Darkness Shadows Light

CHAPTER FOURTEEN - THE MORE CRAP YOU PUT UP WITH, THE MORE CRAP YOU ARE GOING TO GET

The next day rose bright and sunny, and as Harry awoke, he felt a lot more cheerful, given the circumstance, than he should do. He was thrilled that Dumbledore had agreed that Sirius could stay for a while, though a part of him acknowledged that if he and Severus ever managed to get back together, Sirius could make life very difficult. He had no idea that Sirius had already been to see him and if not happy about Harry\'s choice of lover, he at least understood that they cared deeply for each other. In fact, it seemed to Sirius that he was the only one who really saw what they meant to each other. He was deeply fighting the urge to lock them in a room together until they had a candid talk.

At breakfast Harry got a fair amount of stares and enquiries, though a lot of them were rdingding the big, black dog that was following him around. Harry quickly explained that Dumbledore had brought him in as extra protection. He couldn\'t help the twinkle in his eye as he explained that the das eas extremely vicious and if they valued their limbs, they\'d best not try stroking him.

The veracity of his speech was helped by the fact that Ron had gone as white as a sheet and looked absolutely terrified. Hermione looked on with interest as she, of course, knew the real identity of the dog and thought she knew why Ron was looking so scared.

\'What\'s his name?\' asked Dean.

\'Snuffles,\'

There was a small wave of laughter which was abruptly stilled when the dog growled deeply and regarded Dean intently. Harry couldn\'t help overhearing Dean say to Seamus, \'I swear that dog\'s got a stare as evil as Snape\'s!\' which made him smile. He couldn\'t wait to tell Severus that; his smile instantly faded when he remembered they weren\'t talking. Of their own accord his eyes wandered to the top table, but once again he was missing. Harry sighed, it was obvious that he was avoiding him, but at least he could comfort himself with the fact that he had Potions today.

His train of thought was distracted by the arrival of the owl post. He was surprised to discover that Hedwig was among them, fairly weighed down by a huge sack of mail for him. He guessed they were in response to the article in the Daily Prophet yesterday.

Just then another owl enteree Gre Great Hall, trailing a ream of smoke and clutching an ominous red letter. A Howler! Harry mentally prepared himself for it to land on his plate. However the bird flew past him and dropped it neatly onto Ron\'s. For the second time that morning Ron went white. With trembling fingers he opened it only to hear the unmistakable tone of Mrs Weasley.

\'RONALD WEASLEY, HOW DARE YOU GET POOR LITTLE HARRY PREGNANT! HOW COULD YOU?!? DID YOU NOT THINK ABOUT YOUR POOR SISTER?!? AND THEN TO SAY YOU AREN\'T GOING TO STAND BY HIM!!! DON\'T THINK YOU\'RE GOING TO GET OUT OF IT THAT EASILY YOUNG MAN!!! YOU\'VE MADER BER BED AND YOU SHALL LIE ON IT!!! IF YOU AND HARRY AREN\'T ENGAGED BY THE END OF THE WEEK I\'LL BE UP THERE MYSELF TO FIND OUT WHY NOT!!!\'

After the Howler disintegrated there was a deafening silence. Ginny had gone red and looked close to tears again and Ron looked as if he wished he were a girl and could get away with crying in public!

Suddenly there was a crash of noise as everyone started talking excitedly at once. y gry groaned and wondered if things could get any worse. Marry Ron! He knew Mrs Weasley pretty well by now and once she determined on a course of action it was nearly impossible to stop her. He looked down at Snuffles and got the distinct impression that he was sniggering - no mean achievement for a dog - so it didn\'t seem he was going to get any sympathy there!

\'So what the hell are we going to do?\' asked Ron frantically. \'I don\'t want to marry you!\'

\'Well I don\'t want to marry you either,\' said Harry. \'I guess we\'d better see what Dumbledore thinks. I don\'t think Snuffles is going to be any help.\' He glared down at the dog, who did best to look as if he would *never* laugh at his godson\'s predicament, no matter *how* funny he found it.

\'Well we\'ve got a pretty full day what with double potions this afternoon,\' Ron grimaced. \'So we won\'t be able to see him until tonight.\'

\'Don\'t worry,\' Harry reassured Ron. \'We\'ve got a week until your mother descends on us and by that time I\'m sure Dumbledore will have come up with a solution.\'

*****

Severus Snape sat in his chambers eating a lonely breakfast unaware of the drama unfolding upstairs. It was incredibly childish of him to be hiding from Harry like this, but Potions class would be soon enough to face him. His conversation with Black had made him realise a few things, and now he had to tell Harry exactly what he had decided...

