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After that fateful day, October 31st, 1981, a young Harry Potter was abandoned by the wizarding world. Harry would endure years of abuse at the hands of his muggle relatives, which, unbeknownst to him, caused him to present as an omega at the tender age of seven. Most wizarding children did not present until well into their teen years, but thanks to Dumbledore’s severe oversight, Harry was forced to grow up completely unaware of who he was and what it meant to be an omega. There was no one to tell him that.
Oh, to be sure, Harry realized early on that he wasn’t like the other boys in his class. They didn’t feel the urge to pilfer every soft or fluffy thing; they didn’t crave physical affection like he did. He was different .
His relatives didn’t like him being different.
Every time his aunt or uncle saw Harry’s eyes drifting to soft items in their home, the Dursleys would immediately lock him in his cupboard. It wouldn’t do for him to steal from the so-called “normal folk.”
In Harry’s cupboard, he would make a nest of sorts with the few clothes he had and the thin, raggedy blankets the Dursleys had given him. He had done this every night since he was young. He’d take it apart and put it back together, over and over. It never looked right. No matter what he did, it. Was. Never. Right. Was it because the items were worn? Because he didn’t have any stuffed animals? Or perhaps it was because they had all belonged to Dudley before him? Harry only owned one thing that Dudley had not used before him.
Aunt Marge had gifted Dudley a blanket for his birthday one year. It was soft and purple, but it was a light lavender color, and Dudley had thrown a fit over it, shouting that it was a girl’s color. The spoiled brat had refused even to touch it, so Vernon had practically thrown the blanket in Harry’s direction, yelling at the small boy to put it in his cupboard. It was Harry’s prized possession, never leaving Harry’s cupboard and always resting on top of his makeshift nest.
July 24, 1991, started off like any other day. Petunia Dursley yelled at Harry to start breakfast before her son and husband got up for the day. Harry dutifully obeyed, setting the table with rashers of bacon, stacks of pancakes, and several fried eggs. Just as Vernon sat down, the letterbox clanked.
“Get the post, boy,” Vernon ordered.
“Yes, Uncle Vernon”, Harry said. Quickly, he went and fetched the post. On top of the pile of letters was one addressed to Harry himself, and Harry didn’t waste any time. He shoved the letter into his cupboard before returning to the dining room and giving his uncle the stack of post.
That night, the Dursleys went out to eat, leaving Harry alone and locked in his cupboard. He had read his letter several times now, but he still didn’t understand. Wizardry? Magic? He was raised to never even think of magic; any hint of a thought or murmur of magic would get him beaten. Harry had never understood the Dursleys’ vehement hatred of it, but he would do or believe in just about anything if it meant he could be free. Free from the pain of the beatings. Free to have friends. Free to have pretty things to call his own.
Mind made up, Harry prepared to do something he hadn’t done since the age of six, when he’d been caught and beaten severely. He used to have a trick he could do to sneak out of his cupboard and steal food. It had been almost five years since then, so he wasn’t sure if he still could, but he had to try. He took a deep breath, put his hands on the door, and concentrated on the lock. After a few moments, his cupboard door slowly creaked open.
Carefully, he climbed out of his cupboard, listening for the sound of the Dursleys’ car. Not hearing anything, he got up and scuttled to the kitchen. Using a pen and a scrap piece of paper, he quickly penned a note to the sender of his letter: Minerva McGonagall. Putting it in an envelope, Harry rushed outside to try and put it in the post box. It was so dark, however, that he didn’t realize an owl was swooping down until it snatched the letter right out of his hands and took off once again.
Harry panicked. How was he supposed to attend the school now if a bloody owl had stolen his letter? Just then, he saw headlights in the distance. The Dursleys were home. He turned and rushed inside, slamming the cupboard closed just as he heard the front door open. He wasn’t quick enough to lock it again, however, and they knew immediately that he had snuck out like before. Uncle Vernon ended up beating him so severely that he was unable to move except to curl up into a ball and quietly sob into his precious blanket.
But not all hope was lost. Somehow, they had gotten his letter after all, and later that week, a half-giant showed up at the front door. The Dursleys were frightened half to death, but Harry couldn’t find it in him to care. The kindly groundskeeper took Harry to get his school supplies at Diagon Alley and showed him how to get on the Hogwarts Express.
On September 1st, 1991, Harry boarded a train to Scotland to go to a magical school. He was still sore from his beating (and the one that followed after the Dursleys discovered that Harry had been the one to bring freaks into their home), but he counted it worth the pain. He was on his way to not just a new school free from Dudley’s interference but also to a new world and a new life.
