Harry felt very warm and comfortable in his bed. He woke to a slow passing of pages, who was reading beside him? Was Hermione here? Where was he? He opened his eyes and was facing the stern professor sitting beside his bed. He was disoriented, the curtains were open, but the light entering through looked like it was late afternoon. Snape was reading a book, looking comfortable and as if he was prepared to be there for a long time. Harry moved and the movement made Snape look at him. Harry had not his glasses on, but he distinguished the emotions in Snape’s face. From worry to relieve to anger!

***

Snape had knocked at Potter’s door at 8 but had not had any response at all, he tried again and went to the bathroom in case the boy was in the shower and had not heard him, and after knocking again he entered the bedroom to find the child sleeping.

The boy was sleeping calmly and had not even stir after the professor called his name, Snape touched his forehead to check if the boy had any fever. The boy was fresh, warm for being in bed. Then, why was he still sleeping? He shook the boy saying his name, but the child kept sleeping… Severus fire called Madame Pomfrey.

The school nurse crossed the floo to Snape’s room.

“What is the problem?”

“Potter won’t wake up. I have tried everything short of pouring water to his head, and he is still sleeping. What can it be?”

“Several things Severus, a virus, something he ate, an insect could have stung him, has he gone out of the house, the forest is close enough?”

“He has not left the premises, Madam, we have eaten together at all times. We went shopping in Hogsmeade yesterday. He was fine, we ate here, he went to bed at 9.”

“He looks peaceful enough, just asleep.” She took out her wand. “Let me run a diagnostic…” A parchment with a quill floated beside the medi-witch. As the quill was writing she asked. “Have you been giving, Mr. Potter the supplement we discussed?”

“With his juice at breakfast… just yesterday. Could this be an allergic reaction to the vitamins?”

“Not likely, but it may be a secondary effect, you see, to be effective the supplement requires at least 8 hours of sleep, not necessary uninterrupted, but to be completed before the next dose. If the person taking it does not sleep enough the supplement accumulates the hours and forces the person to sleep until completion. Lets see the results….”She started reading.

“The results are normal, no disease, cerebral activity under the correct parameters, so he is not in a coma, no breathing problems, the level of oxygen in his brain is correct, no curse or dark magic present, his magical core is all right, you had already known that, but it shows that at this time the boy had been asleep for only 3 hours and a half. And he slept 7 hours the previous night, but only 4 two nights ago, so….. He started taking the supplement two days before the term ended, plus one here, he should have slept at least 24 hours in three days for the potion, and he had only slept 14 he will wake up in at least 10 more hours. As now it’s 9 he will wake at 7 or 8 in the evening.”

“How could that be? The boy went to bed last night at 9 the latest….”

“You will have to ask him when he wakes up, mean while his alert levels are low, so the best is to let him sleep. Feed him diner when he wakes up, but make it light. Allow him to stay awake for two or three hours, allow him to amuse himself, but nothing too physical, he must sleep 8 more hours at least this night to break the cycle. ”

“Should I keep on giving him the supplement?”

“Yes indeed, the boy needs to grow, he needs the supplement uninterruptedly for at least a month, good food and good sleep.”

“You say it as if I was the one keeping him awake at night….”

“May be you are… remember that you did not want to tell him that he was going to stay with you, that should have caused enough anxiety to have kept him awake, he was no longer in the infirmary, so I wasn’t able to monitor him. How are you getting along? Has he had any nightmares? Did you tell him he was taking the supplement…? He may need physical activity to help him sleep.”

“We have only been together for two days…! And one we spent traveling….!

Snape stared at her. He wanted to strangle her. How dare she…? It was not his fault that he brat had no sleeping discipline…. was he supposed to tuck him in bed and read him a story to ensure that he slept at least 8 hours…?

“Call me if he does not wake up in 11 hours, remember that he may be a little disoriented. Be gentle with him.”

“Thanks for your time, Madam.”

“He’ll be all right, Severus.”

Snape saw the medi-witch to the floo and went back to the boy’s room. He looked around and realized that all the boxes that were on the play room were empty, and that the toys were placed on the shelves, so that’s what had kept Potter up half the night?

Snape had his meals, and reviewed his stock for potions, he unpacked books that he had brought from Hogwarts and sorted through his mail, he was occupied, but his mind kept returning to the young man asleep up stairs, when he found that he had nothing else to do, he went and sat in the boy’s room. He took a book with him, but was surprised that when the boy started stirring he had not read more than one page.

“Well, Mr. Potter at last you decided to wake up.”

