Guilty as Sin

CHAPTER 11

Harry sat quietly down on the steps leading into the courtyard, Draco sitting down at his side a moment later with two bags of fizzing sherbet in his hands.

“He’s been there all day.” Harry whispered softly as he accepted the bag of sherbet Draco handed him. Draco like Harry was staring down through the arches of the courtyard to where a black hooded and robed figure sat on the grass beside the lake.

“We can’t do anything Harry. You don’t just approach a Superei, that’d be like going up to a werewolf just for a pat.” Draco stuck his sherbet-coated spoon into his mouth making multicolored sparks fly out of his nose and ears.

“But if we tell him about us and what we know, he might tell us what he knows. He’s older than us he might know more about our condition.” Draco raised a skeptical eyebrow in Harry’s direction as the other boy’s nose erupted in fireworks as he sucked his own sherbet spoon.

“Trust me Harry when I say he most probably already knows about us. If you smell this good to me, I bet you smell fucking fantastic to him, like Fresh Meat ripe for the beating.” Harry sighed heavily. He and Draco had spent all of Sunday in the library trying to research their problem. It was difficult with Madam Prince hovering over them in the restricted section but they’d manage to gather a little more information about their own conditions.

“Don’t you feel drawn to him though?” Harry inquired as he dipped his spoon into the Sherbet again his gaze still fixed on the solemn figure of their potion master sitting alone in the cold beside the lake.

“I already told you I do Harry. It’s like being forcefully parted from something you know you need but I’m not stupid enough to listen to my instincts when my head tells me I’m likely to die if I make a rash decision.” Draco leaned back on his elbows on the steps as soft mist of rain began to fall from the gray miserable sky. “Listen we don’t know why we need him yet, it may just be a survival instinct that’s kicked in. While ever we fight the pull we’re giving ourselves more time to investigate this issue before sticking our necks out and getting them chopped off. The kind of blood play you and I enjoy is nothing compared to what a Superei would enjoy.” Harry nodded understandingly still unable to draw his gaze away from Snape who made no attempt at moving despite the steadily falling rain.

“I can’t just sit here though Draco? If this is what I am and I’m turning my back on everything else just to live this life, I need to listen to what my bodies telling me and stop ignoring the signs.” Harry put the sherbet bag in his cloak pocket and he stood up and took a deep breath. “If you’re not going to ask him, then I will.” With a determined glance at Draco Harry strode off across the courtyard heading towards the figure still sitting on the grass.

“Idiot.” Draco whispered to himself as he watched Harry stride off down the grass. Draco shook his head at Harry before rising and going inside out of the rain. If Harry wanted to kill himself Draco wasn’t going to be witness to it.

Harry was still a good meter or so away from Snape’s form when he heard the other wizard speak.

“Potter I suggest you turn around and return to the castle.” Harry came to a stop completely shocked that Snape had known he was coming when the professor’s back had been turned. Harry went to inquire how Snape had known but Severus beat him to it with his answer. “If you wish to sneak up on me I suggest next time you do it from down wind.” Harry was a little shocked and opened his mouth to argue but Draco’s words of warning echoed in his mind. Controlling his anger Harry took a deep breath and took the last few steps up to Snape’s side where he promptly sat himself down in the rain beside the elder wizard. “Potter, I am warning you that should you remain seated there I will not be held accountable for what will happen.” Harry folded his arms across his chest pointedly avoiding looking at the other wizard who didn’t even spare him a glance.

“And what will happen sir? Will I be treated to a repeat performance of the incident in the great hall or perhaps you have something else to show me?” Harry cursed himself for sounding so defiant suddenly unable to keep the tone from his voice. Harry braced himself for Snape to attack him but it never came. Instead Harry watched as Snape slowly turned to face him, his obsidian gaze ringed in a deep indigo colour.

“You have no idea what you’re playing with Potter. Do you think perhaps this is just another strange occurrence in your glamorous life, because I can assure you this ailment we suffer from is certainly not glamorous and is not something to be embraced as part of your hero profile?” Harry lowered his gaze automatically from Snape’s the man unconsciously smiling at Harry’s show of submission.

“Tell me.” Harry whispered wondering how on earth he’d suddenly lost his backbone and ability to stand up for himself. For the past month he’d done nothing but stick up for himself yet in an instant he’d lost all courage. It was almost as if when he’d stepped into Snape’s aura the man had instantly calmed him.

“What do you want to know Potter, that we are unforgiven souls destined to spend our lives feeding off the magic and blood of others? Or perhaps you wish to know that to me, and your newfound support group you smell like a bitch in heat? Or maybe you’d like to know that should this ever be discovered you, and I and your little friends would be hunted like deer, we would be caught and have a stake thrust through our hearts before our bodies would be quartered and burnt on a public pyre. A fate which not ever the old fool Dumbledore could prevent.” Harry shuddered as he imagined the picture Snape had painted. It was a horrible image that made Harry cold all over.

“But this is who we are.” Harry muttered the small bundle of defiance rising in his chest yet again.

“We are too few Potter to make any difference. What is best for us is to pretend to be one of them, to control the offenses our ancestors left us with and that the Ministry find so illegal. We do not exist Potter and if you know what is best for yourself you will accept that as being so and return to being the boy-who-lived. Now go back to the castle and forget the past month.” Snape turned his gaze back out onto the troubled gray waters of the lake. Harry hadn’t noticed but the rain was really coming down now, and both he and Snape were soaking wet through. Harry though was not moving and remained stubbornly sat beside Snape whose jaw had set rigid in barely disguised anger.

“No, I don’t want to go on pretending and fighting this thing that makes me different. What do I care if they find out, whether in this life or my other I am still running from something? Now tell me what’s going on?” Harry was losing his cool the defiant streak he’d been controlling until now finally breaking to the surface as he growled at the other wizard. Almost instantly Snape was on top of him his large frame pinning Harry’s smaller one to the wet grass, the wizard’s slender fingers tightly wrapped around Harry’s neck. Snape’s wet hair fell in a curtain around them as Snape drew his face down to Harry’s where the boy was having obvious difficulties breathing.

“Do not push me Potter, my control just like your own balances precariously in this chain around my neck. Push me too far and you will know pain beyond anything the dark lord would have ever shown you. You are in this ‘life’ as you put it, the lower of our kind and would do well to remember that when you dare to challenge me again. You have no other purpose but to serve me. You are mine….” Harry could hardly focus through lack of air his lips beginning to turn blue as his vision swam. The rain that was streaming from the sky sounded like thunder as Harry’s senses began to dim. Snape’s wet hair now stuck to Harry’s face as the fist around his throat tightened. Snape growled low in his throat and Harry distantly felt the lick of a tongue across his blue lips before the excruciating pain of the man’s bite on his neck. Harry’s scream was silent his mouth filling with Snape’s wet hair and rain before finally he blacked out completely into the blessed still of darkness.

TBC>>>>>>>>

A/N I couldn\'t help myself but update this story I\'m totally in love with it and have been writing for 12 hours straight to finish it....so if you want more you\'re just going to have to get reviewing. *winks* Thanks for the reviews again guys thier so much appreciated and I\'m glad this fic is so well recieved.

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