Harry had been too scared to talk to anyone, so he’d hidden in an empty compartment and hadn’t met anyone on the train. On the boat ride to the castle, he rode with a boy with platinum blonde hair and a girl with chin-length hair and a pug face. He couldn’t help but be in complete awe at the sight of the castle; it looked like it was taken straight out of a fairytale, like the ones that Harry had heard his aunt reading to Dudley before.
The other children were looking around the hall, marveling at the enchanted ceiling and the welcoming hall, but Harry’s eyes darted around at all the shiny things. Metal goblets, bejeweled necklaces, and glittering earrings! He kept his hands firmly in his pockets, however. He didn’t want to get labeled as a thief here too.
As all the students stopped in front of a three-legged stool, a woman wearing emerald green robes stepped up and started calling out names. Harry kept his eyes firmly on his feet, scared that if he kept looking around, he’d end up taking something and getting kicked out.
“Harry Potter!” The woman finally called out. Harry shot to attention and walked briskly up to the stool. sitting down just as the hat was dropped onto his head.
‘You poor child,’ the hat spoke inside Harry’s head. ‘You have suffered mightily for someone so young. Why, you’ve even presented early.’
‘Presented?’ Harry thought to himself. The hat did not respond to his confused question.
‘I think you will find solace within the house of Slytherin. They will help you on your way to greatness,’ the hat declared.
‘Wait what-‘ Harry tried to ask for more information, but he got cut off by the hat bellowing out, “SLYTHERIN!”
Harry stood hesitantly, noticing clapping coming from the green-colored table. He assumed that he was meant to go there, so he went and sat at the end of the table next to the girl he recognized from the boat ride.
“I’m Pansy Parkinson, and you’re Harry Potter, right?” Pansy introduced herself.
“Y-Yeah I’m Harry Potter, N-Nice to meet you.”
Harry and Pansy continue to talk, getting to know one another further. As they were talking, the boy next to her also introduced himself as Draco Malfoy. He seemed like a little bit of a prat on the boat, but he was nice enough to Harry, so Harry decided that he didn’t mind. It was nice, for once, to not have people ignore him or threaten to beat him up.
Just as he was about to answer one of Pansy’s questions, Harry was abruptly cut off by someone loudly clearing their throat. They all turned their attention to the podium, where Dumbledore began his traditional beginning-of-term speech
“Welcome to a new year at Hogwarts! Before we begin our banquet, I would like to say a few words. And here they are: Nitwit! Blubber! Oddment! Tweak! Thank you!”
Piles and piles of food appeared on the long tables in the Great Hall, the cutlery and dinnerware appearing simultaneously, and Harry had to clench his fists in his robe so he didn’t immediately snatch up the ornate dishes. Taking a deep breath to steady himself, Harry served himself a single scoop of mashed potatoes and grabbed one bread roll to put on his plate.
Harry felt slightly self-conscious of how little he was eating compared to his peers. He saw the way Draco had looked at his pitiful plate, but Harry also knew that if he binged and ate as much as everyone else, that he would end up sick. His stomach had shrunk so much over the years that he didn’t think it wise to jump straight to normal portion sizes. The last thing he wanted on his first day at Hogwarts was to be sick because he chose to indulge.
The rest of the dinner went smoothly. No one dared remark on how little Harry ate, and as dinner came to a close and the dishes popped away, Dumbledore ended the feast by going over the rules.
“I must tell you that, this year, the third-floor corridor on the right-hand side is out of bounds to everyone who does not wish to die a very painful death,” Dumbledore announced. With that, he dismissed the prefects to guide their house members to their respective common rooms.
Harry couldn’t help but feel nervous about the warning; there was something wrong about it. As he and his classmates were following the prefect, they introduced themselves as Gemma Farley and Adrian Pucey.Theyy led all of the first years down to the dungeons and stopped in front of a blank expanse of brick.
“This is the Slytherin common room entrance, The password changes every two weeks the new password will be posted on the notice board every two weeks.” Gemma Farley Explained Adrian Pucey picked up where she left off.
“The password for now is Serpens; you say the password, then tap your wand on the wall,” Pucey explains and then demonstrates.
“All right, all of you in, first years on the floor behind the coffee table; second, third, and fourth years on the couches behind them; fifth, sixth, and seventh years on the couches in the back,” Farley ordered.
Everyone filled into their ordered spots Harry sat on the floor, pulled his knees up to his chest, and rested his chin on them.
"Welcome, new and old Slytherins. We are glad to have you. Now, to the new Slytherins. You may face prejudice and discrimination against you all because of the house you were sorted into, even though the greatest wizard of all time, Merlin himself, was a Slytherin.” Gemma welcomed.
