A/N 1: Sorry there was no update yesterday - my PC refused to connect to the internet, so I couldn't post. So two chapters today. Would everyone rather I post the last three tomorrow, so there's more time between the end and HBP? Thoughts in reviews if you care!
'Harry? Are you okay?'

'Hmmm...What? I'm fine, Hermione.'

'Are you sure? You look very tired.'

'I'm fine, will you leave me alone!'

'Harry...'

'I'm sorry, Hermione,' he responded quickly.

'Don't worry about it ... the exams have everyone stressed.'

Draco grasped Harry's shoulders. 'What's wrong? Your eyes are...'

Harry pulled away violently. 'What's up with everyone? I'm fine!'

Draco was silent.

Harry leant forward and wound his arms around Draco's waist, 'I'm sorry. Okay?

Draco was confused, but answered as reassuringly as possible, 'Make it up to me.'

'Madam Pomfrey?'

'Mr Potter, what have you done now?'

'I was wondering if I could have something for a headache.'

'Is this really necessary, Mr Potter? Exam headaches normally vanish on their own when the exams do. And we are rather low on supplies after...'

'It's okay, I was just wondering.'

'If it's serious...'

'Don't worry about it,' he replied, already out of the door.

Harry sat on his bed, curtains closed against the harsh daylight. He rubbed desperately at his forehead. 'Please, not again.'

They were in Transfiguration, just him and Hermione. Professor McGonagall asked again. 'Mr Potter, the chair. Into a table? Have you listened to a word I've said?'

'What?'

'Mr Potter! Your NEWTs are in less than a week! This level of transfiguration will be vital for your exams, and you are showing no interest whatsoever.'

'What difference does it make?' he asked.

Professor McGonagall was stunned. 'What difference does it make?' she asked incredulously. 'You want to gain entry into Auror training, do you not? Their intake programme requires an Outstanding grade in Transfiguration, one which you are entirely capable of achieving. Not that this lesson would give anyone any such indication.'

'None of it's important now.'

'This is the most important thing you will do all year, Mr Potter.' She stopped, and then asked gently, 'Harry, what's wrong with your eyes?'

Harry stood up. He didn't raise his wand, or even say a word, but magic crackled around him. Hermione was the only person in the room who didn't make an involuntary move away. Harry looked at his Professor. 'Not that it's going to matter, but...'

Later on, students would swear that the room shook, no matter how much Hermione assured them that it was impossible. Every chair in the room turned into a table with one crack, but the students perching on them were unharmed. The fly hovering at the window became a bluebird. Quills, inkpots, and pages all jumped from the desks (now plant pots and easels and sundials) and became all manner of things. Not a single transfiguration was the same. Harry looked around himself expressionlessly. 'Happy now?' His face transformed from the eerie calm into a kind of horror. He ran out of the room.

By the time the Headmistress had calmed herself and ran to the door, calling Harry's name, he was nowhere to be seen. 'Class dismissed,' she called over her shoulder, disappearing down the corridor.

'Harry?' Hermione clutched the galleon as she walked, calling Harry's name in her head and into the air.

There was no response.

'Ron?' she tried.

'Hermione? I'm in class.'

'Harry's disappeared. He had...I don't know what happened to him in class. He yelled at Professor McGonagall, and then transfigured everything, and then he looked scared and ran out, and Ron...'

'Hermione, breathe. We'll sort it out.'

'Where are you?'

'On my way to the Common Room. Where are you?'

'Just left the dormitories. What did you tell your professor?'

'I'll sort that out later.'

'Severus?' The voice came from his doorway, but the owner of it shouldn't have been in the school.

Snape turned around. 'Lupin. I have a class.' He nodded towards the curious students.

'I...'

He looked at Remus properly now. The sandy hair was matted with sweat, and he was breathing deeply. 'What is it?'

Remus stepped towards him and whispered urgently, 'The Ministry's under attack. I came to ask for help. But I met Minerva when I came in, and she says that Harry's missing?'

'He's what!'

'She said he had an episode in her class and ran out, she can't find him. She didn't tell you?'

'No,' he answered in clipped tones, 'she did not.' He turned around to the sixth year class behind him. 'Clean out your cauldrons properly before you leave. Anyone taking advantage of my absence will be extremely sorry they did so.' He swept out, Remus following quickly behind.

'It was only ten minutes ago, Severus,' Lupin explained.

'Ten minutes in which I could have been looking. Remus, do you any idea how much danger he's capable of getting into in ten minutes?'

'I have some idea,' he replied.

Snape wasn't even paying attention. He was searching their mind-link. 'I can see him. What's he doing there?'

'Where is he?'

'Heading down towards the forest. Or Hagrid's.'

