It had been a week since Harry had began working at the Grocer's. He and Kevin had become quite good friends despite the age difference. Catriona had told Harry that he could call her Cat a few days ago. That pleased Harry and Kevin as Cat only let a few people call her Cat. Mainly her close friends and mother.
Harry was having fun working at the shop. He was working full time and was enjoying it. When Professor McGonagall had come yesterday she had gotten a shock, seeing Harry where he was. Harry had been dusting shelves in a corner that was a tad shadowy. "Excuse me. Could you please get the grocer?" Harry had replied. "Oh course, Professor." "How did you know who I am?" "You're my transfiguration teacher." Harry had stepped out into the light. "Potter! What are you doing here?" "Working. I'll go and get Kevin." "Potter. Get back here." "Sorry Professor, I'll go and get Kevin promptly." Harry had walked quickly to the back room. Harry had never been in there before. He looked around at all of the stuff a wizard might need. There were boxes upon boxes labeled with and illegible scrawl, and a whole wall filled with potions and their ingredients. "Wow. Kevin, you've got nearly everything." "I assume that you have a valid reason for being here?" "Yes, Professor McGonagall is here." "And you really don't want to have a chat with her?" "No not really." "Why don't you go on back to your tent, and I'll tell her that you are camping with your relatives and you are helping me out because my regular summer help is ill." Harry gave Kevin a hug. "Thanks. When are you going to want me to come back today." "No you've been doing a fine job. You deserve a little break." Harry grinned at the compliment. "Thanks." For the first time in a while Harry was really happy.

"Harry. I'm hungry."
"Sserpentine, you are alwayss hungry."
"I know. Do you have any food?"
"I'll go and check."
"Good. I'll come with you."
"You're around my neck, you'll have to come with me." Harry grinned. Knowing that going to the kitchen would be pointless, as Serpentine would just go out and hunt for a mouse.
Looking in the three cupboards, Serpentine discovered that there wasn't anything that looked like she might want to eat. Serpentine slithered out of the tent into the woods grumbling something about how there wasn't any 'proper' food.
"Have fun looking for food."
"Well. If it isn't perfect Potter. Hiding in the woods and playing with the snakes."
Draco Malfoy looked critically at Harry's tent. He wasn't about to tell Potter that his father had tried to make him join the Death Eaters and he had refused. His father had sent him to the Marauder's Woods.
"Hello, Malfoy."
"Potter." He acknowledged Potter's greeting with a slight nod and his name. "So are you camping?"
"Yes."
"Alone?"
"Not completely."
"Who are you with?"
"I was with the muggles."
"Really?"
"They ditched me."
"I'm sorry." Draco dropped the attitude, knowing that it would get him nowhere.
"Really? I find that hard to believe Malfoy." Harry turned and began to walk back into his tent.
"Wait." The word was out of Draco's mouth before he could stop it.
Harry turned. He saw an emotion expressed on Draco's face that he had never seen before. Compassion. "Would you like to come in and have a cup of tea?"
Draco smiled. "Sure. Could you do me a favor? Call me Draco. Malfoy reminds me of my father. Someone who I'd rather not be reminded of right now."
"Sure."
Some time later Serpentine slithered back in and discovered Harry chatting with another boy. 'Hmm. It ssoundss interessting. I think I'll lissten.'
"Harry would it be all right if I stayed with you for a few days?"
"Why?"
"Do you really want to know?"
Harry sighed. "I'd like to know."
"Fine. My dad kicked me out.
"Why?"
"I wouldn't join the deatheaters."
"That's good."
"Yeah. So good he kicked me out for it."
"So what are you going to do for the rest of the summer?"
"I have no idea."
"How did you get here?"
"He made a portkey and threw it at me."
"Ah. That just might do it."
"So is it okay for me to stay here for tonight?"
"Yeah. I don't know how long I'm going to be here for, but you are welcome to stay here as long as I am here."
"Thanks."
Serpentine decided it was time that she made herself known.
"Oh." Harry said, bending over to pick Serpentine up. "Did I mention that I've got a pet snake?"
"NO." Draco said loudly, almost as if he was afraid of the snake.
"Done be afraid of Serpentine. She's harmless. Not like a basilisk. Would you like to hold her?"
"Harry, don't be mean to him. He can't help it if he'ss afraid of me."
"Yess, Sserpentine, asss ussual you're right. Did you find anything good to eat?"
"Yess I did. I found a mousse'ss nesst. It'ss quite empty now."
"I'm glad you found ssufficient food ssource."
"Its okay Draco. Serpentine says that since she thinks that you are afraid of her, she'd rather that you not hold her. Anyway, she just ate."
"That's a reassuring fact."
"Would you like something to eat?"
"Sure."
Harry and Draco ate a few sandwiches and read books until they were tired. Harry was nearly three quarters of the way done with the book he had started on the subject of Hogwarts teachers. He was fascinated by it and he could understand why Hermione liked these sort of books. Draco slept on the sofa and Harry resolved to ask Kevin about expanding the tent and giving it another bedroom.

The next morning
When Harry woke up, Draco was still asleep on the burgany colored couch that clahed with the orange armchair. Harry made eggs and bacon and ate about half. He put what was left on a plate and put it in the small refrigerator. Draco was still asleep when it was nearly time for him to leave. Harry left a note.
Draco-
I left some breakfast in the fridge for you. I have gone to work. I am working at the grocer's and will be home at five. Try owling your mum about getting your things.
Harry

Later that evening.
"I'm going to go swimming in the stream and try to wash some of the dirt that's attached itself to me off." Harry said to Draco.
"That's cool. Have fun." Draco shyly replied, as if he was afraid of getting hit for speaking.
"Bye." Harry recognized the fear in Draco's eyes as he replied to Harry. He decided not to pursue the matter right then. He walked downstream quite a ways so his Draco wouldn't see his back. When Harry got to the pond that was formed by the beaver dam, he stopped. Harry stripped down to his boxers and the bandages on his back and waded in. "It's not as cold as I thought." He began to unwind the bandages on his back and sighed. It was still bleeding. Comparing it to the memory of the bandages from last night, he decided that it wasn't bleeding as much. Harry squeezed his eyes tight and flopped onto his back.

