A Little Light Reading

Severus Snape comes into his rooms one day and finds a package with a card saying "read me". Upon reading the title Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone, he puts it aside and grabs a potion text to read. Only the writing in every book (or student essay) he tries to read has been replaced with "Chapter One, The Boy Who lived". Giving up, he sits down to read the book and learn and few truths about the son of his schoolyard enemy.

Note: dullastacks now seems to have withdrawn from fanfiction, but the story, chapters 1-22, can be found here [dead link] . ...Argh! Foiled again!

Tropes used in A Little Light Reading include:
  • Abusive Parents: The are references to this regards to Snape and his Father. Snape finds that Vernon was emotionally/mentally abusive to Harry and is not happy. Even less so when he finds implications of physically abuse.

Vernon (Book):"I'm not having one in the house, Petunia! Didn't we swear when we took him in we'd stamp out that dangerous nonsense?"
Snape: "Stamp it out? STAMP IT OUT? So help me, Dursley, if I find one mark on that boy that was put there by a hand larger than your son's..."

Snape: "No, whale-spawn, your father's not gone mad, he's simply an imbecile."

  • Beneath the Mask: The story goes into quite a bit as to what Snape is like under his “Greasy Bastard” behaviour.
  • Born Unlucky: Snape apparently sees Harry as this.

Snape (about Harry): It was as if he'd been hit with some sort of counter to the Felix Felicis at birth.

  • I'll Kill You!: Referred to. If Petunia had been present, Snape would have killed her.
  • Jerk with a Heart of Gold: He went out of his way in the middle of the night to have Pomfrey check Harry for abuse and stayed with him while he was asleep.
  • Like Father, Like Son: Snape initially believed Harry to be this.
  • Not So Different: Snape starts to see Harry as this.

He'd felt that way many times as a youth, when Lily would take him by the hand and pull him into her house for a meal or kind words. Basic human compassion made no sense to someone made to feel guilty for their own birth. And somehow, he'd missed that same shadow in Harry.

"Nervous. Incompetent. Useless. Highly suspect in his qualifications... Quirrell is many things, Potter, and none of them good. You'd do well to stay far away from him." Snape was more convinced than ever that he needed make sure the two were never alone together, and that Quirrell didn't have any more easy access to Harry until he'd sorted exactly who and what the man was about.

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