Web of Lies, Untangled

by Writing_Like_Ill_Die

Summary:

When Severus Snape finds out that most everything he knew was a lie thanks to one Mad Eye Moody’s intense paranoia, he’s pulled into a whirlwind of unraveling Albus Dumbledore’s lies. This is made worse when they rescue Harry from an abusive home he should have never gone to and discover that Lily apparently put Severus down as a choice for Harry’s guardian, and everyone before him was indisposed, making Severus Snape, who up until recently had been under several compulsions to make him horrible to children, into an unlikely father when he is certainly not ready to be one. Fortunately, or maybe unfortunately, the Healer that Moody halfway trusts, who accidentally started this untangling of a decades long web of lies, absolutely refuses to leave Snape the hell alone.

Chapter 1: Mad-Eye

It started with his office being burst into without knocking early one Saturday morning, as most things start with Mad-Eye Moody.

“I’m taking you to the Healer, Snape. I found something abnormal. I can’t tell you anything else. There might be eyes and ears. Come now or I’ll cast a binding hex on you myself.”

Severus was smart enough not to protest, because he knew damn well from his time in the Order that Moody would absolutely carry through on his threat.

So he allowed himself to be whirled away to a hidden location before to the Mind Healer’s office (paranoid Moody wanting to shake anyone off their trail) where a young man about Snape’s age with bronze skin and bright green eyes in Healer’s robes was waiting.

“Is this him? Alright. Hello, mister Snape. I’m Healer Pewter, though you can just call me Nemesio.” The man smiled warmly. “I’d be happy to explain everything if you would just stand still a moment and let me examine you.”

Snape sighed, wondering what he’d gotten himself into. “Fine.” He drawled.

“Thank you!” Healer Pewter began casting diagnostic spells all over him, but reading the chart, he went pale, and Moody, reading over his shoulder, set his jaw and growled.

“Mister Snape, please sit down for me. I’m afraid I have never seen this many compulsion charms and blockages on a person in my life. And potions...! Let me break the compulsions. You’ll feel better soon I promise.”

“What?!” Snape snapped, seething, but grumbled to sit and try to relax, because he knew Mad Eye seemed to trust this Healer and wouldn’t allow anything else.

Healer Pewter began hovering around him with his cedar wand, whispering incantations, and soon Snape felt incredibly dizzy as he felt like everything he knew about was unraveling. He was realizing that none of his hate or loyalties felt right anymore, and he didn’t know what to think of himself anymore. Then he was given a familiar butterscotch yellow potion of Mind Soother, which he tossed back without question. After all, he could tell a potion had been tampered with even in this state, and this was clean. The composition was excellent, and he mumbled so.

Healer Pewter smiled warmly. “Thank you! I brewed it myself. I mostly work in healing people from spells of the mental variety. You probably don’t remember, but I was second place behind you in potions at Hogwarts.”

Snape tried to remember, and recalled the name that he saw at the top of Slughorn’s list, right below his. He remembered the surname Pewter, but the name in front of that was... “Oh.” He realized something that was absolutely none of his business. He had nothing against that sort of thing, and now was not a time to question it. “I remember hearing Slughorn sing your praises, yes.”

That seemed to be the correct reaction, because Healer Pewter gave an exceptionally warm and welcoming smile to him, and Snape couldn’t quite remember the last time anyone had smiled at him like that.

Healer Pewter sighed. “Anyway, I can feel Moody getting restless, so let me explain. Moody saved me during the War, and I’ve been his biggest thorn in the side ever since. And when I finally convinced him to let me cast one simple diagnostic spell on him, I found him covered in compulsions! It took a few days for me to prove that I didn’t tamper with the spell and he had to cast it on himself too, but things started making more sense when I traced the magical signature. And when he traced it too, just to be sure. Same signature as yours. Albus Dumbledore.”

Snape felt fire return to him he’d thought he’d lost. “What kind of compulsions did he put on me.”

Healer Pewter began reading off. “Hatred towards James Potter, Harry Potter, Sirius Black, Remus Lupin, basically everyone besides the Slytherins, extremely strong loyalty towards Dumbledore, distrust towards Death Eaters, hatred towards abused children, hatred towards struggling children, hatred towards any child not in Slytherin... the list goes on. The one towards Harry Potter is the strongest. Then there’s the potions. You have a strong Nemesis potion on you towards Harry Potter, which on top of everything else would make it basically impossible for you to have a positive relationship with this child, and most concerningly, an Amortentia with no set target stirred counterclockwise. I’m sure a potion master knows what that means.”

Snape ground his teeth. “Inability to love anyone. Constant despair. Those are only theoretical conceptions of what would happen, to use an altered potion on someone on purpose without plant testing is utterly dangerous...!”

