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Shades of Grey	By : SpeedyTomato Category: Harry Potter > Threesomes/Moresomes Views: 103925 -:- Recommendations : 6 -:- Currently Reading : 21
Disclaimer: I don't own Harry Potter nor do I make any money off this dance in the realm of strangeness and smut

Chapter List
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Chapter 5

Stepping into the room that all the noise was coming from, Severus actually did flinch from the cacophonous din that greeted him. It was like being slapped by the noise the second the door was opened. The bellowing he had heard was coming from a fat whale of a man that he didn't recognize. Though that was the dominate sound in the room, it wasn't the only one. Everyone was making noise, lots of it, and being loud about it. And it looked like more than that was going on. Behind the whale of a man was a pig of a boy, trying to cower behind the bulk and not be seen. He wasn't succeeding but you could tell that's what was going on. There was a stick-like woman with a horse face standing off to one side of the man, shouting as well, looking angry. She looked familiar to him but he couldn't place her right off nor concentrate on that enough to focus so he could with all the shouting going on.

On the other side of things, it seemed that the entire Order was there and all of them were yelling or had raised voices as well. The worst of those, of course, was Black. He was screaming, face bright red, while several members, including Arthur Weasley and Lupin were trying to hold him back. It looked as though he were trying to get to then attack the whale of the man so the others were restraining him from doing so. His wand was out, clenched tightly in his hand, and there was murder in his eyes. Over their history, he had seen the mutt angry many times but never had he seen him this infuriated over anything. That was...disturbing to say the least. What could have brought on such a thing? That he didn't know. Nor, from the look of the chaos going on, was anything going to succeed as this was just going to degenerate into something worse if allowed to continue. That meant that something had to reset the dials so it couldn't continue on. Albus was in the fray but looking as though he were trying to keep all the parties separated so he felt, since it didn't look as though anyone had observed him enter, he should put a stop to it then figure out what was going on after that.

Raising his wand, he cast a non-verbal Silencio and, immediately, silence fell over the room. Shooting glares all around, he then hissed, “Now that we have quiet, shall we sort out this mess?” Turning to Dumbledore, who had already removed the silencing charm, he asked, tone cold, “Now, what is it you need from me, besides crowd control that is?”

Looking tired, Dumbledore shook his head then told the Potions Master in a weary voice, “These are the Dursley's. Since you knew Petunia when you were a child, I hoped that you could help us find out what they know then reason with them. They have been staying with Mr. Dursley's sister but it's not safe there. Known Death Eaters were seen in the vicinity so we thought it best to move them somewhere safer. However, they have been somewhat... reluctant to allow that.”

Turning back around, Severus narrowed his eyes at the woman then recognized her even though it had been years since he had last laid eyes on her. Then an evil smirk appeared on his face before he canceled the silencing spell on her and her family. “Hello, Petunia. Long time, no see!” He said in a silken smooth voice, unable to keep the evil glint out of his eyes.

Recognition striking the woman, her eyes widened then she shrieked, “You!”

Smirk growing, Snape nodded once then said, “Yes, me.”

Blustering, puffing out his mustache, trying to look intimidating as his face glowed an unhealthy red, Vernon asked his wife, while his eyes scanned the room warily, trying to keep all the witches and wizards in his sight, “Who is this, Pet?”

“Remember that nasty little boy I told you that grew up next to us? That Lily befriended? This is him,” she told her husband sourly, keeping an eye on Snape as she talked, one hand clutching onto Vernon's beefy upper arm.

Face taking on more of a mottled color as he looked at the intimidating Potions Master, Vernon just grumbled then snapped, “Another freak! No wonder the boy is so bad if he's hanging around with this lot!” Eyes snapping to Dumbledore once more, he snarled, “I've had enough! Take us back to Marge's house! We know nothing about the freak or what he might have done to get himself and our house blown up! Good riddance, I say! We should have given him away when he was dumped on our doorstep like so much trash! He's been nothing but trouble since then. Scaring our poor Dudley with his freakish ways and strange behavior, traumatizing him. Now, we are shut of him and I plan for it to stay that way! Whatever he's gotten himself into, that's none of our concern.”

Furious eyes snapping towards the headmaster, he saw a weary look there but the old coot didn't look like he was going to do anything to assist any of them. Nor did the hatred spewing from the oversized man look like it was something that shocked him. That was enough to tell the man in black that he had known all along that things were probably not well in the Dursley household when it came to Potter. Just how bad it was, he didn't know. But what was being said was eerily similar to things his father had spewed at him when he was a child. That was enough to make chills dance up and down his spine then him grit his teeth. Now, he had to know. Had to know how bad it had been before he moved on.

