Severus Snape looked at the piece of parchment Minerva was handing to him at the staff table at lunch. It was a hand drawn flier advertising a variety of potions for sale. He recognized Draco's prim and blocky handwriting and thought the boys would clean up with the prices they were charging. Not enough to be ridiculous but enough to make a small fortune as far as teenagers were concerned.

"In what way?" Severus asked, handing the parchment back to her. "I am not the one selling the potions."

"Well I can't think of any students with such an interest in Potions that they'd want to spend their free time making them in excess amounts."

"Hermione Granger," Severus held up a finger.

"She has no interest in profit."

"Garrin Lockwood," he held up a second finger.

"His family owns half of Diagonalley."

"Draco Malfoy and Harry Potter." He didn't bother holding up two more fingers because Minerva had pursed her lips.

"From Harry's low grade's in Potions you'd think he detested the subject."

"Or it's teacher," Severus said surprising her, before pointing across the hall to where Harry and Draco sat at the far end of Gryffindor table bartering with several students as they traded coins for potions and creams.

"Well what are they doing selling potions? What are they doing selling potions together?" She sounded affronted and a little suspicious.

"I believe Mr. Potter wishes to buy a new broom. And as for my involvement in the matter, I told him which ingredients to add to the hair gel they're selling to turn it different colors." As if to prove his point Luna Lovegood walked right in front of the staff table on her way to Ravenclaw with pitch black hair. She could have passed for a Snape.

She eyed him closely. "Why would you do such a thing?"

"Give them alternate hair colors?"

"Don't get smart. You know what I mean."

Severus took a last swig of his coffee and then stood up, leaving the cup on the table. "I must be an enigma. Let's leave it that way."

She watched with narrowed eyes as he left the hall and then turned her attention back to Hogwarts' two newest entrepreneurs. She had a feeling there was more than a new broom involved in the partnership if the school's two biggest rivals had come together, and decided she'd need to keep an eye on them. For all she could see over the next week however (aside from a wide array of new hair colors floating around the school, including nearly ten different shades of purple), was two sixth year's raking in the sickles and soon the Galleons.

Harry and Draco paid little mind to McGonagall however as all the professors seemed curious about their little business. None had banned it so far, aside from the fact that Harry's father had officially banned bright orange hair cream because he couldn't stand seeing so much of it around the school. They'd run out of hair cream twice already in the first week and had to find time to make more. A few of the other potions were also doing well, including one Harry had found in a book in the Library that made people burp long and loud, and one that was essentially just extra caffeine in a candy form. They'd had to get that one approved by Professor Snape as well and were told not to sell more than two to a student per week or there could be health consequences for the students taking them.

"How much have you got now?" Draco asked on Friday. Harry had been so busy with classes, his friends, and selling potions that he'd hardly had time to think about not being allowed to sleep in his father's quarters anymore, or about Sirius too much. He had been thinking an awful lot about Remus and his unread letters, wondering and worrying about what the man might think of him or what he might do if Harry didn't reply to his mail.

"I had six last week and I've got 15 Galleons today.

"Wow," Draco said. "We make way more selling here than we do to the apothecary."

"Well I figure he won't want our business anyway once he finds out we're selling our stuff to his customers."

"Or maybe he'll find out and double what he's paying us."

"Maybe."

"So 15 and you need 40... figure you made nine this week and if you sell this much each week you'll have enough money in three weeks for that broom... just in time for Quidditch practices to start in October."

"Well," said Harry, "we'll definitely have a leg up on Slytherin won't we? What with the Blue Zephyr and the Firebolt."

"Well maybe I'll just quit helping you then," Draco joked.

Pointing his finger at Draco Harry said, "Go ahead. I'll give some free pink hair cream to Goyle and tell him you've been commenting on how much you like that color."

Draco narrowed his eyes then and Harry grinned. "It washes out in three days."

Harry shrugged. "You won't mind some now then will you?" He reached over to the counter in their little lab where several tins of new hair cream sat cooling and scooped up a blob of Gryffindor red onto his fingers.

"You wouldn't." Draco meant it as a statement but it came out more of a question. The room was small enough that Harry could get to him fairly easily.

Without answering Harry dove at Draco in laughter and smeared a streak through the white blond hair.

"UUGH!" Draco dove for the green and pinned Harry to the desk as he scooped the entire thing onto Harry's head. Harry was too busy laughing to care though because he'd already scooped up some dark yellow and had given Draco another streak right next to the red. He did in fact look like a red and yellow skunk.

"It looks fitting," Harry commented, standing back to admire his handy work. Draco reached up to scoop out what he could but it had already saturated his hair and dried.

"Guess we'll be advertising our own products for a few days then," Draco said.

