Chapter Text
The house was divided. Of course it was, how else would his mother and step father be able to afford it?
it was an old place. Not the pretty, majestic sort of old that the churches carry, but the kind of old that had a creak in every floorboard, and black mold growing in every moist corner. Harry, personally could absolutely believe it when his mother told him that Severus chose it. Of course that Foul Dungeon Bat would live in a place like this.
Severus Tobias Snape, was, unfortunately, Harry's step-dad (though Harry would refuse to even consider the man as an authority figure). He was a tall man, who had aged in a similarly horrible fashion as his aunt Petunia. His skin was a pasty white, and that only added to the man's cold visage. His face was not soft and caring like Harry's real dad, in fact, it seemed Severus had a permanent frown etched into it, and a steely coldness behind the eyes that could freeze you even in the warmest sun.
How his mum chose that over his dad, Harry would never know. James Potter, Harry's actual dad, was amazing in every way. He was funny, patient, energetic and a delight to be around if anyone asked. Not only was his dad better than Severus in every way, but James also delighted in teasing the man just as much as Harry. His mum called their mutual hatred of Snape immature, but harry loved having another person dislike Snape as much as he did. Which is why Harry couldn’t wait until the end of the month. His dad would pick him up, and whisk him away to a better, happier life without Snivellus in it.
All harry could think about while wondering around their crappy apartment, was how much better his room would be when his dad picked him up.
"Grimmauld Place is practically ancient," his mum had said in the car, "it's got that old timey blue blood vibe, like your nan and grand-dads place," wondering through its dark hallways, Harry understood what she meant. But unlike how his grandparents place was warm, and homely, this Grimmauld Place felt impersonal and cold. It had none of the good memories Harry had at his dads place, or his grandparents, and when he came to find his bedroom, that too felt distant and icy. The walls were painted a Hospital shade of white, and through all of the promises his mum made to decorate when all their belongings arrived, Harry still couldn’t see this room being his.
After that light exploration, Harry trudged out to the main room, stopping by the door. He saw his mum and Snape, having a moment. The couple were looking out of the window, far beyond the garden, and into something Harry himself couldn’t see.
"he's not going to let it go, Lil." Snape's cold and irritating whispers were like nails on a chalk board, but Harry's curiosity was peaked, and he stayed silent.
"I know, but its not like it's a lie." His mother responded, "If James doesn’t come,"
"when he doesn’t come," Snape corrected, throwing teabags into cups irritably, "Harry will be torn to shreds and find a new opening to blame me for his father's bastard behavior. God knows the boy finds any excuse to hate me already."
"He doesn’t hate you, Sev... he's just... dealing with a lot at the moment. He'll warm up to you soon. He isn't the bitter sort."
As if.
"Albus, the neighbor's come to visit!" Minerva left the door open for Harry, and wondered back into the house. Harry followed, slowly after, not sure if this was exactly an invite.
"the neighbor, Minnie?" A skinny old man, pursued by many ginger and white cats, waltzed into the room with the sort of dramatic flair expected of someone a third of his age would. Albus, harry guessed, had placed the dishes of cat food down, hurrying over to the couch to shoo two ginger cats away. "Forgive them, please. Fred and George have never had great manners," Albus smiled and gestured to the couch for Harry to sit.
"thank you for minding me," Harry said awkwardly.
"oh, its no trouble, Harry dear," Minerva said, "we know how busy it can be moving house," she said cheerfully, "and I suppose it is quite lucky of your parents Albus and I are retired," she smiled, "oh, lily and severus, its like I taught them both just yesterday. My, how they do grow."
"you taught my mum?" Harry asked, letting one of the fatter cats, Ronald, jump into his lap and curl up.
"oh, yes," the woman responded, happily retelling the story of Harry's mothers youth.
By the time his mum and Severus had returned from their errands, it was late, and Harry had no chance to even consider calling his real dad.
"I bet that snake took his time on purpose," Harry muttered as his mother tucked him in.
"don't be mean, Harry. It wasn’t Sev's fault." Lily pulled the covers over Harry, kissed his head, and gave a small, kind smile. "tomorrow, I'm sure."
Somewhere deep in the woods, a wild dog had fallen to its death. Devoured whole by a shoddily covered well.
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It had been a only three days since Harry had moved into Grimmauld place and what was worse was that he was entirely alone with snape for as long as his mum was out shopping.
Of course, the fix was easy. Harry simply hid in his room, watching Alice In Wonderland again. While his dad always spoke of how girly his favorite movie was, Harry had a soft spot for the music, for the world, and for the nonsensical characters in wonderland. His favorite moment, without a doubt, was the scene for A Golden Afternoon.
Of course it was with the roses, that snape decided was a great time to join Harry.
he didn’t speak for a while, just watching the movie from Harry's door.
Then he left. No doubt judging Harry's choice in movie, like his dad did. Only, it was snape who was judging. And that made it all infinitely worse. At least he knew his dad was only kidding with it.
His mum returned not long after, and Harry left the grown-ups to talk while he adventured about the house. Feeling particularly vindictive and moody, Harry chose to go into Snape's office.
Boxes were piled on top of each other, with corners poking out, just waiting to be tripped on. The office itself was moldy and gross, with an unreasonably large door behind the other side of the desk. The air was heavy, as though it was filled with a thick sludge. Assuming it was the apprehension of breaking into Snape's office, Harry continued forward. It wasn’t like snape could do much anyway. His mum wouldn’t let snape even raise his voice to Harry.
The door had a white lab coat hung on it, along with a badge. It was his teachers identification, for the boarding school he worked in nearby. Harry thought that him working at a boarding school would mean less time with the man, but due to close proximity, the man kept coming back.
