The sound of Snape's fork forcefully stabbing at the carrots on his plate, drew the attention of Minerva as they sat at the Head Table during the feast.
"By all means," she started quietly, "continue taking out your anger on your dinner. I'm sure that will be most helpful."
Snape didn't even look up as he spoke, "It helps me to feel better."
"Does it?" She asked evenly.
Snape looked up then, only to see her staring across the hall to where Harry sat with his friends. He seemed happy, talking and laughing between Ron and Hermione as they ate their fill of pumpkin tart. The sight, however, did nothing to quell the burning rage that Snape felt every time he thought of what Vernon Dursley had done to the boy. How dare he come after him! Threaten him!
Snape tossed his napkin onto the table and the remainder of his food disappeared. "I'm finished," he said curtly. But just as he was about to stand, Dumbledore also stood and addressed the students.
"That certainly was a fine feast," he began, his usual twinkle in his eyes as he glanced about the hall, "but now I must insist that now everyone should be off to bed. Classes begin first thing in the morning and wouldn't it be nice if we were all well-rested and ready to learn all that Hogwarts has to teach us?"
When he had finished his remarks, the students and staff began dispersing, but Snape was surprised to see the trio walking towards the head table. It was Hagrid, who had been sitting on the other side of Snape, that they were coming to see, though and Snape overheard them congratulating him on his recent assignment as Care of Magical Creatures Professor.
When Hagrid began crying into his napkin, Minerva stood up and told them to go on to bed.
"Good night, Hagrid," Harry said.
"Yes, good night, Hagrid," Hermione then turned to Minerva and Snape, "Good night, Professor McGonagall, and thank you for earlier. Good night, Professor Snape."
Snape raised an eyebrow at her but gave a nod to the three of them. Harry gave a slight nod back in his direction before turning and leading the way back down between the tables and out the tall oak doors.
"Good kids, those three." Hagrid was saying. His eyes were still wet as he stared after them. Snape rolled his eyes and left the table.
***
Upstairs in Gryffindor Tower, Harry was rummaging through his trunk, tossing things aside in his search.
"What are you looking for, Harry?" Dean Thomas asked as he finished hanging a poster above his bed.
"The new defense book that I got from-" Harry cut himself off abruptly. He hadn't been back at Hogwarts for a whole night and he had already almost spilled the biggest secret of his life. There was just no way that this was going to work. He sat down on the edge of his bed.
"Oi, I need to tell you guys something."
The other boys in the room turned to look at him in confusion. Only Ron knew what Harry needed to say, and he wasn't looking forward to the reactions he would get from them.
"What is it, Harry?" Neville asked, "Did something happen over the summer?"
Harry nodded. "Yeah, you could say that."
Dean and Seamus both stopped what they were doing to come to stand next to Neville and waited for Harry to go on.
"Well," Harry began, "It's sort of a long story, and I'm not supposed to say much about it. You have to promise to keep it a secret. Nobody can know about this. Well, the teachers do, mostly anyway, and Hermione and the Weasleys, but that's it."
"We can keep a secret, Harry," Seamus said as if he were offended.
"Yeah," Dean added, "you can trust us."
Harry looked over to Ron who nodded as he took a seat on his bed, across from Harry's, and pulled Scabbers from his pocket where he had been hiding and let him roam around the bed.
"Alright, well, around the beginning of summer, I ran away from my relatives' house." Harry tried to say only enough to get his point across but without saying much about the Dursleys. "They didn't really want me there anymore. And I guess the Ministry did some sort of investigation and decided that I would be better with someone else. So I got a new guardian the next day, and I've actually been living with him ever since."
"So what's the big secret, then?" Seamus asked. "You got a new guardian. Is he better than your relatives?"
"Loads," Harry answered.
"Well, that's good then!" Dean added. "Aren't you happy with him?"
"I am, but-" He trailed off and Ron shook his head.
"You'd better just say it, Harry. They're going to find out anyway."
Harry took a deep breath. "It's Snape." He mumbled, just barely loud enough for them to hear.
Neville was the first to react. "Professor Snape?" He squeaked, his eyes widened in shock.
"As in the bat of the dungeons, Professor Snape?" Dean asked.
"Rotten luck, mate." Added Seamus glumly.
"It actually hasn't been that bad," Harry tried to assure them just as he had tried to do with Ron and Hermione. But his other three dorm mates weren't nearly as accepting.
"It's probably just an act," Seamus was saying. "He didn't look any different to me during the feast."
"How would you know?" Dean asked with a laugh, "You didn't look up from your food even once."