'Oh...'

'What did you do?'

Harry was moving as quickly as he could. He needed to be away from the school before he hurt someone. Something was wrong. There was something in his head. Or someone in his head.

Maybe it was the blood. There was a reason it was dangerous. And he had three blood-bonds now. One was to the DA, which of course was technically fifty bonds. One was to Voldemort – blood taken to create his new body. And one, of course, was to his mother. Perhaps he should have told them that, explained properly that his blood was already tied to two people and that might not be safe. But that would mean explaining the whole thing. Explaining that his mother's death created a haven for him with his relatives would mean explaining why he needed that as a reason to go home to them. Why he sometimes worried that it would stop working because Hogwarts was so much more of a home than Privet Drive could ever be. And he really didn't want to do that. Because his friends knew about locked rooms, but not spider-infested cupboards. They knew that he didn't quite get enough to eat, but not that it was near starvation. Because admitting those things would mean conceding that it wasn't just a bad childhood, it was abuse. And he really didn't need another tragedy added to his life story. So when he was explaining that blood magic could keep you safe as well, he hadn't mentioned that he was the perfect example of this. In retrospect that might have been unwise.

Snape was in his head. He had forgotten to fix that. He had closed his mind as much as he could, but Snape and Draco could always get around that. He closed his eyes and threw Severus out.

It was too late. Draco was already there, with Hermione and Ron close behind. 'Harry.'

He could feel the thing in his head, screaming for vengeance and bloodshed. Though he couldn't see it, his green eyes were shining red. He rebelled. No. Not them.

'Explain this to me again, Remus.'

'I gave Harry Sirius's motorbike.'

'Again.'

'I gave Harry Sirius's motorbike,' Remus patiently repeated.

'Understand that when I ask you this, it isn't because I am in any way concerned with your personal wellbeing, but did you fall and strike your head on something?'

'Severus, I thought he would be able to...' Remus never got to explain what it was that he had thought. Voices high and young and terrified were screaming.

'Harry!'

Snape took off running.

By the time they had reached the children, the yelling had stopped, and retreated to a shocked hush.

Draco knelt by Harry's side. He looked up at Snape pleadingly. Fix him.

Severus dropped down to look at Harry. His face was deathly white, the only splash of colour on his head the distinctive scar. He reached for Harry in his head but could feel nothing. 'What did you do?' Snape demanded sharply.

'We didn't do anything!' Ron protested. 'Draco said he was down here. We came down to see what was wrong, he looked at us, his eyes went weird, and then he just collapsed.'

'What do you mean about his eyes?'

Draco looked at his Professor, fear in his own eyes. 'They were red.'

'You mean?'

'Just like that.'

'What did you do?' he asked again. 'In the past weeks, what have you done differently?'

Hermione put her hand to her mouth. Scared, but knowing this could be the difference, she explained to Snape everything that had went on in the past month. When she came to the blood magic, she flinched at his glare, but continued. She finished the story on his strange behaviour in McGonagall's class, flight from the room, and fainting at their feet.

Snape spoke quickly, angrily, even as he reached for Harry. 'There is a reason those books are in the restricted section, Ms Granger. When I gave you permission to take books from there, I had no idea you were capable of this level of foolishness.'

'Wait a minute!' Ron said in her defence. 'This was Harry's idea, not Hermione's. She only agreed after Dumbledore got killed.'

'And after Harry made his little speech?' Snape asked.

'Yes,' Hermione answered.

'For someone who claims not to be a leader he can be as manipulative as Albus.'

'That isn't true!' Hermione cried. 'He didn't ask again after that. I decided that he was right, and we did it for him. He isn't like that.'

Snape sighed. 'I know that. I'd imagine that's why he was trying to leave the grounds. His power got away from him in transfiguration, yes? He felt Voldemort in his head, so decided to go somewhere he can't hurt people.'

'Voldemort was in his head?' Remus asked in shock.

'Voldemort used Harry's blood to revive himself. Harry then opened himself to fifty blood-bonds. What's one more person trying to get in? You gave Voldemort a tremendous gift – a new way to get into Harry's head. Presumably Harry realised this and tried to get away, you got there before he could manage it, so he stopped it.

'What?'

'His blood,' Snape answered. He was leaning over Harry, had been from the moment he had seen the bloodless lips. His long fingers were wrapped around the slim wrists. He placed his thumbs on the veins, whispering orders. Severus wasn't trained in medical spells, all he could do was force his magic into Harry until he could convince the boy to do it himself. He tried to get into Harry's head, but was slammed out.

He tried again, coaxing Harry to let him in.
'Wake up' he ordered. 'No one was hurt. Come back.'

Harry's blood started pumping again, but his eyes remained closed.