"Inside." That was the first word spoken by Snape as he opened the front door to the manor and gestured for the boys to walk in ahead of him.
Harry and Draco exchanged a glance before moving past Snape.
"On the couch." Snape shut the door behind them and took a breath before he followed the boys into the living room. They had both taken spots on either end of the long sofa and neither was looking up at him. Snape stood on the other side of the coffee table and glared down at them with his arms crossed.
Suddenly the grandfather clock in the corner struck one. Just one, single, loud bong that seemed to cause the heaviness in the room to settle even further around them. Harry's eyes closed as he sighed.
"One in the morning," Snape said quietly. "Three hours after I sent you both to bed."
"Uncle Sev-" Whatever excuse Draco had been planning to give was abruptly cut off as Snape's black eyes snapped to meet his own blue ones. Draco lowered his head once more, unable to keep eye contact with his Godfather any longer.
"Of all the foolish, dunderheaded stunts you two could have pulled, you chose to sneak out in the dead of night for something as absurd as a concert!" His voice began to rise as he went on. "Did it even cross your minds that there is a killer on the loose?! That if he had somehow found out where you are staying, that he could have taken you and you wouldn't have been able to do anything about it?!"
"We had our wands." Harry defended, but even as he said it, he thought it sounded dumb.
If possible, Snape's eyes narrowed even more. "Ah, yes, because two third years are such a match for a fully grown, highly trained, maniacal, dark wizard!"
Harry and Draco slumped further down into their seats.
"And even if Black wasn't out there, in what world would it be okay for two, just turned thirteen-year-olds to go traipsing around a village that you know nothing about when no one knows where in the bloody hell you are?!" Snape was yelling by the end of his rant and he immediately noticed when Harry visibly flinched at his tone.
Harry had crossed his arms around his middle and was still staring resolutely down at a spot near his knees. His breathing was shallow, coming out in small puffs instead of in the slow and steady way that he would be if he were feeling relaxed.
Snape turned away to face the fireplace and then closed his eyes before he took a deep breath of his own. He needed to deal with this calmly. He hadn't meant to scare the boy. He counted to ten and took another breath. When he turned back around, Draco was looking up at him but Harry was still in the same position, though his arms had loosened and his breathing was a bit more regular.
Snape took a seat in his chair and sighed.
"Alright, it's late and you two should have been in bed hours ago, so I think the best thing to do now, is just to go to bed and we can talk about this in the morning."
Both Harry and Draco were looking at him now. "What?" Asked Draco in disbelief.
"You heard me. Go to bed."
Draco didn't need telling twice as he quickly stood from his spot on the couch and left the room without a backward glance. Harry, however, still sat quietly.
"Go on, Harry," Snape urged, "Get some sleep."
"You're-you're angry."
Snape let out a slow breath and pinched the bridge of his nose between his thumb and forefinger before saying, "I was, but right now I'm just tired."
"I'm sorry," Harry spoke quietly.
"I know." Snape nodded, "And I'm sorry that I yelled like that. I didn't mean to frighten you."
Harry's head snapped up, his eyes and mouth turning into more of a frown.
"I'm not afraid of you." He said defensively.
Snape leaned forward, resting his elbows on his knees. "Maybe not, but you were scared. And that's alright. You have every reason to be-"
"I'm not!" Harry hadn't shouted, but the emphasis he put on those two words alone carried as much weight as if he had yelled them across the room. He looked back down at his hands. "I'm not afraid that you'll h-hurt me," Harry said these words so quietly that Snape had to strain just to hear them. "I'm just afraid that you'll," He took a deep breath. "That you'll send me back."
"What?" Snape asked, floored by the admission, but now that Harry had started talking, he didn't seem to be able to stop and the next wave of words came out in a rush.
"I mean, I understand if you want me to go. Honest, I do. It's just that if I have to leave, couldn't I just go with the Weasleys? Or, or maybe Hermione's parents? Anywhere. Even if it's to Neville's Gran's house. I won't argue, I promise, just please, please don't send me back there."
Realization dawned on Snape and he sighed.
"You're not going to the Weasley's." Harry looked up, apprehension clear on his face. "Nor will you be going to the Granger's or even the Longbottom's."
Harry closed his eyes but nodded sadly.
