A/N sorry for the long wait. Life was just catching up. I have given you two chapters, although the second is a little short. The next one might be ready before next Wednesday. If it's not, you'll have to wait until at least after Easter, if not longer. I have some big, future deciding exams coming up, and I'm afraid that fanfiction is not my priority. Hope to see you soon.
"Lemon drop?" Severus rolled his eyes at the inevitable offer and gave the usual reply.
"No thank you. Honestly Albus, I don't see why you like these Muggle sweets so much."
"They have a delightful sweetness about them mixed with a slight tartness. But I didn't call you here to talk about sweets. What happened at the Dursley home? My wards informed me Harry had left." Severus eyed him.
"What do you know of the boy's home life?" Albus' twinkle dimmed.
"Not much." He admitted. "I knew his family were never very happy about taking him in. I hoped Petunia would be kind to him for her sister's sake." Severus slammed a hand down on the table.
"You never thought to check on him when he was younger old man?" Albus was taken slightly aback.
"I sent you, didn't I?"
"Yes, but not until his godfather had died. During the critical years of a child's development, you left him without anyone watching."
"Mrs Figg was there. Did you find something wrong?" Severus checked himself from shouting and took a deep breath.
"That squib. You know she's near useless! There's another thing. Why did you send me off to check on him and then disappear along with most of the Hogwarts staff?"
"Well, you're always saying how Harry must have a pampered home life. I thought you would be able to cope with him if this was the case."
"And you believed me? Albus don't expect me to put any credit in that. I've been saying you should expel him for years and you've never listened to me. You expected different this time?" Severus' tone was questioning.
"You taught him occlumency for a few months. Surely you saw something in his memories of his home life." He pointed out. Sighing, he looked down at his clasped fingers. "Never mind…. What was it like?" the potion's professor pinched the skin between his eyebrows. In a very controlled voice, he responded to the headmaster.
"I found your 'saviour' lying at the side of a country lane near surrey. He had sustained fatal injuries from a car." The spark in Albus' eyes died completely. He leaned forward.
"You were hopefully able to heal him?"
"Yes, but in the process, came across some older injuries." Severus gripped the armrests of his chair. "Do you know what your decision to place Harry with his relatives has cost him?" Albus looked down at his hands.
"By the tone of your voice, nothing good."
"No. from his malnutrition and state of mind, Harry has sustained abuse for his entire stay at the Dursley's. From the age of his scars, I suspect that he only started getting beaten around the age of nine or ten. Of course, his internal magic might have healed such injuries, but even magic leaves a trace. Even so, I suspect that the mental abuse goes far deeper. Since he has been staying at my manor, he has had at least nine nightmares. He has been at my home for two weeks. After a contretemps a couple of nights in, I found what he was dreaming about. He feels guilty for the deaths of Black, Diggory and even his parents. He feels he caused their deaths, sometimes just by existing. If this isn't a by product of his relatives blaming everything that went wrong on him I don't know what is. I suspect that the reason he never excelled at school work is because his 'family'" Severus spat this word out with disgust "always made him feel worthless. After all, both his parents were high achievers and he certainly doesn't lack the core strength. Look at his patronus. He managed to achieve something at thirteen that many wizards never achieve. Harry has needed help for years. Did you know that he can still remember his parents' deaths? He hears their last words every time a dementor comes near." As every word heaped on him, the headmaster looked older and more defeated. He closed his eyes, then looked back up at the teacher.
"Is he broken? Can he be saved?" Severus looked at him, a slight tinge of disgust in his eyes. He suspected that only half the old man was concerned and sorry about his decision about putting Harry with the Dursleys. The other half was just wondering whether his weapon was damaged beyond repair. Severus was one of the few still alive who knew the sorting hat had tried to put eleven year old Albus Dumbledore in Slytherin.
It had been an accident, this knowledge. Albus had taught the young Snape occlumency, but he had shown an aptitude for legilimency as well. Severus had been having his weekly lesson when it happened. For the past week, he had ruminated over the theory that a legilimens' barriers were weakened when they were attacking. Severus had thought that if he could keep his own barriers up to a decent standard, he might be able to foil the legilimency attack by being an antagonist. After all, in chess, the offense is the best defence.
Putting his plan into practice had been easy enough. Severus had skimmed through a few memories, not wanting to intrude into his mentor's privacy, rather to see how long he could go before being detected. Suddenly, his interest was caught by one particular thing.
Flash back
"Dumbledore, Albus." A small auburn haired boy sat nervously on the sorting stool and saw his world darken as the hat was placed on his head.
"What have we here? Manipulating, always assessing a situation to see what the best outcome for you would be. Yet you have great bravery and all that goes out the window if a friend is in danger. Above all, there is a great thirst for learning, maybe more for the power of knowledge rather than just learning for learning's sake. There is a fair bit of ambition here too. You fit many categories young Albus. You would do very well in Slytherin."
"I don't want to be in Slytherin."
"Why not?"
"Slytherin has a bad reputation. It would not fit my future plans. Besides, what is a snake but someone who walks among other animals? I would like to be in either Gryffindor or Ravenclaw. Again, Hufflepuff wouldn't suit me. Too many are prejudiced against that house."
"Interesting point. Very well. You do not have quite the temperament for Gryffindor. Better be RAVENCLAW."
End flashback
Severus had been so stunned by the information that he had lost all pretence to secrecy. Albus had found him soon after and had asked him quietly to keep the information secret. Around him had been an aura of power that frightened Severus. He had watched the man's manipulations for years, admiring the skill he showed with an eye that only another true Slytherin had. In answer to his question, Severus decided to take pity on him.
