"Severus, there is nothing wrong with him."

"Something’s wrong."

"You said he sleep walks. He was probably just asleep."

"He’s been taking a potion."

"Potions can’t solve everything."

"That’s not the point," Silas heard his brother say bitterly. "We’ve both been seeing things. People. Ghost like, sometimes, but only we can see them. Albus believes it might be in our heads, a result of that spell Silas cast in his first year, but they are real. We can touch and feel them."

"And how does that tie in?" Madam Pomfrey asked.

"I don’t know!"

It was silent for awhile before Silas heard the mediwitch speak up again.

"Explain what happened again?"

"He didn’t remember me coming into his room and him telling me to get out last night."

"Severus, it just sounds like he was sleepwalking. Keep an eye on him, take him to see that mediwizard again . . . I can’t find anything wrong with him."

It was quiet again and after awhile, Silas opened his eyes to see Severus looking at him

"I really don’t remember, Severus," he said, sitting up.

"It’s okay," Severus replied, helping him out of bed. "Madam Pomfrey believes you are sleepwalking again."

"Oh."

"I’ll make an appointment with the mediwitch Keilly. I would like it if you continue to spend nights in my rooms."

"May I please stay in the dorm room tonight?" he asked and Severus nodded after a bit. "May I go to the common room now?" Silas asked, and Severus nodded again.Silas left the infirmary. He was really confused. Now he was making trouble for Severus and he couldn’t even remember it!

Instead of walking to the Ravenclaw common room, Silas instead found himself outside the third corridor classroom and he entered with very little hesitation. It was always easier to think there. After quietly closing the door after he entered, he turned around to find a man standing there staring at him. A familiar man.

"You must be Silas," the man said, and Silas nodded. The man looked over him slowly before nodding. "Another wizard, I suppose."

"You’re . . . my dad," Silas said softly.

"Yes."

"My . . . er . . . Eileen gave me up because of you," he said, even softer. He honestly didn’t know whether to be angry at seeing the man – the father who would have hated him had he stayed with them – or . . . he didn’t know.

"Not one for much self preservation, are you, kid?" Tobias asked, and Silas gave him a weird look. "I’m not drunk, kid. And I would never have hurt you."

"You wouldn’t have?"

Tobias was silent for a few seconds before shrugging.

"I might have. I drank a lot back then." Tobias looked over him again. "You look so much like Severus. Messed up with him, didn’t I?"

"No you didn’t!" Silas snapped harshly.

"And you don’t know much," Tobias said bitterly. "You don’t know much at all." He looked toward the door. "Go talk to your mother."

"Why? Why would I do that? She didn’t want me then, why would she want me now?"

"Don’t talk to me like that, boy," Tobias growled, stepping toward him. "You will talk to your mother."

"She’s not my mother!" Silas shouted. "You’re not my father! I don’t care!" With that, Silas ran from the room, slamming the door open in his attempt to get far away from those that prevented him from having a normal life. Down on the second floor, Silas stopped to catch his breath. Not wanting to go to Severus, Silas did decide to go to the common room and find Stephan. Maybe get him to play a game so he could not think about Tobias and Eileen and the entire sleepwalking problem. He just wanted everything to go . . . normally for once. Apparently, that just wasn’t going to happen.

"Silas!" he heard Stephan yell from behind him. "I’ve been looking for you. Jack Greenwood’s challenged you to a chess game."

"Who?"

"A fifth year," Stephan shrugged. "Someone mentioned that he couldn’t beat you and he claimed he could and then everyone started taking sides . . ."

"What?"

"I told them I was sure you could beat him."

"You what? Why?"

"Because I think you can. Anyway, everyone’s waiting. Come on," Stephan said and begun pulling Silas by the hand up the stairs.

In the common room, a boy Silas assumed was Greenwood was sitting in front of a setup chessboard and the common room held a lot of students. Silas paused in the entrance, not wanting to be the center of attention like that. There had to be at least fifty students waiting for him!

