Contrasting Familial Ties

Disclaimer: Don\'t own them, but I like playing with them :D

A/N: Thanx to Sarah and Cyndassa!

Sasja: I\'m glad you liked it! :D There will be more interaction later on in the story to earn the rating :D I hope this update is quick enoough, but I\'m forewarning to you I\'m a big procrastinator and it can take me up to 3 weeks to update x_x I know, but I\'m trying now. This chapter is dedicated to you!

Spaz: I\'m sorry! I just wanted to show how deeply Harry felt about Sev! And I wouldn\'t want you to cry so this chapter is dedicated to you also!

@----->----- Chapter 2

After Apparating back to a spot near his flat, Harry walked to his door, fingering the note in his pocket while reaching for his keys. Putting the key in the lock, he brought down his wards to get in, but as soon as he was safely ensconced in his living quarters, the wards were back up in full force. Even though he was living in a Muggle neighborhood, he wasn’t planning on taking any chances; wizards were still looking for him, plus, as an added bonus, the wards protected him from the Muggle criminals. Throwing his keys on the kitchen counter, Harry grabbed the loaf of bread and took out two pieces, then spread a thick layer of peanut butter on each side. Reaching over, he grabbed a banana, quickly peeled it, and cut up small slices to put on his sandwich. Slapping the two pieces of bread together, he took a large bite.

\"Mmmmmm,\" he said contentedly. After chewing with the sticky peanut butter in his mouth, he reached into the fridge and grabbed the bottle of pumpkin juice and took a healthy swig of it. With both the sandwich and juice in hand, Harry walked into the living room and flopped on the couch, thinking over the meeting with Severus. Maybe the other man wasn\'t ready for what Harry had told him, but he had thought Severus had known his preference. Maybe it was too much too quick.

\'He probably was shocked and confused, that\'s why he left,\' Harry thought to himself. Somewhat mollified by this thought Harry continued devouring his sandwich, pausing occasionally to chug the pumpkin juice. It wasn\'t too long before he was finished with the sandwich, but he decided to stay on the couch for a few moments to digest. Downing the last of the pumpkin juice, Harry wiped his mouth on the back of his hand and looked at the clock, it was past 9 PM. He had to go to work early tomorrow because it was his turn to monitor the gym while the kids who came in early played basketball.

\'Ugh, that means I have to get up at 6, and I still have to finish that book!\' Whenever he had free time, Harry read every Dark Arts book that Albus had sent with Severus when they met, and his current reading assignment was almost as exciting as watching paint dry.

Getting up off the couch, Harry brushed the crumbs off his shirt as he walked into the kitchen to throw the juice bottle away. He noticed that the garbage was getting full, but shrugged and started unbuttoning his shirt, letting the fabric slip off his shoulders as he made his way to his bedroom. Unfastening his trousers, he let them slip and pool at his feet, but left them there as he climbed onto the unmade bed and snuggled under the covers for awhile before reaching for the large leather-bound book on his nightstand. Opening the musty old book to the place where the black silk ribbon bookmark lay, Harry started reading and didn\'t stop until his eyes were starting to blur from staring at a page for so long. After nine hundred or so pages in the book, he had found absolutely nothing that hinted at any way to defeat Voldemort, just like all the other books he had read.

Placing the ribbon to mark his spot, Harry rubbed his eyes and glanced at his alarm clock, 1:30 AM. He sighed and knew he wouldn\'t be able to finish the book anytime soon; he still had over 500 pages to read yet. Placing the book back on the nightstand, Harry turned out the light and burrowed under the covers. Next thing he knew it was morning and his alarm was shrieking at him. Blindly reaching out to turn it off, Harry was unwilling to come out from under his covers, but he knew he had to. Groaning as he got up, Harry made his way to the bathroom to take a shower.

