With Snape simply offering to tutor the boy this time around instead of dressing him down and making him a miserable mess, the boy had written a more cheerful letter to his cousin, promising to come to visit during the summer, promising to stay friends, promising to take care of him.

Encouraging his cousin to talk to authorities, to talk to the teachers, to go to the police.

Which the boy had done, he had spoken to the police who had driven him home to confront the father with it, who had admitted to giving the boy a spanking for his poor performance in school, claiming that the ten year old was overreacting to his first spanking. Pierce had naturally not defended himself in front of his stepfather and thus the police had left him there to figure things out with his stepfather.

The moment the police had left with the promise of returning the next day to check if things had smoothed over, Pierce really received his first ever over the knee spanking, a spanking that nearly broke his tailbone and left him bruised, blistered and screaming for the entire night.

The next day he had been very apologetic towards the police, explaining that he truly must have overreacted, doing all that standing up, leaning against the counter, keeping a straight face even though his lower back and bottom were throbbing with excruciating pain.

He ran the same night, running until he could no more, he found a shed to sleep in, and was found the next morning by a black haired boy with two black eyes and a bloody nose.

Something as little as a soothing talk had made such a big difference, and while Severus Snape did not realize just how much of a difference this little talk had made, he certainly knew that something had made a difference, and he knew that that something had safed the life of a young bright blonde boy.

“Come on Pierce, let’s go, we’ll find him without their help,” Harry whispered towards the still sitting boy.

“Can you take us to him?” Pierce asked instead and Snape hesitated.

“I could take you to him, yes. But I will need answers first.”

“I want to see him first,” Pierce immediately said, crossing his arms over his chest, not looking away even when Snape gave him his fiercest glower, a glower which made Potter sit down nearly immediately and avert his gaze.

“Very well, I will take both of you with me, you Pierce may go see your cousin for a few minutes, I will keep your friend with me however, to make sure that you return to me, and if you don’t then I will hand him over to child services and then hunt you down, and if I get you Pierce, there’ll be hell to pay, do you understand?”

“Yes, sir.” Pierce immediately agreed, not noticing the look of panic that flew over his new friends face.

“I don’t want to do that,” Harry finally spoke up when Mrs. Clearwater handed Pierce the paper back, obviously thinking the three would leave and she could have her house back to herself.

“You have little choice, either that or child services, neither of you decided to be honest with me here and give me some detail, so that’s all you’ll be getting.”

Harry looked at his friend wistfully.

“You gonna come back to get me, right?”

“Yes, mate, I just want to make sure that he really has him, you know?” Pierce said quickly, sealing his prmise with his eyes, big wide eyed promising eyes.

“Thank you Mrs. Clearwater, your daughter asks to extend her greetings,” Severus said the moment the boys finally stood up.

“No thank you for coming Professor Snape, but before you go, I would advice you to stop at the preachers office, so the boys can gather their things and he can rest assured that they didn’t run but instead found the teacher they were looking for.”

Snape pressed his lips thinly together. When he had come out here, he had hoped that this entire thing was a joke, the only reason he came in the first place was because Mrs Clearwater  reasoned that one of the boys might be Mr. Harry Potter, the boy who lived, the conquerer of the dark Lord.

“Thank you, Reverent Brennan, for taking such excellent care,” Severus said shaking the black mans hand strongly even as the boy picked up their clothes from the chairs by the little diningroom table.

“Oh, either that or call the services, and we all know how that goes. I figured the boys had reason to run, and I would be the last to send them back, so thank you for coming and picking them up. They were very focused on you, and must have run miles to find anyone with the last name Snape.”

“Yes, Pierces cousin must have mentioned me in one of his letters, I am the boys Homeroom teacher. I’ll take them to the school with me for now, where they can see Pierces cousin, and we’ll then go from there.”

“Yes, if there is ever anything you need help with, then you know how to reach me, I’ll help where I can.”

“Thank you, you helped already. Alright boys, gather your things, I need to get back to teaching,” Snape said sternly causing both boys to almost drop their already gathered things to hurry to his sides, mumbling quickly to each other.

 Snape knew that he would have to travel back the muggle way, both boys had no clue about magic, and he would need at least a few hours to get them acquainted with the idea that magic really did exist so they wouldn’t die of shock once they arrived in Hogwarts.

“The trainstation was right this way, yes?”

“Yes, we are a rather small village though, there’s only one train a day, I can give you a lift to the major trainstation if you like,” Father Brennan said and after a little consideration Snape agreed.

