As Severus entered the Headmaster’s office he wondered why he was summoned to Hogwarts in the middle of the summer. What could Dumbledore possibly want?

“Ah Severus, so good of you to have come on such notice,” Albus Dumbledore said who was seated at his desk.

“So what is so urgent?” he asked.

Dumbledore’s office always amused him; there were so many odd magical items in the room. He walked over to one of the chairs in front of the desk and sat down. He was reminded of being a student at Hogwarts as he sat. There had been a few occurrences when he had been sent to see the Headmaster in those days.

“You’ll remember about four-years-ago I told you that Harry Potter would need to be protected. I’ve had a letter from Abarella Figg; she is very worried about him. She doesn’t think he is being treated properly-”

“Oh, he doesn’t get a toy he wants? His aunt and uncle don’t always worship the ground he walks on? I expect he thinks everyone should treat him as if he is a king,” Severus interrupted.

He didn’t care about the offspring of James Potter. If it wasn’t for the child, the dark lord wouldn’t have even gone after Lily in the first place. He had never met the boy, but he hated him. He knew he looked like James but with Lily’s eyes, he also knew he would be even more arrogant than his father. He’d think that everyone should bow down to him just because he got lucky and survived because Lily was a good person.

“On the contrary, she believes Harry is neglected. Of course she has never met him, but she has seen him from a distance a few times, she reports that he is too small for his age. I’ve had people look into it since she wrote, Harry was not registered for school last year and hasn’t been for the upcoming school year but his cousin Dudley has. The child had his fifth birthday a few days ago, if he didn’t start last year, he should be going this year,” Dumbledore answered. “Harry is only seen outside if he is doing chores, but other than that, people never see him.”

“Maybe Petunia home-schools him. Harry is an underage wizard and she’ll remember what it was like with Lily,” Severus said.

And she’ll be embarrassed as well he thought to himself. Petunia was always jealous of Lily, but she had called them both freaks and embarrassments. He knew that she had wanted to pretend that her sister didn’t have magical powers. She probably did what she could to make sure her nephew didn’t show people what he was. However, she probably spoiled him, she would love the fact that he was famous, she had always loved gossip and had spent her teen years reading up what she could about celebrities. Of course she’d feel good about having a famous person living in her house, even if he had what she called ‘freaky powers’.

“That could be it but I would like to find out for sure just what is going on at the Dursley’s. I’ve asked the rest of the staff if they could help me, but they are all busy, I left you for last… knowing your feelings. I would like for you to check their place to make sure he is being treated right.”

“Yes because if The-Boy-Who-Lived isn’t being treated right, that’s just illegal, right?”

“You would recognize the signs of abuse better than anyone would Severus, I would check in myself, but I think I would draw much more attention than anyone else. Minerva would have been perfect for the job as she is Animagus, but she is visiting her daughter for the next couple of weeks. I want this done before the school year starts. I know you are very good at disguising yourself,” Dumbledore answered.

Severus sighed, the last thing he wanted to do was check on the famous and likely spoiled Boy-Who-Lived, but what choice did he have? He was working hard at trying to keep a secure job, and in a way, he was curious. As long as he only saw the Potter brat from a distance, it wouldn’t matter. The child was still really young anyway.

“And if I find out that he is being neglected… which I doubt?” Severus asked.

“You will tell me and then I’ll have to decide what to do, you can start tomorrow.”

Privet Drive was one of those annoyingly perfect looking neighbourhoods. Severus could bet that there wasn’t a weed in any of the gardens. He had seen enough muggle dwellings to know this was one of those places where if something was amiss, it would be gossiped about.

He was disguised as a middle aged man; it had been Albus’ idea to transfigure his facial features to look like someone different. As a child, he had worn odd outfits, not knowing what Muggles usually wore, but as he grew up he’d learned that their clothes matched. As he looked around this neighbourhood, he decided that the suit he had chosen was perfect, even if it was uncomfortable.

He found the place Harry Potter was supposed to be living in. It was the kind of place he expected to find Petunia, everything about the place suggested neatness. What surprised him was to see a child about two-years-old by the garden wall, trimming the grass that grew long beside it with scissors. Surely a boy that young shouldn’t even have scissors. He pretended to examine a lamp post near the house while he watched. Every now and then, he’d pretend to write something down in the notebook he carried. He must not have looked suspicious; anyone who walked past didn’t give him a second glance.

The front door of number four opened and a fat blond boy who looked about seven-years-old waddled out. Did he have the right house? Sure the blond could be Petunia’s child, but didn’t Albus say that her son was the same age as Harry? The small boy had black hair, but he wasn’t five-years-old.

“Hey freak, my mummy says you should hurry up if you ever want to sit down again. She says she’ll tell daddy to spank you again and I hope he does,” the boy said as he approached the garden wall.

Then he spotted Severus who was still pretending to be surveying one of the lamp posts. He hoped that the baby boy wouldn’t really be spanked though. Wasn’t he too young to get more than a scolding? Of course, he of all people knew that some parents could be too rough with small children, but he knew his father hadn’t ever beaten him when he was a baby.

“What are you doing mister? Never saw you before? Are you one of those people who fix the street lights?”

“Yes, I am. I was actually looking for Petunia Dursley’s place. I just wanted to make sure her electricity worked.”

He didn’t really understand ‘electricity’ too well except that it helped with the lights in a house. Muggles apparently needed it or their appliances wouldn’t work. Lily had explained it to him when they were children, but he hadn’t really listened. This boy had to be little Dudley Dursley, even if he was really big for his age.

“That’s my mummy!” the boy exclaimed but then looked very worried. “But maybe I shouldn’t tell you that… I’m not ‘uppose to talk to strangers.”

“That is a very good rule, you shouldn’t talk to strangers. However, I am just checking your electricity so it’s okay. Also, I need to know how many people live in your house, just so I know how much is used in your house. There are four members in your house, am I right?” Severus said.

He wasn’t sure where he was going with this, but he remembered something Dumbledore had said to him the day before.

“Of course she has never met him, but she has seen him from a distance a few times, she reports that he is too small for his age”

That small boy trimming the grass couldn’t really be five could he? The child looked up at him from his position by the wall. He had started to trim quickly at the fat boys words, but now he paused for a moment. He had the messy black hair and Lily’s eyes. He was also very battered up. There was a cut on his cheek, he had a black eye, he had a large bald spot on his head, and the clothes he wore were much too big and bulky for a summers day.

“There’s my mummy, my daddy me and Freak,” Dudley answered. “But Freak isn’t allowed to use the elekticity he not allowed to do anything.”

The tiny boy quickly ducked his head and started to trim at a fast pace.

“Why do you call him Freak?” Severus asked.

He knew though, it could only come from Petunia Dursley who had always called him and Lily that. Did she abuse her nephew as well? The fat boy just shrugged. The front door opened again and a blond woman stepped out now. It had been years since Severus had last seen her, but there was no mistaking who she was.

“Dudders, who are you talking to?” she asked as she crossed the yard.

“The elektic man.”

“I’m just checking to see if your electricity is working,” Severus answered.

He hadn’t been expected to be confronted by Petunia herself. He wasn’t even supposed to talk to any of the Dursley’s. Now he had spoken to two of them.

“Your son was just telling me that it works fine. I also have to make sure the lamp posts are up to date. Am I correct when I ask that there are four members in your household?”

“Yes, there is me, my husband, my son and nephew,” Petunia answered. “Surely you would know if our electricity wasn’t working though? You just sent us a bill not too long ago. Also, why does it matter how many household members we have?”

“Just to see how much an average family uses per month,” Severus answered quickly. “It is just to help us that is all.”

“Hmm, well we don’t use a lot, but I’m sure you’ll know that. Dudley, come on inside, let the nice man continue his work,” Petunia said.

She took her son by the hand  and pulled him towards the house quickly. She looked over her shoulder anxiously at him a few times. Severus could guess why, she didn’t like her son talking to strangers, and he could tell she was suspicious about his story. What intrigued him was that she didn’t even give her nephew a second glance. She just left him to continue trimming the grass.

Severus decided to leave, but he would be back that night.

He used a disillusionment charm so he could peer into the windows. He saw the three Dursley sit down to eat dinner that the tiny boy served them. He could understand why Dudley Dursley was overweight because his father was also on the large side. Harry was so small that he could barely put the plates onto the kitchen table for the Dursley’s.

The windows were open so Severus could hear every word that was said. Petunia was telling him her suspicions about the man who claimed to be checking their electricity.

“Sometimes they come around to check,” Mr. Dursley answered. “Although, in the future, I don’t want you to talk to strangers Dudders.”

“He wanted to know if mummy lived here, he said he was looking for her,” Dudley answered.

CRASH!

Harry had dropped one of the plates on the floor and it broke. In an instant Vernon had a hold of him. Severus watched in horror as Dursley punched him in the nose hard. Blood streamed out of his nose quickly, the little boy started to wail while Dudley laughed. Then Vernon had the small boy over his lap, he had pulled down the boys pants so that his bare bottom showed. He began smacking him as hard as he could. Harry started to scream loudly, blood from his nose splattered the floor.

“SHUT UP!”

He started to smack Harry even harder, and Severus couldn’t stand it. He circled around the house quickly; he took off the charm and broke down the front door. Someone else screamed from the kitchen, but the little boy’s was the loudest. Severus charged down the hall and through a door where he could hear the screaming.

