Potions and Snitches
Snape and Harry Gen Fanfiction Archive

Chapter 12
October 31, 1991

It had been a few weeks now that Harry last spoke to Severus. He had stopped staying after class on Fridays and avoided making eye contact with the man whenever possible. He didn’t want to believe that the man was trying to hex him off his broom, but he just had such a hard time trusting people, especially adults. Harry seemed to just go through the motions today; he knew today was the day his parents… no, his mum and James died. As he was sitting at lunch in the great hall after missing breakfast this morning, he could practically feel Severus’s eyes boring into the back of his head. He knew the man probably wanted an explanation as to why he was avoiding him, but Harry decided he just needed some time to think, and today was especially not the day he wanted to talk to the man. He knew it would be a hard day for the two of them, which gave him even more of a reason to avoid him. He didn’t want to show his emotions to the man, at least not right now.

****

Severus sighed as he watched Harry from the head table. He hasn’t spoken to him since that night in the hospital wing; Harry has been completely avoiding him and he couldn’t find a reason why. He had become worried when he didn’t see him at breakfast this morning, but then again it was Saturday, so maybe he just had a lie-in and went to the kitchens. At least he had hoped.

He knew today was going to be hard for the two of them. He wanted to make sure Harry was okay. Severus had always hated this day due to the painful memories it brought to him, and he could only imagine how the boy must be feeling when he didn’t even have memories of his mum. He finished off the fish and chips he was eating and knew what he needed to do for himself and for the boy to be there for him today. He was finally going to look at the memories in the chest.

****

Harry and Ron filed into the Great Hall behind their fellow first-year Gryffindors for the Halloween feast. Harry looked around the table and noticed Hermione wasn’t in there and he sighed “Ron, maybe you shouldn’t have been such a prat to her. We should go find her and apologize,” he told his friend. Ron shrugged “I will later, let’s eat first, I’m starved!” Harry smiled “you’re always starved, Ron.” Ron sat down and immediately started piling food onto his plate, whereas Harry only grabbed a small portion of potatoes and carrots, not feeling super hungry tonight. He looked around the room and his eyes landed on a pair of dark ones carefully watching him. Harry could tell the concern evidently shown in them, so he decided to give Severus a small smile and then turned back to his friends at the table.

Up at the head table, Snape was sitting there watching his son. His heartfelt full again after viewing the memories from the box. He had remembered just how much that little boy had meant to him; he was his entire world, well aside from his wife. He didn’t think he could ever feel like this in his life, but he had to admit, he never wanted the feeling to go away. He was planning on talking to his son after he had finished his dinner but didn’t expect his plans to be so rudely interrupted when Quirrell frenetically ran through the great hall shouting that there was a troll loose in the building. Almost every single student started to shriek and panic until Dumbledore silenced them and told the prefects to escort them back to their dorms. Severus made sure his snakes were in order but couldn’t keep his eyes from watching the head of wild black hair file into the Gryffindor line. He so desperately wanted to grab Harry and run into the safety of his quarters with him but knew he had a job to do with assisting the hunting of the troll.

After the students left on their way to their dorms, the teachers agreed to take different sections of the castle. Severus was studying Quirrell; ‘was he not a troll tamer?’ he thought to himself. He realized there was something very off about him after he returned from his excursion in Europe but couldn’t dwell on it at the current moment.

Of course, the old coot had to put him, McGonagall, and Quirrell in the same group to cover the third-floor corridor. Severus groaned but stormed out of the great hall followed by McGonagall and of course, Quirrell.

****

Harry and Ron had diverged from the group so they could find Hermione and bring her back. Just as they were about to give up, figuring she probably was already back in her dorm, they heard a scream come from the bathroom. Harry and Ron shared a surprised look, and both sprinted off towards the bathroom where they had smelled the foul odor of the troll. When they entered the bathroom, they saw Hermione huddled in one of the stalls. Just as the troll was about to swing his club, Harry took off his shoe and threw it at the troll’s head. The troll turned around and stared at the two boys. Ron gulped and grabbed his friend’s arm “what now?” he asked. Before Harry could even answer, the troll swung his club at him and Ron, and they both nearly missed it as the club smashed into the sinks, spraying water everywhere.

Hermione had crawled out from the stall and went to stand with her two friends, just as the troll swung his club again at them. Harry had pushed his two friends down to the ground and managed to grab onto the club as it slammed into his stomach. Ron and Hermione looked up in horror as they saw Harry dangling from the air in front of the troll’s face. “Hermione, do something!” Ron had shouted, but just as Hermione grabbed Ron’s wand out of his hand to cast a spell, the troll had swung his club into the row of stalls smashing them. “Harry!” both of his friends had shouted as their friend’s body flew through the wooden doors. Harry felt pain radiate through his entire body and could have sworn he broke every single bone. Ron ran over to him as Hermione cast a spell to distract the troll. “Harry, are you alright mate? Can you move?” Ron had asked. Harry just groaned in response but was able to sit up as Ron pulled one of the stall doors off his legs. After the troll was stunned, Hermione ran over to the boys and helped Ron bring Harry to his feet.

