Author note – Revised on 15th July 2009

Disclaimer: None of the fantastic characters are mine. I bow down at the feet of J K Rowling.

I'll Be

Chapter 1

Harry James Potter was curious. Very curious indeed, though you would have thought he would have been more hungry and desperate to escape his family than anything - but to much had happened not to arose his curiosity. Every time he thought he was going to get food, it was taken from him. Not cruelly, he was sure. If the Dursley's wanted to tease him then they were going to do it out right. Silent torture was not their style. Since he had been home for two weeks he had barely seen his aunt. She was staying away from him, he was sure of it. He had seen much more of his uncle. He never normally saw more of his uncle than he did his aunt over summer, not that he wanted to see either really. He had barely seen Dudley either to come to think of it.

His visits from his uncle had not been pleasant either. Vernon seem to have decided verbal abuse was not enough this year. No, he had to start physically harming him too. Harry rolled over on his bed miserably. He just wanted to get out of there, as soon as he had figured where his aunt had was and why she was behaving the way she was. Of course it might be that she just couldn't be bothered with him straight out this year. But he didn't believe it. He didn't know why – it was a plausible story. But there was something more there... when he had seen her she had been so pale. He had been unable to believe it that she just couldn't give a damn. Something, somewhere in him, told him she did.

-

Downstairs, Petunia was in a hurry. She had to make it stop for not only herself, but her nephew too. Dudders was ok. Vernon was never going to harm him; because he was his precious heir but her and her nephew were nothing to him. Harry had never been but her, she was his pearl. Or she had been. Then he had just turned on her one day and now no matter what she did it was never good enough. She didn't know what had been the trigger for the change.

For her, to stay was not optional. She had too, she was his wife and that meant she had too. She had sworn to God she was going to be loyal to him. No matter how bad things got. But her nephew... He had an option. It was about time she thought, he learnt of it.

-

When he had got the letter he had been so shocked, he had to say, as the two of them had not spoken it years. The fact she had written begging for his help told him something was badly wrong. He had never been able to refuse anything to her or her sister.

The Evans sisters in their day had been beautiful and Severus's one great weakness. And his biggest loss in the end.

So when the letter came, written in desperation he had had to go to her.

Petunia was in trouble. He just had too.

Going up to her house the day after he had got the letter, at the time she had asked him to arrive, he was most curious. What could this be about?, he questioned. They had nothing in common any more...

As he came to the door she opened it timidly. He had never thought of her as timid before.

"Hello old friend, come in." She said to him pleasantly but there were something about her. Something had changed.

"Petunia-"

"Say nothing. I have to be quick for there is someone here in need of your help more than I am." She said to him.

"Who?" he asked. Surely not the Potter boy…

"Your son."

There was a silent pause and he shook his head.

"I don't have a son, Petunia." he said but she seemed to disagree.

"You do and you have done for the past fifteen years." She spat the sentence out so fast that she could not change her mind and continue to withhold the information. "You have been teaching and mentoring him for the past four and you never knew. So now I think it is time I set the record straight for the both of you." she said as walked back through to the kitchen where she poured them both a cup of tea. He sat down as she spoke to him, too dumb struck to reply and she began her and her sister's tale of those last tragic days which taken their beautiful Lily from them both.

He had followed her into the kitchen unwillingly, for Severus did not know if he wished to hear whatever she had to say.

"As you know, a long time before she died, Lily and I fell out. James was never good enough for her." She said shuddering. "And I was angry with her. For hurting you."

"I never wanted you to be – your friendship would and should have lasted for ever." He said to her. On clear blue days when he looked down the lawn he swore he still saw their childhood ghosts running about Hogwarts together. Or there little bit of it.

"I know. But you were my only friend. She had popularity, Gryffindor on her side. Whereas I was a plain Ravenclaw. You know that though. I remember. " she sighed as she shook her head.

"But you loved her, my friend, and I gave you both my blessing, and you begun dating my sister. You broke up and so did I and Lily. Our friendship went through the bad patch and I did something I regret most ardently. I left our world, and I never made a bigger mistake." She said as she shook her head at her own stupidity. She had loved it there when she had been a Ravenclaw, seeing the blue flag hung high in the Great Hall. It banners flowing as the owls swept down around them, the morning light dancing about them.