Vernon didn’t seem to notice him, he was too busy spanking Harry harder than he should have been but Petunia and Dudley did. Petunia was the other one who was screaming. Quickly, Severus pulled out his wand and pointed it at her, she was quiet immediately. Finally, Dursley noticed the intruder; he looked up at him, still smacking the boy as hard as he could.

“Stop, right now. I’ll curse you into oblivion if you don’t,” Severus said in a cold voice.

“Petunia?” Vernon asked, he stopped in mid slap. “He’s not one of them is he?”

Petunia nodded. “Yes. He’s the one who told her about that world.”

“Put that child on the floor this instant, gently,” Severus said; his wand was still on Vernon.

The man did as he was told, he looked scared. Perhaps he had heard enough about magic to know what to expect. Harry lay on the floor sobbing loudly. Dudley stared at him with an open mouth.

“Harry, come here,” Severus said in a gentle voice, he didn’t care what Dumbledore said, the boy was leaving with him.

The child continued to cry. He didn’t even respond. Was he insolent then? Did the Dursley’s hit him because he disobeyed a lot?

“Who is Harry?” Dudley asked.

“Your cousin,” Severus suggested as he pointed to the small boy on the floor.

“His name isn’t Harry. It’s Freak,” Dudley said with obvious confusion.

“Who is Harry?” Dudley asked.

“Your cousin,” Severus suggested as he pointed to the small boy on the floor.

“His name isn’t Harry. It’s Freak,” Dudley said with obvious confusion.

---
Severus walked over to the tiny boy; there was a puddle of blood on the floor that had come from his nose. He kneeled in front of Harry and pointed his wand at his nose, he murmured some words under his breath and the nose was fixed instantly. He then pointed the wand at the child’s bottom which was bruised and bloody. He muttered some more words and the skin was healed. He picked him up.

“Just what the hell is going on around here? Is this not Harry Potter?” he demanded.

Petunia had her arms wrapped around Dudley tightly. Vernon seemed to have lost his voice while Severus has healed Harry.

“Yes,” Petunia finally answered. “What are you doing here? How dare you break into my house! I should call the cops on you.”

“Go ahead,” Severus said. “You can tell them exactly why I broke in. You can explain how your husband punched this child in the face, and then spanked him for no reason other than dropping a plate, and while we’re on that subject, why is he setting the table in the first place? Shouldn’t that be the parent’s job? Also why is Harry so small? I believe he should be five now, and he looks two. He doesn’t weigh much, don’t you feed him?”

“We’re you spying on me? Isn’t it enough that you did it when we were children, you have to do it now?” Petunia snapped. “Get out of here!”

“Why does that man keep calling Freak, Harry?” Dudley asked.

“His name isn’t Freak, it is Harry James Potter,” Severus said. “And I want some answers, why is this child so badly neglected?”

Vernon finally found his voice “You can be charged for breaking and entering and trespassing as well.”

“By all means, call your cops on me. In the meantime, I think I’ll be contacting the Ministry of Magic about Harry’s treatment here; this isn’t the last that you’ll see of me. You can be sure of that.”

Severus turned on his heel and left the kitchen. So far Harry hadn’t said a word, but he was no longer crying. He was staring at him with a look of confusion on his face.

“Where is your room?” He asked Harry.

He wasn’t sure if the boy had any toys or not, but if he did, surely he could take with him something that would comfort him. Harry pointed to a cupboard that was under the stairs. Severus walked past the cupboard and over to the steps. He walked up them; the house was one of the cleanest places he had ever seen. Once they were at the top, he set the boy on his feet.

“Show me your room,” Severus told him.

Clutching the hand railing, Harry made his way back down the steps. Severus didn’t understand but followed him, was there another bedroom downstairs? Once they were down the stairs, the child toddled over to the cupboard under the steps and opened it. On the floor were some raggy old blankets.

“That’s your room?” Severus asked in disbelief.

“Sleep now?” Harry asked in a very hoarse voice.

It sounded as if he hadn’t spoken in a very long time.

“Not here, you’re not. I just wanted to see if you had anything you wanted to bring along. Some more clothes maybe, some toys?”

When he looked in the cupboard, he didn’t see any toys, or any other clothes. There were some boots, and other items one would find in a storage closet. Other than the blankets that were made into a bed on the floor, he wouldn’t guess that it was a bedroom… and it shouldn’t have been one.

“Are you sure that’s your room? Where are your clothes?”

Harry pointed to the clothes that he was wearing.

“Don’t you have anymore?”

The boy shook his head. He reached into the cupboard and pulled out one of the blankets, it was very holey.

“Mine,” he said.

Severus picked Harry back up; the Dursley’s were all standing in the doorway of the kitchen.

“Where are the rest of his clothes?” Severus asked them.

No one answered him, so he pointed his wand at them again. Dudley was the only one who didn’t cringe. Vernon looked as if he wanted to shout, his face had turned very purple.

“He-he doesn’t own any other clothes,” Petunia said.

Disgusted, Severus turned and left the house without another word. He knew they were telling the truth, the boy stunk really badly, but he hadn’t noticed it before. As soon as they outside, he spun on the spot and disappeared.

“You weren’t supposed to bring him back here,” Dumbledore said.

They were in the hospital wing; Harry had been given a potion which had put him into a deep sleep. Madam Pomfrey was in the middle of checking him over. Already she noticed that he was severely underweight, his rib bones stuck out too much. He was covered in so many cuts and bruises underneath his clothing; she had also found a broken rib.

“You wouldn’t have left him there if you’d seen what I had,” Severus said angrily. “And it’s lucky I have self-control, otherwise I would have cursed both of them so badly that I’d be in Azkaban. He looks like he is no older than two-years-old!”

“Well, perhaps it’s best we saw this. I’ll talk to the Dursley’s before we send him back there.”

“He isn’t going back there.”

It was Madam Pomfrey who said this. She had been in the middle of healing a long cut that was down Harry’s arm, but had stopped.

“Albus, this child hasn’t eaten in days. He is very malnourished; I fear he is close to anemic. Not only that but he isn’t the height or weight he should be. Severus is right, he looks about two, and he doesn’t even weigh as much as a child at that age should. He is covered in so many bruises, and cuts!”

“He needs to return, otherwise the blood wards will no longer work on him and he won’t be safe anymore,” Albus said.

“He won’t be safe living with them Albus,” Severus snapped. “Vernon Dursley is too rough on him, and Petunia doesn’t give a damn either. When I was pretending to be the electricity man, she saw through it. I think she was worried I was a child abductor and she left him alone outside, but she took her pudgy son inside. And I haven’t even told you the worst part.”

“Worse than being beaten too much?” Madam Pomfrey asked angrily.

Severus had told them both what he had seen during the day as an electricity man and then through the window. He hadn’t told them the Dursley’s had named him ‘Freak’ and that Harry probably didn’t even know his real name. It explained why he wasn’t in school; the teachers would have grown suspicious because of his size, and the fact that he didn’t have a normal name.

“He doesn’t know his real name,” Severus answered. “Little Dudley Dursley told me that his name is Freak.”

Now even Dumbledore was outraged. Madam Pomfrey swore and it was very rare that she ever did. No one said a word at first, than the matron glared angrily at the Headmaster.

“If you try and send this child back to that home, I will fight you,” she said through clenched teeth. “He is not going back there, ever. I don’t care what you say about the blood wards, he is not safe there! Those people will end up killing him, I’m surprised they haven’t. How do you think Lily and James would react if they knew this is the way their child is treated? They are both probably spinning in their graves as we speak.”

For the first time since Severus had met him, Albus seemed to be lost for words. There were a few moments of silence, but then he gave a small nod.

“You’re right; we’ll have to find another alternative to keep him safe.”

Harry  had a hard time responding to his rightful name. He believed that his name was Freak. He also didn’t speak very well. Most children could talk in complete sentences by the time they were five, but he sounded as if he were only two or three-years-old. He wouldn’t answer their questions about his home life either. As soon as someone asked, he would close his eyes and keep his mouth shut.

He wouldn’t eat more than a few bites of his meals either. Madam Pomfrey had to resort to potions that would give him the nutrients he needed in each meal three times a day. When he did talk, he told them that he needed to do his chores.

“Do chores,” Harry said. “Freak do chores.”

“You don’t have to do chores,” Madam Pomfrey said. “I want you to rest.”

They also learned that he wasn’t potty trained. Several times a day he would wet himself or make a bigger mess. He didn’t understand that he was supposed to tell them when he needed to go to the bathroom, so Madam Pomfrey had to take on the task to train him as well as heal him.

The Dursley’s meanwhile were taken into custody. The Hogwarts staff had been smart enough to take pictures of his battered body before Pomfrey had healed him. Severus had also provided his memory of the night he had taken Harry from their home. The problem was, the Ministry wanted to hear about it from the boy as well.

“He can’t talk about it, Albus,” Pomona Sprout said; she had just come back from her trip. “He’s already traumatized as it is. They can’t be serious about making him go to a hearing?”

“He won’t talk about it at all,” Severus said. “We’re going to have to get the memories from him.”

“But we can’t use Leglimency on him,” Albus said. “I’m not sure what it would do to him.”

