Disclaimer: All the usual's apply!

Chapter 121

Monday morning came early for Harry. He had stayed up until nearly midnight unpacking and fixing his room to his liking. He had then spent another hour writing in his journal.

As he made his way to the Gryffindor Table the next morning, he saw Dean and Seamus throwing him looks of disbelief. He grimaced. He had removed his stuff while they had been in the common room.

"So, Harry," began Seamus. "All of your stuff is missing in our dorm."

He nodded. "I moved down with Snape, but I am allowed to spend the occasional night in the dorm."

"Why?" asked Dean in a horrified voice.

Harry shrugged. "Because I wanted too. Ron, did you finish your paper for Lupin?"

Ron nodded as he stood up. "I'll see you in Binns' classroom."

"Where are you going?" asked Hermione suspiciously.

"To the dorm. I forgot something," the red head said as he grabbed two bagels and rushed out of the Great Hall.

Harry saw Hermione look at him with her eyes narrowed.

"Don't look at me like that. I have no idea what he forgot," he said around a mouth full of porridge.

"Where's Susan?" asked Lavender. "Did you two break up when she realized you were moving to the dungeons?"

Harry scowled. "No, we didn't. She was fine with it. She's probably running late again."

"How shallow do you think she is?" asked Hermione suddenly.

"What?" asked Harry, clearly confused.

"Not you, Harry. I'm talking to Lavender."

Lavender glared at her, but Harry noticed that her cheeks had darkened some.

"Lavender was insinuating that Susan would break up with you just because you moved in with Snape."

He saw his year mate shrug. "It's Snape."

"Well it's a good thing he's not dating you then, isn't it, since you would clearly break up with him over something he can't control," Susan said as she came up behind Lavender.

"He controls whether or not he moved in with him," Lavender pointed out as she glared at Susan over her shoulder.

Harry sensed that Susan was about to slap Lavender. Her magic was pulsing and vibrating. As he stood, he grabbed her arm. "Let's go."

"No Harry. I'm not finished talking to her."

He glared at Susan. "It's not worth it and all of the teachers are watching. Let's go."

He saw her relent and they walked out in the hall together.

"You should have let me hit her," she said, obviously still agitated.

He rolled his eyes. "Just ignore her. I do."

They talked together for a few minutes before she headed off to her class and he went to History of Magic. As she walked away, he had sensed that her magic had calmed some. He just hoped it stayed that way.

Wednesday evening found Harry getting back to Snape's quarters thirty minutes after fifth year curfew.

He cautiously entered the room and grimaced when he saw Snape sitting on the couch reading by the fire.

"You're late."

"Yes, sir. I'm sorry."

"Why are you late?"

Harry shifted from one foot to another. "The study group ran late."

Snape raised an eyebrow. "Madam Pince always kicks students from the library ten minutes before that years' curfew. Try again."

"We weren't in the library. We were in an abandoned classroom on the seventh floor. The study group is too big to fit in the library without making too much noise."

"So, you're saying that more than just you was out after curfew?"

"Er ..."

"After classes tomorrow, you are to come straight here. You will eat your meals here, as well."

Harry sighed. Despite the fact he expected this, he really didn't expect Snape to punish him if he admitted to studying. As he headed to his room, he figured it was a good thing he didn't admit to walking Susan to the Hufflepuff dorms because that was the real reason he was late.

He put his stuff away and grabbed the recent elemental book that Dumbledore had wanted him to read. He fell asleep an hour and a half later, still holding onto the book.

Severus looked around his room wondering what woke him. He glanced at the clock and saw that it was about three in the morning.

Grabbing his robe, he immediately headed to Harry's room. There, he saw him thrashing about on the bed but, to his confusion, he couldn't hear anything.

However, as soon as he crossed the threshold, the screaming assaulted his senses.

"Harry, wake up," he said as he reached out to gently shake him.

As soon as his hand touched Harry's shoulder, he was thrown across the room.

He immediately stood back up and went to shake Harry again, this time more cautiously.

"Harry. Harry. It's just a nightmare. Wake up."

Harry suddenly bolted out of the bed.

Severus watched him as he tried to regulate his breathing.

"What happened?"

"You were having a nightmare," he said.

"Oh. Sorry. I thought I cast the spell on the room correctly. I'll redo it tomorrow."

He watched as Harry climbed back in the bed. "In the morning, I want you to remove it completely. I thought your nightmare's stopped."

Harry shivered as the pulled the blankets up. "Never fully stopped."

Severus opened his mouth to say something only to realize Harry had fallen back asleep. He tucked the blanket more firmly around him then tried to cancel the silencing spell on the room, but was unable to.

He glanced over his shoulder and wondered if Harry interwove that spell with his wand on purpose.

Realizing he wouldn't go to sleep again, he stalked to his potions lab. Maybe he could make some type of potion that would help prevent the nightmares.

