Harry Potter Ideas

This day promises to be a handful.
As Head of House, Severus fully knows that he has Muggleborn duty.
And he has no problem with that.

But today’s assignment already grinds on his nerves, before he even met the student in question.

No.
What he already hates is that he is assigned to Harry James Potter.
Son of James Potter, the man Severus hates with every fiber of his being.

When he heard the news, he was annoyed beyond belief.

Logically, he knew that it wasn't the boy's fault.
As far as Severus knows, the boy doesn’t even know his father.
So there is a big chance that he is more like his mother.

But Severus is a pessimist to the core.

He didn't even register that he arrived at his destination, until he looked at the door sign and read the names.

Petunia Dursley stuck out to him like a sore thumb.
After doing a double take, he is ready to throw everything he told himself about the boy out of the window.

If he truly lived with Lily’s despicable sister up until now, then everything he knows about him may very well be wrong.

Severus remembers Petunia vividly.
And he still knows everything that Lily told him about her.

Dumbledore should know the woman's view on magic and her relation to her sister.
So why did the man decide to let the boy live with them?

Shaking these thoughts out of his head, he rings the bell and waits for a few moments.

When the door is opened, he suppresses the urge to sneer.

“Who are you?” the woman that opened the door says in a poisonous tone.

“I am here for your nephew, Petunia.” Severus intones without emotion in his voice.

The woman analyzes him for a few moments, before she makes a grimace.
“You are her friend.” she spat out.
“Take that freak and don’t bring him back.” she sneers.

Before Severus could say anything more, she walks down the hallway and unlocks a cupboard.

He couldn’t even wonder why she would do that, before she pulls out a malnourished and obviously injured boy with way too large clothes out of the cupboard.

She shoves the boy towards him out the door.
“You, freak, are going with him. Don’t even think of coming back anytime soon.” she bit out, before closing the door on them.

That is decidedly not what Severus was picturing from this visit.
He looks down at the boy, who shivers slightly from his position next to him, although he obviously shifts a few feet away from Severus to be at a safe distance.
The warry and resentful eyes that look back at him shot a pang of pain through his heart.

The boy resents adults, that much is obvious.
And from how he looks, Severus can’t fault him for that.

It takes all his effort and Occlumency skills to keep his own memories from resurfacing.

“Who are you?” the boy asks him with a coldness in his voice, that no child should have.

“My name is Severus Snape.” he introduces himself, trying to make his voice as soft as possible.
Which was honestly very hard. This was not his forte.
Why couldn’t Minerva or Pomona do this? They are good with kids.

“And what do you want?” the boy continued asking.

“I am here to deliver  this letter to you.” Severus said and pulled a letter out of his robes.
“After that, my job is to ensure you have everything for school.”

“School?” the boy asked.
“I haven’t been to school in years.” he said quietly, possibly to himself, but Severus heard him regardless.

While every alarm bell in Severus' brain went off, the boy opened the letter and read through it.
At the end, the boy grimaced.
“You don’t think I believe what is written here? Magic doesn’t exist.” he stated with much to much certainty.

Severus looked around the street, before wandlessly casting a few small wards, so no one could see or hear them.
He then proceeded to draw his wand.
“Really?” he asked with a cocked eyebrow, before casting a few simple spells that were more visually beautiful than anything else.

For the first time that day, he saw the boy's eyes have some resemblance of light in them.

“Your mother was a witch as well.” Severus said, trying to keep his emotion out of his voice.

But he was obviously not good enough at it, or the boy was more observant than he thought, because he looked at Severus for a moment, before speaking.
“You knew her,” he said.
It wasn’t a question, it was a statement.

Severus nodded after a moment.
“I did.” he answered honestly.

If he knew anything about abused children, and it was blatantly obvious that the young boy before him was abused, then it was that honesty is the best way to get their trust and help them heal.

Harry eyed him for a bit longer.
“And my father?” he decided to ask.

It cost Severus all his will to separate his distaste for the man from what was needed in this situation.
“Him too.” he stated.
“Although we didn’t get along very well,” he added shortly after.

They were both quiet for a few moments.
“So, where are we going?” Harry asked after a minute of oppressing silence.

“Diagon Alley. We will buy your school supplies there.” Severus answered him.

“How?”

That was a good question.
Severus first plan was to apparate there, but he is pretty sure that he should avoid touching the boy at any cost.
That left them with either the muggle way or the knight's bus.

After thinking for a moment, he sighed internally.
“We will use a form of wizard transportation. Although it probably won’t be pleasant. There is one stop I’d like to do beforehand.” he said and lifted his wand next to the street.

A second later, the purple triple decker stopped there.
Severus let Harry enter first and find a seat for himself.

“St. Mungos.” he said to the driver, before sitting a few seats apart from the boy.

