Vernon Dursley watched television, or at least he tried to. His focus however was on the noise outside. Teenagers were in front of the house, hooting and hollering. This was very aggravating for Vernon who just wanted a restful Saturday in July with his family. His wife, Petunia was currently sewing a stuffed dogs head back onto a toy of Dudley’s his son.

Of course, the toy wouldn’t go back to his son. It would go to him, the child that Vernon did not want in his home. The boy who was building a tower with old blocks nearby while Dudley waited. They were getting along for once. His son was waiting for him to get the tower really high, and then he’d kick it down. His nephew enjoyed this game for some reason; he’d laugh and make the tower again. Luckily, half the time Harry Potter was quiet, but his mere presence still irritated Vernon. He was always worried that he’d do the unnaturalness.

“God damn teenagers,” Vernon muttered as he got up.

“Let it be Vernon, they're just having fun,” Petunia answered.

“They’re a bad example for the boys. What if he sees them behaving that way?”

“Harry’s three, going on four… I can’t really see him copying their example. Besides, the boys aren’t even paying attention. Just sit down,” Petunia said.

Vernon sighed and peered out the window, a group of boys were playing around on a skateboard. They had a ramp in the middle of the road which they were trying to clear. A couple of girls were sitting at the edge of his yard cheering them on. He was glad that the boys were only four, he couldn’t stand teenagers, so at least he didn’t have to worry about them for another eight years or so.

“Ready?” Dudley asked Harry.

“Uh huh!” Harry yelled.

He jumped up and Dudley ran to kick the blocks. Harry jumped up and down laughing; he started to clap his hands.

“Now I build and you kick!” Dudley told him.

Harry glanced over at his uncle with a nervous face. One other time when they had played the game, the boy had kicked the blocks down on Dudley. Of course, Vernon hadn’t realized they were just playing, so he had spanked Harry so hard, he hadn’t been able to sit down comfortably for a week. He also hadn’t been allowed to eat for a couple days.

“You should let Dudley have a chance to build,” he told Harry as he walked over to the blocks. It was his way to let Harry know it was okay.

Dudley was a lot slower with building, but Harry was patient. He lay on his stomach to watch, a few times he would glance at the television, but it didn’t interest him. Petunia and Vernon only let the boys watch cartoons in the morning, and also the after school specials (though the boys wouldn’t be in school until September) on weekdays.

“Can you read us a story later mummy?” Dudley asked after a few minutes.

“Both of you?” Petunia asked with surprise in her voice.

Dudley couldn’t sit next to Harry during a story time; he always pinched or poked him because he lost interest. This would cause a fight, Harry would end up with a very sore bottom and Dudley would have to stay in his room for an hour. Harry looked up sharply; there was some fear in his eyes.

“I was tired, take nap after game,” Harry said softly.

“Well I can read you a story before both of take a nap,” Petunia said. “You have to promise to get along, or neither of you will get dessert.”

Harry never got a dessert anyway. It was rare that he got any treats.

“And I don’t think anyone wants a sore bottom,” Vernon said but mainly he looked at Harry who gulped nervously.

“Ready now, Harry!” Dudley said.

Harry jumped up excitedly, and Dudley moved out of the way. Harry glanced over at Vernon again, with apprehension but then he ran quickly and knocked the blocks over. Dudley and Harry began to laugh.

“All right, put the blocks away Harry, Dudley go run upstairs and get a book.”

“YEAH! ALL RIGHT!” voices shouted from outside.

Vernon got up angrily and went to the front door to peer out. He was getting sick of them hanging around his house. He knew where they lived, he figured after the boys went to sleep, he’d go to their places to have a talk with the parents. It was getting ridiculous how parents couldn’t seem to control their own kids. He knew when Dudley was older; he’d always know where he was. His son wouldn’t be a delinquent and Harry would follow his example.

“CLEAR IT! CLEAR IT!”

“That’s it!” Vernon shouted, he started to open the door to yell at them, but he had a better idea. “Hey Harry! Come here!”

It took a few minutes, but his nephew came to the doorway of the sitting room. He stared up at him nervously. He looked a lot smaller than he really was because he wore Dudley’s old clothes. His son was slightly larger then scrawny Potter. He was the runt of the family, sometimes this embarrassed Vernon.

He used a voice he usually reserved for Dudley, “Come here, Harry. You want a treat?”

His eyes lit up and he nodded enthusiastically. He ran over with a huge smile on his face. Vernon waited until he was close enough.

SMACK!

He hit him as hard as he could. Harry fell to the floor, instantly he started to cry. Vernon picked him and opened the door. He carried his sobbing nephew outside and yelled.

“GET THE HELL OUT OF HERE! DON’T DO THAT IN FRONT OF MY HOUSE ANYMORE! YOU JUST WOKE MY NEPHEW UP FROM HIS NAP! THANKS A LOT! LOOK AT HIM! LOOK AT THIS CRYING CHILD! I HOPE YOU ARE HAPPY!”

He went inside and slammed the door. Harry had calmed down a little, as if understanding why he had been hit.

“Treat?” he asked hopefully as he wiped his wet face with back of his hand, a red hand print was on his cheek.

“You aren’t getting a treat!” Vernon shouted.

He threw Harry to the floor harder then he had intended to. Harry automatically started to gasp for breath. Vernon went down on his knee's quickly, appalled at what he had done. Harry started scratching at the floor gasping and crying as he struggled to breathe.

“Petunia!” Vernon shouted as he tried to soothe the boy. “Calm down Harry. If you calm down, I’ll give you a treat, I swear!”

Petunia ran into the room. She fell down to her knees, both tried to calm him down, but nothing worked and Harry was slowly turning blue.

“What did you do?” She asked in tears.

“I threw him down on the floor too hard.”

“Why did you do it at all… oh no.”

Harry had stopped moving, his eyes were open, and his face had a look of shock. Vernon quickly felt for a pulse, but couldn’t find one. He was dead… he had killed his nephew. Petunia instantly tried to see if CPR would revive him, but it didn’t work. Behind them, Dudley watched with a look of horror on his face.

“What happened to my cousin?” he asked.

“Nothing, nothing, he’s fine!” Petunia said, she jumped up and scooped Dudley into her arms.

“Come, I’ll put cartoons on, Harry will join in a minute, okay?”

Vernon continued to work on his nephew. He hadn’t meant to! He felt intense remorse; the boy was only three, turning four in a few weeks. He had barely had time to live, not to mention the fact that he had lost his parents at such a young age, and now lived in a home where he wasn’t wanted. Vernon closed his eyes. No, he hadn’t wanted the boy, he hated him, but he would never have tried to do this! He was sometimes rough with the boy, but he’d never gone too far… until now.

“What are we going to do?” Petunia asked. “He’s covered in bruises, he’d underweight, and they are going to guess what happened here.”

“I know. We’ll-we’ll hide him in his cupboard for now… we’ll think of something tonight.”

Vernon lifted his nephew but changed his mind. He took him upstairs instead to the bedroom Harry had always wanted to sleep in. In his anguished state, Vernon hoped that by putting Harry in the comfortable bed, he’d wake up. He would never lay a hand on his nephew if that happened.

Petunia didn’t say a word; she just followed him up the stairs and into Dudley’s second bedroom. She pulled back the covers and Vernon gently laid him into the bed. Then they tucked him. Petunia seemed to be thinking along the lines of Vernon, for she leaned down and kissed his cheek. Vernon leaned forward and closed his eyes for him.

“Have a good nap,” she told him.

“Don’t let the bed bugs bite,” Vernon whispered.

She didn’t know a lot about the wizarding world, but from what she had learned from Lily and the Snape boy, underage wizards had a way to protect themselves from harm. Why hadn’t her nephew bounced, or put a force field between him and the ground? As far as Vernon knew, the boy had never done magic, but he had. She’d seen it herself, but hadn’t told her husband for fear of what he’d do.

She walked into the sitting-room and was surprised to hear Vernon sobbing. In all her years that she had known him, Vernon had never cried. He had always told both Dudley and Harry that tears were for girls, not for little men, and yet there he was crying.

“Vernon?” she asked uneasily.

“I never meant to kill him…” he said. “Sure, I hit him around a bit, but it was for his own good! I always thought that by hitting him, it would teach him to be a man. Those- those the people like him use the freaky stuff to defend themselves! I thought that if I taught him at a young age to be a man, he’d learn to control it. He hasn’t done it yet, has he? It’s worked so far. I hated him, but I never wanted to do too much harm to him. It’s why I waited until after his third birthday. I wasn’t going to teach him to be a bigger man until he was at least five-years-old. I-I thought I was doing him a favour, he’d be better off without the magic!”

“Vernon-” she began.

“No, Petunia! I am a murderer! I don’t know what made me do it. When he asked for a treat, for some reason it angered me. I don’t know why. By rights, I should have given him one, the teens left, didn’t they? Something about him has always made me go a bit further than I mean to! Just as when I spank him, I always spank him longer and harder than a boy his age needs. Now I’ve killed him.”

Petunia nodded. They sat down, and began working out a plan. They were going to bury him that night in the back yard. The next day, Vernon would buy some new grass to put over his ‘grave.’ They didn’t plan to sell the house ever; they were going to leave it to Dudley, so by the time Harry was found, if ever, they’d be long gone. Dudley was so young, he wouldn’t remember his cousin really well when he was an adult.

“The problem is, he is already registered at school for September,” Petunia told Vernon.

She knew it was wrong to do what they were doing, but she knew her husband was sorry. She didn’t want Dudley to grow up with the fact that his father was a murderer. She could go to jail as well as Vernon. Had she ever told him to lighten up on their nephew? After Harry’s body was examined it would be obvious that he didn’t eat enough, Vernon liked to punish him for a few days without food. There were also the bruises that covered his little body. He’d been given a terrible spanking the other day; his behind was still very raw from it. She had to put cream on it every night before he went to bed.

She’d felt fear when Dudley had asked her to read a story to both of them. She knew they would end up fighting and Vernon would spank Harry. His rear end was still too tender though, which meant she’d have to step in. Her husband had never raised a hand to her, but sometimes when she saw his temper, she was scared he would.

“We’ll tell them we sent him to live with other relatives. We can still cancel it. The neighbours really haven’t seen him. They know he is here, but we can tell them the same story. We’ll say that you and your sister had a cousin who had really wanted to take care of him and she thought that two young children were too much of a burden for us…” Vernon said.

Petunia nodded in agreement.

After Dudley had been put to bed, they went into the room where Harry lay. Petunia didn’t want to look at him, and perhaps if they had looked at him more closely, they would have seen that he really wasn’t dead. Perhaps because he was in Dudley’s too big clothes, Vernon couldn’t feel that little Harry Potter’s heart was beating. Perhaps they were both too stricken with grief. They didn’t realize that his magic had saved him.

Vernon still had to dig the hole. They decided on a spot by the shed and laid him down. They went back inside, Vernon was nervous that it was still too light out. He wanted to drink something alcoholic if he had to go through with this. Petunia was debating whether or not she’d watch… after a while she decided it was for the best. Her husband might need her support.

They held hands as they went back out to the backyard. However, when they got to the spot they had left Harry, they realized something was wrong. He was gone.

Severus lazily read through a page of his book, though he really wasn’t taking the words in. His mind was on someone else, someone who had been dead for almost three years. Every time he thought about her, he felt remorse. He felt angry with Dumbledore as well. Why hadn’t he protected her better? He closed his eyes and pictured Lily the last time he had seen her.

CRACK!

He jumped up from the chair he had been sitting in; he dropped his book to the floor. On his floor was a very small child who was crying. He walked over to him and kneeled in front of him, the child started to gasp for breath as if he were hyperventilating. Severus was shocked, but intrigued at the same time. He picked the little boy up and sat down in his chair, holding him on his lap. Where had he come from? Obviously the child was magical, and had somehow apparated to his place. He expected that the boy hadn’t liked the effects of apparition.

“Hey, calm down,” he said. “Can you tell me who you are?”

He didn’t have to. When Severus looked into his face, he knew who it was. The legendary scar was on his forehead. He knew the face, it was the face of James Potter, though very young and without glasses. The boy looked up into his face and stopped crying, but Severus felt the sadness again, he had Lily’s eyes.

“Where am I?” he asked as he wiped his face.

“At my house. Somehow you appeared here. Can you tell me what you were doing before you appeared here?” Severus asked.

Harry nodded. “I was playin with my cousin Dudley. Then damn teenagers were being noisy. Uncle Vernon got angry and slapped my face. He threw me hard on floor… then I was here!”

Severus had to try and contain his laughter at hearing such a young child swear. When Harry got to the part about the slapped face, he frowned. As he looked over him closely, he saw that the child was covered in a lot of bruises. There was also a faint mark of a hand print on his cheek, and he had a fat lip.

