A/N : PLEASE READ THE FIRST NOTE! or you will not understand–or at least become confused by—the subsequent, so-called 'chapters' if you don't read it.

AN 1

I'm sorry about the ages it has taken me to update this story.

I already had several chapters written when I last updated, however there were missing chapters, and those I did have did not follow any chronological sequence. 'What's new about that?' you may well ask. Well, only that the lack of any continuity was even more extreme, far far more extreme, than it has been so far. Also some chapters, particularly one featuring a new character called Fletcher, did not fit into this story very well at all. (I got so totally carried away by the 'Harry obsesses about his responsibility of care for Sara and Severus' thing, that it became quite ludicrous. Le sigh.)

I had intended to rectify all that. Yes, well, there are no prizes for guessing that I never got around to it–and now, almost certainly, never will.

I think that the inclusion of humorous scenes in a story of slavery probably seems so peculiar to most people that it explains the lack of much interest in the story, and the lack of very many reviews—but more reviews and favs would definitely have made me more inclined to continue to be interested in writing it, sad commentary on me that that is. LOL.

So, now, due partly to my own laziness and partly to lack of interest, it now seems that I'll never get around to neither to correcting the continuity, nor to writing the missing chapters. I intend to merely put up what I have—as disconnected scenes for anyone who has liked this fic well enough to want to read them too. (The one where Harry has trouble getting past the gargoyle I found very funny to write, childish perhaps, but funny also, so with luck some readers may find it humorous too, so please try that one at least.)

SO, if I can work out how to add to the title of this fic,(unlikely) it will/may henceforth include something along the lines of 'scenes from a life'

AN 2

After reading on FFN a couple of chapters of this fic, and several chapters on my other stories, I have discovered that somehow, between writing them on my PC, and finally uploading to the site, something has intervened to, amongst several other things, delete many of the spaces between words. At this stage I don't intend to go back and correct everything, however from now on I shall make use of the facility on FFN itself to edit chapters before upload. Naively, I had thought that that facility was superfluous if the chapter had previously been edited. I was wrong. Henceforth I'll try to remember to give them a final edit on this site.

AN 3

If you think this fic is sometimes humorous then please try my other fics–because my cracked brain wrote them too you know. Also, a review or three would enthuse my interest in writing them, and in putting up other stories I've written. I did not think I'd ever be reduced into being the sort of fanfic writer who begs for reviews, but here I am, pleading. So sad. Writing into a wall of silence is discouraging to say the least.

Chapter summary:

Severus thinks back to Harry's first year at Hogwarts and what had been his reaction to the news that not only Voldemort was probably still alive, but also, because of Voldemort's, belief in the prophesy, Harry's future would be dangerous and uncertain.

Explanations, loose ends, hyper Harry, misunderstandings:

Warning:

slightly fluffy in parts, swear words. BTW, my Hermione is not all super sensitive about swear words, and in particular she does not object to words such as 'damn' which, in my experience, most Brits think is very mild, and don't find offensive at all; horrified reaction to 'damn', 'my god!' etc. makes the character sound like an American to me.

...

As it happened, for the last two evenings Harry had not come down to the dungeons during the day, and had also slept in the Gryffindor dormitory, so Severus had not yet had a chance to tell him that he may have caused Healer Pomfrey to call Harry in for a health check in the near future—and what that might reveal.

Despite being tardy in confessing, Severus had not suffered from anything more than a warning twinge from his bond, however it would, obviously, become more than a mere twinge were he to leave his confession much longer, and also, quite, apart from anything the bond might demand, it would not do to have Harry discover it from anyone other than Severus himself, or be surprised by a completely unexpected health check.

Severus' mind drifted back to a similar situation which had occurred not long after Harry had first arrived at Hogwarts:

The three friends 'adventure' when going after the Philosopher's Stone, and Harry's subsequent shock and stress over having killed Quirrell, had worried Severus so greatly that he had confronted the headmaster about what had gone on.

From the moment at the opening feast, when Albus had told the whole school that the third floor was forbidden and lethally dangerous–and he may as well have said that an exciting adventure awaited anyone brave enough to visit the mystery on the third floor–to the series of weak 'protections' for the stone set up by Albus, Minevra, Filius and Quirrell, it had all reeked of being a set up to test Harry's courage and abilities.

