It was a rainy, dark, moonless night and nothing moved on the street known as Privet Drive.
In Number Four two men, both porky, were staring at a television screen. Their eyes were glued to whatever was on (the details of which we shall not go into). In the kitchen, a bony, horse-faced woman was humming to herself as she fixed dinner.
Outside in the drizzle, a dark figure approached the house and pressed a finger to the doorbell.
The cheerful ding-dong of the bell echoed through the house.
"Petunia!" bellowed a voice from the room where the television was blaring.
"Yes, dear," said the woman in the kitchen, turning down the stove with a deft flick of her wrist then marched towards the bolted front door.
"I wonder who would be calling at this hour," she mused as she undid the bolt and opened the door. She immediately let out a little shriek and leapt back.
A figure in a dark cloak stood dripping on the doorstep. The whites of the eyes were all that were visible under the equally dark cowl.
"Well. Long time no see, Tuna."
Petunia, eyes wide, lowered her hands from her mouth and gaped openly at the figure standing on her doorstep.
"Severus," she gasped in awe.
"So you do remember me," said Snape, pulling the cowl away from his face. Any student at Hogwarts nor any of his colleges would have recognized him. Instead of the sneering face of the dreaded Potion's Master, there was an almost softer face. It was as though he had reverted to a younger, happier version of himself the moment he'd stepped upon the Dursley's doorstep.
"How could I forget?" murmured Petunia in an almost amused tone. Then, in a frightened one, "What are you doing here? If Vernon found out…"
"Petunia!" bellowed the voice from earlier. "Who is it!"
"Oh no," hissed Petunia, turning halfway about. "Severus, you have to go."
Snape's expression turned stony and he said grimly, "Not without Potter."
"Harry? What - "
"Those were my orders, Tuna."
Petunia's face flushed slightly and she whispered, "No one's called me that in over fifteen years. That last person was…"
"Me," said Snape in a sad tone.
"Before you disappeared. And not a word after that. Where did you go?"
Snape glanced towards the faint glow of the television set and hissed, "Now is not the time, Tuna."
"You left me," whispered Petunia as though she had not heard him. "You left me to him."
Snape looked nervous now, his dark eyes shifting about. He eyed the doorway from which the glow of the tube came then looked back at Petunia, who had an expression on her face reminiscent of a lost puppy. Dark eyes flicked to the door again then he reached out a hand.
"Petunia…"
"What do you think you're doing? And who are you?"
Snape and Petunia looked where the voice had come from. Vernon stood there, eyes glaring beadily at Snape, who was still standing on the doorstep.
"Severus Snape, professor at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. I came after Potter."
Vernon's face purpled at the words witchcraft and wizardry and Petunia backed away into the kitchen. Snape watched her go out of the corner of his eyes then turned to fully face the large, beefy man glaring at him. He gave a vague flick of his wrist, index finger catching the tip of his wand as it was freed from it arm sheath.
"There's no one named Potter here," growled Vernon, fists clenching. "Get out of my house."
Now Snape was annoyed. He scowled at the man and hissed, "I know Potter's here, Dursley. Just tell me where he is and I'll be gone. Or…" Snape moved his index finger and grasped his wand as it dropped down into his hand. "Or I could stay for a little while."
Vernon's face turned a violent shade of purple-red at the sight of the wand and he bellowed, "Get out!!!"
Snape fixed the man with his most menacing scowl and thought I'm going to kill Albus for this. He then growled, "Not without Potter. I was sent here to retrieve him and I will not leave without him."
Vernon let out a roar like a bear and charged at him. Snape leapt aside with an agility born of four years as an Auror, watching in amusement as the beefy man plowed into the wall. He closed the door with his foot and turned towards the kitchen. Just as he did, there was a faint click behind him, one that he recognized from a Death Eater raid seventeen years before.
The click of a bullet rolling into the chamber of a gun.
Snape threw himself into the kitchen as there was a sharp bark and something hot shot past his shoulder. The air was filled with the scent of gunpowder as he curled his body and rolled into the kitchen, landing behind the table. When he looked up he saw Vernon standing there, a revolver dwarfed by his beefy hands. As another bullet clicked into the chamber, Snape lifted his wand, springing up off the floor…
Only to find Vernon unconscious on the tiles, Petunia standing over him with a large frying pan in her hands. She sat the pan down on the counter to her left and wiped her hands on her skirt before turning to Snape. They eyed each other for a moment before Snape bent and picked up the gun, emptying the remaining bullets and tucked the revolver into his cloak.
"Let me handle Dudley," said Petunia as the bullets were placed on the table then melted down into puddles of metal and powder with a swift spell from Snape's wand. "Then we'll go see Harry."
