Unexpected Child by animealam
Summary: Severus mentors Harry fic. Upon arriving to London from Hogwarts for the summer break, Harry gets in trouble and finds more information about a certain Potions Master than he had expected to ever find out.
Categories: Parental Snape > Guardian Snape Main Characters: .Snape and Harry (required), Dumbledore, McGonagall, Original Character
Snape Flavour: None
Genres: Angst, Drama
Media Type: None
Tags: Adoption, Alternate Universe
Takes Place: 5th summer
Warnings: Abusive Dursleys
Challenges: None
Series: None
Chapters: 2 Completed: No Word count: 12409 Read: 7673 Published: 15 Jun 2003 Updated: 02 Nov 2003
Story Notes:

Disclaimer: I own nothing except my computer and my car. So, no, Harry Potter and Co. are not mine.

Author’s note: Well this is my first attempt at a Harry Potter fanfiction. I just recently read books one through four, hopefully I can get my hands on five soon, and just loved it. I have other fics, but they are in the anime area under another name, alandrem.

While browsing for stories to read, I came by accident to all those fics based on the Severitus Challenge, and I just fell in love with the idea of Severus and Harry getting along. So I decided to write my own. This is just an experiment and I’ll like to know what you think.

This story is not in response to the challenge though, it’s more of a Severus mentors Harry story and I want to make it clear from the start. SORRY SLASH LOVERS this is not a slash fic and never will be. It just isn’t my cup of tea, I don’t mind homosexual relations or have anything against them, I just don’t think I could write it. Although there are some good slash stories around

On the rating, I’ll try to keep it PG-13 but I have some ideas that might raise the rating to R, I haven’t decided if I’ll use them. The basic story draft on my notebook extends to 85 pages, by the time it reaches the computer, and gets processed it’ll probably end being much longer. I can’t promise frequent updates unfortunately.

I have an on going story elsewhere, which is doing really good. It’s 26 chapters long and still going the name is ‘Present Time’. On one of the main anime archives, MediaMiner.org, it’s on the most visited list for the whole site at number 11. So, as you might see, I have to work on that one too. Still I’ll do my best to keep the chapters going and out as soon as possible.

Feedback helps a lot; I take constructive criticism, as English is my second language. If some sentences construction sounds funny or is incorrect I would really appreciate it if someone pointed it out and what the problem seems to be, that way I can correct it and try to avoid making the same mistake again.

I have proof read this but some errors might have gone through, also I don’t have a beta-reader yet.

Warnings:

THIS IS AN AU STORY (AU=Alternate Universe), even though I try to follow the original novels as close as I can.

Not a native English speaker writing.

Characters might be Out Of Character (OOC)

There might be spoilers for all four books.

Chapter 01 by animealam

Harry stood alone on platform 9 3/4 watching the travelers move about going their way, because he could not go back to Privet Drive. The students that arrived from Hogwarts for the summer break were long gone and he was still there. Before he left Hogwarts, Headmaster Dumbledore insisted he would be safer at the Dursleys with the tragic events from the Triwizard Tournament so recent. The old man had gently but firmly refused to hear any objections the boy had, and since Harry did not want to tell him the exact reason for not wanting to go back to his relatives, well, there he was standing alone.

He received an owl from the Dursleys, as shocking and improbable as that sounded, only two days before. After he overcame his initial surprise, Harry realized that the owl was the only way his magic hating relatives had to contact him, so they had no other option. The letter written by his uncle was perfectly clear. They did not want him back, and he was to avoid coming near the family at all costs. To insure that they finally got rid of him, they moved to another place during the year. He was not to look for them, if he did, his uncle would make sure he was permanently removed from the face of the earth. And Vernon Dursley meant it. The man had never been overly abusive with him, but there were occasions where he did get a beating, and he was much worse than Dudley and his cohorts ever were. He knew the man would be true to his word.

