Harry unceremoniously fell straight off the bed and flat on his face with a loud umpf.

What did he just say?!

When he stood up, Snape was cradling his head in his hands. Harry thought something had to be seriously wrong for the man to look so vulnerable.

"No that can't be... Did you say-" Harry started but was interrupted a second later.

"Yes."

With that one word his world came crashing down. It was almost as bad as hearing Leukemia for the first time. He started trembling as he sat back onto his bed. This couldn't be right. In what world would he allow Snape to adopt him? The man who hates him and has made his last 5 years at school a living hell.

"Wait," Harry thought of something, "you said your... Erm, I... um, was almost 17. That's not possible."

Snape lifted his head to meet Harry's eyes and the teen couldn't help thinking yet again how exhausted he appeared. This man looked like he had lived two different lifetimes; and suddenly all the little things started to connect in his mind.

"It was 1997 in my old reality; mid-May to be exact."

"And we were... I mean, I was..." He couldn't bring himself to say it even if he had no choice but to believe it. There was no other explanation for why Snape - the acerbic Potions Professor Severus Snape - would have done everything he had these last couple of weeks otherwise.

This time, Snape didn't have to confirm it. His face said enough. In wherever Snape had come from, he had been Snape's son.

"This is insane you know," Harry managed to yell in a whisper. "So you knew all along? About the cancer?"

The professor took another deep breath. Harry saw him peek at the clock, 3:26 AM; why did it always seem like these conversations always happened in the middle of the night?

"I did," Snape admitted. "Which is why I was so insistent you see a healer."

Great, now he's lecturing me.

How could this have happened? Why was it always him that had these rare occurrences - surviving the killing curse, speaking parseltongue, getting muggle cancer, why not add being part of a time/reality change with Snape? What did it really matter anyway; they were in this life where he hated Snape.

But that's not really true anymore, is it?

He thought back to the last couple of weeks again. Yes, he could honestly say he didn't hate Snape anymore. Though he didn't really like him that much either at the moment; he felt deeply betrayed by the man. The professor had played him this whole time, waiting for the right time to...

All of a sudden a burning question sprang to his mind.

"Did I live with the Dursleys?" he blurted out as if the answer were the air he needed to breathe. "You said everything was the same in the first wizarding war and obviously my parents died otherwise you wouldn't have been able to... you know... so then did I live with the Dursleys?"

Snape was struggling with the answer, which told Harry everything he needed to know. If he'd been with Snape since before 2nd year, then he had likely been removed from the Dursley's care.

"What about the blood wards? Dumbledore said I have to live here, think of it as my home, because of blood protection from my mum. How did you get around that?" His stomach was knotted up like it was tied around a rock; sitting there in the middle of his core waiting to drag him down.

"He simply wasn't given a choice in the matter. I was not about to let you come back here to these people." In the dim light, Harry could see a look of disgust on Snape's face as he said the last two words. So he knew back there and he knows now. And just like that the rock in his stomach plummeted and anger filled him up instead.

Actually, to say Harry was angry would be an understatement, he was furious. The way his mind oversimplified it, because he happened to live in the world with the arsehole version of Snape, he was left to live with his neglectful relatives and battle Voldemort time and time again. He could feel the start of tears creeping up from the edges of his eyes. He swiped them away before Snape could see. Was it possible for someone to grieve a life they'd never lived in?

"Get out" Harry said, his voice bitter and full of hurt. "I don't want you in this house anymore. I don't want you anywhere near me anymore."

"Harry-" Snape tried to say and Harry ignored the grief the professor couldn't hide.

"No!" Harry yelled picking up the sphere he used to call Snape when he was sick and threw it at his bedroom door. "Get. Out. Now!"

Snape reluctantly stood up, and Harry couldn't look the man in the eyes. How could he feel so empty and numb, but full of raw emotion at the same time?

"As you wish," the Potions Master said, opening the door to leave. He looked back over his shoulder before he left and added, "Someone from the Order will be here tomorrow to stay with you."

Just like that, the door closed and Harry was once again truly alone. This time he didn't stop the tears from falling.

