Harry thought that this leave was probably the best idea Ginny had ever had and she'd had quite a few good ideas. For the next two days, he spent most of the day when the children were at school and Ginny was at work in his study, reading through Snape's papers.

Tim's visit to the Healer's had been rather uneventful. In fact, Tim was so compliant that Ginny had found it a little scary.

Ginny and Harry had an appointment on Friday to speak with the healer's about the findings. Harry was dreading that appointment.

Both Ginny and Harry hoped that Snape had recorded the potion he'd given the Hogwarts students that horrible year after Voldemort had taken over, but thus far, Harry had no luck.

Kreacher had organized the papers chronologically for Harry. Otherwise the papers were a hodge podge of notes, recipes and personal comments. Harry was trying to make some order from that.

It was strange though, reading Snapes' diaries. Harry had the intense feeling of a reunion with an old friend, though he and Snape were never that. In the pages of these journals, Harry met again the Half-Blood Prince. The brilliant wizard whose potion's textbook had taught Harry so much in his sixth and final year as a student at Hogwarts.

The writing in the early papers was the same as the cramped script Snape used to make notes in that book. As Harry slowly worked his way through the journals, he saw the handwriting begin to mature a bit. It was likely that the latest of the journals would have the Professor's script that Harry remembered

Harry was certain that Snape had started working on his potion for the Cruciatus curse not long after he started working at Hogwarts, but the potions recipes from those years, all useful and brilliant, were of the sort that any really good Potion Master could create. None of them were original, although there were some great improvements on existing formulas.

In all likelyhood, the test recipes for the anti-Crucio were probably hidden, or encrypted magically. The first thing Harry felt he needed to do was find a journal that was not what it seemed.

And then he had to decrypt it.

And then he had to understand the formula. Created by one of the most brilliant and paranoid Potions Masters to ever hold the title.

And then he had to recreate the bloody thing.

Perhaps there were some Dark Wizards he could go track down. He was much better at Dark Wizards.

Harry recognized his dismal thinking as a need for a break. A cup of tea and maybe a walk were in order. He stretched and wandered down to the kitchen where Kreacher would have a kettle boiling as soon as he heard Harry walking down the stairs.

As he reached the bottom of the stairs, he heard Kreacher talking to someone. It sounded like Penny over at the school. Harry quickened his step a little.

"Looking for me?" he asked as he saw that Penny's face was indeed in the kitchen fire.

Penny's expression looked relieved, "Yes, Harry. Tim's having some trouble this morning. Can you come through?"

"He hurt himself?" asked Harry.

"No, nothing like that. He's just upset." Penny's face withdrew from the fireplace.

Harry threw a handful of floo powder into the fire and called the name of the school, stepping out into Penny's little classroom office. Penny was the school's nurse and she also worked with children who needed just a little extra help.

"So where is he?" asked Harry, brushing soot off his robes.

Penny stood there, looking slightly embarrassed, "He's in my closet, and I can't convince him to come out." she replied, "I tried having Lily ask him to come out, but that seemed to make him worse. I think he had a disagreement with Lily at break time."

"About what?" asked Harry concerned.

"H-he doesn't want me to go away to school next fall."

Harry jumped, he hadn't realized Lily was sitting quietly in the corner. Harry walked over to her. Her eyes were swimming, and her lower lip trembled, "One of the other girls told him our class was going to Hogwarts next year. He asked me if it was true. I didn't mean to upset him..."

Harry bent down and gave Lily a hug, "Not your fault, Lily-pet. I think Tim's overdue for getting upset and that just pushed him over the edge. You go on back to class and I'll look after him. Right?"

Penny gave Harry and Lily an approving smile, "If you could just come with me, Harry." she said, beckoning.

Tim was apparently in Penny's cloak cupboard. Fortunately, there was room for Harry to squeeze in too. Harry lit his wand. Against the back wall, he could see a bit of Tim's shoe as it poked out from under Penny's wool cloak.

"Tim?" said Harry, quietly, "Can you come out?"

No answer. Harry held his breath to listen for the boy's breathing, clearly audible in the small space. It was too fast for the boy to have fallen asleep (or passed out) but not that rapid, almost-hyperventilation the child was prone to.

"Tim? Miss Clearwater, Lily and I are worried about you. If you won't come out, do you want one of us to come back there?"

Harry heard Tim's breath catch, a tiny sob escaped. This was seeming very familiar, but at least no one had been turned into a cockroach.

"Nobody's angry with you, lovey." said Penny, "I already fixed the window. Everyone loses control of their magic once in a while, no need to be frightened."

The child pulled his foot back and Harry lost sight of it. Then he heard a sharp rhythmic banging. After a second he realized that Tim was no longer sitting with his back to the wall. Now, he curled up on his knees, hitting his head against the floor.