*****

All morning and all through lunch Ron would not let go of the subject of his mother\'s ultimatum and Harry was almost glad when Potions class rolled around, knowing that Ron wouldn\'t dare speak of the subject in front of Snape.

Exactly on time, Snape swept into the classroom and managed to conduct the entire lesson without looking at, or speaking to, Harry once. Harry almost wished for the return of the snide comments! The Slytherin\'s looked particularly confused, they had looked forward to a repeat of the fourth year when Snape had embarrassed him hideously with what had been written about him. Now he had the perfect ammunition and wasn\'t using it. Draco Malfoy looked particularly disgruntled; he had barely slept the night before what with imagining the remarks his revered head of house would come out with. He hazarded a guess that the big, black dog watching Snape\'s every move was putting him off, that or Dumbledore\'d had a word knowing Snape\'s propensity to make Harry as miserable as possible. Draco sighed, it was turning out to be a very boring lesson indeed after all the anticipation.

He completely missed the tense undercurrent.

Luckily so did the rest of the class.

After the lesson, Harry managed to dawdle behind, having briefed Ron and Sirius earlier that he needed to speak to Snape alone. Hermione gave him a puzzled look, but Ron pulled her on.

Harry slowly went to the front of the class where Snape was sitting at his deyeinyeing him warily.

\'What do you want, Potter?\' he asked, but there was little venom in his voice. Encouraged, Harry spoke,

\'I wanted to apologise. I said some terrible things the other night. I didn\'t mean any of them, I guess it was my hormones...\' he smiled slightly.

\'I\'m afraid I can\'t give that excuse for my behaviour,\' Snape said dryly. \'I shouldn\'t have lost my temper and said those things either.\'

Harry\'s mouth dropped open. For the second time in his life, Snape had apologised to him!

\'Does...does that mean things are okay between us?\' Harry asked timidly, a faint glimmer of hope in his eyes.

Snape looked grave and sad.

\'No Harry, things aren\'t *okay* between us. The other night shows just how fragile this...this relationship is. And now with you once again in the spotlight, everyone will be watching your every move and we would have to be even more discreet. Therefore I believe it would be best if we didn\'t see each other any more.\'

Harry stared in disbelief. This was so much worse than words said in anger. This seemed far more real...and permanent.

\'And what about this?\' he asked, grabbing Snape\'s hand and placing it on his stomach. \'What about this life we\'ve created? Don\'t you care?\'

\'Of course I care,\' Snape said softly, reluctantly letting his hand fall from the two most important things in his life. \'But I refuse to believe that any child wouldn\'t be better off with another father...even Weasley.\' Much as it pained him to admit it.

\'I. Don\'t. Want. Ron.\' Harry said through gritted teeth. \'I want you.\'

\'From what I have heard you may not have much choice in the matter. Molly Weasley is a force to be reckoned with.\'

\'Please don\'t give up on us so easily,\' Harry begged. \'We can still make it work.\'

\'Harry, life is conspiring against us. It\'s not to be. Please just accept that and go.\' He tried to sound harsh, but his voice wouldn\'t cooperate and it sounded more like a desperate plea. A brush of soft lips across his own took him by surprise, but was gone in an instant.

\'Gryffindors don\'t give up,\' Harry whispered before hurrying out of the room.

As he watched Harry walk out of his life, Snape wondered whether ad jad just done the cleverest or stupidest thing of his life. It had certainly been the hardest...

With a heavy heart, Harry made his way to dinner, Snuffles at his side. He had never heard such a defeated tone in Severus\' voice before and despite his promise that he would not give up on them, he feared it would be an uphill battle just to get him to *speak* to him again.

Dinner went past in a blur, Snape was not there which was what Harry had expected. Ron gave him a few questioning glances, but Harry shook his head slightly, indicating he didn\'t want to talk about it. Eventually Harry saw Dumbledore leave the Great Hall and he and Ron followed him, Snuffles at their heels.

\'I take it this is about your mother\'s letter?\' Dumbledore said looking at Ron once they all all settled in his office and Sirius was back in human form.
\'What do we do, Professor?\' Ron asked desperately. \'You know what my mum\'s like.\'

\'Well, as far as I can see there is only one solution to this,\' Dumbledore replied. Both Ron and Harry looked hopeful. \'You will have to go along with your mother\'s wishes.\'

\'What?!?\' Ron gasped.

\'I think you and Harry should get engaged.\' Dumbledore looked on in amusement at the look of horror on all three faces.

*And perhaps that will give Severus the push he needs* he thought smugly. It had been a stroke of genius of his to put the idea into Molly Weasley\'s head. He was positive that Severus would never let Harry marry Ron and the only way he could prevent it is if he admitted his true feelinplusplus anyone doubting that Ron was the father would surely be convinced by the engagement. A perfect plan indeed...