“Professor? What happened? What time is it?” Harry tried to sit up, but found his sheet and blanket tucked in the bed, like in Hogwarts infirmary. But he was at the Manor, with Snape…or was that a dream…

“7.30” Said the impassive Professor. Harry looked around and recognized the room that was his, but something was strange…

“Not enough light… ”

“What do you mean, Mr. Potter?”

“There is not enough light, for the morning, Sir, it doesn’t seem like it’s raining.”

“Not the morning, Potter. It’s the evening.”

Harry started panicking, evening? He had slept all day long, he was in trouble, but how? Why hadn’t Snape woke him up…?

“Evening, Sir? I’m sorry, I never… I didn’t realize, I didn’t hear anything, I’d  never….!” He fought the comforter and threw it to the floor.

Snape saw the fright in the boy’s attitude and tried to calm him.

“Take it easy, Mr. Potter. I’ll explain to you what happened later. Get out of bed, there is no need for you to change, dinner is ready, we’ll talk after dinner.”

“Yes, Sir”

Harry went to the bathroom and washed his face, he felt so ashamed! Snape had been waiting for him to wake up….! How could this happen? He was usually awake and alert minutes before his aunt knocked at his door, he never knew how, he just woke up…. And now… was he sick? He saw his reflection in the mirror, he looked fine, without circles under his eyes, and he felt really rested. His joints were a little stiff, but in general he had felt like this very few times in his life, always after a long stay in the infirmary, Snape had looked cross, but he had been more than civil to let him have dinner. He took his robe and went to his sitting room, there was a dinner spread. Broth, vegetables, chicken, salad and jelly. It was like the food that Madam Pomfrey made him eat in the hospital.

“Am I sick?” That would explain the sleeping and the food but… He didn’t felt sick.

“No, Mr. Potter. Take a little of everything, and some juice. Your stomach has not received food in almost 24 hrs, eat slowly”

“Yes, Sir, thank you.”

Snape also served himself. He was glad when he saw that the boy was eating.

When Harry finished his broth, Snape placed several pieces of chicken and salad with vegetables on a plate and passed it to the boy.

“During your last stay in the School Infirmary, Mr. Potter, Madam Pomfrey checked your health and she found that even if you were not anemic, you showed signs of malnutrition,” Snape saw that Harry had stopped eating, the boy was trying to remember if malnutrition caused people to fall asleep and not wake up, but if that was the case it should have happened to him with his relatives also… “Keep on eating Mr. Potter. You should increase your weight in a proportionate way, not stuffing yourself with sweets, once your weight is normal, you will start growing.”

“How much, Sir?

“I don’t really know, but your father was tall, Potter it’s normal for boys to be as tall as their parents.”

“Was he as tall as you, Sir?” Harry saw Snape’s face darken. “I have only seen him in photographs, Sir…”

Snape took a deep breath, it was not a moment to think of James Potter.

“As I was saying, Mr. Potter, Madam Pomfrey realized that you needed a supplement of vitamins and minerals, that along with healthy food and activity will help you reach the height and weight corresponding to a boy your age.” Snape looked at the boy and Harry was still eating and looking at him, he had no questions at that moment.

“You have been taking the supplement since the day she allowed you to leave the infirmary, you have been taking it with your juice, it does not change the flavor. The supplement is a little aggressive and for it to work properly you have to sleep at least 8 hours after taking it. If you fail to sleep the necessary time, the potion will make your body have the rest required. Madam Pomfrey was here and she discovered that in the last three nights you had slept a total of 14 hours, when you needed 24. So the supplement made you sleep the missing hours… And that is the reason why you woke up at this hour. And I expect a reasonable explanation as for the reasons of why if you were sent to bed at 9, you had slept only three hours by breakfast time this morning?”

Harry munched at the last piece of chicken in his mouth and felt it going to his stomach as if it weighted a ton.

“I…don’t know, Sir. I was not really tired last night when I went to bed, I… opened the packages and arranged the wardrobe and…”

“I have no intentions of punishing you for this situation, Mr. Potter, however I may be inclined to do it if you insist in not saying the truth. I want to know if you suffered any pain or nightmare or discomfort that kept you awake. ”

“No, sir. Everything was just fine. As I told you, I was not really tired. I only… I guess I got distracted with the toy room, Sir. I didn’t realize it was that late when I went to bed. It’s not a thing that I do usually.”

“Unless you count the times that you roam the castle at night looking for mischief, Potter.”

“I didn’t look for mischief Sir.”

