Disclaimer : Standing here, I realize, That "Just Harry", Always was J.K's property !

Chapter 6 :

The doorknob was going down, slowly and silently opening the door. A simple Alohomora, and you could enter one of the most important rooms of the Ministry of Magic administration, being the Wizengamot Administration Services Census room, where was kept the names and addresses of every law-abiding wizard in Britain.

Truly, with such terrible security within the very Ministry of Magic building, it's a wonder how they could have lost the damn war. Well, everybody knew the answer to this question, which was the reason for this nightly visit.

Harry Potter.

"The Boy-Who-Lived, Saviour of Wizarding Britain !" Fools, traitors and mongrels, the lot of them, rejoicing in the defeat of their Lord. The one man that actually tried to make things right for the wizarding people of Britain.

When he came, mudbloods were already wreaking havoc inside the Wizarding world, threatening its upstanding citizens way of life. Especially their economy. The man's own grandparents had suffered from it directly. Long ago, his family had specialized in magical telecommunication, crafting two-way mirrors and the like, their best selling being the self-updating parchment. It was a seemingly single piece of parchment that could send text messages to any linked parchment, wherever they are. It had been a must have until the 1900's, every army purchased some to command their troops in long distance manoeuvres, and everybody had at least one linked to the Department of Magical Games and Sports'. And it was simple enough to make in large, cheap quantities, so every level of the social hierarchy could, and would, buy one, while being just bothering enough to make so people wouldn't care to make their own.

And all was going just fine until some half-blood fucker introduced the radio ! It was exactly the same thing as the self-updating parchment, except that it talked ! And for some reason, people had found it better than the parchments. Not that the man didn't knew the reasons: laziness. Wizards had been interbreeding with mudblood peasants so much that they had become too lazy to read 25 feet of parchment a day, and enjoyed being drowned in the senseless talks of someone, just as lazy as them, who would describe them a Quidditch match with overacted excitement. The whole thing had almost had his family financially broke.

That's why the man had joined the Death Eaters. They were going reinvigorate the Wizarding folk, to discipline them out of laziness, and into tradition.

Oh, sure, he might have been able to eliminate the concurrence to his family's remaining businesses along the way, buying their workshops at a quarter of their true value, along the way. But it was secondary to the cause's noble goals.

At least, he had been able to do that until his Lord exploded. No more than three years had sufficed to end his monopolies. Since then, the man had fantasized many times about killing the Boy. In loyalty to his deceased Lord, of course.

However, any time he had wanted to cross the bridge from fantasy to action, he had immediately lost any motivation to do so.

Until the day before, the 31st October 1990.

Suddenly, 10 years worth of frustration had come in full force and pushed him to act. Certainly that Dumbledore had put some sort of overpowered notice-me-not or fidelius-like charms on the boy, but that they had broken this particular day.

Anyway, the man looked inside the census lockets of the Ministry of Magic, searching for the Potter's files, which he found no more than five minutes later.

4 Private Drive, Little Whinging.

Upon reading the file, the man had been utterly dumbstruck. Muggles. Albus 'Moron' Dumbledore had sent the Boy-Who-Lived to spend said life with muggles. Did the senile piece of shit believe that Muggles would be a match to any wizards ? Was he finally so convinced with his own propaganda that he had become delusional ?

On one hand, it was definitely worrying, since the man was Chief Warlock and Supreme Mugwump. On the other hand, it made the man's tasks all the easier.

It was time for a little bout of muggle hunting.

The man was disappointed.

The hunt had been fun, sure, but what the hell ?

He had gone with two comrades of old the day following his discovery. The main door being already open, they simply had to walk inside the house, casting a few privacy and notice-me-not charms to ensure themselves with an undisturbed work.

Immediately they had been assaulted by the crossbreed between a walrus, a chimpanzee and probably a lobster, seeing how the thing had shown a constant deep red for his skin colour. It had been fun to torture the man. Unfortunately, it had abruptly ended when they had tried to shrink him, to see just how small his obese body could become. Interestingly enough, they had found that while an adult human male could normally be shrinked by ten times with a simple, standard version of the spell, the shrinking lowered to seven times if your mass exceeded 130kg, and that, should you try to make the shrinking go to the usual ten times, the strain accompanying the effort was so high that you were most probably going to lose your control of the spell.

Ensuing this, the overshrinked body would come back to its normal size so fast that the sudden expansion would cause the internal pressure to rise exponentially, leading some limbs to explode. See, if only the Ministry would allow experimentation on muggles, they would learn so much about magic and its effect on the human body.

