At first he was in expansive fields, rolling in every which direction with tall grass blowing in the wind. Then, he stood in a jungle where the trees were so thick that you could scarcely see through them, vines running the lengths of ancient ruins. Suddenly, he stood on a cliff with the cool air beating around him and the waves breaking against the rocky shore. His head exploded with a great booming noise and he finally found himself yanked from the cliff and falling fast. With what felt like an explosion in his head, he was within his own body again and what had sounded like mini-explosions was actually a light clicking noise.

Click. Click. Click.

Harry jerked at the sound of shoes hitting a stone floor and instantly regretted it when his head exploded with pain. Never in his life had he felt so disorientated, his eyes were crusted shut, his stomach had a sour coating, and his tongue was thick in his mouth making it impossible to make out any questions he may have asked the walker, if he could see them that was. Breathing slightly labored, he pushed his eyes shut against the bright, unyielding light coming from the room.

"Mr. Potter," drew out an all too familiar drawl, "If it is your intention to laze about all day then I fear you are to be disappointed. Please, stop feeling sorry for yourself and take this potion."

Tearing his eyes open, he peered up at the unpleasant sight of his potion’s master looming over him. Too tired to argue, he dragged his mouth open and allowed the potion to be tipped down his throat. However, his swollen tongue rejected the liquid and he found himself sputtering and the potion rolling down his chin. Snape’s lip curled in disgust and he did nothing to quell the boy’s choking, when it died down he tilted the potion again and this time it went down a little smoother. For lack of better resources, he reached down and used the bedclothes to wipe off his face, causing Snape to sneer.

"Excellent Potter, behold the wizarding world’s hero," Harry felt his cheeks heat up slightly, and he focused on the curtains surrounding his bed in what seemed to be the Hogwarts’ infirmary. He’d certainly been here often enough to recognize it.

"Sir, why am I at Hogwarts?" He asked quietly, ignoring the last comment that his teacher had made.

"I think that is an explanation best left up to the headmaster, Potter."

"Indeed." Came an ancient voice from the doorway. Dumbledore’s eyes had lost their twinkle and he looked as if he was feeling all his years.

"Didn’t trust me with the golden boy?" Questioned Snape with a slight sneer.

"Do you trust yourself Severus?" Asked the headmaster, raising an eyebrow at the sight of the boy with potion-stained clothes. "I simply thought we owe Mr. Potter an explanation of what is going on."

For a moment Snape looked as though he may make another biting comment but apparently thought better of it and moved to hover in the corner of the room. Carefully, Dumbledore lowered himself onto the bed and looked into Harry’s eyes. "Harry, I will not lie to you. There is no easy way to say this so I will just come out and say it to you. Your home was attacked by deatheaters. I’m afraid your family did not make it."

The words crashed over him and he felt as if lead had been dropped into his gut. Sure, he didn’t like the Dursleys but they had never done anything bad enough to him for him to wish death upon them. Great misfortune or a rather unpleasant meeting with the Weasley twins, yes. But not death or even injury. Not to mention that yet another person who had gotten close to him had died. Just like Sirius. Just like his parent. Just like Cedric. Suddenly, something occurred to him.

"Sir, if deatheaters attacked and..."the word ‘killed’ wouldn’t quite come out of his mouth, "did all that, then how did I get out?"

A slight smile tugged at the edges of the headmaster’s mouth but his eyes were sympathetic, "Like many things about you, my boy, that is a mystery. When we got there the house, as well as most of the deatheaters had been destroyed and you were unconscious."

"Yes, and we had to cast memory charms on nearly the whole bloody street," Severus said sardonically. "Thank you, that was exactly how I wanted to spend my night."

Poppy clicked her tongue as she walked past him, presumably from her office, and gave him a withering glare. "You weren’t just unconscious dear. You were in the deepest state of sleep, your mind and soul weren’t present in your body."

"Well...where were they?" Severus let out a very uncharacteristic snort.

"We were hoping you could tell us. Harry, do you remember anything that happened before you awoke?" Dumbledore asked gently.

He thought of the dreams he had seen of various landscapes and the feeling of power that had coursed through him. It all seemed unrelated so he shook his head and said, "No, I don’t remember."

Dumbledore sighed but nodded in acceptance. "I need to speak with Professor Snape for a moment, please excuse us."

