The day started out fine until Draco fouled up Harry's potion and sent everyone in the classroom into nitrous oxide induced laughing fits. Severus was livid. After he had stopped laughing for long enough to properly oxygenate the room, he regained his composure and dismissed the class.

Harry was told to stay behind. The Gryffindor assumed that he was being blamed for the mishap and was going to get a private scolding before being propelled into the hospital wing for his burned hands, a result of the potion boiling over.

However, Severus surprised him by taking him gently by the arm and guiding him through a door that led them into his private quarters. He instructed Harry to go sit by the table and wait for him, while he disappeared into into a storage room.

Harry obeyed meekly, shuffling his feet towards where Severus had pointed, to the same chair he had sat on the last time he was there. He pulled out the chair and deposited his bottom on the edge of it, waiting in awkward silence and grimacing at the sting in his hands.

Severus returned with a towel, an empty brass bowl and a vial of potion in his hands. He set the bowl on the table and proceeded to pour the translucent liquid into it. Then, he took Harry's hands gingerly, careful not to cause more damage, and lowered them into the liquid.

"Essence of Murtlap. The burns are not bad; you'll only need to soak them once. Try to relax your hand. Open your palms, and keep them in for ten minutes." Severus said evenly.

"Thank you, sir." Harry sighed with relief as his hands stopped stinging.

Severus acknowledged the courtesy with a nod.

"You did well on your homework, Mr. Potter. I am impressed," said the professor as he dried his hands on a towel and sat down to wait for the potion to take effect.

Harry looked up in shock at the unusual compliment. "I did?"

Severus nodded tersely. "An 'E', How did you ever manage it?"

"I guess I just tried for once," Harry answered honestly.

"Keep trying. I was also surprised by your brewing today. Before Mr. Malfoy threw the extra ingredients into your cauldron, it was at least an 'Acceptable'."

"You noticed Malfoy, sir?"

"I always notice what happens in my classroom."

"Oh…okay."

"I regret not curbing Mr. Malfoy and his friends of his bad habit before. I intend to do so henceforth."

"Does that mean you'll stop him from ruining my potions now?"

"There will be no more offences of such types by anyone, on anyone," Severus said seriously.

"Cool."

Severus smirked. "Indeed. As for your performance, it shows me that you are capable of learning in my class. I admit; in the past, your mediocrity was partly my doing. However, from now on, I expect you to apply yourself in far greater degree. Now that you have proven you can do well, I will expect nothing less, Mr. Potter."

Severus only grazed over his hand in Harry's poorness in potions. Reluctantly, he acknowledged the possibility that Harry had been hopeless in potions because he was had been unfair.

Harry wasn't sure how quite to react to what his professor just said. With his head cast downward, the boy peeked up at his intimidating professor.

Severus continued without waiting for an answer. "You are far from getting into N.E.W.T. But if you keep up this kind of work ethic, you won't be far off."

Harry nodded, bubbling with faint pride. He decided right then and there that he wanted to do even better in potions class. "You know," he said, raising his head up slightly. "You're not as scary as everyone says."

Severus raised an eyebrow at Harry's unexpected remark.

"Well you are. But…you're not as mean… I mean, you're not as…you," Harry stuttered, struggling to find the right words. "Sorry. Let me start over. I used to think you were evil….but…you're…not?"

Severus snorted. "Is that an opinion or a question?"

Harry's face turned red. "Sorry. Neither. It's…it's an observation and…experience."

Severus tried not to smirk at Harry's obvious discomfort. Realizing that this was clearly a sensitive issue to the boy, he responded with care.

"I gave you enough reasons to distrust me, Mr. Potter."

"Yea, you did. I was frightened of you for a long time," Harry confessed, looking down at the murtlap that was healing his hands. "Especially first year. You were really intimidating…" Harry trailed off.

"And…?"

"And…uh...to be honest, I kind of got used to it. I'd complain about you with my friends and we'd be miserable together. I tried not to piss you off though…"

"Language."

"Sorry," Harry corrected himself. "I tried not to make you angry with me, but…it seemed like that you were always angry with me."

Severus sighed. "I admit that I had been prejudice. However, I was not always angry with you. More often than not, I was infuriating..situations. I allowed my frustration to be directed at you."

"I guess I just rub you the wrong way, huh?"