Well, apparently stuns don’t hold on trolls for very long since now the troll had turned around and was staring at all three of them. Each child gulped and held onto each other tightly. ‘Have to think quickly, have to think quickly,’ Harry kept repeating to himself in his head. Suddenly, an idea popped into his head, and he snapped his head to his red-headed friend that was holding him up, “Ron! What was that spell Crabbe used on us during that duel?” “Uhm, I think it started with a B… bomb something!” he said back to Harry. ‘That was it,’ Harry thought. He grabbed Ron’s wand from Hermione’s hand and shouted “Bombardo!” at the troll. The troll immediately blasted back into the wall and was now knocked out. Harry and his friends were also blasted back by the force of the explosion around them. They were now all huddled to the ground in an unconscious state, covered in cuts and bruises from the shards resulting in the explosion.

****

Just as the three professors were about to deem the third-floor troll-free, they heard screaming and then a loud explosion come from the corridor down the hall that they had yet to check. Each of them took off in a sprint towards the direction where the explosion came from and ran through the bathroom doors. They abruptly halted and took in the scene around them; the bathroom was destroyed, the sinks were spraying water everywhere, the was not a single stall still standing, the troll was lodged into the stone wall seemingly unconscious.

McGonagall let out a sharp gasp at the sight of three unmoving bodies; one bushy-haired girl, one raven-haired boy, and one bright red-headed boy. As Severus turned his head to see what had shocked his coworker, he felt his heart stop beating. ‘No… no, no, no,’ he kept repeating in his head. Without even thinking he ran towards the three bodies “my son!” he shouted. Quirrell and Minerva watched with a look of confusion on their faces as Severus knelt in front of the group of children and placed his hand on the young Mr. Potter’s neck to check his pulse. Severus dropped his head and let out a breath he didn’t know he was holding when he felt the steady pulse coming from his son. He placed a hand on the boy’s cheek and wiped a smear of blood that was coming from the cut above the boy’s eyebrow and then remembered his present company. “Please,” he began, “do not repeat the events that had just occurred.” He looked back at the two professors with pleading eyes and Minerva simply nodded while Quirrell had a pensive look on his face. “Very well, Severus,” Minerva had said. She turned to Quirrell and instructed him to deal with the troll, seeming as the man had spent many years studying trolls, and then walked over and placed a hand on Severus’s shoulder and gave it a gentle squeeze. “Let’s bring them to Poppy, they’ll be okay,” she had told the man.

Severus nodded and pulled out his wand. “I think we should wake them first before moving them,” he said. Minerva nodded and pulled out her wand as well. Both had cast an enervate on the children and each child woke up with a gasp and fear present in their eyes. Severus placed a hand on his son’s chest to prevent him from sitting up. “Are you okay?” he asked his son. Harry looked up and saw the worried dark eyes watching him carefully and he nodded but grimaced as he did. “Hurts… everywhere,” he had told the man. Ron had now sat up, seeming to be somewhat fine aside from the bruises and cuts, and had now helped McGonagall with pulling Hermione up to her feet. Ron and McGonagall both grabbed onto Hermione holding her up and started to make their way out the door to head for the infirmary. Severus turned back to his son after telling McGonagall they would be following right behind her. “Do you think you can stand?” he asked Harry. Harry shook his head “Ankle… hurts too much,” he had responded. Severus nodded and wrapped one arm underneath Harry’s knees and another underneath his shoulders and lifted him. Harry winced in pain but then relaxed into the arms feeling safe and comforted. “It’s okay Harry,” Severus said as he pulled his son close against his chest and began to walk out of the bathroom. Quirrell was watching the two the whole time; “I-it seems t-that the b-boy isn’t w-who we had t-thought h-he was,” he said to seemingly himself.

****

After arriving in the infirmary and placing his son on the bed, he sat down in the chair next to him and gently placed a hand over his son’s chest. He needed the constant reminder that his son was going to be just fine and feeling the gentle rise and fall of his chest helped him do this. While he waited for Madam Pomphrey to finish healing the Granger girl and Weasley boy, he allowed his mind to drift off somewhere far away.

**** (FB)

It was a cold Saturday in November, and he and Lily were cuddled tightly underneath the covers on their bed. It couldn’t have been any later than 6:30 am since the sun was just now starting to rise on the horizon and fill their room with a golden light. He had woken up a few hours earlier due to a terrible nightmare of the previous night’s death eater meeting where he had witnessed the slaughter of a young family. He was never able to fall back asleep after seeing those visions of the group’s ghastly activities. He hated that he had to be involved in such a terrible group, but he had no one to blame but himself. Aside from the meeting’s events, he was constantly worried over his family. He couldn’t imagine his life without the two most important people in it. He knew he would never survive if the dark lord had found out about them and taken them away from him. He felt his heart racing at the thought of this and pulled Lily tighter against his chest.

