When his father finally let him go, Harry expected to be deluged with questions, but Severus was quiet. Harry glanced up and, seeing the professor's blazing eyes and pinched lips, decided that Severus must be too angry to speak.

"They were afraid," he said softly. "They never wanted me and they were afraid."

Severus swallowed hard. "Harry, do not attempt to defend them." His voice was rough and he took a deep breath before continuing. "There is no excuse for locking a child in a cupboard, none at all."

Harry didn't know why he felt compelled to downplay his mistreatment. "It wasn't so bad most of the time, really. At least they left me alone when I was in the cupboard."

Severus placed an arm around his shoulders and guided him back through the parlour to the sofa. They sat down side by side and Severus reached to cup Harry's chin in his hand, turning his head so they were looking into each other's eyes.

"Harry, locking a child away in a cupboard is an abominable thing. And I think you know that, too." Severus' voice was firm, but his eyes and his fingers were gentle. "But I can also understand that it would be a relief to have a place where you would be left alone, even if it was inside a cupboard."

He wrapped an arm securely around Harry's shoulders, holding him close, and kissed the top of Harry's head. "Do you want to tell me the rest of it?"

Harry had not planned to tell him then, but somehow his father's concern and love loosened his tongue and it all came out: Dudley and his gang going ‘Harry-hunting', Aunt Petunia's hateful comments, Uncle Vernon's blustering threats, the endless chores and days of hunger, being locked away in the cupboard for hours at a time, punished for having nightmares, smacked and pushed and shoved around, the time Dobby had ruined his uncle's dinner party and in a fit of rage, his uncle had beaten him across the back with his belt until Harry had broken down and screamed in pain... all the years of cruel neglect and abuse that he had never told anyone before.

When he was finally finished, he felt embarrassed for some reason and for a moment he wished he could take it all back and keep it locked inside him forever. But at the same time, he felt so safe in his father's arms, safer than he'd ever felt before, and lighter somehow, as if a big hard knot that had been tied up inside him had been loosened. His jumbled-up feelings were just so confusing, he wasn't even sure how he felt.

Severus was quiet for a few moments and when he spoke, his voice sounded strangled. "Harry, I am so sorry."

"None of that was your fault." Harry looked up at him in bewilderment.

Severus' face was ashen. He shook his head slightly. "I meant that I am sorry that you suffered so, but I did fail you. We all did. And I am sorry for my part."

"It's all right," Harry said softly.

"It most definitely is not all right!" Severus was emphatic. "You were an innocent child, placed into horrible circumstances, and there was no adult to look out for you. We should have noticed, and done more, but we failed." He took a deep breath. "But I can promise you that no one will ever..."

Severus' voice abruptly broke off and if possible, he looked even more stricken. His arms tightened around Harry, holding him closer still.

"Severus? What is it?" Harry asked, twisting to look more closely at him.

His father released him reluctantly and then clasped his hands together. He was silent for so long that Harry didn't think he was going to answer, but finally Severus spoke, his voice so low that Harry could barely hear him.

"I apologised once for the way I misjudged you and lost my temper back at the beginning of the summer...when I thought you had read my journal. I apologised for my actions, and I do still feel very badly about the way I behaved. But I never apologised for the things I said. Do you remember?"

Yes, he remembered...Severus emphasizing that Harry was his slave, that he could do anything he wanted and no one could interfere, threatening to beat and starve him...

Yes, Harry remembered, and those words had hurt and frightened him for weeks afterwards. But so much had changed since then. Harry knew that Severus regretted it all, and that his father would never hurt him. He'd forgiven Severus and the memory no longer stung.

So he repeated, "It's all right."

His father still looked almost sick. "No, it's not. I said monstrous things. Even if you had read the journal, it would have been horrible, and now, knowing what those wretched Muggles did to you...." He turned to Harry with haunted eyes. "Harry, I am so sorry. I know what I said was unforgivable, but..."

"Severus, it's not unforgivable," Harry interrupted. "Because I've already forgiven you."