"You're not going anywhere, Harry, except to your room, to get a proper night's sleep. Or at least what's left of it." Harry's eyes opened and he stared at the older man. "I don't know how many times I'm going to have to tell you this, but I suppose I'll say it as often as I have to. You're stuck with me. I'm not going anywhere and neither are you. It doesn't matter how much trouble you get into either. It won't change anything."
"But you didn't want to talk to us tonight." Harry accused.
"Because I didn't want the entire conversation to be me yelling at the two of you. I wanted to be calm so that I could be fair and reasonable. It certainly wasn't because I was thinking of sending you away."
"I'm sorry." Harry said again, "I really hadn't thought about Black or anything like that."
Snape sighed. "Honestly, that's somewhat of a relief."
Harry tilted his head to the side as he stared at his guardian. "What?"
"I do want you to think of the dangers of sneaking off while Sirius Black is on the loose, but I want that to be enough of a deterrent to keep you from doing it. Frankly, if you had thought about it, and the idea didn't frighten you enough to stop you, I'd be even more worried. It would be just like you to go off searching for him, and I want your word that that will not happen, Harry."
"I won't," Harry answered quickly as if Snape had just said the most ridiculous thing ever.
Snape cast him a skeptical look. "I mean it, Harry. You will not go looking for Black or intentionally put yourself in a position where he could find you. None of that reckless, Gryffindor hero business. I'll not have it. Not when it comes to this."
Harry nodded solemnly. "I promise."
Snape continued to stare at him for a moment, but then he also nodded. "Then I think it's time we both went to bed. We've got a long day ahead of us."
Harry's shoulders dropped as he stood up. He was not looking forward to that at all.
***
"Not so fast," Snape called from behind his paper. Harry and Draco froze where they stood near the kitchen doorway. Breakfast that morning had been silent except for three terse "Good morning's" and the longer the silence stretched out, the more nervous the boys became. They had exchanged a couple of brief looks across the table but Snape hadn't put down his paper even once. When they had finished eating, they had stood up and decided to try their luck at just leaving the man alone, but that was when he had called out to them.
The two teenagers turned back but didn't retake their seats. Snape, instead, stood up. He moved in front of them and crossed his arms over his chest as he stared down at them.
"Do either of you have anything to say about your actions last night?" He asked, his voice taking on that deliberately slow, quiet tone that Harry immediately associated with his professor.
"No, sir," Draco answered.
Harry shot the other boy a look before rolling his eyes at him. "We're sorry, Snape." He said sincerely. "It won't happen again."
"I should hope not."
Snape let out a long, slow breath then and said, "I've thought long and hard about what to do about this and I keep coming back to the same problem." He turned to Draco. "I can't tell your father about what happened here. If I do, he will ask a lot of questions that I can't give him answers to. And even if I could, the chances of him actually disciplining you in any way that would be good for you are very slim." Harry thought he saw Draco's normally cool facade slip for barely a second as he looked up at Snape but he said nothing. "So here is what I have decided. Harry, you are grounded to the house for two weeks, starting tomorrow when Draco goes home. You'll have extra chores every day and you will not be allowed to go flying at all."
Harry sighed but nodded. He wanted to argue but he knew it would be pointless. Snape wouldn't budge once he had made up his mind no matter what Harry said.
"Draco," Snape was saying, "today the two of you are going to work together to complete a list of chores that I have made. I have asked Jenka to spend the day at Hogwarts and all of the things that she usually does to keep this place running so smoothly will be done by you both."
"You want us to do house-elves work?!" Draco demanded to know.
"Yes, I do," Snape answered simply. "Maybe it'll help you better appreciate them, Draco."
Draco seethed but refrained from saying anything else and Snape went on.
"Then, when school starts back up again, you are also banned for the first two weeks from flying. If you would like, you can tell the others that repairs are being made to it or something and I will give it back when the two weeks are up."
"But-"
"Furthermore, since you can not be grounded as you won't be here, you will instead have all day Saturday detention with me for the first month of the term."
"A month?!" Draco was outraged as he pointed at Harry. "But Potter's only grounded for two weeks!"
Frankly, Harry wasn't sure himself how that four measly Saturdays could be the same as a full grounding, but the look on Snape's face kept him from voicing that opinion.
"Yes, he is. Two entire weeks where he will be stuck inside this house with no one to talk to besides me. I hardly think that four Saturdays, between which you will still be able to see your friends, can be considered unfair. However, if you really think it is, we can always add ten more to it so that you can have a full fourteen?"
