If it had only been attacking Professor Snape, Harry thought that he would have stayed and tried to fight it, but the fact was that as soon as he'd come around the corner of the desk, the thing was brushing against his leg again, and Harry had startled so badly that he'd practically levitated off the floor. Harry knew the beast was behind him, tracking him turn after turn as he went deeper into the dungeons, because he could hear the growling and he could feel the hair standing up on the back of his neck. Breathing ragged as he turned another corner and suddenly found himself at a dead end, Harry wished they would enroll students into Care of Magical creatures starting in first year instead of third, so that he might know what he was up against.

"St- stay back! I'm warning you!" Harry said, wand out and lit, though his hand trembled as much as his voice. There was no noise in in answer, but Harry knew the beast was there, lurking in the shadows unseen, waiting to pounce and do to him what it had done to Snape. Snape, damn. Harry felt ashamed that he'd left the man there, nasty as he was, possibly to die.

Looking around wildly Harry began to feel the rough stone walls for any sign of a hidden escape route. The castle was full of hidden passageways and rooms. Just last week Hermione had been delighted to find a hidden library that looked as if it hadn't been used in ages. She now considered it her own private stash of books.

Finding no secret exit, Harry turned to face the dimly lit corridor again and was startled again as the thing brushed up against him. If he didn't know any better he would have said it was some sort of cat, because the brief touches reminded Harry of what Mrs. Norris did to Filch whenever he spotted them together in the corridors.

"Sh- shoo," Harry said, voice uncertain. He waved his hands, hoping he wouldn't feel the creature bite down on one of his limbs, or rip his legs up as it had done to Snape.

He felt the thing brush up against his leg again. "Shoo- go on. Get out of here!" There was a low growl in response, and Harry jumped.

"S- sorry?" he said to thin air, and the thing brushed him for a third time. Harry wished there was some sort of table to climb up on, but for all he knew this invisible cat thing had wings and could fly, or could simply float up to where he was. Apparently it's home was in the dungeons, or in the walls, and Harry wondered that it hadn't gotten him in the day time yet, or made its way into Gryffindor tower.

"Please?" Harry tried pleading. Before he could say anything else however, there was a bright flash of light from the other end of the corridor followed by a screech and a piteous howling, and Harry squinted through his bad store bought glasses to see Snape leaning on a wall at the other end of the corridor, wand out.

"Potter, come here. Now."

Harry hastened to obey, uncertain of where the creature was or if it would ever attack him.

"Are you injured?" Snape asked, but all Harry could do was shake his head mutely as he stared down at the blood dripping from Snape's leg.

"The creature did not injure you?" he asked again, skeptical, and Harry shook his head again.

"It kept brushing up against my leg sir, and it growled a couple of times."

Snape's weary eyes swept over the darkened corridor. His revealing spell had done nothing but irritate the creature as much as he himself was irritated that Potter was right and that perhaps there had been something in the staircase.

Harry startled as Snape placed a hand on his shoulder to turn him around, but he obeyed and they quickly made their way back up through the dungeons and quickly into Snape's office, where the man closed and warded the door with several complicated sounding charms.

"Professor, what was that thing?" Harry tried valiantly to control his voice and keep it from sounding shaky. He didn't want to reveal any weakness in front of someone who might use it against him.

Snape sneered as he wrenched open a cupboard door and began rifling through potion tins for something to put on his leg. "I don't know Potter. Have you encountered this creature before?"

"It followed me back from the dungeons last night, but I couldn't see it. I think... I think it lives down here in the dungeons."

"Yet you first encountered it in the stairs. You may have unleashed something upon the school."

"I'm sorry," Harry mumbled, looking down at his hands from where he still stood by the door.

"You will be," the Potion's Master said, and Harry wasn't sure if it was a threat or not as he watched the man sit down in his chair and begin rubbing blue goop up and down his injured legs. Harry was amazed, as he often was in this place, as he watched most of the scratches heal and the blood disappear as the goop evaporated.

"Dare I ask," Snape said, giving Harry a cold and calculating look, "if you have been experimenting with dark or unknown magic?"

"S- sir?"

"The dark arts Potter. Have you been reading or doing magic you shouldn't be?"

Harry stared at the impatient and what Harry would classify as near maniacal look on his professor's face.

"No Professor."

"Something is amiss Potter. The beast does not seem to attack you. What were you thinking when the infernal thing came after me?" He snapped out the last part, making Harry feel on edge.

"Nothing sir, I was just doing my detention."

"You weren't wishing ill will towards me?"

Harry frowned. Who didn't wish the git would just go away and leave them alone? As far as he remembered though, he hadn't been thinking a thing aside from how disgusting his detention was.

"No sir."

Snape scoffed. "I find that hard to believe." Without warning he spun on his heel and pushed in a brick in the wall behind his desk, and Harry stared in awe as the wall sunk in on itself much as the one behind the Leaky Cauldron did. Snape disappeared through the narrow opening, but shouted at Harry a moment later, "Follow me Potter," and Harry hurried to obey, wondering if there was some sort of torture dungeon beyond the wall. He wouldn't put it past Snape to drag him to some room well beneath the castle where no one would hear his screams.

On the other side of the door was a long skinny corridor that Harry hurried to get through, feeling claustrophobic. On the other side he came out into Snape's living room, and his mouth dropped open again. Why were they back in the man's quarters again? His eyes searched for Snape, and found him pulling several books off of a packed bookshelf on one side of the fireplace.

