Death Eater Takes a Holiday

Dumbledore greeted them with a smile, as the three were the last to
enter the hall






Chapter 3 Introductions

 

Dumbledore greeted them with a smile, as the three were the
last to enter the hall. Ron, Harry and Sev sat in the remaining chairs.

 

"Ronald, I see you have found our strays?"
inquired Dumbledore "I'm most appreciative that you have welcomed our
guest. I think this week will be a pleasant one. I'd like to remind the
students to respect our guests and not discuss anything that would disrupt
their vacation. You may know some of them, even if you don't recognize them at
the moment, so I ask you to treat them as you already have, with kindness and
friendship. Perhaps by the end of the
week we could have a chess tournament with our resident champions," He
said, smiling at Flitwick and to Ron.

 

"Or a quidditch match," Sev interrupted. Harry
gave him a smile. Dumbledore smiled also; he was thrilled to see them getting
along so well. More than he knew in fact. Harry had moved his hand to Sev's
thigh, rubbing with his thumb absentmindedly. When he heard the name Minerva
McGonagall, Harry didn't register at first that his teacher hadn't stayed the
holiday. When Filius Flitwick was introduced, Harry slowed the circles he was
rubbing on the boy’s leg beside him. Ron was shaking Flitwick's hand rambling
about having a name to call him now.

 

Deep down Harry knew what was coming, but he kept telling
himself "He could be an auror, or
some order member." The fact that Sev was short for Severus never crossed
his mind. The only thing they ever called him was Snape or Greasy Git.

 

"Next to Filius is Ronald Weasley, Harry Potter, and
Severus Snape," Dumbledore concluded. The hand on his leg froze in its
place. Severus looked at Harry, who seemed to be frozen, his glazed-over eyes
still in the general direction of the Headmaster. Ron looked shocked, and
nervously turned his attention to the small wizard sitting on his other side.
Harry came out of his trance at the sound of his name.

 

"Harry?" Sev said tentatively. He wanted Harry to
look at him, but was afraid, too. He had noticed the reactions to the introductions.
Every one seemed to know them. Most reactions were surprise and interest, but
he had gotten a few different responses. A couple of first years nearly gasped.
Ron's eyes bugged, out and Harry, well, Harry's was the reaction he had been
worried about ever since the hand on his leg stopped moving abruptly. When the
hand had frozen he knew for sure Harry must know him from somewhere, and
obviously didn't like him or he wouldn't have reacted that way. It must have
occurred to Harry finally that he still had a hand on the leg next to him when
he jerked it away. 'Here it comes' Sev told himself. Ron had tried and
failed to keep the dislike from his face. Now it was Harry's turn, but when
Harry did finally look at him it wasn't dislike. Was it fear? It was. Harry
looked downright scared of him.

 

In a zombie like fashion Harry finished his dinner. After that was over, the students went
upstairs to the dormitories. Harry
pulled on his nightclothes and climbed into bed. He hadn't spoken to Ron or
anyone else since the introductions.

 

"Can't believe we didn't see that one coming,"
said Ron. Harry pulled the covers over his head. "I mean how many people
are called Severus? I never would have dreamed he would ask us to call him
Sev." Ron rattled on while Harry let out a defeated moan. "Hey,
Harry, did you beat him?" Harry pulled the covers down enough to reveal
his eyes.

 

"What?"

 

"Did you beat him? In quidditch, did you come out on
top?"

 

Harry prayed the red in his face didn't go all the way to
his eyelids.

 

"How is he at flying?"

 

Harry didn't hear any more questions. He was thinking about
coming on top of Sev, literally. Grinding, rubbing, licking, having his
earlobes sucked on. Snape was going to kill him next week.

 

Next day, Sev showered and headed for the common room. Today
was the first full day of his holiday. Ron was reading a letter by the fire and
Filius had just come down also.

 

"Hello Severus, Ron. Where's Harry this morning?"
Ron looked up from his letter.

 

"Hey Filius, uh Sev," said Ron hesitantly. It was
odd not calling them professors. "I think Harry's sleeping in today."


 

The boys in the common room headed down to breakfast. Sev
went back up to the dorm rooms under the pretense of putting his toothbrush
back in his room. He did want to talk to Harry alone to find out why Harry had
reacted the way he had. After knocking softly and getting no reply, Sev opened
the door to the seventh year's doom. Harry was asleep. His body tangled in the
sheets as if he been tossing and turning for a while.

Harry’s lips were moving but Sev could hear no sound. In
fact, when Harry rolled over not even the sheets made a noise. 'Silencing
charm,' Sev thought to himself.

 

Harry suddenly went rigid in the bed and began to convulse.
Sev couldn’t stand and watch any longer. When he reached the side of the bed
and went within the silenced area, Harry's screams were deafening. He suddenly
curled into a ball with his hands clenched over his forehead. Sev put his hand
on Harry's back tentatively, not sure of what to do for him. He was about to go
for help when Harry seemed to be coming out of it. Sev rubbed big circles on
his back till the convulsions slowly ebbed. Harry allowed him to pull him back
up to the pillow, but Harry didn't let go of his head.

 

"What can I do for you, Harry?" asked Sev
nervously. "Are you ok? Was it a dream?" Harry held his arm over his
head as if the light was too bright to take.

 

"I'm ok now Ron, thanks," Harry said after
catching his breath. "It wasn't as bad as last time. I think a blue and a
green one will do it."

