"Are you all right Mr. Potter?" Severus reached down and lifted him from under the arm.

"Fine," Harry said in barely better than a strained voice. It was obvious he was in pain. "Just weak."

"How long has it been since you've eaten?" After the scene he'd witnessed, Severus wondered if Harry had eaten at all that day. He had no idea that it had in fact been much longer than just one day.

"Hogwarts," Harry said, struggling to stay upright.

Severus simply stared at him in surprise. When Harry finally felt steady with Severus still gripping his arm, he looked up and was surprised to find his Professor looking at him.

"The last time you ate was when you left Hogwarts?"

"Yeah," Harry said, frowning at him. "So what? I can go longer." There was that defiance and anger again Severus thought. Was this what the boy's change in demeanor had been about this year?

"You need to eat. I can't have you passing out on the way up to the castle." Severus quickly steered him into the Hogshead, which he knew would likely be void of many customers who would notice the bruises on Harry's face, or any reporters, and ordered Harry a meal. With two wary eyes, Severus watched the child scarf down an entire steak, a pile of potatoes, a bowl of green beans, and a tall glass of milk without shame.

"It will never cease to amaze me the amount of food a sixteen year old boy can eat in under five minutes."

Harry glared up at him, despite the fact that the man had just saved him from having to sleep outside for the night, and that he had fed him a kingly meal. He had to force down the urge to snark out a question about how many times the professor had seen a half starved boy scarf down food, especially when he was afraid it would be taken away again.

He didn't have to say it though, because the look in his eyes was enough, and Severus waved his hand in apology. "My apologies Mr. Potter, for not thinking before I spoke."

Harry's face relaxed a little, and Severus paid for the food before helping Harry up and back out onto the dark, chilly street.

"We'll go in the side entrance straight into the dungeons," he informed Harry as they neared the castle almost forty minutes later. It was slow going with Harry's ankle, and Severus was supporting most of the boy's weight at this point.

"Thank you," Harry said gratefully. He didn't want people to see him like this, though he could always pawn it off that he had just gotten into another really big fight.

In through a side passage that Harry hadn't known existed because it was an old stone door covered in vines, and up through the dungeons, Harry was relieved to be allowed to sit in the visitor's chair in Snape's office.

"We cannot floo directly into the Hospital Wing. We will have to floo into a nearby guest room and walk the rest of the way."

"Sir?"

"The Hospital Wing has been permanently cut off from the Hogwarts floo network. In most cases using the floo will only aggravate a magical injury, so that choice of mode of transportation has been removed completely."

"Oh."

"When you are ready Potter."

Harry took a deep breath and then nodded. Severus moved around his desk and lifted Harry out of the chair again, allowing him to put his arm up around his neck so he could be supported to the floo and held upright as they spun past dozens of rooms and offices.

They exited out of the fireplace into a dark, dusty room and Professor Snape lead him out of the office and into a dark corridor. It wasn't until they were down two more corridors that Harry finally recognized that they were indeed very near the Hospital Wing. But near wasn't good enough, because as they rounded the last corner, a lone figure stopped down the corridor at the sight of them.

"Harry?"

Harry's head snapped up. It was Ginny and she looked worried. Harry hadn't seen himself in a mirror recently but he knew he had a good shiner from that morning and that there was a nasty cut above his left eye. That with the sight of Snape supporting him down the hall on an injured leg and the bruises on his arms was probably enough to make anybody wonder.

"The door if you please Miss Weasley," Snape intoned.

Ginny jumped into action and opened the Hospital Wing door to let them pass through, but Snape closed it again once they were inside, leaving her in the corridor. Harry didn't want to shut her out, in fact he wanted her there with him, but he was grateful at the same time. Decklan knew of his situation sort of, and Snape for sure. He could still deny everything. Couldn't he?

"Poppy!"

Harry was deposited gently onto the nearest bed and Madam Pomfrey came hurrying out of her office.

"What on earth? I sent you for glasses Severus, what has happened?"

Snape just looked down to Harry though, who turned away as Madam Pomfrey began to run a diagnostic spell on him.

"I believe it is probable that he has a broken ankle, and you should also check for a concussion. He hit his head fairly hard on the cement."

