Electric Avenue by DesertPlanet
Summary: Following the disasterous Third Task, Harry begins to notice two things about himself. First: his appearence has begun to change. Second: something is very very wrong. The Cruciatus shouldn't continue to be causing him pain this far out from having received it, should it?
Categories: Parental Snape > Biological Father Snape > Severitus Challenge Main Characters: .Snape and Harry (required), Draco, Remus
Snape Flavour: Snape is Kind
Genres: Angst, Family, Hurt/Comfort, Mystery
Media Type: None
Tags: Disguised!Harry, Injured!Harry, New Identity!Harry, Physical Impairment
Takes Place: 5th summer, 5th Year
Warnings: Neglect, Out of Character
Challenges: None
Series: None
Chapters: 47 Completed: No Word count: 206126 Read: 296914 Published: 08 Jan 2021 Updated: 13 Jan 2023
Chapter 24 by DesertPlanet
“I must say, Elias, I am thoroughly intrigued by this project,” Remus said as he looked through the new set of notes provided to him. “What information are you hoping to find, though? This does seem like a rather broad topic if what all you are telling me is correct.”

“I h-hope to f-find what m-m-m-makes elec-ctronics go wild ar-r-round magic. And v-v-v-v-v- *sigh* the other w-way,” Elias said, bouncing his legs spastically in an effort to ward off a cramp he could feel brewing. “Es-specially since m-m-muggleb-borns are g-going to b-b-be exposed t-to it m-more.”

Remus nodded in approval. They had decided to work primarily on the core courses during the morning hours while Elias was more awake, then work on his theory project in the afternoon with the hope being he would have more interest in it and therefore be able to concentrate better. As the theory developed, the hope was that they would be able to incorporate more of the core class work into it, but as it was it was rather open ended. Almost too open ended, if Remus was being honest, but even he had to admit this wasn’t going to be the normal tutoring job.

If Elias was right, the wizarding world would rapidly be falling behind if they were unable to find the reason why electronics and magic seemed incompatible. Even he had begun to see changes in the muggle world and only briefly flitted between the two worlds. Muggleborn students may very well look at Hogwarts and decide against attendance simply because it was so different from what they were used to. Gone were the days of fireplaces and paper letters, exchanged for electric heaters which were much safer and “email” which was apparently instantaneous. Even the fastest forms of magical communication still took several minutes to complete or relied on an intermediary being such as a house elf to transport a letter.

It was fascinating to try and wrap his brain around the fact the muggles had managed to make so many advances in such a short period of time, leaving their magical counterparts in the dust.

“Have you found much in the way of information on this interaction?” Remus asked, noting the obvious holes in what little research had been done.

“Th-that’s l-literally all I c-could find,” Elias grumbled, looking oddly like his father as he frowned and crossed his arms, glaring at his left elbow as it twitched oddly for a minute. “Th-there was on-nly one b-b-book.”

“Only one book in the whole library?” said Remus in disbelief. “Are you sure?”

“D-didn’t check-k the R-r-restric-cted section, but I d-d-did get M-madam P-p-p-pince to help,” Elias said, looking over his notes on the library sections. “M-m-muggle studies m-mentions it within the t-t-textb-book but nothing m-more. There w-was one s-s-suppliment-tal m-manual with the o-other m-m-muggle studies b-books, but, again, it-t was only a m-mention of h-how to use appliances.”

Remus frowned as he too looked over the extremely detailed notes. If these notes were to be believed, they would need to find somewhere else to start as this project was essentially starting from scratch. To have found something so intrinsic to the modern muggle way of life that had been around for years yet no magical research had gone into was preposterous. How could something like this have been so overlooked? With muggleborns consistently being a primary cause for population growth in the wizarding communities, it was nearly inconceivable that such advances would be so unheard of.

“M-m-madam P-p-pence sent a l-l-letter to I-i-ilverm-morny for me t-to see if th-they have an-nything,” Elias continued with a sigh. “B-but w-we haven’t g-gotten anything b-b-back.”

“When did you send the letter?” Remus asked curiously. He had known Elias was driven on this topic, but to be willing to reach out internationally without being told to do so and having no due date for an assignment was above and beyond what he had expected.

