"But I can't find Scabbers!" Ron said, sounding a little frantic as he lifted up couch cushions in the common room and then looked under the worn red sofa.

"Why didn't you put him in a cage last night while you packed so he couldn't scarper off?"

"I couldn't find him last night," Ron said through gritted teeth, irritated with her for getting on his case when what he needed was help to find his missing pet. "And I didn't see him yesterday either, or the day before."

"You haven't seen him since Thursday?" Hermione asked, making her way through the crowd of Gryffindors who were trying to get their luggage to the pile so she could help Ron look under furniture as well.

"No."

"Why aren't you taking better care of him?" Hermione asked.

At the red look on Ron's face, Harry stepped in before he shouted and the two of them got into a fight. Neither of his friends would be happy spending the day riding the train together if they'd started the day off with a big blowout.

"Scabbers takes off for days at a time," Harry said. "He always comes back. We think he goes down to the kitchens and pigs out because he always comes back fatter than when he left. Once he dragged a whole apple up through the castle and into Ron's bed. He's been gone for up to a week before. When Ron sticks him in a cage and doesn't let him out, he squeals and keeps everyone awake until he gets his freedom."

Hermione pursed her lips and seemed to take this as an appropriate answer as she continued her search. Harry helped too by checking all the dorms, but they didn't find him by eight when they were supposed to start making their way down to the station in Hogsmeade. Harry wasn't riding the train with them, but he walked with them anyway. Ron fretted the whole way down.

"I'm sure Harry will keep looking for him," Hermione tried to reassure Ron. "Won't you Harry?"

"I'll check the dorm and common room again today and every day that I can. I bet you he's asleep in a food coma in your luggage somewhere. Check it on the train," Harry advised.

"He's a useless thing," Ron lamented. "I bet an owl or cat ate him." Here Ron gave a wary look to Crookshanks, but Hermoine only held him closer to her chest and didn't acknowledge that it could be a possibility.

Twenty minutes later, Harry waved as the train pulled out of the station, with Ron hanging out the window. "If you don't find him," Ron shouted as the train pulled away, "maybe mum will let me get an owl!"

Harry laughed and waved and then made his way back up to the castle, breathing in a sigh of relief that the school year was finally over. No more homework, no more essays and tests, no more worrying about keeping his grades up, or about Dementors. He was finally free to do as he pleased, and right now what he wanted was to go to Diagon Alley and talk to Justin about his business idea. Justin was on the train though, and Harry wasn't certain his father would let him go out to the alleys on his own. It couldn't hurt to feel him out for an answer though.

Snape wasn't in his dungeon quarters or in the Great Hall, so Harry made his way up to the Headmaster's office. "Lemon tart," Harry said to the Gargoyle, and it moved aside to give him entrance to the moving staircase. Dumbledore's office door was open when he got to the top, and he found his grandfather and head of house inside having tea at the Headmaster's desk.

"Come in Harry," Dumbledore said warmly, and motioned across his desk to the empty seat next to McGonagall.

"I didn't mean to interrupt sir."

"You're not interrupting," Albus said. "If it was a truly private matter my door would have been closed and locked."

McGonagall smiled at Harry as he sat down. "It seems you've had quite an interesting year," she said to him.

"Yes maam," Harry said, ears turning red a little.

"Albus was just telling me about your long list of passwords to get into his office."

"My passwords maam?" Harry asked.

"Yes, we've had quite a laugh over them all."

Harry's cheeks began to turn red to match his ears, but it only caused McGonagall to chuckle. Albus pulled a parchment out and unrolled it on the desk so Harry could see. There was every password Harry had given to the Gargoyle since he'd been keyed in.

"You were keeping track of them sir?" Harry asked.

"As a matter of record, anything said to the gargoyle gets written down by a spell and sent to a record parchment for me to see, where I can clear it or send it to another parchment for long term storage. Occasionally students don't have a password but need to see me. When they ask the Gargoyle for help it records the message so I can see it and grant them entrance."

"But you kept all of mine?" Harry asked, seeing that the parchment was empty aside from a list of passwords under the name ‘Harry Potter'.

"I found them amusing," Albus said.

Minerva reached forward for the parchment and let her eyes scan down it again. "Lots of sweets I see. That appears to have lasted for about a month. Then you switched to famous figures... Quidditch players, famous wizards, oh, we even have the Queen of England. And then rounding out that list nicely is Hagrid's underwear."

Harry put his face in his hand as McGonagall and Dumbledore laughed. "It was something I said to Professor Snape," Harry said, "when he was asking why I was giving it weird passwords. I said I could tell it Hagrid's underwear if I wanted and it would open, so the next time I needed in I said that." He laughed a little with them despite his embarrassment.

McGonagall handed the list back to Albus who rolled it up and put it back in his top desk drawer.

"Aren't you going to erase it now?" Harry asked.

"I think Severus would like to see it first."

"Or you could just publish it to the Prophet," Harry mumbled, but he wasn't all that upset and found it as funny as they did. Some of the things he'd said to the gargoyle had been rather embarrassing though. He wouldn't have said them if he'd known all the passwords were being recorded. After Hagrid's underwear he'd given it passwords like Dobby's ears, Snape's socks, and Flitwick's toe jam. He was only thankful now that he had forgotten to use ‘Filch's bogeys', which had been his plan at one point.

Harry helped himself to some tea while McGonagall and Dumbledore chatted about the end of the term and paperwork that still needed to be filled out, including end of term grades and exam results that most of the Professors still needed to finish and hand in.

"I expect Severus will be quite busy over the next few days," Albus said, and Harry brought his attention back to the conversation.

"Sir?"

"You're welcome to come up here for the next few days or to wander the grounds as long as you stay in bounds," Albus said.

"He wasn't in his office earlier," Harry said. "I was going to ask him about going to Diagon. I had something I wanted to talk to Justin about and I wanted to work at the bookstore again." Harry had a lot of things he wanted to do this summer. He wasn't sure if he was allowed to ask Dumbledore or not though or if that would make his father angry.

Albus gave Harry an appraising look and said, "The password to the staff room Floo is Fudge Nougat. If you wish to go to Diagon and Knocturn for the next few days, you may, as long as you let me or Severus know where you're going and when you plan to return."

