"Hm?" Harry looked up from where he'd been deep in thought. He knew Professor Sn- his father had just asked him a question, but he wasn't sure what it was. He'd been too engrossed in his dream, just another night remembering Sirius kicking him and putting him down. Just another time knowing how he let Sirius down.

"What happened in between Draco leaving and me taking you away from there?"

Harry shuddered from where he sat on the soft brown couch and Severus got up from his chair and moved to sit next to Harry. He knew it must be a lot for Harry to deal with. The teen had after all just found out not twenty minutes ago that his father was alive. They'd talked for a few minutes about what Sirius had said and how Severus had brewed the potion before the conversation had turned to the issues Harry was trying to deal with.

"It will be better if you talk about it instead of holding it all in."

"I don't- I can't stop thinking about it," Harry said then, tangling his fingers in his hair yet again in the telltale sign that he was having a hard time coping with his thoughts and emotions.

"Start from the beginning. What happened the night Draco left?"

Harry let out a deep breath and said quietly, "He caught me. He came in just as Draco was flying off. He ran to the window... I thought he'd fall out reaching after Draco. He was so- he was so angry I'd let him down." His breath hitched then to admit he had been the one to let Sirius down, but Snape- his father had his hand on his shoulder now. Harry felt ashamed to be so needy, but he accepted the touch that helped settle his nerves then and took a steadying breath.

"He told me I would be a disappointment to my parents and that I might as well join the other side."

"Go on."

Biting his lip for a moment to keep control over the tears that wanted to leak out of his eyes, Harry wished there was a way to distance himself from the feelings in the retelling of it. "He- he pushed me a couple of times, and then he hit me in the, in the eye." Harry lifted his fingers to where he'd had the black eye as if it still hurt him, and then lowered his fingers again.

"I- I just wanted it to stop but I was down on the ground and I was crying and he just kept kicking me and telling me how bad I was." The tears did spill out again now and there was no stopping them.

"Harry, I want you to listen to me. You are not a bad person and you could not possibly have let him down."

"But that's just it," he said, wiping his arm across his eyes as the tears continued to come. "I am a horrible person. I keep dreaming about that night at the Ministry, only in my dreams Sirius died. He fell through that weird veil. And when I wake up sometimes I wish he had died." Harry turned to face his father then and his lip quivered.

"I didn't know I had a father still... he was my dad. And he just kept hurting me even when I cried! How could he do that?" Harry allowed himself to be hugged then as he cried, unable to stop.

"I don't pretend to know why people hurt those they care about, I only know that sometimes they do and it's wrong. None of this was your fault Harry."

"I wish I could believe that. I don't know how."

Severus gave Harry a squeeze about the shoulders with the arm he had wrapped around his son. "You can believe it because I'm telling you. And I'll tell you over and over again until you're able to hold on to that."

Harry took in a deep breath and let it out, eyes dry now. "Can you tell me again?"

"It's not your fault," Severus said quietly.

"Thanks."

* * *

"Hey Harry, isn't that your owl?"

Harry frowned as he looked up from where he and Draco knelt in the grass collecting mogwart for a cold draught Harry was going to brew in bulk to sell to the apothecary.

"It is, but I don't know how she got here. I had to leave her behind."

Hedwig glided down and landed on Harry's arm, nipping at him affectionately and allowing him to stroke her feathers, to be sure she was all right.

"How'd you get here girl?" he asked. She hooted and held out her leg.

Harry untied the envelope that was there and Hedwig flew off up towards the owlery, although he didn't want her to go. He'd just accepted that he'd never see any of his belongings again, including his familiar since he'd left them there at Grimmuald Place.

"Who's it from?" Draco asked.

Harry stared down at the envelope and brushed the name Remus Lupin with his thumb. "Remus," he said quietly.

"Well aren't you going to open it?" Draco asked, wiping some sweat from his forehead with his bare arm.

Harry frowned a little and then stuffed the envelope into a pocket. "Later," he said, and then went back to the mogwart in the grass as though nothing had happened at all. Draco gave him a lingering look before he went back to gathering the ingredient as well.

