Disclaimer: Not Mine

A/N: There may be some things that will look like bashing in this chapter, and in the future. I don't really do character bashing, but I strongly believe in grey characters, and human characters. So before someone freaks out, I just wanted to clarify that this is not an evil!Dumbledore fic or anything like that. Ok? Good.

Chapter 4

The next ten days passed fairly quietly for Severus. He had been summoned by the Dark Lord only once, to give an update on the Order's movements and exchange his completed potions with a new list to brew. He had a meeting with Dumbledore that afternoon for the same purpose. It was occasionally disheartening how similar his roles were for both sides of the war…

He had done his best to push thoughts of the Potter boy to the back of his mind. But though his meeting with Damian had provided a few insights, it had brought as many questions. And while he tried to convince himself that the child's life was not his concern, that the boy had other people who were much better equipped to care for him, he still couldn't help wondering about the boy's condition. Had Albus found a decent mind healer? How much did the boy know about magic? And, of course, where had he been for so many years?

As the time for his meeting at Hogwarts approached, Severus found himself pacing in front of his Floo. Finally, with a growl of frustration, he grabbed a handful of Floo powder, tossed it into the fire, and barked out "Hogwarts, Hospital Wing". And nothing happened. It appeared the Floo was blocked from visitors, which made very little sense to Severus. Now even more determined to check on the boy, he grabbed another handful of Floo powder and Flooed to his quarters in the dungeon.

He made the long trek to the Hospital Wing, only to find the door locked and warded. He considered just heading to the Headmaster's office, but his annoyance and curiosity won out, and he slowly began dismantling the wards. And as the door finally slid open, the need for secrecy became clear.

Potter was lying in the middle of the only hospital bed left in the room. He was asleep, but his limp limbs and open mouth told Severus that it was a drugged sleep, not a natural one. But while a drugged sleep could be explained away as a respite from nightmares, which the boy would surely have, it would not explain the restraints. This wrists and ankles were cuffed to the bed, and a wide strap lay over his midsection, fully restricting his movement.

Severus turned on his heel and stormed to the Headmaster's office. He snapped the password, took the stairs two at a time, and threw open the door. Dumbledore was sitting behind his desk, staring at the fuming potion's master in confusion.

"What in Salazar's name have you done to the boy?" Severus spat before Dumbledore could so much as open his mouth.

A look of understanding dawned on Dumbledore's face, followed by guilt and at least a little shame. "So you stopped to see Harry on your way here, I see. That Wing was warded for a reason, Severus."

"Not warded well enough, obviously. I'm still waiting for answers Albus." Severus replied with a pointed glare.

"Please sit down, my boy. There are things that you don't understand-"

"I'm not going to sit down. And before you ask, I don't want tea, and I don't want a blasted lemon drop. What I want it to know why a traumatised fifteen year old boy is drugged and strapped to a bed in your Hospital Wing!"

"Enough!" Dumbledore stood abruptly and brought his hand down on his desk, the crack of his palm against the wood punctuating his shout. "I have had a difficult day as it is, and I will not allow you to judge my actions without knowing what led to them. Now sit down, rein in that temper of yours, and allow me to explain!"

Severus sat down. Dumbledore slowly settled himself into his own seat, his right hand reaching up to massage his temple. The room was silent for a long moment while Severus waited, impatiently, for Dumbledore to collect his thoughts.

"Harry woke up Thursday morning, as was expected. But, he didn't appear to truly be awake. His eyes were open. If you set food in front of him, he would eat, he would use the facilities when he was led to them, but otherwise, it was like the boy was sleepwalking. He didn't speak, he didn't respond when spoken to, he didn't even flinch when Poppy was running diagnostic scans. For three days, he ate and slept and not much else. Poppy said that there wasn't anything wrong with him physically, so on Sunday, we allowed a few Order members to visit. Molly, Sirius, the youngest Mr Weasley, hoping that one of them would incite some sort of reaction. Sirius brought him pictures of his family, we all told him about the wizarding world, Ronald even brought him some Quidditch magazines, but still the boy sat there, completely blank."

"And what exactly did you expect? For the boy to wake up, embrace you with open arms, and tell you his life story?" Severus scoffed. "What did the mind healer say?"

Dumbledore cringed. "We couldn't call for a mind healer, Severus. What would we tell them? They would have to inform the ministry that Harry had been found, and Voldemort has too many people there. He would know before the day was out."

Severus stared at the headmaster in shock. "You can't keep him hidden from the Dark Lord forever. The boy needs help. He needs someone to talk to."

"He has all of us…"

"Someone qualified," Severus snapped. "Someone who understands what he's been through. I doubt Mr Weasley fits that description.

"And this still doesn't explain," Severus continued, "how the boy ended up chained to a bed." It was taking every ounce of his control not to hex the old fool into next week.

"That was my fault," Dumbledore said, guilt written clearly across his face. "He was so closed down. And I didn't expect a boy with no magical training to know Occlumency…"

"You use Legilimency on the boy!? What. Were. You. THINKING?"