"I can go today?" Harry asked, not sure if he'd understood.

Albus nodded. If the Headmaster had been closer and not sitting across the desk, Harry would have jumped up and hugged him, despite that McGonagall was still there drinking her tea.

"Do you have big business plans for the Alley's again this year?" McGonagall asked as Harry stood to leave.

"Nope," Harry said happily. "Just looking forward to being out of the castle for a while!"

"Well then, you had better get going," she told him with a smile.

Harry thanked the Headmaster, said he was going straight down to the Floo, and that he would be back before dinner at five thirty. Then he raced down through the castle, hoping not to meet his father on the way there so he couldn't tell him no, and opened the door to the staff lounge behind the Great Hall. Snape was sitting in one of the comfortable brown leather chairs chatting with Flitwick and Remus and having tea.

"Erm- sorry," Harry said awkwardly at the door. "I didn't mean to barge in." His ears started to heat up again.

"Heading to the alleys?" Flitwick asked.

"Erm, yes sir." Harry found his father's eyes to see what he thought of this plan, but Snape only waved him away.

"I assume Albus has given you the password again?"

"Yes," Harry said.

"Be gone. If you come back with more than a pound of candy we will have to re-think your privileges to go to the Alleys alone."

Harry flashed him a grin, took a handful of Floo Powder from the mantel and was gone in a green flash. His father and grandfather must have talked it over and decided he could have some of his freedom back. Now all Harry had to do was make sure he didn't do anything to lose it again.

Harry wasn't planning on working today, but he had used the Floo in Flourish and Blotts and didn't want to seem like he was taking advantage of their fireplace. Both brothers were downstairs doing a deep cleaning of the store since it was early yet and not many shoppers came in on the day school ended.

"That you Harry?" Bennet called up to the second floor landing, and Harry stuck his head over the rail to wave.

"Yep!"

He went down the spiraling stairs and greeted the brothers. "Do you have work for me this summer?" Harry asked.

"We definitely do," Basil said. "There's a new list of books for you to go over and give us your thoughts on."

"Great," Harry said. "And I have an idea for some books we might order in as well. They're Muggle."

"Muggle books? Like what?" Bennet asked.

Harry explained about the lack of novels where Fae were the heroes and about buying some from a Muggle bookstore.

"Don't know how well those will go over," Bennet told him. "We try to get books in that will sell out fast."

"I understand, but it's something different," Harry said. "Sometimes people don't even realize they want something until they see it. Like Hermione with that unicorn book," Harry said to Basil.

"That's true," he said. "Which book store did you go to?"

Harry described the store his father had taken him to over Easter.

"I was wondering if we could set hours for work," Harry said. "I wasn't planning on working today, but I'd like to work a few days a week this summer, or maybe every day but only in the mornings."

"How about Monday through Thursday from eight to eleven. You could help us get the store in order each morning, help with orders, and catch the start of the late morning rush at the till."

"That sounds good," Harry said.

"So you'll start tomorrow?" Basil asked for confirmation.

"Bright and early," Harry said.

He waved goodbye to them and headed to Gringotts to get some money. He pulled out a few dozen Sickles and a handful of Knuts and went down Knocturn to the tea shop for a cup of dirty chai with caramel.

"So it's you again," the witch who owned the shop said with a smile when she took Harry's order. "Where's your grandfather?"

"School," Harry said. "He loved those tea's I got him for Christmas."

"Good. I'm glad you've chosen my shop as your favorite and not that new one over on Diagon."

"What new one?" Harry asked.

"Next to Twilfit And Tattings. They're trying to put me out of business."

"How?" Harry asked.

"They're selling ‘the classics' as they call it. Went and bought all dark leather furniture and shiny wooden tables to serve ‘upperclass' clientele," she said with distaste. "I heard the Minister has been in every day for the last month."

"I'll have to check it out," Harry said, though he thought if the Minister was in there regularly he wanted nothing to do with it. He looked up and found her staring at him and laughed nervously. "I meant just ‘look'," he reassured her. "I love the tea here and how cozy it is. I keep thinking if I was going to run a business it would be just like this one."

"You run lots of businesses," she commented, leaning on the counter to talk to him.

"That's true," Harry said, "but I mean really run. A business I would be at every day that I would build myself from the ground up."

"Well I'm glad you think so highly of my shop."

"I'll have to tell Professor McGonagall to come in," Harry said, thinking about how much she loved tea.

"Any business you can send my way would be appreciated."

Harry looked around the small shop. It had a few people at different tables as it always did. "Seems like you're doing ok though?" he asked. "Are a lot of people coming down Knocturn?"

"More than last summer," she said. "The perception of the Alley has really changed. I always have at least one person in, but usually three or four. It's a popular spot for couples, especially in the morning. Tom has been sending a lot of business my way from people staying at the Leaky Cauldron. He and I have a deal. He recommends my place to everyone for the perfect morning cuppa and I recommend the Leaky Cauldron for people wanting a hot meal."

"Has that been working out well?" Harry asked. He'd never thought of businesses doing deals with each other.

"Very," she said.

"Maybe you could work out a deal with Barrow or the Flourish's. Something like, people who take a receipt from here that's from that day get 5% off their purchase at the book store."

"That's a good idea," she said. "It could drive business to both of us. I heard from a Muggleborn last week that some Muggle establishments have a stamp system. I've been thinking of trying that."

"What's that?"

"Every time someone buys a tea at my shop they would get a stamp on a card. Then when they get to ten or twelve stamps they would get a free tea."

"Good for repeat customers then," Harry said.

"Yes, and I'm betting that other shop won't do anything like it. They're dedicated to such a specific clientele and to ‘the old ways.'"

Harry sat down at a table with his tea and drank it, though he realized that it was lonely drinking tea alone without a friend or the Headmaster to talk to. He wished he'd thought to bring a book. When he finished his tea he left and went across the little plaza to Barrow's Books. He'd never actually bought anything from Barrow before, but he liked the strange old man who worked there and had paid out of pocket to help him repair his shop the previous summer.

Harry was happy to find several people inside browsing the used books.

"Looking for something specific?" Barrow called out to him from the till.

