"I swear I'm going to give those two boys a piece of my mind!" she said crossly as she examined Harry's swollen face and the cut above his eye, which were already on the mend from the salves and potions Severus had used.

Before Harry could open his mouth to ask her not to, Severus spoke for him. "It is being taken care of," he said.

"I should hope so," she told him.

She let Harry go and Severus walked him back towards Gryffindor tower and bade him goodnight. Inside Harry ignored the looks other people were giving his split lip and black eye and the cut over his face and went to sit with Ron and Hermione at a table against the back wall by the stairs to the boys dorms.

"What? They get you again?" Ron asked.

Harry waved him away. "It's over now."

"Did they get expelled?" Hermione asked.

"No," Harry said tiredly. "It doesn't matter. It's all done and over with."

Hermione reached out to touch Harry's face and turn his cut towards the light so she could see. "I have notes if you want to look at them for the Charms and Transfiguration homework," Hermione said.

Harry gave her a thankful look and accepted the notes. He pushed his seat back to stand and go up to the dorms to do his homework, but Hermione asked, "Are you ready for tomorrow's Defense Club?"

"Yes," Harry lied, and went up to his room. He sat with the notes for a few minutes but couldn't concentrate on homework when the upcoming Defense Club was encroaching on his thoughts. The entire evening was weighing on his mind. He wasn't certain how he felt about what had happened with Jeremy and Rowan. The punishment they'd meted out to Harry obviously hadn't satisfied them. Harry felt like he'd been punished enough though. And then Snape had let Harry just sit there and cry next to him. No one had done that before, not even his friends. Snape hadn't chastised him or told him off. He hadn't put him down or tried to give him a calming draught. He'd just let him be and told him to come to him if he wasn't going to defend himself, or couldn't. Did that mean Snape would defend him?

Harry took his wand out and latched onto that thought; the thought that he was welcome to just sit and be wherever Snape was and have him share in whatever he was going through. Harry didn't know if it was a happy thought, but it was a new sort of feeling for him and it was strong. "Expecto Patronum!" he said loudly, and a stag burst out of his wand, if even only for a moment. It was corporeal and had hung around long enough to be seen. That was enough for the Defense Club, Harry thought with relief. He pushed his notes away from himself and went to bed and fell into a dreamless sleep. Later he would wonder if Snape had dosed him with a dreamless sleep potion when he'd been healing him, but Harry never asked, and Severus never told.

* * *

Surprised shouts met Harry's stag Patronus the next evening in the Great Hall. "Whoa Harry! I didn't know you could do that!" a boy from Ravenclaw shouted. Harry didn't know him well but knew he was on the Ravenclaw Quidditch team. No one learned how to cast a Patronus by the end of the session, but everyone had tried and several of the older students had gotten wisps to come out of their wands, which was something.

"That was very good Harry," McGonagall told him at the end of the lesson. "We'll devote time at the next few meetings to this and see who we can get to come along."

Hermione agreed with McGonagall that Harry had done a good job, and Draco didn't seem like he wanted to complain so Harry figured he must have done a good job. The only person that didn't seem happy was Umbridge, who had again come to watch their meeting and sat at the back. Ron told Harry later that she had scowled through the entire session.

"She could teach us herself," Harry said.

"She won't." Ron sat and flipped through several pages of his Potions text looking for something and then said, "Harry, how did you get an O on your last couple Potions papers?"

"There's a secret to getting O's," Harry told him. Hermione looked up, wondering what Harry had to say about it, and when Harry saw he had the attention of both of his friends he said, "Professor Snape only gives O's for papers that relate what we're learning now to other things we've learned or researched."

"What's that even mean?" Ron asked, and Hermione pulled out her Potion's essay from the week before and showed him.

"Professor McGonagall does the same," Hermione said. "It's easy to relate Transfiguration topics to Runes, Arithmancy and Astronomy."

"And in Charms?" Ron asked.

