To Have a Home

by beksta

With the help of Severus Snape, the Dursleys raise Harry as their son with the knowledge that he is magical. However when, at the age of seven, a magical bond forms between Harry and Hermione Granger life becomes very difficult, especially when he finds himself falling for one of his closest male friends. HP/SF Slash.

2. Chapter 2

Chapter 2

Nearly six years had passed since the Dursleys had woken up to find their nephew on the front step, but Privet Drive had hardly changed at all. The sun rose on the same tidy front gardens and lit up the brass number four on the Dursley's front door; it crept into their living room, which was almost exactly the same as it had been on the night when Mr. Dursley had seen that fateful news report about the owls. Only the photographs on the mantelpiece really showed how much time had passed. There had once been a lot of pictures of what looked like a large pink beach ball wearing different-coloured bonnets. Six years on from that night the photographs showed two boys; Dudley and Harry on a carousel at the fair, Dudley and Harry tearing into presents on Christmas day, and the two boys playing a board game with their Uncle Severus.

Both boys were still asleep as the sun rose, illuminating the now empty mantelpiece, but not for long.

Harry was the first to be woken by his Aunt Petunia's shrill voice, "Up! Get up! You should've been up hours ago; we only have three hours left. Get dressed quickly, I've made bacon and you won't want to eat it cold."

Harry woke with a start as his aunt rapped on his bedroom door again. He heard her turn and walk down the hallway, rapping on Dudley's door and calling the same thing. He rolled onto his back and tried to remember the dream he had been having. It had been a good one. There had been a flying motorcycle in it. He had a funny feeling he'd had the same dream before.

His aunt was back outside the door. "Harry, come on now, if you don't get up now you won't have time for breakfast before we set off."

Harry sat up in bed, startled, "I completely forgot. Today's the day, isn't it?"

He heard his aunt sigh from outside the room, "Yes, your Uncle Severus will be here in an hour. I want you dressed and fed by then."

"Sorry Aunt Tuney, I'll be down in a minute."

"Good. I've laid out some clothes on your bedroom floor; don't go unpacking any of the boxes to find anything, we don't have the time."

"Right." Harry said.

How could he have forgotten? Today was the day of the big move; he'd been looking forward to it for months. All of his things were stacked in boxes, and just yesterday, he and Dudley had been talking about the new house. They'd been the ones to choose it in the end; they'd even already picked out their new bedrooms.

Harry got slowly out of bed and started looking for his clothes. He found them in a small pile at the end of the bed and picked them up, placing them on the box he'd been using as a bedside table for the past week.

When he was dressed, he went down the stairs and into the kitchen. The table was almost hidden beneath all of the food Aunt Petunia had put out.

Aunt Petunia always made too much food. Harry had always been small and skinny for his age, and Aunt Petunia liked trying to get him to eat second helpings at every meal, but it didn't work. Unlike Dudley, who'd always had to watch what he ate; Harry never seemed to gain weight. He had similar problems with his hair. Once he'd gone to the wedding of one of Uncle Vernon's colleagues and Aunt Petunia had made him shave his hair off, but the next day when he woke up his hair had re-grown, just as messy and out of place as ever. His aunt had said it was nothing to worry about, after all Uncle Sev did magic like that all the time.

Harry had a thin face, knobby knees, black hair and bright green eyes. He wore round glasses, the same style he'd always worn, even when his prescription changed, because his aunt liked them best. She chose most of his clothes and so Harry couldn't see what was wrong with her choosing his glasses as well.

The only thing Harry liked about his own appearance was a very thin scar on his forehead, shaped like a bolt of lightning. He thought it looked cool. Uncle Sev agreed and said that it distinguished him from the other Potters. Aunt Petunia said Severus was being childish and that Harry's eyes were his nicest feature. Harry secretly disagreed with her; he thought his eyes were far too girly, although he'd never say this aloud for fear of hurting his aunt's feelings.

Uncle Vernon entered the kitchen just as Harry was adding ketchup to his bacon, "Ah there you are. Your aunt has asked me to give you this." Vernon held out a small pink travel sickness tablet.