Harry raised his brows and then conjured a mirror before he frowned at his own hair. It was mostly Slytherin green with odd patches of black around the edges where Draco had missed.

"Better do the thing right then," he said and coated the rest of his hair.

Draco looked in the mirror as well and then said, "I hate you."

"But Gryffindor will love you!"

* * *

Harry and Draco's little fight with the hair gels only served to increase sells over the next few days. People thought it was some sort of statement of their friendship that they'd exchanged house colors in their hair, but staff knew better at the looks Draco gave anyone who commented on his hair, even though Harry seemed quite happy with his new color.

"You've gone barmy," Ron told Harry on Monday morning when Harry's hair was slowly fading from green back to black.

"Why?"

"Did you have to wear green?"

"Well I didn't have a choice did I? Draco dumped the tin on my head after I got him with the red."

"Well, it did increase sales," Ginny pointed out. "Fred and George reckon they might buy some from you for their shop."

"Maybe when I've got money for the broom I'll just sell them the formula. I won't have much time to brew once Quidditch starts."

"That's right," Ron said. Harry thought Ron seemed a little affronted with the amount of time he spent with Draco selling and brewing, but was also aware that he had been keeping complaints to a minimum. When he had asked Ginny about it the day before she'd said he felt bad for Harry about what had gone on in the summer. Harry supposed Ron meant well, but being reminded of the summer only made him start thinking about it again and thus losing sleep. He'd had an almost normal week, but Harry's second week of school would drag him back into familiar feelings of distress, starting on Tuesday evening.

Harry had just finished with dinner and decided to do some last minute brewing in the dungeons before he went upstairs to join his friends and do some homework, but was stopped a few steps before his lab.

"Harry."

Harry turned to find his father and gave a small smile. He'd hoped that his father might be a little proud of all the potions he'd been brewing. He'd been hoping for a little piece of praise for weeks now.

"Yeah? I was going to ask you about a new potion we had an idea about."

"It will have to wait. There is someone here to see you."

Harry stared at him and swallowed. "To see me?"

"Yes. Come with me."

Harry caught up with his father and kept stride with him, but he wasn't sure he wanted to see whoever was on the other side of the door. It couldn't possibly be Sirius, could it? Had his father changed his mind? Did he not want him anymore? But no, the Headmaster wouldn't possibly allow Sirius to take him in the middle of the school year would he?

By the time they reached his father's quarters Harry had worked himself up a bit and was feeling on edge. Severus did not fail to notice.

"Nothing will happen," he tried to reassure him before he opened the door to his quarters, but the statement made Harry wonder why there was a need for it in the first place.

Harry stepped inside with Severus right behind him, and scanned the living room, expecting Sirius to jump out from any place. What he found was not Sirius however, but a weathered and wary looking Remus sitting on the couch staring at him.

"Hello Harry."

Severus moved around where Harry had stopped and went to stand behind a high backed chair where he put his hands on the back.

Harry didn't say anything, just stared at Remus.

"I wouldn't have come, but you hadn't answered any of my letters."

Harry caught the raised brow from his father but tried to push the unspoken question aside. He wasn't required to show his father all of his mail, was he?

Remus looked from Harry to Severus and then back.

"Ok, you don't have to talk to me Harry," he said, "I think I understand. But I came to tell you something important. Will you please sit with me while I tell you?"

Harry looked to his father who gave him a nod, and he moved to chair his father was behind. Remus sat back down and Harry took a steadying breath. He wasn't mad at Remus, but he was wary, and maybe a little afraid.

"How are you Harry? Holding up ok?"

Harry shrugged and looked down at his hands, missing the sad look in Remus' eyes.

"About a month ago I went to visit you and Sirius. I hadn't heard from either of you you see. We'd planned on going to see a Quidditch match and I'd wanted to finalize plans." Suddenly Harry felt a little guilty that he'd ruined plans that Remus and Sirius were probably looking forward to.

"Anyway, when I got there you weren't there and Sirius..." he tilted his head slightly. "He told me some things."

Harry looked up at him again and felt ashamed and hated himself for it.

"Don't do that Harry," Remus said suddenly. "None of this is your fault. But I felt like I needed to come and see you and tell you what Sirius told me. He doesn't know I've contacted you."

"It would probably be best that it remained that way," Severus suddenly said from behind Harry, making Harry thankful that he had someone there he could be sure was on his side.

Remus gave a nod. "Harry, I'm sorry this happened to you. It was not your fault and you should never have been put in a situation where it would happen. I didn't think in a million years that Sirius was capable of something like that."

Harry missed the piercing glare his father was giving Remus at that moment as Remus had chosen to ignore it.