“L-last w-week,” Elias said after finding the date written within his notes. “M-madam P-p-pince d-doesn’t think it’s even th-there yet. I-if it is, i-it might t-t-take them a while t-t-to get back.”

“Hmmm,” Remus hummed, tapping his lips with a forefinger as he tried to think of other possible ways of finding information. “Have you reached out to the ministry?”

“Wh-what d-departm-ment would even w-want to h-help me?” Elias scoffed, placing an elbow on the table and resting his head in his hand for a moment before his head suddenly shot up. “Isn’t there a M-m-muggle Artif-f-fact office?”

Remus nodded before pulling out a quill and parchment of his own and scribbling down the ideas. Normally he would have his student be the one writing but after seeing Elias’s attempts at handwriting normally with a quill, he had quickly decided that allowing the boy to use a Quik Quotes Quill was much better. They would certainly need to place an accommodation request for Elias’s OWLS if he were able to take them this year as he would most certainly not be able to complete any of the written sections within the time limit.

“There is the Misuse of Muggle Artifacts office. And I am certain that Arthur Weasley, the head of that department, would be more than willing to help,” Remus said with a smile, knowing that Arthur would likely keep them in his office all day if they physically went there just asking questions about electricity and about the project. If there was one word to describe the man, it was curious.

“I g-guess I c-could reach out-t to D-d-durmst-trang?” Elias mumbled, shifting in his seat rather uncomfortably. “And B-b-beauxb-b-bat-tons?”

“They would probably respond faster than Ilvermorny, but you’d run into the issue of translations,” Remus said knowingly, having run into the same problem with other students and when he was a student himself. “You can’t use a translation potion for the purpose of research. It won’t take grammar or idioms into account and only give you the direct translation of the words.”

Elias nodded determinedly. Certainly there would be someone out there who would be able to translate sections of the books properly? The translation potions and spells couldn’t be that bad after all. If they were, why would they exist at all? At this point, he was willing to even look into sending a letter to Fenghuang School in China and Uagadou School of Magic in Uganda just to see if they had any information at all though he didn’t expect anything to come of it. In fact, he was rather certain that he would be going into this rather blindly and having to come up with experiments on his own which was daunting to say the least.

The question was: where to start. Even if he did manage to get some information, he wasn’t honestly expecting there to be much in the way of detailed analysis. The magical community seemed to have the same disdain for muggle artifacts that muggles had for ‘magical’ ones such as crystal balls and the like. They were considered interesting or eclectic but nothing more than that.

Perhaps he was looking at this the wrong way? Maybe it would be easier to start from the muggle side then introduce magic to it?

“What are you thinking?” Remus asked, watching as Elias frowned and bit his lip slightly as he thought.

“S-start with m-m-muggle, then g-go to m-m-magical,” Elias said, trying to think of how to word it so it made sense. “W-we d-d-on’t know an-n-nything about elect-t-tricity, s-so how d-d-do we know wh-what q-questions to ask?”

Remus slowly put down the quill and folded his hands with a frown. It was a very valid point; they didn’t know what they were wanting to ask. As much as he wanted them to be able to jump into this project as he had in his other tutoring gigs, this one would require much more forethought as there simply was no information on one side of the issue. All of the information they were getting was based on the reactions muggle objects had to magic being used on them and the general consensus was not to do just that. There was no information on why.

“That is a very astute observation,” Remus said, a small smile forming on his face. “I do believe we need to start planning for trips off school grounds to muggle libraries for information.”

Elias nodded in agreement and shifted once more in his seat. Thankfully they were almost done for the day, but sitting in a standard wooden chair starting to cause his legs to ache from the pressure. It was making his legs shake which was in turn causing his back to start to spasm as well. The sooner they could be done, the better.

“C-can we s-stop for the d-day,” Elias said with a wince. As much as he wanted to continue with creating the plan of attack for the project, he didn’t think he could take much more of sitting in that bloody chair.

“Of course,” Remus said, quickly drying the ink and capping the inkwell before spelling everything into his bag. “You did very well today!

“Th-thanks,” Elias said, slowly getting to his feet and praying his knees wouldn’t buckle under him. A small grunt left his lips as he forced his legs to straighten out.

