First of all, thank-you all for all the wonderful reviews! The only comment I have is that maybe someday I'll explain in a flashback where that lullaby that Severus sings to baby Harry and that whole scene in the first chapter comes from… It all makes sense :)

Then sorry it took so long but RL can be rough sometimes, that's all I have to say. I'll try to do better next chapter.

Cheers,

Alia

Disclaimer: Harry Potter and all related characters and ideas are the whole intellectual property of Ms. J.K. Rowling and are hers alone to sell. I do not receive, nor would I accept any compensation for any of the owned intellectual property of Ms. Rowling (nor that which she has licensed to WB etc.). What follows is just a wacky little ditty I wanted to get out of my brain. It only got there because I so love that which Ms. Rowling created. No copyright infringement is intended.

Harry Potter, Inter-house Spy and (young) Man of Potions

Pulling Fred and George's very special map out, Harry Potter checked one more time to be sure. He breathed a sigh of relief only after making certain from the absence of dots on the map that no one was in the teacher's common room. 

The Marauder's Map that Fred and George had nicked from Filch's file cabinet several years ago had come in handy in the twins' regular mischief making. For Harry, who was quite adept at making mischief already, it just made things that much easier, and since he'd helped them figure out how to use it, they didn't ask questions when Harry asked to borrow it from time to time.

When he'd first realised that the map registered the teacher's wing (though not within the teacher's apartments), and even gave the passwords to get in, Harry'd been petrified that the twins would use it and cause trouble in there. Though Dumbledore (and secretly McGonagall) usually found the pranks amusing, and his Dad would believe him if he told him he hadn't given them the password, Harry knew for certain that Filch would blame him.

Luckily for him, and to the complete disappointment of the twins, the teacher's wing was protected a little better than just by password: most of the passwords were voice encoded and unique to each person who had right to enter. Though Harry's voice saying the password Agor Harry Potter let Harry in, Dumbledore used the password Agor Albus Dumbledore – and when Fred had tried to trick it by using Harry's password, he'd found himself with blue spots that were rather difficult to explain.

Creeping now through the common room, he quickly entered his apartments knowing his father was in the dungeon with Fred and George, having given them a detention for goofing off in class. Securing the door, he quietly wiped the map with a muttered 'Mischief managed,' and let himself smile at his success. It had been too easy!

As he'd promised, Harry had made use of those secret passages into the Slytherin common room to spy on Malfoy – confirming his assertion that Malfoy, though agreeing with the anti-Muggle-born sentiments, had not opened the Chamber of Secrets. Nor did he know who was responsible – indeed, Harry'd seen Malfoy trying to eavesdrop on several older Slytherin students hoping they knew who it was.

Harry'd been very worried about being caught sneaking into the Slytherin dorms and common room though, so he'd decided to borrow a certain item to make it safer…

When he'd been ten, Albus had passed a certain very special cloak on to Harry. James Potter had left it in his care, and the headmaster had thought that it was time it was given to Harry. Severus had disagreed. First, it was quite a bit too big on ten-year-old Harry, but of more concern to Severus was how much more and dangerous trouble Harry might get in with such a tool as an Invisibility Cloak. Though a valuable item, Severus couldn't see how a child could possibly use such a thing except for trouble, so he'd taken it for safe-keeping until Harry came of age. If he asked, Severus would let him see it, and even play with it if he wanted – but only under supervision. Harry was under strict orders not to touch the cloak without permission.

In his more lucid moments of logical mature thinking, Harry had to agree with him. An Invisibility Cloak was a pretty cool thing to own, but really, what good was it to a kid, except to sneak around where he really shouldn't be? However, in this case, his fear of being caught sneaking into the Slytherin common room had outweighed his promise not to touch the cloak, so he'd borrowed it. Well, it was his, technically, sort-of… at least it would be his when he came of age and he inherited everything his parents had left him, all of which was held in trust for him now by Severus. He'd never told the twins about it – and he hadn't told Ron and Hermione about it now either. He knew that it would be too easy to let them talk him into sneaking and using it more if he did…

Stuffing the now blank map parchment in his bag he pulled out the carefully folded cloak and made his way to his father's room. Careful not to disturb anything, Harry reached for the knob to pull open the old wardrobe – and knew instantly that he'd been premature in congratulating himself on his success.

He felt the telltale phantom tug somewhere behind his navel, and a whooshing sensation for the briefest moment before feeling himself slam into an immovable object whose arms grabbed hold of him to prevent him falling backward onto his bum.

