Warnings: Spoiler up to HP5, after is AU. SLASH, Rape, Abuse, a bit on the darker side in beginning. Summary: Snape is ordered to look on Hogwarts' Golden Boy at 4 Privet Drive during summer by Dumbledore. Reluctant, Snape goes to check up on the boy only to be shocked at what he finds. His whole prospective of Potter is changed. Pairing: Eventual Severus Snape/Harry Potter
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Learning to Love
Chapter 2: A Heavy Heart
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"Potter." Severus called silently, slowly inching towards the boy cautiously. Once he got closer to the boy he squatted down next to him. "Potter." He tried to place a hand on Harry's shoulder but the boy whimpered and curled up farther into a ball to get away from the offending hand. "Potter…Harry. Harry, its Professor Snape. I've got to get you to Hogwarts. Harry, can you hear me?" Snape asked using a softer voice than his normally snarky attitude to get the boy's attention without scaring him. The boy started opening his eyes, which was a hard task because both eyes were almost swollen shut and were a dark purple color.
"P…Pro…Professor?" Harry stuttered raising his head slightly to get a better look at the older man.
"Yes Harry." Severus said gazing at the boy in front of him.
"W…What are you doing here?" the boy's voice was so soft that Severus could barely hear him.
"Dumbledore sent me to check up on you. I'm going to get you out of here and take you back to Hogwarts with me." Severus said softly. He took a cloak out of his pocket, enlargening it, and placed it around the boy's body. He looked around the room, finding the boy's trunk in the corner and some schoolbooks lying on the small desk. He stood up and walked over to the boy's trunk and opened it. He grabbed the books off the desk and placed them into the trunk. He looked around the room to see if there was anything else. He spotted an empty cage sitting in the corner.
"Where's your owl?" Severus asked turning to look at Harry.
"She's at the Burrow with Ron. I asked him to look after her." Harry replied, pulling his Professor's cloak tighter to his body, shivering.
"Ok. Is there anything else you want to take with you?" Severus asked shrinking the cage.
"There are some things under the loose floor board under the bed." Harry replied. Severus walked over to the bed and lifted up the loose board. He took out its contents-a piece of parchment- he remembered seeing in Harry's third year-, his wand, a photo album, and –Snape silently snorted-his invisibility cloak. He placed the things in the boy's trunk.
"Anything else?"
"No." Snape close the trunk and shrunk it placing it, along with the shrunken cage into one of his pockets.
"I'm going to pick you up and apparate us to Hogwarts." Severus said turning towards him.
"Ok." Harry said quietly. Severus walked over to him, gently placing a hand on his shoulder. Harry flinched and tried to back away.
"It's ok Harry. I won’t hurt you." Severus said reassuringly. Harry let out a sigh and nodded his head quietly saying it was ok. Snape placed an arm under Harry's shoulders and the other arm behind his knees. Severus gently lifted the boy up and brought him closer to his chest. Harry shivered as his body came into contact with his professor's.
When Snape brought his closer to his chest he grabbed a fist full of the Professor's black shirt to reassure himself that Snape was really there and not to make fun of him or make snide remarks about him and his father, but to help him. To save him from this hellhole.
'Is this what Snape is really like? Kind and caring. Is this soft-spoken man the real Snape and the cold-hearted bastard that's the greasy git of a Potions Professor at Hogwarts a cover, a shell of what he really is? He's always trying to protect me, I just never realize it.' Harry thought, thinking back to all the times Snape saved him.
'I could never get past the cruelty that he has shown me since day one. He's really the only person who didn't treat me like the-boy-who-lived, but as a real person. He's the only one who doesn't treat me like the bloody savior of the world. He's the only one who doesn't kiss the ground I walk on…well at least anyone on the side of good. Man…I never thought I would see Snape wearing Muggle clothing…he actually looks good in Muggle clothes.' Harry thought, thinking back to when he got a good look at Snape in his tight black jeans and long black-sleeved shirt that hugged his upper body while the older man was packing his trunk. 'Er…what am I thinking. Where in the hell did that thought some from. Can't think right now. I don't have enough energy.' Harry looked up at Hogwart's most feared Professor, who was looking down at him with concern in his onyx eyes.
"Thank you." Harry said quietly with a small smile on his face before he passed out.
Severus looked down at the small beaten and bloody body in his arms. His eyes widened when the boy looked up at him with understanding, sorrow filled eyes. Severus was shocked when he heard the boy's quiet "thank you" and was even more shocked when Potter smiled at him.
Severus panicked a bit when he saw the boy pass out. The arm supporting the boy's back grabbed Potter's wrist and checked for a pulse. He let out a sigh of relief when he found it.
'Thank Merlin he still has a pulse…a weak one, but still a pulse. I don't know what Dumbledore would do if I brought Potter back dead.' He mentally snorted at the thought but then realized that he was getting off track. 'I have to bring him back to Hogwarts and fast.' He quickly exited the dreary room covered in blood and made his way back to the stairs. He hurried down the stairs as fast as he could without tripping. Once he reached the bottom he stared at Vernon and Petunia Dursley, as they stood off to the side with wide eyes and pale skin, with hatred.
