This is my response to the Tumbleweed challenge. It's a one shot and is named Xantippe only because I had written the word down at the beginning to remind me to use it. Microsoft Word then saved it as that. So here we go. Xantippe! Hope you enjoy.
The long, warm summer was soon to draw to a close for the black haired boy currently residing at number 4 Privet Drive. It had been a very difficult summer for some including Harry Potter who was lying on his stomach with a red leather photo album open in front of him and silent tears dripping down his face. It was only 2 weeks until the new term at Hogwarts started, and Harry Potter was still mourning over the loss of Sirius Black, his godfather. He stared down at the pages without really seeing the happy faces of his parents and Sirius all waving back up at him. If only he hadn't been so stupid. He could have prevented Sirius' death. Why didn't he learn Occlumency when he had the chance and why did he listen to that pathetic excuse for a House Elf?
He fingered the penknife that Sirius had given to him for Christmas the year before, and brought the knife, once again, across his wrist to add one more scar to the numerous amounts already on his body. The relief from the turmoil of emotions he had been left with after Sirius' death was instantaneous as a dribble of red blood slid smoothly down his arm over the white marks of his previous attempts.
There was not enough blood escaping his body to kill him, but there was just enough escaping to make his body fall into the blissfulness of unconsciousness, which was Harry's main aim, an easy escape from the nightmares haunting his mind whenever he fell asleep.
Harry woke up to the sound of a car door loudly being slammed closed and a dull ache in his wrist. He got slowly up, trying to ignore the wave of dizziness the washed over him and made his way over to the window, looking down at the perfectly trimmed hedges of Privet Drive. He looked over at number 3, the house being opposite number 4, noticing a large van parked in front of it, and men carrying furniture and other items into the house. That was strange; he didn't think that the Kenleys, a couple of pensioners, were moving out. 'Oh well', Harry thought, 'no more glares from them then'. The Kenleys used to be nice to Harry once, offering him tea and some cakes when they had seen him working in the Dursley's garden all day. That was until that word had spread that he attended St. Brutus' Secure Centre for Incredibly Incurable Boys, then they had wanted nothing to do with him, and settled for giving him nasty glares when every they spotted him.
Coming out of his reverie, he noticed a woman walking up the drive to the house. She had long black hair to her waist and was wearing sleek black trousers, with a pink jumper. Harry could only see her from the back, so he had no real idea and what she looked like. He looked at the car expecting more people to be coming out, but the woman appeared to be the only new resident of the house. Harry thought this was strange again, as the houses on Privet Drive were usually occupied my family or couples. They weren't well suited to one person. Looking down to the ground immediately beneath his bedroom window he noticed his Aunt peering through the gaps in the fence to get a good look at the new woman on Privet Drive. She was xantippe and so very nosy!
Suddenly an owl came flying into the window, shocking Harry, until he realised he should probably go and open the window and help the owl in. Opening the window he found a tawny owl he did not recognise frantically flapping its wings to try and release itself from where I got its self caught in the bits of metal still left from when the bars had been up in front of his window. He quickly released the owl, and took the letter it had been carrying, which he noticed instantly that it was from the Order probably checking up on him again. He didn't write to them like he promised at the train station like he had promised, so they decided to write to him instead and Harry replied, usually. He took the letter, quickly skimmed through it, it conforming his suspicions it was from the order. Taking a clean piece of parchment from his desk and dipping his quill into the inkpot, he started writing a response; he quickly read through it, checking it over, ignoring the inkblot that had marked the page after he forgot to wipe the excess ink off the quill, and sent it off with the same owl the letter had arrived with which had been waiting patiently on the window sill.
As Harry gazed back over at his bed, he noticed the blood stained sheets, not that much blood, but they still would need a good wash. He pulled the sheets off the bed, rolled them up so that the blood wouldn't be showing as he took them down to the washing machine. He walked downstairs, passing through into the kitchen where Dudley was stuffing his face with food in front of his TV, no surprise there, and where Uncle Vernon was trying to communicate with his son, but he spared no time at all in giving Harry a disgusted look.
"Still here then", spoke a disgruntled Uncle Vernon. "They've not come to collect you yet then?"
"No Uncle Vernon," replied Harry dully, if only he had his wand, not to hurt them, but to shrink them or something. That way they wouldn't be as annoying.
