Thank you for everyone who has reviewed….
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Again, sorry if I forgot anyone.
I do not own Harry Potter; anything you recognise belongs to JK Rowling
Now on with the story J
….
Snape peered closer into the glowing silver liquid and saw a small scrawny toddler with jet black untidy hair and small spectacles balancing loosely on his little nose. It was a 3 year old Harry Potter. The little Harry was outside in the rain, at a distance it would have looked as though he was just sitting leant against the house wall. But as Snape looked closer he saw that the young boy's hand was tied to the black drain pipe with a piece of thin rope. Rain was pouring down the little boy's face which was covered in an array of small bruises along with his shed tears.
The image blurred and transformed into a later one, where Harry looked about 6 years old. He was slaving over a giant frying pan which was about twice the size of his head. He attempted to lift the frying pan of the stove, using two little and fair hands to heave the spitting frying pan over to the table where a large whale of a man, along with what Snape presumed to be his wife, a thin face horse like woman, and their son who was at least 3 times larger than Harry. Harry went to use a fork to scoop the bacon onto the empty plates, when the weight of it proved to be too much and the frying pan fell out of his grip, hitting the table with a crash. Harry quickly recovered from his mishap and picked the frying pan back up.
"WHAT THE BLOODY HELL ARE YOU DOING?" His uncle bellowed, he jumped up from the table and grabbed Harry by his hair, the small boy yelped and the frying pan fell to the floor, spilling the bacon everywhere. He dragged him over to the table and pushed the boy's head down so his nose was about an inch from the table cloth. "YOU SEE THAT?" he screamed at the frightened 6 year old "YOU SEE THAT BURN MARK BOY?"
"I... I'm sorry s… sir" Harry whimpered trying to break free of his uncle's unforgiving grip.
"Sorry won't clear that mark boy!" Vernon said, he pushed Harry's head down, and with a whack the boy's head collided with the wooded table and he crumbled to the floor with a yelp. Vernon kicked him hard in the stomach; this was followed by another soft yelp. He then picked Harry up by the scruff of the neck. Revealing the small trickle of blood flowing down the child's face from a cut on his eyebrow. He marched the boy into the hallway, yanked open the cupboard door and threw the boy in.
"Don't be expecting any food for a week boy!" Vernon called into the cupboard; he then slammed the door shut and bolted it.
Again the image changed for a third time and it showed a slightly taller, though not by much, and older looking Harry. The 10 year old was in the front room this time, the curtains were closed to block out the evening street lamps. Snape's attention turned back to Harry, who was in a kneeling position and was being restrained by his cousin. Dudley Dursley was at least twice the size of Harry and had the smaller boy's arms locked behind his back.
"I'm sorry sir, I didn't mean to tell Miss Marshall, she asked about the bruises and I….. I just…." Harry wasn't allowed to finish as his uncle, who stood towing over his nephew, backhanded the boy in the face, Harry's head was snapped sideways with the force, and he would of fallen over was it not for his cousins beefy hands holding him up.
"I… I'm…" he stuttered, but once again was cut off by a blow directed on his stomach. Harry tried to bend over in pain but his cousin's held onto the top off his hair and pulled his head back so he was looking up at his uncle.
"Aaaaaahhh" Harry yelled again as a second punch came his way "I'm sorry sir, I'll never tell, never again. I promise" Harry pleaded as a third punch hit him on the cheek.
"You promise eh?" his uncle teased "you think you've learnt your lesson boy?" at Harry's vigorous nodding he chuckled darkly. "Take you shirt off" he demanded as he began to unhinge his belt.
Harry looked up at his uncle and his eyes widened as he saw the belt in his uncles hand. "No please sir, I'll be good" he begged. But it was no good… He reached up and took off his shirt.
The image became blurry again and the last Snape saw was a screaming Harry and the sound of a cracking whip. The liquid changed for the last time to show a more resent Harry. It had to be this summer.