“Exactly. I have an antidote for the Nemesis, but I’m not entirely sure a normal antidote for a love potion would work for this. That’s a bridge we’ll have to burn together, mister Snape.” Healer Pewter sighed. “I have more to tell you, but first, take your antidote please. I need you to be yourself for this.”

Feeling much like a child, Snape obeyed with a sigh. It made him feel even more dizzy, but at least he felt like his thoughts were his.

“Thank you! Now, Moody went digging into some things once I cured him.”

“Lily and James’ Will was sealed the night of their death. Harry Potter was sent to live with a pair of Muggles called Petunia and Vernon Dursley.” Moody confirmed.

“Petunia... nee Evans?” Snape could barely whisper, realization dawning.

“The same.” Moody growled out.

Snape rose from his seat as fast as he possibly could, and nearly fell due to lingering dizziness, needing to be supported by Healer Pewter. “No child of Lily’s should ever be entrusted to Petunia bloody Evans!! She would eat them alive!!”

“This is why I needed you healed before I told you this... Ah, you’re heavy.” Healer Pewter got him sitting again. “I can get those blocks off your core with a proper ritual room, but Moody suspects that Harry isn’t supposed to be at the Dursleys and is probably dosed up to his ears on the same, and we can’t read the will without him. So the plan is to get it all done in one go. You two are gonna get Harry out of there. We’re gonna get it all done as fast as possible and have you back before Dumbledore notices.

“You seem... awful involved in this, for a simple Healer.” Snape commented.

“You’d be right. Moody is someone I care about, and we both know that if this is all true then Dumbledore has the majority of the Wizarding World in his pocket. It’s best that we keep this to as little people as possible for now. I’m under an Unbreakable Vow not to speak of what I learn to anyone except the victims of this case.” Healer Pewter smiled. “Besides...” His smile fell, for once. “Now that I know that a child might be in an abusive home, there’s no way I could stay uninvolved.”

Snape paused. He was quite good at reading people, had to be, it was a big part of Legilimency. This man as long as he’d been in this room with him had never stopped completely smiling except twice. His smile shifted and had different qualities, going from exasperated to pinched to warm and welcoming at rare occasions, but this is the first time it had dropped since his aghast reaction to Snape’s diagnosis. Though with his true, real thoughts coming back to him, he felt he understood why an always smiling man would stop at the idea of an abused child.

“We leave as soon as you’re settled. I want these biggest steps out of the way as soon as possible. Take this.” Moody handed him a pendant. “Enchanted. Called in a favor from the curse breaker Weasley. I have myself one too. Need to work on getting Pewter one, just to be safe. It’ll stop and alert of compulsions by growing hot, and neutralize drugged food too.”

Severus sighed and put it on underneath his robes. He was still trying to wrap his head around everything. It was all happening so fast. But more than anything, his mind was clear again, and he knew one thing: Lily’s child was with Petunia. If left with her, that child would likely end up becoming an obscurial, and that’s if she didn’t beat the child to death! He found himself incredibly paranoid at the idea, at the waiting. “I’m fine to go right now.” He tried to get up.

Healer Pewter appeared in front of him and pushed him back down into the chair with surprising strength. “No you don’t. You just had 23 compulsions and a strong potion removed from your system, and you’re still suffering from an experimental potion to block out your love and drive you into utter despair. You’re gonna sit there and rest for at least an hour. You need to take care of yourself. Healer’s orders.”

“You’re such a Hufflepuff.” Snape spit at him without thinking.

“Awww, you remembered my house without me telling you? I’m charmed.” Healer Pewter grinned at him with an odd mixture of both sweetness and venom.

Snape realized that, indeed, this man had never mentioned in this conversation his House. And that he did vaguely remember that.

“Now sit the fuck down and rest, you stubborn git. I know the binding hex too and I’m quite good at it.” Healer Pewter told him firmly, spinning his wand in his hand as a threat.

Snape looked between Mad Eye, eyeing him harshly with that unblinking magic eye, and the cheerful threat from the still smiling Healer. Now he understood why Moody halfway trusted this annoying nutter.

Chapter 2: Rescue

Summary:

Obviously, Pewter had plenty of practice talking to kids, which Snape would silently be grateful for because he was still recovering from compulsions and didn’t know how to act around a child, much less one as strange as one six-year-old Harry Potter.

(And he doubted Moody would be any better help.)

It was supposed to be a simple mission. Go in, grab the brat, get out. Moody already had this place on lock down so no one would notice, and was outside keeping a watch to make sure nobody interfered. It was up to Snape to actually retrieve Harry.

Petunia obviously won’t him in, so he just busted the door wide open with magic. Technically he didn’t need to let the wind billow his robes or to tower over them as he hissed “Where is the boy?”, but it’s not like anyone will know.

The Muggles are terrified, and try to stop him, threaten him uselessly but then Snape realized something off.

