Staring out the window, a small bird tapped a hard object against the glance before flying away. Severus kept staring out the window, the small distraction pulling his mind away from the conversation taking place before him. The end of the school year had happened so quickly, his brain was still processing everything that had occurred. He tuned out the rest of the world as he stared through the painted glass and out into the sky, the rays of sunlight streaming into the church. It was strange how bright it still was despite the hour.

               “Severus?” Freddy’s voice questioned.

               Severus blinked and looked across the circle over to Freddy, who quirked his brows.

               “Anything you’d like to share this session?” Freddy asked, despite already knowing what Severus’s answer would be, as always.

               “Oh, no,” Severus said, waving a hand at the idea before crossing his arms, his fingers drumming lightly against himself as he stared off once more at a corner of the room.

               “Are you sure?” Freddy pushed. “Looks like you’ve got something on your mind. Getting it off your chest might help you refocus and find your center again.”

               That made sense but Severus was always hesitant to share anything with the group, even if tonight was mostly familiar faces, including Jo Lee and Todd who had been coming regular for as long as Severus. Still, it had been a fairly stressful end of year for himself, and Harry as well, and the events had been replaying in his head since he had left the school for summer break. Maybe sharing the experience with the thirteen people there tonight would help get everything off his chest and lift the heavy weight off his shoulders. Perhaps they might even have some advice.

               “Okay,” Severus began. “My name is Severus, I am an alcoholic and I’ve been sober for one year and eleven days. Three weeks ago, I nearly relapsed.”

               “Tell us what happened,” Freddy encouraged when Severus hesitated.

               Severus sighed, leaning back in the hard chair before he decided to start from the beginning.

               “There was an incident at the boarding school I work at . . .”

               Severus stepped out of the Great Hall with Harry at his side, who was trying very hard to get out of writing the rest of his punishment essay which was writing about the definition of forbidden and what classified as forbidden in and around the school.

               “It’s long enough, I think,” Harry said as he followed his father down the hall and toward the stairway.

               “Three feet?” Severus asked.

               “Close.”

               “Then it should take you no time at all to finish it so it is exactly three feet.”

               “But I get it. I won’t go anywhere forbidden again. I promise.”

               “What an excellent closure for your essay.”

               Harry rolled his eyes and Severus refrained from scolding as he fought back a smirk. No punishment was meant to be enjoyed after all. There was no reason Harry couldn’t finish the work before bedtime, and with plenty of time to spare for Severus to review it and grade it—if only to further annoy his son.

               Suddenly, a loud announcement overhead asked for all students to report to their dormitories while professors were requested in a certain hallway. Severus looked down at Harry’s concerned face for a second before deciding Harry was better off sticking with him, then began quickly heading where Minerva’s voice requested. As they turned the corner, Severus halted at the sight on the walls.

               “What is that?” Harry asked, stepping closer.

               Minerva McGonagall was already there shaking her head, a hand over her mouth, and her face white.

               Written in blood on the wall was “Her skeleton will lie in the chamber forever.”

               “A student has been taken by the monster,” Minerva said. “Right into the chamber itself. Our worst fear has been realized.”

               “Who was it?” Harry asked, but his question wasn’t answered as the other professors began appearing, looking at the wall.

               “Oh dear,” Pomona said, covering her mouth with both hands.

               “Another message?” Flitwick shook his head at the words. “This is exactly what we’ve been afraid of happening.”

               “Yes,” Minerva agreed. “We will have no choice but to send the students home. This could be the end of Hogwarts.”

               Lockhart cheerily appeared at that moment, strutting down the hall.

               “Sorry,” he said, offering his best smile. “Dozed off. What have I missed?”

               “A girl,” Severus answered for Lockhart, unable to contain a chance to mock the great Defense teacher, “has been snatched by the monster, Lockhart. Your moment has come at last.”

               “My moment?” Lockhart questioned.

               “Weren’t you saying last night that you’ve known all along where the entrance to the Chamber of Secrets is?”

               “That’s settled,” Minerva added, a small smirk playing on her lips. “We’ll leave you to deal with the monster, Gilderoy. Your skills, after all, are legend.”

