Potions and Snitches
Snape and Harry Gen Fanfiction Archive

Author's Chapter Notes:
So far: Harry was deaged with the usual cryptic but cliché potion and tricked into spending the summer with Snape. Hoppity is the rounding-out-the-family, treat Harry like a prince, Hufflepuff character, going along with them because Harry needs to be spoiled a little and she creates an interesting dynamic (and it helps further the plot, not that there is much of one). There was an amusing airplane flight, then a boring one, shopping for Harry (Snape bought him clothes and Hoppity bought him toys), play dates, summer school kindergarten/first grade scenes, and hints of Harry being hurt. Anything else? Snape is in character. No romance will be in the story. Michael is Harry’s little neighbor friend and he likes Ninja Turtles. Harry has a stuffed dragon called Roofie and he likes to sleep under his bed.

Last chapter: Snape started meditation lessons with the 6 year old Harry (who actually kind of has his “self” inside as if he were 16, only his memories are fuzzy and his brain acts like a 6 year old’s).
Who Hurt Him?

Snape surfaced from his underground haven. The noises and loud stomping around when his wayward associates came back for the day would distract, annoy and pique his curiosity so much that he would not be able to work. It was better for his piece of mind to greet them and see what they were up to.

“Good afternoon Severus! Remember, you said that you would give Harry back his toys today. Well it’s today!” Hoppity said in a sing song voice, the minute he stepped foot in the kitchen and she saw him.

“I suppose,” he said sourly. Really, her sunny attitude was revolting.

Hoppity just beamed and busied herself. Potter was sitting at the table, swinging his legs aimlessly. Snape glared at him but Potter paid him no mind.

He was surprised when a loud chime was sounded throughout the house.

Potter leapt up and ran to the front door as if it were a size 10 golden cauldron being delivered. Snape was appalled to hear the door open and a second high pitched, childish voice, enumerated with excitement join Potter’s. Hoppity had gone off to follow the boy to the door, an empty headed smile on her face and then three happy voices emerged from the front room.

There went his afternoon.

The group headed nosily back to the kitchen and Snape did his level best not to yell at the sight of another pint sized miscreant, this time with misleading innocent-looking brown eyes and hair hiding the terror within.

He leaned back and crossed his arm, looking down authoritarian at the newcomer. He deserved an explanation. “What is he doing here?”

“Oh, Harry’s little friend is over this afternoon for a play date,” Hoppity said cheerfully as she started to set out some sugary snacks for the brats. Wonderful.

The new boy looked at him from where he hid behind Potter, obviously intimidated. As he should be.

“Would you mind getting those toys now?” Hoppity said absent mindedly as she poured glasses of some sort of juice.

And now he was forced to hand over the boy’s toys so that he and his little friend could “play” and be general nuisances. His lips thinned but he got up, intent on giving the brat his toys so that everyone would leave him alone to seek out a place of solitude until his now present headache had gone away.

“Thank you, Severus,” Hoppity called out. He ground his teeth.

He went upstairs to his bedroom and pulled the box of toys out from the strange cupboard, it was hiding there purely for the sake of his eyesight, and dropped it at the doorway of the brat’s room. He hoped that they tried to eat some of those little blocks and choked.

He then set back down for his lab, using the back stairway to sneak stealthily, not wishing to face the nuisances again.

After only a couple minutes, the sound of light footsteps ran across the floor overhead and then seemed to quiet; the boys had probably gone upstairs.

What proceeded what nearly an hour of blissful quietness. His headache had managed to go away and he even managed to complete a fair amount of work before the footsteps were back, this time accompanied by voices.

He could hear the excited tones from upstairs through the wood floor, but couldn’t make out what was being said. It lasted for some minutes before a faint music came through next and then some very strange sounds.

He managed to ignore it for 8 full minutes before he reached a lull in his work and his curiosity got the better of him.

Just what was going on up there? It couldn’t be the telly, he didn’t think that people talked while the telly was on and he could clearly hear the childish voices above the sounds.

He decided that this warranted investigation.

When he entered the parlour, it was to see all three of the thorns in his sides for the afternoon sitting around the elektronic box and exclaiming wildly. Potter’s small friend was grasping some strange hand device that was connected to a contraption on the floor, which had wires reaching behind the telly.

A very bright and colourful picture was on the screen, moving around haphazardly. He had only glanced at it for a few seconds but already he could feel his headache coming back.