Harry pulled a face, "No thanks Uncle Vernon, those are awful."

Uncle Vernon frowned, "You don't have a choice. You're not getting in the car if you haven't. I don't want you being sick again like last time, if you remember you were sitting behind me."

Harry looked contemplative, "How about I don't take it and promise not to be sick?"

"You can't promise not to get sick, you always get car sick, even on short journeys."

"But I really, really, really, really don't like them." Harry whined.

Vernon sighed, "I'll mix it into a cup of tea for you."

"I only like tea with ten sugars." Harry pouted and crossed his arms, eyeing the sugar pot greedily.

"I'll put two in like I normally do; you won't even be able to taste the tablet."

Harry chewed his lower lip and nodded, "If I'm not sick I can have an ice cream when we get to this new house right?"

Vernon chuckled and ruffled Harry's hair, "I'm going to get started packing the car. Don't forget to drink your tea. Do you know where your brother's got to?"

"Still in bed." Harry said spooning grapefruit into his mouth.

Vernon frowned, "Why don't you save your grapefruit until after you've done with your bacon and eggs."

Harry shrugged. "I like them together."

"Right, don't talk with your mouthful. I'm going to go get Dud up." Vernon said, handing Harry the mug of tea, "I added some cool water for you, it's just right to drink now."

Dudley shuffled into the kitchen five minutes later, just as Harry was pouring orange juice into a glass.

Dudley looked a lot like Uncle Vernon. He had a large pink face, not much neck, small, watery blue eyes, and thick blond hair that lay smoothly on his head. He blinked blearily at Harry and mumbled, "Could you pour me one of those too?"

OOOOO

The boys sat in the kitchen, slowly making their way through the mountain of food on the table until the doorbell rang.

"I'll get it." Both boys shouted in unison jumping up and racing down the hallway. Dudley tripped over a box packed with ornaments and Harry, who got distracted laughing at his brother's misfortune, ran straight into the hat stand and fell backwards onto the floor.

Dudley reached the door first and pulled it open, "Uncle Sev!"

The two boys grinned and ran at their uncle. "Good morning." He patted both boys awkwardly on their heads. "Harry, what have you been doing? You have juice on your trousers."

Harry looked down, "I spilled it on the table."

"And what were you doing on the table?"

"He was pouring juice; it's easier if you kneel on the table." Dudley said.

"Ah yes, because it would have been far too difficult to ask your parents to pour you a glass."

"Aunt Tuney is sorting stuff in her room-"

"-and Dad's gone to pack some stuff into the car."

Severus nodded, "Go clean up whilst I help your father pack his car. Then we can go to the shop to get some confectionary for your journey."

"We're ready to go now." Harry whined.

"You have tomato sauce around your mouth Harry, and Dudley; you have scrambled egg in your hair."

"Will you just use magic?" Harry asked hopefully, "I won't be able to change my trousers Aunt Petunia said I wasn't to unpack any boxes."

"Yeah if you do that then we can leave sooner." Dudley agreed.

"If you clean us with magic, Uncle Sev, I'll tell you all about my dream; it had a talking cat in it." Harry said enticingly as though the prospect of hearing about a talking cat would make Severus bend to his will.

Severus looked unimpressed, "You certainly did not get your skills of persuasion from your mother."

"What do you mean? Didn't you hear me right I said talking cat! A talking cat! I bet you want to hear all about it, just like in "The AristoCats", but with wizards like you."

"AristoCats?" Severus asked raising an eyebrow.

"You've never seen 'The AristoCats'?" Dudley asked in amazement.

Severus shook his head.

"How about… 'Cinderella'?" Harry asked

"Pinocchio?" Dudley offered.

"Peter Pan?"

"Snow White?"

"I have not seen any of those muggle films, nor do I wish to; the names alone sound utterly ridiculous."

The two boys looked mortified, "You haven't seen any of them? Not even 'Pinocchio?"

"Not even 'Pinocchio, now run along."

