As the weeks passed, Harry slowly began to recover. Each day he got stronger and better until finally, it was his last day in the Hospital Wing. Ron and Hermione had come to see him a few times, inquiring about his health. Harry smiled at the memory of the conversation they had had a few days ago.

****************

Harry was sitting in bed, reading an interesting book on the art of healing when there was a loud knock on the door. Ron and Hermione walked into the room. They were intently discussing something, possibly even arguing, but stopped immediately when they saw Harry.

"Hey, guys!" Harry greeted them cheerfully.

"Um... hi, H-Harry," Hermione stuttered while Ron turned tomato red. Harry had a strange instinct that they had been talking about him.

"So... um... how are you doing?" Ron asked uncomfortably.

"I'm fine, though Madame Pomfrey won't let me out of her sight." Harry laughed, trying to break the tension. "So, why are you two acting so nervous?"

"Well, um... nothing. It's just that we um.....um...um..." Ron's ears started turning pink.

"Really, it's nothing," Hermione interrupted, coming to the rescue. She saw the doubtful look on her injured friend's face. "We just um... well, we saw Draco Malfoy last night."

"So?" Harry inquired, puzzled. "We see him at dinner every night! What's the big deal?"

"Well," Ron sounded very uneasy. "It was night. I meant, after the curfew. It was past midnight. Hermione wouldn't let me go to bed until I've finished my Potions homework." At this, he aimed a glare at his female friend, whom promptly ignored it. "Well, anyways, he was heading towards the Hospital Wing. We watched him and---"

Hermione interrupted and continued. "We thought that we'd better watch and wait for him to come back, just to be on the safe side. About and hour later though, another figure came towards the Wing. It was too dark to see who it was, the person was so silent. It was.. creepy. He, or she, was pretty tall though, so it might have been one of the seventh graders."

Harry's heart skipped a beat. So he hadn't been dreaming that night when he had thought Snape had visited him. But Draco Malfoy? What had he been doing?

The Gryffindor tried to change his sitting position, but all he succeeded in doing was twisting his arm.

His pain must have shown on his face, for Hermione quickly asked, "Harry, is something wrong?" She gripped his already-injured arm tightly.

Harry flinched, pain shooting up his arm. Hermione gasped and immediately apologized. She gently touched his sleeve, then hesitated. Her concerned eyes met his emerald ones as she asked softly, "May I?"

Harry took a deep breath, then slowly nodded. Hermione rolled up his sleeves. Harry looked down, along with the others, at this arm. The scars stood out on his pale skin.

Hermione took out her wand and gave it an expertant flick. "Verro Denistra!" A golden beam streaked towards Harry's arm, then connected. Harry sighed in relief as the pain faded instantly. "Thank you," he whispered, smiling at his friends. Hermione blushed as she turned away.

The magical moment was broken when Madam Pomfrey entered the room. She had rushed Ron and Hermione out of the Wing, claiming that Harry needed rest. With a swirl of their cloaks, his friends were gone.

****************

Harry's smile widened as he looked forward to the next day. He could finally leave the Hospital Wing after a week of 'imprisonment', as he called it. He looked at the clock and realized that it was almost bedtime. He settled back into the comfy bed and lost himself in a muggle murder mystery written by T. Chandler. Hermione had let him borrow it.

Harry read for a few hours before weariness overcame him. He fell into a deep, untroubled sleep.

****************

The sunlight streamed into the Hospital Wing as Madam Pomfrey came into the room to open the shutters. She seemed cheerful enough and was humming a rather familiar tune.

Harry groaned in his sleep as the sunlight hit him in the face. Damn it, why did the nurse enjoy waking her patients with the blast of light?

He rolled over and tried to fall asleep again, but to no avail. The nurse walked over briskly and lifted the blanket off the bed. "Wake up, lazybone!" her voice echoed around the room.

Harry moaned. "Leave me alone," he muttered, "I want to sleep..."

"This is your last day, remember?" Madam Pomfrey's voice drifted in. "Don't you want to join the rest of the school for breakfast?"

This statement made Harry open his eyes. How could he forget, today would be his first day out of the Hospital Wing! He immediately leaped up and began to get dressed, pulling his black robes over his head. He snatched up his glasses from the bedside table and hopped into his shoes.

