He pulled open the door more quickly than he might normally, intending to send Minerva on her way, but found Harry and Albus instead. He gave Harry a stern look despite his relief at seeing him, and pointed inside. Harry moved past him into the quarters and Albus followed.

"Albus," Severus greeted tersely.

"Severus."

"Minerva has been down three times this afternoon to get news."

"I'll send a patronus to her in a few minutes. I think Harry has some things he wishes to say to you."

No, Harry thought, he really would rather not, but the Headmaster had told him on the way back that he'd worried his Potions Professor greatly. Apparently he'd worried all the teachers by running away in the dead of night.

Harry sat down on the couch in his usual spot by the fire and set his bag on the floor. Albus sat beside him and Severus sat on the couch across the coffee table facing them. When Harry was quiet for a couple of minutes and didn't start talking, Severus said, "You had something you wanted to say?"

"I don't know how."

"You forgot how to speak when you absconded in the middle of the night?" Severus snarked.

"I don't know how to tell you what happened."

"Tea perhaps," Albus suggested. "It's been a long day and I don't think he's had lunch. I know I have not." And he rose to go into Snape's kitchen to make a pot of tea and see what the Potions Master had around to eat.

"You have no idea how your actions affect those around you... how they affected the Headmaster when you left," Severus chastised coldly.

Harry nodded, looking at his fingers as he gripped one hand in the other. Maybe he didn't know. Maybe he'd been selfish. He had nothing to say to that. All he could think about was the vision he saw every time the dementors came near. His uncle and the cupboard and how alone he'd felt. How hopeless. So that was where he started.

"I forgot what it was like at home when I escaped to school in first year. I had friends, and I got a chance to do my homework and learn and be good at something for once. And then I went back, and they'd seen that I'd forgotten. And Uncle Vernon had to teach me to remember who I was... it wasn't even the worst beating I'd ever had. And when he stuffed me in the cupboard and locked me in for days, it wasn't the longest they'd shut me away and forgotten about me. But it was the worst time it had happened, because I wasn't sure Hogwarts existed anymore while I was in my cupboard. I wasn't sure if it was something I'd made up... that there was a safe place, and that I had friends, and that I was good at Quidditch. I never forgot after that who I was though, because it was dangerous to forget. When the dementors get me... when the vision changed, I remembered all over again, because I had to relive it every time." Harry was still staring at his hands. He couldn't look up at Snape and see his scowl at Harry's excuses. "I never forgot that I was alone, that I didn't have anybody at all." Tears were pooling in his eyes and he ran his sleeve across his eyes angrily to wipe away the evidence of his sadness. "I'm not stupid. I don't want to be alone. I used to dream up random people that would come take me away to some place better. But I didn't want a family. I didn't want you for family."

Harry looked up and saw the stunned look on Snape's face, as though he'd been struck as he stared at Harry.

"Because if you adopted me, and we became family, it would be like it was before with the Dursleys. I didn't want to lose what I already had with you and the Headmaster. I didn't want to forget who I am, and get comfortable, and mess up, and lose it all. I know you're not gonna lock me up in a closet," Harry said, going back to staring at his hands. "But if you adopt me, it'll be something. Or I thought it would be. I didn't understand that the Dursleys weren't a family until the Headmaster said- when one of us hurts, we all do together. I didn't know that's what you wanted, that that's what family is."

Harry startled then as the couch cushion next to him shifted because someone had sat down beside him. He thought perhaps the Headmaster had come back with tea, but looked up and found Snape sitting close, looking down at him.

"We will not lock you away and forget about you. Nor will we ever neglect you as you have been, or abandon you because you have made a mistake, no matter how big."

"I really don't know what that's like."

"Then we will teach you. You will also know what it's like to be held accountable for your actions," he said as he wrapped an arm around Harry and pulled him close. Harry stiffened for a long moment, but then slowly relaxed into his side. "You are accountable to us, and we are accountable to you," Severus told him as he looked up and found Albus in the doorway to the kitchen listening to them speak. "When you run away you rob us of the chance to problem solve through whatever the issue is, and worry those that care about you. The staff and your friends have been overwrought with worry about you all day."

"I'm sorry I made Professor Dumbledore come after me and made everyone worry."

"Not just me dear boy," Albus said quietly as he came back with a pot of tea and three mugs. "Severus searched for you all morning on the alley's. He questioned everyone he came across that you knew."

"I didn't know anyone would come after me," Harry repeated what he'd told the Headmaster earlier that day in the cabin.

"Where did you Floo to last night?" Severus asked. "I assume you used the Floo in the staff lounge. The password to that has been changed by the way and you won't be getting it again anytime soon."

"The Leaky Cauldron. Don't worry, I paid a Knut."

"They said you had not come through there."

"I was under the invisibility cloak."

"And from there?" Albus asked.

"Erm-"

"Unless someone taught you to apparate, it's clear you got someone to transport you," Snape said.

"Don't remember who."

"You expect us to buy that?" Severus asked.

"I paid a random person to drop me close to my cabin and walked from there."

"A stranger," Snape said, clearly disbelieving him.

"Yeah, musta been." Technically Harry wasn't lying. He'd never met Bellamy's father until the night before.

They were silent for several long moments until Severus finally said, "I have warned you about going down Payne Alley."

"I wouldn't go down there alone. You said not to and I didn't."

"Given that you entered and exited the Leaky Cauldron with your cloak, and there would be no one else out on Diagon or Knocturn in the middle of the night, the only place for you to seek help would be in Muggle London, where you know no one, or Payne Alley, where your young vampire friend gave me a lot of attitude this morning and rolled his eyes at me three times as I asked if he'd seen you."

"He's only 17. Vampires can't apparate until at least 50," Harry said. "It's a rule or something."

"Zachary West," Severus said.

"The Ministry doesn't like to give apparition licences to those who didn't go to school."

"So you spoke to both of them last night."

"Nope," Harry said, shaking his head, but he knew they weren't buying it. He set his cup of tea down on the coffee table and turned to give Severus a serious look since he was sitting right beside him. "Sir, whether I did or didn't get help from someone who was Fae, if you or the Headmaster told anyone that you thought I might have, they'd be killed because word gets around. There's bad people out there who do that sort of thing. They already have enough to worry about every day, do you think they'd risk getting killed just to help me?"

Severus stared into Harry's eyes for several moments and then said, "You are well understood Mr. Potter."

