"Potter." Harry startled and jumped up. Snape was standing there in the darkness staring at him. No, no no no. Why are you here? Where is Dusty? All of those words wanted to tumble out of his mouth, but they didn't. Instead he clasped his hands together and squeezed them tight like he did when he was nervous about Uncle Vernon coming home from work to inspect his chores.

When Harry didn't say anything, Snape allowed his eyes to take in Harry's black eye and bruised cheekbone in the waning light and then sweep over his bare arms where there should have been a coat or sweatshirt.

"I've been searching for you," Snape said, and Harry held his hands even tighter trying to keep them from shaking. Why was Snape searching for him? Because Rhys was gone so he was going to tell him to leave camp? Or had he told someone else he was here and Dumbledore was going to make him leave?

Harry still stayed silent though his eyes remained locked on the black ones of his Potions Professor. Snape seemed irritated at his lack of responses and said, "What do you have to say for yourself?"

Harry shook his head. "I- I don't know."

"I was told you were instructed to stay in the nurses cabin. I had to ask every counselor and camper if they'd seen you."

Harry felt a wave of anxiety sweep over him. It was too dark to run safely away from this man, and if he pulled his wand out of the inside pocket in his shorts to light the path he'd get expelled, Snape would make sure of it he was certain. He looked down at the ground and Snape turned on the flashlight he had in his hand.

"It is too dark for you to be out any longer and you do not have a coat on. Follow me." He turned and Harry followed him down the back side of the rock face and to the path. Snape turned around and shined the light on him every few feet to be certain he was still following, and lead him back to his cabin. Rhy's things were gone now and Snape's things were in their place. Harry frowned. No. Snape was his new counselor?

None of the other campers or counselors were back yet from the campfire and Harry was afraid of what Snape would do to him there alone. He'd certainly threatened him enough times at Hogwarts. "What- what happened to Dusty?" Harry asked meekly, afraid of the answer.

"He broke his wrist yesterday afternoon and had to leave camp."

"How?"

Snape turned and shot him a glare, but it wasn't as venomous as it usually was at Hogwarts. "He jumped off the diving board into the pool and hit his wrist on the diving board on the way down."

Harry really wanted to ask why he was there, at a Muggle camp, but didn't want to be snapped at.

"Ask Potter."

His head snapped up and he found Snape sitting on the bottom bunk, Rhys bunk, staring at him.

"S- sir?"

"You obviously want to know what I'm doing here."

Harry shook his head vehemently. No, it was a trick question. Aunt Petunia was especially fond of those. She would wait for Harry to ask something stupid or answer a question wrong and then yell at him or punish him for his answer.

"You do not want to know?"

Harry looked down and wrung his hands together again. "No sir."

"I am your new counselor, you are not supposed to call me sir." Harry could hear the irritation growing in his voice.

"Yes... Professor."

Snape sighed heavily. "You did not eat dinner. Are you hungry?"

Harry shook his head and Snape told him to go to bed then. Harry hurried up the ladder to the top bunk and tried to calm himself down some because his chest felt tight from the nervousness he was feeling. He hated when that happened. The other campers came back twenty minutes later, talking animatedly and smiling, and Jake came over to Harry's bunk and asked, "Ok Harry?"

He nodded but the answer was no. Jake smiled at him and then went to tell Peter to get into his bunk.

"Potter." Harry stilled as Snape stood up from the bottom bunk. Harry sat up and couldn't keep the worried look from his face which seemed to irritate his professor further, if that were even possible at this point. "Put your pajamas on."

Harry reached for his bag to make Snape think he was doing it, and when Snape lowered himself back onto the bottom bunk, Harry put his bag back. He only had three shirts a pair of jeans and a pair of shorts. He didn't have pajamas, and besides that he wasn't about to let everybody see what was on his back and chest and arms. That was one of the reasons he hadn't let Rhys talk him into going swimming at the pool. No one should see what was there. He didn't even like looking at it himself.

