You Can Live: Chapter 26
College is...different. Half the time I love it, the other half I just want to go home. :/ Wonder how Harry's doing.
Disclaimer: you know
***Warnings: This chapter implies some very not good things!
More Than One Kind of Pain
Harry had completely lost himself in his mind numbing job and almost dropped a jar of flobberworms when he turned and found himself face-to-face with a familiar face.
"Hello, Harry. Working hard I see." Harry clutched the jar to his chest and backed up into the counter.
"W-what are you doing here?" The man followed him step for step, and leered at him.
"Well, I wanted to talk to you of course."
Harry's heart was leaping out of his chest and that uncomfortable feeling was curling in the pit of his stomach. He didn't know how the man had managed to sneak up on him, why Snape wasn't coming up to see who had come or how he was even in this shop unless- His eyes widened.
"You're a wizard." The man's smile widened, and he practically bounced with glee.
"And the prize goes to Harry Potter," he struck some sort of parody of a heroic pose, "Saviour of the Wizarding World." The, apparently, wizard laughed at the shock still bright on Harry's face. "Everyone knows who you are, my boy. What wizard or witch doesn't? Everyone knows so much about you. But I can assure you," he stepped closer and ran his fingers through Harry's hair. Harry was paralyzed in confusion and fear and flinched when the man leaned forward to whisper in his ear, "Your secret is safe with me." Finally the spell was broken, and Harry set the jar down before shoving his way past the man, putting as much space between them as he could.
"What the hell are you talking about?" The creep looked down on him like he was some stupid child and talked ever so sweetly.
"I'm talking about the little problem you're having with your brain. It's sad really." He started to pace around just touching things at random, occasionally picking something up and inspecting it. "Such a bright, courageous young boy, can't even remember his birthdays." Harry's stomach flip-flopped, and his breath caught in his chest.
"What…what do you know about that? Who are you?!" Again the man only laughed condescendingly.
"My dear boy…" Somehow he ended up right behind Harry, and leaned in to whisper in his ear. "I know everything." Harry whirled around so fast, his hand whipped out and clocked the edge of one of the shelves. It didn't even shake, but his hand felt like it was broken. He clutched it to his chest much like he had the jar earlier and bit back the bitter tears the pain brought up, though there was nothing he could do for the ones that had already escaped. One glance and he could already see the dark bruises forming.
"Ohhh, here. Let me take a look at that." Harry cried out when the man grabbed his hand in a crushing grip and pretended to fawn and coo over it. Finally, Harry wrenched it out of his grasp. The wizard's whole demeanor did a complete one-eighty then. His eyes grew dark, and any semblance of a fake smile was washed away.
"That is no way to treat someone who is just trying to help." In two strides the man had Harry's back flat against a wall, his own body pressed right up against Harry's and a painful grip on his jaw.
"If you really want to know, you can call me Menos," he hissed. "Now, I thought you would want the nice version of me, you've always seemed to before, but I guess you're just too good for that." Menos squeezed Harry's jaw until it creaked. "How about this, hmm? On your next birthday, you'll remember everything. It'll be my personal gift to you, and until then you won't see or hear from me. But don't come crying to me when you want me to take them away from you again. Oh, and Harry dear, I can guarantee no one would believe you if you told them about me." His leering smile was back as he stepped away, releasing Harry's face, and raked his eyes up and down Harry's trembling body. "See you in July, Harry." And just like that, he apparated away, but not like Harry had ever seen before. It was like he just vanished into thin air.
Snape was deep in a pile of paperwork. Most of which he had already filled out, however the papers he was currently working on required numbers and information from some of the earlier papers, and somehow he had gotten himself completely mixed up. He rubbed his temples and tried to take a few deep breaths. Finally giving up on trying to reduce his headache, Severus decided to take a break and check on Harry. His brows came together in confusion when he didn't hear any movement from the main store room.
He emerged from the basement and paused at what he saw.
"Harry?" His ward was standing against a wall, shaking like a leaf and holding his hand close to his chest. Harry's head snapped to the side when he heard his guardian's voice and he tried to straighten himself up.
"S-sir?" Severus walked up to him slowly and laid his hands on Harry's shoulders.
"Harry? Did something happen?" Harry swallowed the bile in his throat back before shaking his head.
"No. No, Sir." Snape raised a brow at him incredulously.
"Really. Then what happened to your hand?" Only then did Harry realize he was cradling it against himself. For the first time he took a good look at, and saw the beautiful dark shades of purple and red painted across the back of it. The skin was broken as well.
"Oh…" It all suddenly felt like some sort of dream, well, more like nightmare, but it was still surreal. "I…hit it. On the shelf." Severus heard the hesitation and took note, however the bruises looked consistent with the sharp edges of the sturdy stock shelves. He took Harry's hand into his own to take a closer look and hmm'd to himself.