“Jump! Jump!” Potter’s friend cried as he manipulated the hand device, and the brat and the twit echoed him, Potter raising his arms and actually bouncing in place.

“Jump! Jump!”

He fled.

Some time later, he bravely left the safety of his lab once more, this time to a mostly quiet house. He wandered into the kitchen and spotted it; a voracious, terrifying green doll thing that looked like no animal he had ever seen.

He stepped over and reached out tentatively to pick it up. It must be a toy. He did not remember ever seeing it before.

As he was examining the bizarre doll, Potter walked in, and seeing Snape holding the toy, he stopped and looked up at Snape with large eyes and a horrified expression.

Snape could feel his maliciousness creeping up. An evil glint lit up in his eye and he spoke, “Did I not say that any toys left out would be thrown away?”

"But that's not mine! It's Michael’s, you can't throw it away!" Harry cried out.

Snape just looked at him with a raised eyebrow, seemingly unmoved by the display, and turned towards the bin.

To his experienced Slytherin eye, the boy pulled himself together and decided to try a bluff, "I could always just take it out again," he said bravely, trying to make it sound as if he didn’t care one way or another.

Snape brandished his wand, feeling an evil glee at manipulating the situation. "I'll just have to make sure you can't then," he said. As expected, Potter caved almost immediately in.

"Wait! Wait, ok, what can I have to do to get that back?"

A practiced thoughtful look flashed across Snape's face before he suggested levelly, “I have a jar of Newt eyes that require peeling.” He didn’t quite manage to keep his mouth from twitching from the beginning of an evil smile.

Yuk, the little boy’s face clearly displayed his disgust. Sensing his hesitation, Snape swished his wand at the toy, an incantation on his lips.

"Ok! Fine! Fine, I'll do it," Potter said desperately, stepping forward and raising his arms beseechingly.

Success. Snape allowed a small smile to show on his face and he lead the way to his lab, holding the strange green doll as a hostage. He had to remind himself to cancel the safety spells he had set up and tell Potter not to touch the doorknob, even though it would have been amusing to see them in action.

---

Hoppity searched the whole house for Harry. "Harry-bean, where are you?" she called out in several rooms. A little worried, she decided to brave the basement and see if Snape knew where Harry was.

She was a little surprised to find the little boy sitting at a table and peeling potions ingredients. Eww. Snape was sitting nearby, reading a sheaf of parchment.

There was a sharp preservation smell in the air and she stopped midway down the stairs, unwilling to come any closer to the source. It smelled like eye of newt, only 10 times stronger.

Snape had a sardonic smirk on his face when he looked up at her, "Well you did say I needed to spend quality bonding time with the boy."

She knew that she grimaced at that.

“Was there a reason why you decided to grace us with your presence?” Snape said dismissively. “If you don’t mind, we are trying to get some work done.”

“Alright,” Hoppity said, trying to keep her disgust in at the thought of what no doubt were little amphibian eyes being peeled and dissected. “How much longer will you be?”

Harry glanced at Snape unsurely, who was still looking solely at a paper he was holding and looking very self satisfied.

“Potter should be finished momentarily.”

Hoppity stepped quickly up the few stairs she had gone down, trying to get out of that basement as quickly as possible.

---

Dinner that evening was light due to the summer weather. Hoppity had managed, with great effort, to get the memory of that smell out of her head so that she could eat. The cooking smells had helped immensely with that, as had the chocolate cake thing she had before dinner.

The dinner conversation was silent, with only the sounds of cutlery clacking against plates and chewing noises to keep them company. She suddenly remembered the news she had to share with Harry.

“Michael’s mum said that we can follow her to the field tomorrow after school so that we know where it is,” Hoppity said towards Harry.

“Why would you need to know where a field is?” Snape asked suspiciously over his dinner plate as he jabbed his fork into some vegetables.

“Oh, I’m signing Harry up for some football classes on a team,” Hoppity said brightly, seeming unaware of the panicked motions Harry was sending to her to not say anything.

“What is that?” Snape asked at alert.

“Oh it’s a Muggle sport,” Hoppity continued happily, “Harry stop waving your hands, you’ll get indigestion. You know how we have Quidditch? Well Muggles have football and tennis and erm, swimming I think and lots of other games.”

Snape looked like he had just been told that Harry was going to be signed up to duel with dragons. “No. Absolutely not!”

