Pawn of Prophecy
Chapter One: Operation Mind Crime
By: RaptorX5
Summary: Starting from OOTP: Snape's Worst Memory and progresses from there. Snape and Harry have an altercation, Snape finds out things he didn't want to know about the boy-who-lived. Chaos ensues and there is a large fall out. Better inside, R&R!
Warnings AU; child neglect/abuse. Rated for language and some violence.
Disclaimer:This is a work of Fan fiction. I make no money from this, no infringement intended. The characters belong to J. K. Rowling. I take them out of the toy box and play with them for a bit, and then they return home to where they rightfully belong.
"Who wants to see me take off Snivellus's pants?"
Whether James really did take Snape's pants off Harry never found out. A hand closed tightly over his upper arm, another grabbed him roughly by his hair and yanked, hard. The summer's day gave way to an icy bleak blackness that raised goose bumps on his flesh. With a felling that he had turned inside out and upside down, his feet hit the hard stone floor of Snape's dungeon swift enough to jar his bones and his teeth clinked together hard. He stood, knees almost giving way besides the pensive on Snape's desk.
"So . . . having fun?" Snape gripped Harry's arm tightly in a pincerlike grip that his wand hand had gone numb. "Been . . . enjoying yourself, Potter?" Harry felt a great pain at the top of his head the fist holding his hair shook with rage.
"N-no . . ." Harry gasped and jerked trying to free his arm, but the answer really wasn't to Snape's question.
Snape's lips were shaking, his face white as parchment, his were teeth barred and chattering with the force that he clenched his jaw. A sneer closer to a false smirk played at the corners of his mouth. "Amusing man, your father, wasn't he?"
Wide-eyed Harry shook his head vehemently. No one deserved to be attacked like that. Duddley and his friends always came at him like that. Three, four or five on one. No one deserved that not even Malfoy. It was revolting ! His stomach felt like a bunch of pixies were trying to break free from it . . . and it had been his ownFather! "I . . . just wanted . . ."
Snape threw Harry from him with all his might as if he could no longer stand to touch the boy. Harry fell hard on to the dungeon floor, groaning, old injuries screaming at him. Snape knelt his greasy nose touching Harry's and bellowed. "You will not tell anyone what you saw!"
"No," Harry whimpered his hands flying up to cover his face. He scooted back trying to get as far from Snape as he could, but his head smacked hard against the desk behind him. "N-no, of course I w-" How could he let people know his own father was a bullying git?
"Get out. Get out. I don't want to see you in this office ever again!" Snape wrenched Harry up by his arm and forced him in the direction of the door.
Harry stumbled towards the door panting and dizzy nearly sick to his stomach. "I- I'm s-"
A jar of dead cockroaches exploded mere inches above Harry's head, cutting off his words.
"POTTER!" If the jar shattering hadn't halted Harry's retreat from the potions Masters study, the hatred filled exclamation of his surname froze him with his hand on the door knob. Shimmers of shattered glass glinted in his unkempt hair.
"S-Snape I-"
"Regardless of our impasse or failed relationship here Potter, I am still your teacher and as such you will refer to me as 'Sir' or 'Professor' at all times." Snape's eyes we're spitting fire as if he had cast 'Incindio'and he crossed the gap between Harry and his desk in a few quick strides. His wand held at waste height shuddered with the force it took not to draw the wand to the boy's throat. He settled with pinning the boy by the shoulders to the wall next to the door, just above the shattered jar.
"Reparo!" The jar repaired itself and the dead bugs flew back into it with another flick of his wand. Harry winched at the movement. Snape only sneered at his flinch a light smirk threatening to blossom at the corners of his mouth. He would not waste a good batch of potions ingredients on a spoiled, arrogant, worthless brat like Potter.
"S-sir-"
"Hard of hearing are weboy?" Snape said his black eyes narrowing malevolently. He jerked Harry hard by the shoulders and the boys head snapped on his neck, thudding against the brick wall behind him. "I recall instructing you toGET OUT!"
