Harry entered the living room to find Dumbledore and Snape seated on a large couch. He sat down in a dark blue armchair across from them.

“Hello Harry,” said Dumbledore.

“Hello, Professor,” said Harry. He wondered what exactly he was going to look like when the charm was on him. Strangely, Dumbledore answered his question without him even asking it.

“The charm I am going to perform on you today will mask all of the features you have from your father and will once again replace them with James Potter’s. It will not, however, mask your height or the fact that you no longer need glasses. I must warn you now that the charm will make you extremely tired the first time I put it on you. That is because the charm has to work with your magic to create the illusion. It will last about two weeks each time it is placed on you. Are you ready?” said Dumbledore. Harry nodded mutely. He had to get this done. He really didn’t want his friends to know, not yet.

“Yes,” said Harry.

“Good. Up now, then,” said Dumbledore, who stood up. Harry stood up also and faced Dumbledore. Dumbledore pulled out his wand and said, “Cacher apparence vrai.” Harry felt a strange tingling all over his body, which increased until he was feeling exhausted. The spell finally ceased and he collapsed into his chair. He let his head fall backwards and slumped down into the chair.

“Perhaps you should take him up to his room,” he heard Dumbledore say.

“Yes, I believe that is a good idea,” said Snape. Harry closed his eyes slightly and felt Snape’s strong arms scoop him out of the chair. He succumbed to the darkness.

Harry woke up feeling exhausted still. He stumbled out of bed and into the bathroom. He was only mildly surprised at seeing himself almost completely restored to how he had looked at the start of summer.

Harry entered Platform Nine and Three Quarters via a Portkey. Snape left him as soon as they’d arrived and he got onto the train feeling tired.

He had taken the potion earlier that morning and it seemed as though it was working less and less. He’d had to increase the amount of potion he took everyday and the times he took it. He would soon be needing to make more of it. Hopefully he would be able to find the time to do so.

He dragged his trunk into an empty compartment and shoved it into a luggage rack. Harry then sat down on the seat and fell asleep. He was awoken by the voices of his friends and sat up feeling a bit better.

“Can’t a person get any sleep around here?” he asked jokingly.

“Sorry mate. We didn’t mean to wake you up,” said Ron.

“That’s s’alright,” he said around a yawn. “What time is it anyways?”

“We’ve got about an hour until we reach Hogwarts,” said Hermione. Any further conversation was halted by the opening of their compartment door and the entrance of Malfoy. Harry stood up and pulled out his wand. He was in no mood to deal with Malfoy.

“Get out of here,” said Harry.

“I see you’re still trying to order people around, aren’t you?” commented Malfoy. Harry didn’t miss the slight reference to what had happened during the summer.

“I don’t care what you think Malfoy. Just get out of here and leave us alone,” said Harry. Malfoy pulled out his wand.

“I really think you should think twice before ordering a Malfoy around,” drawled Malfoy. Harry began to get angry. He pulled out his own wand.

“Expelliarmus,” said Harry. Malfoy’s wand flew out of his hand and into the corridor.

“Get out or I’ll do much worse,” said Harry.

“You’ll be sorry, Potter. A Malfoy always gets revenge,” said Malfoy before stalking out of the compartment. Harry slammed the door shut and sealed it with several locking spells. He threw himself back into his seat and shoved his wand in his pocket.

“You seem really different, Harry,” commented Hermione.

“He made me mad, that’s all,” said Harry shortly.

“I don’t know if that’s all,” said Hermione. “You remind me of someone. I just can’t think of who.”

“It is. Now drop it,” said Harry. He stared out the window and saw that they were nearing Hogwarts. They got their robes out of their trunks and Harry snuck a drink of the potion while he was pulling his robes over his head. He quickly shoved the vial in his pocket so that Ron and Hermione wouldn’t see and sat back down. He was going to have to be careful around Hermione. She was smart, she would probably begin to suspect something.