Arching an eyebrow at the headmaster to see if he wanted him to do something he had in the past, rifle through their memories slightly to see if they knew anything helpful, he turned back to the disgusting family when he saw the old man give the barest of nods. Sneer in place, he quickly entered Petunia and Vernon's minds then was instantly disgusted by what he saw there. No, they knew nothing of where Potter might be nor did they have a clue as to what might have gone on but what he did find was worse. How they had treated the boy, the cupboard under the stairs where he had been forced to live for 10 years, the abusive treatment, mostly verbal but that was bad enough, treating him worse than Lucius did his house elves, how they encouraged their behemoth of a son to terrorize the young wizard, all of it. By the time he was done, he was furious with them, Dumbledore and himself.

Then, while looking as though he was still focused on the two adults, he did the same to pig with hair that they called a son. Quickly, he found all the things the boy had done to Potter, from the abusive behavior, to the 'Harry hunting', how he had made sure the boy had no friends at school, all of it. But what he also got was Dudley feared Harry because of all the tales his mother had told him about what he would be capable of. That was predominant now because Harry was getting older and Dudley realized how cruelly he had treated the boy. Thinking Harry was like him and would eventually retaliate, he feared him. To say Severus was even more disgusted was the understatement of the mellennia.

Pulling back, he glanced at Dumbledore and shook his head but said nothing. Raising his wand, he leveled it at Petunia, feeling an upwelling of satisfaction as she cringed in fear. “You knew, because of Lily, what your nephew was and would, eventually, be able to do! You knew and were jealous just like you were of Lily! You took out on a small, innocent child the jealousy you felt for your sister and what she was able to do, how special she was. Now, you fear him, what he might become, what he might come back and do to you! And he would be justified! He is not a freak, Petunia! You know that! But you treated him like that, made sure that he was thought of as second class because he could do something you couldn't, something you longed for from the time Lily got her Hogwarts letter. Of all the muggles in the world, you knew that nothing you could do would quash his magic but you tried. Abuse, verbal and neglect, punishing him for normal outbursts of accidental magic, refusing to feed him, locking him in a room with bars on the windows so he can't get out, forcing him to sleep in a cupboard, all of it would not have stopped or killed his magic. It would have done nothing more than make him an angry young man that will eventually become an angry adult fully capable of wielding magic. Just like the Dark Lord became.”

Keeping his wand trained on her cringing figure, seeing her husband also turn slightly pale at the revelations he had tossed out there for all to hear, he grinned evilly then stepped closer, tone turning a deadly river of silk, “I'm sure Lily told you that her old friend had become a Death Eater.” When he saw the thin stick of a woman nod fearfully, he continued, “She's right. I did. And the Dark Lord, the being that killed your sister, is back. I see him on a regular basis. It would be so easy for me to take the three of you to him. He relishes killing and torturing muggles like yourself. Nor can I think of anyone more deserving of such a fate. You are the kind of muggles that give the rest a bad name and feed into the prejudice that people who follow the Dark Lord expound.” Lowering his voice, he then added, “But I won't. I'm better than that. I will leave you to your own fate. That is worse than anything any of us could do to you. Being you, and who you are, is punishment enough.” Sneering one last time, he lowered his wand then said, voice commanding, “Now, you will sit down, shut up and let these people help you! You may not like it but they are going to be the only reason that you will keep your miserable, pathetic lives! The Dark Lord will be looking for you and the first place he will think of is your relative's house. Let them find a safe place for you.” That is where he stopped and turned around.

The first being his gaze lit upon was a still very angry Sirius Black. Though silenced still, you could see him mouthing words and Severus could tell that they were profanities. For once in his life, the Potions Master could understand what had angered the man. If half of what was said to him by that blimp of a man was expounded to Black, the man would be furious, something he could understand. And, for once, he was about to step aside and not throw a monkey wrench into it. Lifting his wand, he released the spell then stepped over to the headmaster, glaring at him.

Looking away, Dumbledore cleared his throat then said, softly, “Thank you, Severus.”

For once in his time of dealing with the headmaster, and his idiosyncrasies, Snape wasn't going to let it end there. Fixing the old wizard with a gimlet glare, he snapped, “I want answers, Headmaster! How much of that did you already know?”

Face looking positively ancient, Dumbledore didn't meet Severus' intense gaze then cleared his throat nervously before saying, “It had to be done, Severus. The blood wards...”

