Books And Aconite: The Adventures Of A Potions Apprentice by JAWorley
FeatureSummary: Uncle Vernon’s acting weird, and Snape has designs on making Harry the most obedient student Hogwarts has ever seen. Harry just wants a quiet summer to himself and to earn the money he needs for his school supplies, but he could only hope for something so simple. Entry into the Bingo Card Fic Fest.
Categories: Healer Snape, Teacher Snape > Trusted Mentor Snape, Master Snape > Apprentice Harry, Fic Fests > Bingo! Fic Fest, Teacher Snape > Professor Snape Main Characters: .Snape and Harry (required), Hermione, Original Character, Other, Ron
Snape Flavour: Snape is Angry, Canon Snape, Snape Comforts, Snape is Controlling, Snape is Kind, Snape is Stern
Genres: Action/Adventure, Angst, Canon, Drama, Fantasy, General, Hurt/Comfort
Media Type: None
Tags: Hospitalization, Injured!Snape, Runaway, Snape-meets-Dursleys, Werewolf!Harry, Werewolves
Takes Place: 5th summer, 5th Year
Warnings: Abusive Dursleys, Bullying, Emotional Abuse, Neglect, Physical Abuse, Physical Punishment Non-Spanking, Violence
Challenges: None
Series: None
Chapters: 25 Completed: No Word count: 176255 Read: 71110 Published: 05 Nov 2022 Updated: 29 Dec 2022
All His Years Combined by JAWorley
There was no way in hell Severus would ever even consider the possibility of taking the Potter brat on as his apprentice (especially not before the brat was 17). Having him as an apprentice after he had come of majority would be bad enough, but before he was old enough to care for himself? He did not envy the brat's family having to cater to his every whim over holidays. He couldn't imagine having to take the whelp through Diagon Alley to get his school supplies while people fell all over themselves trying to get the brat's autograph and give him an even bigger head. Snape never liked Petunia Evans, but she must be a saint to put up with Potter's spawn. The boy's uncle must be one as well. He clearly cared for the boy and wanted him to get his grades up so he could get a good start in life after Hogwarts.

Severus snorted into his coffee later that afternoon, back in the safety of his flat in London above Camden Alley. There were a few children playing with a Quaffle down below in the narrow alley between two rows of two to four story flats. The flats were in several different buildings, and had all been purchased by wizards twenty years back. There were little pockets of wizarding communities like this across London and in other places across the isles. Severus valued this little piece of serenity during the summer because there were few children about, and it was close to several of his favorite coffee shops, an apothecary that carried rare ingredients, and a bookstore down at the end of Camden Alley that was owned by a Muggleborn wizard that had graduated Hogwarts a few years prior. It wasn't hidden from Muggle view, but the alley was gated at all the entrances, and only able to be unlocked with a password, which changed infrequently.

He shook his head from his small third story patio as the children played below, laughing and giggling as the Quaffle hit the wall across the alley, narrowly avoiding a window. He wouldn't mind having an apprentice, even if it was a child so long as the child had an aptitude for Potions or a willingness to learn (and wasn't as insolent as Potter). Potter hated Potions. The look on the brat's face when his uncle had suggested Severus taking him on as an apprentice mirrored Severus' own disgust at the idea, though it was amusing to see the brat look so uncomfortable. Clearly the boy had never told his uncle about their mutual dislike of each other, though the realization surprised Severus. He was certain the little cretin would be complaining non-stop about all those he hated and how ‘unfair' his ‘mean' Potions Professor was. Perhaps he did complain and his guardians simply ignored it.

As the children laughed below again Severus shook his head in disgust and took another sip of his coffee. No, he would never take Potter on as an apprentice. When an apprenticeship was done and the apprentice went out into the world to work, or even to take on another apprenticeship, everything they did reflected on their prior master. Potter's behavior was appalling and he was certain it would continue to be so, so every time the boy got in trouble, every time he was rude, every time he showed his poor aptitude for potions, that would reflect badly on Severus if he took him on (or on whatever other poor Potions Master the boy's family roped into taking him).

Severus always felt that the boy's relatives must be far too lax on him judging by his poor behavior and attitude at school. They must let the child laze about during holidays. The boy's summer homework always looked rushed when he turned it in at the start of the term, which meant his aunt and uncle weren't making him do it over the summer and really put time and effort into it. If they'd spent any time at all disciplining him he might not be such a little monster at school and Severus and the other professors wouldn't be as stressed out during the term about him running off into danger with his friends at every turn, flying cars to school, and being so disrespectful. Severus was the only professor that thought he was disrespectful, but the others agreed with him that they'd rather have a quiet year where Potter and his friends weren't stirring up trouble.