“What is St. Mungos?” Harry asked him and looked critically at him.

“A wizarding hospital. There are a few magical diseases which you need to get shots for. It’s mandatory to get them.” he said and produced a parchment with the list of shots the boy would get, before handing them to him.

Three jarring minutes with a few stops later, they exited the knights bus in front of St. Mungos, before walking inside.

Severus walked up to the counter.
“Good afternoon. I am here for a Muggleborn visit.” he stated and the healer at the counter nodded, before taking a parchment.

“Please fill in these forms.” she said to Severus, who took the time to fill in everything.
He entered which shots were needed and what information he had about the boy.
Unbeknownst to the boy himself, he filled in the fields for a general examination as well.
He wanted to know in what condition these despicable people left the boy in.

After a minute, a young healer came to take the boy into an examination room.
While he was wary of the new person, he followed shortly after.

The moment that the boy was around a corner, Snape made a beeline for the floo of St. Mungos.
He needed to floo call Albus. Or Minerva.
Someone should know what he learned in this short time.

“Hogwarts, Headmaster’s office.” he said and stuck his head into the green flames.

“Severus, my boy. Aren’t you with young Mr. Potter at the moment?” the old Headmaster inquired.

“I am currently at St. Mungos with him. He is the reason I called.” Severus said.
It takes a few minutes to fill in the Headmaster with what he found out about Harry. 

“That is worrying, indeed.” Dumbledore says deep in thoughts  while stroking his long beard.

“But I cannot take him out of the Dursley’s custody, I fear,” he sighed.

“What?!?” Severus asked incredulously.
“Why?” he demanded.

“My boy, you know as well as I do that Voldemort isn’t dead yet. And Lily’s sacrifice created a blood protection around the boy. He is safest around blood relatives.” he states placatingly.
“He has to be at least some time of the year around them, for the protections to stay.” he said with a sigh and one can hear the regret in his voice.

“What is the minimum time he needs to be around them?” Severus hissed.

“About four weeks.”

“Do we have someone who can take the boy in for the other two weeks of summer holiday? He should only be subjected to these people as little as possible.”

“Not on this short notice, I fear. For next year, we will find something.”

They were both quiet for a short time.
“I will take him until the year starts.” Severus finally said.

Dumbledore looked at the man with slight shock and surprise.
“Are you sure, my boy?” he inquired.

“I am, Albus,” he said.
“Now, I believe I need to go back. The examination should be over momentarily. Good day, Albus.” he said before pulling his head out of the flames.

He didn’t need to wait long after he walked back to the waiting room, before the Healer came back with the boy in the room too.

“He has got his shots. And here are the results of the mandatory examination.” he said and handed over the parchment.

The examination was everything but mandatory.
But Severus knew how to fill in forms for suspected abuse, which led to that phrasing and him receiving the original parchment, while the boy got one that was a little more positively looking.

After they left, Severus escorted the boy to Gringotts to get a bit of gold, so he could buy his supplies.

He patiently explained how the currency worked, before suggesting how much from each the boy should take.

When they bought the supplies, he gave a few hints for potions supplies he should take, that weren’t on the list.
He also recommended some books when they were at Flourish and Blotts, which would hopefully ease the boy into the wizarding world.

When he heard Ollivander talk about the Dark Lord as someone who did great, he sneered at the man behind his back.
While he wasn’t wrong, he shouldn’t say so.
Especially not towards the boy who was in front of him.

When they entered the magical menagerie, he was sure that there wouldn’t be any more surprises that day.
He bought a snowy owl for the boy, so he could send letters.

But when he wanted to show it to the boy, he found Harry standing next to the snakes, hissing at them.

He was a Parselmouth.
Yeah, there was still something that could shock Severus, alright.

He would need to talk with Harry about that trait.

When they left, Harry had an owl and two snakes with him.
One beautiful gold-green magical boa and a red and blue Runespoor of all things.

When they were at the Leaky Cauldron, he cast a few privacy wards around the booth they were sitting at.

He looked at the boy in front of him, thinking how he would tell him what he needed to.
But the boy beat him to it, when he spoke up.

“So, where do I stay now? You heard my Aunt, you are not to bring me back there. And I don’t think I want to go back there either.” he said.

Severus looked at him for a moment.
“I talked to someone about that. For now, you can stay with me. I have access to an ancestral home that is big enough.” he said.

And it was true.
As the Heir to the Prince Family, he had access to their assets, including their estates.
He just never thought that he would use that.

But in his small flat in Hogsmeade, there is hardly enough space for him, let alone another person.

And later, when the night fell and Harry had his own room at Prince Manor, Severus found himself sitting in the armchair of the study room, contemplating what he learned that day.

He thought that Harry Potter was an arrogant brat, raised with a golden spoon shoved up his ass.

It couldn’t be farther from what was the truth…