A blur of black robes descended the stairway towards the dungeons. After the incident with Harry a few floors up, Severus wasn't wasting any time in returning to his private quarters. Upon entering, he spelled the door locked behind him. He slipped out of his robes, depositing the black material on a nearby chair, and sank into his couch. Sitting for only a few minutes, he decided that with the way he was feeling he needed something to take the edge off. He went to his kitchen, retrieved a bottle of fire whiskey and a glass and returned to the couch.

He poured himself a few fingers of the liquor and sat there staring at the amber liquid. Bringing the glass to his lips, he realized that he had been drinking more frequently than he ever had in the past. Normally, a bottle of fire whiskey the size in front of him would last the entire term. With the way he was going, he'd be lucky if the bottle lasted another few weeks. After a few sips, Severus set his glass on the table and sunk down further into the couch closing his eyes, his mind replaying the past two days events.

Severus knew he was guilty of causing Harry's breakdown not more than a half hour before. He knew his comments were extremely uncalled for, but he never expected the reaction he received from Harry. It actually shocked him to see the boy crying. He had expected the boy's normal cheek, not a breakdown. It was at that point when he knew he went too far. And he did remember seeing Harry's red-rimmed watery eyes early on. He should have known to stop harassing Harry then, but he couldn't help himself. It was always like it was James standing in front of him, not Harry. And he wanted James to suffer like he had at his hands when he was Harry's age, even though a little voice inside him was screaming that the boy in front of him was his son and didn't deserve being spoken to like that.

In thinking back, it seemed obvious that this might be the first time Harry had grieved over his godfather. But he felt there was something else there as well. He remembered feeling it the minute Harry clung to his robes after he pulled the boy into a hug. That action itself caused Severus great discomfort. He didn't know why he tried to console the boy. It wasn't in his nature. That kind of comfort, or any comfort in general, was never offered to anyone, including his own House. But as he stood there watching Harry fall apart, that was all he could think of doing. And this both annoyed and bothered him. He felt he shouldn't care about the boy, but at the same time knew that he should.

Taking a few deep breaths, Severus reached a hand up and rubbed at his temples, a pounding headache beginning to set in due to his conflicting thoughts about Harry. Wanting to dull the pain, he quickly retrieved and downed a headache potion from his stores and sunk back down on the couch.

His thoughts next drifted to his conversation yesterday evening with Remus. He couldn't believe that man; always trying to butt in where he wasn't needed or wanted. Why the werewolf wanted to be involved in his life was beyond him. They were enemies. He also knew that Harry meant a lot to Remus, though lately their relationship seemed a little strained; not that he would admit to taking notice. But that still didn't give Remus the right to interfere. It wasn't his life.

At least he knew he got the man off his back for a little while. He only agreed to Remus' request to appease him. He had no intention of telling Harry the truth, though he did recall thinking earlier this week that he wanted to tell the boy at some point. He just didn't know why he wanted to tell the brat. He did not want to be Potter’s father. But, if far in the future he did decide to tell Harry, it would be when he thought he was ready. Not by what other's wanted. It was his life after all.

~SH~

Harry ran as fast as he could toward the Gryffindor tower, swiping at tears that were still spilling down his cheeks. He couldn't believe what had just happened and with who. The last person he wanted to show weakness in front of was Snape. He could only imagine the taunting he’d receive now.

As he approached the portrait of the fat lady, he realized his friends might still be sitting around the common room. Normally when he went back to his dorm room after his Occlumency lessons, the common room was practically empty, and if it wasn't, his friends were off somewhere together. But it was still a bit early for him to be coming back tonight and he didn't want a confrontation with his friends if they saw that he'd been crying. Instead of gaining access for the portrait hole, Harry walked past the hidden entrance and decided to seek out one of the empty classrooms. He'd hide out and wait for a while before heading to his dorm room.

After a few minutes of searching, Harry found an empty classroom. Closing the heavy wooden door behind him, he sat down at one of the desks, folded his arms on the top and rested his chin on his arms. Unfortunately he couldn't help but think about the last hour and his breakdown in front of Snape. At that thought, he felt his face burn with embarrassment. If was the very first time he grieved for Sirius and what he lost all those months ago, and of course it had to be in front of Snape. Another sign the world was out to make his life as miserable as possible.

He still couldn't believe he cried in front of the potion's professor. Then he remembered how, as he began to lose it, Snape pulled him into a hug. And the hug was different than any he could ever remember receiving. It was comforting. It definitely wasn't the same type he received when greeting his friends after the summer holidays every year or even by Mrs. Weasley. He then realized the feeling he received from Snape's hug was the same feeling he got when Sirius had hugged him.

