"Silas!" Severus called for the third time, getting annoyed. "I need your help!"

"What?" Silas finally replied, coming out of his room holding one of his books from Christmas.

"Do you have your ears plugged, boy? Get your winter clothes on, we’re going outside to get some ingredients," Severus snapped, and Silas looked at his older brother oddly.

"It’s winter. What could be growing at this time of year?"

"Something that I need for a potion that needs to be done today. Before the students arrive. We will be going into the forest, but this time you will be staying with me, as I know the location of this plant."

"Wait," Silas answered slowly. "Forest? The Forbidden Forest? But . . . we’re not allowed in there!"

"You will be with me. Therefore, you are allowed."

"But . . . something bad could happen," Silas whispered, unconsciously stepping backwards.

"Nothing will happen, Silas. What is the matter? You were hesitant when I first brought you into a woods. Did something happen before?" Severus asked quietly, but wasn’t paying much attention. He needed to get that potion ingredient within the next two hour, or it would no longer be effective. Preferably within the next hour, since he needed time to brew the potion before the students arrived.

"I . . . I . . ." Silas couldn’t answer, the feelings inside of him all fighting to overcome the others. He couldn’t tell Severus. His brother would be so mad at him, but at the same time, he wanted someone to know. Someone that could help him forget . . .

Without any notice, Silas ran from the living quarters in a panic. He heard Severus call after him, but he didn’t stop. He had to get away; Severus couldn’t know. It would ruin the family he worked so hard for.

Silas didn’t stop until he reached his unexpected destination: the room near the charms classroom where he tried that dream-spell. Trying to calm himself, without much luck, he took notice that the room had been cleaned up after his spell. Grateful that he didn’t have to have any more reminder of that night than the room itself, even though he felt strangely comfortable there, Silas sat in the center of the room, cross-legged.

He tried to relax in the way that Severus showed him, but he couldn’t get his mind off the forest. Silas felt bad for running away from his brother, but he couldn’t go in that forest. The woods near their home seemed fairly safe, and he was still afraid to go in them. But the Forbidden Forest? There was no way anyone was getting him in there.

"Hi. Friends forever, right? You and me?"

Startled, Silas stood up as fast as he could. Seeing who it was, he freaked even more and ran from the room, nearly running over Flitwick. He didn’t notice, though, and kept running even after the Charms professor called for him to stop.

Silas found himself buried under his covers in his room in the Ravenclaw tower, afraid to peek out incase he had followed him. It wasn’t right; he wasn’t supposed to be here. Anywhere, in fact. He was supposed to be dead.

Silas was woken up that evening by Stephan jumping onto his bed. Pushing his friend off the bed, Silas sat up and glared.

"What was that for?" he asked.

"Everyone’s wondering where you are. Snape wants to talk to you. It’s too late now, though. It’s just turned curfew," Stephan said.

"Then why did you wake me? You should have told me in the morning," Silas groaned, flipping the covers back over his head. It was then that the morning’s events came back to him, full force.

I was just imagining it, Silas told himself. He wasn’t real. He wasn’t there. Silas wasn’t sure he believed that, though. The boy sure seemed real. Although, Silas wasn’t able to get a good look at him, so he didn’t notice if he was solid or not.

No longer tired since he slept the entire day, Silas got up and was about to start reading when he remembered he left all his new books in his room in the dungeons. Sighing, he dug through his trunk for his defense book and started reading ahead.

The next morning, Silas hadn’t forgotten the day before. He was tired, since he didn’t sleep all night, but he forced himself down to the Great Hall with Stephan, constantly looking around to make sure the boy wasn’t around. So far, there was no sign of him.

Just my imagination, Silas reminded himself.

By the mid afternoon, Silas was able to convince himself that seeing and hearing the boy was just his imagination, as he had not once seen him again. Walking to charms in a much better mood, he excitedly chatted with Stephan and Su about their holidays.

"I don’t believe that," Su said, responding to Stephan’s explanation about his father’s claim.

"It’s possible, though. It would have to be. There are many magical creatures that we don’t know much about because they never show themselves. The Quibbler . . ."

"That’s a load of bull," Su spat, and Silas listened more closely. He had never heard of the Quibbler before.

"Some of it might be, but there is a lot of real stuff in it," Stephan argued, not willing to back down. "There have been many magical creatures that have been featured in it before, then they were declared real years later."

"Like what?" Silas asked.

"Like Glumbumbles and Demiguises. Demiguises can turn invisible, so at one point, anyone who claimed they saw one were thought mad."

