Disclaimer; I don't own harry potter and i'm not making money off him.
The Third Parent; Chapter Three
It was nearly nightfall by the time that they arrived at his house in the Alps. It was really large enough to be considered a small castle but it had been referred to as the manor for so long that no other name suited it. It was of course unplottable and it also helped that no one aside from himself knew how to find it. And the only other one that even knew that it existed was Dumbledore. Then there were the wards and such. For instance if he did not want a person to enter they would never be able to find it. And if the manor were to come under attack the house would become animate and defend itself with magic, those gargoyles with arrows on the roof were not merely decoration. Every statue in the grounds would come to life and do his bidding. And there were numerous other kinds of wards. Most had been forgotten over the years as they had been added centuries ago. And there was of course blood protection (the kind of protection that had bound his 'son' to live with those people for almost his entire young and miserable life. He would have it here too, without the abuse. Not much love though; he still looked far too much like James in his opinion.) And there was the added feature that the house and everything in it would protect Harry and would obey him as if he were the master if the enemy were too close to him. Severus led the way to the front entrance.
" Do be careful with your cousin, boy, you wouldn't want to accidentally decapitate him."
The muggle said something that sounded suspiciously like ' I wouldn't care if he were to explode into flame and get turned into dust.' Severus chose to ignore it. He led the way to the kitchens where he found Matron the head elf for the manor. No sooner had they arrived though than the muggle idiot dropped his cousin onto the floor and made a beeline for the pantry.
"Boy! Where do you think you're going?"
"I'm getting something to eat. I haven't eaten since lunch." The large boy whined.
"You're hungry are you? I wonder how hungry you'll be after a week without meals?" Severus allowed his voice to sound menacing as he approached the muggle. "Pick up your cousin and carry him to his room. And don't let me catch you with anything even remotely resembling a frown. You'll have your meal if I say you can. Now move."
The boy looked as though he were seriously considering arguing but thought better of it. Without a word he picked up his cousin and waited for Severus to give him instructions.
"Matron."
"Yes master Snape." Came a voice by the stove. Leaning over he saw matron just by the table tending to the roast. She was large by elf standards and had an air of dignity and authority about her, hence the name Matron.
"I want you to assign your regular chores to another elf, I need you to help me look after a child who has apparently lost his sanity. The boy's cousin is here to assist you; you are not to wait on him. Please lead them to the room just off the master room. When it is time for the muggle boy to go to bed you will take him to the servant quarters. I will have an elf bring food to you and your charge. It is questionable if I will be charitable enough to give any to the other boy." With a wave of his hand he excused them and as an after thought he called out after them "If you have any difficulties with the muggle don't hesitate to call me."
Dudley was fuming by the time that they arrived at the room where Harry would be staying. To say that Dudley was unhappy wouldn't be exactly right; he was insanely jealous of his cousin. He knew that his room would be nothing like this. Dudley could not allow this freak to have anything better than him, and he wouldn't, after a tantrum. They had always worked on his parents. It would work on this wizarding freak as well. Dudley threw Harry down on the floor roughly and stalked over to the bed. He sat down on the bed and glared at the strange creature called Matron.
"Pick up your cousin child and I will not report your misbehavior to the master."
"You pick him up. It's not my job to look after that little freak." He crawled under the covers and stretched out full length on the bed.
"I am warning you to get out of that bed now young sir, you will not like the consequences if you don't."
"It's my bed now, you can put the freak in the room that the bigger freak wanted to put me in."
"Very well, if that is how you're going to be." Dudley heard a loud pop and breathed a sigh of contentment. He thought it would be more difficult to convince the freaks to let him have his way. He had started to drift off to sleep when he was roughly pulled out of bed. He was very angry with this, no one, not even mom and dad would dare disturb him while he slept. He swung his fist at the nearest object and heard a sickening crack that was accompanied with a large amount of pain in his knuckles. He opened his eyes in shock and saw that he had hit a large stone statue that appeared to be holding the front of his shirt. Standing next to him was the wizarding freak that had brought him here in the first place. If Dudley had gone to hogwarts he would have known from the look on Severus' face that he was in for it. As it was he was largely ignorant of what any look on Snapes face meant, all he knew was that he had been disturbed from his sleep by this freak and that made him cranky.
