At Your Doorstep

Chapter 11: Exploding Pillows

Black eyes searching… searching my face for answers.

He’s actually worried about me? I’m not dreaming, am I? Severus shouldn’t touch me… I don’t want to hurt him.

I’m tired… so, so tired…

Let me go…

-flash-

Warm lips… Kissed right on top of the cursed scar…

Who was it…?

-flash-

“You’re a naïve young man, Potter.” The man sneered, “A fool, that’s what you are.”

He’s right… I am a fool…

-flash-

Harry opened his eyes and was greeted with darkness. He twisted his head to the side and saw haziness. Harry groaned and moved his head again so that he was staring at the ceiling above; his head felt heavy and clouded. It was as if… he was drugged. But of course, Harry knew that wasn’t the case. The last thing he remembered was Severus kneeling beside him, his face full of concern. After seeing those black eyes, Harry saw white; the next thing he knew, he was here, on the bed. The brunet reached to the side and groped for his glasses, which should be on the bedside table. His fingertips found the thin wired frame; Harry took them and placed his glasses on. Just as Harry was about to sit up, his stomach gave a huge rumble. Harry snorted and patted his stomach.

“Yeah, yeah… I need some food… you don’t have to remind me.” Harry said jokingly to his own stomach. “Let’s satisfy your needs shall I?” Harry gave his empty stomach one last pat and sat up and then winced. “Okay… bad move… my head fuckin’ hurts.”

As Harry sat there, rubbing his temples, he smelt something that resembled chicken. When his brain worked with that fact, his stomach gave another rumble.

“Okay! Stop grumbling! I’ll go get some…” Harry trailed off when his eyes landed on the tray next to his bed. Harry’s face turned into one of happiness. “Food! Thank you Merlin or whoever it was that left the tray here.” Harry then swung his leg over the edge of the bed and picked up the bowl of chicken noodle soup; he inhaled deeply and sighed. “… Maybe it was…”

Lips on his forehead…

Harry lowered the bowl of soup and frowned. He was half under the dark, half conscious when he felt somebody kissing him on the forehead. Harry had somewhat heard the person’s voice… it sounded like Draco’s; it wasn’t deep enough to be Severus’. Harry blushed and took the spoon that was left in the tray.

‘Merlin Harry, you actually know how their voices sound like?’ Harry’s inner voice asked. Harry huffed annoyingly and spooned some noodles into his mouth. He closed his eyes in bliss as the soup went down his throat and into his complaining stomach.

“They’re probably sleeping now… I’ll thank them in the morning.” Harry mumbled as he chewed on a chicken bit.

After cleaning out the bowl of soup, Harry took the piece of buttered bread, ripped off a chunk, and stuffed it in his mouth.

‘You like them. More than friends.’

“No… I-I don’t.” Harry stammered; he looked down at the piece of bread, and tossed it back into the tray.

‘It seems they like you. Both of them. Aren’t you happy that someone cares about you? Harry… they care about you. What more can you ask for? It’s what you always wanted.’ The voice taunted; it sounded oddly like Harry’s captor. Harry shook his head; his attempt to get rid of the voice was in vain.

“Shut up… shut up!” Harry yelled, his hands clutching his head. “Stop it… They-they have each other. They will never like me… I’m just… I’m in their way.” Harry drew his knees up and he burrowed his face into his knees.

‘You’re a fool, Potter.’

“Get out… GET OUT!” Harry lashed out, his face no longer buried.

A surge of magical energy burst forth, rippling across Harry’s bedroom. The bedside tables rattled; the glass of water that was in the tray shattered. The liquid spilled out and onto the carpeted ground. The windowpane was rattling; the glass was on the verge of breaking but it held. A low and heavy hum filled the room; Harry sat on the bed, seething.

He saw red. An angry red.

As sudden as the power came, it was gone. Harry’s whole body deflated and his head hung; he lazily waved his hand in the direction of the broken glass and mended the shattered pieces. Harry took off his glasses and left them on the bedside table. He was spent, tired, and weak. The energy that just burst forth was only a fraction of the whole. Harry sighed and lay down, curling into a ball. He closed his eyes and pressed his face into the pillow.

