Ron was giving Harry an odd look.

"Sorry?"

"That seventh year. He just nodded at you as we passed and threw his fingers down... like this." Ron threw two fingers down towards the floor.

"No idea," Harry lied, shaking his head. He had a feeling that Devon was telling him two am. Tonight was another full moon. Harry would have to skip dinner, maybe even History of Magic to make another batch of pills to pay him.

"Well that was odd then."

"Maybe he was doing it to you Ron."

"Me?"

"Well you are cute," Hermione commented, clutching her books tight to her chest as they made their way to Charms class.

"Well, yeah, that's true," Ron joked. Harry smiled then, glad that the dirt was letting him smile. He'd have more by tonight. He wasn't out yet, but he would be soon.

* * *

"What? This is all of it?"

Devon crossed his arms. "Well what did you expect? There was a wolf on the prowling tonight! And besides, I've got two more nights to collect if that beast moves on."

"I'll double it," Harry said then, eyes hard.

"What?"

"I'll double your payment." Stabbing his finger into Devon's chest, he said seriously, "Get - me - more. Get bit if you have to, I don't give a damn. You get another phial and I'll make you 100 pills."

"Calm down Potter. One would think you're becoming dependent on the ‘dirt' as you like to say. Funny that the famous Harry Potter would lower himself to the likes of us in the lower class and get ‘dirty?'" Devon gave a hearty laugh then and moved off into the darkness. "Double Potter!"

Harry stormed off to begin brewing again. He'd already missed one class that day. If he didn't get more dirt then he'd be missing a lot more classes, because when he came down off of the Asphodel root, he could barely move. Maybe if he started taking it without the water. Yes, he'd have to try that. Get it into his system faster...

* * *

"Thirsty?"

"What?" Harry's head snapped up, eyes wide.

"You just chugged an entire glass of water in like, two seconds flat," Ron said sitting across the table from him in the common room, homework spread between them.

"And? What are you, my mother?" Harry got up and stomped away, leaving Ron perplexed.

"Something I said?" He asked Hermione, who shrugged and watched as Harry ran up the stairs towards the boy's dormitory.

"He's been a little off lately, don't you think?" Ginny said then. "I saw him skulking around up by Ravenclaw tower the other night just before curfew.

"Girlfriend?" Ron asked, but then Hermione hit him in the shoulder lightly with a roll of parchment. "What?" Ginny scrunched up her nose though and then he said quietly, "Oh."

"Well if it is a girl then she's not very good for him is she?" Ginny said, before gathering her books up and going to her dormitory as well.

Up in the boy's dorm, Harry was sweating. He couldn't seem to get enough water to replenish what he was loosing, and he felt cranky and unwell. Maybe taking the dirt by itself wasn't such a good idea after all. His mouth was dry and he felt like his skin was drying out as well.

Looking down at his watch, Harry realized that it was already after curfew and was confused. Wasn't it just seven o'clock when he'd come upstairs? Had he already lost four hours? He looked to his right and saw that Ron was sleeping on the bed beside his, and the other boys were there as well, and suddenly felt freaked out. When had they come in?

Harry stood up, feeling like he should get away from whatever was going on here, but promptly fell to the floor. As he lay on the floor in the darkness, he turned his head to see the dark space under his bed and leapt back when he thought he saw the pale dead face of Sirius there staring back at him. A hand clamped over his mouth to keep himself from screaming, he scrambled to his feet and ran out of the dormitory, practically falling down the last few steps into the common room.

Oh no! Sirius was up there hiding under his bed! He was going to come down and get him too! Harry bolted on unsteady legs out of the common room and into the corridor, trying to ignore the shadows swimming at the edges of his vision.

In the middle of Harry's panicked thoughts was the notion that he had to get somewhere safe and fast, and the only place he could think of was under his father's guest bed. Sirius couldn't get him there, and he continued to tear down through the castle, occasionally letting out a yelp when he saw Sirius swim into his vision standing in front of a suit of armor, or leaning against a stairway banister laughing at him. Once he even called to Harry asking how he could just up and leave him in a lurch like he had.

Despite that he'd made good time down through the castle, to Harry it seemed like hours before he'd reached his father's quarters a few minutes past midnight. He pounded on the door but there was no answer, and he began to shout, hurting his dry throat.

Harry thought he heard a door squeak open in another corridor and panicked even more, sure that Sirius had found him again, but a moment later and Severus was by his side.

"Harry, what-"

"Help," Harry rasped out. "It's gonna get me!"

"What is?"

"The shadow Sirius. He's coming. Hurry, I gotta get under the bed!" Harry tried to stand up but couldn't, and in the next second Severus had lifted him up into his arms and opened the door to his quarters. Once inside he quickly warded the door closed, not sure about what was really going on. He deposited Harry onto the couch and then pulled out his wand.

