Surgery by Henna Hypsch
Past Featured StorySummary: Summer fic fest. At one point, early in their life, every wizard needs to submit to surgery. The summer after his first year at Hogwarts, it is the turn of Harry Potter to do so. It’s supposed to be a trifle, but what is ordinary about the Boy-who-lived? Complications will arise. Ghosts from the past will appear and secrets people thought buried for ever are revealed. The question is, in the middle of this ordeal, will Severus Snape at long last find something meaningful to do with his life?
Categories: Teacher Snape > Trusted Mentor Snape, Fic Fests > #18 Summer 2015 Main Characters: .Snape and Harry (required), Molly, Other, Petunia, Vernon
Snape Flavour: Overly-protective Snape
Genres: General
Media Type: None
Tags: Hospitalization
Takes Place: 2nd summer
Warnings: Abusive Dursleys, Neglect
Prompts: Petunia, Tell Me The Truth, Surgery
Challenges: Petunia, Tell Me The Truth, Surgery
Series: None
Chapters: 12 Completed: Yes Word count: 52532 Read: 103812 Published: 20 Aug 2015 Updated: 31 Aug 2015
Chapter 9 Protective instincts by Henna Hypsch

One week after the meeting with Albus Dumbledore, Molly Weasley was chopping onions and carefully brushing and slicing chanterelles that she had picked in the nearby forest during her morning stroll, when her husband sauntered into the kitchen. Arthur Weasley’s clothing habits had steadily deteriorated since the start of the vacations and Molly had no idea where he had got hold of that horrid, short-sleeved, brightly coloured and only waist-long Muggle robe that he was wearing to a traditional wizard summer kilt.

 

”What’s for lunch, Molly?” he asked, peaking over her shoulder.

 

”Toast with stew.” She gestured at the mushrooms and Arthur Weasley licked his lips greedily. ”Quiche and salad. When is Severus coming today?” she added. 

 

”Harry’s tutoring is at two pm as usual. Why do you ask?” 

 

”Because the other day, Severus turned up at eight am, took Harry fishing, stayed for lunch and then he did his tutoring session. I’m wondering what to expect today,” Molly retorted a bit sharply. Her husband sniggered. 

 

”Harry told us about the fishing session. Apparently Severus had scolded him non-stop, from the moment they sat feet in that boat until they were back on land. He was so afraid that Harry would fall into the lake. He even wanted to put a sticking charm on Harry so that he could make sure the boy would not suddenly stand up and make the boat capsize. Harry refused, of course, and so it went on…” 

 

Molly smiled reluctantly.

 

”I can’t fathom how Harry puts up with Severus’ stern bossing around. He’s so patient and candid. A wonderful boy,” she said.

 

”Oh, Harry knows how to bite back now and then,” Arthur Weasley corrected her. ”He’s no longer afraid of Severus. And despite everything, they both came back smiling… I guarantee you, Molly, that I almost saw Severus Snape smile - almost, because Harry was so excited about their catch and rambled on, describing in detail how he had caught that fish and how Severus had helped him land it into the boat. I think it was the first time that anyone took Harry out on an adventure like that. You can’t begrudge him…”

 

”Of course I don’t. It’s just a bit tiresome to have someone from outside the household roaming about, every single day of the vacations, in your own house.” Molly cracked some eggs for the quiche and huffed to herself when she had to remove a few pieces of shell from the batter.

 

”Now, now, Molly, don’t say that. Severus is tutoring the boy, and in families living in manors, those kind of activities goes without saying. Moreover, I think that we are witnessing something quite rare. I believe that the appendicitis rite bond hit Severus much worse that he would let on in front of Albus. ’A tad more protective’, my eye! The man is as fierce as a panther guarding his cub and as fussy as a grandmother with her only granddaughter at the same time. I wonder…”

 

”Who’s paying for Harry’s tutoring, anyhow? It’s not as if we can afford it, you know, Arthur,” Molly Weasley said sourly, not sharing the interest in her husband’s speculations about the magical bond. Mr Weasley looked taken aback.

 

”Er… I guess that Albus is paying… Although it would not surprise me if Severus is doing it for free. Maybe I had better ask just to make sure,” he said. 

 

”Why did not Severus offer to be a foster parent if he has taken such a liking to the boy?” Molly Weasley grunted irritated. ”I like Harry very much and he’s Ron’s friend and all, but we’re not a wealthy family, Arthur…”

 

”Hello, Harry!” Molly was interrupted by the cheerful greeting of her husband looking over her shoulder and when she turned around, she discovered Harry standing insecurely in the entrance to the kitchen, with a hand placed on the door case. Molly blushed faintly, dried her hands on a towel and approached him. 

