Potions and Snitches
Snape and Harry Gen Fanfiction Archive

Small Things

Severus was jolted awake one morning after hearing the ringing tone of one of his wards going off loudly in his head. His eyes barely opened, he jumped up and grabbed a lightweight robe and his slippers and headed for Harry's room.

Behind the secret partition, he found Harry jerking back and forth on his bed.

"No! Stop!" The boy cried out, physically reacting from his dreams.

"Harry," Severus said gently, trying to rouse him without causing an altercation.

Harry screamed and flinched away, nearly colliding with the wall as he forcefully threw himself backwards from his nightmares.

"Harry," Severus said a bit more forcefully, heart clenching miserably as he imagined what kinds of horrors the boy was dreaming of.

Harry whimpered and curled up in a ball, hands flailing weakly at his imagined attacker or attackers.

"Harry," Severus tried once more, reaching out a tentative hand to touch the boy's tense shoulder.

The effect was immediate. Harry's eyes flew open and he recoiled from Severus hand with a stifled cry.

"I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry!" Was what immediately burst out of Harry's mouth as soon as he realised what was going on.

"Harry, shush," Severus soothed, sitting farther back from the boy. It was all too obvious that Harry did not wish to be touched right then, and he didn't want to push the issue anymore than necessary.

Harry was relieved when Severus moved away from him. He wasn't certain if he could handle the sensation of another man's fingers on his flesh. He shuddered at the thought and curled up into an extremely tight ball.

He still couldn't understand why he couldn't just get past this and move on.

I mean, he thought to himself, if Severus is right about how badly my relatives treated me, then how can I be all right with it, but not with something that happened for such a short time?

It was all convoluted in his head and he had a feeling it was going to get worse before it got better.

"Would you like to be alone, child?" Severus' voice broke through his musings then.

Miserably, Harry nodded, almost regretting the action when Severus stood up and made his way back into his regular bedroom.

"Harry, I'll be waiting at the table with breakfast if you'd feel comfortable with joining me sometime this morning," Severus said, turning his dark eyes to look calmly back at him.

Harry reached out and snagged his glasses and then nodded silently when he realised Severus was still standing there waiting for an answer. He was glad that no pity looked back at him through the man's dark eyes; quite certain that he wouldn't have been able to handle it if he had.

He didn't uncurl from his ball until he heard Severus leave. His professor—er, guardian—had arranged it so that he could hear what was going on in his main room, but that other people could not hear what was going on in his hidey-hole. He listened to the man's footsteps as they slowly faded and then dared stand up, pulling himself out of sweat soaked sheets with a shiver of discomfort at the feel.

Snitch popped into his room as he stepped into it proper, and wordlessly he reached for his pet, pulling his fuzzy friend into his arms and squeezing it tightly. He buried his face in his small friend's body and closed his eyes against the urge to begin crying again. He was sick of this; he was sick of himself.

He was somewhat glad that his pet had missed his latest nightmare. He knew his friend didn't like to see him like that, and was just as glad that the little creature had been outside relieving himself—or whatever it was he did there.

Unbidden, the sight of Severus' sad face blinked up at him from his subconscious, and he felt himself drooping slightly. His guardian didn't like it any better; the difference was that where Snitch visibly fretted and worried about him, Severus only became more intense in his gaze and his composure. It was more than clear that the man didn't like to show his emotions in front of anyone, and Harry had a very strong feeling that the little he was demonstrating to him was significant.

"Want to go take a shower?" He finally managed to ask Snitch after a few more minutes of silently snuggling with his pet.

Snitch squeaked in affirmation, petting his face gently with a paw and making Harry nearly start crying again because of it.

"Come on then," Harry said, carrying his friend to the bathroom and turning on the water.

. . .

Twice now, Hadwyn had caught sight of a large black dog following him across Hogwarts' grounds. The creature was very quiet, but Hadwyn had years of experience with wildlife, and it didn't take him very much time to become aware of the thing's presence.

He was walking back from Hagrid's cabin one evening when his senses flared once more, alerting him to the presence of something dark and shaggy wandering just at the edges of his awareness. Stopping, he turned and looked back into the darkness, trying to peer into the approximate area that he thought he had sensed the thing's movements.