Later that evening, after they'd finished the cold draught and bottled up five gallons for Draco to haul down to the apothecary in Hogsmead in the morning, Harry lay on top of the bed in his father's quarters and ran his fingers over the envelope again. Remus was friends with Sirius... had been friends with his parents, or Lily anyway. Harry was positive James and Lily hadn't been bad to him as a baby, but Peter Pettigrew, and Sirius had both turned out to be pretty bad. That only left one friend and Harry was feeling so sensitized at this point to anyone who was close with James and Lily that he wasn't sure how to feel about Remus. Remus had never been bad to him before but before this summer neither had Sirius.

What could Remus have to say to him? Would he try to convince Harry to go back and stay with Sirius? Would he try to trick him into leaving the castle? The fact was that if the letter had come with Hedwig then Remus must have been to Grimmuald Place and must have spoken with Sirius. Had Sirius lied to Remus? Had he told him that Harry had just run off for no good reason?

Harry took the letter and tucked it under the mattress. No, he didn't want to know what Remus had to say, because it couldn't be good either way. Two more letters from Remus would join the first under the mattress before the end of the summer in two weeks time.

* * *

"I guess our free run of the castle is about over," Draco said one morning 9 days before school was supposed to start again.

"Oh yeah, why's that?" Harry was sitting out on the grounds counting his sickles and galleons. So far he and Draco had brewed 55 gallons of potions and the apothecary had given them a new list of things to brew. The owner was so happy with the quality that he'd upped the price and they were now getting 2 sickles for a gallon. All in total Harry had 100 Sickles which was almost six Galleons. He'd need 50 for that Blue Zephyr. He figured he'd take 10 out of James and Lily's vault and that meant he only needed to earn 34 more Galleons.

"Well I just saw Dumbledore going in through the front doors when I was on my way out. I reckon the other teachers will start coming back soon too. Has uncle Severus said anything about it yet?"

Harry thought a moment and then said, "I think he mentioned McGonagall might be coming back in a few days and that Hagrid was supposed to be back last week but hasn't shown up yet. He also said he thinks Trelawney's been back for a while but hasn't come out of her tower yet so he's not sure."

It had only been the other day that Harry had told Draco that Snape was his real father, and he thought that perhaps Draco was still trying to get used to the idea just like Harry was. He had taken to asking Harry what Snape thought or knew about things, although often times Harry didn't have an answer. He was still staying in his father's quarters, on top of the guest bed now, but he didn't talk to the man a lot or see him terribly much. It had only been a week since he himself had found out and he was still feeling a little awkward about it.

"How much more do you need?" Draco said then, pointing to Harry's bag of wizarding coins.

"34 Galleons," Harry said, jingling the sack.

Draco scrunched up his nose. "Only... 290 something more gallons of potion then. Yuck."

"I thought you liked brewing."

"I like money," Draco said. "Maybe we can contact another apothecary and see if they'll give us a better price for our potions."

"Fred and George might pay for some," Harry said then.

"We should make a bunch of hair cream and sell it around the school too," Draco said. "I was thinking we could put some dye in some of it."

"Dye?"

"Like the colors the Fenwroth Mages wear in their hair... bright red or blue."

Harry wrinkled his nose then. He knew Ron and Seamus liked the wizard rock group, but he didn't care that much for them or their colorful hair.

"I'll let you figure out the dyes then."

"Fine. I'll just ask uncle Severus. He'll know what to put in there."

Harry bit his lip. At any other point in his Hogwarts career he would have said it was a bonkers notion to want to get to know the Hogwarts Potion's Master, but at this junction in his life he felt like he ought to at least try if he were going to get rid of this awkward tension between the two of them. The man had helped Harry or at least been trying to, so he at least owed him as much civility as he could muster, which included getting to know him.

"No, I'll ask him," Harry said, pushing himself up off the ground and shoving the money bag into his pocket. "I'll ask him if he knows of any other apothecaries that will pay us more as well."

"Well make sure to ask him about red and blue specifically then," Draco said to Harry's retreating back, and Harry offered a motionless wave of acknowledgement.

