Disclaimer: I still don't own anything! *pouts*

Chapter 118

Harry was currently in the library reviewing for the O.W.L.'s. Tonight was an Ancient Runes night, so there weren't as many people around. As he moved to his third piece of parchment of notes, he audibly sighed.

He then glanced up to make sure Hermione didn't hear him. She and Padma (Parvati's twin that was placed in Ravenclaw, despite her sister going to Gryffindor) got into an argument over who should run the review session for Ancient Runes. Hermione out argued her, causing Padma to storm off. Her parting shot was that she'd rather review alone that with a "snobbish bossy know-it-all". Thus, Hermione was really not in the mood for interruptions.

"Problems, Harry?" whispered Lavender.

He risked a glance at Hermione then whispered back, "No. Just tired."

Tired was an understatement. He was exhausted. He'd been spending some time each night trying to do the spells Dumbledore had been teaching him. He found he could manipulate water fairly easy, even holding it in the shape of a ball for about ten minutes - in which point in time it would proceed to drench him. He also discovered that no amount of practicing could allow him to put up a personal shield.

That was also driving him nuts.

"Potter?"

He glanced up and saw Snape looking at him. "Huh?"

"I need you to come with me. Gather your stuff. You won't be returning."

He nodded. As he was putting his books in his bag, he risked a glance at Hermione. She was fuming mad, but thankfully, she held her temper. As he left the table, he heard her let out an irritated huff. He looked at Snape. "At least you didn't take points this time."

"That's because she held her tongue."

He merely rolled his eyes. No doubt he'd hear about this from his friend later.

Once they entered Snape's rooms, Harry immediately headed to the couch, but before he could put his book bag down, he felt his mind invaded, harshly. He struggled to keep his shields up. He felt more intense pressure as it tried to break down his shields. So, he shoved.

The next thing he realized was that he was seeing his dad and Sirius hexing Snape. He immediately pulled back in horror.

"Well, that was interesting," said Snape blandly. "How much of that did you see? I couldn't tell."

Harry felt like he'd been running a marathon. He glanced up at Snape out of the corner of his eye. He grimaced. "I saw my dad and Sirius hex you before I panicked and pulled out."

"How did you toss me out?"

"I felt my shield beginning to crumble ... so I, uh, called out 'protego' in my head."

"An effective way to evict me from your mind."

"I always knew the Headmaster was being gentle when he checked my shields. That actually hurt."

Snape nodded. "That's only a fraction of what the Dark Lord would do to you."

He grimaced as another shot of pain seared through his head. "The pain felt similar yet different from when Voldemort possessed me."

"Take a minute and prepare yourself."

Harry nodded.

They tested his shields for nearly three hours.

"I could tell you were getting weaker at the end but the fact that I couldn't actually breach your shields is a good thing. Make sure you take this tonight," Snape said at the end of their lesson as he handed over a small vial of Dreamless Sleep.

"Can I stay down here tonight? I'm tired and I'm not entirely sure I'll make it to the tower in one piece."

"You may. I'll see you in the morning."

Harry nodded and headed in the direction of his bedroom.

The next morning, Harry sighed at the Daily Prophet. Attacks from Voldemort were happening several times a day. It wasn't unusual to see students being led out by their Heads of Houses when an attack had happened on a students' family.

He felt a gush of air causing him to look up. Susan plopped down next to him. He smiled at her. "Oversleep?"

"Yes. Hannah didn't make sure I was up." She took a quick bite of toast. "Listen. I feel like I have to schedule 'us' time. Think you can squeeze in a couple of hours this evening?"

Harry appeared to think about it, so she poked him in the side.

"Hey!" he exclaimed. "Yeah. Tonight is an Arithmancy night, so I'm free."

"Harry, you should use tonight to study. You're not logging in nearly enough hours to pass your O.W.L.'s," Hermione said with a glare. "Especially since Professor Snape keeps interrupting our study groups."

Harry bit back the sigh that almost escaped. "Hermione, I need a night off. I'm not studying tonight. Trust me, those nights that Snape rescues me from the study groups, I'm not slacking off. He doesn't let me."

"Rescues you?" she asked with her eyes narrowed.

