Harry woke when he heard a creak. His eyes popped open to see that the door was opening slowly. A head with dark, lanky hair appeared and looked at the bed to see if the boy occupying it was awake.

"Ah," he said when he saw the bright green orbs looking back at him, "you are up. I have gotten dinner; I figured you would be hungry."

Harry then realized at that moment that, in fact, he was starving.

He opened his mouth to respond but his stomach beat him to it. A loud rumbling growl was heard and Harry saw the corners of the usually scowling mouth across the room turn upwards just a smidge.

"I'll take that as a yes," he replied to Harry's stomach. "Do you feel up to going to the kitchen?"

The black haired boy swung his legs over the side of the bed. The bed was fairly high off the ground (understandable since Severus Snape about six feet tall) and Harry's feet did not reach the ground, so the boy slid onto the stone floor and followed his professor and, now, his father to get some dinner.

When they entered the kitchen, Harry saw a small wooden table with two chairs on either side. There were two place settings and a flat box in the middle. Harry wasn't sure what was in the box but it smelled very good.

"What is that?" Harry queried, pointing to the box.

"It is a pizza," Severus replied slowly, baffled as to why a Muggle raised child did not recognize pizza box.

"It smells good," the twelve year old said enthusiastically. "I've always wanted to try pizza."

'What kind of Muggle raised child has never eaten a pizza?' the Potions professor thought.

Harry was confused by the look the older man got on his face. It was somewhere between a look of confusion and a look of anger. The anger in his father's face made the preteen cringe and step back.

Severus saw the fear in his young son's eyes and wanted to kick himself yet again. He had only been a parent for a day and a half and he had already scared his child twice. He wasn't doing it intentionally; the tall man had simply been overwhelmed with the sudden revelation that his wife had not betrayed him and her son was his as well. His control over his emotions was not nearly as good as usual.

After carefully schooling his facial features into a much more neutral look, Severus asked, "You have never eaten pizza before? Did your aunt and uncle never order in for take-away?"

"No," Harry responded in a near whisper. "They never did. If they had pizza, it was at a restaurant. They always left me with Mrs. Figg or in my- uh, at home."

Severus felt even more anger bubbling up in his stomach and the urge to punch someone, preferably Vernon or Petunia. Who left one child with a neighbor when they went out for dinner with the other child? And he knew Harry didn't mean to say that he stayed home alone. Severus was willing to bet they locked Harry in his room whenever they went somewhere. His father had done the same to him when he was a child and Vernon Dursley, the one time he had met him, had reminded Severus of his father.

"Well," he said with forced calmness, "I hope you enjoy your first pizza."

"Thanks, sir," the boy said.

Severus went to the cabinet to retrieve glasses to pour some of the Coca-Cola that came free with the pizza. When he turned from the counter he saw that the twelve year old had not taken a seat at the table. He stood near the door, looking nervously at the food on the table.

"Well, sit down," Severus said, deciding to leave the discussion of Harry's odd behavior until later.

Harry quickly took a seat at the table.

Severus set a glass of cola at Harry's place before taking the seat across from the twelve year old. He then opened the pizza box and transferred a slice of the pizza onto his plate.

He was about to lift the triangular wedge to his mouth when he noticed that Harry had not copied his actions and gotten a piece of pizza for himself.

"Why haven't you taken some for yourself?" the thirty-three year old professor asked.

"Oh," Harry mumbled, turning slightly pink. "I, um, I didn't-"

Severus could tell that there was something behind this but he put the obviously flustered child out of his misery by plopping a slice onto the twelve year olds plate and saying, "Feel free to eat as much pizza as you want. And do not hesitate to get yourself more to drink if you want it. This is your home now, too, Harry."

Harry nodded mutely, again relishing the fact that his father called it his home.

"Eat up," the man encouraged before taking a bite of his own meal.

Harry did and was delighted when he took his first ever bite of pizza. It was warm and the cheese was gooey. The tang and sweetness of the tomato sauce cut the saltiness of the cheese just enough and the crunch of the crust contrasted nicely with the softness of the other ingredients.

"I take it you like it, then," Severus commented lightly with an upward twist of his lips when he saw his son's green eyes light up.

"It's great!" the boy exclaimed. "I can understand now why Dudley ate so much of it now."

"Dudley is your cousin?" Severus asked lightly although internally he was seething at the fact that his son had been deprived of such a simple treat his entire life.

"Yes, sir," Harry answered before taking another bite of pizza and smiling while he chewed, savoring the flavors of the simple cheese pizza.

"Were there other foods that your cousin got to eat but you did not?" Severus asked, putting on a casual tone while he fished for information about his newly discovered son's home life.

"Hamburgers," Harry answered quietly once he swallowed his third bite of the gooey dinner. "They always went out for hamburgers; Aunt Petunia liked to have proper dinners at home, so it was always things like chops and roasts."

"You have never had a hamburger either?" the older wizard inquired.

"No, I have," the younger wizard replied after another bite of pizza. "When Hagrid took me to Diagon Alley the summer before First Year he took me to a hamburger restaurant."

"Did you enjoy yourself?" Severus enquired, thinking perhaps if the boy had liked going to the restaurant, he could find out from Hagrid where it was that he had taken Harry and then the Potions Master could take him again.

"Yes, it was fun," Harry replied. "I wanted to go again but I couldn't ask the Durs- I mean, I didn't."

The pair lapsed into silence as the continued with their meal. Harry was very unsure of himself in the presence of his Potions professor. Despite how he had been acting for the past day or so, Harry and the professor did not have a good relationship. The preteen was afraid that their biological ond would not change that.

Severus, on the other hand, was trying to figure out what to do about the Dursleys. It was obvious that besides the abuse the patriarch of the family inflicted on his son, both parents had neglected the boy. For crying out loud, the child hadn't been to a hamburger restaurant until he was 11! Something was going to have to be done. And soon.