What he didn't like was being picked on relentlessly at Hogwarts for not having a family. Not having a mother and father was bad enough, but if he had to spend a third year listening to Draco spout off about him being so nasty that even his Muggle relatives couldn't stand him... well, he had a few curses up his sleeve saved just for Draco. "We could try sending you home with a steak tied around your neck. Maybe your aunt and uncle would take you back then Potter..." No thank you, Harry thought irritably as he packed his things away into his trunk and made his bed at the orphanage for the last time. The orphanage had been better than the Dursleys, but now he'd be going somewhere better. Someplace Draco Malfoy couldn't possibly make fun of him for because he'd have a real family. A family who had asked to adopt him.

"Ready Harry?"

Father Cooke stood in the doorway to the small bedroom.

"All ready Father," he said, dragging his trunk to the door. The Father picked up one handle and helped Harry carry it down the narrow hallway, floorboards creaking as they went.

"It's very lucky they requested someone just like you," he said as he helped Harry carry the trunk down the stairs. "We don't get people from Hogwarts here but once every twenty or thirty years. That you were here at all and they were looking for someone of your sort to adopt is lucky indeed."

"Yes Father." Harry had to agree. He'd be getting to go to a wizarding family, not a Muggle one, which meant he wouldn't have to explain about having to go off to a wizarding boarding school at the end of every summer.

Harry hadn't been told much about the family wanting to adopt him, just that a wizarding family was looking for an heir since they had no children of their own. Someone to learn and carry on family traditions and look after family property.

"Do you think it's an older couple?" Harry asked once they finally had the trunk out of the building and two other Father's had loaded it into the beat up old car owned by the orphanage. He climbed into the passenger seat and Father Cooke got into the driver side.

"No, as I understand it, it's a younger man in his late thirties."

"No wife?" Harry asked skeptically. "I thought it was a family?"

Before buckling himself in Father Cooke pulled out a piece of paper with an address on it and other details and scanned down it. "Just a man," he said. Harry knew it was rare that anyone asked to adopt a boy out of this orphanage, and that the clergy were eager to have anyone ask to take a boy so it would open up another bed for another orphan. This meant they didn't ask a lot of questions. The details Harry had been given so far were that the ‘family' had checked out, that there was no criminal background, that they had money apparently, that they had no children of their own and wanted an heir, and that he'd be going to live in a house on a nice piece of property. That was all aside from the fact that it was a wizard who would be taking him.

"Does he even know my name?" Harry asked as they pulled away.

"I would assume so," Father Cooke said. "Come now Harry, you'll be fine. Father Connor went out there two weeks ago to look the house over and interview the family. You know how cautious Father Connor is. Besides, I thought you were excited to leave the orphanage."

"I like the orphanage," Harry said. He wasn't sure what to feel if he told himself the truth. Excited, but cautious. Eager, but also wary.

"And when you go back to school," the Father said, "you won't get made fun of any more."

"Hopefully," Harry said. "Draco will figure something out."

They drove out of Leeds and away from the city towards Bainbridge, where this wizard was supposed to live.

"Ever been to Bainbridge Harry?" the Father asked an hour into their trip.

"No sir."

"A pretty little parish to be sure. The River Bain runs right through it and along the other edge is the River Ure. There's not many who live there... about 400 I'd say."

Harry looked around the countryside they were driving through. There wasn't much to look at. Gently rolling hills divided up into plots by low stone walls and the occasional thicket of trees. It was nice to look at but he liked living in Leeds at the orphanage. There was always something to do there. The boys at the orphanage were allowed to have jobs and Harry had been trying since last summer to get on at a bakery two streets over from the orphanage. He'd come back from Hogwarts a few days ago with hopes of finally earning a little money and eating all the pastries he wanted, but had been given the news he was going to be adopted.

"Here we are," the father said as they came into a little town with two dozen stone houses, all with white washed window sills. The Father had been right, there was a little river running right through town. They turned down a road and headed right back out of town along another river.

