October 9, 1991

“Hush Ron! I think he’s waking up,” Harry heard from a voice that he assumed belonged to Hermione. He slowly opened his eyes and reached for the glasses on the bedside table. As he put them on, he looked around at all the faces he saw standing by his bed. The entire Gryffindor Quidditch team and his friends were huddled around his bed all staring down at him with big smiles on their faces. “Glad you’re okay! I need my star seeker back before the next match!” Oliver Wood. “Yeah Harry, you gave us quite a scare there for a second, we thought…” George began, but Fred piped finished with, “you were done for when we say you tumbling off your broom.”

Hermione sat down on the bed next to Harry and rested her hand over his. “Harry,” she began, “there’s something I need to tell you. When you were about to be hexed off your broom, I saw Professor Snape chanting the hex. I’m the one who set his cloak on fire to stop it.” Harry held his breath at this. ‘No, Snape wouldn’t do that… would he?’ Harry thought to himself. He looked up and looked over at Ron and the twins. They knew of his relationship with the man. Each of them avoided eye contact with him and Harry looked back down to his hands. ‘Was he just pretending to be nice to me?’ Hermione noticed Harry’s uneasiness and patted his hand “you okay Harry?” she asked. “Yeah, I’m just feeling a little tired. I might try and take a nap if you guys don’t mind,” he said. Everyone nodded and began to file out of the infirmary. Ron stayed behind for a second and studied his friend. “Harry, you sure you’re alright mate?” Harry looked up and furrowed his brows “yes Ron! Please I just want to lie down for a bit,” he said with some attitude laced in his tone. Ron nodded and left the infirmary.

***

Harry managed to fall back asleep, and by the time he woke up, he realized the only light filling the big room was coming from the moon. He sighed and went to sit up, but he felt extremely sore on his left side and winced. “Alright there Harry?” the voice asked him. Harry immediately jumped and turned in the direction the voice came from. He saw the professor sitting in a chair by the bed in the dark. “Uh... yeah, just a bit sore’s all.” Severus handed Harry his glasses and a vial of something. Harry put his glasses on and studied the vial in his hand and then looked back up at Severus with a confused look on his face. “Muscle relaxant,” was all the man said. Harry nodded and swallowed the vial, grimacing as it went down. “Yuck! You could have told me it would have tasted like a Hippogriffs arse.” Even though Severus smirked, he replied “Language Mr. Potter. Sorry I did not know you were expecting it to taste like treacle tart.”

Harry didn’t respond but laid back down against the pillows. “What are you doing here anyway?” he asked. “I wanted to check on you. You gave me quite a scare when you fell, I thought I was too late in casting the cushioning charm on you.” ‘Ah so that’s why the ground felt soft as I fell,’ Harry thought to himself. “Right well, I’m fine. You can go now, I don’t want to keep you up,” was all the boy replied with. Snape stared at the child and then stood up from his chair. “Have a good night then, Harry,” the man said and walked out the infirmary doors.

Harry sighed and closed his eyes again. He didn’t mean to be short with the man, but he was also now doubting their relationship. He knew he should have just asked him what happened, but he was honestly scared to hear the answer. Harry rubbed his eyes and groaned ‘maybe I should just keep my guard up from now on,’ he thought. Even though he slept most of the day, he still felt tired and just decided to try and fall back asleep.

****

Severus had to do everything he could from running after Harry when he was carried off the Quidditch Pitch. When he watched the bludger hit him and Harry began to fall out of the sky, he felt his heart stop beating and he frantically pulled out his wand to cast a cushioning charm on the ground. He couldn’t deny the pride that spread through his chest when the boy raised the snitch in his arm and smiled one of the biggest smiles Severus had ever seen on a person’s face. After Harry had passed out though, all he wanted to do was check on him. For some reason, he felt like he needed to see him and make sure he was okay but knew he couldn’t make a scene in front of every student and staff member at Hogwarts. He planned on checking on the boy during the night when he knew no one would be around due to curfew.

To keep himself occupied he decided to spend a few hours in his potion lab, but he found that couldn’t even tame the worry he felt for the boy. ‘Damn! This is why I don’t let people close to me,’ he thought to himself. He checked the clock on the wall and saw it would only be an hour before curfew. He figured he would go talk to the headmaster about investigating the person who tried to hex him off his broom. When he reached the gargoyle in front of the headmaster’s office, a frenetic Quirrell came barreling down the stairs. He looked up at Severus and tried to act calm, but Severus saw right through his façade. “H-hello S-Severus, pleasure s-seeing you tonight. Oh, well l-look a-at the time, I must be g-going,” Quirrell said and took off down the hall. Severus shook his head and entered the headmaster’s office to discuss the events on the quidditch pitch today.

After his meeting ran longer than expected, Severus stormed out of the headmaster’s office. They had no clue who tried to hex Harry off his broom, and they had no way of finding out either. Severus’s thoughts were running wild before he realized he was standing at the doors leading into the infirmary. He put his ear up to the door and did not hear any voices or movement, so he figured it was safe to go in. When he walked in, he saw all the beds were empty except for one small boy occupying the last bed on the right. As he walked closer to the bed, he allowed himself a small smile as he watched the gentle rise and fall of his son’s chest. He sat down in the chair beside the bed and just continued to watch Harry sleep peacefully. ‘Who would want to hurt this boy?’ he asked himself. Well, he knew who and why, but he couldn’t understand why.

Harry had so many of Lily’s qualities. He noticed he seemed to be somewhat studious when he wasn’t around Weasley. He also noticed how big this little boy’s heart was, especially after what he had endured in his childhood. ‘Damn you, Albus,’ he thought to himself. This poor boy had suffered for so many years at the hands of his relatives due to one old coot meddling in their lives. Severus promised himself right then and there that he would do everything to make sure Harry was happy and as healthy as any eleven-year-old boy should be.

His thoughts were interrupted when Harry had woken up. After Harry had basically told him to leave, he sauntered down to his quarters and sighed. ‘Did I say something wrong? Was it the fact I wasn’t there when he woke up the first time?’ he thought to himself. As he sat in his chair in front of the fireplace, he silently berated himself. ‘How could one boy have so much pull on me in such a short amount of time?’