The teen decided he could not stay the whole break at Kings Cross; the best would be to go to Diagon Alley, and get some money from his vault in Gringotts. Then he needed to find a place where he could stay, at least until he formulated a plan of action. He could not go to The Burrow or Hermione; with Voldemort back, they would be in too much risk. It was the initial reason why Dumbledore did not want him to visit them during the summer. Once he decided what to do in the meantime, Harry rented a large locker for his things. He could not go traipsing around London while he looked for the Leaky Cauldron with his trunk and poor Hedwig in her cage.

Harry decided to let her free, just cautioned her to remain unseen until nightfall. He took his all his muggle clothes, not that they were many, and put them in his bag along with his wand. He verified that he had enough money, there was a Gringotts subsidiary in Hogsmead and following a presentiment, he changed some galleons to pounds during his last visit there. He believed there was more than enough for a quick meal and transportation to the general area where he believed the Leaky Cauldron was located.

For only an instant, Harry regretted giving the Weasley twins the money from his Tournament prize. He might need it, but then he shook his head no, there was enough in his vault, although he was not sure how much. There had to be at least enough money there to get him through Hogwarts and maybe a little more. In fact, the predicament he was in was the perfect opportunity to take a good look at his financial affairs; find out what else was in the vault, if that was all there was, or there were some investments producing more. He seemed to remember hearing his uncle mention something of investing money and receiving the interests. Perhaps they had something similar in the wizarding world. With that in mind, he left to take a taxi.

Harry was not sure of the Leaky Cauldron’s exact location, but the general area should be enough. He would just have to walk around until he spotted, or sensed a witch or a wizard and follow them. There were not many people around, but it being a Sunday and the place a business district might have something to do with that. Feeling hungry, last time he ate was at the end of term feast, Harry entered a fast food restaurant; ordered a simple hamburger, soda and fries combo and decided to sit close to the windows with the hopes of seeing a magic person and following them.

Two seats from him a very pretty, actually beautiful, blonde woman sat watching the window just as intently as 'the-boy-who-lived' was. Being a relatively healthy and developing teenager, Harry noticed her and had trouble taking his eyes from the woman. She was of course much older than he was, probably in her thirties; but that did not mean he could not watch. The lovely woman had a sad air around her. As he set his attention on her, he sensed an odd tingle, it was a familiar feeling and yet he could not pin exactly what it was, although he knew he should, especially because he had clearly identified the woman as a muggle. She finished eating and stood up with some trouble, actually she looked in pain. It was then that Harry noticed she was very pregnant and had a mesmerizing pair of large baby blue eyes.

‘Oh well, it’s not as if I was going to hit on her… not that I would have the guts anyway. She does look much older than me,’ the young boy thought. He was rather inexperienced in that area, and although he was a Gryffindor and courage was a supposed attribute for them, he certainly did not have it where girls were involved. ‘Her husband must be a very lucky man.’

He remained gazing out the window only a little longer, he had not seen a wizard or witch passing, and he saw no reason to remain there. It was already getting dark. In the worst of cases, he could hail the Knight Bus once it was a bit later. As he walked out of the restaurant he stood there for a moment deciding which way to go, he was about to go to his left when he abruptly went right instead, there was something calling him that way; an odd tingling sensation.

A few paces after the restaurant wall ended, there was a very dark service alley. He hard a gasp, a pained moan, then muffled voices. A man, very angry, and a woman softly almost pleading, but he could not make their words, and then there was the sound of things falling. Like some kind of struggle took place. Without stopping to think of the consequences, as was his wont, Harry went in to investigate. What he found out was rather shocking and made him very angry. A thug, probably around 18, threatened the pretty blonde-haired woman from the restaurant with a VERY big knife. She looked very scared as she cried and held her bulging belly.

“Leave her alone!” Harry yelled coming closer to them and it distracted the man from knifing her. He really did not stop to think what he would do if the thug refused.

“Go mind your own bloody business brat, this one’s mine,”

“I said leave her alone!”

“Or what? What’re you gonna do? Huh?” He snorted and sneered at 'the-boy-who-lived', thinking he looked menacing. However, Harry had seen enough sneers at Hogwarts during his time there, and nothing could compete with one from Snape. The ‘greasy git’ had to be the Master when it came to imposing facial expressions.

