Please Help Chapter 13

(Back at Hogwarts)

Professor Snape had finished his potions about half an hour after his floo call from the Headmaster and made his way up from the dungeon's to Albus' office 'I wonder what that old coot wants me to do now' Severus thought.

"Ah Severus, thank you for getting hear so quickly, my dear boy" Albus said.

"Headmaster, what was so important that we needed to talk before the order meeting?" Severus asked.

"First I wanted to ask you if you noticed any of your students show signs of abuse?" Albus asked with sadness in his eyes and voice.

Severus was caught off guard with the question and stared at Albus while he sat down heavily in a chair.

"What do you know Albus, who is or was the student?" Severus asked, dreading the answer.

"I just want to know if you had any suspicions and didn't report it?" he asked.

"What kind of man do you take me for Headmaster" Severus snapped.

"Severus I take you for a very good man trust me, but we have a problem."

"Who is it Albus which of my Slytherin's is in trouble" Severus asked with exhaustion in his voice.

"None that I know of Severus, aside from the ones we go over at the beginning of every school term" Albus said.

"The student in question is ok for now, he was able to get away from the for lack of a better term, torture from what I was told of the boys medical charts his latest injuries include a dislocated shoulder, sprained wrist, 2 broken ribs, 70% of his body is covered in bruises and he's severely malnourished. And from my understanding his back is covered in scars indicating it's been going on for years". Albus said

"So Severus I ask you again have you noticed any of the students show any type of abuse that may fit that" Albus asked.

The sadness in his eyes was so unbearable that Severus had to look away 'sounds familiar to my own childhood' Severus thought as he pinched the bridge of his nose trying to think of all his male students to see if anything stuck out.

"What year is the child in Albus?" he asked.

""He'll be going into his 5th year and no he's not a Slytherin" the headmaster answered.

Severus sat there and thought about all his soon to be 5th years and in all honesty nothing stuck out as odd about any of them it had to be a muggle born he knew all the pure bloods and he was already treating the ones that were being mistreated and they would have told him if it ever got that bad so it must be a muggle born.

"No, Headmaster I'm sorry I cannot think of the student you are referring to but if they got away than what is it you want me to do, do you need some potions for the boy?" Severus asked.

"Well, I'm sure he would appreciate them yes but no that's not what I wanted to talk to you about, Severus the child is Harry Potter and before you start I had checked all his medical charts and the photographs it's him and it's true" Albus said.

Severus' face lost all color at the mention of Potter's name he looked as though he'd seen a ghost.

"Headmaster, are you sure because the child is conceded enough to plan this as a prank?" 'Please, dear god let this be a prank' Severus thought.

"Severus" Albus snapped.

"Alright, alright" he growled out while he paced the length of the office.

"Albus, I swear I never got any indication of Potter being abused. I mean he was jumpy sometimes when there was a loud noise and he never did like to get too close to me but that could have meant anything" Severus said trying to thinks of any other signs he may have missed.

"The boy has been in the hospital wing every year he's been in this school how is it that Poppy didn't find anything off about the child?" Severus snapped.

"I do not know Severus but I do intend to find out, but I have talked to Mr. Potter and he's in the United States the man that found him works for the muggle government, his family took him to Washington DC, well I don't know all the details but it seems Mr. Potter was the witness to a crime and when the muggle police that he helped noticed his bruises. ? Well the next day the family fled back to England without Harry and the Muggles found him in the hotel room, he woke up in hospital later that day with the injuries I listed before" Albus explained.

Severus was shocked about what had happened to Potter but to be in the care of the US muggle government was not a good place to be 'the mutt and his pet wolf are going to have a field day with this' he thought.

"Severus, the British government has arrested Harry's uncle when they landed trying to slip back into the country unnoticed this morning. Petunia and the boy should have been let go as far as I know, I need you to find out everything you can from her and the boy before the Ministry or Tom find out anything, I am not sure how long we can keep this quiet" Albus asked.

"And can you get all of Harry's wizard things from his aunt's house, he said something about if it's not out of the house they will burn it and kill his owl" he said sadly.

"Yes, Albus I'll leave at once and meet you at headquarters" Severus said. He turned and swished out of the room with his cloak billowing behind him.

The potions master swept quickly out of the castle and down the path to lead him to the nearest apparation point so he could get the brats' things and find out what his family knew and then get back before the order meeting started.

