Harry Potter and the Plan of Salvation

I pull back slightly and allow my gaze to travel over the rest of the room. My eyes settle on Ronald Weasley and Hermione Granger and I beckon them forward with narrowed eyes. When they stand before me, I sneer down at them. “Tell me dear children why are you so upset?”

Granger sniffs and blinks. “Because we thought Harry was dead!”

“Why should that matter to you after the way you’ve been treating him?”

“I…”

“Yes, Miss Granger? No answer? Mr. Weasley what about you? Tell me what reason did you have for so completely turning your back on your best friend?”

“Well… he… that is… he set Ginny up with the enemy!”

There’s a loud gasp and Ginny’s now sitting straight up, her eyes flashing angrily. “Ronald Weasley how dare you! The enemy indeed. Did you know that he and Harry have been on the same bloody team since the beginning of sixth year?”

“N- ”

“Of course you didn’t! Harry tried talking to you and wer weren’t listening! All you cared about for about the first six months of the new year was that Harry quit the quidditch team, so there for he deserted you. What rubbish. You didn’t even notice that your best friend needed you! You didn’t see the scars and the marks and the bruises and how could you be that blind? Both of you! !” Ginny stands to her feet and stalks upher her brother, and then does something that makes everyone reel in shock. She slaps him as hard as she can across the face. “You are a cold hearted bastard Ronald Weasley. Did you forget that he lost his godfather because of that mistake? Did you forget that Voldemort tried to possess him? Did you forget that in the end Harry has lost more than we will in probably our whole lives! You always find a reason to turn on him. Always! You slept in the same room with him for seven years and you never even noticed how badly he was being hurt. He’s your best friend, Ron. Your best friend and you threw it away, just because of who I choose to love.”

Hermione looks ready to say something, but I shake my head, my black eyes still angry, but my voice is soft when I speak, almost chilling. “You have no right to speak in his defense, Miss Granger, for you have behaved just as badly since the beginning of this past school year. Do you ever speak with Harry?” She shakes her head. “Why?”

“Because he set Ginny up with the son of a Death Eater, a Death Eater in training!”

A new sigh comes, and its Minerva who’s finally gotten herself sorted out and is now sitting on the edge of Albus desk. “Miss Granger, did it never occur to you if you were so concerned to come speak to me or even Headmaster Dumbledore?”

“And what of us, you two?” Arthur is looking at the two with quite a bit of disappointment in his eyes. “We knew that Ginny was with Draco and never said anything in protest. Didn’t that tell you anything?”

Hermione blinks and fidgets. “I… I guess we didn’t think.”

From the corner I can see the werewolf shifting his position slightly to look up at everyone. “No, Hermione, you didn’t think. You’ve hurt Harry more times than I care to think. If it hadn’t been for the fact that Neville Longbottom overheard what happened when you last fought with Harry then he wouldn’t be here any longer.” Everyone, myself included blinks and turns towards Remus.

I’m frowning and I know my mask has long been forgotten, but right now I don’t care. “What do you mean?”

“I wasn’t supposed to be teaching this year, but only a few days after term started I received a very upsetting owl, and I asked Albus to be moved here so I could be more of a help.”

“What did the owl say?” This comes from Fred and George, both of whom look ready to pounce their youngest brother.

“That I was needed here again. The letter noted that I was one of the only Professors who had ever really paid attention to Harry, and that Harry needed someone watching him. That his friends had deserted him, and walked away, and that they knew Harry was feeling like he had no one left.” He pauses for a moment, his eyes slowly looking over each of us. “Dangerous things happen when a person thinks they’ve lost it all, and that’s what Harry thought. He had lost his parents before he could truly even remember them, his friends were constantly turning their backs on him, and the precious few he held close were in constant danger.” He pauses again, looking around unsure of what to say next, and to my surprise it’s Draco who next speaks.

