Before they got any further, a snatch of a conversation came on the windless air of the library.
"Albus, I'm not sure what you were expecting..." Snape's sly voice slid through the stacks of the library, "Surely you didn't want me to lie to the boy?"
"Did you need to tell him that you'd ended your investigation?" Dumbledore said, "You've made the poor lad scared of going to school."
"Oh, and we'd never want that." Snape's tone oozed venom, the flesh-eating kind, "He's arrogant enough without having someone out to kill him. I'd throttle the neck of whomever decided that the Middle of a Quiddich Game was the appropriate time for permanently dealing with an eleven year old."
"You always did loathe sloppy work," Dumbledore said mildly.
"You're not upset at me telling the truth, you know," Snape said, and Harry pictured those pitchblack eyes meeting Dumbedore's watery blues. "You're upset you had to tell the truth."
Dumbledore responded placidly, "Whatever do you mean?"
"I mean that you didn't want him to know you were his magical guardian, of course."
"And why wouldn't I want that?" Dumbledore asked
"Custody is properly yours, and you know it." Snape said. Shite, Harry thought, that's right! He might not have to go back to the Dursleys, back to no magic and designer beatings by Dudley, and boredom.
Of course, there was the small matter of going Home with Dumbledore, a person who seemed batty on the best of days, and if Snape was even in the remote ballpark of being right, both didn't want Harry, and didn't want Harry to know that he didn't want him, despite the legal duty.
Harry Potter could ask Dumbledore. The Boy who Lived might even compel Dumbledore, if he was willing to spill his guts.
But who wanted to change a place where nobody wanted him for yet another place where nobody wanted him?
[a/n: Second post today. leave a review!]