"Just because some of the things in The Quibbler are true, doesn’t make it a reliable source," Su replied airily, and Silas laughed. She just didn’t want to be shown up. Although, since Silas had never heard of the Quibbler, he couldn’t make any judgement on the subject. Instead, he decided to change the subject (slightly).

"So, how did you learn so much about magical creatures?" he asked Stephan.

"My dad is interested in them, so we have a lot of books about them. He really wants me to sign up for Care of Magical Creatures when I get to third year, even though I probably already know everything I would learn in the class."

"I see," Silas replied and stopped talking as Flitwick entered the classroom, dragging along some charmed object that didn’t want to enter the room. It must be for a presentation, Silas guessed while watching with amusement, not noticing the little, see-through boy in the back of the room who was staring curiously at him.

At dinner a few hours later, Silas had completely forgotten about the little boy until Severus came up behind him a requested he come down to the dungeons when he was finished eating. Suddenly nervous as his brother walked out of the Great Hall, Silas pushed his plate away, resting his forehead on his arms.

"What’s wrong?" Stephan asked and Silas sat up and shrugged.

"Nothing," he answered. "He just wanted me to go into the forest with him to get something, but I . . . kinda got scared and ran," he continued, settling for a partial truth.

"Well, nothing wrong with that. It’s not like you’re a Gryffindor or something. Besides, I heard there are werewolves in the forest. And other things that can eat you. I wouldn’t go in."

"It’s not a full moon," Silas pointed out. "No werewolves to eat me. I hope he’s not mad at me."

"Snape mad at you? From what I’ve seen, that doesn’t seem possible. He favors you a lot in class. Even when you messed up that potion, you didn’t get in trouble."

"He didn’t say anything during class about that. Afterwards, though, he almost yelled at me not to experiment in class."

"Wait, you were experimenting?" Stephan asked, surprised.

"Yeah. I already did that potion once before, and I wanted to see what would happen if I added the crushed bowton wings before the aplitice eyes and newt eyes fully reacted with each other, so the wings would react with both types of eyes instead of just the newt eyes. Severus wouldn’t even let me test it, even though I’m pretty sure it wouldn’t have done anything bad to the potion. Maybe make it do something a little different, but . . ."

"Right," Stephan said. "I’d get going, if I were you. If he is mad at you, you don’t want him even more mad. Last time he was mad at you, you couldn’t do magic without an adult for months!"

"Yeah, yeah," Silas said. "I’m going. I’ll see you in the common room later. And I’d start reading your charms lesson. I overheard that he was annoyed with our classes’ lack of book reading and is planning on quizzing us on it. There’s a lot of material there."

"How do you hear this things?" Stephan asked, and Silas shrugged again, smirking. The beauty of having a brother as one of your professors.

Silas took his time going to the dungeon, trying to figure out what he was going to say. If he told Severus that he was simply afraid of the forest, and woods in general, his older brother would want to know why, and Silas wasn’t about to relinquish and relive that horrible memory. It was better off forgotten.

Not wanting to lie to Severus, Silas finally decided to refuse to say anything other than he is afraid of the forest. He might get in trouble for refusing to talk, but at least his brother wouldn’t know the truth and send him away, and Silas wouldn’t have to say what happened.

Walking into Severus’ rooms without knocking, he immediately found his brother looking half irritated, half worried.

"Silias, I believe we need to talk," he said, and Silas shrugged stiffly, sitting down on his usual sofa. "Why are you so afraid of the forest? And woods in general?"

Silas shrugged again, refusing to answer truthfully, but unwilling to lie. The two sat in silence for a few minutes before Severus sat down next to his younger brother.

"Did something bad happen in a woods, Silas?" he finally asked, and Silas gave a half-shrug, half-nod as his answer. "Something you wish to share?"

Silas shook his head, relieved that Severus was asking if he wanted to talk about it, but he was still too nervous to talk and afraid that he’d start crying.

"If you are so afraid of the woods, you should talk about it. We could work through that," Severus suggested, and Silas shook his head again.

"Not now," he managed to whisper, noting that Severus nodded slightly. He didn’t noticed that he had started crying until his brother put an arm around him, albeit in a rigid manner. Silas didn’t mind, though. He took the comfort as it was offered, crawling and curling up in his brother’s lap, glad that he was still very small for his age, and didn’t even try to stop the hysteria that was beginning to set in.

