A/N: It's late and shorter than normal and I sincerely apologize for the delay and length, but Real Life is hectic. :)

Chapter Sixteen

Harry struggled hard against the instinct to turn and race back out the door, when Snape took the decision from his hands and with a lazy flick of his wand, the door slammed shut.

"Come," he stated firmly and Harry moved slowly into the room and lowered himself into the seat, arms limply laying across his knees.

"Potter," Snape ground out through clenched teeth and Harry flinched, then reluctantly rolled his sleeves up to expose his mauled forearms. Snape closed his eyes briefly, inhaling and exhaling loudly, then opened his eyes and leant forward to pull one of his arms onto the table between them. He was silent the entire time he treated the wounds, and as soon as he could, Harry drew his arms back and into his chest.

"What happened?" Snape asked, more patiently than Harry thought him capable, but growled when Harry shrugged his shoulders.

"I require a verbal response, Mr Potter. You should be grateful I have not enlisted Poppy or Albus, considering the severity of the alarm that blasted itself throughout my quarters not a half an hour ago."

He tried to respond, but found the words were stuck in his throat and so he shook his head rapidly. Snape remained quiet, obviously giving him a few minutes to try and work through the thoughts racing around his head. After several long minutes of silence, Snape frowned and sat back into his chair.

"We will not be moving until you talk with me, Mr Potter. I am aware of your sporadic eating habits this last week, and that you have not been taking the stomach soother as it is offered to you. I believed that given our nightly sessions, you were merely struggling to cope, but now I am not certain that is the case."

Harry tried to protest, but all that came out was a strangled croak and Snape paused to eye him briefly before continuing.

"You are showing signs of an eating disorder, and I am concerned that having taken away your option to carve into yourself, you are harming by refraining from food. Something that is not monitored by that cuff on your wrist."

Harry wanted to stand up and deny it, rant and rave, and storm from the room, but his arms stung and he felt apart from his body. Like he was floating in a sea of emotion and pain and apathy, and it took everything in him to not simply close his eyes and go to sleep.

"You will have one last chance, Mr Potter. If there is another occurrence such as this, you will find yourself on your way to St Mungos."

Again, all Harry could do was nod, and Snape narrowed his eyes at him and seemed to fully take in his appearance of red rimmed, black shadowed eyes and altogether apathetic body language.

"You may go to bed, Mr Potter. But do not think you have escaped these discussions. We will be resuming them tomorrow after a good night's rest." Harry would have scoffed at the idea of a good night's sleep if he'd had the energy. Instead he stood and shuffled his way to his room to fall face first on his bed.

Like he'd predicted, it was only about an hour later that he woke shouting and flailing wildly from a dream, only to find Snape standing over his bed. He yelped and shuffled himself until he was pushed into the wall at the head of his bed, dizzy with exhaustion and not entirely awake.

Snape pursed his lips and quietly stepped back a few paces for which Harry was grateful. It was several long minutes later that his heart started to slow down again and the nausea abated a little. Snape seemed to recognise that he was in a little more control and held a calming draught.

"I am sincerely sorry that I cannot offer you a dreamless sleep potion, Potter, however, the calming draught should at least be a small help."

Harry took the vial and drank the potion, then let his hand drop heavily back down, the empty vial falling to shatter on the floor. Panic at the loud noise and the huff of frustration from the professor almost sent him back against the wall, but the potion worked quickly and he merely remained frozen, staring at the broken glass.

With a wave of his wand, Snape banished the mess and then conjured a chair to sit beside the bed.

"I think it would be wise to have some of our conversation now, Mr Potter, since we are both awake and you are significantly more calm and more aware now."

Harry blanched and started to shake, drawing his knees up to his chest and wrapping his arms tightly around himself though it made him flinch at the bite and pull of the cuts on his arms. He bit his lip hard enough to draw blood and heard the light ringing of the alarm go off, but did not stop.

Snape let him, thought he did conjure a tea set and made up, then offered a mug to Harry, obviously trying to give him something else to focus on. Harry took the cup with a shaky hand and rested it on his knees after taking a small sip.

"I have several questions that I need answers to, Mr Potter, if we are ever going to have any progress, so I will ask them and you will have the option to provide me with at least two answers tonight. If you are capable, I will have all your answers, otherwise we will continue this discussion tomorrow afternoon and more, until I am satisfied you are genuinely attempting to improve.

