Snape walked straight to his desk to check for any messages that might have been left by someone. It was common practice at Hogwarts to leave a note on a teachers desk if something needed to be organised at Hogwarts. Sitting on the table was just one note.

Dear Severus,

Welcome back to Hogwarts my dear boy.

Snapes eyes rolled reading that letter, here we go again one of Dumbledores welcome notes which he wrote to all of the teachers reguardless of how many times Snape pointed out to the man that he was just wasting parchment..

I trust that you enjoyed your vacation with your son.

Oh yeah…thought Snape, I always enjoy having to chase after some maniac because he has something that I need. In this case going for almost four weeks and being worried half to death about his safety was always something that he wanted to fill his holidays with. Having the end of July and half of August with frantic dreams and nightmares of where Harry could be and those weird dreams of the fog not to mention how tired he was when he was finding his son and having to heal him after what that so called "uncle" of his did to him. What kind of a stupid statement is that "I hope you enjoy your summer" Snape had a strong feeling that he would like to storm into the headmasters office and punch the old man right in the nose, but he knew that would not make things easier for him or his son. Dumbledore was one of the few people who stood by him when his credibility was on the line because he was being tried as a death eater and from that alone Dumbledore deserved his son and his respect. He just got rather…scatterbrained and annoying at times yeah that's it. It went on…

I'm glad that you decided to come to Hogwarts and good on you my boy for making that big step alone.

Oh yeah…Snape thought…sure it was alone…with Molly, Arthur, Dumbledore and if he hadn't have caved in probably a stack of other people contacting him to try to convince him to make the decision that they wanted him to make. Even Molly showing up just before they left was probably of Dumbledore's making.

If you would be interested in discussing Harry's education with me you can feel free to visit me in my office at any time.

Well here is something useful at least. He appreciated that the headmaster was supportive of Harry having a good education. He kept reading.

But I know that you are probably very busy after just getting back to Hogwarts. If you would like to send Harry through to my office I would be more than happy to have the Weasleys help him get adjusted to the castle and maybe play some games outside before dinner and then we will ask Harry where he wants to spend the evening and sleep.

Sincerely yours

Albus Percival Wulfrick Brian Dumbledore

Well at least he has some useful ideas. Snape thought of some of the potions that he should be starting as early as possible to ensure they were ready in the two weeks before school. Quite a few of them would have to be his faster version already as there are potions that need a month of brewing or more to be completed but his quicker ideas would be a temporary fix to the school supplies whilst he worked on the standard slower made potion. The downside of the quickly made potion was that it took longer for an injury to be healed which was not enjoyable for the patient but if there is nothing else it is worth it. For instance whilst skelegrow will grow back a human arm overnight as Harry discovered the hard way in second year, skelegrowS, the capital S standing for slower, it would take about a week to do the same thing. As he was thinking he noticed sitting on his desk was a pink piece of paper. Pink? That's unusual.

He looked at it and noticed some writing.

Dear Severus,

I wanted to write to you but I did not wish to bother you at home. I hope that this letter has been delivered to the right desk as I wasn't exactly sure where to send it.

I hope that you returned home safely and that everything has been going well since you left my home. I am truly sorry for Norman and Frank's behaviour. I have since found out that Frank has certain friends that have been delving deeply into the dark arts and he has been attempting to recruit Norman. He refuses to go of course but it pains me to think that one of my boys could have gone into such matters. Where did I go wrong?

Please hold tight to Harry, Severus, teach him well and I know that things will be fine. So much rests on such fragile shoulders. I hope that he is going well. If you ever need a break you can both feel free to come back to my home. I can ensure now that I know what has happened that it shall be safe for him and if you want you can even add your style of protection as well you can never be too careful. I hope you both are well and if I can do anything to help please let me know.

I have taken it upon myself to find a way to make it up to you and to hopefully enrich the minds of other young witches and warlocks who do not have anybody to turn to. By starting a small class with students here to study magic first here at home and then I hope to find a bigger place to continue their education. I would really appreciate it if you would put me into contact with anybody who might be able to help me during this time. I have sent a note to Dumbledore requesting similar but I feel that there are certain things that your particular skills could help me more with than others.

If this is possible please contact me at your earliest possible convenience.

Melissa Topper

Severus folded the letter with a smile. At least somebody showed that they cared. He folded it in half again and put it into a drawer making a mental note to attend to it later when Harry was doing other activities.

"Harry, the headmaster has asked for you to go to his office and spend time with the Weasley family before we start our lessons tomorrow. I have to attend to some very important potions do you think you can go through the floo on your own? Of course you can always stay here and read a book but I need absolute silence to concentrate," Snape said sitting at his desk and looking at Harry.

"I can go through the floo," Harry said happily, "I'm looking forward to seeing Hermione again."

"She isn't a Weasley son, although with the amount of time she spends wit h that family one could easily mistake that to be the case. I'm not sure of Miss Granger's movements at this moment but I do know that Ron and Fred and George are going to be there."

"Ron?" Harry looked a little bit concerned.

"Yes Ron, Harry, don't worry I'm pretty sure that Mrs Weasley spoke with him earlier about his behaviour with you before. But if you feel at all uncomfortable with him you can feel free to come to me and I will have words with him," Snape said with a sigh of frustration.

"Ok, so I do just like you did at home and what do I say?" Harry asked.

With concern Snape said "I'll do that bit, you just step on through," with that he took some floo from beside the fireplace, called out "Headmaster Dumbledore's study" and pushed him through returning to his stack of books to start the first potion. He knew a lot of them by heart but a few he was unsure of and still had to return to the books from time to time.