A helping hand ~ By Moon-Ying

Disclaimer: me don't own. ^^;

~*~*~*~

Chapter 2

Memories in the Dark

Silence echoed around the house. Snape stood there in the doorway as stiff as a bored as though he were freeze too. The front door was wide open letting a night's breeze and the white light of the moon. Harry stared at the Potions Teacher for a full minute like one would stare at a wolf in a pink tutu, incredulity and disbelief etched into his face. But he suddenly squeezed his eyes closed and lowered his head to his chest. The tears came quickly and soon they were pouring down his face. Harry slowly buried his face in his arms and cried. He didn't care about Snape. To the hell with him! So what if he saw him cry?

It took Harry several minutes to calm down. Feeling sick to his stomach, he looked up and wiped the tears away from his swollen red eyes. With a sigh, he glanced at the doorway to see if the teacher had been a bad dream. Snape was still standing there. Still standing rigidly like a statue as his long black robes billowed before him in the night's small breeze. His dark eyes contained something that made Harry's blood turn cold.

"Why…why are you here?" Harry asked, a tremor in his voice.

Snape's eyes had once again turned a heartless midnight. "Gather your things, Potter. You are coming with me."

"What? How did you know to come…?" Harry stammered, his voice dying out. His throat tightened. He couldn't say anymore.

"Save your questions for later. Where are you things?"

Harry stared at Snape for a moment. His eyes were glowing with disbelief. Suddenly Harry shook his head; his eyes closed and he murmured, "Damned if you came to help me."

"What was that, Potter?" Snape's cold voice asked.

Harry pointed to the cupboard under the stairs. His hands were trembling. "Ever… everything is in there."

Snape nodded and moved forward, his lips curling in disgust as he glanced over Harry's uncle who was still frozen as if paused in a movie. Then he glanced at the cupboard and snapped his fingers. Immediately the small door flew open quickly as if by a powerful gust of wind. Along with the doors also came some dust and a few unfortunate spiders. One landed on Snape's shoulder. Snape only glanced at it momentarily before scoffing and flinging the spider away with a wave of his hand.

"Potter, how do you ever get your homework finished with your things stuffed in a place like this?" Snape asked. There was a condescending tone to his voice that Harry frowned at.

"I cram like hell on the train," Harry murmured sarcastically as he stumbled to his feet. His legs felt like Jell-O as he stood. Fearing that he might fall over again, he braced himself against the glass kitchen door and took several deep breaths.

Snape put his head inside the tiny cupboard. When he withdrew he had a look of repugnance on his face. "It's a very small place..."

Harry rolled his eyes. "Try sleeping in there for 10 years." Snape glanced at him, the abhorrence in his eyes mounting by every moment. Snape muttered something about muggles being stupider than oxen.

Suddenly Snape straightened up, pointed his wand at Harry's trunk and said, "Transportum." Within an instant, all of his things vanished in a cloud of black smoke and a loud pop. Harry's eyes grew in disbelief. After the smoke cleared, Snape turned to this uncle, grabbed Harry's wand from the stiff grip, and did a counter curse. Instantly his uncle was back. He blinked, looked at his empty hand, and slowly stood up.

"Good evening," Snape hissed in his ear.

Uncle Vernon jumped and spun around, face pale. Apparently he hadn't known that there was someone else in the room. "Who are you?" he stuttered as he glared weakly up at Snape. "How did you get in here? I'm…I'm calling the police!"

"Bloody slim chance that," Snape snickered into his uncle's face. "Potter, wait outside for me. I'll be there soon enough."

Standing where he was, Harry gawked at this uncle and then Snape. Only when Snape frowned at him and said, "Go!' much more forcefully did Harry walk around them. His legs felt like melted butter but he continued to walk until he was out of the house and surrounded by the night.

~*~*~*~

Harry was sitting on his doorsteps, arms-crossed over his chest and head in his lap. The night air made him shiver underneath the thin and frayed material of his pajamas. But he didn't dare go back in for his coat (that is if he even had a coat). He suffered through it, barely breathing, and wondering what Snape was doing to his uncle.