 

Sev had no idea what Harry was talking about and wasn't even
sure if he should tell him he wasn't Ron. Harry had been pointing to the
bedside table with his free arm when he spoke, so Sev opened the drawer to
reveal a small stash of potion vials. Picking up and reading the labels. The
blue label was marked "Pain killer" and the green "Muscle
relaxant" He opened each vial and handed them to him. Harry drank them
down, handing the vials back to Sev, not looking up from under his arm.

 

"I need a few minutes. I'll meet you down at breakfast.
Save me some bacon."

 

Sev sat at breakfast. The younger children watched him when
they thought he wasn’t looking. They did it to all the younger versions of the
teachers, but when noticed they would smile and look away, except with Severus
they just looked away quickly. He didn’t particularly care. Ron was polite, but
not friendly as he had been. He noticed that Ron was taking food and hiding it
in his napkin. Vials clinked in his robes pocket reminding that Harry thought
he was with Ron this morning. Lying wasn't how he wanted to start off his
relationship with Harry. Not that he knew what that was exactly. They had only
met the day before, but were both attracted to each other. Mostly it was lust,
but he enjoyed being with him.

 

"Ron, is that for Harry?" asked Severus, eyeing
the napkin in Ron's lap. Ron didn't answer right away; he was obviously trying
to figure out if he trusted Severus. Sev took a pile of crispy bacon off the
platter and added it to the growing feast. "He asked me to save him some.
Um… actually he thought he was asking you. I didn't want to upset him, so I
just went along with it when he called me Ron. Sorry." Ron wrapped up the
food and dragged Severus out to the hall.

 

"What do you mean he thought you were me? What did you
do to Harry?"

 

"Nothing, he didn't answer when I knocked, so I opened
the door. I was going to leave when I saw he was asleep, but than…" Sev
pulled the vials out of his pocket and handed them to Ron. Ron's eyes grew
wide; he didn't need any more explanations. He grabbed the front of Severus'
robes. Even at his younger age, Severus was quite an imposing figure, but Ron
didn't care. He looked up at Severus and pulled tighter at the front of his
robes.

 

"You had best not use this against Harry in any way
next week. If I hear one person make one joke about this I swear I'll…"
Ron paused, he wanted to say he would hex him, or thrash him bodily, but as
soon as Snape was back to normal next week, he’d be in a load of trouble and
that still wouldn't keep him from taking advantage of knowing a weakness of
Harry's.

 

"Is there a problem, gentleman?" Madam Pomfrey
said calmly, eyeing the grip Ron had on Severus' robe. "That's not food
you're taking out of the hall, is it, Mr. Weasley?"

 

"No, no problem at all" said Severus smoothing out
his robes now that Ron had let go. 'Now I'm in for it' Ron thought. Severus handed the empty vials to her.
"I was just assuring Ron that I would not betray Harry's privacy in this
matter." She looked from one teen to the other and back to the vials in
her hand, sighing. "Alright, you two run along." Madam Pomfrey looked
down at the napkin mor more nodding. "Stay out of trouble please,"
she added. Ron walked away shocked that Snape hadn't taken advantage of a
chance to get him in trouble.

 

The rest of the day came and went. Sev saw no sign of him.
Harry knew Pomfrey would have kittens if he skipped all three meals, so he
showed for dinner. He sat in the empty seat next to Hagrid, distancing himself
from Snape, not once making eye contact with him.

 

Later that evening Severus found Ron watching a game between
Harry and Filius.

 

"Hello, Severus," Filius called out. Ron looked up
and nodded. Harry didn't look up.

 

"Hi Filius, can I play the winner?" Sev asked
hopefully. It was obvious Ron was waiting his turn and Harry was losing
miserably.

 

"Sorry Severus, Ron already called winner, you can play
Harry he's…"

Filius moved his queen in to position, putting Harry in
checkmate. "…finished."

 

That had worked how he hoped it would. If only Harry would
speak to him now.

Severus went over to a table where a few first years were
sitting and asked if he could take the chess set if they weren't using it. They
weren't but from the looks on their faces they would have given it up even if
they had been.

 

Returning with the chess set Sev could hear the last bits of
conversation between Harry and Ron.

 

"So you beat him at quidditch, he'll get over it. I
don't see why you're so upset."

 

He hadn't told Ron, noted Sev. Ron had been very protective
of Harry and he hadn't even found out about what they had done by the lake. He
set up the chess set just far enough away from Filius and Ron so they could
have privacy, just in case Harry did talk to him. Technically, Sev never really
asked him to play chess, but thought he would just keep going as if he had.

 

"Harry, what color do you want to be?" Ron nudged Harry to go over and play. Ron's
theory was to be careful the rest of the week and Snape would forget about the
first day, maybe even work some of it in their favor. Harry knew better but
humored Ron and got up to play chess. Any ten year-old would've been able to
read Ron's lips as he mouthed; "Let him win" Harry rolled his eyes
and replied loud enough for Snape to hear,

 

"He would have to really suck at chess for me to have
to." Harry sat across from Sev. "This color's fine," he said
without even looking down at the board.

 

They played in silence for while. Each taking far too long
to think about the next move, only for it to be something as simple as moving a
pawn up one square. After ten minutes only three men had been moved around,
clearly with no particular strategy in mind.

 

"I guess the introductions didn’t go as well as you
hoped," Sev said finally, breaking the silence. Harry winced at the choice
of words.