Just as he was stuffing the sheets into the washing machine, Aunt Petunia came marching into the room declaring that she thought that their new neighbour was trouble and that Harry should go over an investigate her. Harry, thinking that this was the most ridiculous idea ever but knew that there was no point in arguing with his Aunt, switched the washing machine on and made his way out of the house and into the front garden and sat down pretending to do the weeds whilst really listening to the woman speaking to the removal men.
"I want all of that stuff moved out of my house as soon as possible, the taste these people must have has was appalling."
Harry thought this was a bit harsh, having been in that house, he could only describe it as incredible homely. Pictures of family lined the walls and pieces of origami, Mrs Kenley loved making loads of different things after she had picked the hobby up after retiring, were everywhere in the house, almost cluttering it.
"We will pick it up tomorrow, goodbye," replied one of the men, and with that they climbed into the van and drove off.
The woman must have noticed Harry then, as she started to walk towards him holding her hand out.
Harry quickly stood up wiping his hands on his jeans, pulling his sleeves down in order to hide the scars marring his skin and holding his hand out also, they shook hands.
"Polly Byrd"
"Harry Potter"
"Nice to meet you Harry, you can call me Polly. Would you like to come inside for a cup of tea?"
With a sense of déjà vu, Harry nodded thinking that he may well get the pleasant treatment before his place of school got round to her, and he quickly followed her inside. She looked very normal looking, now that he had had a good look at her, there was no distinguishable feature about her, which in its self made it very odd. As he walked into the house he lost site of her. Calling out her name he looked through the first door on his left, and what he saw made him gasp.
Lying on the floor were the bodies of Mr and Mrs Kenley, their eyes gazing up at him, dead and lifeless, he spun around quickly to make an escape through the door, when he felt a stab of pain in his side. He looked down and there was a large knife sticking out of his side, grabbing his side he collapsed to his knees and looked up into the face of his attacker.
"You!" gasped Harry, now starting to feel very breathless and dizzy.
"Yes it's me you fool! Didn't your mummy and daddy ever tell you not to speak to strangers? Oh, that's right, they're dead!" cackled Bellatrix Lestrange.
Ignoring his current condition he tried to tackle Bellatrix but only succeeded in getting himself thrown into the wall, banging his head against the wall with a load thud.
"I wouldn't try moving if I were you Harry, the poison that was laced onto that blade will only move around your body quicker, and I don't want you dying on me until I've had a little bit of fun. You see Harry; the Dark Lord doesn't really want to bother with you anymore, so he has given me permission to do what ever I like to you"
"He's probably scared of what the prophecy says, he doesn't want to die, he's selfish!!!!!!" screamed Harry, who then collapsed fully onto the floor, starting to feel the combinations of poison and blood loss from the open stab wound.
"Tut tut tut Harry, you know that is no way to go about talking about the greatest wizard alive," said Bellatrix in a calm voice. "I'll have to teach you some manners. Crucio!"
The pain was instantaneous and hit Harry powerfully. He screwed his eyes up in pain, locking his jaws to prevent a scream and clenched his fists shut, his fingernails digging into the palms of his hands. After what seemed like an eternity, Bellatrix released the curse and walked over to the fireplace. The last thing Harry saw before passing out was the tall, dark figure of his potions master stepping out of the fireplace.
"Enerverate," spoke a voice, pulling Harry out of the darkness he was only too glad to be in.
The pain that was riddling his body was indescribable. He ached all over and especially in his side but through blurred eyes he could vaguely make out the outline of his most despised potions master. He pulled away from the mans' strong grasp on his arm, and with a disgusted look on his face, he spat out "death eater." Snape flinched away at those words but soon regained his composure.
"Will you be ok with him Severus whilst I go and get a few more toys of mine?" Bellatrix announced from across the room where Harry only just noticed her.
"Of course I will Lestrange," spat Snape. "I know fully well how to handle a lethally poisoned16 year old boy. I am no imbecile!"
"All right Severus, there is no need to get your knickers in a twist," Bellatrix said joyfully. "I won't be a moment." With that Bellatrix left the room.
As soon as she left Snape moved into action, grabbing Harry by the arm and literally dragging him along pulled him out of the room. Harry was starting to feel really sick now. He was cold to the touch but he himself felt very hot, he was shivering all over, and blood was still leaking out of his open wound. His head, he could tell, was forming a bump and he also knew that that was bleeding.