Nothing illegal, he hoped. But then again he didn't hear any screams or explosion. That was a gloomy plus, he mused with a frown as his finger's absentmindedly touched his scar. But he did wander what Snape was doing with his uncle. Why was Snape ever here? Why was he…being nice to Harry? How did he know to come? And what the hell where they doing?!

An image of Snape and his uncle having tea made Harry snicker. He remembered Neville turning a Boggart into the Potions master but wearing his grandmother's horrible green dress and bright red handbag with a very large and equally scary vulture hat. Harry laughed softly at the memory. Lupin had given Neville a chance to get back at Snape for all the times he had embarrassed the poor confused boy. In no time, everyone in the school knew about Boggart Snape in a dress.

"Your laughter at this point, concludes my notion that you have an exceptionally twisted sense of humor," a calm, hardly whispered voice behind him brought Harry's thought crashing back into reality.

It was Snape. He had been too occupied in his memories to hear the front door open or the quiet rustle of robes.

Harry jumped to his feet and spun around as quickly as his freezing limps would allow him. He immediately regretted the reaction. A wave of nausea washed over him, leaving him dizzy and sick to the stomach. He began to sway a bit and began to fall forward before Snape quickly intervened. The professor quickly sat Harry on the doorstep but he was too dizzy to say anything grateful (like he would sick or not).

Above him, Snape straightened up and pulled something out of his long black robe. His hand he held a small golden lighter and a pack of cigarettes. He pulled one out, held it between his index and middle fingers, and quickly lit the end with the lighter. When Harry heard the metallic snap of the lighter closing, he looked up, bewildered. He saw Snape smoking, deeply inhaling then exhaling a white cloud. Then he noticed that Snape's long white hands were trembling. His lips parted, brow furrowed with lines. But when Snape glanced down at him from the corner of him eye, Harry forced himself to look away.

Silence fell between them as the minutes began to pass more slowly now. Harry couldn't find his voice to speak, and Snape, he reckoned, wasn't in the mood to talk until he had finished his cigarette. He felt hurt and vulnerable now that his potions teacher had seen his family and house and had intervened in such an embarrassing moment. The fact was no one in their right mind wanted another person to see them about to be hit. It was…humiliating. It felt like Harry needed to give Snape an apology or something.

Finally Snape moved to drop his cigarette onto the pavement and stub it out with the toe of his boot. Harry bit his lip and looked up, meeting Snape's violent black eyes. He quickly looked away.

"What did you do to him?"

"Nothing that concerns you," Snape replied, his voice cold.

"I…I…" Harry began to apologize before he knew what he was doing.

"There is no need to say anything," Snape cut in almost harshly. "I believe I understand perfectly."

"How could you understand everything perfectly?!" Harry spat out in outrage, glaring up at his teacher. "Why are you here?!"

Snape didn't say anything for a moment. His eyes were still violent as he met Harry's angry glare. A muscle in his cheek twitched furiously.

"I have yet again saved you hide, Potter, and can you not find it in you to speak your gratitude? You should be on bended knee…"

"Oh shut up," Harry murmured, putting his face in his hands. Much was his desire to scream at Snape's unbelievably large ego it was difficult to scream with tears in your eyes. Harry took a deep breath to calm himself. His eyes stung like they were on fire.

"So…what happens next?" Harry whispered. His throat was dry and aching ache from refusing the urge to cry.

Snape shifted. "I'm taking you away from this damned house," he told Harry, his voice hard. Snape angrily ran a hand through his long black hair and murmured, "Some night this turned out to be, Potter…If I had been you I would have killed him."

The chill in Snape voice squeezed his heart. Harry looked down at the walkway underneath him feet. "I wanted to," he whispered softly. "I really wanted to." He shook his head, standing up quickly. "Why did I want to kill him?!" he screamed. At his side, his hands were curled up into tight balls. "This is bloody crazy! I wanted to kill him! Kill?!"

Snape stared down into his angry face, his own unusually sad for a brief moment. "The darkness in your soul is growing," he slowly told him.

