The Boy In The Shrieking Shack by Scott Berg

They walked down past the remaining patients who were not well enough to be transferred to St Mungo's before calling out for the matron.

She quickly appeared out of her office "ah Harry there you are, I was beginning to get worried. Well, where is he? You did find him, I take it?" she said trying to look over his shoulder as though expecting to find the deceased Professor's body floating along behind him.

Harry cleared his throat, drawing her attention back to him and gestured subtly for her to look down "I did" he smiled in amusement as she looked down in astonishment at the little boy in his arms half-hidden in a nest of dark fabric "this is Severus, Severus this is Poppy Pomfrey our school nurse, she's going to look after you and make sure you're well"

Poppy looked on in astonishment, unable to take her eyes off the young boy who was now looking up at her in nervous fascination from behind a curtain of dark hair, clinging tightly to Harry. It was amazing, could it really be that this was the same man she'd worked with for so many years, the man who cared deeply about his students but kept his emotions hidden behind a cold hard facade and a stern mask, the man who they'd all thought they'd lost. The child so strikingly resembled the young boy that she'd treated so many times as a student that she could well believe it although all evidence suggested that it should be impossible.

She shook herself out of it, it didn't really matter if he was the former potions master or not she was a professional and still had a job to do regardless of who it might have been and that was to treat her patient no matter how improbable his existence might be and if it turned out that it really was the same man inside this child she could thank her lucky stars later for this miracle once she'd made sure he was safe and well.

"Right, why don't you both take a seat on one of those beds and I'll run a scan to see how you're doing" she said recovering herself and getting down to business, smiling at the young boy. With a quick wave of her wand, she scanned him up and down and soon a scroll appeared with the results. She frowned as she read the results, underweight and malnourished, deficient in several vitamins, possible signs of hypothermia, bruising particularly around his ribs, numerous sores of varying ages, all of which were red flags pointing to the fact that he'd experienced neglect and abuse probably on a regular basis if the results were anything to go by.

She had of course suspected it when he was a student but had never been able to get him to admit anything, being as withdrawn and shy as he was and of course, the fact that he managed to get into so many altercations with the Marauders hadn't helped any as many of his injuries had been dismissed as simply being the result of him 'roughhousing' with the other boys and not eating properly. That of course didn't make it any easier or any less unsettling to see the signs in a child that was so young, it made her heart bleed to think that such a young child had already suffered so much pain and heartache in his young life. The one silver lining was that at least this time she could do something about it and help make sure he was raised properly in a loving home before it was too late.

"Everything alright?" Harry asked startling her.

She looked up and composed herself "nothing that can't be sorted with some good food and potions and a nice warm bath" she reassured them putting on her professional smile, she wasn't about to tell them what she'd found when the child was in earshot, no point in distressing everyone. "now then let's get you cleaned up and out of those dirty clothes" she said turning her attention to the small boy who shied away from her hiding in Harry's robes, clearly he did not like the idea.

"I think it may be best if I try and sort this out" Harry said seeing the look of fear in his young charge.

Harry gave her a knowing look before glancing down at his young charge, she took in the way that the young boy clung to him for comfort and agreed he would be the best person to convince him. "Alright, I'll start running a bath" she agreed.

Harry waited until she'd disappeared, before placing Severus on his lap facing him "now then do you want to tell me what's wrong?"

He shook his head, no he didn't want to talk about it, how could he possibly articulate why he didn't want to have a bath, how horrible and humiliating bathtime in the Snape household was every time he had to strip and sit in the horrid metal tub in front of his parents, there were no words to describe it.

Harry sighed "I can't help you if I don't know what's wrong you know?" he was met with adamant silence and tears as the boy buried his head into his robes again, clearly talking wasn't going to work. It left only one option, much as he hated to do it to anyone, particularly such a young child, fortunately, his experience losing Sirius had spurred him on to make a concerted effort to learn Occlumency and in doing so he'd managed to master basic Legilmency. He was still nowhere near the level of Snape or Voldemort but he knew enough to be able to lightly touch the edge of his mind just enough to see the surface memories and see what was causing him such fear and distress.

He adjusted him on his lap so that the child was once again facing him "Sev" he said softly "I need to know what's wrong so I can help you if you can't tell me then I'm going to have to ask you to show me. This probably won't be particularly pleasant but I need you to look at me and focus on showing me why you don't want to have a bath?"

He shook his head, refusing to look at him, "Sev, what's wrong?" "too embarrassing" he mumbled, he liked Harry, he'd rescued him and taken care of him, but he still didn't want him to see something so embarrassing.