“Did you get hit often at home?” Severus asked.

Harry shook his head. “When I am bad. I wasn’t bad today. Uncle Vernon wanted the damn teenagers to stop. So he slap me. Then he yell at them and said they make me cry. He say they woke me from nap. I didn’t sleep yet. I was going to hear story first. Uncle Vernon say I was going to get a treat and I never had treat for long time. I was happy and then- and then he slap me!”

“He told you that he was going to give you a treat, and then when you went over to him he slapped you? Just to get the da- the teenagers to stop being noisy?” Severus asked, he wasn’t sure if he heard right.

Severus would have believed that James Potter’s son would be spoiled and arrogant. However, the child couldn’t have been more than four-years-old. He knew that children that young were always very honest; the bruises also told a story of an abused boy. He looked into Harry’s eyes.

He brought up the memory Harry had just described.

Harry was putting blocks away but then a loud booming voice called him over. He got up, and made his way through a sitting-room very nervously, almost afraid. Was he going to be punished? The tall fat man stared down at him, but he was smiling, this was rare when it came to Uncle Vernon.

“Come here, Harry. You want a treat?” asked the man in a very gentle and kind voice.

Excitement ran through him. A treat! He rarely ever got treats; he ran over to his uncle and grinned up at him. The next moment, he lay on the floor after a painful smack against his cheek. He knew he wasn’t supposed to cry, but he couldn’t help it. He started to cry hard. His uncle took him outside and yelled at the damn teenagers. He realized why his uncle had hit him and knew now he’d get a treat.

“Treat?” he asked hopefully.

His body hit the floor hard and he couldn’t breathe! He tried so hard and his aunt and uncle couldn’t help. Everything went black but the voices were still around him, one was trying to revive him, there was no need, the magic was keeping him alive. He’d be fine once the fat man was gone. Then he could see again, he was laying in a comfortable bed, which was rare for him. He closed his eyes again, and fell asleep.

He opened his eyes later; he lay outside it was a pleasantly warm evening. His aunt and uncle were walking away, why had they left him out here? He felt sudden sadness and bitterness he’d never felt before. There was a longing for someone close to him… suddenly everything went black again. It was an uncomfortable kind of black, everything was tight. Suddenly he was on solid ground again. He started to cry, it had been really scary in the blackness, and he thought he’d stop breathing again…

Severus looked away. The boy was staring up at him with a curious look on his face. Severus knew he had seen the memory as well, so he was surprised that he hadn’t started to cry again. He cocked his head to the side as he stared up at him.

“You see my uncle hurt me?” Harry asked which surprised Severus.

“Yes I did. I’m just confused, I guess it was me that brought you here,” he answered though he wasn’t really speaking to Harry.

“You don’t like how I’m hurt? I stay here now?”

“What?” Severus asked, “No, I don’t think so.”

“Oh,” he said and looked down sadly.

There was a loud noise that came from his stomach. Severus asked him when he’d eaten last that day, but Harry shook his head. Confused he asked again, but Harry just shrugged and looked away.

“Not since spanking,” he finally said. “Still hurts a lot.”

“When did your uncle spank you?” Severus asked as Harry’s stomach growled again.

He stood up with Harry in his arms; he carried him into his kitchen and set him into a chair. He had some leftovers that he could feed the boy. While he ate, Severus planned to summon Dumbledore who could probably answer all his questions. Though, if he had a say in the matter, the boy would not be returning to his aunt and uncles. He should have known that Petunia would be that way with a young wizard.

“What are you doing sir?” Harry asked.

“I’m just heating some food up for you. You didn’t answer my question. When did you get spanked? Was it today?”

Harry shook his head. “I got spanked and then… er, I slept and then it was morning and then I came out cause I need bathroom but I went back. I stayed in cupboard all day long until I go to bathroom and have water. It was night then I slept. I played with Dudley outside. Then I slept. Today is Saturday and Uncle Vernon was home, I didn’t eat today.”

“So the last time you ate was Wednesday? What meal did you eat?” Severus asked as he placed a plate of warm small portions of potatoes, broccoli and chicken in front of him.

“Breakfast and lunch. Uncle Vernon came home and spanked me. Still hurts a lot.”

Severus looked into Harry’s mind again to see what kind of spanking it was. He flinched as he watched it, but again, it didn’t seem affect the boy at all. Instead, he was staring at the plate of food in front of him; he appeared to be very confused.

“Do you like that kind of food?” Severus asked.

“Yes… I allowed to eat?” he asked.

“That’s why it’s there. I want you to eat something please. You’ll be okay if I leave you alone?”

Harry nodded. Enthusiastically, he began to eat quickly. Severus left and hurried to the fireplace in the sitting room. He lit a fire, grabbed a handful of floo powder and through it into the fire. When the flames were green, he got onto his hands and knees and stuck his head into the warm but not burning flames.

“Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, Headmasters office!” he yelled.

Professor Dumbledore was sitting at his desk, writing something, but he looked up when Severus appeared.

“Ah, Severus and what do I owe this pleasure of a visit?” he asked.

“There’s a problem, you need to come now,” Severus told him.

He briefly explained how Harry had appeared at his house, and was currently eating after being starved for three days. Dumbledore went to say something, but Severus felt something grabbing at his shoulders. He swore and pulled his head out of the fireplace. He sat on the floor of his sitting-room, rather dizzy. He looked up to see a pair of green eyes staring into his face.

“What you doing?” Harry asked. “I wanna try!”

Harry ran at the flames which were no longer green. Severus grabbed him by the waist and pulled him down into his lap. Harry reached up and patted his cheek; he had a look of confusion on his face. He looked into the flames and reached a hand out to touch. Quickly Severus was on his feet.

“No, Harry. You’ll get burnt! There is a special way I do it so I don’t get hurt,” he said.

“How?” Harry asked.

“I have magical powder that I throw in there. The fire turns green and then it’s safe. You see how it’s not green?” Harry nodded. “Well right now it isn’t safe. Oh look!”

The flames turned green, Harry struggled in his arms, wanting to touch the flames now, but Severus held tight. Albus Dumbledore climbed out of the fireplace. Harry’s mouth fell open as he looked at the Headmaster from head to toe.

“Hello Harry,” Albus said.

“How do you know my name?” Harry asked. “He knows too. He ask but I didn’t tell! He knows though. How do you?”

“We knew you when you were a baby,” Albus answered. “Now, Harry I want you to tell me about your life with your aunt and uncle. Don’t be afraid, if they hurt you, you need to tell us.”

Severus sat back down in the chair, he felt very protective of him now. He noticed that Harry was still eying the fire. He would have to put a barrior in front of it. No doubt the boy would try to touch it when he wasn’t looking. Wait, why am I thinking this? The child isn’t staying.

“I got slap across the face cause of damn teenagers,” Harry answered and he touched his cheek. “I thought I had treat.”

Severus explained what Harry meant by that when Dumbledore looked shocked. It could have been because the boy had sworn. He told him everything about the memory he had seen to how Harry seemed to have felt Severus’ grief over Lily Potter’s death and had suddenly appeared.

“This certainly complicates things,” Dumbledore said.

“What do you mean? You can’t send him back there,” Severus said. “There has to be another alternative.”

“There is. You summoned him when you were grieving over his mother. At the same time, Harry was in danger, which means a bond was created between the two of you. When I placed Harry at his aunts house, I sealed the blood bond that would keep him safe from Voldemort… it was the only place he’d be safe. Now there are two places he can be safe,” Dumbledore answered.

“What are you talking about?” Severus demanded.

“I stay here?” Harry asked in a hopeful voice. “Please. No more aunt and uncle! No more spankings! Please no more slaps or no hard to-” and Harry started to imitate breathing.

“Lily’s blood can protect Harry here as well as his aunts because you created a bond between the two of you because you were grieving her at the very moment that Harry was in danger,” Dumbledore said. “That is the only reason why he appeared here at that very moment.”

“That doesn’t make sense. He wasn’t in danger in the yard,” Severus answered.

“Harry, do you mind if I look into your memory? You are going to see what happened at your aunt and uncles, but you will be safe here,” Dumbledore said.

Harry nodded. “He saw my uncle spank me and slap my face.”

Severus explained that it didn’t seem to bother Harry for some reason. Dumbledore muttered something about it being easier when people were really young. If Harry was older, it would be exhausting and likely painful as well. Dumbledore pointed his wand at the boy’s face and his eyes rolled up.

“Ah…” Dumbledore said when he had finished. “They thought they had killed him, so they were going to bury him the backyard. If you hadn’t summoned him when you did, I imagine at this moment he’d be dead. He didn’t have the energy to show his aunt and uncle that he was alive. They were both too upset to notice that he wasn’t dead.”

“I stay here?” Harry repeated. “No more hurting?”

“There is a problem with this. I live at Hogwarts for ten months at a time. Besides, you don’t know if Voldemort will be back,” Severus said.

“There have been parent teachers at Hogwarts before. The house-elves can watch him for you during the day. Although, soon we’ll have to tell him about his parents, I don’t imagine he knows the truth at this young age. They were probably waiting until he was older to tell him. He’ll need to know the truth, otherwise the students may tell him,” Dumbledore said. “As for Voldemort, he can find a way to come back to power two, five, ten years from now… it’s better to keep him somewhere safe. Obviously he isn’t safe with his aunt and uncle.”

“I stay here?” Harry asked again.

“Yes, Harry you can stay here,” Severus answered.

He didn’t want to admit it, but he’d already agreed to it before the Headmaster had explained the bond between them. There was something about the boy that he liked. Perhaps it was his intuitiveness; he seemed rather smart for his age. When he had seen Harry try to stick his head in the flames, he’d been terrified for the boy’s life.

“You’re going to take him in?” Dumbledore asked.

Harry had his leaning against Severus’ chest, his eyes were closed, he was whispering something, but neither could hear what it was. He hugged him closer to him, he couldn’t have Lily, but he could have her son. It didn’t matter that he looked a lot like James, he would teach him to be a polite child. The boy wouldn’t be anything like his father; he was still very young and innocent.

“You two should get settled in then. I am going to the boy’s aunt and uncle to talk to them,” Dumbledore said.

“NO!” Harry shouted and started to cry. “Don’t wanna go back! No more spankings, no more hurting, no more! Please, no more.”

Over and over again, Harry repeated those words. Severus rubbed his back and explained that Harry would never have to see them again. He told him that they would be punished for hurting him all the time. Harry nodded and looked up at Dumbledore.

“No more spankings,” he told him.

“You’ll never be spanked again,” Severus said. “I will never hit you, I promise.”

“No saying I get treat but slap me in the face because of damn teenagers,” Harry told him.

Severus heard Dumbledore chuckle and then there was a loud crack as he disappeared. Harry stared at the place he had been, and then a small smile appeared on his face. Severus decided it was time to talk to the boy about right and wrong. He obviously didn’t realize that he was swearing.

“Harry, damn is a bad word. I don’t want to hear you say it, okay?” Severus said. “Did your uncle say that word a lot?”

“Didn’t know it was swear word some words bad to say. Didn’t know that one was,” Harry said.

“Well it is, but it’s okay. You’re just a little boy. You didn’t know but don’t say it anymore,” Severus said.

“No more saying damn,” Harry nodded.

Severus decided to let that one go. He glanced up at the clock and saw that it was nearly ten at night. He stood up and went to a bookcase that was concealing a staircase. He moved it with a swish of his wand, and then went up the stairs. He wasn’t sure which room would be best for Harry. He glanced in each one and finally decided on the second largest bedroom… his old bedroom.

“This will be your new room,” Severus told Harry as he turned on the light.

“I get to sleep in here?” Harry asked.

“Where else would you sleep?”

“In the cupboard under the stairs,” he said casually.

Severus shook his head; he wanted to see the boy’s aunt and uncle. Perhaps if he got Harry to fall asleep quickly, he could go over for a quick visit. He hadn’t seen Petunia in years. He wanted to know how they could treat an innocent child the way they had. He placed him into the large bed, in the middle in case he fell off, and tucked him in.

“You’ll have to sleep in your clothes tonight, but tomorrow we’ll get you pajamas and some new clothes! Ones that actually fit,” Severus told him.

“Okay,” Harry said. “What’s your name, sir?”

“You can call me Severus, that’s my name.”

Harry nodded. “I like you Severus. Thank you for letting me stay.”

“You’re welcome. I’m sorry you had to be hurt all the time. Harry, I want you to know right now that you didn’t deserve any of it, okay? You are a very well behaved child. Your aunt and uncle were bad, not you!”

“Okay… can you read me a story?” Harry asked.

He didn’t have any children’s books in the house, it would have to be something else to get. In fact, Harry needed toys along with clothes. He sighed, it was a good thing he had a lot of money saved up.

“Let me tell you a story about a little girl named Lily Evans,” Severus said.

