Scarred Souls

*****************************************************

Title: Scarred Souls

Author: Misty Moonlight/Co-author: QueenBoadicea

Pairings: Severus/Harry

Published: 12/10/2008

Summary: A widowed Harry must bond with Snape in order to save his daughter’s life. Sev gains a family, for better or worse, and the hearts of two scarred souls will be changed forever.

Warnings: Romance, Drama, Angst, Alternate Universe, Sexual Situations, Hurt/Comfort, M/M, Slash, Anal, Language, Humor, possible MPreg, Bonding, Original Characters, Family, OOC-ness,
non-canon, WIP

********************************************************************

Author’s Note: A very special thank you to the following reviewers of my new Snarry story; poohbear74 (glad to see your still hanging in there with me), kc, Canadian Ginger, Bones (I sent you a story alert email and hope you got it) and Hambares. I am so glad you all are enjoying it and appreciate your support.

********************************************************************

Chapter 2: Brooding


‘One Year Later’


“James! Al! Hurry up or we’re going to be late for the party.” Harry yelled up the stairs to his fraternal 6-year-old twin sons, both turning 7 in just six months, whom he could hear running around and frolicking in the bedroom they had shared together since birth.

“We’ll be right down, Dad!” James yelled back down.

“Ya, Dad, in a sec, we’re sort of in the middle of something,” Al added and then Harry heard him squeak in pain and knew that James must have kicked him in the shin to shut him up and not let the cat out of the bag as to what they were up too.

“Just make it quick, guys, and I had better not find another mess in your room or you’ll be grounded for a month,” Harry answered.

He could hear them whispering loudly and smirked when he heard more loud bangs and thumps coming from upstairs indicating that they were desperately trying to straighten up whatever trouble they had managed to get themselves into yet again. Harry was still not sure if he should consider himself lucky or not that his twins seemed to have inherited the same characteristics for troublemaking as their famous red-haired uncles but loved them even more because of it.

Harry smiled as remembered the antics of his best mate’s twin brothers, Fred and George, and how Molly used to yell at them when they were younger. Sadly, Fred had been killed at the end of the war but George had managed to go on with his life and had married Alicia Spinnet. He still owned and ran Weasleys’ Wizard Wheezes joke shop in Diagon Alley along with his wife and young son.

Alicia was pregnant and recently found out she was carrying twin boys which made George and the whole Weasley family extremely happy. Ron and Hermione already had a son the same age as his twins and she was also pregnant. They didn’t know the gender of the baby yet but both were hoping for a baby girl. Harry’s eyes watered as he thought of his Ginny who had passed away at childbirth just a little over a year ago.

“Dada?” Lily’s soft musical little voice called to Harry and he walked over to the playpen that was sitting in the middle of the room.

Smiling down at his youngest child, Harry answered, “Dada’s right here, sweetheart.”

Lily had managed to pull herself up by grabbing onto the side of the playpen and was holding her small arms up to Harry so he could lift her out of it. She had beautiful curly auburn hair which, though still short, covered her tiny head in little ringlets and large brown eyes just like Ginny’s and had also inherited the Weasley family freckles. She had started trying to talk at around 8 months old. The twins liked to call it baby babbling, but it was the word Dada that sounded like music to Harry’s ears. A few months ago, Hermione had told him that she had never seen such an intelligent child as Lily, which caused Harry to beam with pride. He fondly remembered his Godfather Sirius Black saying almost a similar thing to Mione in third year.

Harry had given Lily a bath, washed her hair, then dressed her in an adorable little dress that had animated images of Winnie the Pooh characters she loved so much dancing around on it as if they were alive. He had decorated her hair with numerous different colored little bows and with her short hair they fitted the picture perfectly.

“How’s my little princess?” Harry asked giving her a kiss on the tip of her nose.

She muttered something unintelligible and giggled back, giving him a smile that showed off the few little baby teeth in her mouth while trying to take his glasses off. Harry thought she looked a little flushed and felt her forehead but she didn’t seem to have a fever. Thinking that it might be a little too hot in the room, Harry murmured a spell to change the temperature slightly. He would contact her pediatrician first thing in the morning just in case she was coming down with a cold.

