Dumbledore had quite an enlightening conversation with Minerva. He knew that the Dursley's were not the kindest of people but surely they wouldn't stoop that low, would they?
Minerva had entered his office that afternoon looking furious as if she was going to blow up at any second. "Headmaster, how could you have put Harry with those vile muggles!" she seethed. "I told you they were unfit for the caring of another child besides their own!" she continued.
"Calm yourself Minerva, its Albus and I'm sure they were not that ba-" but before he could finish his sentence, Minerva interrupted him. "Have you seen him Albus, the boy was covered in scars, deathly thin and extremely terrified!" she yelled.
"Severus brought Harry to Hogwarts?" he asked in a calm manner. "Yes, he is currently in the infirmary. But Harry will not under any circumstance be brought back to those filthy muggles and I will see to that personally!"
"The blood war-" he was cut off again. "There will be no point of the blood wards if Harry's dead Albus!" she slammed her hand on his desk in rage. "Well, I suppose that is true. Perhaps I should check the condition of the boy myself tomorrow."
"That would be fine." Minerva replied stiffly. With that, she walked out of his office, tad amount of anger flowing out of her in waves.
Meanwhile, in the infirmary, Severus had just woken up. Noticing the unnatural weight, he saw Harry Potter lying on his chest. Right, he had totally forgot about that, wishing that it had been a dream or something.
Quickly realising the uncomfortable position that he was in, he gingerly placed Harry onto the bed and stretched his limbs. His whole body was sore. 'Never am I sleeping like that again.'
While stretching, he barely noticed the Headmaster standing in front of him staring at the sight. Seemingly amazed at how close he had allowed Potter to be around him. "Good morning Severus. I see that you have slept well."
"If well you mean getting a sore back then I suppose I have." Severus snarled. He did not like mornings and definitely not mornings with Potter (he was only going to use his first name when talking for Potter's benefit he decided) on top of him. Although he had been the one to put him there, he could not understand his past self for doing that.
Sure Potter had been a little upset, an understatement, but this was unnecessary, right? Those big green eyes were hard to resist though he was not going to admit that aloud even until his death. He was taking that thought to his grave.
During his insightful thinking, Harry had opened his eyes, woken up by their conversation. Unfamiliar with the bright sunlight, his eyes squinted as he tried to get a good look of who was talking.
He didn't have his glasses however and everything was blurry. Well the glasses didn't help much since they were non-prescription ones but they were something at least. He could see a tall figure that was dressed in black sitting beside him. Sev'us! He stayed! However, he was talking to a man he hasn't seen before.
The man wore bright pink robes and had a long grey beard. He kind of looked like Santa! He had seen pictures of Santa when Aunt Petunia took photos of Dudley sitting on Santa's lap, laughing. They were hung in the living room for them to admire.
Harry didn't have pictures of him anywhere in Uncle Vernon and Aunt Petunia's house. Why would they even bother putting up pictures of freaks like him on the walls? They didn't even have any.
He didn't think Santa wore pink though. Maybe he was wrong? His relatives always had Dudley write a letter to Santa to ask for what presents he wanted every Christmas but not him. They always told him that they wrote about how he was a freak and a bad boy so he would never get any presents ever.
Seeing 'Santa' in real life made him nervous. He knew about what a bad boy he was and all the freaky things he has done! He subconsciously used his right hand to grip onto Sev'us's black robe, pulling it closer to him.
Noticing that his robe was being pulled, he turned around and saw Harry looking at the Headmaster, afraid of something. Afraid of what, he didn't know. What he did know was the ridiculous robe the Headmaster was wearing. Only he would ever buy something as obnoxious as this. The store must have been ecstatic to be rid of their trash.
"Good morning Potter."
"Mornin' Sev'us." Harry mumbled.
"Ah. Good morning to you too Harry." Dumbledore said brightly.
"Mornin' Santa." he muttered again as he leaned towards Severus, unsure.
"My my, I suppose I do look a lot like him. I've gotten that quite a bit." Dumbledore chuckled.
"Sowwy." He had just called the bearded man Santa and he had been wrong. Oh no! What if he gets angry? Unable to take it anymore, he went with the urge to sit in Sev'us's lap. It was warm, comfortable and safe.
Letting go of the robe, he crawled over with mild difficulty and plopped himself down at his destination, hiding himself in the folds of Sev'us's robe. He was still unused to people he didn't know, but if Sev'us was here, he would be safe, they would be nothing to worry about. Sev'us would protect him.
Severus stared blankly as Potter crawled closer to him before getting up onto his legs and positioning himself onto his lap. He had not thought Potter would do that without prompting or asking. He wanted to shove Potter off right away but refrained. He wasn't going to upset him for no reason, there was no need to hear wailing today.
Poppy had came into the infirmary to check up on Harry when she saw Dumbledore and Severus were there too. She hadn't expected Severus to stay with Harry the whole time, was Harry melting his ice cold heart? Even though she held great respect towards Dumbledore, his choices of outfits were still appalling.
"Good morning Severus, Albus and Harry." Poppy chirped (is this the right word? idk). Several 'Good mornings' and a 'Mornin'' were heard.
"What are you doing in the infirmary Albus?" Poppy asked.
"I'm here to visit Harry and see whether he should go back to his family."
Harry turned around slightly to peek at the bearded man, Albus was it? His mind was clouded with fear. 'Was the man going to take him back to his relatives? He liked being with Sev'us though. Aunt Petunia and Uncle Vernon were scary and mean, he didn't want to go back.' the thought made his eyes water, clinging onto the robe's silky material harder.
Severus seethed. 'How could he still entertained the idea about sending him back! Surely Minerva had informed him about their treatment towards Potter.'
"I can assure you that he is never going back there. There's no need for this." Severus said as he controlled his anger, careful to not scare Potter more with his fury.
"If you say so my boy. Who would be his new guardian then?" Dumbledore's eyes twinkled dangerously again. Oh he couldn't be- he really- no!
How could he even think of something like that? He was the most unqualified person for this! "Why don't we take this conversation to your office Headmaster?" he hissed. He didn't want Potter to hear what he was about to say.
Getting Potter off of his lap was harder than expected. The little brat kicked his legs and held onto his robes with a grip that a 4 year old definitely should not possess. "Harry, let go. I'll be back later." was he going to come back after? He wasn't sure.
"No Sev'us! No! No go! Hawwy good." Harry sobbed out, sounding unsure of his last statement as Severus was trying to get Harry to let go. Prying Harry's fingers off his robe as Harry struggled to hold on.
He turned to Poppy. "Some help would be greatly appreciated."
Poppy knew what Severus was going to say to Dumbledore in his office and was thankful that he wasn't going to say it in front of Harry. That would be disastrous and break his fragile heart. She came over and gently lifted Harry after Severus had gotten his robe freed and placed him on the bed, leaving her hands there to prevent him from going back to Severus. She knew this was cruel to Harry but it was beneficial, it had to be done if not it would be worse if they had their discussion here instead.
After Harry had been taken care of, he walked out of the infirmary with Dumbledore, trying to not be swayed by the desperate cries behind him of "N-no! No! No! Sev'us no go! No!" as Poppy was struggling to hold the boy down as he squirmed, kicked, fussed and bawled his eyes out while whispering reassurances. He might come back later to check on Potter, just for...Poppy's sake, yes.