He began to tell Harry all about his mother, and a day shortly after they had met. Severus wanted to wait until he was a little older before he revealed the truth about Lily and Petunia. Harry lay staring up at him with a small smile on his face. Soon he drifted off to sleep. Severus stayed where he was, just to be sure. After waiting a few minutes, he got up and shut off the lights, but left the hall light on.

He wasn’t sure about leaving Harry home alone, but he had to see what was going on at the Dursley place. He hurried down the steps and over to the fireplace again. He went down onto his hands and knees before he called out the location. A man with blond hair and a pointed face looked up from where he had been pacing.

“Lucius, I need a favor,” he said.

The houses on the street he appeared on all looked the same. Severus passed a group of teenagers who were grouped near the house he wanted to visit.

“Hey, you,” a boy said to him.

Severus paused, waiting for one of them to ask about his wardrobe, his clothes weren’t exactly ones that Muggles were used to. He realized that he should have tried to dress more like one, but he hadn’t had time.

“You’re going to that house there?” the boy asked.

“Yes,” Severus answered.

“Tell them we’re really sorry for waking his nephew up.”

Severus nodded, and then made his way across the yard. He’d considered telling the teenagers the truth, but decided against it. He walked up to the door and knocked loudly. There was some muttering inside, and then Petunia Dursley opened the door. Her face went white as she stared back at him.

“You,” she whispered.

“Who is it?” A man shouted.

“Another one! The one that Harry is staying with,” she answered. “Come in, I guess.”

Severus followed her into the house. They were by the stairs; he noticed a cupboard and walked over to it to open the door. He peered inside to see that blankets covered the floor to make a bed with a small couch pillow resting on top. There were some broken toys on a shelf and some clothes under it. It was a very small space; he couldn’t believe that these people would actually force a child to grow up in it.

He backed up and turned to Petunia who was staring back at him, her face was still white.

“How many bedrooms do you have?” he asked her.

“Four,” she said.

“Yet, Harry had to sleep here?” Severus asked her with disgust.

“Don’t judge me, if it hadn’t been for-” she started to say.

“I’m judging you and your husband for child abuse! He smacked Harry across the face to shut up a gang of teenagers! They are out there by the way, they wanted me to apologize and yet what your husband did was a lot worse!” Severus yelled.

Albus Dumbledore walked into the hallway from the sitting-room.

“I thought I heard you’re voice. I didn’t expect you to come. What about Harry?” he said.

“I got Lucius to watch over him. He was asleep when I left,” Severus told him.

They went into the sitting-room. Severus recognized Vernon from Harry’s memories. He was very pale at the moment. If he could, he’d use the torture curse on the man. He’d been very brutal when he had spanked him, it was as if he had spanked him with all his strength… and Harry was three-years-old. He’d let it go on for at least fifteen minutes. He’d also watched him smack the child across the face, and then had thrown him hard against the floor.

“This is Severus Snape, the man who has decided to adopt your nephew,” Dumbledore told Vernon.

Vernon added. “How is he?”

“Better now that he isn’t starved, and will never be beaten again!” Severus roared. “That little boy is malnourished, I checked with a spell-” both Dursley’s flinched at the word spell. “and he is much to underweight for a child his age, too short as well. What the hell were you thinking Dursley? You could have killed him.”

“I wasn’t thinking,” Vernon said, “and I still don’t get it, why didn’t he die? He looked dead.”

“He almost did die when he stopped breathing; his magic took over and kept him alive when he went still. He would have started to breathe quicker, if you had backed off Mr. Dursley. His magic was protecting him from you. The moment you left the bedroom, he woke up, and then he fell asleep because he was drained of energy as I’ve explained. Underage magic is extraordinary,” Dumbledore said.

“Why did you beat him all the time? Why did you smack him across the face? Why didn’t you just tell the teenagers that the boys were trying to nap? Why doesn’t he have a proper bedroom? Why are all of his toys broken?” Severus fired the questions at Vernon very fast.

Vernon didn’t answer for a moment. “I didn’t want that freakish nature in my house. I thought if I beat him at a young age, he’d learn self-defense so that he wouldn’t resort to the magic when he was older. I was teaching him to be a proper man.”

“Starving and beating him was teaching him to be a man? Harry could have grown up bitter and turned on other people. You weren’t teaching him anything but to hate himself,” Snape answered. “He acts like the life he had here was a normal one. I want to see some punishment, Dumbledore.”

“We were just talking about that before you arrived. Since Harry is a magical being, I feel that the punishment should be from the Ministry. I am going to go down to talk about having a hearing with them. I feel that Azkaban prison would have a better affect on him than a Muggle one would,” Dumbledore told him.

“For both of them you mean?” Severus asked as he glared at Petunia whose face paled even more.

“Petunia didn’t beat Harry,” Dumbledore said, “But she’ll go to a hearing as well because she let the abuse go on.”

“Good. I might go to that hearing. I came to say and hear what I’ve wanted. If I could, I would torture you both for putting that child through what you did. He is three-years-old! A teenager would crack under the kind of spankings you gave him!” Severus shouted.

He stormed from the house, on his way through, he pulled his wand out and destroyed the framed photographs none had Harry in the family portraits. If a visitor came, they wouldn’t even know the boy existed. He stopped at Harry’s cupboard and peered in to see if there were any proper toys he could give him, but he didn’t see any.

Outside, the teenagers were still laughing and talking. They stopped when he started to walk past them.

“Did you tell him sir?” the same boy from earlier asked.

“There was no need. You didn’t wake him. It turns out that those people were very abusive toward that little boy. He smacked his nephew across the face and then took him outside when he started to cry so he could blame you,” Severus told them.

No one said a word at first, he didn’t care anymore. He had seen Harry’s living quarters; he wanted the world to know what that monster had put him through. A girl looked back at the house and then at him.

“You know, I kind of wondered about that little boy. They have him doing chores that he shouldn’t be doing at his age. See that garden-” she pointed to a rose garden in front of the house “-well they had him trimming the roses and when he accidentally cut the rose off with the snips, the man grabbed him and told him he was getting a spanking… sir, those snips he was using were much too big for him to be using in the first place. He wears clothes that are way to big for him. I think he wears his older cousin’s clothes and that little boy is way too big for his age while the nephew looks really skinny.”

Severus nodded. “Thanks for telling me that. Harry has gone through a lot more than a four-year-old deserves. He lost his parents when he was a baby, then he came to live here where he has been starved and abused. He is being removed from the home. I went over to tell them that they have to go to a hearing.”

“That little boy is four? He looks no older than two…” the boy said.

“He’ll be four at the end of July. He’s not as big as he should be because he was starved. I have to get going, thanks for telling me and don’t feel bad about those people,” Severus said and walked away.

He could hear the teenagers muttering as he walked away and felt satisfied. He knew that it would be spread around the town by the next morning, he knew how much children their age liked to gossip. The Dursley’s wouldn’t be able to hold their heads in public again. When he was out of their sight, he turned on his heel and vanished.

“I wanna go by myself through, please!” Harry asked.

“Harry, I don’t want you to get lost through the floo network,” Severus told him.

“Please!” Harry said again.

“No,” Severus answered and lifted him up. “When you are a lot bigger, but not now.”

“When I’m four? I’ll be four soon, I know I will!” Harry answered excitedly.

“When you’re a lot older,” Severus said.

He reached into his pot of floo powder, grabbed a handful and threw it into the flames. They turned green and Severus stepped into the fireplace, and yelled: “Diagon Alley!” Harry screamed as they started to spin fast, his eyes were open wide, though Severus had told him to keep them closed. When they were out in the Leaky Cauldron, Harry was bawling loudly.

“That’s why I wanted to be with you,” Severus answered.

“No like. No more dizzy green fire,” Harry said.

Severus noticed that when the boy was upset, he spoke as if he were a really young child but other times he could speak in more complete sentences. He carried him through the pub, ignoring everyone. He was glad that he had taken a good amount of Galleons out of his vault earlier that week; he didn’t think Harry would like the ride on the carts.

“We’re going to get you some new clothes first, and then we’ll stop to get you some new toys and books,” Severus said.

“I get new toys?” Harry asked.

“Yes.”

He carried him into Madame Malkin’s and set him on his feet. Madame Malkin hurried over, gushing about how adorable he was, and how she didn’t know that Severus had a son. He looked down at Harry who was looking around the room and felt some warmth in his stomach, the child was his son. He had been a father for not even a day and he liked the sound of it.

“I want to get him some everyday robes in dark colour’s, as well as some Hogwarts robes. I think a few pairs of black dress robes as well,” Severus told her. “I’ll need them to be delivered though.”

“All right, young man, if you could just step on this stool so I can measure you… the clothes he is wearing now are much too big for him Severus,” she said as she helped Harry onto a stool.

“I just actually got guardianship over him. The people who were taking care of before neglected him,” Severus answered.

“He told me I get a treat and then smack me across face because of teenagers,” Harry told her.

“Pardon?” she asked.

Severus explained quickly what he had meant. He wished Harry would speak properly if he was going to talk about the abuse. He could talk properly any other time, but for some reason when he spoke of something that upset him, he only connected words together but didn’t make much sense.

“Well it’s good he isn’t living there anymore, how old is he? Can I take his shirt off please? It will be easier to make sure his robes fit properly, I can’t measure him when he is wearing these clothes,” she said and Severus nodded.

They both gasped when they saw his rib bones sticking out, and how his stomach seemed to be sticking inward. His stomach was also covered in many bruises and his neck had purple marks, which had been hidden by the neckline of his shirt. Severus walked over and pulled his pants off as well so that he was left standing in a pair of underwear, the only thing that fit him properly. His legs were bruises as well and were too thin.

“My goodness look at the back of his legs,” Madame Malkin said, tears were shimmering in her eyes.

He looked, he wanted to go back to the Dursley’s, and it took all his self-control not to leave him with Malkin. The back of his legs were so swollen, it was a wonder why Harry could sit down at all. They were so dark blue and purple, but there was also broken skin as well. It went from the back of knees to under his underwear.

“Harry, why didn’t you tell me you were in pain?” Severus asked.

He had seen the spanking, but he hadn’t seen the result of it. He pulled out his wand and pointed at the back of legs, there was a loud pop, and the bruises were gone. Madame Malkin apparently knew healing spells as well because she started to work on his upper body as well.

“Is this Harry Potter?” she asked.

Severus nodded.

“But I thought Dumbledore left him with Muggle relatives.”

“He did, but they didn’t want him because he was magical. His uncle thought that if he beat him enough, Harry wouldn’t be magical anymore.”

“I don’t hurt anymore!” Harry shouted; he held his arms out in front of him. “Thank you! I don’t know what you did, but it worked!”

Madame Malkin finished measuring him more quickly with the removal of his huge clothes. She disappeared and came back with a pair of dark green robes which she pulled over his head. Severus knew why she had chosen the colour, they looked good on him. He looked down at them, then glanced at him and smiled.

“Thank you Severus,” he said.

“You’re very welcome Harry and thanks Madame. I’d appreciate it if you didn’t tell anyone what you saw here,” Severus said. “You know my address, send the clothes along late this afternoon, we’ll be home then.”

She nodded; she still had tears in her eyes. He didn’t blame her. He hadn’t expected to see Harry looking the way he did. He picked him back up and carried him out the door. He didn’t know why he hadn’t thought to give the boy a bath, at least then he would have seen all the damage. He’d figured he’d clean him up when he had new clothes so he wouldn’t have to change twice.

“I don’t hurt anymore,” Harry said happily.

“I wish you had told me you were in pain. It must have hurt a lot just to sit down. I think a grownup would have cried from that kind of pain,” Severus answered. “How often did he spank you?”

“When I’m bad. He spank me a lot all day. Sometime I get spank in morning, afternoon and night! Every day I get spank sometime and then sometime no spank no more until long time.”

Severus sighed; there he was again not speaking properly. He took him to a children’s store in Diagon Alley. There was an assortment of toys for children of all ages. He hadn’t stepped foot in the store since he had been a young child. He put Harry down and told him to pick all the toys he wanted and to put them in a large basket that he had unshrunk while he looked for some children books.

He picked up Tales of Beedle the Bard instantly; most children knew the stories by Beedle. He looked around for more when Harry ran over holding a dog that was barking.

“I like this toy,” he said.

“Put it in the basket and then get whatever else you want,” Severus said.

“I get more than one toy?” Harry asked.

“Yes, pick out whatever you want Harry. We’re going to have them delivered as well, here put this book in the basket as well.”

Harry stared at him with amazement, then ran over and threw his arms around his legs.

“You’re the nicest person I’ve ever met,” he told him, then ran to where they had left the basket.

