He was late. Damn. Damn, damn, damn. How come he hadn't noticed the time earlier? 'I'm not that old. Don't start forgetting yourself Severus.' The thought provoked a light scoff, his equivalent of a laugh. 'Old indeed.'

Suddenly a rather solid object came hurtling right at him, bouncing quite spectacularly off of his chest, and landing with an audible grunt on the ground before his brain could even register what it was.

Severus blinked to shake off the chaos of the last few seconds. Reorienting himself he looked down at the grubby figure hunched on the station floor below him. 'Well, we've ascertained that it's human.' He thought sarcastically. Whoever they were they seemed to be in some sort of pain.

'Surly they couldn't have hit the ground that hard.' Severus thought as the person grimaced at his arm. Severus couldn't see a thing through the baggy rags for clothing the person was wearing. 'Wait, backup.' Baggy clothes. Messy black hair. Were those glasses glimmering there? 'Harry Potter. Perfect.'

Plastering a sneer onto his face Severus glared at the boy just as he looked up, and their eyes locked.

'He looks scared.' Severus thought. 'Insolent brat.'

"Get up boy." The command was hissed in an eerie echo of his Uncle's earlier words. Harry shivered again. He couldn't help it; thoughts of Vernon had always provoked those kinds of reactions in him. Oh well.

"Well, come on Potter. I haven't got all day." Severus noticed Potter shiver involuntarily at his tone of voice, and the glazed look in his eyes didn't escape his detection either. 'Best to just get the boy to Hogwarts and be done with it.' At the thought of Hogwarts his mind turned longingly to his vacant potions lab, and the experiments just pleading to be finished.

Harry looked up at his Potions Master, taking in the oily hair, the crossed arms, the sallow skin, the hooked nose, and the yellow stained teeth poking out from beneath his curled lip. 'Go with him? Now? No way in hell. What was Snape doing here anyway?'

Noticing that Potter had yet to lever himself off of the floor Severus forgot himself for a moment. With his thoughts still focused completely on the Liberates solution he was working on he absently extended a hand to help Harry up.

The gesture only proved to confuse Harry even more. He stared at the proffered hand for a moment before deciding to ignore it, and hauled himself upright by pushing his good arm against the pavement, thinking for all the good standing upright had done him so far today he might as well just stay down there.

"Sir?" Harry asked. There was no trace of fear in the question; his tone lacked any of the hesitances it'd held in past encounters. In fact, it was laced with a steely edge that effectively jerked back all of Severus' attention.

'Potter with a backbone? Not possible. How long till...? Shit.'

"Come along Potter! Hurry up! I assume you've spent enough time lounging about on the ground for one day. Though, if memory serves, it would seem it must be a genetic problem.' Severus smirked at the memory, but it was swiftly replaced with his habitual sneer when he remembered the hour. "Let's get to the platform as soon as possible. I have important business to attend to."

Snape stalked away quickly, the crowd melting to the sides at his presence. Harry scrambled along behind, hurrying to catch up and stumbling slightly on the overlarge legs of his ugly gray pants. They were the ones Aunt Petunia had colored all those years ago for Stonewall High. He still hadn't grown into them. The only reason he'd taken to wearing them was because they effectively concealed his sneaker-less feet. Dudley had recently decided that his old, grubby sneakers were much too precious to hand down to "the freak". 'Running in socks should be an Olympic sport.' He thought as his foot landed on yet another discarded plastic luggage tag. 'Ouch, that's bloody sharp!'

Not a shadow of his pain or irritation flashed across his features.

As Harry hopped along he was struck with a thought. 'This is actually the right direction. We're going to the platform!' That was it. 'I'll use Snape to help me get onto the platform and then just jump into the first empty compartment I see. Excellent. I'll get to Hogwarts and avoid that greasy git at the same time!' Satisfied with the situation once more Harry just focused on keeping up with the menacing stalk of Hogwarts resident Potions Master.

