Saving Harry

Chapter 10 –

Snape woke sharply from his slumber at the sound of a piecing scream, it took a moment for Snape to remember his surroundings and that Harry was now residing in the house with him. Snape waited a moment to see if the screaming would subside but as the seconds grew on, the screaming became more intense and showed no signs of decreasing.

Snape rose from his bed and exited his room after grabbing his dressing gown, in two long strides Snape was at the door of Harry's room where the screams were even louder. Snape opened the door and quickly rushed to Harry's side, the teen was thrashing about in what appeared to be a nightmare.

Snape quickly tried to wake the teen from his fitful sleep but couldn't as Harry desperately thrashed out against Snape's touch catching Snape on the cheek. Man that kid had a good right hook. Snape saw no other option, he ferociously grabbed hold of Harry's arms and pinned him down.

"Harry, wake up!" He shouted and watched he tried to struggle against Snape's grip. Snape had to hold a lot tighter than he would have liked but then the screaming stopped, Snape had thought it was over but then he realised what Harry had done. Harry had silenced himself, he was still making all the signs of struggling and screaming but no sound was coming out.

Snape prayed to whatever gods there were that Harry would wake soon, it pained him to have to restrain the teen and it hurt even more to witness Harry subconsciously casting a silencing charm over himself. A few long minutes later, Harry's actions seemed to decrease and he woke sharply.

"Shhh it's ok." Snape tried to sooth his brother but it didn't seem to work, "You were having a nightmare, it's ok you're safe here with me."

"Sorry." Harry muttered,

"Do not be sorry Harry, you have no control of your dreams at present." Snape sighed, "I am puzzled as to why you cast a silencing charm though."

"I..." Harry didn't know what to say, he was barely conscious of casting the charm himself let alone knowing the reason for casting said charm. "I wasn't allowed to make noise." He finally said in barely a whisper.

"Harry," Snape said softly as he took Harry's chin in his hand. He added a little pressure to his grip so that he could stop Harry from moving away from his grip and forcing him to look up into his eyes. "Never be afraid to cry out."

"Sorry." Harry muttered again,

"What did I just say?" Snape raised an eyebrow.

"Sorry." Harry muttered once again but Snape just sighed, this was going to be hard work. At that moment, Snape would have given anything to have the cheeky Gryffindor back instead of the quiet little Hufflepuff his brother had become.

Snape looked over at the clock that stood adjacent to Harry's bed and stood up, "It's almost 7, why don't we get dressed and I'll see you down in the kitchen."

"Erm..." Harry began, "I don't know where the kitchen is."

"Crusoe" Snape called and Harry shot him a confused look, "Crusoe, this is Master Harry if he calls for you, you must obey understand?" Snape addressed the house elf that appeared before them.

"Crusoe is much obliged Master Severus sir." The small little house elf reminded Harry of a hyper active three year old but Harry kept quiet as he saw the activeness of the elf was annoying Snape.

"And do stop being so damn active." Snape growled and then left as the house elf made a disappointed face.

"I shall be going now Master Harry sir, so change you. Call me." The little house elf bounced into the air as he apparated out of the room.

It was now that Harry could properly work out his surroundings as the memories of last night came flooding back, this was his room. It was twice the size of the Dursley's living room let alone Dudley's second bedroom, Harry saw his trunk lying haphazardly in the middle of the walk in wardrobe and decided to pick out something to wear.

Within five minutes he found himself being led by the hyper active house elf down into the kitchen. Harry was surprised to find a brightly lit kitchen compared to the darkness of the halls he had just been led down. Snape was already sitting at a wooden table reading the Daily Prophet, he looked up when he saw Harry enter and then ordered the house elf to make breakfast.

The pair of them ate their breakfast in an awkward silence, Harry was desperately trying to shake himself of his nightmare as he ate a piece of dry, cold toast. Snape quietly observed the boy over his newspaper as he too ate a piece of toast, Snape resisted a shudder as his mind wandered to what could have caused Harry to scream so much that night. Snape had heard some screams in his time but a person screaming out against the torture of their own mind was haunting.

Harry could feel his teacher's gaze flicker onto him every few seconds, to say it was unnerving would be a dramatic understatement however, the scrutinizing became too much for Harry; he had to leave.

"Can I be excused?" Harry asked quietly,

Snape placed his paper aside and looked down at Harry's quarter nibbled toast and shook his head, "You should really eat some more."

"But I'm not hungry." Harry moaned.

"Then go up to your room and do something constructive." Snape said sharply and Harry left the room as fast as he could. Harry successfully found his way back to his room and threw himself backwards onto his bed. It was then that he realised he hadn't written to either Ron or Hermione, he'd had letters from them a few days ago asking where he was but he hadn't replied.

Harry lifted himself off the bed and headed towards his trunk where his writing equipment was buried. Re-positioning himself on his bed leaning against the headboard, he began to write his letters to both Hermione and Ron, both said the same thing and Harry hoped they would come back with a positive response.

Hey,

I know it's taken me a while to reply back to you guys but I've been dealing with a lot of stuff. I don't want you guys to worry, I am perfectly healthy and safe. The reason for me not being at Hogwarts is a family matter, yes I did just say a 'family' matter.

As you know over Christmas I stayed at Grimmauld Place with Moony and Snape, oh and Sirius but that's something I should explain at a later date. But let me get back to the point, over Christmas Snape dropped a rather large bomb shell (Hermione, please explain that phrase to Ron), it turns out that James and Lily Potter are not my biological parents; Eileen Potter and Tobias Snape are. Eileen and Tobias are also Snape's parents and Eileen is James's mother.

That makes Snape my brother and James our half brother. It is all true and has been proved to me through a DNA test and I am now slowly coming around to the idea of Snape being my brother and James not being my father.

Snape has told me that we will return to school on Friday but he won't tell me if I can go back to classes on Monday or not, by then it shall be announced that I am Harry Snape not Potter.

I'm sorry

Harry.

There he'd done it, he copied the letter and sent them off with Hedwig. All he had to do now was to wait for the disastrous reply.