An one time opportunity

2. Chapter

A sudden thumping sound had him up and ready with wand in his hand in a few seconds. A hard learned reflex, necessary for the boy who lived.
But the only intruder was a house elf that nearly fainted when he saw the wand pointed at it. After he’d restrained the elf from it’s suicide attempt it calmed down enough to tell him that Dumbledore awaited him and it had brought him clothes. Harry washed up and pulled his new clothes on and over it a black school robe. Then he went in the direction he came from yesterday.
He knocked and entered after he heard Dumbledore call him in. “Ah, good morning Mr. Granger, I hope you had a restful night.” Harry grinned at the headmaster, it really was funny to be called by Hermione’s name, but the name was familiar enough that Harry would react to it

“Yes headmaster, it was fine.” He stepped up to one of the armchairs in front of Dumbledore’s desk only to notice that it was already occupied by no other than Severus Snape. When the boy looked up Harry could feel himself blushing, as he thought of last night’s musing. This wasn’t his Severus this was a young boy, `only half a year younger than you´, the little voice at the back of his head said, anyway this was not the guy he had a crush on. “H..hi.” He stuttered, black eyes bored into him seeming to cut through everything directly into his soul.
“Good morning.” The boy was so formal and polite, no scathing remarks whatsoever but maybe that would change once there weren’t any teachers around the former Gryffindor thought but doubted it.
“Well do sit down for a moment Harry.\" The messy haired boy sat in the chair next to his future professor \"Good, I informed Severus about your true origins and he promised not to tell anybody or pry. I trust him to keep his word.” With that he smiled at the boy and this time the emotion of slight joy in the boys eyes nearly reached his face.
Harry wondered how long it had taken for Severus to get such a complete control over his facial expression, yet Harry himself had observed his teacher long enough to read the boy, who lacked Professor Snape’s experience and practice. His older version didn’t show any emotion but anger in his eyes, whereas the younger Snape’s feelings seemed to flicker shortly in the black pools like TV images. Which regarded him, steadily, uh, caught staring at the boy, wonderful, thought Harry.

He hastily turned to Dumbledore who pretended not to notice anything “Ice-tea Harry?” The blue eyes twinkled and the blush in Harry’s face reached a deep red shade. The poor Gryffindor, become Slytherin, nodded and drank the tea as if it could cool his face directly “Severus will lead you to your room, Slytherins all have their own rooms in the last year, so you needn’t worry about slipping up in your dreams or something like that.
It is also directly next to Severus room who will take care of you “ Harry’s tea promptly went down the wrong pipe and he coughed hard, it seemed as if suffocation wasn’t far as suddenly a warm strong hand lifted his arms high and the other stroked his back, again he felt calm descend on him and as the silky voice commanded “Calm down, relax, breath easy” he did just that, a few moments later he was released and not really happy about it. His face red, which he shoved off on oxygen deprivation he mumbled “Thank you”, declined Dumbledore’s offer of calming lemon drops and motioned for the wizard to go on.
“As I was saying, if you need any help you can turn to Severus, he will show you around and introduce you to everything, he is also your prefect which is why nobody will say anything when you two are seen together immediately more often then normal for strangers.” Prefect?! Another thing to file away for later observation.

`Wonderful just shove the temptation right in front of my eyes or rather hands´, Harry looked to his side the boy sat like a statue just like his Severus, he’d like to see him relaxed once.
“Well it is time for me to go to breakfast, you will have enough time left to eat something after the Sorting, Severus you can show him the way to your dungeons now, there you can pack a school bag” The older wizard searched for something in the staples of papers in front of him “Ah here it is, your time table, you will probably only stay a few days maximum a few weeks, but better sure than sorry, if you want to take any extracurricular courses just say so.” He handed Harry the plan and the boy was not surprised to find all of his normal courses on it, he’d given up on being surprised by anything the man did quite some time before.