Seeing that her colleague wasn't answering her, and knowing that it was like prying teeth the Muggle way to get the man to talk if he had chosen not to, Poppy turned her attention again to Harry.

"What happened Mr. Potter?"

Harry crossed his arms and said, "I don't want to talk about it," as he continued to look the other way. Severus had to suppress the urge to snort despite the seriousness of the situation. An hour ago the boy was wiping tears from his eyes and seeking comfort from the last person on earth that was likely to give it, and now he sat with his nose turned up with an ornery attitude.

Poppy put her hands on her hips with a firm frown on her face. "Well somebody had better want to talk about it or I'll have the headmaster in here faster than you can say lemon drop!

Harry gave a fearful look up at Snape for only a moment, but Snape was choosing to look in another direction at that moment and Harry turned away. Deny it, he repeated to himself. No one would believe it if the truth came out anyway.

* * *

Severus was aware that Harry was keeping his head down and trying not to bother anybody over the next few weeks. He'd failed to earn any detentions, and Severus found it curious that after what was likely a horrible summer the boy had come back moody and unpredictable, and after a one week trip home he had turned into what could be described as ‘near enough' the old Harry Potter, minus his former friends. What had changed? The only variable now was that somebody knew about his home life... Severus to be exact. Was it possible the boy was trying to keep it a secret despite the fact that he would have need to return home again if nobody found out?

Sighing as he looked over what was an impeccable Potions essay the boy had turned in that morning (one of the first assignments he'd gotten back from Harry that year), Severus rubbed his temple. He'd had no choice but to tell the Headmaster exactly what he'd witnessed. How else could he explain bringing Harry back three days early and in the condition he had been in? In any case he was a mandatory reporter according to Wizengamot Legal Code and would not deny it even if he could. Harry simply could not go back to that house. If what Vernon Dursley had said was true, Harry would have no place to go back to either way.

Severus soon found out that he was not the only one with Harry on his mind. His Seeker in fact, appeared to know something was amiss as well.

"Sir?"

Decklan had knocked on his open office door, and Severus bade him to come in.

"Yes?"

"I need to talk to you about something important."

Severus motioned for him to have a seat, and Decklan took it. He looked as if he had been steeling himself up for this since the break a few weeks beforehand.

"Yes?" Severus prompted again. Having little patience had always been one of his downfalls, as other staff sometimes liked to remind him.

"Sir, I think somebody should check out Harry Potter's family." Severus leaned back in his chair. You couldn't get more direct than that, he thought, considering what he now knew about Potter himself. It was clear that Decklan knew something as well. So far he had only informed Albus, and Albus had promised not to spread it around to the other staff just yet, and he wondered if Decklan would tell anyone else whatever it was that he knew.

"You have cause for concern?"

"I- I found Harry collapsed on the floor of the locker room the day before Easter Holiday, after Quidditch practice. He was shaking and a real mess."

"And?"

"And well, he said something about not wanting to go home because of his family. He didn't want me to tell though."

"Did he say why?"

The frown on Decklan's face told Severus that whatever it was wasn't sitting well with him. As a general rule Decklan was straight forward with everybody about what he thought, sometimes to the point where he lost a friend over it now and again. The fact that he had held back three weeks told Severus that he'd been in serious conflict over whether or not to keep his promise or help his team mate.

"He said nobody would believe him and they'd just think he was trying to cause trouble sir. I'd appreciate it if you could just look into it. I don't think its right to leave him in a place where they're not treating him right. That'd make me a terrible person for not trying to get him out of there."

Severus folded his hands in front of himself on the desk and leaned forward. "Rest assured that it has already been looked into Mr. Ingram. Mr. Potter returned early from the break, and he will not be going back."

"Really?"

"Yes."

Sitting back in the visitor's chair, Decklan looked relieved. "Good sir."

"You're pleased with the outcome?"

Decklan nodded and Severus waved his hand. "Good, then please shut the door on my way out so that I can finish my grading."

Rising and moving for the door, Decklan was stopped by, "You are a fine young man Mr. Ingram. Thank you for standing up for what you believe is right, even at your own expense."

