The Best Revenge

Notes: Thank you, thank you, thank you all for your support! I've received some wonderfully kind reviews and also some very good suggestions! In response to a few questions, I will say that no, this is not a Bad!Ron story. While I don't care much for Ron in canon, I don't intend to make him a villain or anything like it. He's just a kid. He may not be Harry's best buddy, however, depending on Harry's Sorting. I have already written the chapter with the Sorting, and some of you have made very good guesses.

First, however, we must deal with Harry's living situation. On with the show!

Chapter 8

Snape stormed up to Hogwarts on wings of righteous indignation. The great doors slammed open. Filch tottered forward, gaping, and then retreated at the look on the Potion Masters face. Mrs. Norris yowled and made a dash for safety. Snape ignored both of them equally, intent on his destination.

Up a flight of stairs, then another. Down an endless hall. Another flight of stairs attempted to delay him, and he shot a blast of blue fire at it. It obeyed his will meekly. He was making a great deal of noise, but could not be bothered to care. It was when he ascended the last of the long staircases that he realized that someone was calling his name.

"Severus! Stop!" McGonagall was running after him, skirts of her robes lifted. "Stop! What's wrong? Severus!" She threw out her wand hand and a stone wall blocked his path. Snape nearly brained himself running into it. He stopped with a jerk, and swore vilely.

"Severus!" The Deputy Headmistress clutched her side, gasping for breath. "What has happened? Is Harry all right?"

Snape considered blasting the transfigured wall to bits, but knew that would only make things worse. He whirled on the surprised witch, snarling.

"No! Things are not all right! Do you know what those bloody muggles have been doing all these years? Did you ever wonder? I bloody wonder if Albus knows, and if he does, he'll answer to me!"

She caught at his shoulder and forced him to face her. "Is Harry hurt?"

The raw look of pain on her lined face composed him. This was not her fault-or not much her fault, at least. She had at least asked to visit the boy.

"He's spent the last ten years as a house elf," he told her bluntly. "Allowed to go to school, yes, but punished if he dared to outperform his bullying lump of a cousin. He cooks and cleans and slaves in the garden: all for scant rations, his cousin's castoff rags, and the privilege-" he sneered into her horrified face"-of being allowed to sleep on the floor of the cupboard under the stairs with the mops and spiders. Before today, he had never had clothes that fit him, or a piece of cake that was not scavenged from the dustbin, or a genuine conversation with an adult who wished him well. My arrival so enraged the muggles that tonight they attempted to shoot us on our return. The muggle uncle has wanted to get rid of the boy for years, in the most direct way, but didn't dare. Tonight was a very close-run thing."

"And you left him there?" Minerva asked, horrified.

"The muggles are in their rooms sleeping off a Morpheus charm. The boy is his new bedroom-his cousin's second bedroom-which I warded heavily. I don't want Albus to dismiss what I have to say. I couldn't bear to bring the boy to Hogwarts with a promise of safety, only to have Albus send him back to those monsters. I'm going back to Privet Drive early tomorrow, by which time I hope to have wrangled a better placement for the child. I've got to see Albus now. Is he in his office?"

"Yes-I think so" She vanished the stone wall, and matched his stride as he hurried along the hall. "I'm coming with you-!"

"Good." He snapped. "I want a witness. If the old man so much as thinks about obliviating me, he'll regret it."

"-and I'll go with you to see Harry in the morning!"

"Just as you like. I'll want a witness there too. And I'm taking a camera!"

"A shotgun?" Albus queried, somewhat taken aback. "How did you deal with that?"

Snape gave McGonagall a slight bow. "I may not have been your prize student, but I have some small skill in Transfiguration. The shotgun became a handsome salmon. Dursley was quite at loss."

"Oh, well done, Severus!" Minerva enthused, almost clapping her hands. "Both silvery and long. Excellent choice!" She peered at him and asked, "Did you succeed in animating it?"

"It flopped and fought very authentically. It even smelled fishy."

His former teacher nodded. "That definitely merits an Exceeds Expectations. Well done!"

"Yes," Dumbledore agreed absently, "Well done, Severus. Very well done, indeed! But what did you do to the Dursleys that caused them to take such drastic action?"

Minerva's lips thinned to invisibility. "Don't blame the victim, Albus. You're always doing that."

