It was the end of the feast when Snape started to notice it. A faint glow was coming of Potter. You had to look quite well, because it only showed at the parts of his body where he wasn’t wearing robes or other clothes, which was barely anything. Only his face and his fingers weren’t covered by clothes. Even his neck was hidden by a high collar sweater. A bit weird, since it had been a fairly nice day for September, but through the years he had gotten accustomed to the different clothing styles of the students.

Snape was pulled out of his thoughts when someone tapped his left arm. “Really Severus, you told me only two weeks ago, how glad you were that Voldemort was finally gone, so you were able to teach Potions without having to worry which student you should favour and which student you should definitely not, but you are already glaring at Mr Potter as if he has exploded a classroom."

Ha- it wouldn’t surprise Snape if the brat had already found a way to do the exact thing. “Minerva, you know I have no problem with Mr Potter, beside him not even trying to reach his full potential, but that’s a discussion for another time. However, something is off with him. I am not sure what but he seems different than usuall.”

“Well, then you will be glad to hear that you have got the fifth years Gryffindors tomorrow first. Together with your snakes of course. I really can't figure out what Albus tries to accomplish by putting them together year after year. Some of yours will only be more angry with Mr Potter this year, after him destroying Voldemort.”

“I really don’t know either Minerva, I really don’t”

Harry was happy the feast had ended. He always had to get used to the amount of food he could eat at Hogwarts again and on top of that had last summer been worse than usual. He felt really guilty that Sirius and Cedric had died last year and the year before, because of him, so he hadn't eaten much anyway.

He really wished Sirius hadn’t jumped in front of Harry when the famous green light was shot at him. He might even have been able to put up a block in time, but it was too late now to tell him. He had spent his summer doing chores, grieving and recieving the occasional beatings from his uncle. He hadn’t really minded his uncle. His uncle was fully in his rights to do that. Maybe not for the reasons his uncle thought, but for killing his godfather and the best Hufflepuff he had ever been friends with.

Harry walked to the tower on his own as soon as the feast ended. Ron and Hermione had a prefect meeting, with the other prefects and all the other Gryffindors were happily talking with each other about their summers, not paying much attention to Harry.

When Harry finally reached their dorms he quickly changed in his pyjama’s and closed the drapes on his bed. He was totally exhausted from having a glamour up all day, but knew it was needed for at least another couple of days, until the bruises from his uncle had left. He had the feeling that he fell asleep as that his head hit the pillow and was glad for that.

Unfortunately for him, his sleep didn’t last long. He woke up half crying in his pillow begging Voldemort not to not kill Cedric, but as always it was too late. When he looked at the clock he saw it was only 2.30 AM, but he knew he wasn’t going to be able to fall asleep again, so he jumped out of his bed, put on his robes, took his potion book out of his suitcase and went down to the common room.

Once seated in front of the fire he started reading his potions books. He had discovered a NEWT in potions was required for applying as an Auror and Fred and George had informed him that Snape only allowed people who had scored an Outstanding on their OWLS. He had always struggled with potions, so a bit of a head start would be nice.

He had read the first two chapters when Hermione tapped him on his shoulder.

“What are you doing up so early Harry? And with your potions book nonetheless?" Hermione asked, she actually looked a bit worried. Had Harry not been this tired he might have actually smiled at this.

“I couldn’t sleep, so decided I might better get prepared for Snape’s class. Snape looked a bit more relaxed at the end of last year after Voldemort was defeated, but I saw him glaring at me last night and you know what he is like in class, I really would like to get through at least one lesson, without being scolded for 'being lazy' or 'not working hard enough' ”

Hermione still had a certain look on her face, one which Harry couldn't totally figure out, but left him studying after that in favour for reading a book of her own.

When Ron woke up and came down the stairs they decided to go down to breakfast. Harry wasn’t really hungry but he knew Hermione would bugger him with questions if he didn’t accompany them to breakfast and he could actually use a bit of their happy spirit.

They talked a bit about Ron’s summer, he had been to France with his family from the bonus Mr Weasley had gotten from work. They had tried to let Harry accompany them, but Dumbledore had told them it was still too dangerous for Harry with some of the death eaters still on the lose, Dumbledore had however promised Harry it would be his last summer at the Dursleys, since the Ministry had made it their first priority to catch the remaining Death Eaters. Harry had heard a few of them had already been caught and was quite confounded with the ministry for their success, he hadn’t expected much from the Ministry.

