A/N:::

Hi Guys, as you may be aware if you notice the little things in life, the title of this story has now changed from The Unforgettable Summer to A Change In Perception. The first title was never meant to be a permanent one but sadly until now I could not choose a more fitting title for this story. I have struggled on this chapter hence why it has taken a while to come out and I sincerely hope that it flows nicely for you guys. Please could you R + R so that I know how it has been perceived by everyone?

Thanks,

SplOoSh

At half seven the next morning, Harry decided it was time to make his way down for breakfast. He quickly put his book down and proceeded to get dressed. He had indeed not moved much throughout the remainder of the night and his muscles were starting to become sore and his neck felt quite stiff. Snape, who was already seated sat in his usual attire and eyed Harry with mild curiosity. Grumbling internally to himself, Harry took his usual place. After the previous night he felt drained both emotionally and physically. He was half expecting Snape to make one of his familiar scathing remarks about the way he looked; instead he was surprised when the potions master greeted him somewhat politely.

"Good morning Potter, did you perhaps have any plans today?" Snape enquired. Why does the child appear to not have slept? The bags under his eyes have not vanished at all since he arrived here. Maybe some company would do the boy well. Silently he pointed his wand and silently called a bottle of potion to his side with the ever useful summoning spell. Handing the pain relieving potion to Harry, he calmly awaited the boy's answer.

Harry raised his eyebrows in surprise, taking the offered potion from his Professor, he quickly downed it and noticed instantly the relief it bought to his aching muscles. "No Sir, no plans…" Harry trailed off quickly wondering where this could be leading to.

"If you are… agreeable, Potter you may visit headquarters perhaps? I daresay your godfather and friends would be… delighted to see you". Snape finished quickly, there! He thought smugly to himself. I didn't insult anyone, I deserve a medal for that much at least and the mutt would surely enjoy the boys' company for a change.

"Where are you going, Sir?" Harry enquired.

Of all the replies Snape had been expecting, this was not one of them. Weighing it up in his mind as to whether he should tell Harry the truth, he decided on a different truth. "I am going to buy some new supplies, Madam Pomfrey wouldn't be happy if I failed to stock her supplies next term."

"Oh…" Harry was surprised that Snape had answered him so willingly. All the same, he wants me to go to headquarters because he's had enough of me already and how am I meant to get there anyway?! Harry thought sulkily to himself, his lack of sleep making him moody and irrational.

Snape watched Harry's changing expressions as they flashed across his face. Guessing correctly about the unspoken question Harry's mind had obviously just chewed out, he quickly handed Harry a slip of parchment which had Dumbledore's familiar scrawl written on it.

The headquarters can be found at number 12, Grimmauld Place.

Snatching the parchment back from Harry, he quickly destroyed it with a quick sweeping motion of his wand. Watching the burning ashes fall to the table, Harry began thinking of how much he wanted to stay here in the manor, somehow though he had a feeling that today would not go his way. Sighing internally and memorising what he had just read, he asked Snape how he would get there.

Noting the boys' deteriorating and negative attitude, Snape did not have much time to ponder what was wrong with the boy now. Instead, becoming impatient he told Harry to get ready and meet him in the entrance hall when he was done. Excusing himself from his half eaten breakfast, Harry began climbing the stairs slowly. He supposed he should have expected this, no adult wanted Harry around for too long and Snape had had him around the longest without giving up on him or getting too angry. He guessed that he should have been looking forward to seeing his friends and godfather again but for some reason he struggled to gather the enthusiasm. Gathering his stuff, he descended the stairs and met Snape in the entrance hall as planned, only pausing to enquire when he would be allowed to return to the manor.

For Snape, this was a surprise. He thought that Harry would have loved to escape his dour potions-master for a few hours but now the boy looked like he had the wind knocked out of him. "I should only be gone for a few hours Potter…I assure you, I do not need to take you to come everywhere with me". At least that should provoke some form of reaction out of the boy, Snape thought to himself, for once feeling uncomfortable at having readily insulted the boy regardless of how small it seemed. Harry was showing almost no emotion at all. Merlin, what could be wrong? I thought he'd be skipping for joy at the prospect of friends and dogfather. Snickering at his own private joke, Snape led the way to a downstairs to a floo connection that had been set up Dumbledore. Cursing inwardly at the fact that his floo, his PRIVATE Floo was connected to that godforsaken house of Blacks', he waited until Harry had gripped a small handful of powder, stated his desired location and departed before sweeping from the room. Today will be a long day, he thought to himself. Looking forward to the peace and quiet that it would surely bring, he swept along the corridor to his lab to begin brewing a few more potions for Pomfrey's stock at the school.

It wasn't until Harry had floo'd to Sirius' house that he realised what the potion was that Snape had handed him casually this morning. Indeed Harry was so used to various injuries whilst in the company of teachers that he hadn't thought twice about taking it from the man. He made a mental note to thank Snape later (his muscles really did feel a lot better!) How did the man know that I needed one? It wasn't like he saw me reading all night… His thoughts were quickly interrupted by the extended arm belonging to Remus Lupin.