They moved out into the hallway and Harry could barely overhear their conversation which was apparently about him. Before the headmaster had the chance to utter a single word Snape snapped, "No. Albus, no. I don’t care what Potter has been through and the fact that he has no where to go. I realize that you think that boy is exempt from all the rules but I do not and the school only accepts purebloods with a proper wizarding background. Not spoiled Gryffindors who didn’t even know they were wizards until they were eleven."

With a heavy sigh he said, "Severus..."

"No! Have the Weasleys take him in! With seven kids I hardly doubt one more will make much of a difference."

"Severus, I can’t ask them to take on that responsibility. Either financially or for the boy’s safety. This way I know he will be protected."

"From the Dark Lord, yes. But from the Slytherin students? Good luck getting them to play nice." Harry suddenly had a very bad feeling about this. "No. Absolutely not! Headmaster, I’m putting my foot down about this."

There was a moment of silence and Harry raised his head up off the white pillow to make sure he didn’t miss anything. The tension was thick and Harry found himself tensing until the door exploded inwards and a very angry Professor Snape was glowering down at him. Guiltily, he fell back against the pillows trying to pretend he hadn’t heard anything.

"Potter," he snapped coldly, "retrieve your clothes from Madam Pomfrey and come with me. I shall be taking you to where you will be staying the rest of the summer."

With that, the man in dark robes spun on his heel and marched out of the room. Harry felt panic, Dumbledore was letting his most hated professor drag him off to Merlin knows where for the rest of the summer. On wobbly legs he stumbled over to Pomfrey’s office and requested his clothes which he received after much fussing about him making a journey while recovering. After Harry insisted he was fine, which was true aside from feeling slightly detached from his body and having his stomach clench with any thought of his late family, she grudgingly allowed him to go.

However, when he returned to his bed there was already an outfit laid out there complete with socks and shoes. They were brand new clothing and made of a fairly nicer fabric then he was used to. There was a long-sleeved, white button up shirt and black tie with a black pair of pants. Next to it was a midnight blue robe with silver fastenings, both the shoes and socks were black. Unsure of what to do he stood by the curtains until Snape knocked on the door and entered.

"Potter, why aren’t you dressed?" He demanded, setting down the large black trunk that Harry recognized as his own.

"Uh, sir. I wasn’t sure if the clothes on the bed were mine." Harry mumbled.

"No, they’re for the other boy in the infirmary over summer break," came the professor’s scathing reply. He reached over and grabbed Harry’s grubby clothes, looking at them with disgust but oddly enough took the care to fold them before putting them respectfully in the trunk.

Once Harry was dressed he followed Snape down the hallway, struggling to keep up with the man’s long strides. The clothes were surprisingly cool despite their length and heaviness and Harry considered asking if it was a spell but didn’t want to risk Snape’s sarcasm for the simple answer. After they left the castle Snape (thankfully) slowed to a more reasonable pace and addressed his new charge.

"You will obey the rules where I am taking you. You will not make an embarrassment of yourself and you will do your best to fit into their customs and daily life."

"Where exactly are you taking me?"

With only a slight sneer he answered, "Spencer Academy of Breeding." At Harry’s confused look and unvoiced ‘sounds like a school for horses’ Snape elaborated, "Most purebloods feel their children deserve extra schooling beyond Hogwarts. Spencer teaches magic classes as well as classes on wizarding politics, wizarding history, and the morals of purebloods. This is all done during the summer and is attended by most, although not all Slytherins as they tend to come from the families who deem this necessary."

"Wonderful." He said sarcastically, looking less and less forward to the place he would be staying for the summer.

"Don’t be ungrateful Potter."

"Yes, sir." He uttered with a sigh.

They walked through the gates of Hogwarts and continued to walk until they came to a fork in the road. One path lead down into Hogsmeade and the other lead into the wilderness. The two wizards took neither and came to a stop. Snape observed the boy closely making him shift uncomfortably.

"Yes?"

"Your soul completely left your body." He said simply.

"That’s what Madam Pomfrey said."

"That doesn’t happen naturally or with any known magic. If it is a power that you possess, have possessed from birth then it may explain a thing or two."

As loathe as Harry was to think that the potion’s master knew anything about him or his powers he was curious as to what deduction the man had made. Dumbledore shared so little with him about what his role was in this war that he was starved for information. "What does it explain, sir?" He asked in what he hoped was a respectable tone.

