Okay, in case I haven't mentioned this, updates will be erratic and chapter lengths will vary, depending on where I felt the story could best be divided. I don't want to stop in the middle of a scene, so some will be rather short so I can keep the next parts together.

Oh, if anyone tried to e-mail me, assume I didn't get it. I don't check my e-mail too often and a problem with my account deleted everything I had there while I wasn't looking. So, if you wanted to say something to me, send it again now that I've got the account sorted out.

I also have to say that you are all lovely people for giving me such wonderful reviews! I'm speechless, really! Well, maybe not speechless...

Raven-Warrior05: Did you manage to load chapter three? If you have that problem again, feel free to drop me a line.

jenal: Hmm, well, if Harry seems a bit immature, it's probably only going to get worse from here on out. I was trying not to make him moody. I didn't like Harry in OotP at all and I'm trying to go a different direction. I'll keep that in nind, though.

Chiara Crawford: (grin) you want to see what Harry find on his trips through the castle? Just wait a couple of chapters...

t.a.g.0: Thanks! As I mentioned earlier, I've resolve my e-mail issues, but I didn't know I was having them until your review. I guess I really should check that more often... Oh, I'm fixing those problems as soon as I upload this chapter, thanks for the corrections. I can't believe I misspelled McGonagall...

ImperialJedi: I rather like Harry to at least seem intelligent. OotP Harry seemed so wrong to me... I'm glad you like my interpretation.

cat1881: So I'm not the only one in denial over HBP? Thank heaven! Of course, I still haven't recovered from OotP so... Glad you like the story.

Americanpie, bookworm121, LadyMacbeth and Kitten-Lass: Glad you liked it.

Oh, and Kira6 and Arica, Princess of Rivendell: I absolutely loved your reviews, so, here you go. (grin)


.
.

Harry did not linger in the dungeon again, but while he was there Snape took care to pay greater attention to the boy's behavior. After all, Dumbledore, had charged him with the boy's continued existence.

That evening and the next morning, Potter rushed in and rushed out from the examinations of his protective shields; which were far easier to understand than the boy.

The shields themselves had, indeed, been there for nearly his entire life. Definitely since before the child's birth. However, they did more than protect him. Somehow, they had been ingrained into the boy's very existence to the point where they affected his essence, his magic, and possibly his very appearance.

The only conclusion Snape could come to was not even a possibility. Not with Lily as the boy's mother. Though try as he might he could think of nothing else. So, he simply watched and decided to leave his theorizing for after they had completely broken down.

He'd held out hope, for a time, that the second layer of shielding would remain intact for sometime, but apparently it had been ruptured at the same time as the first. Both were unraveling, the second more slowly than the first.

Though the breakdown of both shields seemed to have slowed from it's earlier, rapid pace. Snape couldn't help wondering if this had anything to do with Potter's apparent restlessness.

The morning of the fifth day that Potter had been in the castle, Snape held him after their session.

"Wait a moment, Potter. I need to ask you a few questions."

"Yes sir," Harry said, sitting down in a vacant chair.

Now that he had the boy, Snape was not sure how to proceed. The things he needed to know would make sense and would only take a few words to communicate if Potter understood the research he'd been doing. Without that understanding, this would be much more difficult.

The obvious answer came to him suddenly and, on a whim, he followed the idea. Snape stood there and explained to Harry exactly what had been going on in as short of terms as possible.

While he listened, Harry absently reached up and rubbed the odd scar over his forehead. When Snape reached the end of his narration, Harry frowned.

"Well, that explains a lot," he said finally.

Snape sneered. "Care to enlighten the rest of the class? From here it seems to explain nothing."

Harry looked up as if seeing the professor for the first time. "Well, I don't know if it helps your work at all, but it certainly explains some of the strange things that seem to happen to me. Like my hair, for example. If these charms are affecting my appearance, that is."

Intrigued but unable to resist, the professor said, "Can anything explain that mess?"