“Well, stated Miss Farley,” a tall, pale man dressed in all black drawled while sweeping into the room, his robe billowing around his feet.
“Welcome to Slytherin House. I am Professor Severus Snape Your head of house and Potions Professor, as Miss Farley was explaining, you may face prejudice and discrimination from other houses,” As Professor Snape was explaining and doing his introduction, he removed his outer robe and threw it on the Coffee table in front of Harry. The small child had to take a deep breath and force himself to keep his hands to himself.
The deep breath didn’t help at all. He ended up getting a whiff of the smell radiating from the cloak; it smelt like some kind of brandy that Uncle Vernon would drink and some herbs he had smelt at the shop where he got his potion ingredients. The small boy had to keep all of his focus on keeping his hands to himself and not snatching the cloak, so he missed all of Snape’s welcoming speech. He snapped out of it when Draco and Pansy stood up.
He noticed Professor Snape had left, but the cloak was still there. He looked around quickly, but no one was watching. He quickly snatched the cloak and hid it under his robes.
“First year boys with me, first year girls with Gemma,” Pucey announced, the first years splitting up.
“Boys this way,” Pucey said, leading them up the stairs and to their shared dorm “This is your guys’s dorm; you are responsible for keeping it clean. There will be room checks conducted randomly by Professor Snape; now get ready for bed. lights out at nine, Professor Snape will be in to make sure you're in bed. You have an hour.” He explained, then walked out.
All the boys made their way to the bed that had their trunks, and Harry was immensely glad that he was in the far bed in the corner right next to the window.
Harry made sure no one was watching and quickly hid the cloak under his blanket, then grabbed his pajamas from his trunk, quickly and changed in the bathroom, and scurried back out to his bed. While the boys were distracted, he quickly grabbed all of his blankets from his trunk, put them on his bed, and closed the bed curtains.
He shuffled around, and pulled the green comforter from where it was tucked in and put it to the side. He took the ragged blankets he had and put them in the center of the bed in a vaguely circular shape. He put the top sheet from the bed over that and tucked it around the other blankets, Then he covered the whole thing with the green comforter and tucked it around the sheet and blankets Lastly, he put Professor Snape’s black cloak over top of everything and put the lavender blanket to the side. He sat back on his heels and looked at the bed of blankets, and for once, it looked right.
Harry laid down, cuddled into the cloak, and covered it with his lavender blanket. He was letting out a soft and quiet purr in his sleep, showing how comfortable and content he was.
Severus Snape went through the connecting door that connected the common room to his office. His private rooms were also connected, but he was giving the children time to settle down from the excitement of finally starting at Hogwarts.
He had sat down in his chair when he realized that he had left his cloak in the common room, so he got up and went to go get it.
When he made it back to the Slytherin common room, he noticed that his cloak wasn’t there anymore, but for the moment, Severus just assumed that the house elves had just taken it to be washed and that it would be returned in about a week. Severus completed his bed checks, making sure all the first years were in bed.
As the morning arose, so did Harry. He realized that everyone was still asleep, so he quietly got out of bed and grabbed his potions book. Harry didn’t understand why, but he wanted to impress the man.
He held his hands together and tried to focus on the feeling that he had done this so many times in the past. Slowly, a small orb of light floated from his hands, and Harry grinned. He loved magic. He read his potions book until there was a loud ringing like a bell tower. He assumed that it was the morning bell.
Harry got up and saw that a couple of his dorm mates were awake, He made sure that his bed curtains were closed tightly Then he grabbed his school robes and went to the shared bathroom and changed. He tried to get his hair to lay flat but gave up when it would just pop back up.
He was one of the first ones in the common room that morning, so he made sure he had all of his books. He didn’t know what ones he needed, but he grabbed them all just in case he did need one and didn’t have it.
The prefects rounded all of the first years up and led them to the great hall. Harry, Pansy, and Draco sat on the end, closer to the teachers. The breakfast was going well, but when Harry finally mustered up the courage to grab a little bit more food after he finished one pancake and two slices of bacon, he was reaching out to grab another pancake when a hand fell on his shoulder. He flinched, quickly jerking his hand back, and turned around to look at the person who was touching him.
“Harry, my boy, why don’t you come with me to my office and we have a little talk?” Dumbledore said, tightening his grip on Harry’s shoulder.
Harry, in all honesty, was terrified; he didn’t know this man. Why was he touching him? What does he want from him? Why does he have that same glint in his eyes that Aunt Petunia would get when staring at him.
“U-um.. I-I still n-need my s-schedule,” Harry stuttered out, visibly afraid.
“I’m sure your friends can get it from Professor Snape; now come with me, Harry,” Dumbledore said in a grandfatherly tone.