The nurse chuckled at his actions. She tried to get him to drink another energy potion, but the boy refused. He nimbly slipped out of her clutches and dashed out the door without another word. The nurse sighed and began folding the blankets.

****************

Harry raced along the hallways. Thanks to the nurse's pestering and delaying, he was late. He flung open the door and stormed into the room to find everyone already seated. The whole school, including the staff, looked up at his sudden entrance. Harry didn't care; he raced over to the Gryffindor table and sat down beside Ron and Hermione.

"Phew, finally, I managed to make it out of the Hospital Wing." He sighed in obvious relief, causing many to laugh. "Pomfrey's a horror sometimes."

Harry soon began to load his plate with food; he was starving. He devoured six pancakes in a flash and ended up choking on his pumpkin juice; Hermione made tsking noises while Ron slapped him on the back.

In half an hour, the trio had finished their breakfast.

"So, what's first?" Harry asked, looking for his schedule.

"Double Potions for two hours," Hermione recited. She had the whole times table memorized by heart.

Ron groaned. "Slytherins and Snape, what could be worst?"

Harry just smiled mysteriously. He felt was uncertain; he was sure that it was Snape who had come that night... He felt strangely comforted as the professor's voice echoed in his head.

***I'm sorry, Harry. I'm sorry I was so... horrible to you. Forgive me. Live on, Harry. Live on, the world depends on you.***

Feeling encouraged, he grabbed his books and headed towards the Potions dungeon.

****************

The door of the Potions dugeon flung open at percisely the right time. Severus stepped into the room, his cloak whirling behind him. He looked around the room, giving each student an icy glare. His eyes lingered on Potter and his glare faded into an almost indistinguishable smile. Good, Potter was finally back.

The Potions Master had been extremely worried about the Gryffindor boy, though he knew that he would never admit it to anyone short of Merlin himself. Just a few days ago, he had found himself visiting the boy in the Hospital Wing at night. Fortunately, no one had seem him. He shuttered as he thought of what might have happened if someone had seen him. He would never live it down.

"Today," he said in the sneering voice which he had come to learn so well. "We will brew the Tranquility Potion. Can anyone tell me what it is?"

To his surprise, one person raised his hand. This was difficult magic, he hadn't expected anyone to know. And no, it wasn't that Granger who seemed to know something about everything. It was Potter. 'Interesting,' he mused to himself as he looked at the Gryffindor.

"Potter?" he asked, his voice dripping with scorn. "So you think you know what the Tranquility Potion does? Well, let's hear it."

Harry spoke in a loud, confident voice. "The Tranquility Potion is a potion of extensive power. It has many uses including curing fever, healing cuts and scars, and dealing with pain. It is most well-known for it's power to sooth and calm the user. Which is why it's also known as the Calming Potion."

Severus was taken aback. This was quite impressive, it was at the N.E.W.T level of Potion skills; Where on earth had Pottered managed to learn this? Usually, Granger was the one who surprised him.

The Potions Master immediately recovered. "So you're a Know-It-All in training, aren't you? Who's your instructor? Granger, I suppose?"

Hermione blushed and her cheeks turned pink. But Harry, on the other hand, stared at him, not the least bit unnerved. Severus' black eyes held the other's green ones for a few seconds. Then, he turned away. He found Harry's searching look unnerving; those eyes looked as though they knew all his deepest, darkest secrets, all his fears and happiness.

Severus gave himself a mentle shake. He turned as he walked down and began critisizing the Gryffindors.

The rest of the lesson went fairly well, though Potter was especially unnerving. His piercing glares no longer seemed to effect the boy. On one occasion, the Gryffindor threw an unknown ingrediant into Goyle's potion; the cauldron immediately exploded. Luckily, no one got sprayed. The Potions Master wished dearly to give Potter detension, but he couldn't bear the thought of having to endure his stares for any longer than necessary. However, Potter seemed to be begging to get into trouble: he caused commotion, he teased the Slytherins mercilessly, he dropped a variety of wrong ingrediants into the Slytherins' potions... Finally, Severus could refrain himself no longer. "POTTER!" he roared. "10 POINTS FROM GRYFFINDOR AND DETENSION TONIGHT AT 8!!!" His dark eyes blazed with rage; his glare made everyone in the room (other than Harry) shiver.

