Snape Manor stood in the middle of the woods in the southern part of England. Though it was located in a muggle area where the majority of the population was consisted of muggles, here the old and rather peculiar house stood deep into the thicket.

Most people thought it was haunted or dangerous. Muggles didn’t dare go further than the entrance gates ten miles into the forest and no one had in over a decade which pleased the successor of the home since he would rather be left alone.

But this night, as rainy and misty as it was, this night and for several nights to come he would no longer be in solitude. Tonight he was expecting a ward that he would be guardian of for a long while. Though he was forced to take in the imposer, he agreed swiftly and here in deep regret, he paced in the main dining room that was shadowy from the lack of light the candle-lit chandelier provided, waiting for the dependant.

It wasn’t too long, however, until he heard the floo roar and saw the green flames with two figures standing in the hearth.

It took seconds before Harry's eyes adjusted to where he was. Obediently, he followed Mad-Eye out of the hearth and avoided looking at Snape, but instead around the room.

He found it, if possible, gloomier than Sirius' house. It was dim lighted and almost eerie, just like Number 12, but a bit more cryptic. There were old, moth-eaten drapes covering large windows, tattered family portraits, dusty vases with dead, decaying roses in them, bricks that were chipping from the fire place, the long wooden table in the center of the room had a thick layer or dust on it like it hadn’t been dined on in years and it's mahogany chairs that were neatly pushed in looked as if they wouldn’t support even Harry's weight.

The rusty chandelier above him looked as if it would fall down any second, the torches on the wall made him feel as if he were in some sort of dungeon as a prisoner, waiting to be executed for a crime he was falsely accused of.

"How is it?" The voice asked, but Harry didn’t bother responding.

"Severus," Mad-Eye greeted and Snape curtly nodded. It was then when Harry moved his eyes toward Snape, and it was almost as if he was pretending he wasn’t even standing there in the room at all, making Harry feel both hate and awkward. But then, he noticed something that was darkly humorous. How right the scenario was, that Snape looked as if he belonged here, shadowed in the darkness of his own home. Harry could imagine Snape sulking here day after day, being tormented and ridiculed at the sight of the empty rooms that filled the large house, with it's long, narrow wards that contained nothing besides dust and blackened paintings withering away in their old age. Harry could see Snape dwell, day in and day out, diminishing in his own seclusion, having forced to face the empty space beside him every day, and to know that no one would ever fill the void gaps in his life. Harry almost smiled.

"Karkus," Snape called to the old house elf waiting patiently in the corner of the room. "Show Mr. Potter to his room."

And Harry followed the house elf out of what seemed to be the dining room.

The long hallway that Harry found himself in instantly lit, one torch at a time. There must have been about three other doors the opposite way Harry was going and there was still a few more to be passed until he reached the staircase Karkus was leading him to.

Harry was surprised to find this ward unlike he thought it would be. He expected it to be as old and dark as the dining room, but there was more of a medieval feeling to it, like he was walking through the ruins of an ancient castle that used to have a wall around it with tall trees outside, extravagant canvases, beautiful statues and elegant landscaping designs. But he was walking in such a place that was no more. It might have been great some time ago, but what used to be, and what was left of it made Harry feel like there had been a great war that made the king flee this castle-like section of the house.

The staircase Karkus led him up didn’t creak as Harry assumed since it was, after all, made of marble. Though the marble obviously hadn’t been waxed in a good while, maybe decades, Harry noticed the fine detail of the design drawn on it. It was white, but there were extraordinary darker printings on it. Harry wanted to stop to sit and examine the stairs more closely, but Karkus was already a good way ahead, so he quickened his pace until he had to slow, or walk over Snape's house elf.

Walking up the stairs behind a house elf was something Harry had never done before. He had never noticed how ugly they looked from behind, namely this house elf. Its crusted ears and crusted feet looked like something from hell. The way it moved and walked up stairs was almost horrific. It even grunted when it made it over the last step, reminding Harry somewhat of a baby troll.

The next hallway that was located up the first floor stairs, the one Harry and Karkus had just went up, was nothing like either the last hallway or the dining room. It was a ward that might have been stolen from some remote palace. It was only dusty, like it had been abandoned for several years. Upscale paintings were still located on the walls and though they were only just a little faded, they were graceful just the same.

The wallpaper was a faded mossy pink with gold trimmings, looking hardly tacky. The mesh copper lamps above them that were separated by a several feet hung from the ceiling at brightened up the long hallway, making the few shadows visible and Harry paused to examine the small collection of fine lamps that sat on an expensive looking end table.

However, he was about to run and catch up with the lurid house elf, but noticed he had stopped in front of one of the many doors located in the hallway. He was only a few feet away and waited as the Karkus unlocked that door and opened it. Harry stood there for a few moments and realized he was holding the door open for Harry, so Harry quickly went in with his trunk.

"Thank you," he told Karkus who's grim face showed some sort of amazement, but as Harry turned to enter the room fully, he noticed it was a bedroom.