“What? Why?” Hoppity cried. “Football is just a team of children kicking a ball around. It’s perfectly harmless, Quidditch does not even compare.”

“No.”

“Oh, don’t be a sourpuss,” Hoppity said crossly, Snape rose one eyebrow and ground his teeth, “I’m signing Harry up for football tomorrow and if you don’t approve then you’ll just have to come along and watch.”

Harry had slid down in his chair, until he was almost completely hiding under the table. She looked at him confusedly but continued, “There will be coaches and officials and parents around that you can talk to, and you can even watch the children practice. You’ll see that it is a perfectly harmless sport.”

Thud. It seemed that Harry had fallen off.

“Harry-bean? Are you okay?” Hoppity asked worried as she looked under the table to see Harry rubbing his bum.

“Yes, I believe that I will accompany you,” Snape stated over the table, causing her to bump her head under it when she tried to straighten up.

“Okay. Good,” She said, still under the table.

Wonderful, Harry thought.

---

Harry got out of the backseat of their car in an apprehensive mood. They had followed Michael’s car to this place, and Harry looked around to see them get out in a row before them. Michael spotted him and waved.

Harry was super glad that he had managed to get Michael’s Ninja turtle back when he left it and Snape found it, even if he had to had to spend the longest time peeling newt eyes. Michael’s mum had called later last night asking after the toy and came over to pick it up. It was Michael’s most favourite toy, something he couldn’t sleep without. If Harry had let Snape blow it up, this friendship would be over.

Harry waved back to his friend, and then Hoppity was there, grasping his hand and pulling him after Michael and his mum and his younger brother, across the car park to the entrance of a large building.

And then there was Snape. Wearing black, and following them with stalking strides.

Wonderful, Harry thought, echoing his sentiments of the night before.

They entered the building together, dodging a pack of girls running outside, and then Michael’s mum showed them to the front desk before peeling away, Michael smiling happily with his soccer equipment in a bag over his shoulder, almost walking into the corner of a wall before his mum steered him the right way.

They waited in line for a few minutes and then Hoppity asked where to go to sign up for the children’s sports teams, which they were quickly given directions to.

After walking through several white cinderblock and tiled floor corridors, they found themselves in front of an opening in the wall. A desk was built into it, and there were large wooden shutters opened to either side of the opening. Behind this desk were two men and lots of sports equipment and filing cabinets in a big room. The desk was tall but Harry could see that much as they approached it.

Harry could hear static music from a radio playing nearby and he could also hear a fan making a low humming racket from where it stood, towering in the middle of the room.

The man sitting behind the desk put down the forms he was filling out and sat up straight. “Hi, how can I help you?” he asked, smiling. He was tan and looked muscular with blond hair.

The other, younger, man with dark hair glanced at them briefly from where he stood a little ways away before turning back to continue his work, restringing tennis rackets.

“Hi! We’re looking to sign Harry here up for football,” Hoppity said, placing a hand on Harry’s messy hair and pushing him forwards a little. Harry could barely see over the tall desk on his tip toes but he glanced around curiously.

“Football? That doesn’t start until the fall... and we have a size minimum,” the man said looking down at Harry.

“Oh, I’m sorry, not football, soccer, I think it was.”

The young man scratched behind his ear and then got up to where some sports balls were placed in a crate over a metal filing cabinet. He started to sort through the balls before pulling out a football questioningly.

“Yes, that black and white ball, there,” Hoppity informed him.

He put the ball back. “Yeah, we have several teams still accepting players… the youngest age group is the teamie league, children ages 6-7,” he said questioningly, looking down at Harry. “That’s children who turned 6 or 7 by June 31st,” He continued seeing their blank look.

“Erm, yes. That’s right.”

The muscular man went over to a nearby filing cabinet and looked through it, pulling out papers from several different areas. “Do you have a team preference?” he asked, looking back at them.

“Erm, yes. The F team is the one we want.”

“Yeah, the dragons! Good choice, they need players. I’m sure they’ll be happy to have you.” He pulled out the last form and closed the drawers with a rolling snap. He brought the papers back to the desk and placed then with a pen from his pocket on the top level in front of Hoppity.

