... Azkaban... Wizards who would never, ever understand that Snape's Dark Mark didn't represent who or what he was... And he was famous Harry Potter, the Boy Whose Life Belonged To Everyone Except Himself.... Really, there were any number of things that might come between him and his father.
His uncertainty must have shown on his face, Harry realized, for the wily headmaster clearly didn't believe he intended to tell Severus a thing. "On to other matters," he announced, his tone short. "As you've incited Miss Granger to break school rules--causing her to lose her pass to the Restricted Section, by the way--your Head of House must of course be informed. Ah, but that's right. You have two Heads of House these days. Well, I suppose they shall have to confer as to the appropriate consequence."
"And you'll no doubt make quite sure Severus knows just what books I was asking Hermione to get," Harry realized out loud. "So he can ask me himself about why I haven't mentioned having another seer dream! Are you sure you weren't a Slytherin back when you attended here?"
"Oh, we all have a little Slytherin in us," the headmaster airily replied.
"Do we!" Harry dryly remarked. His mind racing, he realized that as he was going to tell Snape about the dream anyway--he'd already decided that much on his own--he might as well play it for all it was worth. "How about we reach another sort of agreement, sir?" he proposed, sitting up straighter. "Hermione's to be given back her pass to the Restricted Section and she's to receive no consequence for helping me. In exchange, I'll do as you wish and speak to my father about my dream."
"You'll speak to him about that in any case," Dumbledore mildly pointed out. "Seeing as you'll have no choice."
"Ah, but if you let Hermione off I'll have good will towards you, sir," Harry sweetly pointed out, his tones growing acerbic when Dumbledore remained mute. "Oh, come on! You've let me get away with breaking about a thousand school rules! You've facilitated my breaking them, as long as it was in a good cause. This is just more of the same."
"Keeping secrets from your father qualifies as a good cause?"
"No, but trying to understand my magical state on my own for once, instead of just whinging on about it certainly does!" Harry retorted. "Sir? Please."
"Well..." Dumbledore granted Harry one of his most beatific smiles. "As luck would have it, I hadn't yet gotten around to speaking to Minerva about Miss Granger..."
Luck, my arse, Harry almost said. Instead, he murmured. "Thank you, sir."
Dumbledore sternly regarded him, no smile about him that time. "Seer dreams, Harry, are never trivial. You've seen something significant, something that most likely does involve matters the Order should be informed of. See to it that you do discuss the matter with your father."
Harry nodded, those last two words catching at his consciousness. "When Severus and I came up here to sign papers together, I thought... it seemed almost as though you didn't want to let him adopt me. But now you keep calling him my father, so I think you must have gotten over that?"
Dumbledore snapped his fingers and several things appeared on his desk. A steaming pot of tea, a plate of cucumber-and-watercress sandwiches, and a little tray of butter cookies dusted with castor sugar. He served Harry a cup, then gestured for him to help himself to the other items. "I don't suppose Severus has mentioned that he takes tea with me at least twice a week?"
"No, I don't suppose he has," Harry echoed.
"Mmm." Dumbledore popped a cookie past his teeth. "I like to stay up to date with all my staff, of course. When it comes to Severus, though..." The headmaster smiled. "Well, I can't help but ask how you're doing each time, and then we get to talking... He's taken to fatherhood like a broom to the air, hasn't he? I should have known. He always has been a most conscientious Head of House."