"Just looking," Harry said with a wave. This bookstore was like the Hogwarts library. It had a random assortment of everything, including the occasional odd Muggle book. They were all used but in good condition, and the prices were half what Flourish and Blotts charged for books new.

After twenty minutes of browsing Barrow came up to him. "Nothing catching your eye?"

Harry looked at him and wondered if he should even ask for adventure stories with Fae. His guardians seemed open minded about Fae, and so had some of the business owners he'd partnered with in the past. Barrow was one of the ones who had stood by Harry through all the fines.

"Books where Fae are the heroes?" Harry asked. "The Muggles have lots of them, but I'm not going into Muggle London today."

The old man grinned at him and gave a little wave to indicate Harry should follow him. He led Harry to a corner of the store and a small rack of books. Harry reached for one called, ‘Werewolf Tales," and read the back.

"This isn't Muggle," Harry said.

"Nope. Written by a werewolf in Norway."

"I was beginning to think there weren't any from our world."

"There's plenty, but not many make their way to the isles."

Harry flipped through the book, and then tucked it under his arm. He also picked out a novel that claimed to be a true story about Elves and a hidden elven realm somewhere in Europe, and a novel about three Fae who escaped London one rainy night while being hunted by Aurors (also supposedly a true story).

"I'll take these," Harry said. He paid seven Sickles for the lot and took his finds back to the tea shop where he ordered licorice tea and a pastry and sat down at a table by the widow to read. He was three chapters in to ‘Werewolf Tales' when he realized it might be rude to sit and read all day without ordering another drink, so he got another Chai tea and decided to have a bagel for lunch while he dove into chapters four and five. It was two in the afternoon before Harry took his books and went to Tilly's to chat with her and buy some sweets.

"Don't tell Professor Snape that I bought three pounds of candy," Harry said. "He won't believe me that I'm taking most of it to Peverell's."

Tilly laughed. "You keep coming in and spending Sickles like that and I'll be so rich I won't want to tell him about it."

Harry laughed and thanked her and took the candy across the street. Mrs. Ginger was gone, but Miss Ava was there, so Harry talked with her for a minute, asked if he could come see Justin the next day, and left two and a half pounds of candy with her with instructions to give some to the kids coming home on the train that evening as well.

By the time Harry got to the Leaky Cauldron that afternoon at three, he had a single Knut left in his pocket, which he put into the pot above the fireplace before flooing back to Hogwarts.

Harry went up to Gryffindor to look for Scabbers one more time and to get his trunk to take back down to Snape's quarters for the summer. He didn't find Scabbers, and he didn't find Snape when he went to the Dungeon's either. Perhaps he was still having tea somewhere with the other staff.

Harry settled in on the couch in the quiet living room to read his book. It was fascinating to read something written by a werewolf with real details of werewolf transformations, packs, and interacting with Muggles in a different magical community. From what Harry was reading, wizards in Norway weren't all that fond of Fae but didn't hate them or go after them like the Ministry of Magic. The werewolf in Harry's novel was snarky like Snape, but likable all the same. The man always had sharp words for people, but it was in a friendly way, and wizards ended up seeking him out to help with issues they were having. Eivind was just getting ready to travel into the mountains to hunt down a rare ingredient that would save a little girl's life when Snape came into their quarters.

"I trust you stayed out of trouble today?"

"I came back on my own," Harry said with a grin.

"You're certain you haven't brewed polyjuice with your friends in a bathroom and given it to someone to take your place while you abscond?"

Harry lowered his book. "How did you know?"

"About the polyjuice? Ghosts talk. The best way to find out where missing potions ingredients went is to convince the Bloody Baron that another ghost said he was responsible for the stolen ingredients. It took a few months but eventually the Baron dragged Moaning Myrtle to my office to tell me that three brats had brewed a perfect Polyjuice potion without supervision."

"But, I didn't get in trouble for that?"

"By the time I was informed, you were finished, though what you did with it they didn't know."

Harry put his book back up in front of his face.

"Nothing to say to that?" Snape's finger appeared over his book and pushed it down to reveal another grin from his son.

"Snuck into Slytherin?"

"Are you asking or telling?"

"I mean-" Harry said with a shrug, "I was technically supposed to be in Slytherin, so it wasn't really breaking any rules going into their common room, right? So no need to take points or yell at me now?"

"For an infraction that old?" Snape scoffed. "If I did that Minerva would accuse me of holding a grudge." Harry wasn't sure if the man was joking until he saw his lips turn up into a smile. Snape didn't smile often, and Harry wanted to see him smiling more often. When his father was smiling, Harry didn't feel anxious about being in trouble.

Snape disappeared into the kitchen and Harry continued reading until he was called for dinner twenty minutes later. He brought his book with him into the kitchen.

As they sat to eat, Snape said, "What did you do today?"

"Drank a lot of tea and read at the tea shop. My candy is on the coffee table for inspection. Less than a pound."

"And how much did you eat before you brought it back the castle?" Severus asked with a snort.

"None. I was full of tea. I've made a deal to work at Flourish's for a couple hours each morning Monday through Thursday. I'd be done by 11 each morning."

"That is acceptable. You may want to consider not filling up your days with work during your summer holiday."

"I'm going to be too busy reading for that," Harry said. "Barrow has all kinds of good books."

He slid ‘Werewolf Tales' across the table to his father so he could look at it. "It's not even Muggle, though I do wanna go back to that Muggle shop and get the rest of the books in the series I was reading from Easter."

"As soon as I am done grading we can go to the bookstore. I should be done by Thursday afternoon."

"That will be fun," Harry said. "After I'm done working each day, is it ok if I stick around the Alleys for a bit?"

"As long as you return by dinner, and we did not have prior plans."

When they finished eating Harry went back into the living room with his father and sat down with his book. He didn't start reading again though. Before Severus could open up the newest Potions Journal he'd received by owl that day, Harry said, "Sir?"

"Hm?" He was already browsing the table of contents to see if there was a Potions paper he'd prefer to read first.

"Are we- doing anything this summer?"

"Yes. We are not limited to the castle, although at the end of the summer I will have to be here to prepare for two weeks prior to the term starting." He looked up from the journal. "Was there something in particular you wanted to do aside from emptying your vault at the Muggle bookstore?"