“Here you are. Just fill out these papers and get this physical filled out by your family doctor, you can just fax it to them if your child’s had one in the last 6 months, and these are some papers to read about the rules and stuff like that.” He said, laying the papers out and showing each one. Everyone was listening to the man attentively, trying to concentrate on the strange accent so that they didn’t miss anything.

“A… physical?” Hoppity asked with her brow furrowed.

“Oh, don’t worry.” The man said, sitting back in his chair. He picked up a tennis ball and tossed it into a nearby basket. “We have a certified NP on duty down the hall that can do an exam for team participants."

Hoppity pulled out a pen and was about to start filling out forms when Snape’s hand came down on them, blocking her from writing on them or picking them up.

“Just one minute.” Snape said. She gave him an exasperated look, which was ignored.

Snape peered at the man attentively. “This game… soccor, what is the casualty rate per game?”

The guy behind the counter made an interesting face and the other guy who was still thread rackets a little ways a way, tried to muffle a snort. Snape narrowed his eyes and looked at him sideways.

Hoppity rolled her eyes. “Pshaw, Severus, let me fill out these forms and take Harry to have his exam and you can ask them all the questions you want while we do that.”

Snape made a grimace but allowed Hoppity to gather the physical forms and navigate Harry away. He would always be able to stop the brat from participating later, even if he were signed up.

He turned his attention back to the athletic man sitting behind the desk. “Please answer the question.”

“Soccer is a non contact sport.” The man paused. “At least I think so, right Bert?”

“Yeah, it is. I think.” The younger man answered and moved on to another tennis racket.

“Well at least a mostly non contact sport. The kids like to run with their elbows.”

Snape’s brow furrowed at this description. “Really?” He asked and leaned forwards over the desk. How did one run on one’s elbows?

“Yeah,” the blond man said, sitting up and demonstrating by sticking his elbows out at the sides and moving them as one would do with a running movement, only seated. With his wide chest he looked like a chicken.

“I see.”

The man lowered his arms, demonstration done. “There are 11 players on each team, uh forwards, midfielders, fullbacks, goalies. The players try to get the ball into the other team’s goal without using their hands or arms. And there are a bunch of rules and stuff about positions but we don’t need to get into that,” the man said dismissively.

Snape tried to make sense of what the game was about, finding that he didn’t really know. Trying to get a ball into a goal, on the ground and without the use of hands sounded rather boring. Surely there had to be something more.

The man had a thoughtful look on his face again. “Uh… younger years. The younger years are co-ed, they play with fewer players, I think 6 or 8, not sure, and they have unlimited subs.”

Subs? “… So that’s it? They kick the ball and they run with their elbows out,” Snape said disbelievingly.

“Haha. Yeah. For the younger years it’s more about playing with their friends and building confidence and all that stuff.”

“Ah.” Muggles were so strange. But still, boring usually meant nice and safe. And it would keep Potter away from himself and occupied. If he were lucky, the physical activity would tire him out, leaving behind a docile and well behaved boy. Yeah right, Potter would be well behaved and when banshees stopped shrieking…

“And I think they play on a smaller field. Any other questions?”

“Not at this moment. Do I just have to sign these forms then?”

The man reached up and tapped the first form. “Let’s see, here’s the liability form.”

“What’s that for?”

“In case the kid, what was his name, Harry? gets badly hurt.”

Snape stopped himself from signing. He was surprised that the man remembered Potter’s name and shocked at what he had just heard. If such a dangerous sport as Quidditch did not need such disclaimers, than surely a sport that did was very dangerous indeed. He had been sure that the sport was boring and non dangerous but it seemed that he had missed something. “How usual is that?” He asked suspiciously.

“Oh, it’s usually nothing. The little kids trip a lot and kick each other. Occasionally you get the broken leg or ankle but it’s not common. Not like the pros.”

“What?”

“The pro’s?” the man offered, making some movements with his hands that Snape didn’t understand. “Never mind. Um, all players are required to have a uniform, cleats with rubber bottoms and shin guards. The coach will have the shirts but we sell everything else here if you know your kid’s size.”

“What are those for?” Snape asked, still on alert.

“Umm… the cleats? They’re just required shoes and the guards are just so that their shins don’t turn black and blue.”

Snape gave him an uncomprehending look.

“From the kicking.”

So this soccor, they ran with their elbows out, tried to get a ball into a goal and kicked each other. Bizarre.

“And that is all that the liability disclaimer is for?”

“Yeah, just legal stuff, you understand.”

