Caregivers

Belongs to Harry Potter fandom. No money is made.

A/N This story is not going as I intended. I wanted a disturbing story with a lot of BMSD and I find that I can't do the subject justice. So after this chapter the story will be changing a bit. Severus will still be Harry's slave and angry at the world but I think it's time for the two to start beng nicer to each other. At least a little.

Caregivers Chapter 3

Poppy and Severus sat in companionable silence after their good meal and a fine wine. Severus leaned back and rubbed his non-existant stomach while Poppy just smiled at him affectionately.

“I gave Harry the riot act earlier this evening…now it’s your turn young man,” Poppy declared.

“I am neither a young man nor do I wish to be lectured,” Severus told her.

“In all the years we’ve known each other, have I ever cared about your wishes when it comes to your health and well being? How many evenings have you tried to send me away after a night of you being the ‘entertainment’ for the likes of Voldemort?” Poppy asked.

“Too many, you stubborn old cow. You would never listen to anything I had to say,” Severus grumbled affectionately.

“Oh, I listened; I just didn’t pay any attention,” her tone with Severus softened. “You were hurt so badly…someone had to look after you.”

“I never said it, Poppy, but I did…I do appreciate everything you’ve done for me.”


“Now…what are you thinking young man? Deciding to get revenge on everyone who has done you wrong. Really, the new Dark Lord.”

Severus snickered. “Is that what there calling me? It would serve them right if I poison their water supplies. I know, I’ll be the new Piped Piper and lure their children with my magical flute to a werewolf's den during the full moon. Even better, I’ll make them all mindless creatures, nothing more than wild animals running the streets of Diagon Alley on all fours.”

“Severus Tobias Snape, stop that this instance! No wonder they're worried about you. Talking like that, one would think you’re mad,” she said, wagging her her finger in Severus’s face as she bawled him out. “You can’t fool me. I know better. You’re as sane as I am. I may blame Harry and Healer Thornton for the predicament you're in now, but you must take some of the blame. You have antagonized and threatened people all of your life…”

“No one ever paid attention to me before,” Severus sulked.

“I hope you’re happy because they are listening to you now,” she pointed out. “The sooner you stop acting the fool, the sooner you can get back to the task of living your life.”

“They will never let me go. They have declared me a menace to society. I’ll be enslaved for the rest of my life, no matter what Potter’s have stated.”

Poppy perked up. This was information she was not aware of. “Harry has said you would be freed?” Poppy questioned.

“I’ll always be his slave but he would let me live my life as I saw fit once he and the other quack declared me sane. I, of course, don’t believe them. another falsehood to keep me in line.”

Poppy leaned forward and looked Severus in the eye. "I know that everyone has lied to you and mistreated you, but you're never going to get anywhere acting this way. If you can't trust Harry," Severus interrupted her with a cough, "at least pretend to do so. Harry's a good soul, so if he said that you would be free to live your life, you should believe him.

“I refuse to believe anything they say!,” Severus’s voice rose as his temper did. “I believed Albus and look where it got me—years in Azkaban and bonded to a wizard with more power than brains! They put me there, so I have every right to be mad. They made me suffer, and I want them to suffer as well. I will not accept this!
“I know what I am about to say will fall on deaf ears, but try to not to antagonize everyone. Play nice, Severus. I want you to be able to take you to my villa in the south of France next spring.”

“A villa? You?”

“Does that surprise you?” Poppy smiled.

“Why frankly, yes! I’ve known you for over half my life and I only am finding out now that you have a life outside of Hogwarts? What other deep secrets have you been keeping from me,” Severus teased.

“You tell me some of your dark secrets, and I’ll tell you mine,” she informed Severus.

“You would never feel the same about me if I told you,” Severus turned his head away.

“Nor you, me,” Poppy said soberly.

Severus looked back at Poppy; his head tilted slightly as if was questioning her statement.

“You're not the only one that has secrets that should not be shared with anyone but the closest of friends. When you feel like sharing, let me know.”