“Bullocks! The blood wards would only protect him from the Dark Lord and Death Eaters that want to do him harm. They wouldn't protect him from his own family, who appear to have treated him worse than a stray dog! You're lucky that he didn't turn out like the Dark Lord himself the way they treated him!”

“Harry had something for the first year of his life Tom never did; a mother's love. That probably made all the difference in the world. Though he probably doesn't remember it, it made a difference in how he grew up. He has a war to fight, Severus. Sometimes, when we are faced with such a thing, we have to make decisions we don't like. This was one I didn't like but felt I had to. I didn't see a way around it. We all knew Tom would come back and that Harry would need all the protection he could get until the time comes where they have to face each other. This was the best place to let him stay.”

Feeling his eye start to tick and his temper go through the roof, Severus was, for the first time in his life, seeing just how manipulative the old coot really was. He had known all along that these... cretins hadn't been treating the boy right and let it go on because he needed a mere child to fight a war. The old man was going to use the boy after letting him have an abysmal childhood knowing full well that he might not come out of the fight alive. On the grand scale of rotten things that the old man had done in the name of the greater good, this had to be at about the top of the list. It was one thing to do such a thing to adults, after all, like himself, they knew what they were getting into and could make a rational decision about it. But a mere child couldn't and that was the position that he had Potter in. The boy didn't know what was being planned for him or how he was being manipulated but was playing along because he trusted the adults around him to do what was best. After all, this was the first time in his life he had been accepted for who and what he was. That was a powerful thing. Then to be around someone powerful like Dumbledore, who seemed to care about him, he would be more than willing to do what was asked of him. Or he was put in situations where Dumbledore was sure what he was going to do, like with the stone the first year and the chamber after that. Now Severus was questioning just about everything, looking back on incidents to see if he couldn't see the old man's fingerprints on them in some way. And, sadly, he was. But now wasn't the time to go over all of that. He would wait until he got back to the cottage then do so with Lucius to see what they could detect together.

Shaking his head to move himself from the topic, scowl firmly in place, he turned around to observe after a particularly colorful epitaph from Black about the origins of the Dursley family and the crack of a curse. Normally, he would take any opportunity to step in and cause some damage to the mangy mutt but, right now, with what he had seen in the pathetic muggles heads, he was more than willing to stay the hell out of it and let it go. Though the others were already intervening, restraining the owner of the house and trying to remove the pig ears from the older Dursley male's head, Snape wasn't going to do anything to stop anyone. All he was going to do was assist the headmaster in getting the cretins moved then get out of there and do some thinking. Because, quite frankly, he had a lot to do, including about himself, perceptions he had about Potter and how he may well have done the same thing Petunia had when it came to the boy, seeing something that wasn't there because of past prejudicial thinking.

The wonderful dream Lucius had been having about being Minister of Magic after the defeat of the Dark Lord was, suddenly, interrupted by the annoying squeak of a house elf trying to get his attention. Cursing under his breath, using words he would vow to anyone he didn't even know, he was already fumbling for his wand to hex the annoying creature before his eyes even opened. Grabbing his wand and opening his eyes, he sat up slightly then glowered at the cringing creature. Though he wanted to start throwing hexes, he didn't. Something had to precipitate the creature waking him since all his elves knew how bad of a mood he was in when disturbed. “What?” He all but shouted at the cowering, apologizing creature.

“Binky is sorry, Master Lucius! Binky knows not to wake Master Lucius when he is sleeping,” he apologized, looking both contrite and terrified at the same time as he saw his sometimes terrifying master holding his wand. “Master Lucius told us to keep an eye on Mr. Harry and to tell him if something is wrong. Mr. Harry is acting strangely, Master Lucius!”

Though still angry at being woken, Lucius wasn't going to start hexing the creature though. That, indeed, had been one of his orders. Rubbing the sleep out of his eyes, he asked, “How is he acting strangely?”

“He is talking in his sleep, Master Lucius. But it's not Mr. Harry's voice. It's a scary one. He is saying bad things, very bad things! It frightened Binky to hear them! His magic, too, is strange. It's acting funny!”

That galvanized Lucius into action. Though Potter was drugged to the eyeballs and in the grips of Dreamless Sleep, that didn't mean that he wasn't affected by whatever that link to the Dark Lord was. And if it was enough to scare the house elves, he needed to look into it.