Arriving at Privet Dr. in an alley way not far from the house in question, he quickly changed his robes to muggle cloths with a wave of his wand and started down the street. He made it down the street and to the front door of number 4 quicker than he would have liked, he didn't want to be here he hadn't seen this woman since he was a child and from what he'd just heard about the boy she has only gotten worse with age.

(knock knock)

The front door was opened at a snap and Petunia stared at the face of a man that she remembered from her childhood.

"You!" she hissed.

Severus sneered at her and stuck his boot in front of the door before she could try and close it on him.

"Yes me" he hissed at her. "I see you haven't improved with age, Petunia, still as hateful and bitter as I remember you to be" he said with a cold voice.

"Leave, you FREAK" she spat out at him, and he glared at the word.

"That ungrateful little whelp is no longer my problem, he ran away while we were on vacation" she said and tried to shut the door on him.

Snape rolled his eyes at her lie and pushed his way into the house and slammed the door shut and threw up a silencing ward so he wouldn't disturb the neighbours.

She fell silent at the sight of his wand and backed away from him, but she still had the hateful look on her face.

"Let me tell you something Petunia your sister would have killed you for what you did to her son and you know damn well that had the situation been reversed she would have loved your son no matter what" Snape hissed while pointing his wand at her.

"Now tell me where the boy's things are before I show you what a real wizard can do" he said with the voice, and icy glare that makes even severnth years cry.

Petunia bit her tongue she knew she didn't want to get cursed but she was still so angry at the freak and her freak sister for doing this to her family, she pointed nastily to the locked cupboard under the stairs and walked into the kitchen ignoring Snape and what he was doing in her house.

Snape glared at her retreating form and walked to the cupboard, he waved his wand and as the pad lock on the outside of the door fell off he opened it with slight hesitation afraid of what he might find.

There wasn't much to find in the little cupboard, Snape found all you would expect to find in there, a broom, a dust pan, other cleaning supplies and Potter's school trunk on the floor, he went to grab it and when he pulled it out he saw a thin mattress still on the floor and wondered why it was there then he turned the light on and noticed that on the back wall of the cupboard the word FREAK was scribbled messily in a child's hand writing. Snape was feeling a sense of cold dread in the pit of his stomach as he left the cupboard.

He slammed the door shut and stalked into the kitchen to find Petunia sitting at the table drinking her tea as if it was any other day.

"Are you still here" she said while flipping through a magazine.

"Yes, Tuney" he purred silkily. She turned to face him and he had his wand between her eyes and whispered "Legilimens" Snape entered her unprotected mind very easily and looked for the most recent of her memories of Potter and what happened in DC, he found them with out much effort and proceeded to look into Potter's childhood.

What he found made him sick, he left her there gasping for air and holding her head, he strode up the stairs to the room they gave the boy and again he encountered multiple locks on the outside of the door and a cat flap that he now new was for giving food to the child (that is when they actually decided to feed the boy). Shaking his head in disgust, he opened the door and it was even more unbearable than he thought it would be.

"Accio Harry Potter's belongings" Snape said and a floor board from under the bed came up and Potter's things came to him including his cloak, a photo album, some sweets from the train, a couple of books, some scraps of parchment and empty ink wells. Snape left the sweets, ink and parchment and grabbed everything else, along with the empty owl cage, shrunk it and left the house without a backward glance. He needed to get out of there before he really did end up in Azkaban for torturing muggles, not that they wouldn't deserve it, Snape thought darkly. When he apparated to the front door of their Headquarter his anger was barley below the surface and he was sure if someone said one thing to him he might curse them into next week (maybe that stupid mutt will say something) he thought or was that hope so he'd have someone to vent his anger on.

The meeting was smaller than normal standards just Albus, Severus, Sirius, Remus, the Weasley parents Tonks, and Mad eye. Severus wondered how Minerva was going to take the news and what the wolf and mutt might do, discreetly Severus took his wand and warded the door and the fire place to prevent anyone from leaving the room till the tempers had calmed down as he knew it was probably going to be bad.

"Everyone quiet down please we have much to go over and not a lot of time" Albus said and continued "I know you all are going to find these news very hard to take in but I need to tell you everything that I know and I will remind you that I don't know all of it, so please bare with me and let me speak before you all jump in" he explained.