"This is where you sleep," Karkus slurred to Harry and Harry almost didn’t believe that his room would be located in the most decent part of the house he had seen so far. Karkus, who hadn’t even come in Harry's room, quietly closed the door and Harry paused to see if he was going to lock it again, but no sounds of anything like keys locking the door were heard, so Harry set down his trunk and looked around the room.

His new room was noticeably larger that his old one at the Dursleys. There was a full sized bed rather than a twin sized bed, in the center of the room. It was neatly made with off white sheets and he was surprised to find not a trace of dust on it, and he wondered if Karkus was told to get a room ready for him before he came.

There was a dark wooded wardrobe against the opposite wall of his bed that had a desk beside it. The desk was a darker color, something like ebony, with a lamp and a chair pushed in under it.

There was a door, almost completely opposite to the one he had just entered and Harry at first thinking it was a closet, opened the door and found that it was a restroom instead.

Realizing that his wardrobe was the only clothes space he had, he began putting his clothes in it and didn’t even bother to mess with the stuff under the thick layer of apparel in his trunk.

It was several minutes later when he heard his door open and quickly looked to see who it was, and found Mad-Eye there.

"I'll be leaving now Potter," he told him and Harry nodded, knowing he couldn’t do anything about having to be alone with a crazy house elf and his most hated teacher for a long while... his new home.

"Severus said he wants you to go downstairs when you're done here," and Harry nodded again and waited for him to leave the room,

"Take care of yourself, Potter," was the only thing Mad-Eye said to him before he left, making Harry, for some unknown reason, feel emptier than he had ever felt. It was just now occurring to him that this was real, everything and it wasn’t some horrible nightmare. He wouldn’t wake up, ever.

"I'm in my room," Harry told the voice, not wanting to feel alone.

"How is it?"

"Decent enough. I was expecting something less."

"How is the house?"

"It's big."

"But how is the house?"

"I haven’t seen it all."

"Then tell me about what you have seen," The voice urged.

"I've only seen the dining room apart from my room and two wards," Harry explained. “It was all right, I suppose.”

“What are you doing now?” The voice asked after a few moments, then Harry remembered he was needed downstairs.

“Shit,” he cursed. “I need to go back downstairs, I’ve just remembered.”

“I'll be here,” the voice told him, and Harry felt deeply comforted.

"I know," he told the voice, and walked out of his room.

Harry found Snape standing, in what he thought was the same exact spot as before. Harry only walked a few feet into the room, then stopped, trying to keep his distance from the man. Harry bit the sides of his tongue as he waited for Snape to speak, which wasn’t long after.

"Are you settled in?" Snape asked monotonously and Harry nodded, almost shocked he even asked but knew he had to act at least decent to him since Dumbledore would probably report from time to time, and it would go much easier this way too.

"Very well," he continued. "I do not expect you to be staying long, Potter. I'm sure we both are." Snape crossed his arms as he shifted and continued.

"But seeing how you are here, there are things that I'd like to make clear to you before anything else," he said sternly.

"Things in this house are very old, and you are not to touch anything that does not belong to you." When Harry didn’t say anything, he didn’t think there needed to be a response, Snape raised an eyebrow.

"Do you understand?" Snape asked, almost harsh, and Harry nodded quickly.

"You are not to find a way into any doors in this house that are locked, for any reason." Harry nodded again, finding the fact that he had things to hide was almost frightening.

"You are not to enter the woods," Snape began, but Harry interrupted.

"Why not," he asked, disappointed that he would have to stay in the house all day.

"Do not ask questions, Potter. Do as I say." Then Snape, gave a frustrated growl.

"It is unlikely that anyone would be wandering the woods, but in any case, it is best that you don’t either incase the wrong people find their way past the detection charm the Headmaster put around the house." Harry, who understood that it was for safety reasons, nodded.

"You may however, go into the yard but only when being supervised by either me, Karkus or Grib."

Harry felt offended by the word supervised, and wondered if he had to be watched for his safety from other people, or safety from himself. He didn’t ask about it, but instead about the name Harry was not familiar with.

"Right," Harry said. "Who's Grib?"

"The other house elf," Snape snapped, giving Harry the impression he despised Grib for some reason and Harry hoped he wasn’t as crazy as Karkus.

"Have I made myself unclear about anything?" Snape asked, and Harry shook his head.

"Good, then I expect you to not contravene any regulations." Then Snape pocketed a skeleton key that was on the table and turned to him.

"Follow me, Potter." And Harry obliged, trying to keep up with his long strides that took him the other direction in the first ward. They came to a corner, and turned revealing the house to be much larger than Harry thought. There must have been several wards on the first floor besides the one leading to the staircase that led to the second floor.

Finally, after going up a new flight of stairs, then another all the way up to the third floor, Snape stopped in the middle of the main ward in front of a long woven rug. He then, kneeled down and pushed back an end of the rug revealing a keyhole in a compartment door that couldn’t have been seen unless you moved the rug. There was also a small metal handle couldn’t form a bump in the carpet since there was a holder carved into the door.