Severus shook his head, it was sad because it was true. He selected an armful of books and turned to see that the basket was over flowing with toys. The strange thing was, they were all obviously magical, but Harry didn’t question it. He could have grown up in the magical world as far as the boy was concerned. Severus made room in the basket for the books, and then looked around for Harry.

“Look at me Severus!” Harry shouted.

He was riding a toy broomstick, around in circles near the owner. He was laughing as he leaned forward and it shot fast toward Severus who jumped out of the way just in time.

“He really knows how to fly. He told me he’s never seen a broomstick before,” the woman said. “Are you going to take that as well?”

“Might as well, and that’s it Harry. We’ll come back here when it’s your birthday.”

“He is adorable,” she said. “Are you getting these toys delivered?”

“Sometime this afternoon please,” Severus said. “I think we’ll take a toy or two to keep us busy- no not the broom, Harry. Pick out some small toys and we’ll take a book as well. I want you to take a bath and then a nap this afternoon.”

“Is this Harry Potter? I see the scar.”

“Yes it is,” Severus answered. He wished people wouldn’t ask about it. He could tell that Harry was listening.

“My uncle told me I get treat then smack me across the face cause of teenagers,” Harry said quickly. “He let me stay at his home now.”

“I’m adopting him because he lived in an abusive situation with his aunt and uncle. That’s why we are getting all this stuff today. Harry, pick out a couple toys. I already know which book we’re taking.”

The owner told him the price of all the toys, which was a lot, but Severus had enough and paid. He hadn’t realized that it would be so expensive, but he only wanted Harry to have the best. He picked up Harry who was holding a bag of blocks. He really wished the boy would stop telling people about his uncle slapping him across the face. It would be out soon enough about the abuse, but he didn’t want to keep explaining it to people. He’d thought about taking Harry out for lunch, but decided against it. He would just make him lunch at home.

Severus stared down at the small sleeping boy. His life had changed a lot over the past few weeks. He couldn’t remember the last time he had been as happy. He looked around the room, which had changed considerably since Harry’s first night. Toys lay on the floor, a bookshelf which had been full of old school books now had young children books in it. The closet had very small and new robes hung inside. Childish drawings and paintings were on the walls.

Severus was kept busy trying to keep up with a very excited three-year-old boy. Harry had played quietly his first couple of days, but as each day passed, he grew louder. None of this annoyed him though, on the contrary, when Harry was screaming and laughing, this made Severus feel good. He was giving the boy freedom to enjoy childhood, something he really hadn’t had at the Dursley’s.

Oh he knew that Harry had been allowed to play there. Harry told him a lot about his life at his aunt and uncles. He’d even been into some of his memories to see what else had gone on there. As long as the child had played quietly, he was all right. He got spanked hard over the most trivial things though. A glass of juice spilled, dropping food on the floor, accidentally colouring off of the paper and onto the table. Yes, Harry had been allowed to play, but it had to be careful play and quiet.

One memory had shown Harry very sad after a spanking; he had accidentally screamed too loudly, so he’d been given a very long and hard one. Afterward, Harry had to clear the table for them, he was much too distracted, no doubt from the pain he was in and dropped a plate on the floor. Nothing had been broken, no food had been on the plate, and the boy had quickly picked it up. His uncle however had been angry that the plate had dropped at all, so the boy had been spanked again! It was a much longer and harder spanking then the first. Petunia had tried to stop that one while the boy had screamed in pain.

“Vernon, stop! He’s too little to be handled so roughly. He just turned three-years-old!”

This had earned a harsh glare which she had taken very seriously; she let the punishment go on. That had made Severus angry; he had to leave the room so Harry couldn’t see the anger. He had been barely three-years-old in the memory and he’d been forced to clear the table, and had already been punished severely just for screaming. What little child didn’t scream when they were excited?

The thought of how many times Harry had been beaten over a day, and starved for a long time made up his mind. The child could be as loud as he wanted to be, he could play when he wanted, and he could spill all the juice on the floor all day if he wanted. Harry rarely misbehaved though, and when he did scream from excitement, it was never too loud. Severus knew many children between the ages of two to five, and his child was the sweetest he’d ever met. So this made him angry to know that the Dursley’s had beaten their nephew often.

There were times when he had to scold Harry for misbehaving, when he did, he would lecture him and send him to his room. When Harry came out later, he’d climb into Severus’ lap and apologize. Then he would ask for a story, which Severus would be only too happy to retrieve a book to read to him, or tell him a story about Lily.

The teenagers weren’t too happy about Harry’s mistreatment either. At times, Severus would leave his house quickly to see how the Dursley’s were faring without their son, who had been taken away. From what he could see, they were very depressed, and worried about their upcoming hearing. They were miserable as well, the kids had been sure to spread what they had done to Harry around town. Not only that, but they egged and papered the house constantly, yelled as loudly as they could in front of the house and made obscene gestures at Vernon whenever he went outside.

“Child abuser!” “Heard you starved that little boy! Why? Couldn’t get enough food for yourself or that pudgy son of yours Dursley?” “I hope you’re in prison for life!” “You thought we were loud before, but now you’ll never hear the end of us!” “We didn’t wake your nephew; you beat him so he’d cry!” “Animals!” “I hope you die!”

Those were some of the things Severus heard when he quickly checked in. He could never stay for long, though Harry usually slept from eight at night until around seven in the morning, he was always nervous about leaving him alone either way. He’d go out long enough just to see what was going on, always disguised of course.

Now as he stared at the small boy who was taking an afternoon nap, he wanted the time to go by quickly so they could play again. He left the room quietly and headed down the steps. He couldn’t stand the peace and quiet that filled the house when Harry slept. He would spend his time reminiscing over Lily. Although he’d only had the boy for a few weeks, he couldn’t understand how he’d been able to spend all his time alone during the holidays. The first months of summer were always hard; he didn’t have to worry about preparing for the school year until the August.

He entered his sitting room where a colouring book and many toys lay. In the evenings he had Harry put the toys away, but it was pointless before naptime. The toys would just be scattered throughout the house after he woke up from an hour sleep. It was better just to leave them where they were. His eyes fell on a block tower that Severus had built before the nap. Since day one, Harry’s favourite game was for one of them to build a tower and then the other to kick the blocks down. Severus couldn’t understand why. They had been the only toys Harry had selected from the toys they’d bring home with them first. This had been a surprise since the blocks weren’t magical, the rest of the toys were.

The next day was Harry’s birthday. Severus had planned to invite Lucius and his small son over to celebrate it. He was nervous about the two boys meetings. Draco Malfoy was a very spoiled and arrogant. At the age of four, he was very bossy. He liked to tell the two little boys he usually played with, Gregory Goyle and Vincent Crabbe what to do. Harry was still very sensitive at the moment, in time Severus would teach him to be a bigger man (and most definitely not in the way Dursley had) but for the time being, Harry could whine and cry all he wanted.

Severus settled in a chair to look over the results of his Slytherin students who sat down for OWLs the previous year. He wasn’t surprised to see that some of the students hadn’t done too well in their subjects to continue into sixth year. He always looked forward to losing the inadequate students for his Potion’s class. Reading through the results passed the time; he jumped when he heard a crash and then Harry’s laughter. He looked up over the pile of parchment in his lap to see that the block tower now lay in pieces on the floor.

“I build now and then you can kick them Sev!” Harry said.

Severus jolted at the name. Only Lily had ever called him that, now her small son with her eyes had used the old nickname. As if sensing something, Harry’s smile faltered and still he couldn’t find the words to say something to the child. Slowly the boy lowered his head and stared at the floor, a moment later sobs were wracking his body and he fell to the floor.

“No, Harry, it’s okay!” Severus said.

He quickly put the student’s results up where Harry couldn’t get them and hurried to gather the small boy in his arms.

“You’re angry with me. You don’t want me no more,” Harry sobbed.

“No, why would you think that? You are staying with me.”

“You looked angry. You looked like Uncle Vernon when he is going to spank me…”

Had he? Severus hugged Harry tighter and explained that he was not angry with him. He couldn’t explain to the boy about the relationship he’d had with his mother. He had to tell him something though, the boy was crying harder and he understood. The first person to treat the child nicely in his memory had glared at him angrily and he didn’t understand it.

“I am sorry that I looked angry, but I am not. If I am angry with you, what do I do?”

“Make me go to my room,” Harry said as he pulled back.

“Right, I will never send you away when I am angry. I wasn’t though.”

“Then why did you look like it? I thought you weren’t happy because I knocked down your tower. I thought you were going to spank me and send me away,” Harry said.

“No, I told you that I will never spank you. Also, I built the tower for you to knock down. I’m sorry that you thought I was angry with you. Now why don’t we go out in the yard so you can fly your broom?”

Harry nodded happily, he wrapped his arms back around Severus.

“I love you Sev,” he said.

This time Severus smiled.

Harry’s fourth birthday was a beautiful and warm day. What made it even better was the fact that it was the Dursley’s hearing. Severus had a feeling that Dumbledore had arranged it that way. Years from now, it would be a good birthday present.

Severus was still in bed, it wasn’t even six in the morning when Harry ran in to jump on the bed.

“Happy birthday to Harry!” he shouted as he jumped.

“Yes, Harry birthday Harry,” Severus said.

He was not a morning person, but he was slowly learning to be one. He was irritated with Harry for waking him up so early, but he refused to scold him. It was the first birthday party the child would remember having, and he refused to wreck it for him. Instead, he told Harry to meet him downstairs so that he could get dressed.

When he did finally get downstairs, a surprise met him. Two bowls of cereal sat ready on the table along with two cups of orange juice; the Daily Prophet lay beside one of the bowls of cereal.

“I got your breakfast ready Sev,” Harry said.

“It’s your birthday, I should have done that,” Severus said in amazement.

“I know, but you are giving me a birthday party. I’ve never had one before. I poured the milk and orange juice all by myself without spilling once! I wanted to make your coffee but I don’t know how,” Harry answered.

“It’s too hot for you to touch anyway, but thank you Harry,” Severus said.

He wasn’t a fan of cereal; he probably hadn’t eaten it since before he had joined Hogwarts. In the mornings he usually ate bacon and eggs, he didn’t drink orange juice, only coffee or butterbeer. He had bought the cereal for Harry to eat. However, the boy had done this for him, there was no way he was going to reject it. So he sat down at the table and started to eat the cereal after Harry sat.

“I made it before I woke you up,” Harry said.

“What time did you wake up at?”

Harry shrugged. “Can’t tell time yet.”

After they ate breakfast, and Severus had read the Daily Prophet, they sat down to open the gifts for Harry. Severus had returned to the toy shop on his own to get more toys for him. Dumbledore, McGonagall, Sprout, Flitwick, Pomfrey and Madame Malkin had also all sent him gifts. The sitting-room was full of wrapping paper.

“How come all these people sent me gifts too?” Harry asked.

“They all used to know you when you were a baby,” Severus answered.

Madame Pomfrey and Madame Malkin hadn’t but the two witches had been upset because of the way Harry had been treated. Madame Pomfrey had come to visit courtesy of Dumbledore to see just how malnourished he was. She had quickly informed Severus that he didn’t weigh anywhere near what he should at his age. Not only that, but he wasn’t the proper height either, if she hadn’t known his age before hand, she’d guessed that he was only two-years-old.

“That’s around the age the abuse started at,” Dumbledore had told her. “Although, from what Vernon Dursley says he hadn’t started to really beat Harry until after he turned three. However, I believe he was never fed properly, so I’d say he stopped growing around the age of two-half.”

“So you’re telling me he would have stayed that height if we hadn’t found out what was happening?” Severus had asked angrily.

“No, he still would have grown,” Madame Pomfrey said. “At a much slower rate then an average child would have though. I’d say by the age of eleven, he’d be as tall as a seven or eight-year-old. Children usually grow inches between those ages. James Potter grew a lot between fifteen and sixteen; I’d say Harry will be the same. However if he never ate properly, he would be at a stunted growth forever. Although luckily, we’d likely see that something was wrong when he came to school in his first year, so we’d try to help out. There was a chance that the Dursley’s wouldn’t have allowed him to come, so he would probably stop growing too early.”

“So what about now? He isn’t as tall as he should be,” Severus questioned.

“I’m making up a list of foods he should be eating; try to feed him healthy snacks between meals. I wouldn’t advise junk food though; we don’t want him to get fat, just to gain weight. I’m worried that he is close to anemic so I am leaving a potion I want you to give him before he sleeps every night. As long as he gets plenty of food, exercise and lives a healthy life style, I don’t see why he shouldn’t grow.”

Severus had started to measure Harry weekly and could see that the boy was already gaining weight and had even grown an inch in height. He followed the foot chart that the matron had made up along with the list of foods she’d left. If Harry told him that he was hungry, Severus would make sure that to give him food right away.

“How come they never gave me gifts before?”