"This one's the river Ure," the Father said. "Only about a mile now and we'll be there." Harry's eyes drank the landscape in and tried to keep track of how far it was back to the village. They finally turned down a dirt drive and up over a little hill. Once at the top Harry could see the house at the bottom on the other side. The River Ure seemed to go right along the back edge of the property.

"Just right for a boy your age to run off some energy I'd say," the Father gave Harry a smile and Harry returned it, even though he was filled with nervousness. He didn't even know the name of this wizard. What if he was dark? What if he was mean like the Dursleys? His only consolation was that he wasn't being adopted by the Malfoy's, since the Father had said it was only a man and that there was no wife or other children.

When the car pulled to a stop, Harry didn't want to get out, but he did when the Father opened his own door and stepped out into the sunshine.

"Nice fresh air, eh Harry? Nothing like Leeds."

The house was a two story gray stone house with a gray roof like the others they had passed in town. The window moulding was whitewashed and the door was white as well.

Harry was just about to ask the Father if he was sure they had the right house when the door opened and a woman came out, wiping her hands on her apron.

"You must be the boy the master has adopted," she said, coming out to meet them. She shook the Father's hand and then shook Harry's, giving him a smile.

"He hasn't said much about you, just that you were coming today. I come by once a week to help with the house. Look at me, I haven't even introduced myself yet I'm so beside myself with excitement. I'm Mrs. Mayer. I've been upstairs tidying your room all morning."

"Thank you," Harry said, uncertain of what else he should say.

"I live two properties down that way," she pointed, though Harry couldn't see beyond a thicket of trees that surrounded the immediate area of the house.

"Father, would you like a cup of tea before you go?"

He did want a cup of tea, for which Harry was thankful, because he didn't want to be left alone here just yet.

"The master of the house isn't here yet. He's away on business and isn't expected for another hour at least." She led them inside to a nice sized kitchen and dining room where she had tea and biscuits ready for them. When they were all sitting she turned to Harry and asked, "What's your name dear? Are you awfully glad to have found a home?"

"Harry Potter," he said, and then not wanting to be rude answered, "yes maam."

"I assume you're like the master and will go away to school?"

Harry looked over at the Father who smiled at him and Harry gave a nod. He wasn't used to people knowing that he was a wizard. The clergy at the orphanage knew, (apparently as all people who ran orphanages knew) that there were witches and wizards who went away to Hogwarts, but other than those that ran the orphanage, no one else was aware of who he was.

"Oh, it's ok dear. My family have served the Prince family for nine generations, though the master of the house now doesn't like to be waited on. My grandmother and three great aunts used to come here every day to cook, clean, and educate. Now that the Prince family has dwindled the Master only asks for help keeping the place up while he's away for business or to help clean things up when he's home. He pays a fair wage too, not like his grandparents did before him."

"That's nice," Harry hedged. It was a nice house he thought, but it didn't look like the owner had the sort of wealth indicated by having a household of servants.

"This is only one house," she said, "there are four others but the master has sold off a lot of the property. I live in one of the houses he used to own down the road. The property he still owns goes along the road for a ways and across the river and up the hill to the top and then down the back side. There's another house over there but he sold it last year. Now he's just got this house and the property.

Harry didn't know why he felt like he had to keep complimenting the house and property considering this woman didn't even live here, but she seemed to be proud and seemed to like this man who had adopted him. "It's all nice," Harry said quietly, stuffing a biscuit in his mouth to keep himself from having to say anything else.

When the Father had finished his tea, he asked Harry if he wanted him to stay any longer. Harry felt bad asking him to stick around though. He had an hour and a half drive back to Leeds and being almost thirteen, Harry felt childish wanting him to stay. "It's ok," Harry told him. "I'll be fine."

"You will be," the Father said to reassure him. They went back outside and he helped Harry carry his trunk in, and then they said their goodbyes. Harry watched him drive back up over the steep little hill and then out of sight.