Harry wasn't sure why he'd said it like that... like Bellamy's father had spoken the night before, but Harry turned back to the coffee table to pick up his tea.

"I don't want anyone to get hurt just because I was stupid and ran away."

"Perhaps you will remember the next time you wish to abscond into the countryside that such a thing can seriously affect your friends."

"Yes sir."

There was a knock on the door then and Albus said, "I forgot to send a patronus to Minerva."

Severus sighed and rose to open the door. From the corridor she was able to see Albus on the couch by the fire and the back of Harry's head.

"Harry!" she exclaimed, coming in though she hadn't yet been invited to do so.

"I'm sorry," Harry said quickly, tensing up. He hadn't been yelled at yet but that didn't mean it wasn't going to happen. Snape had practically promised he would be punished. The three adults in the room didn't fail to notice his posture and how he sat as far back into the couch as he could.

"Harry," she said gently, sitting in the spot Severus had just vacated. He closed the door and hoped he wouldn't be getting any more visitors this evening, friends or not. "We were worried about you," she said. "I'm glad to see you're safe and back where you belong." She turned to Albus and asked, "Does he need to see Poppy?"

"No. He should probably eat dinner soon though. Perhaps I'll have the elves send it down here."

She turned back to Harry and said, "You missed classes without an excused absence today young man. I don't know where you went or why, and I don't need to as I expect you've already had to explain yourself at least twice this evening. You're going to have to make up the classes you missed for a full day over the weekend."

"Saturday school?" Severus asked. "That sounds perfect. Then he can serve detention afterwards for being out of Gryffindor tower after hours. Another will be arranged for leaving the school without permission during the term."

Minerva gave Severus a nod. "Albus?" she asked. "Is there anything you wish to add?"

He looked thoughtful for a moment. "I do have something in mind. I wish for this to be a learning experience, not solely a punishment. I will speak to Harry later this evening about what he's supposed to do."

Minerva turned back to Harry and gave him a close looking over. "I realize you left because of a personal issue Mr. Potter, and that many students are having those sorts of issues this year because of the Dementors. Others have not lost points because of those issues, but at the same time we haven't had a student run away from school in almost sixteen years."

"I understand," Harry said, missing the pointed look McGonagall was giving to Severus.

"Perhaps," Dumbledore said, "Saturday school, two detentions and the task I have for Harry will be enough to convey the lesson of accountability," he said. "If you really feel that he needs to lose points, I won't intervene however."

"He needs to be held accountable to his classmates as well. If we don't take points we send a message to other students that it's ok to make rash decisions because there aren't visible consequences, which is what the points are for. 25 points from Gryffindor Mr. Potter. Because, as we've already discussed, your actions have consequences, not only for yourself but sometimes for your housemates as well."

"I'll earn them all back," Harry promised.

"See that you do. We can't have Slytherin winning the house cup just because you're Severus' ward now." Harry couldn't help but smirk, and stuck his hand up to his mouth to stifle further laughter, aware he wasn't supposed to laugh when having points taken away or when getting in trouble. When he looked up at her she gave him a little wink and stood up to leave.

"I'll leave you to have dinner then. Saturday school starts directly after breakfast in my office tomorrow morning Harry. Bring your schoolbooks."

They were quiet through dinner, which the house elves brought down. The three of them sat around the table and ate pot roast and roast carrots and potatoes. Harry was glad the Headmaster and Snape had come for him.

"Since you have Saturday school and detentions, we will postpone a trip to the Ministry until next weekend," Severus said. "And I will have eyes on you all week until we make it there," he promised Harry.

"I won't leave again sir."

"I will know if you do."

Severus left Harry and Albus alone for a few minutes after dinner so Albus could give Harry whatever task was to be his punishment.

"As I said Harry," Albus told him at the table, "I wish for this to be a learning experience for you, not a punishment, as direct punishment is not always an effective teacher. By tomorrow evening I want you to write a letter to your future self about what you hope your life will be like by the end of this school year with a new family."

"What kinds of things am I supposed to write?"

"I have no expectations for you except for what I already explained. This letter is about your expectations of what you want your life to look like with a family... with our family."

"Are you going to read it?"

"No. When you're done with it you should bring it to me and I'll seal it with wax. At the end of the school year I'll deliver it to you to read."

"That's all?"

"That's all. I want you to think carefully about it before you write it however. I expect you'll have time during detention tomorrow after Saturday school to think it over."

"Yes sir."

Dumbledore stood up and ran his hand through Harry's hair once as he passed.

"Professor?" Harry asked, and Dumbledore turned back to him, looking tired and ready for a cup of tea and bed. "Thank you for coming for me. People don't usually."

"I'll never leave you behind." He gave Harry a tired smile and left Snape's quarters. Harry stood from the kitchen table to leave as well, but Snape had come back into the kitchen after Dumbledore had left.

"Bed Mr. Potter."

"Yes sir, I was just heading back to Gryffindor."

"No, in your room."

"Sir?"

"As I said, I will be keeping close eyes on you for the week."

"I'm- staying here for the week?"

"Students are sometimes allowed to go home for a few days or a week during the term if they are having issues. As this castle... these quarters are now your home, you will be staying for the week."

"But I'm still going to classes aren't I?"

"Yes, but you'll be expected to come back here for dinner each night and to go to bed."

"I have tutoring Tuesdays and Thursdays."

"I think it's time you had a break from the visions for a while."

"Thank you," he said sincerely, and turned and went down the hall to the guest room. To his room.

* * *

Hermione and Ron were glad to see Harry at breakfast the next morning.

"Harry," Ron said in relief, hurrying over to him at the breakfast table. "Where'd you go?"

"Erm- out... of the castle."

"Did you lose a bunch of points and get detention until you graduate?" Ron asked.

"I lost 25 points and promised Professor McGonagall I'd earn all of them back," he said quickly to appease his friends, but they didn't seem concerned about the point loss as much as they were about Harry. "And I have Saturday school after breakfast all day followed by the first of two detentions. And I have to write an essay," Harry said, thinking of the letter he'd been assigned to write.

"Oh is that all," Ron said, pulling a plate of bacon over to himself.

"Well- it's not all," Harry said.

"There's more?" Ron asked, brows raised.

"You know how Fred and George said your brother had to go home for a week because he was failing classes?"

"Yeah," Ron said.

"I'm not failing or anything, but I have to be home for a week."

"They're not sending you back to the Dursleys?" Hermione asked. "I thought you were staying at the castle now."

