The moment Severus left the room he rushed to get away from there. The image of those empty green eyes haunted him even years after Lily's death and now he had seen them again in her own son. He stormed through the corridors, students parting the way for him. Even those that usually secretly sneered at him looked at him terrified and ducked out of his line of sight.

Perhaps he should occlude, but he could not get those haunting eyes out of his head. Had he been wrong? No… it couldn't be. Dumbledore would get him the help he needed.

He could see. He was not blind. He could see that the boy was becoming attached to him. It didn't surprise him. He too had been susceptible to any supportive father figure that had crossed his way once upon a time. Severus had tried not to be like that to Potter. But he had to care. Somebody had. But why him? He was supposed to protect him in secret.

Yes. Now they would both be able to proceed as they had been doing. Potter would have his friends and Black. Severus would carry on as he had. A spy didn't need attachments when he could die at any moment.

He got to his rooms and slumped down in the sofa. All traces of Potter's stay was gone. As it should be. This is as it always should have been. So why was he feeling like such a bloody coward? He needed to know what Dumbledore had planned for the boy.

He summoned a house-elf to make him a strong earl grey tea. "With lemon." The house-elf nodded and popped away. A few minutes later he was sipping away at the bittersweet brew. He felt relieved but guilty. Relieved if Dumbledore would help the boy, guilty if it didn't help at all.

The minutes passed. Eventually he put the cup down and took a deep breath. He closed his eyes to calm down but it only brought to the front of his mind that haunting image of Potter. He got up. 'This needs to be settled now.'

He stood up and put the cup down, going back the path he crossed just an hour before. He noticed himself searching for the brat's face in the few packs of students making their way to the common rooms. The few Gryffindors he saw were not the one he was looking for. Soon he was knocking on the headmaster's door again.

"Come in… Oh, Severus." Severus walked in. The headmaster was alone.

"So, headmaster? What is to be done about Potter?"

"I believe occlumency is not the ideal method to use with Harry."

"Yes, well… I realised that. But what about that muggle?" He asked. Dumbledore avoided looking up at him.

"It would not be wise to draw attention to little whinging by arresting the muggle." Severus had suspected as much.

"Did you tell Potter this?"

"I wouldn't want him to think too much about such a subject. I've let him know he can come to me at any time." Something Potter was likely to never do.

"He nearly placed himself in an everlasting sleep. Perhaps a mind healer would be more appropriate." He insisted. Dumbledore looked up and smiled.

"Could it be Severus, that after all this time you've actually started to care for the boy?" Severus felt himself sneer.

"Did you expect me to see his miserable childhood and make a connection to him?" That wiped the smile off Dumbledore's face.

"I never expected he would have gone through such a thing."

"He needs a mind healer." He insisted.

"And how long before the entire wizarding world finds out every little detail?" Dumbledore made sense.

"We'll make him swear the unbreakable vow."

Dumbledore shook his head and sighed, the weight of the subject heavy on his shoulders. If only he knew what it was like to have carried it for two weeks. He certainly did not come close knowing what the weight was like for Potter.

"It is against their policy to make such vows. And it doesn't seem like the magical world is keen on giving Harry Potter any exceptions."

So all of this had indeed been pointless. He had made the teen sit through another questioning while he just walked away. Yet nothing had come from it. Well, they learned that occlumency was dangerous for him. Also that Dumbledore was incapable of helping him any further. It was hard to forget sometimes that Albus Dumbledore was not Merlin himself. That he was not omnipotent as even the Dark Lord seemed to believe sometimes.

"So what about Potter?"

"He has been fine until now. If things get out of hand I will find a mind healer for him over the summer, when he won't be bothered." Snape couldn't understand why he found himself adamant to accept that reply.

"No. Someone needs to talk to him."

"You are starting to sound like a persistent parent, Severus." He chose to ignore such a ridiculous notion.

"Potter is getting out of control. Someone needs to stop that." Dumbledore looked at him for a while but Severus maintained eye contact.

"Very well." Severus felt tension leave his shoulders. "You will talk to him." Never mind.

"I am not…experienced in this matter."

"It's the best I can do for him at the moment my boy." Severus cringed at the prospect of facing the boy again. No wonder he felt like a coward. He was one.

"Very well. I will see to him." He finally said. "Give me his file."

Dumbledore had the gall to look amused. He received Potter's file and looked through it. It was very lightweight compared to his own Slytherins' files. Each year had the boy's picture, each year's transcript and little else. A couple of letters informing his muggle relatives about how he was doing that stopped after the only reply. A harsh and insulting letter angrily demanding that the letters needed to stop and that the 'freak' was nothing to do with them until the end of school year.

"Charming." Severus said and put the letter down, looking at the pictures.

The baby faced first year stared nervously at Severus and blinked confused at the flash, rubbing his eyes before the image started once more. The next showed a shaken second year with twigs sticking out from his messy hair after getting tussled by the whomping willow. 'Stupid boy could have broken his neck!'

The third was quite normal and Potter looked bored with the process of having the picture taken. The fourth actually had him smiling. Not a big smile per se, but it was a smile. No doubt the brat was happy that his godfather had escaped. 'Stupid Black.'

And then there was the most recent, taken last September. Potter did not smile. He looked tired from the shadows under his eyes and disinterested in the camera as he slouched and walked away as soon as the flash went off.

"There isn't much is there." Severus said closing the file and handing it back.

"His studies are not bad." Dumbledore said. "His lowest scores are usually potions."

Severus scoffed. Of course they were. He stood up. "I will be taking my leave headmaster."

"Do let me know if there is anything I can do to help." Yes. As if that were likely to happen. He nodded and stood, leaving the room. He would send the boy a note for another lesson of 'remedial' potions.

The following day, he glanced at Potter as he received the note. The boy controlled his anger fairly well this time. However, he stood up and made a show of tearing up the piece of parchment. He didn't even glance up to see if Severus was watching or not. He proceeded to toss the pieces at the table, his friends glancing curiously at his display as the parchment pieces combusted and turned to ashes before they even hit Potter's untouched plate.

Without looking at the teacher's table the boy grabbed his bag and walked out of the great hall. Severus put his fork down and gave Dumbledore a look that Severus hoped would convey how he blamed the headmaster for this. Now he had to find a more obvious way to get the blasted boy to talk to him once more.

oOoOoOo oOoOoOo oOoOoOo

Harry was furious. How dare he start that rubbish again? Dumbledore had said it was best to leave things as they were and Harry was more than happy to go with that.

He made his way to the room of requirement, which Neville had told them about the day before. Inside, a small potion's lab was set out with one bubbling cauldron. Harry approached and put his bag down, looking at the instructions, making sure he hadn't messed it up as he tended to do.

Thankfully the potion was as it needed to be. He threw the required number of leeches into the cauldron. Grabbing the marble mortar provided by the room, he added the lacewing flies and crushed them, adding the fine powder into the brew. He waited a while and with a wave of his wand he left the cauldron to simmering away. He now had to wait before he could complete the second part of the brewing process.

Once more he looked at the book, double checking that he'd done everything as instructed. He looked at the golden hair corked into one of the flasks. Malfoy's. In a month's time he would transform into him and demand the apothecary to tell him what ingredients the potion's master had bought and offer to pay for another batch. He just hoped that those rare ingredients had indeed been the ones Snape had ordered before Christmas. He refused to let this debt hang over him. He would owe nothing to no one. He would pay for Snape's ingredients, hope they are the ones Harry had ruined and focus on his O.W.L.s… and anything that could pertain to Voldemort.

He nodded to himself and bookmarked the polyjuice potion pages before grabbing his bag and leaving the room.