Gone down the shops. H-

Granted, he'd told the boy he could go out, but at half past five, Severus sat in the kitchen, tapping his fingers on the table with irritation; and yes, fear. He sat, trying to tell himself he was being stupid.

Since he'd cast that bloody spell, his emotions had been all over the place. If he hadn't been an accomplished occlumens, he'd have indulged in several unseemly displays.

There was no denying it, Severus ached inside. As well as dreaming of Lily, he had relived saving the Weasley girl, in his sleep, today.

In his dream, he and Poppy and Minerva had held hands and he had cast that incantation. This time, he had felt something indefinable spin out from his heart to be caught by some...Thing. In the eternity between one heartbeat and the next he'd been asked a question and he had given an answer. A terrible stretching and then tearing, as though of a hand being torn from an arm. Pain so bright and sharp that he'd assumed he die of it.

It wasn't just a dream, he knew that. Now, he could remember what it was like. He could remember opening his eyes. Being astonished that the pain was not physical. Being jubilant that it had worked, that their magic had been enough. For some reason, in the immediate aftermath, that had gotten lost in his mind.

A piece of himself was missing and it ached. He wondered if he'd ever really be rid of the pain of it.

He shook himself out of his maudlin thoughts. Looking around the immaculate kitchen again, he said to the unseen house elf, "You needn't get comfortable. As soon as Dumbledore gets here, he's taking you with him."

The elf was stubbornly hiding from him. Severus had called every house elf name that he knew, and tried a few words that could be house elf names, but no joy. It was possible Dumbledore had sent the creature with specific orders to avoid Severus.

At quarter to six, Severus pulled the fob watch from his pocket. Rather than "Shops", the hand was pointing to "Socializing".

Irritated, Severus pointed his wand at it, "Locus filius"

The hand of the watch turned slowly, until it had circled the entire face. The word "Socializing" was replaced with "Next door."

What on earth Potter could be interested in over there was beyond Severus. The old woman next door was harmless, but that didn't mean anything. Although the watch wasn't pointing to "Mortal Peril", there were other types of peril in the world. Spinner's End was secure, but there was no place in Britain that was entirely safe for Potter, Severus thought.

Before Severus could do anything about it, a tapping at the window announced the arrival of an owl. Severus pointed his wand and opened the window.

It was one of the school owls,

Severus,

I will be at your home earlier than I had anticipated. Please, look for me around half past six.

Albus.

"Damn," muttered Snape to himself. Well, at least he could get rid of the bloody house elf that much sooner.

It took him only a moment to retrieve Potter. Severus was disconcerted that Mrs. Cook had surmised the boy's identity so quickly. But she was right, those green eyes were an Evans trait. Lily's father had eyes as green. If one didn't know the boy's presumed father, it was much more obvious, Severus supposed.

As usual, Severus had no success keeping his temper with the child. How could someone who had confronted the Dark Lord twice in two years and was being pursued by a dark wizard reputed to be almost as powerful (although Severus doubted the veracity of that claim) have so much disregard for their own safety?

The boy's face turned white, then flushed with anger at Severus characterization of him as "affection starved". With an effort, Severus reined in his tongue, he wasn't trying to alienate the boy, but it was mad for him to go wandering into places where he was putting himself in danger. Obviously Severus had come too close to the truth.

Ashamed, Severus sent the boy out of his sight, before he could say anything else he'd regret.

He heard Potter go into the kitchen rather than upstairs, where Snape had expected him to go. Likely the boy had made friends with the cursed house elf. They all tended to be fond of children, if the child was not cruel to them.

Kindness was another Evans trait, although the gene for kindness had apparently skipped over Petunia. Even before he had discovered the truth about the child's home life, Severus knew that Potter didn't tend toward cruelty.

"He's got a given name, Sev. You should try using it" Lily's angry voice said in his head.

Wonderful, he was hearing her when he was awake now, as well.

