A new home

Chapter 24

Severus had hoped that after a fun day with Albus, Harry would settle down and sleep peacefully. But that was not the case. The men had only gone to bed for about 2 hours when they heard screaming and crying from Harry's room. Even without the monitoring charm, which was ringing in Severus' ears, he would still wake up from the screaming.

He passed Albus in the hallway, but waved to him, indicating that he got it. He walked into the room, wand raised just in case. Everything was fine, except that Harry was tangled in the bedsheets and thrashing. He untangled the boy first and gently touched the boy to wake him up. It took a few minutes and outside, Albus could hear the heart-wrenching screams that came from a boy who had been traumatized for 10 years.

The boy woke up and looked around the room in panic until he saw Severus.  He started sobbing and clung to the man's robes.

"It was just a nightmare, shh"

Severus tried to soothe the boy and rubbed his back. It took a few minutes, but Severus never let go.

"Do you want to talk about it?" - Severus asked after a few minutes.

Harry quickly shook his head.

"Ok, that's fine. You can find me if you change your mind. Let's get you cleaned up, ok?"

Severus helped Harry in a fresh pull-up expertly, even when he was in the dark. Neither of them noticed an old man who stood in the doorway, smiling fondly.

The next morning, everything seemed as if nothing had happened in the night, the boy was as happy as usual. Severus decided to talk to Harry about registering him in the local Scouts.

"Harry, do you know what Scouts are?"

"Cub scouts?" - the boy asked curiously.

"Yes"

"Yes I know, there was a group of them near my old school"

"There's one around here too. Do you want to join?"

Harry stared at the man thoughtfully. He had seen the ones near his old school in brown uniforms, and he had also seen ones in blue uniforms on tv and he thought they were very cool. You get to do all kinds of survival tricks, build tents, and stuff. He had wanted to join back then but knew he would never be allowed.

"Really?" - he asked, hesitating.

"Yes, of course. We think that you need to play outside and talk to other people, especially ones your age, too"

"That would be nice" - Harry said, beaming

"Alright, if I'm not mistaken, the weekly meetings are at 9.30 or 10.00 on Sunday mornings. Today is Sunday, we can walk there after breakfast. You can watch them for a while and then you can decide whether to join, ok? If everything goes well, we'll register you and you can come to the next meeting"

Harry was smiling widely, clearly excited about this. Breakfast was about to be done when an owl flew in through the kitchen window and dropped a letter in front of Harry. The boy looked surprised.

"A letter from Malfoy?" - he said, confused.

Severus knew what the letter contained. After all, he was the one who had required Draco to write it.

The letter was brief, containing only what needed to be said, which was Draco's apology for what he had done. Harry didn't care much about it though. After reading it, he excused himself to go upstairs to change.

When Harry came down, Severus took him over to the couch and had a brief talk.

"Harry, when we come there, your name will be Harry Prince, ok? Prince is my mother's family name. You will be a relative of mine, and you will play a 7-year-old, nearly 8, to ensure your safety." - the man said seriously but not harshly.