Severus gave an exhausted sigh as the class ended. Finally, Potter would be gone. He silently cursed himself for giving the boy detension; Now, he would have to deal with him later that night...

****************

Harry walked down the hall towards Snape's office. For some reason, he didn't feel afraid at all. Ron and Hermione had been frantic for him. Fred Weasley had even gone as far as to say that he would be planning his furneral for him. But he had felt carefree, as if he did this every day. It seemed as if Harry was no longer afraid of Snape's chilling glare. Every time the Potions Master looked at him, he thought of that night in the Hospital Wing, how Snape had cared enough to come down to see him.

Now, Harry walked calmly into the teacher's office after knocking politely on the door. Snape was seated in a chair by desk. He sneered at He when he saw him, but the boy couldn't have cared less. Was it his imagination, or did Harry see an uneasy and exhausted glint in the Potion Master's eyes?

After Snape gave the boy instructions to clean the cauldrons, he went to his desk and began to mark papers. Harry kept on working, cauldron after cauldron. Ten more left, nine more left, eight more, seven more, six...

Harry was working on this last cauldron when a sudden hiss of pain emitted from the dirention of the teacher's desk. Harry turned around and found Snape clutching his left forearm, his skin deathly pale.

"Professor Snape?" Harry asked uncertainly.

No answer.

He tried again. "Professor Snape? Are you alright?"

Still no reply.

Harry wondered if he should risk addressing his teacher with a less formal title. He decided that it was worth a try. He opened his mouth and called out, "Severus? Hold out your arm."

This time, Snape reacted. He unconciously held out his arm, obeying Harry's authoritive voice. The Gryffindor rolled up the professor's sleeve. The Dark Mark glowed dangerously. So, Voldemort was calling. Now, what was that spell that he had read about in the healing book again? Harry searched through his brain. Verro Denistra was effective, but he doubted it was strong enough to the pain of the Dark Mark. That spell, what was it?

Suddenly, he remembered. Pulling out his wand, Harry flicked it and pointed it at his teacher's arm. "Expectia Healianza!" he whispered. The Dark Mark stopped glowing. Snape seemed to regain conciousness as he trembled violently.

Harry was shocked; he had never seen this side of the professor before. The stone-cold Potions Master had always been strong and cold; he was never frightened or nervous. But it suddenly occured to Harry that Snape was human after all, prone to emotions such as joy and sorrow, fear and distress.

Then, Harry did a thing that he never thought he would do, especially to this particular teacher. He held out his arms and pulled the man into a warm embrace. To his surprise, Snape returned the hug.

"Thank you," the Potions Master whispered. "But, how-- how did you do that?"

"Do what?" Asked Harry, confused.

"Take away the pain. Very few wizards can do that. Albus and Voldemort are the only people I know who can do it. " He let out a bitter laugh. "Though Voldemort never uses magic to take away pain. He only creates pain."

Harry shrugged, uncertain of how to answer. "I read it in this book I borrowed from Madam Pomfrey."

Severus' lips curled into a thin smile. "So that's how you found out about the Tranquility Potion."

Harry smiled back. "Yeah, I read about it a few days ago. There was nothing else to do."

Suddenly, the teacher gasped in realization. "I almost forgot. I have to go. The Dark Lord's calling. I'm late as it is."

Harry tried in vain to protest. "But you're too weak!" he cried. "And why do you have to go anyways?"

The professor tried his best to give his student an icy glare. "I am NOT weak, Potter. I have to go because I am a spy. Voldemort does not know that I word for Dumbledore."

"Oh."

"So I have to go now. If you see Dumbledore, tell him that I'll be back soon."

Nothing Harry said could restrain his teacher. The Potions Master headed towards the window and pulled it open. He grabbed the broomstick and was about to fly out when Harry spoke.

"Professor?"

"What?" The teacher turned to look at the boy.

"Please be careful."

Severus' heart was suddenly flooded with a hurricane of emotions he could not describe. Those words rang in his ear again and again. He rewarded Harry with a smile.

"I will."

The Gryffindor watched as the Potions Master flew out the window. The teacher flew towards the Forbidden Forest and soon faded from sight.