Scarlet Pain

Scarlet Pain
Chapter Eighteen

Draco paced back and forth in his room. He could hear Severus puttering around, by the sound of nearly as distressed....er, filled with nervous energy as he himself was. Unable to take the suspense, Drace strode into the little living room, his question dying on his lips as he saw the confused scowl on his godfather\'s face.

\"Sir?\" Snape didn\'t look at him, but continued staring into the fire.

\"What do you want Draco?\"

\"What\'s up with Potter that has you looking so... intense?\" Severus slowly pulled his gaze away from the fire and turned it on his godson. There was something in the older man\'s eyes that Draco couldn\'t read, didn\'t even know if he wanted to.

\"I don\'t know.\" Short, simple, and almost painfully straightforward. The blonde didn\'t have any response.

\"Oh.\"

\"Did you need something Mr. Malfoy?\" Whatever had been in the Potions Master\'s gaze was gone, leaving behind the severe and disciplined professor. Draco sighed and shook his head.

\"No professor.\" He turned to go back into his own room when Severus called him back.

\"I don\'t want you wandering the halls tonight. And I am fairly sure Mr. Potter will be staying within the safety of the lions\' den, so you wouldn\'t get a chance to talk to him anyways.\" Without another word, Severus disappeared into his own room.

*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

The next Occlumency lesson was very similar to the first. Harry and Severus exchanged few words, though none were in anger. It was as if a silent and rocky truce had been formed. Once again the professor\'s office had been cleared, with a cushion in the center of the room. Harry sat down gingerly, still wary, nervous, bordering on afraid. He was nearly unprepared when the first \'legilimens\' hit, yet he held longer than he had the three nights ago, dodging and flying just out of reach, until some time later Snaped broke through and forced from his head dangerous memories.

The rock flying through the car window, the feeling or horror, Vernon\'s angry face as he came at him...No! He pushed the intrusion away. And suddenly he was pushing different memories in front, flying on his broom, dementors...No! Another shove at the intruder. Sirius asking him to live with him, Sirius falling...Damnit NO! \"Guilty conscience Potter? killed anyone recently?\" Sirius falling, Cedric eyes dead to the world, \"Your uncle told me to call you should I need anything...\" Mr. Collins approaching him in the dark of his tiny room...NONONONONO!

Harry gave one last shove and passed out cold.

Severus was picked himself up off the floor where he\'d been thrown by the force of Harry\'s desperation. He was about to say something, snarky preferably, but stopped when he noticed that the young Gryffindor probably couldn\'t hear him. Harry was sprawled across the floor, the cushion halfway under one leg. With a sigh the Potions Master faught off a wave of dizziness before picking up his student and putting him in the chair by his desk. Harry was noticably thin, scrawny was probably an even better term, felt almost...delicate in the professor\'s arms.

Severus left his student in the chair and grabbed a stack of first-years\' essays to grade. Harry came to only a few moments later.

\"You are dismissed Potter,\" the professor told the still disoriented boy. Harry nearly fell out of his chair at the sound of Severus\' voice. The Potions Master didn\'t miss the look of pure panic that flashed over his student\'s face before being replaced by the carefully guarded mask that had become such a defining feature in the boy. As Harry picked up his bag, the Potions Master continued. \"You are improving. See to it that you continue to do so.\"

*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

That night found Harry and Draco standing next to each other in silence staring out the Astronomy Tower window. After a moment, Harry was the first to break the silence.

\"What do you want to be when you grow up, Draco?\" Draco\'s head snapped around so fast Harry worried that he might get whiplash.

\"What?\"

\"What do you mean what? I asked if there was something specific that you want to be when you grow up?\" Harry didn\'t look at him, just continued staring out the window at the moon. The sky was clear, and the light from the moon and stars cast an strangely comforting, if eerie, glow over all of Hogwarts. Draco didn\'t answer at first.

\"There\'s a lot of things I could be,\" the blonde hedged.

\"Yeah, but what do you want to do?\" Draco shifted uncomfortably and went back to staring out the window.

\"Why do you want to know?\" Harry shrugged before responding.

\"Just curious I guess.\"

\"Then you an keep your curiosity to yourself!\" Draco snapped at him, upset though he couldn\'t for the life of him figure out why. Harry shied away from him, his gaze suddenly very firmly fixed on the other boy. The blonde instantly regreted his harsh tones. He wasn\'t going to gain any points if he drove Potter away.

After a moment Harry shrugged.

\"Suit yourself. I apologize for prying.\" He turned to go, but just as he was about to walk out the door, Draco asked him his own question.

\"Why do you care? Really.\" For a while Harry just stood there staring off into space.

\"I don\'t know. Maybe I\'m beginning to wonder if turning down your offer of friendship was the most tactful move on my part, despite the fact that you ar - were a complete prat.\"

*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

Ron and Hermione were awake and waiting by the time Harry came through the portrait. He didn\'t even pause before going to sit with them on the couch. For a few moments the three sat in companionable silence.

\"I\'ve been talking with Draco,\" Harry said simply and held his breath, unsure of what type of reaction he would get. There was a pause.

\"What!?\" Ron looked at him in shock. Hermione shushed him before repeating the same question.

\"Why?\" Ron asked.