Decklan frowned, but then realized that it was at his own expense. He'd promised to keep it a secret and had thus broken his word and his trustworthiness. "Thank you sir." As he shut the door and walked down the corridor, he couldn't bring himself to feel bad about what he'd done however. At least Harry would be safe now. He knew Professor Snape would make sure of it.

* * *

Harry knocked on the solid wood door and was bade to come in.

As the door opened to her office, Minerva looked over her thin glasses to find Harry Potter standing in the door frame, a piece of parchment in his hands.

"Is there something I can do for you Mr. Potter?"

Harry took a tentative step forward and noted that Ron was in the room at a student desk doing lines. Ron looked up but didn't acknowledge Harry, just watched.

"Mr. Potter?"

Her prompting brought Harry's attention away from Ron, and he stepped up to give her his assignment. It wasn't due until tomorrow, but he'd had some trouble with it and wanted to hand it in early so she could look over it. He was too embarrassed about his earlier behavior that year to ask Hermione.

"What is this?" She asked, taking the parchment he held out.

"My assignment for tomorrow maam. I was having some trouble with it."

She glanced over it briefly, barely giving it a look, and then looked back up at Harry.

"Mr. Potter, why are you giving this to me now?"

He bit his lip. "I was having some trouble with it. I wondered... if you could look it over so I could fix it for tomorrow." He had butterflies in his stomach for some reason and wondered why he was feeling so nervous about just asking for some help.

Taking her glasses off and setting them on her desk, she handed the parchment back to Harry, who took it uncertainly.

"Mr. Potter, I'm afraid that handing in your homework for the rest of the year may not be enough to save you at this point."

"Professor?" He glanced over at Ron to see if he knew what was going on, but Ron only looked on, giving no encouragement.

"Your grades are very low and I do not believe you have enough time to pull them back up. It has been discussed that you may be removed from school after the term is over."

"R- removed?"

"Yes. Now if you'll excuse me, I must get back to my lesson plan and Mr. Weasley's detention. Good day."

She put her glasses back on and left Harry standing there with his mouth open slightly. Finally after Ron coughed a moment later, Harry backed out of the room and shut the door.

They were going to expel him? Then he'd really have no place to go but back to the Dursley's, if they were there at all. They'd snap his wand in half and send him on his way to face Voldemort without a chance. He shuddered then and ran as fast as his legs could carry him all the way up to his dorm room, where he flung his trunk open and grabbed the tall stack of Transfiguration essays he'd done that year. Every single one of them.

His shoes pounded against the stone pavers in the hall on his way back to her office, where he waited for long moments to catch his breath before knocking on the door. Once again he was bade to enter, and still slightly winded, he walked straight to her desk and handed her the parchments.

Looking sternly over her glasses at him, she took the work and flipped through it for a few moments before handing it back to him.

"I'm sorry Mr. potter, but I don't accept copied homework. If you please, you will go straight to detention with Professor Snape. I will know if you have not."

Brows knitting together and unknitting in uncertainty, Harry stood there with a slack jaw. He opened his mouth and closed it several times, unable to say anything. They really were going to kick him out, and there was no hope for him now.

"I have excused you Mr. Potter."

Hands shaking, he dropped the work, papers flying everywhere, and ran from the room. When he had gone, McGonagall looked unnerved, but no more so than after Ron had said quietly, "Professor. He doesn't have any friends to copy off of, and I always burn mine when I'm done with it."

* * *

Severus heard a loud noise across the hall that sounded oddly like someone had gotten into the cleaning closet, and rose to see what was going on. On the other side of his door he found Harry mopping the corridor floor in tears.

"Harry? What are you doing?"

Harry shook his head and turned his back on his Professor, mopping in the other direction as he let out a stifled sob.

"What have you been given detention for?"

When Harry didn't answer, Severus reached out to touch the boy's shoulder, but Harry growled in anger and shrugged him off, turning away again as he scrubbed the floors harder than was necessary.

Giving the Gryffindor a moment to himself, and also giving himself some time to think, Severus finally reached forward to touch Harry's shoulder again. While he received the same response as before, he held tight with both hands this time and tried to catch Harry's eyes.

