"You don't like the campfire?" Severus had asked, and Harry had only shrugged and looked down at the dirt as he moved it around with his shoe. They spent the next two days in an uncomfortable silence. Every once in a while Severus would ask what Harry wanted to do and he would just shrug. Harry spent most of the time with his hands in his pockets looking down at the ground, and they spent almost an entire day in the cabin, which Severus didn't mind because it was cooler inside than out in the sun and it gave him some time to catch up on some reading. It was three days after Rhys had left when Severus looked Harry in the eyes and asked, "Do you intend on spending the rest of the summer in your bunk?"

"No sir. Professor... Severus." His voice grew quieter as he corrected each mistake and the last was barely audible at all. Severus gave him a hard look.

"You seem to enjoy the obstacle course area. Would you like to do the obstacle course?" Harry shrugged and Severus said, "Come with me then."

Harry thought Snape didn't sound happy about having to take him out to do anything. In fact, Harry just being in his presence seemed to annoy him to no end. Rhys had been happy to have him around, but even the thought of Snape wanting Harry around made Harry want to laugh.

At the empty but thankfully shaded obstacle course in the upper part of camp, Severus handed a helmet to Harry, but he waved it away. "I don't want to do the ropes or zipline."

"What is your time on the ground obstacle course?"

"I haven't been able to complete it yet." Harry looked at it. The rules were simple (don't touch the ground), but the course was not. There were balancing beams, see-saws that you had to walk across, ropes to swing from one platform to another, tires on ropes all in a row you had to use to get from one platform to another, ladders, a wall you had to climb over, a rolling log you had to cross, nets you had to climb, monkey bars, an unstable bridge with planks that were on ropes, and ropes you had to hang from and use your legs and arms to help you get across. It was definitely difficult. He had tried it a few times with Rhys but never made it more than halfway before he fell and touched the ground.

"Go to the start."

"I can't do it," he said, turning to Snape. It wasn't that he didn't want to do it, it was that he didn't want Snape yelling at him for messing it all up. That, and perhaps he was already a little frustrated that he hadn't been able to get to the end of it on his own.

"You have defeated Voldemort, duelled older students, and flown a car to school. I believe you can complete the course if you practice."

"Nobody can do it," Harry said, and Snape raised his brows as if to say, 'is that so?' Harry watched as he walked forward and climbed to the first platform and started the course. Harry wasn't sure if it was that the man was wearing a green polo shirt and hiking boots and black shorts instead of black billowing robes, or if it was that he was completing a Muggle obstacle course with little difficulty, but at that moment he didn't seem like a wizard or a Professor. It was like Harry didn't know who this man was in front of him as he swung on ropes across gaps and balanced on logs and walked up and down see-saws. It was almost five minutes before he finished, but he did finish.

"It is possible," he said. "However, it does take practice and perseverance."

Harry hadn't seen anyone complete it before. Snape had done it though, so he climbed the short ladder to the first platform, accepting the challenge. Arms out to balance himself he started across the see-saws (this was the easy part), drug himself across the rope to the next platform, and crossed the swinging tires with some difficulty. Then he came to the rolling log, the place where he always fell off, and hesitated.

"Keep your arms out to the sides," Snape instructed and Harry frowned. That much he knew. He wasn't stupid. He got halfway across the log and it tilted too far to the right, and dumped Harry onto the dirt, though he did manage to catch himself this time and land on his feet.

"Try again."

Frustrated, Harry tried again, and fell off again in the same place.

"Try again," Snape said, but Harry couldn't help but let his shoulders slump. This wasn't fun if he had to do it. Even Rhys hadn't managed the course. Maybe Snape was the only one who ever did.

"Can- can we do something else?"

Snape looked irritated but didn't say no and Harry went to harness himself up for the zip line, something he was allowed to do by himself since he had the rubber bracelet for it. He spent half an hour on the zip line and then switched to the ropes course, which he completed in record time. The more he practiced on the ropes course high up in the trees, the faster he got at it.

"You seem... capable, on the ropes course," Snape observed, and Harry wondered if it was supposed to be a compliment. He didn't know, he'd never heard Snape compliment anyone before, not even the Slytherins.