Upon getting a closer look at Harry and the sweat pouring off of his forehead, Severus realized that there was more going on than a pursuit through the castle.

"Harry, tell me how you're feeling."

"So thirsty," Harry said, barely able to keep his eyes open.

"What did you take?" Severus said quickly, using his wand to run a healer's scan over him and getting disturbing results as a parchment appeared beside him. "Did you take a potion Harry?"

"Red dirt," Harry said.

Lips pursed and brows furrowed, Severus tried to work out what his son was talking about.

"What's that Harry? What's red dirt?" He had to shake Harry to get him to open his eyes again and respond.

"Get it under the full moon when it's red," Harry croaked out, feeling as though he couldn't speak at all anymore.

"Powdered root of Asphodel Harry? Is that what you took?"

"Mmmmm."

"Oh, help him, help him please," Severus prayed out loud as he gathered Harry up into his arms again and ran into the bathroom, where he put Harry into the tub and immediately began filling it with cold water, both from the tap and with his wand. Eyes closed, Harry made a noise of protest, but Severus was already out of the room and rummaging through a potions cabinet in a closet, phials of ingredients and potions falling to the floor as he grabbed what he needed and raced back into the bathroom. He dumped two phials into the bathtub which was close to overflowing because he'd yet to turn the tap off, and forced another four down Harry's throat.

"C'mon Harry, stay with me. You need to wake up now... this won't work unless you wake up. Come on Harry." His shirt sleeves were soaked now as he had reached in trying to make Harry wake up. Harry's eyes opened briefly and as soon as they did, the water started to turn reddish orange as the powder from his system began to leech out of his skin into the bathtub but stopped immediately as soon as Harry's eyes closed again.

"Oh no you don't, open your eyes NOW!" Severus tapped on Harry's cheeks and Harry forced his eyes open again.

"Sirius is after me," Harry said looking over the Potion master's left shoulder, but Severus ignored him.

"It's the asphodel. Did you take it with water?"

"Uh uh," Harry grimaced and shook his head several times.

The red powder continued to leech out into the water until it was murky and red like blood that wasn't the right color. The more that came out, the more awake Harry felt, and the more that Severus wondered just how much Harry had taken and for how long. To get this much into the water meant he had taken quite a lot. There was a reason it was illegal to own in large quantities, and even to use it in potions you had to purchase it from the ministry and account for every last particle of dust. It was literally sucking the water out of Harry's body and blood, and forcing it out through his skin.

After ten minutes in the tub and draining it twice and refilling it, no more of the dust seemed to be coming out, and Harry seemed to have calmed down.

Helping him out of the tub because he was still weak, Severus helped him into dry clothes and then down the hall to the guest bed.

"Harry, why did you take the asphodel?"

Feeling ashamed now that he'd had to be rescued again, Harry looked away and refused to answer.

"If you don't tell me, I'm going to have to go to the headmaster with this Harry. As it is you may still have to go to the Hospital Wing and possibly even St. Mungos.?

"No," Harry said then suddenly, reaching out his hand.

"Are you going to talk to me? I don't think you realize just how much danger you were in. We were lucky to get it out of your system. Any longer and I don't think you would have made it."

Lip trembling, Harry closed his eyes and tried to hold the tears back. "The- the caffeine pills weren't working anymore."

"How many caffeine pills were you taking?"

"2 at a time, with every meal, and 1 in between."

"For how long?"

"A couple of weeks."

"Why? Were you under too much strain running the business and keeping up with schoolwork?"

"No," Harry said, voice shaky.

"Why then?"

"B, because. They made me feel good. I was just so tired of feeling like, like me. I hate me. I'm no good. I make everyone else hurt or miserable and I just got so tired of it."

Making a mental note to address this issue later, Severus didn't question it at the moment. He needed to find out more about the asphodel.

"So the pills stopped working. How did you get the asphodel?" The use of asphodel as a drug wasn't widely known, though Voldemort had used it to torture prisoners in the past.

"Someone wanted the pills, so we traded. I made pills and he gave me the asphodel."

"And he didn't tell you to take it with water?"

Harry's cheeks tinged red then. He'd obviously made a stupid mistake by not following instructions.

"He did."

"Why did you take it without water then?"

"I hated the feeling of not being on it. I could barely move when it wore off. Each time I drank it down it took longer to work. I thought I could do it better just eating the powder."

"How long did you take it by water?"

"A week I guess."

"And how many times have you eaten just the powder now?"

"Three... no, four times?"

Severus rubbed his temple now, looking at the stone floor. Some parent he'd been. He'd officially been Harry's father for just over a month now, and already his son had become dependent on drugs and had almost lost his life to them, along with selling drugs to another student.