Unfortunately, Stephan pulled him further into the room and then pushed him toward the seat on the opposite side of the chess board. Reluctantly, he sat down and Greenwood made his first move without a word. Sending a glare at his friend, Silas made his move. About a half an hour later, the audience started getting bored and began talking among themselves, much to Silas’ relief. The game lasted for an hour more, with Silas winning the game. Either Greenwood wasn’t that good at chess or he wasn’t trying . . . or he was just being cocky.

That done, Silas ignored the jibes toward his opponent for losing and walked out of the common room. He could just make the end of supper if he hurried, and maybe Draco would be there. He ignored Stephan, who followed after him, and walked even quicker.

"Silas! Come on, you aren’t mad at me, are you? You won!" he yelled, catching up and grabbing Silas by the arm.

"You know I don’t like stuff like that, Stephan," Silas said, pulling his arm away.

"Yeah. Right. I know. But you’re good, y’know? And you have even known how to play chess long."

"You have a point?"

"What?" Stephan asked, offended. "It’s not as if we were taking bets!"

"Yeah," Silas answered bitterly. "Have you seen Draco?"

"Not recently. Probably in the Great Hall."

Sure enough, Draco was there with Crabbe and Goyle, telling them a story of one of his ‘adventures’ on a broom – one where he and Silas were playing in the woods. Although, Draco’s version of it, from what Silas heard, was different than he remembered it.

- - -

Silas woke up with a headache. Opening one eye, he slowly sat up and rubbed his eyes. Throwing the warm covers off himself, he immediately noticed the journal that was on the table next to his bed. He looked at it suspiciously before looking around the dorm room at the other boys before looking back at it. It was plain and mostly covered in a blue cloth; it might have been one of his roommates, but then why was it on his table?

Silas poked at it with his wand. When nothing happened, he carefully picked it up and looked around before opening the front cover. On the bottom left corner of the cover was the letters, ‘SSP’.

His own initials. Silas Secundus Prince. He tried to remember the initials of his roommates, but he knew none of them had the same initials.

Maybe a gift from Severus, he thought, flipping to the next page, there was writing. Dated earlier that morning, while he was sleeping, was an entry. The handwriting was definitely not familiar. Curious, he took one last look around the room, closed the curtains around his bed and began reading.

Making sure his dormmates weren’t awake yet, he took out a quill and concentrated on making it look like a ink pen. Doubling checking the directions, he whispered the incantation and waved his wand. Nothing happened. Narrowing his eyes, he said the incantation to himself several times, making sure he was saying it right, before concentrating again, trying the spell one more time. It took two more tries before he had a large pen sitting in front of him. Picking it up, he found it still felt like a feather quill.

Silas was about to go to the next chapter, but Stephan started to move, so he put away the stolen book and his own books quickly. Making a split second decision, he dressed, grabbed the journal, ink and a quill and the rest of his school things for the day before he left quietly. As it was early, the flickering lights of the candles were low and he wasn’t paying a lot of attention to where he was going, he found himself falling down the stairs. At the bottom, he hit his head against the stone wall and then everything went black.

- - - - - - – - - -

Severus dismissed his fourth year class – his first class of the day – and he left the classroom to find Albus waiting for him outside the room.

"Silas is in the hospital wing," the headmaster said quietly once everyone was out of hearing range. "I will cover your next class."

Severus looked at the old wizard, confused for a second, before he finally comprehended what he had said. Wondering what had happened for Silas to be in the infirmary, he quickly made his way there.

Madam Pomfrey appeared to have been waiting for him because as soon as he got there, she led him to a bed near the windows where his brother way laying.

"He was found at the bottom of the Ravenclaw tower stairs. He probably tripped, but it was most likely hours before anyone woke and found him. He lost quite a bit of blood."

"He went back to sleep?"

"I gave him the maximum amount of Blood Replenishers, but he hasn’t woken up yet."

"What?" Severus asked harshly. "Why wasn’t I told immediately?"

