Disclaimer: I OWN NONE OF THIS! The only thing that I truly made up was the
plot and the original character that'll be coming in later!!!!!!!
His eyes focused on the small boy and slid the boy's glasses onto his face.
"Professor why are you doing this?" Harry asked
"Doing what?"
"Being nice to me?"
This caught Severus off guard and paused to think for a moment.
"Well because I figured that you'd had enough of people being nasty towards you and that I've come to my own realizations and conclusions since I found you."
"Oh." As he looked down away and slightly fingered the sheet covering him.
Sitting there in silence watching the boy, not sure of what he was thinking he continued to watch in silence until Harry broke the silence.
"Sir, why did you come get me, why didn't you just leave me?"
"Because it is my duty as a professor to give help when it's needed and as your note clearly stated, it was needed."
"I only wrote that note because Hedwig brought me the stuff for it, she gets worried sometimes it wasn't anything I couldn't handle."
"Pets have a way of knowing when there's something wrong with their owners, you have a very smart owl there." Snape said slightly chuckling
"Yeah, sometimes I think she's too smart for her own good." A small smile crept onto his face but it quickly faded and the silence ensued once again.
Finally Snape's curiosity got the better of him.
"Potter, how long have your relatives been abusing you? You don't have to answer if you don't want to, but it'd help me understand and take care of you better."
Harry was taken aback by the question but part of him really wanted to tell somebody.
Ron and Hermione didn't really know, they knew that his uncle was mean but they never knew the extent of how he was treated at home.
Finally he took a deep shuddering breath to steady himself and started to speak.
"I've been treated badly for as far back as I can remember. Growing up I was basically used as their personal slave and forced to do all of their housework and wait on them and live in a Cupboard under the stairs until I turned 11 and got my Hogwarts letter." he paused for a moment. "The Dursley's lied to me about who I really was and how my parents died. They never fed me quite enough, they only gave me Dudley's hand me downs when he outgrew them, but even when he was much younger the clothes were still entirely too big for me." He took a steadying breath and continued "Usually I'd get beaten for trifle little things. After I got my Hogwarts letter the beatings stopped for the most part because I think they were afraid of what I might do to them. Then they found out about the Law for Underage Wizards during the summer before my second year so I lost that little bit of defense and they starved me even more."
"I don't remember a lot of the beatings because I just prefer to shut it completely out of my mind, try and forget that it ever happened. Though sometimes I can't help it. Like when you woke me last night from my nightmare I was scared because my uncle used to come in and grab me really hard and smack me for waking up his precious family." Biting on the word 'precious' and saying it with malice and hatred.
"It's just that lately his company is doing badly and he's started drinking more and more and he started to give me more and more chores that can't possibly be done when I'm completely healthy, let alone when I'm sick. All the more reason to hit me more and harder." Tears started to well in his eyes and threaten to spill over but Harry held them back.
"It's not enough that I'm sick and throwing up more when he kicks me in the stomach! He has to make me feel that much worse! It's not like my life is bad enough without it!"
Unable to speak any longer he closed and coverd his eyes and the tears started to fall like a relentless flood.
Unsure of what to do Severus sat there and watched the boy momentarily. Then he moved onto his bed and sat him up and put an arm in a hopefully comforting manner around the boy's bony shoulders and drew out a handkerchief from his robes and wiped off the boy's face.
He just sat there letting Harry cry and eventually ended up pulling him into his own lap and rocking him back in forth as if he was a 5 year old child. Deciding to try and help he said
"Harry you can't blame yourself for what happened previously in your life, those are uncontrollable. Nobody knew that your relatives would treat you that way, and you were then and still are a child. No child should have to go through half of the things that you've gone through. It was not your fault for how they treated you and believe me, they'll get what's coming to them. One way or another, they'll get it."
He sat there as the wracking sobs slowed down a bit.
"To be completely honest, I thought were pampered at home, spoiled rotten because you were the 'Famous Harry Potter.' Harry snorted through the tears at the remark.
"I didn't even know that I was famous until I was 11 and even then I couldn't remember a thing about what made me famous in the first place! And how would they know that I was famous, they're muggles!"
"That's completely true and now I kick and curse myself mentally for not seeing it sooner. I hope it's not too late to make you change your abhorrence for me."
"What made you think I hated you to begin with?"
"Because I was always vile and nasty towards you."
"You're that way towards every Gryffindor though so it's no different to have it done to me. In all honestly I'm used to being treated badly."
"But no person should have to be used to that! Especially a child!"
They both sat contemplatively with Snape still holding Harry as his sobs slowly ebbed to a stop and blew his nose on the handkerchief.
"Now if you think that I'm going to pamper and baby you you've got another thing coming, you hear me. But if you need to talk to somebody I'm here all right?"
Harry nodded his head and continued to rather enjoy the feeling of being held. Despite the fact that he was being held by, until fairly recently, his most hated teacher, and slowly drifted off to sleep suddenly tired from the morning's events.
