‘Malfoy!’ Harry called out as he burst into the Great Hall where lunch was taking place.

He was incredibly thankful that the Slytherin hadn’t decided to head off to Hogsmeade yet, making his search for the blonde short and private - since other students were yet to arrive in the hall and the other staff members were absent; likely down at the village themselves.

‘What, Potter?’ Draco scowled at him.

‘What does this mean?’ Harry held out his right hand, which now looked perfectly normal and untouched.

‘That some hungry, vicious creature is yet to eat your hand off?’ Draco asked with deep agitation. ‘Is this some sort of joke? Sod off!’

‘No…the marks,’ Harry frowned. ‘The lines from the Vow were visible when I was in the Hospital Wing just now.’

‘So? You’re obviously fine. Although, I’d appreciate it if you wouldn’t declare the state of our arrangement for all to hear.’ Draco rolled his eyes and moved to shove by Harry; the blonde instead paused and spoke again without turning.

‘Why were you in the Hospital Wing?’

‘Because Ron was...hang on, it was you, wasn’t it!’ Harry accused angrily and marched around to glare at his rival.

‘You tried to poison me! You send that Ravenclaw kid to deliver the bottle disguised as a thank-you gift!’ He raised his tone, fueled with so much anger that he didn’t care if anyone had been able to hear him, were they not alone.

‘The bottle of liquorice pop?’ Draco frowned. ‘Yeah, I sent that kid to deliver it-‘ He jumped back as Harry’s wand was suddenly aimed his way.

‘I didn’t poison it!’ Draco quickly added as he pondered on making a risky reach for his own wand.

‘Do you think I’d be foolish enough not to take better methods of concealing my identity if I had done it? And why would I want you dead when you’re yet to give me the information I want, in accordance to our agreement?’ Draco said.

‘Then why send it at all?’ Harry didn’t believe him for a second, even if such a confession would be rather strange and the Slytherin did have a point about the identity thing.

‘Because you hate that stuff,’ Draco explained. He was a little calmer as Harry was yet to hex his nose off.

‘I made mention of how funny it would be if you drank it by mistake since the last time you did it was rather dramatic.’

Harry remembered trying that vile stuff in third year and Draco had been there to laugh at the sight of his spitting it back out, all over Neville, and nearly gagging.

Harry was yet to forgive Seamus for making him taste that particular magical flavored pop in the first place.

‘Someone must’ve overheard me planning to switch the labels and sneak it to you.’ Draco looked to be rather livid himself now.

‘Which means another Slytherin had intended to set me up! Snape’s going to be furious; I hope he bloody expels them.’ He growled.

‘And they tried to kill me.’ Harry believed Draco and lowered his wand.

‘Yeah, that too,’ Draco commented rather dismissively. ‘Wait, if you’re still breathing then why were you in the Hospital Wing? You mentioned Weasley?’

‘Yeah, Ron drank it.’ Harry said as he turned and began to make his way back to the infirmary, surprised yet silent about the fact that Draco trailed along beside him.

‘I gave him a bezoar so I think he’ll be okay.’ He hoped and prayed with all his might, actually.

--

Severus had just finished briefing Dumbledore and the Weasleys further when the two teenagers joined the group.

Harry instantly backed away from the sudden appearance of the crowd and turned shy while Draco remained by his side, clearly unsure about something.

There were no injuries; in fact the boys had even put their wands away. Severus could do nothing in reaction other then stare.

'Harry!' Molly spotted him and without even noticing Draco, she rushed over and grabbed hold of Harry to give him a tight hug.

'Dumbledore's told us how you saved him with the bezoar,' she sobbed. 'Oh, Harry, what can we say? You saved Ginny...you saved Arthur...now you've saved Ron...'

'Don't be...I didn't...' Harry felt very awkward and decided to remain silent as she continued to embrace him.