"The what?"

"Much to my loathing to say it, Potter, you and I have a very distinct bond…"

Harry scoffed. I have a bond with Voldemort, he thought, but I'll be damned if I have a bond with you.

"Slytherins always have darkness in the souls, urging them to come to the dark," Snape continued, glaring at him from the corner of his eye. "The Sorting hat noticed the darkness in your soul and almost put you in Slytherin but it also noticed something different about you. You didn't want to acknowledge the dark in you. But you should know it is in you know, Potter. You can't run from it forever. It's impossible because sooner or later it will become a part of you."

"So you are saying all this rage inside of me is just darkness?" Harry slowly asked.

Snape only nodded.

Harry rolled his eyes. "Oh, I'm so relieved! For a moment I thought it was just puberty!"

Snape frowned and continued, "Your magic has also acted up as a cause of this darkness your soul."

Harry started at the Potions master, his mouth halfway open. "How did you…"

Snape shrugged. "What is happening to you is natural so don't cry about it…"

"I don't cry," Harry murmured in spite of himself. Snape glanced at him at the corner of his eye again and snickered almost maliciously.

"Shut up," Harry muttered, frowning.

"But living like you are now without proper checks is very dangerous. You haven't been watching yourself but I can see that this fault lies on the teachers at Hogwarts, me especially."

"You? What are you talking about?"

"No one has taught you any spells or protection in case of your magic acting on its own free will. The ones I'm talking about aren't illegal to perform in the muggle world, just severely cautioned. Any way I say that I am mostly responsible for you, much to my dignity, is that from the first time I say you I knew there was darkness in you and I knew that this would happen-your magic performing in ways you never asked it to perform. Yet I refused to help you."

Harry was shocked into silence. Without saying anything, he stared up at Snape. Snape only glanced at him before walking slowly down the pavement. Harry followed him but at a safe distance with a bewildered look to his eyes. The night made him shiver but Snape's words made him frozen.

"Refused to help me?" he echoed. "Then someone else should have helped…right?"

Snape stopped and looked over his shoulder. "Everyone though that your were too young to try and help. Normally a wizard like you will feel the darkness stir within them around the age of seventeen and later. There has never been a case recorded in which magic began to perform like this in a younger wizard or witch…. But you aren't a normal wizard, now are you?" Snape laughed softly. He slowly raised his right arm and carefully pulled pack the long black sleeve.

Harry gasped as Snape showed him his forearm. On it was a gray, but visible, tattoo of a skull with a snake coming out of its open mouth. The Death Eater's tattoo of the Dark Lord.

Snape glanced down at the mark and sighed. "He is becoming more powerful as the days go by, Potter. Your darkness is restless because of him. As light draws the light, so does darkness."

"But…but if he was still weak," Harry murmured, "my magic would still act up when I reached 17?"

Snape nodded. "Because it is still apart of you, Potter."

"Can I get rid of it?" Harry asked eagerly. "Is there a spell or something that can take the darkness away?"

"We should go," Snape suddenly spoke up. His eyes glanced around the muggle houses and the street. "It's not safe to talk in a such an open place. Even rats have ears to hear and a mouth to speak. Come."

He turned to the street and quickly walked away, his robes drifting out like angry black clouds. Harry stared after him for a moment, confusing washing over him like the wind, before running after him. Finally Snape stopped at the darkness part of the street and turned to Harry.

"To get to where we need to go, just pointed your wand at yourself and say 'transportum'. Understand?"

Harry nodded and pulled out his wand. "What if I get lost?" he asked, remembering the time he was Floo powder and ended up at the darker corner in Diagon Alley where things for the Dark Arts were sold.

"You won't," Snape told him quickly as he pointed at the nearest street light with his wand. He murmured something under his breath and the light went out. "Now go."

Harry bit his lower lip and glanced at Snape as he raised his wand to his chest. "Trans…Transportum."