Severus held his younger brother, unsure of what else he should do. Silently cursing the Dursleys, he started rubbing Silas’ back, something his mother used to do to him when he was younger. Knowing he wouldn’t be able to get what happened out of the boy unless he used legilimancy on him, something he wasn’t willing to do at this point, he settled on trying to get Silas to stop crying.

It took about half an hour, but eventually, Silas sat up, red-eyed and snotty-nosed, rubbing his eyes.

"Better?" Severus asked, and Silas nodded, looking down at his lap. Now, he felt embarrassed about crying as he did, and he refused to look his brother in the eye. "Good. Go blow your nose and wash up," he said, nudging Silas to get off his lap. Blushing, Silas ran into the bathroom, shutting and locking the door behind him. Quietly as he could, he sat down on the floor next to the bath and started running the water.

Sure, he felt better about everything now, but he was still sure that if Severus knew what happened, he wouldn’t be so nice about it. It was partly his fault, after all.

Silas stripped once the bath was filled and gladly submerged himself in the warm water. Fire couldn’t reach you in the water. Right now, it was the one place he felt safe.

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A week later, Silas was woken up by the sound of the other boys in the room getting ready for the day. For a minute, he just listen to them, glad he was here and not at the Dursleys. Even with the problems and fears he had with Severus and the wizarding world, this was heaven compared to what he would be going through with the muggles.

Things were getting back to normal. Severus had stopped asking about his problem with the woods, and Silas had finally stop walking around like a zombie. Since his breakdown in front of Severus, he had been feeling slightly numb, but he was feeling better now. It helped that his friends tried really hard to get him to play with them and stop staring off into the Forbidden Forest.

There also had been no sight of the boy, which made Silas feel better for the most part, but a little bit of him wanted to see him again. It seemed like forever since it happened . . .

"Silas, you up?" Stephan called.

"Yeah," he groaned. "Just trying to get out of bed."

"You want some help?" Stephan laughed, and Silas shook his head, although his friend wouldn’t be able to see it.

"I’ll manage."

"I’m so excited for DADA today!" Stephan answered back, obviously having no intention of helping Silas up anyway.

"Yeah," one of the other boys answered. "A double with Charms class. Did Trimdol say we were meeting in the Charms or Defense classroom?"

"Charms classroom, for both Charms and DADA today," Silas said when nobody answered, finally getting up and getting dressed. "I’m hungry."

"It’s about time. I was thinking you were planning on giving up food, with how much you’ve been eating lately," Stephan teased, and Silas glared at him. Stephan didn’t know why he was so distant for most of the last week, but he assumed something happened between the two brothers, so he was constantly trying to cheer Silas up.

"Let’s just go eat," Silas answered and left, leading the way to the Great Hall.

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An hour later, Silas was the last one to DADA since he forgot his book in his room. Thankful he wasn’t late, he stood in the back of the room with the rest of his Defense class, his heavy bag dropped to the floor, listening to the two professors explain what they were doing that day. It wasn’t that hard, for the most part. The Charm students were going to try to charm an object unbreakable, and the Defense students were to try and break the object.

Trimdol was explaining why this would help them with putting up and breaking shields in later years when Silas felt a small hand grab onto his. He jumped slightly, but he wasn’t very scared when he looked down and saw his friend from six years old standing there, just barely see-through. Silas had thought all week about what he would do if this happened again, so instead of freaking as he did before, he smiled down at the boy before turning his attention back to the professors.

Silas had decided that if Mikey, his ghost friend, was acting friendly, he should act friendly back. After all, they were best friends. Maybe they still could be friends, even if Mikey was a ghost.

After class, Silas was seriously thinking about skipping his next one to talk to his young friend, but he decided against it when he saw that Mikey was following him. The knowledge that Severus would be mad at him if he skipped also aided in that decision. It amazed him that a ghost could seem so solid, though.

During lunch, Silas grabbed a sandwich before telling Draco and Stephan that he was going somewhere quiet to read. They shrugged. It wasn’t unusual for Silas to decide he wanted to read, so they wouldn’t be suspicious of him and decide to follow.

Mikey hadn’t said a word yet, but he indicated that Silas should follow him. They ended up in that same room near the Charms classroom.

"I like it here," Mikey said. "Feels nice."

Silas silently laughed at Mikey’s childish way of talking, wondering if he ever sounded like that, before talking.

"Hi," Silas said.

"We’re friends, right? Best friends? Forever?"

"Forever," Silas answered.

"You look different," Mikey said, tilting his head slightly to one side. "And you’re bigger."

