Harry wasn't sure whether he should be relieved or worried to be taken from the Dursleys. He'd practically begged Dumbledore to let him stay over the summer for the past two years, and had always been told no. Harry knew better than to tell the Headmaster why he didn't want to go back. No one ever believed him and when they did and began to question the Dursleys, Harry always ended up worse off than before. This time someone had seen something though and reported it to the authorities.

A new neighbor had moved in behind the Dursleys on the next street over, the week before Harry had returned from Hogwarts for the summer. There was a fence separating the back gardens of both houses, but the new neighbor had been out mowing his neglected lawn when Uncle Vernon had roughly shoved Harry out of the house into the back to punish him for not getting his long list of chores done. The yelling alone was enough to make the neighbor peek over the tall fence, and neither Harry or Uncle Vernon noticed the onlooker or knew that anyone had seen until the police showed up at the front door half an hour later. Harry was in the cupboard under the stairs nursing his wounds and stilled at the sound of the doorbell ringing. He listened carefully as Aunt Petunia answered the door and laughed at the accusations from the neighbor as if they were absurd. "We only have one boy living here," she told them, "and that's our dear Dudley." There was a pause and then his aunt called into the living room for Dudley, who Harry knew didn't have a scratch on him.

"Son, would you mind telling us who lives here?" someone, presumably one of the officers asked.

Harry could tell Dudley had something in his mouth by the way he spoke. "Me, mum, dad. That's it. Can I go back to watching the telly mum?"

"Yes dear of course."

There was a muffled sound and then Harry heard another voice. "That's not true. That's not the boy I saw. He had black hair and glasses and he was getting the tar beat out of him! He has to be in there!"

"There is NO other boy here!" Aunt Petunia said right next to the cupboard door, and Harry took this to mean that he'd better keep quiet or he was going to be in worse trouble when his uncle got home. He'd gone for take out when he was done with Harry in the back garden. He always went for take out after punishing Harry so that he could further torture him by letting him smell the delicious food he wouldn't be allowed to eat.

"Maam, if you don't mind, we'll need to search the house."

"This is absurd," she said, and Harry could tell she was flustered. "What will the neighbors think?"

"He's got to be in there," the neighbor voice said again, and Harry heard heavy footfalls like people wearing boots had walked in.

"I'll check upstairs," one voice said and the other made a murmuring noise.

Harry heard footsteps above his head on the stairs and it was a few moments before the other office asked, "What's in there?"

"Brooms and cleaning supplies."

"Open it up."

"No, I don't think I will. You can just wait until my husband gets home to sort this all out."

"Step aside or I'll have to restrain you."

"Of all the-"

Harry wasn't sure what to do. He could make a noise and let them know he was there and spare himself another summer of torture, but if he did that he might not be able to get back to Hogwarts, because who would believe him that he was a wizard and a famous boy hero? He could silently send a locking spell at the door, but he knew that just for the police showing up looking for him there was going to be trouble when Vernon got home. Uncertain, he sat there, frozen in the darkness.

The door handle jiggled and then opened. Harry squinted as light flooded into his cramped space.

"It's all right son, come on out."

Having no choice now, Harry got up and came out. He was really too big for his room under the stairs now that he'd grown several inches, and he was glad to have the room to stand up and stretch.

The other officer came back down the stairs and Harry was able to get a good look at everyone now instead of imagining from their voices. The neighbor was on the porch looking in through the front door. He was rather scrawny and wore glasses just like Harry. Both of the officers were male, and fairly skinny though the one that had found him had large muscles.

"What happened to you?" big muscles asked. Harry looked at his nametag and read to himself, 'Officer Buckley.' Harry shook his head. No, Uncle Vernon would come home and talk his way out of this like he always did. They'd tell them that it was a misunderstanding and that Harry was bruised from picking fights with other kids and the officers would leave, and then Harry'd really be in for it.

"It's ok, you can tell us."

Harry looked to Aunt Petunia who shot him a venomous look while she covered her mouth, as if she were horrified that this was happening. Harry could tell the officer wasn't going to quit though.

"I get into fights," Harry said. "I go to St. Brutus' School for the Incurably Criminal." There, maybe his punishment wouldn't be so bad if Aunt Petunia told Uncle Vernon that Harry had tried to help.

The two officers gave each other a look and the nosy neighbor butted in again. "I know what I saw. The beefy man who lives here was wailing on him in the back garden."

"Is that true?" the officer who had gone upstairs, 'Hughes' asked.

Harry shrugged. He'd already lied, what else could he do?

"Come outside," Hughes said and Harry followed him out to the front with the neighbor while Buckley started asking Aunt Petunia more questions and she seemed too flustered to answer in complete sentences.

"Who lives here?" Hughes asked.

"Me, my aunt, my uncle, and my cousin," Harry said.

"And your parents, where are they?"

"Dead."

"How long have you lived here?"

"My whole life."

"And how often does this happen?" Hughes asked, motioning to Harry's face and arms. Harry hadn't seen himself in the mirror yet, but he knew he had a black eye and a split lip. His hair was probably a mess too.

Harry shrugged.

"Do you really go to St. Brutus'?"

He shook his head. "They send me to another boarding school most of the year, but they tell everybody I go to St. Brutus'."

"Do you have other family?"

Harry looked up. He'd been hugging his shoulders and staring at the grass up until this point. What should he say? He couldn't really pass himself off as a member of the Weasley clan, and in any case they had no phone so he wouldn't be able to give the officer a number to call them. He shook his head.

"And your uncle did this to you?" the officer asked. Harry shrugged. There was the sound of a car engine turning up the drive at that moment and Harry stood straight and stepped around the officer to put himself out of sight. Uncle Vernon was back.

"That's him," said the neighbor. "That's the man I saw doing this."

Buckley came out of the house then and Harry took advantage of the fact that both officers were now occupied dealing with an irate uncle Vernon. He backed away carefully and then turned and ran. He had his wand with him but that was all. Hedwig had gone to stay with Ron for the summer and he'd sent his trunk home with Ron as well. The only thing he ever brought back during the summer was a few pairs of clothes because he was always afraid his uncle would burn his possessions from school.

Harry turned a corner and went down Magnolia Crescent and then turned another corner. If he could hide out for a while then he could figure things out. He'd have to find a way to contact Hogwarts or else get to Ron's house. He didn't know of anyone connected to the Floo and he wasn't sure if he could try to wrangle just any old owl to send a message for him. Two years in the wizarding world, he mused, and he still didn't have a proper way to get ahold of anyone when he really needed it.

It had been almost an hour since Harry had run off when a police car rolled up next to him as he walked down the sidewalk and the window rolled down. Officer Buckley was driving and Harry noted that the back seat was empty. So they hadn't arrested uncle Vernon or aunt Petunia. Harry was right. They were going to send him right back there.

"Where do you plan on going?" Buckley asked.

Harry shrugged as he walked and said, "You're going to take me right back there."

"Am I? If I am it's only to get your clothes and belongings." He steered carefully as he followed Harry down the street at a snail's pace.

"What do you mean?"

"The house is empty. Your aunt and uncle have been taken into custody and a social worker already came by to collect your cousin."

Harry was skeptical. That never happened. The police had been out twice before in his remembrance and both times Harry had paid a heavy price.

"It's true," Buckley said. "Officer Hughes took them. Mr. Banks is going to make a statement against them and you should come downtown to make one too."

"And then what?"

"Then we can take you to a youth home."

"I don't have a choice do I?"

The officer looked sad even though he was still trying to smile, possibly to coax Harry into the car so he wouldn't run. "Unfortunately not. It'll be better than where you came from, that much is for sure."

Harry stopped walking and Buckley stopped the car and opened the passenger door for Harry to get in. He took him back to the house and watched as Harry stuffed his two shirts and one pair of pants back into his tattered bag from the cupboard under the stairs.

"That it then?"

Harry nodded.

"Come on. I'll take you for a meal before we go to the station."

After he'd bought Harry a box of take out he took him to the police station and took down a report where Harry gave them a minimum amount of information and a mixture of lies, including that his parents had died in a car crash when he was a baby. Hughes and Buckley were going off duty by the time they were finished with Harry, so another officer took Harry to a youth home for boys on the opposite side of town from Privet Drive.

"Wait," Harry said when the female officer stopped outside the Hamilton Home For Boys.

"What is it?"

"My cousin... he's not here is he?"

"There's another home for boys a few blocks away. I don't know which one they took him to. Why?"

Harry bit his lip. He was already in enough trouble as it was and didn't need Dudley there trying to kill him for causing all of this. "No reason," Harry said.

She took him inside and Harry was dismayed to find out that the door worked on some sort of lock that could only be controlled by the office, meaning he couldn't come and go as he pleased. When he was signed in, the officer left, and Harry was alone with more people he didn't know.

"Got another new boy this afternoon," the director said by way of a greeting as he lead Harry down a hall with ten or more doors. "Name's David but most call me Dave."

"Dudley Dursley?" Harry asked of the other newcomer.

"How did you know?"

"My cousin."

"Same home eh. Well he didn't come in looking like you. You'll have to see the nurse first." He opened the door at the very end of the hall, which lead to another hall, and at the very end of that hall was a nurses office. It was a male nurse and Harry doubted he'd be as gentle as madam Pomfrey was whenever he ended up in the Hospital Wing at Hogwarts.

"Sit there," the man said. "You got it good didn't yeh? Any injuries that aren't currently visible? No? All right, we'll get you some ice then for that eye and the bruise on the side of your face. Not much else I can do."

Harry stood patiently and waited for the nurse to come back with a baggie of ice from a freezer. "If you get hurt here, come back here immediately."

With a nod Harry was released with Dave who lead him off down yet another hallway. "We serve three meals a day and take care of any court appointments you might have. You'll go to the local school when summer's over." No I won't, Harry thought to himself, feeling grumpy. I'll have to get to London to catch the Hogwarts Express. They can just count me as a runaway.

"Do we get to go outside?" Harry asked.

"There's a garden in the back and there's a trip to the park three times a week, but you only get to go if you've got enough points. You get points for good behavior and doing chores, and you get points taken away for fighting and breaking the rules. Points count for everything here including phone usage, telly time, deserts, and trips into town."

Harry listened carefully to the rules and was soon given toiletries and deposited into a bedroom with four bunk beds and a desk. It was cramped and much smaller than his dorm in Gryffindor. Harry was dismayed to find that he wasn't alone in the room. Dudley was on a bottom bunk and he didn't look up when Harry entered.

"If you need something or are confused about the rules, ask," Dave said, and then he left when Harry didn't say anything.

Dudley looked up and Harry was surprised to see that he had a split lip and a bruise on his chin.

"What- what happened to you?" Harry asked. He'd never really seen Dudley hurt before and wondered briefly if Uncle Vernon had done it or if Dudley had gotten into it with the police.

"I hate you," Dudley said. "This is your fault. I would still be at home right now if you'd just done your chores."

"I lied," Harry said. "I didn't tell them anything. It was that neighbor."

"I still hate you. You always ruin everything. As soon as I got in they ganged up on me and did this. This would never happen at home."

"To you," Harry said bitterly. There was a bottom bunk across from Dudley that had sheets and a blanket folded up on the end, and Harry sat down on it. "Who ganged up on you?"

"The other boys here, who else?" Dudley gave Harry a good looking over too and didn't stop glaring at him even though Harry looked a lot worse off. "What did they tell you about mum and dad?" he finally asked.

"Nothing. I don't know what's happening."

"If mum and dad don't get out of jail I'll never be able to go back to Smeltings."

If they do or if they don't, Harry thought, he wasn't confident in his chances to be able to get back to Hogwarts. No one in the wizarding world knew where to look for him except at Privet Drive.

"Don't go out alone," Harry told Dudley as he started to make his bed. Dudley's still wasn't made yet as the boy was still sitting and looking sullen on his bare mattress.

"Who do you think you are telling me what to do?" Dudley asked angrily but without any real enthusiasm.

"The only person you've got right now to back you up," Harry said, and he could only hope that Dudley would have some sense and be there for him if any of the other residents tried to give him trouble. Harry had his wand in a hidden inner pocket in his jeans, but he didn't want to get in trouble for using it. He could use it and get someone from the Ministry to come out or send an owl, but he was more afraid of being expelled than spending the summer there at the Hamilton Home For Boys.

Dudley for his part did give Harry a very sorry look as aunt Marge lead him away, but sorry looks weren't good for much in this place, Harry thought. Now he was alone and was sure to be ganged up on, if not by the other boys than by the psychologist that seemed to think he knew what was best all the time. Sure enough, the moment after Dudley disappeared out the front door and it clicked locked again, the psychologist, Bentham was sticking his head out of his office door and calling for Harry to come in and see him.

"Have a seat Harry," Bentham said. He was in his thirties and looked far too chipper to be working in a place filled with so much sullenness.

"Dudley's aunt was able to gain temporary custody of him, but not of you. She's retained a lawyer for Mr. and Mrs. Dursley."

"She didn't try to get custody of me," Harry said bitterly, and again his emotions were confused, because he didn't know whether to feel hurt by that, or glad of it. Living with her would probably be worse than living with uncle Vernon. Vernon and Petunia generally left him alone so long as he was getting his work done, but aunt Marge liked to watch you work and insult you and your parents to try to get a rise out of you so she could whack you with her cane.

"No, she didn't," Bentham admitted. He tried to catch Harry's eyes but Harry wasn't interested as he sat in the chair hugging his shoulders. He'd been doing that a lot lately. He would hug his arms further down but there were still sore bruises in the shape of uncle Vernon's fingers there, and too many bruises on his ribs to properly hug himself.

"Harry, do you want to spend the summer here?"

