TaikiRisi

The-dreamer4- made me laugh because I can just imagine you patting me on the head and handing me a cookie!Devan.Snape

AchillesMonkeyFangedphoenix

SpikesbitchPanther73110

NetrixiePhophetess Of Hearts

Applesolliejen3572005

Almightyswot- I think some people I know might've been raised by monkeys if that's the case:P

Kagedfoxfattoad

Hystericxmusic- my snake! Morgaine00000016

RandomIceQueenRRW

ShadowedHand- I don't have any plans on making it morbid…yet evil grin

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Harry felt his feet slam into the ground and found himself bending over and throwing up his latest meal.

He felt someone rubbing his back and jumped, not realising it was the strange lady from before. He dropped to the ground and hid his face between his knees

"I'm sorry, please don't hurt me! I'm sorry!"

"Harry!" Harry looked up at hearing Cissy's voice. He looked around confused, before realising his uncle was nowhere in sight.

"Your uncle can't get you Harry. You saw what those people did. Try and remember that you're safe now!"

Cissy slithered out from between the strange man's legs, grabbing the small box in her mouth that Harry had dropped.

She wound herself up Harry's leg and dropped the box into his open hand.

Harry quickly looked inside; checking to make sure everything was safe.

Harry looked up at the two adults who were watching him.

"Who are you?" he asked, after making sure his treasures weren't harmed. Yet again he received no reply. The two adults just looked at him with confusion and… pity?

If there was one thing Harry hated it was pity. Sure no one had looked at him with any kind of emotion in a very long time, but pity was something Harry would never forget.

Harry remembered from his time before the attic, when adults on the street would look at him like that. He always hated it and clearly his aunt did as well because whenever she caught someone looking at Harry like that he was punished.

He could remember a particular incident when one of the teachers in his school called the Dursley's in to speak to them. Harry didn't know what went on in that conversation but when they left her office they both looked murderous, his teacher just looked at him with pity. When they arrived home Harry had received one of the worst beatings yet and the next day at school he walked into the classroom and saw a new teacher behind the desk. He never saw his old teacher again.

Lost in his memories, Harry didn't notice the person coming towards him. When he felt someone touch his shoulder he jumped and pulled away. Looking up he realised it was the strange lady from before, but Harry wasn't about to trust her again after she made his tummy feel that way. He couldn't remember the last time he had thrown up and he had forgotten just how revolting it felt.

The woman said something to him, but he didn't understand what.

"I told you the man was safer! The lady has a strange smell about her, almost cat-like, but the man smells like herbs and plants, he seems like the much better choice, go to him!"

Harry went over and took hold of the man's hand, making sure he kept his box safely tucked under his other arm.

The man looked surprised for a moment before gently pulling him towards a set of giant gates.

He allowed the man to pull him towards the gates but stopped short when he saw the strange creatures sitting on top.

"Cissy, what are those?" Harry asked, pointing at the strange creatures.

"I'm not sure, but I don't think they are alive. I see no body heat coming off them, but if they try and attack you, I will protect you."

Harry smiled at the snake and went back to watching what the adults were doing.

The woman pulled out a wooden stick and pointed it at the giant gates. They both swung open and Harry gasped at what he saw.

Before him on top of a small hill was the most magnificent castle he had ever seen.

It was all too much for him, and before either of the two adults could react, he fainted.

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Harry blinked his eyes a few times, trying to get the fogginess to go away. It took a few moments but pretty soon he was able to see properly, that was when he realised he was surrounded by people, adults to be exact.

Pulling his knees to his chest he was shocked out of his fear when he realised he was wearing strange clothes, ones that covered both his arms and his legs.

He had a vague memory of Dudley wearing something like these. They were called… Pijamas? Pajamas? Pyjamas that was it!

With that realisation came many others, including the fact that his hair was clean and his nails had been cut.

"What happened?"

Harry wasn't really asking anyone in general, he was more thinking out loud. So imagine his surprise when a new voice answered him.

"We cleaned you up, while you were unconscious. I also had Madame Pomfrey fix up all the scratches you had. Unfortunately the one over your eye couldn't be fixed and you'll have that scar for the rest of your life."

"Huh? Who- who are you? How come you all know who I am? What am I doing here!?"
Harry, though relieved that someone finally understood him, was still scared out of his mind and wanted answers.