"Severus, have you found out anything from Harry's aunt about what happened?" he asked sounding very tired.

"Yes Headmaster, from there point of view I know that Potter was brought back to their hotel later with the muggle police saying that he'd witnessed a crime and that they needed him the next day so that he could help them catch the man that had committed the crime. As he said that, everyone started to talk and demanding answers about why Harry was there in the first place and what had happened, Severus merely silenced them with a wave of his wand, glared at them and continued,

"If you'd all kindly shut up I'll be able to finish my report and then we can continue" he hissed at them making clear that he didn't want to be there in a room full of overreacting Gryffindor's.

"The muggles did say that they wanted the boy back in the morning from what I was able to witness in her mind they seemed reluctant to leave the boy alone" he said.

"When the door closed on the law officials Dursley grabbed the boy and threw him in a room and closed the door he the proceeds to tell his wife to write a note denouncing all ties to the boy and claiming anyone can take up the responsibility for him." Snape paused in his account of what had happened in the memory but due to the silencing spell no one could voice their out rage but it was clear on all their faces.

"I do not know what happened to the boy as she was not in the room so I can not say for sure but they left the hotel maybe 30 minutes later on the way back to the air port but they left Potter there in the other room of the hotel" Severus explained and then sat back down with his face completely blank.

"I can pick up where Severus left off but again I do not know all the details so just listen, please" Albus said.

"I received a floo call from Miss Granger early yesterday and she wanted me to come over, she said it was urgent and so when I went through she just handed me her Telephone where young Harry was on the other end and he explained to me some of what had happened, The muggles that found Harry at their crime scene discovered that he was being abused and quite severely too but Harry would not file a complaint and so they could do nothing to help him that night. As they went back in the morning to pick Mr. Potter up they discovered that the family had fled back to Britain and left young Harry there where he had to be rushed to the muggle hospital when they found him" the headmaster was starting to feel every bit his age as he finally told the people who considered Harry to be family that he was hurt.

"Young Mr. Potter is right now as safe as can be. He is out of the hospital and in the care of one of the muggles that rescued him, when I spoke with Harry yesterday I told him that I would be by at the end of the week to talk to him and his guardian a Mr. Gibbs."

He knew that he didn't tell them what happened to young Harry and he also knew that they knew that too but he really didn't want to have to fight his way through all the hexes he could see coming his way. He was very grateful that Minerva was not there right now as it would better to to deal with her alone later.

Severus finally cancelled the spell and the noise level that reached his ears made him glare at all of them. But he was content to sit back and watch the show that he knew was about to happen.

Sirius finally stood up, his back rigged, anger set in his face and walked across the kitchen, picked up a glass and Threw it at the wall which gained him everyone's silence and attention

"Albus" Sirius said with such steel in his voice that Remus and Tonks both cringed a bit, Remus hadn't seen him this mad since that night in the shack back in Harry's 3rd year.

Sirius turned to the headmaster with his wand drawn.

"You had better tell me what happened to my godson or so help me no one will be able to find your body parts" he hissed his hands were shaking and his jaw was tight and his eyes looked a blaze with inner fire.

"Now Sirius, my boy I didn't" he trailed off seeing the sparks coming from the wand pointed at him. The sparks were not just any color but bright green which frightened him a little.

Severus rolled his eyes, not that he let anyone see him do it, and disarmed the mutt with a wordless (spell) expeliamus.

"Sirius, please calm down and I'll tell you everything I know, Harry's injuries include a dislocated shoulder, a sprained wrist, 2 broken ribs, 70% of his body covered in bruises and severe malnourishment." Albus stated in a quiet voice.

Molly was crying as Arthur was holding her but you could tell he was just as angry, Tonk's hair color was changing so fast in her anger and as she couldn't settle on one, it went from coal black to fire red and back again and Remus was upset and having trouble controlling the wolf in him. Snape's face was unreadable as always but he too was angry about what none of them had been able to see.

Sirius was stone silent with unreadable eyes and a very calm demeanor; he walked up to Severus and held out his hand Snape raised an eyebrow (as if to say what the hell can I do for you).

"Severus, my wand if you please" he asked calmly with his hand still out and his face still composed. Severus was very shocked and only his mastering of control of his emotions kept him from having his mouth drop open in shock and his eyes becoming the size of galleons.

