He cast his eyes on every piece of the room, trying to memorize every detail so that he could hold it in his memory forever. He was certain he didn't want to leave, and didn't like knowing that he might not get to come back. It was however, just a fluke that he had gotten to come here at all. He would probably be sent back to the Dursleys for the summer... or Hogwarts? He couldn't deny that the prospect of spending his summer at Hogwarts was a far better alternative than the Dursleys, but still he wished for another place; a place set on a dirt lane in Southern England, surrounded by fields, in a room with a desk under a window, with a house elf who loved the color pink. He tried to imagine the place without Snape, and couldn't, and so added the image to his daydream of the tall wizard with shoulder length hair standing in the doorway, come to wake him up.

Harry suppressed a laugh when the real Severus Snape actually did appear in the doorway a short while later to wake him up for breakfast.

"Are you packed?"

"Yes sir."

"Good. Come to breakfast. You can say goodbye to Mitzi, and we will leave after we have eaten."

Harry followed him out of the room and down the stairs. He loved every piece of this place, he thought to himself. He wished he had been able to go and explore the property more, but it had been too cold to go out, even in his new clothing and new warm maroon jacket.

"There are two days until the term starts and the train is not due into Hogsmead until tomorrow evening. You will be expected to stay out of trouble whilst alone," Severus told him over his cup of coffee.

Harry nodded and then asked, "Wh what will you be doing s sir?"

He narrowed his eyes. Since when did the twerp have the right to ask questions like that? Maybe since he'd been sleeping in the guest room upstairs, Severus thought to himself, knowing he would answer the question instead of scold the boy for asking about his personal life, as he would have done any other student.

"When we arrive at Hogwarts I will speak to the Headmaster to let him know where you have been for the holiday. Then I will be in my office sorting the ingredients we bought on Diagonalley, and preparing for classes on Monday."

"Oh." Severus did not fail to notice the boy pushing his eggs around his plate.

"If you wish, we can continue with the extra lessons in the evenings, although I'm certain you no longer need them."

Severus had watched with great surprise as Harry's stutter had for the most part vanished since he had arrived in Wendron with him.

"We can?"

Snape gave a nod and Harry began eating his eggs again rather than pushing them around the plate. "M maybe you can teach me extra defense? W we don't learn much from Professor Q Quirril."

"I will think about it."

As Harry brought his very full, magically enhanced backpack down the stairs after breakfast, he wished silently that they had an all day train ride ahead in which to spend with his professor, talking and playing chess. They had played the game so much over the break, that Harry was positive he now had a fighting chance at beating Ron in a game, where before it had been slim to none.

When Snape had his own belongings in a suitcase next to Harry's bag, Severus warded the house once again against intruders, picked up their bags, and took Harry's arm in a firm grasp, apparating them to the train platform in Hogsmead.

While it had been cold and they had gotten a dusting of snow in Wendron, it was downright freezing here, and they found themselves trudging up towards the castle through three, and sometimes four feet of snow.

Harry used his wand to melt the snow a little ahead of them, using a charm Severus had just taught him on the platform, and Severus carried both bags, Harry's backpack slung over one shoulder.

By the time they made the castle Entrance Hall, they were both cold and tired, and did not notice Professor McGonagall paused midway down the stairs in the Entrance Hall watching them come in through the heavy oak front doors.

Severus handed Harry his bag off his shoulder and Harry said, "Thanks," before stomping the snow off his feet on the stone floor.

"Severus?"

They both looked up to see the witch watching them, bewildered.

"Minerva," Snape greeted her, stomping his own feet a couple of times to get the excess cold snow off so he didn't track it all over the place.

"Severus," she said again, coming down the stairs now, "why have you brought Harry Potter back from his relatives early?"

Harry looked up at Snape, unsure if he were in trouble, but Snape gave him a look that said he wasn't. "He didn't spend the holiday at his relatives Minerva, he spent it with me in Wendron."

"Wendron? Why on earth was he with you? Why was I not informed?"

"I sent a letter to Albus. Both of you were out of contact for the holiday and I didn't think it would be best to let Stan Shunpike pitch the boy off the train for not having a ticket when I met him dragging Harry down the isle."

"What on earth are you talking about Severus? I watched Harry get on the train with the other students to go home."

"And he got on the train back the next day," Severus kept on in a calm tone, bemused at the confusion the woman wore on her face when he didn't immediately give her all of the details at once. Payback for the pity parties he had to sit through every Monday, he thought wryly.

Instead of letting her ask another question right away, he turned to Harry and said, "I will be in my office later if you wish to help sort the potions. Until then, perhaps you should fill Professor McGonagall in on the details of your excursion across the country."

Harry nodded, "Ok, bye." He held up a hand in a motionless wave as Snape gave a nod and walked away up the stairs towards the Headmaster's office.

Professor McGonagall watched him go as well, and then turned to Harry and motioned for him to follow her up to her office.

