24AN: Well here is chapter two of the story I wrote. I plan on posting all of the chapters tonight, but if not I will finish tomorrow.
Disclaimer: I don't own Harry Potter
Every Saturday had the pair working on potions for Madam Pomfrey, or just for Snape's personal inventory and a bit of dark arts practicing. The legal spells anyway, and every once in a while a non legal would be used.
"I should hope you're not planning on teaching the students these curses, Potter." Severus grinned after the practice was over, closing the book Granger had bought for Harry.
"The way I see it, why teach them defense against the dark arts unless they know some actual dark arts? The legal ones anyway. As far as we know, there are light spells that can be used for evil purposes. Knowing some darker spells may just save a life one day." Harry shrugged, having clearly thought over this before. Snape was suspicious.
"Why do I get a inkling that you've had this talk before?" Grinning sheepishly, Harry fiddled with his wand, something he would do when a little nervous.
"Well, I may have already had this discussion with Minerva. She says to keep the darker spells for my third years and above, and to not teach anything strictly illegal."
"I hadn't thought her the type to condone this sort of magic." Severus said dryly, crossing his arms.
"She has the best interest of the students in her heart. I believe Minerva knows how useful a dark spell is when you're cornered. She even mentioned-"
"Oi! Harry, fancy catching you here!" Said a voice the pair knew all too well, one that had Harry sighing softly in exasperation. It felt as if whenever he was with Severus in public, someone had to interrupt him.
"Hello Professor Quinton." Pouting softly at the lack of his first name, the unwelcome professor slid closer to Harry.
"Please, call me Anthony." The other purred. "Care to join me for a drink tonight in my chambers? I've never had the luxury of the great savior of the wizarding world as my guest. It would be my honor to have you, Harry." Severus moved like a snake, directly behind Quinton as he spoke in a deadly voice.
"Harry and I have plans for brewing a delicate potion that Pomfrey needs, Professor Quinton." He sneered, causing the newest transfiguration teacher to nearly tremble with indescribable fear that shot up his spine. There was something else in the tone, something that promised burning pain if he wouldn't leave.
"I was just seeing myself out actually, I'll uh, ask about those drinks some other time." Quinton rushed with a nervous chuckle, heading out quicker than a snitch during a final champion game.
"I will never understand how you manage to do that, Severus." Harry said in awe, watching the professor quite literally run away.
"I wasn't a spy in the war for nothing, brat."
"Git." The younger smirked, crossing his arms. "So I take it we actually do have a delicate potion to brew tonight?"
"We are tempting to create a new pepperup potion, one with no side effects."
"Uh you do realize I suck at potions, right?" Harry said, lips still quirked into a smirk.
"You're not as bad as I believed you to be, Potter. If I think you incapable, why would I let you help?"
"To help me hide from Quinton and Warbeck? And you enjoy my company, no denying it Sev."
"Why do you insist on calling me that?" Severus said, no real malice in his tone. There never was when it came to Harry anymore, only to those two irksome wizards that never left Potter alone.
"Because I'm a brat." Harry cheekily replied, shoving his wand back into his pocket. "I'm going to loathe going into the great hall." The younger sighed, doing a quick wandless banishing spell and sending the spell books to his quarters. Severus hummed, many illegal and barely legal hexes coming to his mind, and each had a target in mind.
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Surprisingly, the two professor's had cut back around dinner time and were chatting among themselves, laughing quietly.
"Why can't those two just date?" Harry mumbled, stabbing at his steak as if it were still alive. Severus hid an amused smirk behind his cup, his onyx eyes landing on the professor's plate.
"One would think you're trying to kill your food, again." Harry blushed, chuckling lightly.
"Maybe I'm just imagining it's someone." He stole a glance to the two wizards, then turned away and went back to eating. That was until he felt eyes on him, a whole lot of them. Looking at the table, he realized someone had charmed golden flowers to appear in front of him. A small note appeared with it.
To my golden angel
~W
Harry blushed dark red, easily matching the Grffindor colors. "Oh for Merlins sake." He mumbled to where only Severus, who was eyeing the flowers with a deep hatred, could hear him. "It's from Warbeck." He whispered, glancing over to see that the professor was looking away as if nothing had happened.
"Potter, it seems as if you have another gift." Snape's voice was..odd. Dark and something Harry had never heard before, but for some reason, it was something he wanted to hear again. He turned back to the table and curiously picked up the object. It was a silver pin, with encrusted emeralds. Of course Harry blushed again, to Severus displeasure.
"What is this?"
"It seems to be a charmed pin. It's often a gift between purebloods, if they wish to show interest in someone." Severus still had that odd tone in his voice, and Harry was falling in love with it quickly.
"It's a nice gesture.." Harry trailed off, putting it back down. "I wonder if this will ever end."
"As I said near the beginning of the term, I would be more than willing to help."
