Harry made his way down the dark stairs. His stomach flip-flopped over itself again and again as he took shaky steps down the stone stairs. At one point, he nearly tripped and had to grab the wall with a trembling hand. Cursing his nerves, he drew closer and closer to Snape's office.

The door was shut, and Harry gave a soft knock once.

No answer.

He breathed a sigh of relief. Oh, well, he would just have to tell the others that he couldn't find Snape, and they would come up with another plan to -

The door swung open.

Harry blinked at it, but he saw Snape sitting at his desk, stacking papers to one side.

"The door is charmed," Snape explained. "Now whenever you knock, it will open for you. I want you to always have a place you can come to, to feel safe."

Harry swallowed, feeling like an absolute idiot. As he drew closer, he could see that some of the papers were stained with potion, grimy along the edges and stuck together.

"I've changed the wards," Snape continued. "Someone came in here a few hours ago, broke a potion, splattered several pages, and then broke to two vials in my potions store. When I discover who did that -"

"It was me," Harry blurted out.

Snape raised his head to look at him, the man's dark eyes pinning Harry in place. "Excuse me?"

"I broke the potion and it spilled over the pages and then I went into the store to see if I could find more to replace it and then I ran."

Snape looked dumbstruck. "You?" he finally sputtered. "You did this? Why would you do such a thing?"

"I wanted to see what was in the potion flask," Harry went on, his lips feeling oddly numb and rest of his body cold. "It slipped out of my hands."

"Why didn't you call me?" Snape demanded. "I could have cleaned up one potion - you know that. I told you that in the summer."

"I wanted to fix it on my own," Harry said in the same strangled voice.

"So you went in my store? After what happened in July? You went into my store and broke two vials?" Snape seemed torn between fury and disbelief.

"Yes, I want to see if I could replace it," Harry repeated. "I couldn't and I broke them and then I ran."

"But I saw you getting ready to go with the others on that absurd picnic," Snape pointed out. "You were fine, almost careless. You mean to tell me that you did all that and still managed to appear nonchalant in front of your friends when you had ruined my things again? I don't believe it - you were never that good of an actor, Potter."

Harry flinched inwardly at hearing his last name, especially in so cold a voice, but he was not backing down. "I guess I've learned since then," he said stonily.

Snape stared at him for several tense seconds. "And?"

"And that's all," Harry said. "That's all I did."

"That's all you did?" Snape raised his voice several notches. "No apology, no remorse, no sense of sorry for doing something you promised you would never do again?"

"I'm sorry I broken them," Harry replied in the same emotionless voice.

Snape jerked to his feet. "Oh, you're going to be a great deal more than sorry in about two minutes, young man."

Harry did not move until Snape grabbed him by the ear and then marched him towards the desk.

"I am seriously disappointed in you," Snape growled as he shoved some the papers away and bent Harry over the desk. "You know better - this is a second time offense! And if you had come to me right away and told me what you had done, even after going into the store, I would have scolded you, maybe grounded you for the day, but I would not nearly be as upset as I am right now. Accio ruler!"

Harry groaned silently; so it was to be the ruler. He was guessing that or the hairbrush, but he would rather the ruler if Snape would not use just his hand. Harry reached out to grab the other end of the desk. How bad could it be? Even if Snape gave him a few dozen hard wallops, Harry was sure he could hang on long enough to finish the punishment and get out without saying anything else. By this point in his punishments, Snape did not really care what he said anymore - the time for talking was over.

CRACK!

The ruler slammed against his bottom, and Harry sucked in a breath of air, tightening his fingers around the edge of the desk.

CRACK! Another just as hard, only an inch lower.

Harry swallowed and tried to think of something else. The pain was always hard to bear (Snape had a way of getting through to him an embarrassingly short amount of time with only a handful of smacks), but Harry did not know how hard it was to stay quiet. Before, at least he could beg and cry and hiss loud "Ows" with every wallop. He hated being spanked, but he was thankful (if he had to find something to be thankful for in his awkward position) for the fact that he understood what he had done wrong and he knew as soon as it was over he and Snape would be back to normal.

