Disclaimer: I don not own Harry Potter or any characters, places, things, or spells from the Harry Potter world. It is owned By J. and any other people she share it with. I am only a girl that loves to write even though I am not too good at it.

Harry Potter was sitting in his little cupboard listening in on the party just outside his room. No doubt because Uncle Vernon got a raise again. The boy sat, staring at the ceiling with his bright emerald eyes blank with a glaze over them and his raven black hair messy and blood clotted.

He was very skinny for a four-year-old and too pale to be healthy. Harry bones were prominent, hardly any fat at all, telling the world of his mistreatment. The dirt and grime on him showed that he was neglected. Harry hoped to himself that he would get some leftover bath water from Dudley today, but his only hope was for his fat cousin to forget to pull the plug. He needed to get cleaned up after his last beating. Harry turned to open the door after he heard the last guest close the door to go home when he knocked over Uncle Vernon. Harry winced. The door had swung open too hard. Looking down, Harry could tell his uncle was furious.

Harry had just turned four years old today. Once again, no one cared. His only birthday present was a nice long beating from his drunken Uncle Vernon. He knew not to whimper. He knew not to fight back. As Vernon drug him out of his cupboard, he remembered that soon enough, he'd be back in his cupboard unconscious and wake up with his whole body throbbing in pain.

"You have been here three years too long, Potter. You are a worthless excuse for a human!" Vernon yelled as he landed another kick to Harry's ribs with a satisfying crack .

Dudley, who always watched Harry's beatings, just laughed as Harry's eyes filled with tears. The pain was almost unbearable. He was still smarting from his last beating, and it seemed that Vernon was going for the more tender spots that were still in various stages of healing.

"You will soon meet your dead parents, boy!" Vernon yelled between kicks, punches, and slaps from the belt. Harry soon lost consciousness from the pain.

"Are you sure Albus?" Severus Snape asked the headmaster of Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry.

"Arabella had not seen the boy for over a month and even then it was because he had to go out to get the newspaper. When she caught a glimpse of him yesterday she noted his hair was blood clotted and he had bruises on his face, arms, legs, and hands. You know what you have to do, Severus. He cannot stay there forever, Severus. You know you are only torturing not only yourself but him as well." Albus said. His eyes were devoid of their usual twinkle, and that made the younger wizard very uneasy. Whenever the twinkle was gone, business was very serious.

"Very well then, Albus. I will retrieve the boy tonight. Is there anything I can do in the meantime?" Severus said with a long sigh.

"Yes... as a matter of fact, there is, Severus." Albus said with his eyes suddenly shining a little too brightly for Snape's pleasure.

As Severus Snape, Potions Master, exited the office, he grumbled and muttered the whole way to Diagon Alley, where he entered a furniture shop and began buying things that would transform his extra office into a boy's bedroom

A large crash. Swear words. A Bang. Footsteps.

Harry awoke with a start and sat bolt upright in his bed and looked at the cupboard door, adding 'whiplash' to the list of pains all over his body. He rubbed his head and searched with his hands for the cheap glasses gifted to him by his 'relatives'.

"Ow..." Harry muttered aloud. "Stupid relatives..."

"Who is there?" A deep voice asked, right outside of his door.

Stay quiet, Harry told himself, he'll hear you!

"Hmm..." The voice mumbled something Harry couldn't understand and the lock on Harry's door clicked. Harry tried to back up into the shadows and blend in with the dark but he cried out in pain, and apparently the stranger looking at him wasn't deaf.

"Bloody hell... Harry?" The man asked. He had shoulder-length greasy black hair and weird black clothes on. Harry's eyes narrowed in pain and suspicion. How did he know his name?

"Who... Are...You?" Harry asked difficulty. Uncle Vernon had gripped his throat hard earlier and it was very difficult to breathe let alone speak. He suspected his windpipe was damaged, but that wouldn't surprise Harry.

"Shhh... Potter, don't talk right now. I'm Professor Severus Snape and I'm here to take you away from these people. I'm not here to hurt you," the man said, reaching a hand to the boy. Harry shrank back closer to the wall and flinched, but opened one of his swollen eyes when a hand only touched his cheek softly.

Why does this happen to me? Severus thought, watching the beaten boy slowly relax.

"Where?" Harry asked tentatively. "Where are you taking me?" He cradled an arm close to his body and shivered with fever. Severus crawled into the smelly and small space under the stairs and put both arms under the under-weight four year old.

"Hogwarts, of course. Now come on, Harry. I've got a busy night planned out and we have to get you to Dumbledore." Severus said softly, picking the boy up.

Tears welled up in Harry's eyes from, both from the discomfort that came when he was lifted and happiness that he was getting away from the hell-hole.

"Am I hurting you?" Severus asked.

"No." Harry lied.

Severus shifted Harry closer and accidentally hit Harry's head on the doorframe, and Harry promptly passed out.

"Harry?" Severus asked as the boy went limp in his arms. He repeated Harry's name three more times and rushed out the door when he realized the boy might be dead.

"Pomfrey!" Severus yelled, banging the doors to Hogwarts open. He had apparated once he'd gotten past Number Four's wards and run from the Hogwarts Gates to the Hogwarts Doors. "Albus!"

