Heat, Light and the Properties of Plants

Chapter 10 Defence Against the Dark Arts

Harry muttered under his breath as he carefully stirred chopped moon-herbs into the steaming cauldron, glancing anxiously at the parchment of instructions every so often. It would be dreadful if he got it wrong now. He\'d already had to shoo Tonks out of the cellar a couple of times - okay, she wanted to help, but her clumsiness unnerved him. She\'d very nearly tipped the cauldron over at one point. He hoped Snape would be back soon.
Right, just one more step and he was done. One pinch of the dried root of - what was it? He squinted at the parchment - Snape\'s handwriting was terrible! Aconitum vulparia, that was it.
Harry went over to a shelf well stocked with jars and bottles and looked along it till he found the one he wanted. Aconitum vulparia, Aconitum vulparia ...ah, there it was.
Harry took the jar down from the shelf and unscrewed the top. There was a loud crack! behind him. He turned quickly, nearly dropping the jar, and felt a sudden pleasurable ache in his groin at the sight of Severus Snape. \"Severus! Have you found him?\"
Snape nodded curtly. \"Is the potion ready?\"
\"Nearly,\" said Harry. \"Just got to add the Aconitum vulparia.\"
\"Here, I\'ll do that,\" said Snape, taking the jar from him and moving over to the cauldron. \"You go and get a flask and a goblet, we\'ll have to take the potion with us.\"
When Harry got back to the cellar Tonks was with him. \"How is he?\" she asked Snape anxiously.
Snape didn\'t reply straightaway; he took the goblet and flask from Harry and measured two goblets full of potion into the flask. He stoppered the flask tightly then wrapped his arm around Harry\'s waist. \"Hold on to me Harry, I\'ll Apparate us.\" He gave Tonks a black glance. \"Get the wolf\'s basket ready for him, he\'ll need a rest.\"
Harry clutched at Snape as a wrenching tug pulled at his stomach, he turned giddy, and...
They were standing in a forest clearing surrounded by tall trees. A large wolf lay snarling at the foot of an oak tree on the edge of the cleaing. Its muzzle was smeared with blood. Harry gasped as he saw the cruel jaws of a wolftrap buried in its foot. An iron chain held the trap fast to the trunk of the tree. \"How did that happen?\"
\"You don\'t want to know,\" said Snape with an evil smirk. He bent down and picked up a dead branch from the ground; approaching the wolf cautiously he forced the end of the branch into its jaws.
\"Here\" he threw the flask of potion to Harry \"pour half this in his mouth.\"
The wolf was thrashing about violently but Snape dragged its head back with one hand while forcing its jaws wider with the other. Harry unstoppered the flask and poured about half its contents into the wolf\'s mouth. A lot of it ran straight out again but Snape chopped at the wolf\'s throat with the edge of his hand, causing it to gulp and swallow some of the potion. Almost immediately it became calmer, allowing Harry to pour the rest of the potion into its mouth. It swallowed docilely and sprawled back, eyes closed, panting softly.
Suddenly they heard a dog barking excitedly and the sound of men\'s voices in the distance.
\"Muggles,\" said Snape. \"They\'re hunting the \'savage dog\' who\'s been attacking their lambs.\" He looked malevolently down at Remus. \"Why don\'t we just... let them find him.\"
\"What do you mean?\" Harry asked, feeling a sudden chill. Snape was now staring at the wolf with a horrible, gloating expression on his face. \"He and his nasty little friends would have killed me in the Shrieking Shack...\" he growled.
\"That was years ago! And only when he was a wolf - he\'d have killed anybody then - please, Severus, he never joined in when my Dad and Sirius used to torment you-\"
\"He didn\'t try to stop them, though, did he?\" snarled Snape.
Harry stared at him, he was obviously locked into his bitter memories... but they had to do something, he could hear the Muggles getting closer...
\"Severus, Professor Snape, please, we\'ve got to get him home!\" But Snape just stood there.. Harry bent down and tried to force the wolftrap open, but without success. He could hear the Muggles crashing through the undergrowth, they\'d be there any minute. Harry pulled out his wand and tried all the opening charms he could think of. The jaws of the trap remained clamped around the wolf\'s foot, but a length of the chain did fall away. Harry picked it up.
\"Professor, we\'ve got to leave - NOW!\"
Snape glared at him. \"No problem Potter we go and leave the wolf.\"
The Muggles were almost on them - Snape was being a real bastard - Harry felt a sudden surge of rage well up in him. He wrapped the end of the heavy iron chain firmly round his hand and swung its free end savagely across Snape\'s face. The wizard\'s prominent nose broke with a sickening crunch and blood spurted out of his nostrils. A livid weal sprang up on his cheekbone.
Snape staggered back, lifting his hand to touch his cheekbone where the pattern of the chain was clearly imprinted. The gloating expression had left his face. Looking completely blank, he slowly pulled out his wand. Harry tensed and raised his own wand, expecting an attack, but Snape quickly gestured at Remus\'s foot and the trap jaws sprang open. Snape bent down and dragged the wolf up by the scruff of his neck. \"Take his hind legs,\" he told Harry curtly. They heard shouts, three Muggles ran into the clearing, one raising a shotgun to his shoulder. They stopped momentarily at the sight of Snape and Harry holding the wolf between them. \"Back to the cellar on three,\" snapped Snape. \"one...two...\"
\"THREE!\" and they were back in the cellar, Remus held firmly between them. \"I owe you one, Potter,\" Snape muttered thickly, dropping the wolf\'s head unceremoniously onto the stone floor then wiping blood from his nose with the sleeve of his robe. Harry laid the rest of Remus down more gently and went to find Tonks.
When he got back to the cellar with her Snape had healed the wound in Lupin\'s foot, but his own face was still battered and bloody. Tonks looked at him in shock. \"What happened to you?\" she asked. She lifted her wand, pointed it at Snape\'s nose and said \"Episkey\". The nose resumed its former rather hooked shape. But when she pointed her wand at the livid mark on his cheekbone, Snape shook his head. \"No. I\'ll leave it for now,\" he said, looking darkly at Harry. \"It\'ll serve as a ... reminder.\" Harry refused to feel guilty; Snape had had it coming.

