Seeking the Star

NOTE:
harlot- if you\'re not happy with me now, the story washes its hands of you.


Ch.5.

Severus Snape was feeling decidedly uneasy. A student, who, until less than twenty-four hours ago, he had hated bitterly, was now on the same side of a classic Dumbledore manipulation as he was. Further, that student had, seemingly overnight, become the possessor of more charisma and magical power than should be able to fit into such a short, skinny, young frame. Even worse, said student didn\'t see his own charisma, yet had suddenly started understanding his position in the grand scheme of things. And worst of all, that student was Harry Potter.

\'No, scratch that,\' Snape thought. \'Undoubtedly the worst part is that I\'m starting to trust the bloody Gryffindor. I must be losing my touch.\' He had been sitting in his desk chair for an interminable time after Harry\'s departure, and he was now feeling stiff and peckish. Then he glanced at his clock, which had a hand firmly pointing to \'Late\'. Snape wracked his brains for where he was supposed to be, coming up empty. Then there was a knock on the door.

\"Enter,\" he called irritably. Potter pushed open the door and walked into the room slowly.

\"Sir? I thought we would be having my Schemata lessons in your Potions classroom? Four hours ago?\" The boy\'s face carried a look that Snape would have nearly termed concern. \"I waited, but you didn\'t come. And then...\" Potter cut himself off, as if he beenbeen about to say one thing and decided on another \"...I wondered what happened.\"

\"Well, as you\'re here now, Mr. Potter, we might as well do it here.\" Snape stood slowly, joints cracking loudly.

\"Are you alright, Sir? Would you like me to...\"

\"I most certainly would not, Potter. I\'m quite fine.\" The look on Potter\'s face made it fairly obvious that he knew the lie for what it was, but he said nothing. \"Shall we, then?\" Harry nodded. Snape handed him a smooth stone paperweight that had been lying on the desk. Harry held it cupped in his palms for a moment, twisting and stroking his fingers oddly over the stone and in the air around it. Snape watched in fascination.

\"It belongs to you. It\'s got...a charm to keep papers down, and...an anti-snooping device.\" Potter gave a small sound of amusement. \"It\'ll smash the fingers of whoever tries to disturb the papers beneath it that isn\'t you.\" He looked up for confirmation, and received a curt nod.

\"Now, change it so that you can pick up the papers too. Then we\'ll test your work.\" Potter cupped the stone again, waving his fingers in a complicated dance over and around the paperweight, moving it from one palm to the other, sweeping his fingers carefully over every surface. Then he handed the stone back to Snape, who put it on top of a pile of papers. He then took one of the papers out himself. The stone remained still. Potter reached over, and pulled out several of the papers without having his fingers crushed. He made to return his papers at the same moment that the Potions Master did, and their fingertips brushed. Potter looked up at his professor.

\"Are you hungry, sir? I didn\'t see you at dinner. I\'m sure we could get the house elves to bring you something to eat.\" Snape scowled. He was, in fact, rather peckish, now that he thought about it, but that didn\'t mean that he wanted to take dinner with Potter. The boy gave him a lopsided half-smile. \"I swear I won\'t tell anyone that you get hungry, and that you don\'t show up in the Great Hall at meals just for show.\"

\"Wouldn\'t want to ruin the Vampire myth, would we, Potter?\" The boy looked up with surprise. Had Snape just made a joke?

\"Absolutely not, Sir. It would reduce the scare-value of your late night hallway skulking.\" Snape started. Had Potter just joked back at him? The boy flashed him the quickest of smilehichhich flooded in a positively shocking manner through the Potions Master. The boy\'s Schema was ridiculously strong. \"Dinner it is, then.\" And before Snape could protest, Potter had pulled what looked like a little bell out of his pocket. A clear note rang softly, once, and a house elf immediately appeared at Potter\'s side.

\"What would Harry Potter like from Dobby?\" The elf looked at Potter with positively adoring eyes.

\"Professor Snape is a bit peckish, Dobby. He missed dinner. Can you bring him something? His favorite, I suppose. And some tea for the both of us, and just a little chocolate, please.\" Dobby\'s face shone with happiness as he disappeared to the kitchen to procure their food.

\"A house elf at your beck and call, Potter?\" Snape cocked an eyebrow.

