my escape (severitus, drarry)

Chapter 4

Severus made his way back towards the infirmary to speak too madame pomefrey about his new charge, he knew it would be hard to approach the boy, he had dealt with abuse cases before with being head of slitherin house but this was a very bad case. The only sound to be heard within the castle corridors were the heels ,of the feared potions master, clicking against the stone floors as he purposefully walked to where he would find his new ward.
Severus opened the door to the infirmary moments later and made his way to madame pomefrey's office, once he entered and had seated himself on the chair opposite her desk poppy Brought out Mr.Potters file.
"Severus I have not seen a case as bad as his in a long time, he physically will be fine by morning a few sore joints and he may find his breathing is a little harder that what it used to be, but those will all be gone within 72 hours, during this time I want to keep him under constant monitoring, I have a spell on his body as of now that will alert me should anything distress Mr.Potter however just before you came in I administered a heavy dreamless sleep potion that should keep him asleep till morning." Severus sighed he knew it was one of the worst cases he had ever seen if not the worst but to hear thar from a qualified healer just made it that much worse. Resisting the urge to run his hands through his hair he began
"mentally Poppy, how do you think the boy is mentally? When I picked him up it was as if his speechhad regressed mind you I have not had many conversationswith the boy, barely talks to anyone other than miss granger and mister weesley"
"Well I cannot tell until he is awake but I suspect he will suffer from nightmares in which he will relive the horrors of no.4 Privit Drive I also suspect he will push away any care given to him, he will need help severus and a lot of it. I dont know how he will get it but I suspect he will need a mind healer aswell as a home, he cannot go back."
"I know, and he most definitely will not be going back. I have spoken to the headmaster and he is sorting out the papers now i am to be the boys guardian" Poppy gasped
"Oh severus that's wonderful I know you will take care of him, I can tell that behind that mask of yours you really care about him, I can see it in your eyes."
"Thank you Poppy, really. I am going to go to my chambers to rest and I will see you tomorrow morning" severus replied blushing.
"Goodbye severus" Poppy called softly.
Severus walked out of Madame Pomefrey's office and up to Harry's bed, he layed a hand over the small boys and gently pressed his lips to the child's forehead "I promise you Harry that I will do everything in my power to keep you safe, you will never have to suffer the way you have ever again. I am so sorry I wasn't there for you sooner and I promise to make it up to you."
That night in the dungeons severus tossed and turned in his bed, he could not take the image of the boys mangled body from his mind, the ribs that poked at the skin, the bones that were twisted at odd angles from previous breaks, the ribs that you can count even after the one years stay at Hogwarts since the last summer . Eventually severus finally got to sleep early into the morning.
Severus awoke the next day after just 4 hours of sleep it was currently 9 in the morning and he knew harry would be waking up shortly. Putting on his usual robes, leaving his outer cloak, severus strode up towards the hospital wing. Opening the doors slightly and slipping through severus conjured a chair at Harry's bedside and sat down placing a hand on Harry's hand and one on his cheek, the boy looked so peaceful when he slept.
Severus had only been there for around 5 minutes when harry began to stir, his eyelids struggled to open and you could see the eyes behind fighting to open them. Severus gently began to rub the pad of his thumb up and down the child's cheek gently coaxing the child awake.
"Harry, come on my sweet, can I see those beautiful green eyes"
Harry slowly opens his eyes and green met black, but it wasn't really black, harry found that Professor Snapes eyes were more of a dark brown and had flecks of gold littering the surface of the rich chocolate colour. "Snape?"
" yes Harry it is Professor Snape"
"Did...was...was it you that..that...saw..?"
"If you mean you, lying on the floor in the middle of a torture room knocking on death's door? then yes it was me"
"It...it...was t-t-hat bad?"
"Yes baby it was that bad. You had many fractures and breaks, a few ripps, your back was badly beaten and you had a bleed In your brain, if I hadn't have gone when I did you likely wouldn't be here right now. But I promise you Harry that you will not have to go back."
"B-b-but where...where will I-I-I go I ha-have no-nobody left" severus' heart broke for the little boy that was propped in the bed beside him, he knew what it was like to feel alone but he was not about to let this child suffer, just ripp it of like a band-aid throw it out there.
"You...you will go with me. I have informed the headmaster that your previous...living arrangements were less than satisfactory, no let me rephrase that, awful, and he has taken the liberty of collecting and sorting the guardianship papers for me. You will be my ward and I will look after you, i will give you the childhood you never had"
Harry sat there for a while stunned his hand absentmindedly rubbing against his thigh and this foot gently bouncing on the bed. "But w-why would you want me?" Severus sighed it was going to take a while to get there and he expected this conversation but even with anticipating it it made no difference to the difficulty he was having, how could someone do something so horrible to a child neglect was enough to damage a person but verbal and physical abuse aswell broke one it was going to take a long time to fix what the durslys had caused and severus was going to do everything he could to cater to his every need. Severus knew his thoughts about this boy had changed so dramatically yesterday morning he would have called this child an arrogant, spoiled brat who needed proper discipline in his life and had never heard the word no. But after seeing this boy, this sweet little boy laid on that floor everything changed he could no longer see Potter in this boy, he could see lilly and surprisingly a lot of himself in the way the boy sat. Looking back at old potions lessons severus could see the fear in the boys eyes as he stood tall whilst severus had shouted at him, he had mistaken it for arrogance but now he understood the boy was protecting himself, he didnt want to look weak and had probably been punished by his Oh so 'loving' relatives for showing said fear. Looking back severus sould note many strange characteristics from the boy, he would have to speak with the boys mind healer once they met them about these odd behaviours.
"Harry, I know what it is like to sit in that bed recovering from something that was inflicted by someone who was supposed to love me unconditionally, m-my father was not a very nice man."
"Oh no. You gotted owwies to"
"Its okay, really Harry it is , it was a long time ago. I'm going to go and get madame pomefrey to check you over and then I will be back okay baby?" Harry gave a shy nod as severus patted the boys hand
" it will all be okay."
(Word count~1406)