"From what he's told me, Sirius did not intend to injure you. He was... unstable. He came to the castle intending to apologize but I gather things got out of hand." Here he looked at Severus briefly, and then back to Harry. "Harry, there's something specific that I came to tell you... something I think you should know. Bearing in mind that I don't expect you to forgive Sirius so soon, he told me something about the day he came to the castle, and it speaks to how sorry he is to have hurt you." Remus paused, gauging the interested look Harry wore and how tightly Severus was holding on to the back of the chair Harry was in, and then continued.

"When you fell backwards away from Sirius and he saw how scared you were, he knew you were still hurting and would not accept his apology. After you ran off and he and... your father scuffled, he told Severus about his relationship to you. While he admitted he had some satisfaction in throwing Severus for a loop with the information, that was not his original intention."

"What did he intend then?" Harry felt like spitting it out at the man, who at the moment was the only place to aim his anger at Sirius, but it came out sounding tired.

"He couldn't be there to help you through what you were going through, so he gave you someone who would. I myself had no idea of the relation or I would have told you years ago. Sirius told me that James had mentioned to him the night you were born that it was a possibility. I gather Sirius never put much stock in it until that day he came to find you here at the castle and saw the extent of what he'd done."

"And you just expect us to believe he told me out of the goodness of his heart? I find it hard to believe there is goodness in the heart of a man who would do such a thing to a child," Severus said in a deadly tone.

Remus sighed then and rubbed his forehead. "You don't know what that time in Azkaban did to him Severus. It's not an excuse," he said, holding up one hand," but time in prison will change any man, especially an innocent one framed for murdering his best friends. He tried to return to his old life, but too much had changed. I'll wager he thought that Harry was the only good thing in his life. When Draco was placed with him, he made the same mistake many others have made... he placed all the sins of the child's parents on the shoulders of the child." Here Harry didn't miss the look Remus sent to Severus, and he himself turned his head away. If he hadn't been so needy he might not have so readily accepted Snape as his father for all the man had done to torment him over the years for just looking like James Potter.

"Harry, I just wanted you to know these things," Remus said, turning his attention back to Harry. "And also that I had no prior knowledge that Sirius was treating you and Draco terribly or else I would have intervened. I feared this may be what you thought of me when you didn't reply to my letters."

Harry sighed then and looked straight up at his father, who appeared to be contemplating something, although Harry couldn't venture a guess as to what.

"Thank you," Harry said, "for telling me."

Remus gave a nod. "If you need anything Harry... anything at all, don't hesitate to ask."

Harry nodded too as Remus stood, wringing his hands together. "Thanks," Harry told him.

After a long silence, in which no one looked at each other, Remus cleared his throat. "Well, I'd better be off. It's a full moon tomorrow and I need some time to prepare. It was good seeing you Harry... Severus," and then he was gone out the door.

Severus came around the chair finally and sat on the couch next to where Remus had been sitting. There was silence for a few moments before he looked at Harry seriously and asked, "What did you think about what he said?"

Harry looked up at him and then away. "Don't know," he replied. "Glad that he came I guess." But in reality it was a lie. What he was really thinking was that he'd left Sirius in a time of need. The man was obviously broken and he'd gone and made things worse. On top of that he'd made Remus feel bad and Remus had never done a thing but help him and have Harry's best interests at heart.

"Do you wish to talk anymore about it?"

"No," Harry said. "I have some potions to brew."

"You wished to ask me about a new potion?"

Harry stood up and shrugged. "I forgot. Thanks for being here while Remus was."

"You're welcome."

Harry nodded. "Good night."

Later, as Harry sat on the floor in the tiny lab by himself, cauldrons empty, he wondered what kind of person he really was. Generally he was aware that people around him got hurt, sometimes because of who he was, sometimes because of his own actions. This had always bothered him and he'd tried to change accordingly so that he could at least prevent people from being injured because of him. Sirius had nearly died because he'd run off to the ministry last year and his friends on top of that. But now Harry had something new to contend with. He'd always been mistreated by the Dursleys and thought there was something wrong with them. The same had been true of his father's petty vindictiveness towards him. He'd assumed it was all because of James Potter. But now Sirius had jumped on the bandwagon and Harry was starting to wonder if there really was something wrong with him. True, his father had been very kind to him in the last month and a half, but that didn't negate the fact that Harry was often reckless, and thoughtless amongst other things. His latest achievement: leaving his broken Godfather by himself to wallow in a hurt that Harry might have been able to prevent. He wasn't sure just how he could have prevented it yet, but he truly felt that he could have. The truth was, it wasn't he who should be afraid of his Godfather, but his Godfather who should be afraid of him. Who would he hurt next?