He patted her back lightly and looked over at Snape, noticing the pop bottle that clearly had the correct labeling. As Mrs Weasley backed away, he turned to Draco and inclined his head towards the evidence, causing the blonde to narrow his eyebrows at the bottle with offense when he noticed what the Gryffindor had.

'Half our family does seem to owe you their lives, now I stop and think about it.' Arthur added to Harry in a compressed tone. 'Well, all I can say is that it was a lucky day for the Weasleys when Ron decided to sit in you compartment on the Hogwarts Express, Harry.'

Only barely hearing the Weasleys now, Harry politely edged away from the group, especially as Hagrid was moving closer as well. He’d never had a real problem with masses of people before unless they were all pointing and whispering about him, and yet now he longed for the solitude of a singular conversation.

And he didn’t feel comfortable being constantly thanked for such simple acts, even if such had saved the lives of others.

‘Mr Malfoy, do you need something?’ Poppy was the first to really notice Draco, which halted all other conversations as everyone turned to stare at the blonde Slytherin.

‘Oh…’ Draco swallowed and inched backwards in reflex to the sudden looks of suspicion being throw his way.

‘We need to speak to Professor Snape.’ Harry offered.

All eyes fell on Snape, who raised an eyebrow of intrigue towards the two teenagers as he handed the pop bottle to Dumbledore.

‘Very well.’ Severus nodded and walked out of the infirmary with the two whispering boys following behind him.

He paused in a vacant corridor and turned sharply to stare at them, wondering what this could possibly about. He was surprised yet somewhat expectant as they detailed to him what they knew, how Draco had intended to prank Harry by switching the labels and yet the one that had been poisoned had the proper label; that one had certainly not come from Draco.

All that was left to do was to inform Dumbledore and locate the young Ravenclaw boy in which had delivered the bottle.

‘Can I go now?’ Harry asked once they were finished, looking rather anxious to get away even as the Weasleys were visiting (the twins included), and Ron was in the hospital wing.

‘I mean, I expect Ron’ll be sleeping for a while so I thought I’d go to Hogsmeade and…get a cheering up gift for him, or something.’ Harry added hurriedly.

Yes, Severus noticed, the Gryffindor was getting much better at lying.

‘You may.’ Severus nodded and watched the boy hurry away. He turned his stern gaze to Draco and narrowed his eyes dangerously.

‘You and I are going to have a little talk, Mr Malfoy.’

‘I didn’t poison him!’ Draco huffed.

‘Do you think I’d be so obvious about it if I had? I know Potter hates that flavor! Besides, he was playing with the cap in the Great Hall; someone must have mistaken it or something and knew about my plan. Only a Slytherin could have done it. They set ME up!’

‘Precisely,’ Severus nodded. ‘I do not doubt your innocence in this matter, Mr Malfoy; however, we must discover who instead IS responsible.’

‘Oh.’ Draco’s anger shrank back. ‘Right, yeah…’ He sighed.

--

‘How is he?’ Harry asked breathlessly as he gripped the counter in the library that separated Irma and himself.

‘Withdrawn,’ Irma sighed. ‘And he blames himself, of course. The poor boy is convinced you hate him.’

‘Bloody hell,’ Harry breathed and ignored Irma’s expression of disapproval towards his use of language.

‘Where is he?’

Harry followed Irma behind the portrait and into her private rooms, taking only a brief moment to look around before his gaze fell on the still-sobbing child that was curled up on the sofa, facing away from his unknown company.

‘Toby?’ Harry asked softly.

The boy gasped and quickly turned around, almost falling off the couch as he straightened and stared wide-eyed, tearfully at his brother. He looked ready to run to Harry but instead bit his lip and stared miserably at the floor.

‘Ron’s going to be fine.’ Harry tried. ‘And it was an accident. I should have warned you about the dangers of gifts if you don’t know who they’re from.’

Toby peaked through his hair as he looked shyly at Harry, hope and uncertainty marking his features as he listened, encouraging Harry to continue.

‘I know who it was from now, and it had just been a joke at first but then someone else poisoned it to get to me.’ Harry explained.

