Archive of Our Own

Chapter Text

THE BEGINNING

Everything had started to normally. Well, as close to ‘normal' as life got for Harry. He had been prowling the corridors after hours at Hogwarts, not bothering anybody, making sure to steer clear of Filch, Mrs. Norris, and all the resident ghosts as was routine for him. He had long ago perfected walking around silently so as to not get in trouble, and hidden under his invisibility cloak as he was, he hadn't thought anyone would be ever be able to see him. Later, when Harry had reflected on it, he realized that his inattention was what had started it all.

Harry had stopped to rest in the Astronomy Tower, and was sitting on one of the battlements, when a soft rustling alerted his attention to someone else in the area. Harry turned his head quickly and looked around. There shouldn't have been any students up, not at this time of night. Professor McGonagall had run them off hours ago, leaving the open-air area available for him to stare at the stars, or where the stars would have been if the sky hadn't been overcast. For lack of the sky to look at, Harry had taken up looking over the school grounds, a silent guard over his home. He glanced at his watch. 12.45. Even the Professors should have been asleep at this hour!

"Who's there?" A deep voice asked from the shadows near the trapdoor. Harry froze, barely breathing; he hadn't heard the door open. The teen sat quietly, not making a sound. After a few seconds the trapdoor shut and Harry relaxed, letting out the breath he had been holding in a soft whoosh.

"Lumos." The area was suddenly filled with a dim light, highlighting the area in front of the person, but blocking his – Harry was sure it was a he, because that wasn't a woman's voice – face from Harry's keen eyes. Harry froze again, swallowing in terror.

"I know someone is in here. Whoever you are, you shouldn't sigh like that when you're trying to hide." The figure moved a step closer to Harry's hidden form, and then stepped back to the trapdoor. Harry sat, frozen where he was, and prayed silently that the person would go away and leave him alone.

After an eternal moment, the figure, with wand still held to show the way but hide the identity, began slowly gliding around the area, one hand held to the wall. Harry stood quietly, every muscle tensed and senses hyperactive. The figure moved away from the trapdoor, giving Harry a window of opportunity to escape. If he could just get through the door, then he could take off running and hopefully lose the man in a secret hallway. Harry's gaze jumped from the trapdoor, to the man – who had stepped into a patch of moonlight, illuminating his jet-black robes and shoulder length black hair – and back to the trapdoor. He was only a few meters from the door… The figure was almost ten meters away from him… Now he was only two meters away from his escape… The figure had passed the far point of the circular area and was now on his was back "If you do not show yourself, I will find you. Perhaps a nice Leg Locker Hex to knock you to the ground?" … One meter… The man was steadily moving closer, but was still a good distance away from him… Now he was at the door… The man was still almost five meters away… Harry knelt down, reaching for the handle… Now he was slightly under five meters and closing… Harry had the handle in his hand… Four meters… Harry closed his eyes for an instant, praying that he could lose the man who would see and hear the door open… Three meters… Harry flung the door open, scrambling for the ladder.

"What the-?!" The man yelped in surprise. Harry dove through the door, hoping the man was still too shocked at a door opening without any visible means to come after him. He had his legs through the trapdoor and was about to finish his descent when the man, wand still lit, bolted towards the trapdoor and reached down. A second later and he would have been too late because Harry would have been long gone; luck wasn't with Harry though. The man's long hands descended towards Harry's cloth covered face, closed on the cloak, and pulled, leaving Harry exposed for the man to see. He froze in terror as the man's face loomed into view, right as the moon shined bright as the sun on the two of them. Harry couldn't be sure because the light was in his eyes, but he could have sworn that the man didn't have eyes, just two black holes in place of the eye sockets. Harry widened his eyes in absolute horror as he realized that the man could see him fully.

"You're not a student." The man's low voice sliced through the silence that had been reigning. "Who are you? What are you doing up here?" The man's words cut through Harry's fear induced haze and he immediately let go of the ladder, falling over a meter to the stone floor below. Before anything else could happen, instincts kicked in and Harry reached up, hand extended towards the man's figure. "Petrificus totalus!" he yelped, and the man's body stiffened, then fell to the floor of the Astronomy Tower, and was out of sight. Harry stared, panting, then took off like a shot, darting into the pitch-black hallways of the sleeping castle.

Left, right, straight, left, left… Harry's feet navigated for him, automatically taking him to safety. Straight, right, right, through the concealed door, and up the stairs into the rooms. He slammed the door shut and leaned against it, breathing heavily. "No. No, no, no." He moaned softly.

"Harry?" Harry jumped and whirled around to the voice. He stared at Albus Dumbledore in dumb shock, trembling slightly. "Harry, my boy. What's wrong? What happened?" Albus raised his hands in a soothing gesture; Harry flinched and shrunk back.

"I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I didn't mean to! I was being quiet! I swear I was! I wasn't doing anything! It's his fault! He came in! I was quiet! He wouldn't go away! I'm sorry! I'm sorry! I came right back here…" The words tumbled out quickly, dying off into a murmured ‘I'm sorry, I'm so sorry.'

"Harry. Calm down. Tell me what happened. What are you sorry for?" Albus had lowered his hands and taken a step back from the skittish teen. How long had it been since he had been reduced to this state? Months, years? Albus couldn't remember the last time the boy had murmured nothing but apologies in his presence.

Harry looked at the old man, eyes darting around the room, then landing back on the man's blue and silver robes. He wouldn't be able to escape Albus; he knew that. He spoke softly, barely above a whisper. "I was in the Astronomy Tower. Looking over the grounds. Someone opened the door. I think it was a teacher. I don't know. I've never seen him before. I was quiet, just like I'm supposed to be. I thought he left. He didn't. He heard me breathe. He started looking for me. I wasn't doing anything wrong! I was just sitting there. I tried to escape, but I couldn't get to the door fast enough." Here he looked up into Albus' blue eyes, pleading with his own green ones. "He came up to me before I could get all the way down the ladder." He dropped his gaze. "He took my cloak." The last line was nothing but a whisper of shame. Now he would be in trouble. Albus had never punished him like they had, but now… Now he was sure that the old wizard's patience would snap. He'd be yelled at, punished, sent back there. He began trembling in fear again.

Albus watched the distraught teen for a moment, the smiled benevolently. "My dear boy, you did nothing wrong. It was an accident, they happen. Tell me what the man looked like."

Harry shrugged, staring at the floor of the office and the plush carpet. "I don't know. I couldn't see him."

"You must have seen something of him. Robes, hair, eyes, height? You are not in trouble for this Harry."

Harry looked up at the man, eyes wide. "I'm not? But someone saw me! Someone I've never met!" His voice was small with disbelief.

"Of course you're not. Just tell me what the man looked like and I will take care of all of this. You did the right thing by coming straight back here." The words seemed to calm the boy down some. His hands were still shaking slightly, but the rest of his trembling had stopped.

"I couldn't see much of him. He had black robes. And black hair. That was all." He dropped his head, staring at the toes of his boots.

"Hmm…" Albus took another step back and extended his hand towards his desk. Harry noticed the movement and shrunk back slightly. Albus turned back to Harry, now holding a bowl of yellow candies. "Here Harry. Go on." He offered the bowl out to the young man, who reached out carefully and took one of the small yellow balls, instantly lifting it and taking it into his mouth. He kept his hand near his mouth, an unconscious gesture of timidity on his part.

"Harry, my boy, why don't you go on to bed? You've had a long night. I will take care of this in the morning." Albus ushered the still jumpy teen into a large bedroom, taking care not to actually touch him. "Don't worry, my lad. All will be well by lunch." He smiled again and shut the door behind him as he left. As soon as the door was shut, however, he frowned slightly. Well, he had been planning on introducing Harry to more of the staff members. Just not that particular one first.

MEETING SEVERUS AND EXPLANATIONS

The next morning, Albus was sitting in his favorite squashy chair, reading that day's edition of The Daily Prophet, when Harry entered the room, carrying a large tray with tea things, a plate of food, and a smaller plate with just toast on it. Albus looked up at the boy's quiet entrance and smiled brightly at him. "Good morning Harry! Sleep well?"

Harry ducked his head quickly, setting out the breakfast things. Albus beamed again, this time at his plate of food, and began eating, pouring himself a cup of tea with no hands while seemingly giving all his attention to his bacon. Harry lifted the corner of his mouth slightly in what might have been the beginnings of a smirk behind his toast, then nibbled on the bread.

"Toast? Is that all you're having, my boy?"

Harry started, nearly dropping the slice, then lowered it carefully. "I'm… I'm not very hungry this morning," he murmured quietly.

Albus nodded knowingly, returning his attention to his plate and spearing a clump of eggs. "Ah well, you know where the kitchen is if you decide later that you want something. Mmm mmm… My boy, you always did know how to make good eggs. I dare say these are your best yet."

Harry's mouth quirked again, this time a bit wider, and he returned to his toast. Albus looked up from his plate again a moment later. "Oh yes, I nearly forgot. While we're on the topic of breakfast…" Albus held his hand up towards one of the walls. A medium sized blue box with a white lid floated across the room and into Harry's lap. "I picked up some more mice for Quicksilver. She's been going after mine again."

Harry took the box and set it down next to his seat. "Thank you. I'll tell her to leave them alone," he said quietly. Albus nodded and returned to his breakfast. Quicksilver was the large black and silver Lake Royal Snake that Albus had given Harry for his birthday last year after the portrait of Helga informed him that the portrait of Salazar had been hissing rude things about Godric again and Harry had defended Gryffindor, not realizing the difference between English and Parsletongue. She normally hunted outside, but had begun molting a few days before, making her belly too sensitive for the grass and blurring her vision. As a result, she had taken to going after the small army of fat mice Albus kept in his office that kept tabs on things that went on around the castle. He just let everyone think he already knew everything.

After finishing his second piece of toast, Harry stood and picked up his plate, then began towards the kitchen, pausing to give the slightly scruffy Fawkes a head rub. He was molting again after being reborn the month before and always took to a nice rub to dislodge any old feathers. Once his plate was clean and put away, Harry re-entered the room and picked up the box of mice, holding it under one arm and giving Fawkes a perch with the other. "Is it alright if I go feed Quicksilver?"

"Of course my boy." Albus waved his wand at his own breakfast dishes, sending them floating towards the kitchen. "If you need me, I will be in my office taking care of some business." Albus stood and let himself out the door to his office after Harry nodded to him and set off for his room, mice and phoenix in hand.