The lights went out a few minutes later and the other two campers quieted after several minutes of giggling. Harry was surprised Snape hadn't told them to shut up. The cabin felt too quiet then and suddenly oppressive, like the youth home had been. It never felt like that with Rhys there.

* * *

"Potter, get up. Breakfast." Harry rose with dark circles under his eyes like he hadn't slept much and hurried to put his shoes and socks on. Severus noted that the boy had slept in his day clothes instead of changing like he was told the night before, and wasn't bothering to change his clothes this morning. The other campers and counselors were still there in the cabin though and he didn't feel like making an issue of it this morning.

The boy had seemed far too anxious last night. It had to just be anxiety because he knew his Professor was on to him and that his fun at the expense of others was now over. Harry was ready before his cabin mates and waiting at the door to go out. Jake and his camper joked and giggled instead of getting ready and Severus hurried to finish tying his hiking boots so that he and Harry could leave.

The boy was quiet as they walked down the path towards the dining hall and Severus found his silence unnerving. Dusty was always talking. He was an easy child to get along with and had no fear of taking Severus' hand and leading him down the path in a hurried excitement to get to the next activity. Severus was sad to see him get hurt and sad to see him go. The camp seemed to be dreary in his absence, and even more so now that he had to follow Potter around and 'entertain' the little prince all day long. Harry turned back and looked at him anxiously to be sure he was still following him on the path and Severus caught sight of his face again though. He wasn't sure what had happened to him and the child's card hadn't been much help either. He was certain whoever had done the intake on Potter had accidentally switched the details with another child. Potter's bruises had likely come from him starting a fight with other boys.

As they sat at breakfast quietly, Harry pushing his food around on his plate, Severus pulled out the little index card that every counselor was given. Every card had a few sentences about the camper, their home situation, and personality. The front of the card read, 'Harry Potter' and the back read, 'Recently removed from care of abusive aunt and uncle (now in jail). Living at Hamilton Home For Boys. Will not speak about his home life or what happened to him. Seems prone to depression, anxiety and anger. Has never had a birthday.'

He scoffed as he read it again. Harry Potter never having a birthday? Doubtful. He was willing to bet a month's pay that the child received bags of fan mail and gifts every year on his birthday, if not from his fan club at school than from others in the magical community. When he had first spotted him at camp last week he had wondered what the boy had said to get himself in here, and now he knew, 'abusive aunt and uncle'.

"Hi Harry," a little girl said and Harry looked up and tried to smile at her.

"Hi Lily," he replied.

She leaned across the table and whispered, "Does he know?" Snape heard though. He had always had sensitive hearing, something that frustrated his students to no end.

Harry raised his brows and she raised hers in return. "You know," she hedged. "School and everything."

"Oh." Harry seemed to understand something then and nodded. "He's one of the good guys," he said then. She turned and smiled at Severus and Severus was surprised. He would never have imagined Harry Potter calling him 'one of the good guys.'

After breakfast when they were back out on the deck of the dining hall, Severus asked, "What was that about?"

"Sir? Professor?" Harry corrected himself.

"You are not supposed to call me that either Potter."

Harry wrung his hands together again. He seemed to be debating with himself on whether or not to ask, but did ask timidly a few moments later, "What do I call you then?"

"Severus will suffice." It will not, he thought to himself as he said it though, and he hoped Potter wouldn't call him by his given name. He didn't deserve to. He didn't deserve to be here.

"Oh." Harry looked down again.

"Aside from riding bikes, what is it you and Rhys usually do every day?" He asked, knowing they couldn't just stand around all day.

"Oh, um... we walk and hike, we shoot bb guns, do the ropes course and zip line and obstacle course and fish. We were supposed to go rock climbing."

"Is rock climbing what you wish to do today?"

