On the morning they were to meet the Hogwarts Express at King's Cross, Mr. and Mrs. Weasley, Bill, and Fleur helped Harry and Ron pack their things into a single Ministry car which was larger inside than out and then they all piled in for the ride into London.

Due to Fleur's habitual tardiness, they were a bit later leaving than Mrs. Weasley would have liked and by the time they arrived at the station, it was time to board the train.

Ron climbed aboard first and went to the prefects' compartment where Hermione and Ginny would be. Harry tripped climbing onto the train and hit his knee hard against the step. Without thinking, he cursed softly, using a French word he had picked up in Lajoie's shop. Fleur was not far enough away to have missed his slip and she scowled at his language.

"He was spending too much time with Charlebois and Lafontaine, I theenk," she said, blaming Harry's language acquisition on two particularly dirty-mouthed Beauxbatons students that had visited Hogwarts for the Triwizard tournament.

Harry hurriedly climbed onto the train. He would have to be more careful. He traveled the length of the train in search of an empty compartment and finally found one near the end. As the train pulled out of the station, Harry watched Fleur nervously and hoped she wouldn't think too much about what she had heard. Not long after that, Ron returned with Hermione in tow. The latter was proudly wearing her shiny new Head Girl badge and chattering happily about how it was both a surprise and an honor to be awarded the position. Ron and Harry laughed heartily at this and Hermione stopped, blushing.

"Ok, so it wasn't a surprise but it is an honor," she admitted.

"Right. A surprise would be like my win in the Sussex Junior Division Dueling Competition this summer," Ron said proudly.

Harry groaned and rolled his eyes. Ron had already told him this story four times and now it was Hermione's turn to hear it. Harry stood, excused himself, and left the compartment. He wandered the corridors for a while, greeting friends and impatiently submitting to the introductions of first-years, excited to finally meet Harry Potter. Eventually, he returned to his compartment for the rest of the trip.

//-//-//-//-

It was pleasantly warm as the sun set on Hogsmeade and students took longer than usual to get into the thestral-drawn carriages and begin the journey to the castle but soon enough, all the first-years had gone with Hagrid and all the older students had left the station. Harry, Ron, Hermione, and Ginny had ridden together in one of the first carriages in the line. They were thus among the first to enter the Great Hall. As Harry and Ron made a beeline for the Gryffindor table, Hermione elbowed each of them and gestured towards a new pink-haired professor. From the way she kept knocking over her glass, clanking her silverware against her plate, and bumping the table as she gestured in illustrating her conversation with Madam Hooch, this could only be Tonks.

Dumbledore saw them looking towards the Head Table and smiled and waved them over.

"Welcome back, Harry, Mr. Weasley, Ms. Granger. Harry I have asked Professor McGonagall to speak with you. If you could visit her office, I believe she is waiting for you."

Harry turned away, lest Dumbledore see him roll his eyes, and headed back out of the Hall.

The familiar walk was quick and mindless as Harry hurried to reach his Head of House's office so he could return to the Feast. Finally there, he knocked at the door to Professor McGonagall's office.

"Enter," she called.

Harry opened the door and stepped inside.

"Ah, Mr. Potter. The Headmaster asked me to escort you to the Ministry of Magic for your Apparition test. Close the door behind you."

Harry did as he was asked and as soon as the door was closed, he turned back to her and said, "I've already passed the test, Professor."

"I thought you might have, Harry. Well done," she said. "There is another matter to discuss as well. Professor Dumbledore wants you to take lessons with Professor Tonks. Though you may not wish to study for the purposes he intended, I would encourage you to consider taking the lessons anyways. Tonks is, after all, an auror and she could teach you skills necessary for entry into the Ministry training program."

"I've decided I don't want to become an auror, Professor."

"Have you other plans?"

"Yes, ma'am. Should anyone ask, I have decided to work towards Unspeakable training."

McGonagall looked at him thoughtfully. "But you aren't actually interested in that either, are you?"

"No ma'am."

"If you wish to share your plans with me, I will keep them confidential."

"No thank you, Professor. I have already been offered an apprenticeship in the field I want to study but I can't explain how I received that chance so I've decided to say I want to become an Unspeakable."

"It is a good plan and one few people could verify," she admitted. "I wish you luck. You may return to the feast. I will tell Professor Dumbledore that you had no problem passing the test and were in fact one of the quickest test-takers in recent history. I'm sure he will be proud."