Severus went into the dining room to see if the elf had laid the table. Naturally, the damned thing had found his mother's china and silver. There were only two place setting. Most likely because the elf thought (or perhaps hoped) the boy would eat in the kitchen. Severus told (shouted at it, really) it to set the table for three, instead. Severus didn't ordinarily shout at the house elves, but this one was more stubborn than they usually were. It irritated him no end that this elf wouldn't show itself.

Severus glanced at his watch. It was quarter after six and Dumbledore was almost always punctual. Severus really didn't feel like climbing the stairs again, they kept feeling as though someone was putting a stretching charm on them. Severus supposed that he could greet the headmaster in his Muggle clothes, but that felt undignified. This weakness was undignified enough.

As he reached the top of the stairs, Severus saw that the boy's bedroom door was half open. Out of curiosity, Severus poked his head in to see how the the child kept the place.

The snowy owl was still sat on her perch, dozing. It looked like Potter (Harry!) hadn't bothered to unpack, really. His trunk stood open with a stack of clean clothes in it. A a small pile of dirty clothes lay to the side of it on the floor. Dragon hide gloves were thrown on top of the desk. Severus hoped like hell the boy wasn't amusing himself with illicit potions experiments.

He took a practiced sniff of the air. Lemon and ammonia. He ran through the noxious, dangerous or explosive compounds one could make with ammonia. None of them used lemons. Floor cleaner came to mind.

There were some quills and parchment sitting on the desk, but otherwise there was nothing personal in the room. None of the knick-knacks or oddments boys of his age tended to collect around themselves. Just his owl and a broom leaning in the corner. That spoke of the poverty of the child's life with the Dursley's. Even Severus had owned more than the clothes on his back when he started Hogwarts.

The bed was neatly made and Severus wondered if the boy made the bed himself or if the house elf did it. Severus saw now that sheets were included on the clothes pile. That seemed oddly fastidious for a thirteen year old, to change sheets after one had slept in them for two nights, so perhaps Severus' shouting had interrupted the house elf in the middle of tidying in here.

Shaking his head, Severus turned back to his own room.

In a moment, he was making his halting way back down the stairs. The front doorbell rang.

"I'll answer it." he called, forestalling the damned elf.

He opened the door to a smiling Dumbledore, "Headmaster." Severus said,coldly, by way of greeting.

"Severus." Dumbledore still smiled at him broadly, but there were lines under the man's eyes. He looked tired. No doubt, Molly Weasley and the Ministry had been been keeping him busy.

"Well, come in." Severus said, curtly. He didn't feel like being polite; sometime in the night he'd decided that Dumbledore's good will wasn't that important to him anymore.

If Severus' shortness bothered him, Dumbledore gave no sign. The tea tray was already sitting on the coffee table, when they went into the living room.

"You've changed things." remarked Dumbledore, looking around interestedly.

"It was too cold when the front door opened directly into the living room." Severus replied stiffly, sinking down gratefully onto the chair. Severus wondered if it would be safe to use stronger stimulants now. He'd not had the chance to read on the spell, "So, what is it you wanted?" Severus asked, getting right to the point.

Dumbldore sat on the settee and with a glance for permission, which Severus granted with a slight nod, poured the tea.

Not until a cup of hot sugary tea was in Severus' hand, did Dumbledore say, "As I said, I wanted to see how you and Harry are getting on."

"Remarkably well, as you see." replied Severus dryly, "He hasn't blown up my house and I haven't chopped him into potion ingredients. Given the past two years, I imagine you believe that's the best we can do."

Dumbledore smiled at that, "Where is Harry?"

Severus sipped at his tea, "Last I saw of him, he was in the kitchen. Probably complaining about me to the house elf you sent us."

Seldom had Severus seen the headmaster look so blank, "I haven't sent you a house elf, Severus. I know how you feel about them following you home." Dumbledore's white eyebrows furrowed for a moment, "Perhaps, Pomona asked one to come check on you."

"Whatever the case, I haven't changed my feelings. I would like you to take this one back to the castle with you." Severus said firmly.

"Yes, of course, Severus." replied the headmaster amicably, "I should think..."