\"I think he needs help. I don\'t think he wants to be on his father\'s side, on Voldemort\'s side.\" He ignored Ron\'s ingrained flinch. Hermione gave Harry a piercing look,a question on her lips.

\"Did he seek you out?\" Harry nodded. Before Ron could protest, Hermione pushed on. \"Harry, we don\'t mean to question your judgment, but...do you really think it\'s wise to be trusting him?\" Harry gave a dejected sigh.

\"Maybe not. But there are things that I know about him, things that are not my place to tell, that make his story seem all the more plausible.\"

Ron wanted to object, for that matter so did Hermione, Malfoy had never done a kind thing for them in his life. In fact quite the contrary. But there was something in the way Harry was sitting, hunched in on himself with an expression of concern and total confusion, that made the two friends pause. It was as if the dark haired boy was fighting with his instincts, the impulse to do something right versus common sense. Both the other Gryffindors were aware of just how much Harry\'s instincts could be on target as long as he trusted them. Yet Harry wasn\'t infallible, and they all knew it. Hermione was the first to break the silence.

\"Harry, I - we just want you to be careful okay? Don\'t take unnecessary chances, and we\'ll try to keep an open mind, agreed?.\" Harry flashed them a genuine grin.

\"Agreed.\"

*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

Down in the dungeons Severus was handing his wayward charge a glass of pumpkin juice.

\"So what do you want to be when you grow up?\" His godfathers question threw Draco off guard and looked up at the Potions Master in shock. Severus just smirked and raised one elegant eyebrow. Draco burst out laughing and shook his head.

\"Honestly?\" Severus resisted the urge to roll his eyes.

\"No, make something up for me please. I\'m dying to hear your storytelling abilities.\"

\"Really Sev, someone really did a number on you with the sarcasm stick. And for your information, I don\'t know.\"

\"That would explain your reaction to a seemingly innocent question.\" Draco shifted a little and looked away, sighing.

\"Yeah I really screwed that up.\"

\"I think you underestimate our resident infuriating brat.\" Severus studied his godson a moment. Draco seemed uncomfortable, distracted with something beyond his reaction to Potter\'s inquiry.

\"What is really bothering you?\"

\"Nothing important. I shoudn\'t have overreacted.\" Suddenly it dawned on the professor.

\"Draco, what is you want to do with your life.\" The blonde didn\'t answer, and Severus was beginning to wonder if he would ever get an answer, when Draco suddenly spoke up in a small voice.

\"I want to play Quidditch. Professionally.\"

*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

Two days later, Harry finally found the time to visit the grove Snape had mentioned what felt like so long ago. He was shocked to find the area lit up by autumn flowers, with the remnents of what must be other seasonal flowers gone to seed. The grass was beginning to dry, and in between the trees edging the grove there were even some pumpkins. It was then that Harry remembered that Halloween was coming up in a week.

Harry looked down at the letter in his hand, the one supposedly from his...relatives. Finding a clean rock, the Gryffindor sat down to open it, yet once he was comfortable, he couldn\'t seem to bring himself to ruin the beauty of the place, or his good mood for that matter. Unbeknownst to Harry, another person was seeking out the solitude of that beautiful little spot.

Severus had finally had the chance to escape for a few hours. He had a headache, again, (he briefly wondered if maybe he was overstressed since he was getting a lot of them recently) and just wanted some time to be with his thoughts. Not that he hadn\'t spent enough time with them in the past week.

The young Gryffindor heard the soft tread of someone approaching and in the blink of an eye had grabbed his bag and hid himself in the cover of the trees, just as Severus made his appearance. Letting his gaze wander over one of the few truly beautiful outside sanctuaries on the Hogwarts grounds, the professor wondered if Harry had had a chance to visit this place.

A small breeze picked up, fluttering some dead leaves around the feet of the two people. And for the first time, Harry saw Severus smile. Not smirk. It was small, a tiny tug at the corners of the professors mouth, yet in that instance Harry saw a completely different person. Hard, snarky, and a bastard, yes he was still all that, but in that moment Severus Snape was also entirely human. Harry couldn\'t hold in his soft gasp of astonishment.

In the blink of an eye Severus\' wand was out and pointed directly at Harry, whose eyes widened in alarm. The Gryffindor took an involuntary step back, hitting the tree directly behind him. For a moment the two stared at each other, glittering onyx meeting shocked emerald. Slowly Snape lowered his wand, his eyes still boring into his student\'s.

To Snape, Harry looked almost surreal, standing the shade surrounded by the colors of autumn flowers and dead leaves. The way he seemed to shrink back into the protection of the tree he pressed himself against, as if attempting to draw protection from nature itself, struck the Potions Master as uniquely feral, yet in the most innocent way. And for the first time, Severus saw only Harry, un-shadowed by the ghosts of his family, and yet out of the spotlight of his celebrity status.

Unable to say a word, Harry fled. The letter once again shoved in his bag to be forgotten.

The two wouldn\'t meet each other in private again for another week, a day before Halloween which fell on a Saturday. When Harry showed up to his first Occlumency lesson that week, Severus was not there, having been called away by the Dark Lord to brew special potions for Merlin knew what purposes. That Thursday Severus had been called again. So it wasn\'t until Friday that Harry received a short unsigned note from the Potions Master at lunch requiring his presence that evening for his \"remedial potions.\"


TBC