The morning of Harry’s departure from the only life he could remember, he had taken Mitchell’s hand and walked out of a door that had appeared quite suddenly in the dining room. Harry had been shocked to find that Home was surrounded by more walls. The spell had been removed from the walls so that Harry would not be able to see back into the rooms, a change that Mitchell himself had demanded before leaving with Harry. Mitchell had led Harry up a long flight of stairs, through an immense empty room, and out of the double doors into the outside world. Harry had not seen daylight in six years and cried out when the natural light hit his eyes. Mitchell immediately handed him a pair of dark sunglasses, which Harry had taken thankfully. Three steps away from the building, Harry suddenly frozen and gripped Mitchell’s hand tighter, too scared to continue walking. Mitchell smiled kindly at him, then bent and scooped the boy into his arms, hugging him tightly. Mitchell continued on slowly, following the winding path to the exit, whispering assurances in Harry’s ear. He stopped suddenly. He had turned a corner and found that the area outside the exit gate was crammed full of journalists and photographers, who began shouting the moment the two came into view and sticking their cameras between the gaps in the fencing. Harry had tried to look up from Mitchell’s shoulder to see what the commotion was, but Mitchell had placed a hand firmly on the back of his head and kept him in place, keeping the boy’s face away from the curious photographers. Mitchell backed away from the gate and went in the opposite direction, stopping in a grassy area away from the view of the media. Setting Harry down in the grass, Mitchell took out his wand and spoke a spell. A silver shadowy fox flew from his wand, and Mitchell muttered to it softly so that Harry was unable to hear what was said. The fox ran off, bounding through the air, and Mitchell sat in the grass next to Harry with a small smile.

“Well, kid, looks like we’re going to spend a bit of time right here.” Mitchell told him, ruffling the boy’s hair.

“What was all that noise, Mitchell?” Harry asked curiously, not taking his eyes off the soft grass in front of him. He reached a hand out and touched it tentatively, then ran his fingers slowly across the ground feeling the blades tickle his palm.

“Oh, just a lot of people that wanted to tell you hello.” Mitchell said casually, “I didn’t think you were ready to meet so many people at once, though.”

Harry wrinkled his nose and nodded his head in agreement.

Harry looked up then, staring at the sky above him and watching the clouds move lazily along. He tilted his head back so far he lost his balance and fell backwards, causing Mitchell to burst into laughter. Normally Harry couldn’t resist laughing along with him, but not today.

Mitchell stopped laughing quickly and looked at Harry sadly.

“Hey, cheer up kid. This will be a good thing!” Mitchell said, trying to shake the boy’s mood. “Nobody should have to spend all their time inside anyway. Doesn’t it feel nice to be outside? With your new guardian you will be able to go outside all the time!”

Harry frowned at this. “I had Outside at Home,” he argued, giving Mitchell a sideways look.

Mitchell opened his mouth to reply, but just then an envelope appeared, floating directly in front of him. Mitchell grabbed it immediately and tore it open.

“Good, they’ve lifted the anti-apparation wards.” Harry heard him mutter.

Mitchell stood up quickly, reaching a hand down for Harry. “Come on, kid, we’ve gotta move fast! I’m going to show you some great magic!”

Harry perked up at this. He loved watching his caretakers do magic.

“What kind of magic?” Harry asked curiously, taking Mitchell’s hand and allowing himself to be hoisted off the ground.

“Apparation!” Mitchell told him, the excitement in his voice obviously meant for Harry’s benefit. “We’re going to disappear from here and reappear somewhere different!”

Harry beamed and Mitchell pulled the boy close, wrapping his arms around the boy’s shoulders.

“It’s going to feel a little wild!” Mitchell warned Harry. “Close your eyes if it’s too much!” Harry nodded his agreement, and with a loud pop the two disappeared.

Harry felt as if he was being turned inside out, and he shut his eyes tight against the dizzying madness as the world rushed by at impossible speeds. In a few short seconds the two landed on solid ground, Mitchell tightening his grip on Harry’s shoulders as the boy stumbled at the sudden landing. Harry took a deep breath and opened his eyes, studying the new location.

They were in a front garden surrounded by a high brick fence with a simple brown house behind them. He shrunk back against Mitchell, his eyes wide. Mitchell bent down and lifted the boy in his arms again, squeezing him in comfort. Harry buried his face into the man’s shoulders.

Harry heard the front door to the house open and footsteps making their way towards them. Harry shut his eyes tightly, holding desperately to Mitchell.

