Harry was panicked. It had been a few days since what happened to him. Things had been rough, especially at night. He woke up screaming two to three times a night. He had to place a silencing charm around his bed every night so he wouldn't wake the others. He wished he could get away without sleeping in the dorm at all, but he knew that would alert people that something was going on.

The days were just as bad in their own way. When he was in class, he felt claustrophobic. Ever since that night, he didn't want to around a lot of people. Realistically, he knew his classmates wouldn't hurt him, but he was still scared. He also had issues when someone touched him or accidentally bumped into him. He couldn't stand to be touched now. He remembered flinching one day when Hermione tapped him on the shoulder in Charms. He managed to convince her that she just startled him thankfully.

As bad as it had been, today would be worse. He had both Defense and Potions today. Those were the two classes he'd been dreading. It was obvious why for Potions. He wanted to be nowhere near Slughorn. Seeing the man in the Great Hall made him shaky and sick to his stomach. The thought of the man being close enough to touch him scared the hell out of him.

The thought of Snape's class wasn't much better. He didn't fear Snape hurting him, of course. What he feared was that Snape would figure him out. Snape knew what Harry had gone through. He'd been through it himself and he was clearly paying very close attention for someone to be attacked by the sick old man. He could very well notice that something was wrong with Harry and figure it out.

Harry didn't want Snape to know. He didn't want anyone to know. What happened to him was beyond humiliating and partially his fault. Oh, he didn't absolve Slughorn or Dumbledore. He hated both of them. He even hated Dumbledore slightly more for allowing it to happen. But he'd been the one stupid enough to trust Slughorn and actually take a drink from him. He'd been the one to completely ignore Snape when he tried to warn them about him. He could hear that being the first thing Snape said when he found out.

"You're as stupid as your father, Potter. Did you think you were too good to listen to my warnings. It is your own fault," he would say. And he would be right this time.

Harry was finally pulled from this thoughts by Ron's voice. "Harry, you coming to breakfast."

Harry jumped in fear and almost fell off his bed.

"Sorry, Mate. I didn't mean to scare you. So are you coming?" Ron asked.

Harry shook his head. "No, I'm not hungry." He already felt sick to his stomach at the prospect of being forced to be in class with Slughorn and Snape possibly finding out the truth. He couldn't eat anything.

"Come on, we've got Defense first. You don't want to deal with Snape on an empty stomach. Besides, you'll also have to deal with Hermione's fretting if you don't eat. She's starting to think something's wrong with you," Ron said.

"Alright, I'll be down in minute," Harry relented. He didn't want Hermione thinking something was wrong with him. If he was going to keep this a secret, he was going to have to start acting normally again.

"Okay. See you there," Ron said before leaving the dorm.

Harry was shaking like a leaf as he entered the Defense classroom. He took a seat at the back of the class so that Snape would notice him as little as possible. He hoped for the first time that today's lesson would be a theory one because otherwise he knew Snape would pay attention to him

The others sat down as well. Hermione noticed a tremor in Harry's hand. "Harry, your hands are shaking. Are you alright?"

"Yeah, I'm just a little cold," Harry said before shoving his hands under the table.

Hermione continued to stare. She didn't believe him at all. Something had been off with Harry for days. He barely ate anymore, he didn't spend time with her or Ron anymore, he was extremely jumpy, he had bags under his eyes like he wasn't sleeping, and now he was shaking. Something wasn't right with her friend. Ron was as dense as ever and didn't see it, but she knew something was wrong.

Severus swept through the room and to his desk. He looked and was in particularly foul mood. He hadn't slept well the night before. It was a common theme since Dumbledore invited that disgusting monster back into the school. He had nightmares about either his own attack by slughorn or other students that he might attack this year, mostly Potter. Last night's dream was the latter. So clearly, he was in no mood to deal with brats today.

"Take out your wands. We will be having a practical lesson today," Severus said shortly.

Harry groaned, but did as he was told. His hand of course shook as he held his wand, which probably meant he would fail miserably at whatever spell Snape wanted them to practice. Things didn't generally end the way they were supposed to when cast a spell with a shaky hand.

"We will be practicing more with non-verbal spells. Today we will work Carpe Retractum. You all will have learned this in your third year charms class. Let's see if any of you are capable of doing non-verbally. You will work in pairs. This once, I will allow you to choose your partners, as I have no doubt that at least some of you idiots will divert from the lesson should you be paired with someone you don't like. Find your partner quickly and get to work," Severus ordered

Harry and Ron immediately turned to each other, While Hermione partnered herself with Pavarti.