"Do you bloody well mind, freak. I was having a rest before dinner. Now put me down this instant and I'll forget it ever happened."
Dudley thought that he had argued his point rather well and thoroughly expected to be put down and given an apology. What he did not expect was for the big nosed freak to slap him, rather hard, across the face. He brought his face close to Dudley's and spoke in a very threatening voice.
"I told you to behave yourself, I told you to help Matron look after your cousin. I am not a man who speaks to hear my own voice. Nor do I condone ignorance and laziness. When I give an order I expect that order to be obeyed. You had a very cushy life from what I have seen. Your every whim must have been catered to since birth. Well those days are officially over. You will work harder than you have ever had to before, and now instead of the servants quarters where you would have been rather comfortable, you will now reside in the boot cupboard until I say otherwise. You will not have any desserts while you are here and you can forget about anything lavish for any meal. Your meals will consist of gruel for breakfast, toast and peas for lunch and broth for dinner. The only thing that you will be allowed for drinks will be water. You will be expected to get up at seven o'clock sharp and you will spend the day doing chores, you will not be allowed to go back to the cupboard until eight o'clock in the evening and after eight o'clock you will stay in the cupboard until seven o'clock the next day. Is all of this perfectly clear to you?"
Dudley glared at him. "How dare you order me around. If you want someone to do chores and such then you can use my cousin, he's used to living like that. He deserves it too; the bloody freak has no right to live like regular people. He's abnormal, now put me down this instant."
The freak didn't answer; instead he turned around and walked out the door, Dudley being dragged along by the statue behind him.
Severus Snape was greatly perturbed. No, he was flaming well pissed off. He didn't know which goaded him more, the sheer arrogance of the boy who believed that the world revolved around him, or the fact that he would have to take another elf off duty to help care for his 'son' and expend a rather large amount of magic to make a statue guardian follow the ignorant swot to make him do his chores. When they reached the boot cupboard the other elves had put up a cot in there and had put some sheets on it. He had the statue unceremoniously throw the boy into the small space and quickly locked the door. He turned to the statue that he had designated the muggles guard.
"He is not to leave the room except to relieve himself, and he will not be getting any supper tonight."
He turned and walked swiftly away; he had only gotten a few feet from the boot cupboard when the muggle began to make a terrible fuss.
"No, you can't do this to me. I have rights you know, I read all about them at school. This is against the law; I'm a human. You can't do this to me. It's not fair-"
"Oh do shut up. Something I guess that no one told you was that life is never fair."
With that Severus turned and strode away to his personal lab. He had some research to do if he was going to return his 'son' to sanity.
The next week was uneventful. At seven o'clock Dudley would wake up and eat gruel, he would then be given a list of mind numbingly boring chores to do. He would spend the day doing them with only one break at noon. He would then have his supper and go directly to bed. Severus Snape meanwhile was running a whole battery of tests on his 'son'. One of which was a paternity test. It confirmed that Harry was indeed his son as well as Lily's and James. He was still no closer to finding the cause of Harry's insanity, but he did know that potions, drugs, curses, hexes, and chemical imbalances in the brain did not cause it. It was a mystery; by all rights the boy should be sane and running around making his life, but mostly his cousins life, miserable. Why he wasn't was a mystery. There were days when he seemed almost sane. Then there were days when he was so far gone that it seemed as though he would never come back. Today was a good day. He seemed cognizant. He was able to feed himself and communicate using hand signals and broken sentences. Severus was surprised by how relived he felt on the good days, but not as much as by how devastated he was on the bad days.
"Morning Harry."
Small smile and waved slightly.
"Can you talk today?"
"…Little bit…" Hand gesture showing less than half an inch between forefinger and thumb.
"Did you dream last Night?"