"This Potter," Snape said, standing back up. "Is an den that is not known to anyone, and it's not in the blueprints of the house. Though it is highly improbable, if anyone came to search the house for you, you are to hide in here until I get you. It can only be opened with a certain key which there are two of. I have one and you are to carry the other around with you at all times," and Snape reached into his pocket and handed him the key from earlier, which Harry put into one of his own pockets, finding it lighter than expected.

"That is all, Potter," Snape told him. "You may leave, but dinner will be ready sometime within the hour and attendance is compulsory." Harry nodded, then exited, heading back to his room.

"I have to live with him," Harry complained to the voice. "I have to listen to him, and now, now I have to actually dine with him?"

"Well you have before," the voice replied.

"Well, yea," Harry said. "But that was at school. He was far enough at the teachers tables where he was easily ignored. Even during holidays, we weren’t alone."

"Well if you don't say anything to him, he won't say anything to you. Just sit, eat, and leave."

"You make it sound so simple."

Harry was laying on his bed with his back against the headboard and his legs stretched out in front of him when there was a knock on his door, quickly making him sit upright. However, he found it was just a house elf, and it wasn’t Karkus.

"Master Harry?" The small house elf squeaked. It inexplicably reminded him of Dobby and wondered how a house elf could look so sane in such a place.

"Are you Grib?" Harry asked the elf and it nodded nervously.

"Yes, Master Harry," he said. "Master ordered me to tell you that dinner is ready." And Harry nodded and slowly made his way off of the bed.

"Here we go," Harry told the voice.

He walked downstairs using the same route he had first been led up by Karkus. However, as he made his way to the room he had assumed was the dining room, he was stunned to find it completely empty and as dark as before. He walked back out of the room and felt dumb as he looked in every room on the first floor until he found one that was not empty. Luckily, it was only about six doors from the first one.

He walked in nervously and found how different it was compared to the other room he had thought was the dining room. The floors were of white marble and the wallpaper was also white. The chandelier above them seemed to be made of crystal and gave tremendous lighting to the room.

The table was just as long as the table in Sirius' house, with even a fine vase centerpiece in the middle and Snape was seated on the left side of the table at the closer end and didn’t even look up as Harry came in. He thought how strange it was to see Snape, dressed all in black as usual seated in such a bright room.

Quietly, he sat opposite to him. Without looking at the boy in front of him, Snape took his fork and gently tapped it against a wine glass. The ring vibrated for a few seconds, then like it usually did at Hogwarts, food appeared on the plates that were set out in front of them.

It did look good but Harry wasn’t feeling at all hungry, so he mainly picked at the food and moved things from one side of the plate to the other to avoid being chastised by Snape.

After a while, Karkus entered the room with a glass bottle and poured Snape more wine.

“Do you need anything else?” Karkus asked.

“No,” Snape said vaguely and then turned to Harry who was looking down, picking at his plate.

“Potter?” Snape asked and Harry, who shook his head, and Snape turned back to the house elf.

“That is all, Karkus.” And the house elf left the room silently.

“This is so boring,” Harry admitted to the voice who didn’t respond immediately.

“It’s almost going to be over,” the voice told him, reminding Harry of that day when the voice was trying to soothe him. The sentence was almost completely identical to one the voice said to him before he took the pills. Angrily, he held the fork that was in his hand as tight as he could to try and relieve the ache.

After long, dinner seemed to finally be over as both Grib and Karkus entered the room and asked if they wanted their dishes taken. Both Harry and Snape nodded and carelessly, Harry said, “Thanks,” to Grib.

It was as if Harry had said ‘Voldemort’ rather than thanking the house elf. Snape glared at him from across the table, looking as if he were ready to spit venom.

“Potter,” he growled. “You do not ever thank a house elf.” And Harry almost laughed at such an absurd comment.

“Why not?” He argued and Snape narrowed his eyes.

“That is why they even exist,” Snape told him angrily “To serve, not to be thanked.“ And Harry, even though he was no house elf, felt offended. He didn’t press the matter further however.

“Can I go now?” Harry asked rudely after a while and Snape raised an eyebrow.

“Is anyone stopping you?”

Without a word, Harry stood up and left after pushing the chair back in.

“Can you believe his nerve?” Harry asked the voice as he explained what Snape said about house elves on his way back to his room.

“Well, maybe that’s how most people see them,” the voice replied. “If they didn’t, there wouldn’t be any more who were forced to work under a master.” Though Harry didn’t approve, he did agree.

“But it’s still wrong,” Harry said. “I don’t care what he says.”

It wasn’t until one in the morning until Harry actually felt drowsy, but he couldn’t fall asleep. It was too much of a change for one day and he couldn’t bring himself to sleep. It was then when he began thinking about his old home at the Dursleys.

He hated it there, that was a fact. He was always unwelcome and mistreated, but home was home, no matter how bad. There was always a certain feeling when in new surroundings, but when at your home, you never thought anything of it. There was never that strange awkwardness as you tried to fall asleep at home, and Harry wasn’t home. He didn’t even have one anymore and as he rested his head against the pillow, he found it almost unbelievable that he, for the first time in his life, actually missed Number 4.