Harry didn't know how he ever managed to go back to sleep that night, but somehow he did. Severus blamed sheer exhaustion on the boy's part, as well as his own. Thankfully, no one started screaming in their sleep again, which was a relief for them both. However, when Severus arose at six o'clock to go downstairs, he heard the scratching of a quill from Harry's room.

It surprised him, but he did not stop to knock on the door or to try to guess what Harry was writing. He just continued on downstairs, wondering as he did so about James Potter's son. Severus had no expected the boy to be an early riser, mostly because he knew that James Potter slept away half the Saturdays he had spent at Hogwarts, sleeping until after lunch. But Lily, he reminded himself, had always been up early; often, she had beaten Severus to the Great Hall in the mornings.

Dumbledore was right, little though the Potions Master wanted to admit it: Severus was seeing less and less of James in the boy the longer he was around him. He could see Lily clearly in her son already, but what had Dumbledore said about Lily not being the only one that Potter resembled...?

Severus suppressed a laugh at the thought. Had Dumbledore meant to say that a part of the famous Harry Potter resembled him, Severus Snape!? It was ludicrous! And yet...

Hadn't Severus himself been thinking the same thing, for one brief moment, before Dumbledore and Potter had even come out of the castle? He had thought the idea absurd then, as well... but yet he kept thinking of it anyway, and never more clearly than last night...

At last, he managed to put it out of his mind as he went to check on his simmering potion. By the time he came back upstairs to think about making breakfast, he had forgotten all about Dumbledore's words and any resemblences between himself and Harry Potter.

He forgot about it until he went to call the boy down to eat, anyway. When Severus knocked on the door and opened it, he found Harry sitting cross-legged on the bed with his homework. It wasn't this fact that bothered, however; it was that the boy was dressed in an oversize blue sweater and jeans that looked like he could have fit into twice. Severus had a sudden image of a pallid boy with long, greasy black hair wearing a coat of his father's and a dirty smock, lying on the bed in the room across the hall and shooting down flies with his wand. Then he became irritated with himself when he realized it.

Harry ate a little more this time, but still not enough for Severus's liking. Again, it made him inexplicably angry, though of course he wouldn't admit it even to himself. He would barely admit that he could see Lily in her son, but he certainly would not say the same thing about himself.

While Severus was busy contemplating eating habits, Harry ate as much as he could, thinking about the night before. Snape had seemed almost.. concerned. But was that possible? Snape hated him! Then again.. Dumbledore had said that Snape had hated James, not Harry.. he had said that Snape would realize that... Could it be true? Or was Harry imagining things?

The next thing he knew, Snape was standing up to retrieve the Daily Prophet from a tawny owl who was pecking on the window. Harry looked down at his hands again, wishing that he could go back upstairs, or that Snape would at least say something. It was getting a little unnerving, just sitting there in silence, mostly because it reminded him of meals with the Dursleys. After Hagrid had given him his letter, they never talked to him if they could help it.

At last, the meal was over and Harry sought refuge in his room while Severus sat down in the old armchair to read the paper. There was nothing spectacular in it, and most of it he already knew. Then his forehead creased as he frowned at a particular article; it was about Dumbledore, but no one was supposed to know about what it said. How could Rita Skeeter have found out?

He didn't have long to ponder it, however, because just then there was a loud crash from upstairs and he was on his feet at once. The Prophet fell to the ground, unnoticed, as Severus disappeared upstairs. Was it just another false alarm? Or had the owl been intercepted, and someone knew where Potter was?

The door to Harry's room flew open as Severus reached the top of the stairs, and he was surprised to see a huge, hardback book -- One Thousand Magical Herbs and Fungi -- flying into the hall. Then, as he reached the doorway, Severus had to duck to avoid being hit in the head by a copy of A Beginner's Guide to Transfiguration; then he took in the room with a glance. The contents of Harry's trunk had been dumped all over the floor -- that must have been the crashing sound Severus had heard -- and Harry himself was searching through the pile frantically, throwing discarded items over his shoulder and to the sides as he went.

"What in Merlin's name are you doing!?" Severus demanded, utterly dumbfounded.

"I can't find -- but it has to be here --"

Harry continued to rummage through the contents of his trunk, his eyes wide, and at last Severus had to use a Freezing Charm on a brass telescope that came pelting for his face. Grasping the object out of the air, he crossed the room, dodging Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them as he did so.

"Stop this before you break something," Severus said, watching as a copy of Magical Theory flew across the room and hit a wall. "What can you not find?"

"Several things," Harry said, continuing to sift through the pile, though slightly less violently now. "Phials -- scales --"

"Those can be easily replaced," Severus said calmly, as if trying to reassure Harry.

"Yes -- but, that's not all!" Harry stood up to face Snape, looking positively frantic. "My wand's missing!"

Dead silence followed, during which the eyes of both wizards flickered to the pile of things in the floor. "You have lost your wand?" said Severus at last, as if he thought he might have heard wrong.

"I didn't lose it," Harry objected. "I put it in my cauldron, so I could find it easily -- because it was all that was in there except my potions things -- but it's gone!"