"Do I really? I simply mean to say that Severus can sometimes-you understand me, dear boy-sometimes rub people the wrong way."

"I deprived them of their household slave and scapegoat," Snape replied curtly. "They were not best pleased. And I told them that their days of abuse and neglect were over."

"Abuse is a very serious accusation, Severus! Without proof-"

"I have all the proof I need and all you can possibly require. I saw for myself the cupboard under the stairs where the boy has been made to sleep all these years-"

"They may be very poor, Severus-a small house-"

"They are a well-to-do middle class family. Their house has four bedrooms. One is the Dursleys' own, one is a guest room used only once or twice a year, one is their son's, and the last and smallest is also their son's. He keeps his broken toys and discarded clothing there. It is a deliberate act of spite. Mr Potter cooks their breakfast, and has from a very young age. He, however, is underfed-small for his age, and showing signs of malnutrition. He needs a thorough physical examination when he arrives at Hogwarts, and he will require dietary supplements to restore his health. He has been routinely verbally abused and occasionally struck. All in all, the Dursleys have done everything in their power to make him believe himself worthless and-a freak. That is the name they often use to address him. 'Freak.'" Snape felt angry satisfaction at Albus' concerned frown and Minerva's indignation. "Yes, they taught their son to call him that and to refer to him so when speaking with his gang of bullies. I found out a number of things that none of them said aloud. The boy has been taught to think of himself in that way. That word was used to describe his parents to him-as worthless, penniless freaks, killed in a car crash that was caused by their own drunken carelessness!"

"Stop!" Minerva waved her hand in a gesture of denial. "This is too horrible! I hope you gave those vile muggles a good fright! The poor child cannot stay there another night!"

"I considered bringing him to Hogwarts at once," Snape admitted, "but I thought it would be best to discuss a better placement with you first, before dragging the boy from place to place and thoroughly disorienting him. When I asked the boy which of the spare rooms he wanted for his own for the night, he showed a certain modesty in choosing the smallest. I instructed Petunia to clean it thoroughly and prepare it for her nephew. She crammed all the rubbish from the room into the closet, but at least the boy will lie in a bed tonight-for the first time in his life! The Dursleys will sleep until five past eight tomorrow, and I warded the boy's bedroom thoroughly. I promised to return at seven tomorrow and take him where he is to go."

"Perhaps I should go," Dumbledore said, with a sigh of regret, "and I can explain to Harry why he will be staying with his aunt and uncle until he is of age."

There was an awful, shocked silence. Then both professors exploded, alto and baritone voices protesting in counterpoint.

"-Really, Albus! You can't be serious! We should go and retrieve him tonight!"

"-He will not stay there, Headmaster! And I will go to him tomorrow! I swore it on my magic! Do you mean to make a squib of me?"

Dumbledore only put up a hand for silence. After a baffled moment, it was granted him.

He told them gravely, "Harry can only be safe where his mother's blood dwells. As her last act in life, Lily used Old Blood Magic to shelter her beloved child. This magic in turn has cast powerful blood wards over Number Four Privet Drive. Voldemort and his followers cannot attack Harry, but only while he calls the Dursleys' residence home."

Minerva looked a little skeptical. Snape looked downright disbelieving.

The Headmaster continued despite their reaction. "Harry can be safe there, and only there. He must call the house his home, and he must return each summer to his blood relatives in order for the power of familial love to recharge the wards. To place him anywhere else would be to trifle with his life."

There was another brief pause.

Then Snape fixed Dumbledore with an unblinking stare, and said coldly, "Pull the other one. It's got bells on it."

"I beg your pardon?" The Supreme Mugwump was astonished.

"You heard me. I don't believe you. I've never heard of blood wards that behaved in such a way. I've never heard of blood wards that could be recharged by muggles. Blood wards only need to be recharged once in a generation at most, not on a continuing basis. How can I make myself any clearer? I don't believe you. Lily's protection I suppose is possible, though many another witch died trying to protect her children. I can believe that it might be forged by her great love for her child, but don't tell me that such wards can be affected by her muggle sister and her muggle nephew. Neither of them has the magic required to feed any kind of ward, and neither of them feels anything resembling love for Lily's son or Lily herself."

"I assure you that it is all perfectly true," Dumbledore declared loftily.

"Albus-" Minerva said in a low, warning tone.

