NOVEL WEB 28 What if Harry Potter was a squib?
Albus Dumbledore had spent a decade preparing everything for the savior of the wizarding world to return to his people. It had been difficult with Voldemort's followers subtly searching for the boy, so he had hidden him in the muggle world, somewhere they would never think to look for him. Everyone thought he would have been placed with a magical family and that was an extra layer of protection to keep the boy safe.
He sat at his desk and waited for Harry's response to his invitation to Hogwarts. Once it was received, he would send Hagrid to collect the boy and the Gameskeeper would fill Harry's probably empty head with the joys of wizardry and tales of creatures he could only dream of.
As the day dragged on, nothing happened. No owl showed up and Minerva hadn't come to see if she would be allowed to visit the son of her favorite students. Albus was only a little concerned about it, just because Harry might not respond right away. He had two weeks before the cut-off date that matched the boy's birthday and maybe he was waiting to reward himself as a birthday present.
Yes, perhaps waiting would be prudent instead of sending someone there preemptively. Albus thought and decided he could wait a few days to a week before he would concern himself about it.
Almost two weeks later, there was still nothing. Albus was close to panicking and he only had a day left to get the boy's response or he would miss this year's registration. He couldn't go himself, because that would show that he was desperate and would also draw a lot of attenton to the boy that he didn't want him to have at the moment.
After a short debate with himself, Albus chose to send Severus to check on the boy and to bring a copy of his acceptance letter. He sent an elf to fetch the potions professor and left his office to go to Minerva's office to have her jot off another letter. When he entered, he saw the frantic witch as she desperately worked hard to enter all of the acceptance letters that had come in at the last minute.
“Ah, Minerva. I was wondering if I could bother you for a moment?” Albus asked in his jovial voice.
Minerva looked up from her desk with bloodshot eyes and sighed. “What is it, Albus? I'm busy.”
“It's nothing too important. I wanted a copy of Harry Potter's acceptance letter to have delivered.” Albus said and her eyebrows rose. “I suspect he might have lost it or his guardians may have kept it from him.”
Minerva huffed and used a hand to push some stray hairs back behind her ear. She didn't have time to redo her bun. “Why would they do that?” She asked and turned to the student registry book.
“I couldn't say.” Albus hedged. He didn't want to confirm her previous opinion about the muggles being the worst sort.
Minerva glanced at him with a stern look as if he actually did confirm it. She flipped the pages to the 'P' section and tapped the book. “Potter, Harry.”
Nothing happened.
Minerva frowned. “That's not possible.”
“What is it?” Albus asked.
“It's not creating another invitation letter.” Minerva said and leaned over the book and read the list of names in the 'P' section. She caught her breath when it skipped from Patil to Roland. “N-n-no.”
“Minerva?” Albus asked, worry in his tone.
Minerva didn't answer and flipped back to the 'H' section to check if the name was filed incorrectly as Harry Potter. Nothing was there. She flipped to the first page of this year's students and read each and every one carefully, in case there was a misspelling or something. She didn't give up until she read Weasley, Ronald and Zabini, Blaize.
“He's not listed.” Minerva said, her voice barely above a whisper. Dread filled her as she looked at Albus. “Harry Potter is not marked down to attend Hogwarts.”
Albus felt like someone had stabbed him in the heart. He staggered slightly and walked around her desk and tapped his wand on the book. “Show me Potter.”
A piece of parchment was created and the list started with the very first Potter to ever attend Hogwarts and went through fifty names before it ended with Potter, James and the date of his enrollment.
There was no Harry Potter.
“Albus, what's going on?” Minerva asked, her dread increasing at the look on her old friend's face.
Albus didn't say anything and rushed out of the office and returned to his own.
“Headmaster, what is it that you...” Severus started to say.
“Not now!” Albus spat at him and strode over to the shelf with the various monitoring devices he had on the boy. All of them were working. It didn't make sense. How can he be alive and not have an invitation to Hogwarts? His tuition was already paid and his name had been submitted since he was born!
“Headmaster?” Severus asked, concern overriding his normal prickly composure.
“Come with me.” Albus said and went to the large fireplace to toss in some floo powder. “Mrs. Figg's House.”
Severus hadn't seen the old man move that quickly in years and followed him through the floo. Albus didn't acknowledge the woman whose house they had just entered unannounced and strode out the front door without casting a notice-me-not charm. Severus did it for him and himself and walked after the increasingly frantic man.
