Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter, nor any of the characters from the books or movies. I do not make any money from the writing of this story.
Chapter 2It was not until hours later that Harry even realized what had miraculously happened outside of the hurricane of congratulations and well-wishers that surrounded him. His disbelief and happiness regarding the news that both Prof. Dumbledore and Prof. Snape were alive was quickly quenched when he heard that Prof. Snape was lost. Additionally, Prof. Dumbledore confessed that Prof. Snape seemingly had no present day memories. He had struggled and demanded to go home.
Prof. McGonagall assured Harry that everyone here was looking for a small boy with uncut black hair and ill-fitting clothes, including the ghosts and house elves.
When Harry took a moment to tell Dumbledore how stupid he was, it seemed dying had not changed him at all. He gave some excuse about the needs of the many outweighing the needs of the one. He was not around when Harry needed him most, and did not do a good job of trusting or getting necessary information to him.
Before Harry succumbed to exhaustion, he went for a look outside since he thought that a little boy might find a huge castle full of hiding places, but if it were him, he'd want to get out and try to figure out where he was. Actually, he'd probably want to lie down since he'd believe Dudley finally brained him good. He couldn't imagine trying to find his way from Hogwarts to Surrey, mostly because he would not want to return to the Dursleys. On a whim, Harry also checked the kitchens since he knew Snape was smart enough to prioritize food.
When Harry awoke the next day, sleeping for more than twelve hours straight, he talked to the Weasleys before asking if Snape had been found. Sadly, they were starting to think that a dark wizard who escaped getting rounded up by the Ministry might have offered to help the little boy and then abducted him.
Feeling that something more should be done, Harry did get in to see Kingsley Shacklebolt, but with the Ministry in chaos, finding one child was not a priority.
Harry tried not to give up hope, but as days passed and then finally a week, he felt that he failed Snape. Well, everyone there had failed Snape. How could Dumbledore have let him out of his sight, knowing that he had no idea where he was or what was going on? If his brother, Aberforth, had not confirmed that he had seen him also, Harry might have been willing to chalk up the assertion that Snape had been magically resurrected too as Dumbledore's mind playing tricks on him since it was not the best explanation for what happened to Snape's body. All that remained at the Shack was all the blood that poured out of him.
At first Harry thought his idea to address a letter to Snape was good since the owl left and flew south. He would send a letter every couple of days, and paid for return postage from the post office. He also thought to include a pencil with the instructions for Snape to write back where he was.
Owls from the Hogsmeade post office continued to fly south, rather than towards Hogwarts, and owls from Diagon Alley, or the London post office, flew north. When Harry was allowed to borrow Pig, he flew east from the Burrow, and Harry planned to either use Pig more and release him in different places, while Ron and he were busy with auror training, to get closer to where Snape could be.
That changed when Pig returned from his first delivery with a letter. A form letter from the Ministry informing the sender that Severus Snape, former headmaster of Hogwarts, was deceased. Ron agreed that was odd, and when they asked Mr. Weasley, afraid that Mrs. Weasley would start crying over letters addressed to Fred, he claimed to have never seen or heard of anyone getting a letter like that. He believed the owl would usually refuse to go or would circle back to the sender after a couple minutes.
Harry tried to use his influence as both an Auror trainee and the Boy Who Lived Yet Again to try to get answers out of the Ministry since someone was sending a reply. What he got were a lot of confused looks since it was decided to keep Severus Snape's return as a helpless child a secret. Everyone knew about Albus Dumbledore, of course.
Prof. McGonagall was interested in seeing the letter, and showed it to other members of the Hogwarts staff who were interested in recovering Severus Snape, now that they knew the truth. Harry shifted impatiently as he considered their platitudes empty and a bit late to be of any help, especially from Dumbledore who claimed he was diligently looking for Snape. Even if the others did not know who that young child was, letting one stroll around the Great Hall in the midst of all the injuries and dead bodies laid out was terrible.
Harry knew he was still angry at the old, now younger than him, Albus Dumbledore for not telling him anything. In Snape's memory, Snape seemed to be the one getting upset over Harry having to die to kill Voldemort.
Thinking of that, Prof. McGonagall confirmed she had put Severus's memories in a vial and was storing them in the headmistress's office, now that it was hers. It seemed Dumbledore had worked out some deal to teach Transfiguration, like he used to.