Harry then began laughing; laughing so hard tears were in his eyes. After he brushed them away, he noticed the tears continued to fall and he wasn't laughing anymore. He was crying instead. He finally received the comfort he had been denied for the past sixteen years and it came from the person he hated most in the word...after Voldemort of course. "That man is sick," Harry said aloud to the empty classroom. "What's he playing at? I guess I'll be hearing comments about this tomorrow in his class." At that thought, Harry's hatred for the man grew and he stopped crying, now extremely hurt and angry. Wiping a few remaining tears away Harry laid his head down on his arms and stared at the top of the desk trying to rid his mind of everything that happened the entire day.

When he was satisfied he was calm enough and there were no telltale signs that he'd been crying, he headed to the Gryffindor tower. He gained access and the minute he stepped in, Hermione rushed over to him, with Ron following closely behind.

"Harry, where have you been?" Hermione asked while dragging him by the arm to the couch in front of the fireplace. "We've been worried about you?"

Harry looked at Ron who was standing behind Hermione.

"You were supposed to be back an hour ago Harry," Ron added.

Harry looked at the two, confused. He didn't think his friends noticed his schedule or that he had been hiding out for so long.

Hermione interrupted his thoughts. "The least you could have done was let us know where you were."

"Sorry, Hermione," Harry said gloomily while shrugging his shoulders, his previous thoughts still not completely gone from his mind. "I didn't think-"

"No, you never do anymore Harry," Hermione cut in rather sternly. "We've been waiting on you for a while now. You should know better than to just wander off without telling anyone. It isn't safe."

Harry couldn't believe what Hermione was saying. And after what he had been through the past few hours, he definitely wasn't in the mood to talk about it. That and the fact that most of the time he was being ignored by his friends. "Hermione I don't want to discuss this. I've got other things on my mind."

"But Harry, you need to stop…"

"No Hermione, you need to stop," he stated shortly. "I'm getting tired of you criticizing me for every little thing I do or don't do." His eyes then shifted to Ron who had been quiet for the entire conversation, and waited for him to say something. When the redhead didn't utter a word, he then looked back to Hermione. "I'm not discussing this now. I'm going to bed." He quickly turned away from his friends, not noticing the hurt look in Hermione's eyes, and stormed up to his dorm room.

~SH~

Severus swept to the front of the class after completing his lecture. "You may begin brewing." He sat at his desk and watched as his students started to brew. His eyes immediately found Harry. The boy didn't seem his usual self. Since class began he was being very quiet. As far as he could tell, Harry hadn't said a single word in class at all; very unusual for him. He figured it must be because of what happened last night.

Just as he was getting ready to concentrate on grading the pop quiz he had collected earlier from his sixth years, Harry looked up and met his eyes. After a few seconds, Severus dropped his gaze to the papers in front of him. He was having a hard time not criticizing the boy. But before class he promised himself he would leave Harry alone today. And so far, so good.

After Severus dropped his gaze, Harry shook his head and began working on his potion. He couldn't believe his professor had yet to say anything to him. He was certain Snape would start to humiliate and taunt him the minute he stepped into the room.

When class ended forty-five minutes later, Harry quickly grabbed his bag and made his way towards the door, wanting to get out of the room as quick as possible.

"Potter, stay behind," Severus spoke, right as Harry was two feet from the door.

Harry stopped abruptly and took a few deep breaths while watching everyone else leave the room, waiting for the professor to start humiliating him. He turned around and slowly walked to the front of the classroom, keeping his eyes on the ground.

"Don't forget you received detention tonight Potter." Severus watched Harry jerk his head up and make eye contact. "Be back here by 6:30."

Harry stared at his potion's professor in shock. "Yes sir," he finally replied.

Severus looked the boy up and down. "You are dismissed."

Without another word, Harry quickly left the potion's classroom and headed to his next class.

~SH~

Harry found himself standing in front of the potion's classroom at 6:27 that night. He was tempted to skip, but decided against it. He didn't want to risk skipping on Occlumency and a detention back to back. Who knew what Snape would do to him. Resigning to his fate and deciding to get the dreaded evening over, Harry knocked on the wooden door.

After being let in to the classroom, Severus didn't say a word to him, just pointed a finger at the potion's storeroom. After watching the professor go into another room, Harry quietly walked into the storeroom. He sighed as he looked around the room. Nothing had changed in the past few weeks. He had hoped that someone else would be cleaning the storeroom out for their detention as well. No such luck so far.

Severus was in an awful mood. Earlier he was trying to retrieve a memory he accidentally placed in his pensive. Instead of retrieving that memory, he mistakenly retrieved a horrible memory of him, James, Sirius, and Remus from his fourth year. After placing that memory back in his pensive and retrieving the correct one, he was livid. He was on a mission tonight; a mission to make Harry pay for what his father did to him all those years ago. Unfortunately all thoughts about who Harry really was were no longer in the front of his mind.