Irma shook her head from behind him, annoyed by the nerve of some people who would do such a thing inside a school, and the foolishness of doing so while Dumbledore was the headmaster.

‘Why?’ Toby sniffed as he wiped his sleeve along his nose. 

Irma cringed as she left the room and returned to her duties as librarian, trusting the boys as it was unlikely they could cause much trouble in her rooms at that moment.

‘I don’t know.’ Harry sighed. ‘Probably because they’re bad and support Voldemort. I’m fighting against him, and I’m the Boy-Who-Lived.’

He cracked a small smile when Toby no longer fought the urge to lunge at him and the boy squeezed him as tightly around the middle as he could.

‘I-I’m so s-sorry!’ Toby sobbed. ‘I-I didn’t know…I d-didn’t mean t-to!’

‘Shh, it’s okay Toby.’ Harry picked the boy up and cuddled him close, relieved that the child was okay and things were getting better.

‘No one blames you and we all know it was an accident.’

--

After ten minutes of consoling Toby, Harry put the boy back down and cheered him up with the prospect of going to Hogsmeade as they still had time to do so.

When they turned to leave, Harry paused and wondered why he suddenly had an odd feeling about the room they were in; nothing had changed about it and yet the bookcase containing large, important-looking leather books seemed to be more interesting then they had on first glance, not because of their titles but because somehow Harry felt it could be important to him.

‘Harry?’ He felt Toby tugging at his hand and pulled his attention away from the strange bookcase.

‘Right, I’m coming.’ Harry smiled and followed the boy out of the rooms.

The following day brought about surprise for most of the school when a seventh year Slytherin boy had been expelled for attempting to poison a student, and the second year Ravenclaw who had delivered it had been punished with detentions for his foolishness of being involved in the matter.

Harry paid little attention to the fuss during breakfast as he had enough on his mind as he tried to deal everything at once: Hagrid was upset about Aragog's health getting worst, Peeves had taken to tossing ink bottles at him on the way to breakfast (Harry was still trying to remove all of the stains of green with his wand as he ate), Lavender stalked him whining about one thing or another to do with Ron, Cormac McLaggen was going to be playing as Keeper because Ron was still in the hospital wing, Hermione was feeling guilty for not being there when Ron needed her, Draco was casual one minute then an hour later he was back to his usual sneering self, Harry hadn’t been able to spent any time with Toby since they had returned to the castle after a short Hogsmeade trip, many others had heard of his quick-acting with the bezoar and labeled him the perfect person to seek advice from, and on top of all that…Harry planned to gather the restocks for his personal potions kit but hadn’t a clue when he’d be able to find the time or peace in which to do so.

And as yet another person turned to badger to him over one thing or another, Harry thrust down his fork and found himself unable to contain his tolerance any further.

Rising from his seat, he cast a Snape-worthy glare down at them all and cared nothing for the scene he was causing that captured the attention of the entire hall.

‘Can’t you all solve your own bloody problems for a change?’ Harry scowled. ‘I’m only one person and I’ve got my own things to deal with!’

He huffed and left his meal forgotten as he turned and stormed from the hall, only just catching a few last words from the others as he went.

‘Heesh, did you see the look on his face?’

‘Yeah, it reminded me of Snape!’

‘Snape? Merlin, Potter must be under stress!’

‘I’d be too, having to deal with all us sods harassing him day and night.’

‘Still, he IS The-Boy-Who-Lived! He’s Harry Potter!’

‘Yeah, though he doesn’t seem like it much lately, does he?’

It had all come from the Gryffindor table and Harry hated that they were right.

He didn’t look like himself and he certainly didn’t act it either. But in all his reasoning, he had the visible features of Snape because of his hair and potion-conditioned appearance such his paled skin and whatever else they were noticing. And his snappy attitude was a result of little sleep and too much stress all coupled together; it would irk anyone to the brink of shouting, he reckoned.

 Turning on his heel, Harry stormed up to his dormitory to get ready for his research, barely paying any attention to Toby at all.