"Thanks," Harry said, feeling awkward.

"We have time before dinner. Would you like to walk by the lake?"

Harry shrugged and they walked off. It was so strange walking around with Snape and having him suggest things to do. The man never smiled like Rhys did and Harry was afraid to do the things Snape suggested because he didn't want to get in trouble when he failed like he always did in Potions. Snape hadn't been too bad with the obstacle course though, and Harry wondered about that. He wondered that Dusty had seemed to get along so well with the man. He had seen him smiling when he was with Dusty, which was odd because everyone knew that Snape doesn't smile.

He tried to ignore the fact that Snape was walking down the trail behind him past the mountain bike course and towards the lake, and Harry imagined that Snape spent most of his time trying to ignore him as well. If he really tried hard, he could almost imagine that he was walking by himself and just enjoying the peace and tranquility of the forest (though that was interspersed with shouts of glee or laughter occasionally as people rode past them on bikes or horses or went past in boats on the lake. Snape had suggested they go boating several times, but Harry didn't like the water and he couldn't imagine going out on the lake and being stuck in a boat with Snape where he couldn't escape.

"Have you ever been to the end of this path?" Snape asked.

Harry looked back and was startled to find that they were all the way down to the lake. The path went right alongside it about five feet above the water, though Harry could see that it went right down to the water up ahead.

"No. I haven't been this far before." He always said no when Rhys suggested they go down this way.

"It goes all the way around the lake. There is a dock on the other end, and a special rock."

"What kind of rock?"

"Campers put their name on it before they leave."

"Oh."

Harry thought that he really didn't like being this close to the water (he usually stayed away from the black lake at Hogwarts if he could help it, and had had a difficult time riding to the castle in the boats with Hagrid in his first year). "I want to go back now," he said, and turned away from the lake. Snape was blocking his path though and hadn't moved so Harry tried to go around him on the edge of the path that hung out over the water. In that moment though, his foot slid off the path, he fell the five feet, and was plunged into the water, which was unfortunately deep in this area.

Now Harry knew how to swim. Once in primary before Harry was afraid of the water, his class got to take free swimming lessons for a week and he had gotten fairly good, but at this moment that knowledge had left Harry's head and been replaced instead with a memory he'd rather forget. Suddenly Harry wasn't in the lake at camp. He was in a tub full of icy water being held under and pleading silently for his life to be spared. He looked up and saw a distorted face above the water and heard someone shouting his name. It wasn't uncle Vernon's face or voice but that didn't matter. The only thing that mattered was that he couldn't get back to the surface. The face wouldn't let him.

Something thundered into the water next to him just then and pulled him to the surface. They weren't in a bathroom. They were staring at five vertical feet of rocks and dirt and weeds.

"Come on," Snape said, and Harry realized that the man had jumped in to bring him back to the surface. He dragged Harry towards the shore about fifteen feet down the trail where it was low enough for them to climb out, but Harry struggled and then began to swim the distance himself, glad that he could finally remember how. They drug themselves out of the water onto the rocky shore and Snape stood and stared at him.

"You can swim."

"Yes," Harry said.

"Why did you not swim to the surface? The water was only seven or eight feet deep there."

Only seven or eight feet? It had seemed a lot deeper, but Harry hadn't looked down below him.

He wrapped his arms around himself and shivered even though it was warm out. He wasn't really cold, more anxious and even embarrassed.

"Can we just go back to the cabin now?"

"Yes, but I want to know why you made me come in after you." They started back towards the path.

"I didn't know you would."

"You expected me to let you drown?"

More like he didn't even know Snape was up there, he thought. "No."

"Potter-" Harry stopped and stared at him, a mixture of anger and fear playing across his face. It startled Severus. "Harry," he corrected, and though the anger left Harry's face, the fear did not. He noticed the shaking and wished he had his wand with him to send a drying spell at his hair and clothes. In general he didn't keep it with him at camp because he didn't want to be tempted to fix or do every little thing with it as he would do at Hogwarts.

Harry looked away and Severus didn't finish his sentence because it had escaped him. They walked back to the cabin and the heat had mostly dried Harry's clothes by the time they got back.

"Change your clothes."

"Can you go outside?"