Harry and Ginny had built a cute little two-story cottage together on the border of Hogsmeade. It was complete with a white picket fence, a wraparound porch on which they had put a comfortable magical swinging chair that adjusted its size for the number of occupants sitting in it, a beautiful flower garden, and a huge yard for their children to play in. All the surviving Hogwarts students of the war had decided that it would be a nice idea to bring their children up together in the same neighborhood so similar homes were lining both sides of the road which was suitably called ‘Gryffindor Lane’. There was even a ‘Hufflepuff Lane’, ‘Ravenclaw Lane’ and ‘Slytherin Lane’ that all intersected off each other each with their own tree-lined dirt or graveled roads.

Harry and Ron thought it hilarious that ‘Slytherin Lane’ housed all different-sized mansions, each trying to outdo the other, instead of small cozy cottages like their other old school mates had done. How some things didn’t change.

Harry grimaced upon thinking of Draco Malfoy and his family living there. They still had not become friends but had learned how to tolerate each other’s presence when they came in contact with one another. Thank Merlin that wasn’t too often, Harry sighed. Draco Malfoy’s two sons were just as obnoxious as he and his parents were. Harry turned his head when he heard footsteps trampling down the stairs and two little tornados flew into the room.

“James Sirius Potter and Albus Remus Potter!” Harry admonished waving a finger at his two out of breath sons. “How many times do I have to tell you.... NO RUNNING DOWN THE STAIRS! Think of the bad example you are setting for your baby sister.”

James grinned impishly up at his father and said, “Geez, Dad, cool off, you’re beginning to sound just like Grandma Weasley more and more every day.”

“Ya, Dad, you had better be careful or someone might mistake you for our mummy instead of our daddy.” Al added with a devilishly grin.

“Ha, ha, ha guys,” Harry shot back. “Think you’re so funny, do you?”

He stood there holding Lily in his arms and trying to give his sons a stern look but knew he was failing miserably and couldn’t keep his lips from twitching into a smile. Even though they were twins, both boys had their own unique differences. Of the two, Albus looked more like Harry with his bright green eyes, thin face and small stature, while James was more of a mix between his two parents. They each had Harry’s messy black hair but James eyes were hazel with green flecks in them and he was much taller and larger in size. Thankfully, none of his children had bad eyesight and therefore didn’t have to wear glasses. Harry was leaning towards getting his eyes magically corrected but since Ginny had always told him she had fallen in love with him and his rounded glasses he kept putting it off.

“Hey, dad, you had better stop reminiscing so much or we’re really going to be late for Granddad and Grandma Weasley’s surprise anniversary party,” James cautioned.

“We’ll get back to this little discussion later, boys, when we get home,” Harry promised before rushing all of them off to the Burrow and being sure to bring Lily’s changing bag along with a few of her favorite toys and doll.

********************************************************************

‘The Burrow’

All the guests had just left after saying their goodbyes and now only Harry and his family remained with the Weasleys’. The adults were all sitting around the extended table in the kitchen having tea and quietly chatting while the children were playing in the other room. Lily was allowed to be with them but only after Harry had warned his sons to keep a very close eye on her. It was about an hour later when Al came running into the kitchen yelling out in a frantic voice.

“DAD! DAD! HURRY! COME QUICK! SOMETHING IS WRONG WITH LILY!”

Harry jumped up so fast he knocked his tea and chair over while running into the other room with the rest of the Weasleys close behind him.

“Lily?” Harry cried, running over to his baby. She was on the floor and being held in the arms of her big brother James who had a frightened look on his face.

Harry knelt down and pulled Lily into his own arms, thankful to see her still breathing while asking, “James? What happened?”

“I don’t know, dad. She was just fine and having fun playing with us when all of a sudden she just collapsed,” James cried with tears in his eyes.

“Harry, we have to get Lily to St. Mungo’s right now!” Hermione whispered while putting her hand on his shoulder and gripping it.

Molly was checking Lily over herself and agreed with Hermione. It was decided that only Hermione and Molly would accompany Harry while everyone else stayed at the Burrow to await news about Lily’s condition.

“We’ll fire call you as soon as we have any news,” Hermione told Ron, giving him a quick kiss.

“Don’t worry, Harry,” Ron said to his friend who was now standing holding Lily and had tears flowing down his cheeks. “Lily is a fighter just like her mother was and will make it through whatever this is.”

They all watched with worried expressions as Harry with Lily wrapped securely in his arms stepped into the fireplace and disappeared with a flash quickly followed by Molly and then Hermione.

********************************************************************

‘Spinners End’

Down in his dark and dank dungeon like basement, the tall, thin,shadowy figure of Severus Tobias Snape was busy working in his lab making various potions for the Healers at St. Mungo’s as well as some much needed ones for his former Hogwarts coworker, Madam Pomfrey, an extremely gifted magical Healer. She still worked at Hogwarts and by now had become famous for being one of its long-time standing matrons of the hospital wing.