"Lily married James, and I married a mistake." he said. "And we both forget you, for a time. Well that's what I thought. She told me Severus, before she died, what happened. One night to end the passion was it?" she asked and he got hot under the collar as he realised what she was talking about. She looked disgusted. "I know. You made my sister an adulteress didn't you? You dishonoured her reputation if she had lived, and it had come out, well…. I am glad she didn't have to live through to hear her reputation spoiled. She was soft and had it come out as it is about too, she would ever had coped I don't think. She was brave but her reputation as a good girl it meant the world to her. She would not have survived the shame.

"And so nine months later she had a son. You must have done the math Severus, surely you thought…"

"That my Lily would never lie to me? For that is what I did. If he had been mine she would have come to me…"

"No, think of how you were then Severus! Think of all the things you were doing. She would never have taken a child from safe, reliable James to be with a mad man. As you were then." She sighed. "On the night before she died, she left Godrics Hollow for an hour, just one. Did you know that?" he shook his head, unable to speak for the lump in his throat.

"She came to me and she begged for my help. I was no fool. And I knew how much trouble she was in. What it felt like to have to protect a son... In to my trust, she left two letters, only to be given to the receivers in dire circumstances, or when the time was right… both have come at once..." she said and on the coffee table he saw a presumably the two letters she had spoken of.

The top letter was for him.

"Read it if you have too, but it will only tell you what I have and Harry needs his father…"

It was a lot to take in but he nodded. What else could he do?

"Why Petunia? Why does he only need me so badly now? Why only tell me now? All this time I let another man and women raise my own son. My flesh and blood…" he muttered to himself.

"We haven't so much as raised him up as dragged him up." She said hating herself. "I have let some awful things come to pass, which in time I hope you can come to forgive me for. But now my husband has broken me. And I know the most important thing is getting him out of here while I still can." she said as she turned to the stairs and led him to Harry's room.

Last night things had got out of hands and Vernon's rage had scared her, for he had not finished his temper when he had left his nephew. She had been the one who had had to bare it to.

The drink…it changed him.

"Have you got your wand?" she asked.

"Of course," he said to her.

"You're going to need it."

As they got his room he saw why.

"You keep his door locked, surely not?" he asked.

"I didn't want too, I never wanted any of this." she said honestly. "You're going to have to open the door yourself. Vernon takes the keys to work with him."

The lock clicked open in a heartbeat once he had raised his wand. Going into the room where he knew Harry was, Snape felt nervous. The boy wasn't going to know who he was of course; not really, if he did then Petunia would have told him but he was nervous of what he was going to find. When went in he realised it had been with good reason.

The boy was shivering with cold on the bed yet he was too weak to get to his blanket by the looks of things. His bare skin was raw red. And there were marks, obviously made with a buckle all over Harry's back.

"How could you?" he growled at Petunia. Let this happen to his boy. To Lily's boy.

She let a tear slid down her face. She had been powerless to stop it. She had disposed of her wands years before hand. It hadn't been as if she hadn't tried to calm Vernon. But every time she had tried he had got more and more angry with her and she had been so scared of him. So afraid...

"Don't you dare cry women; you have no right to tears." He said to her as he went over to the poor boy on the bed.

Taking the thin blanket in his own hands, Snape covered him. The boy. His son...He had to get him back too Hogwarts, but like this?

He couldn't heal him here though, that was the problem. He was going to have to wait.

"Not again..." moaned Harry as he was touched by the gentlest of hands in his dreams. He had thought it was the hand that had brought pain to him like no other, realised Snape. But in reality, it was the gentle loving touch of a father coming to comfort his boy at last…

The moment he had heard, the moment he knew, Severus had allowed himself to feel what he should have done for Lily's boy all along. A love as powerful as it was confusing. He had not felt like this in so long...

This was a boy who had been abused all of his life.

This was a boy just like him

"What have they done to you? What have I let happen you?" he whispered. He had seen Harry most days since he had come to Hogwarts. But he had been too blind to see what had been staring him in the face.

As he scoped him up in his arms, Harry moaned out arms. Snape felt such pity for the boy, even though he was not even worthy to give it to him. He was just going to have to accept it though. Right now, it was the only thing Snape had to offer, till the news sunk in. Till he could think straight.

Turning to Petunia he scowled.

"I am going to make sure you never see this boy again." He said to her threateningly before carrying his son down stairs. The boy was not yet fifteen and yet he had been through so much already.

Taking the package off of the table, he went out in to the garden and apparated, he had to get his son some help. And quick...

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