Chapter 1

A/N: Hello people! This is my second story and I am hoping it will be a good one! It's ultimately a Snape adopts Harry fanfic. There will be no slash. And it contains scenes of self-harming and abuse, be warned!

Read my other story, 'Vindicans Vindicabo' if you like my work!

DISCLAIMER: I do not own any characters or this beautiful universe of Harry Potter. This all belongs to J K Rowling.

Chapter 1: Back to Hogwarts

It was a pleasant night. Harry was leaning on his window sill, trying to lip read a muggle daily soap playing in the opposite house. Harry decided that he envied that family as he watched the father pull his daughter closer to him. His eyes found the mother who was running a hand through her son's hair as he lay with his head on her lap. The children were 2 years younger than Harry.

Harry knew them from the park where they played every evening. The family erupted in sudden laughter and Harry frowned.

Not to look like a stalker or a creep, Harry reluctantly diverted his eyes from the house and towards the sky. He was going back to Hogwarts tomorrow. He was going back home.

Harry smiled at the thought. His eyes then turned dark as he remembered the last year.

Sirius…

Harry's only chance at having a real family was ripped away from him. He brushed a tear that had escaped his eyes and breathed in deeply in the fresh air.

Uncle Vernon had not gone even a tad bit easy on him this time, rather, he was more aggressive and rough. Harry was not a stranger to pain, but when his uncle started beating him around 2 years ago, his heart couldn't take it. His own aunt just smirked at him when he used to come downstairs after a beating from his Uncle.

This summer was no different.

'At least he didn't do it every day.' Harry thought with a sigh.

His back hurt due to all the welts and open wounds and he clenched his fist to control the pain.

Over the summer, Harry had discovered a new technique to bear his physical and emotional pain. He looked at his wrists where thin pale lines stood prominently in the moon light.

The cuts distracted him from the pain of losing Sirius and Uncle Vernon's belt. He knew what he was doing was wrong and self-destructing, but who would care for him? Nobody.

Not even Dumbledore. His friends would, but he was not sure of that after he had learned that Ron and Hermione had started dating over the summer. He knew he was not their first priority anymore.

Maybe Remus would care. But the man himself was too broken after losing his best friend to comfort Harry.

Harry suddenly realized that he was all alone in the world. The thought scared him.

He looked at the stars one last time before moving towards his bed.

The opposite house was quiet. The TV was turned off and the kids were sent to bed.

Harry's stomach rumbled. He had not eaten in 2 days.

He blocked the hunger by pressing the cuts on his wrists. The sharp sting was comforting.

He drifted off to a fitful sleep, silently wishing that all of this turns out to be a dream and he would wake up in the morning to find his mother making breakfast and his father discussing Quidditch with Sirius and Remus.

If only dreams could come true.

/

"Try not to come back." Vernon muttered darkly as he watched Harry's small frame struggling to get his trunk out of the boot. Harry had send Hedwig to Hogwarts 2 nights ago and her cage was currently sitting beside his foot.

He hauled the trunk out with a grunt and panted as he closed the boot. He could see Vernon's sneer as the man, without a backward glance, rode away on the busy streets of London.

Harry couldn't help the small smile that broke out on his face when he entered platform 9¾.

The Hogwarts Express stood proudly on the tracks, huffing out small puffs of smoke. A small ball of excitement burst in his stomach as he thought of the coming year at Hogwarts. He scanned the crowd for his friends from where he stood on the sides. Mothers were crying as their children hugged them and fathers wore a proud expression on their faces. It brought a feeling of jealousy in him but he was quick to disregard it.

'You cannot miss what you never had.' He thought stoically.

A large group of red heads made Harry grin and he started walking towards them.

"Harry! Oh dear! I swear you get smaller and smaller every summer." Mrs. Weasely commented with a disapproving look at his small frame before hugging him tightly.

"Good to see you too, Mrs. Weasely." Harry croaked out as he was sandwiched between her arms and her body.

"How are you doing, mate?" Ron asked him as he gave him a brotherly hug.

"Great. Who won? Falmouth Falcons or Chudley Cannons?" Harry inquired.

Ron snorted at his question.

"Who do you think? Cannons of course! World's greatest team." He said with a dreamy look on his face.
"Yeah, our Ronnikins is marrying the Captain of the Cannons next year." Harry snickered as Ron glared at the twins who were making snogging faces at him.

"How's the store coming along?" Harry asked them.

"Awesome. We already made a lot of progress over the summer. All thanks to our secret investor." Fred whispered the last part and George winked at him. Harry grinned at them.

"It's good to see you, Harry." Arthur said and patted Harry on the back. Harry sucked in a gasp as his wounds stung and forced out a smile.

"Thank you, Mr. Weasely. It's always great to see you too." He said in a strained voice.

