Harry moaned as he entered the Great Hall on Monday morning.

"Snape!" he turned to see one of the Golden Trio.

"Granger." he said, "No autographs for the Golden Trio. Be on your way and don't bother me again."

Pansy smirked at her and showed her the page he'd autographed for her. Hermione Granger huffed.

"Pansy quit teasing the Gryff." Nott grabbed her arm pulling her away. " She's not worth our time. We have to help Harry study."

Harry returned to the book he was reading. He began wondering if 'A Notice Me Not' charm would work to get him away from his 'adoring fans'.

He ate his fill and kept reading.

"Uhm..." Harry gave an annoyed look as he raised his head. A girl from Ravenclaw was standing looking pensive. She blushed, "Would you..."

"No." he replied and shooed her away. "Please leave."

She quickly nodded and ran over to her group of friends who began comforting her.


"He'll never get a girlfriend like that." James said shaking his head. "What's wrong with him?"

"Nothing is wrong." Severus spat. "Harry doesn't like all the attention while he's trying to study."

"He made up all of his work in two days." James scoffed, " He's studied enough. He needs to lighten up and have some fun. All work and no play ...and all that."

Severus frowned thinking about that. Everyone noticed. A few of the teachers smirked or giggled.

"He's not interested in girls, James." Sirius sneered, "I told you he has a guy he wants to impress."

"You will keep your mouth shut!" Lily scolded noting the Alex had looked over at that bit of information. "That is no one's business except mine, Severus', Harry's, and Harry's crush!"


Harry's eyes darted over the pages in his books. One book after another. All day .

"S-Snape..." he closed his book and looked at Hermione Granger again.

"I already told you I wont sign your book so will you please leave me alone?" she didn't move. "What is it?"

She blinked at him. Harry let out an annoyed noise.

"This is annoying you usually don't have a problem talking to me. You're normally so annoying . Don't tell me one book has rendered you completely illiterate ."

The Slytherins laughed.

Hermione shook her head and pointed behind him. He tilted his head back and blushed. Alex was standing behind him.

"May I help you?" he asked.

"I was wondering why Miss. Granger is out of her seat bothering you when I am pairing up students for Duel Lessons." Alex answered, "Return to your study."

"I ... I was going to ask Snape if he'd be my partner." Hermione answered, "I could learn so much from him."

"Yes, you could." Alex replied, "But Mr. Snape will not be in class much longer as he will be taking his N.E.W.T.s in a few weeks. So sit down and be silent or I will take points from Gryffindor. "

"Thank you, sir." Harry said as he re opened his book and went back to his studying. "The girls have been so annoying."

"the price of fame, Mr. Snape." Alex smirked at him. He watched Harry blush. He wasn't stupid he'd seen how Harry reacted when he was around. But he also had discovered that the boy was shy and easily got depressed. He set down a huge pile of books making Harry jump. "Read all of these by this weekend and you should be prepared for you History of Magic N.E.W.T. "

"yes, sir." Harry replied, " I wont let you down."


Alex hid his shock at the statement. He finished pairing everyone up and told them that they would get along and make progress or they would fail. He'd paired each house with another house. He watched Harry study and could tell that Harry was still depressed but was pushing himself to keep going. He began yelling at the sixth years that were trying to kill each other.

He decided to let Harry study in his empty classroom with him doing grading until dinner time. Then walked him down to dinner. Harry didn't once look up from the book he was reading.

"Did you hear?" A Hufflepuff whispered to a friend. " Prof. Magi told the sixth year that Snape is taking N.E. early. "

"Well, he is an amazing student." her friend said, " But do you really think he's ready?"

"He's able to do it because Prof. Magi recommended him. Apparently, they are saying he's another Prodigy like Prof. Magi." A guy near by them said. "My father sent me a letter explaining it this morning but I just got around to reading it."

"No way!" the only girl of the three gasped, "That's so cool!"

"You saw how he dueled. " The second one said, " We all took on Weasley and lost but he made it look like child's play."

"Yeah, how does he not live up to the Boy-Who-Lived image again?" The third person asked. "He's wicked powerful. "

"It's because he doesn't like adventure. " Hermione scoffed passing by. "Remember what's happened over the years? He hasn't been involved once. It's all been the three of us who've saved this school."

Everyone agreed with that.


"He's still depressed." Alex stated to Severus and Lily. "He's keeping busy so he doesn't have to think about it."

"I'm starting him on Anti-Depressant potion." Severus replied, "We've agreed on a low dose one. " he took a sip from his goblet. "and we're taking him to a Muggle Amusement Park this weekend. "

"I've always wanted to go to one of those." Sirius said on pulled on Severus' sleeve, "Take me with you."

"What are you even doing here?" Severus demanded, "You're an Auror go do some work!"

"I'm rooming with James." Sirius said seriously. He shrugged as Severus cocked an eyebrow at that. "Take me with you!"

"No!" Severus snapped "This is a family outing and you are not family. Not to mention you turned on him the moment you found out he was my son and Potters. "

"Isn't a Muggle Amusement Park a little redundant at his age?" Minerva asked, " I mean from what my niece says only little kids with parents and couples who are dating go . Harry is 16. "

"We thought of that." Lily replied, "Harry's probably never been to one before so we thought he would enjoy going but we don't want him to go alone..."

"If you want family time." Sprout laughed, "You'd do better visiting some of the Castles here in Scotland or going to museums. "

"We've already bought the tickets for the park." Severus replied, seeming to think, "But you're right Harry would enjoy that as well. "

"Give me one of the tickets."

"Shut up, Black!" Severus growled, "I'm thinking."

Sirius huffed. He watched Severus' eyes slid to Alex.

"You want that ticket, Black?" Sirius nodded, he could just imagine where this was going."Be a good mutt and do exactly what I tell you."