No, he didn’t but this must be a Muggle thing.

Well it wasn’t his business what Potter decided to do. Oh wait, it was, but this didn’t seem to be of any consequence, except that Potter wanted to do it of course. In which case, he shouldn’t let him, just on the principle.

But letting the brat and that harpy have their way, would probably get them out of his hair, and away from the echoing floor boards above his, ahem, lab for more time during the day. So soccor it was.

He picked up the offered pen and started to sign, remembering to use the “new” last name.

“There’s also a sign up list for snack rotation during games,” the man offered.

Snape glanced at the florescent paper with smiling food on the borders. “No thank you,” he said primly.

---

Harry followed Hoppity down the stark hallways hand in hand. The fluorescent lights reflected off of the Muggle tiled floor and Hoppity’s shoes made little clacking sounds as she walked.

“I wonder what kind of exam this will be,” Hoppity said to make up conversation.

“Maybe it’s to see if I know the rules or something.”

“Well, they did mention it being a physical, so maybe they want to make sure you’ll be good enough to play soccer, or test how fast you run or how hard you kick a ball or blow bubbles…”

They looked around the hallways, wondering where to go.

Finally, they decided to ask someone, entering through the nearest open door and finding what looked like a Nurses’ office by sheer luck. A largish woman sat behind a desk and looked up when they entered.

“Hi, we’re looking for the physical examination room?” Hoppity asked questioningly.

“You’re at the right place,” the woman said in a loud, friendly voice and stood up to reveal her white nurses uniform. “Just come on in here.”

She led them through a doorway to a smallish room with windows and a sterile, yet bright atmosphere. The walls were painted with pictures of colourful stick children playing and there was a giraffe painted in yellow and brown.

An examination table was placed in the middle of the room and counters ran along one wall. Harry noticed a scale in one corner.

“I’m Nurse Bendit. I have a form you have to fill out,” the nurse said picking up one and handing it towards Hoppity.

“Oh, we have one of those.”

Nurse Bendit lowered the form and then placed her other hand out so that Hoppity could hand them over. Hoppity did, but after the nurse glanced through it she handed it back. “You have to fill it out.”

“Oh.” Hoppity replied, turning pink.

The nurse excused herself , “I’ll just be in the other room for a minute.”

Harry climbed up onto the examination table by means of a foot stool, since there were no other places to sit in the room. Hoppity studied the form with a creased brow. “Harry,” she whispered, “Do you know anything about your family history?”

“No,” Harry said regretfully and swung leg on the table.

Hoppity pursed her lips but continued through the forms.

“Are you allergic to anything?”

Just Slytherins. “Ermm… no, I don’t think so.”

“Have you all your immunizations?”

Harry gave a shrug. He really had no clue but he’d rather say he had them already if he had to have them again.

“Maybe you should make up some stuff,” he suggested in a whisper.

She just looked at him. He looked innocently back. She sighed, then turned back to the forms. “I guess I can’t very well say that you got them all 10 years ago, no one’ll believe that.”

Minutes later, Nurse Bendit came back, pulling a rolling stool behind her. “All done?”

“Sorry, I don’t know a lot of these things,” Hoppity said balefully as she handed the form over.

“Oh?” the nurse asked surprised and turned a highly suspect face towards them.

“Erm, Harry’s adopted,” Hoppity excused.

The nurse scanned the sheets quickly and adopted a lightly ironic tone, “Shouldn’t you know by now?”

“He’s… recently acquired.”

“I see. Well come off this table and take your shoes off, Harry. I need to check your height and weight first.”

Hoppity helped him down off of the table under the watchful eyes of the nurse. “Should I stay here?” she asked.

“Of course you can,” The nurse answered matter-of-factly with a small smile.

Harry and Hoppity looked at each other, and he shrugged. He thought that Hoppity had been asking him, but after the nurse had already answered, he couldn’t really say anything. He hoped that nothing embarrassing would go on, because now Hoppity was there to stay. Just like if he had a real mum. The thought made him feel funny.

He pulled off his shoes and then walked over to stand on the scale the nurse was standing next to, clipboard in hand.

She pulled out some metal rod from the top and laid it on the top of his head. “Stand up tall, Harry…”

He pulled himself up to his full height and even breathed in. The nurse made a note on her clipboard with a frown before taking the funny rod off and moving the little bars that would measure his weight.

