Author's note, 10/9: This chapter has been minorly edited - not much was done, just a few minor clarifications.
"Harry, please," a bodiless voice pleaded with a black-haired, green-eyed child. "We only want to help – please, let us help. We can get you away from these people for good."
"Why do you want to help me? I'm not worth it," the child replied, voice weak with pain. He had several broken bones and a couple of currently bleeding cuts.
"You're Harry Potter. Whether you realize it or not, a lot of people care about you. Also, you are one of the few with enough magical power to be able to withstand our help. You have been manipulated without your knowledge, and we want to get you out of here," the voice replied soothingly.
"You…" the child broke off, coughing up blood. "You can get me out of here without hurting anyone?"
"Absolutely, if that is what you wish. While we would prefer to give your relatives what they deserve, after we step in to help we must do as you wish. It is a price we are willing to pay, as we can do nothing without someone to bond with."
"O-okay," the child said weakly, starting to fall asleep from loss of blood. "I give in. Please, help me…"
The darkness that claimed him made him feel welcome, comfortable, loved…he wasn't dead; he could still feel and was very much aware of his body. With a contented sigh, he relaxed in the comfort and fell asleep easily.
To those watching his body as he slept, it would seem as though he died; his breathing stopped, his heartbeat stopped – everything keeping him "alive" stopped. Then his body disappeared, or seemed to; in reality, the room's lights had gone out, and any light that entered the room was absorbed in the all-consuming shadows. It was eerily quiet; there was no way to tell what had just happened.
The alarms set up around the house never went off, but, instead, were simply deactivated; an attentive Headmaster, however, still noticed. Confused but not too alarmed, said Headmaster called a particular Potions Professor to his office.
"Yes, Headmaster?" he calmly asked, though he was inwardly annoyed. The Headmaster had interrupted the brewing of a delicate potion that he would now have to restart.
"Do you think you could check up on young Harry for me? The alarms I set up were deactivated; I would like to know how and why," the Headmaster replied calmly; though the words suggested a question, his tone suggested an order. The twinkle in his eye was nearly absent.
With an annoyed sigh, Snape nodded, inwardly cursing the brat for disturbing his peaceful summer. Apparating to Privet Drive once in muggle attire, he grumbled to himself as he cast a soft "alohomora" on the front door of Number Four, entering quietly. He made his way smoothly up the stairs, cautious to not make too much noise, and checked each room that he passed.
Only one door was closed on the floor, and he cautiously moved closer, not knowing what had happened. Opening the door and noticing that the room was dark, he cast "lumos," then frowned as he felt the magic activate though no light appeared.
With the frown still apparent, he lowered his wand and used his other senses to map out the room around him. He gasped and opened his eyes just before a voice was heard.
"Severus Snape?" a smooth voice asked softly, coming from all around the snarky Potions Professor.
"That is my name," he replied warily, looking around the room.
"You already see us, Professor. We know why you are here."
"You do?"
"Of course. You are here because Albus Dumbledore, the manipulative Headmaster, asked you to come and check up on the pawn that no longer belongs to him. And to find out why we deactivated the alarms he had set up around the place."
"Well…why did you deactivate the alarms? Wouldn't it have been easier to just take him away from here?"
"The alarms would have gone off if he had left the area, or if we, as we have, claimed him as ours – and he would have come himself to check what happened. There was a small chance that he wouldn't be paying enough attention to notice if the alarms were deactivated instead of set off and we were sure that even if he noticed, he wouldn't come to see what happened himself."
"…Oh." Snape paused, thinking about what he had just been told. "Wait…Harry Potter is the one the shadows have been waiting to claim? There must be some kind of mistake! He's no more than a spoiled brat, he always has been!"
"Calm down, Snape. Harry is no 'spoiled brat.' Why do you think that he flinches away from all contact during the start of school, or why he doesn't always answer to his name? All he knows here is pain-"
"You must be mistaken, he-" Snape interrupted, but was suddenly unable to speak.
