Summary: AU, SSHG, Crack, In a world where Lily lived, life was not perfect for Severus Snape. Hope came with the arrival of Hermione Granger who first became his apprentice, friend, and then so much more. But old friends are not happy with his happiness, and one spell changes everything.
Beta Love: Dragon and the Rose, Dutchgirl01
Barely
Chapter Two
When you protect yourself from pain, be sure you do not protect yourself from love.
- Alan Cohen
"I'm going to tell mummy! You're a freak!"
"Freak!"
"You're a freak!"
"I'm going to tell mummy!"
"Freak!"
Severus stood up from the nook in the willow, his pale face twisted into a scowl as he watched a bushy-haired young girl racing towards him, panic writ large on her face.
Hermione.
The one neighbour who was always kind to him. Bossy. Forever up in his business, but unfailingly kind.
His emotions surged. Anger at that horse-faced troll of a sister who simply couldn't stand that her little sister was so very talented, so much better than her.
Kinder than her.
Hermione never turned her magic on her sister no matter how much Petunia Evans desperately deserved it.
Oh, and she did deserve it!
His magic crackled ominously as Hermione ran by, and he stood up to Petunia in Hermione's stead, his narrowed eyes pits of unforgiving, hateful black. His hands twitched, becoming very itchy all of a sudden. His head pounded. His very bones ached. A strange vapour seemed to leak from his eyes that was both dark and violet. He tasted blood as his teeth ground together amidst his rising anger. His rage against his father paled in comparison to the anger against that annoying skinny wasp of a girl whose inner ugliness radiated from her in a way no one could miss.
The girl took one look at him and paled, running back toward the house. "I'M TELLING MUMMY!" Petunia wailed shrilly, fleeing back to whence she came. "FREAK!"
It took a few moments for Severus to recover himself. The rage had come on almost instinctively, honed to a precision that only years spent living with his hateful bastard father could do. It took no alcohol for that to be so, either. Tobias Snape was a hate-filled, angry, and spiteful man who blamed his mum and him for every bad thing he had bloody well brought upon himself up to and including, it seemed, Severus himself. He would, Severus knew, accuse Severus or his mum of being at fault for every horrible turn in his life from burning the fried bread for breakfast or because he tripped on a random stray rock in the road.
He startled, hearing a low growl, and then jolted again when he realised it came from himself. He looked down at his hands and saw—
Dark claws on padded half-paw half-hands.
He felt his face and felt—
Fur?
A muzzle.
Pointy fangs.
There was blood on his fingers where he had bitten his tongue and touched his mouth.
Mrrt.
Bonk.
What the?
He looked down only to find a cub-like feline of unusual size rubbing up against his legs.
His now-monstrous legs actually fit the normally baggy oversized clothes he typically wore, cast-offs courtesy of his ruddy cheapskate of a sire. For once, his body fit his clothing, except for—
Riiiiiip.
The fact he had a pair of leathery wings on his back pushing out from the ripped fabric of his flannel shirt.
Purrrr-BONK.
PurrRRRRrbonk.
The creature rubbing up against his legs seemed very happy to accept the changes in their new friend.
Shite.
Hermione?
He'd turned Hermione into a creature!
He'd turned himself into an, er… SOMETHING.
Your thoughts are quite loud, friend, Hermione said.
Severus stared in disbelief.
Come on, the voice said encouragingly. Pick me up, will you? I can't see that well over all this high grass.
Severus swallowed hard and hoisted the cub in his arms, lifting her up to rest against his chest and shoulder so her head thumped companionably into his.
She clearly approved, radiated purrs so deep that his entire body vibrated like a tuning fork.
"Hermione?"
Hrm?
"I think I turned you into a cat."
I like cats. The feline in his arms purred, and her dappled coat seemed like a mix of sun and shadow through the trees. Being a cat doesn't seem too bad. Except for being rather short, but you can pick me up, right? Then I won't be so short all the time.
