Thank you for everyone sticking with me through this and all of your reviews of each chapter help so much. it is greatly appreciated. This has now been re-uploaded, hopefully with a little better grammar etc. To reply to your review Millie072, I do not have a beta, all my editing is done by myself. This is no excuse but my mh is pretty bad atm so mistakes will happen. I'm hoping this version of this chapter is a bit better. Thank you for your positive review I really enjoyed reading it :)
Chapter 17 - Never In My Life
A blue dog came into Severus Snape's office that afternoon, stopping in the middle of the room and saying no more than three words. "Headmasters office asap" it then left the room leaving Severus very concerned knowing that the patronus was none other than Healer Richards, and that must mean harry was in trouble. Severus finished marking the paper he was working on put his quill down before exiting the office and walked as fast as he could to the headmaster's office.
Just outside the office, Severus bumped into the worried healer who was pacing back and forth obviously not wanting to go up to the office. He had never seen the healer like this, which made him even more worried. Severus did not know what to do as he approached the young man so he stood there until the healer noticed him.
"Severus am I glad to see you"
"What has happened?"
"I can't describe, well I have no words, and it would be easier to show you. I know the headmaster has a pensive"
"Right, let's go up to the office" replied Severus calmly "Sherbet Lemon" the gargoyle jumped aside and the pair stepped onto the stairs up to the office and with permission from the headmaster the pair headed into the office.
"Ah Severus, Gareth what a lovely surprise, what do I owe the pleasure for this time?"
Gareth was still replaying his time with Harry as he summoned up the courage to speak to the man who did not check on the boy while he was with his relatives. Alternatively, if he did actually check that would be worse. "I have a memory to show you headmaster and Severus. I would prefer to not talk about anything until you have seen the memory. May I have permission to show you in the pensive?"
"Of course my boy, let me just remove my own and you can add yours" the headmaster smiled as he summoned the pensive onto the desk and removed two blue strands of water like string and deposited them into a flask. Gareth then extracted one from his forehead with the use of his wand. Gareth did not want to see it all again but for the sake of Harry he did and invited both Severus and the headmaster in with him.
All three stood in the comfortable looking room Harry sat in the chair attempting to talk opposite Gareth looking rather tired, skinny and upset. "Freaks do not deserve rooms, freaks deserve cupboards and Dudley must be kept happy or I'll be punished. He is no friend, freaks don't have friends" Harry them clasped his hand to his mouth, his chest was breathing hard, tears streamed down the going boys face. His emerald eyes looked as if Gareth was holding a knife getting ready to stab him. His pupils narrowed and looked petrified. The young boy ran to the corner of the room made himself as small as possible hands over his head and started shouting "DONT HURT ME DONT KILL ME ILL BE GOOD!" The young boy cried. The Gareth they were observing was trying to reach out to the boy but Harry flinched away. Gareth kept trying by the boy kept shouting, crying and flinching.
Gareth had had enough and pulled the other two out of the pensive. Both were looking place and shocked. Dumbledore put the pensive away and gestured both to sit down.
"Before any of you say anything the conversation before was about his cousin. Harry was obviously was having a flashback, I dread to think what he was seeing, and I don't think it was just his cousin there is a bigger player in this and I think it's his uncle. The only sensible way to confirm this is to go and see his uncle in his own home and see how he reacts to things. But, I am not letting Harry relive that trauma. Not until he is ready and that will be a while," said Gareth
"No child should ever cower in fear to an adult; no child should completely break down in matter of seconds of revealing a tiny bit of their home life. No child should call themselves a freak or anything negative and no child should ever feel like they don't deserve anything positive" stated Severus in a monotone obviously shocked.