“Hmm… so he’s six years old… almost seven?” the nurse asked very questioningly.

“That’s right,” Hoppity informed her.

Harry could tell that Hoppity wasn’t quite sure, Harry wasn’t sure himself. He could be closer to five, for all he knew. In fact, he was almost sure that he was at the beginning at the age of 6 rather than the end of it. After all, Dumbledore had said that he was six, and six meant exactly six years. Hoppity probably thought the same thing, but put the wrong birthday…

“I guess you wouldn’t know if he had been especially ill as an infant?” the nurse asked kind of resignedly. Hoppity was silent and shook her head. “Been taking all your vitamins, Harry?” she asked friendly.

Harry blinked. “Erm… sometimes.”

Nurse Bendit noted his weight on her form with a deep frown before telling him that he could get off it and back onto the table. “What nutrients and vitamins do you have him on?”

Hoppity looked at her clueless as she helped Harry back onto the examination table with a boost, “Just regular food… we make sure that he gets all his vegetables and erm, he takes regular vitamins when we remember.” Harry thought that she was doing a very good job of bluffing, or at least answering the questions kind of truthfully.

“Harry’s on the very low side of his age group’s height and weight,” The nurse informed his caretaker. “Some times children at this age don’t want to eat, so if he ever shows signs of that, you should look into the Pediatrician shakes to supplement his diet.”

“Oh, okay. We’ll make sure to do that,” she answered honestly.

“You might want to consult a nutritionist about his diet, to make sure that he’s getting the right things he needs. I’ll recommend one for you before you leave. And as a general rule, all children should be on some sort of vitamins. The HappySons brand is highly recommended and you can find them in any old supermarket.”

“Alright.”

The nurse sat on her rolling stool and moved over to the table, hanging a stethoscope around her neck and picking up a dark blue cuff thing with a funny squeeze thing connected.

“Okay Harry, I’ll need to see your arm next.”

Harry gave her his right arm, the one that was closest to her and he was surprised when she started to push up the short sleeve past where it hung down near his elbow. He tried to pull it away but the nurse had already scene.

“Oh my, that’s a bruise there,” she said carefully. She looked into his eyes. “How’d you get it?” Harry’s heart started to pound and he blinked.

“What bruise?” Hoppity came around to look. He shied slightly away and the nurse’s eyes narrowed.

He made himself stop and relax, let Hoppity reach out and see it as if this were okay and natural, as if he were comfortable with it. Cause really, he was. He just didn’t want her to know.

“When did this happen, Harry?” Hoppity asked, aghast at the sight of the faint, mottled mark around his upper arm.

“Erm…. Last month, remember?” He said carefully, trying to make it seem like no big deal while passing on a hint to play along.

“No, I don’t. What happened?” Her brow was furrowed, her tone serious. It seemed that she was missing his hints. Why did she have to be so absolutely clueless now? She was doing all right before.

“It was at a park. A man grabbed me. Remember? I guess the bruises didn’t show up right away…”

“We’ll just try the other arm,” Nurse Bendit said and moved to lift the sleeve away from that one. Harry let her, knowing that any attempt to cover it up would be suspicious.

Hoppity gasped at the sight of this much larger and vibrant one.

The nurse jutted in accusingly, “This is a very abusive bruise to not have noticed for a whole month.”

“Oh, I’m so sorry, Harry.” Hoppity said, with tears in her eyes. “I guess that because he always wears his sleeves… but how could I have missed that?” She looked like she wanted to reach out and hug him but was fearful that she’d hurt him.

“Alright, we’ll try the first arm.” The nurse said grimly, seemingly placated for now but still slightly suspicious. Hoppity sat down boneless into her chair.

He was feeling really guilty now. Why did he have to play soccer anyway?

“I have to check your breathing now, Harry.” He just shifted and let her lift up his shirt to place the stethoscope on his front on back.

“Is the one of your back from the same incident?”

One on his back? He didn’t have anything on his back… oh yeah. When Bobby hit him the other day it must have left a mark. “No, that one’s from school.”

“Ahmm,” The nurse hummed.

“No, really. A kid hit me with his backpack really hard and there was something hard in it.”

“Alright, Harry.”

Hoppity just looked at him concernedly. He looked away. It made him feel uncomfortable.