"Would you like to see your room Harry?" Mrs. Mayer asked when they were alone.

"Yes maam."

"You're so polite," she remarked. "I imagine you'll fit in here just fine."

She took him upstairs and gave him a tour as they went. There were four bedrooms and a bathroom upstairs. Harry's bedroom looked out into the thicket of trees, and he could see a little of the small River Ure through the tall trunks and the tree canopy.

"There's a wardrobe and a desk for you," she said. "The master went out and bought the desk yesterday. He said you'd need it for schoolwork. He also bought new bedding since everything in the house was old and musty." She indicated the blanket which was a soft dark blue plaid with a soft white underside. There were light blue sheets and a fluffy pillow.

"I think he said something about taking you to the city for new clothes later this week and then to Diagonalley later in the summer."

Harry turned and frowned. "You know about Diagonalley?"

"I told you dear, my family has been working for the Prince family for generations. My great great grandmother even got to see Hogwarts once when she had to go attend to a sick child at the school. Once, generations ago there was a child in our family who turned out to have magic, and he went to the school, but we don't talk about him much."

"Why not?" Harry asked.

"It was said one of the masters of the house had an affair with one of the servants and produced an illegitimate heir."

"Oh."

"You'll find our two families are close. If ever the master gets snippy with you or you have a row, you can come down round my place for some tea."

"Is he- like that often?" Harry asked.

"Oh, he has his moments. So did his grandfather and a few of his uncles and cousins. You just remember what I said. When he gets like that it's best to walk away and let him work things out on his own. Most of the time he's agreeable though. He might seem a little rough around the edges but I've known him since he was just a boy and there's a soft interior if you just know where to look for it."

They heard a door open and close downstairs and a voice calling, "Millie?"

Harry raised his brows.

"That's only Arran," she said. "My husband. Probably wondering when I'll be home to fix his tea. He'd be better off fixing it himself than walking all the way down here to ask me about it." She went out into the hall and called down the stairs. "I'm up here."

Harry followed her out and peered over the railing and down the stairs where Arran's face appeared at the bottom.

"When's my meal going to be ready?"

"Whenever you fix it!"

"Why did I come all the way down here to find you then if I have to fix it myself?"

"That's a good question isn't it Harry?" she turned to Harry and asked loudly. Arran looked up at Harry, tipped his hat, and then went back to talking to Mrs. Mayer.

"You know, I've been thinking about hiring Mrs. Allan down the road to come work at our house and fix my meals while you're over here fixing meals and cleaning."

"You go right ahead and do that," she said.

He threw his hand down, made a noise of irritation, and then they heard the door open and shut again.

"He won't hire anyone," she said with a smile. "He won't eat anyone's cooking but mine. Once Mrs. Allan brought biscuits over and he threw them in the bin as soon as she was out of sight."

Harry grinned at her, thinking their exchange had been amusing.

Mrs. Mayer helped Harry unpack some of his things into the wardrobe, and almost as soon as they were done they heard the front door open and close again. Harry waited to hear if it was Arran again, but no one called up the stairs for Mrs. Mayer.

"There's the master," she said with a kind smile, and beckoned for Harry to follow her back downstairs.

She led Harry into a large sitting room and then through a door into a large library set up as an office. The man's back was turned to them as they came in, rummaging through a trunk.

"Has he come yet Mrs. Mayer?" the man asked, and his voice chilled Harry to the bone, making him stand up straight. Mrs. Mayer didn't fail to notice Harry's sudden change in posture.

"He's right here looking ready to pass out," she said, causing the man to straighten up and turn around.

Severus Snape's eyes fell on the pale face of Harry Potter and his eyes narrowed.

"I thought your pranking days were over Mrs. Mayer," he said, the distaste in his voice obvious.

"Master Snape?" she asked, brows furrowing.

"You expect me to believe this is the orphan I sent for?"

She turned and looked Harry up and down as if he had suddenly sprouted an extra set of eyes or ears, and then turned back to Snape, confused.