"If you clean us, we'll have more time to clean up the kitchen so mum has less work." Dudley bargained.

"Should two seven-year-old boys really be left alone to clean a kitchen?" Severus asked.

"It's just plates and stuff. The food goes in the bin and then we'll stack the plates, then you can come in and wave your wand over them and make them clean." Harry said.

"So what you're suggesting is that I clean you so that I can then clean your dirty plates?" Severus sighed theatrically and flourished his wand, "I suppose I can, just this once, since today's the day of the 'big' move."

The two boys grinned, "We'll be done in ten minutes."

"Well, I will join you in the kitchen when you are done. Right now, I will have to go see your parents, I've promised to make everything you own fit into your father's little car."

"Well that won't be too hard, all you've got to do is wave your wand around a bit." Harry said.

Severus gritted his teeth, "Thank you for pointing that out Harry, I always wondered where I was going wrong."

OOOOO

Severus walked into the kitchen ten minutes later to find Harry and Dudley sitting on the floor playing with a small red fire engine.

"Where did you get that? I thought your mother packed all of your toys." Severus asked, cleaning the stacked plates with a flick of his wand.

"We forgot this one, Dudley just remembered it. We hid it in a hiding place when Piers came 'round last month. He always breaks our toys." Harry said driving the truck across Dudley's back.

"Ah, perhaps I should summon all of your toys to make sure you haven't forgotten any then."

"No, it's alright. We normally hide stuff in wardrobes and places like that. We're taking all the wardrobes with us, but this one was under the floor in the little bedroom." Dudley assured him.

"Have you packed the car, Uncle Sev?" Harry asked standing up and slipping the truck into his pocket.

"Yes."

"So can we go get travel sweets now?" Harry asked grinning at Severus.

"Not quite. Please go out into the hallway and get an empty box for me."

"Right." Harry nodded and strode out of the room, popping his head back around the corner a second later and asking, "How big?"

"It doesn't matter, I'll make everything fit." Severus assured him, pulling his wand from his robes and turning to Dudley, "I'm going to shrink everything in this room now. Will you please collect up the items as I do and place them into the box; you too, Harry." He added as Harry re-entered the room.

It took only ten minutes for Severus and the two boys to pack the content of the kitchen into the small cardboard box, Harry had retrieved from the hallway.

When they were done, Harry and Dudley looked around the kitchen sadly. It looked so much bigger now that everything was gone, and Harry found it hard to believe that it had been such a struggle to fit everyone into the kitchen last Christmas, when Aunt Marge and her friend, Colonel Fubster had visited.

Harry picked up the box and turned to leave the kitchen. "Harry, if you don't mind I'll take that box. I'm not sure what your aunt would say if you dropped it. I shudder to think."

Harry grinned and handed the box to Severus. "There you go, Uncle Sev. Can we go get sweets now?"

Severus rolled his eyes, "Very well, however I refuse to buy sherbet lemons."

"Why? Those are the best. An old man was eating them in my dream last night."

Dudley frowned, "You said you dreamed about a talking cat."

"I believe Harry actually dreamt about two of the teachers at the school I work at."

Harry blinked "How d'you know?"

"The Headmaster has a particular fondness for sherbet lemons and the Deputy Headmistress can turn into a cat."

"Can you turn into a cat, Uncle Sev?" Dudley asked.

"No. Get your coat on, I'll explain it whilst we walk to the shop."

"Promise?" Harry asked.

Severus sighed, "Yes, I promise."

"Cross your heart?"

"If you don't get your coat on I'll go without you." Severus said through gritted teeth.

Harry grinned, "I can't get my coat on. Aunt Tuney packed it yesterday. You won't go without me will you?"

Severus exhaled loudly, "You're really testing my patience, Harry."

"You never had much to start off with, Severus." Aunt Petunia said as she bustled into the kitchen carrying a small box.

"Nice for you to back me up, Petunia." Severus said frowning at her.

She smiled at him and turned to the two boys. "Don't tease your uncle like that; you know he doesn't normally even like children. You two are very lucky he's so nice to you."