His eyes focused on the small boy and slid the boy's glasses onto his face.
"Professor why are you doing this?" Harry asked
"Doing what?"
"Being nice to me?"
This caught Severus off guard and paused to think for a moment.
"Well because I figured that you'd had enough of people being nasty towards you and that I've come to my own realizations and conclusions since I found you."
"Oh." As he looked down away and slightly fingered the sheet covering him.
Sitting there in silence watching the boy, not sure of what he was thinking he continued to watch in silence until Harry broke the silence.
"Sir, why did you come get me, why didn't you just leave me?"
"Because it is my duty as a professor to give help when it's needed and as your note clearly stated, it was needed."
"I only wrote that note because Hedwig brought me the stuff for it, she gets worried sometimes it wasn't anything I couldn't handle."
"Pets have a way of knowing when there's something wrong with their owners, you have a very smart owl there." Snape said slightly chuckling
"Yeah, sometimes I think she's too smart for her own good." A small smile crept onto his face but it quickly faded and the silence ensued once again.
Finally Snape's curiosity got the better of him.
"Potter, how long have your relatives been abusing you? You don't have to answer if you don't want to, but it'd help me understand and take care of you better."
Harry was taken aback by the question but part of him really wanted to tell somebody.
Ron and Hermione didn't really know, they knew that his uncle was mean but they never knew the extent of how he was treated at home.
Finally he took a deep shuddering breath to steady himself and started to speak.
"I've been treated badly for as far back as I can remember. Growing up I was basically used as their personal slave and forced to do all of their housework and wait on them and live in a Cupboard under the stairs until I turned 11 and got my Hogwarts letter." he paused for a moment. "The Dursley's lied to me about who I really was and how my parents died. They never fed me quite enough, they only gave me Dudley's hand me downs when he outgrew them, but even when he was much younger the clothes were still entirely too big for me." He took a steadying breath and continued "Usually I'd get beaten for trifle little things. After I got my Hogwarts letter the beatings stopped for the most part because I think they were afraid of what I might do to them. Then they found out about the Law for Underage Wizards during the summer before my second year so I lost that little bit of defense and they starved me even more."
"I don't remember a lot of the beatings because I just prefer to shut it completely out of my mind, try and forget that it ever happened. Though sometimes I can't help it. Like when you woke me last night from my nightmare I was scared because my uncle used to come in and grab me really hard and smack me for waking up his precious family." Biting on the word 'precious' and saying it with malice and hatred.
"It's just that lately his company is doing badly and he's started drinking more and more and he started to give me more and more chores that can't possibly be done when I'm completely healthy, let alone when I'm sick. All the more reason to hit me more and harder." Tears started to well in his eyes and threaten to spill over but Harry held them back.
"It's not enough that I'm sick and throwing up more when he kicks me in the stomach! He has to make me feel that much worse! It's not like my life is bad enough without it!"
Unable to speak any longer he closed and coverd his eyes and the tears started to fall like a relentless flood.
Unsure of what to do Severus sat there and watched the boy momentarily. Then he moved onto his bed and sat him up and put an arm in a hopefully comforting manner around the boy's bony shoulders and drew out a handkerchief from his robes and wiped off the boy's face.
He just sat there letting Harry cry and eventually ended up pulling him into his own lap and rocking him back in forth as if he was a 5 year old child. Deciding to try and help he said
"Harry you can't blame yourself for what happened previously in your life, those are uncontrollable. Nobody knew that your relatives would treat you that way, and you were then and still are a child. No child should have to go through half of the things that you've gone through. It was not your fault for how they treated you and believe me, they'll get what's coming to them. One way or another, they'll get it."
He sat there as the wracking sobs slowed down a bit.
"To be completely honest, I thought were pampered at home, spoiled rotten because you were the 'Famous Harry Potter.' Harry snorted through the tears at the remark.
"I didn't even know that I was famous until I was 11 and even then I couldn't remember a thing about what made me famous in the first place! And how would they know that I was famous, they're muggles!"
"That's completely true and now I kick and curse myself mentally for not seeing it sooner. I hope it's not too late to make you change your abhorrence for me."
"What made you think I hated you to begin with?"
"Because I was always vile and nasty towards you."
"You're that way towards every Gryffindor though so it's no different to have it done to me. In all honestly I'm used to being treated badly."
"But no person should have to be used to that! Especially a child!"
They both sat contemplatively with Snape still holding Harry as his sobs slowly ebbed to a stop and blew his nose on the handkerchief.
"Now if you think that I'm going to pamper and baby you you've got another thing coming, you hear me. But if you need to talk to somebody I'm here all right?"
Harry nodded his head and continued to rather enjoy the feeling of being held. Despite the fact that he was being held by, until fairly recently, his most hated teacher, and slowly drifted off to sleep suddenly tired from the morning's events.