"Well, he is different," Harry spoke up before Seamus had a chance to say something else. "But you won't really notice it because that's the secret. No one can know that he's my new guardian."
"Why not?" Asked Neville.
"Because it would be dangerous if people found out. What if old followers of Voldemort-" Harry ignored the shivers and gasps at his name, "found out that I was living with him? It would be the same no matter who I stayed with. I'm dangerous to be around." He finished with a sigh.
"Well, I'm not going to say anything." Ron quickly agreed.
"Thanks, Ron."
At that, the others also agreed to keep the secret, though they were less than enthused. They talked for a while longer, asking about each other's summers and such, but ultimately coming back to the subject of Harry and Snape and how he was outside of the castle. Harry told them as much as he could about his time with his new guardian, leaving out the week that Draco had come and anything concerning what had happened with his relatives. He did admit to ruining his broom, and they all wondered how they would fare at the quidditch matches without the use of it. Eventually, though, they all wandered over to their respective beds, and curtains were pulled as the room darkened around them.
***
It was late that evening after Snape had made his beginning of the year speech to his house and after he had set the new Slytherin prefects the task of helping the first years get settled, that Snape had had the chance to really plot what he wanted to happen to the Dursleys. Specifically to one Vernon Dursley. He hadn't decided as of yet, but as he picked up a handful of floo powder from the mantle above his fireplace, he was sure that he would come up with something adequate once he got there. He would floo to the Manor and from there he could apparate to Privet Drive.
It was then that his front door opened and Minerva strode in, her mouth set in a thin line and her eyes flashing behind her spectacles.
"And just where do you think you're off to?" She asked as she came fully into the room and stood beside him.
"You know very well where I'm going. He deserves anything he gets." Snape stared into the fireplace, the floo powder still clutched tightly in his hand.
"But would it be worth it to you?" She asked, moving closer to him. "How far are you willing to go?"
"He's a monster," Snape growled, watching the flames and feeling the heat against his pale skin.
"Would you turn into the monster that you're trying to fight?" She placed her hand on his arm and Snape's eyes shot down towards her. "What would that teach Harry?" When Snape didn't answer, she went on. "You are a good man, Severus Snape and underneath that hard shell that you insist on hiding under, you know that what you're considering would be the end for you and Harry. He wouldn't want this. He is too kind and too forgiving. And he would know it was you. Even if no one else put the pieces together, he would know. Could you look him in the eyes afterward?"
Snape sighed and dropped his head. But as Minerva let go of his arm and stepped back, he tossed the powder into the fireplace and stepped inside, clearly stating his destination as he did so.
"Severus, no!" But it was too late. Snape had gone.
***
He stepped out of the fireplace into the living room at the manor and took a look around. It already felt like he had been gone from here for weeks rather than two days. The lanterns lit themselves as he walked past to sit in his armchair.
He knew that Minerva was right. He couldn't actually harm the Dursleys, no matter how much he wanted to. It would just prove that he was as bad as he had always believed he was. His death eater days were behind him and he wasn't going to go back. But still, he wanted them to pay. Maybe a call to the ministry?
Suddenly, Snape heard something moving upstairs and was immediately on his feet with his wand in his hand. Who could have gotten in? How could someone get in?!
He quickly but quietly climbed the stairs and when he reached the landing, he saw a light on in Harry's room. The door was ajar and he could hear whoever it was, rummaging around inside. With his wand at the ready, Snape silently pushed the door open further and stepped inside. His eyes narrowed as he took in the intruder.
"Looking for something?" He asked, his voice a low growl.
Harry jumped at the sound and spun around so fast that he knocked over the lamp on the bedside table. Snape quickly waved his wand before it could hit the floor and suddenly it was back in its place.
"Snape?!" Harry looked stricken as he backed away from his clearly irate guardian.
"What in Merlin's name are you doing here, Harry?"
"I-I was just-" he stammered as Snape walked closer to him. "I'm sorry. I was just looking for my book. I must have forgotten it, but I can't find it!"
"How did you get here?" Snape demanded to know as he motioned for Harry to sit down on the bed. "How did you get out of the castle unnoticed?"
"I flooed from Gryffindor Tower after everyone else had left the common room," Harry answered as he sat down.
"I happen to know that floo powder is not kept in the common rooms, so how did you get any?"
Harry looked down at the blankets on the bed and began to pick at a loose thread.
"I snitched some from here before we left."
If possible, Snape's eyes narrowed further as he frowned. "Why? Did you intend to leave the castle from the beginning? Where did you have in mind to go?"