Severus had been infuriated. His subsequent rant to Albus—about having the stone at the school in the first place, what danger to Harry and the other pupils that had incurred—had then somehow morphed to include other complaints that had been on his mind; among them was the serious one that Dumbledore had never checked on Harry and his life with the Dursleys. At the last moment he had managed to stop himself from saying what such a checkup might have revealed, and had then managed to make it sound as if it were the mere lack of routine checks that he was complaining about, and not that results of any such checks might be shocking. He then returned the topic quickly, to what had happened with Quirrell, and apparently, judging from the fact that the bond had been quiet, that had worked, since the headmaster had not seemed to give the complaint about non-existent checkups any more thought.

"If you'd just thought to include me when planning your so-called protections for the stone, I'd have told you then what a completely insane idea the whole thing was! Can't you understand what danger you'd put the whole school in, let alone my master, by having the stone here as a trap for the Dark Lord?

"I do wish you'd call him Voldemort, my boy; calling him the Dark Lord makes you sound like a Death Eater..."

"For the gods' sake Albus, that belonging to Malfoy for so long has resulted in my habit of calling that abomination 'The Dark Lord' is neither here nor there, it's completely beside the point. What's important is that you've endangered the school and caused my master needless trauma. . .and it was all for absolutely nothing! The Dark...Voldemort escaped anyway. Why on Earth didn't you at least run your little plot past me before you embarked on such idiocy? Testing my master in order to find out if he actually is the subject of the prophesy is ridiculous. Why you should be doing is arranging special training for him in case he is its subject, so that he will at least have a ghost of a chance of defeating any dark lords, not messing about with tests that judging from this one, are more likely to ensure my master's defeat than his victory.

As for this fiasco, if you had spoken to me about it, even if I couldn't have dissuaded you from going ahead with it, at least I could have improved your tests to the point where they might have some hope of foiling Voldemort, and protected my master at the same time."

"Things are not so simple as you seem to believe...and do try and calm yourself dear boy. I did consult Minevra and Filius; had there been any weaknesses in the plan they would have pointed them out to me...and your sighing like that is quite unnecessary dear boy, and it does not impress me at all. It was all perfectly well thought out. . .I admit, perhaps the consequences were not entirely as I'd hoped, however we have gained valuable insight into Harry's strengths and the strength of his mother's protection. You, naturally, are upset on your young master's behalf, and that of course, is exactly as it should be, however..."

"Answer the question! Why did you not ask for my input? "

Albus blinked. He was not accustomed to such lack of respect from Severus. However the dear boy's over-reaction was understandable, especially as he seemed to be under the misapprehension that Harry had been suffering from serious distress at having, almost inadvertently, caused poor Quirrell's demise.

"Now Severus, I'm sure you can help Harry through any self-recriminations he may be feeling for having been an agent in the death of a professor. . . Harry is too sensible a lad not to realise that it was completely a matter of self defence."

"I'm surprised you know the meaning of 'self-recriminations'. . .or do they only apply to people other than yourself?"

"I shall ignore your rudeness this time, and this time only... The reason we did not involve you in the planning to protect the stone, was that we, Minevra and I, knew that had Harry been foolhardy enough to ignore my warnings about the third floor, and had asked you about it, you would have had no option but to tell him...tell him the whole of it no doubt. . . I know it is not in you to blame your master for anything, however I must point out that had Harry not ignored my warning and broken several school rules, none of this would have happened."

"That's arrant nonsense. After being a teacher for so many years, you knew very well, you must have known, that your so-called 'warning' that the third floor was forbidden, was nothing less than a juicy bait to entice any self-respecting and adventurous young child to investigate the myster.

...

In fact I think that was precisely what you were hoping for–for Harry to respond in exactly he way in which he did respond–and why it was only my master and his friends who responded to it I'll never understand ; it's a wonder that solving the third floor mystery was not the main after school activity for all the rest of the Gryffindors at least, if not the whole school."

Severus sighed. The headmaster did not seem capable of understanding that what he had done was wrong. . . He tuned in again to what Albus was saying.

"You too were at fault Severus. Had you managed to establish the rapport between you and your master, a rapport that I had fully expected by then—you are a Slytherin after all—he would no doubt have informed you of his plans, and you could have protected him from what you thought were the dangers."