               Lockhart’s eyes widened before he smiled and nodded his head.

               “Very well. I’ll just be in my office getting err . . . getting ready.” Lockhart nodded confidently before turning in the direction of his office and speedwalking away.

               “Who was taken, Minerva?”

               “Ginerva Weasley.” Minerva answered. “A headcount was performed during dinner. She was unaccounted for. I went to see if she was still in her dorm when I came across this.”

               Harry gasped, and everyone noticed he was there.

               “It will be okay, Potter,” Minerva said. “We will find her. Perhaps you should head back to your dormitory?”

               “Potter is serving a detention in my quarters,” Severus said, “finishing an essay for me. He will be out of harm’s way there and I will assist you in your search of Miss Weasley.”

               “I can help,” Harry started to say.

               “Absolutely not,” Severus said.

               “It is for the best,” Minerva said. “You need to stay somewhere safe from the monster, Mr. Potter. We cannot risk losing another student.”

               “But only I can hear it, I could really help, I could go with Lockhart—”

               “You will be doing nothing but reporting to my quarters to finish your essay,” Severus said, grabbing Harry’s arm. “Pardon me, Minerva.”

               With that, Severus dragged Harry down the hall toward the stairway leading to the dungeons. He felt Harry tug against his hold, but he did not let up until he made it to his quarters’ door and with a touch of his hand, the door unlocked for him. He dragged Harry in before pushing him deeper into the living room, finally releasing his arm.

               “Please, I can help find Ginny! You need my help.”

               “You’re going to stay in here.” Severus pointed a stern finger at Harry. “If you set so much as a toe out of these rooms, I’ll make sure sitting becomes nothing but a fond memory for you, is that clear?”

               “Why can’t I help? Only I can hear the basilisk and talk to it, maybe I can talk to it and find out—”

               “No.” Severus took a step closer to Harry before pointing to the boy’s bedroom. “Go to your room and work on your essay. The other professors and I will find Miss Weasley. If you are so concerned, you are unable to focus on your essay, you can finish it tomorrow during your free period. Read or play a game or do anything to distract yourself, but do not leave. Is that clear?”

               Harry was silent for a moment as he stared down at his shoes, his fists clenched at his sides.

               “Harry, is that clear?”

               “Yes, sir.”

               Severus nodded before leaving his quarters, shutting the door firmly behind him and activating his alarms to let him know if Harry did leave his quarters.

               “I should have known he wouldn’t stay put,” Severus said, shaking his head at his own mistake. He also should have made sure he had placed some alarms on his fireplace as the emergency floo connection to Gryffindor Tower had still been in effect, and that ended up being how Harry left his quarters. “Would it have been so wrong to lock him in his room?”

               That earned a few chuckles from the group, some clearly understanding having rebellious children.

               “So, Harry took off looking for the missing girl?” Freddy asked.

               “He did. And I was too busy helping the other professors look for her that he managed to get way ahead of us before I even thought about checking in on him and making sure he had obeyed. However, finding the young girl was a top priority and I didn’t want to break away from any progress we made of finding clues to where she may have wandered off. Our school is very large and sometimes, we are surprised by rooms and tunnels we didn’t know about. After an hour or so, I checked back in with Harry, only to discover him missing . . .”

               An hour had barely passed when Severus had a strange feeling in the pit of his stomach and Harry came to the forefront of his mind. He had a feeling he knew why he was suddenly worried about his son as he quickly walked back to the dungeons from where he had been scanning the first floor. Upon arrival, he went right for Harry’s room, praying he was wrong and that Harry was in bed reading or moping even.

               Harry was not in his bed.

               He was not in his room.

               And he was nowhere in the quarters.

               Severus had a moment of bewilderment when he remembered the floo network still had an emergency code to Gryffindor Tower, and he palmed his face for forgetting to set alarms on the fireplace or even disconnecting the Tower.

               “Point me Harry Potter,” Severus hissed through his teeth, pointing his wand at the door of his quarters. The charm had not worked on Ginerva Weasley, which could mean that the chamber was warded against those types of spells. Thankfully, Harry must not be in the chamber as he felt a tug on his wand and he allowed it to lead him through the school.