‘I’m tired… of everything. I don’t want this to happen anymore…’

HPDMSS

“Harry? Are you awake?”

Draco had opened the door a tiny bit so he could poke his head through the crack. When he didn’t receive an answer, the blond pushed the door wider and stepped inside. The first thing he notice that Harry’s blanket was on the ground in a heap. Draco rolled his eyes and made his way towards the bed where he noticed that the bowl of soup he left last night was all gone, but the bread was still there.

‘So he did wake up.’

Draco stared down at Harry’s sleeping face and smirked; he poked Harry’s shoulder to wake the young man up.

“Harry… Harry Potter!” Draco said loudly; he huffed when all Harry did was mumble something incoherently and continued to snore.

Annoyed with the brunet’s reaction—-which was basically nothing-—Draco bent down and picked up the crumpled blanket, rolled it into a noodle shape, and whacked it across Harry’s head.

“You prat! You damn heavy sleeper! It’s one o’ clock in the afternoon and you are still snoring away!” Draco said angrily; he hated being ignored. “Harry, you wake up right now!” He ended his tirade with one hard smack on Harry’s hip and left the rolled up blanket on Harry’s waist.

Harry groaned and opened his eyes; he looked up at Draco blearily.

“What time s’it?” Harry slurred, his voice still husky from sleep. Draco crossed his arms in front of his chest and glared at the half-awake man.

“It’s one, Potter.”

“What t’hell… Why are you in my room?” Harry squeezed his eyes shut again, “It’s one in the morn--”

“It’s one in the afternoon you ponce!” Draco yelled and waved his arms around, “Don’t you see the sunlight pouring into your room?! It’s fuckin’ bright in here and you think it’s one in the morning?! Get your arse out of the bed right now!” Draco took out his wand and pointed it at Harry’s face. “Aquamenti!” A stream of cold water burst forth and splattered on Harry’s eyes. With a shout, Harry sat up and covered his sleep crusted eyes, water dripping down his face and onto his shirt.

“Stop you bastard!” Harry cried out, “OK! I’m awake!” He rubbed his eyes and glared at the blond who was smirking. “Move aside or better yet, leave the room. I’m going to fix and dry the bed since you wet it.” Harry bit out and swung his legs over the edge of his bed and hopped off. He looked at Draco and placed his hands on his hips, trying to look defiant. “Well?”

“Go ahead Harry, I’m not stopping you from making your bed.” Draco smirked and gestured to the wrinkled bed sheet, the blanket, and the pillows.

Grumbling, Harry turned around and stared down at his bed. He didn’t want to fix everything by hand; he was too lazy. So instead, he tried out his wandless magic. Harry remembered he did alright last time when he conjured up some popcorn. With a slight flick of his wrist and a snap of fingers, Harry thought up a picture of a nicely made bed.

Draco, who had been standing next to Harry, was watching the brunet’s every move. When he saw the flick and the snap, he knew Harry was doing wandless magic.

‘Should he even be doing magic?’

Draco was about to stop Potter when suddenly, the whole bed was covered with a thick smoke and a noise that sounded like ‘FFFFLOOOOMP’ reached his ears. Next thing Draco knew, bits of cotton, feathers, and cloth were floating around in the air. He waved his hand in front of him to clear away the smoke and debris and found one shell-shocked Harry standing with his hand still held in mid-air.

“I-I uh… what happened?” Harry asked meekly and lowered his hand. His green eyes took in the damaged he had done to his bed and grimaced.

“I was going to ask you the same thing.” Draco muttered and then he spluttered—-in a very un-Malfoyish way. “You… That… WHAT HAPPENED?!”

Harry gulped and scratched the top of his head, “Er… I was trying to tidy up my bed?”

Draco took a deep breath and grasped Harry’s shoulder to spin the man to face him. He put on a very tight smile on his face, his silver eyes flashing.