"As much as I hate to say this, that is not a good idea at this time, Black" he replied stiffly.

"Severus I have never asked you for anything in my life, now please I'm asking for my wand back" his voice was shaky if only a small amount and Severus could tell his calm was going to break soon.

By now everyone in the kitchen was staring at them waiting to see what would happen next. Remus stood up and cautiously walked over to the pair.

"Padfoot what are you going to do" Remus asked softly. "Remus please just back off" he said through clenched teeth.

"Black, even if you had your wand you cannot kill the bastards the fat oaf that is the boy's uncle is already in muggle custody pending trial for child abuse" Severus explained in an exasperated tone. Remus could see his shoulders slump in defeat and wondered how long that would last.

"Where is Harry, Albus? I'm going to go see him and make sure he knows he's not alone." He said making no room for argument.

"Sirius that could be very dangerous" he said softly.

"I DON'T CARE ABOUT DANGEROUS, THAT BOY IS THE ONLY FAMILY I HAVE LEFT OTHER THAN Remus AND I JUST FOUND OUT THAT HE'S BEEN ABUSED FOR PROBABLY HIS WHOLE LIFE, YOU GIVE ME HIS ADDRESS NOW AND MAYBE I WON'T REPORT YOU FOR HAVING PUT HIM THERE IN THE FIRST PLACE!" He finished yelling, breathing heavy and still glaring at the headmaster.

"Alright, Sirius I'll pick you up in two days to go to America with me, but you must stay in dog form until I know it's safe, he's in the care of a federal agent and who knows how much you're wanted over there, he might arrest you on the spot." Albus said and he knew it was going to be a long weekend.

Sirius nodded once and stalked out of the kitchen and up to the library for a drink where he sat and finally lost his composure and cried for his godson, who he had failed and he didn't know how to make it right with him.

Once the meeting had finally ended and everyone disbanded with strict instructions not to tell the kids anything until they know more. Albus went to his office and sat heavily in his chair behind his desk to think about what had happened and what Sirius would think when he learns that Harry wants to stay with this muggle.

Remus went to find Sirius to make sure that he didn't do anything stupid and Severus followed him up the stairs as he still had the mutt's wand after all.

"Padfoot, are you ok?" Remus asked but already knowing the answer was, no, he was most definitely not ok.

Sirius looked up to address him but found Snape standing stiffly in the doorway.

"What do you want Snape? Come to gloat about what a horrible godfather I've been? Well, I don't need to hear it, ok, I already know" he added and took another swig of the liquor.

"I came to give you what you asked for downstairs, you fool" he said snidely, and tossed the wand over beside Black on the sofa which stood in front of the fire place and turned to leave.

"Why, Snape?" Sirius asked. Snape paused in the doorway but didn't turn around.

"Why didn't you see it?" his voice was sad and sounded as though he was suppressing tears. "Why didn't we see it" he whispered. Snape turned around and regarded Black with an unreadable expression.

Snape sighed "I do not know Black all I can think of is that the boy truly didn't want anyone to know and hid it very well" he responded and quickly strode out of the room and back to Hogwarts as fast as possible.

The next two days had to have been the longest Sirius had ever experienced in his life, waiting for Albus to come get him and take him to Harry, he couldn't wait to see him and tell him that if he'd known he would have taken Harry away that night in 3rd year. Albus arrived through the floo and walked into the kitchen of number 12 then the fire flared again and out walked Snape, Sirius wasn't sure how he felt about that (was Snape going with them?) he thought.

"Albus, I'm ready whenever you are" he said, trying not to pay to much attention to Snape.

"Sirius, I've asked Severus to join us so that he may take a look at Harry's injuries and see if they are healing alright and give him some potions to help his recovery, I've also arranged for an international portkey to take us to a remote part of DC and from there we can apparate to Harry's location" the headmaster explained.

The portkey was to activate in 5minutes and it was a long 5 minutes standing there next to someone he was very mad at and then next to Snape to.

3…2…1… and they were off. He had forgotten just how much international portkey's always sucked and as it seemed they all had because even Snape and the headmaster looked a little green in the face. As they looked around they found that they had arrived in Anacostia Park if the sign was anything to go by.

"Right boys the address is 46 Maple Ave Washington DC 80855" Albus said and disappeared with a slight pop, the other two following suit and soon they were all gone