•This story will be rated M for violence, sexual content, and profanity.
•Warnings for severe Abuse, mentions of child molestation, and Murder.
•I will not be putting warnings on any other chapters, the before mentioned warnings will cover any future chapters that contain such content.
•Harry will have a different birth date.
•Severus Snape will start teaching at Hogwarts the year that Harry starts there.
Chapter 1: Discovery
All was quiet on Private Drive in Little Whinging, a cloudy evening on Friday, May 5th of 1987.
At least it was for every normal, muggle family that lived on Private Drive.
In the house on lot number 4 of Private Drive lived a very un-normal muggle family.
It was often a normal evening that sounds of bare flesh being beaten and soft, almost silent whimpers could be heard echoing throughout the house.
Not one Muggle knows of the horrid things that happen in that house.
Not one muggle knows of the frail little boy who lives a tortured existence.
The one Wizard who does know of what happens does absolutely nothing to help save the frail little boy.
In fact, sometimes he comes to Number 4, Private Drive to watch the frail little boy be beaten.
Sometimes he comes to Number 4 Private Drive and does his own secret things to the frail little boy.
This evening was no exception, an echoing, continuous, thudding could be heard through the thin walls. The frail little boy lay nearly naked, only clothed in too large stained underwear, unmoving on the cold linoleum floor of the kitchen.
The frail body, covered in large bruises. Some new, some old, and some in between those two. His body a variety of purples, yellows, and reds where smeared blood dried.
A large trembling foot swung in and connected with the little boy's waist, another thud echoing through the house.
The boy no longer whimpering, his eyes closed he sank into the dark place his mind had created.
In the dark place, he envisioned what he would like to do or see done to his abusers.
In the dark place, he saw flowing rivers of something dark.
In the dark place, he heard only silence.
In the dark place, he felt in control.
In the dark place, he was always alone.
The dark place, the only thing he loves.
Friday, June 5th, 1987. Little Whinging
For the first time in his horrid life, the boy is allowed to walk to the park on the outskirts of Little Whinging, all alone one afternoon.
He sits on a lone decaying swing and gently sways back and forth. His head hung low and his eyes closed. He is in his dark place.
A chorus of ugly laughter in the distance brings the boy back to the world and he looks up. His cousin and a few of his friends are heading slowly in his direction.
They have not seen him yet, he slides off the swing and crawls silently across the hard gravel ground to the very tall dead grass that surrounded the forgotten park.
He sinks into the grass with long learned stealth and hides from his monsters.
Friday, June 5th, 1987 Outskirts of Little Whinging
Severus Snape stands in a little clearing made in the tall grass, awaiting the arrival of the man he had made a meeting with. He looks around, taking in his surroundings, a small forgotten park a hundred feet to his left and far-stretching empty field on his right.
He sees when the little boy wanders into the park and takes his place on the swing. He figures the little boy to be around four years of age with his short stature and frail body. But muggles were not his concern.
He raised his wand and cast a few near silent spells, raising a silencing ward and an obscurement ward so the little boy could not see or hear Severus and his meeting.
A loud pop in front of him alerted him to the arrival of Quirinus Quirrell. Whom stumbled a little upon landing, he righted himself and then brought his gaze up to the steady hard eyes of Severus.
"Your late, Quirrell. Do you assume that others have as much time to waste as yourself?" The cutting edge to his words made the other man tremble slightly.
"Of course not, Snape. I got lost trying to find this place. You didn't exactly pick an easy spot to find." Quirrell said, putting as much bravado in the words as he could muster.
"That is exactly the point, you fool." Severus said with a biting sneer. "I would be a fool to pick a better-found place when the meeting is to discuss the whisperings of The Dark Lord's return. Or is it that you take me as a fool, Quirrell?" He narrowed his eyes as he asked the last part.
Quirrell visibly flinched but shook his head. "No. No, I do not think that you are a fool, Severus Snape. I am a smarter man than that."
Severus simply nodded, tiring of this meeting already. He waved his hand, signaling for the man to start telling him what he had found.
"I was traveling through eastern France when I heard the first whispering's among a group of Faeries. They say that they saw a dark mist traveling through the land when it came across a lone muggle in the forest and took over the body." Severus watched Quirrell's eyes glaze over as he recounted the experience.
"They followed the muggle man for many days, just to see what would happen and try to discover what the mist was. On the second day, it was clear that the body could not handle the mist as it began to die. On the fifth day, the body fell and did not rise again. They watched the mist separate itself from the lifeless form and float away."
Severus nodded once more, bringing a hand to rest under his chin as he listened to the recanting of events.
"I heard the same tales again being spread around in a small village of werewolves in northern Scotland. They told me of what they had seen and it was nearly the same as the Faeries whispered stories but this body only lasted 3 days."
Severus closed his eyes for a moment and held up a hand to signal the ending of the conversation. "That will be all for now, Quirrell. Go."
The other man disapparated, leaving him standing alone in the small clearing. He was about to leave himself when he felt a sudden, enormous burst of accidental dark magic coming from the park to his left. He whipped around, eyes wide.
There stood the little boy from before but what was in front of him made Severus gasp aloud. Directly in front of the boy lay a large, indistinct bloody pile. He could smell the tang of the metallic blood in the air all the way over where he stood.
He made his way quickly through the tall grass. Coming to a stop beside the silent, still, frail boy and took in the sight before him. He could now see one other boy that lay unconscious to the side of the grotesque mound of flesh.