"I am, with Snape, and Dumbledore."

"So-" Ron said, "You're staying in Dumbledore's quarters?"

"Snape's. I have a room from when I stayed over summer. I'm still going to classes but I have to be back there all week for dinner and to go to bed."

"Harsh," Ron said. "We'll miss you all week in the dorms."

"Actually," Hermione hedged, and the two boys looked over at her. "I was approved to go home for the weekend. I leave after breakfast in a few minutes and return Monday night after dinner. I already turned in all my homework for the upcoming classes I'll miss Monday."

"It's only part way through Novemeber though," Ron said. "I thought maybe you'd skive off the last week of classes before Christmas or something."

"I'm not the only one," Hermione said. "There's a first year boy from Gryffindor going home this weekend for a few days, and I heard some of the kids from other houses were all approved to go home over the weekend. Some are staying home until Monday night, and some are staying until Tuesday or even Wednesday. I just didn't want to miss classes for more than a day. Everyone that's leaving is taking the Floo out to the Leaky Cauldron this morning at nine."

"I got banned from the Floo," Harry said, and his friend's eyes came back over to him.

"I'm really glad you're ok Harry," Hermione told him. "Maybe staying the week with Professor Snape won't be such a bad thing. It's been hard this term. A lot of people have been having trouble keeping their grades up with everyone stuck inside and Dementors lurking all over the place. And you've had it worse than a lot of others with the constant fines from the Ministry and the extra lessons with Professor Lupin. I don't know how your grades haven't dropped."

"Mine haven't dropped," Ron said, but Hermione gave him a look and he said, "Yeah, all right, maybe they weren't that high to begin with." Harry laughed then and so did Hermione and Ron. The boys hugged Hermione when they were done eating breakfast and Harry told Ron he might see him at lunch before he picked up his book bag and climbed up to the first floor to find Professor McGonagall in her office.

Her office door was open when he got there and he went inside.

"Have a seat in the student desk Harry."

"Yes maam," he said as he sat with his bookbag and she closed the office door. He liked Professor McGongall's office because it had two big windows that let light in, and room for two student desks for tutoring students or detention. It didn't feel oppressively dark and small like he always thought Snape's office felt.

Your schedule for Friday was Herbology, Charms, Transfiguration and Defense," she said looking at a piece of parchment. "We'll cover Transfiguration first."

"Are you doing all of the lessons?" Harry asked.

"Yes."

"I'm sorry you have to waste a day like this."

"As it so happens Harry, a head of house is responsible for conducting Saturday school for any students in their house that need it or have missed enough classes to warrant it, be it from falling too far behind their peers or missing a day of classes without permission to do so. All four heads of house end up spending at least a few days a term doing Saturday school."

"Well I promise you won't have to spend another day doing it because of me," Harry said.

"After yesterday I don't mind having you here all day to make sure you're where you should be."

"Yes maam."

"Turn to page 52 in your Transfiguration book. Friday we were still practicing the third transfigurative form and I believe you could use some help getting that down."

Lunch was delivered to her office at lunchtime and Harry ate at his desk. McGonagall asked him if he was happy to be getting a week with Professor Snape, and Harry told her he would let her know after his detention with him later that day.

They were done covering Harry's missed lessons by three thirty, and she'd even given him some extra help on previous material when Harry showed her the grade he'd gotten on the previous Herbology test. He hadn't done very well despite that he had studied for it for days.

It was almost four when he made it back to Professor Snape's quarters.

"I'm ready for detention sir," he said.

"Did you eat lunch?"

"Yes sir."

"Sit down by the fire."

"Is detention going to be after dinner?"

"It is right now."

Harry sat nervously on the couch and Snape sat across from him. "Relax," he said, seeing the nervous look on Harry's face. "Not every detention is cleaning floors and toilets or pickling potions ingredients."

"Then what are we doing?" His eyes flitted around the room looking for a switch. The Dursleys had never used one, but they had threatened it often enough.

"On occasion it's clear that what's needed the most is a conversation. As the Headmaster told you, manual labor or other punishments aren't always the most effective teacher. The most effective detentions are ones that get the message across."

"But you always had me doing that kind of stuff in detentions before," Harry said, remembering chopping up rat livers, scrubbing classroom floors on his knees and once being threatened to scrub the dungeon corridors with a toothbrush.

"I was under the impression before that those were the types of punishments you needed to enforce good behavior. But for right now we have several things to discuss. Your grades for one."

Harry thought his grades were ok all things considered and hoped Snape wouldn't be too mad at him.

"I told you once that you were wasting your potential. I wish to amend my statement. With how things have been going this year for you, and with the things I now know you were dealing with at home in previous years, I believe you are doing well under the circumstances."

"I'm trying," Harry said. "I try to study and listen in class. I never got the chance to do homework before or do well in school."

"I also realize that with your nightmares keeping you from getting enough sleep, and the dementor attacks you had experienced but not reported, that those are also factors that were limiting your success in my classroom, and I'm sure in others as well."

"But I thought you said I was doing good?" ‘Limiting his success' didn't sound like he was doing good at all.

"You have an A in most classes, an E in Charms and an O in Defense. What I want your input on is what you feel you need to be successful in all of your classes and to raise your A's to E's or above."

"I don't know," Harry said truthfully. "You already got me new glasses so I can see."

"Then aside from the things we just discussed, what is keeping you from having higher grades? Are you not understanding the material being presented to you?"

"Sometimes," He mumbled. Harry looked into the fire and watched the flames dancing and licking the side walls of the grate. "I just can't concentrate in class sometimes because I'm too tired or have things I can't stop thinking about."

"Perhaps you need a way to take your mind off of those things."

"I have one," Harry said, looking up. "That's why I plan new things for the alleys and go to work. When I'm doing those things I'm too busy to think about anything else."

Severus gave a single nod as he thought over what the boy had said. When he'd first brought Harry back after the trial the child had moped for days, stared listlessly at the wall in his room, and barely spoke to anyone. Then when he was taken back to Diagon Alley to work, he seemed to come out of the trance he'd been in. The more they let him go to Diagon Alley as the summer came to a close, the more he came back to himself.

"Have you tried throwing yourself into your studies to clear your mind?"

Harry didn't think the dates of goblin wars and memorization of the names of various classes of magical plants was going to do it.

"Did you hear what I said?"

