Wow, I'm on a roll with this story right now! I'm pretty shocked, myself. I thought I'd get stuck after one chapter or lose interest again.
So some people asked if Severus actually knows that Sirius and the others were anamagi, and I realized I might've misinterpreted canon. I remembered him making a few dog puns toward Sirius in OOTP, and PoA mentioned that James had saved Snape from Remus when he was in his werewolf form. I guess I assumed they were animagi then, but I might be wrong. I even googled "Does Snape know who Padfoot is."
I guess he could've found out in PoA, and he knew by OOTP.
Well, even if I'm wrong about this... this is fanfiction. So in this version, Snape saw the animagus forms when stag-James saved him from Werewolf Lupin in their school days.
The Soldier is malfunctioning worse than ever.
MAINTENANCE REQUIRED the voice blares. RETURN TO HARRY THE HANDLER.
The occasional flash of a vision is wrong enough, but he has just viewed every memory from the both his failed missions. First, not delivering Potter to his handlers, followed by Harry becoming the handler and the Asset failing to protect him from the enemy asset with the weaponized stick.
The enemy asset is the most difficult opponent the Asset has ever faced. He can immobilize the asset. He'd wrenched a mission report out of the Soldier, even though the Soldier had been conditioned to withstand interrogation.
With a wave of that damn weaponized stick and a muttered word, he'd made the Asset malfunction, made him witness the forbidden visions.
The weaponized stick can even override the laws of physics. The Asset is once again floating behind the enemy, moved by an invisible force. They travel up staircases, through stony hallways and past moving paintings.
The windows show daylight. The Asset estimates it has been 12 hours since he was captured.
The enemy asset is silent, walking briskly through the castle. The Soldier surmises they must be in a castle. There are several medieval suits of armor, which are impractical and hinder flexibility.
"What were you thinking, leaving the boy with those horrid muggles?" the Asset hears an older female voice with a Scottish accent. The speaker is clearly furious.
Is the boy Harry the Handler?
"Minerva-" another voice cuts in. An old man, possibly the one with the long beard and hair. He is the last person the Asset knows was in possession of his handler.
"No, Albus!" Minerva cuts the old man off. "Did you see him?! He's practically skin and bones! I told you they were the worst sort of muggles imaginable, and you still left Harry there! What good are blood wards in a home like that?!"
"You call that a home?" the new voice asks, seeming to agree with the woman. The Dursley residence was not the correct placement for Harry the Handler.
As they turn the corner, the subjects come into view. The Minerva woman has a severe expression on her face, her eyes flashing angrily behind spectacles as she fumes at the old man. The old man is indeed the man who had been with Harry the Handler when the Asset was dragged away.
The Asset does not see any sign of his small handler, or the dog Nighty.
If the Soldier could move, the old man would be pinned against the wall, the prosthesis parting the ridiculously long beard to wrap around his throat as the Asset demanded to know the location of his handler.
The Minerva lady pauses her tirade towards the old man, turning to stare at the enemy asset and the Soldier.
"Is that the assassin?" Her eyes flash furiously at the Asset "I swear, if he hurt Harry, I'll-"
NEGATIVE. MISSION IS TO PROTECT THE HANDLER FROM HARM.
"I see Dumbledore has filled you in on the situation." the enemy asset interjects in a voice that is smooth yet curt, cutting off her description of what exactly she would do to the Soldier. The Soldier does not understand many of the methods she is describing, but understands that they mean torture.
She is not a handler. Why would she punish the Asset for failing to protect Harry the Handler?
The enemy asset turns to the old man. "There are some unforeseen circumstances, Headmaster."
"You're telling me," the newer voice in the Soldier's head sounds dry, as the other voice continues to give orders to return to the handler.
"This is Sergeant James Buchanan Barnes. He fought alongside Captain America." the enemy asset looks back at the Soldier, his dark eyes boring into him.