By the time he had left his lab, he spotted dishes in the kitchen and his son missing. Evidently the boy had ate as quickly as he could and fled the room.

Harry wandlessly summoned the vase from across the room. Halfway to his hand, he pointed his wand at it and yelled, "confringo".

"Excellent. This time I want you to do both spells without a wand. Put your wand in your wand holder."

Harry grimaced. He had a feeling Snape was working him extra hard because he had refused to take down the silencing ward on his bedroom. They had yelled at each other for over an hour the other night. It had resulted in another evening away from his friends.

"Accio vase," Harry said as he concentrated on the vase across the room. "Confringo," he called out a split second later as he mirrored the wand movement with his hand.

He sighed as he caught the non-exploded vase.

"Again," commanded Snape.

Three hours later, Harry let out a slight groan as he collapsed into a chair.

"Get up."

"I'm tired," he replied petulantly.

Snape looked down at him. "I know but you won't always be wide awake if you find yourself attacked."

Harry sighed as he stood back up. He eyed the vase and said, "Accio ... confringo."

He startled as the vase finally caught fire and exploded in mid air. He turned to look at Snape. "Now can I go to bed?"

Snape snorted. "Yes. Help me vanish all the broken shards of clay and we'll walk back together."

Harry let his wand slide down into his hand and began helping Snape clean up the mess.

Twenty minutes later, he was sound asleep in his bed.

Severus walked Harry down to the warded classroom where Albus was waiting on them both.

"Sorry I'm late, sir," Harry mumbled to Albus.

The Headmaster raised an eyebrow. "Everything okay?"

He rolled his eyes. "Everything is fine. Ms. Granger didn't want to let him leave his O.W.L. study group."

Albus sighed. "How many points did you take, Severus?"

"Only fifteen."

"Fifteen points to Gryffindor," Albus said pointedly. "It's not her fault that Harry is not allowed to tell his friends where he is going or what he is doing."

"I've asked her to study for the subjects I'm not taking on the weekends, but she refuses to budge from her schedule," Harry added.

"What are you doing today?" asked Severus as he changed the subject. He was annoyed Albus had given the points back, especially since he took them because of her cheek. He figured he'd just find another way to remove them.

"We're still working with fire, and before you ask, yes, I have a jar of your burn salve."

He nodded and swept out of the room, his robes billowing behind him. He swiftly headed to his office in his quarters. He fully intended to make use of the time Albus and Harry were both occupied by procuring a few things in Hogsmeade.

After grabbing his list of the things he needed to pick up, he grabbed his pouch of money, his cloak, downed a vial of polyjuice (after all, he was wanted dead by the Dark Lord), and began his journey to the local village.

Harry grinned at Dumbledore.

"Good job, Harry. Clearly you really are a natural at controlling fire. Now, this time, after you get it built up again, I want you to have it change its shape into an animal."

He frowned as he looked at the torch standing in the middle of the room. "What's the spell?"

"There is no spell. We didn't attempt this with water because while you could control the basics, you couldn't quite grasp the more advanced spell-work."

"If there's no spell, how do I change its shape?"

"In this case, you use your mind and eventually your magic will follow."

"So I just say the animal over and over in my head?"

"Essentially but you must also make sure you keep control of the fire. If it helps, for the first couple of times, say the name of the animal out loud."

Harry nodded and took a deep breath. He then raised his wand and murmured the spell to cause the fire to increase. Using well practiced wand movements, he caused the fire to swirl into a huge ball. He then hovered the ball of fire in the air for a minute.

"Stag," he said.

He frowned when the fire simply extinguished.

The Headmaster chuckled as he re-lit the torch. "Try again."

On the fifth try, Harry managed to keep the ball of flame up as he said stag over and over.

"Now try it silently, Harry. Remember to push what you are thinking through your magic."

Twenty minutes later, Harry growled in frustration.

"It's all right, Harry. Let's move on to something else for a while."

Harry nodded but before Dumbledore could give him something else to do, he gasped. He was suddenly dizzy and felt like he was being punched in the stomach.

"Harry, what's wrong?"

"Something's ..." He trailed off as he instinctively reached inside his own magic. "Snape's hurt." He got up from the ground where he had fallen to his knees, rushed out of the warded classroom, and headed to his and Snape's rooms - Dumbledore following right behind him.

However, a search showed the rooms to be empty.

Harry grimaced again. "Why isn't he here?"

"Harry," Dumbledore said urgently, catching his eye, "look deep inside your magic again. The answer will come to you."

He done so. "Hogsmeade. He's in Hogsmeade."

"Stay here."

"No. I need to go," he said as he reached out to grab the Headmaster's arm.

Dumbledore paused for half a second. "If I tell you to hide or to stay behind me, you are to obey me without question."

He nodded. He had to help Snape!

Together, they ran toward the front hall. His mind vaguely registered surprise that they didn't see anyone else, but then again, they did use several side passages to get to the entrance of the castle.

