Harry scrubbed the wooden floor of the decaying cottage on his hands and knees. This was nothing new. The Dursleys always had him scrubbing something (except they usually gave him a mop). That he had done it without arguing with the strange man who had kidnapped him a week ago was a testament to how well the Dursleys had trained him to obey (or to be afraid). Harry didn't need training to be afraid of this strange wizard though. The man had surprised Harry in the park down the street from his aunt and uncle's house over summer, taken his wand, and apparated him to this miserable place at the beach. Harry always thought he would have liked the beach, but now he was certain that he didn't. The air was always damp and cold, and it made wood decay. Wood that he now had to break his back to repair. The entire cottage smelled of mildew, and Harry felt sick from it. Or maybe he felt sick because he'd been disarmed so easily there in the park. He certainly wasn't happy about it. He'd fought Voldemort, giant snakes, and acromantulas, but this man had gotten the better of him. There hadn't even been much of a firefight. Harry suspected he had been drugged before being kidnapped, but he really wasn't sure how since the Dursleys hadn't fed him in several days. Harry had been at the park looking through rubbish bins for anything at all to eat when he'd been taken.

The man who had kidnapped him was tall and wiry and had thinning black hair, a sallow face and a hooked nose. He reminded Harry forcefully of Severus Snape, but as far as Harry knew Snape had no family. Then again, Harry didn't know much about him at all aside from the fact that he disliked children and liked to take points from Gryffindor. And he didn't like Harry. No matter, neither did this man. Harry didn't seem to have any luck at all when it came to adults liking him. Mr. and Mrs. Weasley, Sirius, Remus, and McGonagall. That was the list he kept in his head of adults that didn't want to harm him or put him in harm's way.

"Don't be so slow! Yer like a damn sea slug," the man shouted at Harry as he walked through the living room on his way out to the rotting porch. Harry pretended to scrub the floor with a little more vigor, but as soon as the man had disappeared from sight, Harry dropped the scrub brush and sat up on his knees. His back was aching. It didn't help that the man had whipped him yesterday. The Dursley's punished him often and for no reason, but never like this. They withheld food or told him to get lost for the day or stay out of sight, but they'd always been too afraid to lay a hand on him. This sour man had no such fear.

Harry wasn't sure if he was being held to take to Voldemort at a later date, but if that was the case he couldn't see why he hadn't been taken right away. He'd asked the man on the second day (and got punched in the side for his question) why he'd kidnapped him, but the man had only snapped, "You owe it to me boy! You're gonna pay your dues!"

The man actually didn't talk much except to snap out orders or disparage the hard work Harry had done. "A troll could have done better boy!" "Is that as fast as you can move?" "Make my tea and there'd better not be anything in it that's not supposed to be there!" "Clumsy fool! Fall off the ladder like that again and I'll turn you over my knee!" He seemed to need as little reason as the Dursleys to punish Harry.

Harry had tried to escape on the second night. He had waited until it was dark and then left the house not caring that he didn't have his wand, running as fast as he could down the coast. He didn't get very far in the dark though, and his angry kidnapper had given him a fast punch in the face and dragged him back, kicking and fighting all the way to the cottage. Harry still had the black eye and it still hurt. What an awful way to spend the summer. He'd been hoping for an owl from his friends so he could write a plea for help, but no owls had come and Harry suspected the property had been warded against intrusion somehow. Maybe that's how he'd been caught while escaping. He had triggered some kind of ward alarm and the lanky elder man had come to find him.

He had no idea where his wand was being kept (maybe it had been snapped in half by now), but he was determined to get away at some point. He'd been biding his time, plotting while he cleaned and patched the roof and re-built the porch roof. He kept track of how many days he'd been there at the cottage too. It was August first when he'd been kidnapped, and he knew he had to figure out a way to escape by September 1st so he could get back to Hogwarts. The real problem was, he had no idea where he was being kept or how to apparate away. If there were no towns nearby where he could seek out help, that could be a real problem. It was August eighth and as each day passed, Harry grew more anxious that he'd never escape; would never get back to school again.

"Get a move on boy! Don't make me come in there and wallop you again! You know I will!"

Harry sighed and finished scrubbing the floor.

* * *

Tobias sat on the porch drinking iced tea as Harry replaced the rotting porch floorboards. It wasn't hard to put the new wood down, the hard part was getting the old, soft wood up. He had to break it apart with a hammer and take it to the pile of other decaying material in the sandy yard.

"This would be easier if I had my wand."

"Don't worry about your wand boy. You'll get it back when I'm ready to give it back."

"You didn't snap it?"

"Do you want me to?" Harry shook his head. He was sweaty and tired and the last thing he needed was to be threatened that his wand would be gone for good. "Get back to work then."

"Can I have something to drink?"

"Drink water from the spigot."

Harry went to the rusting metal spigot on a long pipe sticking up out of the ground and turned it on. He put his entire head under it and let his hair get drenched to help him cool off.

"You like the water boy?"

"I have a name, and I don't know."

"I don't like your name."