Harry looked down, not sure if he would be turned down right away or laughed at or what. "I have a house," Harry said. "I was wondering if we could maybe go there for a couple of days before summer's over?"

"The one you bought in secret and ran away to?" Harry looked back down at that. Snape cleared his throat a moment later and said, "You are not in trouble. It was said in jest."

"That's the one," Harry said.

"I will consider it."

Harry looked up at him. That wasn't so bad, though he had a feeling his father would eventually say no even though he hadn't said it yet.

"Was there anything else?"

"Could we go on holiday with Peverell's again?"

"You wish to go on holiday with the orphanage?"

"It was a lot of fun," Harry said.

"We could go on holiday ourselves."

"I wouldn't mind that either," Harry said. "I just thought- nevermind."

"I was merely curious as to why you wanted to go with them. I will ask Mrs. Ginger if they are planning a holiday this summer and if they need another chaperone."

"Thanks."

Harry picked up his book again but only stared at the page for a few moments. He liked the kids at Peverells, and he liked Mrs. Ginger and Miss Ava. The kids at the orphanage were the only ones who understood what it was like to not have parents. Some of them even understood what it was like to go through the system like Harry had with wizarding services and to go through court cases. It was nice to be around others who understood once in a while. Harry also still occasionally thought about what he'd been told, that he had almost grown up in that orphanage. It would have been far better than living with the Dursleys. When Harry spent time at Peverell's or went on holiday with them, it was like making up for lost time. It was like getting the childhood he'd wished he'd had.

His eyes wandered back up to Snape again, who was engaged in reading his potions journal. Snape had lived at Peverell's for a time too. He also understood what it was like to not have parents. Harry hadn't really thought about that before. Now the man was his father. Once again as Harry stared at him, he thought about how much of a stranger his father still was to him. He wondered if he'd ever stop thinking that.

* * *

"So what's this idea?" Justin asked as they stood outside of Tilly's shop. Harry had just finished at Flourish And Blott's for the morning and Justin had a few minutes before he was supposed to start work for Tilly.

"I have an idea for a product we could make and sell at school. I asked, and selling at school is allowed as long as a teacher approves the product."

"What is it?"

"You know the Muggle lined notebooks they sell at Magic Mart? Some of them have the house crests on them and others are blank."

"Yeah."

"I'm sure I can get a bunch of those plain ones cheaper out in the Muggle world, and we could customize them ourselves. We could figure out how to get pictures on them, and then make a bunch this summer, and sell them at school."

Justin thought it over. "How much do you think it would cost us to start that up?"

Harry shrugged. "I dunno. I gotta get someone to take me to look for a supply of them in the Muggle world."

"What kind of things would we put on them?"

"Anything that we think would sell," Harry said. "Unicorns, the house crests, Quidditch logos-"

"Un uh," Justin shook his head. "Tilly was telling me about laws for logos and stuff. We can't put logos of other businesses on our stuff and sell it without permission. Each Quidditch team is it's own business, and they own their logos and sayings."

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

"I can't remember what she called it, but the Business Affairs Office has a law. She was teaching me about it last summer when I suggested making Quidditch themed candy."

"Ok," Harry said, "so we can make some generic Quidditch stuff with Quidditch gear." He had put some thought into it, but hadn't fully formed a plan yet because he'd wanted to run it by Justin first. Now that he was thinking about it though, he remembered the Muggle notebook Hermione had given him with grid lines so he could make charts for work. "Maybe we could figure out how to add some paper to certain ones that have grid lines, or other specialty paper."

"We could add a calendar in the front of each one so kids can keep track of assignments," Justin suggested.

"That'd be good too."

"How much would we sell them for?"

"I dunno," Harry said. "If we could spend a sickle on each, or even less, we could sell them for two sickles and make a profit that way. Maybe we could learn the charm to make never ending paper and sell some with that for even more."

"So we make these things, and sell them once we get back to school, and split the profit?"

Harry nodded. "Yeah, but beyond figuring out how to do it at first, I was hoping you could take over making them. I want to start the business, and help run it, but I don't want to make them."

"Why do you get half the profit then?" Justin asked.

"I'll buy all the materials when we need them," Harry said.

"I've got some money now," Justin said. "I could do this on my own and keep all the profit."

"You could-" Harry hedged. He'd really wanted something to do once he got back to school. He'd even considered starting a club or something with the other students who had products and services to sell during the term.

"But, that wouldn't be much fun," Justin said. "I'm in."

Harry flashed him a grin. "Don't tell others what we're making. I don't want anyone to steal our idea."

"I won't, except Mrs. Ginger and Miss Ava. When are we gonna start?"

"I'll get out to Muggle stores as soon as I can. Magic Mart is selling their plain notebooks at a sickle each and I'd rather not buy them for that much."

"You could ask McGlaggen where he gets his."

"I could. Don't you think he'd be upset about us taking his business away?"

"Doesn't hurt to ask."

Justin bade Harry goodbye and went into Tilly's to start his shift. He was working every afternoon for her and was going to be handing out more coupons and fliers daily.

Harry let his eyes wander next door to Magic Mart as a woman came out with her young children, and then went inside to see if he could find Munro, who had an office on the second floor.

Munro was happy to see him and invited him into his office to talk. Harry noted that it had piles of paperwork just like Podmore's down the alley.

"How have things been for Magic Mart?" Harry asked.

"People seem to be glad it's come back," he said happily. "A lot of families have switched back to buying their groceries from us instead of from Gray's Goods."

"I wanted to ask you a couple of questions, but I'm not sure how happy you'll be with them."

"What is it?"

"You sell some Muggle notebooks and pens and stuff. Do those sell pretty well?"

"They do ok, especially when it's time for people to buy school supplies again. Mostly we sell out of the Muggle writing utensils."

"What about the lined paper notebooks?"

"We've sold quite a few of those as well, but a lot of people are still buying their parchment from Gray's Goods."

"We're allowed to sell things at school as long as we get approval from a professor. My friend and I wanted to start a little business at school. We don't expect to make a bunch of money, it's just something to do. I wanted to sell custom Muggle lined notebooks. I didn't want you to be upset that we were taking business away from you though."

