Disclaimer: not mine

Chapter 26

Severus looked from the retreating figure of his son to the reproachful look of his godson.

"What was that all about?"

"You scared him" Severus felt a pang of guilt, but then tried to work out why he had scared his son all he did was walk in. Draco looked rather put out.

"You know I was actually getting somewhere with him before your sudden appearance. Speaking of which shouldn't you be back at the feast?" Severus raised an eyebrow

"After the exit I just made? Are you mad? And these are my quarter what the hell are you doing here?" Draco glared at him

"I was talking to your son" Severus lost his normal blank expression staring stunned at Draco

"How did you know?" Draco shrugged

"After the raid on Privet Drive I overheard my father telling my mother all about the raid, about what you did and why" Severus took this in, his cover with the Dark Lord was definitely on its way out. Draco smirked

"Don't worry I'm not going to tell the other Slytherin's after all there's no way of knowing where that type of information would end up. Saying that my silence has a price" Severus snorted, of course it does my Prince of the house of snakes

"What is it?"

"You make no effort to stop me from talking to or having contact with Harry. This includes but is not limited too threatening him to stay away from me" Severus was once again surprised

"You hate him"

"No I really don't but it would not do for father to know that"

"Why now?" Draco was confuse

"Why what now?"

"Why the sudden decision to talk to Harry and don't tell me it's because you want to be friends with your godfathers son" Draco nodded

"He needs me. Well that's not entirely true what he needs is someone to empathise with, I sort of know what he's feeling and honestly I can't imagine why anyone would want to cause him more pain he has suffered far more then enough" Severus thought this over, maybe this would not turn out so badly for either of them, Draco wanted someone to care for and Merlin knows Harry needs taking care of.

"You do anything that leads to him being hurt in any shape or form and I promise you loosing house points will be so very far down my list of punishments" Draco paled slightly and nodded. Severus looked satisfied with the response.

"Very well return to the feast, I think I need another chat with the boy" Draco thought about arguing but a look from the potion master informed him on how much of a bad idea that was and Draco changed his mind and left. Severus sighed, his ring was warm and black Harry was obviously panicking about being caught with Draco, he rolled his eyes and grabbed a bottle of wine before heading up the stairs.

Harry wasn't just panicking he was in a full blow anxiety attack, his father was going to kill him, not only was he not sure if he could have friends in the rooms, he had been caught with Draco of all people! Draco, son of a prominent Death Eater, king of the snake pit not to mention the fact that it was well known they were enemies. Harry couldn't bare it, he didn't think he could fight the darkness off it was going to win this time for sure he ran to his desk blindly searching for the knife he used on potion ingredients his hand clutched at it, Harry banished his robes and shirt to the bed and bought the knife down across his chest, it was sharper then Draconis and hurt less requiring more and more cuts to fight his way out he gasped at the release as endorphins flooded his system. He was just coming back to the real world when he heard a knock on the door, he quickly used a concealing charm to hide the wounds and threw his clothes back on before opening the door.

Severus smiled trying to reassure the timid boy that he wasn't in trouble; Harry chewed his lip nervously before stepping back and allowing Severus to enter. Severus sauntered over to the desk and dropped the wine and two glassed onto it, Harry hadn't moved as was still standing by the door looking very uncomfortable.

"Would you like a glass of wine?" Harry stared at him blankly for a few seconds before shrugging. Severus waved his wand and the wine decantered into the waiting glasses. Severus picked them up and offered one to Harry. Harry looked around the room, if he wanted the drink – which he desperately did – then he would have to come out of the shadows. Severus waited patiently as his son walked slowly towards him. Harry took the glass and nodded his thanks before retreating to the bed he sat on the edge and drank the glass in one go. Severus raised an eyebrow

"Was is that bad?" Harry looked at the floor not willing to meet the gaze, Severus shook his head and sipped his own glass before putting it back on the desk. He moved quickly and silently to bed and sat next to Harry. On feeling the bed dip Harry tried to scoot over to the other side, Severus was too fast and pulled him into a hug. The more Harry tried to get away the stronger Severus held him until the fight left him and he relaxed, Severus pulled him onto his lap coiling his lithe arms around the frightened child making soothing noises. Once Harry had settled a bit Severus tried to extract the answers he came in here for

"Harry, did Draco make you let him in?" Harry shook his head,

"Did he hurt of threaten you?" once again he shook his head

"Ok I just wanted to make sure that he wasn't upsetting you but if he isn't then I'm glad you two are trying to become friends" Harry looked up surprised of all the reactions that had ran through his head acceptance was not one of them. Severus cottoned on to the reason his son had bolted and frowned, once again cursing Dursley to a fate worse then the death he got.

"Harry I told you I would never hurt you didn't I? Please believe me you are in no danger from me" Harry nodded weakly, Severus just pulled him tighter wanting to absorb all the hate and pain trapped in the small body on his lap. They stayed there a long time until Harry eventually went to sleep. Severus laid him on the bed and winced when he noticed that even in his sleep Harry curled into a ball expecting a beating…. Or worse.