Harry paled even further, the dark rings under his eyes standing out in contrast and giving the appearance of severe bruising.

"First question, I would like to understand these eating habits of yours. Are they a reaction to stress so you do not feel hunger, are you attempting to self-harm by not eating, or do you have a genuine fear of weight gain or some other such thing?"

Harry shrugged and Snape closed his eyes and breathed deeply for several moments, trying to reign in his frustration.

"My second question would be a desire to understand the circumstances that brought about this severe relapse in your self-control." Snape finally continued and Harry shrugged his shoulders again.

"Lastly, I wish to continue discussing these nightmares you are continuing to experience, particularly tonight's one, and the other nights one that had you physically ill on your bedroom floor."

Harry decided to answer the easiest one first and hope that Snape would find it enough tonight.

"It's not an eating disorder, as such," he admitted, then flinched when Snape tuned his obsidian gaze on him and remained silent as he sorted through his words.

"Look," he managed, then took a sip of his chilling tea, "it was another way for my relatives to punish and belittle and abuse me, okay. They withheld food, or made me eat all the leftovers in the fridge, even if they'd gone bad. Me and food, never had a good relationship." He started to shrug his shoulders again, but stopped when it was clear the gesture truly got on the professor's nerves.

"I just... I just don't always feel hungry and sometimes the thought of eating makes me so nauseous and anxious and I know that's what the stomach soother is for, but I guess if I'm going to be entirely honest, sometimes I feel like I don't deserve the food."

"It's not 'cause I think I'm fat or anything," he was quick to explain, "It's just been drilled into my head for so long that when I'm having a bad day its harder to ignore. I'll try harder, but it's not something I always have complete control over, you know?" Harry was plaintive in his attempts to get Snape to understand what was going on, and so when Snape nodded brusquely he felt himself relax a little for the first time in hours.

"Very well, I will be discussing this issue with Poppy, though. I find I am out of my element in this and she may have better ideas on how to manage it. You cannot afford to lose much more weight, Mr Potter." Snape explained and Harry nodded reluctantly and leant back against his pillows to close his eyes. He felt the mostly filled cup of tea taken from his hand and relaxed back further, hoping Snape would leave the other questions and answers alone for now.

"I require the answer to one more of my questions, Potter, then you may sleep." Snape drawled out patiently and Harry growled and swore under his breath, apathy and tiredness and too much emotion disappearing under a wave of anger.

"Why?" he ground out through clenched teeth.

"Because, Mr Potter, I said so," Snape drawled lazily and Harry threw himself back up into a sitting position, deliberately hitting his head hard against the wall as he did so. The chime in the living room went off again and Snape narrowed his eyes at Harry, but merely raised one eyebrow.

"Just fucking leave it," Harry shouted and tried to crawl off the bed to go hide in the bathroom. The door slammed shut and locked on him before he could get out however and he turned to face Snape now standing, with his wand out.

Hands clenched into fists and turned to beat on the door, swearing and yelling and kicking.

"Enough," Snape said quietly and just like that all fight disappeared from Harry and he slumped down in front of the door and started to sob. He felt a gentle hand on his shoulder and his breath hitched.

"Come, Mr Potter, back to bed," Snape bent down to grasp an elbow and help pull Harry up, taking the majority of his weight as he led him back to bed, still crying but quiet now.

Harry climbed onto the bed and pulled the blanket up around him like an invisibility cloak and looked at Snape, eyes red and wide and framed by long, wet lashes.

"I will not pursue these questions tonight, Mr Potter, but I WILL pursue them." he explained to Harry, who merely nodded his head and moved slowly down the bed until he was lying in a ball, face hidden now by the blankets.

"I will, however, ask a new question." he continued and Harry looked out at him with scared eyes but didn't say anything.

"Do you want the help we are providing you?" Snape asked and waited patiently while Harry thought about his answer.

"I don't know," he finally admitted, and Snape nodded his head like he had expected an answer such as that.

"Thank you for such an honest answer, Harry. Try to get some more rest." Snape swept from the room on silent feet, closing the door behind him.

Harry rolled onto his back and stared at the ceiling as he pondered the question and his answer and it wasn't until hours later as his eyes burned with fatigue and his head pounded with a headache, that he realised Snape had called him 'Harry.'