Severus finished his coffee and went inside. He loved sitting on his patio in the summer and reading a good book, drinking coffee, or just observing the world away from Hogwarts.

As much as Severus tried to push Potter and his ignorant relatives from his mind over the next few days as he went about his summer brewing, worked on grading rubrics for the upcoming year, and thought about planning a trip to the mountains to collect several ingredients he was short on, Potter kept intruding into his thoughts. The brat. His relatives would never reign him in. If they were going to do so, they would have already. Severus wasn't looking forward to three more years with the brat in class, sticking his chin up defiantly at him and traipsing about the castle as if he owned the place. The brat stayed over every holiday, so there was no peace for Severus during the term.

A few days after his encounter with Potter and his uncle on Diagon, the unbidden thought came to Severus that maybe he should search around for a Potions Master looking for an apprentice. He could owl the boy's family a list. The Headmaster wouldn't be happy with him because it would mean a change in the boy's guardianship, but maybe he could find a man or woman willing to take the boy on and curb his delinquent tendencies. He brushed the thought aside as quickly as it had come however. He would never push Potter off on anyone. They'd find out quickly what a handful he could be and be angry with him. Word spread quickly in the potions community, and you did not want to make people angry, because they'd refuse to work with you or raise their prices when they were selling ingredients to you. He'd seen it happen before and once he'd raised his former Potion Master's ire and had been frowned upon by the community for six months until they felt Severus had become repentant.

That was really the sort of thing Potter needed, Severus thought. He needed people around him that would tell him when he was being an arrogant brat and punish him until he changed his attitude.

A few days later, Severus woke up, and groaned. "No," he said to himself as he sat up in bed. He'd dreamt that he had taken on the boy as an apprentice. "Definitely not." But as he got up and dressed the idea kept pestering him. "No," he said to himself in the mirror. "He can't be reigned in, and you're not the one to try."

He kept shaking his head as he went out for breakfast, brought coffee back to his flat so he could sit on his patio and sip on it as he read, and finally had to set his book down because he couldn't concentrate on it. "Fool," he said to himself, and rose to write a letter to Mr. Dursley. If anyone was going to reform the Potter brat, it was going to be him. He was going to turn Harry Potter into the most obedient student in school. He really wanted a quiet year without any incidents. That might not be this year, but it could be next year, or the year after if Severus started with the boy now.

* * *

"We did it boy!"

Harry pulled his head out of the shed in the back garden from where he'd been putting gloves and his shovel away. He'd just weeded and re-planted a spot in the back that Aunt Petunia had made him do.

"Sir?"

Uncle Vernon came out the back door with a letter crumpled in his hand, waving it in Harry's face and looking excited. "We got you that apprenticeship. Bloke changed his mind!"

"Who?"

"That Snape character from school." He handed Harry the letter and Harry's face paled as he saw the Potion Master's loopy cursive, proclaiming that he would take Harry on as a Potions apprentice until the end of his 6th school year.

His uncle slapped him on the back. "What do you think of that boy? Solved your problem and mine in one go. You won't have to work in the summers and he'll get your grades up to where they need to be so you're not hanging around here after you graduate school."

Harry swallowed thickly, throat tight and then looked up at his uncle. "Sir, thank you. I-" he felt like he was about to have a panic attack right there in the yard. "I don't need an apprenticeship to get my grades up. I promise I'll get my Potions grade up to the best it can be, and it'll stay up. My friend will tutor me."

"If your friends were going to help you they would have done it before now. This is decided." He took the letter back from Harry and scanned down it again. "He says there's some paperwork to fill out and then you'll be his apprentice."

"I'll still be living here though," Harry said.

"For now," his uncle said, going into the house to deliver the ‘good news' to aunt Petunia.

Harry stumbled back until he felt the shed behind him, and slid down to the ground, breathing heavily. His life was officially over.

* * *

Dudley it seemed, felt bad for Harry. That was unusual, but it seemed his father had also found some sort of tutor for him in maths and other subjects he was doing poorly in, and he wanted to commiserate with Harry about it.

"I tried to get mum to get me out of it," Dudley said later that week at the park. "She said she wanted me to get into university though. I don't want to go to uni! It'll be too much work!"


"It's not the same," Harry said. "You're only going to tutoring a couple hours a week. This is an apprenticeship. It means I have to do whatever he says whenever he says. He could even make me live with him if he wanted to. He's so mean. Imagine the worst teacher at your school, times ten and that teacher would still be nicer than Snape."