"Too bad. It's mine and you're not taking it from me." He'd already been stripped of his freedom, dignity, and wand. The man wasn't getting his name too.

"Finish your work. If you get done before sunset I might let you go down to the shore."

Harry raised his brow and then went back to work. Why would the man do that? He'd been nothing but nasty to him for the last ten days. Now he was offering to possibly give his wand back at some later date, and let him go play in the water?

* * *

The man's name was Tobias. He'd told Harry several more times that he didn't like his name, until finally Harry asked what his name was. "Tobias. A hell of a lot better than Harry Potter."

"You kidnapped the wrong person. They'll be looking for me."

"You're not worth anything boy. Nothing at all. No one thinks a silly little boy can actually defeat He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named." Tobias had laughed and Harry's face had grown red. Maybe I'm really not worth anything, Harry had thought to himself. Not if I can be disarmed so easily. Not if I let Cedric die.

* * *

Tobias was unpredictable. He'd let Harry play in the water several times in the evenings to cool off and wash the sweat of hard work away, but then got angry when Harry got sick and had to miss several days of working on the cottage.

"You good for nothing brat," Tobias shouted at him as Harry lay on his ratty mattress on the floor in the tiny bedroom. He had a threadbare blanket that was a farsight worse than what he was used to at the Dursleys, and he tried to hide under it for the little protection it gave him from the angry man. "You owe me! You get up and start working!" He kicked Harry and Harry turned away. He could tell he had a fever. He had already tried and failed several times to get up and work, but every time he stood he was too dizzy to remain upright.

"Good for nothing. Is it any wonder no one's come for you?" He stormed out and slammed the door.

Harry sat up and tried to stand. He didn't want Tobias to come back and kick him again. He'd been coming in every couple of hours to berate him for being too sick to work. The callous man was intoxicated and Harry wished he were well enough to seize this opportunity to escape. Dizzy, Harry fell back onto the bed, too tired to make it out of the room, let alone escape.

* * *

Harry had lost track of the days. He'd tried to keep count by scratching marks into the floor next to his mattress, but he'd drifted in and out of consciousness so many times while he was sick that he wasn't sure if he'd slept for one day, or ten. Tobias wouldn't tell him what the date was either, though Harry thought it might have been because the man didn't know what the date was himself. At some point he'd come into the room and finally dragged Harry out of it, depositing him, still sick, onto a chair at the kitchen table. Harry was surprised to find a hot bowl of chicken broth being placed before him as well as a warm cup of tea.

"Don't burn yourself on it boy! Finish it before I change my mind. Children who don't work don't get fed and you're lucky I'm feeling generous today." No, Harry thought, I'm lucky you're not drunk today. He seemed worse when he was drunk. At least sober he didn't come in to kick Harry just because he couldn't get out of bed. Harry drank the broth and tea and felt warm for the first time in days.

"Why are you being nice to me?"

Tobias shot him a look that said Harry had made a mistake in asking him this particular question. "I put a roof over your head! Feed you! Keep you from digging around in rubbish bins for your meals, and I'm not nice! Who would have thought the famous Harry Potter would be so ungrateful!" He moved around the table faster than Harry thought was possible and grabbed the back of his dirty shirt. Harry thought he would try to drag him back to the front porch to work again, but instead he pulled him off the chair and onto the floor.

"You just sleep there on the floor until you figure out what it means to be grateful!" He stormed away angrily and Harry was afraid to get up. He'd been told to stay there and he had no energy to fight Tobias if he disobeyed and Tobias came back to punish him.

Unfortunately Tobias hadn't meant for Harry to sleep just one night on the kitchen floor. He had meant every night, and Harry began to miss his ratty thin mattress in his room.

* * *

"Sir?"

Tobias looked up from where he sat on the faded striped couch.

"Oh so it's sir now is it boy?"

Harry looked down at his shoes, face red.

"I see," Tobias said, sounding pleased. See? What did he see? Harry was confused.

"You need a bath," Tobias said. "Let's go down to the shore, and after that I'll make your dinner."

Harry continued looking at his shoes as they moved down the sandy path through the scrub brush to the water. He got in fully clothed and washed the grime away as best as he could from his skin and hair and clothes. He hadn't been allowed to the shore since before he'd gotten sick. Tobias stood on the shore and watched, a distant look in his eyes. When Harry was done he felt marginally better and followed Tobias back to the cottage. He sat in one of the two kitchen chairs as Tobias made simple sandwiches for dinner.

"You sleep in your room on the mattress again tonight," Tobias told him, and Harry felt grateful. And then he felt ashamed that he hadn't been grateful before, and confused at the same time.

* * *

"I think it's time you had yer wand back. You'll need it if you're going to repair the chimney."

Harry looked up, stunned. Tobias was standing there on the porch holding his wand out to him. He wasn't sure if he dared believe what was happening.

"I- can have it back?" Harry asked.

"That's what I said, isn't it boy?" Tobias seemed to think better of something then, and said, "Harry."

"You said you didn't like my name."

"You could do worse." Harry wasn't so sure he could. He took the wand and ran his thumb up and down the wood.