"I'm not like Hermione," Harry said. "She learns because it's fun for her. I like going to school, because I wasn't allowed to be good at it before Hogwarts, but I can't learn for fun. I learn what I have to."

"You have to learn all of it to pass OWLs and NEWTs."

"No," he said, going back to staring into the flames. "I learn what I have to, to survive."

Which made sense, Severus thought, as the boy's highest grades were in Defense and Charms, the two types of magic he could most easily defend himself with if he needed to. It also made a lot of sense to Severus now why he had done what he had over the summer on the Alleys. Before he'd gotten to know the Gryffindor he'd wondered time and again why the boy was improving the orphanage and trying to help the small business owners on Knocturn. He'd wondered why the child would work for free at the bookstore all summer, and sell sweets for Tilly out in the alley by Gringotts. It was because he had to learn to do those things to stay on the Alleys. He had found himself thrust into a new world in which he was a business owner, and he had to learn the skills he needed to survive there as one. And he had to plan and repair and make changes to survive his own inner demons.

Harry had once told him, ‘You always think the worst of me.' Perhaps he had. The boy had a lot of his own reasons for why he did things, and why he did them in a certain way. In the last few months Severus had found none of those reasons to represent the worst of humanity as he always had before when thinking about him.

"I propose you begin thinking of your classes as a matter of survival."

Harry looked up at him from the flames. "What do you mean sir?"

"Am I correct in assuming you excel at Defense and Charms because those are useful for defending yourself in a firefight or against others who mean to do you harm?"

"I guess," Harry said. He wasn't top of the class right now in Defense, but he'd been trying to get there. It was like Quidditch to him, and he enjoyed being the best of his friends and classmates at something, even if it was only one thing.

"Have you considered the defensive possibilities for Transfiguration?" Severus didn't want the boy to constantly be in survival mode, but until he came out of that on his own, this could be a way to help him improve at school and get his mind off of other things.

"What defensive properties?"

"Transfiguring a knife from a stick for instance," Severus said. "Or transfiguring grass into ice when you are being chased so you can't be pursued."

"There are charms to do that to grass."

"There are. Or if you are separated from your friends and find yourself needing to stay the night alone in the woods when it's snowing, Transfiguration can turn ordinary objects into a tent, a blanket, or other useful objects. There is also the fact that in upper years beyond your OWLs, succeeding in Charms relies heavily on being proficient in all twelve principles of Transfiguration."

"I didn't know that," Harry said.

"The classes that are taught here are all intertwined in some way," he said. "All of what you learn in Herbology is useful in Potions. What you learn in Care of Magical Creatures is also important to Defense Against The Dark Arts and even in Herbology as some of those creatures are considered pests in a garden or greenhouse. Arithmancy, Runes and Astronomy are tied together and sometimes have their place in Transfiguration and other magical disciplines. Different magical schools may teach different sets of subjects, but things are taught together for a reason wherever you go in the magical world. You may someday wish to learn advanced magic that isn't taught here, but find yourself unable because you need to have mastered magic that we are teaching."

Harry thought he would have liked to be good at all of it, but had been focusing his efforts since he'd gotten to Hogwarts on what he thought he could really use. He wasn't sure he had time to do well in all of his classes.

"I don't always understand what I'm studying in Herbology. Professor McGonagall went over the test I didn't do well on last week when we did Saturday school today and helped me figure some of it out."

"Do you study with Miss Granger?"

"All the time," Harry said. "She's the only reason I'm passing History of Magic."

"How much time are you spending studying outside of school hours?"

"I do my homework in study hall and we study together in the evenings after dinner, either in the common room or library. Well... Ron doesn't, he finishes his homework then, but Hermione and I do."

"And on weekends?"

"I study at night when I can't sleep sometimes."

Severus gave Harry a serious look and said, "I do not have the expectation for you that you will have an O in all of your classes. I would like you to attempt to raise at least one of your other grades to an E however. If you find yourself not understanding the material, I will help you. So will the Headmaster."

"Does it have to be in Potions?" Harry asked.

"Given that you already have high grades and a good understanding of Charms and Defense Against The Dark Arts, it may be better if you focus on Transfiguration, as that is closely related to the two."

Severus motioned for Harry to get up and follow him into the kitchen. He tapped the table with his wand and dinner appeared. When they were halfway through plates of honeyed ham and vegetables, there was a knock on the door and the Headmaster let himself in.

"There's enough here for another plate," Severus said, but Albus waved him away.

"I came from dinner in the Great Hall. It's best if I'm seen by students at as many meals as possible as Headmaster." He did sit in the empty chair at the table however and asked how Saturday school and detention had gone for Harry, and he told him.

"You know," Albus said thoughtfully, "your test scores aren't the only way to raise your grades in classes. I have it on good authority that many of your tests have high grades but your homework isn't always completed to the best of your ability."

"I'm sorry," Harry said, looking down into his empty plate.

"There is no need to be," Albus told him. "Do you have any of your recently returned homework with you Harry?"

"Yes sir."

"Bring it to the table."

Harry went into his room and rifled through his bag until he found the latest Care of Magical Creatures essay he'd completed, as well as the latest Potions essay. Back at the kitchen table he handed them to the Headmaster. Albus took the Care of Magical Creatures essay and handed the Potions essay to Snape.

"Hagrid gave you five questions to answer on Thestrals," Albus said, laying the paper flat between himself and Harry so he could see. "You answered all five, but very briefly." He pointed to the question Harry had written out: ‘List the five magical abilities of Thestrals.' Harry had written a bullet point list and listed all five things.

"While you did answer the question," Albus said, "you didn't add any additional information that's relevant to what you wrote."

"I don't know what else to write."

"Did your book have information on ‘Blind Sight'?"

"Yeah," Harry said, trying to remember it.

"If you had included information about Blind Sight instead of simply listing it, and done the same for your other answers, that would have taken this essay from merely Acceptable to Excellent."

"How do you get Outstandings then?" Harry asked.

"Does Miss Granger let you see any of her homework?" Severus asked.

"She doesn't want us to cheat."

"When she returns, ask to look at some of her past assignments that have received O's." Severus told him. "Students who receive O's go above and beyond the assignment to relate what they're learning to other classes and things they're learning, or to relay how that information is useful. As I said, everything taught at Hogwarts is related to at least one other subject taught here. It demonstrates that you have studied the material and are ready to move on. When students take the time to study what they're learning and write it into an essay, it is often committed to memory in the same way you commit spells to memory by practicing them and casting them inside and outside of class."