Well, Harry had told him, not that had helped either Harry himself or Severus. . .and had resulted... Severus had brought his mind back to the present.

"What was an error, was a fault, was your putting my master through his paces to obtain the stone—and to prove what, his worthiness?—that was what you don't seem capable of understanding. Another of your errors is that, yes, I'm a Slytherin, but any 'rapport' I may manage to have achieved with my master, would be that Slytherin quality being used primarily for his benefit, not my own."

"Ah yes, of course, you are right. I should have realised that your bond would insist that not only you would strive to create that rapport, but also that it would be for Harry's benefit rather than your own. I apologise, obviously any lack of understanding between you and Harry is not for want of your efforts." Albus smiled his forgiveness and understanding.

Severus winced but said nothing. He felt hurt that Albus did not realise that it was not the slavery bond's insistence that was making him put Harry's interests before his own, but then he was surprised that he was feeling such offence. . .and also taken aback, slightly alarmed, at his realisation that it was his own. . .what? Feelings?... No... inclinations?. . . Yes, that was it; it was his natural inclination, his basic character, to put his master's interests . . .no. . .other people's interests, before his own. Yes, right. . .that was how he'd think of it, as his own selfless nature...

He then realised that the headmaster was smiling at him fondly. It reminded him of the look one might bestow on a favourite but not very bright dog. He sighed, nodded goodbye, turned and left the room, shutting the door particularly carefully, soundlessly.

At the time, Severus had had good reason to believe that his master was suffering after killing Quirrell. Harry's behaviour, after he had awoken in the hospital wing, had been odd and clingy; Yes, it had been quite apparent that Harry had been suffering from his experience, his deadly confrontation with the Dark Lord and Quirrell's death...

Harry had knocked, muttered the password, and hadentered their rooms. He leaned back against the door for a moment, watching as Severus stood and inclined his head. Then Harry straightened himself up and walked further into the room, and then started talking, very fast.

"You must be very angry with me. I shouldn't have told you not to help me or interfere in any way, I really really shouldn't have; it didn't work out too well without you there. It was a disaster actually, as old Voldie got clean away."

He stopped in front of his slave, and then turned and started to wander around the room, distractedly picking up books and bottles from the shelves and then replacing them out of order, still talking. "I know that now. I know that I shouldn't have stopped you helping I mean. . .okay, actually I've always known it, but, well, I suppose I wanted to prove to you that you didn't have to protect me all the time, that I was all grown up and not just an eleven year old idiot. And I suppose I thought that if I let you keep on objecting, then you might end up convincing me not to investigate what was going on...and you'll laugh at this, the stupid thing is, just before the end, just before we followed Quirrell, we asked professor McGonagal for her help, so if she'd agreed, if she had not thought we did not know what we were talking about and had dealt with it herself, then we wouldn't have proved how grown up we were. I wouldn't have anyway, Ron and Hermione didn't even know what I was thinking about that. Huh, if it weren't for them I wouldn't even have got beyond the Devil's Snare, let alone the chess and the poison."

His perambulation about the room had brought him back to Severus at that point, and Severus placed his hand on Harry's sleeve. "Master, Harry, please don't trouble yourself on my account, and the outcome is not nearly as bad as you seem to think. After all, you defeated, completely out-fought, the D. . . Voldemort himself. That's twice now, and no one else has beaten him even once." Then realising he was still holding on to Harry's sleeve, he slowly let go.

Harry turned suddenly, flung his arms around Severus waist and held on. "I'm so sorry! Sorry I wouldn't let you tell me to stop trying to play detective."

Severus patted his back awkwardly. It was obvious to him that the real reason Harry was upset was that he'd killed Quirrell. He hastened to reassure his master. "Quirrell wasn't blameless. You should never think that. He probably allowed himself to host the Dark Lord, and there was no way he could have been saved once he had made that decision. Plus of course, more importantly, had you not killed him, he would have killed you."

"Yes, it was self defence," Harry muttered, agreeing, but not quite sure why Severus had changed the subject. . . Oh, of course, he thought it was Quirrell he was upset about... He supposed he should be feeling more remorse at having killed a man, everyone seemed to think so, so they were probably right, but really, what else could he have done? He'd been fighting for his life for god's sake. . .but he should be feeling bad about it anyway. Perhaps he really was a freak...

