Harry Potter's Real Dad

"It's like a castle!" Harry had cried as Severus pulled into a parking slot in front of the large Victorian castle prison. Severus winced at Harry's words. Castle, maybe, but he really did not want to see the inside of it, and he especially did not want to take his son in there either.

HMP Suller Hill was over two hours away from his house by car, not including traffic. He managed to cut that time to forty minutes by use of carefully timed portkeys that activated once he had pulled into an alleyway in the city. The rest of the twenty-minute drive to the prison had been silent, mostly due to Harry still recovering from the strange portkey trip that left him feeling slightly nauseous. Now, Harry was bouncing in his seat excitedly to get out of the car.

Yesterday, Severus had to take Harry to work with him once more as he was still waiting on immunizations records from Harry's previous muggle doctor to be sent to him and the school. He had not minded doing so for another day as Harry was very well behaved and played with his dinosaurs mostly. When Addie brought Iris over that evening, he decided to keep both kids around and they stayed for Hogwarts dinner, much to Iris's delight. She ran around the Great Hall showing Harry off to everyone she knew, even some of the students. Yet, despite the busy afternoon and Harry's first experience and newfound love of pumpkin juice, Harry did not sleep well last night.

He had crawled out of bed three times for different reasons—the bathroom, a drink of water, not being tired—before Severus had Harry lie down on the couch in front of him while he finished grading essays. Harry finally dozed off after a couple warnings to go to sleep from Severus, and once he was done with his work, Severus moved the child back to his own bed.

Wednesday morning came too fast, and Severus had to deal with a tired and moody Harry as well. He managed to get through his morning classes with Harry napping halfway through them. He had the house elves make a light lunch for Harry of just a fruit salad, a few chicken nuggets, and pumpkin juice. After lunch, came the dreaded time to drive to the prison for Harry's visit with his aunt. Severus moved as slowly as he could to pack up the essays that had been turned in that day as well as his other belongings he would need. He sent Tum on his way to Hogwarts' owlery before taking Harry's hand and flooing home himself. And here, he was sitting outside the prison, staring at its cold, lifeless walls.

"When are we going in, Daddy?" Harry whined. He struggled with the seatbelt still, and he tugged at it impatiently.

"In a minute," Severus answered, glancing back at Harry through the rearview mirror. "We're early."

In fact, they were five minutes late. Severus wondered if he might be able to blow through their visiting time and miss it all together. Was all this really going to be helpful for Harry? The court had only agreed to a visit due to Harry's difficulty settling in his new home, and they were merely trying to help the child, but how on earth was this going to help? Why had he agreed to this? He wondered if Harry would be more devastated after seeing Petunia or more devastated if Severus pulled out of the parking lot and drove away right now.

A distinctive click caught his ears, and he glanced in the mirror again to see Harry had figured out the seatbelt and was now pushing on the door. Severus had several child protection spells on the car that would not allow the door to open until he unlocked the car himself.

"I want to see Aunt Petunia," Harry said, yanking on the latch harder in hopes the door would open.

With a heavy sigh, Severus unlocked the car and got out, Harry jumping out as well and shutting the car door. He nearly ran ahead to the front door, but Severus caught him by his shoulder.

"You will stay with me, young man," Severus said. He looked at Harry's dinosaur. "I don't know if they'll let you bring that in."

"Please, Daddy?" Harry asked, hugging Spikes to his chest.

"We'll see," Severus said. He took Harry's hand and walked to the labeled visitors entrance off to the side of the building. Harry looked around in awe at the massive size of the building and the ancient feel it gave off.

Severus pushed the door open and was quickly directed to a metal detector by an officer at the front desk. Severus stepped through first, letting go of Harry's hand so Harry could do the same individually. Harry hesitated, frowning when Severus let his hand go. When Severus encouraged him forward, Harry stepped through the detector, clutching the green dinosaur to his chest.

An officer stepped forward and did a quick pat down of Severus, who wordlessly cast a find-me-not charm on his wand. A female officer walked over to Harry and smiled at him.

"Hello, what's your name?" she asked.

"I'm Harry," Harry said, holding his dinosaur close as his eyes darted back and forth between the officer and what was happening with Severus. "What is he doing to Daddy?"

"We just have to make sure you're not bringing anything else but you and your dinosaur into the building," the officer said. She reached out and gave Harry a brief pat down as she explained, "I'm just going to check you over really quick, and it looks like it is just you! And your dinosaur gets a quick search, too, like you did."

"It's just Spikes," Harry said, letting the officer pet his dinosaur.

"Good day, Spikes," she said, shaking his paw. "It is a pleasure to meet you. Okay, dear, you and your father can follow me to the desk."

....

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