~~~~SS~~~~

Saturday 10th, August 1996

It didn't take Merlin himself to guess what had occurred between the two boys last night; he had seen the look of betrayal on youngest Weasley son's face when he heard Harry call him Severus. What it did take was all of his resolve and Occlumency not to literally throw the other 2/3's of the Golden Trio out of his quarters last night, but he managed to maintain control - at least this time. Today was Harry's first day of consolidation and so far it was off to a rough start. The professor had prepared Harry's standard pre-chemotherapy breakfast of porridge with banana and granola, but the Gryffindor did not show up at his usual time. Placing a warming charm over the bowl, he walked carefully over to the teen's door listening in to see if he was at least awake. Hearing nothing, he held his breath and opened the door.

The room was gloomy from the rainy day outside preventing the sunshine from filtering into the room through the enchanted window. While the windows did help make the dreary dungeons feel more inviting, it didn't do anything when it was rainy outside, something Severus had gotten used to after all these years living here. Walking up to the bedside of his young sleeping charge, Severus relished in how peaceful he looked - at least at this time - while sleeping. He knew in his old reality Harry had suffered from nightmares after the Philosopher's Stone incident and he had to assume that given how much more had occurred in this reality after that year - things much worse than the Philosopher's Stone - he was still plagued with them. Curiously, in all of his time he spent sleeping in a chair besides Harry, he had never seen the young wizard have one.

However, right now he appeared to be peacefully sleeping and it hurt Severus to know that he had to wake the young man up and back to a life filled with death and destruction. The professor sat on the edge of the bed and gently shook Harry's arm.

"Harry... Harry..."

The small teen rolled over in his bed and gave a soft groan, as if his body and mind knew exactly what was waiting for him upon waking.

"Come on Harry, it's time to get up," Severus said it so gently he hardly recognized his own voice, but was rewarded with two bright emerald green eyes peeking open. Of course when they saw the professor sitting on his bed Harry jumped up immediately, reminding Severus that this child was never usually woken up peacefully.

It took a second for Harry to recognize where he was and as expected his first instinct was to apologise.

"Sorry professor," he said sleepily, yawning afterwards.

"It is of no consequence yet," he stood to give Harry some space and privacy as he awoke. "Your breakfast is ready, go ahead and get dressed; we'll talk while you eat."

Harry had gotten ready in record time and met Severus in the kitchen less than ten minutes later. Having already eaten his own breakfast, Severus busied himself with cleaning up the kitchen from breakfast as well as collecting Harry's morning medication, which now included a new chemotherapy tablet he would take everyday during consolidation.

"Here," he sat down at the table after handing Harry his medication. "How is your back feeling this morning?"

"Still sore," Harry mumbled while running his spoon through his porridge. Severus resisted the urge to make a comment about humans not being able to eat via osmosis since that would not aid him in getting Harry to both talk and eat.

"Alton will examine it before the Intrathecal, just in case," he explained knowing full well the healer would see it regardless of if Harry wanted him to or not. "What happened last night?"

"I got angry at something Ron said," Harry started to explain, finally taking a bite of his porridge.

"Yes, you did mention that part last night," the former spy was not about to let him off that easy again. Harry needed his friends during all of this and Severus needed to know how bad the row was. "Any specifics today would be most appreciated."

Harry took a large breath, delaying the inevitable, and met Severus's eyes; there was much more trust and compassion than the professor ever expected to see.

"He got angry that I called you Severus," Harry eventually said with a sound of relief. That proved he was at least half correct, but Severus doubted Harry fought his best friend on his account.

"If that was the reason you hit him first, I'm very honored but I have a feeling there's more to it than simply that..." He trailed off and was not at all surprised when Harry continued; that tactic worked plenty of times in his old reality.

"No," this time Harry looked away with a face the professor couldn't place - was he embarrassed he hit his friend?

"No," the Gryffindor said again, his voice shaking and cracking, "he said... He said it was my fault... about Ginny and Charlie. And he's right."

