Snow had begun to fall, he mused as he stared out the window in the dorm for the sixth year Gryffindor boys. Ron had gone to see his brother Charlie, Hermione had gone home to her parents. So he was stuck alone for Christmas. It didn't surprise him, and surprisingly enough he actually found himself not truly minding. The quiet solitude was a breath of fresh air from his two best friends hounding him.

They meant well, he mused turning away from the window to walk over to the bed pulling on the t-shirt he had laid on the bed. They meant well, he repeated to himself wanting to believe it. But times were changing...and with those times he was wondering if they would really remain friends. Lately they were so busy that they really hadn't anytime to actually spend time outside of classes.

Sighing he slid on a pair of shoes and ran a hand through his messy hair. He just needed fresh air, he told himself walking to the door and then down the stairs to the Gryffindor common room. There were a few of his fellow students there, but as he passed they hushed down...he was the famous Harry Potter, hero and champion for the light side in the upcoming war. And he was bloody well tired of being Harry Potter...Ignoring the looks he was getting he walked out of the common room shoving his hands in the pockets of his jeans and chuckled.

He was wearing green cargo pants and a silver shirt, not on purpose mind you, they had been the first things he grabbed but the whole idea that he was wearing another house's colors was extremely amusing. He walked down the hallway every once and a while glancing at the paintings that covered the walls. He was depressed, Merlin knew how many times in his entire life he had become so, so it was easy to tell that he was. Turning the hallway he blinked, he had somehow spaced out long enough to end up in the Dungeons. Rolling his eyes he turned to head back to the rest of the school but found himself stopping directly outside of the Potions classroom. He raised his hand and placed it on the door, pushing it open he stuck his head in, the room was darkened and no one was there. Smiling he slid inside the room and walked deeper into it sitting down in the darkest part of the room. Leaning back in the chair he closed his eyes, willing himself to meld into the darkness. Darkness couldn't give him reminders. Darkness couldn't hurt him...

"Just what do you think you are doing Potter." A voice sneered from the doorway. Harry jumped to his feet as the room lit brightly. Severus Snape was standing in the doorway wand in hand. How the git actually knew that Harry was sitting in the dark, left Harry clueless.

"I asked you a question Mr. Potter, or are you suddenly mute?" The potions master demanded. Harry glared at him walking over.

"I apologize Professor. I'll be leaving now." Harry said pushing by the man. A hand snaked out and grabbed his arm.

"Just a moment Potter. Why aren't you with your two friends, Weasley and Granger." Snape demanded. Harry glared at him jerking to get his arm free.

"Because they went home to their families Professor, now will you let me go?" he snarled. Snape narrowed his eyes at Harry as if sizing him up.

"Do you have plans for the rest of the day Potter?" he demanded, the boy was getting thinner, and that irked the potions master. He wasn't supposed to notice things like that about the son of his enemy. Harry froze and stared at him.

"Excuse me sir?" Harry said, though he added absolutely no respect in the last word. Snape nearly let the boy charge off, disrespect him! The boy could go and hang himself for all he cared...

"I asked how you planned on wasting the day, because if you can put your oh so important plans on hold then I have a potion I wish you to brew for me." Snape said, he nearly choked on the words. He was actually asking Potter for help! Harry narrowed his eyes and glanced at Snape then at the door then stood straighter.

"You want me to brew a potion for you?" the boy parroted back to him. Snape again was forced to put his emotions aside.

"Yes I want you to brew a potion for me! You have patience when you choose to, and you also have a steady hand unlike Longbottom, I can trust you not to slice a finger. I have a list of potions I have to brew and I would..." Snape gagged at what he was saying inwardly. "...would like some help in doing so. And since you are staying at Hogwarts and are already here..." Snape trailed off raising one of his eyebrows at the teen. Harry cast one last glance at the door while he debated. Then he shrugged.

"Why the hell not. Your company can't be as bad as the rest of the students." The teen said. Snape's eye twitched, there was only so much disrespect a man could handle in a row.