“There is a potion,” Madam Pomfrey answered. “We’ll have to get him to drink it. His memories will come out from his ears, mouth and nose an hour after he takes it. So we’ll need a Pensieve to store them in. We’ll have to sift through them too because it will likely give us most of his memories.”

So one evening, they fed him a potion that was blue. Harry made a face when he drank it, but he didn’t complain, with so many adults watching him, he did as he was told and drank it all. After he was done, he looked at Madam Pomfrey.

“Bafwoom,” he told her.

It was the first time he remembered to say anything about it, so she picked him up and rushed him off to the bathroom in the hospital wing.

“That poor dear,” Professor Sprout said. “He is so adorable and yet those people willingly beat him… couldn’t they see what they were doing to him? Didn’t they care that he wasn’t the size he should be? And what about the neighbours? Why didn’t anyone notice that he was abused and too small?”

“I don’t think he was allowed outside much,” Severus answered. “They let him out long enough to do the chores, but that was it. They also had him dressed in oversized clothing, and when I was pretending to be some electricity man, he tried to keep his head down so I don’t think anyone saw his injuries.”

Madam Pomfrey returned with Harry. He had a sucker in his hand, but he wasn’t eating it. Once she set him on the bed, he sat very stiffly, just as he always did. They had bought toys for him to play with, but he wouldn’t touch them. Most days he just clutched the old blanket he had brought with him and would ask about his chores.

“Freak do chores,” he said now.

“No, you don’t have to do chores anymore,” Dumbledore told him. “Why don’t you play for a bit?”

Harry just shook his head. He lay down on his bed and closed his eyes. The problem with the potion was that the drinker had to remain awake, so they all tried to keep him busy for the next hour so he couldn’t sleep.

“We could get him to wash something,” Severus said. “Just to keep him busy.”

“But we have to get him out of that habit. He needs to understand that he doesn’t have to chores. While I agree that it’s healthy for a child his age to have a chore, it’s not a good idea in his case. He will think that if he does something for us, he will always have to,” Madam Pomfrey said.

“Freak do Chores,” Harry said again.

“You’re name is Harry, not Freak,” Pomona told him. “Harry James Potter.”

“Name is Freak. Don’t deserve real name,” Harry said.

“Harry, you don’t even know what a freak is, but it isn’t good, and you do deserve a name,” Madam Pomfrey said.

“Abnormal, strange, not normal,” he said. “Repeat after me. I am a freak. I deserve beatings. I am not normal. I am a very horrible child. I am disgusting. I don’t deserve food or toys. I should not be alive but since I am I need to be beaten. I should have died with my loser parents.”

It was the most he had ever said. Everyone in the hospital wing had a feeling that it was something he had to say everyday; otherwise he wouldn’t be able to say it so well. He also normally didn’t speak in complete sentences. Madam Pomfrey turned away to hide her tears. Severus glared at Albus.

“Harry, none of that is true!” Professor Sprout protested, she hurried over to give him a hug, but Harry cringed away.

“NOT HARRY! MY NAME FREAK!” he shouted.

Suddenly, blue stuff seemed to be coming out of his ears, nose and mouth. Everyone stepped forward and started to take the blue threads of memories and placed them in the Pensieve that Dumbledore had retrieved from his office. It took a while before they had gotten them all.

“Well, Severus, are you ready to go through the memories?”

It had taken days, but Severus and Dumbledore had managed to pick out memories to use for the Dursley’s hearing. They had both learned a lot about Harry’s childhood since there were a lot of memories from when he was a baby as well.

Both men were relieved to find that even though Harry was obviously neglected as a baby; neither Petunia nor Vernon had hit him. Dudley Dursley had spent a lot of his days poking and prodding him, and they had fed him. However, from the moment he lived at their place they had christened him as ‘Freak’ in the beginning, this had confused him. He had known that Harry was his name, not Freak, but after awhile he seemed to forget his rightful name.

It wasn’t until the Christmas after his second birthday that the real abuse started. That explained why he was so little. They stopped feeding him as much and began to hit him, the older he grew, the more brutal they were. Dumbledore decided that Harry must have stopped growing at the age of two.

Harry and Dudley played together by the Christmas tree. Harry didn’t seem to be as happy as most two-year-old boys were. He wasn’t smiling while the two toddlers played with some toy trucks; it was as if his heart wasn’t in it. Dudley suddenly decided he wanted to play by himself and he pulled one of the trucks from his cousin’s hand.

Harry didn’t argue, he just got up and walked over to a teddy bear that had a missing arm. He picked it up and hugged it tightly. He stared at his cousin with dull green eyes.

“Mine!” Dudley shouted when he saw Harry holding the old bear.

It was indeed Dudley’s, but once the arm had fallen off, Petunia had decided to give it to Harry for Christmas.

“Kismiss pwesent,” Harry said and hugged the teddy bear to him tighter.

“Fweak, it mine!” Dudley shouted.

He hurried over to his cousin and tried to pull the bear from his arms, but Harry held onto it tightly.

“MUMMY!” Dudley screamed.

Petunia and Vernon ran into the room, they had been in the kitchen before.

“Fweak has my bear!” Dudley sobbed. “Mine!”

“Freak, give it back to Dudley!” Vernon said.

“Mine,” Harry said sadly.

“Dudley, we gave that teddy bear to Freak, it’s all broken and smelly now,” Petunia said quickly.

Dudley tried to pull it from Harry again, who only held on to it tighter. Dudley suddenly let out a horrible scream of pain. He stared down at his hand, which somehow had been burnt. Vernon and Petunia both seemed to understand what had happened.

“Petunia, he just hurt Dudley with that freaky powers!” Vernon shouted.

“I know,” she said.

She walked over to Harry, and smacked him as hard as she could across the face. Harry started to cry, she pulled the teddy bear out of his hands and tossed it to Vernon. She then pulled down his pants and diaper, and then started to spank him as hard as she could. The spanking went on for a while. When it was done, she picked him up; he was sobbing very hard at that point and handed him to Vernon.

“You’ll have to finish it, my hand is starting to hurt,” she told him.

They had both agreed that if he ever did magic, he would be beaten until he never did it again.

Unfortunately, Harry didn’t stop doing magic. Petunia had been in the middle of trying to potty training the boys, but she stopped bothering with her nephew after the magic incident. He had caught on a lot quicker than Dudley had, but there were times when he still had accidents, but she gave up on him completely.

When her son didn’t need diapers anymore, she stopped buying them for Harry as well. She cleaned his clothes for him until he was four with the garden hose and some dish soap but then she turned the task onto him. There were many arguments about this in the Dursley household. They learned that it had been Vernon’s decision to stop the training.

“Vernon, it would be easier if I just potty trained him now,” she said. “I am sick of cleaning his pants for him.”

“Force him to do it every morning then. He only stays in the cupboard or the yard, so none of his mess will get on the furniture. Freak is nothing but scum, so he should live in his own filth. Just add that to his chores, we’re too easy on him as it is.”

By the age of three, Harry had a lot of duties around the house; he had to set the table for the Dursley’s, even though it was very difficult for him. He had his own chair with a booster seat on it so he could stand on it to help wash the dishes or cook breakfast. He also had a lot of yard work to do as well; he did most of the gardening and at a very young age. He had learned to do everything right because if he didn’t, he’d be beaten.

The Christmas memory was one that Dumbledore and Severus had decided to use, but there were more, they found as well. Harry had a large bald in the middle of head that was growing back slowly. They learned quickly in a memory where it had come from.

Harry stood on his usual chair to make the breakfast. Vernon had ordered sunny side up eggs. These eggs were always very hard for him to make. He’d learned over the years how to make them properly, but it was difficult. He had accidentally burnt the bacon the day before, so his uncle had made him touch the burner on the stove. With a hurting hand, it was a lot harder for him make breakfast that morning.

“Hurry up with my breakfast Freak!” Vernon shouted.

Harry quickly tried to flip it… and the egg broke. Most unfortunately, his uncle got up to see what was taking so long. As soon as he saw that the yolk was running, he grew angry. He grabbed his nephew by the arm and then grabbed a handful of his hair and pulled. The boy started to scream.

“What have I told you about screaming when the windows are open you stupid filthy ugly waste of skin!” Vernon shouted and pulled Harry’s hair even harder.

Moments later, he had ripped the chunk of hair from his nephews head. He pushed him to the floor afterward and threw the hair on the floor.

“You clean that mess up now Freak!”

Harry quickly collected the strands of hair from the floor and threw them in the bin. He now had a bald spot on his, there was also some blood. He was crying hard, this seemed to anger his uncle even more because he was smacked across the face.

“Stop crying this instant!”

The boy seemed to know that if he didn’t listen, it would be a lot worse. He started to choke on his sobs.

“Now, what’s a freak?” Vernon asked him.

“Abnormal, strange, not normal,” Harry answered almost robotic like.

“Good, good,” Vernon muttered. “Repeat after me. I am a freak. I deserve beatings. I am not normal. I am a very horrible child. I am disgusting. I don’t deserve food or toys. I should not be alive but since I am I need to do chores and be beaten. I should have died with my loser parents.”

“I am a freak. I deserve beatings. I am not normal. I am a very horrible child. I am disgusting. I don’t deserve food or toys. I should not be alive but since I am I need to do chores and be beaten. I should have died with my loser parents,” Harry repeated without a mistake in the same robotic voice as before.

“How did your parents die?”