Munro waved him away. "You're a businessman Harry, and a little competition never hurt anybody. I'd never be upset with you for starting up a business. The majority of what I make at Magic Mart comes from groceries, home goods and that sort of thing. Besides, if you're only selling at school, people will still be buying what I have during the back to school rush."

"That's true," Harry said. "Would you be ok telling me where you're getting your plain Muggle notebooks from?"

"There's a Muggle wholesaler that sells them for 30 pence. So when I charge a Sickle for them that's a tidy little profit for me."

"Would you be ok if I contacted them to make an order?"

"Let me write it down for you. You'll have to use a Muggle phone to contact them. Silver could help you out with that. His father's a Barrister too and has his office out in Muggle London."

"I appreciate it."

"If they turn out to be popular, come and show me. I may buy some from you to sell in Magic Mart during the holidays."

Harry nodded and told him he would.

* * *

Harry had gone to see Silver before he'd left the Alleys to go home that evening, and Silver had agreed to take him to use a Muggle phone the next day. When Harry explained his plan to his father that evening at dinner, Snape gave Harry permission to go out to London with him.

The next day, Silver's father was not in his office as he was in court, but his secretary was there, and allowed Silver and Harry to use the Muggle phone. The man on the other end of the line questioned how young Harry sounded, but Harry lied and told him he was twenty three and needed to buy a lot of notebooks for his students at school. The man bought that Harry was a young teacher and they soon had a deal for a crate of notebooks. As a wholesaler, they didn't want to deal with small orders and would only sell to Harry if he agreed to buy 500. If anything, Harry thought he could sell the extras to Munro for what he paid for them. He handed the phone to Silver to take care of the transfer of money, and delivery, and when they were done Silver took him back to Diagon Alley.

"500 is quite a few notebooks," Silver commented as they climbed the stairs back up to his office.

"We were only going to make 50 or 60 to start. I might ask Munro to buy the rest."

"I will pick them up from my father's office Thursday and bring them here. I would appreciate it if you retrieved them from my office the same day."

"I will." Harry was excited to be starting something new, and couldn't wait to tell Justin they'd have the notebooks later that week.

* * *

The crate with the notebooks was huge, and once Harry saw it, he worried Snape would be mad when he came to help Harry move it from Silver's office. Harry wanted to open it to inspect the notebooks, but he didn't want to be rude and pry off the wooden lid there in front of the desk of Silver's secretary.

When he appeared a few minutes to four, Snape did eye the crate warily, but he didn't make comment and instead touched both hands to it and apparated away, coming back a minute later to retrieve Harry and take him back to the school grounds.

"I will let you attempt to levitate this to the castle," Severus told him when they appeared in front of the Hogwarts gates and the massive crate.

"Yes sir."

Harry stared at the crate and contemplated how best to move it for a moment. He decided to cast a lightening charm on it first, and then a levitation charm. It turned out that levitating a bulky object wasn't as easy as a lot of the smaller objects they'd practiced on in school. The weight of it wasn't a problem after the lightening charm, but Harry had trouble keeping the object straight and upright as they walked up the drive towards the castle. The crate kept spinning and tilting and every time it did it pulled to the left or right and pulled Harry off course, like walking a stubborn dog on a leash.

Halfway up the drive Severus said, "What other spell could you cast to stabilize it?"

"I'm not sure."

"Iter or Levithrow."

"I don't know either of those."

"They are both taught in fifth year. It is advanced magic. Set the box on the ground."

Harry did as he was told and Snape set about explaining to Harry how to cast Iter, which was the easier of the two.

"Are you familiar with Accio?"

"The summoning charm? I don't know how to do that one yet. Fred and George were learning it last year."

"Iter is the opposite of Accio. It pushes instead of pulls. While you levitate the crate, you can cast Iter to either side to push it where you want it to go. It requires you modulate the power you send into the casting however. Too much power will send the crate hurtling towards the castle."

Snape picked up a rock, told Harry how to cast the spell and had him practice on that for a minute. He was right. When Harry first cast it, the rock went hurtling towards the West Wood and out of sight. It took Harry several minutes before he was able to push the rock left and right just a few inches at a time.

"Like the levitation charm, you will not have to continually cast it. Once the crate is levitating, keep hold of that charm, and then cast Iter once. From there you will control it with willpower and the force of your magic to one side or the other."

"I'm probably gonna smash the crate."

"See that you do not."

Harry nodded, readied himself, and then cast the lightening charm at the crate again, then he levitated it, and cast Iter. The crate veered off to their left, then Harry pushed it back to the right, though he had overcompensated, and as the crate continued to the right, Harry forced it to circle back, turning in a circle with it until it came back in front of them again.

"Small adjustments," Snape told him. "When you have big items, small adjustments make a big difference."

Holding the levitation charm and Iter charm at the same time was a lot of work, and Harry struggled with how much power he was pouring into one versus the other all the way up to the castle. He supposed there was a reason they didn't teach this sort of thing until fifth year. Fifth year was when they stopped teaching basic magic and started getting into advanced magic. When they made the front steps of the castle, Harry was pleased he'd done it though.

"Very good," Snape said, and had Harry set the crate down. He took control of it and then took it down the narrow passages of the Dungeons and to their quarters and left it by the front door.

Harry pried the lid off and found his notebooks. They were in various colors including black, gray, red, dark green, dark yellow, orange, bright and light pink, several shades of blue, and white.

"I suggest giving the ones you don't use to Peverell's. They could use them during the school year."

"That's a good idea," Harry said. "Do you have any ideas about what kind of charms we could use to put pictures on them?"

"I am not familiar with many. That falls into the realm of transfiguration. You should ask Albus."

"What about making them have neverending paper?"

"That is advanced magic I have never needed to know. You would have to do some research to find out, or contact a book binder who makes that sort of book. It is not something they will likely share with you though."

"Why not?"

"The book binders that make neverending journals, shared journals, and other magical papers and document parchments consider those charms to be trade secrets, and only teach them to apprentices or family members who will carry on their business. It keeps the cost of the items high since there are so few who know how to cast the charms necessary to make those things work."

"That would be fun to learn," Harry said.

"Perhaps when you are old enough to take on an apprenticeship."

