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Chapter 6Snape lay his son down on his bed in the spare bedroom. No, Snape thought, his son's room. Harry had not yet stirred. Severus examined him closely, noting the changes. He seemed to have grown a bit, but it was doubtful that he even passed 5'5". Odd, considering that Severus himself was 6'4" and Lily had been tall as well. His face had lost the tiny bit of roundness that it had maintained throughout the years, despite how thin Harry was. His eyebrows had arched more and his jaw had hardened. Thankfully, he had not inherited Snape's nose.
His shoulders seemed a bit broader although he was still very small. At least his delicateness was now countered by some more masculine traits like his broader shoulders and slightly altered facial structure. Harry now presented a strange but appealing mixture of masculine and feminine. His new looks were almost elvish in quality with the blend of strong but delicate features.
His hair seemed both darker and lighter. He had definitely inherited the darkness of Snape's hair but it now had deep red highlights. It too seemed a bit longer than before—extending now to around his shoulder blades. His hands had lengthened and he now had Snape's long, thin fingers. His skin had remained the honey color that it was before. Snape knew that his skin looked like that when he actually took a break from his potions work and went into the sun.
The changes were definitely present and obvious. Unless someone knew it, they would never know that this boy was Harry Potter. Harry's eyes fluttered open and he let out a low groan. "Are you feeling alright?" Snape asked anxiously.
Harry cringed away from the voice and blinked up at his father in confusion for a moment while his memories and his thoughts caught up to each other. He finally looked away. "Yes, I am fine." His voice had deepened a bit and was nearly as silky as Snape's. Harry seemed a bit startled at this but he showed little outside reaction. It seemed that the only easily read reaction Snape was able to pull from his son was that of fear.
Snape looked a bit disappointed at Harry's reaction but reminded himself to be patient. He has been alone for far too long and discovering that he did, in fact, have family was a welcome revelation. Although he was furious about the manner in which he had been told he was still pleased with the overall result. He had long wanted a son, especially after he had seen a heavily pregnant Lily in Diagon Alley. He had barely been able to contain his jealousy when he saw Potter put his arm around Lily's waist. He was angry at the time because that should be him. Hell, now he knew it really should have been him.
Now he just needed to get to know his son. Perhaps Harry was not the son he would have chosen for himself but once he knew him better the might change his mind. Hopefully, Harry would allow that. Judging by his reactions in the office he was more opposed to his muggle family than he was to the idea of his greasy potions professor as a father.
"I must go and contact my house elves and ask them to prepare the manor. It should be ready by this evening." Severus wished the words hadn't come out quite as harshly as they had but he shrugged it off. He was a man of few words, in the best of situations. His son should get used to it now.
"I thought you said it would take a few days."
"I didn't want to risk Dumbledore stopping us. Right now he no doubt thinks that the house elves are faced with a few days of hard labor to make the manor habitable again after being closed for nearly twenty years. They will actually need less than one day. This way we can slip out before he even knows to keep an eye on us."
"I see." Harry seemed to take a sort of perverse pleasure out of tricking the Headmaster. Clearly, in this, he was like his father Snape mused.
"I will return in a moment and we can pack our things. Only bring that which cannot be replaced. The manor will have all of our necessities." Snape quickly walked out of the room to go into the study and contact his house elves. Harry looked around the room slowly. He needed to wash again. Back there, in the headmaster's office, he was vividly reminded of it all. He needed to wash it away again.
Everyone in Gryffindor knew that Harry was almost a compulsive washer. He typically took two or more showers a day—reaching four or five on game days. They didn't even comment on it anymore.
Harry quickly grabbed a towel and hurried to the bathroom. Perhaps he could get done before his father finished talking with the house elves. He didn't want Snape to know about…everything. Knowing about the showers would lead to questions about life with the Dursleys and knowing about life with the Dursleys would lead to the much dreaded looks of pity. He shuddered. No, he needed to keep it from his father for as long as possible. If Snape found out now then he wouldn't want him anymore. Or maybe he would want him…did real father's treat their sons as Vernon treated him? Harry shuddered again. He didn't want to find out.
He breathed a sigh of relief when he made it to the bathroom without any questioning. He stripped out of his clothes and threw them in the hamper. He stepped under the steaming hot water and began to vigorously scrub his body. He could never get clean enough.
Meanwhile, Snape had finished his conversation with Mindy, his personal house elf. They were even more prepared than he had thought they would be. It would only be a matter of a few hours before everything would be ready. He rushed to his bedroom, pausing for a moment by the bathroom door. Strange he thought. Didn't Harry already shower? He shook his head and went on to his room. He knew that the manor would provide him with most of his necessities but there were a few things that he wanted to bring anyhow.
Just as he finished packing a few desired items he heard the shower turn off. He stepped into the hallway to catch his son and tell him that they would be leaving shortly. As the bathroom door opened the hall filled momentarily with steam. Once it cleared he got a good look at his son and his jaw dropped.
Harry had forgotten to bring a change of clothes with him to the bathroom and the hamper had already magically removed his dirty ones. After a short deliberation he simply wrapped a towel around his waist to make the trip back to his room. After the steam cleared he caught sight of his father who was staring at him, absolutely gobsmacked.