"I don't know how you could," Severus replied quietly. "But Harry, I promise that I will never hurt you or mistreat you in any way again." He hesitated before adding, "I don't know if you can believe me, but I do want you to know that they were idle threats. Even back then and as angry as I was, I would not have struck you or denied you food. I simply said those things because I was furious and I wanted to hurt you."

His voice sounded pained and faint spots of colour appeared in his pale cheeks. "I am very sorry and ashamed, Harry. I realise that simply apologising is not enough, but I don't know what else to do. I wish there were a way that I could erase it all and start over. It makes me ill that I threatened you with the same abuse that you had suffered from those horrid Muggles for so long."

Harry couldn't bear the pain in Severus' voice and eyes. He laid his hand on his father's arm. "Severus, I've already forgiven you and it's all right. I know you're not like the Dursleys. I know you won't hurt me. It's all right."

Severus took Harry's hand and held it between his own, squeezing it gently. "Thank you, child." He cleared his throat. "And thank you for trusting me enough to tell me about the Dursleys."

Harry shook his head. "It's funny, Severus. Every time you asked me about them, I kept thinking that I couldn't bear to talk about it, but then I just did it all on my own."

Severus took a breath, then arched an eyebrow at Harry. "Yes, I noticed." He considered. "Perhaps it was a bit easier because it needed to be your decision on when the time was right to discuss them."

Harry must have looked puzzled because Severus explained. "So many things in your life have been out of your control that you needed to decide on your own when it was right to have this discussion."

"Oh," Harry thought about that. "Maybe, but I wasn't really thinking about it like that."

Severus nodded. "It was probably more of a subconscious need. Not to mention, of course, that we had to establish a close level of trust first as well." He smiled slightly as he finished and Harry understood why...because they had become close enough now to really trust one another.

He smiled too and leaned against his father, thinking what a wonderful feeling it was to know that he finally had someone who truly cared and would be there for him. Severus slid his arm around Harry's shoulders again and for a little while they just sat together in silence.

But finally Severus spoke again, his voice sounding more firm. "Now we need to decide on appropriate consequences for those filthy vermin you had the misfortune to be related to."

"Aunt Petunia would have a duck if she heard you call her filthy," Harry remarked.

"Name-calling will be the least of her worries once I'm finished with them," Severus answered darkly.

Harry sighed. "Severus, couldn't we just forget about them? Please?"

His father gave him an incredulous look. "Harry, those vile Muggles abused and neglected you for years, from the time you were a baby. Do you really think they should be allowed to get away with that? Don't you think they deserve some type of punishment?"

Harry stared at the floor, studying the pattern on the rug as if it were the most interesting thing he'd ever seen. "I guess so," he finally said in a quiet voice. "But I really just want to forget them. I don't want to think about them or see them or have anything to do with them ever again. And I don't want to have to talk about all this with anyone else."

"Well, there are plenty of ways that justice could be meted out privately and I would greatly prefer to handle it that way myself. But I cannot do anything that would merit Azkaban should it be discovered, mainly because you have to live with me and I will never risk your well-being." Severus exhaled sharply. "I suppose Albus would disapprove anyhow. He'd make some wise little speech about the dangers of vengeance and taking the law into one's own hands."

Severus huffed. "I suppose he might even have a point. Still, there is a difference between revenge and justice."

He was silent for a while, his forehead creased in thought. Harry just leaned against him, soaking up the comfort and warmth of his father's solid presence next to him. He still just wanted to forget about the Dursleys and get on with his life, but even though Severus seemed quite determined to have them punished, Harry knew that his father would do what was best for him...and it was sort of nice to know that he had someone on his side now, who could actually watch out for him and protect him.

"The other choice is to go through legal means," Severus finally said, "But that would involve a trial and your having to talk with lawyers and Aurors, and of course it would mean publicity. Even if we went through the Muggle courts, there is still a chance that someone from the wizarding world would hear of it. The name ‘Harry Potter' is rather well-known."

Harry was already shaking his head. "No, Severus. I don't want that. Please."

"Shh, child." Severus' arm tightened around him again. "We will not do anything without your approval. The Dursleys will be brought to justice, one way or another. I'm more determined than ever on that point. But I can see that it might require some time and consideration. Is it all right with you if I discuss the matter with Albus?"