‘Umm… he does have a point. What am I going to do? I can’t use magic. That would have given me an advantage even if he is bigger than me, but I don’t have it.’

Harry faced the woman, a sad expression on his eyes. She looked at him pleading for help, and he could see she was terrified. He could not leave her, if he left to get the police that man was probably going to kill her. There had to be something he could do even if he the thug was bigger than he was. Harry ended doing the first thing that came to his mind, it was probably not his brightest idea, but the thug was not expecting it either. Harry charged at the man as fast as he could, he was very fast for his small frame, and tackled the man. His speed and the fact the attacker was not expecting the boy to do anything helped and both went toppling to the ground.

“Run!” 'the-boy-who-lived' managed to say as he was falling.

Using his quidditch reflexes and years of experience avoiding Dudley and his cronies, Harry was up in an instant and away from the man. The pretty woman was moving very slowly and awkwardly to the street. The thug was up and after her, Harry reacted, tackled his legs and clung like a leech to keep him from reaching the woman. The man became enraged at the boy who was keeping him from what he wanted, he made an attempt to stab him, but Hedwig swooped down from one of the buildings and attacked furiously. The snowy owl managed to draw blood and avoid injury.

The guy in his fight with the raptor (bird of prey) freed his legs from Harry's grip and landed a strong kick to the boy’s chest. 'The-boy-who-lived' could almost swear he heard his ribs crack, and they sure felt like at least one broke. He lay on the ground heaving for a moment, but he could not allow himself the pleasure of fainting, so he scrambled to his feet after the man. The man got a lucky swing and managed to slice him on the shoulder and back, just as Hedwig attacked. Still the thug lounged after the woman who was hunched against the wall in pain.

“EXPELLIARMUS!” Harry shouted in desperation as he saw the man was about to stab his victim. He forgot that he did not have his wand on hand. Still, the knife responded even better than it would have had 'the-boy-who-lived' used a wand. It flew to his hand and the thug ended thrown with such force against the wall that he was knocked unconscious.

‘Oh Merlin! I’m in deep shit!’ Harry thought looking around and expecting to find Ministry officials swarming the place.

It should be any second now; the clean up squad or at least an owl with his notice would be there in a moment. He used magic when he was not supposed to and in front of muggles, this time Snape would be really happy that he managed to get himself expelled. He hoped that maybe the Ministry people would take into consideration that the man was going to kill her, and he could not let him do that. Besides he was wounded… was self-defense an exception? He really could not remember.

With an effort, he stood up and moved closer to her, she was sitting on the ground clearly in pain and panting. As he sat before her the woman moaned, clutched her belly at the time it… jerked? He was not well versed on the facts of life, except from one vague lesson Madame Pomfrey gave about a year ago, but still… was her belly supposed to do that? Because it did not seem like a good thing at the moment.

“Are you all right?” His voice was a bit shaky and he was in a lot of pain from both his rib and the wound on his shoulder, although he could still move it so he guessed it was not that serious. She was sweating and looked pale at the same time, even in the dim light of the alley.

“I… don’t think… sooooo” she began and it ended on a pained moan. “My… baby… my baby is… coming.”

‘That’s not good,’ Harry thought feeling a bit alarmed. ‘Not good at all, damn! Now would be a good time for those Ministry people to arrive, where the hell are they when they are needed?’

“I… better go get some help…” Harry stammered, growing alarmed by the second.

“Noo! Please don’t leave me,” she managed to pant before a contraction made her cry out. “No time… they are… too close… you’re… you’re going… to have to… assist me…”

“Oh Merlin! I… can’t… I… I’m just a kid…” He said in a panic, on any other circumstance he would have never accepted he was just a simple teen, but helping her give birth… the thought terrified him. “I… I don’t know what to do!”

