Sorry for the long wait.
I have been pretty sick recently and my medical treatment was anything but pleasant
and thus I wasn't able to get on my Laptop, let alone work on this story.

But here I am now, with the next chapter and I hope you will enjoy it.
I also hope that the translation is still okay, for this chapter was pretty hard to translate.

I don't know when I will be uploading the next chapter, for I have to deal with a lot of personal stuff recently.
And this is just stressing me out like nothing else and I am not able to keep concentrating on writing, I am sorry.

Thank you all for reading and commenting. This means so much to me and it is also a huge motivation to keep writing on this story :D

And now, please enjoy it :3

To answer the comments from the previous chapter:

dianaanne
Indeed. I mean, it is his job after all, right? ;)

MrsChemNerd
Thank you for your kind words and for liking my story :)

raffa18sapio
Thanks. Glad that you still like it^^.

GiuliaComix
Thank you :). I am sure, after finding out about Harry's treatment at home, Severus' world is turning upside down now.
I mean, I am sure he always believed that Harry was just an arrogant kid that got spoiled rotten at home.
Now he knows that this is not true at all...

DrarryBich909
Thanks.

Bookluv
Thank you :).

And as always:

And I would appreciate feedback in the form of a comment very much.
Not only is feedback very motivating, but it also shows me that my story gets read and is not ignored.
If I get the feeling my story gets ignored, I won't update it, for I see no reason to do so then.
So please don't be shy and share your thoughts with me. I won't bite you.

Chapter 4

Severus didn't have to wait long, until there was a knock on his door and when he opened it, a pair of blue, twinkling eyes greeted him.

But the joyful twinkle would be gone in a moment; he was sure of that.

"Severus, my dear boy. I hope there is a good reason that you wake me up in the middle of the night."

Snape's lips curled up in a sneering smile, as he stepped aside and invited the old wizard into his chambers, who hadn't even bothered to swap his flowing nightgown for his everyday robe.

"There is, Albus, and the reason is right over there in front of my fireplace. Come and see for yourself."

Snape saw Dumbledore raise an eyebrow questioningly and then slowly follow him. He felt his skeptical looks on the back of his neck and when he stepped aside to show him Harry, an indefinable expression appeared in the eyes of the mighty wizard. He looked at the boy first and then his blue eyes fixed on Severus, who was looking at him calmly.

"May I ask what Mister Potter is doing in your chambers?" he asked quietly.

"Of course Albus, just allow me to ask you a counter-question: May I ask why you brought the mirror of Erised back into the castle?"

Albus winced at the words and Severus' eyes sparkled mockingly when he saw the caught look in his mentor's eyes.

"Don't tell me you found the boy there?"

"Oh yes, Albus. I did find him there. And I've found a lot more than that. Step closer and see for yourself."

The older wizard didn't quite understand what his younger colleague was getting at, until he pulled the covers off the boy, rolled him gently on his side and revealing something that made Dumbledore speechless for the first time in a very long time. A sea of bruises and bloody welts greeted him, as Severus pulled the boy's shirt up and off his back. And when Albus' eyes moved further down, he saw the same terrible marks on his legs as well.

"By Merlin's beard!" it escaped the older wizard, as Severus pulled the boy's underpants down a bit so that Albus could see the dilemma on his bum.

"Who did this to the boy?" he asked with anger in his otherwise calm voice and slowly he stepped closer, his eyes still fixed on the horrible marks that almost littered the boy's whole body.

"Who do you think it was?" Severus' asked, his voice trembling with anger and the potions master looked at him with an angry twinkle in his dark eyes.

A look, that made even Albus shudder.

"No...that...that can't be! It must have been a student, Severus, that can't..."

"Oh, stop it, Albus! It wasn't a student! What student would be able to do this if they weren't a bloody Death Eater? But...when I think about it…Not even a Death Eater would be so pathetic to do such a terrible thing to a child and I know what I'm talking about!" hissed the younger teacher and he carefully laid Harry back on his back and covered him with the blanket again to keep him warm.