“Good day, Mitchell,” a voice said. “Thank you for bringing the boy.”

“Hello, Severus!” Mitchell replied cheerfully, giving Harry another reassuring squeeze as he held him. “I apologize for being late, the media caught wind that our departure was today, it appears.”

“Yes, Albus mentioned,” came the reply.

Mitchell bent down to put Harry back on the ground, but Harry wrapped his legs around Mitchell’s middle and refused to be deposited.

“Come now, Harry.” Mitchell soothed, “Say hello to your guardian.”

Harry shook his head vehemently, keeping his face buried in the man’s shoulder.

His new guardian was silent as Mitchell tried to reason with Harry, but the boy was stubbornly refusing to be put down. Harry did not speak a word, merely shaking his head violently at all of Mitchell’s reasoning. After several minutes of this, Mitchell looked to Snape pleadingly. Sighing loudly, Snape stepped forward and grabbed hold of Harry, yanking him away from Mitchell in one swift motion. Harry immediately shrieked and kicked, demanding to be put down. Snape set him on the ground and wrapped his arms around Harry, pulling him against his torso and locking him into place as the boy fought madly to get back to Mitchell.

Mitchell crouched down just far enough away to avoid being kicked, and gave Harry a sad grin.

“I’ll miss you, kid,” he said, and Harry stopped fighting when he noticed the tears in the man’s eyes. “It’s been fun, but it’s time for you to be a real kid now, yeah?” Mitchell reached out a hand and ruffled Harry’s hair.

“Goodbye, Harry,” he said, raising his hand in farewell. And with a pop, Mitchell disappeared. Harry screamed, a desperate painful scream, then collapsed on the ground. Snape caught him, and silently thankful that the boy was no longer kicking, carried him into the house.

Harry was sitting silently on a couch in the sitting room, his knees drawn up to his chest and his arms wrapped around them, scowling across the room at his new guardian. Snape was tall, thin, and very pale. His strikingly gaunt face made him look a bit scary, with its sharp features and crooked nose. He had shoulder length jet black hair and his eyes were the darkest things that Harry had ever seen. There was no sparkly kindness in those eyes, like in the eyes of his caretakers.

Harry had refused to speak a word since being unceremoniously plopped onto the cushions. Snape had attempted to speak to him, but had eventually given up and opened a book instead. The two had been sitting there for an hour, Harry silently scowling and Snape silently reading. Unfortunately for Harry, his bladder was less stubborn than his mind was.

He cleared his throat. “I need the loo,” he said, the tone coming out as more of a demand than a statement. Snape slowly lowered his book and raised an eyebrow at the boy.

“Excuse me?”

“The loo.” Harry repeated, jiggling his foot a bit in his need to go. “Where is it?”

A look of annoyance passed over the man’s face and he opened his mouth as if to speak, than thought better of it and stood instead.

“This way,” Snape said, walking out of the room without a second glance at Harry.

Harry unwrapped his arms from his legs and stood stiffly, stretching his back before trotting after his new guardian.

He was led out of the sitting room and into a short hallway, where a stairway on the left led up to the landing of the second floor. There were several doors on this floor, all of them shut, and Snape opened the first door on the right gesturing Harry into it.

“This is your bedroom.” The man said simply. “The bathroom is just there, the door beside the window.”

He stepped aside to allow the boy entrance, and Harry peeked curiously into the room. It was very simple, with a small single bed pushed up against one wall, a long dresser below the window, and a small desk and chair off to the side. Harry made his way across the room and into the bathroom, slamming the door loudly behind him.

When he emerged two minutes later, he found Snape still in the doorway. The man’s arms were crossed and his face set in an angry scowl.

Harry scowled back at him, crossing his own arms and leaning against the doorframe of the bathroom.

“Come here.” Snape demanded, pointing at the space directly in front of him.

Harry’s scowl deepened, and he stood perfectly still, making no move to obey the order.

“Come here now.” Snape demanded again, glaring fiercely at the disobedient child in front of him.

Still Harry refused to move, and Snape abandoned his spot in the doorway and made his way across the room, his eyes flashing angrily.

His eyes widening, Harry spun around and retreated into the bathroom, slamming the door again and pushing the little button on the doorknob to lock it. He took a few steps back from the door until the backs of his knees bumped against the edge of the bathtub. Seconds later, the door jiggled as Snape attempted to open it. There was a brief moment of silence, and Harry breathed a sigh of relief. The relief was short lived, however, as the doorknob suddenly jerked and the door swung open. Snape had Harry by the arm before the boy could even react, dragging him back into the bedroom and setting him roughly onto the small wooden chair at the desk.