"Too bad I can't learn without a full apprenticeship," Harry said. Signing on as an apprentice would mean he'd have new guardians that had full control over his life. That was one thing he knew for sure he didn't want. Even when he was 17, he wasn't sure he'd ever want to take an apprenticeship. He knew Snape had been an apprentice at some point in order to become a Potions Master, but he couldn't imagine what that had been like for him.

* * *

Harry had been having a good day. The Headmaster had brought him to the Alley that morning early so they could get tea and breakfast at the tea shop before he started work. They had chatted and the woman who ran the tea shop had come to sit with them while they ate muffins and scones, interested in talking to the Headmaster about setting up a deal to send specialty teas to Hogwarts during the school year.

After that Harry had gone to Flourish And Blotts where Ron stopped in with his mother and Ginny to pick up a book she had ordered, and Harry took his break with his two friends. Ron had even invited him to come stay at the Burrow for a couple of days, and Harry had mentioned possibly having Ron over to stay the night at some point during the summer.

It was nearing the end of Harry's shift when his day started to take a nose dive in an unexpected way. There was a lull in customers and Harry was putting a few books back into a shelf from where someone had looked at them and put them away incorrectly when a man came into the store. Bennet was upstairs doing paperwork and Basil was at the Knockturn entrance washing windows, so Harry turned to the man, as he had done before with hundreds of other customers and asked, "Can I help you sir? Is there a certain book you're looking for I can help you find?"

The man eyed him, eyes going up to Harry's scar, and said, "You're Harry Potter."

"That's me," Harry said.

"I suppose since you work here you've got a lot of books stocked on fae."

Harry's ears perked up. It wasn't often he met people who were interested in reading about fae, and Harry had recently convinced Basil and Bennet to order in some books with real facts about them.

"Sure we do," Harry said. "There's a section over here." He pointed. "What kind of book are you looking for? We just got a few new ones in. No novels, just informational books."

"How about one on vampires and the underground slave trade they have where they steal Muggles in the night and keep them alive just to produce blood?"

Harry paused, hand halfway through pulling a book off the shelf, and turned to him, frowning. "No sir, I don't think we have anything like that." He'd never even heard of a black market like that trading in Muggles for blood.

"What about a book explaining how dangerous werewolves are on the full moon? I want one with statistics on how many people they kill each year. Show me that book."

"I don't think we have one," Harry said, starting to get angry with the man, but at the same time getting an uneasy feeling. The man's voice was growing angrier and louder with each thing he said and he was balling and unballing his fists.

"No? Didn't think so. You spout off about them like they're people, like you know what you're talking about, and people listen because you're you. You're just a dumb kid." The man came forward suddenly and grabbed the front of Harry's shirt, startling him. Their faces were close now and the man said loudly, "You're getting people killed! Do you know that? People believe you when you say they're not dangerous! People think it's ok to go out on full moons! It's dangerous, do you hear?"

"So because they're dangerous on full moon nights, we should treat them badly the rest of the days of the month?" Harry asked, voice hard. The man, still gripping his shirt tightly gave Harry a shake and pulled him in close again.

"You're sticking up for the wrong people! You should be sticking up for the innocent people getting ripped apart by them. They're wild animals!"

"I'm not sure they're the ones who are animals," Harry said, tone lowered but with a hard edge. Perhaps his own anger had silenced all the warning bells that would normally have been going off in his head at this point, or maybe Harry had been away from Privet Drive for too long and had forgotten what could happen when a bigger adult was this angry. The warning bells started blaring the moment the man pulled his arm back and brought his fist smashing into Harry's face, still holding onto his shirt. Harry didn't even have time to flinch, because he hadn't been expecting to be hit by another wizard. Wizards usually solved things with a duel, if anything. Harry reached up to fight back but the man had already punched him again in the face and Harry's vision went blurry. His ears rang and panic gripped him hard as the fist came to meet him a third time.

It was happening so fast he couldn't think about what to do to stop it. He heard Basil shouting and Harry was jarred suddenly as something collided with him and the man. His shirt ripped a moment later as someone tried to pry him free of the man's grasp and Harry fell. Once he was on the floor, dazed and vision still blurry, he looked up and found Bennet holding the man from behind, the two of them struggling with each other, and Basil rushing to help his brother. Basil must have been the one who had made the man let go of him and drop him to the floor.

Harry watched for what felt like long minutes as the three men struggled, knocking books off of shelves and in one case knocking an entire shelf over, books thudding heavily to the floor, but finally Bennet got to his wand and cast a binding charm at the man and he fell over sideways on top of piles of books. He was cursing at the brothers and at Harry, and breathing heavily from the struggle, Bennet cast a gagging charm at him to shut him up. Both brothers looked tired, and were panting heavily from the fight.

"Where's Harry?" Bennet asked, still breathing heavily.

Harry struggled to push himself up on his elbows, winced because his face and ribs hurt and there were several books poking his back uncomfortably from underneath him, and said, "I'm here."

Basil rushed to Harry's side and helped him sit up. "Hell, his dad's gonna kill us," Basil said, getting a good look at Harry's bruises and bloody nose and mouth.

"Forget it, firecall the aurors. He's fighting the binding spell and I don't want to hold him in it all day."

Basil bolted up the spiraling stairs to the office to use the Floo, and Harry surveyed the wrecked bookshelves. He felt sorry then that such a mess had been made of the brothers shop.

"Gonna take- forever- to clean up," Harry said, struggling to breathe a little.

"Don't worry about it." Bennet tightened the binding charm on the man again, who was glaring daggers at him, and then glanced over to get a better look at Harry. "More worried about you. Basil's right, you look like hell."

"This?" Harry said, trying to smile, though it hurt and he tasted blood, "It's nothing."

"Basil?" Bennet called, "Are they coming through?"

"They'll be here in a minute. I'll be right back!"

They heard the floo come to life and assumed Basil had gone through it.

"Probably gone to get your dad," Bennet said. "You need to go to Mungos."

The floo came to life a moment later and they heard several voices coming out of it, though Harry didn't recognize any of them. "Down there," one said, and several Aurors came down the stairs.