As it turned out, Hermione wasn’t the one to actually guess at Harry’s true parentage. As they were entering the Entrance Hall, Peeves emptied a bucket of ice-cold water on the trio. After using a drying charm on his robes, Harry stalked off towards the Great Hall. He heard Ron and Hermione running to catch up with him and Ron grabbed his arm, stopping him from entering the Great Hall.

“Bloody hell mate. I know who you remind us of. Snape. Are you sure your real father was James Potter?” Harry’s jaw dropped open in horror. Luckily, Ron misinterpreted Harry’s look and quickly said, “No offense, but you are starting to act like him. You really changed this summer. Maybe you spent too much time with Snape.”

“James Potter is my father,” said Harry and went into the Great Hall. They sat through the Sorting ceremony. There seemed to be fewer first years than usual this year. It was probably because of the threat of Voldemort. Muggle parents wouldn’t want their children in the midst of a war.

Harry caught Snape watching him all throughout the Feast and wondered why until his scar began to burn slightly. Snape must be being called, thought Harry. He wondered if there was a way to block the Dark Mark’s call. Hmm…he decided to ask Snape about that later. Harry felt someone shaking his shoulder slightly

“Harry, it’s time to go,” said Ron.

“What?” asked Harry.

“Dumbledore just excused us. Come on,” said Hermione.

“I think I’d rather walk up by myself,” said Harry. “What’s the password?” Hermione looked like she didn’t want to, but gave him the password anyway.

“It’s Unity. Now Ron, we’d better make sure the prefects are helping the first years,” said Hermione. Harry thanked her and headed out of the Great Hall. He headed up to the seventh floor, taking all the shortcuts he knew. He was walking along the fifth floor when he heard his name being called.

“Mister Potter, what are you doing all by yourself?” What did Snape want now? He turned around to face his father.

“I didn’t want to walk with Ron and Hermione,” replied Harry.

Snape walked towards him and said quietly, “I thought I warned you to be careful. You never know who’s watching.” He continued in a louder voice. “Detention, Mr. Potter. Tomorrow night in my office at six.” He stalked off, leaving Harry dumbfounded. Snape had just given him detention for no reason! Infuriated, he stormed up to Gryffindor Tower and up to his dormitory. He flopped down on his bed and stared at the top of his bed.

Several minutes later, he heard talking from the Common Room. He quickly changed into pajamas and took the Sleeping Potion, then climbed into bed, pulling the curtains shut behind him. Almost instantly he fell into a dreamless sleep.

He awoke to someone shaking him slightly and felt irritated. He had gotten used to being touched by his father, but not anyone else.

He sat up and said, “Ron, would you please not touch me?”

Ron immediately backed off and said, “Sure mate.” Harry got up and dressed him his robes, then went downstairs to the Common Room, where Hermione was waiting for them. When they arrived in the Great Hall for breakfast, Harry noticed Snape watching him. He glared at him before sitting down with Ron and Hermione. Surprisingly, he received an envelope from a plain brown owl. He opened it to find a note from his father. It read:

Harry,

The Headmaster wishes for us to recommence Occlumency lessons as soon as possible. We are now under the scrutiny of students who are quite possible loyal to the Dark Lord, therefore, the lessons must still be kept a secret. I trust you know what to do with this letter.

Professor Snape

So that explained the detention. Harry incinerated the letter with his wand and returned to his breakfast.

“Wha’ waszat?” asked Ron, whose mouth was full of food.

“Just a note from Snape reminding me about my detention tonight,” said Harry.

“You got a detention already!” exclaimed Hermione. “What did you do?”

“Umm…Snape caught me walking around by myself last night,” said Harry.

“Tha’s na’a reezon for detension,” mumbled Ron through his food.

“I’m not supposed to walk around by myself. The little Junior Death Eaters will get me,” said Harry.

