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: 185751 Published: 23 Sep 2012 Updated: 18 Aug 2013
Caring by lastcrazyhorn
Author's Notes:
A/N – Etherian's Snape from the story "Nobody Cared" visited my Snape in the beginning of this chapter. If you haven't read that story, you really ought to. I told her that it would be interesting for the two Snapes to meet, and so she wrote this first section in response. I am posting it with her permission.

Harry lay in the center of the bed, curled up as tightly as possible. He was asleep, but Severus could not believe that the sleep was well. Not even with the Dreamless Sleep Potion he had given the boy before putting him to bed.

He scowled. Severus did not know why . . . well, he would not admit to himself why he did. A small part of him could not help but feel resentful for being in the position he now found himself in. Harry did NOT trust him. The few that the child had trusted had either failed him, Albus, or hurt him deeply, Lupin.

"He trusts me," Severus muttered through gritted teeth.

"That he does, Severus."

Severus whirled, his wand in his hand, his body poised to protect the sleeping child at any cost. His eyes widened at what he saw.

Standing, no leaning, against the door frame, was himself. Slowly, and warily, he rose, but did not put his wand away. Severus studied the man in the doorway with sharp, narrowed eyes.

Something about this doppleganger was relaxed, but harder . . . so it seemed, but Severus knew he could be wrong.

The other Severus spoke, "Let us not waste time on unraveling a mystery, Severus. Just call me Snape, if it makes this any easier."

Severus sneered. "Nothing would make this easy."

Snape chuckled softly. "No, I do not suppose it would." He moved into the bedroom, and looked down upon the small boy. He did not hesitate to reach out, and brush the dark fringes of hair off the pinched face. Severus stepped forward, but not out of a need to protect Harry, but from a well of jealousy within himself, that nearly made him dizzy.

Snape turned. "I have not much time, so I shall say this now," said the duplicate Potions Master. Snape had noted the flash of jealousy in the other's dark eyes. "Harry does trust you, but he is unaware of that. When he does realise this, it will frighten him, and you need . . . no, you must be there for him, Severus."

"I am already," Severus declared tautly. He did not care for being cautioned by this other . . . him.

"At the moment you are, Severus," Snape moved smoothly back to the doorway. "There is much going on in your world, and your duties are going to be twisted as you try to be what he needs." Snape's voice lowered. "Do not let anything else turn you away from him, Severus. He is in a hell no child should ever have to suffer, and if you forget yourself, or lose your temper with him, when he is not at fault, you could hurt his soul."

Severus' eyes glitter with affronted anger. He hissed, "I would not do that to him!"

Snape ignored the anger, and leaned closer. "Whether you feel burdened or not, my friend, you are the one that Harry has turned to. His fragile psyche is in your hands; to crush, or to repair." His voice had a gentle firmness Severus did not think he had ever heard from his own voice.

Severus still felt out of sorts, insulted, perhaps, and opened his mouth to argue further, but Snape only smiled at him. "It will be hard, but I know you will do the right thing, Severus." The other Snape turned into the small hallway, and Severus heard an unfamiliar chuckle, "After all, you are me."

A whimper from the bed drew Severus back to the coiled form in the bed. He put away his wand, and seated himself on the side of the bed. A small part of him found comfort when Harry turned, and uncurled just enough to fall gently against the older man. Severus watched in surprise as the pinched features smoothed out, and the child sighed. The Potions Master believed that the child's sleep was finally sweet.

. . .

The floo flared and a voice called out from the grating. "Severus, are you there?"

Severus flinched and opened his eyes.

It was a dream, he thought, shaking his head and looking down at the boy still sprawled beside him, scruffy head now perched upon his lap.

"You must be there for him, Severus," his other self had told him.

"I will be," he whispered to himself, clenching a fist briefly.

"Severus?"

It was the headmaster's voice, and he looked up sharply at the sound.

