Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter

A special thanks to The Lonely God With a Box for beta'ing my story.

Enjoy! :)

Chapter 24

Harry was walking from Arabella's house. To say he was nervous was an understatement. He took several deep breaths as he walked across the street. One thing for sure he was happy that he wasn't alone. On either side of him, were his dad's best friends. Even though he was happy that they were with him, the one thing that actually gave him peace of mind was that he knew standing in the window at Mrs. Figg's house was his dour Potion Master. He hated that he had to leave his side. But Sirius would stay by his side the entire time.

Standing in the window, Severus watched at the unlikely crew walked across the street to Number 4. It took quite a bit of convincing Remus to not bring harm to the male Dursley when he had his talk. But if everything went the way that Severus planned, then he knew Harry would be safe even if he had to stay under the roof of those vile muggles. But Severus was not a stupid man, and he would not be a good spy if he did not have a contingency plan. That was where Sirius came in. It didn't take much to convince the animagus on what he had to do and it also seemed to put the boy at ease as well. Even though Harry had initially asked to be taken back, he did not fool the Head of Slytherin. Severus knew that once Remus left, things would just go back to being the way it was or even worse. This was the contingency plan. Sirius would stay with Harry. Twenty-four seven. He would not leave the boy's side. He would have to stay as a dog while he did it, but Harry would no longer fear anyone coming into his room to beat him. He would not have to worry about being attacked from behind. With having Sirius there, Harry would be ensured a safe holiday. Even if it was without the Potions Master. Not that he would say it aloud, but if he was to truly protect Harry, he knew he couldn't do it behind bars in Azkaban.

As the three walked across the street, both Remus and Snuffles could tell that Harry was nervous. Remus put his hand on Harry's shoulder and squeezed a little and Snuffles brushed his head by Harry's hand. Harry really appreciated what they were doing. He rubbed behind Snuffles' ear while leaning into the touch from Remus.

Once in front of the door, Harry knocked. When the door swung open, Harry instinctively took a step back not knowing that Remus was right behind him.

“Well,” Dudley said. “I thought you ran away. That's what I told dad.”

“May we come in?” the sultry voice came from behind Harry.

Seeing his cousin, Harry quickly forgot that his godfather and Remus were with him, but a small squeeze on his shoulder seemed to relax the child.

“Who are you?” Dudley snapped. “And that dog can't come in.”

Snuffles made a slight growl and pushed his way passed the teenager at the door and walked into the house. Harry couldn't help the smile that came across his lips seeing Sirius walk in the house. It didn't take long for the rest of the house notice the intruder. A scream and a broken dish later and Dudley was actually starting to look nervous.

“I think it would be in your best interest to let us in.”

Harry just looked at his cousin. A second later he stepped aside and allowed the two entrance.

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Severus watched the entire exchange from the window. When Sirius left Harry's side and barged his way into the house, Severus was tempted to rush out there to Harry's side, but he could see that the wolf had a hold on Harry so he stayed put. Once the door closed and Harry was inside the house, he couldn't help but feel a tightness in his chest that he had never felt before. Could he actually start caring for Harry Potter? If that question was asked of him last week, he knew the answer would be a definite no, but now, he really couldn't say. He had seen much in the child that had started to change his view point of the boy.

Not caring where Arabella was in the house, Severus made his way to the hearth and Floo'ed back to Grimmauld Place. When he got to the lounge, he saw that Poppy was still in the same place she was when they left. He walked over to her, cast a feather-weight charm on her, and very carefully, he picked up the medi-witch. She began to stir in his arms, her head leaning against his shoulder.

“It's just me, Poppy,” Severus soothed. “I'm taking you to St. Mungo's.”

“Severus,” Poppy words slurred from her mouth.

“I've done all I can with your eyes,” Severus explained as he walked towards the hearth. Cradling Poppy to his chest, he maneuvered her in a way that he could get a handful of Floo powder and dropped it in the hearth calling out, “St. Mungo's Emergency.”

With a flash of green, the Potion Master and the medi-witch were gone.

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The tension in the house was extremely high. Vernon and Petunia sat on the sofa. Petunia's face was drained of color from her anger over a dog not only in her living room, but walking around on top of the furniture.

Vernon, on the other hand, was so angry that he was no longer red. He was turning a deep shade of purple. Harry looking at his uncle in almost amazement. He'd only seen his uncle get that angry once before, and the outcome for Harry was less than stellar. A week of no food. Two weeks of extra chores. But what hurt the most was the nightly beatings from his uncle during that whole time. Not only was he weak from not having food, and tired from all the chores he had to do, by the time he got to his room at night, thinking that he just wanted sleep, well, that didn't happen. Not as long as Vernon had anything to say about it. The first night was the worst. It felt like he beat Harry the entire night. Harry didn't remember if he passed out or they never let him sleep. He just knew that he was in pain the entire day after.

Snuffles gave a small whine causing Remus to look over at Harry. The wolf saw that Harry was lost in a memory or something unpleasant, because of the look of hurt and anguish on his face. Remus walked over to Harry, placed his hand on the boy's shoulder and leaned down by his ear.