"Get up on the roof and use reparo to fix the chimney. You'll have to fix each brick separately. Don't worry about the underage trace."

Briefly the thought crossed his mind to use the wand to escape, but he remembered how easily Tobias had taken his wand away back in Little Whinging, and he didn't feel like he could fight the man then. Harry went to the shed and got the ladder and did as he was told, ignoring the hot sun as it burned his back through his shirt, and burned his skin. He knew he'd have a sunburn by the time he was done but it didn't matter. If he didn't get the chore done, there would be worse consequences than a sunburn.

That evening at dinner, Harry screwed up his courage to ask, "Do I- do I get to go back to school?"

"Don't push me boy."

"Yes sir."

They finished eating and Harry stood to clear the dishes and wash the table. Tobias looked at him with narrowed eyes.

"I want you to go to the store and buy beer."

"I don't have any money sir."

"I'll give you money boy."

"Will they let me buy it?"

"That's yer problem."

Harry gave a little nod and was surprised when Tobias pulled out his wallet and handed Harry a twenty pound note.

"I don't know how to get there."

"Take the path behind the house to the end. It leads to the road. Take a left and it will take you straight into town. There's only one store. Don't be too long."

Harry took the money and hurried out the door and around the side of the house to the sandy path. Later, he would reflect, he didn't know if it was that he was tired, or overly anxious about completing his task and doing it right, but he didn't think about escaping. He had his wand and enough money for a bus, but it never crossed his mind. He followed Tobias' instructions to the letter and was surprised when the evening store attendant didn't care about his age and sold him the beer. He hurried back to the cottage, worried that he'd be punished for taking too long. Tobias was sitting on the couch reading a book. He looked up at Harry and seemed... impressed, and Harry felt relieved that it finally seemed like he'd done something right.

"The change?" Tobias held out his hand and Harry gave him exact change. He'd wanted to buy a fizzy drink or candy bar, but wasn't sure if he'd get in trouble, so he'd brought back all the money that hadn't been spent on the beer.

"The answer is yes," Tobias said as Harry set the beer on the coffee table and turned to leave.

"Sir?"

"Yes you can go back to school. And if you know what's good for you, you'll keep yer mouth shut about yer summer."

"Th- thank you?"

Tobias smirked, reminding Harry of Snape again. Funny, it had been months (or had it only been weeks?) but Harry hadn't thought of Snape much. The man might look like his Potions Professor, but he was nothing like him. He was crazy, and scary, and mean like one of Aunt Marge's dogs... but was occasionally kind. Kind enough to let Harry bathe in the sea, and feed him soup when he was sick, and let him sleep on his mattress again.

"Finish the dishes and I'll retrieve your trunk of school things. The train leaves tomorrow."

"Tomorrow?" Had it really only been a month? Harry's head felt like it was spinning. Time had stood still there at the decaying cottage. He swore it had. The never ending summer that he wasn't sure he would survive had somehow passed him by.

"That's what I said boy! You'd think by now that school would have taught you something! Put some sense in that empty brain of yours!" Harry looked away, feeling properly chastized, and hurried to do the dishes. He heard Tobias go out to the porch, and then a pop. He scrubbed the dishes clean, and before he could dry them and get them back into the cupboard, Tobias was back with Harry's trunk. He was sad to see that Hedwig hadn't come back with him. Maybe, if he was very lucky, she'd gone to spend the summer with Ron, and Uncle Vernon hadn't done anything to her when he hadn't come back. He wondered then, for the first time since he'd gotten there, if his aunt and uncle had missed him, or if they'd noticed his absence at all.

"Go to bed if you expect to go to London in the morning. We're leaving at dawn and I'm not sticking around to see yeh off." Not wanting to anger the man and make him change his mind, Harry practically ran down the hall to his tiny room. He lay there in bed staring at the darkened ceiling, hoping it wasn't all some cruel joke and that he'd really be allowed to get on the train tomorrow. Tobias had given him his wand back though, hadn't he? Trusted him to go into town to the store... maybe Harry really would get to go back to school.

* * *

Harry felt... disconnected to the crowd of people around him. Tobias had dropped him off at six am and given him a few pounds for breakfast from one of the vendors at King's Cross. That had been hours ago, and now Harry was standing on platform nine and three quarters waiting for the train to open its doors so he could board.

There was already a crowd of families. Harry watched as parents said goodbye to their children, and he felt even more disconnected. The Dursleys hated magic, they would never be caught dead here, but Tobias was a wizard, and that he'd just dumped Harry off made him feel bad. Harry knew the man that had kidnapped him didn't care about him one whit, and was confused by how much that thought stung. The entire end of his summer had been confusing. Harry knew that being kidnapped and beaten and worked hard had taken a toll, but he wasn't sure exactly what that toll was. Was he going crazy? He had actually obeyed Tobias the night before instead of escaping. Why had he done that? He was scared, that's why. He'd practically turned the man's cottage from crumbling to brand new. If he had been thinking clearly he could have sabotaged the beams so it would collapse and kill him, or better yet, he could have killed the man in his sleep. But at that thought, Tobias' words about being ungrateful filled Harry's brain, and he looked down at the ground, feeling ashamed of himself. He must be pretty worthless... must be a bad person to want to kill someone, even if that person had kidnapped him.

