Leaning on the desk with uncharacteristically shaky hands was Severus, shaken by what he had just seen in the boy's mind. Harry had not expelled him from his mind, as that was not the task, but rather when the boy had begun shaking with fear of the memory, Severus had ended the spell and removed himself.

"What was I seeing?"

Harry looked up, suddenly angry. "You saw." He didn't want to repeat the incident out loud.

"I saw," Severus repeated, successfully gaining some control over his voice. "I was also unable to shut the memory away, which means that you will not be capable of this task on your own. From personal experience I can tell you that these are memories that must first be confronted before they may be tamed."

Harry pushed himself up off the floor, shaking still but angry. "And how the hell am I supposed to do that?"

Severus sighed and worked to stay cool and collected for his pupil's sake. "Tell me what I was seeing."

Harry crossed his arms and turned away, stalking across the room. He turned back once and then turned away again, standing silently for a few moments as he collected his thoughts.

"You saw me tied in the shed with a bowl of dog food next to me."

"For what offense were you placed there?"

"Does it matter?" Harry spat out, spinning around to face him. "Why do you assume I did something to deserve it?"

"Nobody could do something to deserve to be treated inhumanely. I wondered if the Muggles you lived with believed they had a logical reason to such a horrid thing to you."

Harry glared at him and then stared at the floor, arms crossed again as he leaned against a desk.

"I got better grades than Dudley. They think I'm some sort of animal, and I did better in school than Dudley then what did that make him?"

"What grade did you get?"

Harry threw his hands down, feeling exasperated. "Does it really matter?"

Standing straight Severus fell into teacher mode and said, "In this case it is important to explore the subject thoroughly so you can have a firm grasp of what happened, and your feelings about it. If you do not yet have a firm grasp of it, you will not be able to occlude the memory in time of need. It will nag at you until you deal with it."

Harry sighed now and closed his eyes. "I got straight A's. Dudley got D's. It was the year before I came to Hogwarts and when they let me back in the house at the end of the weekend I was sunburned and dirty and I hated myself because I was just like a dog."

"Do you believe this now?"

"No," Harry spat it out, although in the back of his mind he held a different answer. At a searching look from Severus however he rolled his eyes and said softly, "Sometimes."

"Why?"

Biting his lip now Harry thought about it for nearly ten minutes before he went on to tell Severus that smart people weren't the cause for the deaths of others, but stupid animals could be, and thus far he had managed to get Cedric and Sirius both killed. The more he thought on those events, and how certain other people treated him, he thought there must be a reason for these things.

Harry and Severus talked well into the night, and at near midnight, Harry was finally able to occlude this and several other memories from his mind. His sleep wasn't peaceful that night, but it was at least a little less hostile and disturbing. Severus could not say the same for his own sleep however, for while he'd helped Harry tuck some things away, he now had new memories... memories not his own that he had to deal with himself.

* * *

Harry was less resistant as the Occlumency lessons went on. He questioned less when Severus asked him to reveal something, and as the days wore on he was able to get a feel for what it meant to tuck a memory away and was able to start occluding properly before going to sleep. Severus suspected however that this may not be all his doing, as he had witnessed Harry talking to the youngest Weasley son one day in the hallway, and after that things had gone better for them. It was something that would not remain a secret between them however as Severus shifted through memories in Harry's mind as Harry was still learning to tuck things into internal pockets of his mind.

Severus watched in the boy's mind as Ron had approached him and apologized for not thinking about all the things Harry was going through. While Harry seemed cautious in the memory, Severus could feel overall that the boy was pleased that his friend had told him in the end that he would be there for him no matter what, just as Harry had always been there for him.

Given how cautious Harry had been in the past with other people, especially him, Severus wondered at the teenager's loyalty to his friends, who must have surely proven themselves time and again in the boy's mind in order for him to forgive such a slip in judgment so easily. More than forgive, he trusted his friend wholeheartedly again, and Severus could feel it in their connected minds during the lesson immediately following the incident. Clearly there was more to Harry Potter than Severus was seeing even in his mind, and strange as it was, he someday hoped to know the boy well enough to be able to understand him.

* * *

Harry's stomach grumbled loudly and he looked up, cheeks slightly red with embarrassment. It was an embarrassing noise after all, to have one's stomach growl so loudly that it appeared to have echoed off of the small classroom's walls.