"Bit… yeah"
"Anything important?"
"Vold-ee-more"
"Can you tell me more or is it too difficult?"
"Too-diff-cult"
"All right. Lilgilimens." They had gotten into a habit where if Harry had a dream Snape would ask if he could tell him about it. Harry almost always said no because of the effort it took to string two syllables together, let alone sentences. His dream last night had been about the dark lords increasing paranoia over a spy being in the ranks of the death eaters. There were few in the room besides him. There had been Lucius, who had escaped within the first few days of summer, Draco and McNair. Aside from that there was nothing illuminating. The dark lord was always paranoid, had always been paranoid. Not to mention as mad as a hatter. It was one of the many reasons that he had left the dark lords side. Nothing ideological, just plain sense; If a captain sees an iceberg and steers the ship over to chill his martini you don't wait around to see what will happen.
"All right, that will be enough. Rest and hope for a miracle because I'm running out of ideas. You will be glad to know that your friends have decided to spend the rest of the summer with us. They should be arriving in a few days. Have as good a day as you can."
With that he left the room and went to his special study. It was the one place in this house that he could go to Hogwarts by floo. Not his favorite way to travel but safer than others. He had a special meeting to attend in his quarters.
When he arrived a few seconds later he noted that he was rather early. He thought he heard a loud thump behind him. When he turned to look he saw that Harry's fat slob of a cousin had followed him.
"Aren't you supposed to be back at the manor polishing the silverware?"
"Yeah well I've had it up to here with your rules, and you and I are going to get some things straight. First of all I am not your servant. Secondly-"
"I really don't have the time for this, you will go back to the manor now, you will return to your duties, and you will not harass me in the future."
"No, I have a say and I will say it-"
"I'm amazed that you are capable of saying anything, but if you do not leave promptly then the people that I am expecting will come here and kill you."
"That's bull" Suddenly there came a loud rumbling from the fireplace as his guests began to arrive. It was only two people that he was worried about but he hoped that they would not notice the great quivering lump that he had to forcibly lock in a closet. He then turned around just in time to see Lucius, McNair and Draco step out of the fireplace.
"Hello Lucius. I must say that when I heard that you had escaped from Azkaban I was surprised."
"But not as surprised as the guards were." Came the smooth reply. "I will get to the point old friend. There is a traitor in our midst, more than one most likely, and we need you to brew a batch of veritaserum. We will also need a batch of stone Death potion for a pet project of mine.Draco myself and McNair were enlisted to find this traitor, we would have gotten you as well but your position in Dumbledore's ranks makes you valuable and we do not wish to compromise your position. Now then how long will it take to brew it?"
"A month at least Lucius. I would have had some already but the teacher that they had forced upon us last year used it all in a vain attempt to interrogate Potter on the where abouts of Sirius Black."
"Good Lord, she didn't use the entire bottle did she?"
"Yes she did, all of it. All at once. In one cup of tea."
"Too bad he didn't die of an overdose."
"Actually he didn't drink it. I found the tea upon closer inspection of a vase of dead flowers. Even if I had fetched it the organic matter from the flowers would have rendered it useless."
"Stupid bint. Well at least you can make more."
"Yes, of course I can."
"And how long for the stone death?"
"That will take closer to three months due to the finicky nature of it."
"Very well, I leave it in your capable hands."
With that they turned to leave when there came a crashing sound from the closet that Dudley had been locked into. He had kicked the door down.
Severus felt a sinking feeling in his stomach as he saw the look of pure delight on the boys face. He looked as though Christmas had come early.
"You want to kill Harry? That's great because I can't stand the prat. I know where he is too."
"Who is that Severus?"
"Some twisted and deranged squib who thinks he's Potter's cousin."
"Really?" Lucius stepped forward and took a better look at the boy. Dudley meanwhile was utterly oblivious to the danger he had put himself in.
"Look, I'll cut you a deal, I'll take you to him, if you help me find my parents. Sounds good don't it."