Albus has just sat down and pulled a large, constantly moving model of the universe towards him when his fireplace erupted in green flames. Severus Snape's head appeared from the shoulders up and he looked grumpier than usual for a Saturday morning.

"Albus? Do you have a moment? I need to speak with you."

"Of course, my lad. What is it?"

"Do you mind if I come through? I'd rather have this discussion in person."

Albus cocked his head at the Potions Master, then nodded shortly. With a soft roar, Severus stepped through the flames, managing a perfectly dignified entrance from the dizzying mode of transportation. Albus gestured to a large chair and summoned up a tea service, pouring himself a cup from one teapot, then holding another up for Snape's view. "Care for something to drink Severus?"

"Black tea, if you please."

Albus nodded, and the smell of the steeping tea filled the room. He poured a steaming cup of the brew and handed it to Severus, who took it and sipped slowly. Perfect, as usual, Severus noted with dry satisfaction. Albus always was good with tea. Once the men were both settled with their respective cups, Severus looked up from his tea, balancing the saucer on his knee. "Now, as to why I needed to speak with you."

Albus nodded. "I had assumed that this wasn't just a social call."

Severus acknowledged the truth in the statement with a slight nod. "No. I have reason to believe that there may be someone in the castle other than the usual denizens. I do not know this person's intent, but it seemed to be the best course of action to inform you of this. I would have come sooner but… Suffice it to say that there were some things that came up that could not be avoided."

Albus nodded understandingly. "What make you think that there is someone here who shouldn't be?"

Severus reached into his robes and pulled a small bolt of cloth out. "This."

Albus eyed the shimmering material critically. "Is that what I think it is?"

Severus nodded, set the cloth on the Headmaster's desk, pulled out his wand, and aimed it at the silvery item. "Restitutio." The silvery item shimmered and grew to full size on Albus' desk. The older wizard reached for the invisibility cloak and held it up, examining it closely. "An invisibility cloak, Severus?"

"Yes. I pulled it off of a young man, a teen, last night in the Astronomy Tower. A teen, I might add, that I have never seen in this school at all before last night."

Albus frowned deeply and levitated the cloak over to a cloak rack, where it hung itself neatly next to a bright purple one with yellow canaries twittering madly on the sleeves. "What did this teen look like?"

"Black hair, green eyes, wire framed glasses, and a deep green long-sleeved shirt. He also appeared to be wearing gloves, but that could have just been the light. I could not judge his height. I saw him as he was dropping through the trapdoor and he – " Severus stopped in mid sentence and took a deep breath, preparing to say what was probably the most embarrassing thing he had ever said to the Headmaster. "He petrified me. I could not see any more before he ran off and out of my line of sight." Severus took a sip from his spelled-to-stay-hot tea and shot a nasty look at Albus, who was chuckling behind his hand. "Do I really want to know why you are laughing when there is a teenager running around this school with enough power to breach my personal wards?"

Albus managed to get his amusement under control, but his eyes were still twinkling brightly. "If I told you to forget about him, would you?"

"You know me better than that, Albus."

Albus nodded again, then gave the younger man a hard gaze. "I am going to introduce him to you, but I must have you absolute word that you will not tell anyone about him. Outside of myself, Minerva, and Poppy, no one else knows here at the school about him, excluding a few ghosts and portraits that have sworn to keep their tongues."

Severus frowned in confusion, then nodded. "All right. You have my word." Albus nodded, then turned in his chair to face the stairs that led up to his personal rooms. "Harry?" He asked. "Would you come down here for a moment please?" he turned back to Severus. "He will be here in a moment."

Harry looked up from where he was holding a fat dead mouse out to Quicksilver when Albus' voice floated around him, carried to his ears by a simple Sonorus spell. He dropped the mouse, which the snake gobbled quickly with hissing pleasure, and stood, nearly running towards the stairs that led to the Headmaster's office, almost forgetting to leave Fawkes on his perch in the process. He slowed to a walk and headed down the stairs, automatically going to Albus' chair with a questioning look on his face.

"Ah Harry, I want you to meet someone." Albus gestured to Severus, who had been watching a battle scene on his teacup and had not noticed the boy's silent entrance. He raised his eyes and met Harry's, who looked over at the Potions Master at the same time.

"You!" Severus jumped up, dropping the teacup in the process, which shattered on the floor, spilling tea everywhere. Harry gasped and stumbled backwards towards the stairs, fear at the man's sudden outburst forcing the reason out of his head. Severus took a step forward, ignoring the mess he had inadvertently caused, causing Harry to scramble even more. When the teen reached the stairs, he tripped over the bottom step and fell in a heap, landing on his backside with a heavy thump. When Severus took a third step forward, Harry scrabbled wildly, trying to get up the stairs and away from the dark figure.

Albus shot out of his chair with amazing speed, holding his hand out in a ‘Stop' gesture towards Severus. "Severus! Will you please go stand next to the door?" Severus looked at Albus, who nodded towards the door. "Please." He turned his attention to Harry, who was still in a mess on the stairs and still trying to scrabble backwards up them. "Harry. Calm down. Relax." Albus was sure it was Severus that had unnerved Harry last night; his reaction to the man and the Potions Master's reaction to the boy had confirmed it. He knelt down next to the spooked teen, lowering his voice to a soothing murmur. "It's alright Harry. Calm down. I'm sorry; I should not have surprised you like that. Go back upstairs a calm down a bit. When you have done that, I want you to come back down. Bring Quicksilver with you, if you like. Once I have calmed my friend down a bit, I would like you two to meet each other. Is that okay with you?"

Harry swallowed, eyes flickering between Albus and the man by the door. He had taken up post there, arms folded over his chest, a dark glower on his face. If he had been scary at night, he was absolutely terrifying during the day. At least at night Harry had the shadows to work with, but in the bright office, he had nowhere to slip off to. He nodded briefly to Albus, who helped him up, and scurried up the stairs, leaving the older men alone again.

Severus watched the boy leave and cocked an eyebrow at Albus when the door at the top of the stairs slammed shut with a dull thud. Albus nodded to him and gestured to the chair again. Severus sat, giving the Headmaster a calculating look. "All right, Albus. I know I may not be the most handsome or nicest person in the world, but I have never in my life elicited that severe a reaction from anyone. What is this all about?"

Albus busied himself with cleaning up the spill and fixing the shattered teacup before answering. "Am I correct when I assume that the young man you just saw was the same you saw last night?"

Severus nodded slowly. "Yes, that is the boy. Who is he?" Albus sighed and slumped down in his chair, suddenly looking his age.

"His name is Harry. He has been under my care since he came here when he was eleven; he just had his eighteenth birthday. This would be his seventh year if he were enrolled here."

"If he has been here for so long, why have I never seen him before? Why has he never attended any classes?"

"You have never seen him because he usually reserves his school wandering to the early hours of the morning, when everyone else is usually asleep. He has never attended any classes because Minerva and I have been seeing to his studies. And before you say anything else, no, he is not related directly to me, nor has he ever been sorted into any of the houses." Albus pressed his fingers together and rested his chin on them.

"Why have you and Minerva been taking care of all of his academics? Why has he never been enrolled in the school proper?"

"Both of those questions can be answered in one statement. Minerva and I both thought those would be the best courses of action for him."

"Why?"

"Because Harry is a… Rather special case. Much like you were, Severus. Although Harry's case is worse, I think. Any such situation is terrible, of course, but…" Albus trailed off. Severus rubbed his eyes and pinched the bridge of his nose. "It is far too early for riddles Albus. Talk straight please."

The old wizard looked at Severus, surprised slightly. "I'm sorry Severus. Lost myself for a moment there. What I mean to say… Is well… Hmmm… How should I put this?" He paused a moment, thinking. Severus stayed silent, sipping on his recently repaired and refilled cup.

"Harry's parents are dead. Thank Lord Voldemort for that. Voldemort, for one reason or another, didn't kill him. Harry was a baby at the time, and certainly no match for his powers. We never did figure out the how he lived. All we know is that he somehow survived the attack on his family and their house collapsing down around his ears. His family had been living close to the school at the time, and I had gone to help defend their home. I was too late to be of any assistance to them, but I found Harry in the rubble. After some deliberation, I decided that him staying with his family would be the best course of action, lest Voldemort come back to finish the task. Harry's mother had a sister, who was married with a young infant about Harry's age, so I assumed that they would be the best suited to caring for him." He stood and stepped over to the window, reflecting. "How wrong I was…" Albus trailed off again, staring out the window, watching a large group of students gather for a Care of Magical Creatures class.

"A few years ago, when I sent out the letters to the students, I had assumed that Harry would be joining us. He didn't. As you know, every now and then there are students who do not wish to attend Hogwarts, but their parents always contact me explaining why. Harry's family never did. I thought at first that maybe I had just missed him, but after checking with a few sources, I discovered that he had never been sorted. He never got on the train at all. Needless to say, my curiosity was aroused, so I went to investigate the matter. What I found was… Disturbing, to say the least." Albus paused again and sighed tiredly before continuing. "I ended up having to invoke the Student Protection Act that the founders created and removed him from the family."

Severus sat up straighter. "The Student Protection Act, Albus? There haven't been any cases where that was required since…" He trailed off, not wanting to complete the sentence; Albus nodded gravely. "Now you see why I kept him in my care." The older man paused, thinking. "Let me phrase it this way. Think of a House Elf who serves out of fear, not because they wish to. Young Harry had been reduced beyond that. I found out later that when the powers began manifesting themselves, the Dursleys, his relatives, tried to beat the magic out of him. Literally." Severus sat his cup down and rubbed his mouth and chin with one hand, the other clenched tightly on his leg. "He was beaten for his magic?" The words were filled with disgust and revulsion.

Albus nodded again. "Many times, from what I could see. When I found him, he had bruises, cuts, and scars marring his body. It was obvious that he had been hit recently. I hastily removed him from the house and Obliviated every memory of him from their minds, lest they try to come after him in the same way Voldemort might have. With all of the situational factors taken into consideration, Hogwarts seemed the best place to bring him, so I brought him here. The only things he had with him to bring here were the clothing and broken glasses he was wearing at the time, nothing else. I brought him up here at night, so as to not arouse any suspicion. I showed him his rooms, told him that he would be staying with me from then on, and told him that it would be best if he got a little sleep. He stared at the bed like he had no idea of what it was for." Albus closed his eyes and sighed. "I will never forget what he did after that."

Albus swallowed, forcing the words out. "He looked at the bed, then went to the foot of it, and, after a moment, laid down, on the floor, curled up, and fell asleep there. It took me the better part of two weeks to convince him that it was acceptable for him to sleep in a bed, and even then, to this day, I still find him curled up on the floor when he thinks he's done something wrong."