That... Weasel...

It wasn't the most mature thought, but it was by far the cleanest he could come up with compared to what he wanted to say as a former Death Eater. Severus knew in this reality more than his old one, Ron had always been frustrated at being in Harry's shadow, but this time he had gone too far. As his best friend, he should have known Harry would already be mistakenly blaming himself for all that was happening in the war.

For a moment he was brought back to the memory of when he said something just as damaging to his own best friend and he questioned if, like with Lily, this would be the last straw to break the boys' friendship. Unfortunately, due to Harry's neglectful upbringing, he was the most forgiving person Severus had ever known - even more so than Lily - but this was something even he shouldn't forgive.

"Harry look at me" he broke the awkward silence by calling Harry's given name, something that still always got the teen's attention. His eyes met Harry's and he could see the sorrow deep within them. Being the Boy-Who-Lived and now The Chosen One really was too much pressure to put on a 16-year old boy.

"This is not your fault," he continued keeping eye contact with Harry, "you are not responsible for the Dark Lord's actions nor Bellatrix's actions. You are not responsible for Mr. Weasley's reaction to such actions. You are not at fault for anything that happens during this war. Sometimes bad things happen, and there is nothing we cosmically do to cause any such events. You are not a bad person."

The professor could see the struggle within Harry as he said the words the young wizard needed to not only just hear, but to understand. Harry's jaw was clenched and he simply shook his head in acknowledgement, knowing that any words would be met with tears. Satisfied for the moment, Severus placed a supportive hand on Harry's boney shoulder having no idea how much worse the day was about to get.

"It's only a matter of time before he finds out," Severus angrily explained to the Headmaster in his office only an hour after breakfast, "and I'd highly suggest it comes from someone in the Order instead of the Prophet."

Charlie Weasley's body was found that morning in the atrium of the Ministry of Magic, clearly placed as a symbolic message floating above where the Fountain of Magical Breathen lay still destroyed. His clothing was dirty and torn to bits, and his body - still in the condition as if he were only killed yesterday - was littered with deep cuts and burns. It was determined that while his cause of death was officially the killing curse, as Draco had reported, unfortunately it was not before withstanding several rounds of torture. It was clear that his last 24 hours alive were anything but peaceful.

When the body was discovered just after dawn, Mr. and Mrs. Weasley were called to the new Minister, Rufus Scrimgeour's office and were then taken to Grimmauld Place to be with the rest of their family. No one had yet told Harry, who was recovering from the IT chemotherapy in the hospital wing before going back to their quarters to start the 5 hour chemotherapy, and Severus was now with the Headmaster trying to determine how to proceed. Of all the days for this discovery, Severus questioned if it could have been intentionally planned; a thought that concerned him greatly.

"Obviously we cannot let Harry find out from the papers," Albus said pacing the floor in front of his desk. "I'm simply pointing out the fact that he will be sequestered in your quarters until at least next Saturday and there are few places he would hear of this news. Therefore, we can use that to our advantage and delay until he's well enough to handle it."

Severus knew on some level the headmaster was right even though it felt so wrong. Harry absolutely would not handle the news of Charlie Weasley's death well and at the start of a four day treatment - with new medications they had no idea how he'll react to - was probably the worst time to tell him. Then there was also the fact that he would not be permitted to attend the funeral, however based on the physical altercation of the previous night, that might be for the best. Severus knew good and well what happens when you show up unwelcomed to a funeral and he had no intentions of repeating that in this reality.

"Fine," the younger professor reluctantly agreed. "Let's see how he handles the new medications after tomorrow and then we can determine when to tell him."

"I shall leave that decision up to you," Albus stated the twinkle in his eyes having returned, "Am I correct to assume that our young Harry knows where you've come from and the nature of your relationship there?"