The rest of the evening was spent doing a complete physical on the Potion Master. It was much like the old days, with Severus grumbling and bitching while Poppy took care of him. She reported her findings to Harry.

Besides gaining a few pounds, Poppy wanted Severus to start a light exercise program. Nothing to strenuous to start, as his muscles were weak from his time in Azkaban, but enough to work his atrophied muscles. Besides that, he was in fair condition for being abused years by Voldemort and his imprisonment. It would take a few months, but he would slowly recover…if Harry didn’t abuse Severus too much.

With the roll of his eyes, Harry escorted Poppy to the floo and gave her a kiss on the cheek with his farewells.
Severus was fast asleep when Harry walked down the hall to his room. Merlin’s book was gone, and Severus was curled into a tight ball. He had somehow kicked off both blankets during his sleep.

Harry tiptoed into the cell and placed both blankets over the shivering man. Severus grabbed the edge and pulled it under his chin.

Harry brushed a few stands of hair from the side of Severus’s face and whispered a quiet goodnight. As he was about to exit the jail cell he was dismayed to hear Severus’s soft reply. “Good night Harry” Giving a sigh of relief, Harry hoped that perhaps Severus would choose to call him by his given name instead of Master. He did not like being called it anymore than Severus liked calling him it. With a small, satisfying smile Harry left the room.

SSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS

Severus was brooding… again. A situation he was becoming far too familiar with, with each passing day. It was three o’clock on Friday afternoon when he felt the recognizable pull from his back that told him he was being portkeyed to another location. He found himself at Healer Thornton’s office for their first weekly group session.

Finding Draco and Lucius there made his heart skip a beat. They had become very close to one another in the last four years while they tried to keep each other alive. Well, at least Lucius and Severus did. Draco just sat there in a world of his own. Something happened in the final battle that he would never speak about. With each passing day he spoke less and less until he was not speaking to anyone at all. No matter what Lucius and he did, they couldn’t bring Draco out of the deep depression that he was in until he became incapable of even feeding himself.

Draco sat between the Weasley twins. He snorted and wondered which idiot, Harry or Thornton, decided to put a catatonic patient with two obviously unstable, irresponsible youths as Fred and George.

“Severus,” he heard the smooth tones of his life long friend voice bid him hello.

He turned and saw his old friend sitting between Molly and Arthur Weasley. There was Lucius, someone who grew up with only the finest clothing and was always impeccably dressed, reduced to wearing a Weasley hand-me-downs. A chartreuse sweater that had seen better days, too short pants, and shoes with a hole in them. Severus started to laugh, snickering at first, until he , burst out with laughter and tears ran down his face. Severus choked as he tried hard to catch his breath.

Lucius pulled uncomfortably on his sweater and uncrossed his legs. He scowled at his friend. Severus only laughed harder.

Lucius cleared his voice to catch Severus’s attention before saying, “Really Severus, do grow up.”

Severus was just about to reply by giving Lucius a raspberry when Healer Thornton interrupted the two old friends.

“Severus, would you please take a seat?” the Healer pointed to a chair at the opposite side of the room. Still snickering at Lucius, Severus reluctantly sat down noticing the empty chair besides him.

“Harry will be joining us momentarily,” Thornton informed the small group.

Severus couldn’t help himself and mumbled under his breath, “Oh goody. Haven’t seen him for…oh,” He pulled out his pocket watch and looked at the time, “fifty-four minutes. How have I managed to live without him?”

Lucius scoffed at the remarked, even the older Weasleys, Severus noticed, grinned at his remark.

“Would anyone like to start and tell us all how their week has gone?” Thornton asked.

George, perhaps it was Fred, was the first to speak. “I think we have Draco’s nightmares under control,” he said with a self-satisfying grim.

Severus took umbrage by that. Lucius and he tried for years to help Draco through his nightmares and nothing either or them thought of helped. Even though he had sworn to himself that he would not speak through this ordeal, but merely sit there and stare at nothing he found he just couldn’t keep his mouth shut.

