The side of his head was throbbing, the worst being at his temple. All he could hear was a high pitched ringing in his ears, and when he tried to open his eyes, he shut them almost directly afterwards- the lights just made everything worse and only had his heading roaring with more intensity than before. Harry groaned and tried to pacify the pain by pressing his hand against his head. Only a few moments after though, something that felt like cold, rough fingers grabbed him by his wrist and pulled his arm down, away from his temple.

“Stop,” Harry objected when he felt alert enough to speak. His headache only grew worse, convulsions of pain surging through his head all the way down to the nape of his neck. Every time he tried to cradle his head again, someone kept pulling his arm away. More than once, Harry tried to swat the other hand away, but only ended up realizing his whole body was just as achy and sore. Harry whimpered as he began to get scared and confused, but was still too much asleep and in pain to comprehend what exactly was going on.

A few minutes passed until he felt encouraged enough to try opening his eyes again. This time though, the lights weren’t as luminous and didn’t hurt his eyes as much as before. But when he tried to sit up and turned his head to the side slightly, it wasn’t too hard to realize what the big black smudge was that reached for his chin, holding it up as he was examined- even before he had a chance to put his glasses on, and even with the throbbing pain on the side of his head, just above his ear.

“Get away from me,” were the first words from Harry Potters mouth the moment the post-unconscious confusion dissolved slightly enough for him to be able to apprehend the simplest of things.

“Potter,” Snape growled in a low tone, only tightening his fingers around his chin so hard he thought he might get bruises. “Hold your tongue so that I may assess the damage further. The more you squirm the longer it will take-”

“What are you talking about,” he interjected in an angry tone that matched his teachers, and while trying to pull away. His attempt was unsuccessful. “What are you even doing here-”

“Be quiet, or I will be forced to cast Silencio-”

Harry laughed in his face, only making his headache hurt at its worst again. He knew where he was. Did Snape?

“Yeah, just try it with Sirius downstairs- Or… well wherever he is. Where is he anyway?”

Snape, who was examining the side of the Gryffindor boy’s head, at the place it seemed to hurt the most, met his eyes, slackening his fingers as he did so. Harry hurried to put his glasses on, but when he did so, he found that for the first time Harry had ever seen, the man looked dumbfounded- utterly shocked, and Harry immediately preferred his usual angry, annoyed demeanor over this new one. Because if Snape, of all people, was speechless… well, that wasn’t a very good sign at all.

“What,” Harry finally asked, after much time had passed. The man seemed to be considering him closely, staring him straight in the eyes. Harry shivered. This wasn’t the first time he felt as if the man could read minds. There had been several occasions when his teacher managed to make Harry feel uneasy like this, mostly when he was lying to his face or hiding something from him though.

“What is the last thing you remember,” Snape suddenly asked, in a tone so unnerving he knew better than to object.

“Err… Well, I was going to bed-”

“Before that, Potter, before that,” Snape spat, causing Harry to scoot back all the way to the headboard of the chilly bed he was laying in.

“Well, we were all…” Harry stopped himself from speaking further. He didn’t know how much he could say to Snape. After all, he was a Death Eater, and hardly anyone trusted him, including Harry. The last thing he remembered before he woke up with Snape in his face was the meeting everyone had- minus Ginny who Mrs. Weasley claimed was ‘too young’, which was completely absurd as she was only a year younger than Harry, and much more mature than even Ron was. The meeting, well, it wasn’t really a meeting Harry realized. The Order was just telling him some stuff that had been going on during the summer while he went stir crazy at the Dursley’s. Honestly, even though he’d just been rescued by Lupin and Tonks and Mad-Eye and the others yesterday which was quite relieving, he was still angry at them all for making him stay on Privet Drive with hardly any contact with anyone from the wizarding world. It was nice that they at least let him in on a little information when he got there, even though it wasn’t much, but Harry still didn’t understand their reasoning for shutting him out. It was a good thing Sirius was there, he thought. Out of everyone, he was the one who wanted to let Harry in on Order business the most.

“Potter!” Snape yelled, getting him out of his trance. Harry realized that if Sirius was probably just downstairs, or maybe even waiting outside the door, then it was ok. Besides, what was Snape going to do about the Order giving him a little bit of information? He wasn’t Dumbledore after all.

“Oh, well, after I arrived here, the Order told me about some stuff after dinner,” he said. When Snape just stared at him with that incredulous look on his face, Harry began to sweat and went on to elaborate. “It was just some stuff I had missed out on since I was at the Dursley’s all summer. It wasn’t much at all, though.”