The small child sat on Harry’s bed as he held Felix close and watched Harry leave.

Toby remembered when Hermione had explained to him that Harry had a lot of work to do and sometimes that gave him less time to do the things he wanted, but the boy was also smarter then even Hermione gave him credit for.

Toby knew some of the things Harry wanted to do, but didn’t have to, included brewing potions and researching in the library for new draughts and brews in which to try. He seemed to find the perfect amount of time for all of that, yet not to play with Toby, read to him, or even ask about his day.

So when Harry returned after lunch, Toby pounced at the opportunity.

‘Harry, can we go to the Astronomy Tower now?’ Toby eagerly rushed forward. ‘You promised you would and that was ages ago!’

True, the Gryffindor had said at least a full month ago that he would take him up there, to show the boy the tower he’d heard others mentioning how one could see the grounds from the tower and it was such a great sight.

‘Please?’

‘Not now.’ Harry said dismissively as he bustled around for his cloak.

‘I have to study. And I need to finish my Transfiguration essay. Why don’t you go spent time with nana?’

That was something Irma had asked the small boy to call him, and because he’d heard Toby say it so much, Harry had taken to referring her by that name as well.

Now, she encouraged it as she had told them that to her, they were both her grandsons.

‘I don’t wanna!’ Toby pouted. ‘I miss you. Can we go after dinner?’

‘I’ll be too tired.’ Harry reasoned. ‘I’ve got Quidditch practice up until dinner.’

‘But you promised.’ Toby’s mood sank as he watched Harry leave again.

The teenager hadn’t even looked at him. Lowering his eyes to the floor, Toby sniffed and reached to pick up Felix to hug him closely. He just wanted to go to the tower and have a look, what was so hard about that?

In fact, he could probably do it himself as all he had to do was find it, climb a lot of stairs and then…

‘Come on, Felix.’ Toby said to his cat.

‘We can go ourselves; Harry probably won’t even notice if we’re gone since he’ll be busy until after dinner.’ He reasoned as he put his cat down and carefully began to search through Harry’s trunk until he found the Marauder’s Map.

‘I…what was it?’ Toby tried to remember what he had heard Harry say to make the magical map work for him.

‘I solemnly swear that I’m up to no good.’

The boy’s face lit up with awe as the words and locations formed on the parchment, as well as the labeled dots of those who walked around the castle and grounds.

He saw Harry heading to the dungeons instead of the library and frowned.

‘We don’t need him.’ Toby huffed as he snatched the invisibility cloak as well.

‘It was just me before Harry and I’ll be okay for a little bit. I have the map and the cloak.’ He nodded as he placed the cloak over himself and clutched the map on his way out of the dormitory. Felix dutifully followed along behind him.

No one would find it suspicious that a cat was wondering around the castle, especially since there wasn’t a single person who would even recognized it. Actually, Hagrid or Snape might, but Toby doubted he’d come across either of them on his way to the tower as the half-giant lived and worked outside while Snape usually stayed down in the dungeons, from what he’d heard.

Grunting with the effort of holding the cloak over himself and using the map, Toby had to pause several times whenever he reached a flaming torch to make sure he was going the right way.

And quite often he realized that he was becoming rather lost, as well as the fact that the Marauder’s Map wasn’t as easy to read and figure out as Harry had made it appear to be.

After a seemingly long period of time, Toby and Felix stared upwards at the bottom of the long flight of stairs that led to the Astronomy tower.

 The small cat looked up at his owner with dread (it couldn’t see the boy, but knew where he was based on scent and hearing), while Toby stared with his mouth hanging partially open. He couldn’t remember Harry telling him that there had been THAT many to climb!

Yet his determination to see the sights he heard of would not falter as the small boy whispered “mischief managed” to the map and tucked it away in the pockets of his robes.

He began to ascend those many, seemingly endless steps.

Upon finally reaching the top, the exhausted yet exhilarated Toby realized that he and Felix were not alone.