Everyone thought he was upset about Quirrell , but he didn't seem to be, not as much as he should be anyway...that was a worry... perhaps he was one of those people who didn't feel things like others do, or had no conscience at all...god, he hoped not!

"If he'd just collapsed I'd have let go. . . Did the headmaster explain that my hands burned him? Because of my mother's protection thing, the headmaster said it was. Anyway, I'd have let him go. . . well, I think I would've, but he didn't, he just kept on attacking me, and then Voldemort came out of his head and that was what finished him off; so I only helped to kill him, I didn't do it all myself, in fact if Voldie's spirit hadn't come out of his head he might not have died at all!"

"Yes master, that's right. So you mustn't feel so badly about it. It's understandable that you do, completely understandable, but there is no reason that you should, no reason at all."

'Um, yes, there's no reason is there?" Harry released his death grip on Severus and stepped back, suddenly awkward and embarrassed. "Well, I'd better go back to...well, no, I think I'll sleep here tonight, that'll be alright I guess? I might go to bed now actually, even though it's still early."

"Of course Harry, these are your rooms after all, but allow me to give you a calming draught first; that will help I think."

After taking the sleeping draught, which Harry did need, but not perhaps entirely for the reason Severus thought, Harry felt re-invigorated and changed his mind about having an early night. He and Severus spent the evening in their usual manner, that is, Severus marking essays and Harry working on his homework. But this time he interrupted Severus, more than he did normally, with questions about his homework, and also giving Severus the 'benefit' of his detailed opinions about the school, the classes, his friends, the people he liked and why, those he disliked and why, the weather, and how Scotland had serious weather, and what that meant for Quidditch, although he didn't mind, he could play seeker in almost any sort of weather really, well, except when his glasses misted up, flying, the meals, the meals were wicked! That the roof of the Great Hall still amazed him, that Hermione's hair was bushy, but he liked it anyway, he liked charms too, not the theory so much, but the practice was fun, ...well, wherever his mind wandered to, and it was skipping blithely from subject to subject at a great rate.

After half an hour, having waited vainly for the draught to calm Harry down, Severus put down his quill, leant over his desk to pick up the phial of calming draught, examined the label, and then sniffed at the contents. He looked at Harry. "How do you feel now Harry?"

"Oh, er, fine, good...really good actually. Why?"

"That draught was supposed to calm you, but it seems to have done the opposite. Some people do react in an atypical way to some potions, and it seems you may be among them, for this potion at least. It is far more rare with magical potions than it is with muggle drugs, but certainly not unheard of."

"Well, I like it. It's stopped me feeling worried about you being angry,"...

He hurried to add, "and about having to kill the professor of course. So it's worked, but it's done it by jazzing me up instead of sending me to sleep. . .but. . .er...I'm interrupting you too much aren't I?. . .I should go to my room. . .shouldn't I?" He looked at Severus imploringly, hoping for rebuttal, and was not disappointed.

"Not at all Master. I'm pleased to see you in a happier frame of mind; if that means you feel talkative that is a small price to pay."

Harry stared at Severus while he considered that, and then said slowly, "But it is still a price isn't it, for you anyway, 'cause I'm interrupting your work."

"My primary work, my first duty, is to you, my master. The only interruptions I'm concerned about are interruptions to my care of you, and they are also the only interruptions with which you should concern yourself. Anything other than your interests, including my work as a professor, means very little to me. Only your satisfaction and happiness is important, the rest means nothing. If you wish to retire to your room, do so, but only if that is what you truly wish to do Master. I am here to serve you, always."

Something was wrong with that, Harry thought, very wrong. Wrong and a little disturbing. Severus seemed sincere, but if he was, then that meant that he saw himself as a slave before anything else, but slavery was wrong, evil . . .but. . .but. . .it also meant that Severus was someone that he could trust, totally trust. That was seductive, a comfort to him, and that was something he'd not had before from anyone.

Then something else occurred to him, an amusing thought: Severus seemed as intent on spoiling him as Aunt Petunia was on spoiling Dudders. He smiled.

"You'd better watch out; if you keep saying things like that to me I'll end up as spoilt as my cousin Dudley. You won't like me then!"

Severus' eyes smiled at him. "No you won't. I have no fear of that." All that will happen is that you relax and realise that I'm always on your side. You need someone upon whom you can totally rely, and I can be that person for you.

