Harry seemed to be adjusted to life at Hogwarts. He still had a hard time with his name though. He knew his name was Harry, and they believed he understood that he deserved his name, but there were times when he still called himself Freak. Dumbledore told them it was because he had lived four years with that name. However, Severus disagreed. He noticed that he only called himself Freak when he was upset or if he talked about the abuse.

The students seemed to accept Harry, but the teachers weren’t sure about leaving him alone with them. Some of them had volunteered to watch him, but they were worried that they would let something slip. Severus and Dumbledore were still trying to think of a way to tell him that he was famous without mentioning that his parents were murdered. The boy seemed to sense something about himself, so they knew they had to think of something quick.

Harry surprised them all one morning.

“This is school, right?” he asked in a sad voice.

“Yes, this is a school,” Severus answered. “I’ve told you about my class.”

“How come I don’t go?” he asked, his lip was trembling now. “I wanna learn! Freak too stupid!”

He started to cry. Severus had been asking Albus to find someone to tutor Harry, but so far the Headmaster hadn’t found anyone. He also believed that it might be too stressful for the boy to learn at the moment because of his past. Severus and Minerva disagreed. He had tried himself to find someone as well. It was clear that the child loved to learn.

“No, Harry you’re not,” Severus said. “We are looking for someone to educate you.”

“Don’t like when you’re gone,” Harry said, tears were still streaming down his cheeks. “Freak wants Severus.”

“I have to teach classes. You like Madam Pomfrey and Hagrid,” Severus answered.

“Yes, but I want you,” Harry protested.

“Severus, I’ve had an idea of someone who could teach Harry his early education,” Dumbledore said. “He has wanted to meet him for a while now. He was also a very good friend of this boy’s parents.”

Severus made a face.

“If you’re talking about who I think you are talking about-”

Dumbledore could not possibly mean the werewolf. Didn’t he know that people like that were very dangerous? Severus was the child’s guardian, and he made the decisions. Remus Lupin would not be anywhere near Harry. There were plenty more people out there who could be a good tutor for him.

“Remus is very good at teaching. In his school days here, he taught some of the first years who were behind. He also usually helped out his friend Peter Pettigrew-” a surge of hatred went through Severus when he thought about the Marauders, “-he has a lot of patience and he is a smart man. Not only can he teach Harry the early education he needs, he also knows a lot about the history of the wizarding world. I think he would be a very nice guide for the boy.”

“Have you forgotten he is very dangerous?” Severus snapped back.

“Only once a month, and at night. He is perfectly safe during the day and he is out of a job. You could decide the fee of course,” and with that, the Headmaster wiped his lips on a napkin, stood up and walked away as if the matter were closed.

The matter was not closed. As far as Severus was concerned, Remus Lupin would not go anywhere near his son!

“You can have a copy of it of course,” Lupin said and handed over a pile of parchment. “This is just what I plan to teach him this year. Next summer I can work over what he should learn next year and show it to you, that is if you hire me back. This year will just be the basics.”

“Next year? Can’t you just teach him everything this year?” Severus snapped.

“Well I could if you want him to be confused. I was under the impression that I was teaching him until he started as a student here,” Lupin answered. “That’s what Albus told me in the letter. I’ve read up what young children need to learn. Not only will I be teaching him how to read and write, he’ll be learning maths, and the history of the wizarding world. I also want to teach him about muggles. He may have some resentment toward them when he is older because of what those son- because of what his aunt and uncle did to him. Does he understand the difference between muggles and wizards yet?”

“No,” Severus answered. “He understands magic and wizards of course. We haven’t taught him the difference yet. Albus figured that a tutor would do so. I want to make a few things clear. I do not want this boy to know too much about our school days, do you understand? Also, he doesn’t know I used to be a Death Eater. I don’t want him to know about that until he is older and I am there to explain it to him.”

“I will tell him nothing that will turn him against you,” Lupin said. “I am pleased to be able to teach Harry, and from what I have seen so far, you are doing a good job and he is fond of you. I will not do anything to break that relationship.”

Severus sighed. He still hated the man, but everything he planned to teach Harry was what a young wizard needed to know. So, he gave in even though he wasn’t happy about it. He decided to tell Lupin what he should know about Harry.

“Harry seems to have learned some stuff while he lived with his aunt and uncle,” Lupin had told him after a week of teaching. “He knows his alphabet, he can count to twenty, he knows the days of the weeks, and he knows the months. He told me that he doesn’t understand the numbers in the months; apparently his aunt had tried to teach him about it. His exact words were: ‘Aunt Petunia told Freak about numbers in months but Freak idiot’ so I am teaching him about the calendar.”

Lupin was just as angry as everyone else because of Harry’s mistreatment. The boy however, was slowly progressing. He was happy because he was ‘in school’ now, people loved him, and he had his very own bed to sleep in. That was until the night terrors started. It happened a month after the school year started.

Severus was woken in the middle of the nights by terrible screams. He grabbed his wand and ran into the adjoining bedroom to find Harry thrashing in the bed.