\"Albus gave me the bell while I was here over the summer. Didn\'t want me wandering out of my rooms. I wasn\'t even allowed to go down to the library. No where farther than his office.\" Potter\'s voice was calm, but there was an undercurrent of something Snape couldn\'t identify. Potter gave an infinitesimal shrug. \"Wasn\'t the best summer. Not the worst, though, I suppose.\" Dobby reappeared with the food, and while Snape ate, he gave Potter nearly every object in the room not tied down and made the boy identify its magical property. The subject of Schema was never breached, but Harry thought it was a fruitful lesson nonetheless.


***

\"Clear your mind. Legilimens!\"

Snape saw Potter flinch, and his mind was filled with confusing images. Dumbledore, eyes ablaze, saying something he couldn\'t hear...the sickening crunch of his ribs breaking...hands against Dumbledore\'s leg, and the deep tuneless hum of Sanos magic...

...all suddenly disappeared as Snape came back to himself to find Potter holding his wand. Harry, his face deadly serious, walked quickly across the room to hand the wand back to the Potions Master. It was their first Occlumency lesson of the term, and Snape was getting the idea that things were a bit different now.

\"I\'m sorry, Sir. I\'ll try harder next time. I was...distracted.\" Snape figured that Potter\'s distraction didn\'t hold a candle to his own. He was thoroughly shaken by what he\'d seen. As Potter handed him the wand, Snape almost missed the lingering of the boy\'s fingers. It was just a few seconds, but afterwards, Snape felt measurably calmer. Then he scowled at the boy.

\"I would thank you not to do that again, Potter. I don\'t need your assistance. Legilimens!\"

This time, nothing. A blinding grayness that sent him recoiling back into his own mind, to the flash of a murderous looking man...spine pressed into a corner...a cane descending...

...and Potter, lowering him gently to the floor. Potter, hands surprisingly firm on his shoulders, Potter\'s legs against his back, supporting him. Potter\'s aura filling him with the warmth of another\'s genuine concern. Snape twitched in surprise. The boy gave him a small, sheepish smile.

\"I couldn\'t let you hit your head on the floor. I\'m sorry, I didn\'t mean to. This is the part that Albus says I need to work on, now.\" With his hands in direct contact with the Potions Master, Harry could feel the man\'s Schema for the first time. He didn\'t dare investigate it directly, though, as that would likely greatly upset his Professor.

\"You saw.\" The voice was cold, accusing. Green eyes took the measure of black ones.

\"I saw. I\'ll never tell. I swear it on my life. You would not tell my secrets, I will never tell yours.\" Harry looked straight into the black eyes that glittered with malice, and, more subtly, with fear. \'I\'m not lying to you, Severus Snape. Please believe me. I don\'t lie to anyone anymore.\' Obsidian eyes looked into emerald ones for long moments. The Legilimens knew that the boy was being honest in that brutal Gryffindor way, and going just as overboard as was usual for the bloody lions, but he had the odd feeling that Harry was being utterly truthful. He would rather die before telling what he had just seen in Snape\'s mind.

While Snape was still involved in these thoughts, Harry helped him up off the floor. Snape wavered a moment on his feet before steadying.

\"I think we\'ve had enough for tonight, don\'t you, Professor?\" The boy looked almost wry. It was the first time he\'d been able to say those words to Snape after an Occlumency lesson. \"Albus didn\'t warn you at all, did he? That git.\" There, he definitely looked wry. Snape was tempted to smile weakly. \"Can you make it to your room alright, Professor?\" Snape was still swaying on his feet, and was surprised to feel Potter take his arm to steady him. He was tempted to snatch it away, but the boy\'s touch was surprisingly calming and grounding.

\"No, Potter, I think I can make it to my own chambers.\" He gently disengaged his arm from the boy\'s, immediately missing the contact. \'That boy\'s magic really is strong. He\'s got the perfect makings of a Sanos healer, and he does it without even realizing it.\' Snape started slowly off to his chambers.

Harry did not move from his spot in the corridor until he was sure that his Potions Master had made it safely into bed. His connection to Snape was unusually strong, considering that he had not even fully explored the other wizard\'s Schema. He considered asking Dumbledore, briefly, before dismissing the idea. Albus obviously has another plan, here,\' he thought. \'That man must have as many plots as he does threads. And it probably isn\'t opportune that he know I know this one.\' Through his experience over the summer, Harry had learned to block some of his thoughts from the older wizard, and his connection to Snape was one he kept safely behind the grey wall.


a/n-
six of cups-memories, childhood, the past impinging on the present.