Cupid Painted Blind

Chapter 10: “Insanity is just a state of mind” Hawkeye (Alan Alda, M*A*S*H)


Snape stood gazing at the Adonis snoozing in his bed. The desire to slip in beside him to spoon that lithe body and claim it heart and soul was fast becoming more difficult to resist. Yet he was a determined man.

Having delved into Harry’s mind during the evening it was amusing, humbling and arousing to know how he was perceived and comforting also to know that hatred didn’t reside therein.

Sneaking between the covers he assured himself he would wake early and Harry would be none the wiser.

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Harry dreamt of sitting through a lecture although thankfully not one by Professor Binns. He made heaps of notes and by the time the lecture was over he was buried in parchments and couldn’t find the door. He was relieved to wake up and just find himself tangled in sheeting.

He sat bolt upright. Green satin sheeting *!!!!What the!!!!* The room was massive certainly in comparison to the cupboard under the stairs or even the Gryffindor tower. Not anywhere he had been before.

He was busy racking his Ogden’s befuddled brain when a figure drifted through. Harry scrabbled for his glasses the view was still as unbelievable.

There in navy jeans bare footed and naked from the waist up towelling his hair dry stood Severus Snape the Snarky one himself. Draping the towel over his shoulders Snape looked at the flabbergasted Adonis with barely concealed amusement.

*By Merlins beard he’s Gorgeous* Snape just raised one eyebrow “Sir? Bathroom?” Snape pointed. Harry gathered his robe and remaining wits making for the door, pleased to find a tidy pile of his clothes beside the basin.

*Snape’s half naked* unwilling to accept half dressed cause to Harry half naked sounded better, more promising at least. As the shower warmly woke him to morning and washed away the Ogden’s more of the previous night revealed itself to him. *Kissed me!!!*

A tap at the door stirred him from his musings. “Breakfast is served Pott… Harry, come now” *Auuugh that voice cum you say, yes Sir* Some time later the drowned rat formally known as Harry emerged.

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The lounge was as he remembered albeit different somehow. “I moved the fireplace and lounges” advised Snape from behind the morning paper. *Did I say that out loud?* Pondered Harry “Don’t know and doesn’t matter either way. As the link strengthens words between us shall become pointless” advised Snape

Snape folded the paper and looked at Harry for the first time since he emerged from the bedroom. Wordless and wandless Snape spell dried Harry’s hair a second spell attempted to charm it to some semblance of style and failed miserably. “Your hair is as defiant as you are Harry”

Harry touched his hair surprised to find it dry “You didn’t use a wand, just then…” *great very eloquent state the bleeding obvious*

“No Harry. No wand no words, no need. In time you will not need yours either, if you even need it at all now. However in public it is important to keep the charade up.

When you have finished eating we have much to cover before the weekend is over.” Snape sipped his coffee and returned to his reading. Breakfast was just not his cup of tea or caffeine.

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Breakfast dispensed with Harry joined Snape by the fire whilst the house elves tidied up. “Sir?” ventured Harry. “Would the Ministry really …”
“Yes”
“But…, if…”
“No buts. No Ifs. Frankly I did what needed to be done and in a heartbeat I would again.”
“Sir… I don’t want to be ‘The-Boy-Who-Lived’ to be manipulated by the powers that be”
With a sigh Snape folded his paper. Laying it on the coffee table he caught Harry’s eye.
“Regardless of what patterns anyone has on your future, now that you are part of this family, this triumvirate, no one can make you do anything. And neither can you do anything contrary to what is good for us. You are in essence both stronger and more dangerous than the Ministry could ever have foreseen.”
*Family* “But Sirius…”
“Is your Godfather, and with the circumstances as they were he would have agreed with me” *as much as that would have hurt him to accept* “He would have wanted you alive, and one day when he finds his way back you can ask him.”
“Back!!! Can he?”
“Stop spluttering. It doesn’t become you. Stranger things have happened, Harry, yes he can come back.”
“How?”
“I have not been where he is so I do not know. But where there is a will there is a way, no one I have ever met is more determined or stubborn than *that mangy mutt* he is”
“Sir, can I ask … can I say… *Sigh spit it out* Why are you so different?”
Snape laughed a very pleasing sound. Something Harry felt he could listen to for a long time.
“Harry, the bond of the triumvirate coerces us to be more genial to each other. It will quickly strengthen until we are one. I have a book here somewhere which will fill you in”

Snape waved a hand indicating the massive bookshelves. “You may read whatsoever you desire but do not remove any of them from these quarters. When you have finished with it just remove your bookmark and it shall put itself away, they all know where they belong. Many of these are forbidden and rare so mind not a word.”

“Just one thing, Harry, for now at least, in public I am still that ‘greasy git’”
“I have never called …”
Snape cut him off “It doesn’t matter what you or anyone else calls me outside” he indicated the door “but in here my sanctum sanctorum I expect respect. And the name is Severus you may feel free to use it”
“It’s a bit long can I shorten it???”
“Only to God … *wink* and no”
“Okay *God* …So where to from here?”


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