Harry looked up. "No, who would?" He felt snarky like Draco and couldn't shake it. He'd felt like that all week. He wasn't supposed to be here. He had a home at Hogwarts and with the Weasleys, but no one seemed to want him to be happy.

"There's a camp. It's a summer camp," he clarified. "It has a swimming pool and a lake, obstacle courses, horses... all kinds of fun things to do."

"Why are you telling me this?"

"It's for kids like you. Kids that have had... a less than stellar home life. It started last week. We already have three boys from this home that are there."

"Great," Harry muttered. A camp for abused kids, probably full of psychologists like Bentham who would be on his case every day to talk about his feelings and tell them what the Dursleys had done to him. Harry wasn't going and he wasn't going to talk to Bentham about it either. He hadn't so far and had no reason to now.

"I think I can get you in if you want to go. They don't usually let kids in late, but I could convince them to take a lad like you. There's only one problem..." he trailed away waiting for Harry to take the bait.

"And what's that?"

"I need to tell them something about you to get them to take you. Your cousin didn't have anything to say other than that he was well taken care of. He wouldn't tell me about you at all aside from to say that you go to a different boarding school than he does. They don't just let every person come to camp. You have to be under 13, which according to our records you will be for a short while longer, and you have to have-"

"Come from a less than stellar home situation, yeah, I get it," Harry snapped out as he looked away angrily. This was a trick to get him to talk, it had to be. No one would want to send him to a summer camp to have fun, it just wasn't possible.

"Anything at all Harry, you just have to tell me something."

"Just put down whatever is on the police report."

"I don't have access to that information other than that you were removed from your aunt and uncle's care."

"Then tell them this." Harry pointed at his face. He hated looking in the mirror at the bruises. His left eye hurt to close and his lip still looked pretty bad even though the swelling had finally gone down. There was a bruise on his right cheekbone too. At least they hadn't started turning funky colors yet, then they would really look awful.

"I need more than that. I need to know how it happened, or more about your life."

Harry laughed quietly. "Forget it," he said with a smile that didn't reach his eyes. He stood up and left the office, though he heard a sigh behind him. He walked down the hall with the intent of spending the rest of the day in the room he shared with five other boys, but he only got halfway there when the three older boys who had hit Dudley earlier that week rounded a corner and smiled to see him alone.

"Cousin finally gone eh?" one of them said with a nasty smile. "Good, now we can give you a proper welcome like we did him."

Harry wanted to back away and get to one of the common areas where there were other boys and possibly staff, but also wanted to not seem cowardly and to stand his ground. If he was going to be here by himself for the rest of the summer, he couldn't afford for them to think he was afraid. He stayed where he was and immediately regretted it as the larger one, Brad pushed him against the wall and punched him in the gut. Harry doubled over, feeling like all the air had left his lungs and waited for the next hit, but there wasn't one. They left and he assumed it was because someone else had suddenly turned a corner or come out of a room to come down the hall.

He dropped to the floor in the empty hallway, still holding his stomach. Maybe camp wasn't such a bad idea after all. Bentham said they had a lake... he could handle lounging on the banks of a lake and dodging counselor's questions if it meant getting away from this.

After several minutes Harry was finally able to get up off the floor. Uncle Vernon's hits hurt but he usually stayed away from Harry's stomach. Harry wasn't sure why but maybe the man thought he'd do internal damage and kill him if he hit him there and didn't want to have to take him to the hospital.

Slowly Harry walked back down the hallway to Bentham's office, where the door was still open and Bentham was at his desk writing something down. He looked up and watched as Harry slowly came and sat in the chair, though Harry didn't look up.

"I want to go to camp," Harry said quietly.

"You have to tell me something to give them... anything."

Harry was quiet.

"Lets start with your parents. Dudley said they were dead. How did that happen?"

"My aunt and uncle said it was a car crash when I was one but later I found out they were murdered." There, he didn't have to say it was by an evil wizard did he? Murdered parents ought to be enough to get him to camp.

"What were their names?"

Harry looked away. No, he couldn't give the man real facts or he'd check to see if Harry's story was true. Bentham didn't exactly have the Daily Prophet to look through to verify.

"Ok, so you went to your aunt and uncle when you were one. What was life like there?"

Harry looked up and pointed to his black eye again.

Bentham wrote something down and said, "Aside from that, what was life like?"

"I didn't have a bedroom. I lived in the cupboard under the stairs. I had a cot and a thin blanket and an old ripped pillow."

"What about Dudley?"

Harry scoffed. "Dudley told you the truth. He was fine. He had two bedrooms upstairs full of toys and videogames. He was well fed and pampered."

"What else?"

"Isn't that enough?"

"Give me one more thing to put down on the application Harry. I'm going to have to call in a personal favor as it is to get you into camp, but they've got to have information to even consider your case."

Harry sighed a short irritated sigh and looked at the ceiling. Why did these things always have to happen to him? Murdered parents, being pushed off on his aunt and uncle, Voldemort sticking out of the back of Quirril's head trying to murder him, basilisks and crazy house elves and ghosts of Tom Riddle, police at the door... Harry stood up quickly and made for the door. He didn't want to think about it all.

"Wait," Bentham said, and Harry stopped at the door frame. "I want you to be able to go to camp. When the others come back they're always glad they got to go and say they've had fun. I know what it's like here with the other boys. Please Harry, give me one more thing to put down on the form."

Harry didn't turn around. He didn't know what he was going to tell him. He hated that he had to tell him anything at all about living on Privet Drive. It was long quiet moments when he finally said, "I've never had a birthday," and then he did leave. He hoped that would be enough.

"Lucky you are," said the bus driver from the front, trying to strike up a conversation. "It's a fine camp. Lots of things to do."

"Like what?" Bentham had already said a pool, a lake, and horses.

"Oh they've got everything. Zip lines, obstacle courses, bikes to ride, hiking, fishing, catching tadpoles, rock climbing. All kinds of things."

"And a bunch of nosy psychologists," Harry put in, but that only made the man driving the bus laugh.

"No, I don't remember any of those. Each camper gets their own counselor to go around with them. All the staff are volunteers. The camp is all about having fun. Basically whatever you want to do, the counselor will set up for you."

"Lots of people go to this camp?" Harry asked, staring out the window as the scenery changed from rolling hills to forested foothills. They were heading into the mountains.

"Oh, about fifty kids every summer. You look like you're right at the age cut off. It's kids seven to thirteen."

"My birthday is next month," said Harry. "Then I'll be thirteen."

"Food's not half bad either," said the driver. "Last week one of the kids started a food fight and I got a taste of a little bit of everything."

"You work there?"

"I'm the life guard at the pool and the bus driver. I'm also the camp nurse."

"That's a lot of jobs," Harry commented. He had been feeling sullen that morning because his stomach still hurt from getting hit the day before, but as the scenery grew more wild, he started to feel more amiable and open to chatting.

"I'm a paramedic the rest of the year. I take the summer off every year to work at the camp."

"If you're the lifeguard than who's watching the pool while you're driving me around?"

"Pool's closed today."

Harry frowned. They had closed down the pool to the rest of the campers just so he could get a ride to camp?

They were quiet for the next hour until they were deep in a forest. "Almost there," said the driver, and Harry started to feel anxious. He wondered what kind of rules there would be at the camp and what it would be like. He wasn't sure he liked the idea of a camp counselor dogging him wherever he went through the camp.

After driving around one more bend in the dirt road, there was a clearing and the bus pulled into a small gravel parking lot in front of a large log building.

"Here we are, Camp Kennewick on Immerdale Water." He parked and opened the door and Harry's eyes took in the parking lot warily. There was a smiling man that looked like he was in his early twenties standing outside holding a dark green hand written sign with Harry's name on it.

"Come on, looks like your counselor is waiting for you. He just got in this morning."

Harry stood up with his backpack and got off the bus.

"Hi Harry!" the man said happily, walking up to him with his hand outstretched. "Name's Rhys. Welcome to camp!"

"Hi," Harry said uncertainly. He wasn't used to seeing Muggles this happy, and even in the wizarding world he wasn't used to seeing smiles directed his way unless it was from Ron or Hermione or the Weasleys.

"Let's go to the cabin and then we can find something fun to do before lunch."

Harry gave a stationary wave goodbye to the bus driver, who he'd yet to ask of his name, and followed Rhys down a wooded trail next to the large log building.

"Have you ever been to camp before?" Rhys asked.

Harry could hear laughter in the distance and it sounded like several people might be playing a game.

"No."

"You're going to love it here then. What kind of things do you like to do?"

"Fly," Harry said without thinking, then he clamped his mouth shut tight.

"Like airplanes? Do you have your pilot's license?"

"No," Harry shook his head.

"Maybe we can find some model planes to fly. I bet they have some here." He led Harry to a cabin and up the steps to the small front porch and inside. There were three bunk beds like in the room he had at the youth home, but this room didn't feel oppressive like the other one.

"Your bunk is on top," he said, pointing to a bunk with a rolled up sleeping bag and pillow. "You can hang your bag from the top bed posts and decorate any way you like." He motioned to the top bunk across the small room which had a poster on the wall of a Muggle soccer player kicking the ball and blue yarn strung from the bed rails up to the ceiling and back down in several places.

Harry set his bag on the top bunk and then turned to Rhys expectantly.

"I'm afraid we're going to have to play twenty questions for a while," Rhys asked, and Harry's shoulders fell. He knew it. They were going to try to get him to talk about the Dursleys.

"I just mean," Rhys said seeing Harry's fallen features, "that I don't know what to suggest that we do until I know what you like to do. Of course if there's something you want to do, just ask."

Harry relaxed a little and Rhys lead him back out of the cabin. "Do you like to hike?" he asked out on the porch.

"I don't know," Harry said. He did like walking along the lake at Hogwarts, but he didn't know if that counted as hiking or not.

"Hiking's a maybe. Ok, what about riding horses?"

Harry shook his head.

"Hiking maybe, horses no. Ok, swimming?" Harry shook his head no.

"Rock climbing?"

"Maybe," Harry said as Rhys lead him off down a path. Harry could still hear laughter and shouts but he wasn't sure where it was coming from. Tall trees shaded the area and blocked his view of the rest of the camp.

"Wait," Rhys said, turning to Harry with a smile. "You said you liked flying. I have an idea."

Harry raised his brows and Rhys hurried off, making Harry almost jog to keep up. They took what seemed like a maze of paths until they finally came to an empty obstacle course.

"Ta-da," Rhys said, holding his arms out towards the course with a smile. "There's a zip line! Want to go up and have a try?"

Harry looked up into the trees at the wire stretched between them. "I'm- allowed?" he asked.

Rhys nodded. "Whatever you want buddy."

It was a few minutes before Rhys had Harry hooked up into a complicated harness and the two of them climbed up a ladder to a wooden platform up in the trees. Rhys had a harness on too.

"It's safe, don't worry."

"I'm not," Harry said. He didn't wait for the too eager counselor to hook him to the line. He took his metal D-ring and hooked it to the D-ring on the line.

"Wait, you need a helmet." He reached over and took a blue helmet off a hook on the platform and handed it to Harry. Harry put it on and buckled it into place and then smiled at Rhys. He could tell Rhys was expecting him to be scared of something like this, but Harry intended to prove otherwise. He held up his arms and fell backwards off of the platform. Rhys shouted but Harry was laughing as he zipped away down the line. The wind spun him around so he was facing forward and he stuck his arms up in the air as trees flew by him on either side. The ride was over quickly however and Harry was sad that it ended as he made another platform up in the trees. He skidded to a stop on the wood and unhooked himself. It wasn't like flying on a broom because he had no control over it, but it was still a rush he enjoyed, even with his still aching stomach and ribs and eye.

Rhys met him on the platform a minute later and looked like he hadn't enjoyed the ride as much.

"Tell me next time before doing something like that, yeah?" Rhys asked, though Harry had to give him credit for not looking miffed.

"Can we go again?"

"Yes. But do you mind if I stay on the platform this time?"

Harry laughed as he started to climb down the ladder. He didn't know what else there was to do at this camp, but he thought this was the best thing and couldn't believe no one else was here right now doing this with him. Ron would love this.

Harry went down the zipline five more times and was tired of climbing up and down ladders with all of his aches before Rhys told him it was time for lunch and helped him get out of the harness.

"Can we go back after lunch?" Harry asked.

"You're a thrill seeker, I can tell," said Rhys with a smile as he lead Harry down yet another path. They ended up back at the same log building next to the parking lot and Harry got his first glimpse at the other campers, who were all filing into the building with their counselors. None of them had bruises like he had, Harry noted. He looked at his shoes as they walked in and Rhys startled him by putting his hand on his shoulder to guide him to a seat since he wasn't looking.

"Load up," Rhys said when they found a seat on a bench. Harry chanced a look up and found a few other campers looking at him. One girl who looked like she was eight or nine kept looking at his black eye and then looking away. He tried to ignore her and put a sandwich on his plate and filled his cup with red juice that turned out to be watermelon juice.

"Only one rule at meals," Rhys told him, "and that's that every camper has to take one vegetable and one fruit, even if they don't eat it." It was like Hermione had made the camp rules he thought with a small smile to himself and he reached out and took a few slices of apple and a carrot and began to munch happily on them. Bentham was right, it was worth coming here instead of spending the summer in the oppressive youth home.

Lunch was almost over and Harry was still trying to ignore the little girl who kept staring at him and looking away, and Harry was just about to try to convince Rhys to go back to the zip line when another camper bounded happily in the door followed by his counselor. Harry's insides felt chilled like he'd swallowed a cup full of ice as his eyes followed the counselor across the room. No, no this was crazy! What was Snape doing here? In a Muggle camp of all places? He looked at the little boy who was probably about eight and the grin on his face. No child ever looked that happy while with Snape, not even Slytherins. What was going on here?