Severus peered over at his mentor and gave a swift nod. This decision could easily backfire and break the delicate trust he'd managed to build with Harry thus far, but at the same time it could just as easily break Harry's spirit. There was only so much one person could be pushed before giving in and he feared getting this information at the wrong time would do exactly that to him. Therefore, it was a calculated risk he was willing to take.

"Now that we've covered that topic," Albus said, still pacing his office, "what do you make of the presentation?"

"It's clearly a statement," the former spy answered, "likely that the Dark Lord has enough people within the Ministry to get in and out in the middle of the night without so much as an alarm going off. Of course, we have always known he's had help from within, so it's nothing new. I'm more curious of the timing."

"Very good point Severus.," the headmaster continued taking a seat in the plush armchair across from him, "why now?"

Severus was hesitant to answer. While he obviously thought that waiting until Harry was at one of his lowest times wasn't a coincidence, there were few people who would have known such a fact. At best, there could have been some leak within the Order and at worst, there was a leak on Harry's medical team. While the Order knew the details of Harry's condition, they did not know his chemotherapy schedule so that would mean it was partially coincidental that they waited 5 days to stage the body. Harry's medical team who would have intimate knowledge of how Harry was both handling the chemotherapy as well as when he would be starting this next round consisted of himself, Alton, Poppy, and Albus - plus the Weasley's and Hermione would also have those details - none of which he wanted to even consider to be traitors. Then there was always the option of it truly being coincidental. There was no real way at this single point to discern between those options.

"I don't know Albus," he ultimately said. "I can't help but think that it was deliberate based on Harry's schedule; to hit him when he's down, however the implications of that are horrific."

"I am in agreement with you my boy, but I see few other options."

Severus grimaced just thinking about it. They were between a rock and a hard place with the walls closing in; no option was a good one.

"I can have Draco keep a close ear out should he be summoned in the near future. Maybe he can identify why this date was chosen and if we have a traitor amongst us," the professor offered. "Outside of that, we should make sure someone we can trust, without a doubt, stays with Harry as much as possible. I'll brush up on my muggle medicine some more to double check everything that gets administered to him."

"Very good. I will get you a list of people to help you with Harry," Albus said after a thoughtful pause, sadness running through his eyes. "Go be with him Severus, your boy needs you now more than ever."

-HR-

When Severus returned to the hospital wing, he was far more alert than before his conversation with Albus. His instincts told him Alton was not going to intentionally harm Harry, but until he knew what was going on he would not take any chances regardless of whom it was.

Harry was lying flat on the hospital bed, waiting for the chemo medication to spread throughout his spinal cord, when Severus continued walking towards Madam Pomfrey's office. Based on what time he started and the time Severus was with the headmaster, they should be on their way back to their quarters any minute.

"Alton," the professor said calling his friend away from Harry's bedside, "how is everything going?"

"At this point, he's used to the IT so as normal as can be," Alton replied, a little skeptical. "Why do you ask?"

Severus thought about how much to share. He did not get as far as he had in his complicated life without being able to make these types of decisions quickly.

"I need you to be able to do the Intrathecal in my quarters going forward," he was trying to be intentionally vague. "Harry had an altercation with Miss Weasley's brother yesterday and I do not want them to cross paths unintentionally during any treatments."

The healer gave Severus a concerned glare, "Was that the cause of those bruises on his back? "

"Unfortunately, yes. At this point, it's in Harry's best interest to prevent any future issues." That certainly was not his best work, but it got the point across.

"Of course," Alton said understandingly, "I'll get you a list of what I need to do the treatments down there. Poppy will need to assist if that's ok."

Severus nodded, turning towards the matron working on Ginny Weasley. Their family had already lost one son and have a higher chance than there ever should be at losing their only daughter. He was torn between being sympathetic to their situation and angry with Ron's attitude towards Harry.

"Is he ready?" Severus asked impatiently, tabling the other thoughts in his mind for now.

"Yes he is. I'll meet you both down there to get started on the next set."