Immediately a loud pop filled his ears and a black smoke surrounded him. He coughed as he breathed it in and fell to his knees, struggling for his breath. A dizzy feeling hit him as he felt himself hurled through time and space, wondering if he was going the right place. Harry was blind as a bat as he transported. But it was cold wherever he was, cold and damp.

Suddenly everything stopped and Harry landed on his side on a piece of wet grass with a murmured 'oof'. He lay there on the ground, eyes closed, as he exhaled deeply. The smell of putrefied decay hit him like a ton of bricks and his stomach quivered. He began to choke, his heart pounding wildly in his ears. He quickly mused that transportation on broom was the easily and less painful way to travel by wizard means.

After a moment Harry opened his eyes and all he saw was darkness. He blinked and sat up almost lightheaded, his fingers moving across his face. His glasses were gone. They must have fallen off when he landed. His hands immediately flew to the wet ground and began a search completely blind. He found them in little time and quickly placed them back.

With a little groan he got to his knees. Even with his glasses it was dark. And utterly quiet. Where was Snape? Harry reached for his wand but all he grasped was air. Bloody hell, he must have lost that too when he landed. With a heavy sigh, harry got on all fours and rummaged across the slick lawn for his wand. This time it was much harder to find.

In his mounting impatience he began to crawl in circles and before he knew it, rammed headfirst into something solid and hard. Harry groaned and quickly rubbed his head with his hands. What in the world was that? After the hot pain had lessened Harry cautiously moved his hands ahead, palm forward and fingers pointing to the black sky. A rocky stone quickly scratched the surface of his hands. Harry frowned and traced the thing with his hands. The sides were rough but cut and in the middle were deep ridges, some cured and some were straight and some were deeper than others were. What could it be? Harry's hand moved lower to the ground where the stone came from. A long piece of wood caught his attention. It was his wand.

With a little smile, Harry snatched it up and murmured, "Lumos." The wand was pointing down so at first he only saw the ground, green grass slick with dew and glowing with the light of the wand. Then he slowly moved it up over the gray stone and to the ridges that his fingers had found.

Lily Harriette Potter

1955-1981

26 years old

And when the day arrives,

I'll become the Sky and

I'll become the Sea

He was in a graveyard.

A small screamed filled his ears. For a moment he didn't know where it came from. Then it came to him. He was screaming. Tears burned his eyes and Harry quickly fell to his bottom in a benumbed panic and pushed himself away from the grave. It was his mum's grave! How could it be? He was gasping almost hysterically for breath despite the foulness in the air before his back collided with another grave.

Harry spun around on his knees before his mind could tell him to run. His wand was still glowing like a torch and, as he flung it around, saw the letters and the dates marking that stone.

James 'Prongs' Potter

1954-1981

27 years old

And the Sea will come

To kiss me

For I am going home

Harry closed his eyes and tightened his mouth, wrapping his arms around his middle as a terrible pain ripped him apart. Instantly he saw the green light and heard his mum scream for mercy. Oh God. Mum! Dad! Then he heard that high pitched laughter and started to tremble with rage. Voldemort. Next he saw the blast that was meant to kill him followed but a scream of outrage and agony.

Following that he saw his godfather in chains, his hands locked behind him. He was in a gloomy courtroom. He was screaming that he didn't kill James and Lily, that he was innocent. He screamed until his voice was hoarse. Tears were falling down his twisted face. Sirius Black. So young but sent to Azkaban for a lifetime for murder.

The gloomy scene shifted again. He saw a funeral. There were two black caskets, facing each other. Around them were witches and wizards, red eyed and silent and dressed in heavy black robes. In the midst of them, he saw Remus Lupin. His head was down and his face was deathly pale. The wizards and witches began to move away but Remus refused to go with them. Instead he moved forward and fell to his knees, looking up at the gloomy sky with a face twisted in pain and betrayal. Then he buried his face in his hands and wept.

Harry's eyes flew open and he struggled to his feet. He could still hear the screams and sobs in his head.

"No!" he screamed, doubling over once more. "No!"

Suddenly he bolted up, tearing glowing in his eyes. He turned and fled.