Disclaimer: I don't own Harry Potter

Hi there, sorry for the wait. Not much to say about this chap. It's needed for the story but is a bit of a filler. Sorry if any of you think this story is going at a slow pace but I want to take the time to develop the relationships realistically.

Thanks again to my beta, who is as good and patient as always.

Enjoy.

Chapter 14

Snape moodily sat himself down in the bright red sagging armchair. The overstuffed cushions almost swallowed his thin frame whole and he knew without having to be told that he looked entirely out of place in the red, maroon and soft brown interior of Minerva's personal quarters. Glaring at his teacup in an effort to make the over sweetened brew within vanish, Severus waited for Poppy and Minerva to settle themselves upon the similarly overstuffed sofa next to him.

To his right sat a raging hearth fire, artfully decorated with knick knacks and a faded Gryffindor Quidditch scarf. The two women were directly opposite the orange flames while Snape himself sat slightly to the side of the mantel. Between them sat a low lying dark mahogany table, the legs shaped into lion claws-what else-and sinking deep into the brown rug beneath. Upon the table sat a silver tea set, brought in earlier by a bowing house-elf. Sneering once more at his own cup of the copper liquid, Severus placed it back down disdainfully without taking a sip.

Minerva didn't take this as an insult. She knew how snarky the Slytherin Head of House could be. His attitude had only got pricklier since he first entered Hogwarts at the tender age of eleven. Taking a sip of her own tea, her action was mimicked by an equally quiet Poppy beside her. All three adults sat in silence, unsaid words hanging between them.

"What are we to do about poor Harry?" It was spoken quietly but the weight of the question rung like the clattering of a gong in the silence of the room.

Minerva breathed out heavily in regret before placing her own half drunken cup next to Severus's discarded one. She longingly wished for something stronger than tea to calm her nerves but now was not the time.

"The question should be, what can we do about poor Harry? I myself have no relationship with him and am not sure of the particulars of the abuse. You yourself know better than I do what would be best for him Poppy."

A third cup joined the others on the table. Just remembering those terrible scars left the matrons hands shaking. "For his physical health, he needs plenty of food and rest. Has he been taking the potion I prescribed to him Severus?" The dour man nodded, steepling his hands in front of his face and scowling at the table. "That should help him gain some weight. I healed most of the other physical injuries but I worry he may be suffering from stress brought on by fear and anxiety. This could slow down his body's recovery and prevent him from gaining weight as quickly as I would like. With winter getting closer and his terrible lack of body fat, I worry that the boy's compromised immune system would have little defence against an offset of hyperthermia."

"I see...do you believe it would be necessary to call in a healer from to help the boy were this to happen?" Minerva worried her bottom lip, a bad habit she had had since childhood. "We would have to tell the Headmaster if so."

"If the boy stays warm and gains some weight, I do not believe so but a serious case of hyperthermia would mean a visit to . I simply do not have the resources to deal with such a thing in a school infirmary, no matter how good Severus' potions are…I am reluctant to tell the headmaster though." She added thoughtfully.

"Why so?"

"Oh, do not be as daft as the rest of your despicable house Minerva!" Snape interrupted abruptly, the first time he had spoken since entering the room. "The headmaster is not blind nor is he senile. It is possible that he already knows what the child has suffered."

"Surely not!" cried the gray haired witch.

Snape sneered once again. Bitterness dripping off his tongue. "Maybe not, but even with all that we have learned he is unlikely to drop everything to help a Slytherin. You know how just how prejudice can blind a person when they cannot afford to be blind. The man is already worried that his supposed Gryffindor golden boy is in fact the next dark lord."

"But that's preposterous. The poor boys only eleven!" Poppy cried. Dismayed that fortune continued to shine such a cold light on the fragile Slytherin in question. Minerva remained quiet; for she knew what Severus was saying was all to true. Prejudice made people blind, including herself until not so long ago.

"Please, the fact the boy is Slytherin is enough to make him dark to three quarters of the school and simpering idiots that are the general public. The expectation for the boy to have great power, enough to defeat the dark lord when he was only an infant makes him dangerous in the headmaster's eyes. It is unlikely he would move to help the boy or that he will show any sympathy towards the situation…at least at the current time."

Silence reigned down once again. Minerva had her head bowed still in her shame and Poppy had run out of arguments to give. Against pure Slytherin realist cynicism, there was nothing they could say.

Snape breathed in deeply through his nose and once again relaxed himself into the squishy chair. "What we should be asking ourselves is what we are going to do about the despicable muggles?" The sneer was back, along with a fierce glower.

