Chapter Text
Dumbledore was looking at Hermione Granger and Ron Weasley. They were looking at him. He frowned a bit but ignored the looks. He began to look down the Gryffindor table and didn't see Harry Potter. He wondered where the boy was. He wrote a quick note and passed it to one of the Prefects to deliver to his little spies. He looked down the table to Minerva and she seemed confused as to where Harry could be and looked at him. She gave him a quick look that said they would be talking. He continued on down the line to his new DADA Professor, Professor Remus Lupin who appeared not to have noticed that Harry wasn't present but that wasn't surprising as Lupin hadn't met Harry as of yet. Severus was busy ignoring everyone as usual. He sent a quick note to Minerva and Severus telling them to meet him in an hour. He went to his office and waited for Hermione and Ron to arrive. "Lemon drop?"
"Thank you, sir." Hermione replied taking one while Ron declined with a small shake of his head.
"Where is Harry?" He asked.
"We don't know. He wasn't on the platform and he wasn't on the train. We looked everywhere for him, sir."
"We haven't received an owl from him all summer."
Dumbledore looked to the silver gadgets and they were puffing away. He wondered where Harry was. "He did go with his Uncle?"
"Yes, sir, we saw him with him. Mr. Weasley even spoke to them."
"My Dad was worried about the abuse so he talked to him about it. We tried to stop him but you know Dad can get at times."
"All that would have done is made Mr. Dursley upset with Harry that doesn't explain why he isn't here."
"You don't think he did something to Harry?" Ron asked.
"I don't believe he has." Dumbledore told them. "Professor Snape and I will check with the Dursleys tonight. Why don't you head back to your common room I will let you know when we find him. When we do, I expect your usual jobs to be done."
"Yes, sir." Hermione told him.
"Sure." Ron replied. They got up and left the office.
Dumbledore went to the silver gadgets and wondered if they were working. He was deep in thought when Minerva and Severus knocked on his door. "Please do come in, lemon drop?"
"No." They said. Minerva took a seat while Severus stood by his usual spot along the wall.
"I am not sure what happened but it appears Mr. Potter didn't make the train. I will need Severus to come with me to their house while Minerva keeps an eye out here." He didn't want Minerva to come with him as she knew she would object to what the boy endured while it might make Severus more agreeable to helping Harry in the future.
"I am not going chasing after that spoiled brat."
"Severus!" Dumbledore and Minerva exclaimed.
"If he didn't make the train why should I waste my time going to look for the brat. Most likely he tossed a fit because he couldn't get something."
"We will be leaving in a few minutes."
"I need to talk to my new first years still." Severus was going to take care of his snakes first before chasing after the troublesome spawn of James Potter.
"Fine. It will be too late after that so first thing in the morning." It would give him time to plan a course of action if the Dursleys had done something to the boy.
As Severus started to walk out he heard Minerva say, "I warned you they were the worst sort of muggles." He wondered what she means by that.
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The next morning Dumbledore and Severus apparated to Privet Dr., Severus looked around and was surprised. This was where the boy has been living. It was a modest house, bigger than his own home but just an average home. He thought he would have been living in a Manor like Draco. He followed along and wasn't very happy about wasting his morning. He saw a car in the driveway. He watched and waited as Dumbledore knocked on the door. They haven't changed their clothes and he got a surprise when the door opened and Petunia was standing there looking at them. He knew Petunia hated Lily and magic and this was where Dumbledore left Potter. "Get in here. I don't need the neighbors seeing you." Petunia snarled at them. "I don't have any idea why you are here so state your business and get out."
Dumbledore, he noticed, cast a quick spell, Severus wasn't sure which one. He waited for them to admit Potter was in his room having a temper tantrum.
"Pet, who is it?" a male voice asked.
"Those freaks."
A huge man turned the corner and Severus was surprised, again. The man's face was almost purple in anger and he looked like a charging bull. "What do you freaks want? We don't need your kind here."
"We have come regarding Harry. He didn't arrive at school."
"We haven't seen him since the beginning of summer. Good riddance to trash. I told you I never wanted that boy. You made us take him in. That huge oaf of man you sent to get him two years ago gave my son a pig's tail. You were lucky we even took that waste of space back. Just because I am that freak's aunt doesn't mean we wanted him." Petunia was almost screaming at them.