The rest of the physical went by without incident, the nurse signed the sheets, but her mouth was set in a line and she warned them to expect visitors some time. Hoppity didn’t know what to do, but she took the papers and then they walked out of the office to find where they had left Snape. She was feeling so guilty.

“Please don’t tell Snape.” Harry said pleadingly. Hoppity stopped walking and turned to face him in the empty corridor. “He doesn’t have to know, nothing’s really wrong. I just got hurt.”

Hoppity bent down to be eye level with the little boy. “I don’t know, Harry. This seems like something awfully important to just keep from him. Why wouldn’t you want him to know?”

“He hates me, I know he does. Stuff just happens to me but telling him won’t do anything. He’ll just make my life miserable.” His face was lowered to look at his shoes by the last.

Hoppity was quite distressed and didn't know what to do. She tried to ignore Harry’s anxious face; she knew she had to tell Severus. Had he known about this? She was at least a little angry at him, for if he did know…

She stood up and grasped Harry’s hand carefully. “Let’s try to find our way back. How many frogs do you want to bet that Snape’s still with that handsome man, asking him strange questions?”

Harry gave a slight smile. “Real frogs or chocolate ones?”

“Chocolate ones of course! It’s too messy to trade the other kind, and plus, what would you do with them?”

They walked back, only taking a couple of wrong turns before they found the desk built into the wall. And as expected, Snape was there, but he had finished signing the forms and was leaning against the wall some distance away from it, his arms crossed.

“Took your time, did you?” he said, pushing off of the wall with one long leg. “I have deemed this activity acceptable,” he informed them.

“So is it time to play soccer now? Harry asked trying to get some of the excitement he had had before back.

Hoppity gave an uncertain look at the boy. "Harry are you really sure you're up to it? I really think that we should go home now."

Snape picked up on it. "And why would the boy 'not be up to it'?"

Hoppity turned startled eyes to Snape, her features then quieted. "Severus..." She took a breath. “When the nurse examined Harry, she found severe bruising… abusive bruising and she wanted to know about it. I-I didn’t know what to tell her! Did you know about this?”

Snape's eyes tightened almost imperceptibly before he whirled to look down on the little boy, studying him intently.

"We are leaving. Now."

Harry tried one last ditch effort to get out of this mess. "But I wanna play football," he entreated.

Snape's face was tense. "Potter, shut up and get to the car! We will discuss this at our residence."

“Wait, Severus, there’s more. I think… I think that she might tell someone to check up on us, she told me to expect visitors sometime.”

“Why didn’t you Obliviate her?” Snape demanded angrily.

They were attracting attention, several Muggles in the vicinity turned their attention to them and Snape visibly retreated to appear normal, just a normal Muggle person who did not just say “Obliviate”. He turned and started to stalk off towards the exit.

Stunned into silence, Harry followed them into the car. It was silent and tense drive home. Snape was terrifyingly angry.

When they walked through the door Harry had no desire to discuss anything. He made a beeline for the staircase, but Snape's arm snaked out and snatched him back before he got too far. "Where do you think you are going?"

Snape was angry, he could tell by the thin white drawn lips and sharp motions. Harry didn’t understand why.

Right away Harry tried to twist out of Snape's grip. Snape dragged him into the sitting room and sat down on the long couch, standing Harry in front of him, firmly in his grasp between his legs.

“Smirkett, there are several healing potions in my lab on the right hand side table. Please bring me the short round jar.” Snape’s eyes stayed determinedly on the little boy in front of him.

“Alright,” Hoppity agreed readily. She disappeared out of his peripheral sight, assumedly down into the basement. Harry was quiet and tense, avoiding his gaze.

Snape shook him slightly to gain his attention. His voice was quiet. “Potter, where did you get the bruises from?”

Harry tried to twist his wrist away. “It’s none of your business!”

“I’ll be the judge of that. Take off your shirt.”

“No!” Harry exclaimed rebelliously.

“Potter- Harry, I need to see if they are serious or not.”

“Why do you care?” Harry yelled and aimed a kick at his leg, which Snape was able to avoid.

“Potter! Stop this right now! I’m trying to help you!” Snape said harshly. “I was put in charge of your care, therefore I will care! Now either take off your shirt or I will do it for you.”

Potter was disinclined to oblige. He aimed another kick, this one halfway striking home.

"Would you like me to deal with you the way someone has obviously tried to deal with you before?" Snape threatened idly, mad that the little boy’s kick had struck him.

