Disclaimer: This is a work of fanfiction based on the Harry Potter Universe. All recognisable characters, plots, and settings are the exclusive property of J.K Rowling. I do not claim ownership.

Harry Potter: Whispers of Winter

By 5Jupiter

Book 1: Frostfall

Chapter 2: First Contact

22nd July, 1991

Severus Snape moved quickly through the narrow alleyways of Little Whinging, his black robes billowing behind him. The air was thick with the danger of a thunderstorm, and his anxiety reflected the increasing clouds above. His long-held fears about the boy-who-lived had evidently been validated, and he couldn't get rid of the nagging feeling that something was amiss with the Potter boy's living arrangements.

He had learned from Minerva earlier this morning, just as the letters were being prepared, that Harry Potter was forced to live in a cramped cupboard under the stairs, a revelation that made Snape's blood boil. How could the boy-who-lived, the saviour of the wizarding world, be subjected to such inhumane treatment? How could Lily Evans' child, be subjected to such conditions? It was inconceivable.

That is, it was til he learned just exactly who the boy had been living with; Petunia Ev- Dursley. A woman who had despised her sister well before she found out that she was a witch, and whose hatred had known no bounds when his red-headed friend received her Hogwarts letter. How Albus Dumbledore could have placed the boy here without doing his due diligence…baffled him.

Snape's mind raced with many circumstances as he stood outside the Dursleys' home. He could simply hand the letter he'd grabbed from Minerva and leave, but the prospect of the Dursleys mistreating Harry, Lily's son gnawed at him. No, he couldn't continue to overlook the injustice, no matter his history with James Potter.

The door opened, revealing a rotund woman with a pinched expression on her face. Petunia Dursley, Harry's aunt. Snape's lip curled with contempt, his mind flashing back to when he was but a child, but he masked it behind a façade of indifference.

"Hello, can I- YOU!" Petunia snapped, her brain connecting the dots, as her voice began to waver slightly, "What do you want?" she shot off, taking a few steps back.

"Petunia," Snape drawled, a hint of malice belying his stoic face, "How…nice to see you again. I see that time hasn't been kind to you" he said taking a step forward himself.

Petunia's face flushed with shame as much as indignation. "I won't have you insulting me in my own home," she hissed, tightening her grasp on the doorknob.

Snape arched his brow, his unrelenting gaze probing her, maintaining eye contact. "Is this your house?" This hovel is far from deserving of the term. "I'd hardly call this a home for anyone, let alone a child," he said, his voice mocking.

"What do you want,?" Petunia demanded, attempting to retake some control.

"What I want is irrelevant to you," Snape responded coolly, his voice piercing through the tense atmosphere. "What worries me is Harry Potter's safety. I have been made aware of his living conditions, and it is utterly unacceptable."

Petunia's eyes flashed with a mix of defiance and fear. "He's my nephew, and I'll raise him exactly how I see fit!" She snapped, her voice quivering.

"You don't understand," Petunia continued, her voice barely audible. "I never wanted any of this. I never wanted him." Her shoulders slumped, and the façade of the stern woman began to crumble, revealing the pain and regret she had buried for so long.

For a moment, Snape's expression softened, a glimmer of understanding in his eyes. He, too, carried burdens from the past, scars left by the war and the choices he had made. In a world defined by the consequences of decisions, Harry was innocent, caught in the crossfire of his parents' sacrifice and the dark forces that sought to harm him.

Harry couldn't believe his ears as he edged further out the hallway. He had managed to sneak out of his cupboard, drawn by the commotion downstairs, only to find his Aunt Petunia engaged in a heated argument with a strange man he had never seen before.

"I never wanted him to be like her," Petunia said, her eyes full with rage and sadness. "Magic ruined her life, and I was terrified that it would do the same to him." I thought that if I forced him to act properly..."

The individual, who appeared to be in his forties and had greasy black hair and a hooked nose, looked at Petunia with such intensity that it made Harry wary, his magic coursing through him. "Lily was a gifted witch whose legacy lives on in Harry." However, magic is not to blame for her predicament."

Harry's thoughts were racing. Is it true that his mother was a witch? These findings astounded him, and he strained to comprehend their significance to him.

Harry's curiosity grew, and he stepped out further into the hallway, making a small noise in the process. Both Petunia and the stranger turned to look at him, surprise evident in their expressions.

"I... I heard everything," Harry stammered, feeling a mix of fear and excitement. "You knew about my mom? About magic?"

Petunia's eyes widened, and she seemed at a loss for words. The stranger, on the other hand, focused on Harry with a calculating gaze. "Indeed," he replied, his voice low and measured. "I knew your mother, Lily, and her magical heritage. You, Harry Potter, are a wizard."

If only Snape knew…

Later that night, Spinner's End…

As Harry finished putting away his meagre positions into the armoire in Sn- Professor Snape's guest bedroom, his mind was still spinning.

In the span of a few hours, he had found out that he wasn't a singular anomaly, but one of millions of wizardkind worldwide. Simultaneously, he found out that his parents hadn't been killed in a car crash, but had been murdered by a dark wizard, Lord Voldemort, according to the professor.

The fact that his parents had also been wizards had come as a shock to the boy, who, upon finding out, had experienced a feeling of joy he seldom had before. The fact that they weren't normal made him overjoyed, so much so that he emitted a frosty aura in Snape's sitting room.