“I know of your wanderings from the past years, Mr. Potter, do not have the audacity to tell me that you were not looking for mischief. You would rather stay put in your bed or at least in your room while you are here. You will keep taking the supplement during all the summer, Mr. Potter, and you will not like the consequences if the potion needs to make you sleep for another day.”

“No, Sir, I mean, yes, Sir, I will go to bed on time.”

“I also want to be informed if you had any problem, if you are in pain, in distress or discomfort. You are a child and I am here to assure your well being.”

Snape turned and picked up a cardboard box and gave it to Harry.

“Open it, Mr. Potter” Harry found a black square clock, the face was white with roman numerals and black hands.

“I trust that you know how to read it, Mr. Potter.”

“Yes, Sir.”

“Do not make me implement other measures to assure your rest or your timeliness, Mr. Potter. You won’t like them.”

“No, Sir. At what time should I sleep today?” Harry imagined pins pricking his fingers every time that Snape mentioned consequences.

“You will go to bed at the same time as yesterday, I recommend that you go to sleep as soon as possible. If you have finished with your meal, go to your playroom and bring here the toys that interested you so much last night.”

Harry took the clock to his bedroom and then went into the playroom, he was thinking that Snape was going to take the toys away. That was mean, he didn’t know about the supplement or that he had to sleep 8 hours. That was too much sleeping! He could take any toy and give it to Snape. He didn’t want to part with the puzzles or the building blocks. But Snape would know, it was always as if he could read Harry’s mind. And he didn’t need an angry Snape to cope with. He could be brave and even cheeky with his friends at school, where he saw Snape only in class or in the halls, but here he had nowhere to hide.

Harry went back with a board, it was a puzzle game where pieces had to be slid to free a specific one. He placed it in the coffee table in front of Snape.

Snape looked at him and at the game, “is this all, Mr. Potter?” It looked too simple to have enchanted the boy to the point where he spent all night playing with it.

Harry saw the eyebrow go up and answered, “No, Sir, also building blocks, but I can not bring them with out destroying what I built yesterday.”

The boy looked sincere, he’d have to look at the construction later.

“Ok, Mr. Potter. Show me how do you play these.”

Harry didn’t expect that, he sat on a cushion in front of the table and explained the game to the black dressed man, this man was getting weirder. He hoped to have a picture of them sitting playing with a game in the sitting room, his classmates would think it was a hoax.

“Is there a time limit to solve the puzzle, child?”

“I don’t know, Sir. I…only browsed over the instructions.”

“Typical Gryffindor, no thinking before acting. We may place it at 5 minutes, if you haven’t solved it by then, it would be my turn.”

Snape conjured a small timer.

“Do you want to play with me, Professor?”

“Yes, Mr. Potter, it seems to be an intelligent game that teaches strategy and problem solving.”

They played for an hour and a half. Snape saw that Harry really liked to play, may be he would introduce him to chess, he saw how relaxed Harry was, moving the pieces with his fingers…. He had never seen the child like this. And he felt sorry for the child that had never been allowed to play.

“You said that your relatives did not allow you to play. Did they?”

“I didn’t have a lot of free time, Sir. I better finished with my chores, sometimes in the mornings before I had to start breakfast or in the afternoons after the kitchen was clean, and they wanted me out of the way. My cousin had so many things that, he didn’t miss something that I took, soldiers and a headless knight, and some other things, I played with them. I could also smuggle some of his books, he never read them, but Aunt Petunia did miss them, so I took them back. Any way I could not leave the light on for too long.”

“Is that why your summer assignments were so poorly done?”

Harry turned to look at Snape, it was a statement, not a reproach, but any way Harry felt stung by it.

“My uncle locked my trunk with all my things, and after Dobby ruined the dinner party… I was not even allowed out of my room, Sir.”

“I have heard about the Weasleys brave rescue in the flying contraption of their father, Mr. Potter.”

Harry smiled even though it felt like he was being lectured.

“Ron was worried because I hadn’t answered his owls. But I hadn’t received them. Sir.”

“How long did you stay with the Weasleys, Mr. Potter?”

Here was the tricky question, he had stayed with Ron and his family for three weeks before going to school, he’d had time to do his homework, but he had done it almost at the end of the holidays and the potions one had been the last one and his worst.

“I didn’t leave enough time for the potions homework, Sir.”

“I could tell. I guess you were busy with your friends, Potter.”

Harry could not hear the sneer. But it surely was there.