"You know I'm not going to judge you right? I'm only doing this because I want to help, please let me ok?" Harry said, gently rubbing his back before lifting his chin and forcing him to look him in the eye. Severus forced himself to look and saw the sincerity in his face, he really did just want to help, he nodded he could do this he could be brave for Harry.

Harry sat with him on his lap, he put a hand on his shoulder "hush it's ok, I won't hurt you. Legillmens" he whispered the incantation before entering his mind.

He opened his eyes to find himself in his mind. There was a scene playing out before him, a tired-looking woman who may once have been pretty was preparing a metal bath before a small fireplace, she called out to a child outside the room that it was bath time, there was the sound of running feet and she left returning moments later with an unhappy sobbing child under her arm. She removed his clothes, revealing a mess of sores and mottled bruising, covering his small thin frame and carefully placing him in the metal tub ignoring his protests and attempts to squirm out of her arms, she scrubbed him down and poured water from a jug over his unkempt hair. The scene flickered, revealing another person, a stocky man with closely cropped hair and stubble wearing stained work clothes, he settled himself on one of the chairs chugging from a bottle of beer, shouting obscenities and insults at them and even chucking a bottle which narrowly missed them shattering against the wall causing the boy to cower attempting to hide behind the woman clearly scared. The woman did her best to shield the boy from the worst of it before lifting him out and drying him, dressing him in mismatched ill-fitting clothes which were already well worn.

He carefully withdrew, he'd seen more than enough to get an insight not just into why he was reluctant to take a bath but to get a good picture of his home life, if this was anything to go by, it explained a lot. It made him so angry to see how little the adult Snape cared about his family and how violent and aggressively he acted towards them, that combined with the fact that he had clearly grown up living in poverty. It explained a lot of why the adult Snape had acted the way he did, no wonder he was cold and bitter after growing up in that environment, it didn't seem from what he'd seen of his memories that he'd been shown a lot of love well except from his mother and even that had ended in tragedy. Even his Aunt and Uncle hadn't made the experience of having a bath that unpleasant for him, well except when she'd hosed him off in the backyard.

He shook himself from his own thoughts turning to the boy his hand automatically straying to his back to comfort him "I'm sorry" he said apologising both for the horrible treatment he'd had to endure and for looking into his mind as he drew him close "you know bath time here won't be anything like that?"

"It won't?" he asked looking up

"No it'll be fun with warm water and loads of bubbles and toys for you to play with, we are at Hogwarts after all, even the baths are magical" he assured him, playing his trump card and making it sound as enticing as possible.

He carefully stood up sitting him on the bed "tell you what, why don't we go have a look and see what Madam Pomfrey's prepared for us then you can decide if you'd like to have a bath?" he coaxed holding out his hand.

Severus looked at him, biting his lip uncertainly, he still didn't like the idea of a bath much but he did like Harry and it did sound like it could be fun, he had to admit he was a little intrigued to see what it would be like, maybe just a peek wouldn't hurt. He made his decision sliding off the bed and grasping his hand, he could always back out if he didn't like it

They paused on the threshold to the room that Harry knew was a bathroom, he had to admit he was more than a little bit curious himself to see what the nurse had set up for them as he pushed open the door.

They both gaped as the door swung open and they stepped in with Sev peeking out from behind his leg. Harry looked around, it looked perfect to entice a child, the whole place was full of bubbles and the bathroom was well stocked with a stack of soft fluffy towels on one of the cupboards, bars of soap and a table full of potions, soothing salves and the wizarding equivalent of shampoo and conditioner all designed specifically with young children in mind, there were even some cosy looking pyjamas set out ready.

He peered down and noticed Severus trying to peek up and see inside the bath, he lifted him to his hip so he got a better vantage point and could see inside the tub.

Sev couldn't believe his eyes as he followed Harry into the bathroom. The first thing that struck him was that the whole room was full of bubbles, not just any bubbles either they were the most amazing bubbles he'd ever seen, all different sizes from tiny little to one to gigantic big ones that were almost as big as his head and shimmering all the colours of the rainbow. They appeared to overflow from the bath floating up and filling the air forming great cloud-like masses of bubbles so you couldn't see the ceiling.

He tentatively reached out to touch a big one and to his surprise, it didn't immediately pop. Maybe this could be fun he thought straining to see inside the tub, just then Harry looked down at him and lifted him up so he could see. The bath was indeed full of wonderful piles of bubbles, not only that but there were toys. Sat on the side of the tub was a little man sitting on the edge of the tub dressed in swimming shorts equipped with flippers and everything else you might need to go diving. The little man smiled and waved before turning so he was facing away from the tub and adopting a typical diving pose, he placed his mask over his face before saluting him and plunging backwards into the tub. Sev watched astonished as he disappeared underwater before surfacing a minute later and waving encouragingly at him.

