“What?” Harry asked aloud as he reread what McGonagall wanted in her essay: Name ten inventions that were created by an error in a transfiguration spell, give details on each invention, its inventor and how the invention has impacted society.

He threw the note aside and lay back on his bed. Why the upcoming sixth years had to do summer work at all was just baffling. It wasn’t as if they knew what classes they would be in before their O.W.L. scores came in. Of course, he could hold off on his homework until they came, which should be sometime soon.

He wondered if Dumbledore would give Snape his scores to give to him, or if he would just get them from Dumbledore directly since they would probably get sent to Hogwarts seeing as no one knew where he was, minus the Order. Or maybe they would be sent to Privet Drive and his uncle would tear the letter to shreds and he would never get to know his results. The thought was daunting.

“It would be great to be excepted into the aurors program, wouldn’t it?” Harry asked the voice excitedly, staring at the ceiling.

“You’ve wanted to be an auror for some time. I’m sure you’ll get excepted. You’re really good at defense, anyway.”

“You should ask Mad-Eye or Kingsley, or even Tonks the next time you see either one of them about it,” the voice suggested.

“I doubt I’ll be seeing anyone for a while,” Harry said grimly, and turned his attention back to his homework.

“But you can, Harry.”

“Yeah? How? Do you mean to tell me that you have an entire bloody library up there with you?” Harry asked coldly.

“No, but has it ever occurred to you that Snape might have a few books on the subject? Or an encyclopedia or-”

“Or Grib could just get them for me,” Harry thought, pleased that there was someone who would help him with his current dilemma, without making him have to actually go and ask for help from Snape himself.

“Grib?” Harry called aloud, his voice etched with uncertainly to whether or not the house elf would come on command like he did before. But sure enough, a moment later the small, squeaky house elf appeared out of nowhere, standing on the foot of his bed no less, startling Harry as Grib was only a foot or two away from him.

“Master?” Harry quickly pushed himself up with an elbow and sat up straight, leveled evenly with Grib.

“Uh, hi Grib,” Harry began and pushed himself back until he was leaning comfortably against the headboard of his bed frame. He pulled his school notes on one knee and began to think of what to ask.

“Is Master Harry doing school work,” Grib asked, eyeing the papers resting on his leg.

“Yeah, that’s what I wanted to ask you about-”

“Oh! Grib would love to help Master Harry with his school work! Master Snape used to make Grib write essays, and find answers-”

“Well, that’s not really how I was hoping you could help me,” Harry explained, smirking at the thought of a teenaged Snape making a house elf do his homework for him.

“I was just wondering if you could get a book or two for me?” Harry asked, but Grib looked entirely remorseful a moment later and spoke.

“Grib is sorry, Master,” Grib began; he really did sound sorry. “But Master Severus said I wasn’t allowed to touch any of his things after he found that Grib took Mistress’ wand again,” Grib explained, though Harry watched as the house elf fingered something in his pocket. No doubt Grib had ceased to listen about the wand.

“I didn’t tell him that you took her wand,” Harry said, hoping that Grib didn’t think that.

“Grib knows, Master,” the elf said. “But Grib cant take any of Master’s books. Grib is willing to go and ask for them for you-”

“No, no. It’s fine,” Harry quickly cut in. He knew that that would make him seem like a bloody coward if Grib went and asked for something he could easily get himself. He just didn’t want to, that was the problem.

“I’ll just go and ask myself,” Harry announced nervously and stood from the bed. He lingered for a moment, Grib was still there watching him, but Harry paid no attention and walked out from his room.

Once he had found it, Harry cautiously rapped his knuckles on the oak door that lead to Snape’s office, feeling exactly the same as he had all those times he had to serve detention in Snape’s office at Hogwarts, or even when he had to go to do his Occlumency lessons; anxious.

Slowly and carefully, he knocked, as if he hit the door too hard it would crumble and fall at his feet. For a while there was nothing. Perhaps he didn’t knock loud enough, he thought and swallowed back his anxiety to knock again, only this time a little louder, but there was still no reply.

He’s probably not in his office then, Harry thought and turned to leave, half pleased about it, but a moment later, he heard the door open behind him, and he turned back around to face his teacher who was wearing dragon skinned gloves.

Snape looked down at him, almost surprised to see him there. “Potter?”

“Sorry sir, you must be busy-”

“I was in my labs and didn’t hear you knock. Come in.” Snape moved so Harry could go in, then he closed the door behind them.