"Well, this is quite the hit. Why, may I ask, did you decide to backhand the shelf? You must realize you would not win the argument." Harry smirked a bit at Snape's attempts at humor and shrugged. Also, realizing he couldn't say what actually happened, he came out with,
"I dropped a jar, and when I caught it, I brought my hand up too fast and the back of my hand hit the shelf. I set the jar down on the counter, but…I guess..the pain," Harry's eyes slid to the floor. Severus could guess what happened.
"The pain triggered a flashback." Harry's lips pinched together and he nodded sharply. Snape misinterpreted the tears coming to the boy's eyes. Harry felt so terrible and horrible for lying to Severus when he had been so kind to him. Severus thought the boy was ashamed of the flashback or that it was a particularly bad one and sought to try and comfort his ward.
"Walk with me." He led Harry downstairs and brought out his personal stash of healing potions and salves. Sitting Harry down and rubbing salve on his hand, he sat silent, waiting for Harry to start speaking.
Harry knew what his guardian was waiting for, and he was easily able to dredge up a memory similar enough to the injury on his hand.
"A-Aunt Petunia caught me stealing food from the kitchen one night. I hadn't eaten in a few days and…she took a frying pan to my hand a few times. The edge caught it more than once." Snape didn't comment, but Harry knew the man had a great deal of feelings going on on the inside, and that made this all hurt even more. But he steeled himself with the thought, that he could handle this himself. This was his problem. Severus already had to put up with enough from him. He would deal with this alone. Besides…no one would believe him, right?
Snape finished patching up Harry's hand, and gave it back to him.
"Well, at least we didn't have to call Draco for this one." Harry heartily agreed on that. point. Besides he didn't need two Slytherins scrutinizing him. His lie would have been caught so fast…Severus looked him over one last time, and Harry couldn't help but feel like his guardian could see it. Like when…Menos looked him up and down like when he did he had left a mark of some kind. Some sort of dirt or grime that he couldn't scrape off, visible to everyone.
"I'll finish up in a few minutes, and then we can leave." Harry nodded his acceptance of this idea and went to finish his last box.
"Harry," Severus called. The boy paused on the steps. "Be careful with that hand." Harry assured him he would and left. He had been in the Hospital Wing enough times to know that while you looked good as new when you were healed with magic, everything wasn't perfect again. You had to be careful.
Once Harry was upstairs and by himself, he took a deep breath and leaned back against a nearby wall. Emotions crashed through him like a thunder storm, and if he didn't get his breathing under control he was going to get dragged off in the undertow. He covered his mouth with his hand when he started hyperventilating so that Severus wouldn't hear him. Harry barely understood half of what he was feeling, but it was enough to almost bring him to his knees. Finally, in a bid of desperation, he bit into his palm. The pain shocked him out of it enough to get him thinking clearly again. Just calm down. He doesn't know, and he won't know.
Harry took one final deep breath and set back to work, clearing his mind of everything besides flobberworms, however, this time, he kept his ears open.
True to his word, Snape was returning upstairs in ten minutes, having forced himself to complete all of his paperwork for both of their sakes. He walked into the storeroom, and was surprised to find Harry leaning against the counter, arms folded a crossed his chest, and furiously chewing on a thumb nail. Severus cleared his throat, not pleased with his ward's new, and unhygienic habit. As soon as Harry noticed him, however, he dropped his hand and smiled brightly at him. It was such a change from earlier, Severus was a bit wary. Harry was usually somber for an hour or two after a flashback, not…overly cheerful.
"Hello, Sir. I finished up these boxes. Did you want me to do something with them?" Snape narrowed his eyes at the boy, and pulled out his wand.
"Not at all, Mr. Potter." A simple flick and the boxes were flattened, folded and stacked in a corner. Harry's eyebrows raised for a moment, before dropping back down. "You act as if you've never seen magic before," Severus teased, not mocked. He could never bring himself to actually mock the boy anymore. Uncomfortable with the quiet, Snape put his wand away and gestured toward the floo.
"Come. We can go home now." Harry continued on with his too-happy attitude throughout the day. His smile was too large, and he was too eager to do every little thing. Despite all of this, Severus noted the way Harry would pick at his pant leg or occasionally chew his fingernails, when he thought Snape wasn't looking.
Severus actually felt relief when he could logically suggest they head to bed. He couldn't stand it anymore. Harry's fake happiness was unnerving to say the least, and made him exceedingly worried. The boy had just injured himself again, had a flashback of abuse and was now all smiles? None of it made sense, and that scared Snape more than anything. Maybe…maybe it had something to do with what he had said this morning. Perhaps, Harry was trying to put it behind him and make it seem like it had never happened. That he wasn't affected by Severus's thoughts, by making himself seem extra cheery. Either way, Severus just wasn't sure how to deal with it.
Harry had just gone upstairs, leaving him alone with his thoughts, when his floo flared to life. Snape suddenly found himself staring at his godson. His eyes were wide with discovery.
"Severus, I've found something."
My OC villain is revealed! Yay! Any ideas about him? Hm? Hm? I want to know, what you think.
Please Review :)