Calamity by MellarkandArt
Summary: A visit to The Burrow from a frustrated Arabella Figg brings about a series of events that causes a paradigm shift for both Harry Potter and Professor Severus Snape.
Categories: Healer Snape, Parental Snape > Biological Father Snape Main Characters: .Snape and Harry (required), Arthur, Dumbledore, Molly, Ron
Snape Flavour: Snape is Angry, Snape Comforts, Snape is Kind, Snape is Loving, Snape is Stern
Genres: Angst, Drama, Family, Hurt/Comfort
Media Type: None
Tags: Abuse Recovery
Takes Place: 3rd summer
Warnings: Abusive Dursleys, Emotional Abuse, Neglect, Physical Abuse, Profanity
Prompts: A day to remember
Challenges: A day to remember
Series: None
Chapters: 15 Completed: Yes Word count: 41497 Read: 50756 Published: 08 May 2021 Updated: 01 Aug 2021
Catastrophe by MellarkandArt
Wide and frightened vivid green eyes were staring at him from the face of a boy with his mouth agape, and Severus stared back, hit by the sudden terror of what he might have overheard.

He then noticed that the child was frantically trying to pick up the shards of a broken vase, and for the second time that day (that Severus knew of), there was blood coming from him.

“Wha-“ Severus started as he slowly lowered his wand, his mind still whirling around too quickly to form a proper sentence. Harry didn’t seem to take notice of that, anyway.

“I’m s-sorry I d-didn’t m-mean,” he stuttered, eyes fluttering back down to the floor, where the evidence of his apparent crime lay.

“Harry,” Molly stated softly, sinking down to the floor with him. She gently lifted his bloodied hands up and away from the porcelain pieces, causing him to drop what had been holding. He stared at the mess, seemingly transfixed.

“I-I need to clean it up, Mrs. Weasley, please, I-I’m sorry, I-I didn’t mean to,” he babbled on.

“Harry, Harry, it’s okay,” Arthur put in kindly. He waved his wand over the vase and cast the Reparo charm on it. “See? It’s as good as new.”

Harry then stared at the newly reconstructed vase for a few moments. ”Oh,” he said finally.

Severus crouched down beside him, conjuring a cloth to wipe the blood off of his hands. “What were you doing up?” he asked in a casual tone to conceal his genuine interest as he dabbed the splotches of red away from Harry’s skin and cast a healing charm over the abrasions.

“I’m sorry. I was looking for… something. Or someone. I don’t know. I don’t remember,” the boy mumbled, truly looking confused.

“I thought you said that he didn’t have a concussion,” Arthur murmured.

“He shouldn’t have,” Severus muttered, placing his hand on Harry’s head again to feel for a bump. The boy shivered at his touch and Severus frowned at the child who had easily fallen asleep in his arms mere hours ago. He then ran another medical scan but it didn’t show anything out of the ordinary.

“Perhaps he just needs more rest, hm?” Molly commented. “He took quite a fall.”

Severus had to agree, as the boy was looking more and more out of it by the minute. He lifted him up under the arms and guided him back to the sofa in the living room.

Molly picked up the quilt that had fallen to the floor and tucked Harry in just as she had done a few weeks ago.

Severus thought that it had likely been the first time that Harry had received such an amenity since Lily and Potter had passed.

The boy observed him peculiarly as Severus brushed more scar prevention cream across his forehead, and he could only hope that Harry had not overheard the conversation in the kitchen. It would only complicate things further.

He deserved to have a proper guardian. One with Molly’s comforts and kindness, not Severus’ harsh tongue and petulance.

***

Harry was just starting to accept waking up confused about his surroundings as the new normal.

It had been a bit weird waking up every day to find himself in Ron’s bedroom, but he had been starting to get used to it. Now here he was, back in The Burrow’s living room, trying to remember why he had been asleep on the sofa in the first place.

Despite his current confusion, he realized that his head felt a lot less foggy than it had the last time he had awoken. He had woken at some point, hadn’t he?

He looked down and noticed several scabs on his palms. Yes, his memory of waking had not merely been a dream. He apparently couldn’t go very far while awake without causing injury to himself somehow.

He yawned a bit as he sat up, and more memories of the previous night began to flash across his mind as it became more awake, memories of things that simply weren’t plausible. He had been kind of out of it, perhaps some of it had just been a delusion of his disoriented mind?

It must have been. The idea of Severus Snape being his father was ridiculous, to say the least… and he had found out a couple of years ago that he was a wizard so it was not as though he had never before experienced unbelievable, unrealistic, and ridiculous occurrences.

But that was just too far out there to even comprehend.

