Cared For

Disclaimer: The characters in this story are not mine, they belong to J.K. Rowling. I am not gaining any profit from these stories.

+-Prologue-+

Vibrant colors, flashes of gold and the most dazzling reds streaked the night’s sky. Voices sounding breathless and far away called out with mumbled incoherencies. Dashing feet hit solid ground as wizards flung themselves at the Death Eaters, calling out a list of harming curses.

Voldemort stood just a few paces from Harry, his eyes a blood red and his snake-like appearance a haunting figment among the glow of powerful spells falling upon both Death Eaters and Auror’s alike. His fangs lingered just as long as his smirk as he pointed a twin wand at Harry, directing all his power into the one reserved spell.

Harry felt his body still with paralyzing fear. This was the moment he had trained for, the one hope for saving the whole Wizarding world. His wand was outstretched towards the Dark Lord, and his hand shaking as he too prepared for the one spell to end it all.

Screams came from all around him, his mother and father calling out to him for their lives, though they were no longer alive. He could only feel the violent wind thrusting against his body and flailing his cape behind him.

He felt the challenge in Voldemort eyes, one that said, ‘I dare you.’ Harry felt his heart ramming hard against his chest. At that moment he yelled out and sent a beaming pure light. Just as the light was beginning towards Voldemort, the man shrieked out an equally terrifying curse. Flashes of the purest white entered the sky. Harry felt the sudden jolt of his body and was sent tumbling to the floor from the impact.

Darkness surrounded him and his life stilled just as it did in his dreams. This was it, the moment that his life would cease to be. He could feel a weight upon him, someone that was not at all the ground below him. He didn’t have much of a chance to think about it because unconsciousness overrode his thought process. So with a final huff of precious air, Harry fell into his unconscious mind.

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Light surrounded his body as Harry slipped his eyes open and then shut them quickly by the amount of light that entered. He groaned softly as he tried to move what seemed like a million tons of weight. His body was under some sort of spell.

“Mister Potter, you will do well not to move. Take this,” Madam Pomfrey’s voice was just as it always had been with Harry; bitter yet caring all in one spoken sentence. Harry, however, did as he was told and swallowed down the bitter-tasting potion. He scrunched his noise in remorse of the taste and received a very frustrated huff from the old witch nurse.

“Now you stay still, and I will get you some food.” The witch nurse left the room, mumbling under her breath as she always did when leaving Harry to his thoughts. He sighed briefly before taking in the morning lit surroundings. Everything was as it was when he had last visited the infirmary. The ugly white cloth that draped around the hospital bed was gapped and allowed for him to notice several other bodies lying out on the beds. ‘So it did happen, but what about Voldemort?’ Harry thought quickly. ‘How am I still alive?’

“Good to see you have awaken, Mister Potter.” The low, sly voice of his most dreaded Potion’s professor penetrated his ears. Regretfully, Harry turned his head to watch as Snape walk to the side of the hospital bed that was open to the public. Something of a sallow appearance, the man looked absolutely exhausted. He had fought alongside with all the other wizards fighting off the Death Eaters.

“I’m afraid that I have to inform you of some very…troubling news.” Snape sat down, now showing Harry the much ghosted appearance. The man didn’t just look tired, he looked quite upset. Harry had never seen the indifferent mask removed, never in the year of training he had to suffer through with the man. Even when at ends with torture and massive injury as being a spy for Dumbledore, had Harry seen the man seemingly distressed.

Harry felt his heart begin to beat harshly against his chest. Something had to have happened that made even the most brutally indifferent of men to be caused grief. “W-what is it?” Harry couldn’t help the lump that developed in his throat. The man was beginning to make him feel very upset just by the way his gaze was adverted away from Harry and his fingers twined together in a business like manner, but flinched slightly.

“When Voldemort was at his end, he had cast a spell that ultimately would have killed you…” Harry begun to say something but Snape held up a hand. “Dumbledore had been fighting along your side and noticed the final curse. When…” Snape’s voice trailed off, “…when he saw it, he jumped in front of you and, in so doing, was killed by the curse.” Snape clenched his hands into fists as he let a small breath of air escape his lips.

Harry’s eyes brimmed with tears as he couldn’t move or even show his guilt and mourning. He let a soft whisper pass his lips, “…no…” and let his eyes stream tears that were burning hot along his face. He was shaking and gasping out ‘no’s as he tried to break the binds of the paralyze spell. He couldn’t see through the haze of tears that fell from his eyes. He tried to move once more but was not able to. “NO!” he screamed as he broke down. First his godfather and now the only man that had made him feel like a real son.

Snape stayed at Harry’s side, trying to calmly comfort him though he knew the actions were futile. Harry shook under his soft comfort, a boy caught without a stream of happiness after defeating the most powerful wizard the world had ever seen. Harry cried out in all his pain, closing off his senses and just allowing the whole world of tears to fall.

Harry tried to pull away from Snape’s hold but was ignored and held onto tightly. It hadn’t quite registered that the man was hushing him softly and gently weaving fingers through Harry’s hair. It couldn’t register, not now, not after he had lost the one person that had meant so much to him. He was alone - completely alone without a person in the world to be there through his pain.

Poppy was leaning against the door frame, her eyes filled with tears. Her hands came up to cover her face as she was too caught in the moment of mourning. All persons within the school mourned their lost Headmaster.

“He…was the only person…I had left,” Harry managed to say through his tears. He couldn’t fight them back. They just continued to flow. He had spent over a year mourning his godfather only to have to go into mourning of the last person who had cared completely for him. “I have no one.”

Snape hushed him gently as he tried his turn at comforting. He wasn’t used to this sort of thing, but he couldn’t very well let Potter cry alone. Differences aside, Harry was still a child who had lost every person dear to him. Both Hermione and Ron had died last year when the school had been attacked. Potter was ultimately left alone as a result of being the only one to have the power to end the battle between Voldemort and the whole of the Wizarding world.

“You aren’t alone, Harry.” For the first time since they had known each other, Snape had given up his childish hatred for the insolent boy and spoke to him as another human being. Snape did not like to admit it, but over the past year of training Harry for the one night that would end it all, he had grown quite fond of him. Harry wasn’t -despite what he wanted to think- all that intolerable. Harry carried a spark within him, one that caused Snape to open up to him and want only for his safety. Of course, this was never said or acted on until this point. It had to be said.

“I’m here for you,” Snape said finally. Harry was calming down and his eyes were slowly losing the flush of tears that they had been subjected to for the past twenty minutes. An emerald gaze unlike any he had seen penetrated right to his heart. Harry’s lips twitched slightly and he released a sighing breath of air.

Harry couldn’t help but smile. Snape had done something that he knew would melt away his cold-bastard mask and show that the man did have a bit of compassion in his heart, even though it would be hard to get him to admit it.

Snape sighed out and gave Harry one last reassuring squeeze before pulling away and looking down at the boy. “I understand that Dumbledore had reserved guardianship for you, and that at the end of the school year, you were to stay with him. Since that is no longer possible, I will take full responsibility and guardianship over you.” The words were business like but for the first time, Harry saw the man smile.

Even though he truly cared for Dumbledore, he couldn’t help but feel happiness at what Snape was offering to him. Snape had torn down his indifferent wall and shown Harry a side that had never before been seen to any other person. Snape cared for him.

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Author’s notes: This is just the prologue, so don’t kill me if it is short. I promise that the following chapters will be long and very eventful. I do not have a beta, so if you find the story to be a bit grammatically mistaken, it is my own fault. But, reviews are appreciated if you enjoy this idea.