-Voldemort's Lair-

"You failed me."

The three men were on their knees before the Dark Tyrant, muttering apologies.

"Silence! Two boys. TWO BOYS! I shall not blame you two too much for being overcome by Harry Potter."

The two Death Eaters looked somewhat relieved.

"Crucio."

Looking not so relieved, they screamed in agony for half a minute before the curse was lifted.

"Get back in the circle."

They hastily, and shakily, obeyed.

"But you, Lucius…" The Dark Lord looked with disgust upon his follower, "you…you were Petrified…PETRIFIED for Salazar's sake, by a SIX YEAR OLD!"

Lucius whimpered, knowing that tone of voice all too well.

"My Lord…I did…bring down Potter…doubt he could have lived…"

"Fool," the Dark Lord said, leaning over the man to whisper in his ear, "don't you think I would know if Harry Potter were dead? No, he is alive. And with Severus. That does not bode well for my plans with Severus. I sent him to Dumbledore to show him the Light side would destroy him when they had no more use for him. What did Potter say when you offered him to join me?"

Lucius nearly cried. He quickly tried to hide the yellow stain that was appearing in his robe with his cloak.

"My Lord…he said…he would send in the application form…when Hell freezes over."

"CRUCIO!"

-93, Diagon Alley-

"You know we can't stay here, don't you?" Fred said to Harry.

"I can't. You two have a shop to run. I'll just take Sevvy and find another place."

"Don't be ridiculous. We are coming with you. We'll just Apparate over to the shop."

"Yes, Harry, we are coming too," Ron and Hermione entered.

Hermione immediately (but fortunately silently) coo'ed over the little boy who was still sleeping next to Harry, curled against his side.

"Well, there is this solution…" George said, entering.

The other's looked up.

"The headmaster has written again. Fawkes just came by. He is offering us his summer home to stay. It's warding is immensely powerful, and Severus added to the wards in the past years. That means their strength will increase whenever he is in the house."

"But…" Ron started.

"He has also sent letters to Harry and Sevvy," George continued, ignoring his younger brother, "here they are. We will leave you to read them."

Seeing the boy was still asleep, Harry opened his own letter and started reading.

"Dear Harry,

Let me begin, child, by apologising. I don't know who I am kidding; a simple apology will not undo what I have done to you. I am very sorry, and I understand that you won't forgive me.

I do hope, my boy, that you will accept my help. I truly have no other intentions than to give you and Severus a truly happy summer. My summer house is well protected, large enough for you and your friends, and is at the seaside. I made sure it is already well stocked should you decide to take me up on my offer and are in need of…urgent relocating.

I also promise I will not go to the house unless you and Severus allow me.

I do not want to offer my illness as an excuse, Harry, but I do hope you will believe me when I say I see things much more clearly now. It does not make up for my poor decisions in the past, but it does mean I will do my best to regain your trust.

With sincere apologies,

Albus Dumbledore."

"Well, isn't that interesting," Harry said to himself.

"Harry? What's interesting?" Severus asked, sitting up.

"A letter from the headmaster, you have one too," the teen answered.

"Not a Howler?"

"Merlin, no. I think he wanted to apologise to you. He did to me."

"So I can read it?"

Harry smiled. "Yes, it's safe to read it. He won't hurt you anymore."

Severus opened his letter and started to read out loud.

"My darling boy…is that me?" he asked with wonder in his voice. Harry nodded.

"I was so glad when I heard you are with Harry. I have been worried about you. I am so very sorry, Severus, for being so cruel and mean to you. I did not want to be mean to you, but I was. I understand if you are very, very mad at me now, and never want to see me again."

Severus frowned. "Does that mean he is mad at me?"

"No, it means that he knows he did something that is very bad. He wants to see you very much so can make up for being mean, but he thinks you are so mad you never want to see him again."

"Oh. Ok. He writes some more." Severus did his best to read the next bit out loud too.

"My dear child, I have said very nasty things to you. You must remember that what I said to you was not true. You are a very beautiful, very special boy and I am sorry I didn't see that. I hope you will talk with Harry, and maybe, if you want, let me know how you are doing."

Severus looked at Harry.

"He's not mean anymore, is he?"

Harry stared at his own letter. "No, I don't think he is mean anymore, Sevvy. I think he is almost better."

"Are we going to see him? Or write to him?"

Harry looked up in surprise. "Do you want to?"

The boy looked at him. "Sometimes I just know things," he confessed, his gaze slowly going to the bedding, "like I've known them for a very long time. I think it's from when I was big. Like how I can see that Fred is not George."

Harry 'aaah'ed in understanding. So that's how he could tell the twins apart. Snape had always been able to do that.

The boy plucked at the blankets. "I have that feeling about the headmaster too now. I mean, I'm scared of him…because he was so mean…but I think when I was big, he was not mean. I think I loved him when I was big. Like he was my Daddy. It's hard to explain…"

Harry patted his hand. "I think I understand, Sevvy. He has told us we can go stay at his summer house. It's even safer than the Bungalow. Fred and George, and Ron and Hermione are coming with us. We are going there today. How about we both write him a letter when we get there?"

Severus smiled brilliantly.

"But can we play Quidditch at his place?" he demanded to know, "because he is very old. Would he have a place to play Quidditch? Or does he just have lots of tables to play Ferry?"

-The Burrow-

Arthur Weasley roamed the house. It felt so empty. His three youngest sons were gone. Hermione as well. To Harry, no doubt.

The Grey Lady had given him a lot to think about. He picked up Severus's diary again but couldn't bring himself to read it. He suddenly felt a hand on his shoulder.

"I'm sorry, Arthur…" his wife was in tears. He put his arms around her.

"We were all wrong," he said softly into her hair, "but it's not too late to repair the damages, love. They're probably at the WWW. Why don't we go to the Alley and see if they want to talk to us? We're going to ask nicely this time."

Molly smiled hopefully, before rushing to the Floo.

They nearly ran through the long cobbled street, and knocked on the door.

"Fred? George? Ron?" Molly called. The door opened.

"Children?"

Nothing. No response.

Molly walked into the various rooms, noticing open wardrobes, suggesting a hasty departure. When she entered Fred and George's room, she screamed.

There were bloody sheets on the bed, and a collection of empty potions vials on the dresser.

Arthur ran into the room, alarmed. He took one look at the mess and paled. Walking back into the livingroom, trying to find any clue as to what had happened, but found none. Except for one. A tiny snake slithered from beneath the couch. Arthur picked it up.

"What is it?"

"A snake. I would guess it belongs to either Harry or Severus. The Zoo did report four missing snakes, one of them matching this little one's description."

Molly smiled slightly through her tears. "So it was them, at the Zoo."

"I'd say yes," Arthur nodded, "she must have escaped from a pocket and in the rush of leaving they probably didn't notice she had gone."

Molly stroked the tiny head. "Let's take her and look after her, she'd die on her own in here."

Miles away, Harry smirked.

"Did it work?" Ron asked.

"Yes, they took her. Fred, you can go off standby. They've taken her in."

Ss "Well done, my little spy,"Ss Harry hissed to the snake over the bond they had managed to create using his link to Voldemort.

Severus looked anxious.

"Will they take good care of her?"

"She is going to be a very spoiled little snake when you get her back," Harry smiled, "They will be very good to her."

Severus swallowed, but then beamed with pride. "My Circe is a real spy," he said in awe, "that is so cool."

The others looked at the boy with a mixture of amusement and knowing sadness.