Chapter 22: Past Revealed

Notes: Hello Lovelies I hope you had a good week :) soo this chapter is unbeated I have no idea what happened and I hope to hear from them soon :( if/when they do send the chapter I will edit it. I am sorry for all the mistakes that are found in the story if you find any (I know you will) please point them out or email me. (10/3 so I have gotten the revised chapter back! Yay!)

WARNINGS: Yes there are warnings in this chapter of child abuse please if trigged skip those parts.

Well enough from me on too the chapter!

Severus was observing his new charge carefully, there seemed to be something bothering the young boy. He kept biting his lower lip, his bright green eyes kept glancing over to where he sat sipping his coffee. He had started to wring his shirt between his fists, as if he is unsure of what he was about to do; it was concerning Severus very much, seeing the young lad act like this. Was it because he was nervous about Christmas, that he didn't belong to them. He wanted to curse those muggles for treating the boy like that. The boy was so uncomfortable with his first ever Christmas that he was unable to enjoy, such an occasion. It was then, while Severus was lost in his thoughts, that the green eyed boy, so much like his mother, walked over to him.

"S-Sir." Said a tiny voice that caught his attention and he quickly looked to the source. There he didn't see the same boy that he pulled from the cupboard underneath the stairs, who was just barely clinging to life, one that flinched each time you got too close to him; he now saw a young boy learning the world around him. Harry was learning to trust, learning to love, and, for most of this season, learning what a family really was.

"I-I do not have a wrapped Christmas gift to give to you, i-it is something that I would like to share with you, before anyone else." The boy said, looking between him and the floor. The man raised an eyebrow at the child, encouraging for him to continue on. "If we could, I would like us to head somewhere private for a while, maybe enjoy some snacks and hot cocoa." Harry said with a glance to the Malfoy family, as if he was worried that they would be offended by what was happening.

"Of course Harry! You can go to one of the libraries or to the sun room! Just call upon a house elf if you need anything." Narcissa said with a smile, she didn't know what they would like to talk about, but she could put two and two together and had a rough idea of what Harry was going to share with Severus. It was only right that he would go to him first; he was the one that rescued him from those muggles, the first one that showed concern for him, the one that gave him hope and showed him what love was. Of course, saying that she was not jealous was a lie, she knew that Severus was the first to have the knowledge, but she hoped that one day Harry would open up to her and her husband as well. Harry's green eyes lit up a little, and a small smile grew on his face, happy that they were not mad that he would be leaving them on this family holiday.

Severus looked over at Narcissa and gave her a nod of thanks. Then he turned his attention back on Harry. "Of course Harry, where ever you want to go, I will follow."

Harry quickly made his way out of the Christmas room, with Severus following him closely. Harry led him to a sun room overlooking the gardens. At the moment everything that was in the gardens was dead, for the winter storms came upon the manor unexpectedly, not giving the house elves enough time to protect the plants so the yard below was a barren land, frosted over with ice, and a blanket of white sat upon the ground. Off to the side there was the pond that they had ice skated on, as well as the stables which housed horses and other creatures expertly taken care of as well. The inside of the room very inviting. It was decorated in natural colors, the walls a warm tan, it had couches and chairs, both a brown color, a few green pillows, a table in which food was severed on, and a few house plants in the room. Some of them trees, others flowers sitting in the window giving the room life. With a quick call to the elves, they had abundant amount of food, as well as a hot coco for Harry and some tea for Severus.

Harry took a sip of coco, holding on to the mug so tightly that his knuckles turned white, he would not meet Severus' eyes just yet, scared that if he did he would not have the courage to do this.

"Sir, your Christmas present, as I said, could not be wrapped, this is because for you I would like to share my past with you. I-I am unable to share everything with you at the moment, b-but all I ask is for you to g-give me time. A-also I would not object if I went to see a mind healer, in the future." His hands where trembling at this point, either from nervousness or just plain fear of having to think back on the time spent at the Dursley's house or a combination of both.

Severus rested one his bigger hand on Harry's smaller ones, for the first time since entering the room Harry met his eyes, big scared green eyes met warm inviting black ones. "Harry I am happy that you are going to tell me about your past, but only if you want to. Do not force yourself to speak of things that you are not ready just yet; I will look into getting you a mind healer, so that we can make sure we have no lingering effects and that you have a happy life." Harry gave a nod to Severus, happy that he understood him very well. "Just do not stop me, I-I don't think I could finish if you do," was all Harry said before starting.

