She had watched for two days now as Harry isolated himself, staring off as his friends spoke to him, and hardly eating half what the other growing teenage boys in the house insisted on consuming. The child was definitely not happy about something, and while she wanted to ask and comfort, she had the instinct that he wouldn't tell her at this point. The most curious thing happened on the third day however when she had an unexpected visitor knock on the kitchen door.

Wiping her hands on her apron to be rid of the flour on them, Molly opened the door and was surprised to find Severus Snape on the threshold holding a piece of parchment. It had been a rare occasion when he had dared risk being caught by one of You-Know-Who's flunkies in order to come by for any sort of Order business, so she knew it must have been important if he stood there in the open in the early morning light.

Now Molly Weasley had not been the top of her class for nothing. It was a fact that her most troublesome sons were often irritated with that she seemed to know much more than a mother without extra eyes naturally should, but the skill of reasoning and deduction went a long way with dealing with errant children, and sly Potions Masters.

"Hello Severus," she greeted warmly with a smile, motioning for him to come in and out of sight.

He stepped just beyond the threshold and gave a wary eye around the room before returning the greeting.

"I bring news from Lupin and Tonks for Arthur." He held out the parchment which she took.

"I'm afraid he's at work at the moment." She resisted the urge to add, ‘as you well know.' "I'm afraid there's been some trouble with that Nicholas Stacks in the last few days. Always was trouble that boy, and now he's gone off and brought up legal troubles with the Muggle Bating Department of all people!" She waved the parchment around as if in disgust and then asked, "Where are my manners? Would you like some tea Severus? Breakfast is almost ready if you'd like to have a seat."

He held up a hand in a motionless way and said, "No thank you. I would prefer to deliver my news and be on my way."

Molly listened carefully as the tall man told her information of little consequence (they had received it last night as a matter of fact) about Lupin's communications with a few reformed werewolves in the North, and then paused ever so briefly when Harry walked into the room, giving him a fast looking over as if to assess if he were whole, making eye contact with him, and then continuing on with his message.

Harry had walked into the kitchen looking as if he'd lost sleep again and stopped in his steps, making eye contact with the man that had taken care of him for the summer. Molly was no fool, she knew there was a bitter history between the two, and had seen the looks that had passed between the two in the past. This look displayed nothing of hate or anger, however brief, but brief hope had flickered across Harry's eyes.

"That is all the information I have," Severus said, bringing her attention back to him from her thoughts.

"Well we do appreciate it Severus."

He gave her a nod and turned to go, and wouldn't you know it? So slight that Molly almost didn't catch it, the man gave a single nod to the 16 year old boy standing stock still in the doorframe, and then he was gone.

She eyed Harry for a moment before Ron walked in rubbing sleep out of one eye and asked, "Who was it mum?"

"Professor Snape dear. Won't you go and tell Ginny and the twins that breakfast is almost ready?"

Ron turned and muttered, "I hate it when he comes over," before disappearing back into the living room and up the stairs.

Harry looked at Molly briefly and then after his friend, and followed after Ron, deciding that it would be less awkward than standing in the kitchen with his friends' mum alone. Molly's eyebrows rose as she watched his retreating back. It would seem strange, but would only be outdone by the change in Harry's attitude for the remainder of his stay. Perhaps it was just another weird and wonderful eccentricity for Molly to learn about one of her children, albeit a surrogate one, but Harry seemed less desolate after he had seen Severus, and Ron reported that he seemed to be sleeping better as well.

Hm. Just one of those things she supposed, and she gave a knowing smile at Harry whenever he made eye contact.

* * *

Carriage wheels squeaked as they carried students up the long dirt drive to the castle in the darkness. There was an inescapable excitement in the air that Harry wanted to be a part of, but what he was feeling at the moment was relief rather than excitement. He'd had a hard week with the Weasleys, not that they were difficult people to get along with, or that they'd treated him poorly, but his feelings were mixed up and confused about being taken so suddenly from Snape's house. He missed Luna and heaven forbid Snape himself, and had not at all felt ready to see his friends, who did not yet understand what he had gone through that summer. Even now they chatted amiably on the other side of the carriage as it bounced them around, and Harry stared off into the darkness, Ginny by his side as she held his hand, giving him the space he needed to think things through. It was something he valued in her, that she understood that sometimes he just needed some time to think things through. She at least had not pelted him with questions about why he'd gone at the end of the last year or if he'd hated things when he was with Snape.