"I don't know," Harry said. The only place he'd tried this was in Potions and it was a lot of extra work.

"Charms too," Hermione said. "Professor Flitwick seems to like it when we relate Charms theory to things it can be used for and how Charms can interact with things like Transfiguration and Potions for interesting effects."

"That's too much work," Ron grumbled.

"We only do 12 papers a term for each class though," Hermione said, "and tests count for less than half of the grade. If you could do well on the tests and then get O's on just half of your papers and you settle for Exceeds Expectations on the rest that would get you an O for the class. And if you failed a test you could make up for it easily with an O paper."

Ron looked like he was trying to figure out the math in his head as Harry went back to his research for his current Potions paper. This would be his fourth for Snape this term and he fancied getting another O. Since Harry had been putting more effort into his Potions papers he had found brewing easier during class and wasn't confused as often about which ingredients to use and in which order to add them. Whether Snape was pleased or not with his new grades Harry wasn't sure, but he was certainly pleased with himself.

* * *

Harry wished he would have just stayed in the tower Friday night instead of going out after dinner by himself to look for a book in the library. He'd decided to try his luck at getting an O on his Transfiguration paper Monday and Hermione had told him about a book that could help him with that. Now as Harry was staring at Umbridge in the Library corridor, mouth slack, he wondered if the O would have been worth the trouble he was in now.

"Did you hear me Mr. Potter?" Umbridge demanded.

Harry closed his mouth, unsure of what to say. She'd just accused him of fighting on Wednesday night. He hadn't been fighting, he'd been getting beaten up. He could tell her that, but then Rowan and Jeremy would be in trouble.

"I saw the bruises you had Thursday morning Potter and I've been doing some detective work since then. It's apparent to me now that you started a fight with a respectable 6th year Ravenclaw that night during dinner and then duelled him, which is against school rules."

"But Professor, I wasn't duelling. I don't even know where we could duel."

"Out on the grounds perhaps?"

"I wasn't out on the grounds."

"Where were you during dinner Wednesday night then Mr. Potter? You were nowhere to be found."

"I was with Professor Snape," Harry lied.

"Doing detention? I didn't see a detention on your record for the evening."

"I wasn't in detention, I was with him in the dungeons."

She laughed at him then and said, "That's quite enough Mr. Potter. Come with me. You have detention until curfew."

"Yes maam." Harry though it was ironic that the other boys had been the ones beating him up, but he was being punished for it. That was the choice he'd made though, so he'd have to deal with the consequences himself. The only issue was that this wasn't to be a normal detention and he wasn't sure how to deal with it himself.

"Maam?" Harry asked, confused. She'd given him a quill and told him to do lines, (‘I must not tell lies,') but the words had appeared on his hand and the quill and paper were now marked on with his own blood.

"Do you have something to say Mr. Potter?"

"I thought-"

"Yes?"

"Is this allowed?"

"Giving detention to a student who has broken school rules? I assure you, I am well within my rights to do whatever I think is necessary to stop your rule breaking."

"But I was with Professor Snape Wednesday night maam," Harry pleaded. She couldn't be this evil... even Quirril hadn't done this to students. But she was staring at him resolutely and there was a small quirk at the edge of her lips.

"With Professor Snape, but not in detention? I find that hard to believe after all the detentions he's given you over the years. He clearly knows as I do that you require a firm hand. See to your lines Mr. Potter or you'll be coming back tomorrow for more."

Harry put the quill to the paper, used to obeying, but stopped short of writing anything and pulled the tip back up when he felt his hand prickle again. What do I do? What do I do? What do I do? He had no idea, but then Snape's words came back to him as clearly as Harry's own inner voice. You come here. To me.

"Now Mr. Potter, or I shall keep you after curfew and double your lines tonight."

"I'll tell my dad."

"What did you say?" Her voice dropped down an octave and the sickly sweet quality it usually held disappeared. Harry had always thought the sweetness to her voice was creepy, but this was worse somehow.