Next morning heralded the start of classes, it was a quiet day for Harry just Transfiguration and Defence against the Dark Arts, although he would never admit it he couldn't wait to see what was going to happen in DADA given that Outkast would teach it seeing as the night before was a full moon. Harry arrived on time for Transfiguration and sat in his normal seat Professor McGonagall looked at him

"Harry glad to see you have attended, I have been informed by the headmaster that since the middle of the summer you have refuse to speak" Harry curled into the ball shape that he had  perfected to the extent of being able to perform it without slipping from the narrow stool. Professor McGonagall sighed

"Very well but you will find class difficult as the incantations need to be spoken aloud" with that she returned to the front of the room and awaited the other members of the class to arrive. They didn't have to wait long, after a few minutes the class began to fill; Ron and Hermione bustled over to Harry sitting on either side of him

"You alright mate you didn't make it to the dorm last night?" Ron said Harry shrugged but then jumped when he felt a hand on his back; he came off the stool knocking it over in the process. Hermione gave him her patented concerned looks, Harry flushed as the other students gave him a look, he quickly picked up the stool and curled up on top of it.

"Harry I'm sorry I didn't mean to startle you, where were you last night?" Harry didn't utter a word. Ron sighed frustrated Hermione just looked perplexed, but she shrugged it off

"Harry can I hug you?" she said, he looked at her oddly for a second but nodded leaning towards her, he flinched as he felt her arm around his shoulders but managed to stay balanced on the stool Ron's eyes flared for a second but a look from Hermione stopped him before he could say anything. Harry shrugged Hermione off anyway unwilling to upset his friend.

"Harry where did you go last night we were really worried" Ron said a little more forcefully, Harry curled tighter hoping Ron would let it go, but his saving came from an unexpected source.

"Would you like me to inform Granger and the Weasel?" Harry looked up and saw Draco staring at him from the other side of the desk, Harry nodded; Ron and Hermione looked confused but turned their attention to Draco

"Well?"

"Harry has been given his own room, my godfather said it was to stop nosy Gryffindor's from asking him dumb questions that he doesn't want to answer" he said pointedly, Hermione got the implications of the statement and nodded, Ron opened his mouth to say something but was silenced by Professor McGonagall

"Good morning class welcome back. Today we are going to be turning the glasses in front of you into butterflies. Each glass should form two butterflies and the incantation is as follows" she tapped the glasses three times and said

"Papilio comparere" the glass dissolved into two perfect butterflies. She nodded pleased with her demonstration and then went around the class, the spell was proving difficult and only managed a wing to a three quarters by the students until she reached Harry's desk, Hermione produced a single perfect butterfly earning 30 house points. She smiled McGonagall looked at Harry

"Harry would you try please?" Harry didn't even look up but casually waved his hand in the direction of his glass, with out uttering a word the glass dissolved into three butterflies, and everyone gasped. McGonagall looked stumped but nodded, adding another 30 points to Gryffindor before moving on. At the end of the class all those who hadn't formed two butterflies or more (i.e. Harry) were told to write 18 inches on why they thought it hadn't worked. As they gathered their books McGonagall called Harry back. She didn't say a word until the class emptied

"Harry where did you learn wandless magic?" silence.

"Outkast perhaps" Harry shrugged, his head of house rolled her eyes and sighed

"Very well go on to your next class" Harry left, arriving two minutes late to DADA. Outkast raised an eyebrow

"Do you have a reason for your lateness?" she said Harry sat down next to Ron

~McGonagall kept me behind trying to find out who taught me wandless magic, sorry~ Harry hissed, some of the students looked very uncomfortable

"Ok Harry I'll talk to her" Outkast said to the stunned looks of her class.

"You understand Parselmouth?"

"Yes" she said shortly and then continued before anyone could ask anything else

"Ok no we're all here, as you maybe aware I am Outkast your new DADA teacher – but

you can call my your Excellency" she said deadpan, Harry smirked he was already aware of her warped sense of humour but this statement worried many of his peers, she continued

"The first person to refer to me as professor, miss yaddah yaddah will find themselves with two heads is that clear?"

"Then what are we supposed to call you?"

"Outkast will do. Right to business the ground rules – in my class I do not accept inter house rivalry the first one sniping for no reason at another student will find themselves somewhere very unpleasant. Your regular teacher has left me a plan of what to teach this includes the theory of shields and which ones work best for a list of specific curses, the history to the laws surrounding the unforgivables and why they are such..." with each sentences Outkast was leaning further onto her hand with her elbow propped on the desk looking more and more asleep, she continued to read

"The moral argument and uses of curses, the origin of particular curses and defences…" the last statement did it, her head slipped out of her hands and slammed into the desk, raising a giggle from the class. Outkast then took the parchment she had been reading and tore it clean in two both depositing it in the bin, with her mischievous smirked already in place Harry knew this was going to end in tears,

"I say lets do something a little more fun" to emphasise the last word she walked around to the front of the teachers desk and hopped onto it eyeing them all

"Hands up all those who want to become animagus?" everyone except Harry put there hand in the air, Outkast grinned

"Good good that will keep us busy" and with that she launched into a detailed description of the control and theory behind the transformation.

A/N Hey guys thanks for all the reviews, sorry it's been soooo long but I'm having trouble getting internet access at the moment sigh. Ah well here you go another chapter, if anyone has any ideas they'd like to see or any pairings (yes this will be slash by the time I'm finished sorry if you don't like that!) then let me know!