Harry looked up at Snape's proclamation and felt his stomach squirm. This was it, there was no backing out of it now or he'd look like a coward in front of Snape, who knew he could swim already. It was bad enough that the man had had to jump into seven feet of water to pull him out of the lake last week. Harry knew that his Professor had promised not to tell people at Hogwarts that he'd been at camp, but he wasn't sure if he trusted him entirely yet, or at all. If Harry chickened out of a swimming test the man might possibly let it slip in the middle of Potions class with the Slytherins. He could visualize the scene already, ‘What's the matter Potter? Scared you'll drown in your cauldron? Get back to work!' he shook himself mentally to get the thought to disappear as Severus loaded his plate up with food for lunch next to him.

It wasn't that Harry wouldn't trust him, it was that he wasn't sure if he wanted to or not. He'd seen Snape at Hogwarts and knew how mean he could be. Here he was... different. Calmer somehow and more open to suggestions. Then again, that was his job here, right? His job was to do what Harry wanted to do, even if Snape didn't like it. He had seemed less irritated since he'd pulled Harry out of the lake though, and Harry supposed that wasn't his job. What was it about this place that made the man so... easy to be around? Yes he'd given Harry some clothes and boots and taken him hiking and shown him how to find gillyweed, but did that negate all of the negative comments and snide remarks he'd given Harry for the last two years? Did it cancel out the fact that the man had given him countless unfair detentions and threatened to get him expelled or banned from Quidditch more times than he could remember?

"Don't forget a vegetable or fruit Harry," Snape said and Harry looked up from his ponderings and took two celery sticks onto his plate and began munching on them. He was even calling him Harry now, but Harry wondered if it would last when they got back to Hogwarts, or if he did something wrong here to make him angry. If he chickened out after Snape had gone and asked Callum to stay late at the pool, Harry was certain he'd make him angry. Suddenly Harry felt trapped, like he had to take the test or else face Snape's wrath.

After lunch Snape asked again if Harry wanted to climb the rock face, but Harry shook his head. He still wasn't sure if Snape would drop him or not with the safety line, so instead they went to the obstacle course and Harry tried to get a little further than he had the last time. He'd been practicing and he could now get almost three quarters of the way through the course before falling off.

"Did you and Dusty ride bikes?" Harry asked when they were done at the obstacle course. He hadn't ridden since Rhys had left and he really wanted to.

"No. He did not know how and was not interested in learning."

"Oh."

"Do you wish to go to the bike course?"

Harry bit his lip. What if Snape couldn't ride? He was a wizard after all.

"Yes," he finally said, thinking that maybe the man intended to watch him ride around the flat area where kids sometimes learned before they were allowed on the bike course.

At the bike course, Harry put on his blue helmet and got on his blue and silver bike and watched, surprised and uncertain when Snape put on a black helmet and got on a dark green mountain bike.

"I will follow you," he said, and Harry wasn't certain if that meant he could go out on the mountain bike course or not. Instead of heading up towards the course, he lead off around the lake, thinking that maybe they could make it to the other end and he could see the special signing rock.

"Keep in mind that we will need to turn back at some point to make it to the pool," Snape told him after they'd been riding for an hour.

"How much further is it to the rock?"

"At least another hour."

"Oh," Harry said, disappointed.

"There are still two weeks left in camp for you to make it to the signing rock."

"I know," Harry said, but the closer it got to dinner time, the more he wanted to miss the swimming test and get to that rock. He was starting to feel like he'd never see it at all.

"We should turn back now. You still have to go to the cabin to get swimming shorts on."

"Ok." They turned around and Harry followed Snape this time as they went back towards the main camp.

They went to the cabin and Snape let him change into his shorts alone. Harry came back out in his shorts without a shirt, but had a towel wrapped around his shoulders to hide all of the scars. If he took the towel down, Snape would see. Harry's plan was to somehow jump into the pool as he let go of the towel, swim very fast to the other end, swim back and climb out next to his towel. If he did it all fast enough, no one would see his scars at all. As they neared the pool however, Harry's heart flew up into his throat. There were still kids at the pool! Not very many, but there were at least six and their counselors, including Lily, and Jake and Peter. No! If it was just Snape and Callum he could hide, but with twelve more people it would be impossible. He stopped in his tracks just as they made the concrete surrounding the pool. Snape turned to look at him but didn't say anything. Callum was looking too from where he stood next to the pool, but had an encouraging smile.

"You no longer wish to take the test," Snape said as a fact instead of a question, and Harry noted a hint of disappointment in his voice.

Harry didn't say anything as he stared at the pool full of campers and counselors. Lily spotted him and waved. He didn't know what to do so he lifted one hand and gave a solitary wave in return.

"You're afraid," Snape said as another statement of fact. "I thought you would have had the gillyweed in your pocket as a backup plan."

Harry looked up at him with hard eyes. "I'm not afraid," he said. What he really wanted to say was, ‘I'm not a chicken," but didn't because he didn't think Snape would appreciate if he said something childish like that.

"You freeze in deep water."

"I'm not afraid," Harry ground out again. He was though. It's the bathtub, it's the bathtub a frantic voice played in his head, but he tried to squash the thought down. But it was more than the bathtub. It was a public pool with people who would see him. People who would see what he always hid under his clothes. Years of the Dursleys hospitality that he didn't want anyone to see ever. Somehow it would prove to other people that he was a freak, because only freaks had scars all over them like that. Uncle Vernon had said so and Harry knew it was true.

"Come on," Snape said and he turned to go back to the cabin. He was obviously irritated and Harry thought he was holding back from adding ‘Potter' onto the end of the command.

