Disclaimer: Anything you recognise belongs to J.K. Rowling. I own nothing, make no money from anything, and am writing this purely for personal enjoyment.

AU. The story starts at the beginning of Harry's seventh year, but ignores the events of HBP. No parings, Snape mentors Harry. OC's, but they will not be the focus of the story.

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Harry spent the rest of the train ride miserably reading a book and chatting with some of the other Gryffindors. At the feast, Hermione and Ron positioned themselves at the bottom end of the table to welcome the new first years. It was nothing he could rationally take offence to, but still... He resolved to sit down with Ron as soon as they got back to the dorms. Food would put him in good mood, and they might be able to clear the air straight away.

He picked carefully at his food while the others were eating, and as soon as it was polite, laid down his knife and fork. He stood up and knocked straight into something. Turning around to apologise, he trailed off mid-word - behind him was an exceptionally grim looking Professor Snape.

"Attacking a teacher, Mr Potter? Tsk tsk. I'd expect someone of your fame to be a better role-model, don't you think?"

"I'm sorry, Professor, but it was an accident!"

"So you're telling me you're not a homicidal maniac, simply a clumsy idiot?"

Harry gaped at him.

"And now lack of respect for a professor. I think that calls for a detention. Immediately. With me."

"But..."

"Would you care to make that two, Mr Potter?"

Harry shook his head.

"Then come along."

Snape was half way across the room before Harry had figured it out. He needs to talk to me about my training. Harry was irritated at his slowness. Still, did he have to be such a git about it? Immediately the answer to his hypothetical question sprung to his lips. Yes!

They soon turned off the normal routes to the potions labs, and Harry had to half ran to keep up with Snape as he sped through dark corridors, twice straight through 'walls'. As they went through the final door, Harry felt a sharp sting. Snape turned and smirked at his involuntary gasp.

"The wards, Potter. Perfectly safe for vampires, but it will do some very nasty things to your little friends if they try to enter here."

"I know I can't tell my friends about this!"

"Really? Because you've never shown the faintest ability to appreciate discretion before."

Harry seethed, but decided to keep his peace for the mean time. He needed answers, and Snape was the only person who could give them to him. He avoided Snape's eyes by examining the room. He was himself strangely disappointed that it wasn't a clichéd dimly lit dungeon. It was hard to take this all seriously while surrounded by beige couches and warm wooden tables.

Severus closed the door behind them, and bowed briefly to one of the statues.

"Lord Mircea, guide me. What have I done to deserve this?"

Irritated and tired of being treated like an object, Harry interrupted, "it's not like I'm looking forward to this either, you know."

Harry didn't even see him turn around. He heard an ominous crack, and then the smooth texture of the panelled wall against his cheek. He reached out to stop himself from sliding down, but his left arm didn't seem to want to obey him. He hit the ground with a thump, and his arm exploded with pain. He cradled it in bewilderment. I've broken my arm. Harry closed his eyes in a vain effort to stop the dizziness. Snape broke my arm! The silence was absolute, and soon his need to know what was going on outweighed his need to hide. He took a few unneeded breaths and reopened his eyes. He tried to flinch back when he realised Snape's face was no more than two inches from his own, but he was trapped by the wall.

"Potter, childling, bloodling, " hissed Snape. "You may act your usual arrogant self beyond these walls, but within them, remember ... who ... we ... are."

The full consequences of his situation came sharply into focus. He had put himself out of Dumbledore's protection and into the hands of Snape. He could feel his body trembling and he was getting colder by the second. This man could kill him simply by ceasing to help him, and to say he didn't like Harry would be an absurd understatement.

"Y...yes, Elder," he stammered, hoping that was appropriately respectful.

"Better, but I am not an Elder. You will call me 'Magister'. I do hope your Latin is sufficient to know that means teacher?"

It wasn't, but Harry nodded anyway.

"Good."

Snape stood up and stepped back. Harry could feel his shoulders relaxing as soon as he was no longer trapped against the wall. He hesitantly stood up, still supporting his arm.

"I suppose we could move up the lesson on self-healing," drawled Snape with a smirk. "What do you think, childling?"

Harry bowed his head and spoke with utmost care, "if it pleases you, Magister."

"Hmmm..." said Snape, not bothering to conceal his enjoyment. "We'd better, I suppose, or you'll be even more whinny and inattentive than you usually are."

Thankfully the healing was quite simple, essentially simply reminding the vampire body of what it was supposed to look like and Harry managed to accomplish it without giving way to tears. He somehow didn't think that Snape would be sympathetic.

"I will now show you around the place. Recall where everything is, and take special note of what you may not touch. You may take notes."

He may take notes? On a tour? But Snape simply stood and watched him until he dug the appropriate materials out of his bag.

"Here we have the lounge. This is my place to relax, not yours. You will be in here only with me or as is necessary to get to other places. You will not sit on the furniture. You will not put things down on the countertops."