After staying up until the sun started to rise, Harry slept until well after lunchtime. He missed his morning medications and both breakfast and lunch. He woke up with a migraine, nauseous, and pain throughout his body that radiated down into his bones. Looking through his window, the rain that started early that morning hadn't stopped. In fact, it was now raining so hard he could only guess it would continue to rain the rest of the day. He thought about just staying in bed, but in the end his bladder won out and he got up to use the loo.

He couldn't see anyone from the hallway, but he could hear Aunt Petunia mumbling gleefully in her bedroom. The door to the guest room was closed and a wave of sadness washed through Harry. He couldn't muster the courage to see if Snape was still there.

Some Gryffindor I am.

Instead, he continued to the next door into the lavatory. He could use a shower, but his body was in too much pain to even attempt one. After brushing his teeth and splashing some water on his face, he grabbed his medicine bottles trying to remember which he was supposed to take, counting as he pulled them out - steroid, antibiotic, antiviral, pain reliever, vitamin, antiemetic. Using the glass next to the sink, he filled it and took each one carefully.

Next he needed to try to eat something since he couldn't remember the last time he'd eaten. He walked slowly down the stairs, a little embarrassed to still be in the pyjamas from yesterday, and was relieved to see only Dudley in the sitting room watching the telly.

"Morning Harry," Dudley called to him, "or I guess afternoon."

Harry nodded and passed him into the kitchen. Looking through the refrigerator, nothing seemed appetizing so he settled on a banana from the counter. He then unceremoniously plopped himself into a chair at the table.

"Everything ok?" Dudley asked sitting down across from Harry.

"Why?"

His cousin was nervously wringing his hands, "Your professor left in a hurry this morning."

Harry's heart plummeted to his stomach. Of course, for the first time ever Snape actually listened to him and left.

"Well he probably won't be around here anymore." When he saw Dudley's skeptical look he added, "Don't worry, someone else will be coming to stay in his place. Was he angry?"

"Yeah, he seemed it. Sorry."

Instead of answering, he just laid his head on the table willing it to stop aching. He could hear his aunt's shrilling voice talking as she was coming down the stairs; her high heeled shoes click-clacking with each step.

"Oh Diddy! He did it!"

Her voice grew louder when she entered the kitchen. Harry groaned from his headache pounding with her voice.

"He got the Ryan account!"

That was the client Uncle Vernon had been working on closing for the last two weeks. At least his uncle couldn't blame a single thing on Harry and his "freakiness", which was the only good thing about Uncle Vernon doing well at work - Harry was only blamed for the bad stuff that happened.

"We're going out to celebrate with them tonight," she continued completely ignoring Harry. "Will you be ok here? Maybe you can ask Piers to come over? I'll order some pizzas."

Dudley peered over at his cousin, "Pizza sounds great Mum, but I think I'll just hang out alone tonight."

"Anything you want my baby."

Harry snorted from the table; he couldn't keep that one in.

"Enough from you," she spat at him. Harry didn't even have the energy to open his eyes at her. "You just stay in your room where you belong."

"Not a problem there Aunt Petunia."

Once his aunt left to go buy a new dress - because all of hers just wouldn't do - Dudley placed his hand on Harry's shoulder.

"Don't worry Harry, I'll hang out with you tonight."

"Thanks." Harry lifted his head and went back up to his room.

Harry was surprised that no one had come to replace Snape at the house. He kept expecting Mrs. Weasley, Tonks, or even Mad-Eye Moody to knock and announce themselves as his new chemo-babysitter. He still hadn't gained the courage to go into the guest room; seeing it cleared out would only cause more pain inside of him. He managed to convince himself the only reason he cared that Snape was gone was because without another wizard in the house, how long would his relatives continue to leave him be?

He heard Uncle Vernon get home at half past six that evening, as usual, his normal grumbling replaced with elated banter about his latest deal. Harry was relieved when the man didn't even try to open his door. Less than an hour later, he heard the car driving away to take his aunt and uncle to celebrate the deal with the Ryan's. Harry watched the car drive off and continued to watch the rain pouring down thinking that it was perfect weather to match his miserable mood.