Harry barely managed to hold back the scathing reply, choosing instead to be helpful. His own voice, saying the word truce, echoed in his ears and he was glad he'd held his tongue. "Well, no matter what I do or how it gets cut, my hair always grows back exactly like it is. My Aunt cut it all off one time, except for long fringe to cover my scar, and it all grew back before school the next morning."

The professor frowned. "It did this on more than one occasion?"

Harry just smirked. "It's constant, sir. Nobody believes me, but I'm constantly trying to make my hair lay flat. No matter what, it just springs right back up. Also, It doesn't seem to matter how many haircuts I get, it always stays the same. My last haircut was before my first year."

Snape snorted. "Well, that's certainly news to me," he muttered under his breath.

"I'm sorry?" Harry asked.

Shaking his head in disbelief at his own stupidity, the man replied. "You're father used to mess his up on purpose. I always assumed you did the same."

Harry made a face. "Why?"

"You are just like him in most respects, I assumed..."

Harry cut him off. "No, I mean, why would my dad mess up his hair on purpose? Seems rather stupid to me."

The boy's voice was thoughtful and made Snape pause. For the first time, he considered a serious answer to a question about James Potter. Obviously the boy had not picked up the habit from his father, he'd never known the man. Of course, who knew where James had picked it up at. Snape couldn't ever remember a time when Potter hadn't done it.

Finally, he replied, "I could not hazzard a guess. I believe you would have to ask him or someone who knew him particularly well."

The boy nodded slowly as if processing that information. "Thanks Professor," he said sincerely. "I don't know if I've been feeling any different. I don't think I've ever had this much free time on my hands before and there is so much I'm trying to figure out, I couldn't tell you if anything I did feel was caused by my mum's spell or life in general."

Snape considered that. "Though rather unhelpful, that was an unusually complete answer, Mr. Potter. That is all I needed to know at the moment, you may go to dinner if you wish."

Harry left the room silently after nodding his acknowledgment. He now had much to think about. Not only had his mother apparently put spells on him to make him look more like his dad, but he'd just had a lengthy and civil conversation with his most hated Professor. This was definitely turning out to be a strange summer.

OoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOo

Mr. Potter. Snape had just addressed him as Mr. Potter.

The greasy git of a potions master hadn't called him anything but 'Potter' since that first lesson when he'd humiliated the boy so horribly.

Harry frowned at the reminder of that first class. He'd so looked forward to all of his lessons those first days and Snape had, intentionally or not, completely destroyed his enthusiasm.

It had been a good lesson, regardless of how little he'd learned about potions. When Harry had thought about things later on, after he'd cooled down, he'd realized there was nothing to be horribly upset about. So the Wizarding world had bigots, jerks, and evil gits, too. That wasn't horribly surprising.

While Harry would much rather not be taught by an evil git, there was little he could do about it and he could tolerate the lessons.

The largest problem seemed to be that he had no natural aptitude for the subject, which meant he sorely missed the help he would have gotten form a less biased teacher.

But Snape was, apparently, not evil after all. It seemed that the greasy git could be a human being when he tried. Who, in their right mind, would have guessed that?

Harry couldn't say as he particularly liked the man, but he found this new Snape to be almost tolerable. Of course, Ron would die if he ever heard Harry say anything of the sort.

Harry had realized something else this summer, as well. Professor Snape was obviously a very intelligent man. He didn't show it much in class, but there it was. He'd only just started looking into a topic that Dumbledore had been researching since Harry was a year old and he already knew more about it than the old man.

He passed a statue he knew nothing about and took out his wand, setting his thoughts aside for the moment. He cast several revealing spells at the statue and the surrounding walls and floor. When those revealed nothing, he tried a status spell, and then a labelling spell, just in case a polite query would reveal the answer. Nothing happened and the status spell revealed only the statue. The labelling spell told him it was a statue of Larrington the loony and Harry jotted that information down on a small notebook using a muggle pen.

