AN: This chapter is pretty short, but it's snowing here and snow days should be celebrated with chapters, obviously lol. Also this just seemed like a good place to end it :)

I hope you all like it!


Harry followed the others as they made their way towards a table near the back of the Leaky Cauldron. Their time in the bookstore had taken much longer than it should have, and not because Harry, Draco, and Brielle hadn't found their books. It was because Snape and Evelyn were walking up and down the rows of books and chatting about different ones they had read.

Twice Harry noticed something strangely close to a smile spread across Snape's face at something Evelyn would say, and once, Snape said something that Harry didn't catch, but Evelyn laughed!

Severus Snape, Bat of the Dungeons, Potions Master and Death Eater Spy, had said something witty?

"Do you think he likes her?" Draco whispered suddenly, causing Harry to jump.

"What?" Harry hissed. "No."

Draco raised an eyebrow and looked back to where Snape was pulling out Evelyn's chair so she could sit. "Are you sure? Because it seems like he does."

"Shut up," Harry said, louder than he'd meant to.

"Harry," Snape scolded, looking over at them.

Harry could feel his cheeks growing warm and he ducked his head before pulling out his seat and dropping heavily into it. He crossed his arms over his chest and slouched, drawing Snape's gaze to him once more.

Snape leaned over from where he sat beside him at the round table and spoke quietly so that only Harry would hear, "What's going on? I thought you were hungry."

"Nothing. I thought we were going home," Harry said, just as softly. When Snape only continued to watch him, Harry huffed and sat up straighter.

Snape let his hand rest on Harry's shoulder, giving it a quick squeeze before turning his attention to the waiter who was taking their drink orders.

"So, Harry," Evelyn said, "how did you like the beach?"

Harry frowned. "How did you know we went to the beach?"

"Severus mentioned it," she said with a smile. "I used to love visiting my grandparents in America, because they retired to a condo by the ocean in Florida, so my sister and I, Brie's mum, would get to spend all day at the beach. We would have such wonderful times."

"Is that why you don't have a French accent?" Harry asked before he could stop himself. "Because you're from America?"

"Harry, that is none of your business," Snape said sternly, turning in his chair to fully face the teenager.

Evelyn, however, simply smiled before placing her hand atop Snape's wrist on the table. An action that Harry did not miss. She patted it once before she said, "Oh, no, that's alright!" She moved her hand back to her lap and said, "You're mostly right, actually, Harry. My family is quite spread out. My mum was an American, muggle-born witch who went to Ilvermorny, in New York. After she graduated, she wanted to travel and so she went all over the world before ending up in France, where she met my father."

"He went to Beauxbatons," interjected Brielle.

Evelyn nodded. "That's right. They fell in love at first sight and at first they settled down in London, and that's where my sister and I were born. But then they decided to move back to America when I was just a baby. Marie is five years older than I am, so when it was time for her to go to school, she got to go to Ilvermorny, but when I was six, my dad's mum fell ill. Now she had moved to London by this time, and we moved back there to take care of her, but my parents wanted my sister and I to go to Beauxbatons, so even though we lived in London, we went to school in France."

"Wait," said Draco suddenly, "So you were born in London, but then raised in America first, then London again, just so that you could go to school in France?"

Evelyn laughed. "I told you we were spread out."

On the other side of Draco, Brielle said, "You think it's strange to you, but try having to grow up with them. My dad is British, my mum is everything that she is," she added with a laugh, "and I do not fit in at Beauxbatons. I begged them to let me transfer last year but they wouldn't agree. Thankfully Aunt Evie finally talked them into it."

When the food came, the conversation shifted and Harry grew quiet. No one seemed to notice though. Draco was busy telling Brielle all about Slytherin house, being more open and welcoming than Harry had ever seen him, and Snape appeared to be hanging off of Evelyn's every word.

Harry only picked at his Shepherd's Pie. His stomach felt like it was tied up in knots, and he didn't understand why. He liked Evelyn. Maybe not at first when he thought she was trying to take him away from Snape, but at the end, when she'd come to the adoption party, they had talked and she had been nice.

And what if Draco was right and Snape liked her? What did Harry care? It wasn't as if it would mean anything for Harry, right? Unless…

Harry shook his head to try and clear away the unwanted thoughts. No. Everything was fine.

Then, as if there had been a momentary break in the circuits that led from his brain to his mouth, Harry said, "Evelyn, do you always have lunch with your former cases? That seems like something that would be against the rules."

"Harry James!" Snape rounded on Harry, glaring down at him even as the rest of the table grew completely silent.

Draco glanced at him from the corner of his eyes before becoming very interested in his own food.

