THC/The Houses Competition

House: Gryffindor

Class: Ancient Runes

Category: Themed - Sight

Prompt(s): [action] struggling to breathe

Word Count: 1856

A/N: Finally found some motivation to write another chapter with this round's prompts! This is an AU in which the Dursleys were murdered and Snape ends up with Harry.

WARNING for implied/referenced child abuse (no more than canon, just calling it what it is), and referenced minor character death (the Dursleys, previously murdered offscreen).


If someone had told Severus Snape even a week ago that he would be the guardian of one Harry Potter, he would have thought they needed to be committed to the Janus Thickey Ward. But here he was, calmly explaining to Lily and James Potter's child how a fireplace was going to take them to where they needed to go.

"I have to get in the fireplace?" Harry wrinkled his nose and squinted at the fire. He didn't seem afraid of the concept, merely curious.

"Yes," Severus told him. "I will get in with you and state our destination as I drop the Floo powder, and then we will be transported to Diagon Alley."

He had considered Apparating and walking through the Leaky, but he was sure that Harry would not go unnoticed by the patrons of the bar and he didn't want Harry mobbed before they could even get to the Alley itself. It was a tight squeeze, but Severus did manage to fit in the fireplace with Harry so that there were no unfortunate mishaps, and they emerged in the Magical Menagerie without incident.

Harry was understandably fascinated by the animals in the pet store, and by one owl in particular who was impressively regal. Severus had to tug on his new jumper – courtesy of the one other errand they had managed to take yesterday to a muggle clothing store – in order to move them along.

Severus hadn't planned much for the day, because although Harry would need a number of things from the Alley before he started school, he had never been exposed to the magical world before and Severus didn't want to overwhelm him. Besides, with a few exceptions, most of the things Harry would need could be ordered by owl. One of those exceptions was proper wizarding robes. Luckily, the Menagerie was directly across from Madam Malkin's, and they crossed the street so quickly that nobody in the Alley paid any attention to the two of them.

It was early enough in the day that the shop was empty, and Madam Malkin came to their assistance immediately. Harry didn't appear to be bothered by her or her precocious tape measure, and feeling unneeded, Severus wandered back to the front of the shop and looked out the windows into the Alley. At the moment there were only a few people to be seen, but in a little over three weeks the back to school rush would fill the street with crowds of families who had put off getting their Hogwarts school supplies until the last minute. Severus frowned in disgust at the thought of having to wade through that sea of chaos.

A sign halfway down the Alley caught his eye: O'Mannion Optical. Severus stared at it for a moment and then let out a breath, long and slow, and thought of some very excellent expletives that he couldn't say out loud within hearing range of Harry.

Severus had seen Harry squint at things more times than he could count in just the two days he'd had him, and now that he thought about it, the frames had looked rather small on Harry's face. He turned and looked back into the shop. Madam Malkin was showing Harry drawings of different robe styles in a book, and he was squinting at them so hard that his eyes appeared to be closed.

"He'll just be getting the standard Hogwarts set of student robes, Madam," Severus told her. Madam Malkin shut the book with a disappointed look.

"Owl delivery, Professor?"

"Yes, to my address, please," Severus said, and inwardly grimaced at the curious glance she gave him. He had brought new muggleborn Hogwarts students here before, but this was the first time he'd used his address for the delivery. It was almost guaranteed now that the entire wizarding world would know by September first that he had a child living with him.

Oddly, Severus wasn't sure that he was bothered by that idea.

"Come on, then, we've got places to be," he told Harry, who obediently jumped off the little pedestal he'd been on and waved goodbye to Madam Malkin as they left the shop.

"Where're we going?"

Harry had lasted an impressive fifteen seconds before asking that question.

"Just up here," Severus gestured towards the optical shop. Harry squinted at it.

"But I've got glasses already," he said. "Why are we going there?"

"And how long have you had those glasses?"

Harry shrugged. "Since grade one, I guess."

"Then it's about time you had a new pair, isn't it?" Severus said as he opened the door and ushered him inside.

Severus had never been to an optical, as he had never needed glasses, so this experience was just as new to him as it was to Harry. The shop was full of display cases with lots of different frames in a number of different sizes and shapes, and as they were both standing there gawking at the enormous selection, a man came out of a door in the back.

"Hello!" He cried cheerfully. "Welcome to O'Mannion Optical; I am O'Mannion and I'll be your oculist for the day. How can I assist you?"

The man was annoyingly chipper, in Severus' opinion.

"Mr. Potter is in need of some new glasses," he told the man, who seemed to perk up even more, if that was possible.

