Harry spent the rest of the day laying on his bed, reading. At most, four other boys were allowed in the room. Ron wouldn't give him a hard time over anything, he knew, and, according to reports, neither would Neville. The worst case scenario was that he would have to deal with two boys who would. It was better than having to face a whole common room of Gryffindors, much less the whole school.

An indefinite amount of time later, when Harry was still alone, there was a hesitant knock at the door.

"Come in?" Harry replied, unsure what he was supposed to do. If it were one of his dorm mates, they should know they didn't have to knock. None of them knocked, since they all shared it. Ron opened the door and stepped in.

"Hey, Harry," Ron greeted him nervously.

"You know better than to knock," Harry snorted. Ron's mere presence took the edge off how morose he was.

"Yeah, well," Ron shrugged.

"I'm guessing you had a specific reason for coming if you were knocking?" Harry asked.

"Yeah, um, Snape wants Hermione and me to make sure you show up for supper," Ron said. "That was it."

"Oh, okay," Harry said. "I guess I'll have to."

"We're sorry," Ron whispered, as he turned to leave.

"For what?" Harry asked, perplexed.

"For not having been better friends," Ron explained.

"What are you talking about?" Harry exclaimed, jumping to his feet. "I said you and Hermione were the best friends I could have asked for!"

"But apparently not good enough to keep us around," Ron commented.

"It's not like that!" Harry insisted. Ron just nodded once and left the dorm. Harry sighed, and rolled his eyes to heaven. How would he make his friends understand that this was for the best? For their protection?

Harry glanced at the time and realized that it wasn't almost time for supper, and if he didn't want to face Snape's wrath on top of everything else, he would have to suffer his way through another meal. He still wasn't hungry, even after skipping two meals that day. This had probably not escaped Snape's notice, Harry realized. Sometimes Harry wondered if Snape noticed everything. Well, he was a spy, so maybe it was just a side effect of that line of work. Snape was probably waiting to see what Harry would do at supper. Give him some time to adjust to the new situation before he began breathing down Harry's neck about eating. So Harry resolved to give it his best to eat.

He tried to slip unnoticed into the Great Hall. Needless to say, it failed miserably. Harry sat at the end of the Gryffindor table, as far away from the majority of his housemates, and also, as close to the door as he could get.

People were staring at him, whispering, and then staring again. Harry felt himself flush with shame. Some of these children had probably never even heard of some of the things that were now being discussed in the gossip mills of Hogwarts. Harry felt sorry for having to be the instrument of their - education.

A plate of food appeared before Harry, and he immediately jammed his fork into it before he lost his resolve to eat. As he lifted the first forkful to his mouth, he noticed someone sit down across from him.

"New regular spot at the table then?" Hermione asked. Ron wasn't with her. Harry just shrugged. Hermione sat down and began to eat. Harry tried to ignore her, so that he could focus on his own thoughts, which kept darting from what the school was currently thinking, to Draco's interview with Skeeter, to the deal with Draco.

"Snape sent you, didn't he?" Harry finally asked.

"No," Hermione said. "He just asked us to make sure you came for supper. You wouldn't have if he hadn't seen to it."

"You're probably right," Harry agreed.

"Harry, you can't mope like this for the rest of your life!" Hermione snapped.

"I'm not moping," Harry argued through clenched teeth.

"Then what are you doing?" Hermione challenged. "You're hiding away and you're not facing the reality that's there! You keeping off by yourself doesn't do anything to change reality. It only lets the poison of your own thoughts continue to lay hold of you." Harry sighed.

"Perhaps," Harry shrugged.

"Not perhaps," Hermione insisted. "It's true. I know you think you're doing the right thing by pushing everyone away, but it's not. We're not your enemies, Harry. Don't treat us like we are. We don't want to fight you to help you."

"You and Ron talked about this?" Harry guessed, as he swallowed another bite of food.

"Yeah," Hermione said. "We agree on this."

"Like I said, it's not as bad for you," Harry said. "Does Ron know what being seen with me will mean?"

"Yes, he does," Hermione confirmed.

"Are you sure?" Harry questioned.

"He knows people will talk about him," she said.

"Does he know what they'll say?" Harry pressed. "About - about us?"

"Yes," Hermione said. "We talked about that. Anyone who matters will know it's not true. Anyone who believes it doesn't really matter."

"Alright," Harry hesitated. "If you're sure you know what you're doing."

"We do," Hermione said flatly. Harry threw his fork on his plate and covered his face suddenly. "What's wrong?" Hermione shrieked, but not loud enough to be heard over the general clamor of the dinner hall. Harry didn't respond. Hermione stood and rounded the table quickly, pulling Harry up to face her. The other students had all gone silent when the noticed the disturbance.