He turned the water on before stripping out of his boxers, knowing quite well that the water that usually shot out first was ice cold, but warmed up after a couple of minutes. Stepping into the shower, he let the warm steam envelope him and soon he was under the spray, letting the hot water soak him. Reaching out for the shampoo, he poured a generous amount into the palm of his hand and massaged it into his scalp, letting the soap lather and work on the remaining gel that was stuck in his hair. He always hated gel, it made him feel sticky, but it was a good way to style his hair into the way that was \'in style\' in the Muggle world. He had tried many different styles over the years, but had kept his hair the same, when Severus had commented on it at one of the meetings. Harry was sure the other man had noticed that he valued his former professor\'s opinion, even on something so seemingly unimportant as his hairstyle. Thinking about Severus made him confused, but when he remembered the witty conversations they had had together, and the way the other man let his mask drop for a moment after Harry described something amusing, but Harry always noticed the man tried to be less stiff when they were together. He had even seen the man smile once or twice and chuckle at a particularly amusing joke. Harry loved it when Severus smiled; it made him look younger and made the matte black depths sparkle with amusement. Just thinking about the man was arousing, as he could tell from his erection jutting out and demanding immediate attention.

Sighing resignedly, he wrapped his still foamy hand around his arousal and stroked it slowly. Letting the pleasure build as he let the water run down his body, leaving trails of soap to travel from his hair, down his shoulders, onto the flat planes of his stomach and gather around his hand wrapped around his cock. Harry let his left hand travel down his stomach, gathering up some lather, then reached around to part his cheeks and circle his entrance before probing in gently, then harder as he pushed his finger in as deep as it would go. His pleasure spiked, but not enough to gain an orgasm, so he repeated the action, adding a second finger, and as he pushed in he grazed his prostate. This produced a major pleasure spike and he came all over the tile and his belly and chest. He leaned his right shoulder against the wall and let his panting breath slow as the water beat down on him. Turning to face the spray, he let the water clean off his chest before reaching for the soap and cleaning his body quickly, knowing that he had spent more than enough time in the shower.

After dressing in a pair of shorts and a T-shirt, Harry returned to the bathroom to fuss with his hair. After putting a holding spell on it to keep the gel in place throughout the day he took the small bottle of Muggle makeup from the drawer and used it to cover his scar. Harry grabbed a jumper and pulled it over his head before grabbing his keys and taking the wards off long enough for him to exit and lock the door. Walking the few feet to a clear point where no Muggles could see him, Harry Apparated right into his office at Phoenix Secondary School. He turned on the lights and unlocked the door, then walked back to his desk and rummaged around for the lanyard with his ID and whistle on it and placed it around his neck. Walking out to the gym, he saw several students waiting by the locked the doors.

\'Crap, I must be late,\' Harry thought, unlocking the doors.
\"Hey Mr. Duncan. Running late today?\" one of the students asked him, sliding in between the door and Harry.

\"Hey Kenny,\" Harry greeted the boy, not really surprised at the student\'s proximity. The boy had been flirting with him for quite some time. Harry had been quite surprised at the first time he realized the boy\'s interest, but tried not to encourage the behavior, but he hadn\'t discouraged it either. He had watched the boy closely, noticing how few friends the boy had, and he didn\'t want him to feel lonely. He wanted the boy to trust him, not harvest feelings for him. Shaking his head, Harry politely greeted the rest of the students waiting and went to stand near the basketball hoops. It wasn\'t long before a few students got together and started a game of basketball, leaving Harry to referee.

About half an hour later, Harry looked up at the clock and noticed that it was 7:45, which meant the end of the game and 15 minutes until the start of the school day. Blowing his whistle, Harry stopped the game and sent the students to the locker room to change or to class. Harry entered the locker room when he noticed the gym beginning to fill with people for his first class; he saw the two other male gym teachers in their offices and nodded in greeting when they looked up from their tasks. Returning to his office, Harry sat at his desk and kept an eye out for any trouble in the locker room as the boys were changing. Looking back to the clock for a minute, Harry\'s attention was brought to a scene towards the showers, where he heard some boys arguing.

