Chapter Eight

Severus Snape

She sighed tossing her bag on an armchair. It landed with a thud as her 'father' walked into the living room behind her. She gave a sort of grimace to the robot and shut it down. The rest of the night had been horrible. After the abrupt shove-on stage, she had to cast a voice spell so fast that she hurt her throat. Harry and the others had taken her out to eat; unfortunately the fun had stopped there because Harry had a vision in the middle of dinner.

She, in character, had exclaimed something about a seizure. She had made the mistake of trying to hold his head as he thrashed about and touched his scar. Their two magics melded and she was pulled into the vision for a brief second before Dudley bumped her hand off. What she had seen was horrible, Malfoy raping a teenager, a Muggle from what she could assume while others tortured their victims. She made face and then winced.

During the vision Harry's thrashing arms had hit her in face and she knew that there was a bruise forming on her cheek. She fought back her bitterness when she thought about how Vernon tried to shrug it off and made it seem like nothing. Harry was unearthly silent and the Dursley family had a fake air of happiness. It wasn't fair. She was supposed to be making it easy for Harry, not cause things like this to happen.

"Why me?" she thought out loud. She turned on the lights and glanced at the nearest mirror. The moment Harry's image was displayed she nearly gasped. "Shit!" she cursed. He was cowering in his uncle's large shadow as the fat man started hitting the boy.

She flew to the phone and tried to calm herself down as she dialed the number. Petunia's voice came over the line, not her bright and chipper self though. "Hi, Petunia. It's River."

The woman's voice softened. "Oh, hello dear. I'm so sorry about tonight. Maybe we can get together and have dinner without him tomorrow or something."

She rolled her eyes. Please, She thought. "That sounds like a great idea! Look, I was wondering if Harry was okay. He seemed really out of it."

"Oh. He's fine." The voice was cold again.

"I was really wondering if I could talk to him." She was pushing her luck but she had to stop Vernon.

"Talk to the boy?"

She watched Harry duck his uncle's flying fist. She had to hurry. "Yes. I want to make sure he knows I'm not mad at him for the evening."

"I'll tell him, dear."

She stomped her foot, trying to fight her anger. I don't want you to tell him, you old hag. Put him on the damn phone you piece of… her thoughts screamed. "That's really sweet of you, Petunia but my dad really wants me to talk to him. And I want to make sure that he's okay." She paused. Crap sounds like I don't believe her. "Not that I don't believe you, Petunia, I do but—"

The woman sighed, annoyed. "All right, hold on."

She let out a sigh of relief and looked back at the mirror just as Vernon's fist collided with Harry's mouth. She winced. "BOY! GET DOWN HERE!" she could hear Petunia's shill voice through the phone and the mirror. Harry and Vernon froze before the black-haired boy took off towards the door and thundered down the stairs. "Phone."

She rolled her eyes, watching Harry make a confused face. "Hel-hello?" he said into the phone cautiously.

She let out a brief of air. "Harry, it's River."

"River?"

She watched a look cross his face that plainly said why is she calling me? She forced a concerned cheerfulness into her voice. "Yeah. I was just wondering how you were doing."

Harry leaned against the counter where the phone was and wiped at his bloody lip (which was still pouring out blood in a slow trickle). "What do you mean?"

"The seizure at dinner, you were wild." She touched her cheek and jumped onto the countertop. She had to keep him talking long enough to let most of the anger that Vernon had burn off. "What set you off?"

"Oh…um,"

"I used to have a friend with epilepsy, back where I lived." It wasn't a complete lie. She had once known someone who had it but the person defiantly wasn't her friend. Not anymore at least. "The weirdest things set him off on a seizure but usually it was bright lights. What set yours off?"

"Epilepsy?" Harry looked bemused and then sighed. "Oh, right. Um, my just goes off if I think too much about something in my past. Sometimes crowds."

She fought a giggle, he obviously had no idea what epilepsy was but he was good at making stuff up. "Trix hated being in the middle of a very large crowd with no way out because he had claustrophobia and his panic set off the epilepsy sometimes."

"Who's Trix?"

She paled. She hadn't realized she had spoke out loud. Great going, idiot! She cursed herself. "Um, old friend. His name is Patrick but everyone calls him Trix because he was kind of a jokester…wow. I haven't thought about him since I moved." She said with a fake dourness.

Harry smirked as he wiped his bleeding nose on his sleeve. "Sounds like some of my friends. These two twins, Fred and George, they are major pranksters."

She smirked back. She liked Fred and George and they did remind her of Trix a lot. "Really? I bet they would get along with Trix just fine."

"Probably."

She swallowed hard and then had a faint alarm bell go off. She glanced at a black timer on the fridge set to tell her when and how long someone has been trying to get into the house and it was flashing 30 in green letters. She rolled her eyes and hit the mute on the alarm. "What were you thinking about that it set you off?"

