Harry woke up several hours later from the smell of bacon and eggs, even though he was still so tiered he had trouble finding the energy to move. He wasn’t surprised at his surroundings, which probably indicated that he hadn’t slept deeply enough to get any real rest, but that was no surprise. What did slightly surprise him was that he didn’t have a crick in his neck from sleeping on a couch.

He stretched slowly, got up and checked the state of his clothing. He didn’t remember taking of his school robe but somehow, it had ended up on the armchair. Shrugging at the fact that his clothes looked like they belonged to a beggar, he left his robe on the chair and followed his nose towards the kitchen.

As he entered, Snape looked up from his morning paper and sneered at him. Harry ignored the man and sat down on the chair furthest away from the imposing man. As soon as he sat, a plate with scrambled eggs, bacon and toast appeared in front of him. Smiling slightly, Harry dug in. The food wasn’t anything spectacular, but he didn’t care. Considering the fact that he should have been with the Dursleys, cooking breakfast instead of eating it, the meal was as good as Ambrosia.

Once Harry was done eating, the plate vanished and Snape put the paper away. They sat in silent for a moment, Snape glaring at Harry with the kind of hatred the boy had come to expect of adults long before he was old enough to understand it.

Without saying anything, the dour man got up, grabbed a bag and started for the hearth in the living room. Harry followed, wondering how exactly they were going to get to Privet Drive but knowing he wouldn’t get an answer if he asked. Snape held out the floo powder and held it out to Harry, clearly reluctant to let the child touch any of his stuff.

Grabbing a hand, he stepped towards the floo and waited for the Potions Master to tell him where they were going. When he was told to go to Mrs. Figg’s sitting room, Harry almost dropped the powder on the floor.

Mrs. Figg lived across the street from the Dursleys. If she had her hearth hooked into the Floo-network, she had to be a witch. Harry had been living near a witch his entire life and he hadn’t known. What’s more, a witch had seen the way he grew up, the way he was treated, and she hadn’t done anything.

Somewhere in the back of his mind, Harry had always believed that if anybody in the wizarding world knew how badly Harry was treated, they would do something. That he was only still living there because Harry had never dared to speak about the abuse. Hell, Harry had been banking on that when he had agreed to go back to the Dursleys if Dumbledore promised to send Remus as a guard as soon as possible.

Now though, it took all his courage not to drop the floo-powder and make a beeline out of Snape’s quarters. Mrs. Figg liked him, Harry was certain of that. There was no way that she would have allowed him to stay in that situation unless she had no choice. Hoping against hope that she’d done nothing simply because she didn’t know how bad it was, Harry took a deep breath and threw in the floo-powder.

After several long moments of twisting and turning, Harry stumbled out of the hearth in Mrs. Figg’s living room. The house was dark and silent but for the sounds of cats mewing quietly. Harry had barely stepped out of the floo when Snape landed behind him. The man looked around for a moment before walking straight through the kitchen and out of the backdoor.

Once outside, Snape took something out of his pocket and tapped it with his wand. The man threw whatever he was holding on the ground and Harry’s trunk appeared. Smiling, Harry grabbed the trunk and started pulling it around the house towards Privet Drive. Before he’d made more than a step, Snape put a hand on his shoulder and stopped him.

Turning around, Harry looked at the dour man, who was doing his best to freeze the boy with his glare.
“As the headmaster was called away earlier this morning, I will be the one to deliver you to your doorstep. After thirty minutes, you will think of some excuse to go outside for a while. I will be waiting for you by the backdoor. I want you to vow that you will not, under any circumstances, leave me out there to wait for no good reason.”

Harry shook his head “Sorry sir, I can’t.”

“Can’t what?” Snape snapped, eyes burning fire.

Straitening his shoulders, Harry tried to match the man’s glare. Snape may be his professor during the school year, but it was summer now. Harry had enough to worry during the summer, he was not going to add fearing professor Snape to that list. “I can’t promise any of that.”

“Why not?”

Harry shrugged “Just thrust me. It will be much easier if you turned invisible now and follow me.”

“And let your family think we allow our students to just run around freely, I think not.”