Inside the castle Harry asked a portrait if they'd seen Professor Snape and the painting told him to try the next floor up. On the second floor Harry was just about to ask another picture when he heard the Headmaster's voice around the corner, followed by his father's. Quietly he crept up and listened to the conversation because his name had been mentioned straight away.

"Ah, there you are Severus. I was wondering if you could perhaps clear something up for me?"

"What would that be Headmaster?" Severus intoned, but Harry was sure his father already knew the answer.

"I was on my way into the castle when I caught sight of Mr. Potter out on the lawns, followed by Mr. Malfoy coming down the stairs into the Entrance Hall. I was under the impression that they were still in the capable care of Sirius Black in London."

"The capable care which you speak of was less than satisfactory Headmaster," Severus said then, but Dumbledore had cleared his throat and Severus turned around to see that Harry had stepped into the open to announce his presence. He didn't like to eavesdrop but what was more was that he felt like he needed to be a part of this conversation.

Severus held an arm out towards Harry, and Harry moved forward to stand next to his father. Harry wished the man would put his arm around his shoulders to keep him steady, but he didn't.

"Ah, there you are my boy. How was your summer?"

Harry looked away without answer and Dumbledore gave a little frown before turning back to Snape. "You were saying Severus?"

"After my letters to Draco went unanswered I went to see him personally and was denied access. When Black went upstairs to pretend to wake Draco, Harry took me to another room and informed me that Draco was not there and had in fact run away because he was being mistreated."

"Go on."

"Harry told me he knew where Draco was but would not tell me unless I took him with me. Given that he had a black eye and was adamant that he was not safe there with Black, I obliged. We found Draco, barely alive I might add, in his grandfather's old fishing cabin days later. It was not until then that I discovered the full extent of Harry's injuries, which included no less than broken ribs, multiple bruises on his torso, arms, and legs, and a weakened immune system that lead to pneumonia."

While Severus was speaking, Harry's eyes had wandered back up to the Headmaster's face. He wanted to know what the man thought of all this. If he'd bothered to check up on them at some point then these things might not have happened. Dumbledore suddenly looked down and met Harry's eyes, and said, "This is why it was important for you to stay with the Dursleys. They are your family Harry. It's important we keep you safe."

Silence hung there between them for a few moments as Harry tried to bite back retort after retort that begged and clawed at him to be let out, until he could finally not hold back any longer.

"Safe?" It was a quiet, well restrained response on the surface, but the next time Harry spoke he had flung himself into a full, screaming rant, surprising even Severus who had taken a step back to better view his son.

"Safe?! At least Sirius fed me and pretended to like me! He didn't force me to do chores all day long! He didn't scream at me all the time and taunt me and tell me what a little freak I was! Didn't lie to me for eleven years telling me my parents were jobless drunks that got killed in a car crash! He didn't make me live in a cupboard under the stairs did he?! He didn't refuse to take me to the doctor when I broke an arm or wrist did he?! I BEGGED YOU! I begged you every year to let me stay here! If you wanted me to be safe you should have let me stay with my father you old bastard!"

Harry stormed off down the hallway, slamming his fist sideways into a stone wall as he went, and then was gone, his shouts still echoing in the ears of two men that had up until this point failed to see all of who Harry was and what he had been through.

"His father Severus? What is he talking about?"

Severus dug into his robes for a piece of parchment hidden deep in a pocket somewhere and when he found it thrust it at Dumbledore before he hurried off to find Harry. What he had just heard only complicated things more. It was no wonder that Harry had taken Sirius' betrayal so seriously if he had been mistreated his entire life before Hogwarts. Before Sirius he truly had not had anyone, and to lose that one person who had become someone to him was a tragedy bordering on death of a loved one.

Now alone in the empty hallway Dumbledore looked down at the parchment his Potion's Master had hurriedly thrown into his hands and paled a little.

‘Paternis Sentimentis Potion Results
Child: Harry James Potter
Mother: Lily Evangeline Evans
Father: Severus Tobias Snape'

He had a lot to think about regarding his past decisions and the welfare of one child, who for all said child was concerned, had been abandoned by the world.