"Harry."

Harry looked up and met Ron's eyes. He hadn't even noticed his friend walk up. Ron looked uncertain.

"Come on," Ron said, and lead Harry into the men's bathroom on the platform.

Inside Ron asked quietly, "They did a number on you this summer didn't they?"

Harry raised his brows in confusion, and in response Ron turned him gently by the shoulders to look in the mirror. Harry had a bruise on his cheek, one eye was still dark where a bruise was just healing, his hair was a mess, his face and neck and arms were dirty, and his shirt looked thin enough to fall off of him at any moment. Oh, he hadn't even thought to change.

Without a word, Harry went to the sink and turned on the water and set to furiously scrubbing the dirt off of his body.

"What did they do?"

"Who?"

"Your family... I mean... you didn't come back from last summer like this."

Harry could hardly remember last summer. They'd gone to the Quidditch World Cup hadn't they?

"Nothing," Harry said.

"Well, did you run away or something?"

"No." No, I didn't run away. I tried, but I failed. Just one more thing I'm miserable at. He put his head in the sink and tried to scrub his hair. When he was done Ron shot a drying spell at it and Harry looked in the mirror again. He was clean, but only on his visible skin. It would have to do for now. He went into a stall with a pair of clean clothes from his trunk and changed. It felt odd to be wearing his old things again... almost like they were new, and Harry suddenly felt grateful for the clothes the Dursleys had given him. He had hated these clothes before, but he only felt bad at that thought as he emerged from the stall. Ungrateful.

"Come on, or we'll be late for the train." Ron still sounded uncertain, and maybe a little angry. What was that about? Harry almost felt like snapping at him to just let it drop, but didn't. He followed him out of the bathroom with his trunk and onto the train. They looked for the car with Hermione and Ginny and when they finally found it, Harry was anxious that his other friends would notice that something was off, so he put a smile on his face and hoped they didn't look too closely at his skin or hair.

"Harry! How was your summer? You didn't write back to me," Hermione said. She looked at the two bruises on his face, but didn't say anything about them.

"Hedwig was with us," Ron said, and Harry felt relieved. "We sent her and Pig to Hogwarts this morning.

"Oh, well then I forgive you for not writing. Did you have a good summer?"

"Yeah," Harry said, trying to sound bright. "I got to spend a month at the sea. It was nice relaxing in the sand and swimming." He'd never had a chance to relax there, but swimming most evenings before dinner was admittedly nice.

"That sounds nice. What part of the coast?"

"Northern Ireland." He'd had no idea until he'd gone to the market the night before and heard the store clerk and customers talking in heavy Irish accents. Tobias didn't have an Irish accent, and Harry wondered about that.

"Oh! I've never been."

Harry tried to keep smiling as his friends talked about their summers, and Ron's worried look softened a little, but eventually Harry took to staring out the window at the countryside, and would not allow himself to be dragged back into another conversation. He was used to the quiet of the cottage and not being spoken to, and it unnerved him a little to be in the midst of his group of friends again. Even the Dursleys spoke more than Tobias, and there Harry partook in the back and forth of taunting Dudley and being taunted when his aunt and uncle weren't listening.

* * *

Harry wished he could shake the feeling that he was the odd man out, but it was unshakable. He felt like he wasn't even a part of his group of friends anymore, even though he still sat with them at meals and in classes, and spoke to them when spoken to. In the back of his mind was the everpresent thought that they were staring at him, and that they somehow knew what had happened that summer. It didn't help that his friends were outraged by the new Defense Professor, Delores Umbridge, and he wasn't. It made him feel like they were even more aware of his different-ness. She tried to goad him into saying something stupid about Voldemort in classes, but all he could do was look away, and it seemed, oddly enough, to satisfy the toad faced woman. It incensed his friends.

"When is she going to leave you alone?" Hermione asked. "It's been almost a week! I'm very proud of you Harry, for not rising to her bait. I think she's just waiting to give you detention for something."

"Yeah," Harry said, that seemed right. She wanted to punish him. He felt like he should have been doing something to make her mad at him, but half of his brain was telling him to just keep his head down and do as he was told. Unfortunately for Harry, his brain seemed to have other things in mind.

It was Monday on the second week of classes and Defense had just started. Harry kept his nose in his book trying to read about the 'theory' of defense, but was having trouble becaue his scar was itching, and then it was starting to burn. He reached up and touched his scar, pressing his fingers into it to get it to stop hurting. Ron nudged him, and Harry looked over at his friend and then up to the front of the room, where Umbridge was watching him carefully. Harry lowered his hand, despite that his scar was still searing, and looked back at his book.

"What is it?" Ron whispered.

"I don't know."

Ron whispered something else to him then, but Harry didn't hear because his eyes were clenched closed and all he could hear was Voldemort laughing at something. A high, cold, chilling laugh that sent goosebumps up and down Harry's spine.

