Snape was tired of that Potter brat getting away with everything, entering a dangerous tournament, what was he thinking? And now his potion supplies were now dwindling in size, and Snape knew Potter and his friends stole from his store before, despite their foresight to keep quiet.
Well, enough is enough! Snape grabbed some veritaserum, and placed it in his pocket. It was time for Potter to start telling the truth, and the very potion he had would force that brat to speak the truth and only the truth. Now, all Snape had to do was bribe a house elf, that's the hard part.
Snape went to the kitchens hours after curfew was declared. He had to be careful. Hufflepuffs were known to raid the kitchen at night. They seemed to never not be hungry, Snape was always jealous of the easy access to food the Hufflepuffs had. No waiting for breakfast, if you want a midnight snack. Sure, Slytherins were close and their secret passages, but they had a tad longer walk, which equaled more risk of getting caught.
Finally Snape was in the kitchen. A house elf saw him. "What does Mr. Snape want-" "I wish for you to pour this-'' Snape handed the house elf the potion that would expose Potter's lies to the elf. "Master Dumbies not allow potion in food." "I'll allow you to be my personal assistant this summer if you do this and say nothing." The elf nodded. "Assist Mr. Snape. Can't deny!" Snape smirked, "Make sure it is only in Potter's food. No one else's." Snape left with a job well done.
The next morning, Snape kept an eye on Potter, who was eating his breakfast. Now, people would know he wasn't innocent. Potter's face blushed just as Hermonie screamed, "What! You slept where!?" Potter was running up the stairs faster than Snape knew anyone could. Oh no, he doesn't!
Snape knew enough of the secret passages to block the fat lady's entrance to the common room, too bad Potter was too arrogant to look where he was going, as he ran straight into Snape. "Potter! What's wrong with you?" "I'm a freak." Potter placed his hand over his mouth, which let Snape hear a mumbled, "The school knows?" "About what?" Potter must have admitted going to the tournament on purpose, now that he didn't have a choice. "The cupboard." Snape wasn't a fan of listening through mumbles, but he was intruiged and had a duty as a teacher to keep all his students safe, even brats like Potter. "What about the cupboard?" ""It was my bedroom until the Hogwarts letter came. And it was used for punishments." Harry speedily replied, before Snape grabbed his arm and marched him to the staff table where Dumbledore was. "Albus, we have a problem." "Let's go upstairs."
Snape, Dumbledore, and Potter were sitting in Dumbledore's office. "What seems to be the problem Severus?" "Potter was in a cupboard until his Hogwarts letter. Is there anything else Potter?" "I was beaten and starved for doing strange things. I owned nothing, even my clothes were Dudley's old ones. My glasses were broken by him repeatedly , so I used tape to tape them together. And I can't stop telling the truth." Snape figured it was a good time to ask, "Since you are being truthful, did you enter your name in the tournament." "No. Not that you'd believe me anyway." "Steal potion supplies?" "In seconed year." Harry clapped his hand over his mouth. "Severus." Dumbledore warned. "This is not the time ask many questions."
Dumbledore looked at Harry over his moon spectacles, "Now, Harry, you say you can't stop telling the truth. When did this start?" "This morning." Harry glared at Snape. "Now, Harry, let's give Severus the benefit of the doubt, "Do you know of anything that triggered this?" "No, sir." Harry shook his head in annoyance. "Severus, can you make an antidote? Some things have came to light that I should take care of."
Severus left the room and Dumbledore sighed, "Harry, Severus is an honest man, he would never harm his students." "He poisoned Neville's toad." Normally, Dumbledore would normally pass that off as an exaggeration, but Harry was under a truth potion. He needed to have a long talk with his potion's professor.
After Snape came back with the antidote, Dumbledore watched his student take it, before dismissing him. "Severus, please stay." Snape stayed seated. As soon as Harry closed the door, Dumbledore casted a silencing charm, knowing his students' tendency to eavesdrop, especially Harry Potter. This conversation was not for young ears.
"Severus, Potter informs me you tried to poison a toad." "I just wanted Longbottom to do the potion correctly, so I said I'd feed the potion he made to his toad." Ugly and annoying thing at that. He wished it was poisoned, it would've been better that way. "So a student who lost his parents to insanity, you decide to take one of the last things remaining. Tell me Severus, why do you like torturing orphans?" "I do not target orphans!" "Longbottom and Harry both have no parents, that is the only thing they have in common."
Dumbledore stood up, "I overlooked so much with Potter, but with Longbottom, you have no excuse. He doesn't look like your bully. He is not the child of the prophecy. You will not torture my students. You are now under probation. This entails a year with every single house point given or taken away checked for fairness, unable to give detentions, students will have to report me instead, and I'll determine if they have detention or not. Every single one this year. Some may even be taken away from record. Normally your actions are a fireable offense, and if you weren't my spy you would certainly be fired. Now get out before I change my mind!" Dumbledore had a lot to do, he has never been this angry, Potter was abused and Snape was corrupt with power, what was he going to do with this mess?
Dumbledore did find a solution to the Potter situation, seeing as Snape owed him one for keeping him employed. When Snape walked up to Potter, he was near seething with rage, how dare the Potter brat cause this, and he couldn't believe Albus was making him do this. "Potter." Snape said through nearly gritted teeth. "Sir?" "Albus has informed me that due to your living situation, you need protection. I have been assigned as your bodyguard for the summer." "No! You'll make everything worse!" Harry yelled. Snape expected this so kept his calm and stated word for word what Dumbledore told him to say if and when Potter objected to his offer, "I will not be allowed to interfere unless you are in danger. I will be mostly as a prop to keep your aunt and uncle in line." "Whatever." Harry walked away angry at the situation, possibly not as angry as Snape was. A summer with Petunia, that sounded like a miserable time, especially when she can't be cursed!