Severus swallowed thickly, resisting the urge to hit something. He had a great deal of hate for anyone who treated children like they were worthless. For all his cutting remarks to and about his students, the faculty knew full well that if the situation required it, he would be one of the first to go to great lengths to protect the students in the face of adversity. He took another sip of his tea to give him something to do with his hands. When Albus didn't say anything more for a moment, Severus thought he was finished; then the older man continued.

"After he arrived, I set about trying to help him cope with the magical world and everything that had happened to him over the previous years. When he first awoke, I summoned Poppy to take care of his wounds. The first thing Harry did when he saw her was run to me; his mind had connected me with safety and just about everything sent him my way. It took me a few minutes to calm him, but once I did, Poppy took care of his cuts and bruises, with him watching in fascination. She told me later that there was nothing she could do for the scars. She left a little after that, giving me instructions to keep his activity level to a minimum until he had gained a bit of weight and was used to all the current changes before introducing him to anything new. The first time I brought him a meal, he stared at it blankly, then looked at me. When I told him to eat, he gave me an incredulous look and then ate so fast he nearly made himself sick. It took some time, but Poppy and I managed to get his eating patterns into a normal routine. The entire time, he never said anything. Not a word. Poppy was beginning to worry that they may have somehow made him mute with their abuse, but we soon figured out that he never spoke because we never told him he could. It took us nearly a week to convince him that he was allowed to speak all the time, and close to three weeks after that to get him to speak in more than a whisper."

Severus shifted uncomfortably in his seat. No wonder the boy had reacted the way he had to Severus' surprised outburst. A small nagging voice in the back of Severus' mind told him that he would have to apologize to the young man later.

"As to his education… Several months after Harry had arrived here, I found him staring in one of the mirrors that I use to check in on classes, giving his full attention to Minerva's first year Transfiguration class. I stood by and watched him for a few minutes. He was copying her movements exactly, repeating the spell as a student would in her class. That weekend, I took him to Diagon Alley to get him the standard first year equipment, including new robes and a wand. When we returned here, he all but ran to where he had left the mirror, but was highly disappointed when she wasn't teaching. It was then that I decided that it would be best if he received special schooling. Watching a class is one thing, but, obviously, a student needs a teacher. After some time, Minerva and I eventually decided that Harry was still too… Er, for lack of a better word, timid, to take classes on his own or with a group of peers. We set up a special schedule for Harry's lessons. Minerva would teach Charms, Transfiguration, Muggle Studies, and Potions –" Here Severus snorted quietly, but Albus either didn't hear him or chose to ignore it. "– and I would teach Arithmancy, Astronomy, and History of Magic. Neither of us put much stock in Divination, so we decided that if he wanted to learn it, we would do our best to teach it, but it would not be a required course. We do not have the available space to take care of many plants, so Herbology had to be limited. Care of Magical Creatures was, unfortunately, also denied. It did not seem wise to have different creatures roaming around in here." Albus paused, collecting his thoughts, then continued on.

"After we set up the schedule, we decided that we would take turns teaching, she would take one day and I the other and switch off from there. Did you know that he is a remarkable student?" Albus nodded when Severus shook his head. "I ended up having to create a secret passage from his chambers to the library. He never seemed to stop reading. Just took it all in and stored it in that fascinating little mind of his."

"You still haven't answered my question though, Albus. If he is such a bright student, why was he never enrolled in the school? I can understand why he wasn't during his first months here, but that does not explain the rest of the time."

"When I said he stored everything away, I meant it. Minerva and I had planned to allow him to join the student population with the rest of his peers at the beginning of what would have been his second year, but by that time he had surpassed that level. By the end of his first year, he was already into the second year texts. Into the third year books a few weeks after Christmas that year. He simply took it all in, never considering that he may have been above the standard. Of course, he is not excellent in every course, no student is, but even with the struggling he did have in some of his classes, he was still above average. We did not think it would be fair to either him or the other students if he were placed in the years ahead of his age group, so everything just ended up working out this way. He has a mind like I have rarely seen before. And speaking of minds… Hello again Harry. Feeling better?" Albus turned in his chair again and beamed at Harry, who had crept down the stairs, Quicksilver wrapped up his left arm, across his neck, and down his right, with some of her tail end trailing on the floor. Severus looked up quickly at the boy; he had not noticed his entrance. Merlin the boy could be as silent as a shadow!

Harry nodded cautiously, keeping a close eye on Severus' movements. The man still unnerved him, but at least now he wasn't yelling or glaring. "Good, good. Please, take a seat." Albus flicked his wand, transfiguring a spare teacup into a third squashy chair for Harry. The teen sat down, scooting close to the arm closer to Albus and further from Severus. Quicksilver unwound herself from Harry's arms and took up residence on his lap, a large, heavy, black and silver coil. Harry began rubbing her head and back absently, picking at dead cells. She hissed darkly when Harry accidentally caught a few scales that weren't quite ready to come off, and Severus eyed the large snake warily. He had no problem with snakes, they were his house mascot after all, he just didn't like one he didn't know hissing like that in his vicinity, especially ones that were blinded by molting. Harry noticed the dark haired wizard's gaze and continued to rub slowly. "She won't hurt you, sir. She's not poisonous." He whispered carefully, trying his best not to do or say anything that would have the man yelling again.

Severus looked up at Harry, then back down to the snake. "I am aware that Lake Royal Snakes are not poisonous. However, that does nothing to ease the fact that they can easily constrict enough to kill a person and she is in molt, which means that as far as she is concerned, I could be the next thing on the menu."

"No… I doesss not wantsss him. He sssmellsss like nasssty plantsss." Harry had to bite the inside of his lips to keep from laughing at Quicksilver's comment but it didn't prevent Albus from noticing the movement.

"Is there something wrong, Harry?" Albus cocked his head in Harry's direction, smiling benevolently.

"Erm… Well… It's Quicksilver. She just made a comment, that's all."

"Oh? Do tell." Albus smiled warmly at the teen; Severus eyed Albus. What was he going on about? There hadn't been a Parseltongue in the school since Riddle; everyone knew that.

"Well…" Harry pointed slightly in Severus' direction. "She said that she doesn't want to eat him. He smells like uh… Nasty plants." Harry cringed slightly, hoping the man wouldn't get mad at him.

Albus stared at Harry for a moment, then burst out laughing; Severus, who did not think the comment was funny, shot a venomous look in Harry's direction, causing the boy to immediately shrink back in his chair, apprehensive of the dark man. Albus noticed the teen and smoothly began to calm the tense atmosphere. "Oh Severus. I know it's not in your nature but do be nice. It's true, you know. Snakes hate most of the plants you work with. It was nothing personal against you."

"Hmph." He glared at the snake again, then took up staring at the boy with the least amount of venom he could put into it when he had just been insulted but someone who had petrified him the night before.

"You work with plants?" Harry's attention was quickly piqued; anyone with any knowledge that he didn't have was automatically upgraded to interesting, in Harry's mind. "Are you a botanist?"

Severus was about to answer the question when Albus piped up. "Oh no, my boy. Severus here is the resident Potions Master. Harry, meet Professor Severus Snape. Severus, this is Harry."

Harry quickly scanned the man and then lowered his gaze to Quicksilver. "Can you movesss pleassse? I needsss to get up." he hissed at his pet. Severus watched in well-concealed astonishment as the snake uncurled from Harry's lap and shifted to the back of the chair, flicking her tongue over his ear in the process.

Once rid of the heavy snake, Harry stood, stepped over to the chair Severus was in, and extended his hand carefully, locking his eyes with the older man the way Albus had instructed him to whenever he met anyone. Well no wonder he had first thought that the older man didn't have eyes! The Potions Master's eyes were pitch black; it was impossible to tell where the irises began and the pupils ended. Upon closer inspection, Harry realized that everything about the man screamed darkness. His shoulder length black hair, inky black robes, and cool demeanor all gave a ‘mess with me and die a nasty, painful death' aura to him. The offset of the robes and hair were the long, elegantly formed pale hands and face the same pale color. His high cheekbones and slightly bent nose, combined with his piercing eyes, gave him the overall appearance of a hawk. He wasn't good looking in the present sense, but more in the elegant style and classical sense of the word. "It's very nice to meet you, sir." Harry said, somehow remembering his manners in the face of the easily terrifying man.

Severus watched the boy carefully, sizing him up as he did with all the people he was introduced to. The boy didn't look like much, even though he could tell that he was nearly the same height as Severus himself. The young man had messy black hair and bright green eyes behind silver wire-framed glasses. He was wearing a pair of black jeans with the legs tucked into a pair of soft boots, and a dark blue long-sleeved and high necked shirt with the sleeve cuffs tucked into a pair of black dragon hide gloves. His skin was completely hidden by clothes, except for the top of his neck and his face, which was the same pale shade of someone with dark skin who spent too much time inside. He was slightly built, but had obvious muscles that Severus attributed to carrying the large snake around, more than likely.

He easily held the teen's eyes while he extended his hand and grasped Harry's in a strong handshake. He was surprised when his hand was held onto with a firm grip in return. Perhaps there was more to this boy than met the eye. "It is nice to meet you as well, Harry." They shook for a quick moment, and then released each other's hands, Severus relaxing against the back of his chair and Harry going back to his.

Harry shifted slightly when the weight of Quicksilver pressed down on his shoulder, her face close to his. Her eyes were still slightly cloudy, but seemed to be clearing up nicely. After a quick flick of her tongue, she wrapped her way along Harry's body and chair to the floor, gliding smoothly along the carpet to Severus' chair, where she reared up impressively, eyeing him with cool interest.

Severus sat perfectly still in his chair while the large snake examined him and barely managed to suppress a flinch when she leaned forward and flicked the end of his nose with her tongue, then hissed at him. Severus turned his head in Harry's direction, but Quicksilver moved as well, keeping her eyes on Severus.

"Harry? Would you mind providing a translation? I would rather like to know what she is saying to my Potions Master." Harry nodded quickly, then looked at Severus; he was still intimidating, but it reassured Harry that the man could be put at odds with his pet. "She wants to know if you really are a Potions Master."

Severus nodded slowly. "Yes." Quicksilver hissed again.

"And do you really teach here?"

"Again, yes." After Harry translate, the large snake made what could have passed for a shrug, if she had had a neck and shoulders. With a long hiss, she bumped her nose against Severus' cheek, then lowered herself and slunk off, disappearing under a large cabinet; Severus shot Harry a questioning look.