               He kept his eyes and ears open for any sign or sound of students or monsters as he followed the pull of his wand. It led him to the second floor, toward the flooded girls’ bathroom. He slowed down as he approached the bathroom, peeking inside first before stepping into the bathroom.

               In the center where the sinks had been was a large hole in the ground with a very narrow slide leading to the dark underground. Somehow, Harry had managed to find and open the chamber it would seem. And naturally, instead of alerting a professor of this discovery, he went on ahead to save Miss Weasley.

               He was going to strangle his son when he got his hands on him.

               Severus carefully lowered himself into the hole before sliding down the slide, which was not a smooth ride as it spat him out at the end and he tumbled over rough ground. Standing up, Severus rubbed his shoulder gingerly before taking a good look around.

               So this underground system led to the Chamber of Secrets? He followed the piping and plumbing forward, making his way through narrow turns, a dim lumos lighting the way. He was concerned that if he used any brighter of a light, it would attract the monster right to him, and he wanted to remain as much in the shadows as possible until it was necessary to attack—better yet, ambush.

               Severus followed the turns of the cave and nearly ran right into Ron Weasley.

               “There you are!” Severus growled, his eyes darting around for Harry. “What on earth do you think you’re doing? Where is Harry?”

               “Err . . .”

               “Good evening, good sir,” Lockhart said cheerily as he stepped in front of Severus and enthusiastically shook his hand. “This must be your lovely establishment. Might I commend you on the natural décor and . . . and . . .”

               Lockhart’s words slurred as he wobbled on his feet before he crashed to the ground in a deep slumber from the strong sleeping spell Severus cast upon him.  

               “Oh thank Merlin,” Ron muttered. He glared at Severus as he pointed an accusatory finger at Lockhart. “He tried to obliviate us! Though he’d take all the credit of finding and opening the chamber but he wasn’t even going to try and save Ginny. He was running away when Harry and I stopped him.”

               “Enough,” Severus interrupted Ron. He heard enough of that entertaining story. “Where is Harry?”

               Ron pointed at the collapsed wall.

               “He went on ahead,” Ron answered. “This idiot made the whole tunnel collapse but Harry said he was okay on the other side and would go ahead to save Ginny. I figured I’d try digging a way for them to get back.”

               “If they even manage to get back,” Severus snapped. He looked at the stones blocking the way forward. It would take hours to dig through that and that was way too long to get to Harry. He needed to stop his son’s foolish actions now.

               First, Severus sent his doe patronus off to lead the other professors to his location. Then he used a burrowing charm to tunnel through the rocks while performing several stabilizer charms on the surrounding walls and structures so he didn’t cause further collapse.

               “Brilliant!” Ron exclaimed. “That was a lot easier than digging.”

               “Stay here,” Severus said sternly.

               Ron crossed his arms and pouted as he sat near the sleeping Lockhart.

               Severus carefully stepped through the tunnel and followed the dark passage, braving the hisses and clangs he could hear ahead.

               “I managed to catch up to his friend in a secret chamber under the school,” Severus said, “one we did not know even existed. Apparently, they were separated when a wall collapsed, and Harry had continued on in search of his friend’s sister. After making sure the other boy was unharmed and would stay put, I managed to kick away and work through the rubble to the other side to keep looking for Harry.”

               “That sounds so dangerous,” Jo Lee said, a hand over her chest. :Why on earth would a little girl go down such a frightening place.”

               “She was tricked into doing so,” Severus said. He thought over his next words carefully. “Children can be very cruel sometimes. She did not know any better.”

               “Ugh, the world we live in.” Jo Lee shook her head softly.

               “Did you find Harry?” Freddy asked. “Safe, I presume.”

               “Well . . .”

               As Severus approached a door with several snakes on it, he could hear shouting. Someone was saying “it was too late” before the voice started shooting questions, wondering what someone else was doing. Severus peered through the door and into a large chamber, watching just in time as Harry dug an object into a book on the ground. What looked like a hologram of a young Tom Riddle cried out before fading away. Severus sucked in a breath at the sight of a large serpent half on the chamber floor and half in a pool of water. It appeared dead.

