Harry Potter and the Different Path by Sherza

Harry spent the train ride in a compartment with Neville, Ron, and Hermione. The four of them spent most of the ride speculating on what, exactly, would befall the Dursleys at Severus' hands. The guesses got wilder, and sillier, as time went on, until all four of them were curled up on the seats giggling like maniacs.

Towards the end of the trip, they finally managed to sober up, and Harry glanced at the other three. "You guys are welcome to come over to the Manor this summer, anytime. Just owl ahead so we know you're coming. I know I'm going to see you, Neville, 'cause your gran's going to be teaching me the stuff related to me being, you know, a Potter." He gave the four a longsuffering look. "Bleargh. But Ron, you'n Hermione can come over whenever. Heck, so can your brothers and sister, if you want."

Ron was a bit wide-eyed. "Snape's letting ... " He started, sounding dumbfounded. Harry didn't really blame him too much, as Severus was nothing if not intimidating. He'd not been deliberately over-vicious since early September, but he was still strict, not much given to praise, and had an unmistakably intimidating presence without half trying.

"Yeah, he's letting me have you guys over." Harry said. "He's really not that bad, Ron. I know you guys didn't see it in school, but in private, he's pretty decent. Not one for hugs and cuddles, mind." Harry grinned at the look on Ron's face at the idea of a cuddly Snape. "But definitely not as bad as he makes out in public. I kind of got the impression that he got used to acting like a nasty git, and it'll take a while for him to really, you know, relax ... if he ever does." Harry of course knew that Severus' personality was due to more than the last few years of 'acting', but he wasn't about to blab Severus' private business to his friends unless he had no choice.

Ron grinned. "Yeah, I get you. Oh! I almost forgot! Mum said to tell you you're welcome to come over to the Burrow this summer, if you want to. Though I warn you, if you do, my sister sort of has a crush on you, at least she did last I knew."

Harry made a face. "You're kidding me."

"Sorry mate, but I'm not. Though that might change if she finds out about the Durselys, you know? I'm sort of dreading mum finding out. She's going to go mental! I bet she even sends the Headmaster a howler!"

"What's a howler?" Harry wanted to know. McGonagall and Severus had covered a lot of extra material with him over the last year, but it was pretty much impossible to cover everything in the wizarding world in that amount of time.

"It's a letter that people send when they're really, really, really mad." Ron explained. "It yells really loud."

"Ahhh." Harry said. "Gotcha." The mental image of Dumbledore having to deal with a yelling letter was amusing, and actually made Harry wonder if he'd had to do that already over Harry.

All too soon, the train pulled into King's Cross. Harry was ... almost looking forward to this. Severus told him he'd be waiting for them at Privet Drive. Harry could only imagine the Dursley's reaction to finding Severus in their home, laying in wait.

Fortunately, Vernon and Petunia settled for angry, hateful looks and a few spare, nasty comments during the drive to the house. Dudley kept himself pressed against the far door, as far away from Harry as he could physically get. Harry kept expecting the door to give way and dump Dudley on the street. Not wanting to miss a second of their reaction, Harry hurried out of the car and dragged his trunk out of the boot, hurrying to keep up with the Dursleys.

To his surprise, he didn't see Severus when they walked inside. Well, he didn't see Severus until they'd all got in and closed the door, at which point Severus appeared out of nowhere in the hallway, right by Harry's old cupboard. There was instant pandemonium. Petunia screamed, Vernon bellowed, and Dudley howled in fear, clapped his hands to his fat bottom, and raced up the stairs to whatever safety he supposed his bedroom to be.

"YOU!" Petunia shrieked, one hand to her chest as she regained a modicum of equilibrium after the scare. "What are you doing here? Get out! Get out! I'll not have you here, poisoning my family with your lies!"

Severus sneered at Petunia, lip curled in distaste. "It is unpleasantly disagreeable to see you again, Tuney, I must say. Time has not done you any favors, has it? As for poisoning your family with my lies ... whatever do you mean?"