“In a car accident. They were drunk but it was good that they died because they were a burden to society just as I am. Since I insist on living I will do chores, I will get beaten without a complaint and if I shall disobey, I will be locked up in my cupboard with no meals,” Harry answered, still as robotic.

Vernon Dursley had made sure to make him repeat all this everyday at least three or four times since the age of two. In the beginning, if he didn’t say it properly, he was beaten. It was the only time Harry could speak in complete sentences.

“Are you a good boy?” Vernon asked him.

“No, I am a horrible child… no wait, I am not a child. I am thing. I am a disgusting revolting thing, hence the name Freak.”

“And you cried when I hit you, so you will do your chores, then you will be locked up in your cupboard with no meals for three days.”

Incidentally, the first meal Harry had was given to him after he arrived at Hogwarts. The memory they saw had happened two days before Severus had found him being abused. There were other memories just as bad that they would and ones that were even worse. There was one memory where the boy had been spanked four times in one day; each one had lasted at least five minutes.

Harry seemed to be even more depressed as the days went by and Madam Pomfrey didn’t understand. They kept him in the hospital wing; no one was sure what to do with him, or where he should stay, so he stayed there. The other teachers were starting to come back to Hogwarts daily as September neared, so they visited him often.

“Hello Harry,” Professor McGonagall said. “How are you today?”

She had arrived earlier in the day; she didn’t know the full story about his arrival. She had no idea that he believed his name was Freak.

“Not my name,” Harry told her his eyes down at the floor.

“What do mean that’s not your name?” she asked.

“Name is Freak,” he answered. “Got to go to bathroom.”

Surprised, but still not understanding, she picked him up and carried him to the bathroom. While he was in there, she went to Madam Pomfrey’s office to ask some questions. She let him know that she wouldn’t be far.

“Minerva! You’re back. How is your daughter?” Pomfrey said.

“Very good, and I got to meet my new Great Granddaughter. That was the surprise she had for me. No one had told me that Alicia was pregnant. My grandson is also engaged. I do miss the family very much at times. I wish I could see them more,” she said. “Now, about Harry, he told me his name is Freak?”

“His aunt and uncle renamed him Freak. He doesn’t understand why we keep calling him Harry. The abuse there was very bad, if Severus hadn’t seen… they beat him daily, he had to repeat everyday that he was a horrible child who deserved beatings. I don’t know what we’re going to do. It’s going to be very hard to get through to him; I am worried about what this is going to do to them when he is older. He thinks that if he doesn’t do chores he shouldn’t eat, he won’t play with toys. Oh Minerva, it’s terrible! Most days he just sits on his bed and doesn’t talk, if he does it’s to ask if he can do chores or to tell us that he has to go to the bathroom, but that’s a good thing I suppose. He wasn’t potty trained when he first came, but he seems to have learned quickly and he hasn’t been here that long.”

“I told Albus not to leave him there. I told him that they wouldn’t understand a boy like Harry, but I never suspected it would go this far.”

They went back into the Hospital Wing expecting to see Harry on the bed, but he was no where to be seen. Quickly, they ran to the bathroom to see if he was there. The light was still on, but he wasn’t there. Had he left to look for her?

The teachers that were at Hogwarts began a large search for Harry. Luckily the doors were locked during the summertime, so everyone thought it was unlikely that he had gone outside, but they had a few people search the grounds anyway. Everyone else, including the ghosts searched the castle.

Severus was very worried about him. He never thought it would have been possible to care about the Potter spawn, but he did. After what he had seen, he wanted to do nothing but to protect Harry. All he could think about was whether or not the boy was hurt somewhere, or perhaps scared.

Just as he rounded a corner, he saw a small figure coming out of one of the classrooms.

“SEVERUS!” Harry shouted.

He ran over to him, Severus rushed over and picked him up. Harry wrapped his arms around his neck and began to cry.

“Harry, you had us all worried. Why did you leave the Hospital Wing?”

“Look for you,” Harry said as be cried. “Thought you gone.”

“You were looking for me?”

“Didn’t see you for long time! Day and night and no Severus!”

He hadn’t been to the Hospital Wing in days, but it had been because he was looking through the memories. He and Albus had spent their days in the Headmasters office since there had been a lot of memories to go over. They had also wanted to have a better understanding of the life Harry had lived so they could figure out how to help him.

“I’ve been busy. I didn’t know you wanted me there,” Severus said. “Were you wondering where I was the whole time?”

Harry nodded. This surprised him and he had to ask, “Why?”

“You save me,” Harry answered. “Uncle spank Freak but you help. Now I don’t get hurt no more. I eat when tummy is sore too. Don’t do chores. Should do chores. Freak is bad boy needs to do chores Severus.”

“You don’t have to chores anymore. And haven’t we told you that your name is Harry?”

“Uncle and aunt call me Freak,” Harry said.

“Well, it’s not true. You are not a freak and you aren’t any of that other stuff they made you say. You are a very good boy.”

“I am a horrible child… no wait, I am not a child. I am thing. I am a disgusting revolting thing, hence the name Freak.”

“No, you are a very good child and you are not disgusting, you are not a freak and your name is Harry.”

Severus carried him back to the Hospital Wing. The child was grateful that he had saved him. He hugged him tightly as they went. He saw Professors Sprout and McGonagall talking anxiously by the doors.

“You found him!” Professor Sprout said relieved. “Where was he?”

“Ironically, he was looking for me. Apparently he missed me so he came to find me. He likes the fact that I saved him from his uncle,” Severus answered.

They entered the Hospital Wing. Severus went to place him on the bed Harry had been using but he only gripped his arms around tighter around his neck.

“No, please never leave me again. Please,” Harry begged. “Need you, uncle might come back. Stay with me. Pwomise stay with Freak, please stay!”

“I’ll stay,” Severus answered in a soft voice he had only used on once person before… Lily Evans.

It became very clear as the days went by that Harry was very attached to Severus. He seemed to like the other teachers but was very fond of the Potions Master. On the day of the Dursley trial, he was with Professor McGonagall for the day, but he was anxious because he knew his hero wasn’t at the school any longer.

The Wizenmagot decided after seeing all the memories that the Dursley’s deserved life in Azkaban. They were muggles yes, but they knew about the wizarding world, they had beaten an innocent wizard boy. The jury also had a soft spot for Harry as he was The-Boy-Who-Lived. They all thought it was terrible that the saviour of the wizarding world had to live through four years of abuse.

Several members of the Wizenmagot had to wonder if Dumbledore should continue to make decisions for Harry since he was the one who put him in the abusive situation in the first. Many wizarding families would have been more than happy to take him and raise him as their own.

Dumbledore had decided to keep Harry at Hogwarts, but not many people wanted him to make Harry’s decision anymore. There was a poll in the Daily Prophet about whether or not the boy should be taken into the Ministry’s custody.

“One of you will have to adopt him,” Albus told the staff members, a week before school started. “Hogwarts is the safest place for him if Voldemort-” several of the teachers flinched- “should ever return. I don’t want to put a wizarding family in danger. Voldmort would not dare attack this school as long as I am Headmaster.”

“I think we all know who the obvious choice is,” Professor Flitwick squeaked. “Who has Harry taken to more than anyone here?”

All eyes fell on to Severus. This was rather a sore spot for Madam Pomfrey who spent all her time caring for the child, and although it was clear that he liked her, he wanted Severus. This seemed to hurt her feelings.

“I see your reasoning for this, but what about when I am teaching classes? I have room in my quarters for him, but I’m just not sure if it’s a good idea to care for a child his age. I work with all sorts of dangerous potions.”

He wouldn’t mind adopting Lily’s son, which was a big change. When Dumbledore had asked him to check on Harry, he would never have considered it. However, the child was very attached to him; he grew anxious if he didn’t see Severus at least once during the day. No one wanted him to get lost in the castle again, so he made sure to visit frequently. The only problem was he wouldn’t have time to care for such a small child. He would be teaching, or marking the student’s homework or doing patrol. He pointed out these factors to the staff.

“Well, we are all very busy and normally a child shouldn’t be raised in the castle, but these circumstances are different and perhaps we could find a wizarding family who could protect him, but he is very attached to you, Severus. He is finally starting to open up. If we send him away, he’ll go back into his shell,” Albus said. “Also, considering you are the only one besides me who has seen most of his memories, you have a better understanding of the boy.”

“And we’ll all help out,” Pomona said. “There are enough staff members here to care for him, and perhaps some of the older students won’t mind watching him as well.”

“You just have to become his guardian, that’s all,” Minerva said.

“Don’ wreck the progress he has made,” Hagrid added gruffly.

Harry was actually very afraid of Hagrid, so he didn’t get to see the child as often as he wanted. They all knew this upset him, he had been very good friends with both Lily and James, and he had met Harry when he’d been a baby.

“All right,” Severus sighed.

Under normal circumstances, there probably would not be a unanimous vote for Severus Snape to take care of The-Boy-Who-Lived, especially since the child was the son of his enemy…

“Aw, what’s your name, little cutie?”

“Freak,” Harry answered.

Severus looked up quickly. They had just finished buying new clothes, now he was paying for them. Madam Malkin had been enraged when she’d seen the size of Harry, she knew by now, just like the rest of the wizarding world about the abuse, and how he, Severus Snape had become the child’s guardian.