Harry could faintly hear murmuring coming from the hallway, so he stood up from the couch and went over to the doorway, being sure to shuffle his feet loudly enough to announce his presence to throw off the idea that he might have a bit of a habit when it came to eavesdropping.

The murmurs had come from the usual suspects of late, Professor Snape and Mrs. Weasley. Her husband must have left for work already. She made a tsking noise as soon as she laid her eyes upon Harry.

“Sit back down on that couch, young man, you need to be looked over before you go and injure yourself again!” she scolded lightly, a smile tugging up the corners of her mouth.

Harry’s cheeks flushed brightly as he did as he was told. He really was fine now but he supposed that she did have a cause for her concern considering he had broken her vase last night.

He looked up at her, face reddening even more as he brought the subject up. “Er- Mrs. Weasley, I’m really sorry about breaking your vase last night…”

She had her hand held up to his forehead checking for a nonexistent fever as she shook her head. “There’s no need to worry about it, Harry dear, it was a simple fix and you already apologized for it last night.”

“Yes, several times,” drawled Snape as he too came into view. “Fortunately, it is much easier to repair a simple vase than you at times, Mr. Potter.”

Harry knew his face must greatly resemble a tomato at this point and so he lowered his head. “I’m sorry. I know I’m a bother,” he muttered softly.

He heard Snape release a heavy breath and Harry imagined that he was rolling his eyes as well. “You are not a bother. It is simply disconcerting the lack of self-preservation you seem to possess, and how much trouble one twelve-year-old boy can get into all on his own.”

Harry scrunched up his nose. “Thirteen,” he corrected.

“Ah, yes. I had nearly forgotten the spike in maturity we have witnessed since your grand entry into ‘teenagehood’ oh so many weeks ago,” Snape teased dryly.

Snape teased?

Mrs. Weasley chuckled lightly as she left them alone in the room, murmuring something about leaving Severus to do the fussing. Snape appeared unaffected by this comment as he continued to do just that.

“Now, onto the matter at hand. You appear to be much more aware of your surroundings than the last time you were awake. Are you currently experiencing any confusion?”

Harry shook his head. “No, sir, not particularly. I was really out of it before though, wasn’t I?”

Snape hummed in agreement. “Yes, I would certainly say so. Not terribly surprising after the little stunt you pulled yesterday. Perhaps this experience has taught you to make an effort in the future to avoid such foolish tricks whilst flying?”

Harry smiled tentatively. “Yeah, I… that was kind of a stupid move, I guess.”

“‘Kind of’? It was completely idiotic, actually. “

Harry nodded sheepishly. “I know. I’m sorry, sir.”

This time Harry did see Snape roll his eyes. “Enough with the steady stream of apologies,” he said as he took a potion vial out from his robes. “Surprisingly, you should be fine. No lasting injuries. You do not have a concussion, in spite of the signs you were showing last night. What do you recall of yesterday’s events?”

“Uh, well… I kind of remember falling, and you being there… what were you doing here yesterday, anyway?” Snape shook his head and motioned for Harry to continue.

Harry shrugged. “I remember waking up last night and being really confused. I think I imagined a lot of things, actually… I know I broke the vase, but everything else is just kind of fuzzy in my mind. I even thought… Well, I know that this is beyond ridiculous, sir, so don’t get mad, but... I thought I heard you say that you were my father,” Harry laughed a little.

Snape abruptly dropped the glass vial he had been holding and it collided with the floor.

They both stared at the shattered glass as the teal-colored potion oozed its way into the rug. Snape made no attempt to Scourgify and Harry felt an unpleasant flip in his stomach.

“I told you it was ridiculous. I mean, it’s not like that actually happened. Right?”

For the first time that Harry could recall, he was witnessing Severus Snape seeming to be at a loss for words. His mouth was slightly open and there was something besides animosity in his eyes. It was a mind-blowing thing in of itself, but the reason why

“I mean. My dad… My dad was James. I know you hated him, but he’s still my dad, he…”

The silence that followed was unnerving, to put it lightly.

“He… he was your father.”

Harry’s panic suspended for a moment before Snape continued. “In every way that mattered. He… cared for you, I know that, without any doubt…”

Harry felt as though he was being held underwater, unable to come up for air. “What are you saying?” he managed to gasp out.

“He did adopt you, he was your father. But I… I am also… related in such a way.”

“I’m… I was adopted?” Oddly, Harry latched onto this nearly insignificant discovery. Well, it would be very significant if the reason it was brought to his attention had not been so very significant on its own.

“It’s not as shocking as it sounds, it’s different from Muggles. It was a blood adoption. You still share blood with him.”