"I'm not doing lines like this. If you make me, I'm going to tell my dad. I'm going to tell Professor Snape."

Umbridge rose from her chair so fast that the sound of it scraping the floor behind her desk made Harry jump. He leaned back into his own seat as she came around her desk and grabbed his wrist. "Up! Up! I'll have no more of this tonight!"

She dragged him towards the door and threw it open.

"Where are we-" but she cut him off.

"I'm going to take you straight to Professor Snape and tell him the filthy things you've been saying about him."

Harry opened his mouth to protest, but closed it again. He wasn't so sure Snape would be mad at him, and he'd rather take his chances with him than with Umbridge and her nasty quill, which was still sitting on the student desk in her office covered in his blood.

Her grip was tight on Harry's wrist but he allowed himself to be led quickly down through the castle to the Dungeons. He only hoped Snape had meant what he'd said Wednesday night.

In what seemed like a flash, they were in front of Snape's office door and she was rapping sharply on it. It opened after only a moment and Snape had a surprised look to see her there with Harry, but it disappeared after a brief moment. He stepped aside for them to enter and she dragged him in. Snape closed the door behind him and Harry hoped she'd let go of his wrist soon because he was starting to lose feeling in his fingers.

"To what do I owe the pleasure?" Snape asked. His voice seemed off though, like he didn't mean the words at all.

"Mr. Potter has been telling lies about you all evening. He refused to do detention with me and continued to lie about you. I am here to expose those lies as what they are now and end this foolishness."

"And what- pray tell did Mr. Potter say about me?" Snape asked. Umbridge didn't seem to notice or care about the tone in his voice. Maybe she thought the anger in it was directed at Harry, but Harry was watching Snape's eyes, which were glued to her death grip on his wrist.

"He claims he was not duelling and starting fights with other students Wednesday evening during dinner, that he was with you. Not in detention," she clarified. "Then he claimed during detention that he was going to ‘tell on me to his father', and said that you were his father. He was already doing detention for lying and duelling. Now I am ready to give him two more for besmirching your family name as well as his own."

She looked ready to turn and leave now that she'd told on Harry, but Snape started to speak. "As surprised as I am to hear that he has called me father, he was telling the truth on both counts. He was with me on Wednesday night during dinner and after dinner until curfew. He was bruised because the same boys that have been pushing him around since the start of term cornered him before dinner. That incident has already been sorted out. He is also my son. I adopted him this summer."

"That's not possible!" Umbridge said, voice high and precariously close to a screech.

"I assure you the paperwork declares that it is, and if you doubt my word about his whereabouts on Wednesday, we shall have to take the matter to the Headmaster, who stopped in on Wednesday evening after dinner to collect forms from me and saw Mr. Potter here in my quarters."

Harry was surprised Snape was lying now for him, but wondered if Dumbledore would corroborate it. She was squeezing Harry's wrist tighter now, her hand shaking and Harry grimmaced in pain.

"Now, you will remove your hand from my son, or I will find it necessary to report you to the Ministry Office Of Child Welfare for child abuse."

Realizing she was still gripping Harry's wrist she pushed his arm away from her and let go. His fingers were tingling.

She huffed, tried to bring the sweet quality back to her voice and failed, and said to Snape, "Good evening professor," and strode out of his office, leaving the door open. Snape closed it again with a swish of his wand and then warded it against eavesdropping.

"Sit," he said to Harry, who obeyed him, flexing his fingers and trying to get the blood flowing back to them again.

Harry thought he'd ask for an explanation, but instead he began looking through a potions cupboard and came back with an all too familiar tin of bruise balm.

"You must be tired of having to use this by now Harry," he chided, but he sounded more tired and weary than anything else.

"You must be tired of having to apply it," Harry countered, voice quiet. He wasn't certain what all had just happened or how he felt about it all. No one had just taken him at his word like that before, at least not an adult. Snape had stuck up for him with the police back in Swanage when the other boys had ganged up on him, but somehow this was different. He'd said to come to him if he needed help, and then when Harry had, he'd helped. It was a strange feeling and suddenly Harry felt like he didn't know this man applying balm to his wrist at all.