At breakfast Harry had only eaten half of his toast, when he decided he couldn’t stomach more. He didn’t want to throw up on his first day back. Hermione gave him a concerned look, but she knew he wasn’t able to eat much once back from the Dursleys, so she let it with that.

Harry was talking with Ron about quidditch tactics, when Professor McGonagall handed them their timetables. They looked at them and groaned, their first class was double potions with the Slytherins. He wasn’t looking forward to that, but at least they had Transfiguration with the Ravenclaws afterwards.

“Have you seen the new DADA teacher Harry?” Ron asked. “No he or she wasn’t at dinner last night, right?” Harry asked wondering. He hadn’t seen a new professor at dinner last night and started wondering, who it was going to be.

“Nah I didn’t see the Professor either, maybe the professor only arrived today?”

“Well hopefully it isn’t another loser like Lockhart.” Harry replied with a bit of a grin.

The trio walked to potions, where most of their peers were already waiting outside. When the door opened they quickly walked in and seated themselves at the same table they had last year.

“Quite a good start of the year, don't you think Harry?” Ron asked sarcastically.

Harry just wanted to answer when Snape came walking in. He gave his usual ‘I don't want any dunderheads in my class’ speech and started lecturing about the first chapter.

Harry let his head rest on the table, he actually felt relieved that he remembered most of the things Snape was talking about from his reading this morning. He let his eyes rest for a second, or so he thought.

He woke with a start when Snape asked Harry loudly “You think my classes are to sleep Mr Potter? And that on the first day back. Come and see me after class. And that 10 points from Gryffindor."

Harry looked with a red head and apologising look at Ron. He hadn’t noticed falling asleep and was definitely not looking forward to staying after class.

Hermione shot him a worried glance, but wasn’t able to say more, because Snape continued.

Harry managed to stay awake for the rest of the potions class and was a bit scared when the class was dismissed. He asked Ron and Hermione to tell Professor McGonnagol he would be on his way and with another worried glance from Hermione they left.

“So Mr Potter was my class not interesting enough for you?” Snape snidely asked.

“I am sorry sir, I had a bad night of sleep, but it will not happen again.”

“It better not happens again, I will be lenient with you only for this once, because you have done us quite a favour last year, but next time I catch you falling asleep you will be scrubbing cauldrons.”

Harry usually wasn’t happy getting special treatment. He had asked everyone if he could be treated like every other boy his age as soon as Mr Fudge started proposing building a statue of him, but for this once he was happy that he got it anyway, since he wouldn’t like to spend his second night back in detention.

“Thank you sir” Harry said a bit shocked, and started walking to the door when Snape said, “Not so quick Mr Potter, you aren't dismissed yet, show me your hand.”

His heart skipped a beat when Snape asked him that, but a quick look at his hand showed him that the glamour was still there. Harry showed his hand to Snape.

Snape wasn’t soft on Harry, because he had saved them all last year, he had actually excused him this once, because he figured something more was going on. Looking at Harry his hand he saw the faint glow of a glamour and wondered why Harry had one up. He looked to Harry's neck and now he was standing this close, he noticed he had a glamour up on his whole body.

“Tell healer Daniel, I would like you to have a full check-up.”

Harry looked up shocked at Snape, he hadn’t been serious had he? “Sorry sir, but why? I really need to go to Transfiguration. I can't be late on this first day”

"Because I say so Mr Potter, are you doubting my authority?"

“No sir, but” Harry started to say, but was interrupted.

“I assume I won’t have to accompany you to the infirmary?”

“No sir, I can get there on my own” Harry quickly said.

“Well then hurry,” Snape told him with his usual snide.

Puzzled Harry left the classroom. He had no intention of going to the infirmary at all, but wondered why Snape had sent him there. He wasn’t sure on the full proceeder of a diagnostic spell, but he was quite sure it would show all of his injuries of at least the last 3 months and he surely didn’t want anybody to know them.

So he walked to the library, seated himself in the corner and started reading a transfiguration book. He would just tell Snape all was fine and hopefully Snape would leave it with that.

Only with Harry’s luck, nothing goes as he plans.