"The Father drove him over this morning. We had tea and then he left. Harry's already unpacked his things upstairs."

"Well he can pack them up again. There's been a mistake. I did not ask, nor would I ever, to adopt Harry Potter."

"Severus!" she chided, and Harry allowed himself only a moment of surprise that she'd used his first name since he'd only heard her refer to him as master up to this point.

"I expect him to be packed and waiting for the orphanage to retrieve him by this evening. I'll call them and let them know there has been a mistake."

"Severus Snape!" she said, making him narrow his eyes at her. She turned to Harry and ignored Snape for a moment. "Harry, why don't you go upstairs for a while while I talk to the Master. There you go, hurry along now."

Harry wanted to stay outside the door and listen, but didn't want to be cursed or hexed so he ran back through the house and up the stairs. Snape had tried to adopt him? How could he have made a mistake like that? They might not have had a lot of information for Harry about him, but surely they'd told Snape his name? He began unpacking his clothes out of the wardrobe and his school supplies out of the desk. Maybe Mrs. Mayer would let him stay at her house until the Father came back to get him that evening. Harry tried not to let the sting of what had happened get to him. He'd been nervous, yes, but for just a few hours he'd believed he was going to a real home to have a real family. Now it was just like a cruel joke. Snape's words kept playing through his mind as he threw things back into his trunk. ‘I did not ask, nor would I ever, to adopt Harry Potter.' It was the Dursleys all over again. Just a reminder that Harry wasn't welcome anywhere. Then Draco's words floated through his mind from several days before, and Harry thought cruelly to himself, maybe if he tied a steak around his neck, Snape might want to keep him then.

Downstairs, away from where Harry could hear, Mrs. Millie Mayer was giving Severus a piece of her mind. He didn't usually get an earful like this from anyone other than Minerva, but Millie Mayer was one of the few he didn't mind getting scolded by. She was a teenager when he was a young boy and she'd often been tasked with watching him. If she'd scolded him as a child, he didn't feel so bad about being scolded now. It was like they were family.

"How could you say such a thing to him? He came all this way thinking he was getting adopted."

"There has been a mistake."

"How could you make a mistake like this Severus Snape! You're the one who wanted to adopt a boy. Is he an orphan or isn't he?"

"His parents died, but he has a family. He chose to run away from them before he came to Hogwarts. He put himself in an orphanage. Undoubtedly they didn't cater to his whims enough to satisfy him."

"Oh yes Severus, because an orphanage would cater to him more than his own flesh and blood."

"You don't understand," Severus said, growing irritated.

"What don't I understand? Tell me because you're right. I don't understand how you could so cruelly turn a boy away after getting his hopes up like you have."

"The orphanage said they had a boy of magical descent who needed a home. They didn't tell me much about him other than that he was well-behaved and that his parents had both died. They lied to me."

"Really? The clergy?"

"Harry Potter is the most errant, incorrigible child at Hogwarts."

"He's been nothing but polite since he's been here. He couldn't stop saying how nice the house and property were."

"No doubt the people at the orphanage told him he was going to a family of wealth and he jumped at the chance."

"Severus Snape, you'd better do something to make this right or I'll haunt you long after I'm gone."

He gave her a look that said, ‘you wouldn't dare,' but she seemed angry enough that she just might.

"What do you expect me to do?"

"That's for you to figure out but I'd suggest you at least try to give him a home. Regardless of what you may think he is from an orphanage. You wanted to adopt a child, and there's a child upstairs right now willing to be adopted."

"He would not want me to adopt him. We do not get along. As I said, he's incorrigible. He refuses to be instructed. He will be nothing but trouble as he gets older."

"Whose fault is that?"

"You think it's mine?"

"No," she said. "If he's rough around the edges it's because he hasn't had anyone to bring him up right. Now you have a chance to do that. You'd really send him back to the orphanage without at least trying to make things work? If you send him back and he grows up a miscreant, then it really will be your fault for not bringing him up when you had the chance."

