Unbuttoned by lastcrazyhorn
Summary: Harry doesn't know exactly what's happening, but something isn't right between him and Professor Lupin, and he's determined to find out why. Will Snape be able to help? Abuse, implied non-con, AU, HP&PA. The character death is NOT Severus or Harry.
Categories: Parental Snape > Guardian Snape, Teacher Snape > Trusted Mentor Snape Main Characters: Dumbledore, Hedwig, Hermione, James, Lily, McGonagall, Original Character, Pomfrey, Remus, Ron, Sirius, .Snape and Harry (required)
Snape Flavour: None
Genres: Angst, Drama, Family, Fantasy, Horror, Hurt/Comfort
Media Type: None
Tags: Adoption, Alternate Universe
Takes Place: 4th summer
Warnings: Abusive Dursleys, Character Bashing, Character Death, Neglect, Profanity, Rape
Challenges: None
Series: None
Chapters: 31 Completed: No Word count: 69721 Read: 185749 Published: 23 Sep 2012 Updated: 18 Aug 2013
Decisions and Concerns by lastcrazyhorn

Dumbledore carefully read over the portion of the book that the Granger had shoved under his nose.

"Are you sure you won't reconsider?" He asked her gently as he handed back the old tome.

"There's nothing to reconsider, sir," she answered loftily. "Harry doesn't belong with Professor Snape. He's a Gryffindor and he needs to be where he's wanted!"

"How curiously ironic," Dumbledore murmured. He was fully aware that the child's youth would allow her to hear his quietly spoken statement.

"What is, sir?"

"I seem to remember how it was just last year when Gryffindor turned its back on young Mr. Potter," he answered, standing up and turning his back to her as he made a show of looking out the window.

"Not the people who really knew him!" She retorted hotly.

"You and Mr. Weasley, you mean?" He inquired idly, not looking back to see her expression.

"Amongst others," she sniffed, still not allowing her mind to really contemplate the consequences of her actions.

"It has not yet been a fortnight, you realize," Dumbledore said, finally turning back around to face her, blue eyes noticeably missing their familiar twinkle.

"I bet the Daily Prophet would like to know where you've been keeping Harry Potter!"

Instantly, she wished she could take the statement back, as the headmaster's eyebrows rose and the tension in the room seemed to swell around them.

"Threatening me, Miss Granger?" Dumbledore asked calmly, his kindly facade as a doddering old man abruptly gone from his posture.

"I—of course not, sir!" Hermione argued weakly.

"Such an action would likely put him in great danger, Miss Granger. Surely the boy's safety is more important than proving me wrong?"

She opened her mouth to respond, but something deep in her brain warned her against it.

"Yes, perhaps you should think on this further. What precisely are you fighting against? No, do not answer me now." His gaze became downright terrifying and suddenly Hermione found herself inching towards the door.

Fawkes, who until that point had been silent, abruptly flew up onto the headmaster's shoulder and let out a frightening sounding screech much different than his usual pleasing song. That did it for Hermione, and without another thought, she turned tail and ran out the door, barely aware as it slammed loudly behind her.

Inside his office, Dumbledore put his hands on his desk and leaned over them with his head down. Fawkes cooed softly in his ear and after a moment, he nodded to it and straightened back up. It seemed that it was time for another conversation with Severus. He strode over to his floo and threw the powder in, before calling out, "Severus' quarters!"

. . .

Snape and Hadwyn looked up at the floo flared green. Lunch was long over, and Harry had left to go introduce the concept of bathing to Snitch, just in time for Dumbledore's head to poke its way into his quarters.

"Might I come through my boy?" Dumbledore asked, his eyes very serious.

"Certainly, headmaster," Severus answered graciously, glancing at Hadwyn quickly. The other man knew that he might be asked to leave them alone and he nodded his understanding at the silent warning.

"Headmaster," both men stood and greeted Dumbledore after he came through.

"Ah, and are you Severus' esteemed substitute?" Dumbledore asked, wasting no time after coming across Hadwyn's unexpected presence.

"Yes sir," Hadwyn answered formally, aware that the man standing opposite him was not only potentially his future employer, but also one of the strongest and most capable wizards of their century.

"You surprise me, Severus," Dumbledore said after giving Hadwyn a nod. "But please, let us take our seats. I have something that needs discussing."

Quickly the older man explained the situation that they were now facing, thanks to one overly involved and nosy little third year.

"I promise, the next time I have her in class," Severus began, inadvertently shooting out painfully green sparks from his wand's tip as he growled his displeasure.

Dumbledore did little more than glance at him, but it was enough of a reprimand to make him calm down.

"As I told her, the fortnight has not yet commenced, so that does give us a little time. My question to you, my boy, is what do you see your role in Harry's life being in a year's time? Is he simply another student, or is there something more?"