A witch was standing behind him at the counter; she was holding a blue dressing gown. Harry was beside Severus, clutching his hand. Hadn’t the Dursley’s taught Harry never to talk to strangers?

“His name is Harry,” Severus told her.

“Wait… Harry Potter? I read about his story in the Daily Prophet, it’s just so tragic what those muggles did to him. I didn’t want to believe, and he really believes his name is Freak?”

Obviously Snape thought to himself. He took his change from Madam Malkin and bent down to lift Harry into his arms, while he shifted the package of clothes to another arm.

“But I thought he should be about five? He looks so little,” the witch added.

“Well, when children are starved and beaten, generally they don’t grow much,” Severus answered coolly. “But you know he isn’t someone to gawk at. He is a little boy and I’d appreciate it if you didn’t giggle with your friends later about how you met Harry Potter.”

With those last words, he turned and left the shop angrily. They had been going to Diagon Alley or Hogsmeade a lot over the past few days and he had to deal with gawkers or people talking about how heartbroken they felt when they read the story. He could never find a good time to avoid people either, they were always around.

“Do you want to stop by the candy shop so I can buy you a treat?” Severus asked Harry. “Then we’ll be going back home.”

“Freak don’t get treats,” Harry responded.

“You’re name is not Freak, it’s Harry and if you want a treat you can have one,” Severus told him.

He was slowly losing his patience, why couldn’t the child just understand that his name was Harry? They told him daily, and they called him by his rightful name. He never responded to it though, if they called for ‘Harry’ he ignored them, and no one was going to call him Freak. Had the Dursley’s dropped him on his head a lot? Why was he so stupid?

“Maybe,” Harry said slowly. “Never had one.”

“We give you treats all the time,” Severus said and entered the small candy shop.

“Don’t eat it. Freak not allowed treat. I get slap that my treat. Uncle Vernon say so.”

“Your Uncle Vernon was wrong. Now, how about some chocolate frogs, I think you’ll like those.”

Harry just shrugged, so Severus bought a large bag of them. He could give him the treats when they got back to the castle. For now, he just wanted to get out of there. People were pointing him out. There were some Hogwarts students doing some last minute shopping, they all stopped in their tracks to stare. He gave them glares, and they hurried on.

“A bunch of nosy idiots,” Severus muttered.

“Freak a idiot?” Harry asked.

“No, those people staring at us are idiots. They are nosy; tell them to stop staring at us. Maybe if you say something, they’ll stop,” Severus said.

He wasn’t really serious about, and he didn’t think the boy would actually do it.

“Stop looking nosy idiots!” Harry shouted at a group of second years who stopped and pointed.

Oh I am going to be in trouble if he keeps telling people that. Severus thought to himself, but he was amused. He sped up quickly so they could get into the Leaky Cauldron.

Minerva had been waiting impatiently for Severus and Harry to return from their trip. She and the rest of the staff had come up with a plan to see if they could help the boy out. They finally had their surprise for him ready, and she wanted to show it to him. When she saw them coming up the steps from the dungeons, she smiled.

“Come here, Harry,” she called and opened her arms to him.

Harry was used to the rest of the staff now, so he smiled back. He ran over as fast as his little legs would let him. She picked him up and hugged him closely. Oh, how could those people have treated him the way they had? Now that he knew people wanted to love him, he was so greedy for love, and everyone was only too happy to give it to him. And he had come when she called; did that mean he knew his name?

“I got treats,” he told her. “Can’t have one till after dinner though.”

“Well, that’s a good idea. Harry, I have a surprise for you. Would you like to come to my office to see it?”

“It’s not a treat is it? I don’t know if he’ll eat any, but if he does, I already told him to wait until after dinner,” Severus looked angry, as if he thought she was undermining his authority.

“No, no, remember what we decided to start a couple weeks ago? Well all of it has come and I just completed it. I want to show it to him,” she answered.

Everyone had agreed that she could be the one to sit with him and show it to him. Although Severus was his guardian, they weren’t too sure if it was a good idea for him to do it. He didn’t exactly volunteer, so when she said she’d do it, the staff had nodded their approval.

“Ah, okay, I’ll see you later then Harry,” he said and gave her a small nod.

He looked kind of relieved to give to her for a while. Then again, he hadn’t been too happy about the fact that he had to be the one to take Harry shopping because people kept staring. Albus had thought it was about money at first.

“He has his own fortune, if money’s the problem Severus,” he had said.

“No, I’ve got money and I’m his guardian I don’t mind spending it on him. That money in his vault can wait until he starts school,” Severus had said. “It’s the fact that I don’t want to take a five-year-old shopping, especially this one. Everyone will be staring, why did you let the Daily Prophet write up about him anyway?”

“Freak get surprise?” Harry asked now.

“Yes, you get a surprise, but you’ve had a lot of presents the last few days, haven’t you?” Minerva asked and gave him a kiss on his cheek.

She loved small children, though many people didn’t know that. She had missed her grandchildren’s early years, so she looked forward to watching Harry grow up. They had all agreed they would raise him, even if Severus was his guardian. She wouldn’t get to see him during the summers, but that was when she went to go see her own family anyway.

Inside her office, she shut the door and then sat down with Harry on her lap. She had watched Lily and James grow up from eleven-year-olds, and she had been their Head of House, it was only fair that she showed the album to their child. She picked up a red and gold book from her desk and opened it up to the first page.

The first pages had Lily and James’ school pictures. There was a smiling James Potter who waved; it was taken in his fifth year.

“Do you know who this is?” She asked Harry.

He stared down at the picture and then placed a hand on it, luckily the pictures were in a protective cover.

“Daddy?” he asked her.

She was very surprised to see that Harry knew who his father was. He had died when Harry was just a baby, and he’d lived with four years of abuse. He’d forgotten his own name.

“That’s right. That is James Potter, you’re daddy. You know, you look just like him,” Minerva told him.

“I know,” Harry said.

So maybe that’s how he knew. Harry liked to look at himself in the mirror because he had never seen himself before. The Dursley’s had never taken a picture of him, and from the memories Albus and Severus had seen, he had been forbidden to look at himself. Severus said from what they had seen that the boy hadn’t really tried to look at himself though, not even in the silverware.

“Where daddy?” he asked.

“Oh, honey, he died along time ago,” Minerva answered.

“In car crash,” he said in a very sad voice. “Freak should have died with parents.”

“No, honey, you should not have. I am very glad that you lived and I am sorry that your parents didn’t,” she said and hugged him tightly again. “Now, can you tell me who this is?”

She pointed to Lily Potter who smiled and waved at the camera. Harry stared at her and then shook his head. Minerva felt a little down, she had hoped he did recognize his parents, but he didn’t. The only reason he knew that James was his father was because he knew they looked the same.

“That’s your mummy,” Minerva said.

She conjured a mirror and had Harry look at it. As usual, he was very fascinated with his face. He pointed at it and smiled.

“It’s Freak!” He said and laughed.

“That’s Harry, what colour are your eyes?”

He squinted at the mirror for a moment and then said, “Green, right?”

At least he knew his colours, he hadn’t been educated so far, but he must have learnt colours from somewhere.

“That’s right, and what colour of your eyes does you mum have?” she asked.

Harry stared down at her picture, then into the mirror again. He looked up at Minerva and pointed at his own eyes. She nodded and smiled at him. He stared into his mother’s picture, and then slowly he reached out and touched her face.

“Mummy,” he said and then started to cry.

“Oh honey, I know, they miss you so much, they loved you a lot you know,” Minerva said.

Harry’s sobs stopped and he looked up at her with confusion.

“They love Freak? Uncle Vernon say they hate me!”

“No, they loved you, Harry. Your father’s name is James, that’s your middle name. He loved you so much that he named you after himself.”

Quickly, she flipped to another picture, it was a picture of a smiling elderly couple.

“This is your Grandma and Grandpa Potter. You’re Grandfather’s name was Harold. Your mummy and daddy, loved you so much that they named you after him. He died before you were born. They would be very sad to know that you think your name is Freak when your real name is Harry James Potter,” Minerva said.

“Uncle Vernon and Aunt Petunia call me Freak though,” Harry said.

“They shouldn’t have called you that. Everything they told you was a lie, Harry. You are a very special little boy. You are also a good boy, and you did not deserve any of the stuff that they did to you. I wish you would stop calling yourself that,” she said.

Harry just stared at her and then shook his head. She sighed and then continued to show him the rest of the pictures in the album. He seemed to enjoy this. They came to a picture of Lily, James and Harry.

“Who is in this picture?” She asked him.

“Mummy,” he said and pointed to her. “Daddy, and Freak!”

“Mummy, daddy and Harry,” she corrected.

When they got to the end of the album, she smiled at him.

“That’s yours to keep. You can look at it whenever you want to.”

“Mine?” He asked.

There was a knock on the door. Severus opened the door and stepped in after she called him.

“Severus, I have new book!” Harry exclaimed and jumped of Minerva’s lap. “Got, mummy and daddy, and Freak!”

Severus sighed and picked him up. Minerva stood up as well and held out the album for him to take.

“I thought Albus said this could help him? That once he saw him with his parents, he would understand what his name is?”

“The problem is, I think he knows what his name is,” Minerva said sadly. “He just believes what they told him; he thinks he doesn’t deserve to have a name.”

