THREE.

Severus woke on the first day of term with a pulsating headache and a powerful premonition of a bad day ahead.

This was unsurprising: he was sure his body had been conditioned into fearing the first day of term. The first day of term led naturally to the second day of term, which led to the next one-hundred and ninety-three days of term. The headache was a last-ditch effort to stop him getting up. Severus's body was trying to save him and he would not allow himself to be saved.

This year, the nightmare would include a number of surprising additions, Severus reflected as he poured scalding-hot coffee down his throat. Lupin, the embodiment of everything Severus wished to forget about his school days, would be sitting across the table from him at the welcoming feast, while another reminder of the unhealed shame would be lurking in the shadows of his every thought. The werewolf from a muddled prophecy and the murderer after revenge. Could they be the old servant and the werewolf Leeni's stingy peatland witch had been referring to? Add to that Harry's insistence on maintaining a hobby that revolved around children beating each other with clubs two hundred feet from the ground, and Severus was sure the hypertension he'd inherited from his mother would rupture a vessel in his brain before autumn term was over.

He spent the morning drawing lesson plans, stomach sinking with the dawning realisation that the school year was in fact due to begin and there was no waking up from it.

At the afternoon staff meeting, he succeeded in glaring hard enough for no one to bother him.

Albus did draw him aside after to ask whether Severus was quite alright, whether he needed anything, and if he'd happened to recently find any Dark Lords hiding under a bush somewhere.

'No,' Severus hissed at him. 'We have nothing. Are you quite happy?'

Albus gave him the sort of look that made Severus feel very young. 'You know that I wish for nothing more than to be proven wrong, Severus. But as weak as he might be, I don't think Lord Voldemort will allow himself to be found unless he wishes to be found. I don't want you to give up all your summers chasing after an opportunity that will never come.'

Severus did not particularly want it either. But what other choice did he have?

The inexorable feast came. Severus sat and watched the students file inside. Were they getting louder by the year, or was Severus slowly turning into the bat they had dubbed him? He could swear they were growing bigger lungs. Wider mouths. Stronger vocal cords—

'Severus.' Minerva was leaning over the table, mouth and eyebrows the same sharp line. 'It would appear someone at the Ministry thought the Hogwarts Express could do with a troupe of Dementors this year.'

Oh, of course—this was what Severus's sleep-addled brain had forgotten in its morning list of complaints. Werewolf, murderer, children on sticks two hundred feet off the ground and soul-sucking demons standing watch over the school.

He did not register the way up the stairs and into the hospital wing. He could have apparated there and not known any different. Time did not resume its regular ticking until he saw the boy sat in a hospital bed, his natural environment, with his friends looking hungry to the side. Weasley's hands were covered in chocolate.

Harry was looking pale, but otherwise fine. Severus felt himself sag from the relief of it.

'It seems you can't go one year without making a dramatic entrance, can you, Mr Potter?'

It was a joke, but Harry wasn't in a joking mood.

'How is this my fault?' he exploded. 'I didn't ask for Dementors to come on the train, did I?'

Severus was sure he'd never implied such a thing. Taken aback by the sudden outburst, he stumbled, 'That is—not what I said. And lower your voice, for Christ's—'

Harry crossed his arms at the chest. He was making sure everyone in vicinity understood he did not like to be here. Severus threw a glare at Weasley and Granger, who were suddenly very interested in the shape of their own shoes.

'Go join the feast,' he ordered. 'Well? Have you gone deaf?'

'We'll save you some food, Harry,' Granger assured. 'In case you don't make it before the feast wraps up.'

Severus swore he did not understand the lot of them. Last year, they had happily pranced about talking of hunting Basilisks, but suggest for a moment that one of them might miss out on a commonplace treat and suddenly it was as though they were saying a tearful goodbye to a friend on death row.

When his entourage had cleared off, Harry gave up some of the martyr act. He tore at the foil on the chocolate bar in his lap and bit off a chunk like an animal.

'What?' he demanded at Severus's glare. 'You're supposed to eat chocolate after a Dementor attack, aren't you?'

Severus took the bar from him and broke it into bite-sized pieces. It would save him having to watch the boy get chocolate all over himself, and it gave him the pretext he needed to come closer, where he could feel through the warmth of him that Harry was real.

'Are you planning on adjusting your attitude at any point, I wonder?'

'It's not my fault that I've just got here and you're yelling at me for things I haven't even done!'

'You are the only one yelling,' Severus snapped. 'Although I can certainly start to if you like.'

Harry looked for a moment like he was contemplating kicking him. Severus missed suddenly the fearful child that had arrived at Hogwarts last year, bruised and shaken from a ridiculous stunt with a flying car he'd been coerced into by the less timid Weasley children.

It was wrong to think so, he knew. Even worse was to raise his voice at a child who had gone through a traumatising experience. Severus wished he was a man of patience.

'Have you ever fainted before?' he asked through gritted teeth. 'Is it something that happens often?'