Sighing, Harry shook his head. “I have been running free, as you so eloquently call it, since the day I was dropped on their porch.” Grabbing the handle of his trunk again, Harry threw one more glare at his professor. “You are here to make sure I don’t run away. If you want to succeed, you will have to follow my lead. You can either be invisible and quiet or you can stay here, I really don’t care.” With that, he turned around and walked away.

Harry didn’t look back to see what the professor had decided. What he’d said was mostly the truth. He didn’t really care whether the professor came inside or was forced to wait outside. What he did care about was that the man listened to him. They weren’t at school anymore. They were going to Harry’s home and no matter how much Snape believed himself to be perfect, the man didn’t know the rules of Harry’s home. He would know soon enough though.

As Harry was walking up the driveway towards the Dursley’s front door, he wondered if he’d be able to hide how he was treated. He really hoped he could, at least long enough for Snape to leave and Remus to appear. He did not want Snape to know. All his hope of a few days of peace was lost when his uncle opened the door before Harry had rung the bell.

The man glared at Harry and grabbed him by his arm “There you are boy. You thought you could run away didn’t you? Thought that you could make us look like fools, standing at king cross, waiting for someone who never showed up.”

Harry sighed and hung his head, resigned to whatever punishment his uncle had thought up. Instead of shaking him, or even throwing him back in the cupboard, Uncle Vernon pointed towards the stairs and told him to stay there until he was told otherwise.

Harry didn’t say anything, just grabbed his trunk ones more and started lugging it up the staircase. When Harry couldn’t get it up more than two steps, Uncle Vernon started towards the trunk and made to grab it. Afraid he was going to lock his trunk away again, Harry pulled harder, doing his best to get the trunk away from his uncle. Not counting on the trunk becoming lighter, Harry flew backwards and fell on his bum. His trunk flew over his head and landed on the top, right in front of Harry’s door, with a loud BANG.

Harry saw his uncle’s face turn red and scrambled up the rest of the stairs as quickly as he could. Holding the door open just long enough to give Snape a chance to move through, Harry pushed the trunk into his room. The door slammed behind him and he heard the clicks of the locks almost immediately. He sighed and slid down the door to sit on the ground. He was locked in again.

“Well, at least your family know when you need to be punished.” Snape sneered from somewhere near the windows.

Harry glared in his general direction but didn’t say anything. It wouldn’t matter anyway. Like his family, Snape had the uncanny ability to find a reason, any reason, to punish Harry at any given time. So instead of wasting his time with his professor, Harry opened his trunk and took out his school books.

Removing the two loose floorboards, he put his cloak and map into one compartment and several of his books in the other. Normally, Harry kept his potions book under is cushion so he had something to read up on during the long evenings he spend up there. With the professor so close though, he decided to keep DADA with him instead of potions. If he kept the potions book, Snape would probably think he was sucking up and give him a detention for it.

Settling on his bed, Harry started reading the Defence text right away. Defence against the dark arts had been absolutely amazing the past year, but it had been given by a death eater. Harry had already decided that Moody’s real identity didn’t take anything away from the lessons, it just meant he would have to check everything he learned.

Harry spend the rest of the day locked away in his room, but as long as he had his books, he really didn’t mind. Working in the garden would keep his mind occupied and away from the events in the graveyard, but it would also tier him to the extent of passing out. That was not something he could do, not with Snape there.

That evening, Harry was called to cook dinner and send back upstairs as soon as he was done serving his family. He didn’t mind. He had expected it. What he hadn’t expected was the outrage he heard in Snape’s voice when he asked “Where is your dinner?”

Harry shrugged and removed one of the loose floorboard. Taking out a few of the cauldron cakes he had hidden with his cloak, and held one out in Snape’s general direction. “I know it’s not as good as the meals at Hogwarts but it stops your stomach from hurting.”

To his surprise, Snape accepted and the small cake seemingly hovered away. Harry ate is own cake while eying the way Snape’s cake appeared to be disappearing bite by bite. When he was done, Harry grabbed one of his books and plopped down on his bed.

He was woken by somebody shaking his shoulder several hours later. Sitting up, he took in a deep breath, trying to calm himself down. He’d had that nightmare again, the one that started with his parents death and ran through all his other confrontations with Voldemort. Frowning, he wondered what had woken him. Normally, he only woke up ones the graveyard scene had played out or somebody woke him up. Looking around he saw nobody in his room, and he didn’t hear his uncle yelling either.