Unbeknownst to the boy, the Professor, while regaling the Potter child with his true heritage and significance in the wizarding world, had been delving into the child's mind, seeing what exactly he was dealing with.

Whilst the majority of the boy's memories were open on display, his recollection of his accidental and…controlled magic was covered by a sheen of ice that, if he had been a lesser Legilimens, he couldn't have gotten past without alerting the boy, and after the age of seven he could go no further, the feeling of being frozen overwhelming him.

His… control of wandless magic was unheard of: The boy had been an anomaly for the story of his curse scar, but as Snape delved further and further into the pool of memories, he got a glimpse of how big an anomaly the boy truly was.

Wandless, and to an extent wordless magic to the extent that the boy could do without ever being given lessons or a wand was…unheard of, never mind that the boy seemed to display tendencies of a Merlin Forsaken ELEMENTAL. The last known elemental was an Earth elemental who died in feudal Japan, and analysis on him showed very similar traits.

His natural occlumency barriers being as strong as they were could ONLY be by being an elemental.

The boy seemingly lapped up everything Snape was telling him, his eyes glued to the Potions professor, giving Snape his full, undivided attention but not noticing the slight distress on the Professor's face.

As Snape tailed off the ending of the last war, he sat back, his probe having not been caught out as he sat back and allowed the boy to process all that had been said.

"You can do things can't you, Harry? That other children can't?" Snape inquired, his voice softer than it had ever been.

I can make things move without touching them. I can open locks almost at will. I can make light. I can make the air cold...Is that normal, for us? Harry responded, voice unwavering, eyes gazing up at Snape with a familiar, unbridled curiosity. One that hurt the man to look at, given how often he still dreamed of those emerald green eyes.

"No, Po-. No, Harry, the things you can do are not necessarily…normal amongst us" Snape replied, stumbling over his words a bit.

This is Lily's child, Severus. Do this for her. Help him live the life that she would want.

Taking a deep breath, he continued, choosing his words haltingly. "When wizarding children are young, they do some things similar, but those are while their cores are stabilizing- that is accidental magic." he continued in a rush, noticing Harry's face beginning to fall, "The fact that you can do what you can at will is…extraordinary. Of the greatest wizards ever documented, the only two in the past five centuries who were even rumoured to be adept at wandless magic: Albus Dumbledore, and Voldemort himself, and neither were as proficient at it as you are right now. You are…a perennial talent," he finished, eyes back on the boy.

As the boy's face scrunched up, they fell into silence.

"So, you said that I'll be staying with you for the Summer?" inquired Harry, still not fully accepting that a stranger, no matter that he was a Wizard, had just saved him from his family.

"I will endeavour to have your placement during the summer by the end of your first year, but yes, for the foreseeable future you will be living with me," Snape let out, the smallest of sighs escaping him.

"Rest up today, and we will head into Diagon Alley early tomorrow to gather your supplies and other essentials," instructed Snape, handing the boy his acceptance letter. We have gone over all that is important as of right now; unless you need anything, I have some business to take care of now and will speak to you tomorrow. Good Night…Potter." Snape said, in before he apparated away, leaving one Harry Potter clutching an acceptance letter as if it were a lifeline.

Tomorrow he thought, a smile on his face as he lay on the guest room bed, it all starts tomorrow.

AN:

Welp, so I finished this chap off. Before i go into details, I'd like to thank all the people who've reached out to me offering to Beta for me: It is appreciated, truly. However, the only purpose for me writing this is to try and improve my writing by getting a whole host of people to read through my writing, rough as can be, and offer me advice to fix it. It gives me a way for multiple people to view my writing style and offer critiques/comments, instead of one/two people editing my work and making my writing better for this story.

Onto stuff regarding this chapter now.

I think I cut out close to a thousand words trying to make this readable. Imo it's worse than the first two chapters, but lmk what y'all think.

This is NOT going to be a Harry/Snape fic, or a Seviritus fic by any means, just putting that out there off-rip. It is going to have a mentor! Snape as I've not read any new fics exploring that trope, and I like having a competent Snape who's not a total jerk.

Harry is relatively young and naive, given that he's 11. No stone cold closed off Harry here, but his personality and character will continue to grow, as is natural. To reiterate once again, Snape is by no means going to be a father figure to Harry, just a mentor.

Elements are very rare, and the only reason that Snape even knows the characteristics that could define one is that this Snape likes making spells, is competent, and had a thing for esoteric/arcane magic in his younger days. Very few people, in this universe could identify Harry as a budding elemental even if given a look into his mind. The intrinsic elemental ability protecting his mind from occlumency probes does feel a bit like a cop out tbh, but i cba to deal with writing about Occlumency/Legilimency in depth. That isn't going to be a topic for discussion for a while, if ever. This also does not affect my plan for Harry not being OP by using elemental spells and nothing else, I plan on him being a jack of all trades, and maybe focusing on Elemental stuff in year 2, if I can get there.

World-building will start properly in the next chapter, I think. Yes, I did steal dialogue from Dumbledore and young Riddle, I'm lazy.

After the compulsory shopping chapter, it'll get more interesting, I hope.

Also, this is more likely than not my average chapter length as I just want to churn these out for feedback. Again, going to have subpar flow, grammar, and writing bc this is a project-free write, not an attempt at actual world-building or anything of the sort.

Once again, critiques are very welcome and appreciated, hope you enjoy. See you tomm.