Slowly moving into a crouch, he reached his hand into an inner pocket and pulled out a rough hunk of dried beef that he kept in there for various reasons. He thought he heard the barest edge of a high pitched whine and he smiled to himself.

Pulling his arm back, he threw the hunk of meat forwards into the darkness of the edge of the forest and then sat back on his haunches and waited for something to come forward and eat it.

He didn't have to wait very long. The creature that darted forward was skinny—even starving, if his eyes weren't deceiving him. As he had thought, it was a large black dog, its fur blending in perfectly with the inkiness of night, making it hard to pinpoint with just his eyes.

He reached out with his magic just as the dog reached the hunk of meat, grabbing it up with his mouth and then bounding backwards into the forest itself to eat in relative privacy.

Smiling again, Hadwyn reached into his pocket again and pulled out another hunk, and then tossed it again, just not as far out as before. He repeated his action several times until the dog was practically within arm's reach, and it was then that he first spoke to it.

"My, yeh are a pretty thing, aren't yeh? Strong too, hmm?" He asked as he watched the dog rip the chunk of jerky in two with a chomp of its jaw.

"That nice thick fur must keep yeh rather warm, yes?" He murmured, reaching out an open hand for the dog to sniff.

After some trepidation, the black furry creature did just that. It sniffed his hand and then licked it and then finally bounded closer, sticking a wet nose into the inside of his robes trying to find more food.

"And a brave boy too, uh huh, yes yeh are," Hadwyn said, keeping up a steady stream of calm, non-threatening chatter as he petted the dog and fed him another chunk of meat directly from his hand.

"Would yeh like to sleep somewhere warm tonight? I can guarantee yeh'll be fed there, and brushed, and maybe even played with. How d'yeh like that idea?" He asked; rubbing under the dog's head and then finally giving the creature a good tummy rub.

The black haired dog licked his hand and face some more, and then wagged his tail energetically, barking a few times to indicate that he liked this idea very much.

"Well come on," Hadwyn said, standing up slowly, not trying to spook the poor creature into bolting.

. . .

A freshly washed Harry finally made it down to the breakfast table nearly forty minutes after Severus had woken the boy up. Considering how distraught the child had been, he was somewhat surprised that the child had not taken any longer. Judging from the lingering pinkness of his skin, Harry had scrubbed himself thoroughly and possibly to the point of pain. Although Severus could not identify with the sensation of being sexually violated, he was very familiar with having his mind violated and to a point, his body.

He remembered the sort of overzealous cleansing that usually accompanied direct violation of his person, and mentally he shuddered at the memory. He wouldn't wish that on anyone, but especially not Lily's son.

Both the dark lord and Dumbledore enjoyed testing his loyalty, but only the former enjoyed the pain that was caused from such testing. True, over the past ten years, his relationship with Dumbledore had grown past the strained days of his first foray into spying, and while he couldn't precisely call the older man a friend, he did consider him to be a trustworthy ally—at least most of the time. He was under no delusions that Dumbledore worked for himself. It was mere serendipity that his goals aligned most of the time with that of the Light, or so Severus believed.

"Hi Severus," Harry whispered, sitting down next to him shyly.

"Hello Harry," Severus responded with, trying to keep his voice as normal as possible. He was under no delusions of it being a good morning, though.

"Have you been waiting for me very long?" Harry's voice did not rise above a whisper, but Severus did not make light of it.

"Hardly. I feel that you should know that I cannot eat until I have had at least one cup of coffee—or more," he added with an eyebrow raised.

"Oh," Harry twiddled his fingers together and then looked up again. "And have you?"

"I just finished my cup a moment before you walked in. I would like to thank you for your timing," Severus said in a serious voice, letting none of his humour for his statement bleed through into his voice.

"Oh," Harry said again, glancing up at him with an almost smile. "You're welcome then, I guess."

"Yes, a welcome is typically the proper response to being thanked," Severus added, curling up a corner of his lips in kindness.

It was strange to think that before this situation had occurred, he would have never bestowed unnecessary kindness on anyone this young—particularly not a child from Gryffindor, let alone the Boy-Who-Lived.

Yet, slowly but surely, such small acts of gentleness were becoming easier for him to manage.

It was oddly bewildering.


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