Pulling Free the Blinders: A series of Snape-realizes-he's-wrong-about-Harry oneshots.
A/N: Hello everyone! So, I've found I have a bit of a problem: I can't get these scenes of my head, these scenes where Snape realizes that Harry Potter isn't exactly the person he thought he was. There's, like, tons of them running around in there. So, I've decided I'll post them as a series of oneshots, and when I'm finished with Harry Potter and the Ripple Effect, I might choose one or two to make into full fan fiction stories, time depending.
Story 1
Summary: Hagrid goes to drop Harry back off at the Dursleys, and they refuse to take him back. While Dumbledore goes to talk with them in person, he leaves 11 year old Harry with Snape at Hogwarts.
Harry stood outside Four Privet Drive with Hagrid, not quite sure what to do. It seemed Hagrid didn't know, either.
"Well, tha's unexpected," the large man said.
A few hours later, a quiet Harry was on the couch of the sitting room outside Headmaster Dumbledore's office. At first, he just looked around at all the things in the room – the talking pictures were the best, Harry thought – and then he sat for awhile, wondering where he was going to go since the Dursleys wouldn't let him back, and then he started to get bored – it wasn't like the liked the Dursleys much, anyway – so he took out one of his new school books and started reading it.
Hagrid came out of the office a bit later, and Harry looked up at him expectantly. "Don' worry, Harry," he said. "Th' 'eadmaster will take care of everything. I gotta run another errand for him, now, but jus' you hang tight. Bye 'arry!"
"Bye, Hagrid," Harry said, wondering what the man meant when he said Dumbledore was going to take care of everything. Harry tried to go back to his book – Transfiguration – and started learning about how to change a pine needle into a metal needle. A few minutes later, someone else came up the stairs, and Harry looked up from his book to find a thin man with sallow skin and black, shoulder length hair glaring at him. Before Harry could say anything, the man had gone into Dumbledore's office and closed the door.
Harry wondered if he did anything wrong to make the man not like him, because it was quite obvious he didn't. That's okay, Harry thought, although he wasn't sure it was a good idea to get on the wrong side of someone at Hogwarts before he even started school. Maybe he was just surprised to see a kid here, Harry decided.
Harry got about a quarter through the Transfiguration book before the two men came out of the office. Harry straightened up in his seat, curious.
"Good afternoon, Harry," the older man said. "I'm Headmaster Albus Dumbledore, and this is Professor Snape. Welcome to Hogwarts."
"Hello," Harry said, feeling a bit overwhelmed with the two adults in front of him.
"Do not fret, Harry, I am going to talk to your aunt and uncle. Professor Snape is going to stay with you until I come back," Dumbledore said. Dumbledore looked at Snape, who was glaring at the headmaster, and then Harry was alone with the Professor.
Snape looked back at him. "Follow me," he said. "Leave your things here." Snape didn't wait to see if Harry was following, and he had to catch up to the man going down the stairs.
Harry was distracted by seeing everything in the castle, but soon his thoughts moved to the man he was following. "What do you teach?" Harry asked, curious. Snape looked down at him, but didn't stop.
"Potions."
"Really? Cool." Snape narrowed his eyes at him, and Harry decided to stay quiet, but walking down through the castle, he was finding it really hard. He was sure that he saw one of the suits of armor walking around, but the helmet was open, and there was nothing in it!
Finally, Harry found himself with Snape in what looked like a classroom; there were benches in rows in the large dungeon. Snape pointed to one of the chairs and Harry sat, wondering if he was going to learn anything. He saw the professor put a couple cauldrons on one of the benches, and Harry sat up straighter, trying to get a good look.
"Are you going to make potions now?" Harry asked.
"Yes," Snape said flatly, his back turned to Harry.
"Can I help?" This must have been the wrong thing to say, because Snape turned around and looked at Harry with a strange look. Harry looked down at the bench.
A few minutes later, a cutting board was set next to him, and Harry looked up at the potions professor.
"Slice these thin, length wise," Snape said. Harry poked one with the knife.
"What is it?" Harry asked.