“Do you need some help?” Remus asked, looking in concern at the teen across from him.

Elias shook his head before vigorously shaking out his legs in an effort to get the brewing spasms to subside. “I’ll b-b-be fine, just n-n-need a m-moment.”

As he had gotten more used to the shakes and spasms, he had begun to learn to differentiate between the different signals his nerves were sending him. Before a spasm, his muscles would feel almost as though they were tingling. That feeling would build for a moment before the muscles would finally respond with a twitch or spasm depending on the muscle group. If he could keep moving enough, he noticed the spasms were less, particularly in his arms and legs. Sometimes, a couple shakes would be enough to prevent a spasm or cramp from occurring, other times, it would make the spasm worse. He was getting better at differentiating the two, but it still was frustratingly unnatural to be constantly paying attention to how his muscles moved.

“C-can you g-grab the b-b-books?” Elias asked as he shifted his weight experimentally between his feet, making sure they were ready to hold his weight as he walked.

“Sure,” Remus said, grabbing the few remaining books that hadn’t been shoved into Elias’s backpack. “Are you planning to come to dinner tonight?”

“Mmm-hmm,” Elias nodded as he awkwardly threw his backpack over his shoulder and nearly lost his balance due to the weight. “I w-want to sit w-w-with the S-slytherins. I haven’t g-g-gotten to see D-draco for a wh-while.”

“I noticed him watching you during the Opening Feast,” Remus said, nodding. “Are you and Mr. Malfoy friends?”

Elias frowned slightly before nodding rather hesitantly. Were they friends? He had been sad when Draco had needed to go home before school started, but he wasn’t completely certain that Draco had necessarily been acting friendly because he actually wanted to be friends or if he was being friendly because he knew he would get into trouble if he acted like his normal self around Severus. It was difficult to tell the difference, especially since Draco hadn’t written at all during the week that he was at home.

“You aren’t sure?” Remus asked, looking at the teen out of the corner of his eye as they walked out of the study room in the dungeons and headed for the Slytherin Head of House’s quarters. “I’m sorry, I thought…”

“I only m-m-met him th-this s-s-sum-mer,” Elias muttered, flushing slightly. “A-and I w-w-was unc-c-conscious for a g-g-good p-part of it. He w-w-was nice t-t-to me, though.”

Remus nodded knowingly at the tinge of lonely sadness he heard in the boy’s voice. He knew all too well how lonely life could be without a friend. Growing up, he had only had a few friends, though none who he was able to speak with or play with on a regular basis. It wasn’t until he came to Hogwarts that he had actually managed to make friends; friends who didn’t get scared of him turning into a werewolf and actually had his back. He couldn’t imagine how painfully lonely Elias must have been as even simple tasks had the potential of being extraordinarily difficult.

“I think he may want to be your friend,” Remus said with a small smile. “Mr. Malfoy has a tendency to be rather standoffish and lord his position over people, but I do believe he cares for you. I caught him looking over at you no less than five times throughout the feast, and one of those was when I was helping you out of the hall. He looked rather distressed at the time.”

“R-really?” Elias said, looking up in shock and nearly tripping over one of the more uneven cobblestones.

“Yes,” Remus said, pausing to open the door to the Snape quarters. “Dinner isn’t for another few hours, are you planning to stay here?”

Elias nodded and yawned. “Yeah, ‘m g-gonna take a n-nap. You s-sure he w-wants to stay m-m-my friend?”

“I’m positive,” Remus said, ushering the boy in and placing the now standard monitoring ward on him. “Do you want me to stay while you nap?”

“N-no, sir,” Elias muttered, blushing once more at the idea of having a babysitter. He was fifteen, for goodness sake, he could take care of himself! “I f-f-feel fine.”

“Alright,” Remus said, turning to exit the quarters once more. “Don’t try to sneak out. I’m going to let your father know you are home.”

“L-l-later, R-r-remus,” Elias said, before turning and walking to his bedroom. Could it be true that Draco was actually concerned about him? It was hard to think of Draco not having an ulterior motive for his friendship, but perhaps it was true. Elias didn’t want to get his hopes up, however. It would be too painful to lose yet another friend because of this blasted potion his mother had given him.