“My first child… but I… I know what to do… I’m a nurse,” she managed to get out as she kept panting, to Harry it seemed she had a special rhythm for breathing. “We’ll need… the knife… do you… have anything… in you bag… that could… serve as a… blanket?” He went back to where he dropped the knife and his bag. He took one of his shirts, the largest and in better condition of the lot. “I’m Anne… Anne Watkins,”

“Harry Potter, Anne,” he said as he helped her get as comfortable as possible in that alley. He used his bag to help her rest against the wall.

“Harry… Potter… you’re a… wizard…” it was not a question, and there was recognition in her voice. Harry had to wonder how come a muggle knew about him?

“I… am… How did you…”

“My… baby’s father… he’s… he’s a wizard… a good… one, I… was looking… for him.”

There was no more talk as the baby was almost out, and Harry had to keep his attention on following Anne’s instructions before she was too pained to do more than cry out and speak. A tiny baby girl was born with the help of one very shocked Harry Potter, who managed to keep from fainting by sheer will power. In those moments, he learned more about how children were born, than he ever wanted to learn. Harry secretly promised himself not to get anyone pregnant. How could Mrs. Weasley survive seven children? But he also felt proud of himself, he helped to bring one new life to the world.

Someone heard Anne’s cries and called for an ambulance and the police, but they were taking their time in arriving. By the time they arrived, the baby had already been born, and they would just need to check on mother and child, as Harry did their job. The little one seemed healthy and had protested loudly her entrance to the world, but did not keep crying as he let her mother hold her for a moment.

It surprised him that Anne did not want to keep her for long and insisted that he held her because she was too tired. Harry’s senses identified the magic in the little baby girl. She was a witch, and very strong even if she was physically tiny. He bundled her in his t-shirt and he could feel her ‘magic’ tingling his as he held her close. 'The-boy-who-lived' worried because the child’s mother did not look good at all, although he was not sure it was not ‘normal’, and the help was taking its time to arrive. Some people gathered to watch, and just be curious, but none approached or offered to help.

“Harry, my baby’s father didn’t know I was pregnant when he left…” She began sounding weak and exhausted.

“He abandoned you?” Harry was shocked, how could a man in his right mind leave such a beautiful woman.

“Oh no, no, he had to leave. It wasn’t because he wanted to… it’s just the best option until things in your world settle… I know what’s going on there… he said it wasn’t safe for me… and his job would put him more in danger than most… he… promised to come back… we’d marry then. Please find him… give him this…” she explained weakly removing a signet ring from one of her fingers. Harry saw it and took it, the thing looked old and somewhat familiar it had strong magic in it… protection magic. “I… know… he knows you…”

“Anne, the entire wizarding world knows me… although I’d rather they didn’t… still I will do my best to find him… if you tell me his name I can send Hedwig to find him, I know she can.”

“Tell him he has a daughter… to take care of her for me… not… to push her away… he’s going to need her…”

“You can tell him when he comes…” Harry said beginning to dread the way the conversation was going.

“No Harry, I… don’t think… I’ll be able…” Anne sounded very weak.

“Of course you will Ann, you’re just…” Harry tried to cheer her, but he was beginning to doubt she would be able to talk to her baby’s father.

“Listen Harry… that man stabbed me twice… I… don’t think there’s much time… I know he knows you personally… he… complained… about you whenever he visited…” She managed a weak smile remembering those occasions. “From what he told me… I know you’re… brave and a good person… he… was in danger… he… had so… many hopes… I… tell him… I’m… sorry… tell Sev I loved him very much… still do… Harry please… take care of my child… protect her…”

“I… just hang on Anne, listen the ambulance’s here,” Harry sounded panicky. At least he could hear the sirens coming close.

“Please Harry Potter… promise me you’ll look after my child… and if possible her… father… if anyone can it’ll be you… he always thought you… had potential, but... Sev’s not the man to say it aloud…”

“I… I will Anne… I promise… just hang on… look… they are here… tell me his name and I’ll send Hedwig to him.”

“Severus… Severus Snape,” She said before she lost consciousness just as the paramedics reached her.

To be continued...
End Notes:
A/N: I have no beta-reader for this story, if someone is interested please e-mail me animealam@novylen.net


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