Thanks to everyone who has reviewed,

mockingjay2012

karisaren

Nameless Secret Keeper

Thatsallwegot

hazeldragon

Disclaimer- I do not own anything, it all belongs to the wonderful JK

Note- this story doesn't follow the year three in Harry Potter, Sirius Black is not involved

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"

Snape looked into the boy's eyes and saw the scared and panicked look in them. He knew that this wasn't going to be easy. From what he saw in the reveller liquid, Potter had been abused since he was a toddler and was hardly going to speak so freely about it now, to him, the greasy git of the dungeons. And from the looks of the punishments the boy would get if he told anyone about his situation, this was going to be especially hard to get it out of him. But deciding that Potter had nowhere to go and couldn't exactly walk away, he finally spoke.

"Do you know what was in this bottle Potter?" he asked holding up the empty reveller liquid bottle. When Harry shook his head he continued "it was reveller liquid. The potion is more commonly used to prevent hypothermia; I was going to give it to you when you decided to knock it all over the cave floor" he said with a scowl "what a lot of people don't know is that reveller liquid also has other uses, when the liquid is in contact with someone who is having a severe nightmare, it acts as a channel for bad memories. It takes some of the person's bad memories, and they are played through the liquid."

Harry had paled considerably and said in nothing more than a whisper "what has this got to do with me? Sir" he added at Snape's scowl

"Because Potter, this potion came in contact with your skin!" he snapped, he was growing impatient, he knew he shouldn't but he couldn't help it. He watched as Harry became even paler.

Harry felt his stomach drop, what had Snape seen? He was having a nightmare about the Dursleys, where his uncle was hitting him because he came home from Hogwarts for Christmas. Of course that had never happened. He would never go back for Christmas, not after years of being locked in his cupboard all day, only to come out to clean. He shook his head to get rid of the memories. "And did it… er did you…." He spluttered trying to find the right words.

"Did I see your memories?" Snape asked for him, as Potter looked up at him, he continued "yes, I saw you from when you were a toddler, pushed out in the rain, I saw when you were punished for burning the table" Potter looked away again. "I saw you being punched, whipped and beaten with my own eyes Potter so don't even try to deny it"

Harry felt completely sick; his eyes were beginning to dampen so he looked away from Snape. He was looking over at the cave entrance where snow was shooting down with a renewed fierceness.

Snape realised Harry wasn't going to say anything so he began to continue "I saw….."

"Don't!" Harry snapped, he brought his head up. Snape could see the tears prickling in the teenagers eyes "just don't" he whispered, he tried to calm his breathing, he could feel his heart beating.

Snape watched as Harry tried to calm down, he was completely lost for words. He had been holding it in for far too long and Snape knew that if he carried on talking, Potter was sure to break down. He felt annoyed that it had to be him here with the boy when it happened, but immediately let go of that thought. He had to talk to him, so he continued.

"Why did you never tell someone?" he asked "someone could of helped you" as he ended his voice was also a little over a whisper.

Harry looked up at that question "who would you suggest I tell, as you so often point out, I haven't exactly got anyone" he finished; his anger was building up now. He had managed to avoid this conversation, and now Snape, the guy who gets pleasure out of bullying him, is the one to find out.

The words hit Snape like a knife, he was right he was always making comments about how Potter didn't have anyone, and how no one loved Potter and all this time this has been going on. "You could have told a teacher, McGonagall, Dumbledore, even… even me, we could have stopped it" he said quietly

"I come to school to avoid….. You know, I didn't want to spend my whole year having everyone know I was poor abused little Harry Potter." He spat, he was feeling ill now, along with his injuries, he felt sick to the core of his stomach, he had never talked about this much to anyone, let alone the guy who hated him.

Snape had no Idea what to say "look" he started then he sighed "I know I haven't been the nicest to you Potter, but you have to talk to me, I can't help you if you don't tell me exactly what happened"

"I don't want your help!" Harry spat, hears eyes watering "I don't want anyone's help!"

Snape stared at him, getting annoyed now; the arrogant brat thinks he has it under control. "Oh really Potter? And whys that? The great Harry Potter can deal with it, can he? Has it all under control, and doesn't need anyone's assistance?

"BECAUSE I'M SCARED!" he blurted out, he was positively shaking now, from a mixture of Pain, fear, and anger "I'm scared that if I let myself hope, I'll just feel more pain when I'm let down" he finished in a whisper

Snape stared at him again, all previous anger gone. He moved his legs so they were stretched out in front of him, and looked up at the boy in front of him. Potter had his shirt off still and now that he looked, Snape could see other bruises and scars across the boy's chest and arms, the robes that were wrapped around his chest were already soaked from the blood.

There was a long silence between them, where Harry sat trying to control his breathing and stem the tears that were now falling freely down his cheeks.

After further time past in silence, Snape saw that there was blood from Potter's chest wound now falling down his chest and making a small puddle at the bottom of the boy's stomach. Snape got up and grabbed a spare piece of cloth; he rolled it up into a thick line and then advanced on Potter. Intending to wipe it off.

Harry saw Snape come towards him with the rolled up cloth, it reminded him of the many times Aunt Petunia had hit him with a rolled up tea towel, Snape stood over him with the cloth in hand and before he realised what he was doing, Harry had put a hand up to protect his face.