‘Is somebody there?’

‘It’s me!’ Toby pulled off the cloak and smiled at her. ‘Hello, Luna.’

‘Oh, hello Toby,’ Luna smiled down at the boy.

‘I thought I had noticed your cat and you’re much too big to be a nargle. Where is Dobby, or Harry?’ She noticed the obvious absence of the two.

‘They were too busy.’ Toby said quickly.

It was true that Harry was off doing something else but he hadn’t used Dobby to get him to the tower because the house-elf would likely report back to Harry or even stop him.

‘Does Harry know you’re here?’ Luna wondered and looked the most focused Toby had ever seen her, as though she already knew he wasn’t supposed to be there and disapproved.

‘Of course,’ Toby lied rather easily.

He felt a bit guilty about it as Luna was his friend and had he asked her, he was sure she might have brought him up here without him having to sneak off to do it on his own.

Except he wasn't on his own, Toby reminded himself as he looked down at his cat.

‘You better keep the cloak on, of course.’ Luna smiled. ‘You never know who might find you, especially nargles.’

Toby didn’t know what a nargle was, but he didn’t fancy being caught by one of those either.

He placed the cloak back over himself and was glad he was invisible when Luna told him that he should call Dobby because he would have denied it or had to lie again.

Once she left, he turned and hurried to the edge of the tower but could not see quite as well over the railing as he tightly gripped his object of concealment that flapped only a tiny bit in the cool wind.

Tossing off the cloak again, Toby carefully climbed the railing like a ladder and perched his chin just over the top in order to see out over the grounds.

It was every bit as beautiful, vast and stunning as he had been told, and more.

‘I can hardly see the need in which to have such a conversation here.’ Came a voice that nearly caused Toby to topple over the edge of the railing.

Slipping down and landing hard on the floor, Toby quickly gathered the cloak and threw it over himself just in time to scurry out of sight towards the side of the landing.

A split second later, Dumbledore walked into view as Snape trailed behind him with the very appearance of someone who was annoyed, not that Snape ever really looked much different.

‘One does grow tired of sitting in an office all day.’ Dumbledore replied.

His gaze shifted around the area, just as Snape’s did because they had each heard a sound from within, yet it was apparently empty.

‘I am astounded that you would risk a meddling student overhearing something they should not.’ Severus said as he eyed his mentor and also cast a privacy spell or two around the area, just in case. Seeing the twinkling gaze in the headmaster’s eyes, he realized that the man had expected him to cast those spells and had likely already added his own.

‘And how is the boy?’ Dumbledore turned to their conversation at hand. ‘I assume his grades in your class are still rivaled by those he receives in Potions?’

‘As ironic as that may be, yes.’ Severus frowned.

‘Potter has even taken to answering an occasional question in which I present to the class. I must admit, it is rather refreshing to be able to call upon someone other than Miss Granger, even if it is Potter.’

Dumbledore chuckled at this while Severus continued to stare at him with unconcealed irritation.

‘Headmaster, I must confess myself discouraged towards this war if its greatest leader appears to have lost faith in his greatest pawn.’

‘A pawn, really, Severus?’ Dumbledore frowned. ‘Were you referring to yourself or Harry?’

‘One may have more than a single pawn, Headmaster.’ Severus said bitterly.

‘I find it saddening that you would underestimate your own value as well as Harry’s by assuming yourselves to be nothing more than mere objects in which one would use to achieve an end.’ Dumbledore sighed.

‘You will always be needed, Severus. Please do not doubt that.’

‘And the boy?’ Severus asked softly while fiddling his fingers as he hid his face behind his curtains of hair.

‘I seem to recall a young Potions Master who once said that a child will always be a child, no matter what the old expect them to do?’ Dumbledore raised his eyebrows at Severus.

‘The concern of Lord Voldemort’s immortality is almost entirely dealt with. Therefore, it seems I have found a way around Harry’s involvement in the war…up until the very end.’

