When Help is Needed

PG 13 (for dark themes and action/adventure violence)

Disclaimer: I have nothing! No sue! No sue!

Note: This isn't a Kate the Great challenge because Snape's Harry's father. But other than that, it goes with the whole thing of Suicidal Harry. I don't know the rules for Severitus' challenge, but this will just have the same elements as the Severitus' challenge responses. Please don't kill me.

Note 2: YOU PEOPLE NEED TO UPDATE YOUR ANGSTY Harry-is-depressed-and-cuts- or-attempts-suicide fics! Please and thank you! ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Chapter 1: First Attempt at Escape

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*Parseltongue*

"Speech"

'Thoughts'

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He looked around at his surroundings, surprised and horrified to find himself back in the graveyard where all those horrendous events happened just a few months ago, at the end of last term.

He was, however, shaken from his thoughts by a sharp pain in his skull and a gathering of masked and robed figures bowing to one figure as it twirled its wand in its fingers lazily.

"Any news, my faithful Death Eaters?" Voldemort hissed.

They all shook their heads shamefully.

"Well, I again confess that I am truly disappointed in you all. I always managed to convince myself that I had competent followers at least. I guess I was wrong," he commented dryly as he picked out a random Death Eater and ordered listlessly, pointing his wand, "Crucio." ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Harry bolted upright in his four-poster bed, relieved to find himself in his dorm at Hogwarts. His breathing didn't even out for a moment, and the pain in his forehead even longer. He sighed, digging through his trunk for his Swiss Army Knife; once he found it, he sighed again in relief as he found a towel and sliced across his left forearm.

Relief and pleasure mixed with stinging pain rushed forward as blood trickled down his arm and onto the towel. After about two minutes, he decided to stop the blood flow, put his knife, and towel away.

He quietly settled into his bed once again and fell asleep, his first peaceful night in ages.

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The next morning, Harry woke earlier than all of his dorm-mates and he supposed that was a good thing; he wouldn't have to get dressed in his bed to hide the scars.

He quickly slipped on his robes and padded silently down to the Great Hall, where he found Hermione munching on a piece of toast and rereading "Hogwarts: A History". She didn't notice him until he sat down.

"Hey, Harry," she greeted distractedly, not removing her eyes from the book.

"Hi, Hermione. What's so interesting?" He asked, helping himself to a couple pieces of bacon and a pancake.

"Oh, nothing." She closed the book and looked at him, gasping. He was getting paler by day, it seemed. She hadn't really paid attention to it before, but now it was so pronounced that she wondered - no, knew! - that he was anemic. (anemic/anemia = when you have not very much blood because yeah. I used to have it where I had a 3.4 blood count and you're supposed to have like at least 12 or something. Very dangerous thing to have to not have many red blood cells.)

"Hermione? Are you okay?" Harry frowned, waving a hand in front of her face, which seemed to snap her out of it.

"Oh. nothing. I just remembered something. Be right back!" she picked up her book and left, leaving behind a very confused Harry.

Hermione, however, wasn't the only one who noticed that Harry was unnaturally pale. Dumbledore and McGonagall watched him, concern etched on their faces. McGonagall passed Dumbledore a face that clearly stated "teachers' meeting" and left after he nodded.

Harry finished and stood up, swaying a bit. He wondered why he felt so dizzy and classified it as getting up too fast when it passed. He walked out of the Great Hall, not noticing Dumbledore's worried expression become grave. He didn't know about the Muggle way of self-injury, he only knew there was something deathly wrong with Harry. He didn't know how true that was....

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Harry stumbled dizzily into his dorm and collapsed onto his four- poster, allowing blackness to cloud his vision.

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Hermione and Ron walked back to Gryffindor Tower, Hermione telling Ron her concerns about Harry. When they finally got there, they couldn't find him anywhere.

"I'll see if he's in the dorm. Besides. I have to get my book for Divination." He emphasized the word "Divination" with a scowl.

Hermione also scowled, lecturing him on how Trelawney was a fake and why he should drop the class just like she did.

Ignoring Hermione, Ron rushed into the boys' dorm, where he saw Harry lying on the bed with the curtains open, pale as death. Naturally, Ron began to panic; he was, after all, his best friend.