"I'll forget you just said that." Snape said shaking his head and he released Harry's arm. "I will be right back, I need to get that list." Snape said but he didn't move, he merely glared into Harry's eyes until the teen rolled them.

"I'll be here." He assured his professor. Only then did Snape sweep from the room. Harry stared after him before returning to his seat closing his eyes with a heavy sigh. He didn't notice Snape was still watching him from outside the door. Snape scowled, what the hell was the matter with the trouble maker...the professor thought as he went to get the list. This wasn't a normal reaction from Potter. And he was going to get behind the reason, he didn't need Dumbledore hounding him anymore about the boy. The headmaster had tried making excuse after excuse to Snape for the boy's latest actions, but the Slytherin had stood his ground. He stormed into his rooms and snatched his list. Truth be told, he could have just conjured them to himself, but he needed a moment to gather his thoughts. He was going to enlist Draco's help in brewing them, but for some odd reason he had chosen Potter. He made a note to himself to have himself checked out for any signs of illness namely insanity.

Walking back into the room, he saw that Potter hadn't moved from the seat, his eyes were closed and the light cast pale shadows on the teen's cheeks making him almost look worn. He opened his mouth to snap at Harry but the teen opened his eyes and looked directly at him. He hid his surprise in a sneer.

"Your instincts seem to be sharper." He commented mildly as he flicked his wand, calling over two cauldrons and various ingredients. Harry shook his head and stood, an effort that almost seemed to take a great deal of effort for the teen.

"They need to be..." Harry answered darkly. Snape frowned but called over a note book and jotted down the potion he was going to have Harry brew. Handing the book to the teen he watched as surprise lit the teens eyes.

"You're going to have me brew Dreamless Sleep?" he asked. Snape smirked.

"Unless you don't think you can handle it." He countered and grinned inwardly when the young Gryffindor squared his shoulders and began to arrange the correct ingredients he needed. That worried Snape slightly, well would have if he cared about the boy, the fact that Harry knew by heart what went into the potion. Filing the information away to review at another date Snape began to prepare his own ingredients. The two worked in silence before Snape deemed the teen distracted enough to talk to.

"I haven't heard of any trouble that the golden trio have gotten into lately, is it because you've become good enough not to get caught?" he asked nonchalantly. Harry snorted as he lit the fire beneath his cauldron.

"Ron still trips over himself all the time. So it'd kinda be hard for us not to be caught, and Hermione still frowns on any rule breaking." He answered. Snape shot a quick glance at the teen, the tone of voice actually sounded amused. Another few minutes passed in silence.

"In fact I haven't seen you three together much either." He commented, if the boy hadn't been engrossed in brewing the potion he would have been shocked to find out his Potions Professor had been watching him.

"That would be because we don't see each other expect for in classes, since I don't exactly eat in the great hall." He pointed out adding an ingredient. Snape frowned.

"Do you eat?" he asked before he was able to stop himself. But he earned a snort from the teenage that stood beside him.

"Sometimes if I'm not busy." Came the response. Snape sent the teen a glare.

"And what would keep your busy, obviously not your schoolwork." He sneered. Harry snickered.

"Research. That and having to teach myself some more defense spells, I have to be prepared for anything." Harry said in a logical voice. Snape scowled.

"All of which you could do as well as eat." The professor countered earning himself another snicker.

"I get caught up, and half the time I barely make it back to the common room before curfew." Harry said as he stirred the brew. Snape scowled even more. He was not liking the answers he was getting.

"Any other reason why you would feel you don't require food?" he asked as conjured more ingredients.

"Not really hungry, same with sleep really." Harry answered reaching by Snape to grab one of the new ingredients. Snape glanced at the potion his student was brewing...it was coming along perfectly.

"What do you mean the same thing with sleep?" he said in a gruff voice. Harry laughed.

"Don't feel like doing much honestly. Every time I close my eyes I see..." Harry trialed off shrugging and went back to working in silence. He reached to grab another ingredient, but Snape stopped him.

"You don't add that yet." He corrected, Harry blinked then rolled his eyes.