"Ugh." Severus Snape said as he hit what had to have been the hundredth mosquito. "Why must the only type of pond-weed suitable for the potion that Lupin needs grow in a mosquito ridden area?" Severus stopped, suddenly aware of a splashing. A splashing that wasn't part of the stream. Severus slowly walked through the trees to the pond.
It was none other than Potter swimming in the pond. What was Potter doing swimming in the pond when he was suppoused to be with the muggles? And why did Potter's back look like it had been whipped? Those questions would have to wait for later. Now he had to decide whether or not to make his presence known. And why did the marks on Potter's back infuriate him? He decided to make his presence known.
"Hello Potter." Severus said quietly.
Even with his ears partly underwater, Harry knew that voice. He tried to sit up in the water, but Harry quickly discovered that that didn't work. "Professor?"
"Yes."
"Hello. I suppose that you want to know what I am doing here?"
"That would be correct."
"Do you want the truth or the story that I am telling people."
"I have never tolerated insolence Potter."
Harry laughed weakly. "The truth then." After a slight pause, Harry asked if he could finish tending his back.
"What happened to your back?"
"My uncle whipped me with his belt."
"Why?"
"I called him uncle."
"Explain further."
"He decided that I shouldn't be allowed to call him uncle anymore; I wasn't worthy of being related to him. He came to the conclusion that I should call him sir."
"You slipped and called him uncle?"
"That would be correct." Harry answered through gritted teeth, making it plain that he didn't want to talk about the subject anymore.
Snape didn't notice that, as he was dealing with the strong feeling of rage that had seared through his heart when Potter had told him what had happened to his back. The thought 'the muggles must pay' had flashed through his head and he was trying to deduce why the thought had occurred to him. Snape pushed the thoughts that the feeling evoked to the back of his mind as he began to gather the pond-weed.
"Excuse me, sir, what are you going to use the pond-weed for?"
"A potion."
"I should have known." Harry muttered.
"Of course, I am the potions master. What else would I be gathering plants for? Herbology?"
"It would be a possibility."
"Are you being pert with me?"
"I believe I am, sir." Harry said with a grin.
"Since term has not began, I will not take points off your house."
"Thank you sir." Harry got out of the pond and started to wash his bandages. He saw that his jeans had dried sufficiently in the evening sun and went behind a tree and pulled on his jeans over a new pair of boxers. He wrapped the dirty pair in his towel and set the bundle on a rock.
"Would you like help bandaging your back?"
"Thank you sir, but I'm going to let the bandaging dry first."
"Since you are going to do that, why don't you tell me why you are here?"
Harry sighed. "Okay. You already know about the whipping, so after my aunt fixed my back for me. We drove to here and they had me unload the things from the car. Then they sent me for groceries and then they left. I think my aunt actually meant it when she said she was going to try being kind, as the tent was in my trunk along with fifty pounds."
"How long ago was this?"
"It's been nearly a week."
"So you've been alone for a week?" Snape asked incredulously.
"No. The first night the Weasley twins stayed with me. They enchanted the tent for me. And last night someone stayed with me."
"Who?"
"I'd rather not tell you. I don't know if he wants you to know that he is staying with me."
"Draco Malfoy?"
"What makes you say that?"
"I happen to know that his father tried to initiate him into the Death Eaters and he refused. So Malfoy kicked him out."
"More like threw a portkey at him that would send him to the Marauder's Woods."
"So he is staying with you. Or at least he's seen you and trusted you enough to give him your story. Let me take a look at your back."
"Why." Harry questioned. Instantly on his guard, as adults didn't really care about him that often.
Snape recognized the look in the boy's eyes. Fear. He said gently, "You have no reason to fear me. I'm only going to look at it and if it needs fixing fix it or take you to someone who can fix it."
Harry realized that Snape was trying to be kind. He decided to make and effort and try and do what he wanted, knowing that it would help his back get better. He didn't say anything, just walked over to the rock that Snape was sitting on and sat on the ground with his back to Snape.
Severus gave a low whistle. "He really did a number on your back. I'm going to use magic to clean it because it looks like it is starting to get infected. This will hurt a little bit. Would you like me to go and get some pain dulling potions to help you?"
Silently Harry nodded. "Why don't you show me where your tent is and you can go there and I'll meet you back there."
"If you don't mind." Harry said in a small voice.
"Okay then." Snape leaned over and picked up the bandaging. It was obviously of magical origin. Looks like Petunia remembered what little she learned in her short time at Hogwarts, he thought to himself.
"Here we are. Do you want to go and see Draco now, or when you get back?"
"When I get back." I'll have to owl Dumbledore to make Lupin's potion as it appears that I will be busy for the rest of the night. Snape thought as he vanished from the clearing that was the result of one of the Marauders spells gone wrong with a slight pop.

A/N: Wow. This went on WAY longer that I expected. I hope you enjoy. Next chapter not for awhile as I have a large pile of books to read.
A/N: me again. i'm sorry that this took so long for me to get up. I have a younger sister who has managed to be on the internet every time i come downstairs to work on my story, so consquentially (i can't spell) this has been slowish in getting added on. Sorry.