Severus didn't say anything, but glanced around for the cauldron; it was leaning haphazardly against a wall, looking as if it might fall over at any point. He examined it, but there was nothing inside but fragments of a few potions ingredients that had escaped from their containers. He turned back to Harry, who looked very white.

"They're not here," Harry said, looking half miserable and half frightened now that the manic look was gone from his face. "But if they're not -- they must be -- but the Dursleys couldn't have --"

Snape looked exceedingly angry again, and Harry fell silent beneath his gaze. But the Potions Master didn't appear to be angry with Harry, because just then he walked furiously toward the door, and Harry was sure he heard him say as he left, "Filthy, thieving Muggle..."

Harry stood, petrified, for a brief moment before tearing out of the room after him. He found the professor, still looking incensed, retrieving his traveling cloak off a peg and marching out of the front door as if ready to go to war. Harry had never seen him this angry before; it was rather frightening.

Severus had just selected a rusty old tin can from the rubbish that littered the side of the river and had his wand pointed at it when Harry came out the door. He knew immediately what Snape was doing; hadn't he already seen him do it twice? Severus could not hear any outside noises for the pounding in his ears, but as he reached for the Portkey, he felt something grab onto his robes, saw another hand reach out and touch the tin can at exactly the same moment...

When Severus's feet hit the ground, someone stumbled into him, nearly knocking him headfirst into a hedge. He regained his balance and turned to face Harry Potter, a frown already on his face.

"What do you think you're doing, Potter?" he demanded, the look in his black eyes dangerous.

"I'm keeping you from going off and getting in a load of trouble," Harry answered. "You're acting like you've gone mad, don't you see that?"

Severus met his determined gaze and realized once again how very much like Lily the boy was. The words and the look in those green eyes were just like Lily's; she had even fixed him with that same look before. This realization didn't really sate his anger, it just sent a bolt of regret through him; regret which overwhelmed the anger, at least for the moment.

"Maybe I have," Snape said, and Harry stared at him. There was a pause, and then Severus said in a level voice, "You must go back."

"And let you go turn the Dursleys into toads or something? Yeah, right!"

"It would be no less than they deserve," Snape said in a low voice. Another pause, and then: "You must go back, Harry."

Harry froze; had he just heard what he thought he had heard? "Did you -- did you just call me Harry?" he asked incredulously, staring at Snape as if the man had just announced that he was from another planet.

Severus blinked. He hadn't, had he?

"You did -- I know you did!"

Severus remained silent; Harry remained open-mouthed, staring at him. At last, Severus said, "It doesn't matter. You can't go back there."

This only made Harry stare more. Was Snape concerned about him!?

"I'll send you back myself if you don't agree, Potter."

"No," Harry said suddenly, determination in his voice. "If you're going back, I'm going with you."

There was a pause. "If you go back, they may not let you leave again."

"They're Muggles! What are they going to do, write to Hogwarts and tell Professor Dumbledore not to accept me back?"

"They might. I doubt that would dissuade the headmaster, however; he is rather determined that you get in your full education."

"Then it's settled; I'm going. You said yourself that I won't go back to stay there. And I won't, I'll run away and live as a Muggle before I let him lock me up somewhere again."

Severus surveyed the boy; he had his mother's stubbornness, Snape had to give him that. Still, he didn't like the idea of Potter going back there, even for a few minutes, even if Severus was there, as well. It could hardly be helped now, though. What could he do, take the boy back and Stun him to keep him from coming along?

"All right," Severus said at last, his voice grim. "But you will do exactly as I tell you, and you will not leave my sight. Understood?"

"Yes, sir."

And so the two of them set off, Severus still fuming and Harry unsure of exactly what he felt, aside from uneasy.

*~*~*

Petunia Dursley received quite a shock when she answered the knock on her front door and found a man dressed in black robes standing before her. In fact, she was so surprised that she seemed too busy glancing from his cloak to the wand in his hand to spare the time it would take to look at his face.

"I'm sorry -- er, what are you doing here?" she asked uncomfortably. Then, recovering her distaste for wizards with her bad temper, she added nastily, "If you're here about my nephew, you may as well clear off. He's gone, found his bedroom empty when we got up yesterday."

"I know that quite well," Severus said silkily, "as I am the one who took him from that prison cell you call a bedroom."

Petunia looked up suddenly when he spoke, and her beady eyes narrowed. "I know you," she said softly, looking quite angry now. "You were that Snape boy who lived on Spinner's End!"

"What!?" Harry asked loudly, stepping out from behind Snape so that he could stare at him better. Petunia jumped, as she obviously had not expected to see Harry, as well.

"Brought him back, have you?" she asked Severus viciously. "You expect us to take him back, even now?"

"I expect nothing of the sort from the likes of you," Severus said in a lethal hiss, sounding a thousand times more dangerous than he had earlier and apparently not realizing that Harry was still staring at him. "We have returned for the items which you took from this boy's trunk."

"Accusing me of being a thief, now!?" Petunia shrieked. "Why don't you get off my property!?"