~~~~HP~~~~

Harry was lying on his bed, back in his favorite pair of green flannel pyjamas with only about an hour left of the first day's chemo; the fight with Ron weighing heavily on his mind. No one would ever believe that Harry could actually understand Ron for blaming him, he already blamed himself for a lot of the things that had happened in his life. What was bothering him the most - what kept eating away at his mind - was the regret he heard in the redhead's voice; it continued ringing through Harry's head. It was as if Ron's life would have been better had they never met on the Hogwarts Express all those years ago. This was beyond the Heir of Slytherin fiasco, or all of last year where the half the school thought he was a liar about Voldemort's return, this even went further than the Triwizard Tournament row they'd had. Harry didn't see how they would reconcile from this one and since he hated putting Hermione in the middle of them, he had basically lost her too. Once again he found himself feeling alone in the world.

"May I come in?" he heard Snape's baritone voice ask from his bedroom doorway.

As always Snape looked completely exhausted even after their - relatively speaking - easy week, yet he never complained. Harry wondered how they were going to manage once school started and the professor had classes, detentions, his own house to manage, and school functions to keep up with especially since he doubted Mrs. Weasley would want to stay with him after everything that happened with Ron. A heavy blanket of guilt fell over Harry's heart.

"Sure," Harry said, making to sit up, but Snape held his hand up for him to stay laying on the bed, so Harry simply shifted to face his professor. "Is everything ok sir?"

"Not really Harry," Severus tried not to sound too foreboding but knew it was likely not working, "given what happened yesterday, I think it is best if you do not continue to visit Miss Weasley in the hospital wing. At least not for the immediate future."

Harry looked over towards the enchanted window. It was almost dinnertime and the sun finally started to peek out from the clouds just in time to set over the black lake. He tried not to think about when the last time he was outside and how much he wished he could go flying at that exact moment.

"I know sir. I don't think I'm going anywhere anyway." Deep down he had known he wouldn't get to see Ginny anymore, but it still hurt to hear.

Snape waved his wand and a set of books came flying into the bedroom and settled on Harry's desk. The professor picked one up - to Harry, it looked like a muggle book on medicine - and started reading while making notes in the margins with one of Harry's muggle pens. It was an odd sight not only to see the professor surrounded by muggle things, but also because after everything they'd done for over a month, it seemed a bit late for Snape to be doing this much research about his cancer.

"Ok, Harry," the teen lifted his head as Healer Smithe called cheerfully while walking into the room presumably from the floo, "you are done for today."

"Thank Merlin," it hadn't been an overly difficult time, but he was always relieved to be done.

"Madam Pomfrey will be administering the next two sets of chemotherapy tomorrow and Monday," he disconnected the port, flushing it out afterwards, and started putting away the materials. "She'll be here at half past nine o'clock in the morning and it should last roughly 4 hours, plus the time for the antiemetic prior and possibly morphine afterwards. So, then... I will see you on Tuesday."

Harry nodded yet again, feeling his eyes getting heavy as Snape said goodbye to the healer.

Maybe I can just sleep through all the side effects today...

"Do you think you can eat something?" Snape asked him sitting back at the desk. At this point, they both knew that it was never a matter of if Harry was hungry, because he never was anymore, instead it was if he could eat or not.

As if on cue, Harry reached for the pail and started forcefully vomiting what was left of the small lunch he managed to force down a couple of hours ago. He was vaguely aware of the bed dipping beside him and Snape's hand gently running across his still sore back.

His head and scar started to ache terribly and then, for reasons he'd never know, while he was leaning over his bed, still holding the pail in front of his face, feeling the soft circles of Snape's hand on his lower back, a flash of a vision sprang up in front of his eyes-

The dungeons where a body lay in the corner, seemingly forgotten, only his dirty red hair could be seen... The feeling of anticipation for what was to come... back to The Ministry of Magic; how easy it was to get in again, the world at his fingertips to do with what he'd like... Finally deciding that this was the perfect place for his display.

