Disclaimer: Per last chapter, these characters are not mine, etc….

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"Ron, Harry. Wake up. Time to come down for breakfast." Stated Mrs. Weasley knocking on the door where they were sleeping.

"In a minute, mum!" shouted Ron groggily.

"Young man, get out of bed this instant!"

"Alright. Alright. Come on Harry we best get a move on," said Ron.

As Harry looked around for his glasses he momentarily forget where he was. 'Why am I here?' he thought. 'What happened to the Dursley's?' As he cleared away the last bits of sleep from his thoughts, it suddenly came back to him what he had done and where he was going. 'Ugggh!' he groaned as he pulled on some clothes.

Breakfast was a gloomy affair that morning as Harry, Ron, and Hermione were all busy with thoughts of what was to come this summer.

"Oh you three! Cheer up!" said Mrs. Weasley. "It isn't the end of the world, you know. This is just for the summer. It'll be over before you know it, and you'll all be back at school together in no time. And Harry, Dumbledore mentioned to me that you would be going into Hogsmeade to replace your things. He doesn't want to risk going back into the Dursleys. Some gold will be sent to you at Hogwarts. Now you three had better get ready. They'll be wanting to leave soon!"

"Do you know how we'll be arriving at Hogwarts, Mrs. Weasley?" asked Harry.

"I think I heard Dumbledore mention the Knight bus to Lupin as they were discussing the events of the evening." Harry groaned thinking about the last trip on that horrid thing.

"Don't worry Harry it's not that bad. Now move along!"

About 15 minutes later as Harry, Ron and Hermione were heading downstairs to meet with Lupin and start on their Journey, Hermoine started in on the lecture that Harry knew was coming. "Now Harry, you best apologize to Snape about looking in his memories last term. If you don't do anything to upset him, he really can be almost civil. Just keep out of trouble! And make sure you use this time to do your homework and get caught up before school starts."

"Oh Hermione! You just never give up, do you?"

"Well, are you three ready to go?" asked Lupin as they reached the bottom of the steps.

"Yes" they echoed.

'Here we go again' Harry thought as Lupin stuck his wand out to flag the Knight bus.

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A short time later all four of the travelers stepped off of the bus and into the middle of Hogsmeade. 'Why are we here?' Harry thought. 'I thought he was just going to drop me off at Hogwarts and then leave.'

"Now, Dumbledore, gave me some galleons for you Harry and said that today we were all to spend the day in Hogsmeade replacing your belongings. Snape isn't to arrive until later this evening. Ron, Hermione and I will leave after a dinner prepared by the house-elves."

"Slaves" Hermione mumbled under her breath.

Harry was looking forward to his last day of freedom before he had to spend his summer with Snape.

"Now, Harry, where should we go first?" asked Lupin as he smiled over at Harry.

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After dropping the packages from today off in the front entranceway of the castle, Harry stepped outside to see his friends off.

"Don't worry, Harry we'll be back again soon. Maybe Dumbledore will let us visit again."

"Don't forget to owl us Harry!"

"Remember Harry, Snape isn't as bad as you think he is. This summer is going to go by quickly and here's a little something to cheer you up… guess who's back as the Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher? Yep, that's right. It's me!" Lupin exclaimed. This cheered Harry some was he remember what a mess the class had been with that Umbridge woman teaching it.

"Please make sure Dumbledore lets you come and visit me. Don't forget to write often." Harry shouted as they boarded the Knight bus to take them back to Sirius's. As Harry walked back in, he wondered again what had come over him to leave the Dursley's. 'Was it really that bad?' Harry thought.

"Evening Potter. I see that I am to spend the rest of the summer babysitting… you. I look forward to the task of making sure you understand that you cannot just make up your own rules. I have told the Headmaster all along that the problem with you is that you don't think the rules apply to you. Now, maybe he will believe that you can't be treated differently just because you are… the boy who lived. Now come along Potter and I will show you your quarters for the summer."

As they walked along downstairs to the dungeon, Harry wondered if he would be staying with Snape all summer in his private quarters. He wondered what Snape had up his sleeve for him to do all summer. And Harry wondered if it was possible that Snape had a human bone anywhere in his body.

"Here is your room. It is right down the hall from me so that you don't go wandering around when you're not supposed to. As you know, Dumbledore has asked that I continue teaching you occlumency. I don't think that you will possibly be able to grasp this, however, since Dumbledore has asked I will try. Also you will have no free time for idleness. I expect you to study in your room quietly each and every morning. Every afternoon you will be taking occlumency with me and after dinner I expect that you will be helping me clean cauldrons and Filch may have some jobs for you to do cleaning the castle. You will stay in your room for every meal except dinner where you will be eating with me. I expect no backtalk or laziness this summer."

"Yes, sir. And Professor…. I wanted to… apologize for looking into your memories last term. I realize that it was wrong of me to intrude."

"I did not realize that you were capable of thinking of anyone but yourself Potter. However, I warn you not to speak of this again!" hissed Snape. "Now, I expect that you can pass the rest of the night without incident and your schedule will start tomorrow. I will be checking up on you, Potter! Goodnight."

As Snape left, Harry was finally able to glance around the room at his surroundings. He saw a desk against the wall where he assumed parchment and quills were located so that he could do his homework. He also noticed a nice sized bed and a small wardrobe for his clothes. There was a fire going in a small fireplace and a small table where he would be eating most of his meals. While it was bigger than his room at the Dursley's for which he was grateful, it pretty much just contained the basics. He noticed that his packages from shopping had been brought down by the house-elves. He decided that he would spend the rest of the night putting away his things and enjoying his last minutes of freedom before every second would be taken up. As he started putting away his new robes, cauldron, sweets from honeydukes, quills, parchment, books, etc… he thought 'Well, maybe this will give me a chance to prove myself to Snape. I wonder why he hates me so much anyway. Perhaps this will yet prove to be an interesting summer.' Little did he know, how right he would be.