Severus tried to answer, but Albus held up a finger and he swallowed his response.

"The options that are available to us were: 1) Related; 2) Bonded; 3) Dead; 4) Apprenticed; 5) Stuck as an Animagi and either accidentally bonded to said professor, injured, or using said quarters as breeding grounds; 6) Petrified; 7) Cursed." The headmaster paused and quirked a large bushy eyebrow as he glanced at them both in seeming amusement.

"I think we can rule out number 2 immediately," the old man said with a slight twist of his lips at the now green looking Potions Master sitting opposite him.

"A bit too young," Hadwyn added, grinning widely as the scowl Severus was now giving them both.

"MUCH too young," Severus grimaced. "Not to mention an entire other slew of problems."

"And 3 won't work, as Mr. Potter is quite alive. I hope, Severus?" Dumbledore didn't wait for an answer before continuing. "5, 6 and 7 are out too then; leaving us with number 1, related or number 4, apprenticed. Well Severus?"

Severus shifted uncomfortably as the other two men levelled meaningful stares upon his head. "When you say related, are you suggesting I adopt the boy?"

"That would be the general idea, yes," Dumbledore answered easily.

"Or apprenticeship, Severus," Hadwyn suggested softly, laying a calming hand on his friend's shoulder.

"I believe I need time to think this over," Severus said at last, removing himself from Hadwyn's hand and walking towards his bedroom. There was a distant look in his eyes, and the others let him be.

"I can give him until the end of the week," Dumbledore said to Hadwyn as he slowly got to his feet.

"That's a fairly large decision for anyone to make, but especially Severus," Hadwyn retorted, eyes fixed on Dumbledore's own. There seemed to be an unspoken warning for the headmaster to not hurt his friend and finally the older man nodded his understanding.

"I didn't ask for any of this to happen," Dumbledore admitted with a soft sigh as he exited the quarters the same way he had come.

. . .

Harry had patiently explained the process of a shower to his little friend and now they were experiencing the real thing. As soon as the warm water hit Snitch's little furry body, the wings had shrunk in and the animal had squeaked loudly as if in indignation.

"I warned you!" Harry said with a small laugh, moving his body in front of the warm spray and giving his friend a chance to readjust. The magical pygmy loris' purple eyes stared up at him balefully, prompting him to kiss that little damp head.

"Not so bad now? Look, I'm getting all wet too!" Harry said brightly, leaning his head back and thoroughly soaking his hair. He could feel Snitch's little hands scrabbling on his chest, and as soon as he could, he stepped away from the water a bit and looked back down.

"There isn't much for you to grab onto there," Harry stated, the corners of his lips turning down a bit as he stared mournfully at his still hairless chest. "You'd best not pull anything out either, Snitch," he warned.

Snitch put his head up and squeaked a long series of sounds in response.

"Just 'cause you're furry doesn't mean we all are," Harry harrumphed. "Now hold on, I'll find a spot to put you down."

He looked and his eyes fell on the nearby soap dish. It was a bit like a little enclave carved out of the wall for the soap to sit protected from the worst of the water. Unlike the one at his relatives' house, this one sat a bit higher, nearly at his eye level. He traded the soap bar for Snitch and soon his little friend was sitting there watching him curiously as he began sudsing up his body.

He took a bit of the excess soap and carefully rubbed it into Snitch's orangey-red fur, making it stand all on end. A series of clicks reached his ears and he realized that his creature was laughing.

"Ticklish are you?" He asked, putting the soap down and picking Snitch up again to rinse off. His creature squeaked again, trying to hide behind his body as the water poured unrelentingly down over them both.

"It's not that bad!" Harry protested; pulling him back up and setting his small body gently down in the soap bar cave. "You shoulda tried taking baths with Aunt Petunia as the washer." Abruptly he shivered, even though the water was still quite warm. "Hot, cold, it didn't matter. She just dunked and chunked," he said softly, looking at Snitch sadly. "Me, that is. It didn't seem to matter to her that I wasn't really clean or that the water on the floor was her fault."

Snitch made a sad sound and Harry was brought back from his memories with a jerk.

Harry grinned suddenly, "It's shampoo time now. I figure that we might just skip the soap next time, since you seem to only be made up of fur!"

First he finished washing the soap from his body, and then he quickly sudsed up his hair and washed it clean. He reached over to his little fuzzy friend with a much smaller handful of shampoo and carefully began working his fingers into the small body.

"No, don't try to eat it! This isn't food!" He clucked his tongue warningly and the little guy looked up at him with wide eyes, frozen and seemingly contrite.

