Harry had no energy left for fighting after his father (he really liked to say that to himself and be certain) had apparated them to his home somewhere in the wooded hills of- well, Harry wasn't really sure where they were. He'd seen a large sprawling house and big open lawns covered in snow and fog when they'd arrived, and feeling sick, had allowed Snape to guide him up a lot of stairs, still holding his arm tightly and into a room where he was deposited onto a soft bed. He was on autopilot and while his mind wanted to take everything in, he didn't feel capable of that much just then.

He supposed that Snape had come in and out of the room where he'd left him several times, but Harry was too busy ignoring everything and taking the opportunity to sleep as much as he could. He'd had a hard time on the streets and he almost didn't care now that he was there with his father, or if his father had accepted him or not. He just wanted to be left alone to sleep until he could go back to school.

Snape woke him several times and Harry didn't know if he'd been sleeping for minutes or days whenever Snape forced him to wake up and choke down a potion or disturbed him to rub lotion on his chapped hands or face. He supposed it had been at least a day because he'd seen three different meals on trays next to his bed, though he'd been too tired to eat any of them.

"What're you doing?" Harry mumbled, eyes closed as he was roused from sleep again, feeling irritated.

"Putting lotion on your hands and wondering what has happened to your body to bring it to such a state."

Harry noted that the man sounded irritated. He hated that he had proved that he was his son, but there was no love in his father's voice for him. Harry wished just once that he knew what it was like to feel loved. He supposed the closest he'd come to that was his friends, or maybe even the kindness with which August had spoken to him and been honest with him.

"It was cold out," Harry mumbled, eyes still closed. He didn't want to look at his father even though the man was essentially sitting on the side of the bed holding his hand as he put lotion on it. That part felt kind of good Harry thought.

"It was 15 degrees when we met in the street."

"See- cold." Harry heard a sigh and felt like he should just keep quiet if he was going to make Snape angry again. The anger Harry'd felt in the street that had gripped him and made him feel so bold had gone completely and he was focused now on not being hurt any more than he already was.

"Where was your family? Why were you alone in the cold?"

Harry pulled his hand away from his father and curled in on himself, not wanting to talk anymore.

"Tired," Harry said into his pillow. He supposed he'd fallen asleep because Snape didn't bother him any more then and the next time he woke it was because there was warm broth and a roll with milk sitting next to him and Snape was forcing him to sit up. Somehow Harry hurt more now than he had sleeping in the alley on the hard stone.

"Hurts to sit," Harry croaked, throat dry.

"I don't doubt it," Snape said. Harry chanced a look up at him as he struggled to sit and noticed the man looked uncomfortable. He doesn't want me here Harry thought, that's why he's uncomfortable. I'm a dirty vagrant in his nice clean guest bed.

Snape placed the tray on Harry's lap once he was sitting.

"You don't have to feed me sir," Harry said, staring down at the food. "I can wait until Hogwarts."

"School won't start for another two weeks. I doubt you can go without food for that long."

"Done it before," Harry muttered ignoring Snape's look of dismay and taking up the spoon to savor the warm chicken broth. The man had just indicated, or at least Harry thought he had, that he was staying there until the start of the new term which was a week into January. He was surprised he wasn't going to be shipped back to Hogwarts immediately. Harry was pretty sure that while he had been sleeping that Calen had been trying to convince his father to get rid of him so he didn't ruin their holiday or so that Calen could keep Snape all to himself.

"You've gone two weeks without food before?"

Harry ignored him and set his spoon down on the tray in favor of drinking the broth. He really was very hungry and wished there was something more substantial in front of him than broth and a roll.

"How long were you on the street before we encountered each other?"

Harry greedily drank the last of the broth and then felt like he was ok telling Snape the answer to his last question. "Since the train." He moved for the roll, wishing his body didn't hurt so much. Why the hell did it hurt so much? Maybe it had been so cold and he'd been so numb on the street that he hadn't noticed as much.

"Why?"