               Ginny was lying on the ground in front of Harry, and her eyes fluttered open. She slowly sat up before conversing with Harry, who looked pale and shaky.

               Severus ran inside the chamber and directly for Harry. Both kids looked up at him, and while Ginny’s color was slowly returning to her pale face, Harry turned whiter, and his trembling was more notable up close, along with his labored breathing.

               Severus kneeled next to Harry and before he could even ask what happened, his eyes found the puncture wound in his arm.

               Severus’s eyes widened as he realized the object Harry was still holding was a basilisk tooth.

               “Did that thing,” Severus asked in a shaky voice, “bite you?”

               “It was just one tooth,” Harry explained. “I managed to stab it with the sword but a tooth got stuck in my arm.”

               Severus spotted the sword and the Sorting Hat sitting a few feet away. He narrowed his eyes at the objects but turned his attention back to Harry, who suddenly fell forward.

“Harry!” Ginny cried.

Severus caught him in his arms, sitting Harry up against his chest. A wave of nausea hit him as his breath caught in his throat and nearly choked him. He grabbed Harry’s arm and studied the wound, which had black seeping veins trailing up Harry’s skin in all directions away from the puncture site. What stopped basilisk venom? What cured it? Damn it, he should know these answers, he should know! Severus closed his eyes as he tried to rack his brain for a cure, his arms tightening around Harry as his son’s breathing became more labored.

Before he could consider the worst happening right in his arms, he felt a brush of feathers around his neck.

Severus opened his eyes and glanced back.
               Fawkes, Albus’s loyal phoenix familiar, was curling around his shoulder and stretching out his neck to get to Harry’s arm before the bird blinked a few tears out of his eyes.

Severus watched with amazement and joy as the tears began to heal the wound, drawing back the venom until the black liquid poured out of the wound. Severus felt intense relief as Harry’s breathing evened out and his trembling slowed down. Ginny smiled in relief as well as Harry managed to produce a smile himself.

“Thanks, Fawkes,” Harry said to the phoenix.

The bird brushed its beak against Harry before flying off. Severus sighed and adjusted Harry against him once more, running a hand through Harry’s hair in the process.

               “Let’s get you two out of here,” Severus said, standing up and lifting Harry with him.

               “I think I can walk,” Harry said, his cheeks burning.  

               “Are you alright, Miss Weasley?” Severus asked, ignoring Harry entirely.

               “I’m okay,” Ginny said, pushing to her feet.

               “Seriously, I think I’m okay now,” Harry said.

               “You still have a serious bite wound that Madam Pomfrey will take a look at, and you should be examined as well, Miss Weasley. Let’s leave this place.”

               Severus carried Harry out of the chamber, making sure to keep Ginny at his side. As they came to where Lockhart had caused the collapse, several other professors were waiting for him on the other side, and they assisted Miss Weasley, Ron, and the still snoozing Lockhart out of the chamber, using spells and charms to levitate everyone out. Severus simply flew out with Harry, waving his wand for show just to hide the fact that he did so without a spell or wand.

               Once everyone had been delivered to the infirmary, Severus left quickly as he felt a heavy weight crush his chest, and he needed to get away and stop the sensation somehow. The walk to the professors lounge didn’t help, and when he still couldn’t breathe, he tried to occlude and focus on deep breathing, but the image of Harry’s near death appearance haunted his mind, and he could not shake it free. His hands began to tremble, his heart raced, and he still couldn’t seem to reconnect with his senses enough to occlude and relax.

               Panicked, Severus paced the kitchen section, wondering what to do now. He was out of control, and nothing was helping to stop this attack. Severus opened the ice box cooler where various food and drinks were charmed to stay cool. Maybe a snack or water to distract himself with and take his mind off . . .    

               There, in the back of the ice box were several bottles of beer.

               Severus took in a couple jerky breaths as he shut the ice box and stepped back, pacing again and running his hands through his hair before striding back to the ice box and opening it, grabbing a beer bottle and setting it down on the counter.

               He leaned back and stared at the bottle. His anxiety did not ebb away. The sight brought on a longing he had forgotten nearly a year ago for something he sought hard to avoid. It had been so long and he desperately needed something to take the images of Harry dying out of his head.
               Severus lunged forward and grabbed the bottle, popping the cap off and raising the glass to his lips.