It only took about ten to fifteen minutes to get to the village but it felt like hours to him.

With his wand at the ready, next to the Headmaster, they cautiously began searching the area. He found it ominous that the village was completely silent.

"Where is everyone?" whispered Harry.

"Inside," Dumbledore replied as he headed down an alley way.

Harry frowned as he felt a tug on his magic. It felt really weird. "That way," he said, pointing down a different alley.

"Put up a shield and stay behind me," the Headmaster said, very seriously.

When they rounded the corner, Harry gasped in surprise.

There, lying in a puddle of mud and blood, was the body of an unknown man but the magical signature of Snape was clearly recognizable to him. Evidently the man had used something to disguise himself, most likely polyjuice.

He made to immediately run to him when he saw the magical signature of an invisible person standing about ten feet to the left of where Snape was laying in the mud.

The Headmaster wordlessly sent ropes that surrounded the person.

Three more Death Eaters immediately apparated in.

"Well, well, well. We just expected Dumbledore, not itty bitty baby Potter," cackled Bellatrix gleefully.

Harry instinctively pushed more of his magic into his shield.

"And you thought that the three of you were going to take him out?" he asked in an incredulous tone.

"There are more than three of them," the Headmaster replied casually.

He extended his senses. Dumbledore was right. He sensed at least five more people. They must have disguised their magical signature's, no doubt because they knew Dumbledore could see them.

A spell suddenly shot and bounced off of Harry's shield. It was all that was needed to start the vicious spell casting between the Death Eaters and Dumbledore and Harry.

"Cutis coqure," he immediately hissed in parseltongue as he aimed at Bellatrix. It had been one of the spells he had read about in Slytherins books. He only had a vague idea what it would do. Unfortunately her shield blocked most of the spell, but not all of it.

She screamed out as some of her skin started boiling.

He then focused on defense for the moment. If he got another chance at her, he'd definitely take it, but for now, he did not.

Using some of the moves Lupin taught him, he was able to take out two attackers by using his shield alone.

From the corner of his eye, he watched Dumbledore duel four Death Eaters at once with ease.

Unfortunately, he hadn't seen Snape move the first time.

He dodged a curse as he managed to stun Gabriella's father, though he wouldn't have known it was him without being familiar with the man's magical signature. (The masks prevented the true identity's from being known - except for Bellatrix who wasn't wearing one.)

Just as Dumbledore cast some kind of spell that sent two Death Eaters flying, Harry pointed his wand at the ground underneath one of the still invisible Death Eaters and yelled, "bombarda!"

The mud exploded all over the man and while he was distracted with that, Harry managed to stun him as well.

It was a minute later he heard Bellatrix mutter, "if Potter's here, that man must be Snape."

As if his heart rate hadn't been fast enough already, he felt it increase even more. (It wouldn't surprise him if the villagers could hear it while they were inside their shops.) He immediately cast a shield over the still non-moving Snape. He then had a choice. He could either shove everyone out of the way and apparate Snape to another portion of the village temporarily or he could stay and help Dumbledore and pray that he'd been able to keep the man safe from the various curses and spells flying through the air.

But not even a full second later, the choice was taken away from him when the beyond insane witch aimed her wand at Snape and yelled, "Avada Kedavra."

"NO!" he screamed as he dived at Snape, fully intending to take the Killing Curse himself.

A/N: I'm gonna apologize for posting this two months late, but I imagine a few of you are going to murder me with those pitchforks anyway.

First, I lost access to the program I usually type on again, so I downloaded something different. It does alright, but it saves things in a weird format. Anyway, I've been slowly getting used to it. Then I hit a major case of writers block. Just as I started to get over that, I got a phone call telling me that my step dad went in the hospital and was placed on a vent. I had since spent 3 1/2 weeks with him. (I lived in the hospital, only leaving twice, once to go to wal-mart to get more clothes and once to walk across the road to rite-aid for a few things. The hospital was in WV and I'm in VA now, so it's not like I could travel back and forth.) Since I haven't been able to fix my netbook yet, I had no real way of typing things. The only electronics I took with me were my Kindle Fire and my phone. I did take the story though to work on it, but I didn't get as much done as I would have liked. I could only really work on it in the evenings after I was kicked outta dad's room (he was in a semi and I couldn't stay because he had a roommate) but by that time, I was so exhausted, I'd normally fall straight to sleep.

Anyway, he's outta the hospital now and I had to put him in a skilled nursing / rehab facility so that he could learn to walk again. His leg muscles practically vanished where he was intubated for eight straight days.

I am now back in Virginia where I spent a day and a half cleaning my room, doing laundry, and unpacking. I was finally able to spend a few minutes typing up this next chapter.

I do wanna thank you all for not giving up on me. I swear to you I won't abandon this story. I'm having way too much fun writing it. All I ask is that you bare with me as I get back in the groove of things again.