Professor Severus Snape strode from the potions classroom, occupied in his thoughts. He was finished with classes for the day, and the last period of every day was free for his experiments. Something that he was forgoing for today. The mediocre students of the school parted around him, intimidated by his demands for excellence in his class as he went through the hallways, his black cloak billowing behind him.

Even the students of his house in Slytherin were adverse to him even if they showed it less. But Severus was not focused on them today. His thoughts were occupied by Harry Potter like they had been all day. Had the Fidelius Charm on the Dursley’s residence failed? How had someone managed to curse the boy both through the charm and past Dumbledore’s watchers? Severus was sure it must be a curse. What else could cause the boy to write in an unfamiliar language to himself?

And the boy had said his struggles with the curse had been ongoing for years, ever since he was a child. Why had Dumbledore not informed Severus of his state? His aptitude for potions was clear by the first class. The Draught of Living Death was a complex potion, a demonstration of the exactness required in potion making to new students. Almost no one was able to make the potion correctly the first time.

In truth, Severus only graded if the students' potions were even remotely similar to the true thing. But Harry Potter… He had created a nearly perfect potion on the first try. Severus was jealous of his perfect memory. He would have thought it was a trick, but he had used legilimency to read the boy’s mind as he recited the lines, and he had been speaking the truth. Severus had verified that he had made the potion on his own without cheating as well.

Severus reached the headmaster’s office.

“I would like to speak with the headmaster if he is not currently occupied.”

The boy’s mind was abnormal compared to the average boy, but that was acceptable. The muted emotions were a concern, which was a common side effect of the overuse of certain emotional manipulation potions such as love potions. But Severus thought the boy's emotions were within normal ranges for some people. But it was worth investigating, he would mention it to Dumbledore. Severus had met many brilliant potions masters over the years that were even stranger than Harry Potter was, so there was no need to jump to conclusions just yet.

And the boy had truly inherited none of the arrogance of his father. If anything, he undersold his own value in his mind. Insecurity from his forced illiteracy, no doubt.

The gargoyle began to spin upwards and Severus started up the steps.

But all taken together, what Severus had retrieved from the boy's mind painted an ugly picture. Severus had been kept severely out of the loop. Severus could only imagine the bullying the boy must have endured at the muggle's hands from his mental state alone. Let alone his illiteracy. The boy had been suffering and Dumbledore had stood by and watched. And intentionally kept it from Severus so he wouldn’t intervene.

He felt a twinge of doubt. Would he have intervened? Without ever having met the boy? He honestly couldn't say.

Severus walked into the office and the headmaster was writing something on his desk, peering down through his glasses. At Severus’ arrival, he finished writing a last line and leaned back while looking up.

“Ah, Severus. Sorry for the wait. I was just finishing a letter to Cornelius Fudge.”

Severus snorted.

“I can’t believe you still support that buffoon as Minister of Magic. He has absolutely no spine, and grows deeper in Malfoy’s pocket by the day.”

Dumbledore sighed.

“I know your opinions, Severus. But the fact is that the man’s heart was in the right place originally. And he is far too powerful to dislodge now since there is no serious alternative.”

“There is you.”

Dumbledore shook his head.

“You know my feelings on that. I quite enjoy just being headmaster of the school.”

“Just headmaster.”

Dumbledore chuckled.

“Yes. A headmaster must look after his students. In and out of school, don’t you agree? Anyhow, what is it you came to discuss? How was Harry Potter in class today?”

Severus’ frown turned deeper.

“It was more… enlightening than I had expected. He could be a genius in potions. Made a near perfect Draught of Living Death in the first class.”

Dumbledore’s eyebrows raised.

“That is high praise from you Severus! This is good. Good. He’s inherited his mother’s talents it seems.”

Severus stiffened but pressed forward still.

“And I have learned some far more disturbing things as well. I believe the boy to be cursed.”

Dumbledore stood suddenly. “Cursed? By who? Is the boy alright?!”

Severus took out the boy’s notes and passed them over to a worried Dumbledore. It seemed that he wasn’t aware of all of this after all. So was it just negligence then?

“The boy is nearly illiterate. I watched him struggle for over a minute to write down two sentences. But when he wasn’t focused he began scrawling down this. Do you recognize this language? I believe he's cursed with a variant of a Commutare Linguam curse focused on reading and writing. The caster must have known whatever language this is in.”