Harry stuffed the whole roll into his mouth to keep it occupied so he didn't have to answer. He could tell from the way the man before him tensed that he was irritated, maybe even angry, but what else could Harry do? He was lucky enough to be there in a warm bed and getting fed, but he didn't think the man cared anything for his actual well-being aside from to keep him alive long enough to get him back to the school.

Undeterred, though he was gritting his teeth (Harry was sure of it), Snape continued on in his line of questioning. "You knew the blood spell. It is not a spell taught at Hogwarts. How?"

"Professor August told me." Harry wished August were there now. He was much easier to talk to than Snape. Harry had no idea that Snape thought Harry was the difficult one to talk to. He wasn't direct like Calen unless he was angry, something Snape had only seen twice now from the usually shy and withdrawn child, both times involving himself.

"You don't have any classes with August Price."

Harry took a drink of milk and frowned. "Price? I thought his last name was August."

"That's his first name. He doesn't like to go by Price because he thinks it's too proper."

"Huh."

"You did not answer my question."

Harry scrunched up his nose. He hadn't answered a lot of questions.

"I talk to him sometimes."

"Because?"

"Because he's nice to me."

"And he just gave you this spell?"

Harry moved his nose again while he thought about it. It was a bad habit he supposed he'd picked up from Ron in the last few months. "I asked him for it."

When it was clear to Harry that Snape was quietly and patiently (as patient as was possible because he still looked to be on the edge of irritation) waiting for him to give more information, Harry finished, "He told it to me on condition he didn't read in the paper a headline about a four foot unknown assailant tackling you for your blood."

Severus crossed his arms. "You spoke about your suspicions of your parentage to August but not to me?"

Harry turned away then. He was done talking, and he saw the anger flash across Snape's face. He stood up and took Harry's tray and left the room. Harry couldn't go back to sleep, so he sat there for ages trying to keep his mind from hoping too much that because he was here, it meant his father would be nice to him. He dare not hope for such things with only four days until Christmas.

* * *

August Price was surprised to receive an invitation to Prince Manor. It wasn't exactly a Christmas invitation seeing as how there were still four days to Christmas, but it might as well have been. He'd always wondered why Snape had never asked him over. They'd gotten on well enough in school and as colleagues. He supposed it was because tradition amongst the Prince and Price families died hard. At some point his father had chosen to break away from Snape's mother and other siblings, and changed his name from Prince to Price just removing the n. Ever since then the Prince's had all but removed them from the family tree. That was before he'd been born.

As he appeared on the long snowy drive leading up to Prince Manor, he took in the beauty of the large grounds. Minerva had described the place to him a few times but she hadn't done them justice. The house was large and sprawling and surrounding the lawns there were vast woods. He could also see a frozen lake. He wondered just how far the property went, and that his father had given up his inheritance to all of this when he'd left the family.

He expected he'd be waiting quite a while after knocking on the front door and wondered if Severus would realize he was outside at all if he was in some other part of the large house, but the door opened immediately to admit him in from the biting cold.

"Severus, good to see you. I got your owl, though it was a bit harried to make the journey to Hogwarts by floo."

"Yes, it was urgent."

"Is everything ok with Calen?"

Severus nodded, finding it interesting that August appeared concerned about Calen when he'd apparently been spending time with Harry.

"He is well. I wished to speak with you privately about another matter." Severus beckoned for him to follow and lead him down a long hall into a grand looking office three times the size of Headmaster Dumbledore's. It had tall windows that flooded the room with bright light reflecting off the snow outside, and tall shelves in between. When they were inside and the door was closed, August turned with a smile to Severus, but his smile faltered to see that his cousin did not look happy.

"I wished to speak to you about- my other son."

August raised his brows. "Oh?" His stomach twisted a little wondering if Harry was ok. Severus was a good man but August wasn't sure if he'd take Harry in, or continue to ignore him now that he knew, unless of course Severus was talking about some mysterious third son who had also just turned up. He hoped not. He also hoped that Harry wasn't somewhere with his relatives feeling downtrodden for the holidays though. If Severus knew, then it meant Harry had told and he wondered how he'd gotten the man to agree to share his blood.