He looked nervous. "Nothing."

"Well it was obviously something, Harry but it's nothing you want to talk to me about, right?" she said with a real giggle. She couldn't help but throw it back in his face.

He laughed weakly. "Right."

"That's all right. But you're okay, right? You really scared me." Yeah right, what am I some flimsy little damsel? Her thoughts chastised her.

"I'm fine." It was obvious he was lying but she didn't call him on it. "I'm sorry I ruined the evening."

She shrugged; she didn't like it much anyway. She had to do a lot of back work and manipulating in order to get into the performance at the Globe. "It's all right. I was just worried that you were going to hurt yourself. You seemed to be having a Grand Mal but your relatives said no."

He flexed a hand that she saw his uncle step on and winced. "I've had worse."

"I believe it." She said nodding.

"River," Harry said wincing again as he examined each finger before shifting his weight. "I was wondering, why did you write those songs you sang? They…they were of great pain and I didn't know you knew what it was like."

She swallowed hard. She didn't want to think about the last two songs she sang. The first one was on an impulse because it was the only one that she had written that could be associated with her mother's supposed death (though in reality she had written it because of Richard). The second one was merely because she couldn't think of another song to sing. "I wrote them thinking of my mother." She lied.

"I'm sorry."

She grimaced, thinking of Richard. Tears sprung to her eyes. "Yeah, me too." She whispered.

"Sorry, I didn't mean to bring up a painful subject."

"It's all right." She said forcing it away.

"River, I'm sorry I hit you. I didn't mean to."

"Again, it's all right. It wasn't as if you did it on purpose anyway." She watched the mirror as Vernon was hissing at him to get off the phone.

Harry was pale. "Um, look River, I have to go. Get some rest and stuff."

She cursed to herself. "All right, Harry. Just be safe and take your medicine for it." She leaned into the receiver and whispered a spell softly.

Harry blinked. "What did you say?"

"I said be safe and take your medicine." She shook her head as she prayed the charm worked. "Bye Harry. Have sweet dreams. Oh and tell Dudley I'll be by tomorrow, will you?"

"Uh, sure." He muttered.

"Bye." They hung up in unison and she watched the mirror. Vernon grabbed Harry by the arm and jerked him upstairs. "Come on, come on, come on." She whispered watching as Harry was thrown back into his room. Vernon made towards him and slapped the boy so hard his glasses flew off. "Shit!" she cursed as Vernon started to hit Harry again but then, just as his hand met Harry's skin, a blue light flashed and the red mark where Vernon's hand would have been on Harry's face appeared on his own. "YES!"

Vernon was surprised and tried to kick Harry but the same blue light flashed and he doubled over. "Freak! NO FREAKISHNESS IN THIS HOUSE!"

Harry cowered back, unsure of what was happening. "It's not me!"

The pudgy man showered punches on Harry but each punch was deflected back onto him by a flash of blue light. Finally he gave up and started backing out of the room. "NO FOOD OR WATER!" he roared. "Unlovable freak." He snapped slamming the door shut.

Harry launched himself at the door. "BASTARD! UNLOCK THIS DOOR OR I'LL TELL!" She watched the door and then heard the lock turn. Harry seemed satisfied and then sat down in front of the door with a plop. "I'm going to get expelled for whatever I just did." He moaned hitting his head on the door before cleaning up his wounds.

"No you won't, Harry. Cause you didn't do it." She smirked walking away from the mirror. She had cast a protection spell on Harry called the Reflector. It was an old spell and could be considered a hex because if anyone harmfully tried to injure the person under the spell the spell would reflect whatever pain the person would have felt back onto the attacker.

She glanced at the timer on her fridge again. It blinked 37 and she rolled her eyes. She had spread a thin powder on the front step and back porch (basically all the doors that lead to the outside) because of the Order's pesky members that would never leave her alone. She had caught a careless burglar once but mostly it was members trying to break in. She moved towards the basement as she heard a string of curses that would make a sailor blush and a loud thump. She sauntered down the stairs ready to see anyone but the person that came into her view.

"My, my, my, you are definitely the last person I ever expected to see trapped down here." She said with smirk.

"Stop your damned smirking and cut me the hell down," cursed Severus Snape hanging upside down and desperately trying to keep his legs covered.

She giggled tilting her head to the side. "Why would I want to go and do a thing like that? You promised along with the rest of the Order to leave me alone." He pointed his wand at her, which just caused her to laugh harder. "Go ahead, try."

He studied her for a moment and then lowered his wand. "Get me down,"

She rolled her eyes and waved her hand. He dropped to the ground with a thump. "What are you doing here?" she asked as he straightened up.