Harry shook his head and said very quietly, "No." The counselor was supposed to hold onto the safety rope from below so the camper didn't fall and visa versa. Harry knew Snape would drop him and say it was an accident if he went up the side of the rock face.

"Perhaps swimming then. Go get your swim trunks on."

He shook his head.

"You do not know how to swim?"

"I can swim," Harry said, but he knew Snape was eyeing the two rubber bracelets on his wrist and that he didn't have the swimming one yet.

"Good, then go get your swim trunks on."

"I don't have any," Harry said.

"I find that hard to believe."

Harry reached up with one hand and held his shoulder.

"Fine, you may wear the shorts you have on now. We'll go get towels from the pool house."

"I don't want to swim."

Exasperated, Severus crossed his arms. "What pray tell do you want to do today then Potter? It will be a very hot day and all of the other campers will be down at the pool for a good portion of it." Dusty always wanted to swim, and Severus could not deny that it was nice to get into the pool or lake on the scorching summer days to escape from the heat.

Harry wasn't sure what to do. At school he always had to do what Snape told him to because he was a professor, but it wasn't like that here was it? Rhys never made him go swimming or do anything he didn't want to do. When he got back to school he knew there would be payback though if he didn't do what he was told. He followed Snape down the path to the pool where a dozen other campers and their counselors were swimming and where Callum sat atop a tall chair shaded by a square umbrella. Snape slipped his shoes off and set his towel down on an empty chair and Harry set his towel down on the chair next to that. Maybe he could just sit with his feet in the water. Lily was there in the pool with her counselor and Jake was there with Peter.

"Hey Harry!" Jake called. "Coming in?"

Snape turned to him and raised his brows and Harry took a step back. No, he wasn't going in. He would drown because someone would hold him under, or they'd make him take his shirt off to get in and then they'd see the scars and bruises. Harry turned and ran and he heard Snape shouting after him but he didn't care. He knew how Lily felt yesterday when she ran from her counselor. Snape would be pissed and he'd have to explain, and he didn't want to.

Harry wanted to run to the rock face but Snape had found him there yesterday so instead he doubled back through the trees and went towards the BB gun range. There were a few kids there shooting at water bottles and soda cans but their counselors were too engaged helping them and making sure everybody was being safe to notice Harry. He skirted the range and went towards the art shack. He hadn't been inside yet, but the doors were wide open so he went in. There were four or five tables covered in paper and art supplies like colored pencils, markers, and crayons. He sat down and stared at the supplies. What now? He wasn't a child. He didn't want to sit and color all day long.

Growing bored after a few minutes however, he picked up a blue crayon and drew waves and the sides of a pool. Then he took a colored pencil and drew a stick figure with x's for eyes and black hair under water. Stupid Snape. He hated him. Why did he have to force him to go swimming? Why did he have to come here to this camp and ruin it for Harry? Dusty was gone, so Snape should be gone too instead of there trying to torture him. He continued coloring his picture for another twenty minutes and then heard hurried footsteps outside the art shack and turned in time to see an angry Snape appear in the doorframe.

"What is wrong with you Potter?" he spat. Oh yes, there was going to be punishment for making him run, Harry thought, he backed up towards the other wall and soon found himself against it with nowhere else to go, though Snape stepped inside and didn't come any closer, for which he was thankful.

"I asked you a question and I expect an answer."

"I don't want to swim."

"It's camp Potter, everybody comes to swim." Harry could see the man's exasperation in his every feature and hear the irritation dripping from his words.

"Well what the hell is wrong with you?" Harry spat, not sure where his sudden boldness was coming from, especially since his only escape route was currently blocked. "Huh? I expect an answer," he mocked. What did the man expect from him? He was a teacher and a wizard, he wasn't supposed to be here working with Muggles. This was Harry's one and only chance to have a good summer and he was going to ruin it for him.

"Excuse me?" Snape's voice suddenly turned icy and he took another two steps inside. Harry's insides felt chilled and he knew he'd probably gone too far. He would have never gotten away speaking to Uncle Vernon like that.