“In here, Potter,” he said and went into the adjoining room that’s door was next to the fireplace. Harry followed, and found that he had been lead into the lab Snape had been talking about earlier. It looked much like Snape’s office at Hogwarts, with bottled potions and potion ingredients lined against the walls on wooden shelves.

“What was it that you were needing, Potter?” Snape asked, though not looking at him as he was engrossed in a potion that he was preparing.

“What potion is that,” Harry asked. It looked a little familiar…

“Wolfsbane,” Snape answered. “For Lupin.” An uneasy feeling swept through Harry at the werewolf’s name. A sort of guilt and nervousness.

“You still make him his potion, sir?”

“Since he taught Defense at the school,” Snape cleared up as he lowered the flames under his cauldron. Harry hadn’t known Snape made Lupin Wolfsbane still. Dumbledore probably made him anyway, it wasn’t as if Snape did it willingly because he liked Lupin, he knew he didn’t.

“Er, and how is Lupin, sir?” Harry hadn’t seen him since the night he was taken from the hospital, but even then they hadn’t spoke.

“Recovering well, I should expect.” Harry’s stomach crumbled.

“Recovering well from what?” Harry asked, though he couldn’t hide the concern in his voice. “Is he injured?” Snape looked up then, an eyebrow raised, but only to stare at him like Harry was a potion that had mysteriously gone wrong.

“The last full moon was three days ago Potter,” said Snape in a hard voice that told Harry he thought he was completely asinine. Harry began to color a bit.

“Oh,” Harry muttered. “Then why are you making it again if the next full moon is…” He cut himself off. Stupid question, Harry thought. He knew the answer to that; it took about a month to brew. “Never mind.” Snape seemed to have ignored the question, though Harry knew that he probably had at least ten different remarks for that. He never said them, though.

Remembering what he was here for, Harry cleared his throat to speak.

“Er, sir?” Harry began. “I wanted to ask you about the O.W.L. scores.”

“What about them?” Snape asked as he added powdered asphodel root to the cauldron.

“Well, where would mine be sent?” Harry asked, a little irritated that Snape was hardly paying any attention to him. “To Privet Drive?”

“No, I expect the Headmaster would have them be sent to the school, and then from there, be brought here.”

“Oh,” he muttered, not sure how to ask about the transfiguration book. Snape would probably yell at him, and say he should have gotten all the material needed for his summer work before school had ended.

Staring at the cauldron, hoping the burning flames below it would enlighten him on some way he could approach the subject… he really didn’t want to have to ask. He could just imagine the insults Snape could throw at him, it made him edgy and consider leaving and asking about the books another time, though he knew if he left he would never come back to ask.

Clearly Snape misunderstood why Harry lingered for a while staring at the brewing Wolfsbane when he asked:

“Would you care to assist in the brewing of your friends potion, Potter?”

It was the last thing Harry wanted to do. If he didn’t get enough of him for five years, plus the upcoming two, he certainly didn’t want to now, in the summer no less. He’d probably tower over him like a hawk and for every mistake, take points- no, make a note of all the points to take and then when September 1st came around, he’d dock them off then.

“But, but I-”

“Out with it Potter. You really are beginning to ramble more and more every time I see you.” Harry flushed.

“But I might ruin it, Professor,” he said. He really was worried that he would ruin it and Lupin would wouldn’t have his potion, but he also really didn’t want to help make the potion at all if it were with Snape. He didn’t think that his insinuation was caught by his teacher at all though.

“Yes, well. There is that,” Snape impassively told him. Harry stood there motionless until Snape summoned several ingredients Harry did not recognize.

“Come here, Potter,” Snape ordered and Harry went over to the lab table, thinking the grimmest of thoughts every with every step. He regretted lingering and damned himself that he couldn’t find the courage to object more clearly, then he damned Snape for not taking a hint. Once there, he flattened his palms on the cold wooden table and looked up at Snape for directions which he was given a moment later.

“Hew this evenly,” Snape began in a tone he would use while teaching a class as he handed him some kind of root that resembled a potato that had been rolled and mutilated. “And make sure each segment is about the same width as a galleon.”

“Yes sir,” Harry said, examining the weird root. He knew it was probably too late to back out of this horrible situation he found himself in. It wasn’t as if he had agreed to help him at all, and he wondered if he would’ve had to assist him by force if he had objected from the beginning.