Harry was pinned against the wall in the hallway. Vernon had a tight grip around the still small boy's neck. You could tell this wasn't the first punishment that summer from the bluish purple bruises on the boy's face.
"What? You not gonna beg me to stop?" his uncle demanded as he landed one of his famous punches on Harry's cheek.
"No" Harry whispered, he was turning slowly red from his uncle's grasp. "It won't help" he managed to say before another punch.
"I s'pose not" Vernon said as he eventually hit Harry to the ground. He kicked the boy as hard as he could in the ribs and the hallway was filled with a deafening crack, followed by Harry's cry of pain.
Snape turned away from the liquid, which turned pale as the images disappeared, he felt sick to the stomach at what he had just watched. He couldn't believe it to be true, despite knowing what the silver liquid was and does, he could not believe that the arrogant, spoiled brat Potter had been subjected to abuse. Not only abuse, but the worst abuse he had heard of. Even his own childhood, which had been abusive and harsh, wasn't as bad as that. He knew of one way to truly tell if what he had seen had been true. The last scene he had viewed had clearly been resent, this summer even. And the fact being that it is only the first night of term, Potter wouldn't have been able to heal his rib that had been broken by his uncle.
Snape remembered Potter hiding something on his chest earlier in the night as he crouched down beside the sleeping boy. He gently lifted Potter's hand away from his ribs and swore at what he found. Where Potter's hand had been, stood a giant blue and black bruise covering his whole left rib. Snape sat back against the wall, next to him and heaved a sigh. So it was true. And here he had been calling the boy spoiled all these years and Potter never said anything. Of course he never said anything; he was conditioned not to Snape thought to himself. He looked down at Potter and saw that the robes he had wrapped around the chest wound were soaking with blood; they needed changing before an infection could set in.
He was unwilling to wake the boy up, but knew he must, so he gently shook Potter's shoulders
Harry woke up to see Snape above him, his hand on his shoulder. He looked about the cave and realised where they were. He tried to sit up but winced as the pain of his chest, head and leg combined to make pure agony.
"Careful Potter" Snape said as he went to help him into a sitting position "I need to change the dressing on your chest"
Snape went about putting another strip of robes on his chest and as he was bending down over Harry, Harry noticed that the professor's head was cut.
"Sir, are you alright?" Harry asked
Snape was startled by the question, Potter, who was sitting here bleeding half to death was asking if he was alright "what? I'm fine Potter; I'd be more concerned about yourself if I was you!"
Harry who took Snape's serious tone as an angry one, said "sorry sir, it's just that your head is cut, I was wondering if you needed some of this robe for yourself before you used it all on me"
Snape took in Potter's sincere look and wondered that there was more of Lily in Potter than he thought. "I'm fine" Snape repeated with a raised eyebrow and carried on with Potter's chest.
After Potter's chest wound was wrapped up, Snape decided that he needed to talk to him about the Dursleys. He wanted to see if he would deny the abuse and so he started with a simple question.
"How did you hurt your rib Potter?" he asked
Harry was shocked by the question; he had forgotten to cover up the bruise damn it! He thought quickly and moved his hand to cover the bruise. "I er... fell over and landed on a tree stump" Harry said easily, he was used to lying about his bruises and had a mental list of excuses. Harry was half tempted to tell Snape the truth, just to see his face. But the pain wasn't worth it.
Snape bit back a sigh at the response; of course Potter wasn't going to tell him. He had hardly given the boy any reason to trust him over the years, what with the snarky comments and sly remarks. No, he would have to just come right out and say it and hope for the best.
"You sure it wasn't your uncle?" Snape asked looking directly into Potter's eyes
Harry heard the question and his heart stopped. How did he know? His breathing sped up and his hands became sweaty, he mustered up as much calm as he could and responded with "It wasn't my uncle, I... I fell over"
There you go, pretty serious chapter, sorry if it was a bit too detailed, please review and let me know what you think J