Severus watched his son closely as he entered the classroom. He was worried that he'd given too harsh of a punishment since he'd been so angry when he assigned the essay. Four feet was a lot to ask of an eleven year old, especially when he demanded to have the essay less than twenty-four hours later!

“Here Sir.” Harry handed his father the essay. “Four feet on hate crimes.” He held in his yawn until he was back at his place next to Kevin Entwhistle.

Severus peered closely into his son's face when he gave him the essay. He had dark rings under his eyes and he yawned before he took his sea.  I messed up. At least the weekend will be here soon. I can take him home and give him a sleeping draft. Severus was planning on taking Harry home after the lesson on Friday night. He could return to Ravenclaw Sunday morning.

With the Hufflepuffs and Ravenclaws sitting nervously in front of him, Severus began. He never really like any of his classes. But at least in the Gryffindor/Slytherin classes he could favour his snakes and enjoy himself at the expense of the Gryffindors. The Hufflepuffs cried if he was harsh and the Ravenclaws were just too easy to please. It got boring very quickly, not to mention that it didn't allow him to take out his anger.

“Potions.” He directed his wand at the board and it began to write down his lesson in black chalk. When he was ready for the students to see it, he would spell the chalk white and it would become visible. “Dangerous and at times deadly, the products and the process.” He smirked at the Perks girl, her sister had blown out half his classroom three years ago.

Then he glared harshly at the students. “I don't expect many, if any of you will show any aptitude of skill in this delicate art.” He glanced at Harry, reassuring the boy that he was one of the few who might succeed. “Most of you will find yourselves too shallow or too deep to properly attend to my classes.”

“But woe be those who see fit not to study for prepare for my class. There will be consequences. And they will not be pleasant.” He gave the class one last dark look before turning to the black board and spelling the chalk white.

“Today you will be making a boil cure potion. Instructions are on the board. Ingredients are in the supply cupboard. You have one hour.” Severus opened the door to the supply cupboard with a flick of his wand. “What are you waiting for? Get started!”

The students flew to obey. Harry pulled his cauldron onto his desk before joining the mass of students in front of the supply cupboard. Unlike the rest of them he was not nervous and scared. Boil cures potions were very simple, he'd memorized the formula years ago. He had no idea why his father had given them an hour to brew the potion when it actually took less than twenty minutes.

But once the other students got started Harry could see why it would take the class an hour to attempt such a simple potion. The muggleborns struggled to mince and grind the ingredients while some of the students dropped ingredients in or added them in the wrong order.

Severus swooped around the class the entire time, trying to stop the worst disasters. He was able to stop three potions from creating toxic fumes and prevent two Hufflepuffs from chopping off parts of their fingers. But maybe they'd be more careful with the knife if they'd lost something to it.

When Sally-Ann Perks added the porcupine quills before taking her cauldron off the fire it erupted and covered her in painful boils. Severus swore mentally, he'd been on the other side of the room and hadn't gotten to her in time.

“Hurts. . .” She cried as the hot liquid burned her skin before covering it with the painful, pus-filled boils.

“Evanesco.” Severus cleaned up the spilled potion. However, the boils still remained. But his was a perfect opportunity to show the class what potions could really be used for. “Mr Black please bottle a vial of your potion and bring it to me.”

Harry stared at him, mystified before doing as he was asked. The potion had just finished and was safe to use, if a little warm. It would be less potent though, boil-cure gained more strength as it simmered for longer and longer.

“Here Sir.” Harry handed over the potion and looked down at Sally-Ann. He didn't know her, or any of her family members but upending a cauldron on yourself isn't very bright. And she should have known her way around a cauldron.

Snape looked closely at the potion, shaking in the bottle, and holding it to the light before he announced it to be, “perfect. Well done Mr Black.” He said with a smile. He uncorked the vial and held it to the girl's lips. Her hands were covered in boils, she couldn't hold the glass. “Observe closely.”

Once the potion vial was empty and Sally-Ann had swallowed the perfect brew her boils glowed and disappeared with a faint popping noise. She gasped and sat back on her stool. “Thank you Sir.”

Harry glanced at her worriedly. For some reason everything was starting to look really hazy. Almost like he needed his glasses again. “Dad?” He whispered before collapsing in a puddle on the floor.

Severus heard his son's quiet whisper and whirled around just in time to see him hit the floor. Luckily, he didn't hit his head since Susan Bones had the good sense to cradle his head in her lap the second he started to fall.

“Ten points to Hufflepuff.” Severus said as he sat down on the cold floor of the dungeons. “Everyone out!” He barked. The students didn't have to be told twice. In a moment the classroom was almost empty.

“Sir?”

Snape's gaze snapped up to see Kevin Entwhistle, Su Li, and Anthony Goldstein standing in front of him. Entwhistle was in front and he was the one that had spoken and dared contradict Severus's orders.

“What?” Severus stood, sweeping his son into his arms. “Is there something about 'get out' that you don't understand Mr Entwhistle? If you continue to waste my time I assure you we can go over the phrase in detail during detention.”

Kevin shook his head quickly. “I just wanted to know if Harry was going to be all right Sir.” He muttered quietly.

“Do you want me to get Madame Pomfrey?” Goldstein asked. Severus glared at him. He doubts that I can take care of my child!