Knowing none of that mattered now, he laid the root over a cutting board and looked around the table for a knife. At that moment, Snape reached over to the side of himself and retrieved a sharp knife that was hidden from Harry’s view as the now boiling cauldron blocked it. He handed it to him with the handle facing Harry, which he took and aligned it to chop one of the ends off so he could begin severing it into the even ‘coins’ Snape wanted.

But Harry swore he felt the root wiggle in his other hand that was holding it still the moment the blade of the knife pierced its outer layer. Not sure if he should continue, he looked to Snape who was paying no attention to his aide, but instead, dicing a root of his own and also decontaminating aconite. Harry remembered the exact class Snape taught a lesson on the poisonous plant.

Harry shook off the memory and spoke.

“Professor? What kind of root is this exactly,” Harry asked as he poked at it with some curiosity. It slightly squirmed a second time, and Harry peered closer at it, wondering if it were related at all to a mandrake.

“Why, did it move?” Snape asked with his eyes still fixed on the aconite he was dabbing a blue potion with. Harry assumed it was to take the poison out of it. He knew that if this step were ignored, his Wolfsbane would be fatal indeed. He wondered if Snape ever considered not decontaminating it, just to see how Lupin would respond. Harry shivered and shook thoughts of Lupin away as he answered.

“Yeah,” Harry said. “It moved.” He looked at Snape who raised an eyebrow, though he was still tampering with the poisonous plant.

“Yeah, Potter?”

“I mean yes, sir,” Harry added quickly. “It did move.”

“It moved because it is not a root at all,” Snape said sternly. “It is a worm.”

“A worm? It looks like a root…”

“Are any members in the order Phasmatodea really sticks, Potter?” Harry stared at him, agape.

“What?”

Snape put down the glass dropper he was using to drabble the aconite with and glared at Harry, who bit his lip.

“Walking Sticks, Potter.” Snape growled. “Are Walking Sticks really sticks? Not every creature on this earth is what it appears to be. And I did not expect to have to use such a juvenile term, but I was clearly wrong.” Harry could have swore there was a compliment in there… somewhere, but that was overlooked by the fact that Snape somehow thought Harry would know such a thing. He still didn’t understand, but knew it was best not to mention it.

“So,” Harry began, trying to ignore Snape’s comments as he took the knife back up in his hand and motioned to the worm he had thought was a root. “It’s a worm then?”

“I do believe I had told you as much,” Snape dryly commented. Harry noticed that Snape did not continue with the aconite, but was watching in amusement as Harry nervously wiped the sweat that formed on his brow as he thought of the way the worm would struggle as he dismembered it. Harry ignored the mans tactlessness.

Harry tried cutting it where he had tried to before it had moved, but it only wiggled harder and Harry felt horrible torturing the worm while it was clearly still alive.

“You should try cutting its other end rather than its tail, which you happen to be doing. It will only live longer if you still decide to start chopping it from that side.” Harry quickly glanced at Snape who seemed to be smirking at him, but then turned back to the worm and took his teachers advice and in one swift movement, cut the worms head off. It ceased to move from then on.

Snape went back to his aconite a little while later, and Harry began to chop the rest of the worm into the ‘coin’ pieces Snape needed. He noticed the worm was more root like than he expected it to be. It didn’t have any organs or guts like a regular worm would, it was just solid inside which made it a lot easier to cut seeing how Harry wouldn’t have larva organs on his fingers when he finished.

“Professor,” Harry called once he had completed chopping the worm. He moved the head and its end to the side, but did not banish them since he didn’t know if Snape needed those parts as well. He looked over at Snape who was finishing the last of the long root he was cutting, and Harry thought Snape hadn’t realized he finished with his worm as well, so he called to his teacher again.

“Professor-”

“Yes, Potter, I know. Do you really feel you need to be congratulated?”

“I just thought you didn’t hear me,” Harry snapped.

“How could I not when you are standing three feet away?”

Harry didn’t bother to reply. He knew there was no possible way he would win, anyway. He watched as Snape flicked his wand, which made the worm excess fly into the cauldron, being devoured in the off white, boiling liquid. He physically added the other root he chopped, then stirred, then added the aconite a moment later. He lowered the flames under the cauldron as he spoke to Harry.

“Your assistance is no longer required,” Snape said. Harry felt unbalanced the moment Snape had finished speaking. Half of him was bloody relieved that his teacher wanted him gone and was asked to leave, but the remaining half of him couldn’t have been angrier that this entire time, he was sick with nervousness and anxiety as he thought he would have to remain in the lab all day, but in the end, he only needed to chop a worm that might was well have been a root. He was irritated by the fact that all the apprehension and worry was never necessary.

