The Boy: Brandon Dursely

Chapter 31: BOOM!

Snape eyes widened, his mouth agape. God, how it hurts. It was like he was slapped, again and again. Harry's eyes were still blazing, his now lavender gaze scorching Snape's being.

"I respected you. I thought you were different!" The boy laughed. It sounded like he was out of breath, "I was wrong! I was always wrong!" The magic in the air, emanating from Harry travelled through the room, like destructing waves of a rough sea.

Then Harry added weakly, his head hung low, like a wounded soldier, a defeated warrior, "I thought you'll love me, for me. YOU PLAYED ME! All this time..."

The boy was still crying. "All this time, you were seeing someone else. You were seeing my Da! You thought... You thought, you can manipulate me, don't you?! You thought you can change me into your perfect little boy! Well, guess what, Professor Snape! I'll always be like this! I'll always be insolent, arrogant-- like my Father before me. I'll never make the same mistake of thinking that someone could love me, for me, ever again."

His eyes slowly lost its lavender shade, turning back to green. What remained was a boy. A distraught boy.

The sharp sting of the Magic of Harry's slowly downed and calmed. Harry slowly sagged to the floor, and brought his arms around himself. A rather futile attempt at consoling himself, but for five, six years of being under abuse; verbally and otherwise, he made himself get used to it.

How Severus wanted to drain those dark, depressing, and wrong notions of Harry about himself. He was just... Angry, that's all. He was not thinking! How could Harry think that no one could ever love him?

Snape loved him. Snape loved Lily and James' boy to his core, like a son. He would never-- but he just did, didn't he? He just messed up. He made Harry hurt, feel bad about himself.

He can still feel the hurt of the boy as the last of the Wild Magic died down. Harry was on the floor, crying and murmuring over and over again, "Shut up. Shut up."

Then, when Snape tried to extend a hand towards Harry to confort the child, Harry once more shouted, "SHUT UP! Get away from me! I HATE YOU!"

A flash of light-- white, blinding, and hot-- appeared and Severus staggered back. A few moments later, when Snape managed to open his eyes, the boy was not on the spot where he was supposed to be.

Harry Potter, his ward, and the Son of His Heart, was gone.

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A hum. Harry savored the soft, succulent tones of the most familiar of lullabies. He was enveloped by a warmth and gentle hand, caressing his hair.

'Ma?' Harry asked in his mind. Nobody answered. No, he wasn't with Lily. A part of him was dismayed. He wanted to see his Mum, with her fiery red hair flowing through her shoulders, her vibrant laughter that fills Harry with the warmth he longed for. The verdant green eyes, looking like emeralds and sometimes, when the sun hits it right, Harry can feel spring at its beginning, where the soft rays of sun thaws the ice, and the dew drops slowly but surely makes their way to bounce upon the leaves and the flowers and everything becomes once more warm.

But when Harry inhaled deeply, when his head was pressed through the person's clothing, he felt himself comforted. He felt safe here, within the unknown yet familiar person's arms, within the warmth.

Who is this...?

"Harry?" A soft voice, urging Harry to open his eyes, to let the light seep through, "Harry, child. Open your eyes. Open them, Harry. You are here, with me, with us. You are safe."

Then she continued her lullaby. Harry inhaled her sweet, strawberry-like smell. He opened his eyes. He realised he was in a woman's lap, his head resting on them. She still wore her familiar black clothes, her dark brown hair still hidden amongst the habit, and her sweet, sweet, alluring smile. Harry cannot help himself but smile back.

"That's it, Harry, dear. Open them, now.

And Harry did fully. The woman gave her a small peck on the cheek, just like she always did back then. Harry extended his hand and sat himself upright in her lap and smiled brightly as he was hugged back. She laughed, "Oh, Harry. You've never changed, dear child. Do you still remember me? Us?"

Harry smiled through his burst of tears of joy. How can he ever forget?

"Sister Annaliese. Sister Annie," Harry whispered fervently, like a prayer.

"Welcome back, Harry. Welcome home," she whispered back.

-----

Severus sagged against the wall. Four hours. It was nearing dawn, and Severus was about to faint from exhaustion.

For four hours, they searched for Harry throughout the Castle, but he was not found.

Harry... Where are you?

Tears streamed down Snape's face. He felt helpless all a sudden. He never felt helpless ever since the night Lily perished by his own actions.

Come to think of it, Severus thought bitterly as he choked on his own laughter, it was because he was blinded by his stupid immaturity and anger. He was a man to hold grudges, that was for sure, but Snape had long since learned that doing thus had cost him everything he held dear.

And now, look how Fate turned out. He was stuck in the same situation, feeling the same helplessness once again, because he let his temper overcome him, again. He let himself drown in his unreasonable anger and became biased because of it.

How low was he to have used his exhaustion as an excuse to behave like that towards Harry? Harry, a small boy, who ever since then, only wanted to please him.

How can he ever hoped to have had Harry as his son if he was like this; just like his father? He was on the edge of becoming like Tobias as he towered over Harry and drilled the point using his sharp tongue.

Exactly like Tobias was he, he realized, at that moment. He used words that can be compared as to how Tobias had slowly but surely used words akin to what he used towards Harry just a few hours ago. He remembered how those words crushed his self confidence slowly but surely, eating out his belief in himself.

It made him aloof towards people-- an introvert.

And God, he did the same to Harry, didn't he? Even stooping low to comparing Harry to James. He was worse than Tobias, at some point. He knew exactly how Harry was sensitive towards talking about his parents, both his biological and adopted ones. He showed it many times before, how much he fiercely treasured every single memory and information he can learn about them. Snape of all people should've known that.

And he overlooked that in favor of satisfying his want to lash out his anger.

Severus ran a hand through his hair

There was no denying it; he messed up, big time.

He just hoped that wherever Harry was, he was safe, and that the young boy would find in his heart to forgive him for what he had done.

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A/N: Thank you, for staying through with Bran (and me) in his adventures. I would like to take this chance to say, Maraming Salamat po (it means thank u very much in Tagalog, one of our local languages in the Philippines) for the 3k reads! I hope you will stay tuned until the end.

This is a first time, but I would also like to say (more like, encourage); please, please, plese comment what u think about the chapter and the story so far. I totally love you guys! ❤❤❤❤❤❤❤