A/N: will contain mentions of non-con. If you do not like do not read.

It was a quiet affair lunch was, neither of them said much or had glanced at one another. Harry knew that he wouldn't be able to eat much, as he'd gone with little too no food while with Voldemort. He was trying to eat as much as he could. He did enjoy the warmth of the both soup that Severus had made. Even with having done this for six years already, the little to hardly no food at all. His family- the Dursley's barely fed him. It was why he was so small and scrawny as it was.

As he sat there he staring down at the food still left in the bowl. His mind wandered off to his first year at Hogwarts and the welcoming feast. Harry had piled a plate so high that would rival Ron's today. Although then Ron had looked at him like he was crazy. Because after eating all that food he'd had a stomach ache and thrown up at least twice throughout that night.

It was then when Harry heard the shuffle of the paper that Harry looked up at the front page. He was horrified by what he saw on the front page. It was him whimpering he could tell as well as remember. The title was:

Please Return Our Plaything

He ripped the paper from Severus' hands, Harry was pale. "Potter what's wrong?" Harry looked up shakily at Severus. Harry could feel the food that he'd eaten in the back of his throat. He was forcing to keep it down, "Have you seen the front page?" Harry folded it shut and handed back to him. It was a picture of Harry badly beaten and bruised just after the rape. Harry remembered a flash of light before Lucius Malfoy appeared to rape him again during the night before Snape had rescued him.

Harry could not read the man's face for any emotion at all. "Potter, this is the first Prophet I've seen in weeks." He had watched Severus look down at it. No emotion still, starting to feel more shaky as he waited to hear Severus' reply. "N-" Was all Severus had gotten out before he watched Potter fall to the floor having a seizure.

Some quick wand movements and a few medical charms. He found out that Harry had an infection starting and a fever that was high enough to cause a seizure. Snape had quickly cast a levitating charm on Harry, a fever reducer wouldn't work till Harry's fever was below one hundred and one. Potter's fever was spiking close to one hundred and four. "Stupid boy!" Cursing him and shaking his head as Severus laid Potter into his tub and spelled the boys clothes off and spelled the taps on cold.

It was then that Severus made what water that was coming out of the faucet turn to ice. Once the tub was full of ice, he turned the faucet of with another flick of his wand. He cast a diagnosis charm to check Harry's temperature. It was still high, but low enough that a fever reducer potion may work.

He spelled the water and what ice was left gone, before casting a drying spell on Harry. Severus then transfigured a towel into a pair of pajamas. He had a good idea where the infection had originated from. Harry had been raped the day before he'd been able to get him out, and was thrown into a grimy dungeon without clothes bleeding.

Casting one more spell to find the place that was causing Harry to have the high fever. When it told him, he didn't feel right because he had started the infliction. He knew Harry wasn't ready for anyone to touch him. Severus knew that if the infection didn't get cleaned out now that it would only fester and get worse.

Severus knew he needed to do what needed to be done, Harry was unconscious. He turned Potter on his side spelled his pajama bottoms off. Severus cast non verbal 'Accio,' to summon the healing cream that needed from his bathroom.

Once it settled in his hand, he placed it on the bed near Harry. He could use it yet, because he needed to use a cleansing charm in him. The rest of this procedure was rather intimate, and was glad that Harry was out of it for this at least. Placing this want down he picked up the powerful healing cream applied a generous amount into his hand.

He looked down at the raven haired boy, and didn't see his long time enemy, he saw a boy who was forced to be a man before his time. Severus also saw a lot of Lily in his manners, his compassion for others. The pain shot through him for what he'd done to Potter- Lily's boy. He should have rescued him then, but maybe Harry had been right that night playing his roll after he had killed Albus Dumbledore. Maybe he was a coward? No, he knew better than anyone. That he wasn't with as much as he'd already endured in his thirty-seven years he'd been alive.

What he was doing would bring the downfall of the Dark Lord. He just had to remind himself of the good things that would come, even if it meant his own death. Even if the good things didn't out just the bad things, and what he'd done as well as the other death eaters. It was in that moment that to keep Harry from letting more blood be put on his hands, besides the Dark Lord's. Severus swore aloud to himself and made a silent promise to Lily like he'd before. "I, Severus Tobias Snape, will kill everyone whose done harm to Harry James Potter, including myself if need be." He spoke and felt the magic tingle. The silent promise would be to uphold his promises as he'd before. To protect Harry at any cost.

When he was down with his self-righteous, he applied the cream as generously as he applied it. It wasn't a serious infection, but had it waited another day it could've become that. "I'll protect you Harry." Severus spoke quietly as he spelled the towel transfigured pjs back onto Potter.

Next chapter; nightmares that are unwakeable, Harry's out for a week and finds himself in the Severus' chambers at Hogwarts, with no Severus around.