"She said that you are acceptable and allowed to share our den, and she apologized for destroying the snake statue by your door."

"She did that? I had been wondering who had vandalized my door guard." He sent a nasty look at the cabinet, then settled back into his chair, frowning.

"What doesss Harry think of the nasssty plantsss man?" The question came from under a different cabinet behind Severus' chair.

"He ssseemsss to be all right. He isss not very friendly though, and he isss mad that you brokesss his door guard."

"The ssstatue dessserved it!"

A NEW COURSE AND NEW ROOMS

Albus had been about to question Harry about the snake's last comment when a low grinding sound began emanating from the doorway. Harry quickly stood up and went over to where his cloak still hung; he pulled it down and around himself right as the grinding halted and the door to Albus' office opened, revealing Professor McGonagall, looking very prim and proper in her emerald green robes with her hair pulled back in a tight bun.

"Good morning Albus." She stepped forward, then noticed Severus. "Oh, good morning Severus. I didn't see you there." Severus nodded in greeting to her, but made no move to get up from his seat. She turned back to Albus, who was watching them both with some amusement. "Albus, I just came by to drop off some papers." She held up a roll of parchment for the older man to see.

"Ah, thank you. Harry has been waiting for these." He held them out towards the cloak rack. "Here you are Harry."

"Albus," hissed Minerva, jerking her head slightly in Severus' direction.

Harry dropped the cloak and hung it back up carefully before taking the papers from Albus, examining them with interest. "Thank you Professor McGonagall." The witch looked like she was about to faint as she glanced at Severus, who showed no surprise at Harry's reappearance.

"As you can see, Minerva, Severus is now in on our little secret. No need for secrecy with him anymore." Minerva gave Severus another look and then shrugged, settling herself in what had been Harry's chair. "Well, since he's now part of this, I think we should ask him. Merlin knows I can't teach Harry any more about potions. And would you believe that Harry has gone and gotten himself a copy of Moste Potente Potions? He wants to do things out of there and I am just not well versed enough in Potions to give him the information he desires."

"Ah yes, I did actually know about his latest acquisition. That was my doing, if you must know." Minerva rolled her eyes. "Although I agree with you on the part regarding Severus."

Severus frowned. "If you two are agreeing about something regarding me, would you mind informing me about it, if it is not too much trouble on your parts?" He asked acidly.

The two older adults turned to him, but Minerva spoke first. "Well, as I am sure you know, I have been teaching Harry on the topic of Potions." Severus nodded shortly, waiting for her to continue. "Well, I have taught him as much as I can, which isn't enough. We've gotten to the point where what I do know isn't enough to satisfy his curiosity."

Albus glanced over to where Harry was standing, chewing on his lip slightly. "Do you still have that potion recipe, Harry?"

Harry nodded. "Yes."

"Would you go get it for me?"

Harry, who could never deny Albus anything, immediately went back upstairs, leaving the three adults to converse quietly. He returned a moment later with a large, musty tome, which Severus eyed with interest. The title glinted at him from the spine and he was surprised to note that the book appeared to have been very well used. He had his own copy of the book in his office, and was internally pleased to note that there were loose sheets of paper sticking out of the book at odd angles, the sign of notes put away with care to leave a corner sticking out in a bookmark fashion. Many of his own books were marked in that manner. Harry set the large book down on Albus' desk and pulled it open, flipping to a page in the middle and pointing at it. "It was this one."

Albus examined the book, deep in though. "Ah yes. I remember this one. Wasn't this the exact potion that convinced you that you had taught you as much as you could in the subject of Potions, Minerva?" Minerva examined the book, then nodded and made an annoyed face at the pages.

"Severus? Would you mind lending us the use of your expertise? I never was much in Potions." Severus nodded and made to stand up, but Harry had already brought the book to him, still open to the page in question. He held it out to Severus carefully, not wanting to drop the old book and Severus took it with the same amount of care and pulled it into his lap, examining the pages. He recognized the potion immediately, and frowned slightly. "Do I really want to know why you were trying to brew a Mandrake Restorative Draught?"

Harry fidgeted slightly. "Well, it was just the next one in the book. There were ones before that didn't work either, but we thought we could do this one."

"Hmph. Never mind the fact that this is one of the more delicate Mandrake based potions that must be watched continuously and brewed with exact timing." He continued scanning the pages. "Where was is that things starting going wrong?"

Harry shifted to stand next to the arm of the chair so he could see the pages as well. "Here, sir," he said, pointing about halfway down the page. Severus scanned the page from that point on. After a moment, he asked, "What kind of Mandrake were you using?"

"Dried and shredded. It was all we had on hand, Severus." Minerva answered the question for Harry when he glanced at her, lost on what the Potions Master meant.

He sighed and closed the book. "That was your problem. The Mandrake must be fresh for this potion to brew correctly. Dried Mandrake cannot produce enough sap to react with the rest of the ingredients and stabilize the mixture. A simple mistake, although not one many come across, all things considered."

Albus smiled widely at Severus. "Excellent! Well, Severus, since you know all about Potions, then this would be a wonderful time to ask if you would mind giving Harry private advanced lessons on your subject. After all, you are the Master on the topic."

Severus placed his hands on the book, thinking. He would like to know just how much about potions the teen knew if Albus though he was a worthy enough student to warrant private advanced lessons, but if the boy had never been outside of these chambers except at night, it would be difficult to manage the courses. This was no area to be having Potions lessons, and they were too far from the Dungeons for Harry to just stroll to whenever he wanted.

Albus, ever the mind reader, turned a fatherly smile to Harry. "Harry? Would you mind taking your book and putting it away please?" Harry nodded and took the book from Severus, then went upstairs again. Once the door was shut, Severus voiced his thoughts to the Headmaster, who nodded.

"Yes, there is that, but I have been considering the matter deeply and have come to the conclusion that we cannot keep young Harry in these rooms for the rest of his life. Although the reasons behind his problems with dealing with other people are well founded, I think it would be in his best interest if he had his own rooms and had a reason to interact with other people."

"But he has his own rooms, Albus." Minerva stated; Albus shook his head slowly. "No, Minerva, he does not. He is in an extension of my rooms. As you well know, he just turned eighteen. A young man needs his own rooms that he can retreat to, without feeling as if he is intruding in someone else's living space. If he were to start taking private lessons in a class he happens to be very proficient in, it would perhaps be enough to get him to come partway out of his shell. And, as Severus stated, it would be better if he were close to the Potions Labs if he is to have private lessons in that subject. He is right, this is no area to be working with potions in."

Minerva frowned, deep in thought. "But if Harry was never sorted, where would we put him? Except for the Professor's chambers, and the private rooms of the Prefects and Head Boy and Girl, there are no other rooms."

"We could always make them. The castle has always been able to make new rooms and passageways when they were needed, and this would be a time of need. We could move all of his things there, and create a passageway that would connect here, if he needed it."

Minerva nodded slowly. "I suppose that would be acceptable. Severus, can you think of any reason why that wouldn't work?" He shook his head. "No, nothing immediately comes to mind. Of course, I do not know Harry very well, but that seems to be an acceptable solution. We can work out a schedule for his lessons once he is set in his new rooms. Am I correct in assuming that when you said private lessons, you meant one-on-one?" Albus nodded.

"Well, I will see what I can do. Taking my off periods and Office Hours into account, will once every two or three days be acceptable?"

"Perfectly! Thank you for this Severus." Severus nodded to the older man, and stood, setting his cup on the forgotten tea service. "Well, now that we have this all settled, I really must be going. I still have essays to grade and I will need to set up a test for Harry to take to judge his proficiency and decide where the best place to start with his lessons would be. Good day Albus, Minerva." He nodded to the two and stepped over to the door.

Minerva followed suit. "I must be going as well. Thank you for your time, Albus." She smiled warmly at the older man.

"Any time, Minerva. I will get in touch with you when Harry and I decide where his new rooms will be."

The witch nodded and followed Severus out the door. When the grinding of the stairs halted, Albus turned to the stairs to his rooms, where Harry was standing, a look of worry on his face "Ah, my lad. Did you need something?" Harry looked at Albus apprehensively, then swallowed, shifting his weight back and forth from one foot to the other.

"Am I going to start having private lessons then?" He asked quietly, examining the toes of his boots. "And different rooms?" The second question was quieter than the first; he didn't seem too thrilled about the idea of leaving the safety of Albus' rooms.

Albus nodded, smiling. "We all think that it might be a nice change of pace for you to have own rooms to share with Quicksilver. You would also be closer to the Dungeons, which would make it easier for you to have your Potions lessons, since this isn't really the best location for them."

Harry nodded once slowly, still chewing on his lip. "Okay. I guess I could try them out. I would still be able to come back here though, wouldn't I?"

"Of course, my boy! We'll even make a special passage for you to use if you need to come back here quickly." Albus beamed at the boy, gesturing towards one of the shelves that lined the walls of the old office. "In fact, I have a map of the school that you can look at. It will show you all the areas where we can build you rooms and we will be able to figure out where we can place that hallway." He waved his hand towards a large shelf; an old map flew to him and he handed it to Harry. "Here. You take this and decide where you would like your new rooms to be. Just let me know when you're finished and we'll take it to Minerva and get everything set up next weekend. How does that sound?"

"Okay. Thank you Albus." Harry took the map and disappeared up the stairs again.

MOVING IN, MEETING NEW PEOPLE, AND A FEW TESTS

Over the next few days, Harry, with the help of Albus and the map he had let him borrow, found a large area on the first floor of the school that would be converted into what would be Harry's new rooms. The area was almost directly below where Albus' office and quarters were, so a secret stairway could easily be made for Harry to use when he wished. The area was close to the Grand Staircase and the Main Hall, so it would only take Harry a few minutes to go downstairs and into the Dungeons for his private lessons with Professor Snape, and, much to Harry's delight, there was a statue of a fat man with a caterpillar moustache that led almost directly to the library, allowing Harry the ability to avoid nearly all the student contact that he would have run into otherwise. He didn't tell Albus about his delight at the statue though, knowing that Albus wanted him to have more contact with the student population, even if it was only with one or two people.

True to his word, the weekend after meeting Severus, Albus, Harry, and Minerva met on the first floor near the fat statue after lunch and began constructing his rooms, which basically involved Albus talking to the castle – a strange action to watch, considering that Albus would actually talk to the walls, directing them on how he wanted them to rearrange themselves – and Professor McGonagall running off any curious students that stuck their noses in where they didn't belong with threats of a double homework load, while Harry stood under his invisibility cloak, watching the whole proceedings with interest.