More unauthorized visions flash through the Soldier's mind. Aiming sniper rifles seems to be a familiar memory, but in this one, the body is missing the prosthesis, a flesh arm in its place.
The Soldier dimly hears the enemy asset explain something about the Second Muggle World War, while the vision of falling from the train flashes through his mind. The blonde man in the vision shouts for a Bucky, and then he's being dragged through the snow, the left flesh arm a stump that leaves a trail of blood.
How does the enemy asset know about the forbidden visions? Had the Asset still been speaking when they flashed through his mind? Had he reported them? He does not think he could speak when remembering the Chair. All that would come out would be a scream.
"But that's impossible." the severe woman stares at the Soldier. "He'd have to be almost as old as Albus. Even with the Sorcerer's Stone, he'd still age."
"Are you certain this is not a disguise?" the old man Dumbledore studies the Asset with piercing blue eyes. His nose looks as if it has been broken at least twice, and the Soldier itches break it again with his prosthesis until the old man returns his handler to him.
"I have looked through his mind, he retains a few memories of the war and before." the enemy asset replies.
The Asset wants to snarl at the enemy for going through his mind. He is not authorized to do so, in the way HYDRA was authorized to wipe him.
"He is a muggle, and thus does not possess the Occlumency skills required to fabricate memories." the enemy asset continues.
The Asset does not understand the words muggle or Occlumency.
The old woman waves her own weaponized stick, peering at the Asset as if waiting for something to happen. Finally, she mutters something about not transfiguring his body, and the enemy asset mentions that Polyjuice was not used.
The group leads the Asset into a room lined with several beds. Dividers are placed between them to give the occupants privacy, and large windows line the stone walls. All the visible beds are empty, one is hidden behind a divider.
The Asset is lowered onto one of the beds, still restrained but no longer floating.
He is restrained on another bed. A drill bores into the stump of an arm, agony erupting through him. "The procedure has already started." a man's voice says.
There is only white-hot agony, until he raises his arms. The prosthesis glints in the light as a bald man wearing thick glasses stares down at him in satisfaction.
The vision clears. The Soldier breathes harshly, still immobilized to the bed, while the enemy asset stares studies him in a way not unlike his handlers.
"He was captured." the enemy asset reports to the old man. "He must have survived, and they turned him into what he is now."
The Soldier hears the man describe the Chair. He tries to quiet his breathing. If they know about the chair, they must have one. He needs to be wiped, he is nonfunctional and he has failed the mission, but these people are not his handlers.
The topic of his small handler comes up, the enemy asset reporting that Potter had been kept in the cupboard under the stairs, that he was "treated worse than a house elf."
The Asset does not know what a house elf is- possibly the creature that had translated his Russian, which looked better cared for than Potter- but the new voice in his head agrees. "The kid would've been better off in an orphanage."
THE HANDLER MUST REMAIN IN THE PROTECTION OF THE ASSET.
The severe woman named Minerva launches into another diatribe against the old man.
Another old woman approaches the Soldier's bed. She is not as thin or severe-looking as the woman named Minerva, nor as cold as the HYDRA techs, even as she mutters angrily about the Dumbledore man. "Obvious malnutrition, I don't know how anyone could overlook that."
Potter is malnourished, as is Nighty the dog. Where is his handler? Will the enemies feed him?
RETURN.
The woman waves her own weaponized stick, and the bonds wrapped around the Soldier disappear. The Soldier wastes no time, springing to his feet and catching a glimpse over the divider.
Laying under several blankets, looking even smaller in the large hospital bed, is his handler..
The Soldier is about to lunge for his handler, but his arms and legs suddenly spring together once again. He crashes to the floor, stiff as a board. The enemy asset had immobilized him through the same method with his weaponized stick.
The Soldier would benefit from a weaponized stick of his own, to incapacitate the enemies. He would snarl, but even his face is immobilized. Flat on his stomach on the cold stone floor, he stares at the gap underneath the divider. Harry the Handler is out of eyesight.