It was the day that the students would be arriving back to Hogwarts for another school year. To say that the teachers were nervous was an understatement. They all knew that the children would want to try and get a better look at Harry, they would point at him, they would whisper behind their hands and one of them might even reveal his past. So far, he didn’t know how his parents really died. No one wanted to tell an abused child that his parents had been murdered and he’d come close to that same fate, especially one who thought his name was Freak.

Albus had sent a letter to each of the children explaining that yes, Harry Potter was at Hogwarts but he knew nothing about his past. Of course the Muggleborn first year students didn’t know anything about him, or about the abuse, so they had a brief explanation. The rest of the students’ parents likely got the Daily Prophet, so they would know all about what had happened at the Dursley’s.

This was all on Madam Pomfrey’s mind while she gave Harry a check up. She knew that people would be excited because he was there. Everyone in the wizarding world knew his name, and they all wanted to thank him. In the past, she had heard some students talk about whether or not he would remember that night when he was older. What if some of them asked?

She noticed something different that day with the boy. He had grown an inch! This was exciting since everyone had hoped he would start to grow into what should be his height.

“Harry!” she gasped! “You grew! You are an inch taller!”

She picked him up and planted kisses all over his face and hugged him tightly.

“Good boy! You’ve been eating, haven’t you? You sweet precious boy! You’re a very good boy aren’t you? You will be taller than me soon I bet!”

Harry started to laugh. Most people would think that she was going overboard, but in this child’s case she wasn’t. A woman in the ministry who worked with abuse cases told them that they needed to praise him and compliment him as much as they could. In the beginning, Harry hadn’t responded to anyone’s cuddling, but now he did. She had never met a child who craved affection as much as he did.

He was worried that it would all end soon though. Severus had used leglimence on him and found out that even though he seemed happier, he was scared that they would find out that he was evil. Every member on the staff team, even Professor Trelawney explained to him that he wasn’t evil.

“Severus!” Harry suddenly shouted. “Freak is inch taller!”

“He’s finally grown?” Severus asked.

He kept his face emotionless, he liked to pretend to everyone else that he didn’t care as much as they did, but they knew he did. They all knew he was very angry at the muggles for how they had treated Harry. He had even admitted that he’d wanted to curse them.

“Yes, he has grown an inch, but he hasn’t gained too much weight yet. I suppose that is a good thing in a way. We don’t want him to get fat.”

“I’d rather him be fat then be in the shape he was in when he first came, although I can’t see it. His rib bones still stick out too much,” Severus answered. “If you are done with him Poppy, I’d like to get him ready for the feast. I just bought him his own set of Hogwarts robes to wear tonight.”

Madam Pomfrey gave Harry a final kiss and handed him to Severus.

---
Harry was never sure what to think about his new life at Hogwarts. Everyone seemed to love him, he was never hit, they told him he didn’t have to do chores and he got to eat.

He had a vague memory of being able to eat what he wanted at his aunt and uncles at one time, but then it had changed after one Christmas morning, and he didn’t understand why. He barely remembered that day, except it was the first time he had ever been beaten. After that, they started to call him evil and the devils spawn, and he had to say awful stuff about himself everyday.

Now everyone told him that he was a very good boy and they gave him a lot of treats. They also seemed to forget that he could walk by himself, they carried him everywhere. He liked the fact that everyone always hugged and kissed him, but he wanted to walk on his own as well. He was worried that soon he might forget.

He was also allowed to use the toilet there. He had always known how to use it, unknown to his aunt and uncle he had used it if he remembered to. He forgot most of the time and made a mess but sometimes he remembered. His uncle had told him that since he was evil, he had to live in own filth, but that had always disgusted Harry. He hated that he couldn’t bathe or wear clean clothes. He didn’t like the fact that he could only use a smelly old cloth to clean himself up with.

Now everything was different, he had so many outfits, he was sure he’d be a very big boy before he even got to wear them all. Someone else washed his clothes for him, he got to have a real bath everyday and he was praised for bathing and using the toilet.

Severus didn’t cuddle with him the same as everyone else did, and Harry wished he would. He was the one who had stopped his uncle from spanking him and had taken him away, he would never forget that. He wondered if the electricity man who had talked to Dudley had sent him.

“You have your fathers messy hair, you know that Harry?” Severus asked as he combed his hair.

He had just finished a bath and had changed into new clothes. These new clothes were very strange, they were more like a dress, but Severus had assured him that they weren’t. He decided the man was telling the truth since he was also wearing them. People at Hogwarts sure did dress differently than his relatives and others he had met.

“I got picture of my father,” Harry told him.

“Yes, I know Harry. You’ve shown me those pictures a lot. You haven’t had that album for a week and I think I have it memorized,” Severus answered in a dry voice.

“You don’t like pictures?” Harry asked him.

“I don’t mind them, sit up straighter, I need to fix your tie.”

He wondered why he had to wear a tie. He was a little boy, he didn’t need one. He’d only seen his uncle wear them. He told this to Severus, who seemed to ignore him.

“All right, there you go Harry, don’t mess your clothes up please and if you have to go to the bathroom, let me know.”

He wondered why they all kept calling him Harry. He knew that it was his real name now. He just didn’t deserve to use it. The evil wasn’t allowed to have a name. His uncle had told him that since he was so evil, he had to be named Freak, which wasn’t a real name, but it was his.

“If you ever try to use a real name, you’ll regret it. The evil can’t use a real name, they don’t deserve it. You are nothing but devils spawn and should be in Hell.”

He didn’t know what Hell was, but it didn’t sound too good. He wasn’t to sure about devils spawn either, but he understood that it was evil… and he knew what evil was. His uncle had made sure he knew what that meant.

But his uncle had also told him that if he talked about the abuse, his fingers would fall off, and they hadn’t yet. The teachers had tricked him a couple of times into talking about the Dursley’s. He also wasn’t locked up. His uncle had told him that if anyone found out about the abuse, he would have to be locked up forever, but he wasn’t. Did that mean he could use his name as well?

---

Harry seemed to behave for the night. Severus was glad that he kept himself clean, and if he had to go to the bathroom, he remembered. If it was any ordinary five-year-old, the new robes would likely be ruined because he would have gotten into something. This child however sat and read letters out loud from books. He didn’t know how to read, but he knew his alphabet from watching educational shows on the strange contraption that only muggles owned.

“We’re going to go down to the feast soon,” Severus told Harry. “But first, we are going to do something.”

It was something he had been debating about doing with Harry for a while now. He was worried it would upset the child, and if it did, they wouldn’t do it again. He patted his lap, and beckoned for Harry to come over. He saw the boy’s shoulders droop, and he stared at the floor sadly before getting to his feet. Severus didn’t understand what was wrong until the boy was lying over his lap.

“No, no, you’re not getting a spanking,” Severus said quickly and picked him up. “I’m sorry; I should have told you I want you to sit on my lap. I already told you that I was never going to hit you.”

Harry looked relieved; he smiled up at him before giving Severus a tight hug. He normally didn’t cuddle the boy, he was too embarrassed to.

“Olay, I want you to repeat after me,” he began and Harry froze but he quickly continued. “My name is Harry James Potter.”

The boy didn’t say anything, he just stared at Severus.

“Go on, I want you to say, my name is Harry James Potter.”

“My- my name is-” but he froze.

“It’s all right, you can say it. You deserve your name Harry. Since you won’t say it, I’ll have to make you.”

He pointed his wand at the child and put the tickling charm on him. Harry started to laugh and pleaded for him to stop.

“Will you tell me what your name is?” Severus asked.

“Yes, yes!” Harry shouted. “Stop tickle Severus stop!”

He quickly removed the tickling charm and repeated what he wanted Harry to say.

“My name is Harry James Potter,” Harry said and his eyes widened after he said.

“I deserve my name,” Severus continued.

It took a few tries, but soon Harry was saying:

“My name is Harry James Potter. I deserve my name. I am a very good boy. I have a lot of people who care about me. I am not a freak and I will not call myself that anymore.”

“Good boy! Now, what is your name?”

Harry hesitated for a moment. “F- Harry James Potter.”

“Are you a good boy?”

“Yes!”

“Do you deserve your name?”

“Yes!”

“Do you have to do chores before you can eat?”

“No.”

“What is your name?”

“HARRY JAMES POTTER!”

Severus laughed. “Well, there was no need to shout, but I am glad you are enthusiastic about it anyway.”

Something told him it wouldn’t always be this easy, that they still had a long way to go, but at least he had gotten him to say his name.

---

The teachers usually went to the staff room to have a last minute meeting before the students arrived. They wanted to go over everything that needed to be addressed, introduce themselves to the new Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher, and have a last minute break before they lost their freedoms for another school year.

Everyone was already there when Severus and Harry arrived. Immediately, everyone hurried over to greet them. It was the first time he remembered every member of the staff coming over to say hello, or even anyone, for that matter. Normally people weren’t excited to see him. He had to remind himself it was because he had The-Boy-Who-Lived in his arms.

“Tell them what your name is,” Severus told Harry.

He knew it was going to cause excited shouting, but he figured it was best to get it over with now.

“Harry James Potter!” Harry answered.

Everyone was quiet for a moment, than all mayhem broke loose. They all wanted to hold Harry in their arms. He felt the child ripped from his arms, it was Madam Pomfrey who had grabbed him, but Professors Sprout, McGonagall, Burbage and Flitwick were trying to get in on the excitement. The rest of the teachers congratulated him on finally getting Harry to say his name.

