Severus walked around the castle, brooding.He had been released from the infirmary; there was nothing really wrong with him after all. He had known that already. The short witch with the kind face…Sprout, was her name. He felt a bit sorry for her that she was named for such a yucky vegetable.
Professor Sprout had told him he could walk around the castle and had showed him to his room, but she was going away. It was the start of the summer holidays, she had said, and there would be no one left in the castle except the stern looking witch and the headmaster.
Hagrid would be staying too, but he spent most of his days in the forest.
The stern witch really wasn't that bad, he had decided. She was strict, but not mean and she had defended him when the headmaster had attacked his mind. She hadn't used curses or hexes to punish him, either.
In fact, he'd seen very little of either headmaster or professor McGonagall for the two days he had been here, apart from their meeting in the infirmary. A house elf would bring him meals in his room. He was told that the headmaster and professor ate in their own rooms alone, or together in the headmaster's room.
The portraits sometimes talked to him, but otherwise this place was really, really boring.
He had reached a dark corridor that led down, to what seemed to be the dungeons, in his wanderings. Curious, he followed it until he saw a wooden door.
A potions room with lots of worktables. "Oh wait; this must be where the students had Potions classes," he thought.
He didn't know who taught Potions, but whoever it was surely wasn't here, and no one else bothered with him.
He rummaged through the cupboards and found a stack of pewter cauldrons that would do very well. Entering the little room on the side, he found a wealth of ingredients.
Tapping the cauldron, he frowned. What would he brew?
Polyjuice was out. With so little people left, it was completely useless. Besides, he'd look like either the headmaster or professor McGonagall, and he had no wish to look so OLD.
Veritaserum? He shrugged. The headmaster had already used Legilimency on him, no doubt his own Veritaserum would be used on him.
Then again…mother HAD taught him to brew a variation to Veritaserum that forced the drinker to tell nothing but lies. He smiled. He had only brewn it once, it would be a nice challenge to try brewing it again.
All ingredients were there, on the high shelves. He dragged a chair from the classroom and managed to climb that, and the shelves, until he got all the ingredients he needed.
The water already boiled, and he started to prepare the ingredients, cutting them up as meticulously as Mother had instructed him. Of course, that she applied a whipping curse to his hands every time she was not pleased with the ingredients he'd prepared was a huge stimulus to do well.
He enjoyed brewing without the fear of having his hands whipped, and concentrated fully on his potion. He supposed he ought to feel bad for liking to brew without Mother near, but he couldn't. He only felt scared of what she and Father were going to do to him once he got back.
"SEVERUS SNAPE!" the booming voice of the headmaster startled him, just as he had finished.
"What are you doing? The wards around this place went crazy. I had to come all the way from my office to see if you were hurt and I find you here, brewing…what ARE you brewing?"
The old Wizard approached the cauldron and paled.
"This is a Dark potion," he nearly hissed, his blue eyes cold and angry.
Severus lowered his eyes.
"I was exploring and I found this place," he said softly, "I didn't mean to disobey…"
Dumbledore vanished the contents of the cauldron and grabbed his shoulder, pushing him out the door rather roughly.
"I see we can't leave you without a minder, then," the ancient wizard said, making Severus walk in front of him and pushing him to walk faster every so often until they reached his office.
Once in, Dumbledore shoved him to a desk in a corner of the room and put down a stack of parchment, a quill and ink.
"Sit," he ordered, "You will write lines. 'I will not use ingredients that are not mine to brew Dark Potions'."
"Not that I don't applaud your efforts to discipline the brat, Headmaster, but technically, he has not done that," the portrait of Phineas Nigellus said.
"Yes, yes, thank you, Phineas, I do remember that. How could I forget," the headmaster said, with an angry look at Severus.
What had he done wrong? He hadn't known he wasn't supposed to brew. This was a school, right? He had been trying to learn. And why was the headmaster always so ANGRY? Like he hated him? Father and Mother had been forced to put up with him, but the Headmaster could just send him home, right?