Finally, Snape found words. "Where did you…when did you get all of those tattoos?"
Harry quickly looked down. Damn it. He hadn't noticed that his own glamour had failed when Dumbledore had removed his mother's. He sighed. Looks like the conversation was necessary after all. Luckily the look in his professor's eyes was one of shock rather than lust. At least that question was answered. "Over the past four years I've gotten a few tattoos."
"A few? Harry, you're covered damn near head to toe. Why do you have so many?"
"I needed a bit more protection" Harry hedged. "I got the idea a while ago and then after a bit or work, recently was able to finalize my plan."
"And how do tattoos protect you?" Snape asked dryly. Honestly, the boy must think he was completely ignorant. Tattoos bringing protection, indeed!
"The runes are actually a spell. The other tattoos serve to ground the magic."
Snape drew in a sharp breath. That shouldn't be possible. Had his son made such an enormous magical breakthrough and told no one? He decided to figure that out later, right now he needed to know what the damn things did. "What spell is it?"
"A spell I created. It basically shocks someone with varying degrees of electricity depending on the transgression."
"Why on earth would you want to be able to do that?"
"I don't like to be touched" Harry replied softly, clearly hoping that the conversation would end soon.
Snape took this in. He didn't quite know what to say to that. He decided to try a different angle. "When did you finish the tattoos?"
"In May."
"And no one touched you between May and right now?" He quickly thought back over his interactions with Harry since he had arrived at Hogwarts. Although he had come close to touching him a few times he had never actually touched his skin, even when he had picked him up to carry him to their quarters. Harry's ridiculously long sleeves had covered his arms completely and he had worn long pants. "No one discovered it?" His incredulity was growing.
"My uncle did."
"I see. Is that why you left?"
Harry hesitated for a moment. "Yes." Snape started thinking quickly. He needed better answers and he was not entirely certain how to gain them. He needed to move carefully. It wouldn't do to scare the boy. Harry had been answering his questions with truths and half-truths, Snape could tell through his legilimency. Although he had not actively probed Harry's mind he was able to instantly spot lies and partial truths. He feared though that if he pushed too hard then Harry would switch to outright lies.
"Why did you originally start work on this project? Who did you need protection from?"
Harry paused for a longer time. He finally said softly "my uncle."
"I see. Why did you need protection from him?"
The pause was so long this time that Snape was certain that Harry wasn't going to reply. He finally tuned his face away from Snape and started speaking. "My uncle has…unnatural…desires. He…" his words faded out. Snape closed his eyes and took a deep breath. Surely he had misunderstood his son. Surely he didn't mean what he thought he meant. His own uncle? And Dumbledore knew? He knew and he still thought Harry was better there than with his own father? He stamped down his growing rage. As angry as he was at such an insult (honestly, preferring a child molesting muggle over him, dark mark or not) he didn't want to scare Harry off. He would never get his answers then. He held onto a last thread of hope. Perhaps he had misunderstood him after all.
"When did it start?"
Harry gave a broken laugh. "As long as I can remember. It only got really bad when I turned eight though." Eight. Gods. Eight years old. Who could rape an eight-year-old child? Eight.
"You started on this project when you entered the wizarding world?"
"As soon as I learned of magic I thought that I would be safe, that I could defend myself. Physical defense is useless when I am fighting against a man that outweighs me by over 200 pounds but magical defense…magic was something that Vernon couldn't do. I quickly learned though that we were not allowed to practice magic outside of school. I immediately started researching a way to use magic without actually using it."
"And you came up with the plan of simply embodying it?"
"I actually bound the magic to my body—my skin, in fact—rather than embodying it, as such."
"I see." Merlin, Snape was still speechless.
"May I go get dressed, sir?" Harry was starting to sound desperate.
Snape waved him on to his room. "Yes, yes, of course. Please come out to the sitting room when you are finished though. I wish to talk about a few things." Harry took a deep breath and tried to relax. Snape saw that Harry was not going to walk past him any time soon, especially when in such a vulnerable state of undress. He closed his eyes briefly, wishing all the evils of hell onto Dumbledore. He stepped back into his room and closed the door. He listed closely and heard Harry rush past the closed door and down the hallway to his room. The door was shut firmly and locked. His own son felt the need to actually bar him from his room.
Gods. What was he going to do? How could he possibly go about fixing this? Damn it, you can't fix this. There was no fixing of it. But how could he even help his son? His son was so broken that he could not even stand human touch. To have created a spell that repels all human touch…his son was far more damaged than he had initially thought. His spell could have simply repelled his uncle's touch but evidently that was not enough for him to feel safe. To deny himself of human touch…Snape simply could not get over it. As much as he personally disliked people in general even he would never do such a thing willingly. What was he going to do? He took a deep breath, straightened his robes, and opened his door again to go wait for his son in the sitting room.
His son. How strange those words felt! He had simply been glad to have Harry for himself but he now realized how much Harry needed him. He needed to proceed carefully, but perhaps the two could make things work. Maybe he could finally have a real family. First though, he needed to help his son.