"What happened here?" a man asked, and Harry let Bennet explain, feeling fuzzy on the whole situation himself. He knew there had been a fight, and he'd gotten the worst of it, but he couldn't piece together exactly what had happened for some reason.

"The kid was shelving books getting ready to go off shift when this guy came in. We thought he was just a customer. Then I heard Basil shout and looked over the rail and saw the guy punching the kid. Basil got to them first and got hit in the face, and I ran down stairs and grabbed him from behind. He still had a hold of Harry's shirt. Basil had to rip his shirt to get the guy to let go, then Basil helped me get the guy to the ground and I was able to bind him. He's been fighting the binding charms."

A female auror took control of the binding charms and canceled the gag charm to start asking the man questions, but he had nothing but a string of epithets for Harry, so she gagged him again.

"Where's Basil?" the auror asking questions said, and Bennet started to answer him, but Harry was startled as the third auror pulled Harry free of the pile of books he was sitting in, and sat him on a stool he must have conjured. Harry looked around, dazed and found Darrow, the auror who had bound him and slammed him against the wall in the Headmaster's office after Christmas.

"Here," Darrow said, "spit the blood out into this." He sounded as though he thought the state of Harry was a real shame. Harry wasn't sure why he was being so friendly though after their previous encounter. He held out a piece of cloth and Harry spit out the mouthful of blood he had. Darrow said a spell and the blood and spit vanished from the cloth and then he handed it back to Harry and told him to press it to his nose to stop the bleeding there. "Took a pretty good beating. You'll need to go to St. Mungos."

"Not the worst I've had," Harry said, not feeling up to verbally sparring with him at the moment.

"I didn't do anything like this to you," Darrow said, misunderstanding, standing back a little to look at him again.

"I didn't say you did."

Darrow kept his mouth shut and as Harry started to list sideways he reached out to steady him so he didn't fall off the stool and back to the floor.

The female auror stood the bound and gagged man up and apparated away with him, and Harry listened for a few more minutes as the other auror questioned Bennet about the incident. Apparently someone had locked the front and back doors and put the closed sign up, because there were several people out front, confused as to why the door was closed and peering inside to gawk at the books all over the floor. Darrow stepped in front of Harry to block him from view and Harry wasn't sure why.

"See, I'm not so bad kid," Darrow said.

Harry looked up at him through the one eye that wasn't blurry and said, "If I was a werewolf that got beat up, you probably wouldn't be here right now."

He didn't seem to have anything to say to that so he stayed silent, and a moment later they heard several more people coming through the Floo upstairs.

"There's Basil," Bennet said, and the auror turned to talk to him as he came down the stairs, Snape right behind him. Snape came to Harry's side and knelt in front of him, taking his chin gently in one hand to turn his face to one side, and then the other. Darrow continued blocking them from view of the front window and stepped back to give them some space.

"Look at me," Snape said, and Harry did, though he couldn't see him very well. "You are concussed," he said after a moment of examining each eye.

"He should go to St. Mungos," Darrow said, but Snape ignored him for a moment as he looked over Harry's other visible injuries.

"I will take him back to the Hospital Wing at Hogwarts."

"He needs to be questioned," the auror talking to Basil said.

"It can wait until he has been seen to."

The man waved Snape away and said, "Darrow will follow you."

"We waited until you were here to question him," Darrow said.

Snape gave the auror a dark look, but then seemed to nod to him in thanks. Harry wasn't sure why.

"Can you stand?" he asked Harry, and Harry nodded, but once he was up found that his left ankle hurt and that he had to be helped up the spiraling stairs. Snape took one of his arms around his neck and they made their way awkwardly back upstairs to the office to floo to Hogwarts.

Darrow followed them through the floo, and on the other side he took Harry's other arm around his neck to help Snape get him up through the castle to the Hospital Wing. As soon as Harry was on a bed and Madam Pomfrey was seeing to him, Severus sent a Patronus off to Albus, unsure of where he was within the castle, and then sat down at Harry's bedside.

"Sprained ankle, broken rib, bruises, and a lot of swelling," Promfrey said. "His nose isn't broken and no teeth are missing or jarred loose."

"What about his eye?" Severus asked.

"What about my eye?" Harry asked.

"It's very swollen. Here, drink this." She handed Harry a pain potion he was well familiar with and he drank it down, used to the bitter taste now that he'd had it so many times before.

She had fed him five more potions by the time Albus hurried in a few minutes later, looking concerned.

"What has happened?"

"Harry was attacked at the bookstore. Basil Flourish came through and found me in the Dungeons twenty minutes ago and took me back to the shop to get Harry."

Albus sat down next to Severus and reached for Harry's hand, though Harry thought it was odd. He'd never held someone's hand before aside from grabbing Ron and Hermione's after one of the Dementor attacks.

Pomfrey explained his injuries again and then handed Severus a jar of bruise balm to start applying to Harry's face and ankle as she healed his broken rib and then turned her attention back to his eye again, which was swollen shut. Darrow stood at the foot of Harry's bed through it all, waiting until they were done to question Harry, or perhaps waiting for the other auror to come through to Hogwarts to question him himself.

Harry felt awkward having so much attention on him. He was used to Pomfrey treating his wounds, but having both guardians there and having Snape rubbing bruise balm gently on his face was strange. He would have just been happy with having the anti-swelling potions and having his broken bones healed.

"There's the problem," Pomfrey said a few minutes later. "A deeper scan revealed the bone around his eye is fractured. That blow was the source of his concussion." She did a bone knitting spell and then a secondary bone healing spell to heal the fracture above Harry's eye and then gave him another stronger anti-inflammatory potion. Snape moved on to putting bruise balm on Harry's chest where he'd broken a rib, and then closed up the tin of balm, now mostly gone and rose to put it away in the cupboard where Pomfrey kept it.

"There's not much I can do for the concussion aside from the potions I've already given him," she said. "He'll have a headache for a few days, perhaps a week. I can give him a daily pain relief potion and continue to give him an anti-swelling potion for everything else. He's free to leave when he's ready, and you should bring him back if anything gets worse."

"Thank you," the Headmaster said gravely. Once she went back to her office to start writing up the report about the injuries she'd treated, Darrow pulled out a pad of paper and a pen and said, "I need to ask him questions about the incident. The suspect was already taken into custody and to the Aurory for questioning."

