Chapter Text
In the initial one-shot “it didn’t matter” by JennaS_26, Harry was horribly abused by his soulmates Blaise and Theo, to the point that when he researched and found out that the only way to have break a bond without all of the mates dying was by suicide. He tried to kill himself. He was interrupted by Draco and Severus, who had been experiencing disturbances in their soulmate bond that indicated that they had an unknown third mate. Everyone realized that the soulmate bonds were tampered with by dark magic and that Harry, Draco, and Severus were actually soulmates.
“Broken Ones” starts off with Harry following Draco and Severus back to their room, absolutely convinced that they will be even more abusive than Blaise and Theo. Their attempts to convince him otherwise are not very successful, but he eventually accepts a deal with Severus that they won’t hurt him for one week if he doesn’t try to kill himself again.
Blaise and Theo corner Harry and threaten to torture him as soon as his mates get tired of him. He decides that his only hope is to try to keep Draco happy with him.
Severus is suspicious of how Harry could’ve ended up in this condition. He breaks into Dumbledore’s office in search of answers, and discovers Dumbledore’s research into Riddle’s Horcruxes, including Harry. Severus realizes that after forcing Severus to swear his life to protect Harry, Dumbledore was planning to kill him, and that Harry has to die for Voldemort to die, but Harry’s death will kill Draco. He uses his custom potions to get very, very drunk.
Harry is doing his best to make Draco happy, and his anxiety is through the roof. He attempts to take a shower to calm down, only to realize that he forgot to bring in any clean clothes. When he steps out to get them, Draco walks in, and Harry panics. He attempts to summon his clothes, but accidentally gets Draco’s clothes instead - all of them.
A very hung-over Severus walks in just as Draco shrieks at Harry and Harry drops his wand. Seeing that reaction brings it home to Severus that their lives are tied to someone who was raised to die, and he has to keep him alive against his predilections. He freaks out and yells at Harry, sending Harry into a flashback of being surrounded by Death Eaters in the graveyard. Draco realizes that something’s very wrong and distracts Severus by attempting to make him angry with Draco instead, but Harry sees the Death Eater turning on another student and uses Expelliarmus, which, overpowered by panic, sends the hung-over and not-at-his-best Severus head-first into a bedpost, knocking him out briefly. Draco panics and calls his parents, who pack them all up and take them to a safehouse.
Narcissa and Lucius have seen Severus on these potions before, when he was actively suicidal, so they insist on keeping him under surveillance for the weekend and locking up his potion stores indefinitely. Severus tells Narcissa that Dumbledore wants to kill Harry, without going into details. They decide that Narcissa should give Harry duelling lessons, and make plans to keep the Dark Lord from figuring out what’s going on. Narcissa then sets out to charm Harry; she is very successful.
They get back to Hogwarts for classes on Monday, just in time for Harry to remember that the week Severus agreed to not hurt him for is over. He tries to convince himself that if he threatens to kill himself, they might agree to be less awful than Blaise and Theo, but he doesn’t believe it. He ends up hiding in a bathroom to try to get his anxiety under control, fails to control it, and stays there until Draco and Severus come to find him. In the conversation that ensues, he realizes that Draco hadn’t even known about the agreement and still hadn’t hurt him. Harry is confused, but he does recognize that they’re not hurting him for fun. Draco is shocked at how low Harry’s expectations are and tries to reassure him.
Draco and Severus fight over Severus having made an agreement in his name, and Severus feels strange emotional reactions. He realizes Harry’s soulmate gift is manifesting and that it’s empathy.
Harry starts duelling lessons with Narcissa and loves it. Exercise helps with his depression, and he starts being friends with Hermione and Ron and doing things he enjoys again.
Draco is jealous that Harry is having fun with his friends and is still so guarded around him. Also that Severus is off doing something (studying Horcruxes, but he doesn’t know that). He decides to spend the evening sulking and drinking. When Harry comes in, he makes a snide remark about Harry’s friends, cuing Harry to assume that Draco is going to forbid him to interact with them. In a Firewhiskey-induced moment of bravado, he offers to sleep with Draco if Draco lets him keep his friends. Between empathy and the alcohol, Draco is confused, but does his best to tell Harry that he’s not going to do that. Harry is still not convinced, and Draco ends up calling Narcissa and having her tell Harry that if Draco does anything mean to him, Narcissa will take Draco apart. Harry actually starts to think that maybe all this is real and he’s not going to be hurt.
Severus gets as much information on Voldemort’s Horcruxes as he can on his own and decides that the next thing to do is to interrogate Dumbledore. A little worried that Dumbledore will Obliviate in, he decides to tell his mates what’s going on. Harry’s magic explodes upon being told that he has a piece of Voldemort in him, and he decides that it makes him evil. Severus explains his plan to get rid of Horcruxes, and Harry offers to take him to get basilisk venom.
Severus talks to Dumbledore, who attempts to manipulate him. Severus finally decides to completely break his ties with Dumbledore, but doesn’t tell him. He hears the whole prophecy, finds out that Dumbledore is the one who interfered with Harry’s soulmate bond (in an attempt to keep him from having any mates who would make him vulnerable, but it didn’t work right), and leaves with Dumbledore convinced that he’s going along with his plan to let Harry die, while he’s really determined to save them all.