Harry winched and whimpered going limp under the Potion's Masters grip only to wriggle out of his hold. He spun and ducked low trying to dodge a blow that his subconscious knew had to be coming. Wishing he were invisible his checks, neck and ears reddened from embarrassment and his own store of rage, his eyes swam moist with a glint of fear. Snape had always hated Harry and the boy new it but now he was almost certain the Potion's Master was going to hurt or kill him. Harry bolted for the door; he had to get out before he was severely punished.
"Not so fast boy!" Snape spun on his heels wand at the ready. "Petrificus Totalus!"
Harry's arms snapped to his sides. His legs sprang together. His whole body was rigid, he swayed where he stood for a moment and then fell flat on his back, stiff as a board. Harry's jaw was jammed together so hard; he couldn't form words. Only his eyes moved looking up at Snape in utter horror.
It was amazing that he could withstand and fight off the Cruciatus curse but that a full body bind left him utterly helpless. By Merlin! If Uncle Vernon had known anything of a magical worth other then 'Abracadabra' Harry wouldn't have survived to make it past his fifth birthday. It was hard to breathe and he couldn't even blink his eyes which were watering fiercely. He wasn't crying, wouldn't cry in front of Snape, but Harry had never, ever felt more trapped in his life. Helpless was not an endearing quality for anyone let alone a Grifindor. He wished Snape would just curse him into oblivion and be done with it. The body bind didn't hurt but the anticipation of the violence to come was killing him.
Harry had no way to break eye contact and remembered being told that under normal conditions and close cowards, eye contact was essential to Legilimency. Harry let out a strangled exhalation able to put up nothing in the forms of resistance. If at all possible his already taught muscles constricted tighter in fear, his breath caught in his throat and his heart, the only muscle not caught up in the spell speed up in it's relentless frantic flutter in his chest.
It was a worse feeling then falling out of a pensive, worse then side by side appartation or traveling by portkey, it was like lightening struck through his very brain. Alice spiraled down the rabbit hole . . . Harry had overheard Aunt Petunia telling Duddley that story once.
Snape narrowed his eyes to menacing slits and Harry had never been so petrified in his life, which was saying an awful lot.
"Legilimens!" Snape pushed harder into the boys mind then he had ever before.
The ceiling of the dungeon and Sanpe's face swam before Harry's eyes . . . and suddenly he found himself asleep in his cupboard.
"Oi POTTER!" Dust and plaster fell over Harry where he lay and it sounded as if the ceiling would cave in on him. It sounded like stampeding Hippogriff's raged over head back and forth, over and over again.
"Potter, breakfast!" A shrill woman's voice called out.
Harry rolled to his side groping for his glasses in the almost complete darkness. Instantly on his feet Harry felt for a door knob and stumbled out into the blinding brightness of morning light. Squinting he was just as quickly forced back into the darkness. A door slammed and a boy giggled and Harry banged his head on one of the shelves above his cot. He swallowed down a swear and took a shaky breath seeing stars. He pushed himself back up to his feet and stumbled back into the morning light. The boys clothes hung from his lithe frame and he rolled the sleeves of his shirt up five times before his hands could be seen, leaning against the wall to allow the world to stop spinning.
"Get my coffee and be quick about it boy!"
"Yes Uncle Vernon." Harry moved to the coffee machine which he'd set on auto the night before, it had just begun to percolate.
"Mind the bacon boy!" The woman said lavishing the whale of a boy with kisses. "I want everything to be perfect for my Duddley-wumpkins special day."
"Yes Ma'ma Aunt Petunia." Harry spun between the stove and the coffee machine.
"PotterI'm going to the zoo!" The large boy regarded Harry with a sneer.
"Coffee boy!" Uncle Vernon bellowed screwing up his face.
"Yes Uncle Vernon, sir."
Harry jumped and spun his oversized sleeve catching the handle of the frying pan, dragging it to the floor as he moved to fill the man's coffee mug.
"POTTER!" Harry's Uncle was red from his neck to the root of his hair as the boy deposited the piping hot mug down in front of him. He grabbed Harry by the wrist and wrenched him to his knees throwing him by the scruff of his neck to the floor in front of the stove. "Clean it up!"
