Snape lit a candle at the sound of something hitting the floor. Harry was on his knees in the middle of the floor starring at some unknown thing before him.

"Harry?" The boy turned with overly bright eyes.

"Evil can only corrupt the beautiful," said Harry but the Captain never heard him. It was just loud enough to die in the room. Harry's eyes rolled back into his skull and he fell forward. Severus was just fast enough to catch him before his face cracked on the floor.

"Sir, please I'm sorry—"Harry was silenced by a hand cuffing him on the ear. The boy stumbled in the impact.

"Shut up, stupid whelp. You never speak in my presence," Master sneered at the child, "evil. I will not have my air polluted by your poison talk." He punctuated his statement with a fist to the stomach. Harry dropped to his knees at the sudden loss of breath. Master just smirked at the fallen. "You could never comprehend the thoughts of those on this vessel and be sure that they do not care for yours." He grabbed Harry around the neck and pulled him to his feet. Blood ran.

Harry awoke in bed. He shivered at the dream. It had gotten much worse after that. He pulled himself into a ball on the bed. His head rested on his knees and he lay on his side, his back to the door. 'Don't think, don't think' was all that he could do to comfort himself. The memories were so vivid. He wanted to shut them away but they continued to bubble up when he went to sleep or when one small detail came up. It could have been anything. What happened yesterday?

He didn't remember going to bed, only the Captain helping him up the stairs. Everything was black after that.

He heard someone whistle an unrecognizable tune as the boots clicked on the panels. Harry knew it was the captain. He closed his eyes as tight as he could, knowing at the same time that Snape would still know he was awake; he always did.

"You do realize that I know you are not sleeping, correct?" Severus asked. Harry turned to see an overly bright smile on the other man's face. Harry nodded.

"Good," then the smile disappeared, "I notice that you have not eaten since you have been aboard my ship. When was the last time you had?" Severus asked with a frown and more than a little concern in his voice. Harry shrugged. He didn't really get hungry anymore. He had locked away that feeling a long time ago. When he was first brought on the ship, it seemed like he had gotten a meal a day. By the time he had been rescued that had seemed like a feast.

Harry then saw the plate on the Captain's lap. He handed it to the boy. "You aren't going to do anything until you eat all of what is on that plate." It wasn't much to Severus, but to Harry, it could have lasted him over a month.

About a quarter of the way through the food, Harry felt like he would burst. He looked up at the Captain. "Well, there is still food on that plate." He only lasted a few bites after that.

Harry barely just made it to a bucket at the corner of the room before he vomited. It all came back up. There was way too much food.

Severus swiftly followed the boy. He thought that it had been the right idea to make him eat. Watching the boy heave, he realized that that was incredibly dim-witted. He pulled Harry's hair off of his forehead as he leaned over the bucket. After what seemed like hours the boy was finished. Severus handed him the rag and a water skin that he had carried with him. Harry washed out his mouth and wiped his face with the rag.

"Okay, I'm sorry. I went about that the wrong way, but you really need to eat something," Severus said. Harry's eyes became unfocused and he began to stumble. Severus did not know what had happened. The boy had a white knuckled grip on his shirt. The other was against the side of his head.

"Come on. Lets get you to bed. We will be seeing land tomorrow I think," Severus said, but just Harry looked at him dumbly for a second then allowed the captain to help him below. Land was not good. It was where people lived and he didn't like them, not at all.

Snape was estimating that they would spot land any moment now. It was a few hours past sun rise when he was talking to a crewman when the man halted in mid sentence.

"Someone looks to be in the land of the living," was all he murmured when Severus turned. Sure enough there was Harry, leaning on the rail with a triumphant expression splashed all over his face. The boy still did not have a shirt on so the entire ship got a good look at the scars. Harry did not seem to notice however. Harry's front, when Severus had seen to it, had been nowhere near as bad as his back. The only thing that worried Severus was the ribs. They were emaciated and he could tell that in the past at least two had broken and not set right; the two bottom most ones slanted down. It made the child look even smaller and thinner. One of the crewmen produced a stool for the boy to sit on, on the quarterdeck. Harry sat down gratefully.

"Well, what brings you up to join us?" asked Severus conversationally. Harry shrugged in a response. He didn't know anything except that he was tired of looking at the ceiling and that the Captain didn't mind him walking about. He still hadn't figured out why Snape was being so nice. Nice people didn't exist in his world, only when he was lucky enough to dream good dreams about a woman he couldn't quite remember. A kind smile was the only part he ever saw clearly and beautiful voice humming what he thought may have been a lullaby. He was never sure though. He'd never heard one before.

He was broken away from his thoughts as a man above hollered "Land ahead!" The Captain showed Harry where a small strip of black started to separate the land and sea. "That's where we are headed. It's an island called Haiti. They sell us rum and molasses in exchange for a few animal hides. Would you care to go on land when we dock?" Harry shook his head rather forcefully with wide-eyed fear written all over his face.

"I'm not much into the land either, but everyone else will probably leave. You know I have given a little thought to your eating problem. Would you eat small things? Nothing really rich, just some hard tack and water. You need to gain some weight and when I say some, I mean quite a bit," Severus stressed the last part. Harry was about as fat as a heron leg. Harry just shrugged; he never knew how his body would react anymore.

"Good" Severus replied sounding slightly relieved. He noticed that Harry shivered when the wind picked up slightly. "You should really have a shirt on I think." Severus said to Connor. "I'll be right back," he said to his first mate. The man took the wheel after the captain left.

"So," the man said to Harry after Severus left, "How did you get to be on that ship?" The man was very blunt. He was not trying to be rude or crude, it was just how he did things. Harry shut his eyes and willed himself to stay in control. It would not do for him to start shaking again. He was sure that all of the crew thought him weak, there was no need for him to confirm it. 'Just breathe slowly. The Captain will be back soon. Just think about that and breathe in and out. In and out.' Harry did not realize that he was losing himself again until he was there.

AN: Sorry it took so long. Just got back from a Softball tourni. in Colorado.