"Ready to go Harry?"

"Huh?"

"Back to the zip line? Or did you want to try something else?"

Snape started to take a seat next to his camper and Harry hurriedly stood up and rushed out the doors onto the large porch of the dining hall, Rhys right behind him.

"See you're already having fun," he said. Harry tried to smile but couldn't hide the uncomfortable look on his face.

"Are you ok Harry?"

"Yeah, I just... zip line?"

Rhys looked uncertain but nodded and lead him back towards the obstacle course.

"You look like you saw a ghost."

"Huh? Oh."

"Feel like talking about it?"

"Not really."

Harry was grateful when Rhys decided not to press him on it further.

"How about trying the obstacle course? Or the ropes course?" Rhys asked when they got back to the zipline.

"What's a ropes course?"

"You go up in a harness and helmet and you try to get from tree to tree on ropes. See," he pointed to another set of lines high up in the trees that Harry hadn't noticed before. "You walk on the bottom rope and hold on to the top rope, and you're hooked to a safety line so you won't fall."

"Ok."

Rhys helped him get into a harness and helmet again and then did the same.

"You're coming up?" Harry asked. "I thought you didn't like heights."

"Heights are fine," Rhys said. "Zipping through the trees, not so much."

Harry laughed and they climbed another ladder. Rhys hooked him to the top rope with a safety line and read the rules nailed to the tree to him before Harry was allowed to climb out onto the ropes. It was harder than he thought it would be and he almost fell several times, which got his heart pounding despite that he knew he was hooked to a safety line.

"Come on Sev! Come on!"

Harry looked down towards the sound of a little boy's excited voice and spotted the same camper who had come in late to lunch running down the path next to the obstacle course. Snape followed and Harry watched horrified, but also with some curiosity. Snape wasn't wearing all black. He had on a dark green camp Kennewick t-shirt and black cargo shorts and expensive looking dark blue tennis shoes.

"Where are we going Dusty?" he called just before they both disappeared from sight at the other end of the path. Harry strained to hear what the boy's answer was, but he heard nothing.

"Harry?"

Harry turned to look at Rhys who had come out on the ropes with him. When had that happened? Rhys was on the platform before watching him do the course.

"What?"

"You ok? You just kind of froze and didn't move."

Harry realized he was gripping the top rope with both arms as if he were hanging on for dear life and loosened his grip. "I'll keep going."

"That ghost that it looks like you saw... was the same one from lunch."

"No such thing as ghosts," Harry lied as he moved off towards the opposite platform. He hurried along to the small platform and waited for Rhys to tell him what to do next. There was no ladder down from this platform, and it was just big enough for him to stand on.

"Take one of the two safety ropes and hook it to the other rope line. Got it? Ok, step off the platform to that other rope line and then move your second safety rope over. Great. You're doing great."

Harry waited for Rhys to join him and then moved off. He didn't see or hear Snape or his camper again by the time they made it across the nine rope sets and down to the ground again.

"Can we go to dinner early?" Harry asked anxiously. "Is that allowed?"

"Hungry? We can go now. Dinner's not for another twenty minutes but I know they're already starting to put food out."

They got unharnessed and walked to the dining hall. There were already a few campers in there with their counselors helping to set the tables, and Rhys was right, there was already food on some of the tables.

"Go ahead," Rhys said, and he and Harry sat down and started loading up their plates.

"Did you want to eat early because you were hungry or because you don't like being around a lot of other people?"

"Other people are fine," Harry said, eating a roll. He'd put some chicken on it and made a sandwich out of it. He only hoped Rhys ate fast like he was doing. He was practically inhaling his food.

"But not that ghost that doesn't exist?"

Harry looked at him and he raised his brows.

"One of the teachers from my boarding school is here," he said.

"Yeah?"

"Nobody I know knows I'm here."

Harry had only been there for a few hours and was already having a blast. The most fun he'd ever had over a summer in fact. Snape didn't like him, and Harry knew the second he saw him he'd start telling lies about him, about how he was a stuck up, spoiled, pampered child, and then they'd send him away. Either that or Snape would start criticizing him and putting him down. Or he would send word to Dumbledore that Harry wasn't where he was supposed to be, and Harry would be taken to the Weasleys. Harry did want to go to the Weasleys, but he sort of liked Rhys and he really liked the ropes course and zip line. The Dursleys had never let Harry do anything fun like this before, and now that he had the chance, he didn't want to have Snape ruin it for him.

"I see. Nobody knows about you?"

Harry looked up at him again as he ate a bite of an orange. "He hates me. He'll try to get me sent away." Last year Snape had tried to get Harry expelled after he and Ron flew the Ford Anglia to school. No, Snape wouldn't let him stay here if he caught him.

Rhys nodded. "Ok then Harry, finish up that meal," Rhys put on a smile and Harry looked incredulous. He was actually ok with sneaking into a meal early and hurrying out to avoid Snape? No, he didn't seem to be such a bad guy.

They passed the girl that kept staring at him on the way out and Harry tried to smile at her as Rhys allowed him to hurry down the path.

"How about a tour of the rest of the camp while everyone's at dinner?" he asked. "They should all be in there in another few minutes. Then you can see what else there is to do."

"Ok," Harry said.

Rhys lead him to the edge of the woods and out into a meadow that bordered a long skinny lake in the mountains. "That's Immerdale on Water. Pretty clean and good for swimming, but you have to pass a swimming test in the pool before they let you swim in the lake. You can still kayak or canoe though with a life jacket."

"Archery is over there," Rhys pointed across the meadow, "I'm not very good but there's always another counselor who is. There's an arts and crafts building too," he said, "but you can't see it from here. It's behind the archery range. They also have bb guns but you have to pass a little gun safety course before you can do that activity. They give you an arm band, see?" He held out his arm and Harry saw several little rubber bracelets on his wrist in different colors. "One for gun safety, one for swimming in the lake, and one for doing the ropes and zip line courses on your own."

"I want to get that one," Harry said eagerly.

"Keep things up and you'll get it soon. I don't think many others have even done the ropes and zip lines yet."

At the lake's edge they walked along a path into a patch of trees and Harry found ten or more bikes of varying sizes in a bike rack.

"We can go bike riding. There's a mountain bike course, or you can ride on any of the trails. Only rule is you have to wear a helmet. You seem to like going fast, so I thought you'd like to ride bikes up and down the trails."

"No," Harry said, though he bit his lip.

"Really?"

"I've never ridden one before."

"Well camp goes for another month. I can teach you how."

"Yeah?"

"Of course. Want to start now?"

Harry grabbed a black helmet and put it on and picked out a silver and blue bike that looked like it was his size. Rhys adjusted the seat down for him and then explained how to balance using the handlebars and how to pedal. Harry fell probably more than ten times before he managed to pedal several feet, but once he'd figured it out he was off racing around the trees in the flat bike area.

"There you go!" Rhys shouted and laughed.

"This is ace!" Harry said with a grin. He wondered if Ron had ever ridden bikes or if this was a strictly Muggle activity. It was like flying but on the ground.

"Can we go for a ride?" Harry asked, but Rhys was already putting on a helmet and pulling out one of the taller mountain bikes.

"Come on. Lead off and I'll follow."

Harry forgot all about Professor Snape and his camper and the girl that kept staring at him as they rode off on the trail that went around the lake.

It was dark when they got back to their cabin and Harry was surprised to find that there were several stations around the camp where there were flashlights with fresh batteries for anyone who needed them.

"Hey Rhys, you guys missed campfire tonight," said another counselor as they got inside. "A bunch of the girls got up and sang silly songs."

"Blech, girls," said a boy who was about ten from the bunk across from Harry's.

"We were riding bikes around the lake," said Rhys as Harry climbed up into his bunk and started unrolling his sleeping bag.

"Oh cool!" said the other boy who shared the cabin who was probably also ten. "Can we do that Jake?"

"You have to learn to ride first."

The other two boys and the counselors continued talking about their day, but Harry was more tired than he thought from all of the climbing and riding, and as soon as he had his sleeping bag unrolled he fell face first onto it and went to sleep.

"Busy first day eh?" Jake asked, and Rhys nodded, also very tired. He laid down in his sleeping bag and tried to block the noise of the others out to sleep as well.

* * *

Severus Snape was bouncing back and forth between angry, curious, and irritated. He'd just seen Harry Potter, of all people, racing through the camp on a bike with a counselor. What was pampered prince Potter doing there in his camp? It was almost dark when he'd seen him, but he was sure it was the brat who lived. He had a feeling that Dumbledore had something to do with this, but wasn't sure how. No one knew he counseled at this camp every summer. This is my place he thought, irritated. Potter is too spoiled to be here ruining camp for the other children who genuinely needed and deserved to be there. The last thing Potter needed was more attention thrown at him. His head would swell to the size of a pumpkin and then the boy would be impossible to deal with when they got back to Hogwarts. No, that wouldn't do at all.

Dusty reached up and grabbed his hand then to lead him back to the cabin from the bathroom where he'd been brushing his teeth.

"Come on Sev. I don't want to miss the story."

"I'm coming," he said, trying not to let any of his irritation come through his voice. Dusty came from an orphanage and had recently been removed from his foster parents who were mentally abusive to him. His mother had died in jail and his father hadn't been a part of his life since he was born. He didn't want to let his own foul mood, or POTTER interfere with Dusty's good time this summer.

That night as he lay in his bunk listening to Dusty snore above him, he wondered how Potter had managed to sweet talk his way into coming here. He just couldn't fathom it, and it kept him awake well into the night.

Harry had been there for almost a week now and had earned his zipline and ropes bracelet, and his gun safety bracelet (he rather enjoyed shooting BB's at targets even though he wasn't very good), and felt confident enough on the mountain bike to try tackling the mountain bike course, which could be rough and was only open to kids ten and above. Rhys had been great all week and Harry felt comfortable around him, and was glad that he never pushed him to talk about things at home, though he had eventually asked more questions about Snape. He didn't even laugh or scold Harry for trying to hide his face when they got close to Snape or for moving behind trees or even Rhys to prevent himself from being seen. For his part Harry thought they'd done a good job pairing him up with Rhys. He felt like a big brother and Harry liked that.

"Ready for the mountain bike course Harry?"

Harry nodded as he snapped his helmet on. There were different helmets in a plastic tub with a lid at the mountain bike course. They were full face helmets which Rhys said was necessary to protect Harry's teeth and chin in case he went over the handlebars. Harry picked the dark blue and black one leaving Rhys with the silver one. Harry had been on this one particular silver and blue mountain bike so often that week that he almost felt like it was just his. He'd always wanted a bike before and had often been jealous that Dudley got a new one every couple of years for his birthday or Christmas.

"All right, I've never been on an actual course," Rhys said, "but Jake told me all about it. This is a beginner's course but it still has rocks and other things you have to watch out for. It's meant to simulate an easy mountain bike trail. Remember to brake with both hand brakes and keep your eyes open for obstacles you'll have to go around or over."

Harry nodded and Rhys let him lead off like he always did when they went out for a bike ride. The course twisted and turned as it went down the side of a slope towards the lake and then back up again and Harry almost felt like he did when he twisted and turned and dove on a broom in the Quidditch pitch, though he wasn't going nearly as fast as he did on the open walking trails around the camp.

"This is ace!" he shouted back to Rhys after about ten minutes. He turned to see the smile Rhys always wore but Rhys ended up shouting, "Look out!" and Harry turned around just in time to swerve and miss a tree. Rhys who was right behind him wasn't so lucky and went straight into it.

"Rhys!" Harry said. He dropped his bike to the ground and pulled his helmet off, having trouble fiddling with the strap to get it off. He dropped to the ground beside Rhys and tried to help him separate himself from the bike. Rhys groaned and Harry felt his stomach squirm when he saw that his leg was twisted backwards at an odd angle.

"Are you ok?" Harry asked, but he knew the answer was no.

"I shouldn't have gone a round with that tree," Rhys said, trying to smile through his grimace as he held his leg and layed back on the dirt. Harry helped him get his helmet off, trying to be gentle and then Rhys said, "Go get another counselor. We're not that far from the lake and there's always people there."

Harry didn't need to be told twice and he got to his feet, fell, and got up again and ran off up the trail. He was dirty and sweaty in no time and even more so by the time he found a counselor and his camper on the trail. It happened to be Jake, one of the other counselors in their cabin, and Harry jogged them back to Rhys.

Jake ended up sending Harry and Peter, Jake's camper back to get another staff member and a stretcher, and Harry watched anxiously fifteen minutes later as they put Rhys on the stretcher and Jake and the other counselor carried Rhys down the trail. Harry and Peter got the bikes and helmets and walked them back behind the three counselors.

"He'll be ok," Peter said, trying to make Harry feel better, but he didn't. Harry knew the leg was broken and he was right. The camp nurse, Callum looked Rhys over and then said that his time at camp was over and arranged for the pool to be closed so he could take Rhys on the bus to the nearest hospital to get it seen to. Callum left the nurses office and Jake took Peter outside. Rhys motioned for Harry to come over to him where he lay on the bed.

"Hey, it's ok," he said, "I'm a clutz and this isn't the first time I've had a broken bone. Heck, it's not even the first time I've had a broken leg."

"Yeah, but you have to leave now, and so do I." Harry didn't want to tell him that he just really didn't want Rhys to go. Rhys understood him, even though Harry really hadn't ever told him anything.

"Nah, you can stay. They'll get another counselor. Actually, last night at the off duty meeting they said one of the kids fell and broke his wrist and had to leave camp yesterday. That leaves a counselor open."