Anyone could see that Harry was terrified, but he complied and got up shakily and grabbed his bag, waving at his friends. You could see his hands shaking.
Dumbledore guided the boy to his office and gestured for him to sit in one of the chairs.
“Lemon Drop?” Dumbledore asked, holding out a bowl.
“N-no thank you,” Harry stuttered, his eyes darting around the room.
"Harry, the reason why I asked you to meet with me is that I’m worried for you. You do know that Voldemort was in Slytherin, don’t you?” Dumbledore explained that Twinkle never left his eye.
“U-um N-no sir, I D-didn’t know.” Harry stuttered out, never actually meeting his eyes.
"Harry, I suggest you get resorted, ideally into Gryffindor,” Dumbledore explained, stroking his beard.
“W-with all due r-respect S-Sir but I’m h-happy with where I a-am.” Harry forced out, standing, grabbing his bag, and leaving.
Harry made his way back to the Great Hall, finding Draco and Pansy quickly; they were just leaving the Great Hall.
“What did Dumbledore want?” Draco questioned handing Harry his schedule.
“N-nothing.” Harry stammered out, which set the precedent for the rest of the day. Harry was quiet and downtrodden; he had his friends worried.
“Pansy and I were planning on going down to the Black Lake; do you want to join us?” Draco questioned.
“N-no thank you. I-im just going to go back to the dorms,” Harry replied, turning and heading towards the Slytherin dorms Harry rushed through the common room and to the shared boy's dormitory.
The weeks went on like this, with him constantly being called to the headmaster’s office, and it was eating him alive.
He needed the comfort of his nest; today had been too much. Once Harry passed the threshold of the boy's dorm, he froze. There, his bed curtains were wide open, and the only thing on his bed were his bedsheets put back on the bed. Only his lavender blanket was there; everything else was gone
Harry stood there, his magic beginning to lash out and go haywire. “No..No... No. NO NO NO.” Harry yelled, suddenly rushing to his bed, tearing everything apart, trying to find his nest. He began sobbing. It had finally just started to feel right; everything, including the cloak, was gone.
The castle began shaking from the sheer force of the magic that was soaked in pure anger and grief that was just rolling off of Harry. He fell to the floor, curling up his head in his hands and rocking back and forth.
"POTTER!" Snape shouted, rushing into the room and fighting against Harry’s out-of-control magic.
"Potter, you need to calm down before you destroy the castle!” The raven-haired man shouted at the boy. “God damnit,” Snape muttered to himself
Severus Snape knelt to be on the boy's level and pulled the small child into his lap, holding Harry’s head to his chest. “You need to calm down, child,” Severus told the child quietly.
“It’s gone! It’s all gone!” Harry sobbed into the man’s chest.
“What’s gone?" Snape asked seriously; it had to be something big for Harry’s magic to be going so haywire.
“Blankets, Cloak, Nest,” Harry sobbed out, holding the man’s robes in a tight grip.
“You had a nest?” Snape asked incredulously. He was too young to have presented. Harry nodded his head.
Snape knew what he’d have to do. "Come, Harry,” the man said, getting up and picking the boy up and carrying him to his private rooms.
He rushed to his room, where on his bed was his big nest. Snape gently laid Harry down in the middle of the nest. Harry immediately began to sniff, and once he caught that whiskey and herb scent, he cuddled into the soft fabrics, letting out soft purrs.
As Harry was curled up in Severus’s nest, calm and content, the man began thinking, How was it that Harry was able to present early? That’s rare in the wizarding world. Very rare.
It just didn’t add up, but Severus let it go and joined Harry in the nest. The boy looked up when he noticed the man joining him, and as soon as Snape lay down in the nest, Harry began cuddling into the man’s chest. Looking into the boy's eyes, you could see a tinge of a gold circle around his iris.
The boy's omega had come out, but Severus didn’t care; he just pulled the boy close and held him to his chest. Both were purring, and they were just basking in each other’s attention.
“Harry would like you to come with me for winter break,” Severus asked quietly.
Harry looked up at the man “Really?!” Harry asked excitedly, “Like..Like we’d be family?” He asked hesitantly.
Severus smiled “If that’s what you want to be,” he said, hugging the boy closer.
Then, for the rest of that night, they stayed like that, where Harry cuddled Severus; the only difference was that they ended up getting a big comfy blanket to cover them both.
As the weeks went by leading up to Yule break, Harry and Severus got closer than ever, and when Yule break came along, Harry went with Severus home to his new family. He had a dad, whose name is Tom Riddle, and a papa, Severus Snape-Riddle, and now he is known as Harry James Riddle-Snape.
They are and forever will be a happy family, no matter who tries to break them apart.