Darkness Shadows Light

CHAPTER TWELVE - EVERYBODY IS SOMEBODY ELSE\'S WEIRDO

Severus Snape was absent-mindedly straightening the potion bottles in his classroom whilst he restlessly flitted around it. It was something he often did when he was thinking...and he had a *lot* to think about. It worried him greatly that the Daily Prophet had found out about Harry, not only was it far too soon, but it couldn\'t have come at a worse time for him and Harry.

Snape bitterly regretted the words he had spoken in anger, realising too late that his jealousy had pushed Harry away. The harsh words from both had erected a wall between them that would be difficult to breach and now everyone would be watching Harry more than usual, making any relationship between them hard to keep secret.

*That\'s if he\'ll ever speak to me again...* he thought with trepidation.

******

\'No, stop it!\' shouted Harry, dashing between Ron and Sirius and pressing a hand on Sirius\' chest to stop his advance on Ron.

\'Why should I?\' snarled Sirius. \'I\'ve read what he\'s done to you. Have you any idea what danger he\'s put you in? You\'ll be at the top of Voldemort\'s hit list now.\'

\'I was never far down it anyway,\' Harry dryly pointed out, trying to calm Sirius down. He knew his godfather had quite a temper, but he never thought he would blame it all on Ron.

Suddenly Sirius pushed Harry to the side and with a couple of steps was holding Ron by the shoulders, shaking him so his head banged up against the wall.
\'You\'ll regret ever setting eyes on my godson! If I had my wand I\'d hex you into oblivion.\'

Ron was starting to go green, unable to get away from the much stronger Sirius. Harry had to do something drastic...

\'Ron\'s not the father!\' he yelled.

There was a stunned silence. Sirius let go of Ron who slumped to the floor, and turned to face Harry.

\'Are you just saying that to stop me hurting him?\' he asked suspiciously.

\'No!\' said Harry, desperate to convince. \'I asked Ron to pretend he was because it\'s too dangerous for people to find out who the real father is.\'

\'Then who is it?\' demanded Sirius.

\'I\'m not going to tell you,\' Harry replied quietly.

\'Why not? I\'m your family, I deserve to know.\'

\'I don\'t want you to hurt him.\' If he reacted this badly when he thought it was Ron, god knows what he\'d do if he knew it was Snape.

\'I don\'t see why you have to get Ron to pretend. Who the hell could it be that would make it so dangerous?\' Sirius spoke half to himself and Harry could almost see him turning over all the possibilities in his mind. Suddenly his face darkened and Harry was filled with panic.

\'It\'s not Draco Malfoy, is it?\' he growled.

Harry very nearly burst lau laughing, and for a split second he was tempted to say it was. At least that would get Malfoy off his back. However the downside would be his godfather sent back to Azkaban for a crime he *did* commit.

\'No, definitely not Malfoy,\' said Harry with a smile at the absurdness of it.

\'Are you sure?\' said Sirius uncertainly. \'He fits what you said and you mention him all the time in your letters.\'

\'Malfoy is an insufferable prat *and* I\'m almost certain he was who tipped off Rita Skeeter. There\'s a lot of things I\'d like to do to Draco Malfoy, but shagging him is definitely not one of them.\' Harry shuddered at the thought.

\'Then who...?\'

\'I told you, I can\'t tell you.\'

Ron got unsteadily to his feet, rubbing his head where Sirius had banged it against the wall.

\'Why don\'t you tell him, Harry?\' Ron said bitterly. \'He\'s been such a bastard to you it would serve him right.\'

Sirius looked at Ron sharply and then at Harry.

\'Is that true?\' he demanded. \'Has this mystery man been hurting you?\'

\'We\'re just going through a bad patch,\' admitted Harry. Ron snorted.

\'Harry, he dumped you! Why can\'t you just admit the greasy git used you.\'
All the colour drained from Sirius\' face.

\'Greasy git?\' he repeated with a dazed voice. \'Please tell me that\'s not who I think it is.\' He looked pleadingly at Harry. Ron had clapped a hand over his mouth realising what he had given away.

\'I\'m sorry,\' Harry said in a shaky voice.

\'It is Snape, isn\'t it?\'

Harry nodded, a look of terror shrouding his face.

\'I\'m going to kill him!\' bellowed Sirius, heading for the door. Luckily Harry\'s locking charm prevented him from opening it. \'Let me out!\' he demanded, glaring at Harry.