The wife's fate had been quicker, but just as fun. The damned female had been screaming from the second they'd entered. One of the assailants decided to have her taste her own medicine, casting a bubblehead charm on her, so the sounds of her screams would be kept in a tight space, piercing her own eardrums. When she fainted on floor, they noticed her oversized giraffe neck, and one of them cast a bone-breaking curse on said neck. She would stay alive as long as she would lay on the floor, but upon waking, when she would try to get up, the weight of her own head would tear her neck apart.

Yeah, it had been fun. Until they found the boy. None of the three Death Eaters had a clear expectation about the boy, but as vague as they had been, they certainly had been disappointed.

They had found him crying in a corner of the kitchen, obese, just like the walrus-lobster, his mouth gaping like an idiot, the foul smell of piss coming from a pond that had formed below him.

That was the "Saviour", the "Boy-Who-Lived" ? Soon enough, disappointment had left its place to fury. How could such a pathetic being be responsible for their Master's demise !

Immediately, the man hypothesized that their Master had been repulsed by the sheer degeneracy radiating from the boy. Or maybe that he had become like this in contact of the muggles, their barbary probably had extinguished any form of distinction remaining from the Potter pureblood line.

It mattered not, anymore. A simple cutting curse on the throat and the job was done. They could have gone with the killing curse, but knowing the boy's antecedents with it, they didn't take the risk.

A whole month had then passed, and not a single word had made into the newspaper about the attack. The man smirked – it was surprising, considering they even had carved the Dark Mark in the walrus' chest. Probably Dumbledore trying to cover his failures. But this wouldn't last eternally, especially with the boy's expected entry to Hogwarts the next year. Although there would be no boy, he had seen to that.


This day had probably been one of the most disturbing in Severus Snape's life.

Early this morning, he had been called into the Headmaster's office from his personal house (shack would be more fitting, to be honest), along with Minerva. After they had arrived, and made through the formal salutations for the day, they had proceeded to do nothing for two hours. A long and silenced wait broke here and there by Minerva' anxious "Are you sure it will work Albus ?"

After the third time, Severus Snape felt like he would soon reach a break point and regretted not bringing a portable potion kit. At least the wait could have been slightly useful. Fortunately, there had been no fourth time. As soon as the letter had been ready, Dumbledore had cast a tracking on the envelope and left it guide a Hogwarts owl to its intended destination. Which had made Severus' relief short-lived, for the process had been followed by another wait.

All of this for Potter's damned spawn. Even in death, the man had managed to prank him in a bored wait for about three hours now. Never mind the hundreds of hours he had lost those last years searching for him. Sometimes, one unfortunate hip thrust could lead to terrible things. Truth be told, didn't really mind anymore, since he had had to deal with the consequences of five hundred unfortunate hip thrusts on a daily basis for ten month every year the last decade.

Then, finally, the letter had reached its destination, and the Headmaster's flashy pigeon had taken them there.


Engulfed in a burst of flames, Severus had felt the floor vanish under his feet, and be felt again, although the sensation was clearly different from the Headmaster's comfortable office. The air was cold, Hogwarts' marble floor had been replaced by the crispy feeling of fallen leaves on humus, as the humming coming from the Headmaster's trinkets had given way to the silence of a forest.

The phoenix's flame, however, still blinded him when he heard Dumbledore's voice calling "Harry ?". The old man had put just enough confidence in it so it would seem like he was actually asking a question to Harry, although Snape was pretty sure he was as blinded as himself and that it had been an attempt to stop the boy from fleeing if he was nearby.

No answer had reached them except the silence. But it was fine, as the dazzle was fading.

Or so he had thought, for before him stood a dirty, crouched creature. Ottery's Creature.

Immediately, Severus drew his wand from his holster, stepped before the Headmaster and pointed his wand at the thing. He was stopped from casting any spell as, on one hand Albus exclaimed "Severus stop !", and on the other hand, the creature hissed. It had been a blood-freezing hiss, exactly like one a boa would give to intimidate a potential attacker.

As Albus put his hand on his wand to get it down, he asked "Harry, is that you ?" Which led the creature to snap its head to the Headmaster. Th creature could understand him. More, Albus had actually caught his attention !

At the exact same moment, it struck him. He couldn't have seen it on the only picture at disposal, as it showed it eyes closed, the mouth full with a hare. Yet, here it was, behind the dirt and the long messy hairs, he could see the traits of James Potter's face, minus the spectacles. Actually, the eyes' zone didn't only lack the most hated round spectacles, but the shape of it all was wrong. Or rather, terribly right. Lilly's shape. Lilly's bright green colour. Defiled by two slit snake pupils.

The sight almost made him throw up. Only one man in Severus' life had ever had such pupils. Voldemort.

