"I- my monser... the protector I mean, did it."

He failed to see how this was a ‘funny story'. The boy was apparently holding the creature, who didn't appear to be moving.

"Into my office, now. You will wait there, and I will NOT find any more damage if you plan on making it back to your common room tonight." He pointed down the hall and though Harry looked uncertain, he moved off, looking back over his shoulder once.

Harry felt strange going to Snape's office without him, and was surprised to find it unlocked. He would have thought Snape would have kept all of his things locked up tight, he certainly did seem the type to be overly cautious of ‘small trouble making brats' like Harry. If he weren't in so much trouble he might have laughed at the imaginary voice of Snape which he'd conjured in his mind.

He sat in the visitors chair and stroked his little monster's fur, wondering if he were ok. It seemed like he was knocked out. He (or was it a she) was still breathing, and Harry couldn't feel any blood or other injury, so he assumed it would be ok, or at least he hoped it would be.

In what seemed like no time at all, the door opened behind him and he startled as Snape came in and slammed the door behind him. Harry wished then that Potions wasn't his last class of the day before dinner, so that Snape wouldn't have ample time to yell at him and set punishments for him.

"What is this Potter?" he asked, tossing the quill down onto his desk as he moved around it and took a seat in his own chair on the other side.

"My quill," Harry said very quietly.

"Your cheating quill," Severus said. He wanted to know exactly what the quill was for.

"I don't cheat," Harry said unhappily, a little indignation rising within him but not wanting to give way to the fear that he was going to spend all night in detention and then be forced to go back to Gryffindor alone with the fetid Tulpa on the loose.

"No?" Snape asked. "What does it do then? Self-writing quills are banned at Hogwarts. I knew you were lazy Potter, but this has brought you to an all-time low. Too lazy to even take your own notes or write your own assignments? Too lazy to take your own tests perhaps?"

"It's not like that," Harry said. He bit his lip. He could say he couldn't read, but why give the man more fuel to throw on the fire already flaming against him? He could hear his voice now, mocking him in his head, ‘Oh, poor pampered Potter, too good to learn to read?' No, he didn't want to be mocked anymore.

"Tell me what it is like then Potter. Even if you had not been caught cheating, you are still in trouble for refusing to stand up in class and read the board, and breaking Slytherin's suit of armor."

"I didn't do that," Harry protested. "He did it. He was sitting next to me eating a little fly, then he ran off down the hall. I went to see where he'd gone, but he was being thrown around into the suit of armor and there was a giant fly wing on the floor." He looked down to his little monster now, who still hadn't woken, and lifted the limp form to set on Snape's desk. "He hasn't woken up yet."

Severus straightened. "Was there any sign of the Tulpa?"

Harry froze. The Tulpa? He hadn't even thought of that. "I didn't see or smell it..." it unsettled him now to think that it might have been somewhere in the corridor with him while he sat and waited for class to get out.

Snape reached out to stroke the invisible furry creature, and felt it breathing. "We do not know much about the protector. It is here, but in a sense it is not real. I'm certain it will be fine. Now, back to the quill and your disobedience in class. I will not stand for you refusing to do what you are told just because you have a wild little beast always on the verge of attack."

Harry looked away. He wasn't really refusing, he thought, playing back the incident in his mind. He had been too engrossed in his fear of humiliation to pay attention to what he had been told to do.

"No answer Potter?"

He bit his lip and didn't look up. He wished his little monster was still in his lap to comfort him. He liked the warmth, but thought he might look foolish if he reached up for it to take it off the desk.

Severus was growing more impatient by the second with the brat's refusal to answer. Fine, be that way, he thought to himself. I'll drag the answers from you in a way you won't like. He turned and pulled a book from the shelf behind his desk and set it in front of the boy, opened to the first page.

"Read it."

Harry looked up. "What?"

"I will not repeat myself."

Harry let his eyes flicker down to the book and the jumble of letters he found there. "Th- th- these p-p-po-pot- pot-ions are f-fr-fro-from n-nor-th-er-n..." he bit his lip and stopped reading.

"You can continue, or you can tell me about the quill and your disobedience in class."

Harry looked up with the same horrified look he'd had both times he'd been asked to read aloud that day.

"Now Potter."

He hung his head and said almost too quietly to hear, "I'm no good at reading."

"Speak up Potter."

"I'm no good at reading," he repeated a little louder.

"And this gives you an excuse to cheat in class and not obey?"

"No sir," he mumbled. "I don't cheat," he added as an afterthought.

Severus sat back in his chair and crossed his arms, giving the insolent child a hard look but not saying anything. Silence always brought out answers from squirmy children.

"It's so I can spell," Harry finally said. "I can't spell. So when I tell it a word, it writes it down."

"And takes notes for you in class," Severus said.

"Yes sir."

"And how is it Potter, that at 12 years old you still cannot read?"

He shrugged. "I do not accept shrugs as an answer."

"Nobody taught me."

"Did you not attend school before Hogwarts?"

Harry shrugged again. He did, but that didn't mean they'd taught him to read. Dudley always distracted him or got him into trouble so that he was out in the hallway during lessons instead of inside at his desk learning. The further he fell behind, the harder it was to understand things. Aunt Petunia and Uncle Vernon hadn't been any help either. They'd always made a show of helping Dudley with his homework and reading, sometimes even to the point of doing his work for him, but Harry had always been made to sit in his cupboard alone with the door closed to do his work.

"Potter, if you shrug one more time, there will be no question that you'll be serving detention tonight."

Harry finally looked back up. "They didn't teach me how to read. I was always in the hallway during class time."

"Like today?"

"Yes."

"Then it is your own fault for disobeying and getting into trouble during lessons."

"No!" Harry shouted, finally angry, chest swelling with indignation. It wasn't fair! His shout seemed to have caused the protector to stir, and it emitted a piteous little noise before going quiet again. They looked at the space on the desk for a few moments where the collar hovered a few inches off the surface before Severus turned his attention back to Harry.

"Detention tonight Potter. You are to come here at exactly seven pm. Do not be late."

Harry looked up, mouth hanging partly open. No, he couldn't expect the dungeon bat to understand, could he? He was sure the man probably came from one of those pureblood family's like Draco's who had tutors to help the children all year long.

He reached for his little monster as he stood up but Severus said sharply, "No, leave it here. I don't want any more damage to school property today."

Harry turned and left, feeling empty and angry at the same time. Detention and he'd lost his protector, the only one who seemed to give one whit about his safety and wellbeing. If the Dursleys had cared, Harry would have been able to read by now, and the same went for the teachers in primary. It looked like Hogwarts was just the same story in a different place. Same crap, different day, he thought to himself bitterly.

As he made his way up to the Great Hall for dinner, a fetid little creature followed him from shadow to shadow, a twisted smile on his gnarled lips.