"Y-yes Uncle Vernon." Harry stammered reaching out to pick up the pan without thinking. He winched against the searing pain that shot through his finger tips, dropping the pan again. He bit down on his bottom kip swallowing back a bellow of pain and managed to cover it up with a simple sharp intake of breath.
"MOM." The large boy whined. "Potter ruined breakfast and I'M HUNGRY!"
Aunt Petuinia returned from the other room, pale and shaking a look of true disgust on her face. "She can't take him . . . Mrs. Figg, she broke her leg." She threw a sheepish glance at her husband.
"I don't want that freak going!" The large boy broke into a tantrum, blubbering without any real tears. "He ruins everything!"
Harry cleaned up quickly his smarting blistering fingers ignored and started another pan on the stove, Uncle Vernon had him by the ear before he could even blink.
"Blatant waste of my hard earned food, finish cooking our breakfast boy."
The Memory shifted like ripples over the top of a lake and Snape was carried along an unwilling observer.
Harry squirmed out of the cargo hold of the back of the station wagon where he'd been sandwiched between a cooler and the spare tire, un-restricted. Clamoring out of the back he nearly tripped over his pant leg which had come unrolled, he toppled unceremoniously into Vernon Dursely's waiting grasp, which had nothing to do with preserving his well being. Hands grabbed his shoulders hard enough to bruise and he was snapped backwards hitting his head on the back of the car.
"I'm warning you, Potter!" His name was spoke as though it tasted bad coming from Uncle Vernon's lips. He pressed his large purple face right up close to Harry's so that the boy could smell the breakfast he'd cooked but no been allowed to eat. "I'm warning you now, boy . . . any funny business, anything at all . . ." Uncle Vernon shook him hard. "And you'll be in your cupboard from now until Christmas."
"I'm not going to do anything." Harry bent to tie his shoe which had come undone and muttered regretfully. "I never do anything . . ." He stood up and took a step to follow his 'family'.
"Don't dawdle boy." Aunt Petunia hissed through her teeth..
"Yes Aunt-" Harry took another step and was tripped and landed unceremoniously on his hand and knees in the gravel parking lot.
Dudley broke into a fit of giggles. "Freak!" The insult was tossed over his shoulder with a sneer as he scampered to grab his mother's hand.
Harry hoisted himself up to his feet his already blistering hands smarting and slightly tore up.
Uncle Vernon was right there glaring down at him. "Do not annoy us . . . you don't know us." He turned his back on Harry and moved to join his family. "Do not get lost . . . and No Funny Business!"
Harry scrambled to keep up but knowingly kept a safe distance from the happy family a hapless straggler.
"Get out of the way Potter!" Dudley threw him hard to the stone floor of the reptile house. "Mum, Dad come look at what this snake is doing!"
Harry didn't care that he was mistreated, only that he had lost contact with the only personal communication he'd had in a very long time. The Snake seemed to be a friend.
Both his Aunt and Uncle brushed past Harry on the floor as if he didn't exist to heed the call of their precious son.
"OUT FREAK!" Uncle Vernon grabbed him by his hair and forced him out of the car and through the front door of the house.
"Vernon mind the neighbors!" Aunt Petunia hissed taking a moment's respite from fawning over Dudley. His cousin was soaking wet, wrapped in a blanket and blubbering on and on incoherently though he seemed unhurt.
"I didn't do anything." Harry pleaded.
"I'm sure that Dudley got into the snakes tank all on his own?" Uncle Vernon pinned the boy to the wall across from the front door.
"I didn't do anything! One second you all were pressed up against the glass, then Duddley fell into the water . . . it was like magic!" Harry's voice dropped at the end of the sentence knowing he was using a word forbidden in this house and much worse then any cuss he could think up.
Uncle Vernon backhanded him hard. "There is no such thing boy!"
A stray tear escaped out of Harry's eye and trickled down his cheek.
"You dare pull a stunt like that on Dudley's birthday?" Uncle Vernon wrenched Harry's arm behind him.
"No . . . I . . ." Harry whined in pain. "Uncle Vernon, I didn't do-"
"You arrogant freak! You should have died along with your useless parents." Uncle Vernon opened the door under the stairs and kicked the boy inside. "No meals for a week!"