"Dumbledore?" He called out in a soft voice.

"Might I come through, dear boy?" Dumbledore asked from his place in the fire.

"Please," he answered. He didn't rise to greet his mentor however; his attention still on the form of the sleeping child partially draped across his lap.

"How's he doing, Severus?" Albus asked after sitting down in the armchair beside him. The old man had given Harry a somber look upon arriving, but now his eyes were back on him.

"The family you left him with, the family that raised him," Severus hissed back, keeping his voice in that deathly quiet range that most students feared. "It was his uncle and aunt, correct?"

Albus peered closely at him before answering his question. "It was," he confirmed slowly. "What else have you discovered?" There was no twinkle present in his eyes, and Severus vaguely wondered when—if ever—it would return.

"He will not be going back there, do you understand me, Albus? He will not."

"What has he told you?" Dumbledore's voice was pained, but Severus pushed past his mentor's discomfort.

"'Freaks don't get love. No one loves a freak. You just put up with them,'" he whispered in a furious voice, his hands balling up into tight fists once more.

Albus wheezed harshly inwards at his words, but before Severus could continue, Harry gave a small whimper from his lap, drawing his attention back down.

"Hush," he whispered down to the boy, stroking a long fingered hand through scruffy black hair. The child turned on his side, putting his back to the headmaster and relaxed into silence once more.

Severus lifted his head to find Albus staring thoughtfully at him, and he let himself scowl back.

"You truly care for him," Dumbledore remarked softly.

"It is only because I must," he said.

"Do not let anything else turn you away from him, Severus," the words of his other self abruptly came to him.

"Because the other responsible parties have failed him so heinously," he continued when Dumbledore didn't respond. "He needs someone to help keep him in line."

He needs someone who gives a damn, Albus, is what he didn't say.

"Can you do it here?"

Severus cocked his head slightly at the unexpected question.

"Can he be helped here?"

Severus contemplated the meaning behind his mentor's casually worded question. Could he put Harry back together again while each of them juggled classes and everything else that went with that?

"It would certainly take longer here," he answered contemplatively.

Albus nodded at him, blue eyes suddenly wet, and Severus felt a chill go down his spine at the sight of his mentor looking so emotionally vulnerable.

"Albus," he whispered, reaching out a hand and lightly touching the older man's loosely held fist. "What else has happened?"

"I—," Dumbledore started, only to break off and look down at his feet.

"Albus."

"Lupin won't be hurting Harry ever again," the older man replied, expelling his words in a rush as a nervous first year might.

"What," he swallowed against an abruptly dry throat, "What happened?"

"He is dead, Severus. He is dead, because I killed him."

Remus Lupin, the werewolf that almost killed him, the man who molested and raped Harry Potter under their very noses was dead.

Severus focused on Albus's grey tinged face and allowed himself to continue staring in silence back at the old man beside him.

"Lupin—Remus was as much my boy as you are Severus," Dumbledore continued, the tears growing in his weary eyes as he spoke.

Severus didn't answer that, but continued to watch his mentor somberly.

"I couldn't—," Dumbledore looked away, clenching his jaw briefly. When he turned back, his eyes were clear and steady as they stared back at Severus. "I couldn't let him continue on like that. And I couldn't let him get away with what he did to Harry, Severus. Do you understand?" His voice was a whisper once more, and Severus couldn't find it within his heart to argue anymore.

"I understand."

"He caused Harry to be afraid of me, Severus. Of me," Albus's whisper was desperate and Severus had to close his eyes against his mentor's distress.

Albus Dumbledore was not supposed to be so damned human.

It was unsettling.

"Perhaps you should get some sleep, Albus," he finally said when he opened his eyes again.

It took a moment for Dumbledore to process his words, but finally he saw the old man nodding his head in agreement.

"I think you might be right, my boy," Albus answered slowly, rising uncertainly to his feet. "We will talk more tomorrow."

To be continued...


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