"You- you heard me," he said, though he faltered. "You're not supposed to be here. You just come and pretend to be nice to Dusty but you're not."

"And you deserve to be here Potter?" He laughed then but Harry knew there was nothing funny about what he had said. "Pampered, spoiled, famous Harry Potter who always gets his way, gets to come to this camp. How did you talk your way into this one Potter? Hm?"

Snape started to stride forward and Harry seized his chance and dashed around him, climbing up over one of the benches and tables and sprinting out the door. The problem was that Snape had his shoes on now and Harry didn't have any advantage over him. Snape had long legs and all Harry could do was sprint faster towards the dining hall where he hoped there would be someone else to stop him from getting beaten. Though he did deserve it, he thought to himself. He shouldn't have been bold like that.

Harry was at an even further disadvantage because he had to run uphill to get to the Dining Hall. He looked behind him once and found Snape right behind him. Harry had almost made the porch of the Dining Hall when a hand shot out of nowhere from behind him and grabbed his arm right where uncle Vernon always did.

"Ow," he said involuntarily.

"Stop and listen Potter. I will not put up with this foolishness any longer. I know you and I know that-" he paused when he caught sight of Harry's face.

Harry was doing his best to bite his lip so he didn't cry out but the tall Potions Master was gripping him so hard! He couldn't help but let tears spring to his eyes, though he blinked trying to keep them from falling down his cheeks. Uncle Vernon hated it when he cried and always punished him more for it.

"What is wrong now Potter?" Snape snapped.

Harry shook his head and continued to bite his bottom lip. His eyes betrayed him though and he looked down at the iron clad grip on his arm. Snape let go and Harry immediately grabbed his arm and took a step back. He wiped at his eyes and forgot that he was trying to hide the bruises in favor of looking to see if there was any new damage. He lifted the sleeve of his t-shirt up to look and was glad to see that there were no new marks, just the old hand print of his uncle, which was now starting to change colors as it healed.

"I didn't do that," Severus said, startled and not knowing what else to say. He was suddenly filled with anxiety that Potter would lie and say that he'd given him the bruises. Not only would that mean he couldn't come back here to help kids each summer, but he could also lose his job at Hogwarts for an accusation like that.

Harry looked up at him and dropped his shirt sleeve. "No one did it," he said. He turned and hurried around the side of the Dining Hall and Severus followed, not allowed to leave his charge. Just as he rounded the corner, he heard Harry shout, "Rhys!" and saw the boy running to Rhys who had just gotten out of a car with crutches. If Severus had been surprised to see a hand print shaped bruise on the boy's arm, he was even more surprised to see Potter throw himself into Rhys' chest and hug him, burying his face in the counselor's shirt. Rhys leaned one of his crutches against the car and gave Harry a one armed hug.

Severus leaned up against the side of the Dining Hall and watched as Rhys ruffled Harry's hair and asked him how he was, and as Harry asked questions about his leg and apologized profusely even though it wasn't his fault.

"I thought you were done at camp," Harry said, and Severus didn't fail to notice the hopeful and needy sound in his voice.

"I am. I came back to get my things and have you sign my cast. That way you'll be with me all summer long," Rhys said with a laugh.

"I thought you'd get a blue cast," Harry said, eying the ugly white cast.

"Well I would have done but if I got the blue one you couldn't see signatures could you? Here," he pulled a permanent marker out of his pocket and handed it to Harry. "Write something and put your name. Wait, no, write your name real big right down the center."

"What?"

"Go ahead. Make it big, like it's your leg." Harry laughed and set to work marking up the cast, writing his name in huge hollow block letters and filling each letter in with stripes or other designs. He drew a passable mountain bike next to it.

"There, now everywhere I go people will ask me, 'who's this Harry fellow?' and I'll get to tell them about how I got to spend a week at camp with this really cool kid."

