Thank you, everyone, for reading my last chapter, and a special thanks to everyone who favorited, followed, and especially NeleWW, andipxndy, JaXine, caveydude, Alicori, and Phantomdream for your reviews.
Disclaimer: Not mine.
Hope you enjoy!
Alex heard the doorbell ring. Slowly, he went to open the door, blanking his face and putting up occlumency shields as he did so. He looked through the hole in the door, and upon his recognition of the person there- Severus Snape was a highly recognizable person after all- he pulled open the door. Alex had to mentally restrain himself from asking Snape to prove his identity. He instead reached out with his magic to check for magical signatures. Seeing as Snape had the distinct signature of a potions master, not many would be able to replicate his aura, nor realize they would need too. While it wasn't infallible, Alex was willing to risk it, just this once, for the sake of preserving his non-spy persona.
"Good Afternoon, Professor Snape. My name is Alex Rider," Alex said, hesitating only slightly before reaching his hand out to the man that hopefully was really the man to be one of his new teachers and not an imposter that had done a near perfect job impersonating his soon-to-be-professor.
"A pleasure, I'm sure, Mister Rider," Snape drawled stepping into the house but not taking Alex's hand. Alex dropped his hand and took a step back towards his trunk which he had enlarged to contain all of the items he needed to bring with him: school books, gadgets from Smithers, all specially adapted for magical contact, and everything else that was in his house. It wouldn't do to let either intelligence agency come into possession of any of his belongings.
Alex stood tensely as he waited for the Professor to speak. If this was an imposter they were drawing the game out far longer than any wizard he had met in the past. So, hopefully, that meant he wasn't in danger at the time being.
"Is this all of your belongings Mister Rider?" Professor Snape asked at last. Alex felt a sense of relief wash over him that he was not being kidnapped and taken to a new criminal mastermind who wanted to torture Alex for information that he would never have been given anyways. MI6 and MI7 never told him anything, not even when it would have made it infinitely easier to perform his job.
"Yes, sir," Alex replied, hoping that was the end of the conversation, and they could leave soon. He was feeling exposed standing in his open doorway where anyone who desired could fire a gunshot or a spell in his direction.
Severus watched the tension in Rider's shoulders. He wasn't quite sure what it was that caused the boy anxiety, but for some odd reason, it wasn't him. The boy seemed to relax with Snape's presence after he had entered the house. Severus supposed that he might be nervous of the door being open, but that shouldn't be a big deal. Or, it shouldn't be a big deal, unless Albus was right about him being a spy. Not that Albus being right was overly surprising, the old coot had an annoying habit of always being right.
Severus wasn't quite sure what to make of this Alex Rider. He was polite, which pleased Severus more than he was willing to admit. At least it meant that he wouldn't have another Potter on his hands. That boy was ruder, and more arrogant than his father, and that was saying something.
However, Rider also wasn't anything like his father, that Severus could tell. John was outspoken, slightly brash, and rarely appeared nervous. Perhaps that was partially due to the fact that John hadn't become a spy (if indeed that was his chosen profession) until after his years at Hogwarts, and this boy was still fourteen. Not to mention that if Severus had read Albus' implications correctly, then Rider had been a spy since he was eleven, which left a good three years where he could have been involved in a large number of difficult situations.
Severus decided that he would ease the boy's worries, if it was after all the open door bothering him, and said, "We are going to be leaving now. Bring your trunk to me and I will shrink it to ease our portkey travel." Severus watched as the boy's lips quirked up. Almost as though he had found Severus' comment to be humorous. Severus chose to ignore that for now. No use making a big deal out of something - which could potentially cause a very uncomfortable two weeks of the boy living with him - about something he wasn't even sure was meant to make fun of him.
"Yes, sir," Rider replied again, rolling his trunk towards Severus. Since when did they make trunks with wheels? He pulled out his want and shrunk the boy's trunk. Rider picked up the trunk and looked at Severus, the anxiety reappearing in his eyes. This was going to be a long two weeks. Did everything freak the boy out?
Severus pulled out the portkey, an old and torn stuffed bear. Thank you, Albus, for picking the most childish muggle object. The boy bit his lip, likely to hold back a snort of laughter. Severus couldn't help but make a jab at Albus, "I wouldn't be so confident if I were you. You're going to be attending a school where the headmaster picks out portkeys like this."
The boy really did laugh then, and Severus felt a spark of pride that he had done that. He scolded himself immediately after thinking that. He was the cold-hearted dungeon bat. He wasn't supposed to be making his students laugh. Not that it was a particularly long laugh or even a laugh at all as most people would describe it. It was more like a small noise of amusement, which was likely the source of his feelings towards the boy. It reminded him of himself at that age. The laugh of someone who rarely found cause to laugh and had forgotten how to do so.
"Come, Mister Rider; we are headed to Hogwarts," Severus held out the portkey for him to grab ahold of. When the boy had a one-handed, but firm, grip on the portkey, Severus hissed the password, "Cuddly Teddy Bear."