Harry sighed and hugged his shoulders, being careful to avoid the bruises that hid just under his short sleeves.

"Will I see you again?"

"I don't know Harry, but if I had my way I would say yes. You're a special kid."

Not really, Harry thought, unless you count the scar and my mysterious defeat of Voldemort. People in the wizarding world only think I'm special because I have super powers, they don't really know me. He didn't say any of it, but he wished he could have. He wished he could have let Rhys in on his real life. He thought Rhys would have liked to be a part of the magical world. If only Harry knew healing spells, then he could secretly mend Rhys' leg and they would think he'd just sprained it or something and made a misdiagnosis.

"Harry, look at me." Harry looked up at him and allowed Rhys to reach forward and touch his shoulder, even though he couldn't help but flinch at the contact. "You are special. You're a pretty cool guy. I've never met someone as adventurous as you are."

"Thanks."

They heard voices outside the door again as people came up onto the porch and Rhys squeezed Harry's shoulder. "I love you Harry, ok? Don't forget that."

"What?" Harry took a step back and his brows knitted together.

"Like a little brother. Just know that there is someone that loves you."

The door opened then and Callum and Jake came back in.

"Off to the city with you," Callum said with a smile. "Got the bus all ready though you get to enjoy a bumpy ride all the way up the trail with us carrying yeh."

"Great, sounds like fun," Rhys said with a chuckle. As they picked the stretcher up and carried him out, he gave Harry a serious look though, and Harry clearly read in his eyes, 'Don't forget what I said.' Harry wouldn't. No one had ever told him they loved him before. Ever.

Peter stood in the doorframe and said, "Jake said you're supposed to wait here. I'm going to go with Jake though." He turned and left and Harry sat down on the bed where Rhys' stretcher had been a few moments before. Rhys might as well be dead, he thought, though he didn't mean it in a mean way. He might as well be dead to him because Harry knew he'd never see him again. What would the other counselor be like? Who was it? Was it even a guy? Would he be all smiles like Rhys? Would he pester Harry with questions about the Dursleys? Would he go bike riding with Harry or do the ropes course with him?

Harry stood up and paced back and forth, feeling anxious and sad and angry with himself all at the same time. It was his fault Rhys had to leave. If he hadn't asked to do the mountain bikes course, or if he'd been paying attention than Rhys would still be there. They'd be out hiking or doing something else fun right now. Ignoring what Peter had said, Harry walked out of the nurses cabin and down the trail. He'd been up and down the trails on the bike enough now over the last week with Rhys to know where they all went. He chose to take a steep trail up the side of a wooded hill that went above the ropes course. There was a spot on top of a large rock where they taught campers to rock climb (he and Rhys were going to try it for the first time later that day) and you could see the lake from the top. Harry took the long way around where he didn't have to climb up the face of the rock and took a seat on top. He looked out at the lake, which he thought looked pretty the last time he'd been up here, and didn't feel like it was anything special to look at now.

Harry was so busy thinking about Rhys and all the fun things Harry wouldn't be able to do with him now, and feeling sorry that he was gone, that he didn't notice someone sit down next to him until she spoke.

"You're Harry Potter."

Harry startled and looked over. It was the little girl who always stared at him during meals.

"Um... yeah." He looked around. "Where's your counselor?" She was awful young to be out in the woods on her own, and in general the counselors didn't let campers go anywhere on their own. It was a camp rule.

"I don't know. I broke one of the pencils and I thought she was mad so I ran away."

"Oh. How old are you?"

"Eight."

"Why do you always stare at me at meals?"

She looked shy then and turned away. Harry picked up a stick in front of where he sat and began to play with it.

"You're Harry Potter."

"I know. You said that."

"That's why I look at you. At- at your eye."

He looked over at her, confused.

"You, well... you're in school and everything, and you can do spells, and you defeated You-Know-Who... I didn't think anyone would hurt you like that... like they do me."

"You're magic," Harry said, surprised. He hadn't thought about anyone else being like him until he'd come here, but he had especially never thought about anyone in the wizarding world having to live like he did at home.

"I'm half," she said. "Before my dad died he said I would get the letter to go to Hogwarts. Then I had to go live with my grandmother and she isn't magic and she doesn't like me."

"What about your mom?"

"She wasn't magic and she died when I was little."

They were quiet for a minute as Harry worked over what she'd said. She knew he was the 'famous' Harry Potter and was surprised that he got abused because she thought he was smart and powerful because he'd defeated Voldemort.

"People are mean and stupid," Harry said. "If they hurt you they're not worth your time. And besides, you don't get to use magic in the Muggle world until you're 17 or they expel you from school, so I don't get a chance to defend myself with it."

"Oh," she said.

"You still live with your grandmother?"

"No. My auntie came back from a long trip from Africa and took me away from grandmother. I live in a nice place now. She planted Lily's for me in the garden."

"Why? You like those?"

"That's my name."

Harry turned and gave her a close looking over again. She had shoulder length brown hair and bright blue eyes.

"That was my mum's name," Harry said, and went back to playing with the little stick and looking out over the lake.

"Where's your counselor? He seems nice."

"He's not here anymore," Harry said.

"Oh. I'm sorry."

They looked down the path towards camp then because they heard someone calling Lily's name.

"That's my counselor."

"She won't be mad at you," Harry said.

"I didn't mean to break it, I swear," she whispered.

"Come on," Harry said, "I'll go with you." He got up and lead her down the safe side of the rock face, making sure she didn't go too near the edge, and down to the path where her counselor was waiting for her.

"Lily, where did you go? I'm not mad at you. It was just a colored pencil."

"You mean it?" she asked, and Harry could see that the little girl was skeptical.

"It's ok, come here." The counselor held out her arms and Lily hugged her. Harry thought of Rhys and how he'd squeezed his shoulder and told him he loved him. Harry hoped Lily's counselor loved her. It seemed like it, and Harry hoped Lily's aunt loved her too.

"Where's Rhys?" the counselor asked Harry. He pointed to the top of the rock face where he'd been sitting and knew that she couldn't see all the way up there.

"Ok. Come on Lily. Do you want a snack before dinner?" Lily nodded and turned and waved goodbye as she took her counselor's hand and walked off down the path, leaving Harry alone. He wasn't hungry for a snack or for dinner, and he went back to his spot on top of the rock face.

"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.

"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.

"Have you been to Rush Creek?" Severus asked him after breakfast one morning as they walked back towards the cabin.

Harry shook his head. "What's that?"

"If this was Rhys' first summer here it was possible he didn't know about it. There is a small creek at the Northernmost end of the camp. It is half a day's hike but it is worth the trip."

"Did Dusty go?"

"Yes. We went several times."

Thinking that Snape wouldn't bring it up unless he wanted to go there, and that he'd been awful nice to him in the last few days, giving him clothes and letting him do what he wanted, Harry asked, "Can we go?"

"If you wish. You will need hiking boots and we will need to take a lunch."

"I only have sandals and tennis shoes."

"I am aware. There are no hiking boots in the clothing closet, but I have an extra pair and would be willing to shrink them down for you."

"You would?"

"Yes. First we will go back and take two of the packed lunches. They keep several packed in the fridge for those who wish to go hiking so they don't have to skip lunch."

Snape lead Harry back to the Dining Hall and into the kitchen and Harry was pleased to see that he was right. There were ten brown bags in the fridge and when Harry looked in one of them he found an apple, a sandwich, a bottle of water, a package of peanut butter crackers, and several celery sticks. Snape pulled open a cupboard and pulled out a clear gray water bottle that had the camp logo on it and handed it to Harry.

"Fill it up at the sink. Every camper gets a water bottle and I have not seen you with one yet."

"I came late," Harry reminded him and did as he was told. They went back to the empty cabin and Harry watched curiously as his Professor pulled out a gray and blue pair of brand new hiking boots from under the bottom bunk and then dug his wand out of a hidden pocket in his bag. He said a spell Harry hadn't learned yet and the boots shrunk down to Harry's size.

"Try them on. I may have to re-size them again."

Harry touched the boots reverently. He'd never had new shoes like this before, and these looked like very expensive hiking boots. He sat on the floor and pulled them on and laced them hurriedly.

"Well?"

"They fit great," Harry said with a grin. This was the second time Snape had given him clothes.

"Empty your backpack so that you can take your water bottle and lunch." Snape moved to put his own lunch and water bottle in an empty backpack and Harry did the same.

As Snape lead him up the trail towards the ropes course, Harry found that he was actually feeling excited. He liked exploring and he and Rhys had found a number of cool things within the camp in the week Rhys had been there.

They walked as far as they could up the trail past the obstacle course before the path started to curve back down towards the bike course and lake and then Snape stepped off the path next to a large rock and beckoned Harry to follow. They walked in a straight line for twenty or more feet before a small lesser worn path appeared and they got onto it.

"What do you do at the creek?" Harry asked. He hoped he wasn't going to be expected to swim.

"Some fish but it is really too shallow for fish to be in the water. Others enjoy catching crawdads, frogs, and salamanders. Dusty caught a garter snake the first time I took him to the creek."

"Are there other creeks?"

"There are two that flow into the lake on the far side by the signing rock. This one does not flow into the lake. It flows through one corner of the property before going out across the main road and joining a river. Further down the river there is another summer camp several miles away."

"Like this one?"

"No. It is more organized and there are less counselors and more campers."

"Have you been there?"

"I have seen it." In his first summer his camper had run away and had followed the creek to the river and then down to the other camp which was more typical of a summer camp. Several children hid him and gave him a camp shirt for the other camp and he successfully blended for two days before the staff caught on and contacted Camp Kennewick. Harry seemed prone to running and hiding though, so he didn't want to give him any ideas.

They stopped for several water breaks because they were hiking uphill and finally after almost an hour they came to the creek. It was beautiful. It was too wide to leap across but also shallow, never more than three feet deep but in most places only one or two. There was even a little four foot tall waterfall to the left.

"The waterfall marks the Easternmost edge of the property. You can walk down the creek in the other direction for almost five minutes before you will hit the Northern boundary."

"It really does flow right across the corner doesn't it?" Harry set his bag down on the edge of the creek and sat to pull his hiking boots and socks off, not wanting them to get wet. Severus watched curiously as Harry stepped into the water carefully with a smile on his face. He did not seem to be afraid of shallow water. He reached his hands up into the air and stared up at the small piece of visible sky through the tree tops and then started walking up the creek towards the waterfall, not being careful about splashing.

"How do you catch a crawdad?"

Severus set his bag down and explained that you needed to put a worm or piece of meat on a string and gently bob it up and down by a large rock where crawdads might be hiding in the shadows. Harry came out of the creek and dug with his fingers before picking up a sharp rock and using it to dig for several minutes. He finally came up with a worm and said, "Do we have a string?" He grinned when Severus pulled one out of his bag and noted that there was a fishing hook on the end. Now being experienced in fishing since Rhys had taught him, Harry fearlessly speared the worm on the hook and waded back out into the cool water of the creek.

"Like this?"

"Raise and lower it more slowly. Keep your feet away from whatever crawdads you are trying to bait because they pinch."

Harry moved his feet back then and leaned forward to try to lure a crawdad to his bait. Nothing was biting in that location so he found another large boulder under the water and fished there. This time it was only a minute before his line tugged and he pulled it out of the water. The crawdad wasn't hooked, but it was holding on for dear life to the worm with it's teeth.

"What now?" Harry asked. This was possibly even more fun than fishing.

"You can pull it off and put it back. Be careful, it pinches and when they latch on they do not want to let go."

Harry laughed as he tried to carefully remove the feisty pinching crawdad and finally managed. The worm was still squirming and though he felt bad for it, he didn't want it to go to waste since it was probably going to die anyway since it was already hooked, so he dropped it back into the water on the line and almost immediately pulled out a crawdad.

"I think it's the same one. He's not very smart... or he just really wants the worm."

A moment later Harry was surprised when Snape stepped down into the creek with him. He was also barefoot and his hiking boots and socks sat safely on the shore next to Harry's.

"What are you doing?" Harry asked warily. Uncle Vernon holding him under the water flashed in his mind, but in the next second Snape was bent over and had both hands in the water.

"Looking for Gillyweed."

"Gilly what?"

"If one eats it, they can breath underwater. I have found some in this creek on occasion."

"Really? What does it look like?" Harry bent over to look down into the two feet of water. All he saw was slimy rocks.

"It is a grayish green and is not usually visible from the surface. It grows under rocks covered in a specific kind of slime. You must feel for it. It feels like coarse thread with hair. Be aware that there may be crawdads in the rocks however."

Harry lifted small stones worn smooth by the water and felt in the mud and silt. Finally he felt something that felt hairy and hoped it wasn't a creature as he tugged on it and it came loose.

"Like this?" he asked, holding it for Snape to see.

"That is gillyweed. The grayer it is, the less time it will allow you to spend underwater. You can dry it out and rehydrate it in water later for use. You should never eat it dry."

"It doesn't look very good," Harry observed. To be honest it kind of weirded him out to be holding it because it was slimy.

"It does not taste pleasant. The handful you have would allow you to breath underwater for almost an hour however. It gives you gills and allows you to filter air through the water. Be aware that it does not work well in stagnant water."

"Gills? Do they go away?"

"Yes. It does not work on Muggles. It interacts with a wizards magic to create the gills."

Harry looked at it skeptically. "How much for just a minute?"

"Pinch off one inch from the end."

Harry did as he was told and then closed his eyes and pushed it roughly into his mouth and swallowed. It felt slimy all the way down and after a few moments he felt like he couldn't breath at all. He gasped and Snape said, "Stick your head and neck into the water. You will not be able to breath air with the gills for at least a minute."