"That’s because I found out that my parents weren’t who I thought I was. And that I’m a wizard."

"I thought you said magic doesn’t exist," Mikey accused.

"I was wrong," he answered sadly. "I was lied to."

"I told you that you couldn’t believe anything they said."

Silas just shrugged, not knowing what to say. He quickly checked the time.

"I have to get to class. Potions. My brother teaches it."

"You have a brother? A teacher?"

"Yeah. I didn’t learn about him until this summer, though. You can come, if you want," he offered.

Mikey looked at him with a confused look before answering with a chipper, "Okay!" Silas didn’t notice that his little friend was no longer see-though.

Silas made it to Potions before the rest of his class, but not before Severus. His older brother greeted him before stopping short, spotting the kid.

"Who is that?" he asked sharply.

"You can see him?" Silas asked, surprised.

"Of course. Who is he?"

"A friend of mine. He . . . he’s . . ." Silas wasn’t able to finish as Stephan came bounding into the room. His friend calmed down after he saw Severus’ glare, though.

"He cannot stay here," Severus said, causing Stephan to give the professor an odd look.

"Who?" the boy asked, looking around. He didn’t see anyone else but them three. Severus didn’t answer immediately, but when he did, it was an unexpected (for Silas) lie.

"Silas wished to bring a snake," he replied.

"Well, that’s good then. Snakes are scary," Stephan said, before sitting down in his usual spot. Silas, after looking between Mikey (who started bouncing up and down) and Severus (who was staring at Mikey), sat down next to his friend and was barely listening to the chatter, while he was trying to figure out why Severus could see Mikey but Stephan couldn’t. Was it because they were related? Even so, that didn’t make much sense.

Taking another glance at Mikey, who was watching Severus set up the classroom with an unreadable expression, Silas noticed that Mikey now looked solid. When did that happen? he wondered, but put it out of his mind to think about later. Students were starting to shuffle in for what they considered another horrible class. Silas laughed, thinking about how they were so afraid of Severus, earning him a raised eyebrow from both Severus and Stephan, and an excited laugh from Mikey.

All during class, Mikey walked around the classroom, fingering everything that he could reach, and Silas was glad that he wasn’t able to actually pick anything up; a side affect of being dead.

It was hard for both Severus and Silas to concentrate during class with Mikey wandering around the classroom, causing Silas to mess up his potion and Severus to be especially mean.

"Stay after class, Mr. Prince," Severus said flatly when everyone was cleaning and putting away their things. After everyone had left, Silas just sat in his seat, looking down at the workbench. He barely noticed when Mikey crawled up onto the table.

Silas did notice, though, and tried to stop him, but his hand went right through the boy’s arm. It wasn’t cold, either, like it would be if one of the Hogwarts ghosts go through someone. It felt like . . . just air.

Severus, seeing this and deciding on something, picked Silas up from under the arms and set the boy, standing, behind him.

"Hey!" Silas yelled, not happy that he was picked up like a little three year old.

"He could be dangerous, Silas."

"No, he’s not," he answered sharply. "He’s my friend. He was the only friend I had while at the Dursley’s. He won’t hurt me."

"Did you conjure him?"

"What? No! He just showed up today. What’s wrong? There are a lot of ghosts around here. What’s another? And besides, he’s my friend!" Silas looked passed Severus at Mikey, who was giving a scared look at Severus, no longer smiling. "He won’t hurt me, will you Mikey?"

"No. You’re my bestest friend, Harry! Now and forever!"

"Yeah," Silas answered, not as enthusiastic as his dead friend.

"And why is it that only you and I can see him? And not transparent. Most ghosts are visible to all."

"I don’t know. Maybe it’s because he’s a muggle?"

Severus narrowed his eyes slightly, thinking. Eventually, he conceded with a nod, turning his attention on Silas.

"I will be researching this," he said, flatly. "Get to class, or you will be late. I suggest you don’t bring . . . Mikey . . . as he only seems to be able to distract you."

"Fine," Silas grumbled.

"And tell me if anyone else is able to see him."

"Okay. Bye," Silas said, leaving the classroom as quick as he possibly could while making sure Mikey followed.

"Was that your brother?" Mikey asked, and Silas nodded. "He looks like you a little."

"Yeah," Silas answered. "Do you have anywhere to wait while I’m in class? I don’t think the teachers would like it if you are interrupting," he continued, not able to think of any other way to tell the six-year-old that he couldn’t come to Charms with him.

"I’ll go to our room!" Mikey said, jumping up and down.