"What else?" Snape asked. It was a normal question now. There was always somewhere else that needed healing.

"Oh, um," Harry flexed his hand again and tried to show Snape the back of it. It still burned, but there were no words scratched there as there had been in Umbridge's office. "I had to do lines for detention, but it was with a quill that writes in blood."

"You what?" Snape sat back, a horrified look on his face. "What exactly did you write?" he demanded then.

"I must not tell lies," Harry said. "I only wrote it once. There was no ink. I started writing and it scratched the words into the back of my hand and used my blood to write the lines on the paper."

"Are you positive you only wrote the line once?" he demanded again, and Harry wasn't sure why he was so angry.

"After I wrote it once I told her I was going to tell you."

Snape looked at his face there and Harry saw confusion before he looked back down at his hand. Then he went back to his cupboard and began pulling several things out. "How many lines did she assign you?" he asked over his shoulder.

"Fifty, but she said she'd double it and then make me come back tomorrow to do more because I wasn't cooperating."

He came to his desk and filled a wooden bowl with water and began putting ingredients into it. A pinch of blue powder, a spoonful of white powder Harry was sure was ground birch beetle eyes, a dash of gray powder and then something slimy that was mashed up. He stirred it up and told Harry to submerge his hand into it.

"She made you use a blood quill. It's a cursed and forbidden object. It was once used for signing contracts which were magically bound by the signer's own blood. If you had continued to write lines your hand would become scarred. Cursed scars are difficult to remove." Harry's lightning scar tingled then as if to remind him it was there.

"I didn't know that," Harry said.

"It is not something that is taught about or widely known outside of the Cursed Artifacts Office and Aurory. The other effect is that the lines you wrote would become binding. The more you wrote them the more binding they would become. After fifty you would find it difficult to lie. After a hundred you would find it impossible. With your status and the target on your back it would put you in great danger, which she and the Ministry know."

"But they think I'm lying about Voldemort's return."

"They do not think you are lying. They also do not want you or the Headmaster to assert your authority and raise a rebellion against the Ministry. If the general public knows Voldemort is back, they will follow the two of you if you command them to."

Harry frowned at that. He didn't think he had any sort of authority. The Headmaster he could see, but who would listen to a scrawny fifteen year old?

"I will have to ask the Headmaster to secure an Unbonding Quill."

"What's that?"

"A quill that will undo the effects of the line you wrote with the Blood Quill. You will have to write the opposite of what you wrote in her office. For now the potion you are soaking your hand in will keep the curse currently in your skin at bay for a few days."

"I didn't know what to do when she said I had to keep writing lines," Harry said, looking up at Snape.

"You did the right thing."

"I wasn't sure what you'd do," Harry confessed, and Snape met his eyes.

"I will always protect you Harry," and his words sounded so sincere that Harry really believed he would and felt foolish for being uncertain about his declaration of the same Wednesday night.

"I'm sorry," Harry said.

"Do not be. You don't have the experience of having adults to trust to fall back on. I hope this will suffice as the start of that experience however."

"I won't forget," Harry said.

Snape walked him back up through the castle a few minutes later. Harry remembered there was a book he'd been after in the library and was surprised when Snape let him into the library after he'd told him. The library was closed now as it was after curfew for the upper years, but Snape unlocked it anyway.

"You have an interest in extracurricular Transfiguration?" Snape asked when Harry got his book.

"Hermione said I'd need it to get an O on my Transfiguration essay."

"I see."

A few minutes later Snape dropped Harry off at the entrance to Gryffindor and bade him good night.

"That took you a long time," Ron said, motioning to the book in Harry's hands when he spotted him a minute later in the common room. "Where were you?"

Harry's stomach squirmed because he wasn't sure how to answer. Ron would never believe he'd been with his father.