\'No,\' said Harry firmly. \'I\'m not letting you out until you promise not to hurt him and not to tell anyone.\'

\'Why do you care?\' he growled. \'Ron said he dumped y'
'

\'We had an argument,\' Harry said defiantly. \'We both said things we didn\'t mean. It doesn\'t stop me from loving him.\'

\'Loving him?\' said Sirius in disbelief. \'How could you possibly love Snape? He\'s more than double your age, bad tempered, miserable and bloody ugly!\'

\'You don\'t know him,\' said Harry quietly.

\'We went to school together for seven years, of course I know him.\'

\'And in all that time, and since you\'ve been working together in the Order, did you ever have a normal conversation with him? One that didn\'t consist of you two sniping at each other?\'

For the first time Sirius looked unsure of himself. \'I\'m sure we must have,\' he said uncertainly.

\'I doubt it. When you look at Severus all you see is the Slytherin you hate. Even when you found out that you were on the same side, you still couldn\'t even be civil to him. Yes, I\'m the first to admit he can be a surly bastard when he wants to be, but he can be kind and considerate and I know he\'s a *good* person.\'

Sirius just stared at Harry for a moment.

\'When did you grow up?\' he finally whispered.

\'I had to grow up, Voldemort wants to kill me. It tends to make you take life more seriously.\'

\'I\'m sorry, Harry,\' said Sirius looking truly repentant. \'I\'ve been treating you like a child, but you\'re not anymore.\'

\'So will you give me your word that you won\'t hurt Severus and you won\'t tell anyone else?\' Harry asked.

\'I promise,\' said his godfather reluctantly. \'Though I can\'t understand what you see in Snape.\'

\'Sometimes I don\'t know myself,\' Harry admitted with a forlorn smile.

\'Um, can I go now?\' said Ron, interrupting. \'My head hurts and I think I need to lie down...\'

Sirius looked at Ron guiltily.

\'I\'m really sorry,\' he said. \'I guess I should try and control my temper.\'

\'That would be good,\' said Ron wryly.

Harry got out his wand and unlocked the door.

\'I guess I\'ll see you at dinner,\' murmured Harry apologelly lly to Ron.

\'Sure,\' said Ron. \'See you later.\'

Harry watched Ron go down the corridor, wondering just exactly what he had got his best friend into. His thoughts were interrupted by a hand on his shoulder.
\'Would you like to talk about it?\'

Harry looked up gratefully into the concerned, but loving, face of his godfather.

\'Yeah, that would be good.\'

*****

Sirius sat in silence whilst he digested all what Harry had told him about the past few months. How they had got together, what he had discovered about his pregnancy and his lover\'s irrational jealousy of Ron.

\'So Snape believes this baby could become a dark witch or wizard?\'

Harry nodded. \'I think it\'s because of his past that it worries him, but even if that\'s not certain, it\'s fairly definite that it will be a very powerful. In fact...\' Harry hesitated and looked a bit embarrassed.

\'Go on,\' prompted Sirius.

\'I know it will sound silly, but recently I think I can *feel* the power and it\'s filtering through into me. Some spells I used to have trouble with I can do easily now and some of the simpler spells tend to have a lot more kick than I intend.\'

\'What do the books say about the previous wizards who were pregnant?\'

\'Not much,\' said Harry. \'All they tend to concentrate on is how the combined magic could kill us both.\'

\'What do Madam Pomfrey and Dumbledore say about it?\'

\'You\'re the first person I\'ve mentioned it to, I\'ve only really noticed it in the past couple of days.\'

\'Well I definitely think you should tell them, it should be investigated,\' said Sirius seriously.

\'Okay,\' replied Harry. \'So what do you think I should do about Severus?\'

\'I think you should leave the greasy bastard alone.\'

\'Sirius!\'

\'Sorry,\' Sirius apologised. \'It\'s just an immediate reaction to Snape. But I honestly think you should give it a while, make sure he\'s what you really want.\'

\'He is what I really want,\' Harry said firmly.

\'And does he want you?\'

\'I don\'t know,\' said Harry, looking quite depressed. \'He\'s not the best at communicating his feelings.\'

\'Oh, Harry,\' Sirius said, going over and hugging his godson. \'I\'m sure you\'ll be able to work it out.\' Secretly Sirius resolved that as soon as possible he would go and see Sn So Someone needed to set him straight and as Harry\'s only family, the duty fell to him...