Overall, it was like looking at a horrible nightmare featuring his purest love along with his greatest hate and deepest fear. Never in his life had Severus Snape been so grateful for being an occlumens, as he was putting his emotions aside until later, when he could feel them in a controlled environment.

"How ?"

It had spoken ?! Did the cursed thing fucking spoke just now ?!

"How? Know my name ?"

Its… No, his elocution was slow, pressed on the consonants, apparently difficult.

Unknown to Snape, Albus Dumbledore's head was filled with instructions to himself on how not to throw the whole situation over and make the best first impression. First, you need to smile, not too much though. Then you need to place your hands before you, joined. Good. Oh, the twinkle ! Don't forget the twinkle !

"Indeed, Harry. I know your name. Mine is Albus Dumbledore, I was a friend of your parents. As were my companions, Severus Snape and Minerva McGonagall." He told the boy while pointing at his respective members of staff. "Would it be alright to hold a short conversation together ?"

A conversation ? That was new. Harry couldn't… Yes, Harry, that was it, his name. That's why Hassy didn't sound right.

Anyway, Harry couldn't recall having a conversation with anyone apart from his snake friend. And a few other snakes they'd met along the way, although they had eaten a third of them, actually.

In particular, he didn't expect to ever have a conversation with a human. Most of them had all but ran away anytime he had got near enough to speak. Those who didn't had just frozen in place, pissing themselves sometimes. Harry had wondered if that was how some humans defended themselves… The smell was certainly foul enough to make him leave.

That being said, it didn't mean that he would not converse with a human, only that he hadn't been able to. Quite the contrary, in fact, he had always been rather curious about humans. They were so different from him, yet so alike !

"Yesss. Let'sss have converssse."

The twinkle in the old man's eyes intensified, as he spoke in a grandfatherly and professorial tone. "A conversation, my boy. Not "a converse". To converse is a verb, it means an action, while a "conversation" is a noun, it is an abstract object."

When the Headmaster had finished his unwarranted explanation, the boy's eyes were just as sceptical and confused as the Headmaster's ones were twinkling.

"Sssure…"

"Oh ! Excuse me, my boy, it was nothing but a professional deformation. You see, I am a professor, and Headmaster, of a school. And those two people here with me are professors too." He said, pointing to Snape and McGonagall. "You know what a school is, do you ?"

As the two went into a long conversation about Harry's blurry memory of his only school year, and a description of Hogwarts from Dumbledore himself, Severus Snape couldn't hold his curiosity anymore.

What was inside this young, although probably twisted, mind ?

And so he looked into the boy's eyes, longing to delve into the devil's spawn psyche, to catch the whole story of his life until now. And he most probably would have quite some time, seeing how the Headmaster was producing an interrupting flow of explanations about Hogwarts, about Magic, about "You're a Wizard, my boy." About "I assure you that you are indeed human, as were your parents." Severus actually winced on this one.

The process actually took quite more time than he had expected, but at some point, he managed to reach under the walls of the conscious mind, and… A forest ? Where are the memories ? The kaleidoscope of thoughts, the flow of sensations ?

They were nowhere. Instead, there was only the oppressing silence and eerie tranquillity of a forest. That wasn't right. Not at all. It disturbed Severus, nothing like that had never happened to him, yet it felt familiar. I must have read about it somewhere ? It was so heavy and difficult to remember precise information while being in someone else's mind.

Think. Think harder. There. He remembered.

Werewolves. Doing legilimency on an active werewolf was suicide, as the Wolf's mind served as a trap to the legilimancer.

As he recollected the information, some snake-like shape began to slither out from the bushes, coming to him. Quickly, he ran across the trees, trying to severe the link, as yellow eyes fixated themselves on him, while the body they were attached to followed at an alarming rate.

Concentrating on his breathe, trying to even it while thinking himself running, was not easy. To convince yourself that none of it was real and that you had to come back to yourself, while being viscerally convinced that an enormous snake was coming at you wasn't easy either.

The snake was closing the distance. Severus was getting tired. One second later, he could hear the snake crawling. One second more, he could feel its tongue touching his leg. The last second, as he heard the snake tensing up to jump at him, Severus stopped running, turned to face the snake and said: "None of it is real."

The next second, he was back in his body.

He barely heard the Headmaster's voice finishing a sentence: "… find Hogwarts to be a most pleasant place." Before he heard a snake hissing at him with an incredible force.

How ? The snake wasn't real ! And he was out of the boy's mind, wasn't he ?


"Harry ! What is wrong, my boy ?!"