"Harry!" he yelled, rushing to Harry's bed and shaking him.

"Hermione!" Ron yelled downstairs.

"Did you find Harry?" she responded, rushing up the stairs.

"Yeah! Go get McGonagall or Dumbledore or - just - get SOMEONE!"

"Why?" she stopped in the doorway, Harry's curtains blocking him from her view.

"Just go!" He rushed, pushing her out of the doorway, and she wondered what was so obviously important.

Ron began pacing the floor tirelessly, waiting for someone, anyone, to help his friend.

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Hermione raced through the halls, looking for anyone to help - mainly Dumbledore or McGonagall, but anyone who could help with whatever freaked Ron out would do.

Finally, she caught sight of Dumbledore's office and stopped, relieved. Now, the only problem was guessing the password. She remembered something Harry told her once that passwords followed a pattern of his favorite candies, so she began to guess.

"Lemon Drop!" No response.

"Fizzing Whizzbies!" she went on for a while before it either took pity on her or someone was coming out of the office.

She was relieved and surprised when Dumbledore stepped out of his office followed by a big black dog.

"Hi, Snuffles," she greeted, flustered from both worry and running, not to mention frustration.

"Miss Granger, what is the problem?" Dumbledore asked calmly. It was then that Hermione was reminded of her mission.

"Professor Dumbledore sir! You HAVE to come to the boys' dormitories! NOW!"

"What is the problem?" he responded, while Sirius a.k.a. "Snuffles" barked at her.

"I don't know! We were looking for Harry so Ron went to look for him in the boys' dorms and then started yelling at me to get you and here I am, ten minutes later."

Something clicked inside his head when he heard the name 'Harry' and he left for Gryffindor Tower at a brisk walk, Hermione and Snuffles trailing after, Hermione exhausted and worried, Sirius lost in his own worried thoughts.

They were brought out of their thoughts by Dumbledore's voice. "Did you notice anything strange about him or his behavior lately?"

"Well, sir. Over the summer he seems to have withdrawn from us, though I'm not sure as I haven't seen him since last term," she answered thoughtfully. "Also, he's been getting paler over the last few weeks."

Snuffles seemed to have gotten an alarmed look on his dogface along with Hermione and Dumbledore. Everything added up together and they quickened their already fast pace.

When they arrived at the Fat Lady, she greeted Dumbledore and opened. Thankfully, people were already in classes and not in the common room. They charged up the stairs to the 5th year dormitories, stopped, and watched as Ron stood by Harry's bed, pleading.

"Harry! Harry, c'mon, wake up! You can't die! Just wake up!"

Hermione lost all control and let loose a sob. "Ron?" she asked hesitantly. "Is he dead?"

Ron shook his head. "I don't know."

"How can you NOT KNOW? It's as simple as that!" She touched his neck in search of a pulse. "Yes!" she exclaimed when she found a weak one. "He's alive, but barely."

"You two should go to classes," interrupted a forgotten Dumbledore. "We can take him to the Hospital Wing."

"But Professor -" Ron began, but was interrupted by Professor Dumbledore.

"I am sure Professor Snape will be quite annoyed if you are any more late. When he asks, inform him you and I had some business."

"Yes sir," replied Hermione. She dragged Ron out of the room muttering something about 'Harry' and 'homework'.

Checking that it was all clear, Sirius changed back and rushed to his godson's bedside, resting a hand on Harry's forehead. "My god, Albus. Is it a good sign for him to be cold like this?"

"If he was dead, no, but otherwise, it signifies a great loss of blood. If he has been cutting himself, I suspect he either cuts very deeply or this has been going on for years; maybe both combined."

"Oh my god, Albus! I'm such a bad godfather! How could I have NOT noticed?!" Sirius cried, holding his head in his hands.

"This is not the time for self-blame. We must get him to the Infirmary." With that, he conjured a stretcher and levitated Harry onto it. He then turned to Sirius. "Maybe you should change back now?"

"Oh. Right." With that, he changed back to Snuffles and trailed along to the Hospital Wing.

Once they got there, Madame Pomfrey was ready to have a heart attack. "Miss Granger and Mr. Weasley informed me you were bringing Mr. Potter; what has he gotten himself into NOW?" Once she saw him, however, she gasped. "What happened to him?"