"Well, you have more trust in me than I have in myself. I hope you're right," he grinned, "if you're not and I start acting like selfish pig, you have to tell me. There, see, you have to tell me 'cause I've told you that you have to. Besides, it would be in my interest, which is just what you said is important to you, as no-one wants everyone to think they have a bad character do they?"

"If I'm wrong and your character ever becomes that of a spoilt child, I shall certainly inform you of it Master."

"Good. Thank you." Harry was suddenly serious. "That's what friends do you know; they tell you things, the true things you might not like, that no one else will."

"Indeed Master."

Severus had sat quietly for a few moments after Harry had, eventually, gone to his bedroom. It had been an odd sort of day. Usually it was often difficult to believe Harry was only eleven, but then he would surprise you by saying something that made it difficult to believe he was as old as eleven. Today however, the emotional young child had predominated. Killing one's first man tended to do that to one, especially when one was only eleven at the time. He snuffed out the candles and prepared for bed.

Severus became wide awake the moment he heard his bedroom door start to open. For a moment he was back to a time when doors opening into rooms in which he had been sleeping—the opened doors revealing his masters or his masters' friends—had been followed by activities almost as painful as the Cruatius, not only physically, but even more so, psychologically.

Then reason returned. He breathed again. It was his master, yes, but this master was kind . . .and he was only a child, a kind young child.

"Harry? Is that you?" He knew that it was.

"Yes, it's me. I can't sleep. Well, I can sleep but I had a nightmare again, and I thought, maybe, well, can I, er...?"

"Do you need a dose of Dreamless Sleep?" As he spoke, Severus flung his legs out of the bed and started to stand up.

"Yes, I suppose, okay, thanks, but I just wondered if I could. . . er. . .sleep in your bed tonight? Would you mind awfully? Dudley sleeps with Petunia when he has bad dreams. . .not that I want to be like Dudders, but. . .

"Of course you may Master. Let me expand the bed a little...there, now there's plenty of room. . . Accio Dreamless Sleep."

Harry opened his mouth for the dose of Dreamless Sleep, but then closed it again before Severus could give it to him. 'Er, I know you think that you have to say yes when I ask for something, but you don't really, really you don't; so if you'd rather just dose me up with the potion and then ask me to go back to my room that is fine, really fine. . .but if you don't mind me sleeping here then I don't think I need the Dreamless Sleep. Besides, when I took it before it didn't work, remember?"

Not for the first time, Severus was reminded that his master still did not fully understand the relationship between a master and his slave. Or, perhaps, being Harry, he did know but was trying to be as nice about it, as gentlemanly about it, as possible.

Either way, Harry had expressed a desire to sleep in his bed, so his disclaimer that Severus did not have to agree meant nothing in practice, Well, it did illustrate that he was lucky to have so thoughtful a master, and he was grateful for that, but it did not alter the fact that he had to accede to that master's expressed preference. Reminded of far less innocent requests, no, less innocent orders, from former masters, he was also grateful that Harry's need to sleep with him was literally just that: a desire for comfort from the only adult carer he had had since he was a baby.

Meanwhile, while Severus was slightly distracted by his thoughts , Harry had jumped into the bed. "I've been thinking."

Severus put the probably useless potion on the bedside table, and got into bed beside him. "Have you indeed?"

"Yes. I'm still a bit hyped up. I think it's mostly a hang-over from all that's happened today, not from the draught, anyway, can we talk for a while?"

Then he went on without waiting for an answer, "whatever it is, I've been thinking. . .I was very lucky today wasn't I? We all were, very lucky; if the things defending the philosopher's stone had been any different we couldn't have got through them so easily. Hagrid had told us about Fluffy sleeping if you played music, Hermione worked out the logic problem that professor Flitwick made, Ron played us through the chess game that professor McGonagall set up, or at least I think she did that one, and I'm a pretty good flyer so I could catch the key, and Quirrell had already killed the troll. Then, okay it was pretty awful, but it was lucky my hands burnt him, Quirrell/Voldemort I mean, or he would have killed me. . .Hermione told me once that there used to be a goddess of luck, well, fortune really, called Fortuna. . . Well I think Fortuna must still exist and she must have made sure that all the tests were very suited to us three, so I should start worshiping her. What do you think? She should be rewarded with a new devotee I think. What do you think?"