"I don't deserve you," Harry said as he threw his arms around her and buried his face in her shoulder, beginning to cry softly, heedless that the entire school was watching. Hermione returned his hug.

After a minute, Harry released Hermione, and it was only then that he noticed everyone, even the teachers, were watching him. Harry suddenly felt very awkward. He grabbed his bag and glanced at Hermione who was still standing next to him.

"I should go now," he muttered, as he darted off towards the door so strategically positioned.

Harry ran to the dorm and closed the door behind him. He quickly changed into nightclothes, leaped into bed, and pulled the covers over himself. He would feign sleep if anyone dared try to disturb him.

Some time later, Harry realized he wasn't alone. He must have drifted off, and was awake now because there were others in the dorm with him. Judging from the voices, it was Dean, Seamus, and Neville. Ron was likely with Hermione, Harry concluded.

"Shh!" Neville hissed. "Keep it down. You'll wake Harry!"

"Harry who?" Seamus replied. Harry heard Neville kick Seamus, who yelped quietly.

"You stop that," Neville ordered. "We don't even know if Malfoy's story is true, and you're going to write Harry off over it?"

"I don't think Malfoy would tell a totally unsubstantiated story," Dean pitched it. "I mean, we do know that Harry attacked Malfoy in the bathroom."

"We know that Malfoy got injured somehow," Neville pointed out. "We have Malfoy's word for it that it was Harry. We have Malfoy's word for it what Harry's uncle did."

"But would Malfoy stick his neck out that far if it weren't true?" Dean asked. "If it weren't true, Malfoy wouldn't have made that big a claim. If it weren't true, Harry would have come out an denied it."

"Perhaps," Neville said after a minute. "It still doesn't change anything."

"It means my mum is going to have a fit," Seamus said. "If Harry attacked Malfoy, who's the next person he's going to attack? And even if it were rape, sometimes the victim becomes the assaulter. My mum might even make me leave, and I don't want that." Harry bit the inside of his cheek to both keep from shouting out that he wasn't dangerous and that he would be the last person to assault anyone, and to keep from sobbing that this was what his dorm mates thought of him. He wanted to rant and tirade that what happened late at night in Surrey wasn't his idea, that his uncle had made him do it every single time, and that he hated it. If this was what Dean and Seamus thought, what must the other people in the other houses think?

"Then your mum obviously doesn't know what's going on," Neville stated. "Heck, we don't know what's going on! Even if it's true, Snape is going to see to Harry. We don't have anything to worry about."

"Yeah, it seems a little bizarre, Snape having adopted Harry," Dean observed. "They hated each other. Everyone knew that. Why are they so friendly all of a sudden?"

"Is it our business?" Neville challenged. "Just leave Harry be. He's taking this whole thing pretty hard, I'm guessing, and you're not helping!"

"Don't come crying to us if he turns on you all of a sudden," Seamus said. "We've tried to tell you that he's dangerous."

"He's not!" Neville insisted, seeming close to tears himself. The other boys shrugged at each other. "Well, you can just leave him alone then. It doesn't do any good to provoke someone who's dangerous, does it?"

"Do what you want, Neville," Seamus said. "I just wish you'd stop sticking your head in the sand over it. Malfoy's story is true, and you need to accept that."

"Yeah, okay," Neville dismissed, "but it doesn't change that he's still Harry Potter."

"We're not stopping you from wasting your time on him," Dean pointed out. "Good night, Neville."

Next morning, Harry waited till the other boys had left the dorm room before quickly dressing and trying to find the quietest path to the Great Hall. Harry tried not to listen to what people were saying when he did find a group of students nearby. He was afraid of what he would hear.

He was almost there. Almost to the Great Hall. He hadn't run away yet. He hadn't died of shame yet. All he would have to do was eat breakfast, ignore everyone, and then he would have to survive his classes. He could do this. All he had to do was ignore the others.

"Morning, Potter," Draco sneered, and Harry suddenly realized he was standing outside the Great Hall. Draco seemed to have been waiting for him. He was leaning against the wall, with his hands behind his back. "Have a good night last night?"

"I don't think you're really asking about my well-being," Harry muttered.

"Here, this is for you," Draco said, standing up, and handing Harry what he had behind his back. It was a newspaper. "Fresh this morning." Harry paled, guessing what it was, and nodded. Draco left, and Harry opened the paper to see what Draco's interview had to say. Harry's eyes fell on a picture of himself, perhaps a little old, from last year, and the headline accompanying it, displayed on the top half of the front page.