Harry rooted through Snape's draws, absent of thought. He wasn’t exactly looking for something incriminating, maybe he'd just move some things around to annoy his step-dad.
Harry snorted at the thought. It was immature, but really, he was a kid. Snape should have been ready for it when he swooped in and demolished Harry's family. The animosity was natural. As he played around with Snape's personal belongings, a strange sinking feeling began to pool in his gut. It took some time for harry to put together what he was feeling, until, like a bus, it hit him.
Watching.
Harry jumped nearly a mile in the air, spinning on his heels to face the looming door at the back of the office. No one was at the other door, and this one was simply all round creepy.
"It used to be a stair case up, I think," Harry remembered her saying while they were bringing the boxes in.
Then why...
Harry walked closer to the door, gently tracing his fingers on the carvings. The frame of the door was rather terrifying, Harry would admit. The carvings had vicious dogs, snarling and growling and biting, all carved with such intricate detail, it felt as though they could jump out of the wood and maul him to death at any second.
Harry turned his attention down to the brass door knob, slowly reaching out to it. Someone had just knocked, right?
Harry decided to lower his hand, and pressed his ear to the door first.
The room dropped in temperature, and Harry thought he could hear it. Gurgling... rumbling.... the sounds of starvation--
"what are you doing?" Snape's cold voice came from the entrance. He wasn’t looking at harry at first, only moving to place the boxes on the corner of his desk.
"I.." Harry choked on his words. "I heard scratching," Harry lied, "I think we have rats." Harry was quick with his words, but somehow it felt like snape had already seen through his lie the man's cold eyes bore into Harry's own with such fierce bitterness.
"that makes sense," Snape said, with no inflection in voice. "though it's more likely to be mice. The man upstairs has... countless for some reason." Snape walked around the desk, and ushered Harry from the door, past the desk, and out of the room. "if you need anything from this room," Snape practically glared at harry, "call me, or your mother." Then, snape muttered something about getting a lock, and left Harry by the office.
it was the post that lead harry going to visit his upstairs neighbor. Some letters had been dumped on their doorstep, all of which seemed to have some form of CONFIDENTIAL or OVERDUE stamped on them in bright red ink, and it was only Harry and Severus home right now. Harry would rather deal with a strange poor old geezer than his mother's boyfriend. The stairs were rotting and moldy, and each slab of wood made harry just a bit more antsy than the last. It felt like at any point the stairs were going too collapse under-
"CONSTANT VIGILANCE!" Wailed a voice from above. It cause harry to jump and lose his footing. Thank god whoever it was caught his arm and dragged him forward. Harry looked up at his attempted murderer and Saviour and found that whoever this guy was... was just too creepy. He had a fake eye, and his face was worn deep with a long lifetime of emotion. Moreso than his real eye, harry felt like the very-obvious-fake was the one taking him apart.
"uhh... are you... Alastor... Moody?" Harry asked, shuffling through and looking over the address on the letters again. Instead of replying the man simply snatched the letters out of Harry's hand and glanced them over.
"BAH!" He yelled, tossing them on the floor in front of his door. "you're the new neighbors kid?" He asked, leaning far too close to Harry for the boys own comfort. Harry took a step back down the rotting stairs, and nodded uncertainly. The man took his terrified nods as an invite to grab him by the collar, "listen, boy. I don’t know who your parents think they are, but if they know anything, they'll get you right outta this house. Every kid who's ever lived his 'as gone missin'." He sighed after his crazed rambling, letting go of Harry's collar and swooping up his mail from his doorstep.
"thought there was a rule about 'avin kids in this place..." Moody had retreated back into his house. But through the crack of the man's door, Harry could see rat cages, all stacked up on each other. The rats—mice, he remembered—were all hissing and squeaking up a fuss before the door closed and Harry was left to be disturbed on his lonesome.
When Harry came back down the stairs, he found Severus with three strangers on his doorstep. The first stranger was a tall blonde man with weirdly long yet neat hair. The second was a woman with a split hair dye, half black and half the same bright blonde of the mans. The last and certainly the least was the young boy with them. All three were dressed in over expensive outfits that screamed money.
And the boy clearly knew it. From the second their eyes landed on harry, he felt judged.
"ah, Harry," Severus said, turning from their three guests. "these are the Malfoys. Old friends of mine--- this is their son, Draco." He explained. "I need to speak to his parents for a while. Would you mind.." Severus looked awfully put out by having to ask harry for help. "would you mind showing Draco here around? Maybe go to your room or something."
Harry huffed, glanced between the group of people he didn’t know and nodded. "fine," he agreed, taking Draco into the house.
"he's such a shy boy..." The strange man said.
"how adorable, though." The woman laughed. Harry didn’t think she was too funny.
Hosting for the Malfoys, apparently, was a horrible idea. Anything harry did to try and entertain the boy ended up backfiring as he bragged about how his own belongings were so much cooler. Harry bit his tongue, but he was slowly growing tired of his new … friend.
"you really must come to my own home some time. We'd have a lot more fun there. I have some go-karts we could play with. Three, to be exact. One in green, one in red and one in black. Father didn’t know which colour I'd want so he bought all of them." The boy turned away from Harry's collection of stuffed wild animals and sat next to him. "maybe your dad could--"
"he's not my dad. He's just my mums boyfriend." Harry corrected quickly. "and I won't be here long, anyway. Im moving back to my dad's place soon." Harry explained. "this is just temporary."
"huh..." The boy looked around Harry's room. "if you're just gonna go live with your dad, why's all your stuff here and not with him?" Harry looked shocked, like he hadn't thought of that before.
That evening, his father didn’t pick up.
Somewhere, behind the door, a doll was made.