“If Snape told you not to walk by yourself, then you should have stayed with us, Harry. Maybe you’ll learn to listen now,” said Hermione. Before Harry got a chance to yell at her, Professor McGonagall came around with their timetables. Harry glanced at his and discovered that he had Potions first.

“Rotten luck, mate. I’ve got Care of Magical Creatures first,” said Ron.

“I’m taking Potions as well, Harry,” said Hermione.

“I need Potions to be an Auror, Ron,” said Harry. He didn’t add, And I’m safer being with Professor Snape than with Hagrid. He was sure he was safer with a wizard who was well-versed in the Dark Arts. Hagrid wasn’t even supposed to do magic. He wouldn’t be much help against the Junior Death Eaters who were sure to know loads of Dark Magic by now.

“True, but at least Hagrid isn’t an evil git,” said Ron. Harry resisted an urge to punch Ron. Or slap him, at the very least. Just because he happened to hate most Gryffindors didn’t make him evil, he was just partial to his own House.

The House you would have been in had you not listed to Ron, whispered a little voice at the back of his mind. He ignored it and realized that he hadn’t taken the potion yet today. Shit, he needed it before class. He stood up and quickly lied about needing to get his Potions book, leaving Ron and Hermione alone at the table. He could feel his father’s eyes on him as he left the Great Hall. He went up to the Tower and grabbed a few extra vials of the potion and spelled them unbreakable before slipping them into his bag.

He headed to Potions with the usual giddy, light feeling the potion gave him at first. He liked that part best about the potion. It was nice to not have to worry about Voldemort, his friends, life, being on time to class…..

His mind continued rambling until he walked straight into something very hard. He blinked and found himself face-to-face with one of the stone walls of the dungeons. He rubbed his forehead as he continued to Snape’s classroom. Hermione was waiting by the door for him and they entered together. Snape walked in and glared at the class before beginning his start-of-term speech.

“Welcome to my NEWT class. This is an advanced class, and as such, I will not hesitate to remove you if you are not meeting my expectations. Some of you would do well to leave now.” There were a few nervous murmurs, but no one left.

“This will be a difficult class. We will be studying potions that are difficult and dangerous. If I hear that any of you are attempting these options outside of class, you will be expelled.” he flicked his wand at the board and the instructions for Polyjuice Potion appeared there.

“Today we will be beginning Polyjuice Potion. Mr. Potter, can you tell me how long the Polyjuice Potion takes to make?” Harry smiled inwardly. Snape finally asked him a question he could answer.

“One month,” he answered confidently.

“That is correct, Mr. Potter. What should you not attempt to change yourself into using Polyjuice?” He knew that answer as well.

“An animal,” said Harry.

“That is also correct. Now, take out your books and read the section on human transfiguration potions.” Snape settled himself into his desk and watched them take out their books and begin reading. Several lines in, Harry began to get bored.

What was the point of learning theory when you already knew how to make the potion? After about a half an hour reading, or pretending to read under the close scrutiny of the Potions Master, the bell rang for them to go to their next class.

~Snape’s POV~

Snape returned to his seat and watched the sixth years read about human transfiguration potions. He was surprised that Harry had been able to answer the questions about Polyjuice, something he’d probably never come across before.

Then he remembered how his copy of Most Potente Potions had disappeared for several weeks. Surely the boy hadn’t been studying for Potions? He had to have read the book, though. That was the only way he could have known the answers. He wondered what else Harry had seen in that book. He hoped Harry hadn’t attempted any of them. Most of the options that were contained in that book were highly dangerous and potentially lethal if used improperly.

He looked at Harry, whose eyes weren’t zooming back and forth across the pages, like most of his classmates’. Instead, he was staring intently at one spot on the book and flipping to the next page every few minutes and tapping his fingers on the table in front of him. Harry suddenly looked up and their eyes locked. He quickly looked down again and stopped his finger tapping. He began playing with a corner of his book, folding the paper back and forth.