A few hours later, Harry was examining his new rooms with Quicksilver, pleased with how well Albus had made his rooms. They were almost an exact copy of the layout of Albus' personal rooms with his bedroom, the living area, the study, and the kitchen area being in the same location as in the older wizard's rooms, and his own personal, if small, library where Albus' bedroom would have been. Next to the door by a large window was a second door, which lead to the secret staircase that would open up into Albus' kitchen area if Harry needed to speak with him.

"Well Harry? What do you think?" Harry looked at the old wizard, who was smiling proudly at his work. "It's very nice. Thank you Albus." He turned back to the living area, where they were currently standing, and began chewing on his lip again.

"Is something wrong, my boy?" Albus put one of his withered hands on Harry's shoulder comfortingly.

"Well, no, not really. It's just so… So big, and empty in here. It's very strange."

"Ah! Well, fear not, we'll have some furniture and things in here in no time. Transfigured objects work well enough for temporary accommodations, but real items would be better to have in the long run. Now," Albus sat down in a conjured chair, summoning one up for Harry, who sat, Quicksilver coiling around the legs and back. "As to what the story is. Have you come up with any ideas?"

Albus had told Harry that he needed to come up with a reason for his living in the school when he wasn't a student in case anyone, Merlin forbid, asked him why he was there. Harry had been thinking on it while moving his personal possessions into his new rooms and had come up with what he had hoped would be a good story. "I thought that, since I would be working with Professor Snape, that I could say something like I was here assisting him." He looked up hopefully. It was the best idea he had come up with, but it still left a lot to be desired, in his opinion.

Albus nodded, pleased. "Well, that certain seems like a logical reason. I think that will work very well!" He smiled at his young charge, who smiled back, although not as brightly. "You know my boy, you really do have some wonderful ideas. Now, how about joining me for dinner?"

Harry nodded quickly and went into the fully stocked kitchen area and began spelling up a meal for the two of them. While they were eating, Minerva dropped by to examine the rooms and pass her judgment on them, and to tell Harry not to worry about his door, which she had spelled to be invisible to anyone who was not looking for it directly and already knew what they were looking for, and Severus stopped by a little after that, with Minerva's help, to tell Harry that their first meeting would be Monday evening before dinner in his office, since Harry's fireplace had not yet been connected to the school Floo Network. Once they had both left, Albus set a Silencing spell on Harry's chambers, so he could play music at his discretion without having anyone outside hear it, and a Password spell on Harry's door, which would allow Harry to set and change the password to his rooms as he liked, and made ready to leave. When he was at the door, he put his hand on the teen's shoulder again. "Don't worry about anything Harry. Everything will work out for the best, and you know where my rooms are if you need me." He gave Harry another fatherly smile and left, leaving Harry and Quicksilver in their new rooms.

Harry turned to the eerily quiet area and shivered, not liking how empty and silent it was, then quickly ran to his new library and pulled out one of the books, flipping to the third chapter. Five minutes later the soft strains of Beethoven floated through the rooms, banishing the quiet; Albus had been delighted when Harry had expressed an interest in music and had given him the book, which contained spells for all types of music, magical and not, from classical to loud, heavy rock, to tribal, and everything in between, including polka made just by accordions.

Pleased with the version of ‘Sonata Quasi una Fantasia' that was currently playing, Harry picked up Quicksilver and sat down in front of his very own fireplace with a large book on Potions and began flipping through it to where he had left off with his last minute studies that morning.

~~

The next morning, Harry awoke to the sounds of birds singing merrily and the sun shining in on his face in a very rude, if cheerful, manner. He yawned and stretched, then sat up, looking around the blurry room, which came into focus after he had put his glasses on, and got out of his bed, pleased that he had managed the night successfully. He shivered when his mind ran past the horrible nightmares that he sometimes had about that place, but quickly shoved those thought away in favor of breakfast. He tugged at his pajamas that he had slept in, shaking a leg loose from where it was jammed up around his knee, and began towards the kitchen area, reapplying the music spell from last night, changing from the soft strains of classical to something the book had called ‘Pop Rock'. When Harry had first read that chapter, he had had mental images of rocks popping like bubbles, but when the spell was in place, he realized it was actually much different. The book had a very large and extensive index of Muggle and Wizarding bands and songs that was constantly updating itself and he recognized the song currently playing as ‘Mad Season' by the Muggle band 20 Matchboxes, or something like that.

When he entered the kitchen, he was surprised to see that breakfast had already been made and a chilled decanter of pumpkin juice was waiting for him on the table. He blinked and poked at the food, not sure about what had been going on; he hadn't made anything, what with being asleep and all, and Albus hadn't mentioned anything about making breakfast for him. He looked at the food again, then sat down and starting eating, pleased that he didn't have to cook; Albus didn't make him cook, but he liked being useful. At least when he worked around Hogwarts it was because he wanted to and not because he would get in trouble if he didn't.

When he was finished, he picked up his plate and started to the sink; he thought for a moment while he was walking, then decided that he rather liked the classical music that had been playing the night before, so switched it back before cleaning and storing the breakfast supplies. Suddenly, an ear splitting shriek resounded through his quarters and he turned with a start, just in time to see a small creature running past the living area and into the kitchen, Quicksilver hot on its heels. The small thing darted behind Harry's legs and grasped his pajama legs, trembling and squeaking in fear.

"Quicksssilver! Ssstop it! Leavesss thisss creature alonesss!" Harry hissed at his pet, who stopped abruptly and stared at Harry.

"It isss an intruder. Let me eatsss it." The large snake eyed the odd little creature, who shook and shrunk back further.

"No. Letsss me sssee what it wantsss, firssst. Go awaysss, you're ssscaring it."

With a last hungry look at the creature, Quicksilver slunk off, muttering under her breath. Once she was out of the immediate area, Harry turned around to examine the little being, who was staring gratefully up at Harry out of huge eyes twice the size of dinner plates.

"Oh thank you Master Wizard sir!" The thing bowed deeply at Harry's feet, its large, bat-like ears touching the floor. "Dobby would have been eaten for sure if Master Wizard hadn't saved Dobby! Dobby owes Master Wizard his life!" The elf bowed even lower, pressing its forehead to the floor.

Harry stared at the creature blankly. "Uh… Dobby, was it?" The creature looked up from under its dishrag hat, still groveling. "Yes Master Wizard. That is Dobby's name, sir."

"Can you tell me, what exactly are you?"

"Dobby is a Hogwarts House Elf, Master Wizard sir! Dobby lives to serve Hogwarts any way possible!"

Harry blinked at the elf, who had resumed bowing in a ridiculously low manner; he knew of the House Elves in employ at Hogwarts, but had never actually seen one. "Why are you in here? I didn't summon you."

"Dobby is here making breakfast for Master Wizard! Master Headmaster Dumbledore sends Dobby to make you feel at home here!" The elf seemed very proud of himself for getting to speak with Albus and do his work personally.

"When did he tell you to do this?"

"Master Headmaster Dumbledore sends for Dobby this very morning. He tells Dobby that there is a new wizard living at Hogwarts and tells Dobby to make sure he feels at home here, sir!"

"Oh. I had wondered who had made breakfast for me. You can stop bowing now." The elf stared up at Harry with adoration bordering on obsession, nearly bouncing out of his skin. "Did Dobby do a good job with breakfast, Master Wizard sir?" It occurred to Harry that if he said no, the elf might go throw himself out of a window somewhere, so Harry nodded quickly, and in truth, he had done a good job. At Harry's nod, the elf's energy grew ten fold; he looked like he was going to start bouncing off the walls in a moment or two.

"Dobby, listen, that snake that came after you earlier…" Dobby's ears drooped and his face fell in pure despair. "Dobby did a bad thing, coming here Sir? Oh, bad Dobby! Bad!" The elf ran over to a set of cabinets and began banging his head against it with a dangerous amount of force.

"No! No, no, no! It wasn't that! Dobby! Stop! Stop hitting yourself!" Harry ran over and pulled the small elf away from his self-imposed torture session. "You didn't do anything wrong! I just wanted to tell you that if you want to get her to leave you alone when you come here, just bring a dead rat or something for her. She loves those."

Dobby stared up at Harry and nodded quickly, in danger of losing his hat; when he was done answering Harry, he quickly straightened up. "Oh, Master Wizard sir! Dobby must be going now! Dobby is needed in the kitchens!"

"Alright, you can go. Oh, and Dobby? You don't have to call me Master Wizard. My name is Harry. Just call me that."

"Oooohhh… Dobby must never call Master Harry by just his first name alone. It is not Dobby's place. Dobby will be back later with lunch, Master Harry." The elf snapped his spindly fingers and was gone before Harry could say anything else; Harry had just finished scratching his head in confusion about what had just happened when, a minute later, Quicksilver came slinking in.

"Oh. The yummy sssmelling intruder isss gonesss." The snake was obviously highly disappointed at losing her breakfast.

"Yesss, he isss gone, and you will leavesss him alone. If you are nicssse to him, he will bringsss you a rat or sssomething the next time he comesss."

"In that cassse, I thinksss I can be nicssse. Yummy. I hopesss he bringsss me sssomething good!"

~~

That evening, Harry looked up from where he had settled himself in front of the fire with a few books when his new alarm clock went off. Albus had stopped by earlier in the day to give him his new furniture and had included a cute little alarm clock that was shaped like a golden snitch, his favorite Quidditch ball. It normally fluttered around his rooms, but if he called for it, or if the alarm went off for whatever reason, it would zoom straight to Harry and place itself where it could be seen. It was now bobbing roughly half a meter away from him, the display stating ‘Half an hour until Potions!'

Harry stood from where he was and went to his bedroom to finish dressing. He had been wearing plain Muggle style clothing, but decided that it would probably make a better impression to wear robes to his lessons. He glanced down at his current attire. Plain black jeans tucked into his favorite dragon hide leather boots, a plain long-sleeved silver shirt with the usual high collar and the sleeves tucked into his dragon hide gloves. All of his daywear clothes had the same fashion: cover as much skin as possible. He reached into his wardrobe and pulled out a set of plain robes, putting them on carefully and fastening the buttons. On an afterthought, he grabbed a new quill and bottle of ink, stowing the items in an inside sleeve pocket. Once finished, he ran a hand through his hair, which promptly fell back into its usual messy state, donned his invisibility cloak and left his chambers, hissing at Quicksilver in passing, telling her not to worry if he was a little late.