The headmaster was silent as he shuffled through the pages of parchment, closely inspecting the symbols and swirling lines.

“I don’t… I don’t believe I do. This is like no language I have ever seen. And I know nearly a dozen. You are right, this is clearly some form of language or code. The structure is too regular and it is too organized to be anything else… You are absolutely sure that young Harry wrote this?”

“Certain. I verified it with legilimency. He wrote it and thought they were random scribbles. He can’t read it either.”

“How could I have missed this?”

Severus cleared his throat. “You were aware of the boy’s difficulties? And did not think to investigate?”

“I simply chalked it up to his… special mind. He has never displayed writing like this before from what I have seen.”

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“And why wasn’t he helped when he started to struggle? I have seen his mind. You know how muggles, and most wizards at that, treat people who think differently than most. The boy genuinely believes that he will be relentlessly bullied once people discover his illiteracy. A fact in his mind. He believes that his friends will turn on him the instant his secret is exposed.”

“I was aware of his struggles, Severus. The fights between boys, his low grades, but the interventions you describe would expose the boy to others. Hostile actors, former death eaters waiting for an opportunity to harm him. And I already had a solution planned that I was going to give him at the end of the day, after I would have reason to know.”

The headmaster rustled down in his desk for a moment. He pulled out an overlarge quill.

“An invention of my own. A surprisingly difficult task to create one of high quality through alchemy. The quills you get commercially are so inaccurate and given the boy’s inability to read, he would have difficulty checking his work.”

He set the pen at the top of a blank piece of parchment. “Quill, begin.”

The quill touched the page. “I wish to demonstrate this eloquent invention to Professor Severus Snape. Sally sells sea shells by the seashore. Quill, end.”

Everything Dumbledore said was written on the parchment except the last deactivation command.

Severus picked it up and inspected it.

“Amazing. Have you considered selling these?”

“Ah, that quill cost thirty galleons to make. Do be careful with it. The idea does have merit, but not anytime soon, unfortunately.”

Severus carefully placed the quill back on the desk. “Regardless, I wish to take him to St. Mungo’s for treatment, if it is possible. To remove the curse entirely.”

Dumbledore shook his head.

“The boy has had it for years, what is a few more months? The first thing the boy does upon entering the wizarding world should not be to go to a hospital. You know how the dark faction will get if there is a hint of anything wrong with young Harry's upbringing by the muggles.”

Severus sneered. “And shouldn’t they? After all, it would all be true by your own admissions just a few minutes ago. ‘Fights between boys’, was it?”

Dumbledore shifted in his seat. “Severus, you know that’s not why it matters. The harm to the whole muggle population would be immeasurable if the dark faction…”

Severus scoffed. “You should have thought of that before you let things progress this far!”

Dumbledore stood and frowned at Severus. “Is that concern I hear? From you? You have wanted nothing to do with him for over a decade and now he shows talent you leap to defend him? How self-serving. You know he had to stay with his relatives for his own protection, regardless of what happened there.”

Snape struggled. It was true, he had wanted nothing to do with James' son this whole time. But…

“He… he has his mother’s eyes.”

The headmaster let out a long breath and sat down again. “Yes, yes I suppose he does.”

— — —

There was silence for a moment before something chimed and Dumbledore looked up. He started rubbing his temples. It had been a long time since he had such a charged conversation with Severus.

“Someone else?” He said.

Dumbledore waved his wand to activate the staircase. After a moment they came in the doors. Dumbledore was surprised as the topic of conversation himself Harry Potter appeared in the lead, Neville Longbottom and Hermoine Granger trailing behind him.

Dumbledore made an effort to learn the names of all the students. Something he was able to easily accomplish with the help of his advanced Occlumency enhancing his mind and memory. Madame Hooch was behind them ushering the three students forward. He put on a kindly smile to put the students at ease. It worked on young Neville and Hermione, but Harry’s blank face remained unchanged. Well, it certainly couldn’t hurt to maintain the smile. The boy had never been very expressive after all.

“Now, what is all of this about?”