Rubbing his eyes, Harry blinked as he realized he’d never even taken off his glasses. Nor had he put his book on the desk. All of a sudden, he remembered the last two days. He’d missed the train but Snape had found him before he’d been able to hide. They’d made him go back. Groaning, Harry flopped back down and threw an arm over his face. Not only had Snape seen how Harry’s family treated him, now he’d also seen the kind of nightmares he had. Worse, the man had actually felt the need to wake him up. Harry could only assume he’d been screaming, as he doubted Snape would care if he’d simply looked uncomfortable.

Harry lay there for the rest of the night. Never saying anything to the man who was still hidden somewhere in the room. Snape never said anything either but Harry was fairly certain the man was awake. Not even Snape would be able to be completely quiet while sleeping, no matter how silent he was when awake.

Shortly after the sun had risen, the locks on Harry’s door clicked and his aunt yelled for him to get up and make breakfast. Harry sighed but got up and put on the ridiculous clothing he was forced to wear during the summer, grumbling under his breath all the while. Leaving, he left the door to his room open. He didn’t care if Snape followed him or not, but he doubted it would go over well if Harry shut the door in the man’s face.

Harry was able to smuggle a few bites of the scrambled eggs while he was making them and managed to sneak a few pieces of bread. He was ones again denied to have anything to eat but his aunt was gracious enough to hand him a glass of water before she told him to go and clean the kitchen.

Hours later, Harry was outside, working in the garden. He’d felt Snape eyes on him throughout the whole day but had been doing his best to ignore it. He’d been doing an admirable job at it too. That was, until he notices that some of the weeds were pulling themselves out of the ground. Harry narrowed his eyes and hissed “Stop that.”

Snape didn’t listen and continued to remove weeds until Harry pushed him to the side. The Gryffindor heard a small oomph coming from next to him and had to work hard not to laugh. It wouldn’t just be Snape that would be pissed off if Harry laughed. If his family saw him laughing, no matter what the reason, Harry would be punished, he was sure of it.

As he continued his weeding he heard Snape hiss “Fine, if you want to spend the whole day working, do it yourself.” He then muttered something that sounded like ‘obnoxious little brat’ but Harry couldn’t be certain.

Sighing, he picked up the weeds and started pushing them in the trash bag lying next to him. Glancing at the spot Snape had been before he whispered “Thanks for the offer but it’s too dangerous.” And walked away to get the garden hose.

It was four O’clock when he finally finished his chores and had finished cleaning himself up. He would have about thirty minutes before he needed to start dinner. Flopping down on his bed, Harry closed his eyes and tried to get a quick nap.

He was startled out of the calm that had come over him a moment later as Snape asked “Why is getting help dangerous?”

Harry grimaced and looked over towards the desk. Snape was still disillusioned but Harry was fairly certain the voice had come from that direction. Not to mention that he could feel someone staring at him from the chair. “They can’t see you. They’ll think I’m using magic.”

“A ministry owl would arrive if that were the case. You would think they remembered that from the last time you used unauthorized magic during the summer.”

“I have never used magic during the summer.” Harry snapped indignantly, he didn’t like being accused of things he hadn’t done. Then he reconsidered and added “Not intentionally anyway.” He did blow up his aunt after all.

“Don’t lie Potter. You cast a levitation charm after your first year.”

Harry snorted “No I didn’t. That was Dobby.”

“And why would a house elf do something like that. A house elf that belonged to the Malfoy’s no less.” Snape sneered

Harry shrugged “He wanted to keep me away from Hogwarts. He was also to blame for keeping my letters from me, closing to portal to the platform and hexing that bludger. All in the name of keeping me safe of course.”

“And yet, you tricked Lucius into freeing him.”

Harry grinned slightly at the reminder of his trick at the end of his second year. “Yeah well, as a thank you I got him to promise never to try to safe my life again. It was a good deal, all things considering.”

Snape let out humphed then said “Yes it was. Positively Slytherin of you.”

Harry blinked a few times, opening and closing his mouth like a fish. He had no idea how to take that comment. From anyone else, being called Slytherin would have been an insult, but from Snape.. Clearing his throat in an attempt to sound normal he smiled “Why thank you professor. Just imagine how awesome I would have been had I never met Malfoy.” Harry didn’t know why he was talking to the man, let alone why he alluded to his sorting, but decided it didn’t really matter. He was bored and Snape already knew too much.