"I was thinking that we needed answers he wasn't willing to give us. I was thinking that I couldn't help him without knowing what was going on inside his head. I was thinking that an untrained fifteen year old boy wouldn't notice if I brushed against his mind. I didn't know what else to do!"

Severus took a deep breath, closed his eyes, and pinched the bridge of his nose. "So let me see if I have this correct," he said as calmly as he could manage. "You took a boy who had just been through a horrible ordeal, denied him the help of a skilled mind healer, bombarded him with strangers and new information that he was not ready to deal with, then invaded his mind because you couldn't figure out what was wrong with him?"

Dumbledore slumped farther into his chair with a sigh. "That is a very harsh way to word it, my boy."

"And it still doesn't explain why Potter is restrained," Severus said.

"As I said, Harry knows Occlumency. He is actually a fairly powerful Occlumens, though he doesn't have any finesse. When he felt me touch his mind, he lashed out. Rather quickly, and very violently. He forced me out of his mind, stole Poppy's wand, and proceeded to destroy the hospital wing. I was forced to stun him." Dumbledore grimaced. "Now, every time he wakes, he starts screaming profanities and lashing out in any way he can. We had to restrain him, for his safety as well as our own."

Severus nodded slowly, taking some time to think before asking his next questions. Albus had failed the boy. The Order had no idea how to handle him. And it was entirely possible that he would fail just as spectacularly. But perhaps… "When did all of this happen, what is Poppy drugging him with and when was his last dose?"

"Yesterday morning, one of the sedatives, but you would have to ask Poppy which and when," Dumbledore said slowly.

Severus rose and gave a curt nod. He pulled a piece of parchment from his pocket and placed it on Dumbledore's desk. "These are the potions ingredients that will need to be restocked. I will leave the potions you requested with Poppy, and talk to her about what else she needs me to brew. There is nothing to report from the Dark Lord. Now if you'll excuse me, I'm going to see if I can clean up your mess."

The original purpose of this meeting concluded, Severus swept out of the headmaster's office without waiting for a reply. He strode back to the hospital wing, stopping outside the doors to calm his anger, and admittedly, calm his nerves. This could work, but it could also go very wrong. But he couldn't sit back and do nothing. With that thought, Severus pushed open the doors and knocked on Poppy's office. It didn't take long to get the boy's records. He easily found the counter to the sedative Potter had been given, as well as grabbing healing salve. It took only slightly longer to convince Poppy to leave him alone with the boy. And it took no time at all to replace the wards around the room, adding a silencing charm and a few extra locks to the door.

Once he was sure that he wouldn't be disturbed, Severus approached the boy's bed. He spelled the counter potion into Potter's stomach, and summoned a chair while the boy slowly woke up. And just as Dumbledore had said, the boy opened his eyes and let loose a barrage of profanities. He struggled against the restraints, tried to buck himself off the bed, screamed, spat, cursed until he was red in the face. And through it all, Severus sat and watched the boy from his chair, just out of the boy's reach, but easily within sight. After listening to almost fifteen minutes of the boy's admittedly impressive vocabulary, Severus had seen what he'd needed to. The words might be harsh, but the eyes… The eyes held nothing but fear and desperation.

"Kaleb, enough." Severus' voice was soft but firm. The boy cut off mid-curse, eyes wide, chest heaving. Severus nodded, keeping the same soft tone. "Breathe. I won't have you passing out because you hyperventilated."

"You know my name," Potter said softly, the panic slowly leaving his eyes. "How do you know my name?"

Severus reached into his robe pocket slowly and brought out the boy's collar. He let it dangle between his fingers for a moment before reaching out to set it on the bedside table. "We need to have a conversation. I would prefer to do so without you lying flat on your back." Severus held up the small jar of salve. "This is for the friction burns I'm sure you've given yourself. I am going to remove the restraints, and you will put the salve on. I will not tolerate your recent behaviour, is that clear?"

The boy nodded.

"I require a verbal response, Kaleb."

"Yes, sir. It's clear, sir."

Severus allowed a small smile to turn up the corners of his mouth. "Good boy." He considered simply vanishing the restraints, but the boy was being surprisingly calm now, and Severus didn't want to throw him into another panic by pulling out his wand. So instead, Severus stood and slowly walked to the bed. He chose a wrist cuff first, releasing the catch easily. The strap across his stomach came next, then both ankles, and finally the other wrist. As soon as the last restraint was released, Potter sat up, pulling his knees to his chest and rubbing his wrists. Severus walked back to his chair, watching the boy's eyes dart to the door.

"The salve, Kaleb," Severus said, holding out the jar. Potter pulled his eyes from his means of escape and hesitantly took the jar, sniffing the contents. A look of surprise flashed across his face, there and gone almost too quick to notice. Even Severus might have missed it if he hadn't been watching for it. The boy started to apply the salve as Severus sat back down. "You have questions," Severus stated. "Ask them."