As promised, Dudley came into his room shortly after Uncle Vernon and Aunt Petunia departed, which at this point had almost become their routine. This time, his cousin also brought in the telly from his bedroom along with the VCR and a handful of movies. He left briefly and came back with a smoothie Harry knew had to be freshly made.

"Want some pizza too? I can bring you a plate from downstairs," Dudley asked sitting in the chair at the desk.

"No, s'ok. Thanks for this."

"I thought we could watch a movie. It might give you something else to focus on then homework and... well, everything that's going on," while Dudley was getting more comfortable with Harry's illness, but he didn't really like talking about it out loud.

"Sounds good Dudley. You pick; there's no movies in the wizarding world," Harry gestured to the pile of movies on the desk.

"Seriously?!" Harry laughed for a brief second as his cousin continued, "How about Shawshank Redemption? Mum doesn't like me watching it, which of course makes it one my favorites."

He handed the movie case to Harry who read through the back. He normally wasn't allowed to watch anything, regardless of the content, but the fact that Aunt Petunia didn't like it was a good enough reason for him to want to see it.

"That's perfect," Harry said leaning back against his pillows when the movie started.

Every so often, the room would flash with lightning and a little while later he'd hear the crashing of thunder. As a kid, Harry always loved thunderstorms and he'd never admit it, but those were the times he loved laying in his cupboard. Everything sounded distant from the middle of the house, so he would imagine the clouds rolling in a field with thunder in the background and it would almost instantly relax him. Tonight though, laying on the bed next to the window, the sound was anything but relaxing.

It was almost 11pm when the movie ended, but Harry had barely been able to pay attention. Not only was he sure he'd fallen asleep at least once in the middle, his scar had a constant aching feel. Every so often, the pain would get bad enough that he would press it against the cold window just to help get some relief.

"Why does your scar hurt," Dudley had asked him when he'd had a spike of pain so bad they had to pause the movie.

"Remember that dark wizard I told you about? Sometimes I can feel when he's angry or happy...it comes through this," he pointed to the scar.

"So... He's angry now?"

"Something like that," was all Harry replied and then they went back to finish the movie in almost silence.

"Shouldn't your parents be home by now?" Harry asked. The last thing he needed today was to be accused of stealing the telly from Dudley's room by Uncle Vernon.

"They never mentioned when they'd be home. Probably doing some good celebrating."

Harry's breathing rapidly increased as he had a flashback to the conversation with Snape the night before -

We were going to spend the summer at the beach because he absolutely loved the sea more than anywhere else. It was going to be a celebration of both his cancer remission and coming of age. I even had a new pocket watch picked out for him for his birthday.

He'd never been to a beach. The Dursley's never took him when they'd go on holiday in the summer. Apparently not only had Snape taken him in this other life, but he knew the other Harry loved the sea.

I bet I'd love it too. If the cancer doesn't...

No he wouldn't go there, but it was getting harder to stay positive today about beating the cancer and Voldemort. It was like finding out about this other, better life had sucked everything from him, much like a dementor.

Dudley was still talking, but Harry hadn't heard a word the other boy said or even noticed he was talking until he stopped mid sentence.

"Everything ok Dudley?"

Dudley shook his head, "I thought I heard something."

Harry sat still listening for anything that might sound out of place.

"Maybe thunder?" He suggested having heard a small booming noise from his window...

Or was it a cracking noise?

He tried to look outside the window, but couldn't see a thing because of the heavy rain pouring down.

Before either boy could move, the window burst open spraying glass over Harry's face and arms once he'd moved them to block. Rain whipped into the room through the broken window. Instinct took over and Harry reached for his wand beside him.

"Go!" He yelled at his cousin, "stay in your room!"

The house started trembling as what had to be close to two dozen flashes of colored lights were steaming in through the broken window hitting the ceiling and walls trying to connect with one of the teenagers in the room. Harry ducked Dudley down as chunks started to fall upon them. At this rate, it wouldn't be long before it collapsed down completely. Harry quickly wondered if that was how they planned to get through the wards, by knocking the house down. He didn't have time to think about that though.

"We have to get out of here!" He yelled towards Dudley who was being much calmer than Harry would have ever expected.

"C'mon," Dudley grabbed Harry's arm and pulled him across the room to the door.