He smelled blood. His instincts went into overdrive, and he could no longer control his emotions. “TELL ME WHERE THE BOY IS OR I’LL PUT YOU IN UNBEARABLE PAIN!” He shouted at them, and finally the lard tub of a six-year-old boy starts wailing and pointing to the kitchen.

Snape went to kitchen with heavy steps in his boots, and heard a small wheeze come from the cupboard under the stairs. “Alohomora.” He whispered, and wrenched it open.

There, bleeding from the head with an obviously broken arm, breathing shallow, was a severely beaten, half-dead, Harry Potter. His skin was medium brown, his hair black and curly, and his eyes bright killing curse green, with a large lightning-like litchenberg scar crawling down the side of his forehead and across his eye, cheek, and nose. “Are you... my relative?” The boy barely made out.

Snape took out his wand as fast as possible. “Expecto Patronum!” A white doe came from his wand. “Tell Healer Pewter to come to my location at once! Harry is in critical condition! He has a head injury, a broken arm, and possibly broken ribs! Bring potions!” He told the doe, who sprinted off at the speed of light.

With a pop of Apparition, Healer Pewter appeared next to him after only a few agonizing minutes with a potions case. He looked at Harry and gasped. “Dio mio. Don’t worry, tesoro, I’m gonna help you.” He ducked into the cupboard, which wasn’t easy considering he wasn’t much smaller than Snape, who was quite towering, and had broader shoulders than his ally. Snape watched worriedly as Healer Pewter did what he did best, slinging healing spell after healing spell until Harry could sit, and then feeding him several potions to help him with the head wound and broken bones. Another several minutes was spent unraveling the tangled web of compulsions off the boy. Until finally, Healer Pewter sighed. “Okay, little Harry. You’ve still got some blocks, but we can take care of those real soon. Let’s get you the hell out of here. You’re never coming back if I have anything to say about it.”

“Is he going to be... alright?” Snape’s voice was hesitant.

“He needs to lay down and rest as soon as possible for a while, but the Goblins’ visit is more important. We need to go while it’s still the weekend, before that old coot expects you back. But finding a safe home for Harry is priority number one.” Pewter reported.

Little Harry Potter was watching the two of them with quiet awe. “Uh... mister?” He tugged on Healer Pewter’s robes.

“I’m Healer Nemesio Pewter, but for you, you can just call me Nemy.” Pewter smiled sweetly at the child.

Harry smiled shyly. “Can I get my Nanny before I go? I think they scared her off, but I think I can call her back.”

“Nanny?” Snape questioned.

“Of course, take me to where you saw her last.” Pewter gave that same comforting smile.

Harry took them out back, and to their horror, began hissing. And soon, from behind the garden shed came a massive reticulated python, who Harry ran to and let climb all over him. “Nanny!! Are you hurt? These nice freaks came and saved me! We’re going far away!” He hissed excitedly to her.

Snape had gone very very pale, trying to endure flashbacks that made his legs feel like jelly. He found himself gripping onto Healer Pewter, who remained unshakeable, though with a troubled expression.

“He shouldn’t be able to speak to snakes.” Snape whispered.

“No, he shouldn’t. Most curious. But I’m betting he thinks all magic is horrible, so let’s not have a bad reaction and make him worry.” Pewter whispered back.

Harry looked up to them with most his body surrounded by snake. “This is Nanny! She’s taught me everything! She told me about magic and that I defeated the dark lord! She said she would take care of me and be my Nanny!” The child announced happily, ecstatic to be rescued.

Even more alarm bells went off in Snape’s head, and a shared glance showed Pewter thought so too.

Pewter kept smiling despite that, though. “That’s great, Harry, I’m so glad you have a friend! I’m sure she can come with us. Let’s go and meet with a friend of mine outside. We’re going to the magical bank. We’re going to see why you were put here in the first place and see who is supposed to have you.” Obviously, Pewter had plenty of practice talking to kids, which Snape would silently be grateful for because he was still recovering from compulsions and didn’t know how to act around a child, much less one as strange as one six-year-old Harry Potter, and he doubted Moody would be any better help.

Harry just looked at him shyly. “...You really think so? I’m not a freak for talking to a snake? They beat me really badly when they found out about Nanny. They beat me really badly when I do anything freaky. But... you’re a freak too. So I wanna trust you.”

Pewter’s smile faded, became dimmer. “Oh, Harry. None of this freaky. This is the most natural thing in the world. There’s a whole world for you out there, with their own holidays and games and clothes. Come with us. The three of us will protect you. I promise.”

Pewter held out his hand, without fear of the snake wrapped around Harry, and Harry gently took it. Pewter gently led the boy out of the garden through the fence gate and to where Moody lay in wait, while Snape followed quickly, still recovering.

Notes:

Healer Pewter at this traumatized broken man: You WILL be my friend. We ARE having soft tacos later. This is a THREAT.