Severus, who had been looking around the living room, noticed there wasn't a single picture of Harry. The place in no way even reflected that the boy lived here. He had begun his search when he saw Petunia. He was somewhat surprised by the fact that Hagrid was sent to inform the boy of his heritage, maybe that is why the boy doesn't know anything. "May we see his room?"
Vernon glared at them as he pointed to a cupboard under the stairs. Severus moved to where he pointed and opened the door figuring it was where some of Potter's stuff was located, instead he found a thin mattress and saw Hary's room written in crayon. "This is his bedroom?"
"Yes, and you should be grateful he even had that. He wanted our son's second bedroom last year but there was no way we were going to let anyone like him loose in our home. Who knows what he would have done? It's bad enough that we had to put up with his presence when he was doing all of his chores." Petunia was clearly mad at having to deal with them. "Inflicting him on us normal good upstanding citizens. You should have kept that freak with his own kind. Threatening us. How dare you."
"Threatening you?" Severus asked.
Petunia turned to Severus. "Don't think I don't remember you. You are that dirty little freak who took my sister away from me when we were little. Yes, threatening us, telling us if we didn't take that boy in, that we would be in danger. You left that boy on our stoop in the middle of the night. Do you have any idea how often I wished he had wandered off or followed our original thought of taking him and dumping him at an orphanage? The only reason we even put up with him for 12 years was that note. Vernon and I wanted to get rid of him over the years with his freakish nature. We tried to beat it out of him but he still did all those freak things you do."
Severus inhaled as he realized that Dumbledore had cast a slightly illegal truth charm on Petunia. Petunia would have never admitted anything if Dumbledore hadn't. He also realized he has severely misjudged the boy and now they had to find a missing 13-year-old boy who had Sirius Black also looking for him. He knew the old coot had him come instead of Minerva because of her remark. Severus was here because Dumbledore believed that Severus wouldn't care about how Harry Potter was treated.
"Where did Harry go after you picked him up at the beginning of the summer?" Dumbledore asked Vernon.
"Don't know and don't care. I showed up at that station and some freak tries to tell me how I should take care of the boy, I pushed him out of the car on the way home. We don't need you or your kind here interfering in our lives. You should be grateful I even threw out his trunk down the road a bit." Vernon gave them a smirk, quite proud of getting rid of the freak for them. "Of course, I didn't stop the car when I pushed him out. I hope someone hit him."
Severus' eyes almost bulged out when he heard that. The man pushed a child out of a moving car. "Do you know where about you did that?" He asked much calmer than he felt. He wanted to curse the man. He wanted to show the man what a wizard could truly do.
"No. I didn't pay attention and you should be grateful we even took him in all of those years. The only thing we miss about that freak of nature is we have to hire two different people to do all of his work. Should have waited until he was heading back to that school of freaks before I did that." Vernon hated that they had lost their slave.
As Severus heard more and more he was getting very nervous about Harry Potter's life. He cast a quick scan of the cupboard and saw a lot of old bloodstains appear and he felt sick. There was no way a child should have had to endure this. He glanced to Dumbledore and understood the man knew all along about this. "No one has come here looking for the boy?" He was peeking back into the cupboard. He saw a broken crayon and a somewhat melted piece of plastic. He reached for them.
"Why should they? They know he is a bad seed. We made sure of that. No one was surprised when he didn't return this year and he won't be coming back either. I don't want that freak here. He might give something to our Dudkins and we can't have him or your kind endangering our darling boy." Petunia said as Severus heard someone stomping down the stairs and dust landed on him in his examination of the cupboard. He removed himself and saw a huge child with piggy eyes. He was the fattest child Severus had ever seen. It was the boy in the pictures.
"More freaks?" Dudley's voice was full of contempt. Severus knew the boy didn't even bother to try and hide it.
"Yes, they are here looking for that boy." Petunia glared at them.
"I thought you got rid of him?"
"We did. He won't be coming back." Vernon reassured his son. "I will make sure of it."
"Did you play with your cousin?" Severus was wondering what exactly has been going on here.