"Harry, I need to know who gave you the asphodel."

Harry stared hard at him then and shook his head.

"Why? Why won't you tell me? What if he gives it to another student? What happened to you tonight could be happening to another student right now."

"He was only giving it to me."

"He's selling pills, what makes you think he's not selling the asphodel to others? Is it one of your friends? Is that why you'd rather protect him than other students?"

"No!" Harry shouted suddenly. "It's NOT THAT!"

"What then?"

Secretly Severus thought that it was a good thing this was Friday night, because Harry was in for a long weekend of withdrawals, and he'd rather not spread this around to the other staff. He didn't want Harry's reputation damaged, though the Headmaster would have to know in order to expel the student who was selling the asphodel. To be honest with himself, they would be lucky if Harry didn't get expelled, though he would do what he could to protect him.

"Because you plan on going back and getting more," Severus finally said to the lack of a response from Harry. Harry turned and glared at him.

"One way or another you're going to tell me who gave it to you. You won't be getting your hands on it again."

"You can't do that," Harry said with certainty.

"Can't I? I have parental rights over you and I say if you leave these quarters or not. I'm fairly certain you don't want to be in the company of your friends in any case while you're going through withdrawals. What you experienced before between doses was nothing."

"And you're just going to hold me hostage here?"

Severus sighed and leaned in towards Harry from where he'd been sitting on a chair next to Harry's bed. "I am going to make a safe place for you Harry. I will keep you safe from whatever harm might come to you, even if that harm would come from yourself. So yes, you will stay here. I warned you before about the caffeine pills being addictive, and you ignored my warning and took a step further and almost killed yourself with asphodel."

"You can't keep me here," Harry said.

Severus stood up. "I won't watch you kill yourself." And he left the room, locking the door behind him. He heard something hit the door hard on the other side as if Harry had thrown something, but he knew he'd need to brace himself for a lot more resistance than that. The asphodel was one of the more addictive drugs in the wizarding community, and certainly the most dangerous.

Sticking his head into the floo in the living room, Severus threw a handful of floo powder down and called for Dumbledore's office. A few moments later and Dumbledore had stepped through into his living room.

"Severus, you look agitated."

"You could say that," he snarked, and Dumbledore's eyes grew serious then, uncertain if this was about Voldemort or another important matter.

"We have an asphodel problem Albus."

"Are you certain?"

"It took three tubs of water to get it all out of Harry's system. He's been using for two weeks and started taking it without the water."

Albus drew in a long breath and then let it out slowly, the tell tale sign that he was trying to calm himself.

"Is Harry all right?"

"He's going through the first stages of withdrawals. He has a rough road ahead of him." Severus and Albus both knew that while the withdrawals would go away in a few days, that Harry would still desire the illegal substance for weeks, possibly even months. Some who became addicted to it remained addicts for life.

"Did he harvest it himself?"

"No. He said another student, a male, gave it to him in exchange for the caffeine pills. I had wondered why they boys had stopped making them."

"Is it a possibility that it's one of his friends?" Severus could tell that the headmaster was referring to Draco, but Severus shook his head.

"If it had been going around Slytherin I would have heard about it from the bloody baron or one of the Prefects, and he was adamant that it was not one of his friends. He refuses to give me the name however because he's still under the impression that he'll be going back to get more as soon as he escapes my quarters."

Dumbledore nodded knowingly. I will send Hagrid out to search for the asphodel flowers so that he can exterminate them. That should eliminate the problem in the long run. In the short run however, the student supplying it may have a large stockpile. I will question Harry's close friends to see if they know anything about this."

Albus turned to leave, but Severus cleared his throat.

"Headmaster. It might be... prudent, to leave out the details. Harry has been through a lot in the last few months and I'd rather not sully his name for this indiscretion."

The headmaster turned to face Severus then, hands clasped behind his back. "You have often accused me of bending the rules for Harry, or outright breaking them." Severus stared hard at him and refused to look away, and Albus continued. "If it were another student I would not be so inclined to do as you ask, but I have not forgotten the position I have put Harry in, or the task he faces in the future. I see no reason to add an extra burden on top of what he already carries. I will be discreet." He paused, and then added, "You do realize that we may have to wipe the memory of the student who supplied him with the asphodel to keep his... indiscretion quiet? Are you willing to break that law to keep your son safe?"

Severus sneered then. "I'm a Slytherin, and you know what I have done to keep others secrets safe, including yours."

"Ah, of course, you are right."

Harry shouted out in pain from the guest bedroom then and with a worried glance down the hall, Albus motioned for Severus to see to Harry, and then was gone through the floo.

Severus steeled himself for the rest of the night, and then went down the corridor.