"Stop what Mr. Potter?" came Umbridge's voice.

Harry's eyes snapped open and the pain from his scar was gone as suddenly as it had come.

"Maam?" He looked around, his fears finally confirmed that everyone was staring at him.

"You said, 'stop, stop, stop.' I ask again, stop what?"

"I- I'm sorry. I have a headache. I didn't mean-" he trailed away, not sure what to say.

"Do not interrupt my class again or you will be very sorry."

"Yes maam," Harry said quietly, and the Slytherins on the other side of the room laughed before Umbridge shot them a look and they quieted.

In the corridor after class, Ron nudged him and said, "It was him wasn't it?"

"Who?" Harry said, panicking. How did Ron know about Tobias?

"You-Know-Who. You grabbed your scar and then you seemed like you couldn't hear what anyone was saying."

"It- it was nothing. I don't want to talk about it."

"You should go to Dumbledore, he'll know what to do." Hermione said.

"I said it was nothing. Can we talk about something else?"

His friends looked dissatisfied with his answer, but didn't say anything else. Harry thought they'd let it drop, but that evening at dinner a letter popped into existence next to Harry's dinner plate with his name on the envelope.

"What's that Harry?" Neville asked, and Harry frowned as he opened it. It was from Dumbledore.

"I think I have detention. I'm not sure for what. It says I have to go see Professor Snape after dinner."

"Maybe it's about what happened in Defense," Hermione said. "I'm sure it's not detention."

Harry looked over at her, and then at Ron, trying to discern which one of them looked more guilty. "You told."

"You should have told," Ron said, seeming concerned and irritated at the same time.

"Thanks a lot," Harry snarked, feeling grumpy, and he stood up, meal unfinished to go find Snape in the Dungeons.

* * *

"Remedial Potions Potter."

Harry flinched as Snape passed by him. Occasionally Tobias had reminded Harry of Snape, but now Snape was reminding Harry of Tobias, and Harry expected to get hit in the back of the head as his Professor walked by. He didn't get hit, but Snape's words were sharp enough to have the same effect.

"If you tell anyone about these Occlumency lessons, you will have detention until you graduate."

The Headmaster was forcing Snape to give him private lessons. The man had made that clear along with the fact that he wasn't happy to be wasting time on Harry or his visions of Voldemort. Or vision, Harry corrected himself. He'd only had the one.

"What exactly was in the vision?"

"Laughing," Harry said, throat dry. "He was laughing... like he found something out that he thought was funny."

"That is all?"

"I couldn't see anything. It was dark."

Snape circled the desk and went behind Harry's back, and Harry flinched again. He's not Tobias, Harry thought to himself, but he couldn't be convinced.

"I highly doubt that you had a vision at all. This is clearly a ploy for attention and fame, which I will not be giving you. I will teach you Occlumency and I expect with your appalling thought processing skills you will fail miserably."

"Yes."

"Excuse me?"

What? Had he said that allowed? He'd been thinking, yes I'll fail, I'm bad at everything I do, but apparently some or all of it had slipped from his mouth. He wasn't sure now as his eyes remained glued to his Professor's face, trying to discern what kind of danger he was in.

"Am I to understand that you will not even try?"

"No sir, I mean yes sir, I mean, no sir I'll try," Harry sputtered out.

Snape narrowed his eyes. "I doubt it, Potter. I have never seen you try hard at anything aside from Quidditch."

"I'm sorry sir."

Snape shot him a scowl and Harry tried to shrink into the chair, but couldn't. Snape sat down in the chair behind the desk, looking as though he was on on the verge of totally losing it and cursing Harry.

"Clear your mind. I will attempt to enter it, and you will attempt to block me. If you fail, I will not be happy Potter."

What Harry heard though was, if you mess this up I'll make you sleep on the floor again. Snape didn't give him any time to clear his mind, Harry shut his eyes and suddenly he could feel the other man there, rifling through his memories. It was uncomfortable, and Harry shuddered. He tried to cry out for him to stop but no words came out, and his thoughts betrayed him as scenes of Tobias came flooding into his mind. It was all he could think about since leaving the cottage anyway, so it was useless to try to block Snape from seeing them now.

'You're worthless! Get up and work! You owe me!'

'That's not how you scrub a floor boy! It had better be spotless or I'll wallop you! You know I will!

'Go to the store and buy me beer. I'll give you the money.'

'If you finish early I'll let you swim at the shore.'

"POTTER!"

Harry jumped and startled so badly that he felt like he couldn't breath because his heart was beating so hard. Eyes wide, he stared at Snape. Not Tobias. Not Tobias. Not Tobias. He can't hit me... can he?

Snape was furious and his eyes were wide.

"Where did you obtain these memories!? When did you look in my penseive!?"

"I- I didn't- what's a penseive?"

"Do- not- lie- to- me! I will have you expelled! Such an invasion of privacy is unforgivable!"

"I don't- I don't know- I'm sorry."