Desperate, Harry did as he was told and got to his knees in the water and put his head under just enough for the gills at the top of his neck to be submerged. He opened his eyes and breathed deep. It was like another world down here, and Harry looked down the few inches to the bottom and was able to easily see another patch of gillyweed. He pulled it free and observed it. It looked almost luminescent underwater. After another moment it felt as though he could no longer breath and he reached up to his neck to find that the gills were gone, and pulled his head up above the surface.

"Ace," Harry said in approval. He held up the new handful of gillyweed. "Are there other useful plants around here?"

"There are magic mushrooms on the high trail at the northernmost edge of camp."

"What do they do?"

"It is a common variety of mushroom used in many potions, though it has no practical use raw. You have used them in class. They are red with white spots and are poisonous if used raw. By the time you get to use them in class they are shriveled and brown or ground up into a fine powder."

Harry scrunched up his brows like he was thinking, and then said, "Calming draught and veritaserum?"

"Yes. You can buy several pounds of powder for a knut at any good apothecary."

He nodded and seemed to store this information away for later, and then ate another pinch of gillyweed and went back under the surface, coming up a minute later with more gillyweed. By the time they left the stream, Harry had a pocketful, enough for several hours underwater, and Severus wondered if this would calm the child's fear of the water. Was he afraid of drowning, or something that lived in deep water?

Harry asked if they could hike the high trail at the top of camp boundaries instead of heading back for dinner right away, and Severus reminded him that if they did that, they would likely miss dinner or be very late for it.

"Please?" Harry asked as he pulled his sandwich out of his backpack and ate it as they walked.

"Very well. We will be eating leftovers during campfire time however and it will be dark before we get back." They followed the stream and then found the high trail. It was heavily wooded like most of the camp but eventually the trees thinned out and Harry could see how high up they were. The lake was far below and there were several small white dots on the water that he knew were probably sailboats and kayaks and canoes full of campers.

"There is a race next week," Severus said. "It is not mandatory, but many of the campers are preparing by learning how to boat."

"A boat race?"

"A race across camp," Severus said. "By whatever means necessary. The camper and counselor who reach the signing rock first and write their names down win a prize."

"What kind of prize?"

"It is different each year. Last year it was a bicycle."

Harry looked up. "A bike?"

"Yes."

"Do you think it'll be the same this year? Can we enter?"

"The race involves swimming and boating because it is not possible to get around the lake faster than a boat can go across."

Harry bit his lip as he thought. He looked torn between asking to enter again and forgetting about the whole thing.

"We can enter if you wish, but you must first earn the swimming bracelet or they will not let us enter."

"Do we have to do it in the pool or lake?"

"Yes. You must swim across the deep end of the pool unaided in under two minutes."

"Do others have to be there?"

"Callum is the one who awards the swimming bracelet and he must be on duty to see you swim."

They hiked until it was almost dark and then Severus lead Harry through the underbrush and woods down a steep slope where there was no path, and they ended up at the bike course. He said they would have been able to make it to a path down if it was still light out but that it wasn't for almost another half a mile and they didn't have time.

They made it back to the dining hall almost half an hour after dinner had finished, and people were just starting to make their way down to the campfire. Harry and Severus went into the kitchen and pulled out leftover cold ham and boiled eggs and vegetables and started making up a plate of food for each of them, though it wasn't much more than finger foods.

"If you wish we can take this to the campfire to eat. It will be starting in a few minutes."

"Ok," Harry said happily, and they took their finger food dinner to the campfire and sat in the back like Harry seemed to prefer. Harry scarfed down his dinner and when they handed out marshmallows and chocolate he ate probably a dozen marshmallows and an entire chocolate bar on top of that.

Before bed Harry washed up by himself in the showers while Snape waited outside. He'd never had a bike before, and he really loved riding one around the camp with Rhys. He didn't know if Snape could ride a bike or not, but Harry really wanted to ride again before camp was over, and he really wanted to have a bike of his own. He wasn't sure if the youth home would let him have one of his own or if he could take it with him to Hogwarts, but if he had a chance to have a bike, shouldn't he try? He had gillyweed now, so if he started to drown he could stuff some into his mouth during the swimming test or out on the boat. But what about the scars on his back and chest, and the bruises? By the time he got out of the shower, he had a plan formed in his mind.

As they walked back down the path to the cabin in the darkness, Harry fidgeted with his fingers and asked quietly, "Could we ask Callum to do the test while everybody's at dinner?"

"The swimming test?"

"Yeah."

"You wish to enter the race."

"Yes."

"You cannot use gillyweed in front of the Muggles."

"I know."

"I will ask him."

"Thanks."

Harry lay in bed that night and dreamed of having his own mountain bike as he raced around the forest with Rhys, and curiously enough, with Snape.

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.

"Rise and shine campers!" called Jake from across the small room, and the others groaned as they woke. Feeling in an unusually chipper mood despite the early hour (it was just after sunrise), Harry stuck his head over the edge of the bunk and hung down, messy hair falling in his face as he hung upside down to peer at Snape who had just woken up.

Snape opened his eyes and frowned at Harry, who was grinning ear to ear.

"You will fall and break your neck."

Almost as if the man had said a spell to prove his point, Harry did fall and landed on his back and the other two campers laughed. Harry lay on the floor uninjured but shocked by his fall and then laughed. He suspected Snape had somehow said a cushioning charm under his breath with lightning speed because Harry hadn't felt anything when he hit the ground. Snape sat up and looked down at him with a raised brow as if to say, ‘See?'

Harry got up and changed for the day, putting on his favorite blue shirt, one of the ones from the clothing closet, and his green camo shorts.

"Can we ride bikes today? I want to go on the bike course."

"Yes."

"Can we take a lunch with us? Maybe we can make it all the way to the signing rock."

"Yes." Snape seemed to be in an irritated mood this morning, but then again, Harry thought, he seemed that way every morning until he had his coffee at breakfast.

"Take your bag with you to breakfast to carry your lunch in," Snape instructed him when Harry was fully dressed and ready to head out for the day.

Harry practically inhaled his meal and Severus could tell that the boy was antsy to go back into the kitchen to get his lunch and put it into his bag.

"You may go and get both of our lunches," Severus said, not willing to consume his own breakfast at such a speed or scald himself with his coffee for being careless.

Harry leapt up with his bag and hurried into the kitchen, and Severus shook his head while the other counselors at their table gave him smiles and knowing looks. He might have sneered, but it didn't fit this place. Yes, he thought in response to their looks, I have somehow become like Rhys and now must endure the child's wild enthusiasm. He still wasn't certain how it had happened over the last two weeks, but it had. Harry had gone from yelling at him and not talking to him at all and moping in his bunk, to agreeing to do things with him, to taking the swimming test, and finally to trusting him enough to scale the rock face with Severus holding onto the safety lines to keep him from falling to his demise.

In the kitchen Harry found the chef and grinned.

"Come for a lunch?"

"Yes."

"I haven't made them yet, so you can have your pick for the day. What will it be? Peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, lunch meat sandwiches, or something else?"

"What's the something else?"

"There's leftover chicken in the fridge and that ought to be fine cold."

"Chicken," Harry said. He actually loved cold leftover chicken. Perhaps it had come from years of sneaking cold leftovers out of the fridge at night when he was being punished and wasn't allowed to eat for days on end. He always suspected that Aunt Petunia knew that he took from the fridge at night, but didn't care because she didn't like leftovers.

"What about vegetables and fruit?"

"Um... broccoli and oranges."

The chef dug in a box and pulled those things out and put it in Harry and Snape's bags.

"And dessert?"

Harry looked around the room and spied chocolate cookies on a counter, brownies, and a large chocolate cake. Apparently the chef was in the mood for chocolate today.

"Made up your mind?"

"Can I- can we- I mean..."

"You want all three?"

Harry's cheeks turned red. Yes, he did want all three, but he was only going to ask for the cake. It was his birthday and he never got cake on his birthday. He never got cake on Dudley's birthday either. The only time he really got it was Hogwarts or at the Burrow or if Hagrid sent him a rock cake. He looked down at his shoes. "It's my birthday today. Can I have some cake?"

The chef walked over to him. He was a man living on the larger side of life around his middle. He put a finger under Harry's chin and lifted it so his eyes were looking up.

"Then lad, a cake you shall have, and cookies, and brownies."

"Really?"

"Of course, but I wouldn't eat it all at once or you'll be sick."

Harry grinned. He dreamed of making himself sick on sweets because he'd never been allowed to at Privet Drive. He did every year at Hogwarts at Halloween and Christmas, and now almost every night at the campfire. He always regretted it after he had a stomach ache, but he loved eating it all in the moment.

The chef put two cookies, a brownie and a small piece of cake in both of the lunch sacks. "There you go, and if Severus asks you, you made those lunches up, not me." He winked and Harry grinned again as he said thanks and headed back out to the full room of eating campers.

"Are you ready?" Severus asked, coffee now gone and breakfast eaten at a less than whirlwind pace.

Harry nodded and handed the sack lunch to Snape.

When they got to the bike area Harry was dismayed to find that another camper and counselor had already gotten there first and someone was using Harry's blue and silver bike.

"It is not worth moping," Severus said as he took his customary dark green mountain bike. Harry looked around and decided to take the dark red mountain bike that was his size. Red wasn't so bad, but blue was really his favorite color and he didn't mind the silver either. They headed up the hill to the bike course and Harry took the lead. Confident in his ability to navigate the tight turns in the narrow trails, he went faster than he had always done previously and was pleased to see that Snape was having trouble keeping up with him. Harry didn't want him to break a leg like Rhys though (though if he did he could always use his wand to heal it), so he slowed down.

"I wish there was a harder course," Harry said when they finally stopped riding for lunch, having done the course five or six times in a row. Harry sat crosslegged in the dirt with a tree as his backrest and opened his lunch up, digging past the goodies for the chicken. Snape sat on a flat rock and opened his lunch sack with a displeased look.

"You have packed nothing but sweets for lunch," he said as a statement. He didn't seem angry, more like unsurprised.

"There's chicken in the bottom," Harry said, holding up a cold chicken leg for the dark eyed man to see.

"And cake, brownies, and cookies," Snape said as he took each one out and set them down.

Harry shrugged and devoured his chicken, putting the bone back in the sack before pulling out another piece and doing the same. Severus was surprised that the child ate all of his other food before going for the chocolate cake. The speed with which teenage boys could devour food always amazed him. Harry had his entire lunch, including the three desserts eaten before Severus was to the first dessert.

With a sigh of content at the full belly and to be out in the great outdoors, Harry leaned back against the tree and stared up into the tree canopy, listening to birds chirping nearby, and the gentle breeze blowing through the needles and leaves.

"You seem-" Severus hesitated, "exceedingly happy today," he finished as he slowly ate his chocolate chip cookies.

Harry didn't answer for a moment as he stared up at the small piece of open sky. White clouds were passing overhead. "I never get to do this kind of thing in the summer," he said. "It's too bad Hogwarts doesn't have any of this."

"Wilderness?" He was aware that students weren't allowed to go into the Forbidden Forest alone, but there was still the slightly wild west wood on the other side of the grounds where older students were sometimes allowed to go to hunt for Potions ingredients for class assignments.

"No, bikes, and rope courses and zip lines and stuff like that."

"I would think you would prefer flying to zip lines."

"I do, but riding bikes like this is like flying on the ground," Harry said, not even stopping to think for a moment that he was having a nice conversation with the moody Professor from the Dungeons. He hadn't stopped to think anything like that in a few days now. Not since the swimming test.

"Hm. You do not ride bicycles at home?"

"No. Dudley has two bikes... a trick bike and a racing bike."

"But you do not?"

Harry looked over at him. Of course he didn't. He never got anything like that. He'd tried to sneak a ride on one of Dudley's old bikes once but he'd fallen and even though the bike was ok, Uncle Vernon had punished him severely for ‘theft'. He had a scar on his chest to prove it.

"I like fishing too," Harry said, trying to steer the subject away from the bikes. "Aunt Marge has a stream on her property, but Dudley's too lazy and impatient to fish so I bet he won't use it." Aunt Marge even had the old fishing poles and gear from her late husband that sat unused in her shed. He'd been there to her house several times over the years and she always made him sleep in a tent outside (which Harry quite liked) or in the shed.

"That is who your cousin is with now?"

Harry nodded. Or at least, that's where Dudley had been going the last time he'd seen him. For all Harry knew aunt Marge's lawyer had gotten Vernon and Petunia out of jail and they had taken Dudley home or fled the country or something like that. Harry hoped if they were out of jail that they had done just that... gone away to France or some other part of Europe so that he'd never have to see them again.

"You did not go with him?"

"I couldn't," Harry said. Perhaps it was the fresh cool air, or the cool dirt beneath him in the hot summer day, or the fact that he was full of chicken and sweets, or even that it was his birthday. He didn't know why he felt inclined to answer questions he otherwise wouldn't have, but there he was doing it anyway. "She only got temporary custody of Dudley. It's better not to go with her anyhow. She's not very nice."

"You would rather stay in the youth home than with her?"

Harry's eyes flashed something and Severus wasn't sure if it was anger or fear, but the boy seemed to come to his senses and clamped his mouth shut, and he knew that would be the end of the conversation.

Harry stood up and put his helmet back on and packed his empty lunch sack and one of the empty water bottles back into his bag.

"You are ready to continue around the lake?"

He nodded and Severus stood up and got ready to leave.

On the way down the trail Harry rode faster and faster as he thought about Dudley staying with aunt Marge. What if she had only been nice to Dudley because his parents had been there? She was always horrible to Harry and he wondered if she was being bad to Dudley too. Not that Harry liked his cousin after years of being tortured by him, but he did feel sympathetic for him if he was living a life like Harry had known since he was one.

