Chapter Text
Severus Snape was absolutely not a nice person. He was a former Death Eater, the lanky, brooding, and rude Potions master and Head of Slytherin House. There wasn’t a combination worse than that.
Severus had been completely sure that his set of circumstances was the worst until he met a certain Harry James Potter. Potter was obviously malnourished and shorter than most of the girls in his year. He always looked tired. Poppy would be so glad if he could avoid the hospital wing for a month.
When Potter came to school in Arthur Weasley’s flying Ford Angelina, Severus was not happy. The Weasley boy—Ronald—got taken to the hospital wing. Weasley had also gotten a lecture from Minerva, and Potter would get the same when Severus was done with him.
Severus sat down at his desk while Potter took the seat opposite him. He looked tired, as was the usual, but seemed even skinnier than he was before the Sorting Ceremony.
“I-I’m s-sorry, p-p-professor…”
Severus wondered why the boy had stuttered. He would usually stand up to Severus for some odd reason, but he didn’t do that.
“How do you think your relatives would react if they found out about this?”
Potter looked Severus in the eyes; his emerald green ones had a glassy sheen over them, Severus’ black ones staring back.
“D-do I have t-to g-g-go back?”
“That is up to Minerva. If it were up to me, you would be out of Hogwarts before you could stutter out your first sound.”
“Please, don’t make me go back…” said Potter feebly, and Severus wondered why he would be so reluctant to go back.
“As if you wouldn’t want to go back to a pampered home life, James Potter.”
“What’re you talking about?”
“Do not act as if Petunia does not spoil you into oblivion.”
Potter gave Severus a strange look. Severus thought back to Potter’s thin form and the oversized rags Hagrid had described as him wearing.
“If your home life was truly all that bad, Albus would have pulled you from there by now.”
“I’ve asked Professor Dumbledore to move me… He says that I’m safe there and can’t… I just don’t want to go back to the cupboard, or have bars on my window—”
“Excuse me?”
“What?”
“A cupboard? Bars on the window?”
“Yeah… That isn’t—normal?”
Severus gaped at Potter. Surely he was kidding. There was no way looney Tuney was doing things like that to her sister’s son.
“Mr. Potter, you are to go to the hospital wing immediately. I need to have a discussion with the headmaster.”
Potter opened his mouth to argue, but shut it. He walked out to the hospital wing with no complaint.
“Headmaster,” Severus sneered. “They put bars on his window! Surely you're not so ignorant as to not know that?”
“I am fully aware of the fact, Severus.”
“Why didn’t you do a thing, for Merlin’s sake?”
“Severus, the blood wards—”
“No blood protection is worth the risk of him starving to death in that wretched ‘home’ of his!”
“I cannot remove him from the Dursleys.”
“You can. I don’t care about this bullshit about blood wards!”
Severus gave Albus one last glare before bolting to the hospital wing.
“Poppy, may you run a diagnostics scan on Potter?”
Severus stood there as Poppy ran her wand up and down across Potter’s body, trying to soothe him all the while. Severus would always remember the slight stinging sensation of a scan, but hopefully there wouldn’t be many injuries.
He flinched when Poppy gasped. “Oh my, Severus, look—”
Severus looked at the list of injuries Potter had. The scroll was nearly two feet long, and some stood out more than others.
“Malnourishment, bruises, cuts, sprained ankle, amongst other things,” Poppy said. “That’s quite the lo—oh, Merlin!”
“What is it?” Severus asked. Poppy pointed to a line, and Severus almost puked at reading it. STD.
“I will kill that son of a bitch who gave him that.”
“But who?”
“We’ll see what Vernon bloody Dursley has to say on that matter,” Severus said. Poppy’s glare was remorseful.
“I do not condone your actions, but they may be necessary,” she said. “Just don’t kill anyone.”
Severus wasn’t sure if he could keep that promise, but he’d use all his self restraint to try.
Severus sat beside Potter’s bed while Weasley and Granger sat opposite of him. The two boys were talking about who might make the Quidditch team that year while Granger tried to get them to be more enthusiastic about studies. He wondered how the two never noticed anything strange with Potter before. Severus tried to act disinterested but couldn’t help but listen to their conversation.
“Speaking of Quidditch, remember when you almost fell off your broom?”
“Of course he does, Ron. It was horrible!”
“Bloody hell, ‘Mione. That was almost a year ago!”
“It still happened!”
“I’m fine, you two.”
“Are you sure? You look… tired.”
“I just didn’t get much sleep.”
“Okay…”
The three continued their banter until Poppy shooed them out. Severus started sneering at Potter before stalking off. He may hate the kid, but the one thing he did not tolerate was child abuse. Especially sexual abuse.