His thoughts were interrupted when he heard a cry coming from down the hall. Lily rolled over and sighed, she was exhausted after the past week. James had left to go on a trip for the auror’s office and Severus was extremely busy with his classes this time of year preparing for the winter holidays that were fast approaching. Just as she was about to get up, she felt a gentle hand push her back down against the bed and kiss her temple. “I’ll get him, love,” Severus told his wife. Lily smiled and rolled back over into a more comfortable position, drifting back off to sleep.

Severus got out of bed and threw a dressing gown over his pajamas and stalked out of their room to follow the loud cries that were coming from the nursery. As soon as he pushed the door open, the little boy looked through his tear-filled eyes and sat up, reaching his chubby arms up in the air to be picked up. Severus scooped the boy in his arms and began to sway, hoping the crying would cease so Lily would be able to fall back to sleep. Harry had gripped Severus’s dressing gown in his little fists and continued his wailing. Severus was gently rubbing small circles on the little back and trying to hush the baby. After another minute of the loud wails piercing his ears, he leaned back to get a good look at Harry’s face and saw his big, red-rimmed emerald eyes filled with pain. “Ahh, I think I know what the problem is, little one,” Severus told his son. He pulled Harry’s lower lip down and saw two little teeth beginning to poke through his gums.

He carried his son down the stairs and grabbed one of the ‘teething toys,’ as Lily had called it, and walked over to the medicine cabinet in the kitchen to grab the jar of herbs meant for numbing pain that was safe for a child of Harry’s age to ingest. He rubbed the herbs on the side of the teething toy and walked back into the sitting room to sit down on the couch. He adjusted Harry so he was laying on his chest as Severus laid back against the arm of the couch. He gave the teething toy to his son and Harry immediately accepted it, quieting down after just a few minutes. Severus grabbed the blanket that was draped over the back of the couch and placed it over him and his son and stoked the fire with his wand. He had both hands around his son, one placed on the little back, rubbing soothing circles, and one placed on the little diaper bottom, and for the first time in a while, Severus drifted off into a peaceful sleep, letting the little rise and fall of Harry’s chest soothe him.

**** (end FB)

His thoughts were interrupted when Madam Pomphrey finally made her way over to check on Harry. She took in the state of her colleague and stared at him. She looked over at McGonagall who gave her a slight shake of her head. Ignoring the very many questions that she had wanted to ask the potions professor, she ran a diagnostic over the boy and noticed he has a concussion, two cracked ribs, a bruised hip, and a sprained ankle. She informed Severus of his ailments and Severus remained quiet for a moment before looking up at her.

“Would you mind performing a more in-depth diagnostic on him? One that would be able to detect any past broken bones or severe illnesses or allergies?” Poppy just stared at Severus for a moment before doing exactly as he had asked. She gasped and Severus snapped his head up to her, “what? What is it?” he demanded. Poppy sighed, “Mr. Potter shows signs of severe malnourishment and undernourishment as well as deficiencies in many essential vitamins and minerals. He is severely underweight, weighing in at 25 kilograms, whereas the ideal weight for an eleven-year-old boy is around 36 kilograms. He has a fractured wrist that did not heal properly, as well as a few ribs that were never healed properly. He does not seem to have any allergies. This also shows that he never received any typical wizard vaccinations or muggle vaccinations.”

Severus sat there quietly, watching his small son in the bed, taking in all the information about his son that the medi-witch was providing him. He could feel his anger rising at each thing she said, but quickly occluded his mind before causing a scene in front of everyone. “Would you be able to re-fracture his wrist and ribs to heal them properly?” he asked her. “I would need permission from his guardians to do that,” she responded. Severus looked back up at her, “you have my permission Poppy,” he replied. Poppy hesitated for a moment before doing just as he asked. Harry began to whimper in his potion-induced sleep and Severus immediately reached his hand out to run it through the boy’s hair and whisper reassuring words in his ear. Harry leaned into the touch and calmed down almost instantly. After Poppy had spelled some skele-grow into the boy’s stomach she wrote a list of ingredients needed for a nutrient potion. “I’m assuming you will know what to do with these?” she asked Severus. Severus glanced at the paper and nodded. “I will also be recommending a healer down in Hogsmeade that will be able to provide him with the wizarding and muggle vaccinations.” Severus looked up, sadness filling his eyes “thank you, Poppy,” he said quietly. Poppy nodded and closed the curtain around the bed, giving the two of them privacy. Severus leaned back in his chair and tipped his head back to stare at the ceiling.

‘Oh Lily, what am I going to do with our son?’ he had thought to himself.

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