“Yes Harry, I told you to fix your bed… NOT DESTROY IT! Severus is going to kill you. No. I’M going to kill you!”

“I didn’t mean to!” Harry defended, “I was picturing of a nicely made bed and-and this happened!”

“POTTER! The pillowcases were silk! They were mine but I was stupid enough to let you use them!” Draco fumed, shaking Harry. “Now they’re nothing but shreds!” Draco let go of Harry’s shoulders and grasped his own blond hair. Harry winced when he saw how hard Draco was pulling on his hair.

“Draco, I’m sorry… I’ll-I’ll fix it.”

Draco let out something that resembled a roar and released his hair.

“Don’t. Leave it…” Draco sighed and deflated; it wasn’t Harry’s fault really. “You… used wandless magic. You shouldn’t.” Draco frowned at the brunet, who was now looking pitifully at the blown up pillows.

“I… don’t have my wand. I kind of have to use wandless magic now. Not that it’s any trouble at all.” Harry mumbled, not looking at Draco. “I have all the power to spare.” He added bitterly.

Draco looked down at Harry’s hands and found them curled into tight fists. He moved closer to the brunet and placed a comforting hand on top of Harry’s.

“Look, I overreacted. They’re just pillowcases… I have more in my room.” Draco said softly; Harry turned his head a bit and nodded. “I’ll give you a new bed sheet and pillows after we have lunch alright?”

“Yeah. Sure.” Harry said choppily. He looked up at Draco and offered a small smile, “Or… I can just mend everything…”

Draco let go of Harry’s had and gave Harry a hard look. “Don’t you dare use magic; I’m not worried about you demolishing the whole bed frame… I just don’t want you to tire out again. I’m sure you remember blacking out yesterday.”

“Oh. I uh… Yeah.” Harry mumbled. ‘Draco… he’s actually worried about me?’

“Exactly. Now come on. Severus made us lunch and is waiting.” Draco pivoted, after he had levitated the dinner tray from last night and made it float behind him, and left Harry standing alone in his bedroom, lost in his own thoughts.

HPDMSS

“Ah, so glad you can join us Harry,” Severus’ voice resonated deeply. Harry looked up at both Severus and Draco, who were already sitting and waiting for him, and blushed. After he had seated himself, Severus took the empty plate in front of Harry and dished some pasta onto it. “Eat Harry, you haven’t had much since yesterday.”

“Thanks…” Harry mumbled when Snape put the plate back in front of him. He picked up his fork and twirled the white noodles around; it smelt absolutely delicious. Harry groaned in delight as the tastes of herbs, cheese, and sausage burst on his tongue. Merlin, Severus was a great cook!

“Harry, you look constipated.”

Harry snapped his eyes open and found Draco grinning at him. Severus, on the other hand, had both of his eyebrows up and hidden behind his fringe, his mouth warped into an amused smile. Potter cleared his throat loudly and swirled some more pasta around his fork.

“It… The pasta is really good.” Harry stated and shoved another forkful of noodles in his mouth. He chewed and waved his fork at Draco’s direction. “An’ I washn’t conshtipated, Draco.”

Draco scoffed, “Could’ve fooled me… Stop waving the fork around, speckles of sauce is flying everywhere.”

“Hey! It is not a crime to enjoy food!”

“You looked like you were having sex with the pasta.”

Harry turned a deep crimson, “I-I was not!”

“Was too.”

“Was not!”

“Yes.”

“No!”

“Yes, Potter.”

Harry huffed and dropped his fork on top of the plate of pasta. “I refuse to sound like a three year old.”

“You already did.” Draco snickered.

“Children,” Severus drawled. That got both Draco’s and Harry’s attention. “Draco, I would like for you to stop arguing and Harry, finish up.”

“Yes Severus.” Both mumbled simultaneously.

“Good, Harry after you are done with your food, I want you to come outside to the greenhouse.” Severus told the brunet.