"Our room?" Silas was confused.

"You know, the one I like a lot," the boy said in a voice that told Silas he should know.

"Oh. Why do you like that room?"

"I . . . think it’s because that’s where I showed up," Mikey answered slowly. "That’s when I first saw you again, although you are different looking. I still know it’s you, because you are my bestest friend, even if you do look funny."

"I don’t look funny!" Silas answered, getting a laugh from Mikey.

"I mean you don’t look like yourself anymore. And bigger. A lot bigger. You must be really old, now! Really, really old!"

"I’m only eleven," Silas pointed out, and Mikey got a scrunched up look on his face.

"Eleven. That’s a lot of years older than me! Like a hundred!"

"Only five," Silas laughed. "I need to get to class, though. I will meet you after class in . . . our room, okay?"

"Okay," Mikey answered, skipping off toward the room near the end of the corridor. Silas sighed before entering the charms classroom.

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"Harry?" Mickey asked. It was about two weeks after Severus met Mikey, and the ghost boy got more and more real as the days went by. Right now, they were on their way to visit Severus.

"Yeah?" he asked, picking Mikey up for a few seconds after making sure no one was around. No matter how solid Mikey got, only he and Severus could still see him. It made things very complicated sometimes.

"How come everyone calls you Silas and not Harry?"

"Because Silas is my real name," Silas answered. "They don’t know I’m Harry."

"Oh," Mikey said, still a little confused. "You should tell them you are Harry." Silas just shook his head, not bothering to explain. There were a lot of things about magic that Mikey just didn’t understand. Laughing when the little boy tried to do a cartwheel, he stopped short when he noticed that where Mikey stepped, he left behind a footprint of fire.

"Ho–how did you do that, Mikey?" Silas stuttered, and Mikey looked at him oddly.

"You taught me how to do a cartwheel, Harry," he said, and Harry shook his head.

"No. The fire-footprints."

"What fire-footprints?" Mikey looked around, but it didn’t seem as if Mikey could see them. Carefully, Silas tried putting one of them out with his foot, but was surprised to find that it wasn’t as hot as a fire should be. It wouldn’t go out.

"Come on, let’s hurry," Silas said immediately, and nearly ran the rest of the way to the dungeon. If Mickey wasn’t following, he would have run.

"Slow down, Silas," Severus said as he barged into the room, Mikey entering a few seconds later. "What . . ." he tried off for a second. "What’s happening?"

"You can see them, too?" Silas asked, glad he wasn’t the only one. "Mikey can’t see them."

"Footprints . . . Silas, I need to talk to you. Alone."

"Okay," Silas nodded, telling Mikey to stay put. He followed Severus through the door that led to Severus’ office, feeling scared. He knew what Severus was going to ask, and he wasn’t willing to say it . . .

Severus closed the door, then warded both doors in the room.

"How did Mikey die?" his older brother asked immediately.

"I . . . I . . . what?" Silas asked, feigning misunderstanding.

"How did Mikey die? What happened?"

"I . . . can’t tell you," Silas said, starting to cry and looking down at the stone floor.

"Can’t or won’t? You must tell me, Silas. Look at me!" Grabbing his chin, Severus made Silas looked at him, and he was too afraid to close his eyes. "I have the ability to look through your memories, if I wish to do so. I do not want to, but if you do not tell me, I will be forced to. Trust me, it is very unpleasant. This is important!"

"I . . . I . . ."

Grabbing Silas, Severus gave his little brother a hug from behind.

"Don’t be afraid to tell me. You won’t get in trouble, I promise," he whispered in Silas’ ear. Just a few moments ago, he was able to put together a few facts and he was sure his guess was close. A dead, six year old friend, afraid of the woods, the footprints of fire . . .

"I . . . when I . . . we were six, we ran away," Silas said, crying hard, unable to keep his sentences straight. "Stayed in the woods. A big fire . . . got too close . . ." Silas couldn’t say anymore before he broke down entirely, unable to support his own weight. Severus could barely make out him muttering "My fault, my fault," over and over again.

"It’s okay, Silas," Severus said, laying the boy on a pile of conjured blankets. "It’s not your fault, I promise, okay?" Not getting a response, no matter how many times Severus repeated that, he settled for flooing the headmaster, and telling him to bring Pomfrey along. Severus suspected that Silas would be going into shock soon, if he wasn’t already.

Within a few minutes, both the headmaster and mediwitch were inside. Madam Pomfrey started working with Silas immediately, and Severus and Dumbledore began talking quietly in a far corner.