Snape watched as the boy pulled his arm up in front of his head, his eyes looking at the piece of cloth in his hand. Snape took a step back and placed the cloth on the floor. He had not intended to scare him. Potter eventually let his arm fall, his face was bright red and he was looking at his hands.

"I..." he began to stutter

Snape kneelt down in front of him and slowly lifted the boy's chin up "I'm not gonna hurt you Potter, I am not that piece of muggle scum that calls himself your uncle, nor will I lower myself to his standards, no matter how much you irritate me. Understood!?"

Harry slowly nodded, he looked back down at the piece of cloth that Snape was carrying, he was such an idiot, thinking Snape was going to hit him with it.

Snape followed his gaze and suddenly thought of something "Potter, your relatives haven't ever hit you with anything besides the belt have they?" he asked cautiously not sure whether he wanted to know the answer

Harry looked away for what felt like the hundredth time that night, this was one question he didn't want to answer, and he wasn't going to.

"No!" he answered, Snape knew he was lying, he could see he was hiding something

The answer Harry gave was a lie, but he really couldn't speak about that incident, besides it had only been once or twice, so it wasn't really a big deal. Well it was to Harry, he could still recall every single time he had been hit with it.

Snape didn't want to do this, but he needed to know, and Potter clearly wasn't going to tell him, so with a sigh he legitimized the boy in front of him.

It didn't take long to find what he was looking for in the boys mind, and soon he came across a memory of Potter, lying on the floor and standing above him was his uncle. He had his hands raised above his head, and in his hands was a large wooden baseball bat. Snape pulled out of the memory just as Vernon had swung down. If he thought he felt sick before, it was nothing compared to now, he couldn't talk about that with the boy, not now at least. So he sat back down opposite him and took a calming breath.

Harry was confused, he had suddenly remembered the memory of Uncle Vernon using the bat. And the look on Snape's face straight after he had remembered, it was like Snape had seen it too, but he couldn't have, so Harry stopped thinking about it in an attempt to get his pumping heart to slow down.

After another long pause Snape asked "did you tell your friends about what was happening?"

Harry, glad for the distraction said "I didn't want to tell them, but Ron saw the bruises in first year and after the Dursleys sent me a tissue for Christmas, he put two and two together and asked me about it, and then he convinced me to tell Hermione. They tried to help; they sent me different things through the summer like food and stuff" Harry blurted out, he had no idea why he was telling Snape of all people this.

"You should of told a teacher, we could have done something sooner" Snape said, even after watching his memories, he didn't know it had been this bad.

Harry just shook his head; he had never really known an adult to help him with this kind of situation and had given up trying a while ago. He was feeling tired and weak; he closed his eyes and immediately fell asleep. Snape looked across at the sleeping boy, he looked so innocent, he could hardly believe that this small abused little boy, was the same boy who had been the bane to his existence the last 2 years. It had been a long day, deciding to follow the boy's lead, he layed his head down on some spare cloth and soon dozed off.

Harry woke the next morning to find Snape already up and walking about the cave he looked down at his chest and saw the blood pouring from cloth wrapped around it. "Can I have that cloth please sir?" he said to Snape pointing at a small strand of torn robes near Snape's foot.

Snape saw that the blood was now all down his chest, the robes weren't holding, they needed to get back to the castle, and soon. Morning light was coming though the caves entrance. He could apparate them back but he didn't think Harry was strong enough. "Here, I'll do it" Snape said as he came over and started swiping away the blood. It was no good putting the boy's shirt on because it would just sting his wound.

"When can we go back?" Harry asked Snape

"We can go back anytime by apparition, I just don't know if you will be able to make it" Snape said he stood up and walked over to the mouth of the cave, it had stopped snowing now and the morning sun had begun melting the snow.

"Let's go back, now" Harry called over to Snape "I'm not going to get any stronger in here" he pointed out, he desperately wanted to go back to the castle, they must have been gone at least 12 hours.

Snape came back over "Are you sure?" he didn't want to increase the boy's injuries, but then again he didn't think Potter could survive another day in the cave.

At Harry's nod he went over to stand above the boy. "You're going to have to stand up"

Harry let Snape lift him up, but as he was standing, he felt as though all his injuries had been woken up again, he cried out in pain, he was use to pain but this was excruciating. He gripped tight onto Snape's robes, his eyes were clenched shut, and his knuckles were white from holding onto Snape so hard.

"Potter!" Snape questioned, the boy's scream had been painful even to listen to and he was now extremely pale, eventually his grip lessened and his breathing evened out, he was still swaying a little. "Are you okay?" he asked, real concern in his voice. Harry just nodded, not able to do much more.

Snape wasn't sure, the apparition could worsen the injuries, and the boy was already in a critical condition.

"just go, I can do it" Harry said, his leg was in searing pain from standing up, all he wanted was to be back at the castle, in bed.

Snape took one last look at Harry's determined face and took hold of his shoulders. The cave was filled with a deafening crack that echoed throughout. And then silence fell on the now empty cave.

Hey all, thanks for reading, sorry if this one was a bit sinister, but I need to follow the story line, again, let me know what you all think

Also I'm trying to think of a name for a new defence teacher, and I can't think of anything good to call him, any Ideas? :)