The cupboard door was slammed shut and double latched from the outside. Curled up on his side on the small cot Harry held his side drawing a difficult breath. He'd gotten off pretty easy this time, being ignored and invisible was better then being pushed around. He closed his eyes to a chorus of Happy Birthday and the smell of freshly baked cake.
"Night Mum." Duddley called out and Aunt Petunia's steps thudded up the stairs above him and Harry snapped awake.
Duddley moved to follow his mother upstairs when his father caught him by the crook of his elbow. "Hold on son, I've got one more present for you."
Duddley jumped and clapped his pudgy little hands. "That makes an even . . . what is that then?"
"Fourty." Harry spoke up from inside his cupboard before he thought better of it bringing a hand up to cover his mouth too late.
The door to his cupboard banged open and Uncle Vernon pulled Harry from his cot and forced the boy out into the backyard.
"Oi POTTER . . . so you thought that bit with the snake was funny?" Uncle Vernon sneered down at him.
"N-no sir." Harry shook his head his shaggy hair flying. It was dark and he didn't have his glasses on and Duddley and Uncle Vernon were big fat indistinguishable blobs to him. They forced him to the grass and Harry stumbled to his knees before scrambling to his feet indignantly.
"I think you got a real kick out of it." Uncle Vernon leered behind the boy. Lashing out with a kick of his own bringing Harry back to his knees.
Duddley snickered somewhere behind Harry as well. "It was cold in that water idle-potty."
Harry shrieked Duddley had turned the hose on him and he was only dressed in an old tee-shirt and a pair of boxer shorts. Uncle Vernon took the hose from his son and snaked it at Harry's feet forcing the boy to jump as it smacked against his shins.
"Your friend is back boy!"
Duddley let out an overjoyed peal of laughter.
Harry gasped as the hose struck his back. He gritted his teeth. He would not gasp, he wouldn't cry, he couldn't give the Dursley's the satisfaction. The metal nozzle of the hose made the worst marks. After a few more lashes, one for each year Duddley was old, each year Harry had been an inconvenience on his relatives, Harry's knee's gave way and he was dragged back to his cupboard.
Darkness. Harry's damp clothes clung to him and he shuddered violently. His back ached and his breath came in shallow gaps. He'd been in the cupboard for days or a lifetime, It was hard to tell without a watch in almost complete darkness. He was drenched in sweat and shivering, his head swam. He coughed the spasm sending waves of pain through his back . He couldn't sleep, but he was so tired his eyes burned. His stomach growled but he groaned knowing there was nothing to help him. Pressing his face into the pillow, laying on his empty stomach to save his tortured back he refused to let his hitching breath give way to sobs. Too tired to care about something he couldn't change the 'Friendless freak' drifted into a fitful sleep. He didn't really sleep so much as he blacked out.
"ENOUGH!" Hands on Snape's shoulders wrenched him from Potter breaking the hold the Legilimist held on his mind.
Enough Indeed. Snape found himself physically shaking.
"Professor," Snape stammered a far away glint in his eyes. "Dumbledore," Snape cleared his throat and shuddered offering the older man a weak sneer. "Albus, it was only a low level jinx. The boy-" Snape's voice hung on the word. "Mr. Potter has become quite good at literally throwing me from his mind. Using the stinging charm, shielding charm and other such unpleasantries. I'd tired of finding myself half-way across the room, or worse striking the wall. I wanted to eliminate such a chance, really test the strength of the bo-" Snape pursed his lips as if the word left a bad taste in his mouth. "child's mind."
Dumbledore winked at Snape that familiarly annoying twinkle in his eye, as if he knew much, much more then he was letting on. Snape snorted exasperated and stalked over to the arm chair behind his desk, albeit he moved much more jerkily then he would have liked, lurching into the desk before sinking into the seat. Snape collapsed into the chair a shaky hand pinching the bridge of his nose where a headache was brewing.
Dumbledore turned his back on Snape allowing the man a quiet moment to collect himself. Snape sat fingers steepled his forehead resting atop his hands slowly breathing in and then out. That was not at all what he'd expected to be faced with inside of the famous brat-who-lived's mind.