Albus went to 4 Privet Drive and didn't bother knocking. He waved his wand at the door and his strides didn't pause as he entered another house without permission and cast a location spell. The cupboard under the stairs glowed and he felt his heart constrict. He had known Harry would be spending ten dark years with the Dursleys and had planned for that. He did not plan for extensive abuse.
Another wave of his wand had the cupboard door tear off the wall under the stairs and there he was, Harry Potter. He was much smaller than a normal 11 year old and he was both frail and thin, sickeningly so. Albus knelt by the entrance to the cupboard and his old and withered hand lightly touched the boy's shoulder, only for Harry to flinch and jerk away in pain.
“I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I can't. I can't.” Harry muttered and cried.
“Headmaster.” Severus said, his voice full of venom. “Where are we?”
“This is the home of Harry's only family, Petunia Dursley.” Albus said.
Severus felt anger fill him, even more than normal, and he walked by the headmaster and entered the kitchen.
Albus ignored the screams he could hear and tried to comfort the terrified boy. It wasn't working, so he put Harry to sleep and cast several diagnostic charms on him. He caught his breath when all he could detect was a very small trace of magic. It was a mere fraction of what it had been as a baby and he couldn't understand what had happened.
A few more spells let him check on the thing in Harry's forehead and it was also barely a trace of what it had been ten years ago. One final spell was cast and the result almost knocked Albus onto his backside. He instead shakily stood and took two steps back and leaned against the hallway wall and stared at the magically drained boy.
Harry Potter's magic had wasted away under the blood wards that Albus had cast to protect the Dursleys. Apparently, there had been a miscalculation in the spell or the Dursleys had been through a few things that needed more protection than simple wards could provide, which meant the only one with magic in the house had paid for it.
It didn't matter if Albus cancelled the wards, because the damage had been done. Harry Potter was now a squib.
“I have the evidence to convict the muggles.” Severus said in an angry voice and held out several vials of smoky liquid.
“It doesn't matter anymore.” Albus said and looked at the other man, his eyes no longer had their trademark twinkle. “Our world is lost.”
Severus squinted his eyes at the man and took out his wand and cast several spells at the unconscious boy. His snarl was pronounced as he cursed, then he nodded and put the vials away before he went back into the kitchen. There was a short scream that was cut off, a manly yell, and a boyish squeal, then it was deathly quiet in the house.
Albus didn't react to the clear signs that Harry's muggle family had been dealt with permanently. As he said, their world was lost with their savior rendered into a squib. When Voldemort eventually returned to power, and he would, there was no one that could defeat him.
Severus entered the hallway with a satisfied look on his face, knelt to pick up the underfed boy from his cupboard, and nodded at the headmaster. He left the house and walked back to Mrs. Figg's house. The older woman didn't react at Harry's state, which meant she knew he had suffered all these years.
A quick Crucio on the old bat had her screaming on the floor and Severus used her floo to go back to Hogwarts. His vow to protect the boy had been severely strained without his knowledge and he would make sure that anyone that knew about it would suffer.
*
Everyone was excited that their world's savior would be attending school with them this year. No one had actually seen Harry on the train, so they just assumed he had been treated to personal transportation or something and was already at the school waiting for them.
They arrived and entered the Great Hall to wait for the sorting to happen, their minds eager to hear Harry Potter's name and to find out what House he would be sorted into. Most knew he would be going into the same house that his parents had been in, Griffindor, and they waited anxiously for history to repeat itself.
Only a few very observant older students noticed the strained faces on the professors and the utterly blank one on the headmaster. There was also one less teacher and no one explained why. Minerva McGonagall entered with the group of first years and all of the students looked over them for Harry's trademarked messy hair, glasses, and hopefully would catch a glimpse of the famous scar.
The sorting hat didn't sing a song this year and just said that they should all take care of each other for as long as they could. That was only startling for the students and the professors all nodded, as if it was sage advice. The hat sorted everyone there and it wasn't until Minerva took the hat and stool from the Great Hall that the students started to realize something very important.
Harry Potter was not a student at Hogwarts.
During the very first potions lesson of the year, the students were introduced to Severus Snape's potions assistant. The thin boy looked like a smaller version of the man and had a slightly hooked nose and long greasy hair. The only difference was the small pair of glasses the boy wore and no one would ever ask him his name.