The Unwanted by Lemon Curd
Summary: When Harriet Potter starts Hogwarts, Severus Snape notices she is unusually quiet and withdrawn. Thinking that she might be sick, he takes her to Madam Pomfrey. What he learns is much more disturbing than a simple sickness. With the ever-optimistic Albus Dumbledore being no help whatsoever, Severus decides that desperate measures need to be taken.

On Halloween morning, Harriet Potter receives a letter from the Half-Blood Prince
Categories: Teacher Snape > Professor Snape, Healer Snape Main Characters: .Snape and Harry (required)
Snape Flavour: Canon Snape
Genres: Horror
Media Type: None
Tags: Girl!Harry, Incognito!Snape
Takes Place: 1st Year
Warnings: Emotional Abuse, Self-harm
Challenges: None
Series: None
Chapters: 11 Completed: No Word count: 26033 Read: 24921 Published: 26 Sep 2021 Updated: 08 Feb 2022
Chapter 6 by Lemon Curd
Harriet seemed upset that he agreed with her hated teacher.

“You sound just like Dumbledore”, she accused him. “So it has side effects, what’s the problem? Many potions have side effects.”

She ranted on for a good few paragraphs on how her true self was male and she felt bad and wrong all the time, without ever really mentioning why, exactly, she felt that way. Likely, she did not know herself.

At last, she made a rather clever observation: “You told me there is no way to permanently turn me into a boy … but there is a way to do it for a while?”

Merlin, he should have watched his words better.

Now she had asked, and he did not want to lie. He regularly mentioned Polyjuice Potion as example, and Harriet was friends with the youngest Weasley boy, who might talk to his older brothers … no, he would not attempt to deceive her.

One thing he had learnt in spying on the Dark Lord was that you had to choose your lies.

Every added lie increased the risk of getting caught.


Since it was a Saturday, his answer was promptly answered by another letter – he sure hoped Harriet never noticed that her owl just flew around the castle.

“Dear Half-Blood Prince,

would you brew a Polyjuice potion for me? I just want to know what it feels like, just for a couple hours. I can pay, I’ve got loads and loads of gold.

Couldn’t you find a muggle boy who looks similar to me? Just perhaps not as skinny. It would be the best Christmas present ever.

Please?

Your friend

Harry”


Severus frowned. Was she out of her mind?

He reached for parchment and quill.

“Dear Harry”, he wrote

“Money is of no consequence. You could not bribe me into this with all the money in Gringotts.”

A bold claim to make. He remembered a time in his life where he would have done almost everything for a sum of money that could keep him fed for even just a month.

When had he acquired this kind of morals? Much as he would have liked to think that Lily’s friendship had made him a better person, he was pretty sure he had not been this concerned about the dignity and privacy of random muggles back when she had still been his friend. Or back when she had been … alive.

Perhaps it was thanks to Dumbledore. Oh, not Dumbledore’s example – the man was less of a good person than Lily, overall. Using people like chess pieces left and right.

But having a decently paying job meant that Severus was now able to afford having principles.

Rich people were often so very proud that ‘money didn’t matter’ to them, but it was no achievement, really. If you had it, of course it didn’t matter.

When someone had to worry where their next meal came from, or even just whether they would be able to afford a new pair of shoes once the old ones were beyond repair … that was where things got interesting.

Why then, did Harriet not have principles? Money was obviously no issue. But of course, the Potter blood …

No, he was being unfair. She was a child. A child who had never been given any moral guidance, at that.

Did her disregard for the privacy of others hint that no one had ever respected her privacy? Did she think it no big deal to just steal someone’s body and wear it because her body, too, had been treated as an object to use?

Severus shivered, even though there was a crackling fire burning in the fireplace of his office.

Perhaps he was being too pessimistic. Lily had often accused him of it, jokingly, back when …

He swallowed, willing the lump in his throat away. Now was not the time.

Yes, perhaps he was just suspecting the worst because where he was concerned, the worst often happened.

Harriet was the Girl-Who-Lived, beloved by everyone and his Crup.

Her lack of ethics might be down to just a child’s innocence (innocence Severus had never been in full possession of) and a lack of guidance. Fortunately, he could amend the latter.

“You have not yet answered my question. In which way, exactly, would your life be better if you were a boy, all other things remaining the same? Would your relatives treat you differently? Do you think your fellow students would treat you differently?

If there is anything in your life that you want and think you can only get by becoming a boy, I am willing to help you achieve it, but I will not violate the privacy of some innocent muggle boy just so that you can experiment with your body.

How would you feel if someone just stole your body and wore it like a piece of clothing?

I acknowledge that you are too young to wholly understand the implications of what you are asking me to do, so I will not hold it against you, but my answer is no.”


He hesitated, then signed his reply with “your friend”, just as Harriet had done.




He sent his letter in the evening. The answer came soon after breakfast the next day.

Harriet was enraged.

“You are not my friend”, she had hastily scribbled on the parchment. “You’re just like Dumbledore and Madam Pomfrey and Snape!”

Oh, the irony. He could only wish he was as powerful as Dumbledore … or as good and innocent as Madam Pomfrey.

This was followed by an angry tirade in which she told him she hated him, never wanted anything to do with him again, and …

“… I hope my mum stopped being friends with you. She did, didn’t she? You never write about what she did when she was out of school.”



He felt himself tremble with anger. The ungrateful brat was just like her father. Why had he even tried saving her from her own idiocy? Clearly she did not deserve it in the least.

Angered beyond reason, he fetched parchment and quill and wrote a reply.

His feelings flowed freely from the quill. At last, he could tell Potter what he thought of him … her, no matter.