Being Saturday Harry had had Quidditch practice, and had therefore missed lunch before coming to an early Occlumency lesson, which he had requested because he had a pile of mounting homework sitting on his dormitory desk that was due on Monday and he wanted the night to work on it with Hermione.

"I believe your stomach is talking to you Mr. Potter."

"Huh?" He looked up and his cheeks turned red again. That sounded like a very Luna-like thing to say. Stomachs didn't talk, they just embarrassed loudly.

"Did you miss lunch?"

"Uh, yeah. Quidditch practice."

"I see. Perhaps an early end to the lesson would be in order then so that you can get something eat."

"The kitchens are closed though sir." Harry knew from experience that the house elves were picky about who they served late meals to as they had other cleaning and activities to do between feeding hundreds of students and staff. Even Dobby had turned him away once when Harry had come seeking food when he'd missed dinner for detention once. That detention had been with Snape ironically enough.

"I am well aware. If you are amenable, I will give you something to eat in my quarters."

Harry bit his lip. This was the first time he'd been invited to see Snape in his quarters. He'd gone of his own accord the one time he'd had the nightmare and slept on the couch. He knew Luna went there to have meals with the man sometimes when Slytherins weren't around, but Harry had felt too nervous about inviting himself to a meal.

"Well?"

Harry looked up, realizing he'd been thinking to himself for a few moments too long. "Yes sir," he said. Just before Snape reached the classroom door however, Harry said, "Wait, it's not that pasta is it?"

Severus turned around and put his hands on his hips. "It is not. I believed you liked the pasta.

Harry made a face and stuck is tongue out, temporarily forgetting who he was standing in front of talking to. "It had that nasty green sauce on it! I thought you were punishing me!"

Crossing his arms Severus said, "It is pesto sauce and Luna did not complain when I served it to her." He opened the door, holding it wide for Harry to pass through ahead of him.

"Was she in trouble too?" Harry looked up to him with a cheeky grin and Severus had the inexplicable urge to tousle the boy's messy black hair, only just managing to restrain his hand.

"Brat," he settled with saying, although he wore a smile, and Harry gave a short laugh before following him down through the castle. They were lucky not to encounter anyone on their way down, and Harry was thankful that his good mood didn't have to be ruined by Professor Snape having to pretend to be marching him off to detention in an angry mood.

* * *

Luna looked serene as she sat on her adoptive father's couch and read a book. She had let herself in with the password she'd been given so that she could get into the guest room, which had been transformed into a close copy of her room back at the house.

"You are here early," Severus observed as he walked down the hallway still half asleep and into the kitchen to pour himself a cup of strong coffee.

She waited until he shuffled back into the living room a minute later with his coffee and sat down in the recliner to answer him. "Oh, it was a beautiful sunrise today that I watched. Daddy always said that the fate sprites are out at sunrise and sunset, and sometimes they sneak out when they're needed at other times but they frolic when the sun comes and goes."

He took a sip of his coffee and asked, "And did you see any?"

"I saw some twinkling out over the lake, and there was a breeze blowing through the trees. I think it was the light of understanding and the breeze of change blowing through. I'm sure the fate sprites are up to something." She gave him a serene smile as she took a bite of a biscuit he hadn't seen sitting beside her on a plate. She had gotten into the biscuit jar he kept on the counter. Harry he noticed liked to get into it too before he'd had any real food to eat.

"Will you be eating a real breakfast this morning?"

She smiled and said, "Of course I will, daddy always says to eat a good breakfast."

"A wise man," Severus commented, thinking that he had often said the same thing to her and Harry over the summer.

She rose then and gave him a rare hug around the shoulders from the side of the chair, and said, "Of course you are." Then she skipped away into the kitchen and he heard pots and pans. His first thought was not of the comment or the hug, but of what concoction she might come up with that he would be forced to eat under polite duress. He had learned that Harry could indeed cook, but Luna could not, or at least had not yet made anything enjoyably edible. His mind becoming less fuzzy from sleep with the next sip of coffee however, and he finally made it back around to the comment and hug.