Snape fought the urge to yell at him for not reading. He focused instead on Harry’s strange behavior. Harry had never fidgeted around in class. Instead, he had paid perfect attention to him, taking notes, not talking to his friends, like some of his Hufflepuffs and Ravenclaws.

Finally, the bell rang and Snape prepared himself to teach the first year Hufflepuffs and Ravenclaws. They wouldn’t be hard to scare, he though happily as the nervous eleven-year-olds began walking in.

An hour later, he was walking to the Great Hall for lunch, pleased with having managed to take away almost thirty points altogether from Hufflepuff and Ravenclaw and had even reduced a few Hufflepuffs to tears. He seated himself beside Lupin and watched students come in.

Harry came in surrounded by the rest of his little Gryffindor fan club and sat down at the Gryffindor table surrounded by the lot. He helped himself to food, but didn’t eat. He stared, seemingly transfixed by something on the opposite side of the room. Snape looked in that direction, but saw nothing but a blank stone wall. He looked back and saw Harry’s friends poking him.

~Harry’s POV~

Harry stared across the room, watching snakes worm their way out of a cracks that had appeared in the wall. Where were all the snakes coming from? He was pondering whether or not to get up and look when he felt hands on him arm. He continued watching the snakes until the feel of hands on him became too much.

He turned away from the snakes and said, “What?”

“You were spacing out for a minute there, Harry,” siad Ron.

“I was wa--” He turned back to point out the snakes and saw that they were gone. Where did they go? “I thought I asked you not to touch me?” said Harry.

“Sorry mate, but we had to get your attention.” said Ron with a look at Hermione that clearly said Hermione had been the one to tell Ron to get his attention. Hermione, however, looked troubled.

“Why did you ask Ron not to touch you?” she asked in a low voice.

“That’s none of your business,” said Harry.

“But--”

“Just drop it, Hermione,” said Harry. She still looked like she wanted to say something, so Harry got up and walked out of the Great Hall. He went up to the fourth floor and into the Room of Requirement, which was a strange mix between a Slytherin and Gryffindor Common Room.

He threw himself into a red and silver striped armchair and dug through his bag for one of the vials of pink potion. He finally found one and drank the whole thing. He relaxed in the chair as the familiar lightness came over him. Strangely enough, he felt tired. He closed his eyes, thinking he would just take a nap before Transfiguration. He woke up to find that several hours had passed and it was nearly five-thirty.

“Shit,” he said as he realized that he’d missed Transfiguration. He’d probably end up with another detention. Hermione was going to kill him. He headed down to the kitchens to get a snack rather than be berated endlessly by Hermione and get a detention in front of her. He hung out in the kitchens until it was time to go to Snape’s office. Snape was seated at his desk, writing on a piece of parchment.

“Close the door and sit down,” said Snape without looking up. Harry obediently complied and took a seat across from Snape. Snape continued writing for several minutes and Harry sat watching him. He finally set his quill aside and said, “Why weren’t you in Transfiguration?”

Well that was certainly unexpected. Harry knew he was going to have to come up with a good excuse, and fast. He realized it was going to cost him to get out of this. McGonagall was sure to have checked the Common Room and the boys’ dormitories. Either way, telling the truth or a lie, he was going to have to give up his secret.

“I fell asleep in the Room of Requirement,” said Harry.

“You fell asleep?” asked Snape dryly.

“Umm…yeah. I was tired,” said Harry. That was the truth.

“You do seem to be tired a lot these days. Aren’t you taking your potion?” asked Snape.

“I don’t take it every night,” admitted Harry. He didn’t want to depend on it to sleep.

An oxymoron if he ever saw one, with him taking that potion all the time just to keep himself calm. But it wasn’t like the sleeping potion. He could sleep on his own and suffer through the nightmares. They didn’t happen all the time now, anyways. Usually he was so tired by the end of the day that he didn’t have any dreams.