"What?" asked Harry, innocently. "I'm only saying that-"

"That's enough," Snape said sharply.

He placed his napkin on the table, but just as Harry was sure that he was about to stand, no doubt to take Harry somewhere more private so that he could lecture him away from everyone else, Evelyn spoke up.

"Harry, I promise that whatever professional relationship we had before is over now. I'm no longer your caseworker, but merely a friend. Or at least, I'd like to be."

Harry bit his lip as he searched for any untruth in her soft, brown eyes. He didn't know what to say. Did he want to be her friend? What it if was a ploy to get him to let his guard down? The number of trusted adults in Harry's life was still heavily overshadowed by the ones he didn't trust. The Dursley's were the only ones to abuse him, but there had still been plenty that had failed him over the years. Teachers who he had trusted only to find out later that they didn't care about him at all. Neighbors who knew that they weren't taking proper care of him, but who hadn't done anything to help him.

Harry glanced up to Snape, and though it was clear that he wasn't pleased at Harry's sudden rudeness to Evelyn, he looked more concerned than anything. As if he truly wanted to understand what Harry was thinking.

He sighed before giving a quick nod in her direction. It was the best that he was willing to give for the moment.

Evelyn didn't seem to mind because she smiled at him then in such a way that the corners of her eyes crinkled before she said, "Alright, then. Now, how is your pie?"

Harry speared a bit of the meat with his fork and said, "It's good, but it could use some salt."

Evelyn picked up the salt shaker that was on her side of the table and held it out for Snape to take and pass on to Harry.

When Harry reached for it, Snape caught his eye, and as Harry's fingers wrapped around the shaker, Snape let his own wrap around Harry, giving them a gentle squeeze before letting go.

If anyone else at the table noticed the moment between them, they didn't say anything.


As soon as Harry and Draco stepped out of the fireplace and into the manor living room, Harry took off toward the stairs.

When Snape emerged only seconds later, he saw him disappearing around the corner. "Harry," he called, his tone sharp.

Harry paused but he did not turn back. "I don't want to talk about it."

"Well, I do," Snape said, pointing to the couch before he sat down in his chair. "Draco, go upstairs."

"What did I do?" Draco demanded. He had already sat down on the opposite end of the couch and was flipping through the new book that Snape had gotten him, but when he saw the way that Snape was glaring at him, he snapped the book closed and stood up. "Upstairs, it is."

Snape waited for Draco to leave the room before he turned back to Harry. "Would you like to tell me what is really going on?" he asked.

Harry let himself fall into the corner of the couch as he shook his head. "I already told you; it's nothing. I didn't mean for it to come out like that."

"You're not usually one to be rude or callus for no reason. I can't help you if I don't know what's bothering you, Harry."

"Nothing is bothering me," he snapped. Then he took a deep breath and let it out slowly before saying, "Honestly. I think I'm just tired."

Snape nodded, though he was certain that there was something more to Harry's behavior at lunch than he was letting on. "How many nightmares have you had this summer?" he asked.

"Why?" Harry sat up straighter and pulled his leg up on the couch.

Snape watched him as he intently studied his knee, picking at the beginnings of a rip in the fabric of his jeans. "Because," he said slowly, making sure to choose his words carefully, "if the nightmares are getting bad again, perhaps we should get you an appointment with-"

"No," Harry said, shaking his head. "I've been doing good, Dad. I don't need to go back to the Mind Healers."

"I'm only saying that it wouldn't hurt to check in with them," Snape tried to reason but Harry stood, moving around to the back of the couch and letting his hands grip the cushions on the back rest.

"I'm not cracking up if that's what you think," he said with a frown. "I'm fine."

"I didn't say you were," Snape assured him.

"It's only been a few nightmares. It's not that big of a deal."

"How many?" Snape asked again. He remained seated in his chair, hoping that as long as he stayed calm, Harry would as well. He would never get anything from the boy if he worked himself into a fit.

Harry bit his lip. "Four," he said after a moment. "The one at the beginning of summer, one the night we came back from the sea, one last week, and then the one last night."

"Harry, surely you understand that talking to someone could help."

"So could Dreamless Sleep," Harry muttered, turning away from him and leaning against the back of the couch.

Snape raised his eyebrows at that. He had only given Harry the potion a couple of times in the year that he had been in his care, but he wondered if it was enough that Harry realized the effects it could have if not used sparingly. The very last thing Snape needed was for his not even fourteen-year-old to become addicted to a potion. "Dreamless Sleep is highly addictive when it's not used properly, young man, and is obviously not to be used as a long term solution."