"I'm getting to the point where I am seriously considering that offer." He huffed, no longer hungry. "At least we can brew after this. I just hope one of them doesn't try and purposely seek me out." Severus glanced at the other, eyebrow raised.
"If you haven't noticed, Potter, they're terrified of me. They would have to be mad to go into the dungeons. I wouldn't be their only problem." Harry laughed quietly, thinking of all the Slytherins who would get away with jinxing or hexing a teacher.
"I think they're more than mad, vain is the first word that pops up when I think of Warbeck, and as for Quinton.." Harry paused, trying to think of a word. "pigheaded, I suppose." Snape gave a small snort, looking at the raven haired professor with soft eyes, unknown that someone was watching him.
Minerva took a sip of her tea as she watched the two converse, a knowing look in her eyes. If only Albus had lived to see this, but she had a feeling the former headmaster was watching from the edge of his seat, wishing that the two bravest men he knew would finally gain some courage. She would never understand how patient Albus could be with that infamous twinkle in his eyes. Minerva was loosing her mind watching the two, but if Albus were still here she could already hear; "Ah, relax Minerva. The two will come around eventually. Have patience my dear friend, rushing them alone will do no good, only harm." She smiled to herself sadly, she really did miss Albus and his wise old words. If only Albus could talk to Severus and encourage him. That was something she wanted to try, but Albus had always been better with talking to him than she was.
Shaking herself from the thoughts, Minerva looked up just in time to see Harry and Severus leave the great hall together. Sooner or later the other staff members would begin to talk about the two and observe how much time they truly spent together.
"I want them together too, Minerva." A voice said to her right. Upon turning, she came face to face with Septima Vector. "They spend an awful lot of time together, and this is Severus we're talking about."
Looks like it would be sooner instead of later, but that didn't matter. She smirked to herself as Snape walked close beside Harry, posture obviously stiff. Albus would be proud, and just a little disappointed at her plans. But as he would have put it, it was for the greater good.
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To say Severus Snape was tense could only be partially correct, yes his body was rigid but it was more than just being rigid. It was that combined with his control and restraint beginning to slowly break and crumble into dust. The potions master was desperately holding onto his quickly deteriorating control that was seemingly almost a pile of ruble. He had been a double spy for Merlin's sake! Self control and restraining himself should have been second nature to him, not slipping away with each passing day. He had to quickly reason that he wasn't the only one. Potter said he was close to letting him deal with the infuriating instructors.
"Can a professor choose to eat in their room's instead of eating in the great hall?" Snape was baffled by the question, but hid it.
"If they wish. Why?" He knew, but just had to hear Potter say it.
"This probably doesn't come as a shock, but I would prefer eating away from Warbeck. I have a terrible hunch those won't be the last of the gifts, and I would hate for Quinton to start. I just want to stay out of the spotlight, and I certainly don't want to be in the middle of a competition where they throw prizes at me so I'll go out with them." Harry ran a hand through his hair. "Warbeck just wants the image, I think he's got it in his mind that because he's a famous wizard, another famous wizard would want him." He said, rolling his eyes at the thought.
"And what do you see in Quinton?" Severus hummed whilst looking down at the shorter, wondering what he had observed from Quinton's personality and behavior.
"Admittedly, he's not as bad as Warbeck. But Quinton, he just sees something he's never done before. He only see's one part of me, he only pays attention to the hero I had to become. I'm just the guy that killed a dark lord in his eyes, and that's what he likes." Snape would have to be deaf if he hadn't heard the small amount of pain that laced Potter's words.
"Being the savior is only part of you, they're both foolish if they can't see the other sides."
"Thank you." Harry mumbled, positively beaming. Severus knew he was doomed when those beautiful emerald eyes lit up, brighter than the lumos spell.
"It's just the truth, Potter." Severus smirked lightly, gathering the ingredients for the Pepperup potion.
"And you're sure you want me to help with this?"
"Yes, before I change my mind brat."
"Git." Harry teased, grabbing the needed ingredients. He had made pepperup potion many times, just not with honeywater as an ingredient. "This could take a while, depending on how the honeywater reacts with the other two ingredients."
"I think you're better than potions than you let on, Potter."
"To bad I wasn't a Slytherin then." Severus chuckled, adding the crushed mandrake root with the powdered bicorn horn.
"And what pity you never learned how to stir correctly either." Severus cut in with his dry humor, moving behind the younger to help him with his stirring like he always did.
The truth though was that Harry stirred well enough for all the potions they brewed, it just gave him a reason to be closer to him. Snape wasn't sure why he did this to himself, why he intentionally made it harder to restrain from holding the younger and pressing into him like he wanted. But if he could force his hands to not hex Warbeck or Quinton (especially Quinton) this should be easy.