"Incarnate Evarate." Dumbledore flicked his wand at Harry who bolted up into a sitting position with a shuddering gasp of pure horror. Wild unfocused eyes darted around the study as if seeing nothing. "Alright Harry?"
Harry drew a shuddering wheezy breath and stood as if someone had put the jelly-legs jinx on him. He panted his back pressed against the cold dungeon wall. Harry shook his head vehemently 'no' a caged animal glint in his eyes. Harry doubled over sick to his stomach and retched but refused to be sick. He hiccupped back a sob her refused to let surface and bolted. He fled into the storm room slamming the previously open door causing Snape to jump in his seat. A second door banged open and then shut to the sound of breaking glass. Snape cringed that could only be the door to his own personal storage closet.
Dumbledore made to start off after the alarmed boy.
"Let. Him. GO." Snape snapped his gaze rose threateningly from his hands as if daring the Head Master to make a move, before he seemed to loose all nerve and his unsettled gaze fell back to the top of the desk.
"Severus, my boy-" Dumbledore reached for Snape's shoulder across the desk.
"Don't!" Snape twisted out from under the offending hand.
Dumbledore jerked his hand back and spread them both wide in a non-threatening gesture, a cup of hot chocolate and a cup of tea appeared between them on the desk.
"You and Harry are progressing well then?" Dumbledore asked with that mischievous glint in his eyes.
"Is that what brought you to my study tonight, sir?" The hand Snape held the tea cup in shook so much that it clattered against the saucer. "A progress report?" He lifted the cup to stop the offending sound. His voice was full of doubt and scorn that he could not repress in his edgy state.
"Nothing else." Dumbledore nodded once.
"Mr. Potter and I are progressing well." Snape sneered with no power behind it at all his pride deflating.
"Drink your tea, my boy." Dumbledore insisted nudging the cup back towards Snape his words were spoken with all the strength that one would normal put behind a stern request of 'clam down'.
Snape quirked a brow and smirked at the Head Master over the rim of the cup. He wouldn't douse the Potions Master's tea with say a calming drought, would he? No, it wasn't Dumbledore's style. Snape cocked his head as if something had just occurred to him and flicked his wand towards his store room and muttered a soft almost wordless spell sipping his tea cautiously.
It was Dumbledore's turn to fix Snape with a bemused, knowing yet questioning look of his own.
Tense words passed through thin pressed lips, with an air of forced indifference. "The boy was alone in a dark store closet. . . " Snape shrugged dejectedly a movement usually far beneath him that he considered useless. His hands stilled and the shudder moved to his core hitching his shoulders as if he were caught in a silent fit of laughter. Though Severus was in his own dark corner the farthest from mirth he could possibly be.
"Severus?" Dumbledore's voice was soft and concerned yet Snape still jumped as if Dumbledore had screamed his name at top volume.
"Sir?" Snape's head snapped up and he shrunk away from the Head Master rounding his shoulders like a scolded child. "Yes Head Master?"
"Distressing memory?" Dumbledore inclined his head as if in the form of a question.
"You, could say that," Snape gave a curt nod of his head, and swiped a loose strand of hair out of his face. "Sir . . .?" Snape was uncharacteristically hesitant. "I did this to the b-" Snape cleared his throat. "To Mr. Potter."
"Severus, a body bind is of no real concern." Dumbledore concentrated on his cup of cocoa with a dismissive wave of his hand.
"No!" Snape started. "I call him boy and Potter and make him jump . . ." Snape seemed distressed and spoke as if the Head Master should understand his anguish.
"You do." Dumbledore acknowledged with a nod of his head, that understanding twinkle brightening his eyes. "It is one of Harry's chief complaints about your behavior towards him."
"Like those filthy muggles!" Snape had rushed on as if he hadn't even heard Dumbledore. Snape set his empty cup down on the saucer with a definite clink before a light flush rose to his cheeks as he realized the severity of what had just burst forth from his lips.
"Severus?" Dumbledore's questioning gaze fell on Snape yet again. "Harry's relatives do not enjoy his company much but, their blood does keep him safe."