               He stopped there, the bottle just centimeters away from taking a swig of his first beer in so long.

               Instead, Severus raised the beer above his head and brought it down hard on the countertop.

               The glass shattered, the impact causing even the neck to break in Severus’s hand, and he felt the glass cut his palm. Severus dropped the pieces from his hand, watching unalarmed as blood began to drip from his palm.

               Somehow, the pain worked as a distraction, albeit a poor one. Severus sighed as he summoned a salve for the cut and bandage material. He rinsed his hand under the tap while applying salve to the bandage. He wrapped the salve drenched bandage around his hand and tied it off. He leaned over the sink, taking deep, steady breaths.

Severus held his head in his hands as he recalled his behavior.

“All I could think about was how close I came to losing Harry in that chamber when the venomous snake bit him. He was so close to death and all I could do was hold him while I rushed him to the infirmary. I was helpless. Useless.”

“Fear is a powerful thing,” Freddy commented when Severus fell silent for a moment. “Especially when it comes to those we love.”

Severus let out a shaky breath as he sat up in his seat before he continued.

“I wanted to drink the fear away until I couldn’t feel it anymore. Until I couldn’t feel anything anymore. I almost did it, too.”

               “But you didn’t,” Freddy reminded, applauding which encouraged the other members to give a short applause. “That deserves praise. Of course, we can work on finding different strategies to use when overwhelmed and the desire hits. That is something many of us have struggled with at one time or another and will most likely struggle with again.”

               “Even though Harry was the reason I wanted to drink,” Severus said, “he was also the reason I couldn’t. I can’t lose him. I just wish I knew how to get it through his thick head that he doesn’t have to be everyone’s hero. He’s going to get himself killed.”

               “But it sounds like he truly cares and means well, doesn’t it? All he wanted to do was help find the missing girl. His intentions should be encouraged but his actions dissuaded when appropriate. Hmm, that’s a tricky one to manage. I do not envy your situation, Severus. A hero complex like that may not have a cure.”

               “Tell me about it.”

               “So, I’m assuming he’s grounded for all eternity for disobeying you?” Freddy asked with a smirk.

               “Oh, yes.” Severus shared a smirk, but then looked down in thought. “Though, at first, I couldn’t bring myself to even look at him.”  

               Severus heard a knock at his office door, but he ignored it, hoping whoever was on the other side would go away. Alas, Harry stepped into the room as the door was still spelled to open for him. Feeling a sense of déjà vu, Severus ground his teeth together as he focused on his lesson plans for next year. He hardly needed to work on them now, but he needed some kind of distraction from his own emotions. It was the second day since he had delivered Harry to the infirmary, and the boy’s arm was healed, but he had avoided having any free time in an attempt to delay the inevitable. He was too afraid he would lose control of his emotions again and say the wrong words to Harry, but he also knew he couldn’t put this off forever.

               He could feel Harry’s presence coming closer yet he refused to look at his child and focused on revising some of his ideas for the fifth years potion labs. Did they really have to have this discussion now?

               Harry waited a moment before he let out an annoyed huff.

               “Really, Dad?” he asked. “You’re doing this again?”

               Severus said nothing.

               “I’m sorry,” Harry tried. “But I had to do something. Ginny was in danger.”

               Severus turned the page of his book and scribbled nonsense on the next page. His thoughts were far away from lesson plans, but he didn’t want to let on to Harry that he was paying him any attention.

               “You can’t keep ignoring me or brushing me off,” Harry growled in frustration, though there was some hurt in his tone. “It’s been two days and I’m going crazy. I’m sorry, okay? I really am.”

               Severus still said nothing as he turned another page in his book. Words were starting to come together in his head and he liked the arguments he was coming up with that would surely make Harry see the error in his ways. Maybe he was ready to deal with this now.

               “You know, you’re supposed to be the adult here.” Harry crossed his arms and gave is best glare. “The silent treatment is really childish.”

               Surely the silent treatment wasn’t that immature, was it? Severus thought as he resisted rolling his eyes.