Harry's shoulders dropped and he turned back to face Snape. "I know," he said with a sigh. "I was just throwing it out there." When Snape still didn't say anything, Harry did something that he had only ever done once before; he crossed the room and sat on the arm of Snape's chair. He lifted his leg so that his foot rested on the arm in front of him, then leaned his head against his knee and closed his eyes. Just like before, Snape immediately brought his hand up and began to rub Harry's back between his shoulder blades.

"I'm tired," he said miserably.

"Perhaps a nap, then," Snape suggested.

Harry nodded. "I don't want to go back to Healer Jones. If I have to talk to someone, couldn't it be Uncle Remus instead?"

Snape didn't have the heart to tell him no. Especially not when Harry was asking in such a rare moment of vulnerability. "I'll talk to him about it tonight," he said quietly. "In the meantime, why don't you head upstairs and put your new things away. I've ready sent them to your room, but you can put them where you want them. Then lie down for bit. I'll wake you up before dinner."

It was a testament to how tired Harry was because he didn't even attempt to argue about being sent to bed. Not that Snape thought he would have in the first place. He'd already suggested a nap and Harry had agreed to it readily. It was simply the way that Harry's shoulders slumped as he stood and walked back across the room toward the parlor door that gave Snape pause. He wanted to call him back. Tell him he could lay on the couch instead or offer to sit with him a while longer, but before he could do either of those things, Harry was out of sight.


The next morning, Draco walked out of his bedroom, yawning and rubbing the sleep from his eyes. He met Harry as he came out of his own room and raised his hand in a halfhearted wave; a greeting that Harry returned with simply a nod of his head. It was the same way every morning, as neither of the teenagers were particularly talkative when they first woke up.

Draco thought maybe he should find it odd that he lived with Harry Potter now, but somehow it hadn't crossed his mind to think anything of it at all, really. He considered that perhaps it was because he had already stayed here for a week last summer, and that they had somehow formed a friendship over the school year that had surprised them both, but whatever the reason, Draco felt more like this was how things could have been all along.

Well, maybe not "all along," he thought as he considered their first couple of years at Hogwarts. Back then, he couldn't imagine being anything less than enemies with Harry. He wondered what his life might have been like if things had been different. If he hadn't been raised his first thirteen years to hate a boy who hadn't done anything to him. He couldn't imagine hating Harry now.

Harry bumped into Draco as they walked down the stairs. "Sorry," he said, but the small grin on his face made Draco think it hadn't been entirely an accident.

He waited til they had gotten to the bottom step, then Draco reached up and shoved Harry lightly, making him nearly lose his balance.

Draco laughed when Harry's arms swung wide before he caught himself.

"Oi," Harry said, "if you give me a concussion, Dad will have a lot to say about that."

Draco rolled his eyes and playfully tried to shove him again, though this time Harry dodged out of the way. "You're right," Draco said. "He'll probably thank me for saving him the trouble of keeping you around and give me about a hundred house points."

Before, Draco wouldn't have dared to tease Harry in such a way, but something had shifted between them over the last few months, and now the jab only caused Harry to laugh.

Harry ran past Draco, bumping shoulders with him on his way toward the dining room.

Draco caught up quickly and they both pushed and shoved each other in an attempt to be the first to get inside the room.

"Boys," Snape scolded mildly from his place at the table where he was reading a letter.

"He started it," Harry said innocently as he pulled out his chair.

"Liar," Draco accused. "He-"

"You've both got mail," Snape said, interrupting them both before they could go any further. He raised his wand and two envelopes appeared on the table. One with Harry's name and the other with Draco's.

Snape put down the letter he had been reading and Draco noticed that "Evelyn," was signed at the bottom of it in neat handwriting. A quick glance at Harry told Draco that he noticed as well, though why Harry was suddenly glaring, Draco didn't understand.

Draco couldn't think of any reason why they should care if Snape was talking to Evelyn. She seemed nice enough to him, and if she and Snape liked each other wouldn't that be a good thing? Didn't Snape deserve to have someone who liked him?

Before Draco could think much more about it, Harry had picked up his letter, saying, "It's from Sirius."

Draco picked up his own, immediately recognizing the handwriting as his mother's, and his heart skipped a beat.

Why was she writing to him? What did she want?

Narcissa hadn't said more than a few words to Draco since he'd come home for the summer. Why would she start now? Did she want him to know how much she hated him? He already knew that.

With shaking hands, Draco carefully tore open the envelope and unfolded the letter.

He read it quickly once, his mouth dropping open in shock. Then he read it a second time to make sure it was real.

"Uncle Sev?" he said quietly.

"What is it, Draco?" Snape said, turning his attention to him.

Draco held the letter out for him to take. "She wants me to come home."