"Oh! Sorry I must have forgotten to introduce myself. My name is Albus Dumbledore and I'm the headmaster of Hogwarts, which is where you are now. We all know who you are because you were meant to receive a letter from us several weeks ago just before you turned eleven. You're here because-"

But Harry interrupted him there.

"ELEVEN! How can I be eleven!? I- I was only six when…" the implications of what that meant hit Harry hard. "How- how many years is that?" The poor boy asked in a small voice.

It broke Dumbledore's already wounded heart to see the boy in so much pain, but he knew he had to answer.

"Five Harry. You were kept in the attic for five years."

Harry's already large eyes grew even wider at hearing that and Dumbledore could see his eyes fill up with tears, even through the dark glasses the boy was wearing.

Suddenly the boy broke down into sobs. Gut-wrenching, heart-breaking sobs.

Dumbledore could only make out a few phrases such as "no", "all a dream" and "not true." Dumbledore didn't know what to do. He tried to put his arm around the boys shoulder, but Harry just pulled away

Because Harry had his head resting on his knees, he didn't see Cissy make her way over to him and jumped when she bumped her head against his leg.

Harry looked up at Cissy, pain and longing showing clearly in his tear filled eyes.

He reached out and pulled Cissy up onto his lap. His continued to cry, but his tears were silent, slowly making their way down his cheeks.

"Harry?" Harry looked back up at Cissy.

"Harry dear it will be alright. Please stop crying Harry. I promise it will be alright." Harry tried to stop crying and wiped away his tears.

"It's not a dream Harry and you won't wake up and find yourself back with those awful humans." Harry shuddered at the thought. "I know this is a lot to take in Harry but Harry… you're free!"

Harry's face drained of all colour for several seconds before the tears started to fall again, only this time they were tears of happiness.

"Free?" he said weakly. "I'm free."

Cissy nodded and rubbed her head against Harry's as the boy cried.

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Sometime later Harry stopped crying and looked around. He realised that the strange adults had left him alone. Looking around the room he saw that it was full of beds and cabinets with strange bottles around the room. At the other end of the room were two big doors.

Sliding out of the bed, Harry made his way over to them and tried to pull them open. Much to his displeasure he found them to be locked.

Harry closed his eyes and placed his hands over the lock. Focusing on what he wanted, Harry used his magic to open the doors. After a few seconds, Harry heard a 'click' and the two doors opened outwards.

Carefully peering around the doors, Harry saw that the coast was clear and made his way out of the strange room, Cissy following along behind him.

The two made their way around the castle, looking inside rooms and pointing out strange things.

It was quite some time later when Harry heard shouting. Not knowing what was going on, Harry panicked and started to run. He didn't know where he was going but soon found himself standing in the biggest hall he had ever seen.

All thoughts of the shouting left his mind when he realised just how large the hall was.

Harry looked around in wonder. There were five tables in the room, four going the same way and the other facing them.

Harry walked up the length of the hall between the two middle tables.

He saw something out of the corner of his eye and looked up, amazed that he was looking at the sky!

"What on earth…? Cissy, Cissy are those…clouds?"

"They look likeclouds Harry. What I don't understand is how they got inside. It must be more of the strange magic the adults are capable of doing… Harry? Harry what are you looking at?"

Harry was gazing steadily at the strange clouds.

"I'd forgotten how fluffy they were. Cissy! Cissy look, one of the clouds looks like a rabbit! Can you see it?"

Harry pointed out the cloud that resembled a rabbit.

"It's changing! Look now it looks like a snake!"

Cissy quickly caught onto the game Harry was playing and starting describing pictures she saw as well.

So caught up in the game, Harry didn't notice someone entering the room. Severus was rather surprise to find the boy and his snake looking up at the ceiling. He watched the two for sometime before making his presence known.

He walked over to the boy and had to hold back a laugh when they boy finally noticed him. Harry casually looked over at Severus and went back to looking at the ceiling, before it registered in his mind that there was another person there.

He turned around so quickly he fell over.

Rambling something in parsletongue, Harry slowly backed away, but Severus would have none of that.

Slowly, so as not to scare the boy, Severus made his way over to Harry.

The snake that was constantly near the boy hissed threateningly.

Not wanting to be attacked by a fairly lethal looking snake, Severus stopped where he was and got down on his knees so he was eye level with the boy.

