Potion Tutelage
Severus watched his pupil, red marks from yesterday already gone, as she seemed to fidget more than usual. It was only a week into April and he felt bad for her.
On Valentine's Day he'd discovered Harry curled up on Draco in his office, they had been sneaking in without him knowing previously. She was asleep, her cheeks a horrible deep red that was fading and Draco was cradling her. An unmistakable jar next to him.
"I found her not far from Dumbledore's office." he explained in a low whisper, he'd found her a few times during his Prefect duties and scooped her up. When Severus hadn't been in his office, he'd brought her there, otherwise using the emptiness of the Library - removing her from any passing eyes.
Harry seemed to use Draco as something more than her other 'playmates', a sort of comfort - like a small child with a favored blanket or stuffed animal. He had severely let up on her after he'd gotten her kicked off the Gryffindor Quidditch team, feeling responsible. Severus didn't think he was responsible, Harry should not have swung at him but at the same time he didn't feel Harry was wholly responsible for her actions - a beaten animal. Cornered, frightened, angry...
He had overlooked it, decidedly doing his paperwork in his chambers instead of his office until April rolled around. Yes, the entire situation as a whole was horrifying. However, their little rendezvous - where Draco balmed her cheeks, comforted and cared for Harry - was the least horrifying aspect of it all. Allowing the two to use the room and he knew they did; pillows on the sofa were moved or a summoned blanket had been left behind - sometimes the odd plate of crumbs and emptied goblets.
He knew there was more to it. Harry had begun to... he wasn't sure. There were definitely days where he'd seen his pupil and wondered if she hadn't been drugged heavily. Then there were the days that he'd been informed, via house-elves, that someone had thrown up - quite a bit for it to be brought to him - via a house elf named 'Dobby', who seemed to have an attachment to Harry. At the time he hadn't registered that it was the same elf that had been freed from the Malfoy family.
Dobby was loyal to Harry, he realized later - though that hardly surprised him.
It was difficult to watch the girl get more 'tweaky' as the days passed, especially after repeated encounters with Dumbledore. There was no rhyme or reason to his summons. Harry was becoming... less and less of herself with every passing day. Terrified, fidgeting... it was as if she was dying inside. Harry was becoming increasingly less vocal, short sentences or one word answers - unless she felt somehow obligated.
Some weeks they were one day and then the next, some weeks there were nearly five days between. Likely a tactic to throw her off, though... she hadn't been summoned yesterday. None of his Slytherin's had seen anything happen in the halls. Yet her cheeks had obviously been horribly smacked the night before at breakfast that morning, he easily cast the spell to see through her meager charms every morning to monitor her. The balm worked well, it didn't work miracles.
Severus suspected that Dumbledore was going into Harry's dormitory at times, though he wasn't sure how he was managing to remain undiscovered with four other girls in the room. Likely some sort of charm put on their beds or on Harry's. More likely the other girls beds so they wouldn't hear however he was entering.
Severus shook his head.
Of course Dumbledore was going into her dormitory.
Robbing her of her safe spaces.
And so was he, he realized dismally as he watched Harry bite at the skin around her nails while she waited for her potion to boil. He'd taken Draco away when Harry seemed to be the most vulnerable.
Severus wished he knew of something, as he watched Harry become more and more hollowed out, a charm or potion to restore Harry to... someone he had never really known - she'd been abused before he'd ever gotten to see an actual personality from her.
Harry, meanwhile, was trying to think of how she could ask the Marauders for the map back - they'd asked for it during the Holidays. She didn't know or care why, it was theirs and she'd returned it without question - but if she had it now it would be easier to find Draco.
Never one to explain or question why, nor knowing how to, she just wanted.
Wanted the smell of vanilla and cinnamon paired with smoke, wanted his soft tones murmuring to her, wanted how he curled around her as if he could protect her, his firm arms and fierceness.
Each of her playmates offered her something different.
She could be devoured, worshiped or protected.
After Dumbledore had forced her to blow him in her dorm again, she wanted the protection.
Desperately.
Mindlessly.
Needed.
'Need Draco,' her brain thought absently as she added the dandelion root and the potion began to emit, the appropriate, orange smoke.
'Huh.'
Harry blinked.
The potion had been a 'monthly challenge' which was a potion that was so advanced she'd no way of properly making it the first time.
Yet...
There she stood, staring at a full batch of Lasting (Permanent) Youthful Mobility.... Wizards were truly an unoriginal lot.
"Uhhh.... Professor?" she said uncertainly, turning her head to see that Snape had already seen and was staring at her dumbfounded.
"I... I was twenty-three before I correctly brewed that..." he gaped in a rare moment of loose-lips. He was grading first year papers and had been drinking a bit - wholly necessary. Especially when he thought of how he'd brewed the potion she'd made for Dumbledore years ago, much to Harry's current detriment, and wondered how much whisky he had left. This batch, since it was properly made, would go to the recent escapees of Azkaban tonight - not that she would know that.
Harry only smiled shyly and shrugged, saying her longest sentence in days, "I'm sure it's only because of you that I could manage it."
Whether she knew it, or not, it was a blatant lie.
He'd offered no assistance, Harry had moved without hesitation through the whole process and he'd let his attention drift more to the assignments. Only glancing up occasionally, admittedly not for the last half hour prior to the orange smoke that was coating the ceiling now. Severus wanted to claw his skin off for how happy he was that she'd said more than five words.
The potion gave one final 'belch' of smoke before its mud brown surface turned a lovely shade of turquoise.
It was truly a pity that she wouldn't be around to take her OWLs.