Piling out of bed quickly, Lucius tossed his robe over his fine silk pajamas then made his way to the boy's room. Once he stepped across the threshold and saw the young man on the bed, his brow furrowed. He could now understand what had frightened the elf. The boy's magic was crackling around him, almost like a visible static electricity, and there was a malevolent air that seemed to hang around him like an aura. Raising his wand, Lucius tried to determine if Potter was in the grips of some kind of nightmare. Unlike what so many of the unwashed masses thought and what the name implied, Dreamless Sleep didn't mean you didn't dream. What it meant was that it would knock you senseless and render it to where you didn't remember what you had dreamed about the next day. But he didn't even need to cast a spell to see if it was a dream to know it wasn't. He, immediately, recognized the sibilant hissing that formed words, having heard the Dark Lord talk like that enough. This was no dream. The link, whatever it was, seemed to be stronger now that the boy was completely out of it. That was not a good thing.

Stepping closer to the boy, wincing slightly at the magic that seemed to swirl darkly around him, Lucius concentrated on what he was hearing and Potters face. It was, somewhat, disconcerting to see the boy's peaceful, sleeping expression, as though he hadn't a care in the world, yet the Dark Lord's voice coming out of his mouth, hissing orders or talking to someone about Potter. No, this wasn't a good thing.

Quickly, Lucius' gaze went to the trademark scar under the shock of messy hair. He had seen it enough to know what it usually looked like and, right now, it didn't appear as it normally did. Instead of an old scar, it was reddened, looking swollen and inflamed, appearing as though it would hurt him if the boy were awake. Gingerly, he reached out and touched it then winced at the heat that seemed to be emanating from it. Not only that, there was something about it that felt malevolent, like the vibes he got from the Dark Lord when he was around him.

Stepping back, brow furrowed, Lucius raised his wand then cast a couple spells directed at the scar then the boy. Looking at the results, he was confused by them. What he saw from most of Potter's body was what he would expect from a teenage boy; a neutral magic that was somewhat chaotic. But the reading from the scar, though they should be the same, was completely opposite. It showed a dark, malevolent magic that seemed to throb from that area, a magic he was all too familiar with, having been around it, and on the receiving end of it, many times. It was the magical signature of the Dark Lord. But it seemed to be contained in that one small area. He couldn't understand it.

Tapping his wand on his open palm, he tried to think. When nothing came to him, he cast the spells again, getting the same reading as before, confirming it. Once that was done, he cast a few more, different ones, on both the scar and the sleeping boy.

The ones on the scar told him nothing more than what the first had but one of the spells on Potter was most curious. If the reading was right, something he was certain it was but would have Severus do as well to confirm it, then at least half of Potter's magic was bound in some way. Who in sweet Merlin's mercy would have bound the boy's magic? After another quick scan, it did show that the binding was old, well over a decade old, probably done when he was an infant, but still holding strong, showing only minute traces of it fading. That was... curious.

Standing there, he stared at the sleeping boy, listening to the hissing voice emanate from him. Honestly, he had thought things couldn't get much worse but it appeared they had. This was looking to be a nightmare that they had taken on and he wasn't sure how to work with it. The way the readings seemed to him, a small part of the Dark Lord was residing in Potter's scar. That is probably what was causing the connection between the two of them. And, with the state the boy was in, drugged to the bloody eyeballs, whatever the boy normally did, probably unconsciously, to fight that connection off, was completely down. There was no way that they could go about things this way until Severus could make, and test, those potions. They had to be done NOW then they had to find another way to block it before the effectiveness of them would wane. Though the thought of sending the boy back after a secure Obliviation came to mind, he discounted that. Dumbledore was too good at magic to not be able to break through it then he would know who had done what. No, they were stuck with Potter for now. That meant they had to work with the situation as it was and try to find a way around it.

After several minutes of just staring at the boy, trying to decide what to do, he told the still fretting Binky to stay by Potter's bedside and write down everything he said. No, Lucius didn't think that it would be worth anything or give them information they didn't already have, but if it was at hand, he was going to use it to see if there was something that might benefit them. After that, he made his way to the library to see if he couldn't find something, ANYTHING, that might explain what he had just seen. Though he didn't know what might be causing it, he had a deep foreboding feeling that it was something that was going to make the whole situation worse than what it already was.

After sending for some tea and a light snack, he then sent one of the elf's to Malfoy Manner to collect anything from the library there on certain subjects before trying to find any books he had on both cursed scars and magical bindings. Settling down in his favorite chair, he began to pour over the tomes he had found, ready for a long and sleepless night while he waited for Severus to return.

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Shades of Grey