Lifting him off of the floor, (for he had landed heavily upon arriving) Lupin brought Harry into a one-armed hug and quickly dusted him off. "Harry! How good to see you", Lupin held him at arms' length and began eyeing Harry critically, his eyes only narrowing slightly as he took in the dark bags around Harrys' eyes. Seemingly satisfied that Harry looked fairly healthy however, he proceeded to enquire how Harry was finding it at Snapes' home under his tuition. Harry ground off some relatively simple answers about potions and Occlumency etc. and must have given an answer deemed satisfying enough as Lupin didn't dwell too much on the subject much to Harry's delight.

"Sirius will be pleased to see you, Hermione and Ron are here too of course, everyone else has headed into Diagon Alley for the afternoon but they wanted to wait here for you. Try not to be too hard on them Harry… they couldn't give away too much information because of Dumbledore's orders. Ron and Hermione are upstairs and to the left by the way, they're excited to see you."

Harry merely nodded; after all he did feel quite disgruntled that his best friends hadn't written to him much. It stung to know that both Hermione and Ron were huddled here together enjoying each other's company when he was at the Dursleys' or Snape's manor. Then again, the potions master hadn't been too bad to him lately.

Making his way upstairs to the door which Lupin had mentioned, he took a deep breath and was just about to open the door when it opened suddenly accompanied with a loud squeal. With a slight flinch from the sudden movement, he found his arms full of Hermione and her bushy hair. With a sigh she let go of Harry and smiled, clearly pleased to see him. Harry noticed her eyes were brighter than usual. Feeling slightly awkward as she paused to scan his appearance with a critical air (just like everyone else, checking if there's anything wrong with me; he thought to himself) she finally deemed him acceptable enough to let him into the room.

Ron was over in the far corner, a slight smile plastered on his face. Harry found himself feeling extremely annoyed despite Lupin's previous advice. Seeing them both there together bought it even closer to home for Harry. "You alright mate?" said Ron quickly, noticing the sudden silence as Harry glared at them both. Hermione had backed slightly into the corner and was watching the exchange nervously, after all both Ron and Hermione knew that the lack of information they had sent Harry in their letters would have upset him and as they didn't get a chance to speak to him last time he had visited, they were keen to keep the conversation as friendly as possible. Harry stared at the ground, after another short silence, Hermione pitched in; "We've been waiting to see you, Harry! We didn't really get to talk to you much last time you were here…" she trailed off quickly.

Harry bought himself to look at his two friends, "Yeah… I'm fine guys, sorry I guess I haven't really been in the mood for company lately…" he replied, his tone non-committal. Noticing his friends eyeing him with a mix of unveiled curiosity and pity, he quickly mentioned how busy he had been with his new lessons with Snape. Now that he had started talking to them, Harry noticed that Ron and Hermione looked a bit less tense. "What's been going on? Where's Sirius?" Harry enquired. "Well Sirius spends a lot of his time with Buckbeak in the room upstairs and really it's just been Order members popping in and out for meetings. They won't let us into them but we gathered some information from Fred and Georges' Extendable Ears." Ron replied, obviously keen to keep the conversation flowing. "Extendable…what?!" Harry replied with obvious confusion.

"Extendable ears; Fred and George invented them. Here I'll show you!" Ron exclaimed pulling out a flesh coloured string. "They allow you to listen outside doors as if the conversation is merely a foot away… as long as it hasn't been imperturbed of course. We've had to stop using them for a while though as Mum found out and went mad but we found out some information about you-know-who's plans." Ron offered quickly. Harry noted his frustration was starting to ebb away slightly. Staring moodily at the floor, he asked what had been on his mind most during the summer. "What is Voldemort doing then?" He asked impatiently, willing Ron to go on. After all he was starved for information so far and was keen for the conversation to continue. "Well… we haven't found out any of the finer details yet but they keep talking about some kind of weapon and they're always talking about guard duty and various known death eaters so that is nothing new there." Hermione supplied quickly whilst Ron nodded furiously in the background.

"Guard duty… couldn't have been talking about me then?" Harry scoffed. Obviously he had been checked upon whilst at Privet Drive and thought this was quite obvious, after all that was what had led Harry into his current situation with Snape. Ron's mouth fell into a soft O shape and Hermiones' eyes widened slightly with dawning comprehension. "Oh yeah, we forgot that the Order was checking up on you after school finished! Hey… how come you had to leave your Uncle's so quickly anyway? We thought Snape wouldn't be teaching you so soon" Ron asked. "Oh… Snape wanted to get started early… I've learnt loads though!" Harry supplied quickly, keen to divert the conversation away from his current living situation. "Were they being really awful to you there, Harry; your aunt and uncle I mean?" Hermione enquired quietly. Harry, feeling his face colour slightly was about to make a quick, automatic reply when there was a great clatter downstairs and a call of welcome sprung through the house as the front door opened to emit the Weasley clan. Feeling a bit more content but not really happy, he made his way downstairs with Ron and Hermione. It had come too close to the one topic he really didn't want to discuss with his friends and he was grateful for the interruption. He knew that he had to come to terms with it one day but he didn't fancy that chat with Ron and Hermione; some things were just too personal.