Dudley looked perplexed. "He works in a school."

"Yes, and I need to be back there in an hour for detention."

Harry laughed. "Who put you in detention? Was it the cat lady?"

"If you want me to come back later and un-shrink all of your possessions, I suggest you stop laughing now." Severus said sternly.

Harry looked aghast, "But if you don't un-shrink my stuff I won't be able to get any of my clothes on."

"I can shrink you to match if it bothers you."

"Can you really?" Dudley asked

"Yes."

"Go on then."

"What?"

"Shrink me. Make me smaller than a mouse." Dudley held his arms out wide and scrunched his eyes shut.

Severus looked pleadingly at Petunia who smiled and said. "Come on Duddiekins, you don't want to let him do that. Wait until your brother goes to Hogwarts, I'm sure Harry will be very good at these spells."

Dudley looked disappointed. "But I wanna get shrunk now."

Severus waved his wand over the two boy's heads and muttered something. "Did you shrink us?" Harry asked narrowing his eyes.

"No. You'd know if I'd tried to shrink you. It wouldn't have worked, but if shrinking a person was possible you'd most certainly know that you were tiny and not your normal size."

Harry thought for a moment and nodded. "Yeah, you're probably right. You'd be all big and giant-like if I was shrunked."

"You mean shrunk."

"Yeah, that. Can we get sweets now?"

Dudley nodded his head in agreement, "Can we go to the sweet shop now?"

"Come along then. Do you need anything picking up, Petunia?"

"No. We'll shop when we get to the new house. Most of the furniture is already there and I bought some food last week when I visited."

Severus nodded, "Come along boys." He strode from the room and the two boys jogged after him.

It took only ten minutes for Severus to walk the boys to the shop. The old woman, who had owned the shop for over fifteen years gave, gave each boy a quarter of Yorkshire mixture free and asked them to send her a letter from their new home.

Severus bought the boys each another bag of sweets, and a bag of sherbet lemons for Professor Dumbledore. The boys said their goodbyes to the lady behind the counter and set off back home with a bag of sweets in each pocket.

They returned to the now empty number four and waved goodbye to Severus as he Disapparated from the front doorstep. Dudley and Harry walked around the side of the house and into the garage,

"Dad, how long do we have left?" Dudley asked.

"You've got just enough time to go to the toilet and then we're off."

"Right." Dudley took a bag of sweets from his pocket and handed them to Uncle Vernon. "Mrs. Jones from the shop sent you these. She said you always like rhubarb and custard. I tried one on the way home."

Vernon chuckled as he pocketed the back of sweets, "You've got ten minutes, if you're not out by then we're off without you."

Harry and Dudley trudged into the house and spent ten minutes wandering from room to room, saying goodbye, 'Goodbye bedroom, goodbye kitchen, goodbye cupboard under the stairs.'

Uncle Vernon pulled the car up in front of the house and the two boys raced out and dove into the back seat. "Where's Aunt Tuney?"

"She just went to say goodbye to Mrs Figg."

"That old cat lady?" Dudley asked frowning.

"Yes." Uncle Vernon said popping a sweet into his mouth.

OOOOO

The journey seemed to take hours. Uncle Vernon spent a lot of it complaining to Aunt Petunia about 'motorcycle riding maniacs.' Harry told them about his dream and Dudley said that Severus was probably right about the people in the dream.

Vernon shook his head angrily. "Madness, absolute madness, letting a man take a one-year-old on a motorcycle, utter lunacy."

After two hours, Harry began feeling sick, he'd managed to eat his way through a full bag of jelly beans and was seriously regretting it.

"Are we nearly there?"

"No."

"Are we nearly there yet?"

"No."

After spending two hours an unmoving traffic jam Vernon swore and took a sharp left. "Who's hungry, we're stopping at McDonald's."

After their short stop for lunch they were back on the road. The traffic was no better and they sat in one queue for nearly an hour.