"You know?" August chanced. If he wasn't talking about Harry, then he didn't want to give Harry's secret away.

"Yes, but what I found most surprising was that my own cousin knew and chose not to speak to me about it."

August sighed and went to one of the ornate looking chairs in front of the empty fire grate to sit down. "Severus, we haven't always been the most open with each other, you know that. And Harry had asked me to keep it a secret besides."

"But you knew that he was my son. That was information I would have appreciated knowing."

"I didn't know if he was your son or not. I knew he looked just like Calen, just like the rest of the staff, just like you did, and I knew he suspected he was your son once Calen had told him he had a father there at Hogwarts."

"How long has Harry been... confiding in you?"

"Last year when Calen punched Harry for asking if he'd told you about him, I got him to open up about it. Then last month Minerva caught Harry with a book on magical parentage and he told her he wanted to know about his parents. She told me and I got him into my office to tell him about James and Lily, only he wasn't interested in hearing about James, he was interested in asking about you."

"What did he want to know?" Severus seemed curious rather than angry and August took this as a good sign as Severus stopped pacing and leaned against his desk.

"Well he wanted to know if you were good at Quidditch like he was."

"What did you tell him?"

"Well I certainly didn't tell him the truth. You heard how he made the Gryffindor team didn't you?"

Severus nodded and August snorted softly then. "He's a risk taker that one. Can you imagine if I'd told him about all those crazy American maneuvers you used to pull off when playing against Gryffindor? I didn't want him to start trying anything like that. I told him you were a good flier but kept turning the Slytherin team down."

"He is... foolish," Severus said carefully then.

"He's a child, I don't know of any children who aren't a little foolish Severus."

"I don't know of any other children who went off to fight He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named by themselves at eleven years old."

"He did that for you," August said, and watched the look of surprise cross his cousin's face and stay there.

"Would you care to elaborate?"

"It was the end of the year and Calen had just changed his name and was refusing to tell you about Harry, and he was facing going home to his relatives instead of going home with the man he thought was his father, so he did something drastic to prove himself to you. He thought that's how Calen got you to claim him, by proving himself good enough. Didn't you wonder why he was doing so well in Potions and growing his hair out?"

Severus started to pace again. "Calen told me something was wrong with the boy, that he was trying to imitate everything he did."

"That why you cut Harry's hair?"

Severus looked up and looked a little more than guilty and ashamed.

"No, Harry didn't tell me that," August said, "but I felt like I was the only one at Hogwarts looking out for him so I was keeping tabs on him. I knew he wouldn't cut his hair on his own."

Wiping sweaty hands on his black trousers, a habit Severus had had since he was a child, he said seriously, "What do you know of Harry's family?"

"I don't know anything about them. Why, is he ok? How did you find out about him?"

"I had taken Calen to shop in London and found him on the streets. He- was fairly angry at me and shouted a number of things at me before slicing his hand open and daring me to do the same."

"That doesn't sound like Harry," August said. "He's very shy and withdrawn."

"He is refusing to talk to me about why he was there or what happened to him. I had hoped you would shed some light on the situation. I had no idea that you had become his confidant. Perhaps you could... speak to him."

August scratched the back of his head. "Listen Severus, I have no problem talking to him. I care about what's going on in his life. But I want to know what's going through your mind right now. What are you going to do now that you know? I know you haven't gotten along well with him in the last year and a half."

Turning angrily suddenly, Severus snapped, "You think I wouldn't take care of my own son? Have I not proven that I would with Calen?!" He knew his colleagues didn't think very highly of him and had doubted his ability to take care of Calen even though they'd never said so, but he thought August knew him better than that.

"I know that the Prince family can be set in their ways, such as not inviting a Price over even if we're the last of the entire family."

"You're here aren't you?" Severus felt like spitting it out. Inside he was seething.

"I'm here," August agreed, "but how long will you wait to bring Harry into your life? We're in our thirties... I don't know that Harry will wait that long." He gave Severus a pointed look and Severus turned away.

