If Ron thought Harry was a little off, Severus thought Harry volunteering to spend time with him was downright odd. After so many years of bitter hatred and feud, how could the boy possibly wish to spend time near him, even if the excuse he had given was homework? Severus couldn't see how it was possible, and yet he would not deny the boy the quiet space to study provided that he did not interrupt his own work. There was something about having the boy there that was calming, and this too was odd, because on any given instance previous to the boy staying in his quarters, he would have considered even the thought of him an annoyance, and the sight of him an aggravation.

Even as Severus thought on how odd the situation was, the boy sat silently on the other side of his desk highlighting with a red highlighter some text in his Transfiguration book, and marking notes down on his paper for an essay he was writing. This was the fourth night in a row he had come down to study, with a timid knock at the door and more need in his eyes than in his words. If Severus didn't know any better he'd have said the boy was lying about studying just to be in the dungeons with him. Ridiculous, he chastised himself mentally. The only person who's ever wanted to be near you was Lily, and you well ruined that didn't you, you stubborn fool.

"Sir?"

Severus looked up, glad to be brought from his own thoughts. "What is it Mr. Potter."

"Do you know anything about the tenth formation of crystalline structures? I can't find it in my book but it seems to relate to the fifth and first form that I'm supposed to be writing about." Normally he would have asked Hermione, because he was sure she'd know, or at least know where to look, but took more satisfaction being allowed to ask Snape instead.

Severus turned and perused the bookshelf behind him for a moment before pulling down a tattered brown book and opening it up to the contents. He then passed it over to Harry and said, "Page 34 Potter. I wouldn't want Professor McGonagall to accuse you of cheating if I gave you the answer."

Harry took the book and gave him an odd look, before saying thank you and starting to read and take notes again. While Severus wondered what the look had been about, Harry wondered that Snape cared if he got into trouble with other professors or not.

* * *

"Oy! Where were you today? You missed practice!"

Harry raised his brow. Shit, he had missed Quidditch practice, hadn't he, and he was the teams bloody Captain.

"What did you guys do?"

"I filled in for you, what else? Ginny coached the Chasers and I spent the day dodging rogue bludgers. Cormac thinks he's going to play in our game against Slytherin since you missed practice today."

"Oh," Harry said. He turned away from Ron in the corridor and pretended to be browsing over his newly finished Charms homework, but Ron came around to face him again, broom in hand and face covered in mud and stood with his arms crossed.

"Well, are you going to tell me? Where were you? You never miss practice."

"Not true, I missed all kinds of practices during second year."

"And?" Ron held his hands up. "I don't see or hear a rogue monster snake roaming around."

"I was doing homework." Harry held up his foot of parchment and said, "I'm ahead in all my classes for once. I am sorry I missed practice though." He was indeed sorry for the missed practice, but he wasn't sorry to have spent the afternoon in Snape's office, asking more questions than he really needed to about Charms and their interactions with certain classes of potions.

"You were down there, weren't you? In the dungeons."

"Yeah, doing homework."

"Why can't you do your homework in the tower like the rest of us? Hermione thinks you're cheating with the good grades you've been getting."

Harry sighed. "I'm not cheating, and Professor Snape has extra reference materials that the library doesn't, so I've been able to read more before writing essays. As for the tower, it's pretty noisy and-"

Ron held up his hand to forestall Harry and said, "Whatever. Lie if you want to, but I know the truth. You like spending time down there."

Harry stared at him. It was the truth, but how could he not deny it without Ron looking down on him? Harry turned and walked away.

"I don't know what's wrong with you Harry!" Ron shouted at his back. "But it's not natural!"

* * *

Severus was nervous. That was something new. He could usually temper his emotions enough to give himself peace of mind, but this day as he strode purposefully towards the Headmaster's office, he could not. He had seen the Weasley boy talking to his head of house as he'd passed in the hallway earlier that day, followed by a stern look from Minerva at dinnertime, and now he had been summoned by Albus. This had to be about Potter. Surely he hadn't told anyone about spending a week in his quarters?

Albus sat calmly behind his desk looking over several scrolls of parchment as Severus entered and said, "You wished to see me headmaster?"

"Ah yes, Severus, do have a seat won't you?"

He would prefer to stand, because he felt more in power if he was taller, but knew it was futile to argue with the man, who would wait him out patiently until he did as he was told. Sitting in the more comfortable of the two visitors chairs (the red one unfortunately), he waited to hear his fate.

"Minerva brought something interesting to my attention this evening. Apparently young Mr. Weasley claims he never sees his best friend anymore because he is with you. I told Minerva that she was surely mistaken, and she said that Mr. Weasley was adamant that it was the truth."

Severus crossed his arms and gave the old man a look that he himself had seen Potter give many times. It was the, ‘so what, and you're point is?' look of defiance that he often tried to crush out of pompous pupils.

"Ah, I see I was mistaken. Harry has been spending time with you then? Might I ask in what capacity?"

"He sits in my office and studies."

"As detention?"

"By choice."

"Hm." Albus sat back and laced his fingers together, thinking it over. "How very kind of you to let Mr. Potter study with you." He gave Severus a small smile that infuriated him.

"He's not studying with me!" He uncrossed his arms momentarily as he lost composure, and then gathered himself and crossed them again. "He reads for his classes and I... help, when needed."

"Is this why his grades have gone up in all of his classes? Minerva informs me that he has gone from E's to O's... and if I'm not mistaken, from a D in Potions to an E."