"Proceed," Snape said, not looking up at him and instead sitting down next to Harry's bed to listen.

"Mr. Potter, try to remember everything you can about what happened, and start from the beginning."

"It's a little fuzzy. It happened really fast."

"Just tell me what you remember."

"I was getting ready to go off shift. I was thinking about getting lunch at the cart down by Gringotts when he came in."

"What did he say to you?"

"I asked if he needed help finding a book, and he started asking about books for fae... he wanted a book about some sort of vampire black market. I thought he was serious, and I told him we didn't have anything like that."

"And then?"

"He got angry and said he wanted to see a book about how werewolves rip people apart on full moon nights, with numbers of how many people they kill a year. Then he started yelling at me about how I was a dumb kid and spreading lies and was gonna get people killed. He grabbed my shirt," here Harry grabbed the ripped part of the front of his shirt, "and I think I said something to him, but I can't remember what, and then he started hitting me. I don't know how many times. I tried to fight back but he hit me so hard everything just sorta... I don't know... it was like it all fuzzed out. Like I couldn't think straight and I couldn't figure out what to do."

"When did Basil Flourish and Bennet Flourish join in the fight?"

"I don't really remember Basil and Bennet fighting him, but something tackled us both and then ripped my shirt and I fell to the floor on top of some books. That's when I remember seeing them trying to pull him away from me. It took both of them to hold him back. They were knocking bookshelves over and books were going everywhere. I couldn't see exactly what was happening because my vision was all blurry." Harry blinked his good eye several times as though still trying to get his vision to clear.

"Is there anything else you'd like to add to your statement?" Darrow asked, still writing notes on his notepad.

Harry thought back over the incident for a few moments and then slowly shook his head, wincing as he did so because he realized his neck was hurt as well. "No."

Darrow turned to Snape. "Tell me what Basil Flourish said to you when he came to retrieve you."

"He found me in my office just after eleven. He was out of breath and seemed upset. He said there had been an incident at the bookstore, that Harry had been hurt, and that he needed me to come get him." Severus remembered the urgency in the younger Flourish brother's voice as he tried to relay the information to him. Severus hadn't been sure how bad Harry had been hurt, but the urgency in Basil's voice had propelled Severus forward out of his chair and after the man in a hurry to get back up to the Floo in the staff lounge. "Then the two of us used the floo to get back to the book shop."

"Is there anything you'd like to add to your statement?"

"No."

"Who was the man that attacked him?" Albus asked, and again it unsettled Harry to hear his grandfather sound so serious when he normally didn't. He sounded angry, and Harry was glad it wasn't directed at him.

"I don't know yet. When we ungagged him he was spewing curse words at Mr. Potter so we gagged him again and they took him to the Aurory. He'll be charged with assault. Harry's statement lines up with the ones Basil and Bennet Flourish gave so the suspect can't say Mr. Potter provoked him or started the fight."

"What is to prevent him from attempting to harm Harry again?" Snape asked.

"The Aurory will charge him with assault, which carries a fine and time in lockup at the Ministry, and potentially the loss of his job if he works at the Ministry. He'll go to trial, probably by Monday morning, and a Justice will decide if he's going to Azkaban or being released. The Aurory will file a five year restrictive order on Mr. Potter's behalf that says he won't be able to approach Mr. Potter again or be in the same vicinity as him. You'll be contacted by owl after the Justice passes sentence, or by an auror directly if we have follow up questions."

"Thank you," Albus said.

Darrow turned to leave, but turned back to Harry again and looked uncomfortable for a moment. "Two months ago I removed myself from the fae assignment roster." When Harry didn't respond, because he didn't know what to say, Darrow left the ward, presumably to use the floo and head back to the Aurory.

"Why'd he do that?" Harry asked. The man had treated him so differently in this encounter than he had the last one.

"You told him in December he was a monster," Severus said.

Harry almost felt bad for that now that Darrow had seen to him and waited patiently to ask him questions until he'd been filled with pain potions and had his broken bones mended. "Your words have impact, as you have been told before. Because of your status as the Boy-Who-Lived, people want you to like and respect them, because they admire and respect you."

"He said in the bookstore, he wasn't so bad."

"Harry," Albus said, putting a hand on his leg above his sprained ankle, and Harry looked over at him. "Are you all right?"

Harry held up his hands to show him he was mostly in one piece. "Fine. It's gonna take me forever to clean up all those books at the shop that got knocked down."

Albus and Severus gave each other a look that Harry didn't miss, and Albus said, "I think it would be best for now if you did not return to work on the Alleys."

"But- I'm fine. I didn't get hurt that bad."

Albus conjured a mirror and handed it to Harry, who didn't look into it because he didn't want to see. He knew just by the way his eye and head felt that it was bad.

"I shouldn't have to hide at the castle all summer just because one guy was a jerk. I need to get back and help them clean up the store."

When his father and grandfather didn't say he could return, his good eye teared up and he clenched his mouth shut to keep his chin from wavering. He loved the alleys, and he'd been looking forward to summer for so long so he could get back to them. He'd only had two weeks! It wasn't enough time!

"I will return and help them clean up the books," Severus said. "You are going to rest."

"Tell them-" he was struggling with keeping his voice steady. "Tell them I'm sorry about the shop and-" he clamped his mouth shut. If he talked anymore he was going to cry and he didn't want to cry. He wasn't even upset over the guy throttling him. He couldn't handle losing his summer again though.

"I will tell them," Severus said. He rose and left the ward, and Harry hoped he was going to the alleys to set the bookshop straight.

"Come Harry," Albus said. He stood up and helped Harry out of the bed and then took him up to his quarters, where he deposited Harry on the couch and then had an elf bring Harry one of his new novels from Snape's dungeon quarters. Albus draped a soft brown blanket over Harry and had the elves bring tea, cookies, and lunch, and saw that Harry ate, though he only had a few bites because his jaw hurt from where he'd been hit.

Harry didn't read because his good eye was still blurry and instead put his arm over his eyes to block out the light and fell asleep. Albus sat in the comfortable living room chair and watched over him as he slept, waiting for Severus to return.