Severus pulled out the mop and bucket, several rags, cleaning solutions, a spray bottle and a sponge, and set them in the middle of the living room floor. Stupid brat, too good to eat what he was given. He should have been grateful that he'd been pulled off the street and no longer had to eat contaminated food from a garbage bin or sleep in the cold in the woods. But no, he had decided to ignore the food prepared for him time and time again and let it go to waste. Severus wasn't made of money after all, and the brat would learn not to treat the things given to him so lightly.

"Potter!"

It was a few moments before there came a shuffling of feet down the stairs and the sixteen year old boy with messy hair appeared at the entrance to the living room, looking expectant. He watched the boy's eyes roam to the cleaning supplies and was surprised when the boy didn't wait for instructions and instead moved to pick up the bucket and mop, even though it was a good three hours earlier than his daily chore time.

"I want this entire house clean by the time I come back with groceries, am I understood?"

"Yes sir." The response was quiet, but there. He crossed his arms and glared at Harry, who turned around and repeated his response louder.

"No dust, no dirt, no streaks on the windows, nothing."

Harry separated out the cleaning supplies then and began to sweep, not in any hurry. Severus gave him one last glare and then disappeared with the shopping list in hand. He'd only be gone an hour, and knew it wouldn't be enough time for the whelp to finish the house, but it was a good start to a punishment, and heaven help the boy if he came home and the brat was lounging around as he often did in his hour breaks.

Feeling tired, Harry relaxed marginally when the man disappeared out the door, and continued to clean the living room, kitchen, dining room, and downstairs bathroom, before he saw another door he hadn't paid much attention to before and opened it. There were stairs leading downwards, and Harry wondered if he was meant to clean the basement as well. The professor did say the entire house, didn't he? Deciding it was better to be safe rather than sorry, Harry took a rag and spray bottle downstairs, closing the door behind him. There was a light switch at the bottom of the stairs, and once on the light revealed what looked like a decent makeshift potions lab. There were two empty cauldrons on a workbench, and a bubbling cauldron full of purple liquid on the floor in the middle of the room. Deciding to be extra careful, not knowing what was in the cauldron, Harry began dusting every nook and cranny, not looking forward to having to bring the broom and mop down to take care of the dirty floor later. It looked as if the floor had not been cleaned in weeks and would take extra care.

Noticing the weak light filtering in from a small, high window, Harry took a stool over and stood on it so he could get to it above the workbench without disturbing anything, and began to clean it, scrubbing hard to get rid of what looked like a potion gone awry, or at least he hoped that's what it was, because the other option was dried blood.

There was a thump upstairs suddenly right above Harry's head, and startled Harry lost his footing on the unstable stool and toppled over, hitting his head on the side of the work bench.

There was a tinkling of glass beside him and he groaned as he tried to sit up. Something sticky met his fingers when he reached up to his wound and he winced as he touched it. Now there really was blood to be cleaning up. Trying to stand and feeling unsteady on his legs, Harry coughed once and looked to the broken glass. Purple and brown liquid had mixed together there on the floor and were letting off a noxious odor. Coughing more hardily now as it seemed more of the liquids had a chance to mix, Harry stood and stumbled just far enough to get out of reach of the unknown potions before he collapsed on the floor again, and his world went dark.

* * *

After unloading two armfuls of groceries onto the kitchen counter, Severus looked around and listened. At the silence he heard he narrowed his eyes and went into the living room, where the cleaning supplies appeared to be in the same place they had been when he had left forty five minutes before. Thinking that he would catch the boy at being lazy and punish him again, Severus trudged up the stairs and threw open the brat's bedroom door, only to find it empty. The library down the hall was also empty, and the bathroom door stood wide open, revealing nobody.

"Luna?" He knocked on her bedroom door and waited for it to open, afraid to burst in on her as he had done with the boy's room, because he didn't want to catch her unawares in a state of undress. As unnerved as he was to have the Gryffindor brat in his house, he was almost unnerved more to have a female student in his house who was now in his custody.

Her door opened a moment later and she stood there looking up at him expectantly. "Yes Professor Snape?"

"Where is Potter?" His voice was flat and she raised her brows, not used to hearing that tone from him, at least not directed towards her.