Not impressed with how neat and tidy things were working out for them along with the repairs to the castle, Harry was persistent and finally Dumbledore offered, "Perhaps you would like to see if there are any clues in what Severus did prior to running away, Harry?"
"Sure, let's take a look at that," Harry agreed. That had to be better than this dithering about. Harry was considering putting his training on hold because he felt so strongly about how this had gone tits up.
Prof. McGonagall joined Prof. Dumbledore and him in the pensieve.
Dumbledore's shared memory began in the Shrieking Shack.
Albus had found himself lying on the dirty floor and noticed Severus when he sat up. He approached the boy, softly calling, "Severus."
Harry shivered. Snape, or maybe he should think of the boy as Severus, was young. Much younger than Dumbledore, maybe even less than ten. He was lying in the large dark puddle of blood.
He was relieved that Snape remained unconscious while Dumbledore got a hold of Snape's wand and levitated him out of the sticky blood and over to a cleaner bit of floor. Harry was annoyed when Dumbledore then turned the wand on himself to clean up his clothes, before he tidied up Snape's ill-fitting ones.
Leaning closer to the boy, Harry visibly checked his neck for any marks. The jacket being way too large, along with the stretched out neck of a jumper over another shirt, maybe a frayed cotton undershirt before it got chewed up and turned yellowish, made it easy for Harry to see that there were no bite marks now.
The original Dumbledore cast rennervate and immediately began speaking to his fellow headmaster, "Severus, come on. We need to get up to the school."
Harry saw Snape's eyes focus on the congealed blood.
"We need to go," Dumbledore repeated. "If Harry failed, we might be the only two who know what needs to be done."
"Who are you?"
"It's me. Albus. You've changed too, Severus. I have no idea what caused this, but we need to hurry."
"What do you want with me?" the young Snape asked as he backed away from the older boy.
"We might be the only ones that can stop Voldemort."
"Did you steal me away from my parents?"
"What are you talking about, Severus?"
"I want to go home."
"There is no time for joking around."
"No, I want to go home."
"You don't remember?"
"Remember what? I want to go home."
"I don't have time for this. I'll come back for you later, Severus."
Dumbledore had made a motion with the wand, but nothing happened. Surprised by that, he conjured up an easy chair to test it, then verbalized, "Incarcerous."
Harry was momentarily puzzled but then realized that Dumbledore tried to use Snape's own wand against him. He could not help but grin because he did not want Dumbledore tying Snape up and leaving him in the Shrieking Shack for who knew how long. What kind of person did that to a child, especially since this is where he died? Wait … this is the man that left Harry on the Dursleys doorstep in the middle of the night and did not even bother to ring the bell before running off! Why should Harry be surprised?
Snape had his back against the wall now as he accused with a pointing finger, "You're a wizard. Why did you take me? Did you do something to my parents?"
"I don't have time to argue with you, Severus," Dumbledore replied, approaching him.
"Stay away from me," was Snape's reply, but he punctuated it with a burst of accidental magic that knocked the Gryffindor backwards.
"You need to stop this nonsense, young man."
Harry realized that it was inevitable that it would get physical, with Dumbledore being bigger and stronger, but Snape fought like he was possessed as the head boy tried to drag him into the tunnel. The small boy was using everything at his disposal when pulling, kicking and regular hitting weren't enough. He bit Dumbledore, pulled his hair, tried to poke him in the eye, and there were plenty more bursts of accidental magic that threatened to bring the tunnel down on top of them.
He understood Snape's panic. Uncle Vernon and Aunt Petunia had warned their innocent little Dudley against child snatchers, and told him to fight as hard as he could. From the things Snape was shouting, he thought Dumbledore was capable of anything.
When the current professor looked at Harry questioning his apparent cheering for the little boy, Harry shrugged and explained, "He woke up in a disgusting room with a huge puddle of blood on the floor. I agree you look like someone I would want to fight and get away from. You're also dragging him through an underground tunnel. I'd easily agree with the mass murderer or child stealer assessments. I'm not sure where he's getting the uh … other ideas from. Did you accidentally grab him the wrong way for him to call you a boy humper?"
Visibly shaken by the repetition of that accusation, Albus declared, "Certainly not."
Minerva changed the subject by mentioning, "You could have warned me that I'd need to crawl through this tunnel, Albus, before you invited me to join the two of you."