Snape raised his voice. "I don't believe a word of it. 'The power of familial love?' Potter certainly does not feel love for his so-called family. It surprises me that he does not hate them enough to have already killed them with accidental magic. As for the Dursleys-Dudley barely regards his cousin as human. At most, he's a despised servant and a convenient whipping boy. Petunia might once have loved Lily, but that is gone now. All that remains is resentment and bitterness, and an ugly sort of superiority because she lived and her sister died and left her child without a defender. She loathes Potter-really loathes him. It gives her pleasure to thwart him and starve him and humiliate him and show him what a worthless nothing-what a waste of space- he is."

"Severus-my boy-" Dumbledore protested sadly.

Snape continued ruthlessly, "She loathes many things, beginning with her life. Oh yes, I took a long look into Petunia Evans' sordid mind. She's not as stupid or blind as she appears. She knows her husband is a blustering brute. She knows that her son is an obese little bully with neither brains nor charm. She feels trapped in a marriage she only agreed to because she wanted to score off Lily, who was married just out of school. So Petunia snatched at the first prospect that came her way, and managed to bear a son earlier than her sister. It was a Pyrrhic victory, of course, because in winning it she sacrificed all her dreams and hopes-her passionate desire to go to university, her secret ambition for adventure in the diplomatic service-and now she has nothing to show for it but an obsessively clean suburban home, a husband she finds repulsive, and a son who is an utter disappointment. Torturing Harry is actually the highlight of her day."

"A few chores-" Dumbledore objected. McGonagall hissed angrily.

Snape's voice rose to the next register. "You're not listening to me, Albus! The other boy does nothing. If you think Draco Malfoy is spoiled, you haven't met Dudley Dursley. He had two rooms, Albus! Two rooms! -while Potter slept on a dirty pad on the floor of a boot cupboard. He is encouraged to hurt his cousin-praised for hitting him-and any lie of his is automatically the truth. You claim these alleged wards make the boy safe, but you are wrong. He's not safe from his family, Albus. One of these days, they're likely to kill him. You're lucky they didn't make an end of him tonight."

"I hardly think-"

"And there you have it! You didn't think! You love to pretend that everyone is full of fine feelings and noble intentions, but that belief flies in the face of everything you've experienced your entire life. I don't say that the Dursleys would ordinarily plan a murder in cold blood. What is likely to happen would be called a 'tragic accident.' Vernon will squeeze the boy's throat just a little too long, or Petunia will hit him in the head with the iron frying pan with just a little more force than in the past- yes, Minerva, I saw her memory of it, and she enjoyed it thoroughly- or his great beast of a cousin will shove him just a little too hard when the boy is at the top of the stairs. Everyone will be very sad, and it won't do the boy a bloody bit of good, because he'll be dead all the same."

Dumbledore gave Snape a cajoling twinkle. "Severus, have you come to care for the boy?"

"How dare you?" Snape rose, eyes blazing. "How dare you make a mockery of my vow to protect Lily's child? How dare you try to manipulate this conversation away from the main point-which is that the boy cannot continue to live with those muggles, or he will cease to live. He's not safe there, and he must have a better home."

"Nevertheless, Harry must continue to live with the Dursleys," Dumbledore replied calmly.

McGonagall burst out, "Albus! This is madness! How can you in good conscience let the boy suffer so? He could come to Hogwarts. I'm sure he would be no trouble at all. Any number of wizarding homes would be proud to take him in-"

"Exactly."

Snape was seething. "Then choose one amongst them. Put the boy with one of your pet Gryffindors if you must, but get him away from the muggles." He reconsidered. "Or let him come here. He's-not a bad boy. Willing enough to learn and glad to have a chance at last."

"Not much like James Potter, Severus?"

"Really, Albus!" Minerva exclaimed angrily.

Snape sneered down at the white-haired Headmaster. "I am overjoyed to say that he's not like him at all. How could he be? The boy has no memory of his father. There is little resemblance aside from their hair. An innocent boy, without his father's arrogance or vanity. He's much more his mother's child. Very inquisitive, very eager to begin his studies. Yes. Let him come here. Minerva is right in saying that he would be unlikely to cause trouble."

"My friends," Dumbledore sighed. "If only it were that easy. Unfortunately, I have no right at all to do as you suggest. If I were reckless enough to attempt it, I would be found out, and young Harry would pay the price. I am not his legal guardian, first of all."