But it wasn’t like that with the pink potion. He needed it to stay calm. Otherwise he’d end up trying to kill himself again and he couldn’t do that. He couldn’t take the easy way out and leave the Wizarding World to fight Voldemort by itself.

Speaking of which, it had been several hours since he’d last had the potion, he needed to take more. There was at least one more vial in his bag and he wanted the lesson to be over with as soon as possible so he could sneak off somewhere and drink it. He fidgeted anxiously in his chair, watching Snape write something else on the parchment. Suddenly, Snape rolled up the parchment and stood up, pulling out his wand.

“Stand up. We will begin now,” said Snape. Harry stood up and pulled out his wand.

“Leglimens,” said Snape quietly and immediately, Harry was seeing memories flash before his eyes.

He was waking up in his room at Privet Drive the morning after returning from Hogwarts.

He was lying on a stone floor, alone and in pain.

He was peering into a cauldron of a bubbling pink liquid.

Shit, he thought with a sinking stomach.

“What was that?” asked Snape. Oh hell, how was he going to explain this? Think, he thought desperately.

“It’s something Hermione was working on last year. Some sort of potion to fix her hair, I think,” said Harry. Snape looked into his eyes and Harry forced himself to think of nothing by Quidditch. The whoosh of a Bludger flying past his ear. The fluttering of the Snitch’s tiny wings. The thud of a Quaffle landing in a Chaser’s outstretched arms. And diving down, down, racing after the Snitch.

“Well, Harry, I believe that you have successfully managed to keep me out of your mind,” said Snape. When had Snape cast Leglimens on him? He had never even heard him.

“You need to work on blocking me without even thinking. You must be able to shield your mind at a moments notice,” said Snape. “Otherwise, well done.” Had just Snape told him he’d done well? He was going to have to check when he got out of Snape’s office to see whether the sky was still intact and the world hadn’t been destroyed.

“Thank you,” said Harry quietly.

“Let’s try once more, shall we?” said Snape. “Leglimens.”

He wasn’t ready that time and was barraged by memories of Voldemort’s torture, his Uncle, Sirius dying.

The memories suddenly stopped and Harry found himself on the floor of Snape’s office with his right arm and stomach throbbing painfully. He sat up and felt a sharp pain sear his stomach. He bit his lip to keep from crying out and shakily stood up.

“We will continue this lesson on Friday. You may go now,” said Snape. Harry picked up his bag and left Snape’s office. He decided to go and sit up on the Astronomy Tower now that Snape knew about the Room of Requirement. He seated himself against one of the parapets and pulled a vial of the pink potion out of his beg. He quickly drank it and relaxed as the potion calmed him.

Not five minutes later, the calmness was wearing off, leaving Harry feeling worse than he had felt before. He dumped his bag out on the floor to find another vial of potion. He found two more vials and stuffed the rest of his things back in his beg. He hadn’t swallowed more than half a vial when he felt a sharp pain in his stomach. He dropped the vial of potion and clutched his stomach.

~Snape’s POV~

Snape stalked the halls of Hogwarts, looking for his son. Professor McGonagall had come to his office about twenty minutes ago to tell him that she couldn’t find Harry again to inform him of his detention. She had only assigned him one night, which Snape didn’t agree with. Had a student, any student, skipped his class they would be in detention for at least a week.

He had already checked the kitchens and the Room of Requirement, where Harry had hid earlier, but hadn’t found him. Where would any student go to hide? And them it hit him. The Astronomy Tower. Oh hell, he thought as he walked up the staircase that led to the top of the Tower. There, he was met by a surprising sight. His son was curled up on the floor, gasping for breath.

He knelt by Harry’s side and said, “Harry, can you hear me?” feeling a strange sense of déjà vu. He’d asked that same question upon the return from the Dark Lord.

“Hurts,” whispered Harry.

“Where?” asked Snape. As Harry pointed to his chest, Snape noticed a vial of a bright pink liquid laying on Harry’s bag.