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 9Harry had been happy when he stepped through the floo. Ron too. Hogwarts was out for the holidays, and besides Ginny being back at the Burrow, Ron was hoping to get some quality face time with Hermione.
Mrs. Weasley was in the kitchen, which was not unusual, and answered Harry's question with, "She's upstairs. Oh, Prof. Dumbledore stopped by, and he left this for you."
Not seeing what was in the flowered dish towel till Mrs. Weasley flipped it back, using it to protect her flesh from touching the repellant … dark wood wand.
"Oh," Harry said. "Is that Snape's?"
"Yes. I wasn't going to go giving it to him."
"Of course not," Harry replied, still aggravated at the emphasis on him. Harry thought his way of calling Snape Snape when he meant the adult version, and Severus Severus when he meant the current version worked out just fine.
Mrs. Weasley's complaints that Severus did nothing properly, such as folding laundry, pairing socks and rolling the pair into a perfect ball, or feeding chickens, wasn't due to Severus refusing to do any chores. He simply could not meet Mrs. Weasley's high standards, yet Harry suspected none of her children, barring Percy, ever did. Further proof of her cruel and unusual punishment was to only allow Severus the privilege of reading the works of a real Wizarding hero, Gilderoy Lockhart. Harry felt bad for Severus and how he must have suffered at the orphanage because he declared the books 'weren't dreadful'. When Harry tried to explain to Severus how this was only temporary because Hermione would sort everything out, the boy looked up from Waltzing with Werewolves and simply said 'okay'.
"He's upstairs?" Harry asked. He had been sent to his room every day, except for the day Harry came home to find him standing in the corner, staring at the wall for giving Mrs. Weasley 'sass'.
What Harry didn't understand is how both of them gave him the same story. Severus had asked Mrs. Weasley 'what is that?' as she strained a pot of boiled and mashed gurdyroots. Having sampled Gurdyroot Infusion for himself, Harry saw nothing wrong with questioning what it was. Severus Snape was not stupid, and asking a question like that was perfectly reasonable, as far as Harry was concerned.
"He gave me that look again," Mrs. Weasley complained.
"Should pluck out those shifty eyes of his," Ron suggested.
Harry couldn't wait for Hermione to adjust Ron's attitude. He was getting worse, and more immature. Harry hadn't caught Severus doing anything wrong so far. Harry knew what it was like to be hated for simply being a waste of space and breathing up all the good air at number four Privet Drive, so he was never in the mood for their jests.
Other Weasleys stared at Severus, finding him as interesting as a big bug they found sitting in one of their kitchen chairs. It was Ron and Molly that were hostile, and now Harry had some explaining to do to Ginny, especially since Severus had already heard that Harry was marrying Ginny this summer, after she graduated Hogwarts, out in the Weasley garden. All that came out when Severus asked where he was being sent because Mrs. Weasley had given him an earful over chicken droppings in the yard.
Harry seemed to be the last to know after Severus that he had a fiancé. The plan was that Harry was supposed to propose now, over Christmas holiday, because Ginny needed time to plan, so it would be rude to ask at Easter.
It might be more convenient to do the wedding thing when Harry felt like getting married. Maybe not till Severus was a first year. Though Harry couldn't tell anyone that, or Severus might disappear one day while he was out. He was starting to feel he couldn't trust Mrs. Weasley. Might be Slytherin paranoia, but he didn't see how Severus was playing him, if all he did was ask why he was alive when someone as loved as Fred was dead. Someone had to mention Fred, which was pretty much a forbidden subject in the Burrow with Mrs. Weasley's big ears.
Harry opened the door to his, or Percy's old, bedroom. He hadn't knocked because he did have a smidgen of doubt about Severus, yet never caught him doing anything except reading Lockhart.
Today, Severus was not sitting in here reading Lockhart. The bed was no longer made either, and there was a wet spot in the middle of the floor. Harry looked at the dry ceiling before leaning closer. It did have an aroma, and wasn't what Harry expected, and there was blood there too.
"Severus," he called.
There was a noise.
"Severus, it's me, Harry."
There was a cry from over by the bed. The blanket had been pulled off and dragged underneath.
Harry leaned down and saw blanket, and pulled on it, asking, "Are you under there?"
There was a pained squeal, and Harry levitated the bed. Severus was curled up and against the outside wall. Harry moved the bed over, so he could get in there and look at the boy without dropping the bed on both of them.
"What's wrong?" Harry put a hand on Severus's shoulder, and felt the boy stiffen.
"What happened?"
There was a sniffle before Severus quietly said, "The ginger-haired man that stole me from my parents was here."
Harry pulled at the blanket. "Mrs. Weasley told me."
"He wants me dead. He cast spells at me to make me sick."
"What kind of spells?" Harry asked while pulling Severus away from the wall.