Cuddly Teddy Bear is a hard phrase to say in a normal voice and not sound childish, but Severus thought he did a relatively good job at spitting out the words of the vile password the old man had chosen. He heard Rider cough in the background but this spinning made it difficult to discern whether he was covering amusement at the password or merely cough. Severus didn't think too much into it.
The pair rematerialized in the headmaster's office where Albus was waiting at his desk with a bowl of lemon drops prepared in front of him. Severus knew the treats were infused with a slight calming potion. Not enough to affect most people drastically, but just enough to keep interactions with the headmaster pleasant. Severus wondered if he should've warned the boy.
"Lemon drop, Alex?" Albus asked the boy in the grandfatherly voice of his, the twinkle in his eyes shining brightly as he offered the treat to Rider.
All evidence of Rider's laughter of earlier had henceforth vanished, and he appeared to tense at the offering of the treat, but he still reached out his hand to take it. This action surprised Severus, as did the boy's response, "Thank you, headmaster."
The boy put the treat in his mouth, and perhaps it would've gone unnoticed if Severus hadn't been scrutinizing his actions, but as his mouth closed around the Lemon Drop, it vanished. Severus could clearly see both of the boy's hands, and neither were touching his wand. Either it had been a trick of the light, or this fourteen-year-old boy was performing wandless magic. Severus doubted that but didn't dismiss it as a possibility. There was always a chance, but it was more likely the boy had simply swallowed the candy. As that thought crossed his mind, Rider started to cough as though choking.
"Sorry sir," he said, "I nearly swallowed it." The timing of the statement was suspicious but Severus felt himself believing the statement. At any rate, it was more likely than wandless vanishing spells, much less at the boy's age.
Albus waived off the apology with a smile and started to interrogate the boy, in the nicest possible way of course, "So, Alex, how have you been?"
"Quite well, sir."
"Excited for the school year?"
"It's school," Rider deadpanned, causing Severus to stifle laughter.
"I shall try not to take offense to that, my dear boy," Albus said fondly, "Have you had a chance to do any traveling recently?"
"No," the boy seemed to be blocking all of Albus' attempts at gathering information, "I don't have much of a chance for traveling with my muggle education."
Albus looked in Severus' direction and the man shook his head at the headmaster. The boy was too well guarded to give away any information. They would do better to make the boy comfortable if they wanted answers from him.
"Well, I do hope you don't have too terrible a time here at Hogwarts. You will be staying with Professor Snape for the remainder of the summer, and hopefully, at some point, we will be able to bring you to see some other students that will be in your year once the term begins."
"Thank you headmaster, and thank you, Professor," Rider replied simply. Severus really hoped the timidness of the boy went away at some point. How was he supposed to figure out anything about the boy if he blocked every attempt at gathering information with vague non-descript answers?
"Come, Mister Rider," Severus said as he walked towards the doors, "My quarters are this way."
"Yes, sir," the boy said following after him with a backward glance at the headmaster, who waved gleefully at him. Rider gave an awkward three-fingered wave to Albus before following Severus from the room. At least if Severus was going to have to share his room with a teenager for two weeks it was this particular teenager. He shied away from even spending too prolonged a time with his godson. Though by this point Draco was starting to mellow out a bit, his incessant complaints about Potter were too much for even Severus to listen too. Rider was, at the very least, fairly calm and quiet.
The walk was uneventful, though the boy didn't seem overly interested in the halls of Hogwarts, almost as though he had seen them before, which was impossible. But then again, was it more or less likely than an underage wizarding spy?
Severus told Rider the password to his quarters when they arrived and gave him a brief tour of the rooms.
They walked into the portrait where there was a medium sized sitting room that housed a couch, two armchairs, and a fireplace, which was warded against unwanted floo guests. Severus made sure to tell this fact to the boy which seemed to ease the worry woven into his shoulders. Attached to the sitting room, was a small kitchen.
He led Rider down the hallway and pointed out the potions lab ("You can use this if I am with you or have given you permission to use it."), his quarters ("There is no reason for you to come in here unless there is an emergency."), the bathroom, and the guest room.
He opened the door to the guest room which was painted a dark blue. The walls inside the room were a blend of deep greens and blues, with a bed in the corner of the room, a dark green desk, a large closet, and a bathroom off the right side of the room.
"This is where you will be staying while you are here, which will be until you pass your NEWTs, with the exception of when you are in term. Organize it how you wish, I just ask that you keep it somewhat clean."
"Thank you, Professor Snape," the look in his eyes clearly showed the sincerity of that statement. It was clear that he hadn't been expecting a room quite as nice as this one.
"Call me Severus," he said, figuring that if the boy would be staying with him for so long a period of time, they might as well be slightly less formal, "Unless we are with other students of course."
"Of course, and you can call me Alex."
Thanks for reading, and I hope you enjoyed. Drop me a review if you feel like it. :)