Harry had been surprised when he saw the library. He was expecting a normal sized room with a bunch of books… like what some average people would call a ‘library’, but what he found looked more like the public library in Surrey. If Snape were serious about this being Harry’s home too, then Harry was sure that Hermione would want to come and visit just to see the library.

He looked around until he could figure out how everything was organized and he found a large section of muggle books. There were a lot of the novels that he’d always wanted to read before, but the Dursleys had never allowed him to have a library card of his own. He picked out a copy of The Once & Future King and sat down on the floor near the fireplace in the large room.

It didn’t seem like he’d been there very long, but soon he felt a presence and he looked up from the book to see Professor Snape sitting in one of the armchairs with a book of his own. Snape looked up a second after Harry.

“How long- when did you-?” Harry stuttered. Snape smirked and closed his book with care.

“We’ll need to work on those communication skills of yours, Harry. And I’ve been sitting here for the past twenty minutes.”

“Oh.” Harry said, surprised.

“Good book, then?” Severus asked as he stood and walked closer to Harry to see what he’d been reading. Harry handed it to him.

“Mmm… yes, I remember seeing this book lying in random parts of the house many many times. Your-” Severus bit down on the inside of his cheek and stopped himself. He took a breath then and continued, “My late wife, Marguerite, loved this book. It was one of her favorites.” He then handed it back to Harry. “You may keep this in your room if you would like. It’s yours now.”

Harry gently held the book again and stood with a startled expression on his face, his jaw slack with shock.

“Sir, you can’t give me this. It was your wife’s and-”

“No, I’m sure she would have rather that you have it. You’ll enjoy the book more than I.” Severus held himself stiffly, wanting almost to bare his soul to Harry and let him know that it was his own mother’s book and that’s why he should have it now. But he knew he needed to wait.

“Thank you, sir.”

“Go and bring it to your room. Then get washed up and come to dinner. It should be ready.”

Harry nodded and hurried out to put it away. In his room, he set it on his nightstand next to the photo album that Hagrid had given him a few years back. Then he quickly washed his hands in his bathroom and ran downstairs, trying not to be too loud on the floor.

When he got to the dining area, he was surprised to see his professor finishing setting the small table and then serving each plate.

“I could have helped,” Harry said.

“I could have asked if I had needed, but I didn’t.” Severus answered. He nodded for Harry to sit down and then he took his own seat. Then, realizing that his response might have sounded rude, Severus began again, “The potion that I have made will make you… drowsy and you’ll be taking it twice a day for the next few days. You won’t be up to helping with anything around the house.” He bent the truth a little as he explained. It wouldn’t make Harry drowsy so much as it would… make him higher than a muggle kite.

“Oh” Harry nodded. He waited until Snape started eating before he dug in. His portions were small since he couldn’t eat much yet, but it looked delicious. Roasted chicken and vegetables, cottage cheese, and a bread roll made up the wonderful dinner. It tasted as good as it looked.

“I didn’t know you cooked.”

“It is a rather enjoyable break from potions sometimes. The kitchen used to be a traditional wizarding one. It wasn’t changed until I moved in.”

Harry smiled around his fork at that last bit of information. He was learning so many interesting things about this man whom he’d never thought had a life outside of terrorizing students. He decided he liked this side of his professor and he hoped he wouldn’t do anything to remind Snape of how much he really disliked Harry.

Dinner ended when Severus had finished and Harry, eating at a much slower pace, declared he couldn’t finish his plate. Severus only demanded that Harry finish his glass of milk before he cleared the table with a wave of his wand. He then stood and approached the still sitting Harry. Severus pulled out a phial that contained a dark blue potion and he set it on the table in front of Harry.

“This is what you will be taking when you wake up each morning and again after dinner each night. It’s a combination suited to your specific condition. It contains a nutrient potion… that isn’t a miracle fix. It will only provide the normal amounts of what you should be getting each day to make up for your small meal portions at this moment. It can’t give you everything you’ve missed, nutrition-wise, in the past. The potion also contains an extender… it will help your stomach grow to accommodate larger meals sooner. There is a stomach soother in the potion to alleviate any discomfort the extender might create. The last part of the combination is a mild calming draft. This is only to make sure that you don’t expend too much energy, burning too many calories and rendering these efforts useless. The combination of all these things will have an effect on you, as I’ve stated earlier. Do you understand?”

Harry was looking back and forth between Severus and the potion phial.

“Y-yes.”

“Good. Then I suggest you take your first dose now… and then go straight to bed.”

Harry did as told and tipped the phial up, swallowing with a surprised widening of his eyes. The potion was fruity tasting and felt slightly fizzy almost like a fruit soda. Then he nodded his goodnight and left the dining area to head to his room.

Severus watched him go and kept an eye on the small figure as he went upstairs and when Harry reached his bedroom door, Severus gave a small sigh. He’d expected some sign of defiance from Harry at being sent to bed so early. He would have explained his reasons for it if Harry had only asked, but he never did.

He knew that with Harry’s body being so empty and in it’s weakened state, the potion would hit him hard on the first night and he’d most likely fall asleep within the first twenty minutes.

With Harry gone to bed, Severus took the time to sit and think. As full as the day had been, he had to remind himself it was only the first day. And a full one it had been. First, he had gone to retrieve his son and he discovered that the boy lived in a cupboard. Then he’d found out that Harry had also been denied food by those muggles and when Severus saw the damage done, he wanted to curse himself for not seeing it before and the Dursleys for causing it.

Severus was also discovering that Harry acted much different here than he did at school. He didn’t know if it was because he was acting kinder to Harry, because his friends weren’t around to encourage him into mischievous behavior, or if it was because Harry was actually intimidated by Severus now even though he hadn’t seemed so before.