Keeping his eyes open for anything that would serve as a marker for hidden portions of the castle, Harry wandered the halls randomly. He cast a few revealing spells at random points on the walls, just for fun.

His mind wandered to his father and the marauders. He wondered if tis was how they had found all those secret passages and hidden rooms. Like the passage behind the one-eyed witch on the third floor. You had to tap that one with your wand and say dissendium to open it. Did they just wander around tapping statues and saying random words?"

He considered, for a moment, if he should write to Sirius and Professor Lupin. He'd barely heard from them in the last year. Harry had, during third year, become accustomed to talking with Professor Lupin. Between the patronus lessons and the times the man had tried to cheer him up on Hogsmede weekends, Harry felt as if he knew Lupin better than Sirius, though he cared for the latter a great deal.

"Harry? Are you up here?" Remus Lupin said and Harry nearly fainted from shock.

"Pr- Professor Lupin! Yes, I'm right here. I was just thinking about you. You startled me."

There was a faint growl of excitement and, instead of the tired-looking Professor, Harry spotted a humongous black dog sliding around the nearest corner.

"Sirius!" Harry cried, crouching slightly to hug the dog. With a faint pop, slender but strong arms wrapped around him and Harry sighed deeply. He did not get the opportunity to enjoy it, however. Sirius's enthusiasm made him pick the boy up and swing him around.

"Padfoot! Quit that," Lupin scolded his friend. Sirius set Harry back on his feet again and looked sheepish.

"Sorry Harry."

Lupin just shook his head. "Harry, we've come to take you downstairs. There are some questions about the other night... You don't have to answer anything you don't want to, that's why Sirius is here. He's your legal guardian, now."

Harry frowned. "But that can't work, can it? I mean, won't they just arrest you?"

Sirius grinned wolfishly while Lupin smirked, an ironic scenario if Harry had ever seen one.

"Ordinarily, Harry, yes, he would be arrested on sight. But, in this instance, the aurors who are questioning you are on Dumbledore's team. They know the truth."

As he spoke, they walked toward the nearest staircase. The Aurors were waiting in the headmaster's office two floors below them. Harry and Sirius joked and laughed on the way while Lupin remained oddly silent. Harry considered the man as they approached the stone gargoyle.

While Sirius tried to guess the password, (Jelly slugs? Licorice wands? Sugar quill?) Harry stepped back so he was even with his former teacher.

"Are you doing alright, Professor?"

Lupin smiled kindly. "As well as to be expected at this time of the month, Harry."

The boy smacked one hand against his forehead. "I'm sorry, Professor. I forgot..."

Lupin smiled genuinely and shook his head slowly. "You have no idea how glad I am that you can forget a thing like that, Harry." He ruffled the boy's hair and said, "Though I would be doing a lot better if you would stop calling me 'professor.' Under other circumstances, James might have had you calling me 'uncle.' It's a bit creepy hearing you call me Professor. Please, call me Remus, or Moony, if you like."

Harry ducked his head, flattening his hair with a frown. He was glad to have Pro- Remus here, but between the ruffling of his hair and the mention of his father, Harry was feeling decidedly cold toward the man at the moment.

Sirius had made it to 'blood pops' and 'droobles best blowing gum' by this time.

"It's my turn, I suppose," Remus said with a wry smile. "To ask you if you are alright, Harry."

Harry started to reply, 'of course' when he paused. No, he wasn't alright. He needed to talk to someone. In fact, he really needed to talk to someone who knew his father well

Under other circumstances, James might have had you calling me 'uncle."

Just then, Sirus finally got the gargoyle to move with the most obvious password, "lemon sherbert.' He bounded onto he moving stair with a grin on his face and Harry leaned in to Remus.

"Could I talk to you later?" he whispered. "I mean, without Sirius? I don't think he'll understand that I don't want to make jokes. I'm just afraid he'll be upset I don't want to talk with him..."

