Tequila

Chapter 5

Harry shifted uncomfortably, aware of the pain in his neck and the stiffness of the leg he had tucked under him. Totally aware that he had slept somewhere unfamiliar (and in a very uncomfortable position) he was completely unsure of where exactly he\'d spent the night. Opening his eyes cautiously, Harry saw his surroundings and remembered exaclty what had occurred the night before, most especially when his tired eyes met cold onyx ones.

// My God // he thought.

\'\' My God,\'\' he mumbled, almost incoherently, straightening in the chair and bringing his hands to his face. Sneaking a peek through his fingers, Harry saw Professor Snape sitting camly in the leather easy chair directly opposite, his legs crossed, his fingers steepled and his expressionless eyes on Harry\'s.

\"Good morning,\" Snape said, carefully looking at Harry. \"Imagine my surprise, Mr Potter, when I awoke this morning to find a student, who has no idea of the password to my chambers, asleep on on my sitting room sofa.\"

\"Well at least I can remember everything this time,\" Harry muttered, trying to cover his blush with his hands.

Snape leaned forward in his chair. \"I\'m glad you can, Mr Potter. Now would you are to enlighten me as to how, and more importantly why you chose to sneak into my room in the middle of the night and fall asleep on my couch.

Harry wanted to curl up into a ball and die, he wanted to ground to open up and swallow him whole, he wanted to drop off the face of the planet and all sorts of other cliches.

\"Professor, I\'m so sorry. I don\'t know what came over me. I was out walking past curfew, I know I shouldn\'t have been.\" Harry\'s eyes darted from side to side as he fervently composed the lie. \"I walked passed your quarters and I wanted to talk to you so I went to your door and found it open. I let myself in, I\'m so sorry, I should never have intruded on your privacy. I don\'t know why but I must have fallen asleep.\"

It was a crap lie, he knew that but he was unwilling to admit just what exactly he\'d seen.

Snape was leaning forward, his dark eyes seeing right through the lie.

\"You found my door open?\" he asked emotionlessly.

\"Yes, Professor.\"

\"Around what time did you happen to notice the door to my private chamber lying wide open for the world to see?\"

Harry hesitated.

// What time did he finish? What time did he fall asleep? // Harry thought frantically trying to sustain his lie.

Harry\'s hesitation and his slow travelling blush was enough to convince Severus of exactly what happened.

\"I see,\" he said. \"Pardon my language but that is bullshit Mr Potter. I think we both know exactly what occurred last night.\"

Harry finally saw an emothion in those ebony eyes. Anger. Yes. anger was one of them. What was the other?

// Damn //

Professor Snape was angry that Harry had spied on him. Angry that he\'d seen him jerk off. Angry that his privacy had been invaded, and well he should be.

// Damn //

Severus was angry with himself. After 20 years of being a deatheater and a spy he should know better than to become so distracted that someone could sneak into his private quarters unchallenged. He should know btter than to let his guard down, even in a place he called home. He should know better than to fantasis sexually about a student.

Severus leaned forward in his chair and rubbed his gritty eyes with the heel of his hands. He\'d been sitting watching Harry for over 4 hours. Watched him sleep. Watched him roll over and moan Snapes name in his sleep. It had been quite a shock when he had arisen around 3 am for a drink of water and found his infatuation asleep in his sitting room. Anger and humiliation had given way to resignation and fear. Snape knew exactly how and when Harry had entered his rooms last night. The only good thing to have come of this situation was that if Harry was still here after all he\'d seen then he must not feel physically threatened by Severus.

Harry watched Snape carefuly, trying to get some hint of what the man was thinking, but too long of wearing an emotionless mask made it impossible for Harry to tell what he was feeling.

// Shit shit shit shit shit shit shit shit. What the FUCK happens now? //

Harry\'s very constructive thoughts were interupted by a knock on Snapes door.

Severus looked up, directly at Harry and said \"I would very much like us to have this conversation Mr Potter, however if you feel unable to continue with this, feel free to leave.\"

Harry looked at his potions master and then at the door. He knew someone was outside, waiting to come in. He did want to talk to Snape but what to do now?