"Oh yeah." He said this time reaching for the correct ingredient.

"What do you see?" Snape asked after a moments pause. Harry's hand froze, but quickly the teen busied himself with the potion, ducking his head so Snape wasn't able to see his face.

"Nutten'..." the teen answered and silence lapsed again. Snape allowed it for several minutes before he pushed. He was going to have to tread lightly in this area it seemed.

"If it was nothing then you would have no trouble sleeping..." he commented. Harry's hands froze again and the shoulders sagged.

"Just a face." He answered began chopping one of the last ingredients.

"Whose face?" he asked. Harry shrugged.

"My godfather's, but he's dead so it doesn't matter." The teen said in a shaking voice. Aha! Snape thought triumphantly that was a great deal part of the entire change in Potter.
"Why shouldn't it matter?" Snape questioned as he let his potion simmer watching his student intently, the boy's head was still down, but he could still see his face now that he was looking at him. It was forlorn...Snape shoved aside the pity he felt well up, this was Potter, spoiled brat and Dumbledore's golden boy!

"He's gone...all that's left is for me to kill Voldemort and then..." the boy again lapsed into silence. Snape narrowed his eyes.

"And then what Potter?" he asked softly. The teen stared into the potion.

"It can be over." Harry whispered and Snape rolled his eyes tempted to pour a vial of Veritaserum and get a straight answer from the boy.

"What can be over?" Snape asked again clenching his teeth. The boy was as difficult as his father!

"Everything...I won't have to go back to the Dursleys, Dudley and Uncle Vernon can't use me as a punching bag. Voldemort can't kill the people I care about anymore, and I can finally join Sirius." Harry said adding in the last ingredient and stirred the potion. Snape stared at Harry paling.

"What do you mean you can join Sirius?" he asked softly to hide his shock, if the boy said what he thought he was going to say...

"I can die." Harry said and blinked looking up from the potion over at Snape and smiled, he smiled! At Snape. "And you can be happy that I'm gone because then you wont have anymore reminders of my father." Harry looked back down at the potions and extinguished the flame. "The potions done professor can I leave now?"

"POTTER! Sit down at that desk NOW!" Snape barked out. Harry froze and stared in shock at him.

"Sir?" he asked confused. He had been sure that he brewed the potion properly maybe he hadn't. "Is the potion wrong?"

"No ,Potter" Snape sighed heavily, looking upward, why him. Foolish Dumbledore and McGonagall. "Sit down now. We need to have a conversation about you're abnormal living habits." Harry blinked but slouched down into the seat leaning back obviously wanting to leave without the discussion.

"Let me make sure the facts are right, you don't eat or sleep Potter?" Snape said in a deceptively mild voice as he sat behind his desk and steepled his fingers together leaning back in the chair staring at Harry. The teen squirmed.

"Maybe..." Harry said picking at his pants. Snape smirked.

"Tell the truth Potter." He commanded and Harry groaned, he had no luck!

"I eat some and I sleep too!" He insisted. Snape raised an eyebrow.

"So if I asked your classmates if you did what would they tell me?" Snape asked. Harry rolled his eyes.

"They wouldn't know." He said slumping back in his seat. Snape frowned.

"I would think being who you are they would notice." He commented. Harry shrugged grumpily.

"Well they don't all they see is the boy-who-lived not me so doesn't matter, once I serve my purpose it'll be all over." He said darkly.

"And exactly what do you think your purpose is?"

"To kill Voldemort."

"Why do you think that is your one and only purpose in life?"

"Because no one's ever cared about Harry. Either they didn't care at all or only care about the boy who lived." The teen said softly. But he shrugged and forced a smile onto his lips. "It's okay professor, honestly now it doesn't really bother me anymore. I guess you can say I got used to it. I'm lucky you know, most people have to go through their whole lives to find their purpose...I was born knowing mine. I need to head back to the common room now professor." Harry said standing excusing himself. Walking to the door he paused.

"Professor for what it's worth I'm sorry for what my dad and his friends did to you." He said and then he was gone.