The word ‘safe', written by the hand of Draco Malfoy was not something Harry considered that he would ever care about, never mind that it had come by way of owl in the middle of the night tapping on his window in secret. Harry had snatched the scrap of parchment away from the owl and then hurried it back out the window, careful not to wake the other occupant of the four story house. No, it wouldn't do at all to wake him up only to find out Harry had been in contact with the boy he'd help escape.

Harry proceeded to rip the parchment into tiny little shreds before sticking some of it in his pocket and then making his way to the bathroom where he hoped to flush them down the loo, erasing all evidence of his contact with Draco. Stealthily he crept down the hall, and was just reaching for the bathroom door handle when the hall light flipped on, and Harry froze, spying Sirius at the end leaning against the wall with his arms crossed.

"Going somewhere Harry?"

Harry stood straight. "Have to pee," he said, schooling his face blank.

Sirius pushed off the wall and came towards Harry, who held his ground despite his desire to flee. Uncle Vernon and Aunt Petunia may have withheld food from him and made him do a lot of chores, but the one boundary they had never crossed was physical punishment of any kind. They'd even refrained from spanking him as a small child, afraid that his magic would have some sort of backlash on them. Harry would have never thought Sirius capable of crossing said boundary, but he'd found out different since he'd come to stay with him a month before, at the end of his fifth year at Hogwarts.

"Really? I didn't think you'd had that much to drink at dinner."

"I can just go back to my room-" Harry said, motioning back down the hallway, but Sirius stalled him.

"Thought you had to use the bathroom."

Harry stilled, and turned back to his godfather. "I do."

"Better go then before you wet yourself," he said, and pushed the bathroom door open. "Then go back to bed so you won't be tired in the morning."

Feeling tense, Harry did as he was told and made his way past Sirius and into the bathroom where he closed and locked the door. Unsure if Sirius was listening outside the door or not, Harry used the toilet and then hurriedly threw the parchment shreds into the bowl and flushed it, watching with some satisfaction as the pieces disappeared for good.

As he stood in front of the sink, he looked into the mirror and felt guilty and sick all over again about the black eye and bruise on his chin. He knew there were several bruises on his torso and arms as well, although he'd been wearing long sleeve shirts to cover them up since he'd received them three days ago. After hearing a noise in the hall announcing that Sirius was still there, Harry quickly washed his hands, and then opened the door and went back to his room under Sirius' watchful eye. Once inside he locked his door and climbed into bed, determined to flush the rest of Draco's note away tomorrow morning, or else devour it lest he suffer more of his Godfather's wrath.

* * *

True to Draco's word, Snape had come snooping around when Draco hadn't replied to any of the man's owls. Severus Snape had protested Draco being placed with Harry and Sirius at the start of the summer, but had little to no say in the matter. Despite the fact that Snape was Draco's godfather, Dumbledore had been insistent that he not take custody of Draco after his father was arrested in the Department of Mysteries and his mother disappeared, to allay suspicion from the Ministry of Magic that Snape was somehow involved in the matter.

It had been four days since Harry had helped Draco out the window in the middle of the night on his broom, and now there was Snape knocking on the door, demanding to be let in.

"Not a word," Sirius reminded Harry, who was sitting on the couch, black eye and all, and Harry nodded obediently. He could hear Sirius making his way to the front door, but his mind was back on the night his world had tilted on end yet again.

‘What about you? He'll know you've helped me,' Draco said one leg hanging outside the window up on the third floor, Harry's broom hovering just within reach.

‘I'll be fine, he wouldn't hurt me.' Harry would have liked to have believed it was true, but after seeing Sirius deny Draco food, work him hard with chores, and then hit him over any small offense, Harry was no longer as certain. Despite any hard feelings the two had harbored towards each other over the years, they had banded together secretly at 12 Grimmuald Place, Harry sneaking food and medicine to Draco when he could, and helping him with an escape plan.

"I am here to see Draco." Harry snapped out of the memory as Snape walked into the living room and Sirius tried to restrain himself at the intrusion. His eyes flitted back and forth between the two men, who stood tensely facing each other.

"He's sleeping," Sirius lied easily. "He was up all night polishing that broom of his."

Snape narrowed his eyes at his schoolyard enemy, and then gazed past him to Harry. Sirius turned too and gave Harry a smile that Harry almost thought was real. There were times he would have believed it was. Sirius came and stood behind the couch, where he couldn't see Harry's face, and Snape turned his glare on Harry.

"What happened to you Potter?"

"Oh, wouldn't you know? He fell down the stairs trying to get away from your godson, who was getting ready to strike him."

Suddenly wishing he had stuck with Occlumency last year and had perhaps learned some Legilimency as well, Harry looked straight into the Potion's Master's eyes and gave the slightest shake of his head as he said, "Yes sir. Draco was getting ready to hit me." Harry had no idea if Snape had got his message or not that this was all a façade, because next second Snape was ignoring him again and demanding to see Draco.

