"Ok," Harry said, feeling strange. He knew that Voldemort and his Death Eaters were still out there biding their time, so he couldn't be seen with Snape as himself, but he felt weird about looking like someone else, even if he wished that he were one of Sam's relatives. Severus too drank the potion and his face became rounder, and his hair shorter. Harry was amazed as he realized that he looked completely different.

After drinking down the potions, Jo and Severus apparated Harry and Sam to a restaurant Harry had never been to before in Diagonalley. Harry noticed immediately that Sam did seem to have a change of heart as they sat eating. He asked Snape about several things and with a decent attitude. Before Harry knew it Snape, Jo, and Sam were all laughing. Harry laughed a little too, but as he sat on one side of the round sidewalk table, he looked at the three smiling faces and knew that while he looked like Sam, he still wasn't a part of his family. Sam would never be kicked out of the house, even if he did say something vile or do something wrong. Harry on the other hand was just the kid from the street that Snape had brought home because there was no other place for him to go.

After lunch, Severus accompanied him to his Gringotts vault where Harry scooped a handful of coins into his money pouch and eyed the contents of the vault warily. Perhaps if James and Lily had lived longer the vault would have been full of gold still, but after five years of Harry taking money for school supplies, there was very little left, and suddenly he felt bad about buying clothes with it. He would have enough to get him through seventh year, but felt wrong about wasting his parent's hard earned money on something silly like new clothes, which he'd never had before so why start now?

"I- I think I'll just put some of this back," Harry said, opening his money pouch again.

"For what cause?" Severus asked then in the dark vault. Their goblin banker was waiting on the threshold of the vault looking bored, but Harry paid him no attention as he tried to figure out how to formulate his answer to his Professor.

"There's not enough to be spending on clothes sir," he finally said. "I've got to save it for school supplies and other necessities."

"Such as a new broom?" Snape's eyebrow was raised and Harry's cheeks tinged red.

"No sir, that costs a fortune. I- I was thinking about food."

"You have need to buy food when you're at Hogwarts?"

"After Hogwarts," Harry clarified then. "Maybe I can get a job in Hogsmead next summer..." Harry trailed off as he rubbed the back of his neck. Maybe if he'd been thinking of this before, he could have been more frugal all of these years... purchased used books and robes instead of wasting his money on new ones.

"Do not put the money back Potter, and do not worry yourself over it. The clothes are a necessity."

They've never been before, Harry thought.

Back outside of Gringotts they met up with Sam and Jo.

"We might as well get Sam's school clothes now," Jo said. "It will save us some time when we come back for the rest of the school supplies at the end of the summer."

"Mum, I hate clothes shopping. Don't you Harry?"

Harry paused. He didn't want to sound totally pathetic and say he'd never been clothes shopping before. The closest he'd come was getting new robes each year.

"I don't know," Harry said.

"Well, come on then," Joanna urged them. Harry didn't even realize that there were clothing stores on Diagonalley until Joanna steered them into one a few steps down from the Gringotts entrance. Inside the tiny building Harry found a magically enlarged room full to the brim with clothes of both Muggle and Wizarding variety.

"Sam, I want you to pick out ten shirts and ten pairs of pants," Joanna told him. "You'd better get socks and underwear too and a coat and shoes."

"Mum," Sam said, sounding affronted that she'd just publicly told him to get underwear.

"Harry, you'd better pick out the same," she said, surprising him. "Maybe you'd better get two pairs of shoes and a sweat jacket too," she added after looking at Harry's sneakers, which had a hole in the side where she could see Harry's sock.

Harry didn't want to tell her he didn't have the money for it, so he moved off with Sam, thinking he would just get a few things and hope she wouldn't notice.

"Here Harry," Sam said when they made their way to the back of the store where the men's clothes were. Luckily Severus and Jo hadn't followed them, Harry thought as he pulled a face at the pair of underwear Sam had just thrown at him.

"Let me just look at the shirts right now," Harry told him.

"They have a whole rack of Falmouth Falcon's shirts," Sam said, "but I've already got three that Jason gave me for free."

Harry headed over to the rack Sam had pointed at and rifled through it until he found a dark blue shirt he liked with the Falcon symbol on the front in silver.

After twenty minutes Sam had a pile of clothing and Harry had only picked out three shirts and a new pair of pants. He really did want a new pair of shoes, but they were three sickles each and that was just too expensive. If he bought any more, his money pouch would be empty.

"All ready mum," Sam said as he dumped his clothes on the checkout counter.

Jo rifled through Sam's choices for a few moments before she was satisfied, and then turned to Harry's small stack of neatly folded clothes.

"Harry, is this all? You haven't even picked out a pair of shoes."

Turning red now with embarrassment, Harry said, "I don't have the money for it." He pulled out his money pouch which held exactly four Galleons, and Jo put her hand on Harry's to still him from opening the pouch.