“My dear boy, how did you do it?” Dumbledore asked. “We’ve been trying to get him to say it for a month.”

“Just pulled a trick from Dursley’s book and had him repeat after me,” Severus answered. “From the way they’re all acting, you’d think he had just said his first word.”

“Well, this is a beginning in a way… although Harry is far from being cured. I wish it were this easy,” Dumbledore said. “I’m surprised you had him repeat after you though. You do know he can have a relapse if he is reminded too much of his aunt and uncle?”

“Well, we tried everything else and it didn’t work. Besides, we’re supposed to let him confront the abuse, if we don’t it will be a lot worse for him if he doesn’t,” Severus answered. “After he realized what I was doing, he relaxed and I’m sure he won’t be able to eat a lot of dinner tonight after all the treats he had. Watch this. Harry, tell everyone what you told me!”

Harry was now in Professor Sprouts arms. He hesitated for a moment then said:

“My name is Harry James Potter. I deserve my name. I am a very good boy. I have a lot of people who care about me. I am not a freak and I will not call myself that anymore.”

Usually when he repeated the words his uncle had wanted him to say, he would say it in a dull robotic way, but not this time. He said the words excitedly and grew even more excited when the teachers began to congratulate him again.

“Do you think this will work?” Professor McGonagall asked anxiously. “The woman from the Ministry said that he might act like he has gotten over the abuse, but he really isn’t. She said it could take years…”

“No, I think we still have a long way to go,” Severus told her honestly. “But as long as we can get him to continue to say his name, he will get used to it and really believe he deserves a name. Right now I think he says it because he knows it makes us happy, and if we’re happy with his progress he will get treats or cuddled. He has to say it because he truly believes that he isn’t evil or a freak. We have four years of brainwashing to get past.”

McGonagall nodded. They watched as Hagrid tried to get Harry to come over to him. Professor Sprout held his hand as they approached the half giant slowly.

“It’s all righ’ Harry,” Hagrid said in a low voice. “I knew you when you was just a baby. I knew your mum and dad too.”

“You did?” Harry asked.

“Oh yea, good friends of mine. You used to be able to fit in one hand,” and he waved a hand the size of a dust pan around. “Come, see if you still can.”

Harry hesitated, and then slowly walked into Hagrid’s open arms.

“He is accomplishing a lot today,” Dumbledore said as they watched Hagrid toss a laughing Harry into the air. “We have to be careful about not spoiling him too much. We must remember what happens when fame gets to a boys head.”

“But we aren’t treating him this way because of his fame. We are treating him this way because he was an abused child who needs to understand he deserves love. He knows nothing about that yet, Albus. If he was any other child that we had taken into custody, we would be treating him the same way," McGonagall said.

“If he was any other child, we would not have to raise him here,” Dumbledore answered.

“While I agree we shouldn’t spoil him too much, you heard what the woman from the Ministry said. At this point, he needs this. I don’t want him to grow up arrogant either, but I don’t want him to grow up as a mute who thinks he deserves to be beaten for being alive. As long as we teach him properly, he’ll grow up fine… but he needs this,” Severus said.

He would see to it that Harry didn’t grow up arrogant like his father, but he knew right now it didn’t hurt that they spoiled him. It’s what he needed at the moment, and as Minerva rightly put it, they weren’t treating him this way because of his fame. When the time came to tell him about his background, Severus would teach him to be a respectful boy and not let his fame get to his head.

Somehow, in this child’s case he didn’t think it would. Just how would he react when he found out his parents had been murdered and he’d come close to it as well? How would he react when he found out that the Dark Lord had been after him and wanted him dead? He had been abused and brainwashed to believe that he was an evil freak who didn’t deserve a name. Severus didn’t think he would take the news too well. It might send him into a relapse.

Harry seemed to be adjusted to life at Hogwarts. He still had a hard time with his name though. He knew his name was Harry, and they believed he understood that he deserved his name, but there were times when he still called himself Freak. Dumbledore told them it was because he had lived four years with that name. However, Severus disagreed. He noticed that he only called himself Freak when he was upset or if he talked about the abuse.

The students seemed to accept Harry, but the teachers weren’t sure about leaving him alone with them. Some of them had volunteered to watch him, but they were worried that they would let something slip. Severus and Dumbledore were still trying to think of a way to tell him that he was famous without mentioning that his parents were murdered. The boy seemed to sense something about himself, so they knew they had to think of something quick.

Harry surprised them all one morning.

“This is school, right?” he asked in a sad voice.

“Yes, this is a school,” Severus answered. “I’ve told you about my class.”

“How come I don’t go?” he asked, his lip was trembling now. “I wanna learn! Freak too stupid!”

He started to cry. Severus had been asking Albus to find someone to tutor Harry, but so far the Headmaster hadn’t found anyone. He also believed that it might be too stressful for the boy to learn at the moment because of his past. Severus and Minerva disagreed. He had tried himself to find someone as well. It was clear that the child loved to learn.

“No, Harry you’re not,” Severus said. “We are looking for someone to educate you.”

“Don’t like when you’re gone,” Harry said, tears were still streaming down his cheeks. “Freak wants Severus.”

“I have to teach classes. You like Madam Pomfrey and Hagrid,” Severus answered.

“Yes, but I want you,” Harry protested.

“Severus, I’ve had an idea of someone who could teach Harry his early education,” Dumbledore said. “He has wanted to meet him for a while now. He was also a very good friend of this boy’s parents.”

Severus made a face.

“If you’re talking about who I think you are talking about-”

Dumbledore could not possibly mean the werewolf. Didn’t he know that people like that were very dangerous? Severus was the child’s guardian, and he made the decisions. Remus Lupin would not be anywhere near Harry. There were plenty more people out there who could be a good tutor for him.

“Remus is very good at teaching. In his school days here, he taught some of the first years who were behind. He also usually helped out his friend Peter Pettigrew-” a surge of hatred went through Severus when he thought about the Marauders, “-he has a lot of patience and he is a smart man. Not only can he teach Harry the early education he needs, he also knows a lot about the history of the wizarding world. I think he would be a very nice guide for the boy.”

“Have you forgotten he is very dangerous?” Severus snapped back.

“Only once a month, and at night. He is perfectly safe during the day and he is out of a job. You could decide the fee of course,” and with that, the Headmaster wiped his lips on a napkin, stood up and walked away as if the matter were closed.

The matter was not closed. As far as Severus was concerned, Remus Lupin would not go anywhere near his son!

“You can have a copy of it of course,” Lupin said and handed over a pile of parchment. “This is just what I plan to teach him this year. Next summer I can work over what he should learn next year and show it to you, that is if you hire me back. This year will just be the basics.”

“Next year? Can’t you just teach him everything this year?” Severus snapped.

“Well I could if you want him to be confused. I was under the impression that I was teaching him until he started as a student here,” Lupin answered. “That’s what Albus told me in the letter. I’ve read up what young children need to learn. Not only will I be teaching him how to read and write, he’ll be learning maths, and the history of the wizarding world. I also want to teach him about muggles. He may have some resentment toward them when he is older because of what those son- because of what his aunt and uncle did to him. Does he understand the difference between muggles and wizards yet?”

“No,” Severus answered. “He understands magic and wizards of course. We haven’t taught him the difference yet. Albus figured that a tutor would do so. I want to make a few things clear. I do not want this boy to know too much about our school days, do you understand? Also, he doesn’t know I used to be a Death Eater. I don’t want him to know about that until he is older and I am there to explain it to him.”

“I will tell him nothing that will turn him against you,” Lupin said. “I am pleased to be able to teach Harry, and from what I have seen so far, you are doing a good job and he is fond of you. I will not do anything to break that relationship.”

Severus sighed. He still hated the man, but everything he planned to teach Harry was what a young wizard needed to know. So, he gave in even though he wasn’t happy about it. He decided to tell Lupin what he should know about Harry.

“Harry seems to have learned some stuff while he lived with his aunt and uncle,” Lupin had told him after a week of teaching. “He knows his alphabet, he can count to twenty, he knows the days of the weeks, and he knows the months. He told me that he doesn’t understand the numbers in the months; apparently his aunt had tried to teach him about it. His exact words were: ‘Aunt Petunia told Freak about numbers in months but Freak idiot’ so I am teaching him about the calendar.”

Lupin was just as angry as everyone else because of Harry’s mistreatment. The boy however, was slowly progressing. He was happy because he was ‘in school’ now, people loved him, and he had his very own bed to sleep in. That was until the night terrors started. It happened a month after the school year started.

Severus was woken in the middle of the nights by terrible screams. He grabbed his wand and ran into the adjoining bedroom to find Harry thrashing in the bed.

“NO! NO! SORRY! NO! FREAK SORRY!” he yelled.

He woke up sobbing. Severus tried to comfort him, but he started to scream again.

“Harry, it’s fine, it was just a dream,” Severus said.

“A dream?” Harry asked through his tears.

Severus pointed to the torch brackets with his wand to light them. Harry looked around the room. He was breathing fast, his eyes fell on Severus. The boy quickly climbed out from under the covers and onto his lap.

“Do you want to tell me about it?”

“Uncle Vernon hurt Freak! I spilled bucket of water. Uncle Vernon took belt and started hitting me!”

“Your uncle is in jail. He can never hit you again,” Severus told him.

