Disclaimer: I do not own HP
Warnings: Mentions of abuse, bullying, slash, Chan, Vampire stuff.
A/N: Here the chapter I know you guys wanted to see. Also, some of the text was taking from OP.
Bleeding Feathers
What ever happen in that room that morning changed the relationship between Draco and Harry, Draco more so then Harry, who found the blonde's sudden attentive behavior a little unnerving; though the young wizard was grateful when the other comforted him during his nightmares. He was even more grateful when the blonde promised not to say anything to Lucius, Harry was sure that if Lucius knew, there would really be a fight.
Unfortunately the sudden turn in the two relationships, had done nothing good for Severus' mood, and the lessons became worst.
This made the nightmares appear even more.
Draco rocked the shaking body back and forth, like his mother would do for him when he was younger and upset.
He sighed in relief when the shaking stopped and the body went limp, indicating that Harry was finally asleep. Draco shifted Harry until the boy was sitting comfortably in his lap; he had learned very quickly that when Harry was in such a state, he needed psychical comfort and contact.
Never had he imagined he would be comforting Harry of all people.
Fate had an odd sense of humor.
"You know," he whispered to the sleeping body, holding the hand clenching to his shirt, "I was really mad when you rejected me that day in first year."
He looked at the window; it was always open for Hedwig, who was currently out hunting.
"Kind of hurt too."
Draco shifted so he was no longer lying against the wall and was lying down on the mattress, with Harry curled up against him.
"Guess I really was a prick about it."
"Again!"
Harry glanced up at the Potions Master before sighing and standing on shaky legs.
"You haven't been practicing." Snape stated coolly.
"I would if I knew how." Harry shot back, he knew he could ask Lucius or even Draco, they had both offered to help, but Harry didn't want to bother them, that and he knew Snape would not take well to his two mates spending more time with him.
"Quiet! Once more, Legilimens!"
Shouting, screaming, pain… His brothers holding him, as they listen to the screaming downstairs…..A green blinding light…..
"STOP!"
Snape glared down at the fallen boy, before sighing deeply.
"We're done for today, leave."
Harry didn't move.
"Now!"
Harry shot up and nearly ran out the room, bumping into Lucius along the way.
"Sorry," Harry said.
"It's alright, you finish you're lesson?"
Harry nodded, "I was going to my room to change and then go to bed."
"Would you like me to carry you?" Lucius asked taking in his Sub's pale and tired state.
Harry frowned, "No, I'm alright."
"You sure?"
Harry nodded as he headed to his room, once there he collapsed on his bed, he was asleep in seconds.
"Excuse me, Professor?"
Harry knocked on the door, he waited before creaking the door in and peeked his head inside; he glanced up in amusement when Hedwig poked her head in as well from her spot nestled on his head.
"Doesn't look like he's here," he said to his owl, "I'll come back later -hey!"
Hedwig flew from her perch on Harry's head and into the lab, landing on the working table.
"Hedwig get back here!"
Harry glanced around the lab before fully entering, heading straight for the owl.
"Come on Hedwig, let's get out of here."
Hedwig hooted and glided over to the desk, knocking on a few potion-filled bottles to the floor, breaking the glass bottles.
"Hedwig!" Harry scolded and hurried over to the owl, determine to catch her and prevent her from making a mess of the potion master's lab. He yelped when he slipped on some kind of green liquid, his hands reached out hoping to grab some for balance, and finding the edge of the desk.
Harry gave a sigh of relief as he regained his balance, before standing straight and froze, suddenly the floor of the lab lurched, tipping Harry headfirst into the Pensieve…
He was falling through cold darkness, spinning furiously as he went, and then—
He was standing in the middle of the Great Hall, but four House table were gone. Instead there were more than a hundred small tables, all facing the same way, at each of which sat a student, head bent low, scribbling on a roll of parchment. The only sound was the scratching of quills and the occasional rustle as somebody adjusted their parchment. It was clearly exam time.
Sunshine was streaming through the high windows onto the bent heads, which shine chestnut and copper and gold in the bright light. Harry looked around in bewilderment, and it took a moment for him to figure out where he was.
"I'm in Snape's memories!"