"Potter!" Snape yelled, but Harry didn't get the warning in time. His bike tire hit a half buried root sticking out into the trail and he went flying over the handlebars head first as the front tire stopped suddenly. Riding bikes was like flying on the ground, he had said, but now he was flying through the air. He threw his arms up over his face in the two seconds that he was airborne, flipped over and fell to the ground with a sickening crunch. His ankle cracked painfully as it made contact with the dirt at an odd angle.

Dazed Harry stared up at the sky once again through the canopy. Ow, that really hurts, he thought. Was this what it was like for Rhys? Snape appeared above him with a worried look and blotted out the sunlight.

"Can you move?" he asked. "Where are you injured?"

Harry lifted his head and looked down to his ankle. He tried to move it experimentally but winced when a sharp pain shot through his ankle and all the way up his leg.

"I do not have my wand to tell what the extent of the injury is," he said.

Harry struggled to get his wand out of his pocket and was glad to find that it wasn't broken as he handed it to Snape.

Severus took it and took note that some dried gillyweed had fallen out of the teen's pocket when he'd pulled the wand out. He used the unfamiliar feeling wand to run a diagnostic scan when he was certain there was no one else in the area to watch him and then sat back on his haunches. "Your ankle is broken."

"No," Harry pleaded. "They'll send me away."

"There are only two weeks left of camp. You will not be missing that much and you will be busy healing."

"Please," Harry said, "can't you heal it?"

"I am not a healer Potter and I have only very basic knowledge of healing spells. You would be better served going to the nurses office and then to a doctor."

"But you can apparate can't you? Can't you take me to the Hospital Wing... or, or St Mungos?"

"Madam Pomfrey is not at the castle during the summer and there is usually a four to five hour wait at St. Mungos... we would be missing for too long and they would send out a search party for us."

Harry couldn't help it, but his eyes welled with angry tears. If only he'd been more careful. He'd already caused Rhys to miss camp for the summer, and now he'd done it to himself too. He hit the cold dirt with his fists and then winced when the action jarred his injured ankle and sent sharp pain up through his leg again.

"It is only camp," Severus said, though even as he said it he knew that it wasn't. He'd wager that for all of the campers there it was more than camp. For most of them it was the only time during the year that they were guaranteed their safety and that they would be well looked after and taken care of. Obviously the same could be said for Harry.

"Not it's not," Harry said, angry hot tears finally spilling out of his eyes. He swiped his bare arm across his face, angry even that he was crying like a child. "It's summer and it's the only one I've ever had. And it's my birthday and I had to go and mess this up like I do everything else. Like I did for Rhys and like I did for Dudley and like I do at Hogwarts."

Severus eyed him carefully. "It is your birthday?"

"Yes." Harry struggled to drag himself to a sitting position and was glad there was a tree directly behind him to lean against (and also glad he hadn't hit that tree head first during his brief and unceremonious flight).

"Today?"

"Yes."

So that explained the three deserts, Severus thought, though he wondered why the boy would tell the cook and not him.

He couldn't deny that the boy often got into trouble at school, but he knew that Rhys accident wasn't Harry's fault and was curious to know what else the child was talking about. "Explain what you said about your cousin."

"If I had just been quiet," Harry said, more tears filling his eyes. "If I had been quieter while I was being punished that neighbor never would have looked over the fence and they wouldn't have put uncle Vernon in jail and Dudley would still be at home with them instead of with aunt Marge."

"Is your cousin in danger where he is now?"

Harry threw his hands up in the air, exasperated and upset. "I don't know! I would be! Dudley's different though. They never treat him like they do me."

"Like punish him in the back yard."

"Never."

"How were you punished?"

Harry looked up at him.

"Can't you just try to heal my ankle?" It had a dull throb if he held still and wasn't that bad. He'd rather stay in his cabin for the next two weeks than go back to the youth home.

"Answer my question," Severus said. He would try to heal the ankle and refrained from saying, ‘and I'll consider it,' not wanting to make the teen feel like his safety was contingent on doing as he was told. That was almost blackmail.

Harry pointed to his now fully healed eye.

"The black eye," Severus filled in for him. His eyes moved to Harry's covered shoulders. "And the rest of the bruises. And scars," he added at the last second. Harry looked away.

"For?" Severus asked.

"For not getting all of my chores done by the time he got home."

"Not that it matters, but how many chores did you not do?"

"I had seventeen on the list and I missed one. He found a little weed in the front garden."

Severus sighed.

"I cannot guarantee that I will heal your ankle properly. I may even make the damage worse, especially if you do not hold still."

"Just try," Harry said, feeling exhausted now that his tears had dried up. The dull throbbing pain was starting to get to him and the rest of his body also ached from the fall.

"It will be painful, hold still."

Holding Harry's ankle firm just above the break and doing the best that he could with Harry's wand, which thankfully was cooperating with him, possibly knowing that it's owner needed help, Severus said the two healing spells that he knew for broken bones and then ran another diagnostic spell.

"It is healed but it will undoubtedly be sore for the next week. My healing spells leave something to be desired and your ankle bone is not as strong as it would normally be. I would give you a bone strengthening potion and pain potion but I have access to neither."

Harry stood up with Severus' help and tested his weight on the formerly injured member. It did hurt but it felt more like a twisted ankle now than a broken one.

"Thank you," Harry said. He felt like he could have hugged the man then for saving the rest of his summer, but he didn't. It would have been too strange. Snape would never allow a hug, he was sure of it. He was nice here, had been nice to Harry, but he was still the dark, oft feared Potions Master who lived in the dark, dank dungeons and who only looked out for his Slytherins. Harry was not a Slytherin. Ok, so maybe he looks out for his campers too, Harry thought as he took the bike handles as Severus picked up the bike for him. And I am one of his campers, he thought.

They walked their bikes back to the camp at a slow pace, Severus leading the way, and had an hour to spare before dinner when they made the cabin. "You will rest in bed until dinner. After dinner you may go to the campfire if you wish, but tomorrow other than meals or the campfire I expect you to be in bed."

"Ok," Harry said. One day in bed... that was much better than leaving two weeks early. At least he still had a chance to do the race across camp with Snape and win that bike. Harry didn't thank Snape again that night, but he felt like he wanted to. Ron would never believe him if he told him that he'd spent the summer with Snape and that he'd had a good time.

"The person in the back steers, the front is the power."

"I'll sit in front," Harry said, and listened carefully as Severus described how to get in and out of the sit on top kayak without tipping it over and how to sit while inside it and how to paddle.

"If you fall off in the middle of the lake it will be nearly impossible to get back on, but I will show you the best way," Severus told him after Harry had gotten paddling down and they'd paddled from the boating dock to the swimming dock. "It will require that you get into the water."

Harry didn't like the idea, but he knew that he had a life jacket on, gillyweed in an airtight bag in his pocket, and also that they were going to be in only five or six feet of water there at the dock.

"If we were to use one of the sit-in Kayaks this would not be possible," Severus said as he showed Harry how to hoist himself from the water and onto the Kayak.

"What do people do when they fall out then?"

"In the sit-in Kayaks experienced paddlers wear a wet skirt that keeps the water out if they tip over, and they use their paddle to right themselves again, otherwise they pull a cord and they and the wet skirt separate from the boat. Then they swim."

Harry frowned, wondering what a wet skirt looked like because he had neither a sit in kayak or a wet skirt to look at. Their kayak was like a big flat pontoon on top with a rounded underside and a narrow fin. In answer to his confusion, Severus said, "They do not have wet skirts here because if someone who is inexperienced uses one they can flip over and become trapped in the kayak. If the wet skirt is put on the wrong way it is impossible to get out of the boat while under water."

Harry slid into the water at the motion Snape made for him to do so and was uncomfortable with the fact that his feet couldn't touch the bottom and the life jacket seemed to be slipping up past his ears.

"Try to do as I have shown you."

He did try and failed as he slid back into the water. He tried seven or eight more times and was finally too tired to try again, so Severus climbed up onto the dock and Harry did the same.

"I would advise you not to fall out," Severus said, and Harry gave a nod.

Feeling like the boat wasn't going to be his best part of the event, Harry asked if they could practice the other parts of the course again, and Severus nodded. The rules to the race were simple: Both counselor and camper had to make it through the three legs and to the Signing Rock together or their victory didn't count. There were three parts. It started in the gravel parking lot behind the Dining Hall. Campers and counselors would have to race on foot up the trail to the rock face. From there the camper would have to climb to the top while their counselor controlled the safety rope. Once the camper was to the top, the counselor would have to run to the obstacle course and complete it while the camper went down the back side of the rock face. As soon as the counselor was done with the obstacle course, the camper would do the zipline, and once on the ground they would race to the second leg of the course at the swimming pool. The second leg was easy enough. The camper had to jump in at the deep end of the pool and swim the length of the pool to the shallow end and climb out. Then the camper and their counselor would race to the lake for the third leg. There were no real rules about the third leg. Racers could use bikes or horses to race around the edge of the lake to the signing rock at the other end, or use boats. According to Severus, everyone always chose boats because it was the fastest route. For the first time that summer, Harry wished he had his broom... flying over the lake would be a much faster way to win his new bike.

As they trained in the few days leading up to the race, Severus noticed two things about Harry: his determination to win, and how relaxed he seemed to be. The teen had been becoming more used to his teacher's presence in the last few weeks, but in the last day or two since he'd healed the Gryffindor's ankle, the child seemed to finally be at peace with having Severus as his counselor. He was tempted to keep asking himself, ‘how did that happen?' again and again, but stopped himself, not wanting to be the cause of his own irritation.

* * *

Harry didn't want to eat breakfast. He was too amped up for the race, like he was before a Quidditch game. Only it wasn't Hermione there with him at breakfast telling him to eat, it was Severus Snape of all people. The man had told him to eat a lot of breads the night before at dinner and to skip the sweets (which Harry had) because it would give him carbs to burn the next day during the race, but now he was trying to push fruit and yogurt on him and Harry wanted nothing to do with it.

"I don't want it," Harry said, and Severus frowned.

"The strawberries in the yogurt will give you some immediate sugar to burn. The race will last almost an hour."

Harry shook his head and held up his hand. No, he couldn't eat when he was too nervous or excited, it had always been that way since as long as he could remember. Once uncle Vernon locked him out of the house at supper as a punishment and a neighbor took pity on him and gave him a sandwich. Harry had been too worried to eat it though. He thought that he'd get in trouble for eating without permission or that he'd be locked out all night, so the sandwich went to waste and that neighbor never tried to give him food again, which he had always been sorry for.

"One bite."

Harry looked up with such a frown that Severus looked surprised and didn't ask him to eat again that morning.

"Can we put bikes up by the swimming pool or something?" Harry asked. "To get us to the lake faster?"

"There is no rule against it, but also no guarantee that we would get to them first. Another team might take them before us."

"Hm."

They were waiting at the starting line in the parking lot for other teams to finish their breakfast.

"I did however, take the opportunity last night to leave bikes and helmets halfway down the bike trail around the lake... in case something unforeseeable should happen to our boat."

Harry grinned. "You're a cheater," he said, but he didn't say it to be mean.

"I am a Slytherin," Severus corrected, and Harry continued to smile.

"How many teams are there?" Harry asked when people started to gather.

"I believe there are ten this year. Many of the younger campers did not wish to compete."

"Have you ever won before?"

"Twice, but not for several years." He and his camper had won the first year he'd gone to Kennewick to council. The same camper who had run away to the other camp with a bad attitude ended up having a competitive streak, and Severus had used it to get close to him. Several years ago he'd also been partnered with a young man who was determined to win, and who had spent almost three weeks practicing the various legs of the course. Severus of course had never won the race in his time there as a camper, but he'd never been all that keen to either. Harry was competitive and determined though, and if he could overcome his fear of the water, barring any mishaps, Severus thought they had a good shot to take it this year.

"How is your ankle?" Severus asked. He had a feeling that it was still hurting the teen who was just too focused to mention it. Or perhaps stoic was the word. He didn't complain about his bruises, and Severus reflected, he'd never heard him complain at Hogwarts either. Not about injuries, or injustices, or anything else.

"It's fine."

Severus raised a brow, but more people began coming out of the dining hall and the noise level rose so he didn't say anything else about it. Some of them headed towards the obstacle course and others towards the pool. They were spreading out to various parts of the course to watch the competitors.

Harry began bouncing on the balls of his heels and shaking his hands as though preparing himself for some great feat of strength just as Callum approached the gathered teams.

"You already know the rules so I'm not going to go over them again. After I blow the whistle to start the race, I'll be down at the pool on lifeguard duty for that leg. There's a counselor on duty at the rock wall, one at the obstacle course, and one for the ropes course to make sure everyone is safe and following the rules. There will be two counselors in boats on the lake in case of emergency, and as soon as the last team has cleared the pool I'll join them. There are also two counselors and their campers at the signing rock to help determine which team gets there first. Are there any questions?"

A younger boy asked if there was anything that could get them disqualified, and Callum replied, "Only if you do something that's harmful to another person or team."

When Callum was sure there were no more questions he held up three fingers and put the whistle to his lips. "Get ready!" he said, and dropped one finger, then the second, then the third. The whistle blew and Harry and Snape sprinted to the start of the path that lead towards the boys cabins and to the rock wall and ropes and obstacle courses.