"That's a lot of studying," Harry said. When he found Albus and Severus looking at him, he said hurriedly, "I didn't mean I wouldn't sir, I'm not being lazy I promise."

Albus chuckled. "When you take time to thoroughly research and do the homework I think you'll find that you'll have to study less right before a test."

"And you will also be more prepared in classes to answer questions or do practical work. The more you apply yourself to your schoolwork, the more you will succeed in classes."

"Yes sir," Harry said.

"Have you begun the letter yet Harry?" Albus asked.

"No sir. I'll go write it right now."

"Bring it to me when you're finished."

"Yes sir."

Harry excused himself from the table and went back to his room. The only one to give him advice on homework before had been Hermione, but she had always done it in a way he and Ron had seen as pestering. She'd told them to write more on their assignments, but hadn't explained well why they should. What Snape and the Headmaster had said made a lot of sense though.

He turned his attention to the letter, but wasn't sure what to write to his future self about his family. Mind still on the talk they'd just had about grades and homework, Harry wrote down, ‘Dear future me,' and felt silly doing so even though it was what he had been assigned. ‘This is past you from before December. You've ,' he struck a line through ‘you've' and wrote, ‘I've been told I have to do better in at least one subject. I guess it will be Transfiguration. I hope you won't be mad at me by the end of the school year. I'll have to work hard to make sure you aren't.' Harry thought that wasn't so bad, but the Headmaster had told him to write what his future family would look like. ‘They said they were taking me to the Ministry next weekend to be adopted. That'll make it official I guess. I'll be part of a real family. I hope by the end of the school year I still have a real family. I hope it means when I mess something up, they're still right here with me. I hope by the end of the school year you're looking forward to the summer and not dreading being sent back to the Dursleys or somewhere else. I hope it means the Headmaster will take you out on weekends to get tea in that tea shop on Knockturn or will still want you around to have meals with him. Maybe Snape will take you on Holiday again with the orphanage.

By the end of the school year I want to have a patronus down. I'm still working on a good enough memory. I have some new ones I'll have to try.

Hopefully by the end of the school year I won't be fighting the Ministry anymore.

When I ran away, I didn't find Sirius. He didn't come for me. But the Headmaster and Snape did. No one does that. I don't know if by the end of the school year you'll hear from Sirius or see him again, and by the time all the time has passed between this letter and you getting it, I don't know if you'll still want to see him again.

Oh yeah, and I hope by the end of the school year you earned back all of the 125 points you lost running away. I promised Professor McGonagall I would. It would have been easy with Quidditch because I could have earned points catching the Snitch, but now I'm going to have to work hard in classes to get them back. Hermione could do it. She'd probably get them earned by Christmas. I guess it means I can do it too, even if it takes me til the end of the year.'

Harry re-read over what he had. There was something else he wanted to write, but didn't know if he should. He was only writing to himself though, wasn't he? The Headmaster had promised not to look at the letter.

‘Aside from my friends, and Mrs. Ginger, I never really got hugged before. But now Snape hugged me once and the Headmaster too. I hope by the end of the school year you get hugged more. I hope you feel wanted.' Harry was afraid to write loved, because he didn't know if that was a possibility for him. It was something he wanted though. It was something he had always craved, but he would settle for wanted if that was all he could have.

Harry folded the letter in thirds and went out to the living room to see if the Headmaster was still there. He was.

"All finished sir," he said, and handed him the parchment. It was two sheets thick.

Albus pulled out his wand and tapped the parchment where it folded in on itself. A glowing red seal appeared and then the glow vanished and left in its place was a wax seal.

"Only you can open it," he told Harry. "It's keyed to you. I will keep this in my office until the end of the year and then give it back to you."

"Yes sir."

Because it seemed like he'd interrupted a conversation between the Headmaster and Snape, he went back to his room. The letter was gone and out of his hands now. He really hoped all that he'd written came true. He supposed some of the things he'd written were in his power to do, like earning the points back and getting a better grade in Transfiguration. He didn't know what he could do about the rest of it though, about making Snape and the Headmaster want to spend time with him, or to want him or hug him. It was something he'd have to think more about, and he guessed he had the rest of the school year to do so.

* * *

The week in Snape's quarters passed by more quickly than Harry would have thought. Hermione came back to the castle Monday night after dinner, and Harry was able to see her the next morning at breakfast. She was happy to let him look over some of her old papers that had already been graded, and let him borrow several. What Snape and the Headmaster had told him seemed to be true. Hermione's homework didn't just ooze information like Harry had always suspected, but was chocked full of examples of how the things they were learning applied to other classes or to real life. In one paper Hermione had listed several ways in which heavy duty levitation charms could be helpful in the Muggle world if applied discreetly by the Ministry.

Some of the other boys in the dorm asked why Harry wasn't with them at night, and he told them it was because he was still in trouble for running away and was staying in another part of the castle with a professor.

"Which Professor?" Neville asked Harry one day after lunch as they trailed behind their peers on their way to Herbology.

"Professor Snape."

Neville looked stricken and Harry laughed. "I haven't really told people yet, but I live at the castle now."

"With Snape?" Neville's eyes were huge.

"Yeah," Harry said.

"All the time?"

"On holidays."

"How did that happen?"

"Erm- it's a long story. But I'm his ward and Dumbledore's."

"Is that why you go to have meals with the Headmaster all the time? Some of the other kids think you're up there planning another bazaar or something."

Everyone else was involved in their own conversations and weren't listening in the busy hallway as they hurried to classes, so Harry leaned in and told him quietly, "I'm kind of- getting adopted this weekend."

"By Snape or Dumbledore?" Neville asked.

"Both?"

"My brain hurts," Neville told him, and they both laughed a little.

"Yours and mine both."

"How's that gonna work?"

"I might have to let you know once it's all over and done with." Harry still wasn't clear on all of the details himself. Snape had said Dumbledore was going to adopt him and then he would adopt Harry. But Harry didn't think adults were allowed to adopt other adults. If they were, did it mean kids could adopt kids?

Saturday morning rolled around and Severus got Harry up early so they could go to the Ministry.

"It will be several hours of filling out paperwork and getting the paperwork around to the correct departments within the Family Affairs Office and getting it stamped and signed," he told Harry as the Headmaster came into their quarters with his traveling cloak on.

"Yes sir," Harry said. "I'll be quiet and stay out of the way."