He glanced over at Ron, and Ron gave him a strained smile and then turned back to his conversation with Hermione. Harry felt Ginny squeeze his hand, and turned to smile at her as he squeezed back, and then stared into the darkness as the castle loomed into view in the distance. The last time he'd been on this road he'd been at the start of a very long and difficult journey into the unknown. And yet again he wondered how it was he could come full circle, back to where he'd started, and yet feel as if the journey had not yet ended.

Harry had sat with Ginny privately on the train for a short while when Ron and Hermione were in the Prefects compartment, and had told her some of the details of where he'd gone and what life had been like at Snape's house, including how Luna had been so nice to him. He was looking forward to seeing Luna again and didn't want Ginny to think anything untoward was going on and get hurt or feel jealous. She seemed to understand, and he hoped it were true. It was an understanding he needed from her desperately and would test in the next few weeks as he drew himself into the most trouble he possibly could get into aside from just running away. But Harry didn't know what lay ahead at the moment, and as they made the castle, Ginny squeezed his hand hard again and whispered into his ear as they climbed off of the carriage, "Just remember, I'm here too. And if you leave, take me with you."

He looked down into her shining eyes, suddenly feeling shy and not knowing why until he realized it was because of the emotion that statement had caused him. It meant a lot to know she would go with him. He nodded and they headed into the castle, sitting next to each other at Gryffindor table. Harry's eyes searched for Luna and found her waving at him from the next table, and then searched for Snape at the staff table, finding comfort for some reason when he found that the man was already looking back at him. He gave Harry another small nod and he relaxed a little. Harry hadn't told Ginny yet, but he knew the moment the man had first nodded at him in the Weasley kitchen that he was there for him, and that gave him comfort to know that while he had left, the fragile support system he'd built hadn't left him.

"Who's that?" Ron asked, pointing at the new, rotund professor sitting a few seats down from Snape.

"Professor Slughorn," Harry said quietly. He'd not yet told anyone of his excursion into the man's ‘vacation' home yet either. "New professor."

"Must be the new Defense teacher," Ron said with a wary eye aimed at the man, but in answer to Ron's query, the Headmaster rose in that moment and introduced Horace Slughorn as the new Potions Master, and explained to the school that Professor Snape would be taking up the Defense position.

Ron cursed under his breath, and Harry gave a quarrying look at Professor Snape, but the man wasn't looking his way, and didn't catch it. Harry felt put out to not be in the loop, and ate his dinner in silence, trying his best to ignore the stares and chatter of the other students around them who knew he'd gone missing. He could tell by experience that it was going to be a long year.

* * *

Harry's insides squirmed as he sat in the front row of the Defense classroom. Typically he sat in the middle or back of any class (especially Potions) because it gave him more room to be unfocused on his work without being seen, but today he insisted that they sit up front.

"That's right," Ron muttered. "We'll show him we're not afraid of him teaching Defense and that he can't ruin this class for us too." Harry glanced sideways at Ron and noticed that Hermione had opted to keep quiet. It was a strange thing for Hermione to be so quiet, but she had been since Harry had returned, at least to him, and he wondered if perhaps she were angry at him for running away.

When Professor Snape walked into the room, Harry noted how impressive his stride was, with his black robes billowing out behind him. He also noticed now that he had seen the man for most of two months without robes, how much larger and more intimidating the man looked with robes, and swallowed as he began to get nervous. Would he be treated harshly in this class like he had been in Potions for the last five years?

"Today we will be learning reinforced shield charms. I require a volunteer." Severus searched the room, and wasn't the only one surprised to find Harry's hand up, the only other one aside from Draco's.

Hermione elbowed Ron and Ron poked Harry in the side, trying to get him to lower his arm, but Harry refused, even at the icy glare he received from Draco.

"Mr. Malfoy, please join me in front of the classroom."

Draco gave Harry a smug look as he rose and passed by his desk up to the front of the room, where he practiced for a few minutes with Professor Snape until he had a good handle on the charm. The class was then given instructions to break into pairs and practice, and Harry opted to work with Neville.

