A Twisted Web We Weave

CHAPTER 12

Harry stood open-mouthed staring at the charred remains of the great hall a large suspended bubble of water hovering dangerously in the center of the ruin. The ball was letting off a steam vapor of some sort and the air in the hall was like a rainforest heavy with humidity. Harry had never in his life seen such destruction; it was if a firewall had ripped through the castle, rendering anything it touched to ashes.

“Harry!” Harry shut his mouth with an audible click as Ron came running to him, engulfing his friend in a hug before holding him out at arms length to assess his health.

“What the hell’s going on?” Harry hugged Ron back his gaze however still focused on the suspended ball of water in the middle of the room, a thrashing creature of some sort trapped inside.

“A fire demon, flew straight in through the front doors and into the hall, it singed my hair!” Ron turned around and gestured to the bald patch on the back of his head where only a few crispy wisps of red hair were left.

“A fire demon?” Harry whispered as he pushed past Ron and walked cautiously towards the suspended ball of water to get a closer look at the creature inside. All the professors seemed to have surrounded the ball even Dumbledore had his wand out aimed squarely at the bubble.

“Not to close there Harry, a bit of nasty little bugger this one.” Harry went to run his fingers through the water bubble but a hand reached out and quickly grabbed his. Harry turned around hastily to stare into the emerald eyes of one Professor Julius Snape. The instant Harry felt his touch a strange feeling swept over him and Harry swayed a little on his feet as he continued to stare in the professors smiling gaze. “I wondered when Hogwart’s resident hero was going to turn up, where were you Harry?” Harry felt dull like he’d just been run over by stampeding Thestrals, but the instant Julius removed his hand the sensation left him and he shook his head to clear his mind.

“Yeah Harry, where were you?” Harry turned around to face Hermione who was now standing with her hands on her hips staring at him. Harry frowned but shook his head.

“I…” Harry never finished his sentence instead he glanced around at the professors noting one particular absence. “Where’s professor Snape?” Harry whispered as he glanced suspiciously around at Dumbledore who was still levitating the ball of water.

“Infirmary, Mr. Potter quite nasty burns. If Julius wasn’t here things could have been much worse for our Potions Professor.” Harry glared at Julius as the newest defense teacher beamed in pride.

“Indeed my little brother always had a tendency for attracting the wrong sort of attention, I was always saving his behind from something.” The general population of the great hall chuckled at Julius joke but Harry wasn’t having any of it and shook his head. Julius continued to smile but Harry didn’t miss the glance the professor threw his way. Without waiting for permission to leave Harry turned and ran from the hall heading through the crowd of gathered students towards the infirmary.

Ignoring the pain in his own broken wrist Harry barged into the infirmary and stopped like a statue at the sight that greeted him. Snape was sitting on the edge of one of the beds, naked from the waist up. The professor’s entire back was red raw, skin shedding, peeling and slightly charred hanging off in places. Just looking at it made Harry’s eyes water in sympathy and an emotion undeniably disturbing swell in his chest. Madam Pomfrey was preparing what looked to be a cream of some sort and Draco was kneeling in front of his mentor, one hand resting comfortingly over Snape’s on the man’s knee.

“Mr. Potter, unless you are injured you are not permitted….” Harry ignored the woman and strode determinedly over to where Snape was sitting, the man instantly opening his eyes having heard Harry’s name. Snape stared at Harry as the boy came to a stand still in front of him. With his good hand Harry reached up and placed a gentle hand against Snape’s cheek almost relived in a way that his face wasn’t harmed. Snape scowled at him but Harry ignored him and instead ran his fingertips down Snape’s cheek, over the bridge of his nose and gently across his lips, as if in a trance.

“What the fuck do you think you’re doing Potter!” Snape growled as Harry drew his hand away from Snape’s face as if he’d burnt himself. Harry didn’t know why he’d just done what he had but the touch of Snape’s skin against his own seemed to have almost the opposite affect to how Julius touch had affected him. Like a surge of energy Harry felt invigorated, and safe and his heart rate quickened, as everything became ultra sensitive, his hearing, his sight, his touch. Then like a large vacuum the sensation was gone and with a pathetic squeak Harry passed out falling a dead weight into Snape’s lap, the man barely managing to catch him.

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“You know you’re a brave git don’t you?” Harry dimly became aware of a figure hovering over him as he groggily opened his eyes. Groaning Harry brought his hands up to his head, feeling as though he’d drunken an entire crate of fire whisky in one go. “You gibber in your sleep too, all in parsel tongue though which kind of sucks.” Harry shook his head slowly as someone slide his glasses onto his face so that the figure above him came into sharp focus.

Draco.

The boy was hovering over him a strange half smile present on his lips as he helped Harry sit up.

“What happened?” Harry whispered not really remembering anything apart from the slide down into the laundry. Draco rolled his eyes as he perched himself comfortably on the end of Harry’s bed. It was obvious they were in the infirmary as it was quiet and peaceful.

“Do you want the short version or the long version?” Draco queried as he settled himself after handing Harry a glass of water.