               “Go ahead,” Harry kept going, his arms dropping to his side as he clenched his fists, “tell me I’m a stupid, reckless, idiot and I deserved the basilisk’s venom almost killing me for not using my dumb brain!”

               Severus turned sharply in his seat and loudly popped Harry on his mouth.

               Harry jumped, gasping as he covered his mouth with both hands, his eyes wide. It wasn’t nearly hard enough to hurt but the sound and mere action had startled Harry. Severus pointed a stern finger at his son.

               “Do not ever speak of yourself in a such a manner again. Is that clear?”

               Harry nodded his head, then lowered his hands and gave Severus a pleading look.

               “I know I shouldn’t have disobeyed you, but I didn’t have a choice. Ginny could have died if I hadn’t done something.”

               “You do realize that you yourself almost died?” Severus asked through clenched teeth, his stern look turning into a glare.

               Harry looked down at his feet, shuffling for a few seconds before he nodded.

               “Yeah, I know. But I didn’t. Fawkes cured me and I saved Ginny too so no one died. It was the only way.”

               “You mean to tell me that you had no time to tell a professor where the entrance to the chamber was once you found and opened it?”

               “It was more of a suspicion at first. We told Lockhart.”

               Severus gave his son a pointed look as he turned back toward his lesson plans, picking up his quill once more.

               “No, Dad, please.” Harry grabbed his father’s arm, preventing him from going back to his work. “Don’t do that again, I’m sorry. Lockhart was a bad choice, and Ron and I kind of knew that when we went to him, but we thought he would at least know how to deal with the basilisk when we found it, even if he couldn’t do it properly himself. We thought he could walk us through it.”

               “With Mr. Weasley’s broken wand?”

               “Well . . .”

               “Your plan was flawed, and you admit that you knew this. The moment you found the chamber’s entrance, you should have told a professor—a competent one. You knew everyone was looking for it.”

               “I didn’t want to waste any time.”

               “So you waste your life? You nearly got yourself killed rushing directly to the basilisk as you did. Do you have any idea what was running through my mind when I found you with a bite wound from that blasted animal? The way you looked—like you were going to drop dead at any second and I couldn’t do a damn thing about it. Do you have any idea what you put me through?”

               “I’m really sorry . . .” Harry’s eyes watered.

               “But you’d do it again, wouldn’t you? Without a second thought, right off into life threatening danger. You could have been petrified or killed by just a glance, forget the venom it got you with.”

               “Fawkes—”

               “I know! But the risk was still there, Harry. And I had no clue you were even gone from our quarters. I could have lost you the other night.”

               Harry closed his eyes and shook his head, a single tear escaping and trailing down his cheek.

               “You’re always sorry, but it never stops you from chasing death. And maybe it’s a good thing you play the hero so well, but I’d like you to start thinking your actions through before you follow through. You could have run to any other professor but Lockhart for instance.”

               “I know, I just thought . . .”

               “You didn’t think on that thought long enough to realize how ridiculous it was. Did you?”

               “No.”

               “And you disobeyed me and left our quarters after I asked you to stay behind. You could have summoned an elf to give me your message about the chambers entrance. Did you think about that?”

               “You wouldn’t have been able to open it without me.”

               “I could have collected you and the other professors to open the chamber together. Or you could have opened it when you did, and then had an elf come get the other professors. Did you think about that?”

               “No.”

               “No,” Severus repeated. “I could keep going, young man, but I think you get my point. You are a brilliant wizard and I know you can use that brain for more than impulsive adventures. You are smarter than that, Harry, and you need to learn to lead less with your emotions and more with your rationale. I can’t lose you over something so foolish and preventable. I can’t.”

               “I’ll try to do better.” Another tear escaped Harry’s eyes.

               “I know you’ll try, and I’m going to do my best to help you figure it out.”

               Harry swiped at his eyes with the back of his hand before looking down at his feet again.

               “Are you going to . . . err, punish me?”

               Severus leaned back in his chair as he studied Harry for a moment. He had warned Harry after the spider incident that one more toe out of line would earn him dire consequences, and he had given Harry one last threat before he had left him in his quarters before the chamber fiasco. If he was going to teach Harry anything about following through, he would have to lead by example.