Harry looked around for a younger version of the Potion Master….
And there he was, at the table right behind Harry. Harry stared. Snape-the-teenager had a stringy, pallid look about him, like a plant kept in the dark, a look his Mama used to describe him when he was younger and under the care of the Dursleys. Snape's hair was lank and greasy and was flopping onto the table; his hooked nose was barely half an inch from the surface of the parchment as he scribbled. Harry moved around behind Snape and read the heading of the examination paper: Defense Against The Dark Arts—Ordinary Wizarding Level.
So Snape had to be fifteen or sixteen, around Harry's own age. His hand was flying across the parchment: he had written at least a foot more than his closet neighbor, and yet his writing was minuscule and cramped.
"Five more minutes!"
The voice made Harry jump; turning, he saw the top of Professor Flitwick's head moving between the desks a short distance away. Professor Flitwick was walking past a boy with untidy black hair….very untidy black hair…..
Harry moved so quickly that, had he been solid, he would have knocked desks flying. Instead he seemed to slide, dreamlike, across two aisles and up a third. The back if the black-haired boy's head drew nearer and nearer…..He was straightening up now, putting down his quill, pulling his roll of parchment toward him so as to reread what he had written…
Harry stopped in front of the desk and gazed down at his fifteen-year-old father.
Excitement exploded in the pit of his stomach: It was like as though he was looking at himself but with deliberate mistakes. James's eyes were hazel, his nose was slightly longer than Harry's, and there was no scar on his forehead, but they had the same thin face, same mouth, and same eyebrows. James's hair stuck up at the back exactly as Harry's did, his hands could have been Harry's unfortunately, when James stood up, James was taller than him.
James yawned hugely and rumpled up his hair, making it even messier than it had been. Then, with a glance toward Professor Flitwick, he turned in his seat and grinned at a boy sitting four seats behind him.
With another shock of excitement, Harry saw Sirius give James the thumbs-up. Sirius was lounging in his chair at his ease, titling it back on two legs. He was very good-looking; his dark hair fell into his eyes with a sort of casual elegance neither James's nor Harry's could ever have achieved, and a girl sitting behind him was eyeing him hopefully, though he didn't seem to have noticed. And two seats along from this girl—Harry's stomach gave another pleasurable squirm—was Remus Lupin. He looked rather pale and peaky (was the full moon approaching?) and was absorbed in the exam: As he reread his answers he scratched his chin with the end of his quill, frowning slightly.
So that meant Wormtail had to be around her somewhere too….
And sure enough, Harry spotted him within seconds: a small mousy-haired boy with a pointed nose. Wormtail looked anxious; he was chewing his fingernails, staring down at his paper, scuffing the ground with his toes. Every now and then he glanced hopefully at his neighbor's paper. Harry stared at Wormtail for a moment, then back at James, who was now doodling on a bit of scrap parchment. He had drawn a Snitch and was now tracing the letters L.E. What did they stand for?
"Quills down, please!" squeaked Professor Flitwick. "That means you too, Stebbins! Please remain seated while I collect your parchment! Accio!"
More than a hundred rolls of parchment zoomed into the air and into Professor Flitwick's outstretched arms, knocking him backward off his feet. Several people laughed. A couple of students at the front desks got up, took hold of Professor Flitwick beneath the elbows, and lifted him into his feet again.
"Thank you….Thank you," panted Professor Flitwick. "Very well, everybody, you're free to go!"
Harry looked down at his father, who had hastily crossed out the L.E. he had been embellishing, jumped to his feet, stuffed his quill and the exam question paper into his bag, which he slung over his back, and stood waiting for Sirius to join him.
Harry looked around and glimpsed Snape a short way away, moving between the tables toward the doors into the entrance hall, still absorbed in his own examination paper. Even at a young age, he walked a grace and confidence, but there was something withdrawn about him that wasn't seen with the adult Snape.
A gang of chattering girls separated Snape from James and Sirius, and by planting himself in the midst of this group, Harry managed to keep Snape in sight while straining his ears to catch the voices of James and his friends.
"Did you like the question ten, Moony?" asked Sirius as they emerged into the entrance hall.