"To put in plebian terms, yes. "

Harry shrugged nonchalantly, "It's okay. It's not like you're the only one. I don't get along with lots of people, all the time. Almost everybody judges me unfairly. Everybody thought I was the next Voldemort when they found out I was a Parselmouth, Then everyone thought I cheated to get into the Triwizard. Now everyone thinks I'm crazy for saying that Voldemort's back. As long as that sad cow Rita Skeeter doesn't print anything in the bloody Daily Prophet…"

"Potter! Language. I will not tell you again!"

"Sorry," Harry apologized, inclining his head and huffed in frustration. "Well, you know what. I don't care what they think anymore. It's too much bother. Even my aunt and uncle treat me like total crap."

"Your aunt and uncle?"

"Never mind, it's nothing." Harry retreated and changed the subject hastily.

"Um, Professor Dumbledore said that you were really good with me and that I would cry when you were gone for too long…" Harry never wanted to facedesk so badly. the Gryffindor groaned inwardly as his face and ears turned into a deep shade of red.

An awkward silence forced its way onto the scene. Harry shifted in his seat uncomfortably. Each second that ticked by seem like an eternity to the Gryffindor.

Severus blinked several times, starring at Harry from across the table.

When the man recovered from the shock, he cleared his throat before answering."Indeed. You did."

"I...must have liked you?"

"You did. After a while, I began to enjoy your company too," Severus said.

Harry managed a snicker. "You can hardly call babysitting a baby company. I'm sorry if I was a bother."

"You were surprisingly tolerable as a toddler," said Severus with a hint of fondness in his voice as he recalled the times he spent with baby Harry.

Harry scoffed and said without thinking, his tone dripping with chilly sarcasm, "That's not what my relatives say." The teenager seemed to go into a state of woolgathering as his mood changed abruptly.

"What do your relatives say?" Severus ventured. He had noticed hints of hostility when Harry talked about his relatives. It was more and more clear to him that they did not get along as well as he had assumed.

"I'm useless freak," Harry responded distantly, forgetting for a moment where he was at and who he was talking to. "I should never have been born. I'm bastard and a rotten burden."

Silence set in again as Severus took in what Harry had unintentionally revealed. All this time he had thought Harry grew up being catered to like a little prince. Severus had begun to doubt everything he ever knew, suspected or assumed about Harry Potter. He grew fond of Harry when the boy was de-aged and that gave him the opportunity to see the child in a new light when he was a teenager again. Over the past months, he tried not to judge Harry solely by his parentage but to work out who Harry was as his own person.

Severus had leaned many things. Such as; Harry was not a bad student, he was not arrogant and far from being a bully, Harry readily stood up for the lower years. Harry was not ill-mannered or conceited. Severus was pleased with his discoveries, because a part of him wanted the child he cared for, to become an proper, upstanding young man.

Now it appears another assumption was wrong.

It took a few seconds more for Harry to snap out of his distraction and become aware of his words. "I...I should go," Harry gasped, lifting his hands out of the murtlap.

Before Severus could take action, Harry jumped up and ran straight for the door. In his haste to get out, Harry's hip collided straight into a table holding the dragon statuette. He went crashing down over the table, the fragile crystal dragon smashed onto the floor, spilling into jagged pieces of broken glass. Harry gasped as he put out his hands to catch himself and braced for pain as he fell into the sharp crystals.

Not even the potions professor's quick reflexes prevented Harry from getting glass embedded in his skin. Harry tumbled over the table and crashed onto the floor. Severus was at his side immediately. The tall wizard grabbed Harry by the armpits and hauled him onto his feet.

"Sorry! I'm so sorry," Harry blurted, looking down at the now broken keepsake. "I didn't mean. I didn't see it."

"Are you alright?

"I'm sorry."

"Harry, are you hurt? Let me see," Severus turned Harry's hands around to look for any cuts. Both of the boy's hands were bloodied, the cuts did not look long or deep, but it was over half healed burns. The former babysitter grimaced at the red and painful looking sores.

"Careless! You could have been cut badly!" Severus scolded, giving Harry a stern look. But Harry looked up at his professor, wide eyed and jaw open.

"You called me Harry."

Severus shook his head and took a deep breath. His heart was beginning to slow down from its sudden and violent acceleration. Why? How was it possible that he could care so much?

"Come back and sit down," he said, grabbing Harry by the wrist.

Harry resisted Severus' pull. "No, I'm fine. I should go."

"Nonsense. You're bleeding, you have glass all over your hands," Severus said as steered him back towards the table.

"No. It's really okay. I can go to the hospital wing," Harry struggled.

"Sit down, and wait here. Don't move," Severus instructed as he headed for his storage room for a first aid kit, for the second time that afternoon.