The cub was obviously of some wild breed, as far as he could tell. She had a spotty and lined coat he didn't quite recognise from any book he'd ever read at the library. She was bigger than a domestic, a bit stockier, and had the same brown eyes he was so familiar with, so unlike Petunia's red hair and green eyes. They might as well have been completely unrelated.
His father had wanted to say that he had been a product of "someone else's cock," but unfortunately, Severus had looked far too much like Tobias to even save his father from that bloody "shame." Severus had learned to spend most of his time at the library and at the willow tree ever since he was old enough to both walk and read, and it had been the only thing that had saved him from many of the bitter "arguments" between his father and mother.
Hermione had been much the same, only it wasn't her parents that she was running from. It was her older sister, Petunia. The young witch had often fled from her sister's cruel taunts and accusations, diving into the protection of the hidden space near the willow and not bothering to come out until Severus himself had found his way there for his own bit of escape.
It made him think he wasn't alone in his suffering even though they had different reasons. It also made him protective of her. He'd always believed he could handle his own problems, but it angered him that Hermione always let her skinny bitch of a sister get away with bloody murder. She never fought back.
Just like he never fought back against his father.
What good would it do?
His mother stood by and let it happen.
Her parents—turned a blind eye to Petunia's frank hostility towards Hermione even as they provided for both of their daughters in ways Severus never had from his own parents. In Hermione's case, though, what good was having fine material things in life when she couldn't even feel safe in her own home?
So, the two of them had soon become the best of friends, if anything, mutual comrades in suffering. But in that shared pain, they had found succour in each other, and Hermione had looked up to him when she'd found out about her magic—that it was real. That she wasn't a freak. They would go off to school together one day.
They would both get to leave behind the things that hurt and tormented them, hopefully for something far better.
Well…
Er.
If he could figure out how to un-turn Hermione back from a cat.
And maybe look a little less like whatever the heck he was.
Hermione snuggled into him with a content purr, apparently perfectly at ease with her feline self. He'd expected her to either panic or be angry with him, but as usual, she had surprised him by taking it in stride.
He had to admit, her size made her a little easier to conceal than whatever he was. But how much had Petunia seen? Or thought she saw?
She'd always run away from him, even without the extra appendages, claws, and monstrous features, so that was pretty hard to tell.
What was he going to do?
Hell, what were they going to do?
Hermione's purring settled something in his body, and he felt the tension escaping from him. His body shivered for a few seconds and seemed to fold in on itself. He found himself feeling a bit colder as his body settled back into a human form. Unfortunately, it also made him a bit weaker and smaller, and the cub in his arms seemed heavier. He wobbled a bit as he cradled her against himself, struggling not to drop her.
Unlike him, she remained stuck as a feline, and—
"Hermione?"
The cub chirp-rowled at him, her big brown eyes staring into his.
His eyebrows knit together. "Say something?"
"Rowl!" the cub said, thumping one paw on his mouth.
"I can't understand," he said. "Try again?"
"Eah!" she chirped.
"You did it before!"
"Eawh!" she chirped louder.
Severus slumped, pulling the cub tight to his chest. "I'm sorry. I don't know what to do! I can't hear you anymore!"
The cub seemed to glower at him. "Eawh!" she chirped.
She sounded like a lion cub that he'd seen the one time his mum had taken him to the zoo with some money she'd hidden away when Tobias had gone off on a weekend with some mates to an out-of-town rugby game.
Severus hugged her tight, carrying her with him towards his home. She definitely wasn't going to be able to go home as a cub of some unknown species. He knew how to sneak things into his house and out well enough. Tobias was currently at work, and so he had a bit of wiggle room.
"You're going to have to help me keep you a secret, Hermione," he said to the cub. "Until we figure out how to get you back human again."
"E'awuh!" she chirped, her tail flicking cutely.