Severus was pulled out of his thoughts by the question, it was a good one. Why hadn’t anyone sent him gifts, they all had (excluding Severus, Madame Pomfrey and Madame Malkin) when Harry had turned a year old. Perhaps it had been because of the Muggles.

“They didn’t know when your birthday was,” Severus lied.

Harry nodded; it was good enough for him. He started to play with his new gifts, but he wore a small frown on his face.

“Severus, what if Draco don’t like me?” he asked.

“He will, he’s been looking for a new friend.”

“But I’ve never had a friend before. Dudley only liked me sometimes. Mostly he tried to get me in trouble so I’d be spanked.”

Severus had sent a letter to Lucius explaining what had gone on at the Dursley’s. He hoped he’d have a talk with son before they came over. Severus looked at his watch; it was after eight, which meant they would be coming at any time.

“Harry, let’s get this mess cleaned up.”

Harry nodded and began to gather the wrapping paper in one pile so Severus could banish it. Once the paper was gone, they began to put the toys in a toy box. As they were finishing up, the fireplace lit up. He felt arms wrap around his leg tightly as he watched Lucius step out holding a small boy who looked a lot like he did.

“Morning, Severus, Harry,” Lucius said as he put Draco down. “Draco?”

“Morning,” Draco said. “Please to see you again Mr. Snape. Hello Harry.”

So they had been teaching him to be polite. The last time Severus had seen Draco, he’d been very rude and demanding. Now he stood beside his father looking Harry over, but he remained expressionless.

“Hello Draco,” Harry said and he let go of Severus’ leg.

“Father said it’s your birthday today. How old are you?”

“I’m four,” Harry answered shyly.

“Me too. I turned four in June. I had a big party. Lots of presents and cake and friends. Did you get a lot of presents?”

Harry nodded. “Want to see?”

Draco nodded, before he took a step forward, Lucius took him by the arm. Out of his robe, he pulled out a small flat package. The boy nodded and pulled away. He walked over to Harry and handed him the package. Draco was at least a head taller than Harry was.

“This is our gift, happy birthday Harry,” he said.

Harry ripped the present open excitedly and pulled out a rare edition of a book called: The Wizard Menace it was a story about a wizarding boy aged nine who enjoyed getting into mischief. There were a number of books in the series, Harry had a few of them, but it was hard to find that particular copy. The boy, Jacob Wart steals a Hippogriff and releases it into a Muggle birthday party. The Ministry didn’t want the book out because they believed it would give people idea’s to do the same to Muggles. Most of The Wizard Menace books were about Jacob pranking his family or other wizards. That was the only copy about Muggles being pranked. It was ridiculous of course, how was a child supposed to get a hold of a Hippogriff in the first place?

“Thank you,” Harry said and handed it to Severus. “Can you read it to us later?”

“If you’d like, why don’t you two go play?”

“I’ll show you my toys then my room,” Harry told Draco.

The boys ran off, Severus set the book on top of the fireplace and beckoned Lucius into the kitchen.

“You still haven’t told me how Harry Potter ended up in your care,” Lucius said as they took a seat at the table. “I understand he was abused, but why would Dumbledore choose you?”

“He felt that I was the best person, to take care of him. He didn’t feel it was safe enough for the werewolf to take care of Harry of course. I suppose he wanted someone who knew Harry’s parents who didn’t have children themselves,” Severus answered.

“But you were enemies with James Potter. Also, considering your past… well it’s certainly a surprise, that’s all I am saying. I suppose you’ll be able to teach him our ways though. You can prevent him from being a Gryffindor.”

That’s for sure. Severus thought to himself. He really didn’t want Harry to end up in Gryffindor when he started at Hogwarts. He would be a Slytherin, but not as arrogant as most. He would not believe that Muggleborns were filth, nor would he know more about the Dark Art’s than necessary. The second night Harry had lived with him; Severus had purged the house of any Dark Arts books and artifacts.

“Yes, I certainly hope so,” Severus answered. “I’d take Hufflepuff before Gryffindor, but I can’t see it. He is very smart; I think he’ll be Ravenclaw or Slytherin.”

“Well with Draco’s influence and perhaps Crabbe and Goyle’s sons-”

“I don’t want Harry playing with their sons. If those two are anything like their fathers, I’d rather he stayed away from them. They aren’t what you’d call intelligent. Now that Harry is around, maybe he’ll be a better playmate for your son.”

Lucius shrugged. “I’d rather Draco have a variety of playmates. No Crabbe and Goyle aren’t smart… at all, but they are very useful and loyal. Besides, Draco can boss their sons around and they never argue with it.”

There was a loud crash from the sitting-room and laughter. Severus had a feeling Harry was playing the block game with Draco. Moments later, there was another loud crash and more laughter.

“See how high it can go first!” Harry shouted excitedly.

“We’ll build it together this time though. Do you have lots and lots of blocks?”

“Uh huh, Sev bought me lots.”

“I bet I have more!”

Severus laughed. Lucius changed the subject from the kids and asked him questions about Hogwarts and whether or not Severus had gotten the Defense Against the Dark Arts. This was a sore topic with him. Every year he applied for the job, but the Headmaster always turned him down for it. He knew he’d be a better teacher for it than most of the people that had been hired for it during the previous years. He was surprised the students usually made it past OWL for the class. He remembered when he’d known more than some of the teachers had when he’d been a student.

“I’ve always wondered why Dumbledore can’t keep a teacher there for more than a year,” Lucius said.

“People say the job is jinxed. Has been since a few years after Dumbledore started as Headmaster, that’s what I heard. They had a steady teacher who had a terrible accident one year and couldn’t return. After that no one has ever lasted.”

CRASH!

Loud screams and laughter came from the sitting-room.

“Keep it down Draco!” Lucius called.

“Ah, let them be,” Severus said.

“You’ve grown soft, Severus, I never thought you would. I suppose having a young child around can change a person, I suppose it has with me in a way,” Lucius said.

“In Harry’s case yes. He was beaten and starved,” Severus answered. “If you’d seen the way he looked when he was dropped off here…”

He began to explain exactly what he had seen in Harry’s memories; along with what the back of Harry’s legs had looked like. Lucius shook his head.

“And Dumbledore wants to protect Muggles. It’s obvious they did that because of his magical abilities. Didn’t you once say that Petunia Dursley was jealous of her sister?”

Severus nodded.

“See? That child was beaten and starved because of that. Why protect people who would destroy us in an instant if they could? Look at what they tried to do in the past! You say they almost killed him!”

Severus wasn’t sure what to say. To some extent, he did agree with Lucius, but if Muggles could produce people like Lily, he wasn’t sure what to think. His father had been a Muggle, and though he hadn’t been too pleased with magic, he wasn’t pleased with much. If Severus or his mother hadn’t been magical, he still would have been a bitter man. He had hated life in general and wanted to destroy any happiness that others had.

He had met other Muggles who weren’t bad. People like the Dursley’s should be destroyed, but there were some who were all right. Vernon probably would have found another reason to beat his nephew. He wasn’t his own child; therefore he would think that he shouldn’t have to care for another person’s child. Petunia, it was hard to say. She had cared about Lily before she’d found out she was magical; however she might have found something else to be jealous of her. If Lily hadn’t been magical, Harry wouldn’t exist. A voice in his head reminded him.

At lunch, Severus pulled out some food he had ordered from the night before. All he had to do was warm it up with a flick of his wand. Lucius, who wasn’t used to setting a table, helped him out. They boys ran in, both looked as if they had been having the time of their lives.

“Father, I want to play with him again,” Draco said as they ate.

“That can easily be arranged,” Lucius said.

“‘Cept next time Harry can come to our place. My house is very very big and I have lots and lots of toys. I have more toy brooms then you too. We wouldn’t have to take turns playing with it,” Draco told Harry.

“You two were playing with the toy broomstick? I thought it was outside,” Severus said.

“It is,” Harry said. “We played outside for a bit and then came in cause we were hungry, but you didn’t call for lunch yet.”

“I told you not to play outside by yourself,” Severus scolded Harry.

“But I didn’t play outside by myself. Draco was with me,” Harry said.

:Lucius snorted as he ate his food.

“Let me rephrase that. Don’t play outside without an adult.”

The child was too smart for his own good. Severus brought out a chocolate cake with four candles lit on it next. Harry looked as if he wasn’t sure what to do when the cake was placed in front of him.

“Blow the candles and make a wish already,” Draco complained.

Harry closed his eyes and blew the candles out. Severus was surprised that he didn’t know what to do. Lucius raised his eyebrows but didn’t say anything; instead he just helped pass out the pieces of cake when it was cut. Harry took a bite of the cake and his eyes widened.

“It’s good!” he said full of surprise and began to eat faster.

“Haven’t you ever had cake before?” Draco asked. “‘Course it’s good!”

“No. I’ve never had a birthday party before. Whenever Dudley had a party I had to stay locked in my cupboard. If there was a dessert, I was always a bad boy before dinner so I never got any. Sometimes all I did was cough or sneeze and I was still called a bad boy and got spanked and no dessert or meals.”

Draco looked over at his father questioningly then back at Harry. “What’s spanked?”

“Draco, just eat your cake,” Lucius said.

“You never got a spanking when you’re bad?” Harry asked. “It’s when you get slapped really really hard on your bum lots of times and no pants either. It hurts a lot.”

“No, father or mother just makes me go to my room or takes a toy away. Sometimes I have to stay in my room all day and he puts a spell on all my toys so I can’t play!” Draco said, he glanced at his father and then back at Harry.

“Severus does that. At my aunt and uncles if I was a bad boy I got spanked. One day I wasn’t a bad boy but teenagers outside were being noisy so my uncle asked me if I wanted a treat and when I ran over, he smacked me across the face and made the teenagers be quiet. Then he threw me on the floor and I stopped breathing,” Harry said.

Draco’s eyes had gone wide by that point. “You’re lying…” he said and looked at his father again.

“He isn’t lying Draco. That’s why he lives with me now. The people who Harry used to live with hurt him a lot. That’s why we need to be very friendly with him and not make him feel bad.”

Draco nodded. “I’m sorry you were hurt Harry. I’ll be your friend. You’re a lot more funner than my big fat friends Crabbe and Goyle.”

“Draco!” Lucius said. “What have I told you?”

“Not to call them fat. I’m sorry sir,”

“Severus, after we have cake, can you read us my new story?” Harry asked.

A week later, Severus took Harry to see Hogwarts. He took him side-a-long apparation, which of course upset the little boy. However, he wanted him to see it from a distance rather than taking him through the floo network. He took him into Honeydukes first to get a treat so he’d stop crying.

“Big castle like on cartoons!” Harry exclaimed when the castle came into view. “We’re going to live there!?”

“Yes,” Severus said. “And I want you to know right now, there are ghosts in Hogwarts but they won’t hurt you. They are very friendly.”

Harry didn’t want to be carried to the castle, so Severus put him down. As soon as he did, the boy started to run, but he’d pause to look over his shoulder to make sure he was still in sight of Severus. He jumped around a couple of times laughing.

Once they got to the castle steps, Severus took the boy’s hand. All he needed was for the boy to get lost. Harry started to pull away, but he just held tighter to his hand and guided him down the steps to the dungeon. He was going to have to talk to Dumbledore as well; they wanted to think of a story to tell the child about his parents. The full story wasn’t really one he should hear at age four.

When they arrived at his office, he looked around; he wanted to make sure there weren’t any dangerous potions opened. Harry already understood not to touch them since there was some at his home, but he wasn’t taking any chances. He released the boy’s hand, and then pulled open a bag of toys he’d brought with him.

“Play with your toys for a while, Harry. I have some paperwork to do and then we’ll see the Headmaster. I’ll show you around the castle as well of course,” Severus said.

Harry looked up at him with a look of disappointment, but he didn’t complain, he just started to pull toys out of the bag. Severus sat down and began to work on the new years lesson plan for each year. He was hoping that this year he’d have a first year class where all the students were good, but it wasn’t likely. Hopefully there wouldn’t be any dunces.

About an hour after working, he decided to take a break. He waved his hand around, which was sore from so much writing. He looked over his desk at where Harry should have been, playing, but he wasn’t there. Severus jumped up quickly and started to search around his office, calling for Harry, but the boy was gone.

“Merlin’s pants!” Severus said when he realized he hadn’t shut the door.

Of course he hadn’t thought it would be necessary, Harry always listened to him, it was rare that he disobeyed. Hurrying into the corridor, he hoped to see that the boy had only left the office, but he was no where in sight. He swore again, and searched the corridor, checking each empty room as he went.

Another hour passed, but there was so sign of Harry, and he had searched most of the dungeon. That could mean that Harry had gone up to high levels of the castle. He quickly hurried to the steps that would take him to the Entrance Hall. He really hoped that the boy hadn’t gone outside anywhere.