Harry and Severus go to the Chamber of Secrets. Severus is trying so hard to be nonthreatening that Harry decides he’s someone else Polyjuiced. He locks Severus out of the Chamber and Severus only gets him back to his room with great difficulty.
Harry, with Severus’ permission, tells Ron and Hermione about the Horcruxes. Hermione immediately sets up a weekly meeting with Severus, who she gets along with surprisingly well.
Severus and Draco are not dealing well with acquiring empathy. Draco is trying to figure out how to use it as a weapon, but it makes him physically sick. Severus experiences empathy in the form of a memory of a time when he felt the emotion he’s making someone else feel at that moment. He doesn’t like it and he’s using Occlumency to fight the memories. When that doesn’t work, he uses pain to fuel his Occlumency (a technique Dumbledore taught him to withstand torture from the Dark Lord without letting secrets slip).
Draco has been bullying Gryffindors, thinking that it’s necessary to keep Slytherins from being bullied; Harry finally walks in on it happening and feels completely betrayed and unsafe. He decides to rejoin Dumbledore’s Army and teach all the Gryffindors how to protect themselves. Draco tries to figure out what to do and decides to get in touch with his aunt Andromeda, a Slytherin pureblood whose soulmate is a Muggleborn Hufflepuff.
Narcissa lectures Draco on how important it is to keep Harry happy with them and insists that he apologize and stop bullying. Draco asks Andromeda for advice instead; she tells him to ask what Harry wants and really listen to the answer before they start plotting. Draco is not good at this.
Blaise and Theo notice that Draco and Harry are fighting, and they catch Harry and torture him for a weekend. Harry is terrified when Severus finds out, but Severus heals him and does his best to punish Blaise and Theo so that they won’t touch Harry again. Harry is confused yet again.
Draco finds out that Severus is self-harming regularly to stop empathy-memories. He insists that Severus face the memories in a Pensieve so that he doesn’t have to fight them and will stop self-harming.
Harry still expects to be tortured in retribution for what Blaise and Theo did to him. When Draco and Severus attempt to convince him that they won’t do that, he thinks that the price is giving up his attempts to stop Draco from bullying Gryffindors, and he refuses. Draco says they’ll talk about it later.
Severus sticks memories in a Pensieve and doesn’t want to look at them. Draco casts a mild compelling charm to make him want to look. A prefect pounds on the door saying that they have a life-threatening situation in the Slytherin common room, and they run out. Harry walks in and is pulled by the compelling charm into the Pensieve.
Harry sees memories of Severus feeling like he makes other people feel, so predominately being abused by his father and bullied by Harry’s father. Harry is absolutely disgusted by his dad’s behavior, and conflicted about his mum. He pulls himself out of the Pensieve at the end of Snape’s Worst Memory, not wanting to see his dad follow through on his threat to strip Severus in public.
Harry runs out of the castle, not really aware of what he’s doing until he runs into the Black Lake. The cold water feels like an enticing form of self-harm, and he goes deeper until he’s swept down by a current and effectively drowns. He gets pulled by the Slytherin Common Room windows. Severus sees him and saves him, and guesses that he saw what was in the Pensieve.
Harry wakes up in the Hospital Wing again and is confronted by Ron and Hermione, who have guessed that he’s suicidal. They want to help, and he insists that the best way they can help is by helping him figure out if his dad really was as bad as he saw in the Pensieve. Ron comes up with asking Bill and Charlie if they have any older coworkers who might pass on some memories. Hermione suggests that they pretend to fight and see what the other kids have to say about Harry when they’re badmouthing him. Harry insists on doing both.
Harry expects Severus to practically kill him for looking in the Pensieve. Severus does his best to stay calm, but he yells that he’s spent his life protecting Harry and Harry is an idiot for thinking that he’s going to start hurting him now. Harry, once again, is confused. Severus attempts to explain that he just wants Harry to live his own life, and ends up doing remedial career counselling with him. Harry is more confused, but he likes the idea of having a future.
Narcissa formally apologizes for Draco’s behavior and gives Harry a protective armband and a set of wardstones. Harry actually trusts her.
Harry and Hermione fight publicly. Severus is livid. He chews Harry out, leaving Harry confused again because after everything he’s done to Severus and Draco, why is the one thing Severus gets upset about Harry fighting with Hermione? Severus points out that this is exactly what happened to him and Lily, and Harry freaks out.
Then Severus gets summoned by the Dark Lord. He insists that Harry and Draco ward themselves in their room, just in case. Instead, Harry goes off to try to apologize to Hermione. Under the Invisibility Cloak, he overhears other students talking about how their parents told them how awful James Potter was and how they couldn’t trust Harry.
Hermione sends him away, and Draco finds him and drags him back to their room. Severus gets back and says that they need to hurry up their Horcrux hunt and that Harry needs to learn Occlumency.
Hermione and Harry have detention together. Harry finds out that she’s not mad at him, but she is constantly worried that he’ll try to kill himself again. He’s annoyed by this but since he’s feeling like a bad friend, he tries not to be.