Harry slumped over in the chair, holding his sore hands on his knees, palms up.

Severus returned in seconds with clean cloth and tweezers. Harry groaned.

"I will have to take the large pieces out by hand. Afterwards, you will need to soak your hands in the murtlap solution for another fifteen minutes. It will take out any small shards and heal the cuts."

"I'm sorry about your statue."

Severus looked over at the mess and back to Harry's hands. "It's not important. A simple reparo will mend it." He said, taking one of Harry's hands in his and started removing the larger pieces of glass. Thankfully, none of them were larger a centimeter.

"Now, we have some things to discuss. And you may not like it, but I want the truth out of you, do you understand?" Severus said calmly.

No fair, thought Harry. Snape was taking advantage of his state to ask him questions he didn't want to answer. Why hadn't he been more careful! He'd be out of here already and wouldn't have to answer anything Snape asked him.

"Yes sir," Harry complied, wincing slightly at the sting.

"What you said earlier, Potter. Was it true?"

Harry nodded reluctantly.

"You don't get along with you aunt and uncle?" Severus asked, choosing his words wisely.

"And Dudley."

"Who is that?"

"Dudley. He's my cousin. I don't get on with him either."

"And by 'don't get along', mean?"

"He used to push me around before Hogwarts. But now, he's all scared that I'd turn him into a pig. And I told them that Sirius is an escaped convict and was very protective of me."

Severus finished with Harry's left hand dipped it into the murtlap. He moved on to Harry's right hand.

"And your aunt and uncle, do they push you around too?"

"They don't hit me," said Harry adamantly.

"You're lying," Severus said laconically.

"He doesn't hit me, anymore."

"Meaning they used to?"

"So what? It doesn't matter."

"Of course it matters, child."

"All they do now is yell and call me names and lock me in my room," Harry said angrily.

Severus eyed Harry with a calculating look. He was certain that there was more to the story than what Harry was willing to share.

"There's nothing I can do about it. I'm stuck with them. What is it to you anyway?"

"You are not, as you say, 'stuck with them'. As for me, I am you professor, so it is my duty to…"

"Well, you've not cared bollocks about me before."

"Things are not the same as, before."

"They are to me."

Severus furrowed his eyebrows. He put down the tweezers and put Harry's hand in the bowl. "You are not wrong," he confirmed. "A few months months ago I cared very little about you beyond making sure you didn't sustain any life threatening injuries. But that is no longer the case, I think you know that."

Harry shrugged quickly, keeping his head turned away from Severus. Instead, he glared at the murtlap as it wash the blood away.

"I have to go back each and every summer. Professor Dumbledore says that I need the blood protection."

"You are right, the blood protection is important. That being said, your physical and emotional welfare is also important. Have you ever spoken to Professor Dumbledore about the actions of your relatives?"

"I told him that I didn't want to go back."

"Did you tell him anything else?"

"No…but he knew that I was unhappy with them."

"Professor Dumbledore would have never let you stay if he was aware of your situation."

"It's not so bad," Harry said sadly. It wasn't exactly easy to overcome the conditioning he had I early childhood. Getting presents, people telling him he mattered; caring about his well-being and future – these were all things he never experienced till he was eleven years old. In addition, every summer he got reminded of his worthlessness. When he was with the Durlseys, he felt like a freak. Even though he knew in his head that he wasn't, he never believed it all the way.

"They mostly ignore me these days."

Suddenly, Harry felt emotional. He was upset and angry. Just the thought of the Dursleys filled him with resentment and he hated himself for feeling that way about his family. The logical side of his brain told him that he was right; the Dursleys were good for nothing pricks. But still, they were family, the only ones he had left.

"I don't want to go back to them," Harry said loudly. "I hate them so much! But I have to go back…"

Severus sympathized for the child, who was so hurt and so lost. He saw none of James Potter in Harry, he hasn't in a while. Today he saw a bit of himself in Harry. Harry's childhood might similar to his own; it was full of neglect and turmoil.

"You do not have to," Severus promised. He put an arm on Harry's shoulder and then tipped the child's chin so the child could look into his eyes. "I don't know what's going on. But I made a solemn promise to your mother before she passed away, that I would watch out for you. Now I am making my solemn promise to you Harry. If you do not want to go back this summer, I can arrange other accommodations that will keep you both safe."

Harry looked up to search the Severus' face and found sincerity and concern. It was an expression Harry had never seen on the mean old potions master, except in his dreams.

"You knew my mum?"

"Yes."

"You called me Harry again."

"Yes."