“Oh, sure.” Harry said as he slurped strings of noodles into his mouth. “What do you want me to do?”

“I’ll tell you when you get there.”

HPDMSS

Harry sighed again as he shuffled along with Severus. In his hands was a basket filled with an assortment of herbs and flowers; Severus was now kneeling in front of a Tarragon bush. The ex Potions Master snipped off a whole clump of the herb and carefully placed it inside the basket.

“Why didn’t you ask Draco to help you?” Harry whined; he had spent the last thirty minutes following Severus around, collecting herbs and flowers. “Where is he anyway?”

“It’s almost winter time, I have to harvest all the herbs and flowers before they wilt and die.” Severus told the younger man. “Draco is down in the lab making more oils. Our store is running low on stock.”

“Oh… I see.”

Severus stood up and smiled down at Harry, “I will never ask you to help me make potions or oils.” He gave the brunet a pat on the shoulder before he walked off.

“I can learn!” Harry cried out as he hurried along, “Making those flower oils shouldn’t be as hard as making potions right?”

Snape paused to inspect the Artemisia, an aromatic foliage. Harry peeked over Severus shoulder and took a deep breath. The plant smelt lovely.

“What is that?” Harry asked, gesturing to the Artemisia.

“This is Artemisia. People use it to make wreaths while I ground them up to make essential oils.” Snape answered, “They smell really fresh don’t they?”

“They do…” Harry murmured and held out the basket so Severus can drop the herb in there.

Severus crouched down and cut off some stems and placed them in the basket. He patted the plant a few times; a couple of browned leaves fluttered down and landed on the soft dirt. Snape sighed and sat down; he looked up at Harry, who was now staring down at him. Severus chuckled and patted his hand on the spot next to him, indicating that Harry should sit down with him.

Harry saw the gesture and hesitated; he dropped the basket on the ground and sat. Harry was feeling a bit uncomfortable… he had never seen Severus so casual before.

“Draco told me you used magic to make your bed,” Severus started; he was cutting the Artemisia again. “But that turned out terribly didn’t it?”

“Er… Yeah. I kind of blew up the pillows and the bed sheet.” Harry mumbled and scratched his nose, “Draco freaked out when his silk pillowcases turned to shreds.”

“He always overreacts,” Severus said, “Draco has a whole drawer of them in our room.” Severus stopped cutting and laid his sheers on the dirt ground. “But that’s not what I want to talk about. You used magic Harry and you very well know that you shouldn’t. Not after what happened yesterday. You don’t know what would happen.”

Harry avoided looking at Severus so instead his whole attention was on the plant in front of him. He reached out and began playing with the small green leaves.

“I didn’t feel tired or anything. I-I just put too much power into it that’s all.” Harry said, trying to sound cheerful. “That’s progress isn’t it?” Harry was going to pick up the sheers when Severus’ hand shot out and grabbed his wrist.

“Do you know how worried I was?” Severus hissed. Harry looked at him, startled. “When you fainted yesterday, I was scared. I was worried that something happened to you.”

“I saw…” Harry whispered, his hand was limp within Severus’ hold. “I told you not to touch me but you did it anyway.”

“You have got to stop pushing us away, Harry.” Severus bit out, “We want to help you, we care about you. Why can’t you see that?”

“I-I… I don’t know!” Harry yelled, “And I told you before Severus, I don’t want either of you hurt because of me!”

“You won’t hurt us because of your powers,” Severus said, his voice softened. “But you will hurt us if you refused me and Draco.”

“What… What are you talking about?” Harry stuttered; his green eyes were reflected off of Severus’ onyx colored ones. That was how close they had gotten. It was as if he was magnetically drawn to Severus… his lips were so close… so close.

Severus reached up and cupped Harry’s cheeks, happy when he felt Harry leaning to the touch. He moved closer to the brunet until their faces were only centimeters apart.

“I’m talking about… this.” Severus whispered.

He closed in, the distance between disappeared when he captured Harry’s lips.

HPDMSS

A/N: I am Evil!! >=D