Lucius turned to look at Severus
" Why you know just the perfect present to cheer me up Severus. A Squib to torture. Crucio!"
Severus had to admit that he was mildly amused by the antics of the muggle when he felt the pain. It wasn't like he didn't warn him. Soon McNair took up the game. Severus strode over to Draco while the others amused themselves.
"How long should we give them?" Draco whispered.
"Another two minutes at least, I've tried to teach that stupid lump not to piss me off but he doesn't learn."
"Oh well." They waited until Lucius and McNair got tired of the screams then they were just about to kill him when Draco bound and gagged them and Severus obliviated their memories. He then stunned them. "I trust that you can take the stupid lump back to my manor then?"
"Your manor?"
"Yes, get in the floo say Snape Manor and you'll be there. I'll be there right away. I just have to take care of these two."
A look of comprehension dawned on Draco's face. He didn't seem upset by what had to be done. As Snape watched the boy leave with the insufferable prat he congratulated himself on his wisdom of unofficially adopting the boy. Clever, resourceful and largely ignored by his parents he had been easy to bond with. He had needed a parent and Severus had provided that. Lucius was so oblivious when it came to his own son that he had no doubt that Draco had never established a bond with him. As for his mother, she treated him like a decoration, or a pet. Important enough to be fussed over when company arrives but not enough to be given attention on a daily bases. Draco would never miss them, well no more than was his duty to at any rate. With that thought in mind Severus took the two stunned and memory-less men to the floo and traveled with them to the 'secret' headquarters of the dark lord. When he got there he summoned two of the death eaters to him.
"Help me carry them won't you?" He asked them. He then handed them over to the rather larger men and lead the way to the dark lords tent. He rapped politely on the pole outside and waited until he was invited in.
"Why Severus, My loyal Potions master, what brings you to our rather humble lodgings?"
"The traitors, who you have been worried about for sometime, my lord. I was just on my way back to my dungeons after a lengthy interview with Dumbledore when I saw the two men whom you charged with finding the traitors on their way to him. I saw them but they did not see me. I was surprised at their guile but did not hesitate to act when young Draco Malfoy bound and gagged them, I obliviated them and stunned them. Draco is at my place now as he no longer feels he is safe at home."
"He feels safer at the moldy old shack you live in?"
"Yes, well, it is not without its charm and it is very well protected. I prefer function to ostentation. So I give you the traitors to do with as you see fit."
"My highest praise to you Severus. It would be best if you did not see what is to happen, after all can't have that old fool coming across anything by accident. But you will wait a moment, there is something I need to talk to you about."
So Severus waited while the dark lord took his time with the 'traitors'. It took less time than he would have thought. Soon he got to witness the dead bodies being dragged out and transfigured into dragon fertilizer. It was rather amusing to think that the two prats would be more useful in death than in life. Then he was summoned back in.
"The old fool, do you think he'll miss them?"
"Yes, but he won't say anything, won't let on that he lost his spies. He'd rather make you fear that you made a mistake. He will try to recruit others, I'll try to find out whom, but I can't be obvious about it. He might start to suspect me more than he does."
"Good, but I've got more important things to discuss right now. You may have noted that the years of living without a body have taken a toll on me. It has affected my sanity somewhat"
What sanity? Severus wisely kept this comment to himself.
"Some days are better than others. Today I can pass for normal, tomorrow who knows. My only consolation is that it's affecting that wretched Potter boy as well. But as amusing as it is I need a potion to return my sanity before it kills me."
"Of course my lord, I'll get to work on it. I will need to know what it originates from however."
"A simple muggle disease called syphilis. I got it from some filthy Mudblood whore decades ago. I've been able to hold it in check with some of my more creative spells but that was while I was in my original body."
"Very well, I'll get to work on the problem at hand then."
When Severus apparated back to his manor he couldn't help but grin. When Draco asked what had cause such happiness all Severus could say was "The Great lord venereal disease has no fucking clue what he has just handed to me." After that he lead a very confused Draco to the guest room and then began working in his lab.