Severus was never so thankful for having oversized clothes when he smuggled the cub into the house and up the stairs to his room. He lined an old box with some of his da's long-forgotten hand-me-downs and tucked her behind some other things he stashed under the bed so she was entirely unseen.
Hermione sneezed, protesting the dusty state of his floor, but she remained quiet otherwise
When the house quieted down and his father's snores began to rattle the walls, he sneaked down into the kitchen and made a large plate of leftovers. His mum was used to leaving leftovers in the fridge for him after his da finally went to bed—
It was the only way he'd be left in peace to eat.
He knew better than to try heating anything up. Anything that made noise or filled the house with the scent of his activity would soon have his father awake and angry.
After filling a plastic pitcher with water and carefully carrying it and the plate of food upstairs, he alternated boards on the wooden floor to avoid the squeaky spots, and closed his door so slowly that he could feel his heart thumping hard against his ribcage.
Sighing with relief as he heard no change in his da's loud snores, he placed the water and a cold plate of spaghetti and sauce on the floor as he pulled the boxes away to let Hermione out.
Hermione sneezed as he opened the box and promptly jumped out.
"We're going to have to share the plate," Severus said sombrely. "There was only one plate."
Hermione's tail flicked from one side to the other, but she sat down quietly and made a soft rrrr.
He awkwardly cut the dish in half with his fork and pushed the single measly-looking meatball to her side. "Go on then. That's your side."
Hermione looked at him rather dubiously, staring with dismay at his meagre portion of the plate. She nosed the meatball back over to his side.
Severus scowled, but she stared at him intently. "Fine," he said. "Just eat, will you?"
Hermione stared at the meatball and then at him.
Severus rolled his eyes, stabbed the offending meatball with the fork, and ate it.
Hermione purred loudly and tucked into her side of the cold plate, getting tomato sauce all over her muzzle as she attempted to wrangle the pasta with her feline teeth and tongue.
As Severus ate from his side, he snorted as the cub attempted to lick her muzzle clean of sauce as her mouth worked on the last of the stray noodles. Her muzzle was wrinkled with her effort. It reminded him of the neighbour's dog's struggle when it got peanut butter on his tongue.
Once they had finished their late supper, he wrapped Hermione up in a towel and sneaked into the bathroom, closing the door with the same exaggerated quietness. He turned on the faucet using his hand to keep the sound of the water from splashing loudly, and was immediately thankful that of all the things they didn't have, they at least had hot water. He took an old towel and gently cleaned Hermione's face of red sauce, washed the towel itself with the bar of laundry soap, and then soaped it up again to wash his own face. He plunked the cub on the toilet awkwardly and made a waving gesture as he turned his back so she could do her business in private, praying that figure it out without him looking or helping.
Despite the fact she was covered in fur, she was still, well, a girl.
He brushed his teeth with only a quick turn of the faucet, doing his best to be as quiet as possible. He heard the thump of a paw as the toilet flushed, and he finished up. They switched places, him trying not to think too hard on how a quadruped used the loo, as he used it himself. He cocked his head as the cub was smearing toothpaste over her fangs and using the towel to rub it all over them despite not having a brush.
Severus grunted, stopping to wash his hands before he tried to take the towel from her. She protested, squeak-rowling in distress, and he clamped his hand over her muzzle.
"Quiet!" he hissed.
Her tail was bristled like a bottle brush, her body vibrating. He huffed in frustration, trying to convince the cub that nothing was worth waking up his da. Surely she remembered the stories. She of all people.
Young cubling-Hermione, however, was convinced that not cleaning her teeth would surely be the end of the world, and she was struggling to get back to smashing her face into the towel.
He growled at her, frantically rubbing the paste around her pointy teeth and then rinsing off the towel and taking the paste off. He glared at her despite the fact that she seemed satisfied now.
He cleaned off the towel and hung it to dry, scooping up the defiant cub as he put a finger to his mouth and jerked his head toward the door.