After being levitated to the bed once again, the Minerva woman asks "Are you sure it's safe, keeping him near the boy?"
The Asset's mind feels frayed between expecting the inevitable agony that accompanies any medical procedure and wondering when he will be wiped and frozen. He will not be able to protect the boy after being frozen, and these enemies are not his handlers.
Knowing that his handler is 1.8 meters left of the Asset, yet being unable to move makes the mission almost deafening inside his head.
The Asset focuses solely on Harry. The boy is both his failed missions, and the Asset listens to the gentle sound of his breathing.
Did they drug him? Wipe him? Will they give him food?
Even as he observes the nurse looming over him, his thoughts do not entirely leave his handler.
The Batman shirt Harry the Handler had picked out suddenly disappears from the Soldier's body. He is used to being exposed in the presence of others, but is not used to the look of sympathy and disapproval the nurse gives his wounds. Her gaze focuses on the scar tissue where the prosthesis joins flesh.
The Asset's body would tense up if it was not already rigid from the immobilization as the nurse waves her weaponized stick over the prosthesis. She tuts about how she can regrow bones, not whole limbs.
The Asset did not know regrowing bones was possible.
He feels his jaw unlock, but the rest of his body remains restrained as the nurse holds a glass vial to his lips. "It's for the pain," she explains, as if his pain is ever a matter of concern. The newer voice says something about the nurse being a mother hen, but she is not poultry. Despite her apparent sympathy, the asset does not trust her. She is with his enemies, and the liquid the enemy asset forced down his throat made him pliant to interrogation.
As he is refusing to drink the beverage, the enemy asset, the severe woman and the old man Dumbledore are discussing what to do with Harry the Handler.
"I'm sure the Weasleys would be happy to have him." the Minerva woman suggests.
The enemy asset scoffs. "They have too many of their own dunderheads running around."
A very extensive background check on the Weasleys would be required before the Asset let them anywhere near his handler.
The enemy asset continues. "Potter needs specialized care and attention, perhaps even therapy given the state he is in. The Weasleys will not be able to adequately provide that."
"Therapy?" the severe woman asks.
"I hear it can be quite effective with muggles." the enemy asset explains. "Though some have a negative view towards it."
The group cannot seem to decide on Harry the Handler, and begin discussing what to do with the Asset. The Asset is used to being discussed, he of course has no say in what his handlers do to him, but these people are not his handlers.
Still, the Asset is unsurprised to hear the old man Dumbledore talk about erasing his memories.
He requires maintenance. But not from the hands of his enemies. The Asset's chest seems to tighten.
"You can't possibly be considering erasing his memories." the enemy asset, surprisingly, seems to come to his defense. This does not make the Asset trust him any more.
"You saw everything you needed to see, did you not?" the old man Dumbledore sounds calm. "We cannot have him remembering Harry."
The thought of forgetting his handler is unacceptable. The mission is to protect him, forgetting him is the largest failure possible.
"He has had his mind electrocuted to erase memories." the enemy asset spits.
The group continues to debate and argue, but the Asset cannot make out the words. His head is filled with a buzzing sound, as if he had just woken up from cryogenic stasis.
The buzzing diminishes when the nurse sends the group to the corridor.
The nurse disappears into an office, and the Asset waits. After 3.1 minutes, he hears Harry the Handler mumble in distress, shifting around in his blankets.
REPORT.
The Soldier itches to check the boy over, but he still is incapacitated.
He hears the handler squirm, then a small thunk. "Mr. A'set?" the boy all but whispers as tiny feet pad across the stone floor.
"Unable to comply, Harry." the Asset replies in a low voice. The nurse had not immobilized his jaw again after giving up with the vial, but the rest of his body is unresponsive.
Harry the Handler gives a small cry of "Batman!" The Soldier's chest tightens. He feels the small boy climb, with some difficulty, onto the bed and press close to him, as if worried he will disappear.
The Soldier wants to wrap his arms around his handler, to make sure nobody will take him again.