He gave Harry a hard look and said, "Would you prefer to go to see Silver while we are completing the first part of the process?"

"If he has time," Harry said. "I'd like to see how things are going with the case he's filed at the Ministry."

"Then we will stop at Diagon first."

They used the Floo in the staff lounge behind the Great Hall and when they arrived in the Leaky Cauldron Snape told him the password would be changed as soon as they returned.

"I'm not sneaking out again," Harry told him, but Snape only murmured his agreement that Harry had better not.

As it turned out, Silver was available, and had been working solely on Harry's case for the last several weeks. All of his other clients (of which there were few) were being handled by his father whose office was on the other side of London.

Snape and Dumbledore left him there and told him they would return in a few hours, and expected to find him there with Silver or at Flourish and Blotts. "If he finds his way down Payne Alley, I will hold you personally responsible," Snape said to Silver, but the man only gave a nod to acknowledge that he'd heard him. Then they were gone and Harry and Silver were alone.

"The adoption will have a big impact on your new legal dealings," Silver said as he perused a long piece of parchment.

"It seems like everything I say or do has an impact on legal stuff."

"That is also true," he said.

"How is it going to change things?"

"You're being taken into two very prominent old wizarding lines."

"I am?"

"Dumbledore and Prince. With Potter in the mix that's three prominent families coming together, and that's making a statement to the Ministry. They won't like it, but it's bound to help your case, especially in public opinion. There's a lot of respect in the community for the Dumbledores and Princes. More even perhaps than the Potters. Certainly more all together than one alone."

"I wasn't trying to make a statement," Harry said.

"You should."

"Why?"

"You're going to need public support on this. It hasn't hit the papers yet just what you're filing against the Ministry for, but it will. It will be best if you get out ahead of the issue and make a statement of your own before the Ministry can... before Skeeter gets hold of the news and twists it to her liking."

As Harry sat in the chair in Silver's office he wondered what kind of statement he would make. He supposed if the Ministry knew this was really about Fae rights that others would too, and he knew wizards in general didn't like Fae, even though there were those like Harry who were sympathetic to their plight. What kind of statement would he really make then? What would he want people to know?

Silver interrupted his thoughts a minute later. "It's actually a good deal for Dumbledore and Snape as well."

"What is?"

"Adopting you. Neither one of them have an heir and their family lines would have come to an end when the two of them aren't around anymore. By adopting you their family lines continue through you, on paper anyway."

"On paper?"

"You'll still be known as Harry Potter, but on paper you'll be known as Harry Potter Prince Dumbledore."

"But Professor Snape doesn't have Prince as his name even though he's from that family."

"He does on paper," Silver said. "What we go by in person, what we sign our name as, is not always our name in records with the Ministry. Technically he is Severus Prince, and heir to the Prince estate and vaults."

"But what about the last name Snape?"

"His father was a muggle, and Snape is a muggle name. It's different for Muggleborns who don't have previous wizarding heritage to draw from. Their surname will always be listed as their muggle surname. And occasionally muggle surnames become their own wizarding lineage. Malfoy I believe was once one of those names that started out as a Muggle name just to give you an idea. But that was hundreds of years ago and through so many generations of producing pure-blooded heirs and intermarrying with other prominent families they've become their own wizarding line."

"You think that's why they're adopting me?"

"Do you?" Silver asked, looking up at him.

"No," Harry said, making up his mind about it then and there. They'd told him they wanted to be there for him, that they were all three accountable to each other. Harry wanted that. He had to believe they wanted it too.

Harry changed the subject a moment later, mind going back to what he was supposed to say to people to ‘get ahead' of the Ministry. "What kind of statement should I make?"

Silver set aside the papers he'd been looking through as he talked to Harry and pulled out a fresh piece of parchment and a quill. "If you and I had just met for the first time, and you wanted me to know why you opened the sweet shop and hired Fae employees at your other businesses, what would you say to me?"

"They have to work somewhere," Harry said. "It's not fair that they can't afford food or a place to live, or clothes. It's not fair that even though they're just regular people they get chased away from jobs, and can't open up their own businesses unless they've already been running a business for hundreds of years. Some of their kids are wizards and can't even go to school, because they don't trust us, and because their kids will go to school and then have to choose between being a wizard or being Fae like their family after they graduate. Nothing about it is fair. And then the Ministry turns people against them. But they're all just people. We're all just people," Harry told him passionately. "They're not out there trying to eat us or something. Why shouldn't we help them and they help us? Why should we have to be separated? Why can't I get to know kids like Bellamy at school?"

Silver was writing things down as Harry spoke.

"What's at the crux of this issue for you?" he asked.

"What do you mean?"

"When you boil it all down to one thing... one word or idea, what is it? You keep touching on it, but I'm not sure you realize what it is."

Harry thought back to how Bellamy's family had helped him last week when he'd needed them, despite the danger to themselves. How they'd treated him as though he was Fae. How they wished him well and spoke to him like he was one of them. And he remembered how upset he was on their behalf when they were slighted, like the Headmaster said he and Snape were when Harry was slighted. Like family.

"I'm Fae," Harry said.

"Go on."

"I'm not, but I am. They treated me like one of their own. And I'm upset when people do bad things to them, and exclude them. That makes us family, because friends are the family you choose."

Silver pushed the parchment across the desk for Harry. He'd made a bullet list of points and said, "This is the statement you make. In your own words." Underlined three times at the bottom was the word family, and next to that community. "If you deliver that statement to the papers and to a crowd as passionately as you just told it all to me, it will make an impact. Maybe not on that day, or even in a year, but change comes slowly. You've got to make a snowball and roll it for a ways before it begins to roll on it's own and becomes an avalanch. Your statement can be the snowball. And hopefully it will be enough to sway some influential people to stand with you during this trial."

"When and where do I tell people?" Harry asked. In the summer he'd gathered the shop owners to a meeting at the Gringott's steps. It was cold and rainy now and he didn't think anyone would gather to hear what he had to say. And he wasn't technically supposed to be out on the alleys during the school year anyhow.

"Christmas Holiday. It's just a few weeks away," Silver said.

"I think Professor Snape said something about preventing me from doing stupid things to make the Ministry mad from now on..."

Silver laughed. "The Ministry is already angry, and if I need to have a conversation with he and Dumbledore about how this could help your case, I will."

"Thank you," Harry told him sincerely.