"Severus, what's the - What's that?" Minerva McGonagall asked when she heard the noise her fellow Professor was making at 1:00 in the morning. She was dressed in an emerald green nightgown and had a cup of tea in her hands, obviously just getting back from the kitchens.

"Harry. He's unconscious." Severus snapped, leaping up the stairs. Daft women, he thought.

"What is Harry doing here? Isn't he supposed to be with those Muggles?" Minerva asked.

"They beat him and - Albus!" Severus replied, seeing the headmaster in a blue nightgown and cap walking towards them.

"Severus, what's wrong?" Albus said in a soothing voice, following the Potions Master to the Hospital wing. He waved his wand and a single flight of stairs lengthened up four floors, making it easier for them to get to the life-saving ministrations of the resident nurse. "I could hear you clear to my rooms."

"Harry has been beaten by those good-for-nothing Durselys and he's unconscious." Severus repeated, jumping three stairs at a time.

"Just what I thought." Albus said, running forward and opening the doors for Severus, Harry, and Minerva.

"POPPY!" Severus yelled. He paced the length of the room waiting for the nurse to appear.

"Wassit?" Poppy Pomfrey inquired, rubbing her eyes and coming through the door on the other side of the room. She gasped and fully woke up when she saw what Severus was holding to his chest protectively.

"Put him on a bed. Who is he, how did he get like this? How old is he, and where are his parents?" Poppy asked. She pulled two bottles of potions off a cabinet and a little tub of salve.

"Harry Potter, abuse, four, one dead Severus is his father, and the relatives he has been staying with beat him." Albus rattled off, knowing Severus was too preoccupied to answer. He stood back and let Poppy Pomfrey work her magic.

Poppy wasn't at all phased by the name, but instead looked to McGonagall. "Put this salve on his bruises," she ordered as she gave the Transfiguration Professor a small tub of brown lotion. Minerva nodded and took the salve. She gently rubbed it on Harry's face.

Poppy looked at Severus who was watching this with an apprehensive face. "Take off his clothes, Severus!" Poppy snapped at Snape as if he should have known what to do all along.

Severus nodded and did as he was told. Poppy took Harry's vitals and poured different potions down his throat, rubbing the bruised neck to help them go down.

"What are you giving him?" Albus asked.

"Dreamless Sleep and Skele-Mend."

"How is he?" Minerva asked, finishing rubbing the salve on Harry's bruises and cuts. They'd have to wait till he was awake to turn him over and put the brown substance on his back. It was too dangerous to flip him while in the condition he was in.

"He'll be okay in a day or two."

"Severus, is the room ready?" Albus asked. He situated himself on a nearby chair.

"Not yet." Severus answered with a sigh. It was obvious he was fighting back tears. "I can't believe they did this to him. I thought I was doing him a favor by keeping him away from his death eater of a father. I thought that Lily's sister would treat him right. Like her own son."

"I know, Severus. No one knew that they would be terrible to Harry. I am just sorry I haven't checked up on him as regularly as promised." Albus replied with his eyes downward.

"I'm doomed. I have absolutely no knowledge of how to be a single father." Severus said with a sigh.

"You loved her, didn't you Severus?" Minerva asked Severus, placing a hand on his arm.

"Yes. Now if you excuse me, I have some things to do." Severus snapped. He spun on his heel and stormed out of the room.

Severus sighed, conjuring a goblet of brandy and summoning a photo album from its place on the bookshelf.

He opened it up to a page with him as a 16 year old beside a pretty red- haired girl that was holding onto his arm and giggling. Four boys were in the background chasing a boy with silvery-blonde hair with bunny ears and a pink dress.

He looks like James…

He turned the page where there was a wedding. Severus was 18 in this photo and the same red-head was beside him smiling so wide her face could break in half. She was in a beautiful white dress.

I wish she hadn't put that glamourie charm on our son. I wish they hadn't had to act like he was their son

He turned another page that had the same woman in the last two pages with a bloated stomach and a shocked Severus and an older image of Harry.

Too bad she and James had to go into hiding... All because I was a coward and James was too brave to let her and my son go into hiding alone... but maybe it was for the best... Severus thought furiously to himself, almost crushing the bottle of brandy in his hand.

He turned more pages, sitting in thought.

I wonder if Moony will accept Felaw back?

Severus thought for a long while looking longer at one picture in particular. It was one of a big black dog, a silver stag, a gray wolf, a big black panther, and a gray rat surrounding a smiling red-haired woman about the age of 15.

I really hope so... We need to be back together for this... I need my friends... bloody hell! I am feeling emotion again! This feels...good...

But he came upon a new picture, one with him not present. The very same red- head that was in all the other pictures was now on another man's arm... one that looked like a older version of Harry with a baby in his arms. This made Severus even more furious.

What the bloody hell did any of us do to deserve this! Lily and James didn't need to die! Sirius never needed to go to Azkaban! Peter never needed to die! Harry...

Severus' heart filled with something as he thought of Harry.

Harry never needed to go to his other relatives... he could have stayed with me... his father...

End Chapter One

EDITED June 25, 2006