 

”Hello, dear! What did you want?”

 

”I just came down to see if I could help out with anything? Set the table, maybe?” Harry suggested. Molly scrutinised his face, but he met her gaze steadily and did not betray whether or not he had overheard the conversation. 

 

”That’s so nice of you. I would be most grateful. Ask Ron and Ginny to help you, too.” 

 

She cast a last look at her husband who returned it with a shrug that seemed to say: ”No harm done, but we’d better be careful.”

 

***

 

It had taken Harry some time to understand that the fishing trip that Severus offered to take him on was in exchange for a visit to the wizard amusement park that Ron had been going on about. Severus made the suggestion with the most stern expression on his face and Harry, who first thought that it must somehow belong to his tutoring, answered:

 

”Of course. Whenever you want, Sir.”

 

Severus frowned and said stiffly:

 

”I’m asking if it would be to your liking to indulge in such an activity? I refuse to take you to that busy, soulless circus of a park that you missed out the other week, as I do not feel comfortable in such places.”

 

Harry shook his head defensively.

 

”I don’t expect you or the Weasleys to take me to the park… Ron insists in saying that I should be allowed to go… He thinks that I’m envious, because they got to go and I didn’t, but it really doesn’t matter to me. You don’t have to do anything, Sir,” he said. Snape drew a deep breath.

 

”I have decided that I am going to assume the responsibility of being part of the appendicitis rite and offer you the treat that should ensue when the ordeal is over,” he explained reluctantly.

 

”Oh!” Harry widened his eyes in realisation, but still could not make out whether Severus regarded it as an obligation or if it was something he wanted to do.

 

”I myself enjoy fishing and am in possession of the suitable equipment. I met a man at the inn who is willing to rent out his boat,” Severus went on.

 

It sounded like his teacher might really want to do this, after all, thought Harry, as he seemed to have planned and arranged for it. He knew that Fred and George desperately wanted their father to buy a little boat, but that the Weasleys could not afford it and that Mr Weasley was not particularly interested in fishing. Fred and George went angling for fish almost every day, by the nearest small lake in the forest. Harry had not yet been allowed to go with them because the walk was too long for him to undertake before he was completely healed. What the twins really wanted to do, though, was to go by boat in the big lake a few kilometres away.

 

”So would you like to go fishing?” Severus brusquely interrupted Harry’s thoughts.

 

”Er… I wouldn’t really know,” Harry answered nervously. ”Because I have never been on a fishing trip before. The Dursleys never brought me with them on their holidays. But the children in my primary school always seemed excited when their… when someone took them fishing and I would really like to try it, if you think that I won’t be in the way.” 

 

Severus furrowed his forehead and his lips twisted as if he wanted to scold Harry for his diffidence.

 

”I will teach you how to behave in a boat,” he said instead.

 

Afterwards it was a mystery to Harry how that trip turned out a success. It started most awkwardly with Severus picking him up at the Burrow, slinging dark glances at all the Weasley siblings who were gathered around them to see Harry off, as if daring them to make any comments on his fishing outfit, which consisted of a hat and a fishing vest covered with pockets, with trolling spoons and small utensils attached to it. Only the deeply ingrained cautiousness around their Potions master prevented the Weasley twins from stepping up and touching every item of the fishing tackle. 

 

Harry had been embarrassed, thinking the advanced equipment lost on someone as inexperienced as he was, but had followed his teacher obediently, carrying a couple of fishing rods for him. In order for Harry not to have to walk so far, Severus had Apparated the short distance to the lake with him, which had been a most unsettling experience and Severus had looked almost as contrite as Harry felt when he had gulped down his nausea. 

 

”Maybe this was not such a good idea,” Severus had murmured.

 

Getting into the boat had been a nightmare with Severus peppering him with instructions, resulting in Harry not knowing where to go, not daring to make one single movement. At last he was seated in the stem seat and Severus at the stern. 

 

”Are you sure your wound is sufficiently healed?” Severus asked repeatedly as if having second thoughts. ”Maybe I made a misjudgement. You might disrupt the wound if you make an unguarded movement or if you try to parry a rock of the boat. Maybe we should stay at shore and go angling instead?”

 

”Please, I’d really like to go out on the lake,” Harry whispered entreatingly. ”I’m fine, I promise.” 

 

Severus muttered and huffed, hesitated, but started the engine and steered out on the open water. Harry delighted in the feeling of the wind in his face and the amazing fact that he was on the water. First he looked at the view, but he soon fastened his gaze on the water surface, trying to penetrate its depths, but it simply looked bottomless black with hypnotising shining reflexions.