"I'll arrange a press conference," he said. "I'll wait until the day before it's supposed to happen to announce it so the Ministry doesn't have too much time to come up with their own statement before you get yours made. If we do it the first week of Christmas Holidays the alleys will be full of Christmas shoppers. You'll need to make it short and to the point, and be yourself. Let people know who you really are. It's a call to arms, but you can't seem as though you're just doing it to be rebellious since that's what the papers have been painting you as since the summer."

"What's all this going to do to my businesses? People will be angry and won't shop."

"Before Christmas?" he asked with a little laugh. "You own so many businesses here and elsewhere, it would be hard for them to avoid even if they tried."

"I don't care anyway," Harry said, "but I thought it best to ask."

"As you should."

* * *

Snape and Dumbledore returned at noon and took Harry to tea at the tea shop Harry liked so much at the end of Knocturn. They sat together in a booth and warmed up as they drank tea and coffee and ate croissants and pastries. Then it was time to go back to the Ministry.

"They know we're returning today," Snape told him, "so it should go quicker than it did this morning. When word got around Albus was adopting me, your case workers from the summer found us down on level ten as we were filing papers to join two families and asked if we were coming back with you."

"Are they going to try to stop it?" Harry asked.

"No," Albus said with a smile as they entered the Ministry atrium. "They were quite pleased in fact."

They got onto a lift and went down to level eight to the Family Affairs Office and went to stand at the front desk. The clerk looked nervous.

"Chief Warlock Of The Wizengamot," the clerk greeted Dumbledore, and Harry frowned, wondering what that meant. "You can't file further papers until you see Justice Ariminta Abbot. She's waiting in room twelve. It's down the hall and to your right."

"Thank you," Dumbledore told the nervous young wizard and they moved for the hallway on the right and found room 12. Dumbledore opened the door without knocking and they found the Justice that had presided over their case that summer sitting at a conference table inside. She stood up to greet him.

"Word made it's way around the Ministry fast that you were adopting Severus."

"As it does when two old families merge."

Her eyes moved past him to Harry and she said, "Have you come back to officially adopt Mr. Potter as well?"

"Severus will be adopting him, which will make me his grandfather." She stared into his eyes for a moment and then said, "I'd like to speak with Harry. You can stay."

Dumbledore held his arm out to motion Harry over and he came to him to face the Justice.

"You've been staying with Professor Snape since the trial I hear," she said, looking down at Harry.

"Yes maam."

"How has that been for you?"

He looked over to Snape, who was choosing to remain silent and not making eye contact with him.

"Would you rather we talk alone?" she asked Harry, and he brought his eyes around to her again.

"No maam. It's been a rough term for me. For a lot of kids, because the Dementors keep attacking us. I've had to get extra lessons from the Defense professor to learn to cast a patronus, and that's been hard because I have to practice against a boggart that turns into one. But after my extra lessons twice a week, when I'm all shaken up, Professor Snape lets me come sit by the fire in his quarters and gives me tea. He gives me time to think and calm down. Sometimes he waits for me outside the Defense room and takes me back to his quarters to calm down."

"I see. And what about Professor Dumbledore? Have you been spending time with him?"

"Yes maam. Every week we eat one breakfast, one lunch, and one dinner together. Except this last week, we had dinner together a few times. And sometimes he takes me for a whole day on a weekend and we go do something."

"Like what?"

"We went to a tea shop I like once, and we saw a Quidditch Expo together."

"Have you been happy to have them as your guardians Harry?"

"I know I'm not going to get beaten up and thrown in a closet."

"That's not what I asked."

He didn't know how to tell her it's what she meant without sounding rude or disrespectful. He was safe. That was better than being happy. And they'd come for him when no one else had.

"I wouldn't want other guardians," he finally said. "I choose them."

"That is all I needed to hear."

She turned back to Albus and stared into his eyes again. Then she raised a hand and touched his cheek and held it for a moment as she said, "This, I am proud of you for old friend. I hope this brings the three of you happiness."

"It does," he told her, and she nodded with a smile and left the three of them alone in room twelve.

"Was what I said ok?" Harry asked.

"Yes," Snape said, and they went back to the front desk where they were directed down the other hallway to the office of Cynthia Aris.

Snape had been right. They'd been given a form to fill out in one office, only to be told to go to the office next door to have it stamped. Then there were other forms that had to be filled out and stamped in other offices, and a form that had to be taken to level 10 to merge the Snape/Dumbledore families with the Potter family.

"Is that all?" Harry asked when they stepped into an empty lift to make their way back up to the Ministry atrium. "Is it all done?"

"You are ours," Snape said. He put a hand on Harry's shoulder from behind him, and a moment later Dumbledore did the same on his other shoulder. Harry grinned as they rose up out of the depths of the Ministry together.

* * *

"Ron?"

"Yeah?"

"Can I practice something on you?"

"If you're gonna turn me into a toad or something for extra points in Transfiguration-" Ron warned him, but Harry shook his head.

"No, I mean, something I gotta say to someone. Well, to a lot of someone's."

"Sure, what is it?"

They were alone in the dorms studying. Harry had told his friends what he'd been told about raising his grades and about doing well in all of their classes as everything counted on knowing other subjects, and while Ron hadn't been enthusiastic about more work, he'd agreed to put in more effort than he had been.

It was a few days before Christmas holiday, and on Sunday morning Harry was due to take a trip to Diagon Alley to make his statement to the Daily Prophet and whoever else decided to show up to the front steps of Gringotts.

"You know how I've been getting fined by the Ministry?" Harry asked. Ron nodded. "But do you know why? I don't think I ever told you."

"I saw one of the notices," he said. "Didn't make much sense to me though."

"I'm being fined even though I'm compliance with the law, because they want to teach me a lesson."

"What lesson?" Ron asked.

"Not to hire or help Fae."

"That's why?" Ron asked, surprised. "Who'd you hire?"

"Five Fae, and I became business partners with another. Fae aren't allowed to open businesses to make their own goods, or to shop in wizard stores for what they need. They're not allowed to work anywhere in the wizard community except at the few places they already own down Payne Alley and in other parts of the country."

"I didn't realize," he said. "I mean, we were in a store once when a shop owner chased a guy out, shouting about him being a werewolf, but I didn't understand why."

"Did you know there's wizard kids who never get to go to Hogwarts? Because their parents are Fae? And Fae kids who never get to go because they're not allowed? There's a school for Fae but without work most Fae don't have money to send their kids there."