"There is little we can do as you well know Severus." Reminded Minerva, raising her head at last. She glanced at the younger professor over her spectacles and pursed her lips at the glint of challenge she saw in his eyes. "At least legally and we will do this legally Severus!" Despite the seriousness of the situation, she couldn't help her lips from twitching when the dour man huffed and crossed his arms, sulking like an overgrown child.

"Unless Harry confesses to the abuse, there is nothing we can do to punish the muggles at the moment. I assume he has not said anything to you. I know that you met with him earlier this evening?"

Snape shook his head. His black hair flung about his face. "I thought not. Even if we could get the boy to confess in court, there is the matter of the media. As you yourself said, their opinion of the boy is flaky at best. There is no telling how they would react."

There was another sneer. Though, this time it was gracing the face of Poppy. "They would either condemn the boy to hell through their ripping into him or there would be riots in the streets as they called out for the muggles blood."

Snape tilted his head in agreement to her assessment but Minerva was already talking.

"Well, there is only one thing we can do then." She announced with a tone of finality.

Both Poppy and Severus looked at her curiously, waiting to see if any more information was forthcoming. When it appeared it wouldn't, Poppy decided to ask the obvious question.

"And that would be?"

"We make his time at Hogwarts as comfortable as we can. We can deal with where he will go in the summer holidays when we come to them. I assume we are all in agreement that letting him go back to those muggles, blood wards or not, is unacceptable." Two firm nodded of approval were her answer.

"It seems as if Poppy has the boy's physical well being well in hand. Though, perhaps regular check-ups would be helpful." Another agreeing nod from the matron, "Then it only leaves the boy's mental scars to be treated. We need to gain the boy's trust and show that we are willing to protect him from any harm. Hopefully, that would help with the anxiety you talked about Poppy."

"Most likely. The tension derives from the constant fear of punishment he lives in. If he were to find an adult he could trust and a confident to confine in, I would be much less worried about any possible physical side effects deriving from stress."

"Then we are in agreement. Harry will spend time with one of us once a week in an effort to get him to trust us, open up about the abuse and hopefully avoid a trip to the mind healers."

Both women turned to look expectantly at Snape, who had remained quiet throughout the exchange. Finding both of his previous professors and current colleagues looking at him with suspiciously hopefully eyes, he jumped to his feet.

"You cannot seriously be considering me as Potter's confident. The boy is terrified of my very presence and well he should be for I am not a pleasant man and do not have the patience to coddle an abused child. You are either deranged or senile if you think I will agree to this!"

Minerva only huffed before once again picking up her tea and reheating it with a quick charm, sipping at it calmly. She was a lot more relaxed now that they had found at least a small way to help the young Slytherin and as far as she was concerned, the matter of who was to council the boy was already settled.

Poppy reacted differently from her long time friend and too stood to confront Severus. Though, with her prim white uniform and petit frame it was a lot less impressive. Despite this, the forceful expression upon the matrons face was enough to make Severus alarmed and waver in his firm stance. It grated on the man's nerves how this woman could make him feel like an unruly child with just one look. He never should have taken a teaching position up at his old alma mater!

"Severus Snape, I have told you once before and I will tell you again. You are the person the boy trusts most at this time and as his Head of House, you are the obvious candidate for taking responsibility of his mental recovery. You also happen to have intimate knowledge of how a child in this situation feels." She added more quietly, her voice changing from reprimanding to sympathetic but never altering in its firmness.

Snape gritted his teeth. So what if he had already met with the child, vowed to help him, protect him and felt sympathy for his dire situation? He was not a kind man! He didn't know how to coddle an abused eleven year old nor did he want to! For Merlin's sake his patience, or lack of it, was a well known to everyone that had meet him. He would not do it!

Despite his continued protests that night, three arguments and a shouting match later, another two cups of tea for Minerva and a few days spent fuming (definitely not sulking! No matter what that old Gryffindor hag thought!) He found much to his dissatisfaction that he was.

Bloody Gryffindor stubbornness, he couldn't win!

XXX

Glowering ominously as he watched the last of the first years hastily hand in their finished potions and essays on essence of murtlap, Snape once again cursed all that was Gryffindor. For good measure, he also cursed meddling old biddies though he would never call Minerva and Poppy that within hearing range. There was no telling what women skilled in transfiguration and human anatomy could do to him and Severus was not in a hurry to find out.