Once he had shut his door securely and locked it, Harry looked around the hallway he was in. He vaguely recognized it from his nighttime wanderings, but hadn't been down it recently, preferring to haunt the upper levels of the school rather than the lower ones; the lower he went in the school, the further from the safety of Albus' rooms. He shivered, realizing that if he got in trouble now, it would take longer to run to Albus' rooms than before.

"Okay Harry. You can do this. You've got your invisibility cloak. You've got an excuse if anyone sees you, which they won't. All you're doing is going downstairs two levels and to the Potions Office. Easy." He shivered again and set off, trying to tell himself that he wasn't leaving the safety of the school and that everything would be fine.

He walked swiftly down the stairs and across the Main Hall, stopping every now and then and slipping into an available alcove when students came near him. The Grand Staircase gave him no difficulty, as it was easy to dodge students going up and down, and the Main Hall was, on the whole, empty of any students. It was still early enough that the majority of the school hadn't begun traveling to the Great Hall for dinner, so he was safe, for the most part. He nearly had a heart attack, however, when he realized the problem with the final part of his journey. If he was entering the Dungeons, then he was moving towards the Slytherin House. Which meant that any students going to dinner would be traveling along the same hall he was, and there weren't any side alcoves here like on the upper levels. And weren't the Slytherins supposed to be the meanest students in the school? He paused, listening carefully, but couldn't hear anyone coming his way. With a quiet sigh or relief, he began walking swiftly down the cold hall towards where the Potions Office was supposed to be.

A minute later, Harry located the door to Professor Snape's office, which he easily recognized due to the fact that the snake statue near the door was cracked in a spiral pattern that he recognized as Quicksilver's work. He had knocked on the door quietly when he heard footsteps coming in his direction. There was someone talking, telling someone else that he wanted to talk to Professor Snape and that he would be to dinner in a few minutes and to not wait for him. Harry had been about to bolt down the hallway back to his rooms when the door to the office opened, revealing Professor Snape. Harry watched the older man's eyes look back and forth right though him, then he cocked his head to one side, somehow giving Harry the impression that he could actually be seen. Harry shifted, making a slight rustling sound, and Severus nodded slightly, stepping back from the door far enough to allow the teen's entrance. Harry stepped inside, then watched as Severus glanced down the hallway in the direction of the voices; he listened for a second, then sighed and, with a muttered "Not him again," shut the door.

"Stay under the cloak Harry. A student is about to come in. You may wait next to the bookcase." Severus gestured to a bookcase filled to bursting with large books and musty tomes and Harry went to it, the slight, barely audible rustle of his cloak the only sign that there was anyone else in the room at all.

Severus had just placed himself behind his large desk that was covered with potions related items when a second knock came to the door, this one louder than Harry's had been.

"Enter!" Barked Severus loudly. The door promptly swung open, revealing a teen that Harry guessed was about his age, with pale blond hair and an elegantly pointed face. His hair had been pulled back at the nape of his neck with a thin cord that Harry noted was tied in a bow, the cord matching the same tarnished silver color of his eyes. He was wearing the plain black robes of a student, with a green and silver tie, and a small pin on his chest with a ‘P' overlaying a snake.

"Hello Professor Snape," The boy drawled.

"Mr. Malfoy." Snape acknowledged the young man, not bothering to look up from whatever it was he was reading. "My office hours will be beginning after dinner, which you would know if you bothered with reading the notice board in the common room."

The blond stepped over to the large desk and leaned on it in a very friendly manner, obviously not bothered by the gruff tone from the older man. "I just came by to tell you that there are some Ravenclaws that got themselves a detention earlier today and were absolutely thrilled to find that they get to serve it with you." Harry noted with a frown that the boy seemed rather pleased with himself for this; he glanced back to Severus from where he was examining the boy in time to see the professor roll his eyes and give the blond an unimpressed look. "And why are they spending their time with me?"

"I thought it was only fair, since they were going on about a, and I quote, ‘right bastard of a Potions Master who could use an entire personality makeover and a facial to go with it.'" Malfoy smirked at the man, who glowered darkly. Harry was very grateful that that look wasn't directed at him; the other teen was not cowed in the slightest. "That was all."

Severus sighed and went back to his papers. "Thank you for informing me of your decision. You may go now. But, I want you to remember next time that I keep office hours for a reason. I would like some time to myself to take care of my business without anyone interrupting me." He never looked up from his papers.

The blond made a slight face that Harry thought was a pout, then straightened up and made for the door.

"And Mr. Malfoy, before you go." The blond turned back to the man, an inquisitive look on his face. "Yes, Professor?"

"The next time you feel like leaning on my desk, do try to be a little more choosy about where you place your elbows. You put yours on a still wet piece of parchment and now have a badly written and thoroughly graded essay on the properties of Mugwort on your sleeve." Harry thought he saw the man smirk in an evil manner, but wasn't sure. The blond stared at his sleeve, which did in fact have "Poorly researched and sloppily written" shining wetly from slightly lower than his elbow. He glared at the stain and left in a huff, slamming the door harder than necessary as he went.

Severus shook his head at the closed door and returned to his papers. "You may come out now."

Harry pulled the cloak back from his head and slipped out of it, hanging it carefully on a nearby hanger in the shape of a large shake. The hook's mouth clamped down on the cloth, holding it tightly. After examining the hook, he sat down in a large chair in front of the desk, perching on the edge. Professor Snape pushed a large scroll to the front and said, without looking up from where he was working, "You will take this and complete it to your best ability. It is a test with material from first to fifth years, designed to allow me to examine your strengths and weaknesses. You may work from the desk over there." Harry turned to where Snape gestured. There was a small desk by the corner of Snape's desk; Harry was sure that it hadn't been there a moment ago. "When you are finished, you may leave."

Harry nodded, took the test, and settled himself in the desk. After pulling out his ink and quill, he unrolled the test and examined it carefully, then, with a thoughtful look of concentration on his face, set to his task.

It was nice, he thought while idly filling in a question about dandelion fluff, having something to concentrate on other than the stern man sitting not even a meter from him. Harry had come to the conclusion that Severus Snape, while a man who obviously knew his stuff, was as cold and sharp as a dissecting knife, and about as unforgiving as one as well.

~~

An hour later, Professor Snape looked up from his last essay and over to the test where Harry was sitting, chewing on the tip of his quill, staring at a spot on the wall. With a small nod to himself, he leaned forward back to the test and began hastily scrawling at the top of a section entitled, ‘State the properties of Silverleaf, how it directly reacts with the human body upon digestion, absorption, and inhalation, how it directly and indirectly reacts with other common potions ingredients, and its uses and misuses.' Snape watched in slightly surprised fascination as the teen quickly penned out almost every known property of the plant, touching on its roots, stem, leaves, and flowers, a list of human reactions to the plant, ranging from minor to major, the plant's reaction to five other ingredients it was commonly used with, and a list of potions the plant was used in, including the more addictive painkillers and the quite useful Eyesight Correcting Potion. That was rather surprising on the boy's part; that particular essay question was one of Severus' favorite ones to use on his nastier tests and had never failed to make students feel faint before now.

While Harry worked on the next question, ‘State your view on the legalization of Wolfsbane,' Severus gave the boy another thorough examining, letting his eyes roam over what he could see of the young man. His hair was still messy, but it had the look of intended messiness, with the fringe constantly falling in his eyes. He saw a thin scar on the boy's forehead in the shape of a lightning bolt when Harry blew his bangs out of his eyes, but it was quickly obscured again when his hair fell back to where it was. He had rather large eyes, now that they could be seen from the side without anything obscuring them, as the boy had the bad habit of staring at just about anything except another person and his hair kept falling into his face, and a rather delicate chin, giving him the overall appearance of youthfulness. Something about the boy's appearance nagged at his mind, but he pushed it to the back burner, continuing with his inspection. The collar of his shirt enclosed around his throat in the fashion of a Muggle turtleneck and the sleeves of his robes fell over the tops of the gloves that he was wearing again, obscuring his hands from view; the gloves seemed thin enough, but were obviously made of strong dragon hide leather and forced Severus to wonder why the boy was wearing cold weather clothes during such warm weather.

Severus leaned back in his chair, allowing his fingers to pop loosely as he stretched them, and glanced over to his bookcase where a large tome was waiting for him. He stared at it for a minute, debating whether he wanted to retrieve it, when a soft rustling alerted him to movement. Harry had put the finishing touches on the test and was rolling it up, his quill sitting on top of his inkbottle. He retied the string around the test and looked at Professor Snape, who held out his hand for it; Harry handed it over and looked at the man, waiting patiently. Snape eyed the test for a moment, then set it on his desk and stood, motioning for Harry to follow suit; the teen stood and retrieved his two supplies.

"Now that you are finished, you may go. I will contact you when I have finished with your test and decided on the best course of action. If you have done well enough here, I will give you another, harder test. If not, I will consider whether you have what it takes to warrant special lessons. I will warn you now, if I decide that you are good enough, this will not be easy. I do not expect anything less that the absolute best from any of my advanced students. Is that understood?"

"Yes sir." Harry said quietly and retrieved his cloak, pulling it around his shoulders, leaving his head floating in midair. Severus gestured to the door and went to open it; Harry followed after him, pulling the hood up and over his head. He was about to leave when he felt Severus' hand on his back, ushering him out of the office, and flinched reflexively under the cloak, then took off quickly with a muttered "Goodbye Professor."

Severus eyed where the boy would have been, if he could have seen him, wondering just what could have been done to the boy that he was still flinching nearly so many years after being removed to Hogwarts.

~~

Harry was walking down the hallways leading out of the Dungeons when a cool voice floated to him. It was that Malfoy boy's voice, and he seemed rather pleased with himself.

"Did you see the Weasel's face? It was priceless!" He laughed in his aristocratic voice, and two voices followed suit, laughing in loud guffaws.

Malfoy came around the corner, flanked by two very large boys. Harry shrank back, fear suddenly shooting through him. They reminded him of Dudley, only less fat and more muscle, and Harry had the sinking feeling that they would like nothing more than beating up on someone smaller than them, which meant him. He froze in panic, trying desperately to calm himself in the manner that Albus had taught him to, whenever the memories of them came over him, but he was failing miserably. Professor Snape had already unnerved him enough, just by touching him, and now this! He pressed himself up against the wall where he was standing, praying that the large boy closest to him would not come close enough that he would notice Harry's presence.