"No!" Harry was quick to reassure him. "I just wanted it in case, well, in case something happened I suppose."
"And what did you think would happen?" Instead of feeling like he was getting to the bottom of things, Snape felt even more confused.
Harry felt his face heating up and he refused to look at Snape. "I don't know," he lied.
"Oh, yes you do know, Harry. What could you possibly be imagining would happen that would leave you no choice but to run away?"
"I wouldn't run away." Harry denied quietly.
"So you would just pop off here for a quick visit then?" Harry still wouldn't look up and Snape felt like he was quickly losing his patience. "Harry?"
"I just thought that just in case you changed your mind, I wouldn't be able to stay there anymore. I wouldn't be able to sit through classes every day knowing that you're not my guardian anymore."
"Harry-"
"I don't want to go anywhere else, Snape!" Harry said forcefully, finally looking up at him. "I won't. I'll leave first and no one will find me."
Snape raised his eyebrow. "No one will find an underage, runaway wizard who just happens to be Harry Potter? I find that highly unlikely. But it is of no matter because I have no intention of letting someone else take you, as I have said numerous times and will continue to say for as long as it takes for you to believe it. However, you should know that if you ever do decide to run away, especially while there is currently a murderer looking for you, I can assure you that I will, in fact, find you, and when I do, I'll bring you straight back to the castle where you will be grounded for a month. Have I made myself perfectly clear, Harry James?"
"But-"
"No buts." Snape interrupted.
Harry sighed and nodded, his black hair falling into his face as he did so. "Yes, sir."
Snape nodded as well, noting that Harry could use another haircut already. "Now, about tonight."
"I just wanted to find my book." Harry was quick to defend himself.
"I assume you mean the defense book?"
"Yes, but it's not here either."
Snape waved his wand and suddenly the book was in his hand. "That's because I found it here after you left for the Weasley's and I brought it back to Hogwarts with me. Had you simply asked, I could have given it to you."
Harry blushed as he took the book that Snape held out for him. "I'm sorry." He ran his fingers over the embossed words on the front cover and Snape sighed.
"I think you deserve detention for sneaking out of the castle. Especially since it's nearly one in the morning and you have classes in a few hours."
"Yes, sir," Harry said quietly.
"But I think, just this once, I can settle for giving you a stern warning and walk you all the way back to your dorm, where you will give me whatever floo powder you have left and go straight to bed."
Harry glanced up. "Really? But what if someone sees us?"
"Then you will look like a boy caught out of bed after curfew and I will make a show of giving you the detention that we had planned on for the first potions class."
Harry sighed. "Right."
Snape and Harry made it all the way to Gryffindor tower without seeing anyone else in the halls and true to his word, Harry gave up all the powder that he had left and went straight to bed. The other boys in his dorm were still fast asleep and soon, so was Harry.
***
After leaving Harry in Gryffindor Tower with a promise of no more sneaking out, that Snape didn't believe for a second, he found himself standing outside of his parents' quarters. He touched his hand to the doorknob and it immediately opened for him. Inside, sitting in a chair as if she were waiting for him, was Minerva with a cup of tea in her hand.
"Back so soon?" She asked and Snape suddenly remembered a night from many years ago where she had asked him the very same question when he himself had come home after sneaking out. She had been just as calm that night as well.
Snape sighed. "I didn't do anything."
Minerva nodded and motioned with her free hand for Snape to take the other chair. "I know," she said with a small smile. Snape took the proffered seat but declined a cup of tea as she held it out for him.
"Did you check up on me?" He asked, only half-joking.
"No," Minerva shook her head, "I just know my son. Like Harry, you're also much too good."
Snape told her about finding Harry at the manor and how he had flooed from the tower. He also told her about the conversation they had had about Harry's fears of being sent to live with someone else.
"Have you told Albus to stop looking for another placement for him?"
Snape closed his eyes and sighed. "I haven't actually. I meant to."
"I think you should talk to Harry about it, then let Albus know. Maybe another, more permanent guardianship can be put in place that would make Harry feel better."
Snape nodded. "I plan to give him detention on Thursday during class so that he can come down Friday night so that we can talk. I'll bring it up to him then."
"Good idea," Minerva said with a sad smile, "But I do wish that things were different so that all this secrecy wasn't needed."
"Me too." Snape agreed, "But I just don't see how that could happen anytime soon."
"Maybe one day, son. But in the meantime, just focus on the time you have together and make the most of it. That's all you can do."