As Harry was crawling across the floor trying to avoid the curses and hexes coming through the window, a large beam came crashing down onto him. His wand was knocked out of his hand.

"Arrrrggg," he screamed in agony, his legs now pinned under the ceiling beam. Dudley's grasp was pulled away from his arm.

He searched around for his wand only finding the sphere he threw after his argument with Snape. He squeezed it tightly willing the man to know how desperately he was needed back on Privet Drive. His heart broke when nothing happened... No light was emitted from the sphere as it had when he previously used it.

"Dudley, go to your room and hide! It's me they're after. If you're quiet, they won't even look for you," the young wizard lied. They'd kill Dudley the first chance they got.

To Dudley's credit, he argued that he didn't want to leave Harry alone. Only after reassuring his cousin that his Headmaster would know the moment the wards had fallen and would be here any second did Dudley leave.

Harry could hear his heart beating in his ears louder than the crashing coming from around the room and outside. There was still rain coming in from the window and now through the ceiling above his head, soaking him from head to toe. He was shivering, but strangely didn't feel cold at all.

He laid his head down trying to hide beneath the debris pinning him to the floor and could hear quick steps coming from the floor below him. The Death Eaters made it inside the house. If the Order didn't get here soon, it was only a matter of time before they'd get to him. Where was the watch that was supposed to be outside his home? Silently, he hoped no one was hurt when the attack started.

The sound of thick footsteps climbing the stairs could be heard and he'd never tell a soul that he closed his eyes in fear of being discovered. Then, what sounded like a duel was happening outside his door. Someone was out there for him!

Loud blasts could be heard from all around him - outside his window, on the other side of his door, from the floor beneath him. With each loud blast, the walls and ceiling would start to crumble some more.

Then one big BOOM, an explosion from the bathroom that shared a wall with his bedroom, opened the wall allowing the Death Eater access to his bedroom. It also was the last piece supporting the ceiling above him and the rest of the ceiling fell into the room completely covering Harry.

He couldn't hear anything; not any of the battle that was going around the room, not his heart beating, not his labored breathing. His glasses were broken, leaving his vision blurry in one eye. He could only see reflections of red, green, orange, and yellow on the wall he was facing. His body felt broken and he would give anything for it to stop.

He couldn't tell how much time had elapsed, but his adrenaline was running out and he just wanted to go to sleep. The last thoughts he had before the black seeped in around him was that he hoped someone would be able to find him under everything.

~~~~SS~~~~

This was his fault; he shouldn't have left without notifying the Order. He was summoned first thing that morning and spent the day at the Dark Lord's side making what he now knew were last minute arrangements for the attack and then working on menial tasks. He'd have to answer to the Order for his lack of contact, something he was not looking forward to doing.

Severus had been up for over 2 days straight and he wasn't about to leave until they found Harry. The house had been practically demolished by the death eater attack. Albus was outside reinforcing the house so it didn't completely collapse before they could get Harry out and setting up new wards so they could work without any further attacks.

"Harry." Severus called walking into the bedroom he was all too familiar with. It looked nothing like the room he'd been in the previous night. "Damnit!"

"Severus," he turned to find Lupin standing in the doorway. His eyes went wide as he looked at what was left of the room. "What happened?"

"I don't have time to go through it all. Who knows how long this house will stay up."

"Is he in here?"

"Dolohov never made it in and the idiot who blew up the wall blew up half of his body in the process, so he has to be here. No one else could have gotten to him."

The two wizards started levitating pieces of furniture, drywall, and wooden beams out of the way. Two small fires were immediately put out with a quick Aguamenti.

"What are the odds he survived this?" Lupin asked in a dark tone that made Severus nervous and angry at the same time.

"He's stronger than you'd think," Severus replied as Albus came into view.

"Kingley's finishing up the wards and we've done the best we could on the structure," the headmaster explained, holding his illuminated wand out in front of him. "In any case, we should work fast."

They were working mostly in silence when another person came to the door.

"We found his cousin," Tonks said, her hair now a fiery red. "He's in the room across from this one. Alive, but totally knocked out. Can't tell if it's from a stray hex or debris. Can we get some help moving him?"

Lupin nodded and walked out of the room to assist. It was strange for Severus to see them separately as in his other reality, they had already been a couple for some time at this point and got married the fall before Harry had died.

"The bed was over there," Severus said pointing towards the window that had been repaired. They started carefully vanishing debris away, mindful that at any moment removing the wrong piece in the wrong order could be disastrous.

"Severus," the older wizard said, "I don't doubt that had you been in a position to alert us of the attack, you would have."

"I should have known something was wrong when nothing happened yesterday," the Potions Master explained, angry with himself. "I was going to report into you, but I was summoned this morning."

"Where does this leave you now?"

He looked over at the man that was the closest thing he ever had to a father, Severus hated to disappoint him.

He shook his head, "I duelled Dolohov in front of Harry's bedroom. There's no good way to recover from that...it leaves me useless to the Order now."

Albus paused, blue eyes full of empathy meeting angry black ones.

"In time, you'll see your true worth my boy. Just have some patience."

Severus didn't believe the old wizard one bit. He finally made it into the room and saw the sphere roll out from a pile of debris. Harry had to physically squeeze it to activate, so he had to be close.

"I found something!" He called to the headmaster, holding up the sphere. "Harry!"

He continued to call out to the missing teen, worry filling his voice when each call went unanswered.