Dudley laughed and Harry shot him a glare. "For what it's worth mum feels bad for you too."

"What?"

"I heard her and dad talking the other night. She said she knew Snape before he was a teacher, and that he's a git. She said he's poor and lives in the worst part of London and that his house is falling down. She told dad he was the ‘worst sort of character'."

"Do you think she changed his mind?"

Dudley shook his head. "No. When does dad ever change his mind?" They sat quietly on the swings for a while, both feeling sorry for themselves as the sun set.

"Maybe I just won't go home," Harry said.

"You? Run away?" Dudley scoffed. "Thought you would have by now already. You always come back though. You're like a monkey or something, you never learn."

"Shut up Dudley."

"How does this thing work anyway? He's tutoring you and he's got custody of you, but you still live here? Does that mean you don't go back to school?"

"I'll still go to Hogwarts, but he'll be my guardian, and I have to learn extra potions. I'll still live here."

"Shame," Dudley said.

"What?"

"He should take you to live with him. You said he sucks, but seriously, it's got to be better for you there with your own people than here doesn't it?"

Harry shook his head. His cousin was just like his uncle. He just wanted to get rid of him.

"Don't get me wrong, I'm not saying I want you to leave. Until I heard you talking to the Harris' I had no idea you were kind of... a cool guy. Sounds like you're kind of a big deal at your school and have a lot of friends. But, there's got to be someplace better for you than here." He eyed the fresh bruise on Harry's eye. Harry had protested to his aunt and uncle about the apprenticeship one too many times that week and finally his uncle had called him ungrateful and smacked him hard enough to give him a large bruise. The swelling had gone down, but the black eye was sure to be there for a while yet.

"If you ever meet Snape, you'll understand that this is the worst thing that can possibly happen to me." Maybe even worse than if Voldemort himself had taken Harry as an apprentice.

When they got back to the house, Harry paused on the threshold, not expecting Snape to be there already. It had only been a week since they'd received his letter. He had a stack of papers in hand and looked like he was leaving.

"I will be by to collect you tomorrow at noon for one week Potter. Have your things ready." Then he swept past him and out the front door.

Harry looked into the dining room where his aunt and uncle had just signed the papers, and aunt Petunia gave him a sorry look before looking away. That was a first. She never looked sorry for anything she'd done to Harry, but maybe she knew this was the worst.

The next morning Harry got up as early as he could and walked into town. He needed to tell the librarian that he couldn't work there anymore. He wasn't sure how to tell her because they didn't have apprenticeships in the Muggle world. What he ended up telling her was that this was his last day and he could only work until eleven am because his distant uncle had taken custody of him and was going to be coming to get him.

"I'll still be around some," Harry said. "I can still come use the library when I come back to visit can't I?"

"Of course," she told him. "If I send your last paycheck to your aunt and uncle's house will you get it?"

"Yes maam. I'm going to be gone for a week and then I'll be back for a little bit before he takes me again I guess. I'm not really sure."

She eyed his black eye like Dudley had done the day before. "Maybe it's for the best that you're going with him," she said.

"Yes maam," he said dully.

"Harry, you come back whenever you can, ok? I want to hear all about life where you're going."

"Ok."

She tousled his hair and had Harry shelve a few more books before he had to leave at eleven. She had him check out another book to take with him and told him if he couldn't get it back to the library after two weeks when it was due, not to worry about it and to get it back whenever he could.

Harry arrived back at the house at five minutes to noon and traipsed upstairs to get his trunk. He had packed his few belongings into it the night before. He struggled to get it down the stairs by himself, and then sat on it by the front door waiting for Snape. At exactly noon there was a knock on the door and Harry rose to open it. His cousin was out with his friends and his aunt had made herself scarce. They didn't even care to say goodbye, not that they ever had, not even when he was leaving for the school year.

"Potter," Snape greeted him with a sneer as he opened the door. "Is this all of your things?"

"Yes sir."

"Tell your relatives you are leaving."

"I did sir."

He looked around the entryway, clearly expecting to find Harry's family, but it was just the two of them there.

"Fine. Grab your trunk and do not let go."

Harry did as he was told and Snape took his arm, gripping it hard before apparating him away to a depressing fate. Harry never thought he'd be sorry to leave Privet Drive, and in fact always looked forward to the day he could go back to school each year, but a rock fell into the pit of his stomach at the thought that life had changed for him forever.

 

To be continued...


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