“… and I only tried to save you in the first place because I thought that’s what your mother would have wanted, but seeing as you are such an ill-mannered, idiotic and ungrateful brat, I do not think she …”

Severus hesitated. Looked at what he had just written. The quill fell from his trembling hand.

He sat there, motionless, for quite a while, and if tears streamed down his face … he would never admit it to anyone.

Lily would never have ceased loving her child. Never.


Not for some childish outburst, certainly.


He wiped his eyes and steeled himself. What did he care, actually? It was not like he really liked the child or anything.

No. He was saving her because that was what Lily would have wanted.

What the ungrateful brat thought did not matter in the least.


If he left her to cool down for a week or so, she would come to her senses and realize that she really needed his help.

He threw the letter in the fireplace and made sure it burned up completely.


On Monday, Potter messed up the potion she and Granger were brewing, so badly Granger could not save it.

On Thursday, she put her hand up and asked about Polyjuice potion.

Severus regarded her silently for a moment. “This is a very rare and advanced potion”, he said at last. “Where did you hear about it?”


She mumbled something about reading about it somewhere.

Interesting. She instinctively knew to lie about exchanging letters with an adult whom she knew virtually nothing about.

“Somewhere? In the restricted section, more likely. Which you have no permission to access.”

“I wasn’t in the restricted section!” Potter protested.

He raised an eyebrow. “Oh? Then you surely will easily be able to write an essay about the brewing process, side effects and ethical concerns of the Polyjuice potion until next Thursday. Otherwise I will have to assume you sneaked into the restricted section and punish you accordingly.”


If she wanted to evade the punishment, she had no choice but to apologize, now. Not that he really needed an apology, he didn’t care what the brat thought of him, but he could not write to her if she did not apologize first.
After all, she had told him in no uncertain terms she never wanted to hear from him again, and he had to respect that if he wanted her to keep believing he was just some friend of her mother’s who’d written to her, out of the kindness of his heart, to provide her with information.


Severus waited patiently. Friday passed, as did Saturday. On Sunday, he did not see Potter at lunch.

At the time, he was only slightly concerned that the child might be losing weight she could not afford to lose, trying to get into the restricted section while everyone else was in the Great Hall.

Then, around sunset, a letter arrived.


It was not in Potter’s handwriting.


“Dear Mr Half-Blood Prince,

I’m sorry to disturb you, but we are worried about Harry. She was so strange after breakfast, like she didn’t even notice I was talking to her, I thought she was ignoring me on purpose and then I came back from the library and she was gone. We went to Professor McGonagall, our head of house, but she says Harry is probably just exploring the castle.
Hagrid would listen, I think, but he’s not in his hut and looking for him in the Forbidden Forest would be stupid, wouldn’t it?

Please, sir, can you do something?
I know Harry has said some nasty things in her last letter, but I’m sure she didn’t mean it, not really. She’s just, I guess she’s starting puberty, and teenagers are always awful, it doesn’t mean anything.

Ron and I are worried Harry might have been taken to the Forbidden Forest. Neville had to go there for detention with Professor Snape a while ago and he said a centaur warned them that there’s something evil there. Professor Snape told him to think of his parents to stay safe, and Harry doesn’t have parents to think about …

You will probably wonder why I don’t just ask Professor Snape to help, but, well, Harry probably told you he’s not very nice. If Professor McGonagall doesn’t listen, he will not listen either.
And I suspect he might be planning to steal something Professor Dumbledore hid in the school, so I don’t exactly trust him.

Our teacher for Defense against the Dark Arts is nice, but frightened of everything, I can’t imagine he could help.

Harry also said the teachers believe she made a deal with a hag. If it is a hag who has taken Harry, you will be able to defeat her, will you? They don’t seem to be very powerful, from everything I have read.

Please, sir, if you can apparate to Hogsmeade, send me a letter immediately.


Yours sincerely,

Hermione Granger



Why did the idiot girl have to write such a long letter? Just informing him that Potter was missing would have been sufficient.


“Dear Miss Granger,

do NOT attempt to search for Harriet yourself. I will be in the Forbidden Forest before it is fully dark, and I will do my best to extract your friend from whatever trouble she landed herself in.

You should go and talk to the headmaster. Dumbledore is more likely to listen than any other teacher, and is also immensely powerful.

If, for some reason, you find yourself being foolish enough to venture into the Forbidden Forest against my advice, do think of your parents as much as you can, and remember that you can trust the centaurs.

Yours sincerely,

The Half-Blood Prince”



Another few minutes wasted, but he was almost sure the foolish children planned to go and search for their friend themselves if he didn’t answer in time.

For the first time ever, he rang the bell string in the corner of his office.

Moments later, a house elf appeared and asked what he needed.

“Give this to one of the school owls”, Severus instructed her, just folding the letter. “Then tell the headmaster that Potter is missing, probably hag-related, and I am going to search the Forbidden Forest.” He took a deep breath. “Please.”


In dealing with humans, he never bothered with politeness, but humans also usually hated him for it.
Somehow it seemed wrong to be rude to a being who would not despise him in return.
Like kicking someone who was already on the ground.

Severus grabbed his cloak and ran outside, not even bothering to check if the house elf had disapparated.

He ran half of the way, then remembered that he was a wizard and summoned the one school broom he knew Madam Hooch had always lying outside in case of emergency.


Just as he had promised, he made it to the edge of the forest in the last sunlight.

Leaving the broom leant against a tree, he ventured deeper into the forest.

The centaurs would be able to tell him where the hag was. Then … he would get Harriet out, whether alive or cut from the hag’s stomach.
To be continued...


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