"He hurt my head and made me think about my parents a lot."
"Legilimens?" Harry asked before he saw blood.
Harry pushed Severus's hair aside to look at his face. Nose bleed, split lip, and one of his eyes was past bloodshot. Half the white was now red.
He picked up Severus in his arms and moved as quickly as he could, while trying to stay safe, to get downstairs to the floo.
"What's going on?" Mrs. Weasley asked.
"I need to get Severus to St. Mungo's. Dumbledore cast something at him."
"Nonsense. Why would -?"
"I don't know. He's bleeding. Out of the way."
"What are we going to tell Ginny?" Ron asked.
"I'll be back later."
Severus thought his ruse was going well, and even tolerated Potter falling on him when they emerged from the floo at St. Mungo's. Dumbledore had cast legilimens on him, but not with the strength or intent of the Dark Lord so he saw nothing other than what Severus wanted him to see. The difficult part was self-inflicting injury, even without a wand Severus had no practice at harming himself, and he needed to make the injuries resemble legilimens cast too long rather than just slicing himself open to make a bloody mess.
Of course the former headmaster would prevaricate or outright lie about what happened, that's why Severus had to take this drastic action. Dumbledore would do much worse to him later at Hogwarts if Severus couldn't establish boundaries now. And Potter seemed to genuinely want to protect him so Severus should do him the favor of establishing some threat so Potter could play the hero.
Harry was flabbergasted. How long did Dumbledore cast legilimens on Severus? Did he think little Severus had the same occlumency skills as grown Snape? And why? Why would he do that? What could Severus know that Dumbledore needed to find out? And why didn't Dumbledore talk to Harry before attacking Severus? Unarmed Severus.
The whole reason Harry pulled Severus out of the orphanage was to protect him. He didn't do it to give the 'good guys' access to Severus whenever they wanted to torture him.
Harry was so worked up by Severus's diagnosis, his first tried to floo to Hogwarts from St. Mungo's but the flame didn't turn green. He could apparate, but hesitated. What was he going to do tonight that he couldn't tomorrow? Perhaps he needed to keep a cool head. What if this was some ploy of Dumbledore's to lure Harry into a duel so he could get the respect of the Death Stick back?
"Mental," Harry muttered to himself before deciding to apparate to the Burrow.
As he entered the house, he was bombarded with variations of the same question. "Where is he?'
"Uh, they kept him overnight. Severus was um … pretty hurt."
Ron murmured, "Mum said he pissed himself."
"I don't think he could help it, Ron. He was on the receiving end of legilimens for who knows how long, and Dumbledore wasn't going easy on him because he's a child."
Backpedaling, Ron said, "I meant it had to be pretty bad for that to happen."
"Oh," Harry said, then added, "You're right. They're not sure if there's going to be permanent damage or not."
Hermione said, "I can't believe Prof. Dumbledore would do such a thing."
"I'm not so sure," Harry said.
"Maybe it was someone who took polyjuice potion," she suggested.
"No, he gave Snape's wand to Mrs. Weasley. It had to be Dumbledore because he's been using that wand since the Shrieking Shack."
Ginny didn't say anything till the room cleared out. "Mum said you adopted Snape on a whim."
"It was sudden," Harry admitted, "but I had been looking to find him for so long, and no one else could find him when he was right there under the Ministry's noses. What if I walked away and then he disappeared again? Adopting him was the only way I could make sure I knew he was safe."
"How's that working out for you?"
"What?" Harry spluttered. "He was fine here till today. I don't know what I'm going to do yet, but I'm not going to let Dumbledore get away with this."
"Feuding with Dumbledore's not going to accomplish anything."
"He teaches children," Harry protested. "He doesn't treat them very well, leaving babies on doorsteps on cold autumn nights-"
"Is this about you or Snape?"
"It's … this is the last straw," Harry declared. "Severus is not an expendable orphan."
"Expendable? Aren't you being overly dramatic, Harry? And that's the same reason why you jumped in to adopt Snape. You blow things out of proportion. You've never had children, and now he's taking advantage of that and walking all over you."
"Uh … I'm living here in the Burrow. I think if I wasn't up to the task and Severus was beasting it up, your mum or brothers would put him in his place. Actually, he's pretty good. He gets in trouble for his sass, not because he's disobedient or lazy."
Ginny threw her hands up. "You're not getting it, Harry! You didn't even ask me before you did this. You just went and did it!"
"Didn't you hear me? I just told you I had to do it."
"You told me, but you didn't have to do anything. I don't want Severus Snape as my kid!"
"You're getting a bit ahead of things, Ginny. He's mine now. And even though I was thinking it would only be a couple years till he goes to Hogwarts, he's not so bad."
"Harry, he's still Snape."
"I prefer to call him Severus now."