Blinded By The Dark   von Astrido
                          (a Snape adopts Harry fic)
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                      Kapitel 9: The Dursleys and Photos
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Chapter Nine: The Dursleys and Photos

Snape was startled when Harry started to cry even more intensely, but he didn't
pull back. He petted his back in slow circles in a way he hoped would calm the
distraught child. He could understand him, however. Laures had probably thought
that St Mungo's would be able to help him, and that his condition was only
temporal. But now, that he was told this situation was permanent, it was quite a
shock.
However, he wouldn't give up hope. There had to be some cure for his eyes! And
if there wasn't, he would invent one. The world was relying on Harry to save
them. He knew it was stupid to rely solely on a child, but in a way, he did,
too. Harry Potter was the hope of the wizarding world.
But that fact was only part of why he wanted to help the child still lying in
his arms. He didn't know what it was like to be blind, but he imagined it awful.
He wanted to find a way to give this child the possibility to lead a normal
life. He had gotten to know Laures as a small, frightened and very shy child. It
was hard to combine this picture with the prat he knew from school, but he knew
they were one person. He didn't know what changed his attitude so drastically,
but he wanted to find out eventually. 

He noticed that Laures, he liked to think of him as the lost child and not of
Potter, had stopped shaking so badly and was only sniffing now and then.
Nodding to the nurse briefly, he pulled Laures to his feet and led him outside.
He uttered a quick goodbye to her, before he shut the door behind them.

Snape and Laures stepped outside the huge building and found themselves in a
deserted alley. The sun was shining brilliantly and it was really warm. Laures
hadn't said a single word since they left the office and stood apathetic beside
Snape. It was as if he had withdrawn into himself, not responding to any outside
influences. 
"Laures."
"Yes?" he answered tonelessly. Snape queezed his shoulder reassuringly, because
he had his arm still wrapped around his shoulders to guide him. 
"We have yet to get your school stuff. Are you up to do that now? Diagon Alley
is just a few blocks away." He asked in a calm and warm tone.
"I can't go back there!" he whispered miserably. 
"Why not?" Snape asked curiously. He didn't understand what his problem was,
besides being blind, though that probably was the problem in Harry's opinion.
Sure enough, he replied.
"But, professor, I'm blind!" A little impatience swung in his tone as if that
was a big problem and he too dumb to see it. But Snape didn't know why that was
a big deal. And so he asked.
"And your point is?" 
"How am I going to read or write my homework? How am I going to get to classes
if I don't see where I am walking?" 
'So that is his problem!'
"Laures." He said slowly, as if he spoke to a little child. "There are spells to
dictate your homework to a quill and spells to read your textbook out loud. And
you, being one of the students to know a lot of the secret passages, should be
able to remember the normal routes. You have been at Hogwarts for five years
now. And further there will always be your friends to help you to get to
class."
He looked intently at Laures. He seemed a bit reassured now.
"But what if the press finds out?"
'Yes, that is a good question.' He thought. Laures already continued to talk.
"How will the people react when they find out I'm no longer able to save them?
What will Voldemort do? Or how will the students at school behave? I'm certain
your Slytherins would love the opportunity to hex me."
'Yes, they sure would. They are Slytherins after all.'
"We will find a solution. Don't worry about it. Fact is, you have to finish
school, so we have to get your stuff." Snape reasoned.
"My old school stuff is at the Dursleys and the letter for the new school year
has either not arrived yet, or I didn't get it. My OWLs have yet to come, too."
Laures said quietly.
Surprised, Snape raised his eyebrows. He never knew the child was so talkative.
Or mabye he just gave up and submitted to his fate.
"We will go tomorrow and get your things from the Dursleys, okay? The letter
should have arrived, because school starts in about a week. Draco should have
the list, so I will owl Flourish and Blotts to send the books later. However,
you need other things as well. Like decent clothes, new school robes and
parchment, ink and more." Snape explained with what he thought was too much
patience.
Laures nodded, grabbing for his sleeve to hold onto.
Ten minutes later, they arrived at the Leaky Cauldron.

They had been to a shop to buy quills, ink and parchment and were about to enter
Mme Malkin's Robes For Every Occasion, when a big group of people walked by.
Laures started whimpering since the people were recurrently grazing him and it
frightened him. He tried to press himself into Snape to try to melt into him. 
After having stumbled already twice over Laures and nearly crashing to the
floor, Snape had had enough. He could not continue their shopping tour, that
much was clear. So he pulled Laures to the next fireplace and flooed back to
Snape Manor. Laures was only a shuddering mess when they arrived.
Snape brought him to his room and got Laures a calming draught. He advised him
to go to bed, despite it only being around three in the afternoon. Then he gave
Laures a small comforting hug, before he left the room. 

As Laures was in bed, and Snape had nothing to do at the moment, he thought he
would pay the Dursleys a small unpleasant visit. He flooed to the Leaky Cauldron
and apparated from there to Privet Drive. He could not apparate directly from
his home, because he had strong anti-apparation wards in place. Though he could
have walked to their boundary, he thought that was too much of a walk. 