‘And yet you are not training him, nor preparing the boy for such a battle?’ Severus scowled.

‘Is your intention only to arm Harry with nothing more then his righteous sense of self-sacrifice?’

‘Why, Severus,’ Dumbledore smiled. ‘It seems you have come to care for the boy after all, or should I pretend not to have heard the title you have now assumed for the child?’

‘It was a…mistake.’ Severus mentally fumed to himself for slipping; in his own defense, he had been rather annoyed and wasn’t thinking quite as clearly as he should have been.

‘You are yet to answer my question.’

‘It is not one in which requires an answer.’ Dumbledore said firmly as Toby shuddered worriedly in the corner several feet away.

‘When the time comes for Harry to do what needs to be done, there is nothing more I could have prepared him for.’ Dumbledore said sadly.

‘In the end, everything he needs…Harry already has.’

Not much more was said after that as Toby remained as still as possible.

Dumbledore left first but Snape remained as he gave the area another scan with his obsidian gaze until it rested on a spot a few inches to Toby’s left.

‘Meow,’ Felix approached the man and stared up at him with its usual olive eyes and penetrating stare.

Snape narrowed his gaze with recognition and stepped closer until he was barely a foot from where Toby was fighting to control his hyperventilation.

The boy stared with wide, terrified eyes as Snape bent and reached a hand towards him, getting closer and closer until…

Pop!

‘Oh, hello,’ Dobby seemed only briefly unnerved by the sight of Professor Snape, who instantly straightened and turned to glare at the elf.

‘Is you needing anything, sir?’

‘No.’ Severus frowned at the creature and turned to leave the tower.

He was convinced that he had heard something – or someone – in that corner and yet did not dare to investigate further when Dumbledore was expecting him at the bottom of the stairs.

The arrival of a very particular elf was far too precise in its timing to be mere co-incidence.

Severus was adamant that whoever that cat belonged to, they knew Potter and he was certain that for a brief second he’d touched the silvery material of the brat’s invisibility cloak.

Perhaps he should have kept Dumbledore waiting, because whoever had been up there – if anyone, although he was certain of it – had just overheard their conversation.

‘Master Harry Potter has been looking for you, young Toby.’ Dobby turned to the invisible boy and shook his head.

‘Master is very worried and is asking Dobby to find you. Dobby is lucky to have seen Miss Luna Lovegood on his search for you.’ The elf added as the Ravenclaw girl had been very helpful, even if it wouldn’t have taken him very long to locate the boy, especially when Harry was certain he knew where Toby might have gone.

‘Master Harry Potter is not happy to be finding that Young Toby stole Harry Potter’s cloak and map.’ Dobby added.

‘You is to be coming with me now.’

‘Is he really mad with me?’ Toby winced as he felt a bad feeling swell in his tummy that reminded him strangely of guilt, yet it was much stronger.

‘Master Harry Potter will be pleased that young Toby is safe.’ Dobby said as he held one of Toby’s hands, which was a similar size as his own.

And the elf was right, of course, that while Harry was livid and freaked out (apparently it had taken Ron a whole ten minutes to calm him down and put away his wand before they could think rationally and begin their search for the boy), he was more relieved then anything that Toby was okay and hadn’t been caught.

The boy listened tearfully to his brother lecture about what could have gone wrong and felt terrible for it. And yet even after receiving an early bed time and being grounded for a month, Toby could not remain too miserable as he eagerly wanted to tell Harry about what he had overheard between Professor Dumbledore and Snape.

Despite the boy’s punishments, he and Harry ended up talking about the subject well into the night.

By the time they finally lay down to sleep, Harry had a smile on his face for the first time that day because he now believed Toby; there wasn’t anything bad about Snape at all, he was merely a man who had suffered a lot and continued to push by his own dark history.

In fact, as Harry stared towards the starry window, he could not help the strange bubble of warmth that heated his stomach and boosted his mood as he recited one part of Toby’s tale in his mind, over and over…

Professor Snape had called him “Harry”.