"Poor choice of words," he said quickly.

Susan giggled quietly as she got back up from the table. "I'll see you tonight then. I have to run. I have a paper to look over before class."

Harry watched her walk away with a small smile on his face.

After dinner that evening, Harry and Susan headed to an abandoned classroom they had found on the fourth floor one evening. She transfigured the chair into a large couch and Harry charmed it to be more squashy.

"Privacy charms?"

She nodded. "I wasn't kidding this morning about having to schedule time with you."

He laughed but cast the few privacy spells he knew. He then pulled her down on the transfigured couch.

Harry laid on his side, as did Susan - with her back to him. They never did anything beyond kiss but during those times they did escape to this room, this was the position they assumed. As Harry wrapped his arm around her waist, he whispered, "So, what's the topic today?"

"You pick," she said as she grabbed his hand.

"Tell me about your childhood. Not about your parents' death," he added quickly - thinking how he didn't want her to hit him. Thankfully most everyone was finally starting to leave her alone about the subject.

She chuckled, no doubt at his quick speech. "For the most part, it was fairly boring."

"I want to hear about it anyway."

"Well, since my parents were killed not too long after I was born, I was raised by my Aunt. It was a fairly normal childhood. I don't know what else you want to know."

"When did your Aunt realize you were a witch?"

"Hmm. I performed my first bit of accidental magic when I was five. My cousin and I were playing a game and she jumped out to scare me. I accidently set her hair on fire."

"Was she okay?"

Susan laughed. "Yeah, but she still won't talk to me."

"Is your cousin here at Hogwarts?"

"Oh, no. She thinks we're nothing but a bunch of barbarians. She goes to the Salem Institute in the United States."

"Ahh."

She turned over on the couch to where they were facing each other. As she moved her red hair out of her eyes, she asked, "Do you know how old you were when you performed magic the first time?"

"Remus told me I was four months old."

Susan's hand, which was still fiddling with her hair, stilled. "Are you sure?"

"Yeah. Remus said that I summoned my bottle to me."

"Harry," Susan said slowly, "that's not something I would tell everyone. I promise I won't mention it but that's not a normal thing. Magic generally manifests in children around age two or three."

He sighed. "Great. Another thing that makes me a freak."

"You're not a freak, Harry," she said as she pinched him.

They laid in silence for several minutes when Susan spoke again. "You're on par, magic wise, with Dumbledore and You-Know-Who aren't you?"

He tentatively nodded. "Please don't tell anyone. Not even Ron, Hermione, and Neville know."

"Surely they suspect ..."

"I think Hermione has for a while but she's never confronted me about it."

"I swear on my magic that I'll never tell anyone through any means."

Harry nodded. "Tell me more about you as you grew up."

"What else did you want to know?"

"What type of games did you play?"

"My aunt wanted me aware of the muggle world but I mostly played wizarding games. Muggle electronics don't work in a wizarding home, so I never watched a telly or anything."

"I never really understood that."

"As the magic in a house rises, muggle appliances go on the fritz. Hannah says her family has to buy a telly about every four months."

"That makes sense, I suppose."

Harry closed his eyes as he listened to her describe the first time she got on a broom.

The next thing he knew, he was opening his eyes to see Susan asleep. They weren't touching on the couch (she transfigured it to be wide) but they had fallen asleep looking at each other.

He slowly rubbed his eyes and gingerly sat up. He then quietly cast, "tempus".

5:42 a.m.

"Holy crap! Susan. Wake up. It's nearly six in the morning."

She swiftly sat up. So quickly that she fell off the edge of the couch.

He helped her up. "Are you okay?"

"Yeah. I'm awake now. Ugh. Okay. I'm awake."

"You need to get back to the dorm. I'll see you at breakfast."

She nodded and swiftly headed to her dorm. Harry then disillusioned himself and headed to the tower.

Unfortunately, Neville caught him coming into the common room. (He canceled the spell when he arrived at the portrait.)

"Aren't those the same clothes you wore yesterday?"

"No," he denied quickly.

Neville laughed. "You're a horrible liar," he said as he climbed through the portrait hole.

Harry rolled his eyes as he rushed up the stairs to the dorm room.