"I also know that Minerva has expressed her concerns about this family enough times and what did you do about it? You didn't do anything about it and now see in what this ended! Is that what you think the love of blood relatives looks like? Probably not!"

"Severus, my boy, calm down."

"No, Albus! I am not calming down! How could you let this happen? I don't even want to know what they did to this boy while you didn't do anything about it! Just look at it! Is this the protection that you are always so convinced of?!"

The old wizard's eyes darkened and the piercing look he gave him caused Severus to fall silent instantly. He knew he had gone too far and, ashamed, he turned his face away from his mentor. Either way Albus did it, but in moments like these he made him feel like a little boy himself who had done something forbidden and was reprimanded for it.

"Forgive me. I didn't want to talk to you like that..."

A small smile appeared on Albus' lips, as he stepped forward and gently placed his hand on the young teacher's shoulder.

"It's all right, my boy. You are forgiven. Just please calm down and listen to me. Can you do that for me?"

Severus nodded his head and Albus led him into the adjoining small kitchen, so Harry would be out of earshot, should he wake up.

"I understand your anger. Believe me, Severus, I really do. And I can assure you of one thing: if I had known that Petunia and her husband treated young Harry like that, I would never have given him into their care. But I didn't know anything about it. I can assure you of that. Minerva always hinted at something, but she couldn't observe any abuse either and Mrs. Figg never said anything whenever Harry was with her. Apparently we were too blind to look behind the facade of the Dursleys and Harry seemed to have hidden it from our eyes a bit too good."

"Well, now you know and I hope that there will be consequences! Something like that must by no means go unpunished and if I take care of it myself!"

Albus look became hard and cold.

"I strongly advise against doing anything like that, Severus. I stood up for you and I hope you haven't forgotten that. Do you really want to do this and fall back into your old behavior?"

"I'm not saying that I would kill them, even if they deserved it!"

"Severus!"

"Okay, okay, Albus. I won't do anything, I promise. But still they should be punished! Severely punished! Child abuse is a terrible crime. In our world, as well as in the Muggle world. Just think about what it can do to a child's mind... "

He deliberately didn't finish the sentence and turned his face away from Albus in shame and the old wizard knew without any words what his young colleague meant by that, because once it was he too who had suffered greatly from domestic violence at the hands of his father.

"I will promise you that we will do something about it. Such a thing does not go unpunished. I will get in touch with Vernon and Petunia Dursley in due course and pay them a little visit."

"Fine. But what will happen to Potter in that time?"

The headmaster's eyes began to twinkle. Something Severus didn't like at all, because he knew that mischievous look way too well.

"Oh no. No, no, no! Absolutely no way, Albus! You can forget about that immediately!" he growled when the realization hit him like a bolt of lightning and he shrank back a little from the older wizard, who gave him a small, mischievous grin by now.

"But why not? You made the effort to get the boy here when you could have brought him to Poppy in the hospital wing. Or to Minerva."

Snape growled again and he narrowed his eyes to narrow slits and crossed his arms defiantly over his chest.

"First of all, Poppy isn't at Hogwarts. She's in St. Mungo's for an indefinite period of time, as you probably know. Second, I didn't want to wake Minerva at such a late hour, because she's been working a lot lately and besides, she would have asked me for help one way or another, so I took it into my own hands. Just don't imagine anything on it! He is and will be the offspring of James Potter and you know how I think about this!"

The twinkle in the blue eyes grew stronger and the small grin grew a bit more.

"And at the same time, he's the offspring of Lily Evans and I know how you thought about her..."

Severus blushed a bright shade of red and quickly turned his back on the Headmaster and to distract himself, he took a glass from his sideboard and filled it with tap water.

Amused, Dumbledore noticed that Snape's hands were shaking. So much, that he could barely hold the glass.

"I'm sorry, Albus, but I don't have time to take care of any small, arrogant, lazy wizarding students who think they are defying me in my own classes and breaking school rules by walking all alone through the school corridors at night!"

