Saturday morning dawned bright and clear, and Harry woke with the sun, as had become his habit since his 'promotion' to Dudley's second bedroom. After ten years of sleeping in a pitch-black space, sleeping through the sun shining in his face just wasn't happening. He was confronted with a highly amusing sight. Snape, asleep fully dressed and sitting up on the bed next to him, some sort of book open in his lap, snoring fit to wake the dead. Harry clamped a hand over his mouth to stifle the giggle that escaped him.

A few moments later, Pomphrey bustled in. She got one good look at Snape and scowled. "Bah. That man! He's enough to drive a saint to drink!" She muttered, not realizing Harry was awake until Harry's snicker escaped his attempts at silencing it. "Oh! Good morning, dear. Now, you're to drink these two." She pointed to the two vials on the tray. "The one is the same as last night ... encourages appetite and keeps your stomach calm. You'll be taking that for at least a week, until you become accustomed to normal-sized meals. This one is a supplement, which will begin to correct the nutritional deficiencies you're suffering." She told him. "That one, I'm afraid, you'll be taking until at least Christmas, as we can't give you too much at a time without overwhelming your body. Fortunately, these two are two of the better-tasting potions, as they're both directly tied with eating, and putting you off the idea of eating is counterproductive."

Harry obediently drank the two. The new one tasted vaguely of oranges, oddly enough. After drinking them, he was soon eagerly digging into the breakfast Pomphrey had brought him.

"Now, Harry, some of your broken bones didn't set correctly. It's an easy enough fix, if a bit painful, but since they're not interfering with your range of movement or the like, I'd prefer to wait until after the supplement has done its job before I deal with them. It will also have the advantage of you having the entire Christmas break to recover, without having to worry about classes."

Harry nodded. "That's fine, Madame Pomphrey."

Pomphrey then walked over to Snape and poked him in the side. The snoring cut off almost instantly, and Snape's head snapped up, expression slightly bleary. "You are the living end, Severus Snape! You told me you'd sleep!"

"And I did sleep." He growled, cocking an eyebrow at her. She huffed at him and stalked off, returning with a breakfast tray for him as well. Once she left again, Snape glanced over at Harry. "And how are you this morning, Harry?"

"Really good." Harry said, then, with a faint blush. "Thank you."

"It is no trouble, Harry. It's a teacher's duty to report and deal with such things, here at Hogwarts." Snape told him.

"Yeah, kind of the same deal with ... muggles." Harry hesitated slightly over the word, unsurprising giving he'd known it for only about a month. "Except none of them ever did. I tried. Twice. All it got me was more trouble."

Snape gave a mental sigh. "Such will not be the case this time, I assure you. The next time you see those detestable muggles will be on the other side of a wizarding courtroom before they get sent to Azkaban."

"Azkaban?"

"It's Britain's wizarding prison." Snape explained.

"Oh. But they're muggles!"

"And their crime was perpetrated against a wizard minor, which puts them in our purview." Snape told Harry. He applied himself to his meal for a bit, and to his surprise, Harry didn't interrupt. Once he'd finished, he eyed Harry. "Return to your tower, and get cleaned up. You and I will head for Diagon Alley in about an hour."

"Ok!" Harry said, and took off at top speed.

Snape escaped the infirmary moments later, heading straight for his quarters. Once there, he tossed some powder into the floo and called for Lucius.

"Severus. To what do I owe the pleasure?" Lucius asked when he'd come to the floo. "Draco is settling in well, I do hope?"

"Indeed, your son is settling in quite well." Snape told him. "This call is about another matter. It has come to my attention that the ... situation ... a certain young wizard of note finds himself in is entirely unsuitable, and new guardians are necessitated." Then, with an entirely unfaked look of disgust. "They placed him with Muggles, Lucius."

Even through the fire, Snape could see Lucius' eyes dance. "Is that so? I would be more than pleased ... "

"The Headmaster would fight any attempt by you to claim the boy to his dying breath." Snape cut him off. And it was no less than the truth. "You may have fooled most of the ministry, but Dumbledore has no illusions as to where your loyalty lies. He, however, *is* deluded as to my loyalties, and with a bit of adroit pressure, has agreed to my being the boy's guardian, as he wishes one of the staff here to be so, to provide a constant presence."

"And given the Ministry is nearly as suspicious of you as Dumbledore is of me, you're wanting me to assist in the paperwork." Lucius correctly divined. "I will do so. Our Lord will be greatly pleased with us." That assisting would also, at least in Lucius' mind, ease some of Dumbledore's fears about him was sauce for the goose.

"Indeed." Severus said. "And it will have the dual purpose of assuring the Dark Lord as to my loyalties in his absence."

"You'll have the papers in hand before the week is out. And Severus, congratulations." Lucius said, then cut the call. Severus stalked into his bedroom, muttering about fools and simpletons. With any luck, when Voldemort returned, he'd kill Lucius outright when he found out Lucius had helped ensure that Harry was far beyond Voldemort's reach.