Harry hesitated, but finally nodded. "All right," he whispered.

"Very well, then." There was a long pause before Severus said in a low voice, "Harry, I did tell you that I could empathise, do you remember? I was mistreated as a child, too."

Harry glanced up at him. Their eyes met in shared pain and then Severus bowed his head. "Norie and Zan probably told you a bit about my grandfather, Jeremiah Prince?"

Harry nodded and his father continued. "He was...a very proud man, very harsh and demanding. He had a temper, but he controlled it with an iron will. I never saw him lose control, but he would get a certain look in his eyes. I knew to stay away from him then. He was almost fanatically proud...of being a pureblood wizard, of the Prince family name and the estate. I never was exactly certain why...the Princes never seemed to be supreme models of humanity to me...but to him it was everything."

"You said he wasn't a Death Eater though," Harry pointed out, remembering that Severus had once obliquely hinted that he had not come from a family with ties to Voldemort.

Severus shook his head. "No, he wasn't. Oh, he thought Voldemort had the right idea, but he wasn't a Death Eater. He was ill the last few years of his life, when Voldemort was rising to power and the first war began, but even if he hadn't been, I can't imagine him actually serving anyone else. Voldemort required such utter loyalty from his followers, even to the point of abasing oneself and submitting to torture. Jeremiah Prince would have never lowered himself to that."

"My mother, Eileen Prince, was his only child. Her mother died when she was quite young so she was raised by house elves...not Norie and Zan; they didn't come to Prince Hall until later...and by Jeremiah. She never talked about it much but I'm sure she had a difficult and lonely childhood. I suppose that's why she ran off to marry Tobias Snape a few days after her seventeenth birthday."

Severus shook his head. "I can understand her desperation to get away, but to be perfectly honest, I never have known why she chose to marry my father. For one thing, he was a Muggle. Harry, over the past eighteen years I have learned that prejudice against Muggles is wrong, but during the years I lived with my mother and grandfather, they taught me to despise Muggles. It was very disconcerting for me, as a young man, when I began to realise that they had been wrong and I struggled to overcome those beliefs. But my mother had been taught to believe in pure-blood supremacy all her life. I can only think that marrying a Muggle was a form of revenge against her father."

"But if she thought marriage was going to be a great escape, she must have been disappointed. I was born a year after my parents eloped. It was..." Severus stopped, shook his head, and took a deep breath before continuing. "To say we were poor would be an understatement. My mother was intelligent, but she had no idea of how to get along in the Muggle world. I don't know why she didn't try to seek employment in the wizarding world, unless she was afraid of having some contact with Jeremiah Prince, or perhaps she was too proud to have anyone know what her life had become."

"In any case, she never had a job, aside from caring for me and our house, such as it was. ‘Hovel' would be a more appropriate term for it. My father had left school when he was sixteen, and he preferred drinking to working, in any case. He had a vicious temper when he was drunk, which was most of the time, and unlike my grandfather, he never controlled it."

Severus fell silent again and this time Harry reached for his hand and held it. His father smiled at him, rather a sad smile, Harry thought, and twined his fingers through Harry's.

"I escaped the worst of the violence. I learned early to stay away from home as much as possible, but there was a day when I was ten years old and my parents began fighting. It...ended badly. My mother took me and we went to Prince Hall. Jeremiah Prince probably would have turned us away, except that he wanted an heir. He never forgave my mother and he made her miserable for the rest of her life. She died at rather a young age, while I was still a student at Hogwarts. I've always thought that she simply gave up on life."

Harry nodded, knowing exactly the dark place that Eileen Prince must have been in. He'd been there for most of the summer, and it was only because of Severus that he'd begun to come out of it.

Severus must have remembered how close Harry had come to giving up, too, because he hugged him close, protectively, and bowed his head to rest his lips against Harry's hair.

"I'm sorry, Severus," Harry said softly after a while.

"Well, it's long past now," his father replied. "All I can say is thank goodness I had Hogwarts to come to. And for Norie and Zan. They were at Prince Hall when my mother and I arrived. They were my salvation during those years."