Harry eyes snapped up to his in surprise, and Snape took that opportunity to pull the little boy’s shirt off in one quick motion before Harry realized what he was doing. It got stuck on Harry’s elbows and head.

“No,” Harry yelled petulantly from behind the shirt, struggling to get it back down while Snape tried to get it completely off. “You slimy Slytherin!” Snape ignored the childish name calling and took stock of the injuries as he manipulated Harry’s arms through the sleeves. There was one slight bruise on his left ribcage and-

He was distracted from his assessment as Hoppity chose this time to reenter the room, potion bottles in hand. Snape tried to hold on to the struggling boy and managed to get the last of the shirt off. Harry was mad and doubled his efforts to get away.

“I didn’t know which table it was so I just took all of them,” Hoppity said breathlessly as she held out the offered bottles and jars.

Snape muttered a “Thank you” as he forced Harry facedown on the ground and gently sat on his legs so he couldn’t move or kick him. He reached out and picked out the correct jar of bruise healing salve from Smirkett’s hands. Seeing the largish bruise on his back, Snape pressed it, checking for any underlying injuries. The boy was so thin… he could clearly feel his ribs and wiry muscles beneath his probing fingers.

"Stop it! You're hurting me!" Harry cried out.

Snape ignored him and rubbed a generous amount of the gel-like potion on with painful pressure. Hoppity twittered around nervously. He ignored her, focusing solely on the boy before him.

“Where did you get this bruise from?”

“It’s nothing! I got it from a bully, okay?” Harry bit out as he squirmed. Snape could see that his face was screwed up from the side.

“No it’s not okay. If it’s nothing then why does it hurt so much?” Snape asked as he rubbed the last of the bruise away. Harry stayed stubbornly silent. The only sounds from him were harsh breathing and perhaps dry gasps of sobs.

Snape took care of another minor bruise on Harry’s back before catching sight of a truly horrendous one on the boy’s upper arm, one that would usually be covered by a short sleeve. He gently lifted the appendage up a little to inspect it. The bruise was a mottled purple and brown, wrapped around the small boy’s arm like a band. He moved his hand over it to confirm his sinking suspicion. It was in the shape of a hand; an adult hand.

“Who did this to you?” Snape breathed out.

Harry stayed obstinately silent. Snape scooped a portion of the gel like potion from the jar and then massaged it in. Unfortunately, this salve only worked when soundly rubbed in. Harry was breathing raggedly, undoubtedly from the pain.

“Who did this to you?” Snape asked again.

Harry finally responded with one distressed word, “Uncle.”

Snape tightened his lips and moved to inspect the other arm. He found a similar, but smaller and older bruise around this one as well. He rubbed more salve onto it rigorously. This time he asked a different question.

“How?”

Harry breathed painfully in and out before answering. “Pulled me up the stairs.”

“Both of them?”

“Yes. No, I don’t know.” Harry warbled apprehensively and he moved his head to rest the front of his forehead on the floor.

“Well which is it?” Snape asked with less malice than he was used to with this boy.

“One was,” Harry admitted, his voice faintly muffled from the carpeting. “But the other one just showed up.”

Curious… Snape finished with the old bruise and moved to inspect the rest of his arm. There was an ugly, harsh scar over the vein near his elbow. The raised and twisted flesh of the scar was disconcerting. “Smirkett,” he acknowledged the witch for the first time since he took the salve from her. “Hand me that red bottle.” Luckily, the twit had brought out all the healing potions so he could easily spread the scar reducing one over it now. It would take several more applications over the course of two weeks but it would heal.

His expression closed in. "Stupid boy! Why did you not inform anyone of this?"

Harry thought that he was referring to the scar on his arm. “Dumbledore knows,” he said hotly.

Snape blinked, caught off guard. If Dumbledore knew that the boy’s guardians were hurting him then why had he allowed Potter to go back to them every summer?

Snape then rubbed some bruising salve on a small bruise on Harry's lower arm (also apparently caused by his uncle) before flipping him over and looking for any other bruising on his front.

"Is it anywhere else?"

Harry looked down, angry from where he lay, trapped. "No."

Snape sat up and regarded the boy before him with disquieted eyes. He recapped the bottles and stood up. He had a lot to think about. Wordlessly, he left the room for the sanctuary of his private lab, shutting the door behind himself.

Chapter End Notes:
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