“I helped them with their chores, but we played quidditch and the food was great. Mrs. Weasley was angry with them because they sneaked out to get me, and took out the car, but she was very nice to me, Sir. ”

Snape was sure that Harry had not said that he would have preferred to go with them instead of him, but it was there. He already knew it, and it angered him. Not because the child wanted it, it was logic, more chance for fun and mischief with the Weasley brood. And they had never gotten along, but it angered him because he minded it, he was finding that he had a ‘Soft spot’ for a Potter. He had expected a tantrum at the station when the boy realized that he was the one taking him. And up to this moment the boy had behaved, he knew it was too early in the Summer to suppose that everything would go fine between them, up to this moment he had not even given the boy any rules, just that he had to sleep at least 8 hours and that was more the Medi-witch orders.

“I would like to know what disturbed your sleep on the last night of the term Mr. Potter? You only slept 4 hrs.”

If Harry was wary of the question he didn’t show it. He kept moving the pieces. “I am not sure, Sir, I kept waking up to look at the time. And I had several dreams…. In one of them Uncle Vernon had gone to Hogwarts to get me… and I told him that I had a new guardian, but as I didn’t know who he was…. Or know where I was going. I couldn’t tell him his name. He didn’t believe that I had someone, he said that he was glad to be rid of me …. Also that…. I belong to nobody, Sir.”

“I did not want to cause you anxiety by not telling you that you would come with me. I thought that you would throw a fit upon learning that I was to be your Guardian.”

“I tried not to think who would take me. I knew that you would try to place me in a better place than with my relatives. But I was nervous that there would be nobody at the station. I guess, I would have liked to know whom to expect, Sir.”

“Your uncle could never arrive at Hogwarts alone, Mr. Potter.”

“I know that, but what he said in my dream was so true, I belong to nobody, Sir,” Harry said it so plainly that it scared Snape, there was no regret, it was only a fact. “It’s not a feeling, it’s the truth, the only relatives I have, never wanted me. My parents are dead and there are no other relatives or even friends of my parents, a lot of people seem to remember them, but no one would claim me. And you have said that I am staying here for the summer, but another Guardian is going to be appointed. So I still belong to no one. Your turn, sir.”

Snape felt that the floor moved, maybe a dragon would come out and take him out, had he been at that age so resigned? He had his mother and Lily then. And the boy not even that. And he had been friends with his mother…

Harry finished his turn, he set the board for Snape and the time. Snape started solving it. He kept quiet. Harry had been surprised, they had had a polite conversation. They were getting along and Harry had not been left alone at all during the days. He felt that he had said too much. It was the truth but he didn’t want Snape to think he was ungrateful.

“I appreciate that you got all together and took me away from my relatives, Sir, its nice to be here and to have new clothes and my own room. And all these good things to eat. But I… I guess I just kept thinking what it would be like to belong in a family, Sir. What it would be like to have my parents and to live with them.”

Snape had wished many times to have had a family like Lilly’s, well with out Petunia, but with a father and a Mother to be there for him. But he had nothing to tell the boy. No way to make up for his lost parents. One so lovely… He could not even talk about her because it was so painful for him. He finished his puzzle and looking at the time he said.

“Last game, Mr. Potter.”

“Yes, Sir.”

Harry thought on his big mouth, he had to cross Snape after all the things that he had done for him! He saw that the man looked angry…

“I’m sorry, Sir.”

“Why Potter, have you finished?”

“No, Sir, I’m sorry, I shouldn’t complain. I guess it’s hard enough to get me a guardian in so short time, thank you for taking me for the summer.”

“How would you feel if I were to be appointed your guardian permanently, Mr. Potter?” Snape did not know where that had come from? He was going to do it only for the Summer, he understood that the boy needed somewhere to stay that was safe, but he was a busy person, he had no time to care for a Child permanently, not even Lilly’s child. But the boy was so lonely and resigned…. He saw that Harry was surprised. Was that hope? It was only a small glitter, would the child consider it…?

“But, Sir…. You have already… You do not have to…you do not like me.”

Snape turned around to leave the room. He had made the offer and expected not less than rejection from Potter’s son, not after their past relationship. But he was also Lilly’s and for her sake he should manage to care for her child….

“Think about it, Mr. Potter.” He said once out of the room.

Harry wished he had not said that. He put his game away and took it to the playroom. He had said the truth. He knew what it was like to live with someone that disliked him. But Snape was not like that, he had made in three days more than what his relatives had done in 11 years. But Snape was going to keep him just for the Summer. And If Snape were to be his Guardian he would have to study for Potions. And he wouldn’t want him breathing at his back all the time at school.