 

The next precarious moment had arisen when they arrived at the spot where Severus’ detection spell said that they had the greatest chance to catch some pikes and where it was necessary for them to change seats, because Severus was going to row and he wanted Harry in the stern of the boat. 

 

”Place your feet in the middle. One step out of the middle line will make the boat rock to the same side and you might loose your balance,” Severus explained sternly as Harry rose carefully, sliding towards the middle seat. Even if the manoeuvre had been successful so far, Severus suddenly thought it fit for Harry to remove his shoes and socks, ”in order to feel the movements of the boat better when you’re barefoot” and ”because some water will inevitably leak in when I row and you don’t have waterproof shoes.” Harry who wore his torn trainees obeyed without questioning his teacher, then rose to move towards the back seat. They needed to swap places and Severus gripped Harry by the arms firmly, coaxed his way lithely around Harry’s body, almost embracing him on the way, before he determinedly put Harry down, as if he were a two-year-old. Harry blinked in surprise and blushed in confusion. When Severus in the same breath proposed to put a sticking charm on him not to have him stand up in the boat, Harry scowled so fiercely at him that Severus repented, muttering to himself: ”As long as you don’t move.”

 

Severus had adjusted one of the rods especially for Harry, shortening it, making it easier to cast, but on the other hand Harry did not reach very far. Severus asked him at least a hundred times to go easy, not to make any movement that might hurt and not to rise in the boat. Harry watched Severus enviously when he made his casts expertly, far away. Severus caught a small pike that he threw back in the lake. It excited Harry very much that they finally had a fish biting, but the pleasure was spoilt by his teacher roaring ”sit” all the time while he landed the perch in the boat, disengaged the hook, showed the floundering fish briefly to Harry before throwing it back in the water. 

 

In the end, Harry swapped to the easier procedure of angling instead of casting and caught some small perches. He was delighted all the same. At least Severus taught him how to unhook them and he was able to touch the scales and the fins. Harry thought they were beautiful, but he did not like the eyes.

 

”Careful!” barked Severus as the perch raised its back fin and Harry jerked his finger away. It was a wonder that he did not drop the fish altogether. ”It’s cutting,” Severus explained in a calmer tone of voice.

 

When the sun started to go higher and get warmer, Severus finally declared:

 

”One last cast, then we need to go back. When it gets too hot, the fish stops biting. I’ll let you wind this one home.” He threw one of his forceful casts and gave the rod to Harry at the same time as he started to row slowly. 

 

”I think…” said Harry suddenly and tensed, winding a bit slower. ”…that there might be something… nibbling…” 

 

”Either it bites or it doesn’t,” said Severus. ”You might have caught some seaweed.”

 

Suddenly Harry gasped and gripped the rod harder. It was bending down considerably towards the water. 

 

”I’ve caught something!” shouted Harry, rising half-way to brace one knee against the seat. 

 

”Sit back down,” roared Severus, but for once Harry was oblivious

of his teacher’s orders. 

 

”It pulls so hard! It’s a really big fish! Help me, Severus!”

 

Severus finally caught what was happening and put the oars down.

 

”Keep the line stretched and tight. Don’t give it a chance to tear away,” he said urgently. 

 

”I think I might need some help,” groaned Harry, struggling to meet the fierce pulls and tears from the fish. Severus slid up behind him, imitating Harry by putting one knee on the seat. He gripped the rod over Harry’s shoulder with one hand, steadying it for Harry, so that Harry could start hauling the fish closer to the boat.  

 

”Easy, we don’t want the line to snap,” Severus warned, excitement replacing the guardedness in his voice for the first time since the morning. ”Give it a bit more line. We must tire it out. Let go and haul in, in turns, all the time a little closer. That’s it. Excellent, Harry. Excellent! See - a beautiful pike, three or four kilos - that’s my guess. Careful now. Keep it at the side. Don’t try to lift it into the boat. Let me get the net bag under it and it will not be able to escape.” 

 

Harry had been exhilarated to land the big fish in the boat, then horrified when he realised that they needed to kill the animal. In panic he proposed that they threw it back in the lake, but Severus brought out his wand and stunned the fish without ceremony. 

 

”Did you kill it?” squeaked Harry, staring at the one moment so forcefully floundering fish that was now completely still.

 

”No, I stunned it with a spell. It will die from asphyxiation, though, within a few minutes, but it won’t suffer,” answered Severus, adding promptly, ”How is your scar doing?”

 

”My scar?” Harry repeated distractedly, lifting one hand to touch his forehead, while staring at the splendid pike.