Before he could reply: \"If you do want to finish this you may wait in my bedroom or cover yourself with your cloak while I take care of this slightly more pressing matter\"

Harry blushed, then cursed himself for blushing when he thought of the last time he\'d been in Snapes bedroom.

\"I\'ll just.... you know....\" he mumbled before moving into the corner of the room and pulling the cloak over his head.

Snape composed himself, straighted the front of his robes and fixed a scowl to his face.

\"Enter,\" he called massively knowing that whoever was outside the door would be intimidated enough to leave quickly. He was surprised then when a pale, blonde, dishevelled thing fell through his doorway and landed in a small heap on the floor.

\"Draco,\" he shouted, fear surfacing in his voice for the first time. He leapt to his feet and ran to the small, bloody and bruised young man, dropping to the floor beside him. Pulling Draco into his arms, Severus forgot abot Harry standing in the corner as he mumbled words of comfort to the weeping boy while gently stroking his hair back from his face.

Harry felt wave after wave of jealousy surge through him.The way Severus was comforting Draco, the way he was stroking his hair, the way he was holding him was like

// a lover //

Harry stood in the corner for nearly 10 mins watching Snape rock the gently sobbing young man in his lap. With every minute that passed, Harry\'s heart had dropped lower in his chest, the light pattering of of excitement turning into the dull aching beat of a broken drum. 10 minutes was all it took for Harry to feel hollow.

When he finally cried himself to sleep, Severus wapped Draco\'s arms about his neck and bodily lifted him up, cradling him in his arms as you would a small child and moved towards his bed chamber.

Harry wanted to reach out and stop Severus. Harry wanted to demand to know what was going o. Harry wanted to run straight from the room. Harry was frozen to the spot. After several minutes, Severus reurned to the sitting room and slumped into the same leather chair he had not long vacated.

\"Potter.....\" Severus paused, trying to sense if Harry was still in the room. \"Harry. I would still like us to finish our conversation but given the present circumstances, it might be prudent if we postponed it to a later date.\"

Harry composed his face into the same emotionless mask as Severus himself used so frequently and allowed the cloak to slip from his body.

\"Whatever you think best, Professor.\" Harry quickly strode to the door, tryingnot to notice but seeing that Snape not once lookd at him. He felt rage and frustration screaming inside him, but not wanting Snape to know how much he affected him, turned to the man and said, almost cordially, \"Will Malfoy be ok?\"

Snape looked at him for the first time. \"Yes Mr Potter, Draco\" empahsis on the name \"will be fine. Please do not inform anyone of what was said or what occurred this morning.\"

Harry snorted derisively. \"Don\'t worry Professor. I\'d have a hard time explaining to everyone what exactly I was doing in my most hated Professors bed chamber at 7.30 in the morning anyway. I\'ll see you in class, sir.\" And without another glance, Harry left the room.

// Most hated Professor //

Snape sighed.

// Well I guess that answers any questions I might have had about how the boy feels //

Hearing a groan from the other room, Severus quickly returned to his student. The pain potion seemed to be taking effect and the hasty haling spells Snape had applied to the youngs mans body were working nicely. Looking deeply into the groggy, silver eyes, trying to see signs of a concussion, Severus said, \"How are you Mr Malfoy?\"

Draco carefuly turned his head to better see his Professor. \"Better sir, thank you.\" Sincerity showing on his usually haughty face.

\"Would you like to explain to me what exactly happened at this time of the morning to get you into the state you were?\"

Draco sighed heavily and dropped his eyes.

\"More of the same, sir. They blame me for my father\'s actions. They don\'t believe I never had any intention of joining Voldemort. Just the usual guys attacking me on my way to breakfast.\"

\"The usual guys?\" Snape asked quickly. \"Does that mean you saw their faces this time?\"

\"No,\" Draco replied in a small voice. \"They were still wearing deatheaters masks.\"

\"Then how can you be sure it was the same people?\"

\"I guess I can\'t sir.\"

\"So you have no idea at all who it could be?\"

\"No, Professor. Given the circumstances I would probably say Gryffindors, but that goes against the idea of their courage, dressing up like that.\"

\"There is courage Mr Malfoy, and then there is stupidity. No student would want to be identified as attacking another student,\" Severus said thoughtfully, \"particularly dressed up as servants of the Dark Lord.\"

\"Probably something Potter arranged,\" Malfoy said spitefully.