They all stood up and Dumbledore led their way down to the hall “Harry please come by this afternoon, when your classes are over, Professor Loss, he is our potions master, and I will need the exact replay of your potions class.” They were in the main hall now, and Harry noticed a little hard exhalation at the mention of his new potions professor from the boy at his side, a sideway look at Severus showed that he doubted that the other man was any good at what he did. Harry had to smile, obviously his Snape was there, under a mask of indifference and politeness. “See you at breakfast boys.” With that Dumbledore went towards the dining room and Harry was left alone for the first time with Severus since he came into this time. Reluctantly he turned to the boy, and tried to smile, his only reaction was an uncaring “Follow me please” and Harry could only walk after the boy downstairs towards were he knew lay the Slytherin common room, he remembered the cold cellar from their adventure with polyjuice potion.

They went lots of stairs down, then along a corridor and came to stand in front of the naked wall with the hidden entrance, turning halfway to Harry he said “The password is “Latet anguis”, with that the wall vanished and they went through in the common room where Harry stood surprised “Last time I was in this room there were red chairs, and it was cold and uncomfortable.” The boy said confused, there was a plush black carpet and cosy looking green armchairs and couches, there was also a fire going and the whole room was aside from it\'s elegant darkness nearly as comfortable looking as the Gryffindor common room, Severus looked at him“Every time a Malfoy comes to Hogwarts the interior is changed, usually to royal colours, after Lucius Malfoy left we got the old furniture out of the basement and put everything that was purple or golden away.” His distaste of this colour combination was obvious in his eyes, Harry had to laugh, that was so typical for the Malfoys, to make themselves seem rich and everybody else uncomfortable.

The boy mustered him “I am sure Professor Dumbledore told me you were a Gryffindor, or am I mistaken?” Harry blushed, and stuttered “Ah, no you aren’t I just ähm, kinda sneaked in..” The young Snape only nodded and then lead him up to his room which was really .. well huge. Harry had to remember to close his mouth as he saw the big four posted bed with silver green bed linen, `wow´ he thought looking around, again black carpet and dark mahogany furniture, a big closet, an antique looking desk and a huge trunk at the foot of his bed, it was all very impressive. “The bathroom is through the door to your left.” Harry looked at the nearly hidden door and , stepped through into a large white room, with a sink, toilette, and bathtub which could also be used as a shower; then he noticed another door at the opposite of the room and turned questioningly towards Severus who stood in the doorway.

“ This door leads to my room, two of us always share a bathroom, as a prefect I had the possibility to reserve one for myself.” Harry cringed, `greatness, they shared a bathroom! He would spent his nights imagining what happened behind these doors, and to top it of he intruded on the other’s obviously holy privacy´.
Stepping out of the room into his chamber he said “ I’m sorry that you have to share your bathroom with me, I’m sure you have better things to do than spent your time with a strange Gryffindor who can’t get his potions straight.” Snape regarded him unflinching and then seemed to come to a conclusion “I don’t mind.” That was short Harry thought, but he still wanted to thank the boy who turned and prepared to leave, the former Gryffindor stepped forward and got a hold of the others arm “Wait..”

Severus spun around and jerked his arm violently out of Harry’s grip, holding it protectively in front of his chest, pain and fear clear in his eyes, the boy who lived was shocked, never had he seen fear in the professor’s gaze. He stepped back, stuttering “I…I.. I’m sorry, I .. did I hurt you somehow? I’m sorry, I didn’t know..” Severus sighed and let his arms fall to his sides, visibly trying to force his body back into his normal passiveness “You did not hurt me, but I.. hurt my arm this morning” at this the boy looked down, he was lying, that was obvious for Harry but why? “Still I would be grateful if you refrained from touching me like that, I don’t react well to surprises.”
This seemed to be a major confession for the boy and Harry nodded seriously “I am sorry, I just wanted to thank you for all you did yesterday and today, it would be hard without your help.” He smiled reassuringly at the now somehow sceptical looking boy and held his hand out, the formality was what brought the boy around his lips twitched tentatively as if he didn’t really know if he should smile or how it was done, but he took Harry’s hand and nodded.