As usual, Neville was the one to bumble his way up to his desk, both he and Harry's essays and potions in hand. The boy barely managed the short walk without falling over and it was a miracle that the two vials were given to him intact. Potter had not once approached his desk since his first disastrous potions lesson.

Looking back, Snape knew the boy had been tripped, his anger no longer clouding him to Miss Granger's explanations and knew the boy did not wish for a repeat of the incident. Considering the way Snape himself had punished the boy, he could not blame him.

Still, it meant instead of being able to talk to the boy normally he had to call out across the classroom to get his attention. Raising his voice over the clatter of the students packing their things away, making for a hasty retreat from the potions master, who had been in a foul mood all Monday morning.

"Potter, stay after class." The young boy jumped at the sound of his name before wilting. All eyes glanced at the bowed head of hair quickly but were more eager to level than to make fun of the poor Slytherin. Neville looked to his friend on concerned but Harry averted his eyes. Across the room, he could see Hermione doing the same but ignored her questioning stare as well.

It had all been going so well! He had even began to think that the man was kind and would possibly, just possibly, keep his promise about not expelling him and sending him back to the Dursleys. He should have known it was too good to be true. The man had been to kind, it could only have been a trick. Telling him he could eat what he liked and sleep where he liked, and without a single punishment insight other than that first detention. It just wasn't possible for life to be that good for a freak like him. Everyone always found out eventually just exactly how abnormal he was and what he deserved.

He couldn't bear to look at his friends- imagine that, he had friends!-only for them to turn away from him in disgust when Snape revealed him for the dirty urchin he was.

The classroom cleared quickly. Hermione and Neville hovered around the door uncertainly but a piercing glare from Snape had them leaving quickly. With a flick of his wand, Snape slammed the door firmly on their retreating backs and ensured his and the boy's privacy.

He was loath to do what he was about to do. His privacy and free time were sacred to him after such a life of continued humiliation and now he was expected to let the boy in, it rattled his nerves. Looking at the bowed head and hunched shoulders, still much to thin through the bulky robes, he knew that refusing was inadmissible. The boy needed his help and whether he or Potter liked the arrangement, he was the best person to provide it.

"Potter, do not linger at the back of the classroom so, come forward boy."

Harry flinched at the word boy but hid it well. His uncle often called him boy in such a despicable way as to make him cower from the word. It was as bad as freak.

Wondering if the man was going to have him bend over a stool and cane him, Harry shuffled forward. His robe dragging on the floor and his eyes firmly fixed upon it. The shaking was back.

Snape could see the same submissive and broken behaviour that the boy had been showing every time he was within his presence, and Minerva and Poppy thought he could build a trust between himself and Potter? He was right to say that the Slytherin almost had a panic attack whenever he was within his presence, barring the few times he had had approached him without his knowledge.

Getting it over with seemed to be the most logical of options. Potter would already be forced to withstand his presence without fainting far more than he was sure both of them were comfortable with. No need to increase the time the boy had to spend in his loathed company.

"As you know in our last meeting, it became apparent that you were not trying as hard as you can in class. I made it clear then and I will make it clear now that I do not expect you to embarrass me or the Slytherin house by being a lack lustre student. You are instructed once again to do your very best in all your classes." He gave the boy a brief glare just to get the message through.

Harry nodded quickly. His professor had only told him this yesterday. Did he expect him to already have forgotten or did he know that he was scared to do as he was instructed and was making sure he wouldn't disobey?

"While this will be adequate for your other classes, I have decided that for potions this just won't be enough to make up for your mediocre performance thus far. To compensate this, you will be coming to my office every Thursday at seven for a remedial potions lesson. I shall also be expecting you to listen to me when I explain…your many misconceptions of the world. Understood?"

For a minute, all Harry could do was stare at the man from under his bangs. Remedial potions, but he wasn't doing that bad! What the professor said was true though, he hadn't been trying his best and it seemed to have embarrassed his Head of House, as he should have known it would. It seemed his utter stupidity had been discovered by the potions master and the man was taking measures to correct it.

Harry knew it would be hopeless. How many times had uncle Vernon told his that his stupidity was inherited from his parents and that he would never amount to anything, not like his precious Dudley. What did the professor mean by misconceptions? Had he done something wrong and not realised it? It sounded an awfully lot like a fancy way of saying punishment to poor Harry.

Scared of the coming meeting but even more scared by Snape's growing impatience at his lack of response, Harry offered as hesitant "yes, sir" before almost flying out of the room after his dismissal. Leaving his shattered expectations of a kinder Snape dying on the chilled dungeon floor.