"That wouldn't be Harry Potter, would it?" Severus fixed him with a glare and O'Mannion smiled nervously back. "Of course, of course, I never gossip about my clients, bad for business you know! Now, Mr. Potter, if you would follow me?"

Severus carefully trailed behind them as O'Mannion took Harry to the back of the shop where there was an odd instrument with lots of knobs and lenses all over it. O'Mannion directed Harry to sit in a chair beneath it and take his glasses off, and then lowered the instrument in front of Harry's eyes.

"Mr. Potter, can you see that chart down there?"

On the opposite end of the room, a good five meters away at least, there was a large chart with big letters at the top and very tiny ones at the bottom. Severus couldn't even make out the ones on the smallest line, and he wondered if he needed glasses, too.

"Er, I can sort of see it?" Harry sounded quite hesitant.

"Good, just keep focusing on it. I'll be casting a few spells and it'll start to get clearer." O'Mannion began to tap his wand over the lenses, muttering spells that Severus couldn't make out, and the lenses and knobs started to turn with little clicking noises.

"I can see the letters!" Harry gasped as the lenses stopped moving.

"Read the very bottom line for me, if you can?"

Harry rattled off the tiny little letters, and O'Mannion applauded him and then moved the instrument away from Harry's face.

"Now, Mr. Potter, you go pick out a pair of frames and I'll put this prescription in them for you."

Harry got out of the chair and went to look at the frames. Severus followed him, curious as to what he would choose, but Harry couldn't seem to be able to make a decision. He looked at the frames, but didn't make any move to try any on.

"Do you know which ones you want, Harry?"

Harry shook his head, dropping his chin to look down at the ground. Too many options at once, Severus thought. He looked over the frames, took down three, and handed them to Harry.

"There you are," he said firmly. "Pick one of those."

Harry tried each one on, blinking and squinting at himself in the mirrors spread about the shop, and eventually settling on a frame that was nearly identical to the one he came in wearing, albeit much better fitted to his face. O'Mannion took the frame and cast a number of spells to put the proper prescription in it, and then Severus paid him ten Galleons and handed the new glasses over to Harry.

To Severus' surprise, Harry did not immediately put them on. It wasn't until they were leaving the optical that Harry stopped on the front steps, took his old glasses off, and with the kind of care that Severus might take with delicate potions ingredients, unfolded the arms of the new spectacles and slid them on his face.

Initially, Severus was concerned, because Harry had no visible reaction, but then Harry's eyes abruptly started watering.

"Can you see well?" Severus asked him, uncertain as to why he was crying.

Tears streaked down Harry's face, and he opened his mouth as if to say something, but didn't seem able to make a response. Probably because he wasn't breathing, Severus realized.

"Harry, you need to breathe," Severus instructed. "Come on, open your mouth."

Harry obeyed, but all he managed was a tiny wheezing sound. He was going to suffocate himself, Severus thought in horror, as Harry began to turn red.

Severus drew his wand. "This probably won't feel good," he warned Harry. "Aeros Bradam!"

The spell was meant to be used in emergency resuscitation, and Harry gasped wildly as it forced the air abruptly into his lungs and he dropped to sit on the step. To Severus' immense relief, Harry did not appear to need assistance breathing after that, finally managing his own gulping sobs.

Suddenly feeling intensely weary, Severus sat down next to Harry and hesitantly put his arm around the boy's shaking shoulders.

"M'sorry," Harry croaked.

"For what?" Severus winced as the words came out more harshly than he meant them.

"Everything's so… so crisp," Harry said. "It just — I didn't know it could look like that."

"Harry," Severus said, pulling him closer without even thinking about it. Harry looked up at him, on the edge of tears again. "I'm not upset with you."

Harry buried his face in Severus' side, arms coming up to grip his robes tightly, and Severus felt a sudden, startling wave of affection that frightened him in its intensity.

Severus had spent most of his life learning how to perfect his façade and shove his emotions aside in self-preservation. Except for those stolen moments with Lily when they were young, he had never had the luxury of being able to freely express what he felt, and at some point he had become very good at pretending he had no emotions at all, even to himself.

Well, as it turned out, he could no longer pretend. He had a weakness, it seemed, and it was a pair of green eyes full of tears. If Dumbledore returned and told Severus that he had found a blood relative willing to take the boy in, Severus would fight tooth and nail to keep him. Although Harry had been with him less than two days, it was as if all the love he still harbored for Lily had latched on to her son with a death grip.

It was somewhat ironic, Severus thought, that it had been a trip to an oculist that had helped him see how important Harry was to him.