AN: A new chapter again, not too happy with it, but I hope next chapter will be better. Thanks to the people who took the effort to review the last one!

There was a knock on the door; Snape looked up. Who could that be? He wasn't expecting anyone. Reluctantly he stood however up and opened the door. To his surprise Minerva was standing behind the door.

"Ah Minerva, good afternoon. Should you not be in France, for a well deserved holiday? "

Snape wasn't this friendly with all his colleagues, but Minerva had been a great mentor and good friend for him, ever since the day he had decided to give up his duties for the dark lord and start spying for the light.

"That's indeed true Severus, but the weather wasn't great, so I decided to come back and start preparing for the new year and visit some friends back in England."

"Would you like to come in and have a cup of tea?" Snape asked.

"That would be nice." Minerva agreed.

And so they started talking about Minerva her holiday, and how Snape had become the guardian of Harry. Minerva was shocked to learn how Harry his relatives had treated him. She didn't have a great feeling about them when she left Harry there 9-years ago, but had agreed with Albus that it was important for the blood wards. When she heard how his relatives had treated him however, she was upset and felt guilty that she had not come and checked on Harry more often. She had done the last big check up, and he seemed fine. She started wondering how she could have missed all of this.

"Lily and I still had a lot of contact after she had left Hogwarts, she always sent me letters, talking about Harry and everyday life. Sometimes she sent me photo's with the letters. I do have one particular nice picture of Lily and Harry on his first birthday, do you think he would like to have that?" Minerva asked, feeling guilty about how they had left him at the Dursleys for so long.

"I do think Harry would like that, I am not even sure he has a clue what Lily and James look like, to be honest." Snape said, with a slight sneer when he pronounced James.

"Harry is asleep right? Why don't you walk with me to my quarters, and have a look through some of the pictures? There aren't many pictures, but I do think Harry would be grateful to have them."

Snape agreed with her; he checked Harry's room, but the boy was still sound asleep, and would most likely sleep for another hour or otherwise he could always go and read in his book if he did wake up.

Harry woke up. Why was he in bed? It was the middle of the day.

Slowly the events of the afternoon started coming back and he felt himself become embarrassed. Why had he cried like that on the Professor? He had never cried. Crying was not allowed for freaks. Freaks should just be silent and do what others told him to do. Sure it had been different, living at the Professor his house, but still, he wasn't worth to cry. Harry quickly decided to pack his stuff and try to sneak out of his guardian's house; his guardian would have a different thought on him staying there anyway and maybe if he was silent enough he could sneak away without the professor knowing it. Otherwise, he was most likely to get a beating, which was what he deserved, but not what he wanted.

It didn't take him longer than 5 minutes to pack all his stuff and put it in a plastic bag.

He silently opens his door, looking around for Professor Snape, when he didn't see him he was relieved. He could maybe avoidthe beating and just walk away.

He didn't know where he would go, but was glad when he was outside the quarters. He ran to where he thought the exit of the building had been. After a couple of long hallways he found a big door, which he could only assume was the exit. When he opened the door he saw a big green field. He was glad he had found the exit and could now walk away. Where to, he had no clue, but he was at least gone from the professors quarters.

When Snape came back to his quarters with some pictures, 2 of him had James in it to his annoyance, but Minerva had persuaded him that it would be good to know what James looked like as well, he saw that Harry's door was slightly open. Deciding he needed to talk to Harry about the events of the morning, he knocked on the half open door. When he didn't get a response he opened the door further. There was no Harry in his room. He turned around and looked through the rest of the quarters. Surely the boy had to be somewhere in his quarters? He reminded himself that Harry was not as spoiled as James was and was probably just looking if he could find a kitchen, since it had been a bit past lunch time. However, when he returned to Harry's room he saw that the door of the closet was slightly open. When he walked to it he saw that all of Harry's clothes, which weren't that many, were gone. He realised that the child had taken all of his stuff and had taken his leave/ ran away. He wasn't sure why, but assumed it had something to do with the panic attack Harry had had only an hour before.

Snape looked at his watch; Snape had only been gone for half an hour and when he left Harry was still deeply asleep so that the boy couldn't be far.

With a fast pace Snape left his quarters, going to look for the boy.

Harry walked in a fast pace, well actually it wasn't that fast, since he didn't have long legs, but at least he walked as fast as he could over the school grounds. He didn't know where he was going, but hoped to find a big gate that would lead to the outer world somewhere. He was just starting to wonder if he was ever going to find an exit and leave the school grounds when he felt a hand on his shoulder.

"And where do you think you are going Harry?" Snape said in a stern voice.

Harry spun around, expecting to see eyes full of anger, but he couldn't spot any anger in his eyes, no other emotions for that matter, but no anger either as he had always seen in his uncle's eyes.

"I am really sorry sir, I was just leaving; I should not have acted the way I did and I should not have cried Sir, I am sorry." Harry said in a sad voice; he was not happy that the professor had found him. He had hoped to escape without getting a beating, but knew he had deserved it.