“NO! NO! SORRY! NO! FREAK SORRY!” he yelled.

He woke up sobbing. Severus tried to comfort him, but he started to scream again.

“Harry, it’s fine, it was just a dream,” Severus said.

“A dream?” Harry asked through his tears.

Severus pointed to the torch brackets with his wand to light them. Harry looked around the room. He was breathing fast, his eyes fell on Severus. The boy quickly climbed out from under the covers and onto his lap.

“Do you want to tell me about it?”

“Uncle Vernon hurt Freak! I spilled bucket of water. Uncle Vernon took belt and started hitting me!”

“Your uncle is in jail. He can never hit you again,” Severus told him.

Harry eventually fell back to sleep, but it happened again the next night, and the night after that. Severus started to give him dreamless potions at nights, but Albus said that he couldn’t keep giving them to him.

“Well what am I supposed to do? Neither one of us are getting any sleep! The bastard is now haunting Harry in his dreams. Explain to me exactly what I can do to stop the dreams.”

“I think you know the answer,” Albus answered with a twinkle in his blue eyes. “It’s good for him to learn at this early age anyway.”

“You want him to learn to close his mind?” Severus asked. “It’s going to be harder for him because of his past. You know it’s harder for people who wear their emotions on their sleeves. This child has such low self-esteem-”

“You’re not entering his mind Severus. You’re just showing him how to empty his head before he goes to sleep. I’m not saying it will be easy, but you can’t give him dreamless sleep potion. You know that he will start to rely on it if you do,” Albus said. “Just give it a try.”

Severus had enough going on with his days. Didn’t the Headmaster know that a teachers schedule was full? Now his was even fuller because he had to raise a five-year-old child. Now he had to teach him how to close his mind, which was usually hard for an adult to accomplish. A child with Harry’s history would have a harder time at it.

He had planned to teach Occlumency to Harry, but not until the summers. He figured it would be a good skill for the boy to know when he was older. He would learn to be a better dueller that way. Also, Albus was very sure that the Dark Lord would come back. Who knew better how to hide his thoughts from the Dark Lord than Severus? He would be able to give Harry an advantage over the man, and anyone else just as skilled.

So on evenings when he wasn’t marking school work, he had Harry sit down and learn to close his mind. He had a feeling that the boy thought about his past before he went to bed. He decided to have him think about anything that made him happy. It took a long time, but he managed to get Harry to pick a happy place. He just had to get him to think about it each night until he went to sleep, and not about anything else.

This made the months go by swiftly. He also looked forward to seeing Harry after classes. It made his day go by when he had to deal with the mediocre students. One first year in particular always managed to make their potion wrong, what made it worse was the fact that it was one of his Snakes. He tried his best not to take points from the girl. He started to pair her up with the best Slytherin in the year.

It was hard to believe when the Christmas Holidays started up. Harry wasn’t like most small children who liked to play in the snow. He seemed to be terrified of it. So Severus only took him outside when it was necessary. The students who stayed for Christmas wanted to take him out to play, but he would cry if they mentioned this. It was likely because not only did his uncle and force him to clean his clothes in the snow, they also made him sit out in the backyard for punishment when it was winter.

“You’ll have to go to sleep early tonight for Father Christmas to come,” Minerva told Harry.

“Father Christmas will bring me presents?” Harry asked, ever since he had started school he talked in full sentences. “Even though I am a freak and a bad boy?”

“Haven’t we told you not to say that about yourself? You are a good boy, and you are not a freak,” Severus answered.

“Father Christmas don’t know that,” Harry said sadly. “Uncle Vernon wrote him a letter last year. He read it loudly for me to hear.”

“Well, it just so happens that I also wrote him a letter,” Severus said. “He knows now that it was a misunderstanding. I expect tomorrow you’ll wake up to find presents from him.”

“Really?” he asked. “F- I mean Harry gets presents for Christmas now?”

They had decorated the Great Hall with the usual twelve Christmas trees. However, Severus hadn’t had time to do their own rooms. It was the first time he had ever thought to decorate his rooms. Now with Harry around, they needed a tree. They spent Christmas Eve working on the decorations. Harry had his own drawings to hang up around the rooms.

Severus’ rooms had changed a considerable amount since Harry had come to live in them. On every wall there were drawings or school work hanging up. There were also always toys underfoot. He had to be very careful where he stepped. It also was a regular occasion if he found a child’s book in his bed.

Harry was too excited for bed that night, so Severus read him as many books as he possibly could. Finally, he gave in and gave a dreamless potion to the child. As soon as the boy was asleep, he went to the fireplace and threw some floo powder into the fire.

“Hogwarts Staff! All right, he’s asleep. I know you have presents that you want to give him, so do what you must do,” he said.

He had told the Staff that if they wanted to get Harry a present to only get one each for him. The child had enough toys as it was. He had also splurged himself, not only for gifts from Santa, but also gifts from himself. He had asked if people could buy Harry some more clothes instead of toys. Harry had grown another few inches, so some of his robes were a little too short.

