Between Dusk and Dawn

Disclaimer: I do not own any of the characters herein. They belong to JK Rowling and everyone she's given them rights to (which does not include me!). No copyright infringement is intended in the writing of this fiction.

A/N: I would like to take the time and add a couple of more warnings including: mental and physical torture, rape (both graphic and not graphic), and probably a few more things I can't think of at the moment. I will add additional warning as I come to them. I'd also like to add that the updates on this will probably be pretty slow, but it will be a dark fic with lots of bad, bad things going on. Ok, now I'll shut my arse up and let you readers get to the good stuff...


~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Harry Potter stood at the threshold of his large manor house. He’d done the unthinkable. He’d saved Severus Snape from a fate worse than death, the Dementors. It had been almost a year since the fall of the Dark Lord and Harry had worked tirelessly for unknown reasons to save Snape from his fate.

After killing Dumbledore in Harry’s sixth year, Severus went into hiding. He stayed in contact with only Minerva McGonagall, relaying information to the Order in that way. The wizarding world saw him as a Death Eater, and no one was willing to believe that he had spent the whole of his adult life trying to defeat Voldemort. Harry saved the day.

It was the day that Snape was to have his soul sucked out, and many witches and wizards had been vying to get to watch it. He was, after all, the murderer of the greatest wizard in their life times. Harry Potter strode confidently in and took a seat, not saying a word to anyone. His eyes locked with Snape’s, and the pale wizard knew that the young man was going to do something ‘Gryffindor-ish’. When the dementors swooped in, Harry, without lifting his wand or uttering a word, conjured a patronus that shocked everyone. Instead of his usual stag, he conjured a cobra, and it repelled the evil creatures long enough for him to escape with his former teacher.

And so they stood on the steps of his manor with Snape vehemently protesting his rescue, well, as much as he could, considering he’d been in Azkaban since the Dark Lord fell. He had only wanted to die, and Harry wouldn’t even let him do that, no, the brat ‘saved’ him. “Come on, Snape,” Harry said tiredly. “I want to get you inside and healed as much as possible.”

“Really, Potter,” Severus rasped, his vocal cords strained from months of screaming, “have I not done my time and paid my penance? Why could you not let me just die?”

A haunted look crossed Harry’s features. “You saved me too many times, Sir, for me to just let you die. Justice would not have been done. I have brought you here to heal and then we will decide how to redeem your name. Regardless of what you have done, you are a hero.”

They stepped into the large home. Severus expected it to be furnished opulently, much like Malfoy Manor, but to his surprise, it was not. The foyer was simply wood paneled in what appeared to be oak. The sitting room that Harry led him to had plush, deep green carpet covering the floor with an overstuffed couch and chair of the same color. The walls were a sage green and trimmed in the same oaken colored wood in the foyer. It almost felt homey to Severus, except that he never really knew that feeling from a place other than Hogwarts.

Harry sat him on the couch and removed his boots. Severus was paler than usual and severely emaciated. “I’m going to bring you something to eat, Sir. You need to gain some weight back.”

Severus sighed. He abhorred being taken care of, but he just did not have the strength to protest any more. He leaned back against the plushy, black throw pillow and stretched his long legs down the couch. He dozed lightly as Harry puttered around the kitchen fixing a tray of sandwiches and lemonade.

When he returned to the sitting room, Severus was asleep. His head was turned slightly to the left, his mouth hung open a bit, and he was snoring slightly. Harry smiled at the sight. The man looked so much less intimidating while he slept. He set the tray down and summoned a fleece blanket from the closet. Harry unfolded the soft coverlet and gently draped it over the long form on his couch. He cast a monitoring charm on Snape and carried the lunch tray back into the kitchen.

He took his sandwich and glass out onto the large wrap around porch at the back and sat on the swing, contemplating. Saving Snape was both a blessing and a curse. On the one hand, he’d saved a man’s life, a good man’s life. On the other, he’d inflicted said man with his presence, and Harry hated doing that to anyone since the war. It was just too dangerous.

Harry let his mind wander as he ate. He so rarely did that any more. He thought back to his friends and the Weasley family. They were all gone. The war took them all away from him, and he had no reason to really even stay in the wizarding world, though he did. No one questioned his motivation for buying this old manor and making it unplottable. He needed time for just Harry; well, not just Harry, but it may have well been only him.

He was roused from his morose thoughts when the monitoring charm severed. He sighed. Harry found Snape sitting on the couch looking around, obviously confused. The dark haired wizard looked toward Harry and grimaced. “I am in Hades, then,” he said to himself.

“No,” Harry replied with a chuckle, “you’re in an unplottable manor outside of Glasgow. I think Hades would probably be a lot hotter and not nearly as comfortable. Hungry?”

Harry didn’t wait for his reply before summoning the sandwich and another glass of lemonade. He set them on the coffee table in front of the other man and settled into the overstuffed chair. Snape eyed them suspiciously. Harry snorted. “I’m not trying to drug you or kill you Snape. I didn’t even put a nutrient draught in the lemonade, even though I thought about it.”

Severus sighed. He was hungry, and the roast beef sandwich did look very tempting. He cautiously took a small bite and groaned appreciatively before forgetting his manners and attacking the sandwich with his whole being. Harry stepped back into the kitchen and fixed another sandwich for the thin man. Severus had not touched his lemonade when Harry returned, but he’d almost finished off the sandwich. He sat the sandwich down and smiled at his former teacher. “Would you like something other than lemonade to drink, Sir? I’ve got pumpkin juice, too, and water.”

Severus picked up the second sandwich and without looking at Harry said, “Juice.”

Harry simply shook his head and smiled. He remembered how Sirius was about food after escaping Azkaban, and he wasn’t going to deprive Severus of it. The man could eat until he vomited and then eat some more if he wanted.

Bringing back a large glass of pumpkin juice and two slices of chocolate cake, well, one small slice and one large slab, Harry waited patiently on his former professor to finish his meal. There were a few things that he needed to know about life with Harry and it was best that they not wait.

It wasn’t long before Snape was eying the slab of cake. Harry smiled and picked up his smaller piece. “Eat all you want, Sir, but we have some things to discuss before this evening.”

Severus raised an eyebrow and took a small bite of cake. It was every bit as good as the sandwich had been. “Well, Potter,” he said after he swallowed, “I’m not impeding your little speech. Say what you will.”

He began eating his slab of cake again, waiting on Harry to begin. “As you have probably figured out, this has been my home since the war ended. I live here alone with no house elves or servants of any kind. You have the run of the grounds and of the manor as you gain your strength back. Your rooms are here, on the ground floor because I do not want you trying to walk up and down the stairs in your weakened state, My rooms are upstairs. I only have two rules: one, do not go past the wards because I will not be able to protect you and two, between dusk and dawn you must, and I can not stress this enough, you must stay in your assigned rooms under the strongest locking charm that you know.”

Snape was finishing his cake as Harry spoke. He was glad to hear that he was not being held prisoner, but found the second of the two rules to be rather…odd. He went to questions Harry but the younger man held his hand up. “Those are the rules, and no, I can not tell you why you must stay in your rooms other than there are very dangerous things that sometimes lurk in the area at night.”


TBC