Snape hissed at her, baring his teeth. "Nice little booby trap."

"Look, the only reason I haven't sent you somewhere public in your undergarments like I've done with the others," She watched his lips twist into a smirk, remembering Lupin's appearance a few days ago. She continued ignoring it. "is because you have been one of the only members to actually trust I know what I'm doing, or just not care, so I'm giving you this one and only chance." She said crossing her arms in front of her chest. "What, are, you, doing, here?" she enunciated each word.

Snape shook his head at her. "You were spotted,"

"Lord, if that's what you're here about you're here way late."

"You didn't inform Dumbledore."

She shrugged walking back up the stairs. "Albus didn't need to worry about it."

He followed her. "You still should have informed him,"

"Suppose," she spoke walking into the kitchen, the projection still on the mirrors. "Why you people keep sending him back to this place is beyond me," she muttered under her breath.

"Pardon?" Snape's eyes were on the mirror.

She glanced at it. Harry had finished cleaning up the mess his uncle had made of him and was currently nursing a wound that she remembered his uncle giving him a few days ago because of a nightmare he had. "His uncle gave him that before I could stop him," she commented taking ingredients for soup out.

The black eyes snapped onto her. "What?"

"Yes, the famous Harry Potter gets abused, didn't you know? No of course you didn't or else you'd have taken him out of that hell hole years ago." She spoke with spite for the Order. Snape looked back at the mirror. "Do you plan on doing something other than stare at my mirror?"

"How does this work?" he finally asked.

She looked at him surprised. Snape was not one to ask things, especially not of people younger than he. He actually reminded her a lot of herself. She gave him a half smile. "It's a sort of spying powder that they create back in the States. You get in contact with the person and you can see everything the person does. The spell only dies when the caster wishes it to." She explained. "It can be made into a potion," she added the last sentence more as an after thought and something to intrigue the Potions teacher.

He nodded slowly. "You make it yourself then?"

"Yes. The ingredients are hard to come by, though. The hardest is a near-extinct animal, the Basilisk, in order to make the potion you need to grind up the scales so that's why the potion isn't found usually." She explained as he merely watched her. Neither spoke for several minutes after that. "Is there something else you needed to say or do you just enjoy watching me prepare my dinner?"

"You've been researched by the Dark Lord," was his simple response.

She looked at him and shrugged. "I get researched by many-a black wizards. Defeated all of them when they tried to force me to work for them, nothing new."

"You are over confident."

"And I'm still wondering why you're even here," she snapped getting edgy. She knew there was someone out there better than she was, everyone had some one better than them out there. She dumped the vegetables into the pot and added the water and milk to thicken it. "You hated James and dislike Harry so the reason you're here baffles me."

"Dumbledore told me to warn you,"

"About being researched? Tom Riddle wants me to work for him?" she let out a small guffaw with a roll of her eyes and flip of her hair. She made a tea set appear in front of her and she set it down on the table. She looked at him. "Tea?"

"No,"

She shrugged waved her hand over the pot and then poured herself a cup of steaming hot chocolate. "You've warned me, will you leave now?"

Snape sneered at her, baring his teeth again. "You have too much sass."

"You Order members get on my nerves." She snapped at him. "You warned me, you told me, if you don't give me a good reason not to send you to Diagon Alley naked you're going to be very embarrassed in a moment." She spoke with a glare.

She watched panic fleet in his eyes, she knew it reminded him of his days at Hogwarts. "The Dark Lord wishes to learn more about the program in the States and wanted to find you but you are frustrating him by being so good at covering your tracts."

She rolled her eyes sitting down with the soup. "So,"

"Dumbledore sent me to ask your permission," he spat out the word with almost as much distaste he used when he spoke of Harry. "To give hints of where you are."

"What sort of hints?"

"Where you were last, your old jobs," She fought to keep her face from paling but failed. "Yes even that job," he said amused.

"And what will this gain you?" she asked slowly as she ate the soup.

Snape studied her for a moment. "Trust,"

"As a spy,"

"Doing what's right,"

"For which side?" She fought a smile as he gave her the reaction she wanted. He bared his teeth at her again. She shook her head as they sat in silence for a moment. "Do whatever you want, Severus Snape. But if you come here again we won't be having a chat." He nodded slowly. "Now go so I can do my job with England's Wonder Boy."

Snape's lips twitched into what on most would be considered a smile. He gave a small nod of the head before leaving the room. Her front door shut and he disapparted with a loud pop.

She shook her head dumping her bowl in the dishwasher. "Man, these people are worse than parents." She glanced towards the mirror as she cleaned her bowl. "Now I see why you hate him, Harry. He's a weirdo."