"I don't know Professor. I haven't seen him yet this morning."

Suddenly angry, Severus strode down the hallway to the window at the end to see if he could see the boy in the yard or fields beyond, but couldn't, and scowled.

"He has run away again," he said in anger, talking to himself. Turning to Luna he said, "If I go now, I may be able to find him. Stay here until I return."

"Yes Professor," she said, the dreamy quality in her voice gone suddenly. She heard the front door open and slam closed down stairs and knew that he was gone. Worried for Harry, she went down stairs to wait, sad that he felt he had to leave.

* * *

Thirsty. Dark. Thirsty. Pain. Ow, crap that hurts!

Harry cracked open his eyes and let himself be disoriented for a moment, wondering where he was and why the world was sideways before he struggled to his feet, fell, and then started to crawl up the stairs, swaying several times before he made it to the top, mouth so dry he felt like he would die of thirst.

Reaching above his head as his world swam, Harry opened the basement door and crawled out, coughing.

"Harry!" Somehow Luna was at his side in an instant, and helping him to his feet and then over to the couch. "What happened?" she asked, allowing him to lie down.

"Not sure," Harry croaked, and then asked for water. Luna disappeared for what seemed like hours and then returned with water and a wet cloth. Harry gulped it down in a hurry although it burned his throat, and then felt a cool cloth being rubbed painfully across the gash on the side of his head.

"Hold still for only a moment," she said. "I have to clean it out so blood pixies don't infest it."

Confused by her statement he frowned and listened as she told him that Professor Snape was out and she was sure he'd fix him up in no time once he got back in. Harry hoped so, because his head was throbbing horribly, and he felt like he wanted to throw up from the room spinning. His throat continued to burn as well and he was sure whatever had accidentally mixed in the basement was toxic.

"What happened to you? Professor Snape thinks you ran away. He's out looking for you now."

Running away, now that was a good idea. Harry paused in thought; of course he had already tried that, and knew how it had worked out. Not well at all. "Was cleaning the basement," he said, throat searing in pain. "Fell, hit my head. Potions spilled."

"Oh no," Luna said quietly. "I don't think you were supposed to go into his private lab. I'm sure all will be well in the end though." She lifted his head gently then and sat down, placing his head in her lap so she could continue cleaning the dirt and blood from his face without kneeling on the floor. Hours passed like this and Harry faded in and out of waking dreams and sleep, Luna gently shaking him awake every now and again, telling him she was sure that if Snape was there he'd say not to go to sleep. This was how Severus found them when he threw the front door open and stormed in after having searched far and wide for hours as it grew steadily darker outside. The sight of the brat lounging around on his couch with his head in Luna's lap after he had run away only made things worse.

"Ungrateful! Disrespectful! Irresponsible! Never, in all my life have I met someone as deplorable in character as you Mr. Potter. You continue to astound me each and every day!

Luna looked on in wonder as Harry's eyes glazed over at the sight of the raging man. He tried to sit up with Luna's help, tried to stand, but his knees buckled and he hit the floor, just barely missing the coffee table.

"I think there's been a misunderstanding Professor Snape. After you left Harry came up from the basement. It seems he had an accident while he was cleaning. See, he's got a gash here, and he says his lungs are burning from fumes. I'm not sure, but I think he might have hurt his ribs as well."

Still breathing heavy, Snape seemed to be working things over in his mind. He gave Harry a close looking over, and then turned promptly and walked away up the stairs without a word. In the distance they heard a door slam, and then nothing more.

"Perhaps he's gone to get some healing potions," Luna said hopefully.

Harry, still dazed pulled himself up onto unsteady feet, and then said, "I don't think so Luna." He was quiet for a moment as he tried to steady himself, and then said, "Nothing I shouldn't have expected." Stumbling a little, he made his way to the stairs and carefully made his way up and to his bed, where he collapsed face first onto his pillow and felt like crying himself to sleep. In the night when he awoke to throbbing pain in his head and a new pain in his back where he hadn't realized he'd been injured, Harry felt sadder than ever to realize one inescapable truth: he had no one that cared, expect perhaps Luna. He hated who he was, and he was not at that moment or at any point in his remembrance, who he wanted to be.