Shattered Illusions Chapter Ten

When Harry woke up next he realized that he was holding something to his chest. He opened his eyes and looked down; it was Professor Snape's hand. His eye's widened and he carefully sat it down on the bed.

Snape was sleeping; his head resting on his other arm, his face was covered with his hair. It was weird to him, he had only ever seen his potions professor with a stern face, or a blank mask, and once or twice with a tiny bit of concern; but right now there wasn't any expression on his face. He looked…peaceful?

Harry noticed that he really had to use the bathroom, but he didn't want to move the bed and disturb Snape, so he sat there and decided to hold it. He was doing fine before it really started hurting and he couldn't hold it anymore. He carefully slipped off the bed and, not looking to see if he woke Snape up, ran as fast as his legs could carry him to the bathroom. He barely made it in time.

When he was finished she washed his hands really good and looked in the mirror. He looked like a freak. The bright angry scars were still there, and he still had the thick white bandage wrapped around his neck. His eyes looked dull; his skin was pale and looked to be clinging to his bones. Harry looked away quickly, he didn't like to see such freakishness, and he wished he could just look normal. Without any scars.

When Harry looked into the mirror again he almost gasped. All his scars were gone! His skin and eyes still looked sickly, but who cared? The scars were gone and it made Harry look less freakish. Shrugging he turned the door knob and went back into the room.

Snape was awake sitting in his chair. Looking at him you wouldn't have been able to tell he had just been sleeping, not a hair on his head was out of place. Harry padded over to his bed and sat down. Snape looked up at him and gasped.

"Harry, where are your scars? Did Poppy do something while I was asleep?" Snape asked. Harry shrugged.

"They're hiding." Harry signed.

"Hiding?" Snape asked, then realized. "Behind a glamour?"

"Oh yeah, that must be it." Harry signed.

"You shouldn't be putting up glamour's, Mr. Potter." Snape said, "It's draining too much of your magic."

"Please don't make me take it off." Harry signed quickly as Snape pulled out his wand. Harry felt tears prickling his eyes, to his horror. Snape waved his wand and the glamour was lifted, and Harry's tears fell.

Harry covered his face, ashamed of himself. He knew it was stupid to cry over something like that, but for some reason he couldn't help it.

"Mr. Potter? What's the matter?" Snape asked, his voice softening. Freak blinked and turned away to hide the tears.

"Child?" Snape asked, standing up and going to the other side of the bed. Snape put a hand on Freak's shoulder, making him flinch.

"Harry, what's wrong?" Snape wondered again. Freak shook his head violently, his lips forming a hard line as the tears continued to fall. "Is it the scars, Harry?" Freak got a dark look on his face and turned away again.

"It's nothing to be ashamed of, Harry." Snape said, turning Freak's head towards him by the chin. "You hear me? Nothing to be ashamed of at all."

"Fweak!" Freak squeaked out suddenly, his face looked pained. "Am Fweak!"

"Freak?" Snape asked, "You're not a Freak, I don't know where you got that idea. Use your signs if you want to talk, I don't want you to hurt your throat."

"Don't know much." Freak signed tears falling.

"What do you mean? You were just using signs earlier." Snape said carefully, "What's different now, Harry?"

"Am Fweak!" Freak cried frustrated. "Am Fweak! Fweak!"

"That's enough." Snape said, "You are not a freak, get that out of your mind, Harry."

"No Hawwy!" Freak cried harder. It was getting harder to breathe. He didn't know what was getting into him, he knew if the school found out he wasn't Harry, he would get sent back to the Dursley's, and that was unacceptable. But he couldn't pretend anymore, he wasn't Harry. "Am Fweak. No Hawwy." Blood leaked from the corner of his mouth and dripped down his chin.

"Alright, enough talking." Snape said pulling a handkerchief from his pocket and wiping Freak's chin. "Your throat is not healed and you're hurting it."

"Hawwy be mad." Freak said, completely ignoring what Snape had said. "Hawwy mad. Fweak at school." Snape didn't know what to say, he had no idea what was going on, of course this was Harry.

"Lay down, Harry." Snape sighed. "I think you're tired." He reached over and helped lay down and pulled the blankets up to his chin. Freak closed his eyes and mumbled, "Am Fweak. Fweak ugly. Unc'l Vewnon know Fweak." But Snape didn't hear, as he had left to go talk to Poppy.

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Severus looked down at the child as he closed his eyes, then turned and walked away. He had to talk to Poppy, then he had to have a small chat with Minerva. When he got to Poppy's office he knocked lightly. The door opened and she waved him in.

"Take a seat, Severus." She said kindly. "Tea?"

"Yes please." Severus said, taking a seat from across her. She poured and handed him a cup, he sipped it carefully.

"Mr. Potter has woken up, but he's asleep again." Severus said, setting his cup down.

"Did something happen?" She asked carefully.

"Well, he got up to use the bathroom, when he came back he had a glamor up." Severus said. "He was draining his magic, I could tell, so I took it down." He stopped talking.

"And?" Poppy prompted.

