The death dancer

THE DEATH DANCER

-CHAPTER FIVE-

BETA: Dark Catalyst

INFO: www. livejournal. com /users/ draycious


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SNAPE POV

The next day during dinner in the Great Hall he got the annoying feeling that he had forgotten something again. It was important he knew that, he just couldn’t figure out what it was. It didn’t hit him until Lupin asked him a question, then he remembered.

“Where’s Harry?”

“Oh shit!” Snape murmured before he dropped his fork with a clatter and stalked out the hall in long quick strides. When he was sure nobody saw him he broke into a run.

“POTTER!” he yelled upon entering his quarters. He was only slightly out of breath. He made sure he was always very well trained. He had to be, being the spy that he was. A tired looking Potter came out from his room, he didn’t look too good.

“Yes, sir?” Harry asked quietly.

“Have you been in your room all day since yesterday?” Snape asked sternly but with an underlying guilt.

“Yes, sir.” Was the still quiet reply.

“Why?” Snape shouted completely flummoxed at the boy’s behavior. Harry looked at him with big confused eyes. They were as green as ever, but had no sparkle left in them. Snape just wanted to throttle the annoying brat, even if he knew it was wrong. He just didn’t have any patience to deal with a seemingly very dependent Potter. What happened to the independent boy they all knew? Now Potter probably couldn’t even pee on his own.

“Because you told me to, sir.” He said.

“You haven’t eaten all day?” Snape asked and briefly hoped that the boy had been smart enough to call on a house elf.

“No, sir.”

But then again this was Potter…

“And you haven’t drank anything?” he asked even if he already knew the answer.

“No, sir.”

Snape put his face in his hands. He felt like screaming in frustration but he knew that the situation would only get worse if he did. This was reminding him of his own childhood, which wasn’t some ordinary fairytale. It resembled a horror story more than anything. He couldn’t help but actually feel sorry for the boy.

“From now on you’ll eat and drink whenever you’re hungry or thirsty. No matter what I’ve said. That’s an order,” he said slowly and clearly, making sure the boy hung onto every word he uttered. Harry simply nodded.

“Come here Potter,” said Snape.

Harry stepped a bit closer but he seemed to be careful to be just out of reach. Snape took the last couple of steps so they stood close. Harry seemed extremely uncomfortable with the new arrangement.

“Who told you to act like this?” he asked. Harry looked away but Snape caught his chin and tilted Harry’s head upwards so he could look him in the eye. Harry flinched upon eye contact.

“I don’t know what you’re-” he began but his words were interrupted.

“You’re lying!” Snape snapped. It came out harder than he intended and he saw the panic in Potter’s eyes. He sighed. He wasn’t the right person for this, but he tried anyway.

“Potter,” he said more softly. “Tell me now, that’s an order.” It seemed to be the only way to handle Potter, but found he was mistaken on the reaction his words would bring. Potter began to shake. Snape realized Harry was having a long overdue breakdown. Oddly enough Potter didn’t make a sound. No whimper, no sob, no nothing. He almost wished Potter would scream and rant like a normal person, at least that he knew how to deal with. This reaction he didn’t understand.

“Potter?” he asked and tried to catch the boy’s attention but Potter didn’t answer him. He acted like he didn’t even see him. He’s in shock, Snape realized.

“Don’t cry!” he said with a bit of panic when he saw tears building up in the youths face. If it was one thing he couldn’t handle it was crying people.

“Sorry!” Harry sniffed, coming out of the daze at last. That went over quickly, Snape thought.

Snape was relieved for a few seconds before Potter broke down again.

“Just stop it! There’s nothing to cry for!” Snape said desperately. It obviously didn’t help the slightest. Potter sank down on his knees and ended up on his butt. He sat there rocking and tried not to make a sound, though a few odd moans still managed to slip out.

Snape tried once again to talk to Potter. When it didn’t work he went down on his knees and did something he’d never thought he’d do. He took Potter in his arms just like Dumbledore had once done to him when he had gone through something. Potter struggled at first but he soon clung to him in a desperate attempt to gain some comfort. Snape didn’t like Potter but he couldn’t bring himself to ignore what a wreck Potter was. He was horrified himself, but he wanted to help Potter.

It all ended with Potter falling asleep against him. He decided to carry Potter to his room. He dumped him on the bed and hurried over to his own room. He dressed in nightclothes and lay down in his bed but he couldn’t sleep until much later.

Normal POV

Harry woke with his cloths on. He silently cursed his weakness. He shouldn’t cry on Snape for Christ sake!