Wondering jokingly if his Potions Professors hair was especially slimy this far into the summer hols (and looking forward to reporting the results to one Ron Weasley) Harry took his eyes off of his pants and glanced upwards. To his surprise Snape's hair didn't look greasy at all. In fact, it looked positively... 'Silky.'

Harry's eyes narrowed. Growing up in a cupboard didn't give you a lot of time to contemplate personal hygiene, Harry claimed to be no expert, but how was that possible? When he'd examined his Professor just minutes before the sun gleaming off of his hair could've lit up Los Vegas. Curiosity piqued, he picked up the pace to take a closer look at Snape's face.

It was splashed with his customary sneer, but instead of theh habitual gag reaction at the sight, Harry found himself thinking how cool and suave the man made it look. 'Not to mention dead sexy.' The way his lips curled up minutely at the edges over those white teeth... 'Stop it Harry! These are the lips of your hated Potions Professor you're weighing up! The overgrown bat, the insufferable bastard!' But he couldn't stop looking. There was just something about him. Something had changed, was changing. Something nice... Like his face was...

Then, all of a sudden, Snape vanished.

Having his point of contemplation yanked forcibly from his sight caught Harry off guard, and before he'd even realized what he was doing his hand had gone for his wand to fend off Snape's attackers.

'Voldemort! Deatheaters? Where...? Oh. The barrier.'

Feeling very foolish , and more than a little confused at his impulsive reaction to defend his hated Professor, Harry shot one despairing look at his empty left hand and marched right through the wall that separated Muggle London from Platform 9 ¾. He would have ample time to analyze himself on the train.

Looking from side to side just to make sure he hadn't missed his Professor (not likely, he'd had his eyes right on him for Merlin's sake!) Harry stepped on yet another truant luggage tag and ended up stumbling heavily through the barrier to platform 9 ¾ . The cheery crimson steam engine greeted him, gleaming happily in the morning light. Fluffy white stem billowed good humouredly overhead. Everywhere he looked everything was practically screaming in exultant bliss.

'Happy, happy, happy. Why does everything have to be so bloody cheerful all the time?'

Today was not a good day. Harry scowled as he cradled his arm unconsciously tighter, making sure to keep the break above the level of his heart. His fingers were beginning to swell and adopt a nasty purple tinge, throbbing in time with his heartbeat. He knew that was a bad sign. His hand was raw, his ribs throbbed in protest at all of the movement, his head was light, probably from lack of food, and to top it all off he got to enjoy a day-long train ride with his evil Potions Professor. Peachy. According to the station clock it wasn't even ten o'clock yet. 'This day just keeps getting better and better.'

Harry saw Snape waving him over impatiently in the distance. 'And hanging very un-Snapishly from the rail-car doorway.' he noticed. 'Then again, he hasn't been entirely Snapeish all day.' Harry thought idly.

He was feeling quite wrung out all of a sudden. 'I must've been running completely on adrenaline since escaping from Vernon.' He reasoned to himself as he trudged slowly towards where Snape had disappeared into the train. 'I haven't eaten for two whole days, so there's no chance that's fueling me.'

As Harry exhaustedly pulled himself into the train all thoughts of fleeing to his own compartment were abruptly buried deep within the waves of fatigue coursing through his body. With each new pound in his arm running away again lost its appeal that much faster.

Severus watched as Harry collapsed on the seat across from him. He watched as Harry winced at the minute shifting of his right arm. He watched as Harry pulled his feet up onto the couch and revealed a flash of... sock? He watched as Harry lay very precisely on his side, facing defiantly away from him. He watched as the humungous clothes settled and revealed the form of a much smaller body inside. He watched as the calculatingly blank expression Harry wore slowly melted off of his face. He watched as Harry was dragged inexorably exactly where his exhausted body wanted him to go, to sleep.

Then Severus reached into the stiff folds of robe around him and pulled out a miniature blue potions vial, uncapped the lid, and downed the tiny contents in one brisk swallow. Sighing in contentment he finally let his mind relax, and it wasn't long until he joined his charge deep in slumber.

Just what is 'old' Sevvie up to? Keep reading and find out!!! thanx MILLION to my reviewers!!! I love you all.