Harry's cheeks turned red and Rhys laughed again. "How's your new counselor?"

After wringing his hands together, Harry leaned in so only Rhys could hear and whispered, "The ghost."

"Oh. That right?"

He nodded and Rhys looked up and spotted Snape leaning against the side of the building with his arms crossed. Rhys waved and Severus returned the gesture.

"How about lunch Harry?"

"You can stay?"

"Just for lunch. I'm not supposed to be here if I'm not on staff or else I would stay the rest of the summer with you. After lunch you can help me carry my sleeping bag and backpack to the car."

"Ace," Harry said, and went with Rhys into the Dining Hall. Snape followed and sat down across from Rhys and Harry, amazed that Harry who had been silent since yesterday was talking freely with Rhys as if Rhys were one of his Gryffindor friends. They talked about rock climbing, the zip line, how many targets Harry could hit in under a minute with the BB guns, and how Harry hadn't yet completed the ground obstacle course on his own and how Rhys was sure he could do it by the end of the summer. When lunch was over, Rhys asked if Harry would go to the office cabin and get his bag and sleeping bag for him and Harry practically ran to obey him. When he was gone, it was just Rhys and Severus in the Dining Hall.

"He's a good kid," Rhys said.

Severus didn't answer at first but then said, "He is difficult to get along with."

"Did you read his card?"

"Yes."

"We got along pretty well once I showed him all the fun things to do at camp."

"He did not seem interested in doing anything today."

"Sometimes he just likes to walk quietly and think."

"So far he has hidden from me, run from me, disobeyed me, yelled at me, and cursed at me."

Rhys raised his brows and looked skeptical. "He hasn't done that to me."

"He does not want to cooperate. How do you get along with a child like that?"

Rhys gave him a serious look, a far cry from his typical smile. "You just have to find one thing you like about him."

"One?"

Rhys nodded. "You seemed to get along with Dusty ok."

"Dusty wanted to do everything in camp. He wants to do nothing. I tried to get him to go swimming and he ran away."

Rhys scratched the back of his head. "I think he's scared of the water. He won't talk about it, but we don't even go down to the edge of the lake."

"Hm." Potter afraid? Not likely. He had gone up against Voldemort voluntarily twice now.

Harry appeared at the door with Rhys' things, wearing a grin.

"Thanks Harry!" Rhys said, and with some difficulty he got up from the bench and was able to support himself on the crutches again. Other campers were starting to come in for lunch, and they moved outside so they could say goodbye again. Rhys and Harry hugged and Rhys looked him in the eyes and said, "Remember what I said."

Harry nodded and Rhys got in the car and drove away. Harry watched until the car turned the corner and disappeared, and then he was alone again. Only he wasn't, and he shuddered as Snape said from behind him, "Potter."

He turned and saw that Snape still looked angry. "My name isn't Potter!" he said angrily. Snape stared at him, and again not knowing why he was so bold when he was angry Harry shouted, "I'm not Potter! I'm not Freak! I'm not Bastard! I'm not Boy! I'm not Brat! I'm not Idiot!" He ran off down the wooded path towards the cabin and Severus watched him go.

"Better go after him," Jake said as he and Peter passed and went in for lunch, and Severus sighed and walked off after Potter... after Harry, thinking about the bruises on his arm. It was a big hand print, not the hand print of someone Harry's age. Even if Harry had gotten into a fight with other boys and gotten the bruises on his face, no boy had given him that bruise on his arm. Perhaps someone knew something that he didn't... obviously whatever social worker that gave him the go ahead to come to the camp. Still though, it was Harry Potter, what was there to like about him? If he couldn't find one thing as Rhys had suggested, then it was going to be a long summer chasing after the boy and putting up with his outbursts. Severus still wasn't convinced the child should be there, and he thought on that too as he walked down the path, wondering where the boy was hiding now and how long it would take to find him.