"That is where you are wrong. I have not signed the adoption papers yet. They weren't supposed to be signed for another month to be certain things were going to work smoothly with his placement here. If I take him now and attempt to ‘bring him up' it will be nothing but one fight after another. In the end, when he ends up getting himself thrown in jail, then it will be seen as my fault for the way I brought him up. I wanted a child to learn the family traditions and continue the family line after I'm gone. How can I get that with the child I've been handed?"

"I seem to remember your grandfather saying you were unteachable and too much of a trouble maker to amount to anything. He said you were more trouble than you were worth."

"And I was," Severus reminded her. He'd left Hogwarts and gotten involved with Voldemort, which in the end had caused his best friend and her husband to die, orphaning their child. Millie Mayer knew some of it, but not all of it. She knew he'd been in trouble with the law and that there had been a death, but not that he'd been the cause of Harry Potter's orphanness. His stomach squirmed at the memory.

"Yet here you sit, the head of the family, Potions Master at Hogwarts, head of Slytherin House."

"I didn't think you paid attention to all of that," he said quietly. She was a Muggle after all.

"You're as good as family Severus, I pay attention. So does Arran. Your own parents and grandparents may not be here to be proud of you, but we are. If you send that boy back to the orphanage though, there's nothing to be proud about in that." She turned and headed for the door back to the sitting room.

"Where are you going?"

"Home to fix Arran his dinner. I can't make your choices for you, but if you send that poor boy back to the orphanage I don't want to be here to see it."

She left, and a few moments later he heard the front door open and close. She had gone and left him there all alone with the Brat-who-lived. His mind still wasn't even made up yet, but he thought it was rotten of her to leave him there to deal with it all on his own.

He reached for the phone to call the orphanage, but set it back down halfway through dialing the number. She was right in one thing, the boy had probably misbehaved as much as he had because he'd had no one to teach him any better. His relatives were likely too soft on him before he ran away, and he knew the people who ran the orphanage Harry was in were soft because of the way Harry continued to act while at school. He'd complained relentlessly to the Headmaster about all the rules that had been bent and broken for Potter and nothing had come of it. If he was the boy's guardian he could change that. Perhaps instill some fear of self-preservation into the boy. At the very least he could keep the child from running off after Basilisks and Death Eaters who had Voldemort sticking out the back of their heads.

Severus sighed and stood up, steeling himself for the confrontation he was about to have with the boy.

He half expected the room upstairs to be destroyed when he got up there, but it wasn't. He found Harry inside sitting on his closed trunk in the middle of the floor. Harry stood up when he saw the Potions Master standing in the doorframe and was quiet. Severus preferred the quiet, especially when it came from the lips of children, but now the silence was unnerving. He wanted the boy to fight with him so he could just change his mind and send him away.

"I did not expect you," he said. Potter remained silent. "The adoption papers were not to be signed for another month to be sure the placement was working as it should, so there is still time for you to return to the orphanage."

"I'm all packed sir," Harry said quietly. There was something in the boy's voice Severus didn't want to acknowledge, so he ignored it.

"Perhaps it would be best if you went back," Severus said, thinking perhaps he could talk the boy into wanting to go back instead of throwing him out. "If you were to stay here there would be hard work to do. I would not cater to your every whim as you are used to."

He expected the brat to mouth off to him or argue, but there was only silence.

"If you wish to stay there will be high expectations of you. I have my doubts about keeping you but would be willing to set those doubts aside until the one month trial has ended."

"What do you want me to do sir?" Harry asked.

Severus narrowed his eyes at the Gryffindor. He was actually considering staying?

"You will be educated and tested on the family traditions, business, values, and customs. You will do your chores and you will behave yourself as I expect you to without fault. I will not tolerate laziness, disrespect, or misbehavior."