"Yes, he can be saved I think. I am already making progress in that respect. He has shown an aptitude for occlumency, the proper procedure. And that's another thing. I was under the impression that you had given him lessons before he came to me last year. Imagine my surprise when Harry tells me that he never got any such thing from you. Care to explain that?" he raised one brow, his tone slightly insolent. Albus sighed again.
"Severus, I hoped you would have worked this out. When you didn't come to me soon after the lessons began, I thought you had reasoned it out yourself. Surely it was obvious he had never received any instruction as soon as you entered his mind?"
"Potter never paid attention to anything he was taught." Severus snapped. "How was I to know this was any different? Besides, that sort of memory was not what I was looking for."
"What were you looking for then?" asked the headmaster gently. When no reply came, but Severus turned slightly pink, he shook his head seriously and his tone was tinged with disappointment. "I had hope Severus that you could get along with Harry without trying to humiliate him all the time. Was it too much to ask?"
"Of course it was! You know my opinion of Potter. Why would you think…" Severus stopped and smirked darkly. "Clever Albus. You almost got me off track there. Almost. You should be careful when trying to manipulate other Slytherins. Could you answer my question now?"
"I've already basically answered it. I hoped you would be able to get past your hate and see it from his perspective for once. Maybe that was too much to ask."
"It was the way you tried to deal with it. Remember, manipulations on other manipulators usually go wrong. Either they notice or they act in a completely different way than you were expecting." A silence ensued while they both digested what they'd been told.
"You mentioned something about Harry achieving an occlumency shield?"
"Yes. I guided him into the trance required and he worked out what to do. He seems to have an affinity with runes. His shield is amazing. I think even you would have trouble getting past it. He has built defensive and offensive runes into the inner defence. As well as this he seems to have a deceptive outer shield and outer ring of memories. I must admit. They baffled me for a moment or two." He down played his own reaction. No point in admitting to something not necessary. "He also made an interesting discovery when he talked to a snake in my back yard. Apparently there is something called parselmagic. Anything cast in parseltongue is only able to be undone by a parselmouth. The problem is that he can't go straight from Latin to parseltongue. He has to find the way a snake would describe the action and then translate that. There has been a fair amount of progress, despite the errors." The twinkle was back full force. Severus remembered an incident not that long ago caused by the problem of translation
Flash back
"Get out of my way." Harry hissed, putting all his frustrations into the spell. A jet of red light shot out and hit the dummy. Said dummy flew back into the wall. An explosion threw both Harry and Severus back to hit the opposite wall. They fell to the floor, hard. Getting painfully up, they saw a hole through the thought indestructible wall. Harry pointed his wand.
"Reparo." Nothing happened. "Aw damn." He whined. Why couldn't something be easy for once? "Repair yourself." He hissed. Nothing happened. "Go back to how you once were." He tried, and then yelped as a wave of molten lava slowly slid towards him. "Be a stone wall again!" he hissed hastily. To both his and Severus' relief, the wave stopped, slid backwards and formed itself into a solid grey patch, glowing for a moment and then dulling. Not the blocks of stone it once was, but at least it was a wall.
Harry turned to find he was being given Snape's level 12 death glare, the kind that says 'I want to carve out your eyes with my potion's stirrer, use them in a poison and then feed it to you. After that, I will play a game of charades depicting what other tortures I will visit on you. (1) He gulped.
"Sorry?"
End flashback
"May I see him? I can tell you two have got much closer. It is good for the both of you." Severus ignored most of this.
"If you wish to come to my manor, we'll go through the floo. The password is 'Serpent's Tongue'" Albus nodded and gestured to the younger wizard to precede him.
XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
Harry got hungry. He closed his book and glanced at the still sleeping Zak coiled on the desk. Going in search of some food, he went out of the library. As he crossed the entrance hall, the fire glowed green. Harry spotted the signs of floo travel and stopped to greet the visitor; it probably was either Severus or the headmaster. A familiar blond haired figure stepped gracefully out. Harry was frozen in panic at the sight of the white devil.
"Potter!" Lucius Malfoy snarled, he had a bone to pick with this particular teenager. Because of him, he had spent two weeks in that hell hole named Azkaban. If he hadn't used the contacts he had built up over many years, he'd still be there. As it was, his usefulness was waning to his Master with the loss of his reputation. The prize of Potter would buoy his falling prestige fantastically well. With this thought, he raised his wand to point at the boy. "Stupefy." Harry rolled out of the way and raised his own wand.
"Expelliarmus!" he cast back. Malfoy shielded himself.
This continued for a few moments, the spells never getting fatal, but they were harder and faster as time moved on. Finally, the duel was finished when Harry, keeping all his attention on his opponent instead of also being aware of his surroundings, tripped over a chair leg. His wand flew out of his hand and Malfoy was quick to take advantage. Within moments, Harry was bound and gagged. Malfoy walked over sneering at him.
"Well well, Harry Potter. The Dark Lord will be very pleased with me. You really should look where you're going. Stupefy." Harry's world was swallowed in darkness.
A/N I hope you enjoyed that and found elements of it amusing; I did. If you're reading this for the second time, sorry the extra bit wasn't there the first time. I must have either completely skimmed over it, or maybe I just lost the sheet.
(1) This is in reference to a Blackadder episode where he is captured by the Spanish Inquisition and since he doesn't speak Spanish, nor does the Spaniard speak English, they end up communicating through charades as to what will happen if he admits to being a witch, or if he continues to deny it. I love Blackadder!