t was ten minutes to eight and Harry had a slight problem. He had no clue where he was, all he knew was that he was on Snape property. He had been angry when he had left the house and didn't pay much attention to where he was going. Then all of sudden he found himself in the middle of the woods.

'Damn, where, the heck, am I. If I don't get back to the house within ten minutes Snape will have my hide.' He thought to himself as he tried to find his way out.

He continued to wander around for another fifteen minutes before sitting down on a fallen tree from frustration. Looking around himself, he tried to figure out where he was and how to get out of the woods. After sitting for a few minutes he stood up and started walking toward what he hoped was the entrance to the woods.

Finally, after walking for twenty he was at the entrance of the woods. Letting out a sigh of relief he exited the forest and into the open area of Snape's property.

Looking down at his watch, he noticed that he was late. It read twenty minutes to nine.

'Crap, I'm in deep trouble', with that thought he ran for the house.

Snape was positively fuming. The boy was over twenty minutes late. 'He had better have a good excuse,' he thought to himself.

Deciding to check and see if the Harry was coming, he went and stood out on the back porch. Sure enough, he saw Harry running for the door.

'Oh boy, I am in knee deep trouble.' Harry thought to him self as walked up the porch.

"In the house, now," Snape said in quiet but firm voice. "You're more than half an hour late young man. You had better have a darn good explanation." Snape said in a stern voice.

"I got lost in the woods, I only went in a little ways, but every time I tried to head back I got more and more lost. I'm sorry." Harry responded.

"I'll let you off with a warning this time. The next time you go on a walk though do not go into the woods unless I am with you. Even I get lost in there and I have lived in this house for over 20 years. For now, you have two options. You can either sit down and do some homework or get the vacuum out and start your chores. Which one will it be?" said Snape in a lighter voice.

"I'll start my chores, I guess. Where is the vacuum?" Harry asked.

"Just go upstairs to the hall in which you plan to vacuum, snap your fingers while saying vacuum and it will appear," said Snape.

Harry headed up the stairs and got started on his chores while Severus went to his lab to work on a potion.

Two hours later Harry was done with all of his chores. He went into his room, pulled out his books, and got started on his homework. He decided that he would start on his transfiguration homework first. Looking up at the clock he saw that it read, 11:00, so he decided to he'd work on his homework until 12:15.

Meanwhile with Severus.

"Damn it, another potion gone bad." said Severus.

He had been working on a new potion for the last two hours without the least bit of success. Now he was getting frustrated, deciding he had better just take a break before punched hole into his table he put away his ingredients and went upstairs to his room.

On his way to his room, he saw Harry in his room with his homework out. Glad too see that the boy had vacuumed the hall. He went into his room and lay down on his bed for a moment before deciding too get a CD to calm his nerves while he waited for lunch.

What he saw in the entertainment room surprised him. All the windows were cleaned and sparkling. The blankets in the corner were all folded and put away. The coffee table had been cleared of all its clutter of magazines and replace with a small vase with flowers. Every inch of the floor with exception of where the furniture was vacuumed.

Going over to the CD collection, he got another surprise. The CD holders had all been dusted as well as the film holders.

Forgetting about picking out a CD, he went to Harry's room. Knocking on the door when he arrived at his door.

"Come in," said, Harry wrote an answer to one of the questions.

Hearing the boy's response Severus walked in. Seeing that the boy was just about done with his homework for the day he sat on his bed and waited for him too finish putting his books away.

'Wonder what's up with him' thought Harry as he finished putting the last of his papers away.

"Harry, come here a minute I want to talk to you." said Severus "I noticed when I went into the entertainment room you had cleaned more than just the windows. Why is that?"

"How do you know that it was me that cleaned the room and not some of the house elves?" Harry asked.

"I know the house elves schedule, they only clean that room twice a week. The rest of the time, I'm the one who cleans up in there. Today is not one of the days in which they clean that room. That's not until Sunday afternoon. So again I ask why did you go through all the trouble?" Severus said.