"I think I know how to get rid of Warbeck." Harry said in a very Slytherin voice. Snape's lips curved slightly at the statement. "Without a wand."
"What crazy idea do you have?"
"You're the best at potions. You could poison someone and make it look like a natural death." Harry teased, causing Severus to laugh quietly. "Or you could really just use your wand and hex him for me." Now that was something he had no problem doing.
"I said I would handle him." Severus said darkly, close to the Harry's ear. It took everything in Harry to not shiver or make a small sound that break everything in a single second.
"I don't think he's crossed the line yet, but if either of them do, you'll know."
"I realize why you were never put into Slytherin." Harry glanced at him, a questioning look in his eyes.
"What's the reason?" Severus rolled his eyes fondly.
"You're not only too nice, and you have more patience than most."
"Oh trust me, Sev. I'm close to helping you hex them. That charmed pin from Warbeck was almost the line."
"Did you ever find out what charms were on the object?" Severus tried to keep the possessive tone from his voice, and seeing the blush on Potter, the tone nearly turned into a growl.
"It's...something else. I think you should look for yourself." Harry admitted, handing him the pin.
"Specialis Revelio"
Severus nearly destroyed the pin in the length of five seconds. "Potter, this is ridiculous." He growled, yes growled again.
"I know." Harry sighed heavily, looking at the beautiful pin with disgust. "I can't believe he charmed it to apparate to him if I were to be hurt." Snape bottled up the potions and shook his head. "That's why I would like to eat dinner away from the great hall, so that doesn't happen again." Severus stole a glance at the other and nearly growled again at what he saw.
"Would you care for a drink? You look like you need one." And true enough, Harry did look like he needed a drink. Potter looked more than stressed, and all because of Warbeck.
"What about the potions?"
"We have to test them later, for now, they're done."
"Then a drink would be lovely." Harry mumbled with a tired smile, making Severus promise himself that the charms professor would be hexed by the end of next week.
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"You are trying to relax, aren't you Potter?" At the question, the raven haired wizard blushed and nodded. "Then drink firewhiskey, scotch won't do you any good."
With a glass of firewhiskey in hand, he sighed as the warm liquid burned down his throat. "You're right, this is better." He whispered, taking a smaller sip.
"Potter, why didn't you become an auror?"
"You're the first person besides Hermione to ask me that. I'll tell you what I told her I guess. In truth, I was tired of fighting other people. Yes, I was good at it but that didn't make it something I wanted to do anymore. I had enough of fighting after I finally defeated Voldemort, that one war was more than enough fighting for me. I know Voldemort is gone and the death eaters too, but that doesn't mean people like that aren't. I'd rather teach the kids what to do and actually make a difference instead of fighting for the rest of my life." When he stopped talking, Snape was looking at him with an unusual look in his eyes. "What?" Harry asked, biting his lips.
"You really have grown up, Harry. You're nothing like the first year you used to be, besides your cheeky attitude."
"I guess war has a way of changing people, but if I'm still a brat.." He grinned, teasing the potions professor.
"You'll always be a brat, Potter."
"Then that means you'll always be a dungeon bat." He teased back, but paused. "Severus?"
At the sudden change in tone, the onyx eyes locked with emerald. "What?" Trying to be annoyed with the question, he couldn't find it in him once the younger started to blush.
"It's about the thing I asked earlier, about having dinner away from the great hall." Severus had a hunch that the raven haired wizard was going to ask for him to join. He wouldn't mind of course, directly the opposite in fact. The one thing he was worried about was his self control. How much longer could he take before pinning the younger to his sofa and thoroughly snogging him? On that note, how much could he control himself from harming the other two wizards?
"Would you like to..join me alone for dinner? You don't have to, it was-"
"What other brats would I have to amuse me? Certainly not you're two obvious admirers." Harry nearly shuddered in displeasure.
"They would probably take that as an open invitation to join me." Knowing that to be true, Severus took a large gulp of his firewhiskey at the thought.
"I'll join you, Potter. It also gets me away from Minerva. She doesn't look like it, but she's quite a gossiper." He was going to say more, but the happy smile on Potters face made his heart race and cheek's heat up, but he couldn't will this one away. He would never understand what it was about the younger wizard that made him react this way, or what Potter could do to his heart with a mere smile. He subtly watched as the other wizard took another sip, the younger looking peaceful in his thoughts. At lease the blush had faded away.
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Within the next hour, Harry had somehow fallen asleep beside Snape, head laying softly on the other wizard's shoulder. His heart raced upon realizing what was going on, and he was frozen in place. At first he was going to send the wizard back to his room, but Harry..well, he didn't really want him to leave. Severus couldn't even find it in him at all to remove the younger from his person, not when he slept so peacefully. As he gazed down at the sleeping man, Severus sighed to himself and couldn't stop the affection from his thoughts. Dammit, Potter. You're breaking my control every day, brat.