"It's for your own good, so don't look at me like that," Harry said, ignoring the urge to feel guilty. "It'll just make you sick and I can't imagine that being too good an experience—yeah, for either of us," as Snitch squeaked back at him.

His creature's body was completely covered when he carefully manoeuvred him into the spray, keeping his head free for as long as possible. He turned him to the right and to the left, keeping a hand over his little head and over his relatively big eyes the entire time.

"Alright, wings out," he ordered in a cheerful voice and to his surprise, Snitch did exactly that, letting him wash them clean as well.

He was turning his friend around in his hand when suddenly the slippery little body slipped between his fingers and Snitch dropped. Instantly his wings were out, and instead of tumbling down to the hard tile below, his little familiar took to the air instead. Unfortunately, either Snitch couldn't see very well or he simply wasn't looking, for only a few seconds passed before the little guy crashed into the opposite wall and slid to the tub's floor.

Instantly, Harry was on his knees, reaching for the little guy and placing him on the side of the tub to get him out of the hard spray of the water, lest he drown.

"Are you okay?" He asked, blinking as the shower continued pummelling on down around him.

A little tiny squeak was his answer he breathed out a sigh of relief.

"Don't scare me like that! You gotta be more careful," he began, changing position as he started to get to his feet.

His words were cut off though, as he felt the water trickling down his back and then down between his buttocks. It tickled, but that wasn't the problem. He was remembering, and that was the problem.

He was frozen in that position, his eyes caught on something in his memory and it was with a dawning horror as he began to remember the feel of Lupin's wet finger touching him in exactly the same way.

"Wasn't asleep, wasn't always asleep," he muttered as the memory insistently wormed its way to the front of his mind.

Unaware of anything around him, Harry slowly slumped forwards as his body curled up into a foetal position right there in the bottom of the tub, water still spraying down on him as he became further lost in the awful memory.

Anxiously, Snitch squeaked at him as loudly as he could—which really wasn't that loud—but he didn't respond; barely even coughing as the water went up his nose and into wide staring eyes.

He was trapped in the Defence classroom, Lupin standing over him, touching him. He moaned miserably as he felt the hard and insistent push against his arse and automatically curled up tighter, tears mixing unseen in with the shower water.

"I don't want, please!" He begged and remembered himself begging to the man who had been his father's best friend. And then there was a horrible sensation and he began mewling brokenly into the water swirling around his head.

Snitch watched as his Keeper was transformed from the strong, good creature that he had made friends with into this haunted, terrified thing before him. Unable to bear watching much longer, Snitch bravely made a decision. Shaking off a bit, he carefully climbed around the edge of the curtain and then jumped off into the air, his wings spread broadly and flapping strongly.

The length of the bathroom allowed him to get up a good wind behind him, and just as he would have collided with the door, he instead slid right through it as if it wasn't even there. He left no holes and instead flew onwards, through the main quarters of the room, ignoring the surprised looking Hadwyn sitting below as he flew on.

Another door was in front of him and he did the same thing again, instinctively knowing that it wouldn't stop him, he flew through it and into his Keeper's Keeper's living space. Squeaking loudly, he flew at the dark man and alit on his shoulder, wrapping a now dry wing around his head to get his balance.

"Where did you come from?" Severus asked, already moving towards the door and into the main room. Hadwyn was standing up, looking concerned and as he automatically followed them silently to the bathroom.

"Harry?" Severus yelled, banging on the door when it didn't open.

Snitch let out an unhappy squeak and abruptly the door swung open, letting out a billow of steam as it did.

The magical pygmy loris jumped from the man's shoulder and flew towards the spot he had left his Keeper. Severus and Hadwyn followed quickly, reaching into the shower and pulling the boy out, soaking their robes as they did so. Somehow the water got turned off and then Severus was wrapping Harry in a large fluffy towel, as he cradled him to his chest.

Snitch landed back on the dark man's shoulder and peered worriedly into his Keeper's wide green eyes while Hadwyn began running diagnostics over him.

"He's had a flashback Severus, and he seems to be shock. Let's get him into bed."

Snitch watched in silence as the two men carried his boy into the other room. They dried him off and covered him in soft clothes, and then the dark one covered him up. Without waiting, Snitch jumped off his shoulder and landed on lightly on his boy's pillow.

The dark one sat on the bed and rubbed his hand over his boy's head, while the other dried them all, inadvertently causing Snitch's fur to stick up straight all over. He gave Hadwyn an angry glance, but didn't squeak again. Instead he burrowed into the soft blankets with his boy and curled up next to him, wrapping his wings around his boy's chest.

He stopped listening as the other two continued to talk in low voices. He had done his part, gotten his Keeper—his boy—help and now there was nothing to do but wait and sleep and love.

To be continued...


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