Hurt by Mogadorian_Wolf
Summary: Snape wasn't mad at Harry; he was mad that no one had tried to help Harry after seeing Cedric's death.
Categories: Teacher Snape > Professor Snape Main Characters: .Snape and Harry (required), Dumbledore
Snape Flavour: Canon Snape
Genres: Canon
Media Type: None
Tags: Injured!Harry
Takes Place: 5th Year
Warnings: Bullying, Character Death, Neglect, Violence
Challenges: None
Series: None
Chapters: 1 Completed: Yes Word count: 749 Read: 3324 Published: 03 Aug 2017 Updated: 04 Aug 2017
Story Notes:
So this story is also up on AO3 with a sort of unattached sequel that could be a stand alone called "Lemon Drop?" with Severus facing Dumbledore with what he's learned. It's basically the end pat after the ***
Chapter 1 by Mogadorian_Wolf
Severus Snape saw the images flash by. Harry being shoved into a closet, meeting his friends, being chased up a tree by a dog while a group of people laughed, a female student leaning in to give Harry a kiss under a mistletoe. Interestingly it was the last image that Harry fought the hardest against, mentally screaming at him. And then there was a stinging pain on his wrist, and the spell was broken. Harry had used a stinging hex. He looked dazed and off-balance now.

“Did you mean to produce a stinging hex?” Snape asked. Harry shook his head, looking more raw than Snape could remember seeing him. It made him feel raw just seeing the boy-who-lived as something other than a pampered prince.

“Who did the dog belong to?” He tried to make it sound casual, not like he was feeling a spark of sympathy for Potter.

“My aunt Marge.” Potter’s voice was flat, and he kept staring straight ahead, right past Snape.

Snape nodded, making a mental note on it. Maybe it was time he looked more into the information available on Potter and his living situation. “You let me get too far. Clear your mind and try again. Legilumus!”

More images. Potter locked alone in his room, lying in a hospital bed with gifts, running from a group of boys after him, Cedric Diggory being murdered in front of him. The last one came with vivid imagery and Potter’s screams. It wasn’t a scream that was trying to keep Snape out, but a scream of pain centered in the memory. Snape couldn’t move past the memory because Harry couldn’t move past it. Unlike the other memories, this was exceptionally vivid and seemed almost layered like it was more than one memory wrapped together.

Snape abruptly pulled out horrified by what he’d seen and unbelievably angry- at Dumbledore for not protecting the boy, at Potter for not saying something, at Black for not doing something, and at himself for not noticing. Potter was on the ground, panting and trembling. His expression was pained and angry, the kind of angry that came with a hurt animal, Snape thought. Snape turned away, not wanting to think on it any further. He’d probably spend too much time on it as it was. Dumbledore could definitely be expecting a visit.

“You need to learn to focus, Potter. You won’t ever make any progress if you can’t focus enough to keep me out. Lesson’s over for today.” He tried to sound severe and displeased, but he wasn’t sure if he really succeeded he was so shaken up.

He heard the scuffling footsteps retreating and only when Snape estimated Potter was at the door did he speak again, not turning around. “Have you talked to anyone about it?”

There was a pause, a tense silence settling around them ready to snap in an explosion at the slightest movement. It’s a quiet explosion when Harry speaks. “There’s no one to talk to.” And then he was out the door taking Snape’s breath with him.

***

Severus stormed into Dumbldore’s office. The one thing he hated more than anything else was the disguise he always had to be wearing, the one that always felt like it kept him from even attempting to heal from everything he’d been through. And now this! Albus bloody Dumbledore had more than explaining he had to do.

“Ah, Severus. Lemon drop?” Dumbledore seemed as cheerful as always with his twinkling eyes that made Severus just glare at him in pure annoyance.

He wordlessly put out his hand. Dumbledore looked taken back for a moment, but he recovered just as quickly with a smile as he dropped a lemon drop into Severus’s waiting hand. Severus promptly threw it with all his rage so that it flew pass the headmaster’s head and out the window. Dumbledore stared after with an unreadable expression for a moment. Then he turned back to Severus with a calm expression as if nothing had happened.

“I won’t be wasting anymore on you.”

Severus smirked; he’d wondered what it would take to make the headmaster stop asking. “Then maybe we can talk about why nobody has talked to Potter about the traumatic experience he had last year?”

Dumbledore’s shock expression was almost worth it. He looked like he got caught with his hand in the lemon jar.
The End.


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