Tearmann

\"Five points from Gryffindor! Sit down, Mr. Finnigan,\" Snape growled loudly as he swept to the front of the classroom. Harry eyed his professor critically; noting the bloodshot eyes with dark circles under them, the paler than usual face and even noticed the slightly twitching hands. He looked to his best friend and saw Ron was already copying Snape\'s grimace.

Harry watched Professor Snape as he turned to glare at his students from behind his desk. \"Your assignment is on the board. As seventh years, I really should not have to tell you to get started!\" his voice rising at the end to a near shout. As the class scrambled to get their cauldrons, scales, and ingredients set up, Snape trailed his gaze across the room pausing briefly when his eyes made contact with Harry\'s. Harry quickly turned away, setting his cauldron precariously on the edge of his table.

\"Harry! Watch what you\'re doing,\" Hermione scolded grabbing his cauldron as it nearly crashed down on his head while he was bending down to retrieve his notebook from the floor, placing it firmly on the counter.

\"Sorry, \'Mione. Nice catch, though.\" Harry glanced back to the front of the room in time to see Snape wincing as he stretched his neck to the side. \"He\'s looking worse than usual today,\" Harry whispered to his friends.

Ron looked briefly at Snape before moving back to his store of ingredients. \"Looks like Snape to me, Harry. Maybe a little more bleary eyed than some mornings, but still grumpy. I really don\'t understand why you\'ve decided to care so much this year. He\'s treating you just as poorly as ever. Doesn\'t matter to him that you saved his life and defeated Voldemort.\"

Ron was right. As much as Harry hated to admit it, nothing had changed between Harry and Snape since Voldemort was killed several months back. Everyone had thought, hoped, that once Snape was finally free of the dark lord that he\'d somehow change, mellow out a bit. For a while it seemed as if he was going to relax and be more friendly but then suddenly he was just as sullen and cross as before, if not worse. Still, through the course of the last 6 years, Harry had developed a deep respect for the man.

Snape had saved his life many times; risking his own life in the process and it wasn\'t as if Harry had defeated Voldemort all by himself either. Severus Snape had been at Harry\'s side through the entire final battle until Lucius Malfoy threw a powerful Cruciatus curse and dropped the potion teacher at Harry\'s feet. Harry was still haunted by Snape\'s screams in his dreams. It was as he was crouching down next to the exhausted and battered man that he realized that he didn\'t just respect the man, but actually deeply cared about him.

Harry jumped as he realized the man in his thoughts was standing directly behind him. Severus leaned over Harry\'s shoulder to peer into his cauldron. \"Mr. Potter, do you plan on starting on your Water Purifying Potion some time today, or is this an inconvenient time for you? I assure you, I can schedule you in for later if you\'d prefer... after supper, perhaps?\" Severus\' silky voice across Harry\'s neck sent shivers down his spine and straight to his groin.

That was still new to Harry and he didn\'t quite know what to think about it. Boys -men, even- had never been his main focus before. He\'d been with a couple of classmates but never had a strong physical response to any of them. Recently, however, he had started becoming greatly aroused by simply hearing Severus\' voice. It didn\'t even matter what the man said; only that he said it to Harry.

\"No, I\'m ok, thanks,\" Harry said dreamily. The sarcasm of Severus\' words no longer penetrated.

\"Then get to work!\" he growled into Harry\'s ear. Harry shivered again as Severus moved off to intimidate other students. Harry looked back to his cauldron and realized that he hadn\'t even set the flame yet under it. Harry blushed and shook his head to clear it of thoughts of his professor draped over his desk, pants pooled around his ankles with Harry drilling into him from behind.

The rest of the class passed relatively easily, for Harry at least. He was able to concentrate fairly well once he got started. Severus on the other hand, wasn\'t so fortunate. Longbottom, paired with Goyle by some deranged twist of fate, had nearly managed to get to the end of his potion without blowing anything up. It was just as he was adding the final ingredient to his cauldron, Snape passing behind him, when Goyle let out a loud belch and startled Longbottom, knocking a handful, instead of the required pinch, of dried water lilies into the boiling mixture.

Hearing Longbottom\'s pained groan, Severus turned in time to watch the sea blue potion foam up and out of the old cauldron spilling onto the table and down the front of his own flowing robes. He screeched as the hot liquid soak through his layers of robes and clothes to scald his skin underneath.

\"Longbottom!\" he yelled. \"Clean this up at once! Mr. Goyle, you will assist your partner,\" the last word ground out like a bitter curse. Snape peeled the wet, steaming material from his body and turned to glare at the rest of the class. \"Finish your potions, bottle them, clean up and get out!\" He stormed into his office and slammed the door shut behind him. Severus didn\'t know whether to laugh, cry, or shout out in rage. It was the third set of robes destroyed since the start of term, which was only 4 weeks ago.