His hand was warm and soft, the skin had a strange silky texture to it that Harry couldn’t get over, but the grip was strong and confident, it was typically Severus Snape, only the face lacked it’s usual maliciousness and it’s prettiness was not diminished by colour, stress-and worry lines; again he noticed how handsome Snape could be if he would care for his appearance, the sudden blush on the pale face reminded him of the fact that he held the other boy’s hand for longer than properly allowed and he immediately let him go, but not without noticing that he hadn’t been called on it.
He grinned brightly “So let’s get to our breakfast I’m famished.”

Again Severus’ only answer was nodding before he motioned for Harry to gather his schoolbooks. They were mostly the same as in his time, only in potions did he have “The beauty of mixing mixtures” instead of their usual “Potions mastery of the mysterious ingredients” a book that seemed to be like a bible for Snape. He had to grin at Severus’ obvious dislike of the current potions reading, obvious in his case meant a double blink of his eyes, Harry told himself that he would get the boy to open up a little bit; it wouldn’t change the future if Snape showed more than anger and malice, would it? The two young men then made their way to the dining room, shortly before they came to the door Severus stopped. Harry who’d been walking beside the boy halted immediately and asked

“What’s up? Is something wrong?” The later potions master was looking uncertainly at Harry and then came to a conclusion to whatever question plagued him “H.. Granger I would advise you to stay away from me. You can’t have your usual kind of friendships with the Gryffindors, but you may find comrades under us Slytherins. Therefore it would be advantageous for you not to associate with me.” Harry looked totally stunned at the boy in front of him, his mask firmly in place the young Snape returned his gaze. “Why should I stay away from you? Am I bothering you somehow? If it is about ..before .. you know.. I won’t touch you without permission again..” The boy who lived was lost, how could he have lost without ever starting to play? Somehow he didn’t think that the Slytherin despised him, .. yet. But still…
A little sigh escaped the boy, he apparently had hoped Harry would simply comply with his bidding. “I am not very popular in our house, as for the rest of the school, well… you shouldn’t be seen with me, the repercussions this would have could harm you, no matter how short your stay in this …place is.” Harry’s mind immediately flashed back to the incident with the pensive. O.K. so Snape wasn’t the school’s favourite Slytherin, but he’d always thought that at least his own house liked him, he was after all the head of Slytherin in the future and prefect now, so why.. a look at the boy who was evidently ill at ease, even if he tried to hide it, showed him that he would not get an answer to this question, now at least. So he set out to assure him “I don’t mind, I’m not that hot on making a huge bunch of friends right now, and … I … think you’re nice..” at that he could feel the blush on his cheeks, “So if you don’t mind to much, I’d like to be friends with you Severus” the name felt strange, but somehow right on his lips.
The Slytherin prefect looked at him incredulously “ I believe I wasn’t forward enough..” Harry interrupted the other boy “Don’t worry I understood perfectly well. If we would be friends I wouldn’t have any others, I really don’t mind as long as you’ll stand by me I don’t need anybody else.” `Gosh, he sounded awfully serious´; but Severus just studied him for a few minutes and then the unthinkable happened; a smile slowly appeared on his face transfiguring the serious mask into the face of a very pretty sixteen year old boy who reluctantly accepted a kindness that nobody seemed to have offered him before. Harry’s heart skipped a bit at his first real Snape smile; at this moment he vowed to make it appear as often as he could.

Unfortunately it vanished too fast and Severus nodded again serious, “Very well, if this is your choice.” With that, now to Harry typical short, polite reply, the dark haired boy turned and opened the doors to the dining hall, where a mass of Hogwarts students awaited Harry, staring at him as if he was a new herbology plant waiting to be dissected.
This was nothing new for the boy who lived, and he was able to suppress the threatening blush, partly because of the calming presence to his left.