"My apologies, Minerva. We're almost to the end."
Harry assisted Prof. McGonagall out of the tunnel and almost missed the kick Snape gave Dumbledore in the face before making a break for it.
The current Dumbledore complained, "Already has that stubborn streak."
Snape had almost made it to a stand of trees when the longer-legged, faster Dumbledore tackled him.
Harry tried not to grin as the stubborn little git kicked furiously at the older and heavier teenager. He was starting to think Snape could have given Dudley a bit of trouble. He was forty or fifty pounds of mean fighting machine.
Eventually Dumbledore had enough of trying to behave and stunned the smaller boy with a couple blows to the face, then wrestled him along while threatening him with a spanking for being so troublesome.
Harry glanced at Dumbledore then Prof. McGonagall then back to Dumbledore.
"Why are you being so rough with him?"
"I needed to get to the school to help you, Harry."
Harry did not quite believe that since if Dumbledore were in that much of a hurry, he should have just let Snape go. That's what he ended up doing once he found out that Harry already finished the job. How could Snape help him like this? Was Dumbledore going to offer Snape to Voldemort as a prize?
The threat of a spanking did not seem to strike fear into Snape because it was a slow struggle towards the front of the school with Snape yelling whenever they got close enough to someone for him to hope that someone would care about a child being abducted. The only person that paid them any mind was Prof. Trelawney in the Front Hall who stopped from picking up a crystal ball to peer owlishly at the pair.
This gave Harry a sense of dread because if someone grabbed Snape after he got free, no one seemed to care that they did not recognize the red-haired student dragging a young, unwilling boy about. Actually, if someone else grabbed Snape, it would be easier to stupefy him and then carry him outside the gates to apparate. Snape's wand was the only thing that prevented Dumbledore from using magic on him.
Even in the Great Hall, no one even questioned Dumbledore dragging Snape around the room. Harry saw how Snape noticed all the injured and dead people, and after he struck the final blow against Dumbledore, he circled to look carefully at everyone who was spread out. Harry followed him, and was appalled that no one could be bothered to lead him out of here or even tell a little boy that he did not belong here. Snape even passed within a few meters of him and shouldered his way through a crowd to look at Voldemort's corpse.
When Snape reached the door and left, Harry turned to look around since he could not see most of the Front Hall since he was tied to where Dumbledore was. Dumbledore was now fine and talking to his brother, Aberforth.
"I thought Severus had left the room immediately, Harry, and was hiding in the castle."
Harry sniped, "That was pretty stupid."
"He may have been looking for his parents among the wounded," Minerva suggested.
That suggestion left Harry feeling like someone just punched him in the chest. He suspected that Snape had a rotten childhood, but even Harry did not want to find Uncle Vernon and Aunt Petunia lying on a floor staring at the ceiling of the Great Hall.
Leaving the pensieve, Harry's first question was, "Are Prof. Snape's parents still alive?"
"No," Albus answered.
"But they were alive whenever he was this age," Harry thought aloud. "So where did he live?"
"I've already been there and set up an alarm, Harry."
"With Snape's own wand?" Harry asked, thinking that the dark wood of Dumbledore's current wand looked familiar.
"Hmm, I think you may be on to something, Harry. I've been meaning to get to Ollivander's. Severus's wand is as obstinate as he is."
"Well, if you want your old one, I threw it back in your tomb. That was before I knew you were back."
"Oh?"
"Why would I want a wand called the Death Stick?"
"A wise decision. However, I no longer command it."
At this point, Harry was not really looking for Dumbledore's approval or could even care where he got a new wand. He was more disturbed that he had been continuing to use Snape's wand, even though he admitted it did not work well for him. Was it some of trophy system? Is that why he took Grindelwald's? Did Dumbledore know it was a Deathly Hallow prior to dueling Grindelwald? Though in Harry's opinion, Dumbledore had not defeated Snape.
"Never mind that," Harry muttered. "We need to check that house."
"Yes," Minerva agreed. "You know where it is, Albus?"
"Yes, but -"
Harry's patience was wearing thin, he did not want to hear 'but'. He had a rare day off from training and wanted to accomplish something, rather than giving a speech, being served a gallon of tea with a trough of sweets, and having his face hurt from smiling because he never knew when a camera was going to get shoved under his nose. Harry wanted to spend time with Ginny, Teddy, the other Weasleys, and he could not enjoy himself knowing that Snape was lost. After seeing this memory, Harry knew that as a young boy Snape was not stupid, but against a former Death Eater, his feistiness would only make his captor laugh harder.