Slowly Severus reached out to him. Harry looked at Severus with suspicion before hissing something to the snake. Severus was stunned when the snake came over to him and started flicking its tongue out around him. He realised that the snake was tasting him and stayed perfectly still. After a few seconds the snake turned back to the boy and hissed something to him. Whatever it was must have calmed the boy down somewhat because he slowly reached out and grabbed Severus' hand.

They sat like that for a few minutes but after Severus' legs started to go numb he knew he had to stand up.

Very carefully and without breaking eye contact with the child, Severus stood up, not letting go of the small hand he was holding.

"Come on Harry; let's get you back to the hospital wing before Madame Pomfrey brings down the whole castle looking for you." He could tell by the way Harry was looking at him that he didn't understand a word he had said.

Gently tugging on the small hand Severus made his way out of the hall, Harry following slowly behind.

When they reached the hospital wing, they were both surprised to see all of the staff waiting. Pomfrey took one look at the two before rushing over.

Harry tried to pull away, but Severus wouldn't let go of his hand, instead he pulled the boy to his side and shielded him from the mediwitch.

"Honestly woman you call yourself a professional! Can you not see that this boy is frightened?"

Pomfrey stopped where she was and they all saw Harry relax considerably.

Severus turned his back on the staff and faced Harry.

"Harry, are you alright?" He knew the boy wouldn't understand him, but he hoped the tone of voice he used would be enough to calm the still scared child.

He kept speaking softly to the boy until Harry stopped shaking enough to be able to face the others.

Severus pulled him further into the room and over to the same bed he was on before.

Harry assumed they wanted him to get on the bed so he climbed back on, having some difficulty due to the fact that the bed was designed for people much taller than himself.

The strange woman all dressed in white pulled out a long wooden stick, similar to the one the other lady had, and began waving it over him. Harry tried to pull away from it, but the nice man in black took his hand again and Harry instantly relaxed.

"Harry, Madam Pomfrey is just doing some scans. She just wants to make sure that she didn't miss anything the first time."

Harry looked up at hearing the old man (did he say his name was Albus?) speak.

He nodded his head and held as still as he could.

"Ok she's all done Harry and she doesn't believe you have any further problems. Now the only thing we have to work out is where you are going to stay."

"Stay? What do you mean stay? Where am I exactly?"

"Ah yes", said Albus, "I believe we didn't quite get to that last time did we? Well never mind I can just explain it all now. You're at Hogwarts Harry. It's a special school for young people to come and learn magic." Albus smiled at the gasp of shock he heard from Harry.

"Now normally each child receives a letter from us just before their eleventh birthday and if we don't hear from them we send another. However after having sent you… several letters, we believed it necessary to go see if there was a problem at the Dursleys."

Harry's grip on Severus' hand tightened, almost to the point of being painful, at the mention of his relatives.

Severus didn't know what Albus had said that had frightened Harry so much, so he just rubbed circles on the back of the boy's hand and hoped that would calm him down.

Harry pulled on Severus' handuntil he got the hint and climbed onto the bed behind Harry. Harry shuffled backwards until he could lean against Severus' chest.

There was a collective 'aw' around the room at seeing this. Severus just settled on giving everyone a glare for the time being. Next staff meeting however…

"Due to your… situation however we don't believe you will be ready to enter Hogwarts in a month's time-"

"But, but I can do magic real good!" Harry once again looked close to tears.

"I'm sure you can Harry, but that's just accidental magic, everyone can do that when they are young. At Hogwarts you will learn to control your magic so you can do things on purpose."

Harry shook his head, looking confused.

"But that's what I do! I can light things up and unlock doors and once I made Cissy float!"

Albus was stunned into silence.

He said something to the adults and they all looked stunned as well.

"Harry…could- could you show us some of these things? I'll turn the lights down a bit for you and I would just like to see what you can do. Is that alright?"

Harry looked at Dumbledore suspiciously.

"If- if I do these things… you'll let me stay?"

"Harry of course we'll let you stay! Did you think we would send you away until you were able to cope with the work?" Harry just nodded, not knowing what to say to that.

"Ok, but you need to make it darker or you won't be able to see what I'm doing."

Dumbledore said some more things to the other adults and Pomfrey went and closed the blinds on the window. It instantly got darker so Harry concentrated on making the light come back. It only took him a few seconds before the entire hospital wing was dimly lit.

Harry heard the adults all gasp and several of them clapped.