"Well, then, who is?" McGonagall asked sharply.

"You know, I don't believe he actually has one. The Potters left no instructions in their will beyond giving guardianship to Sirius Black in case of their deaths. That," he pointed out, "is obviously out of the question. I put him with his closest living relatives, because no one would think to question the right of blood."

"Have someone apply to act as guardian, then!" McGonagall urged him. "Apply yourself!"

Dumbledore did not answer directly. After a moment's silence, he murmured, "Our world believes so much in the power of blood. It defines us all out lives. The ties of blood are all in all. If anyone attempted to claim Harry Potter- and I do not except myself- such a claim would be challenged-almost certainly successfully-by those with the closest blood relationship to the boy."

Another silence, as the people in the room began reviewing the genealogical charts in their heads. Dumbledore ticked the possibilities off with growing gravity. "James Potter was the only son of an only son-of an only son. There are no Potter uncles or aunts or cousins. James' mother, as you know, Minerva, was your old friend Lydia McKinnon. Her only brother and his entire family were massacred by Voldemort. That leaves James' grandfather, who married-" he lifted his brows, waiting for the answer.

Snape refused to speak. McGonagall cleared her throat. "Dorea Black." Her expression took on a pinched look.

"Exactly," Dumbledore acknowledged her grimly. "Young Harry's closest living blood relatives in the wizarding world are the Black sisters. Only third cousins once removed, of course, but unquestionably the ones with the best claim to him. Happily, Bellatrix Lestrange has made herself ineligible due to her residence in Azkaban-"

"Andromeda Tonks," Snape broke in uncertainly, "is considered a pleasant woman-"

"If I offered Harry to Andromeda and her muggleborn husband Ted, they would be instantly challenged by her sister Narcissa and her pureblood husband Lucius. If the case came before the Wizengamot-which I do not doubt it would-which do you think would triumph? Andromeda Tonks' pleasant nature, or Lucius Malfoy's influence and immense fortune? You may as well tell me to hand the boy over to Lucius at once. So you must forgive my well-intentioned fable about Lily's blood protection depending upon her muggle relatives. The blood protection seems to be real enough, and it is essential that the boy be kept away from certain elements in our own world."

After a moment, Snape growled, "Say what you will about Lucius, but he would not starve the boy or lock him in a cupboard. He's not his father Abraxas, after all. He's more likely to be excessively indulgent. Being the guardian of the Boy-Who-Lived could only add to his prestige. He would hardly murder someone so valuable."

"Oh, Severus!" McGonagall groaned.

"Perhaps you are right," Dumbledore allowed mildly. "But a wizarding guardian can do all sorts of things to his ward, and many of them would be undetectable. I hardly think going from excessive severity to excessive indulgence would be very much in the child's best interests. And then too, Harry would be exposed to the most hard-line views of blood purity. Would you have him listen to his mother being described as a 'mudblood?' Would you want him to learn to speak of her in such a way? Do you think young Draco would actually like having to share his parents with someone else on a daily basis? Might not Harry find living with him too much like being under the thumb of his muggle cousin? And of course, as you so wisely point out, there is always the possibility of a 'tragic accident' that would be no one's fault."

"I take your point about the Malfoys," Snape agreed, "but the boy cannot continue where he is."

"He must. I will speak to the Dursleys, if necessary, and counsel them to treat the child better."

At the end of his patience, Snape shouted, "They won't listen to you!" He ran a hand through his hair, frustrated with the conversation. "Talk to them? It's like talking to a stone wall! They're stupid and malicious and think they can get away with anything! Worse still, they think they have a right to harm the boy-theyve even stolen his money from the muggle government and lavished it on their own child. I won't have it! Why can't the boy live in one of his own houses? You needn't tell anyone. We could find a housekeeper or a caretaker and demand a Vow of silence-"

"Harry doesn't have a house of his own," Dumbledore said flatly. "At the time of the attack, James and Lily were in hiding at my own cottage in Godric's Hollow."

"Wait, Albus," Minerva objected. "The Potters owned a lovely manor in Norfolk. I've visited there many a time! They had a little hunting lodge in Caithness and a summer home in France! Severus' idea has some merit. What do you mean, he hasn't a home of his own?"