"He’ll be fine, Severus. I have a stasis charm on him right now, and in an hour, I will be able to give him more replenishers. I won’t release him until tomorrow morning at the earliest, though. Oh, and his book bag is next to the bed. I imagine he was going to study."

"Thank you, Poppy," Severus said flatly, then pulled up a chair and sat down hard on it and watched his brother’s shallow breath. Severus had a feeling that it was more than Silas just planning to study, especially considering the events where they learned he was sleepwalking: injuring himself during the night. He would see whether or not Silas remembered what had happened when he woke up, but there was no way the boy was sleeping in the tower any longer. He already made an appointment for the next day with the mediwitch so they could check up again.

Unexpectedly, Silas’ breathing started to pick up, and although it was still slower than what was normal, it shouldn’t be happening because of the stasis spell, which was supposed to slow his metabolism. Even more unexpected, Silas eyes suddenly opened, and he sat up, looking around wildly. Once their eyes locked, the boy closed his eyes and leaned back slowly.

"Silas?"

"My head hurts," he answered.

"Do you remember what happened?"

"Yeah, I fell down the stairs," Silas said quietly, rubbing his head. "I was going to go to the library."

"That early in the morning?" Severus asked, not entirely believing his brother. "I don’t approve of lies, Silas," he warned.

"I’m not lying! It was five in the morning. I’ve gone to the library that early before! Besides, I couldn’t sleep because of a headache."

"You had a headache before you fell?"

"Yes. I woke up with one."

Severus hesitated, but after a moment put his hand on his brother’s shoulder."

"We will be meeting with the mediwitch tomorrow."

"Can I leave, now?" Silas asked, nearly whining, and Severus shot him a stern look and shook his head. A few minutes later, Pomfrey came in and checked him over. Severus watched as a confused look overcame her and she kept checking the boy’s head.

"It’s completely healed," she muttered.

"You gave me potions, right?" Silas said, his voice portraying annoyance. "So it should have healed." Severus grabbed his brother’s shoulder a bit and squeezed, a warning to behave. Silas shot him a look that said he didn’t care, and Severus glared.

"I didn’t give any to heal the wound," she said, ignoring the boy’s temper. "Just to stop the bleeding."

"Well, I feel fine, aside from my headache," he answered bitterly. "Can’t I just go?"

"No, you may not just go," Poppy said as she walked to a potions cabinet and pulled out a potion. "Take this," she told Silas. He did, quickly, and he was soon back to sleep.

"You said he healed quickly . . ." Severus instigated.

"Perhaps I did give him a healing potion, but I don’t remember it. It doesn’t make sense, though. I never forget things as that."

Severus just looked back as his brother.

- - - - - -

Harry woke up in the hospital wing with no one around. He still had a headache, but it wasn’t as bad as it was before. Sitting up slowly, he got out of bed and snuck to the mediwitch’s closed office door. It didn’t sound like she was in there, so he went back to the bed. He found his bag next to it, so he took out the journal and reread the note.

It didn’t make sense at all, the same as everything lately, it seemed. Who could the writer possibly be? And how did he heal so fast if Madam Pomfrey didn’t give him a potion to help? Were the events connected? And the book. What was so important about the book? . . .

Silas grabbed his inkwell and quill out of his bag, balanced everything carefully. Dipping the quill in the ink, he wrote in his neatest handwriting.

Silas couldn’t think of anything else to write. That, and he was afraid of being caught by Madam Pomfrey. Putting away the ink and quill and blowing on the ink to make sure it was dry, he also put away the journal and took out his Charms and DADA books to see if there were anything on illusions in them. He didn’t think so, as he had went through them all before, but he had to make sure. If only he knew what the mystery writer was looking for, it would be so much easier!

When Severus came in about fifteen minutes later – there was no clock in the area to be sure – carrying a try of food, Silas realized how hungry he was.

"How are you feeling?" Severus asked, and Silas shrugged.

"Better," he answered.