When they finally arrived at the new house they were tired and tempers were running high; it had taken four hours longer than planned to make the journey. After half an hour stuck behind a tractor on a long winding country road the throbbing vein in Uncle Vernon's temple had looked just about ready to burst.

Severus Apparated to the house at six o'clock; Harry spent an hour helping unpack, before vanishing. Vernon, who had been sent to find Harry, found him curled up asleep in the wardrobe of one of the spare bedrooms.

OOOOO

The week following the move passed rather uneventfully, Harry and Dudley weren't allowed to play anywhere but the back garden until they'd settled properly into their new home. The boys found this particularly boring since they wanted nothing more to explore the neighbourhood and make new friends. They had no chance of this because even their new neighbours were on holiday in France, and would not be due back until the end of the October holidays, and so, for the first time in their lives, Harry and Dudley were looking forward to going to school.

Aunt Petunia woke Harry and Dudley up early on Monday morning for their first day at their new school. Unusually, Dudley was up and out of bed before Harry had even put his glasses on.

The morning seemed to take forever, Dudley even threw a pancake at the clock because he was sure it was working properly; when this failed to speed up time, he threw a second pancake at Harry, because Harry had looked at the clock twice and Dudley didn't want to risk him 'magic-ing' it even slower.

The journey to school was short and both boys jumped out of the car as soon as Petunia pulled into a parking space just outside the school. The two boys were eager for Aunt Petunia to leave them and after a little encouragement from the boys' new teacher, Miss Clark, she gave each of them a kiss on the cheek, promising to be back at three o'clock sharp.

Harry thought Miss Clark seemed like a nice teacher, she seemed very smiley and happy to introduce him and Dudley to their new class, and she even sat them together at a desk near the back of the classroom.

The first lesson they had was maths and the class was doing angles, at which neither boy were very good. Harry and Dudley sat quietly, listening politely as a girl at the front of the classroom answered all of the questions the teacher asked.

At playtime, almost all of the boys in their class seemed drawn to Dudley, who was a lot bigger than most boys their age. Dudley insisted that Harry should be included in all of their games, and so both boys were drawn into a big game of bulldog played by all of the boys, and some of the girls in years three, four and five. Harry was proud to see that he was one of the only boys that had not been caught by 'the bulldog' when Mr Jones, the teacher from the other year three class, ended the game when a year four boy fell over and scraped his knee on the tarmac.

A year five boy, called David Morris, told Harry that the head teacher had banned them from playing bulldog three years ago, but apparently no one followed this rule because there was another game of bulldog at lunchtime and again during the second playtime.

The last lesson of the day for Dudley and Harry was art, at which Harry was terrible. Only one person in the whole class was as bad at art as Harry, and that was a girl who sat near the front of class. Even though the teacher had told them their drawings of flowers were 'wonderful', Dudley truthfully told Harry that his flowers looked like someone had been sick on his paper and that his bad art skills were probably something to do with him being a wizard.

Harry frowned and said, "Wizards can be good at art, you hardly know any and you've never seen a wizard draw."

Dudley packed his pens into his pencil case as the teacher dismissed the class and said, "I've seen you draw, and you can't draw very well at all, even if mum does put all your pictures on the fridge."

"I can't draw, but you don't know any other people who can't draw who are also wizards." Harry argued putting on his coat and heading to the classroom door.

"I've seen more wizards than you."

"No you haven't, I've seen more than you, my Mum and Dad were wizards and I saw them, you never did."

"Yeah, but remember Uncle Sev said I had a gift for reading oars, it means I can tell who's a wizard and who's not." Dudley pointed out smugly.

"Uncle Sev said you can read auras not oars, and just because you can spot wizards, it doesn't mean that my magic makes me a bad artist, it's just a thing."

"No, because I have seen two wizards draw and they're both terrible." Dudley spotted his mum standing on the playground with another woman and waved.

"Which other wizard have you seen draw?" Harry demanded; crossing his arms.

"That girl what can't draw in our class, she has an oar like you and Uncle Sev. She's a wizard or a witch or something." Dudley said running away from Harry over to his mother who planted a kiss on his forehead.