Forty-five minutes into the detention, Severus walked into the storeroom, glanced around and watched Harry for a few minutes. He now knew exactly how to make Harry pay.

When the boy placed a jar back on the shelf and had empty hands, he spoke up. "Potter, your attempt to clean this room is deplorable." He sneered at Harry when the boy jumped and turned to face him. "By the looks of this room, I suspect the Boy-Who-Lived never had to clean up after himself. I expect being waited on hand and foot by your relatives wouldn't give much time to learn how to clean, right?"

"You don't know what you're talking about. I always had…" Harry began, angrily.

"Silence," Severus broke in, his voice menacing. "I do not want to hear your excuses." He walked over to the shelf Harry had been working on and assessed its cleanliness. He whirled around to face Harry. "You will start over cleaning this shelf. It is unacceptable." He turned around to leave the room.

Harry stood gaping at the potion's master with his mouth open. The man had to be kidding. "I've been working on this shelf since I got in here sir." He stepped onto the ladder and glanced at the shelf in question. "I don't see anything wrong with it. It looks perfectly clean to me." He stepped back on to the floor, and continued in a whisper, though his gut told him to keep his mouth shut like he promised himself weeks ago, "I think you need to get your eyes checked."

Severus, who had been almost out the door, turned around and stormed towards Harry, causing the boy to take a few steps back and nearly trip over the ladder behind him. He leaned over Harry, who was now almost sitting on the steps of the ladder, grasped the sides of the ladder and glared at him. "What did you just say boy?" he asked threateningly.

As Severus went to grasp the ladder behind Harry, all Harry saw were hands coming towards him. He cowered at Snape's action, menacing glare and tone of voice. After gaining his balance and not thinking straight, he quickly brought his hands up to protect his face. The entire situation brought back terrible memories from Harry's time at the Dursley's when he was younger. "Please, no," Harry pleaded almost in a whisper, his body beginning to shake. "I…I'm sorry. I didn't mean to...please don't." Harry then curled in on himself, hands protecting his face.

"Potter," Severus spat, ignoring Harry's rambling. He looked at the boy in confusion, and when he saw he wasn't getting a response, he removed his hands from the ladder and backed away a few steps. He tried speaking with less malice, though he failed miserably, and also found he couldn't help the words coming out of his mouth. "Stop your inane muttering this instant and stand up."

Severus' icy voice brought Harry back to his present situation. He sat on the ground for a few seconds just staring at his shoes while an embarrassed flush crept up his neck and face. He couldn't believe what he just did. He knew the professor was not his uncle, nor would he hurt him, but he seemed to be acting on instinct, not what he knew was the truth. Breathing hard, he slowly uncurled his body and stood up, keeping his eyes on the ground in front of him. He had just embarrassed himself beyond belief and did not want to look at the professor in the eyes.

Ignoring what had just happened, Severus continued. "You will remove all the jars and vials from the shelf, clean the shelf thoroughly, again, and place the items back on the shelf. After that, you are dismissed."

"Yes, professor," he said quietly, finally getting his breathing under control.

Nodding at Harry, Severus started walking back towards the classroom. Just as he was about to pass the threshold, he turned around. "I don't want to see you again until your Occlumency lesson on Tuesday, Mr. Potter."

Harry gave Snape a questioning look. Just the night before the man told him he had detention every day for the rest of the month. Now he didn't want to see him until Tuesday? He knew he should keep his mouth shut and take the opportunity to have three Snape-free days, but he really didn't want to get on his professor's even worse side if he didn't show up to a detention. "Erm, sir? I thought you said I had detention every day for the rest of the month?"

Raised eyebrows were Severus' only response.

Not sure why the man was letting him off his detentions and not wanting to question it in the event Snape changed his mind, Harry decided to let the subject drop. "Thank you sir," Harry said quietly before returning to the completely unnecessary task he had to do.

Nodding at the still slightly shaking boy in front of him, Severus swept out of the room. After listening intently to the room to be sure Harry was back to work, Severus sat at his desk staring at his hands.

He didn't know what had come over him in that room. The shelf he inspected was surprisingly clean, almost looking like new. He really hated having all the conflicting memories and feelings. It was driving him crazy.

As he listened to the faint clinking of glass coming from the storeroom, he decided that what really bothered him was Harry's reaction just a few minutes ago. Actually, he was more worried about Harry's reaction than what he'd done and said to the boy. It seemed the boy was terrified of him. For the past five years he would have relished in that thought. But now it troubled him.

Shaking his head to remove all the thoughts from his mind, Severus picked up the quill on his desk and started grading the papers his second years turned in that morning.