"And he went hysterical." Severus whispered. "He tried talking, it's worse than I though."

"Of course, he hasn't used his voice for a while; it's going to sound scratchy and different." Poppy said casually.

"No." Severus said, shaking his head. "He couldn't form proper sentences. He sounded like a two year old."

"Oh." Poppy said looking surprised.

"He ended up hurting his throat, so I told him to use his signs." Severus continued. "And he signed that he didn't know much. Now, when I talked with him before, he seemed to be pretty fluent with it."

"That's right." Poppy said thoughtfully. "I can't understand it, but he used it quite a bit."

"I asked him what was different and he said 'Am Freak'. He proceeded to call himself Freak over and over again." Severus said. "Then he said 'No Harry'." Poppy looked puzzled.

"I thought maybe he was still tired so I told him to go to sleep." Severus finished. Poppy nodded and stared off into space thoughtfully.

"I guess we'll just have to take it slow." She said finally, Snape nodded.

"Excuse me Poppy," Severus said standing, "May I use your floo? I've got to have a word with Minerva."

"Of course." Poppy said. Severus nodded his thanks and turned to the fireplace , threw the powder in and put his head.

"Minerva!" he called, "May I come through?"

"Of course Severus." She said coming into view.

"Thank you." Severus said stepping through.

"Is something the matter?" She questioned.

"I would like to talk to you about Mr. Potter." Severus said, sitting down in a plush, red arm chair.

"What's he done now?" Minerva sighed.

"What makes you think he's done something wrong?" Severus asked in surprise.

"When isn't he doing wrong? He's worse than his father ever was." Minerva said. Severus was shocked; he expected that reaction from himself, not Potter's own head of house.

"What's he done?" Severus wondered.

"He's always strutting around like he's too good." Minerva said, "He cheats and lies all the time. He should have been put into Slytherin."

"Does he?" Severus asked, he might have to look into that.

"Oh yes. He thinks he's too good to talk even. You know, he had a student transfigure a straw into a needle and told me that he had done it." She almost spat. "The brat had the nerve to lie to me when I know he hadn't uttered a word."

"Are you sure he didn't use silent magic?" Severus asked carefully.

"Impossible Severus." She said. "He's only a first year." Yes it was unlikely, but not impossible, only improbable.

"Anyway, back to topic." Severus said shaking his head. "Mr. Potter is currently in the hospital wing."

"What? Why?" Minerva blinked. Severus smirked, no matter how mad she was at one of her lions; she still cared for them deep down.

"Were you aware that he really couldn't talk?" Severus asked quietly, not smirking anymore.

"What do you mean? Of course he could, he just chose not to." Minerva said, but she didn't sound sure.

"No, he really couldn't." Severus insisted. "Did you know he's been wearing glamous all this time?"

"He has? How haven't I noticed?" She asked, Severus could see the guilt creeping up in her face.

"Nobody had." Severus said. "Poppy noticed once and told me, I looked into it during a detention. I took it off and let's just say, it wasn't pretty."

"Why?" She breathed.

"He has terrible scars on his face and neck, as well as his hands." Severus said. "Poppy thinks someone forced Mr. Potter to swallow burning grease, he only swallowed a little, but it damaged his voice box. When he did talk, it would cause him to cough up blood, so he hasn't really."

"Good gracious!" She exclaimed, panic crossing her face. "I treated him so horribly!"

"You weren't the only one." Severus growled, he too had treated Potter horrible.

"Was it his relatives?" Minerva asked. "I told Albus they weren't right…"

"We don't know, he can't remember." Severus said. "I got permission from him to go into his mind, but he had all his memories locked up so tight I couldn't access them."

"Really?" She gasped.

"Albus wants him to go back" Severus commented. "He said there isn't enough proof that he's been mistreated."

"You can't be serious!" She gasped.

"He can't go back." Minerva growled, "Not if what you say is true."

"Would you like to see for yourself?" Severus asked standing. Minerva nodded and they both floo'd to the hospital wing. Severus stepped up and led the way to Harry's bed.

Minerva's mouth dropped when she saw the boy laying there. He looked so innocent, but so damaged. She instantly felt guilty for every mean thing she ever said to him, and vowed she would treat him better in the future.

She reached her hand out to brush a strand of hair from his face, but Freak started whimpering in his sleep. He seemed to curl in on himself and the whimpering turned into crying, then full out sobbing.

Both teachers looked taken a back and they both reached out to wake him. When Freak opened his eyes, both professors knew he wasn't actually awake.

Freak backed up against the headboard and whimpered, his frail body shivering.

"Harry?" Minerva asked carefully. Freak shook his head.

"It's only a nightmare, Harry." Severus said softly, not caring if Minerva was right there. Freak didn't snap out of it, just kept crying, so Minerva reached out and hand and put it on his shoulder. Freak started screaming.

"No!" he choked, blood already dripping from his mouth. "No Unc'l Vewnon! Fweak sowwy! Fweak no do it 'gain!" Both teachers looked surprised as they shared a look, then looked at the tear and snot soaked boy on the bed.