Twisted Summer

Chapter Six

A/N: The begining might be old to ome of you but about halfway down it is completely new material )

Back at Snape's house Harry sat in bed trying to wrestle a glass of water away from his mouth. Ever since Snape had left Harry, Marren had come by almost every fifteen minutes to make Harry drink a full glass of water. Harry, of course, was not thrilled with this. The first glass he had drunken calmly enough, but by the time he had gotten to his fifth glass, he felt like his stomach was about ready to burst, not to mention his balder. But, Marren had been insistent, and with no voice of his own to protest his feelings to Marren, she came back every fifteen minutes with a glass of water, much to the amusement of the portraits in the room.

This was the eighth glass of water she had come with, almost two hours after Snape had left. "Master Potter, must drink his water. Master Snape insist!" Marren said as she started to try and push the glass of water towards Harry's mouth. Harry tried his best to glare down at the silly house elf, but had no success with that, so he grabbed the glass from the elf and sipped slowly at it, hardly drinking any at all. But, now at least it was out of the hands of Marren.

Harry leaned back against the head board of his bed again, wondering about where Snape had gone. Maybe he had gone to get a potion to get him back his voice. That would be nice. He had hardly been without his voice for three hours and already he was frustrated at not having it. He hoped that Snape would hurry up with it though. Marren was really getting out of hand.

Severus Snape was fuming when he finally made it back into his study. He was angered that the headmaster would doubt his common sense. He was angry that the task of watching Harry Potter that had been entrusted to him was going to be taken away.

Fuming, the potion master made his way over to a large portrait of his mother that had been painted when she was a young woman. Severus's mother was a pretty lady, with long black hair flowing down to her waist and dark eyes sparkling with the energy of youth. "Mother, the wards need to be lifted to maximum security. With the exception of me, I want nothing living coming in or out of my home for the rest of the summer."

The young woman in the portrait looked down from her frame at Severus. "Are you sure, dear? What about your communications with Dumbledore. He usually comes over about once a week for tea, doesn't he?"

"Yes." Severus practically hissed out. "That is exactly who I don't want coming here!"

"Severus..." the portrait started in a reprimanding tone.

"You have my orders, I need to tend to Mr. Potter." Severus snapped leaving the portrait staring back after him.

Severus fumed all the way to Potter's room and threw the door open to find Potter trying to escape from a glass of water that was being pushed towards him. "Potter!" Snape snapped, waiting for a form of acknowledgment, before realizing that he would not get anything more than Potter staring at him. Shaking himself mentally he continued on. "I have talked to the Headmaster about our predicament and I have to increase the wards, so it does not look like you are going to be leaving the house for the rest of the summer."

Severus watched with a sinking felling in his stomach as Potter opened his mouth to protest but no words came out. It was going to be a long summer. "No use arguing about it, Potter." He said. "Maren will attend to you for the time being." He said before abruptly turning and leaving the room.

Harry raised his hand to tell Snape to wait, but he was already gone before he could say...no, do anything to communicate his confusion. Still ignoring Maren, Harry made his way over to his trunk and quickly grabbed some parchment, quill and ink. It was time to see what was really going on around here.

Sitting down on the bed, book underneath the parchment, Harry began to write:

Dear Professor Snape,

For most of the day today and the last I have been left in the dark about what is happening. I know that I had the potions accident in the lab, which I am sorry for by the way. I remember waking up at some point and you giving me a potion saying you would be back later to give me another. After that I was sort of in and out, but then I woke up again today and can't make a sound. I want to know what in the world is happening. Some answers would be nice.

Harry Potter.

Harry looked down at his short note to Snape and internally sighed as he watched the ink at the end of his letter dry. It had only really been a day, but not being able to make a talk to anyone was really beginning to grate on Harry's nerves. Folding the letter, he went to call out for Maren who had left halfway through his letter but stopped when he realized it would be no use.

Furrowing his brow Harry looked down at the letter in his hands. Hedwig was not in either and he had no idea where Snape might be. He could be anywhere.

The anywhere that Snape might have been, however, was actually just around the corner from Harry's room. Severus was pacing the length of the room, his mind in turmoil after the stressful events of the last few days.

The question that weighed most heavily on his mind however was, what does one do with a child, a wizarding child at that, who is mute. The fact that said mute wizarding child was the son of his school rival did not help ease his mind on the mater either.

Wizards were unaccustomed to having to deal with the mute. There were few accidents that left people permanently mute, and any children that were mute before the age of eleven were cast aside as squibs due to the fact that they would be unable to train their magic. There was little to guild wizards on how to deal mutes so Severus decided he would have to turn to the next best source, the muggles.

"Maren!" Severus called out. There was a soft pop and Maren appeared at his feet. "Make sure that Potter eats something tonight. I have to go out. I should be back late tonight."

"Of course, Master Snape." Maren said bowing low he large ears brushing the carpeted floor.