Snape nodded and looked at her curiously.
"Both of us?"
"Yes." Petunia sighed heavily. "I want out, Severus. Out of this hell."
"What about your son?" asked Snape.
Petunia responded with a snort and a clenched fist.
"He's more Vernon's son than he ever was mine. He's not even mine," she explained with a slight smile. "Vernon had been married before he met me and his wife let him with Dudley." She gave him a much tighter smile then said, "Stay here. I'll be back in a moment."
Petunia dashed out of the kitchen, leaving Snape alone with the unconscious hulk of mass that was her husband. He had just tied Vernon up with a flick of his wand and had sheathed it when Petunia reappeared and waved him forward.
"Hurry," she said, ushering him out of the kitchen and closing its door. Snape turned his eyes away from her and saw that the door to the room the tube was in was now closed, a length of cord running from the doorknob to the stout railing of the stairway.
"That door won't hold for long," said Petunia when she saw where he was looking. "We should hurry."
As they headed up the stairs and reached the second floor, Petunia said over her shoulder, "You – you might find Harry a little…different."
"How so?" asked Snape, again perturbed that he had to come get the boy himself.
Petunia gave him a frightened look over her shoulders then gestured at the shadowy door at the end of the hall.
"You should see for yourself."
Snape looked at her oddly for a moment then strode towards the door, drawing his wand and lighting it. He looked sincerely surprised when he saw the great number of locks on the door.
"Vernon's doing," explained Petunia. "I don't know where he keeps the key. But you don't need one, do you?"
Severus cast Alohomora in answer to her question and all of the locks simultaneously clicked open. He grasped the doorknob and turned it, pushing the door open.
His immediate thought was if this room was truly that of a child's. It was empty of everything but a tattered old mattress shoved into a corner with moth-holed blankets on top. There was a rusted bucket near the door that smelled distinctly of urine and Snape had a brief flashback to a dank basement filled with the same smell. He shook his head to clear away the memory then looked around the rest of the room.
Sitting on a cardboard box was the person he had been sent after. He was cast in shadows on all sides except where the silver moonlight streaming through the barred window illuminated his wild hair and a few folds of his dirty clothes. The only truly visible thing by the window was the snowy white owl sitting on the boy's knee.
"Potter?" questioned Snape, peering at the boy.
There was no response; not a quiver, not a turn of the head.
"Harry," said Petunia, moving forward into the room. "Sev – Professor Snape has come to take you back to Hogwarts."
"Tell him to piss off," snapped the boy by the window.
"Harry!" cried Petunia, tears in her voice, as Snape hissed, "I'm losing my patience, Potter."
Petunia turned to him, touching his arm lightly. She said, "Be patient, Severus."
"As you said, Petunia, we don't have much time."
"How is it," said the boy by the window, "that my aunt and the Hogwarts Potion's Master are on a first name basis?"
Snape scowled in his direction and snapped, "We don't have time for this! We have to go now, Potter!"
"Why?" said Harry in a sullen tone.
Snape growled something unsavory under his breath and strode forward angrily across the room to tower over the fifteen-year-old. Hedwig turned her amber eyes on him and hooted a warning, rustling her feathers and shifting on her master's knee.
"Your uncle is set to kill me and is currently tied up and unconscious in the kitchen whilst your cousin is locked in the room with the tube. Should your uncle wake before we leave, I fear those ropes will not hold him long. And if he gets loose, someone may very well die." Snape paused then asked, "Are you listening to me, Potter?"
"I hear you," mumbled Harry, head down.
Snape frowned and snapped, "Look at me."
The dark head did not move.
"Damn you, Potter, look at me!"
The head lifted and Snape took a startled step back. The expression upon the teen's face was defiant, lips set in a snarl.
But the green eyes were lifeless and vacant.
Harry smiled grimly and said, "Despite it being you, professor, I wish I could. I really do."
Snape gaped at him for a moment then looked at Petunia and demanded, "Who did this?"
"Vernon," came the reply. "A few days after Harry returned from Hogwarts. He – he thought if Harry couldn't see, he couldn't do magic anymore."
"No more magic for you, boy," intoned Harry in a flawless imitation of his uncle. "Can't do anything blind, can you?" The teen snorted and shook his head. He looked towards professor and aunt and said, with a cruel smile, "How funny that the last thing I saw was his ugly mug."
Petunia gave a little sob and Snape shook his head slowly in disbelief. He had seen a lot of cruelty as a Death Eater – but this? He had never seen anything like this. What sort of man was this Dursley?
"You two are getting out of here," he said sharply. Looking at Petunia then at Harry, who was watching him with lifeless eyes, he added, "No arguments."
"But Vernon…" began Petunia.