Only then, Hermione looked utterly contrite, her ears plastered against her head as she drooped, suddenly realising that she was being utterly unreasonable.
Severus sighed, turning off the light as he carried her back to his room.
He carefully tucked the cub into the box once more, whispering his apologies for the horrible accommodations all the while praying that if she was going to change back then, that for the love of whatever god might take pity on them, please not while she was sleeping under his bed.
"Tomorrow, we're going to see if we can find someone magical. Someone who can help us," Severus whispered. "If you can't change back, you may need some help. I just—"
He stared a hole into the floor. "I'm sorry," he whispered hoarsely. "I didn't mean to turn you into a cat! I just wanted to keep you safe!"
She was in his lap, purring softly.
Severus shuddered and placed a hand on her back. There was something powerful in that thrumming purr that he couldn't resist. Something incredibly warm and accepting. He'd never been one for cats or any pets, really. Tobias barely tolerated living with his wife and son let alone a dependent animal. While Hermione was hardly a pet, the feel of soft fur and the hearty vibration of a purr was cathartic in the least and healing on a level he couldn't even describe.
His book knowledge said that the big cats didn't purr because they were able to roar instead, so what did that make her? He had a feeling she was, if full-grown, very much a species of big cat that did purr, whatever she was. All he had was what he'd read, and he had a feeling that such things were sadly failing him at the moment.
He reluctantly moved Hermione into the box so she could be hidden under the bed and carefully placed other things in the way to keep her hidden. It tore at something inside him to lose that contact—that strange seductive warmth—stronger than any fascination with Dark magic hexes and curses.
Was this what compassion felt like?
Was this what care from another could be?
His father had only ever touched him with the intent to cause pain and harm. His mother didn't, lest his father get angry. Well, angrier. But this—
The warmth was a balm on the deep inner wounds he hadn't even realised he had until they seeped into the angry cracks within his soul. With Hermione near, he could feel. He couldn't focus on the depth of hatred required to think of the curses that had once come so easily to him.
It had been so easy when all he could think of was his hatred of his father and his aggravating Muggle situation—cut off from all things magical when his body almost sang with a driving need to explore the magic within him. Magic that his mother had firmly turned her back on. Magic that she both encouraged in him and yet discouraged him from using it around their home—
Not that he'd been able to control it properly.
But now he knew he had to protect Hermione and that meant finding a way of getting her some help without alerting both his mum and his da because his mum couldn't seem to keep her mouth shut around Tobias. He simply looked at her, and she'd immediately start babbling like someone was holding a rifle to her head. He had never understood how someone could give up their magic for someone like his da.
If they didn't care for each other, why had they even gotten together?
Surely, in a magical world, his mum would have had other options?
Was the magical world so horrible that his mum had to run to the Muggle world to escape?
He never did understand.
He found himself under the covers shivering to try and warm the space between the blankets and his skin when suddenly a warm bundle of fur snuggled into his body and under his arm, radiating a soothing heat.
He wanted to protest.
He wanted to make some token objection.
She was a girl after all.
Fuzzy.
Warm.
Purring.
He was asleep before he could even think of anything else.
"Get the hell up, boy!" his father yelled. "Get yourself presentable. The constable is here to see you. If I find out you've been stealin' anything, I'm going to tan your ruddy hide!"
Severus bolted out of bed in an absolute panic, both looking around frantically while trying not to look around frantically and give away the fact he was looking.
Hermione was nowhere to be found.
Thank the gods for that!
He hopped about as he hastily pulled on his clothing, working on sheer adrenaline, not giving a damn if anything even matched.
As he staggered his way downstairs, there was a woman with a rather wizened-looking face standing just inside the door. Her face was wearing a scowl, but the moment she saw him, her expression softened. She seemed to shoot a concerned look toward Tobias, and that immediately warmed Severus up to the woman.
"You wanted to see me, constable?" Severus asked politely.