Draco crossed his arms and huffed as he glared down at the ground.
"I thought not," Snape said. "Now, if neither of you has any questions, you can start by cleaning up the breakfast dishes. There is a list of chores attached to the refrigerator and I expect everything to be done correctly. If it is not satisfactory, you will have to redo it. Understood?"
"Yes, sir." They both mumbled. Then Snape waved his hand and the table cleared itself.
***
"You're doing it wrong," Harry complained that night after dinner. "You're not getting them clean."
"Yes, I am." Said Draco as he handed Harry another half-washed plate.
"No, you're not! You're not even trying. Look!" He showed him the food that was still stuck to the plate.
"Then you do it if you know so much."
"No!" Harry said, aggravated as he shoved the plate back at Draco. "I already washed them after breakfast and lunch because you wouldn't. It's your turn."
"Well, it's your fault we have to do this anyway."
"How is it my fault?!" Harry shouted. "It was your idea to sneak out in the first place."
"Boys!" They both turned around to see Snape standing in the doorway, his usual scowl in place. "I won't tell either of you again to stop arguing with each other. You are both at fault and you are both being punished. Do you have the rest of your list completed?"
"Yes, sir," answered Harry while Draco nodded.
"Good," he pointed to the dishes, "when you finish up here, Draco, you need to start packing. I just got word from your father that he is picking you up in the morning instead of tomorrow evening."
Draco frowned but nodded again.
"Alright. Harry, when you finish, you may read or something until bed, but I want you both asleep by ten. No later."
"Yes, sir." They both agreed before turning back to the sink. Snape turned to go but before he walked away he heard Harry say, "Just move over, I'll do it."
***
When the dishes were done, Draco went upstairs to pack while Harry went in search of Snape. He didn't see him anywhere downstairs so he went to the door of his lab and knocked.
"Snape?"
"Come in, Harry," Snape answered from inside.
Harry opened the door and stepped in, finding Snape leaning over a cauldron stirring it while adding in some sort of powder.
"What are you working on?" He asked as he took a seat on the stool at the end of the table.
"This particular potion is a pain reliever," Snape answered without looking up. "Madam Pomfrey sent over a list of the potions that need to be restocked in the hospital wing several weeks ago but I've fallen behind and now I still have quite a few to do."
"I could help," Harry said, perking up at the idea of working with Snape. "It's not like I'll have much else to do over the next couple of weeks."
"I suppose, on a few of the easier ones, perhaps."
He turned the heat down under the cauldron and moved across the room to take a small vial from the shelf. When he came back, he uncorked the vial and added five drops into the simmering potion, turning it immediately from a light blue to pale yellow.
"Can I help tonight?" He asked.
Snape shook his head. "Not tonight. But I'll set up a place for you to work tomorrow if you really want to."
"I do." Harry began to absently pick at the corner of the table with his fingernail where a piece of the wood had splintered, lifting the edge and letting it go so that it made a quiet snapping sound. "I don't want to spend the next two weeks just reading. It's boring."
"Then perhaps you will think about that the next time you feel inclined to break the rules."
Harry made a face at Snape behind his back. "Two weeks though, Snape?" Harry complained. "By then we'll only have a couple of days left of summer."
"We can always extend it," Snape replied, though he had no intention of doing so. He pulled a pocket watch from the inside of his robes and intently watched it for a moment before replacing it and picking up the wooden spoon. He began stirring it counterclockwise, his lips moving silently as he counted. Harry waited for him to finish and then said,
"You'd probably extend it into the school year just for good measure."
"If you'd like."
"I wouldn't," Harry said hastily. He leaned his elbows on the table and dropped his head into his hand as he looked at the man. "What's going to happen if I get grounded during school?" Snape immediately glared at him. "I'm not saying that I will!" Harry defended. "Just hypothetically speaking, if I should get into trouble and you ground me, how would that work? How would you know if I was following the rules if I was all the way up in Gryffindor Tower?"
Snape cast him a sideways look as he dropped another ingredient into the potion, now causing it to begin to bubble. "Obviously, if you were grounded, you would spend that time in our quarters, so I wouldn't have to worry about you following the rules in the tower in the first place. It would be about the same as when you were grounded there last time, except I imagine that you would hate it even more because your little friends would be closer and you wouldn't get to spend all your time with them."