"Because I felt like it. Plus I didn't want you thinking that I screwed up on cleaning like in potions, which you always find time to point out too me in class. I did it so you couldn't make some snide remark about my cleaning skills, because, Merlin knows, I can clean," Harry said the last part harshly flashing back briefly to his time at the Dursley's

"Well you did a very good job on the chores. I'm proud of you. You went the extra mile. That is something to make any guardian proud" Severus said with a sincere smile.

With tears welling in his eyes a little Harry said, "I went the extra mile with the Dursleys and they were never proud of me."

"The Dursleys should have been proud of you. Just like any parent would of their child, Severus replied. "How about we head down to the dinning room and have some lunch. Then you can come with me to my lab and help in making this new potion I'm working on," he said, changing the subject.

"Alright," said Harry, "Whats for lunch?"

"We'll see when we get there." replied Severus as he headed out the door with Harry in tow.

The two were just sitting down when their lunch arrived. It was a simple meal compared to all the other meals they had, had thus far: a sandwich cut diagonally and a salad. To drink was tea, pumpkin juice, or milk.

They both ate in silence until the end of the meal. When Harry decided to ask Snape what potion he was trying to come up with.

"what type of potion are you inventing?" he asked as his lunch plate disappeared

“ A history potion, it will let the drinker experience a period in time. So far I haven't been able to get past a couple of seconds in time." Severus replied as he and Harry walked downstairs to the basement.

"What are you going to use it for?" asked Harry

"Dumbledore, wants it for the history classes at Hogwarts. He wants to see if it might make the class a little more interesting." said Snape as he set up the cauldron and ingredients

"That would be good, professor Binns is extremely boring." said Harry.

The two set to work with Harry chopping ingredients and Severus directing him on which ones to put in the cauldron. Little did Harry realize that he was learning about different potions. Ones that he had failed to understand previously.

An hour later Severus saw that he wasn't going to make anymore progress until he bought or grew a few more ingredients. While the two had made much progress it still didn't achieve its full potential.

"Thats as far as were going to get go Harry. At least until I can get my hands on some of some oak branch leaves and some flowery wood." said Severus.

"Why do you need those items pacifically? Why can't you substitute them for something else?" Harry asked walking up the stairs

"When your first trying to invent a potion you never substitute the ingredients. After you've gotten it down to the core then you can experiment. Otherwise you don't know what ingredients are causing what happenings." replied Severus.

"Oh. When can you get them?" Harry asked.

"Either I can grow them and wait a few weeks or I can go to the apothecary. Both will take at least two weeks." said Severus.

Severus looked at his watch, it read 3:30. Figuring Harry might like to go flying for a while he told him to go get his broom.

Harry didn't need to be told twice. He was in his room in nothing flat. Once back downstairs he could barely conceal his glee. Severus was waiting for him his own broom in hand.

"Are you ready?" Severus asked Harry.

Harry just nodded his head excitedly.

"Lets go then." Severus said as he walked outside.

As soon as Harry was outside he kicked off the ground and was airborne. Snape had brought out his snitch and let it loose before kicking off the ground himself.

Harry, after seeing the snitch, went after it. He caught it in just a few swift moves. Flying back over to Severus, who was floating around, he handed him the snitch and told him "lets see if you can get the snitch that fast and in few moves than that."

"Alright I will. Hand over the snitch." said Severus.

Harry handed him the snitch and flew a little ways back to give him some room. Severus released the snitch and went after it. With one swift spin and a flip he caught it within mere seconds.

Harry could only stare in awe. "How did you do that? That was awesome." he said flying over to Severus.

"Through many years of experience and years of perfecting it." Replied Severus as he pocketed the snitch.

"Can you do any more tricks like that?" Harry asked as he flew around in a slow circle around Snape.

"Yes, but I don't think it's a great idea to show you. They're rather dangerous and I don't want to risk you trying them. Then having some accident and breaking your neck." said Severus.

"Just a few, please. Maybe you could show me some of the less dangerous ones. I promise I won't try them." Harry pleaded.

"Fine, I will show you one more trick. But I have to have your word that you will not, no matter what happens ever, ever try this trick without my supervision," said Severus in very intent voice.

