kbinnz - Harry's New Home

"Oh. Okay," Harry agreed, not noticing that his guardian had dodged the question. "SoтАж can we have tea now?"

##

Harry was easily distracted by a plate of sandwiches, then sent off to his dorm, but Snape's peace of mind was not so easily reclaimed. He had known Lucius was going to try something тАУ the man had warned him, after all тАУ but it bothered Snape that Lucius had obviously set something in motion and Snape was still unaware of it. He had in fact wondered if Malfoy were behind the tricks that seemed aimed at discrediting Harry, but now that Dobby had been revealed as the culprit, that meant that some other plan was silently unfolding.

That made Snape very, very nervous.

What was more, it was a distraction he could ill afford. He was already trying to come up with a plan to get rid of that idiot Fudge, and he had hoped Malfoy might at least remain neutral. Removing Fudge would be tricky at best, but if Malfoy actively opposed the change, it became more difficult by several orders of magnitude. Snape had hoped that he might be able to persuade Lucius to remain on the sidelines, and that might have worked if the other man had still been in a passive "wait and see" mode. But from Dobby's words тАУ and actions тАУ it was clear that Lucius had put some scheme into play, and he was unlikely to resume the status of onlooker unless forced to do so.

But if Fudge were still in power when Malfoy's plan was finally revealed, then it would be that much harder to counter LuciusтАж Was it better to remove Fudge as quickly as possible, even if that meant taking on Lucius at the same time? And how?

His own past made him extremely vulnerable; any hint of impropriety and there were plenty of Aurors and others in government who had been waiting ten years to see him locked up in Azkaban. But who else was there to do away with Fudge? He supposed he could call in the Marauders, but pranking a Muggle family was a lot different than targeting the Minister of Magic, and Snape had gone to a lot of trouble to reestablish Black as an upstanding member of society. The last thing he wanted was to squander Black's status, and that didn't even take into account that if Lupin's part in such a scheme were discovered, the hysterical Wizarding public would probably тАУ egged on by the idiot press тАУ see it as a werewolf plot to destabilize the government. At the very least, it would mean an automatic death sentence for Lupin, and Snape had no desire to have to break yet another Marauder out of Azkaban.

In the end, he decided it was better to marshal his forces and do nothing in the short term. Without knowing anything of Malfoy's plan, it would be foolish to expend resources on one campaign or another. Better to let things progress at their own pace while keeping a vigilant eye out. It also meant that he wouldn't tip his hand to anyone who might be watching. Continuing on as if nothing had changed, while simultaneously knowing to be on one's guard, was often an effective strategy in itself.

But that didn't make it easy on the nerves.

Further increasing Snape's stress was the fact that one of his Slytherin first years had begun acting oddly. Jones and some of the other prefects had noticed and tried to speak to the Parkinson girl, but she rebuffed all approaches. The prefects reported that there had been no real disagreements with her year mates nor signs of an unrequited crush тАУ until she had started isolating herself, Parkinson had seemed wholly focused on Draco Malfoy, but now she treated him with the same distant politeness as she did the rest of the school.

Jones had interrogated Malfoy closely, suspecting that he might have said something unkind to the girl, but he had vehemently denied anything beyond his usual level of snottiness тАУ a claim backed up by the other children. Jones might not have placed much faith in the testimony of Crabbe and Goyle, but the fact that Harry, Ron, Hermione, and Neville also backed up Draco's claims made her tend to believe him. Even Pansy hadn't offered an unkind word about Malfoy, which Jones would have expected had the girl's moodiness been linked to the blond's self-centeredness.

Snape had tried speaking to Parkinson, but he had met with a similar lack of success as his prefects. The child was withdrawn and ignored all overtures from her fellow students, yet didn't fit the profile of a typical homesick first year. He'd offered Parkinson the opportunity to visit her parents over a weekend, a common enough solution when a firstie's longing for home, parents, and pets (not necessarily in that order) began to interfere with their schoolwork, but the girl had politely refused. Not homesick then.

He'd owled her parents, trying to figure out if there was a problem at home that was disturbing her тАУ a dying grandparent or domestic discord between her parents тАУ but they'd denied it. The elder Parkinsons might be pureblood bigots and Death Eaters, but there was no denying that they also loved their daughter and were genuinely worried to hear of her troubles at school.

Snape had decided that if the child, who was looking progressively more peaky, hadn't shown some improvement by next week, he would order her to Poppy. In addition to a thorough examination, Poppy might also be able to provide the girl with some womanly advice, on the off chance that this was all about тАУ Snape shuddered тАУ female problems.

In the meantime though, there were classes to teach, halls to patrol, and a certain black-haired menace to supervise. Harry's ability to induce gut-churning terror with the most innocent of queries showed no signs of fading.

"Da? Do you ever hear funny voices?" the brat had asked calmly, as the two of them chopped billywigs one evening. Snape had made a point of keeping the boy close in the fortnight since the elf's plot had been revealed. He wasn't sure if Harry needed reassurance, but with Malfoy's plot underway, he wanted to know where the brat was at all times.

Snape managed not to chop off his finger. "I beg your pardon?" he asked, his voice revealing none of his disquiet. "Funny voices?"

"Yeah, y'know тАУ not funny ha-ha, but funny weird."

"And what do these weird voices say?" he asked, his tone as level as he could make it. Given Harry's egregious childhood, it would hardly be surprising that he might need the services of a mind-healer, though auditory hallucinations were an ominous first symptom.

Harry frowned a bit as he continued chopping. "Weird stuff. Y'know тАУ like 'blood' or 'kill' or 'die'тАжIt sounds really mad about something."

Snape's mind worked frantically. Of course the boy would have a great deal of sublimated rage at his disgusting relatives. "Under what conditions are you hearing voices?"

Harry considered the question thoughtfully. "Well, it's kinda hard to say. Usually it's when I'm bein' quiet. Like at bedtime, or sometimes when I'm studying in class or walking down an empty hall."

Perhaps this was Harry's way of expressing the anger, Snape thought. Or was a split personality developing? The good child who behaved himself and enjoyed classes during the day and the angry, abused, vengeful child finally feeling safe enough to come out in the dead of night or when no one else was around? Should he speak to Poppy about this, or was it too far out of her area of expertise? Would St Mungo's be the best choice? Perhaps somewhere abroad would be more expert in dealing with pediatric survivors of abuse?

"They're worse when, erm, when IтАж" Harry trailed off, looking embarrassed.

"When what?" Snape pressed. When he had had a bad day at school, perhaps? When something happened to remind him of his treatment at the hands of those Muggles?

"Well, when I forget to do those relaxation exercises you showed me," Harry confessed. "I usually do 'em morning and night, just like you said, but sometimes тАУ like after Quidditch тАУ I just fall asleep too quick."