Hi!! Since you were all so nice and reviewed (21 in twenty hours, that is so trippy cool!), I typed this up really quickly for you. It hasn't been checked or read by anyone else, so it is rough. I had to get it up now though, because this is the last week of school for two weeks, and I can't update at home. *pout* Hi to all the gang (You know who you are).
Chapter Two
Professor Snape, Potions Master, Teacher at Hogwarts, Head of Slytherin, was currently walking down Privet Dive and asking the universal question-'Why am I here?'
"I knew I shouldn't have gone into the office as soon as I heard Granger and Weasley, but no, curiosity just had to get the better of me. I didn't even know I'd agreed to this until I was halfway out the door…it should be McGonagall here, not me…trust Potter not to turn up…trust his stupid friends to get worried…trust Dumbledore to think he needed an escort…" Snape was grumbling something along these lines when someone came crashing into him. It was a woman with an abnormally long neck. An extremely fat boy was following her. Snape pulled out his wand and was about to wipe their memories of him when the woman started babbling.
"Wizard, you're a wizard! Quick, he's in there with him and he's got a gun!" The woman started to push him up a path leading to a house.
"Who?" Snape said, feeling slightly confused.
"HARRY!"
"Harry's got a gun?" forget confused, Snape was well and truly bewildered by now.
"Just get in there!" She pushed Severus into the house. He walked into a room just in time to see Harry struggling to stand, and a large, beefy man backhand him into a wall. He fell to the floor with a sickening thud, and Severus knew with a grim certainty that Harry would not stand up again. However, Harry was shifting, and slowly, oh so slowly, stood. He held himself straight and tall and slowly looked up. Snape gagged as he saw the bruises and blood that was flowing out of several cuts on Harry's face. The thing that shocked Severus the most though were his eyes. They were dull, but held a glint of angry determination that Severus was sure he would not have had if he were the same age and in the same position as Harry. Hell, he would have bee shaking and screaming in abject terror.
"Have you learnt your lesson yet, boy?" The ton in the man's voice said quite plainly that he did not care if he had or not. Severus was sure that this was the case.
"Lesson? What lesson?" Harry asked in an innocently surprised tone. "I wasn't aware that you were teaching one, Vernon."
"You will learn to show some respect, you piece of dung!" Vernon screamed, spittle flying out of his mouth. Harry laughed suddenly, a hoarse, hacking sound that had absolutely no humour in it at all.
"Respect, Vernon? Oh, I respect a lot of people. My friends, for putting up with everything that knowing me entails, Neville Longbottom for living the kind of life he does and not complaining or seeking pity. Dumbledore for being able to find some good in everyone, McGonagall for her fairness, heck, even Snape for turning away from what Voldemort offered and working for Dumbledore, even though it could cost him his life! And yes Vernon, they are wizards!"
Snape jerked in surprise as Harry named him, then flinched as he said You-Know-Who's name. Vernon's face had become a mottled red and purple colour. And he quickly pulled the gun the lady had been yelling about from his belt, and leveled it at Harry's head.
"You're gone, boy," he growled.
Everything seemed to slow down for Snape. He pulled out his wand and yelled the Disarming Charm, and at the same time Harry screamed in rage and pain, and Vernon went flying against the wall. But the trigger had already been pulled, and the bullet was flying towards Harry. Amongst all the jumbled thoughts in Severus' head, one rang clear as a bell.
'Crud. Dumbledore's going to go spare."
Harry went cross-eyed for a second, trying to follow the path of the bullet. He felt a slight breeze pass by his ear, and turned to stare at the new hole in the wall beside his head.
"Oh…" was all he said, before turning and focusing on the figure by the door. He identified it as Snape, who was looking inexplicably angry. A single thought occurred to Harry, as darkness rose to claim him.
"Damn. Haven't done potions homework…" he muttered as he toppled over.
