Dearest Harry - Eileen's Story

Chapter Four


When Severus and Draco arrived in Little Whinging it was swarming with Death Eaters. He used a word under his breath that his mother would definitely not approve of and shoved Draco under the cover of a large privet bush He would have to grab a couple of the Death Eaters and stun them and steal their robes. It was the only way that he could see that he could get Malfoy and himself close to the house. Severus had not realised that Potter’s address was known, so either the Dark Lord had just discovered it or he had been suspect for longer than he’d realised.

One of the dark figures that were surrounding the house stepped backwards towards him, and Severus whispered a stunning spell, under his breath. He would bind whoever it was and leave them for the Aurors. He quickly stripped the robes, glaring at Draco who was sitting huddled under the bush, obviously terrified. Snape cursed the luck again that had landed him with Malfoy, as much as he hated Potter his nephew! he thought bitterly, at least the boy would have been doing something to help!

He had dragged the robes off the unconscious man at his feet and thrown them at Draco. He pulled the mask off only to discover Marcus Flint underneath. Severus felt desperately sad for a moment, he had once had quite high hopes for this boy, he had indeed been somewhat thuggish at times but he had always had a good heart. He had hoped that Flint’s family neutrality might have kept him out of the war, but it seemed he was wrong.

He sighed deeply and gagged the boy, casting Petrificus Totalis; he rolled him quite gently under the bush. Two minutes later however when he caught Broadbent, whom Severus had always found to be an irredeemably brutal oaf, he was far less gentle and gave him a couple of kicks for good measure when he rolled him out of sight.

Suitably attired he set of in the direction of Number Four dragging Draco’s with him as always, although as he got closer to the house he let go of the boy’s arm and let him follow or not, as he wished. Severus really could not bring himself to care at the moment. All he could think about right now was his mother, and what the hell he was going to do without her. Nobody stopped them, or challenged them, Severus had been a fake Death Eater for long enough that he could pass quite nicely in the crowd when he needed to and there were enough young ones about so that Malfoy’s fearfully shambling gait would go un-noticed.

The houses in this area were very expensive, he would have given much to have grown up in an area like this, instead of on the run, from bedsit to bedsit for much of his childhood, whilst his mother tried to make ends meet with a series of dead end jobs and the occasional potions sale. He imagined Potter spending time in this street, looking out of the window of the large bedroom that the allowance from his mother and father would have paid for, and scorning the children who would have to come through these streets on their way from the council estate close by, to the local primary school.

His mother wanted to meet her grandson; Merlin knew what the reality of the arrogant young Potter would do to her! He would just have to threaten the boy with dire consequences if he dared to upset her, or scorned her beloved little house. They were close to the wards now, once the other side of them he and Draco would be safe from hexes, momentarily at least, and he would be able to find out whether Potter had had enough sense to at least send a Patronus to the order, as they would hardly accept his, the position he was in right now.

He looked objectively at the several muggle bodies lying on the ground, there was nothing that could be done for any of them, but hopefully the ones in their houses would have the sense to stay there until he could alert The Order. He did not think that the Death Eaters had been here very long, they did not need a lot of time to do the amount of damage that they had managed already! Cars over turned, a crater in the road, trees and bushes on fire. Somewhere in the distance he heard a woman scream and winced, please God let someone get here soon. He had to get to Potter.

He heard the nasal tones of Pettigrew, amid the crowd of men dressed in black. “The wards will fall at midnight we think, as soon as Potter turns seventeen, we’ll get in then. We must seal the area to stop any of these muggles getting out but in the meantime we can have ourselves some fun.”

Severus felt disgusted.

He sent of a sneaky cutting spell in the direction of ratboy, and was gratified to hear a yell from him and see him start to look around to see who might have hexed him.

Luckily they were right beside the wards and Severus grabbed Draco’s wrist and began to run. Dumbledore had keyed Severus into the wards, which were configured so that no one who meant Potter harm could enter, and despite the school boy tricks that Draco had played Severus did not think that he truly meant him harm, especially now that the Golden Boy was probably his only chance. It took them only seconds to reach the front door and he ripped off his mask and threw it aside ignoring the shouts and the hexes, which were bouncing harmlessly of the ward. He smiled nastily and aimed a wave at Pettigrew, who had always been in Severus’s opinion a spineless little shit. With his wand out he cast Alohomora and a second later they were inside Harry Potter’s home.