There was a knock on the door. Severus opened it to find Minerva and Albus each holding a large gift. Remus Lupin was standing behind them holding a small and thin gift.

“Tell me that’s not a toy broomstick,” Severus said to Lupin as Minerva and Albus set their gifts under the tree.

“That’s exactly what it is. He doesn’t have one, does he?”

“No, but I’d rather he didn’t. Everything in this room will be broken when he gets going on it,” Severus sighed, but he just pointed at the tree.

“Well, he can use it outside,” Lupin answered with a shrug after he set it down.

“Not until the weather warms up. He is scared of the outside when there is snow,” Severus snapped.

Professor Sprout came in next followed by Professor Trelawney. Pomona’s gift looked as if it could be clothes, but he couldn’t be sure of Trelawney’s.

“What is that?” Severus asked as he eyed the small package.

“Tarot cards. It’s not too early for him to learn divining skills,” she said.

“What does a five-year-old need with tarot cards?” Minerva asked angrily.

The staff all knew that Minerva had very low tolerance for Trelawney and the art of Divination. She thought that the class should be taken out of Hogwarts, but unfortunately, Dumbledore didn’t want to throw the woman out, so the class had to stay. Severus was going to throw the cards out on the first chance he got.

The rest of the teachers seemed to follow his instructions; they brought in wrapped packages that looked a lot like clothes. Madame Pomfrey in fact seemed to have brought in several packages of clothes.

“I expect him to grow another few inches now, so I bought him clothes that he shouldn’t grow out of for a while,” she told him. “He has also gained more weight, which is a relief. I checked his ribs and you can only see them somewhat. Now that he has gained what he has needed to, it is very important to make sure that he stays fit.”

When the teachers had finished, he began to lay out all the Santa gifts, as well as the presents he had bought. He had also bought Harry a stocking. The Dursley’s had one for Harry, but they never filled it. They wanted him to believe that Santa had really decided to forget Harry.

His third Christmas was the worst. Severus remembered watching that memory. Vernon had left a note in the stocking for Harry. When the boy pulled it out, Vernon took it from and read it aloud:

“Dear Freak, you are an ugly evil creature. I have given your uncle permission to spank you, and then you will spend the next three days in your cupboard. You will not get Christmas dinner. If you stop being such a disgusting freak maybe you would gifts. Father Christmas.”

No wonder Harry was so unsure of himself. Any day that was supposed to be special the Dursley’s had ruined it for him. They had locked him up in the basement for his fifth birthday in a cage. Severus had to wonder if they had planned to lock him up down there for good. Why else would they have a cage that was big enough for a small boy to fit into down there? His fifth birthday was another memory he and Albus had used at the hearing.

Severus was woken early by the excited screams of Harry. He got up and went into their common area to find the boy staring down at the gifts in disbelief. As soon as he saw Severus, he burst into tears.

“Harry? What’s wrong? Aren’t you happy?” he asked.

“Y-yes!” Harry sobbed. “I got presents. I actually got presents. I’m really not a freak am I? Look! Too Harry from Santa! He didn’t use the name Freak!”

Harry couldn’t read a lot of words, but he knew enough now since Lupin had taught him how to sound out words. Severus figured the boy must have been sounding out the words before he had yelled out in excitement. He knew how to spell his name now.

“Well, why don’t you open them then?”

He noticed that a new pile of gifts had come during the night. He walked over to them and then snorted; even the students had bought the boy gifts. He had asked them not to do so, but they hadn’t listened. He did not want Harry to be spoiled, and there just wasn’t enough room for all the toys. He was going to have to see if Albus would give the boy a toy room.

He found a small pile of gifts himself and started to open them. Usually the Slytherin’s sent him some gifts, and there were some family members who he really didn’t talk to who sent him stuff as well. What surprised him was the staff had also sent him some gifts. Normally he got a few things from Albus, but that was it. They must have changed their opinion of him because of Harry.

“Look, Severus, I got a broom! Will I be able to play Quidditch with this?”

Harry was obsessed with Quidditch. Before it had gotten too cold out, they would watch the games together. Sometimes he let the boy watch the practices as well. Ever since he had seen that people could fly, he had wanted to do it as well.

“It will fly, but it’s a toy, so it won’t fly as high as a real broomstick,” Severus told him.

“Look, I got a Snitch, a Quaffle! Oh, and some Bludgers too! They aren’t the same though… how come?”

“They’re toys,” Severus said.

He noticed that Harry had opened the gifts from the students. The toy snitch flew around the room, but it wasn’t fast and it didn’t go very high. Harry forgot about his presents for a moment, he climbed on his broom before Severus could say anything and flew after it. He was able to control the broom very well, not only that, but he managed to catch the Snitch right from the air. That was impressive.

“I’m a Seeker!” Harry shouted.

“Yes you are,” Severus said.

A damned good one. Severus thought to himself. Small children usually couldn’t control broomsticks that well. Harry had managed to control it with just one hand! He was going to have to train the boy up. If he was this good now on a toy, just how good would he be on a real broom? He could picture a twelve-year-old Harry on the Slytherin team playing Seeker.