"No, don't do that." Harry said, quickly. He lunged forward and pulled Tim towards him and out of the closet, all tangled up in Penny's cloak. Tim fought Harry, but one of his arms was pinned by the cloak. Harry pinioned the boy's other arm against his side. For good measure Harry pinned the child's flailing legs with one of his own.

The strangest part about it was that the child was fighting so fiercely without a single word or cry from his mouth.

"You're not allowed to hurt yourself," said Harry firmly, when Tim stopped struggling. This was what the mindhealer had advised him to say if-when- this scenario came up.

Tim's eyes were focused somewhere beyond the middle distance and the hair on the back of Harry's neck went up as he recognized the look. It was the same one he'd seen on the faces of victims of certain Dark Wizards.

Bit by bit Tim went limp in Harry's arms. Just as slowly, awareness of where he was came back into his face. When Harry felt he could move Tim without setting him off again, he picked him up, cloak and all, and sat down on Penny's rocking chair. It was here where she soothed the hurts of the very youngest children.

"All right. All right." Harry said softly as he had to his older children when they were tiny, "Sh-sh-shh." he started singing a little lullabye that Ginny had taught him. No one had ever sang to Harry after his own mother died, so all the songs he knew had been learned since James was born.

After a few minutes, the boy began to squirm a bit. Harry looked into Tim's face which was confused and suspicious, "Better now?" asked Harry.

Tim's eyes were narrowed, but he nodded. Harry let him get down on his feet and unwrapped the cloak. A red and purple bruise stood out on Tim's forehead where he'd banged it on the floor so hard. Without thinking, Harry pulled out his wand, intending to heal the bruise the way he would have one of James'.

Tim gasped and put his hands over his face.

Damn, that had to be as bad as coming at Harry at the same age with Vernon's belt.

"It's okay." Harry said softly. Gently he pulled Tim's hands down. Tim set his teeth and squeezed his eyes shut. Every muscle in the boy's body tensed and waiting for pain.

Harry whispered the incantation for bruise healing and Tim jerked backward at the warm sensation. He opened his eyes and stared at Harry.

"Ready to go home?" asked Harry gently.

Astonishment washed over the boy's face for a moment, then the suspicion returned. Harry turned to Penny and said, "Let Lily know I've taken him home. I don't want her to worry."

Penny smiled and nodded.

Harry took Tim's hand and used the floo powder. In a moment they were emerging from the fireplace into their kitchen.

"I'll go pack, Mr. Potter." whispered Tim, letting go of Harry's hand quickly.

"If Little Master needs to pack." said Kreacher absently, from the table where he was making the tea, "Kreacher will do it. Little Master shouldn't trouble himself."

"Oh." said Tim sounding desolate, "All right, then. I'll just keep out of the way till it's time."

"Time for what?" Harry said confused.

"Time to leave...Can I...May I, I mean..May I say goodbye to Lily and Mrs. Potter?"

Kreacher looked at Harry sharply, "Is Little Master needing to go somewhere? Maybe Kreacher should go with Master Harry and Little Master Tim?" Kreacher said it in such a way that Harry understood that only a direct order would keep Kreacher from following them. And then, Kreacher would try to find a loophole in the order.

"But, we're not going anywhere." said Harry, "What are you talking about, Tim?" Harry had an idea he did know what Tim meant, but wanted to get it out where he could address it.

"You're sending me home." whispered Tim. He didn't even phrase it as a question.

"But, Little Master is already home." said Kreacher harshly, "Little Master Tim belongs here."

Harry was surprised, Kreacher was devoted to the children, of course, but it seemed that he took a special interest in Tim.

Upon reflection, perhaps it wasn't so odd.

Tim was staring at Kreacher and then at Harry.

"You should listen to Kreacher." Harry said finally, "He's a wise old house elf."

Kreacher blushed at being praised by his Master and stood up straighter.

"Who do you serve, Kreacher?" asked Harry.

"I serve the House of Potter." Kreacher said proudly, "I serve Master Harry, Mistress Ginny, Master James, Master Albus, Little Miss Lily, and Little Master Tim."

"There, you see." said Harry, "Kreacher knows who belongs to the Potters."

"Oh." said Tim.

Harry worried looking at the boy's confused face, perhaps this was the wrong way and wrong time to go about explaining this. Tim knew that his mother wouldn't be able to see him for a while, but maybe he wasn't ready to consider himself a Potter yet.

"Aunt Ginny and I, we're you're official guardians right now." Harry said slowly, to clarify.

"But why?" asked Tim.

"Because you need someone to look after you and you're mum's still too ill." said Harry, going with what the Mindhealers told him about keeping things simple.

"No, I mean, why do you want to?"

"Because sometimes souls have to find each other." said Kreacher sagely and unexpectedly, "House elves say that sometimes souls lose each other and need to find each other again."

Harry smiled a little at this glimpse into house elf philosophy.

"Master Harry has been looking for you for ever such a long time, Little Master." finished Kreacher.