The door between the living room and the dining room banged open with much more force than necessary.

Severus and Dumbledore both jumped. Potter stood in the doorway, his arms crossed across his chest and his lips compressed to white lines, "Dinner's on the table." he gritted.

Severus was too tired to remonstrate the boy for slamming doors. For the moment he decided to ignore it. It would only make the boy more hostile.

Slowly, Severus stood and waved Dumbledore to precede him into the dining room. A third place setting had been added, with several serving dishes in the center. Potter walked into the kitchen and returned with a butter dish. Placing it on the table with slightly more force than necessary.

There was no wine on the table, but that was likely because the elf had realized that Severus shouldn't be drinking wine just now. There was a glass of something dark and fizzy at the chair Potter took. Severus thought it looked familiar, but he couldn't think what it was, for a second. His mind was moving rather more slowly than usual.

"Er," Potter began softly, after the two adults took their seats, "Would anyone else like a Coke?" obviously he'd noticed Severus looking.

Oh, of course, the universal drink of Muggle teenagers, "Have one, Albus." remarked Severus, "They're more than a third sugar. Just the sort of thing you like." his mind must be moving very slowly indeed.

Dumbledore's eyes lit up his face, "That sounds wonderful, Harry."

Instead of calling for the house elf, Potter jumped up to fetch it himself, coming back with another dark fizzy glass.

Potter again waited for the adults to start serving themselves before he started, casting some rather odd furtive looks at them.

"This is very good. Unusual," remarked Dumbledore, taking a bite of his pie, "A recipe of yours Severus?"

Severus shook his head. The food was actually rather heavier on the salt than he was used to.

"They're frozen." muttered the boy, not lifting his head from his dinner plate, although his shoulders relaxed at the headmaster's approval.

"Frozen?" Dumbledore glanced in confusion at Severus and poked at the steaming pie with his fork.

The child nodded, still not looking up, "You get them from the supermarket. That's a Muggle thing, sir. They have already made up food, and then they freeze it. You pop it in the oven. Bit of a cheat, but my pastry's rubbish, anyway." the child shrugged.

Dumbldore gave the boy an understanding glance, "I imagine familiar foods are a comfort in a new environment."

The child shook his head, "I've never had this before." he gave Severus another one of those furtive looks, "Professor Snape said I could get what I wanted. Aunt Petunia never let me have any of Dudley's, so I though I'd try some."

"Some..?" Severus had missed the noun in there, somewhere.

"Coke."

"Petunia never allowed you to have a Coke?" Severus asked, slowly. Good lord, the stuff was cheaper than milk and twice as common. Not something he'd want the child drinking every day of course, but...

"She said they were for Dudley. And she didn't need to pay for getting my teeth fixed." shrugged Potter.

"Why on earth would she need to pay for that?" Severus stared at him, certain now that he was misunderstanding, "

"She just always said I was too expensive, without needing fillings and glasses and all sorts of things." replied Potter, poking at his dinner with his fork.

Severus had heard enough, "I believe you are laboring under a misapprehension." he said in a low voice, "The system pays for those things. It seems that Petunia couldn't open her mouth without a lie coming out." Severus would wager that Petunia wanted to keep Harry away from professionals because the boy might reveal something she didn't want revealed. He gave Dumbledore a dark look.

"Oh." the boy replied.

The headmaster cleared his throat, "So these pies are ones you prefer, then? That the house elf prepared these rather than it's usual recipe?" he asked.

Potter looked at the headmaster blankly, "House elf?"

"Yes, Potter. House elf." Severus rolled his eyes, exasperated, "The one who followed us here, most likely due to your presence. The one who scrubbed the kitchen and dusted the living room. And who's going back with the Headmaster tonight."

Potter stared at Severus as though wondering about his sanity, "Er...there's only us here, Professor." he said slowly.

"Only us..?" Severus remembered the state of the boy's clothes this morning. He'd assumed the child had found something to entertain himself in the back garden to get so filthy. "Do you mean to tell me that you've been doing all of this?" Severus waved his hand vaguely at the clean house. Disbelief clear in his voice.