"That stinks."

"They're just people. Werewolves aren't running around all month trying to eat people. They're only dangerous to others three nights a month, and they can't afford to take the potion that makes them safe to be around on those three nights. Vampires aren't interested in attacking people. They pay wizards to take blood replenishing potions and then to donate blood to a couple places where they can buy it and use it there. Goblins are just sort of tolerated because they run Gringotts, but they're not really allowed to go into othe wizard shops either, and wizard stores don't carry anything they would want anyway. And elves-"

"What about elves?" Ron asked. "What'd they ever do to anybody?"

"That's just it. They're pretty mild people. There's nothing dangerous about them unless you make one angry or challenge one to a duel. They're no more dangerous than us."

"Mum said she saw elves once, on a holiday to the country way up north. They were tending to a copse of trees and helping them grow, and had poured their magic into a meadow to make it flower. She said it was full of wildflowers."

"Yeah," Harry said. "But they won't let us meet elves in school, or wizard kids of vampires, or werewolf kids... they want to separate us. But we're all just one people. They're just wizards with something extra."

"What do you mean extra? Claws and fangs?" Ron laughed.

"Well vampires have some powers we don't, and they apparate differently and live longer. And werewolves change into a wolf that's abnormally big and strong. And elves have their own magic. Still just people though."

"So what did you want to practice?" Ron asked.

"I just did," Harry said. "I've got to tell all this to the Prophet and some other people. I've got to tell them what they're doing to the Fae is wrong and I'm not ok with it."

"Mum and dad have never been ok with it either," Ron said. "Neither am I, and you know how Hermione feels about house elf rights."

"Thanks for letting me practice."

"I don't know how many people will agree with you," Ron told him, "but it's probably more than you think."

"I hope so."

* * *

Harry was nervous and moved his weight from foot to foot as he stood on the snowy steps of Gringotts in Diagonalley. It was the first full day of the Christmas holiday where students were home with their parents. Ron and his siblings had gone home this year, and Ron had promised to tell his parents about the press conference. Harry searched the little crowd that had gathered for a group of redheads, but couldn't see them.

He shivered as a slight breeze picked up, but a hand on his shoulder stilled his nervous movements and he looked up to find Severus, who had come with him this morning. Harry calmed at seeing the gloved hand there, and rubbed his own hands together, though they were warm in the new gloves the Headmaster had given him the day before. He'd also bought him a new dark gray coat that went down past his rear end. It was thick and looked expensive, and made Harry feel like he was dressed like the Malfoys would have been if they were about to give a statement to the Prophet.

Silver came up the steps to Harry and Severus a moment later and said, "The Prophet reporter is ready. I also have my secretary recording your statement word for word so if the Prophet mangles it we'll have a copy of exactly what you said."

Snape squeezed his shoulder and Harry steeled himself for what he had to say. This was harder than the last time he'd gathered people to talk about the changes he was trying to make on the alleys. Now he was speaking to shop owners and to families doing their shopping. They probably all thought he was going to tell them about more business changes.

Snape removed his hand from his shoulder and Harry took a step forward and cleared his throat. Snape or Silver had cast a spell to magnify his voice.

"Thanks for coming to hear what I have to say. You might not have heard yet that I've been cited by the Ministry for several thousand Galleons for made up infractions in my businesses. I respect the law and will always try to be in full compliance with the law." Professor Snape had helped him with some of the words to use the night before, like infractions, and had helped him refine his statement to make it as short as possible. Harry's eyes roved around the crowd and found the people sill listening. All eyes were on him.

"The Ministry didn't cite me because I was in violation of the law. They targeted me because I wanted to help people by giving them jobs, and helping them feed themselves and to be able to afford to buy clothes and have a place to live. Only certain of my businesses were targeted, and those were businesses where I had hired certain people. I was told in the citations that I would be cited hundreds of galleons daily until I fired these employees... employees who were working hard and doing what they were supposed to be doing. People who had never been in trouble with the law, and who had done nothing wrong but show up to work every day. One of those people is an elf."

He expected people to gasp or be appalled by the news, but they were still listening quietly. "I also hired three werewolves and a vampire to sweep and clean Diagon and Knocturn alleys at night to keep the alleys looking clean and welcoming for guests, and to take that burden off of shop owners."

A few people did murmur at this, but they quieted quickly.

"The final straw for the Ministry was when I opened up a sweet shop on Knockturn that sells sweets for Fae, since there's nowhere else they're allowed to enter to shop, and nowhere else that carries things they might want. The Ministry didn't like the items I was selling, and they didn't like that I was giving business to other reputable Fae businesses by buying certain ingredients from them. I wanted to come talk to you today, to tell you I'm not ok with this. There's not an actual law against selling to Fae, against hiring Fae, or against them opening up new businesses. But our community through the Ministry treats them as though they're not allowed to exist. They're just people."

"With fangs!" a man from the crowd shouted. "People with fangs!"

"They've no interest in harming you," Harry said. He told them briefly what he'd told Ron and Silver. That there were wizard children not allowed to attend school, and Fae children who weren't allowed. "Kids I'll never get the chance to know," Harry said, "even though they've never done anything wrong and aren't dangerous. I wonder how many more friends I could have had if they'd been allowed to get the same education I can have."

"Make your point already!" the same man who had shouted about fangs had said angrily. He clearly didn't like what Harry was telling them, and while a few people nodded, the rest were quiet and respectful.

"My point is this: a wise witch once said friends are the family you choose. These people, the Fae, are my people. I choose them. When you step on them, you're stepping on me too. If you're my people, these are your people. One community together instead of two groups against each other. That's a choice you have to make in order to see it happen. You get to choose that with your everyday actions. If you'd like to count me as a friend, you count them as friends too. I might not have fangs, or a tail, or pointy ears or special magic, but I'm Fae, and I'm done with the way one half of my community is treating the other half. It's enough."

Harry stepped back, hoping Snape would grip his shoulder again, but he didn't. A reporter from the Prophet rushed forward and started asking questions. "Mr. Potter, what do you have to say about the attacks on random Muggles by Vampires over in Bristol?"

Silver stepped in between them and said, "Mr. Potter has made his statement. Other questions can be routed through my office."

As Silver stepped away with Harry and Severus, Harry did catch glimpse of red hair in the crowd way in the back. As high as he could stand on his toes and reach above the heads of the others there, Ron was in the back holding his thumb up high for Harry to see.