'Oh, no…' Harry felt all of the colour drain from his face as he looked up into his father's angry face.

'I'll take that,' he answered in a deceptively calm voice, relieving Harry of the bundle he still held. 'Head up to your room, I'll be up later to speak with you about this,' he promised before turning Harry and giving him a gentle push toward his office door (through which he could find a secret entrance to their apartment).

'Dad,' Harry tried quickly as he was herded across the room. 'I can explain…'

'I'm sure you can,' Severus returned. Though his voice was calm, Harry took no comfort from it when he looked into the suddenly hard features of his father's face. 'And explain you will – when I'm through here.'

Looking past his father, Harry saw the twins watching, both frozen in the midst of scrubbing cauldrons and decided that he didn't want to push matters any further in front of them. With a final pleading look that found no solace in his father's eyes, Harry turned and hurried through the door into the office and up to his room.

****************************

'Busted…' Fred whispered to his brother as they watched Harry shuffle away.

'Silence,' the Professor reminded them. 'Unless you want to miss dinner, you'd best hurry up – you still have two dozen more to finish.'

The twins reluctantly went back to work, only holding in twin groans with an effort. Seeing their professor stalk back to his desk, stuffing the confiscated bundle into a drawer, they silently agreed that they had best stay silent and work as quickly as possible. They weren't fooled for a moment by the seemingly calm demeanour of their professor – he was angry! And even they weren't crazy enough to want to trigger that anger.

The instant they were released, they rushed up to the Gryffindor common room to seek out Ron and Hermione.

'Oi!' Fred whispered harshly, indicating to Ron for him to join them in a corner.

'What's going on?' Hermione demanded seeing their expressions when she followed Ron over.

'What was Harry up to about an hour ago?'

'Dunno.' Ron frowned. 'Said something about running up to the teacher's wing for a minute… come to think of it.' Ron's frown deepened. 'He should've been back by now. Why? What do you know?'

'Well, we were in detention with Snape just now… Just shut it alright?' George added to Ron's smug look.

'Anyway, we're cleaning cauldrons…'

'Slaving away…'

'You know, the usual…' The twins often spoke like this when they were excited or worked up – one after the other as if they were a single unit.

'When all of a sudden…'

'BAM!'

'Harry appears out of nowhere!'

'What do you mean?' Hermione interrupted them. 'He ran into the room?'

'No!' Fred said eagerly. 'Just BAM! He was there!'

'Portkey we reckon…'

'He slammed right into Snape's chest…'

'Would've landed on his backside if Snape hadn't grabbed hold…'

'Snape looked furious!'

'And Harry just looks up and says something like uh-oh…'

'And he was carrying this package – Harry I mean…'

'And Snape took it and told him to go to his room…'

'And he'd have to explain himself later…'

'We just kept our heads down after that 'cause he was… I mean the air actually got colder down there you know? I don't think I've ever seen him so…' Fred and George shuddered dramatically as one.

'He was really that angry looking?' Ron asked nervously.

'Put it this way,' George said. 'You remember when we gave you that acid pop? You remember how mum looked? It was kinda like that…'

'Only much scarier! Harry is for it – big time I'm afraid. So you know what he was up to? Obviously Snape knew about it because he set a trap for Harry with the portkey…'

Hermione's eyes were bright with worry when she turned to Ron. 'You don't think he was caught…? Oh, I'll never forgive myself!'

'What?!' Fred demanded. 'Caught at what? Look you'd better tell us,' he fixed Ron with a hard stare. 'He's our friend too.'

Ron sighed, exchanging worried glances with Hermione before speaking. 'He's been spying on the Slytherin Common Room – Malfoy specifically. Hey!' He backed away from the twins' angry looks. 'We just want to know who's behind this Chamber of Secrets business!'

'Is he out of his mind?!' George yelled, then instantly pulled the others further into the corner, lowering his voice. 'Joking around is one thing, but if Snape's caught him spying on another house – Slytherin or no… Well, he's going to murder him! Harry you idiot!'

'That must be why he wanted…' Fred stopped himself before he mentioned the Marauder's Map at a glare from George. 'Uh, to say he'd be late for Quidditch practice tonight…'

'Damn,' George glared at Ron and Hermione (who were now looking suspicious). 'If Snape kills him, or makes him quit the team over this… It's on you two! I can't believe you talked him into this…'

'And we know you did, because Harry wouldn't spy on them just for kicks. He's never been into the whole bitter rivalry thing. He's still friendly with loads of the Slytherins – loads of students in all the houses come to that.'