* * * WARNING * * *

A frightened 4 year old was standing in the kitchen, a broken glass on the floor. A man yelling at the boy telling him that he was useless a freak, the boy did not have enough time to react before the meaty hands grabbed the boys arm hard enough to leave deep purple bruises. The backside of a land landed hard on the boy's face, his nose was in agony now, and something warm dropped down his face. The boy was then forced into the small cupboard. It was the first time that the boy was thrown into the place, the place that he soon found safety in. It was dark and musty smelling, the boy could feel traces of spider webs on his arms. The boy screamed and pleaded to be let out, but the man just laughed before leaving the house. The boy was left in the cupboard for three days not being let out, given no food or water. When the boy was finally let out, he was just a shell it seemed, and it was the only beginning of everything the boy could remember.

At age 5 the boy was left in charge of the cooking and cleaning of the house, the woman of the family always went over everything with a fine tooth comb and if nothing was to her standards the boy was forced to do it again and again, then sent back to the cupboard, his room, with no food for the day. Just so he could get up the next morning to do everything over again day-in and day-out a never ending cycle. If something "freaky" happened the woman would report it to the man, who in return gave the young boy whippings for terrifying his wife.

Age 6 brought new terrors and wonders to the boy's life, the police found out that the boy was not going to school, so to make sure no one found out about the boy, he was enrolled at the nearest school. Which happened to be, of course, where the boy of both husband and wife went to as well. It was a new thing for the boy, to be talked to in such a manor to show off how smart he was, until the parents of the other boy found out how dumb their child was. So to teach that the freak was not allowed to be smarter than their son the man beat the child, it was the first beating that the child ever received, it had left the boy in a state of where he could not keep going to the wonderful school where he could escape the house for over a week. By that time the parents had thrown lies at the school of the boy's "unruly behavior" and now the teachers looked down their noses at the boy. The boy's classmates where scared of him fear that they would get beat up by the other boy that he lived with. So once again the boy was alone in the world.

Age 7 was the first year "freaky" stuff started to happen a lot, the first of it was when he was running away from bullies, and had no place to go. The boy found himself upon the roof and down below where the others were looking for him to teach him a lesson. Of course the school had to call the family that owned the boy, and that night was another beating for being such a freak. Because of that,the boy was unable to cook a proper breakfast, which made the husband mad, in the end a pan of hot grease was poured on to the young boys head and he was thrown into the cupboard for four days with no food. In those days, the boy had started to heal magically, sadly it was unable to save his eye resulting when the door was open once again that he was only able to see half the world while the other half was still there. Those people took advantage of that was well always attacking from that side since the boy could not see it coming.

Age 8 the boy had given up on life. Everything was stripped of the boy, his name was freak and all he knew was pain. It was then that a nice teacher started to notice the withdrawn boy, started to ask questions, and told the police. Of course, an investigation was set up on the family, and when they found nothing, the boy did not exist, the family told them police that he was accident prone and that he was a trouble maker as well and the investigation was thrown out. But the family was not going to let the freak think he could do that again and beat him; and made sure that the teacher was fired from their job. The boy had lost all faith in the adults around him, and was now hallow of everything, it seemed that there was no hope. The boy was dead inside nothing could be done to save him from this family, from this hell hole. He had given up and was just going through the motions of everything. The family notice that nothing was phasing the boy anymore, but the husband had a trick up his sleeve…

* * * Warning over* * *

Harry was shaking like a leaf and he could not continue on, his mind tried to block that night once again. He was scared to think about what his uncle had done; it was then he notice that he was being rocked like a small child and that he was crying, that Severus was mumbling to him. "Shh, it okay Harry, I got you, you are safe, they can't hurt you anymore."

Harry felt him numb cold body move, his fingers wrapping themselves into Severus cloak as he cried for the boy. As he cried for himself in the past, it was over, there was a light at the end of the tunnel, and he was going to fight everyone for it.

Severus could not take it any longer, he wished that he could have rescued Harry sooner. That he made sure that the son of his Lily was safe; but the thought of Potter spawn left a bad taste in his mouth. He was sure that the headmaster made sure that Harry was in loving arms, that he did not have to worry about it. When Harry froze in his story Severus worried, the boy was not moving, his breathing became quick, so Severus only thought was to hold the small fragile boy as close to him as possible. He blamed those muggles for this, they preformed every sort of abuse one could think of, he could not wait to get his hands on those muggles, even if that was the last thing he would do, Severus vowed as he felt the small fingers of the boy grip his clothing, and heard the broken sods of the boy echo through the room.