"I want to go there now and take a good look around. I'll set wards and alarm charms," Harry insisted.
Minerva agreed, "I think that best. I'll come too. If he returned home, it may have taken him days to reach there and he may still be resting before deciding where to go next. We don't want him to do another runner when he sees Albus."
"Days?" Albus repeated.
"I have noticed Severus never had a proper Scot accent, Albus, so yes, days."
Dumbledore gave the two of them the address, and Harry momentarily wondered if they found Snape, if he could point out where his mum used to live. He wasn't sure if Aunt Petunia would admit to ever living anywhere but Surrey.
Their excursion proved to be pointless. Harry was able to tell which house it was, despite the lack of numbering on the outside, since there was only one warded against entry and although vacant looking like many of the others, it at least had some blinds still up. He tried knocking on the front door to be polite. The blinds were closed on the front window, but Harry was able to press his face against the kitchen window and peer into the room. If a little boy was living here, he did not leave anything lying about.
Harry broke into the vacant house next to it, but found the common wall between Snape's house and his neighbor's was also warded.
Minerva cast some spells and they proved Dumbledore's use of Snape's wand against his own house to be pointless. Between Harry and Minerva they finally got the back door open and entered.
He was disappointed, but was further saddened as they searched, when Harry realized that Snape still had his things in the much smaller of the two bedrooms upstairs. The other room did not have anything in the drawers or closet, and the large bed was neatly made up. Harry felt uncomfortable and wondered what he would have done if he continued living in the house that belonged to his parents.
"When did his parents die?" Harry asked.
"I think he lived alone here before your house in Godric's Hollow was attacked. I needed to come here to visit him once before that," Albus commented.
Minerva reminded him, "He was still in seventh year, Albus, when his mother died."
"He was?"
"Yes, Horace gave him a day off of school. He was in my NEWT level class. It was quite a case of karma since Potter and his group found it so hilarious, and then both Potter's parents died of dragonpox about a month later."
"Really? I remember Potter's parents, but not -"
"Why would you, Albus? It's not as if you would have sent flowers or even a card. I think Severus only stayed in Slytherin for that day since he had missed whatever was done for her."
"Why would he do that?"
"He didn't know she had died till he sent her a letter and the owl circled back. Horace referred him to me as deputy headmistress to find out what the problem was."
"Why wasn't I told any of this?"
"You were eventually, but it was too late for anything to be done. He was already seventeen so it did not matter."
"I would matter to me, Minerva."
"Why would it?"
"I care about all Hogwarts students."
Harry added to the argument by asking, "Since when?" This was the idiot that asked Snape to murder him, and thought Voldemort making him headmaster and staffing the school with Death Eaters was everything going according to his crackpot plan. If Harry, Ron and Hermione had gone back to school on September first instead of a hellishly long camping trip, where would that have left them?
"You're not, Albus. I take care of the Gryffindors, and sometimes if you know their parents, you attend a funeral. You are also selective about your wedding invitations and refuse to be made anyone's godfather. Filius and Pomona take care of their houses, and Horace is a bit fickle. He did attend the Potters' funeral with the two of us. I do remember that."
"I think you are mistaken, Minerva. If I had known -"
"If you had paid attention, you would have given Gryffindor points for all their witty jokes regarding a Slytherin's mother dying. I happen to have a very good memory, Albus. You forget Horace's way of handling Slytherin was vastly different than Severus. Horace is still selective about which social engagements he chooses to honor, even in the case of students dying. Severus would not have skipped Vincent Crabbe's funeral in order to attend one that he hoped would offer a better buffet."
"I'm sure Horace only mentioned that in jest."
"Oh yes, death is such a merry joke," she chastised. "That's why the quality of the family's cellar is paramount."
"Why are you being so negative, Minerva?"
"I want Severus found. Your poor judgment led to him running off, Albus. You knew he did not know anything, and -"
"I was injured."
"Pity it was not lasting."
Harry was not used to overhearing Prof. McGonagall take Prof. Dumbledore down a peg. In this case, he felt she was right, and regretted she did not do it more often. Was this new because Dumbledore appeared to be young and inexperienced, or was this something that had occurred in the past behind closed doors?