Chapter 5 Woe is Me

When Harry awoke, he was in the Infirmary. He knew this just by the sterile smell that filled his nostrils and the blindingly white walls. Harry tried to sit up, but he instead found that he could not. His muscles justached too damn much.

For one confused minute, Harry wondered what he had been doing to feel so tired. Then the moment of confusion was over, and it all came rushing back to him with all the force of the Hogwarts Express.

Shit, Harry though. And that summed up just about everything Harry was feeling at the moment. He felt like crap, the Ancestors were unsurprisingly angry at him, he doubted he would ever be able to spend more than two seconds in the dorms before he'd completed his task, and to top it all off, Snape and Malfoy and his goons, had seen him balling his eyes out. They would undoubtedly go tell the Headmaster, and that old goat probably had some sick and deranged plot just waiting under his outrageously colored and slightly puffed sleeves.. And if they did that, he was just as good as fucked fucked fuc--!

"Ah, Harry my boy, you have finally awakened. I am so very pleased."

Harry swirled his neck to his right quickly, and winced at the pain it caused. At his wince, he was immediately accosted by Poppy.

"Drink this" she said, holding out a small vial of a dubious substance in her small, but capable hands.

Harry did as he was told, and did not even bother to make sure the potion was safe. He trusted Poppy. The potion acted quickly, and Harry felt the pins and needles that plagued his body subside. He turned his attention to Dumbledore, and noticed that the Headmaster was not alone. Harry's new Head of House accompanied him, and Snape's lips curled unpleasantly as he saw Harry regarding him.

"Welcome back to the land of the living, Potter" he spat. "Although I can't say I approve of your return."

"Severus." Dumbledore said reproachfully.

Snape gave the Headmaster a rebellious look, but he settled down nonetheless.

Dumbledore's eyes twinkled. Harry cursed under his breath.

"Well, now that we've all been properly reacquainted, we can get crack-a-lacking."

Crack-a-lacking...the man is bloody insane Harry thought.

Crack-a-lacking… the man is bloody insane thought Snape.

"Harry, what happened in the Slytherin dorms? Were you attacked, or was it another vision from Voldemort?

Snape snorted. "He was not attacked. He was the only person in the dorms…. silly little boy ran off before anyone else. I don't even know how he knew where the dorms were, let alone the password to the aforementioned dorms."

An uncomfortable silence settled in the near empty Infirmary. The Headmaster and Snape, er, Professor Snape obviously expected Harry to tell tem how he had gotten access to the dorms.

Harry remained silent.

When it became evident that Harry was not going to respond, Dumbledore move on. It visibly irked him to see his favorite student defy him so. Harry had always been such a good boy. A pity, really, that he had to go through so many hard times. Albus shook his head slowly, and the twinkle in his eyes dimmed momentarily before it returned full force.

Harry rolled his eyes. He could almost see Dumbledore's thought process as clearly as writing on the white Infirmary walls. The man was hopeless. He did not even try to decipher Snape's thoughts. It was hard enough just hiding his true mind from the man. He would not push his luck.

As the pregnant silence continued, Harry's mind drifted to other things. He absentmindedly ran an aching hand through his hair. It really was too long. It was about six inches past his shoulders, and Harry was tired of cutting it. He assumed that his rapidly growing hair was a manifestation of his restless magic. After all, the rapid growth of his hair always succeeded the periods of time when he was not using his magic regularly. After Aunt Petunia had gotten tired of chopping his hair off when he was seven, Harry had taken to trimming it himself every few day. Uncle Vernon thought that boys with long hair were fairies and weird. Harry did the smart thing and saved himself the agony of the Dursleys finding out he had even more abnormalities.

The headmaster coughed, and Harry was once again broken away from his thoughts.

I really should stop going into these semi-conscious dazes. Harry thought. It might get me into trouble one day.

"Harry, what exactly was it that caused you to go into such a state in the Slytherin common room last night?"

At that oh so terrible question, Harry wondered, not for the first time, whether he should tell the headmaster what was boiling beneath the surface. The man was incredibly wise, and he might really help Harry. But he might also use Harry like he'd used all the people who had come to him for refuge. Just look at Tom Riddle…or Severus Snape, or even Sirius Black. The man was practically as responsible for the imbalance as much as Voldemort. No, Dumbledore could not be trusted….at least not now. Harry silently vowed to keep his secrets as secrets until he could no longer do so with impunity. He was a Slytherin now, wasn't he?

"I don't really know what it was Headmaster, but it hurt so much…it seemed to hate me. I don't think it wanted me there". Harry looked at Dumbledore imploringly, a pained and frightened look upon his face.

"It wasn't the only one" Severus murmured under his breath.

Albus could clearly see what the boy wanted him to do, and he wanted to agree. He had not wanted the boy to be in Slytherin. How would he keep proper tabs on Harry? The boy would practically run wild, or be tainted by the son of some second rate Death Eater when he was in the snake house. With all of this in mind, Albus had thought that nothing good could come from the situation. But then he gave everything a 2nd look and liked what he saw.

Harry had been getting skeptical and cheeky with him lately. It seemed as though the boy was trying to break free. This could not be allowed to happen. Maybe if he stayed in the snake house long enough, he would realize how much Dumbledore had sheltered him from other people's hatred. He would be isolated from the other three houses and isolated from the people in his own house. He would see the error in his ways.

Harry felt a cold sweat form on the back of his neck. The Headmaster's eyes were twinkling again. And that never bode well for Harry. He kind of knew that the Headmaster would not allow him to just return to his old House, but it was worth a try. Now all Harry could do was brace himself for whatever kooky plot the Headmaster was going to come up with next.

Snape was not sure what to think. On one hand, Potter had gotten hurt, and he felt absolutely warm and tingly on the inside every time he thought about it. On the other hand, something inside the Slytherin dorms had attacked the boy. What was to stop that something from attacking on of his children? He really did not want to deal with angry parents asking him questions he could not answer. Something had to be done. The first thing that came to his mind was to return the snot-nosed brat to his foolish house, but Severus could see by the infernal twinkling in Albus's eyes that that was not an option.. Nonetheless, the status quo remained the same. Something had to be done.

"Albus.."

"Yeas, I know, Severus. Some thing must be done. And I believe that I have the perfect thing in mind!"

"What?"

"Well, as you two know, Remus is a werewolf. And while Severus does provide him with Wolfsbane every month, he will still have to take a temporary leave of about 4 days both before and after the night of the full moon to prepare and recover." The Headmaster paused and took a breath. He glanced at the other occupants in the room and almost giggled at their puzzled faces.

Severus saw the headmaster's badly hidden look of glee and scowled. "Forgive my rudeness(Harry snorted), but I fail to see how any of that useless information solves the problem at hand."

"All in good time my boy. Any way, Remus will need a teacher to fill in fot him when he is indisposed. And I've been wondering who I would choose to fill those shoes. I had a few ideas, but with the recent developments, I think I know who will be perfect for the job."

"Who?" Harry said impatiently. He flopped back down on the hospital bed and vaguely wondered how soon he would be able to escape Poppy's clutches.

"Why our very own cursebreaker, my boy…William Weasley."

A faint blush crept up Harry's neck to his cheeks. Harry groaned.

Life is hard.

TBC.

AN: As I'm sure you've noticed (or not), Albus is a bit bipolar—manipulative bastard one second…. giggly old man the next.

Snape will not become Harry's bff forever or his pop pop in this fic. He'll be petty and mean until the takes his head out of his arse and even then, he'll only grudgingly respect Harry and keep his pettiness.

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Deuce(goodbye)