Harry eventually fell back to sleep, but it happened again the next night, and the night after that. Severus started to give him dreamless potions at nights, but Albus said that he couldn’t keep giving them to him.

“Well what am I supposed to do? Neither one of us are getting any sleep! The bastard is now haunting Harry in his dreams. Explain to me exactly what I can do to stop the dreams.”

“I think you know the answer,” Albus answered with a twinkle in his blue eyes. “It’s good for him to learn at this early age anyway.”

“You want him to learn to close his mind?” Severus asked. “It’s going to be harder for him because of his past. You know it’s harder for people who wear their emotions on their sleeves. This child has such low self-esteem-”

“You’re not entering his mind Severus. You’re just showing him how to empty his head before he goes to sleep. I’m not saying it will be easy, but you can’t give him dreamless sleep potion. You know that he will start to rely on it if you do,” Albus said. “Just give it a try.”

Severus had enough going on with his days. Didn’t the Headmaster know that a teachers schedule was full? Now his was even fuller because he had to raise a five-year-old child. Now he had to teach him how to close his mind, which was usually hard for an adult to accomplish. A child with Harry’s history would have a harder time at it.

He had planned to teach Occlumency to Harry, but not until the summers. He figured it would be a good skill for the boy to know when he was older. He would learn to be a better dueller that way. Also, Albus was very sure that the Dark Lord would come back. Who knew better how to hide his thoughts from the Dark Lord than Severus? He would be able to give Harry an advantage over the man, and anyone else just as skilled.

So on evenings when he wasn’t marking school work, he had Harry sit down and learn to close his mind. He had a feeling that the boy thought about his past before he went to bed. He decided to have him think about anything that made him happy. It took a long time, but he managed to get Harry to pick a happy place. He just had to get him to think about it each night until he went to sleep, and not about anything else.

This made the months go by swiftly. He also looked forward to seeing Harry after classes. It made his day go by when he had to deal with the mediocre students. One first year in particular always managed to make their potion wrong, what made it worse was the fact that it was one of his Snakes. He tried his best not to take points from the girl. He started to pair her up with the best Slytherin in the year.

It was hard to believe when the Christmas Holidays started up. Harry wasn’t like most small children who liked to play in the snow. He seemed to be terrified of it. So Severus only took him outside when it was necessary. The students who stayed for Christmas wanted to take him out to play, but he would cry if they mentioned this. It was likely because not only did his uncle and force him to clean his clothes in the snow, they also made him sit out in the backyard for punishment when it was winter.

“You’ll have to go to sleep early tonight for Father Christmas to come,” Minerva told Harry.

“Father Christmas will bring me presents?” Harry asked, ever since he had started school he talked in full sentences. “Even though I am a freak and a bad boy?”

“Haven’t we told you not to say that about yourself? You are a good boy, and you are not a freak,” Severus answered.

“Father Christmas don’t know that,” Harry said sadly. “Uncle Vernon wrote him a letter last year. He read it loudly for me to hear.”

“Well, it just so happens that I also wrote him a letter,” Severus said. “He knows now that it was a misunderstanding. I expect tomorrow you’ll wake up to find presents from him.”

“Really?” he asked. “F- I mean Harry gets presents for Christmas now?”

They had decorated the Great Hall with the usual twelve Christmas trees. However, Severus hadn’t had time to do their own rooms. It was the first time he had ever thought to decorate his rooms. Now with Harry around, they needed a tree. They spent Christmas Eve working on the decorations. Harry had his own drawings to hang up around the rooms.

Severus’ rooms had changed a considerable amount since Harry had come to live in them. On every wall there were drawings or school work hanging up. There were also always toys underfoot. He had to be very careful where he stepped. It also was a regular occasion if he found a child’s book in his bed.

Harry was too excited for bed that night, so Severus read him as many books as he possibly could. Finally, he gave in and gave a dreamless potion to the child. As soon as the boy was asleep, he went to the fireplace and threw some floo powder into the fire.

“Hogwarts Staff! All right, he’s asleep. I know you have presents that you want to give him, so do what you must do,” he said.

He had told the Staff that if they wanted to get Harry a present to only get one each for him. The child had enough toys as it was. He had also splurged himself, not only for gifts from Santa, but also gifts from himself. He had asked if people could buy Harry some more clothes instead of toys. Harry had grown another few inches, so some of his robes were a little too short.

There was a knock on the door. Severus opened it to find Minerva and Albus each holding a large gift. Remus Lupin was standing behind them holding a small and thin gift.

“Tell me that’s not a toy broomstick,” Severus said to Lupin as Minerva and Albus set their gifts under the tree.

“That’s exactly what it is. He doesn’t have one, does he?”

“No, but I’d rather he didn’t. Everything in this room will be broken when he gets going on it,” Severus sighed, but he just pointed at the tree.

“Well, he can use it outside,” Lupin answered with a shrug after he set it down.

“Not until the weather warms up. He is scared of the outside when there is snow,” Severus snapped.

Professor Sprout came in next followed by Professor Trelawney. Pomona’s gift looked as if it could be clothes, but he couldn’t be sure of Trelawney’s.

“What is that?” Severus asked as he eyed the small package.

“Tarot cards. It’s not too early for him to learn divining skills,” she said.

“What does a five-year-old need with tarot cards?” Minerva asked angrily.

The staff all knew that Minerva had very low tolerance for Trelawney and the art of Divination. She thought that the class should be taken out of Hogwarts, but unfortunately, Dumbledore didn’t want to throw the woman out, so the class had to stay. Severus was going to throw the cards out on the first chance he got.

The rest of the teachers seemed to follow his instructions; they brought in wrapped packages that looked a lot like clothes. Madame Pomfrey in fact seemed to have brought in several packages of clothes.

“I expect him to grow another few inches now, so I bought him clothes that he shouldn’t grow out of for a while,” she told him. “He has also gained more weight, which is a relief. I checked his ribs and you can only see them somewhat. Now that he has gained what he has needed to, it is very important to make sure that he stays fit.”

When the teachers had finished, he began to lay out all the Santa gifts, as well as the presents he had bought. He had also bought Harry a stocking. The Dursley’s had one for Harry, but they never filled it. They wanted him to believe that Santa had really decided to forget Harry.

His third Christmas was the worst. Severus remembered watching that memory. Vernon had left a note in the stocking for Harry. When the boy pulled it out, Vernon took it from and read it aloud:

“Dear Freak, you are an ugly evil creature. I have given your uncle permission to spank you, and then you will spend the next three days in your cupboard. You will not get Christmas dinner. If you stop being such a disgusting freak maybe you would gifts. Father Christmas.”

No wonder Harry was so unsure of himself. Any day that was supposed to be special the Dursley’s had ruined it for him. They had locked him up in the basement for his fifth birthday in a cage. Severus had to wonder if they had planned to lock him up down there for good. Why else would they have a cage that was big enough for a small boy to fit into down there? His fifth birthday was another memory he and Albus had used at the hearing.

Severus was woken early by the excited screams of Harry. He got up and went into their common area to find the boy staring down at the gifts in disbelief. As soon as he saw Severus, he burst into tears.

“Harry? What’s wrong? Aren’t you happy?” he asked.

“Y-yes!” Harry sobbed. “I got presents. I actually got presents. I’m really not a freak am I? Look! Too Harry from Santa! He didn’t use the name Freak!”

Harry couldn’t read a lot of words, but he knew enough now since Lupin had taught him how to sound out words. Severus figured the boy must have been sounding out the words before he had yelled out in excitement. He knew how to spell his name now.

“Well, why don’t you open them then?”

He noticed that a new pile of gifts had come during the night. He walked over to them and then snorted; even the students had bought the boy gifts. He had asked them not to do so, but they hadn’t listened. He did not want Harry to be spoiled, and there just wasn’t enough room for all the toys. He was going to have to see if Albus would give the boy a toy room.

He found a small pile of gifts himself and started to open them. Usually the Slytherin’s sent him some gifts, and there were some family members who he really didn’t talk to who sent him stuff as well. What surprised him was the staff had also sent him some gifts. Normally he got a few things from Albus, but that was it. They must have changed their opinion of him because of Harry.

“Look, Severus, I got a broom! Will I be able to play Quidditch with this?”

Harry was obsessed with Quidditch. Before it had gotten too cold out, they would watch the games together. Sometimes he let the boy watch the practices as well. Ever since he had seen that people could fly, he had wanted to do it as well.

“It will fly, but it’s a toy, so it won’t fly as high as a real broomstick,” Severus told him.

“Look, I got a Snitch, a Quaffle! Oh, and some Bludgers too! They aren’t the same though… how come?”

“They’re toys,” Severus said.

He noticed that Harry had opened the gifts from the students. The toy snitch flew around the room, but it wasn’t fast and it didn’t go very high. Harry forgot about his presents for a moment, he climbed on his broom before Severus could say anything and flew after it. He was able to control the broom very well, not only that, but he managed to catch the Snitch right from the air. That was impressive.

“I’m a Seeker!” Harry shouted.

“Yes you are,” Severus said.

A damned good one. Severus thought to himself. Small children usually couldn’t control broomsticks that well. Harry had managed to control it with just one hand! He was going to have to train the boy up. If he was this good now on a toy, just how good would he be on a real broom? He could picture a twelve-year-old Harry on the Slytherin team playing Seeker.