*******************************

Harry Potter was sulking. Not only had his father had quite a few words to say on the subjects of disobeying and breaking promises and poor behaviour, but he'd also made Harry eat dinner at the head table like he was a little kid again or something. He hadn't lied – at least not completely when his father had stopped yelling at him long enough to ask him why he'd taken the cloak.

Well, he had been using it to spy on Malfoy… just not for the reason he told his father. Harry'd missed a potions lesson earlier in the week after being slightly injured during a lunch-hour Quidditch scrimmage. He hadn't expected to miss anything because he already knew the potion they were set to work on. Only the class hadn't gone as expected – Neville's potion had exploded causing mayhem in the classroom until Severus had been able to clean everyone up.

Harry usually worked with Neville to help him out, and he'd spoken with him afterwards and Neville seemed to have the potion well in hand – he couldn't understand what had happened. The observation that he'd been working right next to Malfoy gave Harry an idea about what had happened though…

So he told his father that he'd been spying on Malfoy hoping he'd admit to sabotaging Neville's potion. It was sort of true; he'd expected to overhear that he'd sabotaged the potion much more than he'd expected to hear that Malfoy was opening the Chamber of Secrets… Harry was quite certain though that his father wouldn't appreciate the 'sort-of' part of the half-truth, but that couldn't be helped

Harry didn't like lying to his Dad. He was basically a good guy, and Harry always figured he didn't deserve to be lied to – and Severus had always appreciated the truth: Getting in trouble is one thing, he'd say. But lying about it is something else altogether. Do something wrong and own up to it, and you got into a lot less trouble than if you tried to cover it up.

But the 'lesser' trouble he would be in this time by owning up to still nosing around about the Chamber of Secrets was still big enough that it was worth the risk of trying to fudge his way around the facts a little…

And spying on Malfoy because he was trying to prove that he'd sabotaged a potion, though still bad, wasn't on the same level of trouble as nosing into the Chamber would be at this point.

Besides, Harry wasn't perfect – not by a long shot. He had – well… fibbed to his Dad before. He liked being able to sit, and he liked seeing the outside of his room – preferences that were too often in direct opposition to how much fun he had playing pranks and sneaking around.

Still, Severus wasn't keeping him from going to his Quidditch practice after dinner, so all in all, Harry figured he'd gotten off as easy as he could have expected. He couldn't understand how some of the students thought it was cool to sit at the head table – they obviously didn't have their Dad sitting next them glaring and piling extra spinach on their plate…

***************

'I don't want to talk about it guys,' Harry said, trying to push ahead of the twins. The three of them were hanging back from the rest of the team on their way to the Quidditch pitch for practice after dinner.

'But Harry…'

'No guys,' Harry insisted. 'I messed up, I got caught – he wasn't even as hard on me as I figured he'd be. He didn't find out about the map, he's not keeping me off the team, so don't worry about it alright?'

'Come on Harry.' Fred stopped him. 'You don't expect us to believe that he caught you spying on the Slytherin Common Room…' Fred whispered the last few words, but still Harry rounded on him quickly.

'Are you crazy?!' he whispered harshly. 'He didn't find out about that! I can't believe Ron and Hermione blabbed to you about that!' He ran his free hand through his hair. 'What he knows,' Harry whispered, glancing around nervously to be sure that no one was in earshot. 'Is that I was spying on Malfoy! Get it? Malfoy only! And he thinks it was about Malfoy sabotaging Neville's potion. If he found out…' Harry gave a nervous sigh before turning a worried gaze onto the twins.

'How much did Ron tell you?'

'That they talked you into spying on Malfoy in the Slytherin Common Room to see if he knew who was opening the Chamber…'

Harry groaned, leaning his forehead against the handle of his broom and muttering several phrases he would never dare say near his father, or any of the Hogwarts staff for fear of a serious soapy mouth charm.

'Geez,' he grumbled finally. 'Who else did they tell? Do they even get how much my Dad would kill me if he knew I was even thinking about that Chamber still?!'

'Just us mate,' George reassured him quickly. 'Don't worry. He only told us because we cornered him as soon as your Dad let us out of detention and dragged it out of them. They would never want to get you in trouble…'

'Not on purpose…' Harry looked at each twin seriously for a moment. 'Look guys, this has to stay strictly secret alright? It's more than just that I was spying on Malfoy about if he knew anything about the Chamber and my Dad ordered me to forget about it – now he caught me and I told a big fat lie about why I was spying on Malfoy. He'll double kill me for lying.'

