Chapter Four

"I don't believe you," Nicholas muttered as he and Harry made his way to the Great Hall. "You're really, seriously going to go visit Professor Fraus in the hospital wing? Why?"

Harry shrugged. "I dunno. I feel like it. I have to return this—" he took the Remembrall out of his pocket and held it up for Nicholas to see. "—to Neville first. Then I'll go see the Professor. D'you want to come?"

Nicholas shook his head. "No thank-you. You'll come for lunch after you visit her, though, won't you?"

"Of course."

Harry and Nicholas went into the Great Hall, Nicholas walking over to the Slytherin table while Harry made his way to the Gryffindor. When he spotted Neville, avoiding the stares he was getting, Harry approached Neville and handed him his Remembrall.

"This is yours, Neville," he said. Neville seemed startled, and after a moments pause, he took the it from Harry's hands.

With a timid, uncertain smile, Neville said, "Thanks … Harry."

It was an awkward moment for Harry—possibly Neville, too—and with another grin, he turned around and walked back out of the Great Hall.

As Harry walked towards the hospital wing, Harry noticed a black figure in the distance. Right off he knew who it was. "Severus!" he called, walking quicker than before. As he neared the Potions master, he noticed that he was limping.

"Severus! What—what happened? Was it the troll?"

Severus looked at Harry suspiciously. "Why aren't you in the Great Hall having lunch?"

"Why aren't you answering my question?" Harry gave Severus a look. "What happened to your leg?"

Severus started to walk past Harry. "It is none of your business of what happened to my leg, Harry. Come to the Great Hall and have your lunch."

"It is my business!" Harry yelled angrily. "You're my dad! It is."

Severus stopped, slowly turning around to face Harry. "We'll talk about it later."

Harry sighed, reluctantly nodding. He turned around and started towards the hospital wing, but Severus's voice stopped him.

"Where are you going, Harry? The Great Hall is this way."

Harry turned around, saying, "I know. I'm going to see Professor Fraus in the hospital wing."

Harry saw Severus shake his head. "I don't think you should."

"Why not?"

"I don't trust her," Severus replied easily. "Not anymore, so I don't want you going around her."

"But …" Harry searched for something to say. Why didn't he trust Evangeline? "Why not? She's never done anything to hurt me. Us. Or anyone."

Severus walked forward, toward Harry. "I realize that you have classes with her. Classes are fine, I'm not telling you to not participate in her classes. When you see her in the halls, I'm not telling you to be rude and ignore her. Just be cautious around her, for your own sake."

"My own sake?" Harry repeated. "You think she's evil…"

"You never know, Harry," Severus said. He placed a hand on Harry's shoulder. "I'm not saying that she is. I'm saying to stay cautious around her, and to not go to the hospital wing to see her alone."

"Then come with me," Harry said.

"Why do you want to see Fraus so badly?" Severus asked, letting his hand drop off Harry's shoulder. The boy shrugged, unable to answer.

"She was really scared when the troll was in the dungeons. I just wanted to see how she was feeling."

Severus sighed, closing his eyes. "Why do you have to be so nice?" With a shake of his head, he and Harry started down again to the hospital wing.

Harry glanced down at Severus's leg as they neared the wing. "What happened to your leg?"

Severus quickly looked at Harry before staring forward. "Nothing that you need to worry about. Now, we're here. Can we make this visit short?"

"Yeah," Harry agreed as he walked over to Evangeline's bed. The woman was already up and drinking from a cup. She finished the last bit down before setting the cup on the nightstand next to her and smiled at her visitors. And as Harry examined Evangeline a bit more, he saw that deep down in her eyes, when she looked at Severus he saw … mixed emotions, that he couldn't tell one from the other.

"Oh, well isn't this unexpected? Can I help you … Mr Potter-Snape?" Evangeline smiled warmly. Without waiting for an answer, she continued on. "What a question to ask! You're here so you must need my help on something. So, what can I do for you?"

Harry shook his head. "Nothing, I—er, we—just wanted to make sure that you're feeling better after … well …"

"Oh, why thank-you. Of course I'm feeling better, thank-you again for asking Mr Potter-Snape … and Severus," Evangeline added, smiling warmly at Severus. As Harry tried to find any note of sarcasm or, even hate, in the Professors smile, he found none. But as he looked in her eyes, he saw it clear as day. Betrayal?

"We should get going," Severus spoke up. "It's lunch, and we must leave you be."

"I hope to see you in class, Harry," Evangeline said without calling him 'Mr Potter-Snape'. "And your friend, too."

"Yeah," Harry said. "Well … Bye."

"Bye," Evangeline said after Harry and Severus had already started towards the door.

-

"Do you need to be so cheerful? Nice?" Evangeline hissed to herself as soon as she was alone.

"Of course," Evangeline herself answered. "My Lord, this is merely a facade and you know it. As soon as we get the Stone, you can find the body you're looking for and use the Stone! In order to fulfill this, we need to put on an act. We'll be successful in no time, my Lord."

-

"Are you nervous?" Nicholas asked Harry on the day of his Quidditch match. Harry nodded his head and continued to munch on a piece of toast. "Are you excited?" Harry nodded his head again.

"You'll be great," Nicholas continued. "I'll be cheering for you. Slyther'll be cheering for you, too—did you want me to take him during the match for you? Didn't he say that he wanted to see you play?"

Harry nodded. "That'll be great." Then he pushed his plate of bacon and eggs away.

"What's wrong?"

"I can't eat. I feel sick. What … what if I eat too much, then when I'm up on the broom I throw up?" Harry asked, his cheeks tinged with a green color.

"You just feel like that because you feel nervous. You won't throw up—but if you do, try not to get me, all right?" asked Nicholas with a grin.

"Potter," Draco said, rather uneasily, as he passed.