"I have a right to see him," he finally said after a few minutes of arguing back and forth with Sirius. "Unless you'd like me to bring Dumbledore into it."

Harry glanced at Sirius, and could tell he didn't like being threatened in his own home. "Fine," he said. "I'll go and try to wake him, but if he doesn't want to see you, it's not my fault, and then you can tend to his whining when I dump a bucket of cold water over his head." He turned and practically stomped off up the stairs. When he was gone, Snape turned on Harry.

"What do you have to say for yourself?"

Harry turned from his spot on the couch and peered up the stairs to be sure Sirius was really gone. Likely he had a few minutes as Sirius pretended to be upstairs waking a nonexistent Draco.

"Not here," Harry said, standing quickly. He lead off into the hall and then to the kitchen, which he felt was more guarded from eavesdropping by all the stone surrounding it. The second Snape was inside, Harry closed the door and turned to face his Professor.

"Draco's gone. He escaped four nights ago."

"What are you babbling about Potter?"

"He's not upstairs, I swear. He's gone. Sirius was hitting him and he wasn't getting fed every day. He snapped Draco's broom in half and set his familiar loose."

"And I'm just to believe you?"

Harry stilled to listen for a moment to be sure Sirius hadn't come back downstairs, and then pointed to his eye. "Do you think Draco's stupid enough to do this with Sirius around? Sirius was... he was really mad when he found out I'd helped Draco."

Snape turned to leave, but Harry panicked and said, "I won't tell you where he's gone unless you take me with you." He was breathing hard now, and Snape turned to look at him once more.

"What did you say to me Potter?"

"Draco said you'd come for him. I- You have to take me with you."

"I have to do no such thing."

Harry lifted his shirt then and Snape took half a step back at the sight of the mottled bruises covering Harry's body. "Draco was ten times worse than this when he left," Harry said, dropping his shirt. "He could barely stand. I know where he's gone, and I'm not telling, unless you take me away from here."

Silence hung between them as Harry breathed hard, and Snape kept his eyes narrowed. Whatever he was thinking was broken by the sound of someone coming back down the stairs, and Severus leapt forward, seizing Harry's wrist before he hurried them both back out of the kitchen and through the front door. On the step they apparated and were gone, leaving Harry's belongings, and the pieces of Harry's heart behind them.

* * *

"Where is he Potter?"

The second they'd landed with a thud in some distant, deserted alley, Snape was there angrily demanding to know where Draco was. What must it be like to have someone to come for you, to be so certain that someone loved you enough to come and find you no matter what.

"You'll leave me here if I tell you," Harry said, uncertainty flooding him. He had his wand, but only because he'd managed to sneak it out of Sirius' room and downstairs with him that morning when Sirius had gone to take a shower. His other belongings all lay behind him in a house he hoped never to return to again.

"You are an insolent brat Potter, and it is likely you deserved whatever you got. I am not entirely sure I believe your story, and have just committed kidnapping based on said uncertainty. For all I know I have just left Draco in that house alone."

Harry shook his head. "No, he's not there. But if I tell you, you have to take me with you."

"You are in no position to be making demands."

Feeling panicky again Harry cracked a little under the pressure of being abandoned to be found by Sirius and taken back, and yelled, "HE'LL FIND ME!" Breathing hard, he reached up and pulled at his hair a little on one side and turned away from yet another adult that cared nothing about him or his safety.

"He Who Must Not Be Named?"

Biting his lip, back still to Snape, Harry said quietly, "Sirius. He'll find me." He'd beaten Harry so severely that first night for helping Draco escape that Harry thought he'd die of shame and injury right there on the floor next to his bed. If Sirius could do that to him, then anybody could, but that was a thought he pushed back down inside of himself as he tried to deal with the man standing behind him.

"Tell me where Draco is, and I will take you with me, to ensure you have given me the correct information."

Harry turned, and Severus noticed the distressed nature the boy had worked himself into. Quietly Harry said, "Draco said something about a cabin out in the middle of nowhere. He said his grandfather used to take him fishing there."

"Where is this cabin?"

"I don't know. He wouldn't tell me exactly just in case Sirius forced the answer out of me."

Snape cursed softly then and turned in his own frustration. Damn the brat for promising to lead him to Draco when he didn't know how to.

"Come here."

Harry did as he was told, although hesitantly, and Snape grabbed his arm, making him wince because there was a bruise there.

"I must talk to someone. You are to keep your mouth closed regardless of what questions are asked of you, understood?" Harry nodded and Snape aimed his wand at him causing Harry's face to transform into someone less notable in public, and then without warning they were gone again, apparating into the unknown.