“Um, both?” Harry replied still not really completely coherent.

“Well the short one is that all hell broke loose after last nights dinner, then you did this freaky thing of running your finger tips over Snape’s face and then passed out with the kind of smile on your face you’d have after having the best blow job ever. It was quite disturbing.” Draco muttered darkly. Harry shook his head trying to remember why or how he’d done such a thing.

“Don’t stress too much though, Snape was too stunned that you’d touched him to be mad and I think he kind of panicked when you passed out in his lap. He sat with you most of the night, said you were pretty ill, had a fever and everything.” Harry sighed and closed his eyes his memories failing him as he tried to remember what had brought him to this point.

“And the long version?” Harry inquired hoping that it would shed more light on his situation than Draco’s short story.

“Ah well that begins after I left the hall with Snape after dinner last night. He took me down to his room and he said it was time I realized what I’d done by accepting a mentor.” Harry sipped slowly from glass of water content to sit and listen to Draco talk, while his headache continued to pound away behind his eyeballs. “He said mentors are part of the Dark Lord’s recruitment program, it’s designed to instill loyalty in young wizards before they accept the mark.” Harry sighed as he watched the blonde head drop guiltily onto Draco’s chest. “He went on to describe what was expected of him to teach me, things like torture, pain even pleasure. He said the reason my housemates have basically thrown me out is that they’re jealous I chose such a high-ranking mentor. They reckon I’m getting special treatment from the dark lord already. He’s moved me in to the spare room in his own private chambers for the rest of the year, he says it safer for me.” Harry nodded sympathetically kind of glad Draco would be safely taken under the wing by Snape. “Anyway that’s not really important. We were talking some more when the alarm went off. It’s a defensive breach alarm, apparently, locks down the students but allows professors to attend the crisis. I think everyone thought the Dark Lord had come, but it was just a fire demon. Don’t know how it got in, but it did. I hid in the staff room off the great hall while Snape went in to help the other professors. It was a mad scramble to get the thing under control; it seemed to be gunning for Snape. Every move Snape made the demon had another and it looked like Snape would burn to death if Julius hadn’t turned up and watered ballooned the sod into submission.” Harry frowned as he remembered briefly the floating ball of water in the center of the charred great hall. “I didn’t hang around long enough to hear what happened after, because I went with Snape up to the infirmary. All I know was that they were looking for you.”

“I was in the west wing….I can’t remember why I went that way. I heard him talking to someone, discussing plans, and money. He smokes cigarettes.” Harry closed his eyes tightly trying to remember exactly what he himself had been doing at the time. “I remember falling, and cobwebs. Dobby was there with some clothes, he said something about a bounty hunter.” Harry frowned as he opened his eyes, watching as Draco burst into laughter.

“You really have got quite an imagination Potter. Bounty Hunters’ haven’t been around for centuries, and some reckon they never really existed it was just a story made up by muggles that just filtered into Wizarding society. If you think about it’s a rather ridiculous notion anyway.” Harry held his tongue as Draco continued. “Anyway wherever you were, the next thing I knew you’d turned up here looking pale and shaken like you’d just seen the death of your best friend or something. You strode right on up to Snape and stood between his knees. I thought you were going to kiss him to start with but then you reached up and touched him like he was a fragile glass object before turning all rigid and stiff like, you smiled that strange smile then passed out cold into a shaking mess.”

“I don’t remember.” Harry whispered as he closed his eyes and sank back into his pillow, feeling suddenly very drained and tired again.

“Probably best you don’t remember. The entire schools talking about you. Rumors about you letting in the demon and trying to kill Snape, about me being a bad influence on you. You’ve become quite the talking point Potter.” Harry sighed and rolled over onto his side as Draco shifted to allow Harry more room on the bed again.

“I’ve never felt like this before, it’s so strange.” Harry felt ill all of a sudden and curled up into a tight ball. Draco looked worried but didn’t have chance to speak again before the curtain around the bed was pulled open and Professor Severus Snape stepped into the cubical.

“Draco I believe you have classes to attend to.” Snape didn’t even pause as he sat down beside Harry’s bed. Draco sighed and with a small smile at Harry left the cubical, allowing the curtain to fall back into place.

“Professor.” Harry whispered as he hugged himself tightly feeling very vulnerable and unsafe all of a sudden.

”Shhh, Potter relax.” Snape reached out a placed a warm hand on Harry’s cheek, and almost instantly every inch of tension that had built in Harry’s body melted away. Instinctively Harry snuggled closer to the professor’s warm hand, inwardly mortified he was seeking comfort from his most hated professor but outwardly craving such a touch. Snape sighed heavily by the beside as Harry closed his eyes in comfort. Slowly Harry began to fall asleep drifting helplessly between the warmth of Snape’s hand and the call of darkness. In the back of his mind Harry distantly heard Snape’s voice whispering to him.

“This is not natural Harry, not natural at all….” With that Harry succumb to sleep drifting in a strange dream world not even he could describe….

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