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When Remus eventually returned to human form he looked ill, his face thinner than usual and dark shadows under his eyes. But he insisted on coming downstairs, resisting Tonks\'s attempts to make him stay in bed and rest.
\"There\'s something I think you should know,\" he told Snape and Harry. \"When I was in wolf form, I met another werewolf - I used to know him years ago. He told me something very disturbing.\"
\"Can wolves talk, then?\" asked Harry curiously.
\"It\'s not talking as such,\" replied Remus. \"But we can make ourselves understood. Anyway, he said that Fenrir Greyback is still at large -\"
Snape gave an exclamation. \"I thought he was safely locked up in Azkaban?\"
\"We all did,\" Remus said wearily. \"But we were wrong. It seems he managed to escape, he\'s been lying low in the Black Forest until now but my wolf friend thinks he\'s back in England and...\" he looked uncomfortably at Harry.
\"And what?\" asked Harry, his heart starting to race.
\"..and...I\'m afraid...he\'s out to get you, Harry. He\'s sworn vengeance on you for killing his master Voldemort, and says he\'s going to kill you if it\'s the last thing he does.\"
\"Not if we get him first,\" Snape said. He looked at Harry, thoughtfully rubbing the massive bruising on his cheek. Harry saw Remus watching this, and went red.
\"I think a little Defence Against the Dark Arts training is in order,\" Snape mused. He frowned at Harry. \"You\'ve succeeded so far mainly by luck and other people\'s help. I\'m not going to take another unforgiveable curse meant for you - you might not bother to bring me back, next time. You have to learn to protect yourself properly, and to protect me too if it becomes necessary.\" He got up. \"I\'ll go and look for a suitable training ground for us. Be ready to start as soon as I get back.\"
When Snape had gone, Harry and Remus stared at each other for a long moment, then Remus said \"If you don\'t mind my asking, Harry, how did Severus get that bruise on his cheek?\"
\"Don\'t you remember?\" asked Harry. \"In that clearing - when you were a wolf - just before we brought you back?\"
Remus shook his head. \"I was doped with potion by then.\"
Harry tried to explain what had happened, he didn\'t think he was making a very good job of it as he didn\'t really understand what had made Snape act as he had. \"So he was going to leave you to be shot by the Muggles,\" he finished. \"I had to do something, I was furious with him, I had the chain in my hand...\"
Remus nodded. \"I knew Severus still bore me a grudge. But usually he manages to control his negative feelings towards me. Had anything particular happened that night - before you came to find me?\"
Harry went bright red, remembering the evening he and Severus had spent on the moonlit hillside.
\"Erm, we we err\" he stuttered.
Remus smiled. \"Tonks told me you two were out gathering moon-herbs when I turned into a wolf and ran off.\"
\"Yeah,\" Harry said. \"But that\'s not all we did. There were some other herbs, too, eros herbs I think he called them...\"
\"Ah.\" Remus laughed. \"Well, that explains a lot. Trust Severus to know where to find those.\"
Harry stared at him, puzzled.
\"Those are very powerful herbs, Harry. And when their err, effect wears off, quite often it leaves people depressed, or angry. And they tend to weaken one\'s self control too.\" He frowned. \"But I\'d have thought a potions master like Severus would know how to knock up an antidote to the after effects.\"
\"He didn\'t have time,\" Harry said miserably. \"We were out on that hill for ages, and when we got back Tonks was frantic with worry about you. So he went straight off looking for you.\"
\"Hmmm, all the same...I\'m sure Severus could have controlled himself if he\'d really wanted to, he has more self-control than anyone else I know... it was lucky for me that you were there.\"
Harry smiled, and put his hand comfortingly on Remus\'s shoulder. Then he flinched back, startled, at the sound of a snort from the doorway. Snape stood there, his dark scowl intensifying the already deep cleft between his eyebrows. \"You\'ve no time to spend stroking your pet wolf Potter, we\'ve work to do!\" he snarled, flicking his hair back with an abrupt shake of his head, spinning on his heel and storming out.
Remus and Harry stared at each other, then Remus began to chuckle. \"Oh, I think I begin to understand...\" he said.
\"What?\" asked Harry, still baffled.
\"Never mind Harry, just go after him,\" replied Remus.
And as Harry ran after the furiously striding figure of his former potions master, he began to understand too... Snape was jealous!

