As he bent down to pick the boy up he heard a voice coming from the direction of the tunnel and froze "Harry? Are you there? Is everything ok?"

He smiled, recognising the familiar voice, and noted the boy tensed up in his arms "it's alright it's just one of my friends" he whispered to him, gathering him up and wrapping the oversized robes around him as he turned around to see a familiar bushy head of hair coming out of the tunnel.

"Oh good, you're here, I hope I'm not interrupting anything but you've been down here a long time and we were … oh" she paused mid-speech as she emerged from the tunnel and took a proper look at Harry with the bundled up child in his arms peeking up nervously from Harry's robe.

Harry decided this was the best point to step in and rescue things before any damage was done, he smiled at her "I'm fine, I want you to meet someone. Severus this is my friend Hermione, Hermione this is Severus, I was just going to take him up to the castle" he gave her a pointed look to make sure she understood the implications of what he'd just said and didn't unintentionally blurt something out by mistake.

She looked at him in puzzlement as her mind sharp as ever quickly put the pieces together and jumped to the obvious conclusion and she gave him a look, asking the silent question, 'is this really who I think it is?' He nodded, giving her a look to indicate that they'd talk about it later. Shaking her head she bent down so she was at eye level with the boy who had been silently, wearily taking her in and was now looking at her more curiously "hi Severus nice to meet you" she said ina friendly voice.

"Hi" he replied shyly, blushing very slightly.

"So do you like books?" she asked as they set off, trying to think of a suitable conversation topic and remembering once hearing about her Professor's impressive library.

He thought for a moment then nodded "I like it when my Mum reads to me, she has all sorts of interesting books. My teacher says I'm good at reading" he added solemnly.

"Well that's good, in that case, I think we're going to get along quite well cause I really like books" Harry couldn't suppress a cheeky smile "no kidding" she ignored him, except to grin and give him a light swat on the arm "how about I read something to you later, would you like that?" she offered.

His face lit up at that as though being read a story was a rare treat "I'd like that, thank you." he said before looking embarassed at the attention.

"My pleasure" she said smiling "so what kind of books do you like to read?" she said.

"Um" he pondered "we don't have many books at home well except the ones Mum hides from Dad about magic, sometimes Mum tells me stories without using a book. I like those, they're special stories, I especially like it when she tells me about magic and Merlin stuff like that"

"Oh well I'm sure we can manage to find some stories about Merlin and magic, maybe even some about Hogwarts as well" she said sharing a smile with Harry who grinned right back knowing exactly what she was thinking.

Harry and Hermione continued talking to Sev as he carried him out of the tunnel and back up and out onto the grounds of Hogwarts. There was rubble and smoking ruins everywhere and they passed the smoking ruins of Hagrid's Hut and his garden. Some of the crops in the normally neatly tended garden had been devastated in the final battle but there were still signs of new life already emerging between the devastation.

"I think you're going to want to see this Sev, this is Hogwarts" Harry told him as they climbed up to the top of the hill and the grand castle finally came into full view.

They stopped and watched his face grow wide with amazement as he finally got to see the place of his dreams that he'd heard so many wonderful stories about, it was amazing a world away from the dreary streets of Cokeworth, he could practically feel the castle's magic surrounding him confirming that magic was real and not just some child's fairytale (as if there had ever been any doubt).

"I know it doesn't look like much now" Harry started apologising as he was aware that the castle had been heavily damaged with some parts reduced to piles of rubble until they could get everyone organised to repair it magically.

"It's amazing" Severus declared and meant it, the damage didn't matter one bit to him, it was still more incredible than he could ever have imagined. Harry exchanged a grin with Hermione as they just stood there for a minute.

"Uh Harry do you think you should use your invisibility cloak, otherwise we're going to attract a lot of attention, particularly with him" Hermione pointed out, gesturing to Severus.

Harry frowned, she was right he was now an even bigger celebrity and would undoubtedly attract a lot of attention as the place had recently been flooded with reporters all looking for an interview with the boy wonder who had survived the killing curse twice and defeated Voldemort and one sure way to draw attention to themselves would be walking into the castle carrying a small child draped in dirty black robes, who knew what kind of stories they'd come out with.

"Yeah, you're right, they'll have a field day if they see us and I'm sure he won't like the attention one bit" he said looking down at the boy in his arms and getting the cloak out "hey Sev want to see something amazing?" he said attracting the boy's attention with a curious stare "watch this" he said grinning as he draped the cloak over the three of them, watching as his eyes went wide as he realised what it was.

"Is that?" he started reaching out to touch the shimmering, silky soft fabric lost for words.

"It's an invisibility cloak, it'll allow us to get through the castle without anyone seeing us" he explained grinning.

"But I thought they were really rare?" he said astonished.

"They are but I got this one from my Dad, it's very special, it's helped us out of some tricky spots. Come on, let's get you inside" he said realising that he must still be incredibly cold from spending the night in the ramshackle shack.

They continued up towards the castle and paused next to the great wooden doors to the entrance hall. Harry placed a finger to his lips to indicate that he needed Sev to keep quiet, he nodded his understanding and they exchanged a smile before he very carefully pushed the door open enough for them to slip through silently.

As predicted, the entrance hall was crammed full of people, mostly reporters and photographers, and concerned family members who the Aurors were trying to keep under control. Sev pressed himself tighter into Harry's chest as though to protect himself from the mass of people, he really didn't like crowds, Harry rubbed a hand along his back in silent reassurance.

Using years of practice sneaking through the halls of Hogwarts they carefully weaved their way through the crowd on silent feet, being careful not to bump into anyone.

Once they'd cleared the crowd they hurried up the stairs towards the Infirmary and through the doors before flinging the cloak off and stashing it safely away.