“So we are taking a train back to London, to then take a train back to Scotland? That seems really senseless sir,” Pierce said as they boarded the express train to London after they had said goodbye to the Pastor, promising to be good and to listen to the man dressed all in black.

“It’s what we have to do. There is only one train that drives to the school we are going to, and that train only leaves from Kings cross, now stop this annoying babbling and sit down,” Snape nearly snapped when he finally found an empty compartment.

 Harry had been silent since his little outburst in Mrs. Clearwaters house and even now simply sat staring at Snape whenever the man was not looking and then having a thoughtful look on his face.

“Mr. Potter, do speak up, please.” Snape finally sighed when after twenty minutes of catching the boy secretly looking at him he lost every little ounce of patience, patience that was very limited as it was.

“How did you know my name?”

“You are Harry James Potter, are you not?”

“Yes, sir. But how did you know? And Mrs. Clearwater?”

“Both of you, empty your pockets, right here, on the table, everything you own.” He said after a few seconds of consideration. The both of them should have received their letters by now, and that would make it so much easier, some common ground to start from.

It didn’t take the two of them long and he kept his face even, as they placed the letters on the table, both of them crumbled up beyond recognition.

“Hogwarts, is the school I teach in.” Severus finally began, “Hogwarts is a school for the specially gifted, Hogwarts is a school for witchcraft, for young witches and wizards.”

“Wait, what?”

“It means, Mr. Potter and Mr. Rodgers that you are wizards, and that you were accepted into one of the most noble magical schools there are. It means, that you will be going to school for ten months out of the year learning everything that young wizards need to know.”

“But I’m not, I’m just Harry.” Harry said, panic in his voice. If uncle Vernon were here now he would suffer a heart attack and then surely kill him.

“Well Just- Harry, was there never a moment when things just seemed to happen? When you were in distress? When you were frightened?” It was silent for nearly two minutes when both boys sat there, eyes staring but yet looking at nothing, as both boys relived their lives in their inner eyes, letting everything go by, seing all those little incidents of accidental magic.

“Those special little moments, when you did something magical, were bursts of accidental magic, the first signs of being magical. Now had you both grown up with wizarding families, then this would have been explained to you, then the both of you would have grown up much like any other boy, you would have just needed to keep magic a secret.”

Both boys looked at him wide-eyed.

“I know that the two of you are good at keeping secrets, you kept one secret probably the majority of your life, and I know that that secret was probably very important and that you are very afraid of speaking about it, because you fear what will happen if it is found out that you spoke about it. But I can promise you, that unless you tell me something about that, that there is nothing I can do to keep you from having to go back, do you understand that?”

Both boys nodded.

“So if you speak up, then I will do everything in my power to make sure that you will never have to go back home, that you will never have to see them again.”

Harry felt his throat constrict, he would never have to go back? Ever?

“So how did you know our names?”

“You are both wizards, that for one makes it easier, since I teach at the school the two of you will be attending, I saw both your names on the new students list,” he explained, which was the truth.

“You Mr. Potter though, are known by every wizard and witch,” Snape said, leaning back into the cushions as he waited for that little information to sink in.

“children your own age listened to the tale of you in the form of bedtime stories, there are many stories, most of them more false then real, but still everybody knows your name and the main reason for your fame.”

“My fame, sir?”

 “Yes, Mr. Potter. Magic, is a very special gift, but there are always two sides of a coin. When you are magical, you can decide to be a good magician or an evil one. You can decide to let the magic guide you, or guide the magic. You can be light or dark. Over the last century there was one very evil wizard, a wizard that threw our magical world into a war. He brought fear wherever he went to, those he sought, he killed. When you were a baby Mr. Potter, this evil man strode into your house and decided to kill you and your parents, because he had heard of a prophecy that claimed that a child born in the month of June, a child born to parents that had three times defied him, would become strong enough to beat him. This prophecy led him to your house, he wanted to kill you before you became a threat.”

“But he didn’t?”

“He wasn’t able to,” Severus said. “Something about you, something in you, there are many rumors as to what exactly saved you against his killing curse, it rebounded off of you and instead turned against himself, leaving him nothing more than a lost spirit.”

“But they died in a car accident,” Harry said, frowning. That was the only information he had ever had about his parents, that his father was a drunk who had gotten both himself and his wife killed, leaving him behind to be sent to his aunt and uncle.