"We only have our theories. We haven't actually proved them."

"Well, hurry up! Put him here!" she commanded, gesturing to a bed.

She then buzzed about administering potions galore and then, almost an hour later, she finished. "Well, before you ask, I had to give him a blood transfusion and a bunch of other potions; the main ones were a healing potion and dreamless sleep. He has multiple cuts on his arms and wrists and many scars from earlier cuts and scars on his back which look to be belt marks. He shouldn't wake up for another day or so."

"Will he be okay?" Dumbledore inquired.

"Physically, yes. Emotionally, well, you tell me."

"Can his godfa - dog stay?"

"Yes, Mr. Black may stay."

Snuffles' eyes bugged out (very strange for a dog) with shock and changed back. "You - you know?"

"Of course I do. I listen more to my patients than ignorant ministry workers!" she replied indignantly.

"Who else knows?"

"I'm not really sure, but you can trust me."

"Thanks!" with that, he turned back and hopped onto the foot of Harry's hospital bed, awaiting his wake up.

Albus silently slipped out with Madame Pomfrey to her office. "Poppy?" she turned around, startled. "May I use your fireplace?"

"Oh! Sure! Go ahead; I'll just be in the other room if you need me!" with that, she went out to the infirmary again.

"Severus Snape!" he yelled, throwing in a pinch of strange powder. A very annoyed Professor Snape's head appeared.

"What is it this time, Albus? I hope you can explain why you kept two of my students from class and maybe you can explain where Mr. Potter is?" he demanded with a scowl.

"That's what I wanted to talk to you about. Have you noticed anything strange about him lately?"

"No, truly I haven't. I've been to worried about how he'll take it."

Dumbledore sighed in exasperation. "Will you please get Remus and meet me here in the infirmary?"

The scowl on Severus' face was replaced by a concerned look, but as quickly as it was there, it was gone, replaced by his trademark sneer. "Fine. Why can't you just walk down to the DADA room?"

"There are matters here that require my attention." He once again sighed tiredly and Snape's mask fell.

"I'll see what I can do."

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He stalked into the Defense Against the Dark Arts classroom, a scowl once again adorning his face. "LUPIN!" he roared, and from a door on the left came Remus Lupin.

"Severus, is there a problem?"

Severus sighed in annoyance. "C'mon, Werewolf! We are 'requested' in the Infirmary."

"By who?"

At this time, Severus Snape was becoming quite annoyed and released an almost audible growl. "Who doesn't matter, but if you must know, it's Albus' request that I 'escort' you to the Hospital Wing."

"Is something the matter?"

"Come with me and we'll soon find out!" He pulled Remus from the classroom and dragged him, still asking questions, to the Hospital Wing.

They arrived to find a somber looking Albus Dumbledore sitting on a chair.

"Severus, Remus. if you two would please sit down?" they sat. "You two need to talk to Harry as only you can truly understand him now."

Severus' scowl deepened at the thought. "You expect me to talk to Harry?! What if he finds out? What if I blurt it out? I'm not ready yet! What if someone finds things strange? What if Voldemort finds out?"

"Severus. maybe if you were to talk to him you would find him understanding."

"Why do we need to talk to him?" Remus asked, before Severus could make some foolish 'what if' again.

"It seems he has developed the same habit you both had when you were his age."

Remus' face went pale and Severus forgot about the mask of ice he always wore, but suddenly realized it and replaced it.

Just in case someone could overhear them, he needed to act on the charade as always. Sighing, Severus put on a sneer. Everyone except Madame Pomfrey knew the truth and any person who was eavesdropping. "So you mean to tell me that The Great Harry Potter is suicidal? Ha! Why would he waste his 'precious' life when he is nothing but pampered?"

Then, Poppy decided to let herself in on this nice little conversation. "Severus, maybe if you had all the facts, you would know that in truth he is or was abused. So, it's no wonder he cuts himself!"

If possible, Remus went even paler and Severus became quite ashamed at having to keep up his charade with the misconceptions he once believed.

With silent vows to help him get better no matter what the cost, they returned to their classrooms for the last class of the day.