— — —

Dumbledore was frowning by the end of hearing the various perspectives on the recent incident. There went any chance of having Harry treated at St. Mungo’s anytime soon. If it was done now then it would be connected to this event and used as evidence of the boy's instability. And who knows what the boy would say when the staff started asking the standard questions about his home life. Despite the boy's apparent indifference, Dumbledore knew well what others would think if they heard how he had been treated by the Dursleys. It was known that Dumbledore was the boy's legal guardian and was responsible for his safety and health.

Dumbledore could almost hear Lucius Malfoy’s arguments even now. The vicious muggle-born attacked an upstanding pureblood in a fit of rage. But the truth was more powerful in this case. Lucius’ son Draco Malfoy used a dark curse on another student and Harry Potter leaped to defend his friend and went too far in his ignorance. And Dumbledore almost chuckled picturing Lucius trying to paint Harry as emotional and prone to fits of rage. The boy was anything but that.

Harry’s own account was refreshingly honest as he told his version of events. He just went through the events one by one and his exact thoughts at the time. In that steady cold voice that Dumbledore had heard so many times before when he had invisibly checked in on Harry over the years while the boy was staying at the Dursleys.

Perhaps a function of his perfect memory made his dry account oddly compelling, not missing even the slightest detail. The bit where he spoke in a different language was intriguing. Was this the spoken form of the notes the boy had written before? But before Dumbledore could ponder the point further, the story was finished.

Dumbledore considered. This was a serious matter. A wand was a lifelong partner, not something to be replaced casually as young Harry had believed. In some places of the world snapping another’s wand was considered an even worse crime than murder. How could Dumbledore save Harry from this predicament?

Hermione butted into his thoughts as she spoke in Harry’s defense.

“Headmaster, Harry’s barely been in the wizarding world for weeks. How was he supposed to know, it’s only the first day. I didn’t know it was so serious either.”

Dumbledore leaned back and steepled his fingers. Was it really that simple? The girl was right, he was overcomplicating things. There was almost no possible way for the boy to have known what his actions meant. Dumbledore wasn’t even sure if such a thing had ever happened before in Hogwarts’ history. Wands were durable and coursing with magic, not something that could be snapped casually by a first year. In fact…

“Harry, you say that you snapped the wand with your bare hands?”

“Yes, Headmaster.”

“Did you feel anything strange while you did so? Wands are not usually so easily broken.”

The boy cocked his head to the side and Dumbledore saw his eyes flicker as he presumably went over the events in his memory.

“Yes, my hands went cold for a few seconds before and warmed when the wand snapped. But other than that nothing else happened.”

Accidental magic then. Wands were supposed to solve that issue, but that was the only explanation left. Whenever a bonded wand was close by, it would absorb any emotional bursts and prevent the release of such accidental magic. The boy must have felt strong emotions under his calm exterior to produce such a targeted effect.

Yes, the boy couldn’t be blamed for accidental magic. Dumbledore could work with this. He would just have to get to the neutral governors before Lucius Malfoy did. Give them the right spin on events before they hear the more unbiased version from Harry. The boy showed no remorse at all, which would make the case harder than it had to be. But the boy couldn't fake remorse if he tried, so Dumbledore would have to work with what he was given.

There was a moment of silence as Dumbledore sat back and considered all the people and favors he would have to call in to pull things his way. Neville and Hermione shifted nervously while Harry was impassive as ever.

“I am inclined to believe that this is all an unfortunate accident. I assure you Harry that I will do my best to make sure you get a fair say with the board of Governors. Unfortunately, this is serious enough that the decision on any punishment related to this school is up to them and beyond my hands. Madame Hooch?”

She nodded, and Dumbledore continued speaking. “Take the students back to their common room. They are to remain there until after there is more certainty on what additional actions will be taken. And inform Minerva of the situation and tell her to come here with all haste.”

“Certainly, Headmaster. Come along students.” Madame Hooch said.

Harry’s gaze lingered on Dumbledore for an extra moment, but eventually he turned around and left the office with the others.

Severus spoke up. “Are you going to inform the board of Governors now? You know how unreasonable they can be when they get riled up. Keeping this from them could bias the group against the boy.”

“No, Severus. Not yet. Best to prepare more first before we tell them.”

Dumbledore picked up a quill and retrieved the letter he had written to Cornelius Fudge.

“I have to add some things to this letter. The ministry will become involved either way, best to come out ahead of things…”