Once in the ornately carved “Mock Oak” door though Severus’s world tilted on its access. This was most definitely not what he was expecting. There was no sign of Potter, Severus had hoped to get in a quick explanation before the boy hexed him and then hopefully, as he had come to help, Potter would leave the arguments and words of hatred until later, but there was no sign of him. Instead Severus was confronted by a grossly overweight man brandishing a chair at him, behind the man cowered a skeletally thin woman and a boy who almost certainly outweighed a baby elephant.

“Why thank you,” he drawled, “I would like a seat, but perhaps a little later? Where’s Potter, I have come to help and we need to talk strategy.”

“You come near us freak and I’ll give you what for!” The fat man was shouting, Severus just sneered at him and vanished the chair

“Where is Potter?” He asked again feeling quite happy to start hexing these dreadful relatives, well, of his, he thought with not a little distaste. The skinny woman was his cousin he realised and he wrinkled his not inconsiderable nose with distaste.

The three muggles looked at the door under the stairs, the door to what must have been a cupboard. Severus was astonished, were they hoping to protect Potter by hiding him in there? Did they not realise that a simple point me spell would be enough for any Death Eater to find him almost instantly?

“Move aside,” he said, heading towards the cupboard, what ridiculous nonsense was Potter up to now, didn’t he realise that he needed to be out here ready to fight?

The fat man squeaked as Severus walked forward and Severus just raised his eyebrows at him.

“He is lazy and useless,” the man said, “you don’t understand what it has been like for us, we had to get rid of him he was bleeding all over the kitchen floor you know!”

Severus was a bit worried now, “why was Potter bleeding?” He asked sternly.

“Don’t know,” the fat man replied, rather sullenly Severus thought, “probably wanted to wreck the floor before he finally pissed off for good!”

To say that Severus was surprised would have been an understatement, trouble in Paradise eh? He thought to himself, what had perfect Potter done to upset his odious relatives!

He drew back the bolt – they had locked him in? Since when did a locked door stop Potter? He drew himself up to berate the boy, but the sight that met him on the other side of that door would stay with him for the rest of his days. Curled in a ball, hair plastered to his forehead with sweat, battered and bruised and bleeding at the mouth, was Harry Potter. Draco gasped aloud behind him.

“Potter!” he turned to the relatives and said angrily “what have you done to him?” It was the most the boy had said all day, but Severus could not be bothered to take notice right now. The boy was feverish and shivering, muttering to himself, he was obviously delirious.

Severus whirled around. “How long as he been like this?” He demanded. No one seemed prepared to meet his eyes, they all looked away, till finally under his gimlet stare the fat man shrugged his shoulders, “seemed all right this morning,” he answered gruffly, “I hope he hasn’t brought any germs back with him, I don’t want my Petunia or Dudley getting ill.”

“Don’t worry you odious man, what he has is magic fever, his magic has been coming in properly over the last couple of days,” Severus was feeling the boy’s brow frantically, trying to gage just exactly how high his temperature was, “you should have called somebody in, called for help, he should be in bed with an anti fever potion, not shoved in a cupboard!”

“We do enough for him,” The fat man said, never wanted him in the first place.”

“For God sake man!” Severus shouted, “He is desperately ill! He might die!” The fat man shrugged his shoulders, “well good riddance to bad rubbish, he never was much use. Bad blood if you ask me!”

Severus was absolutely appalled, never mind that the “bad blood,” that the idiot was talking about was his blood, his flesh and blood. The man was talking about a child, a sick child. Who wouldn’t help a sick child? As he looked at the faces of these awful people he realised that they truly did not care. “ Well you had better help me and help me now!” He hissed, “ because the only thing stopping those evil killers out there from coming in and torturing you to death is this boy, if he dies right now then so do you, because he” He gestured towards Draco “and I will just leave you to it! This boy that you scorn is the last hope for the world, because if he dies then they,” He waved his hand in the direction of the Death Eaters gathered outside, “They win! And the world, the whole world!” Poking his sharp finger in Vernon Dursley’s chest “Goes to Hell!”

The fat man looked like he might explode he was red and shaking, but he said no more right now, for all at once Potter let out a groan.

Severus looked back down at the boy, and his eyes met a pair of sparkling green eyes, which glittered with fever. The boy seemed to be trying to push himself to a sitting position. Severus knelt and helped him, drawing back when Potter yelped with pain, he had only touched him for a moment, but he had felt the bones in Potter’s shoulder grind together. It was broken. The boy looked up at him, obviously puzzled.

“Lo, Professor,” He said, somewhat wetly though the blood that still seemed to be filling his mouth. “Have you come to kill me?” Then he was violently and spectacularly sick, all over Severus shoes.