“Why is Snape’s son sitting at our table?” Theodore Nott asked, looking curiously at where the tall boy was sitting, flipping through an arithmancy textbook as he waited for dinner to begin.

“Remember what Snape said?” Pansy Parkinson said with a scoff as she pushed past him to enter the Great Hall. “He’s an unofficial member of our house and we ought to accept him as such. Besides, if the mudbloods are to be believed, he values blood purity quite a lot for someone who isn’t pureblood himself.”

“Interesting,” Blaise Zabini muttered before leading the group to sit around the young Snape. “Good evening, Snape.”

Elias’s head jerked up as he stared dumbly at the dark boy who sat across from him. He had honestly expected to sit alone at the table the first few times simply because he was the child of a professor. “‘Lo…. um…. S-s-sorry, I d-d-don’t know y-your n-name.”

“Blaise Zabini,” Blaise said, extending his hand for the other boy to shake, noting the bags under the other boy’s eyes and the quiver to his hands. “Fifth year.”

“El-lias Sn-nape,” Elias said softly as he took the offered hand and shook it firmly.

“Theodore Nott,” Nott said, following suit as he sat across from Blaise. “And this is Pansy Parkinson.”

Elias nodded to each of them before turning back to his book momentarily and placing a bookmark in between the pages as well as his notes before placing the book back in his bag. Arithmancy was a pain to try and get through, but he felt he was making rather good headway, all things considered. He knew that for his project to even remotely have a chance of success he needed to be able to prove his theories, which would include having more than just a base knowledge of arithmancy.

“What are you working on?” Pansy asked curiously, unable to tell what the book was from where she was sitting.

“Ar-r-rithm-mancy,” Elias said softly, a small blush gracing his cheeks. “‘M not v-v-very good at i-it though.”

Blaise and Nott nodded knowingly as they poured themselves glasses of water as pitchers of various drinks began to appear on each of the tables.

“Awful subject,” Nott said, shaking his head pityingly. “Just awful. Do you need it for your theory project?”

Elias nodded before digging through his bag and pulling out two potions vials and a small notebook. He quickly swallowed the two potions, shivering and sniffing slightly at the cold sensation of the first potion before making two small marks in his notebook. As he slid the notebook and the now empty vials back into his bag, he couldn’t help but notice the stares of the other three teens around him as the vials clinked in the bag.

“What?” he asked, wiping his nose with a handkerchief as it continued to run for a few seconds.

The other teens looked at one another briefly before Nott finally spoke up, asking, “What did you just take?”

“M-my potions?” Elias asked as he gingerly poured himself a glass of pumpkin juice, feeling proud when he only spilled a small amount on the table.

“Yeah,” Blaise said, frowning. “We’ve seen you take a lot of potions over the last few days and we were just wondering….why?”

Elias bit his lip and looked towards the head table in hopes of getting Severus’s attention and possible help with fielding these questions. He knew these questions would come as he started sitting amongst the students, but he wasn’t ready. He had thought he would be answering these questions with a support person of some sort at his side, but here he was, alone, preparing to try his hardest at keeping track of the details.

Whenever he had pictured trying to explain what was wrong with him, he had always expected either Draco or his father to be at his side. His father was currently embroiled in some sort of argument with Remus while Draco had yet to show up. To be fair, dinner wasn’t going to start for another half hour, but he still felt terribly alone sitting here trying to answer questions.

What was the question again?

“S-sorry,” Elias muttered, mild frustration leaking into his voice. Stuttering was easy enough to explain, the occasional memory gaps were not. “C-can you r-repeat the q-q-question?”

“Why are you on so many potions?” Nott said, frowning slightly.

Elias worried his lip slightly before answering softly and blushing fiercely. “S-s-so I c-can f-function.”

The trio nodded their heads hesitantly. It was an explanation, though not much of one. It wouldn’t be right to pry, but the burning curiosity was evident as they all continued to shoot glances towards the bag containing the now empty vials. Being in the house with the potion’s master as the head meant they all had developed a slight interest in the subject. Professor Snape was, by far, the only professor who was fair in his treatment of the Slytherins, though the other houses would argue that wasn’t the case. If all it took to stay on the man’s good side was to put in a bit of extra effort in potions class, then they would certainly do it.