\"You stupid faggot!\" then the sound of a punch, and a sharp cry of pain. Then several more blows could be heard and then little whimpers.

\"Leave me alone!\" Harry heard a distressed voice cry. Running towards the showers, Harry saw that a naked Kenny was against the wall, his hand to his face as blood leaked from between his fingers. There were four older boys surrounding him, completely clothed, one in particular was drawing his hand back for another punch.

\"What\'s going on here?\" he said, grabbing a towel off the cart near the door and making his way over to the injured boy. Pushing the clothed boys’ aside, he wrapped the towel around Kenny.

\"Look, Michaels, your boyfriend has come to save you,\" the leader said as Harry\'s back was turned to them, he was examining the injuries on the boy. All of a sudden he heard \'whoosh\' of air and then a sharp pain in his head as someone kicked him. His vision blurred, and he noticed he was leaning heavily on the wall above the injured boy, trying to protect him. When another blow came, it was one of the first in the many that followed.

\"Get out of the way!\" an enraged voice bellowed; it was one of the other gym teachers.
The involved students tried to escape, but soon found their way blocked by the two other gym teachers and the school\'s dean along with a few of the school\'s security guards. Harry looked down at the boy he was protecting, and saw that the boy had curled up into a ball at his feet. There was a short argument between the dean and the students and after a brief struggle the students were handcuffed. Straightening, Harry fought a wave of dizziness and felt his stomach climb up his throat. He swallowed, trying to fight the nausea, but it was persistent. He slowly looked around and saw both his colleagues helping the boy on the floor, trying to persuade him to stand up. He discreetly pulled out his wand and cast a minor healing spell on himself, healing the minor cuts and minor bruises that had been bestowed upon him by the group of boys. Concealing his wand in his shorts, Harry lifted his head and returned to the boy, requesting that his colleagues back off and let him try to get the boy to stand up. The two moved away and turned to converse with he dean, while Harry tried to coax the boy to uncurl.

\"Kenny it\'s ok. It\'s Mr. Duncan; can you sit up for me? The other boys are gone, the security guards took them away.\"

The boy gave a little whimper and relaxed a bit; at least he wasn\'t in the fetal position now, just laying on the tile, looking up at him.

\"It\'s ok, shhhh,\" Harry reached out and pulled the towel tighter around the boy. He looked a mess, the blood from his broken nose covered his face, hands, and the upper part of his chest, and there were mottled bruises over the boy\'s upper torso. He felt a tap on his shoulder and turned to see a paramedic motioning him to leave the boy and go over to one of the other paramedics.

\"Kenny I\'m going to go over there. This guy right here is going to patch you up, ok?\"

The boy whimpered in response, but nodded his head minutely. \"Th-thank you\"

Harry reached out and took one of the boy\'s bloodied hands and gave it a squeeze, and said, \"You\'re welcome,\" before walking away.
Harry went over to the other paramedic and let him be checked over.

\"You have a nasty bruise on your head and you have a slight concussion, but you\'ll be fine.\" the paramedic assured him while giving instructions on how to care for his injury. As he was about to get up, he was pushed back down by the paramedic and told to rest for a bit, when he noticed the dean walking over to him.

\"What happened?\" he asked, sounding perturbed, but worried. Harry proceeded to tell the dean about the attack, being truthful about everything but the extent of his injuries.

\"Well, this is quite disappointing. I was expecting better behavior out of my students,\" the dean replied, grabbing Harry\'s arm and towing him out of the locker room to the gym. Once outside the gym, David, the man that Harry had gone out with for drinks, suddenly accosted Harry.

\"Max, are you alright? What happened?\" David asked, coming closer to him. He looked like he was about to wrap Harry in a hug, but Harry shied away from the open arms. After what happened in the locker room, he wasn\'t going to publicly announce his preference in front of his students.

