As consciousness pulls Harry from the sleep's grasp, he blindly reaches for his glasses on the side table. When he finally grabs hold of them, he slides them on and peers at the dark bulk seated in a chair next to his bed. What he sees startles him, causing him to jerk up and hiss slightly from the pain of the Cruciatus Curse that his body has yet to be rid of. For sitting in the chair is none other than the Potions Master, Professor Snape.

‘Snape? What's he doing here? Oh, wait . . . Professor Dumbledore must have ordered him to watch over me,' thinks Harry as he rolls his eyes, ‘Though I am curious as to why Snape hasn't killed me yet . . . Maybe he's sick. That's probably a bad thing though considering that it's Snape. He will most likely blame it on one of us Gryffindors. Most likely me . . . The damn the bastard! Always trying to get my friends and I in trouble, making life difficult for us!' Harry pauses his rampaging thoughts for a moment, ‘I think I like Snape better when he's asleep. He seems almost . . . Human.'

Severus slowly wakes to the feeling of eyes on him and to find himself in a brightly lite, white room. As he closes his eyes to the light, his disjointed thoughts rumble through his head before forming into a single thought, ‘Hospital Wing and Harry.' Severus remembered coming up after dealing with the students with Albus and watching over Harry. With a slight smirk, he remembers the reactions he received upon walking through the doors and asking after the boy.

~Flashback to Last Night, Night of the Third Task~

"Poppy, how is he?" asks Severus to the Matron while gazing with unconcealed concern for the black-haired child sleeping on the bed next to them. Madam Pomfrey looked up into the eyes of the concerned man and lightly gripped his elbow before she answers, "Harry is as well as can be expected after what he has been through. If you like you can stay the night . . . "

"What?! He," yells Ron Weasley as he points to Severus, "can stay, but you want us, Harry's friends, to leave? Why should Snape be allowed to stay? He hates Harry!" With that statement Ron fell silent, though not because he ran out of things to say. Rather someone, namely one Remus Lupin, had cast a silencing spell upon him. As the spell takes effect, silence reins in the room for all of ten seconds before Severus says, "Thank you, Remus."

Conjuring a chair, Severus sits down beside Harry's bed and takes the boy's right hand in both of his. The others watch in either silent understanding or horror, as the man's carefully constructed mask begins to crumple with worry. Though they don't want to fully believe what they are watching, Ron and Hermione watch as the hated Professor Snape sits with their friend. In a whisper that only Remus hears, Hermione says, "He actually cares about Harry . . . " Remus smiles down at Hermione Granger and says in the same kind of whisper, "Yes, he does."

~End Flashback~

A painful gasp distracts Severus from his thoughts and causes him to jerk his head up. Almost immediately the boy he had been watching over has his attention, "Harry? What's wrong?" Without taking his eyes from the boy, Severus calls, "Poppy! Something is wrong with Harry. I thought he was supposed to be all right." Severus stands and begins to pace beside the bed with guilty thoughts running though his head, ‘I did this to him. I should have prevented him from participating in that competition. I should have been there for him.'

Madam Pomfrey hurries from her office when she hears Severus' call and finds him pacing besides Harry's bed. Quickly checking Harry before Severus notices her, Poppy finds that the child is still suffering from the after effects of the Cruciatus Curse and other physical traumas he had endured the night before. Grasping Severus' sleeve so as to catch his attention, Poppy says, "Harry needs something for the after effects of the Cruciatus Curse. Do you have any of the potion or know of a good substitute?"