“And how, may I ask, did the two of you accomplish that, pour sleeping draught down his throat? Charm him to sleep?” Severus questioned as he crossed his arms across his chest.

“Nothing like that,” George or was it Fred…oh who cares, one of the twins said.

“We sang him a lullaby,” the other explained.

“A lullaby? I should have thought of that.” Lucius said to himself.

He looked up to see everyone looking at him curiously. “Draco was a difficult infant. He was sickly most of the time with one thing or another. Since my wife was too busy sleeping to offer comfort to her child, the task was left to me. I learned, through trial and error that between rocking him and singing to him he quickly calmed down. It seems it still work.”

“It sure does. When we got home and settled him into his room he fell immediately to sleep. Rather anti-climatic considering what Harry and Thornton described to us,” George enlightened everyone.

Fred continued, “The peace didn’t last to long though. A little after midnight there was such a howl that George and I thought that someone had gotten into our house and was killing Draco.”

“What we found was Draco sitting up in bed shivering, screaming at the top of his lungs,” the other twin picked up the story.

Severus remembered to many nights in Azkaban that Draco screamed until his voice gave out. The young Slytherin would be there on the bed with his mouth open in a silent scream. After hours of continual screaming, Severus was always relieved when the sounds had finally stopped. He knew Draco’s horrors hadn’t gone away, but at least he could get some sleep. He pushed aside the guilt he felt and placed it in the back of his mind, otherwise he would have found himself much like his godson.

“I took him into my arms, like mum did to us when we were babes and started to rock him,” George added smiling at Molly.

“I started to hum the songs that would calm us,” Fred continued. “Mum has a great singing voice. I sound more like a frog but Draco was responding to the sound. I crawled up on the bed and we cocooned ourselves around him. George in front and I held him from the back. We sang and rocked him until he stopped screaming. When we tried to stand to leave he held onto us and wouldn’t let us go.”

George continued, “We fell asleep like that and every night since. I think he feels safe between the two of us.”

“Besides, all three of us get a goodnight sleep.”

“That seems to be quite a break through. I very pleased,” Healer Thornton said with a smile, though he wondered if three relative healthy young men in a bed might be a mistake. He would have to keep an eye on the situation. It would do Draco no good if he the twins took advantage of him in his current state. He would have to voice his concern with Fred and George once the group session was over.

It was then that Harry stumbled out of the floo, grumbling about how he hated the floo system. He brushed himself off as best as he could and smiled as the small crowd before sitting next to Severus. Harry gave Severus a pat on the leg and beamed at him. Severus jerked his leg away from Harry and scowled at him.

“Severus is there anything you would like to say?” the Healer asked.

Severus started to shake his head no when a thought came to him. “Yes there is something I would like everyone to know…especially Harry here.”

Potter gave a sigh of relief. At least he wouldn’t have to punish Severus here in front of everyone even though ‘Harry’ coming from Severus’s mouth sounded more like a curse than his name.

“Please continue,” the Healer encouraged.

“From the deepest depths of my soul I want everyone here to know…” he paused as he looked around the room, “that I hate my Master with every part of my being and nothing anyone can say or do will ever change how I feel. I hope you all rot in hell.”

Severus was very pleased with himself. The room became eerily quiet. Everyone looked between him and Harry, waiting for Harry's response.

“Good,” Harry finally spoke, “I was worried you wouldn’t participate today. Now that we got that out of the way, let us continue our session.”

Severus was irritated that he did not get more of a response from Potter. He wanted the man to feel his anger, his rage. He wanted to make him suffer. Severus crossed his arms and stared into space. Everyone ignored him for the remainder of the session, but he did see a few people glance in his direction. Severus hated being ignored; it frustrated him. He grinned evilly as he thought of his revenge. Soon, very soon, they would not ignore him any more. They would all be at his feet, with Potter kneeling on all fours with a collar and leash attached to him. With that pleasant thought, Severus managed to get through the rest of the session.