"What exactly, sir?" Harry asked cautiously, following Snape uncertainly. He again got into his personal apartments and this was to some extent alarming.

"As your temporary guardian," Snape especially emphasized the penultimate words. Which made it clear to Harry that he, too, is not very happy about this event - I need to provide you with a private room?

The boy was taken aback for a second. And then a million images of a terrible basement with a bunch of rats and cockroaches flashed through his head. And a dirty, dusty mattress in the middle.

"Don't worry about that, sir. I do not need a private room, because there is a dorm," tried to reject Harry's offer, to which Snape snorted quietly, but did not answer.

"Wow ..." Potter couldn't help but cry out as Severus showed him the new room. She turned out to be very pretty. Made in pleasant green and black colors. The huge bed was in the very center. On the bedclothes was a huge golden lion, which sometimes moved and even roared softly. On the other side were bookshelves and a large oak table. And near the opposite wall was a linen closet with a bunch of brand new clothes. On other shelves were all sorts of funny knickknacks. A broom care kit, a few enchanted soldiers, an astronomical map in the form of a globe, and the like.

"Professor Dumbledore and Professor McGonagall took care of the interior of the room and its contents," the man explained calmly, observing the boy's reaction.

"So I can come here sometimes?" Harry looked uncertainly at the Potions Master.

"Don't ask stupid questions, Potter," Snape hissed irritably. "This is your room and you can come here whenever you want."

"Thanks, sir." Harry irritated the Potions Master's providence, but he tried not to show it in any way. Yet for some time he will have to somehow coexist with him.

"Now I want to discuss some rules with you," the man began, gesturing for the boy to sit down. Harry rolled his eyes and whispered almost imperceptibly:

"Well, where can we go without them? I knew that the private room was so simply unworthy," Snape decided to ignore the words of the pompous child and continued.

"First. I don't want you and your friends to wander around school at night. Second. I don't want you to get in trouble. And if anything happens, I want you to come to me. I also will not tolerate disrespect for myself. Otherwise, unpleasant consequences await you. Do you understand me?"

"Yes, sir. Can I bring my friends here? Now it was Snape's turn to roll his eyes. Where is our national hero without his little friends?"

"If they don't interfere with my work," Potter nodded, having a room of my own in noisy Hogwarts was not a bad idea. Although, he would rather sleep in Gryffindor Tower.

"Then, can I go?"

"Yes, just tell your friends what we talked about. I don't want you to risk your life. Good luck."

Harry walked out of Severus's apartment with a satisfied smile on his face. His friends were also sitting on the windowsill.

"Well, what is there?" Ron asked excitedly, running up to Harry.

"He's now officially my guardian. And now I have my own room, and he even let you come to me, cool isn't it?" Ron and Hermione looked at their friend skeptically.

"What?"

"Are you sure this person really wants us to come to him? In my opinion, to put it mildly, he doesn't like us very much."

"I think he just hates us. I am sure about that."

"Eh ... you're right, I still can't forget what he told us last year," Snape's multiple insults to Hermione and Ron immediately flashed through Potter's head.

"Okay, there is no time to think about it. You will soon start working off, so hurry up?" the guys nodded and hurried each in their own direction. Ron to Filch, and Harry to Lockhart.

Like all previous detentions, with Lockhart, Harry would not turn his tongue to call him a professor; he did not listen to the man at all. Completely immersed in his own thoughts, the boy mechanically answered the letters, not paying any attention to Gilderoy's empty chatter. Only a low whisper caught his attention.

"Professor? Did you hear the voice?"

"What voice, Harry? Oh, look at the time. We seem to have lingered here."

Lockhart finally let go of Potter and Potter hurried out of sight. A strange voice could not get out of his head. He didn't even notice how he bumped into his friends.

"Ouch! Harry, do you never look where you are going?"

"I'm sorry, but I have to tell you something," the boy told everything that happened to him in the last few minutes.

"How strange," Hermione thought for a second, "This is not very good, even for the wizarding world."

"Something strange has been happening to me all the time lately," Harry sighed. "So what are you doing here? I thought you were already in the great hall."

"We are looking for you, Filch just let me go, on the way I met Hermione and we wanted to go to the main hall, we thought Lockhart let you go a long time ago. But Sir Nicholas said that you are not, and we went to look for you," Ron blurted out in one breath, and Hermione nodded affirmatively. But as soon as the guys turned around to go to dinner, Harry heard the voice again.

"He's somewhere near. He wants to kill someone!" Potter screamed and jumped from his place in the opposite direction. Friends excitedly looked at each other and followed him. It didn't take long to run. As soon as they go up to the second floor and turn the corner, they have not the most pleasant view. On the white walls of the corridor, someone wrote in blood:

"The Slytherin Heir is back!"

"It's Filch's cat!" Hermione screamed when she saw a dark ball of wool hanging from the torch holders by the tail.

"We'd better leave, it would be bad if someone noticed us," Ron was the first to catch on, trying to take his friends to hell, but it was too late. Most of the students finished their supper and went about their business. Before the trio had time to look back, they were surrounded by several dozen students.

Then the complete confusion began. Students from different departments began loudly discussing the words on the wall. And when Filch came running to the screams, he almost strangled Harry. Fortunately, he was stopped in time by Dumbledore, accompanied by several more teachers. Snape was among them.

"All students, except for the three of you, immediately return to your rooms," the corridor was instantly empty. Gilderoy continued to rant about his great magical abilities, but no one listened to him.