The boy pulled his knees in close and buried his face in them. It looked severely uncomfortable. 'No,' he mumbled. 'No one else fainted, either. I'm so stupid.'

Safe from his gaze, Severus could look heavenward in peace. 'You are not stupid, Harry. You are sensitive.'

'I don't want to be sensitive!'

Severus considered him. 'I will show you how to cast the Patronus charm. Mastering the art is a long process, but it should offer you some protection in case of another encounter. If you practise.'

That sparked his interest. His eyes flashed from above the juts of knees. 'Patronus? Like that reindeer thing you made that time in Finland?'

'Reindeer—it was a doe, Potter. And a corporeal Patronus is advanced magic. Many wizards never manage it. But yes, eventually, you should be able to produce one.'

'Cool,' decided Harry. 'Professor Lupin should teach all of us how to cast it, then.'

'Professor Lupin,' Severus intoned mockingly, 'is too much of a coward to do a single thing in class that isn't covered by the syllabus.'

'He seemed nice on the train. He gave me chocolate.'

'That is his principal talent: seeming nice. And you do not accept gifts of chocolate from strangers.'

The boy had the gall to roll his eyes at that. Dread formed in him at the thought of Harry succumbing to Lupin's easy appeal: a nice man with stories of his father's schooldays to tell, to whom both patience and conversation came as naturally as scorn and temper came to Severus.

'I was thinking,' Harry interrupted his thoughts, his careful tone immediately setting off alarm bells in Severus's head. 'Maybe I should try just not—not using my wand this year.'

'Excuse me?'

'Well, because—what's the point of the natural magic thing if I don't do anything with it? And last year it really helped with finding the Basilisk and all, so—'

For a flash, Severus saw the boy discarding his wand, never to be touched again. It was an impossible prospect with natural magic as unreliable and imprecise as it was, but still it filled him with an odd thrill of revolt, like he'd just witnessed something distasteful.

'You will be educated as a proper wizard: capable of wielding his own magic through his own wand,' he said harshly. 'You may have successfully used natural magic to determine the location of the Chamber last year, and you are free to build on those tracing skills on your own time, but you know very well that any other use of natural magic is too hazardous a thing to attempt on school grounds.'

'Where am I supposed to do it then—'

'You are supposed to concentrate on your formal education,' Severus cut in. 'Once you have developed sufficient control over your own magic and the maturity to apply yourself to independent study, then I am sure a time and place can be arranged to experiment.'

'But—'

'We will not be discussing this further.'

The boy sagged, looking half-rebellious and half-beaten. Severus would have been displeased to see him so surly if he hadn't known the expression meant the boy would listen. Good. In either case, he would have no use for any unique magical talents if Severus had his way.

When Severus returned to his rooms in the evening, he wanted nothing more but to sleep. His bed called to him. The cushions on the worn sofa called to him. The drink cabinet called to him, too. But he sat instead at his desk and through sandy eyes dipped his pen in black ink.

Attention of Esteemed Head of Dep. of Magical Law Enforcement Amelia Bones.

Dear Madame,

As you will no doubt have been made aware, the ward of the committee of which you are part was ambushed by Dementors on the Hogwarts Express earlier tonight. I remain confident that in your capacity as Head of Law Enforcement you will examine at length the chain of events by which this flagrant disregard for the safety of schoolchildren came to pass. However, I write to you now in your capacity as one of Mr Harry Potter's appointed guardians and ask you to consider whether allowing him to remain at Hogwarts during the Christmas holiday as previously planned is a safe course of action. With no lessons to occupy him and fewer teachers to supervise, any protection he is afforded by the castle's magic will surely be void if he happens to wander too close to the Dementor guard and lose consciousness among predators scenting for fresh souls.

I will be putting forth to Headmaster Dumbledore the proposal that the boy return to the Weasley household for the holidays, who in conversation with me last week confirmed they would be happy to add protection enchantments onto their property for the duration of his stay. If this is not deemed a satisfactory arrangement, I can offer to host both the boy and any accompanying auror in my house, which, as I detailed in the letter I sent you in June, has been warded heavily with Headmaster Dumbledore's aid for that precise purpose.

I am aware both from the Headmaster's reports and Mr Potter's mentions of your continuous attention to his emotional as well as physical wellbeing, and hope you will recognise this course of action as the most judicious on both counts. I would be grateful for your support in this matter when the Headmaster puts the notion forward in front of the committee.

S. Snape

It would not accomplish anything. The Ministry would fall on the side of caution and ship Harry off to Alastor Moody's house or, worse yet, bring an entire entourage of aurors onto Hogwarts grounds for the holiday. Appealing to Amelia Bones' sentiment had never done Severus any good.

In this, at least, Remus Lupin would not fare any better than Severus, and from this Severus would draw as much twisted satisfaction as he pleased: in the eyes of Amelia Bones and her kind, neither of them should be coming within a mile of the Golden Child.

Thank you for reading!

On Saturday, natural magic misadventures.