Blood covered the ground in great sweeping arches around the pile as if the skin had literally been ripped from each still living muggle one by one, but all in a single instant.
Tearing his eyes from the seeping mound he crouched down low in front of the little boy that he had assumed to be muggle. He almost fell over backward when he saw a pair of bright green eyes that he would know anywhere in the world and then his eyes caught on the small lightning bolt scar on his forehead.
He had found Harry Potter.
Those green eyes suddenly snapped onto to Severus and the little boy spoke. His voice barely above a whisper. "You are like me?" At this Severus did actually fall onto the ground. The boy had seen right through his wards.
The little boy put his head to the side, studying Severus with wide eyes. He could now see the edges of bruising along the neckline and the edges of the overly large sleeves of the little boy's shirt.
Fear crept in Severus's heart and mind at the obvious signs of severe abuse. Harry Potter, abused. That would explain why the little boy looked so much younger then he actually is.
Finally, Severus got to his knees to kneel in front of the little boy, and answered him. "Yes, I am like you." The excitement that appeared on the little boy's face was so bright he nearly glowed.
It was gone in an instant.
"Are you going to tell the other man, who is like me? Are you going to tell him what I did? If you do...he will hurt me. He always does." The little boy's voice was so quiet near the end that Severus barely heard him.
Other man like him? What other wizard knew of Harry's location? He almost sneered when he realized who the little boy must be speaking of. "What does the other man, like us, look like?" Severus asked gently.
The little boy put his head down and didn't speak for a long moment. When he finally did speak his voice sounded far away, lost. "He has long hair, that looks a little like those." The little boy said, pointing one hand up at the sky.
Severus looked up and saw the large floating white clouds the boy was pointing at. He closed his eyes as his heart cruelly wept, Harry doesn't know what colors are, he doesn't know what the clouds in the sky are called. He brought his eyes back to the little boy as he spoke again.
"He is older then my uncle and his skin has lots of...wrinkles? I think that is what my Aunt calls those things." Severus nodded when the boy finished speaking. He knew beyond doubt now who Harry was speaking of. Albus Dumbledore. He swallowed thickly around the disgust and hatred growing steadily in him.
"You say he hurts you, what does he do?" The little boy's eyes narrowed dangerously and whispered in fear. "Are you going to tell him that I told you?"
Severus shook his head no and the little boy nodded. "Then I will tell you." The little boy sat down on the hard ground in front of Severus, his much too large clothing pooling around him.
"The other one like me...he takes my clothes off and hits my backside. Sometimes he hits so hard I bite my tongue and red stuff fills my mouth. Other times, he-he touches my...with his..." Tears are now flowing freely down the boy's face and he looks up at Severus, his eyes filled with pleading agony.
"Please don't make me say it.." The little boy cries out and gets to his feet. He looks down again, avoiding Severus gaze. Bringing his hands up, he pulls his pants straight down before Severus can stop him.
He nearly falls back once more at the sight of teeth marks all around and on the little boy's small private area. Some of them he sees are fairly fresh and just scabbing over. He tears his eyes away and turns to the side, heaving up his breakfast from the morning.
Finally whence he can control himself Severus turns back to the little boy that's staring intently at him, still with his pants down. He carefully reaches out with both hands and pulls the little boy's pants back up. "Do you know your name?"
Severus asks, he safely assumes the little boy probably doesn't. The little boy shakes his head slowly. " My Uncle sometimes calls me a freak or little bastard... But the other man, the man like me, he always calls me his little Lemon Drop. "
Severus throws himself to the side once more and drive heaves. He closes his eyes for a moment to gather his thoughts before turning back to the child again. "Your name is Harry Potter, and what you and I are, is called Wizards. You are a wizard and your name is Harry Potter."
"What's a Wizard?" The little boy asks quietly. Curiosity lighting up his bright green eyes.
"A Wizard is a male person that can use magic. We can make things happen that normal people don't understand." By the end of his explanation, the little boy's face had split into a huge blinding smile that warmed Severus cold heart.
"I'm a wizard! I'm not a freak! I have a real name!" The little boy cheers in excitement and was nearly jumping up and down, barely able to contain his joy. But then he stopped and looked back at Severus.
"But who are you? What are you going to do to me?" The boy asked. They were words of careful fear, but Severus detected no actual fear in the little boy's eyes. No fear but hard uncertainty.
"My name is Severus Snape, and I am going to stop anyone from ever harming you again." Severus paused here, watching the little boy's cautious excitement before he continued.
"I can take you away from your Aunt and Uncle. I will if you like, teach you how to use your magic and I will teach you many, many other things that our world has to offer." For the last thing, he warmed his voice and placed careful, slow hands on the little boy's shoulders.
"And I will never ever lay a harmful hand on you. I will protect you with all that I am and I will give you warmth and happiness." He paused for a moment, letting the little boy take in what he said. When those green eyes found his again he smiled.
"Would you like to come with m-!" He was cut off sharply when the boy in his hands suddenly threw himself against Severus. The little boy's face against his chest, he could feel hot tears dampening his dress shirt. He slid a careful arm under the little boy's legs, the other wrapping around his back and lifted him off his feet.
Getting to his own feet, Severus leaned his head in close and whispered softly. "Hold your breath, Harry." As soon as he felt the little boy's intake of breath, he apparated.