---

“We’ve searched this whole castle, top to the bottom, he just isn’t here!” Severus yelled.

“He has to be here somewhere,” Albus said calmly.

“You should have locked your door,” Minerva told him in a disapproving tone.

Severus, Dumbledore, McGonagall, Sprout, Flitwick, Pomfrey, Pince, Filch, and the ghosts were all searching the school, while Hagrid searched the grounds. It had been hours, and still no sign of Harry. Severus decided to ignore her. He didn’t want to say something he might regret later.

He knew that the teachers didn’t approve of the fact that he, Severus Snape, was taking care of The Boy Who Lived. Apparently no one believed he was capable of taking care of a child, and there was also the fact that he had hated James Potter. He didn’t see James or Lily in Harry anymore though, he just saw Harry Potter, his son.

He had to wonder if they were right though, was he a good father? If he was, he wouldn’t have lost the boy who was barely four-years-old. The child was probably off crying somewhere terrified because he was in a large and strange place. What if he was hurt somewhere? The thought of Harry’s anguish bothered him to no end. It was a mistake to bring him to the castle, and maybe a mistake to be his father.

At the moment, they were gathered in the Entrance Hall talking to each other, all trying to figure out where a small boy could be hiding in a large castle. Already they had searched the dungeons three times, and still no sign of Harry. Minerva was worried that he had wandered outside and into the forest. The thought of that made Severus sick.

“Might want to put a tracking spell on him for the next time,” Pomona advised.

“Yeah,” Severus answered. “I should check the dungeons again.”

“I’ll come with you, the rest of you check the corridors over again,” Albus told the teachers.

They headed back down the steps to the dungeons again. Albus was busy talking cheerfully about the upcoming school year. Severus didn’t understand the man, even when something like this happened, he could continue to be calm.

“Sev!”

Severus turned around to see a grinning Harry standing outside of an unused classroom, one he had checked over himself.

“Where. Have. You. Been?” Severus asked slowly.

“Walking around. I saw a funny ghost! He laughed and juggled!” Harry exclaimed excitedly.

That’s when Severus lost control. “HOW DARE YOU WANDER AROUND WITHOUT TELLING ME!? YOU KNOW YOU AREN’T SUPPOSE TO GO ANYWHERE WITHOUT ME! DO YOU HAVE ANY IDEA AT ALL HOW WORRIED I WAS? YOU JUST WAIT UNTIL WE GET HOME YOUNG MAN!”

Harry stared at him with his mouth open, and then he started to cry. Severus picked up and turned to Dumbledore, who for the first time since they found out Harry was lost was staring at him with disapproval.

“Really, Severus. There is no need to shout at him,” he said.

“I can’t do this Albus. I can’t take care of him anymore. What if he does this when I am teaching a class? We just spent an afternoon looking for him,” Severus said.

They went into his office, where Severus put Harry down into a chair, who was crying even harder than before. He was coughing and gasping.

“Stay here, or else,” Severus told Harry.

He beckoned for Dumbledore to follow him back out into the corridor.

“Did you tell Harry not to wander off? From what I’ve seen, he listens. I’ve also seen that he is very attached to you. Harry is at a very vulnerable age. How do you think he will take it if the first person who has shown him love gives up on him, after what he has been through?” Dumbledore answered.

“But what if this happens again, Albus? I need this job, I can’t just quit. I can’t teach either knowing that he could wander off somewhere. What if he goes into the forbidden forest next time? It’s impossible to take care of a child here,” Severus said.

“It is not. We’ve had parent teachers here before who had no choice but to bring there children, the same as you. This rarely happens when the child understands they can’t wander around by themselves,” Dumbledore said.

“He knows he can’t. When we are at home I’ve told him to never wander off without me unless we’re at home, inside!” Severus answered. “He disobeyed me because he wanted to explore the castle right away.”

Dumbledore was smiling at him now, which was in a very annoying knowing way. “You are wrong; he did not disobey you on purpose. He thinks Hogwarts is his home so he thought he could wander off where he wanted, as long as he was inside. He would not have greeted you the way he had if he had disobeyed, he would have been sorry.”

“This is a big strange place to him. He knows he can’t wander off on his own,”

“You didn’t make it clear enough to him. Well, I should let the teachers know that he had been found, good day to you Severus. We’ll talk about what to tell him another date.”

He turned and walked away before Severus could answer. He thought things over, and guessed he should have explained it better to Harry. When the boy had first arrived at his place, he hadn’t been sure where he was allowed to go in the house.

“You can go anywhere you want, as long as it’s at home and inside,” Severus told Harry. “Don’t ever go anywhere you want in the yard unless I can see you.”

“Hogwarts is going to be our home for most of the year, Harry.”

“We live there?” Harry had asked.

“Yes, we will live there.”

Severus sighed, he could admit to defeat. It had been his own fault. He hadn’t made it clear enough to Harry, just as he hadn’t been clear enough when he’d told Harry that he couldn’t go outside by himself.

“We played outside for a bit and then came in cause we were hungry, but you didn’t call for lunch yet.”

“I told you not to play outside by yourself,” Severus scolded Harry.

“But I didn’t play outside by myself. Draco was with me,” Harry said.

He went into his office, where Harry was curled up into a ball on the floor, sobbing even harder, he wasn’t even making a sound by that point.

“Harry, I’m sorry I yelled at you, okay, I shouldn’t have,” Severus said as he picked Harry up. “Did I scare you when I yelled at you?”

Harry wiped his face with the back of his hand. “Didn’t know I couldn’t go where I wanted. This was my home! I’m inside,” he said confirming what Dumbledore had pointed out to him.

“I should have explained that to you. I didn’t explain that you can’t wander around Hogwarts by yourself,” Severus said. “I’m sorry and I shouldn’t have yelled.”

---
Harry wouldn’t eat supper, it didn’t make sense. Severus had decided not to punish him. The boy was still very depressed, he spent the rest of the day staring at the wall, and silent tears would stream down his cheeks. He didn’t want to play or anything, even when Severus asked if he wanted to play the block game.

“Aren’t you hungry?” Severus asked.

“No,” Harry answered.

“Look, I am sorry I yelled at you, I only did it because I was worried about you, okay? I’m sorry it scared you,” Severus answered.

“Didn’t scare me, used to yelling,” Harry answered. “Not sad because of that.”

“Then why are you sad?”

Harry looked up at him with a look of disbelief on his face and then down at his plate. He broke out into fresh tears. Severus couldn’t think for the life of him what could be upsetting the child. Perhaps he was just tired.

“Do you want to go to bed Harry?” Severus asked.

“Yes,” Harry answered.

Without another word, he pushed his plate away and then left the table. Severus stared after him. He figured Harry was lying to him; he was upset because he had been yelled at. It had given him bad memories of his uncle.

“Nice going Severus,” he said to himself.

---
Harry lay on his bed, tears still streamed down on his cheeks. Where would he go now? He thought he finally had a home but he no longer did. He wondered when Severus would ask him to pack his stuff. They wouldn’t send him back to his aunt and uncles, he knew that. The old wizard man had told him that they were in jail; he knew jail was from cartoons. They were behind bars somewhere and for a long time. He knew his uncle was in a wizard one, while his mother was in a ‘muggle’ one. He wasn’t exactly sure what a muggle was, but he knew it was safer than the wizard one.

He hadn’t known he wasn’t supposed to go where he wanted in the castle. Hadn’t Severus said that it was their home too? Hadn’t he said that as long as he was inside at home, he could where he wanted? He hadn’t said “stay put” he had just said play with the toys. Harry had played with the toys.

He’d left the room so he could make the tiny people on brooms fly better in the air. Severus hadn’t stopped him, so he thought it was okay. He’d run into one of the ghosts that Severus had told him around. He had taken the toys and flew off, so Harry had no choice but to follow him. The ghost had said, “Peevsie will play with the little tyke!”

They had spent the time together, playing. When Peeves took him back to office Severus was in, they found it was empty. So he’d stayed with Peeves for most of the day in the dungeons, playing until he heard the old wizard’s voice and Severus’ out in the corridors from the room he was in. Peeves had quickly disappeared. He hadn’t been expected to get yelled at, and he was sorry right away.

The words after Severus had yelled at him still echoed in his head: “I can’t do this Albus. I can’t take care of him anymore.”

Then they had left him alone in the office. They had probably gone off to talk about what a bad boy he was, and how he was going somewhere else to live. Harry didn’t want to leave, he was living with the first person who showed he cared about him, and he didn’t want him anymore.

He started to cry harder. “Don’t wanna go, like it here. Don’t wanna leave!”

He lay awake for a while, Severus came into check on him, and quickly Harry shut his eyes to pretend he was sleeping. When he heard snores later to tell him that his guardian was asleep, he climbed out of bed. He went over to the trunk he had gotten for his birthday from Severus. They were going to use it for when he moved to Hogwarts.

“Not no more,” Harry said sadly.

He walked over to his closet and reached up to pull down his clothes. He figured he’d pack his stuff now, that way he could take what he wanted. What if Severus didn’t let him take what he wanted? When he thought he had enough clothes, he started to put toys in the trunk as well. He wanted his toy broom as well, but he’d have to get it later as it was outside.

He curled up on the floor. He didn’t understand. His uncle had hurt him a lot, he didn’t want him. Now Severus didn’t want him.

“No one wants Harry, no one likes Harry. Harry is bad!” He said over and over again as he sobbed until he fell asleep.

Harry was depressed, very depressed and Severus couldn’t figure out why. Since the day he had yelled at him, something had changed in the little boy. He no longer played, he didn’t eat as much and the dark circles around his eyes had returned. Often, he sat and stared at the floor with tears streaming down his cheeks. He looked as if he was losing weight as well, and he’d finally started to gain some.

When Severus asked him what was wrong, he would stare at Severus in a way that told him he should know. Then he would burst into tears and cry so hard that he seemed to have trouble breathing. It was heartbreaking to watch. He’d apologized on a number of occasions for yelling at him.

He bought new toys for the child, he bought a lot of candy, he took him to the park, but this did not cheer Harry up. In fact, it seemed to make him even more depressed. He’d stare at the new toy as if Severus was playing a horrible trick on him. Nothing he did seemed to work.

“I don’t know what to do,” Severus told Lucius, “he is losing more and more weight as the days go by.”

“What exactly happened that day?” Lucius asked who was just as confused as Severus.

“I told you, he wandered off, and I yelled at him when he found him. He started to cry, and he has been depressed since,” he answered.

“Do you remember what you said when you yelled at him?”

Severus thought back to it. He realized what it was right away. He had said: YOU JUST WAIT UNTIL WE GET HOME YOUNG MAN! He had threatened him! Dumbledore had told him that Harry could still be worried that someday he’d be beaten again. Now he was. He was probably waiting as each day passed for a beating.

“I threatened him. He must think he is going to get a beating,” Severus answered.

“You’ll have to explain what you meant then.”

Already, Lucius had lectured him as if he were some expert on children just because he had a small child.

You have to be very clear when you deal with children this young. They don’t understand. With Harry’s past, I expect it’s a lot different then with a child like Draco. He’s known nothing but abuse before you took him in. I bet they just beat him without explaining anything to him, so he has a harder time knowing what you mean.

But Lucius, he is a very clever child. I tell him something and he understands. It’s rare that we have a misunderstanding like the one we’d had at Hogwarts. It’s hard to know when he doesn’t understand now.

Well, they aren’t dumb, but there are some things they just won’t understand. So that’s why you explain everything, that way you don’t have a misunderstanding. You have to think about everything you tell them.

“I don’t wanna play with Harry no more,” Draco said as he walked into the kitchen. “He’s a big baby. Only cries a lot. I wanna go home.”

“Why don’t you just play by yourself then, Draco. I’m not ready to leave yet,” Lucius said.

“I wanna go home now!” Draco said and he stomped his foot. “I don’t wanna be here no more father. Take me home, you take me home NOW!”

“Do not tell me what to do, Draco,” Lucius said, but he was on his feet.

He picked Draco up.

“I swear, I’ll be happy when he is old enough to go through the floo on his own. I expect he need’s a nap anyway. I’ll be back in an hour or so, Severus.”

When they left, Severus thought that it would be a good time to talk to Harry. He entered the sitting room, where toys lay scattered all over the floor. There was a tall block tower. Harry was sitting very still, as he usually did, crying.

“Harry, come here, I want to talk to you,” Severus said.

Harry didn’t move.

“Harry-“

“Leave me alone.”

It was the first words he’d said in days. Severus kneeled on the floor beside him. He was ready to take the boy into his arms, but before he could, Harry had jumped to his feet. He backed away from Severus fast. Oh no, he thinks I am going to beat him. Did his uncle ever say that he wanted to talk before he beat him?

“I’m not going to hurt you, I promise. Didn’t I already tell you that I would never beat you? As I said before, I am sorry I yelled at you. I only did it because I was scared. Will you come here, please, Harry?”