Harry glanced at the door from his position on the bed and then moved towards the desk. He sat down and began writing something. Curiosity hit her and she leaned towards the mirror. "To: The Order, Hey idiots," She snorted; at least they had the same opinion of the Order. "What ever happened to your warning 'every three days write or else'? I haven't written in a week." She frowned. Where was this going? "You obviously don't give a shit about England's own Savior but why should you? Oh, Snape if you're reading this, bugger off."

She snorted and sat on the counter top, her eyes on the mirror, as she munched an apple. She hated how hungry she always was when she held up a new glamour and when she took Dreamless Sleep Potions. "What are you getting at, Harry?" She continued to read the letter to herself. "You sent me here after Sirius' death and said everything will be all right. Well it's not. You want to know something, I do something wrong in this house, I get hit. If I don't finish a chore, I get hit. If I say something to an outsider, I get hit (anyone noticing a pattern yet). I just got the crap beaten out of me because of a vision I had during dinner with Dudley's new girlfriend, River. But do you care? Would you even care if I jumped out my window right now and killed myself? You claim you would but then you drop me off here without a word. Ron, Hermione, screw off, I don't need you anymore. Hell, I don't need anyone."

She sighed. She knew how he felt, all too well. "But of course, if I throw myself out the window or slash my wrists, or drink a bottle of rat poison it would be all terribly selfish of me, wouldn't it Snape? 'Stupid self-centered Potter' right?" She shook her head. "But don't get your panties in a twist over this, I'm not going to kill myself. I'll let my uncle do it for me. So screw off and leave me alone."

She watched as he signed it. "Crap, Wonder Boy." Harry then stared out the window for a moment before pulling another piece of parchment out. "What are you doing now?" She watched him scroll out: I'm fine, vision tonight. No I don't want to talk about it. Nothing important. Get me out of here before my birthday or I'll go nuts.—Harry. She smirked. "Nuts, Harry? You already are."

He stood up and extended his arm out to his beautiful owl. "Come on Hedwig, lets go. I need you to deliver this for me. Take it anyone but Snape in the Order."

The bird gave him a look that clearly said, '"You think I want to be within ten feet of him."

Harry smiled. "Of course not," He attached the parchment to her leg. "Off you go."

She hesitated looking as if she was saying: "Are you sure you'll be all right without me here?"

He stroked her. "I'll be fine. River's been coming by every day so I don't get much until night and even then he's exhausted. So I'll be fine. Just go before the Order gets a hernia from worrying."

She nipped his cheek, letting out a soft hoo and then flying off. He leaned out the window and watched her go with sigh as he sat on the windowsill, his lips tugged into frown. His head leaned against the frame and he gazed out at the sky, tears falling down his cheeks. She sighed standing up as he sat there.

"Sirius, where are you?" he whispered. "Why did you leave me?" He hit his head gently against the sill. "Sirius, I had a vision today." He wasn't talking to anyone. Out of curiosity she grabbed her PDA from the kitchen drawer and checked the dates of when the constellation would appear in the sky. "It was horrible. The Death Eaters were raping and torturing Muggles." It didn't appear until November and disappeared in April. She sighed looking back at Harry. "Snape wasn't there." He frowned. "I don't think Voldemort was leading this attack, Sirius. I think it was Malfoy but I don't know."

She coughed and grabbed a two-way mirror. "Albus!" she said trying to get the old coot's attention. The man's face appeared in the mirror.

"What's wrong?"

She rolled her eyes. "Nothing other than your idiot members won't leave me alone. I just thought you should know that Harry had a vision earlier tonight. He's talking to himself right now and he says he suspects Malfoy is leading the attack." She said glancing at the mirror. "Why didn't you tell me that Malfoy got out of prison?"

"You asked not to be bothered."

"That didn't stop you from sending Snape." She snapped bitterly. The old man smiled at her. "You better stop doing this or I might sell out to a higher price." She threatened. He paled slightly, his smile disappearing. "When are you planning on taking him out? He has been asking in his letters but never gets a response."

"We're not."

"What?" she exclaimed angry as she fought the urge to curse Dumbledore. "Albus," she shook her head. "When are you planning on telling him that?"

"Listen, it's for his own safety. Besides you are there to protect him. The only reason we've ever pulled him out was because he was in danger."

She rolled her eyes. "Next time tell me when a Death Eater escapes." She snapped before shoving the two-way mirror into a random drawer. She hit her hands on the table and looked at the mirror. "Damn it, Harry. Now I know why you get so angry sometimes. Meddling old coot." She stomped up the stairs. "'It's for his own safety'," she mimicked changing into her nightclothes. "Bull. I'd like to show you how safe he is." She said throwing herself on the bed while she watched Harry climb into his bed. "Go to sleep, Wonder Boy. I'm exhausted." She ordered waiting for him to fall asleep before she did so herself.