"I was always really glad to come to Hogwarts, too," Harry agreed.

He and Severus shared another understanding look before the clock began chiming noon.

Severus sighed. "Speaking of Hogwarts, Albus has planned for the professors to share luncheon and then have a staff meeting. But I could always tell him that we've had a trying morning and I needed to stay with you. I think he'd understand."

Harry smiled at him. "Well, I always like being with you, Severus, but I'm all right if you need to go. I mean, I'm not upset so you don't have to be afraid to leave me alone or anything. I'll be fine while you go to your meeting."

Severus considered, then nodded. "Very well, but you can contact me if you need to. All the fireplaces in the school are connected to an internal Floo system and I'll be either in the Great Hall or the staff room. You can also use the Floo to order some lunch from the kitchens."

"All right," Harry agreed.

Severus kissed his head one more time before reluctantly standing. "I'll probably be gone several hours. Albus does tend to go on a bit at these meetings." Before Flooing away, he added, "Oh, Harry, if you go anywhere, please leave a note. I would like to know where you are."

Once Severus had gone, Harry leaned back against the sofa, thinking about all the things they had discussed...the Dursleys, Severus' own past. His father hadn't really gone into detail about the things Tobias Snape and Jeremiah Prince had actually done to him, but the implications were that they had been pretty harsh. Harry knew that even telling as much as he had would have been very difficult for Severus, just like telling about the Dursleys had been difficult for him.

That was probably why Severus had opened up, so Harry would know that he really did understand, or maybe he just wanted Harry to know more about him. They were father and son, after all. In spite of the emotional discussion earlier, Harry smiled at that thought...father and son. He liked the sound of that.

He ordered a ham and cheese sandwich from the kitchen, and received it, plus an apple, a treacle tart, and a glass of milk. After eating, Harry went to his new room, glancing around at it in fresh delight. Back during the years he'd lived with the Dursleys, he could have never imagined having such a beautiful room of his own, and now he actually had two...his room at Prince Hall and this one. It was a drastic change from the cupboard under the stairs, for sure.

He looked for Hedwig, but she was sleeping peacefully in her cage on his desk and Harry decided he'd leave her alone for now and take her up to the Owlery in the evening. He knelt by his trunk in the corner, opened it, and took out the scrolls of parchment on top...the adoption papers that Severus had written just for him.

Harry took the scrolls and went to lie down on his bed. He propped himself up on the pillows and spent the next half hour reading and re-reading the papers. They gave him a warm happy glow inside and made him feel better than he had since Draco Malfoy had cast the enslavement spell on him...because Severus really did see him as a son, not as a slave. Harry had been thinking a lot lately about what Severus had told him...how they didn't have to let the spell define them, how it was just a catalyst for bringing them together, how they were a family and not master and slave.

Except that they were. Harry could never entirely forget that, or at least he couldn't forget that he was a slave. It was always in the back of his mind. Sometimes he could sort of ignore it; other times it really hurt still, a lot. But it was always there.

But he didn't really think of Severus as his master. No, Severus was his father, and his friend. And he was Severus' son. These adoption papers were proof of it. Severus had cared enough to go to the trouble to write it all out, even though the papers weren't legal. He'd understood that it would help Harry to be able to have tangible proof. Well, Harry knew one thing. The adoption might not be legal, but it was real.

And though he couldn't forget the slavery spell, Harry did know that being father and son was even more important.

After a while a thought struck him and he frowned down at the papers. Besides being Severus' son, they also said that he was his heir. But according to the slavery spell, Harry couldn't own anything. How could he inherit anything then? He shook his head. He would have to ask Severus about it later. That reminded him that he needed to ask about riding on the Hogwarts Express, too.

But Severus wouldn't be back for another hour or two, and all of a sudden Harry didn't want to just hang around in their rooms. He wanted to explore the castle, or better yet, go out to the Quidditch pitch and practice some of the Wronski skills. He and Ron had picked out a couple of techniques and worked hard on learning them the other day, but it would be different to actually perform them on the pitch.

Harry carefully placed the adoption papers back in his trunk, grabbed his Firebolt and left their quarters.