Feeling put out, but not yet losing the ever foreboding hope that seemed to grip him this morning, Harry waited until Severus was just passing by to throw up the perfect shield that Neville couldn't seem to get past with his harshest curse, and waited, but no praise came. The Professor simply looked at him, and then walked on, awarding Hermione a point for the shield she had properly conjured.

Harry bit his lip and stared as the man walked around the room helping students as needed, and was only brought back a few minutes later when Neville asked, "Can you help me figure out what I'm doing wrong Harry?"

"Huh?" He couldn't hide the defeated quality to his voice, and nodded as he walked to where his friend was standing. "Sure," he said.

From behind Harry's back, he missed the emotionless face that held disappointed dark eyes. Severus tried to imagine if he'd just ignored Luna in the same way he'd ignored Harry and how that would feel, and decided it would feel the same. What else could he do in a room full of Slytherins though? He knew very well that Draco often reported suspicious things back to his father as Lucius was often fire calling or owling Severus about said activities.

The time would come when he would be able to speak to Harry alone, or prove to the boy that he was yet still there for him, as promised. Perhaps the boy would get up the nerve to visit him on his own, although Severus doubted very much that the child relied on him as much as he imagined that he did. He had seemed fine the day he had gone to the Weasley's to check on him after all, hadn't he?

* * *

Despite the castle full of warm bodies, Harry was feeling isolated again. Ginny was a comfort, but Harry still wished for the companionship and security of another person. The very person that Ron had called Dungeon Pratt this morning, and the very same that he felt it was a daunting task to go down and see on his own.

It was easy enough to hang out with Luna, as she and Ginny were friends and he was around Ginny more now than he was around Ron and Hermione, who had seemed extremely interested in each other as of late. Luna seemed just as happy as he was to be able to spend time together again, and thankfully Ginny understood that it was a brotherly sort of affection he felt for her, or else Harry would have been in trouble the night he chose to mouth off to a seventh year Hufflepuff.

Harry and Ginny were just on their way back from the Library before curfew when they heard irritated words coming from down the hall.

"Who do you think you are little miss Orphan? Not spouting that junk about Knargles and trolls breath and the like now that daddy went and blew himself up, are you?"

"I think I'm still Luna Lovegood," she said, and even from around the corner Harry could hear the shake in her voice as the boy laughed. He had never yet heard her voice shake. The sound made Harry's spine crawl and he and Ginny picked up pace until Luna and a tall boy named Aster came into view. He was just reaching forward towards Luna's hair, and Luna was flinching back, and before Harry knew what he was doing he had charged forward and was between the two, staring angrily up into the much taller boy's eyes.

"Maybe you've gone deaf, but I think she told you to get the hell out of here," Harry said, chest heaving with emotion.

"What's this Potter? Got yourself two girlfriends? Well that's not very fair, is it now?" Aster pulled out his wand and was surprised to find that Harry already had his out and pointed at his gut.

"I didn't hear her say anything of the like," Aster said with narrowed eyes and a smirk.

Harry never turned around to look, but he was sure that from the shake in her voice and the piece of dialog he'd heard, she didn't want this guy anywhere near her. "Then let me say it for her, and let me be abundantly clear. "Get the hell away from her, and if you ever come within ten feet of her again, you'll find your insides outside, and your outsides inside, before you even know what happened."

"Ooh, scary Potter," the boy mocked.

But Harry narrowed his eyes and lowered his voice and said, "Voldemort seems to think so." He lifted his wand in a suggestive way and Aster's eyes widened. Just the mention of Voldemort's name seemed to cause the panic Harry had aimed for, and he was pleased when Aster swallowed hard and then backed up.

"Fine you little pratt. Have it your way." He turned and walked off.

Harry had just turned to see Luna's angry eyes following the seventeen year old's back as Ginny's did the same, when a scratchy voice met Harry's ears and his insides froze.

"Well well, what have we here my pretty? Students out after curfew? Students fighting? Students cursing? Students threatening?"

Harry turned and found Filch holding his mangy cat, with an evil look on his face as he smiled with glee.

"Better be coming with me then," he said, and motioned with a finger for them to follow as he turned and walked off towards the Headmaster's office.