"I think there was a more human agent of your so-called 'luck' in this case. The someone who arranged the tests to suit you and your friends lives rather closer than mount Olympus I believe. Have you considered that whoever did that may not have had your best interests at heart, at least in this case? That you had been lured into a series of tests designed solely to test you?"

"Yes, yes, I did think of that! But Fortuna is the goddess of luck, any sort of luck or fortune, not just the good sort of luck. That's why I was lucky enough to survive the killing curse and unlucky enough to lose my mum and dad. . .and the rotten luck to have to live with the Dursleys too, and then I had good luck again and got to go to Hogwarts instead of Stonewall High. So if I worship her she might stop giving me any bad luck and give me all good luck. Good move huh?"

"I'm not sure if you're serious Master."

Harry turned and stared at Severus for a few moments, his eyes widening slightly, then his mouth quirked and a few seconds later he burst out laughing. "Yes I am serious, seriously teasing you that is. I had you going didn't I? I guess someone, probably the headmaster, arranged it all didn't he? Yes? To test us? To test Hermione, Ron and me I mean. . .See, I said I'd been thinking. The thing is though, why? Why would he do that?"

Severus didn't reply immediately; he was not sure what he should say, but this did seem to be a good opportunity to tell his master of the prophesy, but wasn't sure that Harry needed to have something so worrying, so burdensome, heaped upon him so soon after the trauma he'd suffered that day. Then too, he was only eleven; telling an eleven year old child that he would have to kill Voldemort or die himself, well, that was unthinkable; it would have to wait until he was at least a few years older.

"Severus?"

"Sorry Harry, I was thinking, I had not thought you would realise that the trials on the way to the stone seem to have been designed with you and your cohorts specifically in mind, let alone that the headmaster may have arranged them."

"Um, actually it was something Ron said that started me thinking. He said it was a good job that he was a good chess player, but if we'd thought to grab a couple of the brooms in the room with the keys, we could probably have flown right over the chess board and not had to play the game to get through, at least he and I could, but then Hermione wouldn't have been there to work out the logic puzzle for us, though we could have given her a lift I suppose. Then before, when I was trying to get to sleep, I remembered Ron saying that, and it started me thinking about all three of us and how strange it was that we were all good at something that had let us defeat the puzzles. . .so that's when I thought that someone must have arranged it that way...and also starting a cult to worship Fortuna would be good fun.

Any suggestions of where we can hold the sacred rites? You wanna be one of the priests? You'd have to be pious and devoted of course, but you could amuse yourself writing the sermons, and delivering them too of course, once we get more followers. . .Probably Herms should design the priestly robes, she's a girl, they like doing that sort of thing. . . Besides, if she thinks that's sexist, then I'll tell her that since she'll have to be a nun that she'll need something to pass the time when she's not praying." Harry was chattering on, amusing himself with his nonsense and trying to amuse Severus, but Severus did not look all that amused. He was a difficult audience, was Severus. Still, he did have a slight twist to his lips.

"I saw that! Victory is mine! You nearly smiled! We can't be serious all the time, well, I can't be, I guess you can be, if you want to, though if I'm your boss then you should laugh at my jokes you know, however weak they are. That's only sensible! I'd laugh at yours if you were my boss."

Severus' mind had returned its previous debate about if he should risk telling Harry the prophesy now or wait until his master was older, so he'd been distracted and had not really been listening to what Harry was joking about. . . if he left it until later, which he'd virtually decided to do, that too was risky as his master might then be upset with him for not telling him before. However, not listening to what Harry was saying was not a good survival technique either. He hastily pulled his mind back into order. "I'm sorry Master. I was thinking again and became distracted once more. I do apologise."

"You're very distracted about something tonight aren't you. Was it about me?"

"Yes Master"

"Okay. You'd better tell me exactly what you've been thinking about. You'll probably feel better then. Please tell me everything you were thinking about just then. I won't get upset with you."

Well there went his quandary. That answered his dilemma; there could be no waiting until later now. He had to tell Harry the prophesy right now. Severus sighed, he was annoyed with himself for being so obviously distracted that his master had noticed and ordered him to tell all.

"Harry, are you certain you wish me to tell you something that may upset you, no, almost certainly will upset you and make your life harder? Please think seriously about it. It may be better to change your mind and rescind your order."