"Is not a wizard and will not be able to find either of you. Now, where are your things, Potter?"
"Burned," came the sullen reply.
Snape looked at Petunia, who nodded solemnly. She said softly, "Vernon burned them all before he – he…" She couldn't finish and turned towards the far wall, hugging herself and shivering.
"Well," said Harry, a sudden smile on his face. "He didn't burn everything. I hid my wand, invisibility cloak, and picture's under the loose floorboard. It's over there by the mattress."
"Perhaps you are smarter than I thought," remarked Snape as Petunia bent and searched for the loose floorboard. When she found it, she let out a small cry and pulled out the three objects, handing them to Snape. The man tucked them into his cloak then went stiff as there was a sound of rope snapping from downstairs.
"Time to go."
Harry pushed himself to his feet, Hedwig fluttering up to his offered arm. Petunia laid a hand on his shoulder and steered him out of the room as Snape looked around the room once more before he shook his head in disgust and followed the other two.
They were standing by the front door, Petunia glancing frequently at the closed kitchen door as she slipped a pair of dark sunglasses over Harry's eyes. As Snape passed the door, he heard the sound of another rope snapping and a grunt.
"Go, go, go," he snapped, grabbing Petunia's upper arm in one hand and hauling Harry off his feet with the other, dragging them out the door. The teen let out a surprised cry and Hedwig hooted angrily as she was jostled from her perch. Leaping into the sky, the snowy owl flew away into the night.
"Hedwig!" cried Harry, looking around frantically as he felt the jolt of Snape stepping into the street.
"She will go to Hogwarts, never fear, boy," hissed Snape's voice in his ear. "Can you run?"
Harry nodded and replied, "As long as you keep me away from anything I can trip over."
"Good," said Snape, letting Harry fall to the ground. His hand grasped the teen's shoulder tightly and he commanded, "Now if the time to run. Tuna, let's go!"
"WIZARD!" bellowed Vernon suddenly from the front door. He was standing in it, teetering precariously as his legs were still tied together.
"Don't you have…a Portkey, Severus?" gasped Petunia as the three of them raced down the street.
"We can't use it here!" snapped Snape, eyes flashing. "Not with the wards extended as they are. Damn Dumbledore for this!"
"I think…we can…stop," gasped Harry. He frowned and said, "We've gone about a half-mile right? So the park's over there?" He pointed off in one direction and Snape followed his arm to where a dark little park was. "If we go straight through, we should lose Uncle Vernon if he comes after us."
"Bravo, Potter," rumbled the Potion's Master, slowing down to a walk. "You once again prove your brilliance."
"Sev, drop whatever you had against James right now," snapped Petunia. "Harry is not his father."
"I know that."
"Then show it."
Harry couldn't help but smirk at his aunt's words. He then looked in the general direction her voice had come from and said, "If I weren't mistaken, Aunt Petunia, I'd say you were a witch."
"Ex-witch," mumbled Petunia.
"You can easily get a wand back," said Snape, looking at her.
"Humphf. Half the wizarding world thinks I'm dead, Severus."
"Half of our year still wonders what happened to you."
"Ah," said Harry, "so that's how you two know each other."
Petunia and Snape looked at each other then away quickly.
"Something of that sort," muttered Petunia.
"There's more?"
The two adults looked at each other again over the blind boy's head then away.
"If you must know, Potter…" growled Snape.
"Severus!" exclaimed Petunia.
"We were engaged," finished Snape with a smirk.
"Engaged?" gasped the teen. He turned his head in the direction he thought his aunt was in and said, "You are full of surprises, Aunt Petunia."
"More than you can imagine," muttered Petunia.
"What?"
"Nothing."
Snape looked sharply at Petunia but said nothing as they exited the park and came out on another road. After a moment he stopped, grabbing Harry's arm as the teen started to continue on.
"Here, Potter. We're beyond the wards now. Take hold."
A frightened look passed across Harry's face at those words.
"A – a portkey?"
"Yes," said Snape slowly, wondering what was wrong with the boy. Then he remembered and said in an almost reassuring tone, "There will be no Voldemort on the end of this portkey, Potter, I assure you."
"Voldemort!" exclaimed Petunia. "But Harry defeated him…"
"You're a bit behind on the news," said Harry.
"I'll explain at Hogwarts," said Snape hurriedly.
Petunia gave him a scathing look.
"Potter," growled Snape, "we have to go know. It's set to activate in twenty seconds."
"Fine," snarled Harry, reaching out his hand. Snape placed it on the rolled up newspaper he held in his hand then looked at Petunia as she placed her own upon it. Harry shivered as the device activated and both adults laid hold of his shoulders as they were jerked into it.