~~~~HP~~~~

Harry heard someone calling to him; or calling for him. It sounded like he was at the bottom of a lake and the person calling was outside of it. He heard his name, but couldn't make out anything else from the muffled words. He wanted to call out to whoever it was looking for him. They sounded scared or angry. On second thought, maybe he wanted to stay hidden. He could feel something above him shifting and a white light was shining in from somewhere.

"He's here!"

Harry felt a wave of relief pass through him. He tried to call out but it was only a whisper. His throat was dry and coated with dust and his chest hurt every time he drew in a breath.

I must be dying was the only thought crowding his mind. He would never get to apologize to Snape for what he'd said, say goodbye to his friends, or have a serious conversation with Remus over his guilt for killing Sirius. He always figured Voldemort would eventually kill him at some point; however this wasn't how he'd thought it would go.

The young Gryffindor was still conscious when finally his face was freed from the rubble. His vision was still too blurry to make out any details around him. All he saw was a blurry figure with long dark hair. Instantly, he felt calmer than he'd been all day. Maybe there was still hope he'd get out alive.

"...hear me?"

Harry shook his head back and forth. Everytime this person moved the pieces from the ceiling covering him, a sharp pain raced through his body so intense he saw white throughout his vision.

"Harry!"

There it was yelling at him again. This wasn't his fault, he didn't blow up the house. His uncle was going to be furious with him. Maybe he should have run away before they got home.

"Harry! Can you hear me?"

He furrowed his brows. "Yes," he managed to say, but wasn't sure it would be loud enough to hear.

"We're going to get you out," the voice said in a less panicked tone.

I guess I was loud enough after all.

"Just stay still while we get the rest of your free. We have some more help coming"

Definitely not going anywhere.

"Severus," the Headmaster said, "keep him talking."

By now, he was aware of at least three other bodies around him working on getting him out. His chest was now free, but after sitting in the rain on the flooded floor, he was convulsively shivering. The people around him must have noticed because a warm cloak was laid over him. He instantly relaxed, feeling it's warmth spread throughout him to his core as only a good heating charm can do, and it had a distinctly familiar smell of spices; maybe cloves?

"Is that better Harry?" The voice, Harry finally figured out had to belong to Snape, asked him.

" Y-y-es," he stuttered wondering why he was still shaking if he was no longer cold. "M'tired."

"I need you to stay awake Harry," Snape was kneeling on the side of Harry's head. Every so often he would look down towards Harry's lower body and then Harry would feel pain as the remnants were being moved. "You'll get plenty of time for that once we get you to Hogwarts."

"M'sorry s-sir," Harry mumbled.

"We needn't discuss that now."

"I shouldn't've told you t'leave," he wasn't sure how much longer he'd be able to stay awake. "I wanna hear more 'bout all that... Y'know."

Even if his glasses weren't broken, he couldn't focus enough to see Snape's reaction. What he did hear was another familiar voice that filled him with calm.