Snape, who was still just staring at him looked as if he was about to say something, probably yell at him for prying into Order stuff Harry thought, but all the man did was stalk out of the room, closing the door with more force than necessary.

“Git,” Harry called out, but quietly enough so he wouldn’t be heard.

He looked around the room. It was just as gloomy as the rest of the house, or what he had seen of it. He wasn’t exactly given the grand tour last night, he remembered. But then, as the cloudy haze in his mind began fading more, he realized something; this wasn’t the bedroom he fell asleep in last night… If it was, there would be another bed, and Ron would be in it… And why was his head hurting so much? Snape had said he needed to ‘assess the damage’ but what damage could have possibly come to him last night? What if… what if there was an attack on Grimmauld Place last night while he was asleep… What if Ron, who was in the room with him, had gotten hurt too? What if he was more than hurt? And where in the world was Sirius? He wouldn’t let Snape be alone with him for two seconds, not in his own house anyway…

“Harry,” Lupin greeted as he walked in the door. As kind as Lupins voice was, it still startled Harry since he hadn’t heard him come in.

“H- Hello, Professor.” Lupin raised his hand to stop him.

“I haven’t been your teacher for two years now, Harry,” he said. “Call me Remus, if you will.”

“Um, ok… Remus,” he said, trying out the name. It was strange to him as he always referred to him as either ’Professor’ or ’Lupin’ before, but he liked using his first name he decided.

“Its been only one though,” Harry suddenly said.

“One what,” Lupin asked, looking confused.

“One year,” he said. “You said its been two since you taught at the school, but its only been one.”

“Right,” Lupin said, looking worrisome. He sat down on a chair near Harry’s bed, and shifted to where he was more comfortable, then looked at Harry for a while, but in a totally different way than Snape had. The Potions Master had been judgmental, and angry, but Lupin’s features were filled with kindness and concern. Finally, he spoke.

“Harry, Professor Snape said that you were a bit confused earlier-”

“Well, yeah. I don’t know why I’ve suddenly woken up in this room feeling like I’ve been hit by a bludger! What happened last night? One moment Mrs. Weasley is sending me and Ron off to bed,” he said, but skipping the part about the twins coming into their room to discuss what the Order had told them. “I go to sleep, and then the next, I wake up here, in a different room, with Snape in my face! Why is he even here, anyway? Other than for an Order meeting I mean. He hates Sirius.”

Lupin looked as if he cringed towards the end there, but Harry wasn’t sure.

“Professor Snape also mentioned that last night, the last thing you remember was the Order telling you of some stuff that happened over the summer.”

“Well yeah. You were there, Remus, it was only last night.” The man nodded, but Harry had a feeling he was only placating him.

“Harry, can you tell me something?” He asked. Harry nodded, not liking his tone at all. It wasn’t mean, it was just filled with something… something he couldn’t recognize. It sounded as if Lupin was about to ask something he didn’t want to. Or maybe even hear something he didn’t want to.

“What is the date, Harry?”

“Um… I dunno. Early August, I’m not sure about the exact day though. I think it’s the 6th actually… Oh wait, maybe the 7th, I‘m not sure…”

“August 6th, or 7th, 1996?” Harry laughed.

“Um, try going back one year, Remus.”

His ex-teacher raised his eyebrows. An act that meant something was surprising, but he looked relatively calm as he did so.

“So its 1995 then. And you’re going to start your 5th year at Hogwarts in a little less than a month, correct?”

Harry nodded, even though he wanted to ask Lupin why he was asking questions he already knew the answers to.

“Yeah, that’s right,” he said. “But would you mind telling me why my head hurts. Snape said something about there being damage, but I have no idea what he was talking about. And why am I in this bedroom?”

Lupin smiled. “Sorry, Harry, but I don’t think right now is a good time. I’ll tell you later after you’ve rested some more,” he said and pulled out a vial of blue liquid from his faded cloak pocket. “Professor Snape told me to make sure you drank this.”

Lupin handed it to Harry and he uncorked the vial. He looked up at the man who gestured for him to drink it. Harry did so, but it tasted like an unsweetened powdered drink, which was actually better than what he had been expecting. Just as Lupin stood up, drowsiness suddenly washed over Harry like water. He laid back down in bed with his eyes half shut and watched Lupin make his way to the door. He had already opened it when Harry remembered what he had wanted to ask, and called out to him.

“Remus? Where’s Sirius?”

Lupin froze in the doorway for a while, and without turning around, said, “I’m afraid he isn’t here at the moment,” and closed the door behind him.