“Leave. Me. Alone!” Harry repeated but angrily this time.

“Harry, I can’t help you if you don’t tell me what’s wrong,” Severus said.

He’d tried to get into Harry’s mind to see what could be bothering the child, but somehow he was always blocked out. He had a hard time believing that at the age of four, the boy knew occlumency. So he didn’t understand why he was blocked out when it had been so easy before.

“Harry-“

“LEAVE. ME. ALONE!” Harry screamed this time, tears streaming down his cheeks. “I HATE YOU MEANY SEVERUS I HATE YOU!”

Now that hurt.

“Harry, I’m not going to hurt you,” Severus said. “Why are you so upset with me?”

As soon as he asked, Harry started to cry. He collapsed to the floor, gasping as he cried. None of this made sense. Severus closed his eyes. Forgive me Lily, please forgive me. I’m sorry I’m not being a very good father to your son.

CRACK!

Severus jumped to his feet immediately. Was that Lucius back already? It definitely sounded like someone apparating. However, in the room strode Albus Dumbledore, wearing his usual purple star spangled robes.

“Albus?” Severus asked.

“No!” Harry shouted.

He had heard the crack too. Still crying, he threw his head back and screamed, a long scream, one that sounded as if he were in pain. When the scream ended he jumped to his feet.

“NOOOOOOO!” He shouted again. “No! Don’t make me go way! I’m sorry! Won’t be bad no more, please! No more bad Harry. Harry stay here! PLEASE!”

Severus and Albus stared at the child who was clearly in agony about something. No one said a word at first; this seemed to upset the boy even more. He screamed louder than ever, a look of anger was on his face. He ran over to the block tower and kicked it down. Around them, things started to explode. Pillows; potted plants; some toys, and potion bottles all blew up around them because an underage wizard was very angry.

“Why Severus, why!?” Harry’s anger was gone now.

He collapsed to the floor as he had earlier, crying as if he were in physical pain.

“Harry, what are you talking about? You’re not going anywhere!” Severus said.

“Ah, I see,” Albus said who had remained calmed during Harry’s outburst.

“What do you see?”

“You really don’t remember? Think back to when we were at Hogwarts, after you had yelled at Harry. What did you say to me after you had picked him up?”

Severus thought back to that day. I can’t do this Albus. I can’t take care of him anymore.

“Harry, did you think I was going to send you away?” Severus asked.

He remembered now, the morning after. He had found Harry sleeping on the floor. His trunk was half packed, but he’d only thought the boy had packed it for Hogwarts. What if he had packed it because he thought he was being sent away? Severus wanted to kick himself. He hadn’t really meant the words, he’d had no intentions of sending the boy away. He had said it out of frustration; sometimes people did that when they were upset.

“You say you can’t take care of Harry no more!” Harry sobbed. “Harry’s bad! Get hurt by uncle who don’t like him ever, now Severus don’t want Harry. Bad boy! Horrible child! You should be dead! Stupid freak! Never should have been born. Worst child alive! You evil creature!”

“Harry!” Severus said in shock.

Harry continued to shout out, saying things he couldn’t possibly understand the meaning of. Severus looked at Albus for help.

“Harry, did your uncle say those things to you?” He asked.

“Worst child alive cause no one wants you!” Harry shouted.

Instantly, Severus ran over and hugged him tightly. Vernon Dursley deserved more than two years in Azkaban; he deserved to stay there for life! He’d almost murdered the child, and yet Albus Dumbledore had vouched for him. He’d said that he hadn’t intended to kill Harry. The only reason the old man did it was because he believed everyone deserved a second chance.

“How can you believe any of the stuff you said at Vernon Dursley’s trial now? Did you hear everything Harry just said?” Severus said, he tried very hard not to yell. He looked down into his son’s face. “Harry, I am never sending you away. You are with me until you are all grown up. I didn’t mean it when I said I couldn’t take care of you anymore.”

And now it made sense why Harry had been acting the way he had been. If Severus was sending him away, then he would know what was bothering the child. Of course the boy knew that so when he asked him what was wrong, or gave him new toys, Harry thought he was being cruel. Slowly that had made him angry. He must have thought that Dumbledore was the one who would take him away.

“Not goin away?” Harry asked. “Goin to live at Hogwarts?”

“Yes, we will live here and at Hogwarts,” Severus said. “You will always be with me. I didn’t know that you thought I was sending you away. If I did, I would have explained earlier that I didn’t mean it.”

“Harry can’t walk around by himself in castle,” Harry said. “Right?”

“That’s right. I don’t want you walking around the castle because you can get lost. That’s why I yelled at you, I was very worried about you.”

“I was with the funny ghost,” Harry said. “Promise I’m not goin away?”

“I promise, you are staying with me.”

“I’m afraid, there is more of a problem,” Albus sighed. “Harry truly believes everything he just said. I never would have thought it, every time I’ve seen him, he appeared happy. I didn’t think he was over the abuse, but I thought living with you had made him happier, apparently not.”

“Well, what’s a child supposed to believe when someone tells him that? I never saw any of that when I looked into his memories. Harry told me about his home there as well, but he’d never mentioned that Vernon had said anything like that.”

“Aunt Marge,” Harry said.

“What?” Severus asked.

“Aunt Marge tell Harry that, not Uncle Vernon. Aunt Petunia never hit Harry ever, only Uncle Vernon. Aunt Marge say that Harry is horrible, she say he should run in front of car and die.”

“Who is Marge?” Albus asked Harry in a kind voice.

“His sister,” Harry said. “Uncle Vernon only hit Harry. Sometimes was mean too, but he never said die.”

“I want this Marge woman found immediately Dumbledore. She should be punished as well. Now he’s going to have to be in therapy. I thought he was all right, but on top of the abuse he was told that stuff.”

“I know, I know, and he believes it, otherwise he wouldn’t have shouted that.”

“Harry, you are a very good boy. You were not a bad boy when you wandered off. I was because I didn’t tell you that you couldn't walk around without me. As for the other stuff your aunt told you, it’s not true! You are not a freak-“

“Aunt Petunia call me a freak,” Harry said. “Not Marge.”

“Whatever mean thing your uncle or aunts said is not true!”

“I’m not a bad boy?” Harry asked.

“No, you are a good child,” Albus answered.

“I shouldn’t die?” he asked.

“What do you know about that?” Severus asked.

A child that young shouldn’t even understand death. Maybe he understood because his parents had died.

“Don’t know. Just know that’s where bad boys like me go,” Harry answered.

“Albus!” Severus said angrily. “What were you thinking when you left him with them? You knew Petunia wouldn’t accept him. What would have happened if Dursley hadn’t almost killed him? What if he grew up and came to Hogwarts believing all that?”

They talked a little longer. Harry was now quiet, he had his head on Severus’ shoulder. There was a whoosh of green flames after a while and then Lucius stepped out of the fireplace. As soon as he saw Dumbledore, he stopped in his tracks.

“Ah, Dumbledore, pleasure as usual,” he said icily.

“Severus, come to my office tomorrow. We’ll discuss further about his future then. I’ll see if I can arrange a therapist to come see him. Perhaps when you are teaching classes.”

Severus nodded mutely. Dumbledore said good-bye to all three of them, and then disappeared with a swish of his robes. This time he made no sound as he disappeared.

“So, did you find out what was bothering him then?” Lucius asked.

“In a moment,” Severus said as he held up a hand.

He looked down at Harry, who had stopped crying. His thumb was in his mouth, even though he was too old for that, and his eyes were closed.

“Harry?”

But the boy didn’t respond, he had been hoping to get some food into him. Severus looked at Lucius.

“I’ll explain in a moment, let me just put him down for a nap. Help yourself to some butterbeer.”

He took Harry upstairs. The boy looked as if he finally was relaxed after a week and a half of depression. When he put him into bed, the child barely noticed. How had he fallen asleep so quickly? He realized as he walked down the stairs, that Harry probably hadn’t slept well lately. The dark circles under his eyes told him that much. During his first week there, he had fallen asleep very easily, and it was because he hadn’t gotten much sleep at his aunt and uncles. Now he had barely slept because he had thought that he was being sent away.

It wasn’t fair; the child had been through so much for his age. He’d lost his parents, he’d been abused, told awful things and then he thought the one person who loved him hadn’t wanted him anymore.

Back in the kitchen, Severus told Lucius everything that had happened after he’d left.

“Did you call Dumbledore here?”

“No, I don’t know why he showed- oh,” Severus said.

They were going to discuss that they what they should tell Harry about his parents. He’d forgotten about it because of the child’s depression.

“I was going to ask, but it seems Dumbledore already has plans for him. I’ve hired a tutor for Draco to start his education in September. I was wondering if you wanted Harry to join as well. Some of the other children will be learning at my place, Crabbe and Goyle’s children, Parkinson’s, Greengrass’ and Nott’s. They’re all the same age, and I thought it would be easier on you.”

“Well, Harry probably won’t be in therapy everyday, it sounds like a good idea.”

He was surprised Nott’s son was learning with Draco. Severus had been under the impression that the two men didn’t talk often. It would be good for Harry to be around children his own age though. He wouldn’t put it past Lucius to hire someone to teach them about the dark arts, so he had to ask.

“What will they be learning exactly?”

“Their alphabet, how to count, and I also want Draco to improve his vocabulary. I’ve been trying to teach him certain words, but he doesn’t listen to me. The amount of times I’ve told him it’s ‘anymore’, not ‘no more’ is much too high to count. They’ll just be learning the basics. You probably wouldn’t have time to teach him what he needs to know anyway. When they are older, they’ll learn more about our world of course.”

“I don’t want Harry learning anything about certain things,” Severus said in a cold tone.

“Of course not. The children won’t be training to be future Death Eaters if that’s what you think. They are just learning what children their age need to know. The tutor is teaching them not me… but it’s nice to know how highly you think of me, Snape.”

Instantly Severus was sorry. He just didn’t want Harry to grow up to be against Muggleborns since his mother was one. He wanted the boy to have an open mind about that sort of thing.

“Well, I don’t see a problem with it. I’ll feel a lot better knowing he can’t wander off. I just have to see about the therapy.”

“What exactly was it that he was told?” Lucius asked.

He told him everything that Harry had shouted. The other man looked very angry, but he didn’t comment on it. Marge Dursley was going to be punished as well; Severus wouldn’t rest until justice had been served. What sick person told a child to run in front of a car anyway?

---
Later that night, after Harry had eaten, Severus held him in his lap for the first time since the Hogwarts incident. At first, he talked to Harry, apologized again for everything that happened. Then he had a long talk with him, he wanted him to understand that he was not a freak, a horrible child, or any of the other stuff he’d shouted out about himself.

“So you packed your trunk because you thought I was sending you away?” he asked after that talk.

“You said so,” Harry said. “Didn’t know if you’d let me keep my favourite stuff.”

“Is that why you only packed about three outfits? The trunk was mostly full of toys. We’re going to have to repack it before we move to Hogwarts, which is going to be soon. You need all your clothes. Also, it doesn’t matter if you forget any toys because I can always come back here to get what you want when I’m not busy.”

“Okay,” Harry said. “Read me a story?”

He seemed better now, but Severus wasn’t sure if he was. It was probably going to be a long time before he was okay. Hopefully the therapy would work.

School started for both Harry and Severus. Everything in the castle always amazed the small boy, even if he never questioned why everything had magic. Madame Pomfrey said it was because he was still so young.

Unfortunately, he seemed to have made friends with Peeves. This was something that shocked many of the staff members. No one had heard of that happening before, not even the Marauders got along as well. The poltergeist wouldn’t prank Harry, and it wasn’t because of Dumbledore’s influence either. He just seemed to understand that Harry was too little.

They played together in the room that had been set up for Harry, just connected off of Severus’ room. When he was marking work the students essay’s at night, he’d hear Harry’s loud laughter as he played, then a familiar cackling. Sometimes they would play the block game that the boy seemed to be so fond of.

Harry seemed happier, but there were times when he would stare at Severus with a very worried look on his face. When asked what was wrong, the boy just shrugged and then he would go back to what he was doing. Ever since the week he thought that he was going to be sent away, Harry had changed a little.

He went to the therapy every Wednesday afternoon. The therapist Mrs. Déprimer told him that Harry was worried that someday Severus might think he can’t take care of him anymore. He was also scared that some day when his aunt and uncle left prison, he might have to live with them again. She told Severus that he was doing a good job, and as Harry grew up, he wouldn’t have those fears anymore. At the moment, he had been through too much stress for someone his age.

She was just worried about the stuff that he was told while he lived with his aunt and uncle. He really did believe all of it. During their third session, he had asked a question that she never thought she’d hear from someone his age.

“Should I be dead?”