This time, Potter didn't try to hide his surprise. "You're going to answer my questions?"

"Did no one offer to answer your questions before now?"

"No, sir. They mostly talked at me, or asked me a bunch of questions. They kept calling me 'Harry', and they wanted to know where I'd been staying and if I knew about magic, things like that." The boy gave him a calculating look. "But you're offering to answer my questions. Why?"

Severus had to smirk. He could see the intelligence in the boy's bright green eyes, the stubbornness in the set of his brow. It was an expression Lily had worn often. "Because I want answers," Severus answered honestly. "But to get answers, there will have to be trust between us. So I will answer your questions, and hopefully, in the future, you will be willing to answer some of mine. Ask."

Potter nodded, thinking as he finished rubbing the salve into his ankles, the friction burns quickly fading. "Where did you get the salve?"

Severus fought to contain a chuckle. Such an innocently loaded question. "I made it. But that's not what you really want to know, is it? I helped Damian perfect this salve several years ago, and it is sold exclusively at Atra Rosa. Yes, I know Damian."

The boy nodded again, handing the jar back to Severus and settling back on the bed. "Why am I here instead of St Mungo's?"

"Because it is safer here. The men who attacked you left you for dead. We didn't want them to know that they had failed, or risk them trying again."

"Mac's dead though, isn't he… Else he would be here too." The boy's voice caught slightly at Mac's name, but otherwise his voice was dry and emotionless.

"Yes, he is," Severus replied.

"I want to go home, but I don't have a home to go to, do I?"

Severus thought about how to answer that for a long moment. "You have options. Some come with more risks than others, and all of them will require you to accept some unpleasant truths."

"Unpleasant truths," Potter repeated. "Like why everyone calls me 'Harry'?"

"Yes."

The boy thought for a long time. Eyes staring at his clasped hands, face entirely unreadable, still as stone, until Severus wondered if the boy was going to speak at all. Finally, Potter looked up, green eyes meeting black. "I want to know."

"Then I will tell you. You were born Harry James Potter on July 31st, 1980…" Severus told Potter the facts, most of them at least. He told him about the first war, he told him about his parents' deaths, the fall of the Dark Lord, and reluctantly, after much prodding, he told him about the prophecy. He told him about how Dumbledore left him with his Muggle relatives, and how they, in turn, had left him at the orphanage. He told him about the unaddressed acceptance letter and the frantic search that followed. He told him about the youngest Weasley's death and the return of the Dark Lord. Many times Severus thought he should stop, worried he would overwhelm the boy, berating himself for doing exactly what he accused Dumbledore of not an hour earlier. But then Potter would ask a perceptive question, and Severus would continue.

Eventually, the boy ran out of questions, and Severus ran out of facts. Severus watched the boy as he took everything in, outwardly calm, face impassive.

"I suppose I'll have to get used to being called Harry, won't I?"

"Yes, I imagine you will."

"I need some time. I need to think. But… Can you come back? Tomorrow?"

Severus nodded his consent before he realised what he'd agreed to. He sighed in resignation, knowing that he couldn't refuse the boy. Severus stood to leave, then stopped himself at the foot of the boy's bed. "I won't be able to prevent the others from visiting you," he said.

"Yes, sir," came the dejected reply.

"I know you don't have any reason to like or trust them, or even me. But I need you to try. Try not to shut them out. Can you do that?"

"Yes, sir," he said with a hint of determination.

"Good. I will see you tomorrow," Severus said as he headed for the door. "And Kaleb? You might want to keep your collar hidden. They may not know what it is, but if they do, I don't think they'll be very understanding."

Severus watched as Kaleb nodded his assent, then turned and walked out of the hospital wing. He dropped the wards once he was outside the door, and saw Poppy sitting in a conjured chair just down the corridor. She bolted upright when she saw Severus, obviously annoyed at being locked out of her domain for so long.

"What exactly was all of this about, Severus? You've been locked up with that boy for almost three hours! I wasn't sure which of you to be more worried about. What were you thinking, warding the room so strongly? What happened with the boy?"

Severus held up a hand to cut off her tirade. "Potter is fine. I removed his restraints, and I do not want to see them used again. He is awake, and calm, though I imagine tired. I will be back to check on him tomorrow."

Poppy gaped at Severus and he could see the questions building behind her eyes. Before she could collect her thoughts enough to start seeking answers, Severus was gone, striding quickly toward the dungeons.

A/N: Ok, yes I killed Ginny. I'm sorry, don't hate me, but it only made logical sense. Harry wasn't there to save her, but as far as I can tell, Malfoy would have still needed to get rid of the diary, and framing the Weasley's would have been a politically intelligent maneuver, so that wouldn't have changed. I'm trying really hard to account for the ripple effect that Harry's absence would have had. Some of it probably isn't relevant and thus won't be mentioned, while other things will be mentioned/addressed in the future. Oh, and if anyone noticed the timeline inconsistencies with canon last chapter (how long the Dark Lord has been back) this is the reason.