Harry assumed it meant he had passed so he let the light drop. Pomfrey opened the blinds again and the sunlight came back.

"That- that was incredible Harry! Could you please show me what else you can do?"

Harry thought about all the tricks he had learnt while trapped. Thinking of things he needed to do to survive, Harry cupped his hands together and they instantly filled with water. Once again all the adults clapped for him.

Harry spent the next twenty minutes showing the adults all the tricks he could do. He levitated Cissy (much to her annoyance) and floated her around the room, summoned a bottle that was sitting near his bed and banished said bottle back to its place on the bedside table.

Next he got off the bed and walked over to one of the cabinets. He tried to open it but Albus informed him it was locked. Harry, having gotten some confidence due to all the praise he was receiving, sent them all a cheeky grin. He placed his hands over the lock and focused his magic on opening the doors.

Everyone heard the soft clicking sound and were amazed when the cabinet doors opened. Poppy Pomfrey was known for her locking skills, no student had ever been able to break into her cabinets before, and that was with the use of a wand!

Albus asked if he could do anything else and Harry nodded his head. "But you have to tell everyone not to try and stop me."

Albus said something to the others and Harry just had to assume he had told them to leave him alone.

Lifting his left hand up to his mouth, Harry bit into it hard enough to draw blood.

Pomfrey rushed forward to help but Albus shook his head and motioned for everyone to watch as Harry closed his eyes and placed his other hand over the bite.

Everyone could see him concentrating especially hard. The ward was completely silent for several minutes while Harry stood there with his eyes closed, blood slowly dripping from the wound he had inflicted upon himself.

Pomfrey was just about to rush forward, regardless of what Albus had said, when Harry suddenly opened his eyes and cried out in triumph.

Everyone watched as Harry removed his right hand to show the wound on his left hand…only there was no wound!

"That's not possible!" said Poppy. "No one can heal themselves! It's never been done before! It can't be done!"

"Poppy, you have just seen for yourself that it can be done. Harry's magic has obviously manifested in such a way which allows it to heal him." Albus put a hand on the shocked woman's shoulder in an effort to comfort her.

"I- I- I need to sit down." Poppy went and sat down on one of the spare beds, looking rather pale.

The others all turned back to Harry, who also looked decidedly unhealthy, not that you could really tell with the colour of his skin, and Severus motioned for Harry to come back onto the bed.

After Harry was settled into the covers, with Severus sitting behind him, Albus spoke again.

"Well Harry, this certainly changes things. However the problem still remains that you can't speak English and I'm assuming you won't be able to read or write. If we can get your English skills up a bit in the next month you might be able to start school at the correct time, however it would be too dangerous for you to be taking classes if you didn't understand the instructions properly."

Harry quickly spoke up. "I promise to try really hard! I want to go to school and learn more magic! Please let me!"

Albus assured the boy that if his skills were sufficient enough for him to be able to cope with going to classes in a month's time then he would be allowed to. After all it was rather rare to see a student so eager to learn.

"Now with that all cleared up, the only problem we have left is where you will stay until then."

Harry just snuggled further into Severus' robes and grabbed hold of his hand.

"Now Harry, I'm not sure if Severus will want you to stay with him and if he does you'll have to live in the dungeons with him where it is dark and might remind you too much of the attic. But if you think you can handle that…?"

Harry nodded and wrapped both his arms around Severus' showing clearly that he wouldn't go with anyone else.

Albus turned to Severus and told him what Harry said. Severus pulled his arm out of Harry's grasp and got off the bed, looking horrified.

"Albus- Albus you can't be serious! There is no way I can look after the child! I don't know a thing about childcare and you told me I wouldn't have to do anything if I went and checked on him! I… no! No I won't do it!"

Albus sighed as Severus stormed towards the doors, knowing there would be no way he could convince the lad.

Severus was just about to walk through the doors when he heard a small voice coming from the other end of the ward.

"Please Sev'rus."

Severus turned around in shock, too stunned to say anything to the small boy who had just spoken his first English words since he was six.

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I'm done!!! Sorry about the wait but RL has been a real bitch to me the last two weeks!

Anyways sorry about the cliffy there but it just seemed right, and I have no idea when I'm going 2 post the next bit so don't hold your breath! Sorry!

and no this is not going to be SLASH. Sev was just comforting Harry like any adult would!

…if you feel like reviewing I certainly won't stop you :D