A/N: A short preview of what's to come.

Snape was on his comfortable sofa, reading by the light of a softly glowing white sphere hovering over his shoulder. A fire crackled in the hearth. It was a chilly June night and rain splattered the window. The occasional flash of lightning highlighted the cozy parlor in silver and white. A clatter sounded against the window before it flew open.

Snape snapped his head up.

A sodden white owl blew into the warm room with a few wet leaves and a gush of water. Snape dropped his book on the cushion and uttered the word "cludo." The window closed and latched. The owl hopped to her feet and shook her round head dry. There was only one person he knew with a snow white owl.

"He sent you out in this mess?" Snape murmured. He conjured a perch near the fire and Hedwig flapped over to it, fluffing her wings. Water sprayed everywhere and the fire hissed. She hooted, tired, and held her leg out. Surprisingly, the thin paper was only a little bit damp around the edges. Her thick feathers must have kept it dry.

Snape unfolded the muggle notebook paper and cast lumos to see better in the dim room.

Professor,

I'm unwell. I have a bit of a cough. Could you send some potions?

-Harry

Snape flipped the page over. Nothing.

"Atrocious handwriting." He muttered at the page. When he gave Harry his contact information at the end of the last school year, only two weeks ago, he wasn't sure if the boy would use it. Snape knew Harry's relatives were awful and he'd wanted to give Harry a way to communicate with the magical world. He didn't expect much, certainly not more than a handful of conversations by mail. This short request was unexpected. And blunt. Knowing Harry and how well the boy dealt with discomfort and pain, the "I'm unwell" was likely more akin to "I'm on my deathbed" and the "bit of a cough" likely a lung infection. He'd prefer more information. Was he vomiting? Did he have a sore throat? Was he coughing anything up? There was no mention of fever or a rash or chills or aches or anything. It could be a mild cold or it could be something worse.

He debated about sending a healing potion and calling the case closed. He peered out the window. The wind had picked up and the rain lashed the glass. Owls didn't fly well in wet weather and Hedwig wasn't in a fit state to go all the way back to bloody Surrey tonight. He wasn't going to send his own owl out in this either.

He summoned the required potion from his personal stores and the vial appeared in his hand. He rubbed his thumb over the glass, thinking, then called his house elf.

"Teeley!"

Pop!

"Yes, Master Snape?"

The little elf clasped her hands and looked up at him with moon bright eyes. There was a jaunty blue bow in her wispy hair.

"Teeley, do you know the boy Harry Potter?"

"Yes, sir! Harry Potter is famous among the house elves, sir!"

He nodded. "Could you bring this to him?" He handed her the vial.

"Of course, sir." She took them reverently.

"Make sure you go directly to the boy. He lives with muggles so it is imperative you're not seen."

She nodded.

"Also…report back on how ill he is. He says he's under the weather."

"Certainly, sir! Teeley will be seen by no muggles!"

"Good. Thank you."

Teeley vanished and Snape sat on his sofa, watching the rain while the white owl slumbered.

Teeley appeared silently in the corner of Harry's small bedroom. The room was poorly lit and a teenage boy laid twisted in the bed sheet, breathing deeply in a restless sleep. Teeley hopped up onto the bed and touched Harry's knee.

"Mr. Harry." She said in her high voice.

Harry tossed his head back and forth on the pillow.

"Mr. Harry, please, I have your potion!"

The word 'potion' seemed to wake him up and he blinked a few times before fumbling for his glasses. "Dobby?" He croaked.

"No, sir! Teeley!"

Harry stared at her.

"I come with potions from Master Snape."

Hearing Snape's name roused Harry further. He sat up. The movement made him cough violently. He hacked into his fist, a deep barking cough that made Teeley gasp.

"You are very ill." She said.

"Boy!" Vernon's voice thundered down the hall. "Shut your gob—can't hear the telly!"

Teeley popped open the healing potion. Harry pressed on his sternum, his face screwed up in pain. He'd been coughing so much his chest was sore. "Snape." He murmured.

Teeley thrust the potion at him and Harry took it, gulping it. The small effort seemed to take it out of him and he laid back down, resting fitfully. Teeley put her small hands on his damp chest, feeling his breath rattle. She laid a floppy ear on him and listened to the deep wheeze. She touched his face. Hot. His hands were cold and clammy.

"Snape…" Harry muttered.

"Rest well, Mr. Harry." Teeley vanished.

Teeley popped back into the parlor.

"Is he ill?" Snape asked.

"Oh sir, he is very weak. His cough is deep and his lungs are struggling. I thinks he has a fever. Mr. Harry needs help he does. He needs hospital."

Snape surged to his feet. "The muggles?" He barked.

Many elves quailed under Snape's snarls but Teeley was made of stern stuff. "I wasn't seen!" She said proudly. "I heard a voice—an angry man telling Mr. Harry to shut up. Teeley gave Mr. Harry the healing potion, sir. He was asking for you."