"How're doing Harry?," the kind voice of Healer Smithe was next to his ear.

"Alive," it wasn't funny but Harry didn't care at the moment.

"Celebrate the little things, that's what I always say," the healer joked. "We've almost got you cleared out of there and once we get you back to Hogwarts you'll start feeling loads better."

Harry doubted that, but nodded anyway.

"I need to run a diagnostic scan," he continued. "It's to see if there's anything that needs to be fixed immediately before we can move you."

"Like what?" Harry asked not sure he wanted the answer. If he was in this much pain, he could only imagine what was causing it.

"I'm sure it's nothing." Harry didn't miss the deflection of his question.

" 'k... do what you need to do." He felt the tingle of the diagnostic spell go through him. "Anything exciting?"

"You're doing great," Snape answered this time and again Harry didn't miss the deflection of his question.

Healer Smithe and Snape were standing, turned away from Harry, likely discussing his condition. He was very tired of getting into these situations.

"Professor?" Harry asked as he felt a significant amount of weight lift off his waist. "I was thinking about what you said yesterday... morning," he added at the last second.

Snape kneeled back down, "Which part?"

"I think I want to just shave my head. Think it'll be cold?" He hadn't really put too much thought beyond their discussion yesterday morning, but he figured it didn't really matter in the long run.

"I'll get you some hats or beanies, but I think that's a smart idea," Snape placed his hand on Harry's shoulder trying to ignore the wince of pain the young teen gave.

"How bad is it?" Harry gestured over his body. "You never sugar coat anything, so don't start now."

"To use your words, you're alive and right now that's all that matters."

Harry didn't like how that sounded. He heard someone yell from the other side of the ceiling debris by his feet.

"Harry," Snape said looking him intently into his green eyes, "they're getting ready to move the last piece. I need you to listen carefully... A lot of things will be happening at once. The beam is likely holding in some of the bleeding which will start again once that beam is lifted. Understand?"

Harry nodded that he understood. He worried his bottom lip holding back his fear when Healer Smithe placed a solid muggle wrap around his neck, telling him it was to protect him without using magic when they could finally move him.

"Shacklebolt, Lupin, and Professor Dumbledore will be lifting the last beam; as soon as it's safely off of you, Healer Smithe will wrap the damage and then I'll port key you straight to the hospital wing at Hogwarts. Madam Pomfrey is already waiting for us. All I need you to do is try your best to stay awake," Snape said all that with an authoritative voice that not only had Harry nodding again, but received verbal confirmation from all the others involved around him.

"On the count of three," Kingsley Shacklebolt called out. "One... Two... Three."

Just like Snape described, everything happened at once. Harry felt a tingling pain down his legs which he hadn't realized had been completely numb before, Healer Smithe practically crawled under the wooden beam with with rolls of muggle cotton wrap and started feverishly wrapping his right leg, and Harry did his part with staying awake although he'd much prefer sleeping to avoid the pain. He couldn't hold back his yell and tears when it felt like he was literally getting ripped in half.

He could feel Snape lift his upper body onto his lap and a cold sweat was running down his forehead. Harry reached out and Snape grabbed his hand as the teenager squeezed down as hard as he could.

"They're almost done Harry," Snape said quietly into Harry's ear. "You're doing great, but if you fall asleep you'll be in detention every day for the first month of term."

Harry tried to chuckle, but it was more of a groan, "Oh sure, those are always the worst cauldrons to clean."

"Exactly. Don't fall asleep."

It felt like an eternity before he heard Healer Smithe say he was ready to be moved. He started to tremble all over his body even while wrapped in the charmed cloak. This was from a combination of fear and pain, not the cold.

"It's ok Harry," Healer Smithe said, "Severus will get you to Hogwarts. I'm heading there now to get Poppy ready."

Harry couldn't say a word even if his life depended on it, so stayed silent watching his healer port key back to his school.

"Ready?" Snape asked. "Don't worry about staying awake for the port key, I've got you and when you wake up, you'll be feeling much better."

Harry thought those were the best words he'd ever heard, especially coming from Snape. He closed his eyes as a crushed water bottle was placed in his left hand and he felt the familiar hook behind his navel.