Disclaimer: standard--see chapter one.

11/22: chapter updated: with an author's note at the end

Harry laughed out loud, nearly tipping back in his chair. Mr. Williams was laughing, too. It was a strange, rusty sound, like he hadn't laughed in forever. He probably hadn't, Harry mused.

"It's late. Out with you."

"Mr. Williams..."

"No. It's getting dark. I'll not be responsible for you getting into trouble."

Harry made a face as Mr. Williams stuffed his school bag into his arms and ushered him towards the front door. "What can the Dursleys really do anyway? That's what you showed me, you know. I don't have to worry about them. Soon, I'll be going away to school. No more Aunt Petunia, no more Uncle Vernon, and, best of all, no more Dinky Diddy Duddykins!" he finished in a high, sing-song voice. He laughed again.

"I don't know if I like you when you're tired and hyper. Go home. Sleep."

A wide grin still on his face, Harry jumped off the front step of Mr. Williams's house and started down the path towards the sidewalk, slinging his book bag over his shoulder. It had been one crazy year, but it was almost over. They were in the final week of exams, and then it would be summer! And starting next year, he'd be away from Dudley.

And away from Mr. Williams... A sharp pain twisted in Harry's gut. All through the year, he'd been getting closer and closer to Mr. Williams, and, he was sure, vice versa.

There had been some hard times over the year, there was no doubting that. Some of the hardest Harry had ever faced.

There was the time rumors got around about Harry liking Angie Smith. That would have been embarrassing in itself, but then Dudley got on his case pretty severely because he liked Angie Smith. Dudley had even tried to get his seat switched with Harry's half way through the year, but Mr. Williams had refused. Between Piers sitting behind him, Angie in front of him, and Dudley punching him in the shoulder every time they were alone together, things had gotten pretty painful before they died down.

The worst of it had to have been when it slipped to Dudley somehow that Harry's after school sessions were really study helps, not detentions (which he'd been made fun of enough for once everyone caught on that he was, in fact, staying after three times a week--but that was a whole different, though equaly painful, episode), he'd told everyone, and for about two months, Harry couldn't walk down the hall without someone making snide comments about him being stupid, or making nasty remarks about the true nature of Harry Potter and Mr. Williams's relationship...

It had infuriated Harry to no end, but Mr. Williams just took it all in stride and was always there when he needed him. It was like having the best father in the world, but he only got to see him away from home.

About a month before the end of school, Harry started meeting with Mr. Williams at his house once a week on top of the three other sessions. They both claimed to themselves and each other that it was to help Harry prepare for exams: but they seemed to spend more time talking about other things, from serious issues about the meanings life and death, to light ribbing about girls and friends--or both of theirs lack thereof. He grinned at the memory.

FLASHBACK

"I saw you talking to Ms. Reede in the office."

Mr. Williams looked uneffect as he turned the page in Harry's book in his search for the answer to one of the study questions. "Did you?"

Harry grinned. "Yeah. You're always in there with her in the mornings."

"I have to drop your homework in my box, if you remember correctly."

"She always smiles at you, too."

Mr. Williams narrowed his eyes at the boy. "Ellen is the school--"

"Ellen?" Harry asked, making a face.

"Potter," he warned.

"Sorry." Harry looked at the book, grinning to himself. "Are you going to ask her out?"

His thin lips curled in annoyance, Mr. Williams shoved the history textbook into Harry chest. "Find the answer for question five. It should be around this page. I'm going to make some tea."

Harry laughed, watching his teacher leave the room.

"If you don't have that answer when I get back, you'll be going home to do your work. You don't come over here to play," Mr. Williams added coolly over his shoulder.

Harry bit his cheek to keep from laughing, though he was still grining uncontrollably as he scanned the text page.

END FLASHBACK

Mr. Williams had also been helping Harry put his situation with the Dursleys in perspective. He was always telling him, "You can do anything you want, as long as you want it badly enough, and are willing to go after it. When you see what you want, Harry, take it, because you deserve it. You deserve to get everything you've ever wanted for what they've put you through. Not just them, but everybody."

The best side effect of Harry's time with Mr. Williams was a sudden building of confidence. He found himself standing up to Dudley more. Well, maybe not standing up to him, but not being so afraid to defend himself when he was cornered. He wasn't afraid of making Aunt Petunia and Uncle Vernon angry any more. He didn't go out of his way to, but if they got mad at something, that was their problem, not his. He took his punishment in stride.

"Wear your stripes proudly," Mr. Williams had told him once.

During one of his sessions with Mr. Williams after a particularly long term without meals, Harry had been ready to break down.

FLASHBACK

"I can't stand it anymore! Why do I have to go through this? Why do I have to--have to sneak around, like some criminal, just to eat? I mean, it's not fair!"

His voice deep and soothing, Mr. Williams had replied, "Life is always fair, Harry. It gives you what you need to become stronger. It helps you deal with itself. Everything you go through is meant to be stored for later use. Those feelings you get about the Dursleys, that pain and fear--"

"I'm not afraid of them!" Harry had yelled, banging his fist on the coffee table, knocking over Mr. Williams's tea cup. There were tears of frustration streaming, unchecked, down his face. "I just hate them, and I don't know what to do about it!"

"Harry, life will give you something to do about it. One day, the perfect chance to do everything you've ever dreamed of doing will fall into your hands. But you have to be prepared for it. You have to be ready and willing to take it when it comes. Because life doesn't give out second chances. Only fools and old men give second chances." Mr. Williams moved so he was kneeling on the floor in front of Harry, his long-fingered hands resting on the boy's shoulders. "When the time comes, Harry, you have to do what you know in your heart needs to be done. Whatever that may be." His voice softened. "It's good you're not afraid. You don't need to be. You just need to be prepared."