"Argus, Mr. Potter and his friends are not guilty until they prove otherwise," the director explained with a benevolent smile on his face, as always.

"Let's say that Mr. Potter and his friends are at the scene by accident. But why didn't I see you at dinner?" Severus turned to the guys.

"We ... Well, we ..." Harry hesitated for a second, but quickly orientated himself, "I was at Professor Lockhart' detention and we were a little late," Lockhart confirmed this, much to the relief of the trio, he did not say anything about the voice that Harry heard.

"I also recently finished working off."

"And I was waiting for Ron, we wanted to go to the big hall, but Sir Nicholas said that Harry had not come yet and we went to look for him. When we met, he said that ..." Hermione hesitated, not knowing what to say next.

"What did Mr. Potter say?" The man asked with barely noticeable irritation, casting a cold glance at the girl.

"I said I don't want to eat and we were going to go to our rooms," Harry took the lead. He didn't want to tell anyone about the strange voices, especially Snape. "But we came across it," the boy pointed to Filch's petrified cat.

"We're really innocent, professor. They were just passing by."

"I'm sure of that, Miss Granger. You have nothing to worry about," the old man smiled softly, "you can be free."

"Not so quickly, I would like to talk to this trio, Headmaster," the Potions Master suddenly interjected into the conversation, which made Harry, Ron and Hermione's heart skip a beat. The last thing they wanted was to make excuses to the terrible teacher of the dungeon.

"That's your right, Severus. But please do not press too hard on them," the director wished the trinity a good day and disappeared behind the next bend with the rest of the teachers. Leaving Snape alone with the restless children.

"Follow me," as always coldly ordered the man. No one dared to disobey.

Once again, Harry had a slight déjà vu. He sat with friends on a wide black sofa in the apartment of the most unloved Hogwarts teacher.

"I can not believe it. It was only recently that I told you not to get into trouble. And so we're back where we started," Snape raged as he paced the living room here and there.

"We're innocent for trouble finding us," Ron muttered. Potions Master was obviously unimpressed, but before he could say anything, Hermione continued.

"It's true, sir. We didn't think something like that could happen. We were just returning to our tower after a hard day."

"And Filch attacked me before either of us could explain," Harry said to his friends. He still felt the iron grip on his throat.

"And what, you were not hungry at all? I remember the three of you not that much ate at breakfast," the friends quickly nodded, but their bellies were thinking about something completely different and confirmed the suspicions of the potion master. The three blushed bright red and stared at the floor.

"Eh ... Wiesel!" with a quiet pop, an elf appeared in the room.

"What do you want, sir?"

"Bring the kids dinner and make us some tea." The teenagers stared at Snape in shock. Who would have thought that the professor, instead of leaving them hungry as punishment, would give them dinner?

"This minute, sir," the elf disappeared at the same moment.

"I continued our conversation ..." the guys were not happy for long. As soon as Wiesel left, Severus continued to chastise the three for their terrible ability to attract trouble. Fortunately, very soon the elf returned with a whole tray of food.

"Thank you, Wiesel."

"You're welcome."

The supper went off calmly. The three ate in silence, sometimes glancing at each other, and glanced at Snape, who was drinking tea. The cakes the elf brought the children for tea turned out to be just wonderful. Although the older man did not approve of sweets before bed, he said nothing this time. By the end of the meal, the children were nodding. It was already quite late, though.

"We ... should go back ... Sir ..." Hermione could not suppress a yawn. She rested her head on Ron's shoulder. Harry sat down on the other side and also used his friend as a pillow.

"You can stay here, I doubt you can make it to your tower like this," Severus sighed. The children were completely tired.

"Don't worry, sir. We'll return to the tower without incident." The last thing Ron wanted was to stay in Snape's apartment. Therefore, he stood up carefully, trying not to disturb his friends. But half asleep, he stumbled and nearly fell. Fortunately, the potion maker was nearby and easily held the red-haired boy by the collar of his robe.

"Don't be silly, Mr. Weasley." The man gently lifted the boy to his feet. Looking back on the couch, he saw Potter and Granger leaning against each other for a long time already snuffling.

"Come on, Mr. Weasley. The three of you should rest." Severus was surprised to find that he had no trouble lifting the two teenagers. They were too light. Sleepy Ron trotted alongside, trying to keep up with the wide steps of the man, and now and then stumbled. At some point, he even had to grab the man's elbow in order not to fall.

"Harry's better to sleep in the middle, he sometimes turns and may fall if he sleeps in a new place," just in case, said Ron when they entered Potter's new room, "And Hermione is freezing at night, so it's better to give her another blanket."

Snape was a little surprised at the boy's knowledge, but nodded. He put the children down on a wide bed. It's good that Dumbledore decided to take such a large one. Although the Potions Master was against pampering the boy, the old sly fox must have foreseen something similar. The man did everything that the red-haired boy told him, who was almost asleep by that time.

Covering the trinity with a warm blanket, they pressed tightly to each other, he completely unexpectedly said for himself:

"Good night," three children's voices became even more unexpected.

"Good night, sir."

"Good night, professor."

"Good night, dad..."

A strange, pleasant, warm feeling spread through Snape's body. He would never have thought that he would be glad to have a trio of unbearable troublemakers resting in his apartment. The son of James Potter, an insufferable know-it-all and one of the redheads. At that moment, Severus could not help the slight smile on his face as he left the child's room. Still, being the temporary guardian of Potter (of the entire golden trinity) for a while is not so bad. With this in mind, he went to his room to check his third year essays.