Harry looked up, surprised. "Yeah?"

It took a while for Draco to say, "Good luck in the game today."

Harry nodded his head, watching Draco's back as he walked away. Even Nicholas looked surprised that Draco talked to Harry.

"He doesn't hate you as much as before," Nicholas pointed out with a smile on his face. "Things will be better before you know it."

Harry shook his head. "I don't know."

"What's not to know? He just wished you luck in Quidditch today—that's a start, Harry."

"Yeah, I guess so," Harry replied. He then cleared his throat. "I'm not so hungry anymore."

"Anymore?" Nicholas laughed. "You weren't very hungry in the first place, because you're afraid that when you're up in the air you'll throw up."

Harry shrugged. "It could happen."

"Of course, Harry—In your nightmares. Come on," Nicholas pushed a bowl of porridge in front of Harry. "Eat. You'll need your strength."

"Do you have your broom?"

"You should be up in the stands already."

"Come on—do you have your broom?"

"Are you even allowed coming down here with me? I think I'm going a different way to get to the pitch. You should be up in the stands waiting for the game to start now. And, don't you see this in my hand? It's my broom."

"Do you feel sick?"

"Stop acting so worried." Harry stopped and faced Nicholas. "Go up in the stands. I'll see you after the game."

Nicholas gave a quick smile. "Good luck."

"Thanks. Oh, do you have Slyther?"

"Yep," Nicholas replied, patting his pocket. "I'll take him out of my pocket when the game starts, but I hope people won't notice him. Hey, where'd you get your broom? It's really nice."

Harry grinned. "Severus."

Then, he started walking again, this time in a different direction than Nicholas was going.

The familiar feeling in his stomach returned as Harry got out of the locker rooms and waited with the rest of his team to go on the field. It was the nervousness in the pit of his stomach, worse than when he had it on the first day of classes. The nervous feeling made him feel sick, which wasn't good. What if he did throw up on the pitch?

Harry pushed the thought out of his mind. Maybe, if he didn't think about throwing up, he wouldn't.

All in all, the game went pretty well. He didn't vomit or fall off his broom. During the game he was able to spot Nicholas's face in the crowd over with the Slytherins. Then, where the teachers were, he noticed Evangeline Fraus. The smile that was on her face made Harry's stomach feel sick, maybe out of awkwardness. But when he noticed Severus in front of her, looking rather proud, the feeling quelled.

And in the end, Slytherin had won.

"You were excellent!" Nicholas yelled as he came towards Harry after the game. "Awesome, in fact. Brilliant. Slytherins lucky to have you on their team, you know."

Harry grinned, embarrassed. "Thanks, Nicholas. How's Slyther?"

Nicholas fumbled around in his pocket before he lifted Slyther out.

The boy's right. You were something, the snake said, nodding his head. When he did, Nicholas laughed.

"What'd he say to you? Do you see him nodding his head? I've never seen a snake do that before."

"Well, you know, he's not just any snake," Harry said with a smile. "He's Nathaniel Jacobs."

"Hey." Nicholas's smile turned into a frown, and he handed the snake back over to Harry. His face turned serious. "You know about the, erm, thing in three's? On the uh …"

Harry nodded his head. "Oh, that. Yeah, what about it?"

"At first I just thought that it was a shadow, but … I think those erm, things, were standing on something. I'm not sure what."

"You mean, like guarding?" Harry said with a frown. "I don't know. What could those things be guarding?"

Both quieted down as a few people passed them, and when they were out of earshot, Harry and Nicholas continued on.

"I'm not sure, but I thought it was just a shadow. Now that I thought about it, though … It looked like an outline of something, but the rest was cut off."

"I can't believe you'd be looking down at the ground by their feet," Harry said with a shake of his head. "What about it's … um … Well."

"I know," Nicholas said, looking troubled. "My eyes just went down there though. But a dog with three heads in a school, it's just weird. Why would it be in the school unless it's there for a reason? A purpose? I don't think a thing like that could land there by accident, do—"

Nathaniel's mouth snapped shut. He straightened noticeably, his eyes fixed on something behind Harry. Harry didn't even have to turn around. He already knew who was behind him. Severus. And Nicholas had just said everything out loud. Oh, boy …

"Wha'?"

Surprised at the voice, Harry whirled around. It wasn't Severus, it was Hagrid.

"H—Hagrid," Harry said, a smile flickering on and off his face. "Hi."

"Wha's this abou' a three headed dog?"

Harry swallowed. He couldn't move, not even turn his head to exchange a glance with Nicholas.

"Oh, it's just this thing we … um …" Then Harry sighed, and decided to tell Hagrid everything. After all, they didn't go there on purpose. It was an accident.

"You listen here," Hagrid said after both boys had finished explaining. "Don' try meddlin' in this. It doesn' concern yeh. It's between Dumbledore and Nicolas—" Coughing very, very loudly, Hagrid tried to cover up the last thing he said. "Jus' don' go meddlin' in it. Leave it alone. Understand?"

Harry slowly nodded. "Yes, I—we—understand."

Hagrid started to walk up towards the castle, leaving Nicholas and Harry in the exact same spot.

"Why is whatever that, y'know, guarding or whatever between Dumbledore and you?" Harry gave Nicholas a look, but the boy shook his head, looking as confused as Harry felt—and probably looked.

"I don't know anything about this. Maybe it's a different Nicholas," he suggested. "But it's definitely not me."

It was then like a blanket of silence had fallen on top of them, because nobody spoke. It remained completely quiet, except for the people that passed them as they came off the stands. Then, spotting Severus, Harry said a quick goodbye and 'see you later' to Nicholas, before passing the boy and making his way towards his guardian.

-

A/N: Another chapter completed. Thanks for being patient and review!