"Loved it," said Lupin briskly. "'Give five signs that identify the werewolf.' Excellent question."
"D'you think you managed to get all the signs?" James asked in tones of mock concern.
"Think I did," said Lupin seriously, as they joined the crowd thronging around the front doors eager to get out onto the sunlit grounds.
"One: He's sitting on my chair. Two: He's wearing my clothes. Three: His name's Remus Lupin….."
Wormtail was the only one who didn't laugh.
Harry looked anxiously behind him again. Snape remained close by, still buried in his examination questions; but this was Snape's memory and Harry was sure that if Snape chose to wander off in a different direction once outside in the grounds, he, Harry, would not be able to follow James any farther. To his intense relief, however, when James and his three friends strode off down the lawn toward the lake, Snape followed, still pouring over the paper and apparently with no fixed idea of where he was going. By jogging a little ahead of him, Harry managed to maintain a close watch on James and the others.
"Well I though the paper was a piece of cake," he hears Sirius say. "I'd be surprised if I don't get Outstanding on it at least."
"Me too," said James. He put his hand in his pocket and took out a struggling Golden Snitch.
"Where'd you get that?"
"Nicked it," said James casually. He started playing with the Snitch, allowing it to fly as much as a foot away and seizing it again; his reflexes were excellent. Wormtail watched him in awe.
They stopped in the shade of the very same beech tree on the edge of the lake where Harry, Ron, and Hermione had spent a Sunday finishing their homework, and threw themselves down on the grass.
Harry looked over his shoulder yet again and saw, to his delight, that Snape had settled himself on the grass in the dense shadows of a clump of bushes. He was deeply immersed in the O.W.L. paper as ever and it remained Harry of Hermione when she found a really good book. With an inward sigh Harry sit down on the grass between the beech and the bushes and watch the foursome under the tree.
The sunlight was dazzling in the smooth surface of the lake, on the bank if which the group if laughing girls who had just left the Great Hall were sitting with shoes and socks off, cooling their feet in the water.
Lupin had pulled out a book and was reading. Sirius stared around at the students milling over the grass, looking rather haughty and bored, but very handsomely so. James was still playing with the Snitch, letting it zoom farther and farther away, almost escaping but always grabbed at the last second. Wormtail was watching him with his mouth wide open, and Harry was hoping something would fly in.
Every time James made a particularly difficult catch, Wormtail gasped and applauded. After five minutes of this, Harry realized that Wormtail was probably a kiss-up at birth, although James seemed to be enjoying the attention. Harry noticed his father had a habit of rumpling up his hair as though to make sure it did not get too tidy, and also that he kept looking over at the girls by the water's edge.
"Put that away, will you?" said Sirius finally, as James made a fine catch and Wormtail let out a cheer. "Before Wormtail wets himself from excitement."
Wormtail turned slightly pink but James grinned.
"If it bothers you" he said, stuffing the Snitch back in his pocket.
Harry had the distinct impression that Sirius was the only one for whom James would have stopped showing off.
"I'm bored," said Sirius. "Wish it was full moon."
"You might," said Lupin darkly from behind his book. "We've still got Transfiguration, if you're bored you could test me….Here" He held out his book.
Sirius snorted. "I don't need to look at that rubbish, I know it all."
"This'll liven you up, Padfoot," said James quietly. "Look who it is….."
Sirius's head turned. He had become very still, like a dog that has scented a rabbit.
"Excellent," he said softly. "Snivellus"
Harry turned to see what Sirius was looking at, and for some Harry felt almost something of familiarity, a sense that he knew something bad was going happen.
Snape was on his feet again, and was stowing the O.W.L. paper in his bag. As he emerged from the shadows of the bushes and set off across the grass, Sirius and James stood up. Lupin and Wormtail remained sitting: Lupin was still staring down at his book, though his eyes were not moving and a faint frown line had appeared between his eyebrows. Wormtail was looking from Sirius and James to Snape with a look of avid anticipation on his face.
"All right, Snivellus?" said James loudly.
Snape reacted so fast it was though he had been expecting an attack, something Harry was all too familiar with: Dropping his bag, he plunged his hand inside his robes, and his wand was halfway into the air when James shouted, "Expelliarmus!"