The Boy Who Knew Too Much?

By Rita Skeeter

It has come to the attention of the Daily Prophet that Harry Potter, the Boy-Who-Lived, under the protection of Dumbledore, has suffered a mental breakdown within the walls of Hogwarts.

Draco Malfoy testifies that Mr. Potter attacked him in a forgotten bathroom Saturday morning, entirely unprovoked.

"Harry Potter's dangerous," the young Malfoy declared. "I had to spend the rest of the day in the infirmary to recover from the attack. He swore he was going to kill me."

But why has our hero broken now? Why didn't he come apart when he was eleven years old and first told of what happened on that tragic Halloween night? Mr. Malfoy has an insight.

"He was hallucinating," Mr. Malfoy explained. "He went bonkers and started attacking me. And he mentioned a few things too. He was begging his uncle to not to use him for sexual gratification."

I questioned Mr. Malfoy if he was certain of this.

"Oh, I'm quite certain," Mr. Malfoy replied. "Potter even promised that if his uncle would delay it till the next day, he would cooperate and do it willingly. Personally, I wouldn't feel safe with someone who would bargain sell himself like that, on top of hallucinations."

I asked Mr. Malfoy to further clarify.

"Well, isn't that was Potter was doing? Hallucinations come from reality, and if he promised his uncle that he would cooperate the following night, what is that besides selling himself? Perhaps not for money, but for time."

I pointed out that if Harry Potter was begging his uncle not to use him, wouldn't that still be classified as rape?

"I'm not convinced of this so-called rape," Mr. Malfoy declared. "He could have used magic to defend himself. Sure, he would have gotten in trouble for using underage magic, but it could have been easily rectified if he could show that his uncle truly was going to rape him. Maybe it wasn't his idea to begin with, but he also didn't do everything he could to stop it. It makes me wonder if this so-called rape didn't just become a convenient excuse to cover it up."

I questioned Mr. Malfoy on the strength of his words. He assured me anyone could have see that Harry Potter, over the course of the school year, had changed. He says that Mr. Potter is often by himself, or when he does allow anyone to approach him, it is Miss Hermione Granger and Mr. Ronald Weasley, his two closest friends. But Mr. Malfoy did have one more name he mentioned. Mr. Potter is often seen in the company of Severus Snape.

It was kept quiet by Dumbledore up until now, but according to official Ministry records, it is true that Severus Snape has adopted Harry Potter. Undoubtedly, this was a move on Dumbledore's part to keep Harry's psychotic breaks unknown to the world, so he could still present a whole and complete show piece, rather than the shadow of the boy we used to know and love so fondly.

Harry tried not to vomit in his mouth, and let the paper fall to the floor, through his numb fingers as he stared at the spot where it now rested. That wasn't how it happened! It hadn't even seriously crossed his mind to use magic against Vernon. If he used magic, he would be expelled from Hogwarts, he had thought. If he were expelled, then he wouldn't even have had that to look forward to.

Harry suddenly fled the vicinity of the Great Hall. He couldn't bear to show his face after that. The whole school would have read it - possibly even before he had. And if they hadn't read it yet, they would soon enough. Malfoy would see to that.

He was running wherever would get him away. Away from reality, away from the past, away from everything.

Suddenly he felt a strong hand reach out and grab him by the arm.

"And where do you think you're going, Mr. Snape?" a familiar voice drawled. Without even thinking about it, Harry reached out and clung to Snape, as he began to speak incoherently about the article.

Severus had read the front headline of the Daily Prophet and groaned internally. Harry was going to fall apart over this, Severus knew, and he knew he'd have to find the boy, and soon. There was a good chance Harry had read the article already, and who knew what Harry was about to do over it.

Severus left his chambers and began to walk in the general direction of Gryffindor tower. It didn't take long, and he spotted Harry, clearly distraught, running through the halls. Severus reached out and grabbed hold of Harry.

"And where do you think you're going, Mr. Snape?" Harry's immediate reaction was to grab hold of him and begin jabbering something at him, though Severus couldn't understand. "Slow down, Harry," Severus advised softly. "I've read the paper."

"You have?" Harry asked, looking up at him, his eyes filled with unshed tears.

"Yes," Severus affirmed. "I was afraid this would happen."

"Please don't make me go back to the Hall," Harry begged.

"I won't, not this morning," Severus promised, knowing better than to push his luck with Harry. The newspaper article was as much as he could hope Harry would successfully deal with. "You can hide in my chambers till your first class."

"Thank you, sir," Harry muttered, as he looked at the floor.

The two of them walked back to Severus' chambers where the house elves presented them with breakfast. Severus sat across from Harry, sipping on some tea as he encouraged Harry to eat something, anything.