He still didn't make it to breakfast so he resigned himself to getting yelled at by Snape later.

During dinner, Ron asked Harry if he could borrow the new Quidditch magazine that Harry subscribed to.

"It's in my bedroom in Snape's quarter's."

"Er. Never mind. I can wait."

Harry laughed. "I can run down and get it before Hermione's study group." He swallowed some pumpkin juice as he stood. "I'll be back."

Ron nodded then went back to his food.

Harry hurried down to the dungeon. It was as he descended the set of stairs that led to Snape's quarters he realized he was being followed. He took about five steps down the hallway and turn around - just in time to see some kind of spell shoot at him.

He immediately felt welts rise on his skin.

"Protego,"he called out. He couldn't see who it was but did see their magical signature. After he deflected three more curses, he shouted, "incarcerous".

He dodged another double stunner the person sent at him after his attacker had evaded the flying ropes.

Harry ducked as a cutting curse whipped over his head.

Unfortunately, a minute later, another cutting curse had caught part of his arm.

The fight was nearing ten minutes when the attackers invisibility wore off. He recognized the boy as a seventh year Slytherin but he wasn't sure of his name. One thing was for sure though, he was fast.

Harry ducked another curse but bit back the scream as he was unable to avoid the second one that came immediately after.

He hadn't wanted to hurt him - just neutralize him - but clearly the Slytherin didn't have the same compassion.

"Aguamenti. Glaciare," Harry called out in quick succession a couple minutes later.

He watched the Slytherin slide and fall on the ice. He took his chance to neutralize his attacker then. "Stupefy."

Finally, the boy was stunned. He eyed his arm. He was bleeding pretty heavily and he was slightly dizzy. The pain on his side and stomach told him that the welts were still there.

He idly wondered if the hallway was supposed to be spinning. He instinctively grabbed the necklace Snape had given him. His last subconscious thought was 'dad'.

Severus was conversing with Pomona about some ingredients he needed when he felt his blood chill.

"Harry," he muttered. He took off at a run toward the dungeons. He didn't know where he was going so he let instinct take over. When he went down the steps that led to the corridor his quarters were on, he nearly stopped dead with what he saw.

Harry was laying on the stone floor, blood pooling around him. He steadied his hand as he felt for a pulse. Thankfully it was strong.

Pomona was about ten steps behind him.

"Dear sweet Merlin!" She immediately went to check on the Slytherin student.

Severus quickly closed the two cuts he found. Harry's shirt had ridden up and from what he could see, he had weeping welts over his stomach. He quickly sent his patronus to Albus. Hopefully the man wasn't still at dinner.

"Come on, Harry. Wake up," Severus said softly as he tapped his son's face.

"Mr. Vaisey is just stunned. Do you want me to revive him?"

"Severus, Pomona, what's going on?" Albus asked as he came down a set of stairs. Minerva and Filius were behind him.

"I found them like this. Harry needs to be taken to the hospital wing."

Twenty minutes later found Severus sitting at Harry's bedside, waiting on his son to wake up. He had gotten the story from his Slytherin student. He left Albus to deal with the boys punishment. He merely wanted to strangle him - regardless of his age.

Another hour had passed when Granger, Weasley, Longbottom, and Bones came in the infirmary.

"Professor Snape? How's Harry?"

"Still unconscious."

"Why was he attacked?" asked Ms. Bones.

"I can't discuss that with students. If he wants to tell you when he wakes, he can."

"Do you mind if we stay until curfew?" asked Weasley.

Severus conjured three chairs after he stood. "Go ahead. I'll be back in a bit." He then strode to Poppy's office.

"He's fine Severus. When he fell, he hit his head fairly hard against the wall. That's why he's still unconscious."

"So you've told me four times. I actually need to borrow your Henton book."

She went to the bookshelf and pulled it down.

He nodded his thanks and swept out of the room.

By the time he returned to Harry's bedside, Remus was present.

"Has he woken up yet?"

"He did briefly but before he could say much of anything, he went back to sleep."

Severus sighed.

"Albus told me why Vaisey attacked him. When Harry learns the truth, he's going to blame himself."

"I know. I'm tempted not to tell him," admitted Severus quietly.

