Severus was not a wizard easily given to fear. He prided himself on that. However, as he sat down to pen a letter, accepting his estranged grandfather's proposition, his hands trembled.

He had yet to speak with Potter, but that could wait until after he'd gone through the necessary formalities. At present, that involved accepting his grandfather's invitation to visit and discuss the details of the Prince estate. Dotting the i's and crossing the t's, so to speak - yet another useful Muggle phrase.

He'd have to speak to Potter at some point in time, and he wasn't relishing that. No, there were a great deal many other things that Severus would rather do than speak with Potter about the upcoming adoption. He'd almost be willing to allot that particular duty to Dumbledore, but it wasn't the Headmaster's place, and he didn't want to be accused of shirking his duties by Potter or anyone else.

Severus dipped the quill into the ink well and scowled at his still trembling hand, as though that would help make it still. It didn't. He might be able to quell students with a single glare, but the look did nothing for his own traitorous limbs.

Taking a deep, fortifying breath, Severus rolled his shoulders, and placed the tip of the quill against the parchment. A spidery dot of ink spread from the tip and across the top, left-hand corner of the paper. Cursing, Severus balled it up and tossed it into a wastebasket beside his desk. He pulled out a second sheet of parchment, and started again. This time, his hand was a little steadier.

Dear Master Prince,

I accept your invitation for a meeting at Prince Manor this coming weekend.

Signed,

Severus T. Snape, son of Eileen Prince

It wasn't an overly flowery letter - no one would accuse Severus of being a verbose man - but Severus was satisfied with the contents, and he summoned an owl from the owlery. Attaching the missive to the owl's leg, he sighed in relief when the owl flew out of sight. That done, he could now focus on other matters at hand - grading, checking up on Potter's status in the Hospital Wing, getting the 'real' story surrounding Potter's abuse from Weasley and Potter's other cohorts.

Xxx

"Professor Snape?" Granger's timid voice was followed by an equally timid knock on his office door.

Severus wrote one last comment on a rather deplorable essay from a third year in Ravenclaw (he'd expected much better from that particular student) before bidding Granger to enter. He stretched and grimaced when his spine, popped.

"Take a seat Miss Granger," Severus said, gesturing to the chair across from him.

Granger clasped her hands together and sat on the edge of the chair. She was a bundle of nerves.

"Relax," Severus said when Granger started wringing her hands. "You're not in trouble. I've called you here to discuss Mr. Potter."

If anything, the girl grew tenser, and she leaned forward. "What has he done now? He really doesn't mean to get into trouble Professor, not really. I think it's got something to do with the need to prove himself. Ronald has the same problem, but for different reasons."

Severus held a hand up to stop Granger who'd opened her mouth to add something more. She was earnest and seemed to believe what she'd said; there was no guile in either her words or demeanor.

"What do you mean?"

Granger bit her bottom lip and her eyes got a faraway look to them. Severus bit his tongue and inwardly sighed as he waited for her to speak.

"Well, you see, Sir," Granger said hesitantly, not quite meeting his gaze, "with Ronald, he does what he does because, well, he's the youngest boy in a family of seven, and he feels inadequate...I think."

Severus nodded and waved for her to continue on. She truly was a very clever, young witch. He wasn't about to tell her that, though. There were plenty of other professors who told her that at every turn, and he wasn't going to add to an ego which needed to be built, not on what others said, but on what Miss Granger was able to accomplish by her own merit. She didn't need him to boost her ego.

"And, Potter?" He was curious as to what Granger had to say about the dark-haired hero.

Again, Granger bit her bottom lip and she looked at her hands which were now locked together so tightly that her knuckles had grown white with the effort. When she finally spoke, it was with a quiet, strained voice.

"I don't think he's trying to prove himself to anyone but himself, Sir." She raised her eyes to his, and held his gaze. "It's almost like he's got to prove to himself that he...and, I'm not a hundred percent sure...that he is something more than he is...if that makes any sense."

It did make sense, but for reasons that Severus wasn't sure Granger would understand. If Potter had suffered from years of abuse, then he'd have a very great desire to prove himself not to be a failure or weak or whatever it was that Mr. and Mrs. Dursely had beaten into him.

"I see, thank you, Miss Granger," Severus said in a dismissive tone.

Granger frowned and leaned even closer to his desk. "Was that all, Sir?"

"Yes, please send in Mr. Weasley, I believe that he's arrived."

Severus almost chuckled at the incredulous look on her face at having been dismissed so soon. He would have questioned Granger further, but it was clear to him that she didn't know about what had happened at the Dursleys anymore than he did. If she had known something, she would have said or alluded to it. Instead of arguing with him for dismissing her, she nodded and gave him a tight smile and then left, sending Weasley in with some sort of whispered dialogue that Severus couldn't hear.

"Mr. Weasley, take a seat," Severus said in a more clipped tone than he'd used with Granger.

Weasley declined the seat and stood in front of the offered chair, arms crossed over his chest. His shoulders were squared and he had a look of defiance on his face. Severus sometimes wished that he could have lived as a hermit so that he wouldn't have to deal with teenagers and their sometimes volatile hormones.

"Is this about Harry?" Weasley's tone held an undercurrent of anger, and Severus felt his earlier headache, which had started to abate, coming back.

Instead of voicing an answer, Severus nodded and gestured for Weasley to take a seat. Weasley shook his head and started pacing in front of the desk. Severus rested his head on his hands and sighed, knowing that he was in for a very long life of suffering teenagers and their stupid emotions once he'd officially adopted Potter as an heir to the Prince estate.

"He's not making it up, you know," Weasley said, whirling on him.