Harry returned to find that the Sorting had just begun. He quietly crossed the Hall and sat between Ron and Neville. Moments later, he saw Professor McGonagall slip in through a side door and take her seat at the Head Table.

Before long, the first-years had been sorted and Dumbledore had made his little speech, led the singing of the school song, and finally announced that food was served.

For only the second time in his Hogwarts career, Harry was not so hungry at the Welcoming Feast that he stuffed himself. He was merely pleasantly full when the feast concluded and he stood to begin the long walk to the Gryffindor Common Room.

"Harry, if I could speak with you for a moment," Dumbledore said, pulling Harry aside before he could make it out of the Great Hall. "First I would like to say that I am proud of you for passing your Apparition test. Secondly, I believe Professor McGonagall told you that I have arranged for you to take lessons with Professor Tonks."

"I'd really rather not, sir," Harry said.

"Harry, my boy, I know this is a difficult time but you mustn't sacrifice your own security."

"I don't want to take lessons," Harry repeated.

"All the same, you will give Tonks a chance. Your first lesson is this Friday at 8 in her office. If you wish to pass up this valuable opportunity after that, you may do so."

Harry walked away without another word to Dumbledore, grumbling under his breath all the way back to the Tower.

//-//-//-//-

The next day, class began and Harry, Ron, and Hermione learned that their OWLs year had been nothing compared to the workload they were to see in their seventh year. By noon, Harry wasn't sure he would ever finish the mountain of homework he had received already and the day wasn't even half over yet. Despite his own preferences, Harry did relinquish his free time in favor of doing his homework. In fact, for the second night back, he was off to a good start on sleep deprivation. When he finally rolled into bed at 3 AM, he had managed to finish the most pressing of his assignments. He was looking forward to his Tuesday classes: Divination, History of Magic, and even Potions. Compared to the first day's Charms, Transfiguration, Herbology, and Defense Against the Dark Arts, it would be an easier day.

//-//-//-//-

Harry did indeed enjoy the break that morning brought. However, Potions class proved a problem. There was a lot of work to do and Harry hadn't really had enough sleep to be able to brew a new potion perfectly on his own. When he mistook the Dung Beetles for the Scarabs, Hermione caught his mistake in time. When he tried to dice dried rat tails instead of cattail pods, Harry was saved only when Malfoy's attempt at sabotage tipped his cutting board and the rat tails fell onto the floor. When Harry mashed his oleander instead of slicing it finely, Snape caught him and Harry earned himself a detention from the angry, greasy-haired git.

"What's the matter with Professor Snape?" Hermione asked Harry after class. "He was much better to you last year, I thought. Why's he acting like this again?"

"Dumbledore must have let up on him," Harry replied.

"Well maybe you should..." Hermione began but trailed off. "Never mind. Can you handle Snape?"

"Sure," Harry whispered back. "I earned the detention anyways. You saw how badly I was doing."

That evening, Harry reported dutifully for his detention. After a surprisingly parental dressing down for poor performance in class, Snape set Harry to work cleaning cauldrons.

Because of his detention, Harry was up even later that night and he got less done. It was only Tuesday and he was already wishing for the break that the weekend would bring.

//-//-//-//-

Thursday, Harry received another detention with Professor Snape, though this time he was pretty sure he hadn't earned it. To his surprise, when he arrived to serve it, he was invited to sit down in Snape's office and work on homework while Snape corrected papers and told Harry news from the villages. The kindness, not unlike Harry's treatment by the Snapes over the summer, caught him off guard.

The pleasant evening with Snape stood in stark contrast to the following evening with Tonks. In between dodging bludgeoning spells and learning new curses, Harry attempted to figure out why Tonks fought for Dumbledore. She told him that she had heard from the Weasleys that he was trying to find out why people fight the war and she wished she could tell him her reasoning but now that she was his professor, it probably wouldn't be appropriate and she would say no more than that it really put a cramp on her social life not to be able to explain the oddities that happened around her to muggles. Though Harry was able to get only a bit more information out of her, he was able to determine that she was not a potential ally. At the end of the lesson, he thanked her for the workout and declined her offer of continued study.

Harry's evenings were still consumed by homework and the weekly 'detentions' with Snape. Luckily, after the first two weeks of school, the homework load eased up slightly and Harry ceased wondering how anyone had managed to play Quidditch their seventh year. It would have been manageable. As it was, Harry began to take one night a week off of homework to either fly in his animagus form or take his broom to the Quidditch pitch and practice. It was a nice break to take, especially when Professor Snape's 'detention' came early in the week.