"You know as well as I do that this is not true. The boy is neither arrogant nor lazy. And if I recall it right, I also once knew a young wizard student who snuck out of his common room at night and wandered through the corridors..."

The blush on Severus' cheeks darkened a little and his muscles tensed, as he turned his head so that he could glare at Albus out of the corner of his eye.

"It was only once, Albus! Once!"

The broad grin, which now appeared on the face of the other wizard, made him grumble softly.

"Once is one time too much. It was also me who caught you trying to sneak up to the Gryffindor common room. Do you remember the punishment you received from me for that?"

Severus looked at him mockingly.

"How could I forget that..."

Back then he had been given detention for a whole evening. In Albus Dumbledore's office, where he had to clean it up. Which also included caring for the phoenix, that lived in the headmaster's office. It had taken him a long time to clean the office to Albus' full satisfaction and by the time he was finished, he was so exhausted that he fell asleep immediately after his head hit the pillow on his bed. Since then, he had never come across the idea of wandering through Hogwarts at night to visit Lily in secret ever again.

"Fawks has really liked you ever since. Maybe you should come by for a cup of tea from time to time?"

"No thanks, I will do without it. I still have some work to do. After all, the potions for the hospital wing don't brew themselves."

"There, there Severus. There are two weeks of vacation from tomorrow on and there is still enough of everything in the hospital wing. Even you can't have so much work to do that it takes a full two weeks. In addition, Christmas is just around the corner. Have a little fun, enjoy the good time and relax a little. As I have heard, miracles should happen at Christmas..."

"I know exactly what you're getting at, Albus. My answer is and remains no! I will not take care of this...this brat!"

The older man sighed and ran a hand across his face.

Severus could really be more stubborn than a hippogriff if he wanted to. But he also knew that there were methods to break even his iron-hard facade. You just had to know how to use them properly.

"Besides, the little pest isn't even in my house! Let McGonagall take care of her runaway lion..." he continued to complain.

Again that mischievous twinkle appeared in the older man's eyes and Severus shuddered when Albus crossed his arms over his chest and looked at him with a smug grin.

"What?" he grumbled annoyed.

"I think there is something you should know, my boy."

"Oh yes? And what could that be?"

The grin grew wider and the twinkle in the blue eyes grew stronger.

"Just the fact, that the Sorting Hat wanted to send Harry to Slytherin."

Severus almost choked on his water, when he wanted to take a sip from his glass at that moment. He looked at Dumbledore with an expression of sheer horror.

"What?!" he growled at him.

"You heard that right. You almost became his Head of House."

A tremendous shudder ran through his entire body, as he just imagined it.

A Potter in his house?

That would have been the icing on the cake...and the ultimate karma if he thought about it now.

He tried to regain his monotonous expression, but couldn't. The shock of what he had just heard was too deep and he had to digest it first.

"How do you know about this?"

The question was actually completely unnecessary, because Albus Dumbledore just knew about everything that was going on in his school. But he still wanted to hear it from his mouth.

"The boy told me."

"He could have lied!"

"He didn't, because the Sorting Hat has confirmed it to me."

Great. It just got better and better...

"Even if this is the case...then why did he go to Gryffindor?"

"Very simple, Severus: He wanted it that way. He told me he heard a lot of dark rumors about your house on the way here on the Hogwarts Express. He got scared and didn't want to go to Slytherin and asked the Sorting Hat to move him to another house. And so a little snake became a little lion."

The black-haired wizard was silent and the shock was still written on his face, but Dumbledore ignored this and kept talking.

"He also told me that he was scared of you."

A derogatory, almost mocking snort came from Severus' throat as these words reached his ears.

"Scared? Of me? Just because I taught him a little lesson in the first Potions class? Oh please…"

Dumbledore shot a warning glare into his direction.

"Be honest, Severus: it really wasn't a little lesson. It was a humiliation in front of the whole class and we both know that your behavior was very unreasonable that day and I hope that will not happen again."