“What do they do?” Blaise asked, curiosity overflowing.

Elias sighed and pulled the two empty vials out and sat them in front of him. “Th-this one m-makes it easier t-t-to swallow, and th-this one h-h-helps keep the f-f-food down. L-later I have t-t-to take one t-to p-prevent s-seizures an-nd one to h-help m-my spasms.”

The trio of Slytherins looked rather shocked as he listed off the potions he was taking throughout dinner. It was only a total of four potions, nowhere near the number he took in the morning, but enough to cause their eyes to widen rather comically.

“Merlin, Snape!” Blaise whispered. “What’s wrong with you?”

Elias shrugged and added a small spoonful of sugar to his pumpkin juice. It was delicious as it was, but something about adding more sugar to it made it even better. Severus blamed it on his nerves, but Elias had insisted that this was something he did even prior to the potion’s degradation.

Elias stirred the pumpkin juice for a few moments before finally answering the question. Of all of the people he wanted knowing what was going on with him, these three were certainly not at the top of the list. Never once had they been kind to him before when he was Harry Potter. In fact, he remembered Ron telling him that their parents were known Death Eaters. But, once again, he was faced with the fact that he was no longer Harry Potter and Elias Snape was far less familiar with the content of their character. He knew the information of his condition would get out eventually; it would be much easier to release it in his father’s house where the dissemination of information could be controlled a bit easier.

“I have a c-c-condition c-called Sh-shervil’s,” he muttered, blushing slightly before taking a small sip of the juice and relishing the cool sensation running down his throat.

Before he even got a chance to explain, Nott gasped slightly. A quick glance at him and he realized the other boy was now pale as a ghost and, most surprisingly, had a look of sadness in his eyes. In all the years Elias had known him, he had never once seen such a look on the boy’s face. On any of the Slytherin’s faces. The other two teens had equally grim looks on their faces, but nothing quite as upsetting as Nott’s.

“How?” Nott finally whispered.

“M-m-my m-m-mother was t-t-tortured while…” Elias started before Nott cut him off with a raised hand.

“How did you survive?” Nott asked, swallowing hard as he appeared to just barely be holding back his emotions. His face was as stoic as ever, but his voice did little to hold up the same facade.

Elias frowned and blinked rapidly. “I- I d-d-dont’ know? I j-j-just g-got lucky? Why?”

Nott wiped his eyes discreetly and nodded as the rest of the trio looked at him with a knowing, sympathetic glance. It was no secret what had happened with his mother at the end of the war, especially not amongst the pureblooded community though they never spoke of it outside of whispers and rumors. A good, pureblood husband torturing his wife when he found out she was pregnant with another man was deplorable. It was easy enough to cover the pregnancy and place the child up for adoption or, with a little bit of money, purchase the potions necessary to change who the father was. Every magical baby was precious; every pureblood knew this.

Nott saw the look of curiosity in the other boy’s eyes and knew he didn’t know the story. It was hard to speak of and a shameful occurrence within Nott’s family, but, while Shervil’s certainly wasn’t an unknown condition, it was rare enough that meeting someone with it was not common.

“My sister…” Nott started before clearing his throat. “My sister had it. She … she passed when she was six months old.”

“I… I’m s-s-sorry,” Elias said, looking at the other teen in a slightly new light. It was odd to see the Slytherins, especially ones who were seen by other houses as dark and emotionless, in a vulnerable state.

“It happened a while ago,” Nott said, trying to play off his feelings as though he didn’t mind.

“Teddy, you were eight,” Blaise said, quietly. “We all were. We all remember it and the trial.”

“Can we not talk about it anymore?” Nott snapped, looking at the table with a slightly green tint to his face. “Please?”

“What are we not discussing?” Draco said equally quietly as he slid onto the bench next to Elias.

“Nothing,” Nott immediately said, looking down angrily. “Why are you late?”

Draco raised an eyebrow and glanced at the mostly empty table before pouring himself a glass of water and grabbing a small piece of bruschetta to eat before the main course of dinner finally began appearing.