"And the way he nearly fainted when I told him that that moron Hagrid would be introducing Giant Tarantulas in class!" This summoned forth another round of laughter from the goons flanking Malfoy, who was grinning wickedly; the grin strongly reminded Harry of the look that Dudley had right before making him do something that generally left bruises or scars, and Harry shuddered, trying desperately to get his mind away from the horrid topic of his relatives.

Harry shrunk back further against the wall, pressing close to a suit of armor, as the trio got closer to him. He could now hear them breathing and he realized with another spike of anxiety that if they were returning, then that meant that dinner must have ended and there would be loads of students that he would have to manage his way through. Fortunately, the large boy closest to him passed right by Harry, having navigated around the armor and not even noticing the trembling boy, much to Harry's relief. As soon as they were far enough away, Harry took off like a shot, not caring that the three might hear his footsteps. He would just let them think he was another student, if they even cared at all.

When Harry reached the Main Hall, his fears were confirmed. There were at least fifty students leaving the Great Hall, all heading up the stairs that he needed to go up, all pressed so close to each other that if he tried to get in there, someone would definitely step on his cloak and notice him. He scanned the area quickly, noting that not many students were congregating around four very large hourglasses with numbers at the bottom, and stationed himself behind them, watching everyone with extreme trepidation.

Harry berated himself for his fear. Normal people weren't afraid of others! He had just finished a lesson, if it could have been called a lesson, with an extremely intimidating man, survived two run-ins with Slytherins, and still had his cloak to protect him; he should have been able to negotiate a few stairs! He took a deep breath, resigning himself to his fear. One-on-one with someone Albus trusted was one thing, but a great mass of students like what was before him was another; something he was sure he wasn't ready to handle. How was he going to get back up to his rooms without having to wait until everyone had left?

Fortunately, although it seemed like an eternity to Harry, it only took about ten minutes for the Main Hall to clear out enough to allow him to slip upstairs unnoticed and back into his rooms. He shrugged off his cloak and hung it up, sighing with relief at the calm silence of his rooms. While it had bothered him last night, after the noise of the students, the quiet wrapped around him like a warm blanket. He heaved a shuddering sigh and sat down heavily in one of the chairs in front of the fire and glanced at his clock, which was currently fluttering around the footstool. It read ‘8.45' in shimmering red numbers and Harry groaned. He had spent nearly two hours in the Potions Master's office, and all he had to show for it was a cramped hand and fear of the student body at large.

Harry reached for a book that was sitting next to the chair and picked it up, opening to the page he had left off at. With a sigh, he settled down and began reading, hoping to center himself enough to be able to get to sleep without nightmares.

~~

Two days later, Harry was idly staring out one of the windows at a large class of Slytherins and Hufflepuffs trooping out to the Herbology greenhouses when his fire crackled and popped, blazing green. He jumped at the sound and turned quickly to see Severus' head and shoulders staring out at him from the fireplace. Harry placed himself in front of the fire on his knees so he could talk to the man easily and cocked his head to one side, giving him the wide-eyed appearance of a slightly confused owlet. "Sir?"

"As promised, I have finished grading your test and have made my decision. I want you to come by here at 8.00 in the morning this Saturday for another test. The morning will consist of a theory test and the afternoon will be a practical."

Harry nodded at the words, internally pleased with himself. While the test he had taken previously hadn't been exactly hard, it had posed a slight challenge at the end and he had tried very hard to impress the man. Then a thought came to him, knocking the pleasure out of him as quickly as if he had been punched.

"Uhm, sir? This Saturday? But…" Severus watched the boy shift uncomfortably. "But what about the students?" He finally pressed out, in barely more that a whisper.

Severus sighed, as if he were explaining something to a particularly slow student. "The majority of the students will be at Hogsmeade this weekend and I have made it known that I will not be keeping my office hours this weekend."

"Oh… Okay then. Thank you sir." He smiled weakly at the older man, who nodded in return and vanished from the flames.

~~

That Saturday, Harry arrived at Professor Snape's office promptly at 8.00, dressed in his usual garb, with an extra bottle of ink and quills in hand. He didn't know what to expect, but guessed that if the entire morning was going to be devoted to theory, it would probably involve a lot of writing.

He hadn't been let down, either. The first thing he noticed upon entering the room and hanging up his invisibility cloak was a large unfriendly looking stack of parchment sitting on ‘his' desk. He looked at the papers uncertainly, then to Professor Snape, who was looking over a long list, checking next to some and making small notes next to the others.

"There is your theory test. I want it finished by lunch. Place any quills you may have brought with you on my desk and take the ones you find there." He did not look up from his list or pause in his note taking. Harry did as he was told, depositing his three quills and taking the two that appeared. He felt them carefully, then went to the desk and sat down. "You may begin." came Severus' voice from behind the list.

Harry took the first sheet and stared at it in shock. If the first page was any indication, this test was indeed much harder than the one he had already taken. Then, with a gulp of apprehension, he dipped his quill into his ink and began.

Four and a half hours later, fingers cramped from writing and back beginning to hurt from being hunched over the desk, Harry circled the answer to the last question and put the paper face first on the stack of upside down papers. He straightened up and raised his arms over his head, stretching hugely. He glanced around the office, noting with sudden surprise that Professor Snape wasn't there. He looked around quickly, hoping that the man was maybe just behind him, but after looking in a full circle, he realized that he was indeed alone. When had that happened? He stood up slowly from where he was, picked up his papers, and set them carefully on the large desk that the Potions Master had been working at, being sure not to jostle any of the papers already settled there. He glanced casually at a set of notes there, then went back to his seat to wait for Severus to return; fortunately, waiting was something he was good at, especially with all the practice he had, spending so much time by himself. He easily amused himself with a dungeon dust bunny that had formed on the hem of his robes while walking to the ‘lesson', sending it floating around the room in lazy circles and odd patterns.

Severus returned only a minute or two later, stepping into his office from a concealed door behind Harry and stopped short, watching the boy play with the dust. He was watching it idly as it glided around the area in front of him, and Severus saw, with a shock, that the boy's wand was nowhere in sight. He was controlling it with a finger that was pointed directly at the speck, the movements of the dust bunny mimicking his finger movement. Severus widened his eyes in surprise. There was more to the boy than met the eye, that was for certain. He stepped from the door fully and shut it, surprising the boy out of his reverie. Surprise was actually not strong enough a word, more like scared the boy shitless, from the way he nearly jumped out of his skin and spun around, the dust ball falling out of his control and floating to the ground.

"I am going to assume that since you are playing with dust motes, you must be finished with your test. You are dismissed for lunch. I expect you back here at 1.00 for the practical portion of your testing." Severus settled himself behind his desk and began writing on the list he had been using earlier, ignoring Harry. The teen, not expecting anything more from the succinct man, stood, returned the quills he had been using, retrieved his own, and donned his invisibility cloak, pulling it around himself like a beloved blanket; he left the office quickly, leaving Snape behind and grimacing at the way his muscles pulled and complained from having been seated for nearly five hours.

Half an hour later, with a stomach full of shepherd's pie and pumpkin juice, Harry reappeared in the Potions Office, after knocking softly and entering at the barked command. He quietly hung his cloak up and looked around the office, taking in the new arrangements. While he was gone, Snape had removed both of the desks and replaced them with a larger lab table, which was covered in potions ingredients, knives, cutting boards, bottles, bowls, and, surprisingly, seven cauldrons of different sizes and materials. Harry stared blankly at the supplies, trying to figure out what he was supposed to be brewing with all the different materials, when Snape handed him a book entitled Advanced Potions, Level 7 and instructed him to open the book to page 351. Harry quickly did as instructed and stared at the page, surprised. He was supposed to be making an antiseptic potion that was used to clean wounds before dressing them, but it didn't require all the ingredients provided and only two cauldrons.

"You have two hours to complete your potion. When you are finished, I want a clearly labeled flagon of it before you begin cleaning up. Do not make a mess of my lab table. Begin."

Harry was about to ask what the rest of the supplies were for when Snape set to work with the three of the other cauldrons, setting their fires to different temperatures and adding different ingredients to them. Harry watched attentively while Snape worked, then turned to his own task.

He read the instructions through once and then picked up a small paring knife and set to work slicing up flobberworms for the base of the potion. By the time he had two of them cut up into equal cubes about twice the size of a galleon, the purified water in his cauldron was simmering softly, and he added the cut up meat, watching as they began to steep, turning the water a murky, dirty brown color. Those had to simmer for exactly eleven minutes, which would give him just enough time to get the boomslang skin shredded and the second cauldron heating. He had discovered during his time with Professor McGonagall that, while he wasn't an amazing student in potions, he was fairly adept, and could generally produce acceptable potions, provided that they didn't get much more complicated that three cauldrons at once.

Harry lowered the fire under the bubbling flobberworms and added the boomslang skin, making sure that each piece was dissolved in the hot mixture before adding the next. While that sat, changing colors from murky brown to slimy green, Harry began his work with his second cauldron. He needed to make a small batch of Moon's Dew infused with Bicorn horn, then add the first cauldron to the second and finish the potion. The Moon's Dew would be the tricky part. Everything had to be added at the exact moment and it all had to be stirred in a specific manner, first clockwise, then counterclockwise, then across the diameter, then clockwise again.

An hour later, everything had been combined and was boiling nicely, allowing the water to evaporate out of the potion before adding a drop of Dragon's Blood and Unicorn Saliva, and Harry was watching Severus work at his potion. It was no wonder that the man was a Potions Master! He now had all five of the cauldrons boiling, simmering, and cooling, and was examining the contents of one of the larger ones when a smaller one made a rude belching sound. Without looking up from the cauldron he was watching, Severus reached out to his supplies, picked up a large bottle and added three drops to the cauldron that had made the sound. He then replaced the bottle, picked up a lid, set it on the cauldron, lowered the fire to nearly extinguished, and began stirring the mixture in a third cauldron, never once looking up from the first cauldron. When he had decided that the cauldron he was looking in had met his standards, he left it and went to a fourth one, picking up ingredients with what seemed like carelessness and adding everything in its proper order, making the entire process look like he was just making tea.