"How do we know it wasn't just his cousin I mean there is no evidence. Maybe he was making it up for attention or maybe it was just a dream?" Albus explained
"ALBUS DUMBLEDORE! HAVE YOU EVER SEEN A CHILD ACT LIKE THAT? SHOULD ANY CHILD HAVE TO GO THROUGH THAT? NO, JUST BECUSE HE IS YOUR GOLDEN BOY AND THE ONE TO DEFEAT THE DARL LORD DOESNT MEAN HE IS NOT STILL A CHILD. NO CHILD SHOULD EVER BE PUT IN THIS SITUATION. IF YOU ARE UNABLE TO SEE THAT LET ME SORT IT OUT LET ME PROTECT LILYS SON. I MADE A PROMISE THAT I'M TRYING TO KEEP. YOU BROKE YOURS YOU SAID YOU WOULD PROTECT HER AND HIM. WITHOUT THIS ALL LILY WOULD BE ALIVE AND THAT BOY, THAT INNOCENT BOY WOULD NEVER HAVE HAD TO GO THOUGH THIS!" Severus shouted
Albus Dumbledore was stunned into silence. Severus Snape never lost his temper, he had never seen the potions master react like that or show so much emotion. Gareth had his hand on Severus back trying to calm the man. Gareth looked shocked and disappointed in the headmaster.
"Professor Dumbledore, all I am going to ask now is if you can help Harry now, remove him from the Dursleys care, make a promise to do things for him and make sure he is safe with someone who loves him for who he is. The blood wards don't work if he can't say that place is home and from my knowledge Hogwarts is his home. The blood wards have failed, failed since last year. We can get justice for Harry. In addition, if you want we can go and talk to them and observe the problem. However, please promise the boy will be safe from now on. Or unfortunately I will have to go to the ministry about child negligence"
"Yes Gareth I will remove him from the Dursley's care. All I need is for someone to take the guardianship over temporarily"
"Gareth is this against your policy? Can you take the guardianship?"
"It is against my policy Severus I am sorry"
"Headmaster you know my commitments and connections make it unsafe to have Harry in my care" continued Severus "As I have said before, he can see right through anything, it's easy when it's one of my snakes but Harry, if the dark lord returns will be in grave danger. There must be some way to keep him safe, temporarily a least he's at Hogwarts we have time"
"There is a way if you Gareth would like the responsibility, it can only be temporary if you wanted too Gareth" said Dumbledore suddenly
"How I do not see it being appropriate, I being a person of responsibility with a minor that I have been helping for counselling reasons" Gareth then thought about his situation, he would never be able to have kids because he had untreated dragon pox as a kid leaving him with that problem. His fiancé was sad to know he could have kids and they were thinking of adopting this could be perfect so he replied "however if it was possible, I would gladly accept permanent guardianship of course I would need to talk to the family first" replied Gareth with a small smile. They were finally getting through to the headmaster.
"I can raise this at the next Wizengamot ask all attendees a wizard's oath and explain the situation. Any decision by the Wizengamot as you know cannot be overridden by any authority the head of St Mungo's will be attending also and should be able to make it possible" explained the headmaster.
"We will have to get Harrys consent and also talk to the Dursley's before doing that though" replied Gareth "I can do both those things when Harry wakes up tomorrow after that we can have another meeting will you be free tomorrow night?"
"Yes the office is completely free from 5.30," replied Dumbledore.
"I have to run a detention at 6.30. Depending on how many students I have I will let you know" Gareth nodded.
"I will leave you both here. I am going to check on Harry. We will continue this conversation tomorrow" both the men nodded at Gareth as he turned around and left the room. Gareth found it hard to believe what had just happened, would he be able to care for the boy properly... did he actually love the boy did he treat him any more different than the usual patient? Was it inappropriate? No, he was just doing his job.
Soon he was back in the room of requirement the young boy was fast asleep on the bed. His shirt had slipped up slightly; red marks littered the boys back. Gareth was shocked but at least now he had the opportunity to change this boy's life and this was the final straw, he was going to help this boy and get some justice for him. No one else is going to hurt him anymore. Gareth sent a patronus off to his fiancé with a message explaining everything. Gareth was getting ready for bed when a dog patronus came into the room and spoke softly "I think this will be perfect for our family". Gareth smiled as he got into bed, things were looking up.