As expected, Snape asked “What does Mr. Malfoy have to do with your so called awesomeness.”

Harry couldn’t help the giggle that escaped at Snape’s use of his words, it just sounded way too funny in the man’s languid drawl. “I met him when I went to Diagon Alley. He was a prat but I didn’t know that yet. He was the first wizard of my own age I spoke to so I didn’t really have a baseline. He mentioned the houses so I asked Hagrid…” Harry paused for a moment, not willing to admit what Hagrid had said about Slytherin. It hadn’t exactly been a nice thing to say. Looking back, Harry actually wondered how it was possible for an adult to say something like that. Saying all Slytherins were evil, or all evil wizards were Slytherins, was just as bad as calling Harry a freak because he had magic. Deciding to consider the implications later, he continued with his explanation. “Ron explained the house system to me during the train ride.”

A snort interrupted him and Snape sneered “You mean he explained that Slytherin was evil and Gryffindor was good.”

Smiling, Harry nodded “That’s what it came down to, yes. But you know, I wasn’t really convinced of Slytherin being bad at that point. I figured it was simple prejudice. Truth be told, I still think it is…” He paused waiting for Snape to make some sort of scathing retort, but continued when no reply came “Anyway, Draco came by to say hello when we were waiting to enter the great hall. He said something about choosing the right friends. It was obvious that he thought he was a much better choice of friend than Ron. I disagreed, vehemently.”

“And this is important why?”

Harry sat up and stared at the seemingly empty chair. He really wanted to see Snape’s face when he told him this. Since he couldn’t, he wanted to at least be in prime position to hear and observe whatever reaction he was going to get. “Remember how long my sorting took?”

“Yes…” Snape’s answer was drawn out. Which made Harry smile grow brighter.

“The hat told me I had the loyalty of a Hufflepuff and the brain of a Ravenclaw…” He paused and thought that over for a bit “Though, I think the hat knew I can’t be blindly loyal like the Hufflepuffs, nor am I really inclined to continual studying.”

Harry could practically hear Snape’s clenched jaws protesting as he snarled. “Get to the point Potter.”

“Well… It also said I had the boldness and bravery of a Gryffindor and was a cleaver and sneaky as a Slytherin. But then I told it, not Slytherin, and it sorted me into Gryffindor.”

Harry heard Snape suck in a breath through his teeth as well as the slight movement of the chair. He had a feeling Snape was pacing. Harry didn’t say anything else, just waited for Snape to give some sort of verbal response. When it came, it wasn’t exactly what Harry had expected.

“And I suppose you blame Draco for making you against Slytherin?”

Harry snorted “I’m not against Slytherin, just against most of the people currently in it. I don’t know if you’ve noticed but the Slytherins have made it their mission to make my life miserable.” Not that they really needed to try, but he wasn’t going to say that out loud. “But yes, I asked not to be places in Slytherin because Malfoy had just been sorted there. I didn’t want to be sorted with people that judged others on how much money they have or how much influence their parents hold.” He paused again, thinking it over. Pursing his lips, slightly unhappy at the revelation he just had, he added “Though, what the hat said was probably to blame as well.”

“How so?” Now Snape sounded downright pissed.

“It told me Slytherin would help me on the way to greatness… You know about my wand and its brother, yes?”

“I heard about it.”

Harry sighed and took the wand out of his pocket, twirling it around as he looked it over. “Olivander told me about it, thought it was curious that I would be chosen by this particular wand.” He looked up in the direction of Snape, or at least he thought that was where Snape was “He said that we could expect great things for me. After all, Voldemort had done great things, terrible but great…”

Harry heard a sigh coming from next to him and felt the bed jostle slightly. Snape must have sat down on at the end of the bed. “You were sorted into Gryffindor because you were young, and not nearly informed enough to make a decision like that… You should have been mine.”

Harry’s jaw dropped as his stared. Shaking his head, he sighed “No, I shouldn’t have. I saved several lives over the past years, I doubt I could have done that if I’d been in Slytherin.”

Snape snorted “Didn’t you just say you weren’t prejudiced against Slytherins?”