The next morning Albus Dumbledore was found sitting behind his desk a pensive look plastered across his usually cheerful face. He had tried earlier to go and retrieve Harry from Severus's home, only to find that the floo network had been shut down. He had then tried to apparate outside of the grounds. That too had been unsuccessful as he no longer seemed to be able to remember where exactly he was supposed to be apparating to. Frustrated with Severus, he had sent an owl hoping that his spy had not put up wards to block out owls too.

Harry awake in the morning to find Maren prodding him in the side. "I have breakfast for, Master Potter." She said, her high pitched voice making Harry's ears ring.

Harry moaned and rolled over onto his back. He opened his mouth to ask what time it was, only to remember that he still couldn't do that. Snapping his jaw shut he sat up and looked at what Maren had brought for him, pancakes and sausage along with a tall glass of water and a smaller glass of orange juice. Harry nodded his thanks to Maren and took the tray from her.

He ate slowly and Maren came back half an hour later to collect his tray. "Master Snape asks that you make yourself presentable and that he will be down in fifteen minutes to see you." With a slight nod to Maren, Harry began to think about what it was that Snape was going to come and tell him. Maybe he would finally find out was was going on in this crazy house. He most definitely hoped that Snape would have something that would restore his voice.

Harry had just finished putting on some of his clean clothing when Snape walked in carry a large bag of what appeared to be books.

"How are you, Potter?" Snape asked, his voice unusually soft. "Good?"

Harry nodded in agreement.

"Good. You are most likely trying to comprehend what has happened to you."

Harry nodded again.

"Very well. After you destroyed my potions lab I was giving you a potion on the hour. You remember that?"

Affirmative.

"I was summoned by the Dark Lord as was unable to return in time to give you your potion and had forgotten to tell Maren to do so." Snape explained.

Harry cringed as he remembered what he had seen last night.

"Your condition worsened considerably and I had to use a potion called the Eined von Dood to stop you from getting continually worse. Understood?"

A nod.

"It has made you permanently mute, as far as I cant tell." Snape said calmly.

That did not get a nod. Harry stared at the man. That was crazy sounding. He couldn't be permanently mute, could he? What would he do? He couldn't do magic if he couldn't speak. If he couldn't do magic how was he suppose to defeat Voldemort? Questions raced through Harry's mind and there seemed to be no answers to any of them.

Severus watched nervously as the boy sat in shock and then slowly his breathing came more and more quick, and soon Severus was certain the boy was almost hyperventilating. "Potter!" He snapped.

The boy looked up at him with hose bright green eyes. "It will be fine." Snape said uncomfortable, trying to calm his temporary charge down. The boy shook his head slowly, obviously not believing him. "Look, I went to the store and got some books on sign language." Snape explained as he sat the bag of books down on the bed next to Harry. "I suggest you start learning, so that you can have at least some level of communication."

With that last explanation Snape swept quickly out of the room not being able to stand how lost Potter had looked when he had told him that he was mute.

---

Harry stared down at the books before him, his eyes unfocused. He would never be able to speak again. That was the main thought that kept running through his head. Never to utter another sound.

Harry looked down at the books that Snape had brought up for him. He picked up the first one and read the cover. 'A beginners Guide to Sign Language.' A beginner that was what he was now. He was going to have to start all over. Frustration began to build in Harry and he wanted to let out a cry but all that escaped was a soft huff of air. Clutching the book tightly in his hands he turned around quickly and threw it as hard as he could at the opposite wall.

The book hit a large portrait who let out a rather nasty phrase of words but Harry paid no mind. Instead he turned and buried his head into his pillows to hid the tears that had begun to fall. He was never going to speak again.

Severus Snape was pacing the length of his room yet again. For the last two hours he had been reading his own copy of 'A Beginners Guide to Sign Language' and had found it full of explanations on strange hand gestures that muggles used to communicate to one another. He had managed to memorize most of the different hand positions for the letters, but was glad that he would not actually have to be making such bizarre gestures to try and get his point across.

He looked over at his wall where one of the portraits of a young potions master was hanging. "Billius?" Severus asked quietly.

"Yes, Sev?" The portrait replied.

"Will you go and check to see how Potter is taking all of this?"

"Of course I will be back momentarily." And with that the portrait began hoping through different paintings until he was out of sight. Severus rubbed his forehead as he watched to young portrait leave. Severus sincerely hoped that Potter was doing better than when he had left. He had heard something rather loud crash into one of the walls, but since then he had heard nothing, which he supposed was to be expected from now on when Potter was involved.

It was another minute before Billius came back into the room and announced. "It appears as if he is asleep."

"That's it?" Severus asked annoyed.

"Well, I talked to some of the other portraits in the room and they said that it looked like he had cried until he was exhausted and then fell asleep." Billius said rather quickly.

"Wonderful." Snape muttered to himself. This was exactly what he needed at the moment, an emotional teenager. "Very well, thank you for your help Billius." Severus said before he walked out of his room. He needed something to take his mind off of him and Potter's current situation.

A/N: A little bit of new, and a little bit of old in this chapter. I hope it was okay and that how i condensed the older chapters works for all of my wonderful readers.

Hope you like this one. Hope to get the next chapter up in about a week or two.

Until then!

Pandora

R&R