That wasn't the only toy, there was a little boat chugging along the surface puffing out little drifts of bubbles as it went, there was a cheerful yellow rubber duck that quacked and several soft toy creatures partially submerged, it looked like there was a starfish, an octopus, a shark and was that a tiny kelpie floating about in the water.

Harry watched smiling, it appeared as though he was entranced by the toys and bubbles, he had to admit that it did look like a lot of fun "so what do you think shall we give it a go?" he asked.

Sev looked up having forgotten Harry was there "ok" he nodded shyly.

It didn't take long to strip the filthy robes from him, revealing a mess of bruises, open sores and tender red raw skin. Harry winced, he'd have to be very careful "it's alright" he reassured him, sensing he might be embarrassed at having him see his exposed and abused body.

He cast a quick socurgify on him to get off the worst of the grime and leaned in to check the water was a nice temperature and noted that it smelled slightly of Lavendar oil which he remembered was meant to be soothing. Satisfied that the water was a good temperature he carefully lifted the boy in letting him get comfortable and investigate the toys while he summoned what he needed some soft wash clothes and a sponge, shampoo and conditioner and a soothing body wash.

He talked quietly to him as he played with the boats and figures explaining that he was going to wash his body and hair. He used his wand to aim a gentle Aquamanti at his hair to wash the gunk and grease out of it before mixing in the shampoo and conditioner and rinsing each out before moving on to the rest of his body gently cleaning him all over and being careful not to hurt him or aggravate the sores all over him. Apparently, he liked the jets of water as he giggled while putting his hands up to shield himself causing Harry to aim some more and splash him in a playful manner at least until he discovered that some of the toys could squirt water at which point Harry found himself engaged in a water fight with the octopus.

Sev was having a great time playing with the toys and making up adventures with the little man fighting off the various sea creatures, and riding around on the back of the rubber duck or having him comb the bottom for buried treasure.

Harry decided to have a quick chat with Madam Pomfrey while he was suitably distracted and engaged with playing. He went over to the door which led into her office and rapped quietly on the door so as not to attract attention. She quickly opened the door and he motioned for her to join him just out of sight in the doorway where they could stand out of earshot and watch Sev playing his face lit up with the genuine innocent smile of a child discovering the simple joy of playing and having fun. Harry imagined that his own reaction would have been somewhat similar when he was that age, after all, it was hardly as though either of them had been given many opportunities to have fun growing up.

She discussed the results of the diagnostic spell with him and shared her concerns, he nodded his understanding brow furrowed in concern, it confirmed his suspicions. He resolved silently that he would make sure that he grew up happy and loved this time, he would have a better life than the seemingly miserable existence Professor Snape had endured. She gave him some salves and creams and explained how to apply them to treat all the sores and bruises that covered his body. Apparently, if this was really Snape then he had not simply been reduced to a child but his body had actually returned to the same physical state as when he was a small roughly 5-year-old child bruises and sores included. Fortunately, the salves were all designed with young children in mind to be fast-acting and gentle so as not to irritate sensitive skin. Harry summarised what he'd seen in Sev's memories and why he was reluctant to take a bath. She nodded her understanding, no doubt this wasn't going to be an isolated incident, they would need to be understanding and help him through it if he experienced further traumatic episodes.

It was with some reluctance that Harry eventually told him it was time to get out before lifting him out and quickly summoning a towel to wrap around him so he didn't get cold and start shivering, it was so soft and fluffy not at all like the rough scratchy ones back home. He rubbed him down, discovering in the process that he was quite ticklish as he squirmed and giggled, begging him to stop.

Harry's eye alighted ona wound cleaning potions "this might sting a bit" he warned before applying the purple liquid to the wounds causing him to yelp in surprise as it stung the open wounds smoking slightly as it took effect "hush it's alright, you did very well" he said rubbing his back gently, he felt slightly bad but he knew it would act as an antiseptic and prevent the wounds from getting infected. He looked over the creams and salves before gently rubbing them in making sure to cover all the sores.

Sev sighed with relief, enjoying the sensation of Harry's hands rubbing the creams all over him. They felt pleasantly cool against his inflamed skin and brought instant relief to the constant pain he'd grown used to. Harry was relieved to notice that the sores and bruises were already starting to heal and fade.

When he was sure he was dry he helped him into the pyjamas Madam Pomfrey had left out, they felt soft and cosy and didn't irritate his skin for which Sev was thankful, he sighed contentedly as Harry lifted him onto his lap and proceeded to run a comb through his now clean and fluffy hair, he could get used to this.