Unfortunately Severus didn’t know his spell had stopped working really fast. So when Vernon came home, Petunia already told him what had happened.

The next day Severus was waiting anxiously for his first class to come in. James would be in this class and he was hoping everything was alright. But when James walked in, he knew straight away the Dursleys had still done something to him. James was only looking down, walking stiffly, as if in pain, and only glimpsed Severus in the eye with an accusing look. That was not good. It seemed the trust he had won yesterday was almost completely lost again.

Throughout the entire class Severus pondered over how to get that trust back again and how to help James. He hardly noticed he asked some questions twice or gave compliments to completely wrong answers. At the end of the class he asked James to stay again. James didn’t really seem to like this, but he stayed seated.

Severus signaled: “James, did they still do something to you yesterday? Because I had good hopes I had calmed them down. I am sorry if it made them even more angry at you.”

James still looked at the table, as if that was the most interesting thing in the entire world. Severus sighed. “Look James, you might not believe me, but I know how it is, that is why I really want to help you.”

Still not much more of a reaction than a little nod with the head. “I do hope you will still come to the extra hour. After all, the Dursley's expect you to go there now, and I’d rather like to see you then. You will just come to this classroom, and we will see what you can do then.”

This time James just nodded his head, stood up slowly and walked out.

Severus put his head in his hands and sighed. This could take a long time.

That day at three o’clock Severus was waiting in the classroom. When the door opened he looked up to see James standing there. He came walking in and sat on a chair a little way of from where Severus sat. James just took out his books and started doing homework. Severus walked over to have a look at what he was doing. James immediately tensed up and didn’t want to work anymore until Severus had taken a few steps back. Severus saw this as a rather bad sign.

He was surprised when the door opened again and Mrs. Foster and Nurse White were standing there. He wondered why they were both standing there, but would soon get his answer.

“I was wondering why you were giving my student extra tutor hours, and I do believe I should be involved with them.”

Severus had seen the reaction James gave when she walked in the room. He unconsciously moved closer to Severus, and tensed up. James really didn’t like Mrs. Foster and Severus remembered the nurse telling him she was good friends with the Dursley's, which would explain why she was appointed as extra help for James, so that he couldn’t tell their secret to anyone else.

Severus cleared his throat, put on his best glare and said: “Well, the principal has chosen me to help him, and if you do not like it, you should see the principal. And now, if you don’t mind. We have work to do, so you’d better leave this room. Nurse White, I believe you have the medicine I wanted to take for my illness?” This gave the nurse an excuse to stay longer.

She quickly caught on and nodded. Then she closed the door behind Mrs. Foster who left rather angry.

James relaxed almost right away, but then noticed he now was in a room with the two people who knew his secret. So he started to tense up again, only to be stopped by the nurse who handed him some medicine.

“There you go James. These are painkillers, some drinks for extra vitamines and minerals, and a fruit drink. I also got you a small lunch, because I assume you are not used to eating much anymore.” With that said she took out a small cup of yoghurt, mixed fruit (apples, pears, bananas, and oranges), and a slice of bread with butter on it.

James eyes widened and he wanted to start eating straight away but was stopped by Severus.

“James, before you eat, I would like to see what the Dursley's did to you yesterday. I hoped they wouldn’t do anything to you because of my visit, but it seems I was wrong. I am sorry for that.”

James only looked away and shook his head.

“And don’t think we believe they didn’t do anything to you, because you certainly act like they did do something to you and tried to scare you away from talking to us. Just believe us when we say that we are not going to let you down, and we are not going to abandon you just because they threaten to hurt you more.”

Hearing these words made James look up. Then he signalled: “Are, are you sure about this? You really mean that you will still help me?”

Seeing the nods from both Severus and Nurse White, James pulled up his shirt. His back was littered with fresh bruises and some cutmarks were also seen.

Severus closed his eyes briefly, as a sign of distress. How he hated it when something like this happened to his children. Yes, his children. The children in Slytherin did not always have such a wonderful family life, and he had seen several cases of abuse with his students. This helped him now, at least he knew how to deal with something like this.

“Well then,” he said, “we’ll just have to put something on your back to stop those wounds from getting infected, and to stop the swelling from the bruises. Do you have anything for that, Miss White?”

The nurse nodded her head and left to get those medicines. She would also go and take the camera again so she could make pictures, to have more proof against the Dursleys.When she came back it was to see James sitting stiffly on a stool, while Severus inspected his back carefully. She gave him the lotion that would stop infection and bruising as well, even though it didn’t work so effectively with bruising.

Severus then slowly started to rub the lotion on James’ back, who, despite his best efforts, could not stop the occasional twinge of pain. The nurse felt sorry for him, but was glad she could help him with this.

When the wounds were taken care of, they left James eating his lunch. He wanted to wolf it down, but after Severus told him that he would get sick if he ate it too fast, James decided to slow it down a bit for now. Still, it didn’t take him more than ten minutes to finish the meal.

After that Severus just let him work comfortably on his own. James didn’t mind, but he was more relaxed around Severus and the nurse. The quiet, however, was disrupted again, when the principal and Mrs. Foster came into the room again.

Apparantly, Mrs. Foster had tried to override the decision the prinicpal had made. It seemed however, that she had been unsuccesfull in her attempts.

“But look sir, I am supposed to help the boy, and how can I help him, when he suddenly gets extra class after school and I’m not even allowed in the room?” she whined.

The principal just sighed in frustration, looked apologetic to Severus, and said: “Well, it appears they are not doing strange things to my student, and therefore I see no reason as to why you should be present. In this hour you can help other students too, and Severus will make sure that James is up to date with the rest of his classmates soon enough, especially considering that it’s only Literature he is behind in. So, if you will come with me now, I have some papers that need to be filed in...”

And so, they left the classroom again. Not only Severus let out the breath he had unconsiously been holding, but James did as well.

It seemed they had come another step towards building the trust of James.

This continued on for about two weeks. Sometimes James would have new bruises, new wounds to nurse, but they were very far in between. Apparantly, the Dursleys didn’t want to be detected. Severus and the nurse made sure to give James enough food, attention when he needed it, and left him alone when he made it clear he didn’t want to be touched. When Severus drove him back home, he sometimes came in Severus’ house as well. Severus repeated several times that his kitchen door would always be open for James.

Unfortunately, the good period would change now, when the children got there first report cards home. James’ card was full with well wishes from his teachers and compliments on how well he had performed. His grades were one of the highest from the first years. Severus was very proud of him as well, and had complimented James on his prestations during their hour after classes. Somehow, Severus got the feeling that James was not pleased about his results, and he kept on wondering what it could mean, long into the night, until he fell asleep.

Severus’ sleep however got interrupted in the middle of the night, by a noise in the kitchen. Swiftly he stood up from the bed, grabbed his wand, then thought better of it, and put the wand in his sweat pants, and proceeded down the stairs. At the kitchen door he stopped to listen. Inside he heard someone stumbling and breathing harshly. If it was a burglar, it was a damn bad one. Severus made up his mind, just when there was a rather hard ‘clank’ sounding from the kitchen. Quickly he swung open the door, ready to attack, only to be stopped midway by the look of fear radiating from a bloody, broken and scared body of James, who was half lying on the ground and half lying on a chair.

“My God, James, what the hell did they do?” Severus asked, and just then James managed to grab him, and clung onto him in a dead panick.