Harry shrugged “I’m not, I’m just being realistic. You may favour your little snaked but I doubt you let them run free. Besides, Slytherin or not, you would still hate me. Which means I would have been under the direct supervision of someone who already believes the worst of me. Not to mention that I would have different friends…”

Harry heard some rustling coming from Snape’s vicinity but they were interrupted before the man could say anything else. Half an hour was over and Harry needed to go make dinner.

Cooking dinner took longer than expected and when he was finally done, Uncle Vernon and Dudley were yelling at him to hurry up. Rushing back and forth from the kitchen to the table, Harry wasn’t paying attention and ran straight into Snape. Though, paying attention probably wouldn’t have helped, since the man was still invisible. But he should have known something like this was going to happen. With his luck, something just had to go wrong. What’s more, it had to happen right in front of his uncle.

Harry fell back on his butt like a toddler, the casserole flew out of his hands and landed on top of him, upside down of course. Closing his eyes, he tried to count to ten. He wasn’t sure why, probably just so he had some time to decide what to do. He could either started apologizing or burst out laughing. Since he had no idea whether to apologize to Snape or his family, he decided to go with option number one.

He let himself fall back completely, his eyes still closed, and started laughing like a maniac. He thought he heard his uncle yelling at him, but his own laughter was blocking the words from getting to him. Rolling on his side, he tried to catch his breath. It wasn’t really working.

Harry wasn’t sure how long he laughed, but he was sort of glad when his uncle grabbed his arm and dragged him upright. His stomach was starting to hurt and he needed the shock to stop his hysterical chuckling. The relief didn’t last though, as his uncle started shaking him like a rag doll.

Inwardly, Harry sighed. He knew what was coming. His uncle would yell and scream at him, shake him until his shoulder popped out of its socket and probably end of with a week in the cupboard. If he had dropped dinner and apologized, he would have been yelled at and maybe locked in his room for a few days. But Harry had not only dropped dinner, he had done so because he ran into an invisible wall –and his uncle had seen, so he couldn’t say he’d tripped. To top it all off, Harry had started laughing instead of apologizing profusely. That was three strikes, which could only lead to the cupboard.

None of that happened though. Well, the bellowing did but Harry could deal with that. But instead of being shaken in thrown into the cupboard. Uncle Vernon pulled back abruptly and a voice colder than iced hissed “Get your grubby paws of that child.”

Harry blinked, slightly taken aback by the fact that Snape had actually interfered. Before he could say anything though, his aunt and cousin started screeching at the ghost, while his uncle bellowed for the intruder to show himself.

Snape complied and removed the spell. He was standing between Harry and his family so he couldn’t see his professor’s expression as he faced the Dursleys, but it was obvious from his stance that he was furious. Glancing around the man, Harry saw Dudley and Aunt Petunia going pale, while his uncle’s face went beet red.

Harry expected his uncle to speak first, or maybe Snape, but it was Petunia that finally broke the silence. As she pursed her lips his discussed, she spat “Snape.”

Snape glanced at her but didn’t acknowledge her any further. Harry on the other hand, wanted to know how his aunt knew one of his professors. Knowing Snape wouldn’t answer, he turned to his aunt and risked breaking another rule as he asked “You know him?”

Before she could answer, Snape turned to him and told him to go and pack his stuff. Seeing the look on the man’s face, he decided not to protest. Though, he did walk as slowly as possible, trying to hear what was said. He could hear Snape’s voice but since he couldn’t catch was he was saying, Harry rushed up the stairs and packed his trunk.

Because he had been hoping for just this to happen once Remus came to guard him, most of his stuff was still in his trunk. Grabbing the things he had hidden under the floorboard took him only a minute, maybe two. Dragging the trunk down the stairs took only a few seconds, since he really didn’t care that his family would be pissed with him letting the trunk slide down on his own. Yet, by the time Harry had followed his trunk down, Snape was already waiting for him. His family was nowhere to be seen.

Snape looked at him for a moment then shook his head, his hair swinging in front of his face. Without saying a word, he grabbed Harry’s trunk and led the way outside. Harry wanted to say something, maybe thank the man for interfering, but Snape was pushing him towards the road and apparated them away before Harry had fully realized what was going on.