When he didn't say anything else for three or four minutes, August stood up and asked, "Where's Harry?"

"I'll take you to him."

* * *

Harry was still awake, trying to occupy his mind by going over potions he had memorized to keep himself from getting bored when there was a soft knock on the door.

"Come in?" Harry said uncertainly, wondering who it could be. His father hadn't knocked yet upon entering and he didn't think Calen would come to see him. He had just started to wonder if perhaps Snape had a wife that lived there when the door opened to reveal Professor August. Harry grinned and tried to sit up straighter as the man came in and closed the door behind him.

"What are you doing here?" Harry asked excitedly.

"Came to see you."

"But how did you know?"

"Professor Snape- your father told me you were here."

Harry really couldn't explain the excitement he felt at seeing August. Maybe it was just because he was the only adult that had really been nice to him before, so Harry knew he wasn't going to get chewed out talking to him.

August looked around the small room and then grabbed the desk chair Snape often sat in to tend to Harry's injuries. He turned it around and sat on it backwards, resting his hands on the back.

"From what I hear, there was a pretty dramatic scene playing out on the streets of London a few days ago."

Harry looked sheepish then. "Yeah but you didn't hear it in the papers did you?"

"No. How are you doing?"

"Good," Harry said brightly, feeling more cheerful than he thought he would be this close to Christmas.

"You look like you got into a fight with a troll," August observed.

"I don't know, haven't seen myself in a mirror yet. But I probably look better than before. I think Professor Snape's been giving me healing potions. He put lotion on my hands too." Harry held up his hands to show that they weren't as cracked and bloody as they had been after so long out in the cold.

"Here." August conjured a handheld mirror and handed it to Harry. He watched as Harry winced at his appearance before turning his face left and right, apparently admiring his battle wounds as most boys his age often did.

"Can I keep this?" Harry asked, and August nodded with a smile.

"Want to tell me what happened?"

Smile fading a little, Harry set the mirror down on the side table. "Not really."

"Your dad wants to know why you weren't with your family like you were supposed to be."

"And you're going to tell him if I tell you?" He made it sound like it was a certainty.

"No Harry, I won't tell him."

Harry seemed to be judging the truth in that for a few moments, but then nodded as though saying he trusted him. He was still quiet though.

"Did something happen with your family?"

Harry almost hated that August's voice was so kind sounding right at this moment, because it made him want to tell him. He'd never told anyone before about the Dursleys, and as much as he'd spoken that year to his friends and to August, he still wasn't used to talking to people much or freely giving up answers about himself or his life. Frankly he was still a little mystified that he'd just shouted out that he was Snape's son to the man in the alley in London.

"Something," Harry said quietly. He started playing with his hands, though he did chance a glance up at August and was thankful he didn't look irritated or angry at Harry's lack of answers. Instead the man was waiting there patiently, not smiling but also not seeming so concerned that it made Harry feel terribly uncomfortable.

"Your family doesn't live in London do they. They live in... Surrey is it?"

Harry nodded.

"Did you make it home to Surrey when you got off the train, or did you stay in London?"

"Went to Surrey."

"How long were you there?"

"Just a few minutes."

"Where did you go after that?"

Harry shrugged. "Uncle Vernon drove me back to London."

"Why?"

Harry scrunched up his nose again and wiggled it side to side and then shrugged.

"Harry," August said, and he moved his chair a little closer to Harry's bed then. "It's ok to tell me, you know that right? I won't be mad at whatever you say, and I promise not to tell your dad. That's something that's up to you to tell him."

He looked up and to August's relief seemed bolstered by that.

"The day before I left school, I burned my hands in Potions, because I don't have any dragon hide gloves. I never got to go get clothes or school supplies before school started. So when I got home they asked me why my hands were burned, and I said I didn't have dragon hide gloves."

"Ok, that's a good start. What happened after that?"