"Just that. Harry Potter has nowhere to go. The last war was a great drain on everyone's resources, and James did more than his part. There were whole years when he was supported most of the Order of the Phoenix, and of course neither he nor Lily could be gainfully employed. There were agents to be financed, safe houses to be rented, rare items to obtain, and information to be bought. Lives were ransomed and debts were paid. James sold the summer house to a French family-the Delacours-and the hunting lodge was razed and the land sold to muggle developers."

"I can't believe it!" McGonagall gasped.

"What about the manor?" Snape asked urgently. "I noticed at Gringotts that the boy's vault held only enough to put him through school-and only gold at that! Are the family heirlooms kept at the manor?"

"I cannot say," Dumbledore shrugged, "but if they are, they are beyond Harry's reach."

McGonagall was outraged. "James can't have sold the Manor! It was magically entailed! He couldn't possibly sell a family seat-something that had been in the Potter family for seven hundred years!"

"My dear Minerva," Dumbledore soothed, "James and Lily had very modern views on inherited property, and were not very sentimental about such things when there was a war to be fought."

"What are you saying?" she demanded fiercely.

"You are right in saying that they could not sell the Manor. However, the war effort needed money so very badly. Well, the truth is that James leased the manor to Celestina Warbeck, and took the entire sum up front."

Snape felt ill. "Leased for how long?"

"Ninety-nine years. With luck, it will be back in Potter hands eventually."

"The money is gone?" McGonagall asked, horrified.

"For the most part," Dumbledore conceded. "Harry will have to work to earn his bread. But of course that is years in the future. For now, he has an adequate sum remaining to buy his books and whatever trifles a schoolboy fancies."

Snape pressed on desperately. "There must be other things-jewels and books and magical items. Perhaps the Potters took them with them when they went into hiding. For God's sake, Albus! Lily had a wedding ring! Where the bloody hell is it?"

"Calm yourself, Severus." The Headmaster ordered. "When Lily's body was found, she was not wearing her ring, and neither she nor James had their wands. After Voldemort's demise all sorts of people were milling about the cottage. Very likely a number of things were taken. As to the rest, I don't know. Probably a great deal is at the Manor-and it will comfort you to know that those items cannot be removed from thence by anyone other than a Potter. James gave a few things into my keeping, and I will pass them on to Harry when he is old enough to appreciate them. Perhaps there were some things at the cottage, but that was mine to dispose of. As I told you, the Potters were using it only as a hiding place. Shortly after they were killed, I let the Ministry seal it off and make a shrine of it."

McGonagall said briskly, "Then I think we should go there soon and undertake a thorough search. I daresay there was considerable damage from the explosion and the weather, but there might be some things hidden away in closets or drawers that are rightfully the child's."

"I can't believe it," Snape repeated, feeling dazed. "All the money is gone? They went through the entire fortune before they were twenty-two?"

"War is an expensive business, my boy," Dumbledore confessed ruefully. "You are welcome to review all the pertinent records, if you like. James' inheritance did not compare with the resources people like the Malfoys or the Lestranges could command. The gold flowed out like water."

"And it's a child who pays the price!" Snape growled. "Don't smile at me, Headmaster! Don't patronize me! I tell you that the boy will not be thrown to the wolves! It's a travesty!"

"Severus, my boy, I tell you that there is no other option!"

Snape began pacing restlessly, muttering half to himself. "I've had offers, you know. The principal of Golden Gate Academy wrote to ask if I'd consider a move. The archchancellor of Miskatonic University wanted to recruit me for their Institute for Advanced Study-"

Dumbledore rose to his feet and declared, "Severus! You are not taking the boy and leaving the country! I forbid it!"

"Sod off! I'll do as I please! And it pleases me to see that the boy lives to grow up!"

Hands moved toward wands. Before they could be drawn, there was a THWACK! and a flash of hot red sparks, as Minerva McGonagall brought her own wand down on the desk.

"Stop it!" she shouted. "Stop all this ridiculous posturing! Listen to me! There-may-be a way to keep the child safe while keeping him technically under his family's roof."

Snape stared at her resentfully, face deathly pale. "It's impossible. You can't mean it."

"It is possible, if both of you will sit down and hear me out."

Dumbledore resumed his seat, and smiled sweetly on his former student. "I am all ears, my dear."