‘A wise man.' ‘Of course you are.' Wait, hadn't he been talking about her father? The cogs turned a little more and he rose his eyebrows and looked towards the kitchen where he heard some pots banging against each other again. She had called him ‘daddy', and given him a hug. She had given him several hugs since he had taken custody of her five months before, but usually they were after he'd done something especially nice for her, or if she'd been upset, such as when Albus had come to take Harry to the Weasley's. What had he done to deserve this?

Still pondering on the new name she had given him, Severus waited until Luna appeared with two bagels covered in cream cheese and chives. It looked passably edible, and he was grateful that it had no funny tastes or ingredients added, although he wondered what all the banging of pots and pans had been about. Pushing the questions aside, Severus cleared his throat and looked at Luna.

"I wanted to ask you something of importance."

She looked curious and waited patiently for him to continue. He wanted to ask her to be honest with him in answer to his question, but scratched the comment, knowing she had yet to be dishonest with him.

"Does the amount of time I've been spending with Harry bother you? I have had little time to spare in the last few weeks and I had no intention from excluding you from any activities that would have occurred otherwise. She was fond of playing wizard's chess or sometimes Gobstones after a meal, or getting help with her Potions homework, and he had hardly seen her in the last week and a half for all the time he was spending with Harry. Harry was now venturing down to his quarters under the pretense of being in detention more often, and had actually shown up for dinner a few times when he noticed that Severus was not in the Great Hall with the rest of the staff and student body.

"Don't be silly. I know it's time well spent," she said, taking a bit of her bagel and looking as though she were savoring it. He noticed that there was something sparkly on the top of her bagel, and wanted to ask if it was sugar, but decided to press on with his line of questioning first.

"It does not bother you then?"

She set her bagel down and said, "I think I know what the fate sprites are up to, wouldn't you know? I thought I heard them whispering in the wind and I'm happy to know what they plan."

"Does it involve gnome dust?" She giggled then and shook her head and he sighed in relief. He'd been sitting on the couch one day reading the Daily Prophet when she'd come up behind him and dumped an entire sack of dirt over the top of his head. It was only Luna's calm demeanor and attitude that kept him from leaping up and spilling forth wrothful words. She simply looked at him and asked if he could think more clearly and explained that Knargles often vacated a mind when gnome dust was spread over its owner, because Knargles would not go where gnomes had tread. He wondered if she'd actually collected the dirt from the grounds garden gnomes.

"And what do the fate sprites plan?" Severus asked, shaking himself of the mental image of himself covered in fine brown dirt and dust.

"I think they know how much Harry needs us. I'm sure he'll make a wonderful edition to our family."

Severus hesitated and then asked, "You wish Harry to become part of our family?"

"Oh yes, haven't you seen him with the others again? And I was walking to the library yesterday and I heard him laughing. Not just a chuckle or a giggle, but a loud laugh full of happiness and joy. Wouldn't you know what he was laughing at?" She paused to see that Severus did know, and then finished, "He was laughing at something you said. How often does Harry laugh? A lot more since he's been spending time with us."

"He spends time with you?"

"Yes, he and Ginny and I study together sometimes, and on the weekends we duel on the lawns and Harry takes Ginny flying in the pitch while I draw them in the stands."

She tilted her head then, and asked, "Don't you wish he could be part of our family?" Then she rose and went to the kitchen to wash her plate and perhaps dip into the sugar again, which he knew he'd have to hide now or lock with a spell with two teenagers with a sweet tooth around.

Her question bounced around in his head. ‘Don't you wish he could be part of our family?' Harry did need him, and he could not deny the change in the boy since he had been spending time with him both inside and outside of lessons. Harry's mood had dramatically changed and his outlook had changed for the better. Minerva had even informed him that most of Harry's grades had increased as well, and Severus doubted very much that that had anything to do with reuniting with Weasley.

As the day wore on and Severus made his way through another Occlumency lesson with Harry, where he witnessed more horrible emotional offenses against the child by Muggles and wizards alike, he realized something that perhaps had slipped through his grasp before. Having Luna with him had softened him to some degree, made him feel more amenable to having someone else living in his home, someone to spend time with and teach and console. But Harry had broken down any barriers he'd had left, and the truth was, that since Harry... he'd felt more human that ever before. Did he want Harry to be part of their family? He could not deny the answer.