This was after she had explained to him exactly what death was. By then, he understood his parents were gone and why, but they had loved him a lot. He didn’t know how they had died, but someday he would.

After she asked him why he asked the question he said: “Cause my aunt and uncle hurt me. I should run in front of a car and die, Aunt Marge said so.”

Severus didn’t have to do anything to get revenge on Marge. There were Ministry representatives sent to her house to ask her a few questions about her nephew. She gave them the answers that they wanted. She told them her exact feelings for Harry, she had no idea that she was talking to people with authority.

“I hate that child. Not only because is he the ugliest creature alive, I mean seriously, have you ever seen him? He is disgusting! He is also stupid. He can’t even spell his name. He can’t talk properly, when I asked him if he knew his alphabet, he could only name certain letters, but they weren’t in order! He can’t even handle a small spanking. I honestly don’t have a problem with giving a child a couple slaps on the bottom if they’ve misbehaved! Well this child would scream as if he was being murdered and Vernon barely touched him. I can guarantee that he made up stories just to get my brother and his wife in jail, and if you can believe it, I’m not allowed to see Vernon and I’m his sister! I don’t even know which prison he is in. I haven’t seen my real nephew in months. Honestly, if I could I’d find that child I’d murder him. I love small children, but there are some that shouldn’t have been born. Harry Potter is the worst child alive, he is evil, he is disgusting and he should be dead. That child deserved any slap he got, and it was very rare that Vernon ever hit him. He was too soft with the ugly evil creature.”

When asked if she was serious about murdering Harry, she admitted that indeed she was. She did not feel bad about it because the world would be better off without him. There was going to be a hearing for her at the Ministry for admitting that she wanted to murder a child. She had also confessed that there were times when she’d beaten him as well.

There were a lot of people who were angry with Harry’s mistreatment. Many people blamed Dumbledore because it had been he who left the child at the Dursley’s. Severus agreed at times. However, how was he supposed to know that the baby he left at the Dursley would live nearly three years of abuse?

Harry seemed to enjoy school. The tutor sent a progress report home with Harry once a week, and he was doing very well. He knew how to spell his name, he could count to fifty now, he knew his alphabet up to the letter M. The tutor only remained in the morning, so the rest of the children went home, but Lucius had hired a vocabulary instructor for the afternoons, so every afternoon except Wednesday, Harry was increasing his vocabulary.

Harry told Severus he knew how to count, and knew some of the letters of the alphabet because of the educational shows he watched at the Dursley’s with Dudley.

“I never knew all the alphabet before,” he told Snape. “Just some letters. I didn’t know how to spell my name but now I do! I knew how to count to ten before, but now it’s more.”

Then he would spell out his full name or count and laugh.

Something was wrong though, and Harry wouldn’t tell him what it was. The therapist couldn’t get him to talk about it either. He seemed very depressed in the mornings. He would poke at his food but would only eat a few bites of it.

Every morning, they woke up early, Harry would get dressed, eat and then Lucius Malfoy would come through the fireplace in Severus’ office to pick him up. He seemed to act the same way he had in the summer after their first trip to Hogwarts. Sometimes his lip would quiver as the time for Lucius to come grew closer, but he wouldn’t cry.

“Harry, don’t you like school?” Severus asked him one morning. “Do you want to stay at Hogwarts instead?”

“No,” Harry answered. “I like learning.”

“Then why are you so sad?”

“I don’t know,” Harry answered, and then sighed.

A few moments later, Lucius showed up.

“Lucius, Harry seems depressed some mornings; does he miss me at all when he is at your place?” Severus asked as Lucius picked Harry up.

“I think he likes it there. I usually stay away when they have their lessons, but I’ve checked in a few times. He is usually singing the songs or playing the games. He doesn’t really play with the other children though.”

---
School was fun. Harry liked to learn new stuff, he really wanted to learn to read someday, but at the moment, all he knew was some letters in the alphabet. He could sing the letters in the song until he got to letter M, but he got confused afterward. He knew the last three were X,Y, and Z. He also knew some of the letters in his name came after M. He seemed to be doing better than Vince and Gregory though. They had a hard time spelling their name still.

At the beginning of lessons, they would gather in the Malfoy’s large sitting room. The children were allowed to play before the lessons; this was the time that Harry disliked the most. Pansy Parkinson liked to make fun of him because of his size. The others joined in, except for Draco.

The teasing had started the first week after lessons had started. Harry and Draco had started the block game when she walked over with her friends Daphne and Millicent, who had just started the lesson’s a few days after the rest had.

“How old are you Harry?” she asked.

“I’m four-years-old,” he said proudly.

“Uh uh you’re not!” Pansy answered.

“Uh huh, I turned four in July!” he said and turned to Draco. “Right?”

“I went to his birthday,” Draco confirmed. “We had cake and played with blocks and his broom!”

“But he is too little!” Pansy exclaimed. “I know someone who is two and that’s how old Harry is.”

“No, I’m four!” Harry answered, upset now. “I’m a big boy now.”

“You’re a big baby, two-year-old baby!” Pansy shouted. “Baby, baby, Harry is a baby!” she sang.

Daphne and Millicent joined in. This went on everyday before the tutor came in to teach them. Only Dobby the house elf kept an eye on the children, so none of the adults knew about it, and Harry wouldn’t talk about it. He started to wonder after a while if he was really four, if he was, then why was he so small? He was the shortest there. Theodore Nott was the tallest, while the rest all seemed to be the same height.

He tried not to cry. Babies cried didn’t they? He didn’t want to give the others a reason to call him a baby. Draco told him that Pansy was just a silly girl, and just to ignore her. It was hard not to, maybe he really was a ‘freak’ after all. Why else wasn’t he taller?

He liked to learn though, that was the only reason he didn’t want to tell Severus (who he wished he could call his daddy) about the teasing. He was worried if he talked about it, he might not be able to come back, so he stayed quiet. He liked the games they played, the songs that they sang, story time and craft time.

The morning that Severus asked him if he wanted to stay home was just as bad as any other morning. When he got to the Malfoy’s place, instead of playing with the other children, Harry took a book from the shelf to look through. He could identify some of the letters in the words, but he couldn’t read at the moment, he liked the pretty pictures though. He was too busy looking through the book that he didn’t notice Pansy and her friends. The book was snatched out of his hands.

“Give that back!” Harry shouted.

“Come and get it baby!” Pansy laughed.

She threw it to Daphne. Harry ran over to Daphne, but she tossed it over to Millicent. Theodore noticed the game; he hurried over to join in.

“Here, here Milly!” he cried.

“I wanna read it!” Harry yelled. “Give it back!”

“Baby, baby, Harry is a baby!” they sang.

Harry sat down on the floor and started to cry. This made them sing their song even louder. Why couldn’t they just leave him alone? He was always nice to them; it wasn’t his fault that he wasn’t tall enough yet. While he sobbed, Draco ran over angrily.

“Give it back to him! You make Harry cry! All of you are bad!”

“Make us Draky!” Pansy laughed.

“It’s my house, Pansy. You go home! I don’t want you here anymore! You’re not allowed over here. Go home, you go home now!” Draco shouted.

“You take the babies side!” Theodore accused. “We’re your friends first.”

“Don’t care. You don’t make Harry cry ever, now give it back to him. I’ll tell father never to let you come again.”

“Fine, have it,” Millicent who had the book again said.

She tossed it at Harry who was still crying. It hit him in the back of the head. Draco was remembering the story he had been told, how his friend had been hurt a lot by the people he lived with before Severus. His father had later explained to him that sometimes people were very mean to small children, and that’s why Harry had been hit a lot.

He got very angry. He turned to Millicent who was laughing because Harry started to cry even harder by that point. He clenched his fists into balls; he stalked over to her angrily.

“YOU DON’T HIT HARRY!”

Several things happened at once, the floors started to shake, as if there was an earthquake. The other children cried out in fright, but Draco didn’t notice as his anger took his body over. The window’s exploded, the couch cushions blew up, the toys on the floor broke, the chandelier above shook dangerously, and the fire in the fireplace grew bigger.

This wasn’t only happening in the sitting-room, it happened in the kitchen as well, where Lucius and Narcissa were seated. Pots and pans fell off the wall, and plates began to explode. They both looked at each other; this had happened before, sometimes they had to replace a lot of their possessions after one of Draco’s temper-tantrums.

Lucius hurried to the sitting-room, he was yelling at Millicent Bulstrode. Every child in the room was crying. Dobby was trying to control Draco, but he wasn’t succeeding. Lucius walked over, he shoved the elf out of the way and knelt in front of his son.

“Calm down son,” he said and took Draco’s hands into his.

He squeezed them gently until Draco’s anger slowly went away. As this was happening, there was a knock on the front door.

“Go get the door, Dobby. It’s probably the tutor,” Lucius said. “Now Draco, can you tell me what happened?”

“Millicent threw a book at Harry. Not supposed to hurt him, not after what happened to him! They are always callin him a baby cause he is short!” Draco explained angrily. “Don’t want no one hurtin my friend.”

“Hmm,” Lucius said.

He explained to Millicent that it was wrong to throw things. How could he explain to them that they couldn’t bother Harry while he was still so sensitive? He hadn’t wanted Draco to know the truth about the abuse as was it was. He was actually surprised that Harry hadn’t told everyone about it, he’d talked about it so casually before.

“It’s what he gets for being so small!” Pansy said.

“Pansy, you don’t make fun of people,” Lucius told her. “It’s not his fault that he is short.”

“He lies, he says he is four, but he is not.”

“I AM SO FOUR!” Harry shouted.

“Yes, he is four-years-old,” Lucius said. “And Harry, don’t shout.”

Harry was at least a head shorter than the children, so he could see why his age was debatable. The tutor entered the sitting-room while Lucius, Pansy, Harry and Draco talked.

“What happened in here?” he asked.

“Ah, Mr. Insegnante,” Lucius said and stood up. “Just a bit of a temper-tantrum, I’ll clean up, you may begin.”

It took a bit for the children to calm down, and then Mr. Insegnante began the opening day song. Satisfied, Lucius left the room.

“Hello, Harry!”

“Harry! How are you today?”

The students loved Harry. When Severus took him down the halls, they greeted him excitedly. He enjoyed the attention and waved at them. As he grew older, Severus would have to make sure that the boy wouldn’t grow arrogant from all the attention he was getting. At the moment he just craved affection, so he liked it when people called out to him.

Lucius had told Severus what had happened that morning. Why did all this bad stuff have to keep happening to Harry? All he wanted was for the child to be happy, but things kept happening to prevent that. He never did like Markus Parkinson. His daughter was probably just as spoiled as Draco.

Harry didn’t seem unhappy though, he seemed to be past the mornings events. He was chatting about the new song they had learned that day as they entered the Great Hall. Severus just wondered why he never told him. If he’d known the boy was in distress, he’d have stopped Harry from going there.

“I can read the word, and now,” Harry told Severus halfway through dinner. “I can spell it, A-N-D! Now I just need to learn other words.”

“Can you tell me what sound P makes?” Professor McGonagall asked him.

He got along with all the teachers really well, sometimes they watched him as well. The staff all really liked him.

“Puh, puh,” Harry said. “It’s in my last name Puh-otter. I can’t say it in the alphabet. Still don’t know the whole song yet.”

“Well, you will someday,” Severus assured him.

Later, after dinner, Severus sat down with Harry to talk with him. He was ahead on marking the student’s work, so he had time to sit down with his son. He asked him why he didn’t come to him about the teasing.

“I would have stopped you from going there,” Severus said. “You don’t have to go anymore.”

“But I want to,” Harry protested. “Don’t like teasing but I like school. Don’t make me stop going, please!”

“I can hire a tutor to come here,” Severus answered.

He really didn’t want to. It was a lot cheaper to let Harry learn at the Malfoy’s since he wasn’t the only one paying for Mr. Insegnante. All the parents chipped in, but if he had to spend the extra money to keep Harry happy, he would.

“I won’t see Draco,” Harry said. “I wanna learn at the Manor. Please let me stay, please. They won’t tease me no more… but Sev, why am I so short? How come I’m not tall enough?”

“I expect it’s because you didn’t eat enough at your aunt and uncles, Harry. They starved you a lot, so you didn’t get what you needed to grow. While you live with me, you will get what you need. Don’t worry,” Severus explained.

Harry seemed to understand this. He nodded. “Dudley was very tall, and fat too. So he eat too much.”

“That’s right,” Severus said surprised he understood that. “So we don’t want you to eat too much. We don’t want you fat.”

“Not like Millicent, Vince or Greg,” Harry said.

Those children were indeed all too big for their age. It wasn’t a surprise; their parents were all also overweight.

Later, as Severus read to Harry, the boy said something in a sleepy voice that caught him by surprise but it also pleased him as well.

“I love you, daddy,” he said.