Harry watched the man in awe for a while longer, taking in all of the man's movements, when a timer went off at his elbow. He looked at it, frowning. Why was it there again? Then he remembered what he was supposed to be doing and looked in his cauldron, still frowning. The entire batch seemed far too thick for what the book had stated was supposed to be a fairly thin potion, but Harry continued on with his work, picking up the bottles and adding the drops of liquids. He had just gotten the fire extinguished when his cauldron bubbled in a manner that could only be described as ‘giggly', gave off a large cloud of iridescent pink smoke, and promptly thinned out to a nearly watery state. Grinning widely at the potion, which almost matched the picture in the book, Harry ladled out a sample into his labeled flagon, corked it, and looked at Snape, who was now stirring one cauldron and adding what looked like Scarab Beetles to a second. Deciding that it would be better if he didn't interrupt the man, who would probably throw a large knife that was on hand at him if Harry caused something to go wrong, he set the bottle near the end of the table, far from Snape's supplies, and began cleaning up his area, bottling up unused ingredients, scrubbing out cauldrons, and wiping off knives and cutting boards.

He had just finished cleaning his area and was about to ask if he could be dismissed when Snape gestured him over, pointing to the largest cauldron. "Uncover that and tell me how much is in there." Harry opened did as he was told and frowned in disgust at the slightly pulsing yellow and brown goop in the pot. "It's about three fourths empty, sir." Harry looked up to where Snape was combining the other four cauldrons. He nodded and picked up the cauldron he was working with, and carried it over to Harry, who quickly backed out of the way.

"Stand on the other side of the table and hold that steady while I add this." Harry nodded, moved to the other side of the table, and grabbed the handles of the fully cooled cauldron; Snape began pouring the mixture he was working with into Harry's, watching it carefully.

The overflow happened faster than either of the two could react to. With a loud hiss and a bubbling sound, the two mixtures reacted with each other and began foaming and frothing like a rabid Boarhound. Severus, whose hands were higher than the foam could reach because he was adding his mixture, tossed his empty cauldron aside and slammed a lid down on Harry's. Harry, who was still holding the cauldron, yanked his hands back, but not before his gloves could be drenched with the foam; instantly the gloves began smoking like a malicious, pissed off baby dragon.

Harry stared in horror as he realized what was happening and reached for the tops of his gloves in a desperate attempt to remove them before whatever it was that was on them could eat through to his skin.

"No! Do not touch anything!" Severus barked at him, rushing over. He reached for Harry's hands, grabbing the teen's arm above his smoking glove with one hand and pulling the offending item off so quickly that the glove turned inside out as it slid off. He quickly repeated his movements, stripping off the other glove, and tossed it to its mate, where they sat smoking nastily on the lab table. He then quickly stripped off his own gloves, which had come in contact with the mixture on Harry's. The teen watched in horror as the gloves were completely eaten through by the noxious mixture, leaving only a few spare scraps of material and a puddle of black goop behind.

"Let me see your hands." Harry jerked his head to where Severus was staring at the remains of his gloves, blinked dumbly as the words tried to sink into his still shocked mind, then quickly shoved his hands behind his back when the words finally made sense. When no reply came, Severus turned his head to Harry, who had taken a step back from the slightly taller man, hands still behind his back. "Let me see your hands." He repeated in a stern tone.

Harry stared at the man, eyes wide, until he finally realized that Severus was waiting for him to hold his hands out. "My hands are fine." He said quickly, desperately hoping that his words would be enough.

Severus glared at him. "I need to examine them to make sure you didn't get anything on yourself."

"They don't hurt at all! Really! They're fine!"

"That is beside the point. That mixture destroyed your gloves, which, unless I was mistaken, were dragon hide. If it could do that, then it could do worse to human skin. Now, for the last time, let me see your hands!" His tone allowed no argument, and Harry realized that Professor Snape would not let him leave until he had gotten his way; he lowered his gaze to the floor, then slowly extended his hands to the older man and flinched when they were grasped.

Severus took the boy's left hand in his, pushed the sleeves of his shirt and robes up slightly to see all of his hand and the first five or ten centimeters of his arm and gasped in shock before he could stop himself. Harry's face screwed up in shame and he was forced to blink back tears as the older man realized what he was seeing. Across the back of Harry's pale hands and fingers were long, thin scars, obviously caused by a blade or something of that nature; they had raised and slightly ropey look of cuts that had not healed properly and were obviously very old. Severus turned Harry's hand over and examined the palm carefully. All of the lines on the teen's palm were scarred as well, as if someone had tried to read his future by slicing his hand open. Looking further up the boy's hand to his wrist, Severus noted with horror that there were scars up the boy's arm until they disappeared under his sleeves, with the largest of the scars looking horrifically like marks from attempted suicide by slicing the wrists open.

Severus swallowed, trying to force down the unmoving lump that had closed off his airway; he stared in numb horror at the scars, then glanced up to the boy's still shame lowered face, realizing in part just what had happened to the young man. Those… Those ungodly, atrocious, monstrous, abusive Muggles had done this to him! It looked like they had tortured him! Not knowing what else to do, Severus did the only thing that came to his shocked mind; he frowned slightly and examined Harry's hands for any signs of damage from the potion, trying to ignore the ghastly scars.

"Well, your hands haven't changed color, grown any new digits, or fallen off, so I believe that we managed to get your gloves off before anything could happen," Severus stated brusquely. He looked at Harry's hands for a moment longer, rather than releasing them as he probably should have; even with the scars, the boy's hands were amazingly soft, probably from always wearing the gloves.

When Severus said nothing after his assessment of his hands, Harry lifted his eyes in trepidation to the older man's, praying that he wouldn't see the look of horrified pity that Albus had given him after showing the scars to his guardian, but Severus wouldn't meet his eyes. Harry swallowed, still trying not to let the threatening tears spill over, and pulled his hands out of the Potion Master's warm grip, turning away from the older man so as to not have to see any looks that Severus might have been giving him.

"Excuse me, sir. I should be going. Albus wanted me to join him for dinner. I should get ready to meet him," Harry lied. Albus hadn't asked him to join him, but Severus didn't need to know that. The teen quickly stepped over to where his cloak was hanging, wrapped it around himself, and left, only the door opening and shutting quickly marking his silent passage.

Severus stared at the door for a moment, then glanced at the clock on his wall. ‘Too early for dinner, too late for lunch!' is stated in an unreasonably chipper way, with the time of 3.36 shining underneath the words.

LEARNING NEW THINGS 

The next day, Severus was in his lab, examining the remains of the potion experiment gone wrong when a soft knock pulled his attention from the slimy mess; he looked up from the gunk and went to open the door, for some stupid reason hoping and not hoping at the same time that it was Harry. The images of the boy's scarred hands had kept him up most of the night and haunted him in his sleep, mixing with memories of scars of his own, and he had awoken that morning with a pounding headache. After downing a disgustingly sweet headache potion that left his mouth feeling like cotton for the better part of an hour, he had decided that the next time he saw Harry, he would have to apologize for letting the boy's gloves be destroyed.

When he opened the door, he was both relieved and disappointed at the same time to see Albus standing there, canary yellow robes with blue birds flying around in random patterns and a matching hat making him look like a complete idiot, in Snape's opinion. "Headmaster." He nodded to the older man, stepping back to allow entrance.

"Hello Severus. I just came by to see how things were going." He looked around slowly, then back to Severus. "Is Harry not here?"

"No sir. He has not been by today. Why? If you don't mind my asking." Snape straightened and went back to the black slime, staring at it in disgust.

"Oh, just because I haven't seen him in a few days and he's not answering his fire or his door. What have you got there, Severus?" Albus leaned close to the mixture, eyeing it suspiciously.

"A potion experiment gone wrong. I'm trying to figure out what happened." Something niggled at the back of Severus' mind, but he was still tired from the restless night and studying the mixture, and he couldn't quite pin it down.

"Ah…" Albus nodded sagely. "So tell me, how are young Harry's studies going?"

"It has only been slightly over a week. I am still trying to assess his knowledge and skills."

"And what have you come up with so far?" Albus poked at the goop with the tip of his wand, watching in grotesque fascination as it shivered in a very jelly-like fashion.

"He seems knowledgeable enough." Severus handed him the sample of the potion Harry had brewed the day before. "He concocted this yesterday. It is an antiseptic potion used on wounds. Except for a slight color variation, it seems to be done well enough."

"High praise indeed coming from you." Albus smirked at the man, twinkling. "I will have to tell him that the next time I see him." He continued to prod at the mixture, fascinated by the noxious stuff.

Suddenly the lightning struck in Severus' head. "Did you say you haven't seen Harry in the past few days?"

Albus nodded, then turned to look at the younger man. "Why do you ask?"

Severus frowned. "He said yesterday afternoon that he was going to have dinner with you last night."

Albus shook his head slightly. "No, we didn't."

Severus looked at Albus, then closed his eyes and sighed. "Shit." He muttered, rubbing his temples.

"Something wrong, Severus?"

"That is all based on your definition of ‘wrong'. I think I know where Harry is."

"Really?"

Severus nodded. "Try his rooms."

Albus shook his head. "He's not there. I tried already. He didn't answer his door."

Severus growled internally; the man could be as thick as a troll sometimes! "Actually, I believe that he is there. That mess," Severus gestured to the black goop, "is what is left of Harry's gloves, as well as mine." Albus gave a surprised little noise, but stayed silent otherwise. "He was assisting me with a potion that had a violent reaction. The foam got onto his hands and began eating away at his gloves. We managed to get them off of his hands before anything could happen." Albus could see where this was going, but let the man continue, feeling that Severus needed to talk to someone about what he had seen. "I worried that if the potion that could eat away dragon hide had come in contact with his skin, something worse would happen, and so ordered him to show me his hands so that I could examine them for any injury." Severus trailed off, rubbing his temples again; the headache was coming back full force.

"And you saw his scars." Albus said softly; Severus nodded slowly in response, then turned to his old friend. "You could have warned me about those."

Albus gave what might have passed for a shrug. "I did not feel that it was necessary. If Harry had wanted you to know about his scars, I thought he would inform you himself." Severus snorted, then turned to gaze at the fire. "He left soon after I had seen his hands, telling me that you had asked him to join you for dinner and that he needed to get ready. That was slightly after 3.30."

Albus nodded sagely, understanding what Severus was getting at. "I will try his rooms again. Thank you for telling me about this. I see now that it was a mistake not informing you. I apologize." Severus nodded, still staring at the flames. "Albus." He said shortly.

"Yes, Severus?" The older man turned from his path to the door.

"The scars on his wrists. Are those what I think they are?" His tone was dead, as if trying to avoid something he knew was coming.

"Yes, Severus, they are."

"How long has he had those?" He said it in the same lifeless tone as the question before.

Albus stared sadly at the younger man's back. "He had them before I got to him." He noticed Severus' hand clench tightly, knuckles showing sharply against his skin and rested his hand on Severus' shoulder for a moment, lending silent support, then left, quietly shutting the door behind him.