A/N: Here's Chapter 11, enjoy! Read responses to reviews for Chapter 10 at the reviews section.

Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter and am not making any money off this.

Warnings: Language, darkish Harry. This chapter not too bad though.

Chapter 11: What Harry Saw

"Take you to your father?" Harry gaped at Caydon. For some reason, the concept was having a hard time sinking in. "Where would we find him?"

"Most likely in his quarters, asleep," Caydon sounded like he was trying not to show that he thought Harry was being rather dim tonight.

"Oh, yeah. Of course," Harry said. The idea of going up and knocking on the door to Snape's private quarters at well after midnight was about as appealing to Harry as facing a basilisk, but he could hardly just leave a hurt, distraught first year all alone in the corridor.

"You don't have to," Caydon said softly. "I can go down myself. I'm not an infant." Caydon tried to get up, but was unsteady on his feet and fell back.

"Of course I'll take you!" Harry exclaimed, helping Caydon up. "You don't think I'm that afraid of your father, do you?" he tried to joke. He offered Caydon his hand and helped the boy up. "Is your leg hurt? You could lean on me. I could probably even carry you."

"I'm fine," said Caydon irritably, although he was, indeed, limping. "Look, you don't even have to come with me." Caydon sniffled at the end of this statement, he still had not totally stopped crying.

Harry took the boy's arm anyway, supporting his weight. Caydon's robes were ripped however, and fell back from his left shoulder. Harry noticed something odd on the place where Caydon's neck and shoulder met, it looked like something was painted or tattooed on the boy's skin. It was very small, but in vivid colors and looked something like a shield or a crest with some type of black reptile in it. Caydon noticed Harry looking and snatched his robes back over the spot, his normally rather impassive face showing a good deal of alarm. He took off down the corridor, Harry soon caught up with him and walked in front, reserving his questions for another time, preferably a time when Caydon wasn't bleeding.

Caydon limped along after Harry, not allowing Harry to support his weight even after he tripped and fell twice. Harry sighed, Caydon was clumsy under the best of circumstances, if Harry hadn't seen what he had seen on the map, he would have suspected that the boy had hurt himself by falling down a long flight of stairs or something. Once they got to the dungeons, Caydon told Harry the correct turns to take to reach Snape's rooms because Harry had certainly never been there before. Harry was nervous the whole time that they were going to run into Filch and he was skeptical about whether or not Snape would even be in his room asleep. How many times had he run into Snape while wandering the castle at night? When they came to the door to Snape's quarters, Harry looked over at Caydon imploringly.

"The password is . . . " Caydon started tiredly.

"Maybe we should knock," Harry interrupted, not wanting to barge into Snape's living quarters and get hexed into next week for his troubles.

"Fine," said Caydon, rather distractedly.

Harry marched up to the door and knocked boldly, not wanting Caydon to know how nervous he was. After some time, the door was flung open and Snape stood in the doorway glaring at Harry, looking very imposing despite the fact that he was wearing a grey nightgown.

"Potter," he said irritably, "I do hope that you don't imagine that I'm your twenty-four-hour therapist now."

Harry looked at his professor sheepishly and stepped aside so Snape could see Caydon standing behind him. Snape's mouth gaped open.

"Caydon!" he said. Then he turned to Harry, "What happened to him?" he asked furiously.

"Don't look at me!" Harry objected.

Snape stuck his head out the door and looked both ways down the corridor. "Get in, both of you," he hissed.

Snape led them both inside, lifted Caydon and sat him on a small, round table. He began to inspect the boy's injuries carefully, although Harry noticed that he kept Caydon's body almost completely covered at all times.

Harry looked around the room in interest. It wasn't at all like he would have expected Snape's quarters to be. It wasn't a dungeon cell with dark, icky things and Snape's coffin in the corner for him to rise up out of as Harry had always heard joked about, neither was it the opulent suite that was the stuff of Slytherin legend. The room was very plain, but not unpleasant. Everything was in brownish or beige colors, rather than the black or green that Harry had expected and the furniture was dull and serviceable.

"How did this happen?" Snape asked his son, shortly, ignoring Harry altogether.