“There you are mate, we have been looking everywhere for you” Ron said

Harry’s head snapped up at the sound of his friend. He had been sleeping on his transfiguration book after having read only 3 pages.

‘Oh yeah sorry, Snape lectured me about how only spoiled Gryffindors would fall asleep during class and when I was finally dismissed there were only 15 more minutes left, and I did not want to have to explain to Mcgonnagol why I was late for her class at start of the year, so I decided to read for a bit. “ Harry lied. It wasn’t that he didn’t trust his friend to keep a secret, but he still hadn’t figured out why Snape had sent him to Madame Pomfrey.

“No problem mate, did Snape give you a detention?” Ron asked.

“Nah, he only warned me that next time I would be scrubbing cauldrons for quite some time.”

Ron’s stomach made a sound and the two friends laughed.

“let’s get to lunch before your stomach decided to give the whole library a concert.” Harry happily said.

“That’s one good idea Harry, one very good idea.” Ron grinned back.

When they arrived in the Great Hall Snape wasn’t there.

Harry let out a sigh of relief, at least he didn’t have to tell Snape anything now and if he avoided Snape just a little longer he might actually forget about it.

Harry was talking with Seamus about his holiday, when Seamus stopped and looked up with big eyes.

Harry turned around to see what he was looking at. Behind him was one very angry looking Potions Professor.

“Follow me if you will Mr. Potter” was the only thing needed to be said, to give Harry goosebumps over his whole body.

Ron gave him a questioning look, but Harry only shrugged with in response. He couldn’t tell his friend in the great hall where Snape was most likely going to take him.

As soon as Snape and Harry had left the great hall Snape started speaking. “So what did you think Mr Potter? That I only talk for the walls to hear me?”

Harry gulped, he knew he was in trouble now. “No sir, neither Healer Daniel, nor Madame Pomfrey were there when I arrived, so I decided to come back later.” Harry said, hoping that Snape hadn’t been to the infirmary to inquire about Harry’s presence.

“Oh, is that correct? And how do you explain that I just spoke with Madame Pomfrey and that she told me she had been restocking potions in the middle of the infirmary and that she hadn’t heard nor seen you all morning?” Snape snidely asked.

“Uh, maybe she hadn’t heard me, sir” Harry responded, knowing that the professor wouldn’t believe him whatever he said, but he didn’t know what else to say.

Snape only gave him a sideway glare and opened the doors to the infirmary.

“Ah Mr Potter good to see you, Professor Snape here told me you should receive a full check-up, so jump on the bed and let us have a look.”

Harry gulped, he knew he couldn’t let Madame Pomfrey examine him knowing all of his secrets would be out.

“But Madame I really need to go back to class, it’s only the first day.” Harry started to walk away again when a strong hand took him by his arm. He looked up and saw the shaking head of Snape, he had a different kind of look in his eyes, not the stern or annoyed one he usual had, but Harry couldn’t identify what it did was. “You are not going anywhere until you have let Madame Pomfrey examine you, Mr Potter, now jump on the bed” Snape told him in a tone that made it clear there were no other options.

Harry felt his breath quicken when Snape guided him to the bed. He started to see little black dots in front of his eyes and could vaguely hear Madame Pomfrey and Professor Snape say things, but he could not understand them.

A moment later he felt some kind of sting in his arm. He took a big breath which he didn’t notice he was holding, he looked at his arm, while the little black dots faded. A big needle was in it. It must have been something like a calming draught, because he felt himself relaxing.

“That was quite a shock wasn’t it Mr Potter, now relax for a bit and we will talk about what happened later.” A voice , which he couldn’t identify, said. He slowly felt himself falling asleep in a deep deep sleep.

When Harry woke up he wondered where he was, when slowly the memories of the afternoon came back to him. He slightly started to panic and tried getting out of his bed. He was however stopped by a woman he didn’t recognise. “Please Harry, stay in bed Healer Tom will soon come over” the woman told him.

“Sorry Madame, I really have to go to class now.” Harry said and he threw his feet over the side of the bed. When he tried to jump of however he was stopped by some kind of force. He looked questioningly up to the women sitting next to his bed. “That Harry, is the result of a sticking charm, Healer Tom foresaw that you might want to leave early, but that’s however not possible until you get a full check up.” The still unknown woman said.