Harry's ankle hurt a little and they ended up being the third team to reach the rock wall, but only by a few seconds. Harry harnessed himself while Snape rigged up his own harness. Once Snape checked that Harry's was on right, he hooked him up to the safety rope and Harry began to climb the rock face. He was the third to start, but they'd practiced this over and over and he was the second to finish. He unhooked from the line and ran down the side to the ropes course where he waited at the bottom of the ladder for Snape to finish the obstacle course. Snape had apparently been able to pass the first counselor on the course and finished in record speed. Harry had a feeling he was probably the best at the obstacle course from years of practice. He ran to Harry at the ropes course and Harry started to climb the ladder, now in first place. Harry for his part did the zipline and ropes course in what he felt was his own personal best time and made it to the bottom where Snape helped him unharness and they ran down the path towards the pool. They were only halfway there when another team came up behind them. It was the boy who had asked about being disqualified. The boy was a fast runner and so was his counselor and Harry and Snape barely made it to the pool at the same time as they did. Harry didn't bother taking his shirt off and dove straight into the deep end of the pool, swimming as hard as he could to the shallow end and climbing out to meet Snape. The other boy was right beside him and Harry glanced behind him to the pool to see that two other teams were starting their swim and several others were racing down to the pool.

Running hard and feeling tired, Harry tried to match Snape's long strides as they ran to the lakeside. The other team got their life jackets on and took a canoe into the water before Harry and Snape got there.

Out of breath Harry put on and buckled a life jacked and then helped push one of the two person kayaks into the water and climbed into the front. He was pleased to find out that there were two bottles of water on the boat, and after they had paddled for several minutes he opened one and took a drink while Snape continued to paddle, and then began paddling again. The kayak was faster than the heavy canoe and they came even with the other team.

"Keep going," Snape said. "There is another team right behind us in a kayak."

Harry turned and sure enough there was a team paddling hard who was about to overtake them despite their early lead. Harry dug deeper into the water on either side of the kayak with his paddle and focused on the bike he wanted to win. He had to get it. They pulled ahead by a few feet and passed the first motor boat with counselors and campers on it who were there for safety.

"We have paddled one third of the way," Snape said.

Harry didn't respond. His arms were starting to feel like jelly and he was trying to focus on the far end of the lake. This was about as far as he'd been before towards the other end.

After almost ten more minutes they started to come up to the second motor boat and Harry glanced over at it. There was a large man on board and he was watching Harry. Harry's insides turned cold. Uncle Vernon's out of jail. He's come to get me, and I'm in the water! He's in a motorboat and he'll catch me! Harry realized then, that in his excitement about the race that morning, he'd forgotten his supply of Gillyweed in the cabin.

"Harry, slow down or you won't make it to the end."

Harry barely heard Snape. He was paddling as fast as he could go. Snape had said he was the power of the boat being the one to sit in front, and he had to have as much power as he could to get away from Uncle Vernon. He thought hard. Had his aunt been in the boat too? There had been another person. A skinny person. They were both there to take their revenge. Maybe something had happened to Dudley while he was with Aunt Marge and they'd come to torture Harry for payback.

"Harry, slow down," Snape said again.

Harry didn't want to slow down, but his arms were spent and he felt shaky from not eating that morning. He involuntarily dropped his paddle in the water, and because the boat was gliding quickly through the water, they passed it by. Within seconds the floating paddle was far behind them.

"Are you ok?"

Harry didn't answer and Snape asked again. After he asked a third time, a kayak passed them as they began to slow, but Harry didn't see a kayak with a team, he saw a motorboat out of the corner of his eye with his aunt and uncle, and now Aunt Marge too. Still no Dudley. Was he dead?

Hands shaking furiously, Harry bit his lip. They were coming for him. There was a gentle hand on the back of his shoulder then from behind and Harry startled badly, rocking the kayak. He threw his hands down to the sides of the boat in a panic to hold on.

"What is wrong?"

There was movement behind him and the kayak rocked again as Snape crawled to the center and was right behind Harry. Harry flinched at the sudden contact as Snape touched his shoulder again and tried to turn him slightly so he could see his face.

"What is it? You are paler than Draco Malfoy."

Harry shook his head. He'd lost sight of the motorboat with his family. They were somewhere on the lake watching him... waiting to ram the kayak and tip him into the water where he'd drown.

"Potter!"

Severus said his last name with such force that Harry turned to look at him, and he saw the fear and anxiety written across the child's face.

"What is it about the water? Tell me what is wrong or I will have to signal the rescue boat over."

"NO! PLEASE!" Harry panicked.

"You do not want the rescue boat." It wasn't a question.

"They're on it! They'll dump me into the water and hold me under!"

"Who will?"

"My aunt and uncle!" His hands continued to shake despite that he was holding one in the other trying to get it to stop.

Snape looked around wildly, spotted the second rescue boat some distance behind them, and frowned. "There is no one on the boat but Jake and his camper."

"I saw- I saw them!"

"Jake and his camper?"

"My family." Harry looked around wildly, feeling confused. He had seen them, hadn't he? But as he looked again more closely this time, it was only Jake and his camper on the boat in the distance, watching the race.

"They are not here. Even if they were out of jail, no one would tell them you had come to this camp or where it was."

"You don't know them," Harry said looking down. His anxiety was at an all time high as he looked around again. Several more canoes and kayaks had passed them now.

"They have held you under the water before?"

"Please don't let my uncle get me."

"They are not here Potter, and even if they were I would not allow them to harm you."

"I don't have the Gillyweed Professor. They'll know." Harry had felt anxious before. He'd felt nervous before. He'd felt downright terrified before. But he'd never felt hopeless before. Not like this. He was certain he'd die on this lake and there was nothing anyone could do to stop it. Not even Rhys would be able to help if he were there.

Suddenly there were two warm arms around him though, and Harry stiffened, eyes clenched shut. He was certain he'd be dragged into the water at any second, but he was still sitting on the kayak, and these arms weren't beefy or hurting him like Uncle Vernon. They were just there, steady and warm.

"I will not allow harm to come to you," was the serious yet calm voice in his ear. It was Snape. Snape was right there. Were these his arms?

Harry continued to shake for a minute or more as Snape held him, but slowly calmed and Snape let go. Harry looked and in the distance he could see that several kayaks were on the not so distant shore. They were closer to shore than he'd thought they were and the race was over by now.

"I messed this up," Harry lamented. He could feel Snape in the boat behind him moving back to his position at the rear of the boat.

"It is only a race."

"I'm all messed up," Harry said. He was curious to know if Snape would say something like, ‘it is only life,' but he didn't.

"You have reason to be," was what Snape said instead, and he began paddling them the rest of the way in to shore. When they hit sand Harry got out and sat on the beach facing the lake. Somewhere behind him in the trees was the signing rock. He could hear people whooping and laughing in the distance.

"You do not wish to sign the rock."

"I didn't earn it. I didn't work hard enough. I lost us the race."

"And losing somehow negates all the effort you put into it?"

I wasn't perfect, Harry thought to himself. At home everything he did had to be perfect or he got punished. Somehow he'd forgotten that here. He'd been allowed to slack and be imperfect and he'd forgotten the rules. He'd let his messed up brain get the best of him. There had been no Uncle Vernon or Aunt Petunia or Aunt Marge. It had all been in his head.

"Do you win every Quidditch match?" Snape was standing over him, blocking out the sunlight.

"No, but I don't freak out in the air either and think people are there that aren't."

Snape reached down and startled Harry by lifting him up from under the arm. Harry stood there and looked at his professor.

"Everyone has ghosts Potter. It is just unfortunate for you that yours are more like demons."

At that moment there was movement in the trees behind them and a grinning girl and her counselor came down the path with a brand new mountain bike.

"It's ok," Harry mumbled. "I didn't want a bike anyway." He walked off around the edge of the lake on the side he hadn't been on yet, and Snape followed. He knew as well as Harry did, that he did want that bike.

We all face the reality that there are people out there who need help, and we can be the one person that steps up to help them.

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Harry was trying to forget about the bike. Well, he wasn't really, but he was trying desperately to make Snape think that he had forgotten all about it and wasn't bothered by the loss of the race at all. If Harry wasn't bothered by it, then maybe Snape wouldn't think about how Harry had freaked out at seeing his ‘ghosts'.

It was silly to say they were ghosts. They weren't. They were real people that he had interacted with, and they were still out there in the world somewhere. That was a harsh reality Harry wasn't ready to face yet. Camp would be over in four days and he would have to go back out and face that world where the Dursleys loomed and where Dudley was possibly being tortured by Aunt Marge at this very moment. Surely they wouldn't keep uncle Vernon and aunt Petunia in jail without a trial? Harry had seen trials on the telly in movies and on the news. He used to watch them from his cupboard where if he cracked his door open he could see across the hall and into the parlour. At trials they called witnesses and victims, and that meant him. At some point Harry would have to face his aunt and uncle again in the court room. At some point they would talk their way out of jail and Harry would end up with them again, and there would be a punishment so severe that he couldn't bare to think about it.

"What is the boy's home like?" Severus asked him one evening after campfire as they walked back towards the cabin, interrupting Harry's gloomy thoughts.

"It was better when my cousin was there."

"Why?"

"Someone to watch my back."

"It is that bad?"

"I was only there for a week before I got lucky and got to come here."

"You feel as though you are lucky to get to come here despite the mishaps that have happened this summer?"

"I never had a summer like this before. The closest was when Ron and his brothers rescued me last summer and I got to spend the last couple weeks at the Burrow."

Instead of taking the path to the cabin in the darkness, Severus lead him down another trail back towards the lake.

"Where are we going?"

"For a walk. I find the cool evening air refreshing."

"Huh." Harry picked up a stick and played with it as they walked. Occasionally Harry looked up to the night sky and ogled at the stars. A few times the Dursleys had locked him out in the summer and made him sleep in the back yard, and for his part Harry always enjoyed it because he got to stare at the stars and it reminded him of the Great Hall.

"What do you mean rescued?"

"Ron and his brothers flew the car to my house and got me in the middle of the night. Uncle Vernon fell out the second floor window trying to keep me there."

"And Molly Weasley was aware of how you suddenly came to be at her home?"

"She wasn't happy with them, but she was happy to see me."

"And the incident where you flew to school? Whose idea was that?"

"You're still mad at me for that?" Harry asked, and his tone seemed... hurt. Severus looked at him in the darkness but couldn't make out his features as they walked.

"You have already served detention. I simply asked whose idea it was."

Harry was silent for long moments. "Ron thought his mum and dad were trapped on the other side of the barrier when it wouldn't let us through and said we should fly to school on our own."

"I know for a fact that you do not always do as you are told. I find it curious that you would follow the lead of your friends so easily without questioning their judgement."

"Why would I question them?"

Harry sounded genuinely confounded and Severus refrained from snorting in the darkness. At Hogwarts he had treated Harry like a teenager. Well, technically he was 13 now, but before he hadn't been. Just a child, not the teenage version of James Potter that thought up ways to torture Slytherins and play pranks on teachers and find ways to avoid serving his detentions. Severus had expected him to have a sensibility that he clearly didn't have. If what he had heard so far was a true indication of Harry's home life, then it made sense that he hadn't really been raised just present. Present to be abused and taught strict rules, but not rules of any real helpfulness or meaning. Rules of fear and isolation. The only sensible things Harry knew were things he had taught himself. Severus remembered the things he had taught himself as a boy. ‘Don't anger adults. Stay out of the way. Don't speak unless spoken to. Don't volunteer information if you don't have to. Be ready to run.' He wondered if Harry had learned these things as well.

"How will you explain the absence of letters to your friends when school starts again?"

"Hedwig is with Ron. I don't like to bring her home."

Harry picked up a smooth stone and threw it into the lake. He didn't bother trying to skip it, and instead it just sank with a plopping noise, making ripples in the water under the stars.

Severus watched Harry throw several more stones before he picked one up himself and skipped it across the surface of the water several times. He had known none of these things about Harry or his home life before camp. Of course, his judgement of the boy and his situation had been clouded and his eyes practically shut tight to the child's plight, but not everyone was looking through clouded glasses. Dumbledore was always on the child's side and Minerva doted on him. Hadn't they seen anything amiss? Severus was finding out that Harry was secretive by nature though. He had been too at that age and still was to this day. Harry had already expressed his desire for no one else to know he'd been to the camp, so it would make sense that Minerva and Albus wouldn't know of his situation. The Weasley children had flown a car across the country to ‘rescue' him though. They at least knew what was going on, and Severus wondered why Molly and Arthur Weasley had not informed Albus or anyone else about Harry's relatives.

"You do not enjoy living with your relatives."

Harry snorted. "No."

"Why have you not informed the Headmaster or your head of house then of the ill-will they harbor towards you?"

Harry gave a hollow laugh then that was not bourn of humor. He shook his head and threw the stick he'd been playing with into the water. "He knows. He doesn't care."

"You have told him." It was not a question.

"I told him, Mrs. Weasley told him, and I think Ron and maybe the twins told him too after last summer."

"Did he have a reason for allowing you to return there?"

"Only that I have to go back for my safety." He gave another humorless laugh then. "Ron reckons he wants me to be tough in case Voldemort pops up again."

"What do you think?"

"Sure. Why not? It makes sense. I don't know why he doesn't just send me to live with the Malfoys or have me re-sorted into Slytherin. I'd rather have that then have to go home every summer."

"You would fit in in Slytherin."

Harry looked at him in the darkness. The hat had tried to sort him there. And Professor Snape wasn't as bad as he had previously thought.

"You are full of surprises Mr. Potter."

"What do you mean?"

"I said you would fit into Slytherin, but you already seem to know that."

Harry shrugged and remained silent. He didn't want to be in Slytherin. If he told Snape the hat wanted to put him there, the man might try to get him switched once they got back to school.

"It is getting late. We will head back to the cabin."