Harry didn't think he'd given an order, but then realised that Severus was, as usual, interpreting his request as one. Bloody bond! But Severus would continue to be concerned about it, whatever it was, if he did not get it off his chest. Besides, now he knew Severus knew something he did not, he'd not rest until he knew or too, however bad it was. He particularly did not like to be left in the dark about anything that concerned himself or Severus.

Severus continued when Harry did not immediately respond, assuming, correctly, that Harry still wanted to find out what he'd been thinking about.

"It is not going to be any easy thing to tell you, nor will it be an easy thing for you to hear. It starts before you were born, when I belonged to your lady mother. It's quite a long story, perhaps, if you insist on hearing it, then rather than telling it while we're sitting here, we could sit at the table and order something to eat and have a cup of tea..."

"Oh I'm quite happy here. Put your arm around my shoulders. Talking in bed is what kids do on sleepovers they tell me, so we'll pretend that's what we're doing. Go on, you were saying it began before I was even born."

Severus placed his left arm around Harry, as requested. It was not quite as warm and comforting as Harry had thought it would be. Perhaps that was because the arm was resting very lightly across his shoulders, and not really resting any weight on them at all.

Severus started his tale again. "Yes, there was a prophesy that the headmaster and Voldemort both believe concerns you. Basically it stated that a child would be born as the seventh month dies who would be strong enough to defeat the...Voldemort, and neither that person or Voldemort can really live while the other survives, or at least that is our understanding of it.

Both you and Longbottom fitted the prediction in so far as your birth date but you were marked by the Da. . .Voldemort so it seems that according to the prophesy, you are the person who was, or will be, powerful enough to kill him.

"Was or will be? What does that mean?"

"That depends on whether one interprets the prophesy as having been completed when you defeated him as a baby, or if it means that it is still in the future. This is what the headmaster has told me of its wording:

The one with the power to vanquish the Dark Lord approaches ... born to those who have thrice defied him, born as the seventh month dies ... and the Dark Lord will mark him as his equal, but he will have power the Dark Lord knows not ... and either must die at the hand of the other for neither can live while the other survives ... the one with the power to vanquish the Dark Lord will be born as the seventh month dies ..."

Harry thought for a moment. "It's a bit confusing. . .he's not really dead is he? At least that's what the headmaster thinks. . .but if he's not dead and I'm alive, then the prophesy isn't true is it? In any case, it does not actually say Voldemort, it could be some other dark lord, in fact some other dark lord who has marked someone who isn't me."

"In one sense you are correct about both of you being alive and therefore the prophesy must be wrong, however it could mean that while you are both surviving, neither of you can live to the fullest. As for if it refers to some other dark lord, then it is either a prediction of the future as such a dark lord has not arisen yet, or it refers to somewhere other than Britain, which is unlikely.

However, keep in mind that prophesies are seldom correctly interpreted before they are fulfilled, and also, judging from stories from the past, attempting to thwart a prophesy is often the very thing that makes whatever is foretold, come to pass. Personally, I have little faith in the existence of true prophesies, but unfortunately the Dark Lord believes it, has believed it from the moment his spy told him about it. That is why he tried to kill you when you were still a baby that is, before you could become powerful enough to beat him, or so he thought."

Harry gulped. "Well..." he said, uncertainty. "I'm not sure what to think about that...or feel about it...funny thing is, I'm not really surprised I suppose . The headmaster already told me that he wasn't really dead...he will come after me won't he? Yes, of course he will...I hope I get very powerful then, or lucky, or it had better be both I suppose...Maybe luck is my power he knows not. Okay, ... worshiping Fortuna might be a good move after all, seriously...and you had better train me too..." he trailed off, sounding sleepy and yawning. . . "Don't worry Sev, I knew most of it before really. . .goin' to sleep now."

Harry did not sound particularly shocked or frightened. Perhaps it all seemed unreal to him; he was probably in a state of shock. Puzzled, Severus gazed down at the boy; what the...?

He had gone to sleep! . . .No doubt the horror and fear would manifest itself later. . .perhaps. Yes, it must be shock...together with him not yet realising what a burden of responsibility that would put him under in the eyes of the wizarding world, should the prophesy become public knowledge.

He reflected that he'd had no need to worry about Harry being overwhelmed by the news, on the contrary, it seemed that he should have worried about his unnatural lack of reaction.

R