“Harry,” Remus whispered in his ear. “Harry, you are not there any more. We won't let anything else happen to you. I will make sure of that. It will be alright.”

Remus continued to calm Harry down. Vernon, loosing the last of his patience, decided he had enough of the freaks in his house. At first, he was furious when Dudley told him that Harry was missing, but as the night passed along and it became a day, then two, Vernon started to really enjoy and love the idea of that freak not being there anymore. Finally when the Dursleys thought that they can get their lives back to normal, the little bastard came back and knocked on the door like he was welcomed here. The senior Dursley got up and waddled over to Remus and Harry, not knowing that Snuffles was also making his way over to them.

Remus, continuing soothingly talking to Harry, trying to calm him down, saw the male Dursley get up and walk towards them. Without changing the tone of his voice towards Harry, he quickly grabbed the wrist of the arm that was coming towards Harry's head. Harry was completely oblivious to what was happening, but Remus was looking at Vernon Dursley.

Dursley, thinking he was going to catch them by surprise, was surprised himself at the lightning speed that this man standing next to the freak possessed. Now the man is looking at me, Vernon thought. Then he saw something that made him re-think what he was about to do. He could have sworn he saw the eyes of the man in front of him turn colors. It went from brown to amber. He paled looking at that.

“Harry,” Remus said, his eyes not leaving Vernon. “Why don't you take Snuffles up to your room? Get some rest.”

Harry didn't acknowledge what was going on around him, but he felt a shaggy head under his hand. Very slowly, he began to rub the head, and with a small whine from the dog, Harry looked up at Remus.

“Go to your room and rest, Harry,” Remus said.

Harry nodded and headed upstairs. Snuffles followed. Remus watched the boy and dog walk upstairs, when he knew that Harry was out of listening range, the wolf turned back to the man next to him.

“Let's talk,” Remus growled.

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Severus stepped out of the Floo at St. Mungo's carrying his friend at his chest. A healer that was standing near the Floo when Severus emerged walked up to the Potion Master and helped him with Poppy. The healers worked on the medi-witch for an hour before placing her in a room. Once they got Poppy settled in a room, Severus sat with next to his friend.

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The door opened and they walked in. Aberforth canceled the shield keeping his prisoners to one side of the room. Both of his prisoners were asleep. Not comfortable, but trying to rest. Once the barrier came down the curses flew. They hit their mark of the half giant. Minerva woke up to Hagrid grunting in pain. She looked up just in time to be grabbed by the arms and lifted off the floor by Fenrir Greyback.

He slammed her into the wall behind her.

“LEAVE HER ALONE!” Hagrid yelled.

“Shut up,” he growled. Fenrir moved closer towards Minerva. “I know things about your precious son.”

“What does this have to do with Severus?” Minerva struggled in his grasp.

“He thinks he's better than us,” Fenrir growled.

“He is better than you,” Minerva said proudly.

Fenrir stepped back and pulled his arm back to hit the Transfiguration professor.

“NO!” Hagrid tried to move against his bonds. “Leave her...”

“Stop,” Aberforth growled. “She is not to be harmed.”

The werewolf got close to Minerva again. “You're lucky they need you.”

“Whatever you are doing, Severus will not go with you.”

“Well,” Aberforth said walking up to Minerva and Hagrid. “It's a shame you won't remember this. Stupefy.”

A red beam came from Aberforth's wand and hit both Hagrid and Minerva. Minerva, who was still standing fell against the wall and slid down, unconscious.

“Obliviate.”

Aberforth walked up to the two unconscious forms on the floor, then said to Greyback, “Take them where it was planned, so that a message can be left.” He walked out of the room.

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Severus had been sitting in the room with Poppy for what seemed like hours. It probably wasn't that long ago that he sat down in the chair, but with everything that was going on, there were other stuff that was on Snape's mind. With Harry now in the capable hands, the only thing on his mind was his mother. Not knowing was the hard part.

Putting his hand over Poppy's and squeezing it a little, Severus got up and walked out of the room to stretch his legs for a minute.

Severus walked the halls aimlessly. Not really looking around. He was just thinking. He crossed the front of St. Mungo's and turned to go back.

“Severus.”

It was low and tired sounding, but Severus knew without turning around who's voice that was.

Minerva looked tired. Her hair, that was normally kept in a tight bun in the back of her head was no loose past her shoulders. Her robes were dirty. Severus turned and looked at his Minnie.

“Mother,” Severus slowly walked over towards her.

She wrapped her arms around her son's neck as he pulled her into an embrace. Severus Snape didn't usually show emotion, but after the fear of not know where his mother was and now seeing her, he did not care who saw.

“Severus, what happened?” Minerva mumbled in his shoulder.

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Tami popped into a room. There were trinkets on shelves that covered the walls. There was a big desk that sat in the middle of the room with a perch behind it.

“Ah, Tami.”

Tami looked up at who was talking, fear showing in her eyes. For whatever he wanted, it was not going to be good.

“Let's have a discussion, shall we?” he said, sitting behind his desk looking down at the frightened house elf.

TBC