chapter 4
Severus looked in as he grabbed his things. A few pairs of clothes that looked more like rags than something fit for a human being, a couple of broken army men figures, and a ratty, baby blue blanket that had been left on a thin crib mattress on the floor. She had kept Lily’s son in a cupboard! Then Severus glanced up as he stepped back and noticed a glint on the door. A lock. They had not kept Harry Bloody Potter in a cupboard, they had locked him in one.
Severus slowly looked up at Petunia Dursley, apoplectic at the very thought of such a terrible thing. He slowly drew his wand again, Petunia had, again, blanched and was trembling, good.
“Legilimens”.
Scenes of blatant abuse erupted in Severus’ head. The boy at the stove, still far too small to be using it safely. The boy being chased and bitten by a dog as they all laughed. A fat man, Vernon, shaking him roughly as a toddler, screaming at him to shut up. Rare meals. Pulling weeds all day and into the night if he did not finish soon enough. Getting scrubbed down in the tub with bleach water, slightly muddy clothes on the floor, sobbing. Another little boy, significantly bigger tromping through with a gaggle of other children as he scrubbed the floor, and laughing as Harry got in trouble for it. Severus pulled himself out of Petunias mind in revulsion unable to stomach watching the poor child be abused any more than he already had.
Harry Potter did not remind Severus of Potter the former at all, if anything, he reminded Severus of himself with his drunken father and neglectful mother. With a new resolve born of kinship, Severus decided he truly would be taking Harry. He may not know how to raise a child, but he certainly knew how not to and that would have to be enough. First he would need to provide new clothing for a child, the rags he was in would never be able to keep the early spring chill from him, and while transfiguration may change the appearance and feel of the clothes it would not change the properties of them. No child deserved to wear overlarge ugly castoffs and Severus could well remember the bullying he endured as a child due to his secondhand clothes.
Grabbing Harry by the shoulder Severus sneered at Petunia, pulled the boy close, and apparated on the spot. He really could have gone out to the garden to do so but it satisfied him to know how much Harrys previous guardians would despise the use of magic right in their front hall.