"If you call Harry Hunting playing. We enjoyed tormenting the freak. My gang and I liked to beat him up. Stomping on him until he would cry."
Severus glanced to Dumbledore. Dumbledore put a truth spell on the house. Time to get a truthful answer from Dumbledore. "You knew?"
"Yes, of course, the boy needed to be humble, needed to learn to obey, kept submissive. He needed to be Gryffindor." Dumbledore didn't even seem bothered by the answer.
Severus stopped himself from killing the man and built his shields up. He moved forward, burying his emotions, he will deal with what he just learned later. The problem now was if Dumbledore was using the spell he was thinking of than Dumbledore wouldn't realize he was telling the truth and wouldn't remember telling Severus the truth, Dumbledore will just remember the Dursleys' comments, not his own. "So what do we do now?"
"We find Harry. He must be found. I need him to kill Tom for me. I will kill the boy afterward. We can't have another Dark Lord. The boy is my key to power."
"Do you have a plan for finding him?" Severus couldn't directly ask questions that will lead Dumbledore into thinking he had betrayed his thoughts.
"We will have to see about some tracking charms. I will use the gadgets in my office to find the boy."
"Don't think you can return him here. I won't have it." Vernon snapped out.
"The wards?"
"They aren't Blood Wards. Blood wards need to have love for the boy and this was never been home nor is he loved. I just needed him here so I could control him."
"Is there anything of Harry's here?" Severus wanted to curse everyone in the house. He would have if he could have gotten away with it.
"No, freak only had what was in that trunk. We certainly weren't going to buy him clothes."
"Come, Severus, we must find Harry and time is of the essence." Dumbledore began to leave the house.
Severus cast a quick spell of his own. One that will make the Dursleys speak only the truth to everyone. They won't be able to lie about anything to anyone. It was almost the same spell that Dumbledore used except this one didn't have a time limit like Dumbledore's did. He glanced back to Petunia. "You were always a nasty girl and now I see you are a nasty woman. Enjoy your new life." He saw Dumbledore walk to the end of the walkway and was waiting for him.
"I will head back to Hogwarts. Can you see if you can track him?" Dumbledore looked frustrated once Severus joined him at the end of the walkway. Dumbledore did not remember what he revealed to Severus.
"I will try. It would help if we had a starting point." Severus wasn't hopeful. The trip from London to Surrey with no hint of a starting point was going to make it difficult to find a starting point.
"Do try Severus, if anyone can find the boy, it will be you. I know you won't break your Vow."
Severus wanted to snarl at the man. He had been breaking his Vow, thanks to Dumbledore. "I will see if I can follow the route they would have taken and track the boy that way." He watched the old fart apparate back to Hogwarts and he was left to figure out what was going on.
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Severus was beyond frustrated. He hadn't been able to find Harry Potter. They had used the gadgets in the Dumbledore's office but no luck. They just point to Hogwarts. They tried tracking charms, locator spells, even used a map to try and find the boy and nothing has turned up. Severus went to every hospital on the route to see if maybe there was a Harry Potter admitted, he knew getting pushed out of moving car would result in injuries.
He apparated again to the woods just outside of a small village he had no idea what the name was but it was as close to anything that had a hit for Harry Potter. He began to walk in the woods when he felt it. He felt the magic in the air. He followed the magic. In a clearing he saw Potter, dodging and dancing around as tree branches and stones flew at him. The boy was casting but he was doing it wandless and voiceless. He watched the duel with nature that was happening and was surprised by the power, grace, agility, and ability of Harry.
"I know you are there, Snape. I let you find me." Harry was still dodging everything. He finally stopped, turned, and faced the direction where Severus was standing. "I am not going back."
"I agree. You won't be going back to your relatives."
"No, I mean both places. I refuse to go. If you try and make me I will disappear again. Having you look for me these past two weeks have been a bit of a pain."
Harry's statement threw Severus, he was not sure what to say. "You can't live in the woods for the rest of your school career."
"I don't. I just got tired of you looking for me and this seemed like a good spot for you to find me at."
"What is your great plan? Hide from the wizarding world? You are a stupid arrogant brat if you think that will work."
"I see even learning the truth doesn't change your views." Harry disappeared.