Again the young teacher felt a burning sensation on his face as the blush crept back into his cheeks and he demonstratively turned his face away from the other wizard and mumbled something into his non-existent beard.

He winced, when Dumbledore suddenly stood directly in front of him and put a hand on his shoulder and gave it a gentle squeeze.

"Now would be the best opportunity for a fresh start. Get to know the boy better. Maybe you will even grow to like him?"

A loud laugh almost broke out of Severus' throat, but he stopped himself at the last moment.

"Me? Starting to like a Potter? Don't be ridiculous, Albus! I'd rather drown myself in one of my own cauldrons before it gets that far!"

The twinkle in Dumbledore's eyes was back immediately.

"Oh really? Well, then maybe you should go looking for a suitable cauldron."

"And why, in Merlin's name, should I do that?"

"Wasn't it you, who found the boy and brought him here? Wasn't it you, who worried about him? And wasn't it you, who called me here immediately after you saw how he was treated? For someone who hates this boy so much, you care a lot about him..."

"Y-you can't compare that!"

"No? I can not? And why not?"

"Because it is my duty as a teacher to take care of every student!"

"That may be true. But it is new to me that you take students with you and into your chambers, bed them on a comfortable sofa in front of your fireplace and worry so much about them. You can't fool me, my boy. You can pretend to be cold-hearted and strict, but I know what's underneath that hard facade of yours. Because I have seen the real Severus Snape years ago and I know that in here…" Albus pointed at Snape's chest with his index finger. "…beats a loving heart and not an ice block!"

Severus had the feeling his head was going to explode in shame any second. Every single, spoken word made it worse for him.

"Stop it, Albus..."

"Stop? With what? I'm just telling you the truth. You can still go stubborn and pretend to not care, but I know better. I see how you care for the boy and I also see a unique opportunity here for you and the young Mister Potter. Get to know each other better. I am very sure that he is in good hands with you. After all, he would be a part of your house in principle and don't you worry about all of your little snakes?"

"But I do not care about arrogant, little lions ..." Severus mumbled quietly to himself, vehemently avoiding eye contact with Dumbledore, who made the final blow with his next few words.

"I'm also very sure that you know how to deal with the boy. After all, it wouldn't be the first time, or am I wrong?"

He hardly dared to look at him when he asked what he meant by that, although he already suspected the answer to this question.

"I know from very reliable sources, that in your past you have often taken care of the young Mister Malfoy before he even came to Hogwarts."

His heart skipped a beat and the shock was written on his face, as he looked at Dumbledore.

"H-how do you know about that?"

The older one grinned broadly at him.

"Mister Lucius Malfoy told me when he was with us at Hogwarts. On behalf of the Ministry of Magic, of course. After his work was done, I invited him to my office and we must have forgotten the time when he started telling me about his son and how proud he was of him that he would soon be going to Hogwarts. And after I offered him a glass of Brandy, he told me about an old family friend, who happened to be teaching Potions here in Hogwarts and how much the young Mister Malfoy likes him and that said teacher had often taken care of him when his parents were out for a meeting and how much he enjoyed the time with his dear "Uncle Sev" and that..."

"Okay, okay, stop it, Albus, please!" The younger wizard growled with a bright red head.

It was so embarrassing that Albus knew of all of this and that he had been "babysitting" Draco several times. Why did Lucius have to tell him that? The next time he saw him, he would have to take him to the side and have a serious conversation with him...

"I do it! On the condition that you won't tell anyone about it!" Severus finally growled, as he gave in.

Albus grinned triumphantly at him, when he squeezed his shoulder again and the young potions master could only growl and roll his eyes, when the next words reached his ears and he could hear the sheer anticipation in them and he had the feeling his stomach was turning upside-down.

"I will not reveal anything to any soul. I give you my word for that. You will be doing great, my boy. I trust you."

Yes, of course, just as he always trusted in him...