Thanks ^^. I really wanted to create a the impression that Harry's decline was-outwardly- very gradual; when a quiet, somewhat introverted child becomes deeply depressed, it's often the case that people only notice when it's become really serious. The tutors would have just observed that Harry had become more morose and involved with his work, Severus- who thought that Harry was out of danger- was wrapped up in spying on Quirell and, although the Slytherins would have seen Harry's decline much earlier and at much closer quarters, they would have been too inexperienced to know that Harry wouldn't just get better by himself. (And then there's the fact that Harry hasn't told them about his past.)

However, as I hope I made sufficiently clear in the chapter, Harry does have an outside force looking out for him. And it won't take long for Severus to put two and two together.

Thanks for the review ^^. Severus's hair-cut is mentioned in the first paragraph of chapter 12; as he's impersonating a police-officer, he needs to look fairly smart. (Though I'm thinking more a floppy 'Col. Brandon' type hairstyle than a crew-cut!) Don't worry, though, it'll have been regrown by the next morning!

I forgot to add something in my answer to your last review; if you like individual, original plots, you might enjoy my other fic 'Harry Potter and the Order of the Pegasus'. It started out as an intellectual experiment; I wanted to see to see if I could weave an alternative universe- starting at the point when Harry and Cedric take the Goblet of Fire- where Voldemort is actually the hero rather than the villain. As I managed to think up a scenario which would do this (whilst remaining true to Harry's perception of events in books one to five) I decided to give the fic a chance. As I said, it is experimental- not to mention Kafka-esque- but I think it works.