“Well, not late, per se,” Pansy corrected, grabbing a bruschetta for herself and crunching it loudly. “But what took you so long? We all left defense at the same time...”

Draco looked around conspicuously before leaning in and saying quietly, “I do believe this defense professor may very well be the worst we’ve had to date.”

“How so?” Blaise asked, noting Elias’s frown as he too leaned in, curious for the gossip about the new instructor.

“We are all aware of the… occurrences … from this summer, yes?” Draco said, eyes flicking to Elias momentarily as he was unsure how much the boy knew about the Dark Lord’s return. He was sure that Professor Snape had discussed the situation with him, but was unsure as to the true extent of his knowledge. “Professor Umbridge not only is refusing to believe that our Lord is back, but refuses to believe that book knowledge is frequently not applicable to real world situations. I stayed after class because I wished to speak with her on her plans for practical application of spells…”

“... and we aren’t doing any, are we?” Nott finished with a sigh, nostrils flaring as he crossed his arms and rolled his eyes.

Draco shook his head in affirmation before sipping from his glass and looking rather nonchalantly around the room. “Not only that, but she accused me of wishing to stir up discontent amongst our class and threatened me with detention if I brought up the topic in class.”

“Why w-w-wouldn’t she w-w-want st-tudents to know ab-b-bout defense if the D-d-dark L-lord is back?” Elias asked, voice cracking slightly as he spoke. Calling Voldemort the ‘Dark Lord’ was difficult and was one of the few instances where he was glad for the stutter. But without teaching them anything worthwhile, his friends were in danger in ways they didn’t know. They needed to know more practical and real world information, not just some hyped up, ministry backed junk!

“Shh, Elias! Don’t talk so loud!” Draco said, looking around at the other tables to see if anyone had heard. “The ministry wants to push propaganda onto the students to try and prevent fear of His return from spreading. If they acknowledge the fact that He is back, they have to also acknowledge the fact they had a direct hand in the entire Potter debacle from last year.”

Elias nodded and looked around as well in case anyone had heard him. There were a few students sitting at the Gryffindor table who could have possibly heard him, but they seemed to be involved in their own conversations. Everyone else was seated too far away or seemed too embroiled in their own discussions to actually hear the Slytherin’s conversation.

“B-but that’s n-n-not safe!” Elias said quietly. “W-w-wouldn’t it b-b-be better to …”

“No,” Blaise cut him off. “The ministry has its own agenda to attend to first and foremost. The lives of the general populace do not matter to them. If anything, they need to keep their hand in the Potter debacle under wraps simply because they need to keep themselves looking ‘light’ and our side looking ‘dark.’ They’ll do whatever they need to to keep it that way.”

“You need to be careful, Draco,” Pansy said, turning to the blonde and flicking her hair over her shoulder once more. “Remember what the Professor said last year?”

“It is far easier to maintain an appearance if those around you believe you are on their side,” the other boys said quietly as dinner appeared on the table and other classmates began filtering in.




Colin Creevey knew what he needed to do as soon as he heard it. Discreetly, he took out his camera and aimed it at the group of Slytherins, snapping a few pictures in quick succession. He was fairly certain he was right in his theory, but he would need pictures to prove it. Specifically, he needed to be able to see their forearms, but especially the new Snape’s.

There were suspicions that something was going on in the Slytherin house, more so than usual. Slytherin had always been seen as the ‘dark’ house, one filled with the most corrupt souls and willing to turn on those around them with no problem. The addition of the mysterious, new Snape only added fuel to that fire in his mind. The entire thing was a mystery, one which he was certain he would find the answer to. There was one thing most of the Gryffindors were fairly sure of, however: Elias Snape was a blood purity fanatic. As such, he was most certainly a Death Eater in training.

Why else would he call Voldemort the “Dark Lord” if he wasn’t in league with him?

“Hermione! Hermione!” Colin called as soon as he saw her enter the Great Hall for dinner, Ron and Ginny close behind. “Hermione, I need to tell you something!”
To be continued...


This story archived at http://www.potionsandsnitches.org/fanfiction/viewstory.php?sid=3639