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There followed a week or so of brutal DADA training. Snape didn\'t pull any punches, and Harry was soon exhausted. One to one attention from Snape teaching him to prepare the Wolfbane potion had been bad enough, but Snape as his personal Defence Against the Dark Arts trainer was literally excruciating. There was a difference in their nights together too. Snape demanded quick dirty sex just about every night, falling asleep immediately afterwards. But he didn\'t object when Harry took the initiative, and some nights Harry relieved his frustrations after a gruelling training session by thrusting savagely into a prone Severus, who spurred him on by muttering into the pillow \"harder, harder Potter, you can do better than that!\"

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Eventually Snape changed their training ground from the grassy meadow he\'d first chosen to a rocky quarry. \"You don\'t often get to choose your killing ground,\" he growled. \"Not likely you\'ll be lucky enough to have soft grass to fall on.\"
\"Who says I\'ll be falling?\" Harry challenged. At the start of the training Snape had managed to slam him forcefully to the ground with increasingly powerful spells several times per session, but now Harry was more than able to hold his own.
\"Sometimes it\'s necessary,\" Snape told him. \"I want you to dive for the ground the instant I shout \"VOL!\"
\"VOL?\" queried Harry.
\"Short for the late unlamented Mr Riddle,\" said Snape. \"We need a short word nobody is likely to use by accident. Just concentrate on hitting the ground the instant I shout it. Make it automatic.\"
\"But why?\"
\"If I see someone about to fire a curse at you and I\'m occupied elsewhere, I need to make sure you react quickly to avoid it. So let\'s try it, hmm?\"
And try it they did, until Harry\'s Quidditch-honed reactions took over and it did become automatic. In the process, of course, Harry got battered and bruised by diving to the rocky floor of the quarry time and time again. He had a dark suspicion that this was the true object of the exercise; that Snape was getting his revenge for his damaged cheek.
That night Harry collapsed naked on the bed, sighing melodramatically. \"Gosh, I\'m worn out. We don\'t have to have sex tonight do we?\"
\"Not if you don\'t want to...\" murmured Snape, his hand sliding slowly down Harry\'s body, stopping just short of his cock. Harry frowned at the expectant smirk on the older wizard\'s face, but was unable to stop his cock hardening. It reared up, brushing against the tips of Snape\'s fingers. Snape teasingly withdrew his hand a few inches. Harry groaned with lust and lunged up from the bed, pushing his firm cock into Snape\'s waiting hand. \"So you do want to, after all,\" smirked Snape, closing his fist around it...
The next morning Harry awoke after a long, healing sleep and stretched luxuriously. They\'d ended up working each other\'s cocks, slowly and gently at first then with increasing urgency until they each came into the other\'s cupped hands at more or less the same moment. Harry smiled, remembering how Severus, confronted with the copious amounts of cum in their hands, had lazily Transfigured it into massage oil smelling faintly of flowers which they\'d then gently rubbed into each others bodies. In fact, Harry had drifted into sleep with Severus\'s powerful hands still caressing every inch of his body, his deep voice murmuring warm endearments. Harry had felt utterly safe, completely loved. Was Severus Snape turning romantic on him? But the next morning, when he rolled over to tease him, he found that Snape was gone.

TBC >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>