               “I did warn you, young man,” Severus said. He raised his hand and summoned the hairbrush from their quarters.

               “No, not with that,” Harry whined, his face grimacing already.

               “For disobeying me and going directly into the Chamber of Secrets after a monster,” Severus said. He pushed his chair back and gestured to Harry. “You more than earned it. I’m sure you know the drill by now.”

               Harry sniffled as he pulled his robe off, unveiling his school uniform.

               “Can’t I keep my trousers up? Please? It’s going to really hurt.”

               “Yes, that is the point. Maybe you’ll remember this one the next time you want to tango with a basilisk.”

               Harry pouted and his lip trembled as he lowered his trousers before allowing Severus to guide him over his lap. Severus pulled down Harry’s shorts as well before raising the hairbrush and bringing it down sharply on Harry’s bottom.

               Harry jumped and hissed through his teeth at the first smack, but Severus barely gave him a chance to register it as he brought the hairbrush down again and again. Harry squirmed the whole way through, and his yelps increased in volume as the spanking continued, and he was apologizing and promising to never misbehave again halfway through.

Finally, when Harry’s bottom was a deep red, Severus set the brush down on his desk table and pulled Harry’s shorts and trousers up before setting his son in his lap, earning a small squeak in protest before Harry wrapped his arms around Severus’s neck, crying into his father’s shoulders.

               “I didn’t mean to scare you,” Harry said through his tears.

               “I know you didn’t. And I hope you never act so recklessly again.”

               “I won’t ever, I promise. And do you promise not to ignore me again?”

               “Pardon?” Severus asked, pulling Harry back slightly so he could see his face.

               “I don’t like it when you give me the silent treatment. I feel like you really hate me and don’t want me around when you do that.”

               “I’m sorry, that was never my intention. Sometimes, I need to gather my own thoughts and keep my emotions in check so I don’t lash out at you, so I choose not to say anything. But if it upsets you that much, I will work on that.”

               “Thanks. And I promise to work on not running into danger as much.”

               “I’m sure you’ll put in a good effort.” Severus kissed Harry’s temple and rubbed his back, hugging his son once more. “Now, did you ever finish that essay I asked of you?”

               Harry groaned but didn’t remove his arms from around Severus’s neck.

               “It took some time for me to get into the right emotional state to deal with Harry’s misbehavior, but we managed to get through it together. He actually came to me a couple times insisting we put it behind us. He generally takes his punishments very well but if I could ground him for all eternity and lock him in his room for that time, I would.”

               As Severus said those last words, he had to admit he did feel a lot better getting all of that off his chest, even if it was just sharing what happened.

               “Well,” Freddy smiled, “I’m glad Harry is still alive to tell us his side of the story.”

               A few members laughed and Freddy looked at his watch.

               “Thank you, Severus, for sharing with us today. Next time we will discuss coping techniques for everyone to review and practice but I’m afraid we are out of time today, but please, everyone feel free to stick around as long as you need, catch up with friends, have some refreshments.”

               As everyone began to disperse, Severus gave Freddy one last goodbye before heading out of the church. Even as he walked, he felt lighter. He stepped out of the church and into the last few rays of light, not surprised to find Harry sitting on the bench outside.

               “All done?” Harry asked as he stood up.

               “Obviously,” Severus commented as he started to walk down the path, Harry walking at his side. “How was your time at the library?”

               “It was fun. Giovanna and I are thinking about becoming the new book club leaders. I saw you talking in there for once. What were you talking about? Me?”

               “Don’t be ridiculous, why would we discuss you? You’re hardly exciting.”

               “Hey. I’m exciting. Remember how I freed Dobby from Malfoy? That was exciting.”

               “I still can’t believe you tricked Lucius Malfoy into freeing one of his own elves. If only I could have seen his face.”

               “I could tell you all about it.” Harry smirked up at his father.

               “You are a very naughty child sometimes.” Severus smiled at his son even as he said it. Harry only grinned up at him and Severus snorted and ruffled his son’s messy hair. He really did feel much better getting everything off his chest. Perhaps he’d open up more often at AA.