"Good. Madam Pomfrey said you are staying the night, but you slept through breakfast and lunch, so I had the elves make a platter for you."

"Thank you," Silas said, starting to eat as soon as the food was set in front of him.

"Silas," Severus said after he ate most of the food. "I expect you to not have a bad attitude, even when you are not feeling well, understand?"

"What do you mean?" Silas asked, some food still in his mouth.

"Before, when you woke up, you were horribly rude to Madam Pomfrey and myself."

"Oh." Silas was silent for a bit, trying to remember what exactly had happened. He must have been still half asleep, because he couldn’t really remember much aside from wanting to leave the infirmary. "Sorry," he said after awhile, then continued to eat a little slower this time. "I don’t mean to cause problems."

"I know, Silas," Severus said quietly, standing up and putting another potion on the tray. "I need to speak with the Headmaster. When you are finished eating, take the sleeping draught."

"I don’t want to sleep more, Severus," Silas said, pushing away the remains of his food, which wasn’t much, considering how he usually ate.

"It’s the only way to ensure you don’t sleepwalk," Severus answered. "Madam Pomfrey refuses to release you and I can’t stay here all night."

"Would the sleeping draught work?" Silas asked.

"It should. Please, Silas. Tomorrow, we’ll see what’s wrong."

Silas looked down picking up the sleeping draught and Severus took the tray and put it on the bedside table. Refusing to look at his brother, Silas downed the potion.

– – - - - - -

The next morning, Silas’ headache was back at full strength. He hid under the covers for a few minutes until he realized he really had to go to the bathroom. He rolled purposefully off the bed, accidently hitting his head on the bed on the way down and landing hard on the stone floor on his hands and knees. Realizing this day was off to as bad as a start as the day before, he hurried to the infirmary bathroom.

Done with the bathroom, Silas went immediately to his bag, threw his Charms and DADA books on the bed – Severus or Pomfrey must have put them away – and took out the journal. He opened it, skimming over the original entry and his own writing before turning the page again.

There was another entry. He paused before reading it. It was longer than the previous one, but he wasn’t sure he wanted to get into this, whatever it was. He was talking to an unknown person! It could be anyone!

His curiosity won, though and he crawled up onto the bed, looked outside – it was raining quite hard – and then turned back to the journal.

Silas read through the letter a second time, his eyes wide. Suddenly, he slammed the cover closed and threw it into his bag. Whoever the person was, they knew he was Harry Potter. As for who he was, he was Silas! Not Harry Potter. One of the things he wanted most was to put his life before meeting Severus behind him. He wanted nothing to do with the Dursleys, and now that he hadn’t seen James since he destroyed his room, he was tempted to not bother with him anymore, either.

Madam Pomfrey and Severus walked into the infirmary to find Silas sitting on the bed, his arms crossed.

"How are you feeling," Severus asked again.

"I have a headache," he answered flatly. Pomfrey nodded, like she expected that, and handed him a potion. He took it, and his headache dulled to a manageable pounding. "Thanks," he said, in a better mood now that Severus was here. The good feeling was dulled slightly by the fact that he had to go to St. Mungo’s today, but at least he wouldn’t be in the infirmary.

- - - - – -

The rest of the day went smoothly as it possibly could in the state Silas was in. Even when they went to talk to the mediwitch, he couldn’t think about much of anything besides who this person could be. He thought of Draco, but he realized Draco wouldn’t do something like that and besides, Draco couldn’t get into the Ravenclaw common room on his own. Stephan could, though . . . He decided against both of them. Draco was like a brother and Stephan his best friend, even when he was forcing him into things.

That left him at a dead end, and no matter how hard he tried, he couldn’t think of anything else.

That is, until he got back to Hogwarts, and he was nearly run over by a runaway cart. Luckily, he wasn’t hurt other than a run over foot – which was healed quickly by Hogwart’s mediwitch.

Just glad for the day to be over, Silas fell onto his bed in Severus’ rooms and fell asleep, without remembering to write a response to the journal person.