Severus looked around the clearing but the boy was gone. There hadn't been a pop that was associated with apparition and he would have seen the boy pull out that blasted cape of his. He cast a Revealo charm to see if he could find Harry's magical residue and got nothing. The boy was casting so there should be a residue left behind. He kept casting the spell as he walked around the clearing. He knew he could have handled Harry better but some habits are hard to break. He realized he is going to have break the habits if he wanted to keep his vow. For the next three weeks, he returned to the woods, hoping to see if he could find Harry again but he got nowhere. He walked the woods, casting and searching for any signs. He hadn't told Dumbledore what happened and after five weeks of searching, Dumbledore was getting desperate. He knew the man was frantic that his little weapon was missing. He didn't remember telling Severus the truth about what he was doing to Harry. Now with Sirius Black on the run and most likely looking for Harry, Severus knew Dumbledore was getting near to panic. The dementors at the school certainly weren't helping matters either.
"I must say you really don't give up do you?" A voice said. He turned around, Harry was behind him. Not close enough for him to grab but near enough they didn't need to shout at each other.
"It is my job to protect my students."
"I am not your student. I won't be going back to Hogwarts or my relatives."
Severus knew it was decision time. He must choose. He looked at Harry closely and wondered how could he have missed all the signs of abuse. They were there and he ignored them. "You need to still learn to control your magic, you need to have a place to live, you need to have someone take care of you."
Harry laughed. "Yes, I really learned at Hogwarts. Granger correcting my essays and work usually resulting in me getting my parchments filled with red lines. Weasley and her pushing me on those lame adventures I wanted nothing to do with, in the first place, ya I learned a lot. A place to live? Where? I got beat at my relatives. Hogwarts? We won't even mention the number of times Granger hit me. How about all those times I ended up visiting Madam Pomfrey? I have never had anyone take care of me. Why would I expect it now?"
Severus really didn't have an answer to that. Harry was correct. "Harry, you can't survive on your own. I won't take you back to Hogwarts but I would like to take you someplace safe."
"I have been safe. You certainly couldn't find me and you really have been trying. I know those silver gadgets in the fool's office have been nice and steady." Harry paused, looked at him and sighed. "You really don't listen to me, do you?" Harry disappeared again.
Severus wanted to let out a scream of frustration but he didn't. He looked around again and tried to see if he could find anything to track Harry. He headed back to Hogwarts and thought about what Harry told him. He headed up to Dumbledore's office. "Albus, those things," he waved his hand toward the silver gadgets, "they are tied to Harry, correct?"
"Yes, my boy, they are."
"Can we use them to track him? His magical signature should be on them."
"I have tried, they keep saying he is here."
"Have you followed them to where they are saying he is?"
"No, I just-" Dumbledore stopped, picked up one of the devices, he cast a locator spell on it. Together they followed the magical residue. It led them to Filius Flitwick's class and to Ron Weasley. When everyone was looking at them, they apologized and left the classroom. "That explains those readings. I do wonder how he did that."
Severus was impressed. He wasn't expecting that. He thought the boy was stupid but turned out in the last month he was learning the boy was a lot smarter than they had given him credit for. "Do we have any other way to track him?"
"No, I am afraid not. The three devices were meant to monitor him. One was for the wards around his relative's house, one was for his health and the last one was for his general location. I had been wondering why none of them had changed, now I know, he switched them to Ron Weasley. I am wondering how he did it."
"One monitored his health and you never picked up on the abuse?"
"It was only able to tell me if he was alive." Dumblemoron didn't bother to deny the abuse. The man was making him want to take his beard and use it to hang him from the ceiling. Severus refrained from cursing the man. He had been breaking his Vow and the only thing that kept it from being broken, fully, was a gadget that only to monitored if the boy died. "It's been over a month, we need to get other people to start looking for him."
"I am afraid to have others start looking for him. Sirius might follow someone to him. The boy would be defenseless. He won't believe you are looking for him. He knows you and James hated each other." Severus wanted to tell the old fool the boy was hardly defenseless if what he saw was true but found himself holding back. "You will keep looking for him?"
"Yes but only because of my Vow." That seemed to have worked as he watched Dumbledore look at the useless devices. He couldn't hear what the man was muttering about but he knew he had to be wondering how Harry had switched the gadget's functions. "Is his magical signature on there?"