Harry was told to sit and explain, from the beginning, what had happened, and McGonagall sat and listened in surprise as Harry recounted his Christmas vacation without a single stutter.

"Potter, what has happened to your stutter?"

"Oh er..." Harry bit his lip, remembering that the rules said he couldn't tell anybody but his close friends. "I've been having lessons Professor."

"Lessons?"

"Yes."

"With?"

"I'm not supposed to tell Professor."

"I'm your head of house Potter, you are supposed to tell me."

Harry shook his head and said, "There were rules to the lessons and one of them was that I couldn't tell."

"And what other rules were there?" she asked, wary of who the instructor might have been if they had given Harry special rules such as not to tell.

Having been asked to recite the rules several times when he had forgotten to follow one, Harry fell into recitation mode and started, "Rule number one, no using physical gestures when words can be used instead, number two pause before speaking and think about what you are going to say, number three I'm to offer up information freely in class without being asked, number four I can and I will try, even if I think I cant, number five no running screaming from the room no matter the circumstances, number six no telling who has been helping me, number seven I will do as Professor Snape tells me."

Harry clamped his hand down over his mouth when he realized he had just failed to follow rule number six. McGonagall's eyes were bright with surprise, and Harry shook his head.

"I sh shouldn't have s said that! Don't tell!"

"Professor Snape had been helping you?"

"Every night after dinner at seven when school's in."

"How? Has he given you potions?"

"He has me r read my text b books out loud, and sometimes he makes me s sing them to get the words to come out better. I read o one page over and over u until I I can recite it b by myself."

"Well I must say Mr. Potter that your stuttering certainly has improved. Can you perform spells correctly now?"

Harry nodded and proudly pulled out his wand and turned her quill into a Muggle ink pen, incanting the words flawlessly.

"If the term had started Potter I would award you ten house points for that. Well done."

Harry grinned and seemed to temporarily forget his little slip up.

Professor McGonagall had sent him on his way, and it wasn't until two hours later when Harry was helping Snape sort Potions when he remembered that he had broken a rule.

"S s s sir?" He was nervous and the stutter came out again, giving him away.

Severus turned to him as Harry handed him another bottle of fluid and Severus, up on a ladder, placed it on a high shelf in the storeroom down the hall from his office.

"Calm down Potter, and then tell me."

Damn, Harry thought, it wasn't fair that the stutter gave away all his emotions like that.

He took a moment and then said, "I messed up. I b broke a rule."

"Which one and why?" He wasn't looking down at Harry, but up on the top shelf where he was trying to reorganize a bunch of dusty potions bottles.

"N number six sir?"

Severus stopped what he was doing and looked down at Harry now, who was looking at his shoes. He climbed off the ladder and wiped his hands on a wet rag.

"Who and why did you tell?"

"It it was an a a accident sir, I swear!" Harry looked up and Severus thought the boy looked on the verge of tears at his mistake.

"P p professor McGonagall made me t tell how my stutter was b better, and I told her I w was having lessons, and when sh she a asked who taught me I t told her the r rules s said I couldn't tell! And then she m made me recite the r rules! And I forgot wh what rule number seven said and I I'm re re really sorry!"

Severus sighed. Damn but he shouldn't have added number seven. He should have had the foresight to know what would have happened if Harry repeated the rules to anybody else. He supposed it would have come out eventually, but he dreaded the little smirks and comments he would get at the staff meeting come Monday morning. Still, he couldn't muster up any anger at Harry, who hadn't told her on purpose.

"Continue to follow the rules Potter and the slip will be forgiven." Perhaps the staff might know, but there was no reason for his reputation to be ruined amongst the students as well.

"Really?"

"Yes. Now hand me the Gossamer cream and recite the page from your Potion's book about it."

Harry smiled as his Professor climbed back up the ladder, and he began reciting.

Ron and Hermione returned Sunday night with the other students who had left Hogwarts for Christmas, and were both surprised to hear of Harry's break.

"And he made you clean the house elf's room?" Ron asked over a box of chocolates in a corner of the common room, astonished.

Harry nodded and said, "The room was bright pink and e everything inside was pink. I got Mitzi a pink chandelier for Christmas. I found it at a d decoration shop on Diagonalley."

"Your speech is so much better Harry," Hermione said proudly. "I'm so glad you can do proper magic now."

"I still w want to learn more w without words," Harry told her. Hermione seemed to be a little jealous of the fact that Harry was doing seventh year magic and she wasn't.

"Well you will in seventh year."

"Yeah, and he'll be ahead of the rest of us," Ron said. "Imagine all the house points we'll get!"

Harry was happy to see his friends again, and had forgotten how much he enjoyed spending time with them, but still in the back of his mind as he slept, he wondered if he'd ever again be allowed to go back to Professor Snape's house and sleep in the guest room that had been all his for the last month. He fell into dreams of living there full time and flying a kite out in one of the fields, and being able to call the room his own.