As Harry stood clutching his side in the upstairs bathroom he was seriously wondering how he could get rid of Draco before he took of his clothes. By the feel of it, his body would not be a nice sight for the ones with a weak stomach.

"Is everything awright, Potter?" Draco asked with a hint of worry in his tone. He still seemed quite annoyed with the way the words pronounced themself.

Harry spun around quickly, a smile lastered to his face.
"Yeah ofcous, why shouldn’t I be?"

Draco gave him a skeptical glare but let it pass, instead he turned and slouched towards the bathroom. As he felt Draco’s gaze leave him his expression turned into a grimace. His body was extremely painful at the moment.
_____

Harry felt the warm water surrounding his body, it felt extremely comfortable against his aching body. It had stung so badly that his eyes filled with tears when he had first sunk into it. Now, on the other hand, the comfortable warm sensation surrounding him was making him really sleepy. He knew he should get up and go to bed, but he just wanted to lie there a bit longer. His eyelids were drooping and his conciseness slipping. Without noticing he slipped into dreamworld. His small face sliding down alarmingly close to the surface of the water. Only his nose and eyes were above water.

Harry was walking in a meadow. On his left side a flowing river thundered softly against the rocks. In every direction big, blue mountains stood high. The meadow was filled with bright green grass, beautiful flowers in all colors, bees and birds were busy collecting nectar and twigs, and a small brown rabbit hopped towards a small hole in the ground. This place was decidedly the most idyllic place Harry had ever seen. As he looked around, a feeling of peace filled his body. His aches were gone, instead a feeling of warmth surrounded his limbs.
Harry laid down on the ground looking up at the blue sky. He enjoyed looking at the white puffy clouds making funny shapes high above him.
He didn’t know how long he had been there staring up at the sky when suddenly a dark grey sky floated into view. The scenery changed abruptly, lightning struck the ground, and Harry jumped frightened to his feet. He looked surprised up at the sky, a dark grey cloud with the shape of a skull and a snake protruding out of its mouth took up the bigger half of his view. Harry could feel the anxiety settling in his stomach. Suddenly he was unable to breathe, he couldn’t get any oxygen into his lungs. As he begun to panic, black shadows were moving towards him from the corners of his eyes. He knew he was going to die.
_____

Snape stood knocking at the bathroom door. Beside him stood a nervous Draco. He couldn’t lie to himself, the look on Draco’s face troubled him, for as long as he could remember Draco had always been good at concealing his emotions. Even as a small child. Now, unease practically oozed from the child.
"Potter!" Snape knocked hard on the door once more. "Open up this once!" He called out angrily.
Once more he tried to knock.
"That’s it!"
"Im coming in!"
These obnoxious brats, never a single moment of peace with that obtuse child around. He pulled out his wand, muttered an “alohomora" and swung the door open. At first glance the bathroom was empty, he couldn’t see Potter anywhere. A small gurgling sound caught his attention. The sight that met his eyes almost made his heart stop. In the big tub laid a small, battered child with his head completely under water.
Snape reacted with the speed of the light. With two big strides he was beside the tub, he wrenched the small boy out of the tub and laid him gently on the floor.

"Potter?!" He said with near panic in his voice. "Potter! Can you hear me?"
He used two fingered to take the pulse at the same time as he bent down to listen to the sound of breathing. As he felt the small pulsating veins on the boys wrist it was as if a hundred hippogriffs were lifted off his shoulders. Potter was alive.
A small cough dragged him out of his own head. His eyes were once again on the child in front of him. He couldn’t help but let out a gasp when his eyes fell on the child’s body. It was so sunburnt that yellow puss filled blemishes protruded out of the boys shoulder. The skin were completely covered with blue, green and purple bruises, and the child’s back had several open wounds. He couldn’t help the gasp that escaped his lips. What could have caused such injuries to a toddler?

"What ‘appened?" A small hoarse voices asked.

"Let’s just say that this was the last time you get to bathe without supervision you moronic child." Snape answered sourly.

"What?" Harry asked in a daze, seemingly completely confused with the whole situation. His eyelids began to droop again. Just before his head crashed to the floor Snape slid a hand behind his neck, breaking his fall.

A sniff from behind him made Snape jump, he had completely forgotten about Draco being in the room. As he turned around Draco stood as frozen in the doorframe. He was extremely pale and his whole body seemed to be suffering from a slight tremble, a single tear was running down his thin cheeks.
_____

Snape let out a deep sigh as he finally collapsed into his armchair besides the fireplace. He still couldn’t wrap his head around everything that had happened within the last hour. Potter nearly drowning in his bathtub, Potters starved and beaten body, Draco’s absolutely distraught demeanor, cleaning up Potter’s body to the best of his abilities, trying and failing to convince a very scared Draco to go to sleep. It had all been to much. In the end he had managed to put both boys in what had previously been Draco’s bedroom, and at long last Draco too had succumb to sleep. He still didn’t know what to think or feel about Potter’s injuries. The uneasy feeling he had earlier was back full with full force and a bit more. The thing was that he would still need to confront Potter with his findings. The state of his body, though horrifying, was not proof of anything, nor did it say much of how the afflictions we’re obtained.
Oh, he certainly had some ideas, all of them made his stomach churn and his anger flare violently. However he still would need Potter’s explanation to confirm his dreaded assumptions should anything be done about the situation.

He pinched his nose and gave yet another sigh. How was it that he always ended up right in the middle of both Potter’s and the headmasters crazy schemes and problems? On top of everything that had happened in the short span of a few hours, Dumbledoor had made him agree to yet another crazy plan of his. Begrudgingly he had at last consented to bringing the boys on a holiday, more to make the old coot shut up than anything else but still. Tomorrow he was going to have to bring them to Hogwarts, he still hadn’t packed anything, and he hadn’t even the faintest idea of where they were going or whom it was that was accompanying them.
An undignified groan escaped his lips as he reluctantly stood up to do the necessary preparations before he could go to bed.