"I'm not finished with you yet Dursley's. I'll be back to take care of you later." Severus threatened, sneering at them before turning towards the front door and walking swiftly out of the house. As he walked down the sidewalk he tightened his grip on the boy and made sure that the cloak was tightly secure around Potter's body, so that the summer's cool night air didn't chill him.
As he hurried to a place where he could apparate, about two blocks away, his mind kept going to the sight he saw when he entered the boy's room. Harry Potter, the-boy-who-lived, the world's bloody savior, lying broken and used inside the house of his own relatives. The same relatives the boy goes to every summer vacation for protection, because of his mother's love that saved him and the threat of Voldemort trying to kill him. As soon as Severus got far enough to apparate he closed his eyes and pulled Harry closer to his chest. When he opened his eyes he saw the gates of Hogwarts in front of him. He walked as fast as he could to the school. When Severus reached the main doors he threw them open and jogged towards the infirmary.
"Pomfrey!" The Potions Professor yelled when he entered the infirmary.
"What is it Severus?" asked the nurse walking over to the younger man. "Oh my!" she exclaimed when she saw the teen in Severus's arms. She gasped when she saw the lightning bolt scar on his fore head. "Is that Potter? What happen to him?"
"Yes it's Potter." Severus confirmed, laying Harry on one of the beds. "He was beaten by his uncle and I'm fairly sure he was also raped."
"Raped!? Oh dear the poor boy." Poppy said looking at Severus with wide eyes.
"You take care of the boy. I must go speak to Dumbledore and tell him what has happened." Severus said before rushing out the infirmary's doors and waking towards the Headmaster's office. He sneered at the statue that guarded the Headmaster's office.
"Snickers." Severus spat, watching the statue move to reveal stairs. When Severus got up to the top, he knocked on the wooden door, prying it open before Albus had the chance to invite him in. He stalked over to Albus's desk stopping in front of it; ignoring Dumbledore's gesture to sit down.
"How's Harry? Were the Dursley's treating him alright?" Dumbledore asked growing nervous. It was only three weeks into summer vacation and he had gotten a discouraging sense that there was something wrong with the boy was heightened when he received owls from Harry's best friends Ron Weasley and Hermione Granger and also from Remus Lupin, saying that Harry hadn't written the every three day letter to the Order and that all the letters that he had written sounded off. When he finished reading the letters he had Severus go check on the boy. When Severus returned from his "mission" with a frown and gall expression on his face Albus's uneasiness grew. He waited patiently, yet still sitting on the edge of his seat, for Severus to answer.
"Potter is in the infirmary." The younger man finally said.
"What happened? Is he injured?" Albus asked, slightly panicking.
"Come and see for yourself." Severus said turning towards the door. Albus nodded, stood up and followed the Potions Professor to the infirmary, fidgeting slightly, hoping that the boy wasn't badly injured.
Albus's hopes were quickly dashed when he walked into the infirmary behind Severus and saw Harry laying on one of the beds. His body was littered with bruises and cuts. Dumbledore looked at Pomfrey who was washing the blood from the wounds off the boy's battered body with a wet washcloth, then turned his gaze to Severus who was standing silently beside him. Pomfrey looked up at Albus then turned to Severus with tears running down her face.
"You were right Severus." Poppy said tearfully.
"What's happened to him?" Albus asked tears filling his blue eyes.
"He was beaten and malnourished. He has five broken ribs, his left ankle is sprained, his right leg is broken, and his right wrist is broken and will take a little longer to heal because of slight nerve damaged. His left arm is shattered-- probably from a blunt, heavy object. Several stabs wounds and cuts scattered over his body. There is the word FREAK carved onto his back." She looked at Dumbledore who met her gaze. "He was raped repeatedly by his own relatives." She broke down sobbing. Albus's usually bright, twinkling blue eyes became dull and the tears that had started to build up ran unchecked down his face. He sat down in a chair next to the bed and grabbed Harry's hand in one of his hands and brushed back the boy's bangs with his other.
"I shouldn't have made him go back. He said he didn't want to go back there. All those years ago, before we dropped Harry off at the Dursley's, Minerva warned me that they were the worst kind of Muggles, but I didn't listen, because they were his last living relatives. When I left Harry there I knew he would be safe from Voldemort and his followers because of Lily's blood sacrifice for her son, but I never thought he wouldn't be safe from his own family.
"This young man has been through so much; more than most ever see though their entire life, more than anyone would wish for their worst enemies." Dumbledore stood up, tears still flowing down his face. "I promise you Harry, that I will make this all up to you one day. I am so sorry, my boy." Albus brushed back Harry's hair again, revealing the lightning bolt scar that played a huge impact in Harry's life, and then turned around walking towards the infirmary doors. He turned around looking back at the boy then walked out the door with his head down and a heavy heart.
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