"Are you hurt?" the boy leans over to peer at him with wide green eyes.
"Pain is within usual parameters."
Suddenly, the boy wraps his arms around the Asset's neck. At first, the Asset thinks his handler is punishing him, but this does not feel like corrective strangulation. There are quicker, more effective methods to punish mission failure.
"Do you hurt movin'?" the boy questions not as a handler assessing a broken tool, but as a human concerned about another human. It does not make sense. The Asset is a weapon. He opens his mouth to reply, but his handler continues. The Asset snaps his mouth shut, giving his handler his attention.
"Sometimes after Uncle Vewnon..." the boy trails off, but the Asset can surmise what he meant. The boy had been beaten to the point where any movement was excruciating. It is most likely only the boy's strange abilities that let him survive.
He's seen far too much. the new voice says. A boy his age shouldn't know about that sort of pain.
ELIMINATE ANY THREAT TO THE HANDLER.
The Soldier would like to start with the three outside the room.
"Is that why you falled down? Why were you flying? Are you a-" Harry the Handler's eyes become even wider and he hastily closes his mouth, as if he's said something wrong.
"The enemies have weaponized sticks that possess several capabilities. Immobilization, levitation, pyrotechnics." the Soldier reports in a low voice, so the enemies will not hear. "They possess liquids that assist interrogation, and seem capable of producing effects similar to the Chair."
The handler frowns. "Like Time-Out?"
The Asset thinks of how being cryogenically frozen shuts him off from the rest of the world. It is time out of the world, usually an undetermined amount. No. The Handler is referring to the Chair.
He continues the report. "The enemy incapacitated the Asset and extracted information. The Asset is malfunctioning and immobilized. Awaiting punishment." Even if he was not immobilized, he would be still, and accept any correction. He has failed the mission, which is unacceptable.
The handler's small, thin arms tighten around the Soldier's neck, but it does not feel like a punishment. Harry whimpers "No, pwease no. 'm sowrry."
Harry the Handler is much less effective at delivering correction than any other handler the Soldier can remember. Instead of a slap or a corrective instrument, he feels the boy's tears and mucus wet his neck. The heart clenches as if there is pain, even though the liquid does not peel his skin away like the hoses other handlers sprayed him with.
"The old man Dumbledore plans on removing the Asset's memories. He is not a handler, you are."
"He's goin' ta... take your brain? He taked me 'way from Nighty." the boy sniffs. "Nighty didn't even help!"
"He is not authorized to wipe the Asset." the Asset replies, though that hadn't stopped the enemy asset from finding out about his limited memories and the forbidden visions.
"Mr. Potter!" the Nurse exclaims, and the Soldier feels the boy go almost as rigid as he is. "What are you doing out of bed?! Get away from him!" She enters the Soldier's eyesight, looking down at the boy with an expression that is fond, concerned and stern all at once.
Harry the Handler does not comply, pressing his wet face even closer to the Asset's bare skin.
The Asset hears the other three enemies reenter the room at a brisk pace.
"Mr. Potter!" the stern woman Minerva sounds shocked. "What is the meaning of this?"
The nurse reaches to lift Harry the Handler, using her hands rather than the levitation abilities of her weaponized stick. Her grip is firm, but not cruel like every other medical personnel the Asset has encountered.
"No!" the boy cries out. The Asset can feel his handler sticking to him, as firmly as the Asset is stuck to the bed. He had not been sticking before. The boy appears capable of recreating the effects of the weaponized stick, only without requiring the weapon.
The old man waves his weaponized stick. Gradually, the boy is peeled away from the Asset's bare chest, still sticking but not immovable. The boy cries the whole time, tiny hands fisted desperately in the Asset's long hair. "Batman!"
After 5.2 seconds, the only contact between the Asset and his handler is the small hands still gripping his hair. The Asset wonders if Harry the Handler is capable of unsticking him. If the boy frees him, he will fight and complete the mission.