Outside, Neville and Hermione were waiting for him. Normally, Harry would have been overjoyed at this show of friendship and concern but he couldn't bear to talk to them now. Just wishing to forget the whole thing had happened and unwilling to think about this coming Thursday, just three days away. Still when they asked, he couldn't just ignore them; he had no wish for his friends to hate him, despite knowing they would when they discovered he was a freak.

"I have remedial potions for not trying hard enough during the beginning of term." He quietly confided. The three friends disappeared around the corner, heading to the library as had become routine. Hermione bemoaning Harry for not trying his best while sympathising with him. Neville fearful for his friend, thankful it wasn't him and confused, seeing as he knew himself to be much worse at potions than Harry was. Harry just let their words wash over him, he wasn't listening.

XXX

Finding the headmaster waiting outside of his classroom after the sixth bell, signalling the end of the last lesson was not something Snape wanted. However, it wasn't something he was unprepared for. It still wasn't obvious to the old spy where his employer stood in terms of supporting Potter but the man had shown a willingness to allow harm to come to the boy before. Snape had the memory of watching young Harry read every single hate letter sent to him silently upon his bed stored safely in his pensive.

"Headmaster" Snape greeted, waiting for the last of the sixth years to exit the potions lab before waving the man on inside. Unusually, the headmaster did not seem jovial today and did not take the invitation to be seated. Sitting once again behind his own desk, Snape kept his face carefully neutral. Ready to let the older man make the first move.

"Severus, my boy it has come to my attention that you have assigned young Harry remedial potions lessons of all things."

Snape remained silent as the headmaster gazed at him expectantly over his half mooned spectacles. The man's garish purple robe with yellow stars twinkled at him and he had to resist sneering. Seeing that the Slytherin Head of House had no intention of humouring him with information to his open ended statement, the headmaster switched to the direct approach.

"Do you not think this a bit extreme my boy? The boy has not been here for even a term and from the other teachers' reports he is at least average academically. Do you not think it a little early to be assigning remedial lessons?"

"No Headmaster, I do not think this extreme in the least. The boy has been slacking in my class and needed the extra tutoring. I will not have one of my Slytherins disgrace himself and the house so easily."

"But surely, so soon into the year it is not necessary. Why not wait for the boy to catch up? I am sure young Harry is simply overwhelmed, what with finding out he's a wizard and being thrust into the wizarding world."
"That has no baring Headmaster. Many of your precious muggleborns are in the exact same position. Whether you think it to be too early or not for the boy to have remedial lessons with me personally is none of your concern. The boy is in my house and as such I will assign him the work as I see fit." Seeing the headmaster ready to continue to argue his case Snape continued. Rising from his chair as he did so to put himself at the same eye level with the older man. "You saw it fit to leave the boy's welfare to me before when you washed your hands of him earlier this term Headmaster. All howlers are scanned by the school for their contents before being allowed to enter."

He had won and both he and the Headmaster knew it. Snape was right; Albus had neglected his duties and was paying for it now by having almost no say in the Boy-Who-Lived life. As he took his leave and headed once again up to his office, Albus reflected that maybe letting those letters through because of his own unease over the boy's placement in the house of the snakes had not been one of his better moments. It seemed to be costing him dearly not only in his ability to find out about young Harry and guide the boy to his prophesised destiny but in the trust his spy and long time friend Severus held in him.

Sitting once again in his office, Snape steepled his hands in front of him and closed his eyes. Letting the absolute stillness of the room aid in his occolumancy and the sorting of his thoughts. He did not like to be at odds with the Headmaster. He not only owed the man a great debt for allowing him a chance to redeem himself after his unforgivable mistakes but he had come to trust the man and view the wizened old warlock as a friend. Snape knew just how fragile such relations could be and did not wish to break them with his own words but there was a small eleven year old boy relying on him, whether he knew it or not, to help him through the abuse of his relatives and make sure he never befell it again. He could not, even with his sometimes dubious conscience, abandon Potter.

Letting out a tired sigh, he still could not fathom if the Headmaster was shunning to boy or simply weary of the house of Slytherin and the influence Snape and his housemates may bestow upon Harry. He was certain the Headmaster was not aware of Potter's friendship with the two new Gryffindors. Snape was sure the Boy-Who-Lived hanging out with people from his most beloved house would have eased the Headmaster's fears somewhat.

Retiring to his personal quarters, a half bottle of the finest French wine and the grading of the essays handed in that day, Snape pushed the confrontation from his mind and patiently waited for Thursday and the first of his official 'healing' meetings with Potter.