He didn't say anything and stepped back out onto the little porch and closed the door. Harry came out a few minutes later wearing the same pair of jeans and dirty white t-shirt he'd had on the day before.

"Why do you keep changing back and forth between the same two pairs of dirty clothes?"

"I don't have anything else," Harry said. His cheeks turned red and Severus felt mildly uncomfortable.

"Did Rhys not take you to the clothing closet in the office?"

He shook his head.

"Come with me."

Severus lead him to office building which was currently empty and took him to a back room where there were clothes stacked by size and gender.

"Here." He handed Harry a green Camp Kennewick t-shirt, which Harry had occasionally seen other campers wearing, a blue t-shirt, a gray zip up hoodie with the camp logo on it, a pair of green camo shorts and a pair of jeans.

"You do not have sandals," Severus observed, and when Harry didn't say anything, he pulled out a box and began digging through it, coming back with an almost new looking pair of boy's sandals a moment later. They were Harry's size.

"Thank you," Harry said, and he meant it. Until he could get his trunk back from Ron then he really had nothing to wear. He didn't enjoy wearing sweaty dirty clothes anymore than anyone did. He washed them in the bathroom like the other campers did but when you only had a few things to wear, you had to wash them more often or else wear them as they were.

"We can take them back to the cabin before dinner."

On the short walk back down the path, Severus pondered the enigma that was Harry Potter. This was not the same boy from Hogwarts. This was not the cocky Gryffindor who had other children following after him with starry glazed over eyes and following him into trouble wherever he went. This was not the same boy who had recklessly gone up against Voldemort twice in the last two years, and who was often defiant just because he could be. The only problem was that this was the same boy, and it perturbed Severus to know that perhaps he had misjudged him and had not seen the real him until today.

What did Severus know about him then? He was magic. He went to Hogwarts. He was a Gryffindor. He lived with his aunt and uncle... used to live with his aunt and uncle who are now in jail, he reminded himself, thinking of what was written on the card. He came to camp a week late with bruises on his face and arms (and who knew where else), he was apparently living in a youth home for boys, he was terrified of the water, and just as the card had said he was prone to anger, depression, and anxiety.

He let Harry put his clothes away without following him into the cabin and when Harry came back out, he didn't move off immediately to go to the Dining Hall for dinner. He leaned on the porch rail and looked out at the trees. Harry seemed uncomfortable for a minute, but then did the same.

"Harry," he said, and looked down at his charge to see if he was listening. He didn't look up, but he could tell that he was paying attention. "I can't be Rhys." Harry did look up now, confused, and he continued. "But I can be here to make it a good summer for you, if you'll let me."

"You- want to do that?" He seemed skeptical.

"I would not be here if I did not."

"But- you're going to make me leave."

"I am not."

"You didn't contact the Headmaster?"

"No."

Harry looked back out at the forest and seemed to be mulling this new information over.

"You'll tell everybody about me when we get back to school."

Severus surprised Harry then with a short laugh and Harry looked back up at him as he looked out at the forest. "If I told people you were here, I would have to tell them I was here too."

"As a counselor?"

"As a camper when I was younger. I came for three years in a row, until I was too old."

"Here?"

"Yes."

Harry frowned. Snape had been here. From what he had seen so far there were a lot of kids like him. Some were skittish, others like Lily were afraid of adults. There were others who hadn't seemed to have been abused but who had lived in orphanages for a long time or who had been bounced back and forth from foster home to foster home. Why had Snape been here?

"If we don't go to dinner now, we'll miss it," Snape said and walked down the steps to the path. Harry followed, though he was still quiet. Was Snape really like him? At dinner Harry suddenly felt like he was Lily in those first few days, because he kept staring at Snape and then looking away. Snape was a wizard, but he had still ended up here. Snape was strong and powerful and intimidating and sometimes really really mean, but he had been here as a child, and was apparently back now to be a counselor for other kids who came here. Just like before, when the man was doing the obstacle course, Harry felt like he didn't know anything about this man at all, and he seemed less like the stern and condescending person he was used to dealing with at Hogwarts.

That night, Harry went to the campfire for the first time with Snape, and he didn't pretend like Snape wasn't there.