Harry stood up from the hard rock he'd been sitting on and followed Snape through the trees.

"One day you will tell me about it," Snape said, but Harry stayed silent.

* * *

One of the boys from another cabin had a birthday party on their last day there. People made drawings for him and his counselor gave him a digital camera. Harry watched the festivities impassively, neither feeling happy for the boy who had just turned eleven, or sad that another summer had passed him by without a party of his own. Harry was aware that his Professor was watching him, but he ignored him. He didn't care. Tomorrow morning he'd be leaving this paradise and going back to the real world. If he didn't start shutting off his feelings now then he'd be in for a nasty shock of fear and anger and anxiety tomorrow when he was taken back to the boy's home. It was just easier not to care.

Severus brought him a piece of strawberry cake and a glass of red soda and sat down next to him on the bench outside the dining hall. Harry took it quietly and continued to watch as other campers and counselors played tag in the field between the dining hall and swimming pool. They were using water balloons, and if you got hit you were out until you dried off.

"You do not wish to join them?"

Instead of answering his question, Harry turned to Severus with emotionless eyes and said, "The doors at the boy's home are locked. I don't have any way to get out to get to Kings Cross."

"I will ensure that you are retrieved for school."

"I might not be there you know. There will probably be a trial and my uncle will get out and then I'll be back with them."

"You sound certain."

"It's a certainty," Harry said quietly, and took a bite of the cake.

* * *

Kids were hugging their counselors outside the bus, and Harry thought of Rhys. He had hugged Rhys, and Rhys had told him he loved him. Harry wouldn't forget that. He couldn't hug Snape though, could he? He wondered if anyone ever hugged Severus Snape. Dusty would have, but what about the Slytherins? They didn't seem the hugging type.

"I am sorry you did not win the bike."

"It's ok, boys like me don't get things like bikes. I understand that." Harry noted that Severus looked consternated, but didn't comment on it.

"You have all of your things?"

"Yes."

"And the hiking boots?"

Harry pointed to show him that they were tied to the outside of his backpack.

"I will make sure you get back to Hogwarts."

"I know," Harry said. He felt... awkward. Everyone else was getting teary and some of the counselors were crying as their campers got onto the bus. Just like at Hogwarts people were exchanging addresses so they could write. Harry didn't need any of that, he had an owl, and he would see Snape in two weeks at the start of term feast. Not that Snape would care to hear from him.

"You're not going to cry, are you?" Harry asked him. The man looked... perturbed. Or maybe the word was disturbed. Harry wasn't sure. Snape gave him a stern look and Harry laughed.

Harry picked up his bag and slung it over his shoulder. He started towards the bus but then turned back to Snape and looked at him. He wasn't the dungeon bat here. Not with his camp t-shirt and black hiking boots and standing out in the sun like he was. He hardly seemed like the Potions Master at all. Harry would be sad to see him return to his sour demeanor in two weeks.

"Thank you," Harry said. Snape gave him a nod of his head, and Harry turned, still feeling awkward and got onto the bus. Callum took his bag and put it under a seat and Harry sat down. He didn't look out the window because he didn't want to see Snape's face or think about this place anymore. As soon as the bus rolled away it would be like this place had never existed for him at all. It was better if he not think about it. But as the last of the campers got onto the bus and settled down, and the doors closed, Harry felt like he had missed something. The insides of his stomach squirmed and he looked out the window. Snape was watching him, and Harry felt suddenly like he was Rhys and his life would be dimmer without him there. Harry had not hugged him, and didn't know if the man really cared at all about his fate.

The bus lurched forward and as it did Harry stood and stumbled into the aisle and ran to the back of the bus. He stood there and stared out the large back window, and Snape stood there in the parking lot and stared back. The other counselors were waving and cheering and shouting goodbye to their campers, but Harry Potter and Severus Snape just stared.

* * *

Bentham wanted to know how camp had gone. Harry and the three other boys who had gone to camp had been invited into his office to tell stories about the fun they had had, but Harry didn't talk even when prompted. Instead one of the other boys told about how well Harry had done initially in the race across camp, and another said what a good shot Harry was with BB guns.

"It sounds like you had a lot of fun then," Bentham said, but Harry didn't respond. His last moments with Snape and the lack of a proper goodbye had rattled him, and as a result he hadn't met his goal of quashing all of his feelings down in preparation for going back to the boys home. He was back to reality, but his feelings weren't. That meant he had to work extra hard now to keep them at bay. Relating all of the fun he had with the other boys wouldn't do him any good. It would just keep him stuck in the summer.

The other boys got up and left for dinner, but before Harry made it out the door, Bentham asked, "Are you at least glad you got to go?"

Harry turned around and had a feeling the counselor could see him struggling. "Yes." Then he was gone to dinner.

There was no peace for Harry at the boys home though. Harry was still the newcommer and some of the other boys were jealous that he'd gotten to go to camp for the summer. They didn't pick on the other boys because they all had older brothers there, but Harry was alone. The result was a black eye on his first night back, and bruised ribs the next morning. Harry was tripped, pushed, slammed into walls, and once hit with a book on the back of the head. Maybe if he had been sorted into Slytherin he would have known how to handle himself better in a situation like this. He wished Dudley were there. Dudley was actually rather worthless against other boys he feared, but his weight alone was enough to deter others from trying to pick a fight with him so long as he wasn't alone.

Bentham actually got upset with Harry in the days after he got back from camp because Harry refused to say who was beating him up, and Harry lost privileges for ‘lying' even though he'd never said a word either way. It was with this happy return that Harry steeled himself for another week and a half of the same before someone would come to get him out and take him to the Hogwarts express. He never expected that Snape would be the one to come though, and not after only four days.

"Harry, there's someone to see you." Dave stuck his head into the rec room and Harry lifted his eyes from the telly.

"Me?" His heart started to beat hard. This was it. It was probably uncle Vernon and Aunt Petunia. Or worse yet Marge had changed her mind and decided she wanted a slave for the rest of the summer. He hadn't told Snape that Marge might come to take him or where she lived.

"Come on."

Harry got up and followed him to the visiting room. Not many boys got visitors and Harry hadn't seen inside of it before. It was next to Bentham's office near the front door. Dave pushed the door open and Harry peered around him to see who was inside. It wasn't Uncle Vernon.

"Sir?" Harry asked, going in around Dave. Dave closed the door and locked it, ensuring they wouldn't be disturbed. "Do I get to go back now?"

Snape's eyes raked over his black eye and the bruises on his face and arms. "What has happened?"

Harry frowned, and then realized he meant the bruises.

"Nothing. The other boys. It doesn't matter. Do I get to go back?"

"This is hardly nothing. You look worse than when I first saw you at camp."

"It's just bruises. They'll go away."

Severus sighed and then sat down at the table. "I came to check on you. I did not imagine you would find such trouble in only four days."

"It found me."

Severus gave him another look as Harry sat down. "I have spoken to the Headmaster. He is aware of your new living situation."

"And? What? Do I get to stay with the Weasleys or at the castle or something?"

"You are to remain where you are until your relatives case is handled in court."

"I don't even know when that is."

"Your aunt's hearing is tomorrow and your uncle's is the day after."

"Do you know about my cousin? Is he ok?"

"A social worker checked on him last week and he was fine."

"I do get to go back to Hogwarts right? I mean... I don't have to wait here until everything is settled?"

"Yes. You will be retrieved the morning of September 1st." He paused and looked at Harry again, and Harry knew he was thinking, ‘if you survive that long.'

"September 1st. Got it. That's-" he thought, "nine days."

"Are there any messages you wish me to pass along?"

"Does Professor McGonagall know?"

"Not that I am aware of."

"Don't tell her. I don't have any messages."

Severus stood up and frowned at Harry. "I have things to attend to. I am glad that you are-"

"-Alive," Harry finished. "Thanks for checking." The urge to hug the man came to Harry like it had come to him on the bus as they drove away, but he didn't move. Snape didn't want to be hugged. He was Severus Snape, and until this summer he'd hated Harry. Harry hadn't been convinced when he'd left camp that Snape had really cared for him at all, but here he was checking on him only four days later.

"It's only nine days," Snape said, but he sounded as though he was trying to reassure himself.

"I know," Harry said. He gave a little smile but regretted it because it made his black eye hurt.  Severus pretended not to notice.

He unlocked the door and left without another word. Harry followed him out and watched as he was buzzed out the locking doors. He hated that he couldn't leave without permission. This place felt like a prison more than a home. Harry missed camp at that moment like he missed Hogwarts, and wished he could go back.

* * *

"There's someone to see you Harry." Dave was calling him again, this time from the cafeteria. Someone wanted to see him again? So soon? Snape had come yesterday. Aunt Petunia's hearing was today wasn't it? If she had gotten out, she might come to take her revenge right away.

"Is it a girl?" Harry asked.

"No. Same as yesterday."

Harry got up and followed him into the hallway and was surprised to see his backpack there on the floor.

"What's my stuff doing here?"

"Looks like you're one of the lucky ones. You're getting out. Seems you made an impression on that counselor of yours at camp. From what I understand he's taking you home with him."

"With him? Not with my family?"

"That's what he said. He's got all the court paperwork for us to release you into his custody."

Harry hurried ahead of Dave and around the corner towards the entrance, sure it couldn't be true, but Snape was standing there with an envelope that looked thick with papers.

"Where are your things?" Severus asked, but Harry was too busy staring at him to think about what he'd just asked.

"I get to leave?"

"I attended the court hearing for your aunt this morning. In return for her release on probationary terms she agreed to sign her custody rights over to me."

"I'm really going home with you?"

"Yes. The Headmaster will not be able to dispute the legal-"

Severus stopped abruptly because Harry had moved forward so quickly to hug him around the middle that he'd nearly knocked the wind out of him. Bentham and Dave were watching from down the hall and Severus felt awkward. He set the packet of paperwork down and hugged Harry in return. The boy didn't stiffen at the contact or flinch away. He did mumble something into his shirt but Severus couldn't make it out.

"Would you mind repeating yourself?"

Harry let go of him and beamed.  "Thank you. Thank you, thank you."

Dave came down the hall to collect the papers and Bentham asked Snape to step into his office while the papers were looked over and filed. Harry knew they were talking about him, but all he could hear through the door was Bentham say, "I haven't seem him smile once since he got here. Today was the first time."

"Impeccable references," Dave said, drawing Harry's attention back to the counter.

"What?"

"He's got references from several counselors from the camp. This Rhys fellow seems particularly enthusiastic about Mr. Snape's choice to gain custody of you. He's a professor at your school isn't he?"

Harry nodded.

"It doesn't say what school."

Harry looked at him. "Er..."

"It's Smeltings isn't it? Same as your cousin?"

"Yes," Harry said.

"Elite school. You are lucky. But I imagine Mr. Snape will get some sort of tuition discount for you since he works there."

Snape came back out of Bentham's office and picked up Harry's bag from where Dave had brought it down the hall and set it on the floor.

"It all seems to be in order Mr. Snape," Dave said. "It's all filed away. You can take Harry."

There were boys standing at the end of the hall watching as Harry and Snape left through the doors and they shut again and locked. Harry turned and looked at them and felt bad for them. Even for the ones who had ganged up on him and Dudley. They were stuck there, and he was free. He was lucky.

Summer for Harry always used to be bruises, a stifling cupboard under the stairs, starvation, endless chores, hopelessness and fear. Now summer was camp, the sun filtering down through the trees, mountain bikes and zip lines, cool mountain air at night around a campfire, Rhys... and Severus. Harry had always dreaded summer, but not anymore. Now there was something to go back to, someone to go back to. No one else would ever be able to understand how it had happened that summer, Harry's slow crumbling and how he had found a place with Severus Snape. But Harry and Severus and Rhys knew, and Harry knew one other thing too: when he graduated Hogwarts, he was going to go back to Camp Kennewick and help someone else, because they deserved it, and no one ever deserved to feel like they were alone. Harry wasn't alone anymore. He only got to go to Snape's house... his new house, for a few days before he had to board the Hogwarts Express, but wouldn't you know it? There was a blue bike and black helmet waiting for him on the front porch, and Snape informed him that he was exactly the kind of boy that got a bike.

Severus would always remember that summer as the time he went to camp and met Harry and forgot about that Potter child he didn't seem to like very much. It was the summer he considered the most rewarding, possibly because he had gone to camp alone and come home with a house guest that would later turn into his fully adopted son. After that summer Severus didn't go back to camp for many years, because he was busy spending his time with Harry, but when he did go back he knew he would never have another summer like the one when he allowed himself to stop being blind.

About The Dursleys

Vernon Dursley was sentenced to a year in prison for his abuse of Harry. Harry did not have to testify because of his age, and because the neighbor and Dudley did it for him.

Petunia was released a few days after her hearing and went to live with Marge (where she was miserable). She was not allowed to take custody of Dudley without going through a year of parenting classes. Dudley got to go back to Smeltings in the mean time while Petunia worked on those classes.

When Vernon got out of jail he moved back in with his family but also had to go through classes and anger management counseling, and human services checked in on them frequently and unannounced when Dudley was home from school on holidays to be sure they were treating him right. Vernon always suspected that there was somehow magic involved, because who ever heard of a government official checking in every other day all summer long?

Vernon and Petunia never saw Harry again, but Dudley did when he graduated school. Dudley and Harry became friends after they were 17 because Dudley remembered Harry protecting him in the boy's home.

In his fourth year, Harry competed for the Goblet of Fire just as he did in the books, but Severus had to secretly slip him a calming draught unbeknownst to anyone but Harry before Harry ate Gillyweed and went for a swim in the Black Lake to retrieve Ron in the second task.