The Headmaster's words brought Severus out of his stupor. It wasn't a snake. It was the damn boy. Under the Dark Lord's split pupils, under Lily's green eyes, under Potter's messy hairs, a 10 years old's thoracic cage was contracted, producing an unnatural, inhuman, snake hiss.

Humans are able to hiss, in a way, but never truly like a snake. A human's hiss will always be softer, as a human glottis lacks the anatomical properties that allow a snake to breathe even though its mouth is full with a prey. Yet, here there was what was supposed to be a human being, producing a snake hiss, and most probably with his glottis, just like a snake, if the Weasley second son's photos were to be believed.

Severus had been disturbed by the boy's external appearance. He was now horrified, wondering how much twisted he truly was on the inside.

As the boy ignored him and turned to Severus, his body all tensed up, understanding downed on Albus. Obviously, he should've known the Potions Master couldn't resist his tendencies. Well, making him a spy had probably not helped either.

Although he never would have expected Harry's next question.

"Is Crow-Man wanting eat me ?"

The Headmaster couldn't prevent himself from chuckling. Many times had Severus been compared to nocturnal flying animals, but to ask in all seriousness if he would eat anyone had been too much. How Albus loved the directness and candour of children.

"I doubt it, he's actually on diet." Dumbledore couldn't resist to make the joke.

Nobody else laughed, however. Severus paled, Harry tensed even more and Minerva… Had Minerva moved a single muscle since they arrived ?

Catching on the mood Albus continued: "Ahem… Sorry, my boy, it was a mere joke on my part. No, Professor Snape has never eat a child before, and I am quite confident that he will not start today."

"Then why attack ?" Was the boy's immediate response.

Minerva shifted, her first move since a long time, and sent the hardest glare she could to Severus. Before she could start with one of her famously stern reprimands, Albus answered to Harry.

"It was not an attack, my boy. Professor Snape can sometimes be… shy ?" It seemed as the man in question was about to choke, "As such, he likes to understand people a bit more deeply before talking to them. But it seems that today, this method was inefficient and he will have to overcome his… shyness. Anyway, it wasn't his intention to inflict discomfort to you."

The boy clearly doubted the explanation, but still relaxed a little nonetheless. Good. The crisis had been averted.

"Now, tell me Harry, how would you like coming to Hogwarts with us ?"

They had been waiting for a whole minute now. After Albus had asked the boy to come, he had told them to wait outside, as he had to discuss it with "his friend" - whoever that might be -, though he had asked them a few questions before going. Still, the questions had only been "Is it cold there ? Can I dig a hole there ? Will there be preys there ?", albeit asked with a terrible grammar.

It was a disaster. Lily and James Potter had been two of her favourite students, then two of her favourite friends. They had died to protect their child, to save their world. And now what ?

Their child was some sort of chimera living in the woods like some doxy-powder addict. The boy didn't even care about Hogwarts ! About Magic ! He only cared about digging a hole and eating !

Worse than that, Severus' attempt at entering his mind had been completely discarded from his worries the moment he was told there was nothing to worry about. The boy simply had no social awareness at all !

Which, by the way, was even more confusing as to who this "friend" was. For Heavens' sake, make it so that it is not some trash furniture with a face drawn on it. She certainly wouldn't support it.

"A'right, we come with you. He not liking it at first, but convinced him we could eat more fat preys. And if speak with you, speak less with him. He bored when speaking too much." They heard the boy's voice as he came out of the hole.

"And where is this friend of yours ?" Albus asked gently.

She knew it. Nobody was there. The boy was talking to a stone or a-

"Just there" He said, while lifting his long hairs up.

That's when she saw the grass snake resting on the boy's shoulders, observing them with its round, black eyes.

"Indeed. And what is this gentleman's name ?" Dumbledore asked, as they all came around him, ready to depart with Fawkes.

"How should I know ? It never told me."

Sometimes, children could be tiringly logical, was Minerva's last thought before everything went into a golden flame.


Well. I never thought I would take this long. Three months.

Three whole months to publish just one chapter. Chapter which, to be honest, I don't feel like it is really worth the wait, and I'm sorry for that.

Basically, I've obtained my Master's degree in September (Yay !), then I got my driver license (Yay !) and then was accepted for a PhD (YAY !). But we've got no funding yet (Y…Yay ?!) So, I've got to find funds for my PhD. And a job, cause I've got no money. And all of that pretty much ate up two whole months. On top of that, I've started to be unsatisfied with how I've written some of my fic. I've barely made five chapters, and I'm already thinking about reworking it because I'm not writing like a pro, how about being any more inefficient than that ?

Then I found a job with children (nice enough). And I caught measles (Fuck!).

Today, day of the release, is both the last day of my convalescence, and my birthday. So, a happy unbirthday to you, people.