And what keeps Potter 'safe' from them? Snape sighed. This was too fresh in his mind for Snape to debate it with the Head Master. Neglect was just as bad as any physical harm they inflicted on the boy. Far worse it was for him to feel like an outcast in his own home, bumps and bruises healed after time. The mental trauma was so sever that-
"Severus?" Dumbledore leaned in closer to the Potions Master. "Is there something that needs to be brought to my attention?"
"Not at the present Head Master." Snape shook his head dismissing the train of thought.
Dumbledore drained his cup of hot coca with a light shrug of his shoulders, if something was pressing Snape would come to him; if said something was too much for Snape to handle on his own he would come to the Head Master post haste. Snape always had followed this pattern with his Syltherins and knowing his constant vigilance over Harry's wellbeing over the past years, Dumbledore left this current problem up to the younger man's discretion. Snape would come to him in due course once whatever the issue with Harry was had become clear to him, but until then . . .
"How is your current consignment of Wolfsbane going?" That twinkle shone in Dumbledore's eye again. He'd always found that once Snape was impassioned about potions his mind often wandered and dealt better with troublesome situations. Wether he was brewing for the side of light or the Dark Lord himself, Potions always put the ill at ease man into a state where in his true element he gave off an aura of almost relaxed contentment. "Are you working on anything new, my boy?"
Snape's eyes brightened for a breift moment. "The Wolfsbane is effortless now, and yes I've already refined the new batch for Lupin's next cycle."
"And your research?" Dumbledore quirked an eyebrow refilling both cups in front of them with piping hot liquid again, a wave of his hand stoked the fire in the room.
Snape allowed himself to forget himself for a moment and with a soft sigh slumped lower in his chair. Something of a twinkle of high-spirited self-worth filtered through his dark eyes and a light bemused smirk tugged at the corner of his thin lips, but refused to surface. Snape's newest project was something he'd been working on for The Dark Lord, but he felt no harm in letting The Head Master in on the less specific details of it. He was excited feeling he'd really out done himself this time, or at least once he was through with and had polished the brew. Snape launched into a lively monologue and Dumbledore asked polite questions along the way, the Potions Master calming and becoming more animated as he went on. His potions research was truly all he had left to truly live for. Snape could have gone on for days but eventually he raised a hand to silence the Potions Master.
"Severus's, it is well after curfew and I am not a young man anymore." A quickly cast 'Tempus'alerted him to the fact that they were in fact burning the candle at both ends.
Snape snorted lightly coming very close to outright laughter. "Am I boring you, sir?"
"Not in the least my boy." Dumbledore did laugh outright, stiffening a yawn. "Your research is always quite engaging and I do believe that this is the most I've heard you speak outside of Order meetings for ages."
Snape felt a slight warmth rise to his cheeks and ducked his head unawares of exactly how to answer his mentor. "I shall endeavor to rectify that Albus."
"My door is always open, my boy." Dumbledore rose from his chair waving his hand and clearing the empty mugs from Snape's desk.
"Not exactly open, sir." Snape couldn't help but rib the man lightly.
"I do enjoy a good treacle tart Severus." Dumbledore winked at the younger man.
Snape looked at The Head Master as if the old man had truly lost his mind. "Excusse me sir, are you saying you'd like to stay for a snack?"
"The password…" Dumbledore paused for emphasis. "Is Treacle tart. And my door is always open, you need only ask the gargoyles and they will admit you Severus."
"Of course, sir." Snape couldn't keep the light sneer from his lips. "Goodnight Albus."
"Rest well, my boy." Dumbledore rested a hand on Snape's shoulder before standing to take his leave.
The Head Master floo'ed out of the classroom and Snape stood from behind his desk allowing himself a private chuckle. With a wave of his wand Snape extinguished the candles in the room and stalked off towards the door his robes billowing characteristically out behind him. He paused about to exit the room distracted by a faint glow coming from under the door of his inner study. Snape swore he'd almost forgotten that Potter was there! The Head Master had a way of making him forget himself.