He bent down low, so their faces were inches apart.

“Now, you listen to me,” Snape hissed, anger dripping from every word. Harry shrunk back at the tone. Nobody had ever spoken to him like that before.

“In this house you will not slam doors. You will not speak to me with disrespect and you absolutely will not disobey me when I tell you to do something. Is. That. Clear.”

Snape’s speech had Harry cowering in the chair, leaning back as far as he could in order to put distance between him and Snape.

“I expect an answer from you.” Snape told him icily, placing his hands on either armrest as if anticipating that Harry would run and wanting to block him in.

“Y-yes.” Harry stammered, his eyes wide.

“Good.” Snape nodded once and stood. Harry made to get up from the chair, but Snape stopped him, placing a heavy hand on his shoulder and forcing him back down.

“You are familiar with rules, are you not?” Snape asked Harry, his voice firm but no longer angry.

“Don’t touch a wand.” Harry supplied instantly. He was familiar with the rule!

“Yes, that is one rule.” Snape replied, eyeing him. “What other rules did you have at your previous… home.”

Harry looked confused. “The rule is, don’t touch a wand,” he answered, looking curiously at the man in front of him.

“That was your only rule?” Snape asked him, disbelief in his voice. He brought his fingers to his forehead and massaged the headache that was growing there.

Harry nodded, then made to stand up again.

“Sit down, I have not given you permission to get up.” Snape snapped at him, closing his eyes against his growing headache.

Harry sat back down and looked at Snape angrily. “I do not want to sit here anymore.” Harry told him, annoyed. “I want to go play.”

Snape ignored the comment. “We will have a discussion about rules after dinner,” he decided, “and you will remain in that chair for the next ten minutes, silently, as punishment for your disrespect and door slamming.”

Snape removed his wand from within his black robes and gave it a quick wave. Harry’s chair rolled backwards into a corner, spinning slowly upon arriving so that Harry was facing the intersecting walls. Harry immediately pushed his feet against the wall, rolling the chair out of the corner. Before he could stand up, Snape pushed the chair back.

“Stop it!” Harry cried, pushing his feet against the wall to roll the chair backwards again. “I said I don’t want to sit here!”

“You do not have a choice in what you do when you are being punished.” Snape told him sternly, using his wand to push the chair back. “You will sit there silently for ten minutes as I’ve said, or keep up this fight and make it twenty. It is your choice.”

Harry weighed the options for a moment, then crossed his arms and sat rigidly in the chair.

Satisfied, Snape pocketed his wand and left the room briefly, returning less than a minute later with a shrunken trunk in his hand. He enlarged the trunk and placed it on the floor, then sat on the bed to wait out the rest of the boy’s punishment.

Snape called Harry out of the corner once the ten minutes had passed and Harry stood up quickly, the scowl still plastered on his face.

“Come here.” Snape demanded, pointing to the spot directly in front of him. This time Harry did come, although he stomped his feet the whole way across the room.

Snape narrowed his eyes, but ignored the stomping. “I have brought your things,” he said, gesturing to the large trunk on the floor. “You will spend the rest of the time before lunch putting your things away. I will come to get you when it is time to eat.” And with that, Snape swept out of the room, closing the door firmly behind him.

Harry fumed as he stared at the trunk. Mitchell had warned him that his guardian would be much different than the caretakers he was used to, but Harry was not prepared for how different the man was. Harry had only been punished once that he could remember, for touching Mitchell’s wand, and he hadn’t liked it then just as he didn’t like it now. He had told Snape he did not want to sit in the chair. He had told Snape that he wanted to play. His caretakers would have let him play, they never would have made him sit in a chair like Snape did. They never made him do anything he didn’t want to do, not counting Mitchell taking him away from Home. He doubted that Snape would hold him for an hour like Mitchell had the first time he had been punished.

Sighing deeply, Harry opened the trunk on the floor. It was filled with his clothes and several of the toys from his Inside room and Quiet room. He reached in and pulled out one of his favorite toys, a small golden ball with fluttering wings that flew around the room for Harry to chase and catch. Julie had told him it was called a Snitch, and Harry had spent hours playing with it.

Pushing the trunk out of the way, Harry released the ball and joyfully began playing, forgetting the unpleasantness from earlier.