"I can't wait until I can leave. I'm gonna leave and never, never go back."

Mr. Williams smiled. "And you'll remember that as the best of your life."

END FLASHBACK

Harry grinned to himself. It would be the best day of his life, and it was so close. Just one more week of exams, one more summer of the Dursleys, then he'd be on his way off to the school. Or, at the very least, Dudley would. And that was relief enough for the moment. A full severing of ties would come later. But he just had to remember that it would come, and he'd have to be ready for it when it did.

Now there's the arrogant, Gryffindor brat I remember, Severus sneered to himself while he watched from his window as Harry strode down the walk and across the street. He'd changed so much from the scared little boy Mr. Williams had first offered tea and comfort to.

It was with a twinge of regret that Severus suddenly realized that he'd hated Harry all those years for being just like his father, when in reality, the boy was only like that because of Severus, himself. I do love a good, heavy helping of irony, he mused, moving back to the couch.

Sighing, he put his feet up on the coffee table. He only had a week left, though. See Harry through his exams, and then he'd be on his way home. He would almost be sorry to leave the peace of the past.

Well, relative peace. With all the pre-teen angst he'd been causing and soothing, Severus was slightly worn out. Sure, spreading rumors of his own illicit affair with his ten year old, male student might have been all in good fun, but he wished he'd never done the "let's all love Angie Smith" game. But he did have to admit, stirring up a classroom full of ten and eleven year olds into a frenzy over a make-believe, potion-induced, love triangle, and then handing out Band-Aids to the injured, was much more relaxing than firefights in secret, Ministry departments and graveyards.

"It'll all be over soon," he told himself. When I return, Harry will join with the Dark Lord and Albus Dumbledore will fall. His reign in the school and the wizarding community will be over. Though Severus had to admit he was a bit confused. The reality he'd lived was, indeed, reality, or he would have lived a different life since Harry's enrollment at Hogwarts. So when he returned, Harry Potter would still be the arrogant Gryffindor who hates the greasy Potions Master. Unless there was some other part to the Dark Lord's master plan...

Harry hummed to himself as he jogged up to Mr. Williams's door. Now that tests were over and summer was here, hopefully they could spend more time together. He rang the bell and waited.

Several seconds passed.

He rang again.

Silence.

Testing the knob, Harry found it unlocked, and pushed the door open. "Mr. Williams? Hello?" The house was as silent and as still as if no one had ever lived there. Walking around the corner into the living room, Harry was startle to see the couch, television, table, and chairs gone. The walls were bare.

"Mr. Williams?"

Harry darted into the kitchen. The counters--always covered in dirty dishes and used tea bags--were empty and clean. The cupboards were bare, as was the refrigerator.

"Mr. Williams?"

Running up the stairs two at a time, Harry nearly tripped when he reached the top landing. He opened each door to find empty room after empty room. He even checked the towel closet in the bathroom. Nothing.

Dejected and confused, Harry walked down the stairs, wondering where Mr. Williams would have gone, and why he hadn't said anything about moving. When he got back to the front hall, he noticed an envelope taped to the back of the main door with his name written on it in handwriting worse that Piers's. Harry took it with numb, slightly shaking fingers.

Harry,

Several things have come up, so I must leave. I would have liked the chance to say goodbye, but it doesn't seem I'll be able to. Please don't be too angry at me.

I hope you'll remember everything we talked about over this year. I feel sure it will come in useful at some point. Just remember to be yourself. Don't be afraid of anything. Know who you are and what you want, and be true to those things. I wish I could tell you in person how proud I am of you. I might still be able to, but I doubt you'll believe me if I do.

I know how hurt you are right now. And stop crying--

Harry scrubbed at the tears on his cheeks furiously.

--This, like everything else, is for your benefit. Add it to yourself--our year together, what you're learning right now, what you'll learn every day between now and when we see each other again--then be prepared to use it.

I never was as close with anyone as I have come to be with you. I know we'll meet again some day, but I wonder if you'll know me.

I have to go now.

Mr. Williams

TBC

The TBC at the end of this one is most likely in refrence to a sequel, not anything more here. However, I could be wrong. It depends on how long the next part ends up being. So for all intents and purposes, you can assume this story is finished. Or this part of it, anyway.

As for the fun-sounding side plots of Severus's on-going need to keep Harry miserable by poking Dudley in the eye over and over again... Well, I'd really like to write a couple of those, so they may pop up as extras. If anyone else wants to play with them, please do so, and email me and tell me you did! I'd love to read them.

A/N: One of my reiewers commented on the advanced level of conversation between Harry and Severus ("...but they seemed to spend more time talking about other things, from serious issues about the meanings life and death, to light ribbing about girls and friends--or both of theirs lack thereof.").
To comment on this: first, this section was from Harry's POV. To a ten year old, any knowledge-based discussion about death with an adult would, more than likely, seem deep and profound.
Second, it seems natural to me that Harry would want to talk about his parents with Mr. Williams because of their trust level. That would, of course, led to childish questions about what happens to people when they die, and all that line.
Third, Severus is trying to instill in Harry a grain of malcontent. He would do that by picking--subtly--at the things in Harry's life that bother him: the biggest being his lack of knowledge concerning his parents.
Looking at it, I probably should have gone into that scene a bit, but I didn't think I needed to run the entire line of the relationship developing. Hopefully the flashback clears up what I had in my mind when I wrote that line...