Snape's wand flew twelve feet into the air and fell with a little thud in the grass behind him. Sirius let out a bark of laughter.
"Impedimenta!" he said, pointing his wand at Snape, who was knocked off his feet, halfway through a dive towards his own fallen wand.
Students all around had turned to watch. Some of them had gotten to their feet and were edging to watch. Some looked apprehensive, others entertained.
Snape lay panting on the ground. James and Sirius advanced on him, wands up, James glancing over his shoulder at the girls at the water's edge as he went. Wormtail was on his feet now, watching hungrily, edging around Lupin to get a clearer view.
"How'd the exam go, Snivelly?" said James.
"I was watching him, his nose was touching the parchment," said Sirius viciously. "There'll be great grease marks all over it; they won't be able to read a word."
Several people watching laughed; Snape was clearly unpopular, and a look of understanding flicker through Harry's eyes as did memories of his own bullying as he watched Snape try in get up, but the jinx was still operating on him; he was struggling, as though bound by invisible ropes.
"You—wait," he panted, staring up at James with an expression of purest loathing. "You—wait…"
"Wait for what?" said Sirius coolly. "What're you going to do, Snivelly, wipe your nose on us?"
Snape let out a stream of mixed swear words and hexes, but with his wand being ten feet away, nothing happened.
"Wash out your mouth," said James coldly. "Scourgify!"
Pink soap bubbles streamed from Snape's mouth at once, the froth was covering his lips, making him gag, choking him.
And respect he held for his father and Sirius was gone.
"Leave him ALONE!"
James and Sirius looked around. James's free hand jumped to his hair again,
It was one of the girls from the lake edge. She had thick, dark red hair that fell to her shoulders and startling green almond-shape eyes—Harry's eyes.
Harry's mother…..
"All right, Evans?" said James, and the tone of his voice suddenly pleasant, deeper and more mature.
"Leave him alone," Lily repeated. She was looking at James with every sign of great dislike. "What's he done to you?"
"Well," said James, appearing to deliberate the point, "it's more the fact that he exists, if you know what I mean…."
Harry flinched…. those words….they hurt so much.
Many of the surrounding watchers laughed, Sirius and Wormtail included, but Lupin, still apparently on his book, didn't, and neither did Lily.
"You think you're funny," she said coldly. "But you're just an arrogant, bullying toerage, Potter. Leave him alone."
"I will if you go out with me, Evans," said James quickly. "Go on….Go out with me and I'll never lay a wand on old Snivelly again."
Harry wondered if that included fists too, he doubted it.
Behind him, the Impediment Jinx was wearing off. Snape was beginning to inch towards his fallen wand, spitting out soapsuds as he crawled, and Harry found he wouldn't feel a least bit upset or sorry if Snape gave them a rather nasty hex.
"I wouldn't go out with you if it was a choice between you and the giant squad," said Lily.
"Bad luck, Prongs," said Sirius briskly, turning back to Snape. "OY!"
But too late; Snape had directed his wand straight at James; there was a flash of light and a gash appeared on the side of James's face, spattering his robe with blood. James whirled about; a second flash of light later, Snape was hanging upside down in the air, his robes falling over his head to reveal skinny, pallid legs and a pair of graying underpants.
Many people in the small crowd watching cheered. Sirius, James, and Wormtail roared with laughter.
Lily, whose furious expression had twitched for an instant as though she was going to smile, said, "Let him down!"
"Certainly," said James and he jerked his wand upward. Snape fell into a crumpled heap on the ground. Disentangling himself from his robes, he got quickly to his feet, wand up, but Sirius said, "Locomotormortis!" and Snape keeled over again at once, rigid as a broad.
"LEAVE HIM ALONE!" Lily shouted. She had her own wand out now and James and Sirius eyed it warily.
"Ah, Evans, don't make me hex you," said James earnestly.
"Take the curse off him, then!"
James sighed deeply, then turned to Snape and muttered the countercurse.
"There you go," he said, as Snape struggled to his feet again, "you're lucky Evans was here, Snivellus—"
"I don't need help from filthy little Mudbloods like her!"