"Severus?"

"They boy – ghost – is in my quarters. You won’t be able to see him."

"Perhaps . . ."

Dumbledore didn’t get any further. He noticed Severus’ eyes widened, looking in the direction of the door to his rooms.

Not only was the boy leaving fire-prints, his shoes had started on fire. Mikey was walking toward Silas, as if nothing was wrong.

"Is he in here now, Severus? I can feel a bit of warmth coming from where you are looking."

Severus didn’t answer. He ran to stand between the ghost and Silas, but Mikey just walked through him. Except for a little patch of heat, Severus had felt nothing, even though he had been able to pick the boy up two days before. He was stunned for a second, confused, before he turned around. By this time, Madam Pomfrey had moved away from the little Prince, startled by Severus’ quick movements.

"Harry," Mikey called, causing Severus to shudder.

"Mikey?" Silas answered. It was the first response he made since he started crying hysterically.

"We have to go. Now. Otherwise they’ll catch us," Mikey said. "Come on, Harry. We’ll go to the woods, and we’ll be able to play forever! Let’s go play, Harry," the ghost said, talking quietly but urgently. His voice echoed off the walls.

"Play," Silas responded, reaching his hand to his young, dead friend. "Let’s go play. We’ll play forever, like Peter Pan," he said. Now, the fire on Mikey had reached his waist, and Severus could feel the heat resonating off the boy.

"It’s getting hot," Madam Pomfrey said. "What’s going on?" She hadn’t been informed yet of Silas’ ghost friend.

Silas reached further, trying to take a hold of Mikey’s hand. Severus, finally shaken out of his stupor, grabbed his brother from the floor, holding him like a little child.

"Stay away," Severus ordered the boy, and Mikey turned around to look at the adult, angry. The first had reached further up the boy.

"He’s my friend, not yours. Harry wants to come with me," Mikey said impatiently, his voice still echoing.

"He can’t. He’s not dead," Severus stated, getting a wide-eyed look from the mediwitch in the room. Dumbledore had his wand pointed in the general direction of Mikey, but as he was unable to see the boy, he was unable to cast any spells. It was up to Severus.

"He can. He wants to. Don’t you, Harry?"

"Play," Silas mumbled, not really paying attention.

"Come here, Harry." Mikey sounded so innocent, Severus couldn’t help but note. So sweet . . .

"He can’t go with you, Mikey," Severus said. "You don’t want your friend do die, do you?"

"GIVE HIM TO ME!" Mikey yelled, so loud that it echoed much longer than his voice had been doing. The fire was now up to Mikey’s neck. He reached out with a fiery hand, and Severus took several steps back to avoid the overwhelming heat. He knew that if he let Mikey take Silas, it would be killing his brother. Mikey obviously wanted his friend with him . . . forever. "You will give him to me."

"No," Severus said flatly; forcibly. Thankfully, it only took a few seconds more before the fire consumed the ghost entirely, causing him to fall to the ground into a pile of burning ashes. After a few minutes, making sure that it was over and trying to get his heart to calm, Severus put Silas back down on the pile of blankets.

Madam Pomfrey took this as a hint to look over the first year, and Dumbledore went up the Severus, looking into his eyes. Wanting the old man to know, he willing showed the headmaster the memory of what happened. With understanding, Albus nodded.

"He has a fever, but other than that, I don’t see anything wrong with him. I’ll bring him up to the infirmary–."

"No," Severus snapped. "Silas will be staying with me, incase Mikey comes back."

"Mikey?" Pomfrey asked, still confused, but slowly putting the facts she knew together.

"Perhaps a few days off, to make sure?" Dumbledore suggested, and Severus nodded. He looked at the pile of ashes. They were starting to burn out, along with the footprints the boy made around the office. "I’m sure you two would be more comfortable at home, away from where this happen."

"Yes," Severus answered.

"What exactly did happen, Albus?" Poppy asked.

"Let us go to the infirmary. I will explain on the way there," was all Dumbledore’s reply. After they left, Severus picked up his brother, who was still mumbling incoherently, and carried him into his rooms after he unwarded the door.

Quickly gathering a number of Silas’ things, including clothes and a few books to read, Severus flooed with his brother to their home. By the time that he put the child in his bed, took off his shoes, and covered him, the boy was sleeping soundly, his fever no longer high.

Transfiguring Silas’ desk chair into something more comfortable, Severus sat down and watched Silas sleep. He wasn’t planning on leaving until Silas woke up.