Harry knew that was exactly what the man was expecting from him. He expected him to be lazy, disrespectful and to cause trouble. That's what the Dursleys had expected from him. Harry had spent years trying to prove them wrong, trying to prove he was worth their love and affection, but in the end had failed and decided to try his luck elsewhere. He thought he'd done ok for himself at the orphanage and at Hogwarts (except where Snape was concerned).

Something gnawed at him that he was supposed to be trying to prove himself. It was the old feeling he always had at the Dursleys. If he wanted Draco to stop making fun of him, this is what he had to do, but was it worth it? He wasn't sure yet. If Snape was willing to give him a one month trial, Harry thought he might as well go with it. The worst case scenario would be that he'd end up back at the orphanage and show up to Hogwarts at the end of the summer to take whatever new insults Draco had come up with for him. Whatever Snape had in store for him couldn't be anywhere near as bad as the Dursleys. Snape was cruel at times, and stern, but with Mrs. Mayer coming around to check in and do housework he couldn't see himself getting into too much trouble here.

"Yes sir," he said, looking up and meeting Snape's eyes.

"You intend on staying?"

Harry nodded.

"Then unpack your things again and come to the sitting room." Snape swept out of the room in a hurry and Harry wondered if the man was going to have a panic attack. He strained his ears to listen but didn't hear anything aside from the man's receding footsteps as he went downstairs.

He sat back down on his closed trunk to think for a minute. It would be good to prove Snape wrong, to finally show him that all those things he said about Harry at school weren't true. He wasn't lazy, he wasn't always up to something, and he wasn't a bad person. He was just Harry. Maybe if he could prove that to Snape he'd have an easier go of things at school when he returned, even if it meant Draco still taunting him. As he stood and unpacked his things again, Harry didn't dare to think that he could prove enough to stay past the one month trial, or that he might actually like it here enough to stay. The Dursley's didn't want him and Snape clearly didn't want him. He couldn't expect to change that. It was best not to get his hopes up, he decided. Instead he'd just take it for what it was, a month out of the orphanage and a chance to prove Snape wrong. Besides, he'd wanted a summer job anyway, hadn't he? Mrs. Mayer made decent biscuits, maybe he'd just do his work and eat as many biscuits as he wanted. It would be just like working at the bakery...

Still trying to convince himself, Harry found Snape downstairs sitting in the sitting room writing something down on a piece of parchment. When he noticed Harry standing there he motioned to a fancy looking sofa opposite the one he was sitting on, and Harry took a seat.

"There are rules for living here Potter. You are to do your chores as I have stated, but you're also to keep your room tidy and clothing clean. When not working you are to present yourself in a well-kept manner. I expect your body to be clean and your hair to be combed and kept trimmed."

"Yes sir."

"You will address me as sir or professor at all times," Snape continued, as if Harry hadn't spoken at all. "You will not interrupt your elders, you will pay attention, and you will not argue. I do not care what schedule you keep so long as your chores and learning are done by the end of the day. Meals are not always at regular times, therefore you will fix yourself breakfast and lunch, and I will call you for dinner between five and seven. I do not care what time you go to bed, but you are to be in your room by nine. After nine you are not to be out of your room unless it's to use the bathroom."

Snape looked up to check if Harry was listening and found Harry's eyes meeting his. He looked back down at his parchment and continued with his rules and expectations. "I am not your keeper Potter. You're expected to be responsible for yourself at thirteen years of age. You may travel around the property or into town as you see fit, but I expect a note left on the kitchen counter or for you to leave word with Mrs. Mayer if you leave. You are not to use Mrs. Mayer as your personal servant. She is paid by me to help with upkeep of the house. If I find that you are using her to run your own errands there will be unpleasant consequences. You will do what you're told, when you're told to do it. You will knock before entering my library, and you will not enter if I am not inside. You are not to enter my private room upstairs. Potions brewing is to be done in the basement only, and only with my permission."

Snape set the parchment down and Harry thought for a moment he might be done with his tirade of rules, but he only turned and picked up a stack of books off the end table next to him.