Oh, Snape would still be snarky and Harry was sure he'd find some way to annoy the man by his comments or foolish actions, but once a punishment was over, it was done. Even with his bottom well-roasted, Harry always enjoyed that rush of relief when Snape landed the last spank and Harry knew that he no longer had to feel guilty or angry or upset, just remorse (if somewhat teary) and the security of knowing his misdeeds were behind him. And he felt safe in the fact that Snape punished him as exactly as he should: a stern father disciplining a careless son and insisting that he own up to his short-comings.

But now everything was all wrong. Harry was taking the blame for someone else, and rather than try to just endure the punishment so he could feel better afterwards, he felt himself growing angry. There would be no relief at the end because he had done nothing wrong; no tearful nods when Snape spoke to him calmly afterwards and Harry had to suppress his urge to hug the man, no weak smiles at Snape because Harry knew he was forgiven, and no peace afterwards that let him fall asleep that night without having to worry about if Snape still cared about him.

CRACK!

Harry gripped the table tighter and fought off his anger towards Snape. He hated the man at the moment - cruel, sadistic monster that enjoyed other people's pain, that drank in others' misery, that wanted to know that others were hurting . . .

CRACK!

Harry pressed his face against the desk and sunk his teeth into his bottom lip to stop himself from crying out. He could do this, he could take the pain.

"All right, young man!" Snape bellowed. "That's enough."

Before Harry could reply, iron fingers grabbed his ear and pulled him up, whirling Harry around to face Snape. The man looked livid.

"What is going on?"

"Nothing," Harry looked around.

"Look me in the eye," Snape ordered. When Harry did not obey, Snape grabbed his chin and force Harry to look up. "I don't know what you're doing, Harry, but it ends right now. You have never acted this way with me before. Oh, you've been naughty and rebellious and bad-tempered before, but you've never showed me this sort of blatant disrespect. I don't like it - I feel like I'm beating you, which is not my intention, and I want to know what's going on in that stubborn head of yours."

"Nothing," Harry insisted. "This is what we do. I do something bad, you spank me, and then it's over."

"That is not how our relationship works," Snape argued. "I want you to learn something. I want you stop feeling guilty and dragging yourself around as if you have the weight of the world on your shoulders. When I spank you for those few minutes, I want you to know that I'm in charge and that you are only responsible for yourself, nothing more."

"I know that," Harry protested.

"Then why are you gripping the table for dear life and refusing to say a word or even make a sound?"

"You like me yelling in pain?" Harry challenged.

"You know what I mean. Stop this foolishness and tell me what is really going on."

"I - I - I," Harry stammered, desperate for anything that would get Snape to stop asking questions.

"I'm giving you one last chance, Harry," Snape said calmly. "Tell me what this is about."

"It's about your need to control everyone and everything," Harry spit out. "Your pathetic want to be bigger and better and above everyone else and make them suffer."

"Fine," Snape said in a hoarse voice. "Have it your way."

He stepped back and drew out his wand. "Legilime-"

"No!" Harry protested, thrusting both his hands out. "No, don't read my mind. I'll tell you."

"Too late," Snape shook his head.

"No, no, no! It's not too late. I didn't break any of the potions. Worty did."

"What?" Snape lowered his wand.

"Worty came in and broke the first once and tried to find another and broke two more and then he got scared and ran. He found us on the picnic and he was frightened to death and I said I would take the blame. That's the truth, I promise."

Snape stared at him, speechless again.

Then quick as a flash, he dropped his wand on the table, whirled Harry back over the table, and slapped his hand against Harry's bottom in fast, sharp swats.

"You let me do this to you when you were innocent?" Snape bellowed, continued to spank him. "You had nothing to do with this and you let me get so angry at you that I nearly lost my temper and wanted to hurt you, if only to shake off that infuriating apathy you showed me?"

"Ah, Snape!" Harry winced. His arms were trapped under his chest, and Snape wasn't letting up at all. "I didn't want Worty to - Ow! All right, I'm sorry."

"That is the sort of attitude I want from you," Snape snarled. "I have tried so hard with you, Harry. I have done everything in my power to reign in my temper and be patient with you and remind myself over and over again that I am the adult and you're the child and you need boundaries and I can't fly off at the least thing. But now I wonder if all that control of myself has made the smallest difference with you."

Snape stopped spanking, but Harry did not try to get up even though his arms were going numb underneath him.

"I am going to ask you a few questions," Snape continued, "and you better answer them truthfully or I will invade your mind and find every last humiliating thing that ever happened to you, put it in a Pensieve, and make you relive them all every night for the rest of your life."

