Harry Potter: Child Protection Steps In

Author's notes: Snape forced into a parental role is a very popular topic in the fandom, and I love many of those stories. The man sometimes does better in this role, sometimes worse, but invariably Harry and Snape develop a rapport and a close emotional bond that makes a family unit. In this story, my aim is to suggest a fostering situation that is not altogether wholly successful. Story will contain scenes of corporal punishment, and a suggestion that it is more widely spread and accepted in the wizarding world than we may infer from the books. Finally, I'm not abandoning my other Harry Potter story, I'm just in the mood for teenager Harry instead.

1. Picking up Strays

As the purple triple-decker appeared on the busy London street with a bang of magic and a screech of brakes, the dark figure in the shadows stepped forward into the light of a street lamp. He was a tall man with shoulder-length black hair, clad in a long billowing robe of unrelenting black that hugged his thin form. The man's appearance was a little odd on the muggle side of London, and the passers-by gave him a wide berth.

Severus Snape watched as the bus's door opened and the young conductor backed out of it, carrying one end of a student trunk. His face twisted with fury when his eyes fixed on the messy-haired teenager who stepped out next. The brat looked around him warily as if he expected aurors to swoop at any moment with an arrest warrant. Unfortunately for the both of them, it would be him rather than some mindless drone from the Law Enforcement Division, who was given a thankless job of Potter keeper.

Snape pressed his mouth into an angry line, he was not pleased that his summer plans had been interrupted, but in all honestly he couldn't blame the spoiled brat entirely for the series of unfortunate developments that made his evening errand unavoidable. Even so, Severus fully intended to exact a painful retribution for the little idiot's irresponsible behaviour. With this ominous thought, he cut off Potter's goodbyes to the older boy.

"Mr. Longbottom will be coming with me," he said mockingly, using the brat's pathetic attempt at disguise.

Potter jumped and whirled around at the sound of his voice, his eyes growing wide as saucers.

"Professor Snape! What are you-,"

Before the brat could finish speaking, Severus gripped his arm in a vice-like grip, and, noting that his other hand clutched the handle of his trunk, twisted about into the suffocating sensation of apparition, leaving the young conductor of the Knight Bus to gape open-mouthed at the empty space they had just occupied.