Severus returned Weasley's glare with a bland look and a raised eyebrow, and gestured to the chair once again. This time, Weasley plopped down in the seat and sprawled, more than sat in it. Severus resisted the urge to snap at him to sit up straight.

"I know," Severus said after a minute. "What has he told you?"

After Weasley closed his gaping mouth, he pierced Severus with a narrow-eyed look that was rather impressive for a Gryffindor. Weasley looked up at the ceiling, as though he could find the words that he wanted to say written there. After several long moments, during which Severus was starting to doubt his sanity and think that maybe he was asleep, dreaming all of this, Weasley sat up and faced him.

There was something in the boy's blue eyes which Severus found difficult to discern. Weasley leaned forward, resting his elbows on his knees. He searched Severus' eyes for a few seconds, and Severus wondered what the boy was looking for, even as he found himself hoping that Weasley would find whatever it was. It was an odd thought, one that Severus vowed to examine later.

"Not much," Weasley said, and he leaned back in the chair, stretching his long legs before him. "Just the usual, that he wishes he didn't have to go back to the Dursleys. I wouldn't know half of what I know if Fred, George and I hadn't broke him out of his home last year, and if I didn't watch him. He has nightmares, you know. Mostly in the first few weeks after he leaves the Dursleys."

This was not a version of Ronald Weasley that Severus was used to seeing, and, judging by the quirk of the boy's lips, Weasley was more than well aware of it. Severus wondered why Weasley kept this side of himself so well hidden, but knew better than to ask.

"I see...and does he say anything in his dreams?"

Weasley shrugged and nodded. "Mostly things like: stop, leave me alone, I didn't mean to..."

In spite of the flippant way in which Weasley had delivered the words, Severus saw that the boy was shaking, and that he was holding something back.

"Anything else?" Severus held Weasley's gaze.

"Yeah, sometimes he cries, and he sometimes mentions his uncle or aunt or Dudley," Weasley said with a shrug. "Dudley's his cousin," he added.

"And these marks that you've seen on him?" Severus asked.

"I noticed them when he was getting dressed the other day, made him explain them to me. Usually he waits until we're gone before getting dressed; now I understand why."

"How is it that you caught him this time?" Severus was curious as to how Potter had managed to keep this secret for so long and how Weasley had caught him in the act, so to speak.

"I doubled back," Weasley said, and he dragged a hand through his hair. "I'd forgotten my book for Potions." He blushed and looked away for a brief second.

"And when you confronted Potter?"

Weasley laughed harshly and clenched a fist in his lap. "He said that it had been an accident, but, when I called him on it, he admitted that his uncle had hit him because he thought that Harry had done something, 'freaky.'"

"And, it is your opinion that this has happened..."

"It has been happening ever since Harry went to live with them," Weasley cut him off before he could finish his thought. "He can't go back there...Sir. He can't."

"He won't," Severus said.

"Promise?" Weasley's voice cracked and Severus realized that the boy was close to tears. How he could go from spitting mad to tears in just a few seconds was mind boggling. Severus didn't remember being this emotionally volatile when he was a teenager.

"Yes, I promise." Severus felt a little silly making that promise, it was very unlike him, but then again, he was being confronted by a side of Ronald Weasley that he'd never been privy to before.

Weasley suddenly smiled, and Severus felt like he was suffering from emotional whiplash. At this rate, his headache was not going to be abating anytime soon.

"Sir?" Weasley interrupted his musings.

"Mr. Weasley?" Severus raised an eyebrow in question.

"Why did you help Harry?" There was open curiosity on Weasley's face, and the boy leaned closer as he examined Severus' face in turn.

"Because," Severus said, and he was going to leave it at that, but there was something in the way that Weasley was looking at him which made him continue, "it was the right thing to do, and..."

I wish someone had done the same for me. Though he left that part unspoken, he felt as though Lily was watching from wherever it was that she had gone to when she'd died to save the life of her son. Her green eyes were glistening with tears that would forever remain unshed, but she was smiling fondly at him, and at Weasley, as though to express some sort of gratitude to the both of them.

"And, what?" Weasley's brow crinkled.

"And, anyone else would have done the same," he finished lamely.

"But," Weasley said, taking a deep breath and letting it out noisily, "no one did. Harry told me that he tried to tell Dumbledore, and he once tried to tell a Muggle teacher, but that didn't work out well, and he was locked in his cupboard for a solid week, after his uncle..."

"Cupboard?" Severus cut Weasley off, ignoring the way his half-shout caused the boy to flinch.

"Ye...ah." Weasley was looking at Severus as though the wizard had gained two heads. "It was where he slept before his acceptance letter came from Hogwarts. He said that his letter was addressed to the cupboard."

"And he told all of this to you when?"

"The other morning, when I saw the bruises," Weasley said, speaking as though he thought that Severus was slow. Severus blinked at him, and Weasley swallowed and leaned back a little.

"I told him he had to tell Dumbledore, and then all of that...stuff...came out, and that's when he told me about the cupboard and the teacher and why he couldn't tell Dumbledore or another professor," Weasley finished quickly.

"I see. You're a good friend, Mr. Weasley." Severus grinned when Weasley's mouth dropped open, and almost chuckled when the teen's eyes practically bugged out of his head.

"Thank you, Sir," Weasley said after he'd regained his composure.

"I'm merely stating a fact," Severus said, waving off the thanks.

Weasley blushed, and he shook his head. "No, thank you for helping Harry, even though you don't really like him."

Severus wondered what the boy would think if he'd told him about the planned adoption, but, he figured that he'd shocked Weasley enough for one night. 'No need to give the boy a heart attack,' he thought as he dismissed Weasley with another promise that Potter wouldn't be returned to his Muggle relatives.