It was a nice afternoon in Little Whinging and the sun was shining brightly.
There was little to no wind at all and it had gotten quite warm. Snape, in one
of his usual black robes, felt like he should have dressed in something lighter.
He had apparated directly in front of house #4. 
Looking at the house, he saw a nice white building with a neat lawn and flower
beds. A few birds were chirping, but that was nearly the only sounds audible. 
He opened the garden door and walked up the path to the front door. After
confirming that he was indeed at the Dursleys, he rang the bell. He had to wait
quite a few minutes until he heard haevy footsteps coming to the door. 
He stood a little straighter and deepened his scowl. The door opened and a man
of maybe forty or fifty years stood in the doorway. He was really fat with a
small head and beady eyes looking at him. They narrowed the moment he realized
who was standing at his door. 

"What do you want? We don't want to have to do anything with your freakish lot!"
he growled and it seemed like he wanted to do nothing more than slamming the
door in his face. 
Snape got angry, but his only reaction to that statement was a raised eyebrow.
'What kind of people are they??!' he thought bewildered. 'They are disgusting!'

"I am here to gather the belongings of one Mr Potter!" he said with mock
politeness. 
"Are you, eh? Here is and never has been any Mr Potter!" Mr Dursley spat
nastily. 
"I think, there has." He said. His voice was still calm and patient, but that
was not how he felt. He would have liked to cast a nice little spell on that
piece of shit.  He was already furious. They were the relatives of Potter! They
were worshipping him and spoiling him rotten. He didn't understand why that man
was even denying the knowledge of that brat or why he was so unfriendly to him,
Snape that is.

Snape deliberately let his wand slip a bit out of his sleeve, so that Dursley
would see it. Dursley who had seen the wand was not quite so bold anymore.
"What do you want from us?" he asked.
"I told you that already. The belongings of Mr Potter. Now, would you be so
friendly to let me in? Your neighbours would be most curious what a man like me
would want from you, don't you think?" he asked snidely. As expected the face of
Mr Dursley contorted into horror and he grabbed him, pulling him roughly into
the hall, before he slammed the door. He looked quite scared now. Snape smiled
cruelly. A frightened man was a docile man, he thought.
"Now, Mr Dursley. Where is Potter's stuff?" he asked sweetly, leaning forward so
his face was only about an inch from the other's. Dursley's eyes were darting
around as though he was searching for help.
"Do I have to repeat myself?" Snape threatened, getting impatient. He wanted to
go back. He didn't like leaving Laures all alone. Also, he had to talk to him,
before Draco came tomorrow. He had forgotten it earlier, but now it came back to
him.
"No!" Dursley squeaked. "We burned them. His freakish stuff is not welcomed here
and since he wasn't here anymore, we thought..." 
"You did what?" he interrupted sharply. His face showed his best death glare,
one that he didn't even save for Potter. Dursley was shaking in fright and could
only stammer.
"We.. we.." 
"Shut up, you bastard!" he snapped. "When and where did you burn them?" It was
no question. It was simply a command which had best be answered. Mr Dursley
thought the same way and squeaked, his eyes never leaving Snape's face.
"In the shed behind the house three weeks ago."
Snape sent him another of his glares, before he turned on his heel and stormed
off.

He entered the shed and saw the pile of ashes instantly. It was not as big as
Snape had expected. He kneeled down and raked in the ashes with the tip of his
wand. He noticed the fire had not burned down everything completely. Maybe, if
he could identify anything of it, he could restore it. He found a a few
smoldered edges of what seemed to be a collection of photos. He picked them up
with fingers and collected them.
He drew his wand and cast "Reparo!". The pictures were like new. Curiously he
looked at them. Three of them were of Potter's parents, one of their wedding
with the mutt and two pictures of Granger and Weasley. Nothing special. 
He rummaged further in the ashes and found a few tatters which probably couldn't
be restored anymore. He didn't find Potter's wand and neither his invisibility
cloak. He saw snippets of pages from his school bocks and tried to repair them,
but he just got the page whole again, but the rest of the book remained
destroyed.
His notes and essays were lost, as well. He found splinters of a mirror and
wondered why Potter wound possess one. He was not Malfoy, who had always one
with him, or so he thought. 
Under a greater heap of soot he found a golden key. 
'Potter's vault key.' He thought with mixed feelings. On the one hand he liked
that he found it, because Potter could pay for his things himself, but on the
other hand it struck him as strange that Potter had access to the vault. He knew
that the Potters had not opened a vault for Harry Potter himself yet, which
meant that he had access to the whole money the Potters had possessed. Just the
idea of that was simply horrendous for him.

Suddenly he saw another white edge sticking out of the black powder. He picked
it up. It was another photo.
'My, Potter had certainly possessed a lot of photos.' He wondered why the photos
were the only things he could wholly restore, but he thought it had to do with
the amount of magic they contained, which was a lot more than the books'. 
He restored it quickly and the next moment he was gaping.



TBC


A/N: Vielen Dank für eure Kommis. Mangacat, DarkEye, Gwenryn.
Ich finde es gut, dass ihr es auch gut findet, dass snape nicht sofort seinen
charakter "austauscht". er ist sowieso noch ein bissel OOC, aber nicht so
drastisch, wie in manchen ffs.

cyu as^^

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