A/N: I was totally shocked and flattered at the number of reviews I'd gotten. Thank you so much to everyone who reviewed or put my story on alerts! I certainly hope I can live up to your expectations!

Harry's thoughts

At the age of six years, Harry knew one thing for certain; his family did not love him at all. Aunt Petunia was his mother's sister but she didn't care for him the way a mother, or even an aunt would. After all, Aunt Marge got Dudley presents all the time and showered him with affection, not that Harry envied him that. But Aunt Petunia and Uncle Vernon didn't even call him by his first name, and locked him up in his bedroom all the time without meals.

For a few years, Harry had tried to justify this to himself. Aunt Petunia really wasn't his mother so she couldn't be expected to love him the way she loved Dudley, could she? Or maybe it was him, maybe he wasn't loveable. He tried to be good and do all the chores his uncle and aunt gave him but he was still punished and Dudley was still loved more even when he sat around all day doing nothing.

When Dudley beat up Harry, his aunt and uncle would force him to clean the floor after he bled all over it. On the other hand when Dudley tripped and scraped his knees while he and his gang were chasing Harry, Harry was once again punished.

And then the accidental magic started which made the Dursleys hate him more and label him as a "freak". Harry remembered the anxiety he had felt when he had accidentally turned his teacher's wig blue and was sent home with a note to the Dursleys. Uncle Vernon's face turned a brilliant purple and he sputtered with rage. Aunt Petunia, who hated magic with a passion, shrieked that he was a freak just like her no-good sister while Dudley stuck his tongue out and made faces. Luckily though, Severus was the one who went with him to the meeting with the said teacher and Harry came out choking with laughter. The memory still brought tears to his eyes.

Sev had gone into the principal's office where the meeting was taking place with an air of confidence. The teacher in question had completely been taken aback, and even slightly nervous, by Sev's appearance. Harry had to admit that even without his black robes he was very intimidating. More so than Uncle Vernon for sure.

"As you may have been informed, Harry's parents were murdered when he was a year old," Severus had said carefully, perhaps trying to play on their sympathies. He was head of the house that prized cunning, after all. "I share guardianship of Harry with the Dursleys," he explained.

The teacher, with his snooty nose in the air, had explained to Sev that Harry had somehow turned his wig blue. Sev had smirked at the man and spoke slowly, as if to an utter moron, "And how would Harry, while standing right in front of you, have turned your hairpiece blue? Do explain to me, I am most curious to know."

After 'patiently' listening to the man's incoherent explanation, he had somehow silkily implied that the man should invest in a better quality wig next time and if he was looking for an increase in pay, he should find a better way than to blame an innocent child. By the end of it, even Harry felt sorry for the squirming teacher. The principal apologized profusely while Sev sneered at "the sheer stupidity of so-called educators" and that was that.

Of course, later on Sev gave him a big lecture on controlling his temper and his emotions, but he couldn't really blame Harry for accidental magic. Harry decided not to mention that his accidental magic was no longer that accidental. He had gained a small measure of control over it, but he'd tell Sev that when he was out of lecture mode. Instead, Harry just nodded vigorously.

Severus was the only one who actually cared about him. Harry spent the weekends and most of the summer holidays at Prince Manor where Sev taught him about magic and the wizarding world. Sev had been the one to tell him about his parents and how they really died, while Aunt Petunia told anyone who would listen that her sister and her drunk husband died in a car crash. Harry could feel his blood boil whenever she said that, but he had learnt to control his tongue. Sev had taught him that there was a time and a place for picking a battle, and he was sure to lose a battle with his aunt.

Sev told him stories about Hogwarts and how one day, he would also be able to go there. Harry was enthralled by the stories of the giant castle with its ghosts and dungeons and the Forbidden Forest and of course, Quidditch. Harry loved flying on his broomstick, something he did whenever he went to Prince Manor. Severus would mumble about him being just like his father whenever he flew, but Harry knew he was not serious; Severus had often commented on how Harry looked as free as a bird when he flew.

Harry had learnt all knew of his parents from Sev, though Sev didn't like to talk about them. His tone became clipped whenever Harry mentioned his father, and he would answer questions in monosyllables, changing the subject shortly after. He never brought James Potter up voluntarily.

Harry gauged Sev's mood before talking about his mother. Sev never got angry at Harry but he became gloomy and a sort of darkness set in his eyes. The best times were when Sev brought his mother up himself, softly saying, "Your mother and I had a special place close to where we lived. We would sit there for hours and just talk." His eyes seemed to gaze into the distance to another time and he unconsciously smiled. Harry would sit enthralled, feeling that he could hear about his mother all day long and never get bored.

Prince Manor was more of a home than Privet Drive could ever be, though Sev sternly told him not to think of it like that when Harry mentioned it to him. Harry sometimes didn't understand Sev. He cared about Harry for sure, but Harry was not so sure about anything more. Sev did all the things parents were supposed to do, or at least what he had seen Aunt Petunia and Uncle Vernon do to Dudley.

When Harry had had nightmares about that awful green light, Sev had comforted him, and had stayed in his room and held his hand all night. He bought Harry clothes after an argument between himself and Aunt Petunia where Aunt Petunia stubbornly declared that the only things Harry would wear would be Dudley's cast-offs. He asked Harry about school and made sure he did his homework on Saturday, not Sunday. He threatened to turn Dudley into a pig if Aunt Petunia did not feed Harry properly (Dudley had squealed like a pig and waddled upstairs when he overhead this while eavesdropping).

Yet Severus did not allow Harry to hug him or show affection towards him. This puzzled Harry, but he continued to cherish the hope that one day Sev would see him as a son, the same way he saw Sev as a father.

A/N: I'll try to update as fast as I can but exams are coming back so I might not be as fast as I'd like.

Next up interaction between Sev and Harry