"Harry, look at me." It was firm, but there was something else there too that Harry picked up on, and he felt drawn to look up. Bad idea. Once he had looked up and found a pair of concerned eyes, probably the only pair in the castle, he sobbed once and sank to the floor, mop clattering to the floor beside him. Face buried in his hands, he was vaguely aware that he had been lifted to his feet and guided into Professor Snape's office, and put in one of the chairs.

"They're kicking me out of school!" Harry said with anguish obvious in his voice as he looked up and met Severus' eyes again. In a flood of tears he opened up his soul and told Severus things he thought he'd never say to anybody. Things about his life at home and how he'd been left behind over the summer, things about doing his homework and pushing everybody away, and things about taking control of his life in the only way he knew how.

"And now it's all over," he said between sharp intakes of breath and red rimmed eyes. "She told me I'm being removed, and that it's already been discussed."

He put a hand on Harry's shoulder to steady the boy, and said, "I was not aware of any such discussion. You will stay here until I return. Do you understand?"

Harry nodded and wiped his eyes repeatedly, which now felt sore and swollen. When he was sure the teen was stable enough to leave alone, he swept out of the office and up through the castle.

"Minerva, I need you for a moment."

Minerva McGonagall looked up with surprise. She'd just released Mr. Weasley, and had not expected another unexpected visitor.

"Of course." She stood up and followed him without question. Generally when Severus looked like that, there was trouble that needed tending to involving a student.

Surprise radiated from her eyes as she found herself being lead to her own house and up through the tower to the sixth year boy's dormitory.

Kneeling down in front of Harry's bed, Severus opened up the trunk that had been left unlocked in Harry's rush to get the stack of papers, and revealed several neat stacks of parchment.

"What is this Severus? What are we doing?"

"An entire year's worth of homework for every subject Mr. Potter has taken this year," he said. "And we are discovering the nature of Mr. Potter's behavior, which I would have thought you would have made an effort to do sooner."

She gave him a calculating look, which he returned, but they were brought out of their staring match by a quiet voice saying, "Harry doesn't know I've seen him, but he hides in the back of the library until it closes each night and does all of his homework." They turned to find Neville sitting on his bed with a Herbology book in his lap. In their haste entering the room, they hadn't seen him there.

"Go on," Severus said in a level tone.

Neville shrugged. "Or at least, that's what he did until he was kicked out by Madam Pince. He waits until we're all asleep to sort it all out and stack it in his trunk each night."

Severus looked back to Minerva, who only held a hand up to her forehead and said, "Mr. Longbottom, would you please give us some privacy for a few moments?"

"Yes Professor." He took his book and left the room, shutting the door behind him on the way out. As soon as he was gone, Minerva looked up and met Severus' eyes again.

"Do you mean to tell me he's been doing his work all year?"

"It would appear so." He motioned with is eyes back down to the trunk full of nothing but homework.

"You don't seem surprised."

"I had my suspicions that he was doing at least some of it, because he was doing fairly adequately on tests."

"When he showed up for them!" she said in an exasperated voice.

"When he could concentrate well enough to show up for them," Severus corrected.

"Are you telling me that after five years of torturing and belittling the boy, you've suddenly had a change of heart?"

"I've suddenly seen the black eyes and broken bone's he's endured during holidays with the Muggles he lives with!"

Eyes wide with shock, Minerva took in the seriousness of the angry man before her.

"He's- he's been abused Severus?"

"I brought him back early from the last break because I walked up just in time to see his uncle throw him down the front steps and tell him that if he came back they wouldn't be there and he'd never see them again. As for his behavior earlier in the year, he's been struggling with the fact that they took him on vacation where he'd never been before and intentionally left him there with no money and no wand. It took him nearly a month to get back to the house where he dug up his things where his uncle had buried them in the back yard. That was after he'd burned Harry's familiar and thrown it into his trunk along with his school things and wand."

Minerva held a hand up over her mouth and turned away.

After long moments of silence in which she shook her head several times, she asked, "Does the Headmaster know?"

"Only as of a few weeks ago."

Turning again, she said, "I only spoke to him this morning about removing Harry from school. I had no idea Severus, truly. If I had-"

"If any of us had," Severus interrupted her, and left her there in the dorms as he made his way back down through the castle to Harry.