Systematically he navigated the classroom only by the sliver of light and opened the door to his study. He stood steadying himself outside of his store room closet suddenly remembering the slamming door and the sound of breaking glass. Merlin forbid had anything mixed producing noxious fumes! Snape mentally smacked his forehead; feeling like a dunderhead for not thinking of it sooner, though he'd never had admitted it to another living soul. He didn't really look angry but his sneer spoke volumes of his irritation. He schooled his features and then carefully opened the door; cautious of what he would be faced with, bracing himself if the boy rushed at him.
Nothing happened when Snape opened the door and still he flinched before he relaxed. In the brightly lit room the he quickly took stock of his stores. Nothing seemed amiss. The smell accosted his nostrils before he'd had a really decent look. A few vials of rose water which had been housed too close to the edge of a full shelf lay shattered in the center of the room, it was nothing dangerous and quite easy to replace. Had he not known that Potter had taken refuge in here, he would not have known that anyone had entered the room. In fact he could not at first see where the boy was, and the store closet was not that large. His legilimency was overwhelmed with a stiffening feeling of safety, which he felt the need to occlude his mind. It was not that he did not want to feel safe; he just didn't want to be overpowered by any one emotion and so his mental shields went up stronger. Turning into the waves of safety before completely shutting them out he noticed a few boxes in the back of the closet that were pushed out about two feet from the wall they had previously rested against.
Harry was curled up laying on his side in the fetal position, his knees drawn to his chest and his arse pressed into the corner where the walls met. His head rested on his bony elbow, his face calm in slumber, his brow contorted in fear and discomfort. He looked innocent in sleep but the rest was not allowing his mind any ease. Snape mused, could such a confined space truly make one feel safe? With a flick of his wand and a muted 'Depulso' Snape shifted the cartons to the far side of the room, out of his line of sight.
"Mr. Potter?" Snape's monotone velvety voice dropped several intervals to a low drawl. It was not wise to startle the already stressed out child. Children woken suddenly from night terrors were often combative; years of being the head of Slytherin house had taught him nothing less. Snape crouched in front of the boy his knees cracking fiercely in protest; years of spying had done a number on his joints. He cleared his throat loudly not wanting to alarm the boy or rouse him too suddenly. All the same, it would not do for him to let the boy spend the night in the dungeons, let alone his own personal store room. Snape simply would have none of that, he trusted no one alone with his stores most assertidly not Potter.
"MR. POTTER!" Snape said in the most stern and commanding voice he could muster without yelling. Harry flinched at the sound of his name but remained in his slumber.
Snape weighed his options, none of them did he find very endearing a solutions to the sleeping child holed up in his stores. He wasn't even sure the boy was sleeping, his magical core may have put him into a short term coma to heal from the trauma or his mind had sheltered him so well that this was it's way of avoiding a crisis or worse. As the head of Sytherin house he was used to dealing with problem children, but never did he imagine the boy-who-lived would be just as mistreated as a half blood sorted into Sytherin. Snape hesitated a long moment still debating.
The child could not stay where he lay because Snape had no desire to stay in his office. If they weren't inside Hogwarts he simply would have side by side apparted the boy to his room in Gryffindor tower. He would feel a fool if even caught by Filch this late in the night levitating the boy's body through the halls with a 'Locomotor' spell. Though he did use the spell to move Potter from the closet and out into his study where he placed the boy on the couch in front of the fireplace.
"Mr. Potter?" Snape loomed over the boy and took him by the shoulders shaking him though not violently. "Wake up this instant!"
Harry's eyes moved rapidly behind his shut lids and he flinched. Snape sighed. One could floo with a child, but if one of the occupants of the network could not speak and was an adult it usually ended in someone getting lost or splinched. He could floo Minerva and allow her deal with the situation as the child's head of house, but that would entail explaining his lesions with Potter. The Head Master was adamant that the less people that knew Harry was becoming proficient in Occlumency the more effective it would be as a skill for fighting The Dark Lord. Snape could always lie to Minerva and tell the woman Potter had fallen ill during a detention but the transfiguration professor had an uncanny way of knowing when Snape was mendacious even as far back as his own days at Hogwarts. He could floo the Head Master because he had started and forced this relationship and let him deal with the fall out he'd created.
