Scowling at nothing in particular Severus stewed over the fact that this was all Potter's fault. If he had the sense enough to go to sleep at a decent hour then he wouldn't be falling asleep all over the place. But no, the boy was probably staying up playing games with his friends, or worse, out sneaking around the castle.

Without warning he wrenched his office door open, ready to find his Prefects and relieve them for the night of their duties since he himself wanted to patrol and catch Potter out of bed, and was surprised to find two startled prefects on the other side, looking up at him.

"Marwick, Ashdown, you're relieved for the night."

"Sir?" the fifth year girl asked.

"I will be patrolling tonight Ashdown. Return to your common room and enjoy the rare chance at having a night off before I change my mind."

Ashdown looked like she was going to ask more questions, but Marwick, a seventh year who knew better then push his luck grabbed her arm and tugged her away with a fast, "Yes sir, thank you," and then they were gone.

Severus set off in a somewhat satisfied mood, knowing he would have a chance at catching Potter out after hours and dragging him up to see the Headmaster. Normally he would just give detention for being out after curfew, but with the boy's disrespect in class it was obvious that he needed a firm hand and perhaps a good scare.

His mood dissipated slowly as he patrolled the corridors for an hour and a half and still had not found Potter. Two fifth years had been caught at nine thirty kissing in a dead end corridor, and had both been given detention with Pomfrey, who delighted in giving lovers the ‘talk' as they scrubbed out bedpans. He had also caught Ginny Weasley out sneaking around, although she claimed she'd left her book bag in a classroom, Snape had a sneaking suspicion she was looking for Potter as well and had taken twenty points for lying to him.

Thinking about what Weasley had said about classrooms, Severus decided to patrol through the classroom corridors again on second and third floor to see if he could catch Harry waiting for his girlfriend, but found nothing again.

About to give up and head back to the dungeons as it was almost eleven, Severus turned and caught a strange sound coming from down the corridor. He narrowed his eyes. At last, he thought.

* * *

Harry was having a bad night. He knew he was stuck inside a nightmare, but could find no way to wake himself up before Uncle Vernon pounded him senseless. The nightmare was especially bad because now his nightmares had melded into one horror instead of remaining separate as they usually did, and now Voldemort and a group of death eaters were standing by laughing as Uncle Vernon pushed him into the wall, kicked his shins, tossed him out the back door and proceeded to try to strangle the life from him. Wake up, wake up, he pleaded in his own mind, but it wasn't working and he was frantic now, worried that perhaps this wasn't a dream but reality. Yes, that was it, he thought. I've been kicked out of Hogwarts and Voldemort knows where I live now.

Suddenly Voldemort was there now, lifting Harry by the front of his shirt to keep him from trying to run, and Harry was flailing his arms, not knowing what else to do to protect himself from the monster. He was vaguely aware that he was shouting too, but somebody else was shouting his name and he opened his eyes to find Snape holding tight to the front of his shirt while fending off the wild punches and slaps from Harry's flailing hands.

Harry's eyes were wide and seeing the fear in them Severus released him, noticing how fast the boy was to put distance between them. His breathing was fast and panicked, and he looked uncertain.

"You skipped detention." Severus gave the boy a good looking over and noticed perhaps for the first time how pale and sickly he looked. He could not deny that he had pulled the boy up out of the chair intending to frighten him, but seeing him like this now, truly afraid, he took no pleasure in what he had done.

Harry looked down at his watch briefly and his cheeks tinged red in embarrassment. "I'm sorry sir, I'll do double to make it up." Harry noticed that he'd been getting a close looking over and didn't like it because he couldn't stop his hands from shaking. There was no telling what he'd shouted during his dream and he didn't want Snape to have anything to use against him.

"You skipped my class as well," Severus said, wondering how to get information from the rattled child.

"I'm sorry. I'll do extra homework." He had a worried look on his face and Severus was unsettled. The only time he'd seen the boy in a state close to this was the night Cedric had died a year and a half before.

"Potter, extra homework and extra detentions have done nothing to deter you from sleeping through my class, and my detentions. You did not turn in the extra essay I assigned to you the other day.

Harry bit his lip, and slowly, without taking his eyes off of Severus, he inched back towards his bag on the floor by the chair he'd been in and pulled out a roll of parchment, holding it out warily.

"Here it is," he said quietly, stepping away again immediately after Severus took it. He unrolled it briefly to see that it was indeed the two assigned feet on a proper night's sleep, and rolled it up again.

"Tell me then Potter, why you sleep through my classes and detentions if you understand the importance of a good night's sleep?" Judging by the response he had seen when he grabbed the boy's shirt and lifted him from the chair, he already knew the answer, but he wanted to hear it from Potter. He could usually rile Potter up enough to snap out answers at him but not tonight. Harry grabbed his torso and took a step back, looking away at the floor.

Surprised, Severus stood up straight. That was not what he had expected. Being a spy, he was well trained in listening to body language as much as tone and actual words. What Harry had just done was clearly defensive. The way he held his torso suggested he wanted to protect an injured part of himself as well as give himself comfort.

Trying a different tack, Severus decided to provide some answers for himself and see how Harry reacted to them. "You have not been sleeping because of nightmares."

Harry didn't react, and didn't even look up. Ok, so that was possibly true, or Harry knew he couldn't hide it after what his Professor had just seen.

"And you did not go to Madam Pomfrey for a potion because," he paused to view Harry's face, half hidden in shadow in the semi darkened room, "you have something to hide."