Harry immediately started vomiting again, but this time for a completely different reason. He finally knew - Charlie Weasley was dead. His body was now sitting at the Ministry of Magic.

Seeing another round of vomiting starting so close to the first, Snape stood up off the bed and kneeled down beside it, taking hold of the pail when the teen's hands started shaking too much to hold it. When the round turned to dry heaves and then finally subsided, Harry fell onto his knees on the floor, immediately throwing his hands to cover his face and started crying, not caring if the man next to him could hear the sobs. Another person had died because of him; how many more people would continue to die so he could fulfill this damned prophecy? How could his one life really be worth more than all of these other people's lives?

"Harry?" he heard Snape whisper into his ear, startling him. "What is wrong?"

Harry didn't care what anyone would have said if they saw him. Ron would have had a fit, but did that really matter anymore? His friend would never forgive him now anyway, not once he found out his brother was dead. All Harry knew was in that moment it felt right when he reached over and continued to cry onto Snape's shoulder. It also felt right when Snape draped his arms across Harry's shoulders pulling him into a strong embrace. Harry continued to cry against the man that he subconsciously knew had been there for him through this last awful month and a half. He felt hopeless and desperately needed someone to help hold him up, otherwise he was sure he'd never make it back. When it finally seemed like the young wizard had gained some kind of control over himself, he leaned back against the bed trying to hide his embarrassment.

"Charlie's dead," he said sitting forward to rest his head on his lifted knees. "I saw his body in a cell somewhere and now he's at the Ministry of Magic."

Snape stiffened, "Was this a vision? Just now?"

Harry nodded, his face still resting on his knees muffling his answer, "Yes, it was a vision. I think I'm going to be sick again."

Snape leaned over and grabbed the pail just in time for more vomiting, not caring if it was the chemotherapy or anxiety causing it. This was not how it was supposed to go. He was supposed to be able to break this news gently to Harry.

"We have to tell the Weasley's," Harry said, speaking quickly, his ears turning red with embarrassment. He lifted his head, his glasses were askew and his eyes were red and swollen with tears, "They're going to hate me even more now."

"They already know Harry," the professor said, summoning a glass of water that he handed to the distraught Gryffindor. "His body was found this morning."

"You knew didn't you? When was he killed?"

"That is not important Harry," he said, voice full of sorrow. "Look at me."

There was a brief hesitation, but Harry eventually looked up at Snape, emerald green eyes dulled with pain - physical and emotional - met black eyes filled with concern for the teenager in front of him.

"This had nothing to do with you," Snape said clearly so Harry had no choice but to listen, reiterating the message he gave only hours earlier. "The Order and the Aurors are taking care of this and right now all you need to focus on is taking care of yourself."

"This all seems so pointless! People are literally dying while I sit here doing nothing. I should-"

Snape raised his hand cutting off the excuse that was surely coming from the Gryffindor. "This is not pointless," Snape angrily exclaimed, "I did not come back here to save you only to watch you die at the hands of Voldemort. I will not let that happen!"

Harry's eyes went wide for two reasons; this was the first time Snape had admitted explicitly that whatever it was he did to come to this world was to save Harry's life. However the reason he settled on saying to the professor was, "You said his name."

"It got your attention, did it not?" the former spy said holding his left forearm trying to hide his pain, "I think you need a change of scenery. Let's go to the sitting room."