"These are the books you will study out of," he said. "I will not test you on the top three books, but you will be expected to know them and conduct yourself by them after this week, whether you are here or in town. You are not to go into town until all three of these have been read." Harry looked at the top three. They weren't very big and all three were in varying shades of blue. He wanted to look at the titles to see what was in them but Snape had already set them aside and was moving on to the rest of the stack.

"The next four are books about the Prince family business. I expect you to read them thoroughly and ask if you have questions. I will be testing you on what is found within these books before you will be allowed to participate in any further activities." Harry didn't understand what further activities he was talking about, but hoped he would once he read through the books. He hadn't been expecting to spend his summer reading, but was willing at this point to do what he'd been told to prove to Snape that he could do what he was told.

"Are there any questions about what was discussed Potter?"

Harry looked away from the books he'd just been handed and frowned. He didn't think so. It hadn't been a discussion really, just Snape spewing off one rule after another. "No sir."

"You will present yourself at the front door at six am tomorrow morning. We will be making a trip into the city."

"Yes sir."

Snape rose without giving a second look at Harry, went into his library, and shut the door, leaving Harry alone in the sitting room. Almost as soon as he'd gone, questions began popping into Harry's mind such as, where were the property boundaries? He'd been told he could roam at will but he wasn't sure where he was allowed to go. He also wanted to know what they'd be going to the city for, but figured he'd have to wait to find out.

Harry stood up and took the stack of seven books up to the room he'd been loaned and began to look through them. He got distracted when his hand brushed the soft, fluffy blue blanket on the bed however. If Snape had known it had been him that was coming, he bet he wouldn't have bought such a nice blanket for the bed.

The first three books appeared to be books on etiquette and how to conduct yourself. Two were written by wizards and pertained directly to interacting in their world, and one was Muggle. Harry flipped one of the wizarding books open to a random page and was surprised to find a few interesting things there. Perhaps he'd read that book first. There was a Muggle book on geology and geological formations, a book about how to magically extract certain types of ore, a book on magical uses of certain types of ore, and a book on conducting business in the magical community. The last few looked boring so Harry picked up the book on wizarding etiquette and began to read.

By the time he was twenty pages in, Harry felt like he had an understanding of a few things that he hadn't been able to grasp before. For instance, if you came from an old wizarding family, it was inappropriate to ever speak poorly of your family, no matter what your circumstances. It gave examples of family betrayal and witches and wizards cheating on their spouses, but said that under no circumstances were they to speak ill of people within their family. Some of Draco's words suddenly made sense to Harry then. The Slytherin never spoke ill of his family even though Harry thought Lucius was a real bastard. If he was like that in public, he had to be like that at home to Draco as well.

In the etiquette books Harry also found rules for governing families, how to divide up an estate when there were more than one surviving family member, and what to do if a family line was coming to an end: adopt someone else.

Harry looked up and frowned. The book's answer was to adopt someone else to continue the family line. That is what Father Cooke had said, wasn't it? Snape wanted to adopt someone to continue family traditions, or something like that? He was still young though, why didn't he just get married and have a kid? That would certainly be easier than adopting someone he hated. Wouldn't he rather pass on his family business and traditions to one of his own kids instead of to someone that he wasn't even related to and didn't like? He read through the next few pages but didn't find an answer. When he finished that book just before dinner, he hoped he'd find an answer in the other wizarding etiquette book.

Snape came to his door and told him dinner was ready at 6:45, and Harry followed him downstairs to the dining room. They were eating some kind of roast, and Harry wondered if Mrs. Mayer had put it in the oven to cook before she left, even though Harry hadn't smelled anything delicious cooking until now.

They sat silently and ate their meal, and when it was finished Snape excused himself and disappeared again, leaving Harry to go back to his room. Harry read until almost midnight, but had still not figured out why Snape would want him over his own flesh and blood. It didn't make sense, and Harry wondered over it as he fell asleep under the soft warm blanket, wishing the blanket had been meant for him, and not some other boy that would have been less of a disappointment.