"Glutterslugs," Snape answered. "Make sure the slices are thin. You should get about 20 slices per slug."
"Yes, sir," Harry said, picking up one of the slugs and began slicing it, hoping he was doing it right. After he finished the first one, he looked up to find Snape looking at him strangely again. "What are you making?"
"Potions for the infirmary," he answered. "The glutterslugs are for a cut healing potion."
"So, you can just take a potion and it will heal any cut?" Harry asked, excited. He would have loved something like that after a few of the run-ins with Dudley's gang.
"Those not caused by magical means," Snape answered.
"Are we going to make potions like that in class?"
"First years make simple potions, to learn the techniques. Slice." Harry went back to cutting, excited that school hadn't even started, and he was doing magic. His thoughts slowly turned back to the Dursleys, and Harry looked back up at Snape, who was prepping different ingredients.
"Do you think the headmaster would let me stay here?" Harry asked, and Snape looked back at him through a curtain of greasy hair.
"Students don't stay at Hogwarts during the summer," Snape said simply, and Harry just said a quiet, 'oh', going back to slicing his slugs. They worked in silence for awhile, Harry concentrating to make sure he sliced them correctly. "Why don't you want to go back with your relatives?"
"They don't like me much," Harry answered sadly. "And I hate running from Dudley's gang during the summer."
"Who is Dudley?" Snape asked. Harry looked up to find Snape had turned to look at him.
"My cousin. He's a spoiled brat. He gets everything, even when he does stuff he shouldn't." Harry looked away, hoping his professor wouldn't tell the Dursleys that he said that and then hoped the professor didn't think he complained all the time. Wanting to talk about something else, Harry thought about what Hagrid said about the houses at Hogwarts. "Do the professors have a house, too?" he asked, not knowing what else to say.
"Some. I am the Head of Slytherin and the other houses each have their own Head of House. Some teachers learned at other schools, though."
Harry thought about that. He remembered what Hagrid said about Slytherin, and looked at his professor, trying to determine if he seemed evil or not. "Hagrid said that almost all of the dark wizards and witches were in Slytherin, but you seem nice," Harry said, then wished he hadn't, seeing his professor's face as the man put down the knife he was using.
"That is a misconception," Snape said slowly. "There are wizards who practice the Dark Arts in all houses." Harry thought about that, too.
"That makes sense," he said, hoping he didn't anger his professor too much. Then, another thought occurred to him. "How do you get a house?"
"You ask a lot of questions, Potter," Snape said. "You'll have to wait for the winter term to find out how you are sorted," Snape said sharply, and Harry nodded going back to slicing again. It was another few minutes before Harry couldn't keep quiet anymore. The idea scared him more than he was willing to admit.
"What if I don't get a house? I don't know anything about magic. What if-"
"Potter, you will be sorted. Now, work quietly for a while." Sighing, Harry finished slicing the slugs before putting down the knife and waiting for Snape to tell him what to do next. Snape had stopped prepping ingredients and was now at the two cauldrons, filling them with water and making a fire underneath them with his wand. Harry watched in awe, not wanting to wait to learn how to use his wand.
Looking up, Snape saw that he was finished and came to look them over. The man looked at the sliced glutterslugs before looking at Harry, like he was assessing him. It made him uncomfortable.
"You have decent control over your knife," Snape said.
"Thank you, sir," Harry said quietly, not sure what else to say. It was then that the Headmaster came into the room.
"Good, good," he said, spotting Harry and Snape. "All taken care of, Harry, your family is waiting for you back home. There will be nothing more to worry about. I have already gathered your trunk, and Hagrid is going to bring you home." Harry slumped in his chair a little, but stood anyway, even if it was a little slow. He looked up at Professor Snape, who was standing with his arms folded, looking at him.
"Bye, Professor Snape," Harry said, hoping the rest of the summer went by really quickly. At least he'd have all his school stuff to learn more about magic.
"Good bye, Potter," Snape said, before going back to his cauldrons.
Harry followed Dumbledore out of the dungeons, happy that at least he had Hogwarts to look forward to once the summer was done.