Harry began to follow, but wordlessly looked back and waved his hand in the other direction, quietly telling them not to follow.

Luna raised her brows but Ginny obeyed, knowing that Harry was about to lie and take the fall for them all, although she didn't like it one bit. When Harry looked back again, Ginny and Luna were gone, and he breathed a sigh of relief. They shouldn't be in any trouble after all aside from being out after curfew. It had seemed a decent plan however, at least until they had gone down a floor and Filch turned around in the darkened corridor to find that only Harry followed him.

"What? Where?" He narrowed his eyes at Harry and set Mrs. Norris down, before advancing as fast as his arthritic body was able.

Harry did not enjoy being taken by surprise, and therefore felt his insides squirm as the deceptively weak looking caretaker suddenly grabbed the front of his shirt and pulled him closer so that they were eye to eye. Filch's breath smelled horrid and his eyes were bloodshot, so it was unpleasant to be just a few inches from his face.

"Where did they go boy?"

"Who?" Harry asked.

"The two girls that were wit' yeh!"

"Sir? It was just me. I was by myself."

Filch had the time to shake Harry hard once before a number of things happened simultaneously. First Harry was confused because while he was being shaken he heard footsteps coming from three different directions, and looked to find they were in one of those strange corridors in the castle where a number of other halls converged at odd angles in one place.

The second thing that happened was that Professor Snape appeared from one of them to find the castle's caretaker shaking Harry hard as spittle flew from his mouth as he berated Harry.

And as fate would have it, often playing cruel jokes as it did, just as Severus said in a stern and unforgiving voice, "That's enough Argus," the other two footsteps turned into Professor McGonagall and Horace Slughorn, although Severus could not see because they had appeared behind him.

Filch turned to see three Professors watching him and let Harry go roughly. Harry was sure his face felt relief then, as he gave a look of gratitude to the man who had now saved him multiple times from an unpleasant fate, even if that fate was only serving detention with an angry, disgusting caretaker.

"What is going on here?"

Standing up as straight as his crooked back would allow, Filch said, "The boy was fighting in the halls, cursing, threatening, out after curfew... I was taking him to the Headmaster. Then his little friends ran off!"

"From where I stand it looked as if you were anything but taking him to the Headmaster," Severus said, agitated now.

Harry took two quick steps back as Snape advanced on Filch, and the caretaker did the same thing only found himself against a wall as the towering man cornered him. "You will not, ever, touch a student in this castle again, am I understood? If I find that you have disobeyed I will be the one fighting, cursing, and doing much more than threatening in the halls in the dead of night, and you will be most displeased at who my wrath is turned at."

While Severus didn't realize that there was an audience, Argus Filch did, and seemed to realize that the other two professors had not disagreed, and therefore the threat was valid.

"I require an answer," Severus said in a deadly tone, and Filch swallowed before glaring up at him and saying, "I understand your highness." He hobbled off down one of the long, narrow corridors

Feeling that perhaps Professor Snape might like to know that he was being watched as he straightened up and turned to Harry, Harry made eye contact and then looked past him to McGonagall and Slughorn. "Hello Professor McGonagall," he said.

Severus turned, took a deep breath, and then strode past Harry and on his way to wherever it was he had been going. Harry felt a little deflated that he didn't stop to see if Harry was alright, but a Luna like voice popped into his head and told him that it was ok because the man probably wanted to uphold his reputation, and had just announced to the staff unawares that he was now protecting Harry.

"Would you care to explain what just happened Mr. Potter?" McGonagall asked. Slughorn seemed interested too and Harry launched into the entire story of finding Luna being cornered by the oaf of a Hufflepuff, and then perhaps fibbed a little as he said that when Filch ordered him to follow, they thought it meant only him, and not Luna or Ginny.

While Harry was not in trouble in the end, he felt empty, and wished that it felt as easy to trek down to the dungeons to see his professor as it did to visit with Luna or to let the elder man stick up for him. He wanted to tell the man he was sorry for causing his reputation to be spoilt.

At the set of stairs that would lead him down through the castle, Harry paused and looked longingly down the dark steps, and then continued back to the tower, where explained things to Ginny and then fell into a dark, and unforgiving sleep where he woke up feeling more exhausted than when he'd gone to bed.