It was clear to Harry from Severus' tone that he knew exactly what 'lies' Petunia meant, but was just baiting her.

"Now see here! You will leave at once, sir! You are breaking and entering!" Vernon bristled. "If you do not, I shall call the police!"

Harry very nearly fell over laughing, as Vernon had said almost exactly the same thing to Hagrid.

"Oh, please do call the police." Severus almost purred. "I'm quite sure they would be most interested to discover just how you treated your nephew. It ought to prove to be most edifying."

Petunia went milk-white, but Vernon was an ugly mottled purple-red and took a step forward, before scuttling backwards again when Severus' wand appeared out of nowhere, pointing straight at Vernon's nose. "You dare to threaten us? We did our best by the freak. Gave him room and board and food out of our Dudley's mouth! Tried to break him of his freakishness so he could be a normal person!"

Ohhhhhhh, wrong things to say. Harry backed into a corner so as to give a severely-pissed-off Severus more room to work with.

"Room and board, you say?" Severus snarled. "A cramped broom cupboard is no room! And your son has hardly suffered for Harry's presence! As for trying to break him of his so-called freakishness ... " Severus bared his teeth at the Dursleys in a parody of a smile. "As I explained to Tuney when we were children ... wizards are born, not made. There is no power on earth that can make a wizard stop being a wizard. And you have no concept of how lucky you were."

"Lucky!" Vernon roared.

"Yes, lucky, you corpulent buffoon. Because no matter your will in the matter, magic will out! A young child's magic, untrained as it is, will do what it can to protect them. You're just lucky that in Harry's case, it seemed to have settled for healing his hurts faster. There've been cases were an abuser was outright killed by a child's defensive magic!" Severus glared at the two of them. Granted, the last case of a child's magic lashing out like that had happened (so far as Severus knew) well before the Headmaster was born, it had still happened. Untrained wizards were insanely dangerous, as their magic was not under their control, and to attack one such was to court trouble at best.

And now both Dursleys were a pasty, horrified gray. "That's IT! I'll not have the freak in the house! I'll not have him endangering our Dudley, or us!" Vernon roared.

Severus gave the two that sharks-head grin again. "No need to worry about that, Dursley. I am now the boy's guardian. I only permitted him to come back here in order to fetch anything he might have left behind that is of sentimental value to him. Harry, if you would?"

Harry, trying not to grin, squeezed past the Dursleys to the cupboard. He'd left a few things in there, tucked way in the back, that he'd not wanted Dudley to get his hands on. A couple of old, ratty books that he'd particularly liked, some drawings he'd done, and a very old, faded baby blanket from when he was a toddler that he now suspected had been with him when he arrived. It wasn't much, but it was his. The broken toys, he left behind. When he backed out of the cupboard, Severus was looking at him, his expression saying quite plainly (to those who knew where to look, at any rate) that he wanted nothing more than to wipe the Dursleys out of existence.

"Got everything." Harry told him.

"Very well. I have just one last thing to say." Severus said, eyeballing the Dursleys. He lifted his wand, and Harry instinctively ducked behind Severus as Severus began a complicated series of movements, then fairly snarled. "Exsequor insons insontis!" There was a blinding flash of golden light that rushed out of Severus' wand like a wave, surrounding Harry, then the Dursleys, then concentrating at various spots in the house that Harry quickly realized were places he'd ... not been treated especially well. Severus gripped his shoulder and then apparated them both out of the house, straight to a spot just outside Potter Manor's wards.

"Severus, what on earth was that spell?" Harry asked.

"Avenge the innocent. It fell out of favor some several hundred years ago or so, but it was once used to ... punish ... the abusive families of Muggleborns. Every ill they visited on you will be repaid them, and the spell will not dissipate until the price is paid in full. Given how badly they treated you, they will be feeling the effects of the spell for quite some time."

"Good." Harry said, then grinned. "Let's go in."