The ugly man would only use it against him. He’d probably tell the whole potion class and then the whole school would know. As if he wasn’t miserable enough he had to go to the man’s manor today! Talk about bad luck…

Harry didn’t speak through the whole breakfast and Snape didn’t seem so keen on talking either. He didn’t know what to say and Snape never asked him anything. Snape called on a house elf when they had finished.

“Harry Potter, sir! Dobby is happy to see you!” the little crazy elf shrieked happily when he set his eyes upon him.

“Hi, Dobby. Enjoying work?” he asked casually. This he could deal with. Dobby was so much smaller than him. He didn’t know about the age, but he wasn’t afraid of magical creatures, only human adults.

“Oh yes Master Potter, Harry! Dobby is most glad you freed I!”

“You’re welcome. You don’t need to thank me,” he said modestly.

“Take care of this!” Snape interrupted the two of them and pointed to the overfilled table. Many of the things they hadn’t even looked at. The house elves were always too eager with the food if no one stopped them in time. Dobby hurried to oblige the potion master and Harry looked down at his feet. He was unsure of what he was supposed to do now.

“Go get your trunk Potter, we’re leaving.”

Harry nodded and hurried away. He was relieved that he could leave the professor for a little while, even if it meant spending more time with him later in the manor.

Snape Manor was a huge place, but many areas were of limits. It didn’t matter to him; he wasn’t interested or curious in exploring them. During the night he cried silently in his pillow. He missed Jamie so much it hurt. It was first when they were apart that Harry realized what a huge support Jamie had been.

Snape had begun to spend more time with him. It rather annoyed him because it made it harder for him to slip away and smoke so he had begun to do it in a toilet on the second floor because it had a window he could open.

Snape POV

To my own regret I fell for Potter’s personality like everybody else. I like him, I admit it, he’s very distant and scared but I still like him. I have no idea of what’s going on inside him but I’ll try to help him. I never thought I’d fall for the brat. I want to take care of him, see him grow up and be there to guide him. Like a father would to his son. Yet he’s a Potter for Christ sake! He is also broken and I recognize myself in him. I’ve never liked anyone else but Dumbledore in my life. It’s sad really, if not pathetic even. I know nothing else but the life I live and I can only imagine what a life full of friends and family would be like.

I haven’t yet managed to get close to the boy and make him open up to me but I can understand why he doesn’t. I’ve always been a bastard to him. I do have mental arguments with myself as if I’m insane every time he’s around me. Maybe I really am insane. At least that would explain it.

One part of me tells me to hate him and the other part tells me to love him. It’s not easy. Slowly but steadily I begin to like him more and more for each day passing.

Harry woke up in the middle of the night and tiptoed to the toilet. He didn’t know why he felt so in need of a smoke all of a sudden but he decided to take the risk of being caught. He could always say that he needed to pee if he accidentally ran into Snape.

Well inside the toilet he opened the window and hung halfway out while he smoked.

Snape POV

He had been called on a meeting. Fortunately Voldemort had paid him no attention and he could leave without a scratch. It wasn’t often something like that happened.

He was walking back up to his manor when he froze in mid-step.

The light was lit in a window and Potter was halfway out of it!

“What the hell,” he murmured. He looked intensely up at the boy. The brat couldn’t see him standing below him in the dark.

“Is he… is he smoking?” he said out loud surprised.

He really was surprised this time around. Gryffindors didn’t smoke. It was more than usual that his Slytherins did but not the other houses. Minerva had always giving him a hard time about it. The old hag told him that he had to control his Slytherins bla bla bla.

He shook his head. He was generalizing again. He really had to stop doing that. Houses had nothing to do with it. He was sure Gryffindors smoked too, almost all teenagers did.

Potter was full of surprises and something was terribly wrong with the brat. Too many things didn’t add up to how he was acting. In school he played the hero perfectly, oh yes, but was he really all that perfect? He had to find that out since no one else seemed to bother. He had already seen too many Slytherin moves coming from the boy to think that Potter truly did belong in Gryffindor. To what he had seen the brat would have been better off in Slytherin. He had never really thought about it before but now it made sense. If the boy had been put into Slytherin in his first year he would be acting entirely different from what he was doing now. He would have evolved and grown to be a cunning person, and probably dangerous and manipulative. As it was he had now become emotional and impulsive and that made things difficult for Potter. He took after his house mates even if his instincts told him not to. He could only imagine the battles Potter must be having inside of him.

“Potter doesn’t belong to them,” he mused. Slytherin or not, the boy has problems, Snape decided. Now I’m bloody generalizing again, he thought angrily at himself. Still, thinking in metaphors is easy, he mused.

He ignored the fact that Potter was smoking and went to bed. He would pick that fight another time, now he was too tired.