"You want to go first, Mate?" Ron asked.

"Sure," Harry said as he raised his wand. It immediately shook in his hand. He couldn't stop it. He was still really anxious and afraid that Snape would notice something.

Harry immediately made the wand movements required movements, but instead of the spell circling around Ron and dragging him to him like it was supposed to, it instead hit Neville's ankle, who was right behind wrong.

"Whoa!" Neville yelled out as he fell to the ground and was dragged towards Harry.

All of the Slytherins and some of the Gryffindors started laughing.

Severus stalked over to the three boys very irritable. "Potter, I was under the impression that Weasley was your partner."

Harry put his wand in his back pocket and stuffed his hands in his pocket to prevent his professor from seeing the tremors. "H...he was, sir."

"Then why is Longbottom the one dragged to you? Are you such an idiot, Potter, that you cannot hit the right target?" Snape asked angrily. He was extremely annoyed. All he wanted was to get through this bloody class and then try to get a bit more sleep before this next class. Of course Potter wouldn't allow him that.

Harry said nothing. He simply looked down at his feet.

Severus frowned a bit. He'd expected some kind of reaction from the Gryffindor, but had got none. He didn't even try to give in excuse. This would usually arise a bit of suspicious and make him attempt to figure out the cause, but he was extremely tired. "Twenty points from Gryffindor for your stupidity."

After watching Snape leave, Harry turned to Neville, who had since gotten up. "Sorry, Neville. I didn't mean to hit you."

"It's okay, Harry. I've messed up plenty of times. I'm surprised you did though. You're great at Defense," Neville said.

Harry shrugged. "I guess I'm not having a good day. Besides, non-verbal spells are different."

"Yeah, I suppose. Well, I better get back to my partner," Neville said before walking away.

"Are you alright, Harry?" Ron asked, wondering if maybe Hermione wasn't so paranoid after all and maybe something was wrong with his friend.

"Yeah, I'm fine. Uh, we should get back to it. You try the spell now," Harry said.

If Harry thought he was shaking in Defense, it only got much worse when he made it to Potions. The shaking was uncontrollable now that he was so close to Slughorn. His queasyness got worse too, especially when Slughorn spoke. He never thought someone's voice could be so sickening.

Harry attempted to just concentrate on his potion and get out as soon as possible. He followed the instructions that the Half Blood Prince gave in his book and tried to keep his mind off the man who'd destroyed him.

That however was hard to do. Especially after feeling a presence behind him and turning to see Slughorn there.

"Harry, a wonderful job as always. You are my most promising student," Slughorn said before going to pat him on the back.

Harry yelped and jumped back two feet. He couldn't let Slughorn touch him. Having him touch him again, even just on the back sent chills throughout his whole body and creeped him out to the core.

The entire class stopped what they were doing and turned to him. They all found Harry's behavior weird and startling, even the Slytherins.

Slughorn played it off by laughing. "I'm sorry, Harry. Clearly I startled you. It won't happen again."

"I...I need to use the loo," Harry said before grabbing his bag and fleeing the room. He ran through the dungeons and into the closest bathroom. He found the closest toilet and emptied the contents of his stomach into it. He wretched for a good few minutes and then collapsed onto the floor crying.

Soon someone came in and called out to him. "Harry?"

Harry quickly dried up his tears tried to appear normal again.

Neville appeared before him. "Harry, are you okay."

"Yeah, I'm fine," Harry lied.

Neville stared at him for several moments before replying. "I don't believe you. You've been really weird lately, especially today. What's wrong?"

"Nothing," Harry said.

"I can tell you were crying. I saw the way you reacted when Slughorn tried to touch you. You didn't react much better the few times I've seen others try. Has someone hurt you?"

"No!" Harry answered very quickly. "I'm fine, Neville. I'm just having a bad day. Please, just leave me alone."

Neville still didn't believe Harry. Something was really wrong. The way he was acting was the way Neville himself usually reacted. He was nervous and quite scared, constantly shaking. This wasn't Harry Potter. He wasn't like that. Why was he suddenly so afraid. What had happened to him. "Harry, you can tell me. I swear, I won't say anything to anyone."

"There's nothing!" Harry practically yelled before jumping up and fleeing once more.