"Why don't we walk back to my quarters Harry and we will talk about what happened this morning and why you left."

He saw the child nod and walk with his head down to Snape's quarters.

Just before they entered the doors that led into the castle, Snape heard some snivelling from Harry.

Snape sighed, Could he really not wait till they arrived at his quarters. "What is it Harry?"

"Sorry sir, I just really..." and there Harry stopped, he knew he should not say what he had planned to say.

"What did you really Harry" Snape asked after he realised Harry was not going to finish.

"Never mind sir." Harry said.

And just before Harry wanted to walk again, Snape took his shoulders and looked him right in the eyes. "Harry what did you want to say?"

When Harry still didn't answer his question, he realised he was not going to get an answer. He did something he really did not favour doing on students or children, but needed to do, so he knew what was wrong with Harry.

Just a quick touch of legilimency was enough to discover that Harry was scared of the beating he expected to get and had hoped to escape before he got that.

"Harry, I will tell you this a hundred times if I must, till you finally get it. I am not going to beat you and that's a promise. I am not like your uncle, so you can stop being scared of that. Now we will talk about this more in my quarters, but for now, it's quite late what would you like for lunch?"

That was certainly not what Harry had expected, he also didn't know how the Professor had discovered what he had feared, but he did not have much time to think about that when the professor started talking again.

"Shall I order something then? " Snape asked when he didn't get an answer.

Harry nodded, he was still confused about what the professor had said. Was he really not going to get a beating?

"Sandy?" and with that a house elf popped in front of them.

"Could you get us something for lunch? Something that's not too heavy ,because we will be going out for dinner."

"Of course, master, shall I serve it in your quarters?"

"Yes please."

"Come Harry, let's walk to my quarters again."
On the way to Snape quarters both didn't say a thing, but were deep in thoughts.

When they entered Snape's quarters a nice warm soup with some bread was served on the table.

"Let's have lunch and discuss what happened today." Snape said.

They both took a seat at the table and started eating.

"Okay let's start at the beginning, you were you in your room reading the first two chapters. Did you have any questions while reading it?"

"No sir" Harry responded, but obviously not sure about his answer

"I would not lie to me Mr Potter, so let me ask again and this time, I want an honest answer. Did you have any questions?"

"Sorry sir, yes sir. About chapter 2."
"And why did you not come and ask them?"

"Because.. because freaks should not ask questions sir" Harry said in a soft voice.

"Harry" Snape sighed "What did I say if you would call yourself a freak?"

"That I had to write a hundred lines." Harry answered

"What did you have to write a hundred times?" Snape asked

"I am not a freak?" Harry half asked, half answered.

"That's correct, so tomorrow, you can give me a hundred lines with: I am not a freak."

"So next you have a question what do you do?" Snape asked hoping to make him understand that he should ask questions.

"Come to you and ask the question, sir" Harry said with a half smile, he wasn't happy that he had to write a hundred lines, but he was grateful that the professor cared about if he understood something.

"Okay, good. So you came out of your room, you were nervous from the start, but when you were halfway through explaining chapter 2 you started getting panicked. Why did you get panicked Harry"?

"Sorry sir" Harry only said.

"Harry that is not an answer. Why did you get panicked."

"Because I hadn't finished chapter 2, but it took me so long and I knew you were waiting and I really tried, sir" Harry said, with a lump in his throat. He felt the tears waiting behind his eyes to come out.

"Harry" Snape said in a soft voice. " Did you try to read it all?"

"Yes sir I did, really."

"So is it your fault that you did not finish the chapter within one and a half hour?"

"No sir, but."

"No nothing but Harry, you can do nothing more than try. We will work on the reading, but next time just take as long as you need. You know I was even going to get you if you had read for much longer. It's not good to study for so long without a break. What do you think of it, would you like to give it tomorrow another try, with chapter 2 and 3?"

Harry didn't answer; he was astonished. When the professor had found him outside on the grounds, he knew he was going to get it, but the professor was not even the slightest bit angry. "

"I assume that's a yes, I am However Harry with the fact that you ran away. You know the rules, I want to know if you leave my quarters. And you do not leave my quarters just to run away. You know I won't give you a beating like your uncle did, so yes you will be punished for it. Tonight,you will go half an hour early to bed." Snape said.

Secretly Snape knew this was not really a real punishment, since they would be going out for dinner and the boy would most likely be tired when they got home.

"Sorry, sir I will not do something like this again. " Harry said.

Snape knew that he had not got it in the boys head yet that Snape was nothing like his uncle, but someday he would, and until that time he just had to wait patiently and be fair with the boy.

"Good that's what I like to hear, Shall we go to Diagon Alley, which is a wizard city, after we have finished our lunch?" Snape asked.

Harry nodded happily, and with that all the events of the morning were forgotten.

AN: Next up, what did Harry think of Diagon Alley, and how will the interview the school principal go. Reviews are appreciated!