After caring for Potter Snape had drank his fill of tea, eaten most of his toast and then settled into his armchair to read notes he’d made for a lesson plan for the upcoming term. He attempted to become lost in his work as he always did, but he found that something was tickling behind his eyelids. His eyes twitched in their sockets, making his vision blur, and he lost his place in the journal of notes. He rubbed absently at his left temple and reached into his robes to check his pocket watch. Merlin, was it really that late?

Caring for a child, especially and ill one, was an exhausting process. Snape wondered if he had caused similar feelings for his own parents when he was young. Before he had even realized it, his eyelids became much heavier than they had been a few moments ago. If he hadn’t known better, he would have thought that he had been dosed with something to make him sleepy. The lesson journal fell from his lap with a dull thud. Normally the noise would have made him start awake, but he was already as good as dead to the waking world.

When Snape woke again it was not because he was well rested. He had a rather stiff neck where his head had lolled, just barely resting on his right shoulder, but that was somewhat of a trivial matter. He had woken up because something wasn’t right, but he wasn’t quite sure what had changed yet. He rubbed his fingertips over the sallow skin of his face and blinked as he stared at his bed. The empty bed . . . the boy was gone.

Snape had to look twice just to be certain that he wasn’t still dozing in his chair and dreaming this all up. He swore aloud before grinding his uneven teeth. He took in a breath to compose himself and rose from his chair. He went to the bed and got down onto his knees, lit his wand and tossed the bed skirt up onto the sheets to have a look for the boy. He ducked his head down and squinted. Snape sank a bit closer to the floor to move his upper body under the bed. Nothing. His hair swept the stone floor as he turned his head and moved to stand.

He stood, put his wand away in his robes and brushed his palms on his clothes. Snape glanced up at the ceiling and shut his eyes as he felt his heart make a solid effort to evacuate through his throat. As he had been moving to stand up, he had caught a glimpse of his chamber door from the corner of his eye. It was just barely ajar. He hadn’t locked the door, because he hadn’t thought the boy would be in any shape for wandering about the castle by himself. It wasn’t much like Potter to want to be wandering about by himself anyway. In the time that they had spent together Potter had barely left Snape’s side, and as irritating as that was it was preferable to the current situation. What had the boy been thinking?

Snape stormed through the door, slamming it into the wall as he pushed it open in a fit of anger. His mind was racing as he tried to think of where to search first. He had searched chamber after chamber. Calling the boy’s name aloud and making threats under his breath, but never got any sort of an answer. It had taken a long time to search the castle, and Snape had come up empty handed. No little boy. Anger boiled within him. How could he have allowed this to happen? He was supposed to be responsible for the child, and he had allowed his charge to get away from him. He was going to have to explain this to the Headmaster and ask for his help to look for Potter. Dumbledore wasn’t going to like knowing that Snape couldn’t even keep track of a little boy. But it wouldn’t do to have the boy devoured by a beast in the Forbidden Forest, and to search there (as well as the outer grounds of Hogwarts) he was going to need help.

Snape’s heart was beating in a strange rhythm as he approached the Headmaster’s office. He barked the password at the gargoyle and hurried up the steps. Once he was up the stairs he went straight for Dumbledore’s desk, since there wasn’t any point in wasting even a moment. Snape growled allowed when he saw that the Headmaster was not at his desk.

He glanced around the office before wheeling on his heel to leave. He froze in his place on the floor. Dumbledore was only a few feet away from him. The old man smiled. “I had not intended to startle you, Severus. Was there something that you wished to see me about?”

Snape did not shift in his place, but there was an odd feeling swirling about in his stomach. Something cool and unnerving. He swallowed to try to make it go away, but it stayed right with him like a strong scent. “It’s about Harry Potter, Sir.”

“What about him my dear boy?”

“He’s disappeared from my chambers, Sir.”

Snape felt a surge of annoyance at how calm Dumbledore seemed. He didn’t look concerned at all. “Well then, not a moment to lose. Perhaps we should start at the place you last left him?”

Snape was about to protest that he had searched everywhere in the castle and wanted to move on to searching outside, but the Headmaster was already descending the stairs without waiting for Snape to answer.

After Snape had caught up with Dumbledore and explained that Harry hadn’t been feeling well, they walked to Snape’s quarters. Snape willed the man to hurry up, but the Headmaster didn’t seem to feel the need for any amount of urgency. The door to his room was still wide open when he walked into the room with the Headmaster and breathed out a heavy sigh. What he really wanted to do was growl that the boy wasn’t in the bloody room! But Snape willed himself to be calm and do as the older man wanted despite the fact that this was ridiculous. Potter would probably be a little corpse by the time they found him.

Snape seethed as Dumbledore searched through Snape’s closet. This was still idiotic as far as Snape was concerned. “Severus, did you check the bath?”

“Sir?” Why in the world would he check there?

“Perhaps while I search here, you should check the rest of your room before we move on to where Potter was to stay.”

Snape shook his head, but moved to go to the lavatory anyway. Where was the boy going to stow away in there anyway? The tub? Certainly not. Snape opened the small cupboard where he kept his towels and various toiletries near the way out of the room. He gave the shelves a brief glance from top to bottom the racks were full of nothing but clean towels. Just as he had expected them to be. As he moved to slam the cupboard shut he caught a bit of movement from the lowest shelf. A towel had just wiggled.

Snape knelt down and shifted a few of the towels that were covering something out of the way. He frowned as the stuffed rabbit that Potter carried around stared him in the face. A mixture of emotions flooded through him as he pulled the boy out of the cupboard and stood up with him. Potter curled against Snape’s chest, not bothering to wake and look around.

Snape easily shifted the boy’s weight and held him with one arm so that he could feel his forehead for signs of fever. Potter was still warm, but not as bad as he had been the night before.

“Ah Severus, I see that you’ve found him. Well done.” After a moment of staring down at the features of the helpless boy in his arms, Snape looked up and scowled. “Well then, Severus, if there’s anything that you or Harry require later on please don’t hesitate to ask.”

Snape felt his skin growing warm just beneath his collar and he set his jaw to avoid saying things that he knew he would come to regret later. He waited until he had heard his chamber door shut before carrying the boy into the bedroom once more. He wanted to tuck the child into the bed once more, but he was afraid of losing track of the boy again, and there was the way that Harry seemed to cling to his robes even in sleep. It was as though he really didn’t want to be left alone at all. “Boy, you are insufferable,” Snape whispered softly as he moved to the closet to reach for a blanket.

He settled into his chair with Potter in his arms and covered him with the soft blanket. The boy shifted, curling even closer to Snape, who pretended not to notice. Since he could not read his notes like before, he watched the glowing flames in the hearth and thought that the Headmaster must’ve lit the fireplace for him before leaving the room. Snape stifled a yawn and allowed his eyes to drift closed. A bit more rest would probably do them both good.