"You're not paying for these Harry. You keep your money and spend it on something you want."

"I don't-"

"Don't worry about it," she said quietly. "You just go and get the rest of your clothes." Harry looked to Snape who gave him a single nod, and then moved off again. Nobody had ever bought him clothes before. Well, maybe his parents when he was little, but that was a long time ago.

After a few minutes Sam came to the back of the store again and said, "Mum says not to come back to the front until you have two pairs of shoes, and Snape said one of the pairs should be boots."

"They shouldn't be paying for this," Harry said, feeling tense. It just means I'll have to pay them back, he thought to himself. At the back of his mind he also wondered if them buying his clothes meant he would be beholden to them. Would they demand he be good or else take his clothes back?

"Mum's a healer and Snape is a professor," Sam laughed. "They make good money between the two of them, not to mention that Snape sells potions on the side."

Harry grumbled something and after a moment Sam began pulling pants Harry's size off the shelves to hurry the process along. Before Harry knew it he had five pairs of blue jeans two pairs of nice black slacks, two pairs of khaki white slacks, and a new pair of green cargo shorts that claimed they were aero dynamic on the tag and would help the wearer fly faster.

"Did you see the Air Krums?" Sam asked as they headed to the shoe section. "Viktor Krum swears they make him jump higher for takeoff when he flies."

Harry laughed. "Are they charmed then?"

"I don't know, try them on."

Harry sat down and tried on a pair of the blue sneakers.

"Go on then, jump," Sam told him.

Standing up and giving a good push off Harry was surprised to find himself jumping a fair height off the floor. "Ok," Harry said. "I've got to have these."

After another twenty minutes, Harry found himself back at the front of the store where Severus and Jo were waiting and talking with the clerk.

"That's better," Jo said seeing Harry's armful of clothes and the two pairs of shoes Sam was carrying for Harry. "And you've picked out a coat and sweatshirt too?"

Harry nodded and Severus took the armful of clothes from Harry and set them on the counter, before pulling out his own money pouch and pulling out seven Galleons to pay for it all, followed by Jo who pulled out six and put them on the counter.

Outside the store Severus waved his wand, and the bags of clothes vanished into thin air, presumably to reappear back at Hogwarts or Jo's house. Harry still wasn't quite sure where they were going after this. Severus hadn't said they were going to stay at Jo's house again even though they were shopping together now. Part of Harry wanted to go back, but part didn't. Somehow he was wanted... by Snape of all people! He didn't want to lose that, even if it did mean he was going to get the rest of the summer with Sam.

"Why don't we get some ice cream?" Jo asked as they walked down the street.

"Or we could go and buy new brooms!" Sam said cheerfully. Jo raised her brows knowing that Sam had never taken an interest in flying before.

"C'mon mum, Fortescue's is right next to The Quidditch Emporium." Can't Harry and I just look while you're getting ice cream?"

"You can look," she said then. "What kind of ice cream do you want? We'll order for you."

"Carmel, cotton candy, and Every Flavor Beans," Sam said, and Harry shook his head.

"How can you eat that?"

"Remember Harry, marry the flavors together."

"What about you Harry?" Jo asked.

Harry turned red a little, still not used to being asked what he wanted regarding anything, but especially not ice cream. He turned to look at Snape, but this time the man wasn't glaring at him as a warning not to ask for multiple scoops.

"Um, nothing for me thanks," Harry said anyway. He was already seven Galleons in debt to them. He didn't want it to keep piling up.

"Are you sure?"

Harry nodded and before Joanna could say anything else about it, Sam had grabbed Harry's wrist to drag him off to the Quidditch store.

Inside the Quidditch Emporium, Sam went immediately back to the magazine section and left Harry to look at the new brooms. Harry had barely stepped up to the new Lightningbolt however, when a familiar drawl sounded by his ear quietly.

"Looking for a new broom Potter?"

Harry spun around to find Draco Malfoy with a smug look on his face, and then turned hurriedly to the glass case to look at his reflection. As far as he could tell, he still looked like Sam's relative, and his scar wasn't visible.

"I don't know what you're talking about," Harry said to Draco then. "Who are you?"

Draco smirked. "You can play games if you like, but I knew it was you the second I saw you sauntering down Diagonalley, ragged clothes and all. Or... did you forget that I'm the one that put the holes in those ragged, nasty shoes of yours?" He moved in closer to Harry now and lowered his voice even further so that no one else in the crowded shop could hear him.

"I know Uncle Severus is dating Heywood's mother, so I know why he's here, but it's you I can't figure out."

"Don't try," Harry said then, turning and pretending to look at a poster of the Lockwood Looters, an all-female team from Scottland.

Smirking again, Draco crossed his arms and then said, "You can look like them all you want Potter, but don't be fooled. You'll never be one of them."