"Then I'll be mad," muttered a croaky voice. "Water."

Severus quickly poured him a glass while Remus helped him set up in the bed.

After he took several drinks, he grimaced. "My head feels like someone took a bludger bat to it ... several times."

Severus immediately reached into his robes and pulled out a moderate pain reliever.

Harry only drank half of it.

"I'll drink the rest when you tell me why I was attacked."

Remus snickered. "Your Slytherin side is showing again."

Harry grimaced and fought back a yawn.

"You were attacked because the boy's father was one of the Auror's killed last Hogsmeade weekend. He blamed you because you didn't show yourself sooner."

Severus saw Harry blank his face.

"Harry, don't bury your emotions," he said with a growl.

His son downed the rest of the pain potion, muttered he was going back to sleep and laid back down.

"Well that went well," he said sarcastically.

Remus brushed Harry's fringe out of his eyes. "I think he'll be fine as long as he talks through it."

"Getting him to talk is going to be the hard part," he admitted.

"If you two promise to let me sleep, I promise I'll talk tomorrow. My head is killing me."

Severus bit back the chuckle that threatened to escape.

Harry wasn't released from the hospital wing until Friday afternoon. He sighed as he realized he was going to have to talk to Snape that evening. Maybe if he would have shown himself earlier then the boy would still have his father.

He idly wondered if the Slytherin was punished but put it out of his mind. He needed to get to what was left of Hagrid's class. To his surprise, he found Hagrid talking about Thestral's. It turned out to be a good class.

Sadly, potions turned out to be a nightmare. Snape was reviewing things and Harry found he couldn't answer anything. His headache had returned but he didn't want to ask Snape for another potion because then the man might cancel the lesson on wandless magic. Maybe Madam Pomphrey would help him.

After class, he headed to the hospital wing.

"Potter? What's wrong?"

"My headache is back. I was wondering if you could give me anything for it?"

"Why not ask your father?"

"I didn't want him to know," he admitted.

She quickly scanned him. "Everything seems fine. It might be more of a residual pain. If this hasn't kicked in by the end of dinner, come back to see me."

Harry drank the potion and shivered in disgust at the taste. "Yes ma'am."

Thankfully, by the end of dinner, his headache was completely gone.

"I'll see you guys later."

"Again? Harry, Snape is taking over all of your free time," protested Ron.

Harry shrugged. "Not much I can do about it. Unless you want to tell him that."

Ron made a face, though whether it was from his suggestion or the fact that he had kissed Susan, he didn't know. He then headed to the dungeons.

Surprisingly, Snape didn't lecture him about class. Instead they headed to the warded classroom to work on wandless magic.

It was nearly two in the morning before he got to bed that night.

A/N: Sorry about longer than a week passing by. I got side-tracked into writing and forgot to post. o.O

So ... who thinks the O.W.L.'s are getting to Hermione? hehe

I'm not gonna say anything about the Susan and Harry scene. I have another scene later on that plays off of this one. Let's just say that involves Harry nearly giving Snape a heart attack. bwahahaha

As for the attack scene, the reason Harry got hurt so badly is that he really didn't want to hurt the Slytherin student and the hallways aren't exactly the best place to duel someone because there are things that can fall off the wall or off of statue stands, which could hurt either pretty badly.

And yes, Ron is right, Snape is taking up a lot of Harry's free time. I've got a scene later on where Dumbledore and Snape talk about that.

Yet again, Harry learns something else about himself that sets him apart from the wizarding masses by performing magic at such a young age.

As for the mention that Susan has red hair. I know a lot of people (J.K. might have commented on it too, but I can't remember off the top of my head) talk about how Harry has a thing for red heads. If you'll remember, Gabriella had black hair. The fact that Susan had red hair is just a coincidence. I was looking some information up about her and realized that she had red hair. I just thought it was an amusing fact, so it got put in. hehe (Yes, I am amused very easily.)

Up next, a scene I enjoyed writing for Hagrid's class, plus Harry gets more training by the Order. Also got a Founders Library trip planned too.

Oh, and bookivore, I agree about the conjured book thing. It's my belief that unless a person knows a book well, they can't conjure it. :)

*lures out reviewers with shiny objects* :)