Nobody Cared Enough !

Cʜᴀᴘᴛᴇʀ 2

The figure of Snape had a black clad arm draped protectively over the figure Harry's shoulder. The small fingers of Harry were clutching a portion of the voluminous robes.

The Snape figure's other arm stretched out holding his wand. Vicious crackles of green light, drawn as jagged lightning bolts, shot forth from the end of the wand to envelope a very eerie representation of the Dark Lord with snake white skin and inhuman, maroon eyes.

Snape shuddered. The Voldemort he'd known had been a charismatic man nearing his 50s. His hair had been brown, but long, nearly to his elbows, and Snape recalled how his women followers had been drawn to the Dark Lord; obscenely so. Bellatrix Lestrange had been the worst in her fawning over the Dark Wizard. Married to Rodolphus Lestrange the mad witch had no reluctance in flirting, shamelessly, with the Dark Lord in front of her husband. To Snape, Voldemort had always thrived under the mad woman's sycophantic behaviour.

Harry's portrait was like a Dorian Gray's hidden portrait of the soul that was the evil of Voldemort. It was... accurate.

Folding the drawing, he tucked it carefully back into his pocket. The paper was old, and fragile, and Snape had an odd feeling that the drawing had been a treasured one of the small boy's for a few years.

"How did you know about us?" he softly spoke towards the sleeping child. "How did you know about me?" Snape's almost shy question was so softly whispered, he wasn't sure he had spoken aloud.

In answer, a breeze wafted into the infirmary. It wasn't cold, but warm, like a gentle breath. It briefly touched Snape's cheek, ruffled Harry's blankets, and was gone as quickly as it had arrived leaving only a gentle scent of blooming flowers behind.

"Lily," whispered Snape.

He wanted to look around for his friend, but resisted doing so. He knew he would not see her. Lily was long gone. Only her son, small and vulnerable, remained.

Snape had very little sleep after he'd left the Infirmary. Three of his new Snakes had wakened in the night, homesick and in tears. He had not been surprised that one of the three was young Draco Malfoy.

He had plied each of the three youngsters with hot chocolate that had been laced with a Calming Potion and then instructed the newly appointed prefects to watch over the firsties as he was in need of sleep himself. As it was, he'd only managed three hours of sleep.

Since Snape had a busy morning ahead of him he woke his Snakes early and gave them his usual beginning of term speech that was normally given at the end of the Welcoming Feast. He briefed the firsties on his rules for Slytherin, and also reminded his older students of those rules. He then had the prefects usher the House to the Great Hall and to breakfast. He watched with satisfaction as his Snakes, neatly arranged from younger to eldest, assembled in two side-by-side columns and walked out of the common room. He followed last.

At the staff table Snape had a quick bite of some fruit and two strong cups of coffee before he rose from the staff table to hand out class schedules to his Snakes.

2 Sept 1991

Up in the Infirmary, Harry woke at seven in the morning slightly disoriented. He had started to get out of bed, to go and fix breakfast for the Dursleys, when he realised he wasn't at #4 Privet Drive.

"Good morning, Mr. Potter," came a cheery voice.

Harry turned to see the brown-haired woman in starched blue and whites that he sort of half-remembered from blurry, pained visions. He dropped his eyes quickly. It was never a good thing to meet a person's eyes. Uncle Vernon had taught him the folly of that.