This time there was nothing on his face questioning his student’s intelligence. When he answered the tone was kind, or what he assumed was kind on Snape. "The Killing Curse literally rips the soul from the body. But, if when you were a baby your soul left your body, like it did three days ago when we first found you, then the curse could not affect you. Which may explain why it rebounded on the caster."

Harry took this in for a moment and then said hesitantly, "But I thought my mother..."

Snape shook his head and cut him off, "Yes, yes, I’m aware of the story that Dumbledore told you. Exactly the sort of sentimental sap that he wants to believe and the perfect story to keep his golden boy rooted on the light side. I’m well aware. But you should consider that this isn’t a fairy tale and if you’d been to the real wizarding world at all you would be well aware of this. We will double apparate to get there, I assume you’ve never done so?"

After the boy shook his head in the negative Snape instructed him to hold on tight and Harry did so reluctantly. It wasn’t a pleasant experience, rather like being sucked through a very small vacuum tube. With a pop they disappeared and found themselves standing outside of a small station. "Here we are, we’ll take a carriage to the school."

The carriages were pulled by beautiful white beasts with large wings and milky blue eyes. They climbed into the back of the carriage and it pulled out of the station when suddenly a voice shouted, "Hey! Stop!"

Harry instantly panicked as a young woman with long, dark brown hair stopped the carriage and peered inside. Her eyes were a cold shade of blue, like ice and there were freckles dotting her pale and otherwise flawless skin. Most importantly, she was wearing a muggle, female suit.

"W-w-we’re g-going to a festival and th-the h-horses are for the s-show." He stuttered unconvincingly.

Snape and the stranger shared a smirk at his suspense, "Mr. Potter may I introduce Professor Elvira Schlone of Spencer Academy."

"Oh...why the muggles clothes?"

"Ah, I had to take muggle transportation to get here. I have a temporary ban on my rights to apparate since I had a little....trouble with the ministry." Professor Schlone and Snape exchanged a knowing look.

"Excuse my charge, he seemed to have misplaced his manners. This is–."

"Harry Potter. Yes, the headmaster of Hogwarts informed me that he would be attending Spencer this summer." Her eyes flicked momentarily to the scar on his forehead. "Perhaps we can teach you to handle these situations with a little more....grace."

"Grimley is a completely wizarding town. That’s why we can take the carriage into public, please join us Elvira." Said Severus, scooting over to give the woman some room. Schlone still looked amused but her eyes were kind and sympathetic. The trip there was fairly uneventful with the two of the adults chatting idly about how their years had been, it was obvious that they had known each other for a long time.

Spencer Academy was not nearly as impressive as Hogwarts was, and it was not as cheerful. It was a large stone mansion with ivy growing on the walls and a thicket of trees surrounding the back of the building. The words ‘Spencer Academy–Death Before Dishonor is the Pureblood Way’ and Harry found it rather creepy. Many students were lazed about outside, either chatting with each other and laughing. It was so much different then at school where all the Slytherins made a point to look together at all times. However, an air of elegance still hung over all they did and Harry couldn’t help but think that he could send years at this school and he would never be able to move like that.

Then he saw the blonde standing next to a girl in a similar uniform, although wearing a skirt and a pair of white tights. Pansy Parkinson and Draco Malfoy, why hadn’t he thought of that before? A whole summer with them. At the same time Draco saw him and his eyes widened slightly.

"Oh, you’ve got to be fucking kidding me." Draco hissed.

Snape reached over and cuffed the boy in the back of the head and glared at him. Looking properly chastised he muttered, "Sorry, professor."

"It’s fine Draco." Said Snape in a formal and yet somehow cordial voice, "How have your studies gone so far this summer?"

"Fine. Although I’m glad you’ve arrived, our substitute has no idea what he’s doing." What happened next shocked Harry even more as Snape pulled the blonde into a brief but warm embrace. Would wonders never cease? Apparently not because Snape actually smiled at the boy and Harry felt a rush of jealously because no one had ever given him that look. The look a proud father gives their son.

"Potter," barked Snape, "get your things. I’ll introduce you to your roommate."

Dragging his trunk towards the building with stares following him from the courtyard all he could think was, Perfect. Just bloody perfect.