Another chapter, another time—aren't you so guys so happy? I am!
Oh yes, I don't own Harry Potter. I don't own Courage the Cowardly Dog and… I'm insane?
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A tall, blank faced man walked down the street, his long legs stretching far as he practically devoured the sidewalk with his strides. His boxy glasses glinted in the sun, hiding the dark blue eyes that swept his surroundings with the proficiency of a predator. As he came upon an alleyway, he paused and carefully gazed down into its dark depths. Even though the sun shone bright behind him, the alley continued to be suspiciously shadowed. A smirk came to the man's face as he stepped into the alley.
"Come with us… stay with us. Come into our arms and spend the evening or forever here," the cool whispers and soothing tendrils wrapped around his ankles and caressed the silky white hair that framed his face. The man let out a scoff and rolled his eyes as the shadows tried to draw him in their cooling embrace. He was surely no fool.
"Remove yourselves from the man that I seek. He's quite the nitwit when he wishes but that doesn't mean I'll let my own nephew waste away with the likes of you," he sneered, folding his long arms over his chest. The shadows around him murmured their displeasure and their disappointment like pouting children before they slowly crawled away from the slouching figure. He looked over the sweat laced black hair plastered to the damp forehead of the trembling, obviously unconscious man. The glasses wearing man frowned deeply as he noticed the similarly unconscious child clinging to the man's shirt.
"May we… keep the child?"
"No, no… I am sure that it would only make my nephew throw one of his infamous hissy fit," the man sighed reluctantly and strode over to the man. As he scooped the skinny man into his arms, he let out a sigh and glanced up at the skies. 'I hope that you are happy about this, Eileen,' he thought tiredly.
(**)
Severus launched up from the bed he resided in, dark eyes gazing around the room carefully. It was of medium size with sufficient space to be able kill who ever had captured him. He only hoped that he hadn't ended up in some muggle home because the couple wanted to be helpful. That would only cause them to die and he honestly didn't want to be the cause of any more deaths.
"You are just as daft as my nephew, now come from behind that television and eat the food Muriel has prepared you dumb child," a very familiar, still British accented voice assaulted Severus' ears and he let out a low groan as he dropped his head in his hands. He had so hoped that he would find his way to his uncle's house without any injuries so that the man would be able to see that he took care of himself quite well but no, the man just had to find him because he couldn't stand back up after exhausting himself with the shadows. He could only imagine the things his uncle had muttered and complained about as he set him on the bed he rested on.
Wait… had he heard his uncle say 'Muriel'… dammit, that meant—
"Hello dearie! I thought you'd never wake up what with how bad those cuts were—did you get attack by a bear?" the door burst open and there stood Grandmother Muriel with a tray loaded with food. Severus groaned and pulled himself into a better position to take the offered tray.
"No, Grandmother, I did not get attack by a bear. I simply—," Severus tried to lie but it was completely destroyed as his uncle's tall, broad body appeared in the doorway. He gave his uncle a quick once over, jumping from the gray sweater to the white pants to the gray trainers. Honestly, the man was just as boring as when he last saw him.
"He was mauled by a demon, Aunt Muriel," the dry tone of his Uncle taunted and apparently he was just as evil. His grandmother let out a loud gasp and nearly dropped the food only Severus had a firm hold on it. He pulled it onto his lap and looked down at the stack of pancakes, hash brown, thick slices of bacon, and the two sunny side-up eggs that she had prepared.
"Uncle, you do not know the meaning of a secret… do you?" Severus grumbled, picking up his fork. He didn't want to look at his near-squib grandmother because he already knew the expression that was going to be on her face and it definitely wasn't concern.
"Don't look away from me, young man!" Muriel shouted, raising a hand and bringing it down harshly on his head. Severus winced and clutched at his aching head, sending a mild glare at the plump woman. She barely winced and pulled a chair up to his bedside that she could sit down. "Now tell me why you are being chased by demons!"
If any of the Death Eaters could see him now, they would have laughed their faces red. He was being bullied by an old woman in a yellow dress and rain boots. He sighed and glanced from his Uncle to his Grandmother Muriel Prince.
Muriel Prince had once been a beautiful, talented witch. She was not the first in line to be Heir to the Prince line but she had been pretty close to being the most talented with her healing abilities and the temper that seemed to circle around all the redheads he knew. The Prince line had an awful protocol of keeping their bloodline perfectly clean and away from muggle stench. Muriel, the stubborn Scottish woman that she was, continued to see the love of her life—Eustace—and soon became swollen with child. It was quite hard keeping the secret of an upcoming child so her family stripped her of most of her magic and banished her from their family.
Severus suspected that they had wanted to banish her for years after taking a young metamorphmagus who called himself 'Computer' but was a half-blood. The two were thrown in the dirt with only Eustace to support them. They stayed in America where the illicit love affair had started and the rest was history. Uncle Computer never called Muriel mother but he did not see any foul with calling her aunt.
"I… Grandmother, must I tell you that right now? Isn't it obvious that the child is in need of your assistance more than I?" Severus said smoothly as he spotted the shaking form of the pink haired boy he had saved peeking around the doorframe. Computer turned his head and looked down at the child who slowly looked up, letting out a squeak as his dark black eyes connected with dark blue.
"Oh, the poor dear doesn't eat anything I try to give him," Muriel's attention was sufficiently distracted as she locked her bespectacled eyes on the small boy. He let out a whimper as he noticed the old woman staring at him and pulled at his loose shirt.
"Get from behind me and in the room you twit," Computer finally snapped, using his leg to practically kick the child inside. He let out a loud squeak and gained his bearings swiftly, bouncing on his toes as he looked at the two adults still staring at him. The thick old woman with her white hair and friendly demeanor wasn't so bad but she still scared him while the man with the unemotional tone caused him to want to pee his too big pants.