---

The next day, Severus made sure he was always near Harry so that he could keep an eye or ear out if he had any strange reactions to the potion. Harry didn’t seem to notice the hovering, but it was understandable that he wasn’t as observant as usual in his drugged up state. There were no complications but it was somewhat amusing to watch Harry like this.

It was at lunch that Harry spoke his first words of the day when he declared that cranberry juice tasted like autumn and it should be the official drink of Halloween at Hogwarts.

“Really? I doubt half the students even know what cranberry juice is,” Severus answered lightly.

“Probably true… I never had any before today either. It’s really good. I wonder why we only have pumpkin juice at school. I love it and all, but it gets boring when we have it day after day after day…” Harry’s voice trailed off and he finished the portion of food that Severus had set out for him.

A few hours later, Harry’s lack of inhibitions lead him to fall asleep leaning against Severus on the couch. Before he fell asleep, he lifted his head from the man’s shoulder.

“I need a uh… head marshmallow.” Harry’s brows furrowed as he tried to find the right words and settled on those.

“A what?

“You know… soft… for my head. Your shoulder is sharp. Not very comfy.” Harry explained. He smiled airily as he shook his head about Severus’s sharp shoulder.

“My- you…. A pillow?” Severus finally understood. Harry nodded. “Accio pillow.”

A small pillow, from who knew where, flew into his hand and he gave it to Harry.

“Mmm… thanks.” Harry set it on Severus’s shoulder and put his head back where it had laid before. Within minutes he was asleep. Severus just hoped that Harry wouldn’t remember that moment and be mortified at his own behavior.

The next day was much the same way except that Harry attempted to read more of The Once and Future King at one point. He was able to read a paragraph or two before becoming distracted and singing (very off-key) through the whole soundtrack to the musical Camelot. Severus cringed and almost cast a Silencio in Harry’s direction, but was able resist the temptation.

At one point during the day, Harry was lying in the middle of the library floor, staring at the ceiling with a dazed grin on his face.

“What are you doing?” Severus asked as he studied the boy.

“Reading a book.”

“You’re staring at the ceiling. You don’t even have a book in your hand.”

“No, I’m reading a book in my head.” Harry paused. “Hmm… maybe not a book. More like a story about a story. Dudley called if ‘fan fiction’ or something. Ever since he got the world interweb or whatever… alt.ql.creative… Dudley liked Quantum Leap. In my head, I’m reading about Star Wars though… they make books about it, ya know. But right now Han just made the kessel run in under twelve parsecs. He’s so cool, Snape. Don’t you think so?” He turned toward Severus, his eyes bright with such amazement and wonder.

“I don’t know who Han is.” Severus had to admit, hating that the light in Harry’s eyes briefly dimmed. They brightened again as Harry then sat up, realizing he could tell Severus the whole story of Star Wars.

“Oh! Well… a long time ago in a galaxy far, far away…” Harry began.

Of course, Harry ended up getting distracted and never did get to tell Severus the whole story. He made it up until Han Solo was frozen in carbonite and then forgot what he had been talking about.

On the third day, Harry’s body had finally gained enough strength from the potion for him to stay afloat mentally while still taking it. His embarrassed silence and the faint redness on his neck and face when he remembered something he’d done the other two days showed that Harry had become more aware of his surroundings.

After dinner that night, he finally spoke up again from his comfortable spot on the floor near the large fireplace in the living room.

“Can I stop taking the potion?” He asked. Severus looked at him with a small amount of surprise and a little relief.

“I was wondering how long with would take before you built up enough energy to fight your way through that fog.”

“Er… sorry. I don’t know why I said a lot of things that I… and I’m sorry I fell asleep on you and- God, I’m just…” Harry was so flustered, he couldn’t form a full sentence.

“You weren’t yourself. Nevertheless… you weren’t too bothersome save for your rather… charming music medley. I do hope to hear what happens to poor Han Solo someday though.” Severus smirked before continuing in a more serious voice. “Since you are now in a well enough frame of mind to actually be concerned about your own behavior, I do believe that you will be able to start taking a slightly modified version of the potion. The new one focuses just on the nutrients you need and has no side effects like the current potion. After two days of that potion, I will examine you again and if that goes well, you may stop taking the potion full stop.”

Harry smiled and sighed, relieved that he would be potions free soon. Then a thought came to him and he was surprised that the idea hadn’t occurred to him at any time lately.

“Can I go out and fly tomorrow?”

“No.”

“What? Why?”

“For one, you aren’t strong enough yet and you might-”

“I’m not a weakling!” Harry interrupted as he slammed his hand down on the hearth, wincing at the hard brick that his skin connected with.

“I didn’t say you were.” Severus seemed the epitome of calm.

“That’s what you meant, though. You just don’t want me to practice because you don’t want your Slytherins to lose to us yet again!”

“If you don’t calm down and apologize for your outburst, you will be sent to your room for the rest of the night.”

“Why should I apologize to you? I just-”

“Silence! The reasons you cannot go flying are because you are still building your strength and because I have not yet been able to strengthen the wards outside because I’ve been watching over you.” Severus took a deep breath and tried to calm himself before he could yell out anything that was uncalled for. However much he had prepared himself for parenthood so many years ago, he’d spent too much time since then despising any children he’d come in contact with and that habit was hard to break.

Harry snapped his mouth shut and took a step back fro the man. He was pretty sure that he’d just screwed up whatever sort of non-hate relationship that had been forming.

“I…”

“Go. Go to your room. Now.” Severus pointed in the direction of the stairs and stayed in that position until Harry had quietly started to ascend them. He didn’t look up when Harry leaned over the railing on the second floor.

“I’m sorry,” the small voice floated down to Severus before the sound of Harry’s bedroom door clicking shut.