"I uh- I uh-" to Harry's surprise his hands started to shake as he played with them and his voice didn't want to cooperate. In truth he didn't know what had happened because he'd blacked out. They might have tossed him off the roof and he wouldn't have known, but the way his body felt it was a good possibility they'd done something terrible like run him over or something.

"Take a breath, you're ok," August said, and his calm voice calmed Harry enough to keep going.

"I don't know what happened," Harry said. "I woke up in the back seat of the car and Uncle Vernon was driving me back to London without my wand or things. I said I couldn't get back on the train to school but he didn't say anything. He dumped me on the sidewalk in the middle of the night and left."

"Have they ever done something like that before?"

"Something," Harry said. He was holding his hands tight now to keep them from shaking. He wondered if August would notice if he put them under the covers and sat on them. They were a dead giveaway of how he was feeling and he didn't like that.

"Can you give me an example?"

"Well they never dumped me anywhere before."

"What did they do?"

He bit his lip. "Don't know."

"You pass out each time you're punished, or you don't want to say?"

"Sometimes pass out, but I don't want to say."

There was a knot growing in the pit of August's stomach that he didn't like. Harry was bruised and he doubted he'd incurred those injuries on the street. He was starting to get a clear picture that Harry had been abused and neglected.

"What about your cousin? Is he treated like you?"

Harry surprised him by laughing then. "No, definitely not. Dudley has everything."

"What do you mean?"

"Well he has clothes and toys and his own room, and TV's and video games, and he gets to go places and do things, and he gets to eat so much food!"

"Like deserts?"

"No like three meals a day and then deserts."

"And you don't get that?"

Harry paused. He'd just told him more than he'd meant to. "Not exactly."

"Do you get to eat at all?"

"If I did all my chores."

"Does your cousin have chores?"

"Just me."

August was quiet in thought for a long moment and it started to make Harry uncomfortable. What was he thinking about over there?

"You say they still have your wand and trunk?"

"Yeah. There's not really anything in my trunk, because I borrow everybody else's books and school supplies, but they have my wand."

"What's the address?"

Harry sat up and looked panicked then. "You're not going to go there and tell them I told are you?!"

Holding his hand up to calm the Gryffindor, August said, "No, I was thinking about getting your wand. Unless they snapped it in half it should still be ok. You'll need your wand for school and you really don't want to go get a new one."

"Why not?"

"Usually a wizard doesn't find a good second wand. The first one is meant to last."

Harry sighed.

"Would you be ok if I went and got your wand?"

"If you be careful. Uncle Vernon's big."

"Where do you think they'd have it?"

Harry shrugged. "They locked my trunk in the shed last summer, but it might be in my room."

"Where's that at?"

"Under the stairs."

August looked as if he wanted to say something at that but didn't and Harry was thankful. He stood up and told Harry he'd be back.

Out in the hall August was surprised that Severus was not eaves dropping. If it had been his son inside, if he'd had a son, he would have been listening. Instead he found him at the end of the hall leaning against the wall with his arms crossed.

"Well?"

"I promised not to tell."

"Then why did I send you in there?"

August sighed. "He's going to have to trust you before he tells you. I'm going to go see if I can't retrieve his wand. I can tell you he hasn't had a pleasant life, and that he never got to go get new school supplies or clothes before school started, so he's been borrowing other people's books and supplies all year. I'd also treat his hands for burns."

"I saw the burns and applied burn salve. His relatives burned him?"

"No, he did it in Potions on the last day of school and didn't want you to know. He doesn't have any dragon hide gloves."

August began down the long winding stairwell and Severus followed. At the door August said, "I'll be back when I have his wand. I'm also going to buy him some school supplies for Christmas." He was going to leave with that but saw the lost look on his cousin's face. "Don't force it Sev. I don't think he's had a lot of opportunity for conversation in the past and I think I'm the first one he's told about his life. Why don't you take him and Calen and do something fun with them? He's a good boy Severus, he just needs some kindness."

Severus nodded but August wasn't sure he understood. With a last look at the Potion's Master, he left, on a mission to retrieve Harry's wand, anger and hurt filling him on Harry's behalf from the inside out.