The child's eyes flashed fear for a moment and he glanced up at Snape to see if he had noticed, which he had.

"What is it Potter?" His question hung there unanswered and Harry hugged himself tighter.

After long, silent moments, Snape said, "You will go to the Hospital Wing now then and Madam Pomfrey will run a diagnostic spell, but you already knew that."

"No," Harry dropped his arms and reached out a hand desperately as if to stop the man from spilling his secrets carelessly all over the castle. "Please. I can't."

"Why?"

Harry bit his lip, thinking for a moment, obviously torn between telling and not telling, and finally said, "Because there's nothing that can be done about it. I tried getting the Headmaster to let me stay here over breaks, but he said no. I don't want the looks Pomfrey will give me. And she'll tell everyone."

"It is against the Healer's code to give out patient information."

"Unless she gives it to guardians, which are teachers. Just like she did to that third year last year who came to school with a broken wrist."

Severus lifted his chin and gave Harry a calculating look. That boy's parents had broken his wrist as punishment. Was Harry comparing himself to that case for a reason?

"Show me then. I will not make you go to Madam Pomfrey."

Harry took another step back and was almost to the wall now as he wrapped his arms around himself again for support. He'd never shown anybody before. He didn't even like to look at the bruises in the mirror himself.

"Me or Pomfrey Potter." His tone was final and Harry knew he'd better make a choice. On the one hand he couldn't stand the looks of sympathy and knowing Pomfrey would give him, or that other teachers would give him once Pomfrey told his head of house. He didn't want exceptions made for him because of it either. And then there was Snape, who never made exceptions or gave sympathy to anyone.

Defeated, Harry collapsed tiredly into a chair, exhausted emotionally and otherwise. He put his head down on his folded arms on the desk again like when he had fallen asleep earlier and in a muffled voice said, "On my back."

He made sure his face was buried because he didn't want to see the look on Snape's face when he saw the bruises. One of them was even in the shape of Uncle Vernon's boot from what he had been able to see in the mirror.

Severus waved up the light in the room a little more and moved close enough to the chair the boy was sitting in to see. He carefully lifted the boy's shirt up his back with one finger and took in the mottled bruises covering most of it. There were scars there as well, showing where a belt had been used and had broken the skin at some point. He let the shirt back down and took a step back to give him some space again.

Harry expected to hear a gasp, or some other sound of discontent, but no sound at all came and he wasn't sure if he was concerned or happy about it. He sat up and stared straight ahead of him at the ancient blackboard.

"And the rest of your torso is the same?" came Snape's quiet voice after a few moments. Harry nodded and Snape rubbed his temple. Judging by the fact that the bruises were at least as many weeks old as Harry had been back at school, there was no internal bleeding or the boy would have already been dead. He could provide anti-bruise balm, and even dreamless sleep, but he didn't want to deal with this issue by himself. Harry was obviously very worried about what others would think.

"What did you mean when you said the Headmaster already knew?"

Harry ran a hand through his hair. "Every year, before the start of summer, I beg him not to make me go back. I tell him how horrible it is... even about sleeping in the shed. But he doesn't care. He says I'm safer there than anywhere else, and that I always have to go back until I'm 17."

"You sleep in the shed of your own accord?"

Harry scoffed. "No," he looked up at Snape and then back down. "There're spiders in there. I hate spiders. And it's cold and dark. They lock me out of the house and then there's no food."

Severus sighed and Harry looked up, worried again now that Snape would still force him to go to Pomfrey.

Snape looked into his eyes for a moment, trying to assess the truth in all of this. If he had not seen the bruises, he would not have believed it. There was no denying the weeks old boot prints on the boy's back however, or the scars from the belt that bore proof that this was an ongoing issue, not something new and isolated.

"I can give you dreamless sleep potion, but you need to be monitored while using it for the first few nights so that we can get the correct dosage. Too little and it will be useless, too much and it could be deadly."

Harry hung his head. The last time he'd had it he'd had to stay in the Hospital Wing.

"I do not intend to send you to the Hospital wing, and it is your choice. I will also provide you with bruise balm."

Looking up again, Harry's breathing became a little ragged. "What?" Had Severus Snape just offered to help him? And he wasn't turning him over to Pomfrey?

"Where will I go then?"

Almost unable to believe he was about to say it, Severus said, "I have a spare room. You may sleep there until we figure out the correct dosage of the potion. I would put you in a Slytherin guest room down the hall but I would be unable to monitor the effects of the potion that way. I must be within hearing distance."

He could tell that Harry was nervous as he thought about it by the way he continued to bite his lip.

"And you won't tell anyone?"

"Provided that you are not resistant and do not hinder the healing process of your bruises. If however you are disrespectful to my home or your body, I will have no choice but to tell Madam Pomfrey."

There was silence for a moment, and then Harry nodded.

"You will continue to tell your friends that you are having detention with me every night then for skipping my class and detention. When they ask why you seem less tired, you will tell them that I leave you alone to scrub the classroom floors and you take the time to sleep."

"Oh, ok."

It was obvious that Snape didn't want anybody knowing where Harry would be sleeping, and he couldn't blame him. He couldn't imagine trying to explain to his friends why he had to stay with the despised Potions Master or why he was doing it of his own free will.

Snape motioned for Harry to follow him, and book bag once again over his shoulder, Harry followed him out of the room.