He stopped for a moment to rest then stretched his long and lanky tired sore limbs, trying to regain some of the feeling back in them. His shoulder-length black silky hair was greasy due to all the chemicals and dampness in the lab. When he bent his head to ease the tension on his neck, it fell forward covering his face. While he rested, Severus placed the palms of his scarred hands on the wooden table and thought back to his years both as a student and professor at Hogwarts.

He had never forgotten the humiliation he had suffered as a student at the hands of his nemesis James Potter and his faithful sidekicks. When Severus had become a professor and Potions Master, he had been constantly ridiculed by his students for his appearance. His black eyes darkened in anger as he thought about how they all used to whisper about him and laugh behind his back.

Well, I got back at them all, didn’t I? Severus thought. Oh, yes, I showed them who was boss both in the classroom and corridors. He smiled an evil grimace at the thought of how many students he had bullied during his long career including that little brat Harry James Potter, the hated spawn of his enemy, and his own silly little sidekicks Ronald Weasley and Hermione Granger.

Tossing his head backward, his hair fell aside exposing his horribly scarred face and neck, compliments of Voldemort’s pet snake Nagini.

Suddenly, his whole body shook as if he were having a seizure and he fell to the stone floor on his knees. The pain was unbearable and he nearly bit his tongue off to keep from screaming. It lasted a few seconds but was much worse than the Cruciatus Curse of which he had been subject to numerous times as a his role as a Death Eater spy for the light. Damning his own stupidity, he cursed to himself for having been so busy that he forgot to take his anti-seizure and pain potions. Pulling himself back up on his still shaking legs by holding on to the table, he stumbled over to the cabinets in search of them. Finding the two bottles, he quickly swallowed the contents one at a time and then slumped back down to the floor to wait for the potions effect to work on his body.

After a few moments, his eyes closed and he fell into a deep and restless sleep. Severus woke screaming after suffering yet another horrific nightmare in which he was summoned by Voldemort to meet him at the Shrieking Shack. It was as if he were living the pain of it over and over again. He found himself walking into the room where Nagini was held in a suspended protective magical cage. The Dark Lord had tried to kill Severus by expanding it and placing it over and on top of him, allowing no escape.

Each time he dreamt, he kept seeing the emerald green orbs of the blasted boy who lived staring right back at him, reminding Severus of the love he had for the boy’s mother, Lily. He had given Potter his memories and then the stupid little brat and Granger girl left him lying on the floor thinking he had died. Thankfully, after Voldemort had been killed, a special team of Aurors had the common sense to check out the Shack and found him alive—barely—and got him to St. Mungo’s just in time. Although now he actually wished he had just died that day, instead of being forced to live with disfiguring scars, unbearable pain and tormenting nightmares for the rest of his life.

Potter and his friends never even had the decency to find out what had happened to his body. If they had, the idiots would have found out that he had survived. As it was, they enjoyed the publicity and attention they received, the celebrations, and then they went on with their merry little lives and to hell about Severus Snape. Oh, wouldn’t they be surprised knowing that their hated Professor still lived and was hoping for the chance to have his revenge against them for their cold-hearted callousness. Especially, Harry James Potter, oh yes, how Severus would enjoy seeing his face upon hearing the news that his father’s hated classmate was still very much alive!

He was startled out of his reveries by an urgent fire-call message from a Healer in the Pediatric Ward at St. Mungo’s. Apparently, a very young child had just been rushed into the emergency ward with life-threatening symptoms for whom Severus’s expertise in potions was urgently required. Sighing, he thought it rather ironic that here he was helping save the lives of children when he had lived to torment them while teaching at Hogwarts.

Leaving his lab, he hurried upstairs to wash and clean himself up before leaving for St. Mungo’s to assist the Healer and the unknown child, while at the same time being sure he placed a strong glamour on himself so his scars wouldn’t show. Merlin forbid should he forget and then happen to frighten a sick patient with his hideous looks. If that happened, Severus was sure the Daily Prophet would have a field day at his expense and his quiet mundane life would be exposed to the whole Wizarding community.


TBC


Stay tuned for next chapter in which Harry finds out Severus is very much alive and he also finds out what is wrong with little Lily. Just in case anyone was wondering about Draco, he will be making a future appearance in story.