"It is no business of mine if he has chosen to become a model pupil Albus," Severus put in, but there was no real snark in his voice as there might otherwise have been. Albus smiled again and sat there quietly, knowing that Severus did not like to be on the receiving end of silence, and would eventually fill in his own answers.

"Was there a point you were trying to make Headmaster?"

"I was merely curious that Harry was choosing to spend his time with you after so many detentions. Minerva was worried that Mr. Potter had chosen you as his new head of house after she was ah, mistaken about his recent fight with Mr. Crabbe. And Mr. Weasley seemed to think there was something... unnatural going on."

Severus stood up and began to pace, angry again. "The only thing unnatural is the way everyone decides to stick their nose into my business!" he snapped out.

"Harry is your business?" There was that curious tone and inane smile once again. Severus stopped pacing and looked at Albus and the trap he had just walked into.

"I've been... looking after him. He has not been sleeping properly and I helped him with dreamless sleep for a little over a week."

"If I'm not mistaken, that entails close watch of whomever takes it until the dosage is correct?"

Severus nodded, lips thin as he pressed them together. The old man knew damn well what the potion entailed.

"Sit down Severus, before you pace a hole in my floor."

Feeling like a child again, Severus sat down and uncrossed his arms, feeling a little defeated. Albus always found out everything about everybody sooner or later, and it was a shame that this was the one man Severus could never keep all of his secrets from. Voldemort he could fool, students he could intimidate, staff he could ignore, but not Dumbledore.

"How long have we known each other Severus?"

Here we go, Severus thought. This is always how it starts. Look at all you've told me thus far, so you might as well tell me the rest. Fine, if that's how he wanted to play it, then he could entertain all of the confused ramblings of Severus' mind, which he'd had to endure by himself for almost two months now.

"25 years."

"And you still feel you cannot trust me?"

He sighed and stood up again, and did not fail to notice the look Albus gave him, telling him clearly that he knew something was bothering him.

"Perhaps I simply wish to hold to my own business without other people knowing, just for once," he said, and kept pacing.

"Would it not be better to have a second ear to help sort things out? Reluctant though you have always been, two minds have always proved better than one when trying to sort through things rather than doing so on your own. I can tell that you are unsettled by the way you continue to pace, and being that it has to do with Harry in some way, a pupil at this school, I'm afraid I must insist on discussing this."

With a tired look aimed at Dumbledore, Severus nearly collapsed back into the chair, and ran a hand through his shoulder length hair.

"I am... confused," he said, leaning forward, and looking down at his hands, which were now wringing themselves together. Drat, that was never a good sign when he couldn't even control his body language.

"About helping Harry?"

"No. I helped him because he needed the help, and was not receiving it from anyone else. That is my duty as staff, is it not?"

There was no response from Albus as he waited for Severus to continue on his own.

Continuing to wring his hands together, he said, "I do not understand the feelings I have towards him. When he is in my office studying, I am... content. When he is in danger I am anxious, when he's been slighted I am angry. I feel the need to protect him from himself and from the world."

He looked up at his superior, whose deep blue eyes were piercing through all the façade he'd thrown up since he'd come into the office, just as they always did.

"Was not that your promise to Lily? To protect him?"

Severus shook his head, ever more confused. "Not like this. Before it was... a task. A burden I did not want."

"And now?"

"Something I want to do. He's just a child and there has been nobody there for him his entire life... I enjoy being the one he has turned to for help."

Albus sat back now and smiled widely. "I believe I know what the issue is dear boy."

A weight of not knowing lifted from Severus momentarily to know that someone had the answer, but was replaced again when said answer was spoken to him. "You have parental feelings for Harry."

"I have what?" His voice was low and almost dangerous.

"It is not uncommon to enjoy being looked up to Severus, surely this is not the first time a student from your own house has come to you for advice or protection?"

"This is different. He's not in my house and I'm not required to do these things. It feels different."

"Indeed, I imagine it would. It would appear that he also has some of the same feelings towards you if he chooses to spend his free time with you... even missing Quidditch practice if I'm not mistaken."

"He missed - well what do I do then?"

No, that smile on the old man's face was too unsettling. How he could have a hundred different smiles that each meant something unique, he didn't know, but this was a new one.

"Spend more time with him. You may even consider taking him home for the upcoming holidays."

"Take... take him home?"

"I don't see why not. Harry spends each Christmas at the castle, many by himself, as do you, and I happen to know that both Miss Granger and the Weasley children will be leaving for the break next month, leaving Harry by himself once again."

As opposed as Severus might once have been to this idea, he could not deny that the idea of spending Christmas with the boy held some merit. He still wasn't sure why, but somehow not spending the holidays alone was a nice thought. God forbid but he thought he might even want to buy the brat a present.

"Because he has already chosen to stay at the castle for Christmas, I am his guardian for the holidays, and you have my blessing to take him home and give him a happy Christmas Severus."

Twenty minutes later, back in his own quarters once again, laying on his back on his own brown couch, staring at his own darkened ceiling, Severus tried to recall the entire conversation, and how it left him feeling ever more confused. How could he have parental feelings for someone that he had hated for so long? For a child that was not even his but the child of an enemy.

Something else didn't sit right either. When the Dursley's didn't have custody over Harry, Albus did, and he exercised it regardless of where Harry resided. With the man's hidden agenda's and grandiose plans of defeating the dark lord at Harry's expense, the boy never stood a chance.