"No! Puh-lease!" Harry the Handler kicks the nurse in the stomach, managing to wriggle out of her hold. He flings himself at the Asset.
"Harry, he is not a safe man." the old man Dumbledore speaks in a calm tone as Harry the Handler plasters himself to the Asset again.
"He's my Batman!" Harry the Handler glares at the old man, rather than cowering like usual. The Asset gets another flash of the skinny blonde boy before his gaze refocuses on his the handler's dark, messy hair. "Let him go!".
"Harry, this man killed your family." the old man explains.
They had it coming, treatin' a kid like that. The new voice sounds satisfied in the Asset's head. They don't deserve to be called his family, we gave 'em what they did deserve.
MISSION: ELIMINATE DURSLEYS COMPLETED
Harry the Handler slowly shakes his head. "My mummy and daddy died in a car crash." his voice drops "They were dumb drunk use-less... freaks."
The Asset shoots the tires of a passing car. It spins off the side of the road and he stalks towards it. The man and woman inside look familiar somehow, but he cannot place them, does not remember encountering them. The man is already dead at the wheel from the crash. The Soldier slowly strangles the pleading woman before retrieving the package from the trunk. Mission success.
The Soldier snaps back to the present abruptly. Had he assassinated Potter's parents, as he had the boy's aunt, uncle and cousin? He struggles to recall the faces of the targets, familiar yet unrecognizable. The details are fuzzy- the man was dark-haired, but other than that the Soldier cannot recall if he bore any resemblance to Harry the Handler.
The enemy asset seems enraged, but does not shout. "Potter, your mother, Lily, was the most brilliant witch I have ever known. Your aunt, contrarily, was a spiteful, vile girl who never grew out of her petty childhood jealousy."
The strict woman Minerva shoots the enemy asset a disbelieving look. "I hardly think you're one to talk, Severus."
The enemy asset Severus scowls as he seems to grudgingly admit "The boy is not his father, Minerva."
"My mummy was Lily?" the boy asks in a small, awed voice.
The stern woman Minerva smiles. "You have her green eyes, but you look just like your father James. Your mother had red hair."
She clearly expects Harry the Handler to smile, but he frowns. "Did my mummy eat kids?"
"What in Merlin's name are you talking about?" the stern woman Minerva demands.
The boy mumbles into the Soldier's neck about how "Aunt Tuna wasn't even mad when Piers telled Dudley witches eat kids." Surprisingly, the boy snickers slightly. "Dudley's fattened alweady."
"I assure you Potter, witches do not eat children." the stern lady says. "Those are ridiculous muggle stories."
"You're all freaks." Harry the Handler tells the group. "And em-en-ies."
"We are not your enemies, Harry." the old man says somberly. "None of us are 'freaks.' We are all witches and wizards, except for him." the man gestures at the Asset.
Harry the Handler remains unconvinced.
Good.
DO NOT TRUST THE ENEMY.
"Your parents did not die in a car crash." the enemy asset interjects smoothly. "They were murdered by the Dark Lord."
The Soldier does not remember any HYDRA assets with the codename Dark Lord, nor does he recall it being his own designation. Unless the enemies are attempting to manipulate them with false information, the Asset is not responsible for the death of his handler's parents. Despite the situation, the tightness in the Asset's chest lessens by 7%.
The nurse scolds the enemy asset. "This isn't the time, Severus! The boy's been through enough!"
"He needs to know the truth about-"
The nurse cuts the old man off. "Out, now! All of you!"
"Poppy-" the old man starts, but the nurse does not let him continue.
"How am I supposed to care for the boy when you keep distressing him?"
The nurse ushers the group out of the room again, ignoring their words. With a flick of her weaponized stick, the large doors close, booming loudly in the faces of the old man, the enemy asset and the stern woman.
Harry the Handler shifts on top of the Asset, whispering in his ear. "Please feel better. We haf' ta ex-scape."
I decided to cut this off here, because it seems long enough.
As you can see, nobody is sure what to do in this situation.