//-//-//-//-

During another of Harry's weekly 'detentions' with Professor Snape, Professor McGonagall surprised them both by stopping in to discuss Snape's treatment of Harry.

Snape led her into his quarters and almost closed the connecting door. If he listened closely, Harry could still hear the two teachers talking from where he sat in Snape's office working on his Charms homework.

"You have no right to treat him this way, Snape," McGonagall challenged. "I thought Professor Dumbledore had made that clear last year."

"He's a Potter," Snape said, his traditional sneer evident in his voice.

"And you're an adult," McGonagall snapped

Snape didn't say anything for a moment too long.

"Severus!" McGonagall said.

"Would my purpose be clearer if I said, he's an Evans?" Snape replied silkily.

McGonagall paused and then said, "Oh," as Snape's meaning dawned on her. "But he's not his mother any more than he is his father. He's just Harry."

Snape sighed. "I must reluctantly admit that I am now aware of that."

"Then why do you keep assigning unwarranted detentions?" McGonagall challenged.

After a moment, Snape said slyly, "You know, Minerva, I have a question for you as well. I know all about your summer maneuvers. Whose side are you really on?"

"I haven't the faintest idea what you're talking about," McGonagall lied brusquely.

"Ah, but you do. Does Albus?" Snape replied with the same sort of malicious enjoyment Aurelia had used when questioning McGonagall at the start of summer.

"Snape, you cannot blackmail me into ignoring this," she snapped courageously.

"I could, actually," Snape said seriously, the sneer gone from his voice and his business tone back. "But that is not my intention. You see, we find ourselves in similar situations... straddling both sides, as it were. I believe you are aware that Mr. Potter is not unfamiliar with that position as well."

McGonagall was silent for a breath's time before she stuttered, "You... you're... you aren't trying to recruit him for You-Know-Who, are you?"

"No," Snape said with a small chuckle. "He makes his own decisions."

"Then what are your intentions?" McGonagall snapped.

"To avoid being blown up in my first year classes, to go the year without a single sherbet lemon, to ..." Snape began almost whimsically.

"Your intentions regarding Harry!" McGonagall interrupted exasperatedly. She was starting to feel too old for people to play with her so.

"Well that would be different," Snape admitted. "To please my wife, to bring an early end to the war, to ..."

"Your wife?" McGonagall interrupted again, exasperation not dulling her attentiveness.

"Yes. I do believe the two of you have met... more recently than when she and I were students, I mean." Snape said.

McGonagall waited.

"She has a great fondness for handcuffs," Snape said very seriously.

Harry snorted into his hand as he hid his laughter. Poor Professor McGonagall!

"I...you...she...Harry..."

"My dear Minerva," Snape began, half teasing and half serious, "perhaps you should have a seat." Snape led her back into the office where she fell heavily into the empty chair beside Harry while Snape took his desk chair.

Professor McGonagall took several moments to return to her normal stern self-control. When she had, she glared at Snape. "So now that you've had your fun, is there anything else I should know? Are there any other Snapes I should avoid, as the gods know two are more than I can handle already?"

"In fact, there are. I have a son and a daughter," Snape said.

"You do?" McGonagall asked, startled. She looked to Harry for confirmation and he nodded.

"I know you'll understand when I ask you not to mention what you've learned to anyone," Snape said.

"Of course," McGonagall replied with a nonchalant shake of her hand. She knew the rules the village families had for keeping themselves safe. "I just had no idea. I never thought of you as the fatherly type. How old are they?"

"My son is six and my daughter is four," Snape replied.

"Wonderful ages, the both. It must be hard for you to be away," McGonagall replied.

He nodded somberly. "Now you know where I go when I disappear."

McGonagall nodded but stopped abruptly. "You never disappear."

"Really, now. How many trips to the Apothecary are truly necessary?" Snape asked, using his best lecturing tone.

"Well, I was never very good at potions," McGonagall replied.

"Nor were any of our colleagues," Snape said. "When I wasn't pretending to be on errands, I was using my Time Turner but as I do not wish to age too rapidly, I try to avoid that method whenever possible."

"Well, if you ever need someone to cover for you Severus, let me know. Perhaps we could take up a weekly chess game or something of that nature."

"Thank you, Minerva, I'll keep that in mind."

Professor McGonagall retreated to her own office near Gryffindor Tower again and left Harry and Snape to their conversation and schoolwork.