"I'm listening," Harry squeaked.

"Did you honestly think that I was going to harm Worty? Did you think for a moment that I would be so cruel to that child that you would need to lie to me, thus making him lie to me as well, and risk ruining everything you and I have been through? Do you think I am that heartless and cruel?"

Harry screwed his eyes up tight, but he knew he had to answer truthfully. "No," he said in the smallest voice possible.

Smack, smack, smack! Snape began to spank him again.

"Then why on earth would you lie to me and risk it?" Snape exploded.

"Because I didn't want Worty to get in trouble!" Harry wailed as tears gathered in his eyes.

"You - are - not - the - savior - here," Snape spanked him on each word. "Now stand up and march yourself into that corner."

Harry stood shakily, thinking he would much rather lay down on his stamach, but he did not dare object. He crept to the corner where Snape pointed and stood there, waiting.

"Hands behind your neck," Snape ordered. "Lace your fingers together. Eyes straight ahead. I will be back soon and you better have not moved an inch."

"Yes, sir," Harry croaked.

Snape swept out of the room, and Harry kept staring at the wall, pressing his interlocked fingers into his neck. He wished Hermione were here to tell him what to do. Or Ron - Ron would think of something. Even Draco could be useful at a time like this.

Harry heard footsteps in the hallway and a high-pitched pleading accompanying them. A second later, Snape charged into the room, pulling a frantic Worty with him.

"No," the little boy cried, tugging against Snape's hand, "no, please I'm sorry. Oh, please, sir, I promise I won't ever do that again. No, no, I'm sorry."

Harry wanted to turn back and tell Snape to stop, to let the boy go, but Harry kept still, staring with hard eyes into the intersection of the two walls as Worty begged.

"Harry, turn around," Snape ordered.

Harry turned to see Snape sitting in a chair, Worty in between his knees, about to be tipped over Snape's left thigh.

"Stay where you are," Snape instructed Harry. "Hands behind your head. Since you are so concerned about my treatment of Mr. Commultington, you may watch not only how I deal with him now, but also how I would have dealt with him for everything he did today."

Worty was whimpering, but Snape turned the child to face him, keeping both hands on his small shoulders. Harry felt sick, but he knew he had to watch no matter what happened.

"Had you told me about the broken potion as soon as it happened," Snape said to Worty, "I would have given you a detention. You don't touch other people's things. Do you understand?"

Worty nodded, but he still looked terrified.

"Had you come to me after breaking the other two in the potions store and apologized for it, I would have given you two detentions along with a very stern warning about not breaking dangerous objects. Had you run off and then come back this afternoon and admitted what you had done, this would be all you would get." Snape tipped Worty over his knee and began popping his hand against the boy's small bottom.

Worty protested loudly, and Harry flinched at each swat though he knew Snape was not spanking the boy as hard as Snape spanked him.

After ten swats, Snape lifted Worty up and looked the crying boy in the face. "That would have been all you would have gotten. And if you had found Harry and begged him to come with you to face me, I wouldn't have given you more because you were scared. We are all scared at one time or another, but you have to learn not to let your fear overcome your senses and good reasoning."

"I'm sorry," Worty sniffed.

"But you let Harry take the blame for you."

"I offered to," Harry objected.

Snape gave him a warning look, and Harry dropped his gaze, digging his hands deeper into his neck. Snape continued with Worty,

"Since you let Harry take the blame for you, I'm going to be giving you twelve more. They are going to be firm, and you may cry all you need to. But once I do this, it's over and you don't have to worry about it anymore."

Worty nodded weakly, but as Snape tipped him back over his knee, Worty couldn't help whimpering,

"Please not too hard."

The dozen were extremely firm, and Harry had to bite the tip of his tongue to keep from telling Snape to ease up. But the moment the spanking was done, Snape stood Worty up again, and Harry could see the difference on Worty's face. The boy was crying, but he looked relieved and fully accepting of what had happened, even as he rubbed tears away.

"I'm sure you're sorry for what you did," Snape saod somberly, and Worty bobbed his head hastily. "Good. Then why don't you go over and apologize to Mr. Potter as well?"

Worty did not have to be told twice; he rushed towards Harry and wrapped his arms around the older boy as he sniffed, "I'm sorry, Harry. Really, really sorry."