 

”Not that one!” exclaimed Severus. ”I mean your newly healed wound in your abdomen! You made the most unguarded moves when you stood up in the boat. It might have disrupted the wound.”

 

”Oh,” said Harry and moved his hand to the right of his stomach. ”No, it’s fine. Don’t feel anything. Do you think that Mrs Weasley will be happy when we bring the pike home?” 

 

And that’s how they had ended up returning to the Burrow, Harry chatting incessantly and Severus almost smiling.

 

***

 

Another week went by with regular visits to the Burrow and with Snape bringing Harry on more than one occasion on other fishing trips. The steady jog-trot of summer activities lulled everyone into a deceptive peacefulness of mind that was to be disrupted sooner than they suspected.

 

One morning, Arthur Weasley was reading in the shadow of an apple tree in the garden when he heard a savage roar coming from the hillside where the children had gone to play quidditch after breakfast. Startled, he put his book down and rose. What on earth…? He started to run towards the nearby clearing. Could a Muggle have found his way to the secluded patch and been surprised by a gang of broom-flying children?

 

But as he came out through the trees and got a full view over the hillside, he was just in time to witness a livid Severus Snape in the middle of a meadow with his wand sorted, magically hauling a wriggling Harry Potter on his broomstick, whisk first, backwards, down through the air to land him in an excess of protecting spells to finally dispel Harry’s broom several feet away. 

 

Oh, Merlin, Arthur thought to himself as he continued to run towards the assemblage of Snape, Harry and his children who had landed in a circle around the teacher and their newest addition of a sibling. Arthur Weasley had done exactly that manoeuvre once to bring Ginny down from the air, when she was eight, and she had not minced her words to tell her father how humiliating it had felt. Harry was to be twelve in a week and it must be mortifying to have it done in front of his best friend’s family - his foster family, Arthur corrected himself. 

 

”Are you out of your mind to play quidditch in your condition? There were strict instructions from the hospital that you should not do any sports for four weeks after the operation. Four weeks! Can you count, Harry?”

 

A red-cheeked, indignant Harry tried to say something.

 

”I was not… I can count…” But Snape raged on.

 

”How can you even risk it, I wonder? You could undo your healing, your whole rehabilitation, and had I not happened to come by and brought you down to safety, you could easily have sent yourself back to the hospital. Do you wish to stay there the entire vacations? Because I could see if I can reserve a room without you doing damage to yourself first!”

 

”Now, calm down everyone,” said Mr Weasley. ”Harry, please, explain to me. I did not know that you intended to play. You were aware of the restrictions regarding quidditch, were you not?”

 

”I - was not - playing!” Harry hissed between clenched teeth. His gaze was riveted at Snape, not at Mr Weasley. ”I was only flying a bit in the outskirts, watching the others. I allowed Bill to do a sticking charm on my broom for safety, because I knew how angry you would be if something happened.”

 

Mr Weasley looked over at his oldest son who nodded in confirmation, looking desolate. 

 

”I told Harry it was okay to fly at a slow speed and with the sticking charm applied,” the young man said. ”Really, what could happen? Harry’s been fine for weeks now.”

 

”You wouldn’t know, because you were not there when he had the surgery,” Snape said agitatedly to Bill. ”He had a severe infection in his abdomen and he could risk a ruptured spleen, or a disrupted scar and a hernia if he’s not careful. The doctors gave strict instructions to avoid rougher sport activities for at least four weeks.”

 

”Well, if he’ll be allowed to play quidditch in one week, surely a little bit of flying now could do no harm? I think that you’re overreacting, Professor,” said Bill.

 

”And you, young man, are irresponsible, because you did not care to find out the facts before condoning such dangerous behaviour,” retorted Snape. 

 

”Don’t speak like that to Bill. He’s really nice and… and… You had no right to bring me down like that! Mr and Mrs Weasley are in charge of me now. And Bill, because he’s an adult and they are my foster family. And you are NOT my father!” Harry shouted the last words as his eyes brimmed over from humiliation and fury and he started to run towards the Burrow. 

 

Ron cast a terrified and confused look at his father and ran after his friend. Ginny had tears of deeply felt sympathy for Harry in her eyes. Fred and George, who had kept out of the argument, walked away slowly, with their sister between them. Bill, Percy and Mr Weasley stayed silent, not knowing what to say, watching Snape apprehensively. Snape stared with a gaping mouth after Harry who was still running. When the boy disappeared out of sight, Snape turned to Mr Weasley and said roughly:

 

”The tutoring sessions are cancelled. In case you wonder, Arthur, I never had the intention of charging anything for it. Good-bye.” 

 

And Snape swirled around, only to take a few steps before he vanished in a crack of Apparition. 

The End.


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