Harry wrote that down to stop himself from reacting. Better Snape treat him like a pet than like a punching bag. He shuffled along behind Snape into a large empty room.

"This is the practice area. As you can see, it contains nothing you can break. You may spend as much time here as you like."

Gee, thanks.

"This is my specialised laboratory," he said, gesturing at a closed door on the far end. "Do not even approach the door."

Like I'd want to, anyway.

"This is the general purpose laboratory."

Snape waited for Harry to precede him through the last door. Harry squinted his eyes against the bright lights. After a few blinks, a very white room came into focus - white floors, white walls, and long white countertops. The only things to break the sterility was a network of rat cages in one corner, and a completely incongruous but familiar fish tank in the middle of the floor.

"And here we have the soil you were buried in. You do know that you will need to return to it on a regularly for the first seven years?"

"Yes, Magister."

"We will work out a timetable by which you sleep here occasionally. Once a month should do it, but it will have to be during the day so as not to alert your dormitory mates."

Oh well, some extra sleep will be nice, Harry told himself, deliberately not thinking of the confined space of the coffin.

They walked back into the lounge and Snape took his time settling into a chair. Harry shifted from foot to foot, frustrated.

"Now as to rules. Normal feeding will have to be curtailed while you are at Hogwarts. Eat some of your normal meals, but do not eat large quantities, no matter how hungry you are. Normal food provides very little in the way of sustenance, so you will simply succeed in making yourself ill. I will provide you with what I live on myself, but you are too young to survive on that alone. Therefore while we are here, and only because we are here, you may feed from me once every two weeks. You will observe proper etiquette while doing so."

The enjoyment he took over those words alerted Harry to a new horror.

"Proper etiquette?" he asked cautiously.

"Oh, I'll teach you that in good time, Potter. Well?"

Harry looked at him in confusion.

"Write that down! Honestly, have you not spent six years in my classes?"

Harry scribbled down: 1. Don't eat too much. Feeding from Snape (to be explained later). He continued to keep his notes perfectly neutral. He wouldn't put it past Snape to mark it later.

"Secondly, you will take over care of the rats."

"What do you have rats for?"

"To feed from. My blood and the potion will only go so far."

Harry could feel his jaw drop. "You want me to kill them?"

"You have never been a vegetarian, Mr Potter. Or is it perfectly moral to benefit from the actions of others, but beneath you to perform those actions yourself?"

Harry looked away in confusion. He couldn't argue with Snape's point, but to feed and care for the little things just to eat them...

"Next. You are here to learn. I will give up two evenings a week for that purpose. You will be on time, you will be courteous, and you will complete all the assignments I give you. Some of those assignments will be practicals, which you must perform here, the rest you may not. "

Harry nodded, writing that down. I want to spend as little time here as possible, too.

"Finally, you will not leave Hogwarts without my explicit and express permission."

"So, Hogsmeade weekends...?"

Snape smiled vindictively. "Are to be spent on the grounds."

That one didn't upset Harry as much as Snape had clearly been anticipating. He was pretty sure that this year someone would forbid it. It wasn't safe, and even he saw the wisdom in not taking unnecessary chances.

"We will first be resuming Occlumency training, as I have grave doubts about your training with the headmaster. We will also start training in the other mental arts. They are best taught together, but the Headmaster thought they were too dark for you. And this time you will do what I say."

What? That wasn't what he was here for. "I need to learn to drain Voldemort!"

"You need to learn what I tell you to learn."

"But..."

"Childling..."

Harry clutched his arm and took a step back. "Yes, Magister." Tired off being pushed around, he muttered under his breath "you're getting off on having this kind of power over me."

Snape stood up and stalked over to him, peering down his nose.

"Yes, Potter. Possibly the most irritating, obnoxious person in the world, and I am duty bound to raise you, if that's at all possible, for the next fourteen years. I am ecstatic at the thought of spending that kind of time with you."

"Fourteen years?" Shock at that piece of information almost overcame his fear at being trapped once again.

"Yes, Potter. That is how long it takes before presentation. You will potentially be alive for the rest of eternity, did you imagine we would allow you play by yourself after only a few months?"

"I didn't think..."

"That much is perfectly obvious. I will teach you as I see fit, and you will comply without further whining, is that clear?"

"Yes Magister," whispered Harry in defeat.

Snape stepped back just far enough to let him past. "Now get out of my sight. And don't be late tomorrow."

Harry turned and ran out the door and down the corridor. Within minutes he was out of breath and hopelessly lost. He forced himself to calm down and think. Using his wand to determine his direction every handful of paces and testing every section of wall for hidden entrances, he finally found his way back to familiar passages. It was well after curfew by the time he made it back to his dormitory. He paused by Ron's bed, but Ron would not appreciate being woken up at this time of night. Finally, Harry slipped into his own bed, tired, alone, and not a little afraid.

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