\"I\'m fine David. There was a fight. I can\'t tell you anything else but I\'m sure the dean will tell the staff about it later.\" Harry replied, looking around at the bunch of students gathering around to hear their conversation.

\"Maxwell Duncan!\" a gruff voice called from somewhere near the locker room. Saying goodbye to David, Harry returned to the locker room to find an officer waiting to take his report on what happened. After telling his story a few more times, Harry was told to take the rest of the day off and to go home and rest. Bidding farewell to his fellow staff members, Harry exited the building walking a block before stopping in a dark alley to Apparate back to his flat. Pushing the key into his lock, Harry took down his wards and stepped into his kitchen and replaced the wards. Glancing at the clock, he saw that it was only 10:30 am. His head was pounding and all he wanted was to lie down on his bed and sleep the day away, but he knew he shouldn\'t fall asleep with a concussion. Walking into his living room, he barely got his wand out before he was pinned against the wall by a tall dark shadow.

\"Well, well, Mr. Potter. Reflexes are getting a bit rusty aren\'t they?\" a dark silky voice purred in his ear. An electric jolt shot to his heart as he recognized it as Severus\' voice.

\"No they are not, Severus. I can barely focus over the bloody pounding in my head,\" Harry replied, staring into the other\'s glittering black eyes while his body reacted to the other man\'s proximity. The black eyes studied him a moment before the body pressed against him moved away, freeing Harry from where he had been pinned.

\"What happened?\" Severus asked, studying him closely.

\"Fight in the locker room,\" Harry mumbled, wincing in pain as he pushed off the wall and started walking towards his bedroom. \"Nothing I couldn\'t handle.\"

\"Oh, so that\'s why you\'re walking like an old man?\" Severus snarked.

Rolling his eyes, Harry continued into his bedroom, pulling off the sweatshirt as he went. Standing in front of the mirror, he examined his body closely; there were quite a few colorful bruises scattered along his left side.

\"You have some on your back too,\" Severus said, standing behind him and frowning at his back. \"I have some healing salve to put on those, along with a potion to help them heal faster. Are there any other injuries I should know about?\"

\"Just a head injury. The paramedic said I have a slight concussion,\" Harry said softly, not looking up into Severus\' eyes, but keeping his focus on the mottled bruises on his side. He heard a \'hmpph\' and then he could feel Severus\' hands on his head, searching for bumps and other irregularities. As his hands passed over the sore spot on his head, Harry drew in a breath and tried to pull away, but instead of getting away from the man, he ran into him instead. The arms wrapped around him as he started to lose his balance and pulled him tighter against his chest. Harry\'s muscles relaxed as he let the other man support him. Leaning his head on Severus\' chest he could hear the other man\'s heartbeat, but the intimate position was soon broken when Severus loosened his arms and stepped away from Harry.

\"Harry, we need to go back to Hogwarts,\" Severus said, his face grim.

\"Why? What\'s wrong?\"

\"It\'s no longer safe for you to be outside of Hogwarts wards. There have been many more Death Eater gatherings, and we think that someone may know that you are living in the Muggle world. I will come and gather you and your belonging to be transferred to Hogwarts by the end of the week. I assume that you will use the necessary measures to ensure there are no loose ends?\"

Harry nodded and watched as Severus walked out the door, easily surpassing Harry\'s wards and Apparating right outside his door. Harry sighed and flopped down on his couch in front of his fireplace.

\"What is wrong with me? All I can think about is him, and when something important comes up I stand there like an idiot, not even saying anything. Merlin\'s beard! What I can\'t understand is how he got past my wards. Is he that powerful that he surpasses my power, or did he know how to get past them?\" All this wondering left Harry wondering at his actions, his feelings towards Severus, and the possible ways that Severus could get past his wards. The only explanation that he could think of was that the older man was and had been watching him. But why? Did Dumbledore tell him to? Was it of his own volition? Was it possible that he was worried about Harry?

Reviews are welcome!