"Erm...Yeah." the boy sounded irritated now, "Who else would it be?" he asked angrily.

"Watch your tone, Potter." snapped Severus, automatically, "Are you saying you've been cooking as well?"

"And doing the shopping. And cleaning the bathroom. And dusting the books. And cleaning the china. And polishing the silver. And changing your sheets. Your kitchen floor looked like it hadn't been cleaned in years. I couldn't even find a broom. I would have done the laundry, if I'd have had time." the boy snapped right back.

Severus opened his mouth again and then closed it, thinking of the dragon hide gloves that smelled of floor cleaner, the knees of his jeans that were absolutely filthy. The boy hadn't even used a mop on the floor, he'd scrubbed it.

Before he could say anything else, Dumbledore smiled at the boy and said, "Well, Harry, I'm sure Professor Snape appreciates it." he paused, "And one or two housekeeping spells certainly aren't noticeable in a wizard's house, as I'm sure Fred and George have told you." he finished conspiratorially.

The child turned an indignant gaze on the headmaster now, "You think I need magic to clean a house?" Potter sounded insulted.

"Oh, well, I don't think that anyone would be annoyed" Dumbledore said placatingly.

The boy was in no mood to be placated, "I'm not completely stupid." he muttered, poking at his food some more.

"Of course not, Harry." said Dumbledore, gently, "No one thinks that, but you've only been here two days. It would be very difficult for one boy to do all this without some help, after all."

Severus could tell this was the wrong tactic, when the boy's expression darkened.

"I've been keeping house for Aunt Petunia since I was four." the child hissed, "I don't need magic to clean a house, even one as filthy as this one." the boy put his fork down with a slam..

Severus saw the child's tell-tale trembling. He wondered which one of the boy's displays they were about to be treated to.

"Potter." said Severus softly, "Calm yourself."

The child laughed. An eerie, out of control sound, "Or what? You'll throw me out? You're already going to do that. No one can stand having me around for very long." Potter rose to his feet, "You said you'd have the headmaster take me back to school so I could work in the kitchens there. That's fine with me. I don't know why you brought me here in the first place!"

"No, I'm not, Potter." Severus again tried to match the child's emotion with calm, it seemed to help the other times he'd become overwrought, "I was speaking to the house elf I assumed was here. It's happened before."

He remembered Potter jumping up to get him coffee in the hospital wing. It had occurred to him then that the child behaved like a house elf. He also remembered the child saying something about being struck with a frying pan when he'd burned dinners. And the detentions where he'd made the child scrub the dungeons without magic. Not a word of complaint had the child given, unlike his partner in crime. In fact, the first time, Severus would have believed that Potter had used magic to scrub the cauldrons if he hadn't had charms that warned him of exactly that sort of cheating in detentions.

Inwardly, Severus cursed himself for a fool.

Potter's eyes were flashing, "It doesn't matter." he growled, giving a sort of angry shrug.

"Calm down now, Harry. Let's talk about this." Dumbledore said gently.

"There's nothing to talk about." the child was white with fury now, he stood up, taking two steps towards the door, "I'm fine. I'll just pack my bloody things and we..."

"Harry, if you're unhappy with Professor Snape, of course we can make other arrangements, but we need to discuss what we need to do next." Dumbledore.

Severus wanted to reach over and strangle Dumbledore. Of course the boy was unhappy with him, but what unsuitable arrangement did Dumbledore have in mind now? Didn't he see that the child needed something resembling stability in his life?

Apparently Potter wasn't impressed either, "Discuss it? You mean you've already decided! You...you..." the hyperventilation started to get the better of the child for a moment.

"Mr. Potter" Severus stood now himself, trying to get control of the situation.

Predictably, the boy flinched. The two glasses on the table exploded and one of the empty chairs threw itself between the boy and Dumbledore.

The boy turned to flee out the door behind him, but Severus had his wand out and the door locked too quickly for that.