Remus smiled and rested a hand on his shoulder. "It's alright. I'll meet you after this meeting. Don't worry, I'll take care of Sirius."

They climbed onto the moving Staircase and Harry was surprised to see the room filled with people. A woman with bright purple hair and a heart-shaped face stepped forward out of the group. Remus began doing introductions.

"Harry, you know Alaster Moody," he pointed out the grizzled old auror, who nodded to Harry. "And this," he gestured toward a woman with bright purple hair and a heart-shaped face. "Is Nymphadora-"

"Don't call me Nymphadora!" She broke in, her eyes flashing. "It's Tonks."

"Nymphadora Tonks, who prefers to be known by her surname only," he finished with a look that made her blush.

Remus pointed out Kingsley Shacklebolt and was about to say another name when Sirius broke in.

"Hey, what are all these people doing here, anyway?"

Tonks blushed and seemed to speak for the group when she said, "Well, there was quite a contingent who volunteered to come speak with Harry..."

Harry was confused. Tonks was easily the youngest person there, and, by default, probably the most junior. Remus saw and correctly interpreted his look. He leaned in for a whispered comment.

"Tonks' mother is Sirius' cousin, Andromeda. I think everyone is assuming that he wouldn't hurt her because she's family."

"Hurt her?"

Remus grinned. "Sirius has acquired a reputation for being fiercely protective of you, around order headquarters, anyway. He frightened half the order out of their wits when he found out you were in the infirmary because of your family. He said they should have been keeping a closer watch on you."

"The order had been watching me..." Harry repeated. "What, exactly, is the order?"

The general clamour of arguments in the room died down just in time to hear Harry's question.

"That," said Dumbldore's voice from the doorway, "is a very good question." He smiled benignly as the group parted for him to get to his desk. "Now, what, exactly, is all this hubbub about? One at a time, please. Sirius?"

The convict stepped forward. "I will not have all these people interrogating Harry."

"Quite right," Dumbledore agreed. "Only two of you may question Harry. I have to say, I had expected better of all of you..."

His tone was light and te smile never left his face despite the harsh words.

"Professor Dumbledore," Shacklebolt stepped forward, pushing Sirius to the side to accommodate his size. "We are not all here to question Mr. Potter. Tonks and I are supposed to do that. Everyone else is here to escort him to the Ministry. Fudges orders. It was some kind of work to make sure the guard was only our people, too." He said with a huff.

"And did Minister Fudge say why he required Mr. Potter's presence?"

Shackkebolt did not appear amused. "With one of Potter's guardians dead and the other accused of murder, Potter is a ward of the Ministry."

"That may be, but Mr. Potter is still under the care of his family physician and cannot leave her presence for more than half the day." Dumbledore's eyes twinkled and Shacklebolt relaxed.

"In that case, I'm afraid we won't be able to take Mr. Potter with us." He turned and gestured to the group behind him. "All right, you heard the man. Move out, everybody."

Most of the room cleared quickly. Soon, it was only Harry, Remus, Sirius, Shacklebolt, Tonks, and Dumbledore.

"Now, Mr. Potter, if you would kindly relate the events of the night your aunt died to Aurors Shacklebolt and Tonks, I think we'll be all set."

Harry nodded to Dumbledore and started speaking. It took nearly twenty minutes to relate the tale because Shacklebolt broke in frequently to press for details. Twice they were stopped by Tonks, who was taking notes. Once because she had broken her quill right in half; a second time because, although she was sitting in the middle of the room, she somehow managed to knock over a small table with several shining devices of unknown purpose on it.

Sirius, to Harry's relief, broke in whenever Harry hesitated to answer anything. After they'd reached the point where Harry woke up at Hogwarts, Shacklebolt stood, gesturing to Tonks, who knocked over her chair.

"That's all we need just now. Thank you Harry and we'll see you soon."

