Chapter Five; Lesson Learned

Warning; Chapter contains references to child abuse. If you or anybody you know has ever been abused, get help. Your life matters.

That's when all of a sudden Harry ran into a rather large man and bounced off his chest. "Oomph! Hey, watch it there little guy!" he heard a familiar voice say with a grunt. Harry tilted his head back and looked into the familiar face of Hagrid.

"Oh, hullo Hagrid. It's you." He began. "I'm sorry but you scared me." He told him.

"That's alright Harry, but you really shouldn't be out here in the woods all by yourself. Your parents are worried sick about you." Hagrid told him. "Mrs. Weasley already found Ron and Fred and George, and I've got to say that she really wasn't happy about it. I'm afraid that your new friend Ron has been scarred for life since one of the spiders threatened to eat him and then Fred turned his teddy bear into one as a joke." He explained.

"That wasn't very nice." Harry said.

"Neither was disobeying your father. He told you not to go into the Black Woods but you did it anyway." Hagrid told him.

"I know," Harry began as he heaved a heavy sigh and hung his head. "do you think that he'll ever forgive me?" he questioned as he looked back up at him and blinked away his tears.

"There's only one way to find out." Hagrid began. "Come on, I'll take you to him." He finished while he bent down and hoisted the boy up inside his arms and carried him away.

…..

Lily and Snape were waiting for Hagrid and Harry outside the castle. "Hullo Mr. and Mrs. Snape, I think I have something that belongs to your, or rather somebody as the case may be." Hagrid told them.

"Harry!" Lily exclaimed as she took her son inside her arms and hugged him tightly. "Thank you Hagrid," she told him breathing a sigh of relief and Snape nodded up at him silently thanking him as well.

"Don't you ever do that again Harry! Your father and I were worried sick about you!" Lily scolded while pointing a finger at him and wagging it.

"I know, I'm sorry." Harry apologized with a sniff as Snape looked over at his wife and glanced back at Hagrid.

"Uh I don't want to be rude or anything, and I am very appreciative of you finding the boy and bringing him back to us." He began. "But I was wondering if I might have a word with Harry alone?" he questioned.

"Sure Professor, I've done my job anyway. Goodnight." He said before he smiled and waved at Harry and then turned around to walk away.

"Make it fast," Lily began before she handed Harry over to her husband. "it's way past Harry's bedtime." She told him before she turned to walk back into the castle and Snape slowly sat down with his son on his lap.

"I just wanted to let you know that I'm not angry at you, I'm just disappointed. What you did today was very wrong." He told him.

"I know Daddy, I'm sorry. I should have listened to you, but one of the Weasley twins called me a baby, and I wanted to prove to them that I wasn't." Harry replied with another sniff as he gazed into his eyes.

"Ah that figures." Snape muttered under his breath with another roll of his eyes. "Listen Harry, I think you're old enough to hear this now, the Weasley twins are boneheads." He told him.

"Huh?" Harry questioned with uncertainty as his father stifled a laugh and brushed away his tears.

"Let me put it another way. Just because somebody says something about you doesn't mean it's true. Take it from somebody who found that out the hard way because I know all about bullies. And running off like that was very dangerous, you could have gotten hurt, and your mother and I wouldn't want that now would we?" he said.

"No. I'm sorry, are you going to beat me now?" Harry asked him shakily with another sniff as a serious expression grew onto his father's face.

"Of course not, why would you even ask such a thing?" he wondered.

"Because Uncle Vernon used to beat me up all the time when I was bad. Mummy and Aunt Petunia were afraid to stand up to him though. He would slam me into the wall, kick me, and throw me down the stairs, and if I cried about it, he would just hit me harder." He sobbed with another sniff as he brushed away his own tears this time.

Snape felt his heart shatter into a million billion pieces before he pulled him into a tight hug. "That's impossible, I would never ever do anything to hurt you like that." He told him as he kissed the top of his head while he rested it up against his chest and heard the sound of his heart beating. "And I don't know why somebody ever would do such a monstrous thing to such a sweet and innocent child." He added before kissing him again.

"I was so scared Daddy." Harry said inside a muffled sob. "He would hurt my mummy too." He told him as Snape started gently rubbing his back. "It was the most horrible thing that I ever had to go through in my life." He told him.

"Well you don't have to worry about that anymore. Because I'm never going to let anything like that happen to you or your mother again. You have to realize that even when I do get angry at you, I'm always going to love you. Because I have it written in ink now, you're my child. And that's the way it should be." He said as his voice trailed away thinking back about some of his own terrible childhood memories.

It was at that moment that he had realized Harry had fallen asleep inside his arms. He slowly stood up and started carrying him back inside. He also realized that Harry should have been punished, but he figured that he was already frightened enough and learned his lesson. After he put Harry to bed, he went to go find Lily who was on the top of Gryffindor tower gazing up at the stars.

"Why didn't you tell me that you and Harry were abused?" he questioned as she gave a sudden gasp and turned to see him.

"Severus I," she began.

"What do you think that did to me when Harry asked me if I was going to hurt him and beat him the way that his uncle used to do to him, and then that he did the same thing to you!?" he cried as a tear rolled down his cheek.

"I'm sorry Severus, I know I should have told you, but I didn't want to upset you with that fact since that life is behind us now." She explained while slowly walking over to him and placing a tender hand to his cheek.

"It better be, because if anyone ever lays a finger on you or our son again, I'm probably earning a one way ticket to Azkaban." He told her before they closed their eyes and started to kiss.