Severus sat in his quarters, a look of concentration on his face. Four bubbling cauldrons surrounded him, each at various stages of brewing. He hummed lightly under his breath as he mixed the seahorse powder into the silver cauldron. He was about to turn to the dragon skin when suddenly, a knock on his door disturbed his thoughts.

"Blast it!" He said to himself. If he didn't add the dragon skin into the potion in the next twenty seconds, the mixture would undoubtedly explode. There was no time for him to get up to answer the door.

Quickly grabbing his wand, he did a transparency spell, and a certain Remus Lupin appeared outside the room. Growling under his breath, he said gruffly, "Come in."

The door clicked open, and the brown-haired man stepped in. "Severus?"

The Potions Master didn't reply, just continued chopping his ingredients at an amazing pace.

"Severus?"

Severus finished chopping and sighed with satisfaction as he dropped the last ingredient in just in time. Stirring gently, he waited for the potion to turn into a brilliant emerald green before turning to the man in front of him.

"Yes?" he asked irritably. "Is there a reason you've decided to come waste my time?"

Remus ignored the attitude and sarcasm. "It's about Harry," he began quickly. He was surprised to see the man freeze at those words. Severus quickly stood up, and after turning off the fire and cleaning up his workspace, turned to a nearby chair and sat down.

"Yes? You were saying?"

"I've just talked to Harry about an hour ago. He told me about... a few things, including how he ended up at Snape Manor as Sebastien Frostpine." Remus paused. "I trust you two have already spoken?"

"Actually, no," the man replied. "I was thinking of speaking with him later on today. Is there a problem?"

“I believe that he’s… hiding something. The story doesn’t seem to quite fit together.”

“Oh? How so?” Severus inquired.

“Harry told me that he was taken to Snape Manor to be kept ‘safe’. Which leads to the implication that Privet Drive is not safe for him. The question is, WHY is he not safe at the Dursleys? While he could have been referring to the fire, I personally doubt that.”

Severus raised an eyebrow. “And what would you have me do?”

“I want to ask about Sebastien’s behavior after he got to Snape Manor. Did he act… strangely? Did he seem to be hiding anything?”

Severus was tempted to retort, to use the ‘Harry-wouldn’t-want-anyone-to-pry-into-his-private-business’ excuse, but he knew that this was important. It had to have some significance: otherwise, Lupin wouldn’t have bothered coming to see him. Sighing, he cast his mind back to the day he had found the child in his manor.

The boy had seemingly appeared out of nowhere. He inwardly smiled as he remembered how he had thought that he was going to be attacked at first. He remembered the many nights of screaming nightmares, the batches of Dreamless Sleeping Potion he had ended up brewing. The boy had been injured, but when questioned, had managed to get out of answering, as usual. His thoughts were affectionate as he remembered how---

Wait a minute.

He froze suddenly as he went of his last few thoughts.

The boy had been injured.

The boy had been injured.

He jumped up as he suddenly recalled Harry’s appearance that day. The boy had had not only a broken leg, but also numerous scars and bruises. And the boy had been terrified of him. He inwardly yelled at himself for not putting two and two together. While he knew that Sebastien had been hurt, and that Harry Potter was Sebastien Frostpine, he had failed to comprehend the reality of the matter.

The child had been fatally injured that day.

While he had know that particular fact for months, it had only been a few weeks since he had found out that Sebastien and Harry were one and the same. What he had failed to ask himself was WHY Harry had been injured. While ‘Sebastien’ had claimed to be under a memory charm as an excuse, Harry clearly remembered all of his past. Lupin was right. Something was going on here.

"Severus? Is something wrong?"

Severus ignored the question. "Lupin, what did Harry tell you about coming to Snape Manor? Exactly?"

Remus blinked at the question, but answered it none the less. "I believe his exact words were 'I was brought to Snape Manor by the Lady to keep me safe.'"

To keep him safe. Brought to Snape Manor to keep him safe. For a moment, Severus wondered who the 'Lady' was. Maybe they could somehow contact her?

He stood up. He had to speak with Harry first to clear this up. Wherever the boy was. He was heading towards the door when a hand grabbed his robes, stopping him.

"Kindly let go of me, Lupin," he sneered at the man. "Unlike you, I have places to get to."

"I came to day to ask you a question and to find out whether something is wrong with Harry. If whatever it is that you're planning to do right now concerns him in any way, I demand to know."

The nerve of that werewolf! Severus was tempted to ignore him completely, but he knew, as much as he hated to admit this, that the man played an important role in Harry's life. He had a right to know.

"Harry was... injured badly when he arrived at the manor," he answered finally, carefully keeping his face blank. "Unfortunately, I did not know who he was at the time. His excuse was that he had been Obliviated and knew nothing of his past."

"He was injured?" Remus's voice was full of concern. "How bad was it?"

"It was rather unpleasant." Severus sighed, knowing that that was an understatement. "He had several broken bones. His skin was covered with bruises and scarring, and he was also affected by nightmares."

Remus went back in his mind to the conversation he had had with Harry, going over the details. Harry had claimed he had gone to Snape Manor to be kept "safe", and from what Severus had revealed, the boy had clearly been injured. The main question was: WHY had the boy been hurt? And how?

There was no way those injuries could be due to the fire: flames couldn't possibly cause bruises and broken bones. But that left only one possibility. A possibility that he didn't even want to consider.

He wanted to tell himself that it was due to an argument: maybe Harry had been in a fight with some neighbouring boy, or perhaps had accidentally fallen down the stairs. But he knew, somewhere in the pit of his soul, that he was just lying to himself. And as much as he wanted to keep deceiving himself, he knew that he couldn't do so. Now that he knew, he couldn't leave Harry to suffer. He had to help.

Severus must have seen a change on his expression, for the Potions Master's face hardened. "Lupin. Tell me what you know."

Remus hesitated, not wanting to interfere with Harry's privacy. Besides, his guess had just been that: a guess. He didn't even know whether his suspicions were correct or not. "It's not that I'm unwilling to tell you, Severus... It's just that.. I'm not even sure whether my suspicions are true, and if they are, they're Harry's secrets to tell, not mine. He should be given the chance to come clean with this on his own terms."

As much as Severus wanted to force the werewolf to tell him what was going on, he knew that the man had a point. Harry WAS a very private person, and he knew that the boy would hate it if his secrets were given without his knowledge. With a sigh, he nodded. "Fine. But I will give you a week for you to speak with Harry. After that, I will demand that you tell me. I'm as willing to help him as you are."

Remus smiled slightly. "Thank you, Severus. I know you answered my questions earlier, and technically, I should be telling you what I think is going on... but Harry is an extremely private person. I just want to give him a chance to let people know on his own terms. You have my word that I will speak with Harry about this within a week."

Severus nodded. "If that is all... I have several potions to get back to."

Remus couldn't hide his smile as he stood up. Bastard as the Potions Master was, he could see that Severus obviously cared about Harry. Hopefully, the two of them could get to the bottom of this.

With a small grin, he gave his farewells before leaving the rooms. It was time he had another talk with Harry.