"Thank you Severus," Harry eventually said after thinking through what had happened. He leaned against the man once again before they walked to the sitting room. "For everything you've done for me."

~~~~SS~~~~

The rest of Saturday night was spent out in the sitting room with Harry falling in and out of sleep on the sofa timed, not so surprisingly, based on when his pain medication was wearing off. Breakthrough pain - the term the professor found when searching through the muggle textbooks - was common in cancer patients as the threshold of pain was over that which many commonly used medications could stop. Severus spent the night with a cup of coffee, reviewing as many of the muggle medical books as he could. He had notes scribbled throughout the books and what started as just familiarizing himself with the names, purposes, and side effects of Harry's plentiful medications turned into a deep desire to find out how Harry managed to get the Leukemia in the first place; an endeavor that would require extensive muggle and wizarding research. Intuition told him this was important to figure out at any cost and, for better or worse, his intuition was usually correct.

He must have fallen asleep because sometime around three in the morning, he felt the now familiar buzz of the sphere waking him up. Confused, because Harry should have been asleep on the sofa beside him, he walked the all too familiar route to the lavatory. Harry was sitting against the wall on the floor doubled over in pain, holding his stomach, sweat beading down his face, his pyjamas clinging to his chest.

Not again...

"I-I don't know... what happened," he said from the floor as Severus knelt down besides Harry with a heavy heart.

"Is it your stomach? Different from nausea?" The professor reached out to feel Harry's forehead, confirming there was no fever.

"Y-yes," Harry nodded as he said it. "It's the... b-burning again."

Alton mentioned that the new Saturday-only medication could cause stomach pain, but this not only seemed excessive, but Harry yet again has described it as burning. He summoned Harry's red blanket and draped it over the teen's shoulders hoping to warm him up as much as he could.

"Let me go call Alton," he said, walking out to firecall his friend hating that he had to leave Harry alone in the bathroom.

Even though Healer Smithe lived in the muggle world, when he agreed to take on Harry as a patient full-time, he added his fireplace to the floo network in case of an emergency. Thus less than 5 minutes later, the healer was entering Severus's sitting room and quickly running to the lavatory.

The Potions Master stayed at the door while the healer ran through several diagnostic spells and collected blood samples for his muggle testing. Yet again, everything came back normal from the diagnostic spells. Severus punched the door frame in frustration because while he would rather nothing else be wrong, normal meant he couldn't do anything to fix it.

"Unfortunately, consolidation does tend to be hard on the body, similar to the induction phase. People think that getting the Leukemia into remission is the difficult part, but keeping it gone can be just as taxing.

"You can consider a morphine pump, but honestly given how the IV is helping now that might be an extreme I'm not sure we're at yet," Alton said once Harry was back in his bedroom with an IV of morphine allowing him enough relief to fall asleep. "I'll stay until this bag ends and then let's see how he does the next couple of days. It might only be the Cyclophosphamide, which is done only the first two Saturdays of each round and we can plan on utilizing the IV morphine on those days. "

With a hard sigh, the professor went back to sit by Harry's bed. This was the best plan they had and Severus absolutely hated it.

Luckily, Sunday's chemo saw less pain than Saturday's. Harry was still plagued with the nausea and vomiting along with what they now appropriately named normal-pain, but unfortunately they were both getting used to that - eat when you can, sleep when you can.

Severus was livid when Albus called an Order meeting Sunday night at headquarters which he was required to attend. Since Draco was not allowed to be at any meetings, all correspondence to and from their newest spy had to go through Severus. Unfortunately this meant his presence was needed at every meeting and it left very few options to stay with Harry. He was nearly about to risk skipping the meeting altogether when Minerva firecalled to remind him that she was Harry's guardian and had no qualms about dealing with Albus for skipping the gathering to stay with him.

Minerva was set to arrive only five minutes before the Order meeting leaving Severus with as little time as possible to socialize before its start, something he hated doing on the best of days and definitely didn't want to deal with today. He had planned to meet with Draco before her arrival, so after dressing in his typical black robes, which he had not worn nearly enough this summer holiday, he sat back down in his office to review the medical books and journals.