“That is what your aunt and uncle told you, because they most probably tried to deny that magic ever existed. Your aunt, Mr. Potter has hated magic since your mother found out that she was a witch. She was jelous, and that jelousy turned into hatred, she projected that hatred onto everything that seemed out of the norm afterwards.”

“How do you know all that?” Harry asked, glancing at his finger which had unconscieously been tracing the outline of his scar while the man had spoken.

“I have known your mother when I was a child, I was the one that explained to her that she was a witch, I was friends with her well into our teenage life.”

“So you knew my parents?”

“Yes, Mr. Potter. I knew both your mother and yoru father, though your father and I were never friends. We had a school rivalry going on that went way out of hand because the teachers wouldn’t step in, this rivalry also resulted in your mother and I ending our friendship on very bad terms.”

“What happened?” Harry asked, eyes wide. Both boys were staring at him, entranced in the story. Even as Pierce knew nothing of the story, having never even known that the boys parents were dead, he was eager to know everything that had to do with magic.

“Your father and I weren’t friends, and one day we got into a fight, during that fight he did something that mortified me, and when your mother tried to come to my aid, I was blind with rage and projected my anger at her. I called her a name, a very hurtful name that shattered our friendship. After that I made very bad decisions, I became dark. It took me years to turn back around, to find the good in life again, but by then I had made terrible mistakes which led to terrible losses, and it was to late to ever patch things up with your mother again.”

“Because she was dead?”

“Yes, because she had been killed.” Severus said quietly, knowing that he would at one point have to be honest with the boy, that he would have to tell him that he was the one that sold out his parents, the sooner the better, but he didn’t know how to go about it, what best to say.

“So you’re famous Harry.” Pierce said after a few seconds, something in his voice that made Snape listen up, something that made him feel uneasy.

“Yeah,” Harry mumbled.

“And you never thought to tell me about it? We could have made this much easier!” Pierce growled fisting his hands at his sides.

“I didn’t know!” Harry nearly shouted. “If I had known then I would have surely done something to get out earlier!” He hissed.

“Why didn’t they come and get you out if you are that important?”

“Yeah, why didn’t anyone ever check?”

Snape inhaled softly, thinking carefully about his next words, knowing he was treading on thin ice.

“Your whereabouts were kept a secret, Mr. Potter. No wizard knew about it but for the one that arranged everything, and no one had the power to find out. There were many spells around your house that prevented anyone from seeing you, from finding you. Because there are still very many wizards out there, wizards and witches that followed the evil dark wizard, that might wish you harm.”

“Why didn’t the one that arranged it ever check on me?”

“Because he had thought that you would be happy and well taken care of, he couldn’t have known that your own aunt and uncle would treat you so.”

“Why, because they are that?”

“Yes, because they are family. He had hoped that you would experience the love of growing up in your own family, surrounded by your only living relatives.”

“Well, family is worthless.” Harry growled angrily scratching at his face.

“So there are still people that want to hurt him?”

“Yes, the man that caused the war, we don’t call him by his name, he had a group of followers, people that did as he bid, and those people are very upset that a mere baby managed to vanquish their lord.”

“Their lord? This sounds like a fairytale gone wrong,” Pierce frowned looking at him skeptically.

“Yes, it does,” Snape said, thoughts racing, he should tell the boy, he should get the truth out as soon as he could, he knew that it would only hurt their relationship if he kept it a secret, that the boy was bound to find out at one point, and then hate him for lying.

“This sounds like this Hitler,” Harry said thoughtfully after a few seconds.

“Yes, it does. Hitler manipulated his followers, the weakest became strong, he allowed them to project their personal insecurity towards the jews, he allowed them to hate and discriminate them, just because he hated them himself. The weakest were his best,” he explained.

“The Dark Lord, he was much the same. He hated those that were not born to wizarding parents, he killed those that had nonmagical parents, that weren’t pureblood. Most of his followers had the same principles, they also believed that the magical race should be kept clean, that only those born from magical parents should be allowed to live in the magical world. That the others were not worth enough, that the halfbloods, or muggleborns, which means magicians born to nonmagical parents were a danger to our world. But not every single one of his followers believed in that. Some followers of his only joined his group because they longed to belong to someone, to something. They joined not knowing exactly what would be expected of them, and before they knew it, they were in to deep to get out again.”

“Why didn’t they just leave?” Pierce asked, a look of doubt in his eyes.