He picked up the quill and started his lines, his sensitive ears picking up Nigellus' comment "You know, headmaster, if you'd just give him a good caning so he won't even think of walking for the next couple of days…"
He shuddered. The headmaster's response was too soft to hear, but it sure didn't bode well.
Glancing at the headmaster from time to time, Severus wondered how the man could do so much work at once. Owls kept flying in and out, the pile of paperwork on the desk was huge, and several people floo'ed with various questions.
Dumbledore looked up suddenly to find the boy staring at him.
"Eyes on your work," he snapped.
"P..please sir," Severus pleaded, "I need…need to use the bathroom."
The man sighed in frustration.
"Very well, through that door. Be quick about it! No snooping around."
When Severus came back a minute or so later, he saw the headmaster talking to someone over the Floo.
"….seven dead…no warning at all….Aurors not in time…"
Dumbledore ended the call, but stayed kneeled on the carpet, his face in his hands.
Severus tentatively walked over.
"S…Sir? Are you…are you alright?" he asked.
He stepped back when the old man's head whipped up and he looked at him in disgust.
"How can I be alright when seven good people have DIED?" he yelled at the frightened child, "burned alive, from what accounts tell us! And it's your fault. You should have…" he checked himself.
"Get out," he said coldly, "Get out before I do something I will no doubt regret someday."
Severus didn't hesitate. He ran from the office.
Meanwhile, in Little Whinging, Surrey…
"BOY!"
Harry Potter sighed. He had long ago decided that his family probably qualified for the 'Most Obnoxious People In The World' top ten.
Of course, the list was headed by Voldemort, but his guardians were a close second.
Snape used to be solidly on the list, but Harry had started to have his doubts about that.
Snape was on their side. Sure, he was annoying. And biased and rude and…ok, maybe he had earned his third place on the list.
Dumbledore had managed to worm his way to fourth place, or even tying with Snape for third.
Harry had finally gotten the courage to tell the old man something about the Dursleys that explained why he didn't want to return there. The headmaster had smiled, offered him a lemon drop, and told him he had to go back anyway, offering no other explanation then what he had already said.
"It's safest, Harry," the boy angrily murmured to himself, "Never mind you getting murdered by your relatives instead of Voldemort, Harry. You must try harder to get along with them, Harry," he choked out the one sentence that had REALLY annoyed him.
"BOY! Get down here! NOW!" Vernon Dursley barked.
"No owls this summer," he continued, grinning happily, when Harry came down, "Guess your freak friends stopped caring about you, right?"
He backhanded Harry across the face.
"That means the old rules are up again, boy. Get to…WHAT ARE YOU DOING WITH THAT?" the man screeched.
Harry pointed his wand at his uncle. "What does it look like I'm doing?" he asked.
"You…you can't use that, you'll be expelled!" Vernon sputtered.
"The old rules mean that you will most likely beat me to death before school starts, making it pretty much a moot point, don't you think? Now, I will make you a deal," Harry said, his Slytherin side taking over.
"What…what deal?" Vernon said, purple with rage.
"A very beneficial one," Harry explained.
"I recently inherited some money from my late Godfather. I offer you ten thousand pounds in compensation for the…costs…you made to raise…oh well, the few pennies you spent for me living here. I am, after all, aware that you were forced into taking me."
"And…and the conditions?" Vernon asked, the purple receding from his face a bit as the thoughts of money penetrated his thick skull.
"The conditions are that you refuse to ever take me in again," he ignored Vernon's snort, "And that you try to hide the fact that I am gone for as long as possible. Yes, that means I am leaving. I have these papers for you to sign. I requested them from Gringotts. Sign these, and I will be emancipated and out of your hair forever."
Vernon Dursley scrambled up to get a pen as quickly as he could.
"I'm not staying here," Severus said to himself, angrily wiping a few tears from his cheeks.
"I am not staying here," Harry said, packing his trunk.
"I'm never going to come back here," the dark haired boys said.
That night, Severus Snape ran away from Hogwarts.
That night, Harry Potter left Privet Drive.