Severus walked swiftly out of his classroom, not even pausing to recast the usual wards on the supply cupboard and the classroom itself. Everything but his son's welfare had to wait for now. He tried to ignore the Ravenclaws following him, but their noisy shoes made it impossible to tune them out.

Kevin ran along side his professor. “Is Harry going to be all right Sir?” He asked again.

It took every ounce of Severus's considerable self-control to keep himself from cursing the boy. Couldn't he see that more important things were on his mind than answering his questions? Especially when he wanted the answer himself.

“I don't know. If I did I wouldn't be taking him to the Hospital wing.” Severus growled, increasing his pace and lengthening his stride. The Ravenclaws began to fall behind now that they had their answer and he let them stay in the middle of the hallway.

The Hospital wing was empty. It was the first day of school and most students would do everything possible to attend at the very least, the first week of classes. And since Quidditch and flying didn't start until Friday it was a relatively slow day in the Hospital wing.

“Poppy!” Severus called, setting Harry down on one of the beds. “Poppy!” He called again, starting to walk towards her office. It was unusual for Poppy to be anything but quick to get to a patient.

Madame Pomfrey emerged from her office rubbing at quick hand across her eyes. Her wrinkled clothes and quick yawn made Severus assume- correctly- that she'd been napping.

“Potions accident Severus?” She asked. That was usually the only reason he'd come to the Hospital wing voluntarily. He could take care of most things on his own. But he didn't like healing potion accident victims, even though they were much easier than many other medical problems he'd dealt with over the years.

“No Poppy. Harry passed out in the middle of class and I have no idea why. Your diagnostics are more through than mine and I needed to make sure that he hadn't sustained a head injury. And find out the cause of his collapse.” Severus took out his wand.

Pomfrey drew hers and cast a diagnostic spell. “His blood sugar level is low. And he's exhausted. But other than that he should be fine. No head injures at all.” She put her hand away and faced the tall man. “Why would he be this tired early in the year?”

Severus sighed. He wanted to apologize to Harry privately, not have everyone find out about the essay he assigned. “I punished him and I fear I was too harsh. I assigned him a four foot essay.”

“That's not excessive. You give longer homework assignments.” Poppy reminded him. “I've substituted for you before.”

“I gave him four feet that were due less than twenty-four hours later.” Severus told her. “He must have barely slept. Or eaten since he spent the entire time writing of sleeping.”

Pomfrey shook her head. “He'll recover. No harm done.” She playfully punched the Potion Master's shoulder. “Pity you settled down with Bellatrix. I enjoyed our dinners.” She leaned in closer, the way she used to beg him for a kiss.

But Severus shook his head. “There were many reasons for my marriage Poppy. But they are mine to keep.” He scowled at her. “Is there a reason why I can't wake Harry and bring him home?”

Poppy nodded. “There is a few more tests I'd like to run. But I'll wait until he wake up.” She picked up a piece of parchment from the potion table next to Harry's bed. “I'll return shortly. You may wake him.” She bustled back to her office.

Snape once again pulled his wand from its holster and cast a gentle reviving charm of Harry. It was slightly weaker than normal so his son could wake more comfortably and slowly. And sure enough, within a few moments he began to stir.

“Dad?” Harry reached out and grabbed his father's hand. “What happened?”

“You collapsed in Potions. Madame thinks it's from not eating and sleeping. Did you stay up to late writing your essay?” He asked coolly, not wanting his care for the child to override his duties as a professor and father.

Harry looked down. “Sorry. But I had to finish it!” He explained.

“Hush. It's fine now. Did you eat dinner, or breakfast?” Severus raised an eyebrow at his son when he shook his head. “I thought that I explained to you how important meals are.”

“Sorry Da. But I ate lunch before coming to your class. Its not like I haven't eaten since yesterday.” Harry whispered, feeling very upset for disappointing his father.

“You're missing out on certain nutrients and minerals that your body needs to function. You can't just eat one meal and make up for too little sleep and missing too meals. But I'm sure you'll be fine tomorrow.” Severus then pulled him into a tight embrace and gave him a fierce hug. “I don;t even want to see you collapse again. It's far too terrifying.” He whispered into the boy's ear.

Harry blushed slightly and changed the topic. “How are you picking me up on Friday?” He hadn't like the broom last time and if anyone was still awake there would be awkward questions. If something went wrong and one of the other students woke to find him gone. . . It was better to find a way to avoid the difficulties.

“You will be spending the weekend with your parents Mr Black. At least part of them.” Severus told him with a slight smile. “Than you may sleep in on Saturday after your night lesson. And we're having dinner guests Saturday night and you are expected to attend.”

Harry groaned. “I hate dinner parties. They're always boring and full of silly witches and stupid wizards that dress like mages from six hundred years ago! I want to spend time with my classmates!”

“I will inform Miss Granger and Mr Cornfoot that you believe them to be silly witches and stupid wizards.” He said coldly. Severus was slightly angry at the boy for protesting before he even knew what was going on.

But Harry didn't get a chance to respond because Poppy returned nervously to his bedside with a small box of supplies. “I think you'd better contact Bellatrix.” She told Severus.

Snape paled, but he sent out his doe patronus with a wave of his wand and a memory of Lily. A large bat returned with his answer.

“She'll be here as soon as she can. Something about setting homework and dismissing her classes.” He told the mediwitch grimly. For something that required both him and his wife was probably bad news for Harry.