Fortunately, no one noticed as the Hogwarts Express suddenly gave a loud whistle.

"Alright, off with you lot!" Molly said and her eyes glistened as they boarded the Express.

"Write to us! You too Harry!" She said with a stern look towards him.

"We'll keep you updated about the store!" The twins yelled and waved at them as the Express left the platform. Ginny went over to her friends while Harry, Ron and Hermione sat in the last compartment.

Harry excused himself to go over to the washroom where he put a glamour charm on his wrists; Vernon was clever enough to not damage his face or any other revealing part but Harry's chest and back were full of welts and bruises.

He entered the compartment to find Ron and Hermione sitting too close than he would have liked.

"I see you two are getting along quite well." He smirked at them.

Hermione blushed and Ron gave him a sheepish smile.

"Do you want me to go…"

"NO! Harry!" Hermione reached out and hit him lightly on his arm as he grinned.

/

Hogwarts was as beautiful as ever. The excitement Harry had felt on his first ever look at Hogwarts in his first year, never left him. Hermione and Ron had gone off for prefect duties, so he accompanied Ginny and Neville to the castle.

He met his friends inside the Great hall and sat beside them.

"Bloody hell, Snape looks more murderous than ever." Ron commented. Harry glanced at the said professor and sure enough Snape had a terrifying glare etched onto his face. Their eyes locked for a moment before Snape sneered at him and looked away.

"Are you going to apologize to him?" Hermione asked from opposite. Ron, who was drinking Pumpkin juice spluttered it over the table.

"What? Why would Harry apologize?" He asked as he cleaned up his mess with a quick spell.

"He looked into his pensive, Ron! That's private!" Hermione said and looked at Harry. "So, are you?"

Harry took a sip of his own juice before shrugging.

"I don't know." He said flatly.

Hermione huffed and Ron gave her a victorious look before patting Harry's arm.

The next half an hour was spent sorting the new first years who, as Ron so wisely phrased, looked like they peed their pants.

10 new Gryffindors were welcomed into the house. As Dumbledore clapped his hands, Harry noticed his one hand wrapped up in bandage and frowned.

"Wonder what's wrong with Dumbledore's hand." Hermione voiced his thoughts.

"Maybe someone cursed his Lemon Drops' bowl." Ron said as he shoved chicken in his mouth.

"I place my bets on McGonagall." Harry grinned at him.

"Nah, it's most likely Snape from the way he's talking and glaring at the old man." Ron said.

"Stop it you two!" Hermione admonished them. "It might actually be serious."

Ron rolled his eyes and focused on his meal as Hermione proceeded to give him a lecture on insensitivity. Harry tuned them out and pushed his food around the plate. He thought he would be hungry after not eating for a few days but he was surprised to find that he could not stomach more than 5 bites of his meal.

"Harry?" Hermione's voice snapped him out of his trance.

"Yes?" He asked.

"I asked if you are alright. You are just pushing your food around." She looked at him with concern.

"I am just not hungry, I guess." He said and pushed away his almost untouched plate.

"It must be the journey. It tires you out." She said understandingly, but her eyes never left their concern.

"Yeah, definitely that." Harry said and finished his juice. "If you both don't mind, I'll head up to the dormitory, I need sleep." He said and faked a yawn.

"Yeah mate, go on. As it is we have to escort the little monsters, so we'll have to wait for them to finish."

"Ron, they are not little monsters! You were a first year too!" Hermione scolded him.

"Yeah, but I am not anymore, so I have the right to call them that!" Harry shook his head at both of them before departing.

"Potter." Draco Malfoy greeted from behind him as he ascended the stairs.

"Malfoy." Harry greeted back.

"I see you are not with your little fan club today." Draco sneered.

"I can say the same for you, Malfoy." Harry said tiredly. He was in no mood for a verbal fight with the Slytherin.

"What's wrong with you?" Draco asked oddly.

"Why do you care?" Harry said and took a right turn. "Nobody does." He muttered mostly to himself, not realizing that Malfoy had heard him.

/

"Harry! Wake up! We are going to be late for breakfast!" Ron said as he shook his shoulder.

Harry groaned and turned to his side. He had not slept well, nightmares plagued his sleep every night. He had finally fallen into a peaceful slumber at almost 4:30 in the morning.

"You go on, I'll be there shortly." He said sleepily.

Ron gave him a worried look before going away.

After 5 minutes, when everyone had left, Harry got up and winced as his back protested. He took out his nicely ironed school robes and slipped into the bathroom. He was glad no one was there. He inspected his chest and back which supported blue and black bruises and some red angry welts. Harry sighed and grabbed a jar of Healing salve from the Medicine cabinet before applying it to all reachable parts. He knew that the salve was of level one and won't do him much good, but it would still help him get through the day. He quickly dressed himself before grabbing his clothes.