\"Hmmm?\" Severus was still thinking. \"No, I don\'t think Harry would do something quite like this.\"

Draco stared at his Head of House, shock written clearly on his face at the use of the Professors use of Harry\'s first name. Snape was still looking away in thought so Draco decided to let the slip lie. For Now.

Harry quickly walked to the Gryffindor common room, anger and defeat still coursing through his veins. He knew that as classes didn\'t start till 9 am, no one in his dorm would even be considering getting out of bed yet. Harry was hoping he could sneak into his own bed and pretend that he\'d been there all night. If he was lucky, no-one would have missed him during the night. There was a slight problem with his plan. He was so angry that he wsn\'t being the least bit careful about who heard him and who he bumped into. When he heard the squeal of Mrs Norris, as he trod quite heavily on her tail, he realised that he had left a wake of destruction and angry glares behind him. Good thing he was wearing the invisibility cloak so no-one knew it was actually Harry that was causing the problems. Promising himself he would be slightly more careful, Harry started thinking about what had happened with Snape.

God he was pissed off. Since this whole thing had started, they\'d both tiptoed around each other so as not to offend or embarass, and now because they were being so careful, both were offended and embarassed. It was sods law. Harry thought of Malfoy in Snape\'s chambers and felt his blood start to boil again. Realising that he was over-reacting and jumping to conclusions and once again banging into people, Harry put that thought out of his head. He\'d deal with it later. The only thing Harry needed to be thinking about now was getting back to his dorm and getting into bed without attracting any attention to himself. He was currently failing mireably. 7 years of calling this school home, 7 years of racing around the corridors in his invisibility cloak and 4 years with the marauders map had made Harry very familiar with the school. In fact, aside from Dumbledore himself, Harry probably knew more secrets passage ways and special corridors than anyone in the whole school. Once he was concentrating, Harry made his way back to the common room very easily and was in bed and pretending to be asleep in a matter of minutes.

Lying in his bed with his eyes closed, Harry thought back to his reaction when he realised Snape and Malfoy were more than just student and Professor.

// It was excessive. Why should I care that they are lovers. I know I wanted to know what happened \'that night\' but that was all wasn\'t it? I surely don\'t want another night with him....... Do I? //

Harry was confused. His head was sore and his neck was aching because of the peculiar place he\'d spent the night. Harry was exhausted. You don\'t really get much sleep when you pass out on a sofa. He decided he needed to talk to someone. His intention was to speak to Snape but under the present circumstances that could prove to be unwise. He couldn\'t speak to Ron. Ron would flip his lid if he knew that Harry was having sexual thoughts about Snape. He couldn\'t talk to Hermione. Hermione would insist he tell MacGonogall or Dumbledore. MacGonogall wasn\'t the most sympathetic of listeners and Dumbledore would probably sack Snape and expell Harry if he knew what had happened.

He supposed he could talk to Lupin. They had spent a brief few days together after Sirius\' death and had confided a lot of things to each other. Most important being that they didn\'t blame each other for what had hapened to Sirius, and the nature of Remus and Sirius\' relationship. They had been lovers. Harry was not surprised or bothered by this. He had known there was something between them when Sirius had come back at the end of third year. Harry had been happy that both of his favourite men had someone to love, and now that Sirius was gone, Harry looked to his godfathers lover for guidance and advice. Harry had not seen Remus since the end of the war. After the death of his lover\'s killer, Remus had decided he needed some time to himself, and although he wrote to Harry often, they hadn\'t spoken for a long time.

The more Harry thought about it, the more he realised that he couldn\'t tell anyone. Remus would probably have a fit as well with the whole student teacher realtionship thing. Harry guessed he was just gonna have to deal with this alone.