"In our quarters?!" Harry sat up straight, his eyes wide. "How am I supposed to explain that to everyone? What am I supposed to tell Dean and Seamus and Neville if no one is supposed to know about this?"
"So tell them the truth, but I mean it, Harry, I don't want to be hearing that Harry Potter has a new guardian in the school hallways."
"They wouldn't say anything," Harry said, insulted on behalf of his friends. "But it would probably scare Neville to death."
"The poor thing," Snape drawled. Then he turned to Harry and said, "It's up to you whether or not you tell them. If you trust that they can keep the secret, then that's fine. The teachers will know, Draco, and your dorm mates, Ms. Granger and the Weasley's, but it really shouldn't go any further."
"What happens if someone else finds out?" Harry asked.
"Then we will deal with it if it happens."
"How did you keep it from the other students in Slytherin?"
Snape sighed. "I was very careful. I had an abundance of excuses that I would use so that no one suspected when I had dinner with them or even just when I would spend the night in their quarters. Though that didn't happen very often to avoid suspicion. Minerva would make it a point to give me detention every week or so, or I would say that I was taking extra lessons."
"But what if you got into real trouble?" Harry interrupted.
"I didn't."
Harry rolled his eyes. "What about the experimental potion that blew up the house?"
"Part of the house." Snape corrected. "And that was one of the very few times I had gotten into really big trouble."
"But you got grounded for a month, right? How did that work out? What did you tell your friends?"
Snape took a long moment to stir the potion once more before turning back to Harry.
"It was different with me, Harry. I only had one friend that I was especially close to and that I trusted enough to tell. It had to remain a secret from everyone else, so when I got into real trouble, and I can admit that it did happen on occasion, the way it was handled had to be different. They couldn't just pull me to their quarters for a week and be done with it. The Dark Lord was out there, luring people, even students, into following him. There were too many people that couldn't be trusted. When the potions incident occurred, I was at home for Easter break. And I did get grounded for a month but they had to trust that I would follow it to the letter while in the dorms."
"Then why can't you just trust me?"
"Because I know that I shouldn't have been trusted," Snape said, smirking. "And thinking back on it, that's probably why they made me clean everything up without magic on the weekends."
"Okay," said Harry, "but how did no one notice that you were gone every weekend?"
"Because we made use of the fact that nobody knew that I had been taken from my father. They made it seem like that he had sent a letter to the school explaining what happened and that I wasn't allowed to stay for the weekends because I had to go home. Nobody questioned it as parents did and still do, have the right to bring their children home whenever they need to. It was fairly common back then because a lot of parents wanted to handle things themselves."
"What about when you got in trouble at school?"
"Do you really have nothing better to do?" Snape asked with a raised eyebrow. Harry grinned.
"It's only eight."
"I could always find you something." Harry only stared at him patiently until Snape huffed. "Most of the time if I got into trouble at school, a teacher handled it with detentions or extra homework and such. I did get a howler once, but dad had disguised his voice so that he wasn't recognized. That was probably the worst thing he ever came up with to do."
"What for?" Harry asked excitedly.
"That's enough questions for tonight," Snape said, turning back to his potion.
"Oh, come on, Snape. Just tell me and then I promise to leave you alone."
"This has gone completely off-topic, Harry. We were talking about your concerns for the school year and I believe I've answered them adequately."
"Please, Snape." Harry continued, "If not I'll just have to ask Professor McGonagall."
Snape narrowed his eyes at the boy.
"After this, you either sit quietly or go upstairs and find something to do."
"I promise." Harry nodded.
Snape sighed. "In sixth year, Professor Flitwick caught me sneaking back onto the castle grounds really late at night. I had been in Hogsmeade with a couple of the boys in my dorm and as most teenagers are, we thought we wouldn't get caught. He sent us all to bed and told us that he would be informing our parents, and of course for me, that meant dad. The howler came at breakfast the next morning."
"That must have been awful! What did he say?"
"I believe that was your last question," Snape answered with an almost gleeful expression.
"But-"
"Upstairs or sit quietly," Snape said firmly and Harry huffed and sat back.
A few minutes later though, he said, "I bet it wasn't as bad as the one Ron got last year from Mrs. Weasley."
"We'll see how you feel about it when I send you one," Snape answered as he gave his full attention back to the potion.
Harry's eyes widened. "You wouldn't." Snape didn't answer. "Would you? Snape?"