"DCI Matthews," she said, her eyes narrowing at Tobias.
DCI? Severus thought. Since when did a detective chief inspector come all the way to Cokeworth? It figured that his da would call her a constable. His father never had any respect for the police, least of all women.
"Please," she said. "Call me Nora. May I speak with you, lad?"
"Take him out of here and throw him in irons," Tobias hissed angrily. "I harbour no criminals here."
"Your son is not under arrest," DCI Matthews said soberly.
"He will be," Tobias said, slamming the door as he shoved them both out. "Just save us the trouble and take him away."
The officer sighed as she stared at the slammed door. "Let's go take a walk, you and I, eh?" she said after a bit. "Away from any open windows and shuffling curtains."
Severus nodded gratefully.
He followed the DCI down towards town and to his surprise, she bought him breakfast at the small shoppe he'd always wondered what the food was like at. It always had a vast array of delicious-looking pasties and pastries in the front window, and the aromas were always so enticing.
"Do you know why I'm here, lad?" she asked after he'd tucked into some full English. The sausages and tomatoes alone made him willing to sing whatever the inspector wanted to know.
"No," he answered truthfully.
"I'm part of a very special unit in London," she said after a while. "We work with some very special people that most don't know about."
Severus' eyes widened.
"Aurors can't always be everywhere," Nora said. "Not in the Muggle world. But there are some of us that have to be our best Muggle to keep an eye out for things that may need special intervention. Have you heard of Aurors, lad?"
"Only that if you did bad, the Aurors would get you," Severus said. His mum had always been the type to think Aurors only paid attention to you if you were a Dark Wizard.
Nora frowned. "Not quite like that," she said. "I was Muggleborn, you see. It made me perfect for this job because I could be very Muggle but still magical. I am a liaison between the Muggle and Wizarding world."
"Oh," Severus said. "Did I do something wrong?"
Nora shook her head. "No, but we detected a surge of magic in this area. Uncontrolled, wild magick. The sort the young do before they are properly schooled. And I was hoping you could help me find out what happened. Help if I can."
Severus swallowed hard. Suspicious, he asked, "Can I see your wand?"
Nora chuckled. She pulled out an ID with a moving picture and letters. And the end of her wand slipped down her sleeve for a moment.
Severus blinked. He couldn't help but be excited. A real witch that wasn't his mum. A real witch with a real job!
"Am I going to jail?"
"Merlin, no, lad," Matthews exclaimed. "I'm just here to help, if I can."
"Eaow!"
Severus startled as Nora looked down at her feet and brightened. "Oh! What a little darling! Where did you come from, pet?"
Nora picked up a fluffy, sleepy feline cub of indeterminate species from the floor and cuddled her close.
"EaOW!" Hermione cried, purring madly.
"I accidentally turned her into a cat!" Severus quickly confessed even as Nora watched the hungry cub steal a plump Cumberland sausage off her plate and gobble it down with gusto. "She's my friend. Hermione."
"Oh, lad," Nora said as she cooed at Hermione. "She's an Animagus."
"A what?"
"A person, a witch or wizard, who can take on an animal form," Nora explained. "Usually it's after some years of study, a mandrake leaf stuck to the mouth, all that rot, but it looks like she's a natural. That magical surge, that was you, then, eh, pet?"
Hermione purred in response, happily liberating sausage number two or three off the officer's plate.
"She's not the only one," Severus said sheepishly.
"Oh?" Nora looked at him with curiosity.
"I turned into an, uh, thing," Severus explained. "Her sister was tormenting her, and I just wanted to protect her, and—"
"Ah, so this is Hermione Evans," DCI Matthews said with a nod. "I've talked to them already today. The older sister is a real piece of work," she observed with a shudder.
Severus nodded. The officer was taking things so calmly, not at all like he'd expected. His mum always made the Aurors sound like boogeymen, and his da made the police sound just as bad.