“And… you… I… y-you’re my…”

“Yes…”

“Oh my God,” Harry muttered, standing up for a moment before sitting back down. “Oh my God,” he said again, drawing his knees up to his chin and hugging them tightly. This could not be happening. He must still be hallucinating. He simply must be.

“This is not how I wanted you to discover our... relationship.”

“Why… why didn’t you tell me before?” Where were you when I was growing up all alone at the Dursleys?

“I did not know until recently… your mother did not tell me. I assumed that James was your father.”

“Did she cheat on my dad with you?”

“No! Harry, Merlin no… we… We were together. Before. We were planning on being married. It… I am ashamed to say that I thought she had cheated on me when you were conceived, actually.”

“This is stupid,” Harry sneered. “I don’t believe you. I… I look just like my dad. You’ve said that. Everyone says that.” The funny thing was that Harry was actually looking more like Snape at this moment than ever before, with the sneer and all.

“Your mother placed a permanent birth glamor on you so that you would look like James.”

“Why did she try to hide it and why did she marry him if she wanted to marry you?”

Snape pinched the bridge of his nose. “She was trying to protect you.”

“Protect me from what?”

Snape sighed. “Me.”

Why?”

“I-I was not a good man. I still am not. I’m sure that you can vouch for that.”

“But… if she loved you, what did it matter? If you were really dangerous, why was she with you in the first place?”

Snape was quiet for a long moment before speaking again. “Do you know what a Death Eater is?”

Harry did not know, but he still felt a shiver run through his spine at the thought. “No. What is it?”

“It is what the followers of the Dark Lord were called. He branded them with what was called the Dark Mark. They still bear his mark on their skin even now.”

“What does that have to do with you?” Harry whispered, afraid of the answer.

Snape rolled up one of his shirt sleeves in response to Harry’s question. There on his left forearm was a hideous-looking black tattoo. It was a skull with a serpent protruding from its mouth like a tongue.

Harry just stared at it for a long moment. “Y-you…”

Snape nodded and rolled his sleeve back down. “The worst decision I ever made in my life. For so many reasons. Losing your mother was the biggest reason, but now… now I know that I lost you as well…”

Blinking rapidly, Harry shook his head. “You don’t care about me.”

“I do.”

“Then why have you been treating me like shit since the moment we met? Just because you found out that we happen to share blood you’ve decided to play nice with me? Well, don’t bother yourself. I don’t need it.” Harry then remembered the rest of the conversation he had overheard. “You don’t want me, anyway. You didn’t even want to tell me the truth.”

“You are right. The way I have treated you is absolutely deplorable. I can not excuse my behavior. I felt that you would be better off without me because of it, better off not knowing… better off staying with the Weasleys. I thought that it would be for the best.”

“Best for me or best for you?”

Snape looked away at that. Harry stood up again but he did not sit back down. “Nobody wants me. You’re my father and even you don’t want me. You’re just like everyone else and I understand but that doesn’t make it hurt any less.”

“Harry, it’s not that I don’t want you, it’s not that at all. You deserve better than me. But… if you truly desire, then I am willing-”

Harry cut him off. “Oh, so you’re willing to be my father? Well, that’s just great. No, don’t worry yourself over it. Maybe you were right. I wish I didn’t know. Maybe my mother was right, too. If she wanted me to stay away from you, then maybe that’s what I should do.”

Harry turned his back on Snape and faced the staircase with his arms crossed. “I don’t need you, anyway. James Potter was my father. He actually wanted me. He cared about me. H-he adopted me. He died for me. He was everything that you will never be for me. I’ll see you in class, Professor.”

And with that, Harry ran up the stairs, choking on a sob before he had even reached the top.

***

Severus had prepared himself for the rejection, he wasn’t supposed to care. But as he watched Harry make his exit, he felt the heart that he had nearly forgotten he possessed breaking into pieces and couldn’t help but feel surprised to discover that something could hurt him worse than Lily leaving.
The End.
End Notes:
Based on some of my reviews from various sites, I think that people were expecting the huge confrontation to take place at the start of this chapter, but I wrote the first part of this at the same time that I wrote the end of the previous chapter, so I just never really intended for that to happen immediately. Harry was in a bit of a delirious state and while that’s how I wanted him to find out about Sev being his dad, it’s not how I wanted him to know it to be true, he just can barely process it as it is.

Now the big conflict! Severus is insecure and doesn’t think he would be good for Harry and so that has led to Harry thinking he wouldn’t want him, adding on top of all the stress and confusion he is feeling from the revelation itself…

And so we now have more angst. Because what’s a story without angst? XD
I am working on the next chapter, I might post it tomorrow.


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