"Let us finish, Severus. Harry Potter as you think of him never existed. From the beginning, he was forced to put on a mask and act like nothing was wrong. It's been wearing thin around the edges this last year – surely you've noticed that he flinched at all raised voices last year, and shied away from all touch, flinching even when his 'friends' so much as hugged him?"
Snape nodded, as he was still unable to speak.
"And surely you've noticed how thin he is and how thick the magic around him is, when he first gets back to school? Have you ever wondered why?"
Suddenly able to speak again, Snape replied uncertainly, "Surely he has been pretending…?"
"Why would he do such a thing?"
"For more attention, of course."
"Severus…" the voice seemed to sigh. "He has never been spoiled. He may be a good actor – shown by the fact that you so strongly believe that he has been spoiled rotten – but that is only because of what happens here. He's afraid that if anyone knew, nobody would want him anymore."
"I may not believe you yet, shadow, but I am willing to give your master a second chance, if that is your wish. If you turn out to be wrong about him, however, I will never give him a third chance."
"That is all we wish, Severus: for you all to give our young master a second chance. We don't even ask for you to forgive him or his father – unless you find out we were right and truly think that they deserve that from you."
"…what should I tell Albus?"
"Tell him anything; just don't tell him the truth. He has hurt our master far too much for far too long; he doesn't deserve a second chance. Tell him…tell him that our master died; it's not that far from the truth. Tell him that Harry Potter was attacked by Death Eaters – they disabled the alarms to take him to their master; he resisted, and was killed on accident. If he comes out and tries to find out for himself what happened, the magic won't lie to him; that is, in terms of magic, is what he will find."
"Alright then. Is there anything else I can help with?"
"Such as?"
"I'm sure your master would like somewhere to stay that is far away from here."
"Oh. Yeah, that would be a big help."
"Don't mention it. How would you like me to do this?"
"Go ahead and pick him up; we trust you enough to not hurt him in this very important step. Just…be careful."
Nodding absently, Snape blinked as the room was lifted from absolute darkness, in all intents blinding him after such extensive sight deprivation. He walked slowly over to the male seemingly asleep on the bed, frowning thoughtfully as he saw the blood and other stains on everything save the boy himself. He gently picked Harry up, cradling the slight weight against his strong body. Still frowning, he Apparated away to his ancestral home, then set the young man up in the largest guest bedroom.
"I'll be back soon," he said, after setting Harry down on the overly large bed. He seemed so frail amongst the covers that Snape paused before starting to walk out of the room, lost in thought.
"We'll be waiting," the voice replied quietly.
Severus Apparated off to Hogsmeade and then walked to Hogwarts, heading directly to the Headmaster's office. He prepared himself mentally to lie directly to the Headmaster; he wasn't the best Occlumens in the century for nothing, after all – if anyone could lie directly to the Headmaster and get away with it, it was him. It did, of course, help that the Headmaster trusted him, perhaps more than he should have.
"Hello, Severus," Albus said kindly, watching the Potions Master enter his office with a nervous air. "What did you find?"
"Potter…Potter's dead, Albus," Severus replied with a sigh. "Death Eaters loyal to Voldemort took down the alarms and tried to get Potter to join their side. He refused, and so they killed him. I got there too late to do anything, but my position as a spy has been compromised; I can't afford to go to any more Death Eater meetings without a death wish. I'm sorry."
Before the Headmaster could reply, Snape was out of the office, and so he didn't notice the missing twinkle from those 'omnipotent' eyes.
Returning to Snape manor, where he had put Harry, he checked up on the shadow-claimed room. "I'm back," he said softly, walking into the dark room.
"He'll be awake in a couple of weeks, we are sure. There is a lot of work ahead of us, in fixing his body. His mind, however…we will need your help, Severus, to fix his mind. It will not be easy for us nor for you; there is much damage present that we must take care of. While we work on his body, why don't you let those you trust know that we have claimed our master?"
"Of course, shadow," Snape said softly, determined to do the right thing this time through. He walked away to do what the shadows had suggested, starting with a certain family of blonds.