"Yes, sir, I promise." Harry replied.

"Alright then. Here it goes." Said Severus as he flew up in the air about fifteen more feet.

He flew around in a slow circle rapidly speeding up. Then he smoothly turned his broom to the right. Still going at the rapid pace he swung his left leg over with is right and hung himself upside down. Finally with one hand on either side of a leg he began spinning the broom like a drill while making it do repeated cart wheels at around sixty miles an hour.

Harry was completely awestruck. He had never seen someone be able to pull off a trick like that. Much less at the speed Severus did.

Slowing down enough to fly down to where Harry was, Severus swung leg in the right position and flew down to a shocked Harry.

"That was awesome!" Harry exclaimed flying over to meet him the half way.

"Thank-you," said Severus before getting serious. "I had better not see you doing that kind of stunt. Ever. Now we have to head into the house soon so I would suggest that you fly a few laps or whatever in the quidipitch pitch."

"I promise. I won't ever try the stunt." said Harry as he flew to the pitch began to fly laps around the pitch.

"You had better not." said Severus as he joined up next to Harry to start doing laps with him.

"I'll race you." said Harry as they both completed their third lap.

"Fine where do we start. I'll put up a checkered flag to mark it." responded Severus to Harry challenge.

"How about at that light post that we just passed?" said Harry coming to a halt.

"You're sure that's where you want it?" asked Severus just to be sure.

"Yes, that's perfect," answered Harry.

"There it is then," said Severus as he created a checkered flag at spot Harry pointed to.

"We fly around until we get there. Then the race begins. First one to complete five laps is the winner," said Harry.

"You're on." said Severus as the two of them pulled up to the mark.

"On your mark. Get set. Go." They both shouted.

Then they were off. Harry was in the lead for the first two laps. Then Severus was able to catch up and get a head for the next lap. On the final lap they were both head to head. Leaning forward a little more Harry was able to get the leverage he need a passed Severus just enough to claim victory by a nose.

Doing the victory dance he chanted the victory song. "its mu birthday, its mu birthday. Oh yeah."

"Yeah, Yeah we can all see that you won. Congrats. But don't get to cocky. I'll beat you next time," said Severus smiling. "Right now though we need to head back to the house. There are a few things I need to get done."

"Aw, we don't have to go back in now, do we?" Pleaded Harry.

"Harry, don't start. Yes, we have to go in. So start flying down towards the House." said Severus.

"Fine." replied Harry with a pout.

Severus followed right behind him. At the door Harry opened it and went upstairs to put away his broom while Severus went the library.

Harry found him in there fifteen minutes later.

"I finished reading that book you gave me and I was wondering if you had any thing else that I can read." asked Harry.

"Just go up that spiral stair case and go to the section above me. There should be several books to your liking." replied Severus.

Harry went up to where he was directed and started looking around. When he came across the '˜E' section he found a book that looked really good. "Enders Game" it was called. Deciding on that one he went back down to the lower level where Snape was.

"What did you pick? asked Severus as he walked over carrying a book himself.

"Enders Game" answered Harry.

I never cared for that one. But my brother loved the series," said Severus.

"You have a brother?" asked Harry intrigued.

"Yes, his name is Westin and he lives about an hour from here, answered Severus.

"How come you didn't tell me about him? Is he a follower of Voldemort?" asked Harry.

"No he's not a death eater. I just never thought to tell you. If you want, maybe I can convince him to come over for lunch next week?" Severus Said as he walked out of the library with Harry closely following behind.

"I'd like that. I'm going to read my book, now." said Harry.

"Come with me then. I myself am headed to the reading room, as I like to call it." Severus said.

"Okay." Harry said, following Severus into a room two doors down and across from the library.

The room Had a small fire place a coffee table and five leather lazy boys. Each one of a different color. Red, blue, green, beige, and black. There was also a futon couch in the corner.

They each sat in a lazy boy, Severus in the green and Harry in the blue. And pulled out there books and began to read in silence. They both read their books for the rest of the evening until dinner.