"Asking?"

"He said your name, sir. Twice."

That was all Snape needed. Gritting his teeth, he summoned a few more potions and apparated all the way to Privet Drive.

Snape appeared on the pavement and grimaced. He hadn't apparated that far in a long time. He glanced around the quiet neighborhood, made even quieter by the falling rain. Which house was it? Three? No, four. The homes all looked identical. Neat and trim and clipped to within an inch of their lives. Snape appreciated tidiness and order but this was a bit much. He strode up the narrow walkway and slammed his fist into number four's door three times.

"What the blazes?" A short, portly man with a massive mustache answered.

"You must be the uncle." Snape said by way of greeting, lip curling. He glanced over the man from head to foot and saw nothing of worth. He grunted in his throat and pushed past the man, not caring that he was getting water on the floor. In a sitting room to the side he could see a boy on a sofa, watching telly with a large bowl of ice cream in front of him. Not Harry. Snape stormed up a staircase.

"Who's at the door, mummy?" The boy asked absently. His eyes stayed locked on the screen.

Snape stuck his head into a doorway at the top of the steps. "Harry?" No, it was a loo. He moved on. Another door, open. He looked in and saw a messy bedroom occupied by a massive bed, two televisions and a pile of games and snacks on the floor. No Harry.

"Who is that?" A woman's voice.

"I don't bloody know!" The uncle was following Snape, sputtering. "Oy, you can't just come in here—I'm going to call the police!"

"Do it." Snape challenged, dark eyes flashing. "It's been a while since I hexed someone."

Petunia gasped. "Vernon, he's…!?"

"One of Harry's kind." Snape growled, injecting as much venom as he could into the words. He moved on and twisted the knob on another bedroom. The door stayed fast. He looked down at the knob. Locked. A bolt and a padlock were fastened to the door, ensuring that should one lock fail, two others were ready to go. Snape gave both Petunia and Vernon a disgusted look. It appeared he had found Harry's room. He removed his wand, causing the muggles to gasp.

"Alohomora." He whispered. He touched the wand to the three locks and they glowed softly before each popping open.

"Enough of this!" Vernon shouted. "I'll not have you doing such unnatural acts in my home."

Snape ignored him and pushed the door open. The room was dark, save for the desk lamp on the floor that illuminated the sparse space in sickly pale light and sharp dark shadows. Harry was on the small bed, sweaty and tangled in the single sheet on the bare mattress. The boy coughed, a deep wracking bark that sounded inhuman. He fell back to the flat pillow, his chest heaving with fast breaths.

Snape froze, shocked by the sight in front of him. Harry was thin and was swimming in the large grey Tshirt he wore that went down past his lean hips. The room was hot. There were bars covering the window and locks on the door. This was what Harry came back to every summer? A jail cell?

Oh Harry.

"Harry." Snape leaned over him. He didn't move. "Harry?" Snape put a hand on the boy's chest. He was so thin. He could see the lad's collar bones. His face was flushed and his skin burning hot.

"Little attention-whore." Vernon sneered from the doorway. "He'll snap out of it when he's hungry enough."

Petunia sniffed in a way that managed to sound arrogant, agreeing with her husband.

"You disgusting, bloody fools!" Snape growled at them. "Can't you idiots see he's sick?! Surely you're not so thick?" He pulled another healing potion out of his pocket and popped the cork. He sat on the edge of the lumpy mattress. "Harry," his voice was soft again, "open your eyes?"

Harry stirred. "Sn…Snape?"

"Indeed. Open your mouth."

Harry stared up at him, his eyes glassy with a fever, and Snape slid his arm behind the boy, lifting him into a semi-sitting position. Vertebrae pressed into Snape's forearm. Snape put the vial to Harry's lips. "Drink." He commanded. Harry managed to get most of it down. A bit of the red liquid ran out the side of his mouth and streaked down his neck. Snape tilted the violet fever reducer towards his lips and Harry blanched at the taste.

"Drink it all." Snape said, his voice soothing. Harry choked and spat up some of it onto Snape's sleeve but got it down. "Good lad." Snape slid his other arm under Harry's knees and lifted the boy out of bed. He weighed as much as a dried leaf. Harry groaned and huddled into the warm body, teeth chattering. Snape clenched his jaw. Harry had lost so much weight. How had he lost so much in a short amount of time? Did these idiot muggles feed him at all? He turned and glared at Harry's gaping relatives.

"Harry is no longer your concern." He had much more to say, indeed his voice trembled with fury, but Harry was ill and needed attention.

Snape apparated away from Privet Drive and hoped Harry would never have to go back.

A/N: I'm very excited about the sequel and I hope all of you nice folks come back once I start posting. It will pick up a couple weeks after DoA ended.