Snape crouched next to the couch close enough to touch the boy, contemplating the situation he had found himself stuck in. He was not equipped to deal with an emotional Potter. An emotional child he could handle, but . . . Snape twitched and sneered a wave of pain cascading over his body from his arm forcing him to the floor. He swore and the room swam before his eyes. Dragging himself back to his feet he felt foolish at the fact his knee's buckled. One would have thought that by now, this far into the servitude of his 'Dark Lord' he would have been used to the pain of the summons. It was never quite the same twice, the intensity of the pain, the type of pain or the urgency behind it always varied. Right now the Dark Lord wanted his inner circle by his side, or at least Severus now! He stumbled over to the hearth loathe to remove his hand from where it clenched his forearm yet he pulled out a handful of floo powder almost knocking over the canister and causing it to fall to the floor.
"Head Master's private quarters." His voice cracked a strained ghost of it's normal placid monotone.
Dumbledore's fire place flared up green and Snape's head and shoulders came through. His gaze darted from side to side but he could not see Dumbledore anywhere. Snape's all but frantic plea filled the room. "Head Master?"
Another wave of pain coursed through the Dark Mark and caused his body a tremulous motion his knee's slamming into the stone at the base of the fireplace. "By Merlin!" Snape swore sucking air through his teeth. Just where had the old coot gotten away too? "Albus!"
Dumbledore appeared from a door at the rear of the room. He wore an appalling ankle length dressing gown and matching night cap where the pom-pom at the end of the cap fell at his waist. Matching large fuzzy slipper clad feet shuffled quickly to the fire place and he crouched before the flames. Sleepiness obscured that ever present twinkle from his eyes. "Severus what ever is the matter, my boy?"
The summons had begun once he had levitated Potter out from his store closet. He had only allowed the pain to filter through once he was assured the boy was in a safer place. Snape gritted his teeth and panted a short reply. "I've been summoned, sir."
A look of bewilderment crossed Dumbledore's face. Snape usually informed him upon his return from a Death Eater's meeting, never before unless there was a pressing issue, or he was in a situation where his hasty departure would need explaining away. This was highly abnormal. "What do you need of me, dear boy?"
"Come through?" Snape asked the open ended question with one of his own doing nothing to alleviate Dumbledore's apprehension.
"You need only step back." Dumbledore nodded his consent and rushed into the floo noting the desperation behind the younger man's plea.
Dumbledore came through the floo not a trace of soot or ash on his person. It was the mark of a truly gifted wizard to be able to come out of a floo unscaved and in as pristine a condition as they entered it in. Dumbledore stepped through without and issue and took in the scene in the room around him. Harry Potter lay curled up on the couch in the fetal position clearly in some form of distress, his brow creased in anguish and he muttered frantic indistinguishable protests. Snape was not in much better shape. The Potions Master was deathly pale with a thin sheen of sweat glistening on his brow. His brow was creased in determination his eyes conveying a frenzied need for escape.
"Severus?" The Head Master seemed completely befuddled by what he was seeing.
Snape rolled his eyes with a frustrated snort. "Potter seems to have lost consciousness inside my store closet while we conversed about my latest research endeavors. He will not rouse, in fact he's being quite adamant about not cooperating."
Dumbledore smiled. "I will see to Harry's welfare." He nodded resting a hand on Snape's shoulder which was meant to be reassuring, but his touch coincided with another flare of pain from the Dark Mark and Snape's knee's buckled dangerously again. "Severus make sure you take care of your own. You'll be sure to let me know once you've returned, my boy?"
Snape nodded relief evident in his face as he spun with a swish of his robes and fled his own chambers as if the devil were on his heals. "Indeed I shall."
Snape fled the confines of the wards on the grounds and the moment that his feet touched the ground of the Forbidden Forest outside of bounds he apparted to meet the Dark Lord.
Authors note:Hey guys I promises the action will pick up! I go to school for Medical Assisting and work and have a house so I will update as soon as I can but can not commit to an update schedule right now. I am sorry about that. I will see you all soon, please review.
One a side note this chapter was finished yesterday, Thursday, January 9, 2008, but I felt bad leaving Snape on his way to a Death Eater meeting on his Birthday! Happy Birthday Severus!