'Well he won't hear anything about it from us Harry,' George nodded vigorously to his brother's exclamation. 'And we'll talk to Ron and Hermione about it too alright?'

'Either way,' Harry said resolutely, starting back toward the pitch as Oliver hollered at them to hurry up. 'I'm out of this now. I completely don't care who is opening that Chamber. Let uncle Albus figure it out, it's not my problem!'

**************

'What's wrong Harry?' Remus looked forward to these calls from Harry. It didn't matter to him what they talked about, Remus was just glad of the chance to hear from him. Sometimes, like today, Remus could tell that Harry had more than usual on his mind, and he wanted to draw him out.

Harry gave a heavy sigh, picking at his robes as he sat cross legged in front of the floo in his and Severus' apartments. 'Dad's piss—' Harry blushed and started over. 'I'm in trouble with Dad.'

'Do you want to tell me about it?'

Harry seemed to think for a minute, gathering his thoughts before finally speaking. 'Did you know that my – uh, my first father – James… uh, he had an invisibility cloak?'

Oh… Remus fought to keep a straight face. Yes he knew about James' invisibility cloak, and he knew about the kinds of mischief they'd all managed with it… 'Yes,' he answered finally. 'I knew about it…'

'He left it with uncle Albus before…' Another sigh. 'And uncle Albus wanted to give it to me a few years ago, but Dad said no because the only thing I could use it for now would be trouble…' He shrugged, and Remus noticed that he was avoiding making eye contact, whether because he was nervous that Remus would criticize Severus for keeping it from him, or because he thought Remus would say something about Harry getting in trouble, he wasn't sure.

'I guess he's right,' Harry went on finally. 'It's really cool though, and Dad does let me goof around with it – but only when I ask and he's around too…'

'Mm hmm…' Remus replied non-committally, waiting for the rest of the story that he knew was coming.

'Yeah…' Harry hedged for a moment, becoming even more interested in the hems of his robes. 'So this time I didn't ask, and I took it out of the apartment…' He sighed again, his shoulders hunching a little more. 'Well it is mine, sort of, or it will be when I'm of age…'

'Is that what's really bothering you?' Remus knew that because of his unique upbringing – basically only interacting regularly with adults and never really seeing how other kids interacted with their parents, Harry'd never fully developed the attitude that he didn't deserve to be corrected when he got caught in a disobedience.

'I'm so stupid sometimes uncle Remus…' The frustration and self reproach was heavy in his voice and Remus frowned wondering where this had come from.

'What are you talking about?' he demanded. 'You know you're not stupid – you're top of your year aren't you?'

'That's nothing,' Harry scoffed. 'Anyone can do good in classes, all you have to do is read the books and hand in your assignments.'

Well, it took a bit more than that, Remus thought, but decided not to push Harry on it just now. 'Then what do you mean saying that you're stupid? I know for a fact that you're not.'

'But I am!' Harry threw out his hands in frustration. 'All I ever do is end up in trouble! Daddy's always angry with me 'cause I'm always doing stupid things even though I know I'm not supposed to, and now my friends are hacked off at me too, and stupid Lockhart always makes me act out parts from his stupid books in every class and everyone is laughing at me…'

'First, Harry,' Remus interjected. 'I'd bet that they're laughing at Lockhart's books – not you. I've read one or two of them and they are pretty funny.' He sighed seeing that Harry wasn't cheered. 'Your friends – I don't know about that unless you want to tell me what they're angry about…' Seeing Harry's deep blush Remus decided to leave that topic for now as well.

'And as for your Dad…' He waited until Harry looked up so he could give him his most sincere look. 'I know he's not always angry with you. Didn't you tell me just last week about how much he liked your extra assignment about protective charms? And weren't you 'soo embarrassed' to find out that he'd been bragging about you to all the teachers every night in the common room? Shall I go on?'

'No…' Harry mumbled, his voice barely audible across the floo lines, though the pink tinge to his cheeks and the slight uplifting of the corners of his mouth belied the non-committal shrug.

'That's better,' Remus said with a smile now. 'I'll hear no more of this I'm stupid nonsense understood?'

'Yeah…'

'What was that?' Remus demanded with a smile, his eyes twinkling. 'I didn't quite catch that.'

'Yes uncle Remus,' Harry replied with a grin of his own now, playing along. 'No more stupid nonsense…'

TBC Next chapter: the duelling club makes an appearance!