Harry felt ashamed and looked down and away. He could feel his cheeks turning red. He was going to get expelled, and then he'd be back to Tobias and sleeping on the floor. He'd only been back to school for a week. Tobias would be furious with him for getting kicked out of school like this. He'd get a beating for sure and he wouldn't even have his wand anymore to fix the cottage with.

"Stop your crying Potter. You'll get no sympathy from me. What did you think was going to happen when you looked in on my private memories?"

"I didn't, I didn't look," Harry said, wiping at his eyes, surprised that there were tears there at all. He hadn't cried all summer, not even when Tobias had dragged him back kicking and hitting and yelling after he'd tried to run away, and then hit him in the face to get him to shut up.

Snape moved around the desk quickly, like Tobias had moved around the kitchen table, and Harry flinched violently. "Please sir, don't expell me! He'll be so mad!" He felt panicky and his chest was tight. Stupid Ron and Hermione. If they'd only kept their mouths shut.

"Oh yes, the Headmaster is going to be angry with you Potter. Even he would not abide looking into another man's penseive. It is against the law!"

"I didn't know. What's a penseive? Tell me and I'll never do it again, I swear!"

Snape stood up to his full height, and Harry pushed his chair back away from him and put his hands up above his head to take the brunt of some of the force he would surely hit him with. He looked madder even than Tobias.

"Idiot Gryffindor." Snape strode around the back of his desk to a tall cabinet and threw open the doors, revealing a bowl with shimmering light. Harry looked up and was interested in what was inside the bowl to make it glimmer and shine.

"What's that?"

"A penseive. MY pensieve! The one you broke into my office to look into and looked at my memories in!"

"It holds memories?"

Severus narrowed his eyes at Harry. The child was far too confused about this object to have used it before.

"If you did not look into my penseive, then pray tell how did you obtain my childhood memories?" Snape looked interested to know, but Harry still wasn't sure what he was talking about.

"I don't have any of your memories, I swear it."

"I clearly saw my father in your mind Potter, at his cottage on the sea."

Harry frowned and looked at the desk, mind working hard to piece the puzzle pieces together.

"Tobias?" Harry asked, for confirmation. If Snape was talking about something else he'd seen, then what harm could it do throwing out one name? No one would know what the name meant unless they knew him.

"Tobias Angus Snape."

"Snape.... Tobias Snape..." Harry shook his head. No, he had to be talking about someone else. His Professor had to be confused. But they had the same hooked nose. They were both tall and lean. They both had black hair. And they both reminded Harry of... each other.

"Please sir," Harry said, looking up with sincerity in his eyes. "I don't know what you saw, but they weren't your memories. Please don't expel me. I'll be in so much trouble!"

"If you are telling the truth," Snape said in a tone that said he clearly didn't believe him, "then you won't mind me having another look at your memories." He lifted his hands as if saying 'what could the harm be?'

"I- look if you have to. I can't get expelled." His chest still felt tight with anxiety a moment later when Snape dove back into his memories, this time rifling through them more slowly. Harry could feel Snape scrutinizing each one.

Tobias pulling Harry out of a kitchen chair and onto the floor. "You just sleep there on the floor until you figure out what it means to be grateful!"

Tobias hitting Harry with a spell in the darkness to stop him from escaping, and dragging Harry back to the cottage.

Harry at the market looking nervous as he tried to buy beer with a twenty pound note.

Tobias giving him his wand back and sending him to the roof to repair the crumbling chimney.

Tobias kicking Harry as he lay sick on a thin, dirty mattress on the floor in the tiny bedroom.

Tobias taking Harry's wand off of him with one spell as Harry collapsed, weak and dizzy and then apparating him away to a depressing fate.

"You owe me boy."

Harry drifting in and out of consciousness on the mattress in a haze of sickness as Tobias stood over him with a half empty whisky bottle. "You look just like him. You're ungrateful like him too."

Snape pulled out of Harry's mind, leaving Harry breathing heavily in the chair.

"You- spent the summer in the cottage in Ireland." He sounded like he didn't believe what he was saying, but no longer seemed angry.

"I-" Harry's bottom lip trembled. He didn't know what to say. Now somebody else knew, and knew how worthless he was. He realized a moment later that his hands were shaking as he gripped the arms of the chair, but he didn't know how to stop them.

"Please don't expell me. He'll be so mad."

"He kidnapped you Potter. He has nothing to be mad about."

"He'll-"

"He'll nothing. You are not getting expelled and you are never going back."

"He'll find me... make me. I only got to come back to school because I stopped trying to run away."

"He is a manipulative old bastard and I plan on paying him a visit to find out exactly why he kidnapped you."

"Don't hurt him!" Harry said, worried and leaning forward in his chair.

Snape shot him a look. "He is my father Potter, and he deserves everything he has done twofold. Once for how he treated you, and once for how he treated me."

He was Snape's father, but for the last month of summer, he was more than Harry's kidnapper. He'd taken care of Harry... fed him and gave him a bed to sleep on. Harry couldn't help but feeling like he'd disappointed him, and he didn't want Tobias to be hurt.