"Stop being scared, boy. No one is going to harm you," the deep, purring voice of the dark haired man commanded. The boy's wide eyes slowly turned to him and he relaxed slightly as he remembered that voice from the other night. The man's body had kept him warm all through their time hiding. He had been so worried for the man.
"He likes you… I am thoroughly shocked," Computer remarked dryly as the boy darted to his sister's son. He was a quick little lad as he successfully climbed onto the rather tall bed and buried is face into Severus' chest in less than fifteen seconds. Severus winced as a rib loudly protested of the child's weight no matter how light it was.
"Oh, lad, you are hurting my nephew. He's not going anywhere any time soon so why don't you come with me?" the woman said, her accent peeking through a little more as she tried to get the child to let go of the injured man. Each time her hands pulled on the pink haired boy, the tighter his skinny arms wrapped around Severus and the more pain Severus felt.
"Please cease your pulling on the child. It is obvious that he wants to stay. Perhaps, I can convince him to eat some food while I am eating," Severus finally begged as sharp little nails dug into his skin when the woman got one of the boy's arms off of him. Muriel sighed and nodded her head, pulling a fork from her apron so that they may eat from the same plate without any hassle. Severus wondered why the woman kept silverware in her pockets. He glanced at his uncle who simply shook his head and turned to follow his adoptive mother down the stairs.
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He hadn't known where he was when he had awakened. He hadn't even known if he was really awake or if this was just some odd dream that wanted to plague him. The last thing he remembered was waking up to the cold, wet ground as his parents shouted some distance away at each other.
He felt their harsh, fearful words beat into his brain like actual fists and he began to cry, curling into a ball and not even bothering to try to stand and follow them. It hurt him deeper than his soul to know that he was being left in this dirty, wet alleyway with no one and nothing to help.
Then someone was running down the alleyway he mourned in but they didn't see him because they tripped. It wasn't his fault but he didn't want to let this person leave him. Perhaps they could just take him somewhere warm and because of whatever his parents had given him he couldn't really move. He couldn't make out the person but he knew it was a man when the man's strong, thin arms wrapped around him and the velvety voice urged him into silence as true darkness engulfed them.
He had been so scared. He could see… things in the darkness. Things with no eyes and smiling mouths that wanted him to stay with them. Their cooling hands relaxed him and he wanted to go to them but he was scared. It wasn't long before the man had covered his eyes to the beings and the whispers were no longer inviting and the cooling touch was icy.
Sometime while being held to the warm body, he had fallen into a peaceful sleep where his parents hadn't abandoned him and, perhaps, he wasn't hated by all that came around him.
Of course that would be a lie for he came into consciousness to look up at an unfamiliar ceiling that soon disappeared with the face of an older woman, her curly white hair framing her round face. She gave a smile and he sat up quickly, scooting away from her. Who was she? Was she trying to hurt him? Where was the warm man? Where was he?
"Oh dearie, don't move away. I'm not gonna hurt you none," she cooed, reaching forward. He whimpered and rolled off the arm of the couch, landing on his bottom roughly. Quickly the pink haired boy pushed himself up and began to run only to bump head first into a skinny man who glared down at him from under his hat. He let out a whine as he stared at the man. They were silent for a moment before—
"BOO!" the old man shouted, waving his arms. He let out a shriek and immediately ran from the room as fast as he could. He heard the mocking laugh of the old man and then the plump old lady was beating him in the head with a rolling pin that he was absolutely sure he hadn't seen in her hands a second ago. He found himself running into another man only this man was tall like the warm man and his face was completely blank. He stared down at the boy and gently pushed is glasses back on his face, raising a brow at the shaking boy.
"AHHH!" another shriek ripped itself from his throat and he was running again, his tiny heart pounding in his chest as he darted behind the television.
That lead into the man with the glasses trying to convince him to come out though, in his opinion, the man could use a little lesson in coercion because he simply insulted him. They had given up after five minutes and went upstairs. The old man that scared him was nowhere in sight so he forced himself from behind the large box and quietly made his way up the stairs.
Never had he been so happy to see someone as he gazed upon the warm man. He was caught peeking in and he ran to the man as fast as he could after being forced into the room.
After convincing the old woman and the blank man to leave, it was simply the two of them. He was sitting on the other side of the tray now, legs folded and large brown eyes staring at the warm man. He stared back at him, not blinking or twitching.
"What is your name, boy?" the velvet voice came out quietly.
"C-Co-Courage Dogg," he stuttered out. The man's brow rose higher than the white haired man and, if one was liberal with the word, a smile came to his thin lips. He handed Courage the fork to the thin boy.
"Well, Courage Dogg, my name is Severus Snape."
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If Severus had one thing to say about Courage, it was that he was an odd child. It was obvious that he had some kind of magic inside his body due to the natural pink hair. Perhaps he shared the same abilities that Uncle Computer was blessed with. However he was such a skittish little thing, eyes darting around at every noise before he relaxed once again. He seemed to have developed some kind of dependency on Severus for he was always near him.
It had taken some persuasion but he was let out of his bed after a few hours and allowed to walk around the house. The child followed him tentatively, keeping his distance at first but upon seeing Eustace sitting in front of the muggle picture box, he darted to Severus' side and took his hand with a death like grip. Severus frowned and told himself he would later see what the cruel old man had done to the poor child before sweeping into the kitchen to meet with his uncle over a cup of coffee.
"So, silly nephew of mine… what have you done now?"
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The End
So, what do you think? A little OOC, I hope not but I think it is… maybe. I think this is the shortest chapter I have done in all my fan writing life.