The parchment appeared directly in front of his face shortly after starting Muggle Diseases in Witches and Wizards: An Introduction to a Medicinal and Healing Cross-Discipline announcing Draco's arrival.

"Evening Severus," Draco arrogantly greeted as the professor opened his door.

"You seem smug this evening," Severus replied, leading Draco into the sitting room, not in the mood for any of the blonde Slytherin's antics tonight.

"Well, let's just say it feels good to finally be appreciated for something," he then had a disgruntled look about his face, "even if I'm not trusted enough to actually attend the meetings."

This had been a point of conflict with the teenager. Naturally, he assumed that taking the dark mark would automatically put him at the same level of respect Severus had, to which the professor grimmly laughed. Instead, most members of the order still had at least one good reason not to trust Draco regardless of his proclaimed change of allegiance - something Severus himself still fought at each Order meeting. In the end, it was decided that Draco would not attend the meetings as a way to help compartmentalize the information should Draco be captured and tortured for information. Simply put, one could not divulge secrets - accidentally or intentionally - if that person did not have those secrets to begin with.

"We do this to win a war," the former spy explained, "not to feed your ego. If you're not up to the task let me know, though I doubt at this point you'd live long enough to enjoy wherever it is you end up."

Draco narrowed his eyes to his mentor deciding to cut the supposed pleasantries, "What is it you need from me?"

"We need to know why the Dark Lord chose to release the body yesterday," Severus said plainly.

Draco didn't hide his confused face fast enough; showing yet another skill the professor would need work with him on.

"Why does it matter?"

"To you it does not; all you need to concern yourself with is finding out if that date had any significance," he was losing his patience with the teenager in front of him but decided this time to provide a little more direction than what was completely necessary. "If, for example, the Dark Lord wanted a large audience to prove a point, one would think a weekday would have been preferred. Since that is not what happened, we need to know if the date was significant and if so, why."

The clock above the mantle read five to eight, Minerva would be here any second. Severus stood signaling a dismissal to his young protégé. As expected, the floo roared to life and Minerva gracefully stepped out in her casual tartan robes, hair still in its signature tight bun. She moved to greet Severus, eyeing Draco; surprised to see the young Slytherin casually standing in the room.

"Good evening Severus," Minerva said, still keeping a close watch on Draco, "I take it I can expect no problems here tonight?"

"None at all" Severus grabbed Draco's arm, a bit harder than necessary, "Mr. Malfoy was just leaving."

Draco nodded both in his agreement to leave and that he understood what his first real assignment was to be with the Death Eaters. As soon as Severus heard the outside door to his quarters close, he turned to Minerva.

"Harry shouldn't have any issues for you as he recently had his medication and is thankfully sleeping," he looked away from his colleague's intrigued and sympathetic eyes.

"We'll be fine Severus," she said, picking up on how uncomfortable he was with this conversation. "I'll follow up with Albus directly about the meeting. You go before you're late!"

In the end, it was indeed beneficial for him to have attended the meeting. He learned Charlie's funeral was set for the following Saturday afternoon, meaning even if Harry was welcome to go - which Molly insisted he was and that Ron had gotten severely punished and a lecture about the value of friendship - he would not be able to go. He dreaded merely the thought of telling Harry that news.

He also learned Bill was making significant progress on breaking the unknown curse used on Ginny. He turned to Severus asking if he'd known the core material of Bellatrix's wand. The information was needed to help isolate pieces of the dark magic she had used as part of the curse. Unfortunately Severus did not know that information offhand, but said he would consult with Draco so they could obtain it. This was to be a top priority to the Order; the longer Ginny went untreated the harder it would be to remove the curse.

The only update he provided was that Draco had succeeded in taking the dark mark - something Molly thought was deplorable of them as a group to support and nearly walked out looking as if she wanted to slap Albus in the process - but that Draco still had a long way to get even close to the rank to replace Severus. The headmaster agreed to put together a set of innocuous information Draco could feed to Voldemort to help boost his level of trust within the ranks, similar to what he did for Severus all those years ago.