"Look at me Potter."

Harry looked up at him, eyes wet.

"I know what he did to you, because he did it to me until I was sixteen and joined the dark lord to get away from him. I know what you are thinking. You just haven't had enough time to grow up yet to realize that everything he did and said was wrong, and that he manipulated you every step of the way. He even tested you by giving your wand back to you and giving you money and sending you to town. If you had tried to run, he would have caught you and you would still be there now."

Harry was surprised by that. It had been a test?

"He was seeing how much of a hold over you he had. It didn't take long did it? Only one summer. I lived with it for years."

"One month," Harry said and looked away. It hadn't even taken him an entire summer to be manipulated. He really was weak and worthless.

"What?"

"I- he bested me on August first, and took me to the cottage."

Severus sighed. "If I know him, he spelled a potion into your stomach from a distance and waited until you were weak to take you."

"I- I thought he might have drugged me. I couldn't figure out how."

"He did not best you. He cheated. That is what he does. He cheats at everything he does, and he never wins. That is why he lives alone in a run down house. I have not seen him since I left. No one goes back to see Tobias Snape, ever."

"Don't go, please," Harry said. He was still worried Snape would hurt Tobias, but he was also worried for his Professor's safety. He had a headache and he wasn't sure if his anxiety was contributing to it, or if it was the other way around. He felt like something had to give though.

"I'm not going to argue with you Potter. Get up. I'm taking you to the Hospital Wing."

Harry didn't argue, but when the Potion's Master passed him, he flinched, still expecting to be hit. Snape sighed and walked Harry up to see Pomfrey. When she proclaimed Harry free of major injury aside from a few remaining bruises, Snape strode out and left him there, making Harry feel completely alone.

"You can go back to your common room dear," Madam Pomfrey said. "How did you get these bruises anyhow? Were you playing Quidditch?"

Harry shook his head, made up a lie about falling down the Dungeon stairs, and hurried back towards Gryffindor. Then he thought better of it and went back down to the Dungeons. He had to convince Snape not to go back to the cottage. Suddenly things were clear for Harry about why his Professor acted like he did. He yelled at students like he had been yelled at growing up. He put them down like he had been put down. He snarked at people all the time because he had reason to be snarky. And he had had good reason to join Voldemort. If Voldemort had offered Snape a way to escape the cottage and Tobias, Harry understood why he took it.

He had just reached the outside of the Potion Master's office door when he heard the floo flare inside in the fireplace and Snape say angrily, "12 Din way, cottage on the sea, Ireland." Then there was silence. Snape had gone through. Harry unlocked the office door with his wand and went inside. There was a pouch of floo powder on the mantle and he took a handful, uncertain about what he was doing. He'd just escaped that place, and now he was going to follow Snape right back there? What was he even going to do when he came out of the decaying fireplace in the cottage? Get yelled at. Save Snape. Try not to get your wand taken away again. Shaky plan in place, he threw the powder to his feet and said, "12 Din way, cottage on the sea, Ireland," and was gone in a flash of green smoke and flame.

* * *

There was yelling and arguing the moment Harry came out of the grate. It was coming from outside and Harry ran to the door leading to the front porch, and looked through the screen into the darkness. Snape and Tobias were in the sandy yard shouting at each other, and Harry was surprised to see that his Professor wasn't cowed. If Harry had grown up here and come back as an adult, he definitely would have been cowed. He felt cowed now and he hadn't even been yelled at yet.

"How dare you do to another child what you did to me!?" Snape yelled at him, grabbing the front of Tobias' button up shirt.

"What did I do to you Severus? Feed you? Clothe you? Give you a roof over your head? A roof I worked my entire life to provide?" He hit Snape's hand and wrenched his shirt free of his grip. "Yeh'r ungrateful! Yeh always were!"

"I was a boy and I never complained once! That didn't stop you from getting drunk and hitting me or making me feel worthless!"

"You turned out alright!" Tobias shouted, sounding like he was sick of this conversation already. "Look at you now! Big man with a job! At least I assume yeh've got one with the fancy clothes yeh'r wearing! I wouldn't really know since you ran off and never wrote or nothing!"

"I work at Hogwarts!"

"Well that would explain it then. How you found out about Harry. And I was right all along about you. You are worthless. You don't know the value of money or of what's been given to you. Completely ungrateful!"

"I am NOT ungrateful!"

"Big man with a job," Tobias said again, "who can't even be grateful for his own son! At least I took care of you Sevvy. At least I provided for you. You won't even do that. What kind of man does that make yeh?"

"I have no children," Snape spat. "I always knew you were crazy, but I had no idea how much. Now I can see clearly that you belong in an institution."

"Harry Potter, Severus. You and Lily. Why do you think I took him? You think I would have just gone and kidnapped a random boy? I took my grandson, who I found digging in the trash for his next meal in Little Whinging. I thought you just hadn't told me that you had a son, didn't want me involved. Then I saw him digging through the trash and realized you weren't even taking care of him!"

"He is Harry Potter, not Harry Snape! He is the son of James Potter! How you even cooked up this half brained idea I have no clue."