As he was putting his pajamas in his trunk, he caught sight of the broken mirror Sirius had given him. Harry gulped as he took it out. A small spot of dried blood could be spotted on the edge of the small piece of mirror.

Harry's hand shook as he held it. The urge to hurt himself intensified as the thoughts about Sirius invaded his mind.

He growled before pulling his sleeves up and quickly cutting his hands twice.

He breathed hard as he saw two lines of blood appear on his wrist.

'He died because of me.' He thought as he put his hand under the cold flow of water in the bathroom's wash basin. It stung a bit, but Harry welcomed the pain. After putting his glamours back on, Harry grabbed his bag and went to the Great Hall, his mirror lay deep inside his robe pocket.

Hermione handed him his timetable as he sat down beside Ron and he muttered a quick 'thanks' in return.

"We have Transfiguration with the Hufflepuffs first thing today. No DADA and Potions till tomorrow." Ron said to particularly no one.

Harry grabbed a slice of bread and buttered it before nibbling on it and perused his timetable.

"Did you hear? We got a new teacher for DADA." Seamus said from the side.

"We get that every year, Seamus." Ron snorted him.

"Who's teaching?" Hermione asked.
"I don't know." Seamus shrugged. "He or she wasn't there for the feast yesterday."

Just then, Hedwig swooped down towards Harry and brought a large parcel with her. Harry gave her a piece of bacon and a small pat before she flew off.

Hermione raised an eyebrow as he opened his parcel.

"I didn't have time to go to Diagon Alley in the holidays." Harry explained as he pulled out his new books. Hermione inspected them and frowned.

"Harry, you don't have Potions in these. I am pretty sure you were accepted in the class. You got an 'O' in your OWL's didn't you?" She asked him. Harry had developed a sudden interest in Potion last year, much to Hermione's excitement and Ron's chagrin.

"Yeah. Flourish and Botts were out of them. They will owl it next week when they get a fresh stock." He said. "You are in Potions too?" He looked at Ron.

"Nah…Snape is a git." He said as a matter of fact. "I am happy without Potions."

Harry finished his bread and stuffed his books inside his bag.

"We should go, or we'll be late." Hermione said and the trio stood up and left for their first class.

/

Severus rubbed his eyes as he felt a headache coming on. It was not even lunch and already 4 students were injured due to poor potion making skills.

'Bloody Ravenclaws.' He thought as he summoned a potion for himself. He was glad he had a free lecture before lunch and settled down on his office sofa with a book in his hands.

The floo roared to life and Albus stepped out.

"Rough morning, Severus?" He asked, too cheerfully for Severus' taste.

"4 cauldrons, Albus. 4 bloody cauldrons. He said and sat up straight to put his book down.

"First years are always like that, Severus." Albus chuckled. "Ah…I knew you always had a love for Muggle Literature." Albus said as he inspected Severus' copy of 'The Tale of two cities.'

"It is for leisure. What brings you here?" He asked and conjured two cups of tea, handing one to the old man.

"Just checking." Albus smiled and rubbed his darkened hand unconsciously.

"Are you taking the potion I gave you?" Severus narrowed his eyes at the Headmaster.

"I am, Severus." Albus assured him. "Although I am not sure if it will work." He said and looked at his hand sadly.

"It will." Severus said firmly and sipped his tea.

"Did you see Harry?" Albus asked him.

"No. He will grace my classroom with his presence tomorrow." Severus said snidely. "Although I would prefer if it were never, but one cannot have everything."

"He was curious." Albus said.

"Don't you dare defend him, Albus." Severus said angrily. "He knew what was in there, and yet he violated my privacy. If it were up to me, I would have…" Severus took a deep breath to calm his growing anger at the boy.

"Expelled him?" Albus asked calmly.

"Killed him." Severus hissed out.

Albus laughed softly.

"He is a good boy if you look past his walls. Walls that you yourself built."

"If you are referring to his Potter genes, don't bother. I think I will keep those walls up." Severus said.

"He needs Occlumency." Albus stated casually.

"He needs discipline. He needs limits. Without that, he will never learn Occlumency." Severus countered.

Albus sighed and sat back, scrutinizing the young man before him.

"What?" Severus snapped at him.

"Nothing." Albus said with a smile and stood up. "Well, I have paperwork to do. I will see you at dinner, Severus." He said and disappeared in the floo.

Severus started at the floo for a minute before putting his legs back on the sofa and resuming with his reading.

However, He closed the book with snap before throwing it on the table when he couldn't concentrate on it anymore.

'Bloody Albus and his Potter talks.' He thought and started to prepare for his next class.

A/N: I haven't given much thought to this story, and nor do I know how long it will be, but I hope you like it.