"Severus," Molly called out to him as he was about to floo back to his quarters the second the meeting ended. Trying not to audibly sigh, he turned to Molly; he should have anticipated this.

"How's Harry feeling?"

Her kind eyes tore straight through him and he questioned for the first time if this woman would have been in his place had he not changed realities. Would Harry have been living at the Burrow this whole time instead?

"Not well I'm afraid. I should-" he started.

"Please," Molly interrupted in a voice that was both sweet and angry at the same time, "let him know that we don't place any blame on him. Ron is practically grounded until he gets married for both what he said and did. I cannot believe his choice of actions. When Harry's up for visitors, I would love to come by and see him."

The professor pinched the bridge of his nose and said noncommittally before leaving, "I'll relay the message."

When he landed back in his quarters he was relieved to find it was still quiet and calm. Not seeing Minerva in the sitting room, he immediately went to Harry's bedroom listening carefully for the telltale signs of his vomiting. Satisfied with the silence, he peeked in and breathed a sigh of relief as Harry lay asleep in his bed. He carefully pulled the green bedspread neatly over Harry's thin frame and as silently as he entered, left the room.

Minerva had just finished making a pot of tea in the kitchen when Severus entered. Without saying a word, she carefully set out two cups on the table and generously poured the tea into them and then placed a plate of biscuits on the table alongside the tea. For a moment Severus forgot he was in his own quarters.

"You don't need to do this alone Severus," Minerva lectured once they were both seated, a blanket draped neatly over her shoulders keeping her warm against the cool dungeon air. "Not only is it too much for one person to do alone, it's hardly your responsibility."

"If I remember correctly, you were the one who challenged me to get Harry to his follow up appointment," that conversation seemed like it happened years ago. Sometime when he thought hard enough about it, his other reality also seemed like years ago, except the day of Harry's death; that day would forever haunt him regardless of whichever reality he lived in.

"I hardly expected it to play out as it has," she said carefully, "no one could have expected something like this to happen."

Severus took a too long sip of his tea - chamomile, an appropriate choice for the night - while trying to avoid eye contact with his colleague, but failed. One quick glance up and she could tell somehow he had known about it. She gave a small gasp and covered her mouth with her aged, but not frail, hand.

"Severus, don't tell me you somehow had knowledge about this?" She waited for him to deny her accusation. When he didn't, she shook her head and continued, "Either way, that still does not mean you need to handle an ill child all alone, especially one that until recently you despised. Let me help you."

It had been a trying weekend between Harry's care, Charlie Weasley's death, the Order meeting, and Draco's training. Somehow while all of that was weighing in on his mind, when he started talking to his former professor and probably the closest person to a friend he had at Hogwarts besides Albus, it wasn't about any of that at all. Instead he told her all about his other life; about the adoption, about the Dark Lord or lack thereof, about the cancer and the infamous crossroads, about Harry's death, and about coming back to this world. He filled her in on what had happened since waking up here; the appointments and diagnosis, the surgery for Harry's port placement, about Harry's relatives and cousin, and about how responsible he felt for the young man sleeping down the hall, who still felt like his son, but in this life he somehow managed to slip through every crack leaving him practically alone.

Minerva listened without prejudice. She kept an open mind when Severus said he had lived another life and didn't interrupt when he spoke, almost in a trance, about the life he'd built for himself and Harry, the biological son of his school time nemesis. She didn't even try holding back the tears when she learned of Harry's death in that other life. She continued to pour them tea until it was well past midnight and Severus warned that she should go since Harry would probably wake up soon as he was close to needing his next dose of pain medication. Minerva placed her hand over Severus's and told him she would stay and help.

While Severus may have walked out of a calm home that evening and back into one, it was anything but calm during the Order meeting. Harry had been up several times vomiting until he had no more energy to move. Minerva sat with him on the lavatory floor covering him in a blanket, even though he was sweating, before she managed to help him back into bed. It was at that moment, she vowed to help Severus in any and all ways that she could and after hearing his story of how he lived a different life she was more determined than ever to help him gain back what he had lost. After all, both of those boys deserved nothing less.