Dumbledore calmly started to summon the shards of glass together to repair them.

"Oh don't bother." said Severus, retaking his seat "I hated those glasses." he waved his wand to vanish them instead. His head was pounding.

The boy stood by the kitchen door, shaking. Neither of the adult wizards said anything for a few seconds.

"Sit down." Severus told the boy, "Please." Dumbledore didn't smile, but his eyes crinkled. Severus wanted to hit him.

The boy came back and perched on the edge of his chair. Ready to flee, duck or dodge at any second.

"Severus, be careful." warned Lily's voice in Severus' head.

Lily's eyes stared at him from behind gold frames, narrowed and angry.

"Now, Harry, you are understandably upset by all of the events of the last few days. Perhaps we..." Dumbledore started again, but Potter decided he wasn't going to to listen to whatever the headmaster had to say.

"I'm not upset." he said flatly, "I'm fine."

"Yes, of course, Potter. That would be why your magic is rising up in your defense." observed Severus, sardonically. It was unnerving the way the child could turn his hysteria off like that. Unnerving, because it spoke to the extreme stress the child was under.

Potter jumped to his feet again, reached over and threw his plate against the wall, "I'M FINE. Much you bloody care, anyway!" this was directed at the headmaster, Severus was surprised to see, He thought that surely he'd be on the receiving end of the vitriol "I heard what Mrs. Weasley said! And the Minister said you told him I had to go there! I t-told him what would happen. And he just told Uncle Vernon I needed more d-discipline. Told him you said so! Why do you care now?"

The child turned to flee again, yanking on the doorknob. Severus, having no interest in trapping himself with a child in that state, waved his wand to unlock it.

The headmaster's face was colorless. Severus stood, walked over to the sideboard and pulled a bottle of firewhiskey out of it, "Do you want a glass, or shall we just finish what's left of the bottle?" he asked Dumbledore.

The older man closed his eyes for a few seconds. Severus pulled out a glass and splashed some firewhiskey into it, shoved it into the old man's hand.

"Minerva is none too pleased with me, either." sighed Dumbledore, opening his eyes.

Severus poured himself a drink, sat himself back down, "I suppose I had better go speak to him, in a moment."

Dumbledore nodded, "I fear my presence here may make things more difficult for you."

Severus bit back a sarcastic retort.

"Am I right in assuming that his being taken back to the Dursley's precipitated an escalation in their hostilities towards him?"

"I believe so, headmaster." Severus replied stiffly.

"And keeping house for Petunia..? What do you suppose that means?" Dumbledore asked, gravely.

"It means that you gave Petunia her own personal house elf." rasped Severus, feeling like a complete idiot. The things he'd been seeing for two days that he hadn't taken a blind bit of notice of were rising up in his mind now.

The old wizard sipped at his drink, "It seems that many of the decisions I've made in regard to Harry have been the wrong ones." He was silent for a minute, "I really did think that Petunia would look after the boy. She is his family after all." he said.

"That was pure chance." replied Severus caustically, "Genetic relationships do not give people instantaneous mystical bonds. People give entirely too much weight to blood. "

Dumbledore nodded, "Perhaps they do." he gave Severus a significant glance.

Severus took a deep breath, framing his words in the most courteous way possible, "Given that the boy is legally my ward, I do hope you understand when I say he needs some stability in his life. Unless Molly Weasley is suddenly available to take on this responsibility, I will not relinquish it to anyone else."

"Oh, but surely, Severus, there are others who..."

Severus cut the headmaster off, "Whom the boy trusts?" It was actually upsetting to say this to the headmaster, because Severus knew that Dumbledore was indeed trying to make the boy's life easier.

"You think he trusts you, Severus?" asked Dumbledore, the slightest of smiles around the edges of his mouth and eyes.

"Enough to throw a tantrum in my dining room. Enough that his magic defended him against you rather than myself." Severus pointed out, finishing his drink.

Dumbledore smiled, the twinkle was back in his eyes, more fully than any time since Longbottom died, "That is something to build on, then."