“There was no leaving, the only escape was death.”

Both boys fell silent after that, he did not however miss the short glance Potter gave him, before he blushed and looked down again, studying his knees.

“I was a follower of the dark Lord, I joined him when I was just a teenager, I joined him shortly after your mother and I got into a fight.” Snape finally forced himself to say and was not surprised to find both boys staring at him with disbelief.

“It wasn’t long until I noticed that I had done a mistake, that that was not what I really wanted, that the feeling of belonging was fake, and was not worth it. I soon became scared and just wanted out, but I knew that you wouldn’t get out alive ever,” he explained hesitating. How much could he tell two eleven year olds without scarring them?

“The Dark Lord, he was not very patient, nor was he understanding. If he gave you an order, you needed to do as he said, or you would be punished severely upon returning empty handed. I learned of his displeasure soon after joining and then became paralyzed with fear. I did as he told me, fearing his wrath if I were to displease him, but at the same time reveling in the praise he gave when you did well. He was a perfect manipulator, he knew me, he knew what I had gone through as a child and used it to his advantage, exploiting me.”

“What was his name?”

“Tom Marvolo Riddle was the name he was born with,” Severus said after a few seconds of hesitation, “the name he gave himself to fight this war was Voldemort,” he finally pressed out, feeling his heart skip a beat as he spoke it out like that.

“Voldemort? That’s a stupid name,” Pierce said pulling up his nose in disgust.

“That name Mr. Rodgers makes nearly every grown wizard shiver in fright, witches cry out in fear and children wet their bed. You have no idea how much pain, how much terror this man caused. This name stands for death, for torture and for fear now. It is a name that is not used,” he said even though he knew that Potter would be using it without a problem, without any hesitation, knowing that if he were to become friends with Granger and Weasley this time around, that they as well would start using that name, before switching over to Tommy in their late teenage lifes.

“So how did you get out?” Harry asked after a few seconds, surely no doubt in his mind that he had gotten out before the dark Lord had fallen, a perfect reader of emotions, something almost every abused child became very proficient in.

“One night I overheard someone utter a prophecy, and thinking that I would do the Dark Lord a great service and thus getting off his bad side for a while I immediately reported it to him. I had no idea at the time that this prophecy would change everything, that this prophecy would be connected to my childhood best friend, her husband and very young child.”

“Me,” Harry said emotionless, eyes on his knees, hands laying still next to his thighs.

“Yes, I did not hear the entire prophecy, but yet I heard enough to make the Dark Lord assume that it was talking of you. It spoke of a family that had thrice defied him and born a son in the six month, which left you and another family. When he visited you that night, he immediately made you part of the prophecy, he branded you with it.”

“So you are the reason his parents were killed?”

“Yes, I reported back to the Dark Lord, the Dark Lord made use of it and targeted you.”

“And I killed him?”

“You vanquished him, not even the devil would grant something as evil as the Dark Lord entrance, Mr. Potter. I am sure that he is somewhere out there, that something of him is left, and that eventually he will find a way to get back.”

They fell silent after that, Pierce glancing out of the window digesting everything he had heard, trying to make sense of it.

“So what did you do after that?”

“The moment I learned that he would attack your house, I tried to stop him, to make him check the other family, I begged him to spare you, I offered everything, my own life. He had none of it, he did however promise that he would let your mother live. I immediately ran from him and ran to his biggest enemy, the wizard that was leading the other side of the war, I ran to him, I begged for forgiveness and I told him what I had done, I begged him to save you. He granted forgiveness. I was just a child back then myself, you must know. He arranged for your parents and you to be placed in a safe house,” Severus said, heart aching as he thought of it, heart yearning for his best friend who was lost forever.

“It would have all worked out, we had special secrecy charms set up, special lock charms and even a charm called the fidelus charm, a charm that would have one person, only one know the location of your parents. That someone though, betrayed your parents and brought the information to the dark lord, giving away their address, the dark lord killed them the same night.”

“So I am famous because I didn’t die?” Harry asked, swallowing hard at that, this was so surreal. Just a few weeks ago, he had been the bow living with his aunt and uncle, in the closet under the stairs, hated by his only living relatives, poor and beaten, starved and forgotten. And now? Now he sat in a train, talking to a man who taught at a school that taught magic.

 “Yes, and you are famous for vanquishing him, the majority of people hope that he is dead, assume that he is dead and will never return. As I said, I don’t think something as vile and evil as him could truly ever die.”