"No, there isn't any magical signature on here, not even mine from when I originally cast the spells."
"He nullified all of the signatures but Mr. Weasley's?"
"Yes, I don't understand how he did that."
Severus was baffled by what he had seen. There was something very different about the Harry Potter he had seen in school and the one he had seen in the woods. "You said he had a choice between Slytherin or Gryffindor, do you know why he selected Gryffindor?"
"He was meant to be in Gryffindor, his parents were and so were his grandparents."
Severus thought about what the boy said, he called his best friends Granger and Weasley and the tone wasn't one of fondness. The boy had been wearing a mask, he had been hiding in Gryffindor. He now understood what the boy had meant about listening. "I will keep looking for him. I have a class in an hour but tonight I will continue."
"Thank you, my boy."
Severus left Dumbledore's office and headed to his quarters. He flooed to Malfoy Manor and went directly to Lucius' study. He knocked and when he heard Lucius say enter, he opened the door. "Lucius, we have a problem."
"We do?"
"Yes, Potter has been missing for over a month."
"I am aware, Draco has been writing to me about it, he keeps saying the Fashion Don't is telling everyone Potter is getting special training."
Severus snorted. "Special training is what he is saying?"
"Draco said he hasn't seen much of you."
"I have drafted into finding Potter. The problem is I have found him twice, however, I don't think it was so much as me finding him as Potter letting himself be found. He disappeared in front of me, no sound of apparition either."
"What is the problem?"
Severus began to explain everything to Lucius. Severus explained the truth spell revealing the abuse, the duel in the clearing, the devices being switched around and how he disappeared. "I am not sure how to locate him. I need to find him with Sirius Black on the loose, he is in danger."
"You won't. He won't be found unless he wants to be found. When he got pushed out of this car, what happened?"
"We don't know. The Uncle just said he pushed him out while he was still driving." Severus was wondering what Lucius was thinking.
"These cars are they dangerous?"
"Very, they go fast, heavy and can kill someone."
"That is what happened, I believe he died and his creature inheritance started."
"How did he switch these devices to a Weasley?"
"That I can't answer but perhaps he planned on escaping ahead of time and his Uncle just made it easier."
"Do you have an idea of what type of creature he might be?"
"I can look some up but with that disappearing like that, it is very limited." Lucius was looking at his bookcases. Mentally reviewing which books might have the answer.
"I don't know any that have that ability." Creatures weren't his specialty.
"I can think of one. It's something that I didn't think I ever would have thought possible." Lucius summoned a book to him, opened it up, began to flip through the pages. "The disappearing is what makes me thinks he is a Mngwa or Nunda, it means strange one. Legend has it that it is a mythical cat, it is stronger than a lion and deadlier than a leopard. It moves silently, it can kill quietly and disappears. When in his animal form, a Mngwa's fur is dark gray with black stripes, like that of a tabby cat. They have razor-sharp claws and huge teeth. An enraged Mngwa can kill a person with a single bite or swipe of its paws. The really scary part is under cover of night, you can't see or hear it. It is known to be able to stalk its victim soundlessly, the pads on the paws are thick and well-cushioned. In its human form, it's just as deadly, now you add magic to it, it makes Mr. Potter even deadlier." He showed a picture of one to Severus, who took the book.
"A Mngwa? It's not magical?"
"They usually have a small almost squib level magical core. Enough that they can escape if a wizard or witch was hunting them. Not that any wizards have been able to kill one. I think last record hunt of one, the Mngwa killed over 100 wizards before they decided to leave it alone. No one has ever succeeded in killing one. If Potter is one, we have a huge problem, given his power and now add the skills of a Mngwa, he could easily wipe out anyone he doesn't like."
"How do we find Potter? Keep him from the old idiot and help him?"
"You could have just said you wanted to keep me from the bat crazy moron and wanted to help I would have listened." Lucius and Severus jumped around and had their wands drawn only to be laughed at. "Really? you think those are going to hurt me?"
"How did you get in here?" Lucius asked.
"Secret." Harry replied. "Now since you two know what I am, how about we have a little talk." Harry moved to take a seat in one of the chairs in front of Lucius' desk.