“Everything he’s been through has killed him. Everyone always talks about the boy who lived, but how could you all have not seen that he wasn’t living at all? With each day that went by he was slipping farther and farther away. When sixth year ended, I was afraid to see him leave for the Dursley’s because I knew he wouldn’t be with anyone who would care if he lived or died, so you have no idea how glad I was to see him on the train for our seventh year. I was so glad that he was alright that I didn’t look hard enough to see that he wasn’t alright.” He hesitates, biting his lip slightly. “I had known for awhile that to cope with everything that happened, Harry would hurt himself, but,” he plows on before anyone could say anything, “I thought he had stopped. Imagine my surprise when I was nearly run over by one Professor Lupin who didn’t even stop to apologize. Very out of character indeed.” He smirks over at the werewolf who smirks back. “So, I did the natural Slytherin thing to do. I follohim.him.”

“I knew he was following, but I had little time to care. I had seen Harry just moments before with tears streaming down his face and Sirius’ knife in his hand. He was headed towards the Astronomy tower, and that scared the living Hell out of me so I went after him. Draco and I both arrived with just only enough time to spare. Harry had already passed out from blood loss. I must say I was quite shocked when Draco didn’t try to worsen the situation but moved to help me.”

Charlie chokes on the glass of scotch. “You’re not saying he tried to kill himself?”

“Wouldn’t you?” I ask coldly, and then I leave. I have more important things to do than trying to make those two thickheaded Gryffindors see what they were losing. After all, they still had a room full of people to do that job for me. No, now my job was to watch over Harry and make sure he made it back to me.

*~*~*

Harry whimpered slightly as he opened his eyes. The simple act of moving his eyelids hurt. He blinked slowly and was awake for several moments before he realized that he was indeed awake. He looked around the room, and couldn’t help the small quirk of his lips as he realized he was in Sev’s chambers. Okay, so maybe he wasn’t awake yet. He wouldn’t be back in the dungeons if he was. He highly doubted if Severus would ever want to see him again. And then, he turned his head.

Severus was laying next to him, though with sev inc inches between them, but what surprised him was that Severus’ eyes were open, and one of his hands was currently curled with Harry’s. The other hand lifted and gently brushed Harry’s bangs from his face. “Welcome back.”

Harry eyed him warily and Severus actually chuckled brushing a light kiss over his forehead. “I’m not angry. Not about that anyways. About you taking off without help or word to anyone yes, but never about that.” Carefully he draped his arms over the sore body and pulled him flush against him. “Do you have any idea how much you scared me? I thought I lost you.”

“I thought you wouldn’t care. I… I didn’t exactly come to you clean, did I? And I know that you can’t love someone like me… so what did it matter?”

*~*~*

Those words give me pause. Could he possibly think…? “Harry, I knew who you were after the first night you spent in my rooms. I knew who you were that night I went too far. I knew who you were three weeks ago when you left me that note and I went to get you.”

“Three weeks?”

I lift his hand in mine and slowly kiss the palm. “I didn’t think you were going to make it back to me. I thought I’d lost you before I even had a chance to tell you that I loved you too.”

He rolls over staring at me. “You… you love me?” God, how is it possible for someone to sound that hopeful and broken at the same time?

I tighten my arms softly kissing his neck. “Yes, I love you.” ry’sry’s arms find their way to wrap around me and he buries his face against my chest. I can feel the tremors running down his body and I hold him tighter, whispering softly in his ear.

“Please don’tve mve me.” The words are whispered against my chest and I can feel his breath through my shirt and I can’t help but to shiver.

“I’m not going anywhere. I plan on being right here with you for as long as possible.” Harry slowly nods and the next thing I know there are soft lips on mine. Slowly I move mine against his and I feel his lips opening as he lightly flicks his tongue against my bottom lip.

I can’t help smiling as I pull him closer and deepen the kiss further before slowly pulling away. “Rest love. Just rest now, and I’ll be here when you reawaken.”

*~*

Harry nodded slowly and then dropped off to sleep, the warm body next to his promising comfort and love. He slept peacefully that night for the first time in a long time, knowing that when he woke there would still be someone to love him.