The two Aurors left, Tonks winked at Harry on the way out, and Dumbledore turned to Remus.

"Now, I do believe the three of you have something you wanted to do? Unless, you have any questions for me?"

Sirius scowled. "You bet I do! What's this about Harry being under the care of his 'family physician?' He looks fine to me! And why, exactly, is Snape looking after my godson? What is going on here?"

"Ah, well, with the problems with the protection spell, Harry is, indeed, being looked after by Madam Pomfrey, who just happens to be his family physician. She has been his entire life. As to why Severus is looking after Harry..."

Remus broke in there. ""Headmaster, if you don't mind, Harry and I are going ot get some tea while you two talk."

"Not at all, Remus."

Remus steered Harry out of the office as Dumbledore was offering Sirius a lemon drop. Harry could have sworn he saw the headmaster wink at Remus on the way out.

Once they were in the corridor, Remus said, "Well, that should keep him busy for a while. How about we talk on our way to the kitchens for some tea."

"It's just that, well, I've been hearing about my dad the last four years but in the last couple weeks... Well, I've heard some things that really bothered me." Harry stumbled over his question. Finally, he said, "Remus, was my dad a bully?"

Remus snorted loudly. "What has Severus been telling you?"

Harry shook his head. "It wasn't Professor Snape. Well, at least, it wasn't entirely him. I was talking to... Well, I was talking to someone else I trust and they said that my dad and Sirius used to pick on Professor Snape for no reason. She said they were downright vicious about it."

"Yes, they did. I'm ashamed now to say that I helped them a great deal of the time. In school I was something of a follower, doing what my friends did."

Remus sight wistfully. "Oh to know then what I know now. What none of us realized back then was that Sirius and James were spoiled brats."

Harry startled at his teacher's tone. "But-"

A smile came over the man's face. "Harry, you deserve to know the truth. I think you're old enough to understand. James was a very good man, but when he first came to Hogwarts, he was something of a brat and he was most definitely spoiled.

"You see, both James and Sirius come from old pureblood families. It was common for children from that sort of family to grow up isolated. They really didn't know how to act around other children. Especially around children who weren't exactly like they were."

They reached the kitchens and the house elves were quick to serve them a small banquet when they admitted that sandwiches with their tea would be nice.

"So when James and Sirius ran across Severus, who was no less of a brat, though he was likely more used to not getting his way, they clashed horribly. Of course, all three of them grew out of that phase of their lives very quickly. They had no choice, at Hogwarts. But they never quite got over the feud they started on the train that first day."

Harry frowned. That did explain a lot. "Professor Snape said my dad used to mess up his hair."

To Harry's surprise, Remus began laughing. "I'd forgotten he did that. Thought it was cool if his hair looked like he'd just gotten off his broom. Did I mention James was rather pompous, too?"

The tone was such that Harry had to laugh too. For some reason, hearing his dad was a jerk made him feel better, though it shouldn't have. It was like, now that he knew, it didn't matter anymore. After all, Harry wasn't his father. Remus tugged on a lock of Harry's hair.

"Actually, I'm not sure where you got this mess from. James actually had very nice hair, when he wanted to. Perhaps it comes from one of your mother's parents?"

Harry shrugged. He didn't know.

They finished up their snack and headed back toward Dumbledore's office.

"Hey Remus?" Harry said when they were getting close.

"What is it, Harry?" he asked kindly, smile still on his face.

"Thanks for being here."

Remus' smile lit up his face. For a moment, Harry couldn't see the grey hair or the deep lines on his face. "You need only ask, Harry. Anytime, day or night."

Sirius came bounding out of the staircase just as they rounded the corner toward Dumbldore's office. He shook off a slightly confused expression when he saw Harry and rushed forward to greet his godson like they hadn't seen each other in months, rather than just forty minutes.

Harry, his mind at ease for the moment, enjoyed an afternoon with two of his favourite people and said goodbye just in time to make it down to the dungeons for his nightly examination.