"Petunia, was it? She made off saying that her sister up and ran away because she was nothing but a freak," Nora said with a frown. "That is the way with Muggleborns usually. We either have a family that is super understanding about the situation or very much the opposite. With half-bloods, it really depends on who is raising them, but often they are just as ostracised because they are not entirely of either world. Not always, but quite often."
Nora sighed. "Well, now that we know the truth of it, I think I know what we can do for you. Seeing as I have seen what kind of situations you and Miss Hermione have come from, home wise, I don't think it wise for either of you to return home. It's just not safe. Your father looks ready to commit murder. I've seen that look before, way too many times, in fact. Normally we loathe to take a child from their parents, but with accidental magic in the mix, anything violent could cause something worse— things you don't mean to happen. As for Hermione, oi! That was my grilled tomato!"
The cub looked up wide-eyed at the officer. "Eaow!"
Nora rolled her eyes yet looked distinctly amused. "I think I know just where to take you two."
"Animagi? Truly?" The elder witch looked down her spectacles at both Severus and Hermione, her eyes going very wide. The cub was eyeing the feather quill resting in the cup on her desk with avid interest.
"Aye, Minerva," Nora said. "Severus comes from an unfortunately hostile family. Neglect most definitely. Hermione from a spiteful situation with a frankly vicious older sister and parents who have clearly chosen to ignore the sister's absolute hatred of her younger sibling. We can't risk either of them returning home when their accidental magic has already proven so dangerously effective. We felt the pulse all the way in London."
The elder witch straightened her shoulders. "We normally do not take in students at Hogwarts before they are eleven, but—I refuse to let another innocent child slip through the cracks like some have. Albus has always dismissed my concerns as being overly paranoid, but we all know what a lack of stability does to the mind and the magic.
THUMP!
Crash!
Squawk?
Minerva looked over to find that a certain cub had pounced an obviously startled phoenix, and the phoenix had lost his perch on top of the nearby globe and was now being sprawled on by a very happy cub.
"That'll teach Albus to leave Fawkes here after our faculty meetings," Minerva snorted. She shook her head after making sure Fawkes wasn't going to spontaneously combust on the spot.
The cub was playfully batting at the phoenix's feathered tail, super fascinated and then some.
Fawkes squawked in defeat.
"I'll take them as my apprentices," Minerva said decisively. "Please start the paperwork for me, Nora?"
"Will do, ma'am," Nora said with a nod. "Hogwarts hasn't had apprentices in years. Whatever will the old man say?"
"Albus can go set his beard on fire," Minerva huffed. "I haven't asked him for anything in all the time I've been here so he had best keep his overlong nose out of my choice to take on apprentices."
Nora snickered. "I knew there was a reason I really liked you, old friend."
Minerva shrugged. "How are things in the Auror-not-Auror business?"
The DCI smiled. "Police, whether magical or Muggle, always have their mysteries to solve. Sometimes I think the magical ones are simpler. It could actually be an abduction by hippogriffs."
McGonagall chortled. "I suppose."
"Murders, though, are a dastardly business regardless of where it happens or who the culprit is." Nora frowned.
The elder witch nodded. "I guess there is no escaping senseless violence in either situation. You were always good at solving the mysteries, yet you still keep your heart."
"Tell that to my coworkers," Nora said with a chuckle. She looked over to a large armchair where a boy wizard, cub, and an exhausted phoenix lay together in a tangled pile, all sound asleep.
"Make the paperwork airtight, my friend," Minerva said, her eyes narrowed in thought. "I have a feeling we'll need it."
Nora nodded. "You got it," she replied. "I know all the right forms."
"You always did, didn't you Miss Matthews?"
Nora gasped, clutching her chest dramatically.
Minerva gestured as the tea service appeared along with a heaping tray of sandwiches and a tempting assortment of biscuits and little cakes. "Have some tea, Nora. We'll discuss the particulars over lunch."
End of Chapter Two