“Don’t ask me to help you chop a root when you cant have me in the same room with you for ten bloody minutes,” Harry snapped, only realizing he had not meant to say it at all a moment later when Snape smirked up at him.

“First Potter,” Snape began in a tone that could freeze water over. “It was not a root, it was a worm, if you had ever bothered to pay attention to anything I said. And, it wouldn’t have taken ten minutes if you had not acted so sentimentally and imprudent at the mere thought of killing a worm, and finally Potter, no matter how much I agree that I despise your mere presence, your assistance in the Wolfsbane is no longer required seeing as after aconite is admitted to it, it needs to simmer for twenty four hours before it needs to be stirred again. Does it truly break your Gryffindor heart that you are useless for an entire day?”

“Oh,” Harry quickly added and bit his lip. “N- no… I-”

“Need I remind you of your bothersome habit of rambling?” Harry colored a bit, but realized that this was a good time to ask about the book needed, the whole reason for him coming up to the labs in the first place.

“Well, sir, I was just wondering if you might have a book on transfiguration that I could borrow?” Harry asked, awkwardly leaning his weight on his palm that rested on the other end of the table, opposite to Snape. His teacher just raised an eyebrow and stared at him.

“How long have you wanted to ask that?” Snape asked with some amount of interest and amusement in his voice. Harry just bit his lip again, knowing he was making a habit of that, and remained silent until Snape figured out the answer to that and spoke.

“Yes, I do have a book on Transfiguration. Several in fact,” Snape said as he tucked his wand into his cloak. “Come with me, Potter.”

Harry let out a sigh of relief once he was walking out of the lab behind Snape. Now he would be able to get his Transfiguration homework done, and asking wasn’t as hard as he had originally thought.

Snape led him down to the second floor of the house, a floor that Harry was already far to familiar with, and Harry’s teacher stopped before two large wooden doors that were chained locked. Harry remembered the pact the made the day after his arrival here when he went about looking around the house. He realized he had forgotten all about his vow to somehow find a way through the doors.

He realized he fulfilled the promise to himself whether he had forgot about it or not once Snape raised his wand to the large rusting chains and they magically unlocked and disappeared as they were falling to the floor.

As Snape pushed the two doors open, Harry saw dust that had collected on the top of the door frame disperse around them, but a moment later, he forgot all about it once he stepped foot inside the library Snape had led him into.

Harry watched as Snape looked around the large room as if trying to remember something, but he waved it off a moment later and turned to Harry.

“Lets get a few things straight Potter before I allow you to freely roam such an essential part of this house,” he said sternly. Harry nodded.

“All the books in this library are very old, and if I find anything ruined, you will have me to report to, and don’t think about asking your good friend Grib to replace anything because I will know.”

“Ok-”

“And just because I do not have you in the same room with me does not mean I do not know what you are up to,” Snape began and Harry feared what he might be implying, but he was relieved when Snape continued on and explained what he had meant by it. “The house elves will report to me if they so much as see you with water in this room.”

“All right, bu-”

“Quiet. If you get a book off any of the shelves, you better remember to put it back in it’s correct location. Do not leave any books, trash, or anything else lying around. If you use the ladder to get a book off one of the top shelves, you better hope that you break your neck if you fall because if you prove to be careless and irresponsible, I will most certainly break your neck for you.”

Harry half expected for Snape to remind him he had to whisper in the library, but of course he would do no such thing.

“The books on this side of the library,” Snape began as he motioned to the right side of him. “Are all arranged according to subject. You will find everything on Transfiguration on the second shelf, third row.”

Snape turned to leave from the library, and before he knew it wouldn’t be wise, Harry called back to him.

“Sir?” Snape stopped and turned around with an arched brow.

“Th-”

“Potter,” Snape cut in, interjecting through Harry’s would be feeble attempt at a ‘thanks’. “If I find you have broken any of the rules I’ve set out, you might just find yourself banned from the school library once the new school term starts. Is that clear?”

“Yes sir,” Harry said, and with that, Snape left the library with his black robes billowing behind him. He closed the door with an audible click, and Harry looked around the vast library half expecting Snape to come back in and laugh in his face saying something like ‘you really thought I’d let you have access to my library? Foolish idiot.’

Harry actually waited a full two minutes before realizing that Snape wasn’t going to do that.