Harry’s breath started to quicken, he was stuck in this bed and couldn’t get off. It reminded him of his days in the cupboard and his breath started to quicken again. He was working himself up in another panic attack, when he felt a relaxing kind of energy go through him. He slowly started to pick up sounds from his environment and hear someone talking. “Breath in and out again, in and out” the voice and the energy went on for another minute until Harry had relaxed a bit. He couldn’t remember why he was so worked up again, must be a side effect of the calming energy that was going through his body he thought.

“Okay Harry, I am slowly decreasing the flow of calming energy and then we will talk, just keep on breathing” Harry did what he was told and slowly he felt the calming energy leave his body.

He felt the healer taking his hands of him after and felt he was given a slight push backwards, so he could relax against his pillows.

“Now Harry, I am Healer Tom, as you might know, I help Madame Pomfrey on some of the more busy days, or if she needs my expertise. I also have my own clinic for children who need help recovering from for example a trauma.” Harry had known there worked some other healer in the infirmary, but event though he had spent a good deal of his time at Hogwarts in the infirmary never met him before.

“Professor Snape brought you in here, because he noticed you were a bit off in his lesson. As you might remember you had a bit of a panic attack when Madame Pomfrey wanted to examine you, so we gave you something against it, which makes you relax, but also sleepy, so that why you fell asleep. Madame Pomfrey has asked if I could give you a check-up, because she had to do some office work. Do you have any question Mr Potter or shall we start?”

Harry had so fair silently listened to what the Healer had said, but when he mentioned he would give him the check up his heartbeat started to rise again. Healer Tom foresaw this and gave Harry a quick touch of calming energy and started to talk to Harry. “It’s perfectly natural to be a bit afraid of an examination Harry, but we really have to give you one. The better you work with me, the sooner you will be released from the infirmary. Why don't you help me with it, Harry”

At first, Harry wanted to decline this offer, he wasn’t a child anymore he was fourteen, but then he realised he might have a hand in the result if he helped so he agreed.

“Okay Harry, you might have heard of diagnostic charms before, I already performed one on you when you were asleep, but it shows only the current state of affairs and it isn’t always very accurate, so I would like to give you a muggle kind of examination as well. For the first test I will measure your blood pressure , if you can just shove your sleeve up I will wrap something around your arm. “

Harry quickly tried to remember if he had any scars on his arms, but his uncle didn’t want him to attract attention when he was wearing short sleeves, so he usually left his arms untouched. Even though he didn’t think the healer would find anything, he was still a bit tensed rolling up his sleeve. Healer Tom saw this and tried to comfort him: “ It’s okay Harry, I will do nothing without giving a clear explanation of what I am doing”

Harry couldn’t help but relax a little bit at these words and gave his arm to the healer. Healer Tom put something around his arm and wrote something down. After his blood pressure was measured a couple of other things were measured. His weight, length, lung capacity and some more things he didn’t know the name of.

“Okay Harry, now I want to listen to your lungs, you will have to take off your shirt for this so I can listen with this” he pointed at a stethoscope “to your lungs.”

Harry hadn’t said much the whole time Healer Daniel had been around, but he knew for sure he had scars on his upper body and so he couldn’t let Healer Daniel take off his shirt.

Considering between several options like running away or just outright refusing he decided to try for an honest approach “I am sorry, I don’t feel comfortable with taking off my shirt, can I just leave it on? “

“Sorry Harry, I really need you to take off your shirt for this. “

Then the woman who Harry had already forgotten was present spoke up “I will go for a walk, you might feel more comfortable taking it off without my presence” and so she left.

Harry hadn’t minded her presence, he had totally forgotten that she was there actually, but just didn’t want to take off his shirt for anyone until the bruises were gone.

“Do you mind taking off your shirt now Harry?” the Healer asked again.

He realised he wouldn't be able to talk himself out of it, so decided to go for the only option that was left. Run as fast as he could in the hope he would be able to leave the infirmary before the healer was over his confusion of Harry leaving.

So that’s what he did. He ran past the curtains surrounding his bed, hearing the shouts of the healer in the background, and was relieved to see that he was near the doors of the infirmary.

Just as he wanted to bolt out of the door, he saw something black moving in the corner of his eye and felt a strong grip on his upper arm, which he knew could only mean one thing.

“And where do you think we are going Potter” a silky voice asked him.

Oh, how he knew he was in for it now.