No, no, the bike. I want the bike. I have to prove I'm not a chicken, and I can do this, I know I can. Harry dropped the towel and his bare skin was exposed to the world, scars and all. All twenty four of them. He had counted them over the years and he knew exactly what each one was from and what his transgression had been to earn him those scars. Callum looked at him and at a lack of response, Snape turned and looked too. They're counting them, Harry thought to himself. Seven on the front and seventeen on the back. The newest one was up on his right shoulder and that had happened just before he'd gone back to Hogwarts for his second year. Uncle Vernon had hit him with the clasp end of his belt and the little metal pin in the center had struck him. It had stung something awful but he'd lived through it.

Snape took a step towards him but Harry ran to the edge of the pool and dove in at the deep end, and then swam as if his life depended on it. He swam all the way to the other end of the pool. He knew people were watching because he could hear their voices up above the water. When he got to the other end, he surfaced and climbed out, and was confused and amazed to hear cheering and shouts of joy. He looked around, realizing again that he was practically naked to the world without his towel despite his knee length shorts, and saw that the campers and counselors in the pool, and Callum were clapping for him and shouting things like, "Way to go Harry!" and "Woo!" His cheeks turned red and he hurried around the edge of the pool back to Snape, who was looking at him with a slight frown. He didn't seem angry... it was more like he'd made a sudden realization. 24, Harry thought. The number is 24, but he didn't say it out loud. Callum clapped as he came over to him and handed him the blue swimming band. Harry took it and put it on.

"Great job Harry," he said. "You can swim in the lake now and enter the race! You should come to the pool after breakfast sometime. We have games at nine every morning for an hour. It's a lot of fun."

Harry gave a nod and picked up his towel as Callum walked away to tell everybody that the pool was closing for dinner in two minutes. He was going to wrap the towel around himself again, but Snape put out his hand and gently held Harry's wrist to stop him. He looked up.

"You don't need that anymore," Snape said in a voice too gentle to be his. Harry thought that perhaps he must have spoken to Dusty this way, because Dusty had really seemed to like him.

"Sir?"

"Don't ever hide from anyone Potter. Ever. You are you and you should never be ashamed of that."

Harry lowered the towel as Snape let go of his wrist. There were 24 reasons to hide. Good ones. Long reasons and short reasons, jagged reasons and curved reasons. Reasons that had been slashed, hit, burned, and beaten into him. Reasons his uncle wanted him to remember. Reasons that Harry was certain he'd never forget.

They walked back to the cabin so that Harry could dry off and change, but he didn't cover himself with the towel again. As he changed alone in the cabin, he looked down at the blue swimming bracelet he had earned. He didn't know yet if it was worth it to expose himself like that, but no one had jeered at him or looked down their noses at him or made fun of him. Not here in this place. This place was as different from the rest of the world as Hogwarts was from Privet Drive. There was something... magical about it.

* * *

Severus knew he shouldn't stare at the boy as he ate dinner that night, or as they sat at the campfire amphitheatre while Harry snacked on jelly beans and popcorn and laughed with the other campers. He knew he shouldn't stare as they walked back up the cabin path in the darkness with the other campers, and that he probably shouldn't stare at the bottom of the boy's bunk as he lay on his own bunk that night in the darkness. But he did it anyway. Potter was... not what he'd expected.

He couldn't count how many scars there were on the boy's back in their brief time at the pool, or the number of fading, yellowed bruises that were on his ribs and shoulders. He used to be able to keep count of the times he'd given the boy detention in a year (he kept a list in his office). He used to keep count of how many times the child had irritated or angered him during a single Potions class. He kept count during the term of the Gryffindor hero's transgressions so he could take them to the Headmaster as proof of the boy's rule breaking. He kept count of the number of ‘fans' the boy had in his entourage at school. But tonight... tonight Harry Potter was uncountable.

Severus had seen the scars and frozen as he watched the boy fearlessly dive into the deep end of the pool and swim across. He had watched as the boy climbed out and seemed confused by the cheers and positive words coming his way, and turned beet red as if he was embarrassed. He'd seen Harry go for the towel when he was done at the pool to cover himself again. He'd seen a lot of the boy at camp in the last three weeks, especially since he'd taken him on as a camper, and had found lots of new information about him to file away for later use or review, but tonight was the first time he'd actually seen him.

Harry was afraid of water and keen on getting his hands on gillyweed. Harry was embarrassed about the scars that hid under his shirt. Harry's aunt and uncle were now in jail and he'd been taken from their care and put into a youth home. Harry had almost no clothing and sneakers not fit for anyone to wear with holes in the sides and stains covering every surface. He seemed to care for other campers like Lily, and was quiet and reserved and often anxious, especially if someone moved quickly near him or reached out to touch him in any way. He was touchy about being called anything other than Harry, and when he stood up for himself and tried to be bold he immediately looked fearful. Severus ran down the list of other things he'd learned or observed about Harry in the last two weeks since he'd become his camp counselor. What about at Hogwarts? The child did break a lot of rules, but what else did he really know of Harry in the wizarding world?  His parents were dead and he had mysteriously defeated Voldemort as a baby and now twice at school.  He had two very good friends, Ron and Hermione. Severus had always told himself that the other two children followed Harry around, but if he were honest about looking back at the boy's time at school, he knew that Harry followed them around. It had been Ron Weasley's idea to fly that car to school last year, not Harry's. It had been Hermione Granger who had gone to the bathroom to fight that troll in first year, not Harry. From what he had gathered it had been Granger and Weasley who had schemed up a lot of their misadventures, including brewing polyjuice, investigating the Philosopher's stone, and going to stop Quirril and the Basilisk. Harry was not their leader.

Severus didn't sleep at all that night. Not after what he'd finally seen about the boy who lived. About Harry.