"Not until his things are returned."

"Who is it, Petunia?" called a voice from the sitting room, and as Vernon Dursley appeared, his face turned red with anger. "What are you doing here?" he asked, looking at Harry.

Harry's gaze shifted from Snape at last, landing on Uncle Vernon warily. Severus noticed this, and he spoke up instead: "We are here for Harry Potter's things, which you took out of his trunk."

"We did nothing of the sort," Vernon snorted, but Snape narrowed his eyes and looked deadly.

"Don't lie to me," he hissed, looking very much as if he would like nothing more than to curse the man who stood in front of him. "You will tell me where they are, or I will blow your house apart until I find them."

It was quite obviously a bluff, Harry knew, but apparently Uncle Vernon didn't. The Muggle man's face lost all its color and he stammered, "You -- you wouldn't --"

"Harry Potter may not be able to use magic outside of school, but I am no underage wizard. I expect that any magic I might perform could easily be written off as a gas explosion, or something similar."

Harry didn't know how Snape knew about gas explosions, but he didn't ask. Uncle Vernon's face was fading quickly to gray, just like it had the day he had opened Harry's Hogwarts letter, and he pulled his wife out of the way. "Come, Petunia -- let them in --"

Severus walked through the doorway, but stopped in front of Vernon. "Where are his things?" he asked coldly, his black eyes staring into the other man's.

"In -- in the spare room," Vernon sputtered.

"Why did you take them?"

"So that the little freak couldn't run off, of course!"

"We'll see about that," Severus said, sneering. He swept past the Dursleys, Harry right behind him, and into the living room. Dudley was there, watching television; but at the sight of Harry and another man who was quite obviously a wizard, he let out a sort of squeal and ran off toward the kitchen.

"Where is this spare room?" Snape inquired, and Harry showed him the way. The place was done out in pink, for Uncle Vernon's sister Marge, but at first glance there was no sign of Harry's things. Then he opened the wardrobe and there they were, piled in a dark corner.

"Very original place to hide something," Harry muttered, thinking of his father's Invisibility Cloak, which he had hidden in his wardrobe, and made a mental note to move it as soon as he got back.

"Indeed," Severus agreed darkly. "We should go; I don't think either of us enjoy being in this house any longer than is necessary."

The first thing they saw upon coming down the stairs was Vernon and Petunia Dursley, standing very close to each other and looking at the pair of them as if they thought they were going to steal everything in the house. "Good, you have your precious things," Vernon said loudly. "Why don't you get out of my house now?"

"Gladly," Severus said coldly, both his voice and his dark eyes full of venom. Then he pulled a scrap of ordinary parchment from inside his robes, set it on the kitchen table, and pointed his wand at it. Harry came to stand next to him, more than ready to take the Portkey out of Privet Drive.

Severus had already cast Portus and was on the point of instructing Harry to reach for the Portkey when Petunia said, "Go back to your world of freaks and stay there! And then when you've gone the same way as my wretched sister, tell her that I warned her about those wizarding types!"

Sparks shot from the end of Harry's wand, and Severus looked up, a look on his face that plainly wished the woman a slow and painful death. With one swift movement, he grabbed Harry's arm and shoved the boy's hand down onto the Portkey. He released Harry's arm just in time, so that only Harry was taken away in a whirl of color, leaving Severus Snape in the Dursleys' kitchen.

"What did you just say?" he asked in a lethal voice, glaring at Petunia Dursley. "What did you just say about Lily Evans?"

"That she was a fool and a freak who should have listened to what I told her!" Petunia shrieked, though she looked positively terrified just the same.

"Never call her a wretch in front of me," Severus hissed, his wand pointed at a spot directly between Petunia's eyes. "Never. How dare you insult her, mistreat her only son after she died to save him, and then think you can get away with saying whatever you want about her!"

"Now, see here," Vernon began, gathering his courage, but Severus shifted both his eyes and his wand toward the man and suddenly ropes sprang out of the wand tip, binding his legs, arms, and mouth. Vernon Dursley promptly fell over, unable to hold up his own great weight, and Petunia screamed but didn't move.

"I know what was in the letter that Dumbledore left you," Severus went on as if nothing had happened, his wand now pointed at Petunia again. "I know that he left him here so that you could raise him, treat him like your own son. But you didn't do that. You treated him like vermin, when you're really the rat, aren't you, Petunia?"

She made a muffled sound and suddenly something hit Severus in the back, causing him to stagger forward. He turned on his heel to face Dudley Dursley, who had both his fists raised but looked absolutely petrified because his initial attack had not worked properly. Severus barely even had to think the spell this time, it was as if the ropes sprang forward of their own accord.

"Dudders!" Petunia cried, taking a step toward him; but Severus whirled to face her again, his wand again pointed at what seemed to be its favorite spot, right between Petunia Dursley's eyes.

"You will never have a chance to hurt that boy again, any of you. And if I ever hear that you said another word against Lily Evans.. I'll be back."

And with that he turned on the spot and was gone with a loud crack.