Harry stared at the young Snape, and he couldn't find it himself to be upset that the boy had just insulted his mother, because he knew it wasn't on purpose, that it was to hide his hurt.
Lily blinked. "Fine," she said coolly. "I won't bother in future. And I'd wash your pants if I were you Snivellus."
"Apologize to Evans!" James roared at Snape, his wand pointed threateningly at him.
"I don't want you to make him apologize," Lily shouted, rounding on James. "You're as bad as he is….."
"What?" yelped James, "I'd NEVER call you a—you-know-what!"
"Messing up your hair because you think it looks cool to like you've just got off your broomstick, showing off with that stupid Snitch, walking down corridors and hexing anyone who annoys you just because you can—I'm surprised your broomstick can get off the ground with that fat head on it. You make me SICK."
She turned on her heel and hurried away.
"Evans!" James called after her, "Hey, EVANS!"
But she didn't look back.
"What is it with her?" said James, trying and failing to look as though this was a throwaway question of no real importance to him.
"Reading between the lines, I'd say she thinks you're a bit conceited, mate," said Sirius.
"Right," said James, who looked furious now, "right—"
There was another flash of light, and Snape was once again hanging upside down in the air.
"Who wants to see me take off Snivelly's pants?"
But whether James really did take off Snape's pants, Harry never found out. A hand had closed tight over his upper arm, closed with a pincerlike grip. Wincing, Harry looked around to see who had hold of him, and saw, a fully grown, adult-sized Snape standing right beside him, white with rage.
"Having fun?"
Harry felt himself rising in the air. The summer's day evaporated around him, he was floating upward through the icy blackness, Snape's hand still tight upon his tight upon his upper arm. Then, with a swopping feeling as though he had turned head over heels in midair, his feet hit the floor of Snape's lab floor., and he was standing again, beside the Pensieve on Snape's desk in the shadowy, present-day Potions Master's lab.
"So," said Snape, gripping Harry's arm so tightly Harry's hand was starting to feel numb. "So… been enjoying yourself, Potter?"
Harry stared up at the furious Katuy, so many emotions going through him while his mind replayed the memory he had seen.
A little bit of fear, understanding, and strangely enough, calm were the most dominate emotions, he wondered if any of those emotions showed on his face as he answered.
"N-no."
He never saw that hand coming.
The sound of flesh hitting flesh echoed in the lab, Potter stood there stunned, before staring up almost blankly at Severus; who snarled and throw him against the wall.
"Get out!" Severus snarled, fangs bared and his hair stood on end. Potter merely slid to the floor, his mind brining back a long forgotten memory.
"I said get out!" Snape raised his hand again, possibly to strike the boy again…..
His Uncle towered over him, raw hatred and sickly pleasure in his eyes as the fist came down.
"NO! PLEASE NO!"
Severus paused, and watched as Potter curled on the floor, arms protecting his head and body.
"I'LL BE GOOD! I'LL BE GOOD!"
Severus stood there for a moment unsure of what to do, he then took a small step forward when he caught the scent of tears, just as he door flew open, and both Draco and Lucius rushed in.
The Dom took in Potter, curled up against the wall, shaking and now muttering to himself, his nose catching the scent of tears, and Severus's blank expression.
"Harry?"
Draco kneeled down next to the younger boy and gently touched his shoulder, all the Katuys jumped when the boy let out a cry of terror, and the boy pushed himself closer to the wall. That's when the two blonde's notice the slowly forming bruise on the boy's cheek.
"Severus," Lucius said, his voice was deadly calm, "you have one second to explain, before I beat it out of you."
Severus blinked up at him and at Potter, Draco was speaking as calmly as possible, he barely notice that the Sub-Dom's voice was a soft purr-growl, it didn't seem like it was working.
"Severus!"
Severus turned back to his Dom, who was quickly loosing whatever patience he had left.
"I think I just made a grave mistake," he said softly looking down at his hand.T
Told you he would do something stupid. This is not going to sit well with Mama, Papa, and the boys.
Also I think I did an okay job with Harry's reaction while watching his father and godfather bully Sevvie, what do you guys think?
Reveiw Please!