Harry gave Snape an agonized look, and Snape nodded once. Harry immediately dropped his arms down to hug the little boy.

"Hey, calm down," Harry tried to hush him. "You're going to be all right."

"I got you in trouble," Worty cried into Harry's stomach, refusing to back away.

"I got myself in trouble," Harry told him. "But it's over now."

Worty kept clinging to him, but Harry saw Snape stand up, and Harry told Worty, "I need to stay and talk to Snape for a while. Why don't you go find Draco? Tell him I'll come see you later."

Worty hugged Harry one last time before scampering off, the last of his tears drying up.

Snape crossed his arms and lifted an eyebrow at Harry. "So, was that what you were so scared of? These last four minutes of discipline had you so frightened for Mr. Commultington's well being that you lied to me?"

"You didn't see him up on the cliff," Harry declared. "He was terrified."

"Of course, he was - he's eleven! You're scared of everything at that age. Were you scared of me your first year here?"

"Yes, but -"

"Did you expect an eleven-year-old to show the same kind of bravery you have now at sixteen? You can stand there and hold your own in an argument with me. That boy can't say a word in front of me without stuttering. And instead of helping him face his fears, you gave him the option of hiding and letting others fight for him."

"I wanted to protect him," Harry tried one last time. "You protect me from things you think I'm not ready for - why can't I do the same for him?"

Snape stepped forward, and Harry barely resisted the urge to scoot back away from the taller man. Snape laid a heavy hand on Harry's shoulder and pulled him forward until Harry could see the pupils of Snape's eyes surrounded in their dark irises.

"Harry, if I did not care about you so much, I think I would just have to tear you to pieces right not. Listen to me once and for all. I don't care what you learn this year. I don't care what strides you make academically, or how many spells you master, or what you score on the N.E.W.T.s. But you will learn this one thing. I am not the enemy."

"I know that -"

"No, listen to me. I am not the enemy, and the moment you start thinking I am, the fight is over. You've lost, and the Dark Lord has won."

Harry blinked at the intensity of Snape's voice and expression.

"I'm serious, Harry. The moment you think I'm enemy and start lying, hiding, avoiding me, shrugging off my advice - it's over for both of us. I am ready to put my life on the line for you, right now, right here, marching to my death to save you. All I want from you is obedience and loyalty."

"You have it," Harry felt desperate to assure Snape. "I'll do what you say, I will. I promise, I'll be good. I have been good - today was just a mistake because I got distracted by Worty and trying to negotiate between Draco and Hermione and Ron. But I'm loyal, I really am."

Snape sighed heavily. "All right, the way I see it, we need to move on, but I have to know that you learned something from today. You know I consider lying a very serious offence, even to protect someone else."

Harry nodded solemnly.

"And you know I punish lying most severely."

Harry nodded again, trying to hide his reluctance.

"I believe you have another thirty coming with the hairbrush," Snape said quietly.

"Yes, sir," Harry sighed and moved towards the desk, but Snape grabbed his arm to stop him.

"No, this time is different. You are going to be responsible for when you get the punishment."

"Me?" Harry repeated, confused.

"Yes, when you think you are ready, you are going to come to me and give me your reasons for why you needed to be disciplined. If I find your reasons adequate and see that you have thought it through, I will oblige you, give them to you, and then it will all be over. I expect you to think this all out and show me what you've learned. Understood?"

"Yes, sir," in a daze, Harry started for the door. He paused and turned back. "Just to make this clear, I decide when I mention this again?"

"Correct," Snape told him.

"So anytime I think I'm ready? Even if it's a week from now?"

"Correct."

"A month?" Harry stared straight at Snape. "Two months?"

"It's up to you," Snape said calmly.

"What if I never mention it?"

"Then it's never over," Snape replied.

Harry gave him one last bewildered, worried look before leaving. Completely lost in his own world, Harry went up the stairs and began to search for his friends.

He finally found them in a nook off the library, sitting in a sunny spot under a window. Hermione was browsing over a book, Ron was eating Bertie Botts' Beans, tossing a few to Draco for him to try, and Worty was sitting beside Draco, red-eyed but smiling as Draco made a face at the taste of the odder beans.

Harry dropped in a seat across from them, causing Ron and Draco to stop eating and Hermione to sit up and close her book.

"You'll never guess what happened," Harry panted. "And I have no idea what to do."