"How have you been doing?" Severus asked.

"Alright," Harry shrugged.

"Are you sure?" Severus pressed.

"Yeah, I'm fine."

"I saw your display with Miss Granger last night," Severus continued.

"Sorry about that," Harry apologized.

"What happened, if I may ask?"

"I - I told them that they shouldn't be seen with me anymore," Harry tried to explain.

"For the reasons you were explaining earlier?"

"Yes, and they're not listening."

"Good for them."

"You're not supposed to side with them!"

"You're not supposed to side against me." Severus smirked at Harry, trying to lighten the mood a bit.

"Fine," Harry muttered sullenly.

"I'm guessing the other students haven't been making it easy on you," Severus ventured.

"No, not exactly," Harry hesitated.

"I'm sorry about the article, Harry."

"That's alright," Harry shrugged. "It's not your fault. It could have been worse."

"How could it have been worse?" Severus asked, suddenly confused. There wasn't much the article had shied away from.

"I mean, it was just about me really."

"I still don't understand," Severus pressed.

"I mean that the article only had my secrets in it."

"That it didn't have mine?"

"Yes," Harry said, nodding.

"I appreciate your concern," Severus murmured. "But that isn't my biggest worry at the moment."

"Then what is?"

"You," Severus replied, arching an eyebrow. It was a little - no, a lot - painful to admit anything like that. "My biggest worry is getting you through this in one piece. I'll pay whatever price is necessary to do that. The only price I haven't paid yet is death."

"Don't you ever do that," Harry hissed standing up and narrowing his eyes. "Don't you ever die for me."

"If it will benefit you, I don't see why I shouldn't," Severus replied calmly. "Sit down." Harry complied.

"Because you don't deserve to have to do anything more for me," Harry muttered, looking away, apparently unable to look at Severus. "Because I don't want to be left alone."

"You're really afraid of that, aren't you?"

"Being left alone? Yes," Harry said.

"Yet you push your friends away," Severus pointed out. Harry simply shrugged. "Would you push me away, if I let you?"

"Perhaps," Harry shrugged again. "You would be safer that way. I'm sorry."

"It's alright," Severus said quietly. "I was just curious."

"God, I hate myself," Harry sighed, as he rested his elbows on the table and covered his face. Severus silently rose and stood by the boy. He laid a hand on Harry's shoulder, trying to offer what little comfort he could.

"Harry," Severus murmured, but didn't say anything more. Words weren't enough to communicate what he felt. Harry began to rock and murmur softly. At first, Severus could make out the words, but eventually Harry's voice got loud enough that Severus could make out "Leave me alone."

"Leave me alone!" Harry screamed suddenly, gripping his hair by the roots and breathing heavily. "Go away. I'll just hurt you like I'll hurt everyone else."

"Something's wrong," Severus observed, unheeding of Harry's outburst. "What is it?"

"What's wrong?" Harry laughed. It almost scared Severus, Harry's laugh. It would have scared him, except that he knew the swirling mess of emotions Harry must be trying to sort through right now. "What's wrong? Everything! Everything in my whole life is wrong! And there's nothing you can do to fix it! The adoption was the worst day of my life! It's not up to you fix everything that goes wrong for me! Why can't you just go away?"

"Harry! Stop this right now!" Severus hissed. "I'll be there for you! I promise! I'm here to help you!"

"Like you were there for me in Malfoy's dungeon," Harry muttered, almost too quiet to be heard. Severus wished he hadn't heard because he winced more visibly than he had in a long time. The words stung more than any torture he had been subjected to in recent memory.

"I'm sorry," Severus whispered, so softly that Harry barely heard it, pulling his hand away from Harry at the same time. "I wish I could make it up to you."

"Yeah?" Harry challenged. "I don't need you and I don't want you in my life!"

"Get out," Severus murmured, very quietly, his face hardened. "Get out! You can find your own way through your meals and classes then. No one is making you stay here. You want me to leave you alone? Fine. I'll leave you alone." His voice was calm, but Severus' mind was anything but. Malfoy's dungeon was the one thing that Severus wasn't ready to talk about yet. He thought they had gotten past it with the weekend, but apparently they hadn't.

"Fine," Harry replied and showed himself out of Severus' chambers.

Severus walked to a different part of his chambers. He sat behind his desk and leaned into the back in the chair, resting his head in his hand. He sighed, but his breath hitched as he did so. Severus swallowed, trying to not feel the waves of guilt that washed over him. It didn't work. He didn't move, except for the occasional shaking of his shoulders. He lost all track of time, lost in the torture of his memories.