"Hurry Potter. We have no time, we need to get out of here before…"
"Expelliarmus" screamed Bellatrix Lestrange, barely missing Snape through rage.
Through his bleary vision, Harry could just about make out the figures of Snape and Bellatrix starting to throw curses at each other, most he had never heard of, but he could make out a few Crucios. The fighting got more intense as time went on, but also as time went on, Harry's condition got worse. He could no longer move a muscle and felt weak and was aching all over. Snape however seemed to realise that he needed to end the fight, and soon, and sent a last spell at Bellatrix and whilst she was distracted he grabbed Harry and ran with him out of the house, where he pulled something out of his pocket, and Harry felt a very distant familiar tugging sensation behind his navel, before he once again passed into unconsciousness.
He was being shaken awake with a note of urgency.
"Come on Potter, wake up for Merlin's sake. Come on," came a voice he recognised as Snape's. "You have to drink this."
"What is it," murmured Harry in a hardly recognisable question.
"It's Tumbleweed, it will get rid of all the poison that's in your body. It will make you feel better."
It was only really then that Harry noticed the pain and discomfort he was still in. He made a move for the potion, but Snape seeing his violently shaking hands with drew it.
"Maybe I should," and with that he carefully tilted Harry's head back and poured the potion into his mouth. The potion tasted of rotten cabbages and he felt the urge to throw up.
"Come on Potter, that's it, swallow."
As his vision started to clear he realised he was in the hospital sing at Hogwarts and that Snape was the only person in the room with him.
He reached up to move his hair out of his eyes, and unconciouslessly revealed the scars on his wrist. Snape had seen. Harry squirmed under his potion masters stare and gasped as a sharp pain ran up his side.
"Sit still Potter, your wound is still healing and we are unable to do anything about wounds that size so you will just have to grin and bear it." Snape then did something Harry didn't expect, and picked up his scared wrist and cast a healing charm on the cuts that were still fresh and a concealing charm on the scars.
All Harry could do was stare.
"I hope that from now on Potter that you will find a different way of dealing with your grief." Snape stood and briskly walked out of the hospital wing, passing Dumbledore on his way in, Snape nodded his head in acknowledgement and exited. Dumbledore made his way over to Harry's bed and sat down in the chair that had only just been vacated.
"How are you feeling Harry?"
"Ok sir, still a bit tired."
"Well that's only to be expected."
"Sir, if only I had killed Bellatrix back at the ministry, none of this would have ever happened. If only the curse had worked."
"Let me stop you right there Harry. How much more grievous are the consequences of anger than the causes of it? If say your curse had succeeded do you think you would have felt better about it? Would not having used that curse made you as bad as Voldemort? Think about it Harry. I will let you get some rest, I think that I have used enough of Madam Pomfrey's patience as it is."
Dumbledore slowly got up, and with one last look at Harry exited the hospital wing.
Madam Pomfrey chose that instant to come storming out her office.
"Well well well, they have finally decided to leave no have they? I can finally take care of my patients now, can I?" She shoved a potion, one Harry recognised as sleeping potion, and thinking batter than to argue with her, he took it, without shaking hands, and swallowed it in one.
He woke up to the sounds of arguing and recognised the voices instantly.
"Now Severus do calm down, you will disturb Harry, and after what I have heard as happened to him, we shouldn't," came Dumbledore's voice.
"He who joyfully marches to music in rank and file has already earned my contempt. He has been given a large brain by mistake, since for him the spinal cord would suffice. He should never have gone into that house after all that he knows now. It was a foolish move."
"Severus, you know Harry always seems to finds himself in certain circumstances, I don't believe it is his fault, I just believe he has a big heart, and feels the need to protect everyone including himself, and he is also very strong willed, nothing will prevent him from doing something he wants."
"Well Albus, it is due to this 'strong willingness' that I had to rescue him and lose myself as a spy to the Order."
Harry frowned, he hadn't realised Snape had been spying, and he had gone and ruined things. Snape was surely going to be in a lot of trouble now, all because he had rescued Harry, this certainly changed his opinion of Professor Severus Snape, and he was certainly very grateful.
The End
I hope you all enjoyed it and I hope you leave me a review you very nice people :)