"Start looking for a creature matching the description of the one following you Potter," Snape commanded, setting a stack of books on the coffee table and then pulling the one off the top as he began flipping through pages hurriedly. Was this part of detention, Harry wondered, looking at his watch and noting that it was already ten.

After standing there and watching the man pouring through books for a full two minutes, Harry finally went over to the table and picked up a book, and tentatively took a seat in an armchair by the empty fireplace. Harry didn't pretend to understand the title, something about Dark arts and mysticism, by he opened the book anyway and stared at the words. He would never be able to understand any of it, let alone read it in a short amount of time. The Dursleys had never helped Harry with school work, and in school Dudley always got him in trouble or distracted him when they were learning. While Harry was 12, he had great difficulty piecing sentences together, and the only thing that had gotten him through his previous year of school was Hermione reading chapters of schoolbooks aloud to him and Ron to ensure they were paying attention. Thankfully she'd also shown him a charm to make his quill take notes for him and write his homework for him if he dictated to it. He sighed as he stared hard at the first word, and tried hard to pronounce it in his head without saying it out loud or moving his lips. After a few moments he realized the word was ‘nature' though he was confused about its spelling. He never had understood the rule about silent e's.

"Time is of the essence Potter, unless you wish to spend the entire night here," Snape drawled from the other side of the table on the couch. Harry looked up but when Snape didn't look up to meet his eyes, he looked back down to the first page, frustrated, and set to work figuring out what the next few words were. Snape was an expert skimmer it appeared and was already browsing through a third book.

After another five minutes, Snape looked up and asked, "Have you found anything yet?"

"No sir," Harry said, feeling embarrassed when the man held out his hand for the book. Harry handed it to him, still open to the first page and the man glared at him.

"You have not even been trying Potter. You've been sitting there staring at the first page for ten minutes. If you are determined to be useless, you may as well go back to your dormitory."

"Alone sir?"

"The creature doesn't appear to be after you Potter. For whatever reason, it appears to have taken a liking to you. I doubt it will attack you."

In his panic Harry wanted to shout then that the man didn't know that, but he clamped his mouth down hard, not wanting to dig himself into more trouble.

"I don't want to go back alone," Harry said, and Snape scoffed.

"Then make yourself comfortable, because I'm not ready to take you back right now."

Grumbling something about torture, Harry crossed his arms and sat back in the chair, secretly hoping that the creature would sneak in while he was still there just to spur Snape to action and get them out of the man's quarters. Then Snape would have to take him back to his common room. The creature never did sneak in though, and Harry felt disappointed as he nodded off in the chair, feeling cold and uncomfortable.

Forty five minutes later, Snape had finished looking through the ten books he'd pulled off his shelves, and looked up to see Potter sleeping in his arm chair. Brat, he thought to himself with a sneer. How dare he fall asleep in his quarters? He didn't even have the decency to try to help search for information.

"Potter," he said irritably to wake the boy, but the Gryffindor didn't stir. Severus rubbed the bridge of his nose hard, trying to force the irritation down. He rose to put the books away and when he had placed the last one on the shelf, he spied another book, long forgotten at the edge of a shelf, and pulled it out. It was another book about Hogwarts, and he knew he'd better check in case it held the answers he was looking for. He didn't want to wake the Headmaster at such a late hour without any answers. He knew that sooner or later he would need to tell the man so that the monster didn't start attacking students when they came out of their dormitories in the morning for breakfast and classes.

Tired, and legs aching, Severus sat back down on the comfortable couch and began making his way through the book. On the last page, he paused as he read a description about an invisible being that had occasionally been conjured within school boundaries to protect a child in need.

‘The Protector takes a different form for each child in need. It is believed to be a shapeshifter, though no one has ever seen its shape change because it has always been invisible. Four occurrences of the protector have been reported since the construction of the castle, and each time the Protector was conjured for a student who was being abused, or was in danger of physical harm in some way. The protector is often described as stalking or following the student in need, while displaying fierce protective qualities against any whom the child deems a threat. The protector cannot leave Hogwarts boundaries, and will not let the child leave if it believes said child will be going back to a dangerous situation. The protector often vanishes once the child's needs are being met, and the child is no longer seen as in-danger.'

Severus looked down at his still torn pant leg and the several angry scratches that still remained. Was it possible that this, ‘protector,' was the thing stalking the Dungeon hallways and following the boy about? Impossible. The child was in no danger unless it was from his own stupidity. The little stunt he and his friends had pulled with the sorcerer's stone was enough to prove that.

His eyes raked over the sleeping form in the chair across from him. The pampered brat had never known abuse in his life. Severus knew abuse and the ‘protector' had never shown up to keep him from going back to Spinner's End. No, he scoffed again snorting in amusement, if it was the protector it had made some sort of mistake in choosing the boy, or perhaps the child was in some sort of danger here at Hogwarts. Lockhart perhaps, who was a danger to himself and others at all times, period.

"Potter," Severus stood and shook his shoulder this time and the boy startled and tried to back up into the chair though there was nowhere to go.

Snape stared at him for long moments before saying, "It is time for you to return to your dormitory."

Harry, immediately awake and alert, stood to follow Snape from his quarters. On their way up through the castle, a timid voice nagged at the back of Severus' head. ‘Please sir, don't do this. Don't leave me alone in there.' He tried to push the memory back down as he deposited the boy back in the safety of his common room.