Harry turned to give Draco a piece of his mind, but Draco had already gone, and Harry just caught sight of his back as he walked out the door. Harry huffed indignantly and crossed his own arms just as Sam came up to him.

"C'mon, mum's outside with the ice cream."

Harry followed him without a word, and was silent for the rest of the day.

* * *

As it turned out, they were going back to Joanna's house, Draco's words ringing in Harry's ears all the way. Normally Harry would have been very pleased to find out that they were giving him the spare bedroom for the rest of the summer, but he didn't seem as pleased as Sam would have thought.

"Look Harry, now you have a closet to put all those new clothes of yours in."

Harry shrugged. If he hadn't already been thinking along the same line as Draco's taunts, he might have been able to brush the Slytherin's comments off, but the truth was he was already feeling this way to begin with. At any moment they could decide to chuck him out. He wasn't part of their family, and while appearances would say they were welcoming him, he knew it was all a façade. If they had someplace else for him to go, he'd already be there.

Sam left Harry to put his new clothes away and change into something nice (of which Harry considered all of his new clothes), but came back shortly with a Falmouth Falcon's poster. "Here, something to spruce up the walls with."

"Thanks," Harry said. "Jason will like that when he comes back to stay in the room."

"What are you talking about? He'll probably sleep on the couch or on the cot in my room."

"But this is his room," Harry said.

Sam shrugged. "Yeah, it used to be when he lived here. He grew up here after his parents died, but it's your room now."

"Jason grew up here?"

"Yeah, he just moved out a few years ago. He came when he was fourteen."

Harry took a deep breath and sat down on the end of the very soft bed. "Sorry, I don't know what's wrong with me. I ran into Draco earlier in the Quidditch Emporium and I guess he got to me."

"He's a git."

"He called Professor Snape ‘Uncle Severus'."

"Ugh," Sam said, crossing his arms then. "Don't remind me."

Eyes widening, Harry said, "You don't mean he's actually his nephew?"

"No, but Snape is his Godfather and has custodial rights over him if something happens to his parents."

"Great," Harry said. "That will be so fun for you if Draco ever has to move in."

"Fun for us," Sam corrected. "You live here now too."

"For now," Harry said. Sam frowned, but didn't question him any further seeing that Harry looked unwilling to talk.

* * *

Sam and Snape were... laughing together in the living room. Harry shivered then, feeling uncomfortable. Sam had practically hated Snape at the start of the summer, and now they seemed very friendly... too friendly. Did this mean that Snape would stop being nice to Harry now that he had Jo's son on his side? Deep in thought, Harry didn't hear Joanna come up behind him.

"Harry, would you like to help me make dinner?"

"Ok," Harry said. She lead him into the kitchen where Harry began pulling out pots and pans. "What do you want me to make?" he asked her in a dull quiet tone.

She gave him an appraising look. "What do I want you to make? Filet Mignon I think," she said, tapping her chin with her pointer finger.

Harry went to the fridge and began pulling supplies out, but the next second Joanna had stopped him. "Wait Harry, I was only joking. I don't expect you to fix dinner by yourself, let alone Filet Mignon." She gave a little laugh, but Harry only succeeded in turning his cheeks pink, something that was becoming too common he thought.

"I can do it," he said. It was something the Dursleys had made him fix on special occasions.

Jo frowned. "Really? I've tried to teach Sam to cook but he'd burn the water if I left him to it."

"I used to cook a lot," Harry said, pulling out another pan.

"Yeah? How often?"

Harry shrugged as he filled a pot with water, thinking he'd cook some vegetables to go with the meal.

"Every meal," he said.

"Really?"

"I'm a good cook most of the time," Harry said, going to the fridge again and pulling out an armful of ingredients. He paused, looking at what he had, and then said, "You have bacon but no tenderloin."

"Harry." He turned at the soft use of his name and gentle touch on his arm, and found Jo there looking concerned.

"I really don't want you to fix dinner by yourself. We do things as a family here. And-" she paused, looking at Harry's green eyes for a moment. "I wanted to say that I'm sorry for what I said. I should have gotten your side of the story first."

Harry stared her in the eyes and said seriously, "You don't need to apologize. I get it. Family comes first. Don't worry Mrs. Heywood... you can go into the living room with Sam and Professor Snape. I'll cook dinner." He turned from her then and began washing the vegetables in the sink. Joanna, feeling a little lost at the conversation she'd just had, and apparently the failed apology she'd tried to make, stepped out of the kitchen, giving Harry's back one last look. He'd just told her in not as many words, that he was not a part of their family and he understood that. She would need to talk to Severus, because she didn't know how to fix her mistake now.

When she'd gone, Harry stopped what he was doing and looked down into the sink. Once you were an orphan, he thought, you were always an orphan. There was no changing the path that fate had set out for you.