"I spelled a potion into his stomach and he reacted. If he wasn't my grandson he wouldn't have. You know well enough that ours is the only family in Britain that's allergic to the blue cold draught."

"The blue-"

"Cold draught Severus. Dandelions and clam juice and garlic and bog water. I was able to get it all in less than twenty minutes and mix it up! He damn near passed out!"

Suddenly Snape's hands shot out and gripped Tobias' shirt again and he said through his teeth, "You're lying."

"Give him a drop and see what happens! I dare yeh. Maybe yeh'r more like me than you think Sevvy. Your woman leaves you, and your child hates you, am I right?" He laughed. Severus punched him in the face and Tobias sputtered before spitting a bloody tooth out. He reared back to punch Tobias again but Harry burst through the screen door.

"Stop! Please stop!"

They both looked at Harry and Tobias smirked. Snape.... his father, seemed surprised and unsettled to see him there.

"See Severus," Tobias said, "he loves me. He don't want you to hit his granddaddy anymore."

Severus pushed Tobias away from him and stared at Harry in the darkness. In the distance they could hear waves crashing on the shoreline as the tide came in further.

"What are you doing here?"

Harry would have responded if he had known what to say, but he didn't, and his hands were shaking again. His wand gave it away because it showed the shaking in an exaggerated way. Severus Snape was his father? Possibly. What if James or Lily had been allergic to whatever Potion Tobias had dosed him with, and had passed it on to him? He blinked hard several times trying to push his anxiety back down and tried hard to remember the evening Tobias had taken him to the cottage. He could vaguely remember the man telling him to drink a funny tasting juice... something like apples and carrots and garlic mixed together, and feeling better after that.

"Speak up boy!" Tobias yelled then, and Harry snapped out of his thoughts.

"I- followed you. From your office."

"Go back into the house," the Potion's Master told him.

"No sir."

"Get going boy!" Tobias shouted, and Harry jumped to obey, turning and going back in through the screen door, where he could still watch and hear. Professor Snape rounded on Tobias.

"If either of us ever see you again, I will not hesitate to use every unforgivable on you."

Tobias smirked. "What a disappointment you turned out to be Severus Tobias Snape. I wish I could take my name back so you'd be in no part mine."

"I wish that too," Snape said, and then pushed past him roughly and in through the screen door.

He stopped abruptly upon seeing Harry there, looking anxious, and he seemed uncomfortable and awkward, but strangely enough, not mad.

"You are never coming back here. Neither of us are. Get into the floo."

Harry did as he was told and Snape threw a handful of powder into the grate for him, and said, "Severus Snape's office, Hogwarts, Dungeons, Lily." Harry disappeared before he could think to ask why Snape had said his mother's name. He reappeared and stepped out of the fireplace so the Professor could come through, and a few moments later, he did. Snape looked down at him and then went around to the back side of his desk and sat down, leaving Harry standing there by the fireplace.

"Go to bed Harry," he said quietly. He sounded tired, and Harry was surprised he'd used his first name.

"Ok," Harry went for the door and turned the handle. He looked back at the man who was possibly his father, and noted how human he looked for the first time. He seemed tired and even defeated.

"He didn't like my name either sir," Harry said quietly, and then turned the handle and was gone before he could look up or ask him about it.

* * *

The more Harry got to know his father (they had done a test to be sure) over the next few months, the less like Tobias he seemed. He didn't put Harry down, even though he was stern, especially where Harry's studies or detentions from other Professors were concerned. He didn't yell at him or call him 'boy' or 'brat'. He never told him he had to sleep on the floor. He never made Harry feel worthless. Not anymore.

Harry didn't know if it was the revelation that he had a son, or if it had been the encounter with his father, but Severus Snape had become very soft spoken, especially around him. He was hesitant to even raise his voice with his son, even if he was angry. Harry asked him about it one day after Christmas, and he'd only been given the answer, "I will never be like Tobias."

"You're not," Harry had told him, and it had put a smile on his face.

Harry forgave Ron and Hermione for telling the Headmaster about his vision in class and even thanked them for it later after revealing that Snape was his father. In turn his friends showed him even more loyalty than they had before, and Harry was grateful to know that he had them on his side.

He never would forget the month he spent with Tobias, even though he tried to fill up his mind with happy memories and moments he'd had with Severus. It saddened him to know that his grandfather had treated his father like that as a child and that his father's entire childhood had been unhappy, and that because of it he'd joined Voldemort. Harry's father told him not to worry overmuch about it though, because there was a consolation. Lily's parents had owned the summer cottage down the beach from Tobias, and because Tobias had allowed him to go to the shore every evening after chores, he'd met and become friends with Lily. A friendship that had lasted through school, and resulted in Harry's birth, before she'd chosen to marry James because of Severus' involvement with Voldemort. That he'd let Severus go to the shore in his youth... it was the one thing Harry was glad that Tobias did. It meant he had a father. One who was alive and would be able to understand, and to help him put the horrible summer before his fifth year behind him.

The End