"I. . . fell," Caydon faltered and caught his father's eye as though trying to communicate some sort of message.

"Ah . . . " comprehension dawned on Snape's face. "Don't cry Caydon," he snapped a moment later, "it's undignified for a boy of your age."

Caydon, who was, indeed, sniffling again, tried to put on a brave face, but burst into tears again. Snape rolled his eyes.

"He's just a kid," Harry thought. "I would think that Snape could be a little more sympathetic to his own kid."

"Potter," Snape said without looking at Harry, "go into my lab, second door down the hall and bring me back a bruise-healing potion, a wound-healing potion, and a calming draught – they're all labeled – and some bandages from under the counter. Don't touch anything else," he finished, giving Harry a significant glance.

Harry wandered into Snape's small private lab and began looking for the requested itemsHe really needed to find a way to talk to Snape about what he had seen on the map (not that he intended to tell Snape about the map), but he didn't want to say anything in front of Caydon. Harry took out all the potions except the wound-healing one which he saw high up on the shelf.

"Sir," Harry called down the hall, "I can't find that wound-healing potion!"

"It's the middle top shelf, Potter!" he yelled back.

Harry waited a moment. "I still don't see it!"

Snape cursed and stormed down the hallway. "Honestly, how useless can you be?" he snapped at Harry as he walked in and took down the potion.

Harry closed the door and turned to Snape. "I wanted to talk to you about how Caydon got his injuries. I don't think he fell."

"Brilliant observation," Snape said sarcastically.

"Sir, just listen, I think that Draco Malfoy and Theodore Nott roughed him up."

Snape seemed less surprised than Harry expected by this announcement. "And what led you to this conclusion, Mr. Potter?"

"I can't tell you, but I'm fairly certain. Look, I wouldn't lie to you about this. Caydon is my friend."

Snape looked less than pleased at this declaration.

"I'm sure that you can get Caydon to admit to it if you talk to him. Malfoy should be punished."

Snape looked at Harry sharply. "Mr. Malfoy will not be punished and you will not mention this to any of the other teachers," he said quickly.

"What? Why won't you punish him! Don't tell me that you're still going to favor him like you always do." Snape didn't need to answer, the look on his face told Harry that he was. "But you do believe me don't you," Harry's last remark was more of a statement than a question.

"I believe you," Snape said, walking out of the room.

Harry had always thought that the idea that Snape might owe him because he was nice to Caydon was a bit silly, but now he was beginning to see the logic in it. He had been really kind to Caydon and Snape still treated him like a fungus. Malfoy, on the other hand, had decided to beat up on Snape's first year child and Snape still wasn't going to do anything to him!

"Do you really care so little for Caydon?" Harry called after him and immediately wished that he hadn't. Snape turned around, red in the face, and absolutely livid. Harry thought was going to attack him or rage at him, like he had last year when Harry had looked in the pensieve. Instead, Snape took two or three slow breaths.

"You have no idea what you are talking about, Potter," was all he said, his voice dangerously low.

He turned around sharply and glided out of the room. Harry followed him through the hallway but stopped before he got to the front room, he wanted to give Snape some time to cool down.

"Caydon!" he heard Snape snap at the boy, "I thought I told you to stop crying."

"He . . . he saw," Harry just caught Caydon's words which were barely above a whisper.

"Saw what?" Snape asked. Caydon didn't say anything, but Harry assumed that he was making some kind of gesture.

"Who?" Snape asked in alarm. "Potter?"

"Uh-huh."

"Is that how you answer me, Caydon?"

"No, Father. I'm sorry."

"We'll discuss this later," Snape said in a low voice. "I am quite upset with you. Although, knowing Potter, he probably had no idea what it meant."

"What if he did, sir?"

"I said we would discuss it later!" Snape hissed. "He could be listening to every word that we're saying right now. Stop crying Caydon. It's of no use now."

"Yes, Papa," Caydon sniffled.

"Good. I apologize for being sharp with you, Caydon."

"Yes, Papa."

"Potter!" Snape called loudly. "What are you doing in there? Not looking for any potions, I hope?"

Harry jumped. "No, sir!" he yelled, hastily walking back into the front living room. "Do you need me to do anything else, sir?" Harry asked meekly. "Caydon looks like he could use a glass of water." Caydon gave Harry a small smile.

"No, Potter," Snape said. "You just head back up to your dormitory before I remember to ask you why you were out of your dormitory in the first place."

"Yes, sir," Harry said reluctantly. He had been hoping to get a better idea of what was going on.

"Potter," Snape said, his voice oddly strained, "I . . . thank you for bringing him here. You did the correct thing, for once. Oh, and if you tell anyone about this, then I will be very displeased."

"Er . . . it was no problem, sir," he said, a bit confused by Snape's conflicting moods. "I won't tell anyone."

"Why all this secrecy?" Harry couldn't help thinking. "I can understand Caydon not wanting people to know that he got beat up, but Snape?"

Harry's full anger with Malfoy didn't really hit until the next day in Potionsclass. He couldn't stand the way the Slytherin just leaned back in his chair, cheekily, and got away with anything just the way he always did. Or the way that Snape ignored Malfoy cockiness. Things shouldn't be just the same! But what really made Harry angry was that it was brought home to him what Malfoy had done.

"He beat up a first year," Harry thought furiously. "A very small first year. That's low even for Malfoy. The git, the absolute git. And poor Caydon."

"Harry," Hermione whispered beside him, "pay attention. Snape's glaring at you."

Harry looked up and realized that Snape was looking at him angrily. "Five points off Gryffindor for daydreaming, Potter," he said.

"Snape is such a git," Harry complained to Hermione and Ron when over lunch.

"I don't know. You really kind of deserved it that time, Harry," Hermione said. "You were daydreaming."

Harry hadn't really been talking about that, but he couldn't tell his friends what had happened with Caydon in the Great Hall where anyone could be listening.

"Snape took points off Harry for 'daydreaming'?" Ron asked. "That is so dumb. As if anyone could stay awake during his boring lectures, anyway."

"His lectures aren't that bad, Ron," Hermione snapped.

"Wait. . . Hermione are you saying that you like Snape?"

Hermione flushed. "As a teacher, not as a person, Ron," she said.

Ron gave her an absolutely horrified look.

"What?" Hermione asked. "He may favor Slytherin unmercifully and be totally unfair in general, but he's not a bad teacher. A lot like McGonagall, really. If you bother to keep up, unlike you two, then you can really learn a lot in his class. He doesn't teach slackers well, though."

"If you can't teach the majority of the class, then you're not a good teacher, Hermione," Ron said, on his dignity.

"I'm going now," Harry said abruptly, really not in the mood to listen to his friends bicker about Snape's teaching abilities. Harry personally thought that Snape was a horrible teacher and he was none too sure about how good a person Snape was.

"Is something wrong?" Hermione called after him at his sudden moodiness.

"No!" Harry shouted back.

By the time that Harry got back up to his room he was thinking about interesting ways to kill Draco Malfoy without anyone noticing.

"I sure would like the little prick to have an 'accident' on the top of the astronomy tower," Harry thought viciously while pulling books out of his bag, looking for his notebook so he could review his Transfiguration notes. He took out the book and threw it on the bed, but it immediately opened itself back up so violently that Harry jumped.

Harry approached the book warily and began to read the spell on the page. At some point he realized, with a shiver, that it was a spell to make the person it was cast on exceptionally clumsy – exceptionally clumsy when in high places, that is. Harry felt like cold water had been poured down his back.

"This is exactly what I was just thinking of doing to Malfoy!" he thought. "Well, not REALLY thinking, I wouldn't really try to kill Malfoy and make it look like an accident. Would I?